Political analyst and Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers, Sam Omatseye, joined by Member, Editorial board Femi Macaulay to discuss the APC Presidential rally in Ogun State, President Mohammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, PDP, APC, 2019 General Election, Presidential Polls, APC Rivers crisis.
Category: Monday
-
Lest we forget
As kids growing up in Warri, we dreaded a certain ant called Okurubas, a sly and nimble irritant. Its sting not only tumefied the skin but threw anyone, no matter how big, off balance in an instant. The victim could go down as though a softie of a wrestling match. We called the sting “site,” a pidgin verb to reflect the onomatopoeic effect of the assault.
Atiku Abubakar suffered the Okurubas effect last week. It came in the way of a story published by world renowned news agency Reuters. It published a story that illumined his recent United States trip, and affirmed that Atiku paid lobbyists to get a “temporary reprieve” to visit the country.
Atiku travelled with a retinue of glamour acolytes like Bukola ‘Eleyinmi’ Saraki and Senator Ben Murray Bruce of the common sense policy now turned awry. The report said Atiku paid a lobby firm, Holland and Knight, $80,000 and had paid another such firm $90,000 a month. The idea was to waive any infractions he might have committed against the law, and allow him a short stay, a whirlwind visit.
With a gleeful picture of a young lady handing him a bouquet, his publicists presented Atiku as a colourful triumph over his critics who pelted him with accusations of corrupt dealings. They said he had avoided the United States like a malignant disease because he awaited prosecution. He even lodged in President Trump’s hotel in Washington D.C. as though to emphasize a subtle meeting of the minds with a U.S. president known not to know the difference between public property and private gain. Being the president’s customer came across as a sort of sop.
Atiku intended to cancel two big lies with one small one. When he launched his whirlwind trip to the United States, we did not know it was a lie until Reuters told us. But the travel was the small lie, but it was the sort of small lie with large consequences, like an Okurubas sting.
He joined hands with one of the conduits of American corruption, the lobbyists. Lobbying is an important American feature, and it can be used for good and evil. Many a scandal in U.S. history have had their roots in it, including an ongoing one with President Trump involving a meeting with conniving Russians in Trump Tower in New York. Lobbyists are not necessarily actuated by noble impulses. “I know what my client wants,” confessed an anonymous lobbyist. “No one knows the common good.”
The word is believed to have originated from or popularised by President Grant’s lips to characterise men who visited him at the lobby of the famous Willard Hotel in Washington, and lobbyists can advocate anything from smoking rights to gun rights to gay rights. But they are for hire. “The lobby is the army of the plutocracy,” said American sociologist William Graham Sumner on the value of the rich in American political engineering. Poor people cannot lobby in the US, unless backed by some moneyed interest.
The two big lies are Siemens bribery scandal where he was named and led to 13-year jail term for an alleged fellow accomplice Congressman Jefferson who hid his loot in his Louisiana refrigerator. Even Siemens pleaded guilty and paid $1.6 million. The other involved his fourth wife Jennifer Douglas in an alleged $40 million money laundering. The Reuters story shows if he wants to visit again, he has to knock on a lobbyist’s door with plenty of dollars in his hands. Secondly, we know that the charges against him still stand and he cannot just hop on a flight to Washington without consequences.
This story puts in context Atiku’s assertion that he will give amnesty to corrupt people, an official surrender to corruption as policy and it would also disentangle him from his sundry iniquities. One of such was his exploiting his position as vice president to enrich his company Intels by making it fatten on oil and gas shipments. His deputy, Peter Obi, saw nothing wrong with investing billions of Anambra State money in his family business and banks in which he had interest. He said he benefited Anambra and his fellow PDP men eulogised him with claptrap and claps. But he did not say how much he and his family stowed away in the sweetheart deals.
It only shows that the Atiku candidacy is corruption fighting back. Yet we cannot say the Buhari era has a holy writ. I have noted its contradiction, and even hypocrisies, including the $25 billion NNPC saga and the Ganduje show. Ganduje has immunity but a scathing condemnation and effort of the party not to give another ticket would have helped. Also chief of army staff did not convince anyone when he tried to justify his Dubai property against the background of his lifetime earnings.
Yet Buhari can be accused of not systemising the corruption war. But what he has done is a beginning. He has convicted two ex-governors, terrified many who steal, and saved a lot of money. It is not a thing to condemn but to build upon.
Politics is like a mud fight. There are no pretty people in the ring. We strive but we don’t get swamped in idealism. Hence Theodore Roosevelt wrote his famous lines on the Man In the Arena: “it is not the critic who counts…The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…”
Buhari’s great sin is his lack of sensitivity in social sector of governance. Skewed appointments, although his main critics were silent, sometimes raucous beneficiaries of the same thing in the Jonathan era. If he wins, and it seems likely, Buhari must turn the corner to social justice, and that is perhaps one of the reasons why some believe without reflection that he has not performed.
Here is a list of some of what he has done. Some major infrastructure work, including major roads in the Southeast and Niger Delta, some with Sukuk money. Lagos-Ibadan expressway in good speed with little allocation from Saraki’s men. Ibaka seaport with procurements completed to ease Lagos. Arrested the Jonathan-era Naira freefall. Lagos-Ibadan railway and Itakpe-Warri railway ready. Second Niger Bridge with 12-storey building of work underwater. Series of N projects, including agriculture, with loans made available in what may be the beginning of a genuine welfare programme. School feeding for over 9 million children. Pension payment for Biafra, railway, Nigeria Airways retirees. Adoption of made-in-Aba localised fabric for police and army, including locally made vehicles for government use. Mambilla Plateau hydro-power project for 3,050 megawatts after 40 years of abandonment and it will trigger a city and a new economy on its own, including a tea plantation boom. Power rose from about 3000 megawatts to 7000, with some problems with distribution, including gas and transmission woes. It’s work in the making. And more.
Buhari worked with plummetted oil price and earned the lowest revenue of any regime. Jonathan earned the highest with over $380 billion while Buhari earned about $93 billion. Reports say two weeks to election, Jonathan pulled over $290 million from the coffers. You can see why the economy could not sing. One of the great problems of the Buhari administration is messaging, both in tackling its crisis and in celebrating its triumphs.
We have quite a few candidates, but only two have a chance to win. The idealists may pooh-pooh both, but election is about realism, and you choose what you can use. Realism is not foolishness. Buhari may not be a great candidate, it is the better option today. I would rather make the best of what is available if I cannot make the best available.
Good Samaritan
Some might say he was playing politics. But those who now live because he showed love are not complaining. Death knows no politics. Its hands are cold. The warmth of Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi banished the icy hands from the two citizens, an okada rider and female passenger knocked down by vehicle. Onlookers were wary.
Ajimobi The governor could have driven by, or cynically and mechanically ordered a staff to attend to them. But he was a genuine Good Samaritan who personally took them to the University College, Ibadan and ensured the best care available. Those who know Ajimobi’s biography will not be surprised as a man who grew up in a communal family compound of about 25 rooms in Oja-Oba, Ibadan, where cousins were as close brothers and sisters. They received people with warmth from east and west and lived in empathy with their neighbours. That is the root of that day of Ajimobi’s hospitality. The governor’s heart of flesh made the difference between life and death of fellow citizens.
If it was not charity, whatever it was enhanced Oyo State and the human family. The residents hailed him and the world is better for it.
-
Endorsements and endorsers
Political endorsers are enjoying as much publicity as the presidential candidates they endorse. There is the politics of endorsement and the politics of endorsers.
The presidential election frontrunners, President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who is seeking re-election, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), enthusiastically welcome endorsements by enthusiastic endorsers.
Five days to the presidential election on February 16, it is unclear how these endorsements will work, or whether they are of any electoral value. Only the endorsers and those they endorse seem to recognise the power of these endorsements. After a meeting in Abuja on February 3, the Nigeria Leaders and Elders Forum comprising the leaders of Afenifere, Northern Elders Forum, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Middle Belt Forum and the Pan Niger Delta Forum endorsed Atiku for president. The five socio-cultural groups said in a statement: “We adopt the PDP candidate, as the consensus candidate for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as he has demonstrated the deep understanding of the critical need of the country at this time and possesses the capacity to proffer clear solutions in that respect.”
The broadness of this endorsement by significant regional groups understandably excited the Atiku presidential campaign organisation. Atiku’s emotional response revealed his excitement. He said in a statement: “I am moved to tears that in the midst of deep divisions and deliberate use of instrumentalities of state to set our people against themselves in the last three and a half years, responsible and respected leaders across Nigeria have agreed to come together for the purpose of endorsing my candidature for the February 16, 2019 presidential elections.”
Atiku added: “The endorsement by the leading lights of our nationalities – Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Northern Elders Forum, Pan-Niger Delta Forum and Middle Belt Forum is a loud statement that there is hope for our country as we go to the polls in a few days.”
Either Atiku was naïve or he just wanted to believe this particular endorsement was unproblematic. “We sympathise with Atiku Abubakar ahead of the February 16 presidential election, if he actually believes that his endorsement by this Afenifere will translate into a harvest of votes for him in the Southwest because it cannot,” the Afenifere Egbe Ilosiwaju Yoruba said in a statement. This clarifying response highlighted the factionalisation of Afenifere. The faction that endorsed Atiku is led by Chief Reuben Fasoranti.
Nonagenarian Pa Ayo Fasanmi expressed the opposing position of another faction of the pan-Yoruba group at the February 5 APC presidential rally in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital. Senator Fasanmi described members of the Fasoranti-led faction as political jobbers. Fasanmi said: “All Yoruba race across Southwest are solidly supporting the President Buhari candidature, except a group of dollar and naira called fake Afenifere who endorsed Atiku Abubakar. They are people with no electoral value and credence in their respective polling units not to talk of the Yoruba land.” He added that his faction “would be celebrating the victory of President Buhari and other APC candidates at the national and state levels.”
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) also opposed Atiku’s joint endorsement by the five groups. ACF Secretary-General Chief Anthony Sani said: ”What is new in this endorsement is the fact that only faction of Afenifere, faction of Ohanaeze, and faction of Northern Elders Forum are actually involved. As a result, the endorsement may not affect the outcomes of the election significantly, since factions cannot possibly represent the whole, let alone to represent the regions, which the platforms profess to represent.”
Sani argued that the groups involved, excluding the Northern Elders Forum, had endorsed the PDP presidential candidate in 2015, Goodluck Jonathan, yet the APC won. He declared that “ACF, which is the umbrella body for the North, does not share the views promoted by a faction of Northern Elders Forum led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi.” Sani also said: “The endorsement of President Buhari by about 71 Generals has dispelled the rumours bandied about that retired Generals have ganged up to unseat President Buhari electorally.”
Indeed, Buhari’s February 4 endorsement by retired high-ranking military officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force, took the endorsement drama to another level. The endorsers included a Vice Admiral, two Lt-Generals, 15 Majors General, two Rear Admirals, eight Air Vice-Marshals, 12 Brigadiers-General, three Commodores, nine Air Commodores, and 17 former military governors/administrators. The generals were led by former military administrator of Lagos State, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (retd). Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade, and former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Jubril Ayinla, were among the endorsers.
Marwa, who heads the Presidential Advisory Committee on elimination of drug abuse, told reporters that Buhari was “from our own constituency” and praised his administration. He said: “And, therefore, the retired military officers today, including former military governors, retired military officers from the ranks of brigadier general and their equivalents from other officers are here today, to tell him and Nigerians that we are fully behind him in the elections next week and we will do whatever we can within the law to see that he is victorious in the elections.”
Interestingly, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on February 8 shifted the focus. ”There is always a choice to be made outside any presumptuous orders – in reality, associations guaranteed to perpetuate social disorders and the politics of inequality,” Soyinka said in an opinion piece titled ‘New Directions in a time of Decision.’ Soyinka, convener of the Citizen Forum, endorsed neither Buhari nor Atiku. ”This is not the thinking of any one individual but of a large section of this populace. The final determination, however, is – the flag-bearer of the Young Progressive Party– Kingsley Moghalu,” Soyinka declared.
“This is a very good thing for my party, the YPP and my candidacy because of who Professor Wole Soyinka is in our country and in the world. He is a unique figure,” Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), reacted. Moghalu’s euphoria is understandable but his optimism is misplaced.
Ultimately, these endorsement shows downplay the general electorate. The picture is that some groups, which are subsets of the electorate, support a candidate and think it is enough to convince the general electorate to support the same candidate. The point is that these political endorsers themselves may well need endorsement by those they want to influence.
-
As we go for elections
The much awaited 2019 general elections are around the corner. Nigerian voters will this week, troop out in their numbers to cast their votes for their preferred candidates and political parties.
Going by the time-table for the elections, voters will be making their choice in the first round involving the presidential and National Assembly polls. This will be followed in March 2, by the governorship and state assembly elections. Expectedly, candidates of the various political parties have in the last couple of weeks been selling their manifestoes to the electorate to persuade them as to why they remain the best alternative in addressing the myriads of challenges currently buffeting the country.
Many promises have been made and issues traded. But, the campaigns have remained largely issue-based even as we have had a surfeit of allegations against the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and the federal government of working in concert to compromise the outcome of the election. Given the nature and character of politics on these shores, accusations have been levied with varying degrees of plausibility. The political landscape has been home to speculations ranging from the good, the bad and the ugly all in a bid by political parties to outsmart the other.
This has had the net effect of charging the political temperature of the country. But by far, a key challenge that has continued to dominate the political space is the ability, capacity and preparedness of the electoral umpire, INEC and the government in power to allow free and fair elections a free reign. Concerns have been mounting on the commitment of the INEC and the government to conduct free and fair polls. This apprehension is to be understood given that before now our electoral history had been replete with rancorous disputations often resulting to violent destruction of properties and loss of lives.
Given this invidious electoral history, mounting concerns as to whether the elections could follow the same predictable but odious pattern are not out of place. But for the 2015 elections that ushered in the Buhari regime, virtually all past elections on these shores especially at the presidential level had been dogged by one controversy or the other. That is not to say however, that that election was without its own challenges. Of course there were challenges. But they were well managed and put at bay by the commendable and visionary disposition of the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan.
That election stood out in more ways than one. It was the first time in our electoral history an incumbent president was defeated at the polls. It also marked the first of its kind that a serving president would concede defeat and even go further to congratulate his opponent even before the final outcome of that election was announced.
Nigeria, through that outing, gained considerable mileage in the rungs of the democratic ladder. This was more so given that the election was fought along the fault lines of our federal existence. All primordial and parochial cleavages were at an all time high as one group after the other issued threats regarding the eventual consequences should their expectations fail to materialize. But all those threats were to collapse like a pack of cards when Jonathan, who had said his election was not worth the blood of any human, threw in the towel and accepted defeat.
With that enviable outing, a lot of interest has been aroused all over the world in Nigeria’s electoral process. As another round of elections inches closer, this interest is getting very keen as opposition political parties trade allegations of plans to compromise the outcome of that election. Both the INEC and the Buhari government have assured time without number of their commitment to free and fair polls. Even as these assurances are issued, doubts continue to mount that they will be observed in their breach.
But one singular development that again raised the bar of this suspicion was the unconstitutional suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria CJ, Walter Ononghen by President Muhammad Buhari over assets declaration issues. This illegal action ruffled political feathers and raised further suspicions that it is a subterfuge to emasculate the judiciary and compromise the outcome of the elections.
The international community did not take kindly to it as the United States of America US, the United Kingdom UK and the European Union EU rose in concert to condemn the unilateral action. They were also very unequivocal in stating that the attack on the judiciary could adversely affect the credibility of the elections. Elsewhere, other motives have been read into that executive interference in judicial matters especially given the initial refusal of Buhari to have the appointment of Ononghen confirmed.
The confirmation of the suspended CJN’s appointment was only effected by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo when he acted as the president while Buhari was away to London on medical tourism. But as soon as Buhari returned from his medical trip, speculations were rife that he wanted the CJN out. Sadly, all those speculations have been given ample credence by the turn of events.
It is clear the federal government is yet to find a handle to the muddle in the CJN’s suspension. The government is so rattled by the reactions of the international community that some of its officials have resorted to statements that compound matters. One of such unguarded statements came from the erratic governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai, when he said in a television programme, “those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria, we are waiting for the person that would come and intervene, they would go back in body bags”. El Rufai was apparently uncomfortable with unfavorable remarks by the international community on the likely consequences of the suspension of the CJN on the outcome of the elections.
But his statement has been interpreted as a threat to levy violence on the international community. El Rufai has made very feeble attempts to clarify his position. But no matter what clarification he now makes, the purport of the statement is not lost on the international community as has been evident from the reaction of the EU.
Before now, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed had also alleged that the opposition was lobbying foreign countries to discredit the outcome of the February 16, presidential election if President Buhari wins. According to him, the opposition was planning to send a 19-member delegation to some countries to sell the idea that the Buhari presidency would not hold credible elections.
All these have had the combined effect of casting slur on the credibility of the coming elections. The opposition is alleging that the government plans to manipulate the elections. And the government is alleging that the opposition is lobbying foreign countries to discredit the outcome of the elections should Buhari win. Implicit in these allegations is that all may not go well with the elections. By extrapolation, its outcome is bound to be contentious whichever way the pendulum swings. That is not something to cheer. It is unfortunate we found ourselves through actions or inactions in this odious pass.
For now, all these remain at the realm of accusations and speculations. It remains to be proven between the opposition and the government which is saying the truth. But one thing that has emerged is that the credibility of the elections is assailed by serious challenges. All would therefore depend on how the actions and inactions of the government and INEC are perceived to have influenced the direction of the election outcome.
Both the government and the opposition have wittingly or unwittingly created doubts that the elections may not reflect the collective will of the electorate as freely expressed at the ballot box. But whatever doubts there are, still stand the chance of being cleared if INEC handles the elections in a very transparent and uncompromising manner.
It must not only detach itself from government influence but must be seen to have done so. The world is watching. We have another chance to consolidate on the gains of the 2015 elections by ensuring that the collective will of the electorate as freely expressed at the ballot box is neither abridged nor compromised.
-
Obiano/ Nwodo altercation
It is difficult to gloss over the row between Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State and President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Nnia Nwodo over the group’s endorsement of the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Atiku/Obi for the forthcoming election.
The altercation surfaced in the public domain when Nwodo unveiled the contents of a private telephone conversation between him and Obiano in which he accused the latter of calling him an idiot. During the conversation, Obiano who was apparently piqued by the endorsement, was reported to have said to Nwodo “I did not know that you were so idiotic”.
Obviously rattled by that vile language unexpected of the person occupying such elevated office, Nwodo said he decided to make the private conversation public for the world to know between him and Obiano who was being idiotic. But Obiano has come up denying that he addressed Nwodo in such disparaging terms even as he admitted the private telephone conversation took place.
As things stand, it is difficult to conclude for certain that Obiano is guilty of the allegation against him unless perhaps, Nwodo proceeds further to provide evidence of the voice clips of the conversation. We are now inevitably left with Nwodo’s words against those of Obiano. Yet, it seems very improbable Nwodo could have gone out of his way to invent the abusive word and then turn around to ascribe it to Obiano.
What would seem believable given that Obiano really placed the call to express his displeasure with the endorsement is that he may have made the statement out of anger. Having realized the folly in his uncouth language following the publicizing of same by Nwodo, he was left with no option than to deny it. Nobody in his right senses would have expected anything to the contrary given the way the matter has turned out. But even with this, it is clear that a lesson has been served. Public officers must always be conscious of what they say both in public and private discussions.
It is very probable that Obiano, in a fit of rage over the endorsement, went out of his way to speak in a manner very unbecoming of his high office. But when next he is confronted with such a situation, he should take up his opponent on the merits or otherwise of the substantive issues rather than take resort to name calling or levying curses. Recourse to abuses and high temperament has always proved futile in conflict resolution.
Beyond this however, the key issue is the propriety or otherwise of Ohaneze Ndigbo’s endorsement of the Atiku/Obi candidature in the forthcoming election. As the apex socio-cultural organization of Igbo race, was Ohaneze right to have endorsed the presidential candidate of a particular political party over and above all others vying for that position? Does the mandate of the Ohaneze permit of it to dabble into the murky waters of politics through such endorsements? And is that the first time a socio-cultural group in the frame of Ohaneze would be getting involved in such endorsements in our polity?
And if not, is there anything particular about the Ohaneze endorsement that substantially marks it out from those hitherto done by other socio-cultural groups to attract the type of rage and bad temper ascribed to Obiano? The way these posers are resolved will place us in a better stead to understand some of the issues that have been traded in respect of the Ohaneze endorsement.
Those who pick holes with the Ohaneze’s endorsement contend that as a non-partisan and cultural organization, aligning with a particular candidate or party would amount to drawing the organization into partisan politics. This, they fear has the prospects of sowing seeds of discord in the organization as has become evident from the views of some dissenting voices. There is a point here. But Ohaneze is not alone in these endorsements.
Before now, the Pa Ayo Fasanmi-led, pan Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere had endorsed president Buhari and Osinbajo for re-election in 2019. Afenifere spokesman, Chief Biodun Akin-Fasae said the decision was the outcome of a meeting of delegates and elders from the six southwest states held in Ibadan. The endorsement was validated last week also in Ibadan and the reason for it is the satisfaction of the group with the performance of the Buhari regime. The controversy arising from this is yet to die down. Yet, there also exists the Ayo Adebanjo led Afenifere group that is favorably disposed to the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar. This group has also sought to disparage the other group querying their commitment to the ideals of the founding fathers of Afenifere.
There has also been an endorsement from an unusual quarter, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria MACBAN. This Fulani socio-cultural group that exists for the protection of the interests of Fulani cattle breeders has also come forth to endorse Buhari for the coming elections. The national president of the group, Muhammadu Kirowa said they unanimously endorsed Buhari because of his numerous achievements and urged members at local, state and national levels to mobilize support and ensure his victory.
The same MACBAN had at other times spoken against the candidature of Atiku asking their members not to vote for him. The list of socio-cultural associations that have endorsed candidates for the coming election is endless. Northern youths under the auspices of Arewa Youth Forum had also resolved to use all their structures across the country to mobilize support for Buhari to return him to power in the coming elections.
It is thus clear that we are in a bazaar of endorsements and Ohaneze is not alone in this. In endorsing Atiku, Ohaneze said they took the decision after a “critical and dispassionate appraisal of issues and the visible fault lines in the polity, including the analysis of the manifestoes of various parties especially with regards to restructuring of the federation and continued relevance of the people of the southeast in the Nigerian geopolitical space”. The group also cited the nomination of Peter Obi as the vice presidential candidate of the PDP as another reason for their action. They are entitled to their views just as those who feel to the contrary.
There is nothing different in Ohaneze’s endorsement of Atiku from that done by other socio-cultural groups in other parts of the country. The same questions being raised on the propriety of the Ohaneze endorsement are equally relevant to other similar endorsements. The group feels sufficiently satisfied that the overall interests of the southeast would be better served with Atiku as the president and they are entitled to that decision. It also goes with some calculated risks. The problem is not much with the decision as the way it has been handled by those who felt the group should not have thrown its weight behind a particular candidate. The embarrassing row between Obiano and Nwodo bears this out.
The disagreement generated by the endorsements is not entirely unexpected. Given that we are contending with a political decision, it is only natural that those whose candidates or political parties are not favored will not take kindly to it. That is in the nature of politics.
Beyond this, the puzzle given that socio-cultural groups are increasingly showing political direction to their constituents is whether we can really detach them from politics without their losing relevance? This is especially so in a clime where parochial and primordial tendencies compete with the government for the loyalty of the citizens. Our politics is yet to progress beyond the realms of ethnicity, religion or geo-politics. So it would amount to wishful thinking to nurse the feeling that these socio-cultural groups could possibly detach themselves from the politics of their people. That is the reality we have to contend with. That is the uncanny paradox elevated to the fore by the Obiano/Nwodo tirade.
-
40 years of solitude
It is wealth that beckons, beauty that seduces like a maiden, hills that kiss the clouds, scenic languor, the swagger of mountains, breath-taking channels of rivers and streams, treeless greens rolling to the horizon, moist soil, Nigeria’s highest peak, the charm of dreams. Our own Mambilla Plateau is what the poet John Dryden would describe as “here is God’s plenty.”
Yet, it has remained one of the poorest on earth. In the west, such a magnificent panorama would hang high in the world’s elite tourist heavens. Here it is like the poet John Gray’s flowers “born to blush unseen.” A muted paradise. An Eden of wealth. Yet the place is one of the metaphors of failing government in Nigeria.
Nothing demonstrates this better than the instalment of a power project in that place. Government after government for 40 years have been at it, and stumbled and fell, only to rise and fall again. It has triggered litigation, punctured egos, exposed board intrigues, reflected our ineptitude and lack of will as a people, and revealed why we have failed to develop any sector of our national life.
Like the Greek character Tantalus, who was punished with a hanging fruit that he almost touches and is ever out of reach, the power project eluded Nigeria for 40 years. Now, we seem to be coming to the end of the curse.
Under the bellwether minister, Babatnde Raji Fashola SAN, the FEC eventually signed on to a power project and work already has started. It is about power, but it is about building a new conduit of wealth, a sort of Dubai in seed if we are determined. The power project, as Fashola has envisioned it, is the back on which all others will bloom: flourishing large-scale farming, real estate boom, infrastructural explosion, markets, schools, game reserves, etc. It is like starting a city upon the hill.
The story of power project is the beginning. It is with the power project that the plateau’s gifts will be unleashed. Fashola accompanied President Muhammadu Buhari to China to hatch a huge partnership and the contract price is $5.7 billion, and the Export Import (EXIM) Bank China with Nigerian counterpart funding of $868,874,559.30. This will provide power of 3,050 megawatts, which is over half of what is available today. Although the Fashola power strategy has been gradualist with capacity rising to about 7000 megawatts, about 5000 megawatts are available, with such factors as gas, equipment, GENCO resistance, etc, standing in the way of the 2000 megawatts balance.
Part of the crust of this arrangement is that three firms who had at various times in the past four decades secured federal nods that went nowhere have now coalesced into the joint venture with some arbitration still going on. This is what has been lacking because we have allowed greed and political calculation trump our ability to deliver the goods for our people. It has taken a methodical thinking and focus on the goal for the Mambilla project to take off.
It is not just Chinese firms, but at least 40 percent of Nigerian firms are already working. At the initial stage, it is expected to put about 30,000 people to work and provide livelihood for over 120,000 persons. Cement and steel companies in Nigeria are being engaged, and four dams – Nya, Sumsum, Nghu, and Api Weir – headline the power project. It will take advantage of the Donga River that flows from the Benue River.
To achieve this, about 100,000 people around the project will be evacuated and resettled, and real estate consultants are at work on this.
This is one of the highlights of the Buhari administration, and it is a feat that must be commended for breaking the knots. Similar work is going on in the Second Niger Bridge, and as vice president Prof. Yemi Osinbajo noted to a group of business persons in Uyo last week, work on it has risen to about 12-storey building under the water, a report that drowned the President in boos in the Senate last year. Or the Itakpe-Warri railway project and the Lagos-Ibadan rail line all billed to buzz into action shortly.
Yet, the Buhari administration, for all its work in infrastructure and social-economic support, should stop shooting itself in the foot by pivoting the country to ethnic and religious suspicion as it has done with its tendentious appointments and its failure to follow court procedure, not in the Onnoghen case, but in the cases of El Zakzaky and Sambo Dasuki. When you say words like ‘’live peacefully with your neighbours’’ during the Benue crisis, it detracts from the glories of the Mambilla project and the Second Niger Bridge. When you fell some governors like Jolly Nyame(Taraba) and Joshua Dariye(Plateau) for corruption as we have seen, the government plays it down when it does not condemn the Ganduje dollar show, or take steps against the open contradiction of chief of army staff’s lifetime earnings that cannot afford his acclaimed property in Dubai, or the N25 billion conundrums in NNPC under Baru on his watch. Such self-inflicted drawbacks embolden Atiku and Obi to boast that they used public funds to finance private companies. Atiku abused his office as vice president to prop his company Intels by routing oil and gas deals to it, and Obi invested Anambra State funds in family business and banks in which he had interest. So we can see how the Atiku/Obi ticket is evidence of corruption fighting back.
We have seen that even those who rail at the Sukuk funds as Islamising Nigeria are benefiting from it in infrastructure work. editorial board member and The Nation columnist Gabriel Amalu recently testified in his travel East on major road work completed in the Southeast. Jonathan’s only gift to the Southeast was appointments of its cynical elite and his name Ebele and Azikiwe. He did not flatter the Southeast with such achievements.
“No one’s virtue is complete/ the great Galileo loved to eat,” wrote German playwright Bertolt Brecht. But Buhari should realise that social and cultural factors can downplay major achievements because they are emotional time bombs. The work on the Mambilla is the making of a legacy, and I think the minister and his president are on the right track. Irony is that even the Mambilla Plateau also witnessed death in the high fire of the herders crisis. The grass on the plateau showcases it as a viable location of ranches. Its greens shine on without trees for miles. Imagine a place where nature forbids mosquitoes or tsetse flies to visit or breed, or where Nigeria can pull off tremendous foreign exchange from tea farming, and the industries that can transform the economy.
It has the coldest climate, and it has hills where settlements can thrive. It is higher than Plateau State and more lush. Forty years of stagnation calls to mind one of the world’s greatest ever novels titled: One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Garcia Marquez. A family of great thinkers, leaders, adventurers destroys itself systematically over a century. Thanks to this administration that this one boon that stagnated for close to half a century, actually since 1972, is now on the move. It is wealth we seem not to have seen like Christ’s disciples who were fishing all day on the wrong side of the river when prosperity was shimmering on the other side. My hope is that this does not become another false hope, and it is up to the president and his bellwether minister not to drop the ball.
Highlands always bolster new cities as great empires. Ibadan began as a refuge during the Yoruba Wars. It has grown to become a Yoruba bastion and its biggest place and where Awolowo tenanted his genius.
Udom’s futuristic ignorance
When Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visited Uyo last week, Governor Emmanuel Udom sent only his secretary to government at the airport. His excuse came a day earlier. He said he was not aware of the “purported visit.” So, he was not aware of it even if it had not happened and it was just the next day? The man is guilty of not only
lying, but lying ahead of the fact. I call it futuristic lying. Of course, the vice president was there to support his APC, and to give a talk to some business persons. But it was in the course of courtesy and protocol to show up. Was the man bitter? Whatever it was, Udom’s attitude is a way not to bear grudge in public and an example of how not to lie.
-
Corruption still champion
In an election year, it is disappointing that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s war against corruption has not achieved the expected result after four years.
Nigeria is still among the world’s most corrupt countries, according to the 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International (TI) on January 29. Nigeria ranked 144th, with Kenya, Mauritania, Comoros and Guatemala, out of the 180 countries surveyed and ranked by the Berlin-based anti-corruption group. Nigeria had ranked 148th out of 180 countries in 2017.
The movement from 148th position to 144th out of 180 countries in 2018 is insignificant. Indeed, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, an agent of TI in Nigeria, Musa Rafsanjani, observed: “Nigeria scored 27 out of 100 points in the 2018 CPI, maintaining the same score as in the 2017 CPI.”
It is remarkable that Buhari, who is campaigning for re-election, rationalised the unremarkable result of his government’s anti-corruption efforts when he met with members of Jigawa State Council of Traditional Rulers at the government house, Dutse, on February 2.
Buhari said in Hausa: “When I was fighting corruption as head of state, they said I was in a hurry to wipe out corruption in the society, and I ended up in jail for over three years. Now, that due process is being followed in the fight against corruption they are complaining that I’m too slow. Before, they said I was in haste, now they are saying I’m slow even calling me Baba Go Slow. You can see, governing Nigeria needs Gods guidance and payers. Let me assure that I will not relent in the fight against corruption…”
In other words, Buhari believes the rule of law is ironically responsible for the alleged slow pace of his government’s war against corruption. But this viewpoint is simplistic.
Rafsanjani provides insight into why “Nigeria is still perceived as a highly corrupt nation.” He said: “With the inability of the current administration to stop political boycotts of key appointments and pass the much-needed legislation such as the Proceeds of Crime Bill and to implement the recommendations given at the launch of the CPI 2017, it is no wonder that Nigeria’s score in 2018 is no different from the one of 2017.”
He added, “Public participation and active reporting of corruption is seriously hindered by the absence of the Whistleblower Protection Act that would ensure the protection of the whistle-blowers from dismissals, suspensions, harassment, discrimination or intimidation. Let us be clear, no country can make progress without insider reportage of corruption abuses.”
Rafsanjani also observed: “Corruption in the defence and security sector contributes significantly to the human despair and economic stagnation in Nigeria. While the Nigerian defence budget has soared more than 500 per cent in the last 10 years, insecurity and breakdown of the rule of law in some parts of the country continue unabated.”
In addition, he said: “Despite some indisputable evidence, many corrupt politicians and businessmen and women seem to be above the law. Recent corruption scandals, including the GandujeGate, ShemaGate, DasukiGate, IkoyiGate, among others, have not seen diligent investigations, prosecutions and convictions of these cases and other Politically Exposed Persons. The authorities need to understand that these acts deepen a sense of hopelessness among well-meaning Nigerians.”
A striking development further highlighted why Nigeria’s war against corruption is unimpressive. Saturday PUNCH reported that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) had refused to release copies of asset declaration forms of some prominent Nigerians more than seven days after the newspaper sent a letter of request to the bureau.
The newspaper said in its February 2 edition: “Relying on the provisions of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2011, Saturday PUNCH had on January 24 written to the CCB asking for copies of asset declaration forms of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige; Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Fashola (SAN); Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu; and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.”
Saturday PUNCH had also sought from the CCB the declaration forms of Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh; Minister of State for Transportation(Aviation), Hadi Sirika; Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Director-General, DSS, Yusuf Bichi; and Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed.
The newspaper’s letter contained other requests: “the number and names of political office holders who have yet to fill and submit their asset declaration forms for whatever reasons” and “the number of names of political office holders the Code of Conduct Bureau is investigating over issues relating to asset declaration forms.” In addition, the newspaper asked for the names of political office holders “yet to comply with the bureau’s directive to visit it for verification.”
It is noteworthy that the FoI Act provides that public institutions must make the information requested available within seven days of receiving the request. The Act also states that failure to give access to the information requested within the time frame provided by the Act is deemed as a refusal of access.
It is also noteworthy that “eight days after the application was filed and acknowledged by the bureau, the information requested was not made available to Saturday PUNCH, neither was there any written notice to state the reasons for the denial.”
Not surprisingly, the Buhari administration has been accused of selectiveness in its war against corruption. This may well be yet another reason for the alleged slow progress.
Rafsanjani argued: “If Nigeria’s democracy is to be the preserved, the origins of huge assets of Nigerian real owners needed be disclosed.” His organisation also attributed the high corruption index in Nigeria to the secrecy in the allocation of oil and gas licences to individuals and companies. He accused the federal government of pretending not to be aware of money-laundering crimes and tax evasion in the country, saying it had failed to investigate and prosecute individuals and companies involved in money laundering and tax evasion.
Buhari’s selling point hasn’t changed as he seeks re-election. His mantra is still: war against corruption. Will another four years as president make a difference?
-
The TouchStone: Onnoghen should have resigned – Sam Omatseye
Political analyst and Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers, Sam Omatseye, joined by Member, Editorial board Femi Macaulay to discuss the CCT trial of CJN Walter Onnoghen, President Muhammadu Buhari suspension of the CJN and Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili withdrawing from the 2019 Presidential election.
-
Ambode: Endgame drama
It is interesting that Governor of Lagos State Akinwunmi Ambode’s defeat in the October 2, 2018 All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary is still controversial. He lost the primary after his party’s leadership had said his administration was a one-man show. Ambode’s loss continues to produce drama after drama.
The January 8 Lagos APC campaign launch at the Skypower Ground, Ikeja, which was attended by Ambode and the APC governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, ended in chaos. At least one person was reported killed and three journalists were injured in the confusion that followed gunshots at the venue.
A report said: “Lagos State Police Command thereafter declared the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Lagos State Auditor Mustapha Adekunle aka Sego wanted for “attempting to disrupt the rally.” Adekunle described the action as a “frame-up.”
NURTW members accused Commissioner of Police Imohimi Edgal of bias. The Organising Secretary, Berger Unit in Oshodi, Semiu Omosansan, was quoted as saying: “In a situation like this, we expect that the Commissioner of Police will carry out thorough and unbiased investigations in dealing with the case… We implore the CP to get his facts right.”
About a week later, there was news of Edgal’s redeployment. He was to be replaced by Kayode Egbetokun, reports said. Those interested in cause and effect connected the development with alleged poor performance by the police when violence erupted at the APC rally. But power didn’t change hands. Edgal told reporters: “Well, there is a directive that the status quo should remain till further notice… we were about concluding the handing over and taking over procedure when we were instructed by our bosses from Abuja to suspend action for now. So, there is no change of guard for now.”
The reversal of Edgal’s redeployment, following the appointment of Acting Inspector General Mohammed Adamu, was an eye-opener. The Nation columnist, Segun Ayobolu, said in his January 19 column: “Unfortunately, all kinds of conspiracy theories are being read into his perceived lukewarm attitude to providing maximum security at the Sky Power Ground, venue of the APC flag off campaign rally. For instance, one theory has it that as a school mate and close friend of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Edgal was piqued at the governor’s loss in his party’s primaries and was thus part of a plot to cause mayhem at the rally in order to create the impression of the APC as a fractious and badly divided party going into the elections.”
Ayobolu argued: “Of course, there is no way to prove this kind of allegation but such insinuations and speculations are bound to arise when such a grave security lapse occurs on the watch of a CP who is otherwise highly experienced and competent.”
If “this kind of allegation” can’t be proved, why does Ayobolu seem to believe it anyway? Ayobolu stopped short of saying Edgal had plotted the disruption with the disrupters. In Ayobolu’s view, this singular disruption is sufficient to prompt a call for Edgal’s removal: “Can critical and substantial sections of the political class trust Imohimi Edgal to be a dispassionate professional in Lagos in the forthcoming election? I doubt it. Just as under his watch gun totting hoodlums and rival NURTW factions could have easy access into the venue of a political rally to kill, maim and cause mayhem, can Imohimi Edgal be trusted to maintain law and order and enforce the peace on election day? I doubt it. Edgal’s professionalism, objectivity and emotional detachment are badly tainted. He has become a liability rather an asset to the NPF in Lagos.”
Another kind of drama was on stage when a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) of the APC in Lagos State, Chief Lanre Razaq, appealed to party members and people in Epe to stop destroying and defacing Sanwo-Olu’s campaign posters. Razaq said at a January 23 stakeholders’ meeting at Jubilee Chalets in Epe: “The party has chosen the person it wants to fly the governorship flag in the election as Ambode’s tenure expires by May this year. The party says he cannot have a second term and has chosen Sanwo-Olu. There is nothing we can do about it because the party has the final say. Even if we are angry and we fight, there is nothing we can do. The anger is much because our son was dropped. Yes, we are all angry, but there is nothing we can do about it. The party has decided; all we can do is to support the party’s position.”
Razaq added: “Let us not bring any suffering upon ourselves. We have a lot of work to do. If we don’t support the party, all the uncompleted projects in Epe will stop and we shall suffer for it. There is nothing anybody can do at this point. Let us rethink about our anger and act more reasonably and support the party. If we remain angry and say no, others will take advantage of it and we shall be the losers. The party expects 92,000 votes from Epe; let us give them 120,000 votes instead.”
A January 21 report captured yet another drama: “The much- awaited presentation of Lagos State 2019 budget… at the House of Assembly by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode failed to hold. Although the governor’s advance team arrived at the Assembly around 3pm raising hope Ambode was on his way for the presentation, the team left the Assembly premises around 4pm before plenary even commenced with the lawmakers said to be in a parliamentary session.”
The report continued: “Sources at the Assembly hinted that the governor was not there to present the budget but to hold a meeting with the lawmakers, which was why the governor’s press crew and advance team were directed back to their beats. When the lawmakers eventually held plenary, nothing about the budget or the governor’s visit came up for discussion.”
As Ambode’s May exit date approaches, the endgame drama further highlights his failure in the primary election. For the outgoing governor, it is a dim ending to a bright beginning. The lesson: In party politics, “inclusion” isn’t just a slogan.
-
Misery, O misery
Those who love Onnoghen or who claim to love him are up in arms that the President has committed a moral wrong. But that is not what they are calling it in private. They offload more damning epithets that promise apocalyptic effects. Couching it in polite opprobrium, I would say they are claiming that he has committed an ethnic wrong. He has bested a southerner and nudged him off his high judicial chair because he is a south-south.
He cannot stand a southerner on the throne. They claim in private that he and his ilk are doing this because Onnoghen is not their man. By that they also mean he is not the sort that should sit on the throne this season of political convulsion when a justice can make the difference between an Atiku president and a Buhari re-election.
In other words, they say the Buhari administration is not interested whether or not Onnoghen “forgot” about his over N1 billion Naira in filling his assets declaration form. They are simply happy that the man forgot. His mnemonic slip has conferred a boon. He is a naïve prey, an antelope that slouched over the lion’s piss into the cat’s private lair. So, he had only to bleat and cry while the lion’s fierce eyes and retractile claws secured a twilight feast.
So, the Buhari men were cynical. They did not care whether he was guilty in the beginning. They only took advantage of the man’s lack of tact and self-regard. They knew about his sins when he was going through the Senate confirmation hearings, but the security operatives kept mum and awaited his fatal hour.
So, barely a month to the polls, the hammer fell and the man is squeaking. And the lawyers, for reasons yet to be in the public domain, are also howling. They say, it was all timed, and opportunistic.
They say his sins also in hush tones: that Onnoghen is in cahoots with the PDP and the Atiku vortex to swing a supreme verdict for the PDP. None of these has evidence in the open, but beneath this legalistic and apparent moral outrage lies the corrosive gossip about the Buhari calculations of malice and self-interest.
If that were so, it bears much to provoke public lament. Part of this is predicated on the obvious ethnic one-sidedness of his appointments, including his security team, that swaddle Buhari’s kinsmen. That is as reprehensible as any we have had in our history, a certain insensitivity in a nation of variegated people. Yet those who flay him now were in this country when Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said only her southeast folks deserved public appointments because they passed all the tests, although she did not convey who recruited the candidates and who graded them. Or when under Jonathan still, parastatal after parastatal was sacking heads and replacing them with men and women from the southeast. The records bear me out. Both Buhari’s lopsided hauteur and Jonathan’s quiet irredentism should draw blame and show how bad we have gone as people. No saints, no heroes, a nation feigns love of brothers.
So, if Buhari suspended Onnoghen because of those allegations, he is wrong. But we cannot prove this because Onnoghen has erred in law and in goodness. Onnoghen admitted he did wrong, and he still wants to remain as the chief judicial officer in the land. No pastor worth his anointing or Imam worth his Quran or babalawo worthy of his beads can defend that. They want to sacrifice integrity on the altar of tribal fidelity.
If he admitted to wrongdoing, what is he still doing there? He is forever a tainted umpire. It is like asking an Arsenal fan to judge a match against Manchester United. Onnoghen said he forgot about the over N1 billion, and knows that he did wrong. He did not follow the path of nobility by remaining there. The Code of Conduct Tribunal wants to hear the matter, but lawyers are cagy and want him to go to the NJC of which he is chairman. Even if he recuses himself, he knows the verdict of his colleagues that he appointed cannot be expected to be above board. That is one of the unexpected crises of the constitution: asking a CJN to chair the NJC and appoint the members.
The only path open was for him to spare us what some theologians call Jesuitical parsing. That is what our senior lawyers are displaying. He should have resigned. Perhaps the CCT expected that. Failing that, though, they ordered the president to suspend. Onnoghen, in my mind, was taken out of his misery.
Those howling at the president for following court order should carp at the CCT that gave the order and not the president who obeyed. This is the same Buhari, who has defiantly flouted court orders in cases of El- Zakzaki and Dasuki that this column has condemned. Now that he has obeyed a court order, the same critics are warring over adherence to the rule of law. They are angry against an ex parte motion whereas they have filed their own. They are saying ‘my ex parte is more expert than yours.’ Even if Buhari is pharisaic for following this court order, at least this Pharisee is right. Give this Pharisee his due.
Those imputing motives are also hypocrites because in one breath to latch on to the rule of law and, when convenient, they invoke ethnic and hegemonic ideas.
All those who say this was a tendentious move by Buhari to do in a southerner should ask their fellow southerners whether it is right in any southern culture to hide your money or forget N1 billion. The irony about elite corruption in Nigeria is that it seems the big men are corrupt on behalf of the poor of their tribe or faith. They can wed their kids in Dubai on tax payers’ money while the little guy cannot even buy a wedding dress for her daughter. The little guy applauds the thief all the same. He is their kinsman and he enjoys the loot vicariously in his lightless, bedraggled hovel.
This is a political season, and we should know that right can never be wrong. Rather than sling shots at Buhari, I would want the senior lawyers to question the CCT for giving Buhari the order. If they can’t or don’t, they have admitted, like Onnoghen, that they have lost the argument. It is the misery of the advocate like Don Williams’ song.
Like OBJ, like Onnoghen
This is a familiar season for OBJ. In the last season, his ego was filled to bursting when some loyalists visited his Ota farm residence, and he tore his PDP card in a flourish. This is a season like no other he is familiar with, though. He loves his pen, and loves to be called a man of letters. But in the true definition of the term, OBJ is no man of letters. Those who understand its import call him so to laugh him to scorn. He is probably like Shakespeare Malvolio, who glories in a borrowed robe.
Obasanjo In his letter epistolary incarnation, he has pelted Buhari with a number of wrongdoings. But what stood out for me are his charges against Amina Zakari, Abacha and rigging for self-succession. Is it not, as they say, a case of a hypocrite hiding his sins in the public square? The Zakari case recalls his closeness with Ayoka, whom he appointed to preside over a rerun election in Ekiti. Did he think we have forgotten like Onnoghen?
Was he not the Third term fellow? He probably like Onnoghen forgot that when he said Buhari wanted to succeed himself. Have we forgotten that? Of course not. He has no evidence, though. His letter, in tone and content, lacked the lofty register of a former president. Rather it leaked malice and frustration.
It is how not to write a presidential letter.