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Category: Monday

  • Ilorin extremists

    Ilorin extremists

    A collision of faiths in Ilorin, Kwara State, has yet again raised questions about the state of secularism in Nigeria.

    A viral video showed members of a Muslim group in Ilorin, Majlisu Shabab li Ulamahu Society, visiting the residence of a Yoruba traditional religion priestess, Yeye Adesikemi Olokun Omolara Olatunji, to warn her against celebrating a planned three-day traditional festival scheduled for July 22 to July 24, 2023 in Ilorin.

    A member of the group, who described himself as an Imam, said in Yoruba: “Ilorin does not permit idol worshipping, we are ardent Muslims in the land of the emirate.” Another Imam said: “We are here on behalf of the Emir of Ilorin to ask that you desist from any Isese. We are also backed by the laws of the land. We are not here to fight you but to warn you against this celebration.”  It is unclear which laws he was referring to.

    In another video published after the visit, the priestess, who is an Osun devotee, spoke in Yoruba, saying,” I have been living in Ilorin for many years and have experienced nothing but peace until recently. I have always been fair and kind to my neighbours and this has been reciprocated over the years.”

    She explained that “One of my people shared the invite online which caught the attention of the Imams,” adding, “In a matter of hours, I was tagged on numerous posts and also began to receive death threats. I also heard that meetings were being held to ensure that the Aje festival does not hold in Ilorin.” The development forced her to cancel the festival.

     Nobelist and famed defender of freedoms Wole Soyinka, in a response to the drama, issued a statement titled “Isese festival: An open letter to Sulu Gambari.’’ The addressee is the traditional ruler of the Fulani Emirate of Ilorin and Chairman of Kwara State Traditional Rulers Council.

     Soyinka, who will be 89 this week, said: “It is sad to see the ancient city of Ilorin, a confluence of faiths and ethnic varieties, reduced to this level of bigotry and intolerance, manifested in the role of a presiding monarch. The truncation of a people’s traditional festival is a crime against the cultural heritage of all humanity.”

    According to him, “It is conduct like this that has bred Boko Haram, ISIS, ISWAP and other religious malformations that currently plague this nation… with their virulent brand of Islam.”

    “The issue,” he stressed, “is peaceful cohabitation, respect for other worldviews, their celebrations, their values and humanity. The issue is the acceptance of the multiple facets of human enlightenment.’’

    The Emir of Ilorin, 83-year-old Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Malam AbdulAzeez Arowona, explained that the ban on the traditional festival “is to prevent a crisis.” He added: “It may result in issues which could also lead to reprisal attacks by sympathisers or promoters of such belief (Isese festival) in other parts of the country.”

    Notably, he referred to the “predominantly Islamic culture” of Ilorin, which he said “could be described as a centre of peace,” and highlighted “its strategic location as the capital of Kwara, which makes it a bridge between the north and south west of Nigeria.”

    The emir missed the point. Ilorin’s “predominantly Islamic culture,” or  Muslim majority, does not invalidate constitutional secularism. Nigeria is a multi-religious but secular country; it has no official state religion.

    The fundamental human rights listed in the Nigerian constitution are: the Right to Life, the Right to Dignity of Human Person, the Right to Personal Liberty, the Right to Fair Hearing, the Right to Private and Family Life, the Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion, the Right to Freedom of Expression and the Press, the Rights to Peaceful Assembly and Association, the Right to Freedom of Movement, the Right to Freedom from Discrimination, and the Right to Acquire and Own Immovable Property anywhere in Nigeria.

     Importantly, the constitution allows the restriction, suspension or limitation of the fundamental human rights of persons in Nigeria only where there is an order of court or a state of emergency or a democratic law that allows such suspension or restriction of fundamental human rights.

    Indeed, it can be said that the move by the Muslim establishment against the traditionalist violated not only her Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion but also possibly her Rights to Peaceful Assembly and Association, and her Right to Freedom from Discrimination.

    There is no doubt about the status of Yoruba traditional religion. For instance, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in 2005, added the Ifa Divination system to its list of the “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.”

    Interestingly, the 10th edition of Orisa World Congress in Ile-Ife, Osun State, in 2013, involved discussions on “Globalisation and Cultural Identity.” Globalisation has religious implications, including collision of faiths.  

    Religious conflict was the focus of the All-Comers Colloquium on Fundamental Imperatives of Cohabitation: Faith and Secularism, in April 2014, organised by the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) and the Osun State government at the centre’s Auditorium in Osogbo, Osun State. Prof. Wole Soyinka was CBCIU chairman at the time, and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was state governor.

    Participants in the three-day conference, with four plenary sessions and 18 papers, explored the essence of the concept of secularism as it applied to the country in particular, in the face of manifestations of extremism based on faith.

    They generally agreed on the need for cohabitation in the context of “secularism that respects and appreciates the reality of diverse faiths without promoting any religion at the expense of others.”

    In the end, collective recommendations emerged towards achieving inter-faith harmony in the pursuit of peace for social progress. The participants proposed a path to tackling the troublesome spirit of extremism: Constitution review to reflect religious diversity; tightening legislation to address religious violence; non-politicisation of religion; value reorientation; programme of compulsory education for social enlightenment and establishment of a national centre for inter-faith studies.   

    These recommendations remain relevant today.  The drama of extremism performed by the Ilorin extremists who violated the traditionalist’s rights further highlights the necessity for harmonious cohabitation in the country’s multi-religious situation based on submission to constitutional secularism.

  • Fraud one nine

    Fraud one nine

    When Ms. Mmesoma Ejikeme, who pulled a 419 on a country, first burst on the scene, she was a miracle of teenage genius. The social media whirled, the father preened, Anambra State swaggered, Nnewi spun from a stereotype of commerce to a land of a nerd, the nation nodded. This essayist was quietly applauding Innoson Motors for rallying philanthropy for brains as against a nation obsessed with the shallow artifice of Nollywood and comedians. After all, we just witnessed pure academic genius in Lagos State University where Aminat Yusuf, daughter of The Nation’s own journalist, snagged a perfect score. The BOS of Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, filled her quiver with N10 million.

    But the story strayed suddenly. Ishaq Oloyede revealed it was all a hoax. Mmesoma was an impostor. What was she high on? Lies, deceit, delusion of grandeur, 419, in her case ‘fraud one nine’? While Oloyede pinned his point on technology, it became a story of witch-hunt. Oloyede and his JAMB wanted to hunt her down. JAMB sought to make her into a witch. The mob sought to upend technology with sorcery. Conspiracy theories buzzed. They lost patience with exact science, but rather turned into agencies of sentiment. Oh, how the Innoson girl was innocent. After watching her social media act, JAMB must be a terrible institution. Oloyede must be a wicked man.

    Read Also : Mmesoma vs JAMB

    Others said, it was all about tribe. An Anambra State commissioner almost got caught in the web of persecution. But the governor, a cosmopolitan, made it a procedural affair. My great sister, Oby Ezekwesili, often under the spell of her own sentiment, called for independent inquiry. Fair enough until she wrote that it would be “a learning experience for @JAMBHQ and everyone…” She had cocooned JAMB as the guilty party, Mmesoma the innocent. How about a learning experience for Mmesoma, JAMBHQ and everyone else? The two principal figures were Mmesoma and JAMB. Oby opened herself to a charge of placing kin over conscience. Remember Achebe’s “A kinsman in trouble ought to be saved, not blamed”? Not a good way to tackle a national matter. Great that she accepted the truth after the Anambra State inquiry. Gov. Chukwuma Soludo would not be part of such a perfidy. He checkmated the runaway imagination of some in the state. Kudos to him.

    This girl is not 14 or even 17. She has reached the age of majority. She might have voted in the last election. She can wed, be a mother, fight in the army, testify in court. This saga has shown us how innocence can be overrated. There she was online with a soft, feminine voice, a carapace of a white band and unwoven hair over a cherubic face. There is no art to find the 19-year-old’s construction in the face. She was a girl in whom many built an absolute trust. Trust is therefore overrated.

    She erred and she knew it. I spoke with Oloyede, just as Ezekwesilii did. The JAMB boss said, “if I interrogate her for 30 minutes, she will confess.” It turned out, Mmesoma did not require that exalted audience to confess. She did not need conscience. She bowed to facts. In The Great Expectation, Charles Dickens says, “Conscience is a terrible thing if it accuses man or boy.” Hers was not about innocence, but naivete. As former Aviation minister Osita Chidoka narrates, Mmesoma presented the outdated name of his exam centre.  The new name bears Ikemefuna, a name familiar in our most popular novel. She lacked the stealth and eye of a forger to update the school’s name, which had changed. It was an illumination from Chidoka in spite of exploiting the moment for partisan drivel. She did not know that JAMB had effected a change of result format. She scooped an ancient template for 2023.

    Mmesoma exercised what Joseph Conrad calls a “bravado of guilt.” She walked with effrontery into the office of the state education commissioner to advertise her lie. She relished Innoson’s N3 million largesse with the showy impunity of a photo-op.

    Many have not followed Oloyede. He is the public servant of this generation. He has not only turned an agency that gave N50 million as gains for over a decade to N50 billion. He has radicalized probity in education. Many students can no longer fake high scores to gain admissions and become false professionals. Who knows if the persons who misdiagnosed Gani Fawehinmi were products of such shambolic triumphs? Recently, a prominent Journalist had surgery in a big Lagos hospital. When the problem persisted, he tried another big-name hospital that insisted on another surgery. But a United States doctor said he had a mere allergy. The symptoms disappeared on prescribed tablets he used a few times.

    We need the same example in WAEC and NECO. Many still score high in school certificate exams by fraud. Mmesoma’s story highlights a victory of institution. But we should not overstate this. It is the genius of one man who purified a system and turned it into an example. Political theorists often bicker whether rational choice supersedes institutionalism. But institutions are what men make them. It calls for vigilance. More applause for Oloyede.

    Yet institutions cannot be underrated. Those who called for proper procedure for Mmesoma are calling for mercy. That is why we may not develop. JAMB spared Mmesoma the prospect of a jail term of beans with designer stones and typhoid water. If the DSS follows through, she might rejoice over the three-year ban from UTME. After all, many of her age mates are behind bars. Yet, my heart follows Apostle James, who espouses mercy over judgment and Jesus who would privileges mercy over sacrifice. Shakespeare’s immortal line, “The quality of mercy is not strained,” holds here. Let it drop on her like the gentle rain.

    But not long ago, a fellow from Kaduna claimed 380, and the state government, like Anambra, was about to celebrate. Until JAMB exposed him. Some hysteria about North versus south wanted to becloud the facts. A father collaborated with a child in Benin. A few years ago, a fake student hired a SAN to sue JAMB and during interrogation, the lawyer had to beg JAMB to ask NTA not to cover the fraud as the facts leapt out. Syndicates are thriving in Igarra, Edo State and Mowe outside Lagos. Arrests have not deterred them.

    The story underlines a world of fakery. If we have fake UTME results, it is because we have fake bread, fake malaria drugs, fake designer bags, fake clerics, fake army officers, fake doctors and lawyers and policemen, fake shoes, fake baby foods, et al. Hence many throng worship centres for miracle rather than faith. JAMB triumph is a triumph of technology, and that is how to save our country. Good persons, good technology, good country. For all its imperfections, we have made strides with technology for our elections. Nothing demonstrates this more than the willingness of the crybabies to agree with INEC where they won and disagree where they lost. We need it in our finances in the centre under President Bola Tinubu. He saved Lagos finances with technology. He should do it in Abuja.

    Those who turned Mmesoma saga into tribe had a learning curve. They were chasing a giant rat that was not there. When Amina Yusuf won the LASU perfect score, no one made any bones about her tribe. It was not a tribal triumph. It was an individual shine. The tribalists forget that the real JAMB shero is Precious Nkechi Umeh,  who soared to a 360 score, devouring the 90 percentiles in all science subjects and 66 in English. Innoson should give her the N3 million. After all, Umeh hails from Anambra, although she is a Lagos student of the Deeper Life High School. Where are her parents? I had called The Nation newspaper’s Yusuf as the father of the year for nurturing his daughter to excellence. Umeh’s parents share the honours.

    But the saga is about how we make heroes. Mmesoma has seen many who earned praises as murderers, liars, thieves. Russian poet Pushkin wrote, In our time, man, whatever his element, was a liar, murderer or thief. It is from that spectrum of heroes that Mmesoma comes. In his Being There, novelist Jerzy Kosinski tracks a man with no education or rigour rising and being favoured to be the U.S. president. Or Harold Skimpole in Dickens’ Bleak House who lives a glamour life parasitizing on one and all. Or Jay Gatsby in what is one of 20th century’s great stories of a hero without roots.

    Mmesoma is a fraud while 19. She deserves our scrutiny more than pity.

  • Rising poverty alert

    Rising poverty alert

    World Bank painted a gloomy picture of growing poverty in the country consequent upon high inflationary trend and tardiness in checkmating the fallouts of petrol subsidy removal. At the launch of the June 2023 edition of the Nigerian Development Update last week, the bank said Nigeria has one of the highest inflation rates which pushed an estimated four million people into poverty between January and May this year. It projected that about 7.1 million Nigerians would become poor if the federal government failed to compensate or provide palliatives for them following the fuel subsidy removal.

    Data from the bank showed that 89.8 million Nigerians were poor at the beginning of this year. But with the addition of the four million that entered the poverty index between January and May, the figure shot up to 93.8 million. The bank then projected that poverty rate will hit 100.9 million people if the government fails to compensate vulnerable citizens for the removal of fuel subsidy.

    The figures are scary. But the issues are not entirely new. Before now, Nigeria had been rated the world poverty capital. Adverse repercussions of fuel subsidy removal on the people are part of the reservations for which it had overtime met strident opposition.  Profligacy in official quarters and scandals that rocked the fuel subsidy payment regime did not help matters. 

    During President Jonathan’s regime, an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives had indicted scores of oil companies for their roles in fuel subsidy scam and asked them to refund humongous sums of money to the federal government.

    Around the same time, the federal government terminated the services of two accounting and auditing firms responsible for certifying documents and claims of marketers before subsidy claims were paid. They were sanctioned following concerns about the management of the subsidy regime. These malfeasances contributed in no small measure in eroding public confidence in conversations on fuel subsidy removal and whatever benefits it portends for the suffering people.

    Last month’s removal of fuel subsidy (by the high margin we have seen) will in the immediate term, lead to spiralling increase in prices of goods and services, adversely affecting the poor and economically insecure households. The centrality of fuel to all economic and commercial activities makes this imperative.

    So the hike in fuel price as a result of subsidy elimination will lead to general increase in the prices of goods and services and adversely reduce the purchasing power of the citizenry especially the poor. That is situation Nigerians have been contending since the removal of the subsidy a month ago.

    The federal government is not unmindful of the enormity of the challenges. President Tinubu while announcing an end to the controversial fuel subsidy regime said it can no longer justify its ever increasing costs in the wake of drying resources. But he was quick to add that the government shall instead re-channel the funds into better investments in public infrastructure, education, healthcare and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions.

    He had also promised that electricity will become more accessible and affordable to businesses and homes alike. The government has also promised an increase in the national minimum wage to mitigate the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.

    Before the new administration came on stream, President Buhari had asked for senate approval of $800 million loan from the World Bank to finance the National Social Safety Network Programme to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal. It cannot be said that the government does not share the concerns of the World Bank on what needed to be done to cushion the adverse consequences of fuel subsidy removal.

    But that is not the end of the story. The point that was brought to the fore by the alert from the World Bank is the urgency for these measures to come on stream. The re-channelling of revenue accruing from subsidy removal into better investments will take quite some time for the results to be felt. It is now one month since the subsidy removal and the effects have been biting.

    The president has asked the citizens to be patient as they stand to enjoy the full benefits of the policy in future.  That is fine. But it raises the moot question as to whether part of the palliatives should have been in place as the subsidy was being removed or allow the biting effects take a toll on the citizens before reprieve comes their ways?

    That has been the debate and a point of departure between those who want these soothing balms to have been largely in place before subsidy removal and others that push for removal and the subsequent deployment of the realized fund to address its consequential. The fact is, there is a limit beyond which people will find it extremely difficult to bear the pains of the excruciating economic challenges. The government should not allow that foreboding situation to come through.

    That is where the alert by World Bank cues in very appropriately. Fuel subsidy is already gone and the country is contending with its fallouts. The government must act fact with measures that will in the short run, mitigate the scorching effects of the policy.

     Our experience in the management of the subsidy regime overtime in the face of festering corruption in public places do not imbue sufficient confidence that accruing funds will not go the way of those before it. 

    That is the challenge before the new administration. The way the government deploys the funds accruing from subsidy removal to address the existential circumstances of the citizenry will determine if World Banks’ prediction on its prospects of swelling the ranks of the poor will not become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    The possibility is there. It is evident in the prohibitive cost of transportation. It can be discerned from the general inflationary trend that has led to increases in the prices of goods and services even as the income of workers have remained largely stagnant. It can be gleaned from the increasing inability of the citizenry to meet their basic needs.

    The bank’s prediction that poor and economically insecure households will have no other alternative than to resort to consequential coping mechanisms such as not sending children to school, not going to healthcare facilities for preventive healthcare and cutting down nutritious dietary choices will compound multi-dimensional poverty in the country.

     When this is paired with recent figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which put 133 million Nigerians on the multi-dimensionally poverty index, the gravity of the situation becomes more glaring. NBS had also said inflation rate in the country rose to 22.41 per cent in May-the highest in about 19 years and that Nigerians are poor due to lack of access to health, education, living standard, employment and security. 

    These were the stark realities before the policy measures introduced by the new administration. It has been a very trying experience for a majority of the citizenry and the situation is bound to get even worse unless quick intervention measures are rolled out to protect the vulnerable population.

    Even as the Word Bank applauded subsidy removal and the foreign exchange management reforms as crucial measures to rebuild fiscal space and restore macro-economic stability, the government must move fast to checkmate their adverse effects on the vulnerable population. It is however, a thing of worry that the government is still considering more of such inflation influencing policies.

    The story last week that the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is about to increase the tariff on electricity by about 40 per cent points to a further worsening of the living conditions of the people. The move, a logical consequence of Naira devaluation will further erode the income of the citizenry, throwing many into unmitigated hardship.

    How the citizenry will cope with the avalanche of policies that all of a sudden; erode their purchasing power rendering life nightmarish is left to be imagined. Yes, patience has been canvassed. But we need oxygen for breath to exercise patience; wait for the good things to come. Extreme caution should be exercised in implementing policies that will further compound the lot of the poor in the absence of social safety nets.

  • Sanwo-Olu’s emotional intelligence

    Sanwo-Olu’s emotional intelligence

    It can be said that Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu helped to release his predecessor, ex-governor Akinwunmi Ambode, from a self-imposed confinement that lasted about four years.

     Ambode had disappeared after leaving office in 2019. He failed to get the endorsement of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), for a second term. He was comprehensively defeated in the party’s Lagos governorship primary in October 2018, in which he had 72, 901 votes while Sanwo-Olu got 970, 851 votes.

    He became the first Lagos State governor to serve only one term since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, and thereafter withdrew from society. His social withdrawal suggested negatives, and was a cause for concern.

    He was strikingly visible when, on June 29, he reemerged at a glittering ceremony to welcome President Bola Tinubu, also a former governor of Lagos, on his first visit to the state since his inauguration on May 29. “I’m glad to see Ambode. Thank you, Akin!” Tinubu was quoted as saying at the event at the Lagos House, Marina.

     The president, who governed the state from 1999 to 2007, after Nigeria’s return to democracy, was celebrated by Sanwo-Olu, Ambode, and Babatunde Fashola, who succeeded Tinubu. Observers noted that it was the first time the incumbent governor and the ex-governors of Lagos State since 1999 had been seen together at a public event since Ambode’s social withdrawal in 2019.

    The historic reunion may well have happened as a result of Sanwo-Olu’s application of emotional intelligence. When Ambode turned 60 on June 14, the governor demonstrated uncommon generosity of spirit by publicly congratulating him on his landmark birthday and even turning up at a private party at the celebrator’s residence.    

    In his congratulatory message, the governor said Ambode “displayed a high level of integrity, dedication and professionalism to service in the public sector,” and “recorded some achievements and also made positive and significant impacts in some sectors during his tenure as Lagos State governor, working for the continuous growth and development of our state.”

    At the party, Sanwo-Olu called him “a jolly good friend and brother,” and prayed that he “would still be called upon to come and serve your people, to come and serve mankind, humanity.”

    Ambode expressed his gratitude, saying, “What you have done today is pleasing to our hearts.” He added: “I want to show appreciation for all the kind words you have said to me and expressed in the media.”

    Indeed, Governor Sanwo-Olu, who was reelected for a second term this year, commendably showed a forgiving heart. Events before the governorship primary ahead of the 2019 election led to a conflict between the two men, and Ambode fought dirty.    

     Desperate to stay in office, Ambode had made damning allegations against his challenger, which Sanwo-Olu described as “untrue.”   ”Perhaps the tension and anxiety of the moment got the better of him. If given a chance at a cooler reflection on what he said, I am sure he would regret his descent into such low conduct. In this vein, I forgive him and hope he regains his balance and proper comportment no matter the outcome of tomorrow’s contest,” Sanwo-Olu added.  

    Tinubu’s decisive endorsement of Sanwo-Olu on the eve of the primary signalled the end of the Ambode era. The political giant described him as a candidate, “possessing a wealth of experience and exposure,” and “endowed with superlative vision and commitment,” who “knows the value of reaching out and working with others in order to maximise development and provide people the best leadership possible.”

     Ambode, a trained accountant, was probably the most experienced individual, in terms of familiarity with the state’s civil service operations, to govern Lagos State since its creation in May 1967. In a 27-year career in the civil service, he was Auditor General for Local Government; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance; and Accountant General of Lagos State from 2006 to 2012. He is credited with revolutionising “the way Lagos State finances were raised, budgeted, managed and planned” through his management of the State Treasury Office.

    As he left the position of governor, Ambode had observed that “I came in as a technocrat, so I call myself a techno-politician.” This may well explain why he fell.  

    Interestingly, the Secretary to the Lagos State Government under his administration, Tunji Bello, attributed his fall to a lack of emotional intelligence. Bello’s assessment of the administration in which he was the third most powerful person, after the governor and the deputy governor, gave a thought-provoking insight into the personality and leadership style of the head of the government.

     In a message titled ‘Time to say goodbye to colleagues on this platform,’ he said: “Our main drawback is our government’s inability to apply enough emotional intelligence in the administration of the state. Emotional intelligence includes interpersonal skills, interpersonal relationship, humility, respect for the well-established mores of governance, regard for the accomplishments of others.”

      He listed faults: “The belief that our way is the best without considering other options in a democratic setting, absence of wider consultations, distance from the governed, lack of effective communication skill or amateurish display of government acts and political immaturity. Deliberate and open alienation of others. We undertook gigantic projects without the soul. We were too self-opinionated and narrow in our approach to governance.”

    The message was meant for an “internal platform,” but somehow it reached the public domain.  He added: “In leadership, emotional intelligence is 70 percent of application while individual brilliance is only 30 percent…

    Besides, and apart from lack of enough camaraderie compared with previous administrations, our cabinet has been less rigorous, less fulfilled, less engaged and less accomplished. And for the first time since the time of Governor Lateef Jakande, this cabinet departs unappreciated and disenchanted.”

    If lack of emotional intelligence was Ambode’s tragic flaw, the exhibition of emotional intelligence is Sanwo-Olu’s virtuous example. Ultimately, the story of these two men is a cautionary tale. People in power should recognise the value of emotional intelligence, and how it can make a difference in the sphere of governance.

  • Reporting the petition

    Reporting the petition

    I received a message from a columnist well-known for his diatribes against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. The note reads in part: “As you know, I am not an APC or Tinubu partisan, but I squirm when I see truth being murdered unchallenged. The fake transcript is being bandied as belonging to Tinubu. I even learned that it was tendered at the election tribunal…As someone who lived and worked in the US, I am sure you know that the social security number in this so-called transcript doesn’t conform to the form of US social security numbers…That is the deadest giveaway that the transcript is fake. SSNs are typically written in this form:000-00-0000. But Tinubu’s putative social security number is 231-060-591. That’s a transparent fabrication. Plus, social security numbers are sensitive pieces of information that don’t appear on college transcripts.” He attached the copy of the so-called transcript to the message.

    I placed a call to a prominent lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria with the message, and he was amused. He even said there was no need to break a bone over that matter because President Tinubu never claimed he attended any college so named.

    But the lack of traction of this basic disgrace in the media and even in the comedy circuits of our soul emphasizes two things. One, a reportorial deficit and juridical amnesia in today’s journalism. Two, it shows a sense of desperation of a so-called movement that is swimming blind in its deniability, its sense of seeing its death and saying it is alive. So, it must clutch at every air draft to breathe and move and have its being. Its partisans are like the saying in the book of Revelations referring to the delusion of some believers who “have a reputation or name of being alive but you are dead.” Being dead is not easy to accept. Even some Roman emperors who lived on gold loathed to die on grass. One of them, Vespasian, exalted on his deathbed, “Blimey! I think I am becoming a god.” His brutal ways held no whiff of laughter. But the “great” Nero had more regard for himself as he expired. The man who entertained only himself while he performed to a crowd, said: “Truly an artist is about to perish.” He was the man who torched Christians and fiddled while Rome burned. Populism in the political sphere sometimes treats its heroes with cult-like deference. It even defines them as divine without refining them or even admitting their weirdness to themselves. In trying to clothe themselves as the third force, they end up as the third farce.

    But the first observation is what bothers quite a few in society. That is, the tendentious reporting of the proceedings in the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.  One can see why some wanted everything to play out in public glare, and it makes sense why the judges did not grant it. A group wanted to turn judicial sobriety into a circus. In spite of that, the social media, with its cut-and-amplify mentality, has sullied the cyberspace.

    No wonder the justices have warned the lawyers to shun social media gallery and desist from holding press conferences after every session as though justice comes from the rabble of the internet. Such lawyers, and they are SANs, still privilege noise over poise.

    But reporters and their gatekeepers are either allowing this skewed picture out of spite or out of professional deficiency. The reporting has been largely one-sided, and gives a wrong impression to the public what the details are. Unless you are a curious person and discuss with those who attend the proceedings, you may not get a full picture of what petitioners have done and the level of rigour that characterizes the cross-examinations.

    The so-called Southwest College transcript is only one. Some have skewed the reporting of the Chicago State story with headlines and slanted presentations as though there have been no countervailing background to the story in recent times.

    There was little emphasis when some math experts were trying to caricature Chike Obi and pose as his reincarnation, and the details about what they said during cross examinations. Another so-called document, a lawyer who is a SAN, was not ashamed to say it was printed from the internet. The reporter is not expected to make verdicts. He is expected to say what he heard or saw. There is a danger in showing it as professionalism whereas it is appropriation. Rather than serve as penmen of the press, they come across as penned men under pressure. We are supposed to be guardians and not guard dogs.

    The other time in our history where theatre surrounded the election tribunal was during the Awo vs Shagari court duel of 1979. It sounds comical today that Shagari was challenged in court. I had no electoral love for Shagari but I thought he won the polls. My father thought Awo won. He thought the Ikenne man was too good and too methodical for Nigeria not to lose That was sentiment. I said the fact showed otherwise. I did not, however, agree with the route Akinjide took to prove his point. I found Awo’s thesis, in my teenage mind, difficult to absorb.

    But I enjoyed reading the newspaper reporting then. My father had a habit of reading the reports aloud in the sitting room. Sometimes he rose to his feet and offered a few chuckles for drama. He would read the Tribune and Daily Times, and I wondered whether he was advertising his gift of the garb or he was simply excited by the tremor of debate in the courts. This was because the reporters captured the details, nuances, colour and tenor of the proceedings. The reporters transplanted the reader into the court room. There was no cosplay.

    We could hear the flourish of G.O. K. Ajayi, the methodical sobriety of Awo, the defiant brilliance of Akinjide, and I recall someone asking me to be a lawyer. I was rather admiring the reporters who brought the theatre to our home in cold print.

    Ironically, the reporters of those days hardly had the honours of a university degree. They had an eagle eye for facts. Their editors too never saw university portals. We know many veterans today like Segun Osoba, Sam Amuka and even the recently deceased Peter Enahoro. They did not need a degree. They matured through passion for the craft. Many went to college and did short courses afterwards.

    University degrees are good. But a man is a product of his passions. We need to see more of that in the reporting. Just as the reporting has shown such lacklustre propagation for excellence, so has some of our SANs. One of them was fined recently, and some judges wondered why some SANs were wasting the time of the court. Filthy lucre should not stain professionalism so starkly.

    What we see on social media is what the theorists call selective exposure and selective retention. You see what you want to see and retain what you want. It is the reporter’s job to guard against such social prejudice. Rather than reflect, they select and amplify. It is bad for media and society.

  • Blessed peacemakers

    Blessed peacemakers

    It was four years ago when the duel almost broke the state, but the BOS of Lagos broke the ice. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu walked into the venue of Akinwunmi Ambode’s birthday as into an enemy territory. But his walk of folksy charisma and toothy smile suggested it was over. It was just a few years ago when turmoil defined their exchanges. There was malice. There were back and forth of accusations. But all is well that ends well.

    We can say only Lagos could have produced the moment at the State House banquet when all governors of the state in one republic stood together as one. It is a testament to the BOS of Lagos who, at least in the open, warmed the icy hands before the handshakes. We saw the Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, the Trojan, once the governor of example in Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode an alpha governor, all with the BOS and the Jagaban in a shower of smiles, and the president capping it with, “Akin, Thank you.” President Tinubu is a rare figure for being known both as a ferocious fighter and forgiver. He fights to forgive and could forgive even while in the fight. Better to be at his forgiven zone.

    Bitterness has nothing to do with the future. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt had jousted with his anointed successor President William Taft, who later became a Supreme Court justice. The bitterness last over a decade.  But at a banquet, one evening, the people clapped as both men hugged and put the pain behind them. As the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Apostle Paul said bitterness defiles a person. Bitterness defiles everyone around while it lasts.

  • New security chiefs: Old challenges

    New security chiefs: Old challenges

    The appointment of new security chiefs and the retirement of old ones by President Tinubu were bound to generate considerable public curiosity. But the reasons for the keen public interest on those that made the list are multi-dimensional.

    The first hunch was to look out for how reflective of the country’s diversities the appointments represented. This burning disposition is dictated by the nature and character of similar appointments in the last eight years of the Buhari administration which paid scant heed to balance and inclusiveness.

    So when the appointments were announced, public reaction was to quickly peruse the list to see if it was a continuation of the old order or represented a new beginning.

    A national daily, apparently moved by the same prying consideration, was quick to come to the rescue. It promptly came out with a large map of Nigeria into which it assigned the geo-political zones which the security chiefs hail from. The map which trended widely in the social media, indicated that all the geo-political zones safe the north central, were represented in the top echelon of the country’s security architecture.

    Two zones; the northwest and the southwest had two representations respectively. Political observers have however noted that an appointee from the north-central zone would have made the list perfect. All the same, the appointments showed careful and deliberate effort to accommodate all the tendencies in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and fragmented society such as ours.

    It satisfied the formulations of KC Wheare in managing diversities in federal systems of government through power dispersal, increase in citizen participation and the effectiveness they engender in governance.

    But more fundamentally, the appointments came against the background of the unceasing insecurity across the country that has virtually reduced life to the atavism of the state of nature. The country has been home to multi-dimensional and multi-facetted security challenges that stretched the capacities of the security agencies to elastic limits. There is the Islamist insurgency in the northeast, banditry/herdsmen insurgency in the northwest and north-central and self-determination agitations in the southeast and southwest as well as militancy in the south-south. Each of these comes with its own peculiar challenges.

    Apart from the security infractions that are more domiciled within each of the identified zones, there are others that know no boundaries. These include armed banditry, armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and cultism which have combined to render our highways largely unsafe.

    These were the challenges the former security chiefs had to battle with varying degrees of success in the last two years of their appointment. They were appointed in 2021 following public outcry on the inability of their predecessors to tame the hydra-headed insecurity that appeared to be defying solutions despite claims by the authorities to have substantially diminished their potency.

    At the time of their appointment, Buhari had noted: “We promised to secure the country, revive the economy and fight corruption. None has been easy but we have certainly made progress”. A couple of months after his election in 2015, he had also bandied claims to the effect that Boko Haram had been technically defeated and the war against insurgency won.

    Then also, the government boasted that the insurgents have been diminished to a level they cannot mount any serious attacks against our military formations. Seven and a half years thereon, those claims have turned out an exercise in wishful thinking. The fact remains that the rate at which non-state actors compete with the government for the loyalty of the citizens has come to question the authority of the government; its capacity to live up to the statutory functions of maintaining law and order.

    The enormous sacrifice of security agencies both in human and material capital in the fight against insecurity has to be placed on record. It has not been really easy for them as many have lost their lives defending the country. But even with the enormous toll in the lives of our security forces which the fight against insecurity has taken, the reality is that the country has remained largely unsafe.

    Security concerns were on such a high scale before the elections that fears arose as to the possibility of conducting free and fair polls in such circumstance. But as we got into the elections proper, there was a very noticeable reduction in wanton killings and associated lawlessness across the country.

    Questions have been asked as to what could have led to the sharp drop in security infractions seen during the polls? Did the perpetrators go underground or recruited for elections for the devious services they know best or what? If this poser proved difficult during the elections, it is no longer so thereafter.

    Read Also: Terrorists, bandits, oil thieves our targets, say new Service Chiefs

    The killings have since resonated with greater ferocity especially in Plateau and Benue states. It would seem those who profit from the killings are back to their former jobs. Armed robbery, banditry and kidnapping for ransom no longer make headline news.

    That is the background in which the new security chiefs are taking up the mantle of leadership. Beyond the euphoria of who comes from which part of the country, the tasks facing the new security chiefs are indeed daunting. For them to make the desired difference, they must locate the factors that brought about the assortment of security challenges that before now are unknown to this country.

    They must eschew rivalry and inter agency competition that work at cross purposes with effective results and maximum output within the security organization. We need new approaches; new ideas and strategies on how to effectively secure the country and restore the worth of life of the citizens.

    But the president has to get the ball rolling. He must not only show leadership but must be very decisive on how he intends to handle the security conundrum. The way he attends to security matters brought before him, will chart the path to be followed by the security chiefs. Much of the complications in handling security issues as Buhari held sway, were inexorably linked to his seeming bias in handling some of the matters brought to his attention.

    His dubious amnesty programme for the so-called repentant Boko Haram terrorists created serious complications for the war in the northeast. We saw how some of the so-called repentant and de-radicalized terrorists went back to the forests with arms to put up fight against our security forces. Elsewhere, the insurgency of the herdsmen held sway as they operated killing, maiming and despoiling host communities with a curious air of invincibility.

     The body language of the former president and statements that emanated from his office each time herdsmen were alleged to have killed and despoiled host communities often fuelled insinuations that the government is sympathetic to their cause. Matters were not helped by the seeming desperation of that government to float controversial and contentious policies all in a bid to give unfettered access of peoples’ lands to the herdsmen some of them, foreign nationals.

    The same prevarication was evident in handling the threat posed by the so-called bandits who till date, have not shown any marked difference between them and the killer herdsmen. Evidence from their interactions with fiery Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi showed that the grievances of the bandits and those of the herdsmen were two sides of the same coin. Maybe there is something the new security chiefs need to find out about the link between the two deadly groups

    How the country came to this sad pass remains to be conjectured. But the romance of certain state governors with the bandits and the kid gloves with which the last government treated issues concerning them must have led to the cascading dimension their insurgency has taken. Government’s treatment as sacred cows of people known to be fraternizing with them did not help matters.

    That is the situation as the new security chiefs take over. Even as kinetic approaches are relevant but more relevant is the non-kinetic dimension to the festering insecurity. Incubating factors such as abject poverty, ignorance, disease and illiteracy must be decisively tackled for substantial progress to be made.

    But all would ultimately depend on the political will, commitment and determination of the president. He must confront the monster headlong and in a manner bereft of the biases and double speak of the past.

  • Amazing Aminat

    Amazing Aminat

    It was striking and thought-provoking that a journalist’s daughter positively hit the headlines and attributed her success story largely to her father’s human guidance. She understandably acknowledged the God factor too, and gave an insight into her father’s role in attracting divine intervention.    

    “I remember when my dad embarked on a holy pilgrimage to Mecca some years ago. When he arrived at Mount Arafat, he called me to tell him a prayer request so that he could intercede on my behalf,” she recalled in a published interview.

    ”I told him he should ask God to make me excel in my studies and career. He did pray for me. But then I matched that with a lot of hard work on my part and the universe came through for me. So, in essence, prayers without work can’t give you success. They both go together.”

    This combination worked for Aminat Imoitsemeh Yusuf, 23, who recently graduated in Law from Lagos State University (LASU) with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.0 (First Class Honours).

    The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, announced that Aminat “is LASU’s Best Graduating Student in history,” which she described as a “laudable feat.” The university is 40 years old.

    The record setter got N500, 000 from LASU, N2m and a promise of sponsorship through Law School from a traditional ruler, the Oniba of Iba Kingdom, Oba Sulaimon Adeshina Raji, and N10m from Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the state government.  These are sweet fruits of success.

    She is from Edo State, and Governor Godwin Obaseki, in a congratulatory statement, said she “serves as an example for millions of Edo children needing role models as they journey through life.” He added: “She embodies the indefatigable Edo spirit and represents the best of us.” Sometimes words are not enough. Obaseki should follow the example of others who gave her a reward for her significant performance. 

    Her dad, The Nation award-winning journalist Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, deserves commendation for his contribution to her accomplishment. She said: “His consistent drive toward my academics made me so meticulous with my education, and eventually, I developed the habit of excellence.”

    Her story has an unmistakable inspirational quality, and further demonstrates that females can excel academically.  In a country where girl-child education is not exactly on the front burner in several areas, the feat is a picture of possibilities.  It cannot be overemphasised that the country should do more to promote the importance of equal education, increase the available educational resources for females and reduce dropout rates among female students.

    “In my own case,” Aminat observed, “I had dutiful parents who considered education a top priority and went the whole length to support me. It’s not the case for a lot of people out there. That said, I think society at large can help to change this narrative through the kind of attention, value, and reward system it places on education.”

    Read Also: Sanwo-Olu gifts LASU’s best graduating student N10m

     Last year, on the International Day of the Girl Child, October 11, the United Nations noted that “Girls around the world continue to face unprecedented challenges to their education.” The situation is grave in Nigeria, which is said to account for more than one in five out-of-school children anywhere in the world.

    The international body advocates engagement with government officials, policymakers and stakeholders ”to make more targeted investments that tackle inequalities experienced by girls.” It also calls for engagement with “key female influencers across industries to be the face of change we want girls to see as possible.”

    Aminat can be described as a face of change. “I do intend to go into academics after my PhD, God willing,” she said. That would be a way of giving back to society. But she is already contributing to social development through a YouTube channel called LLA (Learning Law with Aminat) “The goal is to make available valuable lessons in all compulsory law courses, as a supplementary tool to all Law students across the federation,” she explained.

    She is in the limelight now. According to her, “It wasn’t a smooth journey.”  She painted a picture that reflected the poor socio-economic realities in the country.  Her words: “My major obstacle during the undergrad days was basically financial. Legal studies come at a considerable cost. As the first child of my parents and considering our financial situation, I called home only when it was absolutely necessary, after having exhausted all alternatives.

    “Thus, I had for the most part fed on very cheap meals, slept and studied in a not so conducive environment. But I wasn’t alone in this. I had friends with similar challenges.”

    She lauded the Students Loan Scheme recently introduced under the President Bola Tinubu administration, saying it is “one of many steps the government can take.” She added: “There is still a whole lot the government can do to address the state of the education sector.”

    I thought about her father, a journalist, and her mother, a businesswoman. I thought about a journalist’s life in Nigeria. I recalled a notable December 2017 report.  When the State House Press Corps invited then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to a seminar with the theme, “Journalists and Retirement Plans,” he didn’t mince words during the event at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.  

    A report said: “The Vice President recalled his brief encounters working with media houses as legal adviser, and how in all the months he worked he was not paid despite the irregular hours he put in.” He reached a conclusion based on this discouraging experience.  He was quoted as saying: “I realised first of all that this is not a profession from which one could make a decent living in the first place unless you find a really good way of doing so.”

    It was a depressing assessment of journalism and journalists. Osinbajo went on to say why things are the way they are.  According to him, “There are a few reasons in my view why remuneration is poor. The first is that it is just simply cheating. There are owners of media that are just cheats. They just want to get something for nothing and that is not uncommon, it is a general malaise, it is not necessarily restricted to the media.”

    He lamented that professional associations formed to protect the interest of journalists don’t do enough to tackle media organisations that don’t pay journalists enough or not at all.

    This recollection underlined Aminat’s amazing accomplishment. She deserves a medal.   

  • The gunman

    The gunman

    When the new Service chiefs’ news broke, some sniffed mischief. Some even yelled foul, saying “This is not fair. Where is the southeast?” They did not see Ogalla as Igbo.  A case of self-unawareness. They met themselves but recognised someone else. They denied themselves in the mirror. Maybe it was an impulse to condemn before praise. Maybe they thought he was a cousin of Tunde Ogala, the ebullient SAN and Tinubu’s lawyer. Was it the double L that transmuted him from a son of a Kaaro Ojire to an Enugu native? Linguists have noted the ties of our languages in what is called the Kwa Group.  Some writers did not figure this out before they whooped and wailed. Some impulsive columnists had gone to town with hubris, alleging bigotry.

    Then they realised, that his middle name is Ikechukwu, that he is one of the best and brightest of any personnel, that President Bola Tinubu did his homework, that he is the first naval chief from that part of the country for how long? Folks from that part are jubilant not just for the person but also for its geopolitical endorsement.

    Again, Ogalla is such a brilliant man that one wonders why he was in the shadows for so long. He lapped up distinctions in all subjects except English at his school certificate examination. Yet, my reporting shows that he was in a sort of doghouse in the navy’s dockyard. His car was derided as Kabu kabu by those who wondered why a general should suffer such shabby neglect.  His last posting, as Commanding officer of a backyard position titled: Lessons Learned, only comes as a lesson to those who oppress the gifted. His announcement is not only an elevation but a vindication, if a picture of Tinubu’s fairness. Many claps for Ogalla.

    The choice of Major General Christopher Musa is also potent. He hails from one of the fraught areas of the North, Zango Kataf. That makes him a native of Southern Kaduna, where kidnaps and barbarous raids have become routine. He is a Christian from the North with empathy for the besieged. Here is a text from Francis Damina, a Southern Kaduna rights activist and commentator on religion and society: “Immediately he was announced, the whole of Southern Kaduna, especially in the market places, were dancing. The social media is awash with videos of how market women danced at various markets…it is a map reading into the heart and mind of the president that he will not tolerate the killings. He has converted a one-time gentile territory to the APC … The message is that the same-faith ticket was only a strategy of winning elections.” Cheers to Musa.

    The Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja is a serious man. This Lagbaja will not be an entertainer but a safety Tower. If anyone should sing, it will not be Lagbaja but Nigerians who feel safe under his watch. His appointment, like a few others, breaks some taboo. He has played in theatres but only guns boom, no drum rolls or applauses or laughter. No post is a sacred spot for anybody or tribe. That is a message of his new job. No Yoruba has held that position since the debonair Alani Akinrinade in the military era. Lagbaja is known as a man of war, intrepid spirit, agility, the cunning and inspirational presence of a leader. Applause for him.

    The new Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has elicited praise, and I learned he is a fair-minded person who does not pre-judge people and would make his own assessment of people. He knows the intrigues and cloak and dagger of the police hierarchy. A workaholic who can place a call at 3 am just to sort out a thorny issue, his appointment of Tunji Disu as principal staff officer testifies to his work ethic. When Disu took over from the disgraced Kyari, he was received at the Intelligence unit with resistance and even hostility. The staff had as Display on their phones, “We stand with Kyari” until the law locked the fraud in outer darkness. No longer recoiling, they reconciled with Disu, who gradually turned the staff to his virtues and they, in turn, discarded their phone screen vows. Egbetokum says he feels like a Tiger lurking towards the criminals. A growl for him.

    Read Also: Terrorists, bandits, oil thieves our targets, say new Service Chiefs

    significant in the list is the national security adviser. Some had wondered if Malam Nuhu Ribadu would earn the respect of the Service chiefs. They forget we have had police in the past in that office, including Gambo. The job of an NSA is strategy and intelligence, and it is essentially an intellectual engagement.  We need facts to fight the enemy. Napoleon noted that, “War is ninety percent information.” We need more inspiration than perspiration to overcome the bandit. That underscores Ribadu’s task. Ribadu has contempt for what many have identified as “tour of duty” corruption in the war against terror. The top brass is believed to enact rosters of personal plunder and enrichment rather than victory over the enemy. The U.S. has had NSA both from military and academic backgrounds from Henry Kissinger to Condoleeza Rice. Ribadu has been in intelligence for most of his career. His job as EFCC chief extended that task of tracking the wicked. He just resumed that endeavour. Plaudits for his epaulets.

    Whatever their biographies, their success depends on the commander-in-chief. I recall the howls for Buhari to change Service chiefs. When he did, it did not change the story. The bandits still stalked the streets and home-owners met the morning dew in dens or dead. It is the vision of the president that will change the story. French leader Clemenceau said: “War is too important a matter to be left in the hands of generals.” It is the power of men over institutions. The generals do what they call “probing” when first appointed. It means they want to test the leader’s earnestness. If they laze about, are corrupt, or fail, and the leader looks the other way, everyone becomes delinquent. Hence, the detached and forgetful approach of Buhari led his generals to rest on their oars rather than roar.

    Two things are essential. Morale. The armed forces, especially the police, need to walk in high spirits. Napoleon said: “In war, morale is to the physical as three is to one.” I asked a top police officer the other day why the war on terror crawled. I referred to claims in places like Southern Kaduna that accused soldiers and the police of doing nothing when attacks were launched. He said the officers were “soft targets.” They did not have armoured vehicles, bulletproof vests or enough arms to match the hordes.

    Second, It shows the Lagos model is required on a large scale. We need the armoured vehicles all around the country as well as strategic areas to monitor movements across the country. Technology exists to monitor every inch in this country. Americans use it. We can. Even now, satellite technology has advanced in this regard. You need arms for war, but better to arm them with vision and loyalty. You need to get the equipment first and the rest is intellectual and moral. As Oscar Wilde quipped: “When I was young, I thought money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know that it is.”

    To show that the president shows the way, Abraham Lincoln made a point on the value of generals. “I can make more generals, but horses cost money.” We need to use the budget like a poor man with lots of money, to paraphrase Picasso. That is, spend with wisdom.

    Everything, from picking the top soldier to mapping strategy, requires one thing: vision. The real gunman may not be the man who shoots but he who gives the command.

    One of the major challenges is oil theft. It rankles all, with billions of Naira lost daily. I visited the U.S. State Department with a top government official over a decade ago, and the assistant secretary of state told the story of how ships wait on high seas waiting to load our oil. We knew the story. But it was odd that a foreign government could know our land and its seedy tale so well. In the Buhari era, U.S. treasury secretary Janet Yellin told top ministers that Nigeria was not poor. We just did nothing to stop subsidy. In oil, there were two subsidies. The president has tackled one, with that of PMS. The other is oil theft. It is a task for Egbetokun, Lagbaja and Ogalla. You can attack Asari Dokubo all you want. Some commentators have prized protocol over plunder and devalued the hemorrhage going on. They are after the messenger when the message is burying us in agony and loss. The fact is the military is supposed to guarantee our crude oil from the predation of shadowy gangsters.  If the military did not steal it, they did not save it. Either way, they have failed. There is enough of that money to turn Nigeria into a thriving homeland but for  some felons who have, in the words of the Bible, “enclosed themselves in their own fat.”

    That is the theme, and that is what we should focus on.

  • Rogue cops

    Rogue cops

    The society is at great peril when public functionaries charged with the duty of maintaining law and order are in the forefront of sabotaging the very oath of their offices. Sadly, this is the foreboding signal we sometimes get from some of those charged with the duty of seeing to the proper discharge and execution of governmental functions. Hardly does a day pass by without reports of public functionaries indulging in one form of misdemeanour or the other that cast serious slur on their continued stay and relevance in those offices.

    That is the uncanny dilemma this country faces each time officials of the government conduct themselves in ways that suggest they do not understand the high responsibilities that go with the offices they occupy. This quandary accounts in the main, for the wobbling institutional progress in the country despite several promises by the leadership to strengthen them to live up to their statutory mandates.

    It is not that we are expecting saints in public offices. No! Neither is it an attempt to rule out isolated acts of misconduct. That would seem utterly utopian. But the regularity and bold face with which some public functionaries sabotage the very duties, for which they are paid with public funds, seem to question the basis for the existence of governments.

    Read Also: Gunmen kill three cops again in Ebonyi

    Or, how do we explain the effrontery of four policemen attached to the Ogudu Police Division of Lagos State who were said to have extorted the sum of N153, 000 from a university student whose name was given as Emmanuel Nnawuihe. Reports had it that the student’s car was flagged down by the policemen for a routine search around the under-bridge area of Ojota.

    They searched his car and mobile phone without finding anything incriminating. Instead of allowing him continue his journey, they took him to a very lonely spot around the under-bridge area and forced him to open his mobile bank application. Sighting he had about N2million in his bank account, the four policemen allegedly threatened to harm him unless he agreed to transfer the money into an account belonging to another person not at the scene of the incident. Nnawuihe refused their demand but they kept on pressing, threatening to harm him should he refuse to comply with their illegal demand.

    Sensing danger to his life, the student had no other option than to commence negotiations with the rogue policemen. They eventually settled for N135, 000 which he transferred into an account provided by the policemen. Only then did they allow him to go.

    The victim was said to have reported the matter to the Lagos State Police Command. The state Commissioner of Police CP, Idowu Owohunwa apparently piqued by the audacity of the policemen detailed another batch of policemen to track down the ‘offending four’ for serious questioning.

    In the course of the subsequent investigations, Nnawuihe was taken to the Ogudu Divisional Police command where he identified the four policemen that swindled him. The stolen money has been refunded to him while the policemen were detained and are currently being probed in connection with the disgraceful conduct.

    Owohunwa did not stop there. He also reportedly ordered the immediate removal of the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ogudu for failing to effectively supervise her men linked to the odious deal.

    About a week earlier, a Lagos barber had also cried out about his ordeal in the hands of another set of four policemen on routine check around the Ikoyi area of the state. They had allegedly extorted N100, 000 from him as he was returning from the Federal Registry in an Uber cab. The barber identified as @alilmoonn on Twitter said the policemen had directed the driver of Uber cab in which he was traveling to stop for a search to which the driver complied.

    After searching the cab without finding anything incriminating, they asked the lone passenger to alight from the vehicle to meet their boss who was seated inside their patrol van. There and then, they accused him of being a fraudster and threatened to hand him over to operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

    They manhandled him insisting he is a fraudster for using iPhone 14 Pro Max. They seized his phone and allegedly demanded N2million for him to regain his freedom. He did not have such amount of money. The leader of the rogue policemen checked the barber’s account balance and on discovering that he did not have such humongous amount of money, asked his men to collect N100, 000 from him apparently, an amount the balance he saw could cover. The barber, fearing that his life may come into harm’s way acceded to their order and transferred the said sum to an account number they provided. He attached the receipt of the transfer to the post on Twitter even as he asked the police authorities to apprehend the culprits and have his money returned to him.

    It is unclear whether as in the case of the Ogudu four, any arrests were made. Neither is there any information as to whether the stolen money has been retrieved from the misfits in police uniform. But the force public relations officer, Muyiwa Adejobi had while reacting to the incident, said it was receiving the attention of the CP, Lagos State and necessary action will be taken.

    The precise nature of the action taken to identify the culprits and have the money retrieved was yet to become public knowledge before, student Nnawuihe fell victim to the same tactics in the hands of the Ogudu four.

    It is good a thing that the CP Lagos State reacted quickly and decisively by identifying the rogue policemen and had the stolen money refunded to the poor student. Equally heart refreshing is the news that they are now being tried for their acts of misdemeanour. It is to be expected that at the end of the routine trial exercise, the four policemen would be shown the way out of the police force.

    They are a disgrace; an unmitigated disaster to the police institution and should have no business in that organization any longer. Just as we are told that they have been identified and the money they stole returned to its rightful owner, the public is eager to know the nature and severity of the punishment given to them.

    But it remains a sad commentary on the police institution that none of the four policemen saw anything wrong in intimidating innocent people to the extent of threatening to send them to the underworld if they do not part with their hard earned money. Their conduct is neither a mere happenstance nor coincidental. Rather, it strikes as organized crime within the police formation.

    That is why the immediate removal of the DPO, Ogudu struck the right chord. It is puzzling that such organized crime could be going on without the knowledge of the leadership in that division. But if the brazen criminality could go on without the knowledge of the DPO and her lieutenants, then much is desired of their leadership and supervisory roles in that formation.

    The similarities in the mode of operation and tactics of the policemen in the two incidents, point inescapably to the fact that they are not just isolated cases. Neither is their tactics novel. It was one of the many excesses of the defunct Special Armed Robbery Squad SARS that led former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu in 2020 to ban police men from indiscriminate searching of mobile phones and laptops.

    Adamu had then ordered: “All tactical squads must desist from the invasion of the privacy of citizens particularly through indiscriminate and unauthorized search of mobile phones, laptops and other smart devices”. About the same time also, the nation erupted into disturbances and violence following what is now known as the EndSARS protests.

    In the ensuing protests, police formations across the country were selectively attacked and burnt down while a good number of its operatives lost their lives. The attacks took everyone by surprise while inflicting serious damage to the morale of police operatives. For several weeks, police men and women were afraid to venture out for fear of incurring the wrath of the public.

    By the accounts of the then IGP, 22 policemen were gruesomely murdered with 26 others injured by the protesters. 205 critical national security assets, corporate facilities and private property were attacked, burnt or vandalized. This is in addition to arms and ammunitions which the police said were carted away during the uprising even as many arrests were also made.

    At the end of the mayhem, the SARS unit was disbanded and judicial panels of inquiry set up to examine mounting cases of human rights abuses in and around the country. There were also copious talks and promises for police reforms.

    If any lesson was learnt from the sad experiences of EndSARS, it is not evident from the two incidents. Rather, we are again at the threshold of those excesses of policemen that brought about that sad pass. What has become of the order restraining policemen from invading the privacy of the citizens in the name of searching their phones for alleged incriminating materials?

    Now that such searches have become avenues by rogue policemen to steal monies from innocent citizens, why allow the practice? That should be food for thought for the current IGP. The way he responds to emerging contradictions in the continued searching of phones and laptops by policemen will be a measure of his seriousness or lack of it in permanently taming this monster to redeem the waning image of the police institution.