The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

Machina’s due

In the end, Bashir Machina has prevailed over Senate President Ahmad Lawan.

It is a real irony that the man who had it for the taking went after what he had no chance of taking. No, he will have neither senate nor presidency.

It is a triumph for the rule of law. It calls to mind the Greek myth that has gained currency as deus ex machina, which literally means a god in a machine.

In simple terms, it means a miracle. Lawan was the one hoping for dues ex machina, even after his name was submitted by his party chairman. The law prevailed.

Machina was there to take his own miracle. You cannot take machina from Machina.

The miracle, the deus ex machina, belongs to the man who bears the name.

June 27, 2022
Train of two traitors

Ifeanyi Okowa hosted the meeting as a hero of the south. Atiku Abubakar hoisted him as his super aide or VP choice. By that, he made his Asaba summit of southern governors a zero for his region. And Atiku was happy to rub the southern nose in it.

The Delta State governor conned his governor colleagues. He was not a man of his words. He was not a man of his people. He coiffed the meaning of patriot in his own fashion. He has thus been called a traitor by bodies representing the two major southern groups as well as minorities.

He says he is not a traitor. His words recall the expression of Richard Nixon when the American president wallowed in the WaterGate scandal. Nixon protested, “I am not a crook.” Those words fitted his crooked mouth. America groaned. Nixon resigned as impeachment waves roared towards His White House.

So, Okowa said: “I am not a traitor.” I can say, “Governor, smile while you say that.” He was laughing at himself. When Nyesom Wike said southern governors betrayed him, we know Okowa was one of them. Delta delegates voted Atiku, not his south-south neighbour. Okowa said he was following party principle. He implies party trumps country. He would have been a victim in a Greek play, like Euripides’ Iphigenia. He is not Mark Twain’s patriot. The American novelist wrote, “In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave and hated and scorned. When the cause succeeds, the timid join him, for them it costs nothing to be a patriot.”

That is Okowa. He does not have conviction, except it is convenient. Whatever the party says is supreme, even if party parts with country. That is the definition of opportunism. So, it was not party principle when he opened his port and portal to his fellow state executives. He was preening when Atiku announced him.

His pick was also an act of Atiku’s opportunism. One, both of them are fair-weather folks. Atiku has been a perennial dissembler in politics. He is the ultimate sufferer of a wandering disease called sokugo of Cyprian Ekwensi’s novel, Burning Grass. He is wandering in the desert of political desire, seeking the plum of fortune he can devour. Atiku knows no home because his ambition is his shelter. He likes playing coquette, and he who does that ends a harlot.

Okowa is no different. He has betrayed his mentor in Delta politics. Ibori, while in jail, swore by Okowa as Uduaghan’s successor, contrary to advice that Okowa could not be trusted. From the ambience of Downing Street, he rallied his party for a Judas. After his PDP consultations, the party zoned the guber slot to the Urhobo, and they picked David Edevbie. Even the influential Urhobo People’s Union, endorsed Edevwie. Okowa had other ideas. He stamped his feet behind Sheriff Oborevwori, the speaker. He did not only do that. He threw his weight against the ambition of Ibori’s daughter who wanted to run for a legislative seat. He also pulled Uduaghan’s daughter, first into the treachery of his trust, and then allowed her to fail in her bid to run also for a legislative seat. Ibori’s daughter’s bid first stalemated and a runoff favoured her, presumably as a soft-landing for the godfather’s pride. Okowa’s daughter, who is a senior fellow in his advisory cupboard, sailed through the electoral calm water, also as a legislator.

He and his aides are saying Ibori is not in ill humour with him. Why has Ibori not congratulated his guber pick, or congratulated him over his VP pick. He is going into battle with a divided house. Remember, the same Atiku was known to have betrayed Ibori as well when he was in trouble with the Jonathan administration before he was clobbered into jail. It is not as if Atiku did it because he is a saint, or he lives in the sanctum of the Almighty. Okowa bonds with his mentor’s traitor. He preens like the new royal of Delta politics, like a prince of imperial blood and brood.

Two, Atiku’s quest for Nigeria’s top seat screams with hypocrisy. Did he not say he wanted to leave the seat of president open to all without zoning? Yet, when he grabbed the seat, he now thinks the vice president should be zoned. One fairness does not beget another. He cast zoning in his own image.

It may be said that he did not pick Wike because there is no love lost between the Adamawa adventurer and the humourist of Rivers politics. Wike made Atiku tremble when he backed Tambuwal against him in 2014. Atiku did not like it when he heard party men describe PDP as “Wike Inc.” He must have likened the Ikwere man as VP as a hot fire burning him, a coal pot, from beneath. But why pick a man who is a traitor. That is understandable since they are kindred spirits. But apart from betraying the south and the state, he has to answer a question as to why the state believes he was a poor specimen of a governor in two terms. It is even more shabby that, in his twilight on the throne, he has borrowed N175 billion in the name of development. He has to answer why such a haul? Anything can be acquired in the name of projects. But the state and EFCC ought to monitor how the money is spent? We should know what is left of the money after the guber race and presidential campaigns. And of course, after he leaves office. Many in the state worry that he secured the money with a promise to the Speaker Oborevwori that he is covered. Atiku is also believed to have embraced it as a war chest for his quest for ASO ROCK.

With the Okowa pick, the southeast has finally lost out in the PDP sweepstakes. They had no eyes in the APC story, in spite of Ogbonnaya Onu’s jeremiad as though power is handed anyone without work. Onu indicted himself on the APC podium. He confessed he failed as a party hierarch. He could not bring his region to the party. His region did not even vote for their candidates. He showed he had no muscle to endear and mobilise in the east. He was his people’s paperweight.

Atiku thought Okowa is an Igbo pick. He was fooled by the name Ifeanyi. But he is not even the real Igbo of Asaba axis. Again, the Ika people of Agbor do not regard themselves as kinsmen of southeast Igbo. They are proud as Ika. Just like the Ikwerre. The southeast Igbo see them as diluted – if not deleted – versions of themselves. And they resent it. They may have a history but only when it is time to gain something do some opportunists like Okowa claim to be Igbo. After all, on what side were the Ika during the civil war. They fought on the federal side. Ojukwu in one of his civil war speeches spoke of his dream to bring some of the Igbo-speaking groups into Biafra. He did not ask if those people thought the same. It’s like saying New Zealand citizens are English, or Americans are English. Or equating French Quebecois as the same as French citizens in Macron’s France. Or the French Belgium should enter France without visa. In its assimilation policy, Charles de Gaulle made West African citizens who joined the Free French movement to think they are French citizens. They fought for their conquerors who were also German conquests. The subject of a subject, like being a tenant of a tenant. The fact that bia in Agbor means ‘come’ in Igbo does not mean when one says bia the other will come.

As the campaign beckons, Atiku the Sukogu and Okowa the Judas will set out on a train of like minds.

Jagaban returns

•Asiwaju Tinubu

Last week, I titled my front-page piece, Tinubu Comes Home. It was a home-coming as metaphor.

It bore the reverberations of his own Trojan War for democracy, his fights and sleights, his soldiery ending as generalship in the June 12 saga of heroics and blood.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu arrived in Lagos after his Abuja feat at Eagle Square, and this home-coming to Lagos is both metaphor and fact. Abuja was where the struggle crystalised with Abiola’s apotheosis.

Lagos was the Shakespearean Phillipi, where the battle saw smoke and blood, where heroes were separated from the pretenders.

In Lagos, he also returned after his work in Europe and America and started the trip to outstrip the military Pharisees of democracy, the autocrats in agbada. Lagos was where he fought for votes to count, where he duelled so-called titans to the dust, wrested the west from the hawks, from state to state, where he patented his genius as governor and, like a father, gave birth to transformational work across the west up to Edo.

He did the work, ruffled the brow of false men and the world saw it. He has come to that Lagos like a commander coming home after the battle is won. Asiwaju was like Douglass MacArthur, who returned in a flush of hurrahs after his exploits in the Second World War.

The American hero roared on the august hall of the United States Congress, “Old soldiers never die.” This soldier is fittingly name Jagaban as a chief and chiefly onomatopoeically.

He, unlike the American, is however set for the next phase of battle.

June 20, 2022
ISWAP theory and Owo massacre

The linking by the National Security Council of Islamic State’s West African Province, ISWAP, to the massacre at St Francis Catholic Church Owo, Ondo State threw up more puzzles than it is intended to resolve.

Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola who made public the position of the federal government, created room for initial doubt when he said security agencies have been directed to apprehend the perpetrators. What this meant is that no arrest had been made as at the time the minister spoke.

Yet, the government concluded that ISWAP was culpable for the heinous killings. The question that immediately begs for answers is – on what evidence did the federal government base its conclusion? Is it on a priori assumption; material evidence gathered before or after the heinous crime that left sorrow and awe on innocent citizens who went to church to commune with their creators?

The fact that the basis for linking ISWAP to those killings is yet to be availed the public, accounts for the welter of doubt that has since trailed that disclosure.

It was not for nothing that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in whose state the mass killings occurred, was the first to pick holes with the conclusions of the federal government, describing it as ‘hasty’. He equally faulted that angle on the ground that ISWAP did not take responsibility for the killings as is characteristic of the terror organization.

As if the reservations of Akeredolu were not enough to impugn the integrity of the conclusion, a more fierce cynicism came from the Ekiti State governor and chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi when he described the claim as mere speculation.

Fayemi said as chief security officers of states, governors are privy to all manner of intelligence: “I don’t want to jump the gun as far as this is concerned and that is why, I am not going to go into any detail as to what intelligence we had and at what point we had it”.

In sum, Fayemi vehemently disagreed with the linking of ISWAP to the Owo killings. He would not want to be dragged into specifics at this point, but available evidence does not corroborate the ISAWP angle.

This raises the further question as to what the federal government intended to achieve by the link and why it was in a hurry to point accusing fingers on ISWAP. Are there footprints of the attack that bear close similarities with the modus operandi of that terror group? Or was the conclusion targeted at damage control to foreclose loose speculations and possibly stave off possible reprisal attacks?

Ondo State government has had a running battle with killer herdsmen following its enforcement of the anti-open grazing law. There have been skirmishes in the forests between herdsmen and enforcers of the anti-open grazing law. So the first group to suspect should have been herdsmen militias that lurk around the forests in the state.

There is the issue of proximity given the relative ease with which the killers disappeared into the thin air. Equally relevant is the close semblance of the attack with similar killings in parts of the country where herdsmen had issues with the local population. Benue State is a typical case of the Ondo situation where worshipers were mowed down while celebrating mass.

So it would not have been difficult suspecting the herdsmen. But the federal government would not have that angle either. They may well have reasons for the conclusion. But it is one thing to come out with conclusions on an issue and another altogether for such to command popular appeal and acceptability.

In the instant case, vital ingredients that would have accorded some credibility to that theory in the absence of any arrest were virtually missing. That is why both Akeredolu and Fayemi faulted the conclusion. And with them are legion.

By linking the attack to ISWAP, the federal government has inadvertently opened up another discomforting chapter in the war against terrorism in this country. The inevitable impression conveyed is that contrary to claims that the war against terrorism is on the decline, it is now rather spreading.

ISWAP, as the umbrella organization for all factions of Islamic State IS in West Africa, is primarily active in the Chad Basin. It fights an extensive insurgency against such countries as Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

It is also known for setting up an administration in territories where it is present; collecting taxes on trade and agriculture even as it also provides some security in return. In Nigeria where they operate in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states this characterization is largely true of their activities.

There is no known case of ISWAP presence in Ondo before the senseless attack on the church that left more than 40 people (children, men and women both old and young) dead and several others seriously wounded. Ondo State is far removed from the war theatres of ISWAP for any possible conjecture of spillover action.

For the claim associating ISWAP with the Ondo massacre to be credible, there has to be proof that the group maintains substantial presence in that state or evidence showing where they came from and ran to after the attack. There is also the issue of motive. What could be the grouse of the group with the Catholic Church in far-flung Owo? Could it be that ISWAP terrorists also take refuge in adjoining forests taking advantage of the activities of the herdsmen?

Perhaps, this angle looks more plausible. Those who masterminded the attack were very familiar with the Owo terrain. The choice of the Catholic Church was not just mere happenstance. It was carefully selected to get maximum impact given to its mixed attendance. And it worked out for them as many indigenous and non-indigenous worshippers were victims of their murderous attack.

The Owo attack has again elevated the imperative of re-examining the activities of those hiding in the forests under the guise of herding. As long as our forests are inhabited by sundry criminals and terrorists, so long shall the Owo experience be a recurring decimal. It says a lot about the government that these killings keep going on and on, seemingly undetected.

June 20, 2022
A Pan-Nigerian ticket

They wanted to shred the list but it ended a watershed for democracy. Some said it was down to seven, down to three. A frenzy in Abuja air. Other aspirants broke out in arms. Lawan as consensus turned out a con. Eventually, they let a thousand flowers bloom. In the pageant, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged the fairest of them all. In his sunshine, quite a few flowers faded and drooped. Some others had a little bloom, and no more.

We all saw it as man and wife, at Eagle Square, walked hand in hand, like a re-enactment of a new couple on the aisle. Decked in blue, the duo’s walk resembled what the French call tableau vivant. Tinubu in solemn stride beside Senator Oluremi Tinubu. Cameras clicked, the sun in full throttle, the air benign. Of course, party members’ eyes gazed, bloodshot from hours of voting and waiting without sleep; some teary with joy. Victory enriched insomnia.

The walk was not just a parade, but a parable. He had been at the walk for a long time, and he had survived many ambushes, many manoeuvres, many a Judas kiss. But victory often is the calm after the storm of war.

What we saw at the last hour was the Nigerian story from the APC northern governors. Their scheme to give the president to the south is without precedent in Nigerian history. It is honour of patriots. They contrasted with the PDP who conflated fairness with hegemony, and browbeat the party’s south to yield to subservience in the name of democracy. Theirs is democratic servitude.

The northern governors’ decision also marked a Fulani-Yoruba synergy unknown to history. There was no war, no Solagberu example of the 19th century. No 1840. It was a handshake across the desert.

This came from the work of Asiwaju himself. He had been at it for long, working peace and harmony with the north. His heroes did not have the genius. Awo, with all his majesty, could not step across the chasm of suspicion. His wisdom, ascetic piety and ideology did not melt the northern heart. M.K.O. Abiola had humour and money, and had made many friends. He won the street on June 12, but could not enter their power sanctum. Asiwaju brought this watershed, and it was possible because President Muhammadu Buhari was able to rein in the rabble. He was because it was time, and because the person was right. Cometh the hero, cometh the hour. Tinubu was the ultimate in trust: he built the human connection. During the Cold War, President Richard Nixon asserted that human connection was more important than rhetoric and weapons race. He invited Brezhnev and Mao home, as friends rather than foes. They signed entente and opened the world to China. Tinubu understands we are human first before we are anything else.

It is not always a guarantee, but a work in progress. Where he had trouble was inside. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as candidate was an example of a naïve man, a victim of burlesque theatre. A Malvolio in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. We saw that even when he mounted the podium at Eagle Square. A fawning crowd cheered him. He, too, smiling, basked in the confetti of flattery. That moment summarised his whole candidacy. But it was not the flattery but treachery. Some commentators have wielded the Bible and political theory in vain in his defence. Some quoted Joseph, who became bigger than his brothers. But Joseph was loyal to his brothers. They betrayed him, and God vindicated him. He turned his eye away from his master’s wife and hence he rose to be the second in command. Joseph betrayed not; he was betrayed.

Others say he had a right to run. No one denied that. There is right. There is decency. Even the Bible says, some things are lawful but they may not be expedient. This generation must learn to understand the meaning of loyalty. Many don’t and want to distort scripture to touch the unclean thing. There is a reason Lucifer and Judas are no favorites in scripture. I also think that prophesy has a role in this saga. Some saw a future that didn’t exist. Pastors must be wary. They deceive many politicians and imbue them with the Malvolio complex, a delusion of grandeur. Hence Jeremiah wailed, “He that hath a dream let him tell a dream.. they are imaginations of their hearts.” He also said, “the prophets prophesy false and the priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so.” They flatter aspirants by turning fantasy into prophesy.

Some of them, not just Osinbajo, were baboons waiting for Buhari’s boon. Vampires around Buhari were merchants. They hoodwinked aspirants that Buhari wanted them. The fools released money. They are too ashamed to go public. If the story is told, it will make for a great farce on stage. There was a certain fellow who boasted that Osinbajo was the cabal’s darling. He capered in his wounded prose. He should have known that he was selling Osinbajo as a stooge of the cabal. His professorial mind was not subtle enough to know he had made a mess of his case, even to whom he was cringing.

In Yoruba land, there is a word called Omoluabi, and hardly any word has its exact meaning. For want of a better translation, it means a good soul without guile. Yoruba treasure it because it has become, through their history, their major weakness. As an Itsekiri man, I watch it in our history since we descend from the Yoruba, just separated by water. Our forbears crossed over, especially from the Ijebu and Ondo areas. My great grandmother was from Ife. So I remember the role that Dore Numa played in giving away the redoubtable Nana to the British. We have over the ages watched out for the Numas in our midst. The Yoruba have had it a number of times. When Afonja broke ranks. In Old Oyo palace intrigues, like Basorun Gaa’s. In the Yoruba Wars. In the Solagberu and Onikoyi episode. In the Akintola quagmire. Even in the June 12 story, when even a monarch became a conscript. In his recent book, The Road Never Forgets, Yemi Ogunbiyi writes of how a general wanted him to spend a million dollars to sell June 12 annulment to the world. He said no, but another Yoruba fell for the moral bait.

Many who watch or read Soyinka’s Death and The King’s Horseman should note that Elesin Oba is loyal to his king until it is time to fulfil his pact. He loves life more. That kernel of betrayal dramatized by our best playwright is also a cautionary tale to his people. I know of no literary critic of Yoruba extraction, or any kind, who has drawn this ethno-psychological point. Few have seen Akintola or even the 19th century quislings in the poetic drama. It’s an act of vainglory to say it is democracy at work. There is decency before the vote. The mass of the tribe often vote for Omoluabi. That is the redeeming light.

Hence, I say, anyone who saw Osinbajo as right has a Judas in his heart. When I asked him how he handled the stories of brothers undercutting him, Tinubu replied, “I am taking a geometric approach to it. The fastest route between two points is a straight line. I won’t be distracted.” His was, in a sense, a Pythagorean triumph. Pythagoras was not only a math genius but he also reconciled it with his philosophy of life.

At last, it is time to heal, as Abraham Lincoln said after he won the civil war, “With malice toward none and charity to all…time to bind the…wounds.” Another battle, he knows, beckons.

A Pan-Nigerian ticket

The search for APC vice presidential candidate has whipped up more tension than necessary. CAN says no Muslim-Muslim ticket. I wonder where CAN is getting its wisdom. Were they in Nigeria when Gowon was number one and Wayne was number two and Ejoor was number three? Did they not know that Buhari and Idiagbon were both Fulani. When in the past seven years they cried over herdsmen spree of blood, did they hold Osinbajo, the vice president, to account? It was Buhari they blamed.

The president, not the vice, is the custodian of the ticket. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is two for the price of one. He is Muslim, his wife, Senator Oluremi, is Christian, and a pastor for that matter. Was Tinubu not the first to turn Lagos schools to the missionaries? Did anyone cry that he was Muslim? The major annual church event in that state, where Pastor Adeboye and others preside, was his baby when he was governor. it’s been on up till today. It is rhetoric of deceit to call it Muslim-Muslim ticket. It is a human-human ticket, or a Nigerian-Nigerian or pan-Nigerian ticket. When the APC men cried against pairing him with Buhari in 2015, it was not because he is Muslim, it was a ruse to deny him the ticket. This is realpolitik for APC. They have to decide whether they want to do the “proper” thing and lose, or do the bold thing and win. It is a Machiavellian imperative. The option is in the winds.

For those calling for a Christian running mate, remember Tinubu’s life mate is Christian.

June 13, 2022
Owo killings: Jumping to conclusions

There has been a lot of talk, and apparently little action; but the situation demands less talk and more action.

The ineffectual talk continued as the Federal Government blamed a terrorist group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), for the horrific Sunday church killings in Owo, Ondo State, on June 5.

It’s unclear how the National Security Council identified the perpetrators. Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, who provided the information following a meeting of the council chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the authorities “are zeroing in on” ISWAP. It remains to be seen when arrests would be made in connection with the crime, and who would be arrested.

But Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s response called into question the conclusion that ISWAP was responsible for the attack. “The statement is too hasty,” he observed. “I take their conclusion with a pinch of salt. ISWAP doesn’t hide its attacks. If they had done it, they would have owned up.”

The truth is that the identities of the attackers and killers cannot be ascertained unless and until they are arrested.

The Director of Social Communication at the Catholic Diocese of Ondo, Rev. Fr. Augustine Ikwu, in a statement, gave the context and scale of the tragedy: “It is Pentecost Sunday, a time every Catholic is expected to be in Church to commemorate the solemnity. It is so sad to say that while the Holy Mass was going on, men of unknown origin, wielding guns attacked St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State.

“Many are feared dead and many others injured and the Church violated. The identity of the perpetrators remains unknown while the situation has left the community devastated.”

According to the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Banji Ajaka, there were 127 victims and 40 died.

President Buhari, in a release issued by his media adviser, Femi Adesina, said “eternal sorrow awaits the perpetrators of the bad act both on earth here and ultimately in the hereafter.” He added: “No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light. Nigeria will eventually win.”

Governor Akeredolu, in a statement issued by his chief press secretary, Richard Olatunde, had described the mysterious attackers as “the enemies of the people.” “We shall never bow to the machinations of heartless elements in our resolve to rid our state of criminals,” he declared.

The Ondo State Police Command, in a statement by its public relations officer, Funmilayo Odunlami, said “all efforts are being intensified to arrest those who perpetrated this evil.”

A lot of talk, but talk is not enough. It is good and proper to condemn the blood-curdling attack on innocent worshippers. But condemnation is certainly not enough. The perpetrators must be caught and punished.

Notably, the expression “unknown,” used to describe the assailants, surfaced in various narratives. Again and again, the agents of evil carry out devilish acts, and it seems nobody can identify them. Indeed, it seems they are unidentifiable.

But those who carried out the horrifying killings are not spirits. They were likely under the influence of evil spirits, but they are flesh and blood. This means they should be identifiable.

If they are identifiable, then the criminals should be identified and brought to justice. It is the role of law enforcement to identify, catch and prosecute them.

The yet-to-be-identified gunmen that assaulted the country’s psyche by the horrendous Owo killings must not be allowed to get away with murder.

The Federal Government’s attribution of the killings to ISWAP is disturbing. If that conclusion is true, it evokes the alarm by Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum in January.

During his interaction with members of the Senate Committee on Army, when they visited him at the Government House in Maiduguri, he had highlighted “the growing presence” of ISWAP in the southern part of Borno, stressing that this would likely worsen the country’s terrorism problem.

Increased activities by terrorists can only mean increased insecurity in the country. Zulum had observed that “If nothing is done to check and tackle the growing presence of ISWAP fighters who are better armed, better equipped, more deadly, more sophisticated and receive more funds than Boko Haram, it will be disastrous not only to Borno State but the country in general.” The alarm was loud enough.

ISWAP is believed to have about 3,500 – 5,000 fighters, and has carried out many attacks in Nigeria since it was formed in 2015 following collaboration between Boko Haram and the Islamic State (IS). However, the union of terrorists collapsed a year later, and Boko Haram and ISWAP began to operate separately.

It is relevant to look at some of ISWAP’s recent terrorist activities in the country. For instance, a report said its fighters burnt four vehicles, including a petrol tanker, during an attack in Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State, on June 6.

The group, in April, claimed responsibility for the attack on a police station in Adavi, Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State. Five people were killed in the raid.

In January, the group released video of its fighters attacking Tukur Yusuf Buratai Institute for War and Peace (TBI), a research institute of the Nigerian Army University, located in Buratai Village, Biu Local Government Area of Borno State. Two civilian members of staff were killed.

A Nigerian Army general and three soldiers were killed, in November 2021, during an attack by ISWAP in Borno State’s Askira Uba Local Government Area.

The group’s history shows that its activities were in the northern part of the country. The Federal Government’s allegation that the group was responsible for the Owo attack and killings suggests it may have extended its operation to the Southwest. But the authorities need to substantiate the claim by bringing the Owo killers to justice. Then their identities would be beyond doubt.

ISWAP has not claimed responsibility for the attack, which does not necessarily mean that it is innocent. But the accusers need to prove the group’s guilt.

Also, blaming the group for the attack suggests that the incident had a religious and ethnic complexion. It is contradictory that the minister was reported saying “It is not an ethno-religious thing.” This aspect is an important reason the authorities should thoroughly investigate the attack, and ensure that the actual culprits are caught.

So far, it looks like a case of baseless blame. The government should not encourage jumping to conclusions when crime is committed.

June 13, 2022
Dynamics of 2023 polls

The emergence of presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and that of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Atiku Abubakar has set the tone for the unfolding political competition.

This is more so, given the fact that the APC is the government in power while the PDP constitutes the main opposition party. Events in the two parties are bound to have profound influence on the character, shape and direction of politics as we enter the next phase of the electoral struggles.

But that is not all there is to the emerging competition. Other political parties in the fray could also exert tremendous degrees of influence on events as the campaigns unfold. There is the Labour Party, LP, with Peter Obi as its presidential candidate, the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, led by Rabiu Kwankwaso amongst others in the race to secure the endorsement of the electorate for the highest elective office in the country.

The primaries have come and gone; but they have left footprints that are bound to shape the future of the country in more fundamental ways. Though the primaries were tasking and competitive for the two leading parties but the influence of money and alleged manipulations did some damage to the sanctity of the process. Delegates, as card carrying members of their respective parties have made their choices.

But that is just the first leg of the electoral journey. Candidates thrown up will still have to face the verdict of the electorate. The voters as the ultimate sovereign will have to make the final choice from the competing candidates thrown up by the parties. And what they make of them will largely depend on their perceptions, preferences and envisaged benefits from the eventual swing and direction of the pendulum of political power.

Given David Easton’s perspective of politics as the authoritative allocation of values; the material inclusive, the constituents would be concerned with what they stand to gain from the location of political power especially given the primacy of primordial influence in political behaviour on these shores.

The main concern should be the political relationship to expect from the way the presidential candidates of the parties emerged? Is it one that will lead to the building of national consensus and inclusiveness or one that will precipitate a relapse to the old order of politics along ethnic and sectional divide? To what extent do we expect strict adherence to party loyalty/principles or the ideology of the parties on issues of common interest to influence the pattern and direction of voting?

These questions arise given the manner the agitations for power rotation were handled by the two leading parties. Though it was envisaged that both the APC and the PDP would select their presidential candidates from the southern divide, the PDP chickened out at the last moment citing exigencies of time even as they claimed zoning remained a cardinal policy in their party constitution.

The situation was somewhat different in the APC. Division on this cardinal issue culminated in throwing the contest open with aspirants from both the north and south contesting. Tinubu emerged in a keenly contested primary notwithstanding the support he got from many northern governors.

With the outcome of the primaries, we now have a southern presidential candidate from the ruling party and a northern counterpart from the main opposition party. But the envisaged outcome ought to be a semblance of the arrangement we had in 2019 when the north presented the two candidates of the leading parties for the rest of the country to shop from.

The situation on ground is not in conformity with the Asaba accord in which southern governors re-asserted their demand for power rotation to the south. It is also against the stance of the southern and Middle Belt pressure group that has been strident on the shift of power to the south. We are presented with a scenario where power could swing to any direction.

Does the south have any organized response to the scenario or will the constituents be left to go about it in their own ways? Is there anything like southern consensus, solidarity or unity? And can we count on the southern bloc to rally round a common southern candidate in the coming elections. These are the questions to ponder.

If events at the primaries of the leading parties are anything to hold on to, such a consensus this time around is a remote possibility. What appears obvious is a gamut of disenchantment with prospects of ruffling whatever progress made in erecting southern unity. That was why Peter Obi left the PDP. Ogbonnaya Onu re-echoed the same sentiments when he asked during his speech at the convention, ‘Where is the justice?

Southeast leaders should take a larger chunk of the blame for the position the zone found itself after the primaries. The conduct of some of those purporting as their leaders who posed as campaign managers for candidates outside their zone, left much to be desired.

Through their action or inaction the turn of events has almost side-lined one of the tripods on which the foundation of this country was erected. And this is bound to have a defining impact as events unfold. Much will however, still depend on the measures taken by the leading parties in the days ahead.

Beyond this however and given the configuration of the electoral equation, sectional lure is bound to play a major role in the calculations of the various groups. With the dearth of any binding ideology and serious commitment to party loyalty as evidenced from the recklessness with which elected officials jump ship, primordial loyalty is bound to assume ferocious ascendancy. Where that takes us?

That tendency is higher now than at any other time in our political history given extant realities. Votes may end up being largely cast along ethnic and sectional lines such that a clear winner may not emerge at the first ballot. Though such a scenario will not be the first of its kind in our electoral history, it will foreshadow the level of progress in nation building or lack of it.

June 13, 2022
At Eagles Square, Tinubu comes home

As he picked his party’s presidential ticket, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu never directly invoked M.K.O Abiola in the raptures of his acceptance speech. He did not need the rhetoric or ritual of a priestess to do it. No witch of Endor necessary, nor the enchanting words of Orestes and Electra in Aeschylus’ Greek play, Libation Bearers.

Abiola haunted the place himself, first at night and the following daylight. He was there in physique and in spirit. He hovered over the square. He was there at the arrivals of guests and delegates. He was the chief of the caravan, unseen but in full martyr’s regalia.

He was there when the crowds cheered, when the votes were cast, when President Muhammadu Buhari spoke and the contestants perorated, priding themselves on their credentials and begging for votes. M.K.O. was the main credential.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) held their special conventions to pick their presidents at different Abuja locations – APC at Eagles Square, PDP at the MoshoodAbiola Stadium in Abuja. Both events happened virtually on the eve of June 12, a day that testifies to a struggle for democracy and the will of the Nigerian people.

But it is on record that one party respected the man who shed his blood and other treasures for that cause, and the other held its nose as though Abiola and his martyrdom were a sty. PDP had presidents that said no to June 12 as a monument and even harbinger of this republic: Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan. Obasanjo began by subverting it with a calendar. June 12 was no democracy day. It had to be May 29. He wrestled the dead without data but with a date, both as intra-ethnic rivalry, a martial ego and a lie to history. Yar’adua with bad health and little democratic credentials was too remote to touch it. Jonathan resisted and pursued false symbolisms, looking at it as a war of tribal and partisan grudges rather than statesman’s duty. For 16 years, Abiola’s ghost screamed in the confines of a grave. Yet, when the party held its special primary and hoisted AtikuAbubakar, Abiola’s ghost frowned from twilight to night. They were inhabiting his house but did not build it.

Until Buhari came, an unlikely soldier whose first stage in history was to banish democrats. He it was who started the journey, embraced the man and his past, ghost and man on the same stage. Hence June 12 became a holiday, and our Democracy Day. Even though alive, a new legacy banished Obj’s to the sepulchre.

Read Also: Tinubu: The man who would be president

But when Tinubu held up the party flag at the convention, it was an apotheosis of sorts. Tinubu was a soldier of democracy, who fought, fell and rose again. He fought with words, beginning as a senator when he saw the senate as a platform to twit power, to lay bare the hypocrisies of a Babangida administration that spoke democracy but spiked it. He fought in Lagos, was pursued, was locked up, fled, anticipated the soldiers and moved to Europe and the United States. He rallied the troops. He, a technocrat and accountant, became a voice and artillery for a cause.

He came to fight when Abacha died and opportunists wanted glory where they did not invest. He returned, and he fought another war: to save democracy from democrats.

The PDP was the big party, his Alliance for Democracy became his new military tank. All votes must count. Soldiers should be out of the way. No electoral heist. He won to be a governor of Lagos, but his Southwest was under a thraldom of a soldier in the mask of a republican. He was alone, fighting and amassing new troops to redefine and reinvigorate a new era.

He won state after state, deploying law and street, and the nuances of a judiciary. In the end, he became the brain and mobiliser of a new coalition, the most successful in Nigeria’s history, for its sweep and its little time. It routed perhaps the most formidable political machine in Nigerian history, the PDP.

When he sought to be the APC flag bearer but he had to fight to get it. He did not seek it as an entitled titan, not as a father but an applicant. When resisted, he fought as a democrat even within his own political home. It is the spirit of a democratic warrior that triumphed when, even his rivals stood down in homage to his brio, pluck and strategy, his chemistry of human touch and thinking.

Kudos also to President Buhari who resisted the overtures of those who wanted anointing, as though democracy were another contraption of autocracy. He unlocked Abiola out of his grave, enshrined him with a date and a reign. The emergence of Tinubu as the party’s flag bearer was Abiola standing guard not far from a place where a stadium is named after him and for a process for which he gave up the ghost.

June 12, 2022
Grammar of politics

When he rose from the meeting with governors, everyone understood him, or they thought they did. President Buhari wants to pick his successor, and so went the universal word. The same man who foreswore imposition, foresaw fairness, who said his successor was not “my problem.” He even said it with a cheerful sneer.

At the party convention, he extolled the democratic process. That night before his party men, the former general snapped off his epaulets, defrocked himself of any martial air, dissolved his pedigree of decrees, parted with his image as patriarch. In his babanriga and offbeat mien, he glowed as a republican. No money politics. Poohpooh unpopular persons. No bullies, no coercion. It was a scenario out of George Washington or Lincoln.

That contrasted, as many read it, with the semiotics of his offering before state executives. Did he change his mind? Was he acting with the furtive manoeuvre of a soldier, lulling the foe into snore before the onslaught? Had he evolved? Did he wake up into an epiphany, a realisation that the presidency was too important a matter to be left in the hands of the rabble called democracy.

Then his spokesman, Femi Adesina, retorted, in a sense telling everyone they did not understand their English enough. The man never mentioned zoning, never lipped out the word consensus, never said he was changing his position about the supremacy of the process over a hectoring big man. We had entered another familiar terrain: The grammar of politics.

What was the offending or offensive line? The president send: “I want to solicit the reciprocity and support of the governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor.” If you look at the sentence critically, Adesina was right. He was soliciting, but he did not say he was soliciting for his own benefit. It might be for the governors and other stakeholders. The phrase “the reciprocity and support of the governors and other stakeholders” could mean he wanted those two bodies to work together to pick “my successor.” He would just be in the shadows. So, “I want to solicit” did not mean he wanted to pick the successor. Many might have read it without regard to the words reciprocity, governors and other stakeholders. They merely read it this way: I want to solicit your support in picking my successor.” Even at that, it might also mean he wants them to follow his guide lines in picking his successor, not that he wants to identify his successor.

There is an ambiguity in the sentence. But why did the president allow a claptrap of interpretive anarchy before Adesina intervened. Was the president, known for taciturn indifference, gloating over the buzz. Or did he think it was more of a fuss before he asked his spokesman to “clarify”?

Was it actually a misinterpretation, or an afterthought? Did the president’s men agree with the widespread interpretation and became embarrassed and looked for an escape route? The syntactic tension gave rise to any reading. If anyone wanted to read it to mean he wanted to pick his successor himself, there is enough meat in the sentence to bite one’s teeth into. The language of dubious humility, “I want to solicit” could also imply a subtle threat. That is, “I want to pick my successor, I am Buhari, even if I beg I am not begging.” It is proud humility. Or subtle blackmail.

In the grammar of politics, obscurity is often a virtue. You revel in different interpretations, and you look for the one that works and take advantage of it. It is about perception, and the sentence probably is not there. It is the reader who appropriates it. It is called hermeneutics. Or reader-response theory. Just like Socrates said we know nothing and our senses deceive us, the philosopher George Berkeley argued reality only resides in our senses in a theory of empiricism to end all empiricisms. This view is used today in media studies, where what we see or hear or read is seen as a matter of where we stand. It is called selective exposure when we select what we want to see or read. It is called selective retention, in which we decide what we want to remember or retain in our minds. So, if two persons watch another person, A may remember the voice and B the skin colour. The critical one is selective perception, in which we decide what perspective we absorb. So, in Buhari’s speech many decided to say he wanted to pick his successor because it adheres to an image of him as a general and his position in picking the party chairman.

Harold Laski, author of the Grammar of Politics, wrote “they think differently who live differently.” Was this the case with the Buhari sentence, or did they decide to change course having discovered a way of escape? We may never know. What is clear is that the speechwriter was either working out a script of mischief or was incompetent. If mischief, then shame on the person. If incompetent, well, it embarrassed his master.

When Buhari met with the aspirants Saturday night, some expected him to point his fingers at the man. But he surprised those who thought he had a northern hobgoblin of agenda. He said the south, like the northern governors. He has carved the image, in some quarters, of a modern-day Mazzini, the 19th century Italian firebrand who conjoined nationalist fervour with tribe and God. so, could it be that everyone has misread him, or is he, in the Yoruba proverb, about to conjure a bird out of his pocket. That leads to another grammar of politics: the semiotics of body language. Is there a last-minute nod, or wink, or motion? We heard Garba Shehu befuddle the ear by singing a different song from what those who attended said. Is it a perception issue? We are watching.

In another grammar of politics, the words of Asiwaju were called outburst by those who did not like him, and insult by those who wanted a wedge between him and the president. They failed an important part of literary analysis: context. Many who raged did not understand even the Yoruba language, and deliberate distortion among those who did. The use of “eleyi” could be benevolent as from a patriarch or friend, or adversarial. Language is flexible and must always be handled in context. Even the Bible – God’s best gift to man – translations and exegesis have led to crisis of meanings over the ages, from trinity to transubstantiation. These same people did not bother to wonder how Tinubu could stomach for years all the barbs and conspiracies and gang-ups against him and about his role in this administration and its birth. They did not wonder at the facts. Did he lie? If he said without him no APC, was he right. Others worked very hard but after the foetus entered the womb. Facts are insults when an audience shops for error. He did not insult the president. Even Abdulahi Adamu, who ranted as though the president was a divine monarch, misinterpreted Tinubu. He did not say Buhari was in tears when he visited him. That is tendentious.

Anyway, Buhari rose above all that on Saturday, given the semiotics of their interactions. He knew the heart of Tinubu if his detractors were fishing in troubled waters. He also knows, as a party man and veteran of election battles, that his best soldier against Atiku the presidential perambulator, is Tinubu. He will not stand in his way.

Sacred killers

The picture destroys anything in the heart. Children, mothers and fathers expiring in their place of comfort and succour. As George Lamming wrote, “something startles where I thought I was safest.” They left home in their Sunday best as families, as friends and as a community under God. They were slaughtered by bloodthirsty mischief of sub-humans who are no more than instruments from hell. On the bandits, if it is to yell, ears are torn. If it’s to shed tears, the ocean is full. If it is to spend money, we have done it. For that reason, Amotekun was created. Yet, these marauders came as molten magma from the hell to set ablaze people who did nothing wrong but to bear a different ethnic name and serve a different God.

Ondo State is one of those places where surveillance and Amotekun have shown impressive records. Hence they targeted Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu’s hometown. His voice did not spare them, so his policies. But, as they say in security, you only have to be wrong once for such a tragedy as that to happen. A prelate was whisked away for N100 million in the southeast. They are the same sort of savages. It still boils down to the fact that states cannot stop the morons until the centre flushes them out of the bushes. We know where they are but we don’t go there. The federal government has made them sacred killers, the bushes their sanctuaries. They are too sacred to die even if they slaughter us in our sacred places. They are too murderous to be ruffled. We have acquiesced in their savagery. When T.S. Eliot wrote his play, Murder in the Cathedral, he had no idea of Owo where the house of God became an abattoir of human souls. Murder is in our midst. When next shall we see its bloody eye?

June 6, 2022
Ransom payment and logic of survival

It demonstrated the power of money, and reflected the powerlessness of the country’s security system. It was possibly the speediest release of kidnappees that Nigeria has witnessed. The three captives were freed by their captors a day after their abduction, after money had changed hands.

What could have happened to those who paid N100m as ransom to kidnappers for the release of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence, Samuel Kanu-Uche, and two others, under the proposed law to criminalise ransom payment?

As the head of the Methodist Church in Nigeria, he is a high-profile religious figure, and it was predictable that the church would try to get him freed at all cost.

“The Methodist Church sent N100m for the three of us who were kidnapped. The money came from members of the Methodist Church of Nigeria,” he told journalists after his release.

He was abducted on May 29 on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, in the Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State. His chaplain, Very Rev. Abidemi Shittu, and the Bishop of Owerri, Rt. Rev. Dennis Mark, were with him, and also abducted. He said “the communication man of the church and the driver “escaped.

His account of their experience at the hands of their captors showed that they walked through the proverbial valley of the shadow of death. He narrated: “They took us into the bush and tortured us. In the process of the torture, I hit my right eye on a tree and even when blood was flowing and was soaking my handkerchief, they did not feel like anything happened. All they said was that we should follow them.”

After negotiation with their captors, who fixed a ransom of N100m for their release, the cleric said he contacted leaders of the church and his wife to raise the money by all means. The money was delivered to the kidnappers in five sacks, he stated.

They were shown a place where the kidnappers said seven beheaded bodies had been dumped, which must have sent shivers down their spines. “We also perceived the odour of killed human beings,” Kanu-Uche said.

This incident further showed the unreasonableness of the move by federal lawmakers to outlaw the payment of ransom to abductors and terrorists for the release of any person who has been wrongfully confined, imprisoned or kidnapped.

The Nigerian Senate, in April, passed an amendment bill that proposes a jail sentence of up to 15 years for anyone who pays a ransom. It would be sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence and then to the president for assent.

Curiously, the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, had presented a positive report on the bill. Its chairman, Opeyemi Bamidele (All Progressives Congress (APC), Ekiti Central), said “the overall import of this bill is to discourage the rising spate of kidnapping and abduction for ransom in Nigeria, which is fast spreading across the country.”

Senate President Ahmad Lawan sounded equally unrealistic, saying the bill “by the time signed into an Act by Mr. President, will enhance the efforts of this government in the fight against terrorism, kidnapping, and other associated and related vices. This is one piece of legislation that can turn around not only the security situation in Nigeria, but even the economic fortunes of our country.”

Under the proposed law, what would the ransom payers in Kanu-Uche’s case be expected to do? The proposed legislation denies their right to try to save the lives of the captives by paying ransom to the kidnappers. This doesn’t make sense, particularly because the authorities responsible for security continue to demonstrate impotence.

News of the abduction should have triggered a strong reaction from the security forces. They cannot claim to have been unaware of the incident, which was well publicised when it happened. The prelate’s stature demanded their intervention without a formal complaint or prompting.

It is striking that the cleric said the kidnappers were “Fulani boys,” adding that “where they were situated, the soldiers, all of Fulani extraction, Nigerian soldiers, they were there at Lokpa junction and these boys were going behind them. Meanwhile they kept their cows somewhere, numbering about 200.”

The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement, said the Nigerian Army would take the “weighty allegation” seriously, and seek clarification from the prelate and the Methodist Church. The army needs to promptly investigate the prelate’s insinuation implicating soldiers in the incident.

It’s a cause for concern that kidnapping for ransom continues to thrive in the country and the perpetrators are prospering. In many cases, ransom payers do so out of a sense of helplessness. People are forced to pay ransom because of the failure of the authorities to tackle kidnapping. The prelate’s case highlighted the logic of survival that usually compels ransom payers to cooperate with kidnappers.

Another well publicised kidnap case in which ransom payers had no choice but to accommodate kidnappers bears repeating. In this instance, the captives did not have a high profile like the prelate, but money was similarly of great consequence.

In January, the president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), Dr Israel Akanji, declared that it had paid N250m for the release of students abducted from Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna State, in July 2021. Bandits had invaded the school and carried out a mass kidnapping involving 121 students.

“Initially, we didn’t want to spend money,” Akanji was reported saying. “We didn’t believe in spending any money. That was how we began. I even said openly that we would not spend money but I am also saying openly now that we have had to spend money. We were forced to spend money.” He justified the payment of ransom, saying “these bandits were telling us that they would start killing our children one by one.”

It was definitely disappointing that the authorities failed to rescue the kidnapped students, and the bandits freed them in batches over a period of about six months. From July last year to January this year, 120 students were released, and money was the liberator.

Criminalising ransom payment is ultimately an exercise in futility. Is it enforceable? State incapacity encourages ransom payment in kidnap cases. When the government fails on security, it should not expect the people to forget survival.

June 6, 2022
Prelate Uche, the army and police

It seems incredible that N100 million could be raised and paid to kidnappers within 15 hours to secure the release of victims. But the account should not be easily faulted because it is verifiable. The above should be the right attitude to the shocking experience of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence Samuel Kanu Uche in the hands of kidnappers in the notorious spots of Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State, penultimate Sunday.

It all happened within 15 tortuous hours when the prelate and two of his bishops were proceeding to the airport around 2pm. Their journey was cut short by kidnappers who blocked the Port Harcourt-Enugu expressway in three groups and shot sporadically before abducting the senior clergy men.

The kidnappers marched them into the bush to begin a winding trekking that lasted several hours. Prelate Uche said their captors were Fulani herdsmen of about 18years old apart from their leader whose age was put at 35 years.

He gave a lucid account of their discussions with the herdsmen/ kidnappers- their initial demand for N150 million later reduced to N100 million, the beating they received, how the kidnappers instructed that the money should be arranged and delivered and the stench of decomposing bodies of earlier victims murdered by them.

Prelate Uche observed that military men were around the place where the hoodlums operated and their cows were seen around the same vicinity. He accused the military of complicity in the kidnapping in that area by the herdsmen. They were released at 5.30am after the receipt of the money.

The Nigerian Army has raised questions with the alleged complicity of their men; wondering why the church neither reported the incident to the unit covering the area nor took them into confidence during negotiations with kidnappers. They picked holes in the possibility of that amount of money being paid in less than 24 hours.

But as the army was disputing the claims, residents of adjoining communities went on spontaneous protests against the festering kidnappings, rape and killings in the area, demanding the withdrawal of the army unit posted to the area and relocation of the cattle market that is suspected to harbour the marauding kidnappers camouflaging as herdsmen.

In a viral video while addressing the protesters, the Commander of the Rapid Response Squad RRS in Abia State, CSP Johnboo corroborated the narrative that Fulani herdsmen were responsible for the kidnapping in the area. He fingered the cattle market for providing safe haven for the kidnappers, adding “the army are not helping us” in our efforts to rid the area of the criminal herdsmen.

But the police distanced themselves from the views credited to CSP Johnboo for going against the rules and casting aspersions on other security agencies.

The Nigerian Army is on point to raise suspicion on the speed with which the N100 million was raised by the church and paid to the kidnappers. But that is not to say the money was not raised and paid. They went off the mark when they sought to discredit the encounter on the grounds that the incident was neither reported to the army unit there nor were they involved in the negotiations.

What time did the clerics have to make such a report when their captors warned them not to involve security agencies or they kill them? Even then, security agencies often rationalize their inability to rescue kidnap victims on the ground of minimizing the casualty level that usually follows such confrontation.

Would they have acted contrary to tradition in this singular instance? It is doubtful. About last December, my late childhood friends’ widow returning from the market was attacked an abducted around the same vicinity together with five occupants of the Sienna commercial bus they boarded.

The kidnappers made contact with the woman’s undergraduate daughter and demanded one million naira ransom or they harm her. They later reduced the amount to N500, 000 and insisted it must be paid that night. That money was somehow raised that night. The little courageous girl, fearing for her mother’s fate hired a cab from Owerri that night and travelled to the same axis as directed, dropped off the money only for the mother to appear from the bush shortly with bruises.

This incident is cited because it followed the same experience of the clergy men. The reason for the quick fixes can be located in the fact that the herdsmen operate in an environment that is not theirs and may not have the luxury of keeping victims for long without detection.

With this in mind, it would appear the main grouse of the army is with the accusation of complicity in the kidnapping saga in the area. The prelate may be hard put to produce evidence of the alleged complicity given its very nature.

But that does not in any way rubbish the allegation. Not with the audacity and relative ease these criminals operate daily without challenge. The protesters who demanded the withdrawal and dismantling of the military checkpoint in the area made the same allegation. I guess that was also what the commander of the RRS meant when he said the Nigerian Army is not helping them in the quest to rid the area of kidnappers.

It is not just enough to pick holes with the allegations of the prelate. Neither are we much concerned with the reservations of the police on the propriety of Johnboo’s statement. As relevant as the observations by the army and the police are, they are no solutions to the festering insecurity in the area. What should be of utmost concern now is how to erect effective responses to smoke out the criminals and secure the area.

There is little doubt the cattle market is the oxygen for the festering criminalities in that axis. The market should be properly searched for arms and ammunitions and put on serious security radar.

The nation’s highest security echelon must investigate these allegations with a view to smoking out all criminals terrorizing the area under sundry guises. That is what will dissuade speculations of complicity and hidden agenda.

June 6, 2022