The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

Time for literacy

It is normal to be hasty. It is human to be nasty. It all shows that, as a species, we can always be feisty. But then our facts should be hefty and not sacrifice reality. Justice is more important than sentiment.

That is the range of emotions that have attended the leak or supposed leak of the EndSARS report.

Prior to the submission of the report, Lekki has become a metaphor for questions and answers as to what is a truth and what is a lie, what does the eye know, or what does the ear understand. Everyone seems to know what evidence is, and even lawyers have looked at proof in different lights.

Once the panel gave its findings to the BOS of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the social media surfed with what some say is a leak. One of the panelists, the mercurial Ebun Adegboruwa, could not contain himself. He said he had the report and virtually warned the government to beware. He would release it.

So, two things are clear. One, no one is sure what the true report is until it is officially released. Two, many citizens have all concluded they have it, and have jumped to conclusion.

Commentators and television hosts have turned a purportedly leaked document into a sacred writ of the happenings at Lekki Toll gate. Even they have not read it through.

When the newspapers reported the document, we saw discrepancies. A newspaper said 11 died, and others said nine.

From the rage and frothing on the internet, it is obvious that a vast majority of those either spouting obscenities or pursing praise have not as much as gone beyond the highlights purportedly packaged by the panel. Matters like this call for sobriety.

Since the state government says it will release the reports in a white paper, it behoves all to wait for that. Even at that, a white paper is not sacrosanct, it can be questioned and litigated. But it is hasty to jump to conclusion on a document that no one can verify, and which even if leaked, the coward who did it sent out an unsigned specimen, or has not been able to come out to say he or she did it.

Yet if we were to examine the leaked copy, it has not advertised the panel as a panoply of popes. First, one of the panelists should not have been there. He is Adegboruwa. As a senior advocate of Nigeria, he knows that he dilegitimised himself on two fronts. He was a perennially absent member of the group. Two, he has been a constant agitator on the Lekki Toll gate matter, and that makes his presence a conflict of interest and a moral faux pas. Lawyer Abiodun Owonikoko and a few others drew attention to this.

Three, what was his point in warning the state government that freely appointed him to the panel not to interfere. Did he not know that even as a SAN he ought to have waited till the white paper before saying a word? Did he not understand the importance of official oaths? Would it not have conferred a better dignity if he waited till the white paper saw the light of day? We know that the he is bright man, and with his bowtie and upright carriage, he has done a lot to merit the appellation of SAN. He should keep that image bolt upright.

But if we are to assume that the document in circulation is an authentic one, I wonder why there are contradictions not worthy of a baby lawyer with a second-class lower degree. If the same report says so several people died, why did page 288 say, “The evidence of the pathologist Prof. Obafunwa that only three of the bodies that they conducted post mortem examination on were from Lekki and only one had gunshot injury and this was not debunked. We deem it credible as the contrary was not presented before the panel.” Is that the sort of report you expect from a panel with a SAN, and that otherwise brilliant gems in society have described as one of our best showings in panel findings?

If you list casualties, you should also show how, when, who saw it. So, if the panel lists 48 victims as casualties of Lekki toll gate, all its names should be verified. So, why was it that one Nathaniel Solomon named as deceased has turned out to be a living, breathing being? The 10th person on the list, a certain Japhet, was shown to have been killed at Ajah. The seventh on the list, Mabel Nnaji fell by pellets. Does it mean the panel did not do the basic research well to ascertain that military guns do not spit pellets.

I pity one ASP Ayodele Olabode, who was the only police officer proved to be assigned to the toll gate that night, even though the panel purportedly says a team of officers were there and shot sporadically. The report said someone died of police bullets. The report does not adduce any evidence or name a name. Again, it might be true that ambulances were prevented from going to the scene at Lekki, but a credible report should at least tell us what vehicles, and what persons were in the ambulances with names. They at least should be at the panel to testify. Nothing of that sort is in the so-called document in circulation. There are more and more contradictions and assertions of febrile impulses. Imagination upends facts.

Given the presence of the wise men and women on the panel, I have good reason to believe that they did not write the report in circulation. It lacks empathy, and detracts from the language of detached dignity and syntactic solemnity you require on a subject in which deaths and fiery pathos have crippled the land.

What we see is a prose of agitation and tendentious approach to evidence. Although this is not a panel to show the plight of the police, it should have noted with some feeling the devastation that the police suffered.

It was because the police lost control of the city that the army came. But it was no excuse for them to turn violent. I still believe that whoever ordered the shooting ought to be punished, and hence I wonder why the chief of army staff was rewarded with an ambassadorial posting and the man who worked for him in Lagos was just promoted. The optics is horrible. It is robbing the masses to pay blood. If only one person died from their presence, it is enough tragedy. His or her bell tolls for us all. It is no time to quibble over whether it was a massacre. If a person died, it is brutal enough. Lai Mohammed should not, in his indiscretion, have crowed about a “massacre without bodies.” Many, including the panel, reverted to sentimentalise the meaning of the word, even “in context,” it refers to wiping out a mass of people. Like we saw in Odi and Zaki biam. Yet, the cold-blooded killing of a family of five can, also in context, be called a massacre. History cannot forget the slaughter of 14 Romanov family members in Russia. Yet that resort to sanguinary language should not becloud the fact that real people died. Not just in Lekki but across the state. A panel should, given the significance of the matter, be sober and not run riot on facts.

If that document is true with all its discrepancies and speculative bloodthirst, then we have a problem in this country.

That for me is why we should urge everyone to read the full document in circulation and try to make sense or nonsense of it. We cannot be a nation of cookie-cutters alone, or sound bites or short takes. Matters like this call for reflection, rigour and sobriety. It is then we can wait for the white paper, and take the matter from there. We do not want a nation that will go the route of the Ebony magazine saga during the Tai Solarin era. A few people hoodwinkedthe masses to turn a rumour into facts.

This is not a time for reading in a hurry. That is not the definition of literacy. It is reading and understanding. They should follow the guidance of Francis Bacon while urging us to read. “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested…some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”

A document of about 300 pages can pass for a book, and many who have concluded before reading, should read it and determine for themselves whether it is worth digesting.

November 22, 2021
White Paper and fidelity to truth

All eyes are on the Lagos State government as the public awaits the White Paper on the report of the Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-related Abuses and Other Matters set up in October 2020 to investigate cases of police abuse of power and human rights violations, and clarify the controversial alleged Lekki Tollgate shooting of October 20, 2020.

The panel was expected to provide an all-important answer to an all-important question: Did soldiers indeed “massacre” civilians engaged in a peaceful protest against abuse of power by the now-dissolved Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force, known as SARS? The Lekki protesters were the focal point of the nationwide #EndSARS protests.

It started as a six-month investigation. The initial deadline was April 19, 2021. Then it changed to July 19, 2021 following a three-month extension. Then it changed yet again to October 19, 2021 following yet another three-month extension. The panel finally submitted its report to the state government on November 15, more than a year after the initial deadline for its investigation. The extended investigation suggested thoroughness.

“In accordance with the Tribunal of Inquiry Law 2015, a committee has been set up to bring up a White Paper on the report to determine the next line of action,” Commissioner for Information and Strategy Gbenga Omotoso said in a statement following a flood of public reactions triggered by the leaked report on the panel’s findings and recommendations on the Lekki incident. “At the appropriate time,” he said, “the government will make known its views on all the issues raised by the panel through the release of a White Paper.”

The leaked report puts the state government in a tight corner. Its contents are in the public domain, which limits possible misrepresentation by the authorities. A White Paper can be a whitewash.

There is an emotionally charged public debate about the credibility of the leaked report. But the question is whether the parts of the leaked report that expressed the culpability of the army in the alleged Lekki killings, and indicated a cover-up, are in the submitted report, and whether they are true.

Notably, the leaked report stated: “At the Lekki Toll Gate, officers of the Nigerian Army shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenceless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian Flag and singing the National Anthem and the manner of assault and killing could in context be described as a massacre.”

The word “massacre” in this context was carefully chosen, and the emphasis is on barbarity, not necessarily on body count. Those who argue against the claim that there was a “massacre” are fixated on body count. The number of the killed need not be large before the killing can be described as a massacre.

It is worth mentioning that the Nigerian Army initially claimed its personnel were not at the tollgate when the incident happened, then later admitted it had deployed soldiers to the place with live and blank bullets, maintaining that soldiers shot blank bullets into the air to disperse the crowd and did not kill any protester. So there was shooting. Were protesters shot with live bullets? Did anyone die as a result of the shooting?

The army’s poor cooperation with the panel left much to be desired. Commander of 81 Division Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Taiwo had testified before the panel. Curiously, the General Officer Commanding 81 Division, Maj. Gen. Godwin Umelo, and the Commanding Officer, 65 Battalion, Bonny Camp, Victoria Island, Lagos, Lt. Col. S.O. Bello had shunned the panel’s invitation on more than one occasion. In particular, Lt. Col. Bello was a person of interest because he led the battalion involved in the alleged Lekki shooting.

Read Also: #Endsars Panel Report: Lagos APC urges restraint

After the army stopped cooperating with the panel, the panel’s chairman was reported saying the army’s failure to honour lawful summonses meant that it could not justifiably complain of a denial of fair hearing after the panel had presented its findings to the government.

The leaked report also indicated that there was a conspiracy to cover up the killings. It noted that the soldiers “removed many bodies and corpses of fallen protesters which they took away in their vans.”

”It was alleged and corroborated that soldiers picked bullet shells on the night of October 20 and policemen followed up in the morning of October 21 to pick bullet shells,” the leaked report said.

It also said: “Several unidentified bodies were removed by security agencies and LASEHMU (Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit) and deposited at various hospital mortuaries in Lagos State.”

Further findings by the panel suggested a cover-up. The leaked report mentioned the refusal of the management of Lekki Concession Company, which manages and collects tolls at the tollgate, “to turn over some useful and vital information/evidence as requested by the Panel and the Forensic Expert engaged by the panel, even where such information and evidence was by the company’s admission, available.”

Also, the leaked report stated that “Three trucks with brushes underneath were brought to the Lekki Toll Gate in the morning of October 21st October 2020 to clean up the scene of bloodstains and other evidence.

“There was abundant evidence before the Panel that the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) indicated in its Twitter handle that it had effectively cleaned up the Lekki Toll Gate scene immediately after the incident of October 20, 2020.”

If these significant results of the panel’s investigation stated in the leaked report are also in the submitted report, the White Paper must not ignore them.

It is worth mentioning that in December 2015, the Nigerian Army was accused of carrying out a massacre in a clash with members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) in Zaria, Kaduna State. The army claimed members of the group had tried to assassinate Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, the army chief at the time.

The judicial commission of inquiry set up by the Kaduna State government on the incident, known as the Zaria massacre, found out that soldiers had gunned down at least 348 civilians, and had secretly buried 347 bodies in a mass grave. The commission called for the prosecution of those involved in the massacre. The incident was regarded as a “notable human rights violation.”

Some people have identified flaws in the leaked report which may also be identifiable in the submitted report. The panel’s report may not be faultless. But its credibility should be determined by the extent of its fidelity to truth. The awaited White Paper should be based on fidelity to truth.

November 22, 2021
Who’s afraid of direct primaries?

Who is really afraid of direct primaries’ option for nominating candidates for elective offices? Or what accounts for the differing positions of the governors and members of the National Assembly on the mode for nominating candidates for elective positions?

These are questions thrown up by the controversy trailing the approval by the National Assembly, of direct primaries in the Electoral Act Amendment bill. Section 87(1) of the bill states: “A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this bill shall hold direct primaries for all aspirants to all elective positions”. It also mandates the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to monitor such primaries

The bill, expected to have been sent to the president for his assent is currently mired in disputation as the major political parties pick holes in it. As things stand, the final amendments to the Electoral Act which had previously suffered delays may not be quick in coming.

The Peoples Democratic Party PDP in a statement faulted the provision on the ground that it would erode all the gains made in the electoral process since 1999. It contended that direct primaries would increase the cost of nomination procedures and surrender the process to huge monetary outlay. It claimed that apart from the government at the centre, hardly will any of the other political parties afford the financial implications of that mode of primaries.

Those who thought the PDP was unnecessarily raising dust must have been stunned by the response of governors of the All Progressives Congress APC. The governors, after a meeting in Abuja vehemently rejected direct primaries. Kebbi State governor and chairman of the APC governors’ forum Atiku Bagudu said the provision was a usurpation of the duties of political parties to determine their flag bearers.

Arguing that the resolution is against the Executive Order signed by President Buhari which prohibits large gatherings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bagudu said direct primaries would be cumbersome, unwieldy and bound to overstretch the finances of the INEC which has to monitor the primaries at multiple levels. The Kebbi State governor while hinting of plans by the forum to meet with the leadership of the National Assembly wondered whether they factored in the financial implications of the provision in the bill.

On face value, some of the issues raised by political parties appear unassailable. The issue of cost on the side of the parties and INEC is valid. Direct primaries obviously go with huge financial implications. Managing large crowd in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is another troubling matter.

But as persuasive as these argument seem, they failed to address the vexatious shortcomings of indirect primaries. They ought to have hit at the very reasons why direct primaries have become an attractive option among their members. Indirect primaries entail the participation of delegates both elected and statutory in nominating candidates who wish to stand for elections. In this, fall categories of party leaders at all levels, former political office holders and others specified by the constitutions of the parties.

In contrast, direct primaries entail all registered card carrying members of the parties actively participating in the nomination of their members wishing to vie for elective positions. The argument for this is that it brings democracy closer to the people by guaranteeing internal democracy. But that is the option that is being opposed by the parties.

Events leading to the last general elections saw the major political parties embroiled in bitter acrimony over the mode of primaries to adopt. At the end of the altercations, the APC settled for both direct and indirect primaries depending on the circumstance of each state. The PDP opted for indirect primaries. But the actual primaries turned out a huge joke as genuine party members were brazenly denied the right to choose their candidates as impositions and all manner of malpractices held sway. It was a charade of sorts as the primaries (direct or indirect) never held in many places. The leaderships of the parties did not help matters. Money changed hands with successful candidates dropped from the list compiled by the party leadership.

Real party members had little or no role to play in those nominations as their civic rights were appropriated by governors and the leadership of the parties through scandalous imposition of candidates. Those seeking elective offices must be in the good books of the governors and influential members or forget their ambition. The option adopted did not make any difference as the most powerful and most influential determined who got what.

Read Also: ‘Why National Assembly is pushing for direct primary’

When Bagudu argued that political parties as voluntary organizations should not be denied the right to decide the option they desire, he failed to address the glaring failings of indirect primaries in effectively reflecting the will of party members in the choice of candidates. So as plausible as the argument of the parties and their governors would seem, they have not come clear on the real issues in contention. They failed to take into account the ruinous culture of imposition that has made a mockery of democracy in this country.

One then wonders what electoral gains the PDP was referring to. What gain can there be in impositions that oust party members their basic rights as the ultimate sovereign? It is inconceivable how impositions can either grow democracy or allow the attendant political culture germinate and flourish. It is nigh impossible to deepen democracy without taking back the party to its real owners-the people.

Cost implications; challenges of large gatherings and the additional burden it imposes on the INEC may be relevant points. But more relevant is how to ensure that the collective will of party members is neither abridged nor subverted during party primaries. It is a challenge of internal democracy; very fundamental.

It bears stating that democracy can still be achieved through both options if free, fair and credible competition is observed to the letter. Before that can happen, political parties will have to amend their constitutions to whittle down the high number of statutory delegates.

Their number is unwieldy and can be manipulated at will by sitting governors to achieve self-serving objectives. Indirect primaries have been so abused in this country that a majority of party members have lost confidence in the process. Impositions in the last party primaries were so much so that the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari had to cry out.

Hear what she said of the APC primaries: “It is very disheartening to note that some aspirants used their hard earned money to purchase nomination forms, got screened, cleared and campaigned vigorously; yet found their names omitted on election day. Many others contested and yet had their results delayed fully knowing that automatic tickets have been given to other people”. Those opposed to direct primaries have to address this.

It can now be understood why members of the National Assembly prefer direct primaries that vest on card-carrying members the inalienable right to nominate their candidates for elective positions. This will enthrone merit by ensuring that popular candidates are thrown up for elective positions. Democracy stands better for it.

Those afraid of direct primaries are beneficiaries of imposition, the governors and the leadership of the political parties at all levels. Since indirect primaries has overtime worked against the will of the owners of the party, why not the direct option? But, the problem is not so much with the option adopted as with the inability of its operators to play by the rules.

Direct primaries could also be encumbered if the players refuse to abide by the rules. Without the political culture that supports the growth and flourishing of democracy, direct or indirect primaries may make no difference.

November 22, 2021
Boom of Anambra orchestra

With Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s win, it’s all over but the whining. It is second time the rhyme in Anambra State, and the second act as a governor. The first in charge, as CBN chief, of the money of the people. In the next act, he will preside over the people of the money – in his state. He will walk the fine line of reconciling how to figure the people and people the figures.

His first coming was by appointment, the second by election. One man’s fiat, the multitude’s choice. He has come full circle. He is, to quote the novelist Tom Wolfe, a man in full.

As he prepares to govern, he will see himself as a schizophrenic gift, part bureaucrat, part politician, two worlds in a soul to deliver stewardship to the people. He sought the office years ago against a man he now pounced by proxy: Peter Obi. Obi ruled the roost as the helmsman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, (APGA) the only party that has one state and has remained impregnable. Anambra is APGA state of mind.

When Obi lost to Obiano, also by proxy, this essayist described him as a statesman without a state. The comment drew dissonant uproar from his fold. Now slain twice, the feminine-voiced gladiator is now stale. He will do well to fold his tail in peace.

But his story is different from Andy Uba, the man who came with the blessing of the ruling party of the centre. He is a reticent, soft-spoken, sometimes sullen swordsman without a shield. Uba attracted attention in the debate by characterising himself as Soludo’s benefactor. He claimed to have given him his first appellation of governor. Of the CBN, that is. I thought Soludo would have lunged back at him. He should have praised Uba for acknowledging his sterling resume. If it was a marker of Soludo’s brilliance and competence, Uba bowed to his credentials then. It would be worth his while now to bow again to the same credentials for Anambra governor.

Well, after the polls, and his poor showing in the third class, Uba made a drama of congratulating him before he saw the light and then swivelled. He now impugns the victory that sent him crashing like humpty-dumpty. His candidacy died, and was set for burial. But like the bereaved relative in the Booker-winning novel The Promise by Damon Galgut, Uba is asking the morticians to open the casket to be sure it is the corpse of his candidacy. When it is open, it is reeking with putrescence. Its features are so disfigured that he cannot recognise the body in the box. He is promising himself it is not he who lost; it was Uba who won. He probably is getting ready to go to court. He will feather lawyerly leeches to impersonate Christ and invoke Lazarus in his corpse of a candidacy. He awaits a prophecy from the priest of ascendancy, Father Mbaka, as a prelude to a court anointing. He should perish the thought. The opportunism that exploited maggoty technicalities to torpedo a sitting governor in Imo State does not exist here.

The people, not the courts, own this democracy. Not a cabal of wigged men with slander in their tongues for the wishes of the people. As for Mbaka who has converted the pulpit to a stage for deception, he prophesied in an audio recording now virile that the angels of heaven had abandoned Soludo, and he stood no chance to win. Prophet Isaiah has God’s word for him: “Who foils the lies of false prophets and makes fools of diviners…” Jeremiah warned, “He that has my word, let him speak it faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” The weeping prophet wept for Mbaka. He says men like Mbaka spew the imaginations of their own hearts. With the crown beside Soludo, what is the prophet saying in his morning mass?

The Anambra poll is a triumph of democracy, but also a cautionary tale. It is a warning to Kalu and his men that ‘Biafra’ is possible within a revamped Nigeria. The nation cries for nations within the nation to realise themselves. It is also a warning that we cannot run a democracy forever that thrives on ten or 12 percent voting strength. If some elders spoke to IPOB to cool its revolvers during the polling day, it is no excuse for triumphalism in Abuja. It calls for humility. As Churchill thrummed, “in victory, magnanimity.” As attorney general Abubakar Malami has hinted, there is room for political solution. Not now any gruff voice of a winner. It is an opportunity no one should let go. Same applies to Igboho. This is an window for statesmen, not carpet baggers.

We all know the nation as it is constituted cannot be sustained. We need democracy for its parts, a control of its culture and resources and its pride. The centre cannot hold until the parts hold their own. As the apostle of liberty, J.S. Mill noted, democracy cannot thrive when one group chokes another. Many groups feel so in Nigeria, those screaming as well as those whose voices grumble beneath the rafters. A pride of identity is as important as how to grow beans and cook it for the dinner table.

INEC made its point in the end, but BVAS also needs a second act. Anambra was a dress rehearsal but it was a poor fashion show until the wardrobe was made over. INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, ever sober and methodical, must be holding meetings and turning his techies to tweak and rejig the portals. They must now anticipate and eliminate glitches.

Soludo comes at a time the meaning of his name resonates: follow peace. At a victory rally, he must feel that from his father, who stood beside him, from the grinning and proud old man who gave him that name. Just like any part of Nigeria, he will have to translate his name into reality. Udo Udo Udo is a worthy refrain for the hour. He may start with his voice. He has a deep bass and I once told him that he might one day consider a stint in broadcasting when he is done with governance and politics. He will be, as he mounts the throne, the voice of the state. With his deep, rich philtre, he is the boom of Anambra orchestra.

He is one of the most qualified men to run for governor in Nigeria’s history. Not because of his first class alone, but it counts. Not because he knows figures alone, but it counts. Not because of his experience, that is a plus. Not also because he was CBN governor alone. Not because he has run and knows how to lose and win, including tweaking the Nigeria currency. Not because he has the emotional stamina and subtlety. But because he has all these, and the hour summons his genius to revive a state of tremendous potential. In a meeting with him years ago, he said three cities showed financial money flow from his experience as CBN boss: Onitsha was one of them. His acumen beckons that wherewithal.

In Touch wishes the “boom of Anambra orchestra” good luck.

A workhorse at home

•Fashola

While some lawmakers were up in arms, the work was already done. The trojan of works, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), did not have to exchange rhetoric for rhetoric. He replied with digital missile. They said he had no plans for the over 5000 homes built across 34 states in the federation. They said they were rotting away. He did not want to hand them over. They did even commend him for getting the job done first. They did not even make their investigation before their frothy effusions. On Friday, he unveiled a portal for all Nigerians who seek homes. They can go to the portal and sign up for bungalows, one, two or three-bedroom apartments. Payments are gradual, so it is different from housing units where you have to fall dizzy merely by hearing the prize. This is not like the tens or hundreds of millions that characterise housing units by shylock builders, land speculators and contractors. A home of your own is a proprietary feature of democracy. It entitles you to say, as Ralph Waldo Emerson’s inspired phrase, “You have a right to be here.”

The journey for homes-for-all is a long one in a nation pursuing 200 million souls. But programmes like this turn steps into strides. The lawmakers should learn not to scream when all they can do is inquire. Our elders say if you have a roof over your head, the rest is relatively easy.

November 15, 2021
Anambra poll: A postscript

Anambra State governorship election has come and gone with the emergence of the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA, Prof. Charles Soludo as governor-elect.

Though its outcome has been largely adjudged free, fair and credible especially given the tensed atmosphere, it nonetheless had a faulty start. Logistic hiccups: late arrival of materials and officials, malfunctioning of the Biometric Voter Accreditation Systems BVAS and security challenges were typical features of the early stages of the election.

The fact that these challenges emerged in a lone election, did not help matters. If the electoral umpire found itself in such a quagmire in a one-off election, what hope is there when we have a general election to contend with, it was further reasoned. But the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC had to explain that last minute disappointments by mobilized transporters and ad hoc staff because of security concerns were responsible for some of the unanticipated outcomes.

This is a sharp contrast with his denial a week earlier when the news filtered that some of the ad hoc staff were resigning citing security concerns. But the excuse could still not explain why the BVAS failed to function in so many places with the attendant tension that further heightened security concerns. There is no explanation on why the novel BVAS was not test-run with its operational efficiency confirmed before deployment.

It was not surprising that allegations arose that the machines were pre-configured to produce predictable outcomes. Though the electoral body was able to rectify the situation by bringing in new BVAS, it robbed off negatively on the election time frame warranting extension of the voting period.

All the same, all those who desired to exercise their franchise were given the opportunity to do so. Its final outcome has been largely acknowledged to be in conformity with the dictates of free, fair and credible contest despite the very low voter turnout. Thanks to the patience, maturity and resilience of the Anambra electorate determined to see their collective will triumph at the ballot box.

The final result has attracted considerable interest across party divide. It has also come to denote different things to different people. Why is it so? And has this interest any association with the aphorism that victory has so many friends? Or is it the beginning of a sharp departure from the decadent political culture of refusal to accept defeat and do or die politics? What is special about the Anambra election and Soludo’s victory that some consensus appears to be building around them?

These are some of the posers thrown up by the avalanche of congratulatory messages pouring in from across the political divide including pledges of support and cooperation from political opponents. Perhaps, a few of these messages will throw more light.

President Buhari acknowledged Soludo as a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Committee and tasked him to tackle the enormous challenges confronting Anambra and the southeast. He looks forward working with him for the peace, security and development of the state and the country.

The candidates of the PDP and the YPP who were top contenders in the election and some others have equally extended their hands of cooperation to the winner in the overall interest of peace, progress and development of the state.

Read Also: Okonkwo congratulates Soludo

Minister of Labour and leader of the APC in the state, Dr Chris Ngige while noting the initial drawbacks of the election, described its outcome as free, fair and credible. For him, its successful outcome is in keeping with President Buhari’s promise to guarantee the electorate their choice of candidate and a demonstration that Buhari ‘is no enemy to Ndigbo’.

Ironically, these are in contrast with the position of the Anambra State wing of the APC which reportedly rejected the outcome of the election describing it in very disparaging terms. It promised to challenge the election up to the Supreme Court. The party was however, quick to deny the views credited to it. That has left its position somewhat confusing.

Its candidate, Andy Uba traded the same confusing path when in a statement by the spokesman of his campaign organization, Jerry Ugokwe, he said the election was a charade that did not reflect the wishes of the people of the state. The statement went at length to list reasons why APGA should not have won the election with threats to constitutionally challenge its outcome. Just as was the case with Anambra APC, there was a counter statement from the deputy director of publicity of Uba’s campaign organization denying the earlier statement.

It is unclear why the Anambra APC and Uba are enmeshed in a game of statements and counter statements. Speculations are that it might not be unconnected wider endorsements of the election verdict from both within and outside the shores of the country. But the fact that the position of the party and Uba on why the poll should be rejected struck a common chord, seem to suggest there is more to the unfolding drama. Except there is pressure from high quarters, it should not be surprising if Uba challenges the election outcome in court.

That brings to mind, a school of thought celebrating the outcome of the election as proof of the political irrelevance and electoral liability to which the chairman of the APC Campaign Council and governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma has been dumped. This feeling is evoked and reinforced by a statement credited to Soludo prior to the election to the effect that Anambra is not Imo.

It is not clear why Soludo made that statement. But one thing that remains certain is that it was prompted by the appointment of Uzodinma as the APC campaign chairman for that election. Uzodinma carries a big baggage of having come into office controversially. His declaration by the Supreme Court as governor has remained a mystery and as Justice Centus Nweze said in a minority judgment, it will continue to “haunt Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come”.

So, Uzodinma’s appointment was bound to evoke memories of that controversial ruling. It also raised suspicion that he may have been appointed to re-enact the magic he did in Imo. Soludo may have been passing a clear message that magic or devious electoral strategy cannot alter the collective will of the Anambra people. And he has been proven right.

But it is not yet over as the Imo case has shown. The body language of the Anambra APC and their candidate conveys the unmistakable impression they have something up their sleeves. So it is possible Uba could have learnt from Uzodinma’s school of election petitions. He may soon approach the court clutching a set of documents purporting to be his scores excluded by the INEC despite placing third in the overall outing.

It has worked before. So why can’t it work now? But the message of Justice Nweze should serve as a guide. The justice system is still being haunted by the Imo governorship verdict. It is unlikely the country can again afford that grave travesty of justice. So Anambra cannot be Imo.

Apologists of the government in Imo State have sought to impute derisive connotations to that statement. They have been inventing all manner of reasons to get even with it. But no matter how hard they try, the event that gave rise to it has become a turning point in the country’s electoral jurisprudence. It cannot be forgotten for a long time to come. Imo and the beneficiary of that travesty will continue to bear the burden. The monster we created has turned round to haunt us.

Anambra people have spoken very eloquently and heard loud and clear. Vaulting ambition, ruinous refusal by politicians to accept clear defeat and judicial ambush must not be allowed to stand against this collective statement.

November 15, 2021
Tower of rubble

He strode into the high-rise with the superfine dignity of a billionaire builder, father of four, husband, friend of many, child of prophecy, international explorer, a former hustler turned refined hustler, a former retailer of suits and shoes, a former habitue of the low-slung neighbourhoods of Lagos, a dynamo in health and hope.

But he left among ruins. He was a ruin himself, his whole body’s clock at an end. He was lifeless as the rods and blocks that were, not long ago, a showcase of magnificence and snob.

Those who saw the 21-storey heft and now see the surviving two could not do so with the impudence of a hat on the head. The hat or cap doffs by dropping off without a curtsy or the obliging hand of the wearer.

It was the character of artificial catastrophe. It intrudes for blood, like a slinking lion. It does not always warn like a tornado or hurricane. Nature, with all its Luciferian majesty, would often temporise before making everything temporary on its path. Conrad calls it “the unthinking might of nature.” Yet, it seems to think before it devours. But what man builds erupts, like an electric shock, a car crash or aircraft explosion or a building swooshing down on Gerrard Road Ikoyi. Or the 12-storey crash in Florida in June, or fire storms in England, etc.

That was the feat and fate of Femi Osibona before death caught him. He went home before he built his dream home. He left the block and made a turn. He held a meeting with another man who made a turn. Bob Oseni, a United States resident, also like Osibona, rose in the humble ambience of Lagos before his father clasped him. Both futures ended when they made the turn. Death stalked. They got stuck, forever. Just like Emily Dickinson’s poem: “Because I could not stop for death/ He kindly stopped for me/ The carriage held but just ourselves/ And immortality.”

What if it happened after he had left? A superstitious nation would have crucified him. He went there for the final rite of sacrifice. The dead died for him so he could prosper more. Some had even started such grumbles before the emergency workers rescued him from the rubble. They would add: he shouted hallelujah in his closet.

But if the tower fell without him, how would he have lived? A life of absolution, trying every day to atone for the dead souls? Film star Alec Baldwin faces it today after his gun liquidated a person on set. That was the desperation of Lord Jim, in Joseph Conrad’s epic novel, who surrendered his life to redemptive heroism for failing to save pilgrims on a ship. Or Addison Graves in the Booker Prize-nominated novel, The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, about a captain who saved himself and his twins instead of dying with others on deck.

With Osibona gone, no one can allude to a demoniac soul. We saw him on the deck dancing with others in near ecstasy in a church service. If he survived, his detractors would call that church service his rite of sacrifice, his dance a deathly romp.

He was no stranger to high-rises. He did it in England, South Africa, United States. The tiff over whether it was 15 floors or 21 draws one back to his interview with the ebullient TVC Business news anchor Tolu Ogunjobi when he referred to two projects where the British regulators documented an extra floor than he applied for. In that interview, he came across as a man of good intention and ambition, and referred to his relations with the Lagos State government. He said the BOS of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, facilitated his work so long as they conformed to the law. So, he did not come across with the air of a man who cuts corners.

On LASBCA boss Gbolahan Oki, my investigation showed that he gave an interview to the News Agency of Nigeria, and was trying to deny when his bosses asked him why he misled the public. He denied he gave such an interview until NAN managing director said they had him on tape. He was suspended afterwards. Deputy Governor Femi Hamzat, not known for flimsy talk, clarified that 21 floors was approved. Many documents are flying around. The internet installs its own reality, conjuring voices, pictures and videos. A distorted universe of names suffuses the air. VP Osinbajo effused a spirited rebuttal. We cannot rely on unauthenticated material. Journalism beckons and thrives on rigour, not impulse. Not the rants of social media rats.

Read Also: Collapsed building: Osinbajo warns against reproducing libelous publication on ownership

Governor Sanwo-Olu cut short his trip abroad and promptly set up a panel to investigate the matter. We ought to await the result, rather than burst into a claptrap of tattle tales based on ill-digested rumours, speculations and half-truths. Osibona had easy access to Lagos officials. It did not take much hassle to apply and secure 21 storeys.

Yet a question remains: what were the materials used for the building, and did Osibona hire the right people? Did anyone cut corners? Did he and his officials take some precautions for granted? Did the officials monitor?

Nigeria abhors standards. A house of otherwise great architecture yields paint tone uneven, the eaves unaligned, the doors breathing out sawdust, the toilet emitting noisome odours, the wiring propagating sparks, etc. A marvel becomes a whited sepulchre.

Little errors like that are ingredients of blood and tears. We saw My Pikin and its death trails. Dora Akunyili was an avenging angel of standards mowing down corporations, gangsters of fakes and titans of cozenage. JAMB Registrar Professor Is-Haq Oloyede lamented in an interview with me on TVC that the worst culprits of exam fraud and certificates are the parents. We poohpooh integrity, even in pursuing the rule of law like the raid on the home of a Supreme Court justice, Mary Odili. The attorney-general’s tongue wobbles in self-defence.

Lagos was a spectre of funereal ache as dead after dead, over 40, came out of a mighty ruin. What shall we say of the survivors, about nine, the one who just walked out, the lawyer who could not meet the duo of Osibona and Oseni and who must worship his flat tyre, or the fellow who escaped a swooping elevator by an inch? What of the assistant waiting to wed, or the family members wailing outside even as they heard anguished voices wailing inside the rubble?

One can wonder about high-rises, especially in a place like Ikoyi where single houses yield for phallic structures as species of capitalism. It’s three Cs are cars, condos and credit cards. We are making condos without credit. We sully its temple: we pay cash. But we cannot escape the high-rises. The fallen structure must rise again, or we surrender. Osibona might have erred but he left a legacy of towers. A structure must rise out of the ashes. Just as Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest: “Nothing of him that doth fade/But doth suffer a sea-change/ Into something rich and strange.” Shakespeare invented the phrase sea-change. Here we call a scene-change. Or else we will make Osibona’s legacy that of Ibsen’s play The Master Builder about a man so obsessed with building a tower that he crashed to his death after climbing it.

We did not want November 1. But let not the tragedy be in vain. So, we must make sure it never reoccurs. Let’s move forward with great housing projects for rich and poor. The BOS of Lagos has the sane head to push us beyond this sad day.

Somebody is lamenting

A certain fellow bearing the name Simon Imobo-Tswan writing for PDP chairman Iyorchia Ayu responded to last week’s column, New Crown, New Clown, and made me giggle a little. I would not take issues with him over his rambles over PDP’s graces and my assertion that Ayu’s new ideas were to glamorise PDP’s disaster in power. And that Ayu, after his June 12 outing, went underground, an exhausted soul dredged up from the basement by Atiku and co.

What concerns this essayist is not that the fellow applauded The Nation for a trophy haul of nominations and awards. But he said he did not see this essayist on the list. What a pity. He still wishes me well, it seems. He wishes me to return to competing after moving on. He has no pity on others who crave same honour. He wants me to outshine and suffocate them with more awards? I am not that selfish. In that sense, I am retiree like Ayu, except that I write not to compete as Ayu is doing, but to enlighten. The fellow speaks of my “great reputation.” Then he should remember, as a communications specialist, that Sam Omatseye has more than half a dozen NMMA awards and nominations. I would also not want him and Ayu to worry when DAME rolls its awards soon and I am absent. I have won about the same nominations and awards. I have the icing on the cake as Honorary fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters as well as National Productivity Order of Merit. This column enlightens many, and nettles many. Jesus came for the rising and falling of many. You don’t need vain endorsements to be good. I don’t need awards for validation. After all, Conrad or Achebe never won the Nobel.

November 8, 2021
A builder and his building

It was a tragic drama and a dramatic tragedy. A spectacular 21-storey giant had a great fall at Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on November 1. The high-rise under construction in the highbrow neighbourhood was reduced to a lowly status.

Tragically, many people who were at the site, for one reason or another, died. The dead included the ambitious builder of the ambitious residential tower and CEO of Fourscore Homes, Femi Osibona. He was aged 55.

It is said that art imitates life. Life can also imitate art. News of the Ikoyi building collapse and the spotlight on Osibona brought to mind a play by the distinguished Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen titled The Master Builder, first published in 1892. Described as a play of “heightened ambiguities,” it is regarded as one of Ibsen’s “more significant and revealing works.”

Here is a synopsis of the play from Wikipedia: “Halvard Solness is a middle-aged master builder of a small town in Norway who has become a successful architect of some distinction and local reputation. One day while having a visit from his friend Doctor Herdal, Solness is visited by Hilda Wangel, a young woman of 23, whom Doctor Herdal recognises from a recent trip that he had taken. The doctor leaves, Solness is alone with Hilda, and she reminds him that they are not strangers – they had previously met in her home town 10 years ago when she was 13 years old.

“When Solness does not respond immediately, she reminds him that at one point during their encounter he had made advances to her, had offered her a romantic interlude, and promised her “a kingdom,” all of which she believed. He denies this. She gradually convinces him, however, that she can assist him with his household duties, and so he takes her into his home.

“Solness is also the manager of an architectural office in which he employs Knut Brovik, his son Ragnar Brovik, and Kaia Fosli. Kaia and Ragnar are romantically linked, and Ragnar has ambitions to become promoted in his architectural vocation, which Solness is reluctant to grant or support. Solness also has a complicated relationship with his wife Aline, and the two are revealed to have lost children some years ago as a result of a fire. During this time, Solness builds a closer tie with Hilda while she is in his home, and she supports his architectural vocation and new projects.

“During the construction of his most recent project which includes a towering steeple, Hilda learns that Solness suffers from acrophobia, a morbid fear of extreme heights, but nonetheless she encourages him to climb the steeple to the top at the public opening of the newly completed building. Solness, inspired by her words, achieves the top of the tower, when he suddenly loses his footing and crashes to his death on the ground before the spectators who have arrived for the opening of the new building. Among the spectators standing aghast at the sight, only Hilda comes forward as if in silent triumph. She waves her shawl and cries out with wild intensity “My—my Master Builder!”

Read Also: Ikoyi collapsed building death toll hits 44

Osibona’s life ended at the site of his building like that of the master builder in Ibsen’s play. In the play, the building did not collapse, but the builder fell to his death. Osibona’s building collapsed and killed him.

He had a grand architectural dream. The fallen tower was one of three towers, collectively known as 360 Degrees Towers. He painted a picture of the project in an interview with TVC about three months ago. “We are actually building a seven-star hotel,” he explained. “They are flats, but we make it feel like you are living in a seven-star hotel. Everything that is in a seven-star hotel, you will have there. But the only difference is that you own the property. We have not advertised and we have sold more than 50 per cent…Here in 360, we have security, exceptional view, offices, clubhouse, and open recreation area. Practically everything you have in a seven-star hotel.”

The project and the builder attracted attention in 2020 when it was reported that Osibona had tried to prevent officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) from sealing off the building in question. The agency was said to have observed some “anomalies.”

The agency’s general manager, Gbolahan Oki, was quoted as saying Osibona “got an approval for a 15-storey building and he exceeded his limit…and the materials he used are so inferior and terrible. The materials he used, the reinforcement, are so terrible. He got approval for 15 floors but built 21.” There is a controversy over the number of floors he got approval to build.

The claim that he was supposed to limit the towers to 15 storeys but went beyond the number raises questions not only about structural integrity but also the builder’s integrity. It is thought-provoking that Osibona in the television interview mentioned two cases in London that bordered on his company’s breach of building approval. According to him, in 1999 he had applied to build a two-storey extension. “The council wanted to write two-storey, they wrote three-storey. When we started developing it, neighbours went to report to the council because in London when an area is for two-storey buildings, you can’t do a three-storey,” he said. He added: “They made a mistake; they agreed that they made a mistake so I should not do the three storeys. I went on and did the three storeys.”

On another occasion, he had applied to build a six-storey structure. “Again the council made some mistakes; they wanted to write six-storey, they wrote seven-storey,” he said. These accounts are indeed intriguing. He claimed that the authorities made a mistake in two different cases, which he exploited.

He claimed to have worked successfully as a developer in London, Atlanta and South Africa, after his university education in England and “buying and selling shoes and suits” from 1991 to 1997. He had also executed some building projects after he returned to Nigeria, before he dreamed of his biggest work which eventually proved to be too big for him.

He was a hero in the country’s real estate development sector but the collapsed tower calls into question his heroism. Tragic heroes have tragic flaws. Osibona gave an insight into a possible flaw. He said: “When I first came to Nigeria, I believed in consultants. If an architect tells me something I’ll do whatever he tells me to do; if a structural engineer tells me something I’ll do whatever he tells me to do. It was later that I realised that these consultants only offer advice based on the book, they do not understand the practical aspects of the work.” Ironically, he was not a trained builder but saw himself as a master builder.

The state government’s investigation into the disaster is expected to unearth the immediate and remote causes, and prevent a recurrence.

November 8, 2021
Bishop Ukwuoma’s encounter; adjunct issues

All does not appear well with media reports penultimate Sunday, on the foiling by the army, of an attempted abduction of the Catholic Bishop of Orlu Diocese, Imo State, Most Rev. Augustine Ukwuoma. Emerging events suggest interrogation of claims by security agencies not only in the instant case but in their current campaign against insecurity in the southeast zone.

Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, had in a statement claimed troops conducing Exercise Golden Dawn, in response to a distress call moved swiftly to the diocesan secretariat in Orlu, foiled the attempted abduction of the Bishop, forcing the assailants to run away. Apparently elated by the supposed feat, the army further indicated that troops will continue to “deny freedom of action to members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra/Eastern Security Network, IPOB/ESN and other criminal gangs operating within the sector”.

Two days later, the Orlu Catholic Diocese came up with its own account. In a statement, the diocese said a group of armed robbers broke into the Bishop’s house but were immediately confronted by “a joint team of internal security and local vigilante”. Though nobody was harmed, the robbers made away with some valuables, the statement further indicated.

“After some interval, the army arrived at the scene of the armed robbery and took some photographs…thanks to divine providence and protection, both the Bishop and his household are safe and unharmed”, the diocese stated.

Now the issues! The diocese spoke of armed robbery and the carting away of some valuables by the robbers. The robbers were confronted and repelled by the internal security in the Bishop’s house and local vigilante. The army arrived after the robbers had left with their loot only to take photographs of the scene of the robbery.

Then the questions! How did the army arrive at the story of the attempted abduction of the Bishop? At what point did they foil the attempted abduction- on their way to the scene or at the scene of the robbery? And what evidence did they see at the scene of the robbery to support the abduction theory?

These questions are raised to underscore the mismatch in the accounts of the diocese and that of the army. Is it a case of St Augustine’s allegory of two cities? Obviously, the army account is utterly at variance with that of the Orlu Catholic Diocese- the victim of the attack. There are divergences in terms of the nature of the security infraction, its purpose and those that foiled it.

So what could have informed the indecent haste the army deployed in exaggerating the incident which apparently compelled the catholic diocese to make these clarifications? That is the subject of this essay. Perhaps, the answer will come obvious from some other instances of conflicting claims between security agencies on the one hand, individuals and groups on the other.

Just very recently, two traditional rulers were killed with others seriously wounded by armed men while in a meeting with the Interim Management Committee, IMC, chairman of Njaba Local Government, Emeka Iheanacho at the council secretariat in Imo State. The police was quick to lay the blame on the shoulders of Iheanacho for not informing security agencies to provide protection to the meeting.

But Iheanacho stunned the public when he came up with his own account. He gave a detailed view of how he invited the leader of the Njaba Operation Search and Flush team to provide security for the meeting. The team promptly arrived. But before the commencement of the meeting, the leader, one Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP came to his office to inform him that their commander instructed the team to return to Owerri.

Read Also: Terrorists attacked Biafrans in Enugu during Anambra poll – IPOB

He said he objected to the decision but the team insisted and left promising to return. They never returned before a band of masked armed men attacked the meeting killing the royal fathers and inflicting injuries on others. He even named witnesses to the conversation between him and the ASP in his office. The state police command had accused the IPOB/ESN for the attack even when they were neither there nor were arrests made.

Apparently rattled by the disclosures from the IMC chairman, the police then issued another statement in which they claimed that he did not seek for security protection officially and in writing. That at once raises a flurry of questions: on whose authority did the team arrive at the venue in the first instance? Who gave the instruction for its withdrawal? Did he consider its implications for a zone that has been the epicentre of the heightened insecurity in the state harbouring bizarre killings alien to the culture of the people- decapitations and severing of manhood?

These are some of the questions the police command should respond to. Its responses to the Njaba killings left serious gaps that ought to be seriously investigated. The initial denial that Iheaanacho did not seek security protection and the revision that it was not official and in writing do not just add up. It created the unmistakable impression that there is more to the killings than ordinarily meets the eyes. The police have serious questions to answer.

In saner climes, we should have seen a high powered inquisition into the tangle. But not here! Yet, we are regularly regaled with the listing of the royal fathers’ killing as one of the atrocious acts of the IPOB/ESN for which a military engagement is on.

There is also the report of the neutralizing of four IPOB/ESN gunmen by troops of the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army in Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. The army said the IPOB/ESN gunmen were killed in a fierce encounter along Nnobi junction following their attack on security agencies deployed at Ekwulobia roundabout. Though the IPOB admitted their member was killed at Ekwulobia, they claimed the victim has nothing to do with ESN.

They also claimed that he was killed in his compound by soldiers following a tip off after he returned home to bury his mother. It is not clear whether the victim was among the four killed at Nnobi junction or his case is a different one.

What seemed to have emerged from this is the difference between IPOB members and ESN operators. ESN is the security arm of the IPOB. The group seems to be contending that not everybody that subscribes to the issues to the IPOB agitation is a member of the ESN. That point has to be made especially against the background that security agencies search telephone handsets of people for any incriminating posts. Such profiling could expose innocent people to danger in this era of social media explosion.

Even then, what should be the punishment for membership of the IPOB-extermination or arrest? We ask this given the claim by the IPOB that their member was killed in his house when he returned to bury his mother. There abound several allegations of abuse by sundry security agencies that call to question their observance of the rules of engagement. Many of the trending videos in the media speak of wanton abuses, exaggeration and escalation of minor security infractions.

The authenticity of some of these trending pictures and videos cannot be verified. But the warning by the Chief of Army Staff, Farouk Yahaya to troops against taking pictures and videos while in combat operation seems to suggest some of them should not be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Just last week, a coalition of civil society groups raised an alarm on the deployment of ethno-religious language by some security operatives deployed to the Anambra election to assail the sensibilities of the people.

All these coupled with the indecent haste in attributing any and every criminality to IPOB are beginning to blur the nature and character of the heightened insecurity in the zone. Suspicions are gaining traction that fifth columnists and forces eager to levy war on the zone are behind resurging security infractions, misrepresentations and exaggerated outcomes.

November 8, 2021
New crown, new clown?

For most attendees, a party convention has the air of Christmas. It is the political equivalent of a cultural vanity. The cars come, the honks flare, the men and women arrive in flourish. The big men? They are a different breed. They are the peacocks of the ritual.

They don’t come; they arrive. They don’t talk; they orate. They don’t walk; they stride. They would not laugh. Even though they smile, it is set apart from the common run. The followers grin from ear to ear. They are the lickspittle crowd. But their boss’ face shines with a supernova quality.

Even the buses don’t glide onto the arena, they are heralded. Not the whir of the engine, although that carries its mythical halo. It is the name embossed on it, the picture of the big man, in agbada or babaringa, looking stately, imperious. For instance, when Saraki’s bus announced its presence, it told the world, it was not about the man. It was about his movement. And what is it? It is called Sarakiyya.

Did we not hear of one an era ago, one from a now subdued peacock in Kano, called Kwankwansiyya? If he has been deflated, he has revolutionised a way of naming a movement. He deposited a precedent. Except that we do not know in concrete terms what Eleyinmi meant by Sarakiyya or his progenitor in nomenclature in naming. A legacy without a lore. But it is poetic, and what is politics if not the effect, the bravura feeling, the flair. Exit Kwankwanso. Enter Saraki. Sarakiyya northernises his image. Is that the idea?

In the United States, or even in Britain or France, the party convention challenges the brain. In Nigeria, it challenges two things: vanity and pocket. Our parties do not gather to idealise the country, to nudge it from its torpor. The party convention is the open square for spoils.

Who will be the chairman? Who will rally around that presidential candidate? Who will be the Judas with the cash, the exchequer of the vanity? Who will be also the Judas that will flee over filthy lucre and enact a political Golgotha?

It is part of the menu. But we do not see things that will rejoice the intellect, make the event into a sort of church of reverie or reverence for the motherland. We don’t muse but are amused instead. Some dance, some fume, a few are just looking for a way to feed their families, and this breed fills the crowd. Stomach infrastructure.

The PDP convention succeeded in that light. It had picked its chairman, and turned its former leader, Uche Secondus, in a rigmarole of court visits, hoping without hope to spoil the party. He floundered. The new man on the block is Iyorchia Ayu, a former senate president during the June 12 era who managed to succeed only in going underground. Atiku has now ripped him like a scab from a historical wound of June 12.

Now, he was crowned after a palace intrigue in which the Adamawa chieftain, desperate like an Alsatian dog about to rip up a cage, looks forward to perhaps his last try at the big job. Ayu will have to prove that he is no Atiku stooge, unless the man is compelled to play high jump to another party. Atiku has been the fair-weather sailor of his generation. His emergence raised the question about zoning.

Atiku and others want fairness because fairness works for them, and that is left with the people. But the choice of Ayu for party chairman challenges the other party, the APC. It seems the choice of the Northcentral for the party leader is justice to a region often regarded as the foot mat of ambition, especially by the north.

It is the navel of the country. While the PDP chose the Northcentral as a cynical move to actuate individual ambition, the APC also has an opportunity to push the region for its party leader and chair. The choice of Northcentral , not necessarily Ayu, makes sense for the PDP. Some regions must enjoy being part of the polity.

If the APC looks elsewhere it will be a cynical venture. For instance, all the state governors, except for Benue State, are in the APC bag. Whether Plateau or Adamawa or Nasarawa, they are in the hands of the ruling party. Even Benue State Governor was elected on the APC ticket until the blend of a herder’s crisis and personal ambition, especially because Ortom was already failing as governor, moved him away. He exploited the centre’s bungling of the herder’s nightmare to orchestrate his heroism. Buhari gifted him with a platform to reboot his profile. APC has stalwarts , including former Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al Makura, who carry the charisma and experience for that stance.

Read Also: Appeal Court restores freezing orders on Diezani’s ally, Omokore’s assets, funds

The PDP therefore has shown the way for the party chairman, and if the APC fails, it will give the region a reason to look elsewhere in 2023.

The PDP has therefore challenged the geo-political conscience of its foes. This is how cynical politics confers justice. None of the parties may be looking to feather the region with a crown. But the Northcentral, for the first time, is going to enjoy that brand because of what others see as the need to foster their presidential ambitions.

The PDP convention did not end without some battles, though. The former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola duelled in vain for the Southwest party leader as national deputy chairman. He lost to Taofeek Arapaja. It is an irony of a former deputy beating a former governor. The woman fighter for the same position in the north fell to a man, a reminder that Nigeria, nay the PDP, is still as patriarchal as they come. Beijing conference of yore still stalks the land. But the most fascinating statement of all was Ayu assertion: “We will move ahead to develop this country. We did it before. We are doing it again.”

That statement has no rigour, no learning, and no promise. A party chairman cannot glamorise a historical disaster, a failed past. PDP was swept out because it failed. He should have spoken of a rejigged PDP, a new craft of ideas. Sorry, Ayu. Are you for real? Or his will be a new crown on a geriatric head, or on a clown.

Diezani’s Bra

Diezani-Alison-Madueke

Few think it. No, many imagine it. Her bra, on or off. For a woman whose brand keeps shifting bragging rights, her bra will be hard to change.

Former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke will not leave us alone. We pitied a photo of her pruned-down cancer image. We heard of her job in the Caribbean. And, who can forget her visage giving a virtual airhead talk to young people as a model. Since leaving office, she has gone full circle in the public eye. Pain. Gain. Vain.

We first wept with her, or pretended to weep with her on Ore highway as works minister. She was the pretty, naïve lady of performance.

When she left office, former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole said John Kerry told him and others on Buhari’s visit to Obama that the woman had about six billion dollars stashed away in the U.S. banks.

Now some say part of it was to decorate her globular torso. A bosom that conquered boys when she was young and played cow, entrapping and suckling babies. Her boudoir is now bouquet for every eye.

With her bra up for auction, it reads like a surreal work of fiction, like something out of Genet, or Beckett or Ionesco. Imagine the day the bras go on the block, and we see men and women line up to name their bids and nip their libidos. It will make a complete picture to frame in the background. A big photo of the woman or the video of her striding about in her glorious gusto as a minister.

She failed her fellow women and society. Feminists like Betty Friedan, Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Caddy Stanton wanted men to view them outside their physical charms. Decades ago, in New York, some women created what was called “Freedom Trash Can.” They tossed away emblems of femininity like makeup, girdles, corsets, false eyelashes, hairsprays, and yes, especially bras. Some designated them “the bra-burning feminists.” They were protesting a Miss America pageant for making women just about looks. Such a phenom inspired Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Edible Woman.

When the US nationalists were duelling Britain and asked fellow citizens to shun their imports, Benjamin Franklin arrived home to see his wife with trinkets, necklaces and other jewels from England, and he exclaimed, “Alas it is by the luxury and vanity of women that empires decay.” He might have exaggerated but not with Diezani’s bra. It has tossed the internet into a storm of permutations as to their cost. She has company – Imedla Marcos, Maria Antionette,travelling Fergie, Princess Anne, Herod’s wife, et al.

She was not covering her breasts. Her chest was a tenant to an ornament that can tar roads, build schools and buy millions in baby formula for starving families.

It has been a bad few weeks for women. While one does not know how to bare it all in a cruise, another does not know what to wear or how. What a country.

November 1, 2021
Femi Esho at 75: Music collector extraordinaire

Music collectors are defined by their music collections. The extraordinary music collection of Mr Femi Esho, Chairman/CEO of Lagos-based Evergreen Musical Company Ltd, who turned 75 on October 29, makes him a music collector extraordinaire.

“I started collecting music at the age of 12,” he told attendees at an electrifying event that celebrated “10 Music Legends of Lagos Evolution” in December 2017. The show, which took place at City People Event Centre, Gbagada, Lagos, was organised by City People Entertainment, Evergreen Musical Company and Members of Music Icons. It was a celebration of Apala, Sakara, Juju, Highlife, Fuji, Waka, Folk, Agidigbo, Afrobeat and Were.

Many of the melodies that evening were blasts from the past. They were from a time when things were not what they are now. I had wondered: What makes music evergreen? Today’s music will become yesteryear music tomorrow. But evergreen music is not just yesteryear music. Evergreen music means more than yesteryear music. The quality of memorability makes music evergreen. The sounds of yesterday prompted reflection on the sounds of today.

Ultimately, Esho was the star of the show. His company is described as “Africa’s greatest custodian and producer of music of yesteryears.” He was at the centre of the show with his long white beard, doing what he had mastered over the years. He gave insight into the works of the awardees and why they deserved the awards. He displayed impressive knowledge of Nigerian music history.

When I first met him some months before the event, at the Lagos residence of his friend who is also my friend, he gave me a valuable collection of the works of Afrobeat king Fela Anikulapo Kuti that included “5 Audio CDs, 1 DVD (Live Performances) and 24-Page In-Depth Biography.” We got talking and he got me thinking.

His passion for music is infectious. I thought about his services to Nigerian music and his enthusiasm. When he gave me his calling card, I was struck by the fascinating quote inscribed on it: “Without music, life would be an error – Friedrich Nietzsche.”

Information supplied by his daughter and Managing Director of Evergreen Musical Company Ltd Bimbo Esho, who has chosen to follow her father’s path, shows that the outstanding music collector is in a class of his own. She said: “Today, Femi Esho is the undisputed largest collector of music of yesteryears with over 150,000 vinyl plates made up of 78rpm breakable plates, 45rpm and 33rpm, hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes, thousands of cassette tapes of various music along with archival materials such as His Master’s Voice (HMV), various reel-to-reel machines, various turntables with the oldest 100 years old, books and newspaper articles on Nigerian music, video recordings of early Nigerian music icons.”

Before he formed his musical company, he had worked for the Lagos State government under its first military governor Mobolaji Johnson, and a major architectural firm. He had also set up an Advertising/PR agency, and ran a printing consultancy.

His social life equipped him for the formation of his musical company. “He was a regular at popular clubs like Paradise Hotel, Independence Hotel, Central Hotel, all in Ibadan,” his daughter said. “In Lagos, he was a popular patron of the Kakadu Hotel, Paradiso, Cool Cats Inn, Lido Bar, Central Hotel, Western Hotel, West End Coliseum, Abalabi, Ambassador Hotel, Stadium Hotel, Caban Bamboo.” She also said he “gave his entire life to music” in the early 1990s.

Apart from his musical company, he also formed a band dedicated to evergreen music. It is a testimony to his band’s quality and the demand for evergreen music that the band has performed at prestigious places in Lagos, including Metropolitan Club, Ikoyi Club, MUSON Centre, Island Club and Yoruba Tennis Club. It has also been patronised by various corporate giants.

He has presented radio and television programmes promoting evergreen music, particularly Highlife. He presented “Highlife Renaissance” on Raypower, the first private radio station in Nigeria, weekly for about three years. To mark Nigeria’s centenary celebration in 2014, he reviewed Nigerian music from 1914 to 2014 in a programme on the network service of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

His musical company has revived the works of music greats such as Bobby Benson, Eddy Okonta, Rex Jim Lawson, E.T. Mensah, Joe Mensah, Haruna Ishola, Victor Olaiya and I.K. Dairo through a repackaging project involving music from the 1920s.

“Highlife and some of its variants originated from Nigeria, Ghana and a few other African countries, hence it can be described as our gift to the world,” Esho observed, adding “In terms of the reign of Highlife, you can hardly find more than three of four recreation spots where the music is still enjoyed by patrons of musical bands. We feel that the situation portends a great danger to our indigenous contribution to the world of music, something that has the potential of being a major income earner for Nigeria if properly harnessed.’’

Esho launched the Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation, located in Surulere, Lagos, “to preserve and safeguard musical heritage.” Significantly, it is “a one-stop place for research and documentation of over 10,000 Nigerian musicians,” and ”will help to create a world-class archival institution to cater for the needs of researchers, anthropologists and sociologists the world over.” The public and private sectors should support it as a service to culture and tourism.

Born on October 29, 1946, in Ilesa, in present-day Osun State, he has attained an international stature based on his services to music, which he regards as a universal language that transcends boundaries. A striking story, narrated by his daughter, demonstrates the value of his efforts to preserve yesteryear music. When he visited Ghana in 2008 to seek permission rights to release the works of some old Ghanaian Highlife stars, the late Jerry Hansen of the Ramblers Dance Band, who was then 86, “could not hold back his tears as he exclaimed that it was a great shame that Femi Esho came all the way from Nigeria to present to him all his lost works.” The drama showed the importance of music collection, and underlined Esho’s significance as a music collector.

I wish the man of melodies more melodious years.

November 1, 2021