The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Ango Abdullahi’s gaffe

    Ango Abdullahi’s gaffe

    By Emeka Omeihe

    Ango Abdullahi, chairman of the Northern Elders Forum NEF obviously desecrated the sacredness of facts when he claimed that outside the northern part of the country, most violent acts against northerners are perpetrated by the Igbo.

    Abdullahi who led a delegation of his group to Port Harcourt, Rivers State to interact with his fellow northerners following events of the nationwide #ENDSARS protests made the incendiary comment without adducing facts to support his claim. It is not certain what his kinsmen told him at their meeting. Neither is the objective of such a sweeping and unsubstantiated allegation clear.

    Whatever the motive is, the statement is as careless as it is irresponsible. Coming from a personality like Abdullahi, one had expected a good measure of caution in dishing out views that have the wider prospects of pitching sections of the country against each other especially when they are not backed with verifiable facts. His unguarded statement amounted to nothing other than preparing the ground for northerners (even as the concept of a monolithic north is an aberration) to attack the Igbo living amongst them, possibly to avenge imaginary infractions.

    It is indeed a matter of serious regret that someone who lays claims to regional leadership should exhibit such level of insensitivity on an issue that can only further ruffle the tense political temperament of a country that is emerging from the ruins of the last protests.

    From the little information available, Abdullahi and his group were in Rivers State to gauge the views of their putative constituents on events of the ENDSARS protests. If the statement credited to him represented the outcome of the meeting they had on the nationwide protests; that would indeed be very unfortunate as it is at variance with facts on the ground.

    Having bandied such a tendentious and potentially inciting allegation, the burden of proof now lies on the shoulders of the leadership of the NEF. Abdullahi has a herculean task to come up with facts and figures of instances where the Igbo have levied violence against northerners or any acts of organized violence in any part of Igbo land against northerners or the non-indigenous population.

    Where he fails to do so, he should be held responsible for any acts of violence against the Igbo in the northern part of the country. It is not just enough to bandy inciting claims without supporting them with verifiable evidence. It is a huge disappointment on the personality of Abdullahi that he threw caution to the winds in such a sensitive issue especially given the fault lines of our national order.

    But we are not surprised at the easy resort of politicians to ethnic cards to shore up their waning relevance. Neither are we amazed at the emerging and very curious attempt to blame any and every ill of the Nigerian society on the Igbo race. It is becoming increasingly fashionable for sundry characters to embark on the dirty voyage of criminalizing the Igbo race for offences many other tribes are largely guilty of just to give the dog a bad name to hang it. Otherwise, how do we explain the inversion of allegations on who had visited more violence on the other between the Igbo and northerners?

    This may not be the best of times to reopen old wounds or trade blames. But since Abdullahi is intent on misleading the country for inexplicable reasons, it bears stating unequivocally, that the Igbo have suffered immeasurably both in human and material capital mostly from the north. The sacred facts are there.

    Do we talk of the Maitatsine riots of the 80s or other religion-induced uprisings where Igbo lives were lost for no just cause and properties of inestimable value destroyed? What of sponsored and misguided attacks on the same people for events that happened in other countries which some people found offensive to their faith? Or have we forgotten the beheading of Gedeon Akaluka and the unfortunate fate of a pastors wife, Bridget Agbaheme that was killed in a Kano market?

    What of the culture of issuing quit orders on the Igbo resident in the north on very flimsy grounds by sponsored youth bodies? If the above instances are not enough to put a lie to claims from the NEF chieftain, perhaps he also needed to be reminded of the real victims of the Boko Haram insurgency at the budding stages of their religion-induced campaigns. The facts are also there.

    It would have been needless going this length if Abdullahi had not made dubious attempts to falsify extant realities. But it must be said that in all these instances, there was no singular occasion the Igbo embarked on a reprisal attack on northerners living amongst them. Neither was there any attempt to compensate those who lost their loved ones and valuable properties to the unprovoked attacks. Even in those occasions the herdsmen invaded Igbo villages leaving in their trail sorrow and awe, there was no incident of reprisal attacks.

    Yet, Abdullahi had the comfort of mind to stand logic on the head. One had expected a body that claims to represent elders of the north to have been more circumspect and discerning in bandying allegations that have the prospects of ruffling the political temperament in the country. But that was not to be as Abdullahi curiously threw caution to the winds, speaking in such a careless manner that detracts from the credibility that ordinarily should be associated with such regional organizations.

    Or are we now confronted with a verity of the views of the Special Adviser to President Buhari, on Media and publicity Femi Adesina when he recently said “NEF is just Ango Abdullahi and Ango Abdullahi is NEF. It is a quasi-organization that boasts of no credible membership and its leader is akin to a general without troops? Maybe Adesina was right. It is highly ridiculous that a supposedly credible organization as NEF purports could be credited with views that are at once, direct opposites of subsisting realities.

    If the truth must be told, the Igbo by the very circumstance of their lives are generally not given to organized acts of violence. The fact of their cosmopolitan nature; living and owning investments in any and every part of the country, does not predispose them to either taking up arms against their hosts or their visitors. By the very fact of this also, they stand the greatest victims each time there are riots, loss of lives and destruction of properties. The recent ENDSARS protests bear this out. In Abuja, the Igbo lost several millions of Naira when their car market was razed down in instigated and unprovoked attacks. That was no all.

    It was little surprising, the Ohaneze Ndigbo reacted angrily to the allegation with a call on the federal government to order the NEF to recant the inflammatory statement. If the NEF had genuine complaints from those they spoke with, the right approach would have been to take it up with the leadership of Ohaneze with a view to finding amicable solutions to them. But they threw caution to the winds without minding the repercussions of setting groups against the other in a highly volatile setting as the one we live in.

    In the past, the apex northern organization, Arewa Consultative ACF under the chairmanship of Alhaji Ibrahim Coommasie had met with the Ohaneze leadership of Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey on ways to move the nation forward. That was when tension and mutual suspicion held sway among the various ethnic divides and the country was edging to the precipice. That is the type of patriotic spirit we expect of the NEF rather than the resort to ethnic bile and cheap propaganda.

    But more seriously, the message is not lost as to the choice of Port Harcourt for the vitriolic attack on the Igbo race. It fits perfectly into the usual well-choreographed script to perpetually keep neighbours divided especially as the 2023 elections inch nearer. Whether the outcome will be the same this time again, is a matter of time.

  • Poverty is winning

    Poverty is winning

     By Femi Macaulay

     

    Poverty is a problem that brings more problems. Nigeria should be prepared to face more problems if the World Bank is correct about rising poverty in the country and the projection that the number of poor Nigerians would be 100 million by 2022. This is just two years away.

    It is a disturbing scenario.  Nigeria’s population is about 206 million. It is alarming that more than 83 million Nigerians live below the national poverty line, according to the 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) this year. Oxfam says about 94 million Nigerians live below the poverty line.

    If the number of poor Nigerians rises to 100 million in two years, as the World Bank forecasts, it would mean that about half of the country’s population is poor.  A country with half of its population poor should be ready for a rebellion of the poor.

    Widespread poverty could easily trigger widespread protests against pervasive poverty. The recent nationwide #EndSARS protests showed how revolutionary conditions can lead to revolutionary convulsions. In the end, the protests that prompted the disbandment of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), known as SARS, were not only against police brutality but also the brutality of poverty.

    The World Bank’s message deserves attention. More importantly, it should prompt action by the federal and state governments.  An economist with the bank, Marco Hernandez, presented a grim picture of escalating poverty during its Nigeria Development Update virtual event on December 10.

    He said, “With the COVID-19, the recession is likely to push an additional 6.6 million Nigerians into poverty in 2020, bringing the total newly poor to 8.6 million this year.

    “This implies an increase in the total number of poor in Nigeria from about 90 million in 2020 to about 100 million in 2022. Northern states are more likely to be affected.”

    He mentioned some of the factors responsible for increasing poverty, including having a vulnerable employment, receiving fewer remittances, and being close to the poverty line.

    “No Nigerian Government in the past has methodically and seriously approached poverty-alleviation like we have done,” President Muhammadu  Buhari boasted in his national address following the #EndSARS protests and the resulting anarchy. Buhari listed his achievements in his Democracy Day speech this year, flaunting the results of his administration’s social investment programmes aimed at reducing social and economic inequality.

    But there are still too many millions of poor Nigerians. This suggests that his administration has not done enough, and needs to do much more, to tackle mass poverty. Buhari should understand that he is expected to significantly reduce the number of poor Nigerians within his remaining period in office, which is about three years.

    In September, he inaugurated a National Steering Committee to oversee the development of the ‘Nigeria Agenda 2050 and Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP),’ which succeeds ‘Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017 – 2020.’

    He said: “The main objectives of these successor plans are to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next 10 years, particularly given the World Bank projection that Nigeria will become the world’s third most populous country by 2050 with over 400 million people.”

    It is useful to have a long-term plan. But it is important to have a short-term plan as well, and to ensure that it works. How many Nigerians will his presidency lift out of poverty before the end of his second four-year term in 2023?

    Nigeria needs to learn a lesson from news that China has been able to eradicate extreme poverty among its people.  That country’s last nine poor counties, all in its southwest Guizhou Province, have eliminated absolute poverty, according to a November 23 report. Independent agencies confirmed that poverty in the nine counties in Guizhou had been reduced to zero percent.

    China had planned to eradicate absolute poverty by the end of 2020. At the end of 2019, 52 counties in the northwest, southwest and south of the country were still on the poverty list. Now there is no county on its poverty list. This is a notable feat, considering that China is the world’s most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is noteworthy that Nigeria’s population is far less than China’s.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s remarks at the two-day executive-legislative leadership retreat held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in October, spoke volumes about how poorly the authorities have performed on combating poverty.

    ”What is the reality of the context that we operate in today?” he asked.  ”We all know our nation has millions of extremely poor people; the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened employment and poverty.”

    Osibanjo added:  ”It is time to focus on what we have been elected or appointed to do. This is the welfare of our people… Our people just want food on their table, shelter over their heads, clothing on their bodies, healthcare and education for their children and themselves.”

    In other words, it is easy to identify the markers of poverty.  The United Nations (UN) defines extreme poverty as ”a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.”

    How did China eradicate extreme poverty?  Definitely, it took more than lip service. That is a lesson Nigeria needs to learn.  Mere words are not enough to alleviate poverty, and certainly cannot be enough to eradicate poverty. Urgent action is needed.

    Against the background of the estimated number of the country’s new poor by 2022, it would be interesting to know how many Nigerians would be newly rich by the same date. The new poor will co-exist with the new rich.

    It is tragic that the number of Nigeria’s poor is expected to continue rising. If the poverty problem worsens, the country should expect a worsening of the problems caused by poverty.  Improving socio-economic conditions is the solution. But the authorities give the impression that this solution is easier said than done.  Is it?

  • Hallucination

    Hallucination

    Sam Omatseye

     

    MAYBE Malami did not see the constitution. Or maybe he did not see House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila when he visited the President. If he saw, we may pity him if he did not hear the clear timbre of the speaker’s voice when he said it.

    If he did not see, and he did not hear, then we may conclude that Abubakar Malami is the first deaf-mute attorney-general and minister of justice in Nigerian history. I don’t want to go that far. The man is a SAN, even if we know that some SANs today are no better than glorified charge and bail lawyers, SANs sans erudition or quality. Some SANs are born great, some achieve greatness and some have it thrust upon them. I often worry about the third and last category.

    It all began with the butchery in Borno, when a band of barbarians slit the throats of 43 persons and electrified our hearts with terror. The speaker invited the president to engage the lawmakers. The president assented. He also fixed a date, and that was last week Thursday.

    But before Malami were APC governors. Four of them paid a visit to Buhari. They were the gubernatorial emissaries. They didn’t bring light but left with a stroke. They did not want him to show up at the House. It was a booby trap. The president would step height and frame into the parliamentary chambers, and implode. They draped him in their flattery like brocaded court jesters. Their words cut the president to the quick, and his eyes barbed back in reply. He had given his word, and he was in no mood for an about face. The humbled quartet squatted out of sight. Game One: President four, Governors on all fours.

    Game Two. A NEC meeting. An ambush. The governors trembled over the prospect of a PDP enemy at the parliamentary door. They contended that the opposition lawmakers awaited the president with hangmen and snipers. To sooth their conscience, the APC governors lamented Borno’s grief, its prostrate and its dead. Pharisaic tears, but no more. Before the president could say a thing, he was procedurally incapacitated. The meeting was over. The resolution was on the record. NEC forbade the president to attend the meeting. The president exited, his voice unheard. The score: Governors 20, President yet to sore.

    My reporting found that it was not the president they loved more, but themselves. They feared his appearance would plant a precedent. If the National Assembly can invite a president, then their own houses can enact uproar. That was the private musings among the state chief executives. They were preempting a mutiny at home but castrating it in the centre.

    It was then that the question of English literacy ambushed constitutional illiteracy between governors and attorney general.  The speaker invited. He did not summon. It was an engagement, not a confrontation. The speaker visited the president, and the atmosphere of cordiality prevailed. He did not invade the villa. He did not even go to beard the lion in his den of beefy body guards and wily reptiles. He came in peace. So how could he summon the president in that ambience? He even never employed the word ‘summons.’

    The speaker did not take on the belligerence of former senate president Bukola “Eleyinmi” Saraki. He was not in the old tradition of the French Estates General that led to the guillotine, or the war between parliament and Crown where the crafty and decapitating Oliver Cromwell fomented the British Guillotine of King Charles The First.

    If Speaker Gbajabiamila was not in a mood for affray, why did Malami bring a register of verbal warfare into the fray by seeing summons in an invite? Was it a case of a bloodthirsty attorney general with a will to war shielding the president? Was he installing a nuclear arsenal in peacetime, like Putin who is so intimidated by his better rival – The United States – that he has to always boast of his military arsenal even if they make him sound like a grandiloquent cymbal? Before the Second World War, historians called a similar episode on the French and Belgian borders “the phony war.”

    That is why I wondered if this was not a case of a hallucinating minister. Maybe he is like the blind man in the New Testament miracle who saw “men like trees.” He saw that the speaker said invite, not summon. He invoked belligerency. He heard him say invite. He also has a constitution; at least, he should as SANs do. And the constitution says the house can invite the president.

    Maybe his is like the man who once saw and did not see like the folks in the novel Blindness by Jose Saramago. This is the sort of attorney general, quite like a few we have had in this republic, who misguided their leaders. Some have asserted that invitation is a subtle way to summon. But that is when there is a state of confrontation between both houses. And in that instance, both men would not meet in Aso Rock, and smile over a confrontational meeting in the wings. It just does not make constitutional sense to see it as a summons. Summons suggests consequences. No such threat exists.

    By not appearing, the president is presumed to have bowed to the governors and his chief law officer, and welshed on his word. This contradicts a president whose main public DNA is integrity. He did not come, and as at press time, he had not told us why. Neither has he canceled.

    We hope that Malami is not the force behind this ill-advised move because the minister knows little about public accountability of this sort. It is this kind of decision that made the APC first decide to dissolve the party structure of elected offices in the states and local government. The carapace of caretakers does not cover its illegality. They were not elected caretakers. This is a gangster act in a party that is unraveling like a spool in a pool. That is the first act of the party’s implosion. Until and unless the president addresses this, we shall see humpty dumpty in a great fall.

    What we are seeing is pride. The next chapter may be suicide. With the sort of advice from its governors and law officer, a free fall beckons.

     

    Sam Nda-Isaiah: Such a long time

     

    I HEARD his voice next door. He contended with another voice that would also become familiar. But it took just a few days for us to meet at Awolowo Hall at the University of Ife. When he materialised, I recognised the philter of my neighnour’s voice before the slight stature. His mind was stout, though. Later in life, his body would match his mind. In our first year, we were virtually roommates.

    When I first saw Sam Nda-Isaiah, he radiated bonhomie behind the veneer of an aggressor. The other fellow, his sparring partner, was Paul Akinsola, who studied estate management. Nda-Isaiah and Akinsola had a renaissance spirit.

    I forget the point of contention when we met, but he wanted to know my course of study. When I said History, he snapped, “You guys in the faculty of arts are autistic.” I did not know the meaning of the word, but I knew he had insulted me. I also concluded with humour that he had lost the argument. We were to meet many times in the course of our Ife sojourn sometimes to spar, but most times to say hello. When I learned he was studying pharmacy, I knew this man was not a scientist by temperament. He was the first to introduce me to the feisty Radio Kaduna political programme, perhaps the best political programme in the country at the time. When I met another roommate from the north central, law student John Kuleve Galu, Radio Kaduna etched itself more on my mind.

    •The late Nda-Isaiah

    When we left Ife, I did not hear from him until he started his life work, The Leadership newspaper. It did not surprise me. He was cut out more for the pharmacopeia of the mind and society than for the laboratory or the flesh and bone. He pored over the chemistry of votes and social dialectics; the laboratory of circumstances more than substances. He ran for president on the APC platform, and I know a few people who thought he was more than little ambitious for himself. But he was not one to be taken for small. I thought he was following his star, and it took him up and up until the icy prosecutor knocked coldly at his door at 58.

    The last time I met him was at  a dinner in Lagos a few years ago, and I reminded him that he called me autistic at our first meeting at Awolowo Hall. He didn’t remember. He couldn’t and we laughed it off. He did not say it out of spite, but out of boyish hubris in 1980. He brought a voice to journalism and politics, and we shall always have him on our mind.

     

  • Lords of slaughter

    Lords of slaughter

    By Sam Omatseye

    It began with a lone wolf. His gun was his bicep of fury. He rumbled into the village, ordered the residents to cook him a plate of rice. The villagers obliged with cunning. They ensnared his appetite first, and then tied him up. They congratulated themselves. The result was, however, worse than  what we call Pyrrhic victory, where the Greek general quipped, “One more such victory, and we are undone.” After their victory, the Zabarmari locals were done in. Like a bee before the swarm, the man attracted the Boko Haram horde. They met Zabarmari folks where they ate. One after the other, they slit their throats. It was a massacre that at least left 43 dead. The picture of the mass burial with the audacious Governor Babgana Zulum in a long, broken face haunts the nation. They left with many women for their Neanderthal lust and libido.

    It was not that it happened. It is that we are at a point of surrender. The President’s routine condolences have become part of the chorus of a national tragedy. But his tone was surrender, a paralysis of the army brass. We no longer have a strategy or even materiel to war. Like a man watching a robber rape his wife and then envying his prowess, our soldiers watched a neighbor rumble into Nigeria to take out the goons in their outposts. Garba Shehu was eager like a Rottweiler to defend the boss and ended up blaming the victim, in spite of reworking his impulse later. He responded like a government under siege.

    Where Boko Haram taxes and order cookouts, who now owns the land? They seek the predators’ protection. When they rebel, the legitimate army says they did not take permission. As the governor noted, it is catch 22. If they stay at home they die of hunger. If they go for food, they slit their throats. “I’ll rather starve than live,” noted Shakespeare in Coriolanus. Should they seek permission to be hungry, too?

    When a Sultan of Sokoto does not appeal to government but to Allah, it means we are back to Hobbes’ state of nature. It is not only about the Boko Haram, the whole nation crawls in fear. Only those who fly are free. They are like the raven watching the tiger’s jaw on the zebra. It is a scorched earth down here. Lagos to Benin, Benin to Sapele, to Warri. Abuja to Kaduna. Kano to Sokoto. It does not matter when you set forth. It could be your send forth. We have robbers and kidnappers who turn humans into merchandise. Black on black, native on native; no tribal fidelity. It is capture and sell. If they cannot sell, they butcher in parts for ritualist.

    Many goons have no homes, especially the herders. It is obligation to self, not place. It is like V.S. Naipaul’s novel, In a Free State. They are a people without a place. They are virtually in a free state, like Hobbes’ tribes. They have to root, so they have only routes. “Rootless people are always violent,” said Hannah Arendt.

    We have asked the President to dislodge his service chiefs. We must have a vision before we task generals. During the civil war, Lincoln told General Sherman about how many horses he had. Sherman complained about generals. “I can always make generals,” he said, “but not horses.” He had a vision. The generals implemented. During the Iraq war, Collin Powell said, “Our strategies for dealing with the Iraqis is very simple. First we are going to cut them off, then we’re going to kill them.”

    There is a reason for war think-tanks. You must think before you roll out the tanks.

  • Zabarmari mass murder

    Zabarmari mass murder

    By Emeka Omeihe

    The killing of 43 rice farmers in Zabarmari, Borno State is perhaps the first time in recent times the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents would visit such savagery on innocent citizens. Reports had it that rice farmers harvesting their crop were rounded up and had their throats slit in very callous and despicable manner by the blood-thirsty insurgents. Though official figures put the number of those killed at 43, some other independent sources spoke of figures much higher than this with many women feared abducted.

    Expectedly, the mass murder generated public anger and outrage especially with the public display of the corpses of the victims prior to their burial. Not unexpectedly also, the killings have again brought to the fore, the propriety of the measures put in place to fight the war against Boko Haram insurgency in that part of the country.

    Officials of the government have in their characteristic manner put up some defence apparently to absolve the government of any blame in the killings. While some of them had tended to play down the killings on the ground that terrorism is global phenomenon, others offered excuses raging from the mundane to the most puerile.

    In the latter category is the claim that the rice farmers did not get the permission of the military before venturing to their farms. Ironically, they had been farming there and were already harvesting when the insurgents struck. If they did not get any permission from the military before cultivating their crops, how come such a non- existing rule became an issue at the point of harvest? Even then, the farmers’ settlement is not far from their farms. The implication of this is that the farmers have been living and doing their business there before the insurgents decided to attack them.

    This presupposes that the military ought to have been aware of their presence unless they do not maintain some presence in that farming community. So the issue of getting permission before the farmers ventured into harvesting their rice does not add up. It is therefore improper to insinuate even remotely that the farmers put themselves in harm’s way by going to the farms to harvest. It takes a long time between the cultivation of rice and its harvest. What seems obvious is a case of the inability of the military to secure the area against the menace of the insurgents.

    This reality can neither be covered up through buck-passing nor the invention of spurious reasons to absolve the government of ineffectiveness in the conduct of the war against terrorism. That accounts for calls by the Senate and notable Nigerians on President Buhari to sack the service chiefs for their inability to get a permanent handle to security challenges buffeting the county on all fronts. Serial attempts to play down or rationalize the mortal challenge which Boko Haram is, has been the greatest undoing of efforts to degrade that terror group.

    Ironically, we have treaded this path before. It is the same mind-set that led President Buhari to declare barely five months after he mounted the saddle of leadership that he had technically won the war against Boko Haram insurgency. At another time, the claim was that the insurgents had been so degraded that they can no longer muster enough fighting power to engage our military in armed confrontation.

    But events have since proved to the contrary. The reality on the ground is that Boko Haram is still much alive and strong. We have seen that in the number of attacks they mounted against the military with serious casualties. It is very palpable in recurring abduction of women, the burning down of village settlements, looting of foodstuffs and domestic animals.

    It is also very evident from complaints by our soldiers on the handicap they face confronting the insurgents. The recent demotion of a Major General for statements credited to him on the progress of the war bears out this point very succinctly. Even with all the campaigns to play down the war, it is increasingly getting clearer that all is not well with its progress.

    Perhaps, what appeared to have changed is the paucity of information emanating from the theatre of the war.  Apart from the little information we get from the foreign media, we have had to depend on press releases from the military for information on the progress of the war. Even at that, it is clear from the little information that filters from time to time that all is not well with the overall progress of that war.

    Thus, when the governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum called for the hiring of mercenaries to assist the country fight the war against terror, he was only voicing out his frustrations with the progress of the war. But implicit in that call is the suggestion that our military as presently constituted, is largely constrained in fighting the asymmetrical warfare.

    Some may not agree with Zulum’s suggestion on the invitation of mercenaries given the way the issue was handled by the current government at its inception. But the fact that suggestion has resonated, speaks volumes on the overall state of the war. Zulum’s frustrations spoke volumes. He wears the shoes and knows where they pinch most.

    Before now, well-meaning Nigerians had voiced frustrations with the lingering terror war with suggestions on how to give a new face to the way it is being fought. Despite these well-intentioned views, the government at the centre prefers to go about it in its own way. But the strategy has not been able to neutralize the insurgents substantially.

    It is not clear why the government appears impervious to fresh ideas on the prosecution of the war. But one thing that stands out distinctly is that it has difficulty coming to terms with the lingering war five years after it claimed to have technically won it. So, reasons have to be invented to sustain that claim even when facts on the ground speak in opposite direction.

    The war against terrorism has been a victim of undue politicization right from the administration of ex-President Jonathan. We cannot forget some of the views from key personages from the north which added up to complicate the prosecution of the war at that time. Of note was the letter written by former Adamawa State governor, Muritala Nyako imputing ethnic agenda and a subterfuge to depopulate the north as the prime objective of that war. Then also, there was a conspiracy of silence from the northern elite because all was right if they culminated in regime change.

    Today, we know better. We know that the Boko Haram insurgents nurse an agenda to institute a theocratic state in this country. We now know that all the tendentious and divisive allegations by Nyako were intended to score cheap political points and get power revert to the north. That objective is now a fait accompli. But we have succeeded in creating monsters that turned round to hound us.

    Had there been elite consensus on what the Boko Haram insurgency represented at inception, that war would have by now, become history. So we are all victims of the bad politics at play in this country. Now, the reality of the insecurity pervading the country has dawned on us all. People are now talking.

    Perhaps, nothing bears out the gravity of this insecurity than the statement by the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar-led Jama’atu Nasril Isam that “Nigerians have become so much terrified as nowhere is safe; the homes, the farms and the roads. Bandits now rule in many communities, they set rules that must be obeyed”.

    That is how bad the situation has become. Is it surprising that Global Terrorism Index classified Nigeria as the third most terrorized nation in the world? When this is paired with Nigeria’s rating as the poverty capital of the world, the correlation between terrorism and poverty becomes clearer.

     

  • A Time to Gas

    A Time to Gas

    By Sam Omatseye

     

    As a little boy in the 1970’s, I was amazed at the blaze in the Ughelli sky.

    “Daddy, what is that?” I asked my father as the bus creaked into town. I was showing up for the admission test and interview to Government College, Ughelli.

    “It’s gas, Oti,” he said, warmly.

    “Cooking gas?”

    “That is not the issue, son,” said my father Moses, whose lips and eyes had run weary from my badgering of questions since the vehicle revved out of the Ibadan gate. But he never let his son’s question go without an interrogation.

    “It is Nigeria’s money and the wealth of this region wasting away every second. What you are looking at could turn this country into a paradise.”

    It was the first time I plucked the concept of paradise out of the Bible and plopped it in the affairs of men. I looked at the smoke pour upwards like a museum of colours. It was like a giant cookout in a big sprawling kitchen. Or a colossal sacrifice whose flames ferried its savour to the deity of the sky. At that time my father had lost his job, and had borrowed to accompany his son to that adventure. Yet this was God’s plenty frittering away in an array of colours, a brilliant tragedy. It was light as window on the darkness within the land, of incompetence and a prodigal spirit.

    Over the decades, billions of dollars have disappeared to the god of the sky. We have set up commissions, held seminars, editorialised, lamented. But the sky god keeps lapping up the scent. We have seen the environment suffer, air polluted and jobs evaporated. So, how can we ever benefit from this?

    We have, however, a pleasant start. A new light at the end of the tunnel. It is the car. The car came to make us move. Moving has meant danger to the environment. Crude oil made our people suffer. Farms, hunting bushes, livelihoods yielded to the march of the ravening fluid.

    With the new policy to turn cars into dual-fuel capabilities, the government now says all the waste will become wealth for the mobile.

    “We are giving autogas. Gas will become fuel for cars,” announced oil minister Timipre Sylva. “If you go to a filling station and you convert your car to dual capability or dual fuel, then you drive into a typical filling station and you will find gas LPG, you will find CNG and LNG being sold.”

    The conversion will come for free, according to the minister and the NNPC.

    It is now a move from danger to ease, to turn Golgotha into an Eden. Like all technologies, it will start slow, but it is worth encouraging. It will be an uppercut at crude oil, but it is a future we cannot escape.

    It is high time we embraced the future before it blindsides us. So that is what we are seeing in the works now. Cars can now join the world in its journey into a post-oil dispensation. The Department of Petroleum Resources has ordered 9,000 filling stations across the country.

    It is also cheaper. In this era of high petroleum costs and fulminating labour, cars can get on the road without griping at the purse. Sylva said the government will turn one million vehicles into dual-fuel mode by the end of 2021, and this will make it the year of gas.

    If the synergy between the minister and Mele Kyari, the group managing director of the NNPC, is helping its smooth sailing, the BOS of Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is in the groove as Nigeria’s flagship state. Both have pitched in with the introduction of the 8,400 metric tonnes Liquefied Petroleum Gas terminal by Techno Oil Limited in Apapa.

    With Emefiele’s CBN infusing N250 billion loan, it will enable the project to follow its lead for a cheaper, saner fuel dispensation for the people.

    It is not good news for crude or oil spill, or the big majors who have for decades plundered and defended the plunder of the poor folks in the oil-rich states. It is time to move away. I wish we could follow it quickly, and let the atmosphere free from ravages. It is an irony that it is nature coming to the rescue of itself.

    We have been told over the years that Nigeria has more gas than crude, and we could tap prosperity. It all seemed surrender for years. We were told there was no profit in it. Too expensive. It has first been a failure of the imagination.  Technology is the cure for nature. As Karl Popper noted, we cannot predict the future because we cannot predict technology.  If this works, it will be a triumph over nature. It will guarantee more job, and set in a motion a new economy, new skills, new engineers and managers, new entrepreneurs, and of course, it will reconfigure our politics. Commuters will pay less on public transport and the about two million jobs may result. The federal government wants to unveil Autogas-capable buses to labour. Few, but it is a start.

     

  • Who’s to blame?

    Who’s to blame?

    By Femi Macaulay

     

    Insecurity is the question. What is the answer? Finding a solution to widespread and escalating insecurity in Nigeria requires tackling the menacing combination of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping.

    The recent massacre of farmers by Boko Haram terrorists at Zabarmari, Borno State, was an alarming evidence of undefeated terrorism. The army gave an excuse, saying Boko Haram would have been defeated a long time ago but for the enemies of Nigeria supporting the group to destabilise the country.

    The acting director, Army Public Relations, Col Sagir Musa, said in an article:  “There is an international conspiracy to cut Nigeria to size and compromise national renegades making attempts to destabilise and dismember Nigeria if possible in subservience to the international paymasters, who are the owners of Boko Haram. They train them, arm them, finance them and supply their logistics.”

    Who are these external enemies of Nigeria backing terrorists against the Federal Government? This claim needs to be clarified. It is not enough to make such a serious claim without supplying proof. Importantly, even if such a situation exists, it does not justify the apparent incapacity of the country’s armed forces.

    The army also claimed that local saboteurs were working against the counter-terrorism effort, and issued a statement warning “all groups or communities hobnobbing with Boko Haram/ISWAP to sever such relations.” The army alleged that such collaboration included providing information and intelligence on troops, logistics supply and trading with the terrorists.

    The statement listed Benisheik, Jakana, Mainok, Magumeri, Gajiram and Gubio, all in Borno State, alleging that these communities harboured   “unpatriotic and heartless criminal elements.”

    This accusation of local collaboration with Boko Haram terrorists also needs to be clarified. In a climate of fear, engendered by the reality of undefeated terrorism, it is predictable that locals could be forced to cooperate with the insurgents.  The solution is to liberate the locals from the fear of terrorists by eliminating the terrorists.

    Blaming alleged international backers of terrorism and alleged local collaborators for the prolonged war on terrorism cannot excuse the failure of the country’s armed forces.  The armed forces are expected to surmount such challenges to achieve the objective of the anti-terrorism effort.

    The truth is that the armed forces need to be strengthened in order to be able to win the war against terrorism.  Notably, Lance Corporal Martins Idakpini of the 8 Division, Sokoto, of the Nigerian Army, dared to speak truth to power in a 12-minute video that went viral in June.

    “I’m highly disappointed in your command,” he said, addressing Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai.  He called the army boss “a coward, a traitor and a betrayer,” adding that the loyalty of the rank and file to the army leadership must be earned.

    “You have failed,” he said, addressing Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin. “You should be ashamed of yourselves,” he said, addressing the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno, and the Minister of Defence, Bashir Salihi Magashi, both retired army generals.

    “I’m a concerned Nigerian,” Idakpini explained. “We cannot continue to keep quiet when people are dying… many of our colleagues are dying.” He added that “innocent soldiers” were locked up in the guardroom indefinitely for complaining about inadequate weapons to fight insecurity.

    “We need to restructure this army in order to achieve peace in the country,” he declared. He also criticised the Muhamadu Buhari presidency and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). “I’m ready to face court martial,” he said fearlessly.

    Significantly, in two other videos, soldiers involved in the war against terrorism had also claimed that the army was ill-equipped to defeat the terrorists. In one video, a former theatre commander, Major General Olusegun Adeniyi, was seen and heard telling troops that “it appears the people we are fighting have more firepower than us…” He has been court-martialled for embarrassing and ridiculing the armed forces.

    The authorities cannot continue to ignore the apparent exposure of the incapacity of the armed forces to tackle terrorism. Blaming their failure on external factors, without addressing conditions within the armed forces that militate against the success of the anti-terrorism effort, amounts to denying reality.

    Interestingly, it is not only the leadership of the armed forces that is playing a blame game.  For instance, at the recent fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) which discussed the challenges of insecurity and COVID-19, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, lamented that the North had become the worst place to live in Nigeria because of increasing insecurity.

    “A few weeks ago, over 76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto State in a day,” he recounted.  The revered traditional ruler painted a disturbing picture showing a breakdown of law and order. He said: “People think the North is safe, but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country. Bandits go around in the villages, households and markets with their AK 47 and nobody is challenging them. They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts I know because I am at the centre of it.”

    No one disputes the Sultan’s account. But he got it all wrong by blaming the media.  “Unfortunately, you don’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the North. We have accepted the fact that the North does not have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits,” he said.

    It is difficult to understand the Sultan’s blame game. It is puzzling that he introduced a regional perception.  It is simply untrue that the media has under-reported insecurity, which is a country-wide experience.  The media cannot be detached from the country’s realities because its essence demands professional reporting of real life. The need to find a solution to insecurity should override unprovable arguments about media neglect.

    Insecurity continues to attract attention. But there are no solutions yet. It is the responsibility of the authorities to tackle insecurity, and it is necessary to move beyond the blame game and find a solution to the problem.

    Tragically, increasing insecurity suggests that the authorities lack the capacity to tackle the security crisis. That is the ultimate failure.

  • Fashola’s alarm

    Fashola’s alarm

    By Emeka Omeihe

    When Mamman Daura, cousin to President Buhari recently called for the jettisoning of rotational presidency for the most qualified in the 2023 election, many smelt a rat. Daura had while speaking on a BBC Hausa service program said: “this turn by turn, it was done once, it was done twice and done thrice…it should be for the most competent and not someone who comes from somewhere”. He dismissed calls for power shift arguing that it was time for Nigerians to unite and go for the most qualified.

    Those conversant with political events in the country were taken aback by Daura’s position not necessarily because of the substance of the issue canvassed but the quarters it emanated from. It was not surprising that the advocacy was read as an attempt to test the ground for the possible dumping of the zoning principle by the ruling All Progressives Congress APC.

    And when this is paired with the cacophony of voices from sections of the north on the same issue, suspicions became high that something untoward is about happen to the zoning principle which had been a balancing force to accommodate the interests of the diverse groups and stabilize the polity.  But it was a matter of time for this suspicion to assume practical shape.

    Thus, when the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola last week made a serious case for his party, the APC to respect its zoning formula in picking the presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, one was not left with any iota of doubt that all is not well with that arrangement within the ruling party. Then also, it began to dawn on all that Daura was not just speaking for himself when he called for the scrapping of zoning for allegedly not serving the overall best interest of the country.

    Fashola had told reporters covering the APC that though zoning is not in the party’s constitution, but the leaders of the party had an agreement on it when the party was being formed. The legal luminary argued “the truth is that what makes an agreement spectacular is the honour in which it is made not whether it is written. The private agreement you make with your brother and sister should not be breached, it must be honoured”.

    According to him, the nearest thing to zoning in the party’s constitution is implied in Article 20 which states: Election and Appointments (iv) Criteria for nomination (6) that states “All such rules, regulations and guidelines shall take into consideration and uphold the principle of federal character, gender balance, geo-political spread and rotation of office, to as much as possible, ensure balance within the constituency covered”.

    It is not clear what prompted the minister to argue so persuasively for the APC not to abandon the zoning agreement which leaders entered into when the party was being formed. Neither did he state why he chose this time to remind members of that understanding.

    But given the way Fashola spoke, drawing parallels with other agreements that are kept irrespective of their not being written, there is everything to suggest an attempt within some quarters in the party to ditch the zoning arrangement. That deduction is not in doubt as it is the logical outcome of the case the minister strove to make. There is the further extrapolation that those in the vanguard of this move, base their argument on the fact that the APC constitution did not explicitly contain provisions for the rotation of presidency between the northern and southern parts of the country.

    Yet, we are faced with the implication that such moves are coming from the section of the country that is currently occupying that elated office. That should not by in doubt in view of the strident efforts being mounted by key political personages from the southern divide to have the two major political parties zone that office to the south in 2023.

    Just a fortnight ago, Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi ditched his party, the Peoples Democratic Party for the APC for what he called the injustice of not zoning that office to the Southeast. Before then, the Southeast had been making a serious case for that office given that it remains the only zone within the southern Nigerian divide that is yet to have a taste of that key national office since the return to civil rule in 1999.

    Within the Southwest where the major alliance that gave the incumbent president victory at the 2015 elections was nurtured, expectations are that the presidential ticket will naturally devolve to that geo-political zone. So if Fashola took out time to remind his party members of the need to keep faith with an understanding to rotate the presidency, it is very likely some of their party members have begun to exploit the fact that the constitution of the party was not very explicit on that.

    That is my reading of the self-assigned campaign Fashola mounted against those seeking to discard rotational presidency hiding on fact that it was not explicitly captured in the party’s constitution. Fashola has reminded such people that there is an unwritten agreement to that effect and the party should keep faith with it. That should go without saying.

    Even then, the same document contains such provisions as federal character principle, gender balance, geo-political spread and rotation as some of the principles that should guide action. But even if the issue of rotation was not clearly captured in the constitution of the party, the dictates of our federal contraption makes it imperative that it is one principle that is not negotiable. It devolves naturally from the diversities of our federal order.

    So the argument on whether rotational presidency is unambiguously inserted into the APC constitution or not and the modalities for it, is patently unnecessary. Rotation, balance and federal character principle are irreducible decimals in a heterogeneous, multi-ethnic and multi-religious country as Nigeria. They are the necessary ingredients without which a federal arrangement will lose taste.

    That the issue resonated within the ruling party such that the minister had to take up the case shows all that is wrong with us as a country. It shows the duplicity of some political elites and vested interests constantly on a devious voyage of exploiting loopholes to heat up the polity and cause confusion. Yet, those who represented the south during the drafting and approval of that constitution committed a mortal error by failing to explicitly insert rotation of the presidency between the north and south and among the geo-political zones in that all important document.

    Had they been more circumspect and politically discerning especially given the rancour and bitter competition for that office, they would have saved the likes of Fashola the trouble of trying to persuade some sections that an unwritten agreement should be binding. But it is a wrong analogy to compare unwritten family agreements or that of social clubs with constitutions of political parties. The futility of that argument is obvious from whatever developments that compelled the minister to speak the way he did. It is hoped he was not part of the team that drafted that document. If he was, too bad!

    It is yet unclear the reasons one section of the country would seek to monopolize that national office. But if the kite flown by Daura is anything to go by, competence is touted as the key factor. Yes, competence! But there is nothing to suggest that people with sterling credentials for that office can only be found in a section of the country. And it appears a new song to seek to discard zoning after it helped the incumbent president to win the 2015 elections. We cannot forget events that shaped that election in a hurry.

    The idea of zoning is to ensure that competent people from all sections of the country are given the opportunity to vie for the highest political office in the land. It is a stabilizing factor in a heterogeneous society. More than anything else, zoning is dictated by the devious deployment of coercive apparatus of state on these shores to thwart the will of the electorate. It is a safeguard against domination that can only be ignored at a great risk.

     

  • Where are the gentlemen?

    Where are the gentlemen?

    Femi Macaulay

     

    Logically, a gentlemen’s agreement should mean that the involved parties know what it means to be a gentleman. The argument that Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), should choose its presidential candidate in 2023 based on an alleged gentlemen’s agreement implies that the party’s leadership understands what it means to be a gentleman.

    Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola recently claimed there was an agreement within the APC that its presidential candidate in the next election would be chosen based on a zoning arrangement.  This is expected to favour presidential aspirants from the South after President Muhammadu Buhari’s two-term tenure which is viewed as a northern era.  Power rotation is designed to allow the North and South to rule the country in alternation.

    It is unclear where the said agreement was reached, and who was involved.  But a former chairman of the party in Lagos State, Henry Ajomale, was reported saying: “I was part of the meeting where that agreement was reached, and it will do our party a lot of good if we can keep to the terms of that agreement as anything contrary may portend doom for APC.”

    The voices making the argument sound unsure of the party’s position. It looks like some party members are afraid the party might eventually move in a contrary direction. Indeed, the party’s position on the matter is unclear. If there was such an agreement, the party should not need a reminder.

    Those who are drawing attention to the alleged agreement face conflicting signals from certain quarters within the party. For instance, the Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has been reported saying the party’s presidential candidate in 2023 would not be picked based on a zoning plan.

    He said: “Everybody could see that the place is open whether you call it with reference to 2023 or reference to any election, it’s about the fact that the spirit of political contest in the party is now very high…The pertinent point to make here is that nobody can say President Buhari has decided or there is a decision on the party, this is where it would go.

    ”That is why in the whole speculation out there in the public, you will see that there are so many names that are being put in the public space which means that in 2023 there would be a contest in APC… By extension, it serves a death knell that marks the end of foreclosure in political contests in Nigerian politics. What we are saying is that foreclosure in our political contests is dead.”

    It is unclear if he was speaking for the party. But he may well have expressed the thoughts of members of the PGF. The group of APC governors, currently comprising 19 governors, is regarded as a powerful and influential interest group within the party. There is no doubt that the group’s thinking on this issue matters and deserves attention.

    Ironically, the latest member of the PGF, Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC, is believed to have a presidential ambition that he thinks can be realised in his new party based on a zoning arrangement. Umahi is from the South-East, which is a part of the South. The other parts are South-West and South-South.

    Notably, the PGF’s statement welcoming Umahi said: “Our message to all Nigerians is clear – politics is all about free, fair and transparent contestation. APC belongs to every member. Everyone from every part of the country is free to aspire for any position in the party in line with provisions of our party’s constitution and the 1999 Constitution, as amended.”

    This is the crux of the matter. The provisions of the party’s constitution and the country’s constitution are one thing; the logic of a gentlemen’s agreement is another matter entirely. It is convenient to cite constitutional provisions, which are written and formal. It may be inconvenient to acknowledge an unwritten and informal agreement that demands a sense of honour.

    Was there an agreement in the APC to zone the presidency in 2023? If there was such a deal, and the party’s presidential candidate the next time is supposed to come from the South, there is still a complication because the South comprises three parts.

    Why does Umahi, for instance, think the party would favour the South-East? His move was opportunistic and egoistic. His opportunism is based on his thinking that the APC would support not only an aspirant from the South but one from the South-East. His egoism is based on his delusion that in such a situation he would be the obvious choice. There must be other APC members from his zone who want to be president.

    Of course, there are APC members from the South-West and South-South who also want to be president under a zoning arrangement that favours the South.

    This means that the party may need to endorse a particular geopolitical zone within the South. The idea of zoning the presidency demands such particularisation in the circumstances, which raises further issues.

    Those who claim there is an APC agreement to zone the presidency in 2023 need to address the question of which specific geopolitical zone. Fashola, for instance, is from the South-West, and has not stated whether he thinks the said arrangement should favour his geopolitical zone or another geopolitical zone in the South.

    Significantly, there is also a hot zoning controversy in the PDP concerning the 2023 presidential election. There are voices in the party who want a zoning arrangement that favours the South.  With the country’s two major parties facing a zoning problem that is potentially paralysing, it promises to be an intensely dramatic build-up to the next presidential election.

    If, for instance, the PDP picks a presidential candidate from the North, which comprises the North- Central, North-East and North-West geopolitical zones, what would happen to the said pro-South zoning agreement in the APC?  If both parties decide to pick presidential candidates from the South, how will they decide on which particular geopolitical zone?

    The problem with a gentlemen’s agreement, especially one involving the country’s politicians, is that it takes gentlemen to honour such an agreement.  Even when there is no such deal, gentlemen are expected to choose the path of honour. In the final analysis, political parties ought to act honourably.

  • At his Feet

    At his Feet

    Sam Omatseye

     

    THE most enduring legacy of Diego Amando Maradona for us in Nigeria, may not be on the turf of play. It may be political. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was the victim and culprit. He manipulated politics in a way that evoked the magisterial vista of the Argentine maestro.

    Both men mastered their turf. One left sweat, tears, cheers and boos. The other deposited blood, fear, tears and cheers. One was a thieving genius, the other a self-proclaimed evil genius.

    While the diminutive ball juggler made an obstacle course of defences, IBB slalomed the world of politics. He turned election against politician, politician against soldiers and soldiers against bureaucrats. From the stands, the people cheered and booed, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes together. At times, they were not sure whether to do either, or both. At long last, the sunset came for both men. But for people such as Diego and IBB, they make too much impact, good or bad, for the sunset not to leave a halo.

    As Diego passes we know the folk hero as god, a god of soccer in the Argentine shrine. But his worshippers transcend race and borders. Black and white, Asian, European, African and South America, including Brazil where they love to hate him. He started as a rough-hewn area boy, but after riches and fame, he died still a rough-hewn. He enjoyed the fame. But he was not comfortable with celebrity. He loved the wealth, and unfurled it in a lifestyle whose obscenity seemed a revolt against plenty. Drugs, women, Rolex, parties. Many wanted him to be a light. He never saw himself in that light. He probably rebelled against it. He might have loved the contradiction. He a poor man who associated with the people’s politics. He was an anti-elitist elite. A traitor to his class.

    The story of his life was told within four minutes in 1986. He scored a goal with a hand. While many were panting over a cheat, he dazzled with honesty. He picked the ball from his own half and undertook a dribble run, beating every player on his way including the goal keeper. He netted perhaps the best individual goal in the history of the game. The British press called him the Argentine thief. He said it was a holy, transcendental moment in soccer. So he said it was the “hand of God.” In the words of Peter Abelard of the age of Transformation, God became man. But his hand was Satan, his feet divine. Rather than punishment, he earned victory. Rather than infamy, he found redemption, a golden boot and a world cup trophy. His aerial larceny became a lance on England’s skin. The thief handed England a humiliation. He became a Barabbas of soccer. He got absolution without confession, or he let out a confession as defiance.

    Again, Maradona was a metaphor for crime with a reward. It also was comeuppance for England, a deuce of doom. The South American nation had recently sunk a British warship in a war over the Falklands Island. The World Cup match was not just two nations sweating and trading tackles in a friendly affray to entertain a bored world, it was a grudge from sea storm to turf of play. If all was fair in war, Maradona was not the sort of guy who did not know its significance for a critical world cup match. The British press anticipated revenge. Instead, the former colonial power crumbled. The press expected England to do its duty. The argentine stole it. It was not fair. So, too, was colonialism.

    Nigeria did not have a great memory with the bard of soccer moves. They beat us in USA, and when the match ended, he likened the Nigerian defence to Mike Tyson. He was perhaps the most bruised soccer forward in world cup history. Pele is second. If he triumphed against African countries, he did not forget Cameroun till he died. The African nation was led by Roger Milla, 38, who danced to scorn after scoring. I remember that evening at the weekend Concord newsroom. Editor Mike Awoyinfa, with an eye for moments, titled: the story, Maragoner.

    The story of the Argentine player is often interlocked with Pele O’Rei. Who is the GOAT, the greatest player of all time? The problem with many assessors of Pele is that they were not in the moment as they were with the Argentine. They watched the clips. They never witnessed the tension, suspense, surprise, the immediacies or value the victory first-hand. They are too close to Diego to be impartial. They tend to give it to Maradona. There are quite a few parameters to use. They include skills, set pieces, goals, great moments, team player and legacy. Some have said the Argentine wins in skills and team player categories because he was an attacking midfielder, who had to sweat through thickets of defence. Pele, on the other hand, played advanced forward, and did not have the fight that Diego had.

    They also say Pele savoured a complement of great players like Jairzinho and Alberto.  They may be right, but Pele was a master of ball control around the eighteen yard box. He hardly scored an easy goal. Was it the one in which he, a small man like Diego, lofted high and crowned the effort with a header? He did not use a divine hand. Or the play in which he beat every player in sight on the goal keeper’s box and lifted the ball over a defender’s head? Was it a goal he scored from the centre field? Even if they give it to Maradona, they cannot take away Pele’s number of goals, netting 12 goals and 10 assists in 14 world cup appearances while Maradona had seven goals and 8 assists in 21 appearances. The point that Maradona played for Napoli in Europe and Pele at Santos in Brazil does not diminish the Brazillian club games. Santos was a great club that even won two club world cups. Pele said if Diego scored over 1000 goals as he did in his career, the conversation could begin. Goals make soccer’s fruition, and the master of it is the master.

    The stats show Maradona wins the set piece category. For great moments, Pele clutches it. He has three world cup, Maradona has one. If Pele had big players, we cannot punish him for his blessings. Legacy goes to Pele with three world cup wins, and a scandal-free career and life. Diego was a colourful hero, Pele a bland brand. The game is about legends, and Pele tops the Argentine.

    Nevertheless, the humanity of Maradona is inescapable. He associated with the Argentine poor, and even spent as though he wanted to be poor for plebian authenticity. He even associated with leftist leaders like Da Silva, Chavez, Castro.

    But there is one person he reminds me of: Haruna Ilerika, Nigeria’s best. I have seen players in the country since the 1970’s. No one had the ball control abilities, dribble run, colour and team spirit like him. He played at the wrong time, before global television age and universal scouting. Ilerika would have been in a conversation of the greats today. Unfortunately, we don’t even have the videos of his plays.

    Diego’s deity is his feet, even when they are made of clay.

     

    In Jos, Barabbas and Jesus

     

    TWO things happened recently, all connected with Plateau. One gives you reason to cheer about Nigeria’s moral future. We all saw the theater of looting of palliatives. But about two thousands of them confessed after a sermon by Pastor Ezekiel Dachomo of the Church of Christ in Nations. Of their own freewill, they returned the loot from a penitent heart. They asked for forgiveness. Their souls no longer warehouse guilt but pardon. They are the Barabbas of the Nigerian soul. They stole but had the audacity to confess. Penitence tortures far more than hardihood. It takes a crumbling of the spirit to confess in public to stealing, especially if you did it with a mob and got away with it.

    The contrast is that of Yakubu Gowon, former head of state. A British member of parliament said Gowon brought “half of the Central Bank” of Nigeria with him to the UK after he was ousted in Murtala’s coup of 1975. He had no evidence. It adds to the apocryphal tales of the EndSars narratives. No one has ever vouchsafed Gowon to any scandal. When he was a student in the UK, he was even mocked by the British press for lining up, plate in hand, for food in the dining hall. He was a former head of state. They expected him to be dining in a London mansion.

    Jos posted two countervailing skeins. A lie about looting, and looters who confessed the truth. It’s like the story of Jesus and Barabbas. Barabbas the thief gets redemption. Gowon, like Jesus, was innocent, but the MP installs a hangman’s noose for him.

     

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