The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Wave of endorsements, defections, and statesmanship on global stage

    Wave of endorsements, defections, and statesmanship on global stage

    The past week has undoubtedly been one of the most affirming in the political trajectory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. What began as a stirring show of party loyalty within Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) evolved into a symbolic demonstration of national unity and international statesmanship—one that carried President Tinubu from the halls of Abuja to the sacred altars of Vatican City.

    At home, his leadership received a powerful vote of confidence. The APC National Summit, convened under the banner of the Renewed Hope Agenda: The Journey So Far, became a platform for what can only be described as a political coronation. One after the other, every critical organ of government and the party—the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), the National Assembly leadership, and the National Working Committee (NWC)—stood in a unified chorus, affirming Tinubu as the sole candidate of the APC for the 2027 presidential election. It was not just a declaration of political support; it was a resounding endorsement of the President’s performance and his vision for Nigeria’s future.

    The APC National Summit was more than just a policy review. It was a moment of reckoning. On Thursday, inside the Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja, Nigeria’s political elite stood still. Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, who is also the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), the rallying structure of governors elected on the platform of the ruling APC, moved the motion that set the political tone: President Tinubu, he declared, should be adopted as the party’s flagbearer in 2027. The motion was not only seconded by Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani but was also met with thunderous applause from attendees—evidence of an unshakable popularity and consensus.

    Governor Uzodimma spoke not merely as a peer, but as a party steward who has watched Tinubu’s reforms with a keen eye. “We are charged to market our federal government policies, to occupy the political space in our domains, and take responsibility for winning all elections in our states come 2027,” he said, encapsulating the APC’s evolving strategic posture—one in which all hands are on deck to deliver on the President’s promise.

    Then came the second wave—arguably even more consequential. The leadership of the National Assembly followed suit. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, his voice charged with conviction, proposed Tinubu not only as the APC’s candidate but as the “sole candidate for the whole Nigerian population in 2027.” Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, representing the House of Representatives, seconded the motion on behalf of 469 federal legislators and 36 State Assembly speakers.

    Akpabio’s words rang with unusual clarity: “Not notice of impeachment… but a notice of confidence, a notice of loyalty, and a notice of reward.” He referenced the difficult decisions taken by the President—particularly the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of exchange rates—and hailed them as foundational to Nigeria’s long-term economic growth. According to him, Tinubu’s political sagacity had earned him a re-election by merit, not just sentiment.

    Finally, the clincher: Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, National Chairman of the APC, stood to make the declaration official. “As the Chairman of the party and as the only recognized platform to field a candidate in any election, I hereby affirm the endorsement of the President,” he said. The room, once again, erupted in cheers.

    What makes these endorsements even more significant is the timing. President Tinubu is barely two years into his first term. In the political calendar, this is traditionally a period of caution, quiet lobbying, and strategy meetings behind closed doors. But Tinubu has rewritten the script. The party machinery has been galvanized to action. From Delta to Rivers, from Akwa Ibom to Kano, defections from opposition parties—particularly the once-dominant PDP—are not only increasing, they are becoming symbolic victories in regions that historically resisted APC’s growth.

    Delta State, a long-time PDP fortress, has experienced a dramatic political shift. In recent weeks, nearly all the key political players that once sustained the PDP’s relevance in the state have decamped to the APC. These are not mere political opportunists—they are power brokers and grassroots mobilizers who understand which way the wind is blowing. And now, that wind is clearly moving in Tinubu’s favour.

    Similarly, Akwa Ibom and Rivers—states with deep opposition roots—are showing signals of realignment. The gale of defections is no longer a trickle but a stream with growing momentum. As these developments unfold, regional blocs have also begun to adopt Tinubu as their preferred candidate for 2027. North-Central made the first move. Northwest followed. And now, with the APC summit sealing the party’s formal endorsement, the coast appears clearer than ever.

    In his address at the Summit, Tinubu returned the favour with clarity, humility, and a renewed commitment. “The endorsement today, the ‘carry-go’ inspiration; I know road,” he declared in his characteristically direct style. His speech was part gratitude, part vision statement, and part rallying cry.

    Read Also: Defections not Tinubu’s fault, Ex-Osun lawmaker tells PDP, opposition parties

    He acknowledged the harsh reforms he had undertaken—especially those that struck a nerve with vested interests—but emphasized their necessity. “You don’t commit abortion after the baby is born. That’s murder,” he said metaphorically, defending his immediate removal of the fuel subsidy. Tinubu framed his economic interventions not as cruel measures but as corrective actions long overdue.

    On corruption, he was resolute. Citing the EFCC’s recovery of 750 properties from a single individual, he promised no sacred cows. He also urged the National Assembly to pass key tax reform bills, which he described as vital to plugging loopholes and redirecting resources to healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

    And on a more personal note, Tinubu used the occasion to dispel rumours about a rift with Vice President Kashim Shettima. “We’re a tag-team,” he said, offering a symbolic olive branch to those speculating about political friction within the presidency.

    While the events in Abuja underscored his domestic strength, President Tinubu’s trip to Vatican City showcased his growing influence on the global stage. On Sunday last week, he joined world leaders and religious dignitaries at the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV. For a Muslim leader to attend the installation Mass of a Catholic Pope—and do so with grace, reverence, and charm—spoke volumes about Nigeria’s commitment to interfaith harmony and the President’s own political maturity.

    Tinubu didn’t just show up; he made a statement. Exchanging pleasantries with the Pope, sharing a symbolic handshake, and meeting Nigerian bishops in Rome, he presented a portrait of a Nigeria at peace with its religious diversity. “If we use our diversity not for adversity but for prosperity, the country’s hope is stability and progress,” he told the bishops.

    The encounter with one of his political rivals, Peter Obi, provided an unexpectedly warm moment. In a scene that quickly went viral back home, Obi—accompanied by former Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi—greeted Tinubu with laughter and mutual respect. “Mr. President, welcome to our church,” Fayemi quipped. “I should be the one welcoming you,” Tinubu replied, drawing laughter from Obi. “I’m the Head of the Nigerian Delegation.”

    This was no mere banter. It was an act of political symbolism—a glimpse of what civility could look like in Nigeria’s fractious politics. For a country yearning for unity and stability, such gestures matter.

    President Tinubu’s current standing—domestically endorsed, internationally respected—positions him as the man to beat in 2027. That his party is rallying behind him so early is a testament not only to his reforms but also to his ability to manage the complex layers of Nigeria’s political landscape.

    But perhaps more importantly, Tinubu is redefining what incumbency should look like: a mixture of bold policy, inclusive politics, and symbolic outreach. Whether meeting a Pope or shaking hands with a political rival, the President is walking a path that blends conviction with pragmatism.

    The winds of 2027 seem to be blowing squarely in his favour. The summit in Abuja may have given him the party’s blessing, but the symbolic scenes in Rome reminded the world that this is a leader thinking beyond borders, beyond factions—towards something larger: the renewal of hope.

    Reform, Recognition, and Renewed Commitment to National Excellence

    Meanwhile, during the past week, President Tinubu continued to demonstrate the full spectrum of his leadership—balancing the demands of governance with the dignity of recognition, the vision of reform with the grace of celebration. While much of the national spotlight remained fixed on his endorsement as the party’s sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election and his diplomatic triumph at the Vatican, President Tinubu’s dedication to national development and celebration of Nigerians stood out in powerful ways.

    A defining moment came on Thursday with the inauguration of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd). In a ceremony held in his office at the State House, President Tinubu charged the newly constituted board with a bold task: anchor the administration’s economic reform agenda and lead the transformation of Nigeria’s critical energy sector.

    His message was direct and empowering. “It took a while to come up with the kind of character that you represent,” he told the board members. “You have the reputation, resourcefulness, and experience to help the country. It is a call to duty.” He emphasized that the country’s economy—on the rebound thanks to his reform measures—needs a revitalized energy sector driven by innovation, competence, and home-grown solutions.

    “Explore all options for a win-win situation for Nigeria,” he urged, signalling a new era of expectation and accountability. In entrusting such an important portfolio to a board of tested professionals, Tinubu reinforced the seriousness of his administration’s agenda to reposition Nigeria for energy independence and global competitiveness.

    In tandem with his economic focus, the President continued a tradition that has come to define his leadership style—honouring Nigerians of merit across generations, disciplines, and borders. On Tuesday, he celebrated Prince Lawal Obelawo at 95, lauding the elder statesman’s contributions to industrial development and philanthropy as a symbol of enduring patriotism.

    On Wednesday, Tinubu turned his gaze overseas to the UK, where two British-Nigerians—Opeyemi Bright and Jason Jackson—made history as mayors. Bright, only 29, became the youngest-ever Civic Mayor of Barking and Dagenham, while Jackson emerged as the first Nigerian-born Mayor of Islington since 1900. In recognizing them, the President saluted the Nigerian spirit of excellence thriving abroad.

    Back home on Friday, the President’s voice rang with traditional respect and generational appreciation. He hailed the coronation of Oba Clement Adesuyi Haastrup as the Owa Obokun of Ijeshaland, calling on the new monarch to uphold unity and heritage. That same day, he celebrated Professor Modupe Adelabu, former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, at 75, praising her as a beacon of academic excellence and a role model for women, and Senator Magnus Abe at 60, applauding his contributions to national unity and public service.

    It was a week that revealed President Tinubu not just as a reformer or statesman, but as a leader deeply attuned to the nation’s pulse—honouring tradition, celebrating achievement, and boldly steering Nigeria toward a better future.

    It is a new week, there is no saying what it might hold in store. I can bet though that Mr President will unveil new marvels that we can analyze together. Let’s for what the next will be.

  • Adedamola Dada bows out as CMD of Federal Medical Centre Ebute Metta in blaze of unparalleled adulation

    Adedamola Dada bows out as CMD of Federal Medical Centre Ebute Metta in blaze of unparalleled adulation

    I’ve heard so much about the top notch services provided by the Federal Medical Centre(FMC), Ebute Meta, Lagos, Nigeria.

    Then the other evening I saw an empty glasses’ case in the back pouch of the passenger seat of the cab I was taking home.

    I called the attention of the driver to it.

    “Oh”, he said, “it’s for my neighbour …”

    Then he told the story of his pregnant neighbour whom he had driven with her husband and their relative, who owned the case, to a hospital when the lady started contracting.

    They were eventually referred to FMC. According to the driver, this was where he saw a different kind of fascinating public hospital.

    “All the staff, doctors and nurses, were on their feet and took charge,” he gushed.

    He went on and on talking about how the expectant mother got all the attention she needed,”right from my car.”

    Many thanks, Dr Adedamola Dada for instituting that culture of excellence at the Centre.

    May your tribe increase” – that was the ever scintillating journalist, Taiwo Obe, Founder, Director at the Journalism Clinic, who in Lagos in August 1983, gave me my first ever newspaper interview when,  together with my family, I had to rapidly escape from the political maelstrom then convulsing Ondo state.

    Debonair Dr Adedamola Dada is a class act, indeed, one in a million. I write here about a man I have known for like ages, a self effacing, yet confident, stylish, and charming Medical professional who I have seen, at very close quarters, repeatedly turn down an offer of being appointed a state commissioner of Health, even as the governor, trusting  his competences, was insistent.

    A consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon of repute, Dr Dada is an admirably proficient Administrator, leading with panache, and an ability to build and enhance unity of purpose amongst his staff, as I last saw the late, but fondly remembered, Professor Ladipo Akinkugbe  do during those our early days at the University College, Ilorin, now University of Ilorin.

    This leadership model would end up paying huge dividends for the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Meta which was, at a time, almost indistinguishable from the old, and rustic, Railway compound, Apapa Road, Ebute Meta.

    Confirming the hospital’s exit from that position of near obscurity to one of  great renown and respect, H.H. Etim, the Centre’s Director of Administration wrote in his invitation to invitees to the send off event in honour of Dada:”DR Adedamola Dada in a space of a few years has transformed our hospital from a little known centre to the reference centre and standard setting institution in the Nigerian public health space, mentoring over forty institutions including teaching hospitals and providing training and technical support to many public, military and even public hospitals”. “Our facility, he went on, witnessed unprecedented growth with utilization increasing by over 80 per cent and the institution’s asset base growing by over 100 per cent”, adding for emphasis, that “it is therefore necessary for us, as grateful staff of the hospital, to celebrate the man who has led us to achieve these unprecedented growths in the last couple of years”.

    As I was quite familiar with many of Dr Dada’s phenomenal developmental strides at the hospital, many of my colleagues on the Board of Management of the Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Niger state, then, would readily recall my references to Dada’s innovations, one of them being when he automated the hospital’s funds collection system and brought in Remita.

    Knowing the challenges facing his rustic hospital, with old and massively deteriorating infrastructure, and further compounded by the antics of some corrupt staff who were diverting funds, Dr Dada knew he had to act fast and to do so, he had to be innovative.

    In his own words, this was the point at which he keyed into Remita:”We automated our funds collection system and brought in Remita. Every single kobo in the hospital is now collected by Remita”.

    The result, he said, was instantaneous

    As soon as he resolved the hospital’s financial conundrum, Dr Dada paid off the debts owed contractors and immediately began a process of retrofitting the dilapidated Centre in such a manner that a visiting journalist could describe what he saw as follows:”I observed that access door to each of the wards is automated. The polyvinyl flooring contrasted beautifully with the Led-lighting systems as new air conditioners coo and cool the air. Patients are on hydraulic beds as uniformed cleaners are on standby to clear any mess. There are kitchenettes in every ward and toilets are squeaky clean. Except for the presence of doctors, nurses and matrons, one could mistake the hospital for a hotel”.

    But whoever knows Dada would know that much more than aesthetics, he would  lay more emphasis on those things that would deliver healing to patients.

    And that exactly was what he did.

    Read Also: Reps task FG to provide solar power for teaching hospitals, Federal Medical Centres

    Before his arrival, the condition of the dialysis centre made it impossible for people to use because the machines were damaged just as the

    Intensive Care Unit had only bad and inoperable equipments; so bad consultants no longer referred anyone there.

    These were refurbished and brought up to standard such that “a dialysis centre that used to see one or two patients in a week had to extend its service to 24 hours because of demand,” according to the Director.

    Another of Dada’s innovations is the use of technology to resolve challenges.

    That was what he did when the hospital’s Help and Research group fingered Medical records, especially the delay in locating case notes, as a major challenge to patients.

    Under his leadership, the hospital grew in leaps and bounds. These include:

    Bed capacity rose from 72 to 450.

    A 16-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was established.

    The hospital expanded from one to 20 baby incubators.

    now boasts 12 theatre suites, 16 dialysis machines (from zero), and over 500 patient monitors integrated into a central system.

    Dada noted that the hospital currently registers 4,000 to 5,000 new patients monthly, a reflection of increasing public trust in its services.

    Of Dada’s incredible performance at the hospital, however, he regards his ‘magnum opus’ – if one can borrow that literary term – “as the export of the hospital’s digital best practices to over 60 health institutions across Nigeria.

    More than 70 hospitals, nationwide, have adopted the electronic medical records (EMR) system pioneered by FMC Ebute Metta”.

    Continuing at a recent Press parley, Dada said:”We are the first public hospital in Nigeria to operate fully paperless clinical services. In five years, we mentored 60 hospitals—tertiary, secondary, and state-owned—on adopting digital systems, all at no cost.

    Our aim was to strengthen healthcare delivery across the country.”

    As Dada steps out of FMC, Ebute Meta, with all his remarkable, absolutely ground breaking achievements, it is hoped that the Federal Government would waste no time in, once again, engaging the limitless capabilities he  has demonstrated, and is certainly capable of replicating, even at higher levels of responsibility, in the Nation’s Health sector.

    It is noteworthy that, at no cost whatever, Dr Dada positively impacted many

    other health institutions nationwide.

    God forbid that Nigeria should lose a dedicated expert of this calibre to other health agencies outside our borders.

    Hearty cheers to Dr Adedamola Dada, an incredible public servant.

    May your tribe increase.

  • Oloyede and UTME 2025

    Oloyede and UTME 2025

    The 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has put the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the board, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, in the eye of the storm. There was widespread suspicion that something had gone wrong with the poor results released on 9 May, 2025 in respect of a range of candidates in some parts of Lagos and the Southeastern states.

    The resultant strident outcry challenged the reputation of the board and the integrity of its boss.

    This led to investigations by JAMB which revealed that the complaints against the poor results released in respect of those candidates were genuine, and Professor Is-haq Oloyede, with contrition, addressed a press conference on 14 May, 2025 to disclose this fact to the public and take personal responsibility for the problem.

    This brings to mind the story of Dwight David Eisenhower, the World War II hero who later became the 34th President of the United States and served for two terms from 1953 to 1961. In 1943, the Allies (countries such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada and the Soviet Union challenging the German occupation of other European countries including part of France) were considering appointing a Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces to lead ‘Operation Overlord’ to free France from the grip of Germany and work towards ending the Second World War. The searchlight fell on the highly-reputed five-star American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

    One of his major charges was to land an overwhelming mass of troops at Normandy in France, and he prosecuted the assignment with diligence. As Military.com reported it, in a 5 June, 2018 National Archive document on American Military History, “An invasion force of 4,000 ships, 11,000 planes and nearly 3 million soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors was assembled in England for the assault.” But on 5 June, 1944, the day before “D-Day” which was 6 June, 1944, Eisenhower started to have doubts about whether the invasion would succeed, considering the fact that, as Military.com noted, the Allied forces were to face “a highly defended and well-prepared enemy.” It was at that point that Eisenhower did something that makes him most relevant to this column today.

    As Lucas Reilly reported it in a 6 May, 2024 account, “Despite a year of strategizing and a boatload of confidence, Eisenhower had a quiet plan in case his mission failed. If the armada couldn’t cross the English Channel, he’d order a full retreat. One day before the invasion, he prepared [and kept the following] brief statement – just in case: ‘Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based up on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.’” As Military.com put it, “Eisenhower’s letter was not needed, because D-Day was a success, opening Europe to the Allies and a German surrender less than a year later.”

    It is a version of Eisenhower’s legendary preparation to accept responsibility for the possible failure of the invasion of Normandy on D-Day that Professor Is-haq Oloyede re-enacted at the press conference of 14 May, 2025, with one of the major differences being that while Eisenhower’s action was pre-emptive and out of the pubic glare, Oloyede’s came after the problem had occurred and on a public platform.

    Like Eisenhower’s massive preparations for D-Day, Oloyede said: “I can assure you that we scale all heights, fathom all depths and traverse all horizons to ascertain that quality assurance mechanisms permeate all our operations from the take off point to the finish line. We burn the midnight oil and we set our standards high. This is why we have guidelines, checklists and protocol guiding our activities right from the time of registration to the points of monitoring and supervision to the processing of results.”

    He also said, “we have several committees in place that are part of our quality assurance system. … All of these groups play critical roles and complement our staff in ensuring quality and troubleshooting challenges.” He continued: “Furthermore, we also have an in-house consultant and expert in software development and cybersecurity. Besides, we have introduced mock examinations since 2017 as primarily a quality assurance measure to test our systems and intervene where necessary prior to the time of our examinations, knowing the nature of technology.  … We also have a robust team of in-house electronic testing experts led by a renowned professor of Software Engineering.”

    In addition, Oloyede noted: “We deploy our systems to the use of high-profile organisations within and outside Nigeria as part of the broader strategy of ensuring that everything works well when we need it to work. As part of our preparations for this year, we upgraded our system from form-based to the single item-based examination, the latter of which is the international standard now. … We improved on the examination system, simulated everything end-to-end before the examinations and we thought everything was perfect.”

    Read Also: Oloyede: Beyond the glitch

    In accepting responsibility for the problems with the 2025 UTME results, Oloyede declared: “Despite being able to identify the source of the problem and the affected centres, we are conscious of the painful damage it has inflicted on the reputation of JAMB. As Registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider, and I unreservedly apologise for it and the trauma that it has subjected affected Nigerians to, directly and indirectly.  … It is our culture to admit error because we know that in spite of the best of our efforts, we are human, we are not perfect.  The only consolation we have in this case is that it is just one of the two service providers that did not do well …”

    On apologising, Erika Andersen, in a 5 June, 2012 article, titled “Courageous Leaders Don’t Make Excuses…They Apologize,” in Forbes magazine, said: “Apologizing freely requires a good deal of courage.  It’s not comfortable for any of us to admit an error, or to acknowledge that something we’ve done has caused others harm or inconvenience. So when someone truly apologizes, we know [they are] putting honesty and honor above personal comfort or self-protection.  It’s inspiring, and it feels brave.”

    In the same vein, in an article which is in part critical of JAMB, Professor Oloyede and the Honourable Minister of Education, Abimbola Adelakun, in her column in the Punch of 22 May, 2025 remarked: “I sincerely think Oloyede’s willingness to admit mistakes is commendable. He could have staged a cover-up …. But Oloyede admitted his errors. In our society, that basic minimum is worth acknowledging. I have never really bought into the whole thing about the man exemplifying integrity, simply because JAMB returns unspent funds to the government. However, for that one moment when he admitted failure, Oloyede modelled public accountability. Now, that is a much better example of personal integrity.”

    However, some sections of the society did not see Professor Oloyede’s acknowledgement of failure and personal apology as worthy of adulation. Rather, they cite the acknowledgement and the apology as strong reasons why he should resign as the Registrar of JAMB. Incidentally, such calls seemed to be overwhelmingly coming from critics of Igbo origin. As is usually the case with conspiracy theories, while some Igbo individuals and groups have regarded the 2025 UTME problem as deliberately targeted at Igbos, some other people have seen the problem as an Igbo scheme to discredit a performing Yoruba public officer.

    This ethnicisation of the 2025 UTME problem has itself attracted criticism. For example, Lasisi Olagunju, Editor and columnist with Nigerian Tribune, resented the ethnicisation in his 19 May, 2025 article titled “JAMB, glitches and an inter-tribal war.”  

    Moreover, in a 17 May, 2025 article, titled “JAMB’s fiasco is horrible, but it’s not unexampled,” the US-based Professor of Journalism and New Media, Farooq Kperogi, who is also a columnist with Nigerian Tribune, listed the United States, the United Kingdom and India as countries in which computer glitches have affected public examinations, but in which the heads of the examination bodies did not resign as Professor Oloyede has been ethno-religiously bigotedly asked to do. This belies what may be referred to as “the myth of the saner clime” (that is, the tendency to say, without evidence, that certain things that happen in Nigeria do not or cannot occur in so-called advanced societies).

    In fact, on the call on Professor Oloyede to resign, Professor Yusuf Ali, SAN, a former Chairman of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria (COPSUN), remarked, in a 17 May, 2025 article, in Premium Times, titled “Why Professor Is-haq Oloyede of JAMB is an uncommon person, By Yusuf Ali”: “No serious leader will abandon his people in a time of crisis, which is what his resignation at this point will translate to. This unfortunate incident happened under his watch and it makes a lot of sense that he should not abandon ship but be man enough to see to the end of the problem. Good leadership is not about taking flight when negative consequences arise.”

    Professor Siyan Oyeweso, the incumbent Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University expressed a similar opinion in a 21 May, 2025 article in ThisDay titled “Oloyede’s leadership at JAMB deserves commendation, not reproach.” So has Professor Tunde Akanni in a 15 May, 2025 article titled “This trial of Brother Oloyede” in The Shield Online; and Professor Mahfouz A. Adedimeji, in an article titled “Oloyede’s burden of truth and integrity,” in The Sun of 21 May, 2025.

    Others who have shown circumspection in their reactions to or comments on the 2025 UTME problem include The Nation columnists Tunji Adegboyega, in an 18 May, 2025 article titled “Oloyede, victim of own standard”; Idowu Akinlotan, in an 18 May, 2025 article titled “And JAMB’s Oloyede wept”; Niyi Akinnaso, in a 21 May, 2025 article titled “The 2025 JAMB technical glitch”; and Lawal Ogienagbon, in a 22 May, 2025 article titled “Oloyede: Beyond the glitch.” 

    A wide range of institutions and organisations have also passed a vote of confidence on Professor Oloyede. These include, among others, Lagos State University, University of Ilorin, Fountain University, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Muslims of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), and Egbe Agba Itesiwaju Yoruba (a Yoruba elders group).            

    The foregoing shows that there are Nigerians, like Professor Is-haq Oloyede who, against all odds, commit themselves to showing that much good can still come out of this beleaguered and much-maligned nation. When problems occur, such endearing antecedents come in as mitigating factors.

  • This coalition is dead on arrival

    This coalition is dead on arrival

    In the Byzantine labyrinth of Nigerian politics, where ambition repeatedly masquerades as patriotism and personal vendetta parades as principled opposition, a new specter haunts the landscape—a coalition of the disenchanted, the dispossessed, and the desperately ambitious. Like moths drawn to the flickering flame of power, these political wanderers have begun their familiar ‘agabagebe’ (Yoruba for hypocrisy) dance of realignment, thundering about forming a new party or breathing life into shells of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) or the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in their quest to unseat the incumbent by 2027.  Yet, for all their grandiloquent proclamations and theatrical posturing, this coalition arrives at the Nigerian political scene already bearing the unmistakable stench of decay— for it is dead on arrival.

    The optimism that courses through the veins of the average politician in this motley assemblage is both touching and tragically misplaced. Like Don Quixote tilting at windmills, they see in their fractured unity the seeds of a political revolution that will sweep away the current order. They speak in hushed, reverent tones about 2027, as if the mere mention of that electoral year carries within it the mystical power to transform their collection of bruised egos and thwarted ambitions into a formidable political machine. Their confidence is reminiscent of what ii call  the confidence of the defeated soldier who still believes victory is just one more charge away.

    But what exactly binds this curious congregation of political pilgrims? Strip away the flowery rhetoric about “rescuing Nigeria” and “restoring democratic values,” and what emerges is a coalition united by a single, burning grievance: Bola Ahmed Tinubu occupies the seat they believe rightfully belongs to one of them. Like the biblical Joseph’s brothers, consumed by jealousy over their sibling’s coat of many colors, these political actors are driven not by any profound ideological differences with the current administration, but by the simple, raw emotion of exclusion from the feast of power.

    This bed of disgruntled politicos—for that is what they truly are—reminds one of what the sage Obafemi Awolowo once observed about Nigerian politics: that it is often driven more by the desire for office than by the desire to serve. Their coalition is built not on the solid foundation of shared principles or complementary strengths, but on the shifting sands of mutual resentment. They are united in their opposition to Tinubu not because of his policies, but because of his position.

    In their more euphoric moments, these coalition architects dare to dream that they can replicate the magic of 2015, when the All Progressives Congress (APC) achieved what many thought impossible—the defeat of an incumbent president. They whisper among themselves about how a divided PDP fell before the united front of opposition forces, conveniently forgetting the unique circumstances that made that victory possible. But if they truly believe they can pull an “APC”—that lightning can strike twice in the same spot—then they must be residing on a different planet altogether, perhaps in a galaxy where political gravity operates by different laws.

    The APC of 2015 was forged in the crucible of genuine discontent with the Goodluck Jonathan administration, bound together by years of careful planning, strategic alliances, and most importantly, a clear hierarchy that left no doubt about who would lead the charge. It was a coalition blessed with the towering figure of Muhammadu Buhari, whose personal integrity and widespread appeal provided the unifying force that held together diverse and often competing interests, it also had the sagacity of a Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the rugged activism of an Adams Oshiomole, the zeal of a Rochas Okorocha and the steely resolve of a Rabiu Kwankwaso. Yes the political values of an  Amaechi, Atiku and El Rufai then cannot be  easily discountenanced, but politics is the field of the fluid and what obtained in 2015 cannot be replicated with the dimming values of the aforementioned troika.  What we see today is a pale imitation—a coalition that mistakes noise for voice, activity for action, and hope for strategy.

    The fundamental weakness of this emerging alliance lies not merely in its origins but in its inherent contradictions. Like the ill-fated builders of the Tower of Babel, who sought to reach heaven through their own devices only to have their project collapse under the weight of their inability to communicate, this coalition will inevitably crumble when faced with the ultimate question: who among them deserves to fly the presidential flag?

    Read Also: Coalition: Atiku draws battle line with PDP govs, others

    Consider the dramatis personae of this political theater. Will the serial candidature of Atiku Abubakar, that political Energizer Bunny who keeps running and running, finally yield to a Peter Obi who may find it difficult to replicate his 2023 flash in the pan performance?  Or perhaps the former Rivers State governor and Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, believes his time has finally come to claim the prize that has eluded him? Each of these figures arrives at the coalition table carrying not just their political baggage, but their own presidential ambitions—ambitions that cannot be easily subordinated to a collective good.

    The challenge facing this coalition goes beyond the question of leadership. They must convince the average Nigerian—the trader in Alaba Market, the farmer in Kebbi State, the civil servant in Abuja—that they possess the secret sauce for governance that has somehow eluded the current administration. They must articulate a vision so compelling, a program so transformative, that millions of Nigerians will be willing to take another leap of faith with political figures who, in many cases, were part of previous administrations that failed to deliver on their promises.

    This is no small task in a country where political promises have been devalued by decades of non-performance, where the electorate has grown increasingly cynical about the motivations of their leaders. The coalition must overcome what scholars call  “the sincerity deficit”—the gap between what politicians promise and what they deliver.

    Furthermore, the coalition faces the formidable challenge of unseating an incumbent president, a feat that requires not just unity of purpose but also organizational prowess, financial resources, and most critically, a narrative that resonates with the deepest aspirations of the Nigerian people. The APC succeeded in 2015 partly because it could point to specific failures of the Jonathan administration—security challenges, corruption scandals, economic mismanagement—and offer credible alternatives.

    But what compelling narrative can this emerging coalition offer? That Tinubu should be removed simply because he is not one of them? That their collective wisdom, somehow suppressed during their previous tenures in office, will suddenly flourish if given another chance? The Nigerian electorate, for all its perceived simplicity, possesses an intuitive understanding of political motivation that cuts through rhetorical flourishes to the heart of the matter.

    As this coalition attempts to transform itself from a gathering of the aggrieved into a credible alternative government, it must grapple with questions that go to the core of its existence. Can a political movement born of exclusion and resentment evolve into something greater than the sum of its grievances? Can leaders who could not collaborate effectively when they had power suddenly discover the secret of unity in opposition?

    The answer, if history is any guide, is written in the political graveyard of failed coalitions, aborted third forces, and stillborn political movements that have littered the Nigerian landscape since independence. This coalition, like so many before it, appears destined to discover that it is easier to unite against something than to unite for something—and that the bridge from opposition to governance requires more than shared dissatisfaction with the status quo.

    In the end, this coalition may find that it has arrived at the Nigerian political scene not as the vanguard of a new dawn, but as yet another reminder that in politics, timing, unity of purpose, and authentic leadership cannot be manufactured through press conferences and strategic meetings. They have arrived, but they are already dead on arrival.

  • The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (XX)

    The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (XX)

    Apart from a brief period called the Panic in 1907, the American capitalist machine hummed along like a fully functional dynamo throughout the period of its Gilded Age. The acknowledged robber barons at this time were fully in control of the economy. This is why J.P. Morgan was able to rally his fellow bankers to bail out the government Treasury when it encountered a little problem which caused a panic. The intervention was swift. It had to be, otherwise it would have  escalated into a full blown crisis with the capacity to cause extensive damage to the economy. Instead, the effects of the Panic were restricted to what could be regarded as a storm in a teacup. Nevertheless the lesson learnt from this episode was that no economy however buoyant can be taken for granted.

    By the turn of the twentieth century the USA had acquired the muscle to enforce the Monroe doctrine. This was clearly shown in 1898 when she went to war against Spain in an encounter that not only secured the independence of Cuba but had led to the acquisition of overseas territories in Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The message that was sent out was that the USA was now ready and capable of dictating terms to any European country that appeared not to acknowledge her hegemony within the Western hemisphere, following the dictates of the Monroe doctrine. It may have taken seventy years to become fully operational but it had arrived at last.

     True to her anti-colonial principles however, America showed off her anti-imperialist credentials such as it was at the time.  This, she did by her refusal to be drawn into the colonisation of any parts of Africa. She had been invited to participate in the Berlin conference but had walked away from the table without joining the bandwagon of the colonial powers which had carved up Africa between them like the proverbial stuffed turkey. America was present but was not tempted to partake of the fare on offer.

    This is however not to say that all was well within the Republic. As a group, the robber barons were swimming in great wealth but this was at the expense of those from whose blood, sweat and tears all that stupendous wealth was being mined. The robber barons played hardball with their competitors but were even more ruthless with their employees who lived in the richest country in the world but saw very little of those riches. Still, the little they had was a small fortune compared with what the wage slaves were earning in Europe and so, the USA, seen from across the Atlantic was a magnet, a bright light which attracted all the moths. They sailed across the sea, arriving on Ellis island under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty in New York from where they swarmed all over their new country. Many of them were skilled workers who had come to embellish the skill pool in America but skilled or not, they were all victims, to be maximally exploited by the robber barons and their accomplices. The physical conditions under which they lived were as atrocious as any that existed  in Britain a hundred years before and their employers devised ever growing diabolic ways of fleecing them. Apart from low wages, some employers paid their workers in scrips, currencies whose value was recognised only in shops owned by the employers. Since the wages they were paid were grossly insufficient for their needs, they were forcibly tied to their employers to whom they were chronically indebted. The ground was therefore ripe for union activities which over time led to an amelioration of the conditions of service within places of work within which the workers toiled.

    Apart from the labour unions, there were political organisations; the socialists, communists and even anarchists who took  very strong interest in the welfare of the workers. It is a matter of interest that it was an anarchist that was responsible for the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, at a time when the American economy was booming. Despite the boom, the majority were still struggling very hard to make a bare living. The anarchists placed the blame for this at the feet of the president so, he had to die. There are works of fiction which tried to paint a vivid picture of the industrial relations landscape of that period. In my estimation, one of the most graphic of such books was The jungle written by Upton Sinclair, a socialist who was appalled by the inequalities which ruled  the USA and quite spoilt the lives of the vast majority of Americans. Jack London was another socialist whose satirical novels tried successfully to capture the injustice which governed both the economic and social relations in the country within that period of capitalist consolidation in the USA.

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    The rock on which American international relations was built in those years was isolationism. After all she was in natural isolation, protected as she was by several thousand miles of ocean on both sides. Her neighbours to the north and the south were politically insignificant countries which then and now did not present any threat to the behemoth which was the USA. Living in geographic isolation was not enough, the USA further surrounded herself with a wall of tariffs behind which her infant industries could grow. This of course enhanced the ability of the robber barons to further enrich themselves. When WW I duly erupted in Europe, the Americans were well placed to reap rich dividends from the supply of both agricultural and military products mainly to Britain and France. It took a little time for American factories to be retooled and made ready for the production of military hardware but as soon as this was done, lucrative orders for the supply of clothing, food and military stock began to roll in. The high rate of unemployment which was held as a threat over the work force was considerably reduced and wages went up significantly. On their own, the bosses were laughing all the way to the bank. By the time America entered the war in April 1917, she had established herself as a major global power and when she sent an army of three million men to fight in Europe, no less than a million women were recruited into the work force. The sun was shining with uncommon benevolence on the USA.

    It has to be said that there was a little period of readjustment after the war as returning soldiers were being reintegrated into the workforce. By the end of 1921 however, the economy was bubbling over quite merrily giving way to what has been described as the Roaring Twenties. This was a period of joyous abandon during which the nation let down her collective hair and furiously danced a decade away. They could afford to make merry because there were opportunities everywhere for productive employment everywhere. This drew millions of black people from the backwoods of the segregated South to the less restrictive urban cities of the North. Many of them were drawn to New York, particularly the neighbourhood  of Harlem. This is where black artists, musicians, writers, poets, entertainers and other creative groups of black people came together to create what has been called the  Harlem Renaissance. However, it was all too good to last as October 1929 came around and the bubble burst spectacularly as the Great depression kicked in.

    Right from the beginning of the Industrial revolution, the growth of capital has been cyclical. Periods of boom have been followed by those of recession and the occasional depression. These cycles, at least at the beginning were usually caused by local events such as political disturbances, poor harvests, wars as well as any number of unforeseen circumstances. It is also possible that instability is  an intrinsic factor of capitalism. The nature of the beast. Many people, especially those on the right of the political spectrum, that is, those who have well developed capitalist tendencies believe very much in the invisible but powerful forces generated by the  market. They consider any form of control by any recognised group such as governments as undue interference in the sacred rites of capital accumulation. And yet from time to time, the market such as it is, needs to be reset sometimes through the injection of capital from somewhere outside the market. This, for example, is what was done by J.P. Morgan and his colleagues in 1907 when they averted a recession by the injection of needed capital at a crucial point in time. In the last hundred years, the global economy has had to endure a succession of crises, enough to suggest that capitalism is a chaotic system which must never be allowed to run itself. Capital can only be accumulated at the expense of certain groups of people, the workers whose labour is expropriated by the owners of capital, those who control the means of production. The current global reach of the market means that an upheaval within the American economy which is now the most dominant in the world, reverberates throughout the world at more than the speed of sound since it is carried around the world electronically. Since 1973, the year of the oil crisis, the world has been troubled almost continuously by one crisis of the other, some have been local, others regional whilst others have been global in extent. The point to be made here is that there is need for balance between many centres but principally between the workers and the owners of capital. It is apparent that productive amity can only be achieved when the balance is tilted towards the producers who form the overwhelming percentage of global population. Unfortunately, the balance has shifted decisively towards the bosses causing the rise and rise of inequality to accompany the now questionable rise and rise of capitalism.

  • Coscharis boss Maduka and character

    Coscharis boss Maduka and character

    In a viral video trending on TikTok, Coscharis Group founder Cosmas Maduka speaks about the five levels of money. Having been in business since he was 17, the 66-year-old magnate is lyrical about defining values from the money or wealth perspective. He identifies the levels of money to be (a) credibility, (b) credible relationship, (c) integrity, (d) character, and (e) competence, the last being the least. He, however, adds a sixth, but he is not keen on making it a level of money for reasons he explains in the clip. His classifications are generally sound, if not profound. It is hard to fault him on any of the five, or even the six, but his perspective on character appears inconclusive, perhaps for reason of time on a video clip to explicate the subject; or perhaps because trying to tie that virtue to success and wealth can be sometimes very arduous and limiting.

    Apart from being a successful businessman, he is also a pastor, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and business mentor. In explicating character, he suggests that it is at the foundation of anyone’s life. He also explains that character is the fulcrum of leadership, but adds that once a person possesses character he will ‘have success and make wealthy’, obviously because he is talking about the levels of money. But since he brings the issue of leadership into his talk, it is important to let his publics know that wealth may not necessarily accompany character. If wealth comes, of course, character should undergird it. But success is a little more universal and perhaps less discriminating, implying that sometimes success in money terms can be achieved unscrupulously and exploitatively. The success subject is, it seems, much wider and even less ethical than Mr Maduka has argued in a short clip. But as for character, it will be far better and safer to disentangle it from money terms.

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    The dictionary definition of character is restrictive and unhelpful, regardless of its generally acceptable connotations and denotations. The dictionary defines character in two flexible ways to mean the “mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual”, and/or “the way someone thinks, feels, and behaves: in short, someone’s personality”. The definitions are sensible but not expansive enough to give a profound feel to what Mr Maduka is saying on the subject, especially since he links it to leadership. Other sources have provided a list of constituents of character that help expatiate the subject, including but not limited to integrity, which Mr Maduka describes as the third level of money, courage, empathy, resilience, accountability, vision, collaboration, passion, and judgement. Both former United States president Richard M. Nixon, and a former French president Charles de Gaulle wrote copiously on the subject of character, even though ironically, Mr Nixon fell short of profiting from his own counsel and knowledge.

    But in his recent book, On character: Choices that define a life, highly decorated US Army general Stanley A. McChrystal explains what it means to live with purpose and integrity, encouraging everyone to engage in self-examinations and judge the end results of the choices they make. According to him, “Generations will view themselves and the world differently. And they should. Their vantage points aren’t the same, and we live, work, and struggle for what we value as people, not as generations.” Last week, on television, the general dismissed US president Donald Trump as destitute of character. The House of Representatives in Nigeria will in fact find the book valuable for its recommendation on compulsory voting in which the general suggests that voting be made mandatory even if the voter would end up selecting ‘no preference’. In his compelling 118-page 1932 book, The Edge of the Sword, President de Gaulle provides what may be described as a most enthralling dissection of the art of leadership. In it he talks eloquently about what character is, including characteristics that seem sometimes absolutely counterintuitive, such as the need to cultivate mystery and aloofness, even apparent lack of empathy. With character constituting one chapter out of about five or so, he wanted the book to help everyone get a grasp of ‘the very substance of man’.

    If Mr Maduka speaks restrictively of success in the business sense, and goes ahead to qualify or circumscribe it by the definitional cultures of how to make money, a reader might be tempted to gloss over the deeper intricacies of what he glibly conjoined as success and wealth within the context of character. His explanations are gripping as far as motivational speaking is concerned, what with its reference to business ethics, and the general import of his conclusions appear to be indisputable and unquestionable. But placed side by side with much deeper treatments of what character means, even exclusive of moral and religious underpinnings, not to say regardless of the idiosyncrasies of great and successful leaders, Mr Maduka’s argument appears superficial and unnecessarily moralistic. But he at least has done the country a favour by giving that interview in a video clip that has now gone viral. Younger Nigerians, many of whom have a dimwitted approach to wealth and society, should listen to him and take some useful lessons.

  • The Nigeria/ Burkina Faso tango: Some historical notes

    The Nigeria/ Burkina Faso tango: Some historical notes

    Always historicize”, advised Fredric Jameson, the great American literary theorist, philosopher and historian of human consciousness. It was his polite way of insisting that there are no human circumstances that cannot be greatly simplified by making history the point of analytical departure. The deployment of history not only enlightens, it also illuminates the discussion at hand and provides invaluable insight about the way forward. When you acquaint yourself with the history of a particular issue, you are halfway towards a perfect understanding of the main drivers of contention.

    For some time now, there appears to be no love lost between the Nigerian government and the Burkinabe military authorities. Although things remain at the level of a cold war or what is known as diplomatic froideur, there is no guarantee that the simmering tension will not escalate into a full-blown confrontation given the propaganda blitz unleashed from Burkina Faso and the antics of a misguided section of the Nigerian political elite and social media miscreants hoping to tip the nation into the anarchy of simultaneous combustion.  The fact that Russia and its controversial Wagner Associates now renamed as the Russian Corps are also rumoured to be the directing patrons of a well-coordinated effort to undermine western-style democracy and its most important outpost in West Africa should be a source of concern.

     After the unraveling of the mighty Soviet Empire, a triumphant Western diplomat famously dismissed its Russian rump as little more than a Burkina Faso with nuclear weapons. The irony is upon us with the real Burkina Faso now armed with nuclear warheads of destructive propaganda supplied by the selfsame Russia. Of the three Francophone West African countries that went rogue and ditched ECOWAS to form the association of Sahelian states, Burkina Faso appears to be the most vehement and vociferous in its anti-Nigerian stance. This mutual antipathy can be traced to a widening gulf in ideological outlook between the two countries whose origins date back to an earlier epoch.

       Yet it was not always like this. Even when they cannot reverse the nation-state paradigm imposed on them by colonization, African elites must resist the temptation to turn their countries to autonomous enclaves and personalized Bantustans which can never aspire to the organic coherence of true nation-states and which makes them very vulnerable in an increasingly disordered global order. Before the advent of colonization, the entire West African subcontinent was a vast, culturally continuous and economically contiguous ”free trade” zone. A niece who had been posted to Guinea by her multinational conglomerate was surprised to find herself accosted in downtown Conakry by a group of people speaking some old and pristine version of Yoruba language amidst the gaudy Francophone veneer of the city which made things eerily unsettling. Another cousin who originated from Nigeria but became an American citizen and noted professor of Francophone Studies found himself posted out to the University of Burkina Faso as a member of the American Peace Corps. An ebullient and gregarious character who has since tragically departed, he regaled everybody with his nocturnal forays in some dark alleys of Ouagadougou drinking palm wine and listening to old Sakara music among Yoruba-speaking natives a few of them with signature tribal marks. Talk of a native who had gone double native. And what of the Aku people of Gambia, Yoruba descendants of liberated slaves sent from Sierra Leone to man the Gambian civil service whose sonorous singing of Egungun ballads could send tears to the eyes?

      Despite succumbing to different colonial rationalizations by Britain, France, early Germany before they were expelled and Spain, the post-colonial history of most of these countries did not diverge very much, as if the original African genes could not be suborned by colonial adversity. It was the same history of endemic poverty, corruption and the mismanagement of ethnic and religious diversities eventuating in violent military coups and rampart disorder. In this regard, Nigeria and Burkina Faso have a lot in common.

    The dominant ethnic group, the warlike and fiercely independent Mossi people, resisted French occupation for decades until 1901 when their parched and dusty capital Ouagadougou was invaded and violently pacified. Independence in 1960 came within a few months of each other. Maurice Yameogo, the founding Upper Volta chieftain, ruled very much like a traditional African chief for the next six years with corruption, graft and instability very much the order of the day until he was deposed in a military coup by Colonel Sangoule Lamizana. Lamizana was himself overthrown by Colonel Yare Zerbo who later succumbed to Major Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo, a military surgeon.

       Meanwhile despite the epidemic of coups, the landlocked, resource poor country remained wracked by poverty and corruption with the dazed and disoriented populace tottering on the edge of despair and terminal disillusionment. While the people remained bitter and resentful, the officer-corps at the mid-ranking and junior levels became radicalized. But unlike in Nigeria where things took an ethnic and regional turn in the armed forces, the Burkinabe armed forces as well as significant sections of the elite became polarized along ideological lines with the military becoming a battle field of contending ideas in a world in which the Soviet bloc itself was in a state of terminal turmoil with the advent of a starry-eyed reformer known as Mikhail Gorbachev.

       It was this roiling cauldron that threw up a youthful idealistic military officer, Thomas Isidore Sankara. To stabilize his regime, Ouedraogo had decided to appoint a prime minister from the left bloc. His choice was none other than the young charismatic major with the star quality who was immensely liked and admired by the rank and file. It was a fatal error of judgment. Disagreement soon broke out between the two over the direction of the country and Ouedraogo had his deputy arrested and put under house detention. To break the deadlock, troops from the fabled and dreaded Po Garrison and their commander, Blaise Compaore, an acolyte and childhood friend of Sankara, marched on the capital from over eighty miles to free Sankara and install him as the new president.

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       This was where fate conjoined the two West African countries in a way and manner that could not have been greatly understood at the time. Sankara was a military revelation. The word “cool” could have been invented for the iconic paratrooper. Tall, dashing, thoughtful, polite, deeply compassionate with a calm, unflappable mien, Sankara was the ultimate designer revolutionary officer. When he visited Nigeria around this period, the strappling swashbuckling major with his holstered service pistol was the cynosure of all eyes inviting swooning adulation from men and women alike to the quiet embarrassment of his military hosts and ranking generals who were all conservative law and order military traditionalists and regime survivalists. Alarm bells began to ring in all the power sanctuaries of West Africa and beyond. This was the mad boy who would put everybody in trouble. Francois Mitterrand, the French president, described Sankara as a cutting edge that cut too sharply. Felix Houphouet-Boigny , who was related to Blaise Compaore  by marriage, began fretting in Cote D’Ivoire. General Babangida who had earlier warned junior officers that their regime would not tolerate “undue radicalism” could not have found it funny. Sankara’s goose was cooked.

      After Sankara was violently eliminated in a daylight military putsch masterminded and spearheaded by his bosom friend, a thick pall of gloom and grief descended on West Africa and beyond. JJ Rawlings, Ghana’s ruler and a close friend and ideological acolyte of the fallen major, mounted a seven-day national vigil for the departed ruler. But Nigeria showed its hands by openly and undiplomatically welcoming Compaore’s envoys, the two majors who were part of the triumvirate that ousted Sankara. This was while they were being shunned and driven away from several African capitals with Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia particularly devastating in his putdown. General Olusegun Obasanjo equally dismissed them as purveyors of military perfidy and treachery. But nemesis caught up with Major Zongo and Major Lingani a few months down the line as they were summarily executed for plotting to overthrow Compaore.

     After that, there was only one master law-giver and autocratic tyrant in Burkina Faso. Unlike Sankara, Compaore is no starry-eyed ideologue but a harsh pragmatist, ruthless schemer and master power player who knew how to secure the levers of power and keep the populace in close leash. He had no illusion about human nature. He was known to have privately rued that Sankara was a softie leftist and he was making too many concessions to the populace and civil rights groups which undermined the very basis of military authority and opened the backdoor to anarchy. For the next twenty seven years, he put Burkina Faso through the torture wrack until 2014 when the usual combination of civil uprising and military insurrection sent him scampering across the border. More civil unrest and a few more military coups down the line, enter the young and energetic Captain Ibrahim Traore. But is he the new Sankara, an avenging angel ready to deliver his country from the crushing weight of historic misrule?

      Not quite. And not so fast. Despite his menacing bearing and gung-ho militarism, it is obvious that the young captain lacks the visionary elan and sublime intelligence of Thomas Sankara, otherwise he ought to have known that he is a mere pawn on the international chessboard of a Russia making a ruthless pitch for Africa’s mineral resources. Sankara, an avowed Africanist, was nobody’s puppet or poodle dog. Russia itself has since transited from a Communist superpower to a hyper Slavic, ultranationalist nation spreading terror and hysteria in Africa and many of its former vassal states.

      The barrage of misinformation and AI-generated impressions portraying the youthful Burkinabe leader as a superman and new African avatar are completely misguided. The lure of military messianism and the revolutionary ardour that convulsed Nigeria and many African countries a few decades ago have waned considerably. It may yet creep back but not in the current configurations.  Burkina Faso itself is a standing rebuke and ringing indictment of such misplaced hope. The young man from Waga has many things going for him. But for now, he should remove the bullet-proof encumbrances and settle down to real work.  

  • The Good Samaritans of Heathrow Airport

    The Good Samaritans of Heathrow Airport

    There are times when even a chronic agnostic and cheery non-believer is compelled to accept the possibility of miraculous intervention in human affairs and the fact that there may be some benign and benevolent higher authorities directing the affairs of humanity towards some higher telos. Even when it appears to topple into universal chaos and disorder, human history is too well-structured and infused with immanent logic to admit the possibility that life is nothing but a series of freewheeling non-events or that history is just one damned thing after another, a process without a subject as noted by Louis Althusser, the great French philosopher and Marxist theoretician. Althusser himself would later kill his beloved wife and longstanding collaborator after a domestic argument and was promptly committed to a mental asylum.

      In the early hours of Tuesday, April 22nd, yours sincerely arrived at Heathrow Terminal Five after a peaceful and uneventful flight on British Airways from Lagos hoping to connect the early BA flight(117) to New York which leaves at 8.30 am. Having spent the previous fortnight in Lagos haggling and arguing with various travel agents and sundry interlopers over the skyrocketing airfares out of Lagos, it was a tired and completely worn out snooper that made his way to the BA lounge for a quick nap. It turned into a deep slumber. The last thing one could remember was ruing the fact that if an Economy ticket to New York from Lagos was now hovering over the five million naira benchmark, one may be witnessing a funeral pyre and the last snapshot of the ancient Nigerian middle class. One may now have to explore the possibility of journeying by sea via Las Palmas or by overland through the dreaded Sahara desert.

      In what seemed an eternity later, a rather cumbersome fellow lugging an outsize suitcase lost his balance and bumped into one forcing a retreat from the world of dream. It was an hour to departure time and flight was already boarding. One scrambled up to head for the gate. This was when the drama began. The fabled Green Card could no longer be found in the breast pocket where one had thought it was kept safe and secure. A wave of panic set in as one frantically searched everywhere, scouring any loophole or pocket in the jacket and eventually removing the nonsense to the mild consternation of many. The briefcase was upended with all its archaic exotica and ancient receipts from last century. Alas, the American talisman was nowhere to be found.

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      Meanwhile the monitoring screen, like the cruel and unkind clock in Gregor Samsa’s room which mercilessly ticked away while the owner had become a huge bug, indicated that the flight was about to close. In acute frustration, one decided to head for the gate which was at least ten minutes away to report himself. The flight formalities had been concluded and only a few officials remained with one of them hollering at one from a distance and asking whether one was going to New York.

      “Yes, I am going to New York but I have lost my Green Card”, yours sincerely moaned upon getting to the gate.

      “We have it”, one of them, a kindly looking gentleman, calmly announced.

       “Did you hear me? I just told you I lost my Green Card!” yours sincerely yelped at the fellow thinking that he didn’t understand him. At this point, a lady stepped forward.

       “And we told you we have it. You dropped it in front of Nando Restaurant while passing earlier and it was brought to us. Now please go and board because they were about to remove your luggage”, she said gingerly placing the card on the desk. It was too good to be true. One was about to sink to the floor in exhaustion but managed to hold himself. Here is thanking the good Samaritans of Heathrow for this miraculous reprieve and wishing them the joys of early summer.                

  • ‘Fire in the Sahel’

    ‘Fire in the Sahel’

    Speaking  in Yobe State more than two weeks ago, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Olufemi Oluyede, told Governor Mai Mala Buni that the “The Sahel is on fire. If we allow that fire to come down this way, we’ll be in trouble…It’s best as a country for us to brace up for what is coming and nip it in the bud as fast as possible.” And addressing State House correspondents in Abuja two Fridays ago after a security meeting with President Bola Tinubu, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, confirmed that “What has happened of recent is that there’s a global push by terrorists and jihadists all over the Sahel area, and that pressure is what actually came into Nigeria because of the nature of our borders.” The long and short is that the Sahel is burning, and Nigeria is vulnerable.

    There is obviously no disagreement about the diagnosis of what Nigeria is facing or about to encounter. What remains is how to prepare for the horses of the apocalypse galloping down the Sahel. Is Nigeria united in its bid to curtail the menace? There are doubts. As Governor Babagana Zulum wailed last week during his visit to three beleaguered local governments, he and his men have managed to decipher that some politicians and soldiers are collaborating with the enemy. He did not say whether the collaboration was induced by pecuniary reasons or caliphate dreams, or perhaps both. What is, however, clear is that apart from the cracks and confusion in the frontline states, there has been no national demonstration of unity and commonality of purpose in combating insurgency, banditry and other forms of terrorism in the country.

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    President Tinubu’s first task, it is becoming clear, is not just to muster the resources and men to defeat insurgency and banditry, it is also to find ingenious ways of uniting the country behind him in the fight against the common enemy. He will encounter stiff resistance and distractions, but he must find ways to transcend those limitations and staunch the madness unfurling in the Sahel and creeping slowly down to the Northwest and Northeast. The frontlines will not be a single, identifiable front. It will be multiple. He needs to speak to this cataclysm rapidly approaching, especially in light of what is happening in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger Republic, and Cote D’Ivoire, which is being gradually undermined and destabilised.

  • Compulsory voting?

    Compulsory voting?

    • ‘Nibo la tun jasi yi o’? From where to where?

    Because a coin that is thrown up, irrespective of the number of times, would always fall on either of its two sides, many of us would similarly continue to tell the members of the House of Representatives who are hell bent on criminalising voting that they are merely embarking on a wild goose chase.

    The bill, jointly sponsored by Speaker Abbas Tajudeen and Daniel Asama Ago, is titled: “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act, 2022 to make it Mandatory for Nigerians of Maturity Age to Vote in All National and State Elections and for related matters”. It was first introduced in February but was presented last week by co-sponsor, Daniel Asama, of the Labour Party, for a second reading.

    The bill prescribes sanctions, including fines of up to N100,000 or six months imprisonment for eligible Nigerians who fail to vote.

    True, voter turnout, especially in the 2023 election, was abysmal, at about 27.1 per cent, nationally. With less than half of the eligible population turning out to vote, and no state had a turnout above 40 per cent, participation in it was said to be the lowest since Nigeria’s independence.

    Indeed, the sharp decline has positioned Nigeria as the largest democracy in Africa with the lowest voter turnout.

    It is also true that, globally, there is compulsory voting in about 21 countries, with punishment ranging from severe to non-existent. But then, reasons for low voter turnout differ from country to country. Reasons why there is such huge voter apathy in Nigeria are well known and these, according to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and others, are what should be addressed.

    NBA President, Afam Osigwe, listed such to include electoral violence, systemic flaws, insecurity, and mistrust. Hear him: “Instead of fixing the conditions that discourage voter turnout, such as electoral violence, vote buying, among others, the state is attempting to force participation through punitive legislation.”

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    Chukwuemeka Obi, an unemployed graduate from Enugu, is more forthcoming as to why many Nigerians abstain from voting: “Many of us have lost faith in politicians. They come every four years with promises and disappear after winning. If I choose not to vote, that’s my right too. Compelling people with jail is dictatorship, not democracy.”

    But that is one of the major things that are wrong with us as a nation. This tendency of heaping every blame on hapless citizens. When anything is not working, the tendency is to look for the guinea pig. This, unfortunately, means hapless Nigerians carrying the can. Nigerians again are the beasts of burden for voter apathy which, clearly, is a creation of the political elite.    

    Sometimes I keep wondering the kind of rigour that goes into public administration in the country. Yet, the country spends a fortune keeping most of our public officials comfortable. I guess that is also part of the problem. Many of them, including rather unfortunately, people in the National Assembly (NASS) are too comfortable to know what things look like at the very grassroots they claim to be representing.

    This is the kind of brain wave that a few privileged people who wear well-starched ‘babariga’ in the midst of millions of poverty-stricken compatriots have that makes them come up with all manner of funny decisions because they are disconnected from the grassroots.

    Rather than be scientific about the issue, Speaker Abbas and his co-travellers resorted to military era solution of decreeing an impossibility into existence.

    Is it not funny that a toxic, compulsory voting is what they are spending valuable time to debate when there are many serious problems confronting the average Nigerian?

    At this juncture, I think Speaker Abbas should, in the absence of any serious matter for the consideration of members of the House of Representatives (because that is the only reason they would be chasing after shadows that compulsory voting represents), declare

    the House adjourned ‘sine die’, to allow members go back to their respective constituencies to find out from the people what their actual needs are. Only people who are disconnected from their roots would be banging their heads against the walls, pursuing an objective that is not even on the reserved list of the people they represent.

    Just in case Mr Abbas decides to continue to be deaf to the calls of freedom, insisting on having his way with this obnoxious bill, then he must be ready to host millions in our prisons. We have not yet seen prison congestion.

    Of course, when Mr Abbas’s dream comes to pass, our prisons would be bubbling because we would have many volunteers who would want to spend the six months in the place rather than be coerced to vote. 

    Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), would probably be their leader, having sworn that he would rather go to prison than be subjected to compulsory voting.

    Agbakoba spoke on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television on May 19: “Look at the ridiculous one in the National Assembly about voting being compulsory. If that bill were to pass, I would say, ‘Agbakoba, we will not obey it.’ I’ll plead conscientious objection. I’d rather go to prison for six months than to obey it,” he said.

    Not done, the lawyer added: “Why would the National Assembly want to impose compulsory voting? Why don’t they reverse the question and say, Why are Nigerians not interested? What is the apathy about?”

    I have no doubt he would have many followers.

    Anyway, more people in our prisons would also boost some people’s businesses. Afterall, tailors would be required to sew the prison uniforms; food vendors and suppliers of various shades would also experience boom in their operations. Likewise, healthcare providers, not excluding the men of God who would now have more jobs to do in the prisons than in the churches. And then, the speaker would go down in history as a man who made all of these possible, as his peculiar way of killing voter apathy in Nigeria.

    But I have a better idea of how to kill Speaker Abbas’s law should it scale through in spite of our rejection. I am not ready to die for my enemies to rejoice. You can’t put anything beyond people with the kind of mindset to make voting compulsory in Nigeria. When people who have been convicted for not voting are kept behind bars, such public officials could be celebrating in their apartments that at least some of their vocal enemies are out of circulation, even as they feign to be worried about the incarceration in the public.

    But, suppose those opposed to compulsory voting also feign support, go to the polling booths and, before God and themselves, decide to deface the ballot papers. Thumbprint across two or three political parties such that the ballot papers would be cancelled eventually?

    Since Speaker Abbas and his co-travellers have decided to shoot without aiming, we (the people) too should master the art of flying without perching.

    We should let them know that they can

    only force a horse to the river, they cannot force it to drink.

    Yes, they would see the millions they want to see on voting queues, but, just as they are clinking glasses that ‘yea, our law is working’, the glasses would drop from their hands when the final figures are released and with most of the ballot papers cancelled and of no effect. It is then they would know how little their thought processes were in coming up with such a bill.

    I guess this is better and cheaper than going to prison over compulsory voting when those who caused the same problem and are now misdiagnosing it remain in their air-conditioned offices, drinking tea and doing in and out. Probably putting in the works another misbegotten policy or idea. Opting to go to jail in this matter smacks of falling for the enemy to rejoice (Olorun ma je ka subu f’ota yo).

    I have no doubt that if the National Assembly goes ahead to pass this bill into law, the law would eventually be challenged in court and I don’t see how it would survive legal scrutiny, given the several provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) on freedom of expression, association and similar matters.

    Mercifully, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has already voiced concern over the bill. Part of its contention is that, “In a democracy, voting is a civil liberty, not a legal obligation. Compelling citizens to vote through coercive measures infringes on their fundamental rights.”

    I want to agree with the NBA that, to the extent of its inconsistency with this and other provisions of the constitution on basic freedoms, the compulsory voting bill would most likely be declared null and void, and ultra vires by the courts.

    Before then, however, we must rise against this imposition because eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Since one cannot tell the exact destination of the proponents of the bill, it is better to assume, like the NBA, that if we allow this to pass unchallenged, worse and more draconian legislations could be lurking somewhere.

    I have always argued that we as a country are where we are because we have been lethargic about governance after we returned the soldiers to their barracks in 1999. We were not this lethargic in the military era.

    If Mr Abbas & Co need to be reminded, their singular decision in the NASS to buy imported exotic cars at the expense of locally-made vehicles was something that has put off many voters in future elections already. It would be difficult to persuade them to change their minds because nobody is a fool. So, Nigerians should continue to vote for people who have little or no feelings when spending scarce public funds, even as they keep telling the people there is no money?

    Mr Speaker and his co-travellers should know that Nigerians’ eyes are no longer on their knees, they are now right on their foreheads!

    If compulsory voting is all about civic responsibility, patriotism and all, what of rejection of local vehicles for imported, more expensive ones?

    If the NASS members know what is good for them, they would do well to throw this bill away in their larger interest. It is an exercise in futility and a product of legislative tyranny and indolence which could further alienate the people from the assembly.

    This compulsory voting law is a decree that its proponents want to cloak in lawful legislative garb. But it would fail. Vote-for-money, we know. Vote-for-rice, we know. Vote-for-bread, we know. But what is don’t vote go to prison?

    Even soldiers didn’t give us such a draconian option. They never forced us to vote.