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Category: Columnists

  • Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s Presidency (2)

    Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s Presidency (2)

    Proceeding from his incisive theoretical dilation on the intricacies and interstices of the concept of leadership and the intertwining theme of the dynamics of leadership -followership relationship, which was the focus of the first part of his treatise on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ‘trajectory to the throne’, Dr John Ekundayo in subsequent chapters of the book, dwells in concrete and exhaustive detail, on the diverse sociological, political, psychological, organizational as well as spiritual facets of the Jagaban of Borgu’s epochal ascendancy to the apex of the country’s political leadership. The book is a veritable rendition of the history of progressive leaders, parties and forces in contemporary Nigerian politics and traces Tinubu’s ideological disposition and philosophical orientation to the Chief Obafemi Awolowo -led school of progressive political thought and praxis in the First and Second Republics respectively.

    Dr Ekundayo sketches in vivid and pungent prose Tinubu’s transition from the corporate world of the multinational oil conglomerate, Mobil Nigeria Ltd to the slippery and unpredictable terrain of partisan politics in Nigeria during the protracted and tortuous political transition programme of the military President,  General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, his election to the Senate on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), from the Lagos West Senatorial District, his active, front line role in the SDP primaries in which M.K.O. Abiola emerged as presidential candidate of the party as well as the campaigns that culminated in the billionaire ‘s triumph at the polls in the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election.

    He documents Tinubu’s courageous record at the vanguard of the momentous struggle that was waged by pro-democracy forces after the capricious and unjust annulment of the election, widely perceived as the fairest and freest in the country’s history, both for the actualization of the June 12 mandate and the withdrawal of the military from the political terrain to ensure a restoration of civil, representative governance. In this struggle, Tinubu proved his mettle as a committed fighter for the liberal values of open, plural democratic mode of governance, the sanctity of democratic rights and the rule of law as well as a society predicated on equity, justice and respect for human dignity.

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    Dr Ekundayo sees his baptism of fire at this stage of his political career, a phase in which, like many others, he had to flee into exile as the goons of the Abacha military dictatorship fire-bombed his house on Victoria Island, Lagos, and sought to take his life as critical signposts on the path of his political evolution and the eventual fulfillment of his destiny as President of Nigeria.

    The author dissects with clinical and meticulous care, the next phase in Tinubu’s political career when he emerged as elected governor of Lagos State in 1999 and served for two terms which came to an end on a euphoric and triumphant note in 2007 with the widespread acknowledgement that he had laid a solid foundation for the resuscitation and future accelerated growth of a once dormant commercial nerve center of Nigeria.  The re-enginering of the state’s finances; overhauling of the public service orientation and functioning through innovations in Information, Communication and Technology; massive infrastructural modernization, expansion and renewal;  the drawing up of a 25-year development master plan for the state and the establishment of several new parastatal organizations to enhance greater efficiency in critical sectors including transportation and traffic control, urban planning, security, building control and safety, environmental protection among others all attract the critical evaluation of Dr Ekundayo.

    Taking particular note of the fact that of the six governors of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the Southwest, it was only Tinubu that survived the PDP’s electoral Tsunami in the 2003 elections, Ekundayo sees this as another significant milestone in the evolving political journey of Tinubu which was perhaps inevitable to help forge in him the steely disposition and fortitude necessary for him to triumph over adversity in higher and more sensitive stages of his political ascendancy especially given the formidable obstacles he constantly had to contend with on his onward March to the making of history. Thus, beyond the technocratic focus on governance in Lagos State under Tinubu, which incidentally is one of the author’s sphereres of specialization as an expert in project monitoring, management and control, Dr Ekundayo beams his searchlight on Tinubu’s emergent politics at this time.

    He describes as a function of his vision and foresight, Tinubu’s decision to stay on in the decimated AD even when he remained the only governor of the party in the country, the last man standing, rather than engage in political vagrancy and peregrinations. He submits that “Thereafter, due to irreconcilable differences and his strategic insight and foresight, he jettisoned AD to form the Action Congress (AC), which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). At that time, some people thought it was a political miscalculation on the part of Asiwaju to have seemingly abandoned the platform that got him elected. Candidly, he saw what many others, especially his peers, at that time, did not see”.

    Dr Ekundayo illustrates how the experience garnered by President Tinubu in rebuilding the progressive political base of the Southwest, following the electoral routing of the party in the region in 2003, facilitated his capacity to be at the forefront of helping to build a strong political platform to provide a viable alternative to the erstwhile behemoth, the PDP, that had become a liability to itself and the nation after 16 years in power by 2015. Thus, Tinubu played a critical catalytic role in forging, with other key leaders such as former President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Ogbanaya Onu, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the transformation of a loose coalition of the ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), as well as factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and PDP into the All Progressives Congress (APC) which has displaced the PDP as the ruling party at the centre since 2015.

    As he puts it, “However, to many top-notch of PDP, the political savvy, skillfulness and sagacity of the enigmatic and Titanic Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) is the nexus ensuring the huge success of seemingly rag-tag ‘strange bedfellows’ that later culminated as the APC”. Quite apart from the skills in bridge building and networking across diverse ethnic, regional, partisan and religious cleavages in a complex polity like Nigeria, a necessity to meet the stringent conditions to win a presidential election, the author cites Tinubu’s ingenuity in identifying and nurturing talents who he aided to develop their leadership skills and, in turn, assume leadership positions as governors, Ministers, local government Chairmen, State commissioners, head of parastatal organizations, members of the state and national legislatures and key positions in the private sector,  as another factor that later constituted an asset in his path to the presidency.

    This was because in addition to being able to enjoy the support of these strategically placed individuals in his bid for the presidency, his role in mentoring and being a role model for them deepened his own political leadership skills and human resource management capacity in preparation for the challenges of the daunting challenges of President of the federal Republic of Nigeria. The author examines the contention in some quarters that, given Tinubu’s role as a ‘king maker’  with his facilitating the path to power for political actors at the sub national and national levels, he should not aspire to be ‘king’ as obtains in traditional African political systems where king makers do not ascend the throne.

    He traces the root of the concept of ‘king maker’ in modern politics to the 16th Earl of Warwick in 1599 through its occurrence in countries like South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore and concludes that “Any aspirant could have a dream: you cannot stop a person from dreaming but followers in Nigeria should be interested in the trajectory of such personalities to the throne”.

    Other factors analyzed in the book include controversies arising from the APC ‘s Muslim-Muslim ticket in a charged multi-religious polity like Nigeria, the several obstacles placed before Tinubu by powerful elements within his own party opposed to his ambition and his famous ‘Emilokan’ declaration during his campaign stop in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, signalling his determination to persist in the race and actualize his goal. In many parts of the book, the author serves us a scintillating political thriller that makes for exciting reading. He does not approach his writing in this book like a detached political analyst who strives to be emotionally distant from the subject of his inquiry.

    Rather, he comes across as a convinced and passionate progressive ideologue himself who is personally deeply impressed in the struggle to actualize Nigeria’s potentials through active political participation. A key and recurrent theme that runs through the book is that even more critical than the requisite type of development-oriented leadership is the necessity for a vigilant, responsible, patriotic and public-spirited followership that holds leaders to account.

  • Language of worship

    Language of worship

    “To grasp the meaning of the world of today we use a language created to express the world of yesterday. The life of the past seems to us nearer our true natures only for the reason that it is nearer our language”.

    By Exupery, from his book: ‘Wind, Sand and Star’, (1939).

    Monologue

    Every celestial or terrestrial creature is like an exclusive enclosure with a special master key that can open it in a peculiar way. That master key, as far as human beings are concerned, is the effective but invisible substance called language. 

    Preamble

    In a clime, language is not just a means of communicating ideas and experiences to facilitate understanding, it is also an instrument of documenting events through which the occurrences of the past and those of the present are related to the future.  In another clime, language is the prima-facie symbol of any culture. A culture without   language is a culture without identity.

    Every language is primarily spoken either by words of mouth or by gesticulation. But it becomes converted into writing for the purpose of recording sounds and preserving history. Language is, in a nutshell, the foundation of all civilizations in all human eras. It is man’s greatest invention without which all other inventions would have been impossible.

    Analysis

       Whether in spoken or written form, language serves as the main intermediary among the races and tribes of mankind.

    Whether in the primordial or contemporary time, language has stood out as a distinguished entity that serves the same purpose in all eras throughout the epoch of history. The birth and death of humans; the rise and fall of empires; the migrations and settlements of races and tribes are all recorded chronicled in languages. Even some inanimate objects like stone, water and glass speak onomatopoeically sometimes to the admiration of man.  

    It is with language alone that every human thought germinates and is turned into reality from dream. Not only that, language is also the cultural law that governs the wild life, be it agro or aqua. The nature of language, its importance, its complexity and its role in human life are such that, this world would have been meaningless without it.  

    Allah tells us in Qur’an 49:13 thus: “Oh people! We have created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes that you may interact with one another. Surely the noblest of you before Allah is the most righteous of you all. Allah is all-wise and all-knowing”.

    The idea of this topic arose from a question posed to me sometimes ago by a Lagos Muslim socialite. He said: “rather than observing Salat in Arabic language which we do not understand, why don’t we do it either in English or vernacular which we understand very well?” He cited the example of the Churches where Christians worship in various but understandable languages and concluded that such an innovation might bring more converts to Islam and more people to the Mosque. He did not stop there. He went further to advocate for reduction in the number of times we (Muslims) observe Salat daily saying that that might be ‘more realistic’ and ‘more convenient’ especially for busy and travelling people. You can see, from that question, the extent of naivety which ignorance is capable of conferring on its victims. Or how else will you judge a mortal being who wants to amend the constitution of his Immortal Creator? And our brother is not the only one with such a parochial idea. There are some others like him.

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    In my response, I asked the enquirer to tell me why Islam remains the fastest growing religion in the West today despite the worshipping by Muslims in ‘understandable’ languages in the Churches in that part of the world. I made a particular reference to Britain where Churches are sold to Muslims in scores to be converted into Mosques and asked him to tell me any religion he knew that was ever revealed in English language.

    I did not stop there. I also went further to ask him whether it was reasonable to let his employees work for only three days in a week instead of six days while he pays them fully for the whole week. I then took advantage of the glaring evidence of confusion on his visage to put burner in my fervour as a student of English language and tutored him a little on the fact that English which he parochially perceived as an ideal language was not original. I told him how England was colonised severally for centuries by various countries and empires including France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. I let him know that English only emerge as an adopted language from a combination of the languages of England’s colonial masters in the 10th century (A.C). I pointed out to him that not only about 9,700 words of the modern English language were borrowed from French and Anglicized but also that most of the clustered consonant words in English are either German or Scandinavian in origin. I cited examples of such words as ‘acknowledgement’, psychology, knight, pseudo, gnash, rhythm, solemn etc. There is also a great influence of some other Indo-European languages, especially from the Upper and the Lower Germanic on English language. Besides, I pointed it out that the country called Britain today, which is a combination of England, Scotland and Wales , is not a monolingual country as sometimes misconceived by most people. Other languages like Celtic and Welsh are still very much spoken in that country today, though restrictedly.

    I then settled him down to religion proper and called his attention to the original common language of revelation of the ‘Tawrah’ (Talmud) of Prophet Musa (Moses), the Zabur (Psalms) of Prophet Daud (David) and ‘injil’ (Bible) of Prophet Isa (Jesus) which is Hebrew. The Jews still worship in that language today.

    In countries like China, Japan, Korea and India, where religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto and Hinduism are in vogue, the languages of worship by the adherents are Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Hindu. And, in terms of numerical strength, no religion in the world today enjoys so large follower-ship as Buddhism which is closely followed by Hinduism because of the huge populations of China and India. Yet the worship in those religions does not go beyond their countries of nativity.

    In the West where Christianity holds sway, no single language was adopted for worship after the death of Latin which was the official language of the Roman Empire. While the Germans worship in German, the French, the Spanish, the British, the Americans, the Italians, the Swedish, the Danish, the Russians, the Poles, the Norwegians, the Portuguese and others, all worship in their respective languages.

    This means that no French or Russian man can worship with understanding in a Portuguese Church except he understands Portuguese language. This is not the case with Islam. The fulfillment of Allah’s global will for mankind is a universal reality today. That will is contained in Qur’an 21:107 thus: “We have not sent you (Muhammad) forth but as a mercy to the entire world. Say it is revealed to me that your God is one God. Won’t you submit to Him?”

    It is only in Islam, of all religions, that adherents from Brazil, Finland, Nigeria, Pakistan and Australia can easily walk into any Mosque in China or Japan or Saudi Arabia and worship jointly behind an Imam without any fear of language discrimination. And that is what makes Islam the universal religion that Allah wills it to be. This is made possible by Arabic language which is the language of the revelation of the Qur’an. In all other religions of the world, adherents, irrespective of their populations, do worship only locally according to their languages.

    To call for the abandonment of Arabic language in Salat, therefore, is to call for the reduction of Islam from a universal religion into a local one. Not only that, such a call is a way of advocating for the dismantling of global Muslim unity.     

    What our pitied socialite brother does not know is the fact that worshipping in Arabic which is the language of the revelation of the Qur’an is the main cause of antagonism against Islam by those who have lost the originality of their own religion. That “Allah is all-wise and all-knowing” as quoted above is not in vain. All divine religions were deliberately revealed in the languages of their ‘Messengers’. And no Messenger was sent to the entire world except Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    Arabic, as a language, has become assimilated into Islam as a culture. As a matter of fact, it is with that language that the Muslims imbibed   the formidability and courage of resistance which enabled Islam to survive all intrigues, aggressions and intimidations of many empires through the centuries.

    As a culture, Islam remains irrepressible for two main reasons. One reason is that it is a spiritual rather than a physical nation with an everlasting ideology. Even if its adherents are conquered, the idea that makes that religion a nation can never be conquered because it is invisible. The other reason is contained in Qur’an 15:9 thus:  “It was ‘We’ (Allah) who revealed the Qur’an and it ‘We’ (Allah) who will certainly preserve it”.

    Formidability of a culture depends very much on the tenacity accorded its language by the speakers of that language.

    Sometimes a culture may get absorbed into another culture without losing its accompanying language. Sometimes, a language may be assimilated into another language even as the culture is retained. Islam has resistance for both. The early Muslim Arabs did not take only Islam to all conquered nations, they took Arabic, the language of the Qur’an as well. The only exception is Persia (now Iran) which was equally strong linguistically. Countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia were not Arabic speaking until Islam spread to them.

    We have similar example here in Nigeria. The Fulanis, who, led by Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, re-introduced Islam in its purified form to the conquered areas now called northern Nigeria, had to compromise their language in favour of Islam which was their culture. The Hausas, on the other hand, preferred to sacrifice their pagan culture in favour of their language. Thus, the combination of both has come to give the northern Nigeria a foremost cultural veracity that is almost second to none in Africa. Not only has Hausa language become an international language spoken in the media of most civilized countries, Shari’ah has also been imbibed as the Islamic cultural law of the region.

    Today, while most parts of the Southern Nigeria have enslaved themselves irredeemably to foreign cultures, the north gives a new hope of cultural renaissance to Nigeria and even Africa. From the cultural way the northerners dress and eat, from the way they insist on speaking Hausa language irrespective of where they find themselves, it is becoming clearer that adoption of that language in the UN is just a matter of time. Already, virtually all the countries that matter in the world today have Hausa programmes on their radio and television stations. And far from the self-deception of the southern people who want to eat their cake and still have it, the long expected African civilization may start from northern Nigeria. The numerical strength of that region is an added advantage.

    It is rather unfortunate that the southern Muslims have had to join non-Muslims in replacing their cultural language with the colonial language. The tragedy of this development is that while they are losing their own language, they are unable to grasp the foreign language for which they are craving. In both ways, they are the losers not only today but tomorrow as well.

    Prophet Muhammad (SAW) though counseled on the need to understand languages other than mother-tongues, he never preached the abdication of one’s own language.

  • Identity Politics versus National Development

    Identity Politics versus National Development

    Some thought leaders and well-meaning Nigerians are of the opinion that identity politics is the bane of our polity and development, and I agree. By identity politics, I mean a societal culture whereby the political, social, environmental, and economic dynamics are influenced and/ or determined by racism, tribalism, ethnic jingoism, religious extremism, chauvinism, and other forms of bigotry and parochialism. However, Nigeria and indeed any other Country or society will be better if they are able to overcome parochialism, ethnic jingoism, and other forms of identity politics.

     Global Perspective

    Identity politics has been part and parcel of the political evolution of the entire world. It is part of global sociology. Interestingly, rather than diminishing, identity politics is becoming a more prominent global reality. Certainly, identity politics has always been driving global, national, and subnational politics and socio-economic power dynamics from time immemorial, but more so in the past 60 years. Even though it is being hypocritically downplayed, we witness and experience it everywhere in public and private sectors, including our workplaces and communities. Like other parts of the world, identity politics is part of African culture. The current and historical political dynamics in almost all African countries are the stark reality of the global socio-political situation, which are the indications that national and global geopolitics will continue to be run along the lines of nationalism and protectionism rather than globalization, which in my view are other forms of identity politics.

     Accordingly, globally, we are seeing a reversal of the achievements made in the past 60 years of trying to break down the barriers of race, religion, ethnicity, prejudice, etc. We are witnessing what is happening in Gaza for the past over 50 years between the Israel and Palestine and the position taken by the global superpowers, especially the western powers, and even the middle-east power blocs, who play the ostrich when it comes to those interests that satisfy their strategic objectives, regardless of how inhumane and how horrible the situation is for the less fortunate countries, states, communities and/ or people. The same scenario is playing out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Myanmar, etc. These hypocrisies in conversations and actions are amongst the reasons why I believe that the politics of identity will continue to drive political systems and the emergence of political leaders in societies and nations, including “democratic” societies/Countries.

     Identity politics hinders or destroys societies or national development, fosters polarization, disunity, inequality, and injustice, with the attendant negative consequences.  It narrows the view and progress of any nation or society. Therefore, in my view, in trying to address the issue of identity politics, from a strategic perspective, it is for us to see how we can bring what I call a “balance”, rather than trying to eliminate it or trying to pretend that it is the only problem, or trying to think that some people can actually just stop it. This is because politics of identity is part and parcel of our moral and societal fabric across the world, regardless of race, religion, and regardless of how old or how deep the so-called “democratic tenets” are. The politics of identity remains a key element, leverage or driver of political campaigns and the determinant of electoral victory, or attainment of political power even in the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, etc.

     Consequently, if it is something we cannot do away with, then why shouldn’t we have a system that will manage the process for all of us? Even within the boundaries of countries of the superpowers or the top economies of the world, the politics of identity is what is driving those countries, whether they are at war or they are at peace. From the United States of America to the United Kingdom to Europe to the Middle East to the Far East, Africa, or anywhere else. The re-emergence and growing popularity of the right-wing political parties and power blocks sweeping elections across Europe is key evidence of the prominence of identity politics in the global scheme. Hence, the politics of identity is a key factor that determines the political direction of the entire world. Additionally, the return of President Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America (Trump 2.0) will further clear the doubts of those who think that identity politics is growing in prominence.

     Nigeria and the 2027 Elections

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    Identity politics in Nigeria is so strong that it cannot be overshadowed even by the power of incumbency at the subnational, state, or national level. It guides our political awareness, determines our political, social, and economic directions. A classic example is the fact that even though Nigerians are aware of the failures of political leaders at the federal and subnational levels. But because of identity politics, we ignore the mistakes or failures of our political leaders at our own peril. For instance, during the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, and the tenure President Muhammadu Buhari, or the incumbent President Bola Tinubu, citizens will mostly to be sentimental and never complain or criticize the President, if he comes from their region, state, tribe or religion, even if they are eating from the dustbin or dying in droves. Conversely, citizens are also reluctant to celebrate or commend the President or Governor, even if he is performing well, if he is not of their region, state, tribe, or religion. It is even worse at the state levels, because in the States; the most of the people that are suffering the most are the people that are defending the state governors, no matter how poorly they perform. That is what is identity politics does to a society.

     The politics of identity is a topic of discussion in any political forum and any democratic process. The only difference is that in the more advanced democracies, it is done more sublimely/ hypocritically than in a country like Nigeria. So, to contextualize this perspective, to the buildup to the 2027 general elections, as we approach the mid-term of President Tinubu, I wonder if should we could easily de-emphasize or wish away identity politics. In fact, in my view identity politics will play a huge role in the 2027 general elections, more than ever before.

     It is highly likely that in the 2027 general elections, we will witness how identity politics may tip the dynamics even more than population. While population has been driving and determining political directions and electoral victories, whether it is in terms of official census numbers, which some citizens challenge its veracity or in reality where the numbers are actually true; political permutations and manipulations will ensure that identity politics will be a critical success factor for the incumbent or for those that want to upstage the incumbent in Nigeria at Presidential, State government, and even local government levels.

     Most times, for strategic or diplomatic reasons, we outwardly downplay the politics of identity only so as to give a sense of “unity and/ or “fairness” or maybe a sense of “justice. But the identity politics always manifests, especially buildup to and during elections, as it has been from time, only more so as the political evolution of Nigeria is becoming more and more complex rather than simplistic due to the failure of successive administrations to deliver the crucial political reforms and socio-economic development.

     Moreover, the politicians have recognized identity politics as a very important tool for electoral success, and political control, not just in Nigeria but in many countries across the world.

     Meanwhile, it is worthy of note that some countries like Singapore, Switzerland, etc., have achieved some level of political balance based on ideals like unity in diversity, properly domesticated political systems and structures, meritocracy, etc. Such achievements were also not without costly sacrifices that have remained indelible scars in their histories and evolution. While political idealism is more in the realm of theory; countries like Singapore and Rwanda has demonstrated that societies and countries can overcome identity politics and succeed. Therefore, it is essential that well-meaning and forward-thinking Nigerians should continue advocating for inclusivity, unity in diversity, proper domestication of political systems and structures that will suit our national peculiarities, meritocracy, etc., as the possible best ways forward.

     Way forward for Nigeria

    Change the Political system with a significant reduction of power from the center

    One of the best ways to dilute or neutralize the politics of identity in Nigeria is to change the political system and structure of the Country. Even though changing the political system and structure may not immediately eliminate identity politics, but it will certainly downplay it in the mid to long term, and will provide some level of balance in restructuring the political system of Nigeria from the current presidential system. This is because identity politics is even more pronounced at the local levels, and that is why thinking that we can wish away identity politics at the national level is only wishful thinking.

     In subsequent episodes of this Column, I will continue to espouse more with my views about identity politics, especially with regards to the 2027 general elections in Nigeria and some of the best ways to significantly downplay identity politics in Nigeria.

  • The San Siro battle

    The San Siro battle

    San Siro is the name of the home pitch shared by Inter Milan and AC Milan, two leading football clubs in Italy. On Tuesday night, the stadium was virtually on fire, a week after the first leg of the Champions League semifinals showdown between Inter and Barca at the Olympic Stadium in Spain, which ended, 3-3. The Spain encounter was a foretaste of what to come in Italy. The match lived up to its billing. From the start to the end, there was no dull moment.

    By the 90th minute, the normal regulation time, Barca were leading 3-2. At that stage, the game was as good as won. So, Barca and their supporters as well as others thought. But the Inter boys did not give up and in the third minute of added time, they got the equaliser. The game resumed in extra time and Inter got the winning goal in the first half of extra time to end the breath taking game, 4-3 after about 126 minutes, including added time of extra time, of pulsating soccer.

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    It was football at its best, the kind of which I do not think has been seen in the history of the Champions League. Inter are now in the finals. Either side could have won as both teams were hungry for victory. When teams play like this, the beautiful game is the better for it. Is that not why people are crazy about soccer?

  • Nigeria First, a safety valve

    Nigeria First, a safety valve

    THINK NIGERIA, BUY NIGERIA has for long been a slogan that the people are used to. It is employed by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as private enterprises to woo customers to patronise locally manufactured goods. The slogan might have caught on, but the message did not.

    Sloganeering is one thing, but making the message sink in, is another. It is the duty of the messenger to ensure that his message is understood and that the receiver buys into it. If the receiver does not key in, it means either one of two things. The message is not clear or the product being marketed is not good enough. Or it could be the medium or media used for the message was or were not wide enough.

    Message, messaging and the messenger must go hand in hand for any product or policy to sell or work. The Federal Government seems to have realised this under its Nigeria First Policy (NFP), hereinafter referred to as Nigeria First, the Policy or NF, which was unveiled after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday. The Policy talks about putting indigenous businesses first in everything.

    Be it in contract bidding or provision of goods and services, Nigerian businesses will come first. They will be the contractors of first resort, according to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris. One may be tempted to say there is nothing new about the policy on putting Nigeria first in every area of human endeavour. Even without a formal policy like NF, the government, industrialists and patriotic Nigerians have always spoken about the country, its people and businesses been the cornerstone of whatever we do.

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    The government should be commended for formalising the process. It should, however, not end there. The Policy must be strictly implemented for it to work. There should be no room for any corporate entity or individual, no matter how powerful, to cut corners or attempt to find loopholes in the Policy so as to serve their selfish interests. Most times, the government comes up with good policies but the system prevents them from working. The government is the government and no one no matter how affluent and influential can be more powerful than it.

    The government must go beyond having good policies to wield the big stick whenever a big man or a big firm takes it up by bypassing those policies meant for the good of the country. We should learn from other countries that are doing well across the world. They respect the rich and big companies, but they know what to do whenever such people and institutions cross the line. Policies can only be as good as their implementation. The failure of implementation is the beginning of the failure of any policy no matter how good it is.

    The government cannot afford to allow NF to fail. All eyes are on it, with the unveiling of the policy. Its planned tinkering with the procurement process is good. For too long, the nation has lost trillions of naira through procurement fraud. The sanitisation of the unit is long overdue. It should not start and end with the staff of the unit, which may affect only those in the junior cadre. It needs overhauling so that the unit which is supposed to verify all transactions does not become the tool for fraud and corruption, which many believe it is today.

    If the unit becomes ‘born again’ (read as clean), Nigeria First is on its way to achieve its aim of, among others, “putting Nigeria – not foreign companies, not imports – at the heart of national development”. Our economy can only come out of the woods in such a situation. With time too, the government should back the Policy up with law. An Executive Order does not carry the same force as the law. It has its limitations.

  • #NogreeforNipco

    #NogreeforNipco

    The messages have been coming in, in torrents. Almost all the writers have something to say about gas filling stations. They said all the outlets are crooks. According to them, the outlets are not different from their workers whose stock-in-trade is to rip off motorists and other customers. I have also experienced some of the things they wrote about. But my last experience which has provoked two pieces in this space beats them all.

    To me, it is daylight robbery by a well-heeled oil firm which also runs a retail outlet. Nipco is deliberately refusing to refund my N20000 for a failed transaction last January 15 at its Arepo outlet off the Lagos-Ibadan Express road. The money is not the issue but the outlet’s advertent refusal to make amends. Those who wrote in, in solidarity with this column said they had similar experiences with some outlets (names withheld) as well as Nipco.

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    They said the outlets do not give a hoot about customers’ complaints. For all they care, customers can go to hell. ‘I see wen for dem hand. I go buy petrol for one filling station around Ogba with my ATM. Dem debit me but the receipt say: ‘DECLINED’. Dem no sell fuel for me. My bank say the money don leave dem hand. I go back to the filling station, dem no answer me. Na the thing wey we dey see for dem hand be that. Oga, no gree for dem o”.

    None has a good story to tell about the outlets. This is worrisome. Should they be allowed to continue to treat customers shabbily, especially in cases of ‘dispense error’ – where a customer is debited for a failed transaction, but the outlet is credited. In my case, if Nipco wants to claim, contrary to available evidence, that it did not get the money, then it should throw its books open for scrutiny. From there, we will take the matter further.

  • Character is like smoke, no matter how one hides it, it will escape

    Character is like smoke, no matter how one hides it, it will escape

    I was reading an opinion column in a Western European newspaper last weekend in which the writer was saying the eventual fall of President Donald Trump and the political tendency and ideology which he represents were almost ordained because, according to the writer, any success built on hate cannot endure.

    It now appears that the apparent electoral success of Trump over Kamala Harris was a mere pyrrhic victory which, though is having fundamental consequences on the USA and the whole world at large, may not amount to a sea change in American politics and global politics after all.

    As an observer of global politics, it is clear to me that there are necessary changes which have to be made in American politics and global reactions to these changes but not the way Trump has gone about it. It is clear to me that America cannot continue to be the dumping grounds for Asian industrial goods from Japan, China, India, Vietnam and other putative capitalist countries whose economies are based on exports while America consumes all and their own industries go into decline without consequences on the global exchange capitalist mechanism.

    This system, whereby consumption is in one country and production is in other countries, particularly in one dominant manufacturing country, is not likely to remain forever and it contradicts the capitalist system of exchange of goods.

    This suited the commercial class in America, and also in Europe, which moved production to China and fed fat on design and manipulation of the market to favour themselves while the working class were made to pay exorbitantly for cheaply made Chinese goods deceptively styled “designer goods “and the rich class became richer and richer on their manipulation of the shares and stock markets.

    Trump exploited the inherent racism of the white people against blacks and Asians to tell the Americans in coded language that the Chinese were responsible for their economic problems. His campaign of making America great again essentially meant “let’s make America white again,” where everyone knew their places, with the whites right at the top of the racial heap.

    In this scheme, the likes of Obama and Harris have no place, and the vast majority of the white American electorate bought this. Somehow some Latinos bought into it feeling smug that they were not after all blacks!  Even some black men felt they would not be bossed around by a black madam! The state capture of the electorate was complete.

    Former President Joe Biden waited too long before he decided he would not seek the presidency. The sham and charade of the Democratic nomination of Kamala Harris came too late and she was merely presented a poisoned chalice at the end and there was no magic wand that she could cast to win against Trump. In the end, the contest was no contest at all.

    However, the dirty character of Donald Trump is becoming clear not only to the whole world but to the American community which has shamefully supported him because what is clear to anybody who has ever visited America is that Americans are closet racists. Somebody once commented that racism is in open display every Sunday when the so- called “God’s own country“ is assembled in separate churches- black,  white and the whites are separated into Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, Greek, Croatian, Ukrainian and others with red lines which one should not cross.

    Read Also: Nigerian activist Hamzat Lawal joins jury for global Mandela–Machel awards

    A young friend of mine who was brought up in a Baptist environment of primary school, secondary school and whose Baptist father sent him to a university in Oklahoma apparently owned by the Baptist mission was shocked when he went to attend church on his first visit to the United States. On entering the big church, he noticed that there were no other blacks in the church. He was accosted by the church warden who asked him “can I help you?” When he replied that he was new in town and a Baptist wanting to worship God . He was told he was in the wrong place.

    What is happening in America today and what Trump’s world view represents is what his German forebears called – weltanschauungen. The whole world must understand and sympathise with the ordinary Americans whose leaders are fanning the embers of racism because of politics.  Some of them like J.D. Vance, the Vice President, who one will think would understand the incipient racism of their society, having been married to an Indian, is trying to widen the net of racial superiority to include the people of the subcontinent of India in their dragnet of racial superiority in a struggle with the rest of the world.

    The rest of the world must learn fast and try to blunt the spear of racism directed against them. The world does not need any racial divide. Adolf Hitler tried it and failed. Any pitiable imitator will surely fail. The problem unfortunately is that racism is armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons yet we must try and extirpate and crush this dragon.

    This is the challenge facing the whole world but it is our bounden duty to expose the smoke of racism wherever it lurks in our society and in the world. Let’s begin.

  • Ghosts of Hurti

    Ghosts of Hurti

    Even vultures do not feast on their young. Yet in Hurti, Nigeria nourished on the blood of her children. The narrative is bloodcurdling: severed throats of innocent children, salty tears of sorrowing mothers, and decapitated fathers who bled out.

    The victims’ fates invoke the mindless grief of a nation too brutalised to feel empathy. Yet Hurti’s anguish is no different from the love we insist on holding back. The horror that befell the hamlet on April 2nd is no accident of history. It is a grim parable; a ghastly rite of our clustered miscreation. That ill-fated Wednesday, Saltifat, four, and Justice, seven, had their throats slit by an ethnic militia. Subsequently, their bodies were flung into their burning home.

    That any human hand could press a blade against a child’s neck and pull—without scruples or remorse—is the ultimate indictment of a nation adrift. Yet this savagery is rarely singular. It mirrors a familiar rite of vengeance that has been around for a long time. At the same time, plagued warring communities pitted in a never-ending tussle dubbed the indigene-settler crisis, ethno-religious conflict, across Plateau, Benue and other States.

    From Riyom to Barkin Ladi, Bokkos to Mangu, the narrative is the same: a festering grievance, a retaliatory attack, and a government that responds with lofty speeches and body bags. This is not justice. This is the ritualisation of horror.

    Hurti did not burn in isolation. It burned as part of Nigeria’s slow, daily immolation. What remains after the carnage isn’t simply the ash of houses or the charred corpses of the slain occupants. What remains is eight-year-old Josiah’s scream: “Leave him alone! Leave him alone!” as he watched his father get butchered to death. What remains is nine-year-old Fatima Yusuf’s barefoot sprint from death, and her fragile, prayerful chants above the crack of gunfire.

    Hurti’s tragedy is not new, but its pain is freshly grotesque. Around 3:35 pm, the soft murmur of rural life ruptured to the hum of motorcycles, three slayers in each seat, their guns and machetes slung across their backs like casual accessories. Within moments, the air turned metallic with the stench of blood. Julia, 48, watched from the bush as her sons got slaughtered, paralysed by the knowledge that a step toward them was a step toward certain death. Her children died without her arms around them. Their last thoughts, zoned into the absence of a mother torn between love and survival. That is the real death. Yet Julia suffers another kind of death; the one that stalks a mother, long after she witnessed her sons’ murder and burial in a mass grave.

    The Mangut boys, like several of their peers, were soullessly erased from the nation’s moral register. Their killers are products of our moral void. The disfigurement of the soul that afflicts them drives hundreds of youths in several Plateau communities to bear machetes into neighbouring settlements, retaliating for past wrongs with future atrocities. The cycle is cruel and complete: blood for blood, sin for sin, horror for horror. And while the dead pile up, those still breathing shuffle forward, desensitised and forever maimed.

    No tribe or tongue owns this cruelty. What we are dealing with surpasses ethnic violence; it is moral atrophy cloaked as gall. Amid this cultural flop of empathy, Nigeria suffers a descent to pitilessness; a deadening of our national conscience. From the rostrums of leadership to the ramshackle dwellings of the poor, compassion is vanishing. In its place is a perverse exaltation of vengeance and rage.

    This malady is canonised in real time; it is what makes a government send relief materials instead of trauma therapists. It is what drives citizens to turn every tragedy into a statistic and every loss into a familiar tragedy. Pitilessness thus defines the Nigerian system. It flows through the corridors of power into the minds of everyday Nigerians who scroll past photographs of massacred children and civil deaths as if they were yesterday’s football scores. What kind of society is this, that a child’s charred remains invoke no rallying cry?

    The cost of unhealed wounds is profound. Josiah’s eyes, now vacant, tell a story we refuse to hear. Laughter has deserted his innocent heart, and he wakes up screaming from persistent nightmares. His father is dead, but Josiah dies a little every night. If we do nothing, he will grow up among us as a wounded shell. Like Josiah, hundreds of children across Bokkos LGA and beyond have witnessed similar horrors, and in their experiences, you begin to see a generational crisis of unfathomable scope.

    As trauma specialist Dr. Osaro warns, Josiah may grow up physically but remain stuck emotionally at the moment of his father’s slaying. And such children, unhealed, become adults unable to give or receive love. Some will harden into new agents of violence. Others will collapse inward, swallowed by fear or shame or addiction. Either way, society pays.

    The costs are steep: broken homes, mental illness, suicidal ideation, and violent crime. But worst of all is the silent inheritance: the rage, suspicion and grief that the living pass on to the unborn.

    It’s about time we halted the transmission of this transgenerational hatred. We must draw a line. There must be justice, not just for Hurti, but for every village whose earth has been darkened by blood. The perpetrators of the April 2 massacre must be hunted, tried, and punished. No more euphemisms. No more “unknown gunmen.”

    There must be healing, the type that surpasses food rations, sanitary pads, and temporary tents. I speak of structured trauma therapy and community-based interventions funded by the government. Art therapy, storytelling sessions, and safe houses for child survivors must become part of our emergency response. Healing cannot be outsourced to God. It must be planned, funded, and executed by men.

    There must be dialogue. It’s about time the government, traditional rulers, faith leaders, and local communities sat at a common table, not to relitigate old grievances, but to chart a pathway to sustainable peace. We must neuter the culture of reprisal and the myth of ethnic supremacy. We must cultivate mutual respect as a survival strategy far from the culture of utopia.

    Read Also: Nigerian activist Hamzat Lawal joins jury for global Mandela–Machel awards

    We must also address land use conflicts with transparent legal reforms. Set up conflict-resolution commissions that include all stakeholders: settlers, herders, indigenes, and imbue them with real authority. We must remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks that delay intervention and create safe zones where displaced people can live and rebuild without fear.

    And lastly, we must re-teach ourselves to feel. Our social and religious institutions must preach compassion louder than conquest. Our schools must teach empathy, not just arithmetic. Our homes must nurture kindness, not vengeance. Only then can we ensure that Saltifat and Justice did not die in vain.

    What Hurti demands of us is not pity but a covenant. We owe it to Saltifat, four, and Justice, seven. We owe it to Enoch Jabarang, nine, and Bright Ephraim, one. We owe it to nine-year-olds: Fatima and Josiah, who still wake up screaming from a horrid relive of their fathers’ murder. Shall we unlearn the barbarism of our past, and rework compassion, from a convenient slogan into a national policy and culture of co-existence?

    If we do not, then Hurti is prophecy; its flames will leap into other hamlets and other homes. And the fires may stay burning in our hearts.

  • The ECOWAS education question: CSR (2)

    The ECOWAS education question: CSR (2)

    INVEST IN THE YOUTH AND WATCH YOUR DIVIDEND GROW!

    More GOVERNMENT BUDGETARY MONEY and MORE CSR by Corporate ECOWAS is required for uplifting primary education – to give a rock-solid foundation. Do not wait till secondary school. A rocky primary school leads to high poor quality dropout rates and poor-quality students seeking secondary school admission. We need primary school Robotics, AI, IT, good practical agricultural education.      

    THE BILLBOARD MANIA PARADOX: Our corporate bodies erect ‘international standard’ hugely expensive mega-billboards often with pictures of footballs and admired footballers paradoxically contrasting with neglected neighbouring braindead schools, requiring corporate petty cash for FOOTBALLS and books to change their educational trajectory. It is a corporate no-brainer Advertising Strategy Course 101 that for every N20-50m billboard, N2-5m must be spent in donating ‘with fanfare’ 1000 branded balls (foot, basket etc.) and 1000 library books to schools in the dark shadow of the billboards which shamefully have NEVER had a real football from the usual suspects- government, corporates, PTAs or Old School Associations.

    To DISCOVER INNER TALENT youth must have access, NOT TO BILLBOARDS, but to balls, paper, paintbrushes, musical instruments, the science lab today. Can we demand a BILLBOARD TAX FOR SCHOOL EQUIPMENT? The 1,000 footballs would give publicity, improved mental health, opportunities to shine and meet others as an anti-drugs and anti-cult strategy.

    IN ECOWAS CSR SHOULD BE ELEVATED TO AN AWARD-WINNING ANNUAL CEREMONY/COMPETITION FOR NOBLE CAUSES and not a HQ media frenzy, gimmick event, to steal, trickling through a waste pipe tap. CSR should cascade far beyond the HQ like a shower reaching everywhere through branches, distributors, employees, customers, contacts, old schools, neighbourhoods & customers’ families and communities.

    IN THE ECOWAS THE CSR REPORT MUST BE UPGRADED, SUBMITTED, EXAMINED AND GRADED DURING ANY CORPORATE/GOVERNMENT CONTACT/SHORTLISTING/CONTRACT AWARDING PROCEDURE.

    It is May. IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS there will be THE ANNUAL MOCK Exam. The MOCK indigent failures, without funds for private teachers, usually fail WASC or NECO. We require a standardised system in which GOOD MOTIVATED teachers teach the indigent students POST MOCK as well. IN EDUCARE TRUST we achieved a 60 percent PASS RATE FROM SUCH A SCHEME FOR 160 STUDENTS. Most of our ECOWAS youth require a little help to avoid failure. Empower the education workforce and improve the environment -posters, books, sanitation, toilets and running water. A school’s 300 students and teachers will visit TOILETS 3-900 times a day. Remember that please when you are thinking about CSR. 

    ECOWAS School Curricula need to include material taught by NGOs – CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES   

    TO REALLY HELP, The ECOWAS Chambers of Commerce and Industries must AS A POLICY EXPAND CSR COMPLIANCE AS AN ANNUAL RE-REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT WITH PRIZES & should police its own.

    SPREAD THE CSR SCRUTINY TO ALL PROFESSIONAL GROUPS AND CONSULTANCIES INCLUDING ENGINEERING, IT/AI, LEGAL, ACCOUNTANCY, MEDICAL.

    THE CSR REPORT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED AND EXAMINED DURING ANY PARTNERSHIPS CONTRACT AWARDING PROCEDURE EVEN WHEN TAKING ON AN AUDIT, ACCOUNTING AND LEGAL TEAM.

    Read Also: ECOWAS Court to member states: bring justice closer to people

    EDUCARE TRUST WAS BEGUN TO INSERT CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ESPECIALLY THROUGH SOCIAL MESSAGING in public schools. TODAY CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES are key to IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS BUT THEY RARELY GO AROUND. When you think of currency, please think of children. Corporate petty cash changes the lives of nearby children. Think stocks and shares, also THINK PROVIDING YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SERVICES. Thirty years ago, we started THE ET HOLIDAY SCHOOL -HOLISCHOOL -to occupy the youth, physically and mentally, during holidays in co-curricular and CURRICULAR progress. At our prompting and to the credit of Educare Trust, now, EVERY PRIVATE SCHOOL RUNS A HOLISCHOOL PROGRAMME. Great, BUT GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS DO NOT RUN SUCH PROGRAMMES. WHO LOSES? THE POOR ECOWAS STUDENT.

    WHY ARE WE SHOOTING OUR YOUTH IN THE BRAIN, DESTROYING OUR FUTURE?

     ECOWAS may obtain Commerce and Industry Achievements, overcome challenges to business success but if the youth are under-equipped there will be no successful future, only frustration, insecurity and violence. Education is not a guarantee for development or an inoculation against corruption but it is a better stepping stone, than ignorance, towards Peace & Security.

    The Youth Question is an explosive but surmountable Challenge requiring Solutions like increased Government budgetary and Private Sector CSR input. ECOWAS will lose if it mismanages this Opportunity and Responsibility to lay the foundation for future Peace and Security, prerequisites for economic development.

    Our ECOWAS youth, for REGIONAL INTEGRATION need INCREASED EDUCATION BUDGETS AND CLEAR 2025 CSR GUIDELINES ACROSS ECOWAS NOW, FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW.          

    ASK THE MODIFIED JF KENNEDY QUESTION

    ASK NOT WHAT THE YOUTH, POTENTIAL CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS, CAN DO FOR YOUR COMPANY NOW, BUT… WHAT YOU CAN DO, WITH CSR, TO KEEP THEM ALIVE, LIVING LONGER TO BENEFIT YOUR COMPANY LONGER BY BUYING YOUR PRODUCTS LONGER?

    THE YOUTH EDUCATION QUESTION —SUMMARY:

    NONPOLITICISED YOUTH CENTRES IN EVERY POLITICAL UNIT

    IMPROVE PRIMARY SCHOOLS WITH OLD STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATIONS

    EXPAND & ELEVATE PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION CONTENT

    INCREASE EDUCATION BUDGETS AND CSR CAPTURE

    Aim for AN OPTIMUM STANDARD TEACHER AND STUDENT FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT

    DISBURSE CSR TO THE PERIPHERY –WIDELY

    SCHOOL NEEDS LIST –ANNUAL

    BALANCE DIRECT CSR vs BILLBOARD COSTS

    FUND TEACHERS FOR INDIGENT STUDENT POST-MOCK EXAM INTENSIVE COACHING

    THE CSR REPORT MUST BE ASSESSED FOR PARTNERSHIPS/CONTACTS/CONTRACTS/SERVICE PROVIDERS

    INCLUDE SERVICE PROFESSIONALS IN CSR ASSESSMENTS

    FINALLY, PLS TAKE AND TEACH AT EVERY BUSINESS MEETING AS A YOUTH DEVELOPMENT/ANTI-EXPLOITATIVE STRATEGY: ‘INVEST IN THE YOUTH AND WATCH YOUR DIVIDEND GROW’

  • Atiku’s unfulfilled Nunc Dimittis

    Atiku’s unfulfilled Nunc Dimittis

    The original Nunc Dimittis were the opening words of a canticle or song, credited to Simeon, a Jew, who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. Faithful Simeon was there when the baby Jesus was presented to the Temple in Jerusalem for the ceremony of redemption of the firstborn son. He took Jesus in his hands and uttered the words now famously recognised as the Nunc Dimittis. As recorded in the Vulgate Bible in Luke Chapter 2, verses 29-32, Simeon, fulfilled that he had seen the Messiah, is reported as saying, “Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum.” This roughly translates to “Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised.”

    Simeon’s case provides only a partial analogy to Atiku’s. Like Simeon, Atiku may have been promised by his Marabout or Spiritual Leader that he will not die until he has become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The problem with Atiku is that he may never become President, because, unlike Simeon, who consistently stayed with the same Temple to which baby Jesus was presented, Atiku did not stay loyal to the same temple of politics. He has been moving from one political party to the other so much so that the spiritual promise could not shift with him.

    In less than 20 years, from 2007 to date, Atiku had moved from PDP to AC (2007-2011); back to PDP (2011-2014); then to APC (2014-2019); and finally, to PDP. Each move was motivated by a run for President. Whenever he failed with one party, either in the primary or in the general election, he moved to another. Starting from 1992 to date, Atiku had run unsuccessfully for President six times. He failed three times in the primaries and three times in the general elections.

    Atiku’s desperation to validate the promise of his Spiritual Leader led him to go to any length, including far away Chicago State University in the United States, fishing for evidence to disqualify Tinubu, the same Tinubu, who gave Atiku his own party’s ticket to run for President in 2007!

    Not satisfied with his sixth failure in 2023, Atiku is at it again. He is building a coalition he hopes to ride to victory in his seventh attempt, when he will be 81 years old. If he is so blinded by ambition that he cannot reflect on why he failed six previous times, aren’t there people around him who could do so for him?

    Well, let me offer some insight. Atiku seems to lack the ability to build and keep a coalition as well as the ability to nurture supporters and followers, who could be loyal to him. After the 2023 presidential election, Atiku’s political shortcomings led me to invoke Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, by showing how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu attained power by building and keeping a coalition of loyalists and supporters over several years (see How to become President of Nigeria, The Nation, March 8, 2023).

    The problem with Atiku is that he never stayed long enough with any political party to build a coalition, nor could he keep one that he met on ground. In 2014 or so, he aligned with a group of PDP Governors and career politicians to join the coalition of various political parties in the newly formed APC. Once he failed in the party primary in 2015, he ran away, only to resurface in 2019 as candidate of the PDP with Peter Obi as his running mate. By 2022, Peter Obi and his supporters had left Atiku, who could not even keep a coalition of PDP Governors that Nyesone Wike, former Governor of Rivers State, had built for the PDP. The prolonged disagreement between them and Atiku led to a rebellion of the G5 Governors against Atiku. In the same 2023 presidential election, Atiku and Obi ran against each other, and together against Tinubu. They both lost to Tinubu. Not a few thought that both would have been formidable had they run as a team against Tinubu in that election. Atikun’s political misfortune was more than electoral loss. His major spokespersons left him after the election to work for the APC in separate roles.

    Read Also: Okowa: I regret accepting to run with Atiku in 2023

    Having belatedly learned about the usefulness of a coalition in the attainment of power, Atiku is now trying to build one. However, a political coalition built in emergency is like a house built with snowflakes. It melts and crumbles at the slightest increase in temperature or wind. But Atiku’s coalition seems to be crumbling from the very foundation. PDP Governors have come out to disavow the coalition.

    Former Governor Nasir el-Rufai, a former Tinubu electoral ally, who recently became an Atiku ally, has moved on to join the SDP. But, on their part, SDP leaders have told him and others who might contemplate joining their party that no one could come to lord it over them: “Look, you guys who are coming newly should study our ideology, don’t try to impose anything on us. We don’t need anything from you, just join the party and start behaving well … if you plan something out there on how to wrest power, don’t come here.”

    Obi on his own is building a coalition of Obidients at home and abroad. He recently launched an online registration portal and identity cards for members of his Obidient Movement at home and in the Diaspora. Perhaps to show the spatial dimension of his appeal, each member would have the country of residence on the identity card.

    Since it is fast becoming a season of coalitions, the New Nigeria People’s Party is also trying to forge a coalition with the African Democratic Congress. Other small political parties are making their own move too.

    But Tinubu, the Master Builder of coalitions, has not been idle. He and his party, the APC have been busy receiving defectors into their party. Ignoring talks of coalition by opposition political parties, some are crying wolf over defections to the APC. The wolf cry reached a crescendo when the entire Delta State PDP structure—government, party, and all—defected to the APC along with the immediate past Governor of the state. APC is turning Nigeria into a one-party state, they cried. But have they forgotten so quickly that APC itself was built from the coalition of various political parties and that some members, including Atiku himself, defected from the PDP to join them? In any case, which political party do the wolf criers know that rejects defectors?

    These political maneuvers are indications of the politics of power grabbing, rather than of ideological realignment. In the politics of power, no movement should be ignored. Who knows, for example, whether, behind the scenes, the forces that seem to have gone their separate ways have been meeting, or may meet, to forge an alliance? This is the more reason Tinubu, too, should continue to broaden his alliances. That is the path he rode to power. There is no need to abandon it now.

    As for Atiku, he may never become President. As a result, he may be unable to utter the like of Simeon’s canticle, because the sacred promise of his Spiritual Leader may be unfulfilled.