The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Revisiting Adamolekun’s Reflections on Governance

    Revisiting Adamolekun’s Reflections on Governance

    It is noteworthy that Professor Ladipo Adamolekun’s latest book, Reflections on Governance and Development in Nigeria, was launched last Thursday, April 23, 2025, not before a motley crowd of politicians and businessmen, but only before a select group of academics from various disciplines and journalists from major newspapers. It was not a traditional Nigerian book launch, where a copy would sell for a billion times its cost and maybe two billion times its worth. No Chairperson. No Royal Father of the Day. No moneybag book launcher. Instead, it was a festival of ideas about how to make Nigeria better, which is the central theme of Adamolekun’s book. To further celebrate the uniqueness of the launching ceremony, everyone in attendance got two copes of the book free of charge!

    The need for the devolution of political and financial powers to subnational governments dominated the discussion at the book launch (for my pre-launch review, see Adamolekun reflects on governance, development The Nation, April 23,2025). This happened because there was unanimous consent that Nigeria needs a devolved federation as recommended by Professor Adamolekun.

    There are several oddities about the Nigerian federation today. First, the political status of local councils is unclear in the Constitution, unlike the case of Brazil, where the Constitution explicitly names municipalities as part of the federal union, granting them political autonomy and equal status with states and the Federal District. In that case, municipalities are not merely subdivisions of states but rather independent entities. The lack of clarity in the Nigerian case underlies the criticism of the federal government and the Supreme Court for bypassing states in granting financial autonomy to local councils, even while they are still integral parts of the states to which they belong. State governors’ unhappiness with the direct financial link between the central government and the local councils within their jurisdictions is understandable.

    The truth is that there are only two named levels of power in every other federation. These are the central government and the federating units, named variously as states (United States and India), provinces or territories (Canada), cantons (Switzerland), or emirates (United Arab Emirates). This leads to another oddity about the Nigerian federation—the lopsidedness in the political and financial powers of the central government, so powerful that state governors and heads of federal educational institutions look up to the central government for sustenance. The dependence on the central government partly accounts for the inability of states and federal institutions to generate enough funds internally. The result is that many states cannot nurture their own residents to self-fulfillment, leading to separatist agitations.

    Another oddity is the centralization of the police force, which has compromised the security situation in the country. On the one hand, the police central command cannot effectively monitor the forces assigned to different states. On the other hand, states have no direct control over the police assigned to them. Politicians and others who can afford it exploit this gap by hiring police officers as bodyguards. In other federations, such as the United States, there is no such thing as a central police force, although there is relative uniformity in the guidelines underpinning police training across states.

    These oddities were explored in Adamolekun’s book and his presentation during the book launch. His recommendation is unmistakable: “Only devolution can unleash the forces for consolidating democracy and achieving accelerated socioeconomic progress in Nigeria. The alternative to devolution will likely be the death of the federation”. Hence his political credo for Nigeria is “Devolve or Die”.

    After the entire audience agreed that a devolved federation would serve Nigeria better, the first question that followed was: Why has devolution been impossible to achieve, even after two national conferences and numerous attempts at constitutional review? The answer to this question hovers around politics and political will. We know that those who view the central government as their industry may be reluctant to support a devolved federation in which the power of the central government is reduced. What they don’t remember is that they fared much better when they were administered as a region. Besides, they have become so engrossed in the present that they fail to remember what was and what can be after devolution of powers and fiscal federalism.

    The question remains as to what form the federating units would take. Professor Adamolekun elaborated on his answer in his presentation: There should be six federating units, based on the existing six geopolitical zones. He also suggested that functions and resources should be shared between the central government and the federating units in ways similar to the shared formula in the 1963 constitution. Specifically, he recommended a 35:65 formula for the reallocation of powers and resources between the central government and the subnational governments.

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    Professor Adamolekun also raised a critical question about two institutions recently established by the Federal Government, which he thinks are antithetical to devolution. One is the establishment of Development Commissions, one for each zone, and the other is the creation of a Ministry of Regional Development (a renaming of the Ministry of Niger Delta Development). However, if the existing zones are adopted as federating units, then the Development Commissions could become coordinating units for the various development activities across the zone. At such a time, the Ministry of Regional Development would become redundant.

    A critical issue raised during the discussion was the neglect of Chapter II of the Constitution, which specifies the duties and responsibilities of government; the duties and responsibilities of the press; and the duties and responsibilities of the citizens. A close reading of the chapter shows clearly that none of the neither the government nor the press not the citizens have lived to the expectations of the Constitution. To be sure, we do not have a perfect Constitution. No state really has. The problem with us is that we have lived far shot of the ideals of the one we have, imperfect as it may be.

    This again takes us back to the lopsidedness in the allocation of duties and resources between the central government and the federating units. The truth is that the present Constitution concentrates too much power and resources in the central government. It is difficult to achieve effective governance in a multilingual, multiethnic, and multi-religious federation like ours in the present setup. It is also difficult to keep in check such an amorphous federal government, which has spread its tentacles across the country. A devolved federation will avoid such a problem by bringing people with similar orientations or shared backgrounds together, thereby allowing those at the margins to get nearer to the centre of action at a level close to them.

    The key lesson of the book launch was clear: The earlier Nigeria became a truly devolved federation, the better for the country and its people.

  • An anatomy of the Delta PDP defections

    An anatomy of the Delta PDP defections

    Commentators are running out of adjectives to describe the emptying of Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and the entire Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) family – root and branch – into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Their erstwhile party hastily summoned a meeting of its National Working Committee (NWC) to make sense of the punch it had just taken in its gut. Across the country the political firmament is reeling.

    Even the local APC appeared just as stunned by its sudden good fortune – the unexpected influx of yesterday’s foes, now turned overnight comrade-in-arms. In one move, aspirations and ambitions were shredded.

    Take the case of former Deputy Senate President and the party governorship candidate at the 2023 election, Ovie Omo-Agege. He was believed to be shaping for another run in two years and loved to sign off his press statements as ‘APC Leader, Delta State.’

    Vice President Kashim Shettima who led the ruling party’s team to receive the new entrants, pronounced Oborevwori the state party leader at the defection ceremony in Asaba. “Now that you have come, we are all co-owners because according to the constitution of the party, the governor of the party is the leader of the party in the state. This is now as much as your party as it is ours,” he said.

    In one unscripted moment, uncontrollable political forces knocked Omo-Agege off his perch and handed his ‘title’ to another. I doubt he was particularly amused. But the options open to him are limited: lick his wounds, accept the new reality or consider his future within the ruling party. Unfortunately for him all the structures that matter have united under the APC umbrella in Delta. Pulling in a different direction hardly makes sense at the moment.

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    On the national scale, the impact of the defections on the opposition is both numerical and psychological. Leading lights like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, have repeatedly argued that their best chance against President Bola Tinubu was to combine resources in one mega platform. Their appeals to the PDP have been rebuffed by the party’s governors. What they’ve tried to sell as an unstoppable coalition now looks like a giant balloon pierced by a sharp object.

    The alliance was supposed to be a magnet for all those unhappy with the president and his APC government. You would, therefore, expect a haemorrhage of support from the ruling party based on all the surrounding negativity. Strangely, the defection traffic has been going the wrong way. Those heading to APC are breaking out of the closet by the day; the ones purportedly rallying behind Atiku’s special purpose vehicle remain a mystery.

    As of April 23, and without a ballot being cast in anger, APC now controls 22 governorships – up from 21. PDP is down to 11, while the likes of the Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) all have one apiece.

    Delta is no ordinary PDP state – it’s a dyed-in-the-wool one which the party has held effortlessly since 1999. To lose it is akin to the heart being ripped out of the organisation or, more appropriately in this case, the organ being handed out by a willing donor.

    This was the state that produced Atiku’s running mate at the 2023 elections. Less than two years after he has now spoken of his regret accepting the nomination. He told Arise TV: “Even when we were campaigning, I realised our people were not interested in having another northerner come into power. But the decision had already been taken at the federal level by the party (PDP) and I had been nominated. Still, in retrospect, I now believe I should have gone with the will of my people.”

    His selection destroyed Atiku’s relationship with former Rivers State Governor turned Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, as well as upended PDP presidential challenge. The same man has now turned around to repudiate the very basis on which the ex-VP ran.

    Okowa has confirmed what many have argued that PDP shot itself in the foot by collaborating with its flagbearer to stomp on its long-held zoning principle.

    The unique nature of the Delta defections cannot be overemphasised. We’ve seen governors decamp without their deputies following; we have witnessed ex-governors like El-Rufai quit in a huff, only to be accompanied by a handful of near-anonymous lightweights. Never has an entire political structure – from local government to governor, state legislators to federal representatives – uproot from one place to another in one fell swoop.

    It’s a psychological blow that will shape the direction of politics over the next two years – especially with dark whisperings suggesting the opposition could still lose a couple of governors to the ruling party.

    While APC apparatchik are crowing and bragging about the 2027 polls being in the bag, the opposition have been struggling to spin the defections as inconsequential. We’ve been reminded of how former LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won millions of votes without a governor in his camp two years ago.

    Others have sneered that governors have only one vote like other citizens.  That may be factually correct, but they have the ability to influence hundreds of thousands of voters given the resources they control. Atiku picked Okowa as much as for his personal qualities as for the resources he would bring to the table. This last factor effectively neutralised whatever advantage Wike enjoyed in this area.

    We are now being told governors don’t matter, but anyone who understands Nigerian politics knows it was the defection of five PDP governors that transformed a feeble APC in 2014 into the credible challenger that broke PDP’s hegemony.

    Those seeking to use Obi’s performance to downplay the defections need to be reminded of the factors at play back then. So strong was the ethnic card two years ago that governors from other parties who should have opposed him, encouraged their supporters to engage in tactical voting across the Southeast: vote LP for president, our candidate for governor.

    It was the reason the presidential election results were so different from the gubernatorial ones in the zone. Obi scored well over 70% of votes cast in several states but two weeks later his LP platform only won the governorship in Abia.

    Today, APC has 22 governors to PDP’s 11. These numbers have been held up as signalling the demise of democracy and the onset of the one-party state. But those singing this dirge forget that historically there have been worse statistics.

    In 2003, PDP controlled 27 states, the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) eight and Alliance for Democracy (AD) one.  At the height of its powers in 2007, it had 31 governors, ANPP 3, Action Congress (AC) and APGA one each. The party also had 85 out of 109 senators, 260 out of 360 members of the House of Representatives. Yet, none of today’s mourners suggested back then that democracy was endangered.

    The 2023 election broke certain myths with the triumph of the same faith ticket. But it also reinforced the reality that no party can win the presidency without a broad base across the zones. The ongoing realignments are strengthening APC in the South-South and Southeast which PDP once took for granted as its impregnable fortresses. The ruling party is already formidable across the North-Central zone and can build on its advantages.

    The emerging political map looks dire for the opposition coalition as the only thing it’s feeding on presently is frustration among a section of the political elite in the Northwest and Northeast. Its messaging on the state of the economy doesn’t seem to be resonating as to pry people away from the ruling party.

    Even if they were to sweep every available vote in the two far North zones, the past experiences of former President Muhammadu Buhari show that isn’t enough to win. But even these two zones, Tinubu and APC have shown that they can be competitive by holding on to ground they won two years ago.

    To change the narrative, Atiku and company have to come up with their own dramatic political moments that show a broadening of appeal. As things stand momentum isn’t on the side of their stuttering alliance.

    Potentially, more debilitating for them are emerging signals the ex-VP and his co-travellers are determined to rehash their historic error of downplaying zoning. That would most likely lead to a repeat of 2023 outcomes with minimal efforts by the victors.

  • The education question: Primary schools – 1

    The education question: Primary schools – 1

    This article is a contribution made to celebrate ECOWAS @ 50: REGIONAL INTEGRATION: Gateway to Peace & Security, Trade & Investment, & Achievements, Challenges, Solutions & Opportunity. It is directed at corporate ECOWAS.

    Are all schools great? Think about caring for them all especially Internally Displaced Persons camp schools before they think about not caring for you and yours.   Where we were:

    Once upon a time a three-year old precocious child appeared, underage, in a village classroom and was told by the head teacher…    ‘Of course you need not come to school every day. Come when you feel like it …

    The young boy ‘I looked at him in astonishment. Not feel like coming to school! The coloured maps, pictures and other hangings on the walls, the coloured counters, markers, slates, inkwells in neat round holes, crayons and drawing books, a shelf laden with modelled objects –animals, human beings, implements-raffia and basket-work in various stages of completion, even the blackboards, chalk and duster…..I had yet to see a more inviting playroom……. I shall come every day,’ I confidently declared. 

    This was Africa’s First Nobel Prize for Literature 1986 winner Professor Wole Soyinka when he was three years old in 1937/8 as recorded in his autobiography Ake, The Years Of Childhood. That village classroom environment ignited his education rocket skyward on the pathway to the Nobel Prize success.  Can anyone today name an ECOWAS village kindergarten or primary school up to the Soyinka standard of 1937 in education tools?   – Do we as parents, politicians and private sector companies give ECOWAS children an education fair deal by taking responsibility for and financial commitment to the children to meet educational Social Development Goals (SDGs)?

    In my career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBGYN),I have accompanied thousands of women and children  on DELIVERY DAY…the most dangerous day in the life -and sadly sometimes death- of Mother & Child. And the result, a human being can end up in a poor quality school! Mother, is this the reward for your labour ward war? At delivery, I asked each baby ‘what will you grow up to be –the good 90% or the school bully, the bad and the murderous 10%?    Will you be the one to rob, or kill me in 20 years’ time?

    Every robber and murderer was a sweet screaming peeing baby once. The decision may be personal but the environment- home, neighbourhood, companions, educational, social – and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support matters in the outcome. Do not underestimate or underutilise today personal and collective political, networking and CSR power to keep children unknown to you in good education and away from the DROP OUT or DRUG scenario that will enable them to commit a crime affecting you or your children tomorrow. 

    Thirty years ago, seeing the difference between my earlier education in St Gregory’s and what I then found, I initiated and received support towards the setting up of Educare Trust, Nigeria and ET Exhibition Centre, a youth venue. We pioneered computer literacy training over 7,000, impacted hundreds of schools and several university and polytechnics. We pioneered seatbelt, anti-smoking, breast exam, anti-bullying campaigns among others.  All ECOWAS youth deserve access to such a centre and suggest there should be ONE YOUTH CENTRE FOR EACH SMALLEST POLITICAL UNIT of the country. The centre should be apolitical in name and activities, community manned and funds and support from individuals and businesses in the area and philanthropic citizens and pensioners and other role models.    

     As ECOWAS, are we underinvesting and by implication, undervaluing education as an investment opportunity? If yes, are we nurturing undisciplined and criminally motivated armies of conventionally undereducated and unemployable youth? These youth are mostly out of school but some are technically out of school because they are in poor education delivery schools which under-nourish their brains. They will then seek alternative negative nourishment from the underworld arts and sciences of the SAD syndrome: SEX, AIDS, ALCOHOL, ADDICTION, DRUGS etc. and very employable in the alternative economy of crime and corruption and especially violence aimed at the educated. All these are bad for ECOWAS Commerce & Industry. Tomorrow’s ECOWAS WORKFORCE IS IN TODAY’S SCHOOLS. Help make them better.

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    In ECOWAS, we may lose a large chunk our future workforce to the underworld and the dark side of Artificial Intelligence, AI, and Information Technology, IT, if we do not improve the quality of education to all ECOWAS children. We require to domesticate relevant SDGs and score each school, target needs and deliver its needs.

    Every school should be able to publish and distribute a ‘school needs list’

    How many ECOWAS kindergartens and primary schools are Teacher and Child Friendly Learning Environments? We have much work to do to catch up with the past in one village in Nigeria in 1936/7. We must reject minimum school and educational standards and raise the 2025 ECOWAS education stakes to optimum standards.

    WE MUST UPSCALE a very neglected  KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION CURRICULUM and CONTENT to ‘SOYINKA 1937 STANDARDS’ and beyond of course, as many children drop out ‘undereducated’ at that point. This will also get a better quality and quantity of ECOWAS children into secondary school- the springboard to a tertiary education and a career.

    ECOWAS needs to widen the list of CONTRIBUTORS TO EDUCATION to fill the gap left by CHRONIC UNDERBUDGETING, the 2025 TARIFF WAR AND European Union, EU REARMAMENT/ANTI-WW3 effort. Setting up Old Student Associations for primary schools, are a key untapped resource, encouraged by competitive performance awards by governments. (To be cont’d)

  • Atiku’s train allegory

    Atiku’s train allegory

    When serving governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), met in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, some days ago, and declared that the erstwhile behemoth would not join her immediate past presidential candidate, Atiku Abubabkar, on his journey to the wonderland, by way of merger or coalition with lesser parties, Atiku’s train allegory, in reply, caught my attention. I recalled with nostalgia, the story of my town’s man, one Uncle Felix, who used to wow our kinsmen, about his contribution to the running of train, in Enugu.

    Atiku had written on his X (twitter), “Indeed, the coalition train has left the station and would have multiple stops to bring on board Nigerians of all shades.” The former vice president was reacting to the communique by the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, who said: “Noting the nationwide speculations about possible merger of political parties, groups and/or association, the forum resolved that the PDP will not join any coalition or merger.”

    Not easily given to surrender, even when the stakes are stacked against him, Atiku bayed that his pet project is a Nigerian project and will go ahead with or without the governors. Like my kinsman Felix, driving the train on community work days, was always the reason he never participated in community service. In those days, maintaining the roads, drainages and bridges were done by direct labour, and every able bodied man living in the village, and the nearby Enugu town, must return for the manual labour. 

    My Amofia village men, usually hold their meeting on uka orie. At such meetings, the days for the community work will be agreed and every member that fall within the workgroup assigned to execute the project, would be expected to return on the Friday, preceding the Saturday, earmarked for the community service. The willy Felix, who was a mere fireman or stoker, would not return, and when the men meet subsequently at the village hall, he would say that he couldn’t return, because he was assigned to drive the train during that weekend.

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    A few, who knew that Felix was lying himself out of the hard work of community service would keep their peace while the ignorant majority elevated him to a bogeyman for lesser mortals. He was respected and feared, and while growing up, he became a sort of legend for the movement of trains. So, when Atiku threatened that his train had left the station with or without the governors of his party, I saw a Felix, lying himself out of the difficult task of building a coalition.

    I asked myself, whether, like my relation Felix, Atiku had been overrated as a political titan? Looking back at his trajectory in political contestation, Atiku has never been the driver of any political movement that succeeded. During his years in PDM, Atiku was under the apron of late Shehu Yar’Adua, the driver. He was merely a fireman, whom circumstance nearly elevated to a driver, when Ibrahim Babangida banned the driver of the movement, Yar’Adua.

    And even when Chief Moshood Abiola became the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in 1993, he was overlooked for Babagana Kingibe. Again, in the 1999 general elections, Atiku had contested and won the governorship of Adamawa State before Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in honour of Yar’Adua, copulated him to the presidential ticket. Instead of rising to become the driver of the movement, he got himself entangled with Obasanjo, who literally threw him under the train.

    Ever since the debacle of a tainted public servant as portrayed by Obasanjo in his book, Atiku, has failed in every presidential race he participated in. Under the banner of the Action Congress (AC), he was a fireman, while Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the driver. When he returned to the PDP, he couldn’t hold his own and was lured back to All Progressive Congress (APC), where he was given a bloody nose in the party primary by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Seeing that the road was closed for him in APC, he returned to the PDP and despite gaining control of the steering, he could not drive the train to the destination in 2023, as some of his firemen refused to shovel in coal, to fire the engine. Five of the governors led by Nyesom Wike, then of Rivers State, were stoking the fire with wet wood. The smoky train didn’t get to the finishing line, until the incumbent President Tinubu, took the diadem.

    Instead of going into a dignified retirement, Atiku is steering his community that he has learnt new tricks that would enable him win the next presidential race. But even before the contest is declared, those who should be his firemen are saying that he has no capacity to mount the wagon again. While he is talking about a coalition with other parties, to gain the strength to contend with Tinubu, the entire governors of his party – the PDP, 11 of them, have said that they will not surrender their train to a man with dimmed eyesight.

    They must have asked themselves, if Atiku could not defeat Tinubu, when both of them contested as outsiders, how can he do so, when Tinubu has the benefits of incumbency? To further compound Atiku’s challenges, some of his important firemen have carried their coal to his opponent. While the governor of Akwa Ibom, Umo Eno, has publicly declared that he would support President Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, the governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori, also of PDP, has decamped with all elected political office holders, all appointed and all elected party officials, to the APC. 

    Even more worrisome for Atiku and his sidekick, the former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, members of the SDP, which has been advertised as a backup wagon for Atiku, to ride to victory, should PDP train leave without him, have ominously warned that their coach is not available to be hijacked, by angry men for dastardly acts. According to the Forum of Social Democratic Party chairmen, those coming to their party must not seek to hijack the party or attempt to change its leadership. A political pundit has even claimed that Tinubu owns the new coach, Atiku wants to drive.

    Clearly, the past few weeks have caused seismic tremor on the rail track of the coalition train which the loquacious El Rufai, has boasted would outrun President Tinubu’s train in the 2027 presidential election. This column doubts whether Atiku and Nasir El-Rufai have the skill to cobble a coalition with the discordant tunes emanating from their conclave. The way things are looking up, any contraption which Atiku puts on the track will likely derail. So far, President Tinubu’s political train is sturdier that that of Atiku.

  • Insufferable!

    Insufferable!

    Each time serious political discourse brews, cynics and extremists, North and South, East and West, mount a booming concert of political lunacy: barking mutual threats, belching mutual fires.

    So, after much din, far less is done — except a polity already quaking with great unease, is sent roiling with a heightened fear of threatened Armageddon!

    With such rows, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed’s arrogant posturing over the North and the rest of Nigeria, en route to the 2027 electoral sweepstakes, must take the cake.

    Swallowed by conceit, battered by hubris, Baba-Ahmed claimed that in six months, the “North” would take its stand on 2027; and the rest of Nigeria would have to decide whether they wanted to follow or not.  What insufferable arrogance!

    Now, arch-Snooper Tatalo Alamu, “Snooping Around”, in The Nation Sunday (April 27), did quite a number on Dr. Baba-Ahmed.

    Tatalo suggested Baba-Ahmed was a technocrat at the ready for sinecures, many of them opportunistic, which might have helped to under-develop the North — this same “North” — over which he now postures, as emergency champion.

    He traced back Baba-Ahmed’s days as the secretary to the best-forgotten Maurice Iwu INEC, which cooked the blood-curdling heist that was the 2007 election, which nevertheless signalled the beginning of the end for the now crumbling PDP.

    He fingered the rank opportunism of Baba-Ahmed joining the Bola Tinubu Presidency. Not only was he no APC partisan, he raised no finger when his brother Datti, a sore loser as Peter Obi’s running mate, mouthed near-treasonable nonsense to de-market Tinubu’s win. 

    Which makes it very rich — indeed, morally disgusting — for Baba-Ahmed to jump off that same government and start attacking it, on behalf of his phantom “North”!

    But not even Snooper captured Baba-Ahmed’s activism in the Northern Elders Forum (NEF).  The arch-conservative NEF plays catch-up to the  Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) as the authentic voice of the North.

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    But NEF — at least to the perceptive — comes with an additional baggage: Prof. Ango Abdullahi, the soul of its activism, never hides his PDP sympathies, though he’s unfazed in his northern nativism, which is no crime in a federation, where different ethnics compete for power and influence.

    Still, Abdullahi’s partisan bent has made not a few to wonder if NEF activism is no more than closet PDP campaigns, carefully hidden behind rogue northern supremacism. 

    Indeed, while the bully southern media were blighting President Muhammadu Buhari — just because they could — on alleged northern nativism of the crudest hue, Baba-Ahmed and his NEF kept a loud silence — the voice of NEF, the hand of PDP?

    Yet, in Nigerian history, PMB was the first honest northerner to gain elective power on own terms.  While his fellow northern elites had thoroughly compromised selves, it was Mai Gaskiya (the Honest One) that the northern Talakawas could trust with power, backed, of course, by the Tinubu South West political army.

    He made his own mistakes, no doubt.  But if President Olusegun Obasanjo had been half as committed as PMB was to his job — less to personal imperial glory — the collapse and mess of 2015 would have been averted.

    But even from that Jonathanian collapse of 2015, a logical follow-up to Obasanjo’s mirage from 1999-2007, PMB made solid marks which though largely unsung by a bias-smitten, hypocritical media, can’t be denied by any fair-minded soul.

    Which brings these troubling questions: can any northerner honestly flaunt the North as it stands — a developmental laggard — as Baba-Ahmed just did, with all his pious pomposity?

    Or was it just bluff-and-bluster that his lobby could always ghost the Arewa plebs to vote according to cynical whims, by a manipulative elite?

    By the way, which “North” are these blokes even yammering about?  Baba-Ahmed’s native North West, which has bathed in the sweet sun rays of power more than any other region, yet grills in mass poverty, only next to the North East?

    The North East, as filthy poor as the famed wealth of one of its illustrious sons, Atiku Abubakar; and plunged into the existential crisis of Boko Haram terrorism, a logical extension of mass poverty and unfazed ignorance that criminalizes knowledge?

    Or the long-suffering North Central, now and then, wracked with senseless killings, which root causes these glamorous champions of the “North” have not figured out?  Or if they have, wilfully condoned, as not a few allege, for narrow ethnic reasons?

    Maybe, Baba-Ahmed’s “North” is indeed the North West?  Its thunderous voting bloc, when pacted with the South West’s, could on paper deliver the Presidency, as it did for PMB and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT), both APC presidents.

    Even so, what hold do Baba-Ahmed and his kind have on the North West, beyond over-projected influence as media paper tigers?

    Now, if they are no PMB — in or out of power, he retains the Talakawa trust — how can they walk their talk that when they snap their fingers, the northern masses jump?

    O, did that explain the scramble by Atiku and the mercurial Nasir el-Rufai, to add PMB to their coalition bluff?  Atiku, of course, knows too well PMB and fickleness are two parallel lines.  They never meet.

    As for El-Rufai, he’s as razor-sharp as they come in intellect.  But alas!  A stunted emotional intelligence almost, always lets him down. That was why he felt he could sell a PMB/wholesale CPC anti-APC coalition dummy. PMB poured cold water on such.

    Besides, wasn’t the hubris of the North as Nigeria’s insufferable power Leviathan, the type Baba-Ahmed painted, dead and buried with the June 12 debacle, after which IBB burnt his fingers, and the rapacious Sani Abacha lost his life?

    Still, let no one assume only the North is guilty of political arrogance.  As the northern elite often weaponize their voting numbers to game some concessions, the southern elite too wield their powerful media to browbeat any northern order.  But it’s mutual hypocrisy that always back-fires.

    Under PMB, the South, and bullying media in tow, thundered “nepotism” and screamed “Fulanization”.  These same southern hypocrites — among them top columnists, with dashing, cutting brilliance but little gumption, now rally to defend PBAT’s alleged “Yorubanization” of offices!

    Yet, neither did — or is doing — any wrong, beyond the media’s galloping bias — and Ripples is proud to say he slammed those idiotic campaigns back then — and thus can stand by PBAT now!

    Pray, how can putting folks you trust, to deliver on your policies and programmes, equate “nepotism”, “Fulanization” or “Yorubanization” — even if the uppity South tarred PMB as some cave nativist from Daura; and PBAT, the “city boy” from Lagos, so cosmopolitan he would import, from Mars, those who would work for him!

    Enough of this sterile politics of mutual blackmail!  What we need is the rich politics of mutual development. 

    As for Baba-Ahmed and co, they labour under the delusion of pre-June 12 Nigeria. That era is gone — and forever buried.

  • Nigerians expect final PDP rites of passage

    Nigerians expect final PDP rites of passage

    Last week, the entire political structure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in what has been tagged political tsunami dissolved into the All Progressives Congress (APC) because, in the words of Sheriff Oborevwori, the Delta State governor, “the drinking pattern needed to change as a result of changes in the taste of the palm wine”.

    To observers of Nigerian politics that have watched the descent of ‘PDP family feud over the sharing of our resources” into war of attrition, the development sounded the death knell of the PDP.

    To PDP enablers and self-proclaiming crusaders of democracy however, the development constitutes a threat to survival of democracy which is believed to thrive better within multi-party system. But from their chat with Chief Bode George, anchored by Reuben Abati of Arise TV and his crew and with Dele Momodu by Channel TV’s Seun Okinbaloye however, death of PDP spells doom for our democracy and should that happen, the president and his APC should be held responsible.

    The truth is that PDP is not a political party in spite of its media enablers’ efforts to cloak it in borrowed robes of political party. John Campbell, a former American ambassador to Nigeria had during proceedings at a hearing on the topic: Nigeria In Turmoil on March 19, 2010 described PDP as “an elite cartel at the centre of power in Nigeria… a political party that came together with no ideological or programmatic basis, but simply as essentially a club of elites for sharing of oil rents and political spoils”.

    That thesis has been validated several times over.

    The first act of betrayal of Nigeria by PDP National Assembly members who publicly expressed the eagerness to recoup their election expenses having sold houses to prosecute the election was the passage of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) Bill within three months. With that, the number of fuel importers went from four major oil companies to over a hundred. The new outfit which merely duplicated the functions Ministry of Petroleum Resources became an instrument by which PDP stalwarts and their children defrauded the nation to the tune of about NI.7 trillion “without importing a pint of fuel” according to Audu Ogbe, the then PDP chairman.

    Then President Obasanjo and his PDP in the name of privatization between 1999-2014 sold off most of Nigerian public enterprises estimated at over $100b for a paltry $1.5b to their members or their fronts. It was on account of this the 7th Senate report of November 30, 2011 directed the National Council on Privatization to:

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     “Rescind the sale of Abuja International Hotels Limited (Nicon Luxury Hotel) as well as Sheraton Hotel and Towers;  that the sales of assets of Daily Times Nigeria PLC  by Folio Communications Limited and its directors  be investigated by anti-graft agencies and the sold assets recovered; that the Share Purchase Agreement of Volkswagen Nigeria Limited now (VON)  be rescinded and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the economic crimes being perpetrated against the nation at VON Automobile Nigeria Limited premises in Lagos by Barbedos Ventures Limited; that NICON Insurance PLC  should immediately refund with interest, the sum of N900 million to the Federal Government being money paid by BPE in February 2007 as contribution for recapitalization with accrued interest; that Nigeria Re-insurance PLC  should immediately refund the sum of N1 billion paid by BPE in February 2007 as contribution of the Federal Government for recapitalization with accrued interest and that  the former Directors-General, Nasir el-Rufai,  Julius Bala and  Irene Nkechi Chigbue should be reprimanded by the National Council on Privatization”.

    The privatization of the power sector was not different. After an injection of between $8.2-$15b of taxpayers’ money by the federal government, 15 companies made up of 10 Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and five Generation Companies (GENCOs)  paid $2.238b to take over 60% of unbundled PHCN in August 2013. President Jonathan on the occasion assured Nigerians that his administration will ensure that “Nigerians enjoy a minimum of 18 hours of electricity supply a day”.

    Speaking on this betrayal of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, during   the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium had said, “The PDP administration shared our generation, distribution and transmission to their friends and cronies without very deep and thoughtful research and evaluation. It has now become pork chops. He therefore  suggested  that “for a more constructive reform to improve generation, transmission and distribution, this privatization must be reviewed by putting experts together at all costs”, without prejudice to the legal implications.

    PDP members that always regard themselves as family members are tarred with the same brush. Obasanjo who chased Diepreye Alamieyeseigha from Germany to London from where he escaped to Nigeria, dressed as a woman for defrauding his Bayelsa State; Obasanjo who ensured 17 of PDP and ANPP 24 governors between 1999 and 2007 were dragged by EFCC to court for financial malfeasance; Obasanjo who described National Assembly members  as “pen robbers”  for budget padding, arm-twisted governors and government contractors to collect N7 billion to build a personal presidential library while the national library he initiated in 2006 is still under construction 20 years after.

    His godson, President Goodluck Jonathan, taking after his footsteps also secured N7 billion from serving governors and government contractors to build a church and recreation centre in his native Otueke village. Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo’s vice president was indicted for his role in the privatization programme forcing Obasanjo to declare: “If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support.”

    Dimeji Bankole, a former speaker of the House of Representatives was accused of immorally purchasing his official house while David Mark, the former senate president in “2011 purchased the official residence of the senate president, built on 1.6 hectares of land, a national monument that was not meant to be acquired by an individual and was never reflected in the federal government’s gazette as required”.

    Bukola Saraki, another PDP leading light, was the whistle blower in the PDP N1.6trillion fuel subsidy scandal. In anger, he joined other disgruntled PDP members to pull down PDP for alleging the company in which he had interest was involved in the fuel subsidy scandal. In APC, Saraki confessed to literarily stealing the senate presidency by ceding the control of the senate with 60 APC majorities to PDP with 49 senators. He also traded off the deputy senate president’s position which by convention belongs to the ruling party with a majority, to Ekwerenmadu of PDP.

    Prof Itse Sagay, a renowned constitutional lawyer had back then described Saraki’s victory as “a victory for impunity, a victory for fraud and a victory for political desperation and indiscipline. Similarly his victory was dismissed by Anwalu Yadudu, former Dean Faculty of Law, Bayero University as ‘lies in the face of democratic ideals, having stemmed from ‘a flawed election by a fraction of yet to be constituted senate”.

    Nearly all the leading lights of PDP allegedly partook in the sharing of $2.4 billion loan for military wares and welfares. While Dazuki’s account’s officer reportedly claimed his boss asked him to get $11M from the CBN, Dasuki’ was widely quoted as saying the president asked to change N10b dollars to be shared to delegates.

    Other PDP partakers according to EFCC include Iyorchia Ayu, Bode George, Attahiru Bafarawa, Raymond Dokpesi, Peter Odili, Jim Nwobodo and N950m shared in Shekarau’s house. Aziboala, GEJ’s cousin allegedly received N6 billion, Nenadi Usman N3.5 billion; Ayodele Fayose N3 billion and Musiliu Obanikoro, N4 billion. Tony Anenih – N400 million; Olisa Metuh took N400 million, Jolly Nyame- N2.4 billion and Joshua Dariye -N700 million etc.

    Prof Chukwuma Soludo told Nigerians that “Over N30 trillion is mismanaged, unaccounted for or missing under Jonathan” while Obi Ekwesili, Obasanjo’s education minister lamented that “Our reserve is depleted and our savings are squandered. Our nation is in trouble.”

    The greatest tragedy that can befall a nation, according to Wole Soyinka, the conscience of the nation, “is for her citizens to suffer collective amnesia”.  PDP and its media enablers believe Nigerians have short memories,

    They also think we are incapable of drawing a parallel between massive defrauding of the nation in the years of the locust and the ‘japa’ syndrome which has taken thousands of our jobless youths into second slavery in Europe and America.

    I am not sure Nigerians, earnestly awaiting PDP rites of passage will shed tears for PDP who, while in power, fought over sharing of our resources and properties kept in their care for our children and out of power, are today engaged in war of attrition over who, out of established fraudsters, should lead the next assault on Nigeria.

  • Bago’s security absurdities

    Bago’s security absurdities

    This account attributed to Wisdom Jonathan, a photographer who had travelled to Niger State for business purposes, demonstrates the negative effect of the state government’s ill-considered security measures.

    “When we were coming into Minna, we were stopped at the police checkpoint around Pogo and they told the other two men I was with to remove their caps; they did,” Jonathan narrated to journalists. “One had punk and the other one had dreadlocks. They said they will have to cut their hair as it is now the law. I went to them and told them that we were coming to work in Minna and not living in Minna.”

      He said the policemen insisted that they must cut their hair “as they were under the order to cut dreadlocks or unruly hair.” At some point, he said, “they brought out a fan belt and started hitting me with it, saying I was trying to stop them from doing their job. I was trying to be careful to ensure that the men I brought with me for the work returned safely.” 

    He continued: “They took my colleagues to the bush and told them that they had to pay a fine of N2,000. They gave them their Opay account and one of the men transferred N2,000 to the officer and the other man gave N2,000 cash.”

    This incident allegedly happened in the aftermath of security measures unveiled by Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago at a recent high-level security meeting with traditional rulers and security agencies at the Government House, Minna.   The governor had said “Angwa Daji and Barki Sale areas should be placed on serious security watch.”

    Reports said the governor had condemned the wearing of dreadlocks, saying, “We will have zero tolerance for rascality. Anybody that you find with dreadlocks, arrest, cut the hair, and fine him. Nobody should carry any kind of haircut inside Minna. I have given marching orders to security agencies.”

    Predictably, Bago’s reported remarks had triggered public outrage, with critics attacking the apparent criminalisation of dreadlocks.  For a governor to publicly condemn a hairstyle is an overreach of their authority and sends a negative message about tolerance, diversity, and individual rights within the state. How someone chooses to wear their hair is generally considered a matter of personal expression and identity.

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    Such an official condemnation reinforces negative stereotypes and prejudices associated with dreadlocks, and can encourage discrimination against individuals who wear them. Individuals who wear dreadlocks are not necessarily a danger to society.

    Following the negative public reaction, Bago claimed that “people misconstrued our words for people who have dreadlocks,” blaming it on “media propaganda.”  He said the target of the policy was “that cult that is becoming a menace in Niger State.” He explained: We don’t have a problem with dreadlocks, but we have a problem with the cult here with dreadlocks. So, if you have dreadlocks and you have business, please come to Niger State.”

    The governor missed the point. Targeting individuals with dreadlocks for forced haircuts and fines is unlawful. It does not matter if they are cultists. Jonathan and his partners, despite being in the state for business, were not exempt from this treatment, according to their reported experience.

    The police spokesperson in the state was reported saying they “will verify, investigate and ascertain the personnel involved for further necessary action.”

    Also, the Niger State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Binta Mamman, explained that the government’s policy “is not a blanket criminalisation of hairstyles, but a preventive measure informed by intelligence and ongoing trends. The aim is to dismantle the formation and spread of these emerging groups before they become deeply rooted in the state.”

    According to her, “The government has observed a disturbing trend among some youth groups with a distinct hairstyle that appears to be evolving into a form of group identity or cultism. The defaulters that will be arrested are those who wear certain dreadlocks in front while the back of their heads is shaved. The security agencies know them because they walk in droves.” 

    It is disturbing that the clarifications by the governor and the commissioner indicate that the state government’s policy on dreadlocks is still in effect. It is puzzling that they don’t seem to realise that such a policy is unlawful.

    It is commendable that Governor Bago wants to tackle insecurity in his state. However, some of his ideas, including the one on dreadlocks, are questionable. He also introduced other measures that failed the rationality test. 

    For instance, he said “Anyone found in possession of any weapon, including knives and sticks, should be treated as an armed robber and if killed, the parents must pay for the bullet before releasing the corpse.”  Possession of knives and sticks should not make someone an armed robbery suspect. And killing them without arrest and trial should not be the response.

    He also said “Anyone going to seek bail for thugs from a police station should also be arrested. Any Mai-Angwa, Hakimi or Village Heads harbouring thugs should be dethroned and arrested.”  Why should anyone trying to bail a thug be arrested? Does this mean that thugs cannot be bailed? Is that lawful?

    He declared that “Anyone’s house found within Minna selling any kind of illicit drugs should be demolished and occupants arrested.”  What if the house owner is innocent? If the occupants of a house are suspected drug dealers, how does demolishing the house which does not belong to them amount to justice?

    It is concerning that these measures are not clear on lawful processes. The governor failed to emphasise the role of law enforcement agents in punishing crime. He seemed to encourage non-state actors to punish crime. That is a dangerous approach to fighting crime.

    The lessons include the need for thoughtful and lawful security measures. It is counter-productive to fight crime with unlawful policies.  Bago should rethink his ideas on tackling insecurity in the state. He can do so without unproductive drama and sensational moves.

  • Insecurity and partisan politics

    Insecurity and partisan politics

    Is there a link between the escalating insecurity in the country and the quest by politicians for power? This question has been seeking for answers since the reign of terror was officially unleashed in the country about 15 years ago.

    It featured prominently when Boko Haram insurgency reared its ugly head and took monstrous dimensions as the 2015 general elections approached. It is also being talked about even in hushed tones with the rising security challenges across the country as the momentum of the 2027 elections gathers.

    The suicide bomb attacks at St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla and the United Nations building in Abuja and other security infractions that peaked as the 2015 elections drew closer had raised suspicion as to whether a nexus existed between these events. But by far, the abduction of 276 Chibok Secondary School girls in Borno State, the circumstances surrounding it as well as the blame game it engendered were issues that accentuated this suspicion further.

    Attempts by the then government of Goodluck Jonathan to tame the monster curiously generated so much opposition and vile allegations from the north. The acerbic letter written by the then governor of Adamawa State, Muritala Nyako in which he bandied wild allegations including an attempt to depopulate the north as the reasons for inventing the Boko Haram ‘phantom’ cannot be forgotten in a hurry.

    That letter injected so much complications to the Jonathan administration’s resolve to wage a decisive war against the insurgents such that today, Boko Haram has not only remained active and strong, but metamorphosed into some splinter groups with vague ideological leanings.

    The Islamic State for West Africa Province (ISWAP), an offshoot of Boko Haram reported to have acted as an umbrella organisation for Islamic State (IS) factions in West Africa including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS) has been involved in terror attacks in the country. It largely operates in the northeast where it has been engaging the military is serious fight.

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    The federal government blamed ISWAP for the bloody Catholic Church suicide bombings in Owo, Ondo State. The military are reported to have thwarted their plans to establish bases in Plateau and Bauchi states.

    There is also the Ansaru terror group said to be active in the northwest and north-central where bandits and kidnappers add to the reign of terror. Ansaru is said to be a faction of Boko Haram that rejected the leadership of Abubakar Shekau after the death of Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram.

    Towards the end of last year, a new terror group the Lukarawa emerged in the forests of Sokoto and Kebbi states. The group which is said to have affiliates in Mali and Niger was said to have been initially invited by locals in those states for protection against attacks by bandits from Zamfara State. But it turned into a Frankenstein monster when they began to haunt the very communities they were engaged to protect.

    The federal government has since declared the Lukarawa a terrorist organisation following its atrocious activities in some states of the northwest. In the list of terror organisations is yet, another called the Mahmuda. It is said to be a breakaway faction of Boko Haram with suspected links to extremist cells in Niger and Mali.

    The group last week, killed 15 vigilantes and villagers in an attack on Kemaanji, a community in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State. Mahmuda is reputed to have been carrying out attacks including killings and kidnapping in rural communities around the Kainji Lake National Park which spans parts of Kwara and Niger states. It also attacked some communities in Baruten LGA of Kwara including taking control over areas within the Babana and Wawa districts of Borgu LGA in Niger State. Mahmuda is the latest addition to terrorist organisations operating in the country.

    It is significant to note that perhaps, apart from the Lukarawa terrorist group, the rest have their roots in Boko Haram. From one terror group, the country is now contending with five. This does not include such other terrorist groups as militia herdsmen, bandits and sundry criminal kidnappers.

    In the last two weeks or so, militia herdsmen unleashed a reign of terror in Plateau and Benue states leaving in their trail humongous destruction in human lives and property. Plateau alone had 52 innocent people murdered in their homes with about 2000 others displaced in the Bokkos Local Government Area of the state. The well-coordinated attacks saw no less than 20 communities in the LGA attacked by the terrorist herdsmen.

     Benue State also lost 51 people when killer herdsmen attacked the Logo and Gbagir communities in Ukum Local Government Area of the state penultimate week. The attacks followed the pattern of previous killings that led to the displacement of people from their ancestral homes. Ironically, the two states in the northcentral were the epicentre of constant killings and despoliation of local communities before the 2015 general elections.

    So, the attacks by the militia herdsmen are not entirely new. But why they peak each time national elections draw closer must worry all those genuinely committed to the peace, progress and development of this country. Mass abductions of secondary school girls including that of Dapchi and their suspicious return did a lot to inject political angle to the insecurity in the northeast then.

    Insecurity was a major campaign programme of Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). It can be argued that it played a significant role in the swing of votes against Jonathan especially in the north. Buhari had promised to tame insecurity within a few months of assuming power.

    After about six months in office, he gleefully announced to the nation that his regime had significantly diminished Boko Haram. According to him, Boko Haram was so degraded that it can no longer muster the capacity to mount serious onslaught against military formations.

    But events were soon to put a lie to that claim. Though the military has been fighting hard to contain the spread of Boko Haram, the reality is that it is far from being defeated. Series of events since Buhari’s claim of its degradation in December 2015 bear eloquent testimony to this. Not only there have been complaints of their control of some local governments, they have continued to engage our armed forces in deadly combats. Their attacks have resonated in the last couple of weeks.

    Again, its splinter groups continue to terrorise parts of the country. Perhaps, Boko Haram was able to give birth to splinter groups and spread because of the dissonance between and among politicians regarding what interests it really represented when it emerged in the Nigerian scene. Then Jonathan, a southerner was in power and the north was hell-bent in capturing political power from him.

    It was a verity of war situation and all seemed fair in that encounter. Then also, his attempt to raise the price of petrol was massively resisted through mass protests and arguments that today betray the true intentions of their canvassers. Ironically, such disagreements threw spanners in the wheels of a collective fight against the threat of terror and economic progress.

    President Bola Tinubu is about to enter the second lap of his four-year tenure and election manoeuvres are about gaining considerable momentum. He is a southerner just like Jonathan. The question the upsurge in insecurity raises is whether history is about to repeat itself? In other words, is there any connection between the rise in insecurity in the country and the coming elections? Is insecurity going to play a role in the unfolding political campaigns as the jostle for the 2027 elections heats up?

    The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s position on this could be helpful. She had at the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association said the country’s insecurity is weaponized by politicians for political and selfish reasons.

    “We have politicians who believe that the best way to make their opponents look bad is to instigate insecurity, making it look like they can’t govern, regardless of whether this leads to loss of lives and property of innocent Nigerians” she had said.

     This may well be the reason insecurity peaks each time general elections drew nearer especially with a southerner in the saddle.  The solution to the festering insecurity in the country may in part, be located in this angle.

  • Not a defection

    Not a defection

    Rumours abounded, but they came across as ill-humour. Someone was playing mischief with the Sheriff. In the time of Abiola Ajimobi as Oyo State helmsman, his fellow citizens minted the term Koseleri for him. It meant it has never happened before. He was the first to serve two terms in the saddle.  That was the humour some saw as dark and in the clouds for the Sheriff of Delta State.

    How could Delta State ever veer from its course since 1999? They heard nothing from Governor Sheriff Oborevwori. No party wheel horse squealed. When a party mensch’s daughter named Ibori stepped across to the APC, the hint came as a wink. But few clinked glasses even in the APC. Then came Ned Nwoko, the sweet-heartened lawmaker. Yet, the earth did not quake. Even if they had a hint, and even a wink of what was to come, they believed these were lightweights in the ring.

    Delta was fortress  PDP. Especially in the local governments and state house of Assembly. Of course, it all started from the top throne of governor. So, no one saw it coming. Not many thought it possible. Even a soothsayer would be booed as a phony, a pastor a false prophet. The evidence was only too visible. Was it?

    If anybody followed the events of the past few years, we would have seen it. Governor Sheriff is not one to blab. He had said that his people should support the president because the president was a stalwart behind his work for the state. For sure, Sheriff is one of the consequential governors today, whether in the area of infrastructure, education or health care, he is making hearts throb with his imprimatur.

    Other governors had moved before him at various times. Tambuwal from APC. Umahi from PDP. Ayade to APC.  But no one in this republic shook the roofs. They were throbs. This was an earthquake. Enter Governor. Enter former governor. Enter deputy governor. National and state lawmaker all, local government chairmen all, state apparatchik all. It was not a defection. It was a transplant. a change of crown on the same head. Exit doubt.

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    It was like the formation of the Anglican Church. It was the same priests, the same church pews and altars, the same church bureaucracy, the same God, but different worship, different head of state, king Henry VIII. A video trended online with state members singing “on your mandate,” the signature rhythm of Tinubu loyalty.

    Usually, people defect when they feel their party is sick. Apart from the good working relations with President Tinubu, this was a defection to avoid an infection. Not long ago, two PDP men played agbero boys in Asaba, almost coming to blows. Things are coming apart, the centre not holding. Courts left them to their devious devices, governors at war with a disarticulated corps of leaders. Remaining could give Delta the bug. Delta PDP was whole, hale and hearty. The heart of the PDP at the centre was troubled, beating so hard and fast that all could hear it sink, skip and syncopate. Was its heart beating to death because its self-immolating leaders were beating up on themselves into oblivion?

    The Sheriff and his men do not want to be like the victim of a paedophile, like the searing novel My Heavenly favorite by Dutch writer Lucas Rijneveld or the International Booker Prize novel Kairos by German writer Jenny Erpenbeck. But the Sheriff acted like Richard Nixon’s definition of a leader in his The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. He said a leader is a man who can not only take tough decisions but can carry his associates with him along those tough decisions. This is a discomfort of a day for all its PDP leaders, from Damagum’s regret to Atiku’s lament.

    Defectors tend to come with baggage, with bowl in hand, cringing and solicitous. This transplant was an infusion of blood, a defection with a swagger.

    For the PDP, it is an end of hubris. Atiku, who is no stranger to the life of the tortured traveler from party to travel, should not be complaining. He moaned about sipping tea, a thing he has done as a chieftain in PDM, PDP, ACN,  APC and back to PDP. He is the oldest defector alive, and its chief dramatist.

    The argument is gaining momentum in some circles that such defections to the ruling party casts the APC as  entrenching a one-party state. That is egregious nonsense. One, the country has many parties, even more than most democracies. We are a democracy of a penny-a-party. Many form parties not for power but for pennies.  Party for pockets. Two, one party-states often invoke the idea of clampdowns. This is not the case. This is a case of choice over coercion. It is often a deference to dominance and superior power play rather than suffocation. Three, was it not in this country we heard about a party boasting to sway for 60 years? Four, democracies thrive under the rhythms of rise and fall of political parties. This is not a paean to might of presidential powers, but might of affection. The actions reflect the wizardry of a president, who has displayed a knack for the power game above his peers.

    What the Sheriff has done is to teach everyone how to defect and also how not to defect. We have seen quite a few in recent times. The signal one is the move from the APC of the former Kaduna governor, Nasir El Rufai. While the Sheriff left with an earthquake, El-Rufai left without a whimper. No éclat, no drumrolls, no party for the parting, no dance, no tears. But quiet jubilation. They got rid of him. But it was a parting without sorrow in APC but sorrow for the wayfarer. It was a sojourn without an arrival, a journey without a destination, a troubled destiny. Those he left did not dignify him with a goodbye. Where he went, they asked him to return. No sai sanmu and no maraba. No farewell, no welcome, like T.S. Eliot’s The Journey of the Magi with “voices singing in (his) ears, saying that this was all folly.”

    Some have asserted that it pits the ruling party against the people. This is a spurious position of those who think they own the people. This is presumptuous. It argues that party defection hierarchises politics. But politics has never been different. It is about organization. Without structure, how can you mobilise? Once they try to create structures, they become not the people but a party. It is simplistic thinking to undermine the value of parties. Such debates only admit they have lost the argument.

    Governor Oborevwori has now made history, not only for Delta, but also in political pedagogy, a lesson that demonstrates that to leave is also to win. The beauty of it is that it was a show but not showy, a conquest without confetti.

  • An angel of disobedience

    An angel of disobedience

    Pope Francis reflected the power of God in man and limitations of man in God. He took over like a revolutionary of consent in a conservative stronghold. Many feared he was a bull in a holy of holies, a man who wanted to upturn centuries of faith with murder. He smiled at the gay, nodded to the divorce, washed a black man’s feet in southern Sudan, and stood as a counterpoise of empathy in an age of rightwing populism. Some thought he wanted to shed another blood that Jesus did not. He wanted to shed the church.

    But he was just a tease and a shaker. He teased the liberal, who thought he might reverse abortion, remove dogma on gays, resurrect Henry VIII by endorsing divorce, plant a woman on the pulpit. He teased all that, but achieved none. While at it, though, he nudged the conservative in the words of the Caribbean novelist who wrote, “something startles where I thought I was safest.” He did not murder the cathedral.

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    In the end, he was an angel of disobedience. The Bible says to obey is better than sacrifice. He preferred not to sacrifice the law, but he sacrificed hope. That is what we have in the end. He was not capable of that sort of earthquake. Faith is nothing without its mystery, and when modernity enters the sanctuary, the response is the whip like Jesus in his rage. Modernity threatens mystery, and without mystery the church loses its power. Dostoyevsky in his The Brother Karamazov identified authority, miracle and mystery as the fulcrums of faith. To yield to such secular agitations is to subordinate the raison d’etre of the Bible. Any pope who yields, compromises history. What is church without memory. But he confronted power and made the world leaders uncomfortable, especially on immigration. Trump, who is faithless struggled to affirm his Christian loyalty.

    If Pope Francis’ legacy is intangible, Pope John Paul II broke royal backbones. The pontiff who survived an assassination, has been credited with the soft power that fell communism. Each time he visited a country, the leader fell. He did it to Poland, Chile, Haiti, Paraguay and he did not blush to condemn the leaders. He was like Sunny Ade’s song, Ologini tide o/ ekute paramo -the cat has arrived, the rat should take cover. The rats of tyranny fell before the cat under the spell of the big cat, the lion of the tribe of Judah. The dictators, especially a man like Chile’s Pinochet, might have invoked the words of Henry II over a pesky Priest Thomas Becket, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Not long after, Becket breathed his last. That was the age of savagery. We may just be more refined in our savagery these days of hounding immigrants in the fashion of Hitler’s squad. We have had good and bad popes. My teacher at Ife, Professor Femi Omosini, crooned in class about some medieval popes: “the pope became extremely worldly. He wined and dined with secular authorities and bargained openly for the expansion of the papal territory.” Popes are products of their times, sometimes in deference or defiance of the holy spirit.