The Nation Newspaper

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

    The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (XVII)

    All throughout the period of the First World War the factories of Britain and other belligerent countries were working full blast producing weapons of widespread destruction. Most of the men had of course gone off to war more often than not, to be maimed or killed. With all the power of industrial production behind them, never in the history of mankind had so much destructive power been unleashed in so many places at once. After all, the machines which produced and processes which were used to produce shoes and other such commodities could be switched ever so slightly to produce bullets and canons. The industrialists were in their natural element. They were producing and that was all that mattered to them. To put it bluntly, it did not matter to them that their products were now the instruments of torture and multiple sudden death.  Another interesting consideration was that under the exigencies of war, women were recruited to mind the machines which in peace time had been under the ministration of men. Actually, there was very little strangeness about this particular aspect of this  situation. After all, women and children of all ages had been put to work right from the beginning of the Industrial revolution. This time around however, there were very few men around on the factory floor.

    At the outbreak of the war, in each of the belligerent nations, all the people were not just sure of victory but they were convinced and very strongly so, that it was going to be a quick affair, a giddy but minor inconvenience that was going to be over almost before it began. The various armies were sent off to the designated fronts to the sound of martial music noisily rendered by ecstatic bands. The poor soldiers, blissfully unaware of what they were in for, sang lustily as if they were going off to a grand picnic on an enchanted beach. Blinded by manufactured patriotism, former factory workers gleefully turned off their machines and picked up all sorts of lethal weapons with which they were sure they were going to rout the enemies created expressly for that purpose by their leaders. Little did they know that industry had turned war into unspeakable horror. Little could they imagine that the raw materials which were going to be fed into the awesome machines of war were human beings, sacrificial victims of modern warfare. The war which was supposed to be over within a few months dragged on for more than four excruciatingly painful years. No thanks to the power of industry which had nothing more on its mind but the design of even more horrible weapons with which to torment mankind in general and soldiers on the front lines in particular.

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    Right at the beginning of the Industrial revolution, workers, even in their wretchedness had produced men and women who were determined to fight against the power of their bosses. There were none more so than those who appreciated the power of the new machines. The items of equipment which were being fashioned to destroy the will of the people who were to operate those machines for the benefit of the very few people who owned the means of production. The early struggles against the bosses was by necessity rather confused as workers turned their fury against the dumb machines which were destroying their means of livelihood. Most of these dissenters were the skilled artisans who in pre-industrial times made a good living from the practice of their craft.  The most famous of these dissenters were the Luddites who have given their name to any group of people who have shown opposition to the adoption of any form of technological innovation.

    Some two centuries after the bloody repression and consequent suppression of the Luddite movement, those men and women who were adherent to the tenets of Luddism are at best, faint figures of fun. They have come down to us as  being rather ridiculous enemies of progress since the relative comforts we now enjoy are the products of machines, the prototypes of which the Luddites destroyed to protect what is now an antiquated way of life. Back then however, the Luddites were seen as a truly vicious threat to Human progress. So serious was that perceived threat that the deliberate destruction of any machine was legislatively pronounced as a capital offense which led to the prosecution and subsequent hanging of no less than sixteen Luddites at the height of their campaign. In addition to execution, many others were transported to the then penal colony of Australia, there to repent of their misdeeds at leisure. With the full weight of the law pressed against their necks, the Luddites were forced to renounce their beliefs and passed on to become nothing more significant than a footnote of history.

    Conditions inside the mines and factories put up by the early industrialists were hellish to say the least. This encouraged some of the workers to band together to fight for the amelioration of those conditions. Fighting every inch of the way, these workers working under the umbrella of trade unions forced concessions out of the bosses. For example, the bosses insisted that workers put in more than twelve hours on the factory floor six days a week. Getting them to observe eight hour working days with a half day on Saturday was an uphill task. Getting the factory owners to pay their workers a living wage was another struggle, one which has not been resolved right up till now. Wages are still inadequate in all parts of the world including  the industrialised countries. Jobless workers have continued to exist even in the most advanced industrial nations. They exist to form a reservoir of workers to be called upon should those in employment try to get above their station. They are a warning to those who have jobs of what could be their fate should they begin to agitate too vigorously for higher wages. It has been said that the existence of a pool of jobless workers is an indispensable aspect of all capitalist systems.

    From the period after the Second World War, foreigners have been encouraged to move from poorer countries to work at jobs which the indigenous people of the affluent countries have for one reason or the other shunned. This has led to the migrant crises in Europe and the USA with right wing politicians whipping up base sentiments against the immigrants in their midst. The Trump government in the USA has gone beyond rhetoric and is set to deport as many immigrants as possible in the coming weeks and months.

    Whilst it is true that conditions on the factory floor have improved over the years, it needs to be pointed out that most of the necessary improvements have been the result of long and often bitter struggles on the part of workers. These struggles began as soon as the workers came to the realisation that they could get their respective employers to ameliorate the conditions of their employment. More than this, they came to appreciate the importance of working together in unions which could speak in one voice to the powers which previously dominated all aspects of their working lives completely. In the matter of going to war to be used as cannon fodder however, there was very little if a thing that the unions could do to shield their members from harm. At least as soon as the bullets began to fly as union, as no union, it was every man for himself.

    Long before the beginning of the First World War. Even before workers appreciated the importance of corporate struggle, Karl Marx and his friend Frederick Engels had imagined an organisation consisting of all workers of the world. They exhorted all workers to unite across all boundaries of work specialisations and countries. The slogan which has rung down the age was, ‘Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains.’ As far as the composers of the Communist manifesto were concerned, the workers were no more than slaves who were chained to their places in various places of work like slaves who had no freedom in the same way that slaves were treated by their owners. Whilst it is true that the allusion to slavery may not have done justice to the slaves who were toiling away on the cotton fields of Alabama or serfs being worked nearly to death in Russia, the workers were nevertheless almost as effectively chained to their workplaces in the dangerous factories where they worked for what could only be described as just a little better than starvation wages. Apparently however, it seemed that the workers had developed a liking for their chains and did not dare risk the empty freedom of being without work. Whatever the reason or reasons for not coming together, the workers did not or could not summon up the spirit necessary for standing up to the bosses. With the clouds of war gathering over the whole of Europe, it appeared that at last the workers had an incentive to come together to stand up to their bosses. Some of the Union leaders including Keir Hardie, the first leader of the British Labour party, pushed the line that workers from different countries had no business squaring up to each other, let alone killing each other for the benefit of the bosses. Unfortunately, that line of thinking did not gain any traction or perhaps the workers had been convinced that the coming war was going to be a walk in the park. Whatever their reason, a good opportunity to get rid of their chains was lost. Whatever the reasons were, the workers did not show any  dissent. They flocked like sheep to the standards with great enthusiasm to promote the rise, rise and rise of capitalism.  

  • Endangered ‘first baby’

    Endangered ‘first baby’

    Tinubu must come down hard on students loan fund thieves before it becomes another Nigerian mirage

    If ever there is any legacy project scam that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must react to like a wounded lion, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is it. This is a valuable campaign programme that is barely a year old, and distressing reports are already coming out that some people have turned it into another growth area.

    Just last week I wrote on the CBEX swindle, a new Ponzi scheme to which gullible Nigerians who were looking for easy money were said to have lost a whopping N1.3trn. I blamed regulatory agencies for looking the other way when the swindlers were harvesting cheap funds from their hapless victims.

    But why are we so blessed in reverse? From CBEX swindle to NELFUND scam, both in one week! The anti-corruption war, where is thy sting?

    It is sad that what is supposed to be a boon to indigent students is now being exploited by some unscrupulous Nigerians. But how could some people be so mean? So heartless!

    Harvesting monies that are meant for the training and upkeep of students in higher institutions. Haba! A new low in our corruption index.

    According to report, the stealing takes place in two ways: between some institutions, in collusion with some banks, that intentionally delay payment to students for obvious financial gains; and two, some universities that ask students to pay their fees after the institutions have received same from NELFUND.

    It is heartwarming that both the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the House of Representatives have promised to look into the allegations. The ICPC moved in following complaints by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) while the matter was brought to the attention of the House of Representatives Committee on NELFUND by the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Olusola Oladoja.

    Hear some of the students’ lamentations: Rahmon Kehinde, a student of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin: “I have written several letters and visited different offices, but no one has told me where the money is. Before my exams, the bursary told me to pay the fee myself and sort the issue out later. I had to look for the money. Now I’m stuck, who will refund me?”

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    Another student from Kebbi State University, Aliero, Kebbi State, who spoke on condition of anonymity, shared a similar concern: “The school insists that we must find the money and pay our school fees before we are allowed to sit our exams. Where do we start running to now? We want NELFUND to look into this issue so that students who don’t have the means to pay can be allowed to sit their exams.

    “What is the essence of NELFUND releasing the fund since last year, and why are our school fees still not cleared? This money is not a gift to us, but it is a loan that we will still have to repay. Students are already threatening to protest,” he said.

    These are only two of the many such mind-boggling experiences.

    ICPC spokesman Demola Bakare said “We are working on the allegations. The following day after the allegations were disclosed by NOA, a formal report was brought to the commission by NELFUND.

    “The ICPC chairman ordered an investigation into the matter, and I know we have started work on it and the NOA is assisting too,” Bakare said.

    If I could be as enraged as I was when reading the sad news, I expect more rage from the president who established the fund as one of his legacy projects.

    It is common knowledge that some of our banks harbour a lot of thieves because there is hardly any fraud that is perpetrated, especially through the banking channels, that some bankers would not be involved in. In the fuel subsidy racketeering the banks were conspicuously present. We are not even talking about situations where some of their members of the staff play yo-yo directly with customers’ accounts.

    It is so sad that the only thing some Nigerians look out for whenever the government comes out with a policy or programme is how to make illicit money from it. Not how to make it work for the benefit of the beneficiaries and the country at large.

    President Tinubu signed the Student Loan Scheme Bill on April 3, last year, and launched it on July 17, 2024.

    The president made his aim public at the launch of the digital NELFUND disbursement exercise at the State House thus: “As I earlier said, my belief is that education is the greatest weapon against poverty. Without education, there is no vision; without education, there will be no development; without education, you cannot successfully conquer poverty, insecurity, and abuse in society.

    “Education is that light at the end of the tunnel, and no matter how sluggish it moves, it will give you light and the hope you need. We are investing in it. We do not want to try ignorance as an alternative. We want education from the foundation to the topmost level.”

    Great thoughts from an equally great mind.

    Beneficiaries of the project are to commence repayment two years after completing their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. Given the projected number of its beneficiaries, it is an ambitious programme that is being financed with one per cent of the total annual collectable revenue by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

    So far, about 561,174 students have registered for the loan while 497,717 have actually applied. Also, about N53, 036,673,649.40 has so far been disbursed under the loan scheme — N23, 173,240.000.00 as upkeep allowance to beneficiaries and N29, 863,433,649.40 as institutional fees.

    The saboteurs who are stealing funds meant for the students are not only committing economic crime against the country, they are invariably working towards the path that the president said at the launch of the scheme that “we do not want to try”, that is “ignorance as an alternative.”

    Much of the insecurity that we have been spending hugely to defeat has its roots in ignorance and economic deprivation.

    President Tinubu was apparently worried by the troubles that indigent students go through to acquire western education and decided to mitigate their suffering, hence, his resort to the loan scheme.

    Of course the idea of a student loan scheme is not new in the country, but it, unfortunately, happened to be one of those glorious things that the country lost, especially during the military era. Many of our professors and other old citizens had the advantage of multiple scholarships and loans in their time, local and foreign, and those opportunities gave them the platforms to be whatever they are today. There is no gainsaying the fact that many of them would have ended up as hewers of wood and drawers of water in the villages since not all of their parents would have been able to gladly embrace poverty in order to see them through university education.

    If scholarships and loan schemes abound then for students and at a time the country’s currency had much value, then we can only imagine how sorely they would be needed now, with the serious economic challenges the country is facing, which also invariably affect individual Nigerians. And with bursary also gone with the winds!

    Academic scholarships and student loans became extinct in the country not because there is no money to fund it. Or because the number of beneficiaries has soared. No. The good idea that is the norm in several progressive countries died in Nigeria because of lack of planning and corruption. Some of the beneficiaries (if not many) saw the loans as their own share of the national cake that only the elite were eating and so took the loans without bothering to repay. Being a revolving loan, it was only a matter of time for the source to dry up.

    As a matter of fact, some of those who took the loans far back as the 1970s and ’80s only repaid about a year ago.

    Expectedly, a scheme like this would have some teething problems.

    Like some of the beneficiaries who claimed that they have not received their upkeep allowance for about eight months since they changed/updated their bank details. This should be expected. And, the Director, Strategic Communications, NELFUND, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, has an appropriate response to that. “The issue with that is a bit complex. It’s a security issue. Anybody can come and change account details.

    “What we try to do is do a lot of checks to be sure it’s safe. This is being done for the sake of the students themselves. But it will be resolved soon.”

    We can only appeal to the fund to try and expedite action on the processes.

    But we can also better appreciate its position against the reports of abuses now being perpetrated through the scheme.

    Those fiddling with students’ money are really audacious thieves. It tells us the extent of desperation that some Nigerians are ready to go in their attempt to make illicit money. Stealing from students is not only stealing from the have-nots (Agbalowomeri); it is also stealing from the most unlikely quarter that would remain silent when what belongs to them is stolen. “Eni gb’adiye otosi, o gbe talaroye” (whoever steals a poor man’s fowl has stolen what belongs to a talkative). Everyone in town will hear about it.

    President Tinubu should ensure that those who are stealing these students’ monies vomit same. Not only that, they must be unmasked for the heartless criminals that they are. If the president is not moved to demand tough sanctions against those trying to spoil this legacy of his, I don’t know what else would jolt him to action. These students are a time-bomb waiting to explode should they abandon their studies due to lack of funds.

    We have not finished chewing Boko Haram before Lakurawa came. Another just announced its debut a few weeks ago. We should not allow spineless thieves to rob our children of the rest and sleep that those we failed to train are depriving us of today.

    We must also bear in mind that what we are talking about are loans that would be repaid by the beneficiaries, not gifts.

    The ICPC must seize the initiative. These students should not be made to cough up tomorrow what they never ate. This is a serious matter that deserves thorough investigation. Nigerians want to know who did what. The commission should make its findings public, irresponsible of whose ox is gored. It is not a matter to be swept under the carpet.

    In normal climes, no one would dare steal a king’s goat. So, I see nothing wrong in audaciously disgracing people who are audacious enough to endanger the president’s baby.

  • BAO has endeared himself to Ekitis across party lines – There’s therefore no vacancy in Government house come 2026

    BAO has endeared himself to Ekitis across party lines – There’s therefore no vacancy in Government house come 2026

    Anybody who wants to contest the governorship election in Ekiti state should come after 2030. Oyebanji has won the 2026 election” – former governor Ayo Fayose of the PDP.

    Whoever knows him well would know two things about Ayo Fayose, former two term governor of Ekiti state: one, that he passionately loved the PDP and, the other, that he neither minces his words nor talk glibly.

    For a very long time, Fayose has vowed never to  join the APC and though he said those alluring words about governor Biodun Oyebanji, that is, endorsed him ahead  the 2026 election, Nigerians are yet to see him dump the beleaguered party, despite its many troubles.

      “Generally speaking, I think we have a lot to thank God for and we must thank our Governor. Everywhere we turn to its BAO. I do exchange notes regularly with him. When I was coming back to the country yesterday morning, I travelled with somebody from the Senate from London, and he said to me: “thank you very much for the Governor. I went to Ekiti for Senator Opeyemi Bamidele’s conferment of an honourary degree. You need to extend the Ekiti magic to the rest of the country to help all of us”.

    This is all due to the way and manner our Governor has conducted himself and conveyed his sense of humility and service to the party, both at the national and state levels.

    That is why we are all gathered here to happily work with him to accomplish the task of greater development for our people” – Former Ekiti state governor – Dr Kayode Fayemi.

    In saying what he did, Governor Fayose was not alone amongst former  Ekiti state governors who are not even members of governor Oyebanji’s party but who have endorsed him ahead of 2026.

    As far back as August 2024, another respected former Ekiti state governor, Engr Segun Oni has expressed his admiration for the leadership style of Governor  Oyebanji as well as his dedication to the development and progress of the state, describing him  as exemplary, and a model for others to emulate.

    He equally lauded Governor Oyebanji’s commitment to good governance, stressing that his inclusive approach has fostered unity and peace in the state, thereby creating an environment conducive to growth and prosperity.

    While noting that he might have different views on certain issues, governor Oni said he will never criticise Oyebanji openly. Rather, he will approach him in a manner that will promote unity, rather than discord”.

    Like all the former governors quoted above, I have always, in my writings about governor Oyebanji,  popularly known as BAO by  the appreciative Ekitis,  laid greater emphasis on his statesmanship.

    While not underrating the place, and importance of brick and mortar in a state which suffered millenial neglect as a result of disunity amongst its political elite, some of who, unfortunately,  permitted unnecessary external interference in its affairs – especially during the shambolic Obasanjo years – for me, like  the governors, BAO’s  admirable cohering governance model has been far more impactful, and beneficial to the state and its people. One can claim, with considerable justification, and with due apology to all his predecessors, the former helmsmen, that the atmosphere of peace, and near unanimity, in the Ekiti political firmament today is  unprecedented.

    And that’s the gospel truth.

    While we Ekitis do not hate ourselves- since we are all one, any way, some very   clever politicians- external to the state – and all, incidentally, of the Peoples Democratic Party – persons like former President Olusegun Obasanjo who actually loathed us, and said so to our faces – were given  undue opportunity, by their party members within the state, to so completely insinuate themselves into our politics that instability reigned supreme in the state, up to the point that Ekiti actually had a one day governor.

    Things were that bad.

    Unlike the peace and harmony governor Oni spoke glowingly about in his praise of BAO, it was not uncommon to see many of our top politicians, even within the same party, who were not  on speaking terms.

    BAO, God be praised, has changed all that, and although political opponents may still virulently criticise his  performance, majority of our people will simply put that to cheap politics.

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    It was as a result of all these, and since we say in Ekiti:’pe omo to ba sipa ni iya e ngbe’, the Ekiti State Caucus of the All Progressives Congress, upper Friday, hadn’t any alternative to, unanimously, endorsing both President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Oyebanji for a second term in office, citing their exemplary leadership qualities, and impactful policies.

    The endorsement, which came up at a special Caucus meeting of the state chapter of the party, was held in Iyin Ekiti, and attended by the first civilian Governor of the state, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, the immediate past Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi and the incumbent, Mr Biodun Oyebanji.

    Moving the motion for the President’s endorsement which was loudly ratified through a  voice vote, Senator Yemi Adaramodu (Ekiti South), commended President Tinubu for his decisive economic reforms which are beginning to revitalise the country’s economy as was recently confirmed by the IMF, as well as his  security strategies which are aimed at addressing the root causes of insecurity in the country.

    Both they appreciate, are work in progress. Adaramodu

    described the President’s reforms as transformational and impactful, stressing that the Ekiti APC is, proactively, adopting continuity in order to deepen, and fruitify, the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President.

    In the same vein, moving the motion for Governor Oyebanji’s endorsement for re- election, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adeoye

    Aribasoye, said the Governor has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities, characterised by an unwavering commitment to the peoples’ welfare, as well as ensuring an all – round development of the state.

    He praised his   sterling performance and for consistently prioritising the needs and aspirations of the citizenry, thereby fostering trust and unity across party lines.

    All these, he said, the governor did with integrity and all round dedication and commitment to the development of  Ekitis, irrespective of party affiliation.

    The result has been tremendous infrastructural development, enhanced security, improved healthcare and educational facilities all positively impacting the socio – economic development of the state.

    Although, stricto senso, this is not a write up on BAO’s infrastructural development strides, the write up will be incomplete⁰, if I fail to say a word or two, about his gargantuan achievements in the Health sector, for instance, achievements seen in other spheres of the states economy.

    Here I shall not have to re- invent the wheel.

    Rather, because of space constraint, I shall simply present an abridged version of a well documented WhatsApp write up on the subject, by Femi Esan who wrote, inter alia:

    “In less than two years, here’s a glimpse of what BAO has done in the health sector:

    1. Teaching and Tertiary Healthcare Reform.

    ● Full renovation of Male & Female Medical Wards at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH)

    ● Upgrade of the main theatre and installation of high-tech tools: mammogram unit, LED surgical lamps, oxygen plant (ongoing), 10KVA inverter, hospital beds and patient trolleys etc.

    ● Completion of a state-of-the-art NICU, giving premature babies a fighting chance.

    2. General & Secondary Health Facilities

    ● 9 General Hospitals across Ijan, Ijesa-Isu, Ilawe, Okemesi, Efon-Alaaye, Iye, Ayede, Ifaki, with others now rehabilitated with upgraded diagnostic and surgical equipment.

    ● Renovation of Health Centres in places like Ilawe, and equipping the Okeyinmi Health Centre in Ado-Ekiti.

    ● And now, under a bold ward-focused health access strategy, no fewer than 121 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), at least one per ward, are undergoing renovation across the state.

    The idea behind this is that healthcare shouldn’t be a journey, it should be a right, and it should be close by.

    3. Access & Affordability: Health Insurance & ‘Ulera Wa’

    ● Every ward in Ekiti now has at least one accredited health facility.

    ● Facilities receive monthly capitation to prepare for emergencies and stock up ahead of time.

    ● Over ₦30 million per cycle pumped into each facility to maintain steady, proactive service.

    And, the crown jewel,  the “Ulera Wa” program, a comprehensive answer to free healthcare in Ekiti.

    It covers: Pregnant women

     Children under 5 Aged & pensioners

     Over 1,000 sickle cell warriors, among very many other beneficiaries

     And more than 500,000 beneficiaries… and still counting

     By June, that figure is projected to hit 1 million.

    4. Medical Workforce Reform

    ● Pay parity for doctors across the Ministry of Health and Hospitals Management Board.

    ● Renovation of the Dialysis Centre at EKSUTH.

    ● Completion of a new hostel for nursing students, closing long-standing infrastructure gaps.

    5. Health Equity and Inclusion

    ● Free health scheme for People With Disabilities (PWDs)

    ● Assistive devices and special needs equipment distributed statewide

    ● More than a dozen special needs schools now have access to medical support infrastructure

    What You Should Know:

    ● Ekiti now ranked 3rd nationally in the SBM Health Preparedness Index 2024.

    ● Oyebanji is indeed building a system that works before you scream emergency.

    What’s happening is about real people walking into public hospitals and walking out treated, seen, and respected.

    It’s about ensuring that healthcare is nearby, affordable, and reliable, not once in a while but every day”.

    Above, without a scintilla of doubt is what, in many parts of the country, a governor would pray he could achieve in his two terms of 8 years.

    What governor Oyebanji has demonstrated in Ekiti is how, in reality, every state governor, in every part of the country, should endeavour to let President Tinubu’s economic policies impact his own corner of the country.

    Rather than wait to see their people chorusing ‘Ebi n pawa’ – we are hungry all over the place – they should let the huge monthly inflow from the federation account – a consequence of fuel subsidy cancellation – reflect on the overall well being of their people.

  • The silent erosion of true federalism: A challenge to Nigeria’s census panel composition

    The silent erosion of true federalism: A challenge to Nigeria’s census panel composition

    In the tapestry of Nigeria’s diverse heritage, where the threads of over two hundred million souls interweave to form the vibrant fabric of our nation, a conspicuous void has emerged—a void that speaks volumes about the precarious state of our federal structure. The recent composition of the national census panel stands as a testament to an oversight so glaring, so profound in its implications, that it calls into question our commitment to the principles of true federalism upon which our nation was founded. The mathematics of representation on this critical panel reveals a troubling equation of imbalance. In a country of over 200 million people, where NdiIgbo stand proudly as the single largest ethnic group in our federation’s tapestry, they have apparently been rendered invisible in the composition of the very panel tasked with counting our nation’s souls.

    Equally concerning is the absence of representation from the South-South and Northeast regions—creating a triumvirate of exclusion that cannot be dismissed as mere oversight. This mathematical anomaly transcends mere numbers; it represents the calculus of marginalization, where the value of entire regions and peoples is reduced to nothingness in the algorithm of national reckoning. In the delicate balance of our federal structure, such imbalance threatens not just equity but the structural integrity of our national architecture. The federal character principle was not conceived as mere political poetry but as the foundational pillar upon which the temple of our national unity stands. Enshrined in our constitution, it serves as the guardian of equitable representation, ensuring that no region feels the cold sting of exclusion from the national conversation. The absence of Southeast, South-South, and Northeast voices on the census panel while a particular region received 5 slots represents a departure from this sacred principle—a deviation that strikes at the very heart of the federal covenant and one that binds our diverse peoples into one nation. When critical regions find themselves without representation in a process as fundamental as determining our population, we must ask: Is this the federalism our founding fathers envisioned? A national census transcends the cold calculation of numerical strength; it is the very process by which a nation acknowledges the existence of its people. It determines political representation, resource allocation, and development planning for generations to come. To be excluded from the body that oversees this process is to be told, in essence, that your existence shall be determined and defined by others—a construct reminiscent of our colonial past that we believed was firmly behind us. In this light, the composition of the census panel becomes not merely administrative but existential in its significance. It represents the right of peoples to be counted, to be seen, to be acknowledged in the official narrative of nation-building. The exclusion of the Southeast, South-South, and Northeast from this narrative represents not just a procedural oversight but a fundamental challenge to the principle that all regions matter equally in our national story. Let us place this concern within its proper historical context. The story of our nation is written in chapters of struggle for equitable representation, for the recognition that in unity there must be respect for diversity. From the pre-independence constitutional conferences to the post-civil war reconciliation efforts, the question of how best to accommodate our differences while celebrating our commonalities has remained central to our national discourse. The exclusion of these regions from the census panel represents not an isolated incident but another verse in a concerning pattern that echoes through the chambers of our collective memory. From the distribution of infrastructure to appointments in federal institutions, any pattern of regional marginalization presents itself as a contradiction to the federal spirit—a contradiction that demands address not through divisive rhetoric but through principled realignment with our constitutional values. The concept of true federalism stands as a promise—a promise that every component unit of our nation shall have a voice in matters that affect the collective. When Southeast, South-South, and Northeast regions find themselves without representation on a panel as crucial as that which conducts our national census, this promise rings hollow against the walls of practical experience. This is not merely about political correctness; it is about the practical implications of exclusion. How can regions trust that their populations will be accurately counted when they have no representatives in the room where methodologies are determined and implementation strategies are crafted? How can they be assured that their unique demographic challenges will be understood and addressed in the census process? The dignity of our nation’s diverse peoples requires their inclusion in processes that shape our collective destiny. When the Ndi’Igbo, as the single largest ethnic group in Nigeria, find themselves without representation on the census panel, alongside their brothers and sisters from the South-South and Northeast, we witness not just an administrative oversight but a fundamental challenge to the dignity that inclusion confers. True federalism demands not just the formal recognition of our diversity but the practical expression of that recognition through inclusive practices. The current composition of the census panel falls short of this standard, raising legitimate concerns about our commitment to the federal principle in practice rather than merely in theory. This moment calls not for recrimination but for realignment—a realignment with the constitutional principles that should guide our national journey. The federal character principle exists not as an optional guideline but as a constitutional imperative that safeguards the rights of all regions to meaningful participation in national life. We therefore respectfully call for the reconstitution of the census panel to reflect the true federal character of our nation, including adequate representation for the Southeast, South-South, and Northeast regions. This call emanates not from sectional interests but from a deep commitment to the constitutional values that should bind us together as one nation celebrating its diversity. The composition of the census panel presents not just a challenge but an opportunity—an opportunity to demonstrate our collective commitment to true federalism in action rather than merely in rhetoric. By ensuring that all regions are represented in this crucial process, we affirm that every thread in our national tapestry matters, that every voice deserves to be heard in our national conversation. NdiIgbo, as the single largest ethnic group in a country of over two hundred million souls, alongside their compatriots from the South-South and Northeast, deserve representation in every facet of national life, particularly in processes as fundamental as the census. The current exclusion stands as a deviation from the path of true federalism—a deviation that can and must be corrected if we are to honor the federal covenant that binds us together. As we navigate the complex waters of our national existence, let us be guided by the compass of true federalism—a compass that points always toward inclusion rather than exclusion, toward representation rather than marginalization, toward the recognition that our diversity is not a burden to be managed but a blessing to be celebrated. The current composition of the census panel represents a departure from this path—a departure that calls for correction not through divisive rhetoric but through principled realignment with our constitutional values. By ensuring that the Southeast, South-South, and Northeast regions are represented on this panel, we take a significant step toward the more perfect union that our founding fathers envisioned and that our children deserve to inherit.

    In the grand theater of our national existence, let this moment be remembered not as one of division but of renewal—a renewal of our commitment to the federal principle that each region, each people, each voice matters in the unfolding story of Nigeria. For in that commitment lies the promise of true federalism, and in that promise, the hope of a nation united in its diversity, strengthened by its differences, and committed to the dignity of all its peoples. : A Challenge to Nigeria’s Census Panel Composition

    In the tapestry of Nigeria’s diverse heritage, where the threads of over two hundred million souls interweave to form the vibrant fabric of our nation, a conspicuous void has emerged—a void that speaks volumes about the precarious state of our federal structure. The recent composition of the national census panel stands as a testament to an oversight so glaring, so profound in its implications, that it calls into question our commitment to the principles of true federalism upon which our nation was founded.

    The mathematics of representation on this critical panel reveals a troubling equation of imbalance. In a country of over 200 million people, where NdiIgbo stand proudly as the single largest ethnic group in our federation’s tapestry, they have apparently been rendered invisible in the composition of the very panel tasked with counting our nation’s souls. Equally concerning is the absence of representation from the South-South and Northeast regions—creating a triumvirate of exclusion that cannot be dismissed as mere oversight.

    Read Also: North, coalition formation and presumptions

    This mathematical anomaly transcends mere numbers; it represents the calculus of marginalization, where the value of entire regions and peoples is reduced to nothingness in the algorithm of national reckoning. In the delicate balance of our federal structure, such imbalance threatens not just equity but the structural integrity of our national architecture.

    The federal character principle was not conceived as mere political poetry but as the foundational pillar upon which the temple of our national unity stands. Enshrined in our constitution, it serves as the guardian of equitable representation, ensuring that no region feels the cold sting of exclusion from the national conversation.

    The absence of Southeast, South-South, and Northeast voices on the census panel while a particular region received 5 slots represents a departure from this sacred principle—a deviation that strikes at the very heart of the federal covenant and one that binds our diverse peoples into one nation. When critical regions find themselves without representation in a process as fundamental as determining our population, we must ask: Is this the federalism our founding fathers envisioned?

    A national census transcends the cold calculation of numerical strength; it is the very process by which a nation acknowledges the existence of its people. It determines political representation, resource allocation, and development planning for generations to come. To be excluded from the body that oversees this process is to be told, in essence, that your existence shall be determined and defined by others—a construct reminiscent of our colonial past that we believed was firmly behind us.

    In this light, the composition of the census panel becomes not merely administrative but existential in its significance. It represents the right of peoples to be counted, to be seen, to be acknowledged in the official narrative of nation-building. The exclusion of the Southeast, South-South, and Northeast from this narrative represents not just a procedural oversight but a fundamental challenge to the principle that all regions matter equally in our national story.

    Let us place this concern within its proper historical context. The story of our nation is written in chapters of struggle for equitable representation, for the recognition that in unity there must be respect for diversity. From the pre-independence constitutional conferences to the post-civil war reconciliation efforts, the question of how best to accommodate our differences while celebrating our commonalities has remained central to our national discourse.

    The exclusion of these regions from the census panel represents not an isolated incident but another verse in a concerning pattern that echoes through the chambers of our collective memory. From the distribution of infrastructure to appointments in federal institutions, any pattern of regional marginalization presents itself as a contradiction to the federal spirit—a contradiction that demands address not through divisive rhetoric but through principled realignment with our constitutional values.

    The concept of true federalism stands as a promise—a promise that every component unit of our nation shall have a voice in matters that affect the collective. When Southeast, South-South, and Northeast regions find themselves without representation on a panel as crucial as that which conducts our national census, this promise rings hollow against the walls of practical experience.

    This is not merely about political correctness; it is about the practical implications of exclusion. How can regions trust that their populations will be accurately counted when they have no representatives in the room where methodologies are determined and implementation strategies are crafted? How can they be assured that their unique demographic challenges will be understood and addressed in the census process?

    The dignity of our nation’s diverse peoples requires their inclusion in processes that shape our collective destiny. When the Ndi’Igbo, as the single largest ethnic group in Nigeria, find themselves without representation on the census panel, alongside their brothers and sisters from the South-South and Northeast, we witness not just an administrative oversight but a fundamental challenge to the dignity that inclusion confers.

    True federalism demands not just the formal recognition of our diversity but the practical expression of that recognition through inclusive practices. The current composition of the census panel falls short of this standard, raising legitimate concerns about our commitment to the federal principle in practice rather than merely in theory.

    This moment calls not for recrimination but for realignment—a realignment with the constitutional principles that should guide our national journey. The federal character principle exists not as an optional guideline but as a constitutional imperative that safeguards the rights of all regions to meaningful participation in national life.

    We therefore respectfully call for the reconstitution of the census panel to reflect the true federal character of our nation, including adequate representation for the Southeast, South-South, and Northeast regions. This call emanates not from sectional interests but from a deep commitment to the constitutional values that should bind us together as one nation celebrating its diversity.

    The composition of the census panel presents not just a challenge but an opportunity—an opportunity to demonstrate our collective commitment to true federalism in action rather than merely in rhetoric. By ensuring that all regions are represented in this crucial process, we affirm that every thread in our national tapestry matters, that every voice deserves to be heard in our national conversation.

    NdiIgbo, as the single largest ethnic group in a country of over two hundred million souls, alongside their compatriots from the South-South and Northeast, deserve representation in every facet of national life, particularly in processes as fundamental as the census. The current exclusion stands as a deviation from the path of true federalism—a deviation that can and must be corrected if we are to honor the federal covenant that binds us together.

    As we navigate the complex waters of our national existence, let us be guided by the compass of true federalism—a compass that points always toward inclusion rather than exclusion, toward representation rather than marginalization, toward the recognition that our diversity is not a burden to be managed but a blessing to be celebrated.

    The current composition of the census panel represents a departure from this path—a departure that calls for correction not through divisive rhetoric but through principled realignment with our constitutional values. By ensuring that the Southeast, South-South, and Northeast regions are represented on this panel, we take a significant step toward the more perfect union that our founding fathers envisioned and that our children deserve to inherit.

    In the grand theater of our national existence, let this moment be remembered not as one of division but of renewal—a renewal of our commitment to the federal principle that each region, each people, each voice matters in the unfolding story of Nigeria. For in that commitment lies the promise of true federalism, and in that promise, the hope of a nation united in its diversity, strengthened by its differences, and committed to the dignity of all its peoples.

  • Enough is Enough: A president’s swift response to a nation’s call

    Enough is Enough: A president’s swift response to a nation’s call

    As dusk settled over Abuja on Easter Monday, the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport stirred with renewed activity. At precisely 9:50pm, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s aircraft touched down, marking his return to the country after nearly three weeks of a working visit to Europe. His arrival came as a much-welcome development for many Nigerians who had expressed concern over the mounting security challenges that plagued parts of the country, some of which happened during his time away.

    For others, particularly the opposition, his absence had been used as fodder for speculation, prompting a slew of unfounded rumors. But with his return and the decisive actions taken in the days that followed, President Tinubu once again demonstrated that leadership knows no geographical boundaries.

    The working visit that took President Tinubu to Paris and London was one not of leisure, but of strategic engagement. While the public discourse may have been fixated on his physical absence, the machinery of state continued to operate under his guidance. From Europe, he remained actively engaged with national issues, maintaining close communication with top government officials and offering directives on key matters, including national security.

    A highlight of his foreign engagements came in Paris, where he held a significant meeting with Mr. Massad Boulos, the United States Department of State’s Senior Advisor for Africa. The talks centered on strengthening Nigeria-U.S. collaboration in regional security and sustainable development. Notably, they discussed strategic steps toward achieving lasting peace in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, underlining Nigeria’s vital role in multilateral African stability efforts. Tinubu’s proactive diplomacy during the visit affirmed his enduring commitment to peace, security, and economic development, not only in Nigeria, but across the continent.

    Back at home, however, tensions were running high. Over the course of the previous few weeks, a troubling surge in violence had marred communities in Plateau, Benue, Borno, and Kwara states. Reports of brutal killings, destruction of property, and displacement of families were deeply unsettling, casting a sombre cloud over the Easter season. Calls for action grew louder, and there was widespread anticipation regarding how the President would respond upon his return.

    True to form, President Tinubu did not wait long to act. Barely 48 hours after his arrival, he convened an emergency security meeting on Wednesday with service chiefs, top intelligence officers, and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. The high-level session, which lasted over two hours, was both exhaustive and strategic. During the briefing, President Tinubu made clear his dissatisfaction with the ongoing security lapses and issued a clear directive: “Enough is enough.”

    According to Ribadu, the President was not only thoroughly briefed on recent attacks but had already been tracking developments and issuing instructions while abroad. “Even when he was out there, he was constantly in touch,” Ribadu told journalists. He further revealed that the President directed the security apparatus to adopt a “new approach”, one that includes deeper collaboration with sub-national actors; governors, local council leaders, and community heads, in a bid to arrest the causes and spread of insecurity at the grassroots level.

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    “This isn’t just a top-down issue,” Tinubu reportedly emphasized, noting that many of the challenges stem from community-level grievances and must be tackled with a more inclusive framework. His insistence on greater synergy between the federal government and local authorities reflects a nuanced understanding of Nigeria’s complex security landscape and a shift toward sustainable peace-building.

    While the President’s security directives dominated the headlines midweek, his engagement with global affairs remained undiminished. Also on Wednesday, from the comfort of the State House, Tinubu joined an exclusive high-level virtual dialogue on climate and just transition. The meeting, co-hosted by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, brought together leaders from 17 countries and major global blocs.

    In his address, Tinubu called for courageous and united global action on climate change, framing the crisis not as an environmental issue alone, but as a strategic economic imperative. “For Nigeria, the urgency of this moment is clear,” he declared. “We view climate action not as a cost to development, but as a strategic imperative.”

    He went on to outline Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP), a bold roadmap aimed at achieving net-zero emissions by 2060. The plan targets five sectors — power, cooking, transportation, oil and gas, and industry — and identifies a financing need exceeding $410 billion. As part of these reforms, Nigeria finalised its Carbon Market Activation Policy in March, which aims to unlock $2.5 billion in investment by 2030. President Tinubu also highlighted Nigeria’s leadership in the Mission 300 initiative, an ambitious programme, in partnership with the World Bank and African Development Bank, to provide electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030.

    This vision, grounded in policy reform and innovative financing, positions Nigeria as a future hub for climate-smart investments. “We are working to position Nigeria as a premier destination for climate-smart investment,” Tinubu said, announcing plans for a Global Climate Change Investment Fund to de-risk green infrastructure and accelerate renewable energy adoption. His remarks earned commendation from international observers and reaffirmed Nigeria’s role as a pacesetter in Africa’s green energy transition.

    Even amid these weighty matters, the President found time for solemn reflection and statesmanship. On Monday, the world woke to the heartbreaking news of the passing of Pope Francis, the 88-year-old Pontiff whose decade-long papacy was marked by humility, justice, and unwavering commitment to the marginalized. President Tinubu was among the first global leaders to react. In a moving statement, he described the late Pope as “a humble servant of God, tireless champion of the poor, and guiding light for millions.”

    “His Holiness served the Church and the Master of the Church until the end,” Tinubu said. “He was an instrument of peace who deeply embodied the message of Christ: love for God and love for humanity.” In a rare moment of personal sentiment, the President recalled how he had referenced the Pope’s resilience in his Easter message, only to be saddened by his death a day later. To honor the revered pontiff, Tinubu dispatched a high-powered Nigerian delegation to the Vatican for the funeral, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, on Friday. The delegation also included respected religious figures such as Archbishops Matthew Hassan Kukah and Ignatius Kaigama, symbolizing the nation’s unity in grief and its recognition of the Pope’s legacy.

    On the regional front, President Tinubu also marked an important diplomatic milestone during the week — the 50th anniversary celebration of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Represented by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu in Accra, Ghana, the President used the occasion to reflect on ECOWAS’ journey as a beacon of regional integration. “Today, we celebrate numerous remarkable achievements,” Tinubu’s message read. “In five decades, we have established one of Africa’s most vibrant free trade areas.”

    However, he also acknowledged the work yet to be done, noting persistent issues such as youth unemployment and insecurity. In a stirring appeal, he called for a reimagined ECOWAS — one that puts people first and leverages the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a catalyst for transformation. His remarks were echoed by Ghana’s former President John Mahama, who called for an ECOWAS that understands and addresses the aspirations of its citizens. Ghana’s announcement of 1,000 university scholarships for ECOWAS students marked a hopeful start to this vision.

    Amid these high-level engagements, President Tinubu maintained his tradition of acknowledging and celebrating the achievements and milestones of notable Nigerians. On Monday, he congratulated Senator Orji Uzor Kalu on his 65th birthday, commending the former Abia State Governor for his patriotism and business acumen. The following day, he extended warm wishes to Barrister Adeniji Kazeem, newly elected President of the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society Worldwide, describing his emergence as “a well-deserved recognition of exemplary leadership.”

    Also on Tuesday, the President celebrated the 85th birthday of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, praising the monarch’s decades of service and wisdom. Then on Thursday, he marked the 60th birthday of veteran journalist and City People publisher, Seye Kehinde, hailing his contributions to the media industry. These gestures, though symbolic, are testament to the President’s inclusive approach to leadership — one that values legacy, celebrates excellence, and promotes national unity.

    In all, the week of April 20 to 26 was one of extraordinary symbolism and substance for President Tinubu and his administration. It was a week that began with quiet anxieties over his brief absence, only to end in resounding demonstrations of leadership, both at home and on the global stage. Whether in addressing climate change, security, diplomacy, or the emotional resonance of a papal farewell, the President reaffirmed that he is not only aware of the pulse of the nation, but also responsive and engaged.

    As Nigeria continues to navigate the tides of transformation, President Tinubu’s recent actions underscore a simple truth: leadership is not merely about presence, it is about purposeful action. From the streets of Mangu and Otukpo to the chambers of the Vatican and the digital screens of global climate forums, President Tinubu showed that governance, when grounded in resolve and responsibility, transcends boundaries.

    If this week is any indication, Nigeria’s leader is not just back, he is firmly back in charge. What unfolded last week should be a mere tip of the iceberg, much more should be expected in coming weeks.

  • Beyond one-party state

    Beyond one-party state

    The Hakeem Baba-Ahmed Condition

    Damn your principles, stick to your party — Benjamin Disraeli

    With the recent tsunami-like defections to the ruling party, we are virtually in a one-party state, or are we not? But how is that a problem? There are one party states and there are one party states. There are one-party states such as China, Russia, Vietnam, Singapore and Cuba that utilize the national consensus to force a furious developmental pace on their respective societies. On the other hand, there are one-party states such as those that litter post-colonial Africa which are nothing but cartel-like coalitions that fuel corruption and permanent stagnation. It is not one-party states that are the problem. It is the state of the hegemonic parties themselves.

      In just a little over twelve years of its storied existence, the APC has moved from underdog to top dog, acquiring such heft and hulk in the process that it now sweeps everything before it with annihilating panache. This is such that close relations of its former rival, the PDP, which has been brain-dead and on life support machine for some time now, are openly wondering whether the machine should not be switched off. The APC and its asphyxiating honchos ought to be commended for poleaxing a terrible party like the PDP into a terminal stupor.

    The great irony is that in close combat with its deadly rival, some of the insalubrious and unsavory qualities of the dying and unlamented behemoth appear to have rubbed off on the APC itself. Brilliantly described by Alex Ekwueme, one of its founding fathers, as “a rally rather than a party”, PDP, began life as a well-connected enforcer of state will, or what the Nobel laureate famously dismissed as “a nest of killers”.  Now, it is ending it as an abandoned state orphan. After its death, the party should be cremated and its ashes sprayed across the four corners of the country if only to appease the spirit of those it has done to death in the name of “come and eat cosmology”.

       There are those who will imagine that the pathological condition named above is more applicable to the mercurial and tempestuous Nasir el Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna state who has traversed all the major parties in the post-military political dispensation, rather than Hakeem Baba- Ahmed who can be seen as a harmless opportunistic technocrat with an eye on the main chance. But if you study closely Baba Ahmed’s migrations and transmigrations like a political nomad since the beginning of the post-military era, to his current “apolitical” self-canonization as a northern leader of thought, you find something far more sinister and dangerous to the health of the polity than el Rufia’s candidly vindictive political gaming. Posing as a refined statesman above the fray, a placid defender of all that is sane and noble, Baba Ahmed is yet to confess his crime and complicity against the nation as a notable functionary of INEC under Maurice Iwu’s leadership.  The monumental heist committed against the nation and democracy will continue to resonate in the annals of political infamy. If this were to be a country with a culture of shame and restitution, anybody connected with such political atrocities ought to have gone home, never to be heard from again. After a lull, our man showed up as Chief of Staff to Bukola Saraki after the Ilorin-born medico and scion of the ancient Saraki dynasty seized the mantle of senate leadership in a daring broad daylight political putsch. After the stint with Saraki expired, Baba Ahmed loitered around a bit, waiting for the next assignment or self-assignation. Folk wisdom holds that a person should be wise and circumspect about what he eats, particularly when he is hungry. Despite the fact that his blood brother was a running mate to Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election, Ahmed did not have any qualms or suffer a loss of equanimity in accepting to be a Senior Presidential Adviser in the victorious coalition led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He was posted to the office of the Vice President. He was neither a campaigner for nor a contributor to the APC. In any case, if he shared political bonding and ideological brotherhood with Bukola Saraki’s obviously conservative and rightwing affiliation what could he have been doing in Bola Tinubu’s government?

    But the bubble soon burst. It did not take long before Hakeem found himself outside the loop of power again. It was coming to crunch mid-term and there are smart new deals to cut and newer political IOUs to secure. There are some people who prefer the indignities of political humiliation on the corridor of power to the contumely of political irrelevance outside the loop of power. Unable to endure the prospects of being a political wayfarer all over again, our man soon relocated to familiar power haunts in traditional circuits craftily re-ennobling himself as a regional elder and master of manafiki politics.

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    The last time we heard from him, he was at the bully pulpit hectoring the fabled northern masses about how they will be directed to vote when the hour comes. These are the same poor masses he failed to remember when he was hunting for victuals and foraging for food. Even a political fool ought to see through this shameless chicanery. Ahmed is referencing the same mythical north that is up in flames as a result of the mismanagement of ethnic and cultural diversities by him and his cohorts who see themselves as a superior caste beyond reprimand and reproach. He is referring to the same north that is ravaged by corruption and mismanagement as a result of the greed and avarice of a feudal and parasitic elite group. Like Rip Van Winkle, he will soon wake up from his catatonic slumber to discover that his north has become a mirage and that time has moved.

      One-party states are always a distinct possibility in nations with weak political structures and with strong individuals serving as the binding glue that holds everything together in an otherwise chaotic amalgam of diverse and contradictory interests. This is why there is always the possibility of things dissolving into a one-party structure with autocratic despotism looming. One party states are usually a reflection of the state and status of politics where a predatory elite rules the roost upending the system and all the ancient values known to it with politicians choosing the liberty that goes with licensed licentiousness over the freedom that comes from noble exertions. This is why some of the people associated with recent defections are some of the vilest and most execrable characters ever thrown up by the post-military melee of Nigerian politics. One of them, a trained medical doctor, had served as a running mate to the presidential candidate of the main opposition party and is under investigation for making away with a colossal amount of state funds.

      But we must not stop with castigating and excoriating these scoundrels alone. While that may be profoundly therapeutic, it does not address the fundamental impasse and is ultimately an exercise in futility.  We must throw further and deeper theoretical light on this gathering of the tribe of politicians under one huge tent. It may well be due to what is known as the cunning of history; a fortuitous design to address some fundamental imbalance and overcome some serious aspects of the national question that have tasked and vexed human ingenuity over a whole generation. The gathering of the pan-Nigerian tribe under one huge umbrella is a symbolic affirmation of the homogenization of the Nigerian political class or what may be described as solidarity in aberration.

    Henceforth, it will no longer make any sense to ascribe ethnicity, religion, region and culture to Nigeria’s problems since we may be witnessing the advent of a pan-Nigerian ruling class for the first time in the history of the nation. Second, since there are rumours and loud insinuations that there is really no difference between the APC ruling party and the PDP former ruling party the merger removes any doubt about the similarity of core ideology between the two dominant factions of the same conservative tendency. Shielding defectors from the probing fangs of the EFCC can only compound the image problem of the government and deepen its crisis of credibility. Strategic brilliance and political dissembling may then lead to moral and political opprobrium.

       Something in all this would have bestirred Obafemi Awolowo in his grave. Unarguably the preeminent Yoruba political patriarch of the epoch, Awo spent his long and illustrious career fighting against the homogenization of the Nigerian ruling class. It was the obstinacy and tenacity with which he waged the battle that made his adversaries to mark him out for political elimination. Awo’s belief was that any attempt at the political homogenization of the polity robs the people of real and genuine choices and alternative policy formulations. In the First Republic, Awo spurned the attempt to coopt him and his party, the Action Group, into a National Government under the feudal rubrics of the ruling NPC. Awo instead dusted his file and became Leader of Opposition. The same scenario was to repeat itself during the Second Republic when Awo opposed with all his cerebral clout the antics and shenanigans of the ruling NPN.

         At that point in time, Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye, aka Eegunjenmi, the wily and foxy National Chairman of the NPN, noted with wry cynicism that there were only two political parties in Nigeria: The Military Party of Nigeria and all the other parties lumped together. True enough, when the military struck later, they made no attempt to differentiate among the political class lumping all of them together as offensive vermin. Indeed in his maiden broadcast to the nation, the selfsame Major General Buhari accused all the politicians of corruption and vote-rigging, claiming that they all rigged according to their strength and resources. Awo’s attempt to carve a niche for his own party had come to naught. For the military, it is negative homogenization of the political class all the way as a strategy of containment of any challenge to its rule.

    Ever perspicacious and penetrating in his judgment and outlook, the irony would not have been lost on Awo that this time around, it is Yoruba political luminaries who are at the forefront of the homogenization drive. Was he missing something in his analysis? There was no way Awo could have factored into his usually drastic evaluation the full implication for politics of military rule in all its devastation and debilitations. To facilitate its rule and ease of dominion over an unwieldy country, the military turned the nation into a vast garrison and the politicians into a subaltern class. The grinding conformity was bound to lead to some homogenization but also throw up a unified front of resistance and opposition such as it is normally witnessed in times of struggle against autocracy and despotism. Given the contradictions enumerated above, we can confidently assert that Nigeria is still very far from a one-party state.

  • As SK turns sixty

    As SK turns sixty

    This column congratulates our boy and younger acolyte, Seye Kehinde, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Yours sincerely missed all the celebrations and the epic quaffing but will surely be back to share some of the usual liquid elixir with the celebrant. Serious and scholarly undergraduate with an affable well-bred mien, guerrilla journalist and fabled editor of the famous anti-military magazine known as Tempo and latterly publisher of City People, the topnotch society broadsheet, Seye has come a very long way indeed. Snooper remembers a pleasant-looking youth from the mid-eighties who usually sauntered into the office at the then University of Ife to read the latest copy of Newswatch magazine. Even though he was not directly a student of yours sincerely as he was reading International Relations, it was very easy to add him to an ever growing list of mentees who could swear by yours sincerely. Almost to no exception, they were young, brilliant and socially engaged. Seye was to make a seamless transition to the world of Nigerian journalism after graduation. This was when events conspired to throw him into the crucible of the struggle against military tyranny and despotism which peaked with the annulment of the freest and fairest election in the history of the nation. Seye acquitted himself with uncommon bravery and valour. Nigeria is yet to properly honour the true heroes of the democracy we are all enjoying.

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    We leave with two stories which reveal the depth of Seye’s sense of humour and daring. After a visit to a top notch general during the Abacha inquisition, Seye told the infantry supremo that he was coming to see yours sincerely whereupon the general expressed surprise saying that he thought all along that the name was a pen name because he believed nobody in his right senses would be writing such inflammatory stuff. When Seye confirmed that the name was for real, the general quickly eased him out of his house with the parting shot that the nation was teeming with mad people: “Awon asiwere po nilu yi!” On another occasion, Seye was arrested by a policeman on patrol in the dead of the night around the Oshodi loop as he was coming from the hideout where Tempo was being printed. Unable to pin anything on him, the cop was about to release him when he noticed a huge stack hidden under the carpet. It was the latest, freshly minted edition of the proscribed Tempo. The cop knelt by the keel to loudly thank God for giving him his own breakthrough. Negotiations ensued and they settled for hefty sum. The snag was that Seye had no dime on him. Foolishly, the policeman agreed to follow him on a begging spree around all surrounding neighborhoods until Seye could retire his obligation. They were still on this when dawn broke and some irate residents raised an alarm about a thief and the cop fled. Such was the surreal nature of life under military tyranny that we must pray the nation never revert to another. Happy birthday, Seye.

  • Bakare, Kukah and politics of religion

    Bakare, Kukah and politics of religion

    In their Easter homilies cum state of the nation messages, Pastor Tunder Bakare of the Citadel Global Community Church and Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto Matthew Hassan Kukah deployed diverse analytical tools to x-ray the societal and developmental crises facing Nigeria. Bishop Kukah’s address was more homiletical, even partly exegetical, while Pastor Bakare’s was more political, judgemental, and didactic. Both men delivered their addresses on Easter Sunday, with the bishop more mindful of the need to sound less political in a church environment. As a matter of fact, he tended to be more acutely aware of the indispensability of aligning his speeches with the person and doctrine of the Christ. In contrast, Pastor Bakare has obliterated the divide between the secular and the non-secular, probably because he believes that the goal of bettering the circumstances of the people had become urgent.

    The bishop described as expiative sacrifice the difficult economic measures in which the Bola Tinubu administration has got Nigerians to welter. Alluding to the transcendence of the cross on which Jesus Christ was hung, and directly calling on the president to vicariously feel the people’s pain, he said: “We all admit that you neither erected this cross nor effected our collective crucifixion. Notwithstanding, Nigerians have been dangling and bleeding on this cross of pain and mindless suffering for too long.” He then went on to ask the president to bring the people down from the cross if far more cataclysmic forces of destruction and despair were not to overtake the country. As he put it: “The bandits have not only become embedded in every sphere of our lives, they threaten to destroy all that holds our communities together. This self-destructive cancer has invaded our communities and kidnapping is now a dog whistle for undermining the very structure and foundation of our country. We now hang on the cross at the mercy of these forces of darkness…Mr. President, please bring us down from this painful cross of hunger. Now is the time to re-enkindle and renew that hope. We have all the ingredients to create a toxic mix of violence that can spin out of control. Right now, frustration has penetrated every spectrum of our society, especially as the government and its security agencies seem to have largely become spectators in the dance of death that has overtaken our country.”

    Bishop Kukah seemed to recognise the sinister forces at play in Nigeria, indicating that beyond the superficial events of apparent administrative laxities and complicities is a more terrifying undertow of forces determined to skew the structural equilibrium of the country or destroy it altogether. If it is not an exaggeration, the bishop seemed very circumspect in railing against the administration. He knew too well that to do so would surrender to the populist excoriation of the administration capable of emboldening the forces of disintegration. He, therefore, measured his words, attempted to give the people hope in the survivability of their country, and suggested that human and economic resources could still be marshaled to lift the country out of penury and instability. His message was thus familiar to exponents of the faith, if not the rest of the country.

    Read Also: North, coalition formation and presumptions

    Pastor Bakare was in contrast fiery and a tad populist. Dividing his message into two sections, either deliberately or accidentally, he launched into a fierce denunciation of both the administration and the legislature, inexplicably sparing the judiciary perhaps because he is a lawyer. He completed his message with quotes and annotations, managing in the process to eschew the rhetorical and scriptural balance famously associated with the New Testament. Without scrupulous interrogations or careful investigations, he turned the femme fatale, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the hypercritical Oby Ezekwesili into national totems of resistance and virtue, using both women to vilify the National Assembly and infer the complicity and indulgence of the Tinubu administration. His logic was far-fetched, and his quotations, both biblical and secular, were more meretricious than relevant; but overall, his address tilted largely towards the judgemental and populistic.

    The first part of Pastor Bakare’s address was mainly devoted to rhapsodising his idols and stigmatising the Tinubu administration. More, it was also shockingly consecrated to unedifying name-calling. “Those responsible for steering the course of our nation,” he said plaintively, “lack the humility and character this moment demands of leaders. Instead, what we have seen since the beginning of the year is a descent into tyranny and the brazen abuse of power.” He offered no substantiation except his interpretation of the state of emergency proclamation in Rivers State and the alleged orchestration inspired by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister and former Rivers governor Nyesom Wike. He threw in the tangential matter of what he implied was the role of the groveling national legislature in the president’s acts of ‘state capture’, concluding inelegantly that the “two main contenders in the ongoing institutional immorality Olympics are the executive and the legislature.” He also suggested that “The quality of leadership in Nigeria has become so repugnant that citizens must declare a state of emergency on governance.”

    The pastor was even fiercer on President Tinubu. He dismissed him as the guiding but graceless force in Nigeria’s political theatre. Said he: “…At the centre of this political banditry is the motor park brand of politics nurtured by the old brigade politicians and, in recent times, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Mr. President, it is through your influence that the Nigerian National Assembly has become a haven for legislative rascality. Mr. President, it is under your watch that the National Assembly has become an extension of the executive, grossly violating the principles of separation of powers, and rubber-stamping the whims and caprices of your office, all the while singing the international anthem of sycophants: ‘On your mandate we shall stand.’ Mr. President, thanks to your political machinations, Nigeria is now bedevilled by a captured National Assembly, the most ineffective in its checks-and-balances role since the start of the Fourth Republic.”

    His denunciatory and sweeping dismissal of the president was music to the ears of the opposition, the social media, the Obidients, and the regional merchants of ethnic and religious bigotry. The pastor in fact showed no care about the subtleties of power relations in Nigeria, nor the dangerous political convolutions that have upended many nations, nor still the ecumenical restraint expected of his calling or that should reflect in his language. He was widely quoted days after with resounding approbations, which perhaps gratified his private, public and political longings. If he was worried that the brilliant second part of his address was vitiated by the excessively vituperative first part, the country may never know. It is, however, sufficient for him that he has remained in good standing with the social media and the vocal and significant majority of angry Nigerians.

    The second part of his address, which showed a lot of brilliance and scholarship, was hardly acknowledged in the media, let alone quoted or even understood by the jubilant rabble that approved his person and politics. But at least he got the headlines and publicity his brand of liberation theology crucially welcomed. His address might contradict his essential theology, but he had long made his peace with such contradictions, and constantly built and co-opted them into his pastoral undertakings. The contradictions may sometimes lead him to predictive errors, but in his interventions it is remarkable how he explains those fallibilities away in the same awkward manner he frequently reconciles his flawed politics with his controversial theology.   

  • PDP’s fateful trajectory

    PDP’s fateful trajectory

    Who exactly is the National Secretary of the party?” Olajumoke Olatunji of TVC News asked a senior member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Adetokunbo Pearse, on the interview programme “Politics Tonight” on 15 April, 2025. Dr. Pearse replied: “As we stand now, Udeh-Okoye is the National Secretary of the party. … It is only at the National Convention of the party that you can legally, formally, properly decide on this issue, even though it has been decided in-house indirectly.”

    In an 18 April, 2025 interview of former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose on the Channels Television programme “Politics Today”, Seun Okinbaloye commented: “The PDP and its state of affairs worry a lot of people who watch our democracy and its development in the country. How can a major opposition party be decimated this badly? Bloody nose in … three consecutive elections.”

    Moreover, on 21 April, 2025, Daily Trust reported Dr Kabiru Sufi, a political analyst and Senior Lecturer at Skyline University, Kano, to have noted: “Despite its strength and its past chances, the PDP is withering away for now, considering the divisions within. The fault lines are increasing by the day. We used to have maybe two opposing camps – now three, then four, now five.”

    The party was in government at the federal level from 1999, when the Fourth Republic started, to 2015, when the vitality of Nigeria’s democratic culture was established with the defeat of the ruling party by the erstwhile new opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). After its 2015 loss, leaders of the PDP appeared to have been so demoralised that the party was left enervated and virtually rudderless.

    Then the Governor of Rivers State at the time, Nyesom Wike, stepped in, and provided funding and other forms of support. These halted the party’s slide, but it remained fairly anaemic. And the PDP has been manifesting different forms of that political anaemia ever since.

    The condition of the party was aggravated on 28 May, 2022 when, at the party’s special convention and presidential primary, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won with 371 votes and Wike trailed him with 237. But that election had complicated antecedents and aftermath. Section 7(2)(c) of the PDP constitution states: “In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices.”

    Read Also: Atiku and the Delta defections

    The interpretation of this constitutional provision by some PDP stakeholders, such as Governor Nyesom Wike (who is at present the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory – FCT) and Chief Bode George, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the party, was that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ought not to have contested the primary election. They held this view because the position of National Chairman of the party was already being held by another northerner, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. In addition, the incumbent President of the country at the time, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was on the verge of completing eight straight years of democratic governance, was also a northerner, even though a member of the APC.

    Moreover, the acceptance by the Delta State Governor at the time, Ifeanyi Okowa, to be Atiku Abubakar’s Vice-Presidential candidate touched a raw nerve. On 17 June, 2022, Vanguard reported the issue as follows: “In a statement collectively signed by Chief (Dr.) Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, OFR, CON, Leader SMBLF/PANDEF, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader, Afenifere, Pogu Bitrus, President-General, Middle Belt Forum, Ambassador (Prof.) George Obiozor and President-General, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Okowa was … lampooned for accepting the Vice Presidential ticket.”

    Part of the statement read: “It bears recalling that the 17 Governors of the Southern States of Nigeria, both of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), under the Chairmanship of the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, met in Asaba, the capital of Delta State on May 11, 2021, and took far-reaching decisions, including that, based on the principles of fairness, equity and justice, the presidency should rotate to the south, at the end of the statutory eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. And this very Governor Okowa was the host of that historic meeting.”

    According to Vanguard, the statement continued: “The Southern Governors later met again in Lagos, on July 5, where they reaffirmed their decision, and again in Enugu, on September 16, to restate the call that the presidency should rotate to the south in 2023. … It is, therefore, most unfortunate that the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa who should know better, accepted his appointment as running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. We do not have anything personal against Ifeanyi Okowa but his action is treacherous and tantamount to a despicable pawning of the political future of the people of Southern Nigeria.” Many southerners therefore decided not to vote for the Atiku-Okowa PDP presidential ticket.

    After the PDP’s 2023 presidential election loss, Ayu was suspended by his ward on 26 March, 2023 for working against the party at different levels; and the next day, an interim court injunction restrained him from parading himself as the National Chairman of the PDP. The 28 March, 2023 issue of Premium Times in a story titled, “UPDATED: PDP replaces Ayu as national chairman,” reported the PDP spokesperson, Debo Ologunagba, as declaring: “The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party at an emergency meeting today, Tuesday, March 28, acknowledged the Order of the Benue State High Court, dated March 27, 2023 with regards to the chairmanship position of our great party.”

    The spokesperson declared further: “After a careful consideration of the Court Order and in line with Section 45 (2) of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017), the NWC resolved that the Deputy National Chairman (North) His Excellency, Amb. Umar Iliya Damagum assume the National Chairmanship of our great Party in acting capacity with effect from today, Tuesday, March 28, 2023.” But after a while, Damagum himself began to face his own problems with some sections of the PDP, and he was purported to have been suspended from the position of Acting National Chairman.

    This led to litigation, and Channels Television reported as follows about the 11 October, 2024 judgement: “The Federal High Court in Abuja has restrained the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees (BoT) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from removing Umar Damagum as the Acting National Chairman of the party. Justice Peter Lifu ordered that no person other than Damagum should be recognised as PDP national chairman until the party’s national convention scheduled for December 2025.” Channels Television further reported: “The judge held that in line with articles 42, 47, and 67 of PDP, it is only at the national convention of the party that national officers can be elected.”

    Regarding the controversy on who the real National Secretary of the party should be, on 21 March, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the issue was an internal affair of the PDP, and that the courts had no jurisdiction over it. So, Senator Samuel Anyanwu maintains that having not resigned from his position, and having not listed the position of governorship candidate, by the PDP constitution, as a position which can qualify a person to have automatically resigned from a party office they were previously holding, he remains the National Secretary of the party until the National Convention holds.

    PDP Chieftain, Daboikiabo Warmate, who like FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, supports Anyanwu’s position, defended the arguments spiritedly in a 17 April, 2025 interview with Arise News. Warmate also argued that the PDP Governors Forum is not recognised by the PDP constitution as an organ of the party, and that the governors overreached themselves at their 14 April, 2025 Ibadan meeting, by purportedly appointing an Acting National Secretary, where a vacancy did not exist.

    Barrister Nyesom Wike has consistently stated that he would support President Tinubu’s second term election, and so has PDP’s Akwa Ibom State Governor Eno Umo. More concretely, Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori announced his defection to APC, along with the total structure of the PDP in the state, on 23 April, 2025. Moreover, according to the Daily Trust of 21 April, 2025, there has been “a new campaign billboard in Iwo Local Government Area of Osun State featuring both Tinubu and Adeleke. … The APC in Osun accused the PDP of attempting to ride on Tinubu’s popularity to boost Adeleke’s profile.”

    In addition, PDP’s former Governor Fayose has explicitly declared that he would work for APC’s Ekiti State Governor Abiodun Oyebanji’s second term election success. Furthermore, the Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, all the councillors in the council and over 20,000 supporters were reported to have defected to the APC on 17 April, 2025, to avoid an uncertain political future due to the seemingly intractable crises in the PDP.

    According to PDP’s former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswan in a 15 April, 2025 Arise News interview, “There are very fundamental problems in PDP. Those problems have not been sorted out, and so a lot of people, in their minds, are no longer in PDP. …  And that is why, because of the failure of leadership in PDP, a lot of people feel that they are politicians and so they should begin to engage other stakeholders across other parties.”

    Like former Governor Suswan who said, “People have lost confidence completely in PDP,” party elder Chief Bode George in a 14 April, 2025 interview with Seun Okinbaloye on Channels Television remarked: “My party is in total confusion now.”

    Similarly, in a 29 January, 2025 Channels Television report of a National Secretaryship reconciliation meeting convened by Ambassador Damagum, the PDP’s Acting National Chairman noted: “Most of this crisis that you see today within the NWC is propelled by our leaders that are supposed to unite us. Some of us are also complicit. And I want to use this opportunity to caution us, caution our leaders. You may have ambition, but you don’t ride on a dead horse to reach your destination.”

    The foregoing notwithstanding, Segun Sowunmi, who has been interested in becoming the National Chairman of PDP, appealed in a 20 April, 2025 Arise News interview: “Please, anybody who’s giving up on PDP now, I’ll just say to you wait until we count the votes [in 2027] and let’s see who’s going to win. But I can guarantee you the PDP will put in a good heart. We’ll put in a best fight. We’ll try to bring the best candidate.”

    Meanwhile, the complex web of acrimony between different tendencies within the PDP is mutually discomfiting. It is like the case of the fowl and the clothes line. When a fowl perches on a clothes line, neither the line nor the fowl is at ease.

  • Atiku and the Delta defections

    Atiku and the Delta defections

    Whether he acknowledges it or not, former vice president Atiku Abubakar is bound to feel more frustrated than ever over the unprecedented and indeed seismic defections that coursed through Delta State last week. He had thought the main battle ahead of him was how to incentivise the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support his coalition idea or at least to offer him a platform to contest the next presidential poll. He was also mistaken to think that if his first wish failed, his secondary headache would be which political party he could safely and rewardingly defect to in order to build the amorphous coalition he was trying so opportunistically to concoct. Now the defections in Delta State led by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and seconded by ex-governor Ifeanyi Okowa, his running mate in the 2023 presidential election, are certain to give him permanent migraine. He may try to belittle the import of the defections in a state that had been a bastion of the PDP since 1999, but no one will let his seeming indifference get in the way of observable facts. His last race in this lifetime is being imperiled.

    What Alhaji Atiku is loth to acknowledge is that he ran his last race in 2023, and that both the April 14 PDP Governors’ Forum meeting in Ibadan, which broke free of his strangulating hold, and the Delta defections that clearly repudiated his politics have signalled the end of his political career and public service. Notwithstanding what he thinks or how dismally he feels, the bells toll for him and indeed constrict his chances going forward. Alhaji Atiku never really set store by a merger of political parties even when he was still in good standing in the PDP, for he always preferred a coalition of parties, a grand or mega coalition, as he fondly put it. He knew that his relationship with the leading opposition party, with which he had sustained a specious on-and-off romance, was fragile and it would be presumptuous of him to call on them to make huge sacrifices. That was why he opted for the wafer-thin coalition that would guarantee a pathway for him to the presidency. But he was also experienced enough to appreciate that the coalition, even before it took off the ground, was endangered. It would require so much to put it together, and it would need huge resources to hold it together. He went along with the idea of a coalition, but he managed to never sound like he believed he could pull it off. Yes he spoke it and acted it, but he approached the subject with a wariness and tentativeness idiosyncratic to his politics.

    His fellow travelers, particularly his potential Southwest partners, had been careful not to openly associate with him, preferring to send their apologies when he called for a coalition meeting. Now, they will be even more wary than ever. They think he never really had a Midas touch, despite his vaunting rhetoric about democracy and his many years in the limelight; now, they may finally bolt from the stable and begin to seek pasture elsewhere. Unlike Alhaji Atiku’s many fair-weather associates and friends, former Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai may be trapped with him; but even he will be entertaining some pianissimo doubts now. He will doubtless get more truculent as the weeks drag on, and as doors and windows are shut against him, he will in addition also get more desperate and more reckless, eager to make one fateful throw of the dice. He has already announced his membership of the somnolent Social Democratic Party (SDP), though some party leaders dispute his bona fides, but everything considered, as his principal, Alhaji Atiku, wavers, he also will feel some consternation. Having burnt his bridges, it is hard to see him retracing his steps to the Tinubu administration which he had publicly vilified, or rekindling his tenuous association with his successor in Kaduna, Uba Sani, whom he had also cynically dismissed as disloyal. Like the former vice president, he will be wondering how he came to this sorry pass.

    Read Also: Only unpatriotic Nigerians will call for power shift to the north in 2027-Nwosu

    Sensibly, Alhaji Atiku has been less intolerant of the Delta defectors’ actions. He knew that having defected and acted footloose many times in the past himself, he would be hypocritical to condemn the Delta governor’s actions. In fact, he has acknowledged their right to defect to anywhere that catches their fancy, for as he put it, ‘it is part of democratic politics.’ He will, however, be privately miffed that his running mate in the last presidential poll also defected, perhaps without confiding in him. In his statement on X (Twitter), the former vice president swivelled to condemning President Tinubu’s administration, reframing the defection controversy as not just an exercise of democratic rights but an indication of where a politician or political leader stands in the affairs of Nigeria. Nigeria, he concluded, was facing an existential battle for which a liberating coalition was needed to help fight. It is not clear how he would assemble his armada when many of his formerly loyal troops are deserting the ranks. At the current rate of depletion, Alhaji Atiku may be unable to muster a brigade to fight an entire army.

    The former vice president has all his political life embraced short cuts, in addition to a series of miscalculations. He needed to be patient and submissive in his dealings with ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, and would probably have inherited the throne in 2007; instead, he made a miscalculated bid for power, and for one dizzying moment had the former president on submission hold. But acquiescing to entreaties, he relented, left the snake scorched, not killed, and naively assumed relationships had been reset. He lost the game. Back to the PDP after fruitless detours to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), he needed to help restore confidence in the party he had abandoned at its hour of need. Instead, he fought ex-governor Nyesom Wike, the caretaker who succoured the party in his absence, brutally fought his way into taking the party’s ticket for the 2023 election, and scorned every entreaty to realign and reform the party for the future. Weighed down by a short attention span, he did very little to salve the wounds of a party that had broken down and fragmented midway into the poll. And nearly two years after that electoral debacle he has still not found the right formula or leadership acumen to rebuild and rearm the party.

    In the year ahead, the former vice president will find it doubly difficult to build a coalition capable of taking on the APC. Alienated from the PDP, unable to return to the APC for obvious reasons, and uncertain where to berth his lumbering ship, he will flail around a little, and hope that his jibes at his enemies, particularly President Tinubu, could help him rouse and inflame his regional faithful to battle stations in preparation for 2027. Just like Mr Obi who has left the Labour Party’s crisis untouched while he perambulates round the country playing political drama, Alhaji Atiku has abandoned the attempt to repair and rebuild the leading opposition PDP. Even if the anticipated coalition is anchored on the two men, having come second and third in the last presidential election, they will still be hard put to cobble together an army of capable followers motivated to give the APC a fight. The simple reason is that they have left the weightier issue of mending their electoral vehicles, without which they would have to walk like political toddlers rather than run like political pros.