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  • PDP governors throw Atiku under the bus

    PDP governors throw Atiku under the bus

    We, the undersigned leaders and committed members of the former Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) who were part of those instrumental in the historic merger that gave birth to the All Progressives Congress (APC), hereby issue this statement to clarify our unalloyed loyalty to our great party and express firm solidarity with the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.

    Recent misleading narratives suggesting a defection or disaffection among CPC stakeholders are false, mischievous, and should be ignored.

    We remain integral to the APC and are fully aligned with its leadership and vision.

    We stand firmly with the APC and wish to state, categorically, that we have neither left the APC, nor do we intend to leave.

    The CPC bloc remains one of the legacy foundations of the APC and we are resolute in our commitment to the party and its progressive ideals. The APC is our collective project”.

    These are the same leaders El Rufai must have convinced VP Atiku had been commandeered, by former President Muhammadu Buhari, to dump the APC because in the words of President Olusegun Obasanjo  El Rufai:”has a penchant for lying, for unfair embellishment of stories …”.

    By the time former Vice President Atiku Abubakar read the above statement by some core members of the former CPC, reaffirming not only their loyalty to the party, but also expressing their unalloyed support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, two things must have become obvious to him: that Nasir El Rufai has gamed him like some before him did and also, that the only way he had envisioned to see his marabouts’ prediction of becoming the President of Nigeria has, again, gone up in smoke.

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    In order to coral many an unthinking politician to whatever was to become his next obsession, having lost it all in Kaduna State where he had been a luckless governor for 8 years, with a commissioner whose principal responsibility was to, every week, announce the number of persons and houses incinerated by murderous Fulani herders – particularly in Southern Kaduna where original land owners were being deliberately uprooted, and their lands forcefully taken over by the Fulani invaders as they are currently doing in Plateau and Benue states – he had rushed to former President Buhari, solely as a camouflage to be able to claim that the former President has endorsed whatever he might be cooking  up in the political space.

    Ordinarily, the former Vice President ought to have seen through El Rufai but he is, unfortunately, too far gone in his  desperate infatuation with the presidency. If he contests in 2027, it will be his seventh successive attempt.

    That he couldn’t properly decipher who El Rufai truly is stands out as a major difference between him and former President Olusegun Obasanjo to whom he introduced the petit gentleman earlier in life.

    Unlike him the highly introspective Obasanjo was not, in any way, deceived by El Rufai’s brilliance, something that might have rattled  Atiku. Rather, he saw through him and wrote, inter alia, as follows about him in “My Watch” Vol 2; pages 110-112:

    “A leader must know the character and ability of his subordinates. Character wise, Nasir has not much going for him. But he is a talented young man who can always deliver under close supervision. So, when Osita Chijoka approached, among others, propping Nasir as my possible successor, believing that whoever I supported would make it, which was a false belief; I did not hesitate to point to Nasir’s naivety and immaturity, talk less of his inability to give honour to whom honour is due.” “My vivid recollection of him is a penchant for lying, for unfair embellishment of stories and his inability to sustain loyalty for long”.

    That is the man a respected Atiku now follows everywhere,  genuflecting to persons with whom he is not known to be on particularly good terms, politically.

    If the Press Statement by those CPC leaders was tangential to Atiku’s 2027 plans, not so the PDP governor’s complete ruination of the alliance talks which had taken him to Peter Obi, Kwankwaso and to the now absolutely politically marginal individuals like one time Nigerian Transport minister, Rotimi Amaechi, in addition to spending stupendous quality time partnering with El Rufai on drawing up plans about how to hijack the SDP from  Adewole Adebayo, its wily, and sure-footed, 2023 Presidential candidate.

    All this is, however, in character.

    Atiku is a master of impunity and always believes he owns whatever group he belongs to.

    He did it in the ACN  where he was merely done a favour and made the Presidential candidate, but went behind Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande’s back to, single handedly select a Vice- Presidential candidate.

    His obduracy

    in having Iyorchia Ayu, a Northerner, retained as PDP Chairman during the 2023 Presidential election at which he, another Northerner was the candidate, arose from the same mindset. Nor can one forget how he ditched governor Nyesom Wike who was recommended by the screening committee as his running mate, as another streak of his annoying arrogance.

    Believing that the Northern elders who threatened Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal  out of the 2023 election for him would repeat the same thing and flush out Bauchi state governor, Bala Mohammed from contesting the 2027 election, he has gone ahead, allegedly, promising Peter Obi the Vice Presidency of whatever new party he believed he would take the unsettled PDP.

    But not so fast, hollered the PDP governors at their meeting in Ibadan this past weekend.

    Ordinarily, one would have expected that an elder of Atiku’s standing would be keener in having the party itself restored to some level of normalcy.

    But that won’t be Vice President Atiku, whose entire focus is once again solely on the office; if not on the PDP, then on the SDP platform.

    Shedding more light on the rejection of any alliance by the governors, host of the Ibadan meeting, and governor of Oyo state, Seyi Makinde, said in a television interview later:”the merger or coalition talks are unknown to the Peoples Democratic party. Nobody can just wake up and draw the party into any arrangement when the party organs do not have a clue as to what is being done”. “We have no clue, whatever, of what is in this coalition. We also do not know whether it is personal, or is being done in the best interest of the party and the people of Nigeria. These are very critical questions.”

    But as the Yoruba would say:’aja to ba ma sonu ki gbo fere olode’, meaning that the dog that would get lost, would not hear the hunter’s whistle.

    Rather than take things easy, explain matters to members, and seek their concurrence, the former Vice President, who has oscillatted between the following parties in his political odyssey- Peoples Democratic Party (1998–2006; 2007–2014; 2017–present)

    Peoples Front of Nigeria (1989)

    Social Democratic Party (1989–1993)

    United Nigeria Congress Party (1997–1998)

    Action Congress (2006–2007)

    All Progressives Congress (2014–2017) and contested the presidency six times, would rather contest and fail as usual out of arrogance.

    His answer to the governor’s decision was, therefore, to flaunt an alliance that can hardly be so properly described in their face, telling them:”Indeed, the Coalition Train has left the station and would have multiple stops to bring on board Nigerians of all shades”. 

    Also as an indication that he wont mind parting ways with the PDP in the build-up to the 2027 elections, he went further:”Whatever vehicle that will give us good governance in the future of our children and grandchildren; that is the vehicle we are going to ride on”.

    Nigerians have heard words to that effect from VP Atiku since he started contesting for the presidency in 1993. They can now barely wait to hear his usual result, come his historic 7th attempt in 2027.

  • The grand coalition runs into storm

    The grand coalition runs into storm

    In the past few weeks, particularly since former Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai was left politically marooned in the midst of nowhere, some notable politicians from the core North have consistently framed their struggles and ambitions in terms of North versus South. For a while, and despite misgivings, they seemed to be making sense. President Bola Tinubu, they argued vociferously, was running a classic Yorubacentric administration. They summed up that as a result the North was disadvantaged in terms of appointments, and would not back him in 2027. According to the politicians, their backing in 2023 made his victory possible. To wrest power from him, therefore, a grand coalition would be necessary to deny him the votes he got from the North and other hostile or swing states in the South. At the centre of that hypothetical coalition are former vice president Atiku Abubakar, and former governors Aminu Tambuwal and Mallam el-Rufai.

    The elephant in the room, however, was the attempt by the political notables to anchor this latter-day Napoleonic Grande Armée on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Indeed, the Alhaji Atiku crowd took it for granted that the PDP was already in the coalition, and all other stray parties they could seduce would easily go along. But last Monday, the PDP Governors’ meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, scorned that pretentious politicking and insisted with deadpan flourish that while other parties could come under their distressed umbrella, the PDP, as the leading opposition party in Nigeria, was unwilling to dissolve into any kind of extraneous arrangement. Alhaji Atiku had always feared that conclusion, and had equivocated over it repeatedly, unsure where he should go and with whom he should associate in the difficult and hazardous but fading journey to win the presidency. His other notable associates also exercise that fear, recognising that the main PDP, which is still inspired by a few ambitious presidential aspirants like Bauchi’s Governor Bala Mohammed and Oyo’s Governor Seyi Makinde, were reluctant to lend their youthful energies to a faltering presidential aspirant probably now in his dotage.

    Shortly after the PDP met in Ibadan and announced their resolve to proudly stand their isolated ground, the wavering former vice president began hemming and hawing about defecting from the PDP. He has not spoken about any destination, but it is instructive that he has also not said anything about ideology or manifesto in his anticipated move to another political party. Alhaji Atiku is known to be ideologically vacuous, but having mastered the art of political nomadism, his ambition to be president will always weigh uppermost in his considerations for political deals. As this column has consistently maintained, Alhaji Atiku probably ran his last race in 2023. However, if he wants to run again, it will not be on the platform of the PDP. He has former Rivers governor and now Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Nyesom Wike, to contend with. More, he also has two or three other ambitious aspirants to reckon with, most of whom are tired of his lack of principles, repeated electoral debacles, and his sense of entitlement and superficial affections.

    Read Also: Keep supporting Tinubu, Fubara tells Rivers

    Mallam el-Rufai and Mr Tambuwal will welcome the PDP Governors’ Forum’s resolve to disavow any coalition. They had impressed it on the former vice president to take a stand regarding which party to associate with and equip for the next poll, but he had consistently pussyfooted. Exasperated by his dissembling, and unnerved by how quickly the next poll appeared to be looming, they hoped that something would happen to force the former vice president’s hand. The PDP governors did just that by finally rubbing his nose in the dirt. Mallam el-Rufai had been engaged in clumsy dalliances with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for weeks, and he was beginning to feel lonely in that mediocre party. He had sold the party to his fellow disaffected political notables, some of them from the Southwest who could help make headline news, but they were waiting for the coast to clear. Now, he may finally get his wish. Once the cautious Alhaji Atiku throws his lot with the SDP, it is likely that dithering politicians from the North and Southwest would also publicly cast their lots with the same party. The coalition hopes to lure the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) legacy party from the APC into their camp, and probably into the SDP. They have, however, had mixed results, with many leading CPC notables publicly disavowing any defection plot. These are obviously not the best of times for the coalition army.

    However, typical of him and his politics, Mallam el-Rufai has personified and projected regional arrogance and ethnic exceptionalism in his political manoeuvres. He will not stop being himself, especially now that he is left stranded and facing the biggest political battle of his life. Alhaji Atiku has hinted of his exit from the PDP, for he understands that the doors and windows are being shut against his ambition. He will probably defect, perhaps in the weeks ahead. Having played a key role in the canonisation of the former vice president as PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 poll, Mr Tambuwal will continue to stand by his idol, though he is loth to stand by principles. For them and all the politicians and leaders threatening to defect from the APC, 2027 is all about winning the presidency and chasing out the APC. It is not a question of what they would do differently or do better; it is a question of gaining the presidency, calling the shots, and distributing patronage. That is why, so far, their politics has brought them little gain and gained little traction. But they will heedlessly follow this beaten path.

    Instead of their obsession with gaining the presidency, Alhaji Atiku and his grand coalition ought to keep faith with the PDP, engineer and implement reforms in the former ruling party, refine its ideological and administrative platforms, build a great consensus out of its warring members, hire some of the best PR firms in the world to sell the party to the electorate, and give it the right kind of inspiring leadership everyone would lionise. But the former vice president and some of his associates have hopped from one party to another, alienated subordinates who declined to worship at their shrine, and reduced the art of opposition to name-calling, sloganeering and unrealistic and sometimes ignorant perceptions of Nigeria’s existential dilemmas. They have made token offers to the Labour Party (LP) and its former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, but the gestures have been half-hearted and designed more to assemble known names rather than knit together ideological kindred spirits. The grand coalition, if it ever gets off the drawing board, will cohere only to the extent that no one else but Alhaji Atiku nurses presidential ambition. Mr Obi has tasted the pudding when he ran for office in 2023; it is not clear to what extent his frenzied followers will let him run as a subordinate to anyone, let alone to Alhaji Atiku, nor be willing to indemnify him against another loss at the ballot in 2027.

  • Countrywide killings: Put Nigeria on war footing

    Countrywide killings: Put Nigeria on war footing

    In about two tumultuous weeks of insane bloodbath traversing Plateau and Benue States as well as bandit-infested Northwest and Boko Haram-ravaged Northeast, hundreds of people have been killed and dozens of communities sacked and occupied. It is pointless pretending that the conflicts in various parts of the country have been contained or that the situation is still manageable. What is truer is that the conflicts are getting out of hand, even if the death toll has not assumed the humongous proportions they reached under the past administration. In addition, despite rampant analytical equivocation by the political elite from all regions of the country, it is also now abundantly clear that both Nigeria’s security paradigm and military doctrine have become inelastic and incapable of responding adequately to the existential threat facing the nation.

    It is time to think outside the box in understanding the foundations of the crises and conflicts and in proffering solutions. The first place to start is finding common ground between the affected states’ and the federal government’s interpretations of the existential threat. While it is conceded that the conflicts differ in origin from state to state, particularly when it involves banditry and ISWAP/Boko Haram insurgency in the Northwest and Northeast respectively, in the fertile lands of the Middle Belt, there is a huge similarity. The states and federal government must call a spade a spade. Responding to the killings in Plateau State for instance, which has gripped the country in the past two weeks for their relentlessness and brutality, the federal government appears undecided what the conflicts’ nature looks like, whether it is ethnic cleansing and genocidal madness or communal, herders-farmers or revenge clashes. Once the conceptual origins of the conflicts are misconstrued, responsibility for containing it may become skewed.

    This may be why the federal government’s statement issued after the second round of killings in Plateau State raised some angry concerns in the beleaguered region. In a statement last week, the federal government had said: “We cannot allow this devastation and the tit-for-tat attacks to continue. Enough is enough…The ongoing violence between communities in Plateau State, rooted in misunderstandings between different ethnic and religious groups, must cease. Beyond dealing with the criminal elements of these incessant killings, the political leadership in Plateau State, led by Governor Caleb Mutfwang, must address the root cause of this age-long problem. These problems have been with us for more than two decades. We can no longer ignore the underlying issues.” While it is true that the problem has festered for more than two decades, the reason is due more to the federal government’s incompetent appreciation of the crises as well as bias. For decades the problem persisted; now it has metastasised. Over 60 communities have been sacked in Plateau, renamed, and most of them occupied. It is a replacement strategy, not communal clashes, and certainly not herders-farmers war.

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    When the sacking of communities began decades ago, the federal government failed to respond appropriately or reclaim sacked communities for their rightful owners. It was clear that a sinister objective was at play, an objective that has seemed to expand over the years due mainly to the acquiescence or/and ineptitude of the security and law enforcement agencies. After many such attacks, certain associations had come forward to virtually claim responsibility and issue warnings and preconditions for peace. Yet, except on one or two occasions, no one was arrested, no real investigations were ordered, and no one was held to account. Sensing complicity, the attackers had grown bolder, more insensitive, more barbaric, and more audacious. Having metastasised, the problem has dangerously morphed symptomatically into ethno-religious colouration. It is, however, only superficially ethno-religious. It is more fundamentally about land, arable land, and about a weak and dishonest appreciation and application of law and order.

    Harassed and bedraggled, Governor Caleb Mutfwang, like many of his predecessors, has spoken from both sides of his mouth. He knows and has argued that the conflict in his state is about land, but unable to wield and project the kind of force needed to deal with the menace and reclaim sacked communities for their rightful owners, he has reluctantly embraced superficial panaceas to stanch the flow of blood. He has talked about outlawing night grazing and limiting the use of motorcycles – just to be seen as doing something forceful to rein in the madness on the Plateau. And unlike the federal government, he has acknowledged that foreign militias, egged on by local sponsors, were mostly behind the mindless attacks. Knocking the foreign militias and their nefarious ideologies into a cocked hat is obviously not the job of states, no matter how dutiful and well-meaning. It is the job of the federal government and its security agencies. It is a job for the heavy lifters, and for the heavy guns. Overthrowing a sinister ideology propagated by foreign elements and their local sponsors is not a job for the small lifters. While the state, as Mr Mutfwang has demonstrated, must be involved and be willing to deploy scarce resources, controlling the influx of dangerous foreign elements and controlling the proliferation of small arms are federal jobs.

    Plateau State may be the exemplification of the existential crises inundating Nigeria from the North and Middle Belt, it is by no means the only one. In different forms, the crises are viciously and unremittingly replicated in the Northeast and Northwest theatres. The military have waged long-running and costly wars in both theatres to control the diseases, but they have been bogged down in waste, desultory executions, and infiltrations. At the current rate of progress, the conflicts could last for another decade. That will, however, be indefensible. The federal government might also in frustration begin to shuffle its cards and replace commanders and service chiefs; but it is a measure they have deployed to no effect in the past two decades. If the government is to see the end of these conflicts, it must step on toes, mobilise huge financial resources, give itself a deadline, embark on general mobilisation of enlisted men and women, and put the country on a war footing. The alternative is too bleak to imagine, for the country appears to be nearing an end game with potentially catastrophic consequences.

  • NBA’s conscience for sale?

    NBA’s conscience for sale?

    The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) executives are not chess players. Had they possessed the competence to anticipate an opponent’s moves, they would have been careful not to mess around with Rivers State, a state so lately pugnacious that everyone appears eager to enter into combat. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, it is said. But it was precisely that combustive state that NBA rushed in to receive a N300m gift it claimed had no strings attached. Such benevolence. But who gives such amount to anyone without strings attached? Governor Siminalayi Fubara, it seemed. Yes, the same governor embroiled in internecine warfare with his party leaders and mentors.

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    NBA is arguably the preeminent bar association in Africa. But, like many other professional associations in Nigeria, it is not averse to receiving poisoned chalices and drinking hemlock. The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) does it; the Guild of Editors does it; and a number of others. Mendicant, beggarly, unprofessional, entitled, and unmoored, they easily betray their code of ethics and collect all kinds of Greek gifts, selling their consciences and mortgaging their souls. Since nearly every association collects gifts, the NBA, which is supposed to be the leading and guiding conscience of the nation, has also had a history of collecting things. Then they wax lyrical in favour of their benefactors, dissembling over grave national issues such as state of emergency, and behaving like hired guns.

    In short, the NBA has no business receiving gifts from anyone. If they realise how important their role in nation-building is, if they recognise how weighty their voice should be, and if they consider the examples and principles they must set for future generations, they would not equivocate over bribes and hosting rights. They should simply return the ‘gift’ to Rivers State and save themselves from a long-drawn controversy and litigation they cannot hope to win. Their hands have been caught in the cookie jar; it is time to show remorse, apologise to the country for imbibing a lousy culture, and quickly pay penance. The controversy is unworthy of them. Now, who knows what they have done in Enugu where they have taken their annual general meeting? Whoring again?

  • The plight of Yoruba Northerners

    The plight of Yoruba Northerners

    The costly mistake that Afonja, the infamous Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yoruba land and rebellious subject of Alaafin of Oyo, made nearly two centuries ago has continued to produce costly consequences, following his thoughtless defiance against the eminent monarch.

    The great warrior asserted the independence of Ilorin, the legacy of his illustrious forebears – Alugbin and Pasin – after seeking help from a stranger who later plotted his disastrous end and whose descendants have continued to politically dominate the ancient outpost to this day.

    Through Afonja’s miscalculation and missteps, Ilorin became a part of the North and has since remained so. Majority of the indigenes of the town have not regained their voice and relevance, having been subjugated through conquest. Ilorin became an extension of the Sokoto Caliphate with adjoining vast districts having Yoruba-speaking people.

    The Yoruba northerners in Kwara and Kogi states suffer an identity crisis. They are not Hausa/Fulani and share no language and other cultural similarities with their neighbours who have strengthened their links with the far North through religion and politics. The only thing superlatively northern in Ilorin is the kingship, under which the republican nature of earlier aborigines has been suppressed.

    The Yoruba of Ilorin even fare better in the face of the political marginalisation of their kith and kin in Kogi whose aspiration to produce a governor has often met a brick wall. When the monarchical deprivation of the Yoruba in Lokoja is considered, their plight in the northern cage is better imagined.

    In these two states, the Yoruba are relegated into minority status. Since democracy is a game of numbers, the voice of minority ethnic groups is only heard; their legitimate aspiration is hardly upheld. To survive, it is either they continue to play the second fiddle or muster the will and strength to mount an effective resistance to the pattern of domination, marginalisation and exclusion for them to get some concessions.

    What exacerbated the problem was the improper grouping of tribes by the British interlopers during the colonial era for administrative convenience. But for the protest and plea by the Ewi of Ado, the British officer who came to Ekiti through the Kwara/Kogi axis would have grouped Otun and the entire Moba land under the North. The Ewi told the colonial rulers that the Oore of Otun occupied a strategic position among the children of Oduduwa, being the monarch exclusively saddled with the responsibility of announcing the passage of the Ooni of Ife, the acclaimed titular head of the Yoruba. He also said that grouping Otun with the North would have meant the severance of the cord binding it with Pelupelu, the famed Ekiti Confederation.

    An adjustment to the glaring tribal, linguistic and cultural differences imposed on the diverse ethnic groups forcefully lumped together in a local government, province, state or region remains a big challenge.

    To avert the consequential identity crisis, the then Western Region Premier, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his book, titled: ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’ published in 1947, made a compelling argument for the redrawing of the administrative boundaries. He said: “The present three regions were constituted without regard to ethnological factors,” noting that there were “incompatibilities among the various tribes which militate against unification.”

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    Awo added: “The Yoruba of Ilorin, Offa, and Kabba are included with the Hausas in the Northern Region. The Ibos, who properly belong to the Eastern Zone, are grouped with the Yoruba in the West. There is no justification whatsoever for this arbitrary grouping. Certainly, these minority groups are at a considerable disadvantage when they are forced to be in the midst of other peoples who differ from them in language, culture and historical background.”

    The solution, the late sage suggested, was to constitute the scattered units into separate provinces “for better understanding and unity among the tribes” in order “to enable each group to make rapid progress”. He stressed that by doing this, the pace of the country would be considerably quickened towards a federal unity.

    As Premier Awolowo in later years began the implementation of free education in the defunct Western Region, the Yoruba of Northern Region could not benefit from the programme. At a lecture in Lagos, a former Kwara State governor, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, lamented the erroneous groupings of the country. He recalled that the Yoruba of Ilorin and Kabba Province, who envied their brethren in the Western Region, only gazed at the opportunities those in the Western Region enjoyed. They were helpless. Those who could benefit were those who migrated to the West.

    Southwest leaders are often seized by nostalgia, particularly the bond between the region and their politically and geographically separated relations in the Northcentral. Thus, concerned about the infrastructural inadequacy in the Kwara/Ekiti boundaries, former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi constructed a road linking the two states to facilitate easy movement. Many people from Yoruba-speaking Kwara towns retain their emotional attachment to Ekiti where they trade every week.

    The battle against marginalisation shifted to the Willink Minority Commission where the oppressed minority ethnic nationalities pressed for a sense of belonging. But First Republic Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa declared that the myth of Fulani domination was nonsense, thus trivialising the people’s genuine concerns. He premised his argument on the historic mistake of Afonja, the Yoruba generalissimo. The prime minister said the Yoruba in Ilorin were different from those in the South. He said they had the choice of being a part of the North since the 19th century without any use of force by the Fulani. According to his biographer, Trevor Clark, the prime minister attributed the troubles in Offa, Ode Oke, and Ajasa to chieftaincy disputes, emphasising that all the calls for the transfer of Ilorin had been engineered from outside, as the Germans had arranged in Czech’s Sudetenland. According to him, the Yoruba in Dahomey (today’s Benin Republic) were not calling for a union with Nigeria and the Fulani were not calling for the cession of the French territory (in today’s Niger Republic) opposite Katsina.

    From Offa in Kwara State, Chief Sunday Olawoyin was elected on the platform of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) into the Northern Regional House of Assembly. He became the Leader of Opposition, like a sheep in the midst of wolves. There was no cultural congruity or religious similarity. He had canvassed the merger of Yoruba in the North with the West during the 1957 Constitutional Conference. The proposal was shot down. Perceived as the face of Awo’s Action Group (AG) in the North, Olawoyin faced tribulations. He was detained, imprisoned and humiliated. All this would not have occurred if there wasa proper grouping of the ethnic nationalities.

    Yoruba northerners’ fears were not mitigated by the subsequent creation of Kwara and, later, Kogi states, where they have continued to endure glaring marginalisation. Since the creation of the two states, no Yoruba has been governor, except for the three-month period Senator Adebayo became the Kwara State governor. That followed a split in the state chapter of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). In the Third Republic, Olorunfemi made a serious attempt during the governorship poll in Kogi but without success. The second term bid of Mohammed Lawal in Kwara was truncated.

    The political and legal abracadabra of 2016 in Kogi underscored the stiff resistance to Yoruba’s quest for a sense of inclusion and belonging. The victim of the intra-ethnic suspicion, hostility and plot was James Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives who was prevented from politically returning home. He was rejected by a tiny but powerful Northcentral elite in league with influential and egocentric Fulani hatchet men. They insisted that an Asiwaju of Lagos should be stopped from making an inroad into the North at that time through the governorship victory of “his boy” from the Yoruba town of Ekinrin-Ade.

    As the final result of the governorship election was about to be announced, the symbol of the victory, Governor Audu Abubakar, unfortunately passed on. To debar his running mate from pressing forward, the election was suddenly declared inconclusive.

    Such was also the fate that befell Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, the Aro of Mopa, a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, Third Republic senator and prominent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain. His intellectual and radical kinsmen believed he was a collaborator with some perceived oppressors because Awoniyi had accepted his fate as a Yoruba northerner, following the geographical accident.

    But when he declared his interest in the national chairmanship of the then ruling party, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was said to have objected, saying: “I am Olusegun, you are Awoniyi. Both of us are Yoruba. A Yoruba man cannot be President and another the party chairman of the same party at the same time.”

    When Awoniyi protested, saying he was a northerner, his party men insisted that he was Yoruba. That sent him to a political retirement.

    In fact, many Yoruba politicians from Kwara suffer a similar identity crisis, which has been a factor in a presidential contest. They are northerners. But because they are also Yoruba, it becomes a key point in ambition and career ceiling. Even, any time Bukola Saraki throws his rat in the ring, they suddenly remember his Yoruba name.

    If those exploiting these scenarios have had their way, Bayo Ojulari, who was recently appointed the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), would not have been appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, despite his eligibility and competence. The sin of Ojulari is that although he is a northerner, he is Yoruba.

    Perhaps, state creation would be the solution. But how viable is this option? The North should accommodate all northerners as northerners. Yoruba northerners should build bridges of cooperation with their neighbours. They need to understand that power is not served a la carte.

    Also, zoning or micro-zoning of the governorship ticket is crucial to the prevention of domination so that the ethnic groups can have access to power, influence and privileges along the principles of equity, fairness and justice.

  • Nigeria’s security conundrum

    Nigeria’s security conundrum

    Over two years in the life of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the grave insecurity challenge which it inherited from previous successive governments was evidently concretely being ameliorated. Kidnapping, which had been an almost daily affair in many parts of the country, had largely abated. Intense military onslaughts, especially relentless bombardment by the Nigerian Air Force, had bandits’ backs to the wall in the North-West and their efficacy substantially blunted. In the North-East, Boko Haram had been effectively checkmated, and the extremist religious/terrorist groups’ epicentre, Borno State, was fast regaining its serenity, vibrancy and vitality. Herders-farmers violent clashes in the North-Central, which used to claim lives on an industrial scale, had significantly receded. The administration understandably sounded from the rooftops its accomplishment in scaling up the capacity of the state to safeguard lives and property, which is its primary reason for existence, in less than two years in power.

    All of a sudden, however, all the successes recorded in the security sphere appear to be fast receding, especially over the last several weeks. This is particularly evident in the large-scale killings in ethnic-inspired communal violence in Plateau and Benue States. There have also been gruesome murders in Adamawa while Borno State governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, recently had cause to cry out that Boko Haram is on the rebound in the state with several communities reportedly oçcupied by the insurgent sect. It certainly is not the case that the government has lost the political will to demonstrate and enforce its control and authority over every inch of Nigeria’s vast territory or that the security agencies have slackened in their resolve to live up to their constitutional responsibility to protect the country from internal implosion and external aggression.

    Rather, the problem is with the prevailing security architecture, which can hardly be expected to perform better than it is at the moment, no matter how much resources are poured into security or how desirous the government is to prevail over destabilizing non-governmental actors posing so grave a threat to lives and property across the country. With approximately 400,000 personnel, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) is clearly insufficiently manned to effectively and efficiently maintain internal security in a complex polity of at least 200 million people. Thus, the military, which should focus on protecting the country’s territorial integrity from external intrusion, has been drafted to enforce law and order in virtually every state in the country through a multiplicity of military task forces. This distracts the military from its core responsibility and stretches it thin in terms of manpower and other resources, thus weakening the potency of its response to threats of terrorism and religious extremism that endanger national security and stability.

    Thus, with the existing security architecture, the nation is rendered vulnerable both to internal criminality and the danger of external infiltration and destabilization. Luckily, the solution to this undesirable and unsustainable situation is right before us and enjoys near-unanimous support across the length and breadth of the country. It is in the urgent decentralization of the security architecture as it is all too clear now that a unitary security system, particularly a police force centrally controlled which is deficient in manpower adequacy, modern equipment and financial viability, cannot effectively maintain security in a sprawling, ethnocultural, federal polity like Nigeria.

    Instructively, under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Northern and Southern Governors Forum, respectively, as well as the Nigeria Governors Forum, unanimously gave their support to the creation of the State Police. Indeed, in response to the widespread clamour for the amendment of the Constitution to accommodate the State Police, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) set up a committee headed by former Kaduna State governor Mallam Nasir ‘El Rufai to deliberate and report on the issue. The committee not only recommended the introduction of State Police but came up with draft constitutional amendments to help give effect to the realization of this objective. Unfortunately, not much more was heard of the issue after this.

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    The responsibility to nurture this idea to fruition now rests with President Tinubu especially as all other efforts to tame the monster of insecurity are so obviously not yielding the desired dividends. However, governance under our presidential constitution is collaborative despite the immense powers vested in the Office of the President. Thus, governors, who are most affected by insecurity in various states, must urgently seek an audience with the President to press the issue. In the same vein, the leadership of the National Assembly should prioritize immediate consultation with the President to deliberate on modalities for the requisite constitutional amendments to address a security conundrum that has become an existential threat.

    Of course, the fears of decentralizing policing in a fragile and easily combustible polity like Nigeria, where many governors are inclined to behave like emperors, is real and palpable. How, for example, would a governor who readily demolishes the State House of Assembly complex to prevent suspected impeachment or pulls down multimillion Naira structures owned by his opponents, use or abuse the control of State Police? This danger can be averted by meticulous and careful drafting of the law establishing State Police with necessary checks and balances built in. It has been suggested, for instance, that State Police can be patterned after the judicial system where there is an organic, intricate and interwoven relationship among federal and state judiciaries with ultimate responsibility for appointments and discipline resting with the National Judicial Council (NJC). It is an idea worth considering.

    The benefits of the State Police far outweigh its demerits. State Police outfits will be manned by personnel from the state who are well acquainted with its geographical terrain and linguistic as well as cultural peculiarities. They will have access to funding by the respective state governments thereby freeing the NPF from obligations to the states and thus enabling it to benefit more from federal funding. In any case, state chapters of the NPF are currently being substantially funded by the states. Again, operationally, the State Police will be able to act decisively and timeously to combat crime without having to wait for the approval of a distant centre with all the attendant bureaucratic delays.

    But beyond the security architecture, urgent attention ought to be paid to the structures for intelligence gathering across the various security agencies. Deficient intelligence gathering is clearly a key problem in effectively protecting lives and property in Nigeria. For one, the various criminal elements and groups operate with embarrassing freedom and boldness, obviously treating with utter contempt the intelligence-gathering capacity of the security agencies. With an alert and vigilant intelligence network, most of these acts of violence would have been nipped in the bud before being actualized. Besides, there is a strong possibility that much of the recurrent violence is sponsored by aggrieved political partisans to destabilize the country and discredit the government. Without the requisite intelligence network, it will be impossible to track the activities of such disgruntled and unpatriotic elements and bring them to book, no matter how highly placed.

  • Rivers State’s sole administrator so far 

    Rivers State’s sole administrator so far 

    It is certainly not due to his will or machination that Vice Admiral Ibok-Eke Ibas (Rtd) is Sole Administrator of Rivers State today for an initial period of six months following the state of emergency declared in the oil-rich state by President Bola Tinubu. There is no way that he can be held responsible for the inability of both former governor of the State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, and his successor, Sir Siminaliyi Fubara, to settle their differences amicably in the light of reason with the best interest of the people of the State at heart. To make matters worse, elder statesmen and influential leaders in the state took sides in the crisis and added fuel to an already blazing fire rather than calming nerves and facilitating a peaceful settlement. This column disagrees with those who allege bad faith, abuse of power and a violation of democratic tenets by President Tinubu in declaring the state of emergency, suspending democratic structures in the state and appointing a Sole Administrator for six months in the first instance.

    What exactly would the President have been expected to do as the Wike-Fubara crisis relentlessly pushed the state to the very precipice of implosion, especially with at least two critical oil pipelines blown up after Fubara had openly and tactlessly called on youths to await further instructions which he did not state but was open to varying interpretations in an ever-escalating climate of fear? Had the President refrained from acting to prevent a descent to anarchy in Rivers, his critics would still have pilloried him for weakness and indecisiveness. Many, still smarting from the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, would have rejoiced inwardly if the breakdown of law and order in one state had spiralled to become a nationwide crisis, especially with the destruction of oil pipelines with catastrophic implications for the national economy.

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    But having come to hold power as Sole Administrator due to circumstances, not his making, it is entirely the responsibility of Ibas to ensure that he plays the role he has been assigned with wisdom, restraint and utmost humility. He should not directly or indirectly create the impression that he is happy about the situation that compelled the declaration of a state of emergency in the state. He should play his role as unobtrusively as possible focussing essentially on maintaining security, promoting stability and facilitating greater inter-communal harmony towards the successful restoration of democratic governance in the state at the end of emergency rule.

    This column does not see the wisdom in the Sole Administrator undertaking the initiation of new projects for instance. And to run the local government councils, he could have utilized the senior leadership of the local government bureaucracy or quietly posted senior civil servants to oversee the councils in a manner that is non-obtruding. While he is not in a position to interfere in the political crisis that gave rise to the emergency, he can help bring about much needed healing in inter-personal and inter-group relations that Rivers so urgently needs now. But he is right in demanding the return to the Rivers State government of the N300 million donated by the Fubara administration towards the hosting in Port Harcourt of the 2025 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). The NBA’s claim that the money is an ‘unconditional gift’ is immoral and unconscionable.

    The House of Representatives deserves commendation for setting up a 20-member oversight committee to oversee the actions of the Sole Administrator during the emergency period. This is because unaccountable power can easily be corrupt and subject to abuse. Equally heartwarming is the fact that the committee is headed by the cerebral and principled political scientist and leader of the House, Professor Julius Ihonvbere. Much is expected from the committee, and it should not let the people of Rivers State down.

  • $1,000 for what?

    $1,000 for what?

    According to the reports released by FIFA, the total prize money for the FIFA World Cup 2026 will be $896 million for the men’s event. Hmmmm! Who won’t go for it? At the least to have a bite from the Cherry. Any right-thinking group would stop at nothing to get an expert briefing on how to get one of the big banks to do business with them and how best to prosecute a seamless campaign for the 2026 World Cup, where for qualifying for the competition, every qualifying nation gets $12 million as a qualification bonus.

    These figures are mouth-watering for those who know how to make money, not those who lavish cash on nonsense or rely on government money, which is cheap and, most times, unaccountable. Only planless groups watch in awe or scratch their heads when the results of matches go awry. It becomes a tale of the unexpected. We have come to accept these mistakes as the norm despite Nigeria’s six (1994, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018) appearances at Senior World since our debut in 1994 in the United States (US).

    Our sports administrators are suffering from poverty of ideas for the good of the beautiful game here. Rather than get people to think for them, they prefer to stew in their mess. Pity. I was at the Atlanta’96 Olympic Games and one of the few in Nigeria who waited to see the outcome of the women’s long jump before heading for Georgia to watch the Dream Team 1’s crucial game. A classmate at the Government College Ughelli, who I had not seen since 1976, offered to drive a few of us to watch the football game.

    With a car on standby, we watched Chioma Ajuwa leap to glory for Nigeria with a gold medal in a field of world beaters in the women’s story. Goose pimples still run through me, watching Ajunwa trot towards a little girl holding the Nigeria flag to pick it up and continue her lap of honour for medallists. I won’t blame our sports chiefs who chose to travel early for the Dream Team 1 game. What Ajunwa did was magical. It changed the narrative among people, having been tagged a pariah nation due to the devious acts of the goggled one in that inglorious jackboot era of administration.

    Travelling aboard a Greyhound bus all through the night from Atlanta to Philadelphia after the Olympics was joyful as everywhere one went in Philly, the atmosphere changed the moment one was linked to the Games. Spontaneously, you would hear from appreciative Americans and other nationals present ”Nigeria. Kanu, Amokachi, Jay Jay Okocha e.t.c.” Not forgetting photo shots with them as if one bore any of the names mentioned.

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    Yes, sports is the biggest Public Relations (PR) tool any government can use to change people’s negative perception of any nation free of charge.

    Lottery schemes for funding such things concerning athletes’ welfare, career path growth, healthcare needs, planning such athletes’ future, etc. Others address their monetary problems for sports ambassadors through trust funds specifically for such needs, not otherwise.

    Those who run our football are either too forgetful (forgive me, please), or they intentionally cast an indulgent eye to imminent pitfalls ahead, only to say when such problems arise, ”But I warned earlier, you thought you knew it all.” This is the premise of all issues not only football but all the sports federations. The question to the federations is to plead with the National Sports Commission (NSC) to raise a memo to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to approve a sports budget which would ensure that all requests are accommodated on a four-yearly schedule or a two-year or even one-year to cater for all their needs. The question would be how do other countries run their sports without such hitches?

    It is an insult to pay Super Eagles stars $1,000 for beating Rwanda in Kigali. What can $1000 do for them? I’m sure the boys would have played for free instead of what they were paid weeks after the game. I hope when the players start to skip matches on flimsy grounds or collaborate with their European clubs to feign injuries, we will know where we courted the problem(s). Our administrators are poor students of history.

    We are in a tight corner. Rather than motivate the players with cash to be at their best, we are offering them what they won’t give to their friends. All countries reward their players handsomely. It is the reason they leave their clubs to play for their countries whenever there is a clash of fixtures with their national teams. Does it make any motivational sense for a sane player to leave his club and fly aboard the aircraft for between six to nine hours to Nigeria only to be paid $1,000? Who does that? Imagine what those boys go through for away fixtures taking cognisance of what the Libyans did to them, only to hear on their phones the alert sound for $1,000. What do the accompanying big men earn as estacodes or is it per diem?

    Let’s be fair. The lifespan of athletes is between one year and ten years, barring injuries. Therefore, they need to save for their future. It is the reason clubs splash big cash to sign them. No player would leave a club where he is sure of the three points which could fetch him between $30,000 and $50,000 for a Nigerian assignment to be paid $1,000 after nine weeks. It won’t happen, especially seeing former Nigerian players languishing in penury.  Nothing is free even in Freetown.

    How do you give Victor Osimhen $1000? How do you go from paying these players $10,000 for away victories to that paltry $1,000 fee and we want the boys to fight and qualify for the World Cup? We are NOT going anywhere. How much were the NFF officials paid for just travelling to watch the players while they sweat under harsh climatic conditions representing Nigeria? Is it not true that FIFA would pay us above $12000 for qualifying as a qualification bonus? So, why are we paying the players peanuts? Maybe the NFF should learn from other federations.

    The countries that excel in sporting events have systems that guarantee enough funds for the sportsmen and sportswomen to compete with the best such as tax rebates on sport-friendly firms, lotteries, and businesses owned by wealthy nationals who know what is in such a sponsorship that benefits them by the sitting government. Such financial taxes are spelt out to companies and wealthy citizens after agreements have been reached. These cast-in-stone policies are binding to all the parties to such an extent that breaches are adequately addressed to allow either of the parties to seek redress in court.

    The beauty of this organised method of funding is it gives all the concerned sponsors enough time to schedule their commitments to their operative management boards to provide for them in the yearly budgets for the duration of the contractual agreements with reliant government parastatals for the exercise.

    For Nigeria to achieve excellence and meet the objective requirement for the rapid development of our sports industry, then we must broaden the finance base of the industry and create the right conditions for private sector funding and investment in sports. But, the government must lead this movement by doing away with the fiscal budgets and introducing a sports budget that takes care of the annual, biannual, and quarterly sports competitions such as the World Cup, the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games e.t.c without qualms.

    What do you think, dear reader? You tell me.

  • Dreaming the past

    Dreaming the past

    “When responsibility is entrusted to an incompetent person expect the end of time”   Prophet Muhammad (SAW)

    The above quoted Hadith was particularly in reference to leadership in any given society. When the Prophet was to send Mu’az Bn Jabal to Yemen as Governor, he asked him a pointed question as a way of confirming that his choice was right. He said asking Mu’az: “how will you govern the people in that country?” The latter said he would use the laws of Allah as contained in the Qur’an. Then the Prophet asked: “and if you cannot find a relevant solution in the Qur’an? Mu’az said he would use the Prophetic tradition (Sunnah). Then the Prophet further asked: “and if relevant solution is not found in Sunnah? Mu’az said he would adopt the consensus of opinions of learned scholars’’. Then, the Prophet asked: “and if you cannot get a consensus? Mu’az said he would use analogical deduction based on the three sources of law mentioned above. Thus, with Mu’az’s satisfactory responses, the Prophet technically confirmed the four sources of Islamic law by which any leader in an Islamic society should govern. The summary here is that governance should be by law and not by whim. 

    Thereafter, the Prophet counselled him as follows: “when you get there, my dear Mu’az, endear yourself to the people and do not be hostile. Be kind to them and do not be wicked. Be lenient with them and do not be harsh. Be considerate with them and do not be dictatorial. Be compassionate to them and do not be sadistic. Be sensitive to their plight and do not be indifferent. Be transparent and do not be seen as corrupt. Be a man of your words and do not be seen as a liar. Fulfil your promises to them and do not renege on such promises. Be trustworthy in utterances and actions and not be seen as a betrayer of trust. There are three signs by which a hypocrite is known. When he talks he lies; when he promises he reneges and when he is trusted he betrays. Remember that a leader is like a shepherd who cannot claim to be successful in a day until he has coasted home the last sheep in his flock. And every shepherd shall be asked by the Almighty Allah about what he does with the flock in his care’’. 

    Thus, the historic conversation between the Prophet and Mu’az confirms that good leadership is the bedrock of peace, decency and progress in any society. Today, many countries including Nigeria are dangerously restive because of deviation from that yardstick by irresponsible leaderships. A nation without a responsible leadership is like a body without head. Such a nation is likely to wander aimlessly and indefinitely in the wilderness of life just like the Egyptian gypsies of yore even as her citizens wallow helplessly in abject penury.                  

    Man ordinarily takes food for granted until he faces hunger where food is not available. He takes sound health for granted until he falls sick. He takes freedom for granted until he becomes a prisoner and he takes peace for granted until he faces war. One of the signs of living in a bad time is to keep remembering the good old days with nostalgia. Such is a confirmation that the past is better than the present. This is the situation in which overwhelming majority of Nigerians find themselves today in a country naturally and abundantly enriched with milk and honey.

    Who could have believed some years back that this same country called Nigeria might become a beggars’ own country one day? When political calamity engendered by economic mismanagement struck Ghana in the 1980s, Nigeria was the only rescue haven in Africa for hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians who trooped into this country for all sorts of jobs including menial ones. Thus, from that experience, one would have thought that a lesson had been learnt by Nigerian leaders never to subject the citizens of this country to a similar misfortune. But alas, the situation in the past 40 years or there about has proved otherwise. Ironically, the reality today, is that the citizens of this sixth largest oil exporting country in the world have become beggars being deported from a onetime calamitous Ghana that sought and got economic rescue in Nigeria. The same Ghana is today a model for Nigeria virtually in all things that is decent and civilized.

    God, in His infinite mercy does not create any living thing without adequate provisions for its existence. He endows individuals and nations with wealth in time and space as a trust. But He does not physically come down to manage such wealth for anybody. Neither does He give anybody the authority to redistribute it. But in the end, the managers of such wealth will be asked to render account on how they manage it.  Individuals and nations become humanly and materially rich only by Allah’s will at the place and time divinely earmarked for it. Any manipulation of such wealth by certain greedy cabal can only pave way for an untold calamity.

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    Like a fly in a bottle of wine which drinks and drinks till it dies in there, today’s Nigerian rulers see their position as an opportunity to suck Nigeria’s oil wells dry at the expense of the masses to whom those oil wells rightly and legitimately belong. These rulers have forgotten that if the oil reserve had not been divinely meant for this generation it could have been discovered and consumed by many generations long before ours.

    Nigerians of today have found themselves in a dream land. They are not only dreaming of what they ought to be as against what they are. They are also dreaming of the good old days in this same country that once gave them the confidence to build hope in their future as well as that of their children. That hope has practically become forlorn. Without necessarily sounding pessimistic, if there is any expectation for an ordinary Nigerian today, it is for death as despair is currently the song of destiny.

    Telling the history of Nigerian oil cannot end with the present generation. It surely extends to the future. Where are the founding fathers of Nigeria especially those who strove for the discovery of oil? Was the current  situation their dream? Even as Prime Minister and Premier respectively, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto borrowed money from banks to purchase a car and build a bungalow. They never possessed more than those even when their political contemporaries were accumulating empires.

    It is easier to be a legatee than to be a legator. The greatest spendthrifts are those who do not know the source of money in their possession.

    It is rather ironic that oil wealth which serves as the source of fortune for many countries is the main source of Nigeria’s misfortune. At least this country was economically steady and progressive before the so-called oil boom. At least there was no oil money when Nigeria went through a civil war for 30 months without borrowing one kobo. Why has oil boom become oil doom?

    In his nine years in office as Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon took the price of PMS from 6k to 9.5k per litre. After him was General Murtala Muhammed an obvious man of the people who never tampered with the price of oil till his death in 1976. It was General Olusegun Obasanjo who first took oil price by a leap moving it from 9.5k to 15.3k in his three and a half year reign from February 1976 to October 1979. In his own three years and three months in office, President Usman Shehu Shagari never tampered with the price of oil. And General Muhammadu Buhari who succeeded him maintained the status quo as he never increased fuel price even by one kobo during his 20 month rule. Thus, between 1979 when Obasanjo left office and 1985 when Buhari was overthrown, the oil price remained same and Nigeria did not fail as a nation.

    When the self-styled Military President Ibrahim Babangida took over in1985, his first focus was on oil. It was he who moved the price of PMS from 15k to 70k in his eight years of governance. But by far the greatest leap of oil price in Nigeria was introduced by Chief Earnest Shonekan an interim Head of State who took the price from 70k to N5 within the 87 days of his illegal rule.

    Then General Sani Abacha the maximum despot who forcefully high jacked power in October 1993 moved the price of PMS from N5 to N11 within his five years in office. That was an average of N1 increase per year. When Abacha died in 1998, General Abdul Salami Abubakar became the Head of State and virtually concentrated on oil. He can be called Nigeria’s Head of oil fields. It was he who took the price of PMS from N11 to N20 within the ten months he ruled Nigeria. When General Obasanjo returned to office as elected President in 1999, his first port of call was oil. Capitalizing on the precedent laid by General Abdul Salami Abubakar, he went ahead to raise the price of PMS from N20 to N70 within eight years he spent in office.                             

    Now, to prove that the removal of the so-called oil subsidy by previous rulers in Nigeria was a child’s play, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan decided to surpass them all even if all Nigerians would go to the gallows. After consultations with various stake holders and interest groups including traditional rulers, religious leaders, Labour Unions, ASUU and NANS, all of whom objected to any removal of subsidy at this precarious time, Mr. President decided to go ahead with his plan not minding any contrary opinion. His argument was that facilities like roads, hospitals, schools, refineries and rail system must be provided even if at the expense of the lives of Nigerians. And such removal must be done at a time when the feeding allowance of his family and that of his deputy is unilaterally fixed at about one N1billion per year. Mr. President is calling on Nigerians to sacrifice while the cost of his medical services in the Presidential clinic is about N1.2 billion even as another N300 million is earmarked for replacement of his kitchen utensils. For his trips abroad in 2012 alone about N10 billion is earmarked. But to show a good example of sacrifice for the nation, he and his Ministers have resolved to cut their salaries by 25% though we are not told the amount of each cabinet Minister’s salary. And nothing is said about their undisclosed allowances. That is exhibition of power for you.

    Thus by the signature of one man appended to an obnoxious policy imposed on the populace, it is certain that many lives will be lost, many marriages will collapse, many children will drop out of school and many agreements will crumble causing irreconcilable rifts. These did not happen in the time of Yar’Adua because there was no cause for such.   

    With YarÁdua as President, Nigerians did not see their newly rekindled hope ending up in a paroxysm of despair as the case today. Until he came on board as President, every other person that ruled Nigeria except Shagari and Buhari had claimed that there was subsidy on oil.

    Due to his short time in office, Yar’Adua might not have been perceived as a great achiever but the few achievements he recorded were quite remarkable. If those achievements had been sincerely inherited and maintained, Nigeria would not have been plunged into such a quagmire as we are witnessing today.

    At least with his few achievements, many ‘FIRSTS’ can be attributed to him in the history of Nigeria. For instance, he was the first Nigerian President to publicly declare his assets and those of his wife on assuming office. He was the first Nigerian President to publicly admit that the election which brought him into office was flawed thereby promising to reform the electoral process the machinery for which he sincerely put in place before his demise. And he congratulated the Labour gubernatorial candidate, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State who won a court case against a PDP Governor Olusegun Agagu in the spirit of political sportsmanship. Yar’Adua was also the first Nigerian President to confess that there was no subsidy on petroleum products and therefore reduced the price of PMS (petrol) from N70 to N65 per litre. Not only these, he was also the first Nigerian President to declare amnesty in a warless situation to ventilate a conducive atmosphere for permanent peace. If he were alive and remained in the saddle the present situation of uncertainties would not have arisen. Perhaps that was why he called himself a servant leader.

    Yar’Adua as a mortal being might have his own weaknesses, nevertheless, his short period as President wrought a remarkable foundation for this country. If he had not displayed the ingenuous tactics of declaring amnesty at the time he did, the story of Nigeria would have been quite different today.

    Nigerians continue to remember the good days of Yar’Adua today because the foundation he laid for a new beginning in those days has begun to crumble so soon in the hands of his successors. Just two years before her centenary celebration as a country, the President is telling Nigerians that the security problem in the country is bigger than a civil war and he can hardly handle it. In such a situation, who will save Nigeria from the prediction of the West? Meanwhile, the federal government has agreed in concert with Bornu State government to pay a compensation of N100 million to the family of Muhammad Yusuf, the leader of Boko Haram who was killed by the police in their cell in 2009. The big question is WHY NOW? And who will compensate the families of several scores of many other Nigerians who were killed subsequently?

  • Rising insecurity is not about ethnicity, religion

    Rising insecurity is not about ethnicity, religion

    In the last couple of months, the insecurity in Northern Nigeria has resurged and increased across the North Eastern, North Western, and North Central regions of Nigeria. This situation is evident with the recent onslaught by the Lakurawa terrorists that killed and injured people and robbed and destroyed properties in Kebbi and Zamfara States, some attacks and destruction in Katsina and Niger States, and the re-appearance of Boko Haram in Borno State. The resurgence of Boko Haram in Borno State resulted in the outcry last week by the Executive Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum, raising concern with regards to this ugly development and calling on the federal government to make sure that we don’t lose in the war against terrorism.

     The resurgence of killings in Plateau State adds to the worry lines on the faces of Nigerians and adds another layer of concern and responsibility on the state and federal governments in Nigeria to contain this dangerous situation that is becoming combustible on the Plateau. The recent horrible killings and destruction of properties in Bokkos and Bassa Local Government Area (LGAs), which have spread to other LGAs like Kanam and Wase, require a serious review and quick action. There is a need for serious and sustained interventions. Just 48 hours ago, 11 people were killed in Otukpo LGA in Benue State. The extrajudicial killing of some hunters from Kano State in the Uromi LGA of Edo State was less than a month ago. The laudable achievements made so far since the commencement of President Bola Tinubu’s administration with regard to the war against terrorism and insurgency are not lost within these two years.  However, as we approach the second-year milestone of this administration, it is imperative that all hands are on deck to efficiently and effectively tackle insecurity in Nigeria.

     I use this opportunity to commiserate with the families of all those who have lost their loved ones and properties in all the states where these horrible situations are happening. I also commiserate with those who are injured and those who have lost their properties. I pray that Almighty Allah SWT will repose the souls of all those who have been murdered in cold blood in all situations across this country. 

     I commend the Governor of Borno State, His Excellency Governor Zulum, and the Governor of Plateau State, His Excellency Governor Caleb Mutfwang, based on the way and manner they consistently stay on top of situations in their respective States, recognizing the enormity of the challenges of this hydra-headed monster of insecurity in Nigeria. While I consider Governor Zulum the most proactive, brave, and consistent Governor in Nigeria, given the sustained onslaught of terrorists since he assumed office 6 years ago, I also commend Governor Mufuwang’s high level of emotional intelligence at such a crucial moment.

     The resurgence of insecurity is happening at a crucial time when the rainy season has commenced, with the early warning systems of flooding that will occur due to projected heavy rains. The situation in Borno State is clearly the resurgence of Boko Haram with the return of the use of IEDs, attacks on our military personnel, etc. I use this opportunity to also commiserate with the Nigerian armed forces for the loss of gallant soldiers on the battlefield. The ultimate prices that these patriotic Nigerians and their families are paying require deep introspection to contain this situation. We are losing critical national assets in terms of hardware, man, and material. This is happening at a time when the numbers of men and material in the armed forces are so meagre that losing even one soldier every day is a big blow to our armed forces and our Country. I do hope that there is to address the unravelling scenario.

     It is my opinion, that the lull in attacks by terrorist and kidnappers that the we experience from time to time in Nigeria, is part of the strategy of the terrorists to take tactical retreats, which the States and Country consider as quick wins, and rightly so, albeit, the terrorists actually retreat so as to regroup and return; which is one of many guerrilla warfare tactics that the Boko Haram insurgents, ISIS, ISIL, Lakurawa, etc. use to rest their troops, heal their wounded, retool, restock food, medical supplies, weapons, etc. They also retreat so as to re-energize/ re-align their logistics and supply chains and essentially re-strategize when necessary. This is a critical point that we should note. Therefore, I strongly advise that anytime there is a lull, we should consolidate our positions and also retool, re-kit, and upstage our resources and capacities to ensure that when the terrorists regroup, we don’t lose the ground we have gained. Consistency and sustainability are critical success factors.

     While ethnic and religious sentiments are key root causes of crises across Nigeria, it is also important to note that another critical cause of insecurity in Nigeria, as it is globally, is economic objective, which I term “economic terrorism”.  Therefore, the trend of always giving religious or ethnic connotations to the crisis on the plateau, for example, in my own humble view, is a huge mistake. I think we should expand our views and mindsets beyond ethnic and religious connotations. The concern that some well-meaning Nigerians have been raising is that we should be wary of giving all attacks, religious and ethnic connotations, lest we run into the trap of the perpetrators of this evil of multidimensional terrorism. I share the view that those terrorists are not actually religious or ethnic bigots; they are economic saboteurs and terror merchants who hide under the guise of religion or ethnicity as part of a “divide and conquer” strategy. For example, they could sometimes attack the Fulanis and their Cattle pretending to be other tribes, and then attack the Fulanis pretending to be other tribes, thereby pitching communities and tribes against each other to create a situation for plunder in the midst of the crisis. This is an age-old war strategy.

     From my experience of that terrain (North West, North East, and North Central), most of the crises are about the mineral resources in the region, and this has been happening for over 30 year. It is also important to note that various leaders and citizens of the various localities know where and when the economic sabotage is taking place, but they mostly looked away or pretended not to know. This is because they are either benefiting, or out of fear for their lives and the lives of their families.  The methodology of economic saboteurs and resource plunderers is very simple. They come, they cause distress, they scatter the place, and they take control, then continue plundering as the situations get worse. What better way for them to perpetuate their evil projects than to perpetrate religious and ethnic crises in a location that is sensitive to these issues, like Plateau State, for example.

     I am therefore sounding a strong word of caution in alliance with the position of His Excellency, Governor Caleb Mutfwang, that we must approach the issue in Plateau State and indeed other States, with a strategic mindset, to note that the issue is beyond ethnic and religious sentiments. Because when the terrorists attack or kidnap or kill or maim, they don’t ask for the tribal or religious identity of the victims. They don’t care what tribe or religion the victims are.

     To those who are trying to use the crises to score cheap political points, I say to them that it is not the fault of a particular administration. This is a long-standing issue, and Nigerians should rise above political, religious, or ethnic sentiments to score cheap political points. Of course, to whom much is given, much is expected and therefore I totally agree that we must remain consistent in constructively engaging incumbent administrations to deliver their mandates

     Importantly, political leaders should deliver their promise of good governance to citizens. Multidimensional poverty remains a critical divisive force and tool for terrorists to indoctrinate and radicalize our teeming, frustrated youths, especially when they are failed by their leaders.

     Furthermore, there should be a nationwide enlightenment campaign to bring to the attention of the citizenry the evil plot by these economic plunderers and their co-travelers within the establishment and the support they get from outside Nigeria. Based on what we have witnessed in the past years, there has been the involvement of some bad politicians, traditional rulers, and also some bad members of the armed forces. The approach should be holistic in trying to ensure that we get to the roots of the issues with a view to tackling the issues. Unless we rise above parochialism, ethnic and religious bigotry, and deal with corruption and bad governance, we will not defeat the hydra-headed monster of insecurity in Nigeria.

     The leaders of Nigeria, across all strata, all have a duty to work lockstep in the same direction for a better Nigeria. There can only be opposition figures and political parties if there is a united and prosperous Nigeria. There can only be sustainability of power of incumbency if there is a united and prosperous Nigeria. Indeed, there can only be Nigerians if there is a united and prosperous Nigeria. I hope this will sink in for all concerned.

     May Almighty God continue to Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.