The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • As Ukraine is fed alive to the Russian Bear

    As Ukraine is fed alive to the Russian Bear

    The international order is never more interesting and perplexing. After months of waffling and warbling, and with casualties mounting on both sides , the hazy outlines of Pax Trumpiana now appear in bold relief. It is as simple as it is disconcerting. Before our very eyes, the brave and heroic people of Ukraine are to be fed to their Russian tormentors. Having thrown everything they have into battle, having fought the invaders with fierce determination and unusual bravery, taking horrendous casualties and the apocalyptic devastation of a beautiful and alluring landscape in the process, the Ukrainians are now faced with the humiliating prospects of being forced to surrender without a whimper.

    For this international miracle to materialize, all it took was a long transatlantic phone call between two powers leaving out the complainant in the cold. By the time the call was over, Zelensky’s goose had been cooked. All that remained was for the terms of disengagement or surrender to be worked out with some concomitant sweeteners thrown in to humour the Ukrainians. There will be no return of occupied territory or talk about reparation. In one short, sharp surgical move, Trump has removed the source and basis of Ukrainian self-defence, which is American munitions.  You cannot fight without weapons. He has also peremptorily precluded the possibility of Ukraine joining the NATO, an act which the Russians believe would jeopardize the strategic interest of their country. As for the UN and its other ancillaries and accessories, Donald Trump treats them with such contempt that they could well be mythical apparitions without any value worth talking about.

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       It is a brand new world. Nobody would have believed a day like this would come when a sitting American president would treat international organizations which are largely the creation of Americans and which rely substantially on American subventions with such hostility and sheer disdain. But here we are. The major irony in all this is that while withdrawing into the shell of isolationism, the American president is insisting on acting out America’s role as the world’s preeminent law giver and principal custodian of global custom. America’s combination of isolationism and rampaging globalism such as the proposed takeover of Gaza and annexation of Greenland will provoke countervailing actions from equally prosperous and well-heeled countries defending their own national interests.

       The defeat and liquidation of Ukraine will serve as a playbook for China’s occupation of Taiwan, North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, Israeli obliteration of the Middle East as we know it and possibly the annihilation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Rwanda.  As the conflict shapes up, the possibility of nuclear confrontation cannot be ruled out since biting is part of fighting. Unlike the earlier epoch of colonization when the invading colonizers shared the same faith and values, this one will be a clash of faith, of culture and values in all their countervailing hostilities. The human race has never been closer to self-determination of a most profoundly ironic hue.

  • NIIA, Professor Richard Joseph and  Renewed Hope for Africa

    NIIA, Professor Richard Joseph and  Renewed Hope for Africa

    To not an insignificant number of people, President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda (RHA) is just another political manifesto and a campaign document routinely designed to win elections by making rosy promises in attractive poetry while the politician actually governs in more realistic prose as it is often famously said. But for a politician and political party that takes its word seriously and seeks to refashion reality in its envisioned image, a manifesto is a sacred bond with the people, a trust to be abided by as a guiding light.

    Inspite of the persistence of dispiriting failings and weaknesses, Nigeria’s political system seemingly imperceptibly evolves stronger and more resilient. For instance, larger sections of the electorate are growing increasingly more sophisticated and aware, technological innovations make elections more and more difficult to rig while the amount required to buy votes multiplies at compound rates making such criminal investments by political actors of ever decreasing marginal utility.

    Against this background, it is understandable that elected politicians and parties are taking the diligent implementation of their campaign promises more seriously and this requires placing premium as much as possible on merit in making critical appointments even though it is impossible to completely eradicate the influence of sheer partisanship or primordial considerations in filling many political positions. President Tinubu’s choices in making some key appointive decisions indicate that for the administration, its RHA is as much an intellectual enterprise requiring men and women of knowledge, expertise and competence to implement as it is also a vital weapon of partisan political competition.

    The appointment of one of the country’s most accomplished public administration and political science scholar, practitioner and foremost reform expert, Professor Tunji Olaopa, as Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) for instance, speaks to an acute awareness of the imperative of high intellect for optimum policy actualization. Similarly, a trained scientist, methodical logistician, experienced administrator and transport management expert, Dr Kayode Opeifa, has just been appointed as Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NEC). And one of the most heartwarming appointments made by the administration in the recent reconstitution of the Boards of public corporations was that of renowned political science and international relations scholar, one of the country’s most impactful former Minister of External Affairs and relentless public intellectual, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, as Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

    One of Nigeria’s oldest and most prestigious public policy Think Tanks, the NIIA was set up in the immediate post-independence era to research, produce knowledge, promote discourse, influence policy and profer advice on the conduct of the emergent country’s foreign affairs and international relations. This would also necessarily involve an abiding concern for appropriate domestic policy as the requisite foundation for robust external relations. For many years, the NIIA was the leading platform for intellectual discourse in Nigeria as the institute routinely hosted high caliber lectures, summits, seminars, book launches and round table conferences on diverse issues critical to national development and not necessarily limited to international relations. I remember that as a student of the University of Ibadan in the early to mid eighties, the institute’s library proved invaluable in producing my research essays both for the B.Sc and M.Sc degrees.

    Unfortunately, the country’s steady economic decline since the late seventies, a process that accelerated, and affected other aspects of national life negatively particularly under praetorian military rule up till 1999 also had deleterious consequences for the NIIA as its funding, fortunes, vibrancy and prestige plummeted. With the appointment, however, of another eminent political scientist, renowned expert on ethnicity and federalism, former Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada, former Emeka Anyaoku Visiting Chair of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, Professor Eghosa Osaghae, as Director General of the NIIA in 2021, the institution began to witness a steady Renaissance and to reclaim its position locally and internationally as a virile public brains trust. Incidentally, Professor Akinyemi had been the DG of the Institute at one of its most productive and vigorous periods between 1975 and 1983.

    It was thus not surprising that on Friday, February 7, the NIIA, in a landmark event, inaugurated the Professor Richard Joseph Learning Centre as a key academic resource located at its library situated at its Victoria Island Headquarters in Lagos. One of the most profound and celebrated scholars of African political science, Professor Joseph, a John Evans Emeritus Professor Northwestern University and Honourable Fellow of New College, Oxford University, has made invaluable contributions to scholarship on African governance, democratization and political economy. His classic, ‘Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic’, offers penetrating insights into the root causes and consequences of pervasive public corruption in Nigeria and its linkage to political instability and protracted underdevelopment.

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    Incidentally, I covered the public presentation of the book as a political reporter for the Daily Times at the same large auditorium of the NIIA sometime in 1987. Professor Osaghae, a former student of Richard Joseph, was one of the attendees from UI while the book was reviewed by another of his former students and now illustrious scholar, Professor Adigun Agbaje. Professor Akinyemi while expressing gratitude to Professor Joseph on behalf of African scholars described the Learning Centre as a vital initiative for preserving African intellectual heritage while Professor Osaghae lauded the facility as a cornerstone of academic scholarship at the NIIA acknowledging the donation by Richard Joseph of 77 cartons of books and other publications to the Institute. The presence of such other cerebral political scientists as Professor Femi Otubanjo, a Research Director at the NIIA and Professor Adele Jinadu added scholarly gravitas to the event and indicated the NIIA ‘s surging organizational profile.

    The Learning Centre is no doubt evidence of Professor Joseph’s hope in Nigeria and faith in the possibilities of actualizing Africa’s destiny. Expressing confidence that current challenges on the continent would be overcome, Joseph said, “I have seen and lived through many movements including the civil rights and anti-colonial movements. I have seen when democracy was threatened in Nigeria and the sacrifices we made to overcome”. And Professor Osaghae could not have articulated the usefulness of the Centre to the liberation of Africa’s potentials more clearly when he averred that “This legacy project is a platform for exchange of ideas and engagement in robust debates about development. Africa should not be where it is currently, but what do we do to make it get where it should be? The same is the case for Nigeria. The world now realizes that very little can be achieved without Africa. It is never going to come to an end until Africa truly becomes great”.

    But exploring the thoughts of the NIIA DG further, I would say that with the emergent dominant Trumpian worldview especially in the West, the world is unlikely to tolerate for much longer Africa’s perceived sitting on and wasting valuable resources that could be better utilized for the benefit of her people and humanity as a whole. It is in our best interest to maximally deploy Professor Joseph’s intellectual beneficence to empower Nigeria to lead Africa to the promised land of progress and prosperity thus avoiding a seemingly looming second colonization of the continent.

  • Power Rangers to the rescue

    Power Rangers to the rescue

    Not a bad idea if govt can blend this with technology to fight power lines vandals

    Power lines vandals who have been throwing spanners in the works and causing intermittent blackouts would have to think twice now that they would have dedicated security men to contend with. Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Friday.

    “We have decided now with the Minister of Power to have what we call the Power Rangers,” the minister said during an appearance on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme.

    According to the minister, the Power Rangers will be created within officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

    This special security team to protect power installations and infrastructure would appear to be the Federal Government’s answer to the question of persistent vandalisation of power infrastructure.

    Power supply is pivotal to whatever we do. It is vital for our work, as in manufacturing and small-scale businesses; it is inevitable even for our leisure because, as they say, a hardworking person deserves his time of rest. Power is key even when we sleep; especially in our kind of tropical climate with its scorching heat. We need power for whatever we use to provide cool air for ourselves, be it air conditioners or electric fans. Name it, power supply is indispensable in virtually all aspects of our being.

    Unfortunately, as essential as this commodity is, Nigeria has not been able to produce enough for its over 200 million people.

    The country’s power generation as at 2023 was said to be in the region of 22,000 MW.  Even then, we do not have the capacity to transmit all. This is aside the problem of distribution, with all its bottlenecks.

    South Africa, with about 63.02 million people generates 58,095MW.

    As if all of these are not enough to contend with in the power sector, we have also had to deal with the nefarious activities of vandals who have made theft of power infrastructure their pastime. These criminals have continued to deal deadly blows to the power infrastructure, thus compounding the problem of inadequate power supply in different parts of the country.

    According to iProject Master (iPM) in 2013, “there were more than 12 incidences of vandalism recorded on the Alaoji-Owerri 132kV line, Jebba-Shirioro  330kV line, Osogbo-Ayede 330kV line, Oshogbo-Benin 330kV line, Oshogbo Ikeja 330kV line, Jebba-Shiroro 330kV line, Benin-Ikeja West 330kV line, Sapele-Benin 330kV line, Delta-Sapele-Benin 330kV line, Sapele-Benin 330kV line, Benin-Ajaokuta 330kV line and the Abuja-Keffi 132kV line. Some of these transmission lines were vandalised more than three times.”

    The incidence has not abated.

    Indeed, as at February 4, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), said there have been a surge in transmission infrastructure across the country, with over 18 transmission towers vandalised between January 9 and 14, 2025, across Rivers, Abia, and Kano states. There have been several others, including the one that plunged Abuja into weeks of darkness recently.

    Power lines vandalism comes with its consequences. It has forced many manufacturing concerns to shut down because they cannot power some of their machines on generator. This has consequences for their income, investments and in certain cases where products must not suffer any break in power supply, commodities worth billions of Naira will be lost. 

    It also comes with grave risks.

     If there is  electricity during the power line vandalism, lives and properties of the people within the area would be at risk due to electric shocks, power surge and fire outbreaks, etc.

    Of course, vandalism has continued to thrive because of its expanding market globally. Industrialisation has continued to make the values of copper and aluminium, (the key targets of the criminals) to appreciate, hence the desperation on the part of the vandals; a desperation that sometimes makes the possibility of losing their lives in the process of stealing the items not to matter to them. It is so bad now that vandalism of high-tension towers, usually avoided in the past as a high risk, is now a thriving business.

    The financial implications of constant repairs to vandalised transmission installations, and the attendant stress on the national grid, are also huge. ‘The Guardian’ estimate shows that over 117 132kv/330kv electricity towers were vandalised nationwide between January 2022 and February 2024. The country spent about N110 million to fix each of the vandalised assets, and a cumulative N12.8 billion to repair the 117 towers.

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    Energy analyst, Lanre Elatuyi, has this to say on the issue: “For many years, Nigeria has not been able to find a lasting solution to the problem of poor electricity supply, and recently there have been calls for the declaration of state of emergency in the sector.

    “The activities of vandals have aggravated the issues in the already troubled sector battling with poor performances of the market participants and acute illiquidity. Most of the projects in transmission were funded with borrowed funds that the FG has not paid back.”

    Elatuyi added: “To make matters worse, we are now spending borrowed funds to repair infrastructure with no sight to cost recovery of the initial investments”.

    The situation is dire indeed.

    With the proposed idea of Power Rangers, it would seem the Federal

    Government is now ready  to put its money where its mouth is. That is to say the government now seems ready to go beyond lamentation whenever power infrastructure are damaged or stolen, to taking actions to check the trend. As the saying goes, “it is the person that digs the grave that is keeping the dead; the one crying is merely making noise” (eniyan to gbe’le lo pa oku mo; eni to nsunkun, ariwo lasan lo npa); a thing which does not solve the problem in any way.

    Not a few people would think setting up of the Power Rangers is enough to check the vandalisation of the power infrastructure. They would rather want the government to adopt the use of technology for more effective result.

    This stems from the realisation that most times, the vandals get away with their loot because there are no electronic gadgets secretly installed to monitor the power lines. Where these gadgets are available, they have devices that alert when there are unauthorised movements near the power lines and the system promptly communicates this to the power line operators and the law enforcement agencies using radio frequency (RF) signal network.

    May be those who think ‘manual’ solution like Power Rangers cannot go far have a point. But the interior minister said they took a cue from the establishment of Mining Marshals established by the Federal Government in March, last year, to tackle security challenges in the mining sector, before coming up with the  proposal. According to the minister, the Mining Marshals have recorded tremendous successes.

    Not only that, the minister further justified the need for the Power Rangers thus: “What we had before we (the Bola Tinubu administration) came was the generalisation of national assets. But we said no, you cannot have one specific medication that can treat all illnesses.

    “So you have to analyse every sector, the power sector, the water sector, the education sector, the health sector… and be able to create arms of civil defence under the same umbrella.”

    Although Tunji-Ojo did not mention any specific date for the take-off of the Power Rangers, he shed some light on some of the steps being taken to create the unit.

    “We’ve already agreed on the modus operandi and as I speak to you, the officers are being screened,” he said.

    “Don’t forget that we are going to have officers in all 36 states plus the FCT because there is no state without a power infrastructure; it is just like the solid mineral sector.

    “We are already in the process of onboarding those officers; we have to profile them, look at their capacity, look at their competence, look at their area of specialisation, look at a lot of considerations, even physical strength.”

    All of these would seem to suggest that those who came up with the proposal at least did some homework; they didn’t just wake up from the wrong side of the bed to propose it.

    Since it would represent the first major attempt to isolate the problem from similar activities perpetrated against the Nigerian economy by some criminal elements, the idea deserves the support of all Nigerians.

    But it must be borne in mind that it should not necessarily mean abandonment of other extant strategies that are being used to solve the problem.

    Here, cooperation of the locals in the areas traversed by the power infrastructure is key. There is also the need for mass enlightenment even though this may seem to mean little to people bent on committing crime for profit as we have always seen in many instances where people still go to scoop leaking fuel whenever they have the opportunity, and in spite of the dangers.

    The security squad, when it finally takes off, would require adequate funds to get the necessary weapons and other gadgets required to make the team proactive rather than reactive, since they need to be ahead of the criminals in terms of intelligence gathering and superior fire power.

    Needless to say that they would require training and retraining to enable them be on top of their game.

    It is important to stress that both the human and technological elements must be combined in our search for enduring solutions to the problem. These evils are not perpetrated by ghosts, and, as some people have suggested, only insiders can be

    proficient in committing such crimes. We will be able to get out of the quagmire if some of them could be caught, exposed and punished for their untiring efforts to sabotage the country’s economy.

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

    The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (VII)

    I learnt from my exposure to history in the primary school that the abolitionists led by the Right Honourable William Wilberforce, after many years, managed to convince the British parliament to abolish the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It must be said that the bill to abolish slavery was presented to the British parliament no less than eleven times showing the determination of the abolitionists to get the bill over the line and how difficult their job was. As a result of the passage of this bill, not only was the slave trade to be brought to an end in 1807 but that a squadron of ships of the Royal Navy was to be set to patrol along the West African coast to enforce the ban and make sure that the ships of other slaving countries did not continue to carry on making money from the buying and selling of captive Africans. To prove that the ban was effective, we were told the story of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the slave boy who was rescued by a ship of this squadron and taken to Freetown in Sierra Leone. To complete his story as history, we were also told that he translated the Bible from English into Yoruba and was also consecrated the first African Bishop by the Anglican Church and was received by Queen Victoria in her palace. That is history. It was however vividly brought to life for me when I went to school with two of his great grandchildren. Besides, my school and even class was full of Smiths, Georges, Coles and Williamses whose recent ancestors could have told them their own stories of rescue by ships of that squadron. What our teachers did not tell us was that in spite of that scouring squadron, no less than a million slaves were still taken across the Atlantic to Brazil and Cuba right up until the closing years of the nineteenth century. This period coincided with the years of the Yoruba civil wars and my people, the Ijesas, suffered disproportionately more than others in the period following 1860 when until the end of hostilities at Kiriji they were continuously at war with those ruffians from Ibadan. This is a story for another day but suffice to say that this explains why many of those who returned from slavery in Brazil were ethnic Ijesas. Many thousands of them are still in exile in Brazil and Cuba. They remain out there in the diaspora and will never return home.

    The story of the stoppage of British participation in the slave trade as well as the deployment of the squadron to stop the ships of other European nations from continuing their predatory practice of stealing Africans across the Atlantic was supposed to show the altruistic instincts of the British. Incidentally, the British were our colonial masters at the time this propaganda was being given voice to. We, as a people, were therefore supposed to be grateful to our supposed benefactors who had saved our ancestors from a fate worse than death on the cotton fields of Alabama or the sugar cane plantations of Cuba. As children, some of us would have been beguiled by those fairy tales and made into lovers of Great Britain for life. It is clear to me however that if I had been fooled by those fairy tales I would not be sitting up this early morning when I could be enjoying an early morning snooze to write these lines.

    The truth is that the story we were told as history retained an overpowering smell of good old fashioned bullshit and it did not quite go down my throat as I grew out of childhood. I have since found out that if it smells like bullshit it likely to be bullshit. In fact, it is bullshit.

    Whilst if is true that the abolitionists, together with a fair number of freed slaves fought to bring about the abolition of slavery, slavery was abolished because it was no longer needed to power the British economy as it had done for two  centuries. In other words, slavery had, to use a modern term, come to its sell by date. It had expired and had to go and that for several reasons. But before looking at any of those reasons, it is instructive to look at British involvement in the slave trade.

    The first Briton to participate actively in the slave trade was Sir John Hawkins. In 1662, he sailed down the West African coast starting from Senegal, kidnapping Africans all along the  coast. Using this method, he was able to capture three hundred people. These he took across the Atlantic and sold to the Spanish. His profit was so large that two years later, he was back for a repeat performance and in doing so launched the British involvement in the slave trade. By the time the slave trade was abolished in 1807, 3.1 million Africans had been taken from Africa in  British slave ships. Only the Portuguese had taken more. Throughout that period, the British economy was geared towards the institution of trans-Atlantic slavery. Ship building was skewed towards the building of slave ships and new port cities, notably Liverpool, Bristol and the London docks became famous as centres of the slave trade. For all that however, the slave trade had to be brought to an end because it was standing in the way of the development of something even more profitable, if not any less abhorrent than the slave trade, to wit, the rise of capitalism.

    Making money is all about following a fashion trend but it is even better if you could set the trend. The slave trade was definitely in fashion for three centuries but nothing can be fashionable forever and the British were the first to recognise the need to pivot away from buying and selling human beings as a means of building wealth. They were the first to come to the realisation that investment into using machines as a means of production was infinitely more profitable than using human beings for the same purpose. And so, the slave trade had to be brought to an end. It is instructive that although the slave trade was abolished in 1807, slavery was continued throughout the massive British empire until 1834. After that, the slaves remained bound to their masters until 1840 before they were let go to somehow fend for themselves without any help from anybody. In the meantime, the slave owners were paid reparations for the loss of the services hitherto provided by their slaves.

     The early capitalists used this period to introduce workers to the new machines which were becoming available and set up an industrial machinery which replaced slavery as the predominant means of production.

    The other reason why slavery was more trouble than it was worth was that slaves were getting out of control and the cruelty needed to check them was increasing daily. As the cruelties increased, the incentives for slaves to resist in one way or the other also increased. As the number of slaves increased through the slave trade and natural increase through breeding, the danger of slave insurrections also went up and this was no flight of fancy. What happened in Haiti was a warning to slavers. There, slaves not only rose up against their masters but set up a republic which repulsed all attempts by the French to retake the new republic. It was clear that a great deal of naked force and undisguised terror would be needed to maintain a large number of human beings in the state of slavery.

    Another factor militating against slavery was the availability of machines some of which were quite capable of doing the work of a hundred men and do it even better. Furthermore, there were machines which could be manipulated by  children whose wages were far less than what was paid to grown men which meant that greater profits could accrue to the capitalists. Everything considered therefore, it only made common sense for slavery to be abolished. Even after the American civil war had been fought and won there were a host of dinosaurs in the southern states and indeed in other places who still insisted on the continuation of slavery. So ingrained had this practice become  that Abraham Lincoln, the acclaimed Emancipator had to admit that if he could save the union without freeing a single slave, he would have done so but if he had to free all the slaves in order to save the union, that was what he was going to do. In other words, he freed the slaves because he had to.

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    By 1760, the recognised beginning of the Industrial revolution, all the stars were aligned to favour of this process. All the monies which had poured into several European countries especially Britain from the slave trade and related practices had made a cohort of people fabulously wealthy. This made it possible for them to invest in the new fangled machines which the engineers of the day were going and producing. Those machines were doing things which the ordinary man could not imagine in their wildest dreams and it was clear that they could make their owners rich beyond their wildest dreams. In today’s parlance, the industrialists controlled all the means of production.

    In pre-industrial times, artisans did all their work in their own homes or for those who were agricultural workers in the fields. What the industrialists did was to herd them into their factories where they were tied to pieces of machinery for up to sixteen hours, six days a week. The factories were poorly lit, the machines were noisy and gave off so much heat that the factories were hot as hell. Some of the moving parts on the machines were exposed and limbs were frequently caught in the machines sometimes with tragic consequences. The men and women who worked in those factories were so badly paid that they found work for their children as young as five years old to augment family income. The men were paid up to double what the women were paid, a practice that has endured right up to the present in Britain. As for the children, they were paid a pittance but whatever they were paid it was better than nothing and so, they were made to join the work force almost as soon as they could walk.

    Steam was used to power the machines in those early factories and this meant that coal had to be mined to be burnt in furnaces. Conditions inside the mines were even worse than what obtained in the factories. The mines were damp and ran with water in which the miners worked for twelve hours, six days a week for such low pay that it was a wonder that they did not starve. In mining areas, father, mother and five year old children were taken down to the coal face to dig for coal and bring it up to the surface. The people in those areas had no choice. They had to dig for coal or starve to death. The workers had nothing to add to production but their labour and whatever they produced was expropriated lock, stock and barrel by the capitalists for their own private use.

    An objective look at the conditions under which those early industrial labourers worked suggests quite strongly that they were hardly better off than the slaves toiling on the sugar cane fields of Jamaica or the cotton plantations in the deep south of the USA. True, the factory workers, unlike the slaves were free men and women, they were only nominally so. In truth they were slaves to the industrialists. A situation in which a woman is delivered of a baby on the coal face on one day and has to return to work the next day can only be described as a form of slavery. There can be no single altruistic bone in men who operate such a system. If they were as inhuman to their own people as they were, there is no earthly reason why they could have been moved by any human feelings towards black people to want to free them from slavery for any altruistic reason.

  • Controversy: Non – indigenes should be barred from contesting Senate, House of Representatives elections

    Controversy: Non – indigenes should be barred from contesting Senate, House of Representatives elections

    If for the sake of equity amongst Nigerian states and peoples, representation in the senate is set at 3 members per state, and  constituency, which is determined

    on  the basis of the population strength of each state, is the basis for allocating the number of Reps a state can have,  why are non- indigenes allowed to  contest for these positions outside their state of origin?

    I consider this grossly unfair in a country like ours where, in  some states in the Southeast geo- political zone would not tolerate a cleric, (even of the same Igbo ethnic stock) as their clergy if so appointed by the Pope if he comes from outside their own state. This we have seen severally.

    It could, in fact, be far worse, as happened when the entire indigenous peoples of Aba Ngwa not only rose, like one man, in rejecting a non- indgene as the Aba Mayor, but flagrantly dared their state governor, Alex Otti, to dare appoint one. Please see  Vanguard of Oct 19, 2023 for confirmation.

    These are the same people who come loaded with money to try everything  to contest elections, from councillorship to governorship, in the Southwest.

    I could barely hold myself when this past week, on a Seun Okinbaloye television programme, a  respected Muiz Banire, Senior Advocate of Nigeria,  glibly described this practice as signifying political freedom.

    What political freedom? Why should this freedom be applicable to the geese but not apply equally to the gander or where in the East can a Yoruba man, seriously, contest a senate seat?

    Whoever likes may call me an ethnic bigot but where, in all honesty,  has this been allowed to happen in the East?

    During the 2023 elections Peter Obi, not only ensured that Igbos predominated amongst party executives in both the North and the West, many of the party’s candidates for election, Pan – Nigeria, were equally Igbo.

    You can only imagine where, a politician, say from Aboh Mbaise LGA (Imo state), but representing Amuwo -Odofin(Lagos state) in the House of Representatives, will consider first for a  project between Imo and Lagos state.

    If this is truly freedom, then it should apply equally everywhere in the country.

    I, therefore, say enough of this absolute nonsense. The National Assembly must move, with all speed, to abrogate the misnomer.

    It could, in future, be reversed when all Nigerians consider themselves brothers and sisters enough to jettison primordial considerations in all things.

    As things stand today in Nigeria, we are neither Americans nor British in whose countries the phenomenon counts for nothing.

     The fundamental underlying this discussion is the truism that in Nigeria, unlike in the U.S, the UK or the West in general, primary loyalty goes to one’s place of birth, as well as to one’s people, while scant attention is paid, if at all, to people from far fetched areas since place of domicile is accorded any regard, majorly on his/her business. 

    So perfunctory, and ephemeral, is this little concern or attention, as we saw in Ibadan last year, where a sojourner thought nothing of allegedly storing dangerous, and flamable, mining chemicals within his community until it completely incinerated the entire area, causing serious damage to lives and property.

    It is very doubtful if anybody who owes his roots to where he lives would ever conjecture such a dangerous act.

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    It is the same reason many people, with no relationship to their immediate community, are known to go into very seedy areas of towns and cities to set up factories, manufacturing unsafe water in sathets for human consumption, or adultratrating all manner of alcoholic drinks, believing that the hardworking but overstretched NAFDAC may never be able to catch up with them.

    All these they won’t do in their villages.

    It is important to emphasise these differences so that nobody would come round trying to obfuscate things with the fact that anybody living in any state in the Unitetd States of America can contest elections after satisfying some residence conditionalities.

    If there is any place where the saying: ‘politics is local’, is truest, and should be sacrosanct, it is  Nigeria because,

    what is ours we always hold dearly but believe that we can throw trash to others.

    Therefore, whoever thinks he would not pay taxes in his state of domicile because he could not contest election into seats where his own state of origin has an equal number of seats allocated to it, must know that he cannot, legitimately, do any business in that state.

    That settled, it needs be said that the principle of equal representation in the senate is a cornerstone of federalism, ensuring that each state has an equal voice in the upper chamber. If this is so why allow individuals to contest senate and state elections outside of their own state?

    This will be  a contradiction in terms as it  will undermine the very principle of equal representation.

    To properly understand this issue, it is essential to delve into the history of the US Constitution, which established the framework for the senate and house of representatives.

    The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was a pivotal moment in American history, where delegates debated, and negotiated, the structure of the federal government. The concept of equal representation in the senate was a hard-won compromise, with smaller states insisting on equal representation to prevent larger states from dominating the chamber.

    The framers of the Constitution  established that each state would have two senators, regardless of population. This ensured that smaller states would have an equal voice in the senate, preventing larger states from imposing their will on the chamber.   

    Senators, like Reps are expected to represent the interest of their state, which requires a deep understanding of local issues and concerns.

    By allowing individuals to contest elections outside of their own state, the system risks undermining this principle of local representation. It is essential to strike a balance between allowing individuals, with expertise, to represent a state and ensuring that they have a genuine connection to the community they’re representing.

    Another argument against allowing individuals to contest elections outside of their own state is that it can lead to a lack of accountability. If an individual is elected to represent a state they don’t, in reality, belong to, they may not be accountable to the local community. Why would you wish to represent a people who language and culture you do not have a deep understanding of?This will certainly  lead to a disconnect between the elected representative and his constituents, thus undermining the principles of democracy and representation.

    In conclusion, the controversy surrounding the ability of individuals to contest senate and state elections outside of their own state is a straight forward one that should be resolved against the non – indegene. While the principle of equal representation in the senate is essential to federalism, it is equally important to ensure that elected representatives have a genuine connection to the community they seek to represent.

    Finally, it needs be stressed that the mathematics of representation must be strictly adhered to.

    It is of extreme importance that no non – indegene be allowed to compromise the equality of numbers as structured for senate and as allowed as a function of population in the number of Reps alloted to each state. To put it starkly, a Yoruba man or woman, contesting and winning an election in a non – Yoruba state, unfairly reduces the number of indigenes representing their people, whether in the Red or Green chamber.

    It is a lacuna that must be promptly removed for equity.

  • Nigeria’s economic comeback: Tinubu’s reforms turn the tide

    Nigeria’s economic comeback: Tinubu’s reforms turn the tide

    The past week might not have had so much mention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s activities, it sure much reverberations from the President’s past activities. You must have heard the coinage in recent time; “the economy is turning the corner”, and so much of “the worst is over” in the journey of economic recovery, promising us all to start positioning ourselves harvests from various points of the economy.

    The week exposed the public to a new economic status, which had been announced the week before. The National Orientation Agency (NOA) on Tuesday told Nigerians that the World Bank had revealed that their country has re-occupied the top spot on the table showcasing the size of economies of African countries. The agency posted this on its X handle, amplifying what the World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Ndiame Diop, said the previous Thursday at an event.  

    Diop, speaking at the Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) and Stakeholder Engagement in Abuja on Thursday, February 6, had disclosed that less than a year after slipping to fourth place in Africa’s economic rankings, Nigeria has reclaimed its position as the continent’s largest economy by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and population. This resurgence is a testament to the impact of President Tinubu’s economic reforms and policy interventions.

    Nigeria’s fall from the top spot was a wake-up call. The combination of a fluctuating exchange rate, declining investor confidence, and global economic pressures had created a perfect storm, threatening to undermine the nation’s economic strength. However, rather than accept this downward trend, the Tinubu administration moved swiftly, implementing policies aimed at stabilizing the economy and restoring Nigeria’s rightful place as Africa’s economic powerhouse.

    The first major step in this turnaround was the administration’s decision to unify the foreign exchange market. For years, Nigeria operated multiple exchange rates, creating distortions and making it difficult for investors to navigate the system. By allowing the naira to find its true market value, Tinubu’s administration restored confidence in Nigeria’s monetary policy and increased access to foreign exchange, a key factor in attracting investment.

    This move, though initially painful due to short-term currency volatility, has paid off. The private sector is now seeing improved access to dollars, making it easier to do business. The World Bank has acknowledged that this shift has created a more favorable investment climate, encouraging both local and foreign investors to reconsider Nigeria as a destination for capital.

    Another pillar of Tinubu’s economic strategy has been a focus on removing obstacles to private sector growth. According to Dr. Diop, Nigeria’s economic potential is being held back by unnecessary regulatory bottlenecks. In response, the administration has taken decisive steps to simplify bureaucratic processes, particularly in sectors with high investment potential.

    The Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector, for example, has long been constrained by inconsistent right-of-way fees and unpredictable levies, which add significantly to broadband rollout costs. Tinubu’s government, in collaboration with the National Economic Council, has moved to address these inefficiencies. The result? A projected $4 billion in ICT investments and over 200,000 new jobs.

    Similar reforms are underway in the agribusiness sector, which, if fully leveraged, could unlock $6 billion in investments and create 275,000 jobs. By prioritizing policies that promote food security and agricultural exports, Tinubu is ensuring that Nigeria remains competitive in a sector that has long been a backbone of the economy.

    No economy can thrive without reliable power, and Tinubu has made it clear that energy reform is a priority. Nigeria’s overreliance on fossil fuels has made the country vulnerable to global oil price fluctuations, while the national grid remains unreliable. Recognizing this, the administration has embraced renewable energy, particularly solar power, as a viable alternative.

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    The solar photovoltaic (PV) industry alone has the potential to attract $8.5 billion in investment and create more than 129,000 jobs. Tinubu’s government has supported blended finance mechanisms to make off-grid solutions more affordable, bridging the gap between cost and viability. The ongoing Distributed Energy Solutions (DES) project aims to connect 17.5 million households and businesses to solar power, further demonstrating the administration’s commitment to sustainable energy solutions.

    At the same time, the government is working on broader electricity sector reforms to ensure a stable power supply for industrial growth. Without this, the full potential of Nigeria’s economy cannot be realized.

    Despite these efforts, Nigeria still lags behind countries like Indonesia and South Africa in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The Tinubu administration understands that investor confidence is built on consistency and predictability in policy implementation. To this end, the government has strengthened institutions responsible for economic governance, improved transparency in public finance management, and fostered an environment where businesses can thrive without unnecessary government interference.

    Tinubu has also embarked on an aggressive diplomatic and economic outreach strategy, personally engaging with global investors and financial institutions to sell Nigeria’s renewed economic agenda. His international engagements have already begun to yield results, with several multinationals expressing interest in expanding their footprint in Nigeria.

    While Nigeria’s return to the top of Africa’s economic rankings is worth celebrating, it is not the final destination. Tinubu’s administration must remain committed to sustaining these reforms and addressing remaining challenges, such as insecurity, inflation, and unemployment.

    The work is far from over, but if the past few months are any indication, Nigeria is on the right track. Tinubu’s hands-on leadership, coupled with a clear vision for economic transformation, is steadily turning the tide.

    Nigeria is not just Africa’s largest economy again—it is a country on the rise. The world is watching, and if these reforms continue, the nation may yet exceed its past economic achievements, setting a new standard for growth and development on the continent.

    As His Vision for a Digitally Empowered Nigeria Continues to Take Shape

    Remember that the President has been out of the country for a private visit to Paris, from where he left late Thursday to attend the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) Heads State and Government. However, before leaving Paris, precisely on Wednesday, he held a meeting with the Google Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sundar Pichai, during with a range of new technology issues were discussed. 

    This meeting marks a defining moment in Nigeria’s push toward digital transformation. This is not just another high-profile diplomatic engagement; it is a bold statement of intent—Nigeria is ready to compete on the global tech stage.

    Tinubu’s excitement was evident as he shared insights from the discussions, emphasizing how this partnership aligns seamlessly with his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda. At the heart of this agenda is economic diversification through industrialization, digitization, and innovation—three pillars that have the potential to reshape Nigeria’s economic landscape.

    The proposed collaboration with Google spans five key areas: enhancing cloud infrastructure, equipping Nigerians with future-ready digital skills, fostering AI innovation and research, driving cloud adoption, and solidifying Nigeria’s reputation as an emerging tech powerhouse. This is a blueprint for sustainable economic growth, one that places Nigeria at the center of Africa’s AI revolution.

    One particularly promising aspect of this initiative is Nigeria’s focus on homegrown AI solutions. The mention of Awarri Technologies, a rising force in Nigeria’s AI ecosystem, underscores the President’s commitment to fostering local talent. The plan to develop AI-driven software infrastructure tailored to Nigeria’s rich cultural and linguistic diversity is a groundbreaking step. With a large language model (LLM) in the works for Nigerian languages, the country is making a strategic move to preserve its linguistic heritage while ensuring that AI solutions cater to the needs of its people.

    Beyond technology, this partnership holds immense economic promise. AI and digital innovation are not just buzzwords; they are powerful tools for job creation, entrepreneurship, and industrial growth. By positioning Nigeria as an AI-driven economy, the Tinubu administration is creating opportunities for young innovators, tech startups, and businesses looking to scale in an increasingly digital world.

    The role of key institutions such as the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, as well as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), will be critical in ensuring that this vision materializes. Strategic oversight and effective implementation will determine whether this collaboration goes beyond policy statements to deliver tangible impact.

    President Tinubu’s parting words were full of confidence: “Nigeria is poised to take the lead in AI and technology—this is merely the start of an exciting journey!” Indeed, with a clear vision, strong partnerships, and an unwavering commitment to innovation, Nigeria is well on its way to becoming a major player in the global digital economy.

    Tinubu had other engagements and interactions during the week. There were also some of his messages taken to different segments of the Nigerian society by his able lieutenants, especially Vice President Kashim Shettima. One of such was the announcement of the takeover of Nok University, Kachia, Kaduna State, by the federal government and its immediate transformation to the Federal University of Applied Science, Kachia. This was delivered as presidential message by Shettima on Tuesday.

    The latter part of his week was devoted to continental and sub-regional issues as he was attending the AU Summit in Addis Ababa.

    As he returns to his desk tomorrow, the hard worker in him will push him to stretch himself further for the country. Having seen that his efforts are bearing the intended fruits, he will beat the hot iron of reform a bit more in order for the forging to be as perfect as possible.

  • EL-Rufai, Ganduje, Tinubu and 2027

    EL-Rufai, Ganduje, Tinubu and 2027

    When he commented on President Bola Tinubu‘s administration during his presentation at an event in Lagos to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the death of radical lawyer and foremost human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, did not disagree with the thrust of the government’s ongoing economic reforms that have occasioned much controversy. Rather, he described the removal of the fuel subsidy as well as the merger of the parallel foreign exchange markets as necessary and inevitable policies that he would, however, not publicly rationalize or defend because he was not in a mood to help his friends in government who were not behaving like friends. At least he was characteristically honest and forthright about his personal grudges with the government and did not seize on the widespread hardships engendered by the reforms to react emotionally and stir up sentiments against the administration.

    This was a far cry from the position of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) under President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Babachir Lawal, a one-time ardent ally of President Tinubu who turned fierce opponent of the latter’s election because of the All Progressives Congress (APC) option to present a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 election. Despite the religious factor not being a hindrance to the APC victory as the likes of Babachir Lawal had anticipated, his adversarial stance against the President and his administration has hardened even when it is all too obvious that the government is not in any way pursuing an Islamaization agenda. And supporting former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s strident criticisms of the administration, Babachir Lawal found it convenient to project the Tinubu administration’s economic policies as essentially anti-North.

    Without resort to logical rigour or clinical policy analysis predicated on sound knowledge, the former SGF, an indigene of Adamawa State best known for a proclivity towards rather extravagant grass-cutting adventures, submits that “The North is seriously mobilizing with a consensus that Bola Tinubu must give way in the 2027 elections… Everybody understands that if we continue with these policies for another four years, northern Nigeria will become one large refugee camp. So, there’s a consensus that for self-preservation alone, we must look for another candidate”. Lawal does not feel compelled to state the premises that led to his rather bizarre conclusion. All that is necessary for him is to assert, not attempt any empirical validation.

    Despite his demonstrated capacity for lucid policy analysis, el-Rufai himself, speaking at a recent two-day dialogue on democracy in Abuja, did not undertake a critique of the administration’s policies but based his opposition to the  Tinubu government on perceived lack of internal democracy and consequent inactive party structures in the ruling APC. In his words, “I no longer recognize the APC. No party organ has met in two years, no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show.” Urging opposition parties to unite and form a broad coalition to challenge the ruling party and protect democracy, he said that the APC had abandoned its founding mission of combating corruption, rebuilding the economy and enhancing security.

    In his characteristic scathing manner, el-Rufai submitted that “For those of us who lived half of our lives under military rule, we know what it is. We don’t want military rule, but we also don’t want civilians behaving like the military in their babariga and suits”. But does el-Rufai possess the moral credibility to make some of these assertions? True, he made some impressive achievements in education reform and infrastructure renewal during his two-term tenure as governor of Kaduna State. But the truth is that the mostly Christian population of Southern Kaduna felt they were under a form of military rule under his administration. He dehumanized and showed scant regard for their dignity. He brutalized labour unions who dared to exercise their democratic rights to demonstrate. Under his watch, hundreds of protesting Ibrahim Zakzaky-led Shiite Muslims were allegedly murdered in cold blood and buried in mass graves. He openly threatened that foreign election observers would leave the country in ‘body bags’.

    So much then for his new found democratic profession. And while he claims that the APC has abandoned its objective of fighting corruption, a probe of his administration undertaken by his successor in Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, found his government guilty of alleged financial infractions running into billions of Naira. Some have accused el-Rufai of embracing his anti-Tinubu antipathy because he was not appointed a Minister in the administration as he had desired but the truth is that the tempestuous petrel has never hidden his dislike for the President’s politics if not his person. But even if his unceasing criticisms of the administration is a function of his frustration at not being the beneficiary of a political appointment, that would not necessarily invalidate the validity of his arguments because to question the motive of a contention is not to disprove its internal consistency or verity.

    Shortly after his expressed views at the Abuja summit on democracy in Nigeria, el-Rufai obviously endorsed and posted on his X handle (formerly Twitter) a view expressed by one Dr Uche Diala which suggests that rather than any iterated policy deficiencies or disagreements, his opposition to the Tinubu administration stems from an alleged disrespect and disdain towards the North by unnamed supporters of the President. An excerpt from the said Diala’s post reads, “Less than two years into the tenure, we are witnesses to how the relationship between the North and President Bola Tinubu or rather his administration is quickly deteriorating driven by the words and conduct of unfortunately many from the President’s geopolitical zone and tribe, truth be told. I have read and heard the arrogant posturing and braggadocio by some APC members and fellow supporters of President Bola Tinubu, especially from the Southwest geopolitical zone, I wonder if people have any sense of history and if they truly understand Nigerian politics.”

    Attributing President Goodluck Jonathan’s electoral loss to General Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 less to his administration’s non-performance than to “the disrespect and insult directed towards the North” by Jonathan’s Ijaw ethnic group and the Southsouth political zone as a whole, el-Rufai echoes and amplifies Diala’s view that Tinubu is headed for a similar fate. The post’s threat is thinly veiled when it thunders that “Love or loathe that fact, the North remains the kingmaker in Nigerian politics, at least, as of today. Any politician or political party that plays with that political reality might pay a steep political price for it. People who ignore history are bound to fall victim and to repeat mistakes of the past”. Unfortunately, Dr Diala does not name those from the Southwest who have disrespected or insulted the North or how and el-Rufai failed to fill the gap.

    There are those who have accused President Tinubu of unduly favouring the Southwest and especially Lagos in making critical appointments but such perceptions have not come solely from northerners and the allegation has not been backed by scientific empirical rigour. In any case, the same allegation was levelled against Buhari who was accused again in a rather loose manner of what was described as the ‘Fulanization’ of his administration. President Jonathan faced the criticism that his administration was skewed in favour of his ethnic Ijaw and the Igbo of the Southeast. A rather interesting case was that of President Olusegun Obasanjo whose administration was allegedly dominated by Igbo appointees even though he is of ethnic Yoruba extraction although some claim that he may not be genetically unrelated to the Southeast by some yet unproven accident of historical romantic adventurism. Given the ethno-regional configuration of Nigeria, it is unlikely that any President will in the foreseeable future escape this kind of perception and this cannot be a basis for the assertion that the Tinubu administration is anti-North.

    Of course, some analysts have rightly pointed out the over simplistic fallacy of assuming that the North is politically homogeneous and unidirectional. And in truth, the constitutional requirement for the emergence of Nigeria’s President is such that no geopolitical zone can solely play the role of kingmaker. This is why despite amassing at least 12 million votes from the North in three previous elections, Buhari did not realize his ambition until his political tendency had forged a working alignment with the Southwest. And in the same vein, Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 presidential election could not have been possible without the support he enjoyed from the North even though Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s strategy of seeking to win the election solely through northern votes proved surprisingly effective but for Tinubu’s wide network and political astuteness.

    Atiku had pointedly urged northerners, mainly Hausa-Fulani not to vote for any non-northern candidate and ignored the clamour of five southern governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to facilitate the emergence of a National Chairman of the party from the South following his clinching the presidential ticket contrary to the rotational zoning convention of the PDP. Waziri Adamawa calculated that his sweeping northern votes would win him the presidency. Thus, Atiku won in the core Northern states of Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Taraba while winning in only Osun, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states in the South. However, Tinubu came second in the northern states won by Atiku while also emerging triumphant in such Northern states as Kwara, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue and Kogi states. The electoral dynamics of the election that produced President Tinubu suggest that the ‘North as kingmaker’ hypothesis is overly simplistic and misleading.

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    Responding to el-Rufai’s rather magisterial assertion that the North would not back Tinubu for reelection in 2027, the National Chairman of the APC and former of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, urged Northerners interested in contesting for President to wait till 2031. Basing his submission on the zoning convention as a political elite power-sharing compact in the Third Republic, Ganduje argued that “When a leader from the northern part of this country was in office for eight years, we advocated that the next president in our party should come from the South. Luckily enough, we worked very hard with the cooperation of Nigerians. Our President has come from the South and he is going inshallah for the second term in 2027. And then after that, it will turn to the northern part of this country”.

    But Ganduje ‘s position was as controversial as that of el-Rufai as some other Northern voices contended that neither man could claim to have a mandate to speak for the North and that they expressed essentially their personal views. In the opinion of a former Secretary General of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, “There is nothing controversial about the statements of the two. This is because none of the two people you have mentioned speaks for the North in so far as partisan politics is concerned. This is because the North can be united politically on issues of real concern to Northerners but when it comes to partisan politics, the North does not act in unison”. It would appear to me that Ganduje struck a more relevant and poignant note when he spoke on the inevitable imperative of the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms and the fruits they are beginning to yield as the basis for urging support for the President’s reelection for a second term.

    According to him, “There is no doubt that many things went wrong over a long period of time and it requires surgery before we can get it right. We are happy that we have started seeing the outcome of the reforms, especially on the economic front, and we believe this will continue to yield positive results so that the legacy and the Renewed Hope Agenda will be achieved”. As I said earlier, the motives for el-Rufai’s criticism of what he regards as the organizational dormancy and institutional inactivity of the APC may not necessarily vitiate the cogency of his analysis. The PDP relied more on its control of the power and resources of the presidency during its 16 years in power from 1999 to 2015 rather than its structural vibrancy and organic linkage with the people. el-Rufai is right that there is a lesson the APC has to learn from the rise and decline of the erstwhile ruling party even though it is obvious that he desires the failure of a party in which he now perceives himself as marginalized.

    Much more than pronouncing with a seeming arrogance that is unhelpful to President Tinubu that there is no vacancy in 2027, Ganduje would be of greater help to the President’s reelection bid if he decides to run by ensuring that he has an efficiently, effectively run and organizationally vibrant ruling party that can add value to the policy process, enhance qualitative governance and astutely manage intra-party tendencies and conflicts. That cannot be said to be the case now at all levels of the party and nothing best illustrates this better than the clumsy impeachment process of the erstwhile Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, as if the legislators are independent members of the House not elected on the platform of a political party.

    Apart from the victories of the party in the Ondo and Edo State governorship elections, Ganduje’s most productive accomplishment as National Chairman of the APC so far is the launching of the newly established Think Tank and Resource Center of the party, The Progressive Institute (TPI) to undertake research and advice the Party on the performance and policies and programmes of all APC governments. In addition to such thoughtful initiatives, he should ensure that party structures and organs function so that its machinery is vibrant and alert to campaign and win elections with minimal reliance on monetization of the electoral process. But is there any rhyme or reason to Babachir Lawal’s rather unhinged assertion that President Tinubu’s policies are turning the North into a vast refugee camp? We will interrogate this claim shortly.

  • Belittling domestic coaches

    Belittling domestic coaches

    Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle is back in Abuja after junketing Europe to visit our foreign legion. He would have told them his goals and objectives as the coach of the Super Eagles. Of course, their common goal would be to grab Group C’s sole qualification ticket to participate in the 2026 World Cup. Already the NFF hierarchy is combing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for a befitting house for Chelle.

    Perhaps, Chelle is also part of the search team looking for a world-class house where he would reside after the day’s work. What it shows clearly is that the former coaches lived in hotels whose cumulative costs could buy a bungalow. Chelle’s house would have a retinue of staff who must be alert as the clock ticks. It would have been nice to see what Chelle’s houses in Mali and France look like, especially their ambience, otherwise, it would be a waste of time and resources except Chelle wants to live in the house, oh sorry palace for the duration of his contract. That would be nice, especially if he attends the domestic league matches around the country unheralded.

    The domestic league this year has been organised with most of the past vestiges thrown into the ocean. What the home-groomed players need include a good training regime, and moral and financial assistance to elevate their self-esteem. There should always be a synergy between the foreign legions that populate the Super Eagles and the domestic leagues to fish out the raw talents at the grassroots who just need to be taught the rudiments of the game to attain stardom when the opportunities fall on their laps. We had foreign coaches (not forgetting Clemens Westerhoff) who used the pedigree in the game to send our good players to teams whose coaches know their onions. There was harmony within the camp until things fell apart in America in 2004, costing Nigeria the busiest platform to recalibrate the boys to conform to the rules of the game.

    My heart sank last Saturday when pictures of Chelle’s visits to key Super Eagles players were released on social media by some of those who visited. Conspicuously missing from the pictures was Austin Eguavoen, the immediate past coach of the team. NFF administrators may argue and rightly so that other domestic coaches would take time to secure entry visas into the countries Chelle and his assistant toured. That reason won’t hold for Eguavoen who has a Belgium citizenship with his daughters living and working in Europe. How much would it cost NFF to ask Eguavoen to accompany Chelle on the trips? What manner of saving costs is this? Eguavoen has been the man who rescues them when things go awry with our senior national soccer teams. Sad.

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    Had Eguavoen been part of the team, he would have sat down with Chelle and his assistance, to engage in discussions and to compare their notes. Chelle would have asked Eguavoen why he dropped some of the names being bandied about in the print and electronic media from the previous squads, especially those who were also dropped during Jose Peseiro’s reign. Is it when the list of players has been made public that such a meeting would be held?

    Media reports suggested the return of Ahmed Musa, Paul Onuachu and Aribo with the NFF stating clearly that decisions about what would happen against Rwanda beginning with the team’s selection boils down to Chelle’s choices, not theirs. The optics are good in terms of choices. But we only hope that Chelle’s choices are not rubber-stamped by the technical department. The technical committee members must interrogate the list to make sure that only those players who are physically fit and play in their teams’ matches weekly are paraded by Chelle, not benchwarmers and recuperating players.

    March 17 is a watershed date that could redefine the country’s football if things go awry (God forbid). The Eagles are expected to beat Rwanda and it hasn’t happened. Most of the encounters have been drawn games which isn’t good for our permutations. We also have forgotten that Rwandans are the group leaders with seven points. And they know what it means to their points haul if they beat Nigeria. Rwandans would surely fight to the finish even if that resolve would break their bones. Wait for it – Rwanda beat Nigeria 3-1 in Uyo in the first leg.

    Chippa United FC of South Africa’s manager, Thabo September has raised a worrisome aspect to Nwabali’s game stressing that he hasn’t overcome the trauma of losing both parents pointing out that: “He’s going through a lot. Him being the number one goalkeeper, I pushed him and said he must play. Sometimes you must listen. For me as a coach, just growing into that.

    “Where we lost it, maybe it’s from the bench. From me, from the coaching side, because my goalkeeper (Nwabali) did plead with me that he was not okay and he wanted to rest,” Thabo September told farpost.

    Lessons learned by Chippa United FC’s manager. One only hopes that Chelle and the technical committee members take this aspect of players’ emotional state of mind into consideration before fielding them in the Rwanda tie that has been tagged ”kill and go,” meaning only victory over the host can put Nigeria in good stead to grab Group C’s sole qualification to the 2026 World Cup. A player’s mental state is critical to how he deploys himself on the pitch all through a game. It is important to remind Chelle that the Rwandans have energy which lasts over the 90-minute duration. So, our boys must gird their loins, otherwise, the two late goals akin to what happened inside the Stadium of Champions in Uyo in the first leg game could recur.

    If the Super Eagles fail to fly in Rwanda, let it be noted here that a brigade of supporters, stakeholders etc contributed largely to it by their needless presence. Rwanda didn’t charter two aircraft of such busybodies to beat Nigeria 3-1 in Uyo. My head on the guillotine, these busybodies would storm the team’s dressing room before the game and at half-time heightening the pressure among the players just they would shorten the time which he ought to have with his boys half-time telling them what to do.

    NFF, how much of Rwanda does Chelle know? Does he have their tapes to study? Hiring two charter jets to convey people for just 90 minutes plus the referee’s added time match explains why the NFF is always cash-strapped. This is a federation that hasn’t been bold enough to tell us if it has paid the players, coaches and backroom staff their outstanding allowances and bonuses. Which should come first, dear reader? You tell me.

  • Royal transgressions

    Royal transgressions

    The traditional institution has existed since time immemorial. In Yoruba land – and many other parts of Nigeria – kingship is hereditary. A great attribute of monarchy is the permanence of tenure. Once they are installed, the Sultans And Emirs, Obas And Baales, Obis and Igwes, Shehus and Lamidos, Obongs and Amanyanabos hold the titles and the accompanying powers for life.

    In Yoruba land, monarchs are regarded as second-in-command or lieutenants to the deity (igbakeji obarisa). The throne is prestigious and honourable. It is revered and feared due to its perceived sacredness. Going to the palace evokes a sense of awe. It is not an ordinary place of abode. The chief occupant or tenant is an overlord – rich, powerful, and influential. In the days of yore, their words were laws.

    But traditional rulers are not God, howsoever they try to act as equal to the Supreme Being. They are only His representatives on earth and are expected to reign with the fear of the Almighty to whom they will ultimately account. While many monarchs have lived up to expectations, many have failed woefully through excessive use of their powers. Even in the days when monarchical powers were seen to be boundless because kings were allowed to decide on most matters (oba ba le ohun gbogbo – the monarch lords over all things), there were cases when the subjects found some royal decisions as transgressions. Such acts sparked conflicts between the kings and their subjects, or neighbouring communities.

    The latest example of a failed traditional leadership was recorded in Ogun State two weeks ago. A community head, Oba Abdulsemiu Ogunjobi of Orile-Ifo, was seen in a video assaulting one of his subjects, an octogenarian. The hapless victim was slapped, kicked, and cursed even while kneeling before the traditional ruler. He suffered the indignity of a man of low estate.

    Commendably, the government has risen to the occasion by taking up public complaints against the obvious royal misconduct. Promptly, the rascally oba was arrested and, according to reports, he is going to have his day in a court of law.

     What is happening to the Orile-Ifo traditional ruler should serve as a deterrent to others who delude themselves that they have the power of life and death over their fellow beings.

    While other traditional rulers are advancing the cause of their towns, Oba Ogunjobi indulged in what could have caused an affray had the man he was maltreating also disposed to violence and had his thugs resist the assault.

    From ancient times, the monarchy has been associated with despotism. Thus, in the beginning, the All-knowing and All-seeing God never wanted to appoint a king for the people of Israel. Samuel, a prophet and judge, also dissuaded them from insisting on kingship, warning that the king they earnestly yearned for would enslave them, confiscate their property, conscript their children to fight wars and impose taxation on the nation.

    The admonition was ignored, but the predictions came to pass. King Saul shunned God’s instructions during the Israel/Amalekite war. He was disrobed and rejected. He became dejected. He never bounced back.

    But King David, who succeeded him, also committed murder. When he was idling at home instead of going to war, he saw a beautiful woman, Bathsheba, while peeping through the window of his palace and, out of covetousness, forcefully had carnal knowledge with her. When she became pregnant, the king directed his Army chief to post the husband, Uriah, to the hottest area of the battlefield, where he died fighting. The king married Uriah’s widow.

    Like David, many ancient monarchs were also covetous. An example was King Ahab, who coveted the vineyard of Naboth, his subject. A greedy man, Ahab craved the inheritance of another man and raged when the owner objected. His wife, Jezebel, arranged the killing of the innocent farmer and the king took possession of a commoner’s property.

    Wicked rulers always have collaborators when they commit atrocities. Politically ambitious princes also rely on the counsel of their partners in crime to commit atrocities.

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    But the repercussions were grave. While the sword never departed the household of David, Ahab and his wife died miserably. Today, Christians are counseled to exorcise themselves of the Jezebel spirit. The mark of departure is that David repented.

    Many Old Testament Bible verses contain accounts of how kings committed evil acts in the sight of God. In the New Testament is another account of horror.

    John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod Antipas at the request of the king’s daughter, Salome. The prophet of God had criticised the king for marrying the wife of Philip, his brother. To the king, the request was awful. But he lacked the courage to decline. To save his face, the tetrarch sent soldiers to the prison to cut off John’s head. They brought it on a platter and gave it to the girl who took it to her mother.

    In the olden traditional Yoruba societies, despotic and barbaric rulers, at the height of their powers, seized the wives of other men by placing their legs on them (oba gb’ese le – the king has seized her). Others confiscated the farms and lands of their townspeople, claiming that all lands belonged to the king. Tributes were increased and vassal towns and villages that could not meet up faced wars.

    The Old Oyo Empire produced some wicked monarchs who wreaked havoc on the kingdom. In a display of naked power, Alaafin Majeogbe ordered his in-laws to be beheaded over his wife’s jokes about his smallish stature when she was scrubbing his back in the bathroom.

    Also, King Aole, ever blood-thirsty, ordered that the chief of the Apomu community be beheaded because he had offended him before he mounted the Oyo throne. Previously, he had sold his best friend into slavery. Later, he tricked his Army chief, Generalissimo Afonja of Ilorin, into waging war on Iwere-Ile, the hometown of the mother of Oba Ajagbo, who created the title of Aare Ona Kankanfo, and warned, with a curse, that any Generalissimo who attacked the town would die. Afonja discovered the folly and rallied other war chiefs to demand that the monarch be made to ‘open the calabash,’ the euphemism for committing suicide. At the point of his death, he cursed the Oyo Kingdom that it would be hit by wars while its people would be enslaved and their kith and kin would coexist in mistrust and disunity.

    Powerful chiefs also oppressed their tributaries. At home, they were terrors. His Supernal Highness Gaa, the Bashorun of Oyo, supervised the liquidation of three kings in a row on flimsy excuses. So were some Aremos (royal first-borns) who displayed a lot of rascality; killing, maiming, and depriving people of their belongings.

    Even, residents (ajeles) of Ibadan warlords also camouflaged as royals and violated the rights of the people in distant Yoruba county, seizing farms, crops, and animals. That of Okemesi-Ekiti, Adepetu, overstepped his boundary when he molested the wife of warrior-prince Fabunmi. He paid with his life. The chain of events heralded the 16 years of the Ibadan/Ekiti Parapo war.

    The inhumanity of monarch to their subjects continued till the days of colonialism. In Lagos, the war between Oba Kosoko and the prime minister, Eletu Odibo, was costly. In the battle for the throne, the head of kingmakers supported Akitoye against Kosoko, who took a woman who had been betrothed to him. A war ensued and Kosoko fled. Then, the Eletu Odibo arranged for the grave of Kosoko’s mother to be dug up and threw her remains into the Lagos lagoon.

    A naive Akintoye offered reconciliation by inviting his elder brother, Kosoko, from exile. It became his undoing. Kosoko waged a successful war, sacking Akitoye from power. He fled to Abeokuta, but Kosoko asked the Egba to send Akitoye’s head to him. They refused.

    But Eletu Odibo was captured in the battle and Kosoko avenged the scattering of his mother’s bones by the Eletu. He placed him in an empty oil barrel, sealed it, set it alight, and dumped it in the Lagos Lagoon.

    In Ile-Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba race, Prince Adesoji Aderemi’s wealth and fame brought him into conflict with the powerful Ooni Ademiluyi Ajagunlaforikan. His offence: he rode in a car on the streets of Ife. It was misinterpreted by foes who claimed that he was parading himself as the Ooni. The educated prince was severely punished. He was asked to prostrate on the same spot from sunrise to sunset. Aderemi endured the pain and humiliation. After the death of his tormentor in 1930, he succeeded him as monarch, and no monarch has been greater in Ife than Oba Aderemi, who became a federal parliamentarian, minister, and ceremonial governor of the defunct Western Region.

    At Efon Alaaye in Ekiti State, Oba Samuel Adeniran abducted a princess, Adediwura, for rituals, apart from tampering with the freedoms of religion, association, and worship. He was tried by the colonial authorities. The ugly event sadly ended the reign of the charismatic ruler.

    In the early 1950s, there was tension between uneducated obas and their educated and enlightened subjects, who rivaled them in politics. Thus, in Oyo, a political quarrel between Oba Adeniran Adeyemi II and a frontline lawyer and politician, Chief Bode Thomas, degenerated. Kabiyesi moved against the promising politician, who died mysteriously. The oba, who was highly respected by his people, was, nevertheless, dethroned.

    There are also good examples to emulate. There was the Deji of Akure, Oba Afunbiowo Adesida, a humble and honest man who could not hurt a fly. His son, Otutubiosin Adelegan Adesida, gentle like a dove; Olubadan Isaac Akinyele, President of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), who was an embodiment of good virtues; the Alaaye of Efon, Oba Lawani Aladegbemi, a Muslim who promoted religious tolerance and harmony in his community; his successor, Oba Dr. Adesanya Aladejare, a scholar of note who is very passionate about infrastructural and human capital development; Oba Omoniyi Abolarin, who has changed the Oke-Ila landscape through his unprecedented philanthropy; Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, a cultural nationalist; the Shehu El-Kanemi of Borno, an astute administrator and humble ruler; and the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar, a defender of the faith and the Caliphate.

    Other traditional rulers of note have impacted their domains with good leadership. The Awujale of Ijebu land, Oba Sikiru Adetona, has rallied all Ijebus for development; the Loja-Oke of Okemesi, Oba Orimadegun Dada, who donated his family land for a secondary school project; Ewi Biritiokun Omoapanajare Anirare Aladesanmi, who left a memorial in Ado-Ekiti; Oba Akenzua II of Benin, who believed in the unity of the Yoruba race; and Papa Adeyinka Oyekan, the Eleko of Lagos, who was held in high esteem by all Lagosians.

  • Obiora Okonkwo: The man Anambra needs for its renaissance

    Obiora Okonkwo: The man Anambra needs for its renaissance

    In a vibrant political landscape such as what is obtained in Anambra State, where tradition meets  progress, one name has consistently featured within the state’s political firmament standing  as a beacon of transformative leadership and that is Professor Obiora Francis Okonkwo. As the All Progressives Congress (APC) positions itself yet again to upstage the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA  from what many may perceive to be its strangulating hold on Anambra State for the past 16 years,  Okonkwo stands out as a candidate who uniquely combines a high level of business knowhow, grassroots acceptance, and an intellectual depth – a rare trifecta the state of Anambra is desperately in need of in these critical moments.

    Now, in an era where states must think and act like businesses not only to survive but also to thrive, Okonkwo’s stellar track record in the private sector naturally thumps the chest pounding of the average aspirant and trust me such a record speaks volumes. As the founder of United Nigeria Airlines, he  has largely demonstrated that with vision and strategic thinking, enterprises within Nigeria can adequately compete in our local markets and even international markets if given the opportunity. His business empire, spanning aviation, hospitality, and real estate, showcases not just entrepreneurial prowess but a keen understanding of value creation and sustainable growth – precisely what Anambra State needs to unlock its vast economic potential and challenge the Lagos, the Lanos and Rivers for national economic dominance.

    What sets Dikeora apart is his proven ability to translate business principles into governance frameworks. His companies by the long run have created thousands of jobs, suggesting he understands what it takes to combat unemployment – a pressing issue in Anambra State. However Okonkwo has always argued that it is not just about creating jobs; it’s about building credible, people oriented and  sustainable economic ecosystems that can withstand global economic headwinds and harness the potentials of that entity for massive growth and development.

    Beyond he’s just being a business mogul, through the years, Okonkwo’s style of politics has been grassroots oriented, his political philosophy harps repeatedly on genuine community engagement and thus whether it was in his time as a member of the Advanced Congress of Democrats,  ACD or the Action Congress where he played huge roles in getting the party then its first and only seat in the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as in the Anambra State House of Assembly where the party nicked 6 seats, a feat the successor party  has failed to replicate in past elections. As we speak, his aspiration is catalyzing coalition talks across political parties, blocs and structures, the only aspirant presently exciting such; a testament to his understanding that development must touch lives at the most fundamental level. Through various community development initiatives, he has demonstrated that prosperity must be inclusive to be meaningful.

    His political movement isn’t built on the usual cursory like transactional politics but on a deep understanding of the people’s needs. Okonkwo has again and again demonstrated  that leadership isn’t about imposing views from above but about listening and responding to the people’s aspirations. His people centric  approach to politics is refreshingly different – it’s about building consensus, understanding the sum of the local dynamics, and creating solutions that resonate with real needs of the masses.

    Another distinguishing factor about Professor Okonkwo is his intellectual depth. With a doctorate in Political Science from the Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, he will be deploying an analytical approach to the business of governance that Anambra desperately needs. His regular contributions to national discourse through articles, speeches, and policy papers demonstrate a mind that doesn’t just understand problems but can articulate practical solutions.

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    Now, In an age where governance challenges are increasingly complex, Anambra will definitely be needing a leader whose agenda will be paradigmatic of the experiences that a new generation of Ndi Anambra and Nigerians seek. Okonkwo’s intellectual thrust transcends just possessing a plethora of certificates and well coloured academic robes; it is largely possessing the ability to blend theoretical knowledge with practical experience and it is this trait that makes him uniquely qualified to lead Anambra into the future.

    What makes Okonkwo’s candidacy particularly compelling for the APC is his embodiment of progressive ideals with pragmatic execution. His vision for Anambra aligns perfectly with the party’s focus on development and innovation. While others might speak of change, Okonkwo has demonstrated it through his various enterprises and initiatives.

    His approach to governance is built on four key pillars: economic development, social inclusion, technological innovation, and cultural preservation. This comprehensive framework shows an understanding that progress doesn’t mean abandoning our cultural heritage but building upon it to create a better future.

    His candidacy represents more than just any kind of political aspiration; it embodies the hopes of a new Anambra – one that can compete effectively in the global economy while preserving its rich cultural heritage. His understanding of both traditional values and modern governance principles positions him uniquely to bridge the gap between Anambra’s proud past and its promising future.

    As the political season heats up, the choice before Anambra State becomes clearer. In Obiora Okonkwo, the APC has a candidate who brings to the table a rare combination of qualities: proven business success, genuine grassroots connection, and intellectual depth. This combination isn’t just attractive; it’s essential for the challenges that lie ahead.

    The question isn’t just whether Okonkwo can win an election; it’s about whether Anambra is ready to embrace a leadership style that combines vision with execution, intellect with action, and progress with preservation. As the evidence suggests, he isn’t just the candidate to beat; he’s the leader Anambra needs for its next phase of development.

    In Okonkwo, Anambra has the opportunity to elect not just a governor, but a leader who can beckon upon the state a renaissance understanding that true development must be holistic, inclusive, and sustainable. As the state looks to the future, his aspiration offers not just hope but a concrete path to progress.