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Category: Columnists

  • That Abuja pity party

    That Abuja pity party

    Nigeria’s democracy is gravely imperilled if we are to believe  a motley collection of politicians who gathered at a conference in Abuja a couple of days ago, to discuss governance and the state of the nation.

    The dramatis personae included former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who headed the failed People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ticket at the 2023 general elections. Rotimi Amaechi who fought unsuccessfully to be the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer had a few choice words to offer. Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was not to be outdone in his dark prognosis about where we are headed under the current administration.

    It is important to state early that all these gentlemen have axes to grind with the Bola Tinubu administration and whatever may be coming from them as criticism definitely had a tinge of bitterness. Atiku, for instance, fought his presidential loss to the Supreme Court and even at the final bus stop refused to accept defeat. His interactions with the government since then have been reduced to hurling of insults.

    On Monday, he painted the picture of opposition parties under siege and made the very grave claim that many were being paid N50 million monthly by the government to compromise them. He didn’t offer any evidence to back his claims.

    Amaechi has never hidden his contempt for the current incumbent, believing he would have made a better president. To make a bad situation worse , the APC in his home state of Rivers has been split right down the middle with his former appointee and ally turned foe, Tony Okocha, now recognised as leader by the national headquarters. This is a branch of the ruling party where the former Transport Minister once reigned as lord and master. He clearly feels like he’s been targeted for political extermination and has in return indicated his hostility towards the new powers in town through his body language and comments.

    At the Abuja conference he once again encouraged Nigerians to grab power by fighting for it, seeing as no one was going to hand it to them on a platter. Three months ago, in an ABN TV interview, he wondered why Nigerians were not more vocal in questioning the tough economic conditions in the country. He said he expected the youths to storm the streets in protest against the high cost of living.

    He said: “I’m angry with the citizens. I have said it several times. You can see a group of people stealing your money, impoverishing you, you cannot buy fuel and anything.

    The people should be angry. There should be protests. Not even protests against anybody but against the politicians that ‘we won’t vote’.

    “That is what people should be saying. The rate of hunger now… if people like us cannot afford diesel, you can imagine what is happening to those who do not have children like us.”

    The interesting thing about Amaechi is that despite living in internal exile in APC he has refused to quit the party. It is clear, however, that his body may remain for strategic reasons, his spirit has long departed.

    It is the same with former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who in the push to the APC convention emerged as one of the key Northern backers of Tinubu. Indeed, there was the much-publicised bromance between the twosome which culminated with the then candidate insisting on him joining the federal government to be formed.

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    As a sign of his contribution to the success of the party, he was rewarded politically with Tinubu backing the emergence of his candidate, Tajudeen Abbas, as Speaker of the House of Representatives – much to the anger of some of the president’s North Central allies in the House.

    The icing on the cake was supposed to be a seat in the cabinet until things went awry. Much mystery shrouds what went wrong to torpedo the surefire ministerial appointment. But from that moment on, the onetime ally turned into a pesky foe, stirring the waters from time to time with snarky comments against the government and ruling party. When he’s not launching the attacks directly, his surrogate and onetime APC National Working Council (NWC) member, Salihu Lukman, is doing the honours.

    Two days ago El-Rufai didn’t disappoint. From accusing the administration of acting like military dictators, to insinuating that there was a deliberate scheme to hobble all opposition parties, to deriding party delegates as illiterates and those they threw up in leadership positions as cunning, he was firing on all cylinders – not caring who was cut down in the hail of verbal fire.

    Not even the spokespersons of the leading opposition parties could have done a better job. Still, he insists he remains an APC member. But everything about him paints the picture of someone who would rather be elsewhere.

    While no one would suggest that democracy is perfect in today’s Nigeria, it is an exaggeration to say that it is in danger of extinction. Recent state elections have shown a marked improvement on past ones. Institutions like the National Assembly are functioning properly. Military leaders have reiterated over and again their subordination to civilian and constitutional authority.

    The government at the centre isn’t using federal might to oppress states whose leaders it has political differences with. Rather, it has been willing to allow the judiciary resolve these differences. Clear examples are the ongoing political disputes in Rivers and Plateau States. The press remains relatively free and vocal. Social media is awash with critical comments and the government has resisted the temptation to inhibit that space.

    So, rather than our system of government being on the brink of collapse, it appears to like the major protagonists at the Abuja conference were mostly singing dirges over their increasingly endangered political careers. Atiku admitted as much by warning his audience that none of them could wrest power from the incumbent on their own. The worry for him is that while this sounds like a reasonable proposition his would-be confederates don’t appear too enamoured.

    One of Nigeria’s worst kept secrets is the ongoing soul searching by the opposition on how best to win power at the next polls.

    Speaking at the Abuja conference, Atiku argued: “Opposition parties must realise that it is extremely difficult to dislodge a governing party, however unpopular it may be and however fed up the people may be with it.

    “Coalition-building and outright mergers are critical for building the capacity of the opposition to achieve that goal.  Our own history and examples from other countries prove that.”

    The foregoing reference to our recent history has to do with the formation of the APC which against all odds uprooted the entrenched PDP administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. That experiment succeed largely because there was conviction on the part of major players that it was the only way to go.

    Those who are hoping to replicate the success of that experiment are already falling at the very first hurdle – agreement on common purpose. The leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano State, has distanced himself from any proposed mergers and fusion, accusing those behind the move of hypocrisy.

    At same event where Atiku spoke, former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, warned he would not endorse any coalition if the motive is restricted to mere power grabbing. He stressed: “For me, what is important is about the country. We must talk about the future of Nigeria. We abandoned the country and all we talk about now is power grabbing.

    “I am not interested in any coalition for the purpose of taking power. It is about discussing Nigeria, how we care about securing Nigeria, about the common people and their education. That is the most important thing in Nigeria for now.”

    In saying this he makes a fundamental error of thinking that a political party is anything other than devoted to getting power. That’s why many still refer to the APC as special purpose vehicle (SPV) for overthrowing the PDP. You can talk about how to integrate the issues that matters to you into a common platform, but in the end everything boils down to grabbing power.

    Sometimes, I am confused as to whether Obi wants to run for political office or sainthood. His rhetoric half the time makes power sound like a dirty word. He wants to  be in governance but a few days ago was making those in government look like a constellation of demons.

    He declared that there were more ‘yahoo boys’ in government than outside. If that was his convoluted way of saying there’s deep rooted corruption in our public service he wasn’t saying anything new. That comment could only have been made to attract more social media likes. What would been significant is if he shared with us a bit about what he intends to about this army of fraudsters if he ever got into power.

    Whilst still languishing in the British opposition wilderness Tony Blair once warned his Labour Party colleagues that no matter how noble their policies were, they wouldn’t be able do anything about them until they found a way to get into office. Up to that point a succession of Labour leaders had foundered in their bid to topple the Conservatives largely because of the perception of the party as being too leftist.

    So, Blair did everything he could to pull his party to a more centrist position; including rebranding it as New Labour. He even ensured that a provision in the party’s constitution that committed it to nationalism of key industries – the so-called Clause 4 – was amended.

    The moral in the Blair anecdote is that a party cannot do any good until it finds its way to get elected. Those who want to make Nigeria great again, or who would have us believe a better country is possible, must first pass the critical test of rallying as unit that’s electable. Otherwise, history will be repeating itself as replication of the 2023 election results.

  • Ganduje and constitution of new boards

    Ganduje and constitution of new boards

    Government periodic appointments into boards of parastatals and other federal organisations to manage the affairs of over 500 small governments needed to implement its policies is critical to the survival of the democratization process.  Unfortunately this process has in recent years become a veritable source political party patronage often secured through intense politicking and lobbying by party members.

    When Buhari’s list – with 209 board chairmen and 1,258 board members – came in December 2019 after over two years of haggling and indecision, he admitted not knowing over half of those on the list including a number of names of individuals long declared dead.

    Last week, following almost two years of delay as a result of bargaining and horse trading by politicians, President Tinubu, according to Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, last Monday approved the appointment of board chairpersons for 42 federal organisations out of over 500 small governments the president needs to faithfully implement his party manifesto. We were also told the president directed the board chairpersons not to interfere with the management of the organisations, emphasising that their positions are non-executive.

    Much as we have no reason to doubt the capacity and the integrity of most of those currently appointed by President Tinubu, what the nation has often experienced after government’s four year periodic ritual especially since 1999, has been an assemblage of deadwood and failed politicians who just wanted to continue to be relevant by continuous’ sucking of government and its resources.

    The president appeared determined to change the narrative this time around. Without prejudice to his party’s periodic ritual of politicking and lobbying, he seemed to have deliberately gone out of his way for those he believes could add value to his administration.

    For instance Professor Bolaji Akinyemi is our nation’s ‘Sun’. A resourceful intellectual, an outstanding diplomat who played a key role as our external affairs minister to end Chad, Libyan and Mali, Burkina Faso wars, Professor Akinyemi was the brain behind the highly successful Technical Aids Corps Scheme, the concept of the Concert of Medium Powers to mediate within the international system. He was a member of the Uwais panel and deputy chairman of Jonathan’s constitutional conference. He was on the side of Nigeria during the NADECO confrontation with Sani Abacha when the likes of Tom Ikimi and Babagana Kingibe sold their conscience by trading Nigeria for a pot of porridge. To bring him on board, the president had to present Akinyemi as Lagos State candidate as against his Osun State where warring politicians like Rauf  Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola  had destroyed the APC over their ego battle for its soul before trading it for PDP, a fact confirmed by Governor Adeleke. 

    Of course, the president’s deliberate efforts did not preclude the emergence on the list of some other self-proclaiming patriots including the likes of Abdullahi Ganduje.  In fact it will not be out place to assume that Ganduje, a man with history of endless political wars, mischiefs and intrigues and for whom there is never a dull moment, nominated himself as chairman of the Governing Board of Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). This becomes a force majeure when it reached the president’s table. In any case, when it comes to party patronage, the buck stops at the desk of the national Chairman of APC.

    The only charitable conclusion is that Ganduje outwitted the president.

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    After all, Ganduje from 1984-1994 occupied various positions within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. In 1994 he was Kano State Commissioner for Works. From there he in 2007 moved on to become the Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission in Ndjamena. Although a full time job, workaholic Ganduje could not resist combining the job with that of the chairmanship of the Governing Council of Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti. A workhorse, he was so dedicated that for his board meetings in Ado-Ekiti, he would first fly from Ndjamena to Kano and from Kano to Abuja from where the vehicle sent from Ado-Ekiti would ferry him down to Ado Ekiti for a board meeting which may not take off until 7pm.

    At close to 77, Ganduje, the national chairman of APC and the recently appointed chairman of the Governing Council of FAAN, has pledged to continue his selfless service to the nation.

    I wish to align myself with Ganduje. With his past record of service to the nation, I have no reason to doubt his competence and ability to do more than one thing at a time. And contrary to his envious detractors from his native Kano, I cannot see any contradiction between presiding over the affairs of the FAAN and meeting the demands of his office as chairman of APC which involve strategies for recruitment of party membership, retaining those so recruitment  and periodic fundraising and internal party governance. For even his political foes, the outstanding performance of his party in Edo and Ondo in recent times was evidence enough Ganduje was on top of his games.

    But for those who hate Ganduje with a passion, I think it is the case of a prophet without honour in his own country. His detractors seem to come more from his own Kano State, where he and his good friend Rabiu Kwankwaso have been consumed by politics of ‘deposition and imposition’ of Emirs, demolition and reallocation of supporters’ physical properties in Kano in the last eight years. Since the duo did not tell us the source of their bitterness and endless war, outsiders think it must have been over the control over Kano resources, a common weakness among our greedy and selfish political elite. Many also consider Ganduje and his warring rivals’ political failures for their inability to exploit their past relationship in the age of innocence before their exposure to great wealth to liberate the people of Kano from pangs of sorrow and pains of hunger

    There was recently a trending picture of Ganduje and Kwankwaso moving around on a Vespa motorcycle on the streets on Kano in the early seventies; many thought that was a relationship both could have exploited to change the fortune of Kano.

    Lagos State Security Trust Fund which changed the face and character of Lagos was first launched in 2007.  Many outside Kano believe that if beyond primitive accumulation, the duo came together to exploit their past friendship to launch Kano Almajiri fund, such could have in three years cleaned up Kano.

    Meanwhile, all hail Abdullahi Ganduje, the nemesis of political foes, un-fearing Emirs and political benefactors who, at close to 77 has continued to ride against the tide.

  • Mr. President, the felon!

    Mr. President, the felon!

    Not many noticed the grand symbolism of the last days of President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024), the greatest after-office US leader ever.

    First, the dead Carter voted Kamala Harris as his preferred future of America.  The  living majority of Americans hugged their racist past in Donald Trump.

    Then, Carter yanked self off Trumpian America — sheer beast sold as macho beauty.  Donald’s might-is-right?  Too crass for Jimmy’s humane soul! It’s a neo-grim world Carter would rather shun, after cohabiting, for so long — too long? — in the old one. 

    So, a few months after a century, he fled!

    But this-twin symbolism the globe near-missed; because like Trump, the man of the hour, they are too fixated with the gross to notice the sublime! 

    Indeed, fleeing the sublime for the gross is the new buzz of America.  But trust Uncle Sam!  He would sell it as some global high culture! America’s decline beckons, though.

    In 1976, a nationwide outrage, over a mere burglary, powered Jimmy Carter to the US Presidency. 

    To finagle a second term — which he did by a landslide in 1972 — Republican associates of President Richard Nixon had burgled and bugged the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters, at its Watergate office, in Washington DC. 

    Enter, the Watergate scandal!

    But a dam of nationwide fury broke — and swept Nixon out of office in 1974. It was desperate resignation to fend off US House of Representatives impeachment and a possible conviction in the Senate. Yet, it was a mere burglary!

    Flip to 2020, and another second term high drama: Donald Trump levied war on the Capitol, to stop Senate confirmation of his defeat by Joe Biden. 

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    He just pardoned his Capitol mob, as he had bragged.  It’s executive outlawry, stupid!

    But one of them, Pamela Hemphill, aka MAGA granny, spurned that pardon: “We were wrong that day,” she insists.

    Between 2020 and 2024, the former president and future hopeful grossed another infamous record: a convicted felon for 34 counts! A smudge of shame?  No!  A badge of honour, to power him back to power as 47th US president!  American wonder!

    In 1974, Nixon fell from a mere bug-and-burglary.  In 2024, Trump soared: as grand conqueror of the Capitol — virtual treason; and as convicted felon. Hurrah! US 21st century Hercules just grafted political and personal crimes to roar back as president! 

    Enter, Mr. President, the unfazed Felon!  It’s the growth and growth of American democracy, in half-a-century (1974-2024)! Should the world now laugh or cry?

    Between election triumph in November 2024 and inauguration in January 2025, there were enough echoes and echoes of inspired outlawry!

    If Trump, the president-elect, was not talking of annexing the Panama Canal, he was dreaming of seizing Greenland (Denmark’s autonomous dominion) — both by sheer force of arms. 

    See why Carter “baled”?  He ceded the canal to Panama in 1977, though the actual handover was in 1999!

    If Trump wasn’t baiting Canada to, by force by fire, become the 51st state of the United States, he was riling Mexico to rename Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America — a sick joke, taken too far, which neither Canada nor Mexico found funny!

    It would be America’s burden — and the world’s splitting migraine — should President Trump walk President-elect Trump’s rather deranged talk! 

    But wait a minute!  He just decreed Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America!  Will he move with equal despatch to annex Canada and Greenland, and also seize Panama Canal? 

    On the home front, the ace felon even pressed his democratic right as convict not to be duly sentenced!  That, to be sure, was blocked, but not before it got all the way to the Supreme Court.

    That the US apex court dismissed that move, 5-4, showed how frail America’s doughty institution had become against ruinous strong men.  In Watergate America, it probably would have been slammed 9-0 — with nationwide outrage to boot!

    Even then, sentencing or no sentencing, the United States just fell on own sword, when the talk is equality before the law.  Trump got New York jury conviction.  Yet, the stiffest sentence he got was “unconditional discharge”!

    So Trump, though duly convicted and sentenced, has been voter-canonized above the law!  Talk of Aristotle that dismissed democracy as a vote by the mob!

    It’s a noxious rub against due process — over which America always crows — that Uncle Sam may yet rue.

    By the way, warts and all, Nigeria’s law permits no felon to be voted as president!  Why, the old geezer already ogles a third term! Republican Andy Ogles, on January 23, in the House of Representatives, pushed a bill to scrap the US 22nd constitutional amendment — limiting presidential terms to two — to gift Trump a third term.

    Again, that failed under Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria.  Will it fly in Trump’s America? Are we then seeing Trump’s own dream “shit hole”?  Ha!

    Still, as every victory often puffs out crumbs of its defeat, every catastrophe too may reveal the seeds of its redemption.  That starts with a Biden-Trump comparison.

    Democrats may well deem Joe Biden a “failure”, in the raw immediacy of crushing defeat.  But long-term reason suggests otherwise.

    Frail Joe is just a decent old man in an America that bawls with proud decay.  But that doesn’t make debauchery a sane choice over decency.

    As President, Biden did his duty till the very last day — for better, for worse.  In his shoes in 2020, Trump fled in a huff, after failing to bluff a loss into a win..

    If in doubt, contrast Vice President Harris certifying own loss, to Trump sending his thugs to “hang Mike Pence!”.  All VP Pence did was choose sacred duty over treachery.

    At the stomps, Harris stayed above Trump’s vulgar abuse and cheap lies.  In the immediate brain-brawn match-up, at the sole presidential debate, Harris soared over Trump — even if the US electorate would vote brawn over brain.

    Back to Transition 2020, against 2024: Trump (2020) goaded even career civil servants to subvert a peaceful power transfer. Biden (2024) was the direct opposite.

    Finally, Biden was there to hand over to Trump — his last, sacred duty.  Trump bolted in 2020!  Indeed, history would be kind to Biden and co, if America is saved from itself. 

    But if it drowns? The deeds of Biden and co would provide enough vignettes to damn contemporary America!

    No wonder: Morning Star, a U.K. tabloid, dismissed Trump 2.0 as the “Return of the village idiot”!  Uncle Sam may wince, but a good part of the globe is smacking at that vicious but apt put down! 

    What, but village idiocy, is grabbing territories in the 21st century?

    The Carter-Biden-Harris coalition — a multi-racial rainbow in which everyone thrives — is the sane future of America, not some racist, fascist, fear-belching MAGA (Make America Great Again), a euphemism for MAWA (Make America White Again).

  • Tax reforms: Lessons in leadership

    Tax reforms: Lessons in leadership

    Many thanks to the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) for dousing the firestorm needlessly stoked by some self-appointed activist-governors, Nigerians can look forward to an expedited consideration and hopefully the passage of Nigeria’s Tax Reform Bills by the National Assembly. Given how the forum managed the process – particularly the broad consensus that came after – based on their communique – most Nigerians will probably still be wondering what the entire fuss was all about in the first place.

    Imagine: now the NGF was unequivocal about the imperative ‘of a modern tax framework in ensuring fiscal stability’; the importance of aligning Nigeria’s tax system with global best practices hence their declaration of commitment to ‘a more efficient and transparent fiscal policy that will foster economic growth and development’.

    Even more interesting is that the governors didn’t appear to have come to the point without some specific ideas of their own: they wanted a revised Value Added Tax (VAT) sharing formula essentially driven by the need ‘to promote fairness and balance in resource distribution among the states’.

    They even proposed a sharing formula: 50% based on equality, 30% based on derivation, and 20% based on population, which, in their view, will ‘bridge the economic disparity between states, ensuring that all regions benefit from national revenue while rewarding states that contribute significantly to VAT generation’.

    Yes; the NGF considers any contemplation of an increase in the VAT rate or reduction in the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) a no-no at this time; they seek continued exemption of essential goods and agricultural produce from VAT to protect the welfare of Nigerians, support household incomes, and to promote agricultural productivity. They even recommend the removal of any terminal clauses in the allocation of development levies to critical national agencies, namely the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) – all in the effort to ensure uninterrupted funding of education, technological innovation, and infrastructure development, which are vital for Nigeria’s long-term growth.

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    To imagine that this is coming from a 39-member body, 19 of whom on October 28, 2024 had all but pronounced on the bills as not only anti-North but actually instructed the lawmakers from their part of the country to reject them– based on their rather specious definition of ‘derivation’ in the sharing formula of the Value Added Tax; talk of a new day!

    Moving on: it is beside the point that the presidency did not, at any point, pretend that the proposals as outlined in the original bill were cast in stone; or as some of the opposing governors would have the world to believe that they came anywhere close to extra-constitutional executive orders or military decrees.

    It perhaps mattered less to some that the president neither dismissed the concerns of the elements opposed to it nor pretended at any point or indicated at forum that the draft bill was perfect. Or that all that the president wanted was that the process be made to run its full course in the finest traditions of law-making and constitutionalism, considering the sheer efforts that had gone into its making, as against the clamour by some to have it peremptorily aborted by any means fair or foul.

    Yes; all of those are apparently now forgotten. As they say – they belong to the past. Hopefully too the role of some leaders, who after confessing that they had neither read nor were prepared to even read the bill – still couldn’t imagine the president as deserving the benefit of the doubt let alone his prerogative to push an issue that could arguably be said to constitute another critical pillar of his economic reform agenda!

    Do we add the not-so-subtle blackmail by one Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State that his beloved North would show its true colours to the president and presidency if they insist on going ahead with the policies despite the outcries?

    “We will show our true colour; we will fight for it. No policy should be imposed on the people because Nigeria does not operate an oligarchy system of government or a military rule.

    “It is not a good policy for northern Nigeria because we are not going to get money to pay workers’ salaries, to do roads. The presidency and federal government must listen to our plights; otherwise, they are calling for anarchy. And that is not good”.

    Those were his exact words.

    Now, the wheels have turned full cycle.  Common sense has been allowed to prevail; talk of another moment to prove why leadership – of an enlightened, focused and effective variant – is neither cheap nor popular. Yes, the same play, which some arrogant and incurably bad actors had insisted must be called off for peace to reign – is back in session and in the designated arena of the National Assembly, which is precisely where it ought to be in the first place! And while it seems unlikely that the team of slow learners will ever admit to making a false call, it seems to me the ultimate test of leadership that the president, whom they have since resolved must be made to lead from behind, is the one making the final call – right in the front!

    Now, the rest of us can only but wonder about what shape their next game plan might take!

    This takes us to the other revelation – which I actually consider more troubling. We know – and the saying is true – that our governors are powerful. And that quite a good number only hanker after the peacock thrones and so cannot be seen to suffer the inconvenience of the daily grind that comes with the responsibility of the office. But that a section of the governors could openly threaten the president for doing the job that he was elected to do, simply because they find some of his policies disagreeable? How about setting new limits in gubernatorial errancy?

    Again, as they say, it is not truly over until it is over. Whereas the governors’ forum may have spoken, it seems early in the day to suggest that the bad faith and the toxic politics that characterised the discourse in the last few months will dissipate anytime soon. Nigerians had better prepare for the mutations of the same toxicity as the battle shits to the National Assembly. It is, after all, Nigeria’s season of opportunistic politics.  

  • Enugu death shrine

    Enugu death shrine

    The Ugwu Onyeama, a hilly section of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, few kilometres to Enugu once again harvested 18 souls, last Saturday. The grim reaper has been reaping bountifully on that axis for over a decade and unless relevant authorities intervene immediately, many more innocent souls will be sacrificed at that shrine on the highway. The roughly two kilometres stretch is ominous, with a steep hill on one side, like a sacrificial altar, and a deep gully, on the other side, turned into a refuse dump. Ugwu Onyeama is suffused in acrid odour, smog, smoke, carcasses, tragic memories and death traps.

    If an action in Tort of Negligence can successfully be maintained against the state, the abysmal neglect of the Ugwu Onyeama stretch of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway should provide a classic justification for the award of humongous damages in favour of those who have lost their lives, limbs and properties on that stretch. But the doctrine of state immunity and the non-justiciability of the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state may provide a duck for federal and state governments.

    But in some jurisdictions, state immunity is abolished, and I wish such a law can be unearthed, in Nigeria. One example is the Highway Defect Statute in Connecticut, USA: “Any person injured in person or property through the neglect or default of the state or any of its employees by means of any defective highway, bridge, or sidewalk which it is the duty of the commissioner of transportation to keep in repair … may bring a civil action.” 

    This columnist had written more than once, about the abandonment of the dilapidated Enugu-Onitsha federal highway, until the intervention of former works minister, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, during the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari. Before then, even when persons of southeast extraction were holding very important positions in the executive and legislative arms of the government, the highway rotted. The highway was abandoned by the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan, who campaigned as the new Nnamdi Azikiwe, with all the promises to the southeast, most of which were never kept.

    Fashola advanced the repairs of that road which seems to have stalled again under Minister Dave Umahi. It is ironical that despite years of political investment in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially at the federal level, the southeast never gained any significant infrastructural development during their 16 years in power. Interestingly, it was during the regime of Muhammadu Buhari, who did not gain the support of the region at the elections that the reconstruction of that highway, the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, and the second Niger Bridge were reinvigorated.

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    Sadly, while one side of the Ugwu Onyeama axis has been substantially completed, the other side in use, yet to be repaired, has turned to a harvester for the death shrine. The anguish of those who lost their loved ones last Saturday, at that ignoble shrine pierces the soul. According to a media report, a wailing victim said that all his family members died in the fire. Another said, his in-law who just returned from overseas, got burnt inside a Lexus with five others at the scene.

    Bread winners, promising youngsters, children and all manner of loved ones, have been sacrificed by the inefficiency of the Nigerian system. What rankles is that several persons have died at the scene of last Saturday’s accident, and yet nothing had been done to abate the public nuisance that the dilapidated road construction has turned into. At a point, a military check point on that axis was contributing to the constant accidents, and appeals were made to the General Officer Commanding 82 Division, to get his men out of the place. 

    The Enugu-Onitsha expressway was started during the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo, and significantly furthered during the civilian government of Shehu Shagari, but had never been fully completed. There are many who believe that the quality of construction was compromised from the beginning, especially with respect to the thickness of the asphalt laid on the road. That perhaps explains why driving along the failed portions, one can swear that asphalt was never laid on them. Those portions look bare and not different from rural roads that have never seen asphalt before.

    The tragedy of a developing nation like ours is that no one bears responsibility for the failure of a governmental responsibility, even when such failure has caused deep rooted pains to other citizens. Those who have compromised their responsibility over the years, whether as political office holders, civil servants or construction workers, which have resulted in the killing field that Ugwu Onyeama now constitute, would never be known, exposed, shamed and punished. They would dust their coats and go to work the next day after each mayhem as if nothing ever happened.  

    This writer has passed that road several times, and knows that if the two sides of the road were motor-able, the accident would not have happened, and should a tanker fall, there would be minor casualties, if any at all. But because only one side of the dual carriageway is functional, there is usually congestion, and anytime an articulated vehicle loses its balance, or control, the consequences are grave. As happened last Saturday, vehicles and their occupants were trapped, when the tanker fell and spilled its content, which became an Armageddon. 

    This writer’s relation who got to the accident scene shortly after the fire was put off, described how the charred bodies, burnt beyond recognition, looked no different from ordinary animals. President Obasanjo in his book, ‘This Animal Called Man’ pejoratively describes man as merely an elevated animal. Those who are responsible for the neglect of Enugu-Onitsha highway over the years should know that their negligence contributed to the deaths at Ugwu Onyeama, last Saturday. If they have any conscience, it should be pricked by the gruesome agony they have subjected the victims and their relations to, so early in the year.

    Hopefully, Governor Peter Mbah would take charge of that stretch of the road, and quickly complete whatever remains to be done. He must not succumb to the usual excuse that the state is waiting for the approval of the federal government, or the assurances that there would be a refund of the cost of repairs to the state. Having shown his competence with respect to state matters, he should assume immediate jurisdiction over that federal road, under the doctrine of necessity, while the details are worked out later.   

    Luckily, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu visited the state recently, he referred to Mbah as a friend. Also, the Minister of Works, Umahi, is a brother, from neighbouring Ebonyi State. Mbah, should tap into that friendship and brotherhood, and ensure that those who lost their lives, at Ugwu Onyeama shrine, did not die in vain.

  • National census this year?

    National census this year?

    The senate appears bent on having a national headcount before the end of this year. Indication of this prospect emerged when the chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Kwarra appeared before its committee on National Identity and Population to defend their allocation in the 2025 budget.

    During the session, committee members took turns to express serious concerns over Nigeria’s continued dependence on estimated population data even as they stressed the imperative for accurate census statistics for national planning. For the committee chairman, Abdul Ningi, the lawmakers will formally engage President Tinubu through the office of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio to discuss plans for the census.

    “Our committee will have to write the president through the office of the senate president to know his view about the plan to conduct the census. We are not going to rest on our oars until this census takes place”, he stated.

    Their preference for the conduct of the census this year is in part informed by the need to avoid holding it next year very close to the 2027 general elections. They cited past experiences when the exercise suffered postponements and cancellation due to their closeness to general elections.

    Kwarra told the committee that his agency was also thinking along the same lines and had taken steps to engage the president on the issue. He disclosed that the president has indicated his preference for a census conducted with biometrics to guarantee its reliability especially given the prevailing security situation in the country.

    He further explained that the type of census envisaged is not just all about enumeration but one in which biometrics will capture the face, the fingerprint and voice of those counted and sought the support of the senate to ensure the exercise comes a reality.

    The concerns of the committee are genuine and patriotic. Though the crucial place of accurate national census has long been recognised, it remained a sour taste in the mouth that past attempts were mired in avoidable controversy leading to the discarding or outright cancellation of their outcomes.

    Our policy makers have not been oblivious of the constraints inaccurate census data pose for national development plans. But attempts to redress the situation through headcounts had come out disappointing as efforts to have credible and reliable census were marred by controversy and disputations bordering on the credibility and integrity of the exercise.

     The United Nations’ benchmark is for countries to have periodic headcounts every five or 10 years depending on available resources and political will. The last attempt at national census since the return to democracy in 1999 was in 2006 during the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo. It produced a population of 140 million people.

    Before then, it was the 1991 census conducted under the military that put the population of the country at 88 million people. Like the ones before them, those attempts were not spared of the acrimony and allegations of figure inflation and manipulation. No thanks to the revenue sharing formula and representation into the national and state assemblies that are based on population.

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    The Muhammadu Buhari administration equally saw the need to give the country accurate census data. But the timelines the regime set for its conduct, raised questions about his commitment to the exercise.  Not a few Nigerians raised eyebrows, when Buhari in mid-2022 slated the census exercise a month after the general elections in 2023 and its pilot program before the primaries of the political parties.

    This column had then raised issues on the propriety of the timing. Writing under the headline “Census in crises” in April 2022, I had faulted the timing on two grounds. The first was the inappropriateness in slating the census immediately after general elections while the other revolved around the prevailing insecurity across the country.

    Fears were expressed that with the cascading insecurity that made it difficult for the federal government to establish firm presence in some local government areas and communities hrence slating the two serially rancorous and combustive exercises close to each other was a clear invitation to danger. It was inconceivable how a national census could hold a month after elections that are usually highly disputed leading to breakdown of law and order with huge toll in human and material capital. Unlike elections which could be gambled with or manipulated and results declared, a national headcount cannot lend itself to such gamble and manipulation without being rendered worthless.

    The exercise involves physical and meticulous headcount of all citizens wherever they live. So, they must be reached by enumeration officers without let or hindrance. It has to capture these vital statistics to be accurate, reliable and to make the desired difference. Such a task would be highly circumscribed in a situation where enumeration officers are prevented by insecurity to access the nooks and cranes of the country, it was further argued.

     The other plank of the argument had to do with the history of general elections in the country often characterised by violence and rancour that may take quite some time to settle. Post-election violence resulting in widespread demonstrations, destruction of properties and loss of lives are regular features of elections that may render any attempt to conduct a national census immediately after a near impossibility.

    But the Buhari government in its characteristic manner never gave any serious consideration to these. That government realised lately, the incongruity in the two exercises holding close to the other when in mid-2023 Buhari announced the cancellation of the 2023 census exercise only to leave it for the incoming government to handle.

    President Tinubu could not have possibly embarked on the census in his first year in office given the time it took to resolve litigations and manage post-election violence in keeping with predictions. The president is about to roundup his first two years in office and there are genuine fears that unless he commits himself to conduct the census this year, that exercise will possibly spill over to the next administration.

    That prospect is very high and seems to lend credence to the position of the senate committee on population on the desirability of conducting the census this year. Next year will be too close to the elections especially as various political parties prepare for their primaries. And the election year is completely ruled out for the same reasons that led to the cancellation of the 2023 exercise.

    But as attractive as the committee’s position is, it appears not to have taken into account extant challenges that may equally constrain the exercise and impugn its’ integrity – insecurity.

    Though the level of decrease in the intensity of insecurity in the country can be argued with varying degrees of plausibility, the fact remains that there are local governments and communities still in the hands of non-state actors and marauding gangs. Borno, Zamfara and Katsina have a host of them. Imo is not left out. And just recently the people of Shiroro in Niger State had cause to cry out about the sovereignty of the bandits within their domain.

    These do not exhaust the list of communities rendered unsafe and inaccessible by the devious activities of a coterie of bandits, insurgents and terrorists. It therefore remains to be conjectured how a national headcount that involves physical enumeration of all citizens will fare in the prevailing circumstance. Travellers are regularly kidnapped, dehumanised and made to pay ransom. Unlucky ones have had their lives terminated.

    Just recently, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released startling statistics on the embarrassing level of kidnapping and ransom payment in the various geo-political zones between March 2023 and April 2024. The ripples of the NBS data are yet to settle. But they highlight the daunting challenges on the road to a seamless headcount.

    It is good a thing the president is interested in the credibility and reliability of the exercise. He is routing for biometrics that will capture pictures, fingerprints and voice of those counted. This is the way to go given the rancorous and disputed outcomes of previous ones.

    Biometrics in a relatively safe and secure environment will make the desired difference by ensuring the accuracy and reliability of data so generated. But it should be a serious challenge to our leaders that elections have continued to stand on the way to credible census.

    It has remained so because of the credibility and integrity issues that dent their outcome. So as the imperative for credible national census continues to worry our policy makers, the serial inability of our elections to pass integrity tests should also be a serious cause for concern. Had our elections been credible and less rancorous, it may have been easier to conduct censuses without much disruption. Maybe we have to get our elections right to guarantee hitch-free and credible national census. But a census this year would seem highly improbable.

  • Tinubu’s northerners

    Tinubu’s northerners

    No one begrudges Bala Mohammed his right to rise, especially now that he eyes the presidency. But he does not have a right to lie. We just need a few morsels of truth from his mouth about some jibes from Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar, who has acted as a frontline minister and an avenger of a bigot.

    He needs to account for two stewardships. One before, and the one now. He needs to cleanse all the charges against him.

    Is it true that in May 2017, the former Minister was in Kuje Maximum Security Prison, facing charges of graft and breach of public trust after an EFCC investigation? Was his son, Shamsudeen, tackled by the EFCC for seizing 10 mansions, many plots of land, and a twin plaza in Wuse Zone 3 when Bala was Minister. Did he award fantastical contracts worth N1 billion? Did he allocate 12 choice plots of land to his son? Did he facilitate a N1 trillion Abuja land swap deal?

    Tuggar is not sparing the man even now in Bauchi where he is governor. Tuggar implies Bala Mohammed is a  land wanderer who goes about scooping up land from the poor. It is his version of Cyprian Ekwensi’s disease for wanderers known as Sokugo in his novel, The Burning Grass. In fact, he has wandered from the poor to the sacred. Now, he is accused of collapsing even a mosque to build a property for himself. He is a bulldozer, just like his Kano counterpart. He does not respect his God. How would he respect the people Allah made?

    Tuggar has exposed the foul farts of a pharisee of a governor. Bala has taken it upon himself to be the voice of the north. But he is a phony voice. He is accusing the president of causing hardships by removing subsidies. Yet, he was on a television show saying that he had asked Buhari to remove the subsidies, even adding that the beneficiaries told him they were tired of benefitting from the scam. He was Abuja minister then, where his successor is making an exhibition on how to govern the city.

    He should be quiet today, unless he goes to doff his hat to Nyesom Wike for repairing all his damages as the chief steward of the FCT. What Tuggar has done is to take Mohammed head-on. Mohammed once said the northern borders should be open because those coming through are his kinsmen. If that is the case, we should do same in the Southwest and Eastern borders and turn Nigeria into a dumping ground. Bala does not care about safety or security. He is an empty, noisy barrel who hears titillating rhythms from his coarse voice. It means he is an irridentist and bigot, a mind closed to the soothing symphonies of fact and social harmonies. A feudal upstart, Bala Mohammed loves the life of plenty without empathy, power as ally of contempt, rhetoric without reason, a cynic in mien and speech with the flamboyance of a man of politics even while he desecrates the house of worship.

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    Men like him, Kano governor the bulldozer and his shadow master Kwakwanso , have been erring. Tinubu’s ministers need to emulate Tuggar. What the foreign affairs minister did was to use a medium that spoke to the people: the radio. It is the ear and sounding board of the talakawa.

    This essayist has, in the past, drawn my readers to the strategy of President Bola Tinubu appointing ministers from the north in the critical areas of the region’s pain and fragility. Recently, Senator Shehu Sani did same, although the areas he focused were security, agriculture and education. But the breadth is even wider.

    We have for security the Minister of Defence, Mohammed  Abubakar Badaru,  Minister of State Bello Matawalle. They will also work with Chief of Defence Staff from Southern Kaduna, General Chris Musa. The Minister of Police Affairs is Ibrahim Geidam. At the head of the security architecture is the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.

    Before Alausa was moved to education, the minster was from the north. But the Minister of State is Suwaiba Ahmad, also a northerner. Another critical area is agriculture, and the minister is Abubakar Kyari and the Minister of State is Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, both from the North. The third critical part is Health, and Muhammadu Ali Pate is the well-known minister in that forte. If all these people do the hard part, the soft and gentle touch is from the Humanitarian Minister and the person in charge is Imaan Suleiman, a northern woman.

    The president has never conveyed it as strategy to tackle the problems of the north. But he does not have to. The men and women ought to take on that task themselves. They are the northern missionaries of the north from the Tinubu administration. They are to feed the poor, heal the sick, guard the weak, illumine the dark regions of the young mind.

    Their tasks are not for the north alone. But they know that, in all the indices, the north lags by a mile behind the South. Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has been at this from the very beginning, asking his region to wake up from its slumber. He is urging his region to rise from its feudal somnolence and turn a kind eye to the poor. He is doing his task as governor.

    But the ministers do not only have to work, they have to act like Tuggar and Governor Sani, and jump in the ring. This is so because of strident voices from that region who want to twist the narrative. They want to give a tendentious lie to the vision of the head of their cabinet.

    They do not always have to contend in battle. They can do with a charm offensive. They can start by trying a northern summit, in which the cabinet members engage with critical stakeholders and organisations, and they can hold meetings to raise and answer questions. It is a northern town hall meeting. The street can fume there, and so the elite can explain to soothe. It should be a platform of understanding rather than rancour.

    Dialogue supersedes demagogues. It segues from bitterness to a listening ear, from that to sympathy, and from that to empathy, and from that to action. As Fredrich Nietzsche wrote, a will to truth leads to a will to power. We have to know first before we act. Every actor of ignorance believes he knows the facts, hence ignorance is expensive. That is why dialogue predates action better than the bitterness that fuels rage.

    The Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, is also a northerner, and he has the machine to roll the idea into a momentum.

    Already they have a lot to say. On security, many need to know, even if they don’t know so well, how much has happened in the last year. How come Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State is back to life after over a decade of deathly fear. Many places that ran into ruins are alive again, including sour spots in Nasarawa, Zamfara, Kogi, etc. Ribadu and his men have a lot to exhale about and a lot to promise.

    We have same in agriculture and health care, and Ali Pate has been doing a lot to tell his story. A story told together in various voices often reinforces itself. They will not just talk, they will also hear. And that is why a town hall or summit will help not only the cabinet’s cause but the north.

  • Afe’s gaffe

    Afe’s gaffe

    Afe Babalola loves controversy, and that is the least quality you expect from the proprietor of a university. Especially when he says things that are not only false, but seem intended to distort and mislead for self-interest. A baba should not make gaffes in public, so much so that the facts can be easily unearthed by his own students. It recalls Fela’s line, “teacher don’t teach me nonsense.”

    He delved into the age limit controversy, and he says universities should be free to admit students at any age.  Many picked apart the bones of the issue when former education minister pegged it at 18. But JAMB under Oloyede says it is now 16 as minimum and it has been so stated in the law since 2013. The old man in Ekiti says we should defy it, and he lies or speaks out of ignorance that it is free in such education powerhouses as United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Australia, etc.

    But that is not the case. In fact, some Nigerians in diaspora who are below 16 who could not gain admission at 16, came to Nigerian universities to do one year, so they could secure direct entry in Canada. Nigeria enables backdoor crooks in education.

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    “To me, the issue of age is a matter of discretion for the university and let me say that we have been doing it here. We have students who came to ABUAD at 15 and graduated with First class at the age of 19 and we will continue to do it,” Babalola said

    He cited individuals, some of them unknown names like Isaac Bari, Yasha Asley, etc. He also referred to former Oyo State governor Omololu Olunloyo as gaining admission as teenager. This is not true. But the cerebral baba gained admission to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland at the age of 20.

    The old man should check his facts. Many universities traffic in age because it is profitable.  There is a growing illusion that exaggerates the idea of a child prodigy. How many child prodigies invented, or discovered, or disrupted the world for good? Not the Bill Gates, or Warren Buffets or the Tina Turners or the Mandela’s or the Shakespeare’s or Achebe’s. As a writer wrote, “genius is a long patience.”  As Maxime Lagace noted, “hard work combined with patience is a superpower.”

    Just as one of those cited by Afe Babalola said: “I am glad that I did not go to college once I graduated because the years I have spent in that interval have helped me mature. I can say I have discovered myself.” This was Ezeunala Ekene Franklin, who could not get into the University of Lagos at 15 even though he scored 347 in the UTME of 2019. He entered Columbia University at 17.

     “Maturity is earned from training the mind, not from aging?’’ said Babalola, but babies spill milk, adults make them.

  • The Meranda revolution

    The Meranda revolution

    Two Mondays ago, the curtains were drawn on the political career of Hon Mudashiru Obasa. By the time of his impeachment on January 13, he was nearly two years into his third term as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, having been elected speaker first in 2015. By the time of his impeachment, too, he had no lawmaker or any godfather left in his corner. He had alienated everyone alienable: the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), which is the highest decision-making organ of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and most portentously of all, his colleagues in the legislature. He had no friends left, and it is doubtful whether he even had any admirers left, except a few roughnecks. Hon Mojisola Meranda, who was elected speaker in his stead, was the immediate beneficiary of the legislative putsch. But it was clear she did not lead the revolt, nor had the capacity to inspire its ideological direction were such required for its success.

    So, by and large, Lagos has in its hands the Meranda revolution, an opportunistic movement that capitalised audaciously on the numberless misdeeds of Hon Obasa, barely a month and some few weeks after he in turn led some sort of a second revolt against the governor. In 2023, he had got the assembly to turn down some 17 of Mr Sanwo-Olu’s 39 nominees for the state cabinet. And last November, he got his colleagues decked out melodramatically like the Cosa Nostra, as they humiliated the governor before and during the 2025 Budget presentation. At the same occasion, he embarked on a lengthy harangue of the governor and other dissenters. His cup full, and the GAC and just about everybody else livid, the powers that be kicked Hon Obasa out during his vacation in the United States (US). He will of course return, but only as a floor member of the legislature, considerably deflated and chastened. The manner of his rancorous politics and open animosity to the governor unfortunately set the stage for the colour and texture of the Meranda revolution.

    Having taken the oath of office, and following the ‘gross misconduct’ of the disfavoured former speaker, Hon Meranda, the new speaker, soon embarked on visits to the power centres of Lagos, beginning with the powerful GAC, and following up with a courtesy call on Mr Sanwo-Olu. A day after the putsch, she and the assembly’s principal officers met with the GAC at the State House, Marina, ostensibly to brief them about the Obasa impeachment, and to secure their blessings. Emerging from the meeting later, she claimed to have received the needed endorsement. Last Monday, she and the principal officers finally visited the governor at the Lagos House, Ikeja, where she called for the alignment of the two arms of government, the executive and the legislature. The governor could not agree more on the need for alignment and rebalancing of the relationship of the two arms.

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    It was important that the Meranda revolution abandoned the legislative belligerence of the past few years under the insufferable speaker who strangely began to see both the executive arm and his colleagues as minions to be ridden roughshod over. But, surely, there are better, cleverer and more mature ways of carrying out the same mission of resetting relationships. The visits, though clearly well-intentioned, should have come a little later than they did, and should have been called in different circumstances. The party, of which the GAC and the governor are members, should have been made to call a high-powered meeting to be attended by all the relevant officials. At the meeting, pledges would have been made without any condescension or airs, and key leaders prompted to make soothing and placatory remarks after a closed-door session.

    Unfortunately, by visiting the governor and meeting with the GAC, Hon Meranda and her team gave the impression of eager subordination to the powers that be, even if that was not her intention. Hon Obasa turned the legislature into an opposition army within an army, and managed in a subtle, if not actually sublime, manner to beguile the public into viewing the assembly as a model, independent and bold legislature. He overplayed his hand, partly because he lacked the subtlety, depth, altruism and most importantly character to inspire and lead an independent and courageous assembly. He saw himself transcending the legislature itself as well as every other organ of government in the state, not to say every other party leader, while in the same breath indulging in Levantine luxury fit only for a monarch – all this in a democracy. It is understandable that Hon Meranda wishes to repudiate such hubristic aloofness, but she has been unable in her first few giddy weeks since the putsch to dispel the impression that she is ingratiating.

    Hon Obasa was too big to need political tacticians and bold and brilliant advisers; Hon Meranda, given her suspect and awkward visits so far, clearly needs even more brilliant and bolder tacticians and advisers than her predecessor. It is important that the Lagos House of Assembly should be the pacesetter in Nigeria in the midst of a depressing field of spineless Houses of Assembly all over the country. Hon Obasa couldn’t give what he didn’t have; it remains to be seen what stuff Hon Meranda is made of. Indications so far are that she may enact many more awkward moments ahead. Yet, even in a legislature dominated by one party, it should still be possible for a farsighted speaker and competent principal officers to lead the Assembly with firmness, even-handedness and fairness in such a way as to raise legislative standards in Lagos and make it nonpareil.

  • Israeli-Hamas ceasefire deal

    Israeli-Hamas ceasefire deal

    In the end, the ceasefire deal entered into by Israel and Hamas was nothing but a hostage deal. It had been in the offing since last May, but it was not consummated until last Sunday, a day before President Donald Trump, who had threatened ‘all hell to pay’ should a deal be wanting, was sworn in as the 47th US president. The hostage deal was essentially, in tone and content, the one presented by the Joe Biden administration, and it is a three-phase deal, with the last two phases yet to be negotiated. The combatants will be lucky to pass the first phase which involves the release of hostages (One Israeli civilian hostage for 30 Palestinians, and one female Israeli soldier for 50 Palestinians) and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza.

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    Given the tentativeness of the deal and the fragility of the Israeli parliamentary coalition, the combatants will be lucky to get to or surpass the second phase that deals with the release of more hostages, negotiation of a peace deal, and complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The ceasefire deal, as tentative as it is, is guaranteed by Egypt and Qatar. What is clear so far is that the scale of destruction brought upon Gaza has not debarred Hamas from recouping its personnel losses, and may even be loth to give up power over the strip. But it lost almost its entire leadership, not to talk of Gaza’s infrastructure. Israel clearly won the war against Iran and its proxies, dealing devastating blows to them from which they will need many years to recover. While Hezbollah lost its nerves (as well as its entire leadership) for being unable to bear the Gaza scale of destruction on Lebanon without risking revolt against its influence, Iran’s regional agenda was dealt mortal blows, and the Middle East changed substantially in ways difficult to remake quickly.