The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Waiting for disruptive Trump

    Waiting for disruptive Trump

    In a little over a week, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States of America, four years after serving as the 45th. He was disruptive in his first term, and bombastic, unpredictable, propagandising, and even apocalyptic in his threats. He will probably be more on his second term, if age has not slowed his body and superficial intellect down. In his first term, he talked down on the Western alliance, Nato, insulted China which he took a personal dislike to, and lauded aristocrats and autocrats, no matter how odious. Even before he is sworn in, he has talked up a storm over annexing Canada as the 51st US state, and taking over Greenland in order to guarantee their protection against unforeseen threats, presumably from Russia. Moreover, he does not seem to think much of the special relationship between the US and Britain.

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    The world remembers the special relationship between the US and UK, particularly as nurtured by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. It is impossible to see any glimmer of that relationship between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mr Trump. Both men contrast in style, elocution, politics and worldview. Mr Starmer is predictable almost to the point of dullness, and Mr Trump is precarious, uproarious, insensitive and grandiose. But it is not only Europe that is apprehensive, indeed, the rest of the world is on a knife-edge, as Iran, Gaza, Syria, Ukraine and Mexico, among others, can testify. How to manage Mr Trump’s brittle ego for the next four years will be both their preoccupation and nightmare. Hopefully they will survive him. In fact, if the US president discovers that four years of his disruptive and explosive politics cannot change the world in fundamental ways, it may dissuade him from overreaching himself.

  • James Earl Carter, an appreciation

    James Earl Carter, an appreciation

    There is absolutely no contradiction in being a very good person and a great politician at the same time. James Earl Carter, the 39th president of America and son of a peanut farmer from rural Georgia, was such a person. He was a decent and humane fellow: caring and compassionate, but firm and principled where and when it mattered. There was a touch of nobility of spirit about him. The outpouring of global grief and appreciation which occasioned his death in late December and burial this past week attest to the fact that the world has lost one of its authentic political icons and moral lodestars. It has been quite a while that virtually the entire world has been united with America in grief and appreciation of a global statesman.

      Let it be noted that the toxic debasement of politics in our contemporary world has turned politics into a most endangered profession and politicians an object of much hate and revilement. But it has not always been like this. In its rudimentary origins, politics was regarded as the highest and most selfless service one can render to the society and to humanity at large. Many philosophers of yore conceived of politics as the principal avenue for humanizing and refining humanity, and for bringing out the most noble and endearing traits about the human species. It may be the case that as the reality of human deviousness and greed kicked in, and as fierce competition for increasingly scarce resources became the order of the day with stronger and more powerful nations and people preying on weaker nations and people, many concluded that the old vision of politics and society is idyllic and completely out of touch with evolving realities. The brutal urgency of accumulation and need to protect what is accumulated often bring out the worst in everybody inducing a more elevated state of nature requiring harsh regulations and restrictions depending on the stage and state each society has reached. It has been noted that if human-beings were angels, there would have been no need for government.

      As we can see from the above, the pollution of politics and the estrangement of the practitioners of statecraft from the very society they are supposed to develop and uplift through the cult of stirring heroism has been long in coming. It did not begin yesterday. It is perhaps the greatest paradox of human civilization. In Things Fall Apart, the classic of pre-colonial communal living in a supposedly idyllic African society, Chinua Achebe paints a graphic picture of how much of what was gentle and amiable about Okonkwo, the hero, had been pressed out by the dictates of a harshly competitive society which brooked no failure and where the worship of power, wealth, prestige and fame was all that mattered.

     The reader is shown flashes of Okonkwo’s old generous and adorable side in his tender and affectionate relationship with his daughter before he was transformed into a monster by his society. It was a pact with the devil. The celebrated wrestler had already witnessed Nnoka, his lay-about rebel father, dumped unceremoniously in the evil forest reserved for failures and social misfits. He did not wish to make a return trip even though Nwoye, his own son, was already showing encouraging signs of ending up a failure like his grandfather. Here, nature and unpredictable genetic configurations steal a cunning match on humanity. No person has as yet been born that can confer subsequent success and sterling achievement on their family.

      Jimmy Carter was one of those few people, moral avatars of the age, who saw the need to leave their society and the world at large in a better state than they had met it. Such rare breeds strive to bring out the best in their contemporaries and the finest sense of responsibility from other nations. He was a visionary of the immense possibilities of humanity despite crippling challenges. Despite the debilitations, the devastations of war and the possibility of atomic self-annihilation, Jimmy Carter was a man of muscular faith, a stout and unwavering believer in human capacity for redemption and the ceaseless self-inventions typical of his own nation, despite its political failings and ethical failures. A man of profound intellectual capabilities, the late American president was no naïve dreamer or idealistic crackpot. He knew what he was doing, where he thought humankind should be and the challenges. The sunny smiles etched against the background of a gloomy aloof visage sums it all up like Antonio Gramsci before him: Optimism of the will and pessimism of the intellect.

     By the time he passed at the ripe old age of a hundred last December, he had already achieved several firsts and distinctions, most of them after he left office and politically posthumous, in a manner of speaking. He had become the longest living American president and by far the most successful out of office. His global efforts as a stellar statesman fighting for the advancement of democracy and good governance, his efforts at eradicating global disease, his quiet demeanour with its understated steeliness, his innate good breeding which made him to refrain from rowdy interventions and unwarranted public censoring of his successors and above all his humanity which knew no colour, creed or caste not to mention his matchless probity and immaculate integrity, have all combined to put him in a class of his own.

      Here departs an authentic leader of the global conurbation; an American president for all humanity and not for his deeply traumatized sectarian enclave alone. Whence cometh another? A visionary sometimes lives to reap the fruits of his costly labour. The greatest lesson that Jimmy Carter has taught the world is that there is life after partisan politics. Put in another way, there is life after political office and office after political life. It is just as well that Jimmy Carter, somewhere down the line, renounced and foreswore interest in material accumulation. He had famously declared that he was not interested in riches and wealth which could have sullied his vision of human society and compromised his integrity. More often than not, you cannot serve God and mammon at the same time.  After his presidency, the frugal and abstemious Carter returned to the same modest house he had lived with his wife who predeceased him in a marriage that had lasted a whopping seventy seven years. It was the longest presidential romance in American history.

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      In all likelihood, Jimmy Carter never really forgave Nigeria for not measuring up to expectations and living up to its continental and global responsibilities. He might have thought that given its humongous natural resources and prodigious human endowments, Nigeria is the natural leader of the Black race with the capacity to serve as a transforming hub for the black race and a Mecca of Neo-Enlightenment. For a moment, there were some propitious stirrings, particularly during the mid-seventies and then a descent into the hell of military despotism with the flickering light of civilian governance brutally snuffed out. But after widespread irregularities and massive electoral fraud benchmarked what was supposed to be a post-military restoration in Nigeria in 1999, Carter, who had personally monitored the election, could not hide his displeasure and left the country sad and dejected.

       In retrospect, perhaps the revered American statesman was being a tad idealistic and politically naïve. Untrammelled despotism, and one marked by widespread murder and savage repression, takes it time to work through a system, particularly one marked by multi-ethnic, multi-religious polarities and countervailing modes of economic production. Despite its economic, political and racial cleavages, America is a far more open and liberalized society than most African postcolonial societies. It was this possibility of impossibility that had taken Jimmy Carter, a virtually unknown peanut farmer with no sterling name recognition and one term governor of Georgia from the rural and rustic precincts of Georgia, to the gate of the White House after the 1976 presidential election when he defeated the incumbent, President Gerald Ford.

      But being an unknown quantity, with its magic of unpredictability and capacity for strategic surprises, also has its drawbacks. The Washington Lobby, notorious for wheeling and dealing and for crony card-shuffling, gave Jimmy Carter a taste of hell. He was very much an outsider in uncharted territory and with his known aversion for anything that reeks of the unscrupulous and shy distaste for deal-making, the former naval officer came a sad cropper. As the economy stalled and became unresponsive to Carter’s kind and compassionate brand of capitalism, murmurs of disapproval and disapprobation came to be heard around Washington and the rest of the country.

     After the Iranian Embassy hostage fiasco, the floodgate of condemnation opened and it was clear that the owners of America wanted their country back, and wanted it to revert to the default setting of messianic destiny and American Exceptionalism. Having been resoundingly beaten at the polls by Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter returned to his Georgian rustic redoubt. It was this dismal denouement that led detractors dismissing him as being more of a successful ex-president than a president. But the truth is more complex and nuanced. Carter might have pushed through more consequential and reform-minded bills than most American presidents in living memory.

      For its aficionados, the sheer beauty of history is the way it unfolds in a strange and totally unpredictable manner giving way even after wars and chaos to only minute incremental changes within the dynamics of its own unpredictable momentum. The dramatic resurgence of radically conservative social forces which led to the ousting of Jimmy Carter in America also produced around the same time the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher in Britain. The shrill no-nonsense daughter of a Methodist alderman put the fumbling and blundering Labour Party led by Jim Callaghan out of its misery. The two ideological soul mates unleashed a brutal programme of Neocon social engineering on their respective societies which brooked no compassion for the weak and poor. Thatcher’s war-cry was that there is no such thing as society. But after twelve tumultuous years in power, the British public sent unmistakable signals of being tired of her divisive and polarizing antics.

      Four and a half decades later the poker game continues as the world arrives at another interesting conjuncture. In Britain, they have just brought back Labour to power after a series of disastrous Conservative governments marked by corruption, public deception and the most unedifying patent of medieval cronyism. And America has just recalled the impossible Donald Trump. In a swift disavowal of virtually everything Jimmy Carter stood for and worked for, Trump has vowed to repossess Panama Canal and to forcibly annex Greenland. If this is a sneak preview, weaker nations and people must brace up. Jimmy Carter was yet to be lowered into his final resting place at that point. After almost six hundred years of unrivalled hegemony, the nation-state paradigm may be coming full circle. We have already seen a preview in Israel’s pulverizing dissolution of the Middle East as we know it. Before things simmer down, there is going to be a hell of caterwauling out there with the possibility of the odd nuclear browbeating. But everything that has a beginning must have an end. May the good lord continue to shower his blessings on this great friend of Africa and the Black race.       

  • BOLA  IGE

    BOLA  IGE

    December 21, 2001

    History Never Forgets

    And enter the gunmen

    one sad and ominous night

    murder’s mandate in every bullet

    Paymasters waiting in the crook

    of night’s arms, eager

    for a convoy of corpses

    And a rude shot put out the star

    in our Christmas sky

    and the shepherds lost their way

    To the Bethlehem of our re-birth

    carols blackened into dirges

    seething every line with the anguish of our rage

    A pall fell on the yuletide feast

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    streets emptied into horrified silence

    markets wore their stalls like absent belts. . . .

    Still we  ask: Where are the fingers that pulled the trigger that night

    Where, their paymasters in powerful places?

    Waiting, still waiting

    The hunchback nation

    Cannot hide its burden

  • 2025 as defining year

    2025 as defining year

    Pundits have relied on political antecedents to project 2025 as a defining year for Nigeria. The next elections will take place in 2027, and the primaries in 2026. To stand any chance of influencing the direction of the elections, opposition politicians as well as the present federal administration will need to proactively shuffle the political and economic cards this year. To win the March 2015 presidential and legislative elections, the All Progressives Congress had to be formed about two years before in February 2013, exactly two years and one month. To stand any chance of dislodging Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the then frontrunner in the 2023 presidential election, his opponents in the APC in fact started their manoeuvres about three years earlier when they unhorsed his man, party chairman Adams Oshiomhole, in June 2020. And to win the 2023 presidential poll, President Tinubu in turn began shuffling the cards as early as 2013 when the party was formed, and in particular from December 2014 when he engineered the presidential primary victory of former military head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, in Lagos.

    This year will undoubtedly be very eventful. Everyone had better brace for high-wire politics. There will be rumblings in the ruling party itself, but the pushing and shoving in the opposition, and in probably a Third Force, should it emerge, will be imponderable. The opposition’s strength is at the moment diffused, but there is nothing to suggest they can’t get their act together sometime this year in order not to perish separately. It will take some doing, though, given the contrasting approach to politics by the two main opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), and their amorphous leaders, ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar and ex-Anambra governor Peter Obi. Indeed, the opposition has belled the cat of the next polls, with whispers as early as sometime last year, and with dissonant bellow since the beginning of 2025. Their zeal for 2027 permutations will not flag. They will be as exuberant as they are vitriolic.

    Meanwhile, Nigerians have a hazy picture of the emergence sometime this year of a Third Force inspired by Nasir el-Rufai, Kayode Fayemi, Rotimi Amaechi, Rauf Aregbesola, and a host of other disgruntled and alienated political leaders. Their success in engendering a formidable Third Force will depend on how fissiparous the PDP and APC become. LP is so gaseous and unstable that few people think it really resembles a political party, and there is nothing ideological or even substantial about the party for anyone to quarrel over. Mr Obi himself maintains a tenuous and dismal hold on the party, and has, aside from his opportunistic and exploitative use of its organs, been a very chary investor in its future. On the other hand, the PDP had been engaged in prolonged bickering before the 2023 presidential election and, more viciously, after their defeat in that fateful poll. They can’t transcend their party leadership squabbles, whether at the chairmanship or national secretary level, and they are unwilling to subordinate their private interests to the party’s future and ambition. And they have so distorted the shape and philosophy of their party that neither they nor anyone else recognises what the party stands for.

    Given his rhetoric so far, and having a keener sense of what 2025 should hold than anyone else, Mr Obi appears desperate to become the leading opposition figure, especially with a vacillating Alhaji Atiku unsure just how much of his resources to commit to a party wary of his leadership. In his controversial and sanctimonious New Year statement, Mr Obi assailed the ruling party, denounced its leadership, accused it of attempting to foster dictatorship, and concluded that the APC was incompetent in managing the country’s crises, particularly the economy. But in the eyes of APC spokesmen, the LP leader obviously ignored the reality of the progress made by the ruling party in restoring the economy to an even keel as well as the freedoms Nigerians enjoy and have clearly taken for granted. Soon, the exchange became bitter and threatening, with Mr Obi alleging threats to his life and his family, and the APC spokesmen also accusing the former governor of slander and incitement. The sum of all this is that in the past few weeks, and believing that the 2027 race is a sprint, Mr Obi has managed to keep posturing as the main opposition leader. But it won’t be for long.

    The doughty Alhaji Atiku never surrenders until it is impossible to go on. He may not reach that threshold of needing to surrender this year, least of all to the flaky and sermonising Mr Obi, but he will keep his eyes trained on both the APC and the main prize, while he sees the noise of the LP leader as a tangential and necessary distraction to flummox their common enemy. For much of this year, the former vice president will amuse himself with the stifling anachronisms of his main contender for the opposition crown, and rest assured that Mr Obi will burn out in his exploitation of religious and ethnic divisions, not to talk of the sinister manner he has indirectly nurtured the Obidient mobocrats in the service of base interests. What is more, he will continue to manipulate the emotions of the people and prey on their fears. Alhaji Atiku may in a limited way possess the stamina to take the long-term perspective in politics, and hopes to flourish this year when it is needed, he will, however, have to contend with his abysmal lack of capacity to run a political party and his reluctance to get his hands dirty in resolving fratricidal differences. In politics, he prefers the clean and jerk, as he demonstrated in the Action Congress (AC) in 2007, and in his first and second attempts at the presidency on the PDP platform in 2019 and 2023. But fortunately for him, Mr Obi is cut from the same cloth in the LP whose dying embers are visible from 10 kilometres away.

    Farsighted politicians, including former governors like Jigawa’s Sule Lamido, are apprehensive of the APC’s staying power and capacity to plot mischief. They fear that in the build-up to the next elections, starting from this year, there will be more defections to the ruling party, and even opposition lawmakers and governors will be more amenable to the wishes of President Tinubu. They suggest that only a coalition of opposition parties stands the chance of defeating the APC in 2027. How to form that coalition and find an altruistic leader to sacrifice self interest for public and party interest will, however, prove exceedingly difficult. Ambitious politicians who take a short-term perspective of politics hardly prove capable of sacrificing anything, let alone the presidency which all of them desperately covet. Opposition leaders have luxuriated in the exciting idea of a mega coalition, as if the very nature of the term is powerful and sufficient enough to gift them the highest office. But the three main opposition leaders, to wit, Alhaji Atiku, Mr Obi, and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) leader Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, have time and time again displayed egotism of the highest order. None of them possesses the needed altruism to bury personal ambition in order to advance a common and nobler cause.

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    If the main opposition parties and leaders are unable to form a coalition, might the putative leaders of the Third Force be up to the task? In theory, they are capable. All of them are, however, aware of their limitations; and having been out of office for some years and are now presumably rid of the egotism that afflicts office holders in these parts, they may be prepared to eat humble pie. They will sacrifice anything and do everything, they say, to erase the president’s self-satisfied smirk. But they lack the resources and mischief which the PDP is capable of summoning for a common cause, and the ready army of charlatans and cannon fodder which the LP can muster at the bat of an eyelid. If they repose hope in some secret financiers angry enough to want to invest in their gambit, they may have to wait for much longer than they think. Today, given the sophistication in tracking movement of funds, as the last election proved to the chagrin of some business moguls, no tycoon worth his name will take such foolish risks of funding the opposition, not to talk of an obsolescent opposition. The Third Force will remain an entertaining option in Nigerian politics, but in 2025 they will be hobbled by a lack of resources and will thus be unable to bite as much as they bark. After all, their feeble alliance is backed not by any coherent ideology but by their common lack of loyalty to a mentor, and by their callous betrayals, ruthlessness and iconoclasm.

    But the ultimate game changer in 2025 will be the economy. If it is revived on time and on a sufficient scale that significantly betters the lives of Nigerians before the end of the year, the opposition will be disarmed, and even soothsayers who have in recent years become less coherent in their predictions for the year and the future will also begin to hem and haw. Like any epidemic that runs its course, Nigeria’s ravaged economy may have inflicted its worst on the people and has in fact begun to mend. Contrary to Mr Obi’s New Year statement, the Tinubu administration has actually stabilised the economy which neared a free fall in 2023. Nearly all sectors are responding to treatment, perhaps not as fast as the people hope, nor as deep as may be needed for a major and consequential impact, but in 2025, the economy is unlikely to relapse into torpor again, since the administration had wisely spent its first two years in office executing nerve-racking and backbreaking reforms. Indeed, nearly all economic indicators are looking up, whether in growth figure or in forex stability, or in foreign direct investment. If the economy keeps looking up in the year, the hands of the opposition will be conversely weakened. And if the global economy does not prove adverse to Nigeria’s economic recovery, the opposition will be hard put to diminish the ruling party’s 2027 chances.

    This year will also witness the ups and downs and the push and pull of insecurity. If the security agencies think a little outside the box, clean up their act, and add more zeal and imagination to their counterinsurgency efforts, Nigerians may actually be witnessing the dying embers of violent extremist groups. Security agencies have admitted that kinetic measures are insufficient to get the better of insecurity, but they and the federal and state governments have not shown enough appreciation of why these groups were birthed and why they have so far largely resisted most countermeasures. Some analysts emphasise the role played by economic factors, chiefly poverty; but other commentators point at the manipulation of religion. Elite irresponsibility in many parts of Nigeria has encouraged all sorts of successful challenges to the state; yet political and community leaders have refused to accept responsibility for being accessories to the breakdown of law and order. Whether in the Northeast, Northwest or Southeast, political and community leaders have been complicit in promoting insecurity and other diverse challenges to the system. Despite the occasional eruptions and last gasps, however, insecurity may finally begin to relent.

    In 2025, the Southwest appears alarmingly poised to be infected by the same malaise that predisposed other regions to various insurgencies. The remarkable secularism of the Southwest is being eroded inch by inch, and mile by mile, starting with seemingly innocuous religious observances and cultures, at a time when many previously theocratic states in the world have begun to recognise the drawbacks of obliterating the divide between state and religion. If they do not take conscious steps to free themselves from the claws of sectarianism, they will inherit the doom other regions are extricating themselves from. Days ago, both the Department of State Service (DSS) and Governor Seyi Makinde raised the alarm about creeping terrorism in the region, with international terrorist organisations allegedly finding a toehold in Osun and Oyo States. The DSS has announced the arrest of a terrorist cell in Osun, and the Oyo governor has also alleged that bandits and Boko Haram militants flushed out from the North are finding refuge in Oyo forests. Domestic terrorists will always find refuge and accommodation in communities that flirt with sectarianism and denude their secularist heritage. The hitherto peaceful Southwest is openly flirting with non-secularists and terrorists, years after herdsmen pillaged their region. Are they gluttons for punishment? They will suffer destabilisation and retrogression if they do not begin to walk back the folly of romancing the politics and religion of exclusion.

    The far North has been reluctant to accept responsibility for birthing Boko Haram and banditry and the poverty the menaces have accentuated, despite the punishing genocide the crises have caused. Soon after the restoration of civil rule in 1999, they scorned the constitution and jumped into bed with sectarianism bordering on theocracy, notwithstanding the advance warnings Maitatsine religious revolts of the 1980s gave them about the dangers of such flirtations. In fact, instead of firmly dealing with religious extremism over the decades, they cuddled it, refused to prosecute those who engaged in mass murder in the name of religion, and pretended as if there would be no consequences. But the consequences came inescapably, and instead of putting out the fire, they at first handled Boko Haram with kid gloves, and then sponsored it until it grew into a Frankenstein monster. They then excused banditry in the name of reclaiming past grazing practices, but had no idea how to deal with what they finally acknowledged was a civil war between the Hausa and Fulani. It is expected in 2025 that the establishment of a placating Livestock ministry would mitigate the violent clashes between farmers and herders. It is not certain why the government hopes that the ministry is enough placation when the North’s complicit leaders have learnt no lessons from their errant ways.

    Overall, optimism will likely remain high this year, as signposted by the oil sector recovery, while insecurity may reduce significantly, the economy maintain its steady positive trajectory on all indicators, including on unemployment and inflation, and hardship ameliorated. The administration will, however, need to sustain these gains by undergirding them with some social engineering measures to reorient Nigerians away from decades of entitlement and undue reliance on the state’s feeding bottles. In the end, each person owes himself a living. Despite the alarms Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi have repeatedly raised about the hypothetical erosion of civil rights, it is unclear whether they can substantiate their allegations or find enough corroborations to justify their hysteria. As a measure of the political stability so far engendered by the Bola Tinubu administration, Nigerians at home and abroad have become fairly upbeat about their country, and they will be even more optimistic this year if nothing earthshaking undermines that hope. On its own, having survived nearly two years of bitter recriminations by the opposition, coup instigators, and rash of protests, the administration may have begun to understand that no positive achievement will be enough to dissuade opposition parties and a section of Nigeria’s regional elites from plotting its defeat in the next elections. But before 2025 is over, many pundits who have for months been unable to see the wood for the trees, partly because they have also become partisan, should more competently be able to determine how this year would impact the events of 2026 and particularly 2027.

  • John Mahama’s second coming

    John Mahama’s second coming

    Nigeria has a lot to learn from Ghana. In the last two decades, the country has savoured credible, transparent and democratic elections that have rekindled citizens’ faith in civil rule.

    No political process is perfect, but some enduring democratic features, if emulated, could consolidate popular rule. That has been the experience of the 68-year-old independent country.

    Of course, Ghana also has many things to learn from Nigeria. Under the corrective Tinubu administration, Nigeria is taking bold socio-economic reforms that would yield enormous dividends across the sectors for the citizens.

    Unlike in Nigeria, the key political actors in Ghana have invested confidence in the electoral process and its capacity to throw out and throw up leaders. This underscores a level of democratic maturity. The implication is that the institution is developing and waxing stronger, and the virile political culture is stable with minimal tension.

    Ghanaians have learnt to restrict the battle for presidential power to the ballot box, instead of filing frivolous petitions at tribunals or courts against rivals after the polls, despite the substantial compliance with the Electoral Act, the constitution and due process. Those who lost elections in Ghana have not resorted to vulgarity and uncouth language, unlike in Nigeria where sore losers become vindictive and pedestrian.

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    The masses, who constitute the majority of voters, are conscious of their obligations to themselves and the country. Thus, if a ruling party misbehaves, its misdemeanour is not overlooked. It would face a severe penalty on polling day. There is no remedy. The opposition takes its place.

    Sixty-six-year-old John Mahama, who bounced back during the week as Ghanaian leader, had seen the ups and downs of politics in his country. He has passed through the process that threw him up, rejected him, and reaccepted him.

    As vice president, he succeeded the lawyer and scholar, Prof. Atta Mills, who died in office. After spending the residue of the tenure, he contested for the highest office and won. But, he was rejected four years later because he failed to meet public expectations.

    After failing at the poll, he never rocked the boat. He accepted defeat, returned to the drawing board, strategised, and kept hope alive. Eight years later, he threw his hat into the ring and defeated former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s anointed candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

    It is interesting that the candidate of the ruling party also accepted defeat. He put the nation first instead of dragging his people into a crisis or invading social media with miscreants to discredit or pull down the process.

    The Ghanaian President was barely two years old when the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah governed with a latent ambition to make his country a model in Africa. A nationalist and an ideologue, Nkrumah felt he could make progress under a one-party system. He set Ghana on the path of steady progress. However, the first Ghanaian President was not sensitive to the overly ambitious and murderous soldiers of the time. When Nigeria’s Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was violently toppled and killed on January 15, 1966, Nkrumah lampooned the Nigerian incident. A month later, the same tragedy befell him while he was outside the country.

    Like Nigeria, the military started to toss Ghanaians around. There were harvests of coups and counter-coups among top military officers – Joseph Ankrah, Akwasi Afriffa, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, and Jerry Rawlings – leading to intermittent displacements of civilian rulers, like Kofi Busia and Hilla Liman. The country started enjoying stability from Rawlings through John Kufuor to Mills, Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo.

    Yet, during that period, Ghana continued to play a leading role in the African Union, formerly the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and in mediation and conflict resolutions in Nigeria. During the civil war, General Ankrah hosted the Nigerian Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, and the Biafran warlord, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, for a peace conference.

    But Ghana ran into economic turbulence from the late 1970s to the late ’80s and many able-bodied youths – professionals and other experts – fled the country. Many stormed Nigeria to eke out a living. They were industrious and never violated the rules of descent where they sojourned. It was ironic. In the 1950s and 1960s, many Nigerians who had relocated to the Gold Coast came back with fortunes, skills and opportunities.

    But Ghana soon lapsed into decay, mainly created by political adventurism. As the topsy-turvy reared its ugly head, Jerry Rawlings led a blind and bloody revolution, sweeping away past leaders who allegedly contributed to the economic and political adversity. Rawlings and his Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) first ruled for 112 days and arranged the execution by firing squad of eight military officers, including Generals Kotei, Joy Amedume, Roger Felli, and Utuka, and the three former heads of state – Acheampong, Akuffo, and Afrifa.

    Opinion is divided on the violent approach. Many leaders across the world condemned the execution. Ghana, it must be noted, took off from that clean break from the past.

    As from 2000, Ghana started rebuilding. It tried to embrace international best practices in re-setting its critical sectors. The country attempted to curb corruption. It also fought an infrastructure battle with a measure of success. Security of life and property became a priority. Its education sector became a reference point to the extent that many Nigerian parents started sending their children to schools in Ghana, and, above all, the sanctity of the ballot box was restored.

    On account of these, some investors tried to turn attention to Ghana; a few relocated to the country. Although the size of the Ghanaian economy could not surpass the potentials of what Lagos State had, Ghana, a country of four main regions and other settlements, appeared more serious to teach Nigeria a few lessons. It was because Ghanaian leaders attempted to build, rebuild and strengthen their institutions, particularly those of democracy. Instructively, when he visited Ghana, former United Stpates President Barack Obama, who never visited Nigeria, urged Ghana to sustain the tempo. He fired salvos at Nigeria, which he dismissed as a country of graft.

    With the situation today, Mahama could be said to be returning to an unfinished business in a country that is full of hope. He is returning to power and to a big responsibility. There is a need for him to build synergy with the parliament, whose cooperation he will need to drive his reforms. The legislature and the executive should cooperate and achieve more for the country but must be guided by the principle of separation of powers and the accompanying checks and balances.

    The country has not been insulated from the hard times. Incomes are shrinking. Towards the end of last year, inflation in Ghana rose to 23.0 per cent.

    In the past, the country suffered from military coups, political instability and jihadist insurgencies. Now, an economic crisis is staring the people in the face. The number of the jobless is soaring in geometric proportion. The nation thirsts for economic and constitutional remedies.

    Expectedly, Mahama, having dissected the challenges, has also proposed solutions to guide his policies and programmes in the next four years. The four critical areas of his administration are economic restoration and stabilisation, improvement of the business and investment environment, governance and constitutional reviews, as well as accountability and war against corruption. It means that the critical infrastructure for guaranteeing the ease of doing business should be in place. These include stable electricity, a modern road network, investment-driven policies, equitable justice, and the absence of political tension.

    The Ghanaian leader is not inheriting a dilapidated economy, despite the long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the peculiar cost-of-living crisis, the resort to bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the sovereign debt default.

    Being an experienced president in whom much trust and confidence have been reinvested, Mahama would be under pressure to deliver on his campaign promises. The onus is on him to restore trust in government.

    Africa, with its vast arable land, should not be hit by food shortages or inflation. The neglect of agriculture is proving costly to the continent. Africa needs to have a deliberate programme designed to boost agriculture. Food security should be prioritised in the overall consideration for a comprehensive national security programme. Mahama should bear these imperatives in mind.

    Nigeria and Ghana have cordial relations which predated the pre-colonial days. It should be sustained. Ghanaian and Nigerian leaders should defend democracy in Africa and continue to insist that coups are old-fashioned and military regimes are outdated.

    In the days of colonialism, Nigeria and Ghana were a pair in the struggle for independence. Successive leaders of the two countries have maintained cordiality. It was, therefore, sad that a few years ago, many law-abiding Nigerians resident in Ghana became victims of inexplicable, subtle, persistent and violent xenophobic maltreatment.

    In particular, Mahama has personal ties in Nigeria. He has been hosted by four towns – Offa, where he is a chief; Ilorin, where he has delivered a convocation lecture; Ado-, where he has fans in the government and among other Ekiti notables; and Lagos, where he is perceived as a friend of Bourdilion, the power house and indomitable centre of influence.

    The Ghanaian President is endowed with interpersonal skills. He is affable and his attitudes generate unconditional positive regard to many statesmen on the African continent and beyond, as evident in the attendance at his inauguration as the country’s 12th president. The diplomatic friendliness could be rewarding in boosting cordial relations

    Many Nigerians wish him success, hoping he would not allow any crack in his administration. Besides, Nigerians pray for him not to have a gulf between his people’s expectations and the realities that lurk in the corners of inevitabilities in the next four years.

  • PBAT, hunger and the fierce urgency of now (1)

    PBAT, hunger and the fierce urgency of now (1)

    It is unsurprising that perhaps the key and most urgent goal of the President Bola Tinubu administration for 2025 is to reduce the inflation rate from the current 34.6% to 15% and especially to effect a drastic cut in the existentially threatening prices of staple food items and essential drugs. The removal of the fuel subsidy as one of the administration’s main economic reform planks in May last year had led to a spiralling of pump price of fuel with associated consequences for transport costs and the escalation of prices of basic food items such as garri, yams, bread, rice, beans, vegetables, tomatoes, eggs, groundnut oil, bananas among others beyond the reach of millions of Nigerians.

    While the administration and many economic experts believe that the elimination of the fuel subsidy and the merger of the hitherto existing parallel exchange rate markets are necessary surgical economic policies which are in the long run interest of the economy, the short term effects are excruciating and President Tinubu is right in according priority to urgently easing the pains being borne by the vast majority of Nigerians. For, as the great economist, John Keynes, famously observed, in the long run we are all dead.

    Understandably, elements of the opposition, most of whom are yet to come to terms with the outcome of the 2023 Presidential election, the most bitter in our political history, blame Tinubu’s policies for the cost of living hardships. They have even dubbed the President as ‘T-Pain’ depicting one who takes sadistic pleasure in inflicting agony on others. It does not matter to them that all the major candidates promised to remove the subsidy during the campaigns with Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party emphatically asserting on national television that he would do so “on day one”.

    Those who heap all the blame for our current economic travails on the Tinubu administration are also unconvinced that the economic challenges we confront today, the country’s continued debilitating romance with poverty, backwardness and underdevelopment, are inevitable fallouts of the persistent dysfunctional policies of successive post-independence administrations that have kept the economy disarticulated, dependent, stunted and unproductive. But for short periods such as the mid 1970s to early 1980s when the country experienced the so-called oil boom or the early 1990s during the windfall from oil revenues as a result of the gulf war, for instance, the majority of Nigerians have lived in penury and hardship despite the country’s abundant resource endowment.

    It is however in the nature of politics that if the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had been in opposition, it would most likely have also put whatever government was in power on the defensive in a similar manner. Rather than listen to ‘stories’ from the administration, most people want to see the impact of concrete policies that ameliorate their materially enervating conditions. Hence, PBAT’s avowal in his New Year message that “In 2025, our government is committed to lower these costs by boosting food production and promoting local manufacturing of essential drugs and other medical supplies”.

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    Indeed, as far back as June last year while speaking as a special guest at the 142nd meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in Abuja, in an indication of the fierce urgency his administration attached to the hunger question, the President called on governors to embark on massive food production in response to rapidly rising food prices. Since state governments control the land, he asked the governors to consult on how to achieve food affordability and revert to him within seven days. In his words, “Time is humanity’s most precious asset. You can never have enough of it. It is getting late. We must produce the food our people eat and it will require coordination and intentionality between members of the NEC”.

    It was obviously in recognition of the need to urgently bring down food prices that the administration announced the waiver of import duty as well as zero  per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on basic food items, a policy which was supposed to last between July and December last year. The food items covered by this policy included maize, husked brown rice, wheat, grain beans and millet. A memo from the federal Ministry of Finance on the policy stipulated that “The importation of these items shall be limited to investors with  milling capacity and a verifiable backward integration programme for some of the items”.

    Surprisingly, despite the high expectations engendered by this policy announcement, it was not implemented within the specified timeline. Consequently, the phenomenon of food inflation worsened. A 50kg bag of rice, for instance, that cost about N30,000 before the fuel subsidy removal, rose to N100,000. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and at least 19 other states reportedly recorded food inflation rates above 40 per cent in 2024 while the country’s food inflation soared to 42.29 per cent by November last year.

    By December last year, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Organized Private Sector (OPS) decried the inexplicable non-implementation of this policy, which would have gone a long way to cushion hardships associated with unaffordable food costs. Actualizing this duty waiver policy on essential food items at least in the first quarter of this year will be imperative to achieving the goal of significant reduction in food prices. The increase in allocation to agriculture from N362.94 billion in 2024 to N825.6 billion in the 2025 budget illustrates the seriousness accorded the sector by the administration. If the equally substantial enhancement of the allocation to security in this year’s budget helps to consolidate on current substantial gains in safety of lives and property across the country, this will also positively impact food productivity.

    PBAT no doubt recognizes that no meaningful progress can be made towards achieving higher food production and consequent lower prices without the active involvement and participation of the state governments and local government councils. This must have informed his attendance at the NEC meeting referred to earlier to mobilize the support of the governors. Shortly after that interaction between the President and the governors, the Southwest Governors Forum under the Chairmanship of the Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced that the six states in the region would work in concert to massively boost food production there.

    Unfortunately,  not much has been heard or seen of this joint action plan since then although some of the states have been making impressive strides in boosting agricultural productivity. A clear forerunner in this regard is the Ekiti State governor, the unassuming, ever modest but silently achieving Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji. Some of the landmarks recorded in Ekiti in agriculture under Oyebanji’s leadership include the establishment of Ekiti State Agro Marshalls to secure farmlands; clearing and ploughing of about 1000 hectares of land for 400 farmers under the tractorization subsidy scheme; disbursement of N177,937,500 for land clearing under the Youth in Agriculture Scheme; engagement of 913 youths on different crops cultivation under the Bring Back Ekiti Youth to Agriculture partnership with YSJ Farm Limited; the laying of pipes for farm irrigation at Erifun, Ado Ekiti and the completed or ongoing construction work on no less than 23 critical rural road projects linking farming communities to urban markets.

    In an interview with one of this newspaper’s columnists, Abiodun Komolafe, governor Oyebanji said, “Interestingly, we’re renovating most of Awolowo’s farm settlements in the state. It’s remarkable that Awolowo had such vision back then, and it’s our duty to build upon his legacy. Building on our existing efforts, we plan to establish six more farm settlements across Ekiti in 2025. This expansion will not only provide decent accomodations for our over 1000 employed youths in the sector but also enable them to live on-site, work efficiently and earn a decent income”.

    But there is ultimately no alternative to the six states in the Southwest coordinating their efforts to leverage on their strengths to massively mobilize and empower youths in the region to take advantage of abundant fertile land and favourable climate to engage in massive food production. And the same goes for the country’s other geopolitical zones. Incidentally, the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has deemonstrated, through her Renewed Hope Initiative Agricultural Support Programme, how the energies of diverse segments of the population can be harnessed and channelled towards the goal of achieving higher food productivity. One strand of her agricultural support scheme is the Identification, training and empowerment with N500,000 each of at least 20 farmers in each of the six geopolitical zones to produce, cultivate and preserve different food crops.

    There is also the Renewed Hope Initiative ‘Every Home a Garden’ competition through which women are encouraged to plant a garden at home with the aim of ensuring the availability of food in every home. The initiative’s slogan is “#FoodOnEveryTable” and the winner goes home with N20 million. The Renewed Hope is partnering with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources to identify, train and empower young farmers and 75% of these will be female and 25% male farmers. There is also the Renewed Hope tant Initiative Food Outreach through which food staples such as rice, beans, spaghetti, garri among others are distributed to widows, people with disabilities, special schools and other vulnerable groups across the country.

    The drive to produce food massively and thus banish hunger in Nigeria must be prosecuted as an all out war in which failure or defeat is not an option. The federal government, sub national units, schools, non-governmental organizations, religious bodies, military and para military organizations including the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) can be mobilized to achieve this objective within specified timelines. The increased Naira revenues accruing to state and Local government councils in the wake of the removal of fuel subsidy should be utilized to strengthen agricultural productivity. True, the Tinubu administration has sustained and improved on the attainments of the preceding President Muhammadu Buhari administration in diversifying the economy and enhancing agricultural performance.

    Despite the persistence of degrees of insecurity in some conflict-afflicted parts of the country, experts report a measure of improvement in crop harvests in 2024. Yet, transportation of perishable food items from areas of production to market destinations remains a logistical nightmare with the resultant large scale food spoilage. The problem with Nigeria is certainly not food scarcity but how to get agricultural produce to designated markets on time and at affordable costs.

    The Nation newspaper columnist, Sanya Oni, makes a pertinent point in this regard when he notes that “the other lacuna that has remained somewhat intractable is a reliable and efficient system of logistics on which  our hordes of farmers can count on… Here’s my candid advice on the matter: our old, disused, rail network might seem obsolete for moving people in this day and age; there  can be no denying its utility in moving cattle and produce particularly in the circumstances that the country has found itself. With good thinking, right investment and proper management, Nigerians might yet discover the gold on those old tracks”. This makes eminent sense to me and I hope the Ministers of Agriculture and Transportation can explore the possibilities of this suggestion.

  • Chelle, e don shelle!

    Chelle, e don shelle!

    I’m not joking. Nigeria sincerely needs foreigners to run our football house since it appears that is the only way the game can improve on the pitch. In fact, in the last two decades, every succeeding NFF board has been worse than its predecessors. If anybody or a group of people can toy with the recruitment of a former Mali manager for the Super Eagles, it is only fair for them to tender their resignation letters when it becomes obvious that Nigeria’s flag won’t be hoisted among the comity of nations at the 2026 World Cup.

    NFF chieftains need to be told that the game of football is part of our national assets. They are simply the vehicle used to celebrate it, not to debase it. Any bad policy introduced by the NFF to serve as the cog in the game’s progress shouldn’t be allowed to give over 170 million Nigerians heartaches. Everything comes to a halt whenever our soccer is in the doldrums. Step out from wherever you are deep into any Super Eagles game; you would be confronted with desolate streets and several sections where Nigerians, especially kids, scramble to watch the game through the windows while some others mount tree tops and high platforms to watch the matches.

    When Nigeria wins, the streets erupt into frenzy with the youth blaring the horns of their vehicles, motorcycles, and all manner of noise crackers in celebration. Need I describe how these groups walk away in pain and agony if things go awry? Hence when the NFF insults our sensibilities with tunnel vision decisions such as the Eric Chelle appointment, not a few people would ask how they arrived at the decision.

    The NFF can’t spend the last 11 months or more teasing us with the thoughts of recruiting a world-class coach only to throw up Chelle as the choice. The immediate question to ask NFF is if Chelle will be able to lead us to compete for the World Cup with the best nations at the Mundial if Nigeria qualifies. Did I hear you say, Chelle, e don shelle? How would passionate football lovers be told not to express their disappointment at the choice of Chelle simply because NFF eggheads picked him? Pray, in the event of Nigeria drawing the bigger boys at the Mundial in 2026, these jesters running the game in Abuja would throw a debate to consume Chelle, allowing the NFF to conduct another search for a world-class coach, not what they have served for us now.

    One had thought that the federation would have allowed Chelle work with qualified Nigerian coaches in the other national teams, not what they have done by shutting out our domestic league coaches from the national teams. Nigeria is the only country where her national teams’ pattern of play isn’t identical. Sit down to watch serious football countries play the game and you will see a semblance of play directly impacted by the different soccer federations’ officials. Not so with Nigeria. Our officials, sadly, only think after they have taken decisions.

    What is this diabolic justification for Eric Chelle’s appointment by reminding us that he took a huge pay cut to accept the Nigeria job, as if he didn’t apply for the job? If he did, who cares if he earned more cash coaching the Algeria club? If the NFF people knew their onions, they would spare us this club versus country payment structure? Only an insane person would see the Super Eagles and not jump at it.

    Truth be told, what did this coach achieve when he handled Mali at the last edition of AFCON? Is it because he is French? Would it shock anyone if this manager comes with another Frenchman who speaks passable English as if we don’t have Nigerians who speak eloquent French? The argument that Chelle is Malian is bunkum since his father is French while his mother is Malian.

    Indeed, likening Eric Chelle’s Nigeria appointment to what Mali offered the late Stephen Okechukwu Keshi to handle the Malians from 2008 to 2010 is treachery. Keshi’s profile reached its zenith after he qualified Togo for the 2006 World Cup which could have earned him the same job in most European countries if he wanted to enlarge his scope. Keshi was an international icon both as a player and coach.

    What Eric Chelle’s employment portends is that the NFF doesn’t regard Nigerian coaches. Otherwise, how could Nigerian coaches have laboured through the CHAN qualifiers to get the qualification ticket only for Eric Chelle and his three assistant to arrive the country tomorrow to sweep them aside? Is that how the Ibrahim Gusua-led NFF wants to develop the domestic games and its coaches? Who does that? What would be the justification for removing the two coaches Fidelis Ilechukwu and Daniel Ogunmodede outside the fact that they are Nigerians? Isn’t it time the government also recruits European technocrats to run the NFF as a business concern, and not as a platform to humiliate Nigerians craving for excellence using our national teams as a point of greatness in the world? What a pity!

    “We have come out with the policy that whoever we employ as the Super Eagles coach will also be the one to manage the affairs of the CHAN Eagles,” Gusau said in an interview.

    Who does Gusau think he is impressing with this impolite statement if home grown coaches can’t aspire to greater heights? What is the essence of developing the game at the grassroots if its products can’t find employment at higher grounds? Where is it written, my dear Gusau, that Nigeria must win the competitions that she participates in? If there was such a mandate, the NFF would have long been replaced with European technocrats.

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    Who has told Gusua and his members that drafting Chelle and his three assistant coaches to CHAN squad would guarantee Nigeria the trophy?  What would be consequences of this dastardly decision if Chelle fails?

    Would the federation not have done a great disservice to Ilechukwu and Ogunmodede? If Gusua is in a hurry to test Chelle’s tactical savvy, the NFF should arrange a number of friendly matches instead of robbing Ilechukwu and Ogunmodede to pay Chelle.

    Indeed, the National Sports Commission (NSC’s) hierarchy should appeal to Gusau to allow the two home-based coaches lead the CHAN squad through its campaign next month. Chelle can wait until after this edition to start superintending over the CHAN team. Let’s give unto Ceasar what is his. Shouldn’t it occur to the NFF to use Chelle’s employment as a basis for training and retraining of our younger coaches across the country?

    Nigeria’s first of six games left in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers is against Rwanda in Kigali on March 17. If the NFF had recruited a top-notch coach, he could easily get one or two closed door games against teams whose managers he knows. This poser raises the question of how influential Chelle is as a coach in France.  If we are not careful, the Super Eagles won’t play any friendly game before the March 17 game in Kigali against Rwanda.

    But that is if the NFF has offset the debts owed the players since 2020, we have been told. Yes, this raises the poser of how Chelle is rated as a coach in France?

  • On Father Obimma’s ultimatum to Soludo

    On Father Obimma’s ultimatum to Soludo

    In a dramatic escalation of public discourse over Anambra State’s security challenges, the state government has entered into a heated public confrontation with prominent Catholic priest Reverend Father Emmanuel Obimma, also known as “Ebube Muonso.”

    The controversy erupted after Fr. Obimma’s New Year homily, in which he issued an ultimatum to Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo: address the mounting security crisis or resign from office. The Soludo administration instead of  responding with facts rather gave a  disproportionate response which  has sparked a heated debate about the state’s approach to public safety and governmental accountability.

    In his homily, Father Obimma, the spiritual director of Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry Uke, characterized the security situation in Anambra as “horrible” and demanded immediate action from the state government. The priest’s intervention comes amid a troubling surge in violent crimes across the state, particularly during December 2024, with Governor Soludo’s administration appearing unable to contain the situation.

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    The final month of 2024 witnessed several high-profile incidents that rattled the state’s residents. Notable cases included the kidnapping of Honourable Justice Azuka, a lawmaker representing Onitsha North 1 State Constituency, on Christmas Eve. Two days later, the community was shocked by the brutal murder of Father Tobias Okonkwo, a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Nnewi, in the Ihiala area. The crime wave continued with the kidnapping of three senior staff members from Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company in Nnewi, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

    “As you can see, people are dying every day and he (Governor Soludo) is not doing anything,” Father Obimma declared, pointing to the governor’s statutory role as the state’s chief security officer, with the primary agenda of security of life and property. The priest particularly criticized the allocation of security votes, questioning their effective utilization in addressing the deteriorating situation.

    The spiritual leader’s criticism extended beyond immediate security concerns, challenging Soludo’s adherence to his campaign promises, notably his pledge to transform Anambra into “Dubai.” In a pointed remark, Father Obimma stated, “This is not time for using his media warriors to blow his trumpets. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.”

    Rather than merely criticizing, Father Obimma proposed a collaborative approach, urging the convening of a security summit to pool ideas and resources in combating the rising insecurity in Anambra.

    The response however from Governor Soludo’s camp was swift and terse but lacking in substance. These responses appeared more focused on attacking Father Obimma’s personality than addressing the substance of his message. Even if the criticism had rattled the Soludo administration, a more measured response based on facts would have been appropriate. Labeling Obimma a hypocrite and pretender has not sat well with the public, particularly Catholics, especially given that Soludo had previously sought the priest’s blessings during his campaign, even describing him as a true man of God. The administration’s quick shift from praise to condemnation because of legitimate criticism portrays it as heavy-handed and resistant to accountability. I mean when did Soludo and his coterie of media handlers discover Obimma hypocrisy? When Soludo knelt down in the course of receiving clerical blessings while he sought to be governor, was Obimma’s hypocrisy  either veiled or latent then and only now that Obimma has taken to criticising Soludo did it dawn on him that Obimma was indeed a hypocrite?

    Soludo and his media handlers, understanding the power of the pulpit, appear rattled by Father Obimma’s criticism. Given that Anambra is a deeply religious state where clerics like Obimma are highly respected and could go on to  influence Soludo’s re-election prospects, the administration’s harsh tone is understandable, since it very much needs to discredit a critic like Obimma, though it has likely diminished their standing among Ndi Anambra.

    This is not the first time the pulpit has confronted political authority. Previous instances include Father Mbaka’s criticism of former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani in Enugu, the Catholic Church’s opposition to the late Chinwoke Mbadinuju, and Ikedi Ohakim’s confrontation with the Church, which contributed to his electoral defeat in 2011. The outcome of this current confrontation will be closely watched by Ndi Anambra and Nigerians alike.

    As this public confrontation unfolds, the fundamental issue of security in Anambra State remains unresolved. The back and forth of such an exchange has highlighted growing frustration among citizens and religious leaders with the current security situation while revealing deep divisions over how these challenges should be addressed. The escalating tension between the religious leader and state government reflects broader concerns about Anambra’s security infrastructure and the administration’s approach to criticism. We are in for some interesting  political drama.

  • Ahmadu Bello’s Christmas Message

    Ahmadu Bello’s Christmas Message

    Monologue

    This is the month of December, the month of paradoxical trade fair in which lies, fabrications and falsehood are, invariably, the wares displayed for exhibition. This is the month in which ostentation displaces faith and deception replaces conscience. How and why did these become cases of concern especially in Nigeria? Please, read the related story of facts and fictions below.

    Preamble

    An axiomatic Yoruba adage came to mind, recently, when a so-called National Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF) published a fabricated statement in the media and falsely credited it to the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello some years ago. The statement which was quoted verbatim from a false publication by some Biafra agitators of Igbo extraction, as a justification for their thoughtless secession bid. The adage goes thus:

    “Any slave who is desperate to forcefully usurp an estate bequeathed to an innocent orphan must fabricate a rootless history to justify his/her inordinate desperation to illegally usurp other people’s properties”. For people who can read between the lines, this adage needs no interpretation. It is self-explanatory.

    Record of History

    Here is a season in which recalling certain aspects of Nigerian history, if only to put the records straight, is a sine qua non.

    History is a living phenomenon that is common to all people around the world, in time and in space. No matter what interpretation or misinterpretation is given to it, in certain quarters, the fact remains that history is not anybody’s personal property and can, therefore, not be anybody’s enclave of monopoly.

    Memory lane

    Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first and only Premier of Northern Nigeria was not just one of the foremost political icons in Nigeria’s First Republic. He was also a patriarch of the ruling political party called Northern People’s Congress (NPC). This man of colossal status became the Premier of Northern Nigeria in 1954, the same year in which his political counterparts and arch-rivals, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, became Premiers of Eastern and Western regions respectively. The trio assumed office as Premiers, in 1954, through party-based elections. They were later joined by Chief Denis Osadebe as the fourth regional Premier in Nigeria. The latter became the Premier of Midwest region, in 1963, when that region was created. However, barely five years after Nigeria’s independence, Sir Ahmadu Bello was callously killed, as Premier, on Saturday, January 15, 1966, by some Nigerian military coup plotters whose real intent was to obliterate all traces of Islam in Nigeria. Virtually all those coup plotters were of Igbo extraction and no single one of them was a Muslim, an indication that the coup was religiously and tribally motivated.

    That devilish coup was led by one Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, an Igbo man from the present day geographical area of Nigeria, called Delta State.

    Those coup plotters had killed the Muslim leaders in government, including Premier Ahmadu Bello, Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola and several other political leaders from other tribal extractions, in that year’s sacred month of Ramadan, before they started looking for reasons to give as a justification for their heinous termination of those leaders’ lives. The three reasons that they (the coup plotters) gave after killing those leaders were corruption, tribalism and religious bigotry. It was a matter of calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

    Analysis of Their Reasons

    Among the four Premiers in Nigeria during the first republic, only Ahmadu Bello, was a Muslim and he could not, in any way, be evidently linked to corruption. Unlike the three other Premiers who lived opulently in expensive affluence, Ahmadu Bello was an ascetic personality who served his people diligently and patriotically without an iota of blemish. At the time of his gruesome murder, that Northern Premier had only a small residential bungalow in his home town of Rabah in Sokoto Province, which he built with a loan and nothing more has been traced to him as property till today. He had not even completed the payment of the loan he obtained for the building of that bungalow before he was murdered.

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    Who else among his peers can be said to have left such a flank behind?

    Sir Ahmadu Bello, the only Premier from the North, at that time, could also not be singularly accused of being tribally inclined because tribalism was the basis of all the existing political parties of the time. No Premier, in Nigeria, from 1954 to 1966 could be exonerated from tribalism directly or indirectly. They were all guilty of it.

    Genesis of tribal politics in Nigeria

    It can be recalled that certain tribal groups such as Ibiobio State Union (IBU), Ibo Federal Union (IFU) Egbe Omo Oduduwa (EOO) and ‘Jam’iyyar Al-Ummar Nigeriya ta Arewa’ translated as Northern Elements Progressive Association (NEPA) which later transformed into Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) were all tribal socio-cultural organizations that metamorphosed into political parties. All those parties preceded ‘Jam’iyyar Mutane Arewa’ meaning Northern People’s Congress (NPC), to which Ahmadu Bello belonged. Many other ethnic-based political parties later emerged to broaden tribalism in Nigerian politics. If anything, therefore, Ahmadu Bello was the least tribally inclined Premier of his time. If he was actually a tribalist and religious bigot as he has always been maliciously painted in Nigeria’s political history, by the Southern Nigerian media, he would not have appointed Sunday Awoniyi, a Yoruba Christian, from the present day Kogi State, as his Private Secretary. Which other Premier appointed his private secretary from another tribe or from a religion other than Christianity? And, why did his killers link him alone to tribalism and bigotry?

    His 1959 Christmas message

    Among the four Premiers in Nigeria’s first republic, only Ahmadu Bello was bold and sincere enough to allay the fear of the minority groups in his (Northern) region by making a public policy statement about his government’s stand concerning tribalism and religious bigotry. Here is an excerpt from what he said while sending a Christmas message to northern Christians at the time of Christmas in 1959:

    “…We are people of many different races, tribes and religions, who are knit together by common history, common interests and common ideals. Our diversity may be great but the things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us. On an occasion like this, I always remind people about our firmly rooted policy on religious tolerance. Families of all creeds and colours can rely on these assurances. We have no intention of favouring one religion at the expense of another. Subject to overriding need to preserve law and order, it is our determination that everyone should have absolute liberty to practice his belief. It is befitting on this momentous day, on behalf of my ministers and myself, to send a special word of gratitude to all Christian missions”.

    “Let me conclude this with a personal message. I extend my greetings to all our people who are Christians on this great feast day. Let us forget the difference in our religion and remember the common brotherhood before God, by dedicating ourselves afresh to the great tasks which lie before us….”

    That was the Christmas message that Sir Ahmadu Bello delivered in a radio broadcast on Thursday, December 24, 1959. And, it remained intact in Nigerian historical archive until 2002, when a Yoruba agent of the Lucifer came up with a fabricated statement that is now being devilishly quoted and circulated spirally by mischievous elements in Nigeria, who have been crediting it to Sir Ahmadu Bello.

     The Fabricated version

    Decades after Sir Ahmadu Bello’s unjustifiable assassination, some evil elements in the media, in active conspiracy with certain political demagogues, who were passionately pregnant with morbid hatred for Islam, went to fabricate another ‘Christmas Message’ and credited it to the late Northern Premier as a justification for his murder. The concocted statement was purportedly culled from a non-existing newspaper called ‘The Parrot’. Below is the fabricated Christmas Message:

    “…The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power.

     We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future….”

    Now, should that senselessly fabricated statement said to have been made by Sir Ahmadu Bello on October 12, 1960, be quoted blindly by any sensible individual or group? How can a Christmas message by a Premier of Ahmadu Bello Status, be delivered in October, two months before Christmas? Haba! Is that not a confirmation that liars never think of the implications of their lies before they fabricate them?

    Truth and Falsehood

    “Truth has come and falsehood has vamoosed; surely, falsehood is meant to vamoose in the presence of the truth”.  Q. 17: 81 

    Comparison

    Now, looking at both (genuine and fabricated) statements quoted above very carefully, shouldn’t any sensible person be able to distinguish between truth and falsehood? The Premier’s original Christmas message, earlier quoted above, was made on the eve of Christmas on Thursday, December 24, 1959, through a radio broadcast and it was published by all newspapers in the country including the vociferous ‘West African Pilot’ owned by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the boisterous ‘Tribune’ owned by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the clamorous ‘Daily Times’ jointly owned privately by certain prominent Nigerian individuals at that time. That original statement was equally published by many other smaller newspapers in Nigeria. All those newspapers are identifiable in Nigeria’s media history even though most of them are now defunct.

    On the other hand, the place and occasion of the fabricated statement credited to Sir Ahmadu Bello was not indicated and cannot be traced in any Nigeria’s newspaper history.

    Evidence of Fabrication

    The first time any genuinely existing newspaper ever made reference to that fabricated statement was on November 13, 2002 (42 years after it was purportedly made by Sir Ahmadu Bello. And, ‘The Tribune’ newspaper which published it on that date only claimed to have culled it from an online column published on October 24 2002 by a fraudulent Yoruba Journalist (name withheld) who entitled it ‘The Northern Agenda’. The referred online was actually named ‘Nairaland’, and it can still be found on the internet today, if googled.

    It can, therefore, be confirmed that the statement was actually fabricated, not in the 1960s but in October 2002, by the so-called online columnist who credited it to a newspaper that never existed. The objective was to give it an undeserved credibility. What a country! What a people! What a shame! This is a typical case of an obvious mischief by heartless mischief makers just to fetch ephemeral fame and illegal income.

    The belief of such fraudsters was that once such a fabricated article appears on the internet and is ignorantly quoted by some inconsequential mercenary writers, it would automatically become a document of fact. And, true to that assertion, a self-acclaimed Nigerian Christian Elders Forum’ (NCEF) has shamelessly quoted that fabricated falsehood, as usual, to justify its baseless allegation of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria. That is Nigeria for you.

    The 1966 Coup Episode

    January 15, 1966 was a Saturday like no other one in the history of Nigeria. It was on that day that the bitter political seed which germinated and grew into the thorny political tree that is now feeding Nigerians with bitter political fruits, was planted. The evil planting of that seed marked the beginning of an agonizing voyage of destiny on which Nigerians embarked without a compass. Coming up in the sacred month of Ramadan, the day, (January 15, 1966) actually came to confirm the axiomatic thought of an Arab poet who once asserted in a couplet thus: “Nights are heavily pregnant; they give birth to wonders in the days….”

    The Major Casualties

    The real target of the heartless coup plotters in  military uniform, who struck on January 15, 1966 coup was Islam. Although they (the coupists) killed virtually all the major key players in the then Nigerian politics except those of Igbo extraction, most of the victims of that coup were Muslims and some non-Igbo Christians who were then in prisons. The Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir AbubakarTafawa Balewa and the Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh were killed in Lagos. The Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was killed with his wife and some other people in Kaduna, the then Headquarters of Northern Nigeria. The Premier of Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, was killed in Ibadan, the then Headquarters of the South Western Region, while some military top brass of non-Igbo extraction were killed in different military barracks across the country.

    Except for Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe who was killed for being too close to one Brigadier-General Zakariya’ Maimalari, a top Muslim military officer from the north, and could not be trusted, no other Igbo man of note, civilian or military, was killed in that coup. As a matter of fact, if there was any feeling of the coup in Nigeria’s Eastern Region at all, it was that of victory and heroism. The top military officers who were killed in the senseless coup included: Brig. S. A. Ademulegun (South West); Brig. Zakari Maimalari (North East); Col. Kur Mohammed (North West); Lt. Col. J. Y. Pam (North Central); Col. S. A. Shodeinde (South West); Lt. Col. Largema (North Central); Lt. Col. A. G. Unegbe (South East); S/Lt. James Odu (Mid West) and a host of others.

    The False Allegations

    After the dust had settled, it became evident that virtually all the planners of that coup as well as its executors were soldiers of Igbo extraction and Christians. Thus, other Nigerians whose relatives were severely affected saw the coup not only as tribal but also as religious, the killing of some Christians like Chiefs Akintola and Okotie-Eboh notwithstanding. This was because the then Governor of Eastern Nigeria, Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam was as deeply involved in religious matters as Sir Ahmadu Bello. The one was a Vice-President of the World Council of Churches. The other was the Vice-President of the Muslim World League. If religion was therefore the reason for the coup, the two of them not one ought to have been killed for bigotry. But history entails a variety of interpretations especially in a society where conscience hardly plays any meaningful role.

    Beneficiaries

    It is historically notable that the chief beneficiary of the coup (Major-General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi) was also of Igbo extraction. Almost all the military appointments after the coup were for men of Igbo extraction. Among those appointees, only Hassan Katsina and Muhammadu Shuwa were Muslims. How else could a coup be tribal and religious? After all, as far back as 1953, a frontline Igbo politician (name withheld) had set such agenda for his tribe’s men when he reportedly said that “Ibos’ domination of Nigeria is a matter of time”.  That statement was allegedly made at a cocktail party in Lagos. If this remains the yardstick for driving democracy in Nigeria, for how long can such democracy last?

  • Some key global determinants in 2025

    Some key global determinants in 2025

    GEO-Politics

    Trump 2.0

    In 2025; global and sub-regional peace and economics will continue to be impacted by geo-politics. Global geopolitics is significantly influenced by the strategic foreign policy direction of the United States of America (US), and it will continue to be so, under the leadership of the incoming President Donald Trump.

     President Donald Trump will be sworn in for his second term in office in the next 10 days to usher in the “Trump 2.0” era. The world is already witnessing the body language of President-Elect Trump, ramped up by his rhetoric and those of his allies within the United States of America and across the world. Billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump has assigned a role in his administration; is taking the lead in stirring up the hornet’s nest with provocative rhetoric, which are indicators of what will likely happen during the second tenure of President Trump. In the last couple of days, preparatory to his inaugural, he is posturing, and giving indications of his potential foreign policy strategic direction, which is more or less a furtherance of his position during his first tenure. He has consolidated the Make America Great Again (MAGA) mantra, by stepping up rhetoric against Canada, Panama, Greenland, etc., including the European Union with some verbal attacks on the UK Prime Minister, etc.

    Russia-Ukraine imbroglio

    In the case of Russia, President Vladimir Putin is not likely to shift ground but rather refine his mid to long-term strategy, especially with the emergence of President Trump as the 48thth President of the US, with whom he has had a better relationship than President Joe Biden. This is more so because, in my view, so far, President Putin’s strategy has been working more for him than the US and EU/NATO strategy for Ukraine. If the Russia-Ukraine imbroglio continues unabated without a change in the political strategy disposition, it will continue to impact negatively on global and national economies.

     During Trump 2.0, we also expect to see this year, a highly likely turnaround of events in the Russia-Ukrainian war, because of Donald Trump’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war, which is completely opposite that of President Joe Biden and his administration. President-Elect Trump did not hide the fact that he would like to bring to an end or force the hands of the players to see to an end to the Russian-Ukrainian war as against the push by President Joe Biden, the European Union and NATO who would rather continue supporting Ukraine, to continue  “fighting to a finish” against Russia, which in the opinions of many, including my humble self, will be costlier for Ukraine and Russia and indeed the global economy.

    Israel-Palestine conflict – The war in Gaza

    With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza, I don’t expect much to change, because the successive US Presidencies and administrations have maintained a fairly consistent strategic position and actions with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Therefore, in my view, in 2025 during Trump 2.0, I would not expect anything different. It will just be a scenario of the same actors in different costumes. I don’t expect the fortunes of the Palestinians to significantly change with regard to the US position to support or reduce support for the Israelis. In fact, in the last couple of days, President Trump has been very clear and unambiguous in saying he is going to be very brutal in fighting Hamas to the finish and be more assertive and decisive, which in his opinion will bring an end to the crisis. Whether that will be the solution or not will remain to be seen. But indeed, the position of the United States of America in this regard will not really change the fortunes of the Palestinians.

     Trump 2.0: What is in it for Africa?

    In my view, when it comes to Africa, whoever becomes the President of the United States of America, the US agenda for Africa will pretty much remain the same- nothing much of substance for us. The US and the Western powers will continue to feather their nests at the expense of Africa and Africa. Therefore, from the global geopolitical point of view, I do not expect significant positive changes.

    Read Also: CBN suspends export proceeds repatriation extensions

     Of course, it also speaks volumes with regard to the fact that “Africa is on its own”. We, the people of Africa in general and Nigeria in particular need to do the needful to come out of our political, and socio-economic doldrums. That being said, when the dynamics are escalated with global socio-economic impacts, for example, what is happening in Sudan, where the US and Russia are majorly unseen hands; then we should take note with regard to the political dynamism of the emergence of the next President of the United States of America, so that we can strategize, plan, hedge and position for better survival, growth and sustainable development.

    Sub-regional political impasse and rising insecurity in Africa

    The sub-regional political impasses and insecurity in Africa, particularly in the Sahel region, and Sudan. Indeed, the relationship between Trump, Putin, and the United Arab Emirates could likely play a role for Sudan, if the ruling Military regime is able to offer a deal to Donald Trump in trying to see how peace will come to the region.

    The European Union (EU) and NATO versus Trump

    The EU’s position as they engage President Trump with the threat of his “Tariff” strategy as his greatest political power leverage, will be another key determinant.

     With President-Elect Trump’s rhetoric regarding Greenland and his position regarding the Ukraine-Russia war; the EU and NATO need to recraft their strategy to counter President Trump’s strategy, in order to maintain a balance of political and socio-economic power around Europe. President Trump will have more allies in the European Union than he had during his first tenure; especially with the rise of popularity and rise to power of the far-right political parties, and movements across Europe; in Italy, Germany, France, the UK, etc. These far-right political leaders of some European countries, either as incumbents or as oppositions, will be key levers of power for Donald Trump to assert himself as a global game changer. How the EU is able to reposition itself or prepare itself for that will be interesting to watch

    Global economic trajectory

    According to the OECD’s (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) latest Economic outlook:

    •Global growth will remain resilient in 2025 despite significant risks due to; geopolitical tensions, high public debt ratios, etc.

    •The Outlook projects global GDP growth of 3.3% in 2025, up from 3.2% in 2024, and 3.3% in 2026.

    •Inflation in the OECD is expected to ease further, from 5.4% in 2024 to 3.8% in 2025 and 3.0% in 2026, supported by the still restrictive stance of monetary policy in most countries.

    •Headline inflation has already returned to central bank targets in nearly half of the advanced economies and close to 60% of emerging market economies

    •Growth prospects vary significantly across regions.

    BRICS

    The BRICS strategy is working, even though Donald Trump has been threatening sanctions for any Country that remains in BRICS. With 14 Countries joining the BRICS in the last 3 months with Indonesia being the latest to join some days ago, indicates the rising popularity of BRICS and its potential influence in the global geopolitics and economy. I reckon that BRICS will re-strategize to counter the potential counter-maneuver of Trump, which is critically driven by tariffs and sanctions.

    China

    According to China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE);

    In 2024, China experienced another year of economic slowdown, with the GDP growth rate declining to 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, down from 5.2 percent in 2023.

    China’s GDP growth rate will slow down further to 4.5 percent in 2025, with domestic demand playing a critical role in offsetting the slowdown in exports.

    A key point for China is Trump 2.0, which is based on incoming US President Trump’s consistent Trade War against China which he has ramped up, which could escalate power competition between China and the US. Trump is already calling for decoupling from China, which would not only have major negative consequences for China but also for the rest of the world. Trump will certainly leverage his Tariff Trade War strategy to counter China’s strategy to bypass US tariffs.

    Climate Change

    With the escalation of global warming in 2024 and the devastating humanitarian and socio-economic consequences on various countries and continents, the global climate change initiative will have to be consolidated, especially with the almost fallout and outcome of the COP29 which took place 2 months ago in Baku, Azerbaijan. Developing nations were not really dealt a good deal. To add more gloom to the fight against climate change is the emergence of Trump 2.0 because Trump is not favorably committed to the fight against climate change. The world has to move on without Trump in this regard and progress will depend on how the achievements made so far will be consolidated and progressed in the overall interest of the global stakeholders.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    The rapid rate at which Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing and its impact across ecosystems and value chains is so fast that Countries and organizations that do not take the advent of AI seriously will not only be left behind in development but will suffer the devastating consequences of its threats and risks.