The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • OBJ versus NNPCL

    OBJ versus NNPCL

    The thing about Olusegun Obasanjo is that he does not think Olusegun Obasanjo can have peace unless Olusegun Obasanjo does not make headlines. This time, he is fighting with NNPCL. What he did was being economical with the truth. First, he pretended he wanted Shell to run it, and one of the excuses of the multinational was corruption. They probably did or did not know that the man was also offering them a corrupt deal. In the interview, Obj did not mention Tra nscorp. He only said it was Dangote. The reason is simple. He wanted to tap into the success of the Dangote refineries. Two, he dodged his own filth in the matter. Obj had a so-called blind trust in Transcorp. What is that? He had an interest, and so he wanted to be in the oil business from the backdoor. But he was only being clever by half. He wanted to bequeath a corrupt deal to posterity. This was in the mould of his Bells University and Obasanjo Library. Both he acquired by subterfuge, raking up cash by blackmailing governors and politicians.

    So, he said the refineries could never work. In earnest, he was saying that he did not want the refineries to work. He was playing into a trend in both media and opposition who wanted the refineries to remain dud. They did not give NNPCL a chance.  So, it was not that NNPCL could not do it. It was that he wanted the business for himself. He failed, and decades after, he is still lamenting the pepper soup that got away. He is salivating in vain.

    Read Also: Falana to Obasanjo: Yar’Adua voided refinery sale over conflict of interest

    Well, if he says NNPCL could not do it, who is to blame? Was he not the president? Was NNPCL not reporting to him? On the face of it, we can say he failed as president. But it is more complicated than that. He wanted to fail so he could lap up another soup. He got neither. He failed and that explains why his successor who he glibly called Umoru cancelled the deal because of lack of transparency.

    NNPCL has invited him to the refineries. This is the first time that humour has come out of the oil giant. Corporations can also have a sense of humour. They know the man will not oblige. But is this not the same OBJ who, like Don Quixote, thinks he is bigger than the earth. This same man who seizes any opportunity as invitee and guest of honour to play baba.

    The thing is, he is still bellyaching over the last polls. He wants any opportunity, as the baba of obidients, to lash out without proof or reason at anything associated with President Tinubu. Well, he may have a blind trust in Transcorp, let him play blind at the evidence of the refineries all he wants. Those who have eyes can see.

  • A Catholic priest and the gun

    A Catholic priest and the gun

    What could have led a Catholic priest to take up a gun and shoot into the air just to scare away some unruly boys during a New Year mass service? That is the puzzle the Imo State police command is set to untangle.

    Reports had it that the said priest, Rev. Fr. Joseph Enyinnaya was conducting the New Year mass on January 1, at St, Columbus Catholic Church Amaimo, Ikeduru Local Government Area, Imo State when some boys began to throw knockouts inside the church premises. Apparently angered by the refusal of the boys to heed warnings to desist from the act, the priest was said to have made for his double barrelled gun.

    On emerging, according to an eye witness, he shot into the air to scare away the unruly boys. But “the gun hooked up and while trying to check the firearm, it accidentally discharged and hit one of the boys”.

    Another resident corroborated  that it was a case of accidental discharge. He said when the boys continued with the knockout throwing, the priest went in and picked up his gun and fired a warning shot into the air. But unknown to him, a bullet left in one of the chambers hit one of the boys when he was lowering the gun and he died. Some other boys within the vicinity were also said to have sustained varying degrees of injury as a result of the shooting incident.

    It is still foggy whether the injuries were as a result of the gunshot or the stampede that occurred after the shooting. But those that were wounded were taken to the hospital where they are receiving treatment.

    Not unexpectedly, the incident threw the community into serious confusion and deep sorrow coming from the quarters it did. Imo State Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, Henry Okoye confirmed the story and the arrest of the priest. He said detailed investigations have been  initiated to ascertain the remote facts surrounding the incident even as he promised further update.

    But as the police probe goes on and the update eagerly awaited, the shooting cannot but come under serious public scrutiny. As annoying and condemnable as the throwing of knockouts inside the church premises while mass service was going is, it is doubtful whether the reaction of the priest was the most appropriate and rational response to the recalcitrance of the boys.

    Yes, the boys were unruly throwing knockouts inside the church premises after repeated warning. They could also be accused of disrespect to the religious sensibilities of the Catholic Church. Their persistence in disturbing the peace of the church is condemnable. But such behaviour is not different from the abuse to which knockouts are often subjected by our youths during such periods. That is why the police usually warn of its illegality at the commencement of such celebrations. But the practice has festered.

    Though details of the incident are still sketchy, it is unclear whether the said priest had started celebrating the mass service when the throwing of the knockouts started or he was still preparing to do so. It is also unclear whether the mass service was being conducted right inside the church building or outside of it.

     It is a huge puzzle that a Catholic priest celebrating mass or about to engage in one could abandon that ritual, go for his gun only to emerge by firing into the air just to scare away some unruly boys. That act of indiscretion took a toll in the death of one of the boys with others sustaining injuries. It was the most inappropriate decision in the circumstance.

    An innocent life has been lost with many injured during a mass service that was supposed to herald the New Year. What a sad way to commence the New Year for those who sustained injuries and are being treated in the hospital. The alleged offending priest is also spending the New Year in police cell. All these mortal consequences could have been averted had the priest exercised the degree of caution expected of his vocation.

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    The shooting incident brings to the fore the distinction between the corporeal and the ecclesiastical realms – issues of the material and the spiritual. Medieval philosophers like Thomas Aquinas had long drawn the distinction between the roles of the state and the church. Whereas the state exists primarily to minister to the material needs of the citizens, the responsibility of the church is concerned with issues of the spiritual. It is for the same reason that the state runs organised armies while the powers of the church lie in prayers. For the church, prayer holds the ace for much of societal challenges. Conceived this way, it is curious that the priest should see the gun as the most appropriate solution to the challenge of the boys’ misconduct.

    The priest was confronted with misconduct on the part of the boys. They were throwing knockouts into the church premises and disturbing the peace of worshippers. That could be annoying. But the solution can neither be found in gun trotting nor shooting in the air to scare them away. It was a social issue that posed no serious threat to the priest.

    It should have been exhaustively addressed through counselling. Alternatively, the church authorities could have moved in using their internal security systems to apprehend or disperse the boys. It was definitely not beyond them. At the extreme, the law enforcement agencies could be called in to disperse those disturbing the peace of the church.

    Ironically, the priest took resort to self help by making for his gun and releasing some shots into the air. It is unclear if he has license for the double barrelled gun or not. If he does not have license for the gun, he faces a possible charge of illegal possession of firearm. That will be in addition to whatever conclusions the police will reach regarding the cause of the boy’s death.

    The priest may have been provoked into the measure he took to address an emerging challenge. But it bordered on the extreme and out of tune with the values the church seeks to promote in the society. If a priest of the Catholic Church could take resort to the gun to resolve social misconduct such as the throwing of knockouts then, the larger society is in trouble.

    The belief by the church in the powers of prayers as solution to societal challenges is legendary. When the Muslim force was threatening to take over the Mediterranean Sea and position to attack European countries, Pope Pius V asked the Christian faithful to pray the Holy Rosary and seek the intercession of the Blessed Mother Mary to defeat them. Despite being outnumbered, the Christian fleet prevailed.

     Some accounts also have it that the rhythmic repetition of the Rosary thoroughly frightened, demoralised and led to the defeat of the Turks in 1571 during the Ottoman Empire. And when countries are faced with dire socio-economic and political challenges, Christians take to prayers to seek divine resolution. It therefore came as a rude shock that a priest of the Catholic Church could deviate from this pristine tradition in an issue that could have been easily resolved through moral suasion.

    The mortal consequences of that act of indiscretion could have been avoided had the priest at the centre of the controversy exercised a higher degree of caution. He may not have set out to kill anybody since he shot into the air to scare away those throwing knockout. But his response was obviously disproportional with whatever offence the boys may have committed.

     He may have acquired the gun for self defence especially with the dire security challenges in the southeast. But there is something untidy in the excessive reliance by the clergy on the force of arms and ammunitions for their protection. Most of our key religious groups share common belief in the omnipotent God. God is all powerful and the powers of life and death lie with the Almighty. 

    Thus, the overall safety of humans lie in the hands of almighty God. These belief systems are challenged each time the clergy is seen in a convoy of vehicles with well armed security agencies guarding them. Sadly that has been the growing culture especially among some of rich clergymen. Ironically, these are people preaching divine protection, issuing  other holy ornaments that seek to protect adherents against all evil including the powers of man to destroy life. 

    They should be seen to be living by examples rather than precepts. The incident at St. Columbus Catholic Church is very unfortunate and avoidable. But it highlights the incongruity in reliance by the clergy on the powers of the gun to resolve social misconduct. May the soul of the young boy who came to celebrate his entry into the New Year but failed to make it rest in peace!

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

    The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (II)

    When Adam delved and Eve spun Who then was the gentleman

    The very long drawn out agricultural revolution which dovetailed into the Industrial revolution four hundred years later began in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic which has come to be known to history as the Black Death. Beginning in 1346 until 1354 the plague raged all over Europe, reducing the population of the continent by as much as 50%. The number of workers was also reduced by a similar figure leading to a marked shortage of labour, both skilled and unskilled. The consensus of opinion at the time among the workers of England was that their labour should attract higher reward. But their overlords did not agree with their workers in this regard. To make matters worse, one of the interminable wars with France was raging and the king and his counsellors decided that they had to impose additional taxes with which to pay for the war.

    By 1371, the workers had decided that the situation had become intolerable and revolt was in the air; led by an activist preacher, John Ball, who went around England rousing the peasants to revolt against the Lords of the land. His ringing rallying cry was in the form of a question which went back to the beginning of Christian time.

    When Adam gentleman delved and Eve spun

    Who then was the gentleman

    In other words, there were no Lords or Peasants at the beginning of time so how come there was then a group of people lording it over others? The situation was as intolerable as it was unnatural and had to be changed and they were determined to change it. This is what led to the Peasants Revolt during which Wat Tyler, acting on behalf of the peasants, presented all sorts of demands to the king who gave in to the demands of the peasants. However, the nobles prevailed upon the king to repudiate this agreement, a situation which caused Tyler’s death and the continued oppression of the peasants and further concentration of wealth in the hands of the ruling class. If anything, the following couple of centuries led to more trouble for the peasants. Over the years, the Lords succeeded in alienating the poor from land which was hitherto accessible to everyone. This situation forced an increasing percentage of the peasants to abandon the rural areas and congregate in urban centres which grew quite quickly as a result. These former peasants on becoming increasingly pauperised formed the recruiting group for an emerging group of persons who had no attachment to the land and could therefore be recruited into an emerging group of workers who could be herded into the factory work force which was to create wealth for the emerging capitalists of the eighteenth century and beyond.

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    The immediate consequence of the exploitation of the New World by the Spanish Conquistadors was the enrichment of the Spanish crown. The indigenous peoples of those lands in the western hemisphere were immediately enslaved and made to work extracting gold and silver from what was once their land. The toll on those people was horrendous and their population collapsed spectacularly. Hunger, overwork and imported diseases made frightful inroads into the indigenous population of the New World to the extent that within thirty years of Spanish colonisation and exploitation, genuine fears were expressed that the indigenous people were on the verge of extinction. Rather than damping down on the rate of exploitation, it was suggested by a monk that Africans be imported all the way from Africa to take up the slack created by the population collapse of the indigenous peoples. This suggestion paved the way for the most dastardly crime against humanity in the two hundred thousand years history of the existence of our species on the surface of the earth.

    As early as 1493, only a few months after Columbus arrived in the New World, a series of bulls emanating from the Vatican had effectively divided the world as it was known at the time into two spheres of influence. The western portion was given over to Spain and the eastern portion ceded to Portugal. The two Christian (Roman Catholic) countries were charged with bringing all the people in their respective spheres to the knowledge of the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. In other words, they had complete power over the millions of people residing in their respective domains. At that time, the Pope was master of the kingdom of Christ on earth until the Reformation reared its ugly head and started to make a mockery of the authority of the Pope. That story is worthy of further interrogation.

    All Spanish colonies were in the New World but the hapless souls who were to spend their lifetime slaving in those colonies lived in Africa under Portuguese authority. To solve this problem, the Spanish drew up a contract for the supply of slaves from Africa. This contract called the Asiento was issued annually to slave traders mainly from England, Denmark, Holland and of course Portugal. The nationals of these countries built forts along to the so called Slave coast and over the next three hundred and more years extracted and conveyed to the Americas, more than twelve million Africans. An unknown number of Africans also perished in the process of being captured, marched to the coast and shipped in the most atrocious conditions imaginable. What we have not yet factored into this infernal equation is the dislocation which accompanied the activities of slave catchers all over the continent of Africa. If the truth be told, Africa has not yet recovered from the depredation inflicted on her over this dark period. For all that time, slaves toiled under wicked conditions to provide unpaid labour which created wealth and the capital on which the Industrial Revolution was launched.

    The Spanish colonies in North, Central and South America were outright slave colonies which existed to produce precious natural resources which were taken to Europe for consumption. In the wake of the Reformation in Europe when the power of the Roman Catholic Church was effectively challenged a new kind of colonists fetched up on the eastern seaboard of the Atlantic in North America. What they were looking for was the freedom to practise whatever form of religion that took their fancy. The first of these groups arrived in America in 1607 in what is now Massachusetts. As expected, life in those early English colonies was precarious to say the least. Without help from the indigenous people the colonists would not have survived for more than a few months. This is the origin of the tradition of Thanksgiving which as with all things American has been commercialized out of all meaning and precious tradition. Its true meaning has collapsed under the weight of dollars thrown at it.

    It is fashionable these days to think that all that Africans have contributed to the USA is two hundred years of unpaid labour during slavery but in reality, without African input, the USA would not have developed beyond subsistence level. The journey from Africa was unquestionably traumatic but the Africans came over with a plethora of skills, farming techniques, foods, social skills in terms of music, dance and other civilising influences which enriched America in a way which no other group of immigrants has been able to do.

    The first group of Africans to be landed in America consisted of twenty odd Angolan captives who landed in Virginia in 1619. Their arrival marked a change of fortune for the colonists as their various skills especially their understanding of agriculture not only guaranteed their freedom from hunger but it was possible for them to produce commercial crops through which fortunes were built. Using slave labour, they produced tobacco, rice and finally cotton on which the economy of the Southern states were built. So much so that they were willing to go to war to preserve their way of life. The slave owners may have surrendered to superior forces in 1865 but they are still fighting a bitter rear-guard action in protection of their criminal privileges. The level of institutional racism remains so high that it is still a distinct disadvantage to be born black in the USA.

    Today, there is a North-South divide in the USA and more than anything else, it is a geographical divide. The economy of the North is distinctly industrial whereas it tends to be agricultural in the south. Whilst cotton was king in the South, finance and industry ruled the North and this being the case the industrialists must rule. The surplus necessary for industry to thrive existed in the North and naturally, capitalism took root in the North. Long before the slaves were emancipated in the USA, successive waves of immigrants were mercilessly exploited in the USA. For example, the railway which opened up the country from east to west was built by imported near slave labour from China in the east to Irish gangs in the west with blacks squeezed out of the picture. Be that as it may, one group or the other was being screwed by the capitalist machinery that was being installed by the so called robber barons who were squeezing every ounce of goodness out of the economy which they were setting up. More than anything else, what this means was that there was no free lunch or offer for any group of people other than the capitalists.

    To be continued.

    When in February 2023, Jimmy Carter elected to enter home hospice care, I wrote an appreciation of a very useful life. He was not expected to live long after that but with a burst of indomitable life wish, he lived for another twenty-two months. A man of towering intellectual and moral stature, it says a great deal about him that he accomplished more out of office than when he was the President of the USA. He has now died as the longest lived POTUS at the round old age of one hundred years old. Under the present edgy circumstances, he will be much sadly missed.

  • Obasanjo’s faux pas

    Obasanjo’s faux pas

    Armed with a Yoruba proverb that all but implied that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) told lies to the public about the scale of its refineries restoration, former president Olusegun Obasanjo scorned the efforts of the Bola Tinubu administration in the downstream sector. Two of the refineries, Old Port Harcourt and Warri, have been restored and are operating at about two-thirds capacity. The former president was careful enough to stop short of doubting the restoration of the refineries in their entirety, but he insinuated that the scale was far less than the company announced. He did not avail the public the details of the information he had about the scale of production he offhandedly questioned. He would not be trapped.

    In an interview he gave Channels Television, he spoke about his doubts that Nigerian refineries could ever be restored, especially following the submissions by Shell Nigeria that the plants were too complicated, obsolete and potentially susceptible to corruption to become a profitable line of business for a company that finds the downstream sector of the oil business more profitable. But in the same breath, he tried to justify offloading the refineries at $750m to the consortium put together by business magnate Aliko Dangote. Chief Obasanjo reposed trust in Shell Nigeria’s summation, but nevertheless approved the Dangote/Femi Otedola/Transcorp deal, a deal he lamented his successor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, ‘unwisely’ revoked. The former president then concluded that the about two billion dollars spent on revitalising the refineries do not justify the scale of the ongoing restoration. But, from all indications, he would have, through his equity in Transcorp, benefited from the Dangote consortium deal, a deal he hammered out in the closing weeks of his presidency without any shred of transparency. Surely, there is a limit to bellyaching. NNPCL has asked him, of course with a hint of sarcasm, to visit the restored refineries. He won’t. He will have a fit if he visits and sees the plants buzzing.

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    Chief Obasanjo’s position on the refineries has of course been dismissed by many critics who accuse him of being a wet blanket and an envious politician stunned by the current administration’s successful restoration of the facilities. He is now faced with the ordeal of witnessing the refineries restored to near capacity, and the commissioning of private refineries projected both to curb the importation of refined petroleum products and make Nigeria a net exporter of fuel, as indeed the Dangote refinery is already doing. The former president may be loth to admit his fallibility, but the fact is that he is as vulnerable as he is fallible, and his political and business judgements, which he believes to be sacrosanct, are questionable.

    In his eight years as president, while he achieved some remarkable feats, he also made appalling decisions about his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), about governors whom he disliked and got impeached, about respect for democratic principles, and after many rigmaroles and riding roughshod over the electoral system, ended up saddling the country with political liabilities and ill-fated succession. But despite these failings, and despite seeming to defy gravity after many years out of office, he has maintained some relevance in national affairs, with politicians organising pilgrimages to his residence to seek support for their ambitions or at least mute his waspish tongue.

    In a little over two years, Chief Obasanjo will be 90 years old. Already, he belongs to the exclusive class of former Nigerian leaders who have lived very long and satisfactorily, and the small percentage of Nigerians (0.35%) who live above 80. Nature and divinity have been very kind to him, gifting him leadership of Nigeria as a military leader and as twice elected president, not to talk of international recognition that makes him an exceptional Nigerian. He has of course not requited nature for those gifts, nor performed with distinction the assignments he messianically claimed heaven had devolved to him. But not being one to be incommoded by protestations from any quarters, he has pranced all over the country and the world, posing as God’s most accomplished gift to his country and perhaps to the black man.

    Yet his age and experience should instruct him otherwise. He is becoming infirm despite his best efforts, is stooping slightly when he had been ramrod all his life, and regardless of his avowal to stay on this side of heaven on and on and on, perhaps mummifying in the process, he has fewer years ahead of him than behind him, much fewer. A smart and sensitive and visionary leader should seize the time left to bind up wounds, heal divides, make peace with avowed enemies, and create an environment around his image that would make Nigerians genuinely grieve his departure. Instead, he is making more enemies, casting aspersion on everyone diametrically opposed to his rather rudimentary views and philosophy of life, and egregiously fouling the national well of trust by still seeking to impose leaders on the nation despite his infamous incompetence in judging people’s and leaders’ character. No one in Nigeria has been so gifted with the chance to forge a golden image for himself, and no one has been so extraordinarily adept at frittering away the chance.

    The NNPCL affair was an opportunity to encourage the nation about its possibilities, even musing, probably with an ironic smile, how he almost misjudged the matter when he was president and pestered by greed. It was an opportunity to display nobility by sending a disarming message to his arch enemy, President Bola Tinubu, to work harder to get the other refineries back to life. But no. Having jumped into the trenches and muckraked during electioneering in 2022 and 2023, and having come a cropper in the process, he must keep up his old animosities to the very end by scorning every effort to revivify mothballed or ageing facilities. Chief Obasanjo was sculpted to be a national lodestar, perhaps unfairly to the rest of Nigeria, but he has remained transfixed on desecrating his gifts and diminishing his unique opportunities.

    All is, however, not lost. Chief Obasanjo has promised himself many more years on earth, of course, leaving God no choice. In theory, and ignoring his flighty nature, he can make amends and be the man nature and heaven designed him to be. No one dares hope for his sake that he will fail to grab the chance with both hands. Should he, therefore, have a rethink, the country will be waiting eagerly to send him forth in a blaze of glory. He may not deserve it, having pipped the country at the post as it were, but it would be worth the effort for a beleaguered nation in search of heroes. He may not even have drawn the right lessons from the legacy of the late US president Jimmy Carter, whom he recommended to leaders everywhere to emulate, but his many leadership misdeeds and the damaging superficiality of his decisions will probably be glossed over should he, in the twilight of his years, foster the ethnic and political reconciliation Nigeria deeply yearns for. Hopefully he will seize the flicking moment. 

  • Kwankwaso translates eccentricity into conundrum

    Kwankwaso translates eccentricity into conundrum

     Former vice president Atiku Abubakar is the remaining member of the troika (who lost the last presidential election to President Bola Tinubu) who is yet to disclaim the reported impending merger of the three main opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP). Though he or his spokesmen are often spontaneous in their responses to Nigeria’s fluid political dynamics, they have kept ghostly silent so far as the other two parties shout from their rooftops. Today, in the three parties, Alhaji Atiku is recognised as the PDP leader, though he shirks his responsibilities when it comes to getting his hands dirty in managing the party’s unpleasant schisms; Peter Obi, former Anambra State governor, is recognised as the LP leader despite having nothing administratively and ideologically in common with the party; and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Kano State governor, is the NNPP leader which he is imbuing with his insularity.

    An engineer and PhD degree holder, Dr kwankwaso was the first last Monday to speak scathingly about the rumoured merger between the three parties. He is not a real democrat, going by his antics in the NNPP, especially in recent weeks when he inspired a minor purge of the ‘rebellious’ senior ranks in the party, but he has never allowed his populism to deter him from denouncing anyone below or above him in any party and in any government, state or federal. Responding ostensibly to the impression Alhaji Atiku reportedly created about the purported merger of parties and power-sharing arrangement between the three former presidential candidates, Dr Kwankwaso bristled: “I have implemented a principle of allowing state governments and the federal government to focus on governance for the people until the end of the year. The most annoying thing is hearing from a source that the PDP brought scholars—about 45 of them—and told them there is a consensus that Atiku will rule for four years, Kwankwaso for four years, and Peter Obi for eight years. This is totally untrue and a blatant lie. It is infuriating that elder statesmen in their 70s and 80s are spreading such lies to these scholars. Such statements and deceit were among the reasons I and others left the party. Now, they have destabilised the party. For me to accept any arrangement, we have to revisit history.”

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    Still angry and not done, the Kwankwasiyya leader fumed: “I understand the PDP thoroughly. I know their plan is to manipulate regional dynamics, bring us together, and make northerners vote for them. But we ask: what have they done for the North? These are the issues that will come into play. We have suffered the worst humiliation from these people. We loved the party and wanted to reform it for progress, but they forced us out. I left, Peter Obi left, Wike left, and many others left. Yet these are the same people now seeking to return and express interest in the presidency. This is appalling. Maybe they are remorseful or seeking forgiveness, but we have truly been humiliated by them.” To be fair to the NNPP leader, he was not one of those who swore that the 2023 presidential election was rigged, but hearing him declaim against Alhaji Atiku on radio, the main object of his diatribe, his Hausa-speaking audience would imagine he could never countenance a merger, not ever. But Dr Kwankwaso is politically eccentric, and he appears eager to continue mystifying Nigerians with his true leanings as well as keeping other political leaders and former presidential candidates on their toes.

    Three days later, Mr Obi, whose sanctimonious drivel still beguiles many, weighed in and insisted there was no merger yet, nor any whisper whatsoever in that direction. As usual, he leaves everything open, sifted by the currents of reigning ideas and affiliations. He has at different times dallied with both the PDP and NNPP leaders, and has kept his options flagrantly open. He is chastened by his own political impotence, and miffed by the failure of his backers, chief among whom is ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, to cause an upheaval in the polity fomented to railroad him into office. And despite his ideological vacuity, he is desperate to win office even at the cost of the country’s religious and ethnic harmony. He may still speak faintly about rigged 2023 elections, but he has all but reconciled himself to the fact that none of the three opposition leaders can on their own win the Nigerian presidency. He will, therefore, be the readiest to enter into a merger once the conditions are right, regardless of his insouciance.

    Of all the three political leaders and former candidates, Dr kwankwaso appears to be in control of his party. On the other hand, if Mr Obi does not eventually ditch the LP, the party will at some time in the future ditch him, for he has no hold on them. As a matter of fact, neither the party nor its purported leader has emotional or any kind of connection with the other. Indeed, they scorn each other and have engaged in recriminations. On his own, Alhaji Atiku has made only a token effort to rein in the fractious members of the PDP, and every time the party’s cantankerous leaders resisted him, he recoiled into his characteristic indifference, believing that when the chips are down, the party will rally round him as a deep pocket. And herein is the riddle Dr kwankwaso will contend with in the months ahead. He says he is unwilling to let any discussions about one merger or the other distract the federal and state governments from focusing on their responsibilities, but in reality he is simply saying he has no idea yet how to disentangle the knot constraining Nigerian politics or how he would fit in. But trust this most eccentric of men and self-professed populist, when he discovers that he cannot go it alone, as he will discover soon enough, he will throw in his lot with even the most disagreeable of monarchists, if it comes to that.

  • Fubara’s blistering budget

    Fubara’s blistering budget

     Still in combat mood, in fact foul mood, Rivers State governor Siminalayi Fubara presented his 2025 budget to a three-man House of Assembly led by Oko Jumbo, and got it passed and signed in less than a week. Such budgetary haste is not unprecedented in Nigeria, but it was still blistering and obscene. The other 27-man House of Assembly led by Martin Amaewhule is at daggers drawn with the governor, and since Mr Fubara says he determines which faction is legitimate, he insists he will only present the budget to the three-man Assembly that sits in Government House. Soon, however, the squabble over which Assembly is legitimate will be resolved by the Supreme Court. The governor had better hope the courts would rule in his favour. If not, he will be faced with a number of dilemmas.

    One, he will be in a quandary regarding what to do with Budget 2024, which he also presented to a three-man Assembly, with all the attendant financial and procedural illegalities. Two, he will then face the additional indignity of re-presenting the 2025 budget before the Amaehwule-led legislature which will scrutinise it with a fine-tooth comb. The victorious Assembly, should that be the fate of the 27-man legislature, will get its pound of flesh, whether the victim bleeds or not. The governor has grandstanded so far; but should he lose at the top court, his third dilemma will be whether to declare a republic, provoke a mutiny, or procure a revolution. If he would not cross that Rubicon, his hesitations will spell his doom.

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    Having both dug their heels in, neither side will be willing to capitulate. They will fight to the death. What the courts are being asked to determine is whether the announcement by the 27 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was in fact consummated. The 27 will not be punished for their tactical mistake of making the announcement; they will be scalded should the other side prove by facts and documents that a defection took place in the eyes of the law. But despite all this, it beggars belief that Mr Fubara, having so far fought a rather risible war, can face the world, seduce Rivers State elders, and feel smug about running a state with three lawmakers. 

  • 2024: Annus horribilis

    2024: Annus horribilis

    From beginning to end, it was a horrible year. The skies were unroofed as nonstop natural calamities destroyed human and animal life, agricultural crops, private homes and public infrastructure, paralyzed communication and transport, and disrupted supply chains. Schools, business and government offices closed down, airline and shipping services ground to a halt, and hunger and starvation spread as cities and towns went underwater and lost electric power for days. As soon as the weather cleared, and rescue and relief operations could proceed, various diseases broke out in many communities.

    As the threats from nature waned, they were replaced by man-made problems. The series of natural super typhoons left the Philippine “area of responsibility,” but a political super typhoon of incalculable severity struck in their place”

    That was Francisco S. Tatad, writing in the MANILA TIMES of 1 January, 2025 about what the outgoing year, 2024 was for Phillipinos.

    He was not alone.

    Concerning the British crown and the selfsame 2024, Ben Jureidini, a digital journalist with TATLER wrote, inter alia:

    “From health crises to family feuds, this year has been stormy for the House of Windsor.

    From two cancer diagnoses to a feud of Shakespearean proportion, the royal family may well be glad to see the back of 2024. The Firm was rocked by the news that both King Charles and Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, had been diagnosed with cancer early in the year, and the last ten months have been tinged with anxiety over the major health concerns at the heart of the monarchy.

    Incidentally, the term “Annus Horribilis” was first coined by the Matriarch herself, the much loved, now departed, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1992 to describe a year of unmitigated disaster for the British royal family.

    The year 2024 will be etched in the collective memory of humanity as a period of unrelenting turmoil, a time when the very foundations of global stability, economic prosperity, and social cohesion were shaken to their core. It was a year marked by unprecedented challenges, catastrophic events, and profound transformations that left an indelible mark on the world.

    One of the defining features of 2024, especially in the West and Asia, was the increasing climate crisis which the in-coming U.S President Donald Trump claims is a fluke despite its torrid negative global  consequences.

    Read Also; Tinubu pledges completion of Eastern rail line

    The situation in the Sahel and Lake Chad region, close by, “is increasingly dire, as the compounding effects of insecurity, conflict, displacement, and climate change take a severe toll on vulnerable populations,” said Hassane Hamadou, NRC’s Central and West Africa regional director. “Our immediate priority is to ensure affected people across the region receive essential support such as shelter, food, and hygiene supplies. Longer-term solutions including the improvement of existing infrastructures must be coordinated with local governments to build resilience against future disasters.”

    Huge floods  equally ravaged several parts of Nigeria with human and economic consequences.

    Among the consequences of climate change, globally, are rising temperatures, more frequent natural disasters, and extreme weather flunctuations that have become the new normal.

    Others  include coastal cities being inundated by rising sea levels, droughts and heatwaves that ravaged entire regions, and unprecedented storms that left millions homeless and without access to basic necessities.

    Equally severe are the economic consequences of the  crisis.

    Global supply chains were disrupted, trade severely impacted, and  industries  forced to adapt or end production outrightly.This has resulted in economic instability leading to massive  job losses,  and a growing sense of desperation among the most vulnerable.

    No meaningful discourse of the horrors of the outgone year can fail to give the pride of place to the horrendous Israeli – Gaza war whose debauchery far outweighs the Russian -Ukranian slugfest, if only because the former is literally one- sided with Israel being  helped to the hilt with constant supplies of weaponry, arms and ammunition which far outweighs whatever assistance Iran could give the Palestinians, either in sophistication or quantity.

    Because Hamas, it was, which started their foolish invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel has found more than justifiable reasons to attack and severely pound Gaza far beyond all reasonableness: killing thousands of mostly women and helpless children, even those on admission in hospitals.

    The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict which began way back in 1948, when about 200,000 Palestinians who fled, or were expelled, from their homes settled in the Gaza Strip as refugees.

    Since then, Israel has been involved in about 15 wars with groups in the Gaza Strip but none has been half as horrible as the current one since Israel sees it as a once, and for all, solution to the Palestinian question, preferring annihilation, if not extermination, to the more popular two state solution supported by most members of the United Nations.

    Israel has killed no less than 41,000 Palestinians to date, higher than the death toll of all other wars in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict combined, and with millions turned into refugees, with no surety of food, or access to drinking water. For the refugees, mostly innocent people, it has been hell on earth.

    No year could have been more horrible.

    Back here at home in Nigeria, 2024 was no less terrible, as it left its pangs which were felt literally by all strata of the society, even though not in equal measure.

    So bad was it that on 1 August, 2024 thousands rose in solidarity with Labour, with youths, activists, even Almajiris, pouring onto the streets to protest against economic hardship, rising food costs with food inflation hovering above 33 per cent, as well as demanding a cut in  electricity and petrol prices. That was not all.

    They equally called for good governance, justice and constitutional reforms.

    Happily, after an uncoordinated initial reaction, the government found its bearing, got to grips, and took charge comprehensively.

    Things have since improved, somewhat, with state governments beginning to take charge of their share of responsibilities in resolving the escalating food crisis, as well as  other existential challenges facing the country.

    Such is the situation now, that a group, The ThisDay & ARISE Group, which is habitually adversarial to the Tinubu government, could not help pronouncing President Tinubu as its Man of The Year, with ThisDay writing:

    “… it is difficult to argue that Tinubu did not earn his stripes as the most consequential Nigerian of 2024.

    “Overall, the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has by every note, caution, indication and inaction, earned the THISDAY Man of the Year, because of his doggedness,  resilience and his ability to take tough decisions even against the grain.”

    The group deserves nothing but our commendation when one realises the daily jeremiads of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, Tinubu’s two co-contestants in the 2023 Presidential election.

    Happy New Year to all my highly regarded readers as I pray that 2025 will be a far better year for us all than the preceeding one.

  • Remembering Rotimi Akeredolu

    Remembering Rotimi Akeredolu

    HE fought all his life’s battles with courage. Highly principled, focused, and goal-oriented, he was also a believer in the power of ideas. Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu governed with patriotism and candour. Unfortunately, he could not overcome the protracted illness that slowed him down in his tasks.

    Only God decides who survives an illness. The Alpha gives life; He also takes life as He wills. It’s ironic that while his beloved wife survived cancer, a rare divine mercy, the man did not. His body succumbed to the malignancy of the disease. It was painful. But who can question the Creator?

    A year after his passage, Akeredolu, fondly called Aketi, still fills the consciousness of all those who survived him: the family, the Bar, the party, and the government. He is remembered as an activist who used the instrumentality of law and the judicial system to fight for personal and societal causes.

    The deceased governor of Ondo State is remembered for his contributions, first and foremost, to the legal profession. In politics and good governance, he also left indelible feats. As the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), he made impressive marks and left worthy legacies. He got to the top as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a Life Bencher.

    Akeredolu was poles apart from politicians without a second address, the clan of those who perceive politics as an occupation of economic and social value. To him, politics was a vocation and an avenue for service to society.

    His first stint in government was during the military regime when he served as Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State. It was short-lived. However, as the ballot box battle shifted to the court in this dispensation, Akeredolu was among the legal colossuses who fought to restore stolen mandates across the country through the courts.

    He was not a strange face when he finally threw his hat into the ring in 2011. He was more than a new breed; he was already a household name, a legal luminary who could not be ignored, a man of great stature in the society.

    But his first political baptism showed that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate was a political novice whose huge legal knowledge and experience proved inadequate as he unsuccessfully locked horns with a more versatile, more experienced, and more fortified Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP).

    Those he met on the ground in the chapter knew that the coast was not clear for ACN as Mimiko began his second-term moves. When Akeredolu showed up at his polling booth in Owo, the majority of those on the queue glowered at him, insisting that all voters must join the line as they came. The PDP hawks had planned to disgrace their rival by mobilising their members with huge amount of money.

    Although Akeredolu lost the poll to Mimiko, he never deserted the battle. He bided his time and promptly returned to the drawing board. Having learnt some lessons, he started mobilising ahead of 2016. He had his eyes on the position of the ACN National Legal Adviser, but it eluded him.

    As he warmed up for the 2016 primary, it was evident that he had lost the support of notable Southwest party leaders who had projected him as the anointed candidate four years earlier. Up came a formidable aspirant, Dr. Segun Abraham. However, as Akeredolu was destined to be governor, there was a curious split in the Abraham camp. A section started hobnobbing with another aspirant, Chief Olusola Oke (SAN). At the close of the shadow poll, Akeredolu narrowly defeated Abraham with 36 votes.

    Read Also: Akeredolu was an exceptional politician, says Bishop Fagbemi

    It was certain that Mimiko could not hand over power to the PDP candidate, the then-ruling party in Ondo, having become distressed. Gradually, the PDP governor lost steam. During the governorship election, Akeredolu fulfilled his destiny, defeating Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) of the PDP and Oke, who ran on the borrowed platform of the Labour Party (LP).

    In his first term, the governor tried to justify the confidence reposed in him by fulfilling his campaign promises.

    The next primary and actual election were tough. Having consolidated his hold on the party and the state, Akeredolu triumphed. He became a voice in the Southwest as the coordinator of the governors. He and his Ogun State counterpart, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, ran into turbulence over their positions on 2019 nominations. Accused of anti-party activities, they were literarily suspended by the Adam Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC). The suspension was later lifted though. But the camp had their pound of flesh. Oshiomhole was shoved aside as chairman and APC ran into a leadership crisis.

    Infrastructural development was Akeredolu’s priority. He also tried to defend the education and health sectors. Towards the end of his first term, a rift occurred between him and his deputy, Agboola Ajayi. It led to the parting of ways between the governor and his deputy but prepared the seat for Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

    The greatest achievement of the Akeredolu administration was security. He was the moving spirit behind the setting up of the outfit, Amotekun, across the Southwest states. Before Amotekun, herder/farmer clashes, kidnapping for ransom, ritual killings, and other forms of violence had crept into the geo-political zone. Leaning on the law and the support of the people, the governor justified the establishment of the security organisation, which became the saving grace of the region.

    In those moments of federal/regional tango, Akeredolu displayed bravery and boldness. He called the Federal Attorney-General to a duel. As tension rose and federal/regional relations were being strained, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu called for a truce. Reason later prevailed when it was agreed that rather than being a regional outfit, each of the six Houses of Assembly should pass a law that accorded legality to Amotekun. Ondo State under the leadership of Akeredolu blazed the trail.

    Akeredolu advocated for devolution, decentralisation, and restructuring to foster true federalism. He called for state police, stressing that governors had become camouflage chief security officers of their states as they lacked control over the Commissioner of Police.

    Aketi was not a typical politician. He was not hypocritical. He was also not tricky. Sometimes, he fought to get party positions for his chapter, hinging his claims on zoning, equity, and fairness. That was how Bankole Okuwajana became the National Vice Chairman (Southwest) of the party.

    Akeredolu rejected Isaacs Kekemeke as Ondo APC chairman and asked his deputy, Ade Adetimehin, to take charge. The governor also later backed the former state chairman to serve as the National Vice Chairman (Southwest).

    Akeredolu appreciated merit, excellence, and loyalty. But once trust was betrayed, there was a loss of confidence.

    He was proud of his family. For him and his beloved wife, it was a love made in heaven – without any barrier. The criterion of age compatibility was not a factor. This should be motivational to young people in love. At a time in the Southwest, in the contiguous states of Ondo and Ekiti, there was peace in the households of chief executives where their older wives served as pillars and Amazons behind the throne.

    Health is wealth. The protracted illness distracted Akeredolu from his duty. He had many plans. They ultimately became an unfinished business. The man could not directly supervise the implementation of his succession plan. As he was down with the illness, what the people outside the split political structure of Aketi could accurately recall was the praises he showered on Aiyedatiwa when he described him as a “lucky” deputy, “whose head attracts fortune” as the son of the man who could claim that “now, this world has become our own” in direct translation of the current Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa’s name.

    Nevertheless, Akeredolu ‘s wish for Ondo was fulfilled. He was succeeded by an APC governor who is expected to build on his legacies. He was also succeeded by a politician from Ondo South Senatorial District in the spirit of fairness. Before he passed on, he was an exponent of rotation or zoning to the South District.

    Much is expected of the successor. Akeredolu’s legacies should be protected. Aiyedatiwa has tried to make peace with his former boss’ family. He should try more, not minding the discouragement.

    He should not seek vendetta. He should unite the APC chapter. He should be fair to all.

    The best honour to the memory of the departed leader is for the political class in Ondo to be forthright and sensitive to public yearnings. The surviving associates and disciples should also demonstrate courage, shun corruption, serve with diligence, candour, and honour, and realise that in the final analysis, power is transient and no condition is permanent.

  • Kalu, Emir Sanusi II, Agary, Abaribe, others raise a voice…

    Kalu, Emir Sanusi II, Agary, Abaribe, others raise a voice…

    As the tumultuous year 2024 clock ticks to a close, Nigerians home and abroad like the global community eagerly await the dawn of 2025. As with all New Years, there are expectations, regrets, anticipations, dreams, plans and even the often laughable ’New Year Resolutions’ some of which fade away before the end of the first quarter of the year. But humans are born optimists. Pregnancies occur and there is growth and expectations of development. The child is born and there is hope of the expected milestones of growth both mentally and physically.

    So when a child is born and does not develop according to the known milestones especially the motor and cognitive stages, naturally the parents and extended family begin to ask questions and plans are made to assist the child lead a near normal life. These days, fatalism that fuels superstition has given room to realistic steps to assist children with physical or learning challenges to develop and maximize their potentials no matter how imperfect. The bottomline however is that the adults in the societal room make efforts to help the child with development challenges.

    This narrative is a mere illustrative sample of the developmental challenges and how the human community tries to fill the gap. At regional and national levels, Nigeria appears like the child whose development is challenged and the people that pride themselves as the greatest black people on earth have seemingly been oscillating between near development and a situation of total socio-economic chaos resulting in mass poverty and  gaining the country the notoriety of the country with the largest number of out-of-school children, the poverty capital of the world, the country with one of the highest number of maternal and child mortality and numerous other development challenges that have impacted the standard of living and life expectancy.

    Since 1999 and with the return to civilian democracy in the country, each administration has encountered daunting challenges that seem to worsen with each transition to a new government. The socio-economic problems in the country have in a way stunted the growth of a 64 year old independent Nigeria. But Nigeria has not always been in dire development straits. The descent to anomie started with the post-independent power struggle of which the military took a huge advantage of. Coups and counter coups, a three year war, and political instability almost pushed the country off the edge.

    The return to civilian democracy in 1999 has signaled some development but it is still not uhuru. The country is still tethering and the socio-economic problems seem to be escalating by the day. There has been a tendency for the blame game between the leaders and the led. The Bottomline line is that both sides of the aisle are casualties of systemic dysfunction.

    Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo Foundation, a socio-cultural group of women of Igbo ancestry or by marriage has since its birthing in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown period been concerned about the slow development not just of the region but of the whole country. The group, coming from a background of traditional dual governance of both men and women decided to take the lead  by doing something. The group has a Board of Advisers made up of only men working progressively with an all female Board of Trustees giving vent to the motto of the foundation which is “Partnering for Development”.

    The vision of the group is to steer both regional and national conversations that could accelerate development. The first word Nkata in Igbo language means conversation. The group believes that the powerful tool of conversation, dialogue or effective communication can be employed to unknot the development crisis that has been affecting the country. They have in the last three years been deeply involved in strategic communication using all necessary tools to address issues of development in the country.

    For this year’s conference, the group brought together informed and influential Nigerians to Abuja to discuss the theme, “Driving Transformation Through Value Re-Orientation, Inclusive Leadership and Sustainability”.

    This theme was chosen after very wide consultations. The bane of Nigeria’s developmental problems is due to a multiplicity of issues. However, at the root of the problems is the loss of core values that held communities together. The values that do not by any means produce Saints but at least helped the society to uphold certain core values that helped in maintaining a more progressive and cohesive society. The values of integrity, honesty, diligence, respect and other values seem to be on the decline. Ironically, most people assume that the leaderships over the years are to blame but aren’t the leadership taken from the people?

    Again, inclusive leadership has been an issue in the democratic space. Civil Rights and Gender advocates have been worried that the Nigerian political space is suffused with masculine energy in that more than 90% of political offices are occupied by men in all tiers of government. What this means is that many qualified women do not get the much desired opportunpartake in leadership. Global institutions like the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) all have research findings that show that countries with less opportunities for women are always lagging behind developmentally.

    Ironically in Nigeria, statistics have shown that women excel in those areas where merit and capacity are the criteria. The informal sector that contributes a lot to the GDP has mainly women operators. Many women are at the helm of many financial institutions as chairmen and CEOs. In the academia, many women are in very high positions just as many perform well in sports, entertainment and music. It therefore beggars belief that when it comes to political inclusion, very few women are allowed to bring their competence and learning to contribute to national development.

    The near exclusion of women, the youths and those living with disabilities in the democratic process contributes to the lack of development in the country. No bird flies successfully with one wing. This is exactly the reality of the Nigerian situation. The human capital is neither fully developed nor utilized for the good of the country. So the conversation at the conference was robustly about three key points, value-reorientation, inclusive leadership and sustainability.

    Read Also: Kalu, Emir Sanusi II, Agary, Abaribe, others raise a voice…

    The varied Speakers at the conference from the different sectors of the Nigerian society spoke brilliantly about the need for an introspection by the Nigerian society. National development is never sourced out. The citizens must choose what path they want to development. The political structure must be inclusive and equitable. The present political exclusion cannot birth a developed nation. The political party structure must change. Competence and merit must be the criteria for leadership selection.

    According to Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Soeaker Nigerian House of Representativesthe 10th assembly who Chaired the Conference, the house would be willing to revisit the gender equity bills and make other laws that would facilitate inclusivity to enhance development. In his speech, he agreed that national development cannot be achieved without women participation given the fact that women are natural builders.

    Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, spoke of what he called “the uncomfortable truth”. According to him, while we all acknowledge the loss of values especially amongst his Igbo ethnic group, he believes that women have a role to play in raising their children with admirable values that ennoble. He said the people must go back to the values of integrity, diligence and honesty if any changes must happen to propel development. Acquitting wealth by any means is not a cultural attitude. Wealth in Igbo culture always comes from traceable business

    According to the Emir of Kano, HRH Lamido Sanusi II who was Royal Father of the Day, investing in women must be a priority and a national emergency because women hold the key to development. He believes that the idea of brandishing statistics of, maternal and child mortality, malnurished children, out of school children, child brides, female IDPs is defeatist. The governments must try to be proactive right from the cradle because an educated woman holds the key to the prevention of a lot of the socio-economic problems that affect the country. According to the Emir, investment in women development is key to national growth given the great role they play in the lives of their children.

    The Emir recalled the role he played as Central Bank governor in making sure more qualified women were appointed into many financial institutions and today more women are directors not just at the CBN but they are also CEOs of many banks. He went further to advise Nigerians about values that matter. He believes the people must distinguish between what and who they are. In his view, what you are might be a position but who you are is the value you bring to the people through what you are.

    The former First Lady of Ekiti state, Erelu Adebisi Adeleye-Fayemi a renowned civil and gender rights advocate reiterated her call for the protection and empowerment of the girl child or woman by ensuring they are educated, certain harmful cultural practice eradicated because rather than enhance development, those harmful cultural practices negatively affect not just the woman but the society at large. In her view, every woman who is denied a seat at the table, every girl who is denied education, every woman under the burden of domestic violence takes the country down the ladder of underdevelopment.

    Timi Koripami-Agary (PhD), a retired permanent Secretary and activist often called Mama Amnesty for her very effective role in the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta was the Mother of the Day at the conference. As a very renowned mediator on Labour, gender and conflict issues she maintains that development cannot happen like magic. She  insists that the country must be conscious of the value of women and equity to development. It would be delusional to assume that development can come without peace and gender justice rooted on the justice system that guarantees equity for all.

    The conversation as is being advocated by the Nkata group should be embraced by Nigerians from all regions because of the interdependence of all the regions. Bringing the conference to Abuja and the coalition of Nigerians from almost all tribes in the country was a good way to prepare the people for the coming year. There is no alternative to the national conversation that Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo Foundation has initiated. This is the first part of what happened at the Abuja Conference.

    • The dialogue continues…
  • Thoughts and non thoughts of OBJ

    Thoughts and non thoughts of OBJ

    So pungent, incisive, convincing and irrefutable have been the several reactions to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent address at Yale University in the United States in which he not only excoriated the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration but, characteristically, held his own leadership record up as the ideal to follow, that there is no need to reiterate the well known arguments here. Sermonizing endlessly on the ills plaguing Nigeria and magisterially pronouncing solutions to them has been the routine pastime of the former military head of state and then elected President for two terms despite the fact that he did not avail himself of his latter day wisdom when he had the opportunity to steer the affairs of Nigeria and shape the destiny of the nation.

    The truth of the matter is that the Owu Chief, perhaps more than any other past leader, cannot escape culpability for the state of Nigeria today – her continued underdevelopment and poverty despite an abundance of natural, mineral and relatively qualitative Human Resources. Had he seized the opportunities placed on his laps seemingly on a golden platter to steer Nigeria’s ship of State particularly between 1999 and 2007 to deepen the country’s federal practice, diversify the economy, lay the foundation for the modernization and expansion of key infrastructure, revamp the country’s security architecture, institutionalize electoral integrity through the conduct of credible polls and pay more than lip service to the fight against corruption, the trajectory of the country’s socioeconomic and political development would be far different from what it is today.

    In his book, ‘Not My Will’, a personal memoir of his years in power as military Head of State between 1976 and 1979, Obasanjo, with characteristic lack of charity, derided the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo asserting that what the legendary politician and statesman had sought in futility all his life, which was to be elected President of Nigeria, he (Obasanjo) had attained at a relatively young age. Yet, he did not address his mind to the critical issue of whether or not he had maximally utilize this opportunity to pursue and promote the best interest of Nigeria and her accelerated developmental transformation. His military regime’s political transition programme ushered in a civilian dispensation in 1979 that was one of the most venal, corrupt and inept leading to the collapse of the Second Republic and the return of military rule within four years. Given another opportunity to redeem himself as elected President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, Obasanjo demonstrated that he had learnt nothing from his past foray in power.

    In his address at an event to honour the memory of the great novelist and intellectual, Chinua Achebe, at Yale University, Obasanjo’s unsparing criticism descended heavily on the incumbent Tinubu administration in the same way that he had subjected every government to since his exit from power in 2007. It little occurred to him, as many analysts have pointed out, that the naturally reticent Achebe was forced to trenchantly criticize bad and lawless governance under the Obasanjo presidency and even rejected the national honour bestowed on him by the Ota farmer as a gesture of symbolic protest.

    Some have attributed the former President’s relentless criticisms of successive administrations after him to a desire to be the focus of attention as well as the urge to portray his administration as the best in this dispensation if not in the post-independence history of Nigeria. Unfortunately, any such pretensions fly in the face of indisputable facts and cannot be supported by objective, serious minded analysis. It is my view that the former President’s serial critiques of Nigeria’s political economy under successive administrations and habitual indulgence in self-glorification stem from an innate lack of capacity to transcend superficiality in analysis as evidenced by the ephemerality of most of his books in which he makes magisterial pronouncements that have minimal impact on the polity because they are hardly deeply reasoned and well thought out. This is in sharp contradistinction to the immortal thoughts and works of Awolowo that still remain pertinent and relevant to Nigeria’s quest for a viable socioeconomic and political order decades after they were written.

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    For instance, Obasanjo loves to flaunt his self-proclaimed patriotism and incomparable love for Nigeria. Yet, from his conduct when he had the opportunity to preside over the country’s affairs, there was no indication that he had reflected deeply on what patriotism really means beyond mere cliches and empty sentimentality. For instance, when a 20-man delegation of the League of Northern Democrats led by a former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, visited him in Abeokuta recently, the former President reiterated once again his fabled love for Nigeria. In his words, “You said I am a believer in the greatness of this country. Yes, I am. I am also an incurable optimist in this country. I am totally committed to the goodness of this country. But I believe if we look back and we want to be sincere with ourselves, we can see some of the mistakes of the past which we must not fall into again”.

    But it is no less a person than Chinua Achebe who gives us an insight into the shallowness of Obasanjo’s understanding of patriotism and love for country. On page 15 of his slim but powerful classic, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, Achebe writes, “In 1978 or 79 General Obasanjo paid an official visit to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Of the academic community assembled in the Niger Room of the Continuing Education Centre and which rose respectfully to its feet on his entry, General Obasanjo made a totally unexpected demand. He asked them to recite the national pledge! A few ambiguous mumbles followed, and then stony silence. “You see,” said the General bristling with hostility, “You do not even know the National Pledge”. No doubt he saw in this failure an indictable absence of patriotism among a group he had always held with great suspicion”.

    Achebe then goes on to dilate lucidly on patriotism. His words, “Who is a patriot? He is a person who loves his country. He is not a person who says he loves his country. He is not even a person who shouts or swears or recites or sings his love for his country. He is one who cares deeply about the happiness and well-being of his country and all its people. Patriotism is an emotion of love directed by a critical intelligence. A true patriot will always demand the highest standards of his country and accept nothing but the best for and from his people. He will be outspoken in condemnation of their shortcomings without giving way to superiority, despair or cynicism. That is my idea of a patriot”. It is thus obvious that Obasanjo’s address at Yale and his several scurrilous denunciations of previous administrations both of the PDP and APC fall far short of Achebe’s thoughtful and exacting standards of patriotism.

    In the same address to the League of Northern Democrats, Obasanjo spoke on the vexed issue of Igbo presidency which is yet to be a reality in the country. According to him, “I think all of us in Nigeria have to rethink…It bleeds my heart when people say because the Igbo had carried out a secession and so an Igbo man cannot be the President of Nigeria. I say what nonsense? There is no section of Nigeria that has not planned secession? What is “Araba” in the North? The North planned to break up Nigeria…What is treasonable felony? So, who among us can say I am better than the other? None!”.

    In the first place, it is untrue that there is no part of the country that has not planned a secession. There were certainly tensions in the relationship between various parts of the country leading to threats and heated exchanges at various times which is natural in a complex, plural polity like ours. But it is only the Igbo of the Southeast that had actually carried out the threat of secession, an attempt that was militarily crushed after three years of bloody conflagration. Even then, I am unaware as Obasanjo posits that anybody worth taking seriously has ever suggested that an Igbo man cannot be President of Nigeria because of the abortive secession attempt. Indeed, as I have previously said in this column, within nine years of the end of the civil war, an Igbo man, Dr Alex Ekwueme, had become the Vice President of Nigeria. There is every possibility that within the dynamics of democratic politics an Igbo man would have since become President of Nigeria but for the truncation of democracy by military intervention in 1983.

    In the last presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, directed his campaign mainly at his fellow Igbo as well as Christians of the North and South and his support base was restricted to that limited constituency which cannot deliver a presidential victory in a vast country like Nigeria. A candidate who engaged in church tourism campaigns and openly called on Christians to “take back your country” understandably did not win a single state in the core Muslim North which constitutes at least one half of the electorate. In any case, if Obasanjo is so passionate about Igbo presidency, why did he emerge from nowhere to snatch the PDP presidential ticket from Dr Ekwueme in 1998 with the support of retired northern Generals even when Ekwueme, one of the founding fathers of the PDP, was on course to winning the ticket?

    Reporting Obasanjo’s address to the visiting League of Northern Democrats, The Punch newspaper wrote, “The former President blamed regionalism as practiced before obtaining independence in October 1960 as the foundation of the country’s prolonged lack of cohesion, adding that “the truth is that at independence, Nigeria emerged with three leaders and so it is a situation of three countries in one ever since”. Again, it does not appear that this submission is a reflection of rigorous thought.

    For one, it is simplistic to base an analysis of post-independence Nigerian politics on the three major ethnic groups when ethnic minorities have increasingly asserted their influence within the polity. Again, it is as misleading to blame the regional structure of the first republic for the collapse of democracy in 1966 just as it is to proffer a return to regionalism as the solution to current challenges. Rather than regionalism per se being the problem with the First Republic, it was the attempt by the ruling NPC/NCNC coalition at the centre to forcibly seize control of the Western Region from the Action Group (AG) and impose an unpopular Ladoke Akintola of the NNDP on the region through the brazen massive rigging of the 1965 Western Regional elections that ignited the flames of anarchy in the region which then had national implications bringing down the democratic edifice on everybody.

    Obasanjo lectured his northern visitors to the effect that “Yes, you have identified your group as the League of Northern Democrats, but how I wish you had called your group National League of Democrats, because where you come from should not be a problem. Where I was born should not be the enemy of my ‘Nigerianess’. I will be increasing by being a Nigerian rather than being a member of the Republic of Oodua”. This is hardly realistic. When asked to respond to allegations that he was a tribalist during his campaign for the presidency in 1979, Chief Awolowo submitted that he could not be a good Yoruba man without first and foremost being a good and responsible indigene of Ikenne and that he could not claim to be a good and patriotic Nigerian without first being a good and responsible Yoruba man. This sounds eminently sensible, practical and honest to me. The point, as the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was said to have told the great Zik is not to deny our differences but to understand them.

    • This article was first published November 13, 2024