The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • The North wakes up

    The North wakes up

    There is this common saying among the Yoruba to the effect that as long as there are lies on the head, so long shall blood be present there.  Therefore, as long as the North remains Nigeria’s ‘enfant à problèmes’, its problem child, so long will writers and analysts continue to highlight issues there in the hope that relevant stakeholders will wake up to their responsibilities as Nasarawa State governor Abdullahi Sule, and a few other critical stakeholders demonstrated in the piece below.

    Speaking this past week at the inaugural regional conference on population dynamics, security, climate change, out-of-school children, and vulnerable children, held in Lafia, Nasarawa State, the governor and Chairman of the North Central Governors’ Forum, called for decisive action to address the longstanding challenges, especially, of the almajiri system in Northern Nigeria.

    Said the governor: “We must wake up and solve these problems ourselves without waiting for others to do it for us. We must take the bull by the horns and stop complaining”. That was after he attributed the persistence of this, and other problems in the region to systemic failures  and the neglect of parental responsibilities, emphasising the need to educate citizens on Islamic teachings, especially the fact that it is a sin to have more children, or  wives, than one can care for. Concluding, he asked: “Why should the North continue to hold the entire nation down when these   problems are theirs to solve?”

    These, incidentally, are questions Northerners are only now asking themselves. Indeed, they believed that whoever asked them were taunting them. For instance, for warning them of the consequences of considering education a haram for the children of the poor, many Northerners never forgave Chief Obafemi Awolowo.  

    But ere we are today with uneducated youths becoming a supermarket for the recruitment of bandits and Boko Haram elements.

    To show that this event was not all talk, the governor announced plans to establish three special schools in Lafia, Akwanga, and Keffi, specifically for the rehabilitation of almajiris.

    What a paradigm shift? Only a few years back, all these governors could do for them was, first repatriate them to their assumed states of origin before they were freighted, yes freighted in trucks, to Southern forests.

    God be praised for small mercies.

    Further confirming the seriousness of the occasion, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission of Almajiri and Out-of-School Children, Dr. Mohammed Sani Idris, after saying that Nigeria has over 18.3 million out-of-school children, the second highest in the world, after Pakistan, with over 30 million almajiris roaming Northern streets, informed the August gathering that

     the commission has launched a program, in Kaduna state, to integrate 350 almajiris into formal education and skill acquisition programs, with plans to send some beneficiaries to some Islamic Universities abroad”.

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    Heartwarming too, is the fact that, unlike the usual jamborees we see in the North, masquerading as seminars on all manner of things, the conference was attended by some hardheaded critical stakeholders besides politicians; people one believes, will take these decisions to fruition.

    REACTIONS TO THREE ISSUES TO PONDER (The Nation, 10 November, 2024)

    Of the many reactions to the above, space constraint will not permit more than one which I consider quite quintessential.

    It came from a U.K based Attorney, Caleb Arogundade who. wrote the following.

    “I read through this article and two things engaged my attention. First is the issue of parental neglect of children’s education in some parts of Nigeria. I have never been a vociferous advocate of ‘balkanisation’ of Nigeria, but each time that I take a cursory look at our configuration in relation to our  religious and other beliefs, I become confused.

    A section believes in children’s education, while another believes in uncontrolled procreation but without regard to the educational, and general well-being of the children so produced.

    The ‘Rankadede’ culture in some areas is at variance with the ‘Aguda ò j¹ lab¹ G¹¹si’ culture of some other areas. I look at the attitudes of most of the leaders in the Northern parts of the country and I consider same to be wicked. You won’t find the children of the elite among  ‘Almajiris’.

    This is a culture they not only promote,  but defend aggressively.  The Yorubas would say: ‘ÌwÍ tó dil¹ ni Ècù ñ yá lò’. In other words, devil finds work for an idle hand. These hapless and mostly ‘parents-less’ children can be likened to a group of expendables!

    These children should, at least, be told that disruptive activities attract appropriate consequences, but the manner the recent matter involving some Northern children was treated, showed that justice was not served; that its handling left much to be desired. The worst part was that  some people chose to portray the government in bad light.

    Closely connected

    to this is the extent of banditry and how it is ravaging the North with these products of Almajiri being ready recruits.

    There are unconfirmed reports  that the security forces sometimes find it difficult to decimate the miscreants because some of the leaders in the North easily read religious undertone to the activities of bandits and terrorists, thus offering them protection.  They wrongly view their decimation as an attempt to reduce the number of their religious adherents; the reason one hears of ‘400 bandits killed, or 500 arrested’ with the supposedly arrested ones soon finding their ways back into the bush. .

    The second issue to address is our educational curriculum. I attended a certificate course in teaching at level 5 here some years ago. The training opened my eyes to a lot of defects in our educational curriculum development. I haven’t finished the course before I realised that our own curriculum cannot be said to be fit for purpose. There’s proliferation of Universities all over the country without any thought about what  result oriented activities would follow. We politicise everything in Nigeria. Our leaders send their children out to receive qualitative education while they provide quantitative education for Nigerian youths. Governments build hospitals that are nothing more than ‘mere consulting clinics’ but jet out to treat the smallest of ailments.

    One can go on and on, but I rest my case”.

  • The NNPCL’s feather on Tinubu’s cap

    The NNPCL’s feather on Tinubu’s cap

    The last few days have been especially very hectic for the Nigerian President, working at almost break-spine speed to meet targets, get Nigeria sorted in all the ways necessary. You will recall he was out of the country the week before the last one, attending the G20 Leaders Summit in Brazil. He returned very late on Saturday of the upper week to Nigeria and continued with the mission of getting the country sorted right from Sunday, the first day of the week.

    You might not have heard much from him directly during the week because he was not seen or heard from in the media, in person, however, he did not fail to achieve what he set out to achieve. As is normal practice, echoes of his actions and directives were heard through his spokesmen and other lieutenants, indicating that even when he was not speaking to the camera for us to see, he was doing things that must be conveyed by those who have the duties of carrying out tasks.

    However, in the course of the week, a significant event occurred, which conveyed to Nigerians the import of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s view to leadership; that he is not one for just the accolades, but primarily for results and how the results impact on the people he leads. The old Port Harcourt Refinery, which has been dormant for years (I heard the last time it produced anything was 2018), came back alive on Tuesday, November 26, after a number of failed targeted resumption dates. It was actually becoming a sore point on Nigeria’s governance, especially with the coming on stream of a couple of privately-owned refineries, including Dangote Refinery.

    Long story short, one of the four nationally owned refineries, the old Port Harcourt Refinery, one of the two situated in Eleme, Rivers State, came alive, ready to serve the country. The project, which I learned was fitted with cutting-edge technology and, to use the words of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, installed with entirely new parts, will now load two hundred trucks of assorted products daily.

    Now it became interesting and concerning Tinubu because of the role he played. Of course he is President and the buck stops at his table, that could have just been and nothing would still happen; the facility would still be there, decaying further from lack of use activity, past leaders have come and left without anything changing about the refinery. However, the difference with Tinubu was his single-mindedness on seeing that products start getting trucked out of the place. Mind you, all these years that the place has been prostrate, it was servicing only salaries to redundant employees. That was not the President’s vision for any public facility, every man and machine must give back the value for its maintenance.

    He was focused on bringing results from this particular facility and the entire sector. When public scrutiny was becoming a distraction, scrutiny about when the refineries on which government, right from former President Muhammadu Buhari, had been spending money, signing agreements, would start production. The NNPCL gave dates a couple of times, which for some reasons never materialised. This was becoming both embarrassing and distracting and there was where the President had to step in to save the day.

    “Mr President told me to stop projecting dates, but just focus on ensuring we deliver the project because people are only interested in results”, Kyari revealed to some journalists before the event commenced on Tuesday, rather privately though. With this background in mind, you will understand why he was so profusely thanking and appreciating the President when he was speaking on camera at the ceremony that marked the commencement of production and loading of products last Tuesday.

    “We are convinced beyond all doubt that without the support, perseverance, and patience of Mr. President, we would not have achieved this fate and all of us must congratulate him because it is his massive pressure that made us to come to this level”, he said. Tinubu’s intervention and commitment to the success that was celebrated last Tuesday was show of leadership, which he did not fail to relish. He was also not selfish about the sparkles of the glory, he would not take the spotlight alone, he ensured to give credit to his predecessor for his part, not forgetting “the pivotal role of former President Muhammadu Buhari in initiating the comprehensive rehabilitation of all our refineries”.

    The week saw the President honouring an invitation by President Emmanuel Macron of France to a state visit, along with his wife, First Lady Oluremi Tinubu. Most of his visible activities of the week were the ones he undertook in France. Right from Thursday, President Tinubu had been engaged in series of engagements, including signing of agreements on behalf of Nigeria and participating in an economic forum, which had Nigerian and French businesses.

    Read Also: JUST IN: NNPCL reduces petrol price to N1030/l for marketers

    The state visit was the first by a Nigerian leader after over two decades and it provided an opportunity for Nigeria to extend its foreign connections, especially for the Tinubu-led administration, which has identified foreign affairs as an avenue to achieve some of its economic goals for the country. However, beyond whatever might be in the visit for Nigeria, France seemed to have a more strategic reason than Nigeria to seek the visit of the largest African democracy, which is a turf it is rather less familiar with. From all indications, France aimed to explore a new connect with the English-speaking spheres of the black continent and where better to start from?   

    On a lighter note, I think it makes sense to highlight the fact that President Tinubu is contagiously transmitting Nigerianness to those we will all agree are the real Super Powers of the contemporary milieu. Yes, he has made it a very key and deliberate part of his administration’s focus and recovery strategy to ensure we are not isolated, as such kept strengthening diplomatic outreaches and shopping for foreign direct investments.

    In the process of achieving these foreign-focused targets, Mr President has also been quietly pushing the ‘Identity Nigeria’ in the way we used to see it only with our culture merchants and young showbiz exports. For example, ‘Afrojams’, which is primarily denominated with songs by Nigerian artistes, has pushed Nigeria out to the world, taking some cultural codes and expressions along as it permeates the wider-world.

    It should no longer be strange to us hearing either Ed Sheeran, a British singer/songwriter, sing “Omoge nor be so” in ‘Peru’ with Fireboy DML, or hearing Chris Brown, an American star, sing “the boy nor dey take nonsense” in ‘Hmmm’, a track he did with Burna Boy and featured Davido. Something like Nigeria seizing the world by storm, imprinting its very vivid and colourful cultural identity on the world’s conscience. This has been going on for a while.

    In that same trajectory, President Tinubu has in the last few days affected two major world leaders to deviate from their own to adopt our own. It was first the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, during his one-day state visit, just before the G20 Summit. Prime Minister Modi, while making his speech at the tete-a-tete, adopted the Yoruba word of affection; ‘oree mi’, meaning ‘my friend’, to refer to his brother-leader, President Tinubu. That, to many Nigerians, especially those who understand or speak Yoruba, was a really profound moment, when a man with a very strong cultural background honoured us as a nation by choosing to speak our tongue.

    Then this week, on Thursday evening, to express his value for President Tinubu’s visist, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, switched from his traditional and very widely spoken French tongue to our own pigin on his verified X handle, @EmmanuelMacron, to describe his excitement. Mr Macron said “Na big honor for France, dear President Bola Tinubu @officialABAT, to welcome you for dis State visit as one big partner and friend of today and tomorrow. E still dey sweet me well well as I remember say I be young intern for French Embassy for Nigeria that time”.

    Without meaning it, Mr President is fast becoming another cultural export, drawing those who matter to pay attention and learn about our lives as Nigerians. I will not be surprised if President-elect Donald Trump soon starts hustling to be invited to Aso Villa to come try our amala and gbegiri or ofe nssala with pounded yam out, that is because we are cool like that and the world cannot wait to feel us.

    In this new week he continues with being busy because he is expected to be heading out for another foreign engagement in South Africa. Let us keep praying for our President to success. His success is our collective ease.

  • We are the trees of the world

    We are the trees of the world

    (For the recent casualties of  University of Ibadan’s  Heritage Park)

    We bleed when cut

    We are the Trees of the World

    We are the Trees of the Life

    We laugh, we cry, we whisper, we shout

    We breed, we brood, we breathe 

    We carry the Planet in our careful hands

    A tender burden, historic task

    The loom and latch of a naked world

    We robe the Earth in our green embrace

    Hour by hour we lose our kin

    To waste, to war, and the senseless blaze

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    The careless axe, the haughty chain saw

    And the cannibal greed of the rich and strong 

    Behold the Spider Monkey and the Spectacled Bear

    The Butterflies, the Forest Crabs

    The Eloquent Parrot, the Sagacious Owl

    The Cool Canopy and the Travelling Roots 

    A Tree never falls alone in the forest

    It takes our Future with the crashing leaves

    The blind gold-digger, the reckless farmer

    Subject your greed to the Need of All

    We are the Trees of the world

    We are the Trees of the Life

    Pearls from the Past, flowers of the Future

    We burn when ignited, we bleed when cut

    We are the vital lobes  of the lungs of the Planet

    From Green: Sighs of  Our  Ailing Planet , Black Widow Press, 2021  

  • Nigeria’s democracy worth defending

    Nigeria’s democracy worth defending

    Nigeria’s democracy was never more threatened than immediately after the February 2023 presidential election. The threats were multilayered. Those who lost the poll headed for the courts, tried to browbeat the judges through orchestrated campaigns to shame them, suborned foreign courts and organisations to sanction the delegitimisation of the poll, incite public and civil society insurrection, attempted to arrest the conclusion of the electoral process, campaigned for and instigated coup d’états, and sponsored street protests of all kinds using the unions. That democracy has lasted for some 24 to 25 years, though it sometimes wobbled badly along the way, is of no significance to the plotters. Their main goal was to destroy democracy than celebrate the longevity of a process that seemed to have disinherited them, nor were they keen on getting bogged down in debates about whether what would replace the democracy they resent met civilised standards. Their last gasp plot was the deployment of hunger and hardship concerns to instigate violent street actions – not protests as Amnesty International persistently conflates – capable of overthrowing democracy.

    After about 18 months of feverish plots to undermine democracy, the plotters appear to be ready to give up and instead focus on organising themselves for the next polls. They may not have relented in sabotaging public facilities, such as electricity transmission lines and towers as well as national facilities in order to discredit the administration, but they are quietly turning their attention to the internal affairs of their opposition political parties. The jostle for positions of influence is gently beginning, but there will be no commensurate fight to reform or sanitise party platforms and fine-tune party ideologies. Neither of the two opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), has cleaned up its act, but they hope that by some magic, their parties would suddenly become better organised and more appealing to the electorate. They hope they can palliate the unhappiness of internal dissenters and smother the fires within. Hope may be irrelevant in delivering needed solutions to the parties, but they will keep hope alive for want of a more scientific approach to the crises that have baffled them for two agonising years.

    It is too early to tell how sanguine the anti-democratic forces would be about their chances of surviving the next two years intact, let alone flourishing, until the next polls. They are limited in every area of politics, and are stymied by their almost total lack of imaginativeness. Indeed, two factors will in summary determine how well they can respond to the changing dynamics of Nigerian politics. Firstly, the PDP and LP presidential candidates in the last poll, former vice president Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra governor Peter Obi respectively, probably feel a sense of emptiness gnawing at the back of their minds, particularly their political ideas and platforms. Alhaji Atiku will be 80 years old at the next poll, and neither he nor his family can tell what kind of deterioration will come upon him or unnerve him. Already, despite retaining his age-old truculence and intransigence, he has become lethargic. Mr Obi deployed ethnic and religious politics in the last poll with devastating aplomb. But the Bola Tinubu administration has taken away the religion leg of that infamous pair of weapons, leaving only the ethnic card for the former governor. Mr Obi will be unable to exploit the remaining isolated card as ferociously as he did in 2023. The Southeast may be clannish, but they are not stupid. They read the trends diligently and will be painfully aware that the ethnic card alone will not fetch their champion the presidency, assuming he contests.

    But a video shared on X (Twitter) last Saturday may perhaps hold some promise for Alhaji Atiku’s and Mr Obi’s supporters. In the video, the former vice president hosted Mr Obi to a breakfast in Yola, Adamawa State, prompting, despite the incongruity of the event, discussions about an impending coalition between the former candidates. They had aligned in 2019 on the PDP platform to fight the presidential election of that year against ex-president Muhammadu Buhari, but were trounced. The joint ticket failed mainly because it could not find a platform that resonated with voters. In the 2023 poll, however, Mr Obi’s platform was as passionate as it was evocative; but delinking from Alhaji Atiku made both candidates vulnerable to the APC’s divide and rule tactics, and a great thrashing. Speculations about the purpose of the Yola breakfast may not be far off the mark. They indicate that some form of alliance may be in the offing, for the two gentlemen have recognised that going into any presidential electoral war individually was a recipe for disaster. That disaster is certain to reoccur if the two politicians do not join forces. Even then, they may yet discover that forming a coalition takes hugely away from their individual appeal. It is not clear why Alhaji Atiku uploaded the video, instead of Mr Obi. What is, however, clear is that the former vice president still entertains the chimerical hope that he could still run for the presidency at 80. He obviously hopes that President Tinubu will make more enemies than friends in the months ahead, and the economy would go into a tailspin, in order to facilitate the chance of beating the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.

    Read Also: Tinubu and Macron: Leveraging friendship for development, by Tunde Rahman

    Secondly, the anti-democratic forces, aided by saboteurs of power grids and other facilities and policies, will hope that the economy will not respond to all the medications administered by the Tinubu administration. Should hunger, exchange rate, inflation and insecurity remain on the front burner months to the election, they would hope the formation of a political coalition could finally unhorse the administration and doom its chances in the next poll. But that is hard to bank on even for politicians as indurate as Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi. Current economic indicators, not to talk of the immense potential of other far-reaching and radical measures like the hated tax reform bills, seem to show that the economy is both on the mend and remains responsive to medications. It may sound propagandistic, but official statements by the administration’s economic managers suggesting that the economy has turned the corner and is on the mend may be right. Exchange rate has not worsened as many analysts projected, and inflation has appeared to reduce its furious pace. Balance of trade and economic growth have remained positive, and other drivers of negative economic indices appear to have been tamed. Insecurity has also declined significantly. Hardship and hunger remain, but in the next 12 to 18 months, they are unlikely to be as ferocious as they have been in the past months.

    Hamstrung by their own identity crises and internal wrangling and limitations, and disappointed by an economy cautiously churning back to life, both the PDP and LP, in coalition or singly, will struggle to find vulnerable parts in the ruling party. They will point at the ruling party’s sometimes chaotic approach to national challenges, and they will be right; but they will also be unable to deflect attention from their own self-generated chaos and mediocre politics. Their misery will be worsened by the extraordinary performance of some governors eager to transform their states and prove more than a point, not only on account of the politics of reelection, but also on account of genuine appreciation that fame can be easily procured with showpiece works in the age of social media. Niger State’s Governor Mohammed Umar Bago, Kaduna’s Uba Sani, Enugu’s Peter Mbah, Imo’s Hope Uzodinma, Anambra’s Chukwuma Soludo, Katsina’s Dikko Umar Radda, and Benue’s Hyacinth Alia, among a few others, have shown exemplary aptitude for deft politics as well as brilliant developmental strides. They were among the reasons the frenetic desire to torpedo Nigeria’s democracy did not resonate beyond a few angry and pampered cities and elites.

    Rivers State may return to the medieval era, and the Southwest to strange mental and physical inertia, but the boldness and inventiveness of the Tinubu administration, assuming it can restrategise its flailing palliative policies, not to say the inspiring stories from some of the states, will help democracy retain its potency and lustre. Critics will still have a field day as long as hunger and hardship continue to defy solutions, and the political opposition, hungry for power, will be unsparing and ill-tempered. Even then, Nigeria is unlikely to return to a time when a few people will procure military insurrection or instigate anarchy, no matter how precarious the country’s condition. If the system could withstand such aggravated hardship as the Tinubu administration’s retooling policies have unleashed, without becoming vulnerable to a coup d’etat or embracing unconstitutional and repressive measures to curb criticism and disaffection, then democracy may have a bright future in these parts and be worth defending and refining.

  • Tinubu, France and Francophone West Africa

    Tinubu, France and Francophone West Africa

    Last week’s state visit to France by President Bola Tinubu was an unusual diplomatic engagement, the first after more than 20 years since a Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, undertook that kind of visit. Its impact will be felt not only in Nigeria as business deals are hammered out by both countries, it will also reverberate across West Africa partly because of the strained diplomatic relations between France and the three Francophone West African countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic. The visit is a logical progression from recent trade and diplomatic statistics between the two countries. Apart from being France’s leading trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is now in pole position to exploit the vacuum created by the exit of the Francophone West African countries estranged from the French orbit.

    Nigeria is hungry for capital and investments in high-tech. France has lost not only three Francophone West African countries, it has also lost its influence in Chad, where that country has ended decades-old defence cooperation, and lost Senegal which has also served notice to France to remove its base and troops. To complete the humiliation, Chad did not even bother to inform France ahead of its decision, and has signaled its preparedness to join Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the Russian orbit. Since last year, Russia has been replacing the departing French forces in the region, and is helping the West African countries, which severed relationship with ECOWAS last year, to fight hardened jihadist insurgents in the Sahel. President Tinubu’s state visit to France is coming hard on the heels of that major shift in West Africa’s diplomatic tectonic plates.

    But President Tinubu will have to manage his country’s proposed deepened relations with France with more finesse than he managed the coups d’etat in the three Francophone countries. France’s reputation for financial exploitation, if not expropriation, of its former West African colonies has inspired the hostility of many Africans. Already, on social media, there were unfounded rumours of France seeking to establish a military base in Nigeria after being kicked out of its three former colonies. With the number now rising to five where France has lost its foothold, some had feared that France would desperately seek a replacement. Since the abrogation of the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Agreement of 1958-1962, Nigeria has not countenanced any foreign military base on its soil in any form. Inviting France to site a base in Nigeria is obviously not in consideration.

    There are no indications at all that France has any stated or unwritten intention to site a military base in Nigeria. On the contrary, given the buffeting the Nigerian economy has received from domestic mismanagement, what is uppermost in the minds of Nigerian leaders is deepened and mutually beneficial economic relationships in diverse fields including agriculture, mining, trade, technology, cultural exchange, and other kinds of investments. Indications coming from the Franco-Nigerian Business Council are that many profitable business deals are being finalised.

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    President Tinubu is right not to toe the line of the five countries estranged from France. Nigeria does not have the unpleasant experience referenced by the Francophone West African countries which soured their relations with France. Instead, it is embracing a different paradigm pursued by other countries including China since 1978, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and even long before them, Russia under Catherine the Great. Nigeria, like these other countries, needs Western technology and business practices to develop its domestic technical capacity and drive output and growth. If other countries could absorb what they need from foreign investors without compromising their cultures and political systems, Nigeria should find out how they balanced their sometimes competing and conflicting needs.

    The state visit to France may also have been influenced by the personal relationship between Presidents Tinubu and Macron, a relationship that dates back to 2002 when the French leader worked as an intern in the French Embassy in Lagos and President Tinubu was Lagos State governor. Such a relationship generally conduces to trust and confidence in hammering out sweetheart business deals between two countries. The United States and Britain had that special relationship for decades, even though it may currently be fraying at the edges; and China and North Korea have enjoyed it for decades since Kim Il-sung took power in North Korea, among many others. If Presidents Tinubu and Macron could lay the basis for a mutually beneficial and paradigm-shifting relationship, the two countries, particularly Nigeria, could yet sing a new song in years to come. They must not allow the sour relations between France and the four Francophone West African countries and Chad dictate the tone and tenor of a newfound cultural and economically beneficial friendship. Nigeria must not inherit or be influenced by anybody’s grudges.

    More importantly, Nigeria must be clear about what it wants, what should be the objectives of the new relations with France, and why it needs to contextualise that relationship within the ECOWAS scheme of things. Since the debacle of managing the military takeovers in Mali and others, Nigeria has seemed to lack surefootedness in its diplomatic dealings in West Africa. Being paralysed or somnolent is counterproductive. From the responses of Senegal and Chad, the sub-region and parts of Central Africa, are unlikely to remain the same. Nigeria should urgently rally the remnants left, find common grounds and common purposes, and inspire a new West Africa in all areas of human, economic and diplomatic cooperation. Mali and others are tired of anyone pricking their consciences. They prefer relations with amoral states disinterested in lecturing them on democracy, human rights, systems of government, or even corruption. Good for them. But for the rest of West Africa, which should be the example for the continent as a whole, it is important to create a region that is both ethically and economically vibrant. If President Tinubu manages to walk the tightrope of the deepened relations with France, he will be inspiring the remaking of a region blighted by poverty, bad governance and instability.

  • Lagos House of Drama

    Lagos House of Drama

    TO many Nigerians, the Lagos State House of Assembly is the best in the country, judging by its democratic and progressive antecedents.

    Its immeasurable contributions to robust legislative governance, right from when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the governor between 1999 and 2007, remain indelible.

    Therefore, it is in the state’s interest that the Executive and Legislature stay focused and collaborative, and do away with any form of acrimony that can jeopardise separation of powers and checks and balances.

    Slso, the Lagos progressive bloc should tap from the ideas and experience of the old order, particularly its enduring and rewarding belief in the supremacy of the Party Caucus. The idea is that the party is supreme under the parliamentary or presidential system. No premier, governor, speaker, or lawmaker can grow wings. The corollary is discipline.

    Thus, a crisis between a governor and the speaker is supposed to be nipped in the bud through early and prompt intervention by the elders who are perceived as the conscience of the party and custodians of its ethos, ethics, and traditions.

    The semblance of that highest party leadership structure held in reverence in Lagos is the Governance Advisory Council (GAC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). It is naturally expected that the gerontocrats in that elevated class would wade into the crisis between the heads of the two organs of government.

    There is no smoke without fire. The drama that played out during last week’s budget presentation clearly showed that something is amiss. The peace within the party is incomplete when there is some inexplicable misunderstanding or communication gap between the governor and the speaker.

    It is generally agreed that the achievements of the four governors – Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode, and Babajide Sanwo-Olu – were possible due to the robust vision and focus on the 24-year-old development blueprint and support of the state legislature as a partner in progress.

    There have been a few occasional unsavory moments in the Assembly. We recall when the 1999 set of lawmakers threw chairs and the hallowed chamber became a curious house of commotion, and much later when the relationship between Fashola and Speaker Yemi Ikuforiji momentarily turned sour and when Sanwo-Olu’s commissioners’ list was rejected. Yet, the Lagos Assembly has been the bastion of democracy, ever ready to defend the interests of the highly heterogeneous residents.

    Lagos has also been lucky to have a legislature midwifed by the progressive parties – Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and All Progressives Congress (APC). Up to now, the progressives have been in the majority. Even, lawmakers elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) always defected to the ruling party.

    Although there is the eclipse of ideological politics in Nigeria, there are allusions to the time-tested ideals of welfarism in the Assembly and in the State Executive Council (Exco), which the founding fathers of the defunct Western Region held dear.

    In the last five years, evidence of friction between Sanwo-Olu and Speaker Mudashiru Obasa abounds. This is known to the party leadership and other stakeholders. The governor is calm and reticent about it in the public glare. Sanwo-Olu does not have the traits of Serubawon of Osun, who instigated the invasion of the House of Assembly by thugs, disrupted plenary, and sacked the lawmakers.

    The governor is not combative. Unlike OBJ, he is not angling for a third term. For him, it seems there is no cause for alarm.

     However, those conversant with Lagos politics may find out that whenever any Speaker dares the governor, the entire matter may be beyond b the Speaker. The partridge that dances by the roadside has a drummer in the bush.

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    During the first term, the party leadership waded into the unknown rift the way it should. But the feud reared its head at the onset of the second term when the House sent back the list of commissioner-nominees to the chief executive. It indicated that there was no free flow of souls.

    But last week’s theatrics during the budget presentation make an urgent and strategic intervention by the party leadership more compelling. The reason is that a crisis breeds more crises.

    The display at plenary revealed a sort of suppressed infighting within the ruling party. Many were taken aback. In most cases, a budget presentation is like a partisan festival of reunion, a pledge to rededicate and reiterate commitment to service delivery; a mandatory request for parliamentary approval for appropriation.

    On that day, there was no cordiality. It was as if the Exco and the legislature came from different political parties. The parliamentary culture may have conceded to the lawmakers the line of protocol because the House of Assembly is its territory. The governor’s advance party was dazed to see that the parliament was not yet in session. When the parliamentarians arrived, the usual conviviality was absent. The lawmakers are well educated, intelligent and vibrant children and protégés of the old war horses; a composition that shows that Lagos politics is somehow designed, partly, for the projection of the children of legends.

    As the APC lawmakers stormed the hallowed chambers, people suspected something was fishy. The honourable members are not cultists. They only appeared in customised dark goggles. They exercised the freedom and right to choose that dress code.

    Then, Mr. Governor walked in, like an ordinary figure, while a lawmaker was making a speech. The lawmaker tried to pause; the Speaker beckoned on him to continue. After that, there was no time to waste. The ‘Budget of Sustainability’ was delivered in an atmosphere of sustained discord. The document was laid before the House. Then, the deputy governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, left the chambers.

    The Assembly passed a vote of confidence in the Speaker. Then, a momentary tension engulfed the Assembly as Obasa started making his speech. The environment became a platform for venting anger. It was apparent that the Speaker was reacting to some issues that were beyond the comprehension of the uninitiated. However, it was not clear whether the governor was the exclusive target.

    Obasa affirmed the Independence of the Assembly, which he likened to “a sanctuary and temple”. He said just like every other temple anywhere where we all worship, no one would violate any temple and expect the gods to accept his or her sacrifice.

    He added: “If such happens, there must be an appeasement to the gods to accept such atonement. No amount of intimidation or coercing will disintegrate or change the belief of all the members of this institution.”

    If the temple had been violated, how it happened or whether it was about to be violated was not disclosed.

    As if he was responding to a threat from the Exco quarters, Obasa also stressed: “This institution remains resolute. We will never be disgraced, abused, or ridiculed in the name of creating a seamless working ambiance.”

    Then, discarding any kind of pretensions or diplomacy, the Speaker retorted: “Those who live in glass houses must not throw stones, as the saying goes. This also brings to my mind, according to our people: eni ba yara l’oogun ngbe.” (Meaning: the god of iron aids the swift). In other words, those who facilitated or planned to interfere in this House or destroy the cohesion of the institution should also be prepared for the same fate.”

    The interpretation any observer would give the statement is: “I will strike you before you strike me.”

    In the last 21 years, Obasa has been a member of the Assembly representing Agege. Now, there are speculations that the Speaker is warming up for the Lagos APC governorship primary that will hold in about three years.

    In a breath, Obasa said he had not given serious thought to it, despite the complaints by “blackmailers”, “detractors” and “naysayers,” who had distorted facts and “misconstrued” his intention. He explained that the focus of his mobilisation within the chapter was to build support for the party on the platform of the entrenched and powerful caucus, Mandate.

     Incidentally, the governor belongs to Mandate.

    Naturally, the mobilisation by Obasa may upset the older and influential caucus, the “Justice Forum,” and to some extent, the “Ideal.”

    But, in another dimension, the Speaker boasted that “nevertheless, that does not mean I am too young or lack experience to run”.

    Obasa declared that if he becomes governor, “those who have been before me are not better off.” Those who have been elected governors of Lagos are Lateef Jakande, Michael Otedola, Tinubu, Fashola, Ambode, and Sanwo-Olu. Past military governors are Mobolaji Johnson, Adekunle Lawal, Ndubusi Kanu, Ebitu Ukiwe, Gbolahan Mudashiru, Mike Akhigbe, Raji Rasaki, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and Buba Marwa.

    Indigenship has never been a major factor in Lagos politics, as far as the governorship slot is concerned. The Speaker fired salvos at undisclosed persons trying to blackmail him on the basis of the factor.

    He said: “It is also important to correct the impression from some naysayers who have been insinuating that I made payment to seek for blood relation in Ojo to validate my candidacy to run as governor.

    “Of course, I have never denied that I am Obasa. Rather, I have never claimed to be related to Onikoyi, Oniru, or any other popular Lagos families, as the case may be. I can never run from the fact that I am related to my Obasa family in Ojo. But I do not need local validity to contest or run. If eventually I am contesting, I will do so from Agege.”

    The scenarios all pale into politics; this is about conflicts, the struggle for power, and competition for influence.

    What can also be deduced from all of the above is that all is not totally well in Lagos APC where the heads of the executive and legislative arms seem to be at loggerheads.

    This should not be allowed to continue. Chieftains should be in one accord. Combatants should pull the brakes and sheathe their swords. There is a need for a truce.

    Also, there is much to be accomplished by the Sanwo-Olu administration. The governor needs the support of all.

    As it is often canvased by political scientists, the ruling executive should also conduct the business of the state in utter sensitivity to the presence of a very active, strong, united and virile legislature. In the same vein, the parliament has to be less inflexible and more condescending. These are critical to the building of a harmonious Executive/Legislative relationship.

    Reconciliation can be brokered by the GAC. But the only leader who can really whip all to line, enforce compliance and restore peace is the Commander-in-Chief. He is the President of all Nigerians. Besides, Lagos is his base. A stitch in time saves nine.

  • Headaches for two Southwest governors over airport projects

    Headaches for two Southwest governors over airport projects

    Airports, no doubt, are critical social infrastructure without which any nation cannot function. That perhaps is the reason why virtually every Nigerian governor wants to be involved in the project once they assume office.

    Many would argue, however, that their preference for airports above other critical social infrastructure is informed by the huge platform it offers for diversion of state resources into private pockets.

    That may explain why some state governors are falling head over heels to launch airport projects in spite of statistical assertion that only four of the 29 existing airports in the country are viable.

    At the moment, two Southwest governors are in the eye of the storm over issues that border on the construction of airports in their states.

    One of them, according to reports, has drawn the ire of some indigenes of the state who are threatening fire and brimstone over his decision to relocate the airport project begun by his predecessor from their community to his home town.

    The enraged indigenes of the affected communities have already issued a strong warning to two ministers invited by the governor to flag off the foundation laying of the new airport to stay away from the ceremony.

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    Another Southwest governor is under intense pressure to probe his predecessor over the billions of naira the latter claimed to have spent on the state’s airport project with nothing tangible to show for it.

    A very influential legal luminary in the state, who is said to be highly interested in actualisation of the state’s airport project, is said to have mounted intense pressure on the sitting governor to probe his immediate predecessor’s spending on the project.

    He is said to be particularly miffed that a very close person to the immediate past governor won a N750 million contract for the proposed airport’s fence and the said sum was released without the contractor laying a single block.

    Ironically, the former governor is at the vanguard of people that are now pontificating on good governance for the country.

  • The need to rejig Nigerian Football Leagues

    The need to rejig Nigerian Football Leagues

    Football or soccer as it is commonly called is more than just a sport in Nigeria; it is a cultural phenomenon that has united millions across diverse ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic strata. Asides this, it has raised many from poverty, made towns, generated revenue and helped create employment as well as legends, inspiring generations after generations.

     Despite producing world-class talents who have achieved remarkable success in international leagues, the Nigerian domestic football ecosystem remains critically underdeveloped. This piece therefore explores the urgent need to invest in and develop Nigerian football leagues, highlighting the profound economic, social, and sporting benefits that such development can bring.

    The Nigerian football landscape is characterized by immense potential but is then marred by systemic challenges. In the past, particularly the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, the Nigerian league was the stuff of dreams, from it the Green Eagles and the  Super Eagles  became African power houses, winning multiple African Cup of Nations titles and making significant impacts in a number of international tournaments. This same domestic leagues which produced the likes of  Thunder Balogun, Segun Odegbemi, Yisa Sofoluwe,  Christian Chukwu, Dimeji Lawal, Felix Owolabi, Emmanuel Okala, Peter Rufai, Bright Omokaro, Henry Nwosu  Stephen Keshi,  Nduka Ugbade, Daniel Amokachi, Kanu Nwankwo, and a host of others were household names produced within our shores. Nigerians, i mean those above the Gen Z age will relish the days of Challenge cup  and league duels and the tension soaked rivalry between clubs like Flash Flamingoes, Stationery Stores, Mighty Jets, IICC, Leventis United, Abiola Babes, Ranchers Bees and Rangers International. Today, the Nigerian league is a shadow of itself,  suffering from chronic underfunding, poor infrastructure,  lack of professional management and institutional corruption.

    Most Nigerian football clubs struggle with inconsistent funding, preventing them from developing robust infrastructure, training facilities, and competitive player contracts. Even today, despite the fact that football is a money spinner, most clubs  operate on shoestring budgets, making long-term planning nearly impossible.

    Asides the issue of poor funding, many Nigerian football club stadiums are in poor condition, lacking modern amenities, proper maintenance, and essential facilities that would attract fans, sponsors, and potential investors.

     Thirdly, the administrative structures of many Nigerian football leagues and clubs are often informal, lacking the professional management practices necessary for sustainable growth.

    Such factors are thus reasons why a number of young Nigerian footballers frequently seek opportunities abroad at very early stages of their careers, depriving local leagues of their most talented players and creating a perpetual cycle of talent migration. Again, the near fixation on foreign leagues by the Nigerian audience and even using participation in such leagues as a determinant for who features in the national team has continued to do great disservice to the growth and development of our league. Today, we see our youths clinging to ‘Fandoms’ of foreign owned clubs whilst ignoring that which is in their own backyard! While such remains distasteful, these youths are not to blame as our local parlance  naturally suggests, ” Who no like better thing?” The Premierships, La Ligas and Bundesligas have readily invested in their leagues and their brands and so the audience will always go  there.

    Investing in Nigerian football leagues is not merely a sporting endeavor but a significant economic opportunity. A well-structured, professionally managed football ecosystem can generate substantial economic benefita such as job creation which will create robust football leagues can create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, including:

    – Professional players

    – Coaching and training staff

    – Stadium and facility management personnel

    – Sports marketing and administration professionals

    – Merchandise production and sales teams

    – Media and broadcasting professionals. Also,  well organized football leagues can transform local economies by attracting domestic and international sports tourists which could help boost our foreign exchange earnings not only via revenues from ticket sales but also through patnerships that would  create opportunities for local businesses around football infrastructure as well as help develop sports-related hospitality and entertainment sectors. Asides as an investment opportunity, a well structured football league system creates alternative pathways for youth development, opportunities for social mobility, and serves as positive engagement that can reduce youth unemployment and social tensions.

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    To realize these potential benefits, a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach is required, such as

    infrastructure Investment, by modernizing existing stadiums

    developing world-class training facilities, creating regional/state and local football academies.

    These efforts must go in hand with  governance and management reforms which include entrenching of transparent, professional management practices, the establishment of  clear regulatory frameworks, the implementing of  robust financial monitoring systems and the encouragement of quality corporate governance standards.

    Developing Nigerian football leagues is not a luxury but a necessity. It represents a strategic investment in the nation’s sporting potential, economic diversification, and social development. By adopting a holistic, long-term approach that combines infrastructure development, professional management, and a commitment to youth empowerment, Nigeria can transform its football landscape reaping the potential rewards – economic prosperity, international recognition, and a united, inspired nation – make this endeavor not just worthwhile, but essential.

    The time to act is now. Nigeria’s football future awaits transformation.

  • The PBAT administration and the national question

    The PBAT administration and the national question

    This is one of the most critical periods in the history of Nigeria particularly since the commencement of this dispensation in 1999. The old Nigeria, sustained largely on fuel subsidies that had become hardly sustainable and parallel exchange rate markets that bred criminal and humongous accumulation by a privileged elite, is dying. A new Nigeria is struggling to be born under the midwifery of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration which has introduced far-reaching reforms to correct fuel subsidy and exchange rate distortions, with painful birth pang consequences for the populace.

    Sections of the citizenry have severely criticized international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, which have endorsed the economic policies of the administration as being essentially on the right course and admonished that current hardships manifesting in inflationary spirals in food, healthcare, fuel, transportation, and electricity costs among others, be borne as a necessary condition for the economy transitioning to a more productive and prosperous phase. Beyond reflexive ideological opposition to the reforms, perceived in some quarters as IMF and World Bank inspired, there have been little of alternative pragmatic and realistic policy offerings to transform the nation’s economic course and unleash her latent potentials, by vehement anti-reform voices.

    Meanwhile, the administration continues to intensify its efforts to make palliatives available to cushion the sufferings of the most vulnerable sections of the populace while an increasing number of state governments are channeling their significantly enhanced revenues as a result of the fuel subsidy removal to ameliorate the plight of substantial numbers of their people. It is important that the federal government periodically briefs the public on the impact the various amounts it has channeled to micro, small, and medium enterprises are making towards boosting their operational and job-generating capacities.

    It is only natural and understandable that at a time of harsh economic hardships such as the country is currently experiencing, challenges around the national question will become more accentuated with some anguished voices questioning the rationality, desirability, and utility of our continued national coexistence. This is particularly so against the background of the intensively competitive and contentious nature of the last presidential elections, the outcome of which some are yet to come to terms.

    The national question refers essentially to the conditions for and dilemmas arising from the exigencies of diverse ethnocultural groups cohabiting in a complex, plural polity like Nigeria. Only recently, the Yoruba ultranationalist gadfly, Sunday Igboho, led a seemingly theatrical procession to No 10 Downing Street in London in a quixotic quest to seek support for what was described as the desire of the Yoruba to exit Nigeria. The group has not responded to queries on what confers legitimacy on it to speak for the Yoruba and at which forum such a mandate was given.

    On its part, the most clamorous and insistent voice for the secession of a part from Nigeria, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), has apparently modified its strategies, for now, to secure the release of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, from detention from where he is currently facing trial for treason. There is no guarantee that should it succeed in this endeavor, IPOB will not return to its erstwhile uncompromising and sometimes violent campaign for the secession of eastern Nigeria even though the degree of its support base among the Igbo people is difficult to ascertain.

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    Given his antecedents not only as a pro-democracy activist but even more a fierce advocate for true federalism and the affirmation of state rights as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, there are those who expected a radical disposition to the resolution of the national question by President Bola Tinubu. The President has however been quite cautious and tentative on the issue since his assumption of office and the reasons are understandable. For one, he is the custodian of a national electoral mandate comprising disparate political constituencies with divergent attitudes, understandings, and orientations to the national question. His must consequently be a balancing act, particularly in a democratic context in which his party needs broad pan-Nigerian support to retain power at the centre.

    If there was any doubt about the unwavering commitment of the President and his administration to Nigeria’s continued cohesion, the Minister of Defense, who was a former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, dispelled any such notion at a recent peace meeting among feuding communities in Plateau State. Reaffirming the indivisibility of the country and the unwillingness of the federal government to permit any form of balkanization, the Minister said, “The federal government will not entertain such demand capable of causing division and disaffection among Nigerians. Therefore, living together is not an option but an obligation. This is evident in Mr. President’s resolve to fight any secessionist agenda in any part of the country. My presence here is to fulfill my mandate as the Minister charged with the responsibility for the protection of our national territory both from external and internal aggression. Therefore, I will not relent until the Federal Government and the Ministry of Defence deploy all assets to ensure our people sleep with their eyes closed”.

    There is nothing new or strange about Badaru’s submission. An elected government does not have the mandate to endorse the balkanization of the country. Referring to his oath of office to defend the territorial integrity of the United States, President Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural speech on March 4,1861, bluntly told those seeking to secede that “In your hands my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not mine, is the momentous issue of civil war…You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect and defend it’”. Continuing, he argued that “Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism”.

    However, the PBAT administration must not create the impression that the component parts of the country are being kept together by compulsion and the force of arms. It is a far more costly and ultimately unsustainable approach to nation building. Rather, the idea of Nigeria must be made such an attractive and mutually beneficial proposition that its components will not only willingly and proudly identify with it but will also be at the forefront of voluntarily defending its continuity.

    Current disaffections with Nigeria by diverse groups stem essentially from the steadily worsening economic crisis of the last two and a half decades and the deepening impoverishment of the vast majority of the people. This is why PBAT struck the right note when he recently told a delegation of the eminent group, The Patriots, which visited him that his priority was seeing his economic reforms through before dealing with their demand for a new constitution.

    Of course, the administration must pay attention to the need to amend or reform those aspects of the extant constitution that hamper optimal economic productivity and efficiency, particularly of the sub-national units just as it has done with seeking greater financial autonomy for local government councils. But its central focus must be strengthening and fine-tuning its economic policies until the economy turns the tide and begins to deliver prosperity and dignified living standards for the vast majority of Nigerians.

    At the root of dilemmas posed by the national question are the economic problems of pervasive poverty, debilitating inequality, widespread ignorance and illiteracy, mass youth unemployment, desperate hunger, corrosive disease, chronic infrastructure deficit, inadequate and inaccessible power supply among others. As Chief Obafemi Awolowo asserted with characteristic perspicacity over five decades ago, “My case then is that, in order to keep Nigeria harmoniously united, and, at the same time, fulfill the natural, ultimate, supreme, and inalienable purpose of that unity, the present and future rulers of this country must place the most crucial emphasis on, and attach the utmost importance to, the advancement of the economic prosperity and social well-being of the individual Nigerian citizens”.

    Apart from staying the course in the implementation of its core economic reforms, the PBAT administration must also urgently address ancillary issues that have implications for the economy. For instance, if the cultural, psychological, bureaucratic and structural impediments to the speedy implementation of state police are proving difficult to surmount, the administration should fast-track its promised establishment of well-equipped, trained, and motivated forest rangers to protect farmlands and farmers across the country and help boost agricultural productivity to stem current food costs spirals.

    Again, the anti-graft agencies should be further motivated and spurred not only to proactively prevent corruption but also to trace and retrieve humongous amounts of stolen funds in private hands. The President has shown a commendable sensitivity to public opinion in his recent cost-cutting reforms to the machinery of government and reshuffling of his administration’s personnel. It is a path that should be maintained and intensified.

  • National sports calendar, please

    National sports calendar, please

    Today is Tuesday with no issues or trending events to discuss on Nigeria sports. What one would have truly loved to write about is the National Sports Commission (NSC) beyond the facade surrounding the document and the two men chosen to pilot it to completion. I don’t want to discuss both men, going by the deluge of congratulatory messages sent by Nigerians acknowledging their pedigree in sports.

    What our sports need is a calendar of sporting activities starting from the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) through the 36 States and Abuja. This calendar would have competitions hosted by sport-loving, companies with the NSC men telling these firms what they stand to gain. Both NSC men should note that the commission has no athletes. Rather, they rely on the products discovered, nurtured and exposed from the grassroots. This nursery is dead.

    Nigeria needs to depart from the fiscal yearly budget to bankroll to that which provides a bigger cycle where funds for sports are given as bond with the NSC told to account for what the government provides. Such cash should be refunded over specific periods. Sporting competitions cycle are usually, annual, bi-annual, and four yearly, such as the Olympic Games, and World Cup across all genders and different age grades. Failure to adopt this method of bulk cash earmarked for sport, our athletes would continue to suffer.

    Both men should strive to get the states to re-establish the synergy between them and the different states’ ministry of education where the bulk of the new talents at the grassroots would be discovered. Again, these platforms are comatose with the few places where they exist and are handled by poorly trained coaches and administrators who produce badly trained sportsmen and women. It is the reason the pool of talents has dried up forcing us to recruit Nigeria-born athletes from Europe, the Americas, and the Diaspora.

    So, if both men want us to take them seriously, Nigeria must cultivate the culture of hosting big sports tournaments. This is the only way the government can upgrade the rustic sporting infrastructures across the country. The NSC should ask the sporting federations what they do with grants from their international bodies for different aspects of the sports. We must stop this tendency of attending competitions outside the country for lucre, leaving our sports centres littered with debauched conditions.

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    Both men should as a matter of importance revive the moribund competitions of yore; especially those targeted at age-grade athletes who must be in schools. When our NSC men talk big about their plans, I always ask where the athletes, coaches, officials, and competitions are at the grassroots?

    When Dikko was appointed as NSC Chairman, I recall going to the Daily Editor of The Nation Newspapers, Adeniyi Adesina, asking to know if Dikko was made to know his designation. I did this for a purpose knowing Dikko’s closet style of doing things.

    The Federal Government’s gazette which was sent to the offices described Dikko as NSC Chairman meaning that the Federal Ministry of Sports had become extinct. When eventually the seven federal ministers were screened and sworn into their offices by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Abuja, it was also apparent that Dikko wasn’t a minister. I waited a bit more to find out if Dikko would attend FEC meetings. None to date to my knowledge.

    I, therefore, looked forward to the day when Dikko would be called the Sports Minister at any forum to see if he would raise objections. I also wanted to know if Dikko would be a team player and not personalise feats. I didn’t have to wait for too long since Dikko told the international media that he personally wrote the NSC document 16 years ago when he was the Consultant to the National Assembly. How does he now think that his thoughts and solutions to sports policies and problems haven’t grown beyond what he scripted 16 years ago? Sport globally is fluid with dynamic changes for us to be guided by 16-year-old thoughts. We wait.

    Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, in a press release on a delegation that Dikko led to NNPC management on Thursday 21 November 2024, addressed Dikko thrice as the ‘Minister of Sports.’ There has been no “correction” made.

    “Addressing the delegation which was led by the Chairman of the National Sports Commission and Minister of Sports, Shehu Dikko, the GCEO, said NNPC Ltd. was ready to be part of the initiative to revamp the nation’s football,” the release stated.

    “No mistakes there. Dikko was at NNPC to discuss the revamping of football, note, not sports.

    “NNPC will be a prime partner in the journey to bring back value to our football, to reshape it, re-engineer it, and bring happiness to our people”, (Mele) Kyari stated.

    Writing in his weekly column, Ikeddy ISIGUZO in the online portal dailyquery.com.ng, writes: “Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the National Sports Commission and Minister of Sports, Shehu Dikko, said football was fundamental to the economies of the best football countries in the world, adding that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for immediate action to revamp the game.

    “He said the multiplier effects of football were enormous and could facilitate the revamp of related industries across the value chain.

    “The Minister noted that IMG, which promotes the English Premier League, was invited as a technical partner to leverage their experience in the sport,” according to the NNPC release.

    Dikko, also the Minister of Sports, without a Ministry, was at NNPC to seek help for football as “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for immediate action to revamp the game,” Isiguzo wrote.

    “Only Dikko knows what the President told him about his mandate and the supplementary title to get his work done. When he goes to NNPC, with all its muscles, to market football, where and when he will pitch for sports?

    “More than anyone, Dikko knows that football with its consuming structures will not come to much good even if a sponsor pours billions of Dollars into it. How has NFF managed the millions it gets from FIFA and CAF?

    “The chaotic contraption called National Sports Commission Act 2023 has such inconsistencies that nobody should have worked with it. A quiet review and amendments would have cured the confusion that Dikko has embraced to keep his office and take the heat off the President who appointed him.

     “A high possibility is that the 2023 Act was used without anyone reading it or those who did felt that Sports was too unimportant for any diligence in its regulation or administration.

    “Dikko’s defences were admissions that the Act was faulty. The appointments he claimed to be based on the Act must have been made elsewhere.

     “National Sports Commission Act 2023 envisages a Ministry of Sports as it mentions “Minister responsible for Sports” and has board seats for the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports, and the Director responsible for Sports in the Ministry. No further excuses are permitted for the aberrations in the so-called National Sports Commission.

     “Appointments should not be made in breaches of a law on which they are supposedly rooted, and those appointed are the ones to amend the law to legitimise their appointments.”

    If I was to be in Dikko’s shoes, I would have sent the NSC Act for public vetting while making plans to organise a symposium to discuss the Act’s content if it exists. It would be highly preposterous for anyone to toy with either a 17-member board or an 11-member contraption which be too bogus,

    I don’t want to believe that the NSC Act is stillborn.