The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • El-Rufai’s politics starts to unravel

    El-Rufai’s politics starts to unravel

    Even for a politician as unprincipled and iconoclastic as former Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai, recanting his damning characterisation of former vice president Atiku Abubakar as a corrupt and shifty leader can be self-immolating. He may have left the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in a huff, and jumped into the turbulent Social Democratic Party (SDP) void without scruples, and may now be perching half-heartedly on the litigation-afflicted African Democratic Congress (ADC), but in the end he is no fool when it comes to his private interest and political survival. Though naturally defiant on nearly all things, he seems uncharacteristically reticent over his SDP misadventure, a blind alley he cannot apply his inventiveness to cure. That he is at present nervous about his place and role in the ADC is probably the result of the caution instilled in him by his many misadventures in recent months. He will, therefore, stay in the newly adopted old and overworn party with the hope that, firstly, the party will successfully navigate its legal labyrinth, and secondly that he and a few other regicidal Young Turks in the party can unhorse the old guard represented by Alhaji Atiku, and forge a new direction in which he will play a central role.

    Former Osun State governor Rauf Aregbesola has of course blithely gone off on a tangent, preaching to and soliciting the disgruntled in the Southwest, but in the foreseeable future, if circumstances permit, Mallam el-Rufai will supplant the Ogbeni and attempt to be the public and discourteous face of the ADC. He will not only remain as voluble as he is truculent, he will also posture as the battering ram of the party, but without the unflinching commitment he often gave his previous conquests. In recent weeks, rather than speak unequivocally about the ADC, he has often spoken about how the coalition would displace the ruling APC. He is deliberate. He picks his words carefully because he knows he is not yet an ADC member. What is even more striking is that he has been exceedingly careful about putting all his eggs in the Atiku basket. More and more, it appears, he is unable to live with the contradictions of helping to promote the ambition of the considerably flawed former vice president whom he had excoriated in the past in words that cause everyone to wince. Much worse, Mallam el-Rufai is also slowly beginning to realise that the country’s mood is decidedly against a northern candidate in the 2027 presidential poll. That realisation not only liberates him from his sense of duty to Alhaji Atiku, it also tantalises his ambition to be a potential running mate to a southern candidate. Later, but without great reflection, he will resolve that dilemma by settling for either Peter Obi who many people falsely think has a mythical six million plus ‘captive’ votes from the 2023 election or Rotimi Amaechi whose only acquisition so far is his inflated ego. The ADC’s legal and administrative ordeal is, however, not over. In fact, whatever analysis anyone does for now will be unreliable.

    Mallam el-Rufai has prematurely started to permute his chances in the 2027 polls. To carry out that abstraction, however, he must resolve two disturbing issues plaguing his ambition. One, he must determine just how far he should flaunt his messianic ego, with its accompanying megalomaniacal rhetoric of sentencing Nigeria to a choice between supporting him and voting for his amorphous party or risking the death and destruction that he prophesied must follow embracing the APC. Two Fridays ago, his son, Bashir, posted on X (Twitter) the need to make the same baleful choices his dad grimly predicted, insisting that some politicians must ‘die’ if the country is to become great. On August 1, he had posted: “Nigeria can become great again. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on context) a few certain people have to kpai (die) to achieve this dream.” Mallam el-Rufai has no interest in reining in his son. He is himself a leading advocate of doom and destruction, of things getting much worse before they get better, of riding the four horses of the apocalypse. Last week, newspapers helped him inundate their front pages with his inciting rhetoric of disaster. He had described the APC as ‘dangerous to Nigeria’s future’, and that if the ruling party was re-elected, Nigerian unity would be destroyed. And for him personally, he bellowed, the next presidential election “is not just an election, it is also the fight of our lives.”

    Mallam el-Rufai is undoubtedly a bitter, divisive and acrimonious politician. He lives by incitement, that is, when he is not nurturing or validating ethnic exceptionalism. Ethically unmoored, he brings chaos and disorder to every group he joins, especially when he is denied vantage position. One prediction can, however, be safely ventured, that he will not be on any ticket in the next poll. No candidate will risk it. He is detested by most northern minority groups, deplored by nearly all Nigerian Christians, and sneered at by most political leaders for his irreverence and disloyalty. Not only will he not be on any ticket, any party where he is given prominence will be shunned. By now, Alhaji Atiku must have suspected that the former governor is double-dealing, and is ambiguous towards an Atiku candidature. After spending the early years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration skewering the former vice president, the former governor may finally stand for something by staying true to his conclusions about Alhaji Atiku. The ADC is for now all about the Atiku ambition, but it is unclear the Young Turks in the party will stand for political antiquity. Expect a titanic battle.

    Read Also: Kunle Soname: Redefining sports administration, philanthropy in Nigeria

    In November 2016, Mallam el-Rufai had issued an eight-point rebuttal of Alhaji Atiku’s remark that the former Kaduna governor offered him Transcorp Hilton shares. He did not have anything to do with Transcorp, the former governor said, let alone offer anybody shares. Then he unleashed a flurry of invectives at the former vice president, accusing him of being unable to explain his shenanigans in “the Ericsson manoeuvre, in the Abuja water treatment plant contract, and his obsession with marabouts and their assurances of the political big prize. He might also consider a full reckoning for what he and his acolytes did with public funds in the PTDF imbroglio, rather than indulging the usual bold face of the Nigerian big-man.” As if that was not blistering enough, Mallam el-Rufai proceeded to ridicule the former vice president, saying: “Everyone is entitled to rehabilitation, but that often requires coming clean with the people. Can Alhaji Atiku explain the findings in the report of the United States Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations which detailed a pattern of wire transfers of more than USD 40m from offshore companies like Siemens into bank accounts controlled by him and one of his wives? The report detailing the US Senate findings is online, as one of four case histories of foreign corruption in the USA. Alhaji Atiku should tell a better tale of why he is avoiding America. Someone as obsessed by Nigeria’s presidency as he is, should clear up such matters conclusively.”

    There are many statements a politician can walk back, but these ones about Alhaji Atiku will be extremely difficult to pretend were never made. They are as damaging about the target as they are revelatory of the malevolence of the speaker. Despite being servile and groveling, Mallam el-Rufai knows full well that there is no way he can explain away his damning character portrait of the former vice president. It has indeed needed the former vice president’s defection to the ADC, not to talk of his past miscalculations and abortive presidential races, to cement his status as a political cadaver. But in embalming Alhaji Atiku, Mallam el-Rufai, the mortician, has painted himself as an unprincipled and dysfunctional man whose politics is finally unravelling.

  • Trump diminishes US democracy

    Trump diminishes US democracy

    While the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (of Nigeria) repeatedly publishes jobs and inflation data believed to be sometimes unflattering to the President Tinubu administration, and the statistician-general has kept his job, President Trump, though presiding over an advanced democracy, has been apoplectic over adverse jobs data and has lashed out at the heads of the agencies managing the country’s data bureaux. Just last week, Mr Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, over the publication of the July jobs statistics which showed that the economy added only 73,000 jobs, far below expectations. To add insult to injury, the bureau also revised downward the data for April and May. Given the bureau’s set up, it is of course impossible for the head of the agency to rig the figures as Mr Trump has alleged, or sex it up should he desire, but he has never allowed facts or truth to restrain him from his volcanic and infantile eruptions.

    Read Also: Kunle Soname: Redefining sports administration, philanthropy in Nigeria

    Mr Trump has serially broken the mould in American politics in ways no elected Nigerian leader has dared. Yet, because of a few years of fundamental reforms of the Nigerian economy, and especially following the painful consequences of structurally reengineering the economy to compensate for decades of extravagance, excesses, and mismanagement, many vocal Nigerians and their equally deliberately obtuse political leaders continue to de-market Nigeria, even report Nigerian leaders to advance democracies now showing themselves to have feet of clay, and inciting the famished populace into a revolutionary frenzy through demagoguery and outright mendacities. Nigeria may not have achieved utopia, but it has made steady progress towards economic revitalisation and democratic sophistication. If US democracy under Mr Trump can become so vulnerable after more than two centuries of its establishment, it should encourage Nigerians to persevere and trust that their own progress is not a fluke.

  • Nigeria fights its destiny

    Nigeria fights its destiny

    There are no reliable statistics or academic studies known to this columnist that give an authoritative figure of the population of atheists in Nigeria. What is known and widely accepted, however, is that Nigeria is a deeply religious country, at least nominally. The implication is that they at least have a general and probably superficial understanding of the concept of a country’s manifest destiny. Decades ago, particularly after the countercoup of July 1966, and especially after the 1967-1970 civil war, the conventional political wisdom was that the North could monopolise power if they wished, or graciously permit someone else to occupy that seat while they led him by the nose. The late MKO Abiola bucked that trend, and with it, bucked a second consequential trend, to wit, Nigeria’s conventional religious wisdom. Until 1993, the understanding was that no same-faith ticket could ever win the presidency. It not only happened in 1993, it was repeated in 2023.

    Twice in two decades, Nigeria has, therefore, been gifted the opportunity of a new destiny, one devoid of bitter and divisive religious influences in its politics, and also devoid of significant and malignant influences in its ethno-regional relations. But twice within the same two decades Nigerians snatched defeat from the jaws of victory: former military head of state Ibrahim Babangida, citing extenuating security and military circumstances, annulled the very successful 1993 election and has continued to defend the profanity; and failing to understand heaven’s intervention in Nigerian affairs, a coterie of political, media, and regional conspirators has taken oath to neutralise the second chance the 2023 political reset has offered. It was unclear former president Muhammadu Buhari understood the spiritual dynamics at play in the last elections, hence his dithering and the inexplicable gesture in the direction of a northern candidate. But heaven forcefully intervened against the run of play, against months of ridicule of the Bola Tinubu candidature, and against the disgraceful clamour for a coup d’etat after the election was decided.

    Shortly before the advent of the Fourth Republic, and by a brilliant stroke of serendipity, Nigerians had devised an informal political formula capable of generating some measure of stability for the country and its people. That formula was and remains embedded in the principle of rotating the presidency between the North and the South. Heedlessly, some leading members of the political elite have, however, scorned the formula, and continued to demonstrate insensitivity, if not total callousness, to what destiny is gifting them. Consequently, once again, the country’s politics is in danger of being rebooted to the past era when malignant religious and regional influences were not only tolerated but also promoted. Recognising that the South occupies the presidency at the moment, a few presidential aspirants for the next poll make half-hearted concessions to the new political realities by swearing to do just one term, but it is not clear by what ingenious arithmetic those of them who come from the North could make the same promise.

    From all indications, however, the coalition of political forces determined to abridge or abrogate the progress made so far looks set to fail. It is tragic that former president Olusegun Obasanjo did not understand the spiritual dimension of the 1993 and 2023 presidential elections; it is disturbing that ex-president Buhari did not also understand it; and worse, even ignoring boastful politicians who covet the presidency from all corners of the country, it is also mystifying that the media have shown dereliction in understanding the complex dynamics that conduce to Nigeria’s prosperity and long-term stability. As the piece below on US president Donald Trump shows, Nigeria has indeed made significant economic and democratic leaps despite vicious attacks by opposition and centrifugal forces in contrast to Mr Trump’s persistent deflation of American democracy. Former president Buhari might have found his autocratic instincts sometimes irresistible, but he grew to treat the printed and verbal caricatures of him with unaccustomed lightheartedness.

    Read Also: Nigeria condoles with Ghana over tragic helicopter crash

    Ex-president Goodluck Jonathan was also heavily irritated by the verbal and published lacerations of his person and wife, but he stopped short of intimidating, silencing or destroying the opposition. President Tinubu has been even more shockingly liberal. Before his election, immediately after the election, and up till now, he has shrugged off the scurrilous attacks upon his person, style, and policies. The attacks have in fact been democratised and detribalised across regions, ethnicities and religions. In the US, Republicans are petrified of President Trump, and Democrats, Muslims, foreign dignitaries and heads of state, and immigrants dread him and his waspish tongue and erratic policies. He has pulverised his enemies, promoted racism, and decimated the opposition to the point of mocking their persons and even threatening to arrest his predecessors for treason. Nigeria has been a far better and a more predictable and pleasant place for foreigners, citizens and opposition/coalition forces to live, do business, and even pontificate sometimes misguidedly on arcane issues.

    Nigerians do their country a huge disservice by letting their economic difficulties obscure and diminish the progress their country has made over the years. Plotting to undo that progress by making unwise recourse to ethnic and religious fault lines is not only dangerous, it is also suicidal. There are of course highly informed and perceptive politicians across regions and religions who understand the new dynamics of Nigerian politics, and have preached tolerance, accommodation, and patience. It is, however, not certain that they are not in the minority. But while they and their convictions represent the future direction of the country, there is still a significant number of Nigerians bent on encouraging prejudiced and shortsighted political leaders to hoodwink the ignorant majority in the poverty regions of the country. A great opportunity to reset Nigeria, perhaps incrementally but substantially, but the political coalition is unlikely to be impressed by the shape of things to come, or the expression of hope and enthusiasm in the midst of hunger and deprivation. To lose or endanger this opportunity because of petty hatred, ignorant economic analysis, and the denial and belittlement of the progress already made, will ultimately doom the country. It is a choice the country has to make in the next election. What option they embrace will determine whether the country will lose all the advantages that have accrued to the country since 1999 or gain and affirm the positive economic revolution about to take off.

  • Ghana and Tanzania Vs. Igbo and Kenyans

    Ghana and Tanzania Vs. Igbo and Kenyans

    It was a curious and disturbing parallel made more poignant by the timing. In the closing days of July, both Ghana and Tanzania were up in arms against the influx of foreign small-scale businesses in their countries. In the case of Ghana, the animosity was unofficial, not quite elevated to policy level beyond the restrictions applied over a decade ago against foreigners, specifically retail traders of whom the Igbo were noticeable. For Tanzania, the animosity was official, with Trade minister Selemani Jafo announcing wide-ranging restrictions against foreigners operating small businesses. Kenyans dominate that sector in Tanzania, and the restrictions were widely interpreted as targeting them. The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act 2013, revivified some two years ago, provides for, among other regulations, minimum capital requirements for foreigners amounting to one million dollars for small businesses, and limiting them to economic sectors they could operate in. Nigerians, particularly the Igbo, insisted they were the main target, even though the law is not country-specific.

    Late last month, the problem recrudesced, this time with Ghanaian protesters singling out the Igbo for mention as the leading violators of the 2013 Act. They accused foreigners of sundry business crimes and violations, including immigration offences, non-payment or under-payment of business permits, falsification of business documents, tax evasion, and trading in substandard goods, etc. Ghana’s President John Mahama has, however, promised that Nigerians would not be discriminated against, but many foreigners recalled that since 2013, the problem and the discrimination had flared almost annually. For as long as the problem remained, and as long as a distinct group of people represents the face of the provocation, the periodic eruptions will persist. In fact, there does not seem to be an end to the push and pull. The Igbo, who are the face of the provocation in Ghana, must find a way through their unions, the Nigerian diaspora group, and diplomatic efforts to manage the problem. After all, as everyone knows, xenophobia, even in its mildest form, is ubiquitous.

    Even though relations between the two East African Community (EAC) countries of Tanzania and Kenya have not been at their best, the recent flare-up over the foreign-run small-scale businesses in Tanzania began at the end of July, with no end in sight. Last week, according to Mr Jafo, foreign nationals (read Kenyans), are prohibited from owning or operating small-scale businesses in about 15 sectors, including tour guiding, beauty salons, gift shops, radio and television operations, mobile money transfers, etc. Predictably, Kenya has argued that though the cap fits Kenyan businessmen in Tanzania, they won’t wear it because it violates the principles of the EAC. More, Kenyan Trade Minister Lee Kinyanjui has called for the abrogation of the restrictions. According to him, it would have a negative effect on the economies of the two East African countries. In a statement he issued last week, he said, “It is therefore critical, in the spirit of EAC, that bilateral engagements be held to resolve these issues.” What is evident in all this is that, like the case between Nigeria and Ghana, Kenyan businesses stand to lose much more should the dispute persist.

    Read Also: Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid unstoppable- Adekanmbi

    Interestingly, even within Nigeria, this discriminatory sentiment exists on a pernicious scale. During the pogrom that preceded the Nigerian civil war in 1967, protesters targeted the businesses of their antagonists, and have since continued to inflict similar punishment on local migrants who dominate certain sectors of the economies of host communities. In the absence of tenable political structures, the discrimination or punitive restrictions and regulations have begun to expand alarmingly into the political arena. It is a continuing challenge every jurisdiction must find creative ways of managing. Germany was unable to manage its skewed business relationship with affluent Jews before WWII, thus leading to the November 1938 pogrom or Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht). If regional economic groupings and competing countries struggle to manage such crises, they are even far more difficult to manage domestically because of its sometimes political ripple effects.

    Kenya may have inadvertently provided the solution to the regulatory disputes provoked by foreign-owned businesses. In his reflections on the dispute instigated by Tanzanian regulations on foreign-owned businesses, Mr Kinyanjui suggested ‘bilateral engagements’ to resolve the problematic and mildly xenophobic responses. But regardless of whether these tough regulations are provoked by settler communities within a country or across squabbling countries, it is important to be sensitive about host communities. They must never be taken for granted. They have their fears and they suffer certain deprivations. Boastful foreigners who flaunt their wealth in the face of deprived locals will inevitably always cause their hosts to kick against economic domination, discrimination or oppression. It is a natural reaction, especially when there are underlying structural imbalances in the polity. While diplomatic engagements may resolve disputes between countries, such as between Ghana and Nigeria, and between Tanzania and Kenya, only political restructuring can obviate social and political eruptions capable of threatening state stability domestically.

  • Responding to bloodthirsty incitement

    Responding to bloodthirsty incitement

    Too many Nigerians can’t draw a line between the constitutional provision of free speech and the criminal act of incitement. But the law enforcement agencies and security agencies know the difference; yet they have been slothful in enforcing the law. The reason for the wariness, ironically, is that both the government and the security agencies are scared of being described as autocrats. The 1999 Nigerian Constitution is unambiguous about what constitute civil rights and what do not. Why the government and the security agencies prefer to loiter in the inexistent grey areas is indeed hard to tell.

    Two Saturdays ago, Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, was in Sokoto State during his mobilisation effort for the African Democratic Congress (ADC). There, he described as dangerous to the polity any attempt by the electorate to re-elect the All Progressives Congress (APC) into office. As far as he was concerned, he roared, the next presidential election “will not be just an election but the fight of our lives.” In short, it’s a do-or-die affair. This was not just hysteria or hyperbole; it was also criminal incitement clumsily hiding behind the constitutional provision of free speech.

    Read Also: Ambode denies ADC defection rumours

    Days later, Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy, was even more rabid. Speaking in an interview last week, he said: “All I’m interested in right now is: will our votes count in 2027? How do we do it? How do we get these monsters away from leadership positions? It’s not about Mr A can steal more than Mr B. The people stealing our national wealth are from all the tribes. We know the game. But I’m hoping to see ‘rig and die’ come 2027. Blood will flow; before it gets better, it will get worse.” Please, mind his language: he speaks deliriously about ‘monsters’ who must be removed from leadership, and he wants to see ‘rig and die’, and worse, he wants ‘blood to flow’ because, in his twisted mind, ‘it must get worse before it gets better’.

    Men like Mallam el-Rufai and Charly Boy have a death wish for themselves and the entire country. But they market their hysteria and ‘bloody revolution’ because the security agencies inexplicably give them the latitude. Tragically, in their deplorable logic, government is filled with monsters, and the opposition manned by saints. More dangerously, any other result other than the one they expect must have been rigged. No generation of Nigerians has been so fanatical than the one exemplified by the two quoted individuals, one of whom has no sense of moderation, and the other no iota of gravitas.

  • The Planes of Heathrow

    The Planes of Heathrow

    How Nations Miss Their Flights

    Nothing in human experience can be more exciting and exhilarating than suddenly beholding from the skies, the dazzling arrays of planes and aircrafts below as your own began its final approach at a major international airport. This was the experience last Thursday morning at London’s Heathrow Airport as the sleek Air-France jet descended on the English skies from the French side of the Channel. This morning, the typically British weather, at first blurry and bleary-eyed, began to show some signs of cheeriness and gaiety. A few of the planes were gliding and sliding into position and formation ready to vanish into the clouds. Most were nestling in supine splendor primed and poised to display their awesome capacity for superhuman speed and velocity at short notice. Daedalus and Icarus would be proud of human achievement and the strides humanity has taken in its heroic efforts to take to the sky, unlike the father-son experiment which ended in a huge fiasco a long time ago.

    In the over fifty years’ experience of watching planes come and go, one had become an addict of plane-spotting. The obsession had led one to become a denizen of airport hotels all over the world. The closer the airport is to actual plane landing and taking off, the better. The best in this regard is the defunct Hilton Hotel just outside JFK Airport in Jamaica, New York, before it was parceled out and turned into luxury apartments.  From the vantage point of its Executive Lounge on the twelfth floor, you could watch as aircrafts come and go and contemplate planes parked with orderly precision in endless rows like monster-birds in a historical formation. These different planes, in their glamour and prestige, advertise the wellbeing and continuous viability of their owner nations. As such, they are projections of what is known as soft power, the capacity to convince and influence without resorting to naked force or raw coercion.

     As planes of all colour and hues came into view this morning at Heathrow, you came to the conclusion that this is like a congregation of nations. Apart from the big hitters such as America, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Holland, Japan, Australia and the emergent Arab economic powerhouses of Saudi, Qatar and UAE, you had planes from Argentina, Brazil, Austria, Italy, Malta, Norway, Sweden, Cyprus, Finland, Iceland, China, South Korea, Ireland and Russia. The negligible African presence is made up of Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Morocco, Ghana and Egypt. The rest of the continent is an ominous void. You ask the Ghanaian driver who came to pick you up why Terminal Four at Heathrow Airport appears to be less busy than the others and he looked at you with diffident surprise. “Ha, sir, that may be true, but you wait until Air Indian arrives and all hell is let loose with all kinds”, he noted with a wry grin and then became glum and uncommunicative again, as if he was not the one you just heard. It is a strategy of survival and every wise soul in a foreign clime knows when to shut their trap, particularly in a period of hysterical nationalism and colour-combing.

    Read Also: Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid unstoppable- Adekanmbi

        The mood this morning darkened into sombre despondency. It is more like looking down below in anger. It is said that birds of the same feather flock together. But it can also be established that birds or nations of the same plumage bandy together. You see, all happy nations are the same, but every unhappy nation is unhappy in its own uniquely unhappy way. You suddenly realized that your beloved country, Nigeria, is nowhere to be found in this glittering commonwealth of nations, this assemblage of flying nations in their glorious plumes. The metaphor of a grounded bird is very appropriate. Nigeria has lost its capacity to take to the sky. It has winged itself with its clumpy mass hugging the bare earth, unable to fly or even walk. It has become the proverbial edun arinle, a species of monkey that has lost its aerial mobility and capacity for energetic acrobatics which now consoles itself by hurling stones at its more fortunate siblings on tree branches.

      You had left home in anger and a near-fatal weariness of the soul as members of the fractious and unproductive political class bicker endlessly about who will rule Nigeria in two years’ time even as the nation shows early warning signals of expiring from the stress and trauma of serial gang-raping. They are too far gone for the murderous absurdity to be apparent to them. Too much politics ruins a nation. What the nation needs is a moratorium on politics which will allow it to deal with its hobbling contradictions. If this is not done in circumstances of peaceful abeyance of partisan politics, it will be done in conditions of total state enervation by converging forces of economic, political, social and spiritual bankruptcy.

      But as the siege-smart Arabs will gladly let you know, to flee your fate is to rush to find it. If you think that you have safely absconded from the political horror show at home, the first rush of foreign air confronts you with the tragedy of aborted hope and unfulfilled expectations that has become an integral item of your baggage. If you are too tired and drowsy to take in Charles De Gaulle Airport in its heady magnificence and sheer class, Heathrow is like history that will not let you be however much you try to evade or avoid it. The planes of Heathrow drop on you like a bomb the stark truth of state failure and national incapacitation. In Nigeria, ethnicity is so weaponized by the ruling elites that it becomes the most veritable instrument of checkmating the state and curtailing national development. It is perhaps only in Nigeria that ethnic cohorts of a former top official being tried for corrupt self-enrichment and criminal embezzlement of state funds will besiege the court and cause the termination of further proceedings. All the major ethnic groups deploy weapons of choice which includes ethnic violence against the state, economic terrorism against the nation and the mobilization of cultural and intellectual resources against both the state and the nation.

      Since the postcolonial state is seen by ruling classes as a hostile alien construct which must be invaded and destroyed rather than a mechanism for resolving ethnic conflicts and elite disputes arising from the distribution of resources, the void arising is taken over by multifarious clashes and polarizations with the apex conflict being about who presides over the distribution of national resources at a particular time and for how long. The forces that drive the conflict also make sure that there is no recourse to egalitarian distribution or inclusive governance, a situation which fuels further clamours and attempts to derail the ruling group. It is a war of all against all with no end in sight until a dominant warlord emerges who forcibly puts an end to the crisis by imposing his own solution. This is what has happened in Cote D’Ivoire as Alisane Quattara is poised to win his fourth term and all is quiet on the Cocody front, after partitioning and civil war; just as it happened earlier in Uganda in 1986, Congo Brazzaville in 1997 and Rwanda in 1994 after genocide.

     A nation’s external borders are never fixed and unalterable if its normative and ethical boundaries remain loose and alterable. This is the problem with inauthentic and inorganic African nations whose normative boundaries are marked by lack of fixity and rigid rules of engagement or what can be called an absence of founding values and charter of association. Because of this fundamental lack of a primal organogram, there is a reign of economic and political injustice in most of these countries which makes them permanent preys and habitual hostages to instability. Hence, the constant cries for an urgent resolution of the National Question and convocation of a national conference either sovereign or non-sovereign. The snag here is the permanent lack of elite unanimity with those sections of the elite holding the wrong end of the stick being loudest in condemnation but going into complicit quietude once the balance of power alters. As it has happened with many African countries that we enumerated above, there is no exceptionalism driving political evolution in Nigeria and the situation remains very vulnerable to the emergence of a supreme law-giver after all elite passion might have been spent.

      Going back to our plane-spotting, it is noteworthy that up till the last minute of the last administration, the incumbent Minister of Aviation was reassuring his compatriots that a wholly owned indigenous national carrier was on the cards and that planes from its hangars were about to materialize out of the skies like those wonder birds out of Heathrow Airport last Thursday. In an exemplary feat of congenital crookedness, an aircraft belonging to Ethiopian Airlines was hurriedly rented and painted in Nigerian colours just to sustain and feed the illusion of Nigerians eagerly awaiting the dawn of a new national carrier. It was a gargantuan scam shot through with bizarre idiocies that could only be contemplated by a member of a privileged clan that had lost all sense of proportion and propriety. When the same minister was brought to court for other indiscretions, he was hugged and mobbed by his admiring and adulating ethnic cohorts obviously ready for any emergency. This is what happens to nations without normative and ethical boundaries. And reprieve will not come from the skies. Only planes from well-organized countries do. Last Thursday, Nigeria was not at Heathrow.

  • Divinely and dutifully, the Doyen goes home

    Divinely and dutifully, the Doyen goes home

    She was the perfect embodiment of steeliness and stateliness. Her slight frame belies the iron infrastructure. She did not suffer fools gladly and fools gladly avoided her. Political correctness if only for the sake of avoiding conflict was not her forte. Let conflict avoid her. The lady was not for turning. But on Tuesday evening, five months into her eighty second year on earth, the lady finally turned to meet her maker in a gesture of steely compliance. There goes our dear friend and doyen of intellectual journalism in Nigeria, Doyinsola Abiola, wife of the late business mogul and martyred president of Nigeria, Mashood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.

     Snooper mourns a personal friend and a friend of the column. She was a rugged pioneer in the field of intellectual journalism, a remarkable phase which as the name implies moved journalism away from being a recruiting den of deadwood and the flotsam and jetsam of the society to a glittering parade of the best and the brightest of the profession. Fiercely determined, strong-willed and impressively credentialed, nothing could have stopped the young woman from reaching the top of her chosen profession. Educated in the best schools both at home and abroad, there was something reassuring and refreshing about her self-confidence and the lucidity of writing and self-expression. In her prime and up till the point she succumbed to frailty of health, she was always bubbling with ideas and fresh projects. Little wonder that she shot through the ranks of the profession like a meteor, becoming a much sought after Features Editor and later a full editor of a newspaper, arguably the first in the profession, and later as the Managing Director of the whole publishing conglomerate. In all this, she excelled in her capacity for brilliant innovation, for dutiful mentoring of the younger generation and for technical trail-blazing the like of which had not been seen in the country before. More importantly, she led from the front in times of danger and dark scheming like a first class warrior and granddaughter of an illustrious generalissimo of the redoubtable Egba people, Balogun Aboaba.

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       Despite her professional accomplishments and glittering reputation as a newspaper administrator and first class editorialist and features writer, it was perhaps on the home front that this remarkable woman recorded her greatest achievement, as devoted and dutiful wife of MKO Abiola and as an unfailing intellectual consort to the man who would be president at arguably at the most turbulent period of Nigeria’s post civil war history. Home was a front indeed. Coming from a Christian and monogamous background, and from the cloistered ambience of doting parents, nothing could have prepared the young lady for the chaotic disorder of Abiola’s freewheeling liaisons and relentless pursuits of fresh game. But she bore it all often with a calm bemusement and sometimes with a vexed irritability which cut no ice with the games master. Abiola once famously noted of Margaret Thatcher that for every iron lady, there is an iron bender somewhere. The Gbagura chief was also a man of monumental fortitude and gutsiness which provided a perfect foil for her sophisticated sniffing and upper class nitpicking.

       The collaboration worked very well, providing a cerebral armature for Abiola’s worldly pursuits particularly his assault on the Nigerian military presidency. While providing intellectual cover for the Egba magnate, his more cerebral wife sought to impose some order on the life style of a man who was more intelligent than intellectual. Sometimes, it worked but most times it was the politically savvy sorties of the street smart merchant that prevailed. Doyin once told the columnist that each time she berated Abiola for the unwholesomeness of some of his associations and his tendency to parley with criminal-minded ruffians and ragamuffin, —awon asinwin ati asinde—he would retort that you must be ready to spend a lot on lies before you can buy some truths. It was a friendship of two endowed but temperamentally dissimilar people made in heaven. May Hamidat Doyinsola rest in perfect peace.

  • Reward for loyalty

    Reward for loyalty

    But Dayo Adeyeye’s resilience, patience, brilliance, etc. also count in his appointment as NPA chair

    It is only those who do not know Dayo Adeyeye that would be wondering what his mission was when on Tuesday, last week, he addressed the press on the achievements of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration in the last 26 months, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, G.R.A., Ikeja, Lagos. Those who know him know that he was only doing what he knows how to do best: put his imprimatur on anything Tinubu, especially as far as his performance so far as president is concerned. The press statement was appropriately titled: “You ain’t seen nothing yet! Swaga 2.0”.

    In listing a significant number of the achievements of the Tinubu administration in the last two years, and in his expression of optimism on the government’s direction, in spite of what some cynics say or feel about the administration, Adeyeye is only acting in line with his tradition. He came up with the South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) at a time nobody gave the group a chance.

    Adeyeye is not a latter day Tinubu convert. The journey dates back to the days of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), when some prominent Nigerians teamed up to ensure that the military regimes in power before 1999 honoured their promise to quit the political scene on schedule.

    Adeyeye’s latest avowal of the faith in Tinubu presidency began with the founding of SWAGA that he leads, in 2020. That was three years before the 2023 General Election that eventually saw the emergence of Tinubu as the flag bearer of the All Progressive’s Congress (APC), and ultimately, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Although Tinubu had many support groups, SWAGA was an early comer. It was not only an early comer, it is self-sustaining. Bosun Oladele, a former member of the House of Representatives and SWAGA’s national secretary, said: “Every money we have spent so far has been from our personal contributions without support from anyone, including Asiwaju himself. Till today, we have not gone to ask him for any financial support. It is a cause we believe in and are convinced about, and so our members have resolved to put in everything they can, both physical and material resources, to ensure it succeeds.” That was three years after founding the group.

    So, when Adeyeye was appointed chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in July, last year, many saw it as an appointment well deserved. Not only from the angle of being compensated for believing so much in the man, Tinubu, but also because he is eminently qualified for the appointment. That his inauguration took so long in coming was the shocker.

    Opeyemi Bamidele, the Senate Leader noted this much at a reception in honour of Adeyeye last month, following his inauguration: “If anyone had told me it would take this long for Senator Adeyeye to be appointed, I would have said it’s impossible.” He was obviously referring to the one year interregnum within which Adeyeye was in limbo after his appointment as NPA chairman, as he was not inaugurated until about a year later.

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    “He (Adeyeye) was among the first to champion this movement and stuck with it through thick and thin. That’s why this moment is not just a personal victory for him—it’s symbolic of loyalty finally being rewarded,” Opeyemi said.

    Musiliu Obanikoro, former Minister of State for Defence and senator, also at the reception, praised Adeyeye’s political commitment, loyalty and early investment in Tinubu’s ambition.

    “You threw yourself into the SWAGA business when it wasn’t popular,” Obanikoro said. He added: “When Asiwaju was taken with reservations, you criss-crossed the entire south-west for him. The appointment you got is well deserved. I am happy you have been recognised. This is only the beginning.”

    Ayo Arise, a former Ekiti north senator, echoed similar sentiments when he noted that Adeyeye’s contributions to the Tinubu campaign and the APC in the south-west were both strategic and sacrificial. “The role Adeyeye played wasn’t just political—it was foundational. He took risks, built alliances, and never wavered,” Arise said.

    Ekiti State governor, Biodun Oyebanji, said the appointment was a significant honour not just for Adeyeye but for the entire state. “The president gave this position to Ekiti, and he could not have chosen better,” Oyebanji said.

    One significant thing at this reception was the presence of former governors Ayodele Fayose and Segun Oni at the event. Of course this also was not accidental. It tells a lot about Adeyeye’s personality as a bridge builder.

    Another important characteristic of Adeyeye is his resilience which manifested in his handling of his long delay in being inaugurated. He took things in their stride. In a situation where several other politicians would have lost their heads, he kept his cool.

    He said, in his remark at the reception: “He (the president) told me not to worry, that he had plans for me. And he kept that promise.”

    Of course this piece won’t be complete if I do not share part of my personal experiences about Adeyeye. Our paths crossed in 1985 when I went for an interview at The Punch. About 40-something of us had turned up for the interview and I remember the people in charge, including Adeyeye, who was then Features Editor of the newspaper, told us then they were after merit. Another person who played a prominent role during that process was Alhaji Nojeem Jimoh, the deputy to the then editor of the daily editor, Mr Nurudeen Alade Balogun, the one we popularly called ‘Uncle NAT’ (now of blessed memory).

    We had the tests in both newspaper production and feature article. I remember I based my feature article on Decree 4 promulgated by the Buhari/Idiagbon junta in 1984. I knew within me that I did very well in that article in which I relied substantially on a piece by the (then) Dr Olatunji Dare (now professor) in The Guardian which I read hours before the interview, as something kept telling me it was going to be useful to me.

    There is no doubt that Jimoh and Adeyeye kept to their promise to select based strictly on merit because if it had been based on ‘man know man’, I would have had no chance of being employed. Some of our colleagues that came for the interview happened to know Jimoh and may be ‘Uncle NAT’. They even went into their offices to take bottled water while those of us who knew nobody in the system were wondering if we were not just wasting our time coming for the interview.

    Surprisingly, they started releasing the results in batches of 10. One feature writer, Jide Kutelu (now of blessed memory too) was the one who came to announce the names of those that had been dropped in batches. In the end, only four of us that knew nobody in the place were the last men standing, and we eventually got the job. To the glory of God, I later became editor of the daily title of the newspaper, years later.

    For me, this is another plus for Adeyeye, a brilliant mind if you ask me. Fidelity. President Tinubu obviously took his eyes to the market in making him chairman of the NPA.

    Be that as it may, however, Adeyeye and I related again in 1998/1999) when he engaged me to do some media research job for Chief Olu Falae who was contesting for president, against General Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1999 General Election. Falae didn’t have the kind of war chest that Obasanjo had access to but this did not deter Adeyeye from sticking with him. So, when they say they funded SWAGA all by themselves without support, one should know where he is coming from.  

    Interestingly, while Alhaji Nojeem and I have never lost touch even though both of us left The Punch a long time ago, I think I only met Adeyeye at a function once when he was either senator or minister of state for works. Beyond wishing him well on both occasions, I never made any attempt to see him in either capacity again.

    But I got interested in his matter when he was appointed NPA chair and he was not inaugurated months after.

    Adeyeye is not only all about SWAGA. He is several things rolled into one. He has had a work experience spanning three major professional fields – teaching, journalism and legal practice. He is also a successful politician who has played major roles on Nigeria’s political stage for decades.

    Apart from being a member of NADECO, he was also Director of Publicity, Falae for President Campaign Organisation (1990-1992); Adviser on Policy and Press Matters, M.K.O. Abiola for President Campaign Organisation (1993).

    He was also the spokesperson for the Alliance for Democracy (AD) from 2004 to 2006; and a member of the South-West Delegation to the Nigerian leaders of Thought Conference, Abuja. Adeyeye was the youngest of the 21 leaders who represented the South Western zone of Nigeria at the Conference (2001). He was also the National Publicity Secretary of the Pan Yoruba Socio-political group, Afenifere, between 2001 and 2004.

    Adeyeye’s election as Senator for Ekiti South Senatorial District in 2019 was later upturned by the election tribunal in favour of his closest rival, Abiodun Olujimi, after the recalculation of the results. Since then, he has been playing one political role or the order, including national chairmanship of SWAGA ’23 since 2020.

    He contested twice as governorship aspirant in Ekiti State (2006 and 2018) and lost in controversial primaries. Adeyeye was also nominated twice for appointment as a minister; he lost the first under President Umaru Yar’Adua but was confirmed under Goodluck Jonathan as Minister of State for Works between 2014 and 2015.

    That is not all. Adeyeye is a former Executive Chairman of Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), during which he recorded several achievements and won the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) award as the best chairman in the South-West of Nigeria in 2008. The award came along with a cash prize of N70million. He again won the same award in 2009. He used the funds derived from the awards to provide more infrastructures for schools across Ekiti State. That same year, Adeyeye was adjudged the most innovative SUBEB chairman in Nigeria by the Presidential Committee on Schools’ debate.

    Adeyeye, who was appointed Pro-Chancellor of Ekiti State University in June 2015, holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Ibadan (1978), and a master’s degree in political science (international relations) from the University of Lagos (1981). He also obtained a law degree from the University of Lagos in 1986 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1987.

    I need to go to this extent to tell who the man, Dayo Adeyeye is; so as to justify that he is eminently qualified for the appointment as NPA chairman.

    An Ise-Ekiti prince, Adeyeye was born on April 4, 1957, in Ise-Ekiti to the royal family of Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye, Agunsoye II, the Arinjale of Ise Ekiti (who reigned between 1932 and 1976), and Olori Mary Ojulege Adeyeye, a princess of Are, Ikere-Ekiti.

    But Adeyeye must remember his promise:  “The president promised a quality board, and he delivered. We are ready to work together as a family and move the port authority forward.”

    NPA deserves nothing less. So, Adeyeye must justify the confidence reposed in him by the president.

  • Constitutional matters III

    Constitutional matters III

    That most countries of the world have adopted a written constitution is testament to the increasing sophistication of social interactions in human affairs. It is also a sign of the growth of human freedoms all round the world as dictatorships or oligarchies  are not in the habit of furnishing their rule with a constitution. To do so, is to hedge themselves around with rules and regulations that are not of their own design. Were they to do so, they would have limited their ability to rule at their pleasure. This is why the first announcement after a military coup is the suspension of, or the outright abrogation of any existing constitution. If the constitution were allowed to subsist, the members of the fledgling regime would automatically become instant outlaws, liable to be locked up or, in the worst case scenario, executed after a short trial. That shows the centrality of the constitution to a modern polity. This explains  why there are many Nigerians who are convinced that if we are able to fix our extant constitutional problems, we would be able to set our country on to the path of progress and development. This view is however open to challenge and there are many who are willing to pose that challenge. After all, the constitution we already have is more abused in its operation than acknowledged. It can also be argued on the other hand that, were the current constitution allowed to guide our affairs as it is supposed to, we would be much further down the road of development than we are now.

    Whilst it is desirable to have a balanced, respectable and indeed,  respected constitution, it is also important to note that the constitution is controlled by the people it is designed to serve as much as the constitution controls them. The constitution is only fit for purpose when the people accord it the respect it deserves.

    The relationship between countries and the constitution that is supposed to govern them varies over a broad spectrum of governmental forms. In the United States for example, you are not allowed to show any signs of disrespect to the to the almighty constitution, unless of course you are a jumped up reality show star, what does that even mean, who lacks all gumption and decorum in the first place but has jumped up high enough to become the president. All the same, the world owes the USA, a mountain of gratitude for showing that her constitution, the   same one which gun owners have cloaked in garments of invincibility to protect their rights to carry arms, is a sacrament. It is now apparent that the  constitution can be raped by presidents who for one reason or the other, are determined to do so. It is not difficult to imagine what eventually happens when a breech, however small, is allowed to disturb the integrity of a dam. It is well worth pointing out however that the wall around the dam that is the US constitution, has withstood serious challenges in the past. This being the case, it is likely that the current MAGA storm will pass and the wall that is the constitution will survive the buffeting that it is being subjected to. This is the essence of a working constitution, the type of which is worth having even here in Nigeria.

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    Just as you have a president who is determined to take a wrecking ball to the constitution of the USA, you have others who have built up their career and extensive reputation on using the constitution in the course of the establishment of justice within their community. There are many Americans, living or dead who are in this category. But, the one I choose to call on in this respect is Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to sit on the bench of The Supreme Court of the United States. One story that is often told about him is that, he got close up and personal with the constitution as a result of serving a punishment in school. He was sentenced to read the constitution after a misdemeanour and in the course of serving that punishment became immersed in this document. This was to the extent that he was able to mine it both extensively and intensively for the gems which he used to convince the Supreme Court to grant justice and civil rights to the black people who were born at any time in his country. He did this  as a lawyer for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). It was his familiarity with the constitution that gave him the authority to do this. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of the constitution under which non-whites in America were being wilfully oppressed. He knew about these to such an extent that he could describe the constitution itself as being seriously flawed in many respects. And yet, he was able to use this knowlege to fight for justice on behalf of his people who were outside the scope of consideration by the framers of the constitution. His career at the bar and following that, the bench of the Supreme Court is eloquent testimony to both the power and the limitation of the much vaunted authority of the first written constitution to be used in the management of a modern country. For this reason if no other, we must not expect a perfect constitution to be developed in Nigeria. The availability of such a document can only mark the beginning of our journey towards justice and societal development. It’s absence must not be allowed to bar our way to progress. In other words we are not to use the constitution as an excuse to throw up our hands in despair at the challenge of building up our nation.

    The greatest stumbling block in the path of drafting a new Nigerian constitution is that one exists already. We are probably all agreed that what we have now is defective, perhaps seriously so, but it cannot be wished away. What can be achieved at best is to find a way around it and that is not likely to be an easy task. It is a challenge which we as humans must take on in the interest of posterity.

    There are times when the serious commentator must come down off his high horse and for whatever it is worth, give an honest opinion about the object of his discourse. In this case, my first suggestion is that we do away with the presidential system of government for several reasons; first, it is far too expensive to manage, concentrates too much power in the presidency, at least the way we run it and rather prone to mind bending corruption. There is therefore some support for the Westminster model with a Prime minister,  leader of opposition of prime-minister in waiting and a guaranteed five year tenure in office. In addition, it carries a lighter ministerial load. When we operated this system, long ago before our lights went off, our parliamentarians could attended Parliament on a more or less part time basis. All these and more suggest that the parliamentary system of government will give us more value for the money spent to keep it running.

    Even as we speak, there is a great deal of money  being spent on the states most of which are hollow structures. They make no returns on expenditure and are cash cows for governors and their lackeys. It is therefore surprising that even now, the agitation for the creation of more of these non-viable entities is gathering pace all over the country. People agitating for more states are not catching even a whiff of the cofee and on this matter, a return to regional governments is preferable to the unwieldy thirty-six state structure we are pretending to run. The six geographical state structure we have been referring to for many years is suggested to be made official with the thirty-six existing states demoted to administrative provinces as the majority of them were in colonial times. These are to be regarded as the bases for a new constitution that will give Nigeria a chance for sustained development of not only the country, but of the many different institutions that give her life.

  • My scintillating book of two forewords

    My scintillating book of two forewords

    I simply could not have been more privileged than having two distinguished intellectual giants, both of them eminent historians, write the Foreword to my book: ‘Simply a Citizen Journalist’.

    These two eminent personalities, reputed experts in their respective fields are:Amb Oladapo Fafowora OON, Hon FNAL, former Commonwealth Scholar at Trinity College, Oxford,

    a former Ambassador and Deputy permanent representative of Nigeria at the UN, New York, as well as the Foundation National President of the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN) and the other, my inimitable teacher,  the Georgetown University -trained, Professor Richard Adeboye Olaniyan, Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters.

    These are distinguished icons who have known me for years and were, therefore, able to write succinctly on my personna in the process of introducing the book – a socio- political history of Nigeria -in – motion (in the past 20 years, 2006 – 2025).

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    I have great pleasure in presenting both Forewords below as the book gets set to be unveiled, by His grace, during my 80th Birthday Celebration at the  Oranmiyan Hall,   Lagos Airport Hotel,  Ikeja, Lagos on 25 October, 2025.

    Happy reading.

    Professor Olaniyan

    This delightful book, titled ‘Simply a Citizen Journalist’, is a compilation of the author’s column articles in The Nation  from 2006 to the present.

    Each article carries a brief introduction, and speaks for itself. The fact that his articles come out in the Sunday editions explains why we have a voluminous tome to wade through. These articles deal with a wide variety of issues representing different contexts. Together, they represent his thoughts and views on different political and governance styles, institutional, socio-cultural and regional peculiarities and challenges, poverty, youth alienation, and sustainable development, among others. It is in these contexts that the reader can appreciate the complex web of issues that this perceptive citizen journalist has had to cover while still not ignoring the ever ubiquitous strain of the push-and-pull relationship between regional identities and the quest for national unity in an imperfect federal edifice. I read him regularly. I dare say that the author has been up to the task intrepidly expressing his candid opinions in good and effective language on pertinent local, national and international issues. You can never be in doubt as to which side of any argument his loyalty lies.

    Femi Orebe, the author of this book, and I have known each other for over five decades. We first met when he was a final year honors student in 1971 in the Department of History at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University and I, his dashing young lecturer with a freshly-minted doctorate in diplomatic history from Georgetown University. Endowed with an analytical and critical cast of mind, Femi Orebe appeared always sure of himself.

    An avid reader, he bought books and borrowed books. He was a regular visitor in my office. Restless and inquisitive, he was an engaging conversationalist. He always had a question to ask!

    I recall vividly that for the final year June examination in 1971, Professor J.D. Hargreaves, the distinguished professor of history at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, was the external examiner. One of the students’ answers to the question on the causes of the Belgian independence and the high grade of an “A” my senior colleague Dr. Segun Osoba and I had given the candidate caught the attention of the external examiner. Femi Orebe was the candidate. He had argued that although factors of political grievances, linguistic and religious differences, influence of the July Revolution in France, economic crisis, popular uprising and the international recognition of Belgium by France and the United Kingdom at the London Conference in 1830-1831 were no doubt significant, the factor of economic disparities however ought to be given greater emphasis. He argued further that the southern provinces of the Republic of Netherlands, particularly Brussels and Antwerp, were economically more developed and prosperous compared to the northern provinces. The people in the south felt that their economic contributions were not being adequately recognized and compensated. Furthermore, the poor harvest in Europe in 1830 created additional economic hardship which heightened the discontent and provided fertile ground for revolutionary ferment.

    Our admiration of Femi Orebe’s intellectual deftness was not so much in the simplicity and logic of the explanation but in the courage and sophistication, the surprising sagacity, and the creative intelligence he demonstrated. Professor Hargreaves agreed with our assessment.

    Femi Orebe’s educational foundation was firmly laid at the famous Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, where he obtained his West African School Certificate in 1963. His record at the University of Ife was so impressive that he only narrowly missed obtaining a first class, which would have been the first ever in the Department of History. His outstanding academic record earned him the Faculty of Arts prize for the best overall performance. The revered scholar and Vice-Chancellor, Professor H.A. Oluwasanmi, was glad, following a successful interview, to recruit him to join the corps of bright young administrators he was building for Ife. As the saying goes, goldfish has no hiding place. Femi had barely settled down when, only eighteen months later, the University of Ibadan, on a headhunt, attracted him to organize its 25th anniversary celebration in 1973. And again, a year or so later when the chairman of the anniversary organizing committee, Professor Ladipo Akinkugbe, was appointed the founding Principal of the University College which later became the University of Ilorin, he saw to it that Femi Orebe was appointed one of his pioneer staff, and following a competitive interview, as the first Senior Assistant Registrar in that institution.

    Femi rose rapidly in university administration enjoying the confidence and appreciation of Vice-Chancellors and Registrars.

    Series of appointments in the private and public sectors at senior management levels widened his work experience in the megacity of Lagos. His foray into Bible studies attracted the Zoe Life Theological College of Philadelphia which honoured him with an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 2009. But Femi Orebe is more widely known as an influential columnist with The Nation,

    Nigeria is a political and cultural amalgam; leadership deficit, endemic insecurity, crippling corruption, public policy summersaults, and pervasive underdevelopment are some of its albatrosses. These features and others present a complex tapestry and an environment in which a talented writer with an incisive mind can thrive and flourish. Looking back at his intellectual endowments, it is surprising that he was allowed to be snatched by the administrative establishments instead of being nurtured to take his rightful place among the eggheads in academia. Admittedly, without being fulsome, in many respects, Femi Orebe is uniquely equipped for the role he has chosen for himself for these past years as a newspaper columnist and public affairs commentator, lending his voice to the society’s common concerns for innovative governance, social justice, poverty alleviation, human rights and true federalism as an effective pathway to national rejuvenation. I wish this handy collection well in the many uses it is likely to serve.

    Ambassador Dapo Fafowora

    I consider it a compliment and a privilege to have been asked by Dr. Femi Orebe to write a foreword to his book. It is  a collection of his articles over a period of some twenty years in The Comet (now defunct) and  The Nation on Sunday, still very much alive and thriving.

    As I have no personal relationship with the author my views of him are based largely on my impressions of him as a highly respected, gifted and widely admired columnist in the two newspapers to which I made a reference.

    Basically, my relationship with Dr. Orebe has been mainly intellectual.

    It was when he started writing for The Comet that my attention was first drawn to his remarkable writing skills. At the time I was both a columnist for the paper and a member of its editorial board. My diplomatic career had ended. Writing for a newspaper at a time of great political turmoil in our country provided me with some emotional and intellectual relief. As Dr. Orebe was not on the editorial board of the paper we never met.

    Later, the paper collapsed and was replaced by The Nation. Again, our intellectual paths crossed.

    He was appointed a columnist for the new paper while I was both a columnist and a member of its editorial board as well. I had previously been a columnust with The Guardian newspaper and a member of its editorial board.

    It was this situation and experience that brought me into direct contact with such great writers as Tunji Dare, Jide Osuntokun and more recently Sam Omatseye, who is currently the chairman of the editorial board of The Nation.

    As a historian and a retired career ambassador I have always been fascinated by great writers both here and abroad. It was in this context that my intellectual relationship and friendship with Femi Orebe began and grew strongly over the years.

    I have read most of his articles being published now some of which he would send me in advance of its publication.

    I admire his great writing skills, particularly his detached, objective and passionate style of writing, attributes that I admire as a writer myself.

     Ideologically, I would place him slightly left of centre with a humanist touch and passion in support of the poor and down trodden.

    He is a great patriot and writes elegantly with the perspective of a nationalist rooted in the culture and aspirations of the Yoruba, his own people.

    He may be a little partisan in his articles but this is usually in support of the right causes such as his unrelenting fight against public corruption, tribalism and religious bigotry in our country, all of which have prevented Nigeria from realising its true potential as a great nation.

    As far as I know, he is not a card carrying member of any political party in Nigeria. This is why he is able to write with such detachment and objectivity for which his paper The Nation should also be commended. Until I stepped down from this paper in 2017 as a columnist since its inception it was a privilege that I also enjoyed as it makes the writing of your column easier.

    For those who enjoy reading good essays on great public issues in our national politics, economics and history I have no hesitation in recommending this publication as a reminder of the huge contribution of this remarkable columnist to public debates on a variety of public issues in the  media of our country.

    Dr  Femi Orebe has a good and solid academic background adequately reflected in these essays. After the famous Christ School, Ado Ekiti, he read history at the University of Ife where he obtained his first degree narrowly missing a first by a whisker.

    At the University, late Professor Oluwasanmi, the distinguished Vice Chancellor, spotted his brilliance and dragged him into University administration. Later, he served as  Assistant Registrar at the University of Ibadan, and later as the first Senior Assistant Registrar at the University College,  Ilorin, where the late Professor Akinkugbe had just been appointed the Principal.

    He was awarded an honorary  doctorate by a religious  seminary in the US  He had a short stint in the private sector as the Chairman of the Nigerite Board (a member of Odua company) as well as served on the Management board of the Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Niger state.

    He has had a varied public career. But he will be better remembered as one of our best newspaper columnists ever.