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Category: Columnists

  • Benue killings: Those Nigeria must appease

    Benue killings: Those Nigeria must appease

    The Inspector General Of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, during last Tuesday press briefing at the Force Headquarters in Abuja confirmed the arrest of 26 suspects for  their alleged involvement in the massacre at Yelewata community, Benue State during which over 200 people including women, children were mindlessly killed inside their torched houses or shot as they tried to escape. The arrest came barely a week after President Tinubu’s condolence visit during which he had asked “How come no one has been arrested for committing this heinous crime in Yelewata. Inspector General of Police, where are the arrests?

    Although the Director General of NOA, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, celebrated the swift action taken by the police and other security agencies after the president’s directive which he claimed has “brought a sense of relief to the affected communities and the nation at large”, I am however not sure many will agree with him that “the arrest was a testament to the commitment of the security agencies to protecting the lives and property of Nigerians”. If anything, it has only brought back bad memories of the Obasanjo and Buhari years when the impression was given that those visiting violence on Nigerians were invincible ghosts.

    It is on record that the police and the military maintained their narrative even after a particular governor of Niger State repatriated some herdsmen and their cattle back to Kaduna State in buses. The tale was the same even after the then governors Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, Aminu Masari of Katsina and Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna who at different times negotiated and in fact paid the criminals some ransom to stop their assault on Nigerians had confirmed that the criminals laying siege on the middle belt were immigrant Fulani herdsmen. Sadly few arrests were ever made.

    But that changed following the visit of Sheikh Gumi to the killer herdsmen’s den where he took photographs with them and returned with his controversial recommendation that those he described as disgruntled herdsmen be compensated, rehabilitated and integrated into the security forces. Curiously, government accepted the recommendation and in no time thousands of repentant criminals emerged from the bush and were rehabilitated in government houses while their victims remain condemned to IDP camps.

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    Indeed, last week police action after the president’s marching order has raised two fundamental issues. First, it confirmed the fears of Nigerians that there are powerful forces backing and sponsoring herdsmen insurgency in Nigeria whose toes the security forces dare not step on.  And second, the theme of ethnic cleansing and land grabbing which echoed during the Tor Tiv’s speech to welcome the president was a sad reminder that the endless killing in Benue is about land grabbing.

    Indeed, if there are those who doubt the claim that the battle is over Plateau’s and luxuriant Benue Basin trough, the gathering of about 93 members of the Fulani communities of Jos North, Jos South, Riyom and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State at Crest Hotel in Jos on May 19, 2013 to dialogue together and map a way forward will lay that to rest.

    The meeting was facilitated by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre with Afuzere, Anaguta, Beron and Hausa to dialogue about incessant crisis that have engulfed the area and the way forward;

    The gathering rejected the labels of ‘strangers and settlers’ in Plateau State by the Berom; disputed the Berom ownership of “Jos North, Jos south by the Riyom and Barkin Ladi LGAs” insisting that ownership of land has for long been taken away by the Land Use Act and the same vested on states government.  Finally, they claim that “there is no law in Nigeria that allows any person or groups of persons to identify some persons as strangers or settlers and no law equally allows any persons or group of persons to identify themselves as indigenes of a place”.

    Unfortunately, this deliberate misinformation has been used to embolden criminal herders who believe they are fighting a just war. And it was of little relief that our past leaders did not have the political will to challenge those they believe are more equal than others before the law. And this is why I will not advise the president, in spite of his Dutch courage and penchant for taking risks, to confront the representatives of owners of Nigeria.

    My unsolicited advice to the president with a deep Yoruba culture will be to start the appeasement with Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II. Here is an Emir who at different times in the past, dared Presidents Jonathan, Buhari and in recent months, President Tinubu whose government’s directive that he should have a low key Sallah celebration because of volatile situation in Kano, he flouted. A letter inviting him to Abuja by the police was quickly withdrawn with an apology.

    It is on record that reaction to Sanusi’s ‘fatwa’ on Benue started with an attack on Governor Ortom who narrowly missed death when he was chased by heavily armed herders from his farm. Ever since, there has been no relief for people of the middle belt.

    The orgy of killing which started with the killing of 86 became intensified with Buhari declaring  on April 12, 2022,that there would be no mercy for those behind the killings of more than a hundred in a series of attack on the middle belt region. In 2018, following the killing of about 200 in Gashish district in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, about 1,116 children and 1,821 women were crammed together inside the hall of Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society used as IDP camp in Anguldi-Zawan in Jos South LGA.

    Julie Bala, Director of Plateau State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) on  July 8, 2018 confirmed  38, 051 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were taking refuge in 31 camps in the state following June 23-4 suspected herdsmen attack on  villagers in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Mangu, Bokkos and Jos South local government areas.

    On April 12, 2022, President Buhari who had by this time been rechristened ‘mourner in chief’ was in Ganga Village in the Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau following the burning down of houses that sent 4800 people to IDP camps. Many believe if Muhammadu Sanusi II lifts his ‘fatwa’, Benue and the whole of the Middle Belt will know peace.

    Another powerful Nigerian that needed to be appeased is Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State. First as governor, he is a Leviathan who operates above the law. It is on record that he once lionized the killer herdsmen on a live TV by defending their right to carry AK-47. We can only speculate about the source of the AK-47 assault guns the police seized from some of those arrested for last week massacre of about 200 in Benue.

    Bala did not stop there; he also said immigrant Fulani in any part of Nigeria from any part of Africa is a Nigerian. Again, we can see where the crooked logic that the Land Use Act has taken away the right of land ownership from indigenes was coming from.

    Although, Bala is not Fulani, he needs endorsement of the hegemonic power in the north to fulfil his presidential ambition even if it means being in office while others wield power as was the case with his kinsmen, the assassinated Tafawa Balewa, our first Prime Minister.

    Of course we also have Abubakar Malami, Buhari’s attorney general. It is on record he tried to equate Igbo traders engaged in legitimate business of trading in the north with armed herdsmen who secretly took over reserved forest in the south to commit heinous crimes. Many senior lawyers faulted his fraudulent attempt to equate constitutional provision for free movement of Nigerians in their country with marauding cattle indiscriminately destroying subsistence farmers’ farms across the country. Unfortunately, his odious comparison is what herdsmen are using to visit violence on subsistence farmers across the country.

    Finally, others that need appeasement  include Salisu Ahmadu, national president and Umar Shehu , national secretary, of Fulani Nationality Movement, (FUNAM), who once jointly signed a joint statement where  they literarily took responsibility for the killing of 86 in Benue during the Ortom administration  when they attributed it to a revenge attack over the killings of Fulani in Nasarawa State, adding that because the federal government was incapable of protecting the interest of Fulani in Nigeria, the Fulani in West Africa have been invited to raise funds and prepare for war. 

    President Tinubu must positively deploy his celebrated tact to persuade those who are unarguably above the law to understand that distributive justice, even when alternatives including coercion and monopoly of violence on members of your federating states are available, is the best safeguard for peace, stability and shared prosperity in multicultural deeply divided societies.

  • Blues from Rivers

    Blues from Rivers

    Those whose palm kernels are cracked for them by benevolent spirits should learn to be humble — Igbo proverb, courtesy Chinua Achebe

    From Rivers, it’s blues for conflict proxies! War-weary Governor Siminalayi Fubara groans the armistice is “bitter and heavy”.  But it’s either Fubara ate crow or nothing!

    Still, that hardly makes Fubara a foolish man; or even craven, as many in his emotive ensemble are already blurting.  He just re-found wisdom at a stiff price. 

    In political brawling, awesome gubernatorial biceps are seldom enough.  As Sim just found out, high delusion of power only goads the governor to be a bully, hungry for a fight, whenever he sights a fella he can maul.  That pretty much summarizes Sim-1.

    But Sim-2(?) just faced off — and bowed to — a structure that made him; and was ready to maul him.  It was the underdog facing the netherworld.

    That is eminently ugly.  But it is what it is — and Fubara seems resigned to living that harsh reality.

    Or is he?  Maybe not!  That explains the puff, huff and gruff from his conflict proxies.

    The shock and awe of vanished combat, as Fubara himself hugs peace — more of pacification, they scoff — has clearly thrown his proxies into fresh tantrums. 

    None would appear more dramatic than the antics on the media front of Arise TV.

    The duo of Reuben Abati and Rufai Oseni wailed and cried, hissed and shrilled, screamed and screeched, over what Abati called the Fubara “surrender”!  Is crying more than the bereaved part of their mandate as TV anchors?

    By the way, which media canon turns TV anchors — equivalent of senior reporters, or at most, desk editors in the newspaper newsroom — to double as opinion writers — or worse: live editorial thunder for their TV — ranting to soothe their bruised egos?

    That was exactly what Abati and Oseni assumed in the aftermath of “peace” from Rivers.  Both had backed the wrong horse, based on nothing, but frothy sentiments — and inserted themselves into the fray as they are wont to. 

    Seeing their poor horse writhing in pain and defeat would appear too much to bear!  That seems why they interpret the Rivers denouement as craven collapse.

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    Oseni went making gaseous claims on air.  It’s all about Rivers resources! It has nothing to do with the Rivers people — maybe! But again, it’s the market folks’ credo: blab what “everybody knows” but get suddenly tongue-tied, when summoned to provide concrete proof! 

    There has got to be a limit to populist rascality on air! 

    Abati too flipped, went ape with “unconditional surrender! unconditional surrender!”, in clear disorientation: with the dazed gait of an agama lizard that just fell off the high Iroko tree, and needed frenetic nodding to reassure itself it’s still alive and well! 

    If the pair hoped such on-air tantrums would make a dent on Fubara’s “unconditional surrender”, they are entitled to their democratic delusions!

    On media professionalism, isn’t it high time the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) imposed standards in this era of “broadcasting of anything goes” — as in Sani Abacha’s Nigerian Army of anything goes?

    But back to Rivers and its aftermath.

    No less upset are Fubara’s other sympathizers, on the Ijaw and allied political fronts.  A report claimed the likes of Timi Frank, Uche Secondus, Peter Odili, Asari Dokubo, and Ann-Kio Briggs were upset with Fubara — understandably so.

    Even Dele Momodu wondered if Fubara would have died, had he not fallen on his sword, just to regain his governorship.

    Now, each of these confederates came to the Sim combat with own intimate motives.  Frank has been incensed since he parted ways with APC. Wike is to Secondus a mentor-turned-tormentor. 

    For Ann-Kio Briggs and Asari Dokubo, it’s Ijaw power and glory, garnished with strutting Ijaw exceptionalism, championed by the dead Edwin Clark.  Dr. Odili, a mentor backed a wrong mentee, in the Rivers power civil war.  Momodu is newfound PDP activist and caregiver, when PDP itself is on self-caused death bed!

    Long story cut short: they didn’t love Sim for Sim; but as putative strong breed to cut arrogant Wike to size! 

    No crime, to be sure — Wike himself had it coming.  But the harsh reality is Fubara hasn’t quite pulled off that rogue regicide.  By embracing peace — or pacification — he just decided to cut his loss, and serve out the rest of his troubled tenure.

    Half-bread is better than none?  Hardly illogical, even if moral purists would pout, growl and bark! 

    Still, Momodu’s rhetorical question, bristling with moral scorn, stings no less. The question, though: had each of these folks acquired power the way Fubara did, what would they have done, faced with such a stark choice: eat crow or be eaten?  Talk is cheap! 

    Still, it resonates with romantics, fixated with what might have been, had the underdog somewhat trumped the over-dog!  Well, that hasn’t happened — and Fubara just chose to live, warts and all!

    If he chooses craven life over heroic death — as Momodu’s harsh stricture hinted — it’s his democratic choice!

    But that links us right back to the opening quote of this piece: those whose palm kernels have been cracked for them by benevolent spirits should learn to be humble — lest those spirits turn malevolent!

    That aptly captures the Rivers crisis.  Really, knowing how he got power — being picked over everyone — Sim should have been more circumspect.  Power always has own catches!  If really it was all about “Rivers’ money” as Oseni claimed, Sim couldn’t have been the only saint in the dirty coven of wizards and witches, no matter how anyone spins it.

    Then, a question of “war-time” strategy! While Wike warred, he did his job as FCT minister and ensured, every second, he pointed — and still points — attention to his deliverables. Like him or hate him, Wike delivers, anywhere, anytime.

    On the contrary Fubara — maybe pressured into it? —  allowed the crisis to define his term until the emergency pause.  However this peace — or pacification — pans out, Rivers people ere entitled to some relief.  They should draw democratic dividends, not perpetually dive — for cover — before political warlords.

    With the balance of forces, Wike appears to have won the war, bringing to heel a rebellious protégée.  But will he win the peace? 

    That’s doubtful. His work rate is top-notch. But with his penchant to rub in stuff, his grace is inverse to his industry.  So, don’t be surprised if brash Wike bawls around town, impressing it on everyone the lord and master is here! But at least Sim-2 (poor guy!) knows what he’s signing again into!

    Still, things would get progressively clearer as we near 2027.  That Sim-2 signed a one-term pact to regain his governorship is no news. The Wike structure will never trust him with power again.

    But who says Sim can’t re-contest, with or without the Wike structure, with his own Simplified lobby waiting in the wings?  Election 2027?  Rivers, for good or for ill, is a state to watch!

  • As Fubara capitulates!

    As Fubara capitulates!

    Expectedly, opinions have remained divided on the truce between the feuding parties in the Rivers State crisis as hammered out by President Tinubu, particularly in terms of what it bodes for the peace of the state. Going by the sketch of the details already in the public domain, it is clear that the suspended governor came out far worse than his supporters could have imagined. Going by the terms of the settlement, not only is the governor precluded from having a go at a second term which he is constitutionally entitled, his boss and nemesis, Nyesom Wike, still retains the prerogative to nominate all the local government chairpersons across the 23 LGAs of the state.

    In fairness to the suspended governor, he appears to appreciate, at least for the time being, the imperative of peace, going as far as to declare his willingness to make difficult but necessary sacrifices.

    His words: “The sacrifice that we are going to make for us to achieve this total peace is going to be heavy, and I want everybody to prepare for it…Without a total reconciliation, which by the grace of God both of us have gotten, there’s no way we can make progress in this state, there’s no way the president can come in to save the situation…So, I want to appeal to everyone, I have accepted that we must accept this peace no matter how it looks. No matter how you feel, we must accept it.”

    He also left no one in doubt of how much of the native wisdom that must have come his way, in the past few months of grim reflection. Using the analogy of the native fish ‘Atabala’, (tilapia) to make his point, he says: ‘The native tilapia doesn’t grow big. The mother tilapia tells the kids that if you want to grow up to my own size, hide your head inside the mud’ – an apt reminder of the folly of duelling with one’s chi!

    Now, Nigerians cannot but wonder how different things would have been had the ‘Atabala’ wisdom availed him in those early days.

    Of course, the beautiful, multi-billion naira edifice that served as parliament building would have been spared the torching by arsonists and subsequently, the bulldozers of a desperate governor.

    Second, the needless turf wars and the resort to brigandage would have been needless; in fact, Nigerians would have been spared the debate on parliamentary quorum and the question of whether a governor could pick which faction of the parliament to work with. Third, the whole point about the president being dragged into the fray between godfather and son would have been most unnecessary. Indeed, the president would have been spared the indignity of having the settlement he brokered torn into shreds by the governor and his army of conflict entrepreneurs.

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    Fourth, the ordinary citizen would have been spared the affliction of those asinine talking points daily regurgitated on prime time hours on television by those whose interests are barely disguised.

    Fifth, the section of the judiciary which insisted on playing the errand for soulless politicians would have been spared the indignity of being de-robed in the market square by the apex court, followed by the weighty characterisation of the governor as a ‘dictator’ and serial lawbreaker and with it its frightening constitutional portents by the highest court in the land!

    We can add to these the ordeal of kicking the executive and the parliament out of office – temporarily – to stave off further impunity!

    Little wonder the Holy writ counsels that one gets wisdom as it is the principal thing in all of life’s endeavours.

    As it is, it must be interesting to see the parties back to the same spot where they left off: the feet of the same president whose counsel the suspended governor and his supporters had once scoffed. This time around however, he’s probably emerged far worse than the last time. Once out of power, he suddenly realises that has no jokers left to play.

    Faced with the new reality, the governor, now powerless, is forced to carry the burden of marketing the gospel of conciliation to his Simplified Movement even when all they could see is plain, undisguised capitulation! Nothing about his willingness to swallow the humble pie to enable peace to return to the state appears to make sense to them. One particular group that calls itself the Rivers Emancipation Movement says Fubara’s concessions amount to a “surrender” of his authority; and that they were made without sufficient consultation! (Did they bother to read the constitution?)

    As far as the group is concerned, any settlement that falls short of restoring their man to his erstwhile pre-eminence is akin to a blow to the solar plexus.

    Never mind that the governor and he alone, will have to bear his cross!

    Of course, the group of 27 lawmakers must be having a good laugh at the turn out of events. After all, it is an open secret that even before the governor’s rustication, he had neither regard for them nor the institution they represented. Unable to carve the institution in his image and likeness, he, Fubara, had thought little of abolishing the institution, opting to work instead with a renegade minority that had no quorum and so no authority to conduct any business let alone the all-important legislative business. Now they are back, with their powers fully restored. They have nothing to worry about in whether or not their due emoluments would be paid, or who had the authority to pass and oversight the state budget.

    In all of these, I believe the lesson is clear: there can be no fighting a right battle in a wrong way or vice versa. Nyesom Wike and the Group of 27 may have been Lucifer and his fallen angels combined; they may actually represent everything odious in politics and leadership to some, there is no reported incident of brazen lawlessness on their part. It was not his group that torched the parliament or desecrated the sacred institution that is at the heart of constitutional democracy; they had no part in the pulling down of the parliament building, which although not illegal outright in the circumstance, amounts to an egregious mocking of the law. Wike’s group had nothing to do with it! Or what the apex court aptly described as the reign of the dictator or autocrat, in a constitutional democracy. It was a case of one group taking to brazing outlawry while the other watched.

    May it never happen again!

  • Wike as an asset

    Wike as an asset

    The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, a former governor of Rivers State, lawyer and member, Body of Benchers to boot, has shown himself a man beloved by the god of politics. That may explain his triumphs in many fronts. But while appreciating his bright stars, perhaps the Wike personality may be a very vital factor in his successes. The man chooses his fights, and when he takes a position, he sticks with it, through thick and thin.

    From available records, he supported the emergence of Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, as the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2007, in Rivers State, against the wishes of federal forces and stood by his conviction, even when Amaechi allegedly ran away to Ghana, for safety. The legend had it that Wike sold his father’s property to fight the legal battle for Amaechi. From the recent interview Amaechi granted a national television, it can be deduced that Amaechi did not fully appreciate the sacrifices Wike made.

    When Amaechi fell out with President Goodluck Jonathan, Wike choose to be on the side of Jonathan, and with the bravura of Mama Peace, Dame Patience Jonathan, the first lady, Wike became the governorship candidate of the PDP, when his former principal, Amaechi, moved over to the All Progressive Congress (APC), to help President Muhammadu Buhari get elected in 2015. That decision paid off, as Wike got elected as governor, despite the opposition of the departing governor, and since then, he has been on the ascendency.

    As governor, Wike endeared himself to Nigerians and even to President Buhari of the opposition party, with his flamboyant celebration of his numerous projects. Again, after completing his tenure and failing at the presidency project, he chose to align with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the APC, while rejecting overtures from Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, the man who defeated him at the primary and refused to pick him as vice presidential candidate.

    Wike rallied the governors of Benue, Enugu, Abia and Oyo states, to trenchantly oppose the presidential candidate of his party, and played roulette with the candidate of the LP, while extracting promissory notes from the APC, under the nose of his estranged former boss, Amaechi, an APC stalwart. In a manner akin to eating your cake and still having it, Wike delivered his preferred gubernatorial candidate, Similayi Fubara, and the candidates of the national and house of assembly, to PDP, while handing over the presidential poll to the APC, to the consternation of both his APC and PDP opponents.

    In the ensuing fight in the National Working Committee, of the PDP, Wike and his friends aligned with Samuel Anyanwu, the party’s secretary, against the more powerful forces in the party. Anyanwu had gone to contest for the governorship of Imo State, and after losing to Hope Uzodinma, of the APC, returned to the party to reclaim his position as secretary. Despite the misgivings of other party stalwarts who want Anyanwu out, Wike chose to back Anyanwu to retain his seat, on the premise that the PDP constitution and 1999 constitution allows party officials to contest elections without resigning.

    The efforts by those opposed to Anyanwu to get the courts to determine his tenure failed at the Supreme Court which held that the courts lack the jurisdiction to interfere in the internal affairs of a party.

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    Instead of putting their house in order, the PDP crisis is increasingly becoming intractable, with the PDP governors divided as to the way forward. The Board of Trustees, instead of bringing neutrality to the dispute, chose to take a stand that has further polarized the party. The party’s National Working Committee, already divided down the line, seems determined to fight to finish. When some party members insisted that the National Executive meeting must hold, despite the issues raised by INEC, one wonders whether the entire party leadership is under a form of spell.

    While everyone in PDP seems to be losing their heads, Wike is insistent that Samuel Anyanwu, remains the party’s secretary, and he appears to be winning over some of his former foes like the governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed. Over the weekend, Wike toasted Anyanwu, at his 60th birthday celebration, at the recently refurbished International Conference Centre, renamed after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Wike advised Anyanwu to remain steadfast to his conviction and not be afraid. He told him to remain calm as those he defeated will come to seek his face, and not for him to go in search of them.

    That fearless capacity to confront political opponents may be one of the factors that endears Wike to President Tinubu, himself a fearless political warrior. When President Tinubu describes Wike as an asset, he may not just be referring to his stellar performances at the minister for federal Capital Territory, but his inner core, as a person. As Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is reputed to have said, only the deep can connect to the deep. Wike, showed himself an intractable political warrior, in his battle with his now reconciled political godson, the governor of Rivers State.

    Wike, who fought many political battles to make Fubara governor, fought even greater battles, to reclaim him, from his opponents, who wanted to reap where they did not sow, as he put it. Instead of running scared or capitulating, Wike stayed his cause with his supporters, until the battle was won. This writer had advised Fubara months before the hammer of emergency rule fell on his executive duties to obey the rules of the game he freely and willingly entered.

    Wike’s greatest fan, who has referred to him as an asset, remains President Tinubu, a veteran of political roforofo. Through uncommon capacity to deliver on his mandate as a minister, Wike has gained the confidence of the president and even majority of Nigerians living in Abuja. For more than two weeks, the president has had the honour of commissioning landmark projects that will endear him and his party to the masses, as he celebrates his second year anniversary as president and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.           

    No person in the shoes of President Tinubu, would not be happy with the achievements of Minister Wike. From roads, to water works, to fly overs, to bus stations, it has been celebration time for the president. The projects are so many that one wonders how Wike, was able to execute such projects in less than two years of his appointment as minister. Such capacity to deliver on an assignment, is truly an asset, as President Tinubu has reiterated many times.

    What remains to be seen is whether Tinubu, would be able to lure that asset to his party, as he has wished.

  • Yahaya Bello’s image makers

    Yahaya Bello’s image makers

    Professionally, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) should be crusading for accountability in public office, not conducting itself in a manner that suggests otherwise.  By giving an award to the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, who is facing corruption-related trials, the organisation exposed itself to charges of unprofessionalism.  Presenting the award to Bello as part of activities to mark the NUJ’s 70th anniversary calls into question the group’s sense of propriety and decency. It was absurdity and obscenity writ large.

    The award was presented on June 21 at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, where Bello was represented by Smart Adeyemi, former NUJ president and ex-senator for Kogi West, who received the plaque on his behalf. Adeyemi’s role was curious, considering that he had headed the NUJ and should have guided the current leadership on the issue. 

    The NUJ leadership said the award was to recognise Bello’s “outstanding contributions to the welfare of journalists.”  The organisers cited the GYB Annual Workshops, credited with training over 200 correspondents and editors for every edition. GYB stands for Governor Yahaya Bello.

    Bello, 50, a former two-term governor, is standing trial in two separate cases brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), involving alleged misappropriation, laundering and concealment of public funds totalling over N190 billion.

    The EFCC, which is charged with the responsibility of enforcing all economic and financial crimes laws in Nigeria, accused Bello of conspiring with others to divert over N80 billion in February 2016, some weeks after he assumed office as governor. He is also facing a 16-count charge of money laundering and criminal concealment of funds amounting to N110 billion. EFCC said some of the laundered funds were used to acquire upscale properties in Maitama, Abuja, including one allegedly purchased for N950 million, said to have been paid in cash, in US dollars.

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    In addition, the anti-graft agency claimed that over $500,000 was wired to foreign accounts to cover personal expenses such as tuition fees, alleging that other tranches were concealed through bureau de change transactions and fake invoicing schemes. According to another charge, N3.08 billion was hidden between 2021 and 2022, during his final years in office.

    Notably, in 2021, a Kogi-based group, the Anti-Corruption Network, had released a report accusing him of monumental corruption. The report alleged that the Bello administration had committed large-scale fraud, in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, by awarding state contracts improperly, irregularities and conflicts of interest in awarding contracts, awarding contracts without due process, and money laundering.  At the time, the administration said the allegations were politically motivated

    Dramatically, for several months Bello had played hide-and-seek after the EFCC declared him wanted and launched a manhunt for him in connection with alleged money laundering.  He had earned the status of a fugitive following his mysterious escape from EFCC operatives who wanted to arrest him at his Abuja residence, on April 17, 2024, after obtaining an arrest warrant from the Federal High Court, Abuja.  His escape was reported to have been facilitated by a group of armed men identified as ‘Special Forces’ and some policemen, as well as the current governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo. He remained at large until November 2024 when the EFCC confirmed his arrest and detention.

    Bello’s prosecution is ongoing and he has not been found guilty of the corruption charges. However, the NUJ’s award gives the impression of image laundering, which is bad for the group’s image. 

     Interestingly, when Bello turned 50 on June 18, President Bola Tinubu, in a congratulatory statement, commended his “historic emergence as the youngest democratically-elected governor in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic and his role in advancing youth participation in governance.”  He is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a former presidential aspirant. 

    More interestingly, a group of legal minds that included a retired Supreme Court justice and over a dozen Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) published a birthday message to Bello in a newspaper, calling him “a remarkable public servant, impactful leader and inspirer.”

    Those who signed the message included Hon. Justice Abdu Aboki (JSC Retd), Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), Professor Musa Yakubu (SAN, OFR), E. C. Ukala (SAN), Dr Alex A. Innyon (SAN, OFR), M. B. Adoka (CFR, SAN), B. A. M. Aliyu (SAN), Ibrahim Sanni Muhammed (SAN), Aliyu Saiki (SAN), Abdulwahab Muhammed (SAN), A. A. Adeniyi (SAN), M. Y. Abdullahi (SAN), Dayo Bello (SAN), Professor Marietu Tenuche and J. A. M. Ohiani.

    They noted his “remarkable achievements, respect for the rule of law and dedication to public service,” praised his “leadership with impactful service,” and added, “Your youthful energy, passion, and vision for a better tomorrow continue to impress, and inspire us all.”

    It bears repeating that Bello has not been convicted of corruption and is entitled to the positive perception, and even promotion, that he is enjoying in certain circles. However, his ongoing corruption cases should have discouraged the endorsements he received on his 50th birthday. Such flattering approbation works against the country’s fight against corruption. 

    The point is that until Bello is legally declared innocent of the corruption charges against him, those who see him differently should not try to impose their version of reality on the public. That amounts to image laundering, and suggests that they are image makers. 

    The argument that the corruption charges against Bello do not define his governorship years, and that there are several actions by his administration that point to good governance, misses the point.  This argument, offered by apologists, is a subtle defence of corruption and seeks to present circumstances in which political corruption can be accommodated.  

    Bello’s 50th birthday, which called for sobriety, reflection and self-examination, in the context of his legal travails, was turned into a celebratory occasion that undermined the anti-corruption fight.  

    If an ex-governor facing trial for mind-boggling alleged corruption can be enthusiastically celebrated as Bello was, without a sense of restraint and decency, it can be said that the country’s fight against corruption is unserious. In the circumstances, the celebration should have been done privately, not publicly, which was contemptuous of public opinion. 

  • Mangu: A wedding and a funeral

    Mangu: A wedding and a funeral

     The North Central is smouldering, and we must worry. The last tragedy was in Mangu area of Plateau State when travelling wedding guests were ambushed and 13 people died. According to eyewitness accounts, including survivors, it was a case of aggression by locals. They did not accept pleas for help but, monster-eyed, the locals killed one after another and set their bus ablaze.

    They were coming from neighbouring Kaduna State. They were there to be merry, to share in the kinship of wedlock and joy. They did not bear arms, they bore gifts. They did not know the neighbourhood but expected the locals to be neighbours. They were visitors but no strangers to the Nigerian community. They and the locals were fellow indigenes of the constitution. They may be Hausa-Fulani but they were Nigerians. If there was conflict with the Fulani neighbours, they were not there to swear but to sup. The locals spun the hour around, even though the guests were there for peace and food and drinks and laughter.  Seeing the guests, the locals did not want to guess.

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    Wedding suddenly became funerals. The kolanut, clothes and other presents suddenly became paraphernalia of tears. They redesigned wedding clothes with blood lines. Like Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet when arrangements turned suddenly from wedding to funerals, this is life imitating art.

    Governor Gabriel Mutfwang’s Mangu was not turbulent until he became chief executive. The story is often reported about onslaught of the Fulani, and reporters have not done well of reporting the other story. The wedding tragedy is just too gruesome to miss.

    One wonders whether the governor has had to meet with his predecessor Simon Lalong, who set a template that endured with relative peace when he was governor. I think we need to return to that drawing board to avoid more buses on the burner and guests aflame.

    Meanwhile, all those who committed the crime ought to be brought to justice.

  • Bibi the butcher

    Bibi the butcher

    Wars sometimes make illusions. In rumbles and pillages, once a bullet flies, there are no innocent parties. And that was the case in the last fight between Israel and Iran. Partisans took sides. Old Testament bigots rev up father Abraham. On the opposite end, it is Ibrahim. In the west, Trump trumpets a premature victory.

    But once the hostilities have settled, we discover sober fact about modern warfare. It is not by power or might. Nuclear weapons, or the most lethal B2 Bomber, does not assure victory laps and bouquets on the streets. Putin may have more power than Ukraine. It is spending billions of dollars, many young men’s blood and its future treasures just to gain a mile of Ukraine territory. It is not winning. Ukraine is not losing.

    In Gaza, concrete rubbles bury children alive. But Hamas is still alive in spite of Israel’s endless pounding. Trump bombs Iran, but even his intelligence’s best data doubt it is a success. In modern war, stealth aircraft works but not enough. Trained armies destroy but not enough. Intelligence is potent but data can fail. In the last analysis, it is about those who sponsor the war and what they want.

    There are three main actors in this battle. Trump, Bibi Netanyahu and Ayatollah Khamenei. Who was the winner? Wrong question. What was the winner? Corruption. Who was the sinner? Netanyahu. No one has bothered to ask whether America had an excuse to bomb Iran. It had none because, by Trump’s own admission, Iran was nowhere near a nuclear threat, and so military aggression was not urgent. Was the threat real? Yes. Was action necessary? Yes. Were they taking the actions? Yes. Was Iran cooperating? Of course not. But its hardiness was not commensurate with military escalation.

    Why did Bibi – no one calls him that fancy name these days – attack Iran? Was it because of the military threat? Not exactly. It was always so even when I was a child? Even when Isael knocked out Iraq’s nuclear reactor decades ago, no one thought of escalation, like Netanyahu today.

    So, what happened? Netanyahu wanted to save his head. He was mired deep in corruption charges, and he was on the verge of losing his job, facing a scandal of trial and going to jail. He did not want that. He tried a constitutional decoy. He made his cronies in the parliament take over the job of the Supreme Court so they could rid him of all corruption charges. It led to protests that dragged week after week. Many saw his cunning. He was playing conman with the law. Israel was near a stalemate. The man had no way out of his sleaze. Then January 7 massacre happened.

    Iranian-backed Hamas goons launched an attack on Israel during a concert, and they abducted many Israelis, raped their women and killed not a few. Bibi was livid. He saw his opportunity. No one thought about a petty scandal when the survival of the nation was in peril. He was ready to invoke the historic persecution of Jewry. It was time to invoke centuries of alienation, pogroms, gas chambers, of a vibrant and God-made people gearing for another era of contempt, and he promised that the jews, as always, would triumph. He might have been talking about the Jews but it was about how Bibi would triumph. He saw his excuse.

    He invoked America’s help, and he started his onslaught on Gaza. The thing is, Hamas is not innocent. They had given Bibi what he wanted. Hamas excited Iran. Bibi excited Jews. Both went to war in Gaza. That is the cynicism of war. The butchery has been going on for over a year, and Bibi says it should not end until Hamas is incinerated. But he knows that cannot happen, and he knows that is an excuse to keep his corruption charge out of sight so long as he gives the orders. But the public relations war in Gaza is not favouring him. The hungry children, the meaningless destructions. The media spotlight does not flatter him.

    His friend, Donald Trump, shares a common enemy, Iran. The leader, Ayattollah Khamenei is another hawk who is sponsoring death and destruction around the Middle East, including the Yemen. He has also supplied long-range missiles to buoy Russia’s dwindling stockpiles. He teams up with Trump to attack Iran, so as to give the world a blood spectacle. For Bibi, he has an excuse. Iran has forsworn the existence of Israel. It wants Israel wiped out of the face of the earth. It is more bluster than fact. Bibi knows it. For the ordinary citizen, it is a dog whistle.

    Israeli launches strikes. Iran strikes back. Israel damages critical military installations, dispatch dozens of high-powered military officers and threaten the life of the Ayatollah, who flees into hiding. His mystic charisma flees into hiding. But he comes out later and boasts victory. His missiles make mincemeat of Isreali neighbourhoods, beat its defence shield, and reminds Israel that they, too, are a power. Bibi tries to underplay Israeli barbarities by saying he aimed at military sites. Yet the numbers say about 600 Iranians die while less than 30 Israeli pass out.

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    Now, the real butcher is Bibi. He makes it seem he is the victim here. Trump stops the battle after Iran hits American base in a choreographed assault in which no harm is intended. An innocent attack. Iran has exhibited its mettle. It is a warning to America that Iran is no shrinking violet. Trump calls off the war. Bibi wants more blood. But America does not. Bibi is now in a bind. What does he do next? Cook up another conflict, another scenario where he can shout dog whistles so his people do not revive his corruption case.

    That is what bad leaders do to make the world after their own scandals. They see it as natural, which is what Hungarian Nobel Laureate Imre Kertesz narrates in his autobiographical novel Fatelessness about Nazi Concentration camp, especially Auschwitz, in which he makes a bold claim that he is happy inside the mindless butchery.  The sort of claim French philosopher and author of the Plague, Albert Camus makes when he says Sisyphus is happy. It is the irony when things get so bad you cannot cry anymore. You start to laugh.

    Men like Bibi forget that we once had World War II, and all of Europe fell into ruin and rubble. A new book, The Last Days of Budapest, by Adam Lebor, tells how one of Europe’s cultural hubs drips with blood and hate until swallowed up with entropy into a rump, a once-great metropolis of civilization. The philosophy of the absurd known as existentialism took over the world, with men like Kierkgaard, Sartre, Camus, Heidegger, et al, saw the world as void and meaningless. Hitler – one man – fomented that world. That is why a man like Bibi the butcher, must be watched. Historians must like this time with men like Trump, Putin, Khamenei, and others are sniffing blood. A small player like Bibi must be restrained from tempting the big players into a conflict that can burn up the world. A small man killed an arch Duke of Sarajevo to start the First World War. A fight over pepper started the 19th conflagration known as The Yoruba Wars. Bibi cannot be allowed to exploit the Old Testament for personal scores.

  • The superannuation of Europe

    The superannuation of Europe

    (Have nukes and balls, will travel)

    Nothing lasts forever. Do not let anybody deceive or confuse you that things are fixed and eternal. While civilizations take much longer to unravel, hegemonies collapse regularly and routinely after they have reached the limits of their possibility. Between 1870 when the Germans reached the gates of Paris and 1944 when the French with the help of Americans and Allied Forces managed to expel the selfsame Germans from Paris after a four-year occupation, the dominant order was close to collapse as a result of a war of hegemony among leading nations. Between 1870 and 1944, there were over thirty six documented wars which included encounters in far-flung places such as the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and America’s confrontation with the Spaniards in both Cuba and the Philippines.  Lonely isolated encounters and explosion of hostilities do not often herald the end of hegemonies. It is when they come together in a global maelstrom that tongues begin to wag about the end of an epoch. In all human history, if there is anything constant about the relentless wars of hegemonies, it is the centrality of arms and superior violence.

      With specific reference to Africa, consider these disturbing facts. Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and the Kingdom of Eswatini formerly known as Swaziland have all fallen off the world map without as much as a whimper. Kenya which again erupted in murderous violence in the past week is probably following close on their heels. The unique nature of postcolonial wars in Africa is that they are fought entirely as civil wars which reflect the vulnerability and fragility of the nation-state prototype imposed on the continent by the departing colonial masters. The peace accord between Rwanda and DRC superintended by Washington is not worth the paper on which it was written.

      The international community no longer cares about what happens on the benighted continent. If they care let them kill off and eliminate themselves to the last person as long as they leave the vast mineral resources intact. The minerals are far more important than the multitude of dehumanized humanity. Whatever remains can be put to better use for the rest of humankind in a way its thieving and unhinged elites could never imagine or contemplate. The cradle of civilization has become an embarrassment and an obscene insult to the rest of humanity.

       The international community did not reach this conclusion lightly. Its own plate is filled to the brim with combustible combos. It is embroiled and embattled on many fronts. The global order is fractured down the line. A local proverb says that if your garment is up in flames and your child’s fabric is also ablaze, you must first put out the fire singeing through you before you can find the mental equilibrium to deal with filial emergency. The Serbs are still nursing their wounds after they were expelled by aerial bombardment from their genocidal siege on Croatia and Kosovo as Tito’s Yugoslavia unravelled in a spiral of blood and mayhem.

     For almost three years, Russia, their fellow-traveller in Slavic hyper-nationalism, has subjected Ukraine to a slow-motion demolition with America, Europe and the rest of the world looking askance unable to do anything about the horrific carnage. The old map of the Middle East has been torn to shreds with Israeli emerging as the new law-giver and colonial superpower. Gaza is reduced to apocalyptic rubble and this past week it was the turn of Iran to be subjected to high-tech blitz by the combined power of America and Israel. Trump spoke of a possible nuclear obliteration of the ancient civilization and the Israeli High Command warned darkly that the Iranian Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had lost the right to exist. It was a grim reminder of an oxymoronic formulation: civilized savagery or modern barbarism has become the new norm. Even our old primitive ancestors would have winced in fright at the images coming out of Gaza. Their own savagery was delimited and circumscribed by the fact that they had no access to modern weapons of mass destruction. The world has become a far more dangerous and threatening place. With China warming its cockles for its inevitable Taiwanese dinner, it is going to get nastier. The meticulous and mercilessly precise Chinese are merely waiting for the locked door to swing open on its own before they pounce.

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    The more modern and civilized humanity has become the more savage and unreconstructed their inner essence has turned out. Weak people and poor nations have no place in the new arrangement. The global subalterns can talk but they cannot be heard. It is the muffled rumbling of impotence. Walter Benjamin famously noted that there is no record of civilization which is not at the same time a record of barbarism. But this time around there is no record of barbarism which is not enshrined in the new code of modernity. With its back to the wall and its hands tied from behind, Iran was forced to eat the humble pie and accept a humiliating Pax Americana handed down by the new Supreme Global Leader, Taoiseach Donald Trump. Let the world know that a new international order has dawned.

      As the triumphant convoy of the American president swept past the NATO headquarters this past week with hubristic glee, you got a sense that something was not quite right. The atmosphere was of chilly and chilling solitude. There were no crowds to welcome and cheer on the all-conquering American chieftain. It was a grumpy and self-absorbed old man that slouched out of the sedan wearing his characteristic mixture of a frown and a grimace. The man of peace was not at peace with himself. The strains and drains of the sleepless nights were showing. Unlike the plucky, devil may care Benjamin Netanyahu whose older brother was killed during the raid on Entebbe, Donald Trump, for all the bluff and bluster, is not your natural warrior. He seems to harbor a profound distaste for blood and gore which may yet be the saving grace and abiding luck of Western civilization.

     It was after all the Israeli prime minister who showed him how it could be done and how the Iranians with their hysteric ranting could be taken down by high precision bombing and reduced to whimpering nonentities in their own homestead. The Israeli tail has been wagging the American body for quite some time and only God knows how that one will pan out in the coming months. Perhaps that was why Trump appeared so preoccupied even in pomp and glory. The Netanyahu question is even more compelling than the Putin puzzle as Trump is bound to find out. But what made the NATO drama more compelling was the surreal sight of European leaders tumbling and stumbling over themselves in groveling self-abasement to pay homage and compliments to the American leader who appeared to be the least interested in their sedulous inanities. The American president was in no mood to compliment any of them as he shunned and ignored them as they lined up for photo-ops whooshing and wheezing over the unsmiling autocrat from across the Atlantic who seemed to have a full measure of their cadging and wheedling.

       This is not Great Europe as the world knew it. This was no longer the Europe of Winston Churchill, Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, Charles de Gaulle, Giscard Valery D’Estaing , Harold Wilson, Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher and Sir Peter Carrington who once famously dismissed an American Secretary of State as a purveyor of Boys’ Scout Diplomacy. This was in response to his being privately shaded as a duplicitous bastard by the no-nonsense American four-star general. The new generation of European leaders have grown fat and unproductive on American largesse and are mortally afraid of the feeding bottle being snatched away by a vengeful and furious Trump who has seen through the charade of a multilateralism in which America is expected to pick the tab for protecting Europe against predators and for fighting its wars for them. Not being warrior-statesmen in the mold of Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle or a fierce amazon like Margaret Thatcher, European leaders are content to let Americans fight their wars for them so that the citizens can have a life of bliss and peaceful prosperity. Donald Trump is having none of that subsidized indolence. Although his country remains stupendously rich, Trump is insisting that the pains and pangs of war ought to be more evenly spread around.

    With the painful riot act dropped on them from the American throne like a mega-ton bomb, European leaders looked like supplicating sissies before an all-powerful global sovereign this past week. Now that America has abandoned all pretenses to multilateralism, it is going to be a bareknuckle contention all the way and Europe will find itself reduced to the status of a neo-vassal continent. European countries will find themselves in the excellent company of their former African colonies. There is no point in settling the order of precedent between coolies and serfs. This past week one watched with colonial satisfaction as Donald Trump barked at the Spaniards, the first real superpowers of the modern world, for being remiss in coming up with their NATO levies. It was all grimly reminiscent of Benito Cereno, a remarkably clairvoyant novella by Herman Melville, the great American nineteenth century novelist, which accurately predicted the humbling and superannuation of Imperial Spain. The puny Spanish sea-men cut a truly pathetic figure as the incredibly devious African sailors who had mutinied in high seas ran them aground in an unfurling web of intrigues and silent power plays as the burly, superbly fit Americans watched proceedings with stern interest ready to restore order at short notice.

       It was a truly astonishing insight into the absorbing dynamics of historical superannuation such as can only come from a creative genius. It may well be that the European statesmen, as wily masters of historical temporizing, may be playing for time, hoping that the long run of events will restore parity and sanity. It is said in local parlance that sometimes you may have to dress a dangerous mad person in the resplendent garb of a prospective much sought after bridegroom just to assure your safe passage. Unfortunately, the short and long term optics does not appear to favour such rosy optimism.

     In keeping with protocols, it is appropriate to end this drama of trading places with another conceit. At the end of the eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin, the great American author, inventor, publisher and statesman, arrived in Paris as the ambassador and representative of the new nation. His gaiety, ebullience and devil may care aplomb astonished and alarmed the Parisian high culture in equal measure and led them to conclude that it was only in America that such a person could serve as ambassador. It was meant as a sly putdown but it was an ironic compliment. Last week and centuries after as Donald Trump swept through the NATO Headquarters with his gruff disdain for polite conversation and diplomatic etiquette, the same European high culture would have concluded that it was only in America that such gung-ho militarism and bad manners could be associated with the highest office in the land. The joke is on them. Donald Trump is the supreme law-giver.      

  • Baba Lekki sings Ketekete for Atiku

    Baba Lekki sings Ketekete for Atiku

    To the Agindingbi Town Hall on this dismal and wet late June morning where Baba Lekki, the famous contrarian and veteran hell raiser, is holding a seminar for politically displaced people, PDP. Ever since the president of the republic dismissed the motley crowd of political chancers hankering after his job as “political IDPs” tongues have been wagging as to whether IDP was the same as PDP and whether a lethal combination of the two meant DOD (Dead on Delivery). In a litigious society where litigation itself had been known to have been sued for not being litigative enough, one must proceed with caution in these matters. This morning with a fretful and rather nervous Okon in tow, the old man cut a figure of scholarly sobriety and legal gravitas. He had brought with him maps, sketches and political memorabilia to prove that the opposition had deliberately committed suicide which amounted to voluntary self-elimination.  But before things could get on an even keel, a huge disturbance emanated from the back of the hall which was packed full with miscreants, scoundrels and political Oblomovs.

    “Oga mi I never chop for three days, abi na so so politics we go chop? I no be PDP, I be EDP”, a rotund man with huge biceps screamed from the back.

     “And what is that?” an irate freelance thug demanded. With his mahogany frame and scarified face, it was obvious he was not a person to mess around with.

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    “Economically Deprived People”, the rotund man shouted.

     “Ha, I see. He is one of these Obidient people. He has been brought to disturb baba. If he doesn’t shut his mouth, I will seal it for him”, the mahogany man threatened as he began hauling a huge brown amulet out of his pocket. Things seemed to have simmered down considerably after that.

    “As I was saying,” the old man began, “ADA is Brought In Dead. They are dead politicians disturbing the peace of the land, it will end in what the Yoruba people call ADANU or great loss”. The audience swooned at this great play on words with one of them hailing the old recidivist as a great genius lost to the world of native poetry.

    “Baba, so what will become of a great man like Atiku? Na my in-law from Ilesha,” one man asked from the crowd with a funereal hiccup. Baba Lekki burst into a deranged smile.

    “Foolish man, why you no warn your in-law when him dey climb Langbodo tree? I warned Atiku. I told him these foolish wazobia boys will take all his money and run away. Now, they have broken the camel’s back. Atiku don become Tinko meat. Nwon ti pa ketekete” (They have killed donkey!) The entire hall erupted in applause.

      At this point, the old man began singing and dancing the ketekete classic to the great delight of the crowd.

  • Confusion reigns supreme in coalition, opposition

    Confusion reigns supreme in coalition, opposition

    Rather than bestride the Nigerian political firmament, the promised coalition to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027 is being trampled under feet. The inspirers of the coalition have tried to make their teams indistinguishable from the opposition, but opposition political parties, many of them scornful of the domineering roles being played by coalition leaders, have resented such equivalence. They do not think they can win on their own, but they seem uninterested in joining forces with anyone simply to unseat the president. They want a programme, not emotions; a sensible plan of action, not hysteria; an altruistic and probably younger leadership, not old, jaded and bellicose assemblage; and a sound vision of the country, not eclectic ideas about its future.

    By early last week, it seemed to the public that coalition leaders, among whom were former vice president Atiku Abubakar, ex-governors Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir el-Rufai, and the indecisive ex-Anambra governor Peter Obi, had virtually made up their minds to abandon the merger idea in favour of founding a new party. Before the week was over, however, the overcautious Alhaji Atiku was vacillating, and Mr Obi was silent and dithering. The coalition appeared dangerously poised to unravel. Yet, Messrs Amaechi and el-Rufai stuck to their guns. They were of course no longer as euphoric as when they first announced the proposal to form the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) and were met with exultant newspaper headlines beatifying their tactics, but they kept hope alive even in the face of the electoral commission pouring cold water on their efforts. They had not begun to take concrete steps to form a party, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) told them after enumerating a long process of things they must do to get the attention of the electoral body.

    Knowing them for who they are, and regardless of their inappropriately acronymed party, ADA, they will hope to bluff and bluster their way into quick registration. Their success will be qualified, and the process tasking, but they are not known to be quitters. In any case, just as adrenalin rush fuels an athlete, the coalition leaders retain enough amperage of vengeful distaste for President Tinubu to be discouraged by any administrative hurdles placed in their path. For now, Mr Obi, who is still nominally in the Labour Party (LP), has remained fairly reticent about the coalition, declining to summarily repudiate them, especially he being a cautious man and an opportunist. Alhaji Atiku was a little strident in his view of the proposed new party, ADA. Known for his versatility in running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, the former vice president insisted his group was yet to adopt the unregistered ADA. His group might be amorphous, but many analysts are bewildered, having long associated him with the brains behind the ADA registration efforts.

    Alhaji Atiku is also nominally still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But he knows that the doors seemed to have been shut against his aspiration to run for president on their platform. Squabbling PDP leaders expect him to leave the party, and are waiting anxiously for the announcement so that they can start to find their way through Nigeria’s political thicket. But for now they must rein in their apprehensions. The former vice president also knows he will have to leave if the former ruling party can’t put its house in order and remains disdainful of and resolute against his presidential aspiration. He will take his exit when he judges the time right, especially if he thinks he stands the chance of carrying out a scorched-earth action against the party for spurning his advances. Overall, while he can endure all forms of indignities thrown at him, he can’t stand being ‘partyless’, a prospect enticingly possible should he leave the PDP in a huff and the proposed new party, ADA, runs into a storm over registration.

    ADA promoters have been told in no uncertain terms that their ordeal is just beginning. To begin to apply for registration, there was still much to be done, INEC stunned them. They will, therefore, be frantic about fulfilling the preconditions for registration, while those who publicly decline to associate with them might secretly funnel funds to them. But it remains to be seen just how far they can go, especially in the face of public derision against them from, of all places, the core North. While coalition leaders are mired in confusion, the PDP, which remains the main opposition party with sizable presence in states and the National Assembly, is also encrusted in bigger confusion. In their fact-finding meeting with the INEC leadership early last week, they were subjected to facetious remarks by the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who could barely stop himself from snorting at their inability to follow due process and sort out their administrative mess. They had wanted to know why INEC appeared to disavow their June 30 National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting where they hoped to straighten out their secretariat logjam, a precondition for holding a lawful meeting. The party has finally and lawfully, but of curse reluctantly, reinstated Samuel Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary. But their problems are just beginning, quite apart from the defection gale that has scrambled their reasoning.

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    No one knows how far or deep the confusion in the coalition and opposition is. But if it is much deeper and entrenched than appears on the surface, then they are in big trouble. For if they cannot restore peace in their ranks or provide the leadership and ingenuity their parties require for survival, they will have a harder time, as some northern commentators have sighed, in proving they can find the mettle to govern Nigeria. Worse, if they cannot resolve the crises that dog them before early next year, then they will stand no chance of offering the ruling party any opposition, let alone winning the next presidential poll, their main and shameless fixation. The stasis that afflicts them, which they appear unable to resolve in the short run, may explain why they make a recourse to savaging the president’s image in order to weaken him considerably and make a coalition party both appealing and electorally potent.