The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Every hustle matters: William Ruto’s power of persuasive campaign

    Every hustle matters: William Ruto’s power of persuasive campaign

    Africa seems to be making a bit of progress in its adoption of western democracy. The just concluded Kenyan election seems to be proof that all might not be lost. Slowly but steadily, progress is being made and hopefully with it comes development that can be copied from more developed and older democracies.

    In 2007 and 2017, Kenyan post-election violence claimed many lives. There are expectations in the continent and globally that the people involved in this year’s election can learn from the past and do everything to prevent any loss of lives.

    The Kenyan election that a Deputy President William Ruto won is significant in many respects. It was ironic that his principal, President Uhuru Kenyatta who is serving out his tenth and final year as president did not support his deputy, rather he put his weight behind his former rival and perennial presidential candidate, Raila Odinga. It is equally remarkable that the President-elect  Ruto had been dragged to the International  Criminal Court  (ICC) the 2007/2008 post-election violence though the case was truncated  by the alleged unwillingness of the witnesses to go on with their testimonies and charges dropped.

    However it is looked at, none of the political elite in Kenya or indeed anywhere in the world is a saint but a contest was involved and a winner has been announced. Whether there is a contest in court or not, history has unfolded and as such lessons must be learnt especially by a country like Nigeria with her own election just few months away.

    President-elect, William Ruto did not just emerge as a rookie on the political sphere for the presidential contest, he had garnered a lot of experiences from his time working with former President Arap Moi. In 1997, he beat the incumbent Rueben Chesire to clinch a parliamentary seat.  From an assistant minister under Uhuru to acting President when Uhuru was off the ICC inThe Hague. It is politically intriguing for political analysts that have followed his political journey to unbundle his success at the recently concluded elections despite all odds that, not being backed by his principal,  series of corruption allegations and land-grabbing to an alleged assassination of Jacob Juma,  who had been a strident critic.

    A Ruto win is historic as he was up against Kenyan political dynasties of Kenyatta and Odinga lineage. He was a boy from the streets who through determination, hard work and providence achieved global success. He also holds a Ph.D. His campaign style was brilliant. With a humbling slogan of ‘Every Hustle Matters’, he spoke to the people on the streets, he played on their humanity rather than ethnicity or religion.

    A Ruto has the gift of the gab. He is a good public speaker who rarely read speeches to people. The people could connect to his authenticity even if not of perfection.  He understood the emotions of his people. The era of class politics in the world seems to be waning and the best candidate to weave a different strategy wins. He won.

    The Ruto campaign did not play the ostrich. It publicly criticized the Uhuru leadership style that has increased public debt into trillions of shillings. Unemployment and youth disenchantment was highlighted and the people especially the youth bought into his campaign rhetoric.

    The bold departure of a Ruto from the establishment was like an elixir to a people under economic burden. He sold hope and the people bought into it. He bought into the post -independence political hegemony of the Kenyatta and Odinga dynasties and the people seemed to have loved the departure from those age-long political monopolies.  The Kenyatta and Odinga political conflicts had been remarkable and a Ruto seemed a subdued style of burying the two politically or so it seems at the moment.  He stands today as evidence of how one man can use experiences from opposing camps to his ultimate advantage having been with an Odinga and President Uhuru’s camps at different times coupled with his tutelage under a former President Arap Moi.

    Love or hate him, a President-elect  Ruto seems to have connected with the people through a deftly strategic campaign, The Roundtable Conversation has observed the body language of the spokespersons of most of the visible political parties in Nigeria ahead of the 2023 elections and feels that it is time for them to re-strategize. Let the issues be on the table. Let the people matter. Candidates must as men wooing women let their voices be heard, let them touch issues that matter. Let the prospective voters be the focal point of campaigns and not the current brickbats against each other.

    Read Also: 15 things to know about Kenya’s president-elect Ruto

    The Roundtable Conversation spoke with a media mogul, Dr. Isah Momoh, pioneer Director, Ph.D Programme, School of Media Studies and Communication, Pan- African University, Lagos. We wanted him to evaluate the understated campaigns of the political parties as a media expert even though the official INEC timetable for campaigns  is September which is days away .

    Dr. Momoh believes that there seems to be no clear-cut ideological differences between the three most visible political parties. This, according to him is that given between the two biggest political parties, the APC and PDP, it’s just a matter of opposition for the PDP and the APC wanting to retain power. On the other hand, the Labour Party does not really appear very different either. There has been a free defection from one party to the other and most of the major players have been in the scene since 1999.

    He feels that politicians in all the parties must have some introspection. For far too long, Nigerians have been confronted by the antics of,  in his words as, ‘Stockholders not stakeholders’ and by this he means that most politicians are in it for themselves and not for the people who should be the real owners of democracy. For far too long, politicians across party lines have not focused on the people rather they have focused on themselves and their interests. He feels that Nigerians have seen enough of politicians seeking power for its own sake and not for the people to be cared for. Presently, he feels the people are merely being used as puns on the political chessboards because their issues are not what is firing the campaign rhetoric but just the idea of candidates grabbing power.

    The current singsong of ‘get your Permanent Voters Card’ (PVCs)  often has nothing to do with the welfare of the people ultimately but just as a way of helping  politicians to grab power.  Dr. Momoh believes that democracy in its purest form has never been practiced by most Nigerian politicians, most of them being either very tyrannical or authoritarian when their individual records are put under keen scrutiny.

    He wants to see a new phase in Nigerian politics where the profit of democracy goes to the stakeholders – the people rather than the stockholders – politicians who see politics as an investment that must give them the investor profit. The people are the stakeholders because it is a government of the people not of politicians who invest hugely in it.

    As a communications expert, Momoh feels there hasn’t been much civility from the media handlers of at least the three major candidates of the APC, PDP and Labour party. Their communication handlers seem to him unable to decipher what the Nigerian public really wants. Watching and listening to the media brickbats of the three political party media handlers to him makes him long for the old pre-colonial system of governance where communities, kindreds, clans had their traditional rulers and chiefs and it was more about the people and not the leaderships and when those leaders derailed, the people rose in unison to hold them accountable.

    To him, the core democratic tenets of making the people the centerpiece of governance is still very absent as the campaigns often seem to be about political personalities rather than issues that concern the people. He believes that since independence, the few democratic experiences have not been people based and that is why the underdevelopment persists and is even getting worse.

    He is beginning to think that the pre-colonial governance system seems more suited to center on the people rather than this imported democracy that the politicians seem to have corrupted its practice by unwittingly making the system about them rather than about the people. The people of Nigeria must realize that power should not be about politicians but about what they use it to do for the people. That is the message that democracy brings.

    The Communication handlers for political parties and the candidates themselves must make the people the centerpiece of their campaigns and be sure to be accountable to them when they access power.  The Spokespersons must be careful with the messages they pass to the public because this is a wooing period that would make the winner realize that his message resonated with the people. We must demand the dividends of democracy from politicians.

    Dr. Momoh feels that each candidate must realize that the political space has changed from the past. The youths seem to have woken up and realized their role in the leadership emergence processes across the globe and Nigeria is no exception. The youths have moved from apathy to engage more in the processes and that might mark an end to politicians not being held accountable. The energy of the youth and technology can help hold the politicians to account so they must redirect their attention to the people not candidates.

    The Roundtable Conversation wishes that the political strategists of our politicians big and small must take a cue from Kenyan President-elect William Ruto. He made his campaign about the people, he spoke to their realities and combined his experiences and that of Kenyans since independence. We just want a country where the people not politicians alone matter.

    The dialogue continues…

  • Politics, leadership and charisma

    Politics, leadership and charisma

    Charisma is a magical quality that  makes those who follow some leaders to do  so  almost blindly . Such  followers are immune to the faults  of  such leaders  and  may even  rationalize such  faults as rare assets that others  leaders can never have . It is of such leaders that I turn  my attention today not only from history but contemporary  events that happened in the last one week  . The  aim is to show  that charisma is not merely   political   or leadership showmanship and such  leaders invariably  leave indelible marks  in the sands of time that even those who don’t worship them like their numerous supporters sometimes acknowledge ,  no matter  how grudgingly  they do so .

    Starting with history one can easily pick Zik , Awo  and the Sardauna  as three eminent Nigerians that  have given  charismatic leadership especially during our first republic and our very  beautiful  but now nostalgic political experience with regional  politics . I  have deliberately  not called the three leaders by their full names because the way  I have called them is what  drives their   fanatical   supporters and the hearing  of that  alone is enough to send their supporters into a frenzy  of joy and celebration  and their  opponents into sheer  panic at the   mention     of their  names .  Zik  led the fight against colonialism  after  taking the mantle from his mentor Herbert Macaulay  in  Lagos  and used his newspapers  especially The Pilot   to torment  the colonial  masters on the rights of colonial  citizens till  independence was  won and he became our first Nigerian president . Awo’s legacy  was free education in the west which  was the challenge that the Sardauna adopted in the North  because he was a school  teacher , a role his successors abandoned .This  has left  the North behind the rest  of Nigeria in terms of educational development even though the North  has  been in power either during military or civilian rule  more  than the  rest  of Nigeria . I  have  deliberately  left  out our military  leaders because military  intervention in politics is a  democratic aberration and a violation of the rule of law because in a  true   democracy power does not flow from the barrel of a gun  but from the ballot box .

    We  leave Nigeria and acknowledge other great African charismatic leaders like Jomo  Kenyatta of Kenya and Kwame Nkrumah   of Ghana   who  were elected into power while in prison under  colonial rule and went on to  win independence for their  nations .  Peron of Argentina and later his wife Evita still   make Argentines swoon nostalgically  even though  their leadership  was tainted with corruption and abuse  of office later . Winston Churchill was a war PM of Britain whose war rhetorics was an incentive to his nation to face the might and wrath of Nazi  Germany under Hitler and  succeed  to win victory with the Allies  in the   Second  World  War  . It is  instructive  that when the woke culture  in Britain   recently  wanted to redress the havocs of racism  and tried to rewrite  history by calling Winston Churchill a’ racist’ for calling   Mahatma Ghandi , the charismatic leader of India a ‘ half naked barbarian ‘, present UK PM , Boris Johnson,  who  literally  worships Churchill as a war hero ,  called the bluff  of the cancel  culture and  the woke  culture suffered an unexpected set  back  till now in Britain unlike its huge progress in the US and EU .

    In  contemporary  politics  both at home and abroad in recent  times I want  to   highlight  some   leaders   who  have demonstrated the gift of charisma which  has made them  to flourish in terms of leadership and relevance  even at times against  the tide of public opinion and in spite of the luggage  of political   controversy  hanging around their neck .  I  pick  the Jagaban of Nigeria, the ruling APC presidential  candidate running for the Nigerian presidency    on the Muslim Muslim ticket  that has generated   so   much  controversy . I  pick  former US president Donald Trump  who  is defending himself   against   keeping classified   documents   in his Mar Alago  residence  and in a concession to a redressed  political  aberration  I  add OBJ   as  an elected  leader  as the third party in this triumvirate  of charismatic  leaders of nowadays .

    I  recall  a story  when  on the occasion of a birthday of the political sage , Awo  , the  then  military   ruler,   IBB congratulated him and said that whether you  like him or not Awo  has been ‘the issue in Nigerian politics  ‘ most  of the time . Reportedly  Awo  folded the letter in apparent  satisfaction , told his wife it was time  to  sleep  on that  note   and the old political warrior  died shortly after . Such  a description from a   military  ruler  gave  immense satisfaction to Awo .  I  say  in this column  today  that whether you  like him or  not the Jagaban  is the main issue in Nigerian politics and democracy  today  and it has been a long and tortuous  journey  to arrive at this my assertion . It  is  not an’ Emi  Lokan ‘  episode  alone .I t is a pragmatic observation based on a mixture  of performance in office , a large heart and unqualified  magnanimity acknowledged now  timeously and  nationally    and cascading on a charisma that  makes his opponents fear  to stand on the path of a moving train or charging bull with predictable  and politically   suicidal   consequences .

    Look around you and feel  the momentum around the Jagaban candidacy and the furore that  will  not go way over the Muslim Muslim ticket and you will be surprised that in  ,spite of this the ticket is not losing steam but is gathering accommodation and understanding even in unexpected Christian quarters and you  can sense that this ticket  is like an idea whose time has come and  with which  no one can  do anything about  ,  not to talk of stopping . Of  course you  may attribute this   to  the pedigree of the Jagaban on the many bridges he had built over the years but remember that but for the Emi Lokan cry of Indignation and betrayal  he would have been discarded   into  the  cheap  heap  of political  history . Only  Charisma could have revealed the time of the lamentation and indignation of Emi Lokan and that is why the Jagaban has become the issue and cornerstone of our 2023 presidential  election that can only  be resolved the way  he and most Nigerians for now want it resolved .  And it  is   in his favour  .Again I   say loud and clear,  that no one can stop an idea whose time has come .

    In  the US  , the government  of the day that succeeded   Donald Trump  hate  him for  two  things . The first is that he says the 2020 presidential  election he lost was rigged and the second is that he is on  trial  via a committee   that already alleges he called for insurrection on Jan 6 , the date in the American  constitution that the Electoral College  must certify the US election  based on electoral votes allotted  for  each state .  Trump’s  supporters believe  him blindly  on those two issues . Indeed they believe anything that government subsequently  accuses him of is based on the fact that he is right that the 2020   presidential election was rigged and that he was being framed for  fomenting insurrection on account of this . The  recent raid on his house fuel  this view of political  oppression  by his  followers . In addition  members of his party on the Jan 6 Committee  have not sought reelection in the Republican Party under the firm grip of Trump and those who have like Liz Cheney  have lost the primaries election .  Trump  is on the crest of charisma and the Biden government  is about to shoot itself in the leg in the  way it handles him  for the mid term elections in November2022 and the coming presidential election of 2024 .

    Let  me end on a controversial  note in saying that OBJ is  a charismatic leader in his own constituency , which  is the military which he led after  the assassination of late General Murtala Muhammed . Later he led the military in the metamorphosis  of that  institution into a civilian military that changed its braid cap and boots into flowing agbadas  that  make the military the dominant force in terms of past military officers dominating  our  politics ,  our senate and state houses today .  Even  OBJ  could not believe when they told him  in S Africa  that he would be president. But  he became one 20 years after handing over power to Shagari as military ruler . Till  today OBJ has been the only Nigerian leader to speak against his former military colleagues in office before he was elected democratically as president in 1999 . Abacha  almost killed him and his survival of that nightmare ensured his charisma as a leader in his military  constituency .  That explains why  he could not understand  why  democratically and politically   , his own people the Yorubas , prefer Awo and later MKO as their  charismatic leaders  of democratic  worth and value leaving OBJ to enjoy the charisma of the military  that still  holds   him  in  great respect and value as their leader of choice for all times .

    I  dedicate this piece to another charismatic leader in religion , the former Provost of the Cathedral  Church  of Christ Marina Lagos ,  the  Very   Rev Sope Johnson who died and was buried   recently at the age of 92 .He  was a  great leader of the Cathedral  on the Marina . Since politics is ubiquitous  and exists everywhere including   the   family  and the  Church  , I doff my heart to the   brave   and sterling  service of a great theologian  who  raised the standard of worship at the Cathedral  of his time  to  such  lofty heights that  one recalls with  nostalgia and fond  memories . May  his soul rest in peace Amen .

  • Obasanjo and 2023 elections

    Obasanjo and 2023 elections

    He is an enigma. Perhaps his engaging life could be said to be a farrago of complexities. The more you try to know and understand him, the more puzzling he gets.

    His outspokenness may have angered some people and thrown up controversies, but this engineer, war veteran, farmer, Commonwealth Eminent Personality, global citizen, former military Head of State and civilian President, author, teacher, lover of education and theologian is not ready for “sit-down-look” while the ship of state drifts off the right nautical direction in the hands of its captains.

    Another thing nobody can deny about him is the passion with which he delves into issues of national concerns when he bares his mind.

    This is vintage Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiolu Aremu Obasanjo.

    He has been variously described as a navigator and pathfinder. In many respects, life has been kind to him, and he remains a man of history, despite his shortcomings.

    In blissful retirement, Chief Obasanjo, like other former leaders, is not off the radar.

    He has often positioned himself as an issue and a respected leader of opinion. His style, which has worked well, is to gauge public views and sentiments before building on them to make a critical and somewhat logical intervention.

    Whenever he speaks up, he polarises the polity. Many would hail his suggestions; others would decry them. But, the goal is fulfilled: the man fills the consciousness of the people at critical times.

    Although he tore down his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership card almost 10 years ago, signalling a semblance of political retirement, the move has paled into a decoy. As an elder statesman, the “Ebora Owu”, as he is fondly called by admirers, has carved out a prominent role for himself in Nigeria’s national life by playing the politics of rebuke. Through criticisms, he may have succeeded in whipping into line some erring members of the political class, particularly those holding the levers of power.

    This great leader is still physically agile, although he is nearing to breast the nonagenarian tape. He has never strictly held on to a specific date of birth. The testimony he inherited is that he was born on a market day.  This is enough to even silence those probing the birth records of presidential candidates, the shadow chasers.

    Obasanjo is always studying and learning. He is abreast of events. The old soldier is not tired of physical culture. He exercises regularly to keep a healthy lifestyle. He also retains a huge brain; his head is full of facts and figures, military tactics and civilian tricks, practical statecraft, wisdom bestowed by longevity and vast experience acquired through countless exposures.

    His Hill Top residence, which accommodates his sprawling library, is like a Makkah of sorts. It is where he hosts visitors from far and near. In this electioneering, consultation with movers and shakers of the society is incomplete without a visit to OBJ, Balogun of Owu Kingdom and Ekerin of Egba ‘Confederation’.

    Obasanjo is unique. He has played important roles in shaping events that have defined Nigeria. He was a civil war hero who, as General Officer Commanding the Third Marine Commando, accepted the Biafran surrender. He has commanded large military battalions and served as minister and Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, before assuming full control as Commander-in-Chief. He is the only military ruler who later had the rare opportunity of serving as elected President for eight years.

    Two former military Heads of State – Generals Yakubu Gowon and Ibrahim Babangida – tried to stage such a comeback. They did not succeed. Babangida failed at the regional selection level; Gowon crashed at the ward level. Also, General Sani Abacha’s attempt to transmute into a civilian president hit the rock.

    Having ruled for 11 years, it is doubtful if Obasanjo’s record can be beaten in the foreseeable future.

    It would appear that he is the most influential among the ex-Heads of State. At least, Obasanjo has networks beyond Nigeria. He is popular in the international community, having voluntarily relinquished power to civilian authorities in 1979 at a time Africa was battling with sit-tight rulers.

    The only thing Obasanjo could not achieve in the past was serving as Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN).

    The General is a man of battles. His triumph over past vicissitudes, particularly life-threatening obstacles under the maximum ruler, the late General Sani Abacha, was an act of God. Obasanjo himself is not a soft soldier. His jokes should not be misunderstood as an atom of weakness and permanent accommodation. Nobody can take him for a ride. He is a no-nonsense gerontocratic monitor: poignant, assertive, strong-willed and dictatorial, like a soldier that he is.

    Read Also: What transpired during Obasanjo, Tinubu’s meeting — Gbajabiamila

    It is a component of behaviour that made him to break gadgets of reporters in the past and tear the selection list of aspirants to the highly revered stool of Olowu.

    An elected governor of Ogun State once told reporters in Abeokuta that his greatest achievement was living in the same town – the state capital – with Obasanjo for eight years without a single quarrel.

    “You didn’t ask about my relationship with former President Obasanjo. We have lived in this town together and there is no fight. I deserve congratulations for that,” he said.

    Obasanjo’s fading political influence is dramatically concealed. As candidates for various offices cannot but consult with the former leader as a matter of courtesy, his relevance, more or less, is somehow sustained. What they hope to gain from consultations with him is not clear.

    There is no proof that in recent times, Obasanjo’s support for aspirants or opposition to their ambitions has played a role in the victory of such candidates beyond the efforts of the candidates, their personal structures, financial muscles and the public acceptance of their candidature and political parties.

    Yet, a visit to the Ota farmer has become a condition to be fulfilled by elective office seekers.

    Obasanjo has always had preferred candidates since 1979. As military Head of State, he inadvertently divulged information about his preference when he said the best material might not win the presidential race. Although he never officially endorsed any contender, he isolated one of the aspirants from the pack.

    Then, five candidates – Alhaji Shehu Shagari (National Party of Nigeria, NPN), Chief Obafemi Awolowo (Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN), Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP), Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim (Great Nigeria People Party, GNPP) and Alhaji Aminu Kano (Peoples Redemption Party, PRP) – were in the race. It was believed that in terms of antecedent, pedigree, plans, competence and capacity, Awo was the best.

    Obasanjo was later to mock the former Premier of defunct Western Region in his controversial book, titled: “Not My Will”, where he stated that the presidential power that Awo had been struggling for when he (Obasanjo) was a bare-footed pupil and which eluded the great politician for many years landed on his palm, without asking for it.

    Yet, if Nigerians of Yoruba extraction are asked today to queue behind their true leader, majority will not line behind OBJ, who is still alive; they will prefer to line up behind the tomb of Awolowo in Ikenne, despite the fact that the indomitable Awo passed on 35 years ago.

    In 1993, Obasanjo’s choice for president was not in the public domain. Some commentators suggested that the former Executive Secretary of Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Prof. Adebayo Adedeji, could not have joined the race without due consultation with the General.

    After the annulment of the historic, peaceful and credible presidential poll by military President Ibrahim Babangida, and the battle for revalidation of results intensified, Obasanjo declared that the deprived winner, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, was not the Messiah.

    Nigerians elected a president in a free and fair poll. But an Interim National Government (ING) contraption was foisted on the country. Obasanjo supported the ING, saying although it was unfortunate, it was understandable.

    OBJ, a supporter of defunct Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), the political machinery of his loyal deputy, Major-General Shehu Yar’Adua, was picked to fly the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Though he was an effective leader, he could not easily adjust to the pattern of civilian politics. A nationalist bubbling with unitarist orientation, a fallout of the centralised command structure that professionally nurtured him, Obasanjo avoided the fundamental national question critical to peaceful co-existence. In the past, he believed the unity of Nigeria was non-negotiable.  The example offered by the traditional political arrangement in Egba land should have ordinarily offered some lessons in decentralisation and autonomy. In Egba are five major towns with their distinct identities. They co-exist in unity; indeed, unity in diversity.

    But, as president, Obasanjo sustained the pre-existing flawed and lopsided federal structure, thereby compounding the challenge of Nigerian federalism.

    He opposed the creation of more local governments by states and frustrated the move for decentralisation of power supply. There was no attempt at devolving policing powers to states and governors remained mere decorative chief executive officers of their handicapped states. Some of the complaints from OBJ later on would have been resolved in those eight years that he was in the saddle.

    In 2007, Obasanjo preferred Katsina State Governor Umaru Yar’Adua as his successor. Other aspirants, including Dr. Peter Odili, Abdullahi Adamu and Ahmed Makarfi, had to defer to him. The president, as Yar’Adua later noted, was severely flawed.

    After Yar’Adua’s demise, he also endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan, who succeeded Yar’Adua, for a fresh term in 2011.

    When his former deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, unfolded his ambition again in 2015, Obasanjo, in a fit of comic, retorted: “I dey laugh o,” (I’m laughing). He was Jonathan’s coach during the party primary, whispering to him on the campaign podium.

    Four years later, Obasanjo could not endorse the Ijaw-born politician for another term. He fired salvos at him in an open letter, accusing his administration of ineptitude and corruption, and advising him to drop his ambition.

    All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders saw an artificial political opening. They stormed Abeokuta for Obasanjo’s warm embrace. He pitched his tent with former military Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who he described as an incorruptible politician.

    The romance ended, barely two years later. Atiku, who he once said was unfit to succeed him, became his adopted candidate. Many Nigerians could not reconcile his past comments with his course of action. It smacked of inconsistency.

    Obasanjo wrote a letter to President Buhari, urging him not to seek re-election. He said Buhari had failed to fight terror successfully and revive the economy. Indeed, these unresolved problems created a hollow in Buhari’s score card.

    But, Buhari disagreed. Like Obasanjo, he won a second term.

    As the country warms up for the 2023 general election, Obasanjo has not unveiled his anointed candidate. It is unusual. May be he is cautious, trying to assess public mood.

    Although the influence of the former leader was not a factor during the primaries of political parties, nearly all the presidential aspirants took their turns to visit him.

    Atiku, who boasted that he had always won primaries, held a meeting with Obasanjo in Abeokuta, shortly after unfolding his aspiration.

    Recently, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, stormed Obasanjo’s place. The visit was dramatised in the media by the “Obidient” faithful as an endorsement.

    But no visit by any other presidential candidate or politician has attracted the kind of glitz and attention that this week’s visit to Obasanjo by APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has had. The hitherto personal visit turned to near carnival by many APC members in the “Rock City”.

    They were at the former President’s home to show solidarity to their candidate. They sang, they danced, they eulogised the Jagaban of Borgu.

    It appeared Asiwaju Tinubu was familiar with most members of the Obasanjo household. He greeted them warmly, calling them by their first names as they welcomed him.

    By the time the visit was over, Obasanjo held the hand of his visitor in a gesture that clearly disabused the minds of those who perceived rivalry between the visitor and his host.

    The personal visit has elicited comments from various quarters. To some people, it was antithetical for the former Lagos governor, believed to be an ardent critic of the former President, to visit him, courtesy or otherwise. The have forgotten that Tinubu also led the APC leaders to OBJ’s house in 2015.

    The sad experience of Lagos under Asiwaju Tinubu when Obasanjo denied the state the legitimate funds it was entitled to, following the creation of additional local council development areas (LCDAs), is still fresh in the memories of most Nigerians, especially among Lagos residents.

    Also, most people still remember the political tsunami of 2007, which swept away all Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governors in the Southwest, except Asiwaju Tinubu, in an election that was superintended by the Obasanjo administration.

    But, as they say, there is no permanent friend or enemy in politics, only permanent interest.

    Ahead of the 2023 general election, Nigerians will continue to expect more conducts befitting an elder statesman’s status from Obasanjo, even for many more years ahead. But, expectedly, those conducts may not be devoid of controversies, which have become his second nature.

  • The Igbo, Peter Obi and 2023

    The Igbo, Peter Obi and 2023

    GIVEN the strong feelings evoked in the South-East by the perceived imperative of a President of Igbo extraction succeeding President Muhmmadu Buhari in 2023, it is understandable that the presidential aspiration of Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has gained considerable traction particularly among youths in the region.

    But then, the demand in some quarters that the presidency ought by right to be conceded to the South-East in 2023 is of little practical import in a multi-party liberal democratic system like ours, which provides that stipulated political offices including the presidency be competed for and winners emerge on the basis of numerical electoral majorities and in compliance with required territorial spread of substantial support.

    Obi is often eloquent although his statistics are often inaccurate. He can be entertaining in his presentations even when his policy enunciations lack concreteness. In my view, there is nothing remarkable about his eight- year tenure as governor of Anambra State beyond his claims as regards the humongous amounts he left in the state’s coffers for his predecessor; claims vigorously disputed by the latter, to inspire any great excitement about the developmental prospects of his presidency. But the most serious burden of his aspiration in my view is the way that the Igbo have appropriated his candidacy and the often contemptuous and virulently abusive and insulting disposition of his essentially Igbo ethnic support base on social media towards other candidates and anyone who exercises his or her fundamental right to oppose Obi. Yet, he ought to do more in my view to help control and productively channel the emotions and actions of his supporters on social media especially if the young people in question truly believe in his leadership. Those who see nothing wrong in routinely deriding other candidates as ‘Thiefnubu’, ‘Jagabandit’ or ‘Atikulooter’, for example, suddenly erupt in anger when a writer takes legitimate literary license with Obi’s name.

    For instance, on Thursday, The Guardian online published a threat by an Igbo youth group, the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), that Tinubu’s campaign posters, billboards or other election materials must not be sighted anywhere in the South-East and that a task force had been set up to enforce the order and punish violators. It is not impossible that these are the antics of mischief makers but they must not also be dismissed lightly. In addition to the security agencies demonstrating seriously that such threats will be decisively dealt with as they could cause widespread breakdown of law and order that could prove fatal to democracy if supporters of other candidates behave the same way, political leaders must take the lead in showing their followers the example of political decorum and decency. In an electoral system where no ethnic group or region can singlehandedly produce a president without support from others, any candidate who creates the impression that he is out to pursue a sectional agenda and thus cannot be trusted by people outside his ethnic enclave is doomed to electoral disaster.

    Another example is a poster that has gone viral on social media featuring pictures of Peter Obi and his vice presidential candidate, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed, who are purportedly billed to address the supposed anniversary rally of the #endSARS protests at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos, on October 1. If such a plan indeed exists, it is a recipe for predictable violence and bloodshed given the current ethnically-charged political atmosphere created by the exuberance of the ‘Obidient’ crowd notably in Lagos. The #end SARS protests were organized as a nationwide activity against human rights abuses by the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) but in Lagos took a particularly destructive partisan and ethnic turn with loss of lives and property worth over N2 trillion destroyed. To attempt to link Obi’s LP in this way with the #endSARS incident in Lagos will reinforce the impression that the massive destruction in the state and the reckless allegations of massacre at the Toll Plaza without credible proof till date were motivated by cynical ethnic and political calculations that are now coming to light.

    Peter Obi’s presidential quest will be hurt by Kanu Nnamdi and his IPOB’s reckless and anarchic prosecution of their separatist Biafra agenda especially after the exit of the Dr. Goodluck administration in 2015. It must be noted that the Jonathan administration was one in which the Igbo were greatly favored over other ethnic groups along with the Ijaw. Indeed, in an address to the World Igbo Congress in Washington in 2014, President Jonathan pointedly declared that “In our dogged determination to develop our country, the Igbo are well represented and in some of these appointments, the Igbo are having them for the first time. Some have said that this government has done more in appointments than any other in our history for the Igbo, but that is a matter for the pundits and historians. Let me state that appointments by this administration across the country, will continue to be based on equity, fairness and competence”.

    For instance, the most powerful political appointee in that administration was the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The expansive nature of her nomenclature brought virtually every other Ministry, Department and Agency under her supervisory purview making the undoubtedly cerebral Okonjo-Iweala the de facto Vice President in the government. But did she handle this enormous responsibility, power and influence with the necessary wisdom, caution and tact? I don’t think so. During Okonjo-Iweala’s tenure as Minister of Finance, Igbos were appointed as head of virtually all agencies under the ministry.

    Read Also: These Obi-Kererenke children (1)

    These included the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and National Pension Commission (PENCOM) among others. Most annoyingly, when asked in an interview why this was so despite the Federal Character principle in the constitution, Okonjo-Iweala insensitively responded that the positions were filled through competitive processes and it was not her fault if her people were good at competing. As media strategist and public relations practitioner, Yushau Shuaib, noted in an article in Premium Times on March 6, 2013, “People are wondering at the coincidence of only Igbos beating every other person at competitive interviews conducted by her nominated international consulting groups”. Unfortunately, this kind of brazen Igbo bias in appointments and promotions was also widely perceived as going on under Senator Anyim Pius Anyim as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in the same administration.

    At that time under Jonathan, as the Igbos savored their favoured time in the sun, there were hardly any Biafra separatist agitations and Nigeria was not routinely labeled as a zoo among other derisive names by Igbo irredentist movements. Indeed, in reference to the perceived excessively Igbo-centric character of the Jonathan administration, the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) had publicly lamented what it called gaping marginalization against the North over appointments and promotions in the military and lopsidedness in favour of Igbo officers in the Army. It is not unlikely that the perceived sectional imbalance in the constitution of the security high command under Buhari is partly a reaction to the excesses of the influential Igbo appointees under Jonathan in this regard.

    But for the late Chief (Mrs) H.I.D Awolowo and the retired Bishop of Akure, Rt. Rev. Bolanle Gbonigi who, after a meeting of the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF) in Ikenne, accused the Jonathan administration of systematic discrimination against the Yoruba nationality in federal appointive positions and ethnic cleansing against the Yoruba in the federal bureaucracy, the Yoruba calmly accepted their fate under Jonathan and kept their peace. But then with the way the Obi presidential aspiration is being driven as an essentially Igbo project, is there no reason to fear that were the LP candidate to realize his ambition, an Obi presidency would be readily ‘captured’ by his Igbo kinsmen and the Okonjo-Iweala and Anyim Pius Anyim-type ethnic biases would be experienced on an even more expansive scale? There is surely some good reason to be and there is a precedent to cite.

    In January, 1966, the Major Kaduna Nzeogwu-led coup that dislodged democratic rule in the First Republic had been initially widely applauded and well received as a patriotic and nationalist endeavor despite the masterminds being mainly Igbo officers as well as the ethno-regionally lopsided character of killings of political leaders and military officers in the execution of coup. A few months into the regime of military Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi of Igbo origin, however, strong suspicions began to grow in many quarters that there may have indeed been sectional motivations behind the coup.

    As the renowned political scientist, Professor Billy Dudley, an Itshekiri scholar, stated in his classic, ‘Instability and Political Order: Politics and Crisis in Nigeria’, “By May 1966 there was, it seems, a widespread belief in the North (this was also true of the West) that the Ironsi regime was essentially aimed at the advancement of the Ibo, possibly with the intention of establishing an ‘Ibo hegemony’ in the Federation. The dismissal of some air force cadets of Northern origin in April, the uncritical acceptance by Ironsi of Nwokedi’s proposals for the unification of segments of the civil services, and the close association between members of the Ironsi administration and Ibo members of the intelligentsia (which did not pass unnoticed), these were all seen as part of some calculated plan directed at displacing non-Igbo from status positions in the Federation. In the North itself the incautious behavior of individual Ibo men did little to detract from this belief”.

    Professor Dudley who was teaching at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, at the time cites one example of the Igbo lack of sensitivity in the North. In his words, “Outside the university, the practice of Ibo men holding up Northerners to ridicule had become a common enough experience. Pictures of Nzeogu with one foot over the corpse of the slain Premier of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello, symbolic of the downfall of the North and the ascendancy of the East and the Ibo, were to be found on sale in the markets in the North. These and other petty humiliations were reported to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Gabriel Onyuike, but thinking they were ‘harmless practical jokes’, he dismissed them, refusing to take any action”.

    Today in cosmopolitan Lagos, for instance, some Igbo residents are routinely known to say in public that Lagos is no man’s land and they have an equal stake in the state given their extensive economic activities there. Not even the Yoruba from other South-West states in Lagos are that provocative and brazen in their relationship with the Lagos indigenes. The Hausa community, which has a history of existence in Lagos that spans the last 200 years, is not known to make such claims. Is it not natural to wonder then if the actualization of an Obi presidency will not afford Igbos the opportunity to seek to realize their ill-disguised imperial, expansionist ambitions in Lagos and possibly other urban agglomerations outside the South East where they reside in substantial numbers? It is legitimate apprehension.

    I find it astonishing that there is so far no single Igbo columnist or journalist and hardly any Igbo intellectual who has publicly written in opposition to Obi’s aspiration even though the Igbo political establishment is either outrightly cold or lukewarmly indifferent to his politics. On the other hand, there are scores of the Yoruba intelligentsia who are vehemently opposed to Tinubu’s candidacy just as many members of the Northern intelligentsia have been severely critical of Atiku as is quite normal. For practically all Igbo public intellectuals, however, Obi is a saint and the other major candidates are irredeemable devils who are roundly demonized. This is abnormal. It looks more like a conspiratorial attempt at an ethnic power grab than democratic forces at play. This Igbo ethnic albatross is in my view one big hurdle that Obi and his LP must cross if he is to attract the necessary cross-national support without which it is impossible to win a presidential election in Nigeria.

  • These Obi-Kererenke children (1)

    These Obi-Kererenke children (1)

    They appear to share similarities with what is now known as the baby boomers generation, the generation that morphed into the anti war generation, who protested the Vietnam war and a number of other major issues affecting the United States. Starry and dreamy eyed they claim that they are out to challenge the establishment and see themselves as change agents!  These are the Obi-dients or the Obi-Kererenke Children as I prefer to label them! Their demographics are clearly defined, they are within the ages of 18 to 50, mainly within the SouthEast region, energetic and appearing as the new day ideologues these new kids on the block are driven by unbridled passion as well as other funny ideas of government. They naturally lack an understanding of the nation’s political history but what they lack in knowledge of such history they make up for in their readiness to insult and harangue any opinion that is contrary to theirs or that of their Demi god, Mr. Peter Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State and the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party. To these Obi-Kererenke children, no matter how mild such a contrary opinion stands, it must be followed with a barrage of vitriolic insults, threats and canards, they are much ready to label other aspirants with a plethora of  nauseating appellations but much readily frown should the coin be flipped. They want a democracy but are not seemingly tolerant of the views of others,which is what makes a democracy thick and thus must attempt to shout every voice down on the platform of the social media.

    They have sought to market their candidate no doubt, but again they have gone to the extremes on such, a stark replica of their candidate, who is known to exhaustively quote false statistics, majorly from China, Hong Kong and lately Vietnam, reeling such figures with the measured aplomb of a semi-literate trader.  A creation of the media,  their candidate revels much in taking the spotlight to bandy figures and numerous faux pas. Unfortunately, a number of us were alive while he served as Governor of Anambra State, I for example, as a student of the Great University of Benin then fell in love with Obi’s billboards in which he asked salient questions! However the moment he became governor, the reverse was the case as every developmental model he gloats about on TV is at large in Anambra.

    Yet the Obi-Kererenke children don’t care! They are not bothered, Like the pleb in Mark Anthony they are zealous to offer the Presidency to Obi without subjecting him to the grills and rigors  of free speech and constructive criticism. To these garrulous lot,  Obi is infallible and can do no wrong, like a saint he has received his beatification and has known no sin!

    They have made the grave error of marketing Obi as an ethnic and religious candidate. Forgetting that Nigeria is a country of 360 ethnic groups, showing that they again have failed to learn from the mistakes of 2015 , which showed that no single region could singularly make one person president.  Carried away  and swirling from the din of their banter on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms which is very far from the  grave and realistic notes of electioneering in Nigeria. Reveling in what media scholars term as “ digital mob action” or “dragging” in the Nigerian parlance, the Obi-Kererenke children will engage in even the denunciation of even that which is sacred and true. They claim to be fed up with the barmy political system they perceive Nigeria to be in, but they have not presented a better option to what is presently obtainable and so like Moses in that Orwellian satire, Animal Farm, they believe that Obi will usher them into the Sugar Candy Mountain they however suffer from what Dim Chukwuekeka Ojukwu, termed as selective amnesia, as they quickly forget that Obi has been neck deep in the same system they deem as barmy.

    Even in their attempt to drape Obi in newly borrowed fine robes, the acts of Obi like an old wine skin receiving new wine will be quick to burst,. Like a house without a foundation it cannot stand the test of the winds. How they intend to cast an ethnic champion like Obi as a nationalist or attempt to separate him from the clannish politics in his hey day as Governor of Anambra State in which he asked Ndi Anambra and NdiIgbo not to vote for  Igbos in other political parties because those parties were either Yoruba or HausaFulani parties? How will he now appeal to the same Yorubas and Hausa-Fulanis for votes?

    How will they excuse Obi from his mediocre laden eight year tenure as governor whereas the likes of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and even Atiku Abubakar as former governor and former Veep possess immense credentials as well as achievements in their political CV’s? There is also the issue of his investing government funds in his family business as well as the Panama Papers revelations, these surely are not the antics of a supposed messiah!

  • The media, spokespersons and political campaigns

    The media, spokespersons and political campaigns

    As Nigeria moves closer to the 2023 elections, most of the candidates have emerged from the different political parties and are planning their strategies while keeping an eye on their opponents strategies too. The campaign period of any election is the most exhausting for candidates but paradoxically, the most exciting for voters who can either be die-hard supporters or the undecided.

    More often than not, the party political ideology, the candidate, campaign slogan and the strategies all build up into making the difference in the performance of candidates at elections.  Winning and losing elections often depend on the ability of a political party and the campaign team to focus on the mandate givers and give them messages that resonate with them.

    One of the most remarkable media campaigns in Nigeria’s political history was the HOPE’93 of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that had the late MKO Abiola as its candidate. Before he won the primary election, the Nigerian electorate was seemingly hopeless and in total despair given the series of military coups and counter counters in a post-independent Nigeria.

    So, the coming of an MKO Abiola into the political scene in 1993 was seen as a political elixir. So, a HOPE’93 campaign slogan resonated with the people. However, the slogan was not all to it, the personality of a late MKO Abiola played a role. He had a larger-than-life personality, he was a national citizen and he was a philanthropist that had no borders to his magnanimity.

    For a late MKO Abiola to have defeated his opponent, the late Bashir Tofa in Kano where Tofa came from was profoundly instructive. An MKO did not need to speak Hausa to the Kano people. He did not need to speak Igbo, Itshekiri, Fulfude, Ibibio or Idoma in other language in the country. His party campaign strategy made it easy for him to reach voters across the nation.

    Between 1993 and 2022, a lot has changed in the world and in global politics. In 1993 for instance, the internet had not gained so much currency. The Social media was not as popular as it is today. Politicians relied so much on orthodox print and electronic media for their campaigns but the HOPE’93 slogan was so pervasive even kids could sing most of the campaign songs. The message was as inspiring as it was alluringly energizing. The people bought into it.

    The 2023 elections in Nigeria will be like no other in the nation’s political history. Today, the global political situation has changed. The internet is a global phenomenon. There is more awareness and the apathy earlier shown by the youth seems to have faded into the past. The voting demographics are getting more sensitive and aware of the roles of governments in their lives. In all these, information management  is key and both the media and the Spokespersons of political parties must realize there are ethical lines that must not be crossed as we build our democracy.

    The Roundtable Conversation feels that our march to the 2023 election can be smoother if all those concerned play by the rules and do those things that can enhance unity and grow our democracy.

    We spoke to veteran journalist, Lanre Arogundade,  a Director at International Press Center (IPC). We wanted to find out his views about the media rolesin political reporting and the working relationship  with Spokespersons persons of political parties that can enhance our democracy .

    Lanre believes that while politicians come and go with their Spokespersons and aides, the media and the people will always be around. The media on their own has the ethics of their profession clearly spelt out. Spokespersons have the duty of marketing their their candidates but there are rules to the game. They must at all times be ready to provide the media and the people with credible information about their principal and or his activities clearly.

    If a Spokesperson wants the media to have qualitative and factual coverage of the activities of their candidates and their political parties they must have to provide credible information to the media either through the orthodox or social media. They owe the media the responsibility to provide information proactively and factually. We have the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage which was adopted by media stakeholders in 2018 and endorsed by all media organizations including private media organizations. The Code has broad principles under which certain obligations are imposed on certain institutions to make the work of the media easier during the electoral process.

    The government, the security agencies, INEC as the electoral management body and then of course the Civil society and the political parties all have roles. The political parties are expected to ensure easy access for journalists covering elections and to ensure their safely from any form of attack as they do their jobs. Spokespersons need to understand that there is a media code of conduct that obligates them to facilitate access to the media so that they can cover their events. Spokespersons of political parties need to work with the leadership of political parties and  security agencies with the understanding that journalists are also there to do their jobs and must be protected.

    Lanre made reference to 2019 election period when his IPC discovered that there where fake news used by the two leading political parties to persuade voters. They shared fake information especially fake videos which when scrutinized were not what they were presented to be. That was misinformation. They did not stand the test of fact-checking. This shows that the media cannot always be blamed for fake news.  The Spokespersons of political parties must desist from disinformation and misinformation all targeted at deceiving the public.

    To Lanre, the  media would not like to be misled and so the media must fact-check thoroughly but being sources of information from candidates and the political parties, Spokespersons must ensure that their information meets basic ethical standards and are factual. They need to understand that there is always the Right of Reply in the media. The media on its own must be guided by the Code which comes in  five sections; equitable access, social responsibility, inclusive coverage, avoidance of hate speech and conflict sensitivity. The Right of Reply is very crucial so that everyone involved in the process will be free to challenge or correct information that they know to be false  against a candidate especially in modern times with online news access and breaking news by the seconds.

    Replies to such misinformation must be given a commensurate space as much as that of the original story being refuted with valid facts. These are the basic dos and don’ts the media can put to Spokespersons of political parties so that our democracy can thrive.

    The media can also contribute to campaign  information management by setting very high standards of practice; doing deep researches, being well informed about not just candidates but extraneous issues. In the case of broadcast media, it is even more important given the currency of broadcasts.

    The journalist must be ahead of the interviewee/Spokespersons so that all false claims are instantly corrected before he or she leaves the station.  Be ready to quote credible sources to refute what you understand to be false claims or mere propaganda because the job of Spokespersons is to market their candidate and some might often step off the cliff to get their jobs done.

    The media must realize that a good interview is one backed with a lot of research. For each question you ask, you must be ready to anticipate the answer but still able to ask follow up questions, refute false claims with facts. You must be in positions to dissect the answers and tell the Spokesperson that his or her answer does not correspond with facts. You might in some cases not be able make instant rebuttals but you can do fact-checking and do analysis and refute the false claims timeously.

    The Nigerian Media Code of Conduct also empowers the media to halt hate speech or incitements by Spokespersons . Before interviews, the journalist must obtain commitments from the persons appearing for candidates or political parties to play by the rules. They could be reminded that in political discourse, tempers and passion can boil over but discussions must be civil and factual. No hate speech or incitement should  be allowed. There must be evidence based conclusions especially about opponents and no one would be allowed to trade on hearsays or what in local parlance is regarded as beer parlor gossips.

    The media must police the Spokespersons by reminding them that if they flout the codes of conduct and resort to using invectives or any form of verbal abuse, the programme could be halted immediately. The media is allowed to do that. The broadcast media must realize that the sword of the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeri (BON) can land on their station and they must  make their guests comply tp the best ethical conducts.

    So media houses have ethical and professional responsibilities and no matter how much the media want to give space to politicians, no matter how much they want them to air their own stories, they must also make them understand that there are ethical barricades they cannot cross and if their organization must continue in business, the rules must either be obeyed or the platform denied the party.

    The Roundtable Conversation as the name implies believes that nothing in inter-personal, inter-party, inter-religious, inter-ethnic, inter-racial or any other relationship works better than robust and civil conversations. The country belongs to all of us. Politicians and offices are for set periods and we must set templates for good communications to grow our democracy. Let the media and party Spokespersons be agents of unity in diversity.

    The dialogue continues…

  • Challenge of reconciliation in Ogun APC

    Challenge of reconciliation in Ogun APC

    The post-primary crisis that hit the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State in 2019 is being carried over to 2023 electioneering.

    The chapter is being polarised, once again, by the outbursts of camp leaders – Governor Dapo Abiodun, and his predecessor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

    The two leaders have fanatical supporters, and their battle has shifted to the media. Instead of combining strengths, the two divides are working at cross-purposes. Warriors on both sides are threatening fire and brimstone. The face-off may not end as bare-faced braggadocio.

    During the party’s congresses in 2021, the division was evident. Abiodun and his group, which comprised those holding the levers of power in the Gateway State, converged on Abeokuta, the state capital. Amosun’s camp, which had Steel and Solid Minerals Minister Olamilekan Adegbite, High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK) Sarafa Ishola, and Senator Tolu Odebiyi, representing Ogun West, conducted a factional congress, which was not upheld by the party’s national secretariat.

    The truth is that if Abiodun’s and Amosun’s camps refuse to reconcile, the party will enter the approaching polls as a divided house. According to observers, this has catastrophic implications.

    The Osun State chapter of the APC, which is currently in court, has just suffered an opprobrious electoral defeat. Is that not enough food for thought for the Ogun State chapter? Are the lessons not sufficiently instructive? Ahead of the 2023 polls, is the divided Ogun chapter not playing with fire?

    During the week, Amosun fired a fresh salvo at his successor. He declared that the governor never won the last election held almost four years ago. That, in his view, implies that the APC rigged the poll against the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), which Amosun’s man, a former Federal lawmaker and defector from the ruling party, Adekunle Akinlade, borrowed to contest the election.

    Besides, Amosun said Abiodun should pack and go next year, adding that the governor would not remain at the Government House in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, for a second term. The drama is akin to what played out in Osun State between the governor and his predecessor before the last governorship poll. The result of the imbroglio is out for everyone to peruse.

    Abiodun, a Prince of Iperu-Remo, fired back at his Egba tormentor. The governor frowned at his predecessor’s derision, saying nobody should play God. The Ogun State government, he insisted, is nobody’s inheritance.

    To the governor, Amosun’s utterances amounted to distraction, stressing that the Ogun Central senator might be suffering from self-deceit.

    Many supporters of the governor, including Senator Solomon Adeola and Tunde Oladunjoye, spokesman for the Ogun chapter of the ruling party, also challenged the former governor to a duel.

    The stakes are still high. The Ogun APC chapter is pushing for power retention and consolidation. But, chieftains are not in one accord. Political tension is brewing. Abiodun is asking for a second term. It is not the business of Amosun. The ex-governor is only con cerned by the need to mobilise for his legitimate third term bid for the Ogun Central ticket in the Senate and work for the realisation of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambition.

    Amosun’s remark that APC did not win the governorship poll in 2019 has given the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Ladi Adebutu, and his running mate, Akinlade, a disciple of Amosun, the impetus to return to the drawing board.

    The whole scenario shows that the 2019 conflict was never resolved. Though APC won the governorship poll in the state, it has yet to regain its peace, cohesion, and unity.

    The division is worrisome to the Southwest APC’s Executive Committee, led by Isaacs Kekemeke, who hurriedly contacted the state’s Party Leader, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, and appealed to the warring governor and the combative Ogun Central senator to sheathe their swords.

    Kekemeke’s team is facing similar challenges in the Osun and Oyo chapters of the party, where APC gladiators are locked in wars of attrition.

    In Osun, supporters of Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola are locked in a battle for the control of the party’s machinery with the State Executive Committee, led by Gboyega Famodun, who has the backing of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

    Oyo APC is like an orphan, following its electoral defeat of 2019, when the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi could not produce a successor. The state chapter seems to have three camps, which the governorship candidate, Senator Teslim Folarin, has not been able to fuse. An aggrieved governorship contender, Bayo Adelabu, has jumped ship. He is now hibernating in Accord Party, on which platform he is contesting for governor.

    What is striking about Ogun APC is not what has changed but what has not changed. Gladiators have not forgiven and forgotten 2019. Victory even ceased to be a uniting factor. It was perceived as a monumental electoral loss for the second camp.

    Like Osoba, Senator Amosun has played a pivotal role in the development of APC in Ogun State. He has also served his beloved state to the best of his ability – for eight years. He fought the infrastructure battle within the limit of available resources.

    But his succession plan crumbled. That was the crux of the matter. All governors are never indifferent to the nature and tendency of their would-be successors. Usually, they are in control of the party’s machinery, the state resources as well as the objective and subjective chorus singers.

    But other centres of influence within the chapter aborted the succession plan, to the surprise of the former two-term governor who also believed that installing a successor constituted the making of history.

    Amosun called for zoning to Yewa land in Ogun West, which, since the state was created in 1976, has not produced a civilian governor. It was thoughtful. The move would have fostered unity and a sense of belonging. But there was no consensus in Ogun about zoning or rotation. Even the people of the targeted senatorial district are not united. Thus, instead of rotation to the West, some powerful forces tilted the pendulum to the East. Hell, politically speaking, was let loose in Ogun.

    Tragically, a parallel governorship primary produced two governorship candidates – Akinlade, backed by Amosun, and Abiodun, supported by Osoba. The combative erstwhile APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole ruled that Abiodun was the authentic candidate. In reaction, Akinlade defected to another party. Amosun openly supported him.

    It was a classic case of anti-party activity, which the party leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, allowed to go unpunished.

    The Commander-in-Chief could not put his feet down. He received Abiodun at the Aso Villa in Abuja, where he endorsed him by raising up his hand. Later, he also hosted Akinlade, who stormed the Villa alongside Amosun.

    When President Buhari later showed up for the state’s APC campaign in Abeokuta, he refrained from campaigning for either Abiodun or Akinlade. He urged the people of Ogun to vote for himself at the presidential election. For governorship poll, the President said the voters were free to cast their ballot for their candidates of choice. The President never presented the symbolic flag to the candidate of his party.

    Taken aback, Oshiomhole cried foul. The party suspended Amosun and others. But the matter was not final. The surviving APC governors later turned the heat on the national chairman, insisting that he should go.

    Then, the party ran into turbulence, an avoidable leadership crisis. The crisis of succession at the party’s national secretariat took its toll on the platform. The rest, as it is said, is history.

    In 2019, APM was the threat. APC managed to survive. But, a solid foundation for a protracted predecessor-successor crisis was laid. It was reminiscent of the aftermath of the 2011 failed succession plan of former Governor Gbenga Daniel, who could not install his preferred candidate, Gboyega Isiaka, after dumping the PDP for the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN).

    In 2023, the PDP may be a greater threat, not because of Ladi Adebutu per see but because of Amosun, who may repeat his support for Akinlade, if the deep-seated rift between him and the governor is not resolved ahead of the election.

    The fight-to-the-finish is an ill will that won’t blow the party members any good. Amosun’s men are fighting for relevance without justification, having operated outside the recognised party machinery since last year.

    However, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu appeared to be a rallying point, right from the presidential convention ground in Abuja, where Amosun stepped down for the Jagaban Borgu.

    After the show of magnanimity and comradeship, many expected the governor and the senator to embrace and end their differences. After stepping down for the APC National Leader, was any conscious effort made by the governor’s camp to court Amosun? Has Abiodun made genuine overtures towards his predecessor? Is the senator ready for truce? Has he also shown the readiness to work harmoniously with the governor beyond supporting Asiwaju Tinubu at the Eagle Square in Abuja?

    How can the eminent politician reconcile his support for Asiwaju Tinubu at the presidential poll with his rejection of his party’s candidate in Ogun State at the poll?

    Reconciliation is an unfinished business in the Ogun APC. Party elders in the Southwest should rise to the occasion. There is need for unity in the Ogun chapter and, indeed, across other five states in the region at this crucial time.

    The adoption of a speedy conflict resolution mechanism may avert danger. Delay could be counter-productive. Dialogue is key. There is more to gain from crisis resolution than prolonged discord, elongated strife and protracted antagonism.

    Both sides should give concessions. They should learn to build consensus and rebuild the collapsed wall of trust and confidence between each other. Abiodun and Amosun should strive at an accord. If they do, their supporters will begin to work in concord with the party’s collective direction and goal.

  • Dariye: From prison to NASS?

    Dariye: From prison to NASS?

    If feelers reaching Sentry from Jos, the capital of Plateau State are to be taken seriously, Joshua Dariye, a former governor of the state, who has just been released from Kuje prison in Abuja following a presidential pardon, may be resuming at the National Assembly as a Senator of the federal republic in 2023.

    Some sources are claiming that the convicted former governor is currently considering accepting the invitation of one of the nation’s political parties to pick its senatorial ticket in his home district for the 2023 general elections.

    Checks made by Sentry revealed that the Labour Party (LP) in Plateau State may be the party in question.  It was gathered that barely three days after he returned home from serving a jail term for corruption, Dariye was allegedly beckoned upon by the leadership of the party to come join its fold and run for a senate seat on its platform in 2023.

    Dariye, who was serving a 10-year jail term for N1.126 billion fraud, was recently granted presidential pardon following which he was released after about four years in prison.

    Sentry learnt that the former governor was yet to accept or reject the offer. “He is still consulting. Once he’s done doing that, he will make his intention known,” a source said. Sentry awaits the outcome of this all-important consultation.

     

    Garlands for home boy

    ACCOLADES are raining on Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for Ogun West Senatorial District. He added a year during the week and the unusual way he celebrated his new age has sent tongues wagging.

    Some members of the Ogun State House of Assembly from the Ogun West Senatorial District today joined others to eulogise the man that is now famous for his ‘West to West’ political adventure for always striving to put a smile on the faces of Ogun West people.

    The members, including Honourables Jemili Akingbade, Musefiu Lamidi, Bolanle Ajayi, Wahab Haruna, and Adegoke Adeyanju, gave the commendation in their separate submissions under personal explanations at the plenary presided over by Speaker Olakunle Oluomo at the Assembly Complex, Oke- Mosan, Abeokuta.

    They described Senator Adeola as a worthy ambassador and experienced legislator, explaining that the empowerment programmes which cut across the senatorial district were an indication that the Senatorial candidate would do well if elected as Senator in the state.

    The lawmakers acknowledged the people-oriented programme which included the donation of four 18-seater buses to the Market women, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), League of Imams and Council of Baales.

    Other interventions, according to them, were 19 transformers to boost rural electrification project and 1,500 desks and chairs for schools to complement the infrastructural efforts of the present administration in the state.

  • Wanted: Sports budget in Nigeria

    Wanted: Sports budget in Nigeria

    SPORTS is the biggest Public Relations (PR) tool that any government can use to change people’s perception of its citizenry. Unfortunately, the jackboot era effectively used sporting activities to douse tension in the country and to perpetuate their stay in government. You need to walk along the streets whenever Nigeria has a sporting activity and see how the streets would be desolate. You would only realise that people are indoors from the thunderous roars from different houses when our sports ambassadors conquer their opponents. The descriptions of how the feats happened are compelling, especially those delivered by the native speakers of the languages in the country.

    Indeed, the glorious moments are recaptured in the offices, restaurants, hotels, markets etc not forgetting the crowd of free readers at the vendors’ stands doing post-match analysis the next day(s) as if they watched the events live. On such competition days, caution is thrown to the winds as if what qualifies you to walk into any area or houses where the games were been shown live was a jersey or eagerness to watch the game and not to cause mischief. You need to witness the mass rush out of homes in search of where games are been watched with generators anytime the Discos take electricity for those who don’t have an alternative source of power. Those who don’t worry themselves to watch such pyrrhic moments live using the interrupted electricity, knowing the antecedents of NEPA, only realise the crowded setting either at halftime or after the victories.

    Companies, rich individuals, banks, big blue firms’ players etc who cast an indulgent on suggestions and even several meetings to identify with these sportsmen and women prior to the games would now task the corporate affairs units to see how they key into the arrangements been paid to receive the victorious contingents. My favourite friend Mike Itemuagbor used to describe such acts as ambush marketing which is true, especially for the few firms that put their cash behind such contingents. These ambush marketing groups steal the thunder of those brands which identified with the sports or sport from inception.

    Soon ambushing firms would start announcing fabulous monetary rewards to these athletes who sneaked out of this country in batches praying for such successes as we saw in Birmingham. Mention ought to be made of the Director of Sports in MFM Godwin Enakhena for the role he played between the female wrestler Odunayo Adekuorouye and the owner of MFM. Certainly, Dr Daniel Olukoya is a key stakeholder in wrestling for the listening ears he gave. Enakhena served as the leeway towards making Adekuorouye the wrestler she is today, forget about what happened to her at the last Olympic Games. You win some, lose some.

    According to Enakhena: ”Odunayo Adekuorouye’s path and that of Dr Daniel Olukoya, the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries crossed when she was about to give up on wrestling because she couldn’t attend competitions. Someone introduced her to me as a member of MFM in Akure and I took her to the GO who told her he was adopting her as her daughter. Dr Olukoya has lived up to that by paying for 90% of her training tours outside Nigeria and to competitions. Dr Olukoya sent her to a Canadian university where he pays everything from school fees to other needs.”

    It is exciting to hear that President Muhammadu Buhari would meet with the winning girls and the rest of the contingent where the President would reward the sportsmen and women with national honours and cash gifts. I would be further excited if Sports Minister Sunday Dare invites the blue-chip companies’ chief executives, the bank managers, oil and gas magnates and prominent Nigerians with deep pockets to hear what the President has dividends on their investment in sports. Assurances coming from the President on such a symbolic occasion would be taken seriously, especially since some of the stakeholders in these businesses would be watching and later reading the news in the media almost immediately in their various homes. Yes, sports is big business and a growing concern.

    The first lesson from the proposed interaction with President Buhari is if his administration has the political will to make sports a big business, which inevitably will create the platforms to reduce unemployment. The second lesson is the need to cultivate business concerns to embrace sports, but with a caveat -transparency and accountability. Equally, important would be to get the President to accept that there was the need to create an enabling environment for business concerns to key into sports patronage, first to change the way it is run in Nigeria and then to get Nigerians to know that sports help increase the country’s G.D.P as seen in other climes. We need to also underline the essence of sports as a viable socio-economic tool for youth development, nation building and instilling the core value of social justice.

    For Nigeria to achieve excellence and meet the objective requirement for the rapid development of our sports industry, then we must broaden the finance base of the industry and create the right conditions for private sector funding and investment in sports. But, the government must lead this movement by doing away with the fiscal budgets and introducing a sports budget that takes care of the annual, biannual and quarterly sports competitions such as the World Cup, the Olympics, Commonwealth Games etc without qualms. President Buhari should use the meeting with our heroes and heroines to announce his administration’s seed money for sports to set the pace for others to follow.  Mr President, Nigerians love sports. They just need to be challenged.

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    Sport is big deal. It unites nations and enchants people. Besides, it has a global appeal, pulling fans and sponsors into a unique force that impacts positively on businesses-and health. These positives can best be evaluated when the government has a template that makes it possible for businesses and philanthropists to key into the nation’s vision for sports.

    Governments of sports-loving nations entice businesses with relief packages, such as tax rebates on their investments in sports. Given sports’ global appeal, governments effectively utilise the platform as their public relations tool to change people’s perceptions of their entities.

    Grassroots development can be actualised through the hosting of international and continental sporting events. Most countries use these big competitions to woo the blue-chip industries to identify with sports. Besides, these competitions open up the hinterland with the facilities constructed creating jobs in the locality. The facilities would attract the villagers to learn the games and, inadvertently, improves their health.

    Big sports competitions generate revenue, create jobs, improve financial bases and provide the best opportunity for foreigners to have first-hand interaction with Nigerians. Such competitions improve tourism, a sure money spinner. Need I state the benefit that business concerns will gain from the volume of foreign exchange during such competitions?

    It, therefore, aches to note that we have hosted big competitions in the past and have been unable to convince the corporate world about the gains of such events largely because no government has bothered to ask the organisers what went down and what we gained – this is what economists call Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). Facilities built for such competitions are rotting away. In some cases, the equipment has been vandalised with nobody made to pay for it.

    The talents are here; what we lack is a sports culture that is anchored on a calendar that sports-friendly blue-chip companies can incorporate into their fiscal budgets.

    Our sports facilities must be maintained. Those old ones should be upgraded to provide the platform for local and international competitions for our athletes.

    The minister should ensure that the National Institute for Sports (NIS) performs like its contemporaries elsewhere. It should be upgraded to function as the training ground for our coaches. It should also serve as the brain-box of our sports where policies are implemented.

  • Power, repositioning and religion

    Power, repositioning and religion

    There  is an ageless wisecrack  that says that the funny thing about history is that history is always repeating itself . That  is our  take off point for today’s discussion and it is not enough to dust off your history books an colonization and the cold war ,  you  must  be prepared to see how history is being made not in the past ,  immediate or  far off  ,  but right before  our eyes . It  is not as if the colonial masters  are on their way back ,  but certainly new developments , some unthinkable before and some mightily predictable and others literally  lost in plain sight   provide  food for thought that history again is very  much  on the way back  to repeating itself.

    An  FBI   raid on a former president of the US , indeed the 45t , he Donald  Trump led  to the victim of the raid branding his own nation , the foremost democracy in the world a’ third world ‘ nation and  a  ‘banana republic ‘.  In  the last two  weeks or so the US Secretary  of  State , the French  president and the Russian Foreign Minister have been  visiting African  nations  to stem the tide of what  they  perceive  as Russian  effort   to subvert    democracy  in Africa  and growing Chinese  influence in Africa. The  Chinese on their own have created a new security organization with many African  states  to counter what they  say  are serious security challenges  that  many African states   are  facing akin to the Road Belt  trade project  that  was launched some time to link  China by  rails and roads to  Europe . More  importantly it is becoming clear by the day that Islamic  jihadists  are taking  over the north of Ecowas  nations incuding Nigeria  and  yet  no one has been able to say and see  clearly that the Islamisation of  west  and central Africa is afoot  . These are the issues  we will  look at  very deeply  today  .

    When Donald Trump  branded his  nation a banana republic because of the FBI raid  on his home in his absence ,  he was referring to a break  down of law and   order  common in developing nations where coups are common place and where corruption is a way of life .  Now Trump  has seen that such political  culture  has crept  into the American  way  of life  with   the   attendant  use  ,   abuse and misuse  of power   that  go   with it . He    knows first  hand   now that   such misrule  is not a monopoly of the so called  third world  to which  the great US has  suddenly descended with an  unprecedented raid for classified documents  in the custody of a former US president . It   is difficult to ask  Trump  to live  with  such development because  he will  never  agree but such have been  the fate of developing nations like Nigeria  since amalgamation in 1914  while  the so called developed  nations  not only looked the other way    nonchalantly  . They   even  compounded  our economic  and political woes  with globalisaton , democratization  , marketization and un repayable   World Bank  loans and their   financially suicidal   cruel    repayment   conditionalities .  Now  the chicken  has  come home to  roost  for Trump  and  he has repositioned  his nation  as a banana    republic . Knowing Trump  for who  he is  however ,  I  am  sure he is going to make political capital out of this repositioning ,  brand  himself a victim  of sheer political    persecution  in the hope that this would   propel  him to victory in the 2024 presidential election in  which  his supporters greatly  want him  to run . We  are  watching from the ring  side  ,  here  in our ‘ third   world’ ,  the  evolving  2024  US  presidential  election of the latest  addition to the banana republics  of the   so called  third  world  .

    The  US Secretary   of State  this week   was in S Africa and would later visit DR Congo and  Rwanda . The  Russian Foreign Minister visited Egypt , Uganda and Ethiopia  to get support for his nation over the invasion of Ukraine  .  The  renewed  interest  of     the  US France and  Russia in Africa is centred  around  security  matters  and it is all about  how the African nations  involved and their armies can repel Islamic jihadists in Mali , Burkina Fasso and some other ECOWAS states . In  Mali  the army alienated itself from normal pre and post independence  French  military  support  the moment it staged a coup  to depose a democratically elected government . In   the face of repeated defeats  by the jihadists  however  the military junta in Mali  has turned to Russian mercenaries . The  involvement  of Russians is rooted in Mali’s history from  the Cold War  when  emerging African leaders who  were socialists allied  with the former  Soviet Union till  it collapsed  in 1991 .It  is apparent that Mali  is finding it difficult  to contain the jihadists threatening  its  government and its territorial  integrity  but  that weakened security position is what  confronts  most  ECOWAS states at present   .Yet  because  Islam  is involved  the security  position is slowly  but surely  becoming alarming and almost intractable . Again  we need to  turn to history  to find  our way out of the woods  before  it is too late .

    Nigeria  has always   been  happy   with  American economic  cooperation  and even  military  support  without becoming a lackey  of the US  , especially   nowadays . This  is because  the   contemporary  American  political  culture  has  in   recent    times veered  away  from  basic Nigerian  religious and moral  values in terms of marriage , sex and family  values . In any  government led by  the Democrats in the US  from   the Obama    presidency ,  the government  will  not sincerely help Nigeria out of its security  problems   because Nigeria  has in place a law  against gay  marriage and homophobia  and the US would  have Nigeria jettison this  for any meaningful  economic  or  military  aide .   That   no sane government  in Nigeria    will    agree to do .  That  leaves us with  the EU nations  which  are even punishing  some members states like Poland and Hungary  which are pro life , pro marriage and  pro family ,    the opposite of which  most members of the EU regard as real  EU values  for  now . Brexit  has separated Britain  from such  EU values and the Tory  government  is not blindly  following the US and   such  values   especially the woke  culture and the rewriting of  history  to rectify the cruelties  of slavery  and racism  , but  still  the British  must  be held accountable  historically  for our security predicament of nowadays with both Islam and the modern jihadists attacking W African  states .

    When the British  came to Nigeria  they  used the bible and superior  military  technology  to subdue and subvert the ethnic nations they met on the ground .  They  used  Divide  and  Rule  ,  Indirect and Direct  Rule to forge the North and South into a whole nation called Nigeria with the amalgamation of 1914 . But  from  the start   the   envisaged  unity  has been bursting   at  the seams . Before  that the Othman Dan Fodio  jihad  has made  large parts of the North west an Islamic territory  and was expanding towards the Atlantic when the British  arrested that . In  the NE the El Kanemi of Borno  stopped the Sokoto jihad and floated his hegemony  over vast  territory of  the former NE . What  is happening now seem to be a rehash of what the Shehu of Borno stopped on the outskirts of Maiduguri  and   the British stopped  in  Ilorin ,  after Afonja succumbed  to the wiles of Alimi  and  the rulers of Ilorin became Fulanis till now . Look  at the scenario of   our  present security imbroglio and you will see that the  hand of history   is at work   and is repeating    itself . If  we rise above  religion  we  will   vanquish  a common  enemy  . If  not  ,  we will  be presiding over our own funeral as a nation state . Again , a stitch  in time saves nine .