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Category: Saturday

2023: Drums of war in Rivers State

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, politicians are preparing for the polls as if they are getting ready for war. Already, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has declared fellow party man and his sworn political rival, Farah Dagogo, wanted for allegedly hiring thugs to attack the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Port Harcourt.

But Dagogo, a federal lawmaker and PDP governorship aspirant, says it is the governor who has plans to run all his critics out of town or get them locked up before the primary election of the ruling party. Allegations and counter allegations continue to fly around even as threats of more violence create anxiety across the state.

“The police must as a matter of urgency arrest Farah Dagogo, wherever he is, and must be made to face prosecution,” Kelvin Ebiri, spokesperson to Wike, said in a statement last Wednesday.

Ebiri said Dagogo hired cultists who stormed the party secretariat and disrupted the screening of aspirants. He said the police had arrested some suspects in connection with the incident.

Dagogo, however, said that it is Wike who wants to prevent him from appearing before the PDP screening panel at all cost. The lawmaker’s response was contained in a statement posted on Facebook by his spokesperson, Ibrahim Lawal.

While Wike continues to shout his orders to the Police to arrest Dagogo, the lawmaker wants Efeturi Irikefe, whom he described as the “Camp Commandment” to Wike, arrested, disrupting the screening by ordering police officers to shoot indiscriminately. This is just as supporters of the two gladiators are threatening fire and brimstone on a daily basis.

All of this is just in one party. In APC, there are rumblings over the adoption of a consensus candidate, setting the state for fresh intra-party conflict. Whichever way you look, the drums of war are rumbling.

April 30, 2022
Jonathan: The lust for power

What has His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, former President and Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, forgotten in Aso Villa, Abuja, that his imaginary or emergency supporters are urging him to go back and take, seven years after he was rejected at the poll?

Power is alluring. The pecks of office are so sweet. Yet, power is transient. It is permanently tempting and reassuring. But, it is also deceitful. It rekindles hope. It is the road to fame. It can also be the route to doom.

No politician would contemplate retirement. Those who have tasted public office are addicted to power. They will never embrace the reality that no condition is permanent. To political actors, political covetousness is a virtue.

The corridor of power is so magnetic and quite electrifying. The Cecerio of Esa-Oke, the late Chief Bola Ige, slain Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, once retorted at a rally in Ado-Ekiti: “Who is that person they would put crayfish in his mouth and he will not close the mouth and shew?”

But, the major question is whether the former President has the constitutional right to run or not.

Jonathan, a gentleman, according to those who know him, may be troubled by ego or the psychological effect of losing political control. He may have forgotten that he got to the vice presidency, not by struggle, but by divine grace. He never knew that God will make him president later.

As president, many of his moves were not inspiring, according to those who defected from his party. His foes, who wanted to displace him in 2014, dubbed him as a clueless leader. He carried the bow of fate on his head. He fought a hard battle.

In politics, observers content that he is both a success and a failure.

As deputy governor in Bayelsa State under his boisterous and larger-than-life boss, the late Diepreye Alamisyeseigha, he was the best example of a spare tyre. He was loyal and contented, and never on the front burner. However, fate catapulted him to the front seat. He not only succeeded his boss, he later served as vice president.

As number two citizen, he was almost a redundant deputy, never commanding any influence. Even, it was said that when some wealthy and pompous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains stormed Aso Villa to converse with President Umaru Yar’Adua, they usually demanded that he should excuse himself. So boring was the office that his very active and energetic wife, Mrs. Patience, lost her patience, decrying the condition of a vice president working hollow to the power-loaded President, a vice president whose preoccupation daily was reading newspapers.

But, he became the constitutional beneficiary of Yar’Adua’s protracted ill-health and demise, overcoming initial obstacles through the invocation of the novel doctrine of necessity. He served out his former’s boss’ term and retained power in a re-election in 2011.

In 2015, he exceeded his luck by trampling on the principle of zoning or rotation, which the PDP is also trying to violate now by insisting that the North should hold the levers of power for 16 years.

But, when reality dawned on him that the time of political grace had eclipsed, he remained honourable in political distress by conceding defeat to the winner. The nation, and indeed, many African coubtries, ignored the failed tricks by Elder Godsday Orubebe and saluted Jonathan’s spirit of sportsmanship.

Outside power, the deflated ego has been very troubling, although he attracts the accolade of an elderstatesman who upheld national interest. He became a special envoy, held in esteem by Nigera’s neighbours in the sub-region and the African continent.

The former President is somehow beautiful on the podium, delivering lectures on his failed national conference, why he could not implement the report, the challenge of democratic elections, which have remained a nightmare, the compelling need for electoral reforms, national unity and good governance.

Since last year, there have been speculations that those who liquidated him politically were ploting to bring him back. He is not known to be an active PDP chieftain, having parted ways with Diri/Dickson forces in his native Bayelsa during the last governorship election when his supporters gravitated towards David Lyon of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The schemers invaded the media, selling the idea of a single term for him, trying to kill two birds with a stone by pointing to the fact that his return to the highest office will also satisfy the yearning of the South for power shift, rotation or zoning. The candidature of a person, who the APC portrayed as a symbol of inept and corrupt leadership, is being sold to the now clueless ruling party, due to the contradictions in the platform.

The campaigners know that there is no difference between the APC and PDP. Both are ideologically dead entities. During the week, Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade, tried to supply the tonic. A weak presidential aspirant, he, nevertheless, hinted that he would step down for his former leader in PDP.

Jonathan’s capacity for resistance appears low. It is normal. It is peculiar to men of power and influence. Power is captivating. Politicians are sustained by incurable optimism; the elixir of hope. Tired of being left in the cold, they like to bounce back to political reckoning.

That was why in the days of the maximum ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, ministers of yesteryears were dusted up in their old age to serve as ministers and errand boys for the dreadful dictator.

Jonathan may be drawing strength in his distant predecessors, who previously tried to toy with the sensibility of the country. All of them, except, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, failed in their comeback bid.

Seventeen years after he was toppled as military Head of State by his boys, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, a doctor of political science, resurfaced during the dubious transition programme of the Babangida administration.

Jack, as he was fondly called, had no baggage. Some chieftains of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) begun to sell him as a unifier, a detribalised Nigerian, an apostle of national unity and an incorruptible leader. Gowon, who hails from Plateau, was out to bid for president from Kaduna, where he and other northern elite, reside.

Obasanjo was the first person to attack him. He asked from his former boss what he forgot in Aso Villa. It was during the Option A4 system. In later years, it was clear that OBJ was full of bile as he toed the same path. When his time came, he forgot his past admonition and tirade.

Gowon, who ruled the country for nine years, a soldier who ordinary could not hurt a fly, could also not fly during the intra-party contest. He lacked structure and appeal. The General returned to his open shell to play the role of an elderstatesman, moral voice and national prayer warrior.

The lesson was instructive. Former military President Ibrahim Babangida ignored it. The Evil Genius and great annuller most historic, democratic and credible presidential election, has been one of key backers of PDP since 1998. He was instrumental to the second coming of Obasanjo. In fact, it was speculated that he had a pact with the Ota farmer that he would consider him as successor after his two terms. But, politics is a slippery field.

Babangida toured the state chapters, selling himself to delegates. Gullible people thought he was still hugely popular, unknown that he was contending with a fading influence.

He was a great ruler and political experimenter. In eight years of his firm grip on Nigeria, he produced about 70 military governors, numerous ministers, ambassadors, heads of parastatals, commissions and panels. But, outside power, the crowd seemed to have dispersed. In retirement, he was nostalgic, taking solace in old glory.

To stop the morbid presidential ambition, Northern Elders set up a committee to screen aspirants, including IBB and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The panel, which was saddled with a PDP business, had as member a chieftain of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Audu Ogbeh.

When it’s verdict was out, it showed preference for Atiku. The sharp arrow of rejection hit the old soldier, master tactician, dribbler and veteran coup plotter. Since then, the aspiration has not been revived.

Only Obasanjo tried his luck and triumphed. He was said to have resisted those urging him to come back. But, the Generals, his juniors, were taken aback, based on the rumour that after the annulment, some fans were said to have encouraged him to show interest in the position of Head of Interim Government. The true situation could not be ascertained by the media at that time.

But, Obasanjo was successfully persuaded in 1999 to run by Babangida, Chief Sunday Afolabi and others. He also won the election. It is up to posterity to judge whether the second coming was a blessing or otherwise.

Jonathan has heroes in this regard. If he succeeds, it will not be the first time. If he fails, it is not new. What is certain is that, like many African countries in the eighties, nineties and beyond, Nigerian political space is remarkable for recycling of leaders.

What is Jonathan’s contributions to the APC to warrant drafting him to the race? He may be banking on consensus, which in the light of the prevailing circumstances, is very remote. There is shortage of assurance because at this stage of electioneering, Jonathan is alien to the ruling party. In PDP, he seems to belong to the past, although he has not really renounced his membership of the opposition party.

Lawyers are also raising legal issues.

According to Section 137(3) of the constitution, a person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.

Jonathan has been sworn in twice, as acting president and president. The constitution says a person can only be sworn in as president on two occasions. If he contests again, his term of office will exceed eight years, if his years as acting president are taken into consideration. Eight years is the maximum.

The legal opinion cannot be brushed aside. There is more awareness now, unlike 2015 when he contested. It may be risky. If the former President contests on the platform of the APC, opposition parties can go to court. His participation may be voided by court.

But, being elected twice is different from being sworn in twice. Jonathan was elected only once. He only paired with the late Yar’Adua in 2007. He was sworn in only once as Acting President. He was also only sworn in as President once.

In the past, the Court of Appeal said Jonathan can re-contest. Now that the matter is on the front burner again, only the court can resolve the hurdle.

From the APC angle, the Jonathan option is, perhaps, the greatest preliminary drama of the electioneering.

April 30, 2022
Awujale, tradition and good governance

On April 2nd, 2022, the paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Awujale Sikiru Kayode Adetona, Ogbagba 11, clocked 62 years on the throne of his forefathers. Preceding Oba Adetona’s ascension to the ancient stool of Ijebu, there had been 57 Awujales starting from Awujale Olu-Iwa to the incumbent’s immediate predecessor, Awujale Daniel Adesanya, Gbelegbuwa 11, who was the traditional ruler of the kingdom from 1933 to 1959. Oba Adetona’s prestige, acceptability, as well as the love and affection he enjoys among his people, have grown rather than diminished with time. This is also the case with most traditional rulers in various communities across the country who enjoy greater respect and legitimacy among their people than elected leaders who govern the modern sphere of the state do. Yet, the conventional wisdom received uncritically throughout Africa largely as a result of the unfortunate violent encounter with colonialism is that electoral democracy predicated on the emergence of governments through the ballot box offers the best mode of organizing a society’s political affairs. But is it possible to credibly deny that liberal democracy for the most part has been a colossal failure in Africa?

Not only are the supposedly democratic processes through which governments are supposed to be produced in accordance with the will of the people more often than not perverted, corrupted and compromised, the quality of leadership that routinely emerges is generally low, and the governance outcomes in terms of enhancing the wellbeing of the people largely disastrous and deplorable. With the ballot often being a weapon of mass self-destruction in the hands of frequently illiterate and poor voters, susceptible to ethnic, religious and other primordial forms of manipulation as well as vulnerable to the allurements of money bag vote buyers, liberal democracy has severed to deepen underdevelopment rather than being an agency of progress and positive transformation in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

Of course, this is not to romanticize traditional, largely monarchical, pre-colonial political systems in Africa but to lament the fact that, no thanks to the colonial encounter, the political evolution of post-colonial Africa has been decoupled and delinked from the rich governance experience and lessons of the continent’s pristine past. In this regard, the late Basil Davidson noted in his classic, ‘The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State’ that the post-colonial nation-states of Africa were, in practice, “not a restoration of Africa to her own history, but the onset of a new period of indirect subjection to the history of Europe. The fifty or so states of the colonial partition, each formed and governed as though their people possessed no history of their own, became fifty or so nation-states formed and governed on European models, chiefly the models of Britain and France”.

This, Davidson argues that Africa’s case is unlike that of Japan, for instance, which “was able to accept “westernization” on its own terms, at its own speed, and with its own reservations, ensuring as far as possible that new technology and organization were assimi lated by Japanese thinkers and teachers without dishonor to ancestral shrines and gods. Japanese self-confidence could be salvaged. Such an outcome was impossible in dispossessed Africa”. Is a return to the pre-colonial African traditional governance systems and structures then feasible or even desirable? Certainly not. But there are ways in which aspects of the traditional past can inform and influence the modern present positively.

As Professor Richard Sklar notes, for instance in his conception and articulation of what he describes as ‘dual authority structures’ in Africa, “The African national governments are fragile, and there is great need for authority based on consent of the governed. In this circumstance, a separate source of authority, embedded in tradition, could powerfully reinforce social discipline without abandonment of democratic form of government. The rejuvenation of traditional authority would not, then, imply a resurgence of either “feudalism” or political oligarchy”.

The Awujale comes from the Anikinaiya Ruling House in Ijebu-Ode. The other three Ruling Houses are Gbelegbuwa, Fusengbuwa and Fidipote from which the paramount ruler emerges on rotation at the demise of the incumbent. Oba Adetona was a prince studying Accountancy in England when he was recalled home at the age of twenty-five to occupy the throne. Speaking on his nomination in an interview, the monarch said “The news meant little to me, even though I knew it was the turn of my ruling house to present the next candidate. My father, as far as I knew then, was an obvious candidate and could therefore assume succession. Even if, for some reasons, he was not chosen, there was still his brother, Pa Adenaiya”. His father, surprisingly, put forward Kabiyesi’s name for the throne and, on October 26, 1959, the kingmakers (Afobaje) unanimously picked him from among six candidates nominated by the Anikinaiya Ruling House to become the Awujale.

In contrast, for the 2023 election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to spend N239 billion in organizing the polls including expenditure on poll materials, vehicles and a possible presidential run-off. The major political parties have fixed stupendous amounts as expression of interest and nomination fees for various positions; financial requirements that put these offices out of the reach of people below a certain economic category in a largely poverty stricken economy like ours. Should the process of choosing society’s leaders consume so much of scarce public resources that could otherwise have been channeled into positive developmental purposes?

An online news medium, Ijebu News Extra lists the character traits for which the monarch is revered among his people as including fierce and sturdy independence, candor, objectivity, sincerity, entrepreneurial spirit, reliability and resoluteness. Some of the attainments for which the Awujale is acclaimed include the revival of the Ijebu Age Grade system (the regberegbe), building of the gigantic palace and the Ojude Oba pavilion, the establishment of the Ijebu Development Board on Poverty Reduction and the granting of coronets to many communities.

During the harrowing period of the General Sani Abacha military dictatorship, Oba Adetona was known as one of those monarchs who stood by principle, truth and integrity and refused to bow to the pressures of the government. In his words, “My duty is the welfare of my people; and in doing that there will be risks and I have to face the risks on behalf of my people. That is why I am on the throne. If I can’t do that, then I should quit. I saw the need to defend my people and I did just that…If in the course of doing that I am removed, I will have no regret whatsoever. The people are always with me because they can trust me. So, I have to do my duty to them too”.

But by far the most enduring defining legacy of the Awujale was his endowment in 2016 of a N250 million Professorial Chair in Governance at the Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. The project to which over N1 billion has been committed is designed to initiate and execute researches that have the capacity to proffer solutions to contemporary challenges and issues of governance at the local and global levels; promote scholarship, rigorous research activities and opportunities for collaboration with scholars and institutions committed to good governance as well as serve as a springboard for attracting quality staff and

students to the university through research output. The Professorial Chair has further evolved into a full-fledged Oba (Dr) Adetona Institute of Governance Studies also located at Ago-Iwoye campus of OOU. The Institute’s structural edifices have helped to elevate the aesthetics of the university’s landscape. This year, the Institute has commenced postgraduate programmes in Governance Studies offering M.Sc, Governance Studies, Professional Master in Governance Studies (MGS), and Ph.D, in Governance Studies.

Speaking on his motivation for this initiative, the Awujale said, “My intention is to endow a chair that would remain in perpetuity so that even when I am gone, and my children’s children are there, the fund would still be there to sustain the chair. I have been on the throne for 56 years and have seen that rather than make progress, we are retrogressing in terms of our governance. We are not getting good results. My idea is that we interfere and see how we can bring about change that would affect the governance of this country that Nigeria may be a much better place for the younger generation and all of us to live in”. There is no doubt that if more altruistic, well placed Nigerians emulate the Awujale’s noble example and endow more prestigious professorial chairs in our universities, it would go a long way to help attract funding and quality staff to these beleaguered institutions. It is not surprising that the Chair and Institute have attracted some of the country’s best and brightest scholars to OOU. The first occupant of the Chair was renowned political scientist, Professor Ayo Olukotun while the current occupant is another accomplished political scientist with immense global reach and influence, Professor Adigun Agbaje.

Some of the illustrious scholars who have delivered lectures under the institute’s auspices include the eminent geographer, Professor Akin Mabogunje, the historian and polyvalent scholar, Professor Toyin Falola, a former Regional Adviser for Africa, United Nations-Habitat, Professor Oyebanji Oyeyinka, and foremost historian and Emeritus Professor, Anthony Asiwaju. Noting that the Chair is the first of its kind in Nigeria and Africa, Professor Asiwaju described Oba Adetona as “the oracle of Ijebuland, the voice of the voiceless, the epitome of moral authority, defender of people’s rights and exemplar of responsible governance”. It is difficult to disagree with him.

April 30, 2022
Why always Peseiro?

Please forgive me. Why is it that when enlightened Nigerians become members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), they are struck by a bug which troubles their thought processes until their tenure lapses? We celebrate every new board on the proposition that those elected would purge the place of its vices and bring forth new ideas which would make the Dankaro House in Abuja the silver lining in the darkest clouds that have enveloped this country. I’m still pinching myself to find out this NFF board is engulfed in crises, though its birth was the most troublesome in the federation’s history. Something tells me that there are evil forces in the Dankaro House that loathe success because Nigeria is the biggest exporter of talented footballers across genders. Indeed, those who are hounding this present NFF board won’t do any better since most of them have been there in the past – making one ask what they forgot in the Dankaro House?

With this type of chaotic environment, nothing good can come out of the place except those hunting the hunter being hunted. A caveat needs to be introduced in the statutes which forbid anyone who has served in the NFF for two terms from returning to the place in whatever position, including the NPFL and other WAFU, CAF and FIFA bodies. These are the attractive pecks which make NFF, NPFL and the country’s soccer very toxic. These continental appointments are at the root of all the fights in the federation. Firstly, with the change of guards when the new members are sworn. That way, aspiring to be the members of the federation would be less attractive. Until this rule is inserted in the statutes and applied, each succeeding federation would be worse than the board that it replaced.

Yes, if you want to soil your name, aspire to be a member of the NFF or its ancillary bodies such as the NPFL. The place is jinxed. We need to hasten the National Assembly to the NFF Bill to Mr President for his assent if we truly want the country’s football to be run like a business as in other climes. It is possible. I digress!

Credit must be given to the Italian gem Mario Balotelli for today’s headline why always Peseiro? We read Why always Balotelli? Balotelli’s football skills are matchless. His confidence with the ball intimidates everyone but his character and patience have been thrown out of the window making him look outrageous among others in the game. His precocious dribbling skills are only matched by Nigeria’s great Austin Okocha, no hyperbole. Balotelli’s story can’t be written here because of space constraints and I imagine that he must have changed a bit as he grows older.

The search for a new Technical Adviser for the Super Eagles is looking like the exclusive rights of Portuguese Jose Peseiro. Granted that Nigeria had zeroed her choice to Peseiro shortly before the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, good sense prevailed on the NFF to stick with the home-based coaches with Austin Eguavoen as the Head Coach. It made sense since Nigeria’s preparations had been torn to shreds with the sacking of Gernot Rohr who had overstayed his welcome after the 2018 World Cup held in Russia.

In fact, Nigeria’s journey to the 2021 AFCON and the matches leading to the final clash against Ghana had been bumpy with most pundits wondering what it was that kept Rohr on the job with results that in the past sacked others. The public outcry was loud for Rohr’s sack based on the Eagles’ nerve wrenching results. The government intervened and Rohr was asked to step aside. Before, the government’s intervention the federation had scouted Peseiro and even suggested that the Portuguese joined the team as an observer. What was the hurry in recruiting Peseiro became the swansong among most of the critics. Soon the idea was thrown into the bin, leaving Nigerian coaches to prosecute the country’s AFCON matches within the short time left to the continental soccer competition.

Nigeria’s ouster from the Qatar 2022 World Cup from November to December 18 led to the disbandment of the Eagles’ technical crew, leaving the window for the recruitment of a foreign coach as the only acceptable option – but such a foreigner must be damned good with an intimidating profile of recent achievements, not an astrologer. The joker. The government accepted to pay the wages of the foreign coach and football lovers waited with bated breath. You won’t blame them. Not with the federation’s bad past with foreign coaches.

Suddenly, a rich list of four top-rated managers namely Frenchman Laurent Blanc, Dutchman Cocu, Spaniard Ververde and Peseiro was again added. The Portuguese manager has not stayed more than two years on a job since 2004, managing a total of 15 different clubs including Al Ahly, where he was chased out after only three months after fans protested against the decision to employ him based on his weak résumé. What a journeyman – rejected by a club side and adored by the NFF. Shame.

Any ardent soccer fan would pick Blanc as the first choice, Cocu second and Ververde third, leaving Peseiro on the lurch, given the quartet’s pedigree in the game, especially their recent feats. Not so for the NFF technical committee members who in their wisdom chose Peseiro ahead of the others. Not unexpected of them more so without telling us what Blanc, Cocu and Ververde lack when placed side by side with Peseiro. Typical of the committee, it chose to tell us that one of the managers asked for $250,000 a month in wages without naming him. The members leaked the story of Nigeria not willing to pay more than $55,000, not forgetting the fact that Peseiro who was begged to accept $55,000 before AFCON 2021 held in Cameroon, was now ready to accept $50,000 from which he would pay his two assistants – we are conversant with this line.

Unknown to the committee, handlers of Blanc and Cocu who submitted their note of interest through a former Nigeria international, contacted the government to say that their clients were waiting for European club assignments which were more engaging. So, who did the committee members talk with? Or was the interview skewed to favour Peseiro? What transpired at the meeting? Full disclosure, please.

With the seeming deadlock in the choice of a foreign Technical Adviser, shouldn’t it be the best opportunity to look inwards to pick the country’s best coaches in the domestic league to jumpstart another rebuilding exercise with the Eagles? After Nigeria’s spectacular Mundial outing in the US, the federation chieftains then sought the services of the late Shuaibu Amodu, who was then the best domestic coach to handle the Super Eagles, following the absence of Clemens Westerhof. The late Amodu’s first outing was against The Three Lions of England with the international friendly slated for the famous Wembley Stadium.

This writer can still paint the picture of the late Amodu, hands akimbo inside the Wembley Stadium with his thoughts running wild as the players loosened up before the game the next day. The decision to appoint Amodu divided the country sharply because of Westerhof’s incredible records which he achieved over five years. But we had our destiny in our hands – a change we must accept and Amodu fitted the bill like glue. The Eagles gave a creditable performance against the English with the game ending in a 1-0 loss.

Yes, the yoke was broken. Amodu had joined the league of coaches who brought teams to play at Wembley and gave a good account of themselves. Until Amodu passed on, he guided Nigeria twice to grab the World Cup qualification ticket but wasn’t allowed to savour the sweetness of the Mundial, where only the best in all its ramifications compete for honours.

We have reached the 1994 era but this time with the game on its knees. Yet, we can’t surrender. Therefore, it wouldn’t be out of the practice to name Rivers United FC of Port Harcourt’s manager Stanley Eguma as the next Super Eagles Head Coach. He has what it takes. He reminds me of the late Amodu. Come in Stanley Eguma, it is your time to handle the Super Eagles. let’s take the risk.

April 30, 2022
Education, ethnicity and progress

A focus today on what I call social engineering and have the cheek to give my own definition of that . It is a way    of   interest groups in society at large trying to mould their society to reflect their way of life   and values and getting political power to boot . That surmises the three concepts that form the topic of the day and I will illustrate with examples from our Great Nigeria , Germany and the so called champion of democracy , the USA .

In Nigeria there is an accepted gap in education between the North   and the South and that is the genesis of our national character syndrome and the zoning political accouterment . If   federal positions in government and its parastatals are based on merit , the North would be eating dust and the south will be blazing the trail in such appointments . But politics and the concept of unity in diversity , our motto , interceded and we are where we are today . The North is ascendant and dominant in federal political and bureaucratic appointments and the south is left holding the can in a manner of logic turned on its head . But then that is the goal of unity in diversity in a federation handed to us in 1960 at Independence , when and where the British colonialists wanted the North by all means to call the shots in terms of power and politics , after their reluctant exit from a lucrative colonial    outpost . The British never forgave the progressive elite from the south that challenged their authority fearlessly in Lagos their capital , and in   unforgiving retaliation , they gave empathy and approbation to the Northern aristocracy , indeed the Fulani hegemony that held the North head bowed in full obedience to British colonialism in the administrative colonial apparatus they dubbed Indirect Rule .

Nevertheless the pre and post Independent leadership of the North was alive to the educational    deficit with the south   and was keen on bridging it in the shortest possible time . That was to be expected because the Sardauna of Sokoto , Sir Ahmadu Bello and his loyal deputy Abubakar Tafawa Balewa , the first Prime Minister of Nigeria were both teachers and knew the value of education in economic and political development and knew the North at Independence was far behind the south educationally .They used crash training programmes in some of the world’s finest universities , management and strategy and diplomatic institutions to position freshly trained Northerners in the federal civil service and the dividend yielded enormously till today , the Northern domination and discrimination not with standing . Unfortunately both leaders were executed in the military coup of Jan 1966 and since then the North   has been in limbo on catching up on the educational gap between the North and the south .Until the advent of JAMB which was aimed at slowing the widening of the educational   gap    between the North and the south .In the aftermath of the demise of these two pro education leaders of the North , a famous Northern musician Bala Miller claimed at a political rally in Kaduna , that if the North had spent the money and funds it used for hajj and lesser hajj on education in   producing engineers , lawyers and doctors it would not be lagging so much behind the south in terms of political and economic progress .

It is not enough to go into the history of social engineering in Nigeria from colonial times till independence because the fruits are still ripening right in our time today and before our eyes . The North is still reluctant to give up the power the British fondly gave to it and the basis is the census . Now on the eve of the 2023 elections we want to conduct a census and that again is another political distraction with its political consequences . Look at the list of presidential contestants from the south and you will see the northern policy of divide and rule against the south very much at play . It is an old game and the fact that some aspirants will not resign when holding public positions as the electoral law demands , is part of the educational gap between the north and south and that makes politics a do or die as usual in the Nigerian political terrain .

Anyway , while ethnicity and north south divide are the sore points of our federation and unity , racism and sexism have become the bane of western civilization . I will use the examples of Germans fleeing   from their    native Germany to Paraguay in Latin America and the Education Ideology of the US Biden Administration   reportedly using funds approved for covid comfort to further anti racist educational policies it says are inclusive ,promoting equality and eliminating discrimination from a historical perspective ,   to boost the topic of the day .

I watched a video interview on BBC and was aghast at how the BBC interviewer   brazenly tried to label those she was interviewing as racist . The interviewer had asked   the   German    migrants to Paraguay why they fled Germany as the news was that thousands of Germans were running to Paraguay . A German couple had replied timidly that they were not comfortable with many Muslim men harassing Germans for German women not covering their heads in Germany . The German couple said it would be dangerous for them to say this in their own country . Then to my horror the BBC reporter said that what they were saying was racist . That to me was a good example of the cancel culture that made these Germans flee their nation Germany because of hostile Muslim migrants , to Paraguay which they see as an accommodating Christian nation where they are welcome as free migrants and not discarded as racists for expressing their opinions .

In the same vein I read that three Democratic US states , namely California , New York and Illinois have used covid 19 relief funds to promote Critical Race Theory in their schools .The Democrats passed what they called the American Rescue Plan –ARP – to reopen schools in 2021 during the pandemic but they are using the opportunity to redraw history and do some educational social engineering in the process and sell their Critical Race Theory that teaches school children that   the white race is responsible for slavery and racism and white children should accept that from school age . I have disagreed    before on the grounds that two wrongs do not make a right   and that Martin Luther King and his civil rights movement took care of such racism emphatically and with dignity and respect .In particular the California Dept of Education reportedly used funds to ‘ increase educator training and resources in subjects such as anti bias strategies , environmental literacy , ethnic studies and ‘ LGBTQ plus cultural competency ‘ There can be no better example of cultural befuddlement and disorientation with a political flavor to reward those who the government of the day thinks were responsible for putting it in power by voting for it in the 2020 presidential election . It is a shameless lesson in political social engineering .

April 30, 2022
Omisore’s second coming

It was an unusual spectacle. Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State led the mammoth crowd that held a reception in honour of Senator Iyiola Omisore in Osogbo, the capital of the state during the week. Speaker after speaker at the event praised the former Deputy Governor of the state and now National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and welcome him back to the progressives fold after many years in what they described as political wilderness. It was obvious to all that Omisore, sitting among the people, was more than happy.

He is not a stranger in the camp of the progressives. He started as one of them and only left the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2003 to pursue his still unrealized governorship ambition. His return to the fold after many years in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a short stint in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) is more like a second coming. And he is leaving nobody with any doubt that he intends to make the best use of the chance offered him by fate.

An elated Omisore described his emergence as APC National Secretary as a victory for all that will ensure all-round victory for the party at the Osun governorship polls and in next year’s general elections.

He urged members to continue to work for unity and progress of the party while thanking party leaders including APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande and all the party’s governors for their support. Surely, there’s nothing like a homecoming.

April 16, 2022
Dirty Fuel: What changed for the Reps?

Nigerians have been left asking questions after the House of Representatives decided not to sanction those who imported methanol-blended contaminated PMS in January this year.

Sentry learnt from the grapevine that some groups and individuals are planning to publicly reject the verdict of the lower house. To them, justice has not been done in the matter. The question on the lips of many is: what has changed?

Tempers rose on Thursday when the Representatives said nobody would be sanctioned for the supply of adulterated petrol which caused a major crisis in Nigeria’s fuel chain and untold hardship.

It would be recalled that at the plenary of the House on February 10, 2022, several members called for sanctions against Federal Government agencies and officials who failed to carry out due diligence before passing the product to marketers.

But it appears many of many of the federal legislators have had a change of mind on the matter. Or is it that they are now better informed than they were then? Something definitely changed.

At the plenary on Thursday, the House simply adopted the reviewed report on the investigation by its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), which exonerated both the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the suppliers in the Direct Sale-Direct Purchase deal between the Federal Government and the importers.

With the House now giving a clean bill to all accused in the matter, Sentry is still wondering ‘who dunnit?

April 16, 2022
PYO’s declaration

At last, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), this week, formally announced, via a recorded video shared on social media, his aspiration to contest the 2023 presidential election in a bid to succeed his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari. This move has been much speculated and anticipated despite the good professor’s hitherto public reticence on the matter. Numerous individuals and groups across the country have been calling on him to join the race, most of them, stressing that his two terms of loyal service and supposedly productive experience in this administration place him in the best position to consolidate and improve on its achievements between 2015 and next year.

Understandably, many supporters of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the obvious frontline aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) perceive Osinbajo’s ambition as a betrayal of the APC National Leader. They argue that it was Tinubu who, as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, appointed Osinbajo as his Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General for the eight years thus giving him an opportunity to break into Nigerian politics and public life in the emergent democratic dispensation.

Osinbajo has remained an integral part of Tinubu’s inner circle and one of his closest confidantes who thus implicitly accepted the Jagaban as his political leader with the latter proposing him to be the vice presidential candidate to the then Presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari on the ticket of APC in 2015. True, there was an original understanding that Tinubu himself would be Buhari’s running mate in the 2015 election following the successful merger of the legacy parties that produced the APC as comprehensively and meticulously documented by the founding National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, in his explosive book, ‘My Participations’; an account which is yet to be credibly challenged beyond vulgar abuse by those who have not even read the book. But with the emergence of Buhari as presidential candidate of the APC in 2014, opponents of a Muslim-Muslim ticket had the upper hand leading to Tinubu’s choice of Osinbajo for the position, a nomination accepted by Buhari.

Attempts by revisionists to proffer an alternative narrative delinking Tinubu from Osinbajo’s emergence as Vice President in 2015 have largely fallen flat being empirically vacuous and analytically untenable. Indeed, those in the know posit that Osinbajo was not Tinubu’s first choice for the position. Rather, his first choice was, reportedly, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, his Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget between 1999 and 2004 when he left government for the Harvard Kennedy School on winning the Micheal Romer Memorial Scholarship. A fervent Catholic from an illustrious Lagos family, Cardoso, a respected financial sector and development policy expert, was one of the critical architects of the Tinubu administration’s Ten-Point Agenda that guided its developmental trajectory. His strict enforcement of budgetary discipline earned Cardoso the cognomen, ‘headmaster’, among his Cabinet colleagues and top civil servants.

This remarkably self-effacing technocrat, astonishingly, stoutly refused all attempts to put him forward as Vice Presidential nominee. Much earlier, when there was a vacancy in the office of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State with the exit of Senator Bucknor Akerele from the Cabinet, Mr. Cardoso was Tinubu’s first choice to occupy the office of Deputy Governor. Strenuous efforts by Tinubu and other party leaders of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) to persuade him to accept the offer was, again, stoutly resisted by Cardoso hence the emergence of the no less astute banker and technocrat, Otunba Femi Pedro, as Deputy Governor in 2003.

Did Tinubu do Osinbajo a favor by appointing him as Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Lagos State in 1999? Most certainly no. Osinbajo’s appointment was predicated on his solid intellect, professional expertise and ethical integrity. Also, he had previously served as Special Assistant to Justice Bola Ajibola who was Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the regime of Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida. Tinubu recognized Osinbajo’s expertise in the legal profession and gave him an opportunity to showcase his talent and flower along with other outstanding professionals and technocrats that he assembled in his still unrivaled Cabinet of 1999.

Supported by some other very bright members of his Ministry’s management team such as the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, the cerebral writer, Mr. Fola Arthur-Worrey, who was later elevated to the position of Commissioner for Lands, Osinbajo shone brightly in the ministry. There are hundreds of equally brilliant, perhaps even more accomplished, scholars in diverse fields in Nigeria, who are unsung and unheralded outside academia because they have had no opportunity to actualize their potentials in the public sphere and have not been given wings to fly.

Is Osinbajo’s joining the presidential race then a betrayal of his former boss and political mentor who had, three months earlier, publicly expressed his aspiration for the same office? Most certainly no, in my view. He is eminently legally and morally qualified to do so. Moreover, a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Osinbajo surely did not swear to any oath before an Okija shrine pledging not to aspire to any higher office in future. So the question of betrayal does not arise. But are there pertinent moral and ethical questions involved in PYO’s decision? I think so.

I recall that a number of times when, Chief Bola Ige as governor of Oyo State between 1979 and 1983 and even after, during Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s lifetime, was asked if he had an interest in contesting for the presidency of Nigeria, Chief Ige’s consistent refrain was always that “For as long as Chief Awolowo is alive and is interested in contesting for the presidency of Nigeria, I have no desire to contest for the office”. Was it that Bola Ige considered himself inadequate for the office or inferior to the great Awo? Obviously no. Despite his unhidden dislike for the person and politics of Awolowo, the preeminent African novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe, for instance, wrote in his 1983 slim classic, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, that “Awolowo’s team of state executives has men of undoubted ability. Bola Ige, however the ‘political ebullition’ of Oyo State may toss him around, is one of the brightest and most accomplished members of my generation”.

Many of those who had a personal antipathy against Awolowo outside Yorubaland, for instance, would have found Bola Ige more acceptable. He was an erudite legal mind, a Senior Advocate like Awo. Bola Ige attended the prestigious Ibadan Grammar School and the University of Ibadan before graduating in law from the University of London. As a result of his impoverished background, Awolowo had a variegated educational career attending mission schools at Ikenne, Abeokuta and Ibadan, obtaining a bachelor of commerce degree of the University of London through correspondence courses before acquiring a law degree from the same institution as an external student through strenuous hardwork. Bola Ige was fluent in Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. Awolowo spoke only Yoruba and English. Bola Ige was a charismatic orator. Awolowo was not an eloquent speaker. Bola Ige was reportedly not antithetic to the good life – quality wine, tasteful music and…I don’t know. Awolowo’s rigid asceticism put off many who saw this as a mark of arrogance. Ige could well have made a credible bid for Nigeria’s presidency in Awolowo’s lifetime but he never did. Why?

Could it be that the famed Cicero from Esa Oke never forgot that at the age of 23, he became the organizing secretary of the defunct Action Group in 1953 courtesy of Awolowo who recognized his organizational and oratorical talents? The heavens would not have fallen if someone else had been appointed to the party position. Could it be that he never forgot that this early opportunity paved the way for him to become Commissioner for Agriculture in the Western Region Military government between 1967 and 1970? Could it be that he always remembered that all these in turn contributed to his becoming elected governor of Oyo State between 1979 and 1983? Could it be that he reasoned that with Awolowo’s superlative performance as Premier of Western Nigeria in the First Republic, the leader could readily perform the same feat for Nigeria at the national level and there was no need for him to vie for the same position if it was not about selfish interest? Could it be that, for him, faithfulness to leadership was a spiritual and moral desideratum once there is no fundamental difference of value and principle between leader and mentee?

Much earlier, in the First Republic, the successor to Chief Awolowo as Premier of Western Nigeria in 1959, the no less illustrious Chief S.L.A. Akintola, made a different value judgement. It is unfortunate that the turn of events has denied SLA his rightful place in the country’s political history. He was an otherwise sagacious lawyer, quick-witted orator, fluent multi-linguist, powerful writer and editorialist, ruthless polemicist and more. In the words of Awolowo, whose foremost adversary SLA later became, “Chief S.L.A. Akintola is also an able lawyer. He is a breezy, affable character who cannot be ruffled easily, if at all. His peculiar gift consists in his capability to argue and defend two opposing points of view with equal competence and plausibility. This quality backed by his sense of humour and his capacity for nuances made him an insoluble puzzle to our opponents”. But what is SLA, rightly or wrongly, largely remembered for today? A perceived desperate attempt to subvert and supercede his political leader. A deficit of loyalty. A deficiency of fidelity. A willing tool in the hands of those political forces bent on dividing and destabilizing the South- West politically. History has a capacious memory and can be a brutal and unforgiving judge.

Some commentators particularly on social media have sought to castigate Osinbajo for premising his campaign on what he perceives to be the legacies of the Buhari administration, which he promises to consolidate if elected. But every government has its merits and deficits. Should the Vice President base his campaign on the failings of the administration in which he serves? Of course no. Despite the insecurity crisis that has blurred many of its achievements in diverse sectors, the Buhari administration has recorded some gains that any APC candidate will naturally campaign on. Is Osinbajo the best candidate to continue and consolidate on these legacies as he promises to? I don’t think so. We will consider why some other time.

April 16, 2022
Drama of presidential declarations

This week is remarkable in the nation’s quest for a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party’s permutations for power retention beyond 2023.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in the eye of the storm. They are enveloped in crisis and unable to resolve their contradictions. The ruling party is waging war against itself. The main opposition party is also fighting itself.

Major contenders in APC for the position of the president are perfecting their strategies as they anticipate the release of primary guidelines. But there is time constraint. They are rushing to hatch plots that will give them an edge.

In the PDP, gladiators are battling to settle the zoning controversy. They need to agree that rotation is sacrosanct. But a section of latter-day power brokers in the opposition party is bent on dishonouring the long standing pact. The rift has polarised the national party in North and South. While the North, flaunting its numerical superiority, is scheming for the retention of the ticket in the region as a prelude to the retention of the presidency, the South, which is fretting due to its weak persuasive and bargaining power, is struggling for power shift through zoning or rotation.

If the Northern PDP Caucus succeeds in its bid, it may affect the permutations in the APC. The likelihood exists that some northern leaders of APC may want to shift ground on zoning by cunningly suggesting an open contest. The approach will ultimately collapse party unity, which is even still theoretical at the moment.

APC also has another hurdle to cross, even if zoning is affirmed by convention. The decision on micro-zoning will still be hanging. To which zone should the presidential ticket be micro-zoned among the West, East and South? Which among them is the stronghold of the ruling party in Southern Nigeria? What is the strength of APC in the Southeast and the Southsouth?

Both parties now face a common national difficulty. Nigeria is preparing for election in an atmosphere of worsening insecurity, which stares the political actors and ordinary citizens in the face. There is a resolve to get tickets for contests. There is no corresponding determination to make the atmosphere conducive for peaceful poll, at least, for now. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is ready. The parties are getting set. But the environment is not at peace. The climate is cloudy, particularly in the Northwest, the Northeast, and the Southeast, which is battling with a curious sit-at-home and internal strife.

Some commentators have described the outgoing week as one with surprises. It is debatable. There is nothing that is happening that has not been anticipated. The drama is now part and parcel of the nation’s political culture.

To those who are piqued by the situation in the Southwest APC, where former loyal disciples are squaring up with their leader, it is a week of betrayal. This too, as some people have cautioned, should be viewed from the perspective of the exercise of the right to contest. In politics, they argued, there is no morality. But can a society survive without moral values and restraints?

Generally, it is a time of heightened anxiety. To discerning Nigerians, it is a period of sober reflection.

The battles for the tickets will be fierce, judging by these scenarios. The process is highly competitive. The Southwest’s united progressive front of 2015 is facing a serious threat and test of survival. Cracks on the wall have widened and cannot be easily mended. Are things not falling apart in Yoruba land as the zonal chapter of the ruling party cannot speak with one voice?

The agony revolves around the inability of the so-called politically conscious race to avoid the mistake of the past. It appears that the Yoruba are unwilling to learn from their gnashing of teeth over the elusive hope of liberation by the Best President Nigeria never had, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and the subversion of the mandate that the Nigerian electorate massively gave another kinsman, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, which, according to observers, had sealed the bright prospect of a real progressive administration at the centre.

Ahead of next year’s presidential poll, the stakes, as usual, are high. Nigeria needs a competent, experienced and unifying successor to President Muhammadu Buhari.

But other issues will also shape the struggle for political control. The president of Nigeria is powerful. The overcentralisation of power in the unitary system the country is masquerading as a federal state makes him more powerful. Not only does the flawed 1999 Constitution accords the highest office uncanny prerogatives, the president can also exercise some unearned powers, as underscored by the issuance of certain executive orders, which the judiciary has now outlawed.

Any president of Nigeria is a maker of history. But he may not necessarily become a giant of history, if there is gap in role fulfilment and citizens cannot marry expectation with reality under his leadership. The result may be agitation by people who will naturally anticipate the end of an era. This is the current national experience. It means people are eager to put the current experience behind them as they yearn for a new lease of life.

Yet, the pre-eminent office has never been a unifying factor. It has not acquired a national outlook as its occupant, although elected by the whole Nigerian constituency, is often perceived as a representative or personification of a regional agenda. This perception tends to shape the struggle for federal power by the antagonistic social formations that fear marginalisation, alienation, exclusion and domination. It may persist until the presidency becomes a critical factor in forging integration.

The history of Nigeria shows that many have become presidents by circumstances. While those who have vision, plans and programmes to put the beleaguered country on the fast lane to progress have either been deprived, frustrated, ignored or edged out, Nigeria has had to endure the imposition and lack of performance by those who belonged to its “second eleven”.

Remarkably, some critics have alluded to the inexplicable influence of few political principals and principalities who dote on the polity during the periodic elections. They often refer to certain Generals in blissful retirement, super monarchs, top politicians and few key industry players as the entrenched forces who determine where the pendulum should swing. They could be counted on fingers of one hand. It is said that if a president is not cast in their image, they can package some sin ister plots to blackmail and weaken his administration.

This reality or fable may be responsible for the quest for their backing or endorsement by aspirants who quite understand that these statesmen, who operate outside the main political parties, are battling with the inevitability of fading relevance and eclipse of prestige.

It is also during the periodic electioneering that politicians show their true colours of treachery and bitterness, as well as their capacity for sudden compromise and last-minute consensus building.

There is much lesson to learn from political styles, decoys, tricks, intrigues and prevarications, which are elements of the unfolding drama.

In Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, a thanksgiving service instantly transformed into a declaration ground. Some guests of Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi, including Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had to confront the reality of a grand presidential declaration in the main bowl of the stadium.

The man of the moment, and chief mourner of the recent train bombing, who thought that his colleagues in the Federal Executive Council (FCE) never trusted him, beckoned on over 200 million Nigerians to trust him with presidential power.

Also, after series of denial, speculations about Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s next move ended. The vice president, who had transferred his polling booth from Victoria Garden City in Lekki, Lagos State to Ikenne in Ogun State, refused to gather a crowd, resorting to social media declaration. Instantly, some people said he either lacked followership or a formidable structure, or he has not fully transformed from an eloquent technocrat to a full-fledged politician.

Pastor Osinbajo, who spotted a black dress, never smiled throughout his declaration broadcast. He deployed his peculiar oratory prowess. But he never promised any new thing that could inspire or engender trust and confidence. He could not isolate or dissociate himself from the current regime, despite his apparent sensitivity to public disenchantment.

Osinbajo, a widely travelled man, said he had been to virtually all the 774 local governments in Nigeria. Visiting them means that he knows the country extensively. But what has that translated to in over seven years that he has been in Aguda House in Abuja?

He promised security and jobs, which the administration has not been able to accomplish in seven years, despite APC’s emphasis on the campaign promises. The modalities for his proposed turnaround are unknown, making the renewed promise to pale into mere rhetoric.

Many frowned when Osinbajo promised to build on the foundation laid by his boss. Observers suspected a faulty assessment of the regime by a key player. While some people said he could not highlight the achievements he wanted to build upon, others said it was evident that the Number Two Citizen lacked the confidence to campaign based on the administration’s scorecard that has been characterised by implementation deficiencies.

If Osinbajo had just promised the immediate release of captured bombed train passages and instant end to ASUU strikes, perhaps, he would have carried the day.

Part of the drama was that when reporters requested for his leader’s reaction to the declaration by his political son, the Jagaban Borgu said: “I don’t have a son grown up enough to make such declaration.” To analysts, it signalled another critical parting of ways that may be temporary or permanent.

But, gullible and imaginary supporters in some states danced round selected capital towns in celebration of the vice president’s ambition. The exuberant organisers of rallies spoke glowingly about the VP. However, when those dancing blindly behind them were asked by reporters to explain their motivation, their responses were vague. It appeared they momentarily savoured the economy generated around the declaration, which was short-lived.

Few days later, news filtered that the war scholar, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), would declare his intention to run for President after Easter. Last year, prominent northern leaders described him as the son of the legendary Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello, former Premier of defunct Northern Region. It is now time to cross the bridge, as Fayemi promised in his two previous interviews with the Channels Television.

It was also learnt that Senator Ibikunle Amosu, former governor of Ogun State, may join the race. He is often said to be the first closest ally of the President in the Southwest.

Yesterday, a there were speculations that some interest groups also want Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola to move from what looks like the partisan sideline to the open field.

To analysts, if, at least, four people from the Southwest are eyeing the ticket, it is a crowd. It is a moment of emotional wrenching for patriotic Yoruba sons and daughters because not only do the four belong to one family, three of them are actually challenging the family head to a duel.

As the primaries draw near, there may be more intrigues, shifts in alliance, collaborations, backstabbing, disillusionment, confusion, conflict resolution, new deals, parleys, explosions and turmoil.

The wheeling and dealing will be another dimension to the drama.

April 16, 2022
2023: Subdued godfatherism and the burden of choices

Democracy as a system of government can be as exciting as it can equally be intriguing. For a developing nation like Nigeria, a lot is obviously at stake at all the tiers of government. The political parties seem a bit lost about the value of democratic choices. The two biggest political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been following the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s pre-election timetables.

Political parties are the vehicles through which political political actors can access the offices they seek. This is why intra-party democracy is very important in ensuring that the voice of the people is allowed to speak at all stages of the electoral processes. Sadly however, since 1999, the Nigerian political parties seem to have had a history of a few individuals sabotaging the will of the people in different political parties through their interferences with the emergence of party candidates.

While we acknowledge the historical impact of the military in the Nigerian political space since after independence, the Roundtable Conversation believes that the civilian politicians ought to have weaned their psyche from the stranglehold of the military sensibilities. The idea of political party leadership, the presidency and governors acting like king-makers for Nigerians has brought a lot of problems to the stability of Nigerian democracy.

We can recall former President Obasanjo insisting on installing a late Umaru Yar’Adua even when he knew he had health challenges. He died in office. We can recall how governors and party leaderships became too powerful that they determined who gets to win some primary elections for both state and federal legislature. Then we watched the battle between governors and the National Assembly members in ways that almost destabilized some states.

From Abia state then, we saw the rivalry between the then governor Orji Uzor Kalu and then Senate President Adolphus Wabara, Ebonyi state had the then governor Sam Egwu, now Senator at daggers drawn with former Secretary to the government and then Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim. From the Ebeano governorship of Chimaroke Nnamani, it was daggers drawn with his former mentor, former governor of then Anambra state, Chief Jim Nwobodo and a whole lot of others.

Make no mistakes about it, deft politicking goes on in all democracies but in Nigeria, due to systemic flaws, there seems to be some out-of the line interferences by individuals who on being inaugurated into offices swore to protect the constitution but end up not doing that. The idea of usurping the role of the people in a democracy has dire consequences as we can see with the level of violence during elections, apathy of voters, myriad of post-election litigations that often affect the performance and finances of the nation at various levels.

As we prepare for the 2023 general elections, it is interesting that the party primaries are fast approaching and Nigerians expect that the elected members of the different political parties will understand democracy and play by the rules. Choice is an integral part of valid democracies and the Nigerian people deserve the right to elect people who they want. That way, they can be happy to vote and hold those they vote into office to account.

As the party primaries draw closer, the Roundtable Conversation wishes that all the political parties realize that doing the same thing all the time and expecting a different result is a form of delusion. The beauty of intra-party democracy is the affirmation by participants in the process of their belief in the beauty of democracy. Imposition of candidates by any individual or group is a rape of democracy and the revulsion we feel about sexual rape extends to political rape too.

Justice in intra-party politics creates a level playing field for everyone to test their acceptance with the people in ways that translate to those chosen owing their allegiance to the people in ways that make them serve according to the manifesto they presented to the people. That makes the candidates realize that their assessment by the people matters and as such they are often at their productive best.

When parties do not follow the democratic processes to present candidates for the general elections, the obvious result is the anarchy Nigerians experience during elections as thuggery and other forms of violence often truncate the process and the other candidates often head to court or in some cases instigate violence. The country needs all the peace democracy can present at this time when insecurity has disrupted the socio-economic progress of the people.

The famous 1993 election that saw a victorious late MKO Abiola ought to be the benchmark for Nigerian elections. For an MKO to have defeated his opponent, late Bashir Tofa in his own state in the North says a lot about the liberty the people of all tribes and religion can exercise during elections. It was considered as the fairest and freest election in Nigerian history because of the freedom the people were allowed. The choice in any viable democracy remains with the people.

It is very sad that in most states in Nigeria, incumbent governors serving out their terms often impose their choice of candidates to succeed them and in the process inflict untold socio-economic and political injuries on the states. Beyond their successors, they often influence those that go to the State and National Assemblies. This attitude has somewhat eroded the roles of the executive and legislative arms of government as in most cases the candidates so anointed owe their allegiance to those that anointed them rather than their constituencies.

Nigerian political parties must treat their positions as very sacred. They ought to hold their positions in trust for the people as mere organizers of the political process. Interference in the choice of the people is a form of betrayal and this accounts for why the people seem to have lost faith in the political processes. The lack of trust has its dire consequences, it erodes trust which ought to be at the heart of patriotism and citizenship, it alienates the people from the political class in ways that the people see them as enemies and it fuels discontent and insecurity.

The country is in such a space that the only road to progress must be paved with reconciliatory attitude that speaks justice and peace in the ways parties handle their affairs. Nigeria needs new heroes of democracy to be added to the much revered heroes of our independence. We need more heroes of democracy that can unite and heel the country through fairness and equity.

Fair intra-party politics have many advantages. It opens up the political space for the best ideas to come to play in the political field. The song and dance about women, youth and people living with disabilities’ inclusiveness would be a normal situation when each demographic can freely access power and contribute and win or lose on their merit,

This present process alienates as the parochial narrative about only men being leaders is pushed further with the closing of the competitive space through undemocratic processes. Every individual in a democracy is entitled to a choice and that includes the choice to seek office, vote and be voted for.

Nigerian political parties must stop playing the ostrich and feigning to be practicing democracy when in real terms they are not. When the field is made level, the varied groups of humans would realize that political participation is not an exclusive of any group but an open field where the best of ideas compete. Nation building is a collective duty that involves every capable hand and so each idea must be allowed to flourish.

The state governors across the country must realize that the global political space keeps evolving and monarchical practice is not a synonym of democracy. Nigerian governors wield too much influence that makes them appear like emperors in the ways they monopolize party structures for their own political growth as they often seek higher offices like the presidency or even senatorial seats even when they have no legacies from such governorship positions for either after four or eight years.

The vaulting ambitions of most governors is reason why Nigerian democracy seem stunted. Their eyes are often on the future position they intend to occupy. Politicians must look beyond the next elections. We have to plan for the future of our democracy bearing in mind that life is not always about politics. There are many other variables that assist development.

Nigerian democracy can only flourish with a deeper understanding and practice of the core tenets of democracy. The power of choice must be returned to the people and as such individuals are forced to build up the pedigrees upon which their political lives can depend and as such the field becomes open for everyone.

Democracy is a journey of a people and more like a team game. Each individual in a team must contribute his or her part and the aggregate of all the parts make up the development of the nation. The Roundtable Conversation is hoping that the primaries of the various political parties would be seen to be free, fair and credible. That way, winners would have the support of losers who understand that the people have made their choices. That would be a precursor to free and credible general elections that can usher in a more prosperous and safer Nigeria.

The dialogue continues…

April 16, 2022