The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Challenging times for the opposition

    Challenging times for the opposition

    The beauty of democracy is that there is a wide space for the opposition to thrive and offer an alternative route to good governance, growth, and development.

    This critical role has its root in the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of association and assembly, and the right of ruling and opposition platforms to jostle for power without let or hindrance.

    It is the duty of the opposition – political parties outside the government, individuals and groups holding opposing views on fundamental questions, and even the civil society pressing for a course of action in societal interest – to challenge the party in power and the government it has midwifed to a duel.

    Through constructive, lawful, and legitimate engagements, the government acknowledges the imperative of self-moderation. Those in power are kept on their toes, and policies and programes are properly evaluated to determine whether they meet public expectations or not. The greatest feedback on the government’s operations, machinery, and performance is offered by parties outside power through scrutiny and criticism.

    They become vital democratic assets when the alternatives they canvass are lucid, logical, objective, persuasive, convincing, and acceptable.

    Opposition parties should ordinarily be constitutional threats to ruling parties. In playing the crucial role, they need vision, skills, capacity, resources, as well as bold, brave, courageous, resourceful, and dynamic leadership. The authentic opposition should be poles apart from the cowardice of the hypocritical political parties masquerading as alternative platforms in the country. The lack of objective actions among the nation’s opposition parties has motivated critics to now blackmail the government that it is plotting to push the country into a one-party state.

    READ ALSO; What inspired me to write ‘Joromi’ song – Simi

    Since 2023, the major opposition parties – Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) – have not put their houses in order. Internal crises, multiple litigations and factionalisation have sapped the energies of their leaders who are not in one accord.

    Unable to resolve their internal problems, they deluded themselves into thinking that they could conjure up a coalition in distress, oblivious of the fact that Nigerians were not ready to follow them to perdition.

    The PDP is split, with pro-Atiku forces now taking temporary refuge in the borrowed platform, the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The two halves cannot electorally survive on their own. Yet, reconciliation cannot be contemplated ahead of the 2027 polls. After 2027, the PDP and ADC, after a fruitless search, will try to moot reconciliation.

    Why they cannot broker a truce now is that their leaders are driven by antagonistic ambitions, and they cannot subject their individual aspirations to group interest. Currently, within the main opposition, crisis resolution is nil. All PDP stalwarts perceive themselves as leaders and they cannot subject themselves to any overriding leadership that evolved in an atmosphere of equity, fairness, and justice.

    The party’s National Working Committee (NWC) is a divided and weak administrative structure that does not command respect. It was reported that the National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, and the National Legal Secretary, Kamaldeen Ajibade, openly clashed in court over legal representation for the party.

    Today, the National Convention scheduled for Ibadan next month is being threatened by malice, hate and strife. It was proposed as a special reunion. But Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri, who was the Zoning Committee Chairman, and his Enugu counterpart, Peter Mbah, who was the Convention Committee Secretary, have dumped the party.

    Their defection trailed the departure of Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State and Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State. There are feelers that Taraba Governor Agbu Kefas may also call it quits with the main opposition.

    Those who have defected can be properly marked or tackled. But the danger for the PDP lies in the activities of those who have not defected, and may not defect but have their souls connected to the APC while their bodies remain in the PDP. They cannot be quoted as canvassing support for APC; they are actively mobilising for President Tinubu’s second-term ambition.

    ADC appears intact as an estranged PDP caucus, although the hosts – old ADC members – are at loggerheads with the new members, led by Atiku and David Mark. The snag is that the party is not waxing strong. Its membership drive has not drawn formidable politicians into its fold. Besides, there is an identity crisis for the dominant group in the party that abandoned its natural habitat, the crisis-ridden PDP.

    The NNPP is confined to Kano State, its only stronghold that is now ebbing away, unable to withstand the arrows of the APC members in the state, who deprived it of two constituencies during the recent by-elections.

    The Labour Party (LP) remains divided, the court verdict affirming the interim leadership of Esther Nenadi-Usman, notwithstanding. The party has a stunted growth, battered by in-fighting among cantankerous chieftains who cannot make sacrifices for the party to survive.

    The four opposition parties are gasping for breath, and they lack colour and character to attract patronage. Thus, their chieftains, particularly the governors, their aides, and lawmakers, are escaping from the sinking ships.

    Instructively, though the parties are in deep crises at the national level, the governors do not have problems with the state chapters they superintend as state party leaders. They also do not face serious opposition from the ruling party in their domains.

    By moving from their parties to the ruling platform, they oppose the opposing roles of the opposition.

    Those defecting claim to be captivated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s style of leadership. But they are reluctant to learn and adopt his style, which led to the survival of the Action Congress (AC), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and APC. Some analysts argue that it may be due to their lack of intellectual wherewithal, sound principles, consistency, perseverance, courage, and capacity for long-term planning, which sustained the president when he was the opposition leader. 

    Where Tinubu learnt his politics is arguably unknown. But it is obvious that he understands the language of politics more than his political rivals. The two leaders he followed – Shehu Yar’Adua of Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and Moshood Abiola – only bestrode the space as colossuses but never attained power. But, not only has Tinubu mastered their tactics; he has become the most electorally successful strategist of the Fourth Republic.

    While he was the arrowhead of the opposition from 2003 to 2015, he eschewed fear. He was focused and consistent. He was also honest in acknowledging certain limitations, one of which was that he or his progressive camp could not do it alone. He, therefore, constructed a bridge of understanding, attracting like-minds to the crusade to liberate the country from what the APC described as 16 years of misrule by the PDP.

    The tragedy of the opposition is the decimation of its ranks through defections, lack of unity, and absence of a trustworthy and unifying leader who can make sacrifices. Asiwaju Tinubu made a great personal sacrifice for his party to survive in 2015 when he lost the bid for the presidential running mate. That quality is lacking in the current scattered opposition leaders who are driven by self-serving agenda.

    The PDP of 2019 was strong and formidable. Four years later, the presidential candidate, Atiku, and his running mate, Peter Obi, parted ways. They became rivals in 2023. Ahead of 2027, PDP has now split into the mainstream PDP where Makinde/Fintiri/Bala forces do not see eye to eye with the Wike/Anyanwu camp; an ADC wallowing in self-deception and a frustrated Labour Party (LP).

    The Obi/Otti factor has its inherent limitations, both being PDP defectors  now hibernating in the LP.

    As the PDP gladiators prepare for the Ibadan Convention, they are not in one accord.

    It now boils down to the fact that while the widely advertised alliance or coalition of the opposition is crumbling, APC’s unannounced alliance and coalition with individual heavyweights it has attracted is taking shape.

    With the expectation that more opposition governors and other heavyweights will soon join the ruling party, the months ahead portend interesting times in Nigeria’s political space. But it is expected that the opposition would make frantic moves to stabilise their bases. Indeed, a stitch in time saves nine. All hopes are not lost for them to overcome their challenges.

  • Tortuous path to glory

    Tortuous path to glory

    There is sufficient celebration in the land. The country is in a frenzy with everyone offering tips on how the hitherto soulless Super Eagles can play at the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States (US). Yes, talk is cheap; hence there is the urgent need to remind the NFF chieftains and their supervisors at the NSC that the time to tell us their plans is now, especially when the playoffs for the African continent to produce a sole winner from among Nigeria, Gabon, Congo DR and Cameroun is November 18, in Morocco.

    Our soccer chiefs and their supervisors must stop their backslapping, walking majestically like overfed peacocks and pumping of their chests simply because Nigeria beat Republic of Benin 4-0. Given our players’ talent and pedigree in the game, thumbing Benin with goals should be a stroll in the park with good coaching. It is the administrative tardiness of the NFF and the NSC that has kept us in this tortuous path to glory.

    It hurts to note that there is the probability that the Eagles would be beaten groggy if any good team can cage Victor Osimhen. Osimhen’s goals are made out of half chances and good positioning. I’m not too sacred of Gabon, Cameroon and DR Congo. My fears stem from the nations that the Eagles would face at the intercontinental level who have tested and technically efficient players.

    Pray, Osimhen is an internationally acclaimed striker, which means that he would be policed through fair and foul means by opponents, starting with the November 13 teaser against Gabon in one of the CAF playoffs, the other game being between Cameroon and DR Congo. Osimhen’s contributions to the Eagles are such that it is clear to the opposition that to beat Nigeria, Osimhen must be taken out of the game completely; the way the Italians stylishly took out Daniel Amokachi and Emmanuel Amunike, thus making our dreaded USA’94 World Cup team otiose.

    Already, Osimhen wears a face mask and Europeans at the intercontinental level would throw their elbows high enough to scratch Osimhen’s face. How the Nigerian would react to such crunchy tackles would go a long way to determine how well the Eagles would play thereafter.

    In fact, Eagles manager Eric Chelle should find how he can speak to Osimhen to be of good conduct on and off the pitch, otherwise teams would deliberately provoke him to earn a red card for retaliation. And Nigeria’s quest for another World Cup appearance would have been blown away. Osimhen’s treble had his trademark of latching on to good passes and rising higher above his markers to bury crosses inside the net. It should be on everyone’s mind that there are two matches to be played in the Four-Team CAF Playoff Tournament for the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals. Perhaps, Chelle needs to either bench Stanley Nwabali or speak with the goalkeeper daily in camp; Nigeria would soon be red-carded over his outlandish behaviour during matches. I almost laughed my heart out watching Osimhen plead with Nwabali to relax over a post-match brush with a Benin player. It was a good sight. One only hopes Nwabali can also plead with Osimhen, I digress!

    The winner in Morocco will proceed to the Six-Team Intercontinental Playoff, scheduled for the Mexican cities of Guadalaja and Monterrey in March next year, where two teams will emerge and qualify for the finals in USA, Canada and Mexico.

    The winner from the African playoff will be joined by Bolivia, New Caledonia and two teams from Central America, and one from Asia. Not a piece of cake fixtures.

    READ ALSO: Nigeria to add about 130 million people by 2050, says World Bank

    Two teams from Concacaf and one team apiece from the AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL and OFC will meet in March 2026 to decide the final two qualifiers for World Cup 26. The FIFA Play-off Tournament will see six sides fight it out for the final two places at the FIFA World Cup 26 in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

    The matches will take place during the international fixture window which runs from 23 – 31 March.

    In the CAF Play-offs, Nigeria will take on Gabon’s Palancas Negras in a ‘first semi-final’ on Thursday, 13th November, with Cameroon taking on the Democratic Republic of Congo in the ‘second semi-final’ on Friday, 14th November. The two winners clash on Sunday, 16th November in the ‘final’, with the winner to proceed to the Intercontinental Play-offs scheduled for the Mexican cities of Guadalajara and Monterrey in March next year.

    From the six teams who qualify, the four lowest-ranked nations in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will meet in bracket semi-finals. The two highest-ranked teams will go directly into the finals. The winners of the two bracket finals will reach the FIFA World Cup 26. Tortuous path to glory for Nigeria. Do we have the players to clinch one of the two tickets at the intercontinental series? This writer’s response would be ‘if Osimhen would be fit and free of any form of competition injury. Otherwise, it is worrisome to accept the match fact that the team cannot win games without Osimhen.

    Besides, the NFF and NSC eggheads may have forgotten that qualifying  for the World Cup and doing well in the competition progresses attract huge sums of money which could make a debt-ridden NFF to become solvent or at the least settle a lot of their verifiable debts.  Obviously, one would have thought that the NFF would have learned a lot from not participating at the Qatar 2022 World Cup to prepare properly for next year’s edition to be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States (US). Not so, here. Grouped with South Africa, Republic of Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Lesotho, Nigeria required a breathtaking performance on the last day of the qualifiers to grab one of the CAF playoffs’ spots.

    According to FIFA, each victory in the World Cup playoffs is valued at $1.938 million, while a draw attracts $1.008 million.

    The Super Eagles ended the country’s campaign with five wins, four draws, and one loss, placing them among the top-performing teams on the continent.

    In addition, FIFA confirmed that every African nation that qualifies for the 2026 World Cup will receive a massive $9.6 million participation bonus.

    If Super Eagles win all of the country’s four matches in the playoffs (two in Africa World Cup Playoffs in Morocco and another two games in the FIFA Intercontinental playoff in Mexico in March 2026), the NFF will pocket the total sum of $9,607,320 an equivalent of N14,118,341,032.

    Aren’t these figures by FIFA mind-boggling enough to motivate the NFF members to do the right things to make the Super Eagles the toast of the world in every edition of the Mundial? The NFF is populated by distinguished academicians who ought to apply their vast experience to bear on the team’s preparations. Yet, they showcase a shambolic outing with every game for the Eagles.

  • A different coalition

    A different coalition

    Ever since his famous lamentation that rang across the country regarding his joining the coalition of opposition politicians against the re-election of President Bola Tinubu for a second term because he is hungry, not much has been heard along that line from former two-term governor of Rivers State and admittedly activist former Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi.  It may be that the leading chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has realised that his not inconsiderable bulging paunch may not be compatible with a tale of personal famishment by a man who had the privilege of holding key political offices at State and national levels for an unbroken period of nearly two and a half decades.

    Leading actors in the ADC are noticeably now less boisterous than they were at the outing of the hijacked party about the presumed ease with which they would eject President Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from power in 2027. There has been no significant response so far to the party’s recent directive that its leading lights who are yet to leave their former parties and formally register with the ADC do so forthwith, indicating a general lack of confidence in the future of the opposition’s Special Purpose Vehicle to oust the APC from power. The party has not been helped by the outcome of by-elections in which it has participated, which suggests that its grand strategy of capitalising on the hardships attendant on the drastic economic reforms undertaken by the Tinubu administration has not borne fruit, as the APC remains not only electorally dominant but continues to receive defecting opposition politicians into its ranks on an unprecedented scale.

    Even as it struggles to get itself effectively organised as a potent political and electoral force, the ADC has not come up with concrete economic policy proposals different from the reforms currently being implemented under Tinubu’s leadership despite its strident criticism that the latter have imposed avoidable hardships on Nigerians. Were such reforms as the removal of fuel subsidy and the merger of the parallel foreign exchange markets introduced at the inception of the Tinubu administration avoidable? There was a consensus among all presidential candidates going into the 2023 elections that these far-reaching policy changes had become imperative.

    Some contend that they could have been implemented in gradual, phased-out stages to limit the pain. But the argument has also been made that the kind of decisive, frontal action taken by President Tinubu on fuel subsidy and exchange rate harmonisation was critical to guarantee the success of the reforms. Half-hearted and indecisive actions in this regard by previous administrations were responsible for the persistence of the structural distortions that had virtually plunged the economy into a state indistinguishable from coma before the present administration’s surgical intervention.

    Leading lights of the ADC coalition and other critics of the reforms are yet to avail us of the magic by which they would have implemented reforms without pain, which would have been tantamount to extracting a decayed tooth without discomfort to the patient or preparing a delicious omelet without breaking eggs. Just as the coalition of opposition politicians in the ADC are motivated primarily by a desire to terminate President Tinubu’s tenancy at the Presidential Villa at the end of his first term and seek to utilize the hardships engendered by his reforms as a propaganda weapon to achieve this objective, there is a coalition of other forces who have commended the reforms, testified that they are working and beginning to yield results and contend that they must be sustained in the best long term interest of the Nigerian economy. The latter coalition is not partisan, not even political. It is not consciously organized and accommodates interests both domestic and external to the Nigerian economy.

    Furthermore, the components of the latter coalition are in a better position than the ADC anti-Tinubu coalition opposition politicians to pronounce on the health of the economy and the efficacy or otherwise of economic policy. In its 2025 World Economic Outlook (WEO) report released this week at the annual IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, DC, United States, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reflected the verdict of this non-partisan coalition on the impact and consequences of the reform policies of the Tinubu administration thus far. As this newspaper reported the event, “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised upward its Nigeria’s growth forecast to 3.9 per cent in 2025 and 4.1 per cent in 2026, citing improvements in the country’s macroeconomic outlook. The IMF stated that the upgrade of its national growth projection for Nigeria was also based on a favourable domestic situation… “.

    The report continues, “Nigeria’s upgrade was significant as many other economies saw significant downward revisions because of the changing international trade and official aid landscape. At a press briefing on the WEO, IMF Economic Counselor, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said the Fund based its outlook for Nigeria on several improving macroeconomic indicators and supportive domestic factors. He said factors responsible for the higher growth revision include higher oil production, improved investor confidence, a supportive fiscal stance in 2026, and limited exposure to higher US tariffs. He added that the fund also considered stability in the exchange rate, rising foreign reserves and rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as significant factors expected to propel the Nigerian economy forward in 2026.”

    And speaking during the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-four (G-24) press briefing in Washington, the Central Bank Governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, gave an insight into the extent to which the Tinubu administration’s reforms had gone in restructuring the economy, resulting in its greater resilience and lessened vulnerability to global shocks, including unpredictability in international tariffs. He noted that a positive trend in the economy is the increasing transition by large businesses from imports to exports of locally produced goods and commodities.

    READ ALSO: Nigeria to add about 130 million people by 2050, says World Bank

    In his words, “We now have a more competitive currency with the results that, for once, we have a situation where we have a positive balance of trade surplus, and we expect it to be six per cent in GDP for some time. So basically, what is happening is a complete restructuring of the economy, where we are encouraging people to go into domestic production, and, of course, discouraging imports. And I think we were very fortunate, because a lot of the things that were needed to have been done, we did them much earlier, and as a result of that, we’re able to create resilience and buffers against potential shocks “.

    Aligning with this growing coalescence of positive affirmation of the Tinubu administration’s economic policies, billionaire Chairman of First HoldCo, Mr Femi Otedola, recently revealed that his decision to invest personally over N320 billion in First Bank “all in cash, without borrowing a single Naira” was partly inspired by the economic reforms of the Tinubu administration. His investment journey, according to him, “aligns closely with the bold and visionary leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who deserves credit for championing the tough but necessary reforms in our economy. I also commend the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Yemi Cardoso, for his courageous and pragmatic policy reforms. His actions are restoring credibility to the financial system and giving investors like me the confidence to commit long-term capital to this country”.

    Also commenting on the tax reform bills of the administration, which will take effect as of January next year, Otedola stated on his X handle that they were a “bold, necessary step toward a more transparent, efficient, and investment-friendly economy,” asserting that “I am inspired to invest more, and many other investors share the same sentiment”. According to a report on the online medium, Nairametrics, Otedola “believes that the reforms will reduce complexity and promote fairness in tax collection; restore confidence in the use of public resources; fund infrastructure and unlock productivity; and fuel inclusive growth”.

    READ ALSO: Nigeria to add about 130 million people by 2050, says World Bank

    The President and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is a key actor in the Nigerian economy whose views and perspectives on economic and business policy cannot be taken with levity. Dangote has on several occasions identified with the coalition of thought on the positive import of the ongoing reforms for the economy. For instance, when he received the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, recently, Dangote did not mince words in applauding the administration’s economic policies. “I believe we must sincerely thank His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for ensuring that there have been improvements in the supply of crude oil,” he said, noting that “His insistence that all crude oil transactions be conducted in Naira has been particularly commendable. For us to effectively meet market demand – which we can do – it is essential that crude is priced and purchased in our local currency.”

    As this newspaper reported the event, “The leading industrialist noted that these initiatives, along with other economic reforms, have brought a measure of stability to the naira-to-dollar exchange rate. He expressed optimism that the Naira would continue to strengthen in the coming weeks as the effects of the reforms become visible. According to him, the improved market predictability has helped investors make sound business decisions and restored confidence in the investment climate. We are also beginning to see some stability in the naira-to-dollar exchange rate, which has had a positive impact. There is now less fluctuation, and this has brought a degree of predictability to the market. For those of us in the business sector, this is a welcome development, as it allows us to plan more effectively. Looking ahead, as conditions continue to improve, we can expect to see a more favourable exchange rate.”

    Another business and industry giant, President of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, shares Dangote’s optimism. Interacting with journalists at the Presidential Villa in Abuja in September, Rabiu commended what he described as the bold and decisive economic reforms of the President, pointing out that the policy changes are already yielding positive results for businesses and the currency. He told the reporters that “I expect that the exchange rate is going to strengthen even further. I expect that the rate should come down to maybe N1,300, N1,400 before the end of the year. And this is something that we should all celebrate”.

    According to a newspaper report, “Explaining the impact of recent reforms, the BUA Chairman noted that businesses no longer rely solely on the Central Bank of Nigeria for foreign exchange as many are now able to source FX independently through credit cards and international banking channels  “So, really, for all these, we must give full credit to His Excellency and the government. Their bold reforms and decisive policies are creating the foundation for a stronger economy, a more stable currency and a better future for businesses and Nigerians alike”.

    From the aviation sector, the Chairman of Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema, echoes the coalition of support for the President’s economic policies and their impact on business viability. Speaking earlier in the year during an interaction between President Tinubu and stakeholders of corporate Nigeria, Onyema applauded what he described as the President’s ‘forward-thinking approach to Nigeria’s economic development’, especially by easing challenges faced by business owners. As reported in the media, Onyema said, “President Bola Tinubu is thinking of the Nigeria of the future. The ease of doing business is coming back gradually. I can attest to that in the aviation sector because of the people he appointed to head that sector”. Onyema also attested to efforts made by the High Commission in the United Kingdom in making Air Peace flights into Gatwick Airport a possibility, including proudly publicising it.”

    Some may contend that all the foregoing only show that the ongoing economic reforms favour and are being lauded by wealthy business owners. But Nigeria runs a capitalist system, and a key measure of the health of capitalist economies is the viability and success of businesses and business owners, on which depend millions of jobs, considerable tax revenue for the government and an economy’s global competitiveness. Others argue that statistics showing improvements in such indices as inflation rate, trade surpluses, exchange rate stability or rising foreign reserves are meaningless if they do not reflect the concrete existential conditions of the majority of people. But there is no other way to measure the performance trend of an economy or the appropriateness or otherwise of economic policies. In any case, if current data had indicated a worsening of these statistical indices, the coalition of anti-Tinubu politicians would have been exuberantly jubilant.

  • Remembering the Asaba Massacre

    Remembering the Asaba Massacre

    On October 7, 1967, the streets of Asaba ran red with innocent blood. What began as a peaceful demonstration of loyalty to a unified Nigeria ended in one of the most brutal civilian massacres in the nation’s history. Over one thousand men and boys were systematically executed by advancing Nigerian federal troops in an atrocity that has remained largely unacknowledged for decades. This dark chapter in Nigeria’s civil war history demands not only remembrance but also official recognition and apology from the government.

    The descent into such madness occurred when Federal troops entered Asaba around October 5, 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War. The town, located on the western bank of the Niger River, found itself in the path of advancing forces seeking to push troops of the secessionist Republic of Biafra back into Biafran territory. What was to follow was three days of terror that would forever scar the community and leave an indelible stain on Nigeria’s national conscience.

    From the moment of their arrival, federal soldiers began ransacking houses and killing civilians indiscriminately, justifying their actions by claiming the victims were Biafran sympathizers. Reports indicate that several hundred innocent males were killed individually and in small groups at various locations throughout the town during these initial days of occupation. The violence was arbitrary, merciless, and seemingly without military purpose beyond instilling terror.

    Desperate to end the bloodshed, Asaba’s traditional leaders made a fateful decision. They summoned the townspeople to assemble on the morning of October 7, hoping that a mass demonstration of loyalty to “One Nigeria” would satisfy the federal troops and halt the killings. It was a gamble born of desperation, a plea for mercy robed in patriotic fervor.

    Hundreds of men, women, and children responded to the call. They dressed in Asaba’s ceremonial akwa ocha— the pristine white attire symbolizing peace and purity—and paraded along the main street. They sang, they danced, they chanted “One Nigeria” with voices raised in hope and supplication. It was a powerful display of unity, a community literally clothing itself in symbols of peace while proclaiming allegiance to the very nation whose soldiers were terrorizing them.

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    Hope was however to transform into horror at a junction along the parade route. Federal troops ordered the separation of men and teenage boys from women and young children. The males were gathered in an open square at Ogbe-Osowa village, confusion and fear mounting as machine guns were revealed and trained upon the assembled crowd. Then came the order—allegedly from a Second-in-Command Major Ibrahim Taiwo—that would echo through generations; there is also mention of Murtala Mohammed, then a Colonel, as the man who gave the order.

    The machine guns delivered death with devastating finality to hundreds of unarmed men and boys, still dressed in their white ceremonial attire now stained crimson. Fathers and sons, brothers and uncles, neighbors and friends—all cut down in a hail of bullets. The air filled with screams, gunfire, and the acrid smell of cordite. By the time the shooting stopped, the square had become an abattoir, and the white garments of peace had become funeral shrouds.

    Most of the killing ended by October 7,although another round of killings would occur again in 1968. The trauma was only beginning. Some families managed to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones, carrying them home for private burial. Most victims, however, were unceremoniously dumped into mass graves, denied even the dignity of proper funeral rites. Many extended families lost dozens of men and boys in a single day, leaving behind widows, orphans, and a community hollowed out by grief.

    Federal troops occupied Asaba for many months following the massacre. During this period, much of the town was systematically destroyed. As was the practice by Federal troops during the war, women and girls were subjected to rape and sexual violence; some were forcibly “married” to soldiers in arrangements that were little more than legalized captivity. Large numbers of citizens fled Asaba, many not returning until after the war ended in 1970. Those who remained lived under occupation, surrounded by the ghosts of the murdered and the ruins of their former lives.

    The Asaba Massacre isn’t an isolated incident in Nigeria’s troubled history. The pogroms of July and September 1966, which targeted Igbo populations in northern Nigeria, preceded the massacre and helped precipitate the civil war itself. In more recent times, the killings in Odi in 1999 and Zaki Biam in 2001 demonstrated that the pattern of excessive military force against civilian populations continued long after the civil war ended. Each of these atrocities shares common features: disproportionate use of force, targeting of innocent civilians, and a disturbing lack of accountability for perpetrators.

    This pattern reveals a systemic problem in Nigeria’s approach to internal conflict and military conduct. Without acknowledgment and accountability, these atrocities become normalized, establishing dangerous precedents that enable future violations. The silence surrounding events like the Asaba Massacre sends a chilling message: that civilian lives can be extinguished with impunity when the state deems it expedient.

    It is long past time for the Nigerian government to formally apologize to the victims of the Asaba Massacre and their descendants. Such an apology would not erase the pain or resurrect the dead—nothing can accomplish that impossible feat. The women who were widowed that day will never again embrace their husbands. The children who watched their fathers fall will carry that trauma to their graves. The mass graves of Asaba bear witness to a wound that can never fully heal.

    Yet a formal apology matters profoundly. It represents official acknowledgment of wrong, a rejection of the narratives that sought to justify the unjustifiable. It validates the suffering of survivors who have lived for decades with their pain dismissed or ignored. It places the massacre in the national historical record not as a footnote or military necessity, but as the atrocity it was.

    Moreover, an apology could serve as a foundation for institutional reform. It should be accompanied by the establishment of robust legal frameworks and institutions designed to prevent such atrocities in the future. Any person—regardless of rank or position—who perpetrates similar actions against civilians must face severe legal consequences. The principle of “never again” requires not just words but structural safeguards, clear rules of engagement that protect civilian populations, and enforcement mechanisms with teeth.

    As the sun sets on the Niger River, casting long shadows across the town of Asaba, those shadows seem to whisper the names of the murdered—a litany of loss that echoes through the generations. The blood that soaked into the soil of Ogbe-Osowa square on that terrible October morning has long since dried, but the stain on Nigeria’s national conscience remains, indelible and accusing.

    To move forward as a nation, Nigeria must first look back with unflinching honesty. It must speak the names of the dead, acknowledge the magnitude of the wrong, and pledge with absolute conviction that such horrors will never again be visited upon its citizens. In that acknowledgment lies not weakness but strength—the strength to confront uncomfortable truths, the courage to make amends, and the wisdom to learn from history’s darkest chapters.

     Let their memory be a beacon calling Nigeria toward a future where lives are sacred, where accountability is assured, and where the machinery of state serves to protect rather than destroy. Only then can the souls of Asaba rest, and only then can Nigeria truly claim to have learned from the past and build a foundation worthy of the future its citizens deserve.

  • Shopping for points

    Shopping for points

    I love watching the beautiful game. It isn’t a respecter of people with bloated egos. It is a game that rewards hard work, not a prayer ground where unserious people run to for succour. Soccer is a leveller, one in which things well planned for manifest themselves effortlessly. It is good to know that those entrusted by the government to administer our soccer have woken up late in the day asking if Zimbabwe can beat Bafana Bafana in South Africa? Only dreamers would ask this question. Not after South Africa hosted the senior World Cup in 2010 for the first time in the African continent. Would it also come as a surprise that Zimbabwe’s assistant won’t be sitting on the bench for Friday’s deadpan game between Zimbabwe and Bafana Bafana in South Africa?

    According to an agency report: ”Reports say Takesure Chiragwi has stepped aside from his Warriors duties after slapping one of his own players (in Ngezi vs Dynamos) live on ZBC Jive TV. Meaning Zimbabwe will be without head coach Michael Nees’ trusted assistant, Chiragwi, on Friday. However, Nees says they will head into the game full of confidence and give their all despite the setback and the fact that they are no longer in position to qualify for the World Cup.” A case of a house divided against itself, isn’t it?

    Why our football chieftains had another episode of visa entry acts remains a puzzle yet to be fixed. It becomes more disturbing considering the fact that the federation’s international department staff went through this path to secure entry visas for players, coaches and backroom staff who prosecuted the September 9 World Cup qualifier between Bafana Bafana and the Super Eagles in South Africa which ended 1-1. What was it that these people didn’t do right to avert another round of controversy resulting in Olusegun’s absence from the October 10 clash against Lesotho?

    Expectedly, beating Lesotho wasn’t going to be a piece of cake, except our players didn’t give their best during the game. But in football every option is possible for the team desirous for the designated three points at stake.

    What is revealing itself like a sore thumb is that Nigeria football at the male level, going by the elimination of the Flying Eagles from the ongoing FIFA U-20 World Cup by four unreplied goals scored by the Argentines on Wednesday evening, is on a downward trajectory.

    Outclassed, outpaced, and outscored, the defeat marked one of Nigeria’s heaviest in recent U-20 World Cup history. The Flying Eagles — two-time runners-up — exit the tournament with a bitter taste, undone by Argentina’s ruthless precision and their own defensive frailties. For the Albiceleste, it was not just victory — it was vengeance delivered in emphatic style.

    One post match comment on the Argentines thumbing of Flying Eagles read thus: ”Just like Brazil did to the Nigerian Flying Eagles 38 years in Concepcion, Chile, so has done rampant Argentina as they humiliated Nigeria 4-0 in the Round of 16 of the ongoing Under 20 World Cup.

    ”The six-time champions Argentina did not waste much time as they began scoring just two minutes into the match in Santiago. By the time the dust settled, the Flying Eagles had conceded two goals in each half.” Simple and short. No ceremonies. Pity!

    The heart-wrenching report read further thus: ‘”From the very first whistle, it was a nightmare unfolding for Nigeria. Barely two minutes in, Alejo Sarco silenced the West Africans with a crisp opener that shattered their early rhythm. Things went from bad to worse in the 23rd minute, when Maher Carrizo curled in a brilliant free-kick after Nasiru Salihu’s mistimed challenge at the edge of the box — a goal that left Nigeria’s defensive wall and goalkeeper rooted in disbelief.”

    Clearly, the Nigerians were no match to the Argentines – a factor which could be traced to the absence of unified football academies of soccer nurseries regulated by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) with qualified coaches whose speciality would be in teaching the young lad the rudiment of the game. The cradle of our football has been corrupted such that anybody who can afford a tracksuit no matter how outdated and scruffy can confidently pick boys from the streets to play the game daily. At no time during the rigorous training on empty stomachs is the game stopped by the untrained coach to show the kids how the game is properly played.

    It is the reason for the dearth of talented kids in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country. Rather than create workable templates geared towards developing and equipping the carefully selected academies, our soccer buffs prefer to junket the globe in search of Nigeria-born kids groomed and exposed by better equipped football nations around the world to change their nationalities to play for Nigeria – shameful.

    Nigeria’s pride in global soccer competitions, Golden Eaglets is literally dead, so much so the team couldn’t qualify from the group stage in West Africa, having also failed the previous year at the group stage.

    We can’t be talking about growing talents at the nurseries without standardising the academies that abound in the country. The fraud committed by some disgruntled folks in the name of soccer academies can only be curtailed if the NFF through its state affiliates compel all such bodies to register with it. That way, the authorities can identify who the fraudster is, if such allegations arise. This collegiate arrangement will eliminate age cheats because a kid discovered in Edo State, for instance, Ikponwonsa Ikponwonsa in 1988 as a 12-year old, cannot be Etim Etim in 2008 claiming to be 16. The details of his data from his first registration in Edo State will give him out even as Etim Etim.

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    We have lost budding talents to mismanagement, even after the Federal Government had directed that past soccer federations nurture their future. Our administrators bask in the euphoria of being recognised in the world, leaving the game’s development on the lurch for shylock European scouts to exploit to the disadvantage of our young ones.

    Civilised countries develop their sports through the neighbourhood system where facilities are built to engage the youth and push them away from social vices. Nurseries serve as the bases for storing the data of those discovered. Such information helps to nurture and monitor the good ones to stardom. Besides, nurseries lay the foundation where the athletes are taught the rudiments of the game. It is at such factories that playing styles and patterns unique to such countries are evolving.

    If we must 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.

    We must accept that there is the need for us to have the political will to make sports a big business, which inevitably will create the platforms to employment. We need to cultivate business concerns to embrace sports, but with a caveat -transparency and accountability.

    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.

    Is sports all about funding and administration? Not exactly. Without the athletes and the coaches, no sports events can be held. Athletes and coaches form the fulcrum on which sports thrive.

  • Yakubu Mahmood, Pat Utomi and electoral integrity

    Yakubu Mahmood, Pat Utomi and electoral integrity

    Given the intense and unprecedented bitterness engendered in some quarters by the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections, the absurd extremes to which vested interests, many posing as altruistic activists, pro-democracy advocates and patriotic citizens, went to discredit and delegitimize the polls and the sustained efforts by these elements to reinforce the myth that the election was the worst in Nigeria’s history and unreflective of the will of the electorate, shouldn’t the immediate past Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, have left office in a deafening din of universal condemnation and unedifying opprobrium?

    No, the circumstances and atmosphere in which Yakubu formally vacated office this week at the expiration of his two-term tenure of ten years were markedly different from that in which Professor Maurice Iwu, Chairman of INEC from June 2005 to 28 April 2010, unceremoniously exited the position with little fanfare. The stridency with which Iwu proclaimed from the hilltops that the 2007 elections, which he superintendent, were the best in the universal history of elections, a claim that sharply contradicted the widely condemned appalling atrocities that marred the elections, contrasts with the calm dignity and quiet composure with which Yakubu quit the electoral arena leaving others and posterity as the final assessors of his record.

    Incidentally, the winner of the 2007 elections, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, admitted that the polls through which he emerged were flawed, while the courts upturned the governorship elections conducted by Iwu that year in at least five states. It was partly because of the undeniable significant improvements in the conduct of elections in Nigeria particularly as from 2015 as compared to what can be described as the ‘primitive era’ of electoral contestation in 2003 and 2007 that the majority of fair-minded analysts were generous in their assessment of Professor Yakubu Mahmood’s performance as INEC Chairman even while admitting that elections conducted under his watch were not perfect as indeed such contests for power can hardly be expected to be in most emergent democracies.

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    Although reforms to enhance the technical capacity, technological resourcefulness and institutional autonomy as well as integrity of INEC began under Professor Attahiru Jega as the Commission’s Chairman from 2010 to 2015, it was under Professor Yakubu that these innovations were consolidated, reinforced and substantially widened in scope. This was partly because he was the first head of the electoral umpire to complete a two-term tenure of ten years, ensuring leadership continuity and stability that enabled him to set and actualise long-term objectives.

    Comprehensively capturing the innovations that characterised the Professor Yakubu years, this newspaper’s columnist, Festus Eriye, writes that “You cannot discuss Yakubu’s legacy without talking about the Commission’s embrace of technology. Two key items have become household names in political discourse. The Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) with fingerprint and facial recognition was introduced in place of the flawed manual processes. Equally, the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) came into being, allowing Nigerians to view polling unit results in real time. Technology has also revolutionised voter registration through IVED and ABIS, eliminating 2.7 million fraudulent registrations. Digital portals for candidate nomination, party agent registration, observer accreditation, and media access are now available. In a first on the African continent, INEC has introduced the Artificial Intelligence Division, with an eye on the future of election management “.

    Festus Eriye continues: “Other achievements of the Yakubu tenure include expanding the Voter Roll by institutionalising Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). This has created year-round opportunities for people to register…He would be remembered for making inclusion a core part of his agenda with the establishment of the Department of Gender and Inclusivity to give structure and voice to representation. Quota slots were reserved for women in senior management, breaking long-standing barriers. Also introduced were assistive voting devices like Braille ballots and magnifying lenses. He created and implemented legal frameworks for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to vote, safeguarding rights even in times of crisis. To actually walk his talk, persons with disabilities were hired within INEC”.

    The consensus of informed opinion is that Professor Yakubu finished his tenure creditably and left office in what is difficult to distinguish from a blaze of glory. It is unfortunate that some of those who seek to discredit INEC as an institution, Professor Yakubu as a public official and the 2023 presidential election in its entirety simply because a candidate of their choice did not emerge as the winner in the exercise are supposed intellectuals for whom a commitment to truth and moral integrity ought to be uncompromising guideposts. Integral to the definition of the intellectual is an abiding respect for truth and fidelity to empirical facts. For the journalist, in this regard, the guiding dictum is that facts are sacred while opinions are free.

    At the forefront of efforts to demonise the 2023 elections and strip the President Bola Tinubu administration of all vestiges of legitimacy and credibility for patently partisan, possibly ethnic and obviously non-altruistic reasons is none other than the self-styled political economist, Professor Pat Utomi. I am unaware of any original contributions that Professor Utomi has made as a scholar to either the radical or liberal variants of political economy that compare even remotely with those of such first-class Nigerian economists as Claude Ake, Eskor Toyo, Bade Onimode, Ojetunji Aboyade, Sam Aluko, Pius Okigbo or Mike Kwanashie. Indeed, in February last year, the good professor predicted that the value of the Naira would soon plunge to N10,000 to the dollar, given what he saw as the ineptness and inappropriateness of the Tinubu administration’s economic policies.

    As one Ufuoma Bernard posted sarcastically on his Facebook page last week, “Professor Pat Utomi predicted a few months ago that the dollar would hit N10,000, but today it is N1,486. Man no be God”. Also commenting on Utomi ‘s prediction, Bode Opeseitan wrote, “In February 2024, during a political event, Professor Pat Utomi declared: ‘Nigeria is dying’. He went further to predict that the Naira could collapse to as low as N10,000 to the dollar, tying this grim prophecy to insecurity, lack of production, and distrust in leadership”. Continuing, Opeiseitan submitted that “Speaking in a politically charged environment as a Labour Party chieftain also may have sharpened his rhetoric. Yet, what he (Utomi) failed to anticipate was the multipronged approach of the Tinubu administration – bold subsidy removals, forex unification, Central Bank reforms, and investment courting – that kept Nigeria from plunging into Venezuela-type hyperinflation. Though the Naira briefly neared N2000/$ in forecasts, it stabilised below N1,500/$ – never reaching Utomi ‘s catastrophic scenario”.

    True, Utomi’s concerns about security and the country’s productive base are legitimate. But careless, rash and extremist assertions may be tolerated in journalism, but never from serious scholars, supposed to be authoritative and sober voices in their areas of specialisation. Only recently, Professor Utomi was clearly the brain behind the formation and outing of a new group, the Alliance for the Defence of Democracy (ADD) with the stated objective of championing the actualisation of electoral reforms in the country. Some notable senior lawyers, prominent academics, civil society activists and pro-democracy advocates were named as members of the group.

    Among the stated aims of the ADD are to “launch a mass movement to drive critical reforms in the electoral laws of Nigeria, especially those that dimmed the credibility of the 2023 elections namely; compulsory electronic transmission of election results, effective criminalization of votes buying, enactment of early and diaspora voting as initiated by the House of Representatives, proportional representation in government, especially seats for women and other vulnerable groups among others”. But as one of this newspaper’s columnists, Idowu Akinlotan, noted, Utomi and his group are grossly mistaken to assume that the 2023 presidential elections could be credibly and plausibly delegitimised on the basis of factors they have targeted for electoral reforms, such as electronic transmission of results.

    In the pertinent words of Akinlotan, “The facts of the 2023 presidential poll are clear. Each of the three leading presidential candidates won in 12 states, with Mr Obi, however, winning in 11 and the Federal Capital Territory. Where exactly did the purported rigging take place – in the 12 states out of 36 states won by the eventual winner, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC)? Or in the 23 states plus FCT won by the candidates of the PDP and LP, especially the latter, who won his Southeast region through a voter turnout troublingly out of sync with the national turnout? How more credible could an election be where there was neither a landslide nor outright and overwhelming dominance? President Tinubu lost Lagos, his base, Osun in the Southwest, Katsina, where the then sitting President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling party came from, and in no state did he win by a huge margin on the scale Mr Obi did in the Southeast. But analysts have distorted the presidential election outcome, raised dishonest posers and comparisons with past elections, and illogically and unconstitutionally concluded that perhaps a runoff would have lent the results credibility “.

    At the head of this band of intellectual distortionists is none other than Professor Pat Utomi. Yet, nowhere has he come out to utilise his skills and cerebral prowess as a scholar and forensic political economist to demonstrate logically and empirically that his candidate, Mr Peter Obi, won that election as repeatedly claimed. In the same vein, during the 2020 #EndSARs protests in Lagos, Professor Utomi was one of the first prominent faces I saw on national television affirming authoritatively that the deployment of troops to contain the virtual descent of Lagos to anarchy at the Lekki Toll Gate was accompanied by a massacre of large numbers of protesters. To date, the slightest shred of evidence to prove this, including the hundreds of corpses so gruesomely murdered in cold blood, has not been provided. Yet, this patent untruth continues to be propagated and believed by significant numbers of people.

    Undoubtedly, one of the worst elections ever in the history of Nigeria was the 1983 presidential election, so brazenly rigged by the then-ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN). The election resulted in widespread violence in states like Oyo, Ondo, Niger and Anambra, among others. In the process of collation of the results, a super Minister in the Shehu Shagari administration,  Alhaji Umaru Dikko, Minister of Transportation, unaccountably forced his way into the headquarters of the then Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) to rancorous public outcry.

    It was only a matter of months before the military got rid of the administration on December 31 1983. Yet, a then much younger Pat Utomi was on the network of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) night after night, alongside the likes of Professor Walter Ofonagoro and Emeka Maduagbuena, proffering fraudulent intellectual justification for a criminally rigged election. Today, he is at the forefront of lending analytical artillery to delegitimise a 2023 presidential election infinitely more credible and demonstrative of integrity than the one he vigorously defended in his youth over four decades ago.

  • The intellectual complex…

    The intellectual complex…

    The former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Geoffrey Uche Nnaji recently resigned his appointment amidst the alleged certificates’ forgeries. He is alleged to have forged both a degree and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate. While he claims to be stepping aside to give room for judicial processes, it is apposite to dig into reasons why the few cases of certificate forgeries in public service persists. With the return of democracy in 1999, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari  was discovered to have claimed to have graduated from the University of Toronto and altered his age to qualify for the constitutional age to be a house member.

    He was subsequently prosecuted and convicted. He was later pardoned by the late Buhari administration and even honoured with being a Chancellor of a University. Many are still scratching their heads for the reasons behind such actions. A former minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun was equally discovered to have submitted a fake NYSC exemption later and she subsequently resigned.

    There have been outrage across the country about this recent alleged scandal involving Chief Nnaji. On his part, he struggled after the media exposure to communicate with the public. His so called PR consultants seem to have made matters worse by declaring that their principal was a victim of political blackmail. Whether their arguments helped their principal in any way remains to be seen as events unfold.

    Nigeria is a developing country. There would always be pitfalls and challenges but efforts must be made by the citizens and the institutions to reduce to the barest minimum instances that derail development.  There must be a decision by the people to change certain socio-cultural fixations. The lust for titles, certificates and all forms of tags must be addressed. It is good to achieve certain academic or traditional goals but they must be earned as in the days of yore. There must be a return to the era where integrity, meticulousness and hard work matter.

    Why do humans, including Nigerians try to access certain positions and qualifications they have done little or nothing to achieve? Why do people pursue titles even when they have not earned them legitimately? Why do people take short cuts to academic qualifications, why do people pay money to be given traditional or religious titles in some instances? How do these all impact development?

    The Roundtable Conversation sought the views of one of Nigeria’s most accomplished actors who is as cerebral as she is a woman of many accomplishments in many fields; journalism, cosmetology, TV  and photography. She is popularly referred to as the matriarch of the Nigerian very vibrant film industry. According to her, at 84, she has seen a bit of the Nigerian socio-cultural and political metamorphosis to understand why.

    She says that Nigeria is a beautiful and highly gifted country but the humans have to decide how the country develops or sinks. Addressing the issues of certificate forgeries generally and other forms of examination malpractices, she feels the people must have a deep introspection. She points out that intellectual bankruptcy is reason some people belief they need certain tags or titles to be recognized. Logically, when you do well, when integrity matters to you, your output both on a personal and professional level gives you the requisite recognition, influence and power.

    “I am simply Taiwo Ajai-Lycett”. This she says means that no tag precedes or follows her name but that does not diminish her status or achievements in the fields she had ventured into all her life. “My simple name is my passport to anywhere in the world.  What this means is that when you want a certain status of power and influence, you work hard for it. I have worked hard and I have earned my flowers without having to forge any certificates”.

    She believes that people must decide what parts to choose on their way to achieving fame and fortune. The idea that some parents and other adults get involved in exam malpractices on behalf of their children or even for themselves is very telling of the lack of intellectual depth and altruistic aspirations. There is a growing incident of anti-intellectualism and this is affecting both the political and socio-economic lives of the nation. There is an increasing pursuit of status and power in different forms, political, social and even religious. These powers when acquired even if falsely elevates the humans involved and when the society refuses to hold the guilty accountable, it often spirals out of control. The logical sequence of events used to be that people struggle to be of impeccable moral character as that attracted respect and reverence in some cases. Today, the values seems to have changed and there seems to be a certain ‘fast-foodlike’ attitude to getting ahead in life in ways that points to, ‘the end justifies the means’ social mantra.

    She recalls that in the past, intellectualism was admired and that does not mean it comes only through academic achievements. Intellectualism in its purest sense is devotion to the exercise of intellect which comes from well-thought out processes of ideas, knowledge and information. So the fact that some people feel that they can have short-cuts to real success is what feeds the hunger to try to skip due process either academically or socially in the case of those who use money to influence titles or positions of authority and influence in the society.

    The society must begin to purge itself of honouring misfits. This is why people love to acquire titles and cheat their ways to positions they won’t ordinarily be given. There is a local saying that ‘a good name is better than silver and gold’. No one ever said that a good title or position is anything to be proud of. So according to Ajai-Lycett, the craving to be addressed as; Excellency, Honourable, Distinguished, Professor, Dr. and other appellations seems to be at the root of people seeking validation and power.

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    She says that each society through the values they espouse often impacts on the kind of development that becomes achievable.  The idea of exaggerated self-importance with little cerebral content might work against development. The fact that certain values have been eroded would continue to fuel deviations from the right parts. A Chief Nnaji, if the allegations are true must have gone that route because he wanted the power the position he was nominated for brings. He must have believed that he is in a system where due diligence is lacking and might have gotten away with his alleged forgeries.

    The system must have a re-orientation and the society must get back to the values that empowers societies. There is no perfection anywhere but positions of influence must not be for people without the intellectual pride to engage in the rigorous but rewarding route of knowledge acquisition, sharing and productivity.

    Dame Ajai-Lycett advised that though the media is trying in the development of the country being the 4th estate of the realm, care must be taken not to allow certain PR communicators to continue to present themselves as media professionals. She insists that they are at best commercial communicators who work with the media to project either the products or services of their clients. The media is responsible to the people and help in deepening the works of the executive, legislature and the judiciary.

    Public Relations practitioners must not be allowed to bastardize the value and work of the core media. The fact that they project their clients through the media does not make them media practitioners in the sense they often project themselves. She feels that it’s curious that when some of these scandals break, some PR consultants in defending their clients often posture as media practitioners which is misleading. The hallmark of journalism is objectivity, PR consultants are often very subjective.

    This alleged scandal is an indictment on the system generally. How did a whole Senate of Nigeria not scrutinize documents submitted by a ministerial nominee? The alleged discrepancies on the certificates were too obvious that the senators ought to have identified and pointed them out. The litany of screenings and confirmations by the senate since 1999 ought to have produced better developmental results if patriotism were on the cards. This alleged scandal is an indictment on the senate and other government agencies that had a hand in clearing the ex-minister. There must be more diligence in the ways things are done because everyone becomes the casualty when incompetence comes from public servants.

    In this case, if a nominee cannot be truthful with his qualifications and NYSC requirements, how sincerely can he serve the people of Nigeria? Again, there are suggestions that the constitution must be amended to upgrade the requirements for accessing public service. In many developed nations, the public service is the exclusive of many of the best qualified in character and learning. The value comes with the productivity of people who have lived lives o diligence and integrity. We must make a choice.

    •The dialogue continues…

  • What did Jonathan forget in Aso Villa?

    What did Jonathan forget in Aso Villa?

    Ten years after he was rejected at the poll, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, like the wife of Lot, is trying to look back.

    He left, more or less in a blaze of glory, despite the general perception of his government as inept and clueless by many political actors, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who vigorously campaigned against his stay in power beyond 2015.

    Generally perceived as a gentleman who could not frontally ruffle feathers, GEJ, as he is fondly called by some admirers, behaved responsibly and adjusted to life outside power. He became more popular outside Nigeria, particularly in the West African sub-region and the continent as an envoy and important observer during presidential elections.

    But since 2019, certain people who pose as his admirers have not allowed him to be himself. They have been urging him to terminate his blissful retirement. He now seems to pander to deceit, with the insatiable nature of man dominating his thought process.

    Jonathan has the right to contest for president, like other past leaders with unquenchable appetite for political control. Politicians are incurable optimists, even if they are contending with a fading influence. In the game of politics, retirement is never contemplated.

    Power is so alluring and highly captivating that former leaders always prefer to come back. What has saved Nigeria from the sit-tight syndrome is the primacy and potency of the constitution that sets the limit. It is not the desire for credible service that is the motivation. Their intention may be to return to power for personal gains, for ego, for a show-off, and for private accumulation.

    Kleptocracy is the political ideology of many African leaders. Those who eventually succeeded in regaining power have often left their countries worse than they found them in their second coming.

    None of them is insulated from the temptation, despite the realisation that power obsession could also lead to personal and national doom, as the power baron tends, with the passage of time, to equate himself with the nation he mischievously governs.

    The addiction to power is an all-consuming passion fueled by poor judgment and neglect of reality. Warning signals are ignored, and self-assessment becomes defective. Liars and manipulators mill around the kleptomaniac who ultimately falls into deception, only to be deserted after the collapse of the inordinate ambition. This is peculiar to Generals who had set themselves upon the country, brandishing the barrels of guns.

    Some examples offer instructive lessons. As politicians competed for available spaces in the ill-fated Third Republic, some elements, for reasons best known to them, suddenly remembered that former Military Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon was around. They, therefore, resolved to draft ‘Gentleman Jack’ to the presidential race. The former leader, a political scientist, was excited. The Ebora Owu, General Olusegun Obasanjo, frowned at the antics of those trying to draft his former boss to the murky waters of politics. He retorted: “What did Jack forget in the State House?”

    Mercifully, the plot crumbled at the initial stage of the laborious Option A4 experimentation.

    Obasanjo himself was lucky. But at the end of eight years, many Nigerians thought that it was better if he had not returned to power. Up to now, he has been haunted by the ghost of his infamous third-term agenda. OBJ handed power voluntarily, as often said, to democratically elected leaders in 1979. He elicited a round of applause. But by the time he left power again in 2007, the praises had evaporated. The then Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu apologised to the bewildered nation over Obasanjo’s tenure elongation plot. Although Nigeria is also entitled to an apology over the flawed election that took Umaru Yar’Adua to power, none has been forthcoming from the man at the centre of the controversies.

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    It could not be ascertained if the Evil Genius, former military President Ibrahim Babangida, had a pact with OBJ that he would succeed him. However, IBB, as fondly called by admirers and foes, threw his hat into the ring. A wealthy man who had stepped aside ingloriously after eight years of tossing around Nigerians and annulling the most credible election, Babangida embarked on a nationwide consultation until he was stopped by northern leaders who opted for Atiku Abubakar, who, in the end, failed at the poll.

    Although General Muhammadu Buhari returned, like OBJ, the soldierly steam he was famous for in his military heydays had deserted him. Active, energetic, and vibrant between 1984 and ‘85, the latter-day Buhari contrasted sharply with the Buhari the nation had known and the corrupt ones had feared, accompanied by a no-nonsense Ilorin-born Fulani soldier, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon. While Buhari was hailed in 2015 as the symbol of change, he forfeited the adulation in 2023, with his ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), battling with internal contradictions. Under his watch, the nation was grounded by self-imposed fuel scarcity, forex burden and punishment, and a curious currency change that made life unsavoury for the citizens for weeks.

    Since Jonathan was voted out of power, his intention to bounce back has been a subject of speculation. Naive and poor at self-assessment, the former president has often listened to Ahithophelean advisers who have continued to urge him on.

    Jonathan is not a strong politician, neither is he a giant of history. He was nevertheless catapulted to stardom by sheer luck. In every political position he held, he was about garnering experience when he was suddenly promoted to a higher pedestal.

    As a young lecturer, he was tipped for running mate to a boisterous boss with larger than life attitude, the self-style Governor-General of Ijaw Nation, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. When the pompous governor of eight-local-government State of Bayelsa was run out of power, Jonathan, a spare tyre deputy governor, filled the void and finished his boss’ second term.

    No sooner had he secured the governorship nomination for 2007 than fate smiled on him again. At the presidential convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he was surprisingly paired with Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua as the running mate. His first boss was consumed by corruption. His second boss was down with a protracted illness. In the two instances, he became the chief beneficiary of unplanned power shift.

    The latter was not without hassles. As vice president, his ebullient and more strategic wife,  Dr. Dame Patience, complained about the position’s obscurity, alleging that having been sidelined in the high official quarters, he was reduced to a powerless deputy who consoled himself with reading newspapers.

    But the voice of reason made a solid case for him in the absence of President Yar’Adua. The doctrine of necessity was invoked and he moved up as Acting President. After Yar’Adua’s death, Jonathan became the number one citizen.

    It is important to note that Jonathan never struggled to get power at any level. Others struggled on his behalf or paved the way for him. Power always landed on his palm on a platter of gold. He, therefore, lacks the critical experience required for political competition, consultation, negotiation, mobilisation, strategic thinking, and evaluation.

    While in power, his poor experience often led to poor decisions. Jonathan received commendation for setting up a constitutional conference. Eminent Nigerians converged on Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to chart a new course for Nigeria. It later paled into a jamboree, as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had earlier warned. The confab produced a good report. But the former president developed cold feet overnight. He said the approaching general election deserved more priority than the implementation of the far-reaching recommendations. The non-implementation of the report amounted to a waste of time, resources and opportunity.

    The steps he had taken in his elusive search for power confirmed his gullibility. Ahead of 2015, when it was obvious that he could not penetrate the Southwest, unlike in 2011, he sealed a pact with some elements in the region who lacked grassroots appeal. His major Southwest allies then were an aggrieved Afenifere factional leader, a capitalist lawyer who masqueraded as a revolutionary and leader of a fierce self-determination group. At the close of the poll, reality dawned on him that he struck a deal with fake allies without political clout.

    Gazing at 2027, Jonathan’s approach is laughable, although it casts him in the mould of innocence and meekness. He is banking on hope, the elixir of life, without a formidable structure and networks.

    Since 2015, Jonathan has been more or less “partyless”. After his defeat, he could not offer leadership for the party he used as a vehicle to ride to power. The former president has never played any leadership and stabilising role in the PDP but was aloof as the crisis-ridden platform decayed. The party’s governors who are battling to save its soul at the intensive care unit do not draw inspiration from GEJ who abandoned the platform a decade ago.

    He also deluded himself into thinking that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of Atiku Abubakar, his long-standing political foe, could offer him a temporary refuge. So ingenious was the Otuoke politician that he even applied for the ADC flag on the condition that no other aspirant, not even Atiku, should slug it out with him at the primary. Of course, he got the answer he deserved on the spot: “ADC is Atiku’s property and fortress.”

    Should Jonathan join the 2027 presidential race, he will most likely erase whatever is left of his political significance and sink into the abyss of irrelevance if he loses the poll. Nothing about the current state of the nation suggests otherwise.

  • Independence Blues: Nigeria at 65: A broken promise?

    Independence Blues: Nigeria at 65: A broken promise?

    Sixty-five years ago, on October 1, 1960, the green-white-green flag was hoisted in Lagos amidst jubilation and boundless hope. With pride Nigeria stood at the threshold of greatness, a giant awakening from its colonial bonds.  The air was thick with promise—promises of prosperity, unity, and continental leadership. Recently, as we marked another independence anniversary, those promises still ring hollow, echoing through the years a collective disappointment, like a dirge for dreams deferred.

    The indices tell a story our patriotic songs and anthems cannot drown out. A nation blessed with abundant crude oil reserves remains trapped in fuel queues. A country with some of Africa’s most fertile lands cannot feed its people. A populace that produces some of the world’s brightest minds watches helplessly as millions of its youth flee in waves of desperation, seeking dignity in foreign lands. This is not the Nigeria our founding fathers envisioned. This is not the beacon of black excellence that Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Nelson Mandela and millions across the African diaspora looked toward with anticipation.

    The most painful indictment of post-independence Nigeria lies squarely at the feet of our political elite and leadership class—a brotherhood that has consistently chosen self-enrichment over nation-building. From military dictators to civilian kleptocrats, Nigeria’s leadership has exhibited a breathtaking capacity for plunder and an equally stunning deficit of vision.

    Our leaders inherited institutions, infrastructure, and an economy that, while nascent, held promise. What have they bequeathed to succeeding generations? An educational system in ruins, where universities are shuttered for months due to strikes while politicians’ children study abroad. A healthcare sector so decrepit that those who govern it flee to foreign hospitals at the first sign of illness. An infrastructure deficit so profound that businesses generate their own electricity, build their own roads, and provide their own security—essentially paying taxes for services never rendered.

    The political elite have perfected the art of primitive accumulation. They loot treasuries with impunity, stash billions in foreign accounts, and when caught, receive mere slaps on the wrist. They weaponize ethnicity and religion to divide the populace, ensuring that Nigerians fight each other rather than demand accountability from those who govern. They have transformed public service into private enterprise, viewing political office not as a call to duty but as an opportunity for wealth extraction.

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    Perhaps most tragically, this leadership class has failed in the fundamental task of nation-building. Sixty-five years after independence, Nigeria remains a mere geographical expression—a collection of ethnic nations held together by the fragile threads of mutual suspicion and the strong-arm of federal might. We have built no shared national identity, no unifying ethos beyond, corruption,  the naira and the Super Eagles. Our diversity, which should have been our strength, has been cynically exploited by leaders who benefit from our divisions.

    Yet, in this tale of national tragedy, the Nigerian citizen is also complicit, yes! You and I cannot claim innocence. We are not merely victims of bad leadership; we are, in many ways, its enablers. We have cultivated a political culture that rewards mediocrity and celebrates brigandage. We applaud politicians who throw rice and cash at us during campaigns, then act surprised when they steal billions once in office.

    The average Nigerian condemns corruption loudly—until their kinsman is the one being investigated. We demand merit and competence—except when it disadvantages our ethnic group or religious community. We cry out against injustice—unless we are the beneficiaries of that injustice. This moral schizophrenia has created a society where wrong is right if it favors “our own,” and right is irrelevant if it doesn’t serve our immediate interests.

    Our tolerance for dysfunction has become legendary. We have normalized the abnormal. We celebrate citizens who provide basic amenities in their communities—water, roads, electricity—things that governments should provide as a matter of course. We have become so accustomed to failure that we praise minimal competence as extraordinary achievement. We have set the bar so low that it now lies buried underground.

    Furthermore, too many Nigerians have become complicit in the system of exploitation. From the civil servant who demands bribes to process legitimate documents, to the police officer who extorts motorists at checkpoints, to the lecturer who demands gratification for grades—corruption has metastasized from the political class into the social fabric. We have created a society where cutting corners is celebrated as smartness, and integrity is dismissed as foolishness.

    But Nigeria need not remain trapped in this cycle of mediocrity and failure. The dreams of our founding fathers—Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and others—were not foolish fantasies, nor were they tales of Sugar Candy land. They were achievable visions grounded in Nigeria’s enormous potential. What we lack is not resources or capability, but the political will and moral courage to build the nation we deserve.

    The founding fathers believed in Nigeria. Marcus Garvey dreamed of it. W.E.B. Du Bois anticipated its greatness. Millions of black people worldwide once looked to Nigeria as proof that black self-governance could succeed, that we could build nations rivaling any in the world. That faith, though battered, is not dead. But it requires resurrection through action.

    This resurrection demands transformative leadership that prioritizes education, healthcare, infrastructure, and security. It requires leaders who understand that development is not about white-elephant projects but about creating systems that work for ordinary citizens. It demands an end to impunity and the establishment of true accountability. Most fundamentally, it requires a commitment to building a genuine nation where every citizen, regardless of ethnicity or religion, feels valued and protected.

    Sixty-five years of failure is enough. Nigerians deserve better. Africa deserves a Nigeria that fulfills its promise. The world deserves a  black nation that will raise it’s brows at the maltreatment of any black man in any part of the world. The question is whether those in positions of power and influence—political leaders, business elites, traditional rulers, religious leaders, and every citizen—have the courage to make it happen.

    The independence blues need not be our permanent state. But changing the tune requires each Nigerian to demand more from our leaders and from ourselves. The giant of Africa must finally awaken, not to rhetoric and empty promises, but to purposeful action and genuine transformation. Our founding fathers lit a torch sixty-five years ago. It is time we stopped letting it flicker and instead let it blaze, illuminating a path to the Nigeria that was promised, the Nigeria that is possible, the Nigeria that must be.

  • Nigeria: 65 years after…

    Nigeria: 65 years after…

    The picture of school children lining the streets holding the green-white-green flags of newly independent Nigeria tells the story such  pictures tell; a million stories, of contentment, happiness and hope in an endless tomorrow and a faith that the political leaders of the time would keep them safe, happy and progressive. Somehow the dream was truncated barely a few years after with the military coup of 1966, the power play, the counter coups and the three year civil war that brought the country to its knees.

    As the then head of state, General Yakubu Gowon declared after the war, ‘No victor, no vanquished”. As it turned out, his promise of the three Rs; Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction was not only vacuous given the events that continues to date, it has been a promise not kept. It is often seen as contradictory and a mark of personal flaw that Gowon who claimed there were no victors and no vanquished in one breath promise the three Rs in another.

     Most political analysts describe him as not only immature given his age (32 years at the time) also as one with weak sense of personal judgment considering that he had boastfully but tactlessly said that ‘Money was not the problem of Nigeria but what to do with it’ given the petro dollars that accrued to the country during the oil boom era. The extravagant exuberance of his time in government seems to have laid the foundation for the profligacy with resources that persists till date. The coups and counter-coups ushered in different military governments that violated the democracy that came with Nigeria’s independence.

    A flawed military incursion into Nigerian leadership has been the albatross of Nigeria’s development.  It’s been a case of one step forward and three steps backward. The military governments clearly corrupted the political class with some seeming authoritarianism that revels in lack of accountability and leading with little recourse to the core tenets of democracy.

    Because political power is next only to that of the almighty God in any religion or language, Nigeria’s issues about development have been a product of the mismanagement of power given the dominance of the military goons that had seize power through undemocratic means for a better part of the 65 years since independence. The legacies left by the military dictators are at the root of Nigeria’s underdevelopment. In a way, it is not a misnomer to conclude that Nigeria’s political class has not been weaned from the examples the military left in their trail.

    Nigeria has had an uninterrupted 26 years of civilian democracy. Even though there have been many developments in the economy across the country but many analysts believe that without military interregnums, the country might have made much higher progress. However, the Roundtable Conversation is not excusing the political class in any way because all political actors are adults and have the opportunity to make better choices. However, the military system of command and control, their total disregard for democratic processes keeps rearing its head in the politicians’ modus operandi.

    That certain key sectors like education, health, gender equity and agriculture have received below United Nations’ benchmarks are all signs of political class that are disconnected from the people since 1999. In a way, politicians often display the nonchalance copied from the military. The need to please the people because of elections often does not matter.

    The violence during elections in Nigeria since 1999 is surely a by-product of military leadership. Coups are not cocktail parties. They are planned and executed through violence and without recourse to the wish of the people. Nigerian elections have become one of the most litigious in the world because the political class bring with them the military mind-set of ‘merely grabbing power’ for its own sake.

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    The misuse of security agencies is one legacy of the Nigerian military. The violence during elections is often done under the supervision or protection of the military who are often invited to provide security during elections. When elections are won and lost, the elected leaders often revel in the extra security protection they can avail themselves which often includes soldiers. This right there is the zenith of the military mentality displayed by Nigerian politicians.

    The Nigerian political space in the last 65 years has continued to suffer from military hangover. The violation of electoral laws with little consequences for the violators is one of the legacies of military rule that the politicians fin attractive. The ‘do or die’ mentality that often translates to violence from ward, state to federal elections might appear as non-issues but it has dented the democracy Nigeria practices.

    On the face of it, this analysis might appear as though the military is to blame for the woes of Nigeria. The truth is that sometimes, solving any problem starts when the truth about the causative factors is told. If Nigeria must make progress, the political class must look in the mirror. Mind-sets must change; there must be introspection and a readiness for reorientation that reaffirms patriotism and commitment to the tenets of democracy as government of the people by the people and for the people.

    Nigeria is blessed with rich national and material resources and there must be a willingness to maximize both. Nigeria at 65 must wean itself from the very destructive style of the military aberration in leadership. The political elite must realize the value in investing in the human capital that the country is blessed with. Political participation must be about service and not an opportunity for self-aggrandizement and influence-peddling that has stagnated development.

    Despite the developments since 1999 in many sectors, the Nigerian story can be different with better focus by the political elite. Nigerian politicians must look beyond the immediate and begin to behave in ways to reassure the people in ways that can diminish the trust deficit in the political class. The political parties must be seen to be structured to be functional and viable. Taking excuses with the presumed nascence of Nigerian democracy is self-defeatist. At 65, Nigeria is no longer a baby.

    The political parties must be run with standards befitting of the system we have chosen. The present style of fluidity must be discouraged because it makes the people very sceptical of a class without principles, oscillating between several political parties just for political expediency does not tell a good story about the integrity of our politicians. There must be clear ideological lines that political party members can be identified with as is the case in most developed democracies. There must be an inclusivity that caters to all demographics. For now, it seems to be about male dominance. The poverty index an underdevelopment challenges tells the entire story about Nigerian democracy.

    The political party leadership must be inclusive in ways that no one gender dominates or has exclusive privileges. There should be a level playing field that affords every citizen the opportunity to participate in a functional democracy. For now, political parties appear as a male exclusive club in terms of party administration. Women still see themselves as outsiders with, ‘Women Wing tokenism’. Competent women and men must be allowed to try their chances at political party administration.

    Political campaign funds must be strictly monitored in ways that no individual or group takes financial advantage of the system. For now, Nigeria has not got it right. The word; party chieftain, party financier, god-father etc., are all indicators of a flawed system of running political parties. There must be a structure that can moderate campaign funding returning power to the people.

    Democracy being a government of the people, by the people and for the people must be run according to the rules of engagement and those who breach the rules must be made to face the consequences as deterrent to others. Presently, many people get away with blue murder literarily. Democracy without the rule of law will only produce a dysfunctional system that impedes development.

    Make no mistakes about it, the journey has been very challenging and progress being recorded in some areas but we must evaluate whether the development is satisfactory given the human and material resources available to the country. The fact that other countries keep creating incentives to take out our resources an even our human capital must tell us something. The fact that citizens that were trained with tax-payers money can so easily seek jobs in countries outside Nigeria must tell us that only the best brains get to be ‘drained’.

    Nigeria at 65 is no longer a toddler. It is time to stop and re-evaluate how far we have come. We can acknowledge the challenges of colonialism, slavery, coups and military incursions into leadership over some decades but we must have little excuses after 65 years. The human capital development must be an urgent priority as ideas and technology, now rule the world.

    There must be a renewed effort to meet the UN benchmarks on key areas like health and education. Insecurity is affecting, foo security, investment and tourism. While we celebrate our anniversary, we must introspect and like legendary Achebe said, learn where the rain started beating us as a people. Happy 65th independence anniversary, dear readers.