The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Ganduje sticks to his guns

    Ganduje sticks to his guns

    Sentry

    If reports reaching Sentry from are anything to go by, then Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has been under intense pressure over his position that north to south cattle movement should be banned by the Federal Government. But sources say he’s unwilling to change his position.

    The governor while canvassing enactment of a law to ban movement of cattle from the North to other parts of the country said this would resolve incessant clashes between farmers and herders.

    Ganduje who made the call in Daura, Katsina, after he and other APC governors met with President Muhammadu Buhari, emphasised that banning the movement of herders from the North to other parts of the country will also address the challenge of cattle rustling.

    Read Also; Ganduje: ban open grazing to end farmers-herders feuds

    Sentry gathered that some prominent individuals and groups in the north had promptly condemned the governor’s position, claiming the timing was wrong given what they called the unlawful activities of Sunday Igboho in the Southwest as regards farmers/herders clashes in Yorubaland.

    The social media, especially among northern users, is also chock full with condemnation and anger over Ganduje’s position, with many accusing him of siding with anti-Fulani activists.

    But sources close to the governor say he is unmoved and insists his suggestions remain the best in the interest of everybody.

    “Go and read his submissions. He is suggesting a permanent solution to the problem and some people are complaining, and you ask me if he is worried. Over what? He is not moved. He is building RUGA here in Kano. If herdsmen continue to go to Lagos and Saki, who will stay in the RUGA here? That is just the simple explanation you need,” a close ally of the governor told Sentry on Wednesday.

  • New cultures and politics

    New cultures and politics

    By Dayo Sobowale

     

    It is never too late to wake up to new realities and   ways   of life because whether you like it or not they will catch up with you. This is because change or such new developments, never need anybody’s permission or approbation anyway. Just as   the durable wise saying goes   that nobody can resist    ‘an idea whose time has come’. And   I   want to add to   that,   that   it does   not matter    whether such an idea   is   for good or bad, in many persons’ perspective.

    Such  is my frame of mind in moving on from my  column’ Global  Economy  and  Politics  ‘  until  two weeks ago,  to a  new   column   today  with the above  name –  ‘New  Cultures and Politics ‘. This  to me is the direction the world is headed in the next four years at least and the reasons    are  not farfetched .They   include   the elimination of the presidency  of Donald Trump , America’s  cantankerous  45th president  from the global  scene,       the  expected, well — known  and   well  – articulated  campaign   promises  of his successor  Joe  Biden ,  the import of that for our contemporary  world and the prospects  for world peace,   stability    or  conflicts    consequently –  and  for   our Nigeria especially. Welcome to my new column,’ New Cultures and Politics ‘.

    It  was darkly said  once  of one powerful statesman or nation in European  history ,  that  when that character or nation sneezed ,  the rest of Europe caught  cold . While one may not find that name now, there is an adequate replacement for this analogy. Historically in this regard ,  it was  obvious  that when Adolf  Adolf   Hitler,  the infamous  German Chancellor  of the  dreaded  Third Reich   sneezed,  the rest  of Europe  not only caught  cold went  into  seizure. The rest is history and it is a bloody, regrettable history in terms global destruction and massive loss of human lives, property and infrastructure on a scale never seen before. In  contradistinction,  and  since he has passed  to history  now, although  his opponents will not allow him to  rest with a novel post presidency impeachment  trial,  America’s ex-President Donald  Trump  fits the bill for this analogy of  the  powerful, intimidating,  coercing   sneeze   succinctly. Donald Trump,   in his one term, four year presidency so  up turned and upset  world politics , culture and diplomacy  that one  can readily say that when he sneezed  the rest  of the world  and especially  his nation caught massive cold . Unfortunately  however,  while global players and leaders were  shivering   feverishly   from  Trump’s  disruptive manner  of leadership ,   politics   and    diplomacy, a new  deadly cold came  in like a thief in the   night. This   is the present killing pandemic which  killed not only the Trump presidency and his vaunted sneeze  but killed more Americans  than any nation and culture in the world, and is still   making the nations  of the world  to   quake   in their shoes, as it makes short   walk of their  powerful  economies  and  changed their ways of life and  living , leaving them gasping for breath on how to survive and live on a daily basis and  in a new  style  of politics  and culture.

    Indeed with regard to the relationship of the Trump presidency with the pandemic, one could say  that like Julius Caesar, the famous Roman Emperor, Trump could have been able to say  famously   at   the end of his   now  tragic  tenure –    ‘ I came, I saw,  l conquered ‘ if  he was reelected as he was on course to be -until the deadly pandemic struck and changed  the manner ,   the hygiene,  culture  and  conduct   of the election and thus gave his opponents victory on a platter of gold, as  it were.  Thus,   unlike Caesar  now,  all  Trump was  left  to say,  especially  with  the events of January 6   leading to his post tenure impeachment  was   “I  came,   I saw,  I failed ,’ Which  is  very   pathetic  for a leader whose  tenure  changed a lot of global  perspectives  ,  policies , diplomacy and political  cultures , during  his one term presidency ,   for good or bad, depending on which  side of the fence you are on .

    It is the replacement of Donald Trump’s policies by his successor and the implication of that for the rest of world  in terms of the effect of America’s mighty sneeze  albeit in a pandemic world,  that attract   our interest   and   attention  next . For now new   US President Joe Biden is making hay indeed while the sun shines in changing virtually all the policies of his predecessor. Just as his predecessor Donald Trump   changed that of his,  Barak  Obama.  Certainly   the chicken   has come home   to roost  for the Democrats   and their president Joe  Biden,  who  has   signed over a hundred Executive Orders reversing virtually all  Donald Trump’s  Orders in this regard .The  new  president  never  sees  this as any  vendetta. To him and   his   party     it is like a phrase in the book titled – Kidnapped – by R L Stevenson that I read in the secondary school.   The   phrase goes thus ‘Play me foul and I play you tricky ‘

    It  is a tit for tat at  the height of America’s prestigious presidential system  of government with its much     emulated    checks and   balances  as well  as  the system  of   separation of powers. But  that separation and mutual  respect of powers ended momentarily  on  January 6  when a mob turned the US Capitol into occupied territory ostensibly at the instance of the then president who is being tried out of office in an unprecedented post   office impeachment trial without equal in American history. With  such  turmoil at the top of American  politics it is clear that Nigeria ,  as at this moment  has not much  to learn in terms of  tolerance and respect for dissent  and  unity so lacking in present day American politics and culture and    so  ever  needed to unite any   diverse nation   like    both  the US    and    Nigeria.  It is inherent   in Nigeria’s   motto – Unity In Diversity  –   the     grossly   ignored    motto   of the  Nigerian  nation.

    The immediate import of the Biden presidency for Nigeria is that Nigeria has a policy against homophobia and LGBT way of life and Culture and the Biden presidency is against that. Biden has appointed the first gay cabinet member in American history. No politician in any party in the US can speak against this appointment in American politics and survive from day one. Such  opposing view on anything LGBT  will  be crushed  in what  is called the’ Cancel Culture’ in which  opposing views by individuals or institutions lead  to boycott or  ostracism  of such  dissenting voices and their works, products, writings and institutions. On the other hand Nigeria has a 14 year sentence for anyone involved in LGBT culture which is illegal in Nigeria and many African nations. It is just not our way of life. Of course I expect the ubiquitous and powerful US to muscle us as a nation and as Africans on this. How this unfolds is one reason for this new column on’ New Cultures and Politics ‘

    The  other reason is that the Biden presidency has made Climate Change a priority and that makes his presidency potentially at logger heads with Nigeria’s main source of income,  fossil fuel .Just as his predecessor tried to save the oil industry   in the US  by cancelling America’s participation in the world climate change conference, Nigeria too  must fight for  its livelihood even as we look for alternative    means,  and resources for  survival, outside  our   oil  dependent,  mono  oil   economy. We  should  look elsewhere  for  new buyers for our oil    to   counter  the fierce threat and  opposition to  our main  source  of livelihood by those who  do not respect our way of life , culture and politics . America   will dangle the carrot and wield the stick on Nigeria on both Climate Change and LGBT rights. This again is another reason for this new column. Take a ride with me to monitor events on this account but let us not pretend like the proverbial ostrich with its long neck buried in the sand that the ride will be smooth. All the same,   as the Marxists used   to say – ‘Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty ‘. Once again- From the fury of this pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

     

  • Random musing

    Random musing

    By Ade Ojeikere

     

    There has been nothing outstanding to celebrate in Nigeria’s sports in the last one week except for rumours that the 20th National Sports Festival could be cancelled, despite several postponements in the past. Sporting issues have been taken to the law courts while the participants wait in abeyance. Of course, the scheduled competitions must hold whether Nigeria is ready or not. Tales of the unexpected which were carried to the law courts for justice dominated the media space with the athletes left in limbo, wondering which of the warring factions they should align with. The athletes have lost grounds in terms of training hours to prepare for the big competitions because a few people want sports run under selfish terms, irrespective of its negative consequences. Do we expect such ‘holidaying’ athletes to excel over those whose training schedules began eight or four years ago according to their countries’ calendars for the Olympics, for instance.

    The draws of one of the Olympic Games’ events has pitched Nigeria against the United States and our coach is saying that beating the US is a possibility but certainly not for us here. The law of averages makes it absolutely impossible for Nigeria to upset the Americans in the women’s basketball event. In fact, most of our players ply their trade in the US, so they know them technically, having raised some of them as younger girls. Upset is achieved by serious nations. Unfortunately, the basketball federation in Nigeria is a hard working body and could rattle the Americans, knowing that sport isn’t rocket science. I wish the basketball federation weren’t troubled. We wait.

    D’ Tigress coach Otis Hughley described the USA and world number five- France as familiar foes. “We met the USA and France at the last World Cup in Spain and again faced USA at the Olympics Qualifying Tournament in Serbia last year where we qualified for the Olympics.”

    Otis who led the team to the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Cup thereby setting an African record before winning the 2019 FIBA Afrobasket championship noted that, “We are mindful of the threat these teams pose to us including Japan who is ranked 10th in the FIBA ranking. We are going to prepare adequately to ensure that when the time comes, we will be ready.”

    Basketball is one of the elite sports the government have focused attention to as potential medal prospects at the Olympic Games. Basketball’s choice was based on the sport’s continental and global rankings, not essentially the sport’s performance at the big stage which is the exclusive prerogative of countries such as America, where the dunking game is almost like a religion to the people.  Nigeria’s qualification for the basketball events in both the male and female categories say a lot about the calibre of players in both teams and the technical support they get from their coaches. Need I emphasis the role of the basketball federation which has done its work of building on the capacity for the game, leaving the politicians who want to drag the game in the mud to stew in their mess.

    The incumbent basketball federation’s members deserve all the applause they can get for the achievements recorded in spite of the toxic environment they have been working in. Perhaps, if the athletic federation had focused on the growth of the game despite the internal bickering, Nigerians would have been expectant. Even if basketball doesn’t qualify for the medal’s podium at the Olympic Games, both teams have improved on their continental ranking, which raises hope for corporate support back home. If the basketball federation goes on marketing drive, they would have a lot to showcase before prospecting sponsors during their pitching sessions. The Nigeria basketball federation would flaunt with pride their feats using the visual from games and competitions the Nigeria boys and girls won at the big stage.

    Sponsors don’t waste their cash on never-do-well bodies. they always want to see value in their investments. Backing a team(s) that are continental champions opens new vistas for them, especially if such sports are potential Olympic Games’ participants every four years. Going by the world rating where the Olympics is rated, Nigeria has done very well by qualifying her two teams for the Olympics. Whatever the teams find at the multiple sports event would be for experience.

    Kudos to the Sports Minister Sunday Akin Dare for the matured manner he handled the bickering in basketball by allowing the law to take its full course. Dare’s neutral position created the enabling environment for the federation to do their jobs. The sports terrain never lacked sponsors until some administrators became unaccountable, organised low-quality competitions, or failing to pay athletes who participated in sporting tournaments. Of course, no firm will pitch its services or goods on corrupt platforms. The exit of these traditional sponsors led to an era of problems for sports.

    Table tennis, athletics, and boxing tottered in the past. New dawns beckon for boxing and table tennis, only if the authorities ensure that only credible people and competent personnel are employed to fast-track the changes. I feel strongly that the sports minister should use this interlude to headhunt future members of federations whose athletes are medals prospects at big sporting events to support. This way the ones not chosen would feel challenged to do things differently to seek the desired recognition and support.

     

    Don’t wake me up from this dream when it comes to Nigeria’s chances of winning a medal in basketball. No doubt, our game has improved, but it is not enough to stop the Americans in the dunking game. Most of our players ply their trade in the NBA, but this makes the task of beating us easy for the Yankees. True, they know them but when push comes to shove, the Nigerians would be lacking in technique and tactics. These are the hallmarks of champions developed over time.

    However, the Nigerian Athletics Federation’s predicament is painful knowing what the country has achieved in previous competitions organised by the World Athletics, the Olympic Games inclusive. Need I waste space to enlist our athletes that excelled at the world athletics competitions? The difference this time is that we can’t point at 10 athletes (male and female) who can qualify for the finals of their events, a thing we did with smiles in the past. The Olympics in Japan for the Nigerian athletics squads is looking like a mirage.  Others have begun their preparations four or eight years ago and have been primed to hit the winning marks at the Olympics.

    The following athletes are capable of making it to the finals of their respective events at the Tokyo Olympics with the duo of sprint hurdler Tobi Amusan and long jumper Ese Brume best placed to make the podium.

    But if Oduduru re-enacts the form which saw him run 9.86secs in the (100m) and 19.73 secs in the (200m) in one day to win the NCAA Championships’ sprint double in 2019, then he MUST surely count as one for the podium.

    Blessing Okagbare is getting an invite from Old Father Time and her desire to make money in the circuit before the Games will surely affect her chances of qualifying for the final of the 100 metres and/or 200 metres for women. Okagbare needs help. She must be educated on the traits that distinguish winners from losers. She needs a psychologist, a starter’s bloc expert, a career advisor, and a sprint great to repeatedly take her through the rudiments of winning the sprints.

    Below is the list of medals’ prospects for Nigeria at the Olympics.

    MEN

    ….

    -Divine Oduduru (100/200m)

    -Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (Shot Put–8th in the final at 2019 World Championship)

    -Raymond Ekevwo (100m–2019 African Games 100m Champion)

    -4x100m (Oduduru, Ekevwo, Utshoritse Itshekiri, Enoch Adegoke)

    WOMEN

    ……

    Blessing Okagbare (100/200m)

    -Tobi Amusan (100m Hurdles-finalist at the 2019 World Championships)

    -Ese Brume (Long Jump-Bronze medallist at 2019 World Championship)

    -Favour Ofili (400m semi-finalist at 2019 World Championship -4x400m

    Unfortunately, the major meets meant to keep the athletes in shape globally have been canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, making it very difficult to ascertain our athletes’ fitness levels. Sadly, the local federation has been enmeshed in crises that have taken their toll on the athletes. Unlike in other climes where the schedules for their Olympic Games’ athletes began way back after the Rio Olympic Games. Others as far back as eight years showing clearly how prepared they are.

    The sports industry at the grassroots is still at the mundane level in terms of facilities and the wherewithal to thrive. The state sports councils exist only in the building at the capital while their local government offices are more or less cracked mud buildings that house reptiles, rodents, and other dangerous objects. Only a few states, such Lagos, Delta, Cross River, and Rivers, have programmes that engage the youth at the grassroots through sports. Other states recognise sports as a vehicle for mobilising the masses when their governors decide to emulate one of their counterparts by identifying with short races once in a month. Otherwise, these governors only remember sports at Exco meetings, especially when a major event, such as the National Sports Festival, beckons.

  • John S. Saul: Development after globalization (1)

    John S. Saul: Development after globalization (1)

    By Segun AYOBOLU

     

    Nothing helps prove better than the raging Coronavirus pandemic, the pathetic state of Africa on the global scale of development and the vulnerabilities of her peoples to the ravages of poverty, ignorance, avoidable disease and precarious death. True, the continent has been less affected than other parts of the globe in terms of the number of infected cases, hospitalizations and deaths as a result of the pandemic. But this is not due to any scientific ingenuity, superior healthcare facilities, organizational dexterity or leadership acumen. It is simply a function, perhaps, of a favourable climate or good fortune. For, if the pandemic had struck in Africa with as much fire and fury as it has in the more advanced countries of the world, the consequences both for Africa and the global community would have been horrendous. Most African countries have fragile and hardly functional health systems such that the rates of child, infant and maternal mortality as well as deaths from otherwise avoidable diseases rank easily among the highest in the world.

    Is it any wonder that virtually no African country is anywhere near the radar among countries that have made rapid advances in the ongoing fierce competition to develop vaccines and cures for the disease and offer humanity a ray of hope? Given the rich flora and fauna, the dense tropical forests of Africa, should the continent not be at the forefront of the world’s pharmaceutical industries producing effective herbal and medicinal solutions to the myriads of ailments that afflict humanity? But why is this not the case? Is it a question of the genetic and innate inferiority of the black man as some racist theorists would contend? For, Africa is indeed one of the most resource-endowed parts of the globe both in terms of natural and mineral resources yet her people remain the most poverty-stricken and pauperized. Indeed it is in helping to interrogate and proffer answers to the dilemmas of underdevelopment in Africa that the works of a political scientist like Professor John Saul, which is the focus of this piece, assume enduring significance.

    In his 2006 book, ‘Development After Globalization: Theory and Practice of the Embattled South in a New Imperial Age’, the Emeritus Professor, in six major essays, incisively examines the prospects for African emancipation and development in our contemporary world. Introducing himself to the specifically Indian audience at which the book is targeted, Professor Saul writes, “While I am a Canadian who resides and teaches in that country, my main “Third World” focus in both intellectual and political terms has been Africa, especially Southern Africa, where I have lived and worked off and on for a cumulative period of about ten years since the mid-sixties: in Tanzania, in Mozambique and in South Africa. I have published some fifteen volumes on Africa over the years, the most recent being my ‘Africa: The Next Liberation Struggle (2005)’, and I am currently working on a manuscript entitled “The Thirty Years War for Southern African Liberation (1960-1990). I was active for many decades in the anti-apartheid movement in Canada, discussing and publicizing the struggles for liberation in Southern Africa while also vigorously critiquing and resisting the often negative role played vi-a-vis these struggles by the Canadian state and by corporations based in my country”.

    I have quoted Professor Saul at this length to showcase the depth of the commitment of this extraordinary scholar to the liberation of a continent that is not even his. And yet we have African leaders and intellectuals who do not bat an eyelid in exploiting and perpetuating underdevelopment in their own land. It would appear that most scholars in Africa have given up on the possibility of liberating and transforming the continent outside the framework of the current neo-liberal intellectual and economic hegemony. Yet, the experience of the post-independence period of the last six decades, shows that the more she treads this path, the deeper the continent gets mired in a ‘developmental dead-end’ (apologies to Professor Okwudiba Nnoli). Despite the disappointing failure of many socialist experiments and other radical alternative paths to the neo-liberal developmental orthodoxy, Professor Saul remains steadfast in his commitment to revolutionary struggle as the ultimately realistic path to autochthonous African development and the realization of the trapped potentials of her people.

    As John Saul explains in this book, some of the influences on his intellectual development included the Latin American dependency school, Hamza Alavi’s theorization of the ‘Post-colonial state’ in India and Pakistan in the 1970s as well as such radical intellectual icons as Frantz Fanon, Clive Thomas, Issa Shivi and Walter Rodney who incidentally was his next door neighbor at the University of Dar es salam, Tanzania. If I am not mistaken, our own Claude Ake and Okwudiba Nnoli were also teaching at Dar es salam at about the same time. Ah! How tremendously blessed the students of that time and generation must have been.

    Professor Saul does not take the world as it exists at present at face value and as a rigid, static, pre-ordained reality that could not have been different. Rather, he notes that what he calls “the extraordinary gap” between the living standards of people living in the global North and those in the global South is the product of specific historic trajectories encompassing slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism, all facets of Western imperialism. It is impossible to adequately comprehend Africa’s current leadership and underdevelopment crisis without taking into account her disastrous contact with imperialism. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, he notes, the rest of the world was subordinated to the economic requirements of expanding European economic and military might. “As a result, by the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most of the global South had been battered and pillaged, and then, ultimately, tied to Western economic centres by lead-strings of economic and political (including formally colonial) provenance. A global hierarchy was thus formed, in geographical, class and racial terms that would have a profound, even crippling, effect on the economic and social prospects of the vast majority of the world’s population”.

  • Symptomatic service chiefs rejigging

    Symptomatic service chiefs rejigging

    Undertow

    When President Muhammadu Buhari snapped alive on Tuesday to “accept the resignation” of the former service chiefs of the country’s armed forces, many Nigerians hurrahed and did a jig, no doubt labouring under the impression that the move by the presidency was a one-cure solution to all the country’s security woes. The narrative that the presidency ‘accepted’ their resignations created an image that they had probably been planning to resign for a long time but were kept in service. Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, served from 1981 to 2021 and should have retired since 2016. That same year, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai, should have retired, having also served for 35 years. Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, should have retired in 2018 after serving for 35 years, while Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, should have retired in 2014, about a year to his appointment as service chief, having also served for 35 years.

    The new appointees meanwhile, Major General Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff; Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff, Rear Admiral Auwal Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff; Air Vice-Marshal Isiaka Amao, Chief of Air Staff, have been thrown in at the deep end. Nigerians are watching them closely and expecting immediate, overnight results. The immediate hurdle they face is the legality of their appointments. That battle is, however, not theirs to fight, but they will not be able to shake off the feeling of helplessness they may experience as the presidency tries to legitimise their appointments. There were reports in the media that the Buhari administration, familiar to a leitmotif of judicial controversy, did not plan to follow due process in the appointment of the service chiefs. Some said the presidency planned to bypass the legislature’s confirmation of the service chiefs, but the presidency on Friday alleviated those fears. A source within the Buhari administration reportedly said that the presidency did not need to submit the names to the National Assembly. The National Assembly, although tired by the delay it took to rouse the president from his somnolent fidelity to the underwhelming retired service chiefs, had expressed confidence the presidency would not bypass the legislature. So far, their confidence has been rewarded with a letter the presidency claimed was dated January 27, 2021.

    More importantly, however, there are doubts concerning whether changing the service chiefs will solve the problem dogging the Nigerian Armed Forces’ inability to stymie the wave of insecurity in the land. The appointment of the now retired service chiefs was also greeted with fanfare in 2015, especially as it followed a daring wave of attacks by Boko Haram insurgents that included the kidnap of the Chibok girls. At the time, President Muhammadu Buhari, still eager to prove himself, had said that the appointments were on merit. The concern for Nigerians was not whether their service in the army should have been terminated or not; it was that the former service chiefs before them needed to go. Being thus appointed with so much promise, what registered them in Nigerians’ black books? The president’s glowing testimony on their appointments in 2015 meant they should have delivered far more than the public saw. It would be mistaken and almost unfair to lay the blame totally on their porches even though they were not entirely exculpable.

    To start with, at least one of the retired service chiefs suffered from a classic case of misplaced loyalties. He was quoted unequivocally stating that the army’s loyalty was to the president and that the army would not be shy about using any means necessary to straighten up any dissenters among Nigerians. This is a terrible snare that the freshly appointed service chiefs must evade at all costs, for no meriting commander in the Nigerian armed forces would have made such a pronouncement. Such a mistake would quickly alienate the army from the people who felt that things were getting too dictatorial for comfort. The former service chiefs were also only too happy to ignore invitations by the senate, prompting Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, to note that the House felt insulted and he in particular was embarrassed. The acting service chiefs must embrace accountability as a hallmark of Nigeria’s democracy. Failure of that democracy would constitute more of a threat to nationhood than banditry, for weapons cannot combat an ideology.

    The country’s security architecture may have contributed to failing the outgoing service chiefs and the people. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) should be a key component of the country’s security, but they have been reduced to little more than traffic wardens and personal bodyguards. Analysts fear that until the NPF is retrained, retooled and reoriented to combat insecurity, the army will continue to labour under heavy pressure with cumbersome duties of internal security that the police should otherwise handle. Its forces will continue to be stretched beyond safe elastic limits. In short, until something is done about the security architecture, Shakespeare’s words will continue to ring true as follows, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose would by any other name smell as sweet.”

    Although there has been no formal declaration of a state of emergency by law, the presidency stated otherwise and indicated its intention to help the new security crew combat insecurity. “There’s nothing I can tell you about the service, because you are in it. I was also in it, and I will pray for you. I also assure you that whatever I can do as Commander-in-Chief will be done, so that the people will appreciate your efforts. You know the stage we were in 2015, you know the stage we are now, and the undertakings we made. We promised to secure the country, revive the economy, and fight corruption. None has been easy, but we have certainly made progress. We’re in a state of emergency. Be patriotic, serve the country well, as your loyalty is to the country,” the president said on Wednesday.

    The Buhari administration must be careful to treat the disease itself and stop addressing only the symptoms. If a clear chain of command is not spelt out and respected in the security architecture, even the current service chiefs will fail. The National Security Adviser, Minister of Defence, and Chief of Defence Staff, who should traditionally lead the joint force of the service chiefs, should work as a cohesive unit to formulate and execute security measures and strategies. More responsibilities and better welfare should also be given to the country’s ailing, senile, impotent and universally loathed police force. Recruitment into both the army and police would be welcome by both security agencies but they have not always been handled with the circumspection and gravitas expected. Even aspects that had to do with appointments and promotion have badly been politicised. A cloud shadows the president’s commitment to combat insecurity, and it is hoped he will not stop at only changing the service chiefs.

  • El-Rufai enamoured of amazons

    El-Rufai enamoured of amazons

    Undertow

    They may not have been the biggest or the strongest on the block, but the 300 women of the Nigerian Army, who were deployed to the Kaduna-Abuja highway, were bold and gallant. Had 300 men also been deployed to that stretch of asphalt, they would have been described with the same terms. For a long time, the Kaduna-Abuja highway was a safe haven for criminals and bandits who came and went as they pleased — gentlemen of the night and noblemen of the day — robbing, maiming, kidnapping and killing almost unchecked. They had visited every unit of fear imaginable on travellers of that route and were already attaining mythical statuses of invincibility, and not all the uproar or cries of the people got anything done. What the area wanted was strong military presence and that was what it got on Wednesday, regardless of the gender of the soldiers deployed. The army itself is not fond of gender segregation and a soldier is first a soldier before being a gender-specific individual.

    Receiving the soldiers on Wednesday, however, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state did not appear to appreciate these finer nuances of the Nigerian Army. Enamoured instead of the female soldiers, he waxed poetic and chatted about the femininity of the soldiers, even going as far as to put down male soldiers and somehow managing to introduce the state’s deputy governor into the equation.

    Hear him: “The problem of Abuja-Kaduna road will be over with these female soldiers because what a man can do a woman can do better. I am confident the road will be the safest in Nigeria. We will do everything possible to make this operation comfortable. We are very happy to have you. Your presence will inspire others girls to join the military. That is why we have female deputy governor to inspire other women.”

    That sort of cliché logic should not have come from the governor, a hyperbole loving politician. It is true that analysts and even feminists have pointed out certain significances emanating from the deployment of female soldiers, but the solution to the problem was neither female nor male soldiers; it was soldiers. The gender of the soldiers deployed to the highway should have been immaterial to the governor, and even if he would allow his sentiments govern his perception of the incidence, he should have spoken more guardedly on the issue. In the army and in warfare, it is difficult to understand such a statement as women being better performers than men. How is such a statement justifiable?

    The governor was right to observe that the presence of the female soldiers would encourage other girls to join the army. It is hoped that the soldiers that have been deployed to the region will genuinely be provided for. Their efficacy can only be felt to the extent that resources are provided for them to battle the criminals that have terrorised the highway. Given the right weapons and resources, the soldiers will deliver, male and female alike. Governor el-Rufai should understand this and employ more tact and circumspection in future statements.

  • Kwara APC: From frying pan to fire

    Kwara APC: From frying pan to fire

    Sentry

    If APC’s interim national leadership hoped to douse the crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter with the removal of Hon. Bashir Bolarinwa as the chairman, then it obviously got its permutations wrong.

    Reports reaching Sentry from Ilorin, indicate that fresh troubles are brewing within the party. In fact, the purported sack of the chairman is creating problems anew.

    While party leaders in Abuja are quick to tell you that the issues in Kwara are being resolved by the North-Central zonal leadership led by Governor Sani Bello of Niger State, inside sources say no fresh effort has been made to end the crisis.

    “The plan is to force the APC in Kwara to accept Abdullai Samari, the governor’s choice as the new chairman of the party and forget about Bolarinwa. The governor is enjoying the support of the national caretaker committee. But I can tell you for free that the plot will fail. The Niger State governor and his colleagues in the zonal leadership are just buying time and trying to convince those they can reach to support the governor’s choice,” a source said.

    But it appears Bolarinwa’s camp are not about to let go easily as members of the state executive caretaker committee continue to reject his removal. They have reportedly told Samari he cannot lead the APC in Kwara.

    On the other hand, the governor is telling whoever cares to listen that Samari remains the only APC chairman known to him, setting the stage for a prolonged crisis.

    These rumblings are coming when APC is about to register new members and revalidate the membership of old ones. The grapevine says the exercise may expose how bad the O’toge revolution has turned.

  • FF and the restructuring debate (3)

    FF and the restructuring debate (3)

    By Segun Ayobolu

    This columnist apologizes for our absence in the last two weeks. The spirit was indeed willing but the flesh was weak and weary. In the interlude, there were interesting developments. President Muhammadu Buhari appointed new Service Chiefs. State and non state actors rose up against criminal herdsmen in parts of the South-West. These have a bearing surely on our ongoing discourse on senior lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana’s take on the restructuring debate which we conclude today.    Many advocates of restructuring in Nigeria today appear to perceive and approach the issue essentially from an ethnic prism. Return to your ethnic camps O Nigerians, they seemingly intone, and all will be well with us. Those of them who were once adept and most adroit at explicating the dilemmas of Nigeria’s national question from a class and economic perspective have long since ‘gone off their Marx’! They now worship at the shrine of the gods of ethnic supremacy. From their new perspectives, Nigeria should be structurally reconfigured along ethnic and/or regional fault lines as class analyses have lost their saliency. The doctrinaire Marxists of yore may have unduly underplayed the critical dimensions of race, ethnicity, religion and gender in their analyses of society but that does not diminish the continued utility of class as a category of dissecting and understanding contemporary political structures.

    For, it becomes more obvious by the day that as Nigeria’s protracted economic crisis deepens and the size of the total social product to be shared among contending factions and fractions of the ruling class continually shrinks, the more the latter resort to the exploitation of ethno-regional sentiments to legitimize themselves politically among their assorted primordial constituencies. But Mr. Femi Falana argues forcefully that trying to reconfigure Nigeria along ethnic lines is not only a social engineering impossibility, it is a logical absurdity except we are no longer thinking in terms of a coherent and cohesive country.

    In the words of Mr. Falana, “There should be a greater clarity of purpose in the proposition of restructuring. The diversity and complexity of Nigeria should obviously make the idea of ethnic restructuring impractical in the Nigerian circumstance. When members of the major ethnic groups talk of restructuring in which maps of Biafra and Oduduwa Republics are neatly drawn, do they give a thought to some ethnic groups whose members are only a few thousands? Some languages are spoken each by fewer than a thousand persons while others are spoken each by tens of millions. How do you restructure on ethnic basis in such a complex terrain? That is why the focus should be devolution of powers and responsibilities along class lines. The competence and capacity of states and local governments to govern should be bolstered by awakening institutions of democracy including civil society”.

    Again, some advocates of restructuring create the impression that the notions, ideas or models of a reconfigured Nigeria which they have subjectively arrived at are somewhat superior to others and should be binding on all. They hardly give a thought to the roadmap of how to get from where we are today to the Nigerian Eldorado they have dreamt up for the rest of us. But is there a magic wand for bringing about the new Nigeria of their fancies without working through existing structures and processes? It is doubtful and Mr. Falana makes the point pungently. According to him, “Those who advocate restructuring hardly play the politics of restructuring very well. Like I indicated earlier, the problems of restructuring are to be approached strategically with negotiation and engagement. Since the issue will ultimately be resolved with constitutional amendment or if need be writing a new constitution, the various ethnic and regional champions should engage robustly with their people in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly. It is inexplicable that restructuring hardly features in parliamentary debates in Abuja or in any of the state capitals”.

    He continues, “Restructuring should not be an alibi for governance to go on vacation as we are beginning to see in some states of the federation. States do not have to wait for restructuring to fix primary schools without roofs or health centres without drugs and equipment. The absence of restructuring cannot be a justification for some states to fail to access funds from the Universal Basic Education (UBE) to remove 14 million children from the streets. State governments need not wait for restructuring before mobilizing the people to embark on food production and industrialization”.

    How about the issue of lopsided appointments and especially the allegation of nepotism against President Muhammadu Buhari in filling key and sensitive positions particularly as regards the headship of components of the security architecture? Is this a problem for which the extant 1999 constitution should be blamed or is it, first and foremost, a challenge of leadership limitation? The answer is obvious. For instance, with a single decision and within the twinkle of an eye, President Muhammadu Buhari this week bowed to popular pressure and appointed new Service Chiefs more reflective of the country’s plurality no matter how imperfectly. This shows that the constitution was not the problem all along but rather the leadership will to abide by its letter and spirit.

    As Mr. Falana points out, “In order to command national loyalty, in recognition of the diversity of the people and the need to promote a sense of belonging among the people of Nigeria, Section 14(3) & (4) of the Constitution provides that the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria by ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies. It is submitted that lopsidedness in political appointments is prohibited by the constitution. Hence, the Federal Character Commission, a federal executive body, has been assigned the responsibility to deal with allegations of lopsided appointments in public and private sectors”.

    Many commentators blame the extant constitution for the pervasive insecurity that has made the length and breadth of Nigeria today a vast, Hobbesian wasteland and killing field. They contend that the constitution imposes a unitary policing system on the country and confers the vacuous title of Chief Security Officer on State Governors without giving them any powers of control over the police in their respective states. Mr. Falana disagrees submitting that “With profound respect, the constitution has empowered state governors to share police powers with the President but for reasons best known to them they have abdicated the responsibility to the Federal Government”. He points out that the Nigeria Police Council, which is constitutionally empowered to administer, organize and supervise the Nigeria Police Force, is composed of the President and the state governors.

    In a damning indictment of the state governors, Falana states that “About two years ago, my repeated calls on state governors to requisition the meetings of the Nigeria Police Council fell on deaf ears. Hence, I sued the President at the Federal High Court to convene the meetings of the Council to address the security challenge in the country. However, Section 6(4) of the Nigeria Police Act 2020 has made provision for at least two meetings of the council per year and emergency meetings when necessary. In spite of the worsening security situation in the country, governors have not requisitioned a single meeting of the National Police Council. But last week, the APC governors held an emergency meeting with President Buhari and persuaded him not to honour the invitation to address members of the House of Representatives on the security situation in the country. Apart from making a mockery of the basic tenet of accountability and separation of powers, the APC governors have brazenly subverted federalism”.

    In much of the restructuring debate, there is the reflexive assumption that the problem with governance and federal practice in Nigeria is an all too powerful centre and unfairly emasculated states. What comes out of Mr. Falana’s lecture, however, is that the totalitarianism of state chief executives is perhaps worse than what obtains at the centre. For instance, financial autonomy for the judiciary and legislature in accordance with constitutional stipulations is adhered to at the federal level but totally ignored by state governments. Again, even where the constitution confers joint responsibility on the federal and state governments such as in the management of the economy or fighting corruption, for instance, state governors have slept on their rights leaving the terrain to the dominion of the centre.

    As Mr. Falana submits, “Notwithstanding the shortcomings of the 1999 Constitution, there are some residual powers reserved for state governments which have not been explored to promote the economic development of the country. We have identified specific areas where state governments have refused to jointly exercise powers with the federal government as stipulated by the constitution. In view of the strident opposition of the ruling party to power devolution, the Nigerian people are not deceived by the campaign for restructuring which is being championed, in recent time, by politicians who are interested in the 2023 presidential race. Instead of dismissing the campaign, state governors who are genuinely interested in restructuring should democratize the powers that have devolved to state governments from the centre through litigation. They are also advised to insist on power sharing with the federal government with respect to the management of the economy and security of the nation as stipulated by the constitution”.

  • Finally, Amosun ‘returns’ to APC

    Finally, Amosun ‘returns’ to APC

    Sentry

     

    Mischief-makers are having a field day discussing what they described as the ‘final return’ of former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    This started after all seven lawmakers elected under the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in the state decamped to APC during the plenary on Thursday at the House of Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

    The Speaker, Olakunle Oluomo while reading their letters of defection, stated that the lawmakers in their correspondences, noted that they took the decision after due consultation with their leaders and constituents. The legislators are Amosun Yusuf, Modupe Mujota, Musefiu Lamidi, Ajayi Bolanle, Ganiyu Oyedeji, Ajibola Sikiratu and Ademola Adeniran.

    It would be recalled that Amosun, then as governor and APC senatorial candidate, ordered the lawmakers and all his allies and supporters to dump APC and join APM, following the failure of his preferred candidate to pick the ruling party’s gubernatorial ticket.

    They have remained in APM ever since while Amosun stayed in APC. Thus, many see their return as confirmation the former governor is ready to play the politics of the ruling party henceforth.

    With the defection, the 26 membership house now consists of 22 APC lawmakers, three African Democratic Congress (ADC) and a member from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

  • Highest bidder’s league

    Highest bidder’s league

    Ade Ojeikere

     

    I’M calling my friend (Azeez Tade) out since  the body he heads has been the safety valve of what we have been forced to watch – the domestic league riddled with several inadequacies. Tade has been quite cooperative as a major stakeholder of the game in Nigeria. He is the President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) whose members are being owed their entitlements running into years, with the organisers pulling the wool over our faces by celebrating a certain television coverage, forgetting that the players, officials, and referees must be present at the match venues for such games to be televised.

    How best can anyone capture the tomfoolery called television coverage than with the undiplomatic manner in which supposed host broadcaster NTA cut off the live transmission of the league game at half-time to allow for the Covid-19 press conference? It underscores the reason corporate firms won’t touch any venture owned by the government. Imagine if firms had paid for several of the marketing openings in the stadium for the Monday game, only for NTA to obey orders from the top which ended the live coverage unceremoniously. Viewers at home waited in vain for the commencement of the second half which didn’t come on the stream. Isn’t this an international disgrace? How do we expect any business-minded local or international firm to identify the goods or services with such a shameful setting?

    An incident happened in one of the fixtures in the six-week-old league where the match referees who handled the home game which Ifeanyi Ubah FC lost were locked out of their hotel. From this scenario, can any set of referees be able to officiate fairly games involving Ifeanyi Ubah FC at home without ensuring that they win at dusk? No way, since they know the implication – sleeping outside in the open field except they have the cash to pay for one room to rest their heads until the wee hours of such unfortunate nights before heading home. Isn’t it a shame that clubs are being made to accommodate referees of their matches? Would the organisers refund such expenses when their so-called sponsors remit their contributions? No prize for guessing right that nothing has been given to the club by the organisers.

    We are being deluded by fake news reports listing the Nigeria league that hasn’t produced a winner on the pitch as the 77th best in the world among the 211 football federations and 10th in Africa. Which firm would consider a league without known kick-off dates? How would a league whose players and coaches are being owed their entitlements with the organisers unable to apply the rules on such issues to the letter berated? Who rates a league without title sponsors? How do you evaluate a league that isn’t beamed live on television? Who reckons with a league whose workers are being owed salaries running into millions for close to nine months? Who is fooling who?

    A league whose organisers beg clubs to foot the bills of the games shouldn’t be listed at all. A league where people are forced to burn their data watching games that ought to be on terrestrial television among others is deviant and should be stopped. The organisers should tell us what is holding back the sponsors’ packages, especially the cash now that the referees’ body is threatening to boycott the league soon? The referees’ body is right if they make good their threat because their members are family people who shouldn’t be risking their lives on Nigerian roads only to be told that what is due them isn’t available. Or are the organisers expecting the referees to fund their trips to match venues? Don’t they know that refereeing is a hobby? Who does that? Shouldn’t the organisers prioritise the referees’ entitlements knowing their importance in the game?

    What do you expect any referee or referees if they get alerts or cash gifts paying for their flight tickets, names of the hotels booked for them and other pecks front-loaded to any account of their choice to do when they get to the match venue(s)? Any team that provides for referees in this kind of untoward manner expects victory in return. Anything short of the three points would attract the kind of punishment the referees who handled Ifenayi Ubah’s home loss got – bundled out of the hotel and possibly a refund of what they were paid – those that are verifiable.

    This writer isn’t in support of open attacks on the organisers or referees after games. But where the hosts are made to do everything for referees, one won’t but align with these critics, especially for those matches shown live as the game between Heartland FC and Akwa United. Some of the referee’s calls left much to be desired of. Unfortunately, the so-called television coverage didn’t have relays or the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) machines for a proper review as we see weekly in European leagues. Nobody would watch his efforts destroyed by the incompetence or otherwise of an arbiter without expressing his reservations. It is only human to do so. Now that the coaches and officials have been punished, the organiser should critically study the match videos for further sanctions on the match officials’ conduct, especially this Heartland/Akwa United game.

    What stands out clearly is that the domestic league’s problems would forever be swept under the carpet. Those who should support a paradigm shift have soiled their hands in the till and have no moral justification to demand a change in the way the game is administered here.

    Yearly, these state-owned teams get budgets allocated to them. But the players and coaches get a mere pittance. They dare not grumble; otherwise, they get fired. Club chairmen operated like monsters, preferring to exploit the inefficiencies of the organisers to do what they like with the clubs’ funds. Today, nobody can say how much our clubs are worth. Nobody dares ask how much players earn since many cannot remember when they were last paid.

    With this setting, the organisers had no product to sell to investors beyond trying to use their friends in high places to broker a deal. Simply put, no arm of the league is functional, culminating in the easy exit of most of our continental representative, beaten by clubs from less prominent football nations. Since the league was always in abeyance, the home-based players couldn’t compete with their foreign-based counterparts whenever they are invited to fight for shirts in our national teams. They are used as training materials. Ironically, the few lucky ones that get to Europe return as kings to get shirts – just because of their change of residence.

    In the absence of a soccer calendar, domestic league players resort to heading out of the country to all manner of leagues in name of being foreign-based to attract an invitation to the national team. Such moves are shady, as shylock agents trade them into slavery. Many of such moves have also seen our young stars lose their form or go into oblivion.

    The list of such lost stars is legendary. Where do I start? Who will I ask why such destructive moves still persist? Of course, when good players leave the country, those left are those still eager to bolt away to Europe or the Diaspora, knowing that they have no future remaining here. And with a system that worships discovered stars, attention to developing a nursery remains a conjecture. Without a nursery, no development. Players are left to copy what their idols exhibit on television, leaving the basics of the game to the period when they will get a foreign side to teach them.

    It is sad that the organisers are celebrating away victories in the game in this covid-19 era, forgetting that the fans are not watching the matches live. Who doesn’t know that clubs and their leaders persuade the fans to vent their spleen on match officials if the result doesn’t favour the home teams? No away team can abandon a game if the results are in the favour.  When you criticise a system here, those who should effect the changes resort to cheap talk of the writer doing the bidding of his paymaster. But like a sore thumb, the problems keep hitting our all-knowing officials on the face. The sports administrators’ saving grace so far is that nobody has been killed at league venues by those beasts who take the laws into their hands to cause mayhem and maim people. The saddening part of these urchins’ bestial acts is that nobody gets punished, no one gets caught and the teams get a slap on the wrists.

    To avert deaths, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) should immediately prioritise manning of match venues before, during and after matches, through special squads. The IGP can place temporary police stations inside the stadium with Black Marias stationed to house hooligans when they are caught.