The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Technology, power and religion

    Technology, power and religion

    Dayo Sobowale

     

    The US government  recently  categorized Nigeria as one of the most  religiously intolerant  nations  of the world. Which is quite laughable to Nigerians because the opposite is the case. But then as the CNN coverage of  the Stop SARS protests had shown, the media can easily use technology and fake news to manipulate  events and stories to give a thoroughly wrong  impression  of events and happenings in various  parts of the world. France, Nigeria, Eastern Europe and even China are some nations in world  politics which  have fallen  victims in terms of sovereign reputation  as  a result  of this .Actually Americans  are self righteous  on religion and security   and   should  really  remove the mote in their eyes before getting rid  of  the problems  in other peoples vision, thinking and culture.

    Wittingly or not, the US is indeed a victim of its success with technology especially  this week  with the rejection of the last  presidential  elections by not only its president but some 17  states which have gone to the US Supreme Court  to question the integrity  of the election  results in some key   5   other states . This   goes hand in hand with the anti Trump media led  by  CNN marshaling a total  news blackout on Joe Biden’s  son Hunter’s   questionable business deals during  the  campaign and  just  going back to it this week,  well   after  the elections. CNN also infamously ridiculed  the American president’s optimism on getting a  vaccine  before  the end of the year and only start,   to half  heartedly air  this  important  achievement   of   the Trump Administration after they  projected that he has  successfully lost the election. Which Trump  till now has not accepted, insisting instead  that  the election was rigged.

    In  Europe  France is battling Islamic Extremism in protecting  its secularity. President Macron  this week  lamented that  he would accept  that police  brutality exists but he would ‘deconstruct’ it  because  it is being used by extremist  leftists  to destabilize  the state and create  anarchy in France. France is trying to put in  place  a law  that  would make it difficult to use videos  or pictures of police brutality to punish policemen captured doing the wrong  things but  protesters are arguing that if these  events  are  not captured, there would  be no way  to capture and document  police brutality.  I agree  with that  even though I  see  the  logic  of  the French  president trying to kill  the two  birds of Islamic fundamentalism and French security with one stone. In  China which is a police state , policemen have sun glasses that use Artificial  Intelligence to see though clothes and human  bodies and no one cares about privacy or violation of human rights there. Whilst France is bowing to pressure on police brutality and Islamic extremism in making security laws, China simply built orientation camps for its minority Muslims to force teach them to acknowledge  the supremacy of the Chinese state and party over their Islamic faith. But  then the Chinese forgot about satellite technology which showed the locations of their  orientation camps   in  a remote  part  of  China. Such  is the power  of technology in revealing the goings on, even in carefully  secured police states like China.

    Going back  to the disputed integrity of the last November 3 US presidential elections, an  observer this week noted wryly that the combination of CNN, Google and Facebook is   more  powerful    than the three arms of government namely, the Judiciary, the Executive and the US  Congress under   the separation of power presidential system. The   recent  presidential  campaigns  and the election vividly bear this out. The pandemic may have aided voter fraud but  mail  in voting was tailor  made  for Democrats to get more votes than Republicans who  normally vote in person. Actually technology made Trump a most powerful US president with his frequent tweets on issues. The same technology undid him when Twitter  started blocking out  his messages and tweets on the eve of the election. Similarly his legal suits against the election fraud he alleged  were branded as lacking any evidence by the anti Trump media which switched their coverage massively to the pandemic deaths and the race to get a vaccine as if the presidential election process had been concluded. This  is while a sitting president, who  purportedly lost the election, was still calling  on the US Supreme Court  to intervene and declare him  winner or annul  millions  of votes he   insists  were illegal. 17 Attorneys General  of 17  states  in the  US  have gone to the SCOTUS to  ask  it to overturn the November 3   presidential  elections  and  declare  Trump  the winner. Which is quite unusual  but is part of the electoral  process  according to the US  constitution.  Of course to get the best coverage of Trump’s legal  efforts  to overturn   the election  results  you  have to  follow Hannity on Fox news and face the blackout on this with CNN which is busy with the coverage and speculation on Joe  Biden’s new proposed cabinet  after  he is sworn in, in January  next  year.

    With  regard  to the listing of Nigeria as a religiously  intolerant  state  by the US,  the reason is not far fetched. It  is  the manipulation of the social media by the Nigerian Shia Muslims whose  leader and his wife have  been  on trial for sometime on security issues. Indeed Nigeria is more tolerant on religion   than  the US . Mixed  religious marriages have made this possible even though the North is largely  Muslim. In  the South west for instance there is hardly any  family that does not have a Muslim or Christian relative. Western education cemented this before Boko Haram  came  up with its terrorism of saying’ No  to western education’. This has polarized the nation and especially  the North which as I said is  largely Muslim. That in a way explains why Boko Haram and the herdsmen are seemingly intractable. They are both Muslims and have massive social media platforms, followings and religious videos that either  radicalize  our youths  or even their  parents in a way that  show  religious empathy or piety for those who attack their government and its institutions. An Army spokesman  once said some renegade Nigerians mislead the army with intelligence leading to deaths of our patriotic soldiers. This is unacceptable and government should punish and deter such traitors. This is quite important because even though the North is more illiterate largely than the rest of the nation, dissemination of news,  first on the Hausa Service of the BBC, and now the internet and social  media, means the  average Northerner is better informed in vernacular than  the educated youths in both the rest of the North and at times even the South. Such information makes religious or political propaganda easy  to spread like a virus and can be used for good or bad purposes and interests including security breaches or confusion

    All the same, Nigeria is more tolerant than the US on religious differences. In the US  or  even in Britain the cancel culture has been used to silence those with the religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and  a woman and a US Supreme court spoke against this recently. The  US Supreme Court ruled on religious rights recently  and held that it is not right to open bars and fitness bars while keeping churches shuttered even in the  pandemic. In Nigeria there is a law against gay  rights that cut across religions but it is hardly invoked, as most Nigerian religions  recognize a marriage as simply between a man and a woman hence the punishment of 14 years for violation, which anyway, is hardly invoked.

    Again  in Nigeria  the bitterness of politics has not reached  the stage of the US where a survey revealed this week that Trump supporters and the Anti Trump Democrats  insist they can  not  carry on life as usual with those who say the election of November 3 was rigged or not. Although we have our own problems with rigging or even post election violence, it has not  reached that stage when we allow politics to damage our way of life permanently after our many  rig prone elections   or religious differences. Once again From the fury of this raging pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

  • #EndSARS protests – Any lessons learnt?

    #EndSARS protests – Any lessons learnt?

    By Segun Ayobolu

    Have members of the Nigerian political class transcending, in particular, the two dominant parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) learnt any appropriate lessons from the over two-week #EndSARS protests that rocked large swathes of the country bringing the economy in many major cities virtually to a standstill? On the surface, the answer seems to be in the affirmative. For instance, in his well written and delivered speech to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Historical Documentation and Research Centre, also known as the Arewa House, the Ekiti State governor and Chairman of the National Governors Forum (NGF), Dr Kayode Fayemi, on Saturday, October 31st, gave a characteristically brilliant account of himself even  if there was really nothing new in his observations and adumbrations that had not been rehashed, in different words, by analysts of the Nigerian political terrain.

    Fayemi’s speech was titled, ‘Unfinished Greatness…Towards a More Perfect Union’. Its historical sweep was impressive and its philosophical depths at times enthralling. The central contention of the NGF‘s Chairman’s address is that, as far as Nigeria is concerned, “There was  ‘greatness’ or at  least a journey towards greatness which has remained unfinished”. He equally asserts that “it is only by building a more perfect union that we can accomplish the task of greatness for which we have demonstrated so much potential for the better part of our history”. This idea of striving for a ‘more perfect union’ is obviously borrowed from the imagination of the American federalist fathers and the ‘imperfect’ constitution they produced, which constantly inspires and motivates the citizenry in every generation to fight for a polity, that is ever in quest of  a non-attainable ‘perfection’.

    The NGF Chairman reiterates the right phrases, alludes to the elegant theories of democracy and federalism and emphasizes the need to steer Nigeria in the direction of continuously deepening her federal practice in the interest of enhanced political stability and economic progress. Referring to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in his October 1st, 2009, speech to commemorate Nigeria’s 49th anniversary, Fayemi quotes him thus, “Today should be a forceful reminder of our unfinished greatness, of the promise yet to be fulfilled, of dreams deferred for too long and of the work that is still outstanding”. Elaborating on the late President’s thought, Fayemi writes, “You cannot develop what you don’t have. When the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, asked “When is a nation?’, he was attempting to draw our attention to those questions of nation-building that remained unanswered till this day”.

    Still speaking on an upbeat, optimistic note, Fayemi compares Nigeria with such formerly supposedly federal polities – Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union etc – that have broken up into diverse, separate countries, and contends that with our over 250 ethno-national groups, “Yet we were managing our diversity very well until we lost the values of tolerance, equity, fairness and justice which we inherited from our founding fathers”. Of course, this kind of idealistic and romantic portraiture of politics and governance in the First Republic has become all too fashionable among our scholars and sundry analysts. But let’ read our history. The political violence, crude and criminal manipulation of census figures, outright rigging of elections, diversion of public resources for private use and every other imaginary evil manifest between 1960 and 1966, leading to the collapse of the First Republic, were only a foreshadowing of the socio-political and economic vices that have plagued successive republics since then.

    Speaking specifically about the #EndSARS protests, Fayemi asserts that “From the demand of the #End SARS, we have seen vigorous demands for greater accountability and greater efficiency in government. What I understand the youths to be saying is that we, the older generation, have failed them by our inability to create a system that supports their dreams and accommodates their aspirations”. But   then, Fayemi is a proud and flaunting poster boy of the Buhari administration to the extent that he once publicly declared that he is not ashamed to be called a ‘Buhari boy’. If he has all these beautiful ideas in his head, pray what kind of advice does he offer a man he purportedly loves and admires so much? For, I believe that, especially as the Chairman of the NGF, Fayemi must be one governor who has the President’s ears.

    In his opening remarks at the event, the host governor, Mallam Nasir’el Rufai, also vigorously advocated for the restructuring of the country towards a deepened federal system lamenting that the report of the APC Committee on true federalism, which he headed, had been submitted to the appropriate quarters since January, 2018, with nothing, inexplicably, done about it. El-Rufai stressed the imperative of moving fast within the context of the times “with a sense of purpose to remove the structural impediments that hobble our country”. However, like Pontius Pilate, can the Kaduna State governor simply wash his hands clean from any guilt as regards the non- implementation of the APC Committee on True Federalism? Like Fayemi, el-Rufai publicly and proudly proclaims himself a ‘Buharist’. Why then can’t people like this duo that are fiercely loyal to the President and have easy access to the inner recesses of power influence PMB to carry out the lofty ideas they peddle at public lectures and media interviews.

    Detracting somewhat from the seriousness of the Arewa House event, the Kaduna State governor’s prefatory remarks were clearly not helpful. In his tempestuous manner, he posited that Fayemi was invited to deliver the lecture for a purpose because the North has a way of pursuing whatever goals it chooses to pursue. That purpose he said would be known in the course of time. Can analysts be blamed then if they concluded from el-Rufai’s insinuations and innuendoes that he has 2023 on his mind? More measured and restrained, the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar, speaking on the occasion described Fayemi as an adopted son of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, without explicating what he means.

    Any members of the two major parties who are still focused on their petty 2023 ambitions without imbibing the lessons to be derived from the massive #endSARS protests are living in an utterly deluded world. If the protesting young and women can mobilize the same kind of energy, resources, enthusiasm, focus, discipline and sense of purpose towards achieving specific political goals in 2023, then let our politicians quickly wake up to the reality that it can no longer be business as usual. At the very least, there seems to be a tectonic shift on Nigeria’s political terrain thanks to the #endSARS protests. It is astonishing that a party like the APC does not realize that, given the direction it is currently headed, its victory in future elections, especially the 2023 elections, cannot be guaranteed.

    The APC shot itself in the foot when it peremptorily and unwarrantedly dissolved the party’s National Working Committee headed by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole when only a minority of two or three aggrieved members was against the former Edo State governor in a NWC comprising no less than 40 members. Now, it appears that the tenure of the Extraordinary Caretaker and Convention Planning Committee will inevitably be extended. The governor Mai Mala Buni –led Committee even appears poised to commence registration of new members, which will have further implications for the holding of its intraparty primaries and convention as originally scheduled. In such circumstances, there will be little meaningful governance in most states controlled by the party until the most likely acrimonious intra-party polls are over.

    Of course, this problem of being preoccupied with 2023 to the detriment of productive governance in the short term is not that of the APC alone. We have all just witnessed the defection of the Ebonyi State governor, Mr David Umahi, to the ruling APC. It is all said to be about 2023 and particularly the question of an Igbo presidency. Other big shots in the party are reportedly preparing to defect to the ruling party if the Prince Uche Secondus-led NWC of the party does not give a firm commitment now on which zone will hoist the PDP presidential flag in 2023.  Just like the APC, the PDP is putting its cart before its horse. Rather than rediscovering its philosophy of existence, re-orienting itself ideologically, rejuvenating its organizational machinery to guarantee greater efficiency, transparency, effectiveness and inclusiveness, the PDP is unhelpfully obsessed with coming back to power in 2023. Given the organizational potency and vibrancy of the restive youths behind the #endSARS protests, the two parties may in future pay heavy prices for complacency and near total alienation from reality.

  • Legitimacy, rigging and violence

    Legitimacy, rigging and violence

    Violence is an act of force and defiance against a perceived oppressor, aggressor or irritant to make that entity stop an imposition or forced act of coercion. In politics it is either against a government or its agents by refusing to obey such government known policies or setting up a resistance that may be reflected in the use of force of arms or ammunition. Yet  government is expected to have a monopoly  of violence in maintaining its rule within a given territorial area. If   government cannot  have a monopoly of power it is soon overthrown in what is called in political parlance  a military coup,  where  and when  soldiers subvert democracy. Such  coups  are no longer fashionable as we have seen with the recent one in Mali where the international  community asked the soldiers to have a date for restoring democracy and retreating into the barracks  there after. But democracy,  when it lacks legitimacy in terms of rigged  elections is also  an invitation to violence  as the  1962 Action Group crisis in the former Western Region of  Nigeria has shown in being the precursor of the military coup of 1966,  subsequent  military interventions and the Nigerian  civil war thereafter.

    Today we look at events in Nigeria and  the widespread insecurity in the North  with  which  Northern leaders have agreed is beyond the capacity and strength of the Nigerian army, and mercenaries should be brought in to redress the situation. Even the army  has conceded that outside forces bent on destroying  Nigeria, are behind Boko Haram and the failure of the army to defeat the insurgency.  In  doing this  analysis  we bear  in mind the immense diversity of the Nigerian nation which has resulted in the adoption of the national motto – Unity in Diversity.

    We examine also the rigging charges of US President Donald on the legitimacy of the November 3 2020  elections and consequences of that for the Biden presidency. We  also  take a peep at Ethiopia  where a civilian PM  has  used the army  decisively  and successfully to defeat a regional insurgency in the Northern part of Ethiopia and  wonder why that cannot be replicated with the Nigerian army  which  has been fighting the Boko Haram  insurgency with the terrorists waxing stronger over  the years and expending their scope instead.

    Let  us now go back to Nigeria and  the issue of pervasive violence and insecurity   especially  in the North. Without mincing words Northern  leaders have  themselves to blame for the simple reason that the North has  been in power far  more than any part of the nation and efforts and institutions and structures   have been put in place for the Northern populace and masses to benefit from that power. It  is a clear case of abdication of responsibility and the Northern leadership losing touch with the peasants and the masses  hence the Northern people  see  Boko Haram, bandits and terrorists like Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Like a  Northern leader said, the bandits buy  food in the market and get change and the people know them as they move freely with their   rifles dangling on their shoulders.

    Unfortunately the last  genuine Northern leaders that the Northern  masses loved were the Sardauna of Sokoto the  late  Ahmadu Bello,  Premier of the Northern Region then, Aminu Kano, leader of the Takalawas of Kano. Since then Northern youths have become pauperized and uneducated while their leaders ruled the entire nation  most of the time either as military generals and civilian leaders while metamorphosing into senators and legislators  in flowing brocades and long caps while their people suffered  in huge misery  and poverty. These youths became food for fodder for recruitment  by Boko  Haram bandits and other  insurgents    who   gave them shelter  food and arms when  government failed them on both accounts.  It  is like a friend in need   is a friend   indeed. It  is  similar  to  the return of the Mafia in the recent pandemic lockdown when the Mafia  got food and supplies to hungry Italians before their government and the Mafia  which  is still banned resuscitated and gained  unexpected acceptance and recognition from beneficiaries of its  largesse  and magnanimity. Government  really  is about a social  contract which requires the government to secure the lives and properties of its citizens and be prepared lose  such obligation and loyalty leading to the destruction of such social  contract if it fails to fulfill the terms and conditions  of  such social  contract. That  is  the onerous  responsibility of  government to  earn  the legitimacy that  a free and fair  election confers  on it. In a Nigerian political culture characterized by rigging and in which  the masses were mobilized to get power, the neglect of such masses by those it got into power is bound to galvanise a violent backlash which  is the spectacle that is at play in the marauders, terrorists and bandits that have turned Northern Nigeria into a veritable bloody   killing field right before  our eyes. The  ball  is in the court of Northern Nigerian leaders to play ball and  arrest the situation or  pass the ball to those who have the balls to redeem the suffering masses of Northern Nigeria. The alternative is a  leadership    hara-kiri or sheer political   suicide.

    On the American  election that the American president  insists is rigged, one should not be surprised by his insistence. During the campaigns for 2016  presidential  elections  that he won  and in which he lambasted Hillary Clinton as Crooked Hillary, he said  the election would  be rigged but he won and shut  up. He has said the same thing after the November 3 election although this time he seems  to have lost  the  election. On  legitimacy, Trump is like  the boy who  shouted wolf while there was none and he cannot destroy Joe Biden’s  legitimacy because he  had shot his  own legitimacy in the leg in the way and manner he claimed his presidency in 2016 after declaiming the election as rigged. As the lawyers  would say’ he who comes to equity  must  come with  clean  hands’. This  however  should  be separated from his legitimacy  war with the anti Trump media like CNN and New York  Times  which  never  gave him legitimacy  claiming from the day  he was sworn in that he was helped  by the Russians, and that  riled him  no end and he branded them  fake news which led to the war of verbal attrition and mutual  destruction that  has  now made him a one term president after an election he claimed was  controversially rigged. Obviously Trump underestimated the power of the media and that   has  cost  him the election  and   destroyed   his  legitimacy in their  eyes. While they  now  switch  loyalty, love and attention to  magnify a Biden Legitimacy with the same zeal  with which they mowed down furiously for four years, a Trump legitimacy of office.

    The quelling of a rebellion in Ethiopia by a civilian , democratic president  is  a recipe for security and responsive and responsible  governance that   I would recommend  for any political system especially  Nigeria. And really  that was like  the Nigerian civil war although that was prosecuted by a military ruler, General Yakubu Gowon the favourite military ruler of my generation. The slogan was – To make Nigeria one is   a task  that must be done   and that task was achieved after all. The  Nigerian army also  intervened at  the head of ECOMOG in Liberia and this was something Nigerians recall with pride. Actually  this was  the pedigree of our army and explained why we thought Boko Haram  would be vaporized like Maitasine  only  to  be embarrassed  by an  undefeatable Boko  Haram . Yet  Government  must  achieve  this task   with its army and the sooner the better. That is the lesson from Ethiopia  and  that  is  a task  that the Nigerian government and army  must  achieve now to  save its reputation and legitimacy. Once  again – From the fury of this raging pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

  • Nigeria League: 30 years in diapers 

    Nigeria League: 30 years in diapers 

     

    I don’t like to disparage the domestic league because sports, albeit football, is one of the few platforms where Nigeria can be ranked with world-beaters.  For a league which commenced as a professional body in 1990 to still be in diapers, says a lot about how the game has been systematically killed with most of the participants – the players and coaches left in abject poverty. Unfortunately, the supply chain, which is the domestic league has been lying prostrate, no thanks to the maladministration by a few all-knowing people who won’t quit, even with the roof’s broken piece piercing through their heads.

    Pitches are like pigsties, sometimes; other times, they are just good enough for cattle grazing. But the organisers don’t care for as long as there are two goalposts, the two teams are ready to play and there is a referee at the centre. Of course, there won’t be anything to cheer under this setting, especially with the players playing on empty stomachs, occasioned by outstanding wages and allowances prevalent in most clubs.  Players’ welfare packages seem abnormal, with many telling the players and coaches to be happy that they earn a living in a country where millions are unemployed.

    The future doesn’t look bright for the beautiful game if the same characters are allowed to run the operations of the league. A league without official television rights holder is a circus, which should not be taken seriously. Such leagues obviously cannot produce national team players since they wouldn’t want their careers truncated through the organisers’ ineptitude. A league without title sponsors has no business with the corporate world – it has unwittingly become a commercial failure. A league without an official insurance company for the clubs, coaches, and players can best be likened to celebrating mediocrity.

    It is a shame that we want to start a new season with all the problems which have crippled the game left unattended to. If we had people who are passionate about the game, they would have taken proactive decisions which would have factored all the variables that have stunted the game’s growth in the last 30 years. Other leagues in the world are on stream without spectators, yet the fans queue behind their clubs, waiting patiently for the gates to be flung open for them to savour the sweetness associated with watching the beautiful game. While other leagues are celebrating the return of spectators to the stadium, we are struggling to resume ours. That shows how backward we are. Yet those in charge in the last five years don’t want to vacate the place.

    The domestic league is in a coma because the organisers haven’t taken far-reaching decisions for it to run seamlessly. Rather than look at the bigger picture, which includes getting the league to sell itself through thriving television and marketing packages which would have translated into huge revenue bases for the game, the organisers have chosen to adopt the trial by error system. Nigeria league has been off the air in the last five years, so the excuse of coronavirus inhibiting its process is bunkum. Had the organisers of the league utilised the long years the competition was on stream to package enviable segments, which would have introduced new veritable marketing windows, the corporate world would have been falling on themselves to splash the cash.

    Rather than embark on such progressives ventures, our league organisers chose to entrench themselves in the place by accepting only tunnel vision people who tell them what they want to hear. The leagues that are thriving today planned on what they received at inception to chart the way forward for the industry in their climes. Ours’ chose to use the platform to enlist themselves into FIFA, CAF and WAFU bodies, not minding if the game they promised to protect is rotten in the forests.

    Shouldn’t we at this point of the league’s decadence interrogate all the cash sunk into the body since its inception as an independent arm of our football administration? We once had a title sponsor of the league, how did that romance end? The league had television rights holder, what happened between both parties? Did we not also hear that the television company wanted some kind of review based on the going rate of the dollar to the naira, which had risen astronomically compared to what it was when the deal was consummated? Who chose to dump the known for the unknown? Where in the world is that done? This is purely a failure of leadership.

    On the hindsight, wasn’t it better for the league organisers to have gone to the renegotiation table with the sponsors’ terms than allow them to walk away with their cash like it has happened? It would have made of a lot of sense than the situation we are in now, where the league hasn’t been on television. Any league that isn’t on the terrestrial platform is dead. How could anyone contemplate watching the Nigerian league through viewers’ phones when such a fan could easily work into a viewing centre and see the day’s matches of other countries live on television for N100?

    In saner climes, when contracts start to run its course, several rival brands, especially those who lost out in the earlier bids prepare packages which help the owners of such rights to up their antennae, knowing that the incumbent firm(s) won’t want to lose their treasured island, which was sponsoring for thriving leagues amount to. We have found ourselves in this dilemma because we failed to create several marketing windows which would have eased our pains. One isn’t surprised because those who negotiated the initial deals were swept off the stage by undertakers eager to showcase what they didn’t have. Of course, with such a setting, the sponsors, knowing who they negotiated with, easily opted out of the new deal.

    Sitting through any football game in climes where the game is taken as a business, you can’t

    miss the rolling boards in the inner perimeters which show products of our sponsors of the leagues. Clubs also use the platform to relay news about the game, its future matches, and vital information about the teams. Watching games in those countries, you have the luxury to either watch the game or choose to view from the scoreboards. in fact, contentious scenes are captured on the scoreboards. Is it not surprising that the Nigerian game is played inside stadia without scoreboards or those that worked in the past (most times running into several years)?

    The organisers failed to utilise the visibility arising from previous marketing deals to reposition the game for the future. Of course, government money is cheap and accountability is far and wide apart like the dentition of a Centurion. After all, most of the other thriving leagues draw their cash from previous and current deals. However, those who have run the league aground still think they have the Midas touch to change the competition’s image and stature.

    The structural flaws in the league’s organisation are such that would put off any investor. The organisers won’t be able to provide data to show clearly how much the league is worth.  What they throw up like thieves at night are contrived reports of the league being fifth or some outlandish figures when we know that the Nigerian league in the last four years has not ended on the pitch.

    Our leagues have ended with various nomenclatures starting with the arbitrary end to the Mundial season by declaring Lobi Stars winners without the trophy. Lobi was picked based on its placing on the table at that time. One would have thought that the administrators learned a few lessons from the last edition. Not with these folks, rather, a worse scenario emerged where the league was split into groups and the winner emerged from a Super 6. This disturbing system was applied after the league began. A case of shifting the goalpost after the match had started.

    Unfortunately, we remain a country without a football calendar which makes the game rudderless. For us to have a seamless league, the organisers should develop a calendar that can’t be tampered with. The hiccups in the games start when the organisers develop cold feet in asking our continental representatives to play midweek matches after both legs of the CAF inter-club competitions. the effect is that some clubs such as Enyimba FC of Aba, for instance, has five outstanding games due to this kind of visionless structure.

    A domestic league without a regimented calendar won’t produce new stars, since they only know when the season begins without knowing when it would end.  We have in Nigeria, a league season without end, hence such contraptions as abridged leagues or regional league

    competition, as a few purists are advocating for. How does anyone expect the league to produce new talents for the Super Eagles when the competition only starts when the organisers are pressurised to do so?

    A league, where the ambulance meant to handle emergencies is being pushed around the playing pitch while a player dies slowly, should be disbanded. A league where the organisers enforce existing laws only after a player has died shouldn’t be allowed to kill more people.

     

     

     

  • Ondo Assembly: What is two-thirds of 26?

    Ondo Assembly: What is two-thirds of 26?

    Sentry

    There is an urgent need for mathematicians to intervene in the crisis currently rocking the Ondo State House of Assembly. Members are currently at war over what exactly should be the two-thirds of 26 members.

    It was also gathered that interventions by both the executive and judicial arms of government over the matter have been futile in helping the lawmakers arrive at an acceptable answer.

    While some members led by Speaker Bamidele Oleyelogun, believe that 17 is the required two-thirds of members of the assembly needed to impeach embattled Deputy Speaker, Iroju Ogundeji, nine other members loyal to Ogundeji are insisting 18 is the correct figure.

    The impasse over what should be the two-thirds of 26 is the reason why there are two people claiming to be the Deputy Speaker of the house as we speak.

    Oleyelogun had led 17 members of the House to impeach Ogundeji on allegation of gross misconduct, claiming they secured the required two-thirds majority of the house, and replaced him with Samuel Aderoboye. But nine members of the house have written to Bamidele Oleyelogun, denouncing the impeachment as according to them, seventeen cannot be two-thirds of 26. They added that Ogundeji remains the Deputy Speaker of the House. This explains why Sentry believes mathematicians are needed to end the stalemate.

  • Sultan, Northern Nigeria and freewheeling bandits

    Sultan, Northern Nigeria and freewheeling bandits

    UnderTow

    As Nigeria dissolves under the acid rain of insecurity, and the federal government pussyfoots on how best to tackle the problem, traditional rulers will increasingly find themselves caught in the middle between enterprising bandits and sluggish government. Last Thursday, during the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council in Abuja, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, warned that the situation was getting out of control and bandits were overwhelming the region. Finding a solution to the crisis begins with honest admission of the dire situation the region is contending with. The Sultan candidly admits this crisis, blighted states in the region groan openly under a problem they seemed resigned to endure, while the federal government endlessly prevaricates, often in metaphors that suggest its limited understanding of the crisis.

    It is hard to fault the sultan’s observations and conclusion. He had said: “Security situation in Northern Nigeria has assumed a worrisome situation. Few weeks ago, over 76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day. I was there with the governor to commiserate with the affected community. Unfortunately, you don’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the North. We have accepted the fact that the North does not have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits. People think North is safe but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country because bandits go around in the villages, households and markets with their AK 47 and nobody is challenging them. They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts, I know because I am at the centre of it. I am not only a traditional ruler; I am also a religious leader. So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can speak for the North in this regard because I am fully aware of the security challenges there. We have to sincerely and seriously find solutions to the problem, otherwise, we will find ourselves soon in a situation where we would lose sleep because of insecurity.”

    The sultan may not have suggested solutions to the crisis, and is instead merely making reference to the problem and passing the nuisance to the right quarters, the lethargic and unimaginative federal authorities, but there is no question how pained his voice was, or how tremulously he viewed a crisis he feared could overwhelm the region. But when he suggested that the North was the worst place to live in Nigeria, he was simply being realistic about how badly the problem had been left to fester for years. He could have suggested solutions to the problem, perhaps in some other fora, but he rather more sensibly and realistically acknowledges that as a traditional ruler, he knows a lot about the crisis engulfing the region and is determined to stay within the confines of just knowing. It is not clear whether he instinctively fears that the federal government would fault his suggested panaceas should he give them, but he knows that no one could fault his adumbration of the security problems afflicting the region. Nigerians must however recognize that state and federal governments, not traditional institutions, are voted into office to find solutions to crises.

    The sultan’s observations on the security crisis unnerving the North can be further extrapolated to other parts of the country, particularly the South which is also now inundated by northern youths fleeing their crisis-ridden region and putting inordinate pressures on social conventions and economic resources of other geopolitical zones. Herdsmen were in a way simply forerunners of the security problem constituted by northern bandits. They are not only making southern farmlands and countryside unsafe and sometimes inaccessible; increasingly they are also making interstate travels perilous and unexciting. A crisis of monumental proportion is thus building up rapidly. The sultan may have limited his observations to the North, but in reality, the problem has now become very complicated and has grown geometrically to transcend the North. With each passing month, and as no lasting solutions are found, the seething cauldron of banditry and kidnapping becomes more heated and less amenable to control. The problem began in the bushes, as the sultan noted; it has now become a city issue as bandits become more daring, ruthless and carefree.

    Whether the federal government likes it or not, it is incontrovertible that legitimate government is yielding ground to illegitimate authority in the North. It is a question of time before the South is dragged into the melee. Much worse, it is also a question of time before the country erupts into militia fiefdoms and uncontrolled vigilantism. Years ago, when the insecurity crisis began, many state governments miffed by the impotence of the federal authorities responded with a potpourri of ambivalent panaceas that saw them sometimes negotiating with and thus recognizing and empowering the bandits, or advocating strong-arm measures that involved the police and the army. Neither stick nor carrot has worked. Indeed, nothing seems likely to work, as the problem intensifies and official dithering worsens on a baffling scale.

    Without the recent #EndSARS-inspired breakdown of law and order, the banditry problem in the North was already set to worsen. But seeing how the government’s security agencies displayed a worrisome lack of coordination and even lost both the nerve and initiative to tackle the monumental challenge to law and order in the country, bandits simply became bolder and more intransigent. They had sometimes felt compelled to negotiate with the government, fearing the worst; now they see that the government’s worst bite is far tamer than they first imagined. No one seems capable of forcing the insecurity genie back into the bottle. Insecurity will naturally become rifer, and the government, despite deploying more troops and arms, will become less confident that the overwhelming situation is something they are equipped to handle.

    Banditry is not just a casual revolt driven by one or two causes, it is also a deep-seated revolt triggered by decades of bad governance, corruption, injustice, religious fanaticism and politicization of religion, and other nefarious measures inspired by the government itself. Until these social, economic and political factors are understood and resolved, insecurity will continue to multiply until it engulfs the whole country. The EndSARS protest may have accentuated the crisis, it did not trigger it. In one form or the other, the same kind of youth-led protest may rear its head in other forms again. So far, the gestures the government has made in the direction of the social, economic and political underpinnings of the revolt destabilizing the North has neither been accurately identified and analysed nor sensibly tackled. With a recession now baking the country on hot coals, a debt peonage looming badly in the horizon as the government binges on loans for unhealthy reasons, and a distorted and unreformed justice system and bastardised security system destroying the moorings upon which the country is anchored, there is little hope that what needs to be done will be done to avert apocalypse. In short, the sultan’s warnings may be coming a little too late.

    Contrary to the optimism expressed by the government, the ongoing recession will not end soon. For even when there was no recession, banditry was still bad. Now, with the economic downturn, bandits have a greater reason to take up arms. There is also no official initiative to repair the country’s jaded and anachronistic security system, a system so out of date and place that it is next to useless; and there is no reform taking place in the judiciary to undergird and strengthen the rule of law, enthrone merit in the appointment of judges, and banish inefficiency and corruption from the hallowed chambers of law. In addition, the country’s economic policy is evidently chaotic, amorphous, and too riddled by contradictions to be focused on anything grand. In plain words, banditry will intensify in the North, unskilled and poorly educated youths will migrate south and put pressure on that region, and the military will be so spread thin in the face of impotent policing that the country’s security system will barely make a dent on the problem.

    There is no assurance that the 2023 general election will be delivered safely in the face of the horrendous challenges facing the country. The Muhammadu Buhari administration had all of five years to reverse the trend and forestall the looming apocalypse. It instead indulged in buck-passing, compounded the crisis by ill-informed policies, retained security chiefs at a time when fresh hands would have been appropriate, embraced bureaucratic inertia, and enthroned an imperious governance system that spoke condescendingly to the people and downplayed the seriousness of the crisis. By universal consensus, the country is now described as sitting on a powder keg, waiting for just one little issue to light the fuse.

    If it is not already late, the Buhari administration can actively roll back the deathly hands of the clock, replace the country’s security chiefs who appear completely destitute of fresh ideas about what should be done, replace its economic team with the best minds the country can find, displace the amorphous cabal still cruelly and wickedly pulling the strings behind mahogany doors, restructure the country as well as the security system, reduce the weight and cost of governance, and actively, rather than complaisantly, involve the whole country by rallying them behind great causes. It is not an option reposing all hope in the military to fight insecurity and the approaching doomsday, especially after appearing to abandon the police. If the military could not solve the Northeast insurgency crisis as quickly as they had hoped, they will not solve the banditry problem as they have cavalierly insinuated in various statements. The problem is metastasizing. Now is the time to halt the drift to apocalypse.

  • Fear of Wike in PDP grows

    Fear of Wike in PDP grows

    Sentry

    The fear of Governor Nyesom Wike appears to be the beginning of wisdom in the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).  He has three things going for him. His associate Uche Secondus is the national chairman of the party. For this reason, he is believed to be in control of the party. His state, Rivers, is rich. For this, he is believed to have a huge war chest. The man is fearless, he speaks his mind and ever ready to take on anybody in the party or the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    In 2018 when some chieftains of the PDP were scheming to move the congress of the party from Port Harcourt to elsewhere, Wike dared the party to try it and see what would happen. The chieftains heeded the warning. Ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar had to pay a nocturnal visit to Rivers State with some national executives of the party before he could secure the buy-in of Wike for the 2019 failed presidential bid.

    Before the Edo State election in September this year, he berated some unnamed national executives of party for working against the interest of the party by excluding those who mattered in the Edo State chapter of the PDP. The powerful chieftains of the party rushed to Port Harcourt to plead for forgivenes. As things stand today, Wike has positioned himself in such a manner that he will likely determine who gets what in 2023.

    Aware of his influence, some of the permanent and new presidential/governorship aspirants of the party are weighing options on how to free the party from his control. It seems a herculean task. In the event that they cannot, some have resolved to look for alternative platforms.

    A presidential aspirant said: “The governor and his associates are in control. You are either with them or you are an outsider. They are getting result and are therefore emboldened, but we won’t allow anyone to dictate the pace in PDP.”

    A titanic battle for control of the party may ensue sooner than later.

  • Goodbye Maradona, embrace Mourinho

    Goodbye Maradona, embrace Mourinho

    By

     

    The sporting world is in a mourning mood. A gem is gone. He may have been controversial but such a nomenclature fits most exceptionally brilliant athletes, footballers inclusive. After Alf Common and David Jack, the third player to twice be transferred for world record fees is Diego Maradona. His transfers from Boca Juniors to Barcelona for £3 million, and then to Napoli for £5 million, both broke the record in 1982 and 1984 respectively.

    For this departing legend, he stood tall playing for his clubs and country in amazing fashion, such that at the World Cup in a game between Italy and his country played in Naples, his immense contributions for Napoli FC, lured his Italian side’s supporters to root for their idol’s nation against their fatherland. Such was the commanding dossier of this energetic footballer, whose stock come once in a century.

    El Pelusa recalled the build-up to the game (Italy versus Argentina) in his autobiography Yo Soy el Diego: “It was no ordinary semi-final. We were up against Italy, and in Naples too! When I spoke to the press, I was happy and I said that thing they would never forgive me for. It was true, though: ‘It upsets me that everyone is now asking the people of Naples to be Italians and to get behind the national team.”

    Faced with the dilemma posed by their beloved Diego taking on their country, the Neapolitans hung up banners that read: “Diego in our hearts, Italy in our chants” and “Maradona: Naples loves you, but Italy is our homeland.”

    Italy won her five matches, beating Austria, USA, Czechoslovakia, Uruguay, and the Republic of Ireland without even conceding a goal. Argentina virtually wobbled in the defence of their World Cup title, first by losing to Cameroon in the opening game, emerging as one of the best third-placed teams. Argentina’s poor display for long periods against Brazil in the Round of 16, they eventually won when Claudio Caniggia scored the only goal of the game from a delicious Maradona pass.

    Diego Armando Maradona needs no introduction in football albeit sports for good and bad reasons. Yet, this writer is stunned that most pundits have chosen to garnish Maradona’s good sides with his flaws. Yes, it is right for balance but the much that has been written smacks of pains of the past than acknowledgment of Maradona’s remarkable contributions to the beautiful game. There isn’t any mortal in the world without a bad side. What Maradona brought to the game helped to reposition Argentina in all spheres and change people’s perception of the South American country. Talk about Argentina today, the first poser would be Maradona. Stretch the discussion further, the next name which comes to the table would be Lionel Messi. Not even the country’s economy or any other sphere of their lives.  Such is the power of the game to unite a nation all the time.

    At 10, Maradona joined Los Cebollitas – the youth team of Argentinos Juniors, one of the biggest clubs in Argentina – leading them to an incredible 136-game unbeaten streak.

    Maradona was born in Lanús on October 30, 1960, as the fifth of eight children his parents had. He was very close to his parents and siblings, a fact that was demonstrated during a 1990 interview during which he produced stacks of phone bills which showed he had spent $15,000 a month calling his family from Europe.

    Agency reports quoted Maradona 15 years ago in which he revealed that ‘getting old with his grandchildren would mean a peaceful death’ for him.

    Asked what he would say in the cemetery to himself, according to agency reports, he said: ‘’Thanks for having played football because it’s the sport that gave me the most happiness and freedom and it’s like having touched the sky with my hand. Thanks to the ball. ‘’Yes, I would put on the tombstone, ‘Thanks to the ball’.’

    Maradona failed a dope test in 1991where he was banned for 15 months, acknowledging his long-time cocaine addiction. In 1994, he failed another test for stimulants and was thrown out of the World Cup in the United States, where his manic scream at the camera after scoring for Argentina was another memorable image of his career.

    Italy’s great, Paolo Maldini paid tribute to the late Diego Maradona on Wednesday stating that: “There are many images that are playing in these hours, an emblematic one is a friendly match he played in Acerra on a terrible mud pitch: this image should be shown to those players of today who complain about pitches now.

     

     

    “On the pitch, he was an incredible opponent, it’s hard to see him as an enemy. You could beat him all the game, but he never complained. He brought so much joy to football. He was a controversial character, you can tell him anything, but for those who love football he will be an icon for always.”

    “It’s hard for those who love football and for those who have played with and against him, he has seen a part of his childhood disappear,” he told Sky Italia (via MilanNews).

    In fact, Gary Linker described Maradona as one who could draw any diagram with the ball on the pitch. Such was his wizardry and brilliance when the round leather game is concerned. Happily, soccer fans in Naples have been all tears and were unanimous in urging the Argentine government to rename Napoli FC’s stadium after their departed star.

    Maradona is survived by five children, including his daughters Dalma, 33, and Ganina, 31, by his first and only wife Claudia Villafane, 58, to whom he was married from 1984 to 2004.

    Though Maradona was a fantastic goals scorer and footballer, his coaching abilities didn’t live up to soccer fans’ expectations. Imagine a Maradona evolving from being a player to a Jose Mourinho. It’s a fantasy that would never be. But mirroring the lives of these two sportsmen on the pitch, you can easily say they share one thing in common – falling and rising again. This writer has chosen to just mention the hand of ‘god goal’ fleetingly because it is being used in a derogative manner by the English to smear his feats. They have forgotten that Maradona had scored easily the best goal at the World Cup against them in the infamous ‘hand of god goal’. Yet, that goal has rubbed off the beauty of that solo effort goal, Argentina’s first against England. Since the ‘hand of god goal’, many players have scored such controversial goals but the English haven’t forgotten it even till Maradona’s death.

    For as many times Maradona fell despite his huge and loud successes, he fought to get up again- the same is applicable to the story of Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese who given the coaching trade an elixir of life.

    Easily, he is back at the top of the rung of the world’s most competitive European soccer competitions. He appears to have learned a few lessons on how to relate with his players when the going gets rough. He may not have spent too much on transfers in the last summer window, but his tactical recruitment of players is beginning to pay off. In fact, many sneezed at his choice of former England goalkeeper Joe Hart as a substitute to his club’s goalkeeper and captain, Hugo Iloris. Those who frowned at the Englishman coming wondered how Hart could displace the captain of a World Cup-winning team, Iloris. They reckoned that the Englishman is older than the French. But for José Mourinho, he enjoys doing what attracts people to where he is. He thrives in controversies.

    When Tottenham Hotspurs’ owner opted for Mourinho as his manager in spite of what Pochettino achieved the previous season by losing in the finals of the UEFA Champions League to Liverpool, pundits shouted to the rooftop that he picked a serial winner. Mourinho guided Tottenham away from the lower rung to the fifth position where he snatched one of the Europa Cup tickets. Mourinho’s first year was quiet with spurs not playing the special one’s brand of football. But Mourinho wasn’t perturbed, waiting to make his mark by starting a new season.

    The new season is in its tenth week and Mourinho is sounding the bell that he wants to lift the Barclays English Premier League diadem again. It is bad business for Mourinho to be at the top of the English game because he knows what to do to lift the trophy. He has been through this path before and if he succeeds in winning the EPL diadem for Tottenham, he would be regarded as the best coach ever in the English game. This writer is beginning to think that this year would be Mourinho’s since Liverpool and Manchester City are tottering. Tottenham’s 2-0 victory is a pointer to what the Portuguese tactician has in stock for his opponent. Little wonder, purists are waiting anxiously for the December 16 fixture between Liverpool and Tottenham at Anfield, a fortress the Reds have played 64 EPL games unbeaten. Can Mourinho stop the Reds? This is Mourinho’s stuff – to do the impossible. Jurgen Klopp had better watch his back and put on his thinking cap, lest Mourinho runs away with the precious three points. If Mourinho wins that game, it would define the season for Spurs.

     

     

  • Leaders, legacies and beliefs

    Leaders, legacies and beliefs

     Dayo Sobowale

     

    Undoubtedly  America’s presumed President elect  Joe Biden  is  a leader who feels very  strongly about legacies that president’s or  people in power  leave behind for posterity. In the ongoing turmoil of refusal of incumbent President Donald Trump at first refusing to concede to Biden and even calling the 2020 presidential election a rigged election, Biden cautioned that Trump  should be bothered by his legacy. Long  before this election that  he won on paper for now, Biden had told the world in the presence of  his boss President Barak Obama who  literally forced Biden to stay out of the way so  Hillary Clinton could contest as presidential candidate in the 2016  presidential  election,  that who ever would contest on the platform of the Democratic Party must  contest on the Obama legacy. At  that  time I  wrote then that Biden  never wanted Clinton  to win and the albatross  was the insistence on the Obama legacy which I trust the wily Biden knew would cost Clinton  the election which  she lost to Donald Trump. It is now clear with the help of hindsight that Biden  was prescient and knew his time would come. Destiny has  dealt Biden a good card  and he is the president elect of the 2020  election even though Donald Trump  has gone  to court to contest an election he blatantly described as rigged.

    But  again  the shadow  of Barak  Obama  hangs  like a bad omen  over  Joe  Biden just as it did in 2016 only this time Biden has to call the bluff and interference of his  former  boss as he takes charge of the leadership of the American  government come January 2021. The  reason for  this is not far fetched. Former President Barak Obama, a Nobel Prize Peace laureate was in the news recently   chiding Latinos for  voting for Donald Trump  in the 2020 presidential election because  they believe that his views on gay rights and abortion  tallied with their  religion and culture and that this was more important for Latinos than the rights of gay people. To  me Obama’s observation was clearly  racist  but since he is a liberal  politician  and leader not much will  be made of this. I will  look at this observation closely today together  with Obama’s view in the same interview that  Trump created cages in which illegal   immigrants were kept before deportation. I will  also take issues with another Nobel Laureate  like Obama,   Ethiopia ‘s PM Abiy Ahmed  who  is pursuing a war he insists is for rule of law and against rebellion in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. I will compare the  merit  of the  Nobel  Peace prizes of both Obama and Abiy Ahmed to show how  wise indeed the  wise  men of Oslo who award these  prizes  could be, when  in fact they  are  at times in undignified and unexpected haste in  awarding  some of the peace prizes.

    Let  me state clearly that what Obama said of Latinos could  be  said  of  many races the world over especially Africans generally  and Nigerians  in particular and such people and races have no apology on the matter. Even CNN as anti Trump and pro gay rights as it is has punctured Obama’s observation as hypocritical and naïve if not outright wrong and in bad taste. CNN noted that Obama campaigned against gay rights and abortion before and only changed his mind in 2012. In addition CNN noted that the cages for the illegal  immigrants in the Trump  presidency were indeed built during the Obama Administration. Indeed the new President elect Joe  Biden is a Catholic even though some Catholics have disowned   him  for supporting gay rights and being pro abortion. Really, Biden should  keep Obama at  arm’s length if he is truly  interested in unifying Americans  in his era as  he has branded Trump  the most   divisive president the US  ever  had.

    Again,  Biden should be wary  not to adopt  the Obama legacy he forced on Hillary in 2016  because Trump  has done his best to reverse literally every achievement of  the Obama era. Biden should beat  out his own path after all he has more experience in American  politics than even Obama  himself and especially the man  he defeated but who claimed the election was rigged – Donald  Trump.

    In the case of the Ethipian leader Abiy Ahmed he is  desperately using force to achieve peace and establish  the rule of law. I  am  ambivalent  about his strategy.  Somewhat,  I  have a grudging admiration for him and wish  he was a Nigerian leader so  he could help us wipe out Boko Haram and the kidnappers, arsonists and marauders making insecurity the bane of Nigeria’s democracy. Obviously he was too  quickly or mistakenly  given the Nobel  Orize for peace for stopping the war with Eritrea  but  he has not listened to anybody in prosecuting the war  he called treason in his nation. Not even the AU which is fast becoming a toothless bulldog  could stay  his hand  in quashing  what  he perceived as an insolent  rebellion against  the rule of law in his nation and he is using his army effectively in this regard. I doff  my hat  to him regardless of his Nobel  Prize for peace  which  has not in any  way  deterred  him  from calling rebels to order to  maintain the rule of law in Ethiopia.

    Barak Obama too was given the Nobel Prize  for peace for the speech  he made in Cairo  Egypt  in  2009  a  year  after he became   president,  calling for peace in the Middle East. But  this was before he had lifted any hand  for peace. When it mattered when  the Arab Spring of 2011  was on and   the  Syrian  leader Bashar Assad was killing his people with  chemical  weapons and the US saw proof and Obama drew a line in the sand to deter the Syrian  leader  Bashar  Haffez Assad,  but  nothing happened and the war in the Middle East escalated with the Russians coming in on the Syrian  side and propping up a blood thirsty leader who killed his people with chemical  weapons.  While the  Obama Administration bellowed and bullied with Secretary of State John Kerry while the Syrian leader defied US might very easily and so nonchalantly during the Obama presidency. That  is a legacy  that  Joe  Biden  must  never   contemplate  or adopt  as he promotes his own policy  that  says America Is Back against Trump’s very aggressive  trumpet’ MAGA – Make America great again.

    MAGA of course is Trump’s legacy even   though Biden has chided him for not caring about his legacy in not conceding early which Biden said he found embarrassing. But clearly Trump is trying to make electoral  integrity part of his  legacy. He  has gone to the courts while anti Trump media block airing of his efforts and brand his legal  battles futile. Which to me makes such media look like the proverbial ostrich with  its head buried in the sand. A very apt analogy, now history, was Trump’s highly publicized Impeachment in the House of Representatives where the Democrats held sway  and the upturning of that decision in the Senate where the Republicans have a majority. To  say Trump  has no case to prove in court can only  be decided by  the courts in the US right  up to the Supreme Court  where  the Republicans have 6 conservative judges to the liberal democrats 3. It is not impossible for the six  judges to vote against rigging and affirm Trump as winner or order an unprecedented new election altogether. America is divided on beliefs and values and  the prospect of a new world that is anti conservative stares American Republicans in the face in the Biden era. Obama’s    admonition of  Latinos   for  voting for Trump is a  sign of    things to  come under the Democrats   and Biden’s    presidency. The  courts  may  well  be the   last   straw  that a sinking man may  grasp  for the Republicans and   certainly, the election is not over until it is over at the temple of justice  in the US. Once again From  the fury of this raging pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

     

     

  • Ndume: Echoes in the East

    Ndume: Echoes in the East

    With the arrest and detention of Senator Ali Ndume due to Abdurasheed Maina’s failure to appear in court, there are fears in the camps of Senators Ike Ekweremadu and Enyinnaya Abaribe, that soon they may also have to answer for the continued absence in court of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

    The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered Ndume remanded at the Kuje Correctional Center, following his inability to produce the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, whom he stood surety for.

    Sentry gathered that lots of consultations are going on across the Southeastern political zone as part of moves to avoid a situation where the two senators will be detained in lieu of the IPOB chief.

    It was gathered that supporters, allies and associates of the frontline Igbo politicians have been expressing dissatisfaction with the disappearance of Kanu, following the detention of Ndume. This is just as calls are heightening across the country for Ekweremadu and Abaribe to be treated the same way as Ndume.

    The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) during the week demanded immediate arrest and prosecution of Abaribe for his role in the freedom of Kanu. Also, Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) led by Nastura Sheriff alleged bias in the order for Ndume’s detention while Ekweremadu and Abaribe are still walking free. The groups claimed that since Senator Ndume was arrested for failing to produce Maina, Ekweremadu and Abaribe must also be arrested for Kanu’s ‘disappearance.’