The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Aisha Buhari weighs in a little too strongly

    UnderTow

    In the space of just two weeks, First Lady Aisha Buhari has spoken out unequivocally on a few knotty issues she feels strongly about. Her views have, however, been controversial. In one, two Fridays ago, she berated governors who were expected to ameliorate the conditions of the people but had seemed to abandon their states to squalor and poverty.

    Her husband alone, she continued sensibly, could not solve the country’s developmental problems without the complementary actions of other state actors. Her opinion was instantly interpreted as a condemnatory analysis of the ineffectiveness of governors, to which the spokesman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Abdulrazaque Barkindo, replied that the first lady’s barbs were actually meant for everyone, not just the governors.

    The first lady had remarked at a Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) General Assembly and National Executive Council (NEC) meeting that “We should either fasten our seatbelts and do the needfu,l or we will all regret it very soon because, at the rate things are going, things are getting completely out of hand.” She continued: “The VP (Yemi Osinbajo) is here, some ministers are here, they are supposed to do justice to the situation. People cannot afford potable water in this country while we have governors. Since this is the highest decision-making body of Islamic affairs, for those that are listening, we should fear God, and we should know that one day, we will return to God and account for our deeds here on earth.” The jury is out on whether governors were her main target. But her argument was caustic enough to elicit a comprehensive rejoinder from the NGF’s spokesman.

    In the view of the governors, assuming their spokesman’s rejoinder fully represented their collective position, the first lady’s censure was directed at everyone, including the federal authorities, involved in the country’s developmental efforts. But whether the governors like it or not, they seemed to be the cynosure of the first lady’s criticism, even if they were realistically not the only ones responsible for the despondency.

    Furthermore, almost like a double take, Mrs Buhari went on to offer another caustic opinion on the controversial bid to regulate the social media because of what she and many in the Muhammadu Buhari presidency and the 9th National Assembly regard as its disruptive and even destructive influence. Said Mrs Buhari: “On this issue of social media, you cannot just sit in the comfort of your house and tweet that the vice president has resigned, it is a serious issue. If China can control over 1.3bn people on social media, I see no reason why Nigeria cannot attempt controlling only 180m people.”

    Reiterating and amplifying her takes on the two controversial issues during a phone-in on a live television (TVC) programme, she doubled down and vociferously defended her views, particularly responding to insinuations that she should be less forward in weighing in on public issues. Mrs Buhari is right to indicate that she has a mind of her own, and will always be willing to express it, no matter how controversial the topic. But she must also acknowledge that expressing such views is fraught with a lot of dangers, particularly the danger of misinterpretation on the one hand, and the risk of public attribution of her views to the presidency. She groaned that presidential aides and appointees were not doing enough to defend her husband’s government, insisting that if they did their job, she would not have to periodically wade in. Her position is nevertheless as risky as her resort to comparative population statistics is inexplicable.

    For instance, on the pauperisation of the masses, in which she blamed others for not joining her husband in ameliorating the conditions of Nigerians, it is hardly an issue in which she is adequately informed. Her observations of the objective conditions of the people are of course true, but it is doubtful whether she was both factual and tactful in apportioning blame. As the governors indicated through the response of their spokesman, states are also involved in ameliorating poverty. However, it is not clear whether corruption and mismanagement at levels other than the federal level, which the first lady insinuated, are the only or even main cause of poverty in Nigeria. Indeed,  a significant cause of poverty may not be unconnected with the country’s religious, economic and political structures. Without boldness and ingenuity in rearranging the country, it is not exactly clear to what extent poverty can really be addressed.

    By all means let the first lady air her views — on social, political and economic matters. But she must understand that given the antecedents of her husband’s presidency, especially because it succeeded another deeply controversial president and first lady, she owes herself and the Buhari presidency to be more circumspect in criticising anyone or declaiming on any subject in which the experts in her husband’s government have not first offered a first, second and even third opinion. She must be keenly aware that the Buhari presidency was first blamed for pushing the economy into recession and then frittering away resources, time and energy in clawing the country back out of it. Even now, the presidency is still blamed for implementing wrong or inappropriate economic policies thereby sinking the country deeper into poverty, not to talk of lacking the courage to rework the country’s articles of association without which the people’s potentials cannot be unleashed.

    Since the first lady’s speeches could not hope to comprehensively address these issues on the occasions when she broached the topics, it would undoubtedly be wise for her to be less forward and more restrained. This point must be made clear to her. Yes, she has a mind of her own, and that mind is often quite made up. But she has a duty to guarantee that her mind is frequently made up in the right directions on the salient issues of the day if she is not to draw flak upon herself and, by implication, her husband’s struggling government. Indeed, if care is not taken, she will find herself embracing causes that are potentially very explosive and capable of damaging her reputation and the image of the Buhari presidency. No issue brings out this need for a delicate balance as crucially as the attempt to regulate the social media.

    Mrs Buhari has courageously waded into the social media regulation controversy. In her circumlocutory opinion, anchored on her personal experience in the heat of her husband’s presumed second marriage, if the social media is not regulated they could go on to do irreparable damage. In her incomparable view: “On this issue of social media, you cannot just sit in the comfort of your house and tweet that the vice president has resigned, it is a serious issue. If China can control over 1.3bn people on social media, I see no reason why Nigeria cannot attempt controlling only 180m people.” Given the suppositions that informed her conclusions, it is doubtful whether what was needed was courage on her part as much as circumspection. This is why she needs more caution. Not only was it wrong to wade into an issue that is still fermenting, and fermenting very badly indeed, it was also wrong to equate Nigeria with China, an equation that has become very fascinating to the many ideological voyeurs in the Buhari presidency, prompting many analysts to wonder whether anyone in the presidency takes the pain to read books at all.

    The first lady may be privy to some information on the direction the Buhari presidency is surreptitiously taking Nigeria, probably away from the canonised template underscored by the 1999 Constitution. For, given the assiduity with which the Buhari presidency is courting diarchy and dictatorship, in contrast to the democratic fundamentals fought for and won by Nigerians in 1999, there is suspicion that the China appeal is not without reason. However, despite all the appeal, China is inappropriately deployed in their arguments for entirely the wrong reasons. China is not a democracy in the contrasting sense evinced by the Nigerian constitution, and despite its laudable developmental feats, is also not heterogeneous and sentimentally religious like Nigeria. There is no way to foist its standards, culture, politics and law on a country as undisciplined and fairly chaotic  as Nigeria. Is the first lady hoping that Nigeria can have its cake and eat it?

    Nigeria is going through a testy time, much of it instigated and compounded by the government’s intransigent and authoritarian predilections. The economy is not enjoying robust debate as to its direction, and the political space is fouled, constricted and stultified. Such conditions do not make it easy for a first lady to give her mind as candidly as Mrs Buhari has liberally done. She has her staff, and hopefully they are much deeper, franker and independently minded than those who advise the president himself. If that is the case, before she ventures on some of her strident and controversial interventions, she should avail herself of their services, hoping that they can put a leash on her explosive views and even help steer her in the direction of restraining the authoritarians who surround and prey upon the seat of power.

  • Democracy, authority and hate

    I  saw  a picture  of the leading traditional rulers of Daura, the President’s  home town seated on the ground while the President sat on a chair  chatting with them and I could not resist an exclamation on how tradition and modernity  have fused happily in that part  of  Nigeria. It  is difficult  to imagine such  a situation in many parts of Nigeria especially the South West  where I am from.  In  an era which the Hate Speech  bill has just  been stopped  the  Senate  due  to public outcry against the death penalty against  those who  criticize those in power, that  Daura scene showed that power and authority should  not be a do  or die affair and that mutual  respect and tolerance  can  be found not only amongst  ordinary  people but also  our leaders whether  traditional or  elected.

    It  is my candid  view that while  disagreements may arise amongst leaders from any  aspects of life, religious, social,  economic and political there  should   always be room for dialogue, empathy  and  opportunities to  listen  to  each  other  in spite  of  such  disagreements.  This  last  week there was a meeting of  NATO leaders with US President  Donald Trump  very  much  in attendance while his impeachment proceeding  got  on at the US House of Representatives with four law professors called in to the Judiciary   Committee  to  comment on the integrity of the impeachment  process.  At  the NATO   meeting   the French President  who  had called the organization ‘brain dead‘,   refused to  change his mind and the Turkish  President    also     in attendance   said  he should  have his brain examined instead.  Hateful speech from world leaders in authority   at the top should be called a disgrace   to diplomacy.  But  this really showed that bad  manners is  not a monopoly  of  ordinary  people as it  is  very  much alive amongst  those  who  lead their people and the world with authority   as   well  as with impunity   especially  with expressions of hate.

    Hate and hate  speech  should be nipped in the bud but not by hanging as proposed in Nigeria.  In  addition  history  should serve to preserve order and  civilization as we know it  today. It  is in that light that I  look at  a significant event in the Anglican Diocese of Lagos where  a Diocesan  hymn  was adopted recently with the tune of  Nazi  Germany.  Nazism  of course  is an ideology  of hatred associated  with  the  Holocaust in which 6m  Jews  were killed by the Nazis . How a church in Nigeria can choose some  tune associated with Hitler beats the imagination. I pointed this out to the genial Provost of Christ Church Cathedral, Marina Lagos to  no avail. Yet  there  are so many beautiful  tunes  that can  be used to promote  the good work  of the Diocese without the blight, and a bloody one  at that,  of mis association with the murderous  Adolf Hitler who typified hate and  hatred such that in Germany it is  a crime to deny the Holocaust  he unleashed on the Jews. Nigerian Anglicans in  Lagos can do away with a tune that  that has such a tragically violent and bloody  connotation  and history. It was even said that years after Hitler had been defeated, some old  Europeans  still   shuddered   and  retreated  to their WW2 cellars anytime they  heard  this tune. Surely  we  need a sense of history to enjoy a Diocesan song in the Lagos Anglican Diocese.

    READ ALSO: Sowore: DSS invasion of court slide into dictatorship, says PDP

    I  now take  a look at the NATO meeting and Trump’s impeachment process at the US  congress. To me they are two sides of the same coin with regard to the topic of the day. Democratic tenets were on  display like fireworks   in  both   places and authority was wielded and delivered according to the strength of the majority. Intellectualism and legal  erudition were  aroused to find  a way through  the treacherous labyrinth of politics  and impeachment  and at  the end the process moved on both in NATO  and the US Lower  House.

    At  the NATO  meeting US President Donald Trump  was treated like a bull in  Chinaware shop because of his verbal unpredictability. But  in a way,  what  he asked for that  members should pay their official dues as a percentage of their  budget  was  achieved according to NATO  Secretary General  as more members paid than before. In  the UK  where an election was due on Dec 12 the PM   avoided association with the US President so that it would not jeorpadise the election chances of his party.

    At  home in the US the Democrats took Donald Trump   to the cleaners  in terms of impeachment  by calling in three  professors in Law  who  pronounced Trump guilty as charged on impeachment with the charges named as corruption, treason, obstruction of justice and obstruction of Congress. However a fourth professor invited by the Republicans disagreed that Trump had any case to answer. The professor from George Washington University Law School Donald Turley asked for caution and care on charging Trump with Impeachment on the grounds that if he is charged with corruption the charges must stick and not be based on inference or hearsay.  He said that the Democrats were  in a hurry and that the charges were not proven and called for caution in dividing the nation. Indeed it was like a call for the divided Judiciary Committee divided by hate to refocus and tarry a while before impeaching an American President. But that call fell on deaf ears as the Democrats used their majority  in accelerating the Impeachment  process. The  Republican  Minority  had its say  full of hate and venom for the Democrats  who  are in majority and carried the day  in moving on with the Impeachment process,  despite the fact that the Republicans insisted that  no single fact witness had appeared  before the Judicial  Committee  on the charges of Impeachment.

    What  I found  most fascinating was the way the Democrats  three legal luminaries showed that Trump had committed impeachable  offences. Their fury and anger and hatred for the American President showed on their  faces and the way their  voices  shook with emotion.  Which to me was extravagant as they were expected to be impartial analysts on Impeachment and not prosecutors. On the other hand the Republican professor  witness was a picture in confidence and relaxation in putting his objection to impeachment to the Committee.  He won my heart with his erudition and scholarship in seeming to be objective on a  subject  that  makes  such  an objective a high  horse to mount. He pointed out the dangers of hate and haste in  impeaching a president on inferences that lack legal authority and backing,  and the consequences of hate  and division that  the impeachment  had engendered in dividing the US polity. His  views did not prevail but he offered the Democratic Majority   food  for thought,    and   pause,  which  in their  haste  to impeach  they  could not  afford  to  wait  and  digest  on their  resolute march  to impeach  the American President,  willy  nilly. Once again  long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Dickson’s lamentation in Bayelsa

    Sentry

    Since the surprise defeat of Governor Seriake Dickson-backed candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the recently concluded governorship election in Bayelsa State, the story about town is that the PDP candidate, Senator Douye Diri, lost to his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Chief David Lyon, because the latter had the backing of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    That, however, is not the thinking of Governor Dickson, who was said to have told his close aides and associates that Jonathan was the least of his problem in the election because Diri’s defeat was masterminded by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Dickson reportedly said without Buhari’s influence, it would not have been possible for the APC to secure within 24 hours a stay of execution of the Appeal Court judgment declaring that the party had no candidate for the election.

    Dickson was said to have argued that to secure the stay of execution order, APC needed a copy of the court judgment which it did not have. Lost on the governor, perhaps, was the allegation by APC that the judge who delivered the no-candidate judgment vanished into the Government House after delivering the judgment and became unreachable.

    Dickson is said to be peeved that Buhari could stab him in the back in spite of his disposition as the most loyal PDP governor to the President.

    He is also said to have accused an acclaimed national leader who is not in government but is well respected and influential of aiding his defeat after flying in a helicopter to meet with Lyon in Yenagoa on the eve of the election.

  • Iheanacho, Ndidi as EPL champs

    Every week I think about what will interest you, dear reader. In arriving at a choice, I always consider Nigerian stars, knowing that in other climes, the local media celebrate their own. This topic was difficult to pick since I support Liverpool, which is at vintage position to lift the Barclays English Premier League diadem after 30 years. As an avid Liverpool supporter, I know that our mantra of ‘Never Walk Alone’ has informed the choice of Leicester City as the likely team to walk with us to the podium, but won’t be decorated as Champions of England in May. Why not? This is just a prediction, with two Nigerians – Wilfred Ndidi and rave of the moment Kelechi Iheanacho – in tow.

    Will thunder strike again on one spot? Leicester is the fairytale team for the season in England. This new toga has arisen from the tactical savvy of former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, who narrowly missed the 2013/2014 Barclays English League title with the Reds, no thanks to the slip  by Steven Gerard at Anfield against Chelsea, which Demba Ba scored with the Special One, Jose Mourinho, taking his pound of flesh .

    Rodgers created the once dreaded threesome of Sterling, Sturridge and Suarez (SSS), who scored goals with aplomb at Anfield and everywhere Liverpool visited that season. The trio reminds watchers of the English game of the current Liverpool goal-scoring tripod of Sadio Mane, Firmino and Mohammed Salah, except that the manager is different. The bearded one from Germany, Jurgen Klopp, is reminding everyone of the feats created by SSS, leading to the exit of Suarez and Sturridge in controversial circumstances.

    Perhaps, Liverpool were not destined to win the diadem that 2013/2014 season because Rodgers left Anfield for Scotland and ruled the Scottish Premier League, using Celtic to show that what he achieved with the Reds wasn’t a fluke. Rodgers’ return to the EPL has sparked off a resurgence for the Foxes, reminding their fans about how they shocked the world by lifting the EPL trophy in the 2015–16 season – their first top-level football championship. They are one of only six clubs to have won the Premier League since its inception in 1992.

    They played a brilliant counter-attacking style of football with a fearless frontline of Riyad Mahrez, Shinji Okazaki and former England international Jamie Vardy. The trio had 46goals that season and Mahrez was crowned the Best Player in England.

    Back in the 2013-14 season, Liverpool had their own deadly trio. The combination of Suarez, Sterling and Sturridge (SSS) helped Liverpool to 101 league goals, third on the all- time list of goals ever scored by a club in the top flight. The trio contributed 61 goals but failed to win the Premier League as they finished second, four points behind eventual winners Manchester City.

    Suarez and Sturridge finished first and second on the top scorers’ chart, with 31 and 21 goals. But their individual feats were worth celebrating. However, the tears from the teeming fans caused by a single slip from Steven Gerrard have haunted the Kop till date.

    This season, Liverpool look unstoppable but former manager Brendan Rodgers has built a solid Leicester City side that will pull both the Reds and Manchester City until the very end. Not forgetting Jose Mourinho’s entry into the EPL and his methodological approach to matches, using a team that lost its steam after the finals of the UEFA Champions League, which Liverpool won 2-0 in Spain.

    Leicester are past champions and know how to handle the pressure of leading the league through its tortuous 38 weeks matches. With Jamie Vardy at 33 years still scoring goals and running faster than younger men, nobody should dismiss Leicester in this year’s campaign. Perhaps, when Leicester clashes with Liverpool at the King Power Stadium December 26, we would be able to ascertain if they have what it takes to play against the big boys when the stakes are high. Interestingly, Leicester will be meeting Manchester City, the defending champions, five days earlier, precisely December 21 at the Ethihad  Stadium.

    Back-to-back losses could change the arithmetic at the top and set the stage for new permutations involving Liverpool and Manchester City at the competition’s zenith. If Leicester win both matches, they would have shut the door against the Citizens and recue the points between them and the Reds. The EPL, no doubt, is the best compared with other European leagues where three to four teams contend for the title seasonally.

    Mourinho’s Tottenham are 23 points adrift of league leaders, Liverpool. But that is the beautiful game- highly unpredict able. Soccer is like biscuit, nobody knows where it would crack. A spate of bad results or injuries to key players could drag leaders down and change the narrative of the quest for the league’s diadem. With an adept manager, such as Mourinho, you should always count on him in such contests, more so when there is the January transfer window where he can shop for players to strengthen his squad. So, Liverpool, Leicester and Manchester City, watch your backs. Did I hear you say such a proposition won’t happen, given Liverpool’s pedigree? Hold your breath, dear reader. The league is a marathon filled with ups and downs. We wait.

    Indeed, nothing excites Nigerians most than watching our nationals celebrate in their clubs on the podium after an important achievement. In fact, such pictures, especially those which they take with their family members, make the front pages of most dailies, especially if one of the kids do something special – think about anything that would tickle people’s fancies. I’m looking forward to seeing Ndidi on the podium with Leicester. I believe strongly that such a feat should qualify him for the 2020/2021 Africa Football of the Year.

    It is true that Kelechi Iheanacho isn’t a regular with the Foxes, but cameo shows, such as the one against Everton, can boost his chances of getting another club, if he insists on playing regularly next year, which is when most countries will be playing their 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

    Speaking on LCFC Radio’s Extra-Time show as monitored by Soccernet.ng, former Leicester City star Iwan Roberts said of Ndidi: “What you do without the ball is nearly as important as what you do when you’ve got the ball. It’s not going in ones and twos, it’s going in as a unit. Wilfred Ndidi is a brilliant player and we saw that again on Sunday. He is one of the top tacklers in the whole league and he’s a really important figure for Leicester this season.”

    Like I predicted here last week, Ndidi has been dropped from the list of players vying for the Africa Cup of Nations diadem, leaving Odion Ighalo as the only Nigerian listed. Ighalo will soon be dropped. His being listed resulted from his feat as the highest goal scorer at the last Africa Cup of Nations. Ighalo plays in the Chinese League, which effectively rules him out of the race. With formidable strikers, such as Mane, Salah, Aubameyang and Mahrez, it will be easier for the carmel to pass through the eyes of the proverbial needle than for Ighalo to nick it.

    Did I hear you say “don’t rule out Ighalo”? True, with CAF, anything is possible. But I doubt it.

  • The Attahiru Jega factor

    His entry into the often contentious, traitorous and slippery terrain of Nigerian politics was characteristically unobtrusive. It was former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, at his most unassuming as he joined the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) a few months ago.   Of course, Jega’s choice of the PRP as his political platform is hardly surprising. He has a proven track record as a brilliant and radical academic. Again, as Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for a prolonged period in the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s Jega demonstrated  uncommon courage and resilience in leading the union to fight not only for better welfare for academics but also for better funding of universities. ASUU won many battles in its struggles even at the height of the most despicable military dictatorship even though many of its members were subjected to the worst forms of victimization, humiliation and oppression. There is no way to write the history of ASUU especially in its golden era under military rule without Jega’s name emblazoned in gold along with scores of several other pro-democracy activists.

    Professor Jega, however, came to the forefront of public consciousness when he was appointed National Chairman of INEC by former President Goodluck Jonathan. The height of his glory in his role as head of the country’s electoral umpire was Jega’s amazingly successful organization of the 2015 general elections. The polls were widely commended both by internal and external election observers. It was a milestone in the continuing evolution of Nigeria’s electoral system especially when for the first time ever, an incumbent was defeated at the centre and a new party assumed the reins of power. It is unfortunate that rather than consolidating and improving on Jega’s legacy at INEC, however, the quality, credibility, and integrity of the electoral process have been gradually but systematically eroded under the incumbent INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood.

    But then, given his intellectual acumen and national, pan-Nigerian outlook, should Jega not have joined one of the two dominant parties rather than casting his lot with a PRP that lacks the resources to build a formidable national platform on which elections can be won or lost? Had Jega opted to join the APC or PDP, he would have betrayed all the progressive values and radical ideology he has stood for all his life. But the question then would be, “Why has Professor Jega chosen to come on the political terrain?”. If his goal is to seek and win power at any level of his choice on the platform of a political party, then he has made a huge error in not joining the PDP or the APC. But if his aim is to join other progressive individuals and groups to work towards the emergence of a genuine third force to contrast sharply with the APC and PDP, the professor is certainly on the right track.

    PRP is the most consistent party organization in this dispensation in terms of commitment to a set of principles, ideological clarity as well as having a core set of positive values. The party draws its values from the late Mallam Aminu Kano, who had consistently fought for the emancipation of the ‘talakawa’, the masses of the north throughout his life. These are also the values and attributes we can find in Professor Jega’s writings over the years as well as his labour activism as Chairman of ASUU. It is not surprising that in a bid to re-position itself, the party has assigned Jega to head a committee, SWOT Anaysis committee. The function of this committee is to undertake an intense interrogation of the PRP’s  strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats with a view to repositioning the party for a more national spread and appeal in the run up to forthcoming elections.

    The PRP sets a good example here. How many of the parties and individuals that flaunted their illusory electoral strength in the run up to the 2019 general elections have been heard from or seen since the conclusion of the election? They have gone home to rest until they will be back on the campaign train when the next set of elections is approaching. But conceiving, forming, nurturing and running effective political parties is hard, back-breaking work. Elections are not won on the television and radio talk shows or the capacity for lofty rhetoric and elegant prose. No, you must build formidable party structures with roots in a substantial number of wards across the country to become electorally invincible in Nigeria.

    But then, will Professor Jega stay put to face the challenges of the assignment he has been given in the PRP or will he migrate to either of the two dominant parties? If that happens, he will I assume be more predisposed to the APC than the PDP, even though both parties are ideologically and philosophically indistinct. Is there the possibility that Jega can be drawn into the race for 2023 by elements who have vociferously asserted that power will remain in the north after 2023? Those who hold this view would be hoping that bringing a candidate with the stature and antecedents of Jega will help overcome any regional or sectional resentment by those who insist that the political elite must abide by the zoning formula that has largely predominated elections into office in this dispensation.

    Now, will Professor Jega swallow this bait if offered? I doubt it. He is too astute a political thinker to offer himself up for demystification. Yes, there must from now on a common front that merit rather than zoning should be the key factor in deciding who run for office on party platforms. This view was espoused by Kaduna State governor, Nasir el’Rufai early in the year and this column backed him. No region or zone should be gifted the presidency on a platter of gold just because it claims it is its turn to have the office zoned to the area. But zoning and merit are not incompatible if each part of the country produces her best and most qualified candidates to contest elections.

    Another dilemma that Jega should care about if he allows himself to be drawn into the race by any of the two major parties, is this: Having just left office as INEC Chairman after the 2015 elections, has he become emotionally detached from the commission to run as a credible candidate? If he contests, will he not be doing so having an undue advantage over others in the race? Does he not still have substantial number of staff in the commission who will be obliged to him in one way or the other? Is he not still acutely aware of insider systems and procedures within INEC that will at once give him an edge over his opponents in an election? I sincerely believe that no INEC Chairman should contest elections on the platform of any party until two decades after leaving office.  Professor Jega is a man of intellect and character. He must not allow mischievous politicians to mislead him.

  • Oshiomhole, Obaseki reconciliation move dead on arrival

    Sentry

    A unique opportunity for the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Edo State Governor Pius Obaseki to end their rift went up in smoke on Thursday.

    Invitations were extended to the warring parties for the meeting of South-South leaders in Abuja where it was hoped that their differences could be settled, but the Obaseki’s camp declined the invitation.

    The Governor’s camp chose not to attend the meeting on the ground that it would hold in Oshiomhole’s house and that would defeat the principle of neutrality in dispute resolution.

    Though the governor and his people were said to have attended similar meetings in the same house, the governor’s handlers say that cannot be now as the relationship between both leaders have broken down irredeemably.

    Efforts of a reconciliation committee previously constituted by the party equally came to nought. No doubt about it, Edo will be a battleground in 2020.

  • Kogi senatorial rerun and other ethical issues

    UnderTow

    On November 17, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared the second Kogi West senatorial election rerun between mainly Dino Melaye and Smart Adeyemi inconclusive. The courts had earlier voided Sen Melaye’s victory in last February’s senatorial race, and ordered a rerun. It is this rerun that has crashed into a ditch, leading to a court order for a second rerun. There will probably not be a third rerun ordered by INEC, for the second rerun, which was conducted at the same time as the November 16 governorship poll, witnessed unprecedented projection of violence and shocking display of lawlessness that virtually indicated what and who the votes were meant to deliver. A third rerun would be scandalous, except ordered again by the courts.

    Federal authorities gave indication before the November 16 governorship and senatorial polls that the elections would be policed by some 35,000 policemen, in addition to an indeterminate number of other security agents. In the end, as attested by amateur video recordings and nearly all election monitoring groups, the thousands of policemen deployed in the state were unable to guarantee free and fair polls. Indeed, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, plaintively declared that armed thugs and fake policemen had a field day during the polls. Some observers insist regular policemen were a part of the racket that led to the election being universally condemned and declared as scandalous. Mr Adamu gave no explanation why his men, in their thousands, could not rein in the armed thugs and so-called fake policemen who shamefully and brazenly subverted the polls.

    Today is the second rerun. The police have been more careful in disclosing how many policemen would be deployed to safeguard the polls. Kogites themselves have wondered whether there is any reason to doubt the outcome of the second expected to favour Senator Adeyemi, given the fact that the arithmetic of the outstanding votes should make Senator Melaye grimace rather than grin or smile. After the intense violence of November 16, would anyone still have the appetite to give or receive more of such violence? In declaring the senatorial poll inconclusive, INEC announced that the difference in votes between Senators Melaye and Adeyemi (20,570) was less than the number of cancelled votes (43,127) in 53 poling units and 20 registration zones. There was no indication of how many PVCs were collected in those polling units to enable the public know whether the rerun is nothing but an academic exercise.

    Obviously, regardless of the PVCs collected and the difference in votes established between the two candidates, the November 16 violence and the fatalities that accompanied balloting are unlikely to encourage a high voter turnout. Worse, having witnessed the manner in which ballot boxes were snatched and votes returned in places where violence barred elections, it is unlikely that the electorate would still entertain hope that whatever they did could still matter in determining the winner. They are not after all inured to that overwhelming sense of fait accompli imposed by the Yahaya Bello government whose supporters shamelessly celebrated electoral violence and endorsed impunity in the classical hate speech mode.

    But perhaps before today’s poll the police would deem it necessary to avail the public their preparations, including the number of men they hope to deploy in the affected zones, and what plans they have to deter fake policemen and armed thugs. There will probably be no helicopter to fire live bullets and tear gas at supposedly unruly voters, a means of crowd control during elections that is both arbitrary and unjustifiable. If law enforcement agents will take sides again, as many feared they did on November 16, observers and critics suspect that they will be less flagrant, perhaps believing that the damage had been done, and the election already ‘won’ and ‘lost’.

    The senatorial rerun and the concluded governorship election have raised quite a number of worrisome ethical dilemmas for the government and INEC. First is the ethical confusion created by the federal government itself. By immediately endorsing the governorship election through a congratulatory statement to Mr Bello, without indicating any abhorrence of the violence that led to loss of lives or indicating any resolve to probe the violence and bring suspected murderers to book, the Muhammadu Buhari presidency seemed to downplay the significance of the subversion of the will of the electorate. It took nearly a week for the president to condemn the November 18 gruesome murder of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) women leader, Salome Abuh, with the condemnation coming almost as an afterthought. It is even more shocking that in clumsily responding to popular outrage, the presidency forgot to give the same stentorian order in respect of the about a dozen other victims murdered during the election. Significantly, barely 24 hours after the presidential order, six suspects were arrested and are undergoing interrogation.

    The second ethical problem that proceeds from the election is why the police, which had given series of unsatisfactory statements to explain their impotence in the face of armed electoral thugs, needed to be prodded by the presidency to professionally respond to the violence and the murder that unhinged the Kogi polls. The police are constitutionally empowered to deal with breakdown of law and order and to routinely solve crimes. They need no extra orders from anywhere. By making light of the violence that compromised the Kogi polls of November 16, the police managed to give the impression that they were not impartial, and that they were tragically subservient to certain vested interests and incapable of independent judgement.

    A third and even more distressing ethical problem came out of the violent Kogi polls — the complete inurement of Mr Bello’s supporters to his cruelty, incompetence and maladministration. That those supporters composed musical ditties and embarked on raucous celebration to entrench a dubious electoral outcome gave the impression that a disturbingly high number of Nigerians may already be viewing political issues through ethnic colourations and warped ethical prisms. That Mr Bello’s supporters ululated over the use of guns to coerce votes is a natural progression from the federal government’s own disinterestedness in the violent manner Mr Bello himself conducted his campaign by ostracising his opponents, creating electoral and campaign no-go areas, and threatening to use all means to deliver votes to his party — all this without a whimper from the law enforcement agencies. This was truly cataclysmic.

    The Kogi polls did not pass muster, not even the smallest litmus test. All the relevant agencies and governments which should have safeguarded a free and fair election on November 16 failed woefully. Many critics think this is a terrible retrogression. Others think that what happened in Kogi is unprecedented. But whether it is a retrogression or it is unprecedented, the failed election in Kogi is not just the responsibility of Mr Bello, as ruthless and unethical as he is, and INEC, as weak as they have become, it is in fact more legally the responsibility of the federal government which had the means to safeguard the process but chose connivance instead of impartiality.

    The chickens will eventually come home to roost, considering that the next general election is just round the corner. Given the horrible erosion of electoral and governmental ethics in Nigeria, and the increasing lack of willingness by the civil populace to challenge and resist all the political and bureaucratic malfeasances undermining good governance and law and order, less hope is being reposed in the sanctity of polls as a means of regulating power struggle and mediating political conflict. Between 1999 and up to last month, some achievements had been recorded in the country’s electoral process. Now, especially consequent upon the latest electoral misadventure in Kogi, which will likely be reinforced in the Kogi West second rerun today, and the electoral dubieties that smeared the Bayelsa poll also of November 16, hope is fast receding that a better tomorrow exists for the country’s electoral process.

  • Buhari’s dilemma over NDDC board

    In a declaration that seemed to vindicate President Muhammadu Buhari’s call for a forensic audit of the accounts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) when the leaders of the region visited him in the Presidential Villa recently, the Acting Managing Director of the commission, Dr. Gbene Joi Nunieh, was reported as revealing in an interview with journalists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, that a certain consultant was being paid N1 billion monthly just for collecting money from international oil companies (IOCs) on behalf of the commission.

    The furious Acting MD was also quoted as saying that the commission had suspended the monthly payment to the consultant, saying that it does not need an intermediary to receive the statutory payments due to it from the IOCs.

    “We have a consulting firm engaged as a collection agent. We have another company that also collects 3 per cent whenever money is paid by the International Oil Companies. We don’t need a middle man to collect 3 per cent for gas. The money should just be paid into NDDC accounts with the CBN,” Nunieh said.

    Some weeks ago, a colleague of Nunieh in the interim management had accused an unnamed senator of getting over 80 contracts, many of which were not executed.

    Sentry gathered that Nunieh’s move is pleasing to President Buhari, who sees it as an indication that she knows what needs to be done to rid the agency of the rot that has bedeviled it for years and made nonsense of all the funds the Federal Government has pumped into it.

    But there also lies President Buhari’s dilemma. The interim board that has Nunieh as Acting MD was put in place by Senator Godswill Akpabio in his capacity as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs while the President has appointed a board which the Senate has cleared and is asking the President to swear in to take charge of the Commission’s affairs.

    Akpabio, on his part, wants his interim appointees to continue and is believed to be enjoying the support of some Niger Delta governors and influential members of the President’s kitchen cabinet.

    The President is now left to choose between going with Akpabio by retaining the Interim Management Committee and going with the Senate by swearing in the board appointed by it.

  • Unease in Amnesty office over Onyema’s arrest

    Sentry

    Since he was charged with bank fraud and money laundering in the United States of America last week, the CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has been defending himself. His lawyers have also risen in his defence just as the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, has been defending her integrity

    But there is unease in the Amnesty office, the outlet charged with the responsibility of rehabilitating and reintegrating repentant members of the militant groups in the Niger Delta, where Onyema allegedly functioned as a consultant before he went into airline business.

    Credible sources said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to swoop on Amnesty Office to find out the kind of consultancy job Onyema did for them and determine whether Onyema made his money from the office.

    It was also gathered that the chief executive officers (CEOs) of two banks, including one that is very active in the South East and was investigated by EFCC in connection with Diezani Allison-Madueke’s money laundering case, may be quizzed over the alleged laundered funds. Trust SENTRY to report the developments.

  • Ndidi and the African Player of the Year

    Ade Ojeikere

     

    NIGERIA’s biggest export to the European game this season is Wilfred Ndidi, who has shown that there are still good things here to celebrate, irrespective of the downturn of  our domestic football in the last six years. Ndidi, a product of FIFA’s youth development programmes, having been discovered at the U-20 level, has made the shortlist of 20 players in the race to be the 2019/2020 Africa Footballer of the Year. The parameters for picking the eventual winner do not favour Ndidi, since marks would be given based on a player’s contributions in his national team and his European club.

    Europe-based players have dominated previous winners’ list, making it imperative for pundits to look towards top performers in Europe. This evident backing for Europe-based stars compelled the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) to carve out an award for the home-based stars,:but this isn’t as glamorous as the senior category since fans ask questions about the winner unlike the one for the big boys. I digress!

    Ndidi has played over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s matches, missing only when he is either injured or banned due to yellow card offences. Ndidi has dominated his Barclays English Premier League side Leicester City’s matches, drawing rave reviews from pundits and coaches. Other clubs are watching, obviously waiting for either the January transfer window or that of the summer to offer the Nigerian mouth-watering packages. Will Ndidi dump Leicester for a bigger club? Will he remain at Leicester where he has a regular shirt until next season, now that it appears the Foxes can claim one of the four UEFA Champions League slots for the English game in the 2020/2021 season? I don’t envy Ndidi. But his managers are seasoned administrators, who will give him quality advice.

    For Leicester’s management, these are tough times, given the fact that Ndidi has added goal scoring to his tackling prowess. Many pundits agree that he is the closest threat to Chelsea’s defensive midfielder N’Golo Kante, a member of the French 2018 World Cup winning team in Russia. Soccer pundits have not blamed Ndidi for picking yellows cards while playing for Leicester because he does the dirty jobs of marking players, many of whom are in the habit of feigning injuries from such ‘crunchy’ tackles.

    Chronologists have rated Ndidi between first and third among the best tacklers. Those who have not rated Ndidi as the best tackler often get the stick from followers of the game, having seen the names of those listed ahead of the Nigerian.

    Penultimate week, Ndidi’s team mate in Leicester City James  Madison described him as the best in his position  in the English Premier League. Madison said: “What  Wilfred Ndidi does may not get on the back of pages of the newspaper or talked about  moren often. He doesn’t get talked about on match day for example but his teammates and players that play against him realise what a top player he is.” Good talk Madison, that is the prize undertakers of the game get from the media, whose major concern are the goal scorers or naughty players who make the headlines for the wrong reasons. Pity!

    Sadly, Ndidi won’t make the last three, where the eventual winner will emerge. Previous winners have been goal scorers. Indeed, Sadio Mane, Mohammed Salah and Mahrez are strong contenders for the Africa Footballer of the Year, with the Liverpool duo tipped to win the diadem, based on their contributions to Liverpool since last season. The Reds did well last season by lifting the UEFA Champions league and are the holders of the UEFA Super Cup, a trophy meant to decide the best team in Europe last season. Liverpool beat Chelsea 5-4 on penalty kicks after 120 minutes. Last season, Salah and Mane tied on 22 goals in the Barclays English Premier League top scorers’ chat along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, though the Arsenal captain won’t be able to match the others because his country ,Gabon, is a football minnow. Kudos to Aubameyang for not dumping his fatherland to play for any of the European soccer powers.

    “It will be difficult for the Nigerians to win it. The only Nigerian player with some chance is Odion Ighalo, who was the top scorer at the Africa Cup of Nations.

    “Maybe when you come to the CAF Best XI, Wilfred Ndidi has a chance to make it. Ighalo definitely has a chance to be part of the XI but it’s looking good for Mane.

    ”People might argue that he didn’t win the Africa Cup of Nations but he helped Senegal reach the final and Liverpool to win the UEFA Champions League back in June,” Victor Ikpeba, a former Africa Footballer of the Year (1997) stressed.

    What counts essentially in the race to winning the trophy is the player who distinguishes himself the most. Mane towers over every African since he was runners-up last season, which means that he has been the most consistent player since last year. Mane continued with his sterling form for club and country. But it is Mane’s role with Senegal that should earn him the diadem, more so as Egypt has been tottering. Egypt hosted the Africa Cup of Nations and fumbled. But Senegal lost in the final to Algeria.

    Ordinarily, the odds would have favoured Mahrez, yet his club form has been in-today-out tomorrow. This writer won’t say Mahrez has been a poor performer. Mahrez cannot field himself in a game. Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola decides who plays and who doesn’t. If he thinks otherwise for Mahrez, he sits on the bench, unlike Salah and Mane who are pillars in Liverpool’s attacking onslaughts.

    Ikpeba, who voted for Mane, knows that Ighalo doesn’t have the indices to grab the award, given what Mane achieved for Liverpool in England and UEFA Champions League last season. Mane has continued these feats (scoring vital goals for Liverpool) this season.

    Perhaps for 2019/2020, Victor Osimhen can battle for the award with Mane, Salah and Aubameyang, considering the way he is scoring goals for Lille in the French Ligue Un and the UEFA Champions league, even though Lille have been eliminated from the elite class. This Osimhen  proportion is being patriotic because the trio (Mane, Salah, and Aubameyang) have made goal scoring look like second nature. At best, Osimhen can be adjudged the best youth player for this season and even next. but for him to beat the trio, he must do more than the extraordinary. and this can’t happen playing for Lille in the French league.

    Can Osimhen stand up and be counted playing for bigger clubs, especially as Jose Mourinho wants him to join Tottenham in the EPL? Osimhen has no place at Tottenham , with the way Harry Kane and Song are playing. He could be more talented with age on his side. but Mourinho isn’t patient with young boys. Mourinho wants quick fixes, making it impossible for Osimhen to fit into the present Tottenham set – up. Osimhen should remain at Lille or join teams with more tolerant managers for young boys to break into their team during the summer.

    Odion Ighalo being picked as the best African player because he emerged the highest goal scorer is farfetched. He plays in the Chinese league, which is lightweight , compared to the EPL and Champions League in which Mane and Salah are competing. It won’t fly with contenders, such as Mane and Salah. Both men have already added the Super Cup feat to their Champions League laurel of last season. Besides, Liverpool are the current league leaders with high prospects of winning the EPL for the first time in the new era in the last 30 years.

    The only consolation for Nigerians is that Ndidi has grown in stature in his game, a fact he attested to in a recent interview in England.

    ‘He (Rodgers) has given me so much information,’ Ndidi reveals. ‘If I had known this for a long time, the way I think I’m going… I feel comfortable and happy, knowing these things.

    ”What have I learned? First of all, it’s about facing the larger part of the pitch when I receive the ball. Then it’s knowing when to go with one touch, two touches, or when to leave the ball and just go with the body. At first, when I’d been converted from a central defender to a midfielder, I didn’t know these things.

    ”I just went out and played. When it’s a tight situation on the pitch, sometimes I don’t really go and ask for the ball, but this information has really helped my confidence, even to ask for the ball during the game, ” Ndidi said.