The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Vision, leadership  and  the  rule of  law

    The presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji  Abubakar Atiku delivered a lecture in Lagos  at the  prestigious Island Club, Nigeria’s premier social club this week. The topic of the lecture was ‘ My  Vision  To  Get Nigeria  Working Again.’ It  was a topic that he said  he chose himself for  the 2019  Quaterly  Business Luncheon  of the Club . Given  that    the presidential  election is this  month and he is the main  alternative to  choose against  the incumbent president  in the 2019  presidential  election one cannot blame him  for  striking  whilst  the iron is hot  against  the government of his main  rival. He did that I grudgingly concede rather  eloquently  even  as I am  very  much  at odds  with his prescriptions for making Nigeria  work  again.

    My  main  grouse with the Turaki  Adamawa  as his title in his state  is,  is  that  he cannot  claim  ignorance  or  culpability in the  way  Nigeria came to be  the way  he  found it and which  gave way  to his vision  to mend it. Just    as  the topic  clearly  stated,  My  vision  to get Nigeria working  again. This, to  me    is a  vision  that  can be described  as getting  wise after an  event or  locking the stable gates after  the horses  have bolted.  Yet  in a democracy the choice of a leader is before  the electorate regardless of any  analysis including this, and I wish  the PDP candidate  the  best  of luck, like the president wished all governorship  candidates in Imo  state in his campaign there  this  week.

    I  also  wish  to congratulate the PDP presidential  candidate for the entourage and enthusiastic  crowd  that  followed him to Island  Club at Onikan Lagos. The entourage included  his present Godfather and past and present Nemesis former  President Olusegun  Obasanjo, under whom  he served  as  Vice President of Nigeria. The entourage included some  past  governors  as well as the Lagos state PDP  candidate Jimi  Agbaje  and the Senate  President Dr Bukola Saraki.  Indeed  Obasanjo’s speech in showing why  he has both slandered  Atiku in the past  and is  now  glorifying and magnifying him as the solution to Nigeria’s  economic  and leadership  problems today,  overshadowed the candidate’s  plan  as  articulated to make Nigeria  work  again. In  a way,  Obasanjo’s  long apologia  on slandering  Atiku  on many  occasions  and  forgiving him  as  the

    bible preached forgiveness, gave some insight  on  why Nigeria could not have worked  till the two  came  together  for this election. Obasanjo  invoked the name of  Jesus  who  he said was not  perfect on  earth.

    Yet  Nigeria  is a secular state of many religions especially  Christianity and Islam  and he need  not  invoke  the might of  one or either  of the two, to score  a political  point or to  rationalize a  past leadership  judgement  or  appreciation decision  or  mistake. Definitely the next presidential  election in  February  will  determine  clearly  how  much  of an impetus or albatross  the  involvement  of  Obasanjo in the  Atiku  campaign  has been  in  resolving  Nigeria’s    multifarious  problems. We shall  surely  see  from  the election results  how  much better or worse  the Nigerian  state and economy  will  be  because  of  this endorsement  that  Atiku  is deeming  his political  saving  grace and  democracy  elixir  to  lead  Nigeria as an executive  president.

    Good  enough the choice  is before the Nigerian  electorate  who have  a long  memory  and  are  not  afflicted  by any  selective amnesia  in spite  of the level  of  poverty, want and  insecurity they  have seen at  the hands of successive Nigerian leaders, both civilian  and military.

    Aside  from the  Obasanjo  sermon on  Atiku rediscovery  and metamorphosis into acceptability,  the PDP  candidate  raised  an issue  that is now  shaping  the way  and manner the 2019 election is evolving even  with  the dates for the presidential  and state elections clearly  known. INEC  has  even affirmed that there  can be no  postponement,  which  was an  extravagant statement that is uncalled for. At  his lecture  the PDP candidate  noted  that  –  our democracy  is in peril, and  he cited the suspension  of  the CJN and his replacement by  the president. He  said ‘ the action of

    unilaterally  suspending  the CJN  by  President  Buhari  is unconstitutional.  The  constitution provides laid  down rules for

    the suspension of the CJN  and this has not been followed ‘He  then went on to conclude that  a key  part of his vision for  Nigeria is respect  for the rule of law, ‘  because  without it we can have no society.’

    Definitely  I agree on his  vision and conclusion  that without  the rule of  law  there  will indeed  be no  society, which  clearly is a descent  to  anarchy. That is  even  a situation  to be avoided on the eve  of an election as  important as the one at  our  doorsteps right  now this month. But  the CJN  saga  has put the nation at the edge of a cliff in terms  of expectations, anger  and resentment at the happenings in our third arm  of  government, the  judiciary  and the legal  profession. I once here recently wrote  that the law is on trial  on this CJN matter. I now  say categorically that it is the Nigerian  state  that is on trial  for the simple reason  that there is a threat to  the Nigerian  state and security. Just  look  at  the legal  wranglings and precedents as  well as the positions of the legal  institutions both at the bench  and bar  and you  see that legal  interpretations  have to be made  transparently,  judiciously and timeously  for the tension and pressure on the political   system to  cool  down so that we can  have a smooth, safe  and fair election. Already  the NSA  reportedly told a meeting of State governors that a group of people including politicians are planning violence and mayhem during and after the  elections  and the security agencies say they are ready  and we pray  they  protect  the electoral process  this year in Nigeria successfully.

    Obviously  corruption is  at  the heart of the CJN debacle and the judiciary  and the legal  profession should find a way out  of the opprobrium  in their front  houses, which  in this case is their image or reputation. An  adage says if the fish  is rotten  it  starts from  the head. That is clearly  the case in the CJN matter.

    To me the Code of Conduct  Tribunal –CCT –  has  been  the redeeming grace that the presidency  has used  as its authority to suspend  the CJN who  in the face of clear infractions on assets declaration against the law, was  using  his position and wealth to make an  ass of the law by stalling all cases against his arraignment. He  could have gone on up to the Supreme  Court  with this frivolous  obstacles  and would  he then  have presided over  his own  case? Where was  the NJC in  all  this ?Could  the members not  have taken action or raised a point of order on the publicly  displayed and court cited offences of their leader who as a Supreme Court judge is simply  a primus inter pares and not superior to other judges  at the Supreme  Court?.

    Similarly,  the NBA called for an  industrial  action that  failed because both bar  and bench are  ashamed  and aghast at the revelations and defence  antics of the leader of the judiciary. The NBA  says  it is defending  the constitution  yet  the  corruption of the CJN is lost  in plain  sight to  it. A  legal  institution  of eminent  SANs  and lawyers  should  not  hunt with the hunter  and run with  the hunted .This  is a recipe  for  confusion  and  anarchy.

    How  does this augur  well  for a peaceful and fair  election and for post  election litigations for complaints  and electoral malpractices?. My  take is that the omens are bad and a reconsideration  of the timing of the election which INEC  says is not  is not  in sight,  may  be a    relief  or panacea  for now.  At  least  in the short run.  Once again  long  live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Salah’s AFCON prediction

    Africa Footballer of the Year Mohammed Salah has predicted the two countries that will meet in the final game of the Africa Cup of Nations in July. No surprise that Salah picked Egypt, his country, and the defending champions Cameroon. The Liverpool FC of England striker didn’t predict the eventual winner of the diadem. He is just being human, though pundits know that he would tip the Pharaohs over the Indomitable Lions, especially as the Egyptians are the hosts of the 2019 edition.

    Salah’s prediction serves as a marker for outside bets for the 2019 AFCON diadem, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco etc, to watch out. Nobody knows the criteria Salah used in arriving at his prediction; he may have looked at the calibre of players in both countries and how regularly they play in their clubs. He also could have looked at the two countries’ participation in the competition, and reckoned that they are the two most consistent teams. Will any Nigerian blame Salah for this kind of projections?

    Nigeria didn’t participate in the last two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, despite winning the 2013 edition held in South Africa, largely due to bickering within the Glasshouse in Abuja. Matters aren’t different now, except that the hierarchy of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) used the lessons learned from the last botched appearance to prepare for this year’s edition. The new plans paid off, especially the aspect of ensuring that the players’, officials’ and coaches’ salaries and entitlements were paid promptly. Eagles’ preparation was elaborate, including playing quality friendly matches which helped the coaches to identify weak areas in the squad.

    Pundits don’t know what informed Salah’s choice of Cameroon as one of the finalists because the draws for the competition are slated to hold on April 12. What if both countries are in the same group? If that happens, they will meet again in the semi-finals, where only one country will qualify. This is the luck of the draws. What will Salah say if his prediction goes awry?

    Salah will be shocked to hear that the Comoros Football Federation (FFC)  lodged a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over Cameroon’s participation at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, according to their general manager, Ben Amir Saadi.

    Saadi claimed that CAF has failed to implement its own regulations concerning the action to be taken thus: ‘’CAF rules (Article 92.3) states that “if a nation withdraws from hosting, or has the rights taken away one year before the finals, a fine of five hundred thousand ($500,000) U.S. dollars and a suspension of it’s A national team in the next edition of AFCON without considering the concerned edition, should be implemented” .

    The Comoros believe that Cameroon should be excluded from the 2019 finals after having the hosting rights for the tournament withdrawn from them. Both countries are in the same qualifying group.  Food for thought, Salah. Good prediction, no doubt.

    Anyone counting the Eagles out at the AFCON 2019 diadem is a poor student of African soccer history. Eagles are more dangerous when the permutations rate them low. One has been excited since January, with the run of events involving our fringe players, who should bench the established stars, if manager Gernot Rohr picks his team on current form.

    Bursaspor of Turkey utility player Shehu Abdullahi is back after three months hiatus due to injuries. “I feel good and happy about it. It’s a moment I have waited for since last year and I’m happy I can now play football again. It was a good moment for me to come in for the last few minutes and I hope to now work my way back into the starting XI,” Abdullahi stated.

    Abdullahi’s return fortifies the team’s right-wing-back position, especially as Tyroone Ebuehi has started training. Rohr told the media during the week: “Our programme all the time is to improve the level of our Super Eagles and to respect what they are doing in the clubs. It is a moment to monitor our players to see if they are fit and, of course, have some news also from our injured players.

    “Like Tyroone, who is in the training again, but he can’t start playing; also Ahmed Musa who has an injury at the moment. The match against Seychelles is not easy because everybody believes it will be won easily. That is dangerous and is a trap sometimes.”

    So what is Rohr up with his return to the country last Tuesday? He is watching the games involving the country’s representatives at the CAF inter-club competition without stating the players he is searching for and their positions. Rohr saw MFM FC Lagos beat Enugu Rangers FC 1-0 inside the Agege Stadium penultimate Wednesday.

    “I am planning to invite 23 players for the two matches against Seychelles for the AFCON qualifier and the International friendly against Egypt come March 23 and 26. The list of the 23 players would be made public in the first week of March. The list will be announced by the Nigeria Football Federation, as usual.

    “I am in Nigeria to watch some players in the Nigeria Professional League, but most importantly I am here to personally watch the players in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. My assistants. Imama and Aloy Agu, are moving round the league venues to also monitor players too,” Rohr told NationSport in an exclusive chat in Abuja on Thursday.

    “I will invite one or two new players that I want to test their quality in a strong match like the Seychelles and Egypt match. I am going to Enugu tomorrow (today) to watch the CAF Champions League match involving Lobi Stars, and visiting Wydad Casablanca of Morocco slated for Enugu Stadium on Friday (tomorrow),” Rohr added.

    Now that Rohr wants to invite home-based players, pundits are hoping that his search includes getting a goalkeeper, who plays regularly. Francis Uzoho is match rusty. Ikechukwu Ezenwa isn’t any better. Both goalkeepers can only be trusted based on their experience. Rohr needs to get one regular goalkeeper from the local league. Rohr can find strong players who can be taught how to defend properly, now that Leon Balogun isn’t playing regularly.

    This writer isn’t comfortable when Eagles play with Kenneth Omeruo in the central defence. He loses concentration and is too casual when clearing the ball out of dangerous positions. Most times Omeruo’s slow and tentative disposition in clearing the ball out of dangerous settings causes goalmouth melees, which end up in goals against Nigeria, such as we saw in Nigeria’s game against Argentina.

    Eagles’ midfield will find its rhythm if John Mikel Obi regains fitness through Middleborough’s games. He played for 62 minutes in the English FA Cup last weekend and his movement on and off the ball showed that he could return to his best very soon.

    “I haven’t played for three months, so it was a surprise when the manager said I was starting. I still have plenty of life in my legs. It was a good run out, a good test for me. You get your fitness back by playing, not by training; so I was glad to be out there today,” said Mikel, who is at Boro on a short term deal.

    “I was just happy to get some minutes, feel the ball and smell the grass again; that was important for me. I got a very good reception from the fans and that was very important for me. They showed me a lot of love and hopefully I can repay them with good performances week in, week out and, hopefully, we can get promoted at the end of this season.

    “I’m very happy to be here in a Middlesborough shirt. The manager spoke to me and he’s a really nice guy. I had a good chat with him and he convinced me this would be the best place for me,” he said after playing the first hour at the Riverside. Welcome back Mikel.

    Eagles lack a commander on the pitch. Mikel’s return will resolve this problem but the coaches should look for someone to do Mikel’s job, since he is in the twilight of his career. My hunches tell me that this year’s AFCON could be Mikel’s last hurrah, and it would be worth it. This flaw showed in our matches since after the Mundial in Russia last year.

    With a wobbly midfield, there is little the strikers can do. Hence we have relied on Ahmed Musa’s pace to outrun the opposition, and at other times the brilliance of Alex Iwobi and Odion Ighalo for goals. Mikel’s return is the biggest fillip for the Eagles. One hopes that Rohr can accept Victor Moses back into the team once he starts playing regularly. If NFF President Amaju Pinnick feels strongly that we need Moses, Rohr should encourage him to get the midfielder into the squad.

    Ighalo is out of contract with his Chinese club. No one knows where he will play later this year. Ighalo could remain in China but it will be nice if he gets a European club; otherwise, we will have to risk Iwobi upfront to complement Ighalo, even though Isaac Success and Osimhen look like prospects for the team’s attacking onslaught. But can we rely on Isaac, Osimhen and Taiwo Awoniyi in Egypt? Yes, for their talent; no because of their experience.

    If you ask me, I will say bring back Moses. He is the Trojan we need in Egypt with Mikel. I’m further inspired by his post-match comments for Fenerbache during the week.

    “I’m glad I had the chance to play football in this atmosphere. I would like to thank everyone who came here. They gave me confidence. They motivated me and my teammates. I started training. I feel different. I’m happy. From the moment I stepped into our facilities, I felt the size of the club. I felt this power. Let’s grow up together. I want to play my football and enjoy this,” Moses concluded.

  • Treasonous terrain

    In his latest characteristically trenchant and incendiary public critique of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration as well as preparations for this year’s elections, former President Olusegun Obasanjo warned that “What is happening under Buhari’s watch can be likened to what we witnessed under Gen. Sani Abacha in many ways”. The wily Owu chief surely knows that had such an acerbic missive been hurled at Abacha as Head of State, the writer would not dare venture anywhere near the seat of power as Chief Obasanjo did when he attended the National Council of States meeting at the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, on Tuesday.

    For daring to be a relentless thorn in the flesh of the Abacha dictatorship, Chief Obasanjo, along with some other patriots, was roped into a phantom coup, put through a farcical trial, found guilty and given a death sentence, which was later commuted to life imprisonment.  This cannot happen in today’s Nigeria not because of the benevolence of PMB but as a result of the gradually but steadily strengthening and resilience of our democratic institutions. Indeed, the closest in attitude, conduct, character and temper of all the occupants of Nigeria’s presidential office since 1999 to Abacha is Obasanjo himself. The sheer impunity and venality that characterized the Obasanjo presidency are too well known to detain us here.

    Once again, OBJ’s latest onslaught against PMB violates the boundaries of civility and statesmanship. Beyond this, OBJ’s epistle dangles dangerously on treasonous terrain. For, he asserts authoritatively, that he is aware of ongoing plans and activities by the electoral and security agencies, to rig the next election in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Now, that is a weighty allegation. Just like military coup plotters, election riggers in democratic polities subject whole collectivities to the political equivalent of gang rape. This kind of allegation coming from a former Head of State who presumably should know what he is talking about cannot be taken lightly. In OBJ’s words, “From available intelligence, we have heard of how Buhari and his party are going about his own self-succession project. They have started recruiting collation officers who are already awarding results based on their projects to actualize the perpetuation agenda in which the people will not matter and the votes will not count. It is the sole reason he has blatantly refused to sign the Electoral Reform Bill into law”.

    He continues: “His henchmen are working round the clock in cahoots with security and election officials to perfect their plan by computing results right from the ward to local government, state and national levels to allot him what will look like a landslide victory irrespective of the true situation for a candidate who might have carried out by proxy presidential debate and campaigns. The current plan is to drape the pre-determined results with a toga of credibility. It is also planned that violence of unimaginable proportion will be unleashed in high population areas across the country to precipitate re-run elections and where he will be returned duly elected after concentration of security officials as it happened in Osun State”.

    Obasanjo’s account of how the electoral and security agencies are planning to rig the elections in favour of the APC is too detailed and specific to be ignored. It is important that the relevant state agencies interact with him to get all the information they can on what Obasanjo has vividly portrayed in his epistle as an ongoing comprehensive plan to rig the elections and illegally keep the APC in power at the centre.  Anybody implicated in any such plan is directly or indirectly guilty of treason by plotting to bring into power a government whose authority and power flow not from the will of the people as expressed through free and fair elections but rather through brazen electoral armed robbery.

    PMB has sworn on oath to defend the constitution and its integrity. He thus has a responsibility to order urgent investigations into OBJ’s allegations to ascertain their veracity or otherwise and take necessary punitive administrative and legal actions against any electoral or security agency officials indicted for such treasonable acts.  It must be admitted, however, that the lack of the requisite professional and operational autonomy of critical state agencies from transient governments in power since 1999 has been a hindrance to their objective and impartial functioning.

    But there is also an obverse side to the coin. OBJ bases his allegations on what he describes as “available intelligence”. He must be prepared to provide credible evidence to back his assertions before requisite investigative agencies. Otherwise, it could be credibly held that his allegations are a deliberate attempt to damage the integrity of the security agencies and INEC, destroy the credibility of these institutions and erode confidence and trust in the electoral process. If true, that is surely treasonable.

    It would mean that OBJ has wantonly peddled fake news to sabotage and undermine the electoral institutions and processes thereby endangering the stability of the political system and the sustainability of democracy in Nigeria.   But what would be his motive? The answer is simple. OBJ’s public epistolary tirades played significant roles in delegitimizing and causing the loss of power by several administrations before PMB including those of Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and Goodluck Jonathan.

    However, it seems now, under Buhari, that ‘the times, they are changing’. Last year, OBJ targeted furious fusillades against PMB, raining invectives against him and trying to inspire a political movement to oust PMB from power at the polls and also to dislodge both the APC and PDP from their pole positions as political parties. The initiative was ‘Dead on Arrival’. Meanwhile, the momentum of PMB’s re-election train seems unstoppable. PMB’s teeming supporters are not unaware of the President’s weaknesses and failings but a not insignificant number believe that his worst vices are more preferable to them than his main opponent, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s best virtues.

    A humbled OBJ has craftily meandered his way back to the PDP by endorsing its presidential candidate who was his former deputy and sworn enemy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. OBJ is in the tightest political spot of his life. He has developed a deep seated hatred for PMB, a man whose integrity and incorruptibility he had vouched for in the past. At the same time, he has been forced to reluctantly embrace an Atiku whom he has endlessly vilified, disparaged and denigrated before now as being pathologically corrupt and unreliable.

    Obviously sensing his looming and terminal political demystification should Buhari win the presidential election, OBJ has decided to go for broke. He seeks to discredit the outcome of the polls in advance by destroying the mutual trust that must exist between the electoral umpire and the electorate for credible and acceptable elections to be held. To demonstrate what he tries to project as the bias of INEC, OBJ cites the last Osun State governorship election as an example. According to him, “From what we saw and knew about Osun State gubernatorial election, what was conclusive was declared inconclusive despite all advice to the contrary”.

    He goes on to list the alleged infractions that marred the integrity of the election in his view. Unfortunately, OBJ’s personal opinions and biases cannot be substituted for the decisions of the competent election petition tribunals set up to adjudicate on electoral disputes. In any case, if APC had all the power to manipulate the Osun governorship election with the support of INEC as OBJ submits, then why was the election so tightly fought and narrowly won?

    Why didn’t APC simply utilize its alleged unlimited powers to obtain an easy victory on the first ballot thus making any rerun unnecessary? Why didn’t Governor Raufu Aregbesola utilize the power of incumbency to ensure victory for himself in his native Ijeshaland? Why did the support of Senator Iyiola Omisore with his strong Ife base become critical to the outcome of the rerun election with the APC and PDP lobbying intensely for his cooperation until he opted to go with the former?

    As the inclement weather of his inevitable political winter approaches, OBJ faces the future with trepidation. Preventing PMB’s re-election is clearly a ‘do or die’ affair for him as he famously declared before the disgracefully rigged 2007 election conducted under his perverse watch. But OBJ is no longer either in office or in power and he can now only wield the weapon of impotent letters. His effort to discredit the election and its outcome even before it is held amounts to a brazen incitement of the populace. For, what in today’s Nigeria can justify these words by OBJ in his statement, “Today, as in the day of Abacha, Nigerians must rise up and do what they did in the time of Abacha”.

    In the day of Abacha, peaceful change was made impossible in Nigeria, thereby making violent change inevitable. Today, the likes of OBJ are insisting that the only peaceful electoral change acceptable to them is one that produces the outcome they desire. Such an attitude is not only against the spirit of democracy, it poses a grave danger to the stability of the state. Embedded in this kind of disposition to elections and their outcomes are the seeds of treason.

    Unless there are consequences for the peddling of reckless, baseless and patently fake news that threatens the foundations of the electoral and democratic process, these poisonous seeds will sprout and flourish like weeds capable of ultimately choking life out of democracy in Nigeria.

  • Ohanaeze tarred with the same Afenifere brush

    WEEKS after a faction of the pan-Yoruba socio-political and cultural group, Afenifere, endorsed the presidential ambition of ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has followed suit with its own elaborate endorsement. The beneficiary of the latest Southeast endorsement is of course Alhaji Atiku. If endorsements were a significant factor in winning the presidency, the former vice president should be coasting to victory in the February 16 election. The South-South, North central, Northeast and Northwest do not have similar ethnic or regional organisations, otherwise the country would also be expecting their endorsements. But in fact they do endorse in nuanced and covert ways, which are often obvious only after the ballots are cast.

    The South-South seems in some ways marching to the beat of Alhaji Atiku. If that march should be equal to an endorsement, then, going by the publicised political positions and preferences of the Southwest and Southeast, the entire southern states, bar perhaps one or two, would appear to have made up their minds to follow the former vice president all the way to the promised land. But in reality, endorsements are complex and sometimes uncertain, and are often dependent on many factors, most of them emotional and financial. The Southwest endorsement is even more complicated. Riven by three Afenifere factions, with one of the factions claiming superior mandate to endorse, the zone is unlikely to head in one direction in February, or whenever the elections hold. But the Afenifere faction that endorses Alhaji Atiku derides the other factions, describing them as either paid stooges or non-existent groups.

    The Ohanaeze endorsement in the Southeast is less complicated but significantly tenuous. Though the group is not factionalised, and has for many years spoken with one voice principally on account of their shared feeling of alienation, its endorsements and resolutions are often vitiated by the many activist or militant groups balkanising the Southeast population. Among those vociferous groups are the charismatic but badly led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the rather perplexed Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and other minor splinters of the two groups. They all have huge followings and are as assertive as the Ohanaeze; but they are evidently less cerebral, less restrained and hardly diplomatic. Both MASSOB and IPOB have been less forthcoming in giving endorsements. Their indifference  alert both the Igbo and the rest of the county to other priorities of the activists that war against the goals and principles of the Fourth Republic.

    After declaring itself as the apex socio-cultural organisation working for the interests of the Igbo inside and outside Nigeria, Ohanaeze went ahead to premise its endorsement for Alhaji Atiku on the following:

    • Ohaneze notes particularly that a major political party (PDP) by the nomination of our son, Peter Obi, as the vice presidential candidate has given Ndigbo an opportunity for inclusivity. Ndigbo must seize the moment;
    • That the presidential candidate of PDP Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has made an avowed commitment to restructuring of the federation and reconfirmed same during his recent visit to the United States in his meetings with high-level US officials;
    • In consideration of the above and other relevant existential factors pertaining to the treatment of the Igbo in our polity, the Ime Obi Ohaneze, therefore, hereby ratify the decision reached at the Ohaneze National Executive Committee (NEC)meeting held in Enugu on Tuesday, 22 January, 2019, to adopt the Atiku Abubakar/ Peter Obi ticket in the 2019 presidential election. Ime Obi there all their years of activism and politicking is why they presumptuously claim to represent their peoples, and by inference, their zones. It is true that they sometimes cleverly aggregate the feelings of their zones, and even emblematise them, but they have neither at any time subjected themselves to elections as a group nor called for a referendum both on their identity and claims as a group and their objectives, regardless of how those objectives change from time to time. Both Ohanaeze and Afenifere were formed by a group of individuals, administered according to the rules and regulations of the organisations, and always elected their leaders as organisations do, not as geopolitical zones. Their claims to representation is, therefore, suspect. While the Ohanaeze has modestly describe itself as a socio-cultural organisation, the more voluble faction of Afenifere has described itself as a socio-political organisation, sometimes completely omitting the cultural aspect of their founding. This column has graciously but gratuitously re-inserted the cultural aspect of the Afenifere founding. Why both Afenifere and Ohanaeze could not resist the temptation to significantly whittle down their interference in the politics of their two regions is hard to say. Their peoples are too sophisticated, too politically conscious, and too ideologically diverse to be herded into one association or one direction. The Igbo are too republican and too resistant to regimentation to be herded into one column; and the Yoruba are too liberal and even regicidal to be dictated to by one group or one man. Restricting themselves to their socio-cultural agenda would have been highly recommended and less controversial.

    But by coming out with its endorsement last Thursday, the Ohanaeze obviously failed to learn anything from the controversy generated by the Afenifere when they endorsed Alhaji Atiku on the grounds of his promise to champion restructuring. More, even if the Afenifere pigheadedly failed to learn any lesson from the fiasco that accompanied their endorsement of Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid during the 2014/2015 election cycle, Ohanaeze had enough example from the Southwest to make it more circumspect in dishing out endorsement to a party or politician when they have not so far been able to answer the question of who gave them the mandate to speak for their people.

    It is true that on the whole, and especially given the activism of both MASSOB and IPOB, the Southeast faces terrifying existential questions aggravated by the insensitivity of the Buhari presidency . It is also fairly accurate that Ohanaeze, IPOB and MASSOB have tended to address the same issues and campaigned for inclusive politics. Even much more, all three groups, each claiming to represent the Igbo stoutly and unequivocally, also direct their attention to the issue of restructuring. But despite the coterminousness of their goals, not to say the vigour of their campaigns, none of them has proved conclusively that they represent the Igbo. Or that the Igbo accept their representation.

    In the 2015 elections, the Igbo voted in one general direction, with only minor deviations. It is not clear how they will vote in 2019. But if the marginalisation to which they have been sentenced by the Buhari presidency should prove significant to skew their votes in favour of Alhaji Atiku, it will unlikely be due to the fact that Ohanaeze told them to vote for the former vice president. It is all but clear that the Southwest is facing its own decision crisis, wondering whether to endure for another four years in a classic display of enlightened self-interest, or to jump ship and embrace Alhaji Aiku in a spectacular embrace of unstated principles. Whichever way they vote, they won’t find making up their minds easy at all.

    Unlike the factionalised Afenifere, the Ohanaeze was long expected to endorse Alhaji Atiku. This is why so many people have remarked the courage of the Southeast elders to, as it were, put their money where their mouths are. It remains to be seen, however, just what value the endorsement will add to the Atiku campaign. If they are able to deliver the region almost wholesale to the former vice president, and more, inflict a crushing on President Buhari next month, the stock of Ohanaeze might rise astronomically. They had better hope the complete reverse is not the case. For a crushing defeat for their candidate, not to talk of a total defeat in the general election, would forebode not only a dismemberment of the socio-cultural organisation, but by the most optimistic consideration a complete denudation of their influence and identity.

  • Before referees are killed

    The Nigeria Premier League can best be described as a league of violence. Even then, must we wait until a referee is killed-God forbid- before making radical changes to rein in the agents of violence?

    When a referee is killed, we will constitute panels to find out how the referee was killed, who did, why and how. Innocent souls will be arrested while the roughnecks will be walking the streets, free as air, with instructions from their principals not be seen around any stadium. Of course, the noise over the dastardly act won’t last long; it will be buried with the victim whose family will be left to bear the burden of losing their loved one.

    Nothing seems to be new dawn because the same characters run the competition yearly. Those who run the domestic game have the penchant for signing MOUs. They enjoy listening to themselves. Those with dissenting views don’t know what it takes to run the game. But this writer won’t give up until the right personnel are put in place.

    The first thing that stadia where games are played need urgently are effective CCTVs which can’t destroyed to cover up malpractices. Besides, any stadium that is slated to host games must build special exit gates that will make it absolutely impossible to access the referees before, during and after matches. Any harm inflicted on match referees will translate to 10 points deduction from the offender’s total. Such a defaulting club should never be allowed to play in that venue for one year.

    With a live coverage of the domestic league, it will be easier to identify where a problem began. Those running the league met an existing television right sponsor and a title owner of the league. What happened to these two bodies which funded the operations of the organising body?

    Referees should be encouraged to sue clubs which send touts to beat them. They should get justice, no matter the cost. The referees’ body should secure lawyers for them and refuse to discontinue such cases, no matter whose ox is gored. This idea of only asking clubs to pay assaulted referees’ hospital bills is not enough to save referees from violence.

    For any venture to attract good funding, it should be packaged to look attractive. But with the spate of violence at venues, nobody will do sports business with the league until hoodlums are chased away from the stadia. The carnage at the stadium may dissuade spectators from watching games. Nobody will bring his family to the stadium only to scamper out of the place as violence breaks out.

    I don’t subscribe to the view that we should introduce soldiers at match venues. They are no battle fronts. Stewards and those associated with keeping the stadium peaceful should be made to do their jobs; negligent ones should be axed. Many jobless Nigerians will be happy to land this kind of job. What happened at the Sagamu Stadium last week Saturday after Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City held Remo Stars 1-1, where the match referees were beaten, would have been avoided or the culprits caught, if some of the aforementioned suggestions were in place. The centre referee’s head needed stitches to the cuts sustained from objects used on it.

    It isn’t enough for the LMC to reel out sanctions against defaulting clubs. The body should involve the police in punishing offenders since their actions are capable of causing a breach of public peace, which is an offence under the penal code.

    Part of the LMC’s sanctions reads: ‘’The club has been fined N1m each for failure to ensure restriction of access to unauthorised persons, encroachment immediately after the match, throwing of objects towards the field of play, failure to provide adequate security for match officials, conduct capable of bringing the league to disrepute and compensation to the match officials.

    ‘’Remo Stars has been ordered to ensure that ‘measures are immediately put in place to forestall future similar occurrence (including but not limited to an approved revised security plan, seminar/programme for supporters, issuance of seat-numbered tickets, etc.)”.

    ‘’The club has also been directed to within seven days ensure the apprehension and prosecution by the relevant security agencies of the persons identified as Akintan Yinka and ‘Zico’ who were reported to have led the assault on the Match Officials, as well as other persons who participated in the assault on Match Officials; upon failure of which a fine of N25,000.00 (Twenty Five Thousand Naira only) per day shall accrue, until such time as the culprits are apprehended and charged to court.’’

    We need to ask the LMC what sanctions were meted out to the Ogun State FA chieftains, especially the chairman and the General Secretary whose duty it is to ensure that games are played without problems? Are they not the ones to whom the referees and other match officials report when they arrive in the state? Is the LMC saying match officials aren’t the guests of the FAs?

    State governments, through the FAs, are the owners of the stadium. It is, therefore, their responsibility to effectively police the stadium before, during and after matches. The state FA officials should be in charge of taking the officials to and out of the stadium, with maximum protection by armed security personnel, given the spate of malicious attacks on innocent referees. It isn’t the job of fans to interpret the rules of the game; that is the referees’ duty, having been trained and retrained by  FIFA ‘s referees committee.

    The best way to restrict match officials from having contact with teams and their officials is for the State FA chairman to handle everything pertaining to their stay in the town. This way, we will know who to hold when they are attacked. It shouldn’t be the duty of the clubs to house, feed and transport referees to and from the stadia. referees’ movement shouldn’t be dictated by the clubs. Little wonder those who bring them to the stadium are not always around to rescue them when criminals pounce on them.

    Joy at last for Moses

    The clock was ticking faster than as expected by former Super Eagles pearl Victor Moses. He has the right to decide his career path. But what was apparent in Moses’ self-inflicted transfer saga since the window opened on January 3 was that he didn’t have a career manager, which is a sad commentary, given the level he was until he lost his place to Chelsea’s manager Sarri’s convulsive playing style which has brought weekly pains to many a Blues’ fan.

    Moses’ unfortunate fate in the transfer market is the story of most Nigerian players, who will rather handle their career than to employ experts. Career experts are connected with many clubs, such that if options 1,2 and even 3 fail, they can still fix the player a where he can play weekly – even if it means going there on loan till the end of the season, as in this instance.

    The beauty of having career manager is that the player can sack him, if he falters in his duties. Indeed, most professional players (other sports inclusive) have teams of experts across all spheres of human endeavour to ensure that their clients are not left stranded for any reason. They are the ones who pull certain stunts in players’ growth to boost players’ growth in the game, not because they will benefit from such packages but to underline the fact that they know their onions.

    Back to Victor Moses. The star who joined Fenerbahce FC of Turkey Wednesday night on a five months loan deal needs to be told that most big European clubs prefer national team players to those languishing on the bench weekly or, like in his case, permanently at home watching matches. Moses should know that age isn’t his friend anymore, hence he needs to relax his demands on clubs, irrespective of the fact that he will be joining them from a bigger club, Chelsea.

    When Moses announced his retirement from Nigeria’s matches to face Chelsea’s, not few a felt that he had shot himself in the foot and he was about making the same mistake with the offers he was getting from troubled teams seeking to reinforce their squads with his sublime skills.

    On Sunday, the news broke that Moses was demanding 200,000 Euros (approximately N81.2 million) from Turkish side Fenerbahce FC, if he succeeds in propelling the team out of the murky relegation waters. Besides, Moses asked the Turkey team to pay him some compensation, if it is relegated since such a fate would have tarnished his image, having not played for any relegated side since he hit Europe as a kid.

    Had Moses a manager, he would have known that players take pay cuts to exit a club, especially those who have a point to prove. Moses should  always take the best option on the table. He should quickly return to the Super Eagles and be seen as an international player, which is the best criterion to get juicy contracts abroad. A sterling performance for Nigeria in Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations raises his chances of a big contract thereafter. Now that Moses has joined Fenerbahce, he must not overrate himself, even if he becomes the club’s match winner. He should know that the deal with Fenerbahce is for five months. The bigger challenge will be how to exit Chelsea, which won’t be easy, except he impresses Fenerbahce to buyout his Chelsea contract. Moses could, however, be lucky if Chelsea sacks Maurisco Sarri, whose stay with the team appears to be in tatters, especially after lampooning his players publicly in a post-match session last Saturday.

  • NeoColonialism, militarisation, and democracy

    In  global  diplomacy this week France  and Italy, staunch  allies in the EU  and  NATO  were  at each  other’s throat  over migration, with the Italians blaming  French Neocolonialism  for  the death of Africans fleeing   through  the Mediterranean  into  Europe.  In   Nigeria,  former  President Olusegun Obasanjo  continued his assault  on the  reelection bid  of  President Muhammadu  Buhari. Just  as   the   government  continues  with the prosecution of the nation’s CJN  over  false  declaration  of assets   after  brushing aside  legal  irritants and constraints in the law courts  to derail  the governments’  resolve.  These  issues  have  broad historical, economic  and ethical    underpinnings  that we shall  examine in all ramifications today.

    As an African and Nigerian following  global  development  and history   diligently  I was very  pleased  with the spat  between Italy  and France over  African migrants . Indeed  the two Italian  Vice PMs,  Luigi   Di  Maio,     Matteo  Salvini   in the populist  coalition in power in Italy  have not given  French  President Emmanuel  Macron  any  breathing space over the issue of migration.  One of them Di  Maio said  if  France  had decolonized  as it should Africans will   be in Africa  and not be lying dead in the Mediterranean.  Which  is a real  home truth not only   for  Macron’s  France  but  also to Theresa  May’s    Brexit   ridden  Britain  which  colonized  Nigeria.  Indeed I intend  to    show  that British  decolonisation  ineptitude  and  shoddy  hand over of power to  Nigerians is as blamable  for Nigeria’s  present  political  woes.  Just  like the Italians  are blaming France for  Africans  fleeing poverty  and dying  on  the Mediterranean  sea.  Indeed the fact  that  the major  and persistent   critic of the re election of  our    president  was once a military   and civilian president,  just like the president he is  attacking for ineptitude,  shows  clearly  how militarised  our  democracy  has become  since Independence  in 1960 . Again,  that too   is   obvious   in  the way and manner   that  the British not  only  decolonized  poorly    al  but  also    entrenched,  deliberately   an insidious and precarious Neocolonialism  in  Nigeria .

    In  the  case of the  CJN trial  and the efforts  made  by the CJN’s  lawyers  to stop  the trial, it is clear  that  the accused  has  something to hide. Otherwise  why  can  he not  see  that he cannot be a judge  in his own case?  The  CJN cannot be a referee  and  a player  at  the same time as that is against  the principle of natural  justice.  Surely  a CJN  should   know  that  as well as what  to  do to  avoid further  opprobrium on this  matter. QED

    We  go  back  to the condemnation of France   by Italy   for the global  migration problem  especially  with regard to  Africa.  According  to reports Matteo  Salvini    leader  of the Italian   League  said’ In  Africa some take wealth  from the continent and the people  and France  is one of them ‘.  That  is  the truth  but the fact that it is being said by  a EU  leader  makes it very  important.  France  has protested by summoning the Italian Ambassador in Paris.  But  that is like fake  news  because  France is  guilty  as charged.  In  real  fact  the French  have  always  been  in charge of  IMF,  the bank  used   by the west in giving aid to developing nations  including   African  nations.  The  last  two MDs  of  the IMF  including the present  one, Christine  Legard  were from France   and  the IMF  is on record  as ruining  the governments of  Sfrican nations including  Nigeria  by giving loans  with crippling conditionalities  which  created  failed  states like Somalia .  France still  has troops in African  nations to make them  toe its line or risk their leaders  being removed.  It  happened  in Ivory  Coast recently  and Gbagbo  is still in ICC custody even  after  being  cleared  at  the trial   in the Hague    for lack  of evidence.  It    may  be  poor  consolation  and  a  belated  one too  that an  European  nation  is blaming another for  exploiting  African  nations under  colonialism  and neo  colonialism.  But   then   the truth  has prevailed and France  must  at  least  show some  compunction or  shame   instead  of  being hypocritical  about  its  shady  past in Africa.

    Britain  too  should  share  part  of the blame with France  for exploiting  Africans  and creating the poverty leading to  African   migration to Europe through the Mediterranean. In  this case I hold  Britain responsible  for  the lopsided  democracy  it left  Nigeria with and the census  figure  that environmental,  geographic  and demographic  indices.  Nigeria’s  political and parliamentary  seats   and representation have  been based  on these census  figures  and that  has created a dangerous  tension  that gave one part of the nation an  advantage over the other.  It  has led to many  military intervention led by Northerners and has ensured  that the North has had  more leaders  at  the center  than  the   south.

    In  addition globalisation has  also  brought in democratization hand in hand  with  marketization  and  privatization. All  of which  have led to immense increase in the gap  between the rich  and the poor resulting in poverty  and  dismal  growth for  Nigria.  The  military interventions  also  created a class of supper  rich former military leaders  who  were able to shed their  braided  hats  and boots   for  flowing gowns and  toga  to  take over  our  governments   and legislature as senators and MPs.  Corruption  and rigging  of elections  have  become our  political  culture.  That explains  why  the loudest  critic  of the system  of politics  we  run  is also  the   biggest  beneficiary  and is  never  satisfied  with  the status  quo.  Yet  in furtherance of  the   ruling clique  motto  of  espirit de  corps   or   dog   does  not eat   dog,  the mighty  critic  still  attended a meeting of former Heads of  States  and still  shook  hands  with the man he said  was  sick in mind  and spirit.  At  least  he could  have stayed  away  and avoided  contamination  with those  he has assigned to hell for leading the  nation astray and into  perdition  so eloquently  in his   last  two salvos  against  this same government  that hosted him in Abuja.  But  then  such  is the nature of  our democracy bequeathed  to us  by  the  British and spoon  fed  by them in supervising rigged  elections  with  international  observers whose governments  are always the first to congratulate  the successful riggers.  That  in a way  explains the glee I feel  at British embarrassment over Brexit.   A  situation where our former colonisers  do  not know  where   or   what    they  want  with  the EU over Brexit   could   be  very   embarrassing and   shameful   for  those  who  operate  the Mother of  Parliaments .  Certainly  with  the benefit of hindsight  the British  should  know in their Brexit  overdose  and inebriation ,  that those who  sow the wind of colonialism must  reap  its whirlwind.  Surely   the chicken  has come home to roost  for  British  colonialism. Just  like the Italians  told  the French  on the issue of African  migrants fleeing poverty  and dying  in the Mediterranean.  Once  again, long live the Federal  Republic of  Nigeria.

  • Osinbajo and legal approach to restructuring

    It is not dishonest for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be frank about the difficulties it is facing over the issue of restructuring Nigeria. Since it won the presidency in 2015, the party has become less eloquent about a matter it had fervently and almost lucidly espoused before that year’s general election. Indeed in the eyes of the electorate, there was nothing ambiguous about the party’s offering on restructuring. However, in the foreseeable future, judging from the presentations made by two of the party’s leading functionaries at a colloquium to mark Bisi Akande’s 80th birthday in Ibadan on Wednesday, the party will continue to wrestle with the subject and be humbled by its weakened ability to speak with clarity and resolution. Vice president Yemi Osinbajo asks those advocating restructuring to go to court to argue their case; and Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai, forever obsessed with questions of scope and magnitude, suggests that his party has the best recipe for restructuring, going by the report of a committee headed by him.

    Chief Akande, the celebrant, was a one-term governor of Osun State and first national chairman of the APC. He is today celebrated, as the Ibadan event exhibited to his honour, for his principles and commitment to democracy and good governance. It is ironical that the celebrant is neither as evasive about restructuring as Prof Osinbajo and Mallam el-Rufai, nor as disingenuous over how best to get the retuning done. Marking his birthday last year, Chief Akande had radically suggested that Nigeria should consider parliamentarianism as the better system of government, asserting that presidentialism was not working. He did not mince words, and he left no one in doubt what the country needed to do to remake itself in order to achieve stability and growth.

    But at the colloquium in Ibadan, perhaps wary of being accused of deliberately forsaking the struggle for restructuring simply because he had become a member of the government, Prof Osinbajo spoke of using the detached and safe instrument of litigation to restructure Nigeria. The idea seemed far-fetched, an idea no one had really thought or spoke of, not even he in all his previous discussions on the subject. It is not clear how the idea came to him, or why he thinks that litigation seems the plausible instrument to tackle a complex political issue as restructuring. But as he goes along, and as his contemplations morph from one arcanum to another, the country is likely to be regaled with more newfangled ideas about how to help the country regain its political and existential composure.

    Here is how the vice president rationalised the subject: “The government of Lagos State demonstrated that it is possible to have restructuring and devolution of power by process of litigation. As of 1999 when I first had encounter with the former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he made it clear to me that one of his objectives for us is to pursue fiscal federalism and devolution of power for our state. We spent a lot of time and resources to look into how we could do it. We knww that going through the National Assembly was just a waste of time. We then decided to use the process of litigation. As a matter of fact, we went to the Supreme Court on 12 different times on what we can describe as restructuring. The Federal Government at that time opposed every move we made…Fortunately for us, we were able to record successes. The achievements are gains of litigation. We can only get it through the court. As a region, if we are talking about restructuring, we should look at it from the point of view of the court.”

    But the devil is in the detail. The vice president forgot to tell his audience that the state went to court because the federal government attempted to arrest the process of local government creation, and even went ahead to withhold the state’s local government allocations. More, the vice president also forgot to indicate that while the state successfully litigated the aspect of withheld allocations, it has so far been unsuccessful in litigating and legitimising the creation of additional local governments. The truth is that, for instance, there can be no successful litigation of the creation of additional local governments. It is a conundrum that can only be resolved by restructuring, yes, not even the limited restructuring advocated by the el-Rufai committee.

    The vice president may be a professor of law, a qualification that makes litigation attractive to social conservatives and exponents of law like him, but he is not a politician in the classical sense, one who knows or feels instinctively the limits and possibilities of using law to resolve complex political issues that respond only to political panaceas. Nigeria is not alone in battling such dilemmas. In the United States, it is doubtful whether law, as in Roe V. Wade, rather than legislation through political debates was a better answer to the abortion conundrum that has assailed that country for decades. Prof Osinbajo is obviously too optimistic to think that litigation can help restructure the country. It cannot, even if its intractability can be overcome. The el-Rufai committee adumbrated a number of constitutional issues necessary for restructuring. But they are neither exhaustive nor attractive to the unyielding executive opposed to their implementation. It will take a willing and visionary president to embrace a report inspired by the party, not one inspired by the executive.

    Admittedly, there is no consensus on restructuring, with a backward-looking presidency fearing it might balkanise the country, and some sections of the country fearing it might put them at a disadvantage. Rather than see its possibilities, many opponents see its limitations. In the courts, should the matter unadvisedly get there, and assuming interested parties have the time and money to litigate, piecemeal restructuring would simply mummify in the cacophonous rage of various ethnic and other interest groups. No, litigating restructuring cannot work. It worked only partially for Lagos State. It can do no more. It is protracted and expensive, and the result doubtful and meagre. For a matter as complex as restructuring, the way to go is through political debates, consensus building, and then legislation, all the products of efforts driven by a visionary president.

    The APC never promised restructuring in its manifesto. It carefully worded its support only for power devolution. But even that has remained unattended to. After breaking that limited promise, the party has now engaged in various forms of political and ideological somersaults. If it is not punished at the next polls, it will be partly because despondent voters are unsure that the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), can be trusted to embrace restructuring at a level that is comprehensive and feasible, not simply an election gimmick. Luckily for Nigeria, crude oil, the resource that binds the country together, is fast becoming irrelevant to global economies. In less than a decade or two from now, the cost of drilling oil may well outweigh its benefits. When that time comes, Nigeria will then have to face squarely its existential question. But given the country’s internal contradictions that are maturing at a fast and alarming rate, it is even doubtful whether the country would not be compelled to face its existential question sooner than its retrograde economy makes it even more compelling.

  • The beasts are back … save our refs

    Domestic league watchers had something to cheer last weekend when premier league clubs hit the pitches to play the game that binds Nigerians together, irrespective of religion or tribe. Fans ignored the fact that the local league has no sponsor; they stormed the stadia to let off steam, after a seven-month hiatus.

    Everyone yearned for good games at match venues. Not many reckoned that any of the first week matches will result in any fracas, such as beating the match officials to pulp. It, therefore, came as a shocker when the media splashed stories of Jos fans beating the centre referee groggy for a game in which the home side, Plateau United, ended it on a barren note against visiting FC Ifeanyi Ubah from Anambra State last weekend. In fact, a journalist was fingered to be the ring leader in the mayhem, according to the referee.

    Most soccer faithful couldn’t understand why the fans went berserk on the first day of the season, with many games left. What would have happened to the centre referee had Plateau United lost at home? Unimaginable.

    Another league opener involving FC Ifeanyi Ubah ended in a sad tale for the centre referee two years ago. Purists pointed at the January 14, 2017 league opener between Kano Pillars and the Anambra-based side which ended in chaos, after the match arbiter disallowed a free-kick goal on grounds that the first 45 minutes had ended, with the bigwigs of the League Management Board present at the stadium.

    Sadly, according to these few, the offending club was given a slap on the wrist. Isn’t this why these unsportsmanlike conducts are prevalent at league venues? Had the organisers ensured that those punished served their terms out, we would have had fewer incidents.

    However, it is wrong for club owners to be involved in the running of the league as administrators, an act which makes some club chairmen dictate what should happen in the competition. Asking club owners to be part of the body running the competition amounts to being judges in their own matter. We have had incidents where club owners incited homes fans to cause mayhem and disappear when things get out of hand.

    Carnage won’t stop at match venues, if club chairmen don’t ensure that there is security before, during and after matches. It smacks of leadership failure, if match officials are beaten up and nobody is held responsible for such savagery. Where were those who brought them to the stadium when they were attacked? Couldn’t they rescue them from those beasts? Are they saying that those criminals, yes criminals, who pummelled the officials are spirits?

    Club chairmen should be arrested anytime match officials are beaten up. They should be held until they can produce the hoodlums, who must be prosecuted to deter others. Clubs should have known operatives assigned solely to ensure that nothing happens to the referees. Where they falter, they, along with the chairmen, should be held responsible. We shouldn’t wait until referees die from injuries sustained from criminals’ action  against them before taking tough actions.

    This writer, as a member of the defunct Interim League Management Board (ILMB), queried the idea of having 50 security operatives to work inside the stadium with over 10,000 spectators; they are inadequate. Officials at match venues should be special corps for that purpose, with the task of protecting the stadium, starting from about 500 metres from the gates.

    Anyone caught inciting fans over referees’ decisions should immediately be whisked away from the stadium by the police. To show some level of seriousness, it won’t be a bad idea if the security operatives storm the stadium with Black Maria to keep instigators of violence from the stands. If the fans know that they are being watched, they will behave well.

    Asking clubs to play behind closed doors is laughable, especially as nobody ensures that such sanctions are enforced. Stiffer punishments, such as banning offenders for a full season, should deter any erring club and its supporters.

    Equally unacceptable is the LMC’s decision to banish Plateau United to Ilorin for three matches? What is that? Is it an interim measure? Stiffer sanctions such as banishing offending clubs for the whole season, will send the message to others to be of good conduct. Long banishment implies that the offending clubs’ managements will be compelled to spend more since all their matches are away fixtures. It also means that they won’t be able to generate enough revenue from the gate since the fans in their ‘’strange’’ home may not be favourably disposed to watch their matches like their faithful will do.

    Besides, most of these operatives are natives of the area and supporters of the home clubs, who share some of the sentimental views that fuelled the referees’ battery, as in the Jos incident last week. It is good that the referee identified his assailant. The LMC should ensure he faces the wrath of the law. He must be fished out and punished. Isn’t it funny that such a beast has gone into hiding? A coward who should face the music.

    Indeed, the league managers should ensure that referees punished the previous season for poor officiating are not absorbed the following season. League followers have faulted the presence this season of certain referees, who were sanctioned last year. The LMC, in conjunction with the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) should plead with the referees to be fair to all the parties, but this can only be achieved if their safety before, during and after matches is guaranteed.

    The best form of security is the referee. But the referee must have the right environment to interpret the laws of the game appropriately. A situation where referees have to meander through a route where irate fans could easily descend on them is condemnable.

    Indeed, the stadium designs expose referees, players, and coaches to assaults by irate fans. Sadly, match commissioners who should insist on clearing fans within the inner perimeters of stadia look the other way.

    Police come in here. They shouldn’t wait until deaths are recorded at match venues before raising a unit to adequately secure match venues across the country.

    I’m not surprised that roughnecks have seized match venues, largely because most of the match commissioners are weak. They don’t have the character to assert their authority before, during and after matches. They are too friendly with club officials. They close their eyes to certain laxities in the security arrangement. Otherwise, how have these mayhems gone on without the hoodlums being caught inside the stadia?

    Perhaps, this is the time to ask the Inspector General of Police whose duty it is to ensure adequate security in any gathering. How come the police are disinterested in securing our match venues, knowing that football is an emotional game over which some criminals can take the laws into their hands?

    Dear Inspector General of Police, thugs, roughnecks and urchins storm the stadium with raised chests, warning that they are around and not scared to repeat the mayhem. This impunity won’t occur if security operatives whisk them away for punishment. Others will behave properly. The IGP should, as matter of urgency, ask his units in the states where matches are played to immediately storm these venues before a referee is killed simply because some fans are unhappy with a match rule. Teams which suffer from such unruly behaviour return home to await their hosts in the second leg game.

    Sadly, the league chiefs are poor students of history. Otherwise, venues that are notorious for violence ought to have been locked up or matches held there shown live on television. With matches shown live, it will be much easier to spot these criminals and their acolytes from replays after the violence.

    Such stadia should be locked for one year as the rules provide for. The club should be denied revenue from its home games – one of the consequences of being banned. A club that plays over 28 matches outside its home will definitely be better behaved after serving the ban. Such clubs’ managements must source for cash to travel, feed, accommodate their players and provide other logistics. The burden of such expenses would compel clubs owners to be orderly.

     

    Clap for Governor Obaseki

     

    Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki is truly his brother’s keeper. Obaseki played the big brother role on Tuesday in Benin City when he seized the opportunity of the Sports Minister Solomon Dalung’s inspection of facilities ahead of the 2020 National Sports Festival to settle the seeming ‘war’ between the Sports ministry and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) headed by Amaju Pinnick.

    Dalung and Pinnick enjoy a good relationship with the governor. It was appropriate for the governor to call his younger friends to a meeting in the interest of the game.

    Tuesday’s meeting shocked those who queued behind the two men to stoke the fire of rift. Now that the fire has been extinguished, it is important that Dalung and Pinnick keep to the agreement. Nigeria is bigger than Dalung and Pinnick. Each of them should complement the other.

    However, when one party feels that the other is fraudulent, it is important to call in the EFCC and the ICPC. The supervisory party should learn to trust the EFCC and ICPC officials to do their jobs, since investigations are painstakingly conducted.

    The minister does the industry no good in its quest to be self-financing when he repeatedly labels a party as being corrupt even before he is investigated. It is simply an abuse of office, aside the fact that it discourages investors from keying into the sports industry, which thrives elsewhere but Nigeria.

    Dalung, please sheathe your sword for the good of the game.

  • Democracy, checks and balances

    I had a very brief but interesting discussion recently with Nigerian veteran legal luminary  Alhaji  Femi  Okunnu  in which  I disagreed with his observation that the  Prime Minister in a Parliamentary democracy is more powerful than  the President in a presidential  system of government.  We  could not conclude the discussion   but events in the world at  large  this week  seem  to  focus on our points  of divergence in that discussion and that  is  what  I want  to dilate on today   as  that  really influenced the choice  of  today’s topic.  Let  me first  reel  out the events before I  treat  them  individually. The  firsts  is  the ding dong battle in the British Parliament   this week  that  bloodied  the nose of the British  PM Theresa May  but  failed  to deliver the ultimate  knock  out  blow to throw  her out of office  and out   of  power.  The second  is the arraignment  of  Nigeria’s  CJN   for  malpractices  on declaration of assets by the government in a move that is not only alarming but disturbing on the eve of the 2019  elections in which   the judiciary  headed by the CJN    is expected  to be the final  arbiter on  post  election petitions and grievances.

    The third  is the clever  strategy of US House  of  Representative Speaker Nancy  Pelosi  not  to  invite US President Donald Trump  to  the  State of the  Union Address    on the grounds  of security  arising from  the US President’s  action of closing down  government unless  and until  the House  of  Representatives   allows    him  to have funds  to build  a border  wall  against  Mexico  on security  grounds. Really    I  find the three  topics  very  appetizing  for  some good  analysis.

    We  go back  to the turbulent scene  this week on Brexit  at  the British Parliament.  The  first  vote on the PM Brexit  deal  as proposed was a crushing defeat  for the PM the worst  for any government in ages. But  it was a deal that was always like a still  born  baby or a casualty  brought in dead   for   the British PM and the margin of loss over 200 votes reflected  the dismal  prospects  for her deal.  She  was however  not the only  casualty. The second  was the Opposition leader Jeremy  Corbyn who  gloated over  the deal  defeat  and called for  a vote  of confidence  which  also  predictably  failed  for the  simple reason   that  MPs, both  for  or against  the deal,  would  rather  fall  on their swords  than  see Jeremy  Corbyn  emerge  as the British  PM  at  this point  in time, Brexit  or no Brexit. In  addition Corbyn   had underestimated   the fear of MPs   at  this point in time to go  back for  a renewal of their mandates from hostile Constituents pissed   off with politicians handling of  the last  referendum that gave birth to Brexit. Effectively  then MPs  on both sides of  the divide on the PM’s deal  buried the hatchet   and dealt  Corbyn’s No  Confidence  vote  another defeat albeit  with a much lower margin   than  the PM’s   deal  death.

    The  lesson  here to me is that  in a Parliamentary  democracy, MPs  run  the show to show  that  Parliament  is supreme   and  can  intimidate  both  the cabinet  and opposition to  submission if the need  arose as we saw   this  week.  That to me makes accountability and transparency more  readily and speedily  available in the open debate and votes   as  displayed at the British  Parliament  over Brexit  recently.

    We  go   next  to the tango  between two  arms of Nigeria’s presidential  system  of government, namely  the executive and the judiciary  over  the   arraignment  of the  CJN  at  the Code of  Conduct  Tribunal. On  the surface  this would look  as  a political ploy  by the government to silence or intimidate  the judiciary.  But  are  judicial  officers  above the law?  My  answer  is no  and as the law says, those who come to equity must  come with  clean hands. Anyway  the saying is  also  apt  and relevant  here  that Caesar’s  wife must  be  above reproach  and Caesar’s  wife  is  the arraigned CJN   whose  defence  largely  rests on ignorance  or timing of the law. Yet  as a legal  juggernaut he should   know   that ignorance of the law is no excuse,  especially  in the inner  recesses of our temple of justice where he presides.

    It  is pertinent  to recall  here   that the executive took on the  legislature when  the Senate President was arraigned before  the same tribunal  for  similar  charges connected with declaration of assets. The Senate  President was eventually  cleared at the Supreme  Court.  Was that a case of those in glass  houses throwing stones when  they should  not.? Anyway  the  senate  president  survived  the   ordeal  and lived  to fight another  day. It  is now  the turn  of the CJN to fend  for  himself with  his  well known  legal  erudition which  got him  to the pinnacle  of  his profession which  also  preaches very  firmly that nobody  is above the law.  This  trial  promises  to be the greatest  rumble in the jungle in our temple of  justice that  will  definitely keep  our political  system on tenterhooks  as we face the all important 2019 elections.  Nothing  demonstrates  the challenges  of  our presidential  system  and its delicate  balance of power  more  than  the trial  of  the CJN   at  the CCT. It    is like the law itself   is   on trial in  Nigeria    in  a bid to establish  the rule of law in our fledgling democracy. It   certainly  is a situation that  beggars   description in terms of ethics and morality  which  is the basis of the law  in any society, including  Nigeria.

    We  end  up  with  the Nancy  Pelosi strategy  to steal  the thunder of Donald Trump  over the State of  THE Union Address which  any   US  president  looks  forward to in delivering before  a Joint  Congress. Pelosi who  has purview in inviting the president has cheekily  suggested the president could do it from the White  House  because  staff  to provide security  for the  event  have not been paid. Which  is like Nancy  Pelosi  telling the American  President – Play  me foul –  on  security –  and I play  you  tricky, and that  is a quotation from the book Kidnapped  by R L Stevenson  that I read in secondary  school. In  plain  terms the House Speaker is telling the US President  that he does not have a monopoly of aggressive  and disruptive  political  actions in his quest  to  keep  his campaign promises  and that what is good  for the goose  can  be good for the gander. Which  is vintage political  tit  for  tat.  Once again  long live the Federal  Republic of  Nigeria.

  • Inexplicable negligence

    When he assumed office as Lagos State Commissioner of Police in 2017, Mr. Imohimi Edgal left no one in doubt of his determination to offer exemplary service and ensure adequate protection of lives and property in the Centre of Excellence. In an interaction with reporters soon after his appointment became effective, Imohimi Edgal said, “I told my officers and men that my passion for this assignment means that if I have to dine with the devil with a long spoon to ensure that Lagosians live in peace and happiness, I will do so. I intend to partner with everybody. I want to assure His Excellency that during my own watch, he will have no cause for complaint or concern”.

    Of course, many of his colleagues in the police force took his pledge with a pinch of salt. It was whispered that Edgal was appointed Commissioner of Police in Lagos State simply because he was a schoolmate and a very close friend of the governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode. Those who belonged to this school of thought argued that Edgal’s immediate predecessor in office, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, had performed with distinction and did not deserve to be shoved aside so peremptorily and unfairly.

    There were, however, those who contended that Edgal’s being a classmate and friend to the incumbent governor of Lagos State should not become an albatross on his career in the Nigeria Police Force. What matters most, they contended, was the capability and competence of the man to discharge the duties of the office effectively and efficiently. Even as Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations in Lagos State, Edgal had shown what stuff he was made of ever before his posting as Commissioner of Police in the state.

    For instance, he frontally confronted the menace of the violent Badoo cult group that had terrorized the people of Ikorodu for long kidnapping, killing and dehumanizing innocent citizens. To achieve this objective, he mobilized members of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Ikorodu local vigilante, Directorate of State Services (DSS), Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corp and traditionalists in a collaborative effort that has practically wiped out the cult and brought a halt to its activities. He is also acknowledged as playing a key role in the successful rescue  of the six students of Lagos Model College, Igbonla, Epe, who were kidnapped from the school premises on May, 25, 2017.

    There is no doubt that Mr. Imohimi Edgal came well prepared for the job both academically and also in terms of rich operational experience. In the academic sphere, he graduated as a student of Art from the University of Jos in 1984 and also obtained a Masters degree in Public and International Affairs from the University of Lagos in 2004. Apart from attending several courses organized by the Department for International Development (DFID) based in the UK, he also obtained a Certificate of National Security for Nigeria’s Defense Intelligence at the Centre of Strategic studies, Galilee International Management Institute, Israel, among others.

    As a police field officer, Mr. Edgal, who enlisted in the NPF as a cadet ASP on February 2, 1986,   has served as Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Shomolu, Ikeja and Surulere police Divisions in Lagos before his promotion first as Chief Superintendent of Police and later Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Area ‘A’ Command, Lagos. But it is exactly because of his professional experience and track record as well as academic attainments that the violence, which disrupted the Tuesday, January 8th, All Progressives Congress (APC)’s flag off campaign in Lagos by hoodlums on CP Edgal’s watch is inexcusable and indefensible.

    For one, the Lagos State police headquarters is a stone throw from the venue of the rally, which is the Sky Power Ground, Ikeja. Of course, the police authorities cannot claim they were unaware that an event of such magnitude would be holding right behind their headquarters. How could such a large number of thugs armed with knives, cutlasses, guns and charms gain access unchallenged into the venue of the rally? After all, election campaign rallies have taken place at that venue at election seasons in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. Not even when the PDP, in control at the centre expressed its determination to ‘conquer’ Lagos by all means and at all costs have we witnessed such horrendous acts of violence as took place at the APC flag off campaign for the governorship election. This kind of atrocity never happened under Imohimi Edgal’s predecessors in the last 20 years.

    Was Mr. Imohimi Edgal aware that the Chief Security Officer of the state, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, would be in attendance at the event? Was he aware that the APC governorship candidate, Mr Babajide Sanwo -Olu and his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, would be in attendance? If yes, what explained the tardiness in the security arrangements to guarantee the safety of lives and property? Is it true that the Commissioner of Police met with leaders of the feuding factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and extracted a promise from them to keep the peace at the rally? As a seasoned police officer that he is, should Edgal not have mobilized his men to provide massive and water tight security at the venue just in case the NURTW factions did not keep their word just as ultimately happened?

    This incident remains an indelible stain on Mr. Edgal’s hitherto spotless garment of exemplary professionalism. Unfortunately, all kinds of conspiracy theories are being read into his perceived lukewarm attitude to providing maximum security at the Sky Power Ground, venue of the APC flag off campaign rally. For instance, one theory has it that as a school mate and close friend of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Edgal was piqued at the governor’s loss in his party’s primaries and was thus part of a plot to cause mayhem at the rally in order to create the impression of the APC as a fractious and badly divided party going into the elections.

    Of course, there is no way to prove this kind of allegation but such insinuations and speculations are bound to arise when such a grave security lapse occurs on the watch of a CP who is otherwise highly experienced and competent. Mr. Edgal, by his inexplicable negligence has done great damage to the image of Governor Ambode, a man who has received high praise in diverse quarters for accepting the outcome of his party’s primaries with equanimity and philosophical calmness.

    Perhaps sensing that CP Edgal has become a divisive, partisan and contentious figure in the unfolding political scenario in Lagos State, the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, deployed him to police headquarters in Abuja and moved CP Kayode Egbetokun to Lagos as Acting Commissioner of Police.

    Just as happened when Mr. Edgal was posted to Lagos as Acting CP, there has been outcry in some quarters against Egbetokun’s initial appointment. Those who oppose his occupying the office of Commissioner of Police in Lagos State do not question Egbetokun’s academic brilliance or unstinted professional record over the years. Their grouse is that he was posted to serve as Chief Security Officer of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration about 20 years ago! They claim that his deployment to Lagos as CP is part of the plan to rig elections in favour of the APC in Lagos.  This is probably why the new Acting IGP, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, has directed that the status quo be maintained in the Lagos State police command.

    Egbetokun joined the NPF as a cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police on March 3, 1990. He has served with distinction in various capacities over the years including Chief Security Officer to the Lagos State governor from 1999-2005, Commissioner of Police Ordnance Disposal (EOD), Commissioner of Police Servicom, the Force Headquarters, Abuja, Deputy Commandant, Police College, Ikeja, Commandant, Police Training School, Ikeja, Area Commander, Gusau, Zamfara State, Area Commander, Osogbo, Osun Sttae, Commander, Rapid Response Squad, Lagos, Squadron Commander, Mopol 5, Benin, and Officer in charge, Anti-Fraud, Federal Capital Territory among others.

    Furthermore, Mr Egbetokun holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics, Postgraduate diploma in Computer Science, and an M.Sc in Engineering Analysis, all from the University of Lagos. He also obtained a post graduate diploma in Petroleum Economics from Delta State University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Lagos State University, Ojo. This is apart from a number of professional training courses he has attended at home and abroad. Should such a brilliant officer be denied his legitimate career progression just because he was posted by the police authorities to serve as a governor’s Chief Security Officer some 20 years ago?

    Egbetokun was not involved in elections in 2007, 2011 and 2015, yet the PDP was unable to ‘capture’ Lagos as its leaders had often threatened to do. Indeed, in the 2018 election in Osun, Egetokun was the DPO who oversaw police operations in Ikire and PDP won in that local government because of his principled commitment to free and fair elections.

    Can critical and substantial sections of the political class trust Imohimi Edgal to be a dispassionate professional in Lagos in the forthcoming election? I doubt it. Just as under his watch gun totting hoodlums and rival NURTW factions could have easy access into the venue of a political rally to kill, maim and cause mayhem, can Imohimi Edgal be trusted to maintain law and order and enforce the peace on election day? I doubt it. Edgal’s professionalism, objectivity and emotional detachment are badly tainted. He has become a liability rather an asset to the NPF in Lagos.