The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Lost chance and Nigeria’s disgraceful stadia

    My heart bled when the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) didn’t consider Nigeria as one of the likely hosts of the continent’s biggest soccer showpiece after taking the hosting rights from Cameroon. The citizenry would have gained a lot from hosting the fiesta -the hospitality business, aviation facilities and influx of foreign currencies to raise the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    Hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations would have been a commercial success for Nigeria, given President Muhammadu Buhari’s penchant for probity. The average income per capital per head of the Nigerian would have risen. The citizens’ purchasing power would have increased. The envisaged volume of cash and investment with hosting the Africa Cup of Nations for the Nigerian government would have been unquantifiable.

    The aggregate activities from the time the country is announced as host will reengineer our economy. Imagine the presence of 24 African countries’ teams and their teeming supporters here. Imagine the international focus on the country from January 9 till mid-July? Imagine the large movement of people into the country to do Reece jobs ahead of the competition? Imagine people coming to the country weeks before the competition to visit some of the places; this would have highlighted our bid and, in turn, triggered their fancies?

    Since 1980, we have hosted the Africa Cup of Nations twice, the last being the co-hosting of the competition with Ghana in 2000. We hosted the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1999, which Spain won by beating Japan 2-0. Nigeria is one of the biggest sporting nations, at least in Africa. Not to be considered for hosting such a competition by default says a lot about the calibre of people at the helm of sports here.

    It is a travesty that the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, which has hosted many major sporting events, is derelict. Sportscity hosted the All Africa Games in 1973. Recent heads of the sports ministry have paid lip service to revamping the facility. Politics has scuttled moves to acquire the SportsCity, especially by the Lagos State Government under Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, which sought to lease the place over a period. It is close to one year since the Lagos move, yet Sportscity remains an eyesore and a terrible citation on the way we allow edifices decay, as if we didn’t spend a fortune to build them.

    We hosted the All Africa Games in 2003, using the competition to modernise our sporting facilities, which are now rustic due to poor vision of our sports administrators. If we had a maintenance culture, CAF would have asked us to host the competition, given our passion for football, our players’ exploits and the population to fill all the stadia during matches.

    World Cup winning Golden Eaglets goalkeeper Emmanuel Babayaro told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the sports sector held huge potentialities for Nigerians, if given priority.

    “The talk about the diversification of our economy is usually about agriculture and crude oil all the time; meanwhile, the main sector that would have liberated this country long ago, that is a certainty, is sports, especially football. It is amazing that countries like the UK, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and the rest, depend to some extent on football, to develop their countries.

    “Over the past five years, the business of sports has become a ý£20 billion-a-year industry in the UK, supporting some 450,000 jobs; that means that it contributes more to their economy than agriculture and oil com bined. Nigeria is not doing same. We keep paying lip service to football, everything is being politicised.”

    The Buhari administration should in the next dispensation appoint a sports minister who will see the bigger picture of marketing Nigeria through the prism of sports and not one who will turn the industry into a battlefield for needless supremacy.

    A few Nigerians will feel that hosting the Africa Cup of Nations would be another avenue for enriching new ‘’thieves’’. This is debatable, since the choice of officials to drive the competition’s operations will be different. I will rather use the Russian example as the right way to look at things, irrespective of what happened in the past.

    Russia was rustic in sports development. The people were enmeshed in drug trouble, necessitating long term bans on those caught doping. The Mundial in 2018 gave the country the platform to right some of the wrongs of a shameful doping past, and the Russian government achieved that with the successful Mundial which changed the country’s narrative to outsiders.

    For Russia, hosting the Mundial without any serious crisis was a bonus. Getting Russians to key into the dynamics of hosting such a big sporting competition underscored why there weren’t too many untoward acts during the events held in 11 cities, every one of them having a historical story to tell about the polity. Russia can now boast of over 14 state-of-the-art stadia which should provide fresh initiatives that will improve their game. Russians can also dream of bigger things at the next Mundial in Qatar.

    Nigeria couldn’t be contacted by CAF because our facilities are in ruins. The Sports ministry would rather than rebuild them run after NFF chieftains for alleged graft as if EFCC and ICPC are not competent enough to handle that. The only good stadium is the Nest of Champions in Uyo, which also has problems with its pitch, raising the question why owners of this facility didn’t sign a maintenance agreement with the builders. The pitch of the late Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba is not good enough. Renovated Enyimba Stadium in Aba has astro-turf (forget about the jargon of its nearness to grass), it isn’t a grass turf.

    Had CAF considered Nigeria to bid for the 2019 AFCON hosting rights like it did to Egypt and South Africa, the Lagos State government could have hastened up the rebuilding of Onikan Stadium. Another missed chance for sports development in the country, not forgetting the ongoing works at the Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City. Did you ask after the Liberty Stadium Ibadan? Do our sports ministry people know that such a facility exists. What a country!

    It smacks of leadership failure on the part of the ministry to have hosted the National Sports Festival inside the Abuja National Stadium on tattered tartan tracks, with the pitch in a horrible condition. How much will it cost to fix the grass on the pitch? Don’t tell me N60 million, please.

    How would anyone ask for N60 million to plant grass on the Abuja National Stadium’s pitch? Isn’t this the reason the place is decaying? Do we not have horticulturists to do the job? Don’t they know that horticulturists nurture grass before planting? After all, grass is everywhere in the country. Must we always siphon cash for every job? Why would the ministry demand N60 million from NFF to plant grass, yet they are talking about probity? If the ministry don’t know what to do with the place, they should lease it out and see how it will be a befitting edifice under a proper management.

     2018 CAF Awards

     So much has been said about the exclusion of Nigerian stars in the 2018 CAF Awards. Most of the complaints have been sentimental. What these critics didn’t consider is that these awards have a lifespan of 12 months and our players have been making cameo appearances for their European clubs.

    For instance, it shouldn’t come as a surprise in 2020, if Mohammed Salah is adjudged the best Africa player. Salah’s performance so far for Liverpool and Egypt has been awesome. He has scored 13 goals for the Merseyside club in the very competitive Barclays English FA Cup. If Liverpool wins the EPL title this season, with Salah still scoring goals, it will be difficult not to hand him the award next year.

    I won’t blame those Nigerians with voting rights for not looking in our players’ direction. Such a privilege was given to them on trust and because they are legends of the game.

    With Egypt now hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, it will be expected that the Pharaohs will lift the diadem, since the North African side is a major football country. Pharaohs have not lost a game at home in a very long time. This makes them favourites to win the trophy. But football is a funny game. Can the Super Eagles seize the unpredictable nature of the game to lift the trophy by beating the Egyptians? Tall order but achievable.

    Our players must improve on their games. This idea of reporting late to their European clubs after Nigeria’s matches under the guise of visiting their sick relations smacks of indiscipline. The agreement struck between the clubs and NFF is to play our matches, not to visit their loved ones. The fact that NFF and the team’s coaches condone lateness to the Eagles’ camp doesn’t make it right. European clubs see football as a business. They won’t hesitate to drop badly behaved players, especially latecomers.

    For this season, Samuel Kalu, Samuel Chukwueze, Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi are our best bets to challenge Salah for the 2019 award, but beating the Egyptian amounts to trying to fetch water with a basket – impossible.

  • Saraki and the ghost of Southwest

    OVERWHELMED by the “O to ge”(Enough is Enough) wildfire, the embattled President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, flagged off the PDP campaign in the state by whipping up sentiments against APC. He said a vote for APC would be like excising Kwara  State from the North and integrating it with the Southwest.

    But he spoke without recourse to history because no one has affinity with the Southwest than him. Take a look at his antecedents: His paternal grandmother was from Iseyin in Oyo State; his mother hails from Owo in Ondo State; and his wife is from the famous royal Ojora family in Lagos State. He gave his daughter out to a Prince from Ijebuland in the Southwest with a prospect of being a princess.

    If he catches cold in Kwara State, he seeks relief in his posh mansion in Lagos, which is more of a second home to him. What affinity does Saraki Dynasty have with Abeokuta when it became an issue in the second and third republic? There is no record of the Senate President either fluent in Hausa or Fulfulde. He also does not have any mansion in Kaduna or anywhere else in the North. Let him prove his Northern character.

  • As governors coax president for endorsement

    IN the last few days of December, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari engaged in a triple political somersault in his desperate bid to get a second four-year term. Ogun State was the first experimental archetype of that somersault. It will by no means be the last, even if not as celebrated. The president will walk a tightrope, straddle all political divides as gingerly as he can manage, and attempt to fit his constantly changing political frame in the expanding partisan frameworks of his associates. By 2017, when his talisman was still flaming hot, his re-election was expected to be a shoo-in. By the middle of last year, that expectation had become a chimera, prompting him and his panicky aides to change into other gears. That gear shifting is, however, proving to be very complicated and problematic, as the Ogun State example is unhappily indicating.

    The Ogun governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has not made the president’s straddle any easier at all. Unable to get the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to adopt his preferred aspirant as standard-bearer in the coming governorship election, and with his every move thwarted openly and provocatively by the party hierarchs in Abuja, Mr Amosun, as intransigent as ever, has simply shifted to a different moral and ideological mode, randomly adopted another party for his supporters, and flaunted his rebellion in the puzzled and angry faces of his detractors. And using many unprintable cuss words to describe himself and his resoluteness, the governor swore to embarrass and undermine his party at the next governorship poll.

    As if his open revolt was not enough, Mr Amosun took one Yusuf Dantalle, the chairman of the party he adopted for his supporters, to the presidential villa and introduced him as a willing accomplice in the general and complicated effort to re-elect the president in February. Alhaji Dantalle, national chairman of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), took along to the villa a letter indicating that his party had adopted the president as their candidate. On the surface, that would be good news if that party commanded fairly substantial following. But other than the publicity Mr Amosun has accorded the APM, few knew of its existence or even of its potential. It was, therefore, both significant and puzzling that the president received Mr Amosun and Alhaji Dantalle, an action that indicated that the president had unwittingly associated with the rebellion against the APC in Ogun State.

    Mr Amosun is of course entitled to vehemently disagree with his party, and even fight them if conciliation proves impossible. But what is inexcusable is to suborn the president to join his revolt against a party ostensibly led by the same president. That is not only an insurrection against the party, it is an indication of the low esteem in which he holds the presidency, a further hint of the lack of depth in the highest office in the land. Alhaji Dantalle offered the president the APM’s letter of adoption, and the president happily received it despite knowing the strange party’s antecedents and its role in accentuating the ongoing revolt in Ogun State. The anger in Ogun was obviously too fierce to allow for any second thought. But had there been some reflection in Aso Villa, the temperamental Mr Amosun could have been prevailed upon to let the APM chairman go to the villa unaccompanied or at least with his party chiefs.

    As if the implications of the Amosun-Dantalle visit had just dawned on the APC as a whole, party hierarchs in Abuja orchestrated, four days later, the visit of the Ogun APC governorship candidate, Dapo Abiodun, to the president, hard on the heels of the APM chairman’s endorsement visit of December 24, 2018. If the president obliged Mr Amosun and the APM by receiving them and indirectly associating with their rebellion against the APC, party leaders reasoned he was even more obligated to receive the state APC candidate. The president did just that when he welcomed Mr Abiodun in company with a party leader, Olusegun Osoba. If these shuffles were the last moves on the disgraceful manoeuvres from Ogun State, analysts could be persuaded to leave bad enough alone.

    But dissatisfied that President Buhari received the APC candidate and even raised his hand to signify that he was the authentic candidate perhaps deserving of support and victory, an incensed Mr Amosun plotted another visit to Aso Villa, and had his way on January 6, 2019. This time, the Ogun governor was more daring, taking the APM governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, to the president. How both Mr Amosun and President Buhari rationalised welcoming the candidate of a rival party to the APC is hard to fathom. But no one seemed to care. Mr Amosun proved by his incessant visits how close he was to the seat of power, and how ready he was to drain that goodwill to its bitterest dregs. Mindful of the wary glances everyone was throwing at the president over what they regard as his unprincipled approach to politics, his spokesman, Garba Shehu, offered a disingenuous rationalisation of the APM candidate’s visit. Said he: “Following repeated media enquiries on the matter, the Presidency wishes to state in clear and unmistakable terms that as a party leader and a candidate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in the coming elections, President Muhammadu Buhari will campaign for the party and all its candidates. This, however, does not mean that he, as the nation’s leader, will decline courtesy calls or offers of support from citizens, including candidates flying the flags of other parties. So please let there be no confusion about this. President Buhari is the APC.”

    It is not clear how many people are persuaded by the president’s unending vacillations. Mr Amosun’s intransigence is well known, and his politics not quite as well-regarded as he might hope. But surely the president could not hope that in matters of principles and his party’s existential struggles he could run with the hare and hunt with the hound, and the public would feel smug about it. Mallam Shehu’s rationalisation is inadequate to explain the president’s hemming and hawing. What is more, a few days later in January, perhaps sensing that Mr Amosun might still be livid over how he, the president, raised the hand of Mr Abiodun during the latter’s visit to Aso Vila, the Ogun governor was invited to join the president on his return flight from a campaign rally in Akwa Ibom. No one knew what they discussed on the trip, nor should anyone really care now that they know the president is chronically unable to make up his mind.

    Many analysts have suggested that the president needed to hem and haw in order to placate the variegated political interests around him, and hopefully retain their support in his crucial but difficult re-election race. This argument is logical, for the president is going to extraordinary lengths in being everything to everybody. But the Ogun conundrum was the perfect litmus test to gauge his convictions and ascertain his principles. He was surprisingly unable to comprehend that his choice in the matter, between expediency and principles, will indicate a window into his worldview and define both his person and his presidency in many poignant ways. There is little anyone can say to convince the president that he ought to understand that as the leader of the APC, he was obligated to take a hostile view of rebellion of any kind against his party, regardless of how accommodating he is as a person, or how friendly he is to the rebels.

    Sadly, for a long time, the president has simply not fully reconciled himself to being regarded as the leader of the party. No amount of rebellion will enable him see himself as the emblem of the party, the chief custodian of its values and principles, and the main projector of its strengths and weaknesses. These roles are obviously too deep for him and his aides to comprehend. The president will, therefore, straddle when the need arises, waffle when he can’t make up his mind as has become his custom, and give a part of himself to every political cannibal Nigeria has managed in nearly six decades to spawn so prolifically but so disagreeably.

  • Pragmatism, security and politics

    Our president gave a no holds barred interview on security and the irrelevance of state of origin in the appointment of service chiefs this week that showed his huge experience as a former military general but is very likely to create serious political controversy on constitutionalism. The president bluntly stated that loyalty not state of origin is the crucial issue in the appointment of service chiefs and he said this despite the fact 14  out  of the nation’s 17  security chiefs appointed by him are headed by Northerners. He admitted there is a quota system  in the constitution  but he said – ‘if you are a field operative you have to be   very careful especially in the military  where  I served for 20  years. ‘That  on the surface may  sound illegal  by the strictures of the Nigerian  constitution  but  that is what  is called  political  pragmatism or reality.  Which  simply means that security   in stark   terms  transcends quota  system and state  of  origin for  the   naughty  reason  that life  has no duplicate  and second chance  is a rarity in the volatile world   of  state  security  and political stability.  Legal  purists  may  be scratching their head in dismay or disbelief on the issue but  that is what we have to ponder  over to day.

    We  do  this analysis today  with a form  of comparative politics on issues from Nigeria’s presidential  campaign, the shut  down  of government in the US   over  the building of a wall  across  the border with Mexico  and the election of a law  and order candidate in Brazil  who  has just  been sworn  into  office   and who  valued security more  than human rights and won on that platform.

    In  Nigeria, the de facto Chairman  of the APC Presidential Reelection  Campaign Jagaba Bolaji  Ahmed Tinubu reportedly said that the 2019 presidential election boiled down to the character  of the two presidential  candidates   which  he said is quite  different. With  Buhari, he said if you left him in a room with a naira you  will  find your  naira intact on your return. According to Jagaban,’ with  Atiku, things are  more nuanced. This shows he has no vision for the nation   except the naked pursuit of power  for the naked  use  of that power.’  Which  simply  means that Atiku is not  honest  and should not  be trusted  with power.  This too  vintage  is political  pragmatism  stemming from politics    and    electioneering.  But  it   has its    important   implication  which  is that a crooked  person should  not  be trusted with power   and should not  be voted  for in any political  competition for power as in our 2019 presidential  election.  Of  course  I expect  the   PDP  to  counter this shrewd observation of the Jagaba but that  will  be difficult in   this   Nigeria  where  their  candidate is a veteran politician and a former Vice President for two  terms under a President   who   has,  on    available   records  in   published  works,  tarnished   the  PDP  presidential   candidate’s    reputation and  credibility  as his  Vice  President before  endorsing him  for the 2019 presidential  election.

    What  Jagaba  has done to  the PDP  candidate  and his credibility  is similar  to what  Donald  Trump  has done to CNN and other  anti-Trump  media like New  York Times by  calling them  fake news.   The  CNN   has been  involved  in a fight  to finish  with the American  president on that characterization and I expect   the  PDP  to  be looking   for similar  ammunition to  respond  to  the atomic  bomb  that the Jagaba  has detonated  on the character of their presidential  candidate.

    In   the  US, the American  President  Donald  Trump   has turned an  election promise  to protect America’s  border with Mexico over drugs  and crime into  a security  emergency  issue. He  unusually  addressed  the American  people  on  TV  to  say that the new  majority  the Democrats have in the Mid Term  elections in November 2018  is trying  to frustrate his effort to  protect America’s  borders  as promised  since the new Speaker  Nancy   Pelosi  bluntly said   he cannot build the wall.  But  Trump  is more pragmatic than Pelosi  on the issue in that he is ready to make a deal or a barter on priorities  with  the Democrats  to  build the wall. His threat  to use emergency  powers  cannot be taken lightly  especially when he turns the issue into  a security  matter  to protect Americas  borders   and  American lives,   which  is part of his oath  of  office   and   responsibility as the  President of the US.  So  in refusing  to open  government without funding for his wall  and turning the issue into an emergency security  situation,  Trump  may  be turning nasty  but he is still  a good example of credibility   and   pragmatism  in terms of fulfilling election  promises. It  is up to the Democrats to  make the best of a bad  situation and make a deal or face a credibility  crisis that they  do  not really know what they  want.  Again  the challenge  is in trying to match  pragmatism   with  election  promises  and  mandates   and   with  some  icing   of  flexibility and reality. In  my view  the ball is in the court  of the Democrats in opening up  the government  closed in seeming blackmail  by the US President Trump  for now.

    We  end up with Brazil, the world’s fourth  largest  democracy  which in October 2018  elected   a Trump like president in Jair Bolsonaro who  is against most things that liberal  governments like that of the Obama presidency promoted and championed like gay  rights and sexual equality. Bolsonaro won against  all  odds   while    the most  popular socialist  president in Brazil’s  history   Lula da Silva  was in jail   for corruption and could not  even contest  the  presidential election because of his jail term  and his surrogate   was well  beaten   by  new comer  and controversial  Bolsonaro. This was in a Brazil  that   the jailed   Lula  at the height of  his popularity brought both  the Olympics Games  and the  FIFA  World  Cup   given  the well  known  love of  Brazilians for  good  football  and samba.  But  Brazilians took  to the streets at  both events to protest against  both the looting of Brazilian sports administrators  and politicians and the  end  product was the jailing of Lula and the impeachment of his successor. So  in the end it is not only leaders  like Buhari   on  quota  system  and  security, or  Tinubu on integrity and  election  or Trump  on border  walls  and security, who  can  be pragmatic   on crucial   issues within the rule of  law.  Electorates  too  can  be quite  pragmatic  like they  did  in Brazil  where  they  picked  a president,   Jair    Bolsonaro, sworn in recently who  longed  and  campaigned for the law  and order of military rule to contain corruption  and violence  rampant  in Brazil’s  tortured  democracy  and  won   the election  against   all odds.  Once again  long  live,  the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Afenifere: Back to Awo

    A highly perceptive columnist with this newspaper, last Sunday, reflected critically and clinically on the three contending strands or tendencies within the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, the dialectics of their relationship and their respective stances towards this year’s general elections. It is an important issue, which we will focus on in this space this week.

    The Chief Reuben Fasoranti-led Afenifere has unapologetically and unequivocally declared its support for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, largely on account of the latter’s promise to undertake the restructuring of the country within his first six months in office. On its part, the Pa Ayo Fasanmi-led tendency within Afenifere is obviously inclined towards the reelection of President Muhammadu Buhari even though it has been rather tentative and less vociferous in asserting its position. I am unaware that Honourable Wale Oshun’s Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has expressed an opinion on the matter publicly.

    Incidentally, all three Afenifere tendencies trace their organizational, ideological and philosophical lineage to the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the first Premier of Western Nigeria in the first republic. This column has no cause to doubt the Awoist credentials of any of the three groups or their commitment to the best interest of Yoruba land. The difference between them has to do more with personality conflicts and different perceptions of political strategy rather than fundamental divergences of ideology or philosophy.

    However, is there really any concrete historical, organizational link between Awolowo and Afenifere as we know it today as represented by any of its current tendencies? What really are the historical roots of Afenifere? In his meticulously researched as well as lucidly and thrillingly narrated book, ‘The Kiss of Death: Afenifere and the Infidels’, Honourable Wale Oshun offers valuable insights into these questions. On pages 26 and 27 of the book, the author gives an account of a historic encounter between Chief Ayo Adebanjo and the late Chief Bola Ige as regards the origin of Afenifere at a reconciliatory meeting of the body in Ijebu Igbo on March 26, 2000. Chief Ige claimed on that occasion “that he founded Afenifere in 1994 in his Ibadan home, and reeled out names of persons who were with him from the start”.

    Chief Ayo Adebanjo, by Honourable Oshun’s account, countered that “Afenifere came into being in 1954” and that “Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye coined the word “Afenifere” at the meeting of the Action Group leaders who wanted an easy sell to their non-literate Yoruba followers”. In chapter three of the book, Honourable Oshun offers his own position when he submits that “I am prepared to postulate that until January 15, 1966, when the first military coup occurred and swept away all the political parties, Afenifere was both an organization and a slogan…I am prepared to contend that any time Action Group as an organization was mentioned, it was “Afenifere” for the non-literate Yoruba for whom it was coined”.

    It is difficult to fault Honourable Oshun’s position that Afenifere existed as a slogan to simply explicate the Action Group motto of ‘life more abundant’ for the benefit of non English speaking Yoruba members prior to January 15, 1966. But I find it difficult to support the contention that Afenifere had any concrete organizational existence before the Cicero of Esa Oke founded an association named Afenifere at his Ibadan home in 1994. Since politics was banned at the time, Bola Ige obviously gave concrete organizational expression to the slogan, “Afenifere” in 1994 to mobilize the Yoruba in the struggle against the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chef MKO Abiola.

    In the Second Republic, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was the lineal organizational descendant of the Action Group of the first republic. But UPN was known in Yoruba land as “Egbe Imole” and not “Afenifere”. “Egbe Imole”, literarily means the party of light, which was derived from UPN’S symbol of a flaming torch. Thus, Afenifere existed neither as a slogan nor as an organization in the second republic. And neither in the first nor in the second republic was Awolowo ever a member of any concrete organizational structure known as Afenifere.

    Awolowo was never named leader of Afenifere as mistakenly believed in many quarters. Rather, as Chief Bola Ige narrates in his book, ‘People, Politics and Politicians of Nigeria’, Awolowo was unanimously chosen as ‘Leader of the Yoruba’ at a meeting of 100 notable Yoruba leaders from all political and ideological shades convened in Ibadan by the then military governor of the Western State, General Adeyinka Adebayo. Leadership of Afenifere is not synonymous with leadership of the Yoruba.

    It is instructive that with the exit of the military in 1999, Chief Bola Ige’s revived Afenifere then led by the late Pa Abraham Adesanya could not participate organizationally in the politics of this dispensation. Rather, it founded the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) as its political arm to contest for political positions and fight for political power. The stresses and contradictions arising from the failure to distinguish between AD’s role as a political party and that of Afenifere as a socio-cultural group not only weakened the latter, it led to the disintegration of the former.

    But Awo with characteristic prescience had foreseen this possibility as early as the 1940s. In 1945, Awolowo had spearheaded the formation of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in London as a socio-cultural group with the aim of forging unity among the Yoruba whom he described at the time as “a highly progressive but badly disunited group who paid lip-service to a spiritual union and affinity to a common ancestor – Oduduwa”. However, with the birth of the Action Group as a political party on the 21st of March, 1951, Awolowo made a conscious decision to keep the new party organizationally distinct from the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, which was an essentially cultural association.

    In his autobiography published in 1960, Awolowo writes about the tension that initially existed between the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and the Action Group. In his words, “About May 1950, the Egbe feared that the Action Group when fully launched might become its rival and might even eclipse it. The Egbe, therefore, decided to enter into politics and to have its own political wing. It called on those of its members who were organizing the Action Group to abandon it and join the Egbe’s political wing…I was quite prepared to have the Action Group disbanded, leaving the Egbe free to start its political wing”.

    But at the end of the day, Awo writes, “The view was firmly held that it would be dangerous and contrary to its declared ideals for the Egbe to engage in party politics. Accordingly, a committee was appointed to meet the Central Executive Committee of the Egbe to argue the matter out and allay the fears of the Egbe. In the result, the Egbe reversed its former decision and agreed to remain a cultural organization, giving itself freedom of action to back any political party whose policy and programme appealed to it in the Regional elections”.

    Awolowo would no doubt have had serious reservations about any socio-cultural group claiming the proprietary right to take political positions on behalf of the Yoruba without being given any electoral mandate to do so. He would have been even more uncomfortable with any group claiming political or moral superiority to other groups in Yoruba land simply because they claim association with his name or political principles. This is obvious from the message he sent from prison to the Western Regional Conference of the Action Group held at Ibadan on 6th July, 1963, and published in his collection of speeches, ‘Voice of Reason’.

    Permit me to quote him at length: “Within the past few days, a good deal of words and ink has been expended in propagating the unity of the Yoruba, as if the Yoruba are disunited. Time was when there was real disunity among the Yoruba. But since the birth of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in London in 1945, this objective has been relentlessly pursued and accomplished. Those who, however, believe in the unity of the Yoruba, of the Igbo, of the Hausa, etc, must never rest on their oars. But the line has been drawn, and must be kept indelible, between a Cultural Organization like the Ibo State Union, Ibibio State Union, Egbe Omo Oduduwa etc, on the one hand, and political parties like the Action Group and the NCNC on the other”.

    And to demonstrate that he did not consider his political tendency superior to others in Yoruba land, Awolowo told the AG delegates unequivocally that “It is erroneous to equate the Action Group of Nigeria with the Yoruba people, or to regard our party as being a Yoruba organization. Furthermore, whilst the Action Group does not participate in the Federal Government since January 1960, some outstanding Yorubas have been in the Council of Ministers since the last Federal elections. There are others in the NPC. These persons are as loyal to the cause of the Yoruba people as those of us in the Action Group”.

    All the tendencies within Afenifere should go back to Awo. As a cultural organization, no strain of Afenifere should take partisan political positions purportedly on behalf of the Yoruba. They have no mandate do so. They have no structure to meaningfully mobilize politically behind any candidate or party. As a group, let Afenifere outline for the people its vision of the political programme it considers best for the Yoruba at best as a guide or advisory. Let the choice of party or candidate be left to the best discretion of the individual.

  • Election campaigns, issues and personalities

    2019  is  an election year in Nigeria  and lest I forget, I wish  my numerous readers a happy new year, just  as  I proceed to treat the topic of the day. Naturally  and ideologically elections breathe fresh  air into any political  system in that it is a process   of   assessment  and reappraisal of leadership with a view  to moving forward on   beneficial  programmes or reviewing  strategies  with a view  to   making  necessary  reforms or adjustments. Elections when  free  and fair  reward   politicians for good  performance and punish  them for poor  performance  in terms of victory  or  failure  at such  elections.  That  is why expectations are high in the electorate at  election time. The  parties out of power hope to  get  it back at  election time. While the party in power does  all  it can  to retain that power.  Such  is the situation in Nigeria in  2019  and that  is what we want  to take  a  look  at  for  now.

    Neverthless it    is necessary  to point out that elections should  take place in secure environments  and not all  parts of Nigeria can claim to be in that mold or   condition   for  now. The North  East  is not a safe place as  Boko  Haram  has  waxed  stronger  and  that is  obvious in two  developments this week. The  Chief of Army Staff  was quoted as saying that Boko  Haram  is not better  armed   than   the Nigerian  Army   as alleged in  some quarters.  The  second  was the news of  the  visit  of the Minister  of  Defence  to  the North  East  and  Chad where  he  was briefed   by  commanders about the dire  situation on the ground,  which he promised to convey to the Commander In Chief  who is the Nigerian President.  Again  there is the volatile   and recurring  issue of the Herdsmen  and Farmers clashes over cattle  grazing and the destruction of farmlands  in many parts of the nation. These  are burning security issues  that need containment especially  in an election year like this 2019. If  you  add  to  this the potentially explosive  issue of a threatened strike any  time soon  on the   thirty   thousand   naira   minimum   wage   by the leadership of the Nigerian Labour  Congress, you  will  see  how    maximally stressed  our political  system  will  be in  taking on  the  grim issues  of   security  and industrial  unrest,   in  an  election year like 2019.

    Today   I will  use  two states namely Lagos  and Ogun, to illustrate that personalities  and issues will play a bigger part in the 2019  elections at both the guber  and presidential levels. I  will also  show  that    in terms of    political  participation   and   mobilization, no state in Nigeria is an island on its own. And that just as the Americans are lamenting that the Russians are hacking their elections, inter  state hacking and  intervention    have become a way  of life in Nigerian politics  too. Indeed   I will  use my own  personal  experience  to illustrate some of these  observations.

    In  Lagos  state   I have seen  the lovely  campaign  slogan on l freedom ‘ for APC  governorship  candidate Jide Sanwoolu, saying that –‘ I  am a   proud  and free Lagosian, I    choose  Sawoolu’.  That  sounds strange to me because I  never  knew that  any  Lagosians in these    modern   era   are in bondage. That looked like   protesting S Africans  under apartheid  or like Herbert  Macaulay, taking on the    colonialists in pre Independence   Lagos, Nigeria.  Surely  the APC candidate  has more going for him  to sell  his candidacy  without invoking  a siege or distress  mentality where there is none.  Lagosians   are a vibrant   and  educated  lot  who  know their   rights   as  well  as where their   bread  is buttered.  APC  is popular in Lagos state  and should  not  be reactive in its  campaign  posturing or   else it would  be doing the dirty  job  of the opposition by making a mountain out of a mole hill.

    In  Ogun  State  the  incumbent  governor  has  pledged  to  campaign  for the reelection of the APC presidential  candidate President  Muhammadu  Buhari  but  has asked  his supporters  not  to support the APC official governorship  candidate. The  governor  has asked  his supporters  in a state  in which  observers  say  he  calls  the shots  effectively   to support  a candidate  from another   party. According to  reports, the governor’s candidate   in another   party  laid claim to the achievements  of the incumbent  governor  when  he visited  the State  Council of Obas  recently  where  the traditional  rulers  pledged their  support  to the Governor’s  choice.  Which  makes the APC like a house divided against  itself in Ogun  State. Yet  I  see  some order in this seeming polarization and division in the party in power in the state, especially with  regard  to the firmness in the support  for  the APC in the presidential  election.  What  would  have looked like a daunting and unique  political  contest   has  however  been diminished  by the behavior of the APC  official governorship  candidate on Channels TV recently. He  just  could not defend  his educational  credentials in a credible  manner. He  even hesitantly  said he could not discuss what  he discussed with the President on TV. His  performance on that TV appearance  has   wounded   his chances  in a state like Ogun, where  educational  integrity is revered  and where  the  Federal   Minister of Finance  also  from the state  recently  resigned over doubtful  qualification  and   eligibility  credentials.

    Let  me end with  the  issue of interference  from Lagos  that the incumbent  APC governor alleged  over the last APC  primaries in Ogun  State. I  tell  the governor  candidly  that no state  in Nigeria exists in isolation and Ogun  state is not an   exception. A  leading woman  politician once accused the Vice President, an APC  member from Ogun State,  of being responsible  for imposing a candidate  from Lagos as APC governoship candidate in Ogun State. Even  the Jagaban  and former  Governor of the State Segun Osoba  have  been similarly  accused. Today  I hold  brief  for them and clear them of such  mischievous insinuations with  my own citizenship. I am a citizen of Nigeria born and raised in Lagos educationally  and professionally.  Just   like   our Professor  VP. I  am  also a  citizen  of Ogun state  because my  parents are  from Ogun State  and  I dutifully  and truthfully  fill in Ogun  state  as my state of origin when  filling any form on any issue  or transaction, as required. Does  that make me less of a citizen  of Ogun  State? Definitely  not   and  the good governor  of Ogun state should  not lose  any sleep  over that. Or  look over his shoulders  because  his citizens born in Lagos are around. In  fact  they    have  always   surrounded   him very massively  and most  helpfully  in his   two – term    successful  administration. Once again, long live  the  Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Good news from Audu Ogbeh

    THE highly respected Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, on Wednesday made a stunning revelation that the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) are broke. He told a national daily that “the parties are hopelessly broke. This will be the quietest elections in our history, and it may help turn attention to issues, not cash, because we cannot go and buy people. There is no cash, both APC and PDP are broke, and the president is in no hurry to go and look for money for anything. So, it is ‘Change’. We hope it would last long so that in future people have something to talk about, not that they have a big war chest to bribe INEC and win by all means.”

    If there is any Nigerian who should know better, it is Ogbeh who was a minister in the Second Republic (1983) during the reign of the defunct National Party of Nigeria(NPN). He was also a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) before he was removed. Both NPN and PDP came from the same spendthrift family. Remember the N23.29bn allegedly blown on poll bribery during the 2015 general elections alone by PDP.

  • 53 suitcases haunt Atiku in Kebbi

    THE anger against the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in Kebbi State knows no bound for despising the 18th Emir of Gwandu, Alh. Haruna Rasheed, over the controversial 53 suitcases said to have been brought into the country during the tenure of Muhammadu Buhari as a military head of state. The suitcases,  flown into the country  when there was a change in national currency,  were reportedly cleared by his Aide-De-Camp (ADC),  Major Mustapha Jokolo, who was a son to the emir.

    But Atiku recently stoked the fire  in a statement issued by his spokesman, Paul Ibe. He said: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by President Muhammadu Buhari accusing the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Atiku Abubakar, of planning to smuggle in looted funds into the country just before the February 2019 elections. This new accusation, like their previous allegations, is another infantile outburst that tells more about the accuser than Atiku Abubakar. For the avoidance of doubt, history shows that rather than smuggle in looted cash, Waziri Atiku Abubakar has a record of preventing looted funds from being smuggled into Nigeria. In 1984, it was Atiku Abubakar, as head of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Command of the Nigerian Customs and Excise Department, that stopped the ADC of the then Military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, from smuggling in 53 suitcases of looted money into the country.”

    The late emir, in the eyes of his subjects, ruled Gwandu Emirate with impeccable records for 42 years, but Atiku poured tar on the deceased as if he committed a sacrilege.  Sources tell Sentry that many emirs in the North and most indigenes of Kebbi State were miffed by the fact that Alhaji Atiku ignored a court pronouncement to play politics with the 53 suitcases and cast aspersions on the late traditional ruler, who was the only indigenous president of the Northern House of Chiefs and a former acting governor of the defunct Northern Region.

    Emir Mustapha Jokolo, who was then the  ADC to Buhari, had sued Africa Independent Television (AIT) over the documentary, “The Real Buhari”,  on the  same 53 suitcases and won the libel matter.  Candidate Atiku, it was thought, ought to have taken notice of the judicial pronouncement, but failed to do that. It is feared that Candidate Atiku, on account of the controversial statement, may have  lost the sympathy of many voters in the state. Alhaji Jokolo was more forthcoming when he sarcastically suggested: “All said and done, Atiku should not lose hope of being the President in 2023.” But what of 2019?

  • Aisha Buhari: blood thicker than water

    THE First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, on New Year ‘s Eve stunned the opposition and proved critics wrong when she raised a 700-member campaign team to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid. The development dispelled rumours of a strain in the relationship between the First Lady and her husband over the 2019 poll. A source in the presidency said the First Lady has never said she won’t support the second term aspiration of the President.

    The source said although she has always criticized the administration of her husband, she believes President Buhari deserves a second term in office. He said: “There is nothing like a change of mind against the second term  bid of the President. She is fully in support of her husband’s re-election.  It is untrue, she has never said that the President should not take a shot at the presidency again. In fact, when she went through the list of members of the Presidential Campaign Council of the APC, she observed some mobilization gaps to be filled. And she worked with the party to produce a list in order to take the re-election campaign to the grassroots. She is actually going for broke, she is coming out forcefully to campaign for her husband. Her occasional criticisms of the administration of President Buhari were to exercise her democratic rights.”

    What the source did not tell Sentry is that blood is thicker than water. No matter the tension in the “Other Room” a good wife is always expected to support her spouse.

  • 396 pre-election cases may stymie Vote 2019

    ABOUT 42 days to the general election, there are still a lot of pre-election matters before the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court with glaring implications for  the umpire (INEC), the parties and candidates. Many candidates in  Adamawa,  Zamfara, Rivers, Ogun,  Kwara, Imo and others do not know their fate. According to records obtained from INEC, there are 396 court actions arising from the primaries conducted by political parties. The figure is higher than 200 matters in court before the 2015 poll. A source in INEC said: “All the things we have criticized about general elections manifested during the primaries.”

    The big question is: Will the court be able to resolve all pre-election matters on or before February 16? Will candidates still win elective offices through the backdoor this time around?  Nigerians look forward to the Judiciary to save the electoral process and restore sanity.