The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Values matter

    AS the countdown to the 2019 general elections continues apace, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration will quite naturally inundate us with facts and figures on why it deserves to be re-elected for a second term. It will understandably focus on brick and mortar as well bread and butter issues. The roads and bridges it is building across the country. The tons of rice and other agricultural products produced and exported. The increased Megawatts of electricity it is generating. The number of beneficiaries of its several truly revolutionary social intervention projects from free school feeding to stipends for the vulnerable and cheap credit for traders.

    Impressive as all these are they are not, for me, the most critical highpoints of the administration’s performance over the last three and a half years. One key factor that demarcates the Buhari administration from its predecessors since 1999 is its amazing refusal to continue with the culture of national honours as obscene bazaar that was the practice in the preceding Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dispensation. The radical discontinuation by the All Progressives Congress (APC) of the annual undiscriminating conferment of national honours on all kinds of characters, mostly sycophantic cronies of the ruling party, is one concrete demonstration of its commitment to a new regime of wholesome values that can serve as the basis for meaningful national transformation and development.

    It is not unlikely that a not insignificant number of APC ministers, governors, national and state legislators as well as party financiers and contractors will be quietly seething at the ascetic General’s seeming indifference to what should ordinarily be an elite ‘democratic dividend’ of being a member of the almighty ruling party. For, if it had been under the PDP, many of them would since 2015 have become decorated members of the ever growing army of national honours awardees with all the attendant privileges.

    Indeed, an online medium, in 2017 reported PMB’s perceived failure in this regard thus: “President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to confer national honours on any individuals since his inception of office in 2015 contrary to the usual practice of holding the investiture every year. The President who assumed office on May 29, 2015, failed to host the investiture in 2015 and 2016. With only three working days left this year, there are no indications that it can hold in 2017”. Well, it did not hold and, thankfully, the heavens did not fall.

    To the Buhari administration’s credit, the only national honours it has conferred so far were the posthumous Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) awarded this year to the late winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, as well as the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) awarded to Abiola’s running mate in the aborted election, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and posthumously to the legendary human rights and pro-democracy lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi.

    The enduring positive values of courage, resilience, justice, patriotism and selflessness symbolized by Abiola and Fawehinmi in particular are well known. Those are the kinds of values national honours must be reserved for if they are to retain any significance for society.

    The online medium I quoted earlier reported further, “…The last time the conferment of the awards took place was on September 29, 2014, when former President Goodluck Jonathan conferred different categories of national honours on 313 persons. The investiture brought to 4,737 the total of the national honours so far conferred on individuals since its inception in 1963”.

    Among the 313 persons awarded national honours by Jonathan in 2014 as the practice had always been were selected serving governors, ministers, judicial officers and an assortment of other categories of public officers and private citizens. Many of the awardees were very ordinary and average performers in terms of contribution to national development with a sprinkling of truly distinguished and outstanding both in terms of accomplishment and character.

    Let us consider those conferred with the award of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 2014 for instance. They included Air Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh, Chief of Defence Staff, Maj-General Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Army Staff, Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin, Chief of Naval Staff, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu, Chief of Air Staff, Col. Mohamed Sambo Dasuki (retd.), National Security Adviser and Ambassador Ayo Oke, Director-General, National Security Agency (NIA).

    Virtually every one of these became embroiled in the N2.1 billion arms contract bazaar unveiled by the Buhari administration and have either returned humongous amounts of ill acquired funds and choice property to the federal government  or are currently facing trial for alleged graft. Has the national honour then not become in many instances a badge of national dishonor?

    Or take this sample of businessmen and/or former governors, ministers or deputy governors conferred with the honour of CFR, OFR or CON by Jonathan in 2014: Dr. Peter Odili, Engineer Muhammed Abba Gana, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, Chief Tom Ikimi, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Erelu Olusola I.A. Obada, Chief (Dr) Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Chief Jimoh Ibrahim. Again, none of these can be said to have made any truly path-breaking contributions to national development.

    True, we have had a case like that of Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was conferred with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) by President Shehu Shagari even though he never occupied the office of President of Nigeria. In the same vein, President Goodluck Jonathan conferred the award of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) on billionaire businessmen, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Chief Mike Adenuga. These awards were no doubt richly deserved by the proven lifetime accomplishments of these individuals and were not conferred just because they occupied certain offices.

    In sharp contrast to the distance it has kept from the tradition of indiscriminate conferment of national honours, the Buhari administration has consistently kept faith with the conferment of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), which is the country’s highest academic award for her most accomplished intellectuals in medicine, engineering and technology, the sciences as well as the arts, culture and humanities. This is one order of honours that has amazingly retained its integrity, credibility and prestige since its institution in 1979. Its recipients consistently reflect the values of moral integrity, scholastic brilliance, uncompromising patriotism, generosity of spirit and unremitting hard work, which are the building blocks of national greatness.

    Past winners of the NNOM award include such academic giants as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Adiele Afiegbo, Lazarus Ekwueme, Taslim Olawale Elias, Francis Idachaba, Ladi Kwali, Niyi Osundare, Femi Osofisan, Benjamin Olukayode Osuntokun, J.F. A de Ajayi, Isidore Okpewho and Mabel Segun among others. In 2016, Professors Omowunmi Sadik and Tanure Ojaide were conferred with the NNOM award by the Buhari admistration for their accomplishments in the sciences and humanities respectively. And in 2017, the winners were Professors Bruce Onobrakpeya and Adesina Adesoji Adeniran for the humanities/Arts/Culture and Engineering/Technology respectively.

    On Thursday, December 6, President Buhari conferred the 2018 NNOM award on the prolific playwright, poet, essayist, literary critic, author, columnist, director, polemicist and teacher, Professor Olu Obafemi of the Department of Theatre and Performing Arts, University of Ilorin. A Fellow and President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), Professor Obafemi is a former Director of Research of the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos.

    While conferring the award on the recipient at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, President Buhari said, “Our country needs the knowledge, expertise and contribution of today’s recipient to help boost and improve its intellectual development…The recipient of today is admitted into this admirable, respected and distinguished class of Nigerians as the 76th member of the body of Nigerian National Order of Merit Awardees. He has made Nigeria proud with his remarkable achievements drawing global attention to our nation”.

    In his acceptance speech, Professor Obafemi gave a moving account of his academic trajectory, which is a grass to grace story. Even after gaining admission into one of the Northern Nigerian government’s Provisional Secondary Schools in 1964, “…the relatively small school fees could only be paid after my father had sold his cocoa/coffee plantation and my mother the finest of her few clothes”. Continuing, he said “It was not until the third year, when by government policy, the Provincial colleges in the region became full-fledged Government colleges, that my parents were marginally able to sponsor my secondary education with less hardship”.

    He was full of praise for the combination of good mission, regional, state and federal education policies of the 60s and 70s, which opened access and opportunities to qualified pupils and students to obtain sound education. In his words “The story of my life’s journey provides instruction on the value of merit in the attainment of possibilities for individuals, groups and societies…This has affirmed my conviction that merit is a veritable credo of governance and I propose that it is forever good to stick to what is just and right. What remains is for our governments to adhere to the merit principle as the objective condition for national transformation”.

  • Fr. Mbaka as imperious and doctrinaire as ever

    THE Catholic Diocese of Enugu is in a quandary about what to do with their obstreperous priest and spiritual director of the Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka.

    In January 2016, after the controversial priest had revelled in tons of political prophecies that drew the ire of the Goodluck Jonathan government, he was posted out of the Christ the King Parish, GRA, Enugu, where he started his ministry, to the lesser known Our Lady Parish, Umuchigbo, Nje-Nike.

    No one can say exactly how the Diocesan leadership would treat the new controversy stirred by the ebullient and irrepressible priest. What could they do to keep him silent? He had once been posted from GTC, Enugu, to CKP, where in six months, according to some sources, he supervised the building of the church cathedral and parish house. He must have an unparalleled, albeit controversial, system of fundraising that delivered quick results. But his controversial statements led to what some interpreted as a punishing exile to a less attractive parish in Emene. Yet, neither the censure by the Diocesan leadership nor his transfer from parish to parish has dampened both his outlandish prophecies and his exceedingly candid but embarrassing portrayal of men in power. Nor has his baiting of politicians seeking electoral victory abated one bit.

    He browbeat the Jonathan government, endorsed the Muhammadu Buhari candidacy, spoke searingly about many men in office, especially in the Southeast, and played ducks and drakes with the affections and gullibility of thousands who thronged and still throng his Adoration prayer grounds. If the Diocesan leadership thought that his transfer in 2016 would quieten his theology and dissipate his strength and followers, they were grossly mistaken. The eager dupes who flock to him cannot be dissuaded by anything, not even his flagrant and questionable methods of fund-raising, nor his abrasive, inordinate and sacrilegious putdowns.

    Fr Mbaka’s latest sacrilege is his diminution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential running mate, Peter Obi, a former Anambra State governor whom he described as stingy for refusing to disclose in what ways he would assist the Adoration Ministry. Fr Mbaka had invited Mr Obi to the annual harvest and bazaar celebration, and seized the opportunity to squeeze donations out of him. But the thrifty Mr Obi could not be cajoled into parting with anything, let alone announcing any gift on behalf of himself or former vice president Atiku Abubakar, to whom he is running mate in next year’s presidential election. Consequently, Fr Mbaka denounced him and predicted that his stinginess would cost him and his principal the election.

    The bazaar, held last Sunday at the Adoration ground, was a public ceremony, with many politicians and candidates in coming elections present. Fr Mbaka was full of admiration for those from whom he had coaxed substantial donations, but unsparing to those, like Mr Obi, who showed an uncommon parsimoniousness. The priest’s strong-arm method of raising donations is of course not a new thing. He had perfected it over the years and elevated it into a successful art form. It had yielded great projects over one decade and enhanced his reputation and standing in the church. Lured into doctrinal complanications, Rev. Fr. Benjamin Achi, upbraided Fr Mbaka and reiterated their warnings to priests indulging overtly or covertly in politics.

    Said Fr Achi: “The church is apolitical. The church doesn’t take any political position at any time and the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), a couple of weeks ago, issued an official statement to that effect; that the pulpit should not be used for any political campaign or the priest coming out to endorse any candidate as against the other. So, there has been official statement to that effect by CBCN. So, anything on the contrary is against what the church is teaching. He (Fr Mbaka) doesn’t represent the official position of the church because the church’s position has always been clear and that is what the position of the church has always been, and it hasn’t changed yet. Church officials don’t come out and make political statements or say things that might suggest that one political candidate is endorsed as against the other, no. It is against the church’s mode of operation. It is against the church’s principles.”

    In a follow-up statement issued by the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), the church insisted: “While we are sure that Enugu Catholic Diocese where Fr. Mbaka is incardinated has or taking appropriate measures on the reported incident, we wish to categorically reiterate that no Catholic Priest is permitted to be involved in partisan politics. All liturgical ceremonies must never be used as  an occasion for campaigns ahead of 2019 political activities. Catholic Church remains apolitical and would never support or subscribe to any political party. Our concern is for peaceful election process seen to be free, fair, credible and just, and a democratic governance that would herald peace, justice, equity, development and religious freedom for the common good.” The hint that the Enugu Diocese would take steps to return Fr Mbaka to doctrinal rectitude is unmistakeable. But whether whatever steps they take will be adequate or effective remains to be seen.

    The Enugu Diocese will ponder two major arguments in their search for ways to discipline their controversial priest. One, how would they handle the worshippers who adore and sustain the Adoration Ministry, a throng that has clearly become powerful, unyielding, and even idolatrous? Two, how could they regulate the church’s fund-raising propensity in such a way that the funding of future church projects is not jeopardised? They will recall that in 2016, and even before then, they had had reason to caution and discipline their exuberant priest. They will also recall that they had to pull their punches because he was effective and getting things done. More importantly, they will recall how gingerly they proceeded against him in the face of his diehard followers who resented the lid their eminences attempted to place on the young priest.

    So, once again, the Diocese will find themselves, despite their deep resentment of Fr Mbaka’s methods, proceeding with utmost caution. It is indubitable that the priest is wrong, unwise, recalcitrant and doctrinally inexact. They will therefore attempt to treat him severely, hoping that like what the punitive posting of 2016 attempted to do, the uppity and irreverent Fr Mbaka could be wearied into some form of unaccustomed silence or lethargy, or perhaps total compliance. Such outcomes, however, will jar against the priest’s DNA.

    There is also no doubt that the Catholic Church, despite their long history of embracing liberation theology and other forms of theological activism, possesses stringent and adequate rules and regulations to govern church activities in political environments. Their main dilemma will however be how to enforce such rules in the face of populist priests who lack the restraint and moderation necessary to insulate the church from the putrefying practice of selling prophetic favours. Fr Mbaka unwisely gave the impression to politicians that his prophecies were up for sale, sale to the highest bidders. No corruption is worse than that. Indeed, if the Catholic Church hierarchy continues to feel that the Enugu Diocese is soft on the priest, there is no telling whether they would not be minded to disregard the consequences and wield the big stick.

    What Fr Mbaka did last Sunday at the Adoration harvest and bazaar was execrable and indefensible. Mr Obi wisely bore the harassment  and insult hurled at him by the priest. But it is perhaps time the Catholic Church eventually wielded the big stick to save their reputation.

  • Falcons, others are brands

    The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC’s) pidgin section raised the bar on sports journalism in Nigeria, Sunday when its correspondents covered how the four semi finalists at the Africa Women Championships held in Ghana were received back home after the tournament.

    The video highlighted how Bayana Bayana was welcomed in South Africa, ditto Mali, not forgetting Super Falcons of Nigeria who landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, courtesy of the Presidency.

    The heroines were excited to see the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari at the airport. This lifted the girls’ spirits, but that isn’t the story today.

    From the video footage, it was clear that the South Africans arrived home to a rousing reception, even without the trophy. The Malians were shocked at the reception they got, apparently because they were the fourth placed team. It didn’t matter to their nationals if they won the diadem or not. They were thrilled by their girls’ display.

    The Malians were excited by the focus the girls brought to the country in the last two weeks, having to sit at home to watch the girls change the world view about Mali. Their players’ conduct captured the Malians’ spirit of participating in sports not just for the diadem.

    South Africans had two footages to illustrate how elaborate theirs was. The Nigerian video showed a failure of leadership, with the government’s face in sports, missing. Nor were the ministry staff at the airport. There was also the disorderly manner in which the victorious girls were ushered out of the airport lounge, with the trophy serving as a reminder of who they were.

    No fans; only a few Nigerians, apparently those using the airport. The dancing supporters were missing. No motorcade to usher the girls into the city. They stood aloof, waiting for others to join them outside before entering a white Coaster bus. They drove through the streets of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) unnoticed. What a country!

    The South Africans got their post event ceremonies right because they run sports as a business not a recreational activity like ours. The Bayana Bayana side enjoys the same attention as the men’s team, Bafana Bafana. What they did underlined the need for all our national teams be marketed to the corporate world. It was a spectacular sight to watch on television as sponsors’ insignias adorned the airport. The look and feel was awesome.

    Businesses are proactive not reactive like we have in our sports administration, which is peopled by folks who only know how to spend government money,  which is cheap to get. But blue-chip companies have units whose duties it is to key into any marketing space to leverage on their products.

    Since after the 2010 World Cup, which the South Africans hosted, their officials’ mindset has changed. Companies which identified with the business operations in the country in 2010 have extended their frontiers to other sports, chiefly because there is less government interference in the industry. Deals are struck transparently and agreements met with extant laws to punish defaulters as enshrined in the country’s constitution.

    The sports ministry should stop the needless tussle for power between it and the associations since they are run by quarterly budgets which must be released to them. If the ministry feels that any association has not accounted for what it got, it should report the officials to the EFCC or ICPC. The ministry shouldn’t withhold associations’ cash because the players need it to prepare adequately for competitions. It is disheartening to read stories of unpaid allowances as if we didn’t know long enough to budget for them.

    Our football teams are the biggest marketing brands to attract sponsorships, only if the government can get the National Assembly to pass the Act of Parliament for the NFF to be autonomous. The yearly trouble at the Glasshouse is a major disincentive for sponsorship, more so when the supervisory ministry repeatedly tells the public that the people there are corrupt instead of reporting them to the EFCC or the ICPC.

    How do others do it? In other countries, there are various levels of sponsorship, with the Sports Trust Fund and the Sports Lottery schemes being the most popular. Cash is kept specifically for sporting events, since most of the competitions are held either annually, biannually or quarterly such as the Commonwealth Games, the World Cups and the Olympic Games. Indeed, producing talents to excel takes a minimum of six to eight years, using the Olympic calendar year.

    The idea behind these initiatives is for the athletes to have all-year preparations based on when their competitions are scheduled. These countries don’t have to wait for their fiscal budgets to process the financial implications for such tournaments, since one major event dovetails into another.

    Sports administrators don’t have to wait forever for their preparations. These schemes have technocrats whose duty is to ensure that the scheme bankrolls every event, with the government providing the backing, which the big players need to invest in the industry.

    We believe that there are Nigerian ways of doing things. Otherwise, why have we jettisoned organising dinners with the President to raise funds for our athletes before major competitions? What happened to the previous Presidential Task Forces (PTF) and sports ventures hitherto headed by the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and others? Could it be that some of those bodies couldn’t account for what they got from the blue-chip firms?

    Sports cannot thrive with government funding. Our sports associations must be accountable to secure the  confidence of the corporate world. Federations’ competitions should be sponsored and the talents discovered nurtured to stardom. If the sports ministry can work in tandem with the NFF, the body will soon be financially solvent to run its activities. The World Cup offers so much to the 211 affiliate federations. A classical example is the money which two Nigerian clubs will get from goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa’s presence at the Russia 2018 World Cup.

    Despite not playing in any of the Eagles’ matches, Ikechukwu Ezenwa still fetched the country $237,720, which will be paid to both Enyimba and Ifeanyi Ubah through the Nigeria Football Federation. Under the Club Benefits Programme, USD 209 million will be paid to 416 clubs from 63 member associations. This represents a significant increase of almost 200 per cent compared to the previous editions.

    FIFA President Gianni Infantino noted that the clubs deserved to share in the success of the competition as they were key contributors to the World Cup.

    “The FIFA World Cup is the pinnacle of football, generating passion and emotion from every player and every fan in every corner of the world. It is FIFA’s responsibility to redistribute the revenues of this unique competition among the entire football community, and clubs, obviously, deserve to share in this success as they were key contributors.

    “I’m very pleased to see that teams from so many different regions will benefit from this programme, which will help to develop football even further around the globe,” said Infantino.

    We need to refocus our developmental programmes if we hope to get the best from our sports ambassadors. Thursday’s reform committee’s agenda is commendable. I hope that the members’ submissions are not jettisoned on the altar of politics.

    “Our dream is to make Nigeria football better and we acknowledge that there is a missing link and correcting this missing link will help put Nigeria football on the right pedestal. I want to assure the committee that we will implement the recommendations of the committee to the letter because we need to create a football economy that will outlive us,” Amaju Pinnick said.

    He went on: “I want to charge the committee to bury their hatchet and work together as a team for the good of  Nigeria. To right the wrong in our football, harmonious relationship must be ensured by the committee members. We must put away our personal interest and work for the good of Nigeria football and I am really happy to have the quality of people in this committee. These are Nigerians that are passionate about football and we must all work for the common interest of making Nigeria football a bride to the world.”

    “This committee is committed to progressive change because stakeholders want change and the time has come for us to catch up with the rest of the world. This committee will be unique and everybody will be involved in the outcome and that is why we must all see ourselves as change agents that will leave a legacy for generations unborn. We must be ready to change how things are done in the past and use benchmark from various successful nations to carry out this reform,” NFF Vice President and Chairman of the Reforms Committee Seyi Akinwunmi said.

    Before now, there had been many reform committees, such as the SO Williams Sports Reforms committee in the 1980s, the Amanze Uchegbulam committee on age-graded football activities of 1999, the Emeka Omeruah Committee of 2004 and another one some years back which recommended the formation of a domestic Court of Arbitration for Sports to avoid the administrative and legal logjams that almost strangulate football administration in the past four years.

    The immediate past sports minister, Tammy Danagogo had four years ago called for a Nigerian Court of Arbitration for Sports as being necessary to settle the recurring disputes and civil court cases in football that have put the Nigeria at loggerheads with FIFA.

    Reforms cannot happen when both bodies are working at cross purposes.

     

  • Imagine Melaye as a learned friend!

    The enfant terrible of Nigerian politics, Senator Dino Melaye, recently stunned his audience at a dinner in Abuja with the disclosure that he was already a 200-Level Law student in an unnamed university. Bragging with his customary panache, Melaye did not mince words in confirming that he had a test on Constitutional Law a day after he addressed his audience. While everyone eagerly awaited the latest melody from “Ajekun Iya” maestro, he shocked the guests with his reason for studying Law. He said he opted for Law because of the high cost of legal fees he incurred on election petitions. What he failed to say was the extent to which the fortune he is blowing on hiring defence counsels for his trial for some crimes had depleted his resources.

    Obasanjo in electoral shuttle diplomacy

    DESPITE his determination to stop President Muhammadu Buhari from being re-elected, things are not adding up for ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo in his game plan. On Tuesday, he made an emergency shuttle to Abuja where he met with PDP presidential candidate, ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, and some of his foot soldiers in the North on what can be done to end Buharimaniac in the three zones in Arewa.  One of the outcomes of the session was the adoption of Alhaji Atiku on Wednesday in Abuja by  46 mushroom parties under the so-called umbrella of Coalition of United Political Parties(CUPP). The endorsement was hardly concluded when it became obvious to PDP that the 46 parties were more of liabilities than assets. None of them has ever won a councillorship seat.

    Is Gov. Shettima tired of his SA Media?

    The question on the lips of many observers of Borno politics is what went wrong between Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and his Special Adviser, Communications and Strategy, Isa Gusau. Both have enjoyed a robust relationship that spans more than a decade even before the governor handed him his communication machinery to superintend when he became governor in 2011.

    But the events of December 6, 2018, which saw the dramatic resignation of Mr Gusau barely six months to the expiration of his boss’s tenure, has puzzled many people.

    Sentry learnt that Mr. Gusau resigned because he was unnerved by a  heavy gang-up against him by a powerful political class in the state that had run out of patience with his excesses, excesses connected with privileges enjoyed from his principal, Gov. Shettima. “Mr Gusau was not just a spokesman for Gov. Shettima, he became  so powerful in taking decisions that affected the political direction of Borno State because of his closeness to the governor,” a source disclosed.

    On the straw that broke the camel’s back, Sentry gathered that the APC leadership in the state had openly dismissed Mr. Gusau as a nobody to question their intention to welcome back to the APC Grema Terab who left their party to the PDP after he was removed as SEMA chairman.

    Mr Gusau, according to some sources, complained to his boss about the spiteful treatment of the party leadership towards him but was unhappy that his boss took no drastic measure against his persecutors, “not even a warning and therefore felt unprotected and threw in the towel”.

    Was Gov. Shettima tired of his SA Media , or is he just respecting his boundaries as he winds up his term in office?

    Atiku in danger of walking alone

    THE golden saying is that charity begins at home. But for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he appears to be a political refugee in Adamawa State. It is an open secret that there is a cat and mouse game between him and the party’s governorship candidate in Adamawa, ex-Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri. Following an ongoing case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Alhaji Atiku had wanted Mr Fintiri to step down by writing a letter of withdrawal from the race. The latter however sent word that Atiku would need to amputate his hands to get such a letter.

    While still thinking of how to handle the Fintiri conundrum, one of Alhaji Atiku’s key aides, ex-Deputy Governor Muhammadu Tahir, during the week defected from PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC). There are suggestions that one of his cousins, Dr. Umar Ardo, might also leave PDP to APC.  And coupled with the political headache from one of his former boys, ex-Rep Emmanuel Bello, who is the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party(SDP), the home front is obviously not solid for the former vice president at all. Mr Bello enjoys the solid backing of the Christian community in the state.

    The last straw that broke the camel’s back is the failure of ex-Governor Murtala Nyako to be on the same page with Atiku. The ex-governor, who is still influential in the state, parted ways with Atiku by joining African Democratic Congress (ADC) with his son, Sen. Abdulaziz Nyako. He refused to return to PDP. Wherever he turns, Adamawa State is like an active volcano to Allhaji Atiku.

    Saraki, Lai Mohammed and Berlin Wall allegories

    SINCE the November loss of a House of Representatives seat to the APC by the PDP in Kwara State, the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, seems to have lost sleep. The signs were too ominous for him, and his political insomnia grows by the day. The PDP-Saraki’s latest ploy is to instigate traditional title holders in Ilorin Emirate (who are closer to the masses) to address the press to insinuate that the claim by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to have destroyed “Kwara’s Berlin Wall” on November 17, 2018 was targeted at mocking and diminishing the Emirate. PDP and Saraki on Tuesday leaned on the Magaji/Alangua Forum to hold a briefing alleging that Mr Mohammed actually suggested that the “Berlin Wall” of Ilorin Emirate had been broken.

    But the people of Ilorin Emirate are not gullible; the Forum was shocked by the backlash. None of the local governments in  Ekiti/Irepodun/ Isin / Oke-Ero Federal Constituency in Kwara State is in the Emirate. And Mr Mohammed was more forthcoming when he said: “While it is indeed true that I mentioned the Berlin Wall in my speech at the victory rally in my country home in Oro on Sunday, November 18, 2018, it was undoubtedly in reference to the stranglehold of the Saraki political dynasty on Kwara politics. Not once did I mention Ilorin Emirate in that speech…”

  • Change, leadership  and technology

    I write today  on a topic that I regard as an abomination   and I do  so  with great discomfort.  I  am discussing today the  issue  of the cloning of the Nigerian  president with a high  sense of duty and responsibility.  Really  I   wanted to steer  clear of a topic  that I    felt  had cast aspersion on both the office  and person  of our President.  When  however I read that  the President had responded  that he is himself  and that the  rumours  were ignorant rumours  I  felt  I  should come out of  the cocoon of affront   and disrespect  of our president that  I have,  on  my own, woven around the  topic.

    Let  me state  that I found  the president’s  response on his existence, measured,  matured  and extremely  tolerant.  He  even went as far as saying that he knew  some people hoped he was dead while he  was    sick  and were soliciting the Vice  President  for   his position when  he succeeds  the ailing then  and still living    President.  Surely  our president is not dead and is not  a clone but  a lot has  changed  in him and that is what  we shall  discuss  today in the context  of our topic   here.  We  shall    muse  at how technology  especially   the likes  of  cloning, artificial  intelligence, robotics  and the internet,  especially.  Facebook and WhatsApp    have changed  our  way   of  life  generally  as  well  as our  perception of our leaders in a very  comparative manner  in the global  village we live in ,  powered  by  Information Technology  in   this   digital world.

    Aside from  the high gullibility that  followed  the President’s cloning  ignorant  rumours ,  the fake news gained audience in places  that  you   would expect  to dismiss  such  distasteful  news   as  fit for  the trash  can. Intellectuals, high  professionals  and even  religious leaders  were conspiratorially  sending sms and messages on social media on something they will  not wish to happen to their kinsmen  and loved ones and they were enjoying  it. That  is the crux  of the matter here. Social  Media  in Nigeria seems  to have created  a class  of otherwise jobless and idle  Nigerians who    have   sunk lower in morals and low esteem of those they think  are socially  and politically  above  them.   They  peddle   unconfirmed    and uncorroborated    news    in   such   a breezy    and speculative manner.  Over time   given   their   obsession   with  social  media  which  has been  branded  medically   as the digital  disease    they  have concomitantly  developed  a  brutal   psyche    with no  compunction  at  all  on any  news, or issues, no  matter   how   slanderous and  libelous,  that  they  send  out to  their accomplices  and rumour  pedlars  on the internet.   Such  then  was the speed  at  which the  unfortunate  clone story  travelled   until  the steady  and gracious   response  of the President  which I  honestly  commend.  Yet  how  I wished  the President  had  said  he wished  them  heartily  what  they  so earnestly  wished  or  said  had happened to  him. Also   I   wished  this  cloning  rumour  had  happened  when  this same   President  was our  military  Head  of State, 30  years  before  he was elected President in  2015.  Very  safely, I leave  that to your  imagination.

    Let  us look  at  two  events  this week  where technology   brought  the role of world leaders to our  doorsteps  or  living room literally.   The  two  events   were  the Brexit  Debate  in the British  Parliament   and  the   state  burial  of the 41st US President George W H  Bush.  The  two  events symbolized  change  and  are  clear  lessons  on leadership style and the globally  pervasive  nature of  technology. They  were  watched  all over  the world   live and real  time as they say in TV Production.

    The  Brexit  Debate   to approve or disapprove the British  PM’s  draft  Brexit  Deal  which she said is the best  deal  possible  and with which  the EU agrees,  is  not likely  to be approved  by the British  Parliament  which  instead  voted to accuse  the cabinet of contempt  of  Parliament in not making available full  legal  advice  given  the cabinet  by the Attorney  General.  Indeed  Brexit  is all about change and fear and mistrust of   change.  The  Brexit  Referendum  sailed  through  by a slim  majority  then  the British  people  woke  up  from their slumber  and developed  cold  feet  on leaving the EU.  The British PM, Theresa May  thinks   it is a matter of state integrity  to stick by the result of the  referendum  but  she is digging her own political grave with  that  view  point, which  unfortunately   is her  political   survival  strategy.  The  odds  are that she will lose  the debates and the final  vote on December 11 and will  be swept  into  limbo  by the  Brexit   change  she has attempted to manage  so  brilliantly  but so  hopelessly.

    The  other  issue was  the state  funeral  of the US  President George Bush  at  which  his son the 43rd US President  of the same name gave a moving  and historical oration that  moved  the whole  world.  Of  significant   historical   importance  is the fact both  the 41st  and 43rd US presidents, a father  and his son  took the US  to   the  two  Gulf   Wars  of our   time   and  the consequences  of  the change  wrought  by their leadership  continue  to shape our world   for good   or bad till  today.

    However  the  event that I want to comment on was the service at  the National  Cathedral  at which former  living Presidents Jimi  Carter, Bill Clinton , and Barak  Obama  and their wives  were present   and  chatted with each  other.  The  entrance of present President Donald  Trump  in the church   was a moment of tension as he greeted the Obamas  but ignored  the Clintons . Which  showed   that   political  animosities  die  hard and cannot be hidden  even  at state  funerals.  The  reason  for Trump’s  cold shoulder   for the Clintons  was  the manner  of the emergence   of  Donald  Trump   himself  on American   political  arena   and  the defeat  of  Hillary Clinton in the 2016  presidential election.   Donald  Trump in  particular  has  been made different from the other  previous  US presidents because  of a technology  that has made him  more communicable  in a speedier and more spontaneous,    if    nastier  way,   than any  of his  predecessors . That  technology  is tweeter which  he has used so powerfully  to take on all  comers  who  have dared  to  criticize him or    especially  doubt  the legitimacy  of his 2016  presidential  election ,    now  being   bitterly  tainted  with allegations   of collusion with  Russia which  he resolutely  disputes.  His  election  too was a  charge   and  change against  ‘political  correctness’ and that  together  with twitter  have    invariably   turned  him into  the most  influential American    leader in the modern  world as we know  it  today.  Such  is the power  of both change  and technology  in the digital  village that has  brought  us all  on stage  to watch global  leaders  in  action   literally  on a 24  by 7 basis .  Once  again  long  live the  Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Setting Lagos free?

    After one of their meetings to deliberate on the contentious new minimum wage in Abuja, the 36 state governors insisted that there was no way they could afford to pay the proposed N30000 demanded by labour without going bankrupt. But they made one exception. In the words of the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Zamfara State governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, “We are not able to pay N18000 today. When the president assumed office, 27 states were not able to pay; not that they chose not to pay; now you say N30000 how many of them can pay? We will be bankrupt…Like Lagos that is paying about N7 billion as salaries, if you say it should pay N30000 now it will be N13 billion. From our calculation, it will be only Lagos State that will be able to pay N30000”. But then, the question is why will Lagos be able to pay? Her strategic location and population size are not enough to explain the geometric growth in the fiscal capacity of the Lagos State government since 1999.

    When people refer off handedly to the relative fiscal autonomy of Lagos today, they forget that it was not always so. Let us cast our minds back to Y2000 shortly after Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office. He had a running battle with the Comrade Ayodele Akele-led Lagos State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) because of the state’s inability to pay the then proposed N7,500 minimum wage. There was a stalemate for close to three months. The governor was at least twice pelted with pure water and other assorted items at Alausa. Akele was adamant. Tinubu was unyielding. What was the stark reality? The state’s Internally Generated Revenue was N600 million monthly. The public service wage bill was N800 million monthly.

    Tinubu insisted the federal allocation would have to be expended on infrastructure and critical social services for the populace. He said he could not just pay salaries and shut down the state. At that time, Lagos was so much like a war zone. There were mountains of refuse on the streets. The roads were in terrible state. Residents were carrying assorted basins all over Lagos in search of water. Bank robberies and other crimes were occurring almost on a daily basis. School children were carrying benches and chairs on their heads to and from school every day. Traffic was chaotic. School walls were collapsing routinely injuring and killing children.

    So bad was the situation that President Olusegun Obasanjo described the city with characteristic lack of charity and perhaps some relish as no better than a jungle. At the end of the day there was a compromise with labour but the state had to downsize the workforce.

    The story of the financial buoyancy of Lagos today is a function of immense hard work as well as bold, innovative and creative thinking. Under the guiding hands of three  successive governors, Tinubu, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), and the incumbent, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the IGR of Lagos State had attained a quantum leap from N14.64 billion per year in 1999 to over N34 billion per annum today. It is a feat that did not just happen per chance. What were some of the measures responsible for this achievement? Let us cite some. For instance, the state undertook comprehensive tax reforms culminating in the introduction of the electronic tax Clearance Cards (etCC) as early as 1999, which is a vital, fraud free and convenient vessel of taxpayers’ records that significantly plugged revenue leakages.

    Another innovation in Lagos State was the early introduction of the Electronic Banking System/Revenue Collection Monitoring Project (EBS/RCM), which enabled the state in partnership with the private sector to create an enhanced tax payers base leading to substantial increase in IGR. The state’s Board of Internal Revenue (BIR), now Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), was radically professionalized, modernized and granted operational autonomy again with positive impact on revenue generation.

    After protracted negotiations with stakeholders, Lagos State introduced the Land Use Charge Law No. 11 of 2001, which had yielded a total of N3.5 billion between 2001 and March 2007. The numbers must be more impressive now. Ibile Holdings Limited (IHL) was strengthened and recapitalized as the Special Purpose Vehicle for the state’s investment policy. For example, it was through IHL that Lagos State invested N69million in Celtel (former Airtel) in 2001, grew the investment to N3.48 billion in 2003 and by the time she divested in 2006, Lagos State reaped N19 billion, which was ploughed into the provision of infrastructure.

    Even as the state systematically grew her internally generated revenue, she devised ingenious financial engineering strategies for the radical modernization of infrastructure in diverse sectors to boost economic prosperity. For instance, Lagos State was the first government to go to the capital market in 2002 to source long term funds to finance its long term projects. In September 2002, Lagos State floated its 1st 2005/2006 Floating Rate Redeemable Bond through which it raised the sum of N15 billion at the capital market for scores of critical infrastructure projects across the state.  The bond was finally redeemed in September 2009.  The federal and some other state governments were later to exploit this option for project finance.

    Suffice to say that it is impossible to tell the tale of the still evolving but all the same remarkable radical transformation of Lagos State without mentioning the invaluable contributions of the APC governorship candidate, Mr. Jide Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat. As Special Adviser, Corporate Affairs, Secretary of the State Tenders Board, Commissioner for Economic Planning & Budget, Commissioner for Establishment, Training and Pensions and Managing Director of the Lagos State Development & Property Corporation (LSDPC) at various times, Sanwo-Olu, a graduate in surveying and former banker has been a critical part of economic management and governance in Lagos State over the last one and a half decades.

    Under Dr. Obafemi Hamzat as Commissioner for Science and Technology, the Ministry, representing the city of Lagos, in December 2005 and December 2006, respectively, clinched the first position in the Science and Technology category of the prestigious World Leadership Awards, which both held in London. He was no less exemplary as Commissioner for Works in Lagos State and later Special Adviser on Works at the federal level. Both cerebral men had considerable private sector experience before coming into the public sector.

    Running for the office for the third time, the PDP candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, remains likeable. He has a reputation as a decent gentleman, community pharmacist, entrepreneur spanning over three decades as well as civil society and pro-democracy activist. His deputy, Mrs Haleemat Busari is a lawyer with invaluable corporate governance experience in the private sector. Apart from being a Muslim activist, she brings the gender factor to the ticket.

    But it is not unlikely that Agbaje will confront hard questions on how he can be running on the platform of the PDP, which for over 16 years led Nigeria deeper into the bondage of corruption, poverty and underdevelopment and yet claim he wants to set Lagos free. What did the PDP do for 16 years to set the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway free from being a death trap that claimed thousands of innocent lives? What did the PDP do to set the Lagos-Badagry Express way free from craters and potholes? What did the PDP do to set the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway free from suffocating traffic and the attendant daily banditry?

    What did the PDP do for 16 years to set the abandoned federal facilities in Apapa free from gross neglect and dilapidation that has practically killed what should be one of the most vibrant economic hubs in West Africa? These questions may become pertinent because, in spite of this, Agbaje had no compunction whatsoever running on the platform of the PDP in 2015 and even campaigning ardently for a President Goodluck Jonathan who could barely conceal his disdain for Lagos and the South West. Is it not the Buhari APC administration that has begun to work frenetically on these long abandoned projects in the last three years  Agbaje will surely be asked?

    According to Agbaje, “When a formula does not give you the result you want, you change it! Lagosians must change this unprofitable team committed to govern for their own selfish interest”. Really? But Agbaje’s critics will contend that he canvassed votes for Jonathan in 2015 despite being intelligent enough to know what most Nigerians knew – he ran a hopelessly corrupt and inept government. Of course, most Nigerians voted to change the PDP unprofitable team.

    Can anybody really go about Lagos without being blind and claim no appreciable progress has been made over the last three administrations? Agbaje is a gentleman and truth should certainly be his watchword. Has Lagos arrived at the promised land? No one will say that. But she has certainly crossed the red sea. As the Buhari administration, its flaws notwithstanding, strives to bring the rest of Nigeria out of Egypt, where the PDP had left her marooned for 16 years, will Lagosians heed Agbaje’s call to journey back with the PDP across the red sea back into Egypt ? It is unlikely.

  • Atiku yet to convince, placate Ekweremadu

    DESPITE the hoopla about the PDP Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s nocturnal peace shuttle to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, on Monday, the session was still inconclusive. Apart from appeasement, Atiku is still not forthcoming on his idea of restructuring and power shift to the Southeast  in 2023. These were two knotty issues he could not untie.  Instead, Atiku merely rationalised the over-flogged issue of how he chose Peter Obi as his running mate. But   at the parley Ekweremadu made it clear that he had no personal demand from Atiku. He said  the Igbo wanted him to respond to the 2023 conundrum. Although Atiku left satisfied that he had at least had an audience with Sen Ekweremadu, his trepidation on what the Southeast leaders and governors are up to in 2019 heightened. The governors, Sentry recalls, were absent at the installation of Atiku as Wazirin Adamawa last week in Yola by the Lamido Adamawa, a ceremony attended by PDP bigwigs.

    Ganduje, Kwankwaso in battle of attrition

    WHILE ex-Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso is trying to unseat his erstwhile deputy, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, he is painfully unaware that his roof is leaking. Some of his high-profile loyalists, penultimate Tuesday, defied the holy hours of the night to reconcile with the governor on his re-election bid. A few of them even regretted resigning their choice appointments because of rabid loyalty to Kwankwaso. A governor, who was around when the bigwigs sneaked into the Ganduje home at night, was heard saying: “This game(politics)  is the most dangerous and slippery. The red cap man is already feeling secure without knowing that he will probably walk alone in the end in 2019.” What the spectator governor did not say, however, was why the governor seems immune to any anti-graft agency sting going by the numerous allegations against him involving bribery and corruption.

    Lies, damned lies, and statistics in Northeast

    MORE than 10 days after news of the Metele, Borno State, attacks by Boko Haram, the controversy over casualty figures is yet to abate. For those 10 giddy days, domestic and international news sources put the number of those killed by Boko Haram insurgents at more than 100, with some insisting the figure is about 118, and others indicating over 150, and all of them quoting unnamed sources close to the battlefields. In the cacophony, the Nigerian military kept an ethereal silence for about four days before finally admitting the Metele attack but not its severity or the casualty figures, whether manageable or worrisome.

    Since the military abandoned the news field, and could not be tempted to corroborate or deny the casualty figures, independent sources had a field day, leading to the parliament and all manner of vested interests asking for an investigation. President Muhammadu Buhari also deemed the attacks serious enough to visit Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to empathise with injured troops and to attend a military conference holding in that city. Eventually, the government acknowledged 23 soldiers killed and some 31 injured. The worry is that it took more than 10 days to release a figure, a gap sufficient to allow speculations to fester badly and dangerously.

    No one seems surprised that Nigerians disbelieved the government. Too many sources had claimed more than a hundred killed and more than 100 missing; that is the approximate figure likely to stick in the public mind. The parliament has called for a release of the names of the dead and injured; it is not clear whether the government will oblige them. But if the lawmakers will do their job well, they can get to the bottom of the controversy. Sometime in the near future, the truth may finally come out, and that truth will probably indicate who is right or wrong. But that truth will not exculpate the government of failing to expeditiously address the controversy. The government was wrong and irresponsible not to know and disclose their battlefield dead and wounded in two, three days, let alone nearly two weeks, a source in Maiduguri told Sentry. The source insisted the military understated the facts of the November 18 and 19, 2018 attacks.

    Cold war in Yobe

    THERE are speculations that all is not well between Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State and his anointed candidate for the 2019 governorship election, Mai Mala Buni, National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Sources close to the governor tell Sentry that the governor is ill at ease with the way and manner his anointed candidate is hobnobbing with his perceived political foes after securing the governorship ticket.

    The sources say that the governor is apprehensive about the post-May 29, 2019 Yobe State politics after the APC secretary might have been sworn in as governor should these foes worm their way into the heart of the incoming governor. A source revealed that Gov Gaidam had at some point shunned calls from the APC gubernatorial candidate after learning that the candidate paid reconciliatory visits to some of those who contested the primary election. The governor, Sentry learnt, was particularly piqued by Mai Mala’s visit to the house of one of the aspirants, Sidi Yakubu Karasuwa,  a member of the House of Representatives from the state. “We heard that Gov. Gaidam refused to pick Mai Mala’s call three times when he was in Sudan because he was displeased with him reconciling with the people he contested against,” the source said.

    Hon. Karasuwa, a former commissioner in the state, former council chairman, former state party chairman,  and two-time Director General of the Ibrahim Gaidam campaign organization, had refused to step down for Mai Mala during the primary election despite entreaties. Instead, he insisted on the election which he lost by a wide margin to the governor’s anointed candidate and two other candidates.

    Apart from the anointed candidate’s rapprochement with co-contestants, the governor is said to be also worried by the growing number of his political foes getting close to his successor, and the  shift of loyalty to the APC national secretary by party members in the state who have virtually relocated to the house of the incoming governor in Abuja.

    Southwest PDP candidate begs for campaign cash

    THIS is not the best of time for a PDP governorship candidate in the Southwest who is desperately looking for campaign contributions. The last time he contested, he got a huge war chest from the presidency such that money was not his problem. But the clever man he was, instead of pumping the cash from the presidency into his campaign, he used it to rehabilitate his business and family leading to a big loss. After he wangled his way to get the PDP ticket again, the governorship candidate ran to the presidential candidate of his party for assistance. He hit a  brick wall when the presidential candidate said: “I am also looking for money to finance my campaign.” For PDP chiefs, it is a case of once bitten, twice shy.

  • Presidential race in slow start

    THE 2019 race for the presidency is looking like the slowest on record. It was meant to be a sprint, a dizzying two and a half months short-distance race for plum of the plum, and best of the best. Yet, the two leading athletes in the race, President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC)and former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have approached the race with the mentality of long-distance runners, or even worse, marathoners. Not only have they been slow from the starting blocks, they have so far not done anything significantly recognisable than flinging their turgid and uninspiring policy plans at the public face.

    President Buhari’s Next Level plan has been needlessly assailed for engaging in plagiarism, but no one has sensibly argued how a fairly common title which athletes, film makers, preachers and even motivational speakers are accustomed to can conceivably become plagiarism or an infringement of intellectual copyright. Alhaji Atiku is belaboured over the length of his People’s Policy, tentatively put at six years, and is accused of secretly nursing the nefarious ambition of seeking two presidential terms while openly giving the impression of seeking only one term. However, there is nothing to suggest that the slow speed of the campaign has anything to do with these criticisms.

    The PDP had nearly all of four years to get its act together to present a formidable challenge to the party that upstaged it in 2015. Instead, it allowed itself to be concussed with nothing more than a feather duster, chased red herring when it embraced the romantic adventure of the intransigent former Borno State governor Ali Modu Sherrif, and frittered away valuable hours and months in energy-sapping juridical wars. By the time the turmoil in the party subsided, its leaders were left breathless to face an equally confused and underperforming ruling party whose leaders cavorted in endless nomination plots.

    If the convoluted political wars were limited to only the opposition party, the APC would have had a walkover. Happily for the PDP, the APC neither operated as a party, let alone a ruling party, nor had in its ranks leaders who could take responsibility about what needed to be done, nor yet had managed to produce an organisational structure able to withstand stress of any kind, not to talk of political and governmental  stress. Confusion reigned in the ruling party as drama wearied the PDP and sapped it of its vitality. And to cap a very dangerous and dispiriting trend, the ruling party has engaged in the fiercest nomination wars ever, so bad that the president and governors are at sixes and sevens, the party’s soul racked by guilt, and many of its loyalists dazed by the president’s vacillations.

    With neither party able to ethically and administratively rise above the other, and with none of the smaller and fringe parties able to seize the middle ground, it is hardly surprising that the 2019 race, particularly the presidential battle, has begun very slowly, hesitantly and uninspiringly. Despite the best but unconvincing efforts of former Lagos State governor Babatunde campaign effort, the PDP has opted for a combination of rallies and door-to-door marketing. But to do these, the party would need to unite around a common cause. That cause has so far proved ephemeral, and the party’s leading lights have stood disconcertingly aloof. Alhaji Atiku has also been accused of treating the highest ranking legislative leader from the Southeast, Ike Ekweremadu, shabbily. To remedy this omission, he has initiated a reconciliation effort. But almost concomitantly, the Southeast PDP governors have shunned the sales pitch of 2023 Igbo presidential bid, a carrot the PDP candidate is enamoured of and desirous of marketing. In fact the said governors appear at best to be noncommittal and, alarmingly to the PDP, even seemed somewhat persuaded by the logic of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who has twice suggested that the Igbo 2023 agenda could best be realised by supporting President Buhari’s second and last term.

    In any case, the PDP is spending an inordinate amount of time trying to coax unity out of its restless and ambitious party leaders. On top of this time-wasting, it faces the arduous task of raising enough clean money to fire and then structure its campaign. It will hope to get going sometime in December, a festive period that is however so unsuited to mass movements and  electioneering. Despite the party’s best efforts, about two weeks or even three in December and January are virtually useless for campaigning. So the party is in effect left with about six weeks to persuade Nigeria to see through the APC’s chicanery. It won’t be easy.

    On the other hand, the even more languid APC is not only tongue-tied and deaf to entreaties on rule of law and governmental ethics, it has been unable to coalesce around a common cause, let alone find and trust a few men in whom to delegate the epochal race for President Buhari’s re-election. Its nationalist and democratic credentials are weak, but it has lumbered on nevertheless, slowly and tediously. The demons confronting it are legion, ranging from nomination battles to party leadership struggles, and of course appalling lack of understanding of its raison d’être. Having stayed glued to its self-inflicted crises, more because of its inherent incompetence, it could hardly spare time to plan the 2019 campaign with the alacrity, fecundity and profundity the late statesman, Obafemi Awolowo, was renowned for.

    But for their lack of hugeness and completeness, not to say inadequate financial resources, the smaller parties unencumbered by internecine revolts and battles have demonstrated more competence in planning and kick-starting their campaigns. Their ideologies may be inchoate and unconvincing, but their platforms, especially their promises, have resonated very well. They will not get far, and are unlikely to do well, but they will give glimpses of the utopia politics and campaigns ought really to be.

    Having started slowly and poorly, even half-heartedly, the 2019 campaigns will overall fail to inspire or attract crowds on a scale commensurate with the fame and liveliness campaigns in Nigeria are reputed for. Whether major rallies or door-to-door campaigning, the 2019 elections will very likely fail to draw a huge number of voters.

    Both President Buhari and Alhaji Atiku will hope that once they get their campaigns going, the zeal of the electorate will be fired. For the sake of the health of Nigerian democracy, the public will hope that at last some excitement can be triggered, and that once triggered it will encourage the candidates to press the throttles even more in order to convince voters to take the trouble of judging whom among the two leading candidates is the lesser evil. It will be a tough choice for the people, no matter how the campaigns go. The president is simply too distant and inattentive to envision a great and noble future for the country, its democracy and unity; and the challenger, despite his liberalism and talent for attracting young technocrats, is hobbled by both his controversial past and other ethical challenges. Indeed, nature has a way of taking care of its maladies. This may be why the campaigns have slowed down unnaturally, and the candidates themselves, despite their best efforts, have remained dour and colourless.

  • Mikel’s plans for street boys

    What a week of sporting activities, making it difficult to pick the best for analysis. Is it the story of the gradual movement into retirement by easily the most decorated Nigerian soccer star John Mikel Obi. Mikel acknowledges that he is a street boy. He wants to give back to the system a youth soccer programme that will mirror what is found anywhere.

    Mikel is condemned by his international reputation to get an academy whose operation is in sync with what he has been exposed to, especially the platform where those discovered have a direct link to further their careers without falling victim of callous scouts or agents who transfer them to leagues where their talents will not be recognised.

    Mikel’s rise to stardom started in the preliminary drills from coaches attached to the famous Pepsi Academy, which had its structures in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja. Indeed, Mikel, a kid kicking all forms of round objects in the streets, had his first exposure to the rudiments of the game from coaches in the Jos branch of Pepsi Academy. Now he wants to give back to the system. But such initiatives should correct some of the problems he witnessed, if he wants to truly develop the game.

    This Mikel foundation should be gender friendly, if it wants to serve as the nursery for the beautiful game. Mikel would have given the foundation the fillip it desires, if its products dominate all our future national teams. We have seen such ventures in the past. But Mikel’s should stand out, if he allows technocrats to run the foundation as a business not a family enterprise, which will defeat Mikel’s novel objectives.

    “I came from the streets. I am happy I have been able to overcome challenges and rise to be who I am today. I, therefore, decided to set up the Mikel Obi Foundation and give back to the streets by creating a platform for the less privileged to also rise. This is why I have come to seek your blessing.

    “After fortunately coming through the rigorous process of the Pepsi Academy in Nigeria, I know firsthand how many flames of dreams died along the way. Now, I want to help change that,” Mikel told former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    It’s cheery news that Mikel has hinged the essence of his foundation on how it all started for him at the Pepsi Academy. This revelation should lift the spirits of renowned youth soccer guru Kashimawo Laloko, who repeatedly tagged Mikel a Pepsi Academy product, much to the resentment of purists, who felt that the coach was a ‘’meddlesome interloper.’’ In fact, Mikel’s silence on the issue didn’t help matters. Perhaps, he wanted his response to come from this Mikel Foundation. Take a bow Mikel.

    Laloko, a trained coach, FIFA and CAF Instructor, has been demanding development fees from all clubs where Mikel played in accordance with FIFA’s statutes on such matters. However, this writer doesn’t think Laloko will do anything untoward to get Pepsi’s reward. He would rather love to celebrate Mikel now that he has chosen to increase the number of soccer academies in Nigeria.

    I chose to highlight the Laloko/Mikel brouhaha to underscore the need for the standardisation of all the academies. These academies are the nurseries for the discovery of grassroots talents. Those who teach them the rudiments of the game must be trained. They should be there not necessarily because they played the game in the past or that they are trained Physical and Health Education graduates. No.

    In football, coaching is a different gamut and the impact of teaching kids wrongly is monumental. Little wonder our national team coaches are exploring Europe for Nigeria-born lads to such an extent that we really don’t mind if kids from Europe play in our age-grade teams. The flipside to this dangerous trend, if left unchecked, is that our kids will unwittingly embrace societal vices in the absence of outlets to earn a living.

    The beauty of academies in civilised polities is that the kids are kitted well, the balls are the recommended ones for their categories, the training equipment are the latest (hi-tech) in the industry, not what we have here, which are rustic and laughable. This writer would love to see these academies work in tandem with sports wears and kitting companies.

    Mikel would have given his foundation the trademark of excellence if European clubs key into his project in the real sense of the word by forming exchange programmes where exceptional talents are taken to Europe to blossom. Such exchange programmes should also involve the presence of European coaches to train and retrain those in the foundation to embrace the new trends in the game to the benefit of the students.

    I hope that Mikel’s Foundation will recognise the new mantra of combining soccer, albeit sports, with qualitative education. This is the vogue in Europe and should be replicated at the Mikel Foundation.

    Interestingly, Mikel has started the right way by selling his plans to Asiwaju Tinubu. Those who accompanied Mikel to visit Tinubu were stunned by the politician’s adept knowledge of sports. It is the hallmark of great men, such as, Tinubu to be well grounded in all spheres of human endeavour.

     

    All hail Super Falcons

    Serial competition magicians Super Falcons secured their World Cup berth Tuesday by defying the resolute displays of the Lioness of Cameroon to win the game 4-2 on penalties after 120 minutes. How the girls qualify for such big events underscores the fact that they recognise what benefits accrue to them, especially those of them in the domestic league, which until recently was a novelty.

    With this feat, Nigeria is among the seven countries to have qualified for every World Cup since the competition began in 1991. Our peers in this elite class are the United States of America (USA), Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Japan and Germany. And like the Yoruba will say, ko easy ra ra – apologies to my friend Colin Udoh.

    I enjoy watching our girls on television during competitions. They are very prayerful. You need to see how they approach the dressing room from their buses, singing and dancing to religious songs. It is infectious. It electrifies the setting inside the room. You can literarily spot fire in the eyes. Wonderful atmosphere that brings goose pimples for those of us who watch. Worthy patriots these girls (women) are – no pre-competition complaints about poor preparations like we see with the boys (men’s) teams.

    When Falcons lost 1-0 to Bayana Bayana of South Africa, so much was said about the players’ ages, with some doubting the foreign manager’s tactical savvy. They forgot that the South Africans began their rebuilding in 2016, culminating in series of test games which helped the girls gel into what we are seeing in Accra today. On the contrary, Falcons didn’t kick the ball as a group in 2016. Even in 2017, the best the girls played were games against young boys, with the results known even before kick-off. The girls just played to prove a point. It would have been a travesty if Falcons beat a resurging Bayana Bayana in the first game, with next to nothing preparations.

    Today, in Accra, the setting may be a little different because the rigours of the competition have kept them in a better shape than what they were before the first match, which they lost. It won’t come as a surprise if the Falcons beat Bayana Bayana at dusk. The Nigerian girls have seen the South Africans play and noticed their flaws.

    Given the Nigerians’ pedigree, today’s game is a subtle reminder that they can be beaten again, if they play out of the manager’s game plans. Falcons know that they can be beaten, hence the need to play against their conquerors with respect, unlike in the first game when the Nigerians took the South Africans for granted.

    The fact that both teams have qualified for the FIFA World Cup in France next year should provide the best platform to give their best, with nothing seriously at stake outside the trophy, which the Nigerians are defending . Those rooting for change in women’s game in Africa will wait a bit as it seems the trophy will return to Nigeria for another 24 months.

    Falcons’ foreign manager has done well for the team, with the inclusion of seven home-based players, namely the first choice goalkeeper who was brilliant against Cameroon by stopping a penalty kick, Oluehi Tochukwu who plays for Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt, Rasheedat Busayo Ajibade (Robo FC, Lagos), Glory Akumbu Ogbona (Ibom Angels), Anam Mary Imo (Nasarawa Amazons), Amarachi Grace Okonkwo ( Nasarawa Amazons), Christy Udogadi Ohiaeriaku (Kogi Confluence Queens) and Nnodim Sarah Amaka (Nasarawa Amazons).

    Seven home-based players in a squad of 22 is about one-third of the squad; for a manager who hasn’t spent up to a year coaching the team, this deserves commendation instead of the whip being flung at him. It is unfair to tag the Falcons as ageing, knowing that the game was hardly played at the domestic level until the emergence of the Aisha Falode-led Women’s League Board. Anyone expecting wholesale changes in the Falcons should look at the top six female stars to find out their ages. Need I say more?

  • Elections, interference and migrations

    In  his new  book  on conceding power  in the 2015 Nigerian presidential  elections,  the gallant loser former President Goodluck Jonathan accused  the former US President Barak  Obama of interfering in the election with his body language in wanting the opposition to Jonathan  to win. That  too, obviously was one of the serious  and patriotic  reasons  that  made  the losing president to make the phone call  that sealed  his place in history  as  a peaceful  and loving Nigerian  leader, and the first  to lose power and transfer it peacefully  after losing  an election.

    Subsequent  events in both the US and  elsewhere  have shown  that Obama’s role in Nigeria was not an isolated event or  peculiar  to our shores. The successor to Obama, President Donald  Trump  is fighting for the  life of his presidency over allegations and investigations by the Mueller Probe that  Russia intervened in the US 2016  presidential  elections in a way  that helped  Trump  defeat his Democratic Party  opponent  Hillary  Clinton.  Of  course  Trump is furious and unrelenting in denying any  such claim shouting each time that the probe was a witch  hunt  and  there  was  indeed  no collusion. Trump  is  in  his third  year in office and he is stoutly denying collusion with  Russia  because his legitimacy is at stake.

    Equally,  the legitimacy  of the Buhari Administration  could be at stake  over  this unsubstantiated  claim of a loser getting wise after the event  and seeing  the  gloom  of defeat in a different light on the eve of another election in which he is trying frantically, like a sinking man grasping at a straw, to save the fortune of his party  the  PDP  in the coming 2019 presidential elections. The peaceful  transition  leader  should be brought back to earth  with statistics  and  media  reports  that  showed clearly that on the  eve of the 2015  elections,  massive  insecurity  and blood curling  terrorism typified  by  a boisterious Boko Haram assault, lack  of electricity  and incompetence to find  the Chibok girls  had made the PDP government  of  President Goodluck  Jonathan one of the most  hated  and incompetent government Nigerians    had ever  seen    or  experienced,  and its reelection  or  even un electability was a forgone conclusion that  needed  no foreign prodding from Obama’s American  government.

    Again  that is not to say  that  elections  are  simply national issues  nowadays. Far  from it,  and it  is  becoming  even easier to interfere  in elections  and blame Face  Book  or  social media for something that is a creation of technological innovation and creativity. For example  US  President Donald  Trump  has turned twitter into a potent weapon of both domestic and diplomatic politics for both policy making and adversarial campaigns against  both  real and potential opponents and  this  helped  the Republicans to increase  their  majority in the senate  in the last November 16  Mid Term elections in the US.

    More  ominous  however    is  the use of elections to  explain a naval and diplomatic  tussle between Russia  and Ukraine  this week  by the ubiquitous Russian President Vladmir  Putin  who  cheekily said Ukraine President  Poroshenko  is trying to escalate  an incident in which Russian  navy  ships rammed Ukrainian vessels  it said violated its sea borders  and territory,  thus violating Russia’s territorial integrity.  President  Putin  of  Russia  said that  his Ukranian counterpart  President  Poroshenko  is trying to divert attention away  from  his unpopularity at home in the next presidential elections slated  for March  2019  in  Ukraine. The President of Ukraine on his part  has asked the  EU  and  NATO  to deploy their ships in the waters between Ukraine  and Russia to deter  further Russian  aggression. Undoubtedly  the  Russian president  is enjoying himself  at the expense of international  law  and order in the way he  has attacked Ukraine  and gone on to  brazenly    suggest  an electoral  excuse for Ukraine in defending its territorial  integrity on international  waters in consonance with the Law  of the Seas.

    Putin  had said Russia interfered in the US 2016  presidential elections against Hillary  Clinton  because  she was Secretary  of State  in 2011  when the US  sponsored  protests  against  his election for  president in Russia  and that  the 2016  hacking in favor of Trump was  a retaliation against  the Democratic  Party presidential  candidate.  Which  boils down  to a tit  for tat  or what  the  Israelis  call an eye  for an  eye, which  is the law  of Moses.  Yet that has not  brought  peace or  security  to the  any nation      more  especially  Jews either in history  or even in modern times.

    Indeed  according to  new  reports including a CNN survey  this week Anti  Semitism  is on the rise in  Europe  and the US  and  even  in Germany which  is  Hitler’s  nation in which 6m  Jews  were eliminated in the Holocaust. In  Germany, Holocaust  denial  is a punishable crime.  But  nowadays Anti  Semitism  in the west  comes from  two  major  angles. One is  from those in Europe and US who feel  Jews  are  running  western civilization  to the detriment  of other  whites,  which  was what Hitler whipped  up  leading to the Holocaust. The  second  is  the Anti Semitism  of  Arabs and migrants  in EU nations and US  against  the  state  of Israel  and the denial  of Palestinian rights  and nationality  by the state  of Israel.  Yet  paradoxically it was Angela Merkel  the German chancellor  – who  was blamed by Trump  especially – for allowing over 1m Arab refugees into  Germany in 2015  that  her opponents claim will not integrate  – but threaten European  security.  Angela  Merkel had  since paid  a steep electoral price for what  was  an  act  of mercy  and has even lost  her leadership of  Germany as she has said she would not seek  reelection to her office again. But  then  the EU  and  the rest of Europe  and even  the US except  its president must  acknowledge  that  the migration  issue  is the issue  of the day polarising their  people  and  reinventing  nationalism  and populist leaders  like Trump  and the leaders in Poland, Hungary, Czech and  Slovak  Republics.  Some  have claimed it is at  the heart of even Brexit.

    In  a pragmatic  sense  however  what  is unsettling Europe is  also not far  from Africa. Angela Merkel  visited Nigeria, Kenya  and some  African nations in the hope of giving economic aid so  that Africans will  not flee their nations and risk  dying on the Mediterranean  and high seas  to  Italy,  where they  are not wanted on their  way  to  Europe.  Incidentally our  own  version of EU  migrants’ fear is the resort to ethnicity and tribalism  in the competition for power in 2019.  The  Igbos now  look to  the PDP  and Peter Obi  who is the presidential  running mate to the PDP presidential  candidate. The  Yorubas  as we have seen are following the APC  and  Buhari  because  you  don’t bite the finger that feeds you. Both  are a mixture of nationalism  and  populism  the  two ideologies bedeviling  western  civilization at the moment. Yet  in colonial  times we were  told that tribalism or  love of the nation state,    was abhorrent. Nowadays  it is the vogue in both former colonial  and colonized  nations. Once again  long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.