The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • NIS Lagos: Nothing to cheer

    NIS Lagos: Nothing to cheer

    It seems to me most strange that the hierarchy of the National Sports Commission (NSC) would have preferred being the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). His penchant for discussing how to make the National Stadium, Abuja the home of the country’s soccer national teams or should I say the Super Eagles is disturbing. He makes sense in his speeches but the implementation remains an optical illusion. It is the frequency in discussing football issues that raises the one question of whether football is all that there is in his job description.

    One was taken aback watching the rot inside and outside the National Institute for Sports (NIS) as captured on camera by the print and electronic media – visuals so nauseating to watch. This shameful exposé came to the public knowledge during the official visit of the NIS Director General (DG) Phillip Shaibu to the complex on Monday. Watching the DG’s tour of the NIS rotten structures explains clearly the total destruction of sporting facilities owned by the Federal Government around the country.

    The place was inscrutable with leaky toilets whose stinking water formed small patches on the floor, which the inspection tour team struggled to pass through by either jumping or putting their hands on the dirty walls to navigate through the stench. A place called the powerhouse was potential gunpowder waiting to explode. Fitted with changeover units flung open, you could see loose electrical wires connected to God know where. Not too far away was a bed covered with wrapper, perhaps to shield the area from mosquitoes. The surrounding was despicable.

    If I was the man in charge of the NSC, I would immediately find out how much has been budgeted for maintenance at the NIS in the last 10 years and what the cash was used for. After all, governance is a continuum. I would also want to know if those found living in the hostels are students or homeless people living there ‘without’ the knowledge of the owners of the place. Or is the NIS also a hotel of sort?

    Again, if I was in Shaibu’s shoes, I would call in the engineers to see the NIS building and see if it would pass the integrity tests, going by what we saw during this inspection. Some of the cracks on the decking of several floors made it unwise for the place to be used for any human endeavour until proper work is done. And quickly too.

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    Put simply, the NIS was an eyesore when Shaibu visited and I wasn’t surprised that he hid behind one finger when he told reporters after the inspection tour that: “There is a lot of work to be done, but the cheering news is that the structures are still strong. What we need is a comprehensive renewal and not just cosmetic.

    “My approach will be different because I have the will.” He likened the state of the institute to dry bones in the Holy Scriptures, which could be revived. “The situation is not as bad as the valley of dry bones. If there’s a will, then there’s a way. With commitment and teamwork, NIS will work again”.

    According to Shaibu: “To get the kind of results we want in sports, certain bureaucratic bottlenecks must be addressed. That may include changes in policy and funding structure.”

    “You can’t drive excellence when your workforce is demoralised. We’ll look at welfare, training, and performance incentives as part of the broader reform.”

    “We are not just inspecting buildings. I will meet with staff, management, and students to hear their perspectives and chart a new course. Collaboration is key,” he said.

    “The NIS is the engine room of Nigeria sports. If the NIS is sleeping, Nigeria sports is sleeping. That is why our sports have not been moving forward,” Shaibu said.

    “Nigeria cannot be a giant of Africa in terms of size and economy and each time we go to international competitions, we’re not on the medals table. Each time we go to the Olympics, the silver medal becomes like gold for us, and so, it’s obvious that we need a lot of work to be done,” he said.

    “We’re not inventing a new vision; we’re here to implement and renew what already exists. And with the support of the staff, the media, and all stakeholders, we’ll bring NIS back to the top,”

    The refrain, ”we will bring NIS back to the top,’ would be the cliché that it is when he is faced with the frightening figures of how much is required to modernise the NIS. Shaibu would soon be confronted with the myriad of problems inherent in the NIS, including the high level politics that has left the NIS in ruins. The NIS is in a sickening state of disrepair. It would, therefore, be imperative to ask Shaibu what his plans are for the place, beyond the endless repairs.

    The few classrooms in the video sadly reminded one of the Emotan Preparatory School, Benin City’s classes of yore. One hopes that Shaibu would change that narrative to the modern digitalised environments for learning globally. Perhaps, Shaibu could visit Australia where the idea of the NIS took it roots, to see the massive disparity over the last three decades. It is important to appeal to the former deputy governor of Edo State to think of where he could relocate the NIS temporarily, to allow for decent upgrading and renovation works. The NIS should be reduced to a reconstruction site if we truly want a new dawn in the place. The NIS should be the fountain of knowledge for sports here. NIS should be the mill for producing good coaches, games masters and mistresses who would be employed at the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country. These coaches would hit the LGAs with one notion in their mind – discover, train athletes before exposing them to big sporting events such as the African Games, the Commonwealth Games, the Olympic Games etc. as future world beaters.

    Sport is a big deal. It unites nations and enchants people. Besides, it has a global appeal, pulling fans and sponsors into a unique force that impacts positively on businesses and health. These positives can best be evaluated when the government has a template that makes it possible for businesses and philanthropists to key into the nation’s vision for sports.

    Governments of sports-loving nations entice businesses with relief packages, such as tax rebates on their investments in sports. Given sports’ global appeal, governments effectively utilise the platform as their public relations tool to change people’s perceptions of their entities.

    Grassroots development can be actualised through the hosting of international and continental sporting events. Most countries use these big competitions to woo the blue-chip industries to identify with sports. Besides, these competitions open up the hinterland with the facilities constructed, creating jobs in the locality. The facilities would attract the villagers to learn the games and, inadvertently improve their health.

  • The Tinubu administration and its malcontents (1)

    The Tinubu administration and its malcontents (1)

    It is obvious that those political and personal adversaries of President Bola Tinubu, who are most viscerally and implacably opposed to his administration’s economic policies, are motivated largely by partisan discontent as well as malice arising from the bitterness they still nurse at his electoral triumph in 2023 than any genuine concerns for the welfare of the Nigerian people. Impatient to dislodge the President and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), from power at the earliest possible opportunity in 2027 if a popular uprising or a military usurpation of power cannot be instigated to achieve the objective before then, leading political figures within and outside the ruling party are already striving to form a coalition which they openly and unabashedly declare is to “remove Tinubu from power in 2027” in an election that is still two years away.

    The APC has understandably but perhaps needlessly responded by aggressively wooing opposition politicians into its ranks with considerable success and getting its diverse stakeholders to enthusiastically endorse the President for a second term. From all indications, there is absolutely nothing that the President and his party will do that will mollify the anger and resentment of a politician like Alhaji Abubakar Atiku who sees Tinubu as a stumbling block to the realization of his enduring and desperate ambition to be President of Nigeria or those disaffected elements within the APC who feel marginalized and alienated in the present dispensation. One of such political figures, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, two-term Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, two-term governor of the oil- rich state and two-term Minister of Transportation in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, declared dramatically during his 60th birthday anniversary that he was ‘hungry’ despite being continuously in prominent political offices over the last two and a half decades.

    Doubling down on his pathetic ‘I am hungry’ plaintiff cry in a follow up interview with the BBC, Amaechi lamented what he described as the country’s deteriorating condition while reiterating his readiness to join hands with like minds in forging a new coalition in a rescue mission for the nation. According to him, “People are dying. People are starving. I myself am feeling the effects of hunger” thus painting a dismal portrait of life in the Nigeria of the last two years under Tinubu. He averred that poverty had deepened, worsening insecurity and the number of out-of- school children, then pegged at 10 million, had increased since he was last Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) in 2015, a situation he apparently blames the Tinubu administration for. But then it was eight years between his exit as governor of Rivers State in 2015 and President Tinubu’s assumption of office in May 2023. In those intervening years, Amaechi was Minister of Transportation and a member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in the Buhari administration.

    The critical question is: in those eight years when Amaechi was privileged to occupy one of the most prominent ministerial portfolios and serve as a member of the country’s highest decision making body, was poverty ameliorated? Did the number of out-of- school children diminish only to surge astronomically with Tinubu’s emergence as President two years ago? Had the challenge of insecurity been effectively checkmated only to spring to life under Tinubu? Yes, the Tinubu administration summoned the courage to introduce critical policy reforms such as the removal of fuel subsidy and merger of the parallel foreign exchange markets with painful consequences for millions of Nigerians as a result of attendant inflationary spirals particularly of transportation, essential drugs and staple food items. But what did Amaechi himself say of these reforms during his 60th birthday commemoration?

    According to a report in the New Telegraph of June 1, 2025, Amaechi had submitted that “If I were the president, yes, I would pursue some of the policies they are pursuing. But ask what the failure is: the failure is that the gains of those policies are in their private pockets. At a point, we were paying between four to five trillion Naira as subsidy, where is the money now? If they had dumped it on the economy, you would not be crying”. Whether this is mischief or sheer ignorance, it is embarrassing and astonishing coming from a man with the tremendous experience Amaechi has had in public life. Can it be that the former governor and minister is unaware that revenue allocations to the three levels of government have nearly tripled since the removal of fuel subsidy and that consequently sub-national levels of government previously unable to pay the former N30,000 minimum wage monthly are now able to pay the new minimum wage of N70,000?

    Is he unaware of the fact that most states with their healthier financial position have been able to clear their debt obligations thus leaving them more funds for implementation of infrastructure projects and delivery of social services which are being advertised daily in the media? Is he unaware that the Tinubu administration has cleared the inherited foreign exchange debt obligations owed foreign airlines, repaid the over $4.5 billion dollars owed the IMF as well as the country’s over $100 billion Sukuk bond loan? Is he unaware of the scores of landmark road, rail and other infrastructure projects being delivered at a frenetic pace across the country? Can it be that he is unaware of the establishment of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and the hundreds of thousands of tertiary institution students who are benefitting both from payment by the federal government of their tuition fees as well as receipt of monthly upkeep allowances? Is he ignorant of the widely disseminated media reports that as at June 11, 2025, at least 100, 201 Nigerians, including no less than 35,000 civil servants, have accessed affordable consumer credit through the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) established by the Tinubu administration to democratize credit access and enhance the quality of life by making borrowing accessible in a responsible manner?

    In any case, how can a man of Amaechi ‘s calibre and stature state so casually and cavalierly that funds saved from removal of fuel subsidy have been diverted into private pockets without adducing the slightest scintilla of evidence? Can it be that he has been grossly overrated in terms of character and intellect? Is this how corrosive of mental acuity and moral integrity political prejudice and injured ego can be? No less abrasive, reflexively unthinking,  self- endangeringly bitter and poisonous have been the pointed attacks against the Tinubu administration by former two-term Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir ‘El Rufai, who incidentally, was a top functionary of the PDP during the eight years in office of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In a characteristically incendiary interview on the BBC Hausa Service, el Rufai described the Tinubu administration as the most corrupt and intolerant in the history of Nigeria. He accused the administration of engaging in baseless propaganda contending that, contrary to the government’s claims, bandits and terrorists have continued to operate in states like Kaduna, Zamfara and Sokoto states.

    Coming from the diminutive but spontaneously combustible former Minister and governor, these accusatory assertions sound utterly comical. For, as Kaduna State governor, Nasir ‘El Rufai ran one of the most intolerant and repressive administrations at any level in this dispensation since 1999. Members of the Nigerian Union Teachers (NUT) and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) who attempted to exercise their constitutional rights to demonstrate against the policies of his government were hounded by security agents and their leaders subjected to the worst forms of persecution and intimidation. Under his watch in Kaduna State, scores of members of Ibrahim Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement, were allegedly mowed down in cold blood extra-judicially  and their bodies buried in shallow graves. El Rufai complains that insecurity remains a challenge under the Tinubu administration and this is partly true even though there have also been considerable improvements in a number of areas as regards security in the last two years.

    But then, is this not the same El Rufai who, as governor of Kaduna State, admitted to having donated humongous amounts of public funds to terroristic members of his ethnic group, some from outside the country, to procure a peace that never materialized? How are we sure some of such funds were not utilized by these bandits leaders to stock up arms and build up their criminal gangs that have remained a menace to the country till this day? During his eight years as governor of Kaduna State, the people of Southern Kaduna, mostly Christians, were continuously hounded, harassed, humiliated, dehumanized, marginalized and rendered vulnerable to unimaginable violence by an El Rufai administration that did not disguise its disdain for them. How can someone  under whose watch as Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), some of the country’s most prized public assets were allegedly auctioned to cronies of politicians at criminal prices have the temerity to describe any administration as corrupt?

    Under the incumbent Kaduna State governor, Senator Uba Sani, it is incontrovertible that the state has been restored to a level of harmonious co-existence thought impossible under El Rufai’s draconic rule. Uba Sani has demonstrated a degree of maturity, emotional intelligence, generosity of spirit, disarming humility and wisdom that bring people of diverse cultures, ethnicities, faiths and partisan dispositions together rather than driving them apart through mean spirited and arrogantly cantankerous leadership best exemplified by El Rufai. Is it any wonder then that Nasir ‘El Rufai left the APC for his initial misadventure into the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as a pathetic solitary figure with no notable politician in a state he governed for eight years accompanying him on a journey of indeterminate destination?

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    Waziri Atiku Abubakar ‘s media aides try regularly to punch holes in the economic policies of the Tinubu administration suggesting alternatives that are difficult to distinguish in substance from those already being implemented beyond superficialities. Their efforts to project their principal as a superior economic manager are as impactful as throwing tiny pebbles into a vast ocean as his record as Vice President during which he had a free hand to run the economy in Obasanjo ‘s first term is there for all to see. In any case, his testimonial is eternally etched in granite in the memoirs of his brutally unforgiving boss, OBJ, who records for posterity his former Deputy’s alleged grasping greed, desperately inordinate ambition, superstitious proclivity for consulting marabouts, undependability and much more.

    Mr Peter Obi continues his ineffectual sermonizing both within and outside the country on how he would have prepared a delicious dish of fuel

    subsidy removal omelette without breaking eggs although he is yet to share the secrets of such magical abracadabra from his mystical policy cookbook. Similarly, he continues to offer delightful, theoretical master classes on the imperative of transiting the economy from consumption to production while remaining firmly a trader and refusing to invest his humongous wealth in production in practical demonstrations of his exquisite theorizing. Arriving London from Nigeria this week on an Air Peace flight, Obi sought to capitalize on the recent dispute Senator Adams Oshiomhole and the Airline to characteristically score cheap points.

    On his X handle, he commended the professionalism, consistency and efficiency of the management of Air Peace on the route while appealing to “Nigerian elites and political leaders to give strong and deliberate support to indigenous businesses” because”It is never easy to run any business in our difficult environment, let alone highly capital -intensive sectors like air and land transportation, especially given the challenges of competitiveness and rising operational costs”. But addressing a press conference in the Lagos office of Air Peace on Wednesday, the Chairman of the airline, Dr Allen Onyema, commended the Tinubu administration for its policies which he said has unlocked opportunities for aircraft dry leasing, “a feat that was not possible about a decade ago due to blacklisting of the country by global lessors”.

    As this newspaper reported the story, “The Air Peace airline boss also commended the President Tinubu administration for assisting aviation authorities in providing equipment for birds wildlife control at airports across the country affirming that there were other interventions initiated by the government to make the operating environment for indigenous carriers more conducive “.

  • Benue’s darkest moment

    Benue’s darkest moment

    A pall of darkness has fallen over Benue. This year is remarkable for anxiety, pain and fear in the Northcentral state. Human life seems to have no meaning as people are slaughtered at will like rams. It is short, brutish and nasty. When will the carnage end?

    Even, if it ends, how can the victims and the generality of indigenes and residents quickly recover from the inevitable post-traumatic experience?

    The motive for the bloodletting is largely unknown. The serial killers are not leaving clues, although some survivors claimed they had them speaking a particular northern language. So far, they seem invincible. They carry sophisticated weapons that embolden them and instil fear in their targets. This means that the onslsught is heavily funded, also by unidentified sponsors. Their activities are beyond kidnapping. They outrightly kill, maim, destroy houses and vanish into thin air, leaving blood and sorrow in their trail. They only return to repeat the attack with greater intensity in another location. As they set houses ablaze, whole families are wiped out.

    No doubt, they are terrorists and bandits of special breed. But where they come from is a matter of conjecture. The governor, Rev. Fr Hyacinth Alia, suggested that they are foreign elements who crossed the borders illegally to perpetuate mayhem. The reverred Tor Tiv, Prof. James Ayatse, alleged calculated genocidal herder-terrorist invasion. He also said the bandits are on a curious land grabbing expedition similar to the Plateau scenario.

    Rival politicians, who have alleged that the violence has nothing to do with ethnicity and religion, insisted that it is politically motivated. Some critics disagree, saying that the marauders were instigated by symbols of a particular religious tendency pushing for supremacy.

    Yet, other monarchs accuse unnamed politicians of heating up Benue in a way and manner that can make an emergency rule more compelling.

    These claims have not been ascertained or substantiated with unassailable evidence. Thus, there is confusion. There is indignation. The apprehension is palpable. Nobody knows what would happen next.

    Farmers are sacked from farmlands in the ‘Food Basket of The Nation’ in this crucial planting season. This has far-reaching implications for the country that has set a target for food security. There is mass withdrawal from the traditional occupation and consequential loss of anticipated income.

    Rights and freedom from molestation are deprived. The problems of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are compounded. They are tragically displaced from their camps. Many people are missing. Houses are destroyed. Communities are dispersed. Chances of survival are slim.

    Tension has engulfed many local governments yet to be visited by the unknown gunmen. The major victims are the masses. The governor is greatly troubled because when he was elected two years ago, he was not given a democratic mandate to preside over corpes and mass burial. He is a popular priest, whose antecedent as a shepherd was widely acknowledged. But the political congregation – the people of the state, irrespective of their tribes and beliefs – are now under siege for no fault of his.

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    In the last two months, the attention of the state government has been diverted. Governance is only possible, effective and meaningful in an atmosphere of peace. As attention shifted to the inexplicable war in Benue, other things are put on hold.

    Fr. Alia has worked hard in the last two years to distribute expanded dividends to the people. It is distressing that his government is being distracted by these crises.

    While the persistent violence has been attributed to known factors, including terrorism and banditry, it has been said that it festered because the home condition never permitted an atmosphere of collective resistance or problem solving.

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s admonition to the Benue leaders, ahead of his visit to the state during the week gave an hint. He dispatched a high-powered delegation to do preparatory consultations, including security assessments, and interface with local actors to ensure that the his intervention yields  positive results. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, a former governor of the state, was party of the delegation.

    Politically, the state is divided. It is normal in democracy. But the Benue chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is polarised by the feud between the camp of the governor and that of the SGF.

    The governor’s supporters have alleged that Akume’s was aloof to the plight of the state government as the agony of the people grew in leaps and bounds, despite being a former governor and political leader. In reaction, Akume’s men fired back, saying that the governor neither listened to fatherly advice nor permitted the required perley with some leaders of the security agencies. The unnecessary media war underscored the gap between the godfather and ‘god-son governor.’ But observers cautioned against the politicisation of the crisis that needed solutions that can come through joint efforts.

    Concious of the Benue political situation, President Tinubu also urged the people to learn to manage their hanger and frustration, and live in peace to put an end to the menace. He also advised Fr. Alia and other Benue leaders to maintain peace and harmony among themselves.

    Benue is a heterogeneous sub-national unit. The clevages were precursors of conflicts among the ethnic groups who at a time were at loggerheads. Also, the state had had a dose of herder-farmer clashes with multiple debilitating effects. Many were beheaded on the farms and in their villages few years ago and there was no trace of the perpetrators. Even, at a time, former Governor Samuel Ortom, while on the farm, had to run for his life, leaving his security aides to repel the bandits.

    Concious of Benue’s plurality, the President admonished the people to live above the division and see themselves as one single, huge family living in the same house, staying in different rooms, but living together in harmony and unity in diversity for collective prosperity.

    It is reassuring that President Tinubu has given a marching order to the security chiefs to curtail the violence and apprehend the perpetrators. Some survivors said security agencies tried to repel the attacks. But, it is embarrassing that not a single arrest has been made in connection with the serial killings. Now that the president is putting security chiefs on their toes, his tone suggestes that heads may roll, if nothing concrete is achieved.

    But, President Tinubu also set the stakeholders on the path of home grown solution. The indigenes and residents are expected to be vigilant and assist the security agencies in intelligence gathering. First of all, those who subvert the communities by acting as informants to bandits should be fished out.

    Self-defence has been advocated. It means that people would have to arm themselves. The darkside is that it may make communities more vulnerable due to lack of ‘local arm control.’ In peace time, some desperate political actors may arm their thugs. After the elections, these thugs may abscond and turn the guns on society as armed robbers.

    Many believe that state, community police or multi-layer policing is helpful, particularly in ensuring security at the state and local government levels. It means more investment and the expansion of recruitment to reduce the current abysmal police/citizen ratio. The truth is that policemen are too few, relative to the huge population.

    Besides, state or local police, as being envisaged, are expected to possess adequate knowledge and understanding of the history, tradition, geography and sociology of the particular environment. The policemen are expected to reside in the communities. Thus, they have a stake there, and they are likely to develop a sense of attachment to the people and their security expectations. Through that sheer involvement, they develop commitment to community welfare.

    Fr. Alia has called attention to a grave challenge. That is the problem of porous borders. If the point of entry and exit remains porous, foreign bandits as illegal migrants, may sustain the pattern of attacks. Therefore, the policing of borders is very crucial.

    It is a trying period for Benue. If the bloodshed is not halted, the killers may be inadvertently motivated to spread their tentacles to other states.

    May it not happen.

  • Malcolm Muggeridge and ‘the end of Christendom’ (1)

    Malcolm Muggeridge and ‘the end of Christendom’ (1)

    Ever since my first encounter over a decade and a half ago with his fascinating reflective narrative on the life of the founder of Christianity titled ‘Jesus: The Man Who Lives’, I have strived to obtain as much of the writings of the 20th century British journalist, author, film maker, television personality, satirist and engaging polemicist, Malcolm Muggeridge, that I can lay my hands on. ‘Jesus: The Man Who Lives’ is a magisterial portraiture of the most enduring and impactful personality to traverse the portals of human history and coming from a most unlikely quarter. One of the blogs on the back of the book simply states that ‘This man writes like an angel’! Muggeridge is a master of the written word. He is a keen and acute observer of society and human behavior and deploys his cutting wit to effortlessly devastating effect.

    Born on 24 March, 1903, Malcolm Muggeridge died on 14 November, 1990 at the age of 87. At various times, he was a school teacher before venturing into journalism, an exchange correspondent on war and peace with Mahatma Ghandi in India, a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian in Moscow in the nascent years of the communist regime, worked as Editor of the Statesman in Calcutta, India, and served in the military in various capacities during the second World War. He wrote for the Evening Standard, was appointed Deputy Editor for The Daily Telegraph and was Editor of Punch magazine from 1953 to 1957.  Later, in his career, he became better known as a broadcaster and documentary film maker. Married to Katherine Dobbs (1903-1994), Malcolm Muggeridge ‘s life appeared to be sharply divided into two phases. For a substantial part of his life as an active journalist, he was an agnostic who did not appear to place much stock on Christian moral values even though he and his wife maintained a life-long relationship.

    In a rather unflattering perspective on his life during this period, an online entry reports that “Muggeridge was described as having predatory behavior towards women during his BBC years. He was described as a “compulsive groper”, reportedly being nicknamed “The Pouncer” and as “a man fully deserving of the acronym NSIT – not safe in taxis”. His niece confirmed these reports, while also reflecting on the suffering he inflicted on his family and saying that he changed his behavior when he converted to Christianity”. Mother Theresa’s influence through her work with the poor in India was a key factor that motivated his inclination to Christianity and his later rejection of the Anglican communion and conversion to the Catholic Church. He wrote a book that popularized the life and work of Mother Theresa titled ‘Something Beautiful for God’s. Another of his works, ‘A Third Testament’ focused on the lives of seven spiritual writers and philosophers who influenced his conversion to the Christian faith, namely Augustine of Hippo, William Blake, Blaise Paschal, Leo Tolstoy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Soren Kietkegàard and Fyidor Dostoevsky”.

    The focus of this review derives from the second phase of Muggeridge’s life when he had become an outspoken critic of the sexual licentiousness, rampant drug use and corrosive irreligiosity that had become a defining characteristic of modern, ever increasingly secularized society. During this period, he resigned from the position of Rector of Edinburgh University to which he had been elected in protest against the Students’ Representative Council’s support for the use of “pots and pills”. His new disposition to faith and spiritual values informed the choice of Muggeridge in 1978 to deliver the inaugural addresses of the ‘Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University’ at the University of Waterloo. As the organizers of the annual lecture series wrote, “Blaise Paschal (1632-1662) is remembered today as the forerunner of Newton in the establishment of calculus, and as the author of the Christian meditations, Les Penses”.

    Continuing, they explained that “Members of the University of Waterloo, wishing to commemorate the spirit of Pascal, have established this annual lecture series to generate discourse within the University community on some aspect of its own world, its theories, its research, its leadership role in our society, challenging the University to a search for truth through personal faith and intellectual inquiry which focus on Jesus Christ”. And justifying the choice of Muggeridge to kickstart the delivery of the lecture series, Professor John North submitted that “Malcolm Muggeridge is a fitting choice to inaugurate the Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University. During the first half of the twentieth century, he moved easily among the renowned: politicians, scientists, academics, churchmen and socialites. As a commentator in the press, then radio and television, he became increasingly caustic about the figures and movements of our time. Disillusionment mounting at times to anger began to characterize his work. Then came a transformation as wholehearted as that of Pascal, and an allegiance to the same master. The focus of his work has changed from the superstars to the meek of the earth”.

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    Muggeridge then went on to deliver two lectures published under the common title of ‘The End of Christendom’ published in a slim volume of 62 pages along with his responses to questions from members of the audience on the two occasions. In the first lecture, he advances the thesis that Christendom has reached a dead -end and in the very throes of its demise. But he makes a distinction between the ‘Christendom’ that is the product and derivative of the powers, mores and values of the institutions of this world and the Christianity that springs from the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which he sees as remaining a vibrant and virile entity which is alive and well. The latter is the focus of the second lecture titled ‘But Not of Christ ‘.

    Clarifying the issues, Muggeridge noted that ‘Christendom’, however, is something quite different from Christianity, being the administrative or power structure, based on the Christian religion and constructed by men….The founder of Christianity was, of course, Christ. The founder of Christendom I suppose could be named as the Emperor Constantine. You might even say that Christ himself abolished Christendom by stating that his kingdom was not of this world – one of the most far reaching and important of all his statements. Christendom, on the other hand, began when Constantine, as an act of policy, decided to tolerate, indeed, positively favour, the Church, uniting it to the secular state by the closest ties. This was at the beginning of the fourth century”. Is the contemporary Pentecostal church especially in Nigeria and the United States not making the grave mistake of seeking to derive its power no more from the risen Christ but through association with the wielders of State power hence it’s current excessive preoccupatipn with partisan politics in both countries? 

  • National honours, missed opportunities and questionable choices

    National honours, missed opportunities and questionable choices

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent national honours list has generated considerable discourse across Nigeria’s political and civil society landscape. While the recognition of distinguished Nigerians through national awards remains a vital tradition for acknowledging exceptional service to the nation, the current list reveals troubling patterns of historical revisionism, political expediency, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the hierarchy of sacrifice that built Nigeria’s democratic foundations.

    Perhaps the most glaring oversight in the current honours list is the relegation of Professor Humphrey Nwosu to the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), a decision that fundamentally misrepresents his pivotal role in Nigeria’s democratic evolution. Nwosu, as Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) during the 1993 general elections, demonstrated unprecedented courage and integrity in conducting what remains Nigeria’s freest and fairest presidential election.

    The June 12, 1993 election, won decisively by Chief Moshood Abiola, stands as a watershed moment in Nigeria’s political history. It was Nwosu’s meticulous planning, innovative electoral mechanisms, and unwavering commitment to transparency that made this achievement possible. His introduction of the Option A4 system, the open ballot method, and the modified open ballot counting system revolutionized Nigerian electoral practice and remains a template for credible elections decades later.

    More crucially, when faced with enormous pressure from the military establishment to manipulate the election results, Nwosu chose institutional integrity over personal safety. His decision to announce results as they came in, despite knowing the political consequences, demonstrated a level of patriotism that deserves the highest national recognition. Without Nwosu’s courage, there would be no June 12 to celebrate, no democratic mandate to defend, and no foundation upon which Nigeria’s current democracy stands.

    While Nigerians are grateful that President Tinubu deemed it fit to confer such honour, many perceive the CON award as  a fundamental misreading of historical significance. Nwosu’s contribution to Nigerian democracy warrants nothing less than the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), the highest honour reserved for exceptional service to the nation. His role in preserving the sanctity of the electoral process during one of Nigeria’s most critical moments deserves recognition commensurate with the magnitude of his sacrifice and the enduring impact of his actions.

    Equally problematic is the inclusion of the late Shehu Yar’Adua in the honours list, a decision that appears to conflate political opportunism with genuine democratic struggle. While Yar’Adua’s eventual opposition to General Sani Abacha’s self-succession agenda is acknowledged, a careful examination of the timeline reveals a more complex and less heroic narrative.

    Yar Adua, readily welcomed the annulment of the June 12 elections, thinking that a reelection as proposed by General Ibrahim Babaginda would favour his long driven ambition to lead Nigeria.

    Yar’Adua’s opposition to Abacha’s perpetuation in power emerged primarily when it became clear that the general’s plans threatened his own political ambitions and those of his northern political allies. This was not principled opposition born of democratic conviction but rather a strategic repositioning driven by personal and regional interests. Unlike genuine pro-democracy activists who opposed military rule from its inception, Yar’Adua’s resistance was conditional and self-serving.

    The decision to honour Yar’Adua while numerous authentic democracy advocates remain unrecognized sends a troubling message about the criteria for national recognition. It suggests that political calculations and post-mortem reputation management can override the need for genuine democratic credentials. This selective amnesia about the true nature of various individuals’ contributions to democratic struggle undermines the integrity of the honours system.

    The current honours list’s most damning indictment lies not in who was included, but in who was conspicuously absent. Nigeria’s democratic journey was forged by countless individuals who chose principle over profit, courage over comfort, and national interest over personal advancement. Their absence from national recognition represents a fundamental failure to understand the true architecture of Nigeria’s democratic evolution.

    Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar stands as a towering figure of military professionalism and democratic advocacy. His consistent opposition to military coups, his principled resignation from military service rather than participate in anti-democratic activities, and his decades-long advocacy for good governance and national unity mark him as a patriot of the highest order. His exclusion from the honours list represents a missed opportunity to recognize genuine military statesmanship.

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    Arthur Nwankwo, the intellectual and publisher, used his platform to challenge authoritarian rule and promote democratic values. His writings and advocacy contributed significantly to the ideological foundation of Nigeria’s pro-democracy movement, yet his contributions remain unacknowledged in the current honours framework.

    Osa Director, another fine journalist and media activist, chose to put his life on the line rather than enter a dalliance of sort with the Abacha regime. His deployment of guerilla media tactics in the struggle to reinstate democracy and the Abiola mandate rattled the Abacha regime.

    Again, the awards list betrayed a narrow focus on June 12 and its immediate aftermath, while important, has led to the neglect of other foundational figures who shaped Nigeria’s intellectual and moral landscape. The honours system should recognize the broader ecosystem of individuals who contributed to national development across various sectors.

    Professor Bala Usman, the revolutionary historian and intellectual, spent his career challenging conventional narratives about Nigerian history and promoting critical thinking about national development. His scholarly work and political activism contributed immensely to Nigerian intellectual discourse and deserves posthumous recognition.

    Dele Giwa, the pioneering journalist whose assassination remains a dark chapter in Nigeria’s press history, represented the courage and integrity that should define Nigerian journalism. His commitment to investigative journalism and his ultimate sacrifice for press freedom make him a natural candidate for national honours.

    Tai Solarin, the educator and social critic, dedicated his life to promoting educational excellence and social justice. His innovative approaches to education and his unwavering commitment to social reform contributed significantly to Nigeria’s human development efforts.

    Professor Pat Utomi stands as one of Nigeria’s most distinguished public intellectuals, deserving of national honours for his multifaceted contributions to the nation’s development. As an economist, political scientist, and management expert, Utomi has consistently advocated for good governance, economic reform, and democratic consolidation across decades of public service.

    His academic excellence spans prestigious institutions globally, while his entrepreneurial initiatives have created jobs and economic opportunities. His consistent opposition to military rule and promotion of transparent governance principles mark him as a patriot whose intellectual contributions deserve formal recognition through Nigeria’s national honours system.

    The current honours list reflects a system that prioritizes political convenience over historical accuracy and genuine contribution. Several reforms are necessary to restore credibility to Nigeria’s national recognition framework.

    First, the establishment of an independent honours committee comprising historians, civil society leaders, and respected public figures could help insulate the process from political manipulation. This body should have the authority to research, verify, and recommend candidates based on objective criteria rather than political expediency.

    Second, the criteria for national honours should be clearly defined and publicly available, with emphasis on measurable contributions to national development, democratic governance, and social progress. The current system’s opacity allows for arbitrary decisions that undermine public confidence.

    Third, there should be provisions for posthumous recognition of individuals whose contributions were not acknowledged during their lifetime. Many of Nigeria’s most significant contributors to national development died without recognition, and the honours system should provide mechanisms for correcting these historical oversights.

    National honours represent more than ceremonial recognition; they embody a nation’s understanding of its own history and values. When these honours are distributed based on political calculation rather than genuine contribution, they become instruments of historical distortion rather than national memory preservation.

    President Tinubu’s honours list, while containing some deserving recipients, fundamentally fails to capture the true heroes of Nigeria’s democratic evolution. The undervaluation of Humphrey Nwosu, the questionable inclusion of Shehu Yar’Adua, and the neglect of authentic democracy advocates like Dangiwa Umar, Lawan Gwadabe, Arthur Nwankwo, and Osa Director represent missed opportunities to accurately document Nigeria’s democratic journey.

    The path forward requires a commitment to historical honesty and a willingness to prioritize genuine contribution over political convenience. Only through such an approach can Nigeria’s honours system serve its intended purpose of inspiring excellence and preserving the memory of those who truly built the nation. The current list, unfortunately, falls short of this standard and requires fundamental reconsideration to restore its credibility and relevance.

  • ‘Tinubunomics’ as last chance for the Nigerian bourgeoisie? (2)

    ‘Tinubunomics’ as last chance for the Nigerian bourgeoisie? (2)

    One of the most insightful assessments of the last two years of the President Bola Tinubu administration was undertaken, perhaps understandably, by the Chairman of the BUA Group, a leading investor in diverse productive sectors of the Nigerian economy, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu. As a practical business operative at home with the realities of running functioning companies in Nigeria that engage in production, he was able to demonstrate with concrete examples the positive impact of the administration’s key reform policies including removal of fuel subsidy, merger of the parallel exchange rate markets and the consequent devaluation of the Naira, massive investment in infrastructure and temporary waiver of tariffs on agricultural imports among others on economic growth and development. Alhaji Rabiu ‘s hands -on understanding of the economy reminds one of the late Alfred Chief Alfred Rewane, another astute businessman, in his very public disagreements with the late Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, the brilliant but essentially theoretical economist, who was one of the academic pillars of military President, General Ibrahim Babangida’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).

    Unlike Mr Peter Obi, for instance, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections who is a substantial player in the Nigerian economy but only as a trader,  importer and financial speculator with tangential involvement in production, Rabiu appreciates the critical significance of the Tinubu administration’s policies in expanding and strengthening the productive capacities of the economy. According to Alhaji Rabiu, “In infrastructure, the difference is also clear. Look at the Lagos-Calabar highway. Look at the Sokoto-Badagry road. Look at the Kwara projects we are executing under the tax credit scheme. Look at Kano-Kongolam. Look at the Okpella to Kogi State corridor. These projects are progressing because of the savings from subsidy removal and FX unification. With more revenue, Nigeria is building”.

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    Continuing, Rabiu states that “These roads and others being built are critical because logistics have become a major challenge. Transporting goods from Lagos to the North is very expensive due to bad roads. Now, the President is addressing this. With better infrastructure, logistics will improve, and businesses will grow. These reforms have enabled long-term planning and serious investment”. When he gives concrete examples of how the reforms have enhanced the investment capacity and activities of the BUA Group in the Nigerian economy, you readily understand why Rabiu, just like Alhaji Aliko Dangote, another development -oriented capitalist, cannot indulge in the unproductive fantasizing of a Peter Obi who loves to travel the world to spread his delusional gospel of a non-performing Tinubu administration armed with manufactured statistics of dubious provenance.

    In the words of Rabiu, “Since President Tinubu took office, BUA Group has invested over one billion dollars in the Nigerian economy. We are expanding our food business, doubling our flour and pasta facilities in Port Harcourt and building another one in Lagos. Demand is increasing. People are earning more. Confidence is returning. We have also completed the first POP plaster manufacturing plant in Nigeria which is now operating and are soon starting construction of a 300 MW solar energy project in Sokoto State. In the oil and gas sector, we are completing our LNG project in Ajaokuta, Kogi State. These investments are possible because of stability that has been brought about by President Tinubu’s reforms. We can plan now. The exchange rate has been fairly stable for almost a year. FX is accessible. Money is coming in from different sources, and investors are responding. If you want 200 million dollars a week for trade, you can get it without lobbying anyone at the Central Bank. These are the results of good policies”.

    Speaking this week at the inauguration of the access road to the Lekki Deep Sea Port in Lagos, Alhaji Dangote expressed similar sentiments. According to him, “Your leadership has been both decisive and reassuring. Your actions have reignited hope for a prosperous Nigeria of today and of the future. From the very start of your administration, Your Excellency has worked tirelessly to foster an enabling environment for private sector -led growth”. It is perhaps people like Rabiu and Dangote that Alhaji Abubakar Atiku was referring to when he said the Tinubu administration’s policies were benefitting the rich who are being made richer. It is not known when the Waziri Adamawa became a fire -belching revolutionary. But at least the two businessmen are contributing phenomenally to the growth of the Nigerian economy and generating mass employment through aggressive and unceasing investment in diverse sectors. Most of those of his friends to which several of Nigeria’s public enterprises valued at billions of Naira were auctioned for peanuts when Atiku statutorily supervised the privatization programme were criminally enriched without adding value to the national economy.

    Dangote and Rabiu are not the only inspiring examples that suggest that the sustenance and consumation of the ongoing economic reform policies of the Tinubu administration may offer the last chance for the creation of the conditions to enable the Nigerian borgeosie become catalysts for national development. Any failure this time around may make ever more imperative  far more radical and hardly peaceful or democratic options to force the country to break out of what is becoming to be perceived as an irresolvable developmental dead-end. This is why it is heartwarming that at least 22 manufacturing companies have so far benefitted from the disbursement of N16.1 billion loans of the N75 billion provided for under the Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme to strengthen their productive bases and expand their distribution lines at nine per cent interest rate annually. But it is now 14 months after the policy was first announced in December 2023 and it’s slow pace of implementation has been attributed to government bureaucratic delays.

    The Bank of Industry (BOI), which is the vehicle for implementing the policy must surely devise strategies for companies to have accelerated access to these critical funds without compromising procedural rigour and integrity. This is particularly so as the plan as announced also includes provision of another N75 billion for 75,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to obtain loans of N1 million each to support their businesses and cushion the adverse consequences of the reforms. The earlier the affected companies obtain and begin to utilize the loans, the better for the reforms and the brighter the prospects of achieving the objectives for which the fund is being injected into the economy will be.

    Radical political economists make a distinction between waves of transient economic crises in African countries and the more fundamental challenge of underdevelopment. Unfortunately, Orthodox economists tend to conflate the two. Thus, they often pursue policies that address the economic crisis in the short term, may achieve an appreciable rate of growth but still do not promote development in any concrete or meaningful manner. The radical political economist, Professor Okwudiba Nnoli, made this point in the late 1980s with regard to the SAP then being implemented and his submission remains valid. As he put it then: “The SAP is addressed to a steady and balanced growth, not to development. Therefore, it emphasizes changes in the indicators of growth, such as the gross domestic product, balance of payment, exchange rates, money supply, interest rates, privatization and liberalization of trade. It ignores the qualitative changes in society induced by changes in these parameters.”

    Critical as these technical considerations are in economic policy formulation and implementation, they must be supported by the most crucial factor in achieving national development, which is the mobilization of the popular energies of the people to engage as active agents in the development process. Unfortunately, this is where liberal economics is deficient and it is in the direct engagement of the people physically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually to participate actively in and contribute concretely to the development process that ‘Tinubunomics’ can truly realize its potentials. For instance, with regard to food availability to curtail stratospheric prices, Alhaji Rabiu noted that the temporary tariff waivers on food imports granted by the Tinubu administration for six months, “allowed rice to be brought in and milled immediately. The hoarders were cut out. Prices began to drop. It was a short-term solution, but it worked”.

    But then, what happens when the tariff waivers expire after six months? Agriculture is one sector where large numbers of people can be mobilized to grow food on an expansive scale. The country has an abundance of fertile land.  In most parts, the climate is clement for productive agricultural activities. Already, considerable investment is being made made in the procurement and distribution of agricultural inputs such as seedlings, fertilizers and insecticides. Orders placed for tractors, harvesters and other mechanical appliances are being delivered. But these are not sufficient conditions to achieve munificent food production. Equally critical is the appropriate mobilization and organization of the people to engage in mass food production.

    As has been advocated in this space a number of times, the organization of Nigerian farmers into viable Cooperatives has become an indispensable categorical imperative. It is hard but unavoidable work if we are to develop a thriving and vibrant agricultural sector. As Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who had thought deeply and written extensively on the issue, submitted in one of his lectures, “To this end, the oft-repeated and sound policies of the Federal and State governments towards Nigerian farmers of (1) organizing them into virile, viable and prosperous Cooperatives; (2) subsidy in kind, cash and services; (3) provision of finance and technical know-how; should now be pursued and translated into realities with unabating dispatch and vigour”.

    Even the requisite security without which displaced farming communities cannot fully return to active work on their farms in a safe and conducive environment can only be achieved with the active involvement of the people. The people, organized to secure their communities but armed to a level not below that of those who ceaselessly attack and seek to seize their land, must be the basis of an effective community policing system under federal or state control. The proposed ‘Forest Rangers’ recently approved by the President must thus be essentially people and community-based. The President should urgently give a deadline for its recruitment, training, equipping and take-off as the restoration and sustenance of security across rural and urban communities across the country is critical to the ultimate success of ‘Tinubunomics’.

    •This article was first published June 7, 2025

  • Lessons learned from Europe

    Lessons learned from Europe

    The European game of soccer is always enchanting to watch. It also always has the trappings of the big events – gripping, nostalgic feeling; beginning with the preparatory events outside the arena and all side-kicks as the fans in their numbers flock into the stadium through the gates as we call them here, but turnstiles as they are called over there.  These days, most stadia have massive lifts to quicken the movement of fans out of the venues. Will anyone here dare to use lifts in Nigeria with our chaotic electricity? No chance.

    The scenes within and outside the stadium are electrifying, which puts you in the mood wherever you are seated before, during, and after the game.

    I always cherish the media coverage of the big games, especially the moments that captured how the fans, kids, young boys, girls, adults, and the aged troop into the stadium wearing shades of the two sets of jerseys depicting when they started watching the two teams play. In Europe, all competitions have television coverage pacts to beam games live. And media personnel made the most of the television rights.

    Among the distinguished fans and their families are the yoyos, urchins, hooligans, and drunkards clutching to their glasses of beer with one hand, and the other hand holding the bottle of booze. In other climes, the security architecture ensured the operatives carried canisters of tear gas, not guns to ward off those roughnecks eager to disturb public peace. Neatly dressed and polite operatives ensured that nothing untoward happened.

    One read in amusement how the foreign press wanted to call out Lamine Yamal in the previews, equating the European Nations Cup between Spain and Portugal at the Allianz Arena in Germany to Cristiano Ronaldo versus Yamal. Ronaldo had already scored his 46th career goal compared to the enterprising but immensely talented Yamal.

    Some mischievous fans started whispering the Greatest Of All Times (G.O.A.T) argument, which was made famous in the heydays of Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

    What stands out in the execution of the plans to host events rests in a lot of training and rehearsals. Where one facet’s powers end is where the next begins. In the chain of strategists is the high levels of professionalism they bring to the stadium to stop any form of fracas until the events end. The security architecture trains and retrains their operatives; and they are polite and ready to help you locate the entry points into the stadium.

    One only hopes that the NFF chiefs can appreciate the fact that policing the stadium on match days starts three days to the event; policing the stadium on match days is guesswork.

    Once you have gained access inside the stadium, you will find out the level of preparedness to address the processes responsible for effective crowd control. Inside the stadium, you see trained stewards who at the snap of your fingers would walk towards you, asking what the issue was. The European Nations Cup final game gave the fans something to cherish in the years to come. On paper, nobody gave the Portuguese a dog chance to lift the trophy. Punters placed bets on Spain to lift the trophy. Yes, Spain’s new kids didn’t anticipate any upset from the Portuguese. They had the right to feel that they could lift the trophy, which didn’t happen.

    Kudos to the two finalists who played their hearts out, resulting in the 2-2 draw after 120 minutes. When Morata shot the ball tamely towards Portugal’s goalkeeper, Costa, he stretched full length to save the ball from entering. The Portuguese scored their final kick from the penalty spot to win the trophy. Having beaten the Spaniards, this writer searched in vain for Portugal’s Minister and indeed their soccer federation chieftains to see if they would celebrate the way their Nigerian counterparts did at the end of the pointless competition.

    The story of the commission’s bigwig being invited to watch the Unity Cup final game wasn’t enough reason for him to storm the field to take pictures with the trophy. Retired defender Pepe was invited by UEFA as a guest and we saw the role he played in accompanying the trophy to the dais, where he placed it.

    We saw how the Portuguese celebrated one of their own. It wasn’t surprising when the players beckoned on Pepe to dance with them on the podium.

    Let us hope that our sports administrators learned a few lessons from watching the European Nations Cup with the Portuguese emerging as victors, with Renaldo in tears at 40 years old. Ronaldo scored the second goal to tie the game at 2-2 in regulation time. It was his 938th career goal and a befitting glory for him.

    Nigeria’s previous ugly league

    When in 1990 some respected Nigerian soccer administrators conceptualised the Nigeria Professional League body, they were responding to the new trends in the beautiful game in other climes. These men couldn’t stomach the mediocrity associated with the Nigerian game. They wanted a departure from the tardy past to embrace the new dawn where very good players could earn a living outside the country. The wise men foresaw the future, where with a new mentality to matches, the country could one day play at the senior World Cup.

    The pioneers’ dreams came to pass in 1994 with Nigeria’s Super Eagles qualifying for the USA ’94 World Cup using players who had been exported to Europe to hone their skills which were still lethargic as a result of obsolete facilities across the country. The elite class was structured out of the old order. The quasi-professional league witnessed a lot of improvement, except that the ownership structures didn’t quite change with most of the teams owned by the government. The few private clubs (Leventis United FC of Ibadan, Abiola Babes FC of Abeokuta, New Nigeria Bank FC of Benin City, Flash Flamingoes FC of Benin City, Julius Berger FC of Lagos, Iwuanyanwu Nationale FC of Owerri, etc) left their marks, although they were eventually emasculated by the government teams which had tremendous cash which their administrators used to corrupt the system.

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    In fact, games involving these teams and their traditional local rivals threatened public peace, as security operatives had to be at their best to ensure peace before, during and after matches. In one of such needless skirmishes, Bendel Insurance FC’s chairman, the late Major Ojo lost his life in a car crash very close to the stadium while trying to rescue the match referees from being lynched by irate fans. Gallant soldier, if you ask me. May his soul continue to rest in peace.

    The rot in the league was such that we had predictable victories for home teams ably aided by dubious calls of match referees, who most times are cajoled into taking such decisions. Who would blame the referees when their entitlements were being paid by the home side? The administrators further bastardised the league by introducing boardroom points in connivance with officials in the former NFA’s league department. It was that bad.

    During the trying periods of the Nigeria league, IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan (3SC) won the Cup Winners Cup in 1976. They were dethroned as champions in 1977, with the games between 3SC and eventual winners Enugu Rangers International very problematic. The second leg game had to be played on neutral ground in Kaduna, no thanks to the lunacy of the irate fans. NNB and Bendel Insurance at different years won the WAFU Cup for keeps, with Bendel Insurance winning the Confederations Cup in1994 along with the WAFU Cup for the third time in the same year. It must be said that 3SC won the Confederations Cup in 1992; the trophy was donated by the late Chief MKO Abiola.

    Many have called those victories pyrrhic because it didn’t represent how badly the league was organised. In these years, there wasn’t any deliberate plan to train the coaches, officials and even educate the players about new trends in the game, which is dynamic.

    But today, Gbenga Otolorin Elegbeleye and Davidson Owumi have changed the narrative of the league for the good of the game.

  • Many sides of MKO

    Many sides of MKO

    Long after his tormentors and co-conspirators may have been forgotten, his name would continue to ring bells. It will not fade from the hearts of the people from generation to generation, particularly among the lovers of democracy.

    It is because his name is permanently associated with a a novelty;  a model of rigorous, problematic, energy sapping and highly demanding electoral process, which the sit-tight soldiers prescribed. So patient were the voters who endured the storm and stress for the sake of anticipated popular rule. Yet, it ended in fiasco because the shady transition programme was designed to fail.

    In the history of the beleaguered nation-state, no election, either before or after, had met the standard or satisfied the wider criteria of sanity, credibility, fairness, justice, integrity and honour more than the June 12, 1993 presidential poll won by the candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.

    Its callous and criminal annulment aborted the dawn of a new era. On that note, the Third Republic collapsed after eight years of dubious experimentation by the hypocritical Evil Genius and military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, architect of the gloom and doom. June 12 paled into an illusion of hope, and it was back to square one, despite the huge mental and financial investment.

    Thirty two years after the colossal setback, elections in Nigeria have remained defective, often trailed by condemnation, disputation and litigations. There is no democratic antecedent to build on. Despite the hues, cries, riots and indignation, the results of the historic poll were never re-validated; the winner was denied and detained, and his corpes were only brought out for burial, five years after languishing in detention. The dream was cut short. It was the end of an era for the business tycoon-turned politician, who was not allowed to reach his potentials.

    But 27 years after his demise, his profile towers above his foes. The charm, grace and magnetism of MKO have endured. He remained an idol of the masses that voted for him against all odds. Up to now, they are bewildered at the truncation of the popular wish. June 12 was the day of victory-turned defeat, a day of triumph that slided into a monumental disaster, a day of valour hijacked by military cowardice, a day of change that transformed into retrogression, a moment of success that ultimately yielded failure, a day of inhumanity of man to man, a day of great betrayal by the gap-toothed General, a day of rage by protesters, and day of war against commonsense by the military cabal.

    The road to June 12 was long and tortuous. Also, the political transformation of the symbol was legendary. In the begining, popular attitude to Abiola in certain quarters was that of ambivalence. But he managed to successfull cross the bridge from the conservative front, where he opposed Awo and reason with his newspapers and other resources at his disposal, to the progressive field, where his previous political sins were surprisingly forgiven by the ‘unforgiving’ Awoists. He was endorsed by all and sundry in his native Yorubaland.

    A household name, his status, wide contact, large heart and philanthropic gestures opened the doors for him in other zones, where he successfully built formidable business and political networks.

    The multi-millionaire attracted envy. Abiola was variously perceived as a self-confident technocrat, a successful accountant who understood the language of money, business mogul, entrepreneur and employer of labour, a socialite who made friends easily without discrimination; a military collaborator and friend of ambitious and power-hungry coup plotters;  a witty and tricky boardroom guru, a smart government contractor.

     A poor lad, he led a band, like a begger, singing in the early morning  during Ramadan, to get coins, and may be, crumbs, to keep body and soul together. He overcame poverty by luck; through manifold academic opportunities that catapulted him to Glasgow University, Scotland where he studied accounting. At work, he was dedicated; full of ideas, ìnitiatives, zest, and vigour. Indeed, a great attribute of his life waa his resolve to succeed.

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    Abiola loved power, and from childhood, he gained political consciousness. However, his false steps in the Second Republic backfired. As the chairman of Ogun State chapter of the banned National Party of Nigeria (NPN), he could not lead the party to governorship victory. The senatorial ambition of his beloved wife, Simbiat, also crumbled. He was later stopped from aspiring to the national chairmanship when he sought to displace the mighty Chief Adisa Akinloye. His presidential ambition also met a brickwall. A top ‘notcher,’ Dr. Umaru Dikko, Transport Minister, said the ticket was not for the highest bidder.

    Abiola retraced his steps and concentrated on his business empire. He made more money and ploughed back to the society. He became the highest donor to homes, churches, mosques, and universities. Monarchs started falling on themselves, scrambling for his attention. Among others, he accepted to be the Basorun of Ibadanland, and the Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yorubaland bestowed on him by Alaafin of Oyo. Then, he became a radical or activist of sorts, fighting for reparation. He also turned attention to sports and he became its pillar in Africa.

    A great wowaniser, he could not reject the attention of beautiful ladies. That is typical of those who are extremely driven by such impulses. He married more wives and attracted more concubines from far and near, enjoying life to the fullest. Today, Abiola’s children are too numerous. It is sad that some of them grew up contending with father absence. His Will is still a subject of strife and rancour in the polygamous family.

    As veteran politicians were working hard to establish political associations in the Third Republic, Abiola was only involved in business prospecting. Then, he came back the second time, more fortified, seizing the polity by storm. He saw an opportunity to be on the firing line. As Nigerians yearned for civil rule and competent leadership in those dark days, he offered himself for service.

    Seasoned politicians had been banned. Thus, he became the best aspirant. There was no rival in the real sense of the word. But foes within the party described him as an opportunist, who was watching from sidelines, only to come and reap where he did not sow.

    His involvement brought out the best in him. He was politically sagacious. His economic analysis was superb. The stammerer had much to say. On why he joined the fray, he said “you cannot drive a car from the back seat. The only guy who has any chance of driving a car is the guy who sits by the steering and I want to get that seat. It is then I can drive that car as I want.”

    He deployed his skills of negotiation, rallying behind him influential party leaders and the masses. He was the toast during the presidential debate. Othman Tofa, his colleague in the old NPN, was no match. Nigerians still recall his campaign slogan: ‘Hope 93,’ with the objective of poverty abolition. It was highly captivating. Evidently, the election had been won by MKO before June 12.

    Fear gripped his military friends, the handlers of the transition programme. The election was scheduled for the raining season. But weather was benevolent on poll day. All went smoothly, to the consternation of IBB and his cohorts- the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) of Arthur Nzeribe and Abimbola Davies. The exercise, according to domestic observers and foreign monitors, was free and fair.

    Abiola and his supporters never anticipated the annulment. Therefore, there was no predetermined strategy to confront the challenge. But, he had the masses behind him. They fought. Many sacrificed their lives. The grand battle was coordinated by the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) at home and abroad.  Many of the chieftains were targeted for liquidation. Many, including Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of Nigeria, Prof. Wole Soyinka and General Alani Akinrinade, managed to escape abroad. Abiola’s wife, Kudirat, was not lucky. She was assassinated in Lagos.

    Then, a mistake occured after the Interm Government of Ernest Shonekan crumbled. Wise men became novices. They were surprisingly cajoled by Gen. Sani Abacha, a coup plotter, who lied to them that he would handover to the winner of the historic poll. He reneged and tension rose.

    The military was adamant. The spate of bombings increased. As Abiola jetted out to seek global support for his mandate, the loquacious propagandist and Information Minister, Uche Chukwumerije, yelled, saying that Abiola had become the first Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yorubaland to flee from the battlefield.

    He later proved the military junta wrong, returned to the country, resurfaced at Epetedo on Lagos Island and declared himself President-elect. Arrested and detained, he never returned alive.

    But the military also could not enjoy any respite. Apparently, Abiola was underrated by the soldiers as a man who could not dare the guns. He proved them wrong by sustaining the battle. He fired salvos at his friend, saying:”Make no mistake, my opponent was not Tofa in the election. It was President Ibrahim Babangida who is not courageous enough to face me at the ballot.” Later, he added: “I am prepared to face the firing squard of General Babangida.”

    Rejecting the annulment, he said ‘you don’t abort a pregnancy after the baby is born.’

    Abiola had initially rejected the Interm contraption after IBB steped aside. He said: “A sacrifice is necessary only if it will be acceptable to the god.” To those seeking an inexplicable softlanding through negotiation with the military without his consent, he said ‘you can’t shave a man’s head in his absence.’ He insisted on his mandate till the end.

    What killed him? What did he eat or drink? Who killed him? How did he die? Where is the autopsy? The answers remain elusive.

    Conscience is an open wound; an internal verson of punishment. The judgment of history is inevitable. That’s why the ghost of June 12 continues to hunt the deserters and betrayers, including those who arranged the interim malady, the soldiers of fortune who opened fire on protesters, those who said MKO was not the messiah due to ego and envy, and other elements of subversion, who nevertheless, came to power on the ashes of the struggle.

  • MKO Abiola: The untold story of a metaphor

    MKO Abiola: The untold story of a metaphor

    Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (GCFR) has earned the axiomatic ‘good name’ that is better than silver and gold. Even though he died decades ago, he remains immortal not because he won the 1993 presidential election that was annulled by the former military president, Gen.  Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (Rtd.) but because of the human he was. Politics did not bring him into prominence. His foray into business, sports, entertainment and philanthropy preceded June 12, 1993.

    As Nigeria celebrated Democracy day on June 12th the focus seemed to have been on the election and the outcome.  It has become the metaphor for the freest, fairest and most credible election in Nigeria’s political history. An M.K.O Abiola won the election. He broke records. He ran with Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, a fellow Muslim from the North. There was no problem with that for Nigerians. He defeated the late Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) in his home state of Kano.

    Nigerian politics has been and continues to be plagued by tribal and religious intrigues fired by manipulative politicians across the country. They often fan the embers of hatred amongst the lower rungs of the society often too naïve to understand that religion and tribe have nothing to do with good governance. Manipulative politicians often mask their incompetence and lack of merit to earn the votes of the people by playing the religious and ethnic cards.

    But an M.K.O Abiola emerged in the scene in 1993 and erased totally the clichés and semantic manipulation by politicians in Nigeria. He won the election by a 58% majority. He was of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). While the annulment of the election continues to be debated in the public domain, former President IBB in his recent memoir tried to play with words and somewhat pass the buck.

    However, the electoral umpire, late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu had in many interviews explained that he was not confused about the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections. The result of the annulment of the election was chaos across the country. There were protests and some people were killed, others displaced, many arrested, tortured and jailed while many ran into exile to save their lives.

    As Nigeria marked this year’s June 12 democracy day with speeches and awards of National honours to some of the heroes of democracy owing to their fates or actions about the annulment of the election, the Roundtable Conversation just noted that not much of the personality of the late MKO Abiola was reiterated for the records. Not that the day ought to be about him alone but his persona brought about the victory and the democracy day we celebrate.

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    Historians and Biographers might have documented the life of an Abiola. The event of June 12, 1993 has immortalized him but we have to look at an Abiola pre-June 12, 1993. He was an exceptional human being. He was the true metaphor of grass to grace. He rose from poverty to wealth, used his wealth to empower and nurture  and became a global citizen. His personality was larger than life. He was as versatile as he was humble and humane. His humanity was as enduring as it was endearing. He was not perfect but he was human.

    He was grounded and versatile. He was at home with business as he was with entertainment, politics and international politics. His passion for humanity was expressed through his practical expression of his love for and support for various sports not just in Nigeria but across the continent. When people say that sportsmanship exemplifies large heartedness, that saying had full expression in an M.K.O Abiola. He was a sportsman who loved and supported sports across board. He invested in football, athletics, boxing, table tennis and many others.

    The Roundtable Conversation has noticed that many Nigerian politicians assume politics is a sport and they tend to play it to the hilt. Most have no second addresses. They are neither interested in people nor in sports except for political expedience in some instances. An Abiola was different. He loved and invested in sports and humans. Most Nigerian politicians are so bare of any affecting quality that they earn only skepticism from the people. This is reason there is huge trust deficit in the political class. This in turn gives birth to apathy during elections and the rejection of most politicians by the people which impacts on the flawed electoral processes that have made Nigerian elections the most litigious in the world.

    We decided to talk to two veteran sports journalists that had close interactions with late M.K.O Abiola about their assessment of the person they conferred with the highest sports award not just in Nigeria but Africa as a continent. The African Sports Journalists Union (ASJU) had awarded an M.K.O Abiola the ‘Pillar of Sports in Africa’ in 1980. He remains the sole awardee till date. On January 11, 1992, the African Football Hall of Fame had his name etched by CAF with the Order of Merit in Gold.

    Mr. Kunle Solaja, ace sports journalist that holds the enviable achievement and honour of covering about nine World Cup tournaments, who not only worked in Abiola’s Concord newspaper but has been in the business of sports (especially football reporting) ever since traversing the Sun Newspaper as Sports Editor and now the Vice President/Editor in Chief at Extra Time Communications LTD./Sports Village Square.  He says he was honoured to have been in vantage position to have seen firsthand the passion that the late Pillar of Sports in Africa expressed for sports in general across Africa.

     Solaja said that not only was the late MKO a sports enthusiast, he was as versatile in business, politics, entertainment as he was in philanthropy.  He was not just interested in sports in Nigeria alone,  he was a regional and intercontinental lover and investor in sports not for any profit or political expediency but just as a global communication tool. He was at home investing in Zambia as he was enthusiastic about Algeria, Ghana etc. To an MKO, sports is a universal language of love and entertainment. He invested with no anticipation of returns. To Solaja, unlike most politicians that saw invitations to sports events as ego trips, an Abiola, initiated, sponsored and participated in sports activities that spurred others to attend. He founded the defunct Abiola Babes and Concorde  football clubs that made waves in Africa and nurtured some of the best names in football at the time. 

    As a journalist at the time, sometimes editors had a hard time casting headlines because an Abiola often made headlines in business, Sports, national and global politics. He was one of the pioneer advocates for the payment of reparations by the colonial and trans-Atlantic slave trade proponents.  He was as much a patriot as he was a Pan Africanist. His humanity was evident in his extensive philanthropy across Africa.There was no doubt that his passion for sports was a product of his inner sense of sportsmanship not just as a social rhetoric but as a choice. 

    Onochie Anibeze is an award-winning veteran sports journalist who is presently the Vanguard Newspaper Saturday Editor . To an Onochie, there is no African living or dead that matches the late M.K.O Abiola’s interest and investment in football, boxing, athletics and table tennis. He was a great sportsman who put money and time in sports promotions. He didn’t just throw money into sports, he was present in the real sense. He loved and lived sports and it was no surprise when in 1980, long before he thought of contesting for the Presidency, he was crowned the Pillar of Spirts in Africa, an honour yet to be bestowed on any other individual living or dead.

    His humanity shone like a million stars through his sponsorship and presence in the support of various sports across the continent and even beyond. He recalls an incident in 1987 when they were travelling together to Tunisia with Abiola Babes team. Suddenly the team doctor  fell ill on air and the late MKO joked that the doctor was now at the mercy of journalists’ healing hands if they had any.  That was how hilarious and human an Abiola was. He was a hands on human whose large heart touched many in and out of sports.  His humility knew no bounds as he could travel in the same plane or bus with players and other individuals covering any sport he was interested in. his sponsorship of sports was across regional lines as he was as present in Senegal as he was in Algeria. He was very close to most players and journalists and related to them as a father.

    Onochie recalls that an Abiola showed unique qualities that were endearing.  He was always travelling for and sponsoring sports events with his late wife Simbiat who equally had her own Simbiat Babes football club. In fact, journalists nicknamed the amiable couple Papa and Mama Sports respectively due to their parental-like involvement in sponsoring and supporting sportsmen and women across board. An M.K.O almost knew most sports journalists on first name basis and related closely with them. Not many billionaires with his stature was that magnanimous and charitable.

    So an Abiola to us was more than the winner of an annulled election. his image and humanity were rare. He easily won the election because he earned the love of the people. He did not win because he used thugs or shared money. He was loved across tribes and religions. His personality was very endearing and people rewarded him with their votes in an option A4 Open secret ballot that defied rigging. He earned the love that won him the election. That should be celebrated and copied  by politicians in Nigeria beyond the commemorative June 12  Democracy Day celebrations.

    •The dialogue continues…

  • 58 Years after: Biafra and the challenge to national unity (2)

    58 Years after: Biafra and the challenge to national unity (2)

    The search for peace saw Nigerian leaders journeying to Aburi, Ghana, in such a gathering did lie the nation’s last hopes for a peaceful resolution, while the eastern contingent led by Colonel Ojukwu came to that meeting understanding the import of such a meeting and the grave consequences  of not finding a lasting solution  to ending the bloodshed, the killings and the displacement of over 3 million Eastern Region citizens came to that meeting prepared to the hilt, Gowon on the other hand came to the meeting with the impression that it was an old boys reunion, something of an officer’s mess gathering irrespective of the gloom that pervaded the air then. To Gowon and his ilk it didn’t matter that over 500 000 Eastern region citizens had been killed and another 500,000 or more maimed and displaced, what was more important was that the regions return to the status quo.

    It is alleged that Ojukwu rebuffed such a posturing and demanded that concrete steps be taken one that would provide for a confederation of regions with significant autonomy, particularly in matters of finance and security. For Ojukwu and the Eastern Region, this arrangement offered the region the protection they sought while remaining within Nigeria. For Gowon and the federal government, it provided a framework for keeping Nigeria together despite the centrifugal forces threatening to tear it apart.

    However, upon returning to Nigeria, Gowon facing pressure from minority technocrats who viewed the Aburi Agreement as a betrayal of the minorities who were seeking to establish some form of independence from the supposed Igbo domination and a capitulation to Eastern demands. Legal advisors argued that the confederal arrangement agreed upon at Aburi was tantamount to dismembering Nigeria. Federal civil servants, led by Permanent Secretary Allison Ayida, produced memoranda highlighting the dangers of implementing the Aburi decisions.

    Rather than seek a rapprochement with Ojukwu to at least arrive at  further middle grounds took the  eventual decision to repudiate key aspects of the Aburi Accord, this proved to be a fatal miscalculation and set Ojukwu who had earlier adopted a dovish stance towards the path of secession.  This betrayal of the Aburi spirit convinced Ojukwu and many Easterners that the federal government could not be trusted and that peaceful coexistence within Nigeria was impossible.

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    Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu stands at the center of the Biafran controversy, and his motivations remain a subject of intense debate. Critics argue that his declaration of Biafra was motivated by personal ambition and a desire to create his own kingdom where he could rule as a strongman. However, these critics forget that the repudiation of the  Aburi Accords placed Ojukwu in a quagmire, how could he look his people in the face, a people rife with anger and repeatedly clamouring that ojukwu nye anyi egbe( Ojukwu give us guns) and do otherwise? How could he ask his kinsmen and women to go on with one Nigeria when on two occasions he had done so only for another set of pogroms to be unleashed on them?

    However, a more nuanced examination of the circumstances suggests that Ojukwu was responding to genuine threats to the survival of his people. The systematic killings of Easterners, the massive refugee crisis, and the federal government’s apparent inability or unwillingness to protect Eastern lives created an existential situation that demanded decisive action. The Eastern Region Consultative Assembly, comprising traditional rulers, intellectuals, and community leaders, had unanimously mandated Ojukwu to take any action necessary to protect Eastern lives, including secession if required.

    Ojukwu’s own statements and actions suggest that he viewed secession as a last resort rather than a preferred option. His consistent advocacy for the implementation of the Aburi Accord, even after declaring independence, indicates that he would have preferred a confederal arrangement within Nigeria. The timing of the Biafran declaration, coming only after Gowon’s repudiation of Aburi, the imposition of an economic blockade on the East and the provocative creation of states supports the argument that Ojukwu was pushed into secession rather than actively seeking it.

    The die was cast and on May 30, 1967, Ojukwu declared the independence of the Republic of Biafra, named after the Bight of Biafra. Gowon responded by declaring a state of emergency and mobilizing federal forces to preserve Nigerian unity.

    The war that followed was characterized by immense suffering on all sides. What began as a conflict over political arrangements evolved into a humanitarian catastrophe that claimed over one million lives, mostly civilians who died from starvation and disease. The international community became involved, with various countries supporting different sides for their own strategic reasons, further complicating efforts at resolution.

    The Nigerian Civil War offers profound lessons about the fragility of national unity and the catastrophic consequences of political failure. The crisis demonstrated how quickly ethnic suspicions readily escalate into violence particularly when political institutions fail to manage diversity effectively. It highlights the dangers of winner-take-all politics in multi-ethnic societies and showed how military intervention, far from solving political problems, can exacerbate existing tensions.

    However, more than five decades after the war’s end, Nigeria and its key actors appears to have learned little from this traumatic experience. Contemporary political discourse still revolves around ethnic and religious identities rather than issues of governance and development. The rise of various separatist movements, including the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), suggests that the underlying issues that led to the original crisis remain unresolved. Political leaders continue to manipulate ethnic and religious differences for short-term gains, while the federal system remains skewed in ways that perpetuate feelings of marginalization among various groups.