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Category: Saturday

BAO, wisdom and governance

Even without meeting him personally and just observing him from a distance, one cannot help but be impressed by the aura of humility and simplicity that the governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), exudes. It is not an easy feat to wield the immense executive powers of a governor in our system, where there is an imperial air to the position, and retain one’s consciousness of the frailty and fallibility that is the inalienable portion of mere mortals. But the impression I and not a few other observers of governance under Oyebanji’s leadership in Ekiti have is that of the cultured restraint and elevated moral breeding characteristic of the true Omoluabi in Yoruba culture.

This was amply confirmed when the governor featured in an interview on TVC’s programme, Journalist’s Hangout, during the week. Of course, he spoke at length on his achievements in diverse sectors, including agriculture, health, education, road infrastructure and security, among others. Not given to propaganda, this interview with Oyebanji is the only one I am aware of since his assumption of office. Yet, there were believable visuals to back up the claims made by the governor on the programme. For instance, I was impressed by the extent of work done on the Airport project in Ado Ekiti. When this project was conceived and commenced by his predecessor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, I was inclined to believe its critics who argued that it was superfluous and wasteful, with an airport already cited in nearby Akure in Ondo State.

But Oyebanji explained convincingly why the project will add significant value to Ekiti State and the extent his administration has gone to engage professionals with the requisite expertise to make Ekiti a vibrant aviation hub in the zone. Once again, this demonstrates the beauty, especially of policy continuity despite inevitable changes in government personnel. But beyond the undeniable developmental impact his government is making, is the wisdom and maturity that BAO brings to governance. For instance, he sees his leader, Dr Fayemi, not as an imperious godfather, but a mentor from whose experience he can benefit for the good of the state.

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In the same way, he has cultivated close relationships with all of his predecessors – Chief Niyi Adebayo, Mr Ayo Fayose and Engineer Segun Oni. He says he strives to benefit from their strengths and experiences but also to learn from their mistakes. He reaches to leaders and stakeholders across Ekiti irrespective of their party affiliations, which explains the unprecedented air of peace and harmony that pervades the state today. BAO served as Secretary of the Committee that was at the vanguard of the struggle for the creation of the state when he was in his twenties. He held several critical positions in the administrations of both Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi and was thus eminently prepared for the job of governor, which is a great credit to Fayemi.

But is there a cultural factor to the kind of wisdom and modesty deployed by BAO in the governance of a highly enlightened state like Ekiti? Could the crisis that has resulted in a shipwreck of governance in Rivers State have been avoided if the suspended governor, Similaiyi Fubara, imbibed just a little bit of these attributes? Would he have been able to manage his predecessor, the tempestuous Nyesom Wike, better? But in Rivers, Rotimi Amaechi as governor fought his predecessor and mentor, Dr Peter Odili, to a standstill in a no-holds-barred Titanic battle. Wike, as governor, engaged in unending brutal political warfare with Amaechi, his predecessor and mentor. And Fubara and his estranged godfather and predecessor, Wike, who did everything to ensure the former ‘s emergence as governor, are currently engaged in a seeming battle unto death for the soul of Rivers. It is inexplicable.

May 10, 2025
The scramble for grassroots power in Lagos

Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was governor of Lagos State, the state government has always conducted periodic local government elections without fail.

Thus, the Centre of Excellence has been a good example of complying with the constitutional provision stipulating the importance of having democratically elected councils in place.

Three political parties – All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) – will slug it out in July for the grassroots popularity test in the state.

The battle will take place across 57 councils, comprising the pre-existing 20 local government areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).

In APC, the intra-party competition for the chairmanship and councillorship tickets is stiff. The race has thrown up antagonism among the contenders. Participants have returned to the drawing board to scheme, plot, evolve winning strategies and pull the rug off the feet of their rivals.

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Party elders can hardly rest in their domains. They host visitors seeking endorsements, signatures, guidance and gerontocratic assurance, real or imaginary goodwill and solidarity.

Electioneering demands the allocation of men, money, and materials (Three Ms) to conduct. It stretches these resources, sometimes elastically, depending on how far a contestant wishes to go. The more you push through, the more resources you expend to succeed. It is very stressful.

In an economic sense, some people perceive politicking as an investment from which they hope to garner returns. Structures have to be erected, maintained, and reinforced. Contestants have to reach out to ‘stakeholders’: party delegates, youths and women, traditional rulers, religious leaders, community development associations and key ethnic nationalities. Politics is like mucky waters.

In the ruling party, almost 500 chairmanship contenders took the nomination forms. The number of councillorship aspirants is better imagined. Their posters adorn and litter the streets. At this level, there is no apathy at all.

Today, across the 57 councils, party officers who constitute the electoral colleges are selecting candidates for the polls from the multitudes. If consensus fails, indirect primaries, carefully guided, come to the party’s rescue.

The nomination process is being anchored by the Election Committee, led by Tunde Ogala (SAN). It began with the expression of interest, the purchase of forms, and screening. The process then moves to shadow polls, which are expected to be transparent and peaceful, although already, there are some allegations of imposition of candidates by those who appear to be losing out.

It is the tradition of the political family to opt for consensus. Those who see the option as a threat believe that it favours some aspirants more than others. There is a growing feeling among political orphans that the Lagos polity and its corridor of power are designed, partly, for the projection of the children of legends.

But the loss of equality can be mitigated, more or less, by the gains of equity, which may foster a feeling of substantial fairness and justice.

By now, wiser politicians would have understood that power is not served on a platter of gold. There is always an effort to make to get the trophy.

Faced with this reality, the contenders are working hard, consulting widely, intensifying mobilisation and praying hard. It is particularly burdensome to purists that politics and morality also exist in clear-cut antithetical relationships. Politics is the murky water where politicians throw their nets in the hope of a big catch.

Young politicians bidding for political control, therefore, need to learn the ropes. The tickets, above all, belong to the party. Internal democracy, which is often misinterpreted and misunderstood by new entrants, encapsulates obedience to the procedure by old and experienced progressive politicians who are permanently disposed to consensus building, procedural articulation and guided process which the youths ignorantly question because they are in a hurry.

Another problem among the youth is that many of them lack ‘Plan B,’ which is vital to adjustment and survival in politics.

Aggrieved candidates, who failed the screening or were disqualified, either subjectively or objectively, are given an opportunity for redress or ventilation of grievances by the Screening Appeal Committee, chaired by another lawyer, Adeniji Kazeem (SAN). Also, aspirants who would miss the selection process as candidates today still have a chance to present their complaints to the party leadership, if they are not satisfied with the outcome of the exercise. The final say resides with the party.

Frivolous petitions are submitted to the party leadership for adjudication over disputes. Some people are calling for religious balance in some councils as if faith has ever determined the direction of Southwest politics. Others are raising eyebrows over the third term for some chairmen. So far, there is no allegation of ethnic bias. Lagos APC is for all Nigerians.

It is gratifying that the party is considering some concessions for women aspirants in the spirit of the Beijing Declaration. How the details would be worked out and the choice of the beneficiaries in some of the wards and councils is left to the party leadership.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be lagging a little. But to encourage dispirited party members, party forms are likely to be distributed free to aspirants. If a free and fair council poll is conducted by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), the main opposition party is likely to produce two or three councillors in two or three local governments. However, PDP is always assailed by the fear of domination by the ruling party during council elections.

The Labour Party (LP) is far behind, unmindful of the chance to bark and bite, at least, in some wards. It appears that Obedients, the fanatical supporters of Peter Obi, are only gazing at 2027.

Local government administration is important in a democracy. It is an essential pillar in the development of the grassroots. It is the closest unit of administration to the people. Therefore, those who steer the affairs of the councils should be men and women, not only of the parties but also of the communities. They should be willing to serve as drivers of development and not merely potential looters and embezzlers of the local treasury.

The verification by Lagos APC was an eye-opener. Some aspirants performed poorly during the screening. Some of them did not know why they wanted to be chairmen and councillors, the nature and challenges of the councils they wanted to serve and the sociology and even demography of the environment. Their motive was suspect.

The motivation for participation ought to be service to the community. But not all politicians subscribe to this idea. Some just want to be relevant. Others see politics, not as a vocation but as a career that attracts economic gains. Others merely seek relevance in their community settings.

Besides the tyros, some bigwigs are also in the race. Among them are former members of the Houses of Assembly and Representatives. There is a growing feeling that the councils would soon be bubbling because chairmen would have access to more funds because of local government autonomy.

The desire to corner the money, a very rampant malaise in many councils, conflicts with the vision of Asiwaju Tinubu, whose government expanded the administrative units to foster development at the grassroots by creating additional 37 LCDAs.

In the constitution, the functions of local government are outlined. The very conception of local councils underscores the peculiarities of the environment and makes the discharge of certain residual responsibilities, such as local works, markets, primary education and health, refuse disposal and intelligence gathering for security more compelling.

Local governments should serve as breeding places for future leaders at the state and federal levels. Early leaders, including Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and Tafawa Balewa, honed their administrative skills when they served as councillors in their respective local governments. The incoming chairmen should learn from these political ancestors.

The essence of a democratically elected council is to provide an opportunity for grassroots participation, inclusivity and a sense of belonging. Councils have the mandate to raise and spend funds to meet local needs in the areas of education, health and infrastructure development. These services are vital to public welfare. Residents of local councils deserve transparency and accountability from their elected representatives who must also live with them in the wards.

Today’s primary should produce competent candidates who will resume duties in July. On their shoulders rests the responsibility of mobilising for the party ahead of the 2027 general election. They need to work very hard to erase the memory of the 2023 embarrassing defeat against the party. A stitch in time saves nine.

The July local election is not likely to be competitive. Opposition parties are timid, uncoordinated, unprepared and bogged down by protracted crises.

But the APC chairmen and councillors coming on board should not take things for granted. They need to understand that governance at the grassroots is not leisurely. The greatest threat to democracy is to see public offices as avenues for self-aggrandisements.

The target of the incoming council leaders should be how to reinvent the vibrant eras of Adeyemi Lawson, Ganiyu Dawodu, Adeyinka Opeifa, Ademola Adenji-Adele, Kayode Olowu, Tayo Oyemade, Tunde Braimoh, Ganiyu Solomon, Jide Jimoh, Muniru Muse, Abiodun Mafe, Adewale Ayodele, James Faleke, and Dele Osinnowo.

Much is expected of Lagos councils. Many local government roads are in bad shape and primary health centres cry for resuscitation. Professionals should be attracted to strengthen the personnel gap at the councils. Regular staff training on project implementation and other local developmental priorities is crucial.

The councils need regular peer reviews and continual assessment of the chairmen. There is a need for effective supervision of the councils by the state government through the Ministry of Local Government and the House of Assembly, beyond the occasional verification or assessment visit by members of the Governance Advisory Council (GAC).

The national and state levels of governance will be better impacted when the councils perform their tasks honestly and diligently. For too long, there has been too much of putting the wrong foot forward among those at the helm of affairs in the councils. There must be a return to effective leadership and governance at this highly important but often overlooked stratum of political administration.

Lagos State has remained a model in governance. Its local councils must also be torchbearers for other parts of the country by achieving what even many other states cannot achieve. It is the quality of elected council chairmen and councillors that will make this happen.

May 10, 2025
Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s Presidency (2)

Proceeding from his incisive theoretical dilation on the intricacies and interstices of the concept of leadership and the intertwining theme of the dynamics of leadership -followership relationship, which was the focus of the first part of his treatise on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ‘trajectory to the throne’, Dr John Ekundayo in subsequent chapters of the book, dwells in concrete and exhaustive detail, on the diverse sociological, political, psychological, organizational as well as spiritual facets of the Jagaban of Borgu’s epochal ascendancy to the apex of the country’s political leadership. The book is a veritable rendition of the history of progressive leaders, parties and forces in contemporary Nigerian politics and traces Tinubu’s ideological disposition and philosophical orientation to the Chief Obafemi Awolowo -led school of progressive political thought and praxis in the First and Second Republics respectively.

Dr Ekundayo sketches in vivid and pungent prose Tinubu’s transition from the corporate world of the multinational oil conglomerate, Mobil Nigeria Ltd to the slippery and unpredictable terrain of partisan politics in Nigeria during the protracted and tortuous political transition programme of the military President, General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, his election to the Senate on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), from the Lagos West Senatorial District, his active, front line role in the SDP primaries in which M.K.O. Abiola emerged as presidential candidate of the party as well as the campaigns that culminated in the billionaire ‘s triumph at the polls in the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election.

He documents Tinubu’s courageous record at the vanguard of the momentous struggle that was waged by pro-democracy forces after the capricious and unjust annulment of the election, widely perceived as the fairest and freest in the country’s history, both for the actualization of the June 12 mandate and the withdrawal of the military from the political terrain to ensure a restoration of civil, representative governance. In this struggle, Tinubu proved his mettle as a committed fighter for the liberal values of open, plural democratic mode of governance, the sanctity of democratic rights and the rule of law as well as a society predicated on equity, justice and respect for human dignity.

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Dr Ekundayo sees his baptism of fire at this stage of his political career, a phase in which, like many others, he had to flee into exile as the goons of the Abacha military dictatorship fire-bombed his house on Victoria Island, Lagos, and sought to take his life as critical signposts on the path of his political evolution and the eventual fulfillment of his destiny as President of Nigeria.

The author dissects with clinical and meticulous care, the next phase in Tinubu’s political career when he emerged as elected governor of Lagos State in 1999 and served for two terms which came to an end on a euphoric and triumphant note in 2007 with the widespread acknowledgement that he had laid a solid foundation for the resuscitation and future accelerated growth of a once dormant commercial nerve center of Nigeria. The re-enginering of the state’s finances; overhauling of the public service orientation and functioning through innovations in Information, Communication and Technology; massive infrastructural modernization, expansion and renewal; the drawing up of a 25-year development master plan for the state and the establishment of several new parastatal organizations to enhance greater efficiency in critical sectors including transportation and traffic control, urban planning, security, building control and safety, environmental protection among others all attract the critical evaluation of Dr Ekundayo.

Taking particular note of the fact that of the six governors of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the Southwest, it was only Tinubu that survived the PDP’s electoral Tsunami in the 2003 elections, Ekundayo sees this as another significant milestone in the evolving political journey of Tinubu which was perhaps inevitable to help forge in him the steely disposition and fortitude necessary for him to triumph over adversity in higher and more sensitive stages of his political ascendancy especially given the formidable obstacles he constantly had to contend with on his onward March to the making of history. Thus, beyond the technocratic focus on governance in Lagos State under Tinubu, which incidentally is one of the author’s sphereres of specialization as an expert in project monitoring, management and control, Dr Ekundayo beams his searchlight on Tinubu’s emergent politics at this time.

He describes as a function of his vision and foresight, Tinubu’s decision to stay on in the decimated AD even when he remained the only governor of the party in the country, the last man standing, rather than engage in political vagrancy and peregrinations. He submits that “Thereafter, due to irreconcilable differences and his strategic insight and foresight, he jettisoned AD to form the Action Congress (AC), which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). At that time, some people thought it was a political miscalculation on the part of Asiwaju to have seemingly abandoned the platform that got him elected. Candidly, he saw what many others, especially his peers, at that time, did not see”.

Dr Ekundayo illustrates how the experience garnered by President Tinubu in rebuilding the progressive political base of the Southwest, following the electoral routing of the party in the region in 2003, facilitated his capacity to be at the forefront of helping to build a strong political platform to provide a viable alternative to the erstwhile behemoth, the PDP, that had become a liability to itself and the nation after 16 years in power by 2015. Thus, Tinubu played a critical catalytic role in forging, with other key leaders such as former President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Ogbanaya Onu, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the transformation of a loose coalition of the ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), as well as factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and PDP into the All Progressives Congress (APC) which has displaced the PDP as the ruling party at the centre since 2015.

As he puts it, “However, to many top-notch of PDP, the political savvy, skillfulness and sagacity of the enigmatic and Titanic Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) is the nexus ensuring the huge success of seemingly rag-tag ‘strange bedfellows’ that later culminated as the APC”. Quite apart from the skills in bridge building and networking across diverse ethnic, regional, partisan and religious cleavages in a complex polity like Nigeria, a necessity to meet the stringent conditions to win a presidential election, the author cites Tinubu’s ingenuity in identifying and nurturing talents who he aided to develop their leadership skills and, in turn, assume leadership positions as governors, Ministers, local government Chairmen, State commissioners, head of parastatal organizations, members of the state and national legislatures and key positions in the private sector, as another factor that later constituted an asset in his path to the presidency.

This was because in addition to being able to enjoy the support of these strategically placed individuals in his bid for the presidency, his role in mentoring and being a role model for them deepened his own political leadership skills and human resource management capacity in preparation for the challenges of the daunting challenges of President of the federal Republic of Nigeria. The author examines the contention in some quarters that, given Tinubu’s role as a ‘king maker’ with his facilitating the path to power for political actors at the sub national and national levels, he should not aspire to be ‘king’ as obtains in traditional African political systems where king makers do not ascend the throne.

He traces the root of the concept of ‘king maker’ in modern politics to the 16th Earl of Warwick in 1599 through its occurrence in countries like South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore and concludes that “Any aspirant could have a dream: you cannot stop a person from dreaming but followers in Nigeria should be interested in the trajectory of such personalities to the throne”.

Other factors analyzed in the book include controversies arising from the APC ‘s Muslim-Muslim ticket in a charged multi-religious polity like Nigeria, the several obstacles placed before Tinubu by powerful elements within his own party opposed to his ambition and his famous ‘Emilokan’ declaration during his campaign stop in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, signalling his determination to persist in the race and actualize his goal. In many parts of the book, the author serves us a scintillating political thriller that makes for exciting reading. He does not approach his writing in this book like a detached political analyst who strives to be emotionally distant from the subject of his inquiry.

Rather, he comes across as a convinced and passionate progressive ideologue himself who is personally deeply impressed in the struggle to actualize Nigeria’s potentials through active political participation. A key and recurrent theme that runs through the book is that even more critical than the requisite type of development-oriented leadership is the necessity for a vigilant, responsible, patriotic and public-spirited followership that holds leaders to account.

May 10, 2025
On NELFUND’s alleged missing billions

In a nation such as ours, where accusations of corruption often precede evidence, where sometimes media trials are staged and the war against corruption seems to be sensationally fought on the pages of the Nigerian dailies, tabloids and online media as well as TV screens, an agency like NELFUND finds itself fighting a familiar battle on the same turf owing to the recent allegations of fund mismanagement, a whooping N71.2 bn was alleged to be missing before the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC clarified its statement and claimed it was a misinterpretation due to an omitted word. Such a scenarios highlights Nigeria’s deep-seated skepticism toward government initiatives, here everyone in government is a rogue, just as every male lecturer in the Nigerian university is a lecherous sex monger who would willingly dole out marks for that rite of passage! While I am glad that such isnt the case, one however beleives that for NELFUND, such an agonizing event provides the agency a valuable opportunity to examine both our collective tendency to assume corruption and take steps to build lasting trust.

Nigeria’s history with public fund management has naturally conditioned many citizens to expect the abject worst from government agencies, now dont blame them when we are witnesses to billionaire generals and civilians who cannot really account for the cost lives they lived are still leaving even after leaving office. So when news broke suggesting N71.2 billion was unaccounted for, it fit neatly into the established narrative of public funds disappearing into private pockets. This immediate leap to skepticism, while understandable, can undermine promising initiatives before they have a chance to prove themselves.

NELFUND’s zero-human-interface digital system represents a genuine attempt to break this cycle. By removing opportunities for interference, the fund has created a system designed specifically to prevent the corruption Nigerians have grown to expect. This progressive approach deserves recognition and cautious optimism.

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I have listened to Akintunde Sawyer speak on issues bothering NELFUND and I must say that I find him or can describe him as a passionate chap jeen on easing the burdens of indigent Nigerian students who prior to the introduction of the student loans scheme had to carry out their academic work without any assurance of completing it owing to their lack of funds, many delved into a number of survival methods just to pay their fees and trust me some of these methods were unsavoury, thankfully the Tinubu administration is working miracles through such a policy and this is one policy we must all guard with our hearts and minds

While NELFUND’s digital implementation is commendable, several international best practices could further strengthen the agency’s operations and public trust:

The first will be the implementation of Real-Time Transparency Dashboards, just as countries

like Estonia and South Korea have revolutionized public trust through digital transparency. NELFUND should consider developing a public dashboard showing real-time fund allocations, disbursements, and beneficiary statistics (while protecting personal data). This would allow stakeholders to monitor operations without waiting for formal reports. I think they have this already but there is need to make its function quite seamless.

Further more, looking at successful student loan programs in Australia and the UK, one would find that they incorporate independent oversight bodies including academic experts, student representatives, and civil society members. NELFUND could create a similar multi-stakeholder committee with regular rotation of members to prevent capture by any group or cabal such a committee would report regularly to the MD and the Minister for Education, or probably still be empowered to publish their reports for the public.

Regular independent evaluations measuring both quantitative outcomes (number of beneficiaries, graduation rates) and qualitative impacts (career advancement, socioeconomic mobility) would demonstrate NELFUND’s commitment to its mission beyond mere disbursement. Even before this NELFUND can conduct yearly evaluations to see how student beneficiaries are performing academically, this way too could also help the agency fine tune its interventions to ensuring that these funds are most likely to achieve what they were originally intended for.

In countries like Canada and Germany have established structured channels for beneficiaries to report experiences and challenges. NELFUND should develop similar mechanisms to continuously improve based on student feedback, thus could help the agency disburse such funds in a quicker manner or arrest bottlenecks as presently witnessed within some tertiary institutions, at best NELFUND can establish NELFUND units within these institutions to help coordinate its activities within each institution, other channels too could be employed.

The premature accusations against NELFUND demonstrate the difficulty of building public trust in Nigeria’s current climate. However, the agency’s digital-first approach represents a promising departure from past practices.

NELFUND leadership should view the recent controversy not as a setback but as an opportunity to demonstrate unprecedented commitment to transparency. By adopting international best practices while addressing Nigeria’s unique educational challenges, NELFUND can become more than just another government agency—it can become a transformational force in Nigerian education and make the positives of Nigeria also happening to us in a very long time.

The students who depend on these loans deserve both effective management and our collective patience as this young institution establishes itself. In a nation where educational access remains deeply unequal, NELFUND’s success is not just about efficient fund management—it’s about creating pathways to opportunity for millions of young Nigerians, who though are indigent deserve an education.

May 4, 2025
Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s presidency (1)

Nigeria’s 2023 general elections was one of the most critical, eventful and competitive contests in the country’s electoral history. It was a contest in which the the country’s three major ethnic groups, the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba, had three formidable candidates in the race – now President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). President Tinubu ‘s tortuous and epochal path to his eventual victory presents a vivid scenario where reality unfolding before our very eyes often seemed stranger than fiction.

His path was laden with mines. Granite boulders were hauled in his path by forces determined to abort what the tenacious political gladiator obviously saw as his manifest historical destiny. A number of books have already been written on Tinubu’s singleminded pursuit of his purpose, his deft side stepping of booby traps and delicate manouvering to dodge poisonous arrows aimed at destabilizing, knocking him off course and cutting short his dream. And many works both on the historic contest and the man, Tinubu, by contemporary and future writers from diverse specializations and perspectives will continue to be turned out.

Not many analysts can confidently and honestly aver that they envisaged Tinubu’s victory both at the APC presidential primaries and the election proper on February 27, 2023. But in his book on the election titled ‘Tinubu: Trajectory to the throne’, published in 2022, a year before the election, Dr John M. O. Ekundayo, obviously wrote with the confident expectation that the incumbent President would prevail in the fierce battle. Spanning 262 pages, the book is divided into three major parts, which are further subdivided into 25 chapters and seven annexures. Given the author’s variegated educational background, cross-cutting, disciplinary intellectual nurturing and enriching professional experience, it is not surprising that he brings fresh and unique perspectives to bear on his interrogation of what he calls ‘Tinubu’s trajectory to the throne’.

This book is part historical narrative of the various events, incidents and episodes culminating in Tinubu’s eventual electoral triumph; it is part political analyses which x-rays the assorted political factors, variables and dynamics at play in the diverse power struggles in which Tinubu has been involved in his political career and evolution; it is part psychological investigation of the kind of steely disposition and determined mindset that propelled and motivated Tinubu to victory against phenomenal odds; it is part study of organizational politics and dynamics particularly with regard to Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, a period that was a critical phase in Tinubu’s systematic political evolution; it is part philosophical dilation on the purpose and essence of leadership and also part audacious spiritual, prophetic projection of a Tinubu victory that the author envisaged but which had not manifested at the time he was setting down his thoughts in writing.

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The author, Dr Ekundayo, obtained a B.Sc degree in Civil engineering from the then then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU and holds Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Organizational leadership from universities in Singapore and Malaysia. His academic interest in the dynamics of leadership -follower relationship substantially informs his study of President Tinubu’s politics and leadership and makes this book a unique intellectual offering and not another hagiogaphic sycophancy. Although a serious and rigorous work particularly in the essentially theoretical first part, Dr Ekundayo writes in the breezy, readable style of a seasoned columnist. His scientific cast of mind is evident in his clinical systematization and methodical dissection of his subject matter.

In the first two chapters of the book, Ekundayo explores various definitions of leadership while systematically guiding the reader through the assorted leadership models and styles identified in the literature on organizational and managerial leadership. These leadership typologies he discusses include transformational leadership, teansactional leadership, exemplary leadership, servant leadership, and situational leadership. He then goes on to focus on the elements of strategic leadership offering enriching insights into the processes of developing and nurturing appropriate driving visions on the part of leaders, motivating followers, charting a steady course, setting and achieving set targets, the essential nuggets of strategic planning and the psychological dimensions of organizational and political leadership.

Examining leadership as a dialectical “relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow, he succinctly defines leadership as “the process of influencing and facilitating an individual or group, within a context, to understand what what needs to be done to accomplish a mutual goal”. In the words of the author, one of the aims of the book is to provide “a window to learning strategic leadership as simplified and exemplified in practice by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in steering the ship of State in Lagos, especially in the adept and adroit manner he employed and exploited a robust combination of financial engineering and information communication technology (ICT) to shore up the economy of Lagos”. This theoretical framework offers the context within which the author goes on to examine in the book Tinubu’s navigation of the delicate pathway of power and politics in Nigeria’s complex polity.

May 3, 2025
PDP: Eclipse of Africa’s largest party

The raging imbroglio within the erstwhile flamboyant ruling party boils down to the absence of formidable, acceptable and unifying leadership that is capable of averting disintegration, fostering cohesion and restoring order. The current in-house pandemonium was avoidable.

These ailments assailed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), once prided as the largest party in Africa, as soon as it lost power at the centre. Until 12 years ago, it was the ruling party that loomed large over Nigeria for 16 years. The party that dreamt of ruling Africa’s most populous country for uninterrupted 60 years has run into turbulence. Its umbrella has been shredded. Its house is in commotion and on the verge of collapse.

In droves, PDP’s leading lights now sleep at night as loyal party members and wake up in the All Progressives Congress (APC). The latest was the entire Delta PDP structure, led by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, which was offloaded into the APC. The state’s former governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, also called it quits with the umbrella and embraced the broom, which has continued to sweep away opposition across the land. In fact, the former running mate to ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar hinted that the Wazirin Adamawa may also leave the PDP.

Atiku, who is coordinating some vague coalition talks, said the alliance train has left the station. But PDP governors said they were not aware and, therefore, not bothered by their 2023 presidential candidate’s solo journey. The implication is that the train left without many party faithful on board. And its destination remains unknown. Yet, it is engaging in what appears like multiple stops to look for vulnerable passengers. As the wary can perceive, the time of passengers in any train is temporary.

In the National Assembly, some PDP lawmakers have defected, premising their decisions on the protracted leadership crisis at the party’s national level. Their grievances were not ventilated. The party leadership that should broker peace is battling with conflicts. The key organs – the National Working Committee (NWC), the National Executive Committee (NEC), and the Board of Trustees (BoT) – are divided.

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Also, some PDP governors are speaking in parables. They are bidding for time. Their commitment to the party is waning. They cannot see a rallying point.

The decimation is worrisome to the few surviving founding fathers who at the twilight of their lives are witnessing a diminishing return in the life of the party. Deserted by the energy, vibrancy and agility of the early era, the influence of these pathfinders are waning. Unfortunately, latter-day inheritors of their legacies are mismanaging their achievements. These handlers are now the undertakers dispatching the party to its doom. They are not in one accord. So, they cannot put their house in order.

The journey to the future has been problematic. PDP was the party of democrats – esteemed elder statesmen; a mixture of progressive, liberal, conservative and reactionary players who realigned in 1998b but later succumbed to the influence of a tiny club of retired soldiers who drafted their past leader from retirement and set him over the bewildered country in a post-military era.

The old soldier could not adjust easily to civilian life as he continued to dictate, impose and coerce other chieftains to submission without going through the channels of consultations, debate and consensus building. Experienced politicians at the helm of party affairs were shoved aside, leading to leadership instability. In the last 26 years, PDP has produced 16 national chairmen – Alex Ekwueme, Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali, Vincent Ogbulafor, Ezekwesilieze Nwodo, Haliru Mohammed Bello (acting), Kawu Baraje (acting), Bamanga Tukur, Adamu Muazu, Ali Modu Sheriff, Ahmed Makarfi, Uche Secondus, Iyorchia Ayu and Umar Damagun (acting).

Five of them, at one time or the other – Gemade, Ogeh, Baraje, Muazu and Modu Sheriff – defected from the party.

After imposing the 2007 presidential candidate who rode to power on the back of a severely flawed election, the General stayed on for a while before tearing his party’s membership card. But his legacy of dictatorship, poor coordination and ‘do-or-die’ leadership style has endured.

In 1999, PDP was a national party sustained by some beliefs, vision and principles. Although it has never been an ideological party, it retained a fair idea of organisation and its founding fathers adopted zoning, rotation and power shift as convention, to foster equity, fairness, justice and a sense of belonging. The violation of the principle in 2015 contributed to its defeat at the presidential election.

Zoning is beyond the party. It is a national issue. The major parties are expected to adopt it in the selection of party officers and choice of presidential candidates. When it was ignored in 2015, the party paid dearly for it.

The death of President Umaru Yar’Adua was very painful. Despite the fact that he was imposed on the party by his predecessor, the belief was that zoning to the North favoured his candidature. Southern politicians often respect rotation, and they waited for their turn. It came before the expected time, barely after two years into the administration.

But his successor, having spent the remaining two years, and was also elected in 2011, subsequently violated zoning by re-contesting in 2015, when power was expected to rotate to the North.

Southern politicians in APC discovered an opportunity to team up with their northern counterparts to install Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as president. The import of that zoning is still lost on some northern presidential contenders in PDP as the country gazes at 2027. The South has a legitimate claim to four more years.

Inconsistency, lack of commitment and sacrifice, and the pursuit of selfish interests by some PDP leaders made many members to jump ship. An example was Atiku Abubakar, who left the party for the Action Congress (AC) in 2006/2007, only to return after the poll. Much later, he also abandoned the platform in 2014, only to retrace his steps in 2018. In those times when he defected from the PDP, his preoccupation was pulling down the platform. It is ironic that he returned to the fold to fly its flag at the presidential polls in 2019 and 2023.

PDP has also succumbed to regional pressures, making it to become a bully and threat to the interest of its southern members. The ethnic gang-up that produced Atiku as 2023 candidate and which made Aminu Tambuwal the ‘hero of the convention,’ created an impression of domination, exclusion, alienation and destruction of zoning, which was a strong factor in party unity and cohesion.

The feeling that a presidential candidate from the North can lean on the numerical strength of the region to intimidate the South has produced fatal results, which should make the manipulators to realise that ethnic superiority is a figment of hyperactive imagination. There is no zone that can solely install a president. That is why a wiser presidential candidate would construct a bridge of understanding between the North and the South, instead of over-reliance on his region of origin.

Also, PDP lacks an effective crisis resolution mechanism, which often makes intra-party conflicts to fester. That was the bedrock of the polarisation of the party ahead of 2015 elections.

That year, scores of PDP chieftains abandoned the party and teamed up with the APC. Some of them later returned to the PDP after joining forces with APC to frustrate its bid for power at the centre.

Failing to learn from the past, the party repeated the costly mistake in 2023 by shunning compromise and daring the ‘G-5,’ led by Nyesom Wike, a party financier who suffered the indignity of being betrayed at critical hours. He fought back. The consequence was that APC discovered a crack – a rejected stalwart became very useful to those who appreciated his worth.

APC has its own challenges too. But the difference between APC and PDP is effective leadership – the ability to commands respect, weave the interests represented by the different tendencies, make sacrifices, avoid self-service, and elevate collective interest over personal aspiration.

The PDP is facing a test of survival. How would the party resolve the zoning hurdle in 2027? Can it put its house in order, resolve the lingering leadership logjam, forgive and forget the past, choose a new chairman who can galvanise the party, restore discipline, assert party supremacy, promote equity, justice, fair play and due process, and face the future with confident hope and realism?

The answers lurk in the belly of time.

May 3, 2025
Any calming the Rivers of conflict?

The Nigerian political space can be as intriguing as it can be deeply confusing. The political actors can be hired by the greatest global film industries like Hollywood, Nollywood or even Bollywood and their performances would be top notch. The political actors in Nigeria are ever active in or out of season. There are no dull moments. Political analysts have somehow agreed that the Nigerian political theatre seems eternally active. The political environment can be riveting, opaque and confusing all at the same time.

While Nigeria adopted the American presidential model of democracy, many democratic structures that have taken roots in America are often very noticeably absent in the Nigerian model. There seems to be some ‘Ostrich-playing’ by the Nigerian political class as they seem to make no serious attempts to adopt those democratic structures that make the American model such an enduring even if imperfect legacy.

First of all, Nigeria has no strong political party structure that shows any ideological leaning. The political party funding empowers a few who then wield powers that stretch their influence and relevance. When this happens, the creation of the proverbial godfathers naturally enters the mix in ways that stands them on the mountains of influence. Candidates often emerge through undemocratic party primaries and that is where the electoral flaws begin. From the ward levels to the highest political party in the land, it becomes the survival of the fittest.

That Nigeria has one of the most litigious post-election cases stems from the flawed structures of the political parties as candidates are often not products of the will of the majority from intra-party primaries. The internal conflicts in the political parties show that there is something wrong with the political party structures. Many politicians oscillate from one political party to the other almost towards the beginning of a new campaign season with no sanctions. The Nigerian voting public is often not considered when these politicians make their moves based on political expediences.

This background is the foundation for the roles of political godfatherism in ways that have created huge problems in Nigerian democracy. Most party members seem to have little or no say in who emerges as candidates. This is exactly why a notorious politician in Anambra state once boasted that he, ‘installed every elected candidate from the Sweeper to the Speaker’. This rhetoric is often true of some other ‘very powerful’ members of the many political parties.

This backdrop seems to be the albatross of democracy in Nigeria at least since 1999. The governor Siminalayi Fubara odyssey in Rivers state seems a slice of a larger political dysfunction that pervades the whole country even if undocumented. His relationship with his former boss, former governor Nyesom Wike, now minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under whom he served the state as Accountant General is not far from the regular issues in Nigerian political space.

Many people believe that the declaration of the six-month state of emergency in Rivers state by President Tinubu was a needed intervention to restore order while others believe that it is as unconstitutional as it should not have a space in a democratic process. The Roundtable Conversation sought the views of two elder statesmen whose views on such national issues are always profoundly relevant.

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Dr.Kalu Idika Kalu is a foremost economist, former World Bank Economic Strategist, a two-time Minister of Finance, Minister of National Planning and Minister of Transport. To him, a state of emergency in a democracy should not be an option. He believes that the suspended governor Fubara ought to have been earlier held accountable for allegedly destroying part of the house of assembly building that belongs to the people. His precipitate action to allegedly prevent an impeachment move by the house members has no place in a democracy. He overreached himself with such a very reckless act. The law enforcement agencies ought to have waded in at that time to question the governor’s actions or inactions that led to the destruction of public property. This would have been the way to let even other governors realize that acting with impunity would not be tolerated.

A state of emergency rule that brings in a former military man should not be a solution to an obvious political problem. Political solutions are always more functional in democracies. As an economist, Dr. Kalu feels that democracies when made very functional stand a better chance of serving the people and guaranteeing economic growth. The alleged crisis between the suspended governor and the FCT minister could not have enhanced economic activities in the state neither did is encourage investment as investors prefer calm operating environments both politically and socially.

However, the renowned economist believes that the only redeeming feature under the circumstance would be for the sole administrator, Rtd. Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas to make sure that as a citizen who has served the country in a very high capacity, he works in the six months to retain democratic structures and not dig in more military structures through committees or other undemocratic institutions. He must work as an arbiter whose temporary job is to foster peace and calm the polity. He should consult more with the stake holders without being partisan. He should discuss with the traditional rulers and the other relevant demographics whose roles are reconciliatory.

His six-month stay would make a calming difference depending on his efforts at walking the democratic routes even as a retired military man. There is no room for command and control. His contribution to democracy should be evident in his ability to just take actions that would amount to an improved welfare of the people through wide consultations. The aim of governments in a democracy is to enhance the welfare of the people. He must not through his actions give the impression of any form of partisanship or taking sides. His eyes must be to extend his legacy of service to the nation through this role. The suspended governor and the house of assembly members on the other hand must recalibrate and understand that two months is almost gone and they must use this period for introspection to serve the people better.

Mr. Lade Bunola, popularly called Ladbone in media circles is a veteran journalist whose footprints are boldly marked in Nigerian print media practice. He was the former Managing Director of The Guardian Newspapers and now sits on the board of many others. He is a multi-award winner from several media and non-media organizations. His, ‘Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence’ from the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism speaks to his value. As a veteran journalist, he believes strongly in the role of the media as the watchdog of every democracy. He believes that media must not let the baton fall from standing firm in defense of democracy.

As regards the state of emergency in Rivers state, Ladbone believes that more democratic options ought to have been applied to resolve the political issues in the state. The President ought to have applied dialogue to resolve the political issues between the suspended governor Fubara, his political mentor, Nyesom Wike and some of the house of assembly members. He believes it is unconstitutional for a president to remove a governor because they both enjoy the mandate of the people that elected them. The fact that some other president made the same mistake does not make it right.

The constitution lays out clearly the process through which a governor can be removed and that is through well-laid out impeachment processes that includes the active involvement of the state Chief judge that is mandated to set up a committee to investigate the alleged infractions by a governor after which a required number of votes must be collected before an impeachment goes through.

He believes the president could have employed dialogue by possibly engaging some of the respected voices of the region like the former governor or Akwa Ibom state, Chief Victor Attah, King Alfred Diete-Spiff and other notable traditional rulers. Even though the public might not be privy to the security reports that necessitated the state of emergency, dialogue with the different warring parties would have been a better option if our democracy must be nurtured to grow. In democracy, politicians must understand that winning is not permanent, sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. All processes are listed in the constitution and must be followed in ways that there is the maintenance of law and order.

An intervention would have calmed a Wike while governor Fubara would be made to understand that his mentor deserves respect too and severing relationship with him is not the most ideal thing to do. Prior to the court process, the assembly members that defected to another party ought to lose their seats and then another election held which would have them re-contest and the voters given the chance to either give them their mandate under another party or to reject them at the polls.

Ideally, if the President had explored other options other than the emergency rule by a sole administrator, the issues might have been better resolved and the governor re-instated faster than the six-month tenure while the peace-building continues between the tripartite teams; governor Fubara, his alleged godfather Nyesom Wike and some of the House of Assembly members. Peace would be achievable but it needs more efforts and the acceptance of the fact that no one person or political party must win all the time. Democracy is like a swinging door that rotates victories and loses.

The Roundtable Conversation believes that Nigerian political actors must be willing to play by the rules so that our democracy would thrive and begin to have dividends that can be progressively functional. We must restructure the political system to align with the functional tenets of democracy by handing power solely to the people through intra-party democracy that cascades into almost flawless electoral processes. When this happens, there would be less post-election rancor and ultimately zero need for such an intervention as the Rivers situation.

• The dialogue continues…

May 3, 2025
Upfront wages: Who does that?

We have bungled the process of securing the sole qualification ticket for the 2026 World Cup due to the administrative tardiness prevalent in the Dankaro House in Abuja. What is imperative now is how we use the lessons learned from our shambolic outings so far to guide us in winning all our home matches ahead of the 2030 edition. Super Eagles have played four home games in this series without any victory, despite parading a former Africa Footballer of the Year, Victor Osimhen and the incumbent holder of the African diadem, Ademola Lookman. If the Eagles had won three of their four home games, the country wouldn’t be requiring us to do any permutations in nicking the sole qualification in Group C.

New Zealand, Japan, Iran, Argentina, the United States (US), Mexico, and Canada have already qualified for the 2026 World Cup, with the last three nations (US, Mexico and Canada) qualifying as the co-hosts of the competition. Not for the first time is FIFA toying with the co-hosting competition for the most prestigious soccer tournament in the world – the senior World Cup. If it had her plans correctly executed, the Eagles would qualify for the 2026 Mundial, having two or three matches left as we did at the 1998 World Cup qualifiers with the White Witch Doctor, Phillipe Troussier as the Head Coach.

The first lesson learned from our pre-World Cup games is that the NFF chieftains refused to get the Super Eagles a top-rated foreign coach befitting of our players’ stature. We have thus far used five coaches not forgetting the dictum of too many cooks spoiling the broth. How could the NFF have committed this flaw knowing that for qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar all the participating countries received over $12 million as qualification bonus? Don’t we know that with the next edition being co-hosted by three nations that the logistics during the competition would be much? Common sense tells us that the qualification bonus would almost be hitting the roof. What a huge loss in the event that the country fails to qualify for the Mundial.

The pedigree of the new Eagles foreign coach to be recruited would determine the quality of international matches the Super Eagles would play in the next five years. Nigeria has been slated to play three international friendly games in Moscow against Russia on June 6 and the United Cup tournament in London later in June and the NFF and Coach Eric Chelle are up in arms over the kind of players to pick for the matches. When will these people ever be serious, dear reader? You tell me.

Sadly, these matches won’t attract any points for Nigeria in FIFA’s monthly rankings, making it imperative to ask to what intent and purpose are these arranged friendlies? Which European club would release their players for such meaningless games? No player would risk his career to play such games only to be injured. What are the security and other guarantees in place for the game against Russia in Moscow on June 8? A non-FIFA ranking game for that matter. How safe is Moscow? Isn’t this another case of failure of leadership?

How much are the organisers offering if the results of the matches won’t improve our FIFA ranking? Those federation members angling for domestic league players to be included in the squad to prosecute these games certainly have a hidden agenda. Have they considered the difficulties associated with securing entry visas for first time travellers out of the country? Did I hear the whisper of Notre Verbal? Perish that thought with the federation’s way of doing things? Shouldn’t Chelle be allowed to pick those he wants other than having his hands tied to his back?

Wait a minute. Where in the world have we heard of coaches being paid their wages upfront for close to ten months? What is so special about such a sinister method now that we know that the European season is heading towards a close with many countries set to take stock towards a successful 2025/2026 season?

This is the second time one would be writing about the need for the NSC boss to stand aside and allow the NFF chieftains to run their show. This way, the NSC can play its supervisory roles when the need arises.

Imagine the NSC boss telling us that Super Eagles Head Coach, Chelle would be paid upfront until October. The questions the NSC boss ought to have asked those who introduced that style of payment would be what Chelle would be doing after May 31, if he isn’t already in Nigeria? The other questions would be to ask which country does that and why we chose to pay a man for doing nothing simply because he is a football coach? Who cursed Nigeria like this? Did Nigeria beg Chelle to coach Nigeria? Wasn’t he one who applied for the job and went through the screening exercises before he was selected? What is this upfront payment meant to achieve? Pity! We don’t learn from history.

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“It’s not the commission paying directly, the support group is providing relief so the NFF can focus on other critical needs,” Shehu Dikko said in an interview on Eagle 7 FM Sports Radio.

“We are processing his payment upfront. The idea is to settle him completely, so he can concentrate on getting the team to the World Cup.

“We’re not part of the contract. But we’re committed to ensuring the coach has all the support he needs. After all, this is about Nigeria. If we can help, we will. And we are doing just that.

“The bonuses were paid immediately. While the players were still at dinner, before they had even showered, the money was already on the table. That level of organisation shows respect and commitment,” he said.

What a pity! My dear chairman, when would we stop this rubbish of showing the world that we are a wealthy country? Did Mali pay Chelle upfront when he was their coach? Certainly not. Is this upfront clause contained in his contract? If yes, who signed such a document on Nigeria’s behalf/ If no, why pay a coach who lives outside the country watching our boys during their club games to guide him in picking the country’s best for international assignments?

For the 2030 edition to be a stroll in the park, the leadership at the Dankaro House must go pending the outcome of the federation’s election which would be the most controversial, except the incumbent board implements the changes as espoused by the 10-year development plan committee headed by one-time NFF Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima. The leadership has failed in all ramifications as it appears the last NFF board was better than this, unfortunately.

A leadership which would have cost Nigeria her passage into the 2018 World Cup by their administrative tardiness in fielding an ineligible Shehu Abdulahi in a deadpan last game against Algeria in Constantine, ought to have been sacked. Not so in Nigeria. He has since then been granted two extensions to his contract. Yet, we expect changes. No chance.

May 3, 2025
Pastor Tunde Bakare and the state of the nation

Understandably, the nationally televised address by former presidential aspirant and head of the Global Community Citadel Church based in Lagos at Easter, has generated widespread and diverse reactions as his public interventions always do. Aiming severe blows at the President Bola Tinubu administration, the fiery critic contended that an urgent change of course in the government’s policies on security and the economy was imperative to avert a popular uprising in the country. In the light of renewed killings in states like Plateau, Benue, Zamfara, Adamawa and Borno, to cite a few, Bakare, rightly, warned that the country is being driven toward the brink. But inexplicably, he attributed the resurgent violence and insecurity to “the motor park brand of politics nurtured by the old brigade politicians and, in recent times, by President Bola Tinubu“.

Pray, what exactly is this ‘motor park brand of politics’? The good cleric does not give a definition or description. He asserts but makes no attempt to demonstrate logically or empirically. If we knew what this motor park politics actually is, for instance, we would know how to relate it to newly rising cases of herders attacks on farming communities in the North Central, Boko Haram violence in Borno or Banditry in parts of the North-West. It is a largely unhelpful and unproductive criticism. Is the pastor saying that the Tinubu administration has folded its arms and done nothing whatsoever to tame insecurity that has persisted for nearly two decades and worsened steadily as the country’s economic fortunes continually declined? But the administration has scaled up budgetary funding of defense and security including procurement of new military equipment and enhanced use of science and technology to safeguard lives and property.

And the result has been evident in the course of the first nearly two years of the administration with the rapid decline of extremist religious violence, banditry and the unleashing of bloody violence on farming communities by rampaging herdsmen who unconscionably feed planted and harvested crops to their cattle. So what is responsible for the recent deterioration in the security situation? Is it that the security forces have lost steam and let down their guard? Can this new escalation of destabilizing insecurity be at the instigation of desperate and disgruntled opposition politicians out to discredit the current government as the race towards the 2027’general elections intensifies? These are questions the administration must find answers to if it is to get to the root of the matter and provide effective and sustainable solutions.

In one of his recommendations to address current national problems, Pastor Bakare advocated “restructuring security into local, state, and zonal forces” as well as “empowering a nonpartisan Directorate of National Intelligence’. Here, he strikes the nail on the head. It is overwhelmingly agreed that there must be urgent restructuring and decentralization of the security architecture to make it more effective, efficient and efficacious for a federal society. The nation faces an existential crisis and the prevailing security structure is obsolete and all too obviously not fit for purpose.

Pastor Bakare forcefully condemns the declaration by President Tinubu of a State of Emergency in Rivers State. He sees it as unwarranted, unconstitutional and undemocratic. Unfortunately, he is not privy to the security reports which must have been key to the President’s decision on the matter. But even then, that at least two pipelines were blown up as earlier threatened by pro-governor Siminaliyi Fubara youth elements if impeachment proceedings were commenced against him, is in the public domain. And in an interview on national television last week, a key actor in the Rivers State crisis, the FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, said that his preference, but for the state of emergency, was the outright removal from office of Fubara through impeachment.

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That would surely have led to stiff resistance from Fubara ‘s supporters particularly given the ethnicization of the crisis with the real possibility of plunging a state so critical to the national economy down the path of anarchy. It is doubtful if Tinubu’s decisive and swift resort to emergency measures to check the downward spiral can still be credibly questioned against this background. It is also curious that, as a lawyer, Bakare appears to be quite at peace with the demolition of the premises of the State House of Assembly by the executive to thwart a suspected bid to impeach Fubara and the subsequent running of the state by the governor with four out of 32 members of the House. This followed the farcical invalidation of the seats of the 27 pro-Speaker Amaewhule members by the minority In four members for allegedly decamping to the APC. Being human, the radical pastor’s position on some issues is also so obviously influenced, perhaps subconsciously, by partisan inclinations.

However, the imperative of statesmanship and the benefit of his vast political experience demands that President Tinubu utilize the authority and influence of his office to facilitate an enduring and speedy resolution of the Rivers crisis so that democratic normalcy can be speedily restored and there will be no need to extend the emergency. This will entail getting Wike in particular to toe the path of restraint, rectitude and wisdom given the triumph of his side in the absolutely avoidable power struggle.

Its approval of the President ‘s emergency declaration in Rivers is one of the reasons for Bakare ‘s savage put down of the National Assembly as spineless, unprincipled and no better than a pliant and pliable rubber stamp of the executive arm of government. A combative, adversarial and confrontational legislature continually up in arms against the executive would apparently be more to the pastor’s liking and more in tune with his own radical and activist temperament and disposition. But the legislature has the institutional and democratic right to opt for the strategy of constructive engagement with the executive without recourse to rancorous but unproductive populism. After all, we can still recall how Bakare ‘s seemingly preferred adversarial style, adopted by the Dr Bukola Saraki-led 9th National Assembly, created paralysis in governance for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration with negative implications for national development.

Interestingly, the same National Assembly, so scurrilous denounced by Bakare, in approving the declaration of the State of Emergency in Rivers, modified the Presidential proclamation by removing the supervisory authority over the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, from the purview of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to an ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives. The 20-member Committee set up to supervise Ibas, headed by the Leader of the House, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, has had an interactive session with the Sole Administrator in Abuja and he has promised to furnish the legislators with a detailed report of his activities so far at the next scheduled meeting. This is not an irredeemably pro-executive legislature after all, despite its admitted shortcomings like all human organizations not excluding Pastor Bakare ‘s Global Community Citadel Church.

The pastor rightly highlights the current harsh existential conditions in the country with poverty levels rising higher as a result of the implementation of ongoing economic reforms such as removal of the fuel subsidy and merger of the previous parallel foreign exchange markets to eliminate opportunities for corruption -laden arbitrage. He is intellectually honest enough to state that much of the economic problems were inherited as well as being systemic while also acknowledging some of the gains of the reforms. However, in parts of his address, he seems to insinuate that there are viable alternatives to these reforms but does not concretely specify what these are.

The relatively detailed policy alternatives he outlines appear to me to be sophisticated and fashionably attractive repackaging of some of the measures already being implemented in pursuit of the reform agenda. However, he makes the pertinent point that corruption is still prevalent and that humongous amounts of corruptly acquired resources still lie in private hands. Bakare ‘s suggestions as regards retrieving such stolen resources and utilizing them for national developmental purposes, which in my view is an urgent imperative, appear not only lacking in concreteness but are idealistic and romantic. But for his quite inexplicable and frankly unfruitful diversionary forays into partisan politics, Bakare ‘s often clinical, passionate and patriotic interventions in public course would have been significantly more impactful. Thus, it was so easy for instance, for the relentless Reno Omokri to attribute his fiery denunciation of the Tinubu administration as arising from bitterness engendered by Bakare ‘s loss to the President in the APC presidential primaries.

May 3, 2025
Needless alarm on one party state

As at June 30, 2007, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in control of 31 of the 36 states in the country. The defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) produced the governors in Yobe, Kano, Bauchi and Borno states while the defunct Action Congress (AC) had Lagos State. Between them, the opposition was in power only in five states. In one of the worst ever elections in Nigeria’s history in 2003, the then ruling PDP rampaged to power in the Southwest with hurricane PDP sweeping five defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) off their gubernatorial perch. Despite the 2003 general elections turning the country virtually into a one-party dominant state, with the PDP further consolidating its political dominance in the no less brazenly rigged 2007 elections, there were no alarmist outcries of the ruling party turning Nigeria into a one-party state. PDP stalwarts at the time gleefully asked those who felt aggrieved by its undisguised electoral Banditry to “go to court”.

As the only man standing as a governor on the platform of the AD in 2003, the Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, did not whine and throw tantrums. PDP chieftains particularly in Lagos State boasted that the country’s Socio-economic nerve centre and commercial capital would be ‘captured’ in the next electoral cycle and that Tinubu would have no choice but to cross to the ruling party. But Tinubu stayed the course. He remained firm and steady in opposition. Working with the former AD governors, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Chief Bisi Akande, the late Alhaji Lam Adeshina and the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati, the Jagaban Borgu led the way in wresting the Southwest back to the progressive fold.

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In the North, former President Muhammadu Buhari stood strong in opposition first in the ANPP and later in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Buhari and Tinubu ultimately led a merger of political forces that included part of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and aggrieved faction of the ruling PDP to form the APC that dislodged the PDP from power in 2015. With the recent root and branch relocation of the entire PDP structure to the APC in Delta State,the alarm bells that President Tinubu is turning Nigeria to a single party dictatorship have reached a crescendo. It is needless and time wasting. Tinubu and his party are not expected to turn away those flocking to them. There is nothing new about opposition politicians rushing to join the ruling party. It is a key feature of our political culture which was manifest even during the PDP’s 16 years in power.

The PDP still has scores of loyal, committed and credible members who have not abandoned the party. They include Bode George, Sule Lamido, Lyol Imoke, Tom Ikimi and so many others. They should rally to confront and transcend the party’s current paralysis in the interest of Nigeria’s democracy. The existence of a viable and vibrant opposition – not just temporary ramshackle contraptions to win elections – cannot be compromised.

May 3, 2025