The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Oluremi: First Lady of Renewed Hope (1)

    Oluremi: First Lady of Renewed Hope (1)

    She is a First Lady with a difference; an Amazon behind the throne, a great companion of the Commander-in-Chief and a dependable ally in the unity of service to the country and humanity.

    Her antecedents aptly prepared her for the pre-eminent, special and strategic role. She has been a teacher and moulder of character and lives; a successful wife and mother of promising children; an astute politician and experienced public officer; a cleric, humanist and philanthropist. Her worldview is shaped by varied experiences. She knows her onions.

    Her strength lies in her power of ideas, initiative and compassion for the indigent, particularly vulnerable women and youths. She is held in high esteem for her clear sincerity, focus, and resolve to succeed in tasks that add value and promote public welfare.

    In private and public life, she stands out as an asset, a trusted and dynamic leader in her own right. She has a lucid understanding of her household’s responsibility to the nation at a time of greater expectations. In over three decades of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s illustrious career as a senator, a governor and now President, she has remained a devoted confidant and an example of utmost fidelity and commitment in times of pleasure and pressure.

    Oluremi Tinubu, Yeye Asiwaju of Lagos, three-term senator, wife of the President and First Lady of Nigeria, is now a role model for women in Africa. She carries the roles with grace, charm, charisma, maturity, dignity, influence, time management, discipline of mind, mobilisation prowess, service orientedness and socio-economic enlightenment. This may have informed her election as a member of the Steering Committee of the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD), the highest decision-making body of the organisation.

    She is setting a new example of reorientation with emphasis on anti-HIV/AIDS campaigns, advocacy against early marriages, genital mutilation, child labour, and the essence of educating the girl-child.

    As the First Lady, Oluremi has not misused any presidential privilege. Her focus is women and youth empowerment, reminiscent of her duty and obligation when she was the wife of Lagos State governor in the first eight years of the current dispensation. At that time, her New Era Foundation projected her as a first lady of philanthropy, ploughing back to the society that offered her an enviable opportunity to excel.

    Her contributions to the attainment of federal power can only be rightly captured in future reminiscences in a memoir by her beloved husband.

    Oluremi deployed her networks as a federal parliamentarian. During the critical period, she donated more than inspiration and emotional support, a life of worship, fasting and prayers, galvanising the womenfolk who saw her as their loyal representative and believed her shared promise of ‘renewed hope’.

    As the First Lady, she hit the ground running, maintaining a focus on giving succour to her primary targets, the deprived and the indigent. Oluremi has combined the good qualities of her predecessors – Flora Azikiwe, Victoria Gowon, and Maryam Babangida. But she is poles apart from the covetous lot in other climes; the tribe of arrogant first ladies focused on the primitive accumulation of gold and jewellery, which they, nevertheless, will not take to their graves.

    The First Lady also carries other messages to women in politics and public life; in fact, she has something for men who think they can always dominate their women counterparts. It is the wish of Her Excellency that the gaps created by gender barriers should be bridged through inclusion. But women should also be vigilant, show more interest and avoid pulling down fellow women out of jealousy. Thus, Oluremi often urges women to rally behind one another for political office, emphasising the importance of solidarity, goodwill and mutual support in leadership.

    Her activities as the visioner of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) are unique. Driven by the passion for equitable public welfare for the less privileged, the First Lady has packaged RHI as a vehicle for alleviating poverty, scholarship for students, economic empowerment, financial assistance to the aged and assistance to women in agriculture.

    It is interesting that Mrs. Tinubu, having set a model, has also mobilised and encouraged wives of governors across the 36 states to creatively replicate the activities of the RHI in their domains. They see her as a mother figure and source of inspiration in the gospel of empowerment.

    Although there is no constitutional role for the First Lady, Mrs. Tinubu fills a void in service delivery and beneficiaries of her interventions appreciate her contributions to their wellbeing.

    Within the first 100 days of the current administration, 43 students from different states and geo-political zones received scholarships under the RHI. The motivation was her eternal belief in education and skills acquisition as guarantors of life enhancement, employability, self-reliance, socio-economic uplifting, and political consciousness.

    Under the programme, girls in Bauchi State savour the benefit of ICT education through the ‘Alternative High School for Girls.’ The school assists those who may have faced obstacles, including early marriages and lack of support.

    The ‘One Nigeria Unity Fabric Competition,’ which showcases the creative ingenuity of youths, also inspires the spirit of enterprise. The winner was entitled to N25 million. It was a boost to talent, giftedness, and spirit of industry.

    Read Also: First Lady Oluremi Tinubu donates food items to vulnerable women in Borno

    The flag-off of the RHI agricultural support programme in the six geo-political regions encourages women to till the soil and reap bountiful rewards for their labour. At the initial stage, no fewer than 20 women from each zone got N500,000 each. It is a programme done in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Also, the special population was taken into consideration as 100 people with disabilities received N100,000 each.

    The Food Outreach Programme under the RHI’s Social Investment Scope was launched in March last year in Abuja. No fewer than 80 women in each of the 36 states were later targeted for empowerment. In October last year, Senator Tinubu launched the RHI Food Outreach in Ekiti State, with the distribution of food items to people living with disabilities, widows, special schools, and other vulnerable groups. The goal is to boost the productive energies of women, tackle hunger and poverty, and end food deficit in accordance with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration. RHI also distributed N1.9 billion to 9,500 elderly citizens nationwide.

    Under the scheme, scholarships and free laptops were also given to each of the rescued students of the Federal University at Dutsinme in Katsina State while each of their parents also got N2 million.

    In Borno State, 5,000 women who were victims of the Maiduguri flood disaster received N250 million. The victims of tanker explosions in some parts of the country also received the First Lady’s financial support.

    Of concern to Mrs. Tinubu was the plight of 500 displaced Mangu families. They received N1 million each.

    This week, 500 women from each state in the Northcentral, namely: Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), got empowerment items, including deep freezers, grinding machines and cooking gas/ovens. Indeed, 18,500 women across the country will ultimately benefit from the scheme.

    In Niger State, 500 women went home with various items, such as deep-chest freezers, maxi gas cookers with microwave ovens, generator sets, and industrial grinding machines.

    In Maiduguri, over 9,000 bags and cartoons of food items were donated to vulnerable women. The items included 3,000 units of 25kg bags of rice, 2,000 units of 50kg bags of sugar, 2,000 gallons of vegetable oil and 2,000 cartons of pasta.

    It is not the money that is donated that is the main issue. The more important lesson is the noble intention of showing empathy, sympathy and affection to those hitherto neglected, the extension of a duty of care to one’s neighbour.

    The latest outstanding contribution of the First Lady is the distribution of professional kits to trained midwives in the North as part of a broader national effort to equip frontline health workers with essential tools to enhance maternal and child healthcare.

    When it comes to doing good, Senator Oluremi is predictable. Like her husband, she hates poverty. Her philanthropy transcends Nigeria. Worried by the plight of people in war-torn Liberia, she built a school in the devastated capital, Monrovia.

    To observers, the First Lady is building on her Lagos legacy. Her New Era Foundation survived her tenure as wife of the Lagos governor and architect of modern Lagos. From that impressive performance, she entered the soap box, and the hidden virtues of an empathic politician unfolded. Mrs. Tinubu became a researcher, mobiliser, organiser, political host, party leader, and effective political and public speaker. She bares her mind on critical national issues, including electoral reforms, integrity of the ballot box, increased roles for women in democracy, party membership drive, women empowerment and social security for the elderly.

    While she was in the Senate, Mrs. Tinubu was not a bench warmer. She also never became an Abuja politician who forgot her home. It is on record that Mrs. Tinubu canvassed for special federal economic assistance for Lagos as the nation’s economic nerve centre. Up to now, that quest for a special status has remained a tall order.

    However, today, the entire country is her constituency where she has to expand the scope of her battle for a better and improved life for women in urban and rural areas, and where the 36 wives of the governors are expected to draw inspiration from her activities and creatively replicate them in their respective states.

  • Akpabio vs Natasha: Letter to women politicians

    Akpabio vs Natasha: Letter to women politicians

    Nigeria is a country contradictions and ironies. The most populous black nation on earth with a vibrant youth population but where productivity is low and consumerism reigns supreme. It is a land blessed with both human and natural resources including oil but with a staggering 137million leaving in multi-dimensional poverty. It is a nation with some of the most educated Africans but with more than 20million out-of-school children.

    Nigeria has some of the most fertile lands and with a friendly all year weather but where food insecurity is giving a harvest of physically and mentally retarded malnourished kids. With the high illiteracy of women comes the high incidents of low life expectancy because illiteracy and poverty especially of women cannot yield good results. Maternal and child mortality is very high. It is just logical because any nation that does not invest in comprehensive healthcare, agriculture and education will logically harvest these outcomes.

    Democracy has been described as the best form of government due to it being centered on the people as it is a government of the people, for the people and by the people. There is no mention of gender in the definition of democracy. Ironically, even monarchies seem to be gender-blind as most monarchies especially the ones done by inheritance often give women a chance to be functional queens. The late Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was queen for more than 70 years.

    Nigeria practices the American Presidential model of democracy. Somehow, it is merely in form and not necessarily in practice. To start with, the political party structure in America imperfect as it might be is based on defined ideological models. The Republican and Democratic parties, the two most dominant political parties operate under identifiable ideological lines. The Red and Blue identities speak loudly of either side of the aisle.

    Nigeria’s earliest  political parties, the NCP, the NCNC, the AG, etc. were somehow fired by ethnic and religious leanings and so each region seemed to have been dominated by ethno-religiously rooted political parties.  This has largely been the albatross of the Nigerian state. Development has been difficult because of flawed military interventions and politics fired by mundane colorations. With time, more political parties were formed but were still fired by the same parochially unproductive sentiments that informed the earliest post-independent political parties.

    However, the Nigerian socio-political environment is male-dominated with sprinkles of cultural and religious sentiments equally influenced by the colonial history of mono governance. Even the earliest female political players are often omitted when the country references active players of the period. So the rhetoric is always, “our heroes past” leaving out the heroines of the time like Gambo Sawaba, Funmilayo Rasome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo and many other heroic women of the period.

    Today the male dominance of the political field in Nigeria is a continental if not global embarrassment.  Smaller countries like Liberia, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi etc have all produced female presidents. These are countries Nigerians often describe as ‘small’ countries. Kenya has seven female governors up from four in 2017. The women pushed for a constitutional review that made it unconstitutional for any single gender to occupy more than two thirds of any elective position. That is development. Nigeria has never had q woman nominated by any political party as president. There has never been an elected female governor or Vice President.

    Rwanda, the African phoenix rose from the ashes of a 1994 genocidal war to become the world’s number one country in female representation in parliament with about 60.1%. Circumstantial as that may be, this fact has been noticed through the progress the country has made. Rwanda has become a big insetment and tourism hub in Africa. This is a testament to the value inclusion brings to the development table. Liberia was stabilized after the war by the presidency of former president Eileen Johnson Srileaf who the women of Liberia sacrificed everything to bring to power seeing what they had suffered during the male-induced and powered war.

    As the world watches with dismay the drama in the Nigerian Senate between the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and the Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, for the second time in less than a year, the Roundtable Conversation has a message for the women in Nigerian politics. As analysis and counter analysis go on around the incident that happened in the senate between the two senators, it is again time to call for a better strategy by the Nigerian women in politics rather than dwelling on mere analysis.

    We might not yet fully understand the socio-political undercurrents that have led to the issues between Senators Akpabio and Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. The duo is in the eye of the storm for a second time. The first time was the Senate President using the Nightclub innuendo as political satire while addressing  Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan during plenary a few months ago. There was outrage and he later apologized and whipped up all the socio-political emotional PR to douse the national tension over allegations of misogyny given that he had equally crossed parts with another female Senator, Ireti Kingibe.

    The Senate President is however not new to controversies of such nature as he had as Minister of Niger Delta had public confrontation with the former Interim MD of the NDDC, Dr. Joy Nunieh who claimed she had slapped the then minister  Akpabio for alleged sexual harassment. Again, a Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan has alleged some sexual harassment by the same Senate President Akpabio yesterday on Arise TV Morning Show as journalists wanted to find out her side of the story over the incident.

    As expected, there have been various angles to the incident with varied interpretations and many alleging marginalization of women not just in the National Assembly where out of 109 senators, there are just 4 females making it just about 2.7%. Out of 360 House of representative members, there are just about 17 women or 4.7%. With the declining number of women in the apex law-making arm of the government, progress cannot come to the country. Women bear the brunt of poverty and underdevelopment so something must give.

    For state assemblies, there is an abysmally low female representation. To think that the legislature is the arm that makes laws in a democracy, it is horrifying that some state assemblies have no single female! What this means is that in those state assemblies, men and only men make laws about issues that affect women most of which they have no knowledge nor experience about. Development cannot happen with lopsided representations. No bird flies with one wing.

    So as analysis and counter analysis go on about gender injustice and exclusion  in Nigeria politics, again, the Roundtable Conversation has the same recurrent message for the Nigerian women in politics. Insist on internal party democracy. Fight for inclusion for party leadership positions that is where the power is. Stop accepting to be WOMEN LEADERS. That is the first acceptance of second class citizens. There are no MEN LEADERS. What you have and which makes men the most powerful political operators has no gender prefix. The are just party leaders.

    Read Also: Natasha-Akpabio row: Seat arrangement not a gender issue, says Shaibu

    Women should stop working for men given the proactive roles of the female demographic in voting. The women in politics should stop being errand girls to men who more often than not, they are more qualified and more experienced than. A Rosa Park needed no man to force her to sit down to make the history she made. AN Eileen Johnson-Sirleaf did not emerge Liberian President by being Woman Leader.

    Make no mistakes about it, women can organize themselves internally as groups and possibly have leaders but not on a political party structure as mere political appendages to men. It has not worked, it will never work. The lamentations about the experiences of most women in politics happen because Nigerian women erroneously assume men will be their savior.  The men gain from the status quo so they can’t fight your battles for you. Politics is not a tea party. The male privileges are enormous and they work together to grab power. Women must be ready to resist the bullying and name calling meant to discourage them from political participation and the onus is on the women who are  armed with education and experience to be at the forefront. A they say in social parlance, ‘pick-misism’ can never save women. Lamentations cannot be a solution. Women must resist the urge to be seen as religio-culturally complaint in a self-defeatist way.

    As we await the full investigations of the Senators Akpabio Vs Akpoti Uduaghan possibly by the Ethics and Privileges Committee of the senate, no one should expect any magic wand being waved thereafter to solve all the problems for women in Nigerian political space. Women must go beyond protests and analysis of this singular incident because while that is disturbing enough, there are women who have been killed, maimed or scared off politics by male intimidatory tactics and bullying.

    While legislative debates and disagreements especially in legislative environments are common place on a global level, we must caution that the Nigerian state seems not to have fared very well in the committee of nations in terms of women participation due largely to no fault of the women. What has changed however is the culture of silence and ignorance.  Education has helped unknot certain belief systems but the masculine arrogance of many men can be tamed by the courage and perseverance of women especially those in politics. They must re-strategize like the men in other to dismantle the chain of oppressive/abusive tendencies. The political structure must change and the women no matter how few can lead the battle…and win!

    • The dialogue continues…
  • Senator Tambuwal, when the kettle calls the pot black

    Senator Tambuwal, when the kettle calls the pot black

    In the absurd theatre of Nigerian politics, where ideological fluidity has long become the norm rather than the exception, certain political actors have distinguished themselves as veterans of political tumbling and somersaulting. Among this elite cadre of political gymnasts, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, former Governor of Sokoto State and now a sitting senator, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal stands in a class of his own – a grandmaster of defection politics who has now, paradoxically, appointed himself the moral custodian of political loyalty.

    The recent broadside launched by the former Sokoto State governor against  recent defectors to the All Progressives Congress (APC) represents the height of political irony in our nation’s contemporary history. It is akin to the proverbial pot embarking on a verbose dissertation about the blackness of kettles.

    Tambuwal had while speaking to journalists after the Northwest PDP National Executive Council meeting in Kaduna, had in a straight face and apparently without a trace of self-awareness, declared that “politicians who have conscience cannot defect to the ruling party.” One is compelled to wonder whether the distinguished Senator was engaging in self-deprecating humor or if this was simply a case of selective political amnesia, one warranting that we rush Tambuwal to the nearest hospital for immediate check up.

    This is the same Senator Tambuwal who owing to his legacy of political nomadism did earn the sobriquet “Minister of Transport” for his unmatched expertise in transporting his political loyalty from one partisan vehicle to another with remarkable dexterity. His political trajectory looks like a roadmap of opportunistic realignments, each calibrated to advance personal ambitions rather than ideological convictions.

    Read Also: Ubandoma congratulates Tambuwal, other PDP senatorial candidates

    Tambuwal’s political parambulating  have been so numerous and equally strategically timed that they constitute a classical in the art of political hedge-betting. For a man whose political biography could be titled “The Biography of A Serial Defectee,” to now castigate others for following his well-trodden path represents the apotheosis of political hypocrisy.

    In his critique, Senator Tambuwal posited an interesting economic theory of political defection, suggesting that the current economic situation under the Tinubu administration should make membership of the APC unattractive. According to this curious postulation, and motivated by the ‘Irunmole to nje jollof rice’ coinage, Tambuwal asserts that these defectors are primarily motivated by “stomach infrastructure” rather than genuine concern for the citizenry.

    Tambuwal accepts that there are a number of reasons for defecting, how he sadly pontificates that these defections are not based on the interest of the people but based on stomach infrastructure is reflective on the character of the former governor, could he be speaking out of his rich experience as a serial defectee?

    This theory of economic determinism of political allegiance  from Tambuwal raises profound questions. If indeed it is only economic performance that should dictate party loyalty, one wonders whether it was this same set of  economic indicators that informed his own multiple defections. Were his numerous party hop, step and jump theatrics guided by some sophisticated macroeconomic analyses, or were they perhaps influenced by these same stomach infrastructure attributes he now seeks to unfairly confer on others?

    As one who has studied Aminu Tambuwal’s kind of politics, I am certainly not amused nor taken in by his dissimulation. For all i know, Tambuwal remains the poster boy for political haggling in Nigeria.

    Perhaps the most egregious demonstration of Senator Tambuwal’s political opportunism was his notorious betrayal of Governor Nyesom Wike, a political episode that still reverberates through the corridors of power. In 2019, Wike had magnanimously placed his robust political machinery and substantial financial resources at Tambuwal’s disposal during the latter’s ill-fated presidential bid at the PDP primaries.

    To the consternation of all, the nation watched, stunned, as Tambuwal later repaid this extraordinary generosity with a public betrayal on national television, executed without the slightest pretense of moral justification. This act of political perfidy, performed with clinical coldness, represented not merely a betrayal of political alliance but a fundamental breach of the unwritten code of honor that should govern even the most pragmatic of political relationships.

    That the same Senator Tambuwal to now position himself as an arbiter of political morality after such a display of ingratitude demonstrates either remarkable audacity or a troubling disconnect from political reality.

    Now to Tambuwal’s insistence that defectors are streaming into the ruling APC for their stomachs, this may not be the case as pointed out by Senator Ajibola Basiru who in his riposte noted that Tambuwal’s party, the PDP (For Now) suffers astutely from a fundamental trust deficit, a trend started by the likes of Tambuwal at the 2022 Convention.

    Tambuwal’s apparent metasis misses the point as the PDP’s dwindling fortunes cannot be attributed to any magnetic pull of the APC but rather to the lack of internal cohesion – a process to which Tambuwal’s own political vacillations have significantly contributed.

    While i have as a person frowned at the concept of defecting, especially those borne out of crass opportunism rather than on just causes, one wonders why Tambuwal would frown at the  APC opening its doors to accommodate defectors from opposition parties, a process  that Tambuwal himself has exploited to maximum advantage throughout his career and may still do so in future.

    One can thus deduce that  Tambuwal’s critique is a curious form of political relativism, whereby defection becomes morally reprehensible only when it benefits parties other than his current affiliation. This kind of malleable  ethical framework conveniently contracts or expands based on Tambuwal’s pandering only, anything else cannot stand.

    If we were to accept Tambuwal’s premise that defection indicates a lack of conscience, we would be forced to apply this standard retroactively to his own political journey. By his own metric, what are we to make of his conscience? If defection to the APC amid economic challenges reflects moral compromise, what moral calculus informed his own numerous partisan migrations?

    While the phenomenon of incessant political defections in Nigeria’s democratic landscape remains problematic, the solution cannot emerge from hypocritical posturing by those who have perfected the very practice they now condemn. Political nomadism undermines ideological coherence and erodes public trust in our democratic institutions, but addressing this challenge requires moral authority from those leading the conversation.

    Senator Tambuwal, by virtue of his storied history as arguably the country’s most prominent defectee, has forfeited any moral standing to criticize others who merely follow the blueprint he helped design. As the saying goes, those who have made a career of residing in glass houses would be well-advised to reconsider the wisdom of stone-throwing expeditions.

    In the final analysis, Senator Tambuwal’s criticism of political defectors represents an extraordinary exercise in ironic self-reinvention. Having established himself as the lodestar of political realignment, he now affects outrage at those navigating by his example.

    Senator Tambuwal’s remarkable attempt to rebrand himself as the champion of political constancy would be amusing were it not so transparently disingenuous. In the pantheon of political reinvention, this performance deserves special recognition – not for its persuasiveness, but for its sheer audacity.

    To Senator Tambuwal, one can only say: Haba! Even in Nigeria’s theater of political absurdities, this performance stretches credulity beyond its breaking point.

  • Revisiting the ‘June 12’ struggle

    Revisiting the ‘June 12’ struggle

    It has been thirty-two since the June 12, 1993 presidential election was annulled. The pain remains in the heart of the Nigerian political history. The dashed hope of those who faced the fire to restore democracy after years of military dilly-dallying still hurts.

    Although some of the principal actors in the annulment saga have been consigned to the dustbin of history, their misadventure deeply threw many Nigerians in the throes of a rascal decision by a few megalomaniacs.

    But, as goes the Yoruba saying, a lie may travel for a thousand years, the truth will catch up with it in a single day. Those who indulge in prevarication only defraud themselves, and not their victims. From history, it is evident that the human conscience imposes the worst punishment on the guilty, especially deceitful leaders. They suffer a psychological burden. The cunning may savour gerrymandering in the beginning, but their lies will ultimately explode in their faces. It will birth an ignominy.

    The truth has finally demolished the edifice of falsehood erected thirty-two years ago on the quicksand of political machination. The truth was never hidden; only the facts were distorted.

    Truth and conscience have hunted the annuller, who wrecked a monumental havoc on the anxious country by dashing their hope of returning to civil rule through an election. It is a lesson to those in power. Those who loomed large in the past have now seen the vanity of life and the fleeting of power.

    Former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB for short, has surrendered, at last. During the public presentation of his book, titled: A Journey in Service, on Thursday in Abuja, he admitted that the June 12, 1993 poll was credible, free and fair. The former leader acknowledged that the exercise conducted by the National Electoral Commission (NEC), chaired by the late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, was transparent. But he did not apologise to the nation for annulling the election. To those you suffered bruises during the demonstration, IBB presented ‘A Journey in Deservice.’

    The former military leader, who prided himself as the Evil Genius, only admitted the gross error of canceling the results of the poll won by the late business mogul, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, who ran on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP). IBB confessed that he lied when he told Nigerians in a broadcast that the ballot box was abused by money. He also lied when he said the court misbehaved when it intervened in the political process.

    Babangida was not a neonate in 1993. He only took Nigerians for a ride as a lord of the manor.

    Nigerians had endured the over eight years of his political meandering. But the annulment was the turning point. The unwise decision destroyed the legacy of the charismatic General who forfeited a hallowed place in history through one moment of miscalculation.

    Many were taken aback when the gap-tooth General with fake smiles refused to vote on poll day. He avoided legitimising the credible process so that he could later have an excuse to abort the transition programme.

    The conspiracy was tick. It was the story of a great betrayal by soldiers of fortune who waged a war of licentiousness against the people. The toll was huge. The pain was deep. The scars have not healed. For families that bore the brunt, the agony has not eased.

    Read Also: Fed govt to boost farmer support with targeted interventions – Shettima

    The nation was enveloped in anxiety. Schools were closed for one year. Politicians were tossed around, banned, unbanned, and banned. The political class that had invested so much resources, time, and hope in the formation of 14 associations was thrown into disarray. All the political parties were proscribed. Then, two parties – the SDP and the National Republican Convention (NRC) – were imposed on them. The electoral procedures, from zero party council poll to the presidential election, were deliberately made Herculean. Then, diarchy was introduced. Those with guns and trembling civilians were lumped together in an inexplicable Transitional National Council that ran parallel to a superior Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). Never have Nigerians been patient with a very challenging and elongated political experimentation. As the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, warned, when Nigerians imagined that the new dawn had arrived, they were woken up to a new transition nightmare.

    People voted for democracy, but the military served them with regrets and sorrows. The symbol of the struggle and his devoted wife, Kudirat, were murdered. The yearning for a new dawn became a mirage. In the end, 1993 became a year of wasted expectation and lost hope.

    In 1999, when civil rule was restored, the main inheritors of the gains of the struggle were the symbols of the military, ably supported by civilian collaborators who subverted the legitimate agitations.

    After five years of serious protest, the slogan of the battle changed, following the mysterious death of the election winner in detention. The people insisted that the military must just go. Nigeria ultimately entered the second phase of the struggle under IBB’s pre-determined successor, General Sani Abacha, the pretentious interim contraption headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, notwithstanding.

    Lamentably, the labours of pro-June 12 crusaders were in vain. But references would always be made to the contributions of the leaders and arrowheads of the campaigns at home and abroad. Many of them have passed on. But they left a memorial. Their survivors are still keeping hope alive, especially in this period of ‘Renewed Hope Agenda.’

    These leaders include Chief Adekunle Ajasin, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Bola Ige, Rear Admiral Ndubudi Kanu, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (incumbent President of Nigeria), Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, Col. Dangiwa Umar, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Gen. Alani Akinrinade, Ayo Opadokun, Olu Falae, Frank Kokori, Fredrick Fasehun, Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Ayoka Lawani, Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Chief Ganiyu Dawodu, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Olawale Oshun, Mohammed Arzika, Amos Akingba, Balarabe Musa, Ibrahim Tahir, Walter Carrington. Wahab Dosunmu, and the ‘Epetedo Declaration’ forces comprising Femi Lanlehin and Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Chief Segun Adegoke, Olisa Agbakoba, and Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, who declared the Interim Government illegal.

    The list is inexhaustible. The leaders of the titanic struggle suffered many bruises, particularly intimidation, oppression, repression, detention, and trials before many of them went into exile. In those days, killer squads were on a rampage. State-sponsored assassins were on the prowl. The fear of bombing was the beginning of wisdom.

    But, apart from these leaders, many demonstrators at home also paid the supreme price in the process of sustaining the campaigns. While some leaders abandoned the struggle for a morsel of porridge, many activists, students, and ordinary people faced the bullets and endured military tribulations to the end. Most of them are unknown and remain unsung in life and death.

    The interim government was another joke. It was the structure that filled the void after IBB reluctantly stepped aside. Its head, Shonekan, was initially given the title of ‘Head’ without the accompanying powers of Commander-in-Chief, a position held by Abacha, a tough nut, an impatient Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Joint Service Chiefs. After three months, the inept Head of the interim government was shoved aside. In a panic, he hurriedly vacated the Presidential Villa – more or less as an impostor.

    The battle became hotter as the maximum ruler, Abacha, unfolded his self-succession agenda. Scores of protesters died as soldiers opened fire on them on Ikorodu Road in Lagos in 1994. IBB was deceptive, though diplomatic and approachable. Abacha brooked no opposition. No fewer than 174 demonstrators were wounded. A year later, some students of Edo State University were killed by soldiers for asking for democracy.

    The military caged the media. But it was fruitless. Many editors became guests of intelligence agencies. Press freedom was curtailed. Up came guerrilla journalism, which was nevertheless, costly. The family of Bagauda Kaltho is still in deep lamentation that the body of the murdered journalist is yet to be found.

    Reflecting on the ordeals of the forgotten heroes of June 12, Oshun, the Third Republic’s House of Representatives Chief Whip, wrote in his book: The Open Grave: NADECO and the Struggle for Democracy: “Too bad today, those who died then are now remembered in figures than in name.” Their deaths were not less poignant than those of Chief Alfred Rewane and Kudirat as they too were murdered in cold blood by blood-thirsty operators of the dictatorship.

    Little is known about the brave Nigerians who agreed to serve as couriers, ferrying messages and documents across the border for pro-democracy movements. They were silent patriots who sustained the struggle, despite the risks.

    Some of them were intercepted. A case in point was that of Mr. Laiyemo, a personal assistant to Chief Cornelius Adebayo. He was bearing a letter from the former Kwara State governor to a friend when the military arrested him. He spent 36 months in detention.

    The same fate would have befallen Rev. Tunji Adebiyi, who was bearing a letter from Lagos NADECO leaders to Ajasin in Owo, Ondo State. He was caught in Maryland during a stop-and-search operation. It was Kudirat who made a passionate appeal for his release.

    Who remembers the man called Uncle Johnson, who was drawn from his retirement by Akinrinade to manage Radio Kudirat in exile, or the information technology expert, Gbolahan Olalemi, who installed and ran Radio Freedom in Nigeria, with all its attendant risks? Olalemi had the misfortune of being caught and detained. He was kept in an underground cell, flogged by soldiers, and even used as a bait to access Dapo Olorunyomi’s home in Mushin.

    During the dark period, Tinubu’s aides – Benson Akintola and Akeem Apatira – were picked up by security agents in 1994 and detained at the Federal Interrogation and Investigation Bureau (FIIB) at Alagbon in Lagos for three months. They were looking for information about Senator Tinubu, who had gone underground and later into exile.

    When soldiers stormed the Ikeja residence of Akingba, the former university don was nowhere to be found. They pounced on his nephew, Peter Ogunyamoju, who was detained at Alagbon. The military planted a bomb in the house; it exploded, killing Nelson Kassim and Dr. Omatsola.

    A NADECO chieftain, who had escaped abroad, Chief Ralph Onioha, was helpless as news got to him that one of his boys, Abayomi Kehinde, was arrested as a pro-democracy agent. Also, for having anti-military leaflets and posters, Abdulsalam Danladi was detained in Lagos between May and June 1998. Another June 12 traveller, Samuel Asogwa, was detained for three weeks for circulating pro-democracy posters and literature. He was charged with sedition.

    The same fate befell Ebun Adegboruwa, a lawyer in Gani Fawehinmi Chambers. He was detained between November 1997 and June 1998 “for being in possession of subversive documents”. His 75-year-old father was previously held in lieu of him for failing to honour a summons by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).

    A similar scenario played out in Ijebu-Ode where Ayomide Lijadu was arrested in place of her father, who had organised a rally to protest Kudirat’s assassination.

    Adegboruwa’s colleague at the Bar, Bamidele Aturu, was detained for a month because his client, Isaac Osuoka, had posters denouncing Abacha’s self-succession plan.

    For 18 months, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele languished in detention for his NADECO activism. Captured as a prisoner of war at Ibadan, Lam Adesina lost his freedom between May and June 1998.

    Between May 1995 and July 1998, Kunle Ajibade had the worst experience of his life. He was jailed 15 years for being “an accessary after the fact of treason” over a story by The News, where he was the editor.

    It was not the best of times for journalists. Chris Anyanwu lost her freedom between June 16, 1995, and June 15, 1998. She was charged before a military tribunal for accessory after the fact of treason. Her Sunday Magazine’s coverage of the phantom coup trials was infuriating to Abacha. She was initially jailed for life. Later, the sentence was commuted to 15 years.

    Another journalist, Moshood Fayemiwo, was detained for a year and seven months. His paper published materials that revealed the looting of the treasury by the military while also campaigning for the revalidation of the June 12 election.

    For Nosa Igiebor, it was a hell of a time. For seven months, he was detained. His offence was that his Tell magazine published a story exposing Abacha’s plan to ‘punish’ neighbouring countries that showed sympathy for pro-democracy movements.

    Labour activist Joseph Akinlaja was detained for days for partaking in “an illegal meeting” where bombing of oil refineries and depots were discussed and for being in a crowd of pro-June 12 crusaders.

    A soldier, Major Akinloye Akinyemi, was detained for four years for alleged coup plotting. But it was believed that he was picked up for being the younger brother of Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, a NADECO chieftain. The elder Akinyemi stayed in exile for four years.

    Eminent banker and politician Olabiyi Durojaye’s case was pathetic. He was detained for seven months. The reason was unknown. “They told me they were just directed to keep me here (detention),” he said.

    For declaring the Abacha regime illegal, Senator Polycarp Nwite was detained for one year. The NADECO member was accused of planting bombs. In 1995, Rev. Peter Obadan was also held for seeking the revalidation of the annulled poll.

    Others detainees include Prof. Omo Omoruyi, who was shot and wounded for calling for the revalidation of June 12; Babafemi Ojudu, for his anti-Agacha stance; Soji Omotunde for decrying dictatorship; Mrs. Iluyomade, wife of Gen. Iluyomade, and daughter, who lost a pregnancy in detention; Arthur Nwankwo, for harbouring anti-Abacha pamphlets; Olorunyomi’s wife, Ladi, held in lieu of her husband; 80-year-old Chief Solanke Onasanya, who was asked to explain what he did not do; Abdul Oroh, of Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) for his links with Soyinka and pro-June 12 campaigns; Onome Osifo-Whiskey, for criticising Abacha; Bayo Osinowo, for his association with Abiola; Niyi Owolade, for anti-government May Day riot at Ibadan; Chima Ubani, for allegedly inciting Nigerians against the military government, and Lam Adesina, who became a prisoner of war.

    Others are: Nike Ransome-Kuti, Solomon Sobande, Emeka Ugwuoke – for circulating pro-democracy posters; Olusegun Mayegun, Popoola Ajayi, and Jerry Yusuf – for hijacking a plane in protest against the Interim National Government and calling for the restoration of Abiola’s mandate.

    Human rights leaders – Beko Ransom-Kuti, his brother, Prof. Olikoye Ransom-Kuti, Femi Aborisade, Chima Ubani, Joe Igbokwe, Olisa Agbakoba, Ayo Obe, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, Osagie Obayuwana, Felix Tuodolo, Debo Adeniran, Ima Niboro, Babafemi Ojudu, Bayo Onanuga, Akinola Orisagbemi (Personal Assistant to Mrs. Kudirat Abiola), Innocent Chukwuma, Bunmi Aborisade, and numerous activists under the banners of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), the divided Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Kayode Fayemi of Radio Kudirat, Lagos Justice Forum, June 12 Collective, the media, and he National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) made invaluable contributions to the struggle. The list is endless.

    Evidently, the restoration of civil rule was not achieved on a platter of gold. It was a collective enterprise involving the mighty, the low, and the suppressed masses: professionals, youths, students, artisans, peasants and the ordinary man in the street.

    Nigeria has witnessed a successful transition from civil to civil rule. The accompanied crisis and stress were also managed. But the fruits are inadequate.

    Asiwaju Tinubu was a great financier of pro-democracy activities at home and abroad. The onus is on him to reposition the country by building strong institutions, ensuring politico-electoral reforms, security, restructuring and restoration of federal principles and abolition of poverty, which was Abiola’s cardinal objective.

    If these goals are accomplished, then, the unsung heroes will heave a sigh of relief that the struggle was, after all, not totally in vain.

    Those who masterminded the reckless annulment for selfish reasons should be made to regret their action for life by giving the country good governance. But an effective government that works for all Nigerians is the best legacy to immortalise those who paid the supreme sacrifice in the June 12 struggle. This generation and the future ones deserve to have a better country the soldiers of fortune failed to bequeath to them. This is what the June 12 struggle stood for.

  • NASS, Development Commissions and 31 states comedy

    NASS, Development Commissions and 31 states comedy

    The Nigerian House of Representatives often presents Nigeria with some comic even if politically scandalous bills and other issues often bothering on the ludicrous. The people have seen fights with clothes torn and chairs flying. There had been heaps of the local currency allegedly a product of some sleazy transactions involving some members.  We have seen the emergence of a certain ‘Integrity Group’ whose members fought on the floor of the house. We have seen some of the ‘integrity group members mired in the fuel subsidy scandal with some being convicted and jailed.

    We have seen a member come to the house and unashamedly ordered his four wives that he had brought to the chambers  to stand up for recognition as proof of his masculinity and control. Another member had  protested the idea of electing more women into the house because in his words, “they will take the male positions”. We have seen gender equity bills being thrown out because some of the members fear their political and social advantages might vanish before their eyes.

    The 9th National Assembly had been severally referred to as ‘rubber stamp’ assembly but some political analysts who viewed their relationship with the former President Buhari’s  administration as very passive in terms of playing their very vital legislative roles. The often touted legislative/executive harmonious relationship was often seen to be tilted against  the legislature which in every democracy ought to be the most powerful tool for checks and balances given that they represent the people of their constituencies.

    The 10th National Assembly is seemingly yet to define itself somewhat. The people seem to wait with baited breath while quietly documenting their actions and inactions. Given the varied constitution of the National Assembly in terms of party memberships, not much differences have been noted. It seems to be business as usual given that most of the legislators mainly operate as mere politicians with no marked ideological similarities.

    The modus operandi of most of the politicians is often the same. There is still no structurally defined system in place. There is still largely an opaque national political agenda towards real growth. The focus/alliances are still the same; self, tribal, ethnic, religious and class agenda. No developed country thrives on these myopic agenda. The Roundtable Conversation feels that national growth must be a product of real altruistic political road map to development.

    So the clamour for regional commissions for the six geopolitical zones by law makers seems on the surface to be a very progressive idea. However, given the history of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from its days as OMPADEC, through to the establishment of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, not much development has come to the people or the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg. The environmental degradation, the poverty, the lack of development and the seeming agitation in the area continue to astonish the world.

    While on the face of it the development commissions might seem a good idea, to us, it really begs the question. The law makers sponsoring the bills and their supporters must be able to establish how functional those development commissions can be. What would be their terms of reference? How would they be funded and what would mark them out from the story of the NDDC that seems to have been full of scandals and corruption?

    It is an irony that the National Assembly that is supposed to make laws, represent their constituents and carry out oversight functions on the executive have largely left most of the job undone. If the legislative arm diligently carries out its oversight functions at the local, state and federal levels, development would have reached more people without the extra burden of development commissions. Scampering to sponsor bills for regional development without set foundational socio-political actions would merely be a round robin game.

    Nigerian political class is notorious for white elephant projects at various levels. Establishing Development Commissions mainly to fulfill regional political agenda would never be the correct route to development. The National Assembly ought to be more proactive in their law making and oversight functions which can be the propelling force for development. With more than 20 million children out of school in a 21st century Nigeria, what magic would six regional commissions make? Education is power.

    The legislators ought to be more concerned about the political structure that raises leaders who act as emperors in a democracy. There is urgent need to strengthen the political party structure in ways that the legislature becomes more functional. There must first be a functional and credible political party structure that can ensure that electoral laws are obeyed in ways to enhance intra-party democracy as a precursor to credible elections. This is a fundamental necessity. The dysfunction in the political party structure raises questions about our democracy.

    When there is intra-party democracy, elections would be less flawed and the elected would be held to account. It is largely due to lack of accountability that elected officials in Nigeria do not take their constitutional roles seriously.  Governors in Nigeria operate like emperors. As the political slang used to go, ‘they often influence the electoral processes from the ward level to the highest office in the land. 

    The saying that he who pays the piper dictates the tune cannot be over-emphasized under this circumstance. Today, the Attorney General of the federation keeps reiterating the law about the Local government financial autonomy. That is admirable but it is a practical illogicality because the governors seem to be the eternal hands of Esau with the body of Jacob.  The governors in Nigeria exercise too many powers in ways that stall development. The legislators must rise to that aberration in the political space.

    The recent House of Representative Constitution review Committee’s proposal for the creation of some additional 31 states in Nigeria is as ludicrous as it is a serious sign that our legislators seem to lack the tedious task of tidy thinking. To add 31 new states to a country with 36 states plus the federal capital territory Abuja bringing the states to 67 is not only outrageous given that not up to ten of the existing states operate profitably is just unbelievable.  Most of the states rely on federal allocations and random internal and external borrowing for sustenance and payment of salaries.

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    The proposed bill is the evidence that most of the politicians in the country are removed from realities. The focus seems to be a rat race for the creation of regional commissions and more states for the politicians to redistribute amongst themselves. Creation of political hegemonies seems to be at the core of most of the bills around commissions and extra states in a country with more than 137million people leaving in multi-dimensional poverty. Some of the existing states have been run down by those who have had the good fortune of being chosen to run the states at some points in our democratic journey.

    It is very curious that instead of the house to focus on why most of the states are insolvent and barely able to pay salaries let alone develop critical urban infrastructure to help the people, they want to further split the states possibly to spread more poverty. It is interesting that instead of looking at functionality and national interest, most politicians seem to be re-enacting the, ‘scramble and partition of the existing states in Nigeria.

    In a curious way, the proposed bill took no notice of the funding that goes into running a state. Their ambition seems to be just establishing more dysfunctional states. The lack of national and real people’s interests in the proposed bill clearly affirms that the Nigerian political class has some lessons to learn. Regional development Commissions and states do not spark development.

    Our legislators must understand the essence of the legislative arm in democracies. There is a reason coup-plotters and other global dictators descend heavily on the legislative arm anytime they happen to seize power. It is a great pillar of democracy. This again brings to the fore the need for the qualifying criteria for elections to offices to be reviewed in the country. The world is leaving Nigeria behind. The low level of the qualifying criteria for most elective positions is reason some people find their ways to certain positions.

    The world has gone beyond ‘attempted school certificate’ as the qualifying criteria for certain offices. This seems to be exactly why some very ignorant people find their ways to positions they have no business vying for in the first place. It is always an exhilarating joy to listen to most legislators across the world including some African countries. On the contrary, the Nigerian politics seems to be the exclusive preserve of the least endowed intellectually.

    Debates in the legislative houses often expose the immaturity and lack of intellectual sophistication of most members. Professional or occupational achievements are often not considered by political parties in choosing candidates for elective posts and this is main reason certain aberrations exist in the political space. The scramble for regional development commissions and mushroom and insolvent states cannot be route to development.

    The proposal for the creation of extra 31 states in a country with the myriad of developmental problems like Nigeria just affirms the allegations that the National Assembly seems peopled by people that need some lessons in legislative duties and nation-building. Like the legendary Shakespeare said, “The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings”.

    •The dialogue continues…

  • Who let the dogs out?

    Who let the dogs out?

    The stories emanating from the Dankaro House in Abuja that some of the boys who secured Nigeria the qualification ticket to the U20 Africa Youth Championships slated to be held in Ivory Coast have disappeared to Europe is laughable. It leaves me cold with only one thought in mind -that song titled, ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’ Perhaps, the NFF has forgotten that it is the only body authorised to sign ITC to departing players to Europe for legitimate greener pastures as they say. So, how convenient was it for the issuing officer and indeed the big man at the Dankaro House to have signed the ITC documents of these fleeing players as they claim, who in the coming months ought to be representing the country in a continental soccer competition?

    What was the hurry in letting such talented players sneak out of the country when indeed, their horizon would be better if they remained with the team, got the ticket to the U-20 World Cup and were rated better than how they have been sold in a hurry to Europe or wherever they have gone to? This is the price you pay when people in high places at the Dankaro House engage in the transfer of players to Europe, the Americas and the Diaspora.

    What it simply means is that Nigeria would just participate in the continental championships and exit in the first round of three matches.

    Interestingly, the edge of taking a team that grabbed the ticket to the continental, playing together for cohesion, is lost to shylock agents. It is the reason one questions the veracity of young boys and girls who are invited for an exercise knowing that we have no database to track how they emerged at such a stage and their growth in the future. It is also the reason that the NFF has paid lip service to the idea of standardising and registering all academies such that it would be easier to track such an unprofessional movement after the country has exposed such players to the world. It must be stated here that these boys are found and made to complete their assignment of representing Nigeria creditably at the continental championships in Ivory Coast. The NFF President must intervene quickly to stop this rude joke.

    It is true that Nigeria has a large pool of players to replace them at the grassroots. Yet, those toiled to make us qualify for the continental stage should be allowed to reap from what they have sown. Nobody should be allowed to hoodwink them into thinking that petty foreign currencies being used to lure them would define their career. But the truth is that they would be better rated if they play at the World Cup, unlike the pittance that they would get at the behest of agents who crave more cash going into their pockets. One is excited that these young boys would need the federation’s ITC to play in Europe or wherever. I only hope the NFF doesn’t play the ostrich by granting their requests. Pray that if these kids didn’t make the Nigerian side to the WAFU tournament, they would somewhere languishing and praying for the new dawn in their careers.

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    In other climes where developmental programmes are implemented to the letter, the U-20 squad is the nursery of their senior national soccer teams. What it simply means is that when an opening beckons in their senior teams, they don’t go fishing for Nigeria-born young boys to plug the hole. This reliance on Nigerian-born boys and girls explains the star-trek by ours of today across the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.

    They are no longer scared of being lured out of the country with peanuts, knowing that it is about the easiest way to play for Nigeria if they start scoring goals with aplomb in these obscure leagues. Of course, this illegal star-trek is a cabal oiled by a gullible media whose practitioners no longer ask probing questions which could help stem its growth. Those who can’t return to play for Nigeria easily drift with those who bear Nigerian names but play for countries where soccer is still at its novelty stage.

    In the last two decades, Nigeria has been prosecuting football matches with mostly the ”foreign legion”, I wonder if our soccer administrators appreciate the damage they do to the ”beautiful” game. Our administrators see soccer development from the prism of participating in competitions outside the country. No programmes to catch the talents young, train and retrain the coaches for a workable template. For them, success is winning trophies, even if the players come from the moon. No surprise the dearth of competition here.

    We have relied so much on the ”foreign legion” that it doesn’t matter if kids from Europe populate our age-grade teams. We must not win age-grade competitions. We should de-emphasise winning, even though it is the ultimate. We should insist on getting kids who can return to the grassroots to serve as icons for others to emulate. Otherwise, we may get the ”foreign legion” as sports administrators to drive home the point.

    There is a need to ask these administrators where those countries get the talents we scramble for to change their nationality. We are experts in spotting Nigeria-born kids, forgetting that they evolved from a planned system, which isn’t alien to us. In those countries, there are established academies at the grassroots where these young boys and girls are introduced to the game usually under neighbourhood schemes. Hence, when such talents blossom, the neighbourhood is proud of them as they return to be celebrated.

    Civilised countries develop their sports through the neighbourhood system where facilities are built to engage the youth and push them away from social vices. Nurseries serve as the bases for storing the data of those discovered. Such information helps to nurture and monitor the good ones to stardom. Besides, nurseries lay the foundation where the athletes are taught the rudiments of the game. It is at such factories that playing styles and patterns unique to such countries are evolving.

    The Senegalese have established qualitative nurseries using their allocations from FIFA through grants. Today, the Senegalese are kings and queens of different age-grade tournaments in Africa. What this also means is the discovery chain of new talents is seamless, not needing any form of corruption in the models being used. What nurseries do for such shining stars is that the operator would monitor their career paths and ensure that they play for decent clubs here or in Europe than allow them to fall easy prey to shylock club scouts and agents.

    A blueprint is sacrosanct for sports to thrive and it must be anchored on the dire need to resuscitate moribund grassroots competitions that engage the youths and take them away from the vices of society.

    The emergence of a sports policy, endorsed by the government, will create jobs such that this industry could in the next 10 years become the highest employer of labour.

    Don’t you think so? You tell me.

  • Issues in the Obasa saga

    Issues in the Obasa saga

    Surely, the parties in the ongoing impeachment crisis rocking the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA) ought to have known that such an utterly avoidable internal implosion would make them vulnerable to vicious attacks by those who envy and deplore the fact that their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in its various mutations at different times since 1999 as AD, AC, ACD, ACN and now APC, had maintained near one-party electoral dominance of the country’s economic nerve centre over the last two and a half decades. In a widely circulated piece on online platforms, for instance, one Dr Afolabi Gbajumo, after a lengthy dissection of the crisis from his own perspective accused both factions in the current LSHA imbroglio and even the executive of unbridled corruption, illicit accumulation of wealth and venality without the slightest scintilla of evidence.

    True, Lagos is not yet anywhere near where it should be in developmental terms as it is still a work in progress as all human communities always are. But it would take the height of intellectual dishonesty not to admit the glaring fact that compared to where she was pre-1999, the megacity state has made remarkable progress on all fronts leaving virtually every other state in the country far behind. Today, she is not only the sixth largest economy in Africa, Lagos is gradually emerging in the ranks of leading megacities of But this is the kind of unfair onslaught that disputants in the LSHA open their party to and it is unfortunate that they are digging in deeper in their trenches in what can only be an ultimately self-destructive internecine warfare. However, what are the issues?

    With no less than two-thirds of the members of the LSHA controlled by the APC undertaking his impeachment on January 13, 2025, when he was away on vacation to the US, it is logical to argue that the erstwhile Speaker of the House, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, had lost not only legal but also moral legitimacy. And there is no doubt that the members of the LSHA are constitutionally empowered to elect and remove their principal officers through stipulated rules and procedures. And the vote of confidence passed on the newly elected Speaker, Mrs Mojisola Meranda, by a majority of members before the House adjourned sine die suggests that the legislators are indeed fed up with Obasa whom they have accused of arrogant, insensitive and corrupt leadership.

    The problem is that in politics, things are often not as they seem to be. For example, on 11th November, 2024, members of the LSHA passed a vote of confidence on the allegedly corrupt, insensitive and arrogant Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker of the House. As the This Day Newspaper reported the story, “The vote of confidence on the Speaker coincided with his 52nd birthday as the lawmakers eulogized him for uplifting the country’s democracy through laws that impact positively on the people. Majority Leader, Noheem Adams said during plenary presided over by Deputy Speaker, Mojisola Lasbat Meranda, that his motion, seconded by Hon. Sa’ad Olumoh (Ajeromi Ifelodun. 1), followed a wide consultation”. What then had changed between this time and the ‘impeachment’ of Obasa on January 13 this year?

    Again, since Obasa had lost the confidence of the vast majority of his colleagues and it is even claimed that civil servants in the LSHA bureaucracy boisterously celebrated his removal, why was he impeached when he was out of the country on vacation? Since he was so reportedly overwhelmingly unpopular, could he have done anything to stop his removal if he was present? Wouldn’t that have denuded the process of his impeachment of its seeming surreptitious and conspiratorial secretiveness and accorded it more legitimacy? After all, this is not the first time that a Speaker of the LSHA would be removed in this dispensation. Hon Waheed Jokotola Pelumi was the Speaker of the LSHA between June 2, 2003 and December 29, 2005. Pelumi was removed from office by his colleagues and replaced by Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji who remained in office from December 29, 2005, till the end of the life of the 7th Assembly in 2015. Pelumi was not removed from office in his absence and the governor at the time, now President Bola Tinubu did not oppose the change of leadership which reinforced his democratic credentials.

    It is ironic that those who mobilized a massive security presence in the Assembly premises to facilitate the removal of Obasa cried foul that officials of the DSS had invaded the Assembly premises to prevent the Speaker, Hon. (Mrs Miranda) from accessing her office and allegedly to facilitate the resumption of Obasa who had dismissed his impeachment as defective and not following due process. The DSS has since made public a letter signed by the Deputy Clerk of the House, Mr A.T.B. Ottun, to prevent alleged plans by Obasa to forcefully resume in his office on February 18, 2025. Reports widely disseminated on social media that a cache of sophisticated arms were suddenly discovered in Obasa ‘s office weeks after Mrs Meranda had supposedly been making use of the same office does little to help the credibility of the anti-Obasa elements. It gives the impression of a desperation to de-market and instigate public opinion against the embattled Agege legislator.

    During Adeyemi Ikuforiji’s tenure as Speaker, he led the House in offering robust checks and balances to the executive during the tenure of the highly cerebral Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). But this the easy going but inwardly steely lawmaker from Epe did without ever insulting the governor or demeaning his office. Thus, that Obasa kept Governor Sanwo-Olu and his entourage waiting for nearly four hours before the commencement of the presentation of the state’s 2025 budget estimates and without any apologies for this slight is inexplicable.

    Rather, his needlessly combative speech on that occasion was the height of arrogance which has been widely condemned by the public. Had members of the Assembly limited themselves to Obasa ‘s arrogance and insensitivity which was publicly on display in his treatment of Sanwo-Olu, in the allegations that led to his impeachment, it would be hardly possible to fault their action. But they also leveled grave allegations of financial misdemeanor and recklessness against him which in my view necessitates that he be given the opportunity to defend himself before being sanctioned in accordance with the principle of fair hearing. Since he was not given the chance to defend himself before his impeachment, could this be likened to shaving his head in his absence (apologies to MKO Abiola)?

    True to his calm and difficult to ruffle demeanor and simple, unassuming carriage, Sanwo-Olu responded with philosophical serenity and enigmatic taciturnity, to what was perceived as an unwarranted slight on his person and office by Obasa. But then, we must look beyond Obasa ‘s annoying abrasiveness and a disposition to easy combustibility, which makes the prospect of his ever occupying the position of governor as he is rumored to desire, frightening.

    It will be recalled that in August, 2023, the LSHA under Obasa ‘s leadership, had rejected 17 of the 39 names Sanwo-Olu had forwarded to the legislature for clearance to be appointed as commissioners in his cabinet. In an unnecessarily bad-tempered speech on the floor of the House during that episode, Obasa had decried the fact that the nominees were grossly unrepresentative of the diverse local government constituencies in the state while also not reflecting the requisite Christian-Muslim balance that had always been taken into account in constituting the State Executive Council.

    As the late Oba Olatunji Hazmat, a Frontline Lagos and national progressive political leader of uncommon perspicacity stated in his gripping book, ‘Reflections of A Public Man’, “Lagos may be the greatest cosmopolitan city in Nigeria, but just like the nation itself, it can not march forward even in the matters of the least consideration of governance without accommodating the diverse interests, biases and native proclivities that shape and girdle her formative character…For fairness and wide judgement, the governor, the mayor or any other official of the state must consult others, must bring diverse interests into focus and attention in the choice of cabinet members, in the composition of parastatals and other allied governmental bodies”.

    But beyond this, Obasa raised the pertinent point of the undue dichotomy between so called technocrats and politicians in governance in Lagos State and what he perceived as the unfair favouritism given to the former in filling cabinet and non-cabinet positions particularly under the Sanwo-Olu administration. In its report on the face- off between the House and the governor on the matter, the Premium Times of August 29, 2023, wrote that “But some party loyalists said the main reason some nominees who are technocrats were rejected was because they were not known in their constituencies and had no electoral value. Michael Uju, a public affairs analyst, said the disqualification was political. “Unfortunately, there is the sense that most of those rejected by the House are the technocrats among them who are not so much into party politics,” he said.

    Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s administration as Premier of the Western Region in the First Republic is still the reference point in qualitative developmental governance in Nigeria. Its achievements were gargantuan and path-breaking. In his autobiography, the great Awo commented on his Cabinet thus, “Second, my team of Ministers was unexcelled. It was a team of which any head of government anywhere in the world would be proud. It was a well-knit, highly disciplined and fanatically loyal team. Each of them knew his subject well”. None of these men would be regarded as technocrats or even intellectuals in today’s lingo. They were educated men and professionals in diverse fields but to be appointed into public office in the Action Group (AG) at the time, you had to have a very strong linkage with your grassroots communities. This was made more imperative by the parliamentary system of the First Republic which required that those to be appointed as Cabinet members first had to win elections into the legislature as elected representatives of their constituencies. Even though he could have couched his argument in less inelegant and confrontational language, Obasa had made the point that he was concerned about the grassroots vibrancy of the APC in the state. This is certainly a pertinent concern even if it is true that his real motive was his assumed governorship ambition in 2027.

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    The truth of the matter is that although successive APC administrations in Lagos State have performed relatively remarkably well in infrastructure development, social services delivery and security among others – the primary purpose of government – the electoral performance of the party has declined with each election since 2011 and one reason for this is the ever growing alienation and distance between the government and the grassroots. In the 2007 governorship election, Fashola of the AC scored 593,300 votes to 394,956 for Senator Muslim Obanikoro of the PDP. In 2011, BRF scored a record 1,509, 113 votes to win reelection while Shamsideen Adegboye of the PDP recorded 300,450 votes. In 2015, Mr Akinwumi Ambode of the APC had 811,994 votes while Mr Jimi Agbaje of the PDP had 659,788 votes. As for 2019, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC won 739,445  votes to 206, 141 votes scored by Jimi Agbaje of the PDP.

    In the 2023 governorship election, Sanwo-Olu won reelection with 762,134 votes to 312,329 votes scored by Gbadebo (Chinedu) Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP). To secure his victory after the APC had unprecedentedly lost the earlier presidential election in Lagos to Peter Obi’s LP by nearly 10,000 votes, the party had to scramble frantically to mobilize primordial sentiments to ensure Sanwo-Olu’s reelection.

     Had the governorship election come first, would Sanwo-Olu have become history in Lagos State? The answer is anyone’s guess. A school of thought believes that the electorally dysfunctional overly elitist outlook and disposition of governance in Lagos State has heightened under Sanwo-Olu and this is dangerous as the crucial 2027 elections approach, an election in which the triumph of the APC will depend on the degree to which it has regained its organic linkage with the grassroots. This is probably the point Obasa was making but his petulant mode of delivery distorted and undermined his message.

    What then is to be done about the seeming impasse as regards the position of Speaker of the LSHA? The right of the members to elect their principal officers cannot be contested but this must be in line with their extant rules, due process and the guidelines of the party. The enthusiastic support given to Hon. Mrs Meranda so far indicates that she enjoys considerable goodwill with her colleagues as well as the bureaucracy in the LSHA. But some voices in the party contend that the next Speaker should come from either Lagos West where Obasa comes from or Lagos East if legislators from Lagos West are not interested in the Speakership position as it is claimed.

    Both Mrs Meranda and the governor are from Lagos Central and this contradicts the party’s zoning formula. The aggrieved members no longer want Obasa as Speaker and they have successfully removed him at least until the courts adjudicate in the matter. But they cannot at the same time unilaterally jettison the party’s power sharing formula. Honourable Mrs Meranda has demonstrated her value and the high esteem in which her colleagues hold her which must be a function of her personal attributes despite her having been Obasa’s deputy. But she may have to stoop to party supremacy today to conquer a future that is politically exceedingly bright for her.

  • NIIA, Professor Richard Joseph and  Renewed Hope for Africa

    NIIA, Professor Richard Joseph and  Renewed Hope for Africa

    To not an insignificant number of people, President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda (RHA) is just another political manifesto and a campaign document routinely designed to win elections by making rosy promises in attractive poetry while the politician actually governs in more realistic prose as it is often famously said. But for a politician and political party that takes its word seriously and seeks to refashion reality in its envisioned image, a manifesto is a sacred bond with the people, a trust to be abided by as a guiding light.

    Inspite of the persistence of dispiriting failings and weaknesses, Nigeria’s political system seemingly imperceptibly evolves stronger and more resilient. For instance, larger sections of the electorate are growing increasingly more sophisticated and aware, technological innovations make elections more and more difficult to rig while the amount required to buy votes multiplies at compound rates making such criminal investments by political actors of ever decreasing marginal utility.

    Against this background, it is understandable that elected politicians and parties are taking the diligent implementation of their campaign promises more seriously and this requires placing premium as much as possible on merit in making critical appointments even though it is impossible to completely eradicate the influence of sheer partisanship or primordial considerations in filling many political positions. President Tinubu’s choices in making some key appointive decisions indicate that for the administration, its RHA is as much an intellectual enterprise requiring men and women of knowledge, expertise and competence to implement as it is also a vital weapon of partisan political competition.

    The appointment of one of the country’s most accomplished public administration and political science scholar, practitioner and foremost reform expert, Professor Tunji Olaopa, as Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) for instance, speaks to an acute awareness of the imperative of high intellect for optimum policy actualization. Similarly, a trained scientist, methodical logistician, experienced administrator and transport management expert, Dr Kayode Opeifa, has just been appointed as Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NEC). And one of the most heartwarming appointments made by the administration in the recent reconstitution of the Boards of public corporations was that of renowned political science and international relations scholar, one of the country’s most impactful former Minister of External Affairs and relentless public intellectual, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, as Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

    One of Nigeria’s oldest and most prestigious public policy Think Tanks, the NIIA was set up in the immediate post-independence era to research, produce knowledge, promote discourse, influence policy and profer advice on the conduct of the emergent country’s foreign affairs and international relations. This would also necessarily involve an abiding concern for appropriate domestic policy as the requisite foundation for robust external relations. For many years, the NIIA was the leading platform for intellectual discourse in Nigeria as the institute routinely hosted high caliber lectures, summits, seminars, book launches and round table conferences on diverse issues critical to national development and not necessarily limited to international relations. I remember that as a student of the University of Ibadan in the early to mid eighties, the institute’s library proved invaluable in producing my research essays both for the B.Sc and M.Sc degrees.

    Unfortunately, the country’s steady economic decline since the late seventies, a process that accelerated, and affected other aspects of national life negatively particularly under praetorian military rule up till 1999 also had deleterious consequences for the NIIA as its funding, fortunes, vibrancy and prestige plummeted. With the appointment, however, of another eminent political scientist, renowned expert on ethnicity and federalism, former Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada, former Emeka Anyaoku Visiting Chair of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, Professor Eghosa Osaghae, as Director General of the NIIA in 2021, the institution began to witness a steady Renaissance and to reclaim its position locally and internationally as a virile public brains trust. Incidentally, Professor Akinyemi had been the DG of the Institute at one of its most productive and vigorous periods between 1975 and 1983.

    It was thus not surprising that on Friday, February 7, the NIIA, in a landmark event, inaugurated the Professor Richard Joseph Learning Centre as a key academic resource located at its library situated at its Victoria Island Headquarters in Lagos. One of the most profound and celebrated scholars of African political science, Professor Joseph, a John Evans Emeritus Professor Northwestern University and Honourable Fellow of New College, Oxford University, has made invaluable contributions to scholarship on African governance, democratization and political economy. His classic, ‘Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic’, offers penetrating insights into the root causes and consequences of pervasive public corruption in Nigeria and its linkage to political instability and protracted underdevelopment.

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    Incidentally, I covered the public presentation of the book as a political reporter for the Daily Times at the same large auditorium of the NIIA sometime in 1987. Professor Osaghae, a former student of Richard Joseph, was one of the attendees from UI while the book was reviewed by another of his former students and now illustrious scholar, Professor Adigun Agbaje. Professor Akinyemi while expressing gratitude to Professor Joseph on behalf of African scholars described the Learning Centre as a vital initiative for preserving African intellectual heritage while Professor Osaghae lauded the facility as a cornerstone of academic scholarship at the NIIA acknowledging the donation by Richard Joseph of 77 cartons of books and other publications to the Institute. The presence of such other cerebral political scientists as Professor Femi Otubanjo, a Research Director at the NIIA and Professor Adele Jinadu added scholarly gravitas to the event and indicated the NIIA ‘s surging organizational profile.

    The Learning Centre is no doubt evidence of Professor Joseph’s hope in Nigeria and faith in the possibilities of actualizing Africa’s destiny. Expressing confidence that current challenges on the continent would be overcome, Joseph said, “I have seen and lived through many movements including the civil rights and anti-colonial movements. I have seen when democracy was threatened in Nigeria and the sacrifices we made to overcome”. And Professor Osaghae could not have articulated the usefulness of the Centre to the liberation of Africa’s potentials more clearly when he averred that “This legacy project is a platform for exchange of ideas and engagement in robust debates about development. Africa should not be where it is currently, but what do we do to make it get where it should be? The same is the case for Nigeria. The world now realizes that very little can be achieved without Africa. It is never going to come to an end until Africa truly becomes great”.

    But exploring the thoughts of the NIIA DG further, I would say that with the emergent dominant Trumpian worldview especially in the West, the world is unlikely to tolerate for much longer Africa’s perceived sitting on and wasting valuable resources that could be better utilized for the benefit of her people and humanity as a whole. It is in our best interest to maximally deploy Professor Joseph’s intellectual beneficence to empower Nigeria to lead Africa to the promised land of progress and prosperity thus avoiding a seemingly looming second colonization of the continent.

  • EL-Rufai, Ganduje, Tinubu and 2027

    EL-Rufai, Ganduje, Tinubu and 2027

    When he commented on President Bola Tinubu‘s administration during his presentation at an event in Lagos to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the death of radical lawyer and foremost human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, did not disagree with the thrust of the government’s ongoing economic reforms that have occasioned much controversy. Rather, he described the removal of the fuel subsidy as well as the merger of the parallel foreign exchange markets as necessary and inevitable policies that he would, however, not publicly rationalize or defend because he was not in a mood to help his friends in government who were not behaving like friends. At least he was characteristically honest and forthright about his personal grudges with the government and did not seize on the widespread hardships engendered by the reforms to react emotionally and stir up sentiments against the administration.

    This was a far cry from the position of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) under President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Babachir Lawal, a one-time ardent ally of President Tinubu who turned fierce opponent of the latter’s election because of the All Progressives Congress (APC) option to present a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 election. Despite the religious factor not being a hindrance to the APC victory as the likes of Babachir Lawal had anticipated, his adversarial stance against the President and his administration has hardened even when it is all too obvious that the government is not in any way pursuing an Islamaization agenda. And supporting former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s strident criticisms of the administration, Babachir Lawal found it convenient to project the Tinubu administration’s economic policies as essentially anti-North.

    Without resort to logical rigour or clinical policy analysis predicated on sound knowledge, the former SGF, an indigene of Adamawa State best known for a proclivity towards rather extravagant grass-cutting adventures, submits that “The North is seriously mobilizing with a consensus that Bola Tinubu must give way in the 2027 elections… Everybody understands that if we continue with these policies for another four years, northern Nigeria will become one large refugee camp. So, there’s a consensus that for self-preservation alone, we must look for another candidate”. Lawal does not feel compelled to state the premises that led to his rather bizarre conclusion. All that is necessary for him is to assert, not attempt any empirical validation.

    Despite his demonstrated capacity for lucid policy analysis, el-Rufai himself, speaking at a recent two-day dialogue on democracy in Abuja, did not undertake a critique of the administration’s policies but based his opposition to the  Tinubu government on perceived lack of internal democracy and consequent inactive party structures in the ruling APC. In his words, “I no longer recognize the APC. No party organ has met in two years, no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show.” Urging opposition parties to unite and form a broad coalition to challenge the ruling party and protect democracy, he said that the APC had abandoned its founding mission of combating corruption, rebuilding the economy and enhancing security.

    In his characteristic scathing manner, el-Rufai submitted that “For those of us who lived half of our lives under military rule, we know what it is. We don’t want military rule, but we also don’t want civilians behaving like the military in their babariga and suits”. But does el-Rufai possess the moral credibility to make some of these assertions? True, he made some impressive achievements in education reform and infrastructure renewal during his two-term tenure as governor of Kaduna State. But the truth is that the mostly Christian population of Southern Kaduna felt they were under a form of military rule under his administration. He dehumanized and showed scant regard for their dignity. He brutalized labour unions who dared to exercise their democratic rights to demonstrate. Under his watch, hundreds of protesting Ibrahim Zakzaky-led Shiite Muslims were allegedly murdered in cold blood and buried in mass graves. He openly threatened that foreign election observers would leave the country in ‘body bags’.

    So much then for his new found democratic profession. And while he claims that the APC has abandoned its objective of fighting corruption, a probe of his administration undertaken by his successor in Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, found his government guilty of alleged financial infractions running into billions of Naira. Some have accused el-Rufai of embracing his anti-Tinubu antipathy because he was not appointed a Minister in the administration as he had desired but the truth is that the tempestuous petrel has never hidden his dislike for the President’s politics if not his person. But even if his unceasing criticisms of the administration is a function of his frustration at not being the beneficiary of a political appointment, that would not necessarily invalidate the validity of his arguments because to question the motive of a contention is not to disprove its internal consistency or verity.

    Shortly after his expressed views at the Abuja summit on democracy in Nigeria, el-Rufai obviously endorsed and posted on his X handle (formerly Twitter) a view expressed by one Dr Uche Diala which suggests that rather than any iterated policy deficiencies or disagreements, his opposition to the Tinubu administration stems from an alleged disrespect and disdain towards the North by unnamed supporters of the President. An excerpt from the said Diala’s post reads, “Less than two years into the tenure, we are witnesses to how the relationship between the North and President Bola Tinubu or rather his administration is quickly deteriorating driven by the words and conduct of unfortunately many from the President’s geopolitical zone and tribe, truth be told. I have read and heard the arrogant posturing and braggadocio by some APC members and fellow supporters of President Bola Tinubu, especially from the Southwest geopolitical zone, I wonder if people have any sense of history and if they truly understand Nigerian politics.”

    Attributing President Goodluck Jonathan’s electoral loss to General Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 less to his administration’s non-performance than to “the disrespect and insult directed towards the North” by Jonathan’s Ijaw ethnic group and the Southsouth political zone as a whole, el-Rufai echoes and amplifies Diala’s view that Tinubu is headed for a similar fate. The post’s threat is thinly veiled when it thunders that “Love or loathe that fact, the North remains the kingmaker in Nigerian politics, at least, as of today. Any politician or political party that plays with that political reality might pay a steep political price for it. People who ignore history are bound to fall victim and to repeat mistakes of the past”. Unfortunately, Dr Diala does not name those from the Southwest who have disrespected or insulted the North or how and el-Rufai failed to fill the gap.

    There are those who have accused President Tinubu of unduly favouring the Southwest and especially Lagos in making critical appointments but such perceptions have not come solely from northerners and the allegation has not been backed by scientific empirical rigour. In any case, the same allegation was levelled against Buhari who was accused again in a rather loose manner of what was described as the ‘Fulanization’ of his administration. President Jonathan faced the criticism that his administration was skewed in favour of his ethnic Ijaw and the Igbo of the Southeast. A rather interesting case was that of President Olusegun Obasanjo whose administration was allegedly dominated by Igbo appointees even though he is of ethnic Yoruba extraction although some claim that he may not be genetically unrelated to the Southeast by some yet unproven accident of historical romantic adventurism. Given the ethno-regional configuration of Nigeria, it is unlikely that any President will in the foreseeable future escape this kind of perception and this cannot be a basis for the assertion that the Tinubu administration is anti-North.

    Of course, some analysts have rightly pointed out the over simplistic fallacy of assuming that the North is politically homogeneous and unidirectional. And in truth, the constitutional requirement for the emergence of Nigeria’s President is such that no geopolitical zone can solely play the role of kingmaker. This is why despite amassing at least 12 million votes from the North in three previous elections, Buhari did not realize his ambition until his political tendency had forged a working alignment with the Southwest. And in the same vein, Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 presidential election could not have been possible without the support he enjoyed from the North even though Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s strategy of seeking to win the election solely through northern votes proved surprisingly effective but for Tinubu’s wide network and political astuteness.

    Atiku had pointedly urged northerners, mainly Hausa-Fulani not to vote for any non-northern candidate and ignored the clamour of five southern governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to facilitate the emergence of a National Chairman of the party from the South following his clinching the presidential ticket contrary to the rotational zoning convention of the PDP. Waziri Adamawa calculated that his sweeping northern votes would win him the presidency. Thus, Atiku won in the core Northern states of Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Taraba while winning in only Osun, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states in the South. However, Tinubu came second in the northern states won by Atiku while also emerging triumphant in such Northern states as Kwara, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue and Kogi states. The electoral dynamics of the election that produced President Tinubu suggest that the ‘North as kingmaker’ hypothesis is overly simplistic and misleading.

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    Responding to el-Rufai’s rather magisterial assertion that the North would not back Tinubu for reelection in 2027, the National Chairman of the APC and former of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, urged Northerners interested in contesting for President to wait till 2031. Basing his submission on the zoning convention as a political elite power-sharing compact in the Third Republic, Ganduje argued that “When a leader from the northern part of this country was in office for eight years, we advocated that the next president in our party should come from the South. Luckily enough, we worked very hard with the cooperation of Nigerians. Our President has come from the South and he is going inshallah for the second term in 2027. And then after that, it will turn to the northern part of this country”.

    But Ganduje ‘s position was as controversial as that of el-Rufai as some other Northern voices contended that neither man could claim to have a mandate to speak for the North and that they expressed essentially their personal views. In the opinion of a former Secretary General of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, “There is nothing controversial about the statements of the two. This is because none of the two people you have mentioned speaks for the North in so far as partisan politics is concerned. This is because the North can be united politically on issues of real concern to Northerners but when it comes to partisan politics, the North does not act in unison”. It would appear to me that Ganduje struck a more relevant and poignant note when he spoke on the inevitable imperative of the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms and the fruits they are beginning to yield as the basis for urging support for the President’s reelection for a second term.

    According to him, “There is no doubt that many things went wrong over a long period of time and it requires surgery before we can get it right. We are happy that we have started seeing the outcome of the reforms, especially on the economic front, and we believe this will continue to yield positive results so that the legacy and the Renewed Hope Agenda will be achieved”. As I said earlier, the motives for el-Rufai’s criticism of what he regards as the organizational dormancy and institutional inactivity of the APC may not necessarily vitiate the cogency of his analysis. The PDP relied more on its control of the power and resources of the presidency during its 16 years in power from 1999 to 2015 rather than its structural vibrancy and organic linkage with the people. el-Rufai is right that there is a lesson the APC has to learn from the rise and decline of the erstwhile ruling party even though it is obvious that he desires the failure of a party in which he now perceives himself as marginalized.

    Much more than pronouncing with a seeming arrogance that is unhelpful to President Tinubu that there is no vacancy in 2027, Ganduje would be of greater help to the President’s reelection bid if he decides to run by ensuring that he has an efficiently, effectively run and organizationally vibrant ruling party that can add value to the policy process, enhance qualitative governance and astutely manage intra-party tendencies and conflicts. That cannot be said to be the case now at all levels of the party and nothing best illustrates this better than the clumsy impeachment process of the erstwhile Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, as if the legislators are independent members of the House not elected on the platform of a political party.

    Apart from the victories of the party in the Ondo and Edo State governorship elections, Ganduje’s most productive accomplishment as National Chairman of the APC so far is the launching of the newly established Think Tank and Resource Center of the party, The Progressive Institute (TPI) to undertake research and advice the Party on the performance and policies and programmes of all APC governments. In addition to such thoughtful initiatives, he should ensure that party structures and organs function so that its machinery is vibrant and alert to campaign and win elections with minimal reliance on monetization of the electoral process. But is there any rhyme or reason to Babachir Lawal’s rather unhinged assertion that President Tinubu’s policies are turning the North into a vast refugee camp? We will interrogate this claim shortly.

  • Belittling domestic coaches

    Belittling domestic coaches

    Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle is back in Abuja after junketing Europe to visit our foreign legion. He would have told them his goals and objectives as the coach of the Super Eagles. Of course, their common goal would be to grab Group C’s sole qualification ticket to participate in the 2026 World Cup. Already the NFF hierarchy is combing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for a befitting house for Chelle.

    Perhaps, Chelle is also part of the search team looking for a world-class house where he would reside after the day’s work. What it shows clearly is that the former coaches lived in hotels whose cumulative costs could buy a bungalow. Chelle’s house would have a retinue of staff who must be alert as the clock ticks. It would have been nice to see what Chelle’s houses in Mali and France look like, especially their ambience, otherwise, it would be a waste of time and resources except Chelle wants to live in the house, oh sorry palace for the duration of his contract. That would be nice, especially if he attends the domestic league matches around the country unheralded.

    The domestic league this year has been organised with most of the past vestiges thrown into the ocean. What the home-groomed players need include a good training regime, and moral and financial assistance to elevate their self-esteem. There should always be a synergy between the foreign legions that populate the Super Eagles and the domestic leagues to fish out the raw talents at the grassroots who just need to be taught the rudiments of the game to attain stardom when the opportunities fall on their laps. We had foreign coaches (not forgetting Clemens Westerhoff) who used the pedigree in the game to send our good players to teams whose coaches know their onions. There was harmony within the camp until things fell apart in America in 2004, costing Nigeria the busiest platform to recalibrate the boys to conform to the rules of the game.

    My heart sank last Saturday when pictures of Chelle’s visits to key Super Eagles players were released on social media by some of those who visited. Conspicuously missing from the pictures was Austin Eguavoen, the immediate past coach of the team. NFF administrators may argue and rightly so that other domestic coaches would take time to secure entry visas into the countries Chelle and his assistant toured. That reason won’t hold for Eguavoen who has a Belgium citizenship with his daughters living and working in Europe. How much would it cost NFF to ask Eguavoen to accompany Chelle on the trips? What manner of saving costs is this? Eguavoen has been the man who rescues them when things go awry with our senior national soccer teams. Sad.

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    Had Eguavoen been part of the team, he would have sat down with Chelle and his assistance, to engage in discussions and to compare their notes. Chelle would have asked Eguavoen why he dropped some of the names being bandied about in the print and electronic media from the previous squads, especially those who were also dropped during Jose Peseiro’s reign. Is it when the list of players has been made public that such a meeting would be held?

    Media reports suggested the return of Ahmed Musa, Paul Onuachu and Aribo with the NFF stating clearly that decisions about what would happen against Rwanda beginning with the team’s selection boils down to Chelle’s choices, not theirs. The optics are good in terms of choices. But we only hope that Chelle’s choices are not rubber-stamped by the technical department. The technical committee members must interrogate the list to make sure that only those players who are physically fit and play in their teams’ matches weekly are paraded by Chelle, not benchwarmers and recuperating players.

    March 17 is a watershed date that could redefine the country’s football if things go awry (God forbid). The Eagles are expected to beat Rwanda and it hasn’t happened. Most of the encounters have been drawn games which isn’t good for our permutations. We also have forgotten that Rwandans are the group leaders with seven points. And they know what it means to their points haul if they beat Nigeria. Rwandans would surely fight to the finish even if that resolve would break their bones. Wait for it – Rwanda beat Nigeria 3-1 in Uyo in the first leg.

    Chippa United FC of South Africa’s manager, Thabo September has raised a worrisome aspect to Nwabali’s game stressing that he hasn’t overcome the trauma of losing both parents pointing out that: “He’s going through a lot. Him being the number one goalkeeper, I pushed him and said he must play. Sometimes you must listen. For me as a coach, just growing into that.

    “Where we lost it, maybe it’s from the bench. From me, from the coaching side, because my goalkeeper (Nwabali) did plead with me that he was not okay and he wanted to rest,” Thabo September told farpost.

    Lessons learned by Chippa United FC’s manager. One only hopes that Chelle and the technical committee members take this aspect of players’ emotional state of mind into consideration before fielding them in the Rwanda tie that has been tagged ”kill and go,” meaning only victory over the host can put Nigeria in good stead to grab Group C’s sole qualification to the 2026 World Cup. A player’s mental state is critical to how he deploys himself on the pitch all through a game. It is important to remind Chelle that the Rwandans have energy which lasts over the 90-minute duration. So, our boys must gird their loins, otherwise, the two late goals akin to what happened inside the Stadium of Champions in Uyo in the first leg game could recur.

    If the Super Eagles fail to fly in Rwanda, let it be noted here that a brigade of supporters, stakeholders etc contributed largely to it by their needless presence. Rwanda didn’t charter two aircraft of such busybodies to beat Nigeria 3-1 in Uyo. My head on the guillotine, these busybodies would storm the team’s dressing room before the game and at half-time heightening the pressure among the players just they would shorten the time which he ought to have with his boys half-time telling them what to do.

    NFF, how much of Rwanda does Chelle know? Does he have their tapes to study? Hiring two charter jets to convey people for just 90 minutes plus the referee’s added time match explains why the NFF is always cash-strapped. This is a federation that hasn’t been bold enough to tell us if it has paid the players, coaches and backroom staff their outstanding allowances and bonuses. Which should come first, dear reader? You tell me.