The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

Throwing the gates open

In the past few weeks, a lot of innovations have been introduced to the domestic league at the elite class which would bring out the best performances from the coaches and players depending on the models used to make it devoid of sharp practices. I have tried to find out who introduced the concept of throwing the gates open to the fans, especially during big games involving bitter rivals.

It occurred to me that most times this strange arrangement is done when State Governors, the real owners of the clubs, want to score cheap political points by attending the home matches of their teams. The unfortunate aspect of this riotous act is that the governors would have departed the stadium when the overcrowded stadium dovetails into a stampede as the fans exit the premises through a few opened gates. What an irony!

Fans who are allowed free entrance into the stadium, suddenly find out that a few of those gates thrown open have been shut, an act which by itself serves as the basis for a stampede after the game has ended. It gets worse when the 50 security operatives are stretched to their wit’s end and would as a matter of last resort use their canister of tear gas to disperse the riotous fans.

The questions to be asked include who owns the game? State Governors, the league organisers, or the NFF?

No firm would do business with the league clubs if the Governors held sway in the team’s optics during games. Firms target their products and services towards the consumers, many of who constitute the fan base of clubs around the country. Clubs should start planning their operations from the business hub in a bid to become solvents in the future. This seasonal cap-in-hand mentality should stop. All outlets for getting internally generated revenues such as getting the fans to pay to watch games must be exploited to their maximum capacity.

Another worrying aspect of the league is the handshake with distinguished guests, especially the governors. An abuse of platform. Interruptions in European matches are usually symbolic and are more of celebrations of icons or the death of key functionaries in the game or at specific. I would need to scratch my head until blood flows to think of a time when we saw a European game with a guest of honour handshake. A minute silence for the dead and/or the spontaneous clapping at specific times. For instance in the 57th minute, where the fans are actively involved.

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Pray, did our football chieftains watch the colourful entrance of some of Spain’s medallists at the 2024 Paralympic Games onto Real Madrid’s pitch clutching their medals with everyone in the stadium, both sides’ players including clapping ceaselessly to honour the physically challenged athletes shortly before the game against Villarreal. Not agbada-wearing politicians and a few jesters peddling influence around the governors.

Such epochal events lift up the spirit of the masses and further inspire the physically challenged to give their best in all that they partake in.

Indeed, viewers of the game on television shouldn’t be surprised if commentators say some of the boys in any Nigerian side to big competitions are products of big European clubs. In such climes, it is like second nature for big teams to have youth teams from ages six to 20, who are grilled throughout the season like their senior sides. Aside, from grooming them, these clubs register them for age-grade competitions in their countries. It isn’t a case of using them as training materials.

The serious-minded soccer nations expose players from academies who also have the template to monitor those who did well and have juicy packages in big clubs in Europe, the Americas, and the Diaspora. These academies ensure that the players’ career paths are cut to fit their ambitions. Those of them eager to combine playing soccer with going to school are enrolled to be educated. They also have drawn up training schedules to suit their schools’ curriculum, knowing the importance of education when their career as soccer players is over. Nothing happens in such countries as an accident.

The beauty of this system is that it also provides a platform for coaches to be trained and retrained on how to handle kids until adulthood. Many of these coaches end up specialising in training young ones. They won’t be persuaded to handle clubs since they enjoy doing the job. It is, therefore, easy for these countries to name age-grade teams’ coaches, not by guesswork or sentiments but by their achievements in the local competitions in such countries. This academy system ensures that players’ data are accurate. They are stored and used in subsequent editions as the players grow.

Going to Europe has become a fad for young boys. They are gullible, especially those who are allowed to leave their homes unchecked. Their absence from home means less people to feed. In some cases, these young men associate with evil-minded people and become a threat to family members.

Our young boys are wasting away in Europe in the name of seeking to play professional football. That is okay. But they never follow the designated paths simply because we like doing things our way. All it takes for anyone to be a football coach or manager is to bounce the ball in any open field. Kids will swarm the place like bees. Sadly, some of these venues of fraud are located in schools, yet principals and parents don’t bother to find out if such coaches or managers are recognised under the law.

The problem with administering sports in Nigeria rests with the fact that those who eventually get the jobs lack the capacity to see through the desired changes being envisaged for the industry. Yes, people learn on the job and perfect their trades. But those who run sports in the country always choose to flex muscles for simple exercises which are easily resolved by looking for what the laws provide for. One isn’t surprised, considering the pedigree of those who influenced their appointments for the jobs.

Otherwise, how do you explain a setting where club owners who claim to be experts in the administration of league football don’t know the body recognised by FIFA to administer the game here? The truth is that NFF holds the game in trust for FIFA with all the rules and regulations in the confines of the Dankaro House’s chieftains in Abuja.

October 12, 2024
Nigeria: What man has joined together? (1)

Because of the long years, he has put into public service, first as Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and now as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) since 2015, it is so easy to forget that Professor Mahmood Yakubu’s first calling is as an academic and that he is a first-class historian by specialization. The INEC Chairman returned to his forte this week when he was one of the speakers at an international conference organized by Arewa House, the reputable northern think tank, in collaboration with the Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, on the 110th anniversary of the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914.

According to this newspaper’s reportage of the event, “Eminent Professor of history, Mahmood Yakubu, has said Nigeria will not disintegrate, despite its challenges. Yakubu told those who regarded the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914 as an artificial contraption that would eventually snap to bury the thought. He said it is not a miracle that Nigeria has remained indivisible 110 years after its amalgamation but by the determination of the diverse people to manage their heterogeneity. Yakubu dismissed calls for divisions among Nigeria’s diverse ethnic nationalities, saying the country has maintained deep-rooted historical ties that have existed among various communities long before the amalgamation”.

As Yakubu pointedly put it further, “I have made peace with the fact that I am Nigerian. If some people think Nigeria is artificial, they should know that nations are created in different ways and are consolidated over time. Tell me one nation that was put together by consensus. The fact that we are here for over a century is a plus for Nigeria”. Contrary to Professor Yakubu’s postulation, there are many who would contend that there is indeed something of the miraculous in Nigeria’s continued survival and cohesion, no matter how fragile her unity, for over a century plus years after the amalgamation.

For example, the country outlived a three-year fratricidal civil war(1967-1970) that cost over two million lives. Most remarkably, a prominent member of the Igbo ethnic group that had sought secession, Dr Alex Ekwueme, had risen to become Vice President of Nigeria a little more than a decade after the end of the war in 1970. But for the military intervention that terminated the Second Republic in 1983, the unfolding dynamics of the democratic process could very well have seen Ekwueme succeeding President Shehu Shagari in 1987 on the platform of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN). But that is in the realm of conjecture.

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Again, the country survived the protracted struggle against the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola and the perpetuation of military dictatorship; a struggle that often pushed the polity to the edges of implosion. Out of the tortured womb of that crisis, has rather emerged the current democratic dispensation that has remained unbroken for over two and a half decades. Indeed, so intense has the ever-deepening economic crisis particularly of the last two decades been that it is a sheer wonder that the depth of the existential trauma has not fractured Nigeria’s febrile and complex fault lines beyond repair. The country’s repeated amazing capacity to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat and disintegration and pull back from the brink of seemingly inevitable disaster has led many to believe that there is some sort of divine purpose and design to the evolution, creation, and sustenance of Nigeria as an entity.

There are indeed those who would read into Professor Yakubu’s logic the often peddled but now largely discarded mantra that ‘Nigeria’s unity is indivisible and non-negotiable’. That was a phraseology that derived from the civil war and its coercive ‘Go On With One Nigeria’ motivation as well as the dictatorial psychology of military domination. I however believe that this is not the spirit in which Yakubu made his submission. According to the news report on his contribution at the conference, “The INEC Chairman noted that the people’s relationships and interactions predated British colonization and the amalgamation of what is now called Nigeria. According to him, these historical ties have only grown stronger and will continue to do so”.

For him, the continued cohesion of Nigeria after a century and ten years of amalgamation is a desirable aspiration to be continuously and consensually nurtured and worked for, not a non-negotiable idea to be rammed down the throats of the component parts of the country. This is why both democracy and federalism must be continually deepened and strengthened as the indispensable imperatives for a united Nigeria predicated on voluntary association and not ultimately unsustainable compulsion. By all indices, the political, economic, cultural, geo-strategic, and psychological benefits and advantages of a united, democratic, and federal Nigeria far outweigh the uncertain outcomes and unpredictable consequences of a disintegrated polity.

Some of those who oppose the continuity of Nigeria and contend that there is absolutely nothing ‘non-negotiable’ about any polity point to such collapsed federations as the defunct USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, or Sudan among others. But why should we make failed state-building experiments and not successful ones are our models of reference? Why not learn appropriate lessons from the factors responsible for the collapse of failed states so as not to experience the same avoidable sad fates in our own efforts at nation-building?

There are those who still refer to Chief Awolowo’s famous description of Nigeria as ‘an artificial entity’ made up of diverse ethnic nationalities and thus not a nation in the true sense of the word to argue the case for the non-sustainability of Nigeria’s unity. The Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello is also said to have observed, obviously at a moment of ill-tempered politics, that ‘the mistake of 1914’ had come to light following certain constitutional disagreements between the North and the South. But such statements cannot be justifiable bases for arguing for the viability or otherwise of the Nigerian state.

As far back as 1973, for instance, the eminent political scientist, Professor Billy Dudley, had interrogated the accuracy of the claim of Nigeria’s artificiality. In his words, “In some respects, the boundaries of most of the African states are arbitrary; few of these states have a ‘common bond’ holding their people together, at least in the sense required either by Lord Hailey or Chief Awolowo. Nevertheless, it is only partially true and certainly not sufficient to warrant the charge of their being ‘artificial’. Dudley argued that in the precolonial era, there had been the creation of linkages among the various peoples that make up the area to be known as Nigeria through communication nets, trade, and the transmission of ideas before the imposition of imperial rule “thus making the notion of ‘Nigeria’ as a creation of the British so extremely misleading”.

In his inaugural lecture evocatively titled ‘What Man has Joined Together’, delivered at the University of Ibadan in 2019, renowned political scientist and Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Professor Eghosa Osaghae, avers that Awolowo was right in arguing that Nigeria was not a nation in the sense that the Scots and Welsh, for instance, were in terms of a common culture, language and sense of belonging. However, according to him, “But that could not have been because Nigeria is a mere geographical expression. No state or nation is a natural construct. All states and nations are literally geographical expressions, but expressions given form, content, and character by the process of nation building”. In any case, are the Yoruba, Edo, Tiv, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, and other components of Nigeria necessarily less artificial than Nigeria? Osaghae explores these and other issues relevant to our ongoing quest for a viable Nigerian entity 64 years after independence from colonial rule.

October 12, 2024
Challenges facing Southwest APC

The Southwest chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is predominantly a haven of progressives — and latter-day converts — battling for control of the six states. The region’s politics has always paraded a galaxy of progressives. This fulfills Awo’s prediction of alignment and realignment of forces in the power struggle. Today, at least, 40 percent of Southwest APC comprises defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The defection has implications for the harmonisation of party structures and sharing of political opportunities.

The regional chapter is also a zone of partisan political conflict, which is normal. The path to power is laced with thorns and acrimony, competition and antagonism. However, its experience in last year’s presidential election showed that it lost some ground to the opposition due to deep-seated acrimony, lack of reconciliation and inadequate preparation. In some chapters, party leaders took some things for granted. It proved to be a costly mistake.

The APC and the four major opposition parties – PDP, Labour Party (LP), and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) – are engulfed in crises. What is keeping the APC intact in some states is the consciousness of the fact that it is the ruling party at the centre. Indeed, this status is an advantage. But as the PDP takes its peace moves seriously, APC should not handle reconciliation with levity. It could be risky.

In fact, the National Reconciliation Committee of the ruling party should swing into action. There are crisis-ridden chapters that need urgent attention beyond the Southwest. These include Plateau, Taraba, Gombe, Zamfara, Enugu, Benue, Bayelsa, and Rivers.

However, the Southwest is the primary base of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, although the country is now his constituency as the Commander-in-Chief. It should be noted that the votes for APC in last year’s presidential poll were fewer than what it garnered in 2019. This is food for thought.

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The party had previously lost power in Osun State due to the unresolved crisis between the Oranmiyan and Ilerioluwa forces that worked at cross purpose. Both camps are still licking their wounds. They are left in the cold, outside of power. But there is no sign that supporters of Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola are ready to sheathe their swords.

The party structure is beyond the reach of Oranmiyan. But Ilerioluwa needs more efforts to cross all the inevitable hurdles on the way to the State House without the input of Oranmiyan. Governor Ademola “Dancer” Adeleke is enough trouble. But the foes within can do more damage by subverting or undermining party efforts. Osun APC is currently a divided house that cannot stand. It needs to bring everybody back into the fold through negotiation, logic, skill, and reconciliation.

The greatest goal of Oranmiyan is to ensure that Ilerioluwa does not make it the second time. Only a timely intervention of the party’s national leaders can bring the two camps to the table of brotherhood.

In Oyo, the party lost due to poor strategy and a weak structure that was reduced to rubble by the PDP machine. Internal bickering, lack of trust and agreement, and post-primary crisis polarised the party. A section of the party defected briefly to contest on the platform of a mushroom party. The supporters of Teslim Folarin and Adebayo Adelabu went their separate ways. Both camps failed on poll day. The Oyo chapter has not recovered fully from defeat. There is no evidence to prove that the two antagonistic camps are prepared to combine their strengths.

A pervasive trend in Southwest is the habit of asking some supporters to conduct election in other parties. That was the style of the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and former Governor Amosun in 2019, while they still remained as APC leaders in their respective states. These anti-party activities are injurious.

Apart from Ekiti State, other chapters have unresolved crises. It is a credit to the maturity and understanding on the part of Ekiti APC gladiators that the chapter is the most peaceful. Former Governors Kayode Fayemi, Segun Oni, and Niyi Adebayo appear to have mounted a protective wall around Governor Biodun Oyebanji. The style of the incumbent governor has contributed to the tranquility in the chapter. Oyebanji is determined to also sustain the tempo of performance. There are feelers that few aspirants are warming up. This is normal in politics. It may be for a spoiler role, which would be instantly checked. But the few contenders may also put their hats in the ring for attention-seeking or relevance. Altogether, it is not a purely bad strategy. But if anyone comes out to compete for the governorship ticket with Oyebanji in 2026, the ambition of the contender will crumble. It will not fly. This is because of the way the governor has conducted himself, handled the party and governed the state.

In Ogun State, there is a clash of egos. Personality clashes between former Governor Ibikunle Amosun and Governor Dapo Abiodun on the one hand and the rift between the governor and Senator Gbenga Daniel, a former governor, on the other hand, point to unfinished reconciliation in the Gateway chapter. The distrust permeated the party in Ogun during the last governorship election. There were allegations, accusations, and counter-claims. The rift also has its roots in the future ambition of certain gladiators, particularly their contrasting senatorial ambitions.

In Ondo State, which is preparing for an election on November 16, former governorship aspirants are grumbling. But efforts are being made to mend fences. A major task there now is the governorship campaign structure that should reflect the harmonisation of interests and forces in the state.

In Lagos State, it was too bad that last year, APC was defeated by the Labour Party (LP) during the presidential election. It was highly disgraceful. Party men, particularly youths and women, never mobilised for the exercise. They also refused to be mobilised. As cracks appeared on the wall, enemies sneaked in.

A political drama was staged last year after the governorship poll. The governor sent the list of commissioner-nominees to the House of Assembly. It was rejected. The governor and the lawmakers are members of the same APC. It meant that a deep gulf existed. Eight days ago, when the governor, who is the coordinator of Southwest governors, convened the zonal meeting in Lagos, the lawmakers shunned the meeting held at Eko Hotels on Victoria Island. No explanation was given. There was no representation. Therefore, something is fishy in Lago De Kuramo. When the executive and legislature are at loggerheads, progress can be hampered. There is a need for cooperation, collaboration, understanding, and harmony, even in an atmosphere of separation of powers and checks and balances.

National party elders should wade into the repressed hostility. If not, it would blow open and draw negative attention to the Lagos chapter.

Last week’s stakeholders’ meeting of the Southwest APC revealed the extent of unfinished business of reconciliation in the entire region. It is very bad that the zonal leadership was not able to call a meeting for a year and six months. What would have been responsible? Has there been a lack of institutional memory or funding? It is during meetings that ideas are generated, grievances are laid before the leadership, committees are raised, mobilisation is fine-tuned and strategies are resolved.

In the regional history of the progressive bloc, the stakeholders’ meetings were in layers – governors, party chairmen, Speakers and lawmakers, women and youth wings. There was an exchange of ideas and strategies. At such meetings, support was given to the regional integration agenda.

The recent meeting of the regional chapter became an avenue for the ventilation of accumulated grievances arising from the alleged distortion of the reward system in the party, the detachment of public officeholders from the party structure and the collapse of party supremacy.

Unlike in the days of the defunct AG, UPN and SDP, there is now a curious preference for technocrats to serve as commissioners and special advisers, leaving party men who laboured during the campaigns and elections in the cold. The technocrats are highly effective and efficient in the discharge of their public duties. But they owe no allegiance to the party that gave birth to the government that offered them the appointments. In the next round of elections, the technocrats are off the slippery political field, unmindful of the toil and labour of politicians to sustain the party in power.

The way out is for the governors, and even the president, to evolve a system that would be a blend of politicians and technocrats. Many party chieftains are adamant that the APC parades technocrats with intimidating credentials, but being politicians should never be a bane.

Also, delegates to the Lagos meeting complained about lack of access to those who rode on the back of the party to power. They complained about dwindling aggressive mobilisation for membership, the disenchantment of party youths against the leadership, and inadequate engagement and empowerment of youths and women. A delegate called for the appointment of Presidential Liaison Officers (PLOs) by the president to liaise with party members at the grassroots. He complained that what the president had been sending to the party never got to the lower rungs. It was a protest, an indictment and a vote of no confidence in state party executives by ordinary party folks who believe that their leaders are in comfort zones to their exclusion and the crumbs falling off their tables are beyond reach.

Many party chieftains are also fond of washing the dirty linen of the platform in public. There is a communication gap. Party leaders who are conversant with governance issues are not explaining certain government policies and programmes that cause transient pains to party members and followers. Open criticisms of the party and its governments in the public by aggrieved stalwarts, no matter their grievances, smack of indiscipline. Some even criticise the president and peddle falsehoods. Thus, the governor of Ekiti called for decorum, saying the Southwest should treasure what it has. He added that after the current president, it will take many years before the zone can produce another president.

The zonal party has an unfinished battle, not only in Osun but also in Oyo State, which slipped from its grip in the post-Ajimobi era. Again, the baseline is the return of unity in those distressed state chapters.

The Southwest APC should be bothered about two other things. An international organisation has warned about the growing number of school dropouts. Also, the Yoruba language is facing a risk of extinction. Yoruba youths are jettisoning the time-tested virtues of Omoluabi the older generation was noted for. They indulge in vices, including kidnapping, yahoo yahoo and ritual killings. This is bad for the image of the region.

It is good news that there is going to be a Southwest Development Commission. The headquarters has not been determined. Many believe it would be a model for other regional agencies. The party’s regional body has a big role to play in making the Southwest a national model as the Great Awo did until his demise. There are still many fine politicians in the region as there were in the First and Second Republics. What APC needs to do is fine-tune the style of governance of those periods to align with modernity and reality. This is how the Southwest will continue to remain the model for other regions in all ramifications.

A ruling party is not only about ensuring good governance. It is also about showing direction for the people to follow in their march towards a harmonious life and accelerated development. That is what the APC should work for in the Southwest.

October 12, 2024
Cash-for-mandate scandal rocks Southern state after LG elections

The conclusion of local government elections in a South-South state has left in its wake an allegation to the effect that the mandate of the party that won the elections in one of the LGAs was traded for cash and appointments.

Accusing fingers are being pointed at a highly influential politician in the state for masterminding the cash-for-mandate scandal with a view to safeguarding his political ambition in 2027.

Fearing that his political ambition in 2027 would be under threat with the loss of his local government area to a rival political party already announced by an ad hoc official of the state’s electoral commission as winner, he allegedly prevailed on the governor to dole out millions of naira and appointments to the winners and leaders of the party in the affected local government in exchange for their mandates.

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The development has left a political figure regarded as the leader of the compromised party members in the local government area boiling with anger, accusing the leadership of his party of using the affected local government to do barter.

The centenarian political leader, who recalled that the youths in the area protested the development by barricading a major highway, said that he too was not happy with the development but there was little he could do about it because “age has slowed me down”.

He recalled that the governor had invited him and members of his party in the local government to a meeting at the Government House to discuss matters relating to the election in the local government area.

At the said meeting, the governor was said to have told the aggrieved party members that they needed to show respect to the influential and uncommon politician, promising to compensate the candidates whose mandates were compromised with appointments in his administration.

True to the governor’s words, a top official of the state government announced the appointment of nine people from the local government as personal assistants to the governor and two others as special assistants. Among the appointees were the political leader’s wife and son.

Added to the foregoing was the sum of N20 million the governor allegedly gave the delegation to hold a peace meeting when they returned to their community.

In all, the governor was reckoned to have spent more than N50 million pacifying the aggrieved people.

Is anyone still in doubt that local government elections in the country being conducted by State Electoral Commissions (SIECs) are a travesty of elections ?

October 12, 2024
Soludo, Anambra and the disillusionment of intellectualism (2)

In recent weeks, the conduct of local government elections in Anambra State under the leadership of Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo has come under intense scrutiny and criticism. What should have been a routine democratic exercise has instead become a focal point of controversy, raising serious questions about the state of grassroots democracy in Anambra.

The Controversial Anambra Local Government Elections Under Governor Soludo’s Administration further justifies my case. While we all know that LG elections in Nigeria are nominally a sham save for the one conducted in 2020 by former Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State which saw members of the opposition party winning Chairmanship positions a far cry from what ia obtained in tye so called LG elections. My take remains that even if other governors are playing dirty muat Soludo follow suit? With what language will he be able to speak out should he find himself at the other side of the corner?

The controversy began with the delayed scheduling of the elections. Soludo, readers had recalled had promiaed to conduct the local government elections in less than 6 months into his administration if he was elected, time reach and our Professor began to sing Shaggy’s ” It wasnt me” hiding under all given shenanigans to maintain the status quo, this is despite the fact that

constitutional requirements for regular local government polls, and Anambra had not held LGA elections since 2014, long before Soludo took office. However, as that self-imposed deadline passed, criticisms began to mount over the continued use of caretaker committees to run local governments instead of democratically elected officials.

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Then came the epoch making Supreme Court judgement of July 11th 2024 which affirmed the financial autonomy of the 774 local government areas and put a stop to the nefarious piggybacking of the LG funds.

However, when the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) finally announced election dates in July 2023, it stood logic, fairness and common sense on its heads when it fixed the date for elections in less than a month whereas the laid down process as stipulated by Section 103(3) of Electoral Act of 2022, which calls for 150 day notice period and also ought to give all parties a level playing field particularly in areas such as timing for proper conduct of primaries, appeals from such primaries as well as the purchase of forms for such, Soludo and his leprous members of the ANSIEC, headed by one Mts Genevieve Osakwe conducted the elections even worse than Area Boys would. This prompted the boycott of the elections by major political parties like the APC and Labour reducing whatever credibility the elections were primed to have.

The opposition parties were not alone in their vehement criticism of the already flawed polls, civil society groups raised alarms. This rushed timeline, they argued, conferred an unfair advantage to the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) party and undermined the ability of opposition parties to effectively campaign and organize.

The election day itself was marred by numerous reported irregularities that cast doubt on the integrity of the entire process. Widespread allegations emerged of voter intimidation, no result sheets, ballot box snatching, and the use of thugs to suppress turnout in opposition strongholds. There were reports of polling stations opening late or not at all in certain areas, while other locations allegedly saw cases of over-voting and result manipulation.

Perhaps most damning were accusations that the Soludo administration interfered directly in the electoral process to favor APGA candidates. Opposition parties claimed that ANSIEC officials were pressured to declare results favoring the ruling party, even in areas where voting had been disrupted or where opposition candidates appeared to be leading based on initial results.

The lopsided official results, which saw APGA win chairmanship races in all 21 local government areas, only fueled suspicions of widespread rigging. Such a clean sweep for the ruling party defied political realities on the ground and historical voting patterns in the state. It strained credulity that opposition parties such as the People’s Democratic Party, PDP and Young People’s Party, YPP, which had performed strongly in recent national and state elections could be so thoroughly routed at the local level.

Even the conduct of his own party’s primaries would have left Chairman Mao and Stalin grin with envy, as APGA could have been mistaken as a Communist Party, popular candidates were ordered not to be returned while the unpopular and unscrupulous were returned!

However, Soludo’s dismissive attitude towards the serious allegations leveled against the electoral process has only intensified criticisms of his handling of the situation. Which has cast a shadow over his administration’s commitment to the ideals of intellectualism, fairness and democracy. Soludo has merely demonstrated that the Nigerian academic is no different from a yahoo-yahoo boy.

Many observers have expressed disappointment that a leader who came into office promising transformative governance has instead presided over an election that represents a step backwards for Anambra’s democracy.

The controversy surrounding the local government elections threatens to undermine Soludo’s broader reform agenda and erode public trust in his administration. It has provided ammunition to his political opponents and disappointed many of his erstwhile supporters who expected better from the professor-turned-politician.

Moreover, the disputed elections raise troubling questions about the health of Nigeria’s democracy at the grassroots level. Local governments are meant to be the tier of government closest to the people, providing essential services and fostering political participation. When LGA elections are compromised, it weakens the entire democratic system and alienates citizens from the political process.

As the legal challenges to the Anambra LGA elections play out, the Soludo administration faces a critical test. How it responds to the controversy will shape perceptions of the governor’s commitment to democratic principles and good governance. A willingness to acknowledge shortcomings in the process and work towards a more transparent and inclusive electoral system could help rebuild trust. Conversely, a stubborn insistence on the legitimacy of the flawed elections risks further erosion of public confidence.This i much doubt.

For the people of Anambra, the consequences of this electoral controversy extend beyond mere politics. Functional and accountable local governments are essential for addressing the everyday concerns of citizens – from maintaining local infrastructure to providing basic social services. The installation of leaders through a tainted electoral process undermines the ability of LGAs to effectively serve their communities.

As Anambra grapples with the fallout from these contentious elections and the disillusionment of intellectualism, such an episode erodes the confidence of the average Nigerian in the academia, one should then wonder what fate awaits Nigeria if the academia can wobble and fumble as witnessed here, where will our hope then come from? Soludo’s misadventures in power serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing challenges facing Nigeria’s democratic evolution. It underscores the need for continued vigilance and advocacy to protect the integrity of governance and the credibility of the Nigerian academic or intellectual. A sad tale it really is.

October 12, 2024
Soludo, Anambra and the Disillusionment of Intellectualism (1)

When Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo was elected governor of Anambra State in November 2021, there was indeed a palpable sense of excitement and optimism among intellectuals and progressives both within and outside the state. Professor Chukwuma Soludo, a renowned economist and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, seemed to represent a departure from what Anambra had been stuck with, you know from the gangsters and the cowboys to the traders and then the hedonistic, while Anambra, save for the Mbadinuju era had never had it as bad as her sister state, Abia, before the emergence of Alex Otti, yet the state still lacked that leadership ethos in which the Academia would leave their theory dreaming, ideas brimming classrooms and join the fray with their “uniformed” counterparts leading from the front and paving the way for the state to emerge as one of the top four states in Nigeria, becoming a hub for excellence as well as the exegesis of the Igbo Nation.

The home state of Zik, Alex Ekwueme, Ajie Ukpabi Asika, Pius Okigbo, Kenneth Dike, Chu Okongwu, Emeka Ojukwu(An Intellectual in every sense), Chuba Okadigbo, should like James Aggrey’s Eagle not be clucking with chickens and though i never supported Soludo, i would in private gatherings, devoid of sentiment and whatsoever bias i held against him and his party placed him as a good man to steer the ship. Readers will recall that in a number of writings, i have always advocated for some form of synergy between the Academia in Nigeria and the political class, such clarion call seemed to have been answered by Soludo’s emergence- one with the intellectual heft and the technocratic experience to potentially transform governance and development in Anambra or so we thought.

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Many saw Soludo’s election as a watershed moment and a chance to demonstrate how an academically accomplished leader could leverage evidence-based policymaking to drive rapid socioeconomic progress. There were high hopes that Soludo would be able to harness Anambra’s human capital and entrepreneurial spirit to create an innovation-driven economy and position the state as a model of good governance in Nigeria.

However, as Soludo’s tenure has unfolded, a growing sense of disappointment and disillusionment has set in among many of the intellectuals who initially championed his candidacy, including those of us who didnt support him but felt comfortable that an intellectual would be in the forefront for the state’s manifest destiny. Now, while many may argue that it is premature to render a definitive verdict on Soludo’s tenure, there is a perception and growing one, that he has thus far failed to live up to the lofty expectations that accompanied his election.

A number of factors have contributed to this sense of disappointment among intellectuals, and these are not factors manufactured from the blues; they are direct and stare coldly at the hopes of firing Anambra from where Soludo met the state to a point where it breaks the holds on its total development.

Take the state of insecurity, Anambra has never had it this bad, on a weekly basis, either the state is reporting killings and unknown gunmen attacks or a number of persons have been reportedly kidnapped , with many ending up dead in captivity while Governor Soludo takes up the new fad of dancing Mike Ejeagha’s ‘gwogwogwomgwo’ with the panache of Nigeria’s foremost content creator, Brain Jotter. One would have expected Soludo to hit the ground running with bold, transformative policies aimed at addressing Anambra’s most pressing challenge of insecurity, if possibke declaring a state of emergency, somewhat, the situation however seems to project the Soludo administration as clueless in terms of security.

Likewise in terms of unemployment, the result is there for all to see and that is the fact that his administration has been marked more by continuity than by the type of disruptive change that we had anticipated. Promises made by the governor to tackle these social issues such as unemployment, touting which were blazoned in his manifesto and was trumpeted at every camapaign gathering. Save for the employment of near 9000 teachers, critical areas in which the teeming youths ought to have been absorbed into in order to take their minds away from the devil’s workshop franchising are a shadow of themselves, rather the Soludo administration has employed more of these able bodied youths to harass the likes of bus and keke drivers as well as petty traders. Ndi Anambra have been made viewers of such gory scenes where these touts harass and manhandle these persons, acting like they are above the law and below the culture of decency, even newspaper vendors seem not to be spared this nauseating display of machismo, same has been the lot of petty traders who cannot afford to pay for shops in a number of areas within the state. If the problem is revenue then, the simple thing for a development economist in Soludo would have been to establish a number of mini markets across the state rather than the brazen destruction of such goods, particularly when these women can barely eke out a living from such trade.

If the administration with an intellectual as its helmsman in Soludo can unleash its stormtroopers against the poor in society that should likely speak volumes of the depth of authoritarianism as his style of governance, yes I must concede that Soludo is a.man of ideas but his arrogance and contempt for the slightest of opposition to even the basset of his whims and caprices should make the average intellectual shudder whilst the rest may have only God to be their guide. A number of examples are there to lap in, such as the resignation of his Commissioner for Finance, Ifeatu Onejeme, the recent sack of his Commissioner for Information, Paul Nwosu and the shameful suspension of the traditional ruler of of Neni, Igwe Damian Ezeani for conferring a title on Soludo’s then political nemesis, the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah.

October 5, 2024
Edo: Where is Marvelous Omobayo?

Above is the question on the lips of observers of political events in Edo State since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the governorship seat to the All Progressives Congress (APC) about two weeks ago.

At the height of his face-off with his deputy, Philip Shaibu, the outgoing governor of the State, Godwin Obaseki had discarded Shaibu via a purported impeachment by the seven-man House of Assembly made up of the governor’s loyalists and appointed Marvelous Omobayo as deputy governor.

But the new deputy governor appointed in April has been largely anonymous since Shaibu’s removal was voided by the court. He has remained quiet and no one seems to know his whereabouts. He has kept a very low profile and is neither seen nor heard. Rather, it is the supposedly impeached Shaibu that has been in the news.

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The abnormal situation has become even more noticeable after the governorship election with Shaibu literally dictating the pace of events in the state as Obaseki jetted out of the country. In Obaseki’s absence, Omobayo should ordinarily be the deputy governor in charge of the state’s administration, but the reverse has been the case.

Apparently emboldened by a recent court judgment declaring him the authentic deputy governor of Edo State, Shaibu has even taken it upon himself to inspect the government projects around the state. Omobayo, on the other hand, has been as invisible as the air.

Some observers believe his taciturn mien might have to do with an existing contempt suit against him while others say his weak support base in PDP as a former Labour Party chieftain whose appointment did not go down well with many party members might be responsible for the current state of affairs.

October 5, 2024
Ondo 2024: Guber candidate’s fruitless mission to South-South governor

As the day draws near for the governorship election in Ondo State, parties as well as candidates are reaching out to individuals they believe could be of help in their bid for victory.

This is particularly the case with political parties who believe that they have a good chance of winning because they are not only entrenched in the state but also boast formidable structures nationwide.

Not exempted in this battle for survival is a particular candidate who is not a novice in electoral battles. He has been reaching out to influential members of his party across the national landscape, soliciting for help, particularly finance.

Sentry gathered that his search for financial assistance took him to a South-South state reputed for huge allocations from the federal purse on account of its natural endowments, where he had an interesting encounter with the governor.

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At the meeting with the governor, the candidate took time to recount how well he and his party were poised to win the governorship election because of the prevailing circumstances the country and also in the state

The governorship candidate, however, got the shock of his life as the governor, who had listened patiently to the candidate’s tales, declared without equivocation that with the dearth of great party leaders in the state, he did not deem the candidate’s governorship ambition a venture worth investing in. “Eyes are on me here. And you know as much as l do that things are not well with us nationally. My prayer is that you win, but here, we take calculated risk,” the governor was quoted as saying.

Needless to say that the host governor’s response left the governorship candidate dejected. “Calculated risk, calculated risk,” his aides heard him saying after the encounter; an indication that the adventure was a failed one.

That, however, has not stopped him from reaching out to more people for help.

October 5, 2024
Agenda for National Youth Conference

There is excitement among Nigerian youths. For the first time, they will have an effective forum to lend their collective voice to national discourse.

Thus, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s move to set up a National Youth Conference has beamed a ray of hope for the future of the youths. With the planned inauguration of the conference, the youth are upbeat about the impact it is likely to make on national life. It is a novel idea.

The Youth Confab is not a semblance of the typical National Conference, Constitutional Conference, or Sovereign National Conference, in character, objective, and composition.

But, for clarity, it should not be perceived by the younger generation as a social hangout, a tea party, a musical concert, a dating arena, a cinema house or a film show; it does not come close to a modelling event or jamboree. It should also not be converted to an opportunity for showmanship by attention-seeking motivational speakers swimming in the pool of idealism. Rather, it should be a serious gathering, a symbolic institutionalised avenue for legitimate, guided, peaceful, affirmative and interest articulation.

Already, many youngsters have been part of Youth Parliaments in some states where they bared their minds and interfaced with government representatives on issues bordering on their welfare, growth and development. The only difference is that the proposed Confab will have a national outlook.

Nigeria parades promising youths with intimidating credentials and potential; young men and women bubbling with great ideas. Many of them are making waves in their callings under the tutelage of accomplished oldies. They are many young professionals – lawyers, doctors, financial experts, engineers, architects, ICT gurus, researchers, authors, and scientists. The ball is now in the court of the ‘Gen Z’ to clarify their thoughts on burning national socio-economic and political issues as the country intensifies the search for solutions.

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A constructive debate is a minimum expectation, and the nation would also look forward to suggestions beyond the youths’ peculiar demands for an instant generational shift and clamour for dominant political control.

The future, it is often said, belongs to the youth. Thus, President Tinubu thinks that as his administration mobilises the nation to overcome the current challenges, it is also mindful of the next generation whose creative energy should be galvanised towards a better future. He said those at the helm of affairs should lead today with a special focus on the future they wish to bequeath to the younger ones. The president rightly recognises that the current leadership cannot design a future in which the youths would be the key players without deeply involving them in the conceptualisation, nitty-gritty, modus operandi, implementation, and actualisation.

Unveiling the plan for the conference, he explained that the gathering would be a platform to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting the youths who constitute more than 60 per cent of the soaring population. The president expects the restrictive confab to provoke meaningful dialogue and empower the youths to participate actively in nation-building. He noted that by ensuring their voices are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, his government would create a pathway for a brighter tomorrow for the nation through its youths.

The confab may be another unity forum, as envisioned by the President. As the youths converge in Abuja or any chosen venue in any part of the country, their delegates are symbolically inducted into somewhat problem-solving roles. Team spirit is essential for the youths from a complex and highly heterogeneous country. The youths are expected to collaboratively develop solutions to issues, such as education, employment, innovation, security, and social justice.

The nation awaits the modalities for the proposed Confab and selection of the delegates. The process, the president said, would be designed in close consultation with the young people through their representatives. President Tinubu promised that his administration would ensure that youth aspirations are at the heart of the conference’s deliberations. More importantly, he assured that the current government would thoroughly consider and implement its recommendations and outcomes, in consonance with the mission to build a more inclusive, prosperous, and united country.

The confab is another manifestation of youth inclusion, which was part of Tinubu’s campaign promises. In fulfilment of this portion of his party’s manifestos, youth are being accorded priority in decision-making and implementation modalities. More than before, youths have found their voice in the Tinubu administration, which appointed two youth ministers and gave the young generation other responsible positions in the federal cabinet, the Presidency, parastatals and boards.

Also, other youth-oriented policies and programmes affirming the prioritisation of youth welfare include the three million Technical Talents programme (3MTT) of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, aimed at building Nigeria’s technical talent backbone, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), which provides cheap loans to somestudents to pursue their tertiary educational dreams, and the proposed launching of the Renewed Hope Labour Employment and Empowerment Programme (LEEP) aimed at yearly creation and facilitation of 2.5 million direct and indirect jobs.

But the proposed youth confab has thrown up some challenges. The first is how to determine the age bracket of those deemed to fall into that human categorisation and those who should be called youth representatives.

The second is the composition, the delegates’ size and gender parity. Some may even make a case for ethnic consideration and religious balance.

The third is the delineation of the youth constituencies for the recruitment of delegates, from geo-political zones, states, campuses, reputable youth organisations, the academia and other professional institutions, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), the government, political parties, persons with disabilities, and the gang of aggrieved protesters against what they have uncritically described as bad governance.

The fourth is the setting up of a Conference Secretariat that will comprise youths and, indeed, selected ‘youth-at-heart’ elders who have to donate their wealth of experience to the delegates and offer guidance to the process. The reason for gerontocratic monitoring is that despite their vibrancy, energy, vigour, zest and adventurous nature, youths are still assailed by the limitation of experience. The youths may need advisers, especially if the conference would also break into committees. They may also require technical assistance in producing a conference report.

Already, critics have insinuated that the conference may pale into an assemblage of privileged youths from affluent homes as if it is intended for the projection of the children of legends, aristocrats, party big wigs and business moguls. Conscious efforts should be made to disabuse the notion of systematically raising a pre-determined successor club. The participants should be chosen in a manner that would reflect representativeness, thereby satisfying, in part, a criterion of democratic selection. The motivation for participation at the conference should not be the desire to be partakers in the transient pecks associated with the event. The perception of government as a big contract for grabs should be discouraged.

Nigerian youths have been victims of what many elders failed to do in the past, particularly the creation of an atmosphere conducive for them to excel. As the economy was mismanaged, job opportunities began to shrink. The unstable academic calendar due to lecturers’ strikes in tertiary institutions made many youths to stay longer on campuses than their normal academic period. Many of them became hired thugs for politicians. The maladjusted ones opted for anti-social behaviours, including internet fraud, popularly called ‘yahoo plus,’ kidnappings for ransom and ritual murders. Adorning their thinking caps, many of them left for Europe and America for greener pastures. The exodus led to a brain drain.

Also, the majority of delegates expected at the youth conference may be products of the school system that erroneously deleted the study of history, civics and moral education from their curricula. The knowledge of Nigerian history by the upcoming young elite is important for them to appreciate the country’s complexity and diversity, and the need for delegates to cultivate dialogue and hone their skills for negotiation and compromises. During the conference, opinions may reflect the diversity or heterogeneous nature of the Nigerian society. Reality may dawn on the youths that they are only united by sports and that their needs and aspirations, having been brought up in diverse zones and cultures, differ.

At the end of the conference, it is expected that the assignment would have fostered unity and understanding among the youth as well as between them and the government. The government would have also achieved a better perception of youth challenges, needs and aspirations. It may be the baseline for increased youth participation in governance.

October 5, 2024
Nigeria at 64: What future for democracy?

For the past several years, even before the commencement of this democratic dispensation in 1999, several military regimes and civilian administrations have been forced to organize what has been described as ‘low key’ celebrations to commemorate the country’s independence anniversary on October 1, 1960. It has not been different with the President Bola Tinubu administration which marked Nigeria’s 64th anniversary with a modest ceremony confined to the precincts of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. All the states in the federation followed suit. The reason for the low profile independence anniversaries by successive administrations is the protracted economic crisis that has failed to respond to various policy medications with the vast majority of Nigerians sinking ever deeper into poverty despite their country being immensely endowed with natural, mineral and talented Human Resources.

Taking the bulls by the horns and announcing far-reaching economic reform policies with respect to removal of fuel scarcity and merger of corruption enhancing parallel exchange rate markets, measures that preceding administrations had identified as necessary but couldn’t summon the courage to implement, the Tinubu administration is faced with fierce tempests of socioeconomic hardships being borne by Nigerians hoping that the pains will be essentially short term if it harnesses the courage to stay the course and ensure continuity in policy consistency and steadfastness.

In one of his submissions in his book, ‘The Strategy and Tactics of the Peoples Republic of Nigeria’, Nigeria’s preeminent developmental and transformational leader, Premier of the Western Region in the First Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, declared emphatically that man is the ‘Alpha and Omega’ of the universe; the generator of all productive activities and who should be the object of all meaningful development initiatives. In a way, Nigeria’s prolonged embrace of underdevelopment is a function of our failure to take this profound insight of the sage into account in the various developmental exertions of successive governments- authoritarian and democratic.

The depth of our developmental failings is a measure of the extent to which we have neglected the maximal development of the potentials of each individual to enable their optimal contributions to the process of national transformation. Although he penned his treatise over five decades ago, Awolowo presciently recognized the gross danger that educational disparity between the North and the South posed to national stability and harmony. In his words, “It is now generally accepted that if we want to keep Nigeria United, and harmoniously so, the yawning gap in education between the north and south must be closed with the least possible delay, and immediate steps must be taken to this end”.

This has become more imperative than ever before. Although the South has its fair share of violence and destabilizing dysfunctions, these pale into relative insignificance compared to the wave of banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, and religious extremism overwhelming the North; the region worst hit by the phenomena of multitudes of out-of-school children and pervasive poverty. So much for the lack of vision, ineptness, and venality of the region’s political elite, vices from which its Southern counterpart is not exempt even if it is implicated to a relatively lower degree.

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There are those who contend that the fundamental roots of Nigeria’s post-independence predicament are essentially economic. From this perspective, the challenges of mass poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, hunger, inadequate shelter, prevalence of disease, and large-scale unemployment among others throw up barely controllable pressures that destabilize the polity and engender social disharmony.

The essence of the state as Plato noted is to enable those within its jurisdiction to meet their daily basic needs through superintending an efficient system of division of Labour. The social contract theorists, premised the obligation of citizens to obey the state on the latter’s capacity to fulfill its part of the social contract, especially the protection of lives and property, that undergirds the establishment of the polity. For the best part of the last 64 years, the Nigerian State cannot be said to have delivered to the citizenry the contractual obligations that is critical to the relationship between the government and the people particularly in a democratic polity.

Patriotism cannot exist in the abstract with a people demonstrating fierce loyalty and fidelity to a geopolitical entity simply because they dwell therein. Rather, the state can have the moral authority to call on its people to ask not what their country can do for them but what they can do for their country, as President JFK Kennedy demanded at his inauguration in America in 1961, only if it has succeeded to a significant extent in fulfilling its responsibilities to the led.

Yet there are still others who aver that at the core of Nigeria’s persistent post-colonial crisis is politics, deficient leadership, and a flawed constitution. If no meaningful attempt is made to address this superstructure of governance, hardly any breakthrough can be made in terms of economic recovery and sustainable development according to this school of thought. But then, as the Marxian perspective correctly contends, the political and constitutional superstructure rests on the economic substructure that has a determining influence on the former.

When they visited President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa recently, The Patriots, a group of eminent Nigerians led by respected diplomat and statesman, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, called on the President to urgently work towards drawing up a new constitution for the country. As far as they were concerned, the socioeconomic and political dilemmas confronting the country today stem essentially from the flawed 1999 Constitution which they claimed was a military imposition and not a product of ‘We the people’ as it reportedly falsely advertises itself. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of a new constitution and everything shall be added unto you”, The Patriots confidently insinuated. Of course, President Tinubu’s response was that he would carefully consider his eminent visitors’ proposition but that the priority of his administration was to see its ongoing economic reforms to a logical and positive conclusion. Is constitutional change an indispensable condition for effectively addressing extant socioeconomic and political challenges? I don’t think so.

For one, as has been previously pointed out in this space, it is not entirely accurate that the extant 1999 Constitution is an imposition of the military. Rather, the General Abdussalam Abubakar regime itself had committed itself to a short transition to a civil rule programme and could thus not afford the luxury of embarking on the exercise of drawing up a new constitution for the country. Thus, it bypassed both the 1989 and 1995 Constitutions, products of the discredited Babangida and Abacha regimes, and opted for the 1979 Constitution which constitutes the core of the 1999 Constitution.

Although drawn up under the aegis of the Murtala Mohammed/ Olusegun Obasanjo military regime, the 1979 Constitution was the product of 49 of the country’s brightest and best lawyers, social scientists, academics and other experts who constituted the Constitution Drafting Committee and its proposals ratified by an elected Constituent Assembly with the then existing local government councils serving as electoral constituencies in which members emerged in non-party based polls. More importantly, the various ills identified under the presidential constitution of 1979 in the Second Republic as well as in this Fourth Republic from 1999 were also evident in the parliamentary constitution of the First Republic and these defects informed the jettisoning of the parliamentary constitution for the presidential constitution which we now operate.

It is thus obvious that the problems, challenges and failings we have witnessed in post-independence Nigeria cannot be blamed on deficiencies inherent to either the parliamentary or presidential constitutions. Rather, the political culture of massive corruption in public office, ostentatious lifestyles of public officers, unbridled competition for political power with the attendant brazen rigging of elections, rabid ethno-regional sectionalism as well as political intolerance among others led to the collapse of both the First and Second Republics under two different types of constitutions. The problem is then fundamentally one of an immoral and perverse political culture which will contaminate any type of constitution even if enacted by angels.

The belief that a constitution will be effective and ensure democracy and good governance if a majority of the people participate in its formulation is misplaced and excessively idealistic. In the first place, what percentage of any given population have the requisite knowledge and understand the nuances of constitution making well enough to contribute meaningfully to the process. It is my view that constitution making is intrinsically an elite-driven process. It is essentially the domain of a minority intellectual elite. In the making of the American constitution, for instance, the knowledge and expertise of the writers of ‘The Federalist Papers’ enabled them to have a preponderant influence on the ultimate outcome of the process.

Can the extant 1999 Constitution, for instance, be blamed for the benumbing corruption and criminal profligacy of so many of our public office holders in the different arms and at all levels of government? Can the Constitution be the cause of the desperation witnessed during elections with parties and candidates eager to compromise electoral and security agencies or buy votes thus weaponizing poverty? Surely, the answers to these posers cannot be in the affirmative. Rather than rush to enact a new constitution or brusquely terminate the Fourth Republic after two and a half decades of unbroken democratic governance, we must continue to painstakingly strengthen our institutions- electoral, anti-corruption, and security agencies to attain continuously increasing autonomy, efficiency, transparency, effectiveness, and credibility.

The capacity and independence of the legislature and judiciary at all levels must continue to be enhanced. Political education and enlightenment of the people by the major political parties as well as the National Orientation Agency (NOA) must be intensified. It is difficult to credibly dispute the fact, for instance, that, compared to the early elections of 2003 and 2007, recent elections in this dispensation have been far more credible even though mischievous election outcome deniers have also grown more vociferous. Nurturing and consolidating a mature democracy cannot be the equivalent of preparing instant coffee. It takes time, patience, resilience, and hard work, especially on the part of genuine change agents.

The tempestuous and impatient young majors that torpedoed the First Republic in January 1966 due to the perceived flaws of the politicians set in process a spate of coups and counter coups with soldiers falsely posing as political Messiahs when they had not the slightest clue to solving the country’s multifarious problems. Nearly three decades of military dictatorship severely hobbled and undermined Nigeria’s political and democratic development. This is unlike India which, though no less complex culturally and socially than Nigeria and buffeted by serious political crises at various times, has never experienced a military coup thus enabling that country’s democracy to grow apace steadily and systematically.

The problems of political and other forms of development will not respond to blind rage or wild emotionalism. Rather, a critical core of the citizenry must emerge with the capacity for cold, incisive reasoning as well as the skills and acumen to organize and mobilize citizens for change through legitimate democratic structures and processes.

October 5, 2024