The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • You Wike me! I Fubara you!!

    You Wike me! I Fubara you!!

    Nigerians were again witnesses  to a political action hit, one proudly sponsored, scripted and produced by the political war horses of Rivers State. Such high powered political drama, the type that Nigerians have naturally become accustomed to- unofficial soap operas rated 18+ between godfathers and godsons. Like I stated earlier, such tragicomic did not begin with the madness in Rivers; such history can be traced to the early sixties where the likes of Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and  Chief Obafemi  Awolowo engaged each other in a roforofo fight for the soul of the Action Group, the then ruling party in the Western Region and opposition party at the Federal Parliament. The Second Republic was also rife with such skirmishes: We recall the rift between Rimi and Aminu Kano on one hand and on the other, Olusola Saraki  and Alhaji Adamu Atta.

    The Fourth Republic is however severally littered with such examples, perhaps owing to its longevity as a democratic experiment, the longest ever witnessed since our independence and the apparent lack of democratic ethos amongst the numerous players in the nation’s democratic sojourn. Nigerians practically did stay tuned to one godfather/godson drama after another, each drama seemed to improve on what had transpired in the previous script. For example in Enugu, Chimaroke Nnamani teed off with Jim Nwobodo at the same time his counterparts in Chinwoke Mbadinuju of Anambra and Peter Odili of Rivers were up in arms against Sir Emeka Offor and Chief Marshall Harry. Down in Lagos, the incumbent president was up in arms with the likes of Ganiyu Dawodu, same thing was to occur in Kano, Kwara and Borno where Rimi, Saraki and Ali Modu Sherrif led a calvacade of disgruntled politicians against their one time protégés.

    Some of these crisis were to have their own spinoffs, Chris Ngige and Chris Uba, Chimaroke vs Chime, Amaechi vs Odili , Wike vs Amaechi and now Fubara vs Wike! Kwakwanso and Ganduje, Anenih and Lucky, Oshiomole and Obaseki. Others were  offbeat as seen in Lamidi Adedibu vs Rasheed Ladoja and Orji Uzor Kalu vs Theodore Orji.

    The Fubara/ Wike crisis in Rivers State, took many political onlookers  by surprise. Many cannot recall when the Falconer could no longer hear the falcon as there had been no mention of any kerfuffle between the duo. First,  it was the bomb or explosive device that destroyed a part of the building whilst sending tremors to the neighboring environs, what followed next was the sitting by 26 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly as early as 6 A.M in the morning ( Such Diligence)  in which they served their notice of impeachment on the Governor. The Governor was to respond in kind after he was restrained by a section of the police while he was visiting the venue at that time to inspect the level of damage done to the building in question.  He was to later ensure the election of the suspended majority leader of the house as speaker, “sack” the Chief Judge and his chief of staff while also dissolving the 23 chairmen of the local government areas in Rivers only to beat a retreat and deny carrying out any of the last three acts as reported by certain news outlets.

    Fubara who is only six months in office has alleged no wrong doing to warrant his impeachment and has challenged his traducers to bring up any known infractions done by him or agents of his government against the constitution.

    Read Also: Kogi 2023: Police bar security escort for VIPs at polling units

    However, for Wike, Fubara had crossed the red line by hobnobbing with certain persons who Wike had dubbed as political foes. Wike alleged this whilst receiving some members of the PDP Governors Forum. He declared that he was not an ingrate and that no one could tamper with his structure in the South South

    As laughable as these infractions leveled against Fubara appear to be, I am dead sure that when the likes of Bernard Crick described politics as an alternative to controlling people by force or fraud, he didn’t think of the likes of Wike. What really is wrong if Fubara courts certain enemies of Wike? Why should Fubara who has an agenda to govern a state as challenged as Rivers give his time to inheriting Wike’s enemies? Yes Wike may have been his boss and benefactor but should such transcend to how Fubara relates with such persons?

    Had Wike and his supporters given a better example or reason for wanting Fubara out, yours sincerely would have examined such here but to think that all that madness that occurred was merely due to some reason  as petty as having Wike’s enemies as Fubara’s enemies makes me question the state of mind of the average Nigerian politician.

    Let us remind Wike of how he fell out with his former boss Rotimi Amaechi and joined Amaechi’s enemies in besieging the state while the former served as governor. It was the same Amaechi who had appointed Wike as his Chief of staff in 2008  before nominating him to become a minister in Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet by 2011.

    To now want to crucify his protege for sins he Wike had also earlier committed is simply a display of haughty hypocrisy

    If Wike could disagree with his benefactor then and the heavens did not fall, what crime has Fubara then committed that Wike isn’t guilty of?

    Perhaps Wike has seen a pattern similar to his own experience and is bent on forestalling such, he wants what he has done to others not to be done unto him!

    Wike wants to reap yams where he has sown coco yam!

  • Still on the Wike-Fubara feud

    Still on the Wike-Fubara feud

    If we go back to the history of Nigeria, the truth is: dear fatherland has learnt nothing. In the days of Obafemi Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola, this was how they started inventing stuff that had never been in existence; and that has continued to trouble the Nigerian state, even till this day. Therefore, what’s yet unclear to the likes of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and his protégé, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State is that, since society is like a cyclical entity, the chicks will always come home to roost. Since what goes around comes around, whether Wike, who was governor until May 28, 2023, has his way or Fubara forces his way through, whatever it is now will surely come back.

    Nigerians must learn that, if we crave a just society, there is a price for it. So, whosoever wins an election should be sworn-in; and whosoever loses should go home and prepare with a view to re-climbing the horse that has fallen him or her. If we don’t have that understanding, if it is not internalized and, most importantly, if it is all about power at all costs, then there will always be problems of unimaginable proportions to contend with. That’s what’s happening to the political gladiators in Rivers State. Since nobody wants to lose, doing the careless permutations and reckless realignments with the winning forces has been the catalyst for Nigeria’s sorry pass. In Nigeria, governance is secondary, if not tertiary, while self is primary, and the ultimate. That’s why, even the villagers are getting used to high figures. The prices of our cars for official duties are in billions of naira and expenditures over some few things are in trillions. But there is nothing to show for them. So, what type of society is ours? Look around: the roads are horrible and infrastructures are non-existent. As a matter of fact, one can take segments and keep writing.

    There is a serious lesson in the Wike-Fubara feud: when one aligns with a force just to achieve one’s goal, one must be cautious of how one invests in that goal. For example, when was their agreement solidified? One doubts if it’s up to ten years. But look at how it has faltered and fallen like a pack of cards? Well, Wike may not yet understand that power calculus is a very dicey thing: once you are out of power, your power turns to powder. But again, when was Fubara brought in that he has grown wings to the extent of showing his true colours? What has he swallowed within such a short period of time that he now wants to bite the finger that fed him, so soon? Why didn’t he do that when he was campaigning and begging the people, including Wike, for votes? Yes, Fubara should have told Riverians not to vote for him because of Wike but because of what he (Fubara) was capable of doing. Had the then governorship candidate been bold enough to tell that to the people – and the people voted for him – he would not have been under Wike’s shackles.

    Incontestably, there are inevitabilities of certain events in life. The philosophers attempted to unravel them but they couldn’t. Even the scientists had to quickly agree to some certain things that lie in the hands of fate which are beyond the understanding of mere mortals. The First Republic lasted at the backbone of the practice of politics in Great Britain. So, when situations that were not typically similar to our own homegrown political incidences started arising, problems started showing up. For example, ‘Operation Wet e’ was never in Britain; and ditto for the ‘Wild, Wild West’. The Awolowo-Akintola fracas, which once defined politics in Western Nigeria, didn’t happen in Britain. It’s because Nigeria’s leaders could not match it; and … that signaled the doom of the First Republic.

    Back in those days, the Awolowos of this world had examples from other climes, especially Great Britain to fall back on. In other words, they always found examples in the West. As such, politicians of that era were under obligations to obey or conform to the doings of the party because there were examples to draw from. It’s not that it was easier to do so, it’s because they had no choice.

    Indeed, that’s where the Whites are wiser. They determine what happens from the crown to the government. They see themselves as certain special people who run the affairs of the state and, be it at work or in the church – in everything they do – they conjure their thinking around the fact that they’re going to give an account of what they do here on earth to a superior power, whether they like it or not. Over there, the judge is not just the judge because the system has so made him. Instead, he is the judge on behalf of the people and he or she will give an account. Indeed, that’s what regulates that society.

    Read Also: PDP, Diri using FG’s palliative to induce voters hours to election, APC alleges

    Go to Britain! The Lord Chancery has a responsibility to the King, not the Prime Minister. So, the Prime Minister cannot just wake up one day and decree that a Brewery be built in Ijebu-Jesa, my Native Nazareth. No, it doesn’t go that way! Those people are not used to that arbitrariness. Theirs is a clime where orderliness reigns supreme; and that has become a tradition. They have a regime of usages that nobody, even when he or she wakes up from the wrong side of the bed, can just deviate from. It will be strange to them. Nigeria’s problems emanated – subsequently became aggravated – because, culturally, all the laws and the norms being practised in Nigeria were foreign in context and content. As a matter of fact, they were migrated social structures.

    Politics contains an attachment, and that attachment is on its own a whole independent and different ballgame. When the man, Fubara and Wike were doing their things and plotting their graphs, it was not in the open and it was not debated democratically. Surely certainly, the fallout is what’s now coming out and bringing everybody together. At that time, the nitty-gritty of that concocted connivance was never meant for public consumption but, now, it has become public property. So, Nigeria’s political gladiators should learn one or two lessons from that. As Yorubas would always say, ‘Oro ti a ni ki Baba ma gbo, Baba naa ni yio pari re’ (The father of the house would be finally consulted to resolve all the knotty issues that were previously hidden from him). As fate would have it, all that was cooked in secret, Wike and Fubara will now have to tell the world how it all happened.

    Tragically, while Wike may not yet appreciate the structure and the texture of the trouble in which he has courted, Fubara may have yet to grasp the shape and the size of the amazing mess in which he is conveniently immersed, all because of the struggle for power and relevance. Now that they have signed up their individual destinies, the clear prescription for Wike is to learn some lessons in power from Rotimi Amaechi, his predecessor in office. Before Fubara also contemplates outshining his master, let him grab a copy of Robert Greene’s ’48 Laws of Power’. Otherwise, he may need to sit at the feet of Chris Ngige a la Okija Shrine to avoid finding himself in the cycle of crises, again and again.

    A word is enough for the wise!

    May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

  • Towards successful polls in Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi

    Towards successful polls in Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi

    Today is decision day in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states. Eyes are on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as residents troop out to elect their governors. The burden is on the umpire to conduct an exercise that will substantially comply with the constitution and the electoral act.

    However, election is a joint responsibility involving the electoral commisssion and all the stakeholders. Apart from the electoral agency, other key players-party leaders, candidates, their followers, adhoc staff, security agencies and voters-should play the game by its rules. If any of the actors, individuals or groups, refuse to abide by the regulations, the poll will be flawed.

    Each election circle should be an improvement on the previous ones. Electoral democracy is expensive

     Only free and fair polls can justify the huge expenditure.

    Today’s exercise means a lot to the competing parties. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is fielding Usman Ododo in Kogi, Governor Hope Uzodimma in Imo and former Governor Timpreye Sylva in Bayelsa. APC is itching to build on its feat at the centre, having won the presidential poll that ended the dream of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) for political control.

    The distressed PDP is making frantic efforts to guard jealously its supposedly strongholds in the states, its colossal defeat at the last national elections notwithstanding.

    LP, which was also dazed at the presidential poll, is making some efforts, at least, in Imo, where Senator

    Athan Achonu  is the flagbearer.

    In Kogi, where the governor, Yahaya Bello, is not contesting, having been elected twice, the stakes are  high. APC candidate Ododo, former Accountant-General of the state, had embarked on an aggressive campaign. The ruling party picked its candidate from the local government, constituency and senatorial district of the governor, despite the agitation for zoning. Bello has insisted, defensively, that rotation should not be an issue in a state that is united and cohesive. This is a novel experiment that may engender a paradigm shift, if the party succeeds. But, if it fails to retain power, the failure will be attributed to the neglect of rotation.

    Bello believes that his achievements in almost eight years should swing the pendulum of victory to the party. Indisputably,  APC is the most formidable party in the Confluence State.

    PDP has disagreed with the APC’S permutations. The campaign of its candidate, Senator Dino Melaye, has been boosted by the victory of the Amazon, Senator Natasha Akpoti,  who is aggressively mobilising for him.

    Ododo of APC also faces other challenges. Muritala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Leke Abejide of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) are on the prowl. Both are defectors from the ruling party. No doubt, they are popular. But, their platforms are not strong, although Ajaka, an Igala, who belongs the most populous ethnic group, is urging his kinsmen to vote for the son of the soil. If the opposition parties come together, APC’s dream of continuity may be aborted.

    In Imo, Uzodimma is being challenged by two foes-Achonu and Senator Sam Anyawu of the PDP. The three friends are now divided by politics. After the poll, and the electoral litigation that is likely to follow it, they will resume their friendship, without their feuding supporters knowing  the details of the truce.

    Almost four years ago, PDP claimed that APC secured a judicial victory that abruptly terminated its mandate in Imo. Therefore, while APC is trying to prove Uzodimma’s popularity, PDP is trying to prove that the last governorship election was “judicially rigged.” But, APC has continued to wax stronger.

    During the last presidential poll, LP won in Imo. Can the party repeat the feat today? It is noteworthy that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)’s gimmick in Imo has collapsed like a pack of cards. While Imo chapter of NLC has disputed any rift with Uzodimma, observers think the national leadership has tried effortlessly to manufacture a non-existing industrial crisis.

    Read Also: Kogi 2023: Police bar security escort for VIPs at polling units

    In Bayelsa, there are alignments and realignment of forces. Interest is key. Four years ago, it was believed that former President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP supported APC candidate David Lyon. Today, he is back with Governor Douye Diri, who is more confident than in the previous poll.

    The news from the Bayelsa APC suggests a house divided against itself. Some party leaders are at loggerheads. The snail-like approach to reconciliation has not produced the desired result.

    In the three states, residents are anxious. It is not without judtification. Reports have indicated that the states are enveloped in tension.

    Election is like war in Nigeria. What should be a festival of choice becomes a nightmare; violent and bloody. There is panic. There is gnashing of teeth. When will the malady end?

    Ahead of the elections, fear had gripped many residents. The genesis of the offseason polls was the madness of the past, which the court had corrected. In the process, the time lost to irregularities and litigations could not be regained.

    Yet, the political class has failed to learn from the past. The campaigns in many parts of the states have been tough and rough. Violent attacks, destruction of banners and billboards, defacing of posters, vandalisation of vehicles, dispersal of crowds at rallies and arson have been recorded.

    In some instances, there was loss of lives during clashes. Scores were wounded.

    Police have been overwhelmed. Political parties have even alleged compromise by the police and urged the Inspector General to change or swap police commissioners in the three states.

    Candidates are very combative. They do more than selling their manifestos to prospective voters. There are allegations and counter-allegations of unruly behaviours. Character assassination, campaign of calmuny, falsehood and incitement were elements of the campaigns.

    The splits in political parties created enmity and bitterness, which heralded the chaotic preparations. There is mutual suspicion between and among ruling and opposition candidates, party leaders and their fanatical followers. Thugerry is the order of the day.

    IGP Kayode Egbetokun has asked trouble makers to stay clear. INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu has also threatened that in those areas where violence is recorded, the votes will not be counted.

    But, the solution is to apprehend the culprits, prosecute them at the electoral malpractices tribunal and jail them to serve as deterrents to others. The setting up of the electoral fraud court is still a tall order.

    Today, INEC should avoid previous pitfalls. It should brace up for the challenge of conducting polls in coastal areas, which in the past were reputed for rigging.

    Electoral officers should demonstrate patriotism. They should report for polling duty promptly. The right and appropriate officers  should be at the right and appropriate place.

    Polling materials should be adequate to prevent voter anxiety. Polling officers should be above board. They should neither aid nor abet. Indeed, they should shun financial inducement.

    A great challenge is collation. It was the bone of contention in the last election. The promise of IREV by INEC without the hope of fulfilling it, as experience has shown, will generate controversy, indignation and bitterness. Any promised made and unfulfilled by the commission can dent the outcome of the poll, unless there is a rational and justifiable explanation. But, by now, candidates should know that electronic transmission of result has no backing of the electoral act.

    Overzealous obsrvers and monitors ahould be circumspect. Hasty generalisations should be avoided. Election is a sensitive matter and assessment should be thorough and devoid of bias and sentiments.

    Security agents should be up and doing in policing the votes and protecting participants in the critical exetcise.

    If there is no vote buying today across the three states, then, the ballot box would have been sanitised and its sanctity and dignity restored.

  • Development experts urge Southeast govs to partner with women group

    Development experts urge Southeast govs to partner with women group

    Global economies have been negatively impacted by Covid-19 pandemic in the last three years. The devastation in terms of loss of human lives and disruption in social and economic activities has made many developing economies more unstable. The people  are poorer and with poverty comes its negative effects like insecurity and other social vices. In Nigeria for instance, the insecurity problems in the North East due to the activities of Boko Haram, ISWAP and other terrorist groups have greatly impacted not just the region but the whole country.

    As the years went by, the insecurity in the region spread to the North West, North Central and indeed the whole of the South of Nigeria. The degrees of impact have been almost at par. There are kidnappings, school abductions, murderous activities of bandits, herder/farmer conflicts in farms and villages across the nation which has impacted the nation’s food security. This has contributed in pushing inflation into double digits whie unemployment is on the increase.

    However, the undocumented statistics is the impact of insecurity on women across Nigeria. Besides school abductions that seems to have been stamped in the global consciousness by the abduction in April 2014 of the Chibok girls, a series of school abductions have happened especially in the Northern region of the country. The increasing number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) weighs heavily against the female population.

    However, being displaced in one’s own country that is seemingly at ‘peace’ can be traumatic but the additional socio-economic impact on the victims especially women who are already burdened by various developmental challenges can be unquantifiable. While the government has tried to reduce the impact of terrorist activities in the North through the Joint Task Force (JTF), it is not yet uhuru for the rest of the country.  Loss of lives, decrease in economic and social activities and general sense of insecurity among the citizens is a national problem.

    Across the South East, the insecurity situation has taken a heavy toll on the economy of a region hitherto renowned for its industry and commerce. The sit-at-home order by some yet to be identified group and the activities of the now infamous ‘unknown gunmen’ have impacted negatively on the region in ways that economists and development experts fear might cripple the economic and social lives of the region if urgent steps are not taken to stabilize the region.

    In the light of this, a Pan-Igbo non-partisan socio-cultural group, Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo Foundation (NNIIF), recently took their 3rd annual conference with the theme: WOMEN: A UNIFYING FORCE IN PEACE BUILDING to Enugu state in their effort to explore a restoration of the pristine leadership partnership with the leaders in the region through an inclusive peace-building. The essence of the conference according the founder of the organization, former Minister of Women affairs, Iyom Josephine Anenih is to offer all leaderships in the region, political, religious and traditional that are often male-dominated a hand of partnership that can restore peace to the region.

    According to Iyom Anenih, the motto of the group is ‘Partnering for Development and going back home with the conference is significant because the women who are the ones most affected by insecurity not just in the South East but globally. She maintains that women are the peace bearers in families being daughters (Umu Ada), wives (Ndi inyom) and mothers (Ndi Nne) whose primary duties are to nurture, unite and mentor depending on which of the tripartite roles they are playing.

    Women of Nigeria like most women in developing nations to her are subjected to the similar treatments  whether in peace or conflict situations. Women, children and other vulnerable demographics form the bulk of the victims in all conflicts globally. Ironically, men that seem to have the monopoly of all classes of power; political, economic, religious and traditional seem not to realize the roles women have always played in peace mediation and sustenance. She told The Roundtable Conversation that if charity begins at home, it is apposite for the group to go back home through the two-day conference hosted by the Enugu state government led by H.E Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah to renew the pristine sense of male and female partnership to the leaders in the region with a view to restoring peace not just in the Eastern region but in the country.

    Read Also: Army, police troops rescue two abducted corps members in Katsina

    The theme of the conference is an all-embracing point of focus that the group hopes would cascade to all the regions in the country. Nigerian men must return to the times when women’s traditional role in peace building made the society more peaceful. Speakers at the conference were drawn from across the nation and most were predominantly, educationists, development experts and human rights advocates.

    H.E Regina Amadi-Njoku , a development expert who retired as a former Regional Director at the International Labour Organization at the level of UN Assistant Secretary General and the Board of Trustees Chairperson said that the political leaders must realize that while men often have the tendency to be egoistic and tend to be ambivalent about conflicts, women are nurturing and they humanize. In her speech, she appealed to leaders to partner with women as our ancestors did before the colonialists brought their mono system of governance. Men and women in Africa played complimentary roles.

    Other Speakers like, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,  Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Prof. Kenneth Amaeshi, Ms Ene Obi, Prof. Joy Ezeilo, Senator Grace Folashade Bent, Pro. Chidi Odinkalu, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, Hajia Fatima H. Betara, Dr. Nwankwo Nwaezeigwe, Rev. Dr. Edwin Biayeibo and Prince Ozioma Ani were all unanimous that it is time for inclusive leadership that can enhance productivity. All demographics must fully be allowed through opportunities for education to contribute to both peace-building and productivity for economic growth not just in the South East but across the country.

    The goal of the conference was to have the needed conversation (nkata) that can be backed with the partnership the association hopes would return the region to a more peaceful region and in essence the country as a whole where women, the young people  and men can explore their full potentials so that progress can be made.

    The deputy governor of Enugu state, Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai who represented his principal recalled that women and men have always partnered in development because while in rural communities, subsistent farming sustained lives, there was division of labour, men till the land and women weed and nurture the planted seeds. Leadership roles were complimentary and so to him, Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo Foundation bringing up the peace –building roles of women is commendable. He recalled the roles of women in families often replicated at the August meeting as mediators and the socio-economic values of their interventions that even goes beyond the Aba Women intervention in 1929.

    Oby Ezekwesili reminded everyone that women have always been part of the driving force of development across Africa. But development she insists must start from the restoration of the dignity of the human person. The Igbos she insists have a belief system that says, ‘Ndu bu isi’ which literally translates to ‘life is the ultimate’. The Hobbesian impact of insecurity in the region as in the whole country somewhat negates this social mantra. Security of life as our ancestors valued it must be the focus of any leadership and both men and women must collaborate through the restoration of peace to achieve this.

    Senator Grace Folashade Bent through her speech reiterated the roles women play in the world not just as daughters, wives and mothers but also as bridge builders through marriage. To her, a Yoruba woman, born in Kaduna and married to a man from Adamawa in the North, she is rooted across Nigeria and her children might even spread their wings further. Women therefore must be right in seeking inclusion not just in the political space where policies that affect them are made but also in peace-building.

    Prof. Chinwe Obaji believes that the impact of a dysfunctional system on everyone is huge and the governors must pay better attention to the education sector. The loss of values that has contributed to the  insecurities can be traced back to the loss of values that has impacted both parenting and the stability of families. She believes that the curriculum must be adjusted to include history and the story of who we are not just as a region but as a country.

    Prof. Chidi Odinkalu said that given the impact of insecurity and violence against women that are largely undocumented the group’s intervention must be taken further than the conference. There must be a functional coalition of groups that must work to get to the minutest details of the impact of the gender-based violence on the South East women. He urged the group to equally hold the governors of the South East accountable for actions and inactions that result in the insecurity and underdevelopment.

    To him, every male victim leaves behind a string of female victims/dependents. Women are often direct and indirect victims of the violence in the South East, the socio-economic impact is huge. Sexual violence on women come with both physical and psychological impacts that impact development because young men are deserting the communities, women can’t go to farms, markets and even socio-religious gatherings like, meetings, festivals and churches that hitherto provided recreation for them. The ball therefore is in the court of everyone. He believes functional across board partnerships  can help untie the Gordian knot of insecurity that will precede  development.

    • The dialogue continues…
  • Nigeria, revenue poverty and taxation atrophy

    Nigeria, revenue poverty and taxation atrophy

    When our forefathers came up with the wise saying that ‘the earnest wish of potters is for earth to be clay’, it was not only worthy of commendation but also no mean achievement. The beauty of the adage is that, in some 1000 years to come, it will still be relevant. So, instead of concentrating on having more wealth, the wisdom in it is learning how to be frugal and maximally productive with the little that’s available.

    Simple Economics: economic activities breed taxation while taxation without representation is problematic. Generally, the mission of governments is revenue generation which practically translates to poverty on the people’s part. Impliedly, there’s poverty of revenue but taxation schemes are a-plenty. Why? While taxation is multiplying itself, revenue assurances are shrinking. So, it is more or less a case of revenue nowhere and it is a problem for the state because the state is supposed to be a basket of revenue whereas it is atrophying.

    Objective observers will agree with yours sincerely that most governments want more revenue, whereas governance-seeking and people-loving governments seek accountability. People have come to governments and said to themselves: ‘we are here to take our own portion of the national cake.’ Well, it is to show that Nigeria is in trouble and, until Nigerians come to terms with the fact that government exists only for itself, and that the largesse of the government will always go to certain people whether they (say that they) are in government or not, Nigeria won’t move forward. It is a very terrible statement but that’s the truth.

    High crime rate! Beggars everywhere! Slave-owners thriving! We are a rich country with poor people: what a paradox? The town is tough! The people are hungry and need help! But we can’t continue this way. Something must give. We must arrest the situation before it is too late. We must not forget the invisible hands and the unknown calculations of economic fate. Besides, economic injections don’t always determine the directions of economic flow. Otherwise, all inflations of the world would have been controlled or confined ASAP.

    Come to think of it, part of the reasons adduced by the Bola Tinubu-led administration for the removal of fuel subsidy was that there would be more money for the states to carry out the business of governance. So, one wonders what has become of governance in a state like Osun where Governor Ademola Adeleke has, in less than a year in office, started lamenting “cash crunch”, to the extent of suspending foreign trips for its top officials. If we may ask, what’s the total allocation to Osun from November 27, 2022 to date and how much did each beneficiary of the state government-funded foreign trips collect as estacode and associated allowances? Of course, the people deserve to know when the rain started beating them.

    It is a tragedy that nobody is interested in the calculus of spending our resources, not those in government, not friends of the government. That’s why Osun wants investors but will not want to invest in research or what can generate commerce. Added to it is that the current government is running like a vehicle with no headlamp, focus or direction as to what to do. As a matter of fact, it has no policy statement or standpoint; and no coordination at all. Otherwise, aren’t there opportunities in Osun beyond gold mining, which can be developed to the level of generating income for the state? The same thing goes for other parts of the country.

    Without doubt, what we need is a new thinking. It is the general thought and it is correct. God is not going to recreate the world. So, it is either we discover it or make use of it. In terms of mineral resources, it was created when the wide, wild, world of war was created, with an amount of resources maybe yet to be discovered, or will ever be discovered by man before the end of the world. Therefore, it is a question of vision on the part of the leadership. That Nigeria has been a victim of bad leadership is not only a terrible equation but also valid statement. It is our problem and it is a double-edged sword. At the national level, everybody wants to go to the East to refine crude. This terrible thing, which brought along with it wealth as well as the repudiation of wealth and other terrifying battles of life, is also a double-edged sword.

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    The issue really is that Nigeria must develop; and, for Nigeria to develop, pieces of Nigeria must learn the philosophy of development. Pure and simple! Government should allow free hands to run the economy. There should be no compulsion of free flow and there should be no repression of the process. Once that is done, free economy is assured and unhindered development is guaranteed. Nigerians are shouting ‘Tinubu’, but Tinubu is just one man from Lagos. So, let a Zamfaran be thinking of developing Zamfara State and … Nigeria; and ditto for an Akwa Ibomite who must be thinking of developing, essentially Akwa Ibom State, then Nigeria. Until we are able to transform our thought processes to that frame of mind, the country will continue to be challenged.

    Wait, unless there is an inflow of solutions elsewhere or a lifeline economic prosperity that flows into a country’s economy from somewhere else, Nigeria must undergo a turbulent period, one time at a time. The actual thing is to ask for a new orientation for the entire country and, this time around, it is more about orientation and purpose on the part of the leadership and expectations on the part of the followership. Leadership has to be tasked. It has to be focused and responsible. Our challenge as Nigerians is that we cannot afford to be careful because we do not even have the knowledge.

    As things stand, Nigeria is in dire need of goals-targeted and goals-delivered leadership. So, let our leaders swallow their pride and make Nigeria work. Promises of a better tomorrow for dear country are sweet words to the ears but let them push narratives and characterizations that can first and foremost help put food on the table of the masses. Let the government evaluate the people’s needs with a view to putting in place lifesaving programmes. That’s why the soon-to-be resuscitated National Homegrown School Feeding Programme by the Tinubu-led administration is a step in the right direction. According to Yetunde Adeniji, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on School Feeding, the Programme would “cater for over 10 million pupils across the country” and that it would “ensure that no child in each public school is left behind.” In her words, “the school feeding initiative under the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda is targeting pupils from primary one to three across Nigeria. It resonates with the sentiment that every child deserves the opportunity to flourish and contribute to the nation’s development.”

    Lastly, congratulations to Zacch Adedeji, for the confirmation of his appointment as Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) by the Senate. It’s no doubt a call to duty, for the tasks before Nigeria’s Tax Chief and other handlers of the country’s fragile economy are enormous. From the East to the West, and from the North to the South, they deserve Nigerians’ support to succeed in that area of governance, because tax evaders will see and treat them as enemies while indulgence on government’s part will only spell deepening poverty for the populace.

    May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

  • Successor-predecessor crisis

    Successor-predecessor crisis

    It is not new. It is only rampant in the Fourth Republic. Two key factors tend to fuel the partisan conflict. They are both features of politics. The first is the human nature; the second is the addiction to power, which is alluring and intoxicating.

    When the political romance between the benefactor and the beneficiary ends abruptly, observers are usually taken aback. Then the camp is divided. The impact of the split begins to take its toll, exposing the ruling party to distress.

    A disturbing scenario begins to play out. But it often happens like a comedy of errors which culminates in a melodrama. Sometimes, it ends in a tragedy. The power play between a governor and his successor in the Nigerian political landscape usually throws up avoidable intrigues. A lot of time is wasted in attempting to resolve the crisis it causes.  

    There would appear to be no neutral camp in the imbroglio. While many queue behind the governor, others would back the former governor. Those who were not privy to the secret between the two principal warring actors consequently enlist as combatants in the ensuing war of attrition.

    How to avert a successor-predecessor crisis, which seems to have become an eternal element of Nigerian politics, particularly between the benefactor and his anointed candidate who belongs to the same party, is a big challenge.

    The burden is on those in the business of power, their cohorts, confederates, lackeys, hangers-on and co-travellers.

    Political scientists contend that the outgoing ruling executives often devise a method of exerting influence on their successors after handing over to them. These outgoing rulers could not be expected to be aloof or indifferent to the nature, tendencies, beliefs, principles, dispositions, sentiments, and idiosyncrasies of their would-be successors.

    Two reasons may be responsible. The first is the defence or protection of their legacies, which they expect their preferred candidates to build on in the interest of the state. The second, which appears to be self-serving, is for cover-up.

    While the former lackey and rascally successor-in-waiting or political heir apparent is aware of these conditions, he plays along, only to later renege on an earlier agreement. He may unfold a contrary agenda. In a bid to hurriedly assert personality and be his own man, he adorns the garb of arrogance and severs the chord. It may be a prelude to a personality crisis.

    Though the former governor is outside power, he is never off the radar of influence. As he laments his curious miscalculation, he fights back. The arsenals at his disposal are usually the legislature and the party structure, which may not be under the grip of the new governor.

    The former governor gnashes his teeth over what would now appear to him as an avoidable recruitment error. He tries to resist the gradual or imminent threat to his influence from his defensive position.

    The transition from power to ordinary citizenship may be stressful. As pecks of the exalted office disappear, friends and associates begin to distance themselves from the former man of power. Sources of revenue decrease and the glamour of public protocol diminishes.

    Of course, a few months before the expiration of his tenure, the governor may have become a lame duck. The number of hangers-on sharply decreases as they gravitate to new power centres.

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    Left in the cold, the former governor becomes vulnerable out of the corridor of power. It is the period of accountability. He faces battles on two fronts: from bitter, disloyal, and uncooperative successors, and those from anti-graft bodies. The books are opened and previous deeds, including decisions long forgotten, are laid bare on the day of reckoning. The cost and rigours of litigation, and the burden of public vituperation are heavy.

    The new governor justifies his onslaught by attracting to himself political buddies who have no inkling about how he was catapulted to the seat of power.  In his quest for freedom from an imaginary cage, he seeks a sort of liberation that ultimately lands him in trouble and diverts his attention, no matter how temporarily, from governance as much energy is dissipated on the brewing crisis with his predecessor.

    He incites the public and chides his predecessor for his reluctance or refusal to let go, forgetting that he once adored him as the godfather during the campaigns when he promised a government of continuity.

    The aggrieved godfather replies to the salvos by accusing his former protege of disloyalty, ingratitude, treachery and rebellion to the party.

    In politics, the sin of disloyalty is hardly forgiven and forgotten. Although loyalty can be tested by some circumstances, it is expected that the circumstances should not be beyond the control of the beneficiary of godfatherism. It is debatable.

    If the conflict becomes unmanageable, it can lead to parting of ways. The winner could be either the governor or the former governor – whoever commands the superior levers of power.

    The parting of ways can either be temporary or permanent, depending on interests. Anytime their interests align again, they may put the past behind them and work together for the protection of common interest.

    But, if the disagreement between the predecessor and the successor has an ideological connotation, it may result in a permanent political enmity.

    Such was the case in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, former Premier of Old Western Region and Leader of Action Group (AG), and his successor, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola (SLA), who was deputy party leader.

    Awo lost his bid for Prime Minister in 1959. He became the Leader of the Opposition in a hostile Federal Parliament where he faced adjustment difficulties. It contrasted with the time he was both premier and party leader. His deputy in the party and successor as leader of government came with a different style. Awo kicked, saying the party principles, doctrines and ethos were being breached. Akintola’s supporters alleged that Awo did not give SLA a free hand to steer the affairs of the region.

    To SLA, a collaboration between the Western Region and the Central Government was necessary for the Western Region to get cakes from the Centre. Awo disagreed, saying the relations between the two tiers of government should be premised on ideology. There was a split in the AG. The region was polarised. A crisis broke out. Tension enveloped the wild wild Western Region. The rest, as it is said, is history.

    In this dispensation, the scenario has been enacted in Kano, Edo, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers states. But the bone of contention is not an ideological difference. It is about self-preservation and the protection of personal interest.

    In Kano, former Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso and his deputy, who took over from him, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, were best of friends who weathered the storm of politics together.

    However, barely a year later, both became foes. So deep was the acrimony that the two leaders could not cohabit in the same political party. Up to now, the prospect of reconciliation is still slim for the two gentlemen.

    In Enugu, former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani and his successor, Sullivan Chime, never saw eye to eye after the former left office, until Chime’s successor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, accorded respect to him and supported his bid for Senate.

    In Edo, former Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who later became the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, was suspended from the party by his ward. The governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his followers celebrated what they described as the collapse of godfatherism, on which back he rode to power in his first term.

    In Rivers, the eminent politician and elder statesman, Dr. Peter Odili, governor from 1999 to 2007, and his godson, Rotimi Amaechi, did not enjoy cordial relations for long. It is doubtful if the Cold War has ended.

    Former Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State and his successor, Gboyega Oyetola, were at loggerheads. What is striking is the weakness of crisis resolution mechanism in the progressive camp. After the change of baton, they went their separate ways. Having failed to reconcile and put their house in order, their party failed to retain power. Today, their feuding supporters are licking the wound.

    Reflecting on life after leaving the Akwa Ibom Government House, where he was governor between 2007 and 2015, Senate President Godswill Akpabio lamented how his successor, Udom Emmanuel, turned against him after he assisted him to become governor.

    At the 60th birthday of Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele in Abuja, Akpabio bemoaned the pattern of acrimony, advising Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji, who has maintained good relations with his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, not to join the bandwagon.

    During the inauguration party in Port Harcourt, former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose offered the same advice to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, who took over from Nyesom Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    What Akpabio and Fayose suggested was the deployment of native wisdom in the management of the predecessor by the successor.

    When there is a conflict between successors and predecessors, both may be right or wrong, depending on the circumstances. The two contrasting positions are defended by party colleagues and followers in the two antagonistic camps.

    It is gratifying that President Bola Tinubu has intervened in the Rivers imbroglio. Cracks have appeared on the wall of brotherhood. They should be mended. If the cracks widen, the warriors may be consumed.

    The warriors only know the beginning of a war. They may not be able to accurately predict its short and long-term consequences.

  • Gusau, don’t reappoint Waldrum

    Gusau, don’t reappoint Waldrum

    I’ve tremendous respect for the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Ibrahim Musa Gusau. I actually encountered him once during the 10-Year Football Committee’s interaction with key stakeholders of the game. I recall asking Gusau if he thought being a member of the NFF board then and also doubling as the chairman of Zamfara State Football Association was appropriate. My heart sank when he justified the misnomer by saying that it is enshrined in the NFF Statutes. I was, however, shocked when he ranted around Abuja and wrote on the federation’s platforms stating that he put in my place by his nauseating response.

    Was it a personal thing between Gusau and I? Certainly not. I just did my bit as a member of the committee.  I’m, therefore, not shocked to hear that the president thinks that Super Falcons’ American coach, Randy Waldrum should be given another chance by renewing his contract which expired on October 31. I would have aligned with Gusua’s position if Waldrum didn’t lie to his part-time employers, NFF that he had pressing personal matters which prevented him from honouring Nigeria’s two-legged games against Ethiopia in Addis Ababa and Abuja. He lied that his wife was due for a surgery. What manner of man would wish his wife a fake surgical operation? He certainly cannot be trusted.

    Waldrum forgot that the world is a global village where all activities are captured in the media. Footages of the games which prevented Waldrum from honouring the matches involving his part-time job’s employers can be found in YouTube as a clear evidence of where his loyalty lies. So, Gusau, why should Waldrum be reappointed having seen incontrovertible evidence that he lied about his wife’s illness?

    One cannot understand why anyone would accuse the coach of abandonment now if indeed his contract lapsed on October 31? It must be stated here categorically that Waldrum failed the first test loyalty t his employers when he was seen sitting n the bench backing out instructions to his university college side. Waldrum’s name was listed on the match forms of both matches as the team’s coach. This presupposes that he was the one who prepared the players for the matches and had a place on the bench for both games.

    What other evidence does Gusau need to save Nigeria from the shame of being dumped by  a coach for a university side? My heart still bleeds that Waldrum’s sack is being discussed. Perhaps, to allow him defend himself against the stark evidence the NFF has against him. What Waldrum did by dishonouring Nigeria’s matches is a breach of contract whether or not Nigeria is owing him some of his monthly wages. Had Waldrum, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers women’s head coach not being captured in the YouTube report barking out instructions to his girls, the excuse that his wife was ill would have been tenable. If he sat at the state box to watch the games, it would have been understandable. Having is name on the matches’ manifest shows that he indeed prepared his side, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers for the game. He also sat on the bench to correct their mistakes in the course of the games.

    If NFF board members still think Nigeria has her pride and integrity as a nation to protect, then Waldrum’s contract must be terminated and process towards achieving this sack must start now, dear Gusau. Put simply, Wakldrum chose the University of Pittsburgh Panthers women’s head coach job over Nigeria’s Super Falcons assignments. And he should go now.

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    Gusau and indeed, NFF members won’t say that it isn’t common knowledge that Waldrum disliked his Nigerian assistants comprising of Coaches Justin Madugu, Ann Chiejine, and Auwal Makwalla who eventually handled the two legged ties against Ethiopia in Addis Ababa and Abuja. Nigeria drew the first game 1-1 and spanked the Ethiopians 4-0 in Abuja. The Super Falcons are pitched against the Cameroonians and this shouldn’t be the reason to press the panic button to justify the reappointment of Randy Waldrum. No way.

    We shouldn’t always make our local coaches look like ball boys and girls before half baked foreign coaches who aren’t good enough to handle their countries’ soccer teams. If we don’t allow our coaches learn on the job by giving them the desired exposure against top sides such as the Lionesses of Cameroun, how would they grow to handle the teams?

    Gusau cannot say that the players didn’t send a representation to him in the federation’s Abuja office pleading that Waldrum shouldn’t be reappointed for the good of female sfootball at that level. Gusau should be guided by the fact that Spain, the current Women’s World Cup champions sacked their winning coach based on complaints from his senior players among other unethical reasons.

    NFF should learn how to provide the platform for our established stars in the retirement to rain to coaches and or administrators depending on their areas of proficiency. Coach Ann Chiejine should be encouraged to participate in high level coaching courses to prepare her for full time coaching at the national level, having played the game at the top.

    Commentaries on the Super Falcons at the last women World Cup co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia would have been anchored on Chiejine’s exploits as a goalkeeper for Nigeria in previous women World Cups which she participated in with pictures from match videos of yore. Chiejine’s elevation from manning the goalposts t sitting on the bench to dish out instructions to the players would have shown the NFF as a federation with foresights and the players would respect her knowing that she is a legend of the game.

    I consider women’s football as a novelty, especially with a poor economy. I admire the girls who play the game, knowing the unscrupulous options which they would have taken if they were to behave like those who use what they have to get what they want.

    Anytime the NFF recruits foreign coaches it always clear that they weren’t recruited to train and retrain our domestic coaches working with them. The foreign coaches come with their nationals to fill the coaching spaces, making the Nigerians’ presence in the teams look like a duplication of roles. These assistants are usually specialists in one area of the game.  What it means in strict terms is that they are usually hired by clubs to solve problems in smaller or bigger clubs for a fee depending on their pedigree in such areas. What these assistants do is relegate the Nigerians in the technical crew to mere watchers of training sessions.

    There is the need to ask the NFF chieftains who coached the young girl who are now doing  well in Europe. Of course, Nigerians in the 774 Local Government Areas in the country who work as games masters and games mistresses.

    A foreign coach who abhors his Nigerian assistants should go. A foreign coach who calls his employers thieves has no business being an employee. A foreign coach who publicly asks his employers what they used FIFA’s $960,000 for shouldn’t be given a second chance to perhaps slap such an employer on the pitch in front of his players. A foreign coach who isn’t ready to live with Nigerians here for any reason should be sacked forthwith. So, Gusau, ask Waldrum to show us his back since he has burnt his candles on both ends. Hasn’t he? You tell me, dear reader.

  • Chimamanda, Ezekwesili and the ‘Ogboju’ syndrome

    Chimamanda, Ezekwesili and the ‘Ogboju’ syndrome

    Ever since the conduct and announcement of the outcome of the 25th February 2023, presidential election, there has been a sustained, persistent and concerted attempt, particularly and overwhelmingly by intellectuals from a part of the country, to impugn the credibility of the elections as well as denigrate the integrity not just of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but also the judiciary once it was obvious that institution would be the final determinant of the winner of the intensely contested election.

    Apparently following in the footsteps of former President Donald Trump and his fanatical supporters who persistently and insistently asserted that the 2020 presidential elections in the United States were ‘rigged’ and ‘stolen’ without a scintilla of credible evidence, the ‘Obidient’ movement in particular repeatedly echo their idol, Peter Obi’s claim without credible empirical demonstration that he won the election on the platform of his Labour Party (LP).

    Trump and his supporters had continued to claim that the election was stolen even after no less than 50 legal challenges they had mounted against the results in several states were thrown out by US courts. They provide a role model for the ‘Obidients’ and their candidate despite the fact that Peter Obi indisputably came third in the February 25 polls.

    If members of the ‘Obidient’ mob on social media, actuated by ethnic sentiments and emotive irrationalities, take anarchic and patently unreasonable positions on the elections making wild and unproven claims, what do we make of the no less erratic and aberrant behavior of some otherwise accomplished intellectuals in their response both to the results of the elections and the verdicts of the appellate courts on petitions by Peter Obi and the PDP presidential candidate, Waziri Atiku Abubakar, seeking the nullification of the exercise?

    When President Bola Tinubu of the APC was announced the winner of the February 25 presidential election with Atiku and Obi coming second and third respectively, respected novelist and global intellectual, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, had written an open, widely disseminated letter to President Joe Biden subtly urging the US to withhold recognition for the newly elected Nigerian President which she claimed was not marred by technical faults but was deliberately manipulated to achieve victory for Tinubu. She offered no proof for her authoritative assertions beyond citing instances of certain ‘cousins’, friends and other relatives who narrated to her stories of malpractices they claimed to have witnessed in polling units where they voted.

    One would have thought that someone like Chimamanda who was not even in Nigeria when the elections were held, and who is a respected writer and thinker should have been more restrained and circumspect in jumping to authoritative conclusions based on what she was told by less than a score of acquaintances who were not present at the vast majority of the over 176,696 polling units across the country where voting took place.

    Chimamanda was again on global television, the CNN after the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) gave its judgement dismissing the petitions of Atiku, Obi and their parties against the outcome of the election. Obviously trying to leverage her international clout to rubbish the decision of the PEPC rather than deploy empirical facts and impeccable logic as one would expect from one of the world’s contemporary leading minds, Chimamanda told her interviewer, Christiane Amanpour, who inexplicably refrained from asking her guest probing follow-up questions, that the judgement was “shoddy and shabby” even though she had admitted she had not finished reading it!

    In her words, “I am in the middle of reading the judgement and it’s stunning how shoddy it is. The elections were manipulated in a way that is very shabby and shoddy and the judgement is shabby and shoddy. I didn’t expect it to be very thoughtful but I am shocked at how very lacking in thought it is”.

    But it is not enough for Chimamanda to assert ex-cathedra that the PEPC judgement was ‘thoughtless’ or ‘shabby’. She has to demonstrate for us through rigorous logical, textual analysis of the judgement and empirical facts that the judgement was shoddy or incompetent. This was a judgement that was televised globally as it was delivered and has been commended by some of the country’s best and brightest legal minds. Surely, Chimamanda’s fame as a fiction writer cannot be ‘a magna carta for mandibular waka about’ (apologies to the late Gbolabo Ogunsanwo). Her unwarranted arrogance and insulting condescension towards the Nigerian judiciary without cause shows a woman who lacks grace and class despite her scholastic attainment.

    Featuring on a television programme not too long ago, the renowned human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), stressed that rather than cast aspersion on the character and integrity of judges because of their judicial decisions, Nigerians should advocate and clamour for fundamental changes in the extant electoral laws that judges have no choice but to interpret and apply. Incidentally, Falana is a severe critic of lapses that occurred in the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. Even then, the point cannot be disputed that there can hardly be perfect elections anywhere in a community of fallible mortals.

    But then, Chimamanda was not done. A few days before the Supreme Court delivered its October 25 judgement on the election petitions of Atiku and Obi against Tinubu’s election, she was the inaugural lecturer of the Africa World Lecture series of Princeton University in the US and Peter Obi was present at the event. Turning herself into a one-man electoral commission, Chimamanda told her audience: “I want to recognize the presence of a man I deeply respect and a man who I think is a beacon of hope not just for Nigeria but for Africa. And he’s the man who many of us know won the election in Nigeria”. She also averred “We had an election in February that was deeply flawed and we have a person who we’ve been told is a winner who did not win the election and this has been shown over and over, there’s evidence for this”.

    This is the height of intellectual fraudulence and dishonesty. Chimamanda was deliberately lying to her audience, the majority of whom may be unfamiliar with the political realities of Nigeria. A central thrust of both the PEPC and the Supreme Court judgements was that the petitioners’ counsels were tardy and lazy in bringing before the courts credible evidence to demonstrate their allegations that the elections were rigged. The courts noted that neither Obi nor Atiku, for instance, called even one of their polling agents who were on ground in various polling units across the country and must have witnessed the alleged electoral refractions to give first-hand testimony in court. They rather relied on witnesses who gave what was no better than hearsay evidence before the courts. It is instructive that the apex court spent less than 10 minutes in dismissing Obi’s petition indicating its utter lack of merit.

    No less acerbic, scurrilous and lacking in substance was a former Minister of Education in Nigeria and noted international bureaucrat, Mrs Oby Ezekwelisi’s response to the apex court’s decision on the election petitions. Reacting in a post on her official X handle to the Supreme Court judgement, she wrote, “Now we all know the true definition of a Criminal Enterprise Gang. Some would ask, “Where’s now the hope?” because what else can citizens who seek a Good Society now do in the light of judicial enthronement of criminality as an official norm? Well, take heart in this fact. History shows that every Criminal Enterprise carrie’s the seed of its eventual destruction”.

    Beyond hurling insults and making baseless insinuations and innuendos, Oby Ezekwesili does not take on the Supreme Court judgement on facts or logic. The apex court gave reasons for its ruling against the petitioners in the seven issues formulated for them to adjudicate on. They gave reasons for their position on each of these issues and it is up to those who oppose them to provide superior arguments in the public domain rather than resort to cheap abuse and insults.

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    The apex court refused to admit the purported fresh evidence that Atiku sought to tender as regards Tinubu’s Chicago State University diploma citing both statutory time limitations as well as the fact that there was no reason for the petitioner not bringing such evidence up at the level of the PEPC as required by law. The Supreme Court is a policy Court and not a court of evidence as lawyers tell us. There was sufficient time to have done so right from when candidates submitted their personal details to INEC which published them for public scrutiny before the respective party primaries in accordance with the law.

    In any case, even if the fresh evidence had been tendered at the PEPC and been part of the hearing, of what probative or utilitarian value would it have been as Dr Reuben Abati, himself a lawyer, recently asked on Arise TV ‘The Morning Show’ programme on which he is one of the anchors? Atiku and his team had chosen to make a mountain out of Tinubu’s CSU diploma molehill even after the school’s register had stated clearly in his deposition under oath that Tinubu was admitted into the institution as a male student in 1977 and graduated in 1979 with flying colors while also making public his transcripts.

    Mischievous and ethnically motivated intellectuals like Chimamanda and Ezekwesili refuse to furnish the public with a persuasive, fact-based analysis on what pathway Obi, whose campaign was targeted at his Igbo kinsfolk like these two women as well as Christians opposed to the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, could have won a national election in a complex, plural, multi-religious polity like Nigeria. Yes, he scored over 95% of the votes in his native South-East, won in the largely Christian states of Edo, Delta and Cross River in the South-South, won in cosmopolitan Lagos and Abuja with large clusters of Igbo and Christian votes while also winning in Christian dominated Nasarawa and Plateau states in the North-Central.

    He equally performed impressively in Southern Kaduna although Atiku won that state in the presidential election with Tinubu coming a close second. But Obi’s votes in the electorally fertile North-East and North-West was negligible and with Tinubu’s victories in Benue, Kogi, Niger, Kwara in the North-Central, Obi lost to the President in the overall vote count in the zone. Just as Atiku won only two states in the South, Osun and Akwa-Ibom, Obi did not score up to 25% of the votes in any of the 19 states in the far North.

    Neither Obi nor Atiku could realistically have won a nationwide presidential election with their parochially skewed electoral support base.

    The performance of Obi and Atiku was unlike that of President Tinubu who won the highest number of votes in his native South-West, the North-Central and the North-West while coming a close second in the North-East which Atiku won and the South-South. It was only in the South-East that Tinubu performed abysmally, winning less than five per cent of the votes. Nobody can emerge winner in a presidential election in Nigeria without achieving an outright victory in at least three of the country’s six zones and scoring 25% of the votes in no less than two-thirds of the 36 states and the FCT.

    In his comments on the presidential election in an interview in South Africa, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, stated emphatically that Peter Obi did not win the polls but came third and that the leaders of the LP were very much aware of this truth. What they were engaged in by loudly and ceaselessly proclaiming victory in an election they so obviously lost despite an unexpectedly impressive performance was what Soyinka called ‘Gbajue’ a Yoruba term for what he could rely on ‘the force of lies’.

    It would appear to me that in their unreasonable, irrational and anti-intellectual outbursts, the likes of Ezekwesili and Chimamanda are deploying what the Yoruba call ‘Ogboju’; an attempt to force a syrup of falsehood down the throats of a vast majority of Nigerians through sheer intimidation, harassment, threats, insults and absurd illogic. Their ethnically inspired diatribes detract from the stature of these women as enlightened, cosmopolitan and intellectually honest members of the professional elite. This attitude and disposition diminishes their Igbo ethnic group and makes the path to their much desired Igbo presidency in the near future a Herculean task.

  • Who cursed Nigeria’s sports?

    Who cursed Nigeria’s sports?

    The things other countries seamlessly do with their national soccer teams, Nigeria’s administrators mostly bungle. Such flaws make us a laughing stock in the comity of football nations. The Moroccans were at the Women’s World Cupthat was  co-staged by Australia and New Zealand and didn’t flinch, at the chance, to hire the coach who led the Spanish girls to win the Women’s World Cup.

    Spain’s squad was enmeshed in crises that prompted a few of their top stars to opt out of the team owing to their relationship with the coach. The trouble boiled over with the infamous kiss in which the  Spain’s FA President and a player were involved. Not forgetting the players’ mutiny against the coach.

    The English had issues with their FA over their entitlements. They didn’t allow that to dovetail into a controversy as we usually do in Nigeria. One of the African nations to the Australia and New Zealand Women’s World Cup fiesta, Zambia, accused their head coach of sexually assaulting  some   girls, who were  ready to spill the beans. They, however, managed the offensive and shameful act inside their camp. Thus, allowing the coach to do his job.

    It is close to two months after the Women’s World Cup, and Nigeria is still burdened by the ripples associated with the female Mundial that culminated in Super Falcons players and their Nigerian assistant coaches arriving in Addis Ababa, while  their American coach, Randy Waldrum, was  unavailable. Prior to this incident, this writer had written in Monday’s edition of Sportinglife that Waldrum had dumped the Nigeria’s job to face his university assignment. 

    It is quite disturbing that a nation  of over 200 million people could employ a coach on part time basis. This development beats this writer hollow just as it brings odium on Nigeria as a sovereign nation. In fact, what Waldrum did, by not showing up in Ethiopia, is a slap on our faces and such should never happen again. We may not have forgotten how Waldrum literarily labelled the Glasshouse chieftains as crooks asking that they should explain how they disbursed FIFA’s $960,000 given to all the participating countries at the last FIFA Women’s World Cup co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.

    Waldrum made NFF men his drumsticks, which caused a stir each time he remembered his unpaid wages, which mostly run into seven months. The NFF vs Waldrum brickbats from deep inside the dingy gutter splashed their contents on the Super Falcons, who suddenly remembered the federation’s failed promises to pay their entitlements and outstanding match-winning bonuses. What a country. All these allegations and counterclaims litter the media with people offering suggestions to settle the issues raised.

    By sheer providence, Waldrum was allowed to handle the Supper Falcons at the World Cup with the coach fighting his Nigerian assistants much to the consternation of his employers. Somehow, Waldrum agreed to work with another Nigerian, whose inclusion in the squad changed the team’s playing records of seven consecutive losses to one that had a new dawn in fortunes, recording six wins, two draw games and two losses in ten games. You would think that the Nigerian would be the ultimate choice whenever Waldrum returns with his tantrums.

    Not so with NFF, who are specialists in swallowing their vomit with relish as they went back to offer Waldrum, another part-time contract. Not to be fooled again by employers, who claimedto be incompetent and only needed Nigeria’s appearance at the last World Cup to enrich his Curriculum Vitae (CV) as a coach, Waldrum shocked NFF when he told them that he could only honour one of the two-legged games against Ethiopia in Addis Ababa and in Abuja both in the month of October. Wkadrum misinformed his employers that he had pressing family issues, whereas he needed to prepare his University of Pittsburgh Panthers women’s side for a crucial game slated for October 27.

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    All efforts to get Waldrum to be with the squad in Ethiopia failed even when the American has a subsisting contract which ends on October 31. In the course of persuading Waldrum to handle the two-legged ties, the NFF chiefs in their wisdom told him that his contract would be signed before the game in Abuja. Sadly, the part-time coach with Nigeria opted to honour his permanent employers, the  University of Pittsburgh Panthers with his presence and technical savvy for the October 27 cracker holding in America. Who won’t do that if left in the manager’s position?

    Sometimes, it is difficult to understand how those who run our football arrive at their decisions. Otherwise, how could the federation think of offering Waldrum another contract in spite of all he said to ridicule the NFF members? The American coach knows who his real employer is and sticks to the tenets of the contract he signed with them unlike with Nigeria where he is a part-time coach. Isn’t Nigeria too big to recruit a part-time coach for the Super Falcons given the team’s pedigree in the women’s game?

    Granted, the Super Falcons did well at the Women’s World Cup, but Waldrum’s attitude before the competition left much to be desired. I thought the NFF members would have emulated the Spanish, who sacked the FA President for an unwholesome attitude with one of their players on the podium during the gold medals presentation in Australia.

    The Spanish noticed that they were left with clay pot and rat setting in getting the female team back on the field except they dispensed with the services of the coach who won them the World Cup. They sacked the World Cup-winning coach and began to speak with the girls, especially those  who opted out of the squad, owing to the presence of the sacked head coach. Sapin’s loss has become Morocco’s gain. The sacked coach is now in Africa. I hope we won’t be shocked when the Moroccans become the dominant nation in Africa in women’s football. Who cursed Nigeria, please?

    Worried about the imminent slide in the women’s game in Nigeria going by the botched attempt to retain Waldrum, I sought the views of a former staff of the NFF, Dr Christian Emeruwa, who vied for the position as the federation’s President, but lost to the incumbent, Ibrahim Gusau, on the reason the federation opted to keep Waldrum in the mid of many domestic coaches and ex-internationals.

    Dr Christian Emeruwa, Head of the Safety and Security Department of CAF  revealed via WhatsApp on Thursday night from Cairo that: ”Coaching like any other discipline is not restricted by location or boundary we have some Nigerians that have done their bit and still doing so abroad some have coached clubs and others national teams. But I do not understand why some people feel that coaching our national team is a birthright when it is clear that they have nothing more to offer. A lot only have the national team coaching job as a reference. For these groups, I have no respect.

    ”There are also the idealist proponents that are advocating  national team A coaching job to be given to ex-Internationals, most of whom do not have enough experience and some who have not even trained in the act, but forced into the technical crew, using the reference of their playing days as a criteria. I believe that Nigeria needs to do more in the development of coaches’ capacity and to position them for opportunities even outside the shores of Nigeria. But this can only happen if such coaches are seen doing well with clubs and teams from Nigeria first.

    ”Sports administration respects the principle of appointing qualified personnel to positions if only we can accept to implement this and make positions competitive. Then we should expect the best out of our coaching crew at all levels. Another thing I have noticed in Nigeria sports circles is that most occupants of sports key positions only speak of what needs to be done when they are out of the office, but never when they are in office, “Dr Emeruwa wrote.

    Could this be the principle of not talking while eating or simply the ability to see clearer and reason better once out of the driver’s seat, dear reader? You tell me, please.

  • Tinubu, Atiku, Obi: What next after judgment?

    Tinubu, Atiku, Obi: What next after judgment?

    Nigeria is bigger than President Bola Tinubu and his rivals in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party(LP).

    The trio vied for the highest office in the land because the country existed. Therefore, patriotism demands that the winner and his opponents should continue to hold the Nigerian Project very dear.

    The election has been won and lost. That is the reality. The judgment of the Supreme Court has drawn the curtains on that epoch. It is final. The appropriate lessons should also be learned by stakeholders. But, in summary, the winners are Nigeria and democracy.

    The leaders who approached the court with their claims and prayers have made contributions to national development in an unexpected way. The judgments of the presidential tribunal and Supreme Court have enriched the country’s jurisprudence. Lawyers, jurists, politicians, law students and other Nigerians are now in a vantage position to better appreciate certain constitutional interpretations and the sanctity of the constitution as the regulator of political behaviour.

    Power has not landed on the palm of President Tinubu on a platter of gold. He struggled for political control and succeeded where some people had failed. But, the acquisition of power is only meaningful if it is used to cater for the welfare and happiness of the greater number of citizens.

    The president is expected to deploy power with humility, be firm and decisive and allow the interest of Nigerians to shape his policy directions.

    In Nigeria, people suffer in the midst of plenty. For a president who is committed to change and improvement in the life of the people, it cannot be business as usual. In particular, there is greater expectation that Tinubu, an activist, humanist and friends of the masses, will preside over a government that will reposition the country for excellence, and in the interest of the ordinary people.

    The ruling party should now ensure that the government it had midwifed stays on course in the implementation of the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda.’

    It is a self-imposed burden. Many APC stalwarts pride themselves as “progressives” and “welfarists.” Should they not make a difference to justify their public perception?

    Neither should the opposition be dormant by the current disappointment. The beauty of democracy is that there is room for the opposition to thrive. Therefore, both the PDP and LP should not go into slumber. Other smaller parties that have not been de-registered should aspire to grow. They should cease to be surrogates to bigger platforms. Their responsibility is to keep watch over government activities, offer constructive criticisms and provide alternative solutions to pressing socio-economic challenges.

    For President Tinubu, there is relief. For APC, the nightmare may be over. But, Nigerians, it must be noted, expect the dividends of democracy to flow without further restrictions or inhibitions. Five months after the inauguration of the Tinubu government, and after exercising patience for a reasonable period, the people deserves a new lease of life.

    The president has described his victory at the apex court as an impetus for hardwork, a sort of energiser. More importantly, there is no further distraction arising from the litigations. As the president put it, “the court has put a stop to shenanigans, innuendos, lies and trials in the media. The court has demonstrated a strong commitment to the rule of law and justice. We will use the strength of our diversity to build a great country.”

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    Noting that he had started tackling the challenges of development since his swearing in, President Tinubu acknowledged the need for his administration to work harder.

    The historic poll has polarised the country. Nigeria became more divided along ethnic and religious lines. There is need for national healing. The president, conscious of the imperative of national unity, said:”We are members of the same family, living in the same house, but in different rooms.  We need a change of mindset for the sake of our country,  our children and grandchildren.”

    The Big Three-President Tinubu, Atiku and Obi-actually did well in the election by polling over eight million, seven million and six million votes respectively. The implication is that they are leaders, who cannot be dismissed with the wave of the hand. Remarkably, President Tinubu has waved the olive branch, Atiku and Obi should, as venerable opposition leaders and statesmen, invest more in democracy and popular rule through their invaluable ideas and reiteration of support for nation-building.

    The opposition is at liberty to sharpen its arrows. Bit, it should be within the bound of reason and logic. If any action embarked upon by political parties outside government is only meant to uncritically divert government’s attention and not for upholding the national interest, then, it is counter-productive.

    Opposition in democracy should not be a blind enterprise. They should embrace the ethics of moderation in complex times which advocates that a sensible balance should be maintained in all pursuits.

    One of the areas requiring their contributions is electoral reform. If the sanctity of the ballot box is to be guaranteed, doubts and reservations about some mistakes of the umpire, which are usually blown out of proportion, should be resolved. Nigerians are very emotional about election and they can only respond to the electoral process if there is substantial assurance that their vote will count.

    Opposition leaders who know their onions can propose.electoral reform bills to the parliament if they intend to add value to the electoral system.Then, the culture of do-or-die during electioneering should give way. Political desperation is not a mark of maturity. In addition, the political class should demonstrate confidence in the court, which is the final arbiter in political dispute.

    Recent developments have brought to the front burner the place of social media in electoral democracy. Social media has become a divisive and destabilising tool in the hands of politicians bent on tormenting opponents through outright misinformation, falsehood, campaign of calumny, and character assassination.

    Social media terrorism was in vogue during the last election. Opinion is divided on whether it should be regulated or not. An unscrupulous element, hiding in the corner of his room, can create tension and wreck havoc on the country through some kind of dubious postings or portrayals.

    Is there something to learn from other climes? The technolog is not a native of Nigeria. It was imported. But, it has come to stay. Its advantages are enormous. In a speed of lightning, information is disseminated worldwide. Also, within some minutes, mankind can be thrown into panic and tribulation.  A whole country can be enveloped in anxiety or fear through avoidable fabrication. Should Nigeria not copy how social media is operated and used for development in advanced countries? How can Nigeria stem or halt social media abuse or misuse?

    It should however, be borne in mind that government’s activities which do not resonate with the people would spark reactions. It opens the door to social media miscreants to sensationalise them exergerrate their impact on the society.

    The reward for voting is performance, which is measured by some parameters. Now that President Tinubu has resolved to work harder, it is expected that the administration will commence a speedy implementation of its people-oriented policies and programmes.

    The effects of the renewed hope agenda implementation should be felt in two critical areas of stable electricity and uninterrupted fuel supply for domestic consumption. The informal sector will thrive if power is stable. Also, if refineries are up other feet, and not on their knees, Nigerians will be liberated from the current quagmire.

    If these two are fixed, Nigerians will heave a sigh of relief.

    The greatest achievement of President Tinubu should be the resolution of the national question. Nigeria should be restructured to foster ‘true’ federalism.