The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Saint Atiku as moral exemplar? (1)

    Saint Atiku as moral exemplar? (1)

    It is quite absurd and a grand irony. Having lost his fragile petition against the outcome of the February 25, 2023, presidential election, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, proceeded on a voyage in futility to the United States of America in quest of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s academic records at the Chicago State University (USA). Acting in consonance with an order of a US court, the CSU released Tinubu’s transcripts and other documents to Atiku.

    Alas, there was no smoking gun for Atiku and his legal team to feast on. The CSU registrar, Carl Wesberg, even deposed on oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the university with honors and that it is the same male student at the time between 1977 and 1999 who is President of Nigeria today.

    Despite these glaring and indisputable facts, the Atiku team continue in their bid to nullify an already declared election result in which a clear winner has emerged by questioning the winner’s qualification to run rather than demonstrate concretely in court through incontrovertible evidence that he won the polls. What is ironical is that in the wake of the former Vice President’s barren mission to the US, a great deal of searchlight has been beamed on Atiku’s own educational credentials and identity.

    Intense questions have been asked on social media as to why some of his certificates bear the name, Sadique or Sidique Abubakar and others Atiku Abubakar or Atiku Jokoli. The PDP presidential candidate has tendered the affidavit he swore to effect the change of name but has given no concrete reason why he did so. Thus, legitimate questions have been raised in several quarters on whether we are confronted here with a question of multiple identities for various purposes on the part of the PDP presidential candidate.

    Given the tenacity and vehemence with which Atiku has pursued the issue of President Tinubu’s certificate from the CSU, one would think that he has a stellar academic record to flaunt. No, his educational trajectory is quite modest and largely undistinguished. This is unlike Tinubu who graduated on the honors roll with distinction as stated on oath by the CSU. Atiku holds a diploma from the School of Hygiene, Kano and later graduated with a Diploma in Law from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Institute of Administration. And in 2021, Atiku purportedly completed and bagged a Master’s degree in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University. But how could he have registered for and acquired a Master’s degree without the prerequisite of a first degree?

    Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last election, has characteristically jumped unto the Atiku bandwagon. In his own press conference on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, he asked that President Tinubu re-introduce himself to Nigerians. This is of course quite farcical. Tinubu has been active in the public sphere playing diverse roles hugely contributory to the country’s socio-economic and political development over the last three and a half decades. He is certainly far better known than Obi across vast swathes of the country; a fact that was obvious from the spread of his electoral support across the country in the last presidential election.

    But just like Atiku, questions have been raised as regards some of Obi’s academic records in the public domain. For instance, some have wondered how he got admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsuka (UNN) without the requisite O level credits in English and Mathematics. Again, it has been alleged that while he graduated from the UNN in 1984, he obtained his General Certificate of Education (GCE) certificate in 1986! There is certainly something fishy here. Again, an executive member of a faction of the LP who claims to have been a member of the panel that screened the then presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential poll, has claimed that the documents submitted to INEC by Obi namely the secondary school certificate, NYSC certificate and the UNN certificate bear different names.

    Read Also: The trial of Bola Tinubu

    Ordinarily, all these should be of no moment once elections have been held and the people have expressed their preferences at the ballot box. All these issues just like those raised against President Tinubu are pre-election matters and the Constitution as well as the Electoral Act have given ample opportunities for aggrieved persons and parties to raise objections to credentials submitted to INEC by contestants at the intra-party primary contests. This is particularly so since these documents are displayed by the commission for public scrutiny and possible legal action to address identified discrepancies before party primaries.

    It is interesting that at his ‘World Press Conference’ at which he dilated on his purported discovery on his certificate fishing expedition to the US, Atiku posed as a moral crusader whose actions particularly in search of President Tinubu’s certificate were motivated by considerations of promoting ethical standards in public life as well as transparency and accountability on the part of public office holders. This is obviously a most intriguing transmogrification of the Atiku we all know too well into Sainthood. But does Atiku’s trajectory in public life offer a picture of adherence to or respect for the highest ethical standards? Do we now have on our hands a ‘born-again’ Saint Atiku? This self-portrait by Atiku and his handlers is entirely fictive, deceptive and self-serving.

    In terms of character and moral integrity, Tinubu stands shoulder high above Atiku. A person’s character is best portrayed at times of crisis such as Nigeria was plunged into after the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the consequent emergence of the ruthless late General Sani Abacha to consolidate the stranglehold of military dictatorship in Nigeria. These were times when many men and women of supposed integrity sold their conscience to the military dictatorship for a mess of pottage. As Martin Luther (Jnr) immortally noted, it is impossible for a man of integrity to sit on the fence at periods of great moral crises.

    What were the responses of Tinubu and Atiku to the crisis? Tinubu threw himself fervently into the pro-June 12 and pro-democracy struggle, committing all of his energy, time and resources to the struggle to force the exit of the military from the political space and bring about restoration of democratic governance. In taking this option, Tinubu put his very life on the line, his residence on Victoria Island was fire bombed and he ultimately had to flee the country on exile joining other Nigerians abroad to intensify the campaign against the perpetuation in power of the Abacha regime. That is character. That is integrity.

    But what about Saint Atiku? How did he react at a time of severe political and moral crises for his country when so many patriotic Nigerians were laying down life, limb and livelihood to free their country from the humiliating jackboots of military misrule? The Waziri Adamawa opted to join the defunct United National Congress Party (UNCP), one of the five parties famously described by the inimitable late Chief Bola Ige as the five fingers of the leprous hand of the Abacha administration. He participated actively in the Abacha junta’s political transition programme probably oblivious of the credibility crisis created for the process by Abacha’s scarcely designed self-perpetuation agenda.

    On the platform of the UNCP, Atiku sought to contest for governorship of Adamawa State. To make matters worse, he reportedly kept a distance from his mentor and benefactor, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who had been incarcerated at Abakaliki prison for trumped up coup charges so as not to be in the bad books of the Abacha regime and jeopardize his governorship ambition. There can be no better example of a lack of fidelity to leadership, crass and unfeeling opportunism and deficiency in ethical integrity.

    Ironically, seeking to play on sentiments, Atiku at his world press conference, invoked the name of the late great human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, (SAN) describing him as the motivating spirit behind his efforts to unravel the truth as regards President Tinubu’s certificate from the CSU. Yes, Gani Fawehinmi put up a strenuous fight to get Tinubu impeached as governor of Lagos State on the unproven allegation of certificate forgery but failed. The truth of the matter is that no one, not even the highly respected Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM), Chief Fawehinmi, could produce any documents purportedly forged by Tinubu.

    Interestingly, however, as the late legal luminary battled the cancer that had attacked his body, Tinubu paid him a visit at his Anthony Village home in Lagos. A surprised Fawehinmi was appreciative of Tinubu’s gesture despite the previously strained relationship between them and he was full of approbation for the latter. Did Atiku even send a token message of sympathy to a man whose name he now exploits for political reasons at the time of his health travails? It is unlikely.

    In any case, what was Fawehinmi’s perception of Atiku and the PDP administration under which he served as Vice President? In an interview in 2007, Fawehinmi was scathing in his critique of both. In his words, “I am appalled because if not for the feud between him (Obasanjo) and Atiku, we may never have known that Atiku was messing up with the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF). Obasanjo cannot say that he did not know that Atiku was stealing money from the PTDF, established in 1973, meant for the welfare of our country by training our brilliant students in the universities with the fund”.

    Continuing, Fawehinmi lamented that “A fund meant for the improvement of our petroleum technology, a fund meant to ensure that the sons and daughters of poor parents who have the intellect can engage in research work. But alas, this fund was used, not only to pay lawyers but to establish just one company alone. Now, Atiku dipped his hand into it, (businessman Oyewole) Fasawe dipped his hand into it and Mr President dipped his hand into it for personal reasons. We want to have the full story of PTDF and other agencies of government”.

  • The trial of Bola Tinubu

    The trial of Bola Tinubu

    His life could be summarised as divine favour. No one could have survived all he has been through without the Almighty on his side. He has thrived against the wishes and plots of his adversaries.

    Perhaps, in the post-Awolowo era, no other politician has been so vilified, particularly in the media, than Tinubu. He carries on his head the bowl of fate, having been catapulted to leadership positions by destiny, grace. The exalted position he now occupies in national life attracts uncommon envy.

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is overpaying the price of fame and leadership. As history allotted to him the pre-eminent status of national, sub-regional, and continental captain, his detractors are swelling in ranks, ranting and wailing uncontrollably to pull him down.

    Like Awolowo, who bestrode the First and Second republics like a colossus, Tinubu looms large with his enviable personality across the country and beyond to the extent that he has remained the issue for over two decades now.

    Like the Iroko tree, he stands tall and sturdy to the envy of his foes.

    Read Also: We won’t tolerate any form of economic sabotage, COAS warns soldiers

    Courage has been the hallmark of his life. He is endowed with a curious intellect that beats the imagination of his less-endowed rivals. His power of ideas remains unassailable; so is his capacity for overcoming obstacles.

     From his troubled childhood, he has endured the vicissitudes of a challenging upbringing, nurtured by God who has ordered his steps. Thus, his steady rise to eminence has stirred rivalry among elite peers who cannot adjust to the import of his triumphs and prospects of survival.

    He seems to understand the grammar of politics better, as well as the value and utility of power, which, in his view, is not served a la carte. In the last two decades, it is incontrovertible that Asiwaju Tinubu has been the subject of public and even clandestine discussions. The question, as it was posed in the days of Awo, is whether you are with him or against him.

    Tinubu is about crossing the last hurdle that is critical to the affirmation of his victory in the February 25 poll and legitimisation of his presidency.

    In the last two decades, the president’s political path has been laced with thorns. It has been a life of struggles, and battles, with some setbacks, and several triumphs. As a Third Republic senator, a pro-democracy activist, an opposition leader, an Afenifere chieftain, an All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, a presidential aspirant, a standard bearer, a president-elect, and the Commander-in-Chief, he has walked a tightrope.

    Tinubu is fulfilling his destiny as an African statesman wielding political control in the continent’s most populous country. But, for him, self-actualisation is still a tall order.

    Asiwaju has been described as a boardroom guru, a financial surgeon, a seasoned administrator, a mobiliser, an organiser, a strategist, a powerful tactician, a tested, trusted, and dependable leader, a successful governor, and a party leader. Now is the time to prove that he can reposition the country for excellence and make it realise its full potential.

    If after four or eight years there is no significant improvement in the condition of living, his presidency would have been in vain. Therefore, a great burden is on Tinubu, who is expected to live up to expectations.

    Judging by the way politics is played in this clime, detractors have returned to the trenches to plot distractions in this period of electoral litigation. He is expected to deploy the wisdom that enabled him to navigate through the thorny path in the past. Despite past threats, Tinubu has remained on the firing line as a highly focused actor. During the turbulent period of the military onslaught against pro-democracy crusaders, he escaped the military’s re-detention and death plan. It was a life-threatening experience. He left for overseas through the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) route.

    As governor, he survived the sensational case instituted by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmj, who alleged certificate forgery. He survived the heat, settled for governance and his state became a reference point.

    As governor, the Federal Government turned the heat on his administration, following the creation of an additional 37 local government development areas (LCDAs). Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in response, withheld the council allocations to cripple Lagos State. Through creative financial engineering, the state, under the leadership of Tinubu, overcame the financial suffocation.

    Ahead of the 2003 governorship poll, the former governor was disowned by his political family, Afenifere. At the close of the poll, the five Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors in the Southwest supported by the socio-political group lost re-election. Only Tinubu of Lagos survived and became the last man standing.

    From a national figure in the Third Republic, Tinubu had become almost a regional champion as from 2003, when he launched the campaign for reclaiming lost progressive territories from conservative, do-or-die leaders, who orchestrated the political earthquake that swept across the Southwest.

    It marked the beginning of his long journey to Abuja, the seat of power. The collaboration with like-minded leaders of legacy parties led to the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014. But, no sooner had it become a ruling party than it was assailed by some contradictions. It was evident that some founding fathers, including Tinubu, were being sidelined in the party and the government it midwifed at the centre.

    Those who tried to alienate Tinubu saw tomorrow. They were sensitive to the prospects of the National Leader. His former boys who joined the central government tactically distanced themselves from their leader since they were responsible to a new master in Aso Villa.

    During the preparation for the 2019 presidential election, the detractors of Jagaban Borgu ‘soft-pedaled’. In their pretence, they stormed Lagos for his birthday only to start keeping a distance again after President Muhammadu Buhari had secured a second term.

    Consequently, national officers of the ruling party perceived to be friendly with the national leader were shoved aside.

    But Tinubu’s popularity never waned in the ruling party; it even waxed stronger by the day. To edge him out of the party’s primary, a screening committee was set up to sort out aspirants in the ploy for consensus candidacy. All the contenders fell for it, except the most formidable aspirant and potential winner, Tinubu. When the John Odigie-Oyegun-led panel sought his opinion on the consensus option, he was said to have given an answer to the effect that he would support it, if he would be the beneficiary. Details of the interview may become public, if the president reflects on it in his future memoir.

    APC was enveloped in anxiety as it prepared for the primary. Predictably, Tinubu won the ticket but not without feeling the intrigues of intra-party traducers. Many contenders saw the wisdom to step down for him.

    Then, there was the hurdle to choose a running mate. A realist, Tinubu chose Senator Kashim Shettima, a Muslim like him, from Borno State. Such a choice was not new. The same-faith ticket of Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe had won the poll 30 years ago. There were hues and cries, but the heavens have not fallen.

    The campaign was tough and stressful. Many Nigerians, seething with rage, were ready to punish the APC ticket for the actions and inactions of the Buhari administration. Amid the already charged atmosphere, Nigerians were thrown into the turmoil of currency change and fuel shortage pari passu.

    Despite the harsh realities, Tinubu defeated his two formidable opponents – Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi, the new kid on the block who hurriedly borrowed the Labour Party (LP) platform for the poll.

    While the winner savoured the euphoria of victory, the poll appeared inconclusive in the wild imagination of the bad losers. The battle shifted from the ballot box to the court. Simultaneously, armchair critics and social media urchins constituted their own court from where they preconceived where the pendulum of justice should swing. They fired misguided salvos at jurists handling the petitions filed at the tribunal.

    To the egoistic losers, law, logic, reason, precedents, and justice are unimportant. Their main concern is to have their defeated candidate declared the winner by all means and at all costs. To fulfill their wishes, the desperados have embarked on a journey of blackmail and smear campaigns against the winner. The bad losers have gone to the most despicable lengths to illegally ask for what has been legally declared the prize for the obvious winner.

    Attention-seeking Sadiq and Gregory the propagandist have brought to the street a strict matter of law, twisting facts, indulging in fabrication and prevarication, confusing their ill-informed supporters and taking along with them like-minded jesters.

    Nigeria is breeding a generation of social media scoundrels – intellectually bereft, dictatorial in tendency, and gullible in dispositions. They constitute a befuddled gang of supporters that trade in distortions and intimidation. They are mostly adult delinquents bereft of the knowledge of history and the understanding of national complexity. They have the semblance of a mob that acts before thinking. They beat the drums of war, apparently hoping to vanish into thin air when the fires they stoke engulf them.

    It is on these disorganised armies of fanatical chorus singers that some mournful presidential candidates rely for mindless protests, rumour mongering, and campaign of calumny against the election winner in a highly populous and heterogeneous country.

    Their pastime is a social media trial, which will lead to nowhere. Their desperate principals are the accusers, prosecutors, and judges. The awful picture of subjectivity they portrayed was at variance with the lucid verdict of the tribunal, premised on sound legal interpretation. Indeed, the truth about law and justice was below their misguided expectation and in contrast with their predetermined agenda.

    As an afterthought, a principal of the split opposition travelled to the United States and came back empty-handed. What is most striking is that while they are in court, they are not sure of their depositions, making them to return to the court of public opinion with propaganda to whip up sentiments and malign the victor.

    Now that their allegation of a forged certificate is collapsing like a pack of cards, they are inventing new accusations in their laboratory of falsity. It is another dirty campaign packaged by the rejected candidates that Tinubu must provide all documents from the embryonic stage of his life to Mobil or surrender his mandate.

    It is the height of daydreaming and delusion.

    But it also underscores the burden of power. Since Tinubu had anticipated the litany of mischief, he had also prepared for the assaults, insults, disappointments, betrayals, and war. Like he sometimes admits, leadership often entails absorbing insults even from unexpected quarters. Perhaps, this personal philosophy has helped President Tinubu to weather the storm and remain unscathed.  

    After a dark night comes a glorious dawn. However threatening the storm might be, the sky always remains intact.

    Like he did in the past, Tinubu will survive the current travails and live to reminisce on them, hopefully, in his memoir.

  • Of ‘corrective 10th Senate’ and allegations of ‘ambush’

    Of ‘corrective 10th Senate’ and allegations of ‘ambush’

    Democracy is a government of the people by the people and for the people. Nigeria has practiced unbroken civilian democracy since 1999 even if it was somewhat midwifed by the Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (Rtd.) administration. Coincidentally, another former military general and former Head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo became President in what many political analysts have termed a very deft strategic move to assuage the agitations of the South West Yoruba nation that was seemingly shortchanged by the annulment of the 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by the late MKO Abiola.

    Somehow, the unique characteristics of the military that has totally different professional operational mechanics continues to influence Nigerian civilian politicians and the way they do things. The incursion of the military since 1966 into the Nigerian state has left a lot of influences in the democracy practiced in Nigeria. The military after each coup immediately suspends the constitution and sacks the legislature.  They understand the dynamics and believe that not having any claim to legitimacy, brute force and intimidation are couched in the decrees they roll out. Because they have all the coercive tools of governance, the people often have no options but to obey.

    The Roundtable Conversation has been pointing out the effects of the military hang over on Nigerian democracy and why the nation must find a way of addressing the issues as quickly as possible. The country may be reeling under the yoke of economic and social challenges but if there are no fundamental changes in the structure of the brand of democracy the country has adopted, it might just be all motion and no movement. There are fundamental questions that the political elite must answer before progress can be made.

    The questions do not start from the governance structure. There has to be a structural realignment of the democratic processes. As it is at the moment, the political party structure is almost run in undemocratic styles. The basic fact is that Nigerian political parties lack basic ideological principles. There is a laughable fluidity that exists amongst the political parties that makes it possible for members to oscillate between the parties without any qualms and even though some very weak legal implications are touted to exist, there has been no effective deployment of the legal hammer in this regard.

    Read Also: We won’t tolerate any form of economic sabotage, COAS warns soldiers

    Political parties in functional democracies like the United Kingdom and the United States are easily identified by their ideological stands. Even though the United Kingdom runs a Constitutional Monarchy, the Conservative and Labor Parties, the two major political parties are identified by their views. In the United States of America that runs the presidential system Nigerian adopted, the President is the central and apex power but the liberal left-wing (Democrats) and conservative right-wing (Republicans) are the two dominant political parties.

    In those two democracies, the two political parties evolved over time based on shared world views and convictions about certain values. It is often not difficult to identify where a politician is leaning because of the unambiguous expressions about national issues. However, the overriding sentiment is often the respect for the constitution and the value paced on national interests at all times.

    Conversely, the Nigerian political space seems to lack a very nationalistic fervor and as such, mundane issues of religion, tribe, region and personal interests seem to take precedence over any national interest. So for Nigerian democracy to functionally serve the people, there must be an introspection amongst the political class. National interest must be a priority. This is the only time that every action would be in the interest of the country and the political parties even in their diversity would be working towards the same goal.

    When the political parties operate with valid identifiable ideologies, the structure that produces the leadership of political parties would be different. The citizens would buy into the political parties based on their own convictions too. When the citizens have a buy in, the field would be more open and more Nigerians would show interest in nation building and the political space would be one where ideas would be at play for the good of the country.

    For now, elected officials operate with imperial mindset. The center appears too powerful and as such the other tiers of government seem to be subsumed in the aura of the presidency. This has impacted development negatively. There is a sense of ‘ownership’ of political offices that renders elected officials very ineffectual. Let’s for a second look at the amount of money spent by the country to provide security for the presidency, the governors, ministers, and other high ranking officers of any administration. This is traceable to the lack of trust on both sides, both the leaders and the led.

    Nigerian leaders seem to be some of the most ‘protected’ in the world. The trust deficit must be seen as a product of a dysfunctional political structure. Most Nigerian politicians have a flawed sense of service. The political parties seem not to have a system of keeping tab on their elected officials in ways that they understand that any failure on their part is a failure of the political party. That lack of ideological conviction seems to make political parties mere gatherings of men and some women whose passion for national development   seems very weak.

    The Roundtable Conversation noted with worry the complaints of the Senator representing Bornu South Senatorial district, Senator Ali Ndume the Senate Chief Whip who accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio of approving the passage of some executive bills without seeking the input of most of the other senators. He accused him of passing certain bills without formal reading and the members’ contributions.

    Another member, Senator Ogoshi Onawo, representing Nasarawa state also complained about the style of the Senate President as he said, “Very sensitive bills are brought and are expected to be passed with the speed of light, which is not good for the country”. He insisted that senators ought to be adequately informed about the bills and that they ought to make their research and contribute productively to debates for the good of the country.

    The legislative arguments might appear trivial but its significance must not escape political analysts. The legislative arm is a strong arm in a democracy. Each senator represents a constituent part of the nation. Each senator is a senator of the federal republic of Nigeria so in essence, their oath of office is to obey the constitution and work in the interest of the whole country. A senate president is a first amongst equals and must be seen as respecting every senator in the discharge of his duties.

    It is interesting to note that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has a rich political history. He rose steadily from the political ladder in his state until he became the governor of Akwa Ibom state, a position he held for eight years. He is a ranking senator having been part of the 8th assembly under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before decamping to the All Progressive Congress (APC). His two terms as governor of Akwa Ibom state were as controversial as they provided some political comedy to the nation.

    He adopted the tag of ‘the uncommon governor’ during his time as governor in what many saw as a veiled form of self-adulation. He is known for his somewhat playful disposition to official duties. As Minister of the Niger Delta development Commission (NDDC) he was mired in series of controversies. At some point, he appeared along with some members of the board of NDDC before the House Committee investigating some official misconduct. He set the country laughing when he claimed that some of the legislators were beneficiaries of some contracts in the ministry.

    As Senate President, he has not deviated much from providing points of discussions for the country. At one point when the Senators were to proceed on recess, he was caught on camera telling the senators that ‘a little token’ had been deposited in their accounts for them to enjoy their break with. When there were murmurings about that in an economy that many can barely fee, he quickly changed the information to ‘prayers in their emails’.

    While Senators are human and therefore in a position to make mistakes, the roundtable Conversation equally believes that Senator Akpabio must realize that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. He must understand that the nation is seemingly weary of an ineffectual senate coming off a 9th Assembly that was notorious for acting as a ‘rubber stamp assembly’. This 10th assembly must in truth be a “CORRECTIVE SENATE” as Senator Akpabio stated ab initio.

    His adoption of the word ‘corrective’ means he understands the status of the 9th senate. It would then be self-indictment  if his colleagues in the senate see him as authoritarian in practice. If they are complaining of often being ‘ambushed’ and seemingly sounding dissatisfied with lack of information that should precede research and contributions, lack of proper quorum and alleged wrong calculation of the two-third majority for the passage of bills, then the national interest might not be fully served. The legislature has a very paramount duty in all functional democracies.

    ● The dialogue continues…  

  • Independence Day: Thoughts of our fathers and we the Children (2)

    Independence Day: Thoughts of our fathers and we the Children (2)

    Where did we miss that trajectory of growth and the chance to becoming the first black nation to emerge as a global super power? Where did the dignified and lofty thoughts of our fathers become incongruous with their actions? At what point did our nation drift of the glorious path?

    Truth be told, the drifting began with the same fathers who harbored such thoughts, the lofty minds that guided the nation unto its independence largely mismanaged the goodwill that came with such. We employed the politics of bitterness that saw the Federal Government prop up Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and his strange dancers in the Western Region House of Assembly as against the majority of legislators loyal to Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Tafawa Balewa, the then Prime Minister who was quick to use the Federal machinery to seal the Western Region House of Assembly and set up panels and commissions of inquiries during the beginning of the crisis, beat a sad retreat when he told the whole world that  he had no such powers when the Western Region took a turn for the worse by virtue of the “Wetie Crisis”.

    The Western Region crisis wasn’t the only misstep of our fathers, otherwise we the children as well as our history may have absolved them. The Tiv crisis, the 1964 and 1965 elections are glaring examples of the failures of our fathers, the descent began and before we knew it, the military saw reasons to replicate what other sister nations were similarly experiencing.

    That the children plotted two coups, both bloody in their implementation and leading to a civil war is worthy of mention, while one coup sought to correct the ills of the First Republic and still went over the bar with some of those who lost their lives in that putsch, the latter was more of a grudge match, with both serving as precedents to the pogroms and the ghastly civil war,  one with which its prejudices still live very much with us even till this day. Had the July 29 1966 coup removed General Aguiyi  Ironsi and punished the January 15th coupists without killing brother officers and innocent  civilians afterwards for the fact that they merely shared ethnic affinity with some members of the January 15 coup, while the January 15 boys had also at their show reduced the blood letting, perhaps the animosities borne by majorly the Eastern and the Northern regions may not have being enough to trigger the civil war. Thus the unity our fathers attempted to proclaim foundered on the blood of the innocent and not even the victory of the Nigerian forces over the “Biafran  Rebels have remedied such.

    Read Also: How to apply for Nigeria Police Force recruitment 2023

    The leadership of the Nigerian nation is also a contributory factor to the Nigerian debacle. God knows what the Nigerian people have done to deserve the kind of leadership that we have gotten since independence. Leadership in Nigeria has merely taken the trial by error approach, and even where we seem to have gotten it right or we think we have, such cloying encomia dissipates as fast as vapor leaving even the supporters of such leaders immensely bewildered.

    Obviously just as the dream for strong democratic institutions eluded us, ( The gaping failures of the Second, Third and present Fourth Republics are as clear as day) same also was our fate in our hopes of a virile economy. we swayed away from agriculture with the advent of oil money, the Nigerian economy which was showing momentum as at the 60’s, became the byword for inefficiency and lack of prudence. The balkanization of regions into states did little to help matters as each state embarked on a number of white elephant projects with so little resources owing to the lopsided nature of the Nigerian federation.

    Corruption also deserves a worthy mention, while our fathers tinkered with it via the 10 percenting, the children in us elevated it into an institution adumbrating It as a way of life in Nigeria. While every Nigerian administration has declared war on corruption all have left power harvesting in its fold more harrowing tales of corruption than the past governments. 

    Haven lost nearly 600 billion dollars to the hydra headed monster remains a threat to the survival of the Nigerian State, affecting public funds and finances , rendering our governments ineffective and reducing the standards of our living.

    At 63, it is yet indeed possible for the fathers, or what is left of them and we the children to carry out the re-vivification of these thoughts. In Nigeria’s leading playwright, Ola Rotimi’s popular line- “ To sit down and do nothing is to be crippled fast”. Professor Chinua Achebe put it in a much lively manner when he said that “A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot truly say where he dried his body”

    The thoughts of our fathers and we the children for a greater, stronger, prosperous and united Nigeria is much bigger than we have assumed. We may have toyed with it, we may have betrayed its sacrosanctity but if we agree that the fate  of this nation lies not in the stars but in ourselves, then we can rebuild this nation and bring in our time, the Nigerian nation of our dreams and of the thoughts of our fathers and we the children.

  • Tinubu’s certificate: Setting the records straight

    Tinubu’s certificate: Setting the records straight

    • By Tunde Rahman

    Former Vice President and roundly defeated presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was a pitiful sight to behold on Thursday at the Shehu Yar ‘Adua Centre, Abuja as he sat like a wreck after addressing what he called a world press conference. He had gone on a wild goose chase to the United States in search of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate.

    The former vice president however returned empty-handed after spending a fortune. Atiku himself admitted his exploratory journey was at a hefty cost.

    In the US, the Waziri Adamawa discovered no new thing; he found nothing incriminating or untoward against the President. He is only currently engaging in political sophistry. Apparently deluding himself that he came back from the US with a smoking gun, at his press briefing, he sermonised on the important issue of leadership and responsibility. Alhaji Atiku assaulted the memory of the late irrepressible lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, claiming Fawehinmi inspired his shameful, worthless and self-seeking expedition.

    Commending David Hundeyin, the rabble rouser who styles himself as an independent journalist, whose work he also said inspired him, it became apparent that both Atiku and Hundeyin were actually working together to embarrass President Tinubu.

    Overwhelmed by his inordinate ambition, the failed PDP presidential candidate also shamelessly called traditional, religious, community and political leaders in the country including Labour Party’s Peter Obi and NNPP’s Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso to rally round him in his political vendetta against President Tinubu.“This quest is not for or about Atiku Abubakar. It is a quest for the enthronement of truth, morality and accountability in our public affairs,” he said. And you wonder, what morality Alhaji Atiku was preaching. This is the same man who was indicted in the 2009 conviction of his accomplice, former United States Congressman William Jefferson, over bribery charges. Same man whose principal, former President Obasanjo, wrote a damaging testimonial on and whose years in Customs were signposted by corruption allegations.

    If you have not read it, this is what former President Obasanjo said about Waziri Atiku in  Volume 2 Pages 31-32 of  his book “My Watch”: “What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time,a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest.”

    It is pertinent at this juncture to clarify some of the issues that emerged from the deposition by President Tinubu’s former school, Chicago State University, in order to understand Atiku’s deliberate and malicious distortion. 

    Speaking on oath in the testimonies contained in a deposition made in the Office of Angela Liu, Atiku’s legal counsel, in Chicago, US, CSU Registrar, Caleb Westberg declared that President Bola Tinubu attended and graduated with honours from the institution in 1979. He in fact asserted that President Tinubu is the same person who attended the school from 1977 to 1979. “We believe Bola Tinubu who attended CSU is the same person who is the President of Nigeria today. Tinubu is an unusual name in the US. He matched the records in the file against the information provided by the student or on behalf of the student.”

    On the insinuation by Atiku’s lawyers that the Bola Tinubu who attended the school was a female on account of a clerical error spotted against Tinubu’s name, Westberg disclosed that the admission letter issued to the Nigerian President evidently proved he was a male and attended the school between 1977 and 1979.

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    Probed further to confirm if the Tinubu that enrolled at the school was a male or female, the registrar insisted, “Tinubu applied to the university as a male and a letter of admission was issued to a male.

    “There were materials in Mr. Tinubu’s records that show he was a male in the application to CSU. Mr. Tinubu identified himself as a male. His letter of admission identified him as a male. It says: ‘Dear Mr. Tinubu’”, he said.

    It is relevant to point out that in the US, premium is not placed on certificates, otherwise called diplomas, as we do here. Certificates are merely ceremonial. The emphasis is on transcripts. Employers and schools offering admissions for higher education will only ask for previous transcripts.

    In most cases, the certificates are also printed by third party vendors. Many certificates are left uncollected because what is important is the transcript. The CSU has diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession.

    “I have the diploma that was made available to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah in our possession because Mr. Tinubu did not pick it up. I do not have the diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession because he had picked it, ” Westberg clarified while responding to another question.

    Other matters also came up during the over five-hour interrogation session that I  do not want to bore you with in this piece. However, it is surprising that Atiku and co would claim President Tinubu forged his certificate simply because the CSU Registrar said he could not authenticate the certificate presented to him by Atiku’s lawyer as the document Tinubu allegedly presented to INEC for the 2023 Presidential Election. He said he cannot confirm because only Tinubu has the certificate which he ordered and which had been picked up for him and that the school does not keep students’certificates. Nowhere in the interrogation did Westberg use the word fake or forged as Atiku’s lawyer tried to make him say. Fact is there is no scintilla of doubt that President Tinubu attended and graduated from CSU. As my colleague, Temitope Ajayi, pointed out in his widely-publicised tweet, “You can only forge a certificate you never earned.” President Tinubu honourably earned his degree and he had no reason to forge the certificate of a degree he had in his kitty. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, with distinction. He was on the Vice Chancellor’s Honour List for all his years in the school. Insinuation by anyone that he forged a certificate he worked for is sad and misleading.

    Indeed, attempts by some to liken the situation with those of the disgraced former House of Representatives Speaker Salisu Buhari and former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun are disingenuous.

    Former Speaker Buhari forged the certificate of Toronto University he never attended. He was removed from office for the forgery. Former President Obasanjo later pardoned him. As for former Minister Adeosun, those who brought her to limelight and sponsored her for the ministerial appointment arranged a fake NYSC exemption certificate for her to scale Senate screening. The same people did her in when disagreements broke out between them, giving her away as a certificate forger over which she eventually resigned. The cases are markedly different: President Tinubu earned his stripes.

    In the final analysis, it is yet unclear how Atiku plans to benefit from whatever he claims to have brought back from the US. Certificate forgery was not pleaded in his election petition now at the Supreme Court. Without being a lawyer, this is a civil case and I understand you can’t make new pleas or present new evidence in a case that has passed the court of first instance and is at present on appeal at the Supreme Court.

    What the Waziri Adamawa has demonstrated in all of his Shenanigans is that he is a sore loser. Will he gain what he failed to get at the ballot through his present indecent and unpatriotic overseas search and unfounded and hollow discovery, making a mountain where there is even no molehill, undermining our sovereignty, uneccesarily heating up the polity and denigrating the Justices of the Supreme Court? I don’t think so!

    -Rahman, former Editor of Thisday on Sunday Newspaper, is a Presidential Aide.

  • Deaf, dumb, but not blind

    Deaf, dumb, but not blind

    Chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Super Eagles Head Coach Jose Peseiro love to be misrepresented by behaving like people who are deaf and dumb when it comes to sensitive issues surrounding the game such as striving to save cost on their operations. But since they derive joy in abusing our sensitivities by inviting as many as 27 foreign-based to prosecute international friendly games, it is clear that there isn’t anything wrong with their sights.

    Interestingly, the inclusion of Enyimba FC of Aba’s goalkeeper Olorunleke Ojo is either a smokescreen or that one of the big guns or is it one of the coaches is positioning him for the transfer market in January as a Nigerian international. There are a few Rivers United FC of Port Harcourt who can play for the Super Eagles against Mozambique based on their experiences playing continental football in the last three seasons. Why none of them is worthy of an invitation tells the better with the absence of the team’s Head Coach Peseiro.

    As the Super Eagles get set to face Saudi Arabia for the second time ever and Mozambique for the fifth time, Head Coach, Jose Santos Peseiro has recalled some players who have been sidelined in recent matches. This is a clear case of fixation on Peseiro’s part, leaving the domestic game worse off. No wonder the Eagles totter against countries with better exposed and talented players than ours.

    The first backlash arising from Peseiro’s disrespect towards the domestic league is that Nigeria’s squad to the CHAN Cup would be whipped if they do qualify. For now, Nigeria’s CHAN side is in limbo with the NFF members in awe of Peseiro. Pity!

    The Super Eagles take on the Green Falcons of Saudi Arabia in the city of Portimão, Portugal on Friday,  October 13, starting at 5pm. It is the second time that both teams will meet. Both teams have played a friendly match at Alpenstadion,

    Austria on 25 May 2010 as part of the Super Eagles’ build-up to the World Cup in South Africa. It ended goalless.

    After the match with Saudi Arabia, the Super Eagles will take on Mozambique apparently as a test match to prepare for the country’s World Cup qualifiers against the two South African nations of Lesotho  and Zimbabwe next month. If Nigeria cannot beat Saudi Arabia and Mozambique with an admixture of foreign-based and home-based players, we shouldn’t say that Nigeria is a football nation.

    Sadly, NFF and Peseiro have chosen to damn the consequences of their wastefulness of scarce resources  hiding under one finger – that they need the country’s foreign legion to play against Saudi Arabia as a means of blending the squad for the Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Cote d’Ivoire from the second week of January next year.

    It is easy and could be true for the NFF and Peseiro to say that the organisers of the friendly games insisted on Nigeria playing her big boys. True, but did the organisers also give Nigeria  the list of invited players including those not playing regularly for their European clubs? That certainly can’t happen. Nigerians can’t be fooled by the retinue of unsung Europe-based players, given the fact the world is a global village in which all that anyone can do to watch games to monitor our players’ exploits in Europe, America and the Diaspora are on the internet under different platforms.

    What the list of players picked for the Saudi Arabia and Mozambique friendly matches represents is that we may as well stop our domestic leagues since there isn’t anything left for the home-based players to play for. It is also means that for them to play for Nigeria if ever, they must submit themselves to the greed of shylock agents and European scouts or align with the mafia groups that decide who gets invited to play for Super Eagles. Pity. And NFF members are watching in awe.

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    Why is Nigeria paying Peseiro as much as $45,000 monthly, if he can’t reside in the country for six months with the ultimate objective to scout for fresh legs into the Super Eagles? Shouldn’t Peseiro have asked his deputies to pick five home-based players who they think can fit into his football philosophies if he feels so big to handle the exercise? If Peseiro trusted his Nigerian assistants’ tactical savvy, he would have known if the local coaches understands the messages he passes to his boys in training or not. But does Peseiro care less about our local coaches who our NFF chieftains deride with laughable rotation of personnel per game?

    Peseiro knows those coaches he wants to assist him and has chosen to employ them and pay them from his monthly salaries of $45,000. NFF members were myopic to have accepted this  kind of contract that would perpetually subordinate our domestic coaches to foreigners with no plan of them being bosses of the Super Eagles anytime soon. What a country!

    Isn’t this one of the reasons we can’t point at any Nigerian as the country’s best tactician? We pay lip service to training and retraining of our coaches hence CAF could insult our sensibilities by stating that any Nigerian league coaches without CAF’s C licence shouldn’t sit on the bench during matches. Can the NFF tell the world when last it organised  such a CAF C licence course for our coaches to apply and upgrade their coaching skills. Whose duty is it to organise coaching course for Nigerian tacticians?

    There are two types of coaches – those sacked and those waiting for the sack letter. Indeed, a coach is as good as his/her last game. The paradox in coaching is that when the team excel, the players take the credit with the media celebrating them to the high heavens. Wait for it, when the team loses games, the coach gets the stick with the players blaming the manager’s tactics that brought them glory in the past.

    We have seen several instances where NFF’s Technical Director Austin Eguavoen is left behind when the country has international matches. Yet potbellied members make the trips essentially for shopping. Isn’t sacrilegious for the man in charge as Technical Director is being made to rely of Peseiro’s account of the games he prosecuted before he can adopt a unique but workable playing pattern for our national teams?

    Peseiro is a visitor in a country he being paid $45,000 which indeed was higher than that. He arrives in Abuja seven days before a home game with the Super Eagles team list neatly folded inside his breast pocket unchallenged or should one say the list isn’t interrogated. He walks through immigration with a motley crowd of Portuguese who he claims is his technical assistants. Wonderful. Still stunned? Don’t because if the game is home fixtures, Peseiro and his ‘mechanics’ are ushered into the hotel by their Nigerian counterparts who struggle to outrun the other with most of them heading towards Peseiro to pick up his luggage and head for his hotel room. The Portuguese also enjoys the luxury of meeting his players in the countries where they have matches mostly for international friendly games against European nations.

    The NFF needs to have a functional Technical Department where matches involving Nigerians in  European clubs are recorded, discussed and tabulated to guide them when discussing the list of players to be picked for assignments. It amounts to a failure of leadership for NFF to release a list of players where three to four of them are injured. It is even more disturbing when players haven’t kicked the ball for the European teams for over ten to 12 weeks, yet they are listed for the country’s matches. It smacks of high-level fraud when those kinds of players arrive in the country only to pull out of the game after one training session.

  • The limit of desperation

    The limit of desperation

    After losing the ballot box battle, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the February 25 poll, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, shifted his election war dispute to the temple of justice.

    After kissing the dust at the tribunal, the Wazirin Adamawa, apparently afraid of another round of drubbing, employed propaganda to sway gullible hangers-on that have no inkling about the modus operandi of the legal system or chose to ignore it on his voyage of self-delusion.

    What will be examined at the Supreme Court is neither public opinion nor the sentiments of armchair critics recruited for television showmanship. The apex court has never been swayed by the befuddled tirades of beer parlour denizens that relish falsity as facticity.

    The jurists at the apex court, just like the tribunal judges, will rely, not on street protest or mob action, or gangsterism in social media, but on law, reason, logic, judicial precedents, and the sanctity of truth.

    The court will not give an ear to any campaign of calumny, blackmail, threat, and intimidation of respondents and judges. Ultimately, the rule of law and due process will not be sacrificed on the altar of sentiments.

    If Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President of Nigeria and veteran presidential candidate, was a lawyer, he would not have organised the Thursday press conference. He would have just focused on the imminent legal fireworks at the Supreme Court, which is the final arbiter in the historic presidential litigation.

    But the PDP candidate, who lost to his long-standing friend and better rival, President Bola Tinubu, is a politician. The feeling is that the eminent politician has opted for the court of public opinion, knowing that his appeal has a slim chance of survival. This is debatable.

    The aim might be that if the PDP finally loses the case to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the President’s image should be dented by exposing him to ridicule and disrepute.

    This is the general illusion of hope by Asiwaju’s confused opponents who, in the process of dragging his name through the mud, are most likely to be smeared by the attendant dirt. They are most likely to face the penalty of throwing their conscience overboard in their desperate journey for power.

    Indeed, the public was incited against the President over a phantom certificate scandal, but without success. Atiku, in his desperation, sought comradeship with an agitated Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his embattled New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) counterpart, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to join his expedition to pull down the President.

    It appears that the Atiku voyage is focused mainly on either getting the Presidency through judicial declaration or forcing Tinubu to forfeit his legitimate mandate. If the labour unions’ joint strike had not been averted, perhaps, the PDP candidate would have also drafted the workers into the gamble.

    But Obi appears the wiser now. He distanced himself instantly from the stealth for a nebulous conspiracy, saying he does not see Atiku as his role model.

    Is it not illogical that Atiku is now asking Obi and Kwankwaso to join him to win power after the election has been concluded, after turning his back on them during the electioneering?

    Why did he not rally opposition platforms to fight APC at the poll? How could he have even done that when he could not reconcile with PDP’s aggrieved G-5 governors who were boys when he and Iyorcha Ayu were PDP founding fathers?

    Yet, the latest disclosure during the woeful press conference was the capture of the Southwest states of Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, and Ekiti by the PDP-led Federal Government under Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku. Twenty years later, Atiku is saying he deserves approbation for aborting the extension of that rigging to Lagos State, where Tinubu was governor.

    It took the Southwest several years to recover from the political earthquake of 2003 masterminded by OBJ. But, should it not be instructive to Atiku that Tinubu, the last man standing, took off from that tragic period in a journey of two decades that culminated in defeating the Wazirin Adamawa and the PDP at the February 25 presidential poll, despite starting earlier in what has now paled into shadow-chasing, right from the aborted Third Republic?

    Atiku reiterated his opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket. But in 1993, as a Muslim, was he not among those being considered for running mate to the late Chief Moshood Abiola, the presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (PDP), before the Aare Onakakanfo, also a Muslim, opted for another Muslim, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, following pressure from governors?

    Today, attention has shifted from who won the recent presidential poll and why the election was won and lost to whether Tinubu has a certificate or not. It is an afterthought, which is meant to divert attention from the shame of defeat, despite the bravado, pomposity, and arrogance of a leader who grossly failed to put his house in order ahead of the election.

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    Atiku has succeeded in stirring controversy, but it is futile since the effort is not likely to pave the way for the return of his party to Aso Villa.

    The entire enterprise is laughable. The drama will lead to nowhere. In a breath, Atiku cried foul, saying Tinubu did not have a certificate. In another dimension, he alleged forgery without trying to plead or prove any allegation of forgery in his petition. He is running from pillar to post, whipping up sentiments and indulging in self-deception.

    Did Tinubu submit a fake or forged certificate to the umpire? The Chicago State University (CSU) in the United States said he never did. The school even affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution. Another important fact that the Atiku forces are not ready to admit is that the school does not handle replacements for lost certificates.

     The poser: can Tinubu forge a certificate he already has? Can a person forge the academic records he possesses? In the deposition by the CSU, there was nowhere it said the certificate presented to INEC by Tinubu was fake. Remarkably, the institution insisted under oath that the President graduated with honours, in flying colours. Also, CSU never denied that replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors, not by the university.

    Indeed, Atiku and his gang of political jesters embarked on a mere academic exercise. Isn’t what the main opposition brandishing amounting to “after discovery information?” Atiku never presented a certificate forgery allegation in his petition at the tribunal. Can he now add what was not part of his case at the tribunal at the Supreme Court?

    The assessment or verification is beyond the ken and comprehension of laymen. Only legal experts, particularly the honourable jurists, can resolve the legal riddle.

    Atiku, even if he denies labouring in vain, has found out a number of facts that can nevertheless, be twisted by PDP supporters.

    Tinubu was admitted into the university as a male student. The testimony of his schoolmate, Adeniji, is incontrovertible. But, the diploma, which is the bone of contention, does not add value because it is a ceremonial document.

    Before he was admitted,  he sat  for a qualifying examination. Throughout, he was on the Dean’s Honours’ List. Tinubu was even a campus politician. He ran for the office of President of Accounting Association.

    Also, once the certificate is collected, it is no more in the file of the school. The university is only in possession of diplomas of those who have not collected theirs. It is also significant to note that when graduates come back to ask for the replacement of lost diplomas, vendors that are the third party handle such matters and not the university.

    Also, what the university adds value to is the transcript and not the diploma that Atiku was chasing.

    Whichever way the pendulum of justice swings at the Supreme Court, it is doubtful if Atiku would be able to maintain the same level of affinity with President Tinubu and so many other Nigerians as he used to before embarking on his desperate voyage for power. His current outing has exposed him as a sportsman without sportsmanship. There should be a limit to desperation – for power, for wealth, for anything in life, however coveted.

  • Insecurity and the plight of kidnap victims (1)

    Insecurity and the plight of kidnap victims (1)

    Temitope Oladipo Fayehun must be passing through hard times. A native of Ilesa in Osun State, Fayehun’s ordeal started on March 2, 2021, when he, alongside others in his vehicle, fell into the hands of some Fulani kidnappers along Osogbo-Ibokun-Ilesa Road in the state. While some of the passengers were killed and had their corpses dumped in the forest, others were immediately hauled into a thick forest. Fayehun fell into the latter group. But then, that marked the beginning of a journey that eventually lasted 16 days in the kidnappers’ den; as expected, under hellish conditions.

    Hear Fayehun, in tears: “as part of the torture, the kidnappers used their boots to stamp on, and  mess my eyes up daily. They also sealed them with plasters. My left wrist was dislocated, with other most inhumane treatment that had better be left unsaid in the open. After my release, following the payment of N4 million ransom, I could neither see objects nor do anything without being aided; and this made my life a living hell. On the almost-severed wrist, I was advised to go for Plaster of Paris (POP) immobilization, to re-correct the fractured bone. I have yet to do it.

    “I have sold all my property to regain my health, especially, my vision. The last diagnosis suggested that I must do urgent surgical operation on my left eye or risk losing my sight forever, which is never an option. In order to escape this damnation, I need urgent assistance from public-spirited Nigerians so that I can use my two eyes to see clearly again. The first surgical operation on the right eye was performed at the Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife in April 2022, at a cost of seven hundred and twenty thousand naira only (N720,000.00). It remains the left eye. But I am at my wits end. So, I pray Nigerians would come to my aid.”

    Of a fact, Fayehun is not the only one in this unfortunate mess that has pathetically enveloped Nigeria, our dear Native Land. On Friday, September 29, 2023, no fewer than 25 choristers of the Christ Apostolic Church, Oke Igan, Akure, Ondo State, were reportedly attacked and kidnapped in the Ose Local Government Area of the state. Their abductors placed a N50 million ransom on them before they could smell freedom. On October 4, 2023, gunmen also kidnapped 5 female students of the Federal University, Dutsinma in Katsina State.

    And the list goes on and on!

    Well, like a furious cyclone, insecurity distracts. When a state fails in manifestation in terms of its stately attributes, insecurity becomes an addendum. It is like bread and butter: they go hand-in-hand. Take, for instance, when a thug discovers that he is beyond the reach of the security agents’ handcuffs, those who may wish to whip him into shape will only be labouring in vain. When this happens, one major adverse effect is the initiation of hitherto innocent guys. After all, in a lawless society, being a law-abiding citizen is a taboo.

    With a specific reference to Nigeria, the plight of kidnap victims is given. Since they are always subjected to powerlessness, and are in powerless situations, everything horrible is possible, for the victims lack absolute control. The tragedy of our system is that society is becoming increasingly callous. Impliedly, our world is in trouble, should we fail to reconnect with humanity, for no matter how good or fantastic a policy or programme may be, if humanity is missing, then, we a’int seen nothing yet!

    Martin Niemoller’s famous post-war quote, which begins with “First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out …”, aptly captures the complicit nature and the uneven texture of our world. When the central issue of what to eat has taken over 90% of the society, society won’t have any excuse again. When everybody wakes up and the normal concern of food for the stomach takes pre-eminence, it becomes a social problem so serious even for those in leadership positions to comprehend. But, since  they have cold drinks to sip, they’ll simply go to their refrigerators to satisfy their thirst  while the gathering storm extends its phalanges to other untested areas; and this continues until there are deliberate government interventions.

    An assessment of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) will show clearly that, objectively, Nigerians are not one, because the issue was never addressed. Unfortunately, we are all gathered from one corner of the country only to live together without addressing what made us to gather. The image or focus changed; it’s the ‘Certificate of Clearance’, that ‘you have done your bit.’  That’s what has represented the entire scheme. Unconfirmed reports even have it that many corps members get their certificates of participation without physically partaking of the mandatory programme as required by the Act establishing NYSC. Arguably therefore, if a prospective female corps member is going to sleep with a man to get her that certificate, she will just do it. If her male counterpart is going to pay, using his ‘chop money’ to get it, he won’t hesitate to do it. Many reportedly get their certificates from the Orientation Camps without getting to their places of primary assignment. In fact, school is the best: without going to the Orientation Camp, and without knowing anything about its drills, thrills and frills, one just comes at the end of the service year to collect one’s certificate and go away. This has been the trend, year in, year out.

    In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, “peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at the goal.”  Regrettably, while the scheme gulps billions of naira each year, nobody has come open with regard to the measure of its achievements beyond the usual rhetoric of ‘I served’, ‘you served’, and ‘we served’; nothing beyond the debatable socialization and inter-ethnic marriages. In other words, what the Scheme has done to genuinely address the critical issues surrounding our Nigerianness remains to be seen. For God’s sake, who says Nkechi cannot come from Anambra and meet her destined heartthrob in Bukkuyum without the infusion of NYSC? Surely certainly, until these issues are addressed, the good Lord, we pray: ‘save us from a point of no return!’

    Niemoller was right: things don’t just happen; they must be addressed. To simply sit down and begin to think that all things will suddenly become bright and beautiful can only amount to jokes taken too far. The more reason Nigerians don’t have strong support for, or belief in government policies. They don’t have reference points or examples of policies that work to fall back on. Many other instances have followed but the results have been similar: creeping frustration and helplessness. What we are saying is that, with the situation on ground, security is no longer seen as a responsibility of the government, not because it is not but because it has not been objectively tackled; and people are getting used to it. So, once you allow yourself to be kidnapped, you are on your own. It is as simple as that!

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    When former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s family was attacked, it didn’t take much time for Nigeria’s entire security apparatchik to respond with the fierceness and the swiftness that the situation demanded. But for the deadly attack on the then Nigeria’s First Daughter’s convoy, nobody would have known that there was a cross-border robbery kingpin called Hamani Tidjani. But who will do that on behalf of a poor man? So, every citizen must come up with his or her own security measures, or anything that works, whether it is Ogedengbe Agbogungboro that one will need to wake up from his eternal sleep, or conjure the spirit of Moremi Ajasoro to come to one’s rescue. Depending on where one’s faith lies, something needs to be done to watch over one’s household.  It is now that bad!

    The brightness and the future of communal togetherness expressed is given meaning and intelligibility that government policies are analysed, vis-à-vis, the benefits of the people. Since those benefits are meant to address the plights of the people, when one juxtaposes the benefits with the policy content, one will know how far the government has gone to provide governance to the people. Without doubt, the Nigerian evil, where it came from, was the ignorant elite who foolishly pushed for modern ways of life without the people’s local, inner and moral strengths. They are the driving force of a stable society. For instance, once there is instability in communal living, it spreads like a virus, limited only by the distance covered by the people or the interactions they have all over the world. When selfishness begins in a community, it takes over the country in a jiffy. So, it’s no longer an Ijebuman who lost money. It’s now a general saying for all the tribes. That’s why one can say: for Ijebu-Jesa, it is double per Diem!

    Callousness in society chiefly comes from the responses of the government to public issues as they affect individuals and the collective. Take, for example, in 1980, there was Ogunpa flooding. It was a terrible tragedy, with millions of naira worth of goods damaged and/or carted away. Lives were lost. Expectedly, government’s response was swift, but only in terms of jingles and advertorials; not that foodstuffs were given to the people; no clothing and no physical interventions as in what would touch the people. Instead, eloquent words were in excess of expectations – that government would see to the sufferings of the people. The late Bola Ige, who was the governor of the old Oyo State at the time, was on hand to mitigate the perceived energy of the enemy, notably Richard Akinjide and Adisa Akinloye, who were not only indigenes of the ancient city but also rubbing and defending the ego of Shehu Shagari, the then president of Nigeria. To the victims, nothing came; unfortunately, so!

    Somewhere along the line, something important happened, but not in the public glare. The Federal Government intervened with N30 million; and the money was shared. Friends and colleagues watched as government workers of specific calibre started building houses; and they were careless with their mouths. As fate would have it, the masses documented what Ogunpa took away from them, but it was just an exercise in futility. When money came, which took several months due to shape and size of Nigeria’s bureaucratic palaver, the people had moved on, obviously without any assistance from anybody. But their children in the government service saw what happened and news went round. As at that time, Ige was no longer in government. People saw all those anomalies but there was no way they could push their aggression other than to bottle up the resentment they had for the government and government policies; and it’s freely discussed among the people. But that’s where it ended. After all, there’s no sympathy for government money, more so as it belongs to no one. Sad therefore that the leadership has shown sufficient callousness that nobody pitied them again. That policy has been what’s responsible for the depravity in the system, which makes nobody to care. It is interesting to note that it subsists till date, because nobody has attempted to address it.

    Look at the parents of the Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu who are still languishing in the terrorists’ enclave. Talking seriously, that is sufficient enough to take their faith away from them because, if one has a God that cannot actually save one while one is here, it is useless believing in the afterlife. If one calls on God while one is on earth, and, indeed, He heard but cannot save one, then it is as if one doesn’t have a Saviour! With this sad expression staring us in the face, isn’t it time our religious leaders called on God again – if, truly, they know how to call on Him – to come down and rescue those who trust in Him? Isn’t it time we beheld His real power, because, for those who truly believe in Him, at no time is His power limited?

    Tragically, those who are leading us on the religious path in Nigeria are unperturbed. Pastor Adejare Adeboye is fine; Pastor W.F. Kumuyi is fantastic while Bishop David Oyedepo keeps acquiring jets as if he’s buying motorcycles. Former President Muhammadu Buhari also rode to Aso Rock on the promise of recovering the Chibok girls. PMB has done his 8 years and gone back to Daura, leaving the girls at the mercy of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists. Yet, nobody remembers poor Leah who is wasting away in the forest for knowing the God she served, or her parents who continue to wonder their fate. Still, our spiritual fathers continue to use this same God to make money! And we ask: isn’t ours a terrible tragedy?

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

  • We are all casualties

    We are all casualties

    The above headline is from the iconic J.P Clark’s poem of the same title, written after the Nigeria/Biafra war of 1967-1970. The poet tried to remind everyone that the effects of war are so universal that the dead, the living, the lost and the survivors all at one point or the other feel the grave impact of the war or indeed any war. The instigators of war and the executioners of same often feel that wars have specific targets but that is fallacious. Victimhood of any disruptive order whether war or socio-economic disorder can never be boxed into a corner  seemingly.

    A few days ago, a ministerial nominee from Kaduna state, Balarabe Abbas collapsed while undergoing screening at the senate building.  He was however quickly revived by the National Assembly medical team who certified that the nominee merely suffered from exhaustion and would be fit enough to take up the duties of a minister if confirmed. A journalist with the Nigerian Tribune, Tijani adeyemi was however not lucky enough. He had collapsed in the National Assembly shuttle bus and could not be revived. He died of what has been alleged to be cardiac arrest. There is no post mortem yet at the time of this writing.

    Some months ago in Anambra state, the convoy of Senator Ifeanyi Uba representing Anambra South senatorial district was ambushed and he barely escaped with his life possibly because his SUV was bulletproof. His aides were not so lucky, more than two of them were killed in the attack.  A few weeks ago, the governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki’s vehicle was allegedly stuck in the flooded street and the people trooped out to mock him and take pictures and many of them expressed happiness that he too has felt their pain even if momentarily.

    The Roundtable Conversation has for so long been emphasizing the need for good governance from all arms and tiers of government. The legislative arm of government seems to be underrated as all eyes seem to be on the executive arm possibly because of the powers that that arm surreptitiously wields in Nigeria. It is a sign of a dysfunctional system because democracy is about the different arms of government doing their constitutional roles effectively. If the system works well, there would be adequate checks and balances. The legislative arm is not supposed to be subservient to the executive at both the federal and state levels. They are supposed to complement each other in ways that the legislature would mount functional checks and balances on the executive besides their other major roles in a democracy.

    It was a bit unnerving to notice that the Nigerian National Assembly had no First Responder emergency response team on standby given that most of the senators are well past their prime with an average age of possibly above 60 years. The Senators too had no CPR skills and as soon as the nominee slumped, most of the senators just rushed to lift him with no one knowledgeable enough to offer valid first aid treatment.

    The senate president, Godswill Akpabio was heard on camera shouting ‘bring water and sugar’ repeatedly as though those items could be found on the pockets of senators. It was comical even though it was a spontenous reaction at the time. What many failed to understand was the kind of water and sugar therapy that the senate president felt was a valid and effective first aid to someone that had slumped.

    The nominee after being revived wanted to still go ahead with the screening but the senator declined seeing that he was thoroughly exhausted. He was however confirmed.  He had complained of having been informed merely a day to the screening and he had to travel from Kaduna to Abuja and had barely slept the night before. Many are wondering why the protocol people did not give him enough notice so he could better prepare and not work under such a stressful condition that left him exhausted to the point of him collapsing at the senate.

    While the incident seemingly ended well as he was revived later, anything could have happened. The journalist that died was not so lucky. The question is, what if the journalist had received instant help? What if he had someone who could call the medics? Who knows how well he was before setting off to work? Questions. The health sector in the country needs urgent attention.

    So what are the lessons here? The senate is constitutionally charged with screening, confirming or rejecting ministerial nominees. They could choose to be thorough and grill nominees to make sure they are suitable for the jobs they would be assigned. They can as well choose to play politics with nominees, they could choose to let parochial sentiments rule their decisions. At the end, the competence or incompetence of a minister affects both the ministers, the citizens and the senators.

    Since the return of democracy in 1999, the Nigerian senate has had its mountains and valleys, there have been successes and failures and all have impacted on the development of the country. Have the senate been progressively active in putting the nation first? Does their job merely stop at screening nominees? How is it that there is the very obnoxious craving and lobbying for ‘juicy’ committees? What sector of any economy can be said to be dry? Should it not be a case of round pegs in round holes?

    These questions might appear frivolous but sincere answers to them might just untie the Nigerian Gordian Knot. Why is the country battling with such grinding poverty with its attendant fallouts? Definitely, something is wrong with the ways the legislative arm has carried on. How effective has the National Assembly been in carrying out their oversight functions? If their eyes are on the ball, certain things would not happen they ways they are happening across the nation.

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    The 9th assembly earned the derogatory tag of ‘rubber stamp’ assembly because the public followed their activities and discovered that they failed in their oversight functions on the executive arm. No democracy works well without the three arms working in synergy.  Complementarity is the soul of democracy. There should be no superior arm as the political philosophers like Baron De Montesquieu proposed that power sharing is the strength of the democratic process because humans if left with absolute powers would be absolutely corrupt.

    The Roundtable Conversation has been more interested in the role of the legislature in strengthening democracy and the Nigerian legislature seems to be dropping the ball. There are various reasons for this but we believe it can be worked on.  The executive arm in Nigerian democracy seems to have retained the military attitude of authoritarianism.  The effect of the military interruptions since 1966 seems to have been inherited by the politicians.  In a way, with the benefit of hindsight, it now looks like the entrance of an Obasanjo, a former military man after the chaotic military era of Gen. (Rtd.) Babangida,  late Sani Abacha  and Abdusalam Abubakar  was a flawed development strategy.

    The seeming hangover of the military tradition on the civilian democrats seems to have pushed the bar of a seeming imperial rule higher a notch. The presidency and the state governors have since 1999 been appropriating too much powers in ways that the legislative arm often appears as a subservient arm. This is not surprising because the successive military soups started off by disbanding the legislature and replacing their functions with mere military decrees.

    This is an attempt to trace what ails the Nigerian legislative arm at both state and federal levels. However, it is high time the more than two decades return to civilian democracy grew up. The defined roles of the legislature must henceforth take its valued position. Our legislators must be more conscious of their roles. Most of them just seek elections into those houses with no clear idea about their roles.

    Being a legislator is not about being subservient to the executive, it is not about party loyalty, it is not about regional solidarity or religious affiliations. It is about playing an active part that makes our democracy more functional. It is about doing their duties to the people who elected them. The dysfunctional system that makes the country poor due to unproductivity is largely due to human errors. The mental picture of a nominee slumping in their presence and they all looking on and scampering for help  must be a reminder that when a system fails, the casualties are not limited to the voiceless people must sink in and rouse them to be more circumspect in doing their jobs.

    The story of governor Obaseki’s vehicle wading through the bad road amidst the flooded streets must equally tell the executive that the mocking from the people is very telling. It must not just be waved aside as attacks from political opponents but of the true feeling of the people about the seeming insensitivity of those in power. Democracy is about the welfare of the people and the executive and legislature must realize that the effects of their collective failure to do their jobs falls like rain on the roofs of bot the leaders and the led.

    The Roundtable Conversation hopes that the nominee takes out time to go get a comprehensive medical checkup so that he would be in a better physical and mental state to work for the people. While what happened to him is not strange, the incident must remind him of the ephemeral nature of life and the fact that a call to serve the nation at a ministerial level must come with all sense of dedication and patriotism for a better Nigeria.

    ●The dialogue continues…

  • Nigeria at 63

    Nigeria at 63

    On October 1, 1960, the future of Nigeria looked bright. Many world leaders anticipated a progression towards the emergence of an African giant, a medium-ranking global power that would be sustained by steady economic growth, political stability, military prowess, and technological breakthroughs.

    The population has remained huge, signifying a big market, resilient manpower, and a colourful blend of cultures. Besides the vital human capital, also exemplified by the quality of population, Nigeria is blessed with a limitless endowment, including the typical black gold – oil – and a large land mass filled with enumerable mineral deposits and arable ground.

    However, 63 years after independence, the vision of the founding fathers is yet to be fully realised. While it cannot be said that the country has been static, the progress made, compared to other nations that were on the same pedestal as Nigeria six decades ago, falls below expectations.

    To many observers, the national tribulation attests to the failure of indigenous leadership.

    Nigeria has expanded structures for function performance at federal, state and local levels, but service delivery has been dismal. State and local government creation may have given hope for a redress of inequality and identity problems, but the lopsided distribution in the polity has also triggered agitation for equity and balance. As it turned out, the exercise only offered the elite access to public resources and monopoly by a few.

    Also, there is a wide gulf in the country’s democratising experience. Nigeria has achieved self-rule. But democracy ought to be the destination to redress injustice and restore rights, ensure equity and fairness to all.

    When elections remain a nightmare and the battle often shifts from the ballot box to the court, the discerning is left wondering what democracy truly represents in this clime. The nation’s blind rush for power acquisition is driven by the lure in the corridor of power and the perception that it holds limitless privileges and uninhibited personal acquisitions.

    The country is grappling with weak institutions, a trend that has strengthened the overbearing influence of power barons who monopolised and personalised power, even in the first two decades of the Fourth Republic.

     From a country of three, and later, four regions, there is now a 36-state structure with little bearing on the quality of living. The paradox of a rich country with poor people is confounding.

    From few schools at independence, the country now boasts over 170 universities belonging to federal, state, and private operators. Many of the public schools are now underfunded. Whereas the acquisition of education should be fundamental for all citizens, it has now been so commercialised that getting its basics is like a camel passing through the eye of the needle.

    Even after acquiring it through thick and thin, the job market has become so saturated that thousands of graduates struggle daily to find just any job. In the end, they run away from their land of birth which is ill-prepared to offer them the means to fend for themselves.  

    Many undergraduates live in perpetual fear of what life holds for them after their academic pursuits.

    Today, many youths have lost confidence in their country. They are eager to migrate to Europe or America or anywhere else in search of real and imagined greener pastures. Many of them do not hope to return.

    Nigeria survived the threats of disintegration, particularly the civil war foisted on it by parasitic interlopers, the soldiers of fortune who loomed large on the polity for 29 years. But, their legacies have remained a factor in retrogression.

    The nation’s industrialisation is signposted by abandoned projects. The manufacturing sub-sector is on its knees. Gone are the giant firms and industries of old that generated jobs and produced great technocrats. They have been converted to commercialised churches.

    Nigeria laments the foreign exchange debacle, but it loathes productivity. It has become a country of imports with attendant capital flights.

    The country has not lived up to its role as a model for Africa. Although it has not become a failed state, Nigeria has become an obviously fragile entity. There are danger signals in every region. The national fragility is potentially a stepping stone to state failure.

    As Nigeria celebrates its flag independence, Labour, in its war-mongering approach, is planning a strike to protest the high cost of living triggered by the inevitable removal of fuel subsidies. The subsidy removal is not the problem. The issue is that the sixth-largest producer of oil in the world does not have a functioning refinery.

    Crude is exported. It is meant to bring in revenue and refined products. But the by-products or petrochemicals are lost in inexplicable circumstances. The proceeds are said to be used to import refined fuel for home consumption. In most cases, the revenue and the products always throw up controversies. Given the number of barrels produced daily, a huge revenue is expected to accrue therefrom. But the nation’s sales account has always been hidden in mystery. It is laughable.

    This rich country is in pain. Its oil is supposed to be a blessing. However, due to mismanagement, it has become a curse. The natural resource is domiciled in a region. Ironically, the zone is in penury. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which was established to fast-track development in the oil-bearing region has become a bastion of graft, where the steal-and-go mentality rules the minds of the agency’s handlers. Perhaps, it will turn a new leaf under the current administration.

    Life expectancy has dropped abysmally in Nigeria. Basic amenities, including potable water, electricity, medical facilities, and roads, are in disrepair. The only prosperous people are those who have been in government, cornered state power and appropriated public resources. This is the reason many analysts have described Nigeria as a big contract up for grabs.

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    What has Nigeria learnt from Asian countries, including India, Singapore and Malaysia? They have left Nigeria behind in the march towards development. Although they are not more endowed than Nigeria, they became the Asian Tigers because they had good leadership.

    Across the six geo-political zones, there is no peace. There are security challenges: terrorism, banditry, herder/farmer clashes and unprovoked violence in the North; kidnappings, ritual murders and Yahoo Plus in the West, as well as the unknown gunmen that are always on the prowl in the East.

    In Nigeria, the state is the corrupter of society. The military milked Nigeria without challenge. Civilian authorities also deepened the culture of graft and sleaze among public officeholders, despite prosecution by anti-graft bodies.

    It has been a tortuous journey since 1914. Colonialism was devoid of benevolence. The colony wobbled in the course of its problematic journey to a difficult future.

    At independence, Nigeria was a country of many rival and competing people struggling for relevance. It could not become a nation, but a complex and highly heterogeneous nation-state in coerced cohabitation. The ray of hope was the subscription to federalism by the leaders who sought to build on the foundation laid by the colonial masters.

    The three premiers tried to lay examples of transformational leadership in the Western, Eastern and Northern regions. But, deep-seated rivalry, mutual suspicion and bitter competition for power at the centre upset the polity. The nationalist politicians – Zik, Sardauna, Balewa and Awo – despite their pioneering efforts, refused to play politics of tolerance, accommodation and understanding.

    The 1966 military coup that followed unleashed monumemtal disasters. It deepened the distrust and suspicion among the unequal regions. Legitimate authorities gave way to dictatorial leadership. To whom were the soldiers accountable? Surely, they were not answerable to the “bloody civilians”. The mistake of the first military ruler, Major-General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, who foisted the strange unitary system on the country through his controversial unification decree, marked the beginning of the journey to gloom.

    Today, some leaders may be dodging the national question. Yet, its resolution is critical to peace and harmony. The crux of the matter is that it was not Nigeria that was colonised by the British. It was the kingdoms – Yoruba, Nupe, Fulani, Kanuri, Ebira, Efik, Ibibio, and Bini, among others – that were colonised.

    Nigeria has aptly been described as a mere geographical expression. Diverse people from incompatible social formations were lumped together to coexist. The question is: on what terms?

     The 1999 Constitution has continued to lie against itself. What is the basis for peaceful coexistence? Restructuring, the anticipated elixir for true national cohesion, should not be put in abeyance. If Nigeria desires security, it should also consider state and community policing.

    Nigeria is still being confronted by an identity crisis. Why is a section still pushing for disintegration or Balkanisation? It is not due to feelings of alienation, marginalisation and injustice?

    The country has also continued to grapple with a distribution crisis. How the wealth is generated is usually less important than how it is distributed. Thus, fair play is said to be absent.

    The past is consigned to history. But the present can be devoted to reforms and other corrective measures, which should permeate the sectors.

    Nigeria yearns for great leadership. An opportunity is presented to President Bola Tinubu to lead the country through these lean and challenging times. Expectations are high for him to implement his ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ with utmost fidelity.

    If President Tinubu can restore regular power supply and revive the ailing refineries, Nigeria will be on the path to survival. The informal sector would have been liberated and the measures would be an incentive to local and foreign investment.

    The government should refocus public spending in a way that will trigger productive activities and wealth generation. The country should pay attention to agriculture to guarantee food security.

    Leadership should have a national outlook. This is being demonstrated by the President’s critical appointments. Nepotism will only accentuate suspicion and generate nasty thoughts about ethnic domination which would fuel the fear of marginalisation and exclusion.

    Where should Nigeria be in the next 63 years?

    Hopefully, a technological giant; a great federal democracy; a self-sufficient country; an industrial hub; a secured polity; a united nation-state; and a world power should be birthed sooner than later, if all goes well. What will, however, point in that direction is the foundation that is being laid today.

    The government and people of Nigeria should dream big about the future, jettison habits that impede development in private and public, and lay a concrete foundation for future prosperity under a rational and responsible leadership.