The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • BOS, organized labour and 2023

    BOS, organized labour and 2023

    In the run up to what is shaping up to be the most consequential and momentous elections at national and state levels in February and March this year since 1999, organized labour in Lagos State, in an unprecedented move, recently declared its open support for the re-election of governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for a second term in office. At a mega endorsement rally organized by labour unions in the state, teeming members of the Lagos State chapters of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), the Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU), the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria ((ASCSN),  the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the association of herbal medicine dealers, declared and demonstrated their support not just for the candidacy of Sanwo-Olu but also the presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Was this a needless politicization of organized labour and an adventure into baseless and unjustifiable partisanship? Nobody who rationally considers the reasons articulated by the labour unions can credibly reach such a conclusion. The labour leaders gave concrete and verifiable justifications for their action.

     Stressing that the labour movement could not sit on the fence in an election in which Sanwo-Olu, whom she described as the most ‘labour-friendly’ governor was contesting, the NLC Chairman in Lagos State, Comrade Agnes Funmilayo Sessi, said the decision to unanimously support his re-election was predicated on Sanwo-Olu’s fulfillment of his promises to the movement. In her words, “Before we embarked on this rally, we all agreed at our respective congresses to support Sanwo-Olu to continue as our Governor. We made the decision before today but we only came out to display our solidarity with him publicly. What we have done right in our house, we are showing to the world. This is the first time the Organized Labour in Lagos is taking an open position to endorse the candidate of a political party. We are doing this because Sanwo-Olu has introduced unprecedented reforms to improve the welfare and the well-being of workers. We are coming out with our full chest to support the Governor. We are deciding our fate by being part of the electorate that will return the most labour-friendly governor. This is the decision all workers agreed upon and there is no going back”.  

    Among reasons for this decision by organized labour in Lagos, according to Comrade Sessi, are upward revision of salaries, prompt pension remittance as well as payment of benefits to deceased workers’ families, health insurance coverage for state employees, free transport scheme and training opportunities for workers provided by the Sanwo-Olu administration. Apart from appointing a representative of labour in the state Cabinet, Comrade Sessi noted that Sanwo-Olu was the first governor to donate free hectares of land towards a housing scheme for workers and land in the Central Business District to build a befitting secretariat for organized labour. Corroborating the position of the NLC Chairman, the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the TUC, Comrade Gbenga Ekundayo, said Sanwo-olu had brought workers closer to the decision-making process pointing out that “Democracy is about inclusion and giving listening ears to the plight of the people. We have tested Sanwo-Olu and we have found him to have a listening ear. He also has a large heart to accommodate. We have decided and agreed. We are coming out en mass in the next election to vote for APC candidates in the presidential election and the state election”.

    The relationship between organized labour and the ruling party in Lagos State in its various mutations since 1999 – Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now All Progressives Congress (APC) has been an interesting and intriguing one. At the inception of the Tinubu administration in 1999, the government had a frosty relationship with organized labour which went on a protracted strike over the state’s initial difficulties in paying the new N7,500 minimum wage arbitrarily set by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration without involving states in the negotiations with labour. Although Tinubu’s predecessor, Major General Mohammed Buba Marwa, had improved the state’s Internally Generated Revenue from N300 million to N600 million monthly, the state’s public sector wage bill was in excess of N800 million monthly, which meant she was almost entirely dependent on federal allocations from the centre.

    Led by the militant union activist, the late Comrade Ayodele Akele, the workers insisted that the state government must pay the new minimum wage. Pointing out that apart from paying workers’ salaries, the government had various challenges to confront in diverse sectors including the environment, health, education, transportation, security and housing sectors among others, Tinubu pleaded for time for his administration to rejig the finances of the state after which it would be able to even exceed the minimum wage. An uneasy tension subsisted between the two sides until the administration was gradually able to systematically improve on the wages and welfare of workers as its financial engineering efforts began to yield results. It is instructive that at the end of Tinubu’s eight-year tenure, organized labour organized a day-long reception in his honour at the Adeyemi Bero auditorium at the State Secretariat, Alausa, where the governor was showered with laudations and encomiums ending his term in a blaze of glory.

    The close and harmonious relationship between Sanwo-Olu and organized labour is, of course, not surprising. Between 2007 and 2011, the governor served as the Lagos State Commissioner for Establishment, Training and Pensions during which period he had the responsibility of managing the relationship between the government and the labour unions. It is thus understandable that he has a thorough understanding of issues in the labour sector and the challenges confronting workers. For instance, during a working tour of the State Secretariat mid last year, the governor in an interactive session with the workers noted that “I have looked around and I know there is pressure and high level of inflation in the country. There is high cost of living everywhere. Last month at the Cabinet meeting I instructed the Office of the Head of Service and the Ministry of Establishment to start work on how we will increase the salaries of the entire workforce…We will also give our Directors 100 official vehicles before the end of this month so we will start doing this in phases”. The enthusiasm with which the workers have embraced his second term aspiration indicates that Sanwo-Olu has not let them down in this regard.

    Another indication of the priority the Sanwo-Olu administration accords Labour is its fidelity in the payment of Pensions of retired staff as indicated by Comrade Sessi. The administration has reportedly paid over N47 billion into the Retirement Savings Account (RSA ) of its retirees since its inception in 2019. 12, 642 retirees from the mainstream public service, local government service, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) , Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) are enjoying their retirement benefits under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in the state. The administration had paid not less than N2,522 billion into the Retirement Savings Accounts of another set of 755 retirees for the month of December, 2022.

    However, it is not just members of organized labour that have thrown their weight behind the presidential aspiration of Tinubu as well as Sanwo-Olu’s second term bid. Thousands of waste managers and Private Sector Participants (PSP) operators in refuse collection recently gathered at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, formerly known as Onikan Stadium to declare their support for the APC candidates. The National President of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWMAN), Mr. David Oriyomi, recalled that his group was the first organization that endorsed Sanwo-Olu in 2018 and said that they were pleased that “he has proven us right by the great work that he has done in the state and for the environment”.

    And explaining the association’s endorsement of Tinubu, Oriyomi said, “He nurtured and empowered us through the small-medium business model and successive governments have built on his solid foundation. Lagos was transformed and received numerous accolades as one of the cleanest states in Nigeria. When our livelihood came under attack and over 350 businesses were faced with the risk of bankruptcy, Asiwaju came to our rescue by speaking out for us and thereby securing our livelihood Today, the small business model established by Asiwaju, has been replicated in over nine states. It is for this reason we as an association are fully behind and wholly committed to campaigning and voting for BAT as the next President of Nigeria”.

    Were he made of lesser leadership stuff, the unanticipated Coronavirus pandemic with Lagos State as its epicenter in Nigeria could well have destabilized and derailed the Sanwo-Olu administration. Even as the state sought to cope with that challenge, it was confronted with the #EndSars demonstrations of 2020 which degenerated into mindless violence with widespread killings and the wanton destruction of public and private property estimated at over N2 trillion in the state. Sanwo-Olu managed these grave crises adroitly steering the ship of the Centre of Excellence back to calm and safe waters. It is a testimony to the governor’s astuteness and focus that his administration has been able to deliver on the first phase of the path-breaking Blue Line Light Rail Mass Transit, which runs from Mile 2 to Marina while work has commenced on the Red Line which will run from Agbado to Marina. These projects which will transform the landscape of Lagos in a revolutionary manner have been works in progress in fits and starts over the last two decades.

    In addition to delivering on key road projects such as the completion of the Pen Cinema Flyover, construction of Lagos-Ogun boundary roads, Lekki-Oniru traffic circulation projects, road networks in Somolu, Ikoyi and Victoria Island, the Lekki-Victoria Garden City Road, Lekki-Epe-Ibeju Road expansion project and the commissioning of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane from Oshodi-Abuke Egba among others, the Sanwo-Olu administration has constructed over 308 inner roads across the 57 Local Government and Local Council Development Areas. The administration has completed and inaugurated 16 housing schemes in addition to constructing new classroom buildings across schools as well as health facilities at the grassroots just to mention a few sectors in which its impact has been felt. It is thus not surprising that Sanwo-Olu’s second term bid has also received the support of the over 4000 Community Development Associations (CDAs) in the state under the aegis of the Community Development Association Committee (CDAC). Presenting an endorsement flag to the governor at a rally at the Police College, Ikeja, the Chairman of the committee applauded the governor for projects executed by his administration across the state in fulfillment of his campaign promises for his first term.

    With these mass-based endorsements, Sanwo-Olu’s re-election bid is a moving train.

  • Deafening noise from the stadia

    Deafening noise from the stadia

    The deafening noise from different NPFL match venues at dusk showed clearly that with the right political will to change corrupt tendencies, the people know how to celebrate what is good and admonish what is inappropriate. It should be obvious to the older order that they killed the joy of Nigerians across the country with poor knowledge and understanding of how to run the domestic game to make it attractive to both the fans and intending sponsors. The lesson to learn for those who have had favourable results at away venues is that a time would come in the abridged league’s fixtures when they would either be beaten at home by their visitors or held to pulsating draws. When such unfavourable results happen they should be prepared to take the defeats on their chins. They should remind their fans that there are three likely results in a football game – win, draw, or loss. And the best any team can achieve per game is one of the three aforementioned outcomes.

    With four away victories, four drawn games and a miserly two victories at home, a new dawn beckons which should soon rub off on all our national teams. So, what did the IMC do differently and how long would this impressionable feeling last in our soccer polity such that Nigerians can take their families to watch football matches as we see in other climes where the game is played to look beautiful simply because they adhere strictly to the rules and regulations of the game.

    The change we are celebrating arose from the administrative decision by IMC men to insist on the sponsor to pay monies meant for referees’ upkeep and indemnities are paid directly into their accounts and not into the accounts of the match commissioners. OF course, these referees are not kids. What the IMC needs to do is to publish the names of the match officials days before the game like they do in civilised climes where the game is played with pomp and ceremony.

    The IMC should strive to reduce the contact between match referees and club officials by insisting that no club pays for anything the match officials do, so that we can sustain these exciting times when ill-prepared teams are beaten without complaints anywhere in the country. Efforts should be made to task the State FAs of where games are played to provide the vehicles that drive the referees around the cities and to the stadium to reduce any form of unholy romance with club officials which could affect their performances on the pitch. The best form of security in any game is the centre referee and how he relates with his two assistants. If they were forthright in their decision making which must be swift, then the fans would easily walk out of the stadium without touching them or the away teams.

    In such circumstances, irate fans resort to taking the laws into their hands and this is where the IMC, representatives of the state FAs and clubs’ involved officials ought to have met with the State Commissioners of Police in stadia where the games would be played before the competition began last week Sunday in Uyo. It is not late to hold such meetings. No Nigerian’s or fan’s blood is worth being spilt on the altar of watching league football.

    After two rounds of matches, the IMC ought to delegate a few people to inspect again all the stadia where games are being played to reassess the state of the playing pitches and the level of security provided for everyone before, during and after matches. No substandard arrangement should be covered up more so as some of the clubs haven’t been able to secure a point on the league table in the last two matches. This is the setting where such teams employ foul and fair means to win their next game, especially if they are playing at home.

    The pitch at Umuahia Stadium looked like a pigsty making lovers of the game wonder who would approve of that facility in this new dawn. It is instructive to hear that the Chief Operating Officer of the league Davidson Owumi is on top of the situation. Football lovers in Nigeria demand the IMC lush green pitch which helps the players to give their best during matches without any fear of sustaining any career-threatening injury. The people who approved such a stadium should be delisted from the operations of the league forthwith.

    The reality check for the teams as they prepare for their third games this weekend is the NPFL tables, especially in an abridged league format where every game counts. The second week’s matches had six victories for the home teams, one away victory secured by Remo Stars which beat Gombe United in Gombe 1-0, and three drawn games in fixtures played on Wednesday and Thursday.

    Indeed, Remo Stars, Bendel Insurance, Niger Tornadoes and Abia Warriors are joint leaders with a maximum of six points from two matches each, though separated by goals differences, leaving age-long Enugu Rangers without a point and the threat of being relegated to the second time in the competition’s history. God forbid. Will Enugu Rangers be relegated? Not likely since the Flying Antelopes played it first home game away from The Cathedral inside the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu.

    Enugu Rangers rose from the ashes of the better-forgotten Nigeria Civil war to become the symbol of a race  – the Igbo man’s identity. Easily one of the most decorated Nigeria soccer clubs, Enugu Rangers has been renowned battlers of many football wars across pitches in Africa where they have come out victorious. The task of working their socks wet to contest for the title at the end of the abridged league is a piece of cake for Enugu Rangers, otherwise known as the Flying Antelopes. My money on Enugu Rangers is to bounce back very soon.

    Enugu Rangers’ next game is against Sunshine Stars of Akure in Awka and it is a winnable match for the Flying Antelopes since the Ondo State boys are bad travellers.  Another old brigade side in the country’s soccer history is Bendel Insurance, who unlike Enugu Rangers have been relegated twice. The Insurers’ return to the elite class season is quite remarkable having won its first two matches against Akwa United in Uyo and against Plateau United in Benin City on Thursday. The Insurers’ next game is against Kwara United in Ibadan instead of Ilorin Stadium which has been considered unworthy of hosting league matches for now until the state government repairs the problematic areas in the Ilorin Stadium.

    After holding 3SC FC of Ibadan to a barren draw, Kwara United may have tacitly incurred the wrath of the Oluloye fans. But these fans would find it difficult to support one of their arch-rivals Bendel Insurance FC of Benin who are guests of Kwara in Ibadan. Kwara United may also be forced to change the green and yellow jersey if Insurance boys decide to stick to their traditional green and yellow jersey. It could be the Benin side’s first triumph outside of the pitch before the game begins. Who knows? But in football, such frivolities don’t count. Soccer is a crazy game whose results nobody can predict correctly.

    For the second week running, I have remained calm in discussing television coverage for the domestic game because I have been told that there are two Supreme Court judgments. Playing the league without television coverage amounts to winking in the dark. Perhaps, the IMC could instruct all the teams to record their matches and submit a copy of the tapes to the IMC’s secretariat for them to watch and give judgment where there is the need for such an action. The NFF President Ibrahim Gusau could reach out to all the parties to arrive at a workable template for television rights that would take cognisance of the interests of the true owners of the business. Court!

  • Weapons, wars and ideas

    Weapons, wars and ideas

    The  word ‘ weaponisation   has been in frequent use nowadays   and it is not only with regard to conflicts and real wars but also  with new emerging cultures and ideas . A    good example is the   observation  by  one of the world’s largest producer of fertilizers   the company  Yara     at    the World  Economic Forum   in Davos ,  Switzerland accusing Russia   of   weaponising not only energy  but also food  in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine .  The  spokes  person from Yara   asked nations to cut their reliance on Russia  because its invasion of Ukraine has  caused  food  supply issues as Russia is a top exporter of fertilisers   and  chemicals used to make them .But  that alarm has ignored the fact that  in a modern world we are in   today  the western media and network  giants like CNN  and  BBC   too , have become potent weapons  of western propaganda against  Russia since it invaded Ukraine.  Both  the EU and US have   poured  millions of real weapons  into Russia   and have held talks and conferences on ideas and strategies  to defend Ukraine and deter  and   disgrace  Russia by all  means possible . Yet   they  do not see their own actions as weaponisation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine   but as mere diplomacy . 

    When  disagreements occur and ideas clash ,  words  flow freely and  mostly  subjectively and nowadays the word weaponisation creeps  in inadvertently  and is fast  gaining ground in modern politics  and global  diplomacy . We  shall  look at some examples  today  to see  if the context of usage measures up to the alarm of weaponisation.. For I  ,indeed  , see the accusation of weaponisation   as  an alarm or warning that  something or action is going awry   and that an aberration or misuse of power  or energy  is in the offing .Aside  from the Invasion of Ukraine by Russia which is a real war of   artillery , mortar , tanks and aircraft which are real ammunitions  of war we shall  look at policies and issues in some nations and countries  which  have been  branded as weapons because of the results or unintended  consequences arising from  their use  or  application to on going socio economic or political issues and discussions .

    In  the US the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives has accused the Biden Administration of weaponisation of both the FBI and the Department of  Justice  in the way it has branded parents who object to their children being taught race and sex issues  at school and the manner  in  which both institutions  have labeled  such parents as’ domestic terrorists .‘  In the UK  ,  the new administration of PM    Rishi  Sunak is planning legislation  that would give more powers to the police  to curb  protests such  that they do not disturb  the entire public  from their  work  while acknowledging that protests are an intrinsic part of any democracy . In Nigeria    the announcement by the Minister  of Police Affairs  that  the Inspector General of Police would stay beyond his retirement age because of the coming presidential elections in February as well as the observation of a former school mate of the late MKO who won the  annulled  June 12 election,   that he could not become president because of  ‘bad belle  ‘ or envy are issues    that can  be branded as both political and historical  weaponisation  which   are difficult  to  view dispassionately  or objectively  .

    In  the US the Republicans  are  set to settle scores  with the Democrats who  lost their majority in the last mid terms  elections to the House .  With  Republicans as chairmen of key  committees   there is bound to be reversals  of many House decision and policies of the last Democrats  house in which Nancy Pelosi was the famous and very powerful Speaker . Now Kevin Macarthy is the Speaker and even though he is hemmed in by some radicals in his party he is bound to lead them in collecting their pound of flesh on many issues especially the Jan 6 Capitol protests called an Insurrection by the Democrats and just a protest  by Republicans .  If  the Republicans are  seen  to be fair in ‘ prosecuting  ‘  key Biden officials  like the Immigration boss  they  will  have the public goodwill  of the American electorate  and  certainly  improve their tiny majority  in the 2024  presidential election which  their main driver and leader has thrown  his cap  into the ring to contest . If  they act  however with the same vindictiveness of the  House Democrats of the Pelosi  era on the impeachment of Trump , the invasion of Mara Lago by FBI  and now  the concealment of documents by the President eight years      ago  now being given  the same legal  inquiry to which  Trump  was subjected   before  , then  they may lose the public goodwill  and that may cost them the 2024 election .  Any way  the coast  is clear  in legislative terms  for the Republicans to show that what is good for the goose  is sauce for the gander . 

    In  the UK,  the  coming   legislation to curb disruptive protests  is  long overdue . Anyway  such protests have been  exported and  was the genesis of the unfortunate Stop SARS protests  in Nigeria in which many of our youths  lost their lives unnecessarily  . This last week  German Police had to eject many protesters campaigning   for climate change and   trying to stop government from  turning back to coal  production in the face of the use of energy as a weapon of war by Russia in the war with Ukraine . The new  UK  anti disruptive protests bill is known as Public Order Bill and  its aim is to broaden the   legal definition of ‘serious disruption , give police more flexibility  and provide legal clarity on when the new powers  could  be used ‘  The  PM has said that the right to protest is a fundamental principle of British democracy but it is not absolute .  ’ Which is like telling overzealous protesters that their freedom ends where the nose  of the rest of society begins .

    We  come now to the  twin issues of the extension of the retirement of the IGP by the Police Minister and the approval of the president for the 2023 presidential  elections . The funny side of that is that the government   seems  so scared of any   prospect of  failure of the elections that it wants to play  very  safe by relying on a safe tested hand  . It   is like saying that ‘ the devil you know is better  than the one you don’t know ‘ . That  to me is reasonable and   patriotic . Especially   in our Great Nigeria but  I bet the opposition will  see it differently . You  just wait  for their reaction . 

    In  the case of the’ bad belle ‘or envy charge against MKO by  his school mate  I also  see the lighter side of a clear  attempt  to use history as a weapon   to settle scores , although  I remind OBJ , a devout Christian  , of the saying that ‘ you do not speak ill  of the dead’ .  I  admire  both school  mates very  much  as God-  given,  highly  talented Nigerian leaders of the Yoruba race . But  peer  rivalry never ends and at the height of the June 12 crisis ,  OBJ angrily    retorted   that MKO was not the Messiah  Nigeria  needed . Yet  no one can deny that OBJ is one of our best Nigerian visionary leaders  as acknowledged by no less a person than former Commonwealth Secretary General  Chief Emeka Anyaoku at his 90th  birthday recently  . Stars in all walks of  life ,  especially   politics ,  do not like sharing the lime light  with any body  . Not even dead ones .But I   assure OBJ that his space in  the  history of our nation is unassailable and   assured  and he can afford to forgive and forget  his peers . That   is magnanimity . More so ,  when they  are dead and buried .

  • Salute to our soldiers

    Salute to our soldiers

    “We remember our fallen heroes

    Nigeria remembers you

    You laid your life for a truly just cause

    Nigeria remembers you

    We salute you for all that you have done that Nigeria may be one, strong and united sovereign state,

    Nigeria remembers you”

    As a child, this song or sort of infomercial was aired regularly during the nation’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day, a day set aside in our nation to honour and remember our soldiers both retired  and in active service  including our fallen heroes who paid the supreme price for the peace, stability and unity of the nation.

    Even today, the efforts of military men and women in the various theaters of war both past and present, cannot be appreciated enough, even with her numerous shortcomings , such as its interventions in the  nation’s politics and the numerous crimes committed by officers who were supposed to be sworn gentlemen , the Nigerian Armed Forces remains one of the nation’s  set of pride institutions.

    From its heroic efforts in the first and second world wars, in which the immortality myth of the white man was basically shattered in battles where our troops carried  out exploits more heroic than Alfred Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade to its exploits in Congo Kinshasa(Presently called Congo) and then to her role in the civil war which was allegedly fought to keep the nation one.

    Our heroics continue into the lands of Liberia, Somalia and Sierra Leone where our soldiers died that peace and democracy might reign in such nations. Today, it is in the  fight against terrorism, a situation where many of them have continued to die so that bloody civilians like us may go about our business.

    Now, it is not only in the bloody business of war and peacekeeping that the jackboots have left legacies. It will be instrumental to note that these Khaki boys much helped propel the nation’s diplomatic overtures. We are reminded of Murtala Mohammed’s “Africa has Come Of Age”speech which ushered an important epoch in the nation’s diplomatic posturing. Matter of fact, I still argue that the glory days of the nation’s international forays were during our military days spanning from Murtala‘ s era to that of Ibrahim Babaginda.

    Now just as there are a number of positive legacies left by the military, it also has left on the Nigerian people its legacy of pain, shame and suffering. The two coups of January 15th 1966 and July 29th, 1966 are among such legacies. The pogroms that followed under the supervision of the military and the senseless massacres of civilians that occurred in Asaba, Odu and Zaki Biam respectively will forever remain as stains on its legacy.

    Again, it’s repeated trampling on the rights of Nigerians which saw it arbitrarily send many to its gulags under the most undignified of circumstances as well as its assault on the collective psyche of the Nigerian citizen by engaging in brazen acts such as the attack on Fela’s Kalakuta Republic, the killings of students in Ife, . Events such as the annulment of June 12, the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Panel and a number of published works have given much elucidation to the military’s role in the suppression of the rights of numerous individuals. The tales of massive corruption and stories of indiscipline, nepotism amidst its lack of professionalism have also undermined the army’s reputation as brutes in the nation’s colours. Kindly note that the institutionalization of corruption was also endemic in the military era.

    Enough said about the double edged legacies, we obviously know that we do not throw away the baby with the bath water and the Nigerian Armed Forces for all its flaws, misdeeds and inactions will indeed continue to have its place in our nation’s history, particularly now that it has been near 24 years since it returned to the barracks and has shunned all temptation to announce to Nigerians those dreaded two letter words “Fellow Nigerians” interrupted intermittently with the rendition of high charged martial music.

    Now while many seek a professional armed forces, one where meritocracy and professionalism are the order of the day, favorably equipped and serving as a deterrent to any nation thinking of violating any aspects of our sovereignty we must also ask if we have treated these men and women who have slugged it out on the battlefield with the dignity that comes with such service to the nation?

    Today we have ex service men begging for their pensions, their families living from hand to mouth and their only sin was that they gave their time, limbs and sometimes their lives in service to the country. Even now as we speak , what are the conditions of those in active service? Dismal, at the front there are tales that border on poor morale for the soldiers, how these soldiers are denied their operational allowances and live in squalid makeshift arrangements. I even came across a story of how a number of these officers had been denied their entitlements such as their disability compensation and even how civilian patients were given preferential treatment to their military colleagues. So tell me how do we expect these officers to give in their optimal best at these war fronts? Now, if they can be treated this way, imagine what fate awaits them should they die in active service or retire.

    Prior to the incidence of corruption happening to us, we saw examples of military officers who died with near  empty account balances. That is before the entrance of thieving generals and their accomplices. It took a Sani Abacha to build a house for the late widow of General Aguiyi Ironsi, while it took a Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do same for Ayo Fajuyi’s widow? If Nigeria could happen to the legacies of these fine officers, what then should we expect for the poor bloody lads who have no special epaulets on their shoulders?

    The Nigerian service man deserves more for his bravery and his commitment to duty, chivalry and preservation of the nation. One then urges the military authorities and their civilian counterparts to do their utmost best in ensuring that the Nigerian Armed Forces are not only properly equipped but also highly motivated that in their service of today for the assurance of our tomorrow that the gratitude shown by us will reverberate with them and their children for years to come!

  • Role of clerics in nation-building

    Role of clerics in nation-building

    The greatest duty of a Christian priest is to win souls for God for the purpose of inheriting His kingdom. Pastors are to admonish the congregation to seek first the kingdom of God while every other thing is to be added unto it.

    Clerics are centres of influence, no doubt. Church members perceive them as role models. Since they exert enormous influence, statesmen often court them as they also seek to solidify a partnership between the church and the state for the common good of society.

    Also, clerics, as citizens, have the constitutional right to seek political power. In the Bible, before the advent of kingship in Israel, prophets combined the functions of priests, administrators and judges.

    But, in modern times, as they throw their hats in the ring to become effective political players, they are enjoined to brace up for the inherent challenges of the political process. Power, as it is often said, is never served a la carte. If men of God fail to develop the skills, learn the ropes, understand the constraints and exercise restraint, they can be drowned in the murky waters of politics.

    Generally, politics is a combination of activities associated with seeking the power for governance. It is a contest between or among people to control the affairs of a given area, state, country, continent, or even the world, which international politics entails. The ultimate aim is the attainment of power. Yet, God is the ultimate Decider of political fate. He gives power to who He desires. Power is sweet. It is alluring. But responsible leaders hold it for the common good.

    However, the political process is often characterised by stiff competition and gratuitous antagonism; sometimes, it is accompanied by ferocious struggle, uncanny strife and debilitating rancour. Politics within the religious terrain can be divisive and deceptive, thereby putting a big challenge on a shepherd presiding over congregants belonging to the ruling, the opposition and mushroom parties.

    Political participation demands some level of centrist approach – from adaptation, moderation, adjustment, to application. It should not be by force. It may seem strange to a political neophyte that 24 hours is a long time in politics as final decisions are shaped by many factors. There may be no finality until the last moment. It is said that politics and morality exist in clear-cut antithetical relationship.

    Many priests find these conditions very strange. In politics, they become isolates, far from the maddening peculiar realities of politicking.

    That was why the recent political statement by Pastor Tunde Bakare, Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church in Lagos, generated much controversy and debate among politicians.

    The popular preacher cannot be strictly assessed now as a pastor; he has become a politician. As a political actor, he may have inadvertently turned his church into a rally group, whip ping up sentiments; may be, in a bid to influence the congregation against a presidential candidate he was not bold enough to name to enable everyone get a clearer picture.

    Bakare is not known to be a coward. But he left many people guessing during his last “State of the Nation” preachment to his church members. It was unlike him.

    Bakare is a very vocal lawyer with a sonorous voice, like the defunct Western Region’s Premier Samuel Akintola. He is an orator par excellence, intelligent, brave, bold, and warm. Recently, it was revealed that he is also a hardworking and successful businessman.

    During the protest against poor governance organised by the “Save Nigeria Group,” he came out boldly. He joined the protest along with his humble and delectable wife and children. Many admirers hailed the amiable priest for not treading the path of prominent protesters who kept their children abroad but encouraged poor and pauperised demonstrators to face bullets of brutal policemen on the street.

    But, the activist-priest and former All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant is now being criticised for jettisoning his renowned hallmark of meticulousness on the podium. He is facing some backlash for allegedly lapsing into momentary amnesia. While rejecting the term, concept or slogan of Emilokan, the eminent priest forgot that he first conveyed the impression of entitlement by saying that he would be President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor as Nigeria’s 16th president.

    “I have never told you this before,” he said as he faced the worshippers and glided across the church floor in apparent ecstasy. “In the scheme of things, as far as politics of Nigeria is concerned, President Muhammadu Buhari is Number 15 and yours sincerely is Number 16.” Bakare announced this to his church with hearty certitude that elicited joyous uproar among the congregants.

    No doubt, the man who prefers to be called a preacher is an influencer. But his popularity did not translate into votes at the Eagle Square in Abuja, venue of the APC presidential primary in June last year. Perhaps, the aspirant could not assess his chances realistically. He may have overrated himself, unable to distinguish between loyal church members and the assemblage of heterogeneous delegates from the nooks and crannies of the country who converged to choose the ruling party’s flag bearer. The primary, really, was an eye opener.

    In politics, the management of transient setback is also important. Politicians can fall, but serious ones learn from the exposure and resolve to rise after each fall on the slippery political field. Experienced politicians often team up with the winner in the same party after a transparent shadow poll where they would have had equal access to delegates and the fairness of the convention committee, if these were not in doubt.

    Grudges are misplaced after the exercise, especially when the winner has acknowledged the valour and competitive spirits of co-contestants and solicited their support. When an aspirant suspects a foul play, he exploits the option of appeal to the party’s leadership as outlined by the guidelines for the primary. In extreme cases, if he is dissatisfied with the verdict of the appeal panel, he can approach the court for arbitration.

    But where an aspirant bypasses all these procedures and resorts to maligning the winner, as it were, smacks of cheap blackmail, bare-faced bias, and distressing frustration.

    The vituperation the preacher has employed to relate with his erstwhile co-contestant for the APC ticket may be the reason many party chieftains now believe he has, regrettably, regressed into an inexplicable campaign of calumny against the party’s standard bearer through subterfuge.

    Keen observers believe there may also be justification to connect his outbursts with his poor showing at the APC primary where he lost his deposit without a vote.

    The display of bitterness may also be due to cumulative anger, which had been piling up since 2011, when Buhari was made to realise too late in the day that he had uncritically made a wrong choice of presidential running mate that could not fly, despite the posturing that churchmen can also be crowd pullers on poll day.

    If the candidate on Bakare’s mind is that of APC, then, as a chieftain, the pastor has committed anti-party activity. In those days of party supremacy and discipline, it was a serious infraction for a party member to seek to de-market the symbol of his party ahead of election.

    However, there is no evidence to show that Bakare’s campaign against the presidential candidate he has refused to mention will affect the outcome of the February 25 poll.

    Bakare may not be a factor in next month’s election. But that also may not diminish his profile as a vocal voice for democracy, justice, rule of law and good governance. He has appealed to so many people as a rich but non-flamboyant pastor and social critic. But, as a politician, his impact, so far, has not been impressive. There is room for improvement in the future.

    The preacher’s dedication and commitment to the peace of the country and wellbeing of the citizens will still be required when the next president is elected.

    Bakare and, indeed, other clerics, including few ones fueling politico-religious tension, should shift attention to positive politicking. They should admonish candidates to play by the rules of the game and intensify their prayers for the country.

    Nigeria needs prayers for a successful election. The country also needs prayers at a time another global recession is said to be looming. As patriotic leaders try to solve the myriad of challenges confronting the country, religious leaders should complement their efforts.

    Pastors who seek elective positions should learn the ropes. They need to understand that Nigeria has produced many prophets, evangelists and pastors who have made enormous contributions to the nation’s socio-economic and political development.

    They should also know that they were perceived as moral voices because of their style of politics.

    Some of them were not full-time priests. Some stuck to their profession, despite being workers in the vineyard of God. The current crop of clerics should emulate the men of the old order who played moderating roles in politics and public office.

    Circumstances have thrown up many Christian leaders to press for equity, fairness, justice and good governance. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa spent the greater part of his career fighting apartheid in South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Although he was not a politician, Pastor Isaac Akinyele, Olubadan of Ibadan and President of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), contributed immensely to the educational development of the ancient city.

    Venerable Emmanuel Alayande, teacher and Anglican priest, was an example of a gentleman. He is remembered more as principal of Ibadan Grammar School in the Oyo State capital, and a moulder of lives than as founding chieftain and Chaplain of the defunct Action Group (AG), and a close associate of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    In 1962, he predicted danger in the Western Region. He had written to the AG leader when party delegates headed for Jos for a Congress to handle the Akintola rebellion with care. He said to Awo: “You will need to make extreme self-sacrifice and self-abnegation. You will need to be less inflexible and more condescending.” The advice was ignored. AG ran into final turbulence. The party split forever.

    In the Second Republic, Alayande contested for governor of Old Oyo State at the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) primary. He lost to his former student, Chief Bola Ige. In humility, he made sacrifice by accepting to serve as Special Adviser on Education to the governor so that free education could be properly implemented in the state.

    In Benue State, Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu made his mark briefly as a Third Republic governor. Pastor Femi Emmanuel, Presiding Pastor of Livingspring Chapel International, was a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly who became the Deputy Speaker during the time.

    But, despite the fact that power is alluring, politics is not so rosy. Literally, a pastor in politics may feel that he is a sheep among wolves.

    A former governorship candidate in a Southern Nigerian state once told the story of how his followers fixed a meeting for a Sunday morning. He pleaded with them, saying he must be at the church service. They overruled him. He could not attend church service that holy day.

    Besides, the followers insisted that they wanted beer and other alcoholic drinks during the meeting. He objected. But since it was during a critical electioneering, they threatened to disperse. They had their way, to the consternation of the so-called born-again pastor who always preached against alcoholism.

    Such is the nature of politics and political life. Clerics in politics should also be tolerant of criticisms and face the game with reality and objectivity.

  • Minister, federal agency chair on collision course

    Minister, federal agency chair on collision course

    With their gaze fixed on the forthcoming general election, Nigerians are oblivious of a brewing personality clash between a minister of the federal republic and the chairman of a federal agency saddled with the task of accelerating the development of a conglomerate of states in one of the nation’s geopolitical zones.

    The looming show of strength, according to findings by Sentry, is already causing a stir in federal circles.

    Followers of national events would recall the uproar that was generated in the affected states when President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded the chairman’s name to the Senate for ratification last year. The president stood his ground and senators were left with no choice but to oblige.

    However, the chairman in question is enmeshed in serious controversy less than a month after the agency’s board was inaugurated.

    At the base of the controversy was a directive the chairman issued to the effect that the chairman must be a signatory to all the agency’s accounts. The stunned executives were said to have explained that the directive was against the established rules of the agency, but they were overruled by the chairman who declared that “this is a new dispensation”.

    The minister, whose ministry oversees the agency’s activities, was said to have heard about the directive and immediately put a call through to the chairman, explaining that the action the chairman was about to take would amount to a violation of the extant policies of the Federal Government.

    Rather than heed the minister’s counsel, the chairman told the minister a second opinion would be sought on the matter. The chairman’s reaction was said to have set everyone at the agency worried about what they perceived as sheer display of arrogance and ignorance on the part of the chairman.

    Besides the issue of signature, the new board is said to have met twice in one month whereas the law that guides the operation of the agency only mandates the board to meet once every quarter.

    It is, indeed, a new order in this agency that is always in the news, particularly as the ‘executive chairman’ seems to feel like being under obligation to do things in a unique way.

  • Emilokan: What really is the fuss?

    Emilokan: What really is the fuss?

    I, like a number of other Nigerians woke up on New Year’s Day to read the letterman’s (President Olusegun Obasanjo as christened by Musikilu Mojeed) new year missive in which he officially endorsed a presidential candidate as well as attempted to paint a gory picture of the present state of Nigeria.

    True to his abrasive nature, the ex president now turned chicken farmer embarked on his saintly admonition in an “ajoro jara joro” manner , showing no concern for the diplomacy that a former leader of any nation should exhibit or possess. Not even the outgoing administration of Muhammadu Buhari would escape his vitriolic prose, Obasanjo wrote the letter like as if he was writing to an enemy or set of enemies. Well, the presidency and a number of other interested parties , notably the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP did respond in kind, rubbishing whatever set of narratives the new year letter had sought to pass on too millions of Nigerians.

    My grouse with such a letter stems from Obasanjo’s condemnation of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s deployment of “Emilokan” an anaphoric exclamation made while the presidential candidate of the APC addressed party delegates on reasons why he felt that the job of being president was his to fill up.

    Obasanjo had in his dreary letter, condemned

    Tinubu’s Emilokan declaration as the wrong attitude and mentality for the nation’s leadership and that such claims could not form the same pedestal to reinvent and to reinvest in new Nigeria.

    He ended by saying that no individual could claim that he had the absolute solutions to the nation’s problems, stating that “the solution should be in ‘we’ and ‘us’ and not in ‘me’ and ‘I’.”

    Hold the phone! This is the same Obasanjo who since times after the civil war has always adapted a messianic persona when it comes to matters affecting the nation.

    This is the same Obasanjo who had in 1999 campaigned under the theme, “ I have done it before and I will do it again”. Obasanjo had also in 2007 told Nigerians that the election to bring in a new president from his party was a “Do or Die affair”.

    What is if I may ask wrong with what many may describe as an ecstatic declaration such as Emilokan? How different is it from Obasanjo’s own slogan in 1999 or even Martin Luther King’s “ I have a Dream” speech, since the solution according to Obasanjo should be in either “we” or “us”.

    Everyone knows that electoral contests, particularly in democracies such as ours come with a number of flavors; cultural, philosophical and lastly some form of  individuality which when combined help portray a candidate in a particular light before the electorate. Tinubu’s declaration of Emilokan isn’t a messianic complex of any sort, neither does it transmute Tinubu into a Louis XIV nor is Emilokan similar to the declaration L’État, c’est moi (I am the state”).  

    In my research before writing this piece I had stumbled upon a number of campaign slogans , many corralled from the bastion of what we now have as a presidential democracy, the United States of America. Declarations or slogans such as

    “Who but Hoover? “ “Happy Days Are Here Again”

    “Pour it on ’em, Harry!” , “The Buck stops here” ,

    “Nixon’s the One”  and even Obasanjo’s friend, the Baptist Pastor Jimmy Carter’s “ I am Jimmy Carter and I am running for President “ all connote some sort of individuality, even as we all can agree that it still does not transcend into any of these persons professing to possess alone the solutions to the nation’s problems at that particular point in time.

    Dotting the lines, Nigerians conversant with our political history will agree that even in our own sphere here will reveal the same trend. Our political culture is rife with such rugged individuality: Azikiwe, Awo and Kano used such , it was littered in their speeches, writings and discussions, even a number of Second, Third and Fourth Republic politicians exhibited such characteristics. Should we then translate such statements to bouts of megalomania or messianic tendencies on behalf of these persons mentioned who were selfless statesmen in their very right?

    It is even correct to say that Emilokan is simply the declaration of ambition, was it not Mark Antony who in Shakespeare’s Caesar stated that “Ambition ought to be made of sterner stuff” At the time of the Emilokan declaration, Tinubu was in the ring for the APC presidential ticket, perhaps “Emilokan” was a message loaded with the sterner stuff called ambition!

    When then did it become a crime for one to be ambitious? Or to declare such ambition , even in the Church we are told to declare into our lives that which we want to be or see, how then is “Emilokan” different?

    Like always, Olusegun Obasanjo has always generated some form of envy unto every Yoruba man that aspires to the leadership of this country. In 1979, just days to the 1979 election he did broadcast to the chagrin of the nation that the best man (Obafemi Awolowo) may not win the election. When Abiola was outrightly denied the presidency even after the results had declared him a comfortable winner, the same Obasanjo in attempting to deflate Abiola’s quest for justice told the world that “Abiola was no Messiah”. By 1999, with  Obasanjo becoming  president, a presidency much erected on the grave of Abiola and the struggle for democracy, Obasanjo paid no heed to Abiola or his sacrifice and not until the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari did we attempt to placate the ghost of June 12.

    Today, it is Tinubu’s “Emilokan” declaration that is giving him sleepless nights, and in attempting to fuss over nothing, the same Obasanjo who had always taunted every Nigerian with his own pseudo messianic complex is like a fury fussing over one man’s declaration, masquerading under the cloak of patriotism and statesmanship.

    For me “Emilokan” has much come to stay, we shall queue behind it come February 25th, 2023!

  • NPFL matches are back

    NPFL matches are back

    THE Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo hosted the opening fixture of the NPFL between Akwa United and old war horse Bendel Insurance FC of Benin, which the Edo State team won 2-0 on Sunday. The biggest poser placed before the Benin side would be if they can stomach a home loss in the second round when Akwa United invade the Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia Stadium. The simple response would be for the organisers, the Interim Management Committee (IMC) to improve on the high standards set in the first game. The other answer would be for the IMC to ensure that there are no sacred cows in the course of the abridged league format adopted this year.

    This writer’s takeaway from the Uyo opener is that Akwa United FC, which is the team of the IMC Vice Chairman Elder Paul Bassey, took the defeat on the chins without resorting to improper means to either intimidate the referees or beat up their players after the defeat. These lessons shouldn’t be lost on the 20 teams, their so-called club owners and the team’s erratic fans who normally cause mayhem whenever their teams lose games. This writer isn’t shocked that Paul Bassey has firm control of the operations of his team unlike some other club owners who instigate the fans even if Gusau is the referee, Gbenga Elegbeleye first assistant referee and Davidson Owumi is the second assistant referee of the game. Some of these club chairmen would use the lackeys to foment trouble. Others, use the frequent complaints from their losing technical officials to instigate the restive fans to start trouble.

    Credit should go to the IMC chieftains for inviting the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Ibrahim Gusau to watch the game. The setting where the top echelon of the game in the country sits at the stands would embolden the match referees to interpret the game’s laws without being intimidated by the fans’ antics before, during and after matches. The IMC’s decision to get a firm to pay referees’ indemnities directly to them is the fillip of growth that the domestic league craved in the locust years of the defunct LMC.

    The impudence to beat match referees before, during and after clubs’ roughnecks, especially after the prompting of some of the so-called club owners arose from the fact that they pay them their indemnities, house them in hotels and provide other logistics such as body-nobi-wood. With such extra hospitality packages, these ill-prepared clubs want victory at all costs. The steel that the new league needs are adequate monitoring of key games by the NFF President and the television. On no account should certain referees be assigned to matches involving some ‘privileged’ teams.

    There isn’t any rule that stops the IMC through the approval of the NFF to play games at noon or like they say in the European leagues’ parlance early kickoffs for high-risk matches. Nothing prohibits league games to be played under the floodlights at night in stadia such as the Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo. IMC chiefs in conjunction with the NFF President should visit the States’ Commissioners of Police to collaborate with the two bodies to ensure that the lives and properties of people who come to the stadium to watch matches are protected. Any criminal caught taking the laws into his hands should be prosecuted in the law courts.

    The session between the States’ Commissioners of Police should centre on increasing the number of policemen and other security apparatuses in a bid to quell any mayhem. Gates at the different stadiums should never be manned by home clubs’ supporters. Clubs must get credible firms to handle the issue of manning the gates such at the end of matches, it would be easy to know what was realised from gate taking. This idea of State Governors or their sport commissioners throwing the gates open for the home fans to back their teams is barbaric and risk to the ticket paying fans’ whose lives are endangered by the mammoth crowd.

    Would it be asking for too much if the CPs are challenged to have a unit that trains security personnel on the knotty issue of crowd control? The idea of selling match tickets at entry points in the stadium is old fashioned and catalyst for violence before, during and after games. Tickets should be sold far away from the stadium to help the security operation have a clear sight of what happens as the fans troop into the stadium. Tickets could also be sold at designated malls and collapsible sheds built by the hosts to sell them.  If the gates are properly manned and sales monitored with those found culpable made to face the wrath of the law, the IMC should be able to know the fans who watched at the games at different stadium.

    It is unacceptable for clubs not to have means of generating revenue from the gates. It smacks of fraud. Isn’t it shameful that we don’t know how much each premier league club is worth? The club appointees aren’t bothered if the clubs are run at a loss. After all government money is cheap.

    Home teams should learn how to open the gates around the stadium at least 15 minutes to the end of the game for easy movement. This is about the safest way to avoid stampede at venues after games. Perhaps, the IMC could at mid-season engage stadium grounds men and security operatives to educate them on the rudiments of their trade. No Nigerian’s blood is worth being shed during avoidable settings leading to stampede.

    Effort should be made by the IMC for the club owners to fit into the stadium where matches are being played CCTV facilities which would assist the security personnel in fishing out the urchins who cause mayhem at match venues. The number of policemen required at venues should be raised to 100 instead of the prevalent one of 50.  There isn’t much that baton wielding policemen can do to prevent rampaging fans of 5,000, for instance.

    One only hopes that the IMC has a legislation which forbids state governors to throw the gates open under the guise of allowing the home fans to root for their team. The repercussions are grave if the home team loses.

    The safety of the fans, players, coaches and officials present at match venues rests with the quality of officiating by the centre referee and his two assistant who must show sufficient understanding in the way they communicate among themselves in making firm decisions. Referees must ensure that all the details needed to make the match venues safe for the commencement of matches are met. There mustn’t be any compromises on decisions agreed at the pre-match meetings in the morning of match days where the officials of the two teams in conjunction with the centre referees and match commissioners run through what ought to be in place for the game to begin.

    The theatrics from the two teams’ benches by the coaches in the course of games is enough to unsettle inexperienced referees and at the same time cajole the fans to throw unto the pitches sachets of pure water to protest referees’ decisions. Centre referees should be the commander on the field, and be quick in giving the marching orders to any recalcitrant coach, official or players fanning the embers of bitterness by inciting the crowd with their theatrics. Referees are the sole custodians of time, the rules and regulations of the game. They have been trained to do so.

    Anyone who is aggrieved should be shown the way out of the stadium for the good of the game. Welcome to the domestic game. The IMC has done well to start the league. I have deliberately left off the issue of television based on two Supreme Court verdicts on the matter.

  • Obasanjo, Tinubu and leadership acumen

    Obasanjo, Tinubu and leadership acumen

    THERE can be no disputing the fact that every successor to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu since the latter’s exit from the governorship of Lagos State after two terms in 2007 – Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), Mr. Akinwumi Ambode and now Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu – have been men of competence and accomplishment with proven and impressive records of performance. But none of these men had hidden the fact that at the core of their successes was the firm foundation laid for the state by the pioneering administration of Asiwaju Tinubu in this dispensation between 1999 and 2007. They were all largely guided at relative levels of fidelity by a 25-year Developmental Master Plan designed by the Tinubu administration to guide the trajectory of progress in the state from 1999 –2024. And it is instructive that, in one way or the other either as members of the State Executive Council or the State Bureaucracy, they were part of the envisioning and implementation of that Master Plan. In several ways, each of these successors of Tinubu improved on the level of performance inherited from his predecessor and Lagos continues to be the better for it as she is not only the country’s undisputed developmental pace setter, she has become the fourth largest economy in Africa.

    Incidentally, a few weeks ago, Mr. Sanwo-Olu inaugurated the first phase of the 13km Blue Line Lagos Light Rail project designed to run from Mile 2 to Marina, a project that will transform and revolutionize the face of public transportation in the country’s commercial and economic nerve center. The governor, it is worthy of note, had been part of the conception of the project right from the days of the Tinubu administration when he was a member of the State Executive Council. Work on the Red Line Lagos Light Rail Project to run from Agbado through Agege to Oyingbo is steadily ongoing. At the last Ehingbeti Lagos State Economic Summit, another initiative that can be traced to the Tinubu administration and sustained by his successors, Sanwo-Olu inaugurated the new Lagos State Development Master Plan to run from 2022-2052, which will take off from where the last plan is closely reaching its terminus. The point is that development in Lagos State over the last 25 years has been planned, progressive, systematic, and continuous.

    The big question is, as the first President of Nigeria in this dispensation between 1999 and 2007, did General Olusegun Obasanjo lay a solid and firm foundation for the continuous and sustained progress of Nigeria after him and did he lay a viable pathway for administrations succeeding him to follow and achieve success? The answer is a resounding no. Yet, in his infamous and characteristically verbose New Year open letter to Nigerians in which he endorsed the presidential candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), the Ota farmer, gave the impression that he is the best thing that had ever happened to this country in terms of leadership. I remember that in his now largely forgotten book, ‘Not my Will’, Obasanjo had boasted that he had attained the office of leadership in Nigeria that the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo had sought in futility all his life at a relatively young age and with considerable ease. His unreflective mind so obviously lacking in depth could not ponder what quality of governance he offered the country as military Head of State, the credibility and integrity of the political transition programme organized by his military regime or the caliber of leadership that regime bequeathed to the country at the exit of the military in 1979.

    What is most shocking is that when fate would entrust the leadership of the country in his hands again as elected President on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999, Obasanjo showed that he had learnt no useful lessons from the failures of his first coming in the pre-second republic military dispensation. In terms of policy conceptualization and implementation, his administration was disjointed and disarticulated. In his first term between 1999 and 2003, Obasanjo completely abandoned the management of the economy to his Deputy, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, while he junketed around the globe pretending to be an international statesman. Of course, a wily Atiku implemented a wide-ranging privatization programme that saw the sale of public assets to cronies and friends in a most opaque and brazen manner.

    Incidentally, in a video that has just gone viral online, a former aide of Atiku, Michael Achimugu, captures the PDP presidential candidate elaborating on how he had set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) on behalf of himself and Obasanjo through which humongous amounts of public funds, including N100 million from the former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, was siphoned into party and private pockets. We can recollect the famous damaging accusations and counter-accusations between Obasanjo and Atiku over the mutual mismanagement of funds of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF). How about the widely condemned corralling of public and private entities to donate to the Obasanjo presidential library in Abeokuta, now a sprawling business outfit from which the former President benefits financially? We can go on and on citing one misdemeanor after another by St Mathew Obasanjo.

    In his second term, after he had fallen out with Atiku for political reasons, Obasanjo suddenly discovered how corrupt Atiku allegedly was and took over the management of the economy. He inaugurated the National Economic Employment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) under the aegis of his Economic Adviser, Professor Charles Soludo. The programme neither halted the phenomenon of growth without development nor the continued de-industrialization that compounded the menace of mass unemployment. Unlike in Lagos, there was no policy continuity at the center as Obasanjo’s successors wasted no time in jettisoning the NEEDS programme. While the late President Umaru Yar’Adua implemented his own 7-point Agenda, President Goodluck Jonathan when he assumed office after Yar’Adua’s demise, introduced his own Transformation Agenda. The lack of policy continuity arising from Obasanjo’s defective leadership is one of the reasons for the protracted crisis that continues to plague the Nigerian economy even though a plethora of other factors are also implicated.

    Obasanjo claims with characteristic pomposity in his letter endorsing Obi that “I have come to realize a number of factors in character, attributes and in attitude that are necessary in the job of directing the affairs of Nigeria successfully and at a time like this”. He goes on to mention these as track record, vision that is authentic, honest, and realistic, character and attributes of obedience to God as well as physical and mental capacity. Beyond his mere assertions that Obi has an edge over other major candidates in terms of his criteria, Obasanjo gives no concrete reasons as regards how he came to this conclusion. In any case, is Obasanjo qualified to lecture anybody on leadership attributes or succession? The answer is a sad no.

    At the expiration of his two-term tenure in 2007 and the calamitous fate of his Third Term Agenda, Obasanjo virtually forced the then-former Katsina State governor, the late Mallam Umaru Yar’Adua, on the nation in his scandalous ‘do or die’ 2007 elections as President. Yar’Adua was an easy-going, nice and humble man. But just like Peter Obi now, all he had going for him as governor of Katsina State was his frugality and ascetic disposition. Not much is also known of the accomplishments of Dr. Jonathan outside Bayelsa State as governor of the state for two terms. Obasanjo obviously made his decision to back these two men to succeed him as President and Vice President, respectively, either most cavalierly or for the most cynical of reasons.  Nearly three decades earlier, Obasanjo’s regime as military Head of State had organized a political transition programme that had seen the emergence of another very nice, gentle, and humble but largely ineffectual Alhaji Shehu Shagari as elected President on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

    Yet, there were several tested and accomplished politicians, statesmen and administrators such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Mallam Aminu Kano, Chief Anthony Enahoro, or Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim who could have offered the country more astute and competent leadership than the NPN did at the time. Perhaps if the Obasanjo regime’s transition programme had been handled differently with an eye on the quality of its successors, the Second Republic (1979-1983) would have taken a different, more positive turn and Nigeria’s political as well as socio-economic trajectory would have been brighter and more inspiring.

    The brutally frank and honest Umaru Yar’Adua was quick to admit that the election that brought him to power, a poll organized by the Obasanjo administration, was largely fraudulent and lacking in credibility and went ahead to empower a panel to suggest far-reaching electoral reforms. He also wasted no time in reversing a number of his predecessor’s policies such as the hurried sale of the country’s refineries towards the tail end of the Obasanjo administration. When another of his ‘mentees’, Dr. Jonathan came to power, he also proved to be his own man and Obasanjo characteristically fell out with him publicly through his famous art of caustic letter writing.

    It therefore is quite baffling when Obasanjo declares most ridiculously that “Most of us in good conscience can testify to competence when we see any anywhere. What is masqueraded as ‘competence’ is self-interest and nepotism”. Nothing in Obasanjo’s career suggests that he begins to understand anything about leadership competence or the acumen to groom, nurture or select leadership successors. Although he cannot be accused of being nepotistic, his actions in public office have often smacked of self-interest through and through. His advice in this regard can thus only be heeded at our collective peril.

    In dismissing the Buhari administration as having failed woefully in his view, Obasanjo cites an instance of the grave security crises in many parts of the country. But he forgets that the inflexible and overly centralized security architecture in the country was a constant point of contention and disputation between him and Tinubu as Lagos State governor. Tinubu had always pointed out to him that the nomenclature of the governor of a state as Chief Security Officer of the state was meaningless in the absence of a decentralized policing system. Obasanjo was adamant in the preservation of the so obviously over-centralized and dysfunctional status quo. Is he not then also implicated in the security conundrum witnessed after him?

    The Tinubu administration had initiated the revolutionary Enron/AES Independent Power Project (IPP) to generate electricity  for Lagos – 260MW from barges in Ikorodu in the first phase and 540MW from Morogbo in Badagry in the second phase. The Obasanjo administration ensured the project never got off. The Lagos Right Rail project could not proceed at the desired pace partly because the Obasanjo administration was hesitant to give the requisite approvals from the federal government.

    It is therefore difficult to see how in any way Obasanjo could claim to have been Tinubu’s mentor at any time.  In temper, disposition to subordinates, ideological orientation, and commitment to federalist principles or democratic tenets, the two could not be more dissimilar. I think the key to Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi can be found in the concluding phase of his letter when he writes that “One other important point to make about Peter is that he is a needle with thread attached to it from North and South and he may not get lost. In other words, he has people who can pull his ears if and when necessary.”

    Yes, an elected leader at any level must be accountable. But that accountability on the part of the executive at any level must be to critical institutions such as the legislature as well as the political party on which platform such a person has been elected. The constitution also provides for a body like the National Council of State (NCS) made up of former Heads of State among other supposedly accomplished and wise statesman to give advice to the President as may be required. Obasanjo obviously thought Umaru Yar’Adua or Goodluck Jonathan were needles whose threads were in his hands and whom he could manipulate as he willed. He calculated that he could still pursue his Third Term agenda indirectly through them. He was disastrously wrong. Eminent leaders can of course always seek an audience with elected leaders to offer advice if they are so inclined.

    It is not of course that Obasanjo did not have a number of academic and professional stars in his administration. But most of these were mainstream, orthodox intellectuals and administrators at best, brilliant but imprisoned to receive theories and ideas and thus incapable of thinking outside the box. It was also why Obi’s administration as governor in Anambra State was largely humdrum, mediocre, and demonstrated little dynamic or creative thinking. It was, therefore, inclined to save money because it probably could not devise what to do with the funds to address the infrastructure deficit or enhance the quality of lives of the citizenry. Not in terms of quality of leadership, policy quality and continuity, or appropriate leadership nurturing and succession has Obasanjo at any time demonstrated superior acumen to Tinubu.

  • Language, responsibility and civility

    Language, responsibility and civility

    POLITICAL campaigns are part of political competition and participation in which candidates  and  politicians sell their plans and programmes  to  the electorate so that they can vote for them in their bid to get power in any democracy . Manifestoes and press releases are part and  parcel of campaigns  and they are issued  continuously till the deadline to stop  them   before  elections    by the electoral authorities come into force . The  same goes for affirmations , clarifications and denials on  matters raised  by politicians who are contesting during campaigns  in  which civility and good breeding dictate  should be done in  moderate and polite manner without  the use of abusive language . It is the misuse of language in the political arena by political  competitors , leaders and politicians in general on the campaign trail    or  in government and power , that  concerns  us today . This  is  because  words in language and culture are like broken eggs which  all  the force of the universe cannot  gather  together once the egg is spilt  to the ground of human     discourse ,  political campaigns  or competition .I will  illustrate with  vivid examples  and  show how they  offend decency and moderation in their state of use  of language which  I find  offensive and almost inhuman if not outright  wicked and very rude for civil discourse and campaigns

    In  Nigeria this week   the campaigns  degenerated  to   the state of health of the  presidential  candidates for the two    major  political  parties namely the APC  which  is in power and the PDP . The  PDP while  reacting  to allegations of corruption and state of health  of its presidential  candidate issued  a nasty press  release on purely personal health  issues  of the APC presidential candidate that I will  not  mention here because they  should be un printable in any decent society . In the US  the  president , Joe  Biden   admitted    he  has   kept   classified  documents   in his possession which he should have turned over to government archives  after his tenure as  Vice President  to Barak Obama   and  was played back  his condemnation       of his predecessor as ‘ irresponsible’ when Donald Trump  was alleged to have  kept   similar  documents at his Mara Lago  residence which was raided  by the FBI last year .  In the UK  Prince  Harry  son of  Diana former Princess  of Wales  and reigning King Charles 111  admitted killing many Talibans in Afgahnistan as he was taught   by the army  to regard them as a game on a chess board and not human beings   and  that  he took  cocaine    some time while he was growing up  . Let  me now show what I  find offensive , indecent  and extravagant  in all  these  events and situations .

    We  go back  to the spat between the spokesmen of the APC and  the PDP on the health of their  presidential candidates . The APC had  accused the  PDP  presidential  candidate as not in sound health and of  corruption . The accusation on health ground was un necessary and superfluous as the PDP candidate ,  given his huge wealth was quite  capable of handling  his health needs and  requirements and does not need anyone to call his attention to that even on the campaign trail . The accusation of corruption is not original to the APC spokesman as this was a well  and often repeated accusation of the former boss  of the PDP presidential  candidate  when he was the Vice President and an  accusation very recently  mad when the former president endorsed a presidential candidate recently . The  accusation of corruption can therefore stand to be refuted or admitted  by the PDP Spokesman .

    Instead the PDP descended into the fallacy of Ad Hominem to  attack  the person and private health of the APC presidential  candidate and making claims  on his health as if the spokesman is a super man without any  health issues what so ever which  is impossible . Again  I will   not    dignify  what he said by repeating them  here ,  except to ask  him to issue  an   apology as he can surely   run a  campaign without disparaging   the health of the APC candidate so wickedly as he has done in that press  release . Let   me remind the PDP  spokesman  that our incumbent president was sick  for sometime early in his tenure but Nigerians  respected   his privacy  and  treated him with respect and goodwill  till  he survived the illness and still  survived covid  . In the WW2 from  1939  – 1945 ,  the US  was led  by a president   on a wheel chair Franklin Delano  Roosevelt  [ FDR ‘  who led the Allies till  they   defeated the huge army and might  of Nazi  Germany . The  PDP    spokesman   should  be reminded of a Chinese proverb  that says – ‘ count no man lucky till  he is dead’ .

    In  the case of classified  documents now found in an office used by the US president  Joe  Biden  when he was Vice President the situation has now shifted to a case of the  pot calling kettle back  in the way  he branded  former president Trump as ‘ irresponsible’  when  his residence was raided  on the same charge   recently .  By  now Biden should know that those who  live in glass houses should not   throw  stones .  I  think Joe Biden  is in for a rough  ride with the US House of Representatives  over many issues  especially  the way the FBI and pro  Democrats media  covered the revelations of corruption on  his son Hunter’s lost  and found  lap  top  till he won the presidential election of 2020 . Now it has been revealed that these classified documents issue was  discovered by his lawyers on the eve of the mid term elections of last November  2022  and again,   like Hunter’s lap top was   covered  up  till  now after   mid term  elections . Now that the Republicans   have managed to elect their Speaker Kevin Macarthy   after  15 historic vote  attempts  recently ,   there is no doubt  that  they have enough malice or ammunition to bury if not impeach Biden like the Democrats used their House majority  to impeach  Donald  Trump  who  was saved by the  Republican majority in the US senate .  A  similar fate awaits Biden  most  ominously and I hold either side responsible for the irresponsible and wild language they have  been  using in exposing their differences and disagreements in recent times in their  very divided presidential system of checks and balances .

    In  the publication of his biography called SPARE  it  is clear that Diana’s second and junior son  Harry  is holding his   Father the king as  well as his brother and grand parents   responsible  for the sad life his mother lived which led to her death in a tragic motor accident in France . He  also  holds the press especially the paparazzi  responsible  for the way they literally  chased his mother to a tragic death .  But  he will  not be the first  prince to turn on the monarchy because of a woman he loves . The brother of the dead queen’s father left the throne for a thrice divorced American lady . Harry’s  wife too is American and has been divorced too . Part  of his grudge against his royal  family  appears  to be that he sees himself as a spare  tyre as  he cannot become king like his senior brother  would be later . Anyway  his main   problem   to me  ,  in   his  vast array of delusive  misuse of language in  the  throes of romance with   a  vain American actress  ,  is  the verbal  suicide  he committed by   making a mockery of the way he killed many Talibans  like sport in Afghanistan . With that alone his mouth and language has put his life , his security and   that  of his family  in unprecedented danger . He  can to a large extent  survive  the   guided     hostility    and   aloofness  of a British  monarchy that  the populace  regard jealously    as the fulcrum of British  political  stability but  he  needs  to fortify  himself  against  a vengeful   Taliban which has a bloody reputation  for claiming its  pound of flesh  against even innocent civilians ,  not to talk of a prince making fun of how he has killed their kith and kin in Afghanistan.