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Category: Saturday

2023: The media, responsibility and integrity

It could not have been more tersely phrased. Section 22 of the Second Chapter of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended) on the ‘Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy’ states unambiguously that “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people”. This obligation places on the shoulders of the press the responsibility to ensure transparency and adherence to the highest ethical standards in government with the aim of promoting the utilitarian goal of attaining the greatest good of the greatest number of people in a given polity. Implicit in this degree of faith in the media by the drafters of the constitution is considerable trust in the latter’s sense of professional responsibility, ethical standards and moral integrity.

This column has often argued that there can and will not be a final national conference that will bring to a definitive conclusion, once and for all, troubling issues of our national co-existence often referred to as the National Question with the emergence of a perfect constitutional document that will usher in a political Eldorado of our dreams. A nation is a project continuously in progress and national dialogue a never ending process taking place ceaselessly in market places, beer parlours, company boardrooms, university lecture theatres and seminar rooms, clerical pulpits in churches and mosques, meetings of professional and groups and most importantly in newspaper editorials, opinion pages, letters to the Editor and columns, radio and television talk shows as well as the now ubiquitous social media. The concern of this piece is understandably with communications through the various agencies of the mass media, which are the most critical and dominant mediums for ventilating and maintaining the requisite quality of public discourse.

Do the Nigerian media today have the trust and confidence of members of the public that they can serve as reliable, professional and believable umpires in the arena of public discourse? Do we adhere to the highest standards of professionalism in the discharge of our constitutionally prescribed duties? Those in the orthodox, traditional media complain of the excesses of the social media. Have we necessarily risen to a higher level of professional practice? Of course, it is often impossible for a media organization not to have an ideological disposition and also an often partisan orientation not only in Nigeria but across the globe, including in advanced democracies. But facts must always be sacred while opinions must not only be free but civil.

News must always be differentiated from opinionating or editorializing. Abuse and labeling must never replace constructive social analysis. No serious and self-respecting news medium should pin labels of criminality on persons without the imprimatur of the judgment of a court of law. That many mediums and individual journalists routinely do this and are completely ignored by those they recklessly libel is an indication of the utter indifference and dismissiveness with which both the socio-economic and political elite as well as the public at large treat the media – social and orthodox.

Political talk shows on radio and television as well as newspaper political columnists have, perhaps because we are into another season of electioneering towards the 2023 polls, become the toast of the moment for many politically-minded viewers and readers. It is only a short-sighted and foolish media organization, however, that will sacrifice high professional standards on the altar of crass partisanship because the fervently partisan segment of the population is a veritable minority. Those who have subordinated professional ethics and decency to crassly pursuing the often ignoble and nefarious agenda of their publishers and proprietors are mostly the ones who find it difficult to pay their staff salaries as and when due, are notorious in the business for treating staff with utter contempt and lack of humaneness and resort to blackmail and assorted forms of unprofessional gangsterism to portray a façade of a thriving business. They are attractively whited sepulchers with rotten and dried bones within.

One of the anchors of a morning talk show on Arise Television recently challenged the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to feature on an interview on the programme because some other presidential aspirants had done so. But this is most ludicrous. It is part of the democratic right of a candidate for any office to decide on which medium to feature and in which form he wishes to do so. It is unlikely that most Democratic candidates in America, for instance, will feel compelled to appear on Fox Television or that a Donald Trump should he choose to contest the 2024 elections as it appears increasingly likely, will condescend to be interviewed by CNN. The media has largely descended into the political arena in America as part of the gladiators and has been sucked into the poverty of trust and debilitating divisiveness that so dangerously imperils the durability of American democracy.

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Arise Television has all too often sunk into the political arena and assumed an openly partisan role. This is of course no crime if its programme anchors adhere to elevated professional standards to mitigate its partisanship. In any case, should a news medium go about seeking to blackmail guests to appear on its platform? Shouldn’t its professional acumen and ethical integrity be its selling point with esteemed guests doing all they can to feature on its shows? The anchor who made the challenge on Tinubu to appear for an interview on his pogramme is no doubt one of the brightest and best columnists of his generation. As spokesman to a former President elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he performed his duties in a capable and accomplished manner for the most part. But the story does not end there. He later became a card-carrying member of the PDP and indeed contested as the Deputy-Governorship candidate of same party in Ogun State (his running-mate being the controversial, but now late Senator Buruji Kashamu) in 2019.

On which ground then does he want to interview Tinubu? Is it as a professional journalist or as a partisan politician? Can the objective public be sure that he does not still nurse subterranean grudges that his erstwhile principal was ousted from power in 2015 through the ballot box largely with Tinubu’s substantial input?

Another anchor on the same programme and on the same station has also echoed his colleague’s call on the APC candidate to appear on their show. Clearly the youngest among the trio of anchors, he is easily the most insolent and rude of them all. Some months back, he had a former Minister of the federal Republic from Oyo State on the show that had come to speak in defense of Tinubu’s candidacy. One of his questions to his guest went something like this and I paraphrase: “Is it not shameful and are you and your party not ashamed of yourselves to have opted for a Muslim-Muslim ticket in a country of diverse religions; a decision which has torn the party right down the middle with party members quitting in droves?”.

Of course, his guest could not hide his disgust and exasperation at that line and tone of questioning and gave it back to the anchor in good measure. As the programme degenerated into a shouting match, another of the anchors called for a short break obviously to allow tempers cool.

In the first place, there is no constitutional provision against same faith candidacy. So, what was the anchor’s beef? Secondly, was it right to claim that members were quitting the APC en masse because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket when not up to five prominent and significant members of the party had done so on that ground? Thirdly, if the anchor felt that the APC had jeopardized its electoral chances by picking a Muslim running-mate for Tinubu, how is that his business since he is not a card-carrying member of the party? More significantly, could the anchor not have asked his question in a less insolent, abrasive and hubristic way? But that is how this anchor with a permanent scowl on his face, possibly in demonstration of his passionate love for his country, harasses, hassles and harangues guests on the show that he disagrees with for political or other reasons. Civility is not in his dictionary.

As the religious leader, Gordon B. Hinckley, wrote in the chapter on ‘Our Fading Civility’ in his book ‘Standing for Something’ published in 2000, “In recent years the media have raised boorishness to an art form. The hip heroes of movies today deliver gratuitous put-downs to ridicule and belittle anyone who gets in their way. Bad manners, apparently, make a saleable commodity. Television situation comedies wallow in vulgarity, stand-up- comedians base their acts on insults to their audiences, and talk show hosts become rich and famous by snarling at callers and heckling guests. All of this speaks of anything but refinement. It speaks of anything but courtesy. It speaks of anything but civility and tolerance. Rather, it speaks of rudeness and crudeness and an utter insensitivity to the feelings and rights of others”.

Is it any wonder then that the anchor referred to earlier who so recklessly heckled the former Minister on his show was sometime later caught on camera by vigilant traffic officers violating traffic regulations by driving on the lane reserved for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) vessels? Did he as a supposed man of honour and a public figure, a social influencer, humbly admit his guilt and take responsibility? Not on your life! Rather, he was caught on camera threatening the traffic officers with the ominous words: ‘I will call the governor! I will call the governor!’.

All the daily self-righteous posturing on TV meant nothing after all. It was not just a case of lack of civility. It was also one of lack of basic honesty and integrity. He eventually tendered a public apology only after a public outrage at such uncivilised conduct.

Referring to the case of Cain killing his innocent brother, Abel, and lying to God to hide his crime, Gordon Hinckley writes, “In our day, dishonesty does not always revolve around such a grievous offense, nor are those found in dishonesty put to death for their misdeeds as in biblical times. But something within them dies. Conscience chokes, character withers, self-respect vanishes, integrity dies”. Can the media today be entrusted not to betray the confidence reposed in them to conduct credible interviews and debates for candidates adhering to the highest standards of professionalism and integrity?

It is debatable. A colleague recently told me of his experience when he was assigned to one of the South-West states to cover the state’s governorship election sometime in 2012. He recalled that the team of journalists who had come to the state to anchor the gubernatorial election debate first paid a courtesy call on the governor who was seeking re-election for a second term, an act considered unethical by some of their colleagues. It eventually turned out from authoritative sources, he reported, that the questions were passed on to the governor in advance, which probably enabled him in performing well above average in the debate. A great responsibility to ensure and facilitate qualitative and informed public discourse rests on the media, particularly in this season of politics. Does it have the sense of honor, decency and integrity to discharge this obligation as expected? That is a million dollar question.

November 5, 2022
90 garlands for Cardinal Arinze (1)

As a pupil of Madonna Primary School now known as Handmaids International Catholic School, two indigenous names regularly featured in our indoctrinated form of learning, these names I recall we would either occasionally hear in our then dreary Friday Morning Assembly, where we would be taught a new Catholic hymn and receive some new form of religious instruction under the blazing Friday Sun, which perhaps realizing that it was our last day at school for that week would most times come out with scorching fury. The woes would be yours, if you exhibited some sort of discomfort or attempted in some form of escapism to distract yourself or others! You would immediately be fingered out and given some form of corporal punishment, in addition to this, one may also have been baptized with some worldly appellations such as “Devil” or “Stubborn goat”.

Away from my nostalgic drifting into the past, the two indigenous names were the then Archbishop of Lagos and later Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie who visited the school in 1991 and addressed us as pupils. The second name then was Francis Cardinal Arinze, who we were told was a big servant of God in hallowed Rome, I cannot recall him visiting our school but we could see how most of our teachers spoke about him in deep admiration.

Fast forward to 2012, sometime in November and I had joined a serving senator in attending an event held in honour of the Eziowelle born Cardinal. I think it was a double barreled celebration, marking his 80th birthday and his 54th year of ordination as a priest. Speaker after speaker at the event extolled Cardinal Arinze for a number of reasons; his humane persona, his immense devotion to the spread of Christianity and Catholicism, and his fondness for prayer, I recall one of the priests who spoke stated that Cardinal Arinze could avidly point out the time in minutes it took from one point within a number of seminaries to another point owing to his practice of taking walks while praying.

Cardinal Arinze was born on the 1st of November 1932 in Eziowelle which is situated in Idemili North of Anambra State. Like many families then, Cardinal Arinze who’s real name is Anizoba was born to parents who were worshippers of the pantheon of gods and go-betweens seen as the vicarious links to Chukwu, the Igbo depiction of the Supreme Being as seen in a number of Monotheist religions such as Judaism and from which Christianity and Islam did take their roots from. Despite this, they took advantage of the opportunity to learn of the ways of the colonizers by sending Cardinal Arinze to school which was then run by the missionaries. At age 9, Cardinal Arinze was baptized taking the name of Francis, he eventually was to complete his primary education in Dunukofia and was noted for his scholarly attitude.

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His educational trajectory saw him attending the junior seminary in Nnewi and then onwards to the Bigard Memorial Seminary where he assiduously undertook his studies while preparing to answer the call into priesthood. However the road to his becoming a priest was indeed fraught with a sort of obstacle which was obtaining his parents blessings to become a celibate. Even in present times, I have heard stories of how many families have vehemently objected to the idea of one of their own taking the vows of Celibacy and Obedience, one can then imagine how such an idea would have sounded to Cardinal Arinze’s parents who must have wondered what sort of priesthood would have their son become an “okokporo”(Igbo word for Bachelor) without siring any children to carry the family name. Cardinal Arinze’s father was said to have even called the bluff of the Catholic missionaries who had threatened to revoke the scholarship of Cardinal Arinze’s other siblings who were then in missionary schools by telling them that he needed more hands in his farm. The impasse would later be resolved and Cardinal Arinze would begin his journey unto the Vatican with a Bachelors Degree in Theology in 1957, masters degree in 1959 and the doctorate degree in 1960.

Returning to Nigeria in 1961, Cardinal Arinze was to lecture on philosophy in the same Bigard Memorial and then became Secretary for Education in Enugu.

By 1965, he had become co-adjutor Bishop of Onitsha and following the death of Archbishop Charles Heerey, Cardinal Arinze was appointed as Archbishop of Onitsha in June 1967.

Those conversant with the history of Nigeria will note that Cardinal Arinze obtained his Bishopric while the nation was on the fringe of fighting its civil war, matter of fact within days of his ascension to the seat of Archbishop, Lagos would order troops into Garkem in the three year bloodbath which was aimed at keeping the country one.

Under the madness and the din of warfare, Cardinal Arinze and his fellow Christians waged their own war, it was unlike Gowon and Ojukwu’s war of superiority and for territory, Cardinal Arinze’s war was like the overlying theme of Mike Deakin’s Tom Grattan’s war; that of strength, courage, duty and lastly the need to rekindle hope in a population that was suffering so immensely from the effects of the war. Together with a number of foreign agencies, Cardinal Arinze despite his own status as a refugee ( He fled to Adazi Enu and then to Amichi ) helped bring the much needed succour to those who were also at the receiving end of the war. Matter of fact, he was very much the unsung hero of the relief distribution during that period, helping save thousands of men, women and children in a war where the starvation of civilians was justified as a legitimate weapon of war.

November 5, 2022
Power, opportunities, and challenges

Power, Opportunities ,and Challenges There is a Yoruba saying that when translated to English means that ‘ the head of the elephant is not a load for a child ‘ . If you look at the ongoing Nigerian   2023 presidential campaigns   and you see the forerunners then you have an idea of what I want to dilate on today . Add to that the result of the presidential elections in soccer crazy Brazil and the testy mid terms elections next week in the US and you can easily predict my line of thinking on the concepts that form the title of my column today .

In democracies elections breed power at periodic voting at the polls . In communist states like Russia , and China one party calls the shots and decides ‘who gets what when and how ‘ . Which   is a form of definition of politics as well . When armed soldiers boot out elected politicians as was done in Mali , and Guinea   recently , power   changes hands under the barrel of the gun and not at the polls .When power changed hands at the 2020 US presidential election during Covid 19 when absentee and mail- in voting was the vogue , Republicans were united in saying the power   changed hands at the post offices   populated mainly by   blacks and where the votes were counted and not at the ballot box. Hence the    new terms like ‘ stolen election’ or ‘election deniers ‘ and ‘ballot harvesting ‘ that are   prominent challenges in the mid terms elections where Donald Trump’s election deniers are determined that power will change indeed this time at the ballot box in favor of the Republican Party and not at the post offices as it did in 2020 as there is no covid in 2022 and the polling terrain and challenges are vastly different .

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I will use political leaders from different political systems to illustrate the topic of the day . Politicians are at their best in terms of magnanimity and generosity when they win and   have power and they are at their worst when they are about to lose power or have just lost it . In Nigeria the campaigns have thrown up promises to lessen the burden of the masses and improve security but Nigerian know who to trust this time around .The ruling party has a lot to account for in terms of government management of insecurity especially in the North which wielded power for the last eight years but undoubtedly the momentum and mood of the moment favors the ruling party’s candidate and his Muslim running mate on the Muslim Muslim ticket . This   is gaining acceptance in spite of initial doubts. Both the Jagaban Shettima Kashim of the APC have been governors before and their combined experience    and potential to manage the economy and insecurity stands out against their opponents as     they face the contest in this 2023 presidential elections . As    a former    governor   of Borno state Shettima knows the NE where Boko Haram holds sway like the back of his hands and can be relied on to evolve ways with his boss the Jagaban   to   put a once and for all stop to the Boko Haram menace . The Jagaban was a Lagos    state governor and has groomed his successors ever since and Lagos has always been secure. Even more than the North and such governance experience in managing the destination of all migration in Nigeria without failure will really matter in way Nigeria gets out of the woods in matters of economic survival and security after this election . The ball is in the court of the Nigerian electorate to make the right choice nationally to ensure that the head of the elephant is not a load for a child indeed .

Let us take a cue from the just concluded Brazil presidential elections and the political experience and personalities of the two contestants . I said last week it would a bitter defeat if the incumbent president lost and a sweet victory if Lula   da Silva wins and I have been proven right. Bosonaro’s supporters put up road blocks all over Brazil in protests till the Supreme Court ruled that the road blocks should be removed   and that was done . For Lula it is a return to familiar territory of power after 16 years of being out of power . He was succeeded by his PA Dilmar Rousseff , a lady , but Lula was jailed for corruption and he will be more sacrosanct and prudent in this his second coming , as lightning should not strike twice at the same spot , in this his second coming . Age too is not on his side and he should not plan to spend his old age in prison as he formerly   did after life at the top   as Brazil’s president recently .

The US mid term elections usually punish the party of the ruling president for non performance . The rationale is so that the incumbent and his party should sit up and go all out to get reelected to power   in the next   presidential election , or else turn out to be just a single term presidency . The Biden presidency has foreseen what is in stock for it . Or how does one explain an American president like Joe Biden saying the a vote for the opposition party is a vote against democracy ? Usually the economy determines voting attitude and pattern in US . That gave rise to the slogan telling anyone who does not know this , that ‘it is the economy , stupid ‘. Inflation at   present   is at an all time high in the US and fuel prices   have soared making it difficult for Americans regardless of color or party affiliation to make ends meet . In pursuit of climate change campaign promises to cut off fossil fuel to cool the climate , the US under Biden   is literally closing its oil industry while asking Saudi Arabia to pump more oil with OPEC . Which the Saudis have rightly refused and the US has   meanwhile   locked up its oil reserves while blaming Russia’s    invasion of Ukraine and the diversion of its oil against Russia’s enemies as the cause of global and American high inflation and high domestic oil prices .

If the US electorate holds the Biden Administration responsible for its economic woes and suffering then the Democrats will lose control of both the senate and the House in this mid term election . If that happens then the Republican would be back to the Trump era when they controlled both Houses and even the judiciary .If those in the Republican Party contesting , who queried the integrity of the 2020 presidential election , win and get a majority, then a predictable saga of vendetta would be unleashed against the Democrats. Especially the president’s son Hunter that media like the CNN have been protecting over allegations of using his father’s offices to get contracts even from questionable overseas Chinese contacts and businesses .

Again , if most of those contesting as Republicans ,who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump , win this mid term election as governors and legislators ,    then the coast is clear for Trump to make a triumphant return to seek election as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the 2024 US presidential election . If that happens I think even Joe Biden will be hesitant , and his party more so indeed , to ask him to run for a second term . It may then be time for the Democrats to seek fresh hands and blood as the current US VP   Kamalla Harris is very much bird of the same feather with her boss in terms of poor political leadership   and acumen and both will be easy meat and prey for Trump to devour easily as his opponents for the US presidency in the 2024 US presidential elections . The omens favor the return of Donald Trump for now .

November 5, 2022
Afenifere and crisis of endorsement

AFENIFERE is, once again, waging an unnecessary war against itself. The already weakened political family is struggling for relevance as the polity prepares for the 2023 general election. Its leaders are not in one accord.

When will the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation learn from its past mistakes and tribulations and find a pathway to a united future?

When will the surviving Awoists put their house in order?

Today, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, is effectively managing its crisis and chaos, although some of its rebellious members continue to insist that a parallel leadership structure exists. But the obvious remains that its factional structure is fizzling out.

The North’s Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is still roaring intermittently. But it is evident that old and experienced members know that for Nigeria to survive, zoning and power shift cannot be compromised in 2023. The political and cultural association of northern leaders understands that there won’t be room for fleeing the strategy room.

At a time the Yoruba mouthpiece, Afenifere, should unite and present a common voice ahead of next year’s presidential poll, the group is grappling with a curious internal self-contradiction.

The feud among Yoruba elders is unwarranted. The intrigue, acrimony and division are a disservice to the cause of unity in the fold and the entire Southwest. The renewed discord may make its founding fathers to turn in their graves.

Instead of rallying round their own son-an eminent member of the family- some Afenifere chieftains are bent on liquidating its tradition of protecting the Yoruba interest. They are taking an undue interest in an outsider while trying to de-market their kith and kin. For personal reasons, some elders are misleading and confusing the gullible younger generation.

The bane of Afenifere is lack of forgiving spirit. The dark side of the group is its weak crisis resolution mechanism. Its major problem is the eclipse of old principles that defined its character. It is the reason the clash of egos has festered. Afenifere appears addicted to conflicts.

Historically, the organisation, which is Awo’s political family, has passed through nine phases of crisis. The lessons from those moments of anxiety and tension might have been lost on the organisation.

Afenifere has often courted trouble whenever it was in league with strange bedfellows.

In 1962, the Action Group (AG), led by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and christened Egbe Afenifere by the late Chief Adisa Akinloye, split at the Jos convention. It was the climax of the personality clash between Awo and his deputy, the late Chief Samuel Akintola, the embattled Premier of defunct Western Region. The source of the conflict was ideological. The debate over an alliance with the Northern People Congress (NPC) led to the division. What mattered to the covetous ones was not principle, but how to be partakers of federal power. The group never regained its strength.

The question is: where is the meeting point between Afenifere and Labour Party’s (LP’s) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi? Is there any ideological similarity and unifying factor?

Obi’s manifesto is not known. Why should Afenifere embark on a misadventure with the former Anambra State governor in his quest to occupy the nation’s number one seat?

The second crisis period came in 1983. The defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was in turmoil in the Southwest. Impatient young men challenged Awo to a duel over his perceived support for governors itching for second term. The future, to them, was very far. A gale of defections hit the party. Awolowo was embarrassed. Not all those who left for the notoriously inept National Party of Nigeria (NPN) returned to Awo.

Incidentally, some of those who later deserted Awo had mounted pressure on him to sack Governor Bola Ige in Yola, during the hour of long knives before the UPN leader deployed his native intelligence to resolve the crisis of envy, ego and manipulation.

The third phase of the crisis came in 1998/’99 at D’Rovans in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, during the Alliance for Democracy (AD) presidential primary where 25 “wise men” were delegates. Afenifere jettisoned its criteria for leadership recruitment, including age, hierarchy, loyalty, length of service and contributions to the group. Ige was branded a Yoruba irredentist by his colleagues from AG days, who said he was unfit for presidency. As the organisation rejected the late Chief Bola Ige in preference for Chief Olu Falae, things fell apart.

Ige later joined the Obasanjo government to spite his friends. He never returned alive.

In fact, the division in Afenifere had its roots in the Ige/Falae tango on one hand, and Bola Tinubu/Ganiyu Dawodu rift on the other hand.

The fourth was the failed reconciliation in Lagos State AD, compounded by the failure of the highly controversial 60:40 formula recommended by the late Sir Olaniwun Ajayi Committee for the distribution of party and elective government offices.

It is to be noted that while Afenifere endorsed other five governors – Chief Bisi Akande (Osun), Aremo Olusegun Osoba (Ogun), Chief Adebayo Adefarati (Ondo), Lam Adesina (Oyo) and Otunba Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti) – their second term ambitions hit the rock. Tinubu, who was not endorsed by the group, became the last man standing.

On that note, despite its feat of installing six governors in 1999, Afenifere, barely four years later, had become a toothless bulldog that could only bark, but could not bite. As from 2003, it ceased to be a formidable structure for winning elections in Southwest.

The fifth was the removal of the hardworking, patriotic and committed National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) chieftain, Ayo Opadokun, as secretary of Afenifere.

The sixth phase was the Akure Declaration by Pa Reuben Fasoranti, that Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, and not Akande, was the authentic National Chairman of AD. Afenifere broke into two camps. The protracted litigation failed to resolve the logjam.

Afenifere sunk deeper into crisis, following the installation of the late Senator Ayo Fasanmi as Deputy Leader by the acclaimed majority section at the Jibowu secretariat in Yaba, Lagos. That was the seventh phase.

The organisation also ran into turbulence when Fasoranti suddenly resigned, thereby creating a leadership vacuum. He complained that many chieftains lacked discipline. As the group increasingly warmed itself into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it lost its ideological purity. It was alleged that Afenifere had become a platform for political horse trading.

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It is noteworthy that all the crises were associated with the stiff competition for power by chieftains, which upset the admirers of and brought organisation to the brink.

At a time, reason prevailed. Chieftains subscribed to reforms. A panel headed by Akande was mandated to make recommendations. But, the committee did not see the light of the day.

There was hope of reconciliation as Adebanjo was warming up for his 90th birthday. Chieftains looked forward to a reunion. But, Pa Adebanjo’s highlighly inflammable media interviews where he put all the blames for Afenifere’s problems on Tinubu and Osoba, who he described as latter day members of the organisation, compounded the existing crises. Tinubu kept mum. But, Osoba, a veteran journalist, returned the salvo, saying that he as close to Awo as Adebanjo, and that Awo nicknamed him, Peter Ajayi and Felix Adenaike as the three musketeers.

However, it is gratifying that while Afenifere is retarted by certain inexplicable crises, Afenifere Renewal Group(ARG), an intellectual body, has filled the void by propagating Yoruba interests through the Yoruba Academy. It has played a great role in the protection of culture and preventing the extinction of Yoruba language through collaborative programmes jointly sponsored by well meaning stakeholders.

Afenifere is now in its tenth crisis period.

The bone of contention is that two contrasting endorsements have been packaged by Afenifere as the polity is on the fast lane to 2023.

The pattern of endorsements underscored the antagonistic leadership styles of the two leading Awoists. Fasoranti a very quiet person, an illustrious school teacher; a principled politician; gentle as a dove. Adebanjo is a fighter; vocal and ever combative from his days as a celebrated AG assistant organising secretary.

The first endorsement was largely wrong, ill-advised, illogical, fake, unfounded and unjustifiable. It lacked basis in the history of Afenifere.

The second one is authentic; it followed the laid down process, popularly acclaimed and thoughtful.

The acting leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, kicked off the drama with his endorsement of Obi. It was a porous and questionable endorsement.

Adebanjo had hurriedly endorsed the former Anambra State governor, who also had hurriedly borrowed the LP for his presidential ambition.

No Afenifere chieftain would have questioned the rationale of the first endorsement, if the acting leader had only offered to campaign for Obi in a private capacity because he has the inalienable right to support a candidate of his choice.

But not only has Adebanjo projected personal effort as the collective agenda of the group, he has also come under criticisms for violating the time-tested tradition of consultation, debate, consensus and consent. It was, therefore, a strange precedence that the acting leader unilaterally endorsed Obi, unmindful of the incontrovertible fact that he is accountable to the Afenifere leader, Pa Fasoranti.

Observers have said Adebanjo committed a blunder when he admitted that he never consulted his leader and other notable chieftains of the organisation before embarking on that one-man show that has elicited a moral reprimand.

The second endorsement, and indeed a very popular one, was the recent endorsement of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by the majority of respected Afenifere chieftains, led by Pa Fasoranti. The old man of Akure was not in a hurry to give his nod. He followed some processes. He consulted widely. He promoted a debate. The group tabled its list of demands before the APC standard bearer, who also made solid promises to the fold. The controversial endorsement by the acting leader lacked these elements.

Asiwaju Tinubu had informed Fasoranti and other Afenifere leaders about his intention to run. Unlike Obi, a former aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspirant, the former governor of Lagos State is known to the House, having played very important roles in the events that shaped its course of history from 1990 till date.

Pa Fasoranti had advised him to go and get the ticket first, and return later for blessing, after a successful primary.

Around the same period, Adebanjo had lambasted Asiwaju Tinubu, saying the APC stalwart was unfit to be President. He even asked the anti-graft bodies to go after him.

When Tinubu returned with the ticket, Pa Fasoranti still refrained from unilateral and dictatorial endorsement. He fulfilled the Yoruba adage that a tree does not make a forest. He summoned a meeting. The legitimacy of the endorsement by Pa Fasoranti derived from the inclusive and participatory process. It was a collective effort approved by other Yoruba leaders – Chief Olu Falae, Gen. Alani Akinrinade, Gen. Olu Bajowa, Dr. Kunle Olajide, Chief Segun Osoba, Chief Bisi Akande, Basorun Seinde Arogbofa, Senator Cornelius Adebayo, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who was represented by his deputy, Lucky Ayedatiwa, Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji and Bishop Ayo Ladigbolu.

But why the fuse about endorsement? Can Afenifere successfully mobilise for the victory of either Obi or Tinubu? Can a divided house achieve that feat?

In what language is Afenifere communicating with Yoruba youths, who are warming up for the critical poll?

Is Afenifere not currently contending with a fading influence?

The earlier the oragnisation retraced its steps and toed the path of its founding fathers, the more harmonious its existence would be. This is the type of Pan-Yoruba organisation one would wish the current leaders should bequeath to the coming generations of the region of Omoluabi, the thoroughbreds. Anything below that enviable standard the Afenifere had set in its early days will not truly represent the Yoruba race.

It is time to reawake its leaders and fine-tune its strategy to portray the Omoluabi ethos to the world.ax

November 5, 2022
How Catholic supporters of Alia shocked Ortom, bishop in Benue

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and the Catholic Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, Archbishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, were left in utter shock on Thursday after the high drama that played out between them and members of St. Francis Catholic Church in Daudu, Guma Local Government Area of the state.

A bid by Ortom and Archbishop Anagbe to frustrate a service organised by the Ihyarev, a tribe that constitutes six of the 10 council wards of Guma Local Government Area where Ortom hails from, in honour of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, became a huge source of embarrassment for the duo.

Anagbe, a known supporter of the governor, was said to have declined the request made by the Ihyareb people for the said service in the Catholic Church allegedly on the orders of Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Ortom.

Determined to hold the service, the people promptly approached the Nongu u Kristu u i Ser u sha Tar (NKST) – Universal Reformed Christian Church – another congregation in the community, which gladly granted their request to hold the service in honour of the popular APC governorship candidate.

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The result was the turnout of a mammoth crowd at the NKST church, including almost the entire members of St. Francis Catholic Church where the service was originally scheduled to hold. Indeed, the venue momentarily became an interdenominational church as members of more than eight different denominations converged on it for the service.

Many of them also came to the venue with sacraments and water for Fr. Alia to bless.

Yet another highlight of the gathering was the presence of Surveyor John Tondo, a chieftain of the PDP, who did not only grace the occasion but insisted on making a speech, urging the people to vote Fr. Alia, the APC candidate, for governor.

Tondo took a swipe at Ortom for his alleged failure to forestall the killing of Ihyarev people but instead fuel their crisis.

Members of the internally displaced persons’ camp in the area were also said to have stormed the service enmasse in solidarity with Fr. Alia and all their Ihyarev candidates, accusing Ortom of being on a mission to wipe out their race.

One of the worshippers said after the service that they would follow the APC governorship candidate even if he decided to lead them to a shrine.

November 5, 2022
The way to go

Last Sunday a video trended on social media showing one football official boasting about his exploits in ‘fixing’ matches to a few people although he alleged that the interview was doctored to make the portion where he spoke look like he fixed games. I know this gentleman and was looking forward to how the matter would be resolved since the new President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Ibrahim Gusau was in India to support the country’s girls’ U-17 players who won the bronze medal by beating Germany on penalties.

Before Gusau’s arrival, the Interim Management Committee (IMC) had written Gusau informing him of the need to dispense with this official’s service going by the content of his recorded interview. In fact, IMC chieftains refused to invite the official to the body’s Tuesday meeting in Abuja and went ahead to also delist him from the IMC’s WhatsApp group. It, therefore, came as a relief the ease with which Gusua suspended the official who many people revealed was nominated into the IMC through the NFF’ appointees’ list approved by the president, rightly or wrongly. Did you call this a face-saving exercise? As they say in law, Res ipsa loquitur -the facts spoke for themselves.

The marker in this incident was the swiftness in taking a decision and the way it was treated with despatch. No sentiments. I’m sure that this official would have learned his lessons, although I would prefer that he is allowed to defend himself. Gusau is a native speaker of this official and would have listened to the interview before authorising his suspension from the IMC.

Ardent followers of the domestic game were excited to read NFF’s letter suspending the official which raised hopes that a proper investigation would be conducted into the matter to fish out the culprits and allow them to face the full weight of the law as a deterrent to others.

Part of the NFF’s letter to the official read thus: “Auwalu Baba Jada has been suspended from all football-related activities pending investigations into the video recording in which he is apparently the principal character. The investigations will be conducted by the ethics and integrity units of the Nigeria Football Federation.

“Auwalu Baba Jada will have no role in any football activity, event or programme until the investigations are concluded, and this also means he is summarily suspended from his membership of the Interim Management Committee of the Nigeria Professional Football League”, NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi said on Tuesday.

Yes, I’m using his name for the first time here based on NFF’s suspension letter which revealed that Baba Jada was being suspended from all football-related activities, pending investigations into a video that has been trending online for some days now, in which he is apparently the principal character. An interesting time for the beautiful game in Nigeria. Other names and some clubs were mentioned in the video. It is expected that they would be invited to clear their names. Culprits should never be given a slap on the wrist or the matter swept under the carpet after the initial buzz.

The big question to ask Gusau if indeed he is serious to get to the root of this matter is how long it would take him to reconstitute all the committees needed to support his tenure. What would the committees look like in terms of the quality of their members? With the suspension of Baba Jada, how much longer would it take Gusau to name members of the ethics and disciplinary committees to commence the investigations into a potential match-fixing racket, if the wordings of the video confessions are proven to be true?

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What the IMC needs now is to restore the confidence of the big players in the corporate world that the body is determined to reinvent the domestic game by flushing out the fixers and those who bring the game to disrepute by their actions. Baba Joada’s case offers the best opportunity to either free him based on his new revelation or nail him if his defence is weak. One only hopes this matter doesn’t head to the civil courts if Jada insists on clearing his name before the public.

NFF President should do something about those club owners who alleged or should one say informed him that the highest bidder won the domestic league title. Isn’t that more grievous than the contents of Baba Jada’s admittance? Gusau should reconstitute the key committees at the Dankaro House if his administration must be perceived as being ready for the daunting tasks of changing the face of the domestic game here.

A new dawn beckons for our game here if the NFF and IMC show enough synergy to make the game investor-friendly since no business concern would align its goods or services with corrupt people or fixers. Baba Jada may have fallen from the crest but he still insists that he was misrepresented, making this probe one in which a lot would be disclosed when those mentioned are called to tell their stories.

At the yet-to-be-named panel, some club chairmen may be indicted. Players and referees would be identified as part of the syndicate, that is if it exists. For sure, such things would cease to provide those to adjudicate in the probe panel are not influenced. The world is waiting in bated breath to see if our football chiefs can use this allegation to stamp out match-fixing in the domestic leagues.

The IMC should be commended for going to the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) to discuss possible live coverage of the domestic league. This is the largest television network and used to be the channel through which Nigerians watched key international matches involving the country’s representatives, including the local league which was then sponsored by Bournvita on NTA. This writer hopes that the IMC officials know that NTA can only perform its social responsibility role to its citizenry without being taxed to pay a dime in return. Events in the past have shown where live domestic matches were taken off the air without apologies only to be replaced by an event in which top government functionaries are seated in ceremonies which serve their selfish interests. At other times by political rallies.

No decision was reached at Tuesday’s meeting as both parties have agreed to meet again and finalise discussions. The IMC chieftains are looking at various possibilities. There are indications that they have also opened discussions with Multichoice to get Super Sports broadcast the league to an international audience.

A league without official broadcasts right holder(s) can be likened to winking in the dark. With domestic league games being broadcast live on television, referees, players, coaches, club officials and indeed fans would have no choice but to conform to the laid down rules and regulations. It would be easy to identify those beasts who take the laws in their hands to batter match officials to a pulp and walk away as if it is their duty to resort to self-help to vent their anger on match referees.

Indeed, Gusau, having inaugurated the IMC must denounce the LMC and is clandestine activities on social media otherwise the drive by the IMC for cash to be self-financing would be a mirage. This idea of faceless people talking to the media about the plans of the LMC in a 24-league format is bunkum. The European leagues don’t have a 24-team format in spite of their awesome structures.

The inauguration of the IMC by the NFF President presupposes an official seal to the body. Therefore, a clear statement renouncing the LMC would be the marketing fillip for the IMC to outsource its financing. Some disgruntled people misinforming the public on social media must be stopped forthwith. Nigeria isn’t a lawless country.

November 5, 2022
On the US/UK security advisory conundrum

Like a wildfire borne by fiery winds or like a rush of blood to the head, the US and UK Embassies recent travel advisory issued on the 22nd of October created a range of narratives for different sections of Nigerians.

The advisory like the ominous soothsayer in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar had forewarned of terrorist attacks in the nation’s capital city, this led the embassy to shut down their activities as well as urge its citizenry and non emergency staff to leave the country.

This resulted in a panic of some sort as schools and businesses were reportedly shut down while a number of travel plans and other sundry activities were reportedly cancelled or scaled down in view of such an advisory.

Matters became much worse when the US embassy again issued the authorized departure status to its citizens resident in Abuja as well as urged those who much preferred to wait behind to have a backup emergency action plan.

Responding, the Nigerian Government described the advisory as an attempt to stampede the nation and as one with its sovereignty much intact would definitely not have any of such!

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister for Information simply conflated the advisory with the rising state of insecurity in the same United States and though he agreed with the right of the US government to ask its citizens to return home, he much frowned on the panic reactions such an advisory had created , noting that the Nigerian security agencies were much on top of their game and assured both its citizens as well as non citizens that there was indeed no reason to panic.

Truth be told, this will not be the first time the US embassy will be issuing such an advisory although this time such did come with a “Code Red” status. The question now is why was it just the US and the United Kingdom that issued such an advisory? For as at the time of its issuance other embassies of major nations domiciled on Nigerian soil were operating as usual. Now, isn’t it bothersome that key partners of the Five Eyes agreement and other partners for intelligence sharing whether it be under the Five Eyes Plus, Six Eyes, Nine Eyes or 14 Eyes did not toe the same line with both the US and UK embassies? Could it be that the intelligence garnered by the US and the United Kingdom were indeed specific to the likelihood of attacks against the embassies of both countries as well as their citizens and thus did not need any form of sharing with their sister embassies? Could it also be that their respective agencies had shared such intelligence with their counterparts but such information had largely been ignored by the recipients?

Again, there are many who ask if the US Government through its embassy could not have shared such information or relayed such to the Nigerian government which then would have passed such information to our security agencies for immediate attention without causing the kind of panic it’s advisory did raise? The argument stems much from the arrangement between the Nigerian government and the United States government on fighting terrorism, such an arrangement I gathered has seen both nations exchange vital information and workable intelligence. This school of thought much believes that the main intent of such an advisory was mainly to embarrass the Nigerian government and its security apparatus.

To think about this, the United States as a nation has as its foremost agenda the protection of its citizens both at home as well as abroad and to be fair to this super power it has very much sought to do such. Perhaps owing to the times our security services have been seen to have dropped the ball in a number of embarrassing scenarios, the United States maybe out of its looming responsibility to its citizens resident here and as well out of its super power arrogance had decided not to trust the Nigerian government or its intelligence community. While this thinking serves not as a slight on our security agencies as I am aware of the numerous sacrifices they are making so that people like myself can move around freely and sleep at night ,the issuance of the US travel advisory whether it be in good faith or bad faith, factual or misguided should serve as a wake up call to the country’s intelligence and security circles. Truth is that we cannot demand respect from nations like the United States in situations such as these and expect them to trust us with the lives of their citizens when we struggle to guarantee much the safety of ours.

With stories of institutionalized corruption within the security circles, intense bickering within the chains of command of our security agencies as well as between these agencies and a heightened lack of professionalism, the Nigerian security apparatus is apparently struggling to beat back these insurgents.

It is therefore not enough to cringe and shout ourselves hoarse over such an advisory, which to me is a head trip to listen to, it is not enough alone for us to believe that such is an affront on our sovereignty if we do not seemingly get our acts together and use such to earn the respect of the global community.

October 29, 2022
Culture, colonialism and change

Nothing illustrates the good face of multicultural Britain and its colonial past better than the emergence of Rishi Sunak , a British Indian ,   to use his description of himself , as the new British PM asked by Prince Charles to form the next government in Britain this week . It is no exaggeration to say that the occasion can be compared to when the last British governor of Nigeria Sir James Robertson swore in Alhaji Abubakar Balewa as Nigeria’s first PM at Independence on October 1 1960 . Today we look at the good , the bad and ugly   side    of colonialism .We will compare this with the grim request   in some quarters that former colonial masters should pay reparations when even after many years of independence some citizens of many independent nations in Africa think they were better off under the colonialists We    take a peep at tomorrow’s   presidential election in Brazil where a sitting president and former Military captain   Jair Bosonaro    is contesting against   the former president and seasoned trade unionist Lula . We will also ruminate over the emergence of a woman PM in Italy just as another woman PM in multicultural Britain recently vamoosed into thin air in the shortest tenure ever for a PM in the same Britain .

It is necessary to look at history    to examine how both Nigeria and Britain got independence to appreciate the comparison of the emergence of Rishi Sunak as PM in Britain in 2022 and Balewa as Nigeria’s first PM in 1960 . India got its Independence in a bloody war in 1948 when the British colonial masters created a division in Indian leadership up to Independence resulting the break up of India to Pakistan and India at independence . This led to bloody fighting between Hindus and Muslims as people fled in opposite directions to avoid being killed and thousands perished in the process .

In stark contrast, Nigeria got its independence peacefully   and on a platter of gold in 1960 but a military   coup in 1966 got Balewa , the man with the golden voice and a school teacher at independence , killed and this truncated Nigeria’s democracy . That   military intervention has left indelible marks in the sands of time in terms of Nigeria’s evolving and emergent political culture and is very much at play in the nature of the leadership in power and those contesting for political power in the on going 2023 presidential campaigns and elections .

Tomorrow’s presidential election in Brazil is quite interesting and has some semblance to Nigeria’s election with a whiff of Donald Trump’s claims on election integrity in the 2020 US presidential elections . Trump brought American politics to the level of that of Nigeria where rigging by parties is the vogue   rather than the exception .   It is feared that Bosonaro will not accept the election if he loses in Brazil as he has criticized the electronic voting system in Brazil stridently in the campaigns .His opponent Lula was jailed for corruption after leading Brazil for two terms but has been cleared for reelection by a ruling of the Brazilian Supreme Court just before the campaigns started . Lula raised many Brazilians from poverty in his two terms as president and his socialist policies make him popular though his opponents think that Brazil can not afford them now . It will be a sweet victory and return to power for Lula if he wins and a sour departure for Bosonaro if he loses and one can only wish Brazilians well in either choice .

In Italy’s case of a first woman PM ,Giorgina Meloni ,who becomes the 67th PM in 78 years in Italy’s turbulent politics , the wonder is that she is believed to be an extremist or far right populist who seemed to have empathy in the past for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini who fought with Hitler against the Allies in WW2 .   This is considered   a taboo   in Italian politics . She has   however denied this and her party Brothers of Italy won despite this and she is leading a coalition   government ruling Italy right now . Meloni belongs to a new group of leaders who are deemed populists in some EU nations    but have won elections in Europe   recently , unlike in the past   .Experts have defined such leaders as those   who are anti establishment like Donald Trump in the US . Such leaders associate with the masses against a perceived elite in the political system . They were branded xenophobic until recently when it seems majorities are accepting their views opposing illegal immigration and respect for the family and resent of gay rights . That is the policy Meloni is supposed to put in force in her new assignment as Italy’s PM and the world is watching as she proves that what a man can do a woman can do . Which    somehow was a task that proved intractable for Liz Truss in Great Britain quite recently .

The good side of British colonialism is that Rishi Sunak is a well groomed politician for PM . He has promised to rule with humility , integrity and accountability . These are virtues that , publicly , his last two predecessors lacked .Boris Johnson was very arrogant about the mandate the Tories had in the last elections that swept them to power . Liz Truss promised to ‘ govern’ as a conservative . Sunak has a degree in Politics Philosophy and Economics just like I did at UNIFE in 1974 . Sunak has been Chancellor before and set the ball rolling for Boris Johnson’s fall when he was the first to resign in the cabinet paving the way for Johnson’s resignation . Boris wanted to return but this time he saw the handwriting on the wall and knew that Sunak was an idea whose time has come , and which   no one can stop as PM and he withdrew from the come back he boasted so much    about on his exit as PM . Now the UK has a Mayor of London and a PM who are both British Asians and that means that the chicken has come home to roost   indeed   for British colonialism   , in spite of the bloody independence of both Pakistan and India from Britain in 1948 .

With regard to Nigeria it is apparent that the major contestants in the 2023 presidential elections are bona fide businessmen and have no military past but the terrain for power has been structured by the military in government during military   interventions . The outgoing president has been a military ruler before . So was OBJ and both served two terms as civilian presidents .But the Nigerian politics has been monetized expensively by former military governors and administrators who have an edge in terms of claim to power in any part of our democracy . That the two leading politicians are men of immense means is no accident as   money politics is the dominant theme in terms of political access to power and political participation in our nation . The game is really on and both our colonial past and the emergent political culture of the   ever power thirsty North versus the perennially   power seeking South ,   is very much at play   before our very eyes.

October 29, 2022
A medley of Dr. Tunde Olusunle’s poetic echoes(2)

In his thrilling introduction to this truly gripping collection of poems, Emeritus Professor, Femi Osofisan, notes that “It is remarkable therefore that in this slim volume, as I pointed out earlier, the poet still manages to pack almost all the burning items of contemporary concern, except, curiously enough, the topic most common, usually, to poets – which is the area of sentimental love! Conspicuously missing here are the matters of the heart that bards mostly thrive on”. Earlier, Professor Osofisan had indirectly given an indication as to partly why Dr. Olusunle’s mood in this collection is far from the romantic when he writes, “This narrative of shoddy management and piteous degradation, and of the resultant continued underdevelopment of our country and our people percolates in different ways the other remaining sections of the collection. Here indeed are the ‘echoes’ mentioned – that is, the tiresome, ritual mimicry of past dolour, the worn palimpsest of all-too-commonplace scenarios, rehashed plots and threnodies about diminished beauties and fallen heroes, all topics that he had long warned against, but without evident impact”.

Olusunle’s mood in the section titled ‘Sombre Echoes’ is mellow, sober, haunting, downcast, forlorn as he reflects on the sheer passage of time, the ever increasingly evident vanity of human life and the ubiquitous presence of death as perhaps the most palpable reality of the human experience. In ‘Hollow echoes’, for instance, dedicated to his teacher and mentor, the award-winning Emeritus Professor Olu Obafemi, the poet waxes nostalgic: “I can feel the pain/Like a shrapnel/Searing through your being/As you walk/Alone,/All alone/Through the unfeeling corridors/Indifferent hallways/Of our age-old citadel/Where the genial laughter/Of kindred spirits/And the camaraderie/Of comrades and compatriots/Once nourished the muse”. Continuing in this vein, the poet writes: “I feel with you/That questioning hollowness/As your spirit gropes to find/Those kindred spirits/Sweatily hunted/Painstakingly harvested/From the luminous earth/Who, with you/Fervidly fanned the flaming forge/Where a million fertile minds/Were skillfully smelted and formed”.

He then goes on to name a long list of Professor Obafemi’s co-labourers in the intellectual field of nurturing minds who have answered the grim reaper’s impossible – to- refuse call: David Cook, Sam Adewoye, Ade Obayemi, Zulu Sofola, Efurosibina Adegbeja, Stephen Lubega, Russel Chambers and Joseph Asanbe among several others. In his tribute to five of his friends – Deola Otukpe, Solomon Giwa-Amu, Rachael Onukaba, Femi Olatunde, David Alege, and Olu Barnabas, accomplished professionals in diverse fields who died between 2011 and 2012, – Olusunle vividly captures the finality of the dust-to-dust ritual: “Then,/We’d hear the drop and thud/Like the preface to first rain/Of laterite, pebbles, gravel, grass/Of diligent gravediggers/Duty-detached from our grief/On the wood-finished casket/Six-feet down the belly of earth/The terminal verses of the/Final funeral song/Exiting the windows of quivering lips/Of the mourning motley choir”.

And what could be more harrowing than his closing words in this poem?: “Yes/We’d hear that thud/Like the sound of freak tremor/As dust joins dust/Sealing dug-out earth/Sealing-in our beloved/Announcing with mortal finality/The deathly reality of grim separation”. Olusunle writes of deaths caused by the several air disasters witnessed at different locations in Nigeria as well as gallant Nigerian soldiers who fell on the battlefront in the protracted war against insurgency in the country and are buried at Karamajiji, a military cemetery in Abuja. Of these plane crashes in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Kabong, Ejigbo, Enugu, Eket, Port Harcourt and Yola among several others, he laments, “Then all earth is drenched/In the tearful deluge/Of national pain and pathos/Tributes pour in tumbling torrents/Homilies suffocate the tabloids/The nation adorns a black bandana/Around its sorrowing head/Banners temporarily fly at half mast./Probes and inquest/Soothe the national lachrymose/White Paper Committees/Spawn mountainous panaceas/Soon, so soon to be buried/In dust-filled, cobwebbed closets/Graveyards of former submissions/Even choking smoke/Billows, belches still/From the ruins of the last carnage”.

As for Karamajiji, the Abuja military cemetery, the poet moans that “Today/Karamajiji again/Will receive/In its alluvial bowels/A harvest of cadavers/Of beheaded dreams/And incinerated visions/After Sambisa/Konduga/Mallam Fatori/And other/Saharan abattoirs/In this indeterminate/Engagement with/Manic agents/And principalities/From the pit of hades”. But if death is so omnipresent as the poet so compellingly portrays teaching us lessons daily of the sheer emptiness and vacuous-ness of life, how come the manic zeal with which those we put in charge of our commonwealth criminally ‘privatize’ our collective resources, a key source of the rage we encounter from the poet in the section titled ‘Angry Echoes’? Each man and woman returns to his or her maker as empty and naked as they came. Why then the heedless greed that characterizes occupants of high office in Nigeria and indeed our capitalist world as a whole? I think part of the problem is that Nigerian politicians do not read poetry.

As I read Olusunle’s collection, my mind wandered to Christopher Okigbo’s haunting poem, ‘Come Thunder’. Even as the politicians of that era continued their gross and venal misrule, they were deaf to Okigbo’s warning words: “The smell of blood already floats in the lavender-mist of the afternoon/The death sentence lies in ambush along the corridors of power/And a great fearful thing already tugs at the cables of the open air/A nebula immense and immeasurable, a night of deep waters – /An iron dream unnamed and unprintable, a path of stone”. The politicians, unfortunately, are not listening to the poets even today.

Perhaps because he has operated in the inner interstices of the corridors of power and watched the misrule of men in high office at close quarters, Olusunle’s anger in this section of the collection is palpable and understandable. Thus, of the mostly clueless weekly Federal Executive Council meetings in the country’s seat of power, he writes “Midweek again/At the ritual talkshop/Executioners brandish shimmering/ Daggers, scythes and axes/Titrating billions of barrels/And mega-litres of our lifeblood/With phoney-figures and bloated budgets/Like their kith/In the twin-parliament/Lacquered green and red/Midweek again/And no propitiation/To appease the gods/Of creeping hunger/And general angst/Of the blood-guzzling Boko Haram/Ombatse, Egbesu, Oodua, IPOB/And other ghommids”.

In ‘For the servant-looters’, a parody of the more ennobling phrase ‘servant- leader’, an irate Olusunle resorts to curses and imprecations on those who steal the country blind, “May their lips be heavy/Blistered and sore/Their mouths, swollen/And gums ravaged by gingivitis/May their teeth be brittle/And their palate reject/The eye-tempting buffet/Of a thousand dishes”. He continues “May these execu-thieves/And their legisla-thief Kith/Those lawless lordships/And servant looters/Whose wardrobes and manholes/Sewers and attics/In those architectural monstrosities/Mutated into mega repositories/Eternally be hounded, hunted, haunted/By the chorus of our cries and/Causticity of our collective curses”.

From his focus on the ineffectual, visionless and corrupt governance of the ruling class in this section, Olusunle moves in the last section, ‘Earthy Echoes’ to his beloved native Yagba in Okunland, the Yoruba speaking part of Kogi state. But to even get to the serene, surreal, nature-bound land of his birth in the poem, ‘Yuletide echoes’, he has to traverse “Past treacherous bumps/And ever twisting bends/Past gullies, gnawed deep/Deep still to laterited marrows/Past the squinted eyes/Of ransom-seeking man-stealers/Past hooded robbers and rent-seeking state guards”. But at last he arrives: “Okunland hugs me/In flip-armed embrace/Oworo opens its leafy gates/To Bunu/Bunu chaperons me to Oweland/Thenceforth to Gbedde/Onwards to Yagba”. Thus, the poet looks forward to a blissful and rustic 2017 yuletide enthusing, “Let me catch this yuletide breath/Awakened each day/By the distinct crow of the cock/And the bleating symphony of goats and rams/As sunrise gently unveils/The gleaming face of breaking day/From the overwhelming darkness of black night”.

The poems in this section paint a vivid portrait of the rich culture, scenic landscape and delightful, tasty cuisine of the poet’s homeland. But even here, the always obtrusive death makes an intrusion as the poet writes a tribute ‘A bouquet for Bola’ to the memory of the acclaimed scholar, Professor Pius Akinsanmi, his kinsman, who died in an Ethiopian Airlines flight in 2019. Overall, this is an enthralling and captivating collection that will reward re-reading over and over.

October 29, 2022
Fixing the fixers

The Interim Management Committee (IMC) members have their jobs cut for them to rejuvenate the domestic game which has been lying prostrate by those who organised the leagues in the country. Indeed, whatever it was that touched the hearts of members of the now discredited Club Owners during their meeting with the NFF President to confess their sins including saying that the league in the past was for the highest bidder is clearly a case of match-fixing. There can’t be a better way to couch it. It is a disgraceful act.

This shameful confession hasn’t been contradicted nor has anyone of them come out to say it was a misinterpretation of what was discussed on that ill-fated day. Therefore, the IMC should as a matter of urgency ensure that the Club Owners body is banished from the game, although we have been told that the contraption called Club Owners isn’t known to the recognisable laws of the game here. This group of people are appointees who exploited the disorganised structures in the domestic game to lord their wishes on others to the detriment of the game’s growth. They were # monsters who went unchallenged. They were instigators of all riots at match venues and the pummelling of centre referees who didn’t do their biddings.

Ultimately, it means that previous winners of the league title were cheats and rode on the back of the corruption system to emerge. No wonder they have crashed as the pack of cards. The law of retributive justice, as some would rather say caught up with past winners at the continental levels. So, if the recently inaugurated Interim Management Committee is to be taken seriously, the self-discredited Club Owners based on their confessions should be scrapped.

For us to know where we are headed, we need to evaluate where we are coming from such that we can trash the wastes we have carried along. The club owners should provide evidence of the instances where they influenced match referees and also expose the bank details into which such illicit cash was paid. Such discredited referees should be delisted from those match officials for the new season. For instance, the referees’ appointment committee should be disbanded and no member of the previous board should get any role in the league’s organisation, going forward. Is there anything that the referees’ committee is guilty of that can’t find such dubious expression in the way the match commissioners’ appointment body ran their show? Shame!

We cannot allow this type of self-indicting statement to go unpunished yet we expect the corporate businesses to do sports business with the league. No way! Sponsorship will continue to be an illusion in the domestic game without a soul-searching effort to remove the vices of the game beginning with the administrators, most of whom have overstayed their welcome. With such languid officials, there can’t be any form of business orientation among the clubs since the administrators are used to waiting for government subventions to run the clubs. Need I say that these so-called club owners know that government cash is free and oftentimes not accounted for? The subvention for most government clubs is regarded as public relations, whatever that means.

Most state governors would be shocked by the disclosures if they insist that their appointees who run the clubs give an account of all that they earned by way of inter and intra-club transfers of their players in the last six years. One of the state governors was shocked to hear that most of the players are his team are on loan with no record of who the real owners are and when such transactions were held. The governor was miffed to hear that the owners of the players were in the academies and youth clubs whereas the rules forbid such transactions.

No academy player or youth club player can be transferred to any professional club for a fee. Rather such a boy’s academy or youth club would be entitled to developmental fees. Indeed, FIFA frowns at third-party transfers. Transfers start with the intending new club’s managers discussing with the owners of the player. It is at such meetings that fees are tabled and agreements are reached, including contract inserts where the club where the player is leaving is entitled to a certain percentage if in the period of the new contract such a player moves to a bigger club. For instance, from Warri Wolves to Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City and then from Insurance to Liverpool. This isn’t real. Just hypothetical.

The hoax in the domestic league clubs as it concerns players’ purchases is colossal only if the governors dare to ask. Those mouthing the argument that clubs can be solvent without the government spending money should ask those who administer government clubs how much they get from players’ transfers yearly. How can a club in Nigeria sell a player for almost $750,00 dollars or there about in Europe? What the club gets is a paltry sum ($7,500). They claimed that the player belongs to an academy. A player who plays for the Super Eagles for that matter. These things must stop to enhance the earnings of our clubs.

Rule B9.32 of the Framework and Rules of the Nigeria Professional Football League out rightly prohibits this practice by providing that;“No Club of the League shall enter into a Loan or Temporary Transfer agreement (as the Transferee Club) with an amateur club, a football academy, an individual or any entity other than a professional football club (i.e. a club in the Nigeria Professional Football League or the Nigeria National League).”

This practice, in addition to being illegal, contributes to capital flight from the Nigeria Professional Football League by ensuring that clubs are denied their due reward for developing professional footballers, as they are excluded from benefiting from any future transfer of the player(s) involved under this illegal arrangement.

The global football ecosystem has a reward system that favours clubs at every level. Thus, while professional clubs benefit from transfer fees, academies and amateur clubs benefit from training compensation and solidarity mechanisms. However, this disruptive practice only serves to disrupt the system by robbing professional clubs of their due. The time to chase out the fixers of our domestic league is now.

Transfers in the Premier League were £2.01 billion pounds with the statement made public stating by way of comparison what each club spent last year against what each club spent this year. The statement further provided information on the number of players in each club involved in the transfer transactions. Again, a graphic picture was provided showing what each club received from television rights for instance and all the other forms of making money in a truly professional football setup. You will marvel at what the last team on the log last season got at the end of the permutations. Relegated Norwich City got as much as over £100 million pounds with the defending champions of the Premier League Manchester City getting £153,090,894 pounds.

Those people running their mouths that our clubs can be administered properly without government funding should those there know how much they realise from their gate-takings? The people have forgotten the mayhem associated with the poor results of such teams. I will support Dangote and Adenuga for instance, not funding any Nigerian team because of the wanton destruction associated with any poor result. Look at what the irate fans did to the rejuvenated MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja simply because Nigeria failed to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Imagine, if it was a Nigerian businessman who owned the Super Eagles and what it would take him to fix the stadium in these hard times of imminent recession.

The truth is that if the governors know that they are entitled to some cash from these monetary movements in club football, these administrators would sit up. If state governors can find the political will to demand from their administrators the number of players the club sold to others in Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Diaspora, and within the country, a new dawn would be ushered into how the game is organised.

October 29, 2022