The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Hello, Sunday Dare!

    Hello, Sunday Dare!

    This letter to the honourable sports minister Sunday Dare which this writer has placed in public space is deliberate. Dare takes delight in unraveling puzzles.  It defines who the minister is. He dislikes sycophants – an ideas man who scribbles down important talking points each time he engages in any discussion. He wants to learn and consults widely. The minister is also a veracious reader of good literature. I will be failing as a brother to the minister if I don’t tell him that a viable domestic league is better than the formation of the ‘best’ collection of NFF executive board members. The reason is simple. Each succeeding NFF executive board has been worse than the ones they replaced. Minister sir, step back from this upcoming election. Fix the domestic league. Don’t create a lacuna that would be exploited by losers of the NFF election. It is the main reason the domestic league died under the watch of someone who lost out in the high-wire politics that characterized the 2015 electoral exercise in Warri.

    Again, the reasons for this misnomer rests in the fact that those who lost out in the new election return to the trenches to cause all manner of skirmishes such that the new board members spend three-quarters of their four-year fighting those who were voted out of office, but who suddenly became experts in football administration

    Indeed, there aren’t more than five states in Nigeria where the game is played regularly. In fact,  some ex-internationals who have refused to pick one person to challenge others for the NFF Presidency seat have shown that they don’t understand what they are fighting for. I will be very surprised if any of the ex-internationals in the race for the NFF Presidency finishes among the top four.

    We are going back to the Warri scenario where the headship of the NPFL was given to someone as compensation not what entails in the rule. It marked the beginning of the rot in the domestic league where those in charge do things as if the game belongs to them. They brazenly make pronouncements which seem to address certain problems of the league only to melt away like ice cream left under the scorching sun. Sadly, nobody dares interrogate all their failed promises because they have their itchy hands inside the till. The minister should start the process of sacking the league board. Then the clubs in the NPFL should commence the process of conducting the elections for the league board. On no account should an outsider become chairman of the league. That slot belongs to one of the chairmen of the 20 league clubs. History will remember Sunday Dare as the man who fixed the domestic game right if the NPFL election is put on the front burner.

    It is important to remind observers of the game that this contraption of league organisation arose from the brave effort of former sports minister Retired Colonel Musa Mohammed, who didn’t see the rationale in putting the country’s domestic league structure in the hands of one or two staff, with its office space looking dingy and not befitting to show visitors, especially investors.

    Musa Mohammed craved for a local league that could be the best in Africa, at least with good administration whose watchword would be to run the place as a business concern, not a platform for the boys to further corrupt the system, leaving the coaches, players and officials on the lurch in abject penury. The former minister couldn’t understand how players and coaches were leaving in droves to Europe and indeed other African nations in search of greener. For Musa Mohammed, the star trek to African clubs was an indictment of the game’s administration considering that the Nigeria league was the Mecca for other Africans in the past. The minister wanted an immediate restoration of the old order but with people who could think outside the box, not those waiting to spend the government’s yearly subvention.

    For Musa, change was necessary and he set out by constituting a 12-man committee to redefine the way the Nigeria league should be run – as a business devoid of the bottlenecks at NFA and in his ministry.

    Musa’s 12-man Interim Management League Board was rejected by those masquerading as stakeholders, with the majority of them being club owners who don’t pay a dime for such teams to strive. Musa wasn’t prepared to do business with the so-called club owners and stakeholders, who surrendered and accepted an admixture of their list and the ministers. The NFA board as they were then known kicked but the minister stuck to his guns alluding to Act 101 which gave him the power to intervene in any matter in the place. He saw his intervention as one which would change the way the game was being run.

    Before the inauguration of the IMLB, clubs won matches through board room points, many of such outside-the-field practices fueled by facts provided by those running the competition to those who could afford the cost of such information. Of course with poor documentation, some of these clubs were not informed about the players who should miss such matches.

    Until the formation of the ILMB, clubs paid referees’ emoluments, housed them, fed them in the hotels and brought them to the match venues and out of it. This practice was fraught with fraudulent tendencies which the clubs exploited greatly. Buoyant clubs seized the day and spoiled the match officials with good ‘hospitality’, leaving the match arbiters with no other option than to ensure such teams win such games at all costs. Stubborn referees were beaten groggy by such clubs’ irate fans.

    Until the formation of the ILMB, departmental heads of the league department assigned their favoured referees to many matches with some handling particular teams’ away games. The result of such a dastardly act was that such teams never lost such matches. In fact, as the league drew nearer to its end, such matches ended in victories for the away teams at the board room, largely because such games are stalemated by the home fans who smell a rat in handling their matches. We had a preponderance of teams playing outside their designated venues as punishment. Many cannot forget how Kwara United FC of Ilorin was relegated in 1999 because the club’s management had issues with the Nigerian referees.

    Irate fans of Kwara United went haywire in that match against Lobi Stars after the Makurdi side scored the opening goal in the opening minutes of the encounter. In the ensuing fracas, Late Col Dogo Yabilsu who was the centre referee in that match was beaten to a stupor and had to be smuggled out of the stadium disguised as a woman.

    Unfortunately for Kwara United, Col Yabilsu was the then chairman of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA). League followers knew that only a miracle would have stopped the Afonja Warriors from being relegated. The rest they say is history as Kwara United was banished to Calabar where they expectedly didn’t win any match before going on relegation.

    ILMB started by stopping the practice where clubs paid referees. This move reduced the level of contact between referees and the clubs. The ILMB paid referees’ indemnities into their accounts before match days. The board paid for the hotels. Match commissioners ensured that games didn’t begin except all the requirements specified for hosting matches are met, including the number of security operatives (50) at that time.

    But the biggest fillip the ILMB brought to the league organisation was the live television coverage deal it struck with African Independent Television (AIT), which deployed its Outstation Broadcast (OB) vans to beam matches to Nigerians wherever they were. AIT’s live coverage of matches helped to embolden referees to be fair, knowing that any untoward acts by clubs or their touts would be captured by the television cameras. In fact, referees were punished for poor handling of matches after reviewing the weekend’s matches.

    Soon, a title sponsor was secured, making it much easier for the organisers to run their operations seamlessly. The league had Glo as title sponsors and Super Sports as Broadcast right owners.

    Each Club was given N10 million from title rights, and N3 to N4 million from TV rights. Depending on how many Televised games your clubs feature in. Lucozade Sports was one of the partners,  and each club had almost a hundred cartons per season. Marine lnsurance covered the medical aspects of the league. You could attend any of their hospitals spread all over the country with a little fee.

  • Post-election appointments: patronage or merit?

    Post-election appointments: patronage or merit?

    The new United Kingdom Prime Minister, Liz Truss named her cabinet less than twenty four hours after receiving the approval of now late Queen Elizabeth to form a government after being elected leader of the Tory Party and Prime Minister. She is the third female Prime Minister of Britain and just forty seven years old.  She by no means did something exceptional. That is the tradition. Her only unique choice was the degree of diversity of her cabinet members.

    For the first time in the UK, key appointments were given to none British by ancestry. Suella Braverman is of indian ancestry and is home Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng of Ghanaian ancestry  was named Chancellor of the Exchequer , James Cleverly is of British-Sierra leonian roots and is Foreign Secretary , Nigerian-British Kemi Badenoch is Secretary of International Trade among others.

    However, diversity does in no way imply lowering of standards. The cabinet members are all well-educated, vastly experienced and competent individuals whose pedigrees have earned the positions. History beckons and their performances would either be thumped up or down but the Prime Minister cannot be accused of either nepotism or lack of discretion in choosing the people she feels would move the country forward in such a chaotic economic and political era in global terms.

    A Liz Truss had during the campaigns been preparing her mind about her cabinet in the event that she wins. Her opponent, Rishi Sunak must also have had a lineup of his cabinet had he been the winner. That is what a functional system expects and the people are all part of the project. Everyone in the United Kingdom realizes that the performance of any Prime Minister and her cabinet members have a direct relationship with their well-being, their families, communities and the United Kingdom in global politics.

    A former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned because he literarily dropped the ball and fell below the acceptable standards and many in cabinet resigned forcing him to equally resign as the leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, positions he described in his resignation speech as the best job in the world. But  he promised to support  the incoming Minister the best way he can having fought so hard but failed to retain his seat. The system eased him out and as he equally agreed that no one is indispensible in politics. That is a system that works.

    However, the Roundtable Conversation has been observing the Nigerian political space for a very long time. It is paradoxical that the political players love the developed democracies like the United Kingdom and the United States so much that they often seek the validation of the governments in those countries during election campaigns and even continue to collaborate with the governments either on bilateral or multilateral basis.

    As a former colonial power, the UK governments have had huge influences in Nigerian social, economic, religious and political lives. The recent passage of the 96 year old Queen Elizabeth II is being mourned across the world and Nigeria as member of the Commonwealth of Nations is not left out. However, despite these obvious interactions at various levels, the political behavior seems miles apart. While no one expects an equal outcome in both countries given political and economic variables, most people expect that if the political players in Nigeria are actually sincere, there are basic lessons they can pick from the United Kingdom and United States.

    Read Also; Liz Truss wins Conservative Party leadership

    The essence of government is the welfare of the people. However, the fact that Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world and more people keep falling into the poverty bracket daily shows that there is something wrong with the way governments at all levels are run in Nigeria. No one expects an Eldorado, the global economic crisis is well noted, the post-covid global issues are taken note of, but since independence, the Nigerian people have never given the welfare they deserve from all tiers of governments.

    As the Roundtable Conversation have noted in the past, political participation is a service and to serve presupposes that the server wants the good of the people. So why are Nigerian politicians less concerned about the welfare of the people? Why are appointments after elections based mainly on mundane issues like party loyalty, zones, religion, god-fatherism , reward for campaign duties or sponsorships amongst other parochial considerations? Why is merit not the focal point?

    Make no mistakes about it, there are certain socio-cultural nuances that must be considered during appointments given the peculiar historic issues in the country but so is the United States, so is the United Kingdom. In the Cabinet that Liz Truss just formed, it is a cocktail of persons with varied ancestral histories but top on the agenda is merit and capacity.  They might not be perfect, might perform below or above expectations but the point remains that they earned their positions in the cabinet.

    Since the conclusion of party primaries at least of the two biggest political parties in Nigeria, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP) the country’s political discourse has been focused on the intra-party squabbles about factional interests and who gets what in the event of a likely victory by either political party. However, the PDP internal chaos has made headlines to a level that is exhausting to the Nigerian voting public.

    No matter how much they try to conceal the issue at stake, the information always gets to the public domain. It is all about sharing offices in the event of a victory in 2023. Make no mistakes about it, there is nothing wrong with ambition but when personal, group or regional interests overshadow the good of the people in a democracy, then the system more or less tilts towards feudalism and that is not what democracy is about.

    The Roundtable Conversation understands that in politics, interest is a big driving force but when political parties are bent on satisfying personal interests, nothing can work.  Positions of authority should not be made to look like personal acquisitions. Public offices must be held in trust for the people.

    It is politically expedient to plan for who gets to do what after an assumed victory by any political party whatsoever but when positions tend to be appropriated for personal self-aggrandizement, the sytem suffers. The allegation that the whole Atiku-Wike-Ayu political triangle of conflict is beyond the often touted regional equity but more about personal interests of all those involved should  worry all Nigerians.

    Today, the PDP is almost looking like a combustible object but what is happening in the party has been a very long tradition in all Nigerian political parties and seems to be the root of the problem of the democracy in Nigeria. Most politicians do not know what to do with power and that is why elections into offices seem very volatile because the quest for power is often for its own sake and not necessarily to be used to serve the people.

    Presidents and governors in Nigeria subtly appropriate their areas of influence and exercise powers in ways that the other two arms of government, the judiciary and the legislature are often intimidated to do their bidding. Appointments are seen as favours done the appointees and whose allegiance is to the president or governor. This is why it takes a very long time, series of lobbying and horse-trading to form a cabinet in Nigeria. The longest was President Mohammadu Buhari’s almost six months before nominating candidates for ministerial screening in 2015. That singular act cost the country a lot but in a nation that often ignores the value of data and statistics, the loses are undocumentated.

    In Nigeria, nominees for positions at both federal and state levels are often sent to the assemblies for screening without indicating the likely ministry. So the national or state assemblies often screen merely as formality because questions are not often about the nominee’s capacity to work in a specific ministry. Then there are lobbying by influential political figures for certain ministries often described as ‘juicy ministries’ in local parlance. So most times proficiency  is not the issue in the appointments.

    Sadly, neither the political actors nor the people tend to bother about having round pegs in square holes as there are often no serious expectations  for patriotic performances but individual or group gains. There is some unspoken  sense of gratitude by families and friends of appointees who feel that any appointment is a knife given to the appointee to cut a portion of the national cake.

    The kind of appointments made determine the productivity of each government. However, Nigeria seems to lack political parties with identifiable ideological leanings and that is responsible for the fluidity of the politicians who oscillate literarily between political parties depending on where their post-election interests would be served. The patriotic instinct in the politicians seems to thin out and the personal and group interests get more robust.

    A Kenya has just had an election adjudged to have been free and fair and despite the petition by Raila Odinga against the victory of William Ruto, the Supreme Court under Martha Koome upheld the result of the election. She was appointed by the President  but even in 2017, the Supreme Court ordered a rerun of the election. That is patriotism. Seven women were elected as governors, an increase by four from the three elected in 2017. All these happened as a result of Kenya’s constitutional amendments in 2010 that righted certain wrongs in the system.

    The Roundtable believes that Nigeria’s development is dependent on the needed decision to amend the country’s constitution so that there can be a system that works for the people and not for individuals or groups. Only then can politicians be held accountable and there would be more patriotic rather than individual interests served.

    The dialogue continues…

  • Politics, calculations and miscalculations

    Politics, calculations and miscalculations

    Politics  may  not be mathematics, but it involves a  lot of calculations and planning which ,  when  they do not go right,  are  denounced    as sheer miscalculations  , made  manifest  in most cases with the benefit of hindsight. Which simply means that two plus two  may not  be four arithmetically  and  therefore  politically.

    Indeed in synergy  two plus two  equals five and is a relative of the theory that the whole may  be bigger than the sum  of its parts . We  look at political  parties in some  political cultures today in the light of the real and potential  leadership they have thrown up in different times and  in  different political  systems in recent times.   This   is  with  a view  of   finding  out   if things are working out as planned or  the end is simply being used to justify the means . It  promises  to be an exciting   exercise  and I ask   you  to come along gingerly with me on the assignment  .

    We  do not  need to look far  for  our  targets . Nigeria’s  two  political  parties are at each  other’s  throat  to get  power in the coming 2023  presidential  elections . Internally  , in each party   however there are great threats of implosion and, externally  , of fragmentation and factionalisation , following their two  presidential primaries and their emergent  presidential  candidates  for each party . We  shall    look at the prospects of this  potential  fratricide on the chances of each party  to win the 2023 presidential  elections .

    We    will  also  examine the emergence of Liz Truss as Britain’s  new PM , a development  I predicted  earlier in this column  , and  her   appointment  of non white  Britons to  key  positions in her cabinet in a clearly multicultural  Britain moving  on   its  own momentum   ,  with   the ,  shaky  ,  heady  pace of   a bumpy Brexit  .

    We  compare  this with the US where the  president called  the opposition ’  Republicans  anti democrats’  and ‘fascist’  and warned the Republican  party against  the   dominance   of  Donald Trump ,   the man  he defeated in the 2020  presidential  elections .  This is a president  who  was elected  on a promise to unite Americans after the    voiatile  , turbulent  one-  term  presidency  of Donald  Trump    who  Biden  branded as divisive  even  though Trump’s  slogan  was  the  acronym  MAGA  ,  which  means Make  America Great Again .Biden’s   abrupt  metamorphosis from preaching unity  to ‘ out trumping  ‘  Trump  in political  bombast    ,    verbal   violence and gymnastics  will be examined carefully  today .

    Let  us   first   look at the Nigerian political  terrain  dominated by the ruling APC and the opposition PDP . The   APC  carries the self chosen  albatross of the Muslim Muslim  ticket which it has been busy trying to explain away especially  in the notion that  it will not matter because Nigeria is after all a secular state . The PDP  on   the other  hand  shot  itself in the leg by choosing old war horse Atiku  over Wike the powerful governor of Rivers state  who  I had predicted as a formidable opponent for the Jagaban before  the presidential  primaries  of either party .  To  compound the PDP woes it jettisoned Wike as Atiku’s  running mate  and chose instead  , the lackluster governor of Delta state .  Wike  for now is like Hercules at arms in the PDP and his indignation at being sidelined is more of a threat to  the existence of the PDP  ,  not to  talk of its  huge   potential to scuttle  the presidential ambition  of Atiku  .  Wike’s  anger at  being sidelined makes him a bull  in the Chinaware shop who  must  be handled  with  care to avert the party’s  destruction . How that is   managed is the political  calculation that  the party must work  out or give up any chance of victory  in the 2023 presidential elections .

    The  APC  has a more manageable problem and must  calculate  better to promote and sell its Muslim Muslim  ticket . One thing is clear Christians  cannot unite against the ticket because that would be unchristian if  not anti Christ . This is where the virtue  of western education comes in because of  its  flexibility and deep  knowledge of tolerance that makes for political  accommodation . This    is what  the Jagaban  has in abundance and  has built across  the nation not  only as governor in Lagos state  but across  the nation in about three presidential  elections leading to the Emi Lokan explosion in indignation  when  he was about to be given the Wike  treatment  in the PDP ,  on the eve of the last presidential  primaries of  the APC . To  me the Muslim Muslim  ticket  will   sell  and    jell  but  its marketing to the electorate  must  be relentless  and sustainable   till  victory  is assured  in the 2023  presidential   election . A luta continua till   then .

    We  now  go to Liz Truss emergence as Britain’s  new  PM . I predicted this on the eve of the Tories election when she emerged as one of the two eventual candidates with  the former Chancellor  of the Exchequer .  My  reason  was that  she did not resign from the    beleaguered   Boris  Johnson  cabinet and her opponent was the first major party stalwart  to  resign setting forth the domino  theory that collapsed  the leadership of Boris Johnson . That  gave her the support of the former PM who  has asked the party  to rally round her leadership . Politicians don’t  like being stabbed in the back and Boris Johnson is  not an exception and that is the lesson for  the leader that lost to Liz Truss . In  addition Truss has confirmed that racism  is no hindrance in political  participation in Britain with the appointment of four non whites as key cabinet ministers  with two   having    parents from Ghana and Nigeria as Chancellor  of the Exchequer and Minister of International Trade  respectively .

    It  is necessary to compare  this with events in the US where Black Lives Matter ,  the woke and cancel  culture is making  the history of racism and its  impact,   the Democrats’  political  weapon to use to fight white  supremacy . And  the   teaching   of the Critical Race  theory to teach students that whites are bad because they  are responsible for  racism as   they  owned slaves before in the history of America . This  has made whites suspicious  and to welcome the   outlandish    conspiracy theory  that the present government through its open  border policy with Mexico is about to replace whites with  coloured    people . These  mutual  suspicion  of the two  parties coupled with  the recent judicial dismissal  of abortion and the  entrenchment  of  gender equality  and LGBTQ rights are at the heart  of US politics and are  the main issues on display  at the crucial  mid term elections in November this year  and will become the cultural wars to be fought out on the political   arena in the US 2024  presidential    campaigns   and  elections .  The  signs  of political  miscalculation and mistrust  with  the two  parties makes  understanding  of issues difficult  on either  side and that has  now been made worse  by the language of the US president which reminds  one of the  denigration of Republicans as a basket  of deplorables  by Hillary   Clinton  in the 2016 US presidential  election she   eventually  lost to Donald Trump.

    Obviously then,   public  discourse  should   be rational  and the language responsible and courteous . Dissent  too   should  be agreed as a right .After  all  , in any worthwhile  democracy the majority  can  have its way ,  but the minority  must  be allowed  to have its say  .  That  attitude  is very much  at play  even  in the discussion of the Muslim Muslim ticket in Nigeria as well  as lurking  danger that the brooding of Wike poses to the compunction and  existence  of the PDP in is calculation for  2023 . Such  tolerance  and respect  for cultural  diversity   is manifest in Liz Truss new leadership in the UK . Unfortunately  it is fast  dis appearing in the US  which  once claimed it is God’s own country and the mother of democracy . Surely one can say of the US in terms  of the language of intolerance  right   now   pervading political debate like a malodorous  odor   , that it is not all that  glitters that is gold . Which  is quite  pathetic   for the self-  appointed champion  of global  democracy  .

  • Second Niger Bridge and the repulsive attempt at revisionism

    Second Niger Bridge and the repulsive attempt at revisionism

    To these children of hate who are in the obvious minority clapped their hands every time there was some pretext to commission of begin the Second Niger Bridge, a number of them even swore that with the emergence of a Muhammadu Buhari, a man much accused of  harboring anti Igbo sentiments as president that such a bridge would never come to fruition, this is a bridge which had not seen even the drilling of foundations beneath the waters by those who claimed to love NdiIgbo. Matter of fact it was made a campaign issue in the 2015 elections that a vote for Buhari was a vote for the loss of such a project!

    This however happened not to be the case  as the Muhammadu Buhari administration hit the ground running on the bridge and by that same year, in August 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari decided to commence afresh and did this without the immense media hogwash nor overbloated fanfare that had greeted the earlier the more you look the less you see approach to the bridge’s construction.

    The  Buhari administration not only redesigned the Second Niger bridge; it added an extra lane as well as detours to the bridge, which would then see an ancillary infrastructure including a 10.3 km (6.4 mi) highway, Owerri interchange and a toll station all at Obosi, with a toll gate. There would be two secondary bridges at Amakom and Atani as well as two approach roads from Asaba and Onitsha ends.

    I also recall that when construction began on the bridge in 2018, many of these children of hate scoffed at the announcement, haven gotten used to the “dance of shame “ by our leaders over the bridge, like the Prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, since their demigods and demagogues had much failed to deliver the goods, how then would a Fulani man who had been maligned as an Igbo hater deliver?

    Read Also: Second Niger Bridge and repulsive attempt at revisionism (1)

    This was even with the reduced cost at N206 billion which was to be funded by the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), with its source to funds coming from the Federal Government, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) bringing in private investment and part of the proceeds of the Abacha loot.

    Even at the various levels of its construction, they refused to budge, not even the huge infrastructural drive in the SouthEast by the Buhari administration would sway them that is after the region had been left abandoned by a certain political party that had always gotten Igbo votes but taken them for granted.

    Now that the bridge is nearing completion did these children wake up from their slumber of disbelief and began to raise aspersions about the bridge.

    They have like the children of Israel who on their way out of Egypt complained about everything but their freedom. They have now raised allegations of height of the bridge alleging in their infamous hatred that the bridge has been brought lower to prevent ships from passing underneath the bridge. They have also queried the idea of a tolling station but such an idea had always been in the earlier versions of the “audio”  and there wasn’t even a whimper!

    Give or take the much talked about Second Niger Bridge is coming to reality and in a real time of less than five years which the PDP in its 16 years as the ruling party of the nation failed to actualize. Rather than express their gratitude and perhaps do some atonement for the malicious hate directed at a man who has proven them wrong all they can muster is  these series of denials , lies and canards!

    Nigerians and NdiIgbo should be grateful to the Muhammadu Buhari led administration; of a truth the administration has had its shortcomings, every administration will definitely have such but looking at the bottom line the Buhari administration has done quite well in terms of delivering quality infrastructure  and had past administrations since the return to democracy had invested half of its energy in meeting such a demand then the nation would have been on a more solid footing economically than we are presently in . On this note President Buhari has indeed done well and no height or depth of revisionism can suggest otherwise.

  • The League board should go

    The League board should go

    The finer lines of Nigeria soccer would be defined by how well the domestic league is organised, the league’s adherence to the tenets of the label club licensing rule, and the existence of timelines for the set goals and objectives of the competition itself. If it means running the league with between five to 12 teams participating this fresh season, why not? There can’t be a league if there are no players and coaches in the employment of teams to fight for honours for each team.

    It says a lot about the rudderless platforms in which the league in the country is organised such that Nigeria is the only nation in the world whose 2021/2022 season hasn’t ended with the AITEO Cup competition still at the semi-finals stage.

    Nigeria will lose the advantage gained in having our league run in tandem with other leagues. Our domestic clubs will suffer when other leagues’ transfer windows open. The good ones in our league will sneak out for trials and deplete their teams. Teams will be weakened by the absence of their stars and quality of play. Of course, if the fans are dissatisfied with what they see, they won’t return to watch subsequent matches.

    For the records, the AITEO Cup is the country’s oldest football competition hitherto known as the Challenge Cup, a lever because of its thrills and frills coupled with its shocking results.

    It is heartbreaking to note that the Challenge Cup which was a major platform where all manner of teams rolled up their stockings to give the established clubs a run for their monies. The argument can be held that it is the duty of the NFF to organise the Challenge Cup. But the flipside to this argument is to ask where the football clubs in the country are and what exactly the NFF Second Vice President says about the domestic clubs and how engaged they are with local competitions.

    With the delay, our players with good potential have lost two transfer windows to seek for greener pastures, as they say, due to the ineptitude of those who organise the domestic league. Should such people be allowed to remain in the place? Certainly not.  When our league ends sometime in September, countries with clear-sighted administrators would be deep in the domestic games to allow our boys to train with them.

    Players and coaches will be roaming the cities, condemned to playing the game in their neighbourhoods, particularly on school grounds with improvised facilities. Shylock agents will be prancing waiting to lure the weak-hearted among them into slavish contracts outside the country. These shylocks need not wait for long because the players would soon be hungry if they aren’t already.

    The real causalities are the country’s representatives at the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) inter-club competitions. Those who will also feel the pang are the country’s flag bearers in CAF and FIFA U-20, U-23 and Super Eagles because our boys will be match rusty.

    The pre-season media blitz which we have seen in Europe till September 1, when the transfer window closed as it concerns players’ movements heightens the awareness among clubs’ fans, such that everyone is eager to know what to expect and make frantic bids to secure their tickets in a request to watch their idols.

    The fans’ debates help to convince the business sector to inject cash into the European leagues, knowing that they can connect with the masses to sell their products and services seamlessly. This crucial marketing activity rubs off handsomely on the clubs. It also creates competition among brands which eventually think of windows where they can identify with the global brand- soccer. It is difficult in Nigeria because those who own the property prefer to use middlemen not because they are better bargainers, but because they can strike shady deals with them easily. This trend continues because we have failed to probe funds pumped into sports. This lapse has emboldened others to fill their pockets and impoverish the players and coaches, who should benefit the most.

    Globally, club football thrives on several marketing windows that increase the cash flow for all the participants. Such windows are title sponsorship rights, television rights,  official insurers, official kitting firms, official beverage firms, official water firms, agencies responsible for the billboards and other boards that carry the message of the game to the public.

    These windows serve as one of the ways of generating revenue. Cash realised from these marketing ventures is declared at the end of the season, such that clubs know what to expect from each window to drive their transfer sales even before their proprietors pull out their chequebooks. I laugh when people say that our clubs are cash-strapped. I wonder if anyone has asked those who manage government clubs how much they make from selling our players in inter and intra-club transfers? Do we really care? If we do, many people who run these clubs will be in jail. We need this therapy to instil the fear of God in our administrators.

    The sale of players in the transfer period is a bonanza for many clubs that groom rookies and a drain on the purse for those who thrive on splashing the cash on new players annually. Sport isn’t leisure anymore. It is a serious business used by countries which appreciate its power to pull the youth away from social vices, to change people’s perception of their countries, as a recreation platform for its citizens and as a veritable means for its populace to improve their health.

    Sport originates from the people through the communities with the products of such an enterprise emerging as ambassadors for the country in international competitions. All that the government does is to provide the enabling environment for the industry to thrive. Since the ultimate target of the corporate world is the citizen, it follows therefore that sport gets the needed fillip for growth when the athletes become big stars in the world. This seamless setting also ensures that only technocrats are recruited to drive the process, such that it is free of scams and controversies that would chase away the blue-chip industries which are ready to provide the financial support for growth. Our administrators blame the media for highlighting the flaws of establishments, forgetting that there isn’t another way to report the truth. With a dysfunctional league spanning 32 years, we are left with lazy option of looking towards Europe in search of players, including the invitation of an European-based U-17 women’s player. What a pity. No nurseries for identifying, training and gradual exposure to competitions, there won’t growth.

    Nigeria shouldn’t be parading teams for international competitions with 29 foreign-based Super Eagles, with only a few homegrown here. No wonder when the country’s anthem is being sung before kickoff, they all keep mute. They aren’t propelled by the wordings of an anthem they can’t recite. It explains the slowness with which they prosecute matches. Check out the way other countries sing along when their anthems are being played and the way each player jumps high as if to reach the skies on the spot as if they have been injected with super adrenalin. It is always the difference between Nigerian teams and our opponents. It means a lot to this writer when our international players are ashamed of wearing wristbands of Nigeria’s green-white-green before our matches.

    Each time I watch Sadio Mane and other Africans wearing wristbands in their countries’ colours, I always feel the tinge of nationalism they want to project about their countries. Papa Bouba Diop – Senegal legend and former Portsmouth and Fulham midfielder – died at the age of 42 and Liverpool’s spitting cobra, El Hadji Diouf wore the country’s colours around their wrists, not forgetting how they celebrated when they won trophies everywhere they played in Europe.

    Do our administrators not see or observe this trend among Africans in Europe? This culture is engrained in the hearts and minds of other nationals right from their youth days. I wonder if ours don’t see what others are doing? Food for thought.

     

  • PDP civil war: Whodunnit?

    PDP civil war: Whodunnit?

    That civil has broken out within the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is no longer news. After suffering last-minute heartbreak following the intervention of Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal – who threw in his lot with eventual winner – former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has been up in arms.

    If party members thought this was just some regular hissy fit, they were mistaken. The furious governor has been locked in a running slanging match with elements in the presidential candidates’ camp. Atiku himself has also been on the receiving end of some broadsides.

    With party elders struggling to come up with the right formula to pacify the aggrieved, everyone has been walking on egg shells, carefully picking their words in order not to provoke a ready fusillade from Port Harcourt.

    What’s interesting is no one is ready to accept blame for the fiasco that has trailed the party’s convention. Every side believes the other are the bad guys. Embattled party chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, holds the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) responsible his nightmarish outings on social media.

    Read Also; Wike was a child when we formed PDP – Ayu

    He has even dismissed comments supposedly made by him about the governor. Ayu in a statement released through his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Simon Imobo-Tswam said the reports about him on social media were fake.

    He further stated that he would not say anything about comments attributed to Wike.

    The statement reads: “We state, categorically and without equivocation, that the posts are completely false. Even the inelegant construction of the posts puts them beneath Ayu.

    “Ayu never said anything after Wike’s statements yesterday, and does not intend to say anything in response.”

    For his part, former Kaduna State Senator Shehu Sani agrees that unnamed external forces are fueling PDP’s troubles. He warns that if stakeholders in the party fail to resolve the crisis in the coming weeks, they would be consumed by fire.

    He posted: “What is happening in the PDP is unfortunate. The space for reconciliation appears to be very slim.

    “Outside forces are fully involved. Though it is advised that everyone should refrain from making inflammatory statements, in the next few weeks, there will be no room for neutrality or silence.”

    No doubt PDP’s foes are having fun watching their rivals warring. But if the party’s leaders truly believe that outsiders are behind their troubles, they would believe anything. The lizard wouldn’t crawl in if there was no crack in the wall!

  • Shekarau and politics of defection

    Shekarau and politics of defection

    In six months, Ibrahim Shekarau, former governor of Kano State and senator representing Kano Central District, has traversed three political parties. Can the vocal politician be a role model in political consistency?

    In April 2022, he was a key leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Northwest state. In June, he defected to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). During the week, he left the NNPP for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which he dumped around 2019.

    The former governor is emulating the man he has now chosen to collaborate with, Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the main opposition party, and his erstwhile running mate, Peter Obi. What matters in the Nigerian politics of defection is not principle, but the pursuit of personal interest.

    Atiku had bidden the PDP farewell in 2007. He took refuge in the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Ahead of the 2011 polls, the former Vice President quit the ACN, which offered him the platform to run. In the PDP, he was defeated at the presidential primary by President Goodluck Jonathan. The goal of defection was not fulfilled. Describing the Jonathan administration as clueless, Atiku joined forces with the APC in 2014. But, he could not secure the presidential ticket. It was won by Muhammadu Buhari, who later won the presidential election.

    Ahead of 2019 electioneering, he retraced his steps to the PDP. He got the ticket. He ran. But, he could not lift the trophy. The greatest achievement of Atiku in recent times is that in the last four years, he has not defected to another party.

    Shekarau also shares the same traits of impatience and anger with Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP). Obi, a one-time banker, became governor on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), led by the late Biafran leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. After serving for eight years, he left the APGA for the PDP. Curiously, he was picked as running mate by Atiku in 2019. But, three years later, he abandoned PDP and opted for LP.

    Politically speaking, Shekarau had a beautiful beginning. He had triumphed over tyranny and adversity, which served as a bridge between his illustrious civil service career and foray into politics. As a head teacher, he was an activist fighting for the welfare of his colleagues in the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPS). He was a leader of the state and national chapters. When he crossed to the civil service, he held responsible positions, crowning it all with the position of a permanent secretary.

    Read Also: Why I returned to PDP, by Shekarau

    Shekarau defeated an incumbent governor, Rabiu Kwankwanso, in 2023. He ran on the platform of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). The feat was significant. But more remarkable was his re-election in 2007. He broke the second term jinx, becoming the first Kano governor to spend eight years in office.

    In 2011, Shekarau defeated Muhammadu Buhari during the ANPP presidential primary. Nigerians were impressed by his oratory skills. But it was evident at that time that he lacked the clout and structure to win the presidential poll. After vacating office, it appeared that he could not exert the same influence.

    In 2015, he was a chieftain of APC. But, he loathed cohabiting with Kwankwanso in the same fold. Despite all entreaties, he went to the PDP. President Jonathan hurriedly made him Minister of Education to keep him in the party. Later, he returned to APC, became a senator and when he failed to get a return ticket, he opted for the NNPP. Although he got the NNPP senatorial ticket, he was not satisfied. His foray into the NNPP was strange. He was fond of running away from Kwankwanso. Yet, he agreed to briefly cohabit with Kwankwanso, the main issue in the NNPP. The experience, he said, was not palatable as he claimed that his supporters were not accommodated.

    His defection was driven by the desire for relevance and survival in the slippery political field. He may still defect from the PDP, if there is no adequate political protection for his supporters.

    The current dispensation marks the total collapse of ideological culture. Except the now weakened Alliance for Democracy (AD), political parties had moved away from ideological pursuits. Their arrowheads are only united by the pursuit of power, with the parties merely serving as their vehicles.

    What is the political ideology of Shekarau who can afford to be in three parties in the spate of three months? Politicians are now changing allegiances with the speed of lightening. Self-interest and the battle for survival are projected over the collective interest of the party.

    Many politicians cannot be said to have fared better than Shekarau in ideological consistency. The Fourth Republic is replete with accounts of serial defections, with the defectors living up to the dictum: there is no permanent friend or foe in politics, only permanent interest. Apart from Atiku, Senator Uche Ekwunife had traversed APGA, PDP and APC in the course of her political career. From being a sympathiser of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), former Senate President Bukola Saraki moved to the PDP, and later APC, and later returned to the PDP. Also, Sokoto State Governor Waziri Tambuwal dumped the PDP for APC and he later returned to the PDP.

    In mature democracies, defections are rare and infrequent, owing to the entrenchment of ideological politics driven more by national interest rather than personal interest. Generally, defections in Nigeria are premised on five factors: the poverty of ideology, personal interest and ambitions, division in the party, lack of internal democracy in political parties and weakness of crisis resolution mechanism. The sixth factor should be the greed or avarice of the political class.

    Reflecting on the impact of ambition and personal interest, Hilke Rebenstorf, in his work, titled: Political Interest: Its Meaning and General Development, described political interest as the most towering motivation for political participation in a democratic setting. The subsisting interest could provoke loyalty and prepare an individual towards the rigour of politicking because power is not served a la carte.

    Interest is also the baseline for identifying with the party and sustenance of commitment to a platform. The implication is that waning interest in a party may be a prelude to defection.

    Also, interest is the foundation of ambition and the quest for power at any level. Ambition connotes an intention to engage in competition and necessary intra-party conflicts and inter-party antagonism. Therefore, when it appears that candidates are imposed, the process becomes less competitive and injurious to ambitious politicians, especially in the absence of a consensus climate.

    The defence of personal interest is at a cost to group interest. But politicians in Nigeria usually hold on to their interests because many of them perceive politics as an occupation, and not a vocation. They embrace politics as an avenue for private accumulation of wealth, influence and affluence, instead of taking it as an opportunity for diligent service to the community, state and country.

    Political parties usually have agenda for transforming society. It may be the offshoot of their ideology, beliefs, vision, mission and goals. Ideology is critical. Since a political party is an association of like-minds who are united by similarity of ideas, individual members are expected to demonstrate loyalty and commit ment to the ideology of the party and play significant role in its espousal.

    Ideology is a compass; it gives direction and encourages ideologues to produce strategies for implementation of manifestos. Ideology is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end.

    Ordinarily, manifestos should derive from the ideological learning. This means that an ideology is a distinguishing and predictable feature of the party system. Conflicts and conflict resolutions are essential features of party system. Disagreements among chieftains may lead to polarisation, fragmentation, division and factionalisation of parties. Politics of exclusion and monopolisation of party power by few individuals in the party may lead to resentment, bitterness and defection.

    Indeed, many political parties lack the capacity to achieve internal cohesion, due to the weakness of crisis resolution mechanism, which permits the aggrieved to ventilate their grievances and attract assurance about political security within the organisation. A major source of division and protracted crisis is the lack of transparency in the internal processes of political parties, including congresses, nomination and distribution of rewards for membership.

    Party primaries, congresses and conventions are usually rancorous, leading to post-primary crises and a floodgate of litigations. Also, the dictatorship of party leadership may not engender trust. Party leadership is usually transformed into a conclave of few leaders whose activities may alienate members, or certain blocs within the party, based on internal squabble for the control of party machinery, promotion of divisive caucus interest and misuse of party apparatus and resources. The leadership of a political party is very critical to how it is shaped, how it can withstand destabilisation tendency and how it can foster party supremacy and discipline.

    Judging by the Nigerian experience, a key element of defection is the bandwagon effect. The defection of a party’s big wig is accompanied by a seeming mass defection of members who belong to his caucus or those who see him as a sort of rallying point. Therefore, many defectors can hardly comprehend the motivation for defection beyond the withdrawal of party chieftains they adore.

    But defection is a fundamental political right, that is, the right to associate and dissociate at will. When politicians defect, they contribute to the project of crippling their former parties and whipping public sentiments. When they retrace their steps, they rationalise their return. The only solution is the adoption of a strong two-party system with clear-cut ideological delineation, and a political class that is erected on the pillar of public morality and discipline.

    If these features were in place in a wide political field like Nigeria, defections would reduce to the barest minimum among political actors, like Shekarau, and their supporters would be spared the frequent journeys across conflicting political interests their leaders take them through each time they cannot get what they want from one party or the other.

  • 2023 campaign month is here… words and optics matter

    2023 campaign month is here… words and optics matter

    Politics is an interesting albeit very complex game. The social mantra that in politics, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but permanent interests seems to play out all the time especially at the peak of election periods.  Nigeria is presently on a global focus as a result of the 2023 general elections. The optics have been a mixed grill of the good, the bad ,the ugly and the downright hilarious. We can see all the political intrigues and horse-trading.

    The advent of the social media has not made things easier for either the politicians or their supporters.  However,  whether the politicians like it or not, they are all in the eye of the storm. The searchlight is on all of them. Unlike in the past, technology and the internet are here to stay and impact on our lives. Pretending that the internet does not matter because the level of literacy in the country is lower than in other developed democracies can be as delusional as assuming that the Sun would not rise because one was still feeling sleepy at dawn.

    Even though certain religious and social nuances seem to affect the way democracy is practiced in Africa, there are still the basics that the people and the world expect from politicians.  Today, news and information is at the touch of a button. Africa is developing fast but the extended family links are still very potent. Families still have influences on each other. Coercions and personations are still effective. Candidates must note this.

    The Roundtable Conversation has followed the different political parties through their congresses to primaries and seen the emergence of candidates for both executive and legislative positions. Now the official campaigns is about to start and our eyes are on the candidates. We are at a time in the nation where peace and unity should not just be mouthed while reciting the National Pledge but where our search for heroes and heroines must get the boost we need for national cohesion and development.

    If the optics on the social and orthodox media is anything to go by, The supporters of the major candidates  have so far been using the social media for their arguments and counter arguments about the qualities and capacity of their candidates. In most instances, the social media has made it easier to analyze claims and counter claims by supporters. It has been as interesting as the average Nigerian social scenes.

    However, as the election campaigns opens in about three weeks, there are expectations from the candidates and how they would market themselves to the voting public.  The intra-party squabbles in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seem to be sending all the negative vibes to the voting public.  The governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike seems to have been at daggers drawn with the presidential candidate of his party, Atiku Abubakar and the Chairman of the party, Senator Iyorchia Ayu over the outcome of the party primaries , Vice Presidential slot and Chairmanship of the party.

    The tension in the party seems intractable. Reconciliation committees, party chieftains, governors and other top stakeholders of the party seem to have all played a lost battle as the search for reconciliation seems to be consistently hit a brick wall. The latest trip to London by some members of the PDP and the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and former President Obasanjo despite its flawed optics came  with all the optimism of a resolution but the recent exchanges between  Senator Ayu who allegedly referred to some of the party stakeholders as children got on the nerves of a governor Wike who alleged that the ‘children’ took the former Senator from the ‘gutters’ and made him Party Chairman.

    Read Also: 2023: INEC gives Sept 28 kick-off date for open campaigns

    The governor also threatened that if issues are not sorted within his party, he and his supported would help the party to lose the election. The world and the people are watching in amazement as the members of the PDP mudsling each other in an election year. It is normal for Nigerians to shrug their shoulders and claim it is all in politics to mudsling but if we must practice the best tenets of democracy, our children should not be in search of heroes on the political space.

    No nation seeks to be led by saints but we must demand a level of decorum from those who seek to lead us. For so long Nigerians have had to be made to believe that politicians have some messianic qualities and are divinely ordained to rescue people. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that this cannot be true. Politicians are from the people but demanding to lead the people must come with some responsibilities. A clean and dignified campaign  is a huge plus.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) national Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu at a recent event called on politicians to maintain issue-based campaigns when the official date arrive. This is as instructive as it is relevant. The voters of yesterday are not the voters of today. In the past, it was only those that had television sets, radio and who could buy newspapers that were able to hear from politicians. Today, the social media is almost accessible to every registered voter so they are have the opportunity to listen, watch and follow the candidates in ways that were not possible before now.

    Global politics has changed. Access to information and the freedom of speech have raised the bar and politicians must understand that there are written and unwritten rules of engagement. Any politician who decides to live in the past has his or herself to blame. Democracy is a government of the people by the people and for the people. What this means is that those who wish to be elected into offices are holding positions of trust on behalf of the people and must earn the honour.

    The campaign period is supposed to be a period of bonding with the voters. Candidates are supposed to open up to the voters in ways that would convince them that they are the best for the job. Campaign periods are supposed to be a period of conversation with the people. Conversations in its most colloquial sense is a tete-a-tete that informs and educates. It is not about grandstanding and making empty promises. It is a period that candidates are expected to set their best foot forward. It is not a period to paint pictures,  it is a period to show genuine pictures. This is one of the reasons rookies often win elections at first attempt. Their campaigns are often so compelling that voters trust them even better than the veterans so no one should drop the ball.

    The recent Kenyan election is a good African example of the power of campaigns. A William Ruto was able to defeat the established political dynasties of Kenyatta and Odinga through the power of his campaigns. He did not reinvent the wheels, he merely was able to deploy his experiences in life and politics and the people connected with him and trusted him for authenticity.

    The Roundtable Conversation is not proposing that campaigns should be a romantic  walk in the park devoid of the usual political brickbats but we are used to the wrong political rhetoric that often divide rather than unite the people. At the moment, the country seems at the edge of the precipice and all hands must be on deck to heal the divisions along;  tribal lines, religious differences, North and South politics, indigenes and settlers, men and women, youths and and the old, able bodied and those living with disabilities.

    Coming from a colonial history of divide and rule, development in the world has shown us that the issues we term differences are the beauty that make our world pleasant and prosperous. There is beauty and strength in diversity and the candidates that will take the day are those whose words and optics are like healing balms to the people.

    Regular Nigerians have always lived happily with each other and engaged in trade and commerce and all other social engagements but studies have shown that politicians are truly the ones that play up and twist the differences in a bid to set the people against each other purely for political expediencies. This has never helped development and that seems to have contributed to the country being the poverty capital of the world despite the human and material endowments that is found across the globe.

    The winners of the next elections will not be those that press the buttons of acrimony but those willing to tell the people the roadmap they have for a more prosperous country. Those who are willing to intellectually engage, to work and walk with the best brains the country has to offer would win over the people effortlessly.

    Nigerian voters seem to be looking beyond political parties, they are looking at individuals and their capacity and antecedents. Those who can reach out to all the nooks and crannies and tell the people how their socio-economic wounds can be healed through their policies and ideas would be the winners in 2023. The mistake politicians often make is taking the people for granted. Today more than ever, political awareness is very high. People are now aware that they have the mandate and should give it to the best candidates.

    The Roundtable Conversation has been on the trail of candidates across party lines and is willing to help candidates blow what they feel is their trumpet. The country is waiting for the candidates to show their willingness to develop the country for generations.

    The dialogue continues…

  • Second Niger Bridge and repulsive attempt at revisionism (1)

    Second Niger Bridge and repulsive attempt at revisionism (1)

    One would have naturally dismissed the latest antagonisms against the Buhari led All Progressives Congress administration, since it is an election year and owing to our checkered nature of our politics, it is suitable for many to throw in the kitchen sink and cast the present administration in the light of having failed, even in the face of glaring successes these children of hate, reared by their deep seething rage against an administration that has done so much with so little, will stop at nothing to belittle and undermine any of these achievements, attempting to do such on the platter of revulsive revisionist thinking.

    Their latest target has been the Second Niger Bridge which after many years of what NdiIgbo will term “Cherekambia” promises made out to the people of the SouthEast Region about the promise to build a Second Niger Bridge to help ease transport flow from the East to other parts of Nigeria by road transport by successive civilian and military administrations. These promises which were made amidst much fanfare saw each administration somewhat falling over each other in their desire to make such promises they very much intended to break! From that of the late Shehu Shagari who not only promised us a Second Niger Bridge but also a new sea port in Onitsha to successive military administrations that followed it and then back to the civilian administrations who went on to use the bridge as campaign poetry. Most notable amongst these civies were the Olusegun Obasanjo administration who never hid his disdain for Ndi Igbo and the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Now while Shagari may be pardoned for toying with our hearts owing to the very fact that he was overthrown three months into his second tenure, the others cannot benefit from such magnanimity as they had ample time to deliver on their campaign promise but for lack of political will did not!

    All Obasanjo could do was to flag off the project five days to his leaving office, this meant that the Yar Adua administration and not that of Obasanjo would construct the bridge at the cost of 58.6 Billion with a six lane set of roads and a toll entrance. The project was also to take a public private partnership dimension (PPP) for which 60 percent of such funding was to come from the proposed contractor, the Gitto Group while counterpart funding was to come from the Federal Government which was to provide 20 percent while both Anambra and Delta States were to match such with 10 percent each . The bridge

    The bridge was however one to nowhere as the Yar Adua administration could not evolve neither policy nor one brick to the proposed project site in his near three years as president with his eventual demise while in office.

    Goodluck Jonathan did not fare better, not even with his inserting Azikiwe into his set of names. In 2011, during his presidential campaign rounds told the whole world that he would deliver to Ndi Igbo the Second Niger Bridge before 2015 or he would go on self exile! 2015 came and it looked like a one chance promise as by 2014, President  Jonathan perhaps thinking that Nigerians suffered from cataplexy was at the  same point in which he made that pronouncement to flag off its construction from which all Ndi Igbo and Nigerians saw was a proposed map of the bridge without any corresponding works on such a bridge as well as how it would be funded.

    These children of hate did not at that point in time raise hell with Jonathan for his presumed failure in delivering on his campaign promise. They did not express their now misplaced anger as they are doing now on a man who rode to power with the bulk of votes coming from the South East Region. Neither did they focus their fury on the systemic collapse of public infrastructure as was witnessed all over the South East, no! President Goodluck Jonathan was a man then who could do no wrong, and like a King without no clothes a number of Igbo leaders swirled to the dance of shame, basking in the euphoria that they were properly dressed whereas they appeared naked and naive Seco to a number of us.

    It never dawned on them that for near four years, the Goodluck Jonathan administration had not deemed it fit to deliver on his promise or at least make a head start . Rather with Jonathan having the 2015 elections in mind, he had only come again to whip up the voting sentiment from the region towards his proposed reelection. It did not matter that the cost of the bridge had been inflated, nor did it matter then that a tolling arrangement was in the offing  while the same administration had built bridges for free in other parts of the country with no tolls.

  • Leaders, legacies and foresight

    Leaders, legacies and foresight

    The  death of former Soviet leader leader Mikhail Gorbachev  in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine ,  a former Soviet satellite state is a very important news laden with history as well  the need  for   scrutiny  on  the quality of leadership at crucial  moments in the history  of the world .Leaders globally  make decisions that make or mar their reputation and history is always there to judge them and to applaud or  condemn their sense of responsibility and accountability  in the context of the decisions they make or refuse to make .In Nigeria the President while receiving some governors said reportedly that Nigerians will  soon appreciate  him because he will  not interfere or influence any   more  elections till he leaves office .Similarly the MD of NNPC justified  the decision  to award  oil  pipeline  security contracts to private contractors as the right decision because there  was  an open  bid and that  is enough to give oil  pipe lines contracts to warlords who later under arms turn round to declare secession and agitate for self  government against  the government that gave them pipeline  protection contracts .Anyway  the governor of Ondo  state is not impressed  that government is giving huge contracts to private contractors   on  security but is not   prepared to allow the state governors to have state police or the security  wherewithal  to protect their    own citizens who  are being killed in large numbers by  terrorists  , bandits , kidnappers  and armed Fulani  herdsmen .

    I  have  highlighted all   these  decisions  to show that leaders at times are  the architects of their own misfortune in the reckoning  of history especially when they  make decisions that are plainly  stupid and unreasonable but insist on getting the job done no matter whose horse is gored . It is my  intention to  highlight such draconian and controversial decisions  today  both  in the present and the past starting  with the death of Gorbachev  the innovator of Glasnost and perestoika   who  nevertheless  presided over the liquidation of the former Soviet Union and its dissolution into its 15  constituent  states .

    I believe I  do not exaggerate if  I say  that present Russian leader Vladmir Putin  will  certainly regard  the demise of Gorbachev as  good  riddance to bad rubbish  , which really  is in bad  taste but  is borne out   by  the fact  that ,  all his political  life ,  since becoming Russia’s leader  , Putin  has been trying to  undo  what  Gorbachev  achieved ,  which  is the collapse of the Soviet Union .Putin   since   coming to  power  has squared  up to the west in rejecting a unipolar world dominated by the US and with the weakness of the Obama Administration then over Syria and the use of   chemical  weapons against Syrians by their  government , the invasion of   Crimea in  Ukraine in 2014 and  now the invasion of Ukraine ,   Putin is telling the world that Russia will  have its way and does  not need the patronage or support of the west . Putin  has  a fitting ally in   the Chinese  and they  are teaming up  to  make life difficult  for the west  whose priority  any way is to enforce gay  rights and destroy family  life both of which goals are an abomination to both China and Russia . I  doubt  if Gorbachev  will get a state funeral as he is adored far  more in the west than at home  in Russia .Even  that adulation is a source of fury   and    intense  indignation for Putin as he concentrates on using  oil to deal with the EU nations who stupidly under the leadership of former German Chancellor Angela believed that oil pipelines built in cooperation with Russia will not be used as weapons of war .Which is what has happened now  since the west imposed   economic sanctions on Russia for invading   Ukraine .

    Let  us now compare some of the hard headed  decisions that serve no public good at large but which some leaders persist in  executing  just  because they are in power . I do  not agree with the NNPC MD  that it was the right decision to give  oil    pipeline  protection  contracts to  private  companies who  later  use the money to acquire ammunition and rise against the state . It is a suicidal  way for any  government to willingly breed insurgency and rebellion against  itself .There is no sane explanation for that and it cannot be the right decision .Similarly  the Federal  government should do more to help  the states protect their people by allowing them to have state police . It is the wise thing to do and the government should not make non interference in elections its main legacy  when  the issue of insecurity  and the challenge  of forces of insecurity are mammoth and are making security of life and property  the main concerns of millions of Nigerians as they go towards the 2023 presidential and general elections .

    I  see this  sort of decisions with dubious motive and intent in some  issues  especially  with the drive for climate change and the destruction of the fossil  fuel  industry  in the EU nations and the US .An  observer  has  noted that collapsing the oil industry  because of climate change will create  poverty in the developed world . This is because they have no oil,  and prices will  rise and people  are preparing to use coal or wood which was something they did ages ago .What  is the use of preparing the world for the future when one cannot exist comfortably  in the present ? Yet  the Biden Administration campaigned on making climate change its priority  and sees rising fuel  prices and the attendant inflation as hardships to be endured on the way to a green energy world  compatible with its campaign for an energy  free world .I cannot  but marvel at  such misguided and economically ruinous policy and legacy .

    Similarly  the decision of the FBI   in   the US  to invade the residence of former President Donald Trump  lacked foresight and circumspection and the FBI  should  know better . Given that Trump  was harassed    in    office  with the Russian Collusion hoax  which the FBI started and could  not prove even with the Muller investigation  , the FBI should have evolved other ways of letting the former president know that he is violating the rules on how presidents keep classified documents and put him on notice for further action if he did not play  ball .Now  the Facebook  boss has revealed that it was the same FBI  that dropped the hint to the tech giant that Hunter Biden’s lost and found laptop  could be another Russian misinformation. That  was on the eve of the 2020 US presidential election which Trump believed he would have won if the Hunter Biden laptop  content  was investigated  . The FBI  aborted  the investigation and Biden  won. . It  is quite easy for Trump’s  supporters to conclude that the FBI  is up to its old tricks of finding nothing good in Trump both as  incumbent and   past  president  when  on the eve of his announcing his palns to contest again in2024  the FBI  took the unpredecented decision  to raid the house  of a former president .The FBI should  know it stands on wobbly feet in its investigation since it has established malice and hatred for Trump in his one term in office on the Russian collusion and has since lost credibility on any investigation on the same Trump now bracing up to contest for the [presidency again in 2024 . The FBI  should  learn fast that those  who  live in glass  houses should not only  not throw stones  but must  also acknowledge that   in law  , those who come to equity must come with clean hands. In  raiding Trump’s  house mindlessly the FBI  threw caution  to the winds and left its ratings on  credibility in tatters and its legacy and foresight  at an abysmal , dubious low .  Which  is pathetic  for an  investigative  bureau,  indeed .