Category: Round Table

The first set of long awaited 2023 general elections (presidential and national assembly) in Nigeria has come and gone. The candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged the President-elect. However, the national assembly elections seem to have changed the colour of the yet to be inaugurated tenth assembly. The hitherto dominant political parties All Progressive Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party now have two other parties, the NNPP and Labour Party to contend with.

The Roundtable Conversation had on the run up to the elections maintained that even though the center is very important and the presidency seems to be the apogee of political aspirations of the average politician, the legislative arm of government seems not to attract a commensurate attention from the people even when it is one of the important arms of a democratic government.

It is a mark of the slow development of the Nigerian democracy that the executive seems to overshadow the legislature and the judiciary and they are often treated as less important in the democratic system. This seems to be one of the effects of the long period of military interruptions of democracy in the country. It is worthy of note that the first casualty whenever the military intervenes is always the legislative arm and they are always the first to be suspended and military decrees rolled out  by the coupists.

The political philosophers like Baron de Montesquieu that fashioned the arms of government in a democracy understand the human nature and how absolute power corrupts absolutely. The idea of checks and balances is very important in deepening democracy and sustaining its values. In developed democracies, the legislative arm does not kowtow to the executive unlike what obtains in a democracy like Nigeria.

A close observation of the Nigerian democracy since 1999 shows that in real terms, the legislature at both federal and state levels appear to subsume their power under the executive who in turn often assumes imperial powers. To some levels, some legislators seem ignorant of their roles in a democracy and as such often assume that they owe allegiance to the executive. In a young democracy with almost zero political ideology with no structured financial discipline, it is very easy for those who pay the piper to dictate the tune. In a country with very weak political party structures, the independence of institutions or even the arms of government is very important.

It is therefore not surprising that the senate for instance in the Nigerian political system seems to be partly peopled  by the political elite who had either been governors of their states, ministers, political party chairmen or just some other highly placed political players. Since the days of the Chuba Okadigbos, the Jibrin Aminus, the David Marks and many others who came from outside the executive arm of government, the Nigerian Senate has had quite a number of ex-governors.

It is interesting to note that those ex-governors that have occupied their constituency seats at the Nigerian senate have not really been outstanding in any way. In contrast, they have been as ordinary and as unproductive as a people who do not really understand what their duties are. While the Roundtable Conversation understands that democracy takes time to mature, it is equally true that the political class seems not to fully understand  the real duties of the different arms of government.

The executive arm often displays authoritarianism while the legislative arms often abdicate its duties. Sometimes there are the erroneous conclusions to that they do so to show party loyalty or to be in line with democratic norms. Nothing can be further from the truth. The practice of democracy must be on the side of the people always.  This is because democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people.

The just concluded national assembly elections in Nigeria has in a way taught most Nigerians who had hitherto feigned ignorance of the power of the people that truly, the power belongs to the people. In the past, most state governors just seamlessly transited to the senate from the government houses whether they performed well during their tenure or not. Most of them used the levers of authority to manipulate the party primaries to favour themselves. They in turn coerce the populace or use the system to manipulate election results. However, the recent election has seen the people showing their power at the ballots. As many as seven governors failed in their bid to be elected by their senatorial districts to represent them at the tenth national assembly.

Never in the history of Nigeria’s democracy since 1999 has as many as seven incumbent governors lost their bid to become senators at the expiration of their eight-year tenures. The governors of Enugu state, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of the PDP, Ben Ayade of Cross River state of the APC, the Plateau state governor Solomon Lalong of the APC, governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba state of the PDP, the Abia state Okezie Ikpeazu of the PDP, Benue state’s Samuel Ortom of the PDP and APC’s governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state all lost elections.

So despite the criticisms and shortcomings of the just concluded elections, there is progress. Now Nigerians can through the polls tell candidates who they want. The rejection of these governors by the electorate makes a loud statement about the little progress of the Nigerian democracy. Before now, incumbent governors had too much powers, they more or less handpicked their successors, candidates for the legislative houses at both state and federal levels.

The introduction of of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the Labour (LP) also introduced new dynamics to Nigeria’s political party system. The  APC and PDP that had had the field since 1999 in different forms (the APC is a product of a merger of about four other political parties, AC, ANPP, CPC, and a section of APGA). In the 2023 elections, voters in some sections of the country choose candidates of the new kids on the bloc.

The failure of the incumbent governors to win their senatorial bids seems like a referendum on their tenures as governors. If their closest constituency, their senatorial districts can deny them the opportunity to go to the hallowed chambers of the national assembly as their representatives, it means a vote of no confidence on them after having an eight year window to prove their mettle to the people. Not only did most of them fail in their senatorial bids, their ‘hand-picked’ surrogates for other elections in some cases suffered collateral damage  by failing to be elected on the platform of their governors’ political parties.

Democracy is a journey and even developed democracies like the United States still experience challenges every now and then. The only difference is that they have strong institutions that remove the burden from individuals. The fact that the January 6 metaphor in the United States was quelled and is now being legally investigated is a sign that there are no fool-proof measures that are final. The Nigerian democracy is developing and the people themselves must be patient with the system.

The lessons from the failure of these governors and even some top legislators like Ndudi Elumelu, the Minority Leader at the House of Representatives, Senator Uche Ekwunife, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and others to retain their legislative positions in the National Assembly speaks to the fact that the people are watching and feeling the impact or lack of same of politicians.

Nigeria’s democracy is like all democracies growing with each electoral cycle, Nigerians must be patient and realize that democracy is not bought off the shelf but worked on by the people through institutional reforms. There are no perfect systems but every nation tries to build strong institutions that can outlive everyone. Democratic institutions continue to undergo growth in ways that generations would look back and credit even those that have passed with contributions to the system.

The basic fact is that Nigerians are the ones that can shape the democracy they practice. If it is a government of the people for the people and by the people, it then follows that the people have to determine, through institutions to keep learning and correcting the imperfections. The coming governorship and house of assembly elections must be handled by both the government agencies like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the security agencies, the political parties and the people in ways that would give the best outcome.

The Kenyans recently had their elections and given what they had gone through in their past two elections during the election of their former President Uhuru Kenyatta, the system has grown and their democracy has grown as well. With a constitutional review in 2010 that made it illegal for any gender to occupy more than two third of all elective positions it was possible for seven women to be elected as governors over two election cycles. That is growth. Nigeria must grow her democracy too despite the challenges. Congratulations to all winners.

The dialogue continues…

Ahead of the May 29th hand over date for President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency, he has set up a 22-man Transition Committee Council to help facilitate the handing over of power to a yet to be elected President in the February 25th election. The country that has been tensed up by the campaign rhetoric of the political parties and their candidates seem to heave a sigh of relief in an optimistic way that at least, the president is through the committee signaling his commitment to a seamless transfer of power to a new president.

In a way, many political analysts are concluding that a President Buhari seems to want to replicate the gesture by former President Goodluck Jonathan who in a rare display of political sportsmanship conceded to President Buhari after the 2015 presidential election even as a sitting president. As an incumbent who was on the ballot and whose party wanted a judicial resolution as seems to be the norm in some previous elections, former President Jonathan set the peaceful mood that ushered in the Buhari administration. With this action by President Buhari, he seems to be reassuring Nigerians that his government is committed to a very peaceful transition.

In a country that seems to have a huge trust deficit between the people and all tiers of government, there are fingers crossed in optimism. Nigerians are willing to welcome new governments at all levels for both state and federal levels.  It is also interesting to note that the President Buhari has continually assured Nigerians that he intends to bequeath a free fair and credible electoral process to Nigerians.

While that promise is debatable given the nuances of the electoral processes, Nigerians are trusting that having signed the 2022 Amended   Electoral Act which substantially  gives more power to voters and more room for transparency in the electoral process, the hope is that votes will count  and voters would at the end see their power validate the mandate of candidates.

While President Buhari has set up his Transition Committee Council, The Roundtable Conversation is today focusing on urging the 18 Presidential candidates to step back from the campaign trail and begin to plan their actions post elections. Each of the 18 political party presidential candidates are in the race to win and as such there hopes that one of them will emerge victorious after the election. The question is, what plans do they have for victory of defeat?

Going into any electoral contest, either of two things is bound to happen to candidates and their political parties, either a win or a loss. The optimism of candidates for victory often blurs their vision of reality that could mean a loss. What can candidates do with victory or defeat? The Nigerian history of elections has seen violence and peace at different times. While violence preceded destruction and killings, peace is often very fragile and needs a lot to sustain.

Unlike what the world expected before the campaigns started, the campaigns have been a cocktail. The four major Presidential candidates, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the all Progressives Congress (APC), Rabiu Kwankanso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter obi of the Labour Party  (LP) have all been under the media klieg lights campaigning and trying their best to sell their party’s manifesto to the people.

However, the country is seemingly not totally weaned from the divisive political rhetoric that has ailed the country for decades. The political class seems to thread on the old paths of ethnic and religious lines. The ethnic and religious divisions have caused so much pain that the world expects that candidates must be able to navigate their supporters away from those divisive sentiments. 

In his recent State Of The Union address to congress, President Joe Biden was bold to say that America is the only country built on ideas while other nations are built on ethnicity of geography. There is something instructive that Nigeria that fashions its democracy after the American model must learn. The American system might not be perfect but they are the most powerful and economically viable nation whose citizens are from across the world. The idea of a United States of America means more than mere words. If there were no differences, there would be no need for uniting. It therefore means that to be united even in differences can prosper a nation. The country of immigrants has been able to harness their differences for positive development. Nigeria can do the same or even better.

Whoever wins the coming election must have a plan to unite the country and embrace everyone. Politicians must realize that democracy is a system of government that gives the people the power to choose their leaders and that in no way should limit the rights of any citizen on the basis of who they voted for. President Mohammed Buhari’s post inauguration claim of ’97 Vs 5%’ has gone down in history as a most politically vindictive speech by an elected President in Nigeria. That singular statement deeply touched nerves and the prayer of Nigerians is that no President ever tows that path again.

The new President must chat a new cause for unity. The saying that a house divided amongst itself cannot stand has been true of the Nigerian story. A post-independent Nigeria was derailed by some of the so called founding fathers who began to play ethnic politics that seems to have affected the country since then. Even though there are fundamental differences amongst the people of Nigeria, the civil war and the loses ought to have taught Nigerians some lessons. The old lyrics of the old national anthem must be the guiding principle of a better unified Nigeria. ”Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand”.

The political elite must borrow a leaf from the entertainment and Sports industries. These two sectors have through diligence and commitment to the nation continually put Nigeria on the global map. In these two sectors, tribe and tongue never determine inclusion but excellence. These two sectors more than the political field continually unites the country through excellence. In these two sectors, merit and capacity determine inclusion and we feel that politicians must borrow a leaf from them.

The new President that Nigeria would elect must understand that the nation has moved on from the ethnic and religious divides in a globalized world. The old politicians might not be tech savvy but the Gen-Z generation are operating in a totally different world. Technology and the internet seem to blur the lines of difference that the old generation reveled in. Technology has one futuristic language and the young people are not ready to be slowed down by the divisions of their fathers literarily.

The focus of Nigerians is not on the present government because to them, the future starts soon and as such, whoever wins the election must understand that he must come with a healing balm as the people are hurting. The economic and social issues affecting the people must be holistically addressed by whoever wins with the reality that the campaigns are over. Reality sets in after the elections are won and lost. The party that wins can win or lose the people by the way they handle the victory.

The incoming legislature at the federal and state levels must be that that can on their inauguration in June give the people hope of a new day. Since 1999, the Nigerian people have been very skeptical about the legislative arm that earns so much that they are considered one of the highest paid legislatures in the world in a country with 133m people living in multi-dimensional poverty. It might not be business as usual. The political language has changed. The apathy that was shown in past years seems to have given way to active involvement and more participation.

The governors that would be elected and their houses of assembly must gird their loins because the level of political awareness has increased and people are ready to hold them to account. It will be foolhardy to assume that the people would soak in inefficiency and shrug their shoulders and move on. The fact that almost half of the Nigerian population registered to vote during the election must alert the politicians that almost 94million registered voters did not register for the fun of it. They realize now that their voice matters and after their voices are heard at the ballots, they would be ready to hold all elected candidates to account.

  The Roundtable Conversation believes that only dialogue and the right communication and attitude can unite the country post elections. Winners at all levels will emerge as the chosen ones especially if the elections as has been promised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is free and fair and credible. The Nigerian voter is seemingly more aware of the value of their votes more than ever before. Winning elections must come with responsibility and beyond the euphoria of victory. The people would look from transition to performance that starts from the acceptance speech that must set the mood for national reconciliation and unity for a greater Nigeria.

The dialogue continues…

The Nigerian general election is around the corner. The Presidential and National Assembly election would be on the 25th of February while the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections would be held on the 11th of March. Sadly though, there seems to be a general misconception of the real essence of democracy. There are 18 candidates contesting for the Presidency. The National Assembly  and some governorship candidates seem very subdued in their campaigns, most hiding under the influence of most of the major candidates.

This is one of the signs of a very weak political system. The attention is on the center because the presidency in Nigeria is a very powerful position. Not that the presidency is less important or less powerful in any nation but Nigeria is a peculiar case. The loss of innocence just six years after independence with the first military coup seems to hunt the country perennially. The coups and counter coups, the civil war of 1967-70 and post war coups and counter coups seem to have corrupted the essence of leadership in the sense that even civilian governments seem to consistently replicate the ‘command and control’ system of the military.

The country and its political class seem to have groped in the dark for so long as the military years were a seeming cocktail of both the military top echelon and the political elite. In a country that  found oil and saw the benefit of oil boom with excess petro-dollar with little or no visionary leadership over the years, the country seems to have moved in the same path for more than five decades. A nine-year military head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (RTD.) is today globally remembered for his very juvenile assertion that, “Money was not the problem of Nigeria but how to spend it”.

For decades, that statement seems to have become the albatross of Nigeria. The access to the center implies a control of the oil and other resources found abundant in the country. The presidency is seen in Nigeria with a monarchical lens. With a weak system that has not really seen a marked departure from the immediate post-independence style, the center has become like the proverbial nectar that attracts all the bees. The only difference is that while the bees produce honey with its plethora of value, the political class and the military in their hey days merely drew the map of consumerism.

So since September 2022 that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blew the whistle for political campaigns, the country has witnessed a lot of emphasis by the major political parties on marketing the Presidential candidates. The governorship and other candidates seem to hide under the influence of the major candidates who by the way have individually built their political and public lives over the years on individual basis.

Here then is the albatross of the Nigerian political tragedy. There is less emphasis on the legislative arm of government at both the federal and state levels.  The lack of political ideologies by the political parties adds to the complexity. The power structure in the political parties does not make it possible for politicians contesting for posts to stand out and earn their positions based on personal merit in most cases. The judiciary seems overburdened  by the political parties as there have been judicial interventions in the electoral processes that often detracts it from other core roles in a democracy.

It could be tricky for the political elite to find an alibi for the lack of vision and cohesion in the running of political parties by claiming that the democracy since 1999 is nascent. The Roundtable Conversation believes that the development variables like most technological innovations and discoveries that have seen the world change must impact also on the way Nigeria ought to run the republic. Those who bring up the flawed narrative that excuses must be accepted because the democracy is young must have a rethink.

As we watch the presidential candidates campaign across the  country, there are observations that must matter. Because the presidency in Nigeria assumes too much power, other tiers of government like the local and state governments play the Ostrich. Most citizens believe that all the problems they experience are created and thrown at them by the presidency erroneously.

While the presidency ought to and is a powerful position, it is almost like a coordinating  arm of government as it makes policies and has the powers to appoint cabinet that it believes can best interpret those policies with the help of the legislative arm of government. However, the Nigerian political class seems to be blind to this reality of the need for the independence of the three arms of government.

It is funny that while Nigeria prides itself with copying the American presidential system, most of the processes are cherry-picked for their personal socio-political expediencies. The structured political party administration seems to be lacking in Nigeria. The marked ideological differences between the Republicans and Democrats are missing in the political parties in Nigeria. The difference between political parties in Nigeria seem to be that between six and half a dozen and it does not matter whether they are just two or twenty.

The mid-term elections in America is often a referendum on the incumbent president and by extension his political party (‘his’, since America in its more than two hundred years history has never had a female president). In a way, the focus is always on the candidates and that is why each candidate especially at the legislative level makes sure they are held accountable.  While the President does his bit, he too is held accountable, he is independently assessed. Legislators, Mayors and state governors understand that each of them is assessed on their personal merit first and their political party as an icing on the cake. This is why a Democrat can win in a Republican stronghold and vice versa.

If it were in America, most of the legislators that voted out the five gender equity bills in the Nigerian National Assembly would find it difficult to be re-elected to congress. In Nigeria though, there is the problem of illiteracy and poverty that enable most elected officials prey on the people. No nation grows under this situation. The political philosophers like Baron de Montesquieu understands the human capacity to abuse power when they fashioned the possibility for checks and balances amongst the three arms of government.

The loud silence of most legislative candidates on the campaign trail is in line with the long cycle of individuals just hiding under their political parties and/or presidential candidates to access power and at the end of the day, they fail their constituents  while hiding under either party loyalty or executive/legislative harmony/protection. This is one wound that Nigeria must heal for democracy to develop beyond what currently exists.

Nigerians must begin to demand that the pressure on the presidency must be eased for better efficiency and accountability. Checks and balances in a democracy is the pillar that holds democracy. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  As such, a great part of the democratic experience is in allowing the three arms to be independent in the purest sense. The Nigerian legislators are some of the most highly paid in the world, yet they seem to be the least productive and protective of both democracy and the people.

The Roundtable Conversation believes that the weakness of Nigerian democracy as the country goes into another election cycle can be corrected by the people learning that the presidency is important but then a powerful president and a weak or inactive legislature and judiciary cannot develop the country beyond what it now exists.

Nigerians can only help themselves by having a better understanding of the democratic processes that renders functionality and efficiency. The people must interrogate the candidates on their individual merits and shun the idea of voting for those who hide under candidates that have paid their political dues over the years. If Nigeria must pride itself on running the American model of democracy, it must be holistic even if we agree that certain cultural nuances might affect certain choices in some areas.

Since 1999, most state governors operate as emperors in ways that they monopolize power and solely determine who goes to the state and national assemblies based not on the capacity to deliver but other parochial reasons that do not improve the welfare of the people. It is even funny that most governors that were failures in their states manipulate the electoral process and go to the senate to represent a constituency they never made better during their eight year tenure.

The history of the Nigerian legislature since 1999 has not been about the best and most functional going to advance democracy but mostly men who use their economic or political influence to access that arm of government at both state and federal levels. In later years, it got worse with former governors who retire to the senate just to sit out the rest of their lives and  remain politically relevant but contributing little or nothing to national development. February 25th election must be different, Nigerians must elect a legislature that can put the country back on the global economic growth. How did Nigeria become the poverty capital of the world despite its rich human and natural resources?

The dialogue continues… 

ON the 14th of April 2014, 276 students were abducted from the Chibok high school in Bornu state. Though some escaped while a few others were rescued, dozens are still unaccounted for eight long years after the abduction.  There are no serious updates on the progress that the has been made for their rescue. Neither is there information about how the government has rehabilitated their traumatized parents a few of who had reportedly died of heartbreak.

On February 25th 2014, about fifty-nine students of Federal Government College Buni Yadi, Yobe state were killed in their dormitory. Not much has been heard about what the parents received from government either in terms of psychological support, therapy or otherwise. 

On February 19, 2018, 110 school girls aged 11-19 were abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists from the government Girls’ Science and Technical School Dapchi in Bulabulin, Bursari local government area of Yobe state. All but Leah Shaibu, were reportedly released but there are no concrete news about Leah, now the face of school abductions in Nigeria. There are unconfirmed stories about her having been forcefully married and impregnated and her faith changed.

On 26th February 2021, 279 students of Government Girls secondary School Jangebe in Zamfara state were abducted from their school. On September, 13th 2021, 75 students were kidnapped from Government Day Secondary school Kaya, Maradun local government area of Zamfara state. They reportedly later regained their freedom.

On June 17th 2021, 80 students and five teachers of federal government college Birnin Yauri were abducted. Since then, there have been piecemeal rescues by the military and releases by the abductors. However, there are about eleven girls still being held by the abductors and with reports of an alleged marriage of thirteen of the girls.

Recently, the parents of the remaining eleven female students now referred to as the Yauri 11 have cried out in frustration because the abductors are demanding a 100million naira as ransom and the alreadt exhausted parents are resorting to selling off their  properties and crowd-funding to raise the needed funds to secure the release of their children.  

These are just a few of the school abductions in the last few years that have dire consequences for the education system in Nigeria. For a country with one of the world’s highest number of out-of-school children, these school abductions say a lot about the value the country places on not just education but the education of the girl child especially in the Northern part of Nigeria with very low literacy rate.

The Roundtable Conversation is worried that none of the Presidential candidates in Nigeria seems to recognize the very dire consequences of targeted abduction of students especially girls from schools. In most of the town halls and other organized meetings and campaigns, none of the candidates makes any reference to those forgotten students in captivity when they discuss their programme for education.  It is not enough to mention improvement in education and the ending of strikes by the Academic Staff union of Universities (ASUU).

The Roundtable Conversation sees it as a strategic flaw that the candidates seem not to be very aware of the enormity of the attacks on schools targeted at preventing the girl child from being educated.  The United Nations and other global institutions have always emphasized the dangers inherent in any nation that does not prioritize the education of the children. It is even worse when a nation is forced through the Boko Haram antics of discouraging western education to fail to secure the school environment as hundreds of students at all tiers of education, primary, secondary and tertiary education get abducted repeatedly.

If according to UNICEF and UNESCO statistics millions of Nigerian children are out of school and there are increasing numbers of school abductions, then the bottomline is that insecurity scare is the easiest way to disenfranchise parents from sending their children to school. The prognosis is dire for the future of the country where the girl-child is surreptitiously locked out of the classroom.

The implication of an illiterate girl-child growing into an illiterate woman or mother is that the future of her children is endangered and tied to her own poor life. If the saying is that when you educate a woman you educate a nation is factual, then it logically follows that when you do not educate a woman, you have an illiterate population in a world where technology and intellectual content rule.

The Roundtable Conversation had expected that presidential candidates and their political parties in this campaign period would touch on the vice that is the abduction of school children across the land especially the female students who are largely sexually violated and made premature mothers for those who are able to survive the pregnancy and la bour/delivery complications. Most of the child-brides either die, are maimed or develop the dreaded Visco Vaginal Fistula (VVF) a very debilitating outcome of obstructed labour and which often ruins the lives of many who are often abandoned by the same husbands that stole their innocence.

Illiteracy amongst child-brides comes with multiple births and the attendant complications like child mortality, malnourishment, stunted growth and lack of general healthy development and nurturing that brings out the best in a child. The high maternal and child mortality rates in the Northern part of the country are traceable to a highly illiterate female population who do not have the knowledge about simple nutrition and reproductive health.

The Roundtable Conversation feels that our politicians must be held accountable before, during and after elections and that has to be about every candidate. There is sense in which Nigerians tend to only focus on the presidency thereby giving governors and legislators at all levels a free pass. With all the school abductions in the last ten years, possibly less than 5% of the elected governors and legislators in those states and constituencies have intervened in any measurable level in either seeking the rescue of the abductees or even providing any sort of succor to their families.

If democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, the Roundtable Conversation feels that evaluated critically, most politicians in Nigeria seem not to truly care for the people. There seems to be a wide gulf between the people and those paid to serve them. We expected that the hapless students held in captivity for years and months ought to be at the focal point of campaigns but sadly, there is a loud silence as most candidates just regurgitate the regular rhetoric about the education sector.

No nation can develop without the education and health sectors getting priority attention. A 20million+ out-of-school children is too scary for the future of Nigeria and if school abductions are unaddressed with the urgency it deserves, the number will skyrocket in years to come and Nigeria’s future generation might not fit into the modern 21st century and beyond.

The Yauri 11 whose parents have resorted to selling even the houses they live in to raise the 100million naira ransom have complained that governments at all levels have not come to their aid in an attempt to seek the release of those 11 students aged between 12-16. The question is, do the different candidates understand that the parents do not know its election time because they are too distraught  because their children are in captivity?

The main role of government is the protection of lives and property, even though there is general insecurity across the nation, the school abductions must get priority attention given how vulnerable children are. We would not want to be seen as a nation whose children’s future are obstructed by insurgents. The much touted Safe Schools Initiatives with all the counterpart funding from the UN and other organizations must be made to function optimally so that our children, our future can embrace education in its fullness without fear of any form of abductions.

The Roundtable Conversations has been following very keenly the campaign trails of most of the candidates at all levels and we want to see a more robust and realistic focus on school safety and the protection of the girl-child. We acknowledge that both boys and girls and even adults like teachers have been victims of abductions but girls seem to be more in number and suffer the collateral damages like rape and pregnancies.

Political economists across the world have continuously maintained that countries where women are least empowered are always at the bottom rung of development. The 133million Nigerians living in multi-dimensional poverty are mostly women who if empowered by the system can be productive in ways that can boost the nation’s GDP. According to a financial analyst, Betty Wilkinson, Nigeria can do better to improve the gender equity that can empower women being that a huge percentage of small and medium scale industries that boosts economies are controlled by women. She sees the 1% budgetary allocation to women related empowerment issues by the government is too abysmal.

Candidates must go beyond persuading women to vote at elections to protecting girls who eventually grow, if protected to become women who beyond voting would be qualified to seek to be voted for in a Nigeria with one of the lowest gender inclusive ratios in politics. Women candidates across party lines for the 2023 elections are at less than 11%. The dynamics must change and that must start from the cradle through school to adulthood.  

The dialogue continues…

As the year draws to a close, the 2023 elections in Nigeria draw nearer. The campaigns are hitting up but of the 18 presidential candidates, only about four are popular with a large percentage of voters possibly due to their pervasive media presence.  Of the four presidential candidates, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) none is a woman, none has a woman as vice presidential candidate. 

Of the 36 states, only the APC is a major political party that nominated Aishatu Binani, a female candidate for the Adamawa state governorship election. The other three major political parties have no female governorship candidate. The APC was equally the first major political party to nominate the late Aisha  Al-Hassan popularly referred to as Mama Taraba  as its governorship candidate in 2015.

However, for the 2023 general elections, the United Nations Women Office in Nigeria recently disclosed that out of a total of 15,307 candidates that would take part in the 2023 elections, only 1,553 are women. This, the agency said, amounts to a mere 10.1 percent of the total figure. This is very abysmal for a country dealing with about 20 million out-of-school children and a 133 million of its population  (according to the National Bureau of Statistics) living in multi-dimensional poverty.

UN Women Programme Manager in the country, Desmond Osemhenjie stated this during a chat with media executives in Lagos organized by the agency in partnership with Women Radio. According to Mr Osemhenjie, when compared with the 2,968 female candidates that participated in the elections in 2019, women participation is getting progressively worse. Of the 18 presidential candidates, only one is a woman.

 There is however a silver lining in Lagos which leads  with the highest number of female candidates for the 2023 general elections. APC has 102 female candidates while PDP has 72 female candidates. This means that Lagos state is doing much better than other states in gender inclusiveness. The economy of the state is equally proof that a high level of inclusiveness promotes development.

Nigeria trails most African countries in female representation in parliament. With Rwanda with the global highest of more than 60%, the economic growth of Rwanda  rising from a 1994 genocide shows what inclusion can do for economic development. The level of poverty in Nigeria shows that the patriarchal system has had negative impact on the economy and ironically women suffer the most the effects of poverty.

The Roundtable Conversation had followed the congresses and primaries of political parties and discovered that male dominance seem not to be waning anytime soon. There is still the male stranglehold on leadership positions in the political parties and women are still left with the “Women Leader” positions across the parties. To us, that is a veiled affirmation of the second-class citizen that women seem to be consigned to at different levels.

Ironically, the essence of the Women Leader position is merely to organize fellow women to vote for men. The issue is, why do we not have Men Wing of political parties? In some states, there are no women at all in the houses of assembly and so if there are Women Affairs ministries, they are run by men. The issue remains, how do men handle issues like reproductive health and other issues that are best handled by women themselves?

The poverty index in Nigeria can be reduced when the men in politics realize that complimentary leadership pays off in the long run when the best of men and women access leadership. The global economy has shown that the countries with least women empowerment lag behind developmentally. With the level of poverty in Nigeria, it is surprising that men still have ways of sidelining women in politics. The gender equity bills that were thrown out by a majority male parliamentarians significantly tells the story of the political monopoly that men enjoy in Nigeria not out of competence but rather as a result of mere physiological reasons that amounts to nothing in productive terms. It is surprising however that  women excel in sectors where merit is the criteria for growth like in the corporate world, the academia, sports, entertainment etc.

As the election of 2023 draws near, the Roundtable Conversation believes that the conversation must not stop. We cannot raise our voices enough and we can sound like broken record but we must try to salvage a very bad situation. Nigeria is too endowed with both human and material resources to be where it is economically. Political power is the compass that leads to economic development. Leadership matters and if that is the case, then action must be taken by all good people of all genders to right the wrongs as soon as possible by all legal means.

The Roundtable Conversation feels we can do the best we can with the candidates of the various political parties to get more women into appointive positions given that the elections are almost here. Women and other excluded demographics can then re-strategize towards 2027 elections. The equity we seek must be backed with a tireless push to let the men understand that a single broom stick cannot sweep better than a bunch of broom.

We had a chat with a Rights Activist and the Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria and the Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Ene Obi. We started by asking her what women can do at least to make the political parties be fair in appointive positions after the elections seeing that talk is cheap and most of the political parties in the past have reneged on their promises during campaigns about either obeying the constitutional provisions about being fair and equitable or keeping their own political party promises about appointive positions for women as a way of making sure women have a voice and contribute their quota in development of the country.

Ene believes that women now have technology on their side in the sense that today, speeches can be recorded on video and documents can be preserved in many ways so that women henceforth can begin to hold male politicians accountable. Each elected official must be held to account by being reminded of their pre-election promises. She recalls that President Buhari must be reminded that in 2018,in seeking for a second term,  he promised to give women 40% representation. This has not happened.

Women must begin to hold men accountable. The ratio of women to men in the coming election is very poor and there are fears that it might even go lower if women refuse to act. Women must according to her deftly re-strategize for 2027. Women and other demographics like the youths and those living with disabilities must work together to achieve better results. The agencies of both women and the youths can collaborate and choose their political parties which might not necessarily be the frontline political parties that seem to have ignored the voting blocs.

Women can decide to join a particular political party if there is a firm agreement about inclusiveness that is absent at the moment in the so called big political players. Ene believes that the major problem of women in the country is that they seemingly do not have a loud voice in the parliament. Nigeria has a male-dominated parliament with less that 10% of women. Women voices are muted because they cannot be heard in parliaments were the laws are made.

A country like Kenya for instance has seven female governors because of a constitutional amendment that makes it illegal for any gender to have more than two third representation in any election. That can be done in Nigeria with the willpower of women getting into the National Assembly and even state houses of assembly. Women should stop organizing votes for men through the Women wing charade by political parties.  They should aim at occupying more empowering party leadership positions like the Chairperson or secretaries of the political parties. Women need to educate and enlighten more women about the essence of active participation in political parties.

To her, the problems in the country are multi-faceted and women in a way bear the bigger burdens of poverty. With unemployment/underemployment for instance, less young men are able to marry and start families. What that means is that for women that have biological clocks, they might be frustrated and not have children in their prime. This is very concerning because families must grow for an assured future of our country. Women must reclaim our country through active participation.

Women must insist that the imbalance in the National Assembly where the laws can be made and corrected must continue so that women can be at the table for the development of our country. To Ene, women should never  back down. Men are the ones gaining from the imbalance and as such would never voluntarily yield power, women must be ready to legally fight for seats at the table given that women bear the heavier burden of  bad governance. Re-orientating women must be all inclusive not just with the young but with even grandmothers and retired female civil servants because it is a development fight that must be won to ensure a drastic reduction of the pervasive poverty in the land.

The dialogue continues…

IT is a beautiful coincidence that this year’s Christmas is coming a week after more than 2 billion of the world population were treated to the Qatar 2022 World Cup that threw up so many exciting and historical moments the zenith of which was what most football followers and analysts have declared the most riveting and scintillating  finals between the French Le Bleus and Argentinian La Albiceleste teams. Lionel Messi,  one of the world’s best  achieved his life-long dream of winning the much coveted World Cup,  a beautiful reward for his years of dedication, commitment, patriotism and leadership of the national team.

The defending champions, the Le Bleus of France proved their mettle too as the team worked together to  propel their 24 year old striker , Kylian Mbappe to score a heart trick at the final match in a dramatic repeated comeback of the defending champions in a match that went into penalties. At the end, the world broke out  into a joyous fiesta of some sorts not just for the victorious team alone but for the other teams that broke the records and set new ones like Morocco the lone African team to ever reach a World Cup semi-final.

The FIFA World Cup as all other sports was a celebration almost akin to Christmas on global terms. It defied politics, creed, culture and other man-made differences that tend to tear the world apart. The beauty of sports defies explanations. It brings humanity together to share joy, peace and excitement  that garnishes humanity.

The Roundtable Conversation has followed most of the campaigns of the different political parties in Nigeria in the run-up to the 2023 general elections. All the Town Hall meetings and other engagements with different corporate institutions and groups have sadly not  seen the candidates being asked questions about what they can do with sports in general and football in particular given that football has over the last few decades become a multi-trillion dollar business with varied value chains in ways. Most nations and individuals  have invested heavily in the game and that yields amazing return on investments all for immediate, short term and long terms.

Given that Qatar, a Middle Eastern nation with less than three million population took the risk of hosting the FIFA 2022 World Cup having in mind the economic benefits and history in front of them, the Roundtable Conversation is wondering why Nigeria, an oil rich nation with a huge population of more than two hundred million people does not take football as seriously as they ought . As candidates at various levels jostle for elective positions, voters must be concerned about the way each candidate perceives the value of sports. What are their policy plans about investing in grassroots football?

In the spirit of the season, The Roundtable Conversation wanted to point out to the political candidates the multifaceted similarities between the World Cup and Christmas celebrations. They both are celebrations of peace, non-political, economically viable, lucrative,  celebration without bothers and that defies creed/cultural differences. None is limited to any continent or culture.

The Roundtable Conversation spoke with Godwin Dudu –orumen Esq. Lawyer, Journalist and Sports Businessman. We wanted to find out how he views the game of football given the just concluded World Cup in Qatar and the Christmas celebration.  What are the economic or political lessons Nigeria especially political candidates for the 2023 elections take away from the two global events.

As the World Cup celebration of the victory of a Messi and Argentina is still on going, Mr. Dudu-Orumen pointed out that he was excited watching the BBC Sports End of Year awards and it was intriguing to hear everyone at the end of the event greeting each other Merry Christmas with a joyous ambience and greeting of peace.  To hims, here comes a link, with sports, a lot is achievable especially if one remembers the eternal words of late Nelson Mandel where he said that wherever sports is there is a breakdown of regional, continental, religious, economic and every boundary humans can mount. Just like Christmas, sports and especially football bring humanity together in the celebration of peace and the joy of winning. Global football like Christmas preaches togetherness, unity, peace and the attendant commercial undertone that gets to everyone whether they are football fans, Christians or non-Christians.

To him, any country that invests in infrastructure to host football games either at the national league level or for World Cup, club,  continental or regional levels means that  they have developed a thing of economic value that is sustainable in the long run if well-managed and that brings with it the long value chain that helps humanity. Wherever sports exist or Christmas os celebrated, there is peace and everyone benefits.

 In the same vein, everybody irrespective of religious affiliations or even lack of any, benefits from the peace that Christmas brings and the increase in economic activities especially tourism and  other commercial activities that peak during the yuletide. Like football, Christmas and its celebrations across the globe ushers in peace and reference can be made to what happened during the Nigerian-Biafran war, the war was paused because the warring parties wanted to watch the king of football, Pele play at the World Cup. Such is the peaceful impact  that comes with Christmas. It has been reported that even crime rates goes down during yuletide because even criminals celebrate Christmas.

Just like the joy expressed during important football matches, everyone leaves in a happy mood, no one holds back the expression of joy and peaceful relations. Players exchange jerseys and hug each other irrespective of having won or lost matches.  For Christmas too, tourism and gift exchanges have no borders. Christians and non-Christians exchange gifts and share the celebrations. On the field of play, there is no discrimination as players of any team show the value of teamwork by playing alongside teammates be they of any religion.

To Mr. Dudu Orumen, he would vote for the values sports bring all year round and the coincidence of the Qatar FIFA World Cup finale with the Christmas celebrations is a perfect way to end a great year and advance world peace and friendship the way Christmas does. Celebration of football spreads joy and peace the same way celebration of Christmas does for the world too and leaders must take a cue.

He believes that the Qatar  2022  was  the most keenly contested World Cup he has witnessed. The surprise defeat of Argentina in the opening game by Saudi Arabia shook the football world. The defeat of Brazil by Croatia in the quarter finals, the Japanese defeat of Spain at the group stage, the defeat of Portugal by Morocco at the quarter stage shot them into the football records as the first African country to reach the semi-final stage.

The Qatar hosting of the World Cup was both a political and economic decision. Becoming the first Arab country to host a world Cup despite all the scandals of death of migrant workers and bribery allegations is yet a huge step at global peace and inclusion. The enthusiasm by the other Middle Eastern countries for the hosting rights was a huge advancement of world peace. The fact that both Israeli and Palestinian football fans were allowed into Qatar to watch the tournament is a huge step at using sports as a peaceful tool.

Nigerian Presidential and governorship candidates must borrow a leaf from the efforts put in by Qatar at giving the world a spectacular World Cup. The organization was superb and the football community cannot forget the razzmatazz of the game in a hurry. The huge economic benefits are not only for Qatar but for the whole region and also the countries that participated.

For a country like Nigeria with the huge population and resources, it is time to put the money where their heart is. Sports are so undervalued in the country that none of the prominent Presidential candidates has real prominent focus on how he would develop sports when elected. The fact that most of the outstanding players are immigrants in other countries tells the story of how Sub-Saharan Africa has failed to invest in sports especially football. Mbappe, the phenomenal PSG and France player is of Cameroonian and Algerian heritage, Timothy Weah, the son of the only African Ballon D’Or winner now President Weah of Liberia represented the United States of America and scored their first goal at the tournament. Breel Embolo the Cameroonian with Swiss citizenship broke hearts when he scored against his native Cameroon at the group stage. More than half of the Les Bleus are players of African descent.

The question then is, what are African nations not doing right? Why are the leaders not seeing investment in sports as a way of growing the economies and keeping talents at home? Why are the African leagues not as viable as they were decades ago? Why are clubs in Nigeria for instance that produced the Odegbamis, the Okalas, the Babayaros not as viable as before?

The answers must come from the political leaders through their sports policies.  As we celebrate Christmas, the Roundtable Conversation wishes that our political leaders beyond giving out gifts this season would take some lessons from a country like Morocco whose superlative performance at the World Cup was no magic. The nation had been deliberate in investing in sports infrastructure and it has paid off. They have been awarded the rights to host the next Club World Cup. The improvement of their male and female football teams is clear evidence of a nation with eye on the value for investing in football infrastructure.

Happy  Christmas dear readers.

The dialogue continues…