The Nation Newspaper

Category: Vincent Akanmode | Saturday Flakes

  • Robert Orya: Blessed are the greedy…

    Robert Orya: Blessed are the greedy…

    On Thursday, a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Abuja convicted a former managing director of the Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank, Robert Orya, sentencing him to 490 years in prison over a N2.4 billion fraud.

    The judgment delivered by Justice F.E. Messiri sentenced Orya to 10 years imprisonment on each of the 49 counts filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for abusing his position to fraudulently obtain more than N1.4 billion from the bank. The former boss of NEXIM Bank was also said to have incorporated a company while in office, using the names of non-existent persons and others, without their consent, to secure from the bank loans that were never repaid.

    Of course, any rational mind would be alarmed at the news that a multi-billionaire who is obviously above 60 would spend that number of years inside the prison walls. Yet a careful look at the weight of his alleged sins would show that the length of his jail term is not anything above what he deserves. Even a judge with the heart of Jesus Christ would find extenuating considerations hard to come by. Justice Messiri deserves nothing but commendation for his faith in believing that a man already in his 60s can endure a stay in confinement for half a millennium.

    The import of his judgment is such that could warrant making a case for an amendment to the biblical contents of Matthew 5:3-12. Inheriting the earth can no longer be an exclusive right of the meek when a greedy billionaire is availed the chance to endure 490 years in a country where life expectancy is less than 57.

    Needless to say the historic judgment is a win-win for the parties involved. For the boss of EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, it is a vindication of his vow to prosecute the war against corruption in the country to the very best of his ability. Those who have made a job of dragging him and the agency on the social media over the seemingly slow pace of known corruption cases like that of former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, may have to do a reassessment of the anti-graft agency’s efforts on account of Orya’s conviction.

    Still, Orya needs not shed tears except they are for joy. Didn’t the sage say there is a silver lining behind every cloud? If Olukoyede is beating his chest in a gesture of personal triumph, the former NEXIM boss’ sentence could also be a blessing in disguise, all things considered. If nothing else, he should be grateful for the benefits that are bound to accrue from the new life experience that beckons.

    Read Also: Food prices ease under Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, markets urged to reflect gains

    To begin with, his long jail term is a massive opportunity for self introspection in a serene world away from the hurly-burly of Lagos or Abuja. It is a rare privilege to experience life in an atmosphere the iconoclastic afro beat exponent Fela Anikulapo-Kuti called the inside world. In Orya’s new world, his needs will no longer be limitless as to warrant the situation that led him to dip his hand into the exchequer. They will now be restricted to basic one like food, clothing and shelter, on which he may not even need to spend a dime because the government is under obligation to provide them free of charge.

    No longer for him the culture of chasing exotic cars and other luxuries of life responsible for the sins that culminated in his change of abode. It will no longer be his headache if the traffic on our highways and neighbourhood streets are crawling like a three-month-old baby or even stagnate like the Peoples Democratic Party. What the DISCOs or the GENCOs do with electricity will no longer be any of his business.

    His guiding books are no longer Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves or James Hardley Chase’s The Guilty Are Afraid. The Holy Bible, the only source of knowledge guaranteed within the walls of Kirikiri, will now become his definitive text. In the Old Testament, he will learn about the 10 Commandments, especially the verse that says thou shall not steal. In the New Testament, he will also learn about the verse that admonishes us all not to be selfish but “love thy neighbour as thyself”.

    He will realise, too little too late, that there is no wisdom in one public official cornering billions of naira from the public purse in a country of more than 200 million people where the average citizen does not know where his or her next meal will come from.

    In an age when the competition to break into the Guinness Book of World Records has become fierce and stiff, Orya could well beat his chest in self-adulation for the potential to break into not just the Guinness book but also dim the biblical record of Israelites’ 400 years sojourn in Egypt.

  • Tinubu’s misstep: Sadists live up to character

    Tinubu’s misstep: Sadists live up to character

    The moment the news filtered in that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had stumbled during an excursion with President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey while on an official visit to the European country, my instincts told me that his detractors would celebrate the incident as if they had just won the jackpot in a multi-billion dollar lottery. And they did not disappoint as they lived up to expectation in extraordinary manner.

    By Thursday morning, the social media space had been taken over with caricatures of the President in inflated mockery of a fleeting incident, no thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI); the latest tool of mischief foisted on us by technology. Some members of a particular tribe, whose daily preoccupation is to pray for President Tinubu’s downfall so their son could become president, took the mischief further, as they were decked in a ceremonial uniform apparently sewn in anticipation of Wednesday’s incident, dancing hysterically to the sound of Ekwe.

    Some others pre-occupied themselves with taunts on the social media, completely oblivious of the strategic importance of the President’s mission to a country that is not only capable of enhancing our economic fortunes but also positioned to offer a clue for an end to the security misfortune our country has been grappling with for close to two decades, having at various times been accused of aiding its purveyors.

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    To be sure, it was not the first time the President would have such an experience. He had stumbled while climbing the boarding stairs of an aircraft during his campaign tour as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the build-up to the 2023 elections. And as it is customary, his detractors had made a show of the minor incident in the social media, slanting the story to give the impression that he was too weak and fragile for the office he sought. His admirers were, however, quick to counter the narrative, saying that governance is not a job for the feet but one for the head (brain).

     Any fair observer would know that the misstep that caused Tinubu to stumble had nothing to do with lack of fitness. According to his spokesman, Mr Bayo Onanuga, the President simply lost his balance after stepping on a metal object while walking alongside his host. “This is not a big deal except for those who want to make mischief out of a fleeting incident. It was a mere stumble, thank God, not a fall,” he said. What is more, the President continued his engagement as scheduled.

    But how did we get to this point? When did we become a people that glory in the misfortune of others? Who, for crying out loud, is immune to stumbling or even falling? One of the earliest life lessons I learnt is that a man’s greatness is not determined by how many times he falls but how many times he rises after falling.

    What happened to the President in Ankara can happen to even the fittest of athletes. After all, sporting history is replete with cases of agile athletes who stumbled in their tracks and even fell. Lost on Tinubu’s detractors is the fact that the moment he was sworn into office as President, he seized to represent himself, his family or friends and acquaintances alone. He is the symbol of national authority; the face and image of Nigeria and the representative of every citizen, including those who did not vote for him during the 2023 polls.

    It, therefore amounts to self-ridicule on the part of those who chose to taunt him when he stumbled. Mercifully, he is not a weakling who would melt under the weight of such theatrics, much unlike a known presidential aspirant reputed for melting twice on national television, once over the criticisms directed at him by supporters of his political opponents, and once after losing the 2023 election.

    On his part, Tinubu is a leader who has not only developed a thick skin to the coarse invectives often hauled at him by his detractors but has also learnt to take even destructive criticisms with equanimity. “I have stopped visiting the social media. They abuse the hell out of me,” he once declared in a light-hearted manner. Chances are, therefore, that he might not even have seen the caricatures of him in the social media after the Turkey incident. But even if he did, one can rest assured that he is not losing sleep over it. His mission in Turkey is far too serious to be distracted by such inanities.

  • As cynics rage over collapsing food prices

    As cynics rage over collapsing food prices

    I felt for former Edo State governor and current Senator representing Edo North in the National Assembly, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, after the barrage of verbal attacks unleashed on him by uncouth social media warriors during the week. His offence? He granted an interview on a television station, wherein he stated that some Nigerians were saying that food items had become too cheap.

    Responding to a question as to whether the radical reforms promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government were being implemented at the expense of the average Nigerian, Oshiomhole admitted that the government promised radical reforms. He, however, dismissed insinuations that the reforms are hurting the average Nigerian, insisting that the concerns raised by the host were not supported by evidence or verifiable facts.

    “Who are the average persons?” he asked. “You pick these things from the mouths of people.”

    He then issued the interlocutor a challenge, saying, “Have you gone to see people complaining? There are Nigerians now saying food is becoming too cheap.”  

     The engagement had occurred against the background of earlier public outcry that food prices were too high. In fits of exasperation at a time that a 50kg bag of rice sold for more than N100,000, yams competed with gold and pepper with diamonds, online warriors literally tore into President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, calling him unprintable names and wondering whether there was still a government in place.

    In response to the outrage, the Tinubu government initiated policies that resulted in the collapse of food prices. But rather than commend the government for being responsive and responsible, stakeholders in the food and agricultural sector, who felt short-changed by the turn of events, have chosen to condemn it. Thus, for the Tinubu administration, it is a case of damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

    Read Also: Why food prices are crashing, by minister

    Upon my mother’s death in May last year, I travelled to the village for the obsequies. There, I met a brother-in-law of mine who had retired to the village after decades of service in the banking sector. In our discussion on the state of the nation, he was livid about high food prices, blaming it on President Tinubu’s reluctance to reopen the borders for foreign rice and other food items to come into the country.

    By the time I returned to the village in December (about seven months later), my brother-in-law had grown even more bitter with the President than he was previously. Ironically, the source of his anger this time is that food prices had become too low. I would later realise that his anger was stirred by selfish considerations rather than any whiff of patriotism. He had become a cassava farmer in the village, consistently raking in hundreds of thousands of naira, only for the price of cassava to crash, and the years of honeymoon came to an end.

    With the foregoing in mind, it did not come as news to me when Comrade Oshiomhole said some Nigerians were already complaining that food had become too cheap. But the uncouth army of haters on social media saw in his declaration an opportunity to drag the former governor and Tinubu’s political ally. The majority of them even veered off the real issue and resorted to attacking Oshiomhole’s physical appearance and family life.

    But that is not to say there are no exemptions to the online madness. Indeed, some other commentators agreed wholeheartedly with the Edo senator. One commentator said, “That (Oshiomhole’s claim) is the truth. Last week, I bought N1,000 worth of tomatoes and N500 worth of pepper, and I nearly had to hire a trailer to take them home. I could not use all the tomatoes and peppers because they were too many. I had to call my sister to come take half of it because I live alone and could not finish the entire tomatoes.”

    In other climes, cheaper food prices would impel people to roll out the drums in celebration. That, however, is far from being the case in our country, where cynics, pessimists and masochists who have sworn never to see anything good in the administration of President Tinubu have become the opinion drivers on social media. They fear that giving his administration credit where it is due would translate to narrowing the chances of their preferred presidential aspirants in the 2027 elections.

  • Bad times for bandits as Trump’s example catches on

    Bad times for bandits as Trump’s example catches on

    These, surely, are not the best of times for bandits, terrorists and other heartless anti-social elements who for years have made life unbearable for innocent Nigerians in Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Adamawa, Niger, Benue, Kogi, Kwara and other parts of the country. Their cup is full and the security agencies, aided by unprecedented support from America, are poised to return their ‘favours’ in the same measure as they had dished out to hapless citizens. They gave no quarter in the execution of their evil agenda and would get none from the military.

    From Sokoto and Niger to Kogi and Kwara states, the marauding beasts are finally feeling the heat. Their camps are in disarray from ground and air offensives launched by security agents. If the age-long submission of famous physicist Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion was previously lost on them, they must by now have embraced the reality that every action must necessarily provoke an equal and opposite reaction.

    In the perspective of a patriot, the optics from the nation’s security situation in recent weeks can hardly be more gratifying. It all began with American President Donald Trump’s famous social media post in which he threatened that American forces would invade Nigeria “gun-a-blazing” to end what he called genocide against the Christian population. While the debate raged on his flawed claim that only Christians were being killed by terrorists and bandits, the American President made good his threat in the night of December 25 last year with the launch of precision strikes on terrorist camps in Sokoto State. The American President would later announce the gesture as his Christmas gift to bandits who a few days earlier had vowed to make Christmas a moment of grief for the hapless Christian population.

    Trump’s action became a shot in the arm for the nation’s security agents who have since taken the fight to the terrorists in their enclaves in Borno, Kogi, Kwara, Niger and elsewhere. In Kogi State, for instance, the residents could heave a sigh of relief for the first time in many months after a recent invasion of some forests in the state where Ayere and Obajana, two previously obscure communities, suddenly became household names on account of their notoriety as hotspots for kidnapping. The two communities, which are gateways between the northern and southern parts of the country, had become nightmares for travellers.

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    A day hardly passed without a heart-rending story of commuters waylaid by dare-devil bandits who goaded them into the bush and subjected them to untold torture while also demanding as ransoms from their anxious relations sums huge enough to build a modern stadium. In a particularly pathetic instance, the bandits abducted a nursing mother from a passenger bus on her way from Lagos to Abuja, forcing her to leave her teething baby in the commercial bus they were travelling while they marched her and other travellers into the bush.

    The foregoing considered, it is difficult not to be excited by the will Kogi State Governor Ahmed Ododo has demonstrated in the fight against banditry in the state. Announcing government’s breakthrough in a press statement, the Kogi State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Hon. Kingsley Fanwo, attributed the success of the sustained war against banditry and terrorism in the state to series of highly successful precision operations carried out by coordinated joint security forces including the Nigeria Army, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Air Force, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) with support from the Nigeria Police Force.

    He said: “The coordinated strikes and ground battle led to the destruction of several bandits’ camps, the dismantling of their criminal networks and the neutralization of many criminals with several others sustaining varying degrees of injuries. Initial feedback from affected communities has shown renewed confidence in the capacity and commitment of our security forces to decisively end banditry and kidnapping, not only in Kogi State but across the country.”

    Besides Kogi, there have been reports of precision air interdiction operations in Zamfara State, striking Turba Hill and Kachala Dogo Sule’s camp in Tsafe Local Government Area, which, according to the Director of Public Relations and Information of NAF, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, engaged multiple active structures, “triggering intense fires that destroyed bandits’ facilities, neutralized many of them and crippled the group’s IED production and deployment capacity. In Sokoto, troops of the Lakurawa terrorist group are being forced to migrate towards Niger Republic as the heat from air strikes becomes unbearable.

    Unfortunately the security agents have not only the bandits and terrorists to contend with but also the army of cynics who see nothing in the successes being recorded against the anti-social elements. The cynical reactions, especially on the social media, are such that leave one wondering who their authors are supporting between terrorists and the nation. In extreme cases, many of them serve as informants to bandits and even supplied food, fuel and weapons to them in their hideouts. Even the traditional media is complicit in many cases. They gleefully report every incident of killing or kidnapping by terrorists but look away when security agents turn the table.

    But whether they like it or not, Nigeria is winning the war against banditry and terrorism. Only last week, Nigeria took delivery of new weapons from America; a reassuring development after Trump’s pledge to work with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for an end to the dare-devil groups.

  • Time to fish out the non-Fulani bandits in our midst

    Time to fish out the non-Fulani bandits in our midst

    Nothing can be more cheering than the news that after the initial dust raised by President Donald Trump’s threat to invade Nigeria with American soldiers gun-a-blazing, the United States of America is willing and ready to work with the Nigerian government in the effort to rid our country of Boko Haram, ISWAP, bandits and other terrorist groups responsible for the unrest and disorder that have been the lot of the country in recent times. Trump’s threat had been hinged on the belief that the killings, kidnappings and other violent acts in the country were targeted at the Christian population. But after days of dialogue between the leadership of the security agencies of the two countries, President Trump and America appear now persuaded, if not convinced, that the entire population is at the mercy of bandits and Islamist groups.

    The widely held belief before now was that the killings and kidnappings around the country were being perpetrated exclusively by a particular ethnic group, namely the Fulani. Recent indications, however, are to the effect that any genuine hunt for the perpetrators of these violent acts must not overlook the reality of internal collaborators in the various communities where the killings and kidnappings are taking place. For instance, from the Okun (Yoruba) part of Kogi State, which has lately become a hot spot for the evil practices, I have grown weary of complaints by concerned residents that many of their young men and women are now actively involved in the malady.

    Worried callers from the affected communities have hinted at least three incidents in recent times, which would convince any doubting Thomas that banditry is no longer an exclusive activity of a particular tribe or ethnic group. The first concerns the alleged killing of a young woman alongside suspected kidnappers by security agents who were combing one of the Kogi bushes believed to harbour bandits and kidnappers. Strangely, the death of the young woman was said to have attracted even a scintilla of sympathy for the slain woman or her family because it was generally believed that she met her Waterloo in the process of supplying food to bandits in their camp.

    In another suspicious development, a pastor based in Ayetoro-Gbede, an Okun (Yoruba) community in Ijumu Local Government Area, was said to have been abducted together with his Lagos-based wife, who had come on a visit. But while the couple was kidnapped around Ayere, their abductors directed that the N21 million raised for them as ransom should be kept at a particular spot in Ayetoro-Gbede, where the pastor was based and which is more than 50km away from the place where they were abducted.

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    In yet the third and most intriguing proof, a young man abducted with 17 other travellers around Oshokoshoko, a community between Kabba and Obajana where Dangote has a cement plant, managed to escape after two horror-filled days of a long trek through bushes and rivers, and finally found himself in Kabba town where he met three men chatting and decided to share his experience with them. But to his utter shock, one of the men, oblivious that the escapee understood enough Yoruba to know what he was talking about, picked up his phone and started asking the person at the other end why they allowed one of their abductees to escape!

    “He spoke in their local dialect. But even though I am an indigene of Benue State, I understand enough Yoruba to get what he was saying. It immediately occurred to me that the people I was telling my story to were part of the kidnapping ring. I told them I wanted to urinate and seized that chance to escape,” the young man said in a viral video.

    Before now, there had been testimonies by some victims of kidnapping in Yoruba land that their abductors were not Fulani but fellow Yoruba who were dressed like Fulani men. As far back as 2021, Suleiman Akinbami, an oil dealer abducted by kidnappers in Ekiti State, told newsmen after regaining his freedom with payment of an undisclosed sum as ransom, that his abductors were either Yoruba or they had lived long enough in Yoruba land to speak the Yoruba language with such fluency and grace.

    Akinbami said, “They spoke good Yoruba and good English. I want to believe that they have been in Yoruba land for a long time, if they are not Yoruba. They spoke good Yoruba. They spoke good English as well. They claimed to be jobless graduates.”

    The foregoing merely underscores the point that has been made by security experts for years: that security issues are not the exclusive preserve of security agents. Whether we know it or not, it is everybody’s business. We abandon the responsibility to security agents only at our own peril. Kidnappers are not spirits. They have kith and kin and live among people. The onus is on the members of the communities where they live to raise the alarm once they suspect their ways are short of the expectations of honest or upright people.

  • Vintage Obasanjo at Fayose’s 65th birthday

    Vintage Obasanjo at Fayose’s 65th birthday

    Former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, obviously made no room for a spoilsport when he set out for the celebration of his 65th birthday last Saturday. But it is one of the realities of human existence that issues never contemplated sometimes tend to override and overshadow others that were planned for. That is the basis of the popular Yoruba prayer that God should not disrupt our plans with occurrences that were never contemplated. The ex-governor and his wife probably overlooked this important supplication as they prepared for his birthday party with an invite to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was a case of trouble dey sleep, yanga go wake am.

    The birthday celebration had begun on a high note with bold congratulatory adverts on the front pages of major newspapers, featuring the good wishes of no less a VIP than President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Determined for a birthday party that would define the social milieu of the outgoing year, Fayose thought he could push his luck a bit further with an invitation to the rambunctious former president, but that became his undoing.

    On receiving the invite, Obasanjo, who was in far away Kigali attending a conference, abandoned everything else and jumped on billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote’s private jet with eyes fixed on the Lagos venue of the birthday party. His arrival at the gathering naturally drew a rapturous applause, particularly from those in the know of the no love lost relationship between the two statesmen since Obasanjo orchestrated Fayose’s impeachment as Ekiti State governor in the early part of the Fourth Republic.

    As the sitting President, he had sent the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after Fayose over a poultry project embarked upon by the latter. On the basis of the anti-graft agency’s findings, the Ekiti State governor was removed from office while Obasanjo appointed a sole administrator in his place. Since the ugly experience, Fayose has not spared any opportunity available to him to lash out at Obasanjo even at public functions. He accused Obasanjo of corrupt practices as President for compelling governors elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to contribute N10 million each to his presidential library in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He has also insisted on Obasanjo returning the N10 million he contributed to the library during his second stint as the governor of Ekiti State.

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    It was against this background that Obasanjo showed up to a very warm reception at Fayose’s 65th birthday, as many at the gathering saw his presence as an obliteration of their querulous past and the beginning of a new chapter in their inter-personal relationship. How wrong.

    As it later turned out, Obasanjo’s hasty departure from Rwanda to Nigeria was motivated not by his love for Fayose but by an opportunity to take yet another pound of flesh from the ex-governor.

    The moment the former President held the microphone, rocked from side to side and paced the floor in serious motion without movement, it was clear to any discerning mind that the former president was up to something sinister. In front of an attentive crowd in which many had thought that Obasanjo was at the occasion to sing Fayose’s praises, the former president began his speech as a special guest of honour by recalling the instances that Fayose had insulted him and expressing shock that Fayose couls muster the courage to invite him to his birthday party.

    He said: “Some people called me and said ‘we heard that you are going to attend Fayose’s 65th birthday; have you forgotten how he abused you?’ I thanked them for reminding me and told them that he remains one of my children irrespective of his character. The Yoruba say ‘A kii le omo buruku f’ekun paje (you don’t drive your stubborn child for the tiger to devour)’. You are not the best of my political children, but you have made achievements that must not be ignored.”

    Obasanjo then told the gathering that Fayose had to suborn a former minister, Osita Chidoka, to sound him out before summoning courage to invite him to his birthday.

    He said: “You could not come to me directly because you knew that you had not done so well by me. I told Osita to tell you that he had delivered the message you sent him to me. You later called me and I said you could come to see me at any time. Even at that, you could not come directly to knock at my door. You sent Foluso ahead of you, who came before you to gauge my feelings and pulse, after which you arrived about an hour later.

    “When you came to me, you called your wife, and while on the phone with your wife, I said that the two of you have not done well. Mo ni eyin mejeji kii se omoluwabi (I said that both of you are not well-behaved people). And your wife completely disarmed me. She said, ‘Yes, Baba, you are right; please, forgive us’. What else can I do? You have asked for forgiveness and I have forgiven you. But the right lesson must be learned.

    The former President went on and on, touching on various issues intended to at least humble Fayose if he was not able to humiliate him. Not one to allow such shenanigans pass without a response, the former Ekiti State governor has since made public the text message he sent in response to all that Obasanjo said at his birthday, saying that the former President belongs to nowhere else but the zoo.

    Personally, I will be surprised if Fayose is surprised that Obasanjo did what he did at his birthday, given the former President’s predilection for acting as a spoilsport. For instance, in the heat of the widespread agitation for the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola’s mandate from the annulled June12, 1993 presidential election, Obasanjo came from the blue when his voice mattered the most, and declared that Abiola was not the messiah Nigeria needed. As the President elected on the platform of PDP, he tricked the opposition Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors in the Southwest states to lose their seats to his party with a deceptive alliance and did everything he could to frustrate Tinubu as the only surviving AD governor in Lagos.

    Even his biological son once dragged him to court, accusing him of flirting with his wife! The crocodile that ate its own eggs, what else would it hold sacred? Playing the spoilsport is a calling Obasanjo himself can do nothing about.

  • Trump, not Nigeria, is of particular concern to the world

    Trump, not Nigeria, is of particular concern to the world

    Since Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ugly encounter with American President Donald Trump in the latter’s Oval Office in Washington DC on February 28, I have come to the conclusion that the American President is a bully who thinks nothing more of power than a tool for oppression. In the midst of Ukraine’s war with Russia, President Zelensky had visited Trump at the White House to discuss a minerals agreement and secure continued US support for Ukraine in her fight against Russia’s invasion. But about 40 minutes into the meeting and in front of dozens of cameras in the room, Zelensky found himself sandwiched between President Trump and his deputy, J.D. Vance, as they derailed the meeting and minerals deal and descended on their guest in an unprecedented public confrontation between an American President and a foreign head of state.

    Trump, a supposed ally of Zelensky in Ukraine’s war with Russia following the latter’s invasion of the former’s territory, wanted Ukraine to agree on a ceasefire with Russia in order to halt hostilities and work towards a comprehensive peace deal. Trump, a known friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, suddenly came to the decision that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s invasion of her territory. He then went on to tag Zelensky, the weaker party in the dispute, as a dictator! Nearly all of US allies, along with other global figures, voiced their support for Zelensky, with many issuing statements to rebuke Trump for his confrontational disposition.

    Three months later, it was the turn of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to get the Trump treatment. In a pure case of ambush, President Trump, in the middle of a meeting with Ramaphosa inside the same Oval Office at the White House, called for the lights to be dimmed so he could play a video to back up allegations of genocide against white South Africans. A thoroughly embarrassed Ramaphosa sat mouth agape as Trump hauled at him allegations of racism and mass murder of white South African farmers. The South African President tried to push back on Trump’s assertion, admitting that there is “criminality” in the country but most of the victims are black, but Trump was neither persuaded nor convinced.

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    The same Trump has engaged China, Canada and other countries around the world in unwarranted diplomatic rows, embarrassing his countrymen and almost subjecting them to ridicule in a tax war with China. A man whose successive marriage to three different women collapses is certainly the one in need of self introspection.

    As it has turned out, Nigeria is confronted with the fate that befell South Africa at Trump’s hands with another unfounded allegation of genocide against Christians leveled by Trump against the Tinubu administration. The American president had Friday last week shocked the country with a post on X (formerly Twitter), accusing Nigeria of genocide against its Christian population. And while the populace was trying to come to terms with the bombshell from the blue, he made another post, threatening to invade the country with American soldiers “gun-a-blazing”.

    Ordinarily, news of American soldiers coming to complement the efforts of our armed forces in the bid to end the reign of terror that has been unleashed on the nation for more than one and a half decades should gladden the heart. But the antecedents of both Trump and America in such matters would be a cause for concern for any patriot. Similar interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other countries before now have ended in regrets for the populace. In most cases, the interventions are based on fallacies aimed at pursuing the selfish economic agenda of America.

    In the case of Nigeria, there are already enough grounds to believe that the fate that awaits it in the event of an intervention would not be any different from those of Libya, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan where America had previously called the dog a bad name in order to hang it.

    A more viable option would be that America supports our armed forces with cutting edge arms and other military equipment to help our soldiers in the fight against terrorism. But while Trump is not oblivious of this alternative, he finds President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ‘sins’ against him and the American nation too serious to be dealt with remotely. Observers say he has not forgiven the Nigerian President over his alleged support along with other democrats like French President Emmanuel Macron for Kamala Harris, the democrats’ candidate in the election that brought Trump into office, for fear that Trump as American president would be a veritable threat to world peace.

    Added to the foregoing is the quiet economic revolution the Tinubu government is steering in Nigeria. If any country or head of state is in love with the strides in the nation’s economic sphere, it certainly cannot be America or Trump. Before now, the US had reaped bountifully from refining our crude oil and exporting same to our country to deplete our foreign reserves. But with the Dangote Refinery now in full operation and other indigenous ones coming on board, the nation no longer has to depend on the US for her fuel needs. This does not only mean a huge loss of revenue for the US, it is also a huge loss of jobs for its populace. Many US refineries whose survival depended on Nigeria’s crude are said to have folded up. Besides, the naira has stabilised and has continued to appreciate against the dollar.

    It will be clear from the foregoing that Trump’s outbursts and threats against Nigeria are products of a frustrated mind.

  • Why Nigerians mocked Sowore

    Why Nigerians mocked Sowore

    To come right out with it, this piece is a response to the surprise expressed by Farook Kperogi, a US-based academic and public affairs commentator, that some Nigerians could mock politician cum human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, after his encounter with the police during the Free Kanu protest in Abuja on Tuesday. Sowore, the emeritus chairman and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), no doubt surprised even himself as he nearly broke Usain Bolt’s 100 metres sprint record at the instance of the teargas fired by policemen on patrol during the protest he led for the release of Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

    A video that went viral on social media later that day showed Sowore as he gathered momentum at the sight of a police patrol van, and bolted at the sound of teargas without alerting his fellow protesters of imminent danger. The result was the arrest of eight protesters who, according to the Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, were taken into custody for contravening a court order restricting them from certain parts of the federal capital city.

    In a post on his Facebook page, US-based academic and public affairs commentator, Farook Kperogi, could not help wondering why Sowore was being mocked by his detractors for voting with his feet at the sound of teargas from an advancing police vehicle.

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    He said: “I honestly can’t understand why some Nigerians are mocking Omoyele Sowore for retreating after security forces fired what sounded like live rounds during the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in Abuja today. They are cynically framing it as cowardice. Really?

    “So bravery now means standing unarmed before flying bullets? And if he had died, they would have called him foolhardy. You may disagree with his politics, which is entirely legitimate, but you can’t deny that Sowore has the courage of his convictions.

    “He’s out there risking his life, comfort, safety and freedom for what he believes in, while most of his critics never stepped beyond their keyboards.”

    Ordinarily, a citizen in Sowore’s situation should attract public support and sympathy, even though his choice of protest as second nature was a personal decision. Protests and agitation are critical ingredients of democracy and governance, especially in a pluralistic society like ours, and Sowore has ridden the crest of them since his days as a students’ union leader in the early 1990s. Asking him to live without engaging in protests now is like asking a fish to live without water. He is now so used to protesting that when there are no issues to protest against, he creates one. That probably informed his decision to launch the agitation for Kanu’s release via public protests while the IPOB leader’s kinsmen were busy working out legal and political solutions.

    While Kperogi may have seen Sowore as a hero by his decision to swallow Paracetamol for another person’s headache, it is not so with many Nigerians who see him as nothing but a busybody  desperate for public attention. One man’s meat, after all, is another man’s poison. Besides his scant regard for constituted authorities, Sowore is yet to imbibe the twin virtues of respect and humility, which have repeatedly brought him into conflicts with people in authority and created a gulf between him and others whose sympathy he ought to gain.

    In the instance of Kanu, Sowore’s case becomes even more complicated. Based on the atrocities committed by the foot soldiers of the IPOB leader, he was arrested and kept in prison. He was, however, granted bail in April 2017 only for him to flee and launch vitriolic attacks on the country from his base abroad, using the armed wing of IPOB known as the Eastern Security Network. During the ENDSARS riot in 2020, he seized the opportunity of the crisis to bark orders to his foot soldiers from his Radio Biafra on who and where to attack in Lagos, Port Harcourt and other Nigerian cities.

    Unfortunately for him, he was re-arrested in Kenya in 2021 and brought back to Nigeria, following which he was arraigned for acts of terrorism. The prosecution has since closed its case, while Kanu and his lawyers decided to embark on legal gymnastics when it was time to open their defence. In the midst of all this, Sowore saw an opportunity to hog the spotlight and seized it with both hands. He allegedly approached some Igbo political leaders, who declined support for any form of public protest, preferring a legal and political solution to the matter. Disappointed at their response, he turned to some undiscerning Igbo traders and apprentices, suborning them into the unwholesome project.

    Considering the weight of the allegations against Kanu, which border on the killing of innocent Igbo and non-Igbo indigenes by the militant arm of IPOB, calling on the authorities to set its leader free without trial is most insensitive. While no one has declared Kanu guilty of the allegations, it is only fair, even to him, that he makes maximum use of the opportunity he has to defend himself in court. Sowore should put himself in the shoes of the family members of the military couple allegedly beheaded and turned into mincemeat by some IPOB members, among other dastardly killings, as well as the mass destruction and jailbreaks facilitated by the groups during the 2020 EndSARS protests and judge whether it is fair to set Kanu free without trial.

    Considering the momentum of grandstanding he built before the protest day, the personal aggrandizement behind his desperation to lead the Free Kanu protest, the insensitive nature of the protest with regard to the families and relations of the victims of Kanu’s violent agitation and the anti-climax that attended the entire project, it was difficult not to laugh when Sowore burst into speed at the sound of teargas.