The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Orebe

  • Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji’s paradigm shift in Ekiti

    Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji’s paradigm shift in Ekiti

    He breaks the existentialist neurosis of political disorder that forces fanatical support for partisan platform that offers no prospect for life’s enhancement”.

    “He shatters the historical animosity of the past to create a fresh momentum for a political culture that emphasises the mobilisation of divergent tendencies for a collective aspiration. He knocks the doors of erstwhile foes at dawn and comes back home cackling in his spirits, waking a new riveting consciousness that compels erstwhile worst enemies to drink from the same cup of unity”.

    “A political surgeon of deft moral assay, he, like in the miracle in Cana of Galilee, rips the manacles, and turns Ekiti State hate-infested waters to the sacramental wine of love and amity.

    That is Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), the innovative governor of Ekiti State who is everyday turning the sod for peace, to build a new state that thrives on communal fraternity for a virile and prosperous society”.

    Through his virtues of ingenuity, such as imagination, adaptability, creativity, flexibility, and the ability to respond rapidly to unexpected situations, Oyebanji drew up imaginative new approaches to problems that have ailed the state over the years” –

    I have quoted at this length from Wole Olujobi’s recent ‘Ekiti Council Poll As Litmus Test For Oyebanji’s Acceptability’ for two reasons.

    Apart from being such a fascinating writer, the author of ‘Pen In The Furnance’, a copy of which sits resplendent in my library, Wole is unarguably an authority on Ekiti political evolution in the 21st century and, having held key positions in the state’s government, he writes from an unimpeachable knowlege of his subject; the reason he talks about “the problems that have ailed the state over the years”. Chief of those problems – political bitterness – is what engages us here today.

    More germane to the instant, however, which is the second reason is the fact that Wole stepped straight into my former role  as about the most consistent, and regular, chronicler of contemporary Ekiti politics. That fact needs further elucidation.

    This column – for the first two years in the COMET – coincided with the second coming of the rambunctious, former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he, hand in hand with the Nigerian judiciary,  thoroughly peppered Ekiti people, and turned our peaceful state to one of ‘one day governors’ and inchoate impeachments.

    That was when the column emerged as a beacon of hope for our beleaguered people. However, because my colleagues in The Nation on Sunday did not know what salutary role the column was playing in the lives of Ekiti people, they branded me ‘ the ‘Ekiti Columnist’ since at least two out of three weeks, my article would be  on political developments in the state.

    So timely was it, especially in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, and at Igbara-Odo – Ekiti, in the house of our recently departed leader, Chief Akosile, throngs of Ekiti people would gather, after Sunday service, to have the column read aloud to them. Following morning, copies of the newspaper would be despatched to various parts of the state from the party headquarters in Ado -Ekiti, the state capital, to enable our people know that there was still hope in the courts despite PDP and President Obasanjo’s almost complete capture of the judiciary. That was a time when a slew of judges of Northern extraction  were intentionally empanelled on all Election Tribunals in the Southwest to do President Obasanjo’s bidding. The period slightly predated Mama Iyabo’s ( a tribunal Chairman) disappearing abracadabra in Ekiti.

    The column bravely and admirably gave succour to our people, by stoutly defending the people’s cause, and stood up to our opponents’ machinations, until the Appeal Court Ilorin, Kwara state, declared Fayemi winner on 15 October, 2010.

    That judgment gladdened me a great deal because On  Sunday, 23 May, 2010, I had written the article: “Why Justice Salami must assume jurisdiction in the Ekiti case” because he was obviously one of the few judges who could still stand up to President Obasanjo.

        I digress.                   

    For us in Ekiti, it was just as well that Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji won the Ekiti governorship election of 18 June 2022 in which many of the other candidates were key perpetrators of, or victims of political bitterness; both inter and intra party, as friends were known to have serially turned on friends. I personally inter- mediated some of these, but sorry to say,  there still were some who did not exchange greetings in years.

    The bitterness, indeed enmity,  which Governor Oyebanji  has hopefully ended was so deep and entrenched, supporters of some of the  leaders could have killed for their principals without batting an eyelid if asked to do so.

    He appears to me to have, a priori, that is,  before becoming governor, personally, decided never to inherit anybody’s enmity; an enmity that  has torn apart the friendship, and mutual respect which had subsisted within the Ekiti young political elite, nearly all of who were members of Club E – 11, until politics scattered that very impactful association.

    In consequence, a political elite on which Ekiti  had invested great hopes soon became so splintered that for a very long time, mutual bitterness became the defining element in the  state’s politics with huge negative consequences.

    It will, however, be a lie from the pit of hell to say there were no development in the state in those years but even the most impactful of our governors would confess that he could have done much more were the atmosphere conducive.

    What the governor has done, as  captured by Olujobi above, and how he has, almost miraculouslly healed the land by extending a hand of friendship to all, across political divides, unarguably proves more than my thesis that he is only a synthesis of the two governors with whom he worked the most, namely:   governors Otunba Niyi Adebayo, easy going and too focussed to waste any time holding grudges against anybody, and the pragmatic Dr Kayode Fayemi, who is busy trying to extend the frontiers of knowlege and its application to society’s development via his multi – sectoral engagements, home and abroad.

    I concluded the article – ‘BAO: An Apple Does Not Fall Far From The Tree’ of 15, October, 2023 writing as follows: “In conclusion, I commend the governor for internalising, not only his good home upbringing, but for also bringing to bear on governance, everything he learnt at the feet of his two remarkable bosses. Indeed, of a truth, an apple does not fall far from the tree”.

    Read Also: Governor Oyebanji’s one year in office

    I  also wrote in the same article: “For Ekiti state as a whole today, there is unbelievable peace; a state of affairs for which we Ekitis are all  obligated to the gentleman governor in the saddle. Completely across board, and irrespective of political party, BAO has extended a hand of not just fellowship, but  of distinct respect to all Ekiti and, in particular, to many Ekiti titans who, for decades, were bitter political enemies”.

    Rather than see him then simply as a synthesis of two bosses, I will slightly modify that and offer the following as the factors  that dictated his path.

    Having been long involved in the affairs of the state, indeed straight from  it’s very creation, the governor must have watched, in awe, as to  how a total lack of unity among our young political leaders  negatively impacted the state; especially its overall development,  and (he) must  have promised that he would do everything to change that trajectory of mutual hatred if he ever had the opportunity God has now given him. Also in order to fundamentally effect that change, he must have equally promised to inherit no negative political vibes from any quarters, and to do that effectively, he must have drawn from his home Christian upbringing, honed on  what Christ described as the second great commandment in Matt. 22:v 39:  “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”.

    In my view, it is on that solid basis that he must have permitted himself to be further impacted by Governor Ayo Fayose’s love for all, without malice or any pretensions, whatever, as well as Governor Oni’s  humility, without any airs at all,  because, in and out of office, Governor Oni remains his quintessential self – a gentleman.

    A combination of all these attributes is what I believe that Governor Oyebanji has brought to the table, complete with his own now, well known, quiet disposition, and strong determination, to see Ekiti  develop during his own administration.

    Just as well, then, because Ekiti could barely have survived another 8 years of the meretricious experiences it has endured, especially, since the return to democracy in 1999 when our political leaders did not find it possible to  agree on single subject across party lines.

    It was more like a generational curse because everything was, unfortunately,  reduced to politics, bitter politics and much more bitterness.

    Concluding , therefore, as we inch towards Christmas, I urge all of us Ekiti, to approach the throne of mercy pleading, that He, in whose memory we celebrate the season, will grant  us our innermost wishes chief of which is that the present all – round peace  pervading our state will endure. Also, that the good Lord will continue to  give our governor, his family, our people and Nigerians in general, good health, and the wherewithal, to survive these very hard, and harsh times, which the President, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is doing everything to turn around for the better.

    Amen.

  • When courts push back on lawyers filing frivolous cases: The Imo example

    The judiciary has set many states and institutions on fire. The judiciary has set Imo state on fire and up till now, people are wondering how a person who was not a candidate of his party be declared the governor”.

    “The judiciary has so many questions to answer. If they fail to answer those questions within a short time, we will create a hall of shame for those judges that come up with some judgments and that could happen soon” – Above is another perspiring, not even aspiring, ‘lawyer’;  the forever, ethnically-motivated politician, Joe Ajaero, always pretending to Labour Leadership as he gallivants  all over the country, spreading some partisan nonsense until he met more than his match in some no nonsense Imolites.

    It is interesting that matters pertaining to the same Imo state has claimed another victim with a member of the inner bar being fined for what the Supreme court described as his frivolous and vexacious motion. 

    Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) is, of course, far too rich to feel the pinch of a ‘mere N40M’ fine.  Being a senior lawyer, however, and a professor of Law,  to boot, those lawyers always eager to handle cases they should, otherwise, have advised their clients to run away from will, at least, see this as a learning curve.

    Had the courts, the Apex court in particular, made samples of some of those who specialise in  making lurid comments about the judiciary, an example being Joe Ajaero and his ‘hall of shame’ proposal, some sanity would have since been restored in this perennial war against the Nigerian judiciary.

    Yes granted that there has been some back and forth in the matter of whether or not the Apex court can reverse itself, it was obvious in this  particular case,  that what Chief Ozekhome was trying to do was  renew, in a  somewhat refined manner,  Obidients’ determined effort to mess up the judiciary. This he will deny, even laugh at, being who he is, but millions would see it as further delegitimising the apex court.

    But like the Yoruba would say:’ti omode ba gbon ku, iya e a gbon si’, meaning that if a devious child died cleverly, the mother will cleverly bury the remains. The supreme court has, through this case, proved that it will not help those who are eager to put it into disrepute.

    That is the lesson Professor Ozekhome should learn from this macabre case in which he claims that all he wants of the court is a consequential order.

    Even if the Supreme Court had cause to reverse its dismissal of  GTBank’s appeal against a N2.4 billion judgement given in favour of Innoson Motors Nigeria Limited by the Court of Appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State, the court, not eager to aid its traducers, found it advisable, this time around, to revert to its decision in the appeal filed by Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, on the same Imo state governorship matter wherein Justice Ariwoola, with the concurence of the other seven panelists, minus one, held as follows:”A judgement or order shall not be varied when it correctly represents what the court decided nor shall the operative and supportive part of it be varied and a different form substituted,’  quoting Order 8 Rule 16 of the Supreme Court Rules. “It is settled law, he continued, that this court has no power to change or alter its own judgement or sit as an Appeal Court over its own judgement. It is clear from the tone and the wording of the instant application that what is being sought is asking the court to sit over its own judgement already delivered and executed. That is certainly beyond the competence of this court. It is not disputable that the jurisdiction of the court is derived from the Constitution and an Act of the National Assembly. There is no constitutional provision for the review of the judgement of the Supreme Court by itself. And, therefore, once it delivers its final judgement, the Supreme Court, subject, of course, to the slip rule principle, it becomes functus officio in respect thereof.”

    Read Also: Agric revolution will help Nigeria surmount insecurity, poverty – Shettima

    A Daniel has, indeed, come to judgment. Otherwise, I would urge the reader to momentarily consider what amount of opprobrium would have descended on the court, and the Nigerian judiciary, in general, had Ozekhome had his way, and what helluva challenges an obviously,  security – challenged Imo state would have had to  contend with, having to navigate afresh, the debacle that would have been brought down on it.

    A sample of that opprobrium on the Nigerian judiciary is Kano state NNPP’s thoughtless petition to some foreign bodies claiming “that there are  moves to truncate the will of the majority of the people of the state regarding the mandate given freely to its governorship candidate on March 18, 2023”.

    If one may ask, what exactly are they afraid of, and why would they seek to intimidate the Supreme court rather than allow it decide on the two issues of its candidate’s eligibility and the number of votes not duly processed.

    With the respected Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, holding that only 1,886 ballots were without signature and stamp,  as against the 165,616 votes deducted from Governor Yusuf’s votes by the Appeal court, I cannot see any reason for scaremongering which was all the party resorted to by unnecessarily externalising an internal matter. Under no circumstances should Nigerians allow the judiciary to be turned to an object of derision as politicians would willingly do.

    I digress.

    While at this, I think we should spare a thought for the very poor job the National Assembly is making of its legislative function. Why, for instance, should a political party, any party at all, forfeit the right to present candidates in an election when the rightful person to  punish was the man who was out to create a political dynasty by making his son-in – law succeed him as Imo state governor?

    To worsen  matters, the same man was, in the same election cycle, heading to the Red chamber.

    While the National Assembly may not have  foreseen all this, it should, at least, have realised the oddity in punishing a whole political party for the sins, and capriciousness, of  an individual.  In this particular case, it is Uche Nwosu, Governor Rochas Okorocha’s ‘candidate’, who should have been barred from contesting the election, and not any other party or person.

    And who says that the eminent jurists of the Supreme Court, in their collective wisdom, did not advert their minds to this obvious  idiocy of  punishing  a political party, with millions of members, and rather opted for the more commonsensical option of deciding in favour of the candidate with the highest number of votes?

    It is safe to conclude this piece by saying that even this heavy quantum of the fine imposed on Mike Ozekhome, SAN, will not end this profitable business of  filing  frivolous and vexatious motions. After all, a certain Ambrose Owuru, a 2019 presidential candidate, was also fined N40M by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, for filing a frivolous suit,  seeking to prevent the swearing – in  of President – Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on May 29, 2023.

    All one can confidently say, however, is that lawyers who are hard of hearing, and would not relent, will always have their day in court.

  • Obasanjo, Atiku and Bode George: Anundying lust after political relevance

    Obasanjo, Atiku and Bode George: Anundying lust after political relevance

    The unholy alliances between some politicians and judges are dangerous to our democracy. Millions of people will come out on the day of the election, queue, collect ballot papers, and cast their votes for their preferred candidates, results will be announced, and everybody will jubilate only for three, five, or seven judges to upturn the popular will of the people.

    “The best the judiciary must do in political cases is to adjudicate, and where there are discrepancies, order a rerun without giving victory to party A or B”.

    “It is wrong to remove the electorate’s power to elect political leaders and for the judiciary to tell us who the winners are. This is not good for Nigeria. This is not good for our electoral system. A compromised judiciary is dangerous” – That was Commodore Olabode George – turned his Lordship, Mr Justice Bode George, this past week, parodying his one- time Commander – in – Chief, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who had earlier lampooned the Nigerian judiciary in like manner, teaching the judiciary how to perform its constitutionally prescribed function of interpreting Nigerian Laws.

    Who will tell these people that Nigeria has long thrown away the military yoke under which they ruled Nigeria roughshod for decades?

    It will also be apposite to ask them whether they were both in Siberia when only  five days to the swearing in of  victorious candidates in Zamfara state after the 2019 general election, the supreme court sacked all the  APC candidates who had swept the polls,  resulting in the party losing seven house of rep seats, three senatorial seats,  24  Assembly seats as well as the governorship? Where can we find Obasanjo’s comments or those of Bode George on that occasion, condemning the judiciary?

     It will not be too much either, enquiring as to whether they were on military duty in the Congo when the Supreme court, in February, 2019 overturned a ruling of the Court of Appeal, and barred, all APC candidates from contesting elections  in Rivers State? Where, in the name of fairness did Bode George or Obasanjo address their Press conferences when, hours to his being sworn in as Bayelsa state governor in February 2020,  the Supreme court nullified the election of gentleman, David Lyon, for no fault of his, but in accordance with the law of the land?

    This is always the problem with haughty  politicians who believe themselves wiser than everybody else.

    Left to these men of yester years, it was not “3, 5 or 7 persons calling themselves judges” who ruled  on those occasions but a BATTALION of judges. Indeed, how many judges sat on the Supreme court panel that quashed Bode George’s jail term, one hundred?The earlier these people realise they are in the past the better, or is it now, after 24 years  of Tinubu’s successive, progressive government in Lagos state that Bode George will lead PDP to power? On what basis?

    Attentive Nigerians must have noticed how, of recent, these once powerful men have, one way or the other, been clogging our eardrums with their jeremiads over all manner of things.

    These men, who had said they would be in power for 60 years had been swept into political Siberia shortly after their party Chairman, the late  Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, made that public announcement to Nigerians and,ll being men of unaccountable power who saw elections as ‘do or die’, not many Nigerians doubted them.

    Their party, the PDP, which the U.S Council on Foreign Relations saw as not a political party, “judging by conventional Western tenets, but rather as merely an oil – loot sharing cartel since it has no distinctive political colouration or ideology”,  merely out  to rip Nigeria to shreds.

    And how did they do that?

    Below is how Sahara Reporters captured the expose by Mike Achimugu, an aide to former Vice President Atiku who brandished a video of the VP, saying the following

    :“What happened was when  Obasanjo and I  came into office, I advised the president against open corruption. “I told him to give me three people he trusts and I will prepare three companies in which they will be subscribers or rather, the directors, so that  any contract we award they will act like consultants, and they will be given a fee. That fee is what we shall use to fund the party.”

    “I now incorporated companies and put them as subscribers. One of the companies was Marine Float”.

    There is copious evidence, home and abroad, that these Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) companies were used in stealing tonnes of Nigerian money and ended up landing Nigeria where it is today, broken and broke.

    Apart from a U.S Congressional hearing finding Atiku “guilty of laundering over $40 million in suspicious funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008”, a Nigerian Senate investigating panel also agreed with the findings that Atiku “diverted $145m from Nigerian government accounts”.

    These people are now still lusting after power, and relevance, simply because none of them was punished for their malfeasance,  nor did the crooked Nigerian system saw to it that they were barred from, any longer, holding public office, or eligible to contest any future elections,⁰ as would have happened in any sane country. 

    Also, as reported by Tony Orilade in Sahara Reporters of  28 February, 2007 both President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, were indicted by the Senate Ad-Hoc committee which investigated the controversial Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) which saw both men hauling fraud charges against each other.  

    The committee, specifically accused them of abuse of office and diversion of PTDF funds to purposes other than for which the funds were meant. But in spite of the indictment, the committee failed to recommend any punitive measures, preferring instead, that the Senate should decide on that.

    That was how Nigeria missed it to our eternal chagrin.

    On the contrary, however, Bode George’s excesses in power saw him get punished with a jail term; a sentence that was later quashed by the Supreme court in December, 2013, two days after former President Olusegun Obasanjo accused President Goodluck Jonathan of the same PDP, of condoning corruption.

    Had Nigeria taken appropriate measures then, these men would not be back now tormenting Nigeria with all of them calling judges, even Supreme court judges, names.

    Last Sunday on these pages, I sketched how thoroughly inconsolable Obasanjo had become that he completely wrote off liberal democracy, not only in Nigeria, but in the whole of Africa. He barely stopped short of imploring extra – democratic entities to take its place.

    Or what is his ‘African democracy’, if not the rule of the mob, and how exactly would that have satisfied his utmost desire for a Peter Obi presidency?

    Why, if he truly meant well for Nigeria, did he not use all his might to canvass a unicameral legislature for the country, seing that the present system, which he brought about, is not only wasteful but destructive in the long run.

    Had he done that, he would have felt sure he would leave behind a legacy worth the name, and no longer need any fight with the Nigerian judiciary or indulge in his enervating, one – sided war with President Tinubu, all in his long running desire to supplant Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Yoruba land – an outright impossibility.

    Atiku Abubakar cemented his love for power through becoming a perennial presidential candidate. Now after the 6th attempt, it has become a matter of the more you look, the less you see; even though he is currently proposing a fusion of all opposition parties which will, hopefully, adopt him for his 7th attempt. This lust, no doubt, has,  obviously turned to paranoia.

    When he is not doubling down on the government, he is petulantly dismissing the judiciary; the same judiciary he ran to when Tinubu lent him a place in the ACN as Obasanjo was trying to crush him.

    As for Bode George, not a few would wonder why he is still in town after all those promises of fleeing Nigeria if Tinubu became president. Or are we wrong in taking him for a gentleman officer?

    If  he is serious, at all  and not unduly haughty,  shouldn’t he ask himself why the likes of Musiliu Obanikoro, my good friend, Seye Ogunlewe and, last but not the least, Moshood Salvador, erstwhile PDP chairman, Lagos state, who defected to  APC with over 10,000 members, left him and his drowning PDP to team up with the same President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the APC?

    Nothing lasts for ever except the grace of God. These gentlemen should now take their knees off the neck of Nigeria.

  • Hypocritical Obasanjo assaults our sensibilities again

    Hypocritical Obasanjo assaults our sensibilities again

    Democracy is not our problem, rather we have issues with those assigned to manage it. Any system that guarantees voting rights, regular and transparent elections, checks and balances in governance, independent judiciary and free press would ultimately deliver a better quality of life for the people, notwithstanding whether it originated from the North or South Pole”.

    “Any system can be used to deliver improved economic conditions for the people where there is vision. The monarchs of the UAE conjured today’s Dubai out of what used to be a desert in fifty years. Although they were despots, South Korea’s Park Chung Hee and Indonesia’s Suharto transformed their countries. What was Obasanjo’s enduring vision for Nigeria or Africa?” –

    An appropriate riposte to Obasanjo’s latest chimeric postulation, delivered by Festus Eriye – a man who was probably not yet in primary school when the military first thrust the megalomaniac on Black man’s greatest agglomeration; an opportunity the gods twice gifted him, but which he messed up grandly when he sought to transmute to a Life President – in his column: ‘There goes Obasanjo again!, The Nation,  Wednesday, 22 November, 2023.

    Obasanjo is now probably too far gone in duplicity, and chicanery, to profit from    Eriye’s seminal words.

    When former President Olusegun Obasanjo was busy writing his letter to Nigerian youths, selling the candidature of Peter Obi of the Labour party,  ahead the 2023 presidential election, nary did he remember to say a word of his new talismanic ‘Afro crazy’, because all he wanted was whose presidential ears he would be pulling behind the veil. That exactly is the problem with those who believe they are wiser than King Solomon.

    Iyabo, Obasanjo’s daughter, has warned us ahead when she wrote in a public letter to her father, which she promised would be her last communication with him, that whatever he cannot control, he attempts to destroy.

    Now that Bola Ahmed Tinubu – a man he loathes to his innards – is President, Western Liberal democracy has suddenly become anathema that Nigeria, nay Africa, must immediately jettison. What is left of  President Obasanjo if he cannot lecture us all on a daily basis is nothing.

    That was why, this past week, having temporarily abandoned his love of letter writing after Nigerians had, on 25 February, 2023 shown him what they think of his self – promoting letters, he bellowed the following at a two-day event organised by the Africa Progress Group, which was held at his  presidential library in Abeokuta, Ogun state:”The weakness and failure of liberal democracy as it is practised, its deliverability and its relevance today without reform as it is practised stem from its history, content, context and its practice”.”Once you move from all the people to representatives of the people, you start to encounter troubles and problems”.

    “For those who define it as the rule of the majority, should the minority be ignored, neglected and excluded?

    When exactly did Obasanjo know this; after Pitobi lost election?

    He went on:

    “In short, we have a system of government in which we have no hands to define and design and we continue with it, even when we know that it is not working for us.

    “Those who brought it to us are now questioning the rightness of their invention, its deliverability and its relevance today without reform.”

    Read Also: Obasanjo’s shameless sophistry

    Has Obasanjo ever doubted he was the greatest leader Nigeria ever had even though his second coming was supposedly under Liberal democracy even though he was at heart a dyed in the wool soldier, far worse than a liberal democrat; for as Professor Jide Osuntokun aptly put it in his column in our daily edition this past week:”the appearance of democracy from 1999 to the end of Buhari’s so – called democratic regime was a military mirage, not a democratic reality”. “Presidents like Obasanjo and Buhari remained essentially military men in democratic toga of agbada and babanriga, wielding almost total control of power and responsibility …”

    Under what circumstances can such a militician then claim to be a populist as Obasanjo is faking here?

    He is simply out to distract the Tinubu government because a man who tried all he could to ridicule Chief Obafemi Awolowo,  claiming that he (Obasanjo) got on a platter, what Awo couldn’t all his life, never one day thought that another Yoruba man could be President of Nigeria in his life time. That simply is the reason he will like to fight Tinubu to the death. But he will more than meet his match in Ashiwaju. That much I can promise him.

    I digress.

    Is he asking Nigerians, and Africans in general – since nothing  exites

     him more than parading as an African leader – to revert  to Athenian democracy of the fifth century B.C,  or to simply change their mode of governance as some men change their women?

    Yes, there  is, indeed, an internal challenge to liberal democracy—a challenge from populists who seek to drive a wedge between democracy and liberalism, but in vain will Obasanjo present to any thinking people as a lover of the masses as nothing in his history, or antecedents in public office, point to him as such.

    Nigerians already know how much value to attach to  this hair brained nonsense like his other past theories that add nothing to knowledge besides self promotion which were intended to portray him as different from President Muhammadu  Buhari, whose  “provincialism,  Fulanisation and Islamisation of Nigeria” – in Obasanjo’s garrulous words – he once sang panegyrics to.

    In his garrulity, speaking to Nigerians, nay Africans, in that selfsame speach, about adopting a new model of government, as if addressing a harem, he said without blinking an eyelid:“we are here to stop being FOOLISH and STUPID”.

    Is such crudity inevitable at a public event?

    But Obasanjo must just show that he is Africa’s ‘numero uno’ statesman, at liberty to mess us up, if he so chooses.

    Whatever good inheres in his latest proposal is completely vitiated by the fact that nothing he says, or  does, is driven by altruism. There are far too many examples of that to delay us listing them.

    So, rather than that sterile exercise, let me do a detour to his widely publicised letter to Nigerian youths by which he tried to, coyly, draw them into Peter Obi’s Labour party wasteland, ahead of the 25 February, 2023 Presidential election which I dealt with on these pages in the article:’2023 -President Obasanjo’s Decoys and Nigerian Youths’, of 15 January, 2023.

    Therein I wrote inter alia:

    “Obasanjo, who I suspect usually momentarily forgets about himself when writing about the presumed failings of others, became something of a teacher of morals in the letter, which he described as an appeal to Nigerians, especially the youth. Therein he painted a picture of Nigeria the country wasn’t under his presidency.

    He also attempted to give the impression that he left power of his own volition, forgetting that the National Assembly had to rescue Nigeria from his Life Presidency gambit through an ingenious Third Term project, for which reason he dubiously convoked a National Political Reform Conference, (NPRC) in 2005 but which was angrily voted down by a diligent National Assembly.

    It is apposite to state at the very beginning that Obasanjo has all the rights, human as well as legal, to endorse any presidential candidate of his choosing, but it is equally important that the Nigerian youths, to whom he specifically directed his appeal, should be adequately

     informed that this is a man of incomparable hubris; a very brilliant man, who can easily sell a poke for a pig, and who, having cancelled the teaching of History in Nigerian schools has , a priori, denied the same youths, the knowledge of the past which they sorely needed in determining the truth, or falsity, of his preachment.

    A past master in decoy, he had cleverly harangued the youths as follows:”My dear young men and women, you must come together and bring about a truly meaningful change in your lives. If you fail, you have no one else to blame. Your present and future are in your hands to make or to mar. The future of Nigeria is in the same manner in your hands and literally so. If for any reason you fail to redeem yourself and your country, you will have lost the opportunity for good, and you will have no one to blame but yourselves, and posterity will not forgive you. Get up, get together, get going and get us to where we should be. And you, the youth, it is your time and your turn. Eyin Lokan” (Your turn”).

    Happily, the Nigerian youth know hypocrisy, and lies, when they see them, conjoined.

    It is not surprising then that he has also recently taken on the judiciary, wondering as to how 3 persons, “calling themselves judges”, could overturn the votes of millions?

    Nothing  reveals a duplicitous Obasanjo more than that unfortunate statement, coming from a supposed statesman,  except that for him, it is absolutely in character.

    This is exactly what I mean about his sometimes suffering from momentary amnesia while criticising others. Otherwise, he would not have forgotten how many state governors he singularly used strong arm tactics to remove from office by deploying a minority of House members to accomplish, where the constitution prescribes two thirds majority.

    Is that a man Nigerians are now expected to take seriously, seeing that the campaign season is already over, and the Labour party man he wanted, so seriously, to FEHIN GBE PON – (that is, carry on his back to victory as he once did in Ekiti state) has already accepted the Supreme court verdict?

    What Nigerians should all join hands in doing is overlook his old age misdemeanours- they used to be far worse, even in morals – and pray that the good Lord grants him long enough life to make him experience a Pauline conversion before he breathes his last.

  • All sleeping and facing in one direction

    NLC & TUC

    When Emefiele confiscated Naira and hunger and death swept across the land, these AJAERO SIAMESE TWINS were not in Nigeria.

    They were in WONDERLAND” – a trending WhatsApp snapshot.

    Many Igbo friends of mine often think I am denigrating them (never, denigrate a whole over – achieving race, both here at home in Nigeria and Diasporan?), when I say that Igbos literally all sleep and face in one direction.

    On the contrary, I say that, when I do, to  show admiration for how mostly ‘ad idem’, they always are, on matters concerning Igbo interest, regardless of where in Igbo land they hail from.

    Witness, for instance, the near unanimity that  IPOB’S ‘Sit At Home on Mondays’ enjoys as a potent instrument in the Biafran actualisation effort, and

    compare it with the near total disdain Yorubas extended to a chivalrous Sunday Igboho whose dream of a brand new Oduduwa Republic they tossed in the winds, even when they knew the yeoman’s sacrifices, blood and tears, he invested in his Yoruba Nation  effort; almost losing his dear life in the process.

    That is a major difference between the two principal ethnic groups, South of River Niger, and it  reflects, to a considerable extent,  the politics of both.

    While in the  Southwest you would find elders, even an Acting Leader of the region’s leading Socio- Cultural Organisation, literally setting fire to the group he putatively leads, while celebrating to high heavens, and endorsing everything belonging to the other almost diametrically opposed ethnic group, whereas, you will hardly ever find any persons of  substance behave in that manner, amongst those he genuflects to.

    It is beyond shameful.

    Many have argued, though,  that this is majorly the case because of the fear that one may, willy nilly, prematurely answer his maker’s call, if he/ she foolishly goes outside groupthink.

    The result is that you hardly ever find, among the Yoruba, the near unanimity you quite easily see among Igbos.

    To be able to freely choose like the Yoruba, for example, you will either have to decide to damn the consequences of your action,  or be made in the mould of a David Umahi, a Hope Uzodinma, or perhaps, an Uzor Orji Kalu. That, they say, is the only way you can  freely make your personal political choices, without having a lingering fear of some brutal consequences. Many Igbo will deny this, anyway.

    But it is so obvious.

    The absence of  these negative consequences accounts for why, there is a lot of freedom of choice, or  seeming non unanimity on issues, among the Yoruba. Neither ethnic nor religious consideration constrains  Yorubas in their choice of who to marry, what political party to join, or vote for, or the name to give  their child.

    None of these is simple among the Igbo if you do not wish to be hauled before the ancestors, or worse..

    The Igbo cultural/ political practice is that powerful and universal and feared or respected.

    For the same factors, some things enjoy near unanimous support in the East which should ordinarily have been better examined if people enjoy freedom of choice.

    A good example is Peter Obi and the Igbo wholesale support for the  Labour party which saw the party cleaning the votes in favour of Obi in the Presidential election int all the Southeast states.

    You would think that the people have forgotten Obi’s years as Anambra state governor –

    a time in Anambra state when non- Anambrarian Igbos were deprived of their jobs and sent home,  when Anglicans, and non Catholic Christians were literally declared persona non grata and treated harshly, only a little less than Hausa traders who were ex- communicated from Anambra and banished to Delta state; so traumatised His Majesty,  Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, had to come all the way to Anambra state to plead with the plenipotentiary on behalf of the Northerners but without success.

    Read Also: Tinubu will reposition economy for progress- Minister

    But even if the people had remembered all these before the votes were cast on February 25, it would still have been dangerous to vote any party other than Labour; at least, not if you do not want your head hanged in the market place.

    While that was about partisan politics, almost the same groupthink has just happened in the Ajaero fiasco.

    NLC President, Joe Ajaero believing he had to take off their anti – Tinubu war from where  the judiciary left it,   decided to, coyly, rail road the NLC & the TUC, into the war some Igbo Intellectuals, home and abroad, have already commenced on behalf of Peter Obi.

    It is another phase they intend to engage in till 2027, that is, if they cannot subordinate extra – democratic forces to their side to effect a change of government earlier.

    Their media acolytes are, of course, not yet tired as Sam Amadi showed on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Thursday, 16 November, waxing much more lyrical than their unionist counterparts, calling  Senator Adam Oshiomhole, the indomitable Union leader and ‘Professor of trade unionism’ where the Ajaero’s of this world are floor members, names.

    He even had the effrontery to suggest that Oshiomhole should apologise to Ajaero.

    Infradig!

    Regarding this part of the article, I crave the indulgence of my readers to press into service, the versatile Ajibola Omole(author “Newsgrid

    Uyo Political Series) in what he titled ‘Ajaero And His Activities’.

    He wrote:

    “Tinubu cannot be paternalistic to Ajaero like Buhari, who

    paternalistically allowed Nnamdi Kanu to rage, and rant, instigating disaffection  against certain sections of the country as well as individuals, and causing incalculable destruction to his own peóple, apart from setting up a parallel security outfit before he was picked up in Kenya.

    Tinubu’s government, perhaps for reasons of being new, is intolerably  developing a leadership weakness while Ajaero is fast becoming a national security risk.

    It is time security agencies look into his activities which are a threat  against the state.

    His take over of  the Abuja international airport should be seen as a direct threat to state security for which he should be made to face the consequences.

    The man is no longer into labour activities but active partisan politics, with a clear intent to overwhelm the country and instigate a change of government.

     Security agencies must now invite Ajaero and his co – conspirators before it is too late, as obtaining court injuctions each time he threatens the country,  is obviously  not the solution. He has to be shown that there is only one elected national government, and source of power in Nigeria.

  • Peter Obi: The consumate obscurantist’s grand delusions

    Peter Obi: The consumate obscurantist’s grand delusions

    I don’t think our labour unions understand their roles anymore but have become political activists and loony leftists. How do you justify a National Strike based on assault on one person in one state based on local political situation?

    Why should workers in 35 states and FCT become victims of what happened in one state?

    I believe that reforming our labour laws is  now a matter of urgency” -Dr Charles Omole.

    This is ‘the Peter Obi effect’ on Nigerian politics since he infused a ‘village mentality’, not only into electioneering campaigns, but into a political party structure, its internal workings and  sociology.

    Let me borrow Presidential Special Adviser, Bayo Onanuga’s, words in his response to Peter Obi’s verbal diarrhoea regarding the Supreme Court judgment on  his, and  Atiku’s, appeal on the 2023 Presidential election which, as the world now knows, they lost ignominiously with not a single one of the12 Lord Justices, at both the PEPC and the Supreme Court  finding in favour of either of them on any of the issues they canvassed.

    Onanuga wrote:”The grand delusion that made Mr. Obi believe he could have won a national election where he ran the most hateful, divisive and polarising campaign that pitted Christians against Muslims and one ethnic group against the other in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria should be a matter for deeper examination”.

    Rather than his chimera of victory alone, it is an examination of the entirety of what Obi brought to an election he, and Atiku, have so malignancy poisoned, I intend to attempt in this piece.

    That will mean psycho- analysing Peter Obi, the reason I describe him in the caption to the article as an insuferable obscurantist.

    Obscurantism, by the way, is the practice of deliberately

    preventing the facts, or full details, of something from becoming known.

    And how does this apply to him?

    Although both the PEPC and the Supreme court gave no moment to the fact that he was an 11th hour joiner of the Labour party,

    meaning that contrary to INEC Guidelines, the courts gave no probative value to his name not being on the party’s membership register forwarded to the commission 30 days before its primaries, and thus implying  that he flagrantly flouted the INEC stipulation, his entry, being so ethnic and stealthy,  immediately  resulted in an internal crisis within the party which is still smouldering as you read this.

    What is more important, however, are the lies which underpinned his emergence as the presidential candidate, when Gbajue- style – thanks to the Nobel Laureate – somebody stepped down for him, in the process, deprecatingly pronouncing himself as  inferior to Obi where leadership is concerned; he a normally show- boating individual who never ceases to preach to Nigerians from the rooftops, degrading himself, just so his  ethnic brother could emerge  the  presidential candidate two – yes two days –  after  becoming a party member.

    Although that  was only one of the foundational lies in the building blocks to Obi’s candidacy, it pales into insignificance when compared to  the ones  Obi personally told Nigerians as his reasons for eloping from the PDP.

    So was it that lies soon became the party’s modus operandi, whether it was Peter Obi’s claim that he went to Egypt to “understudy the country’s education, power and finance sectors”, or several of its dreamless pastors and bishops, regaling their hypnotised, zombie – like congregations with details of dreams they never had as to how Obi had won an election yet to be conducted, to rapturous shouts of Halleluyah.

    Let’s now consider Obi’s sophistry, explaining how, and why, he claimed to have joined the Labour party  and schemed his way to its presidential candidacy.

     Thanks to the Nigerian print media, we can quote him at some length.  Hear him:

    Read Also: Peter Obi: Between recklessness and audacity

    “I have chosen a route that I consider to be in line with our aspirations and my mantra of taking the country from consumption to production” – apparently he momentarily forgot everything about NEXT, the importation giant – “and that is the Labour Party, which is synonymous with the people, workers, development and production, securing and uniting Nigerians as one family”.

    “I invite all Nigerians to join me in taking back our country. Be assured that I’ll never let you down.”

    Having gratuitously let Ojukwu down, dumping APGA for PDP,  our man just has to promise not to let Igbos down again.

    But pray! Was it in two days, after he left PDP, that he did all he is claiming here?

    But you haven’t heard nothing yet. So he continues:

    “Since I resigned from the PDP because of issues that are at variance with my persona and principles – such as serial decamping? – I have consulted widely with various parties and personalities to ensure we do not complicate the route to our desired destination. For me, the process of achieving our goal is as fundamental as what one will do thereafter.”

    Just listen to this practised obscurantist, trying to suck in, not just his Igbo brethren, but all Nigerians.  His placing third overall in the election proved conclusively, however, that Nigerians were not deceived.

    “Since I resigned”, Obi went on, making two days look like a millennium, “I have consulted widely with parties and personalities”, who were surprisingly nameless.

    Here was a guy who had only a few days earlier submitted himself for screening by the same decrepit PDP whose Vice Presidential candidate he was only 4 years earlier.

    He soon graduated into the chimera of thanking those who were yet to know he had dumped PDP, claiming:

    “I thank all Nigerians, especially our youths, who have joined me in the mission of taking back and reuniting Nigeria. This project is yours and for the future of your children.

    I am just a facilitator.”

    Forget, meanwhile, that as at the time he was saying all this, he hadn’t even had any opportunity of campaigning on the platform of the Labour party, not even once.

    Smart Alec! That should tell the reader who Peter Obi truly is.

    Let us now see how the cookie crumbled; how Obi was outed in a situation akin to which Yoruba would describe as ‘bi iro ba lo logun odun, ooto ma ba lojo kan’, meaning that even though a lie may subsist for 20 years, (but) truth will catch up with it one day. He had probably forgotten all his lies when several months later,  the Executive Committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide visited His Excellency, Barrister Nyesom Wike, erstwhile governor of Rivers state.

    Their visit was, essentially, to remonstrate with him over his non support for the interest of the Southeast in its much desired quest for the Nigerian presidency emphasising, in particular,  his failure to  support Peter Obi.

    It was at this point that the distinguished elders would most probably have had ashes on their faces when Wike told them the truth which Obi would not, even in a thousand years.

    Wike let it be known to the eminent Igbo statesmen that Obi was actually bullied into leaving the PDP.

    He had journeyed, excruciatingly, to Jigawa state, Wike said, intent on soliciting the support of Sule Lamido but his host had taken him to a village that took him more than four hours drive from Dukse to reach.

    That was vintage Lamido who sees Fulani as the Aryan race, and was eager to teach the Igbo politician a lesson he would never forget.

    The task master per excellence, that Lamido is,  he respects no single Southern politician besides former President Olusegun Obasanjo who had appointed him External Affairs minister; a position for which he had nil qualification.

    Obi, therefore, had to drive hours through the desert dust to hear what Sule Lamido could very well have told him on phone: simply, but brutally, that President Buhari, even after 8 years that had been most gruelling for Nigerians must, willy nilly, be succeeded by another Northerner.

    Seeing then that he hadnt a ghost of a chance in PDP, Obi fled, his worshipful professors scripting a lie of a statement that would only compare with a treatise by Hitler’s lie manufacturer, Paul Joseph Goebbels.

    It is all these and the fact that his brethren believe him, hook, line and sinker, indeed canonising him alive, that rankle, when in spite of the levels to which he  has sunk, literally dragging the otherwise, brilliant and absolutely enterprising Igbo with him, bragging about contesting like forever, when that redoubtable race has tens of Umahi’s, Soludo’s, and several others – scholars, not traders – who would appreciate that working with Nigerians from all parts of the country, rather than remaining insular, is the minimum desideratum for Igbos, at the right time, to take their well deserved place on the Nigerian political spectrum.

    It is, therefore, time some  Igbos tell Obi that he ill represents them, going round,  romancing ethnicity and religion as his route to the presidency which is bound to take  Igbos nowhere.

  • Intrepid lawyer Clement Akinboye Osho Babatola at 80

    His reliability and intrepidity, not forgetting his forensic skills, come from a long line of the highly regarded Patriarch of the much respected Babatola dynasty of Ado – Ekiti, his father, High Chief Daniel Osho Babatola, Omowaiye II, Ejigbo of Ado-Ekiti, the late Baba Egbe Ibukun, and Balogun of Emmanuel Anglican Church (now Cathedral Church of Immanuel), Ado-Ekiti.

    All the aforementioned  traits ran through his Uncle, the  inimitable Chief (Dr) Joel Ehinafe Babatola, renowned educator, community leader, elder statesman, accomplished orator, and a formidable politician who served, meritoriously, as minister in the

     Chief Obafemi Awolowo – led government of Western Nigeria.

    To the glory of God, the man we celebrate here today, Clement Akinboye Osho Babatola, Principal Partner, Akin Babatola & co, Omowaiye Chambers, even though barely knew his father who joined the Saints Triumphant when he was just 8, and his mother,  Madam Hadiza Akanke Babatola, an Ijebu woman, whose only child he was, also passed on when he was 11, happily turned a glorious 80 year – old on 20 September, 2023.

    Aba Osho,(Osho being the name given to all male children of the Babatola family) having lost  his parents very early, not unexpectedly, had it tough, growing up. But as he narrated his life story to me, with joy and gratitude to God, he could not but emphasise that the great bond subsisting within the larger Babatola family ensured that he lacked nothing.

    So even if growing up was tough, it certainly wasn’t rough. He has two of his uncles to thank for this, namely: Pa J. E Babatola, the renowned Ekiti politician who, incidentally, was the very first politician I saw on the rostrum, at a political campaign.

    And I shall never, ever forget that day. My natal town falls within Iworoko – Are -Afao – Igbemo – Ekiti which was then electorally designated EKITI CENTRAL RURAL.

    Before school closed the previous day, our Headmaster at the United Primary School, Are & Afao – Ekiti,  the ever sartorial, immaculate and dazzlingly handsome Mr Akeredolu, from whom Aketi (His Excellency,  my dear aburo who I pray the good Lord fully restores to perfect health and governor of Ondo state) inherited his genes and good looks) had told us to come to school early the following day because we were going to all line up in the town to welcome a very important person – VIP he called him.

    We did as were told on a day nobody in the town would forget in a hurry but what I remember the most about the day was the song everybody sang so hilariously.

    Please recall that those were the days when Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was insisting he just must be the Premier of Western Region as if there were no Yoruba politicians. Zik would not allow a Yoruba politician emerge the NCNC premiership candidate even in the Western Region, but he, a ranking outsider. 

    It is the same mindset which drove Peter Obi into insisting that only Igbos served as Labour party officials and candidates during the last election, almost everywhere in the country, except where no Igbo was available.

    The song, which made the day unforgetable for me personally, was a warning to the effect that we should not allow strangers come and take over our land.

    It went as follows, with due apologies to all my non – Ekiti speaking readers: In mo mo j’Igbo gba le ra o.

    Egeee (chorus)

    Oni oni la ku ni ku egeee (chorus).

    Of course, NCNC lost woefully in the elections in Ekiti.

    Back then to Chief Akinboye Babatola who was destined, despite all odds, to reach the very top both in the private sector, where he retired as Chief Legal officer of a bank, and in the legal profession, where he is, today, the Principal Partner of his own thriving legal practice.

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    All this was through the grace of God and the remarkable interventions of two of his uncles, namely: Chief (Dr.) Joel Ehinafe Babatola, Colonel Samuel Afolabi Babatola and his  wife, Mrs. Taiwo Babatola (Née Lawson) all of who saw to his education from when his father passed, through elementary school and all the way to the University. Equally very helpful to him were the duo of his maternal Uncle, Chief Akanbi Fagbehingbe and Mrs. Victoria Bolatito Agbede.

    Chief Babatola had a very unstable elementary school education as his guardian, being a teacher, was being frequently transfered from one place to another.

    As a result, he attended, between 1948 and 1958,  the following six different primary schools, all within a spate of 10 years:

    Emmanuel Anglican School, Oke Bareke, Ado-Ekiti.  Christ Apostolic Church School, IJebu-Ode, Christ Apostolic Church School, Ekotedo, Ibadan. Baptist Day School, Afao, Ikere-Ekiti,  St. Luke’s Anglican School, Uro, Ikere-Ekiti, and Baptist Day School, Oke-Ado, Ibadan, in that order.

    Fortunately, his secondary school education was, however, far less traumatic; even though he lost a whole year when he left Ebenezer Secondary School, Iberekodo, Abeokuta, after one year because it was not an approved school, to start afresh at Ekiti Parapo College, Ido-Ekiti in 1959.

    For his Higher School Certificate (HSC), he attended Ibadan Grammar School, Ibadan, between 1966-1967 and the University of Ife, Ile Ife  from 1967-1970.

    He followed up with the Nigerian Law School in 1970-1971, and Queen Mary College, University of London, between 1976-1977.

    A highly regarded elder,  Chief Babatola had a checkered working experience serving both  in the public and private sectors. While with the  Lagos state government between ’73 and ’78, he served as member: the Pools Betting Committee, Lotteries Commission and the Newspaper Registration Committee. He was also Assistant Secretary to the Lagos State Committee on the Exercise of Prerogative of Mercy as well as Legal Adviser to the Board of Inland Revenue. He also later served as Inspector of Customary Courts.

    At the Federal Ministry of Communication, Post and Telecommunication department, Marina, Lagos, he served as an Investigation Officer.

    In the private sector he was recruited as Credit Assistant by Savannah Bank of Nigeria Limited in 1978 and retired there as the Chief Legal Officer in 1985. Since 1985, Chief Babatola has been the Principal Partner in the Law Firm of Akin Babatola & Co, Omowaiye Chambers, which he registered the same year. 

    A very sociable and easy mixer, Chief Babatola is a Member, and Past President, of the Rotary Club of Lagos Metropolitan,

    Member, Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Member, and Vice-Chairman, Ibadan Grammar School Old Students’ Association, 61/67 class set, Member and Past President, Ado-Ekiti Dynamic Club, Lagos, and Chairman, Oregun Community Development Association (CDA) 1977 to 1979. He is equally very active in church activities.

    A member of the Anglican Communion, he was born, baptized and registered, at birth, as member, Egbe Ibukun, when his father was the Baba Egbe.

    He is a Parishioner of the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, GRA Ikeja, and is Member/Past President, Christian Unity Band of Nigeria at the same church.

    He is a member of Egbe Ibukun of the Cathedral of Immanuel (Anglican Communion) Ado-Ekiti, and was honoured with the chieftaincy title of Akuajo of Saint James Anglican Church, Oke Oniyo, Ado-Ekiti, by the Lord Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, The Rt. Revd. Clement Akinbola in 1993.

    Chief Babatola loves traveling, reading, listening to good music and watching television. In the course of his travels, he has visited:

    The Basilica in Rome, The Basilica in Paris, and Brazil for the real carnival. He has also visited Disneyland in the USA.

    Chief Babatola is happily married and blessed with children.

    ATIKU A SORE, SERIAL LOSER

    Some readers believed I cut Atiku too much of a slack in my article last week.

    Below, one of them, Dr Biodun Adu, a UK – based consultant Gyaenacologist wrote:

    “Atiku will be remembered  as a sore, serial loser and  an unequalled political prostitute  and fake cry baby.

    Nigerians can not be deceived and saw through him, not once but six times.

    Good riddance to a thoroughly bad rubbish”.

  • What next for Atiku Abubakar?

    What next for Atiku Abubakar?

    I wrote as follows in the article ‘Godwin Emefiele: Not Until I have Been Disgraced’ of 19 March, 2023:”I was privileged to have been both student, and later, staff of the University of Ife, Ile – Ife, when Ola Rotimi (13 April 1938 – 18 August 2000), unarguably one of Nigeria’s most outstanding playwrights and theatre directors dominated, and popularised, theatre at the Source (i e Ile – Ife).

    In one of his plays, the Tortoise, a slow, ugly and absolutely crafty character, was seen preparing to go on a journey and was asked if he must. “If you must go, when will you return”. Without the slightest hint of shame, he answered:”Not until I am disgraced”.

    As Lasisi Olagunju once put it, “the Tortoise is that character who fights on both sides, plunging the world around him into needless wars and anguish. Seeing himself as a charmer who cannot fail, he was without any moderation in consumption or in his assumptions.”

    In the referenced article,  it was the disgraced CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, I likened to the tortoise.

    Unfortunately, everything considered, not much appears to distinguish Emefiele from former Vice President, Wazirin Atiku Abubakar.They are both proud, arrogant, coy and believe themselves to be wiser than every other Nigerian; the reason why, against the CBN Act which expressly stipulates that a CBN governor SHALL devote his whole time to the work of that office, and shall not take any part – time job, Emefiele was garrulous enough he did everything to contest for the Presidency of Nigeria in furtherance of which he was reported, by the Peoples Gazette, to have taken delivery of  several campaign cars branded with his pictures, adorning traditional outfits of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, just as Atiku, because he is rich and powerful, believes he owns Nigeria.

    It was from that mindset, he not only boasted before the Northern Elders Forum that he alone qualifies to be the sole Presidential election candidate because he is from the North.

    What he would not tell Nigerians, however, is that he is being driven by some 50- year old marabout’s prophecy that, whether by hook or crook,  he would be President of Nigeria.

    We can only hope he will be wiser now that the Supreme court has finally ruled, ascribing nil probative value to his Chicago exploits, (which must have cost him a pretty penny) and affirming the PETC decision on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s election.

    But will he be statesmanly enough to pick up his phone, call President Tinubu and congratulate him, having actually promised Nigerians to do precisely that if he (Tinubu) won up to the Supreme court?

    Only time will tell but I will not even as much ask that of Peter Obi, whose group, led by his despicable lick spittle, one Julius Abure, has already regressed into their usual despoilation of everybody or agency of government who/ which does not buy into their pitiable story – these people with no discernible path, whatever, to victory in the Presidential election. I hope they heard the warning to their ilk by the Supreme court because these ones won’t learn or desist from excoriating the judiciary until some of them pay a steep price for their foolishness.

    At a personal level, I should be gloating, seeing that the Supreme court’s Lord Justices’ position on almost every ground of the appeals  mirrored my views as I have severally expressed them on these pages. In deed, I was spot on, on all grounds, bar only my position in the article:’We Told Them So: Peter Obi Is Not A Presidential Candidate Known To Law’ of 30 July, 2023, as the Supreme court affirmed the PETC position that party candidature is strictly a party matter whereas I have canvassed the view that a candidate is unqualified if his name is not on his party’s register forwarded to INEC, 30 days before the party’s primaries.

    How close my views were to the Lord Justices’ again leads me to a very unfavourable view of many of Nigerian lawyers.

    For instance, how absolutely  unreasonable is it, that a lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for that matter, would  again bring to the Supreme court, a matter on which the apex court had previously decided as in the qualification of the  APC Vice – Presidential candidate to contest the Presidential election; a matter on which the Apex court had pronounced many months  ago.

    Happily, the Supreme court did justice to the matter the manner in which it summarily dismissed it in the Obi case.

    I am not sure, however, that some lawyers know what is called shame.

    Read Also: Why won’t VP Atiku Abubakar just quietly sing his political nunc dimittis and go home?

    This is the more reason I suggested in an earlier article that the petitioners should ask for a refund of the fees they paid, especially, to their lead lawyers.

    All the above not withstanding, all I want to do in this article is plead with our dear former Vice- President, Atiku Abubakar, ‘lati fowo wo nu, as we say in these parts, meaning that he should let bygone be bygone.

    As an eminent statesman who has put many years into the service of the country, part of it as comrades – in – Arms with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I would like to plead with him to now sheathe his sword.

    He should know that he really doesn’t have to be President to contribute his very best towards the healing which is now a sine qua non for our highly troubled country.

     I plead with him to cast a quick glance at former President Goodluck Jonathan who, today is one of the most respected former African Heads of state. If Jonathan can be that respected worldwide, Atiku, without a shadow of doubt, can emerge as an outstanding African leader.

    He has obviously fought the good fight, and hasn’t the slightest reason to feel any shame. He should, therefore, effortlessly be able to retire into a hugely deserved, and respected, quietude.

    To Mr Peter Obi, I also offer these words in the hope that he will stop seeing himself as half a dozen of IPOB because he won 90+ per cent of Igbo votes.

    Nigeria consists of much more than Igbos whose geo-political zone, the Southeast,  has the least number of registered voters in the country. To be anything politically of any worth outside Igbo land, therefore, Obi or any Igbo politician, must learn to work with people outside the Southeast.

    As both Governor Soludo and Senator Abaribe have had reasons to say, Nigerians are not about to donate the presidency to Igbos if they remain as politically insular as they currently are.

    Come the next election, Obi should refrain from fielding only Igbos everywhere in the country as Labour party candidates for elections when he knows that no Igbo state would allow a non- indigene to contest even for the post of a mere Councillor. 

    That done, not only Peter Obi, but all Igbo elders, must do the very hard work of weaning Igbo youths off the social media where all they do is abuse Nigerians from other parts of the country.

    As things stand today, it is unlikely that an Igbo politician can win a Presidential election even if all Igbo states vote 100 per cent for him or her, and that, of course, should not be a Peter Obi who has not done anything tangible, nationally, besides weaponising religion and ethnicity as his route to winning a national election.

    It will never happen.

    Finally, my sympathy goes to those television stations and their anchors – Nigerians know them – who would, henceforth, have nothing else to daily salivate  upon.

    Time has come for all Nigerians to come together, eschew all forms of animosity, and rally round the government of President Bola Tinubu to tackle our current problems which are mostly the consequences of the abdication of governance in our country in the very recent past.

  • BAO: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

    Monday 16 October, 2023 , Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, more popularly known as BAO, confidently waltzed into his second year as governor of Ekiti state – the land of honour – Ile Iyi, Ile eye. He has deservedly, been celebrated to high heavens as a cool, calm and highly focused administrator, with many plaudits credited to him in his one year in office. And to parody the trending GLO BEREKETE TV advert, I loudly proclaim: ‘And I say BAO never finish o!’ He is actually just starting.

    Interestingly some of the writers of those articles celebrating him showed that they actually do not know the man, close up, and probably knew him only after he achieved high office. Of course, they need feel no remorse at that because, even at his desk, as Secretary to the State Government, Biodun remained a self- effacing gentleman, even though, an untiring workhorse in that high octave and very critical office.

    He simply had no alternative to being as calm and collected. He is, after all, the protege of two of Ekiti’s best, and most consequential, governors, each of who deservedly earned the sobriquet Omoluabi, and was remarkable for hard, impactful service to the people of Ekiti state.

    Let us take Governor Kayode Fayemi, for instance, under who BAO served as Commissioner in two different portfolios, and later, as Secretary to the Government.

    I remember this occasion, which I had once written about on these pages when, at about 1.30 am sometimes in 2013, I asked him what he was still doing, pouring over files in his office at that ungodly hour and it was his good friend, the much missed, late Professor Abubakar Momoh, who replied by saying that working that late, even all night, has become a habit for both Kayode, and himself, since their gruelling pro – democracy days in the u. K. BAO must, certainly, have severally been with governor Fayemi far past 1.30.am, still fast at work on serious state matters.

    Even though it goes without saying that Oyebanji is well bred, that is, from home, his almost unparalleled respect for people, young and old, must have a lot to do with his long tutelage under the Omoluabi governor, per excellence, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, whose Chief of Staff he was, just as governor Fayemi’s natural, decent and quiet mien, must have positively robbed off on him.

    I have this interesting story about Governor Fayemi’s

    imperturbability which leads me to boldly say that, but for politics, he would most probably have been an introvert, his involvement in student union politics not withstanding.

    Many people know how close I am to him. I was, therefore, being assailed by many, asking me to advise him to play politics like politicians, that is, be loud and publicity seeking, even atimes winding down his car windows half way, and furiously waving to the public as he drove past. Knowing him, it took me some time to so advise him. But

    Very genuinely astounded when I did, he let out a guffaw; after which he now told me: “Oga, se e fe ki nma se politics bi Oshoko ni? meaning, do you really want me to play politics like Oshoko?

    What this means is that BAO, warm and welcoming as he is, you will never see him being unduly exuberant, or seeking after public applause. He is cut from an entirely different cloth.

    BAO showed his potentialities very early, serving as early as in his 20’s, as Secretary to the Chief Deji Fasuan – led Committee for the creation of Ekiti.

    I have arrived Ado – Ekiti highly agitated one Friday morning during the hectic days after the primaries which produced BAO and headed straight to my Uncle, Chief Deji Fasuan’s house. That was because of the things I was hearing, even in faraway Lagos, concerning on which candidate’s side Ado -Ekiti was leaning; an indigene of the town having been named as deputy governorship candidate by another political party.

    There was/is, a reason for my fears concerning which side Ado – Ekiti was supporting. And it is this:

    In order to resolve the extremely contentious senatorial contest for Ekiti Central in 2011 which involved the trio of Dele Alake, Opeyemi Bamidele and Femi Ojudu, three of Ekiti’s most politically astute youngmen, the party had a final meeting of about 12 of us at which the late Governor Dele Olumilua presided. Two other governors, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi were also present.

    Otunba Adebayo was backing Opeyemi but he couldn’t fault Governor Fayemi’s position that the party could only disdain Ado – Ekiti, whose son, Ojudu he was backing, with dire consequences, come the real elections.

    Even though the meeting was inconclusive, I remain convinced till today, that I was not the only attendee who went away from the meeting with a perfect understanding of Ado- Ekiti’s position in any election in Ekiti.

    Let me digress briefly to dilate on what that event should teach our young politicians especially in Ekiti about patience, and allowing God to dominate in their affairs.

    By the time I invited the 3 gentlemen to have a chat with them, Dele had already left for Lagos, abandoning everything and I pleaded with the duo of Femi and Opeyemi to be patient, and allow peace reign during the re – run election slated for the following day. In reality, Governor Fayemi was aware that I phoned our present President, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the party leader, to urge him to advise ‘his two Boys’, to demonstrate restraint during the re- run election the following day because each side was armed to the teeth.

    As of today, God has given each of the three gentlemen the opportunity to serve Ekiti and Nigeria at the National level: Dele as current minister of Solid Mineral Development, and the remaining two as distinguished senators of the Federal Republic. I haven’t the slightest doubt that the mature, and calculating, politician that Femi Ojudu is, he will soon find his way back into political reckoning.

    For budding Ekiti politicians, therefore, I would like to leave for them, the following words by Dele Alake, as he opted out of the senatorial contest: “

    “When I joined the race for the senatorial seat in Ekiti, I was motivated by the higher ideal of offering service and quality representation to the people of Ekiti Central Senatorial District in particular, Ekiti State and Nigeria in general”.

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    “I felt that my God-given intellect, talent, elocution, erudition and articulation, experience, exposure, knowledge and vision would be best put to the service of my people in the National Assembly through a clean electoral process”.

    “I did not envisage that an intra-party primary could degenerate into malpractices, fraud, violence and brigandage”. “I do not believe that in order to serve the people you either have to induce them with money, buy their conscience or resort to thuggery, hooliganism and brigandage. I strongly believed that if one wants to serve, you offer yourself and convince the people with ideas, programmes,

    plans and your manifesto”.

    “In the light of this and after due consultations with well-meaning Nigerians across the geo-political divides, and given the fact that I subscribed to the principle and value of playing the game by the rule, and also the fact that I cherish the quality of my name, status, stature and my image , I have decided not to be part of any such arrangement because there is no guarantee that the same thing will not occur again”. “Politics, for me, is not a do-or-die affair. I , therefore, withdraw my participation.”

    How nice would it be if this ‘Alake Mantra’ could become the Credo of all our politicians in Ekiti state.

    I digress.

    The pole position Ado – Ekiti enjoys in elections in the state was why I headed to Chief Fasuan to have a better understanding of what exctly was going on.

    “Femi, wo de de ni ni o, being our Are – Afao – Ekiti way of saying ‘Femi you have come again o”. “Okay, give me some two minutes”.

    He, thereupon, telephoned His Royal Majesty, the Ewi of Ado – Ekiti, Oba

    Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe Aladesanmi III CON, who himself played a leading role in the struggle for the creation of the state.

    I overheard Kabiyesi recall Biodun’s yeoman’s efforts as Secretary of the Baba Fasuan – led committee, saying that the young man deserved to reap from where he sowed and concluded that his people are with him in his support for BAO.

    By the time they finished their discussion, all my fears were gone. Hurray! Oyebanji was their man in Ado – Ekiti and that really gladdened me..

    Besides Governor Fayemi, I would be mightily surprised if anybody, before me, saw BAO as the most appropriate person to succeed him, or mentioned it.

    As a writer, and close to government, even though not a government official, I have seen BAO at work, have keenly observed this quiet, and easy going ‘complete Ekiti bureaucrat’, who not only studied mostly locally here within Ekiti, but have served, meritoriously, in various sections of the state government over a long time, and is attested to by those who should know, as a loyal and competent gentleman who knows both the Ekiti people and the terrain very well, and I have concluded that he should be a perfect fit as governor Fayemi’s successor, God willing.

    Even if Governor Fayemi knew all these, as I guess he did, he was in no position to push it because, as the story below will affirm, he was determined to be scrupulously neutral in how his successor emerged.

    Let me then first apologise to governor Oyebanji for having to bring his private communication with me to the public space.

    When early in June 2021, I sent him a chat regarding the ’22 governorship election, and why I consider him most fit, he had not even adverted his mind to the possibility as the following response from him abundantly proves:

    “Good evening Sir. I will definitely come to you when the coast is clear Sir. Am believing in God to guide Mr Governor asap Sir. I can’t do anything without him Sir”.

    What can be more decent than that from a serving officer who knew he has all it would take to be governor?

    When the noise from the other side subsequently assumed an unpleasant trajectory with some people claiming that the governor was trying to inflict Oyebanji on the state, I decided to meet Governor Fayemi to know exactly how BAO emerged the party’s candidate.

    Below is how I captured my interaction with him on the BAO candidacy in my article: Re: Ekiti: Again I ask Must Our Politicians Always Fight to The Death? of 13 February, ’22:

    “I did not stop at merely writing my appeal of 9 January, ’22 titled:”Ekiti’22: In Order Not To Snatch Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory Warring APC Chieftains Must Sheathe Their Swords,

    as the allegation literally ruled the airwaves wherever you went. Indeed, Professor Bolaji Aluko would confirm that long before the primaries, he and I, had worked behind the scene, trying to work out some things. We knew we were on our own but had we succeeded, things might have turned out differently.

    I, therefore, made enquiries directly from the governor as to the truth or falsity of the allegation. My finding dear reader, and I have never had cause, not even once in our long years of very close relationship, which many of the contestants are very well aware of , to doubt Governor Fayemi.

    They should, therefore, sleep easy, when they read here that Biodun Oyebanji was the product of a scientific process – a commissioned GALLUP POLL which had no specific names given to the pollster, – a professional group of very solid repute -whose remit was to identify, and prequalify, persons with requisite political exposure, competence and experience and who could be the party’s governorship candidate in the June 2022 governorship election with the proviso that this be not limited to those in government. Far be it, therefore, that anybody hand picked the young man who is now the APC candidate for the June ’22 election.

    Instead, what played out is that the idea of a home grown Biodun Oyebanji who, only in his 20’s, was Secretary to the Chief Deji Fasuan – led committee of leading Ekiti personalities, and Kabiyesis, for the creation of Ekiti state, as well as his having creditably held many high public offices in the governments of both governors Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi, two of Ekiti’s most impactful governors, and the fact that he went round the state far more than any of his competitors, resonated very well with party members and supporters who were not just seeing him only at election time having just resigned as Secretary to Government (SSG). They could only barely conceal their enthusiasm for him”.

    I would later hear that two of the gentlemen who I mentioned in the article, who incidentally are aburos I respect very much, and they know this for a fact, took exception to what I wrote about them.

    Of course, I did not set out to present them in bad light.

    Knowing, for instance, how warmly governor Fayemi spoke to me about Senator Opeyemi Bamidele who he saw, as if he saw tomorrow, as one Ekiti politician who, because of his exposure, experience and sundry competences should, ideally, represent the state at the National level – a matter he told me he discussed with him – regarding how he could easily emerge one of the highest ranking Senators. Today Senator Opeyemi is No.3 in that hallowed chamber.

    I had criticised him for being rather too intent on playing only at the sub national level. Who would not remember that he did take the bullet for governor Fayemi and that the latter could not have wished him ill. I learnt it was the same for my own dashing congressman, Bimbo Daramola, who I believed should have championed Opeyemi going to senate having himself been a member of the National Assembly and knows how useful to Ekiti a senator Opeyemi would be. I am sure they now both understand my position about how the senator could impact Ekiti’s minfrastructural development. Indeed, he is already facilitating a University for Ekiti to be sited in Iyin – Ekiti. Am proved right

    Happily, all is well that ends well. For Ekiti state as a whole today, there is unbelievable peace; a state of affairs for which we Ekitis are all hugely obligated to the gentleman governor in the saddle. .

    Completely across board, and irrespective of political party, BAO has extended a hand of not just fellowship, but of distinct respect to all Ekiti and, in particular, to many Ekiti titans who, for decades, were bitter political enemies.

    The resultant quietude and peaceful state of affairs all over the state has enabled BAO to do so much in so short a time.

    He came into office at a time Ekiti was very politically tense and fractious, but seeing the way he has led with humility, and hostility to none, Ekiti is fast returning to that era when, even on the most desolate of roads, if an Ekiti man saw a vehicle with a WP registered number parked in search of assistance, he was, as if on command, obligated to immediately stop and render assistance, no matter how much hurry he was in.

    I heartily congratulate governor Oyebanji on his 2nd Anniversary, and would like to extend my congratulations to his better half, the delectable First Lady, Her Excellency, Dr (Mrs) Olayemi Oyebanji who, as I predicted back during the campaigns, took off absolutely brilliantly from where Erelu, Her Excellency, Bisi Fayemi, left off and has since taken up the additional, very impressive step of going to lecture at the Afe Babalola University, the fastest growing University on the West Coast of Africa.

    In conclusion, I commend the governor for internalising, not only his good home upbringing, but for also bringing to bear on governance, everything he learnt at the feet of his two remarkable bosses.

    Indeed, of a truth, an apple does not fall far from the tree.

  • Atiku: Desperation is your name

    Atiku: Desperation is your name

    First, let us enquire into this Breaking News of SADIQ ABUBAKAR and the circumstances which led to VP Atiku Abubakar’s change of name. Can we, with all due respect, ask the following questions:

    What names are on  his first school leaving certificate?

    Can he give Nigerians the school’s address so they can authenticate the veracity of this story? If this is no longer feasible, can he volunteer names of 5 persons who will be willing to swear on the Quoran or the Holy Bible, affirming  that they know him as Sadiq, or is it Sidiq?

    Or can he willingly produce the certificate or any other document which identifies him as Sidiq for Nigerians to see?

    We ask these questions because all the etymological effusions by  Phrank Shaibu, his Special Assistant on Public Communication, to spin off the circumstances of  the name change  simply do not clarify how this case is different from that of persons who either procure others to write examinations for them, or simply buy off certificates.

    And, by the way, can the respected former Vice President please react to this rumour going round that he has a brother named Sadiq? In fact a trending WhatsApp video carries the gentleman’s photo.

    I digress.

    The article you are about to read was first published a year ago on 23 October, 2022. By that date,  the Turakin Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar,  had shown enough indication that the 2023 Presidental election – I think his 6th attempt, and most probably his last (1993,2007,2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023 – woe betide marabouts) will be a do or die affair.

    It was for that reason he ended up selfishly splitting PDP into: Peter Obi and his Labour party,  Rabiu Kwankwaso and the NNPP, the ramp of PDP itself and the very robust group of 5 governors who resisted his selfish politics and flatly refused to have anything to do with his campaign.

    It was in this desperation that Atiku defeated himself and has since been beating about the bush, like Peter Obi, going all over the globe searching for his stolen mandate.

    Before we go into that, this other, rather, pathetic matter of the amputee, Sunday Fakunle.

    Last week, I called the attention of the Oyo state governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, to the parlous state of Mr Fakunle who is a below the knee amputee, and pleaded for his kind assistance for the gentle man.

    While we are still waiting for the governor, some Nigerians have risen to Alheri’s assistance by sending him money.

    It was never my intention to use this medium to raise funds for him. However, I urge you to please mentally picture a man whose leg is amputated below the knee trying to make ends meet in today’s Nigeria, and be  touched enough to assist him.  God in his infinite mercy will handsomely reward you.

    Below is his bank details.

    Sunday Fakunle

     A/c No.0 0 7 1 8 7 6 6 3 9  Access bank.

    I digress.   

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    Were General Musa Yar Adua to resurrect today, indicating he wanted to contest for the presidency of Nigeria, those who know his old protege, Atiku Abubakar, well enough, contend that the latter would also announce his interest in the same post. This is the spirit that has seen Atiku contesting for the presidency since the 90’s, and for him, everything goes.

    Let us briefly sketch his 30+ years on this journey. In doing that, let us respectfully,  press into service, his one-time boss, ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo as well as the inimitable journalist, Louis Odion.

    The contributions from these two  will show why nobody should have been surprised when Atiku said as follows before the Northern Elders who were interrogating his programmes ahead of the presidential election:”What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country”.”This is what the Northerner needs;  He/ she doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I stand before you as a Pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”

    That is the Atiku Abubakar some people are trying to sell to Nigerians as a unifier, even if his party, the PDP is in turmoil.

    Without a scintilla of doubt, and as will be confirmed by the following testimonies, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is being driven by an un-tameable desperation to be the Nigerian president but certainly not because he has anything tangible to offer a country in desperate need of rebuilding and re-engineering. Even as Vice -President, he was more concerned with upstaging his boss and becoming the President as he had been promised by marabouts who had earlier, uncannily, predicted his political trajectory. Ex-president Obasanjo had the following to say about his Vice: “… From the day I nominated Atiku to be my vice, he set his mind not for any good, benefit or service to the country, but on furiously planning to upstage, supplant or remove me at all cost and to take my place”. “That was what I brought him for, but he was impatient and over-ambitious. He was not ready to learn and to wait. His marabout, who predicted that despite being elected as governor, he would not be sworn in as a governor, which happened, also assured him that he would take over from me in a matter of months rather than years”. “All his plans, appointments of people and his actions were towards the actualisation of his marabout’s prediction. Once I realised his intention and programme, I watched him like a hawk without giving any indication of what I knew and letting down my guard. I could not succumb to the distraction, diversion and malevolence of an ambitious but unwise deputy”.

    If that was many years ago, let us hear Louis Odion as he describes Atiku’s Israelite’s journey towards the Nigerian presidency.

    In the article: Atiku: The Peril of inordinate ambition (The Nation, 16 October, ’22), he wrote inter alia:

    “ Atiku is a conflicted bigot, consumed by inordinate ambition. He remains a bare-foot slave to an empire the Nigeria of the twenty-first century has outgrown. In 2011, he battled Jonathan for PDP ticket, on the argument that the ‘North has not used up its two term slots’, following Yar’Adua’s death in office on May 5, 2010. (Forget that he stubbornly refused entreaties not to go to court when the same Umar Yar’Adua was declared winner in 2007 in the spirit of ‘northern solidarity’) and fought like a wounded lion up to  the Supreme Court).But he got a shellacking at the PDP primaries in 2011. In 2014, he, still driven by that inordinate ambition, again led the rebellion of nPDP to evacuate PDP in protest of Jonathan’s bid for 2nd (3rd?) term; that it was ‘the turn of power to shift to the North’, for the ‘sake of justice and equity’. In 2018, realising he stood no chance against President Buhari’s winning 2nd term in 2019, he migrated back to PDP.

    Of course, he suffered another shellacking in 2019. With the power of Dollars, and a thoughtless invocation of the ethnic card at PDP’s May primaries, he overpowered Southern contenders (like Wike) to the presidential ticket”.

    While Northern politicians like  the APC Northern governors, were more concerned with fairness , equity and the unity of Nigeria and so conceded the party’s presidential slot to the South, as Governor El Rufai of Kaduna state said Sir Ahmadu Bello and the Northern founding fathers would have wished, Atiku, in Odion’s words, “ sacrifised national unity, put a knife on the fragile thread that holds Nigeria together, in a desperation to rig the fulfilment of the long-standing prophecy by marabouts (according to ex-President Obasanjo) of ruling Nigeria some day”.

    But that is not all  for the man who ‘just must rule Nigeria’, come shine, come rain, as Nyesom Wike,  Governor of Rivers state, attests to Atiku’s unreliability.

    For instance, Wike said:” “Now, when we finished our convention, the candidate of the party came to see me in my house in Abuja on Monday, around 10:30am and said ‘Listen, I want us to work together.’ Ayu must go.’I said ‘why?’, and he said because when a candidate comes from the north, the chairman will come from the south. And I am saying, ‘implement what you told me’. There are many other instances of Atiku’s double dealing.

    Speaking at a meeting with PDP stakeholders from the South-East in Enugu on Tuesday, September 27, Atiku said he was interested in repositioning the region to play bigger roles in the country’s survival, noting that for his love for the region, he twice chose Igbos as his running mate; and has now, for the third time chosen another. Therefore, concluded the man trading the Nigerian presidency all over the place, “I make it quite clear and confidently, too: I will be your stepping stone to becoming president”.

    But before the cock could crow, listen to Atiku talking to an estranged Governor Nyesom Wike.

    Worried by the danger posed to his ambition in next year’s presidential election by the camp of the Rivers State governor, the PDP flag bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had to offer the governor the presidency, come 2027, on the condition, however, that Wike would  sheathe his sword and support him (Atiku) in the 2023 election.

    Quickly forgetting his promise to the Southeast, both men met on Thursday in Abuja in a fresh bid to patch up their differences, with Atiku promising to support Wike’s presidential bid in 2027 if he (Wike) agreed to  support him (Atiku) in the 2023 election.

    I do not think there is a better way to end this article than as Odion did when he wrote:”  This presidential ‘candidate of habit’ will soon find again that the Nigeria of his depraved, bigoted dream no longer exists”.

    If that was a year ago, Atiku’s desperation to become President, even after he had grandly lost the election and the Presidential Election Tribunal Court has dismissed his petition, has become far worse, making one wonder as to what would become of him when the Supreme court  finally knocks him out..