Category: Femi Orebe

This one making the third week in succession, the subject discussed, majorly, on this column was that of reducing the cost of governance in Nigeria with the National Assembly flagged as the chief culprit in the stupendous profligacy.

Given that fact, what are Nigerians expected to make of  the N70B allocated to members of the same National Assembly in the newly approved supplementary budget especially when viewed against the claim once made by Mrs Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, the twice Nigerian former minister of Finance?

In her book, ‘Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines’, she revealed the arm-twisting that characterised budget passage by the National Assembly during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, referencing an event in 2015, when its leadership COERCED the executive arm to part with a whooping N17 billion added to the year’s budget before it was passed.

In interrogating the new fuel pump prices, it is important to appropriately situate who, or what, to hold responsible for the  infliction of this extreme hardship on Nigerians. Unfortunately, being mostly of short memory, many Nigerians may not think of  linking the  development to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cancellation of history in Nigerian schools whereas, the clever militician was only being proactive knowing, well in advance, that there was no way Nigerians could avoid  suffering the whirlwind of the wind which PDP sowed during its 16 year – stranglehold over Nigeria which, among other things, included spending 16 billion dollars, procuring darkness, in place of electricity, for hapless Nigerians.

Tinubu’s implacable foes would be eager to put the blame squarely on his less than 2- month old administration which, in future, would be commended for demonstrating the political will, even bravado, lack of which saw President Goodluck Jonathan beat a hasty retreat when in 2012 he attempted to remove fuel subsidy, and ended up postponing the evil day. Now it has caught up with us.

For me, Nigerians are unjustly suffering the consequences of corruption in all spheres of our past governments – Executive, legislative and the judiciary – all of which combined to worsen everything concerning fuel: its production (how our four refineries were bastardised through poor, or non- existent, turn – around maintenance especially in the Obasanjo years), importation (fraudulent subsidy payments) and how the judiciary shielded oil fraudsters who claimed billions of Naira in subsidy payments, even on ships which never visited anywhere on the West African coast.

The last ( Judiciary) led Femi Falana, SAN to, not too long ago, write as follows:”The menace of corruption is compounded by the impunity of the ruling class. It is, therefore, pertinent to join issues with the lawyers who are being used to frustrate the anti-corruption war. Although the NBA condemns corruption in  both the bar and the bench, it is public knowledge that some senior lawyers have since  been recruited to frustrate the prosecution of corrupt elements in  the society”.

The result of all these is that despite being Africa’s largest oil and gas producer, Nigeria’s core problem today is that it relies almost exclusively on expensive imports to meet its gasoline needs since all the refineries  have all become dilapidated and idle, due to corruption and mismanagement.

It is unbelievable that much of this happened under the ever – wise President Obasanjo who doubled as Oil minister and waited, until shortly before his exit, to decide to sell the ‘dead’ refineries, which decision, allegedly suspecting foul play, the Yar Adua government promptly rescinded.

That exactly was when the rain began to beat us but it was still not enough for the kleptomanic PDP which then ensured that  the number of fuel importers shot up exponentially; including not only party members, but the children of two of its successive Chairmen.

It is, therefore, under the PDP maladministration that any objective discourse on the current problem should begin. Curiously, the party, being congenitally shameless, is loudest in its condemnation of market forces dictating prices as we just saw but which it sees as government action.

Matters were not better, nor helped, under President Muhammadu Buhari who was also the Minister of Petroleum Resources.

Outright lassitude, complete with an unreflecting nepotism, and cronyism, especially in matters relating to oil only worsened between 2015 -2023 May.

As you read this, NNPCL, even as a limited liability company today, mirrors nothing besides a Northern Nigerian Development company in its staffing.

The result, as Adewale Adeoye recently put it in his brief intervention titled: N500B PALIATIVE: HERE’S A PEOPLE’S APPROACH, with which I perfectly agree: “Not that Buhari did not achieve anything, but his economic team was barren and arid, bereft of any creativity in form and content”.

All these government failures led us to no where besides our present gnashing of teeth and further pauperisation of the poor.

The current fuel prices, cannot, and must not, however, be used to judge the yet inchoate, barely 60 – day old, Tinubu Administration. This is because for him, doing nothing was no alternative at all.

Matters were, in fact, worsened by the  fact  that effective from this month  (July 2023), there  was no  further budgetary allocation for fuel subsidy.

Tinubu simply had no alternative to coming up with new policies far different from those that would have inexorably led the country to perdition because, again, in Adeoye’s words:”The situation on ground is appalling. Buhari left a car without an engine, without tyres and laden with lice and rotten faeces”.  It takes, he writes, “a lot of courage to  as much as touch the car in the first place,”.

 “That, for Adeoye, is what Nigeria has become”.

Tinubu is only  now beginning to change things but the road will be difficult, as well as painful and will require patience and prayers  from all of us because when, or if, the sky caves in, it will not do so on an individual’s head.

May the good Lord see us all through this very difficult phase of Nigeria’s development which, for a certainty, will become history.

To save Nigeria we must, among other things, go back to Education, Healthcare and Infrastructural development, Cut The High Cost Of Governance, with the President, ministers, governors, legislators and all other political appointees taking a substantial pay cut to save money that could be  spent on the welfare of the citizenry – Chief Philip Asiodu, in an interview titled: ‘Where Nigeria Went Wrong’.

 The challenge of once, and for all, finding a lasting solution to the astronomical cost of governance in Nigeria is by no means new.

It is one  problem most Nigerian presidents have toyed with, but shied away, from. Indeed, the most outrageous aspect of it all – the National Assembly’s totally outrageous emoluments – about the highest to Congressmen anywhere in the world  – has been attributed to none other than former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

In this regard, the  respected Chief Phillip Asiodu wrote: “After the 1999 presidential election, I became Economic Adviser under President Obasanjo, who did not satisfy the requirements to be the  PDP candidate in 1999 because to become a candidate you must win your ward,  local government and state. He did not win any of these, but it was waived for him”.

“After his election as President, he appointed me his Chief Economic Adviser together with three deputies of the rank of Ministers- of- State. I urged him to let us implement Vision 2010″.

The country was literally at his feet. But he refused.

“If he had agreed, and started, by the time he was leaving  office in 2007, Nigerian economy would have attained a growth rate of no less than 10% per annum and the government would have  become so popular National Assembly members would not have had the temerity to vote enormous perquisites for themselves, even far above the recommendations of the Revenue Mobilisation And Fiscal Commission ( RMAFC) which arose from his second term ambition because he needed their support. Otherwise he would have been able to constrain them”.

Also, because of his own second term ambition, attempting to have their humongous salaries and allowances reduced was a no go area for President Goodluck Jonathan who, however, set up a Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government’s Parastals, Commissions and Agencies Committee, headed by Stephen Oronsaye, a former Head of Service, but whose recommendations he knew he would treat with benign neglect just as he did the recommendations of the 2014 National conference.

Outright listlessness, and a measure of self interest, arising from having packed nearly all the agencies, parastatals, Departments and commissions with Northerners who must not be touched under any circumstances, ensured that President Buhari paid little or no attention, whatever, to the report  until very late in his administration.

Indeed, his late approval to implement the recommendations went to nothing.

With respect to this nerve racking problem from which many of his predecessors simply turned the blind eye, President Tinubu is, no doubt, in a situation analogous to that of the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo when the  following were written about him:

“To accomplish these, Awo and his colleagues were determined to blast their way through whatever problems, and compel the force of any adverse circumstance to serve their will. This was because they had put in, long and hard preparations, to meet the challenges and they had evolved elaborate plans which they were ready to launch at a moment’s notice”. What is more, and here am quoting the Avatar:”we had an abiding, flaming faith in the soundness and practicable-ness of our plans. We regarded ourselves as crusaders in a new cause, and as eminently qualified for the pioneering role which we had imposed on ourselves”.

With considerable justification, after his 30 years of productive engagement in the politics of Nigeria preparing for ‘his life long ambition of becoming the Nigerian President’, President Tinubu should be able to own that assertive pronouncement by AWO, regarding his own preparedness for office.

In consequence of that, he should now go ahead and deploy all his well known qualities as a dogged strategist, combined with his wide and varied experience, as well as his not inconsiderable network, to tame the conundrum of Nigeria’s unsustainable cost of governance, especially the atrocious emoluments of members of the National Assembly which is actually the elephant in the room.

It is, without a doubt, a difficult task; difficult mainly because he will be confronting, head on,  powerful politicians and their hangers-on outside, whose  primary interest is SELF- LOVE, as against concern for the welfare of the people or even the country’s infrastructural development.

For these utterly self – centred Nigerian politicians, Chief Obafemi Awolowo may very well have been talking to the marines when he wrote as follows in  PATH TO NIGERIAN FREEDOM:”The purpose of governance, its raison d’etre, is first and foremost the security of the lives and property of citizens. Next, in order of importance, is the enhancement of their freedom and liberty; and finally, there is the welfare function of promoting equal opportunities and happiness for all”.

To today’s generation of politicians, especially those now populating the National Assembly – most of who would probably think that ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’ is the title of a Nollywood video, all the Avatar wrote, will mean nothing.

Their primary concern, in those hallowed Chambers, is the good life, but strictly for themselves.

This will, therefore, be one of the President’s main problems in office given the key role of the Legislature as a co- equal arm of government. While political will shall be very important in resolving it, it will not be enough because they are a congenitally selfish lot.

Read Also: PHOTOS: Guinea Bissau President meets President Tinubu

This is where the President would, therefore, have to lead by personal example; one that would be irresistible and which, combined with the respect and goodwill he has attracted in his few weeks in office, will make the legislators see reason and play ball.

Here the President  must demonstrate, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the Nigerian presidency became a life ambition for him only because he saw the office as the utmost position from where he could both meaningfully, and positively impact the lives of Nigerians,  irrespective of clan, tribe or religion. For him, this is the driving force propelling him all along.

“True leadership”, wrote former Ekiti state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, one of President Tinubu’s proud mentees in his lecture titled ‘Of Values and The Building of A Successor Generation in Nigeria’, is influence”. “It is driven by core convictions, values and ideas. In a profound sense, leadership is living out one’s values and ideas. It is the sheer power of personal example that projects

influence”.

All these – values, convictions and leadership – are qualities President Tinubu possesses in quantum,  and they are the very things he must now bring to bear in negotiations with those who are rather being over paid from our common purse. He must encourage, and persuade, them to  willy nilly, take a substantial cut in their very high  emoluments which run into multiples of millions of Naira per month.

He should let them know, if they don’t already, that Nigeria is on tenterhooks.

The same treatment – cut in salaries and allowances – must be fully extended to the executive branch  where the President must lead by example by not only announcing a massive cut in his own emoluments, but ‘decree’ an end to the outlandish wastages that have characterised the executive branch over the years.

The states will, naturally, replicate all these in their own areas of.jurisdiction.

That done, the next thing for the President should be the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Oronsaye Committee.

 Set up by the President Goodluck Jonathan government on August 18, 2011, the Oronsaye Committee was given the following mandate:

“to study and review all previous reports and records on the restructuring of Federal Parastatals, and advise on whether they were still relevant; examine the enabling Acts of all the federal agencies, parastatals and commissions and classify them into various sectors; examine critically, the mandate of the existing federal agencies, parastatals and commissions and determine areas of overlap or duplication of functions and make appropriate recommendations to either restructure, merge or scrap some to eliminate such overlaps, duplications or redundancies; and advise on any other matter incidental to the foregoing, which might be relevant to the desire of the government to prune down the cost of governance.”

The approval allegedly given for implementation by President Buhari, and  forwarded to the Head of Service of the Federation did not see the light of day until that government left office.

Apart from the fact that Nigeria now spends 96 per cent of its revenue on debt servicing, according to the World Bank,  public-spirited Nigerians have long expressed concern over the absolutely unsustainable cost of governance in the country.

A country that serially borrows, year in, year out, to implement its annual budget should, if led by a serious government, never run a government half as expensive as Nigeria does without a hint of shame.

Worse is the fact that the country presently suffers a huge revenue shortfall, a fact not helped by the ever decreasing income from its hydrocarbon assets – no thanks to massive oil theft that has run like for ages. 

The President, no doubt, should be well aware that cutting the cost of governance is long overdue, and no longer a stitch in time which as they say,  saves nine. It is now already far too late.

Over then to President Tinubu. Nigerians are  waiting to see him rescue them, and generations yet unborn, from the. hands of these swashbuckling, and parasitic, rent seekers happily devouring our nation.

I crave the indulgence of my  esteemed readers to do something am doing for the first time ever, that is,  jettisoning my own article for another person’s, on this column.

Published Sunday, 11 December, 2022,  the article you are about to read predated ‘Nigeria: Arise O Compatriots’ for which I, this past Sunday, yielded the column to one of the Authors of ‘Nigeria- Before I Die’, by no less than 6 months.

I am today,  assuming the concurrence of Dan Osa-Ogbegie of Benin – City,  to have published, mutatis mutandis, his article of the above title.

I have finished my own article which I captioned ‘Tinubu: Chatham House And The Ensuing Chatter By Nabobs of Negativism’, before I ran into the Ogbegie article which completely bowled me over with its  uncanny understanding and capture of what I would like to describe as ‘The Essential Phenomenal Tinubu Persona’.

Please come with me as I show you unencumbered truth from a writer who is not even of the same Yoruba ethnic stock as Tinubu. That fact alone should shame the naysayers – a small, but very loud, coterie of envious, animus – driven pranksters, especially among Tinubu’s own Yoruba. I forsee many of them joining Chief Bode George to emigrate abroad once Tinubu is elected President, come February, 2023.

Happy reading.

“The  presidential candidate of the APC yesterday addressed a group of intellectuals at Chatham House, London, and it was another big revelation of candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu on one hand, and that of the opposition – supporting Southerners, on the other.

I woke up early today to the cries of some Nigerians on how embarrassed they claim they were at Tinubu’s outing at Chatham House and I was compelled to go watch the video myself.

What I saw was a highly presidential address by a man who understands what is expected of him as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, correctly appreciating the relevance of Nigeria to the entire West African sub region.

In the speech, he emphasised Nigeria’s role in Africa as a big brother and a beacon of hope to the entire continent; the ECOWAS sub-region in particular, where there had, of recent, been some military interventions.

He submitted that if elected president, his administration will continue to provide quality leadership to the sub-region and ensure that democratic ideals reign supreme everywhere.

He touched on security, energy, private sector participation as well as the building of a virile Nigeria that will provide leadership for the much needed African rennaisance. It was a beautiful speech any patriotic Nigerian should be proud of.

During the question and answer session, Tinubu again demonstrated class by the dignified way he handled some rather insolent questions that would have made a Peter Obi flip, as he did sometime ago with a certain Dino Melaye.

He was asked questions about his identity, age and health; all facts already available in the public space. Tinubu is 70 years now, and will be 71 when he becomes President of Nigeria by the grace of God in 2023.

But why is his age suddenly an issue this year when it wasn’t in 1992 when he contested for the senate and won? Why was it not an issue when he sided with the Nigerian people to fight for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria when the country was under military dictators who held us all by the scruff of our necks? Why was Tinubu’s age not an issue in 1998/1999 when he was elected Lagos State governor, and started therefrom, what has now put Lagos on the map as the 5th largest economy in Africa?

Why was his age not an issue when he staved off Obasanjo’s creeping dictatorship and emerged as the last man standing; rescuing Nigeria from the rudderless PDP, and leading a new opposition political party to win a presidential election for the first time in Nigeria?

Or when he gave Atiku his party’s presidential ticket during one of that man’s many fruitless attempts at becoming president?

It is all because they are scared stiff of the massive support Tinubu is attracting everywhere in the country. One reason opposition elements have relied upon to question his age is their belief in the outright lie that his daughter is 62 years old. Here, in  truth, is a young, 46 year old lady who my friend, Darlington Okpebholo Ray, a PDP member, now an Obidient , knows very well, and can attest to.

Therefore, rather than discuss Tinubu’s speech as intelligent people should, the naysayers have been  busy whining about how Chatham House was imposing “a sick Tinubu on Nigeria” (Sahara Reporters) and how Tinubu allocated questions to members of his team to answer -(Dino Melaye and Peter Obi’s social media urchins).

Ten questions were put to Tinubu after his speech, and in his characteristic way of showing that the presidency would not be all about him but, rather, about the first class team he would  assemble, he answered four, and shared the others between his ‘A’ team members, which included Nasir El-Rufai, a first class brain, and current governor of Kaduna state, Ben Ayade, a renowned Professor, and governor of Cross Rivers State, Dave Umahi, an Engineer and governor of Ebonyi State, who has turned the state to a major talking point in Nigeria as a result of his unparalleled development strides. Among them too was Dele Alake, a long time Tinubu confidant and associate,  veteran journalist and master strategist.

The traction Tinubu got from delegating questions to members of his team after addressing the August assembly is enormous. His rivals know this and would soon try to copy the innovation which shows that he will rely on highly skilled Nigerians to get the job done as he did in lagos State.

The choice in 2023 must not be an emotive one. We must, critically assess all the candidates and choose the one that has the track record required, not only to get Nigeria out of the woods, but  place it on a trajectory of sustainable development as we saw him do in Lagos state where he turned a measly N600M Internally Generated Revenue to a humongous, multi- billion Naira achievement.

We must also take a good look at their record in public service.

Nigeria needs a completely detribalised leader who sees all Nigerians as one, regardless of their ethnicity or religious beliefs.

Our choice will surely not be a Peter Obi who, being  so clannish,  drove a wedge between Roman Catholics and Anglicans while governor of Anambra state. Nor can it be Atiku Abubakar who has shown how very divisive he is, by beating a fast retreat from initially condemning the crazed mob that killed Deborah Samuel, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto.

If Obasanjo’s numerous complaints about Atiku are anything to go by, Atiku was a wrong choice for him as Vice – President then, and will be a wrong president now. Nothing has changed as Atiku remains desperate to become president, as was foretold by his marabouts. For that ambition alone, he has changed political parties more than a prostitute changes sex partners, having been contesting for the office since 1993.

Today, coming all the way from Dubai where he now lives, he sees nothing wrong in selfishly breaking the principle of power rotation between the South and the North, showing how much he loves himself, but disdains a peaceful Nigeria.

While Bola Tinubu created a first class civil service in Lagos state, employing Nigerians from diverse tribes and religions, Peter Obi was busy repatriating Hausa traders from Anambra to Delta state, and sacking fellow Igbos from other South east states who were

in the Anambra state employment.

If Peter Obi could discriminate against Anambra Anglicans in favour of Anambra Catholics and against non Anambra Igbos working in Anambra to a point of retrenching  them, how will he handle a  heterogeneous entity like Nigeria as president?

Tinubu’s performance in Lagos is today, still an example to other state governors.

He implemented a land administration system reform which made housing  ownership a lot easier, just as he embarked upon a holistic judicial reforms. He introduced a tax system reform that saw Lagos at par with international best practices. He equally embarked on a traffic management reform that has incrementally been improved upon by all successive Lagos state governors.

Tinubu, a muslim, was the first governor to return mission schools to the original owners, as well as started the payment of O’level enrolment fees for all candidates in Lagos schools, irrespective of their states of origin.

In contradistinction to that  Peter Obi increased school fees in Anambra state and compelled parents to pay three terms’ fees in the first term.

When students and parents protested, he infamously replied that education was not for the poor, and that they could withdraw from schools to go and learn vulcanizing, carpentry or any other trade for which, according to him, formal education was unnecessary.

All the reforms Tinubu institutionalised in Lagos have greatly impacted on the ease of doing business in the state that, as mentioned earlier, the state is now the 5th largest economy in Africa.

I challenge Peter Obi’s supporters, home and abroad, to tell Nigerians one reform, policy, programme or project of Peter Obi – just one -that other states have gone to Anambra state to copy.

What exactly is now the basis of supporting Peter Obi?  All he does is lie, superfulously, with statistics, enumerating Nigeria’s problems, but never offering their solution.

Nigerians must not be emotive in deciding who governs us.No messiah is coming to take all our problems away at a go.

What Tinubu knows, is what Nigerians also know about him – that he is a doer, not a talker, and that he has the capacity to put together, a team of very competent hands, from all over the country, for the good of the country. He has done it before and the evidence is all over the place.

He can, and will, do it again, this time around, Pan – Nigeria”.

Nothing confirms the veracity of all that Ogbegie said about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu above more than the fact that in less than a month in office as President, he is now being called PAPA GO FAST.

Thanks to, among other things, his many years of preparation for office, something completely alien to Nigeria where a reluctant Alhaji Shehu Shagari, whose only ambition was to be a senator, was frog jumped into the presidency of Nigeria.

Let me conclude with how REUTERS rhapsodised this exemplar in the history of governance in Nigeria when,  on 16 June, ’23, it wrote excitedly:”Nigeria’s new president, in office for less than a month, is pushing to put Africa’s largest economy on a reform track that investors have eyed for decades, fuelling excitement that money could flow to a nation that many had deemed uninvestible.

President Bola Tinubu’s bold actions, including removing restrictions on the naira currency that allowed it to hit a record N790 to the dollar, and subsidy removal that tripled petrol prices, could take stress off the battered finances of Africa’s largest economy”.

Even then, President Tinubu ‘sese nmeye bo lapo ni’ – Yoruba – speak, meaning that the President is only just beginning to dazzle.

Babatunde Faniyan and Oladiipo Fagunwa, the authors of BEFORE I DIE – An Autobiography by ‘Nigeria’- were being absolutely prescient when they set to work on this book. I say this because no time could have been more appropriate than now, in the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, to unveil a book like it.

PresidentTinubu, the most prepared ever, in the annals of Nigerian history, campaigned and won on A RENEWED HOPE Manifesto, and has, since being sworn in on 29 May, 2023  demonstrated a sure – footedness Nigerians have, like forever, been yearning for in a civilian administration.

The book is so  compelling, especially in Nigeria’s gasping circumstances, that I this Sunday, 18 June, 2023, yield your ever inspiring column to one of the Authors, BABATUNDE FANIYAN, also the author and publisher of:

thinkersdigestmagazine,

 to take us through it’s refreshing and hope – inducing  innards.

Happy reading.

A rather strange Book shall soon come across your path. It is an autobiography by  Nigeria.

All of  twelve Chapters, with titles garnished with exotic Kickers and Riders.

Some of the Chapter Titles are:

 – In the Womb, Before the Birth of Dawn – My Beginnings – My Roots.         

– Dawn Breaks – My Life Under British Rule.         

 -Evening – My Children Begin To Cry To Be Separated From This Nigeria.             

One-Minute-to-Midnight – My quiet moment Before I Die, and Thinking Aloud. 

Before I Die is a soliloquy of a bereaved and besieged, well known and well endowed, but embattled Being, crying to be saved from calamity and probable death.

It needs be emphasised that the title: BEFORE I DIE, is not synonymous with, or equate to “I Am Going to Die”.

The authors do not desire the Death of Nigeria. Rather, the work is a refreshing, revealing and eye – opening outlay of  the pre-colonial history of the Land space now known as Nigeria.

It is clearly stated that she was not ‘discovered’ by either the Royal Niger Company or by the British, but has been there long before they all came, and has been home to numerous kingdoms, empires and territories for centuries. We see the British, controversially amalgamating, and yoking together, over 300 different ethnic nationalities and tribes, and ruling her from1914 to 1960.

We also see Nigeria grew from Independence in 1960, into adolescence and adulthood – and later found herself under siege from internal and external misfortunes, and aggressors, and contend that it should be admired for the courage and stamina to come out with this work.

The Book covers the era of the relay of military regimes and intermittent civilian administrations until the Fourth Republic came in 1999 and has endured till today – with all its growing turbulence.

Various developments, cries and appeals within the body of the book from independence in 1960 to this day, are focused, mainly on the critical question: Can NigeriaI survive her faulty foundations?

The book is awash with cogent examples of oppressive, inhuman and fatal atrocities which Nigeria has been subjected to. It is also replete with pleas, supplications and recommendations to stem the stormy, and disastrous tide.

It epilogues with  steps that should be taken to avoid mayhem before Nigeria dies.

Such eminent voices of reason include that of former Central Bank governor and later Emir of Kano,  Lamido Sanusi, former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state, Dr. Nura Alkali, a consultant physician at the  Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Newspaper editorials and prominent journalists, among  others.

Indeed, towards the end of the book, Nigeria herself cries out: ¨I do not want to die!¨ (IF I can help it), which, in essence, is the whole essence of her writing this autobiography, even in her grief.

Readers will, after going through the book, be sorely troubled, but fully enlightened to draw their own conclusions on what the fate of Nigeria should be in the best interest of her innocent, hard working, long suffering and patriotic Children.

Any reader with a humane heart will, no doubt, be touched by it, and would be moved to pray for a turn-around for good – BEFORE Nigeria Dies.

Citizens are disillusioned on a daily basis, and raise their voices crying:  nothing Makes Sense In Nigeria Anymore!

• You sit in a House as a ‘representative’ of the people, and you earn Thirty-something Million Naira monthly, but the police looking after your security earn less than N30,000 a month. And he has a gun. How safe do you really think you are?

• You served for 8 years as governor – a priviledged position with the entire monentary allocation of the state in your hands. You retire and are paid millions of Naira annually for life, as benefit. Your cars are changed. A house is built for you. Medical bills are paid for you and members of your family etc. All these for working for 8 years. Still the governor, after the mandatory term of 8 years, goes into the Senate to earn Thirty-something Million Naira monthly, plus all the benefits of a retired governor.

In the same Nigeria, another man worked with government for 35 years. He retires and is paid N1m after almost dying, chasing the money. Many are not even that lucky; they die without getting  paid anything.

Meanwhile the Security situation in the country has virtually collapsed. Armed Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram terrorists, bandits of all kind, have taken the country hostage. The convoy of President Buhari was even attacked by Boko Haram.

Nigeria, in a last ditch effort Cries out:

Please Save Me!

I am Nigeria – the most populous Black Motherland on God’s earth. I am arguably the most endowed in mineral, natural and human resources on earth. Enemies within and from across the borders are hard at work to kill me.

The storm is gathering all over me.

The mercenaries are getting into vantage positions all around me.

The vultures are hovering lower and lower from the Sky.

Who will save me now?

Nigeria  ends the book with a touching EPILOGUE in which she presents her WILL to the world in case she does not survive for long.

But the Creator of Nigeria, her Guardian angel and her patriotic children are working and praying hard. They believe that the new political dispensation will be the solution to Nigeria´s dilemma.

As the saying goes, once beaten twice shy. As a  student of history, and one who has once gotten his fingers burnt reposing too much confidence in a politician, I thought real hard before I settled on the above as the title for this article.

As many of my readers would recall, I wrote, as quoted below, about President Muhammadu Buhari, even before he was voted into office, relying on his being a retired General of the Nigerian Army, an incandescently transparent and seemingly incorruptible contestant for high office:”Nigeria, in its current dire straits needs Buhari more than he needs Nigeria.”

That was in my 4 – part article titled:’Periscoping APC’s Ideal Presidential Candidate’ for the 2015 election – The Nation, Sunday, September 28, 2014.

Unfortunately by the time President Buhari left office on May 29, 2023 after 8 years, according to data obtained from the Nigeria Security Tracker, a total of  63,111 Nigerians had been killed – no thanks to Boko Haram, banditry, herders/farmers clashes, communal crises, cult clashes, and extra-judicial killings, all of which as a retired General, you would  expect he should have substantially degraded, if not completely eliminated. That is not to mention the fact that 63% of the Nigerian population (133 million) were, under his rule, multidimensionally poor, as revealed by the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index survey.

Read Also : Wike declares holiday for Tinubu’s visit

Given the above facts, I should need no warning to look before I leap into endorsing another politician, this time, another president, especially one sworn in at a time when the Nigerian condition has gone further south, almost beyond redemption.

However, the new President,  Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, comes in absolutely well credentialed in matters relating to governance. His ability in  putting round pegs in round holes for maximum efficiency is unmatched. Add to this the fact that religious and ethnic considerations count for nothing in making his appointments, making him a  complete antithesis of his predecessor.

Also, while President Buhari is insular, and did “not know most of the top officials he appointed”, according to the then First Lady, the reason she said on BBC that “some people were sitting down in their homes, folding their arms, only for them to be called to come and head an agency or get a ministerial post”.

On the contrary, I can wager that President Tinubu, a highly regarded go – to political juggernaut, whose doors are wide open to politicians from all parts of the country, would not only know most of his key appointees, he is sure to have previously, personally interacted with many of them.

But beyond all that, Ashiwaju is the first really educated President of this Federal Republic, a Finance specialist, with a track record of impeccable engagement at very senior levels of top  multinational companies.

With such cognate experience, in addition to his deep immersion in executive functions as Lagos state governor, not forgetting his being a senator, no clever by half civil servant, legislator or consultant, from wherever, can mess with him.

Indeed, officials from such organisations as the IMF and the World Bank would have to properly review their notes before engaging with him. All these are bound to earn Nigeria considerable respect internationally.

His 80 – page RENEWED HOPE Manifesto is replete with emphasis on his interest in national security, the economy, agriculture, power, oil and gas, health transportation as well as education. He is also keen on fostering a new Nigerian society based on shared prosperity, fairness and equity.

Beautiful as all these are, however, there are some critical issues to which the President’s attention must be drawn for very quick action.

Among these, as I previously wrote about on this column, is the need to resolve several socio – political wranglings that are inter – ethnic in nature.

Naturally insecurity, corruption and the economy must rank highest among issues calling for his urgent attention. Ranking next to these is the very dire, and urgent, need to reduce cost of runnimg government. As soon as the government settles down, the President must shift attention to restructuring the country.

Owing to space constraint, let me deal with only one of these, and urge the JAGABAN BORGU to bring all his capabilities and massive network to bear on its resolution.

Like Fuel subsidy which nearly all his predecessors couldn’t touch, I am refering to the critical issue of reducing the cost of governance.This is huge but the  real elephant in the room is the overly excessive emolument of National Assembly members. It is obtuse, insensitive and absolutely immoral. It must not survive the first one year of this administration.Indeed, it must be corrected rightaway to reflect the true Nigerian condition of massive poverty to stop the monkey dey work, baboon dey chop scenario in which we find ourselves in Nigeria. Without a doubt, the spirit that descended on former Head of state, General Yakubu Gowon when he said Nigeria’s problem was how to spend money, must have practically overwhelmed members of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) when they fixed the totally unconscionable emoluments which the legislators did not only subsequently jack up, but actually backdated its  effective date..

It is scandalous, to say the least, now that Labour unions are negotiating for a review of workers’ paltry N30,000 minimum wage, that some Nigerians are earning the Naira equivalent of $2,183,685.00.

A break down of the above, copied from a trending WhatsApp post reads as follows:

 *Basic Salary – N2,484,245.50

Hardship Allowance(50% of Basic Salary) –  N1,242,122.70

 Constituency Allowance (200% of Basic.Salary)– N4,968,509.00

Newspapers Allowance

(50% of B.S) – N1,242,122.70

 Wardrobe Allowance (25% of Basic Salary) – N621,061.37

Recess Allowance (10% of Basic Salary) – N248,424.55

 Accommodation (200% of Basic Salary) – N4,968,509.00

Utilities (30% of Basic Salary) –N828,081.83

Domestic Staff (70% of Basic Salary) – N1,863,184.12

Entertainment (30% of Basic Salary) – N828,081.83

Personal Assistants(25% of Basic Salary)  N621,061.12

Vehicle Maintenance Allowance (75% of Basic Salary) –N1,863,184.12

Leave Allowance (10% of Basic Salary) – N248,424.55

Severance Gratuity(300% of Basic Salary) – N7,452,736.50

Car Allowance (400% of Basic Salary) – N9,936,982.00

TOTAL MONTHLY SALARY =* N29,479,749.00 ($181,974.00)

TOTAL YEARLY SALARY = N29,479,749.00 x 12 = N353,756,988.00.

No job in the Nigerian public service deserves this atrocious payment and it should be stopped forthwith. It is simply egregious.

Also, the time for executing the Oronsaye Committee report has come given government’s dwindling revenue.

It has been suggested, for instance, that Nigeria can save as much as N3.7 trillion every year by implementing the Stephen Oronsaye report recommendations to scrap, or merge, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government carrying out similar functions.

This was a categorical finding by  BusinessDay.

Mr President, you are the man for the moment and should do all it will take to see Nigeria out of her challenges.

Sir, I wondered why anyone would want the President to first eat his words before any meaningful discussion!

For all I know, the president’s inaugural speech included the  abolition of fuel subsidy.

Should government continue to postpone the evil day, like for ever?

Time to let go if the President is sure that it is in the best interest of the country.

Who is subsidy benefiting anyway and how sustainable – the Nigerian workers who are getting poorer by the day,  or the Nigerian masses who continue to live below the poverty level?

When the “Iron Lady”, Prime minister Margaret Thatcher of  Britain abolished home milk delivery, didn’t Britons call her the Milk Snatcher, but who among her successors had the efrontery to change it, if it was such a bad policy?

The question I would like to ask the president is: what next in his anticipated reign of  Hope and Prosperity?

Nigerians wait in total belief!

JDKORODE

Ilorin.

At exactly 1pm, or thereabouts, on Monday 29 May 2023, against the lurid predictions of all the sharmans who claimed they heard from God, and the bishops – those gods of men – who turned their pulpits to campaign podiums prophesing inanities, not forgetting the myriad of ethnically motivated demonstrators everywhere in Abuja, all saying that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, winner of the 25 February, 2023 should/ would not be sworn in, the deed, indeed, happened, and the heavens did not fall, when the Chief Justice of Nigeria, His Lordship, Olukayode Ariwoola, GCON, performed the usual rights at an immensely graceful inauguration ceremony.

Peradventure the new president did not know the enormity of the problems his predecessor bequeathed on him, this past one week in the Villa must have poignantly brought it home to him.

Fortunately, however, it is like the bible had him in mind when it said in Tim 1:7: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline”.

Today, on the entire Nigerian political  landscape, that quote fits President Tinubu the most.

See what he just did with fuel subsidy removal, which many of his predecessors could simply not dare.

He has, equally, severally demonstrated this surefooteness during the last 32 years, on the Nigerian political spectrum, squaring up against all manner of political foes –  governments headede by those who believe they own Nigeria, as well as individuals – especially the oldies he has been roasting, politically, in local politics,since the beginning of the 4th Republic in 1999.

We are, however, not here concerned with  power, simplicita, but with the power of love, which is what he now needs the most in navigating the quandary Nigeria has become.

With his job so clearly cut out, I now return to my article of 30 April, 2023 captioned ‘The Immediate Task Before The President – Elect’, with a little, but very important addition.

In the referenced article, I wrote inter alia:

“Although it will be extremely difficult for President Buhari’s spokespersons, Femi Adesina, and Garba Shehu to admit it, given how adroitly the former argued to the contrary on television only this past week, Nigeria is in far dire straits than it was when President Buhari took office.

Yes, the Nigerian economy was on its tetters – what with  corruption having become systemic and  insecurity ravaging every part of the country, there was still a lot to be said, unlike now, for inter -ethnic harmony in the country. Unfortunately, all that has been shattered. The post election crisis presently convulsing Nigeria has greatly exacerbated the challenges of a Nigerian diversity which was very badly managed by President Buhari.

That, however, is not the essence of this article.  Rather, the purpose is to let the President – Elect know that he already has his job cut out for him.

Surprising as it may sound, it is not about our economic or security circumstances, bad as they are.

Rather, it is about President – Elect Tinubu, when inaugurated, to first of all, devote some quality time towards  ameliorating our present inter- ethnic realities which were badly aggravated by the recent elections.  The result is that  while Nigeria’s challenges before now were more about the economy, insecurity and corruption, today inter- personal, as well as inter – ethnic relations, have so plummeted that he, a man well known for his generosity of heart, must deploy all the channels at his disposal towards calming the waters, across board.

Read Also: Legislative experiences great advantage for Tinubu, Shettima – Smart Adeyemi

To do otherwise, in order to concentrate on other issues, will amount to pouring water on the back of a duck and, no matter how well meaning he may be, it will be difficult to see his good works fruitify as fast as they should.  Without a doubt, no Nigerian politician can rival him in the manner,  and rapidity, with which he reconciles with his estranged associates. Senators Musiliu Obanikoro, and my very good friend, Seye Ogunlewe, who are now solidly in his corner, are very good examples.

It is that ability, and tact, he must now bring to bear on our current circumstances, even if some will ignorantly dub it needless appeasement.

For me, underlying this plea is the fact that he will need the support of every inch of the country to make him the exemplar Head of state we all know he could be.

The area Nigeria immediately needs his God – given talents the most will be for him to  begin the process of fundamentally re- ordering our social relations which the last eight years did everything to put asunder. This must go beyond politics, and should involve engaging directly with the Nigerian  people. This is where to begin, not minding the enormity of our challenges of insecurity, corruption and the, no doubt, very bad economy. Our inter- personal and inter – ethnic relations have already reached its nadir that not doing this could let matters degenerate further. As Nigeria stands today, things are so bad a mere spec, God forbid, can incinerate it all.

Good enough the President – Elect has friends, associates, even mentees all over the country. But he must go beyond these associates. He should, indeed, deliberately cultivate the friendship of some of those who, before now, did not see eye to eye with him.

This is how Nigerians, across ethnic  divides, will start to see his coming as a timely, even divine, provenance. And I trust him to fit the bill.

As indicated earlier, Ashiwaju may choose to do this all  completely behind the shadows, far  from the klieg lights, especially given some of our unreflecting youth who may see such conciliatory efforts as a sign of weakness which will mean that they do not know the man at all.

With the above as background, let me  now urge the President to task his relevant officers to identify issues that require his attention to resolve in this manner.

I crave the president’s indulgence to mention the one matter I regard as most important and urgent.  This I shall urge him to put on the front burner of his reconciliatory efforts. Alhough efforts to de-legitimise the election that brought him to office have been largely Igbo – driven, I plead that, given his afore- mentioned gifts, he must find it in his heart to disregard, and forget all that and, dive straight into an issue whose resolution should have been during the last administration.

Unlike the lack of political will which saw many of his predessesors fail to resolve the fuel subsidy crisis, which he has now finally put behind us, President Tinubu must, will all urgency, now resolve the Nnamdi Kanu matter.

Though I have no idea of the security issues involved, Kanu’s matter, if left unresolved as early as possible, especially by a new president may, rather than earn him plaudits, become a great source of unease, if not embarrassment. While I cannot go into details of what I do not know, one thing I am sure about is that the government of President Tinubu cannot afford to be as remiss as to allow Nnamdi Kanu die in government custody.

Only this past week,  his lawyer revealed that he needs surgery. What exactly cannot happen in the course of a surgery?

Indeed, truth be told, did Kanu commit more grievous security breaches than those killers who accounted for most of the 63,000 Nigerians allegedly killed during the Buhari years? What of their financiers, mostly Northerners, who Attorney – General, Abubakar Malami told Nigerians would be prosecuted? In which court can we locate them, Mr Attorney – General of yesterday?

The least we can  say here is that even though government is a continuum, the President should, under no circumstances, inherit other peoples’ grudge.

For me, Kanu’s case, the minute he was set free by the apex court, but was not released by government, changed from a government affair to a personal one. President Tinubu needs not inherit anybody’s personal bile.

Nigerians are not unaware of how Kanu urged the mob, over Radio, during the #EndSars crisis, to go and burn, not only  Lagos state properties, but specifically, those of Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu – today’s president – whose TVC TV they, indeed, burnt down. However, showing him such unmerited mercy now, would put the President on an unassailable pedestal. Or didn’t the Holy Writ say in Romans 12:17: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right…”

It will be a teaching moment for the entire Igbo nation.

The President should, therefore, consider setting up a committee into which Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and the Southeast governors forum, can nominate some members.

That way the President can, once and for all, finally settle this unnecessary conundrum which, if not now carefully handled, can bear very many ugly children.

“When Tinubu is done with Nigeria, you’ll never wish to stay away from Nigeria. You’ll always want to come to Nigeria, just like everyone wants to always come to Lagos”- Aliko Dangote, at the formal opening of his 650,000 barrels per day refinery in Lagos, Monday, 22 May, 2023”.

The  dictionary definition of bigotry is an “obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief or opinion, in particular, a prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group”.

In the article, ‘The Immediate Task Before The President – Elect’, (The Nation, 28 April, 2023), I wrote as follows:”Therefore, bad as our macro- economic circumstances are, the incoming administration must, first of all, spare a thought for ameliorating our present inter- ethnic realities which were terribly aggravated by the recent elections.

The result is that  while Nigeria’s challenges before now were centred on our poor economy, insecurity and corruption, today inter personal, as well as inter – ethnic relations, have so plummeted that the President – Elect must use all the channels at his disposal to calm the waters across board to enable him deliver on his promise of a renewed hope for Nigerians. To do otherwise will tantamount to pouring water on the back of a duck and, no matter how well meaning he may be, it will be difficult to see his good works fruitify as fast as they should”.

Read Also : Tinubu: The tasks and challenges ahead

Shortly after that, but in the same article, I wrote:”it is common knowledge that Nigeria has traditionally rested on the North – West – East tripod. Therefore, since both the West and the North have already produced the incoming President and Vice- President respectively, the next logical, fair and equitable thing to do, is for the Senate President to be zoned to the SouthEast”.

Ordinarily, this reconciliatory tone is all any of us, privileged to have a public medium like this one, should be preaching. Unfortunately, the more one observed the goings on in the country, especially, since the presidential election, the more nauseated one becomes because all you see are people from the Southeast, almost to the last person, doing everything to trash an election  which is certain to reckon as one of the fairest ever, in Nigeria, all because Obi, an Igbo lost even where it is a notorious fact that Ndigbo have been too insular in their politics where others have been building bridges for decades. It thus became obvious that besides declaring Obi the winner, nothing other than cancelling the election will satisfy them.

The result is that a people who would not have bat an eyelid if Boko Haram’s Shekau had won the presidential election, resorted into doing their damndest to dispute the election’s credibility. They are in fact so sure it will not stand that everywhere you go, especially in Abuja, there are always a retinue of Igbo demonstrators, daily dancing on Abuja  streets, demanding that the President – Elect must not be sworn in as constitutionally prescribed, on 29 May, 2023.

Nor did their regular, complicit television stations spare us  as they daily assemblem all manner of so – called analysts, mostly  of a particular tribe,  just to do their dirty job. Indeed, one of them, a U.S based doctor, recently sauntered into the country, and headed directly to the Supreme Court, asking that the swearing in of the President – Elect be delayed, all because he claims to have contested the presidential election, way back, 2011. For that egregious abuse of court process, the Supreme Court has appropriately served him his comeuppance, fining him a total of N40M.

Incidentally, it has not occurred to Igbos that they are carrying their  dislike of Yorubas a bit too far. Rather, so determined are they that Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must not be sworn in,  that a  people, who have abused President Muhammadu Buhari to no end, claiming he is a Sudanese pretender to the throne, can now  suddenly wake up to ask that he remains, illegally, in office until the PEPC concludes adjudication, whenever that is.

The last presidential election, no matter what those who believe they must be in eternal contestation with the Yoruba think, will go down as one of  Nigeria’s most stellar elections. At the last count, not only did about 10 state governors lose one election, or the other, both President Mohammadu Buhari and the incoming President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, lost the election in their respective state.

But simply because some nay – saying Rasputins – assorted bishops, pastors and sharmans – chose to speak for themselves, claiming they heard from God – Peter Obi, who is  almost a complete unknown in the Northern geo- political zones that mattered the most electorally, permitted himself to swallow the lie that he won the election.

He has been challenged to prove that beyond street demonstrations.

Since then too, probably out of the  fear of the serial assassins terrorising everywhere in the Southeast, Igbos can only say Obi lost the election, strictly under their breath.

And why will Obi not lose?

Compared  to Tinubu and Atiku, what exactly is Obi’s political trajectory?

What one legacy of his, as governor of Anambra State was, or is, being copied by a single state anywhere, in Nigeria? Yes, like Tinubu, he was a state governor; but Tinubu was far more than a state governor. He was a super governor who, out of office, heavily facilitated the election of a President, made a Vice President, contributed tremendously towards the election of several state governors and uncountable legislators, apart from the countless others who learnt  at his feet. Take off obidients and who do you see around Peter Obi, beyond his feuding Labour party journey men?

In the next proximate election to the presidential, that is, the senatorial, which took place same day and time, while Obi’s Labour party could only win 7 out of 109 seats, Tinubu’s APC hauled home 64. Obi’s party’s sole governor from the election has since been tossed to the marines, awaiting appeal at a higher court, having emerged a candidate outside the purview of the Electoral Law, 2022. 

Yet just about anything would do for these people to hamstring whatever they consider a Yoruba success story.

I am not out this week to regurgitate Nigerian election history or to delve into how, since the days of the Rt. Honourable (Dr) Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Igbo political elite has done  everything they can, to thwart anything they consider a Yoruba political achievement. They instigated Northerners to team up with them in their plots against the Yoruba.

I challenge them to mention an instance when Yorubas did the same to Ndigbo. Even when Zik attempted to ‘colonise’ the West, he was,  democratically, relieved of such an audacious ambition.

What has continued to amaze me is how the most Igbo – accommodating part of Nigeria came to earn this level of angst, if not outright hatred, from them. 

And for what great success they made of their dislike of the Yoruba, I invite interested persons to read Emeritus ProfessorOlatunji Dare in: ‘Interim Wetin’ – The Nation, Tuesday, 9 May, 2023.

In the piece, Professor Dare did a good job of showing how Igbos teamed up with Northerners –  no instigated them – to work against Chief Obafemi Awolowo, played a leading role in messing up Chief M.K O Abiola’s June 12 victory; just  as they are now trying to do to Tinubu’s mandate.

We can, however, take solace in the fact that there are the likes of fair- minded  Chimaroke Nnamani, who has, in turn, identified two eminent Igbo elders – Chekwas Okorie and Ogbonnaya Onu –  who he says, are capable of convoking an Igbo Citizen’s conference to chart a new path for Ndigbo. There is no legitimate reason, for instance, why they should hate Yorubas so. And whenever that Conference holds, it must deprecate Igbo’s excessive self – love, as well as decide to do unto others, only the good things they would do unto themselves. I have two wonderful Igbo friends, one a professor, and the other a lawyer, who would be picture perfect for the summit. They are both worth their names in gold, but for now, their names must remain under wraps, for security reasons.

Let me now conclude with a very critical matter on which the incoming President cannot afford to delay action. Come Monday, 29 May, 2023 the most prepared Nigerian politician for the post of President, ever, will be sworn in. Unfortunately, no matter how grounded, and well prepared politically he is, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu could not have come into office at a more inauspicious time. It is, indeed, a truism that a day can be too long in the life of a nation. I say this in reference to the utter butchery Fulani herders have wreaked in Benue and Plateau states in the past fortnight. You would almost think they were deliberately sending President Buhari forth in a festival of blood letting.

And why not?

After all, they operated throughout the Buhari years as if Nigeria has no laws. Reports have it that in villages like Fungzai, Hale, Kubwat, Bwoi and many other communities of the Kombun District of Mangu Local Government Area and some communities in the Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau state, about 130 people were killed by Fulani militias who burnt  about 1,000 buildings in 22 villages while, in the Benue attack, suspected Fulani herdsmen allegedly killed 18 persons during a renewed attack on the Iye Community in Uvir, Guma Local Government Area. Some of those killed, which allegedly included women and children, were said to have been beheaded, and their remains burnt alongside their houses and food barns.

What manner of human beings are these?

While these killings are  horrendous and chilling, the allegations, and threats, by MACBAN (Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria) can, if urgent action is not taken by the incoming government, completely turn the Middle Belt to a sea of blood.

Consequent upon the killings in Plateau state, the Chairman  of MACBAN, Muhammad Nuru Abdullahi, has alleged that 100 fulani were  killed by Mwaghavul people in a planned and coordinated genocide attack. He further alleged that Berom and Tarok tribal mercenaries are being hired and imported into the area. While these Fulani allegations should be taken with a pinch of salt, and have, indeed, been refuted by the  Mwaghavul Development Association, government must move rapidly to nip all these in the bud; in a way and manner that will signpost the Tinubu approach to fighting insecurity, going forward.

It must be far different from what Nigerians saw under President Buhari. This, in essence, is saying that whoever takes a life must, willy nilly, now lose his, or hers. That is about the only  way to rein in these serial murderers with a view to restoring a modicum of peace in the country. President Tinubu must realise that this is the URGENCY OF NOW, which cannot, and must not wait because as the Yorubas say, a ki fina sori orule sun – meaning you do not sleep when your roof is on fire.

I heartily welcome President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and wish him a rousing success in office.

Sadly, several of the comments left the issue of the interview to probe or suggest motives, inferred from my response on “investment” that I am opposed to Peter Obi’s ambition and therefore committed a “crime” for which the punishment is internecine abuse and harassment even to my family. “Some people even suggest that the gunmen who went to attack a checkpoint at my hometown on Saturday12th November but were gunned down was part of the mob reaction” – Anambra state governor, Charles Soludo

It will be nice if, in view of the above, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) will please stop these ruffians – with ‘crab mentality’ – from coming to the court lest Obidients, IPOB and sundry Unknown Gun Men turn the place to a killing field.

Peter Obi, his Obidients and their sundry associates have, since INEC declared Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu winner of the February 25, 2023 Presidential elections, shouted themselves hoarse over what they like to call a ‘stolen mandate’. Readers of this column will remember that I have long ago written on these pages that Peter Obi, the Labour party presidential candidate who would later place a distant third in the elections – behind the winner and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP – had no path, whatsoever, to victory. I had equally written that there was no way he was going to secure 25 per cent of votes in more than 16 states. My third prediction, cognizant of the fact that he would, as is the practice in the Southeast, be credited with a minimum of between 85 – 99 per cent of votes there, was that it would still be of no moment in his illusory hope of winning the election because the entire voting population in the entire 5 Southeast states would, at best, equal that of one single state in the NorthWest or the Northeast where he is almost practically an unknown.

And it happened!

But give it to him – thanks to his Christian brethren and Igbo ubiquity – he ended up scoring the millions I had imagined were far beyond his ken.

But even that could only place him two million plus votes behind the winner, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

They have since made all manner of claims as to how Obi’s votes were under- reported and credited to the APC.

Read Also: JUST IN: Labour Party factions clash after tribunal proceedings

 Nigerians have since asked that they place that before the tribunal, complete with a tabulation of the votes he scored in the 36 states and the FCT.

It is fascinating that one of the States where Obi claims that this happened is Lagos state. On the contrary, however, what is in the public space, sourced from the blog of somebody who is unlikely to be anti – Labour party, and which shows that Obi did not win Lagos state, is as follows:

In my article: ‘The Peter Obi Revolution That Atrophied Midway’, 26 March, 2023, I wrote: “Talking about a miracle reminds me of an interesting WhatsApp post I saw during the giddy days of a supposed Labour party victory in Lagos.

It reads as follows: “LindaIkejiblog Official INEC Result for Amuwo Odofin LGA in the Presidential election”.

Whoever shared it commented as follows:“Amuwo Odofin!!!

Please check the number of Regisrered Voters – 322,600 and the number of Accredited Voters 57, 530.

Add Obi’s 55, 547 to Tinubu’s 13, 318! Don’t even bother with the rest! We are beginning to see how Obi “won” Lagos”.

But I bothered with the rest. I did the additions of all party votes, and the following is what I got:

“Total number of registered voters – 322.600.

“Total number of accredited voters – 57,530.

Votes: 

APC – 13, 318

PDP –    2, 383

LP    –  55, 547

Others –   1, 161

Total votes cast – 72, 409

 Reg. voters          -57,530     

Over voting          14879″.

What does the Election Tribunal do in cases of over voting? It automatically cancels the election.

Therefore, if you take away LP’s 55,547 votes from its overall tally in Lagos, it becomes obvious that Labour did not win in Lagos.

The Amuwo Odofin incident must have been repeated elsewhere in the state.

But how hollow Labour party really is showed up in the subsequent elections when, the youths, the bishops and the pastors, have abandoned the sinking Titanic.

In the Southeast where Obi had high 80’s & 90’s in the Presidential election, 4 out of the 5 states completely deserted him just as he woefully lost to APGA in Anambra where he was governor for 8 years.

Now we hear he is raising issues on Rivers and Imo state results.

The respondent’s lawyers should equally ask questions, not only on the entire Lagos state election, but on all Southeast states because that is an area where election officials, native to the region, were literally all held captive by the illusion of helping to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction even when their politics remains completely insular.

So from where did Obi secure his much lamented mandate?

In the Christian areas where he weaponised religion, working in cahoots with the likes of Babachir Lawal, the votes he got were soon ‘eaten’ up and subsumed by the huge figures the APC recorded in the NorthWest and the North central.

The  election results for Labour and APC are summarised below: LABOUR PARTY.                           

President- 0 

Senate – 7 seats.                  

House of Reps -34.                

Governor- 1                         

State Assembly seats- 38.      

Grand Total labour-80.                   

APC                                                                

 President- 1.                          

Senate- 62.                          

HOR- 177.                            

Governors Elect- 16.           

States Assembly-534.       

Grand Total APC- 790    

If Labour party could secure victory in only 7 senatorial districts, out of 109, in an election that took place, same day and same time, where was Obi’s victory in the Presidential election expected to come from?

Can he put something on nothing?

Or are they so logic challenged?

It is this logical reasoning, which is not common among Obidients, that led one of them, in a WhatsApp post, to ask Peter Obi why, rather than provide figure showing how he won the election, all he put across to the election tribunal are how the President – Elect emerged candidate of APC, and why he was declared elected when he did not score 25 per cent of Abuja votes. Funny enough, not even the five who recently filed a case at an Abuja High court against the President – Elect being sworn in, for not scoring 25 per cent of Abuja votes, even though lawyers, or have lawyers representing them, knew that apart from the Abuja issue already being before the election tribunal, there is a subsisting court decision to the effect that Abuja is  the equivalent of any other Nigerian state and, therefore, has no such superior status as is being arrogated to it.

So I ask Obidients: Quo vadis?

While this question goes, primarily, to Obidients, it also applies to Ndigbo in general. I am darn too small to attempt answering a question directed at such an unarguably brilliant, sagacious and enterprising Igbo race.

Let us, therefore, press into service, a very educated and patriotic Igbo gentleman to help us.

 I refer here to former Enugu state governor Chimaroke Nnamani who has spared considerable time thinking through the problem with contemporary Igbo, as he attempts to offer a way out of the Igbo conundrum. 

Below are some of his views in an interview captioned “Reflect On (the) Looming Reality of Tinubu’s Presidency” which I enjoin interested persons to Google.

Said the senator:“The fact that a government can be formed with virtually zero input from Igbo land saddens me. It means that the Igbo leadership has failed. The wrong people have led us; jobbers and mediocres have led us. When you get to the table, jobbers and mediocres negotiate for us because the Igbo man appears to be intimidated by intellect.

We were in total control – the army, the police, external affairs, banking industry, the economic sector; name it. Ndigbo were number one in this country, today it is arguable whether we are three or four. Remember we were in control, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, but we lost everything. Others have done everything possible to displace Igbo intelligentsia, so that those who argue for us are  not intellectually equipped. Those who have no certificate were talking for us. The Igbo first eleven never showed up in the past sixteen years in this country. It was a gradual emasculation of the Igbo man. So traders or political frauds, fronting for people outside Igbo land are those we now associate with speaking for Igbo. The mediocres had no political ideology as they move from one party to the other. Privateers, people looking for one tariff or another, one contract or another; they became the Igbo elite. False elite, planted by outsiders. Igbo man now has to seek acclamation from outside Igbo land”.

And so on and so forth.

And for the solution, he says: “We need to have Igbo citizens’ conference! Who can facilitate such a meeting? Chekwas Okorie can do it. Ogbonnaya Onu can do it. We have to enter into the sanctum of power. Whether it is UPP, PDP or PDC, we have to find a way and gradually walk ourselves back to the centre of Nigerian politics. What are the criteria for attendance?

Merit and intellectual content of a man, brain is power. You can solve problems with brain, man is not just a mass of flesh; it is intellect. We want to send our best; not the confirmed mediocres. Mediocres that pander to the whims and caprices of non-Igbo; who seek acclamation in Abuja, carrying Ghana-must-go bags there, and come back to become leaders”.

But will the Obidients who think they already have an Igbo messiah in Peter Obi listen to this voice of reason? Beyond that, what of the infernal fear of the different killing groups who predominate Igbo land and who all seem to rally round Obi in the mistaken view that he is the messiah? To say anything contrary to the dominant view in the region about the election is to earn a death sentence. So in a thousand years these people will, surely, still be chorusing ‘Tinubu must not be sworn in’.