Category: Femi Orebe

Femi Orebe

As you read this, the PDP we all hollered was dead and finished in 2015, now controls 16 states to APC ‘s 19, even as the latter is battling internal schism in nearly all its state chapters. That is what it has come to since the President, and leader of the party, preferred a sit- down look position on matters concerning the party  until it comes  to a head, as in when he summarily disbanded the National Working committee of the party.

Ordinarily with what happened to the party in Rivers,  Zamfara, Imo and now Edo, one would have hoped that the last shellacking would change things but that is now unlikely as attention is fast turning to the post Buhari era, which renders the sutuation dire as it is only his name holding the party together as former governor, Rochas Okorocha recently said . “APC is dead”, he  added for emphasis.

Let us hear him  at some length.

”The APC, he volunteered,  is dead but is only still functional because of the  respect members have for President Muhammadu Buhari. The party, which is writhing in the pains inflicted on it by internal crisis following the 2019 general elections, died the day its leadership abandoned the progressive and democratic ideals on which it was founded. Apart from President Buhari, the other leaders of the political blocs that merged to form APC in 2015, were schemed out by those he called “forces” that later joined it. “This word, APC, was formed by four major political parties that had governors. One was the Centre for Progressive Change (CPC), led by President Muhammadu Buhari, with one state government, the  Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN), led by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu with 5 states, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) led by Ogbonnaya Onu came with a few and  the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with one”. “The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) group  would later come in”. “Outside that respect for President Buhari and the trust is our  belief that he could wake up one day and correct all these injustice and make it fine. That’s the only thing that is keeping the APC. If not that, I don’t think there is anything like APC, because people are beginning to get fed up”.

That is how far lost the party is today from what it was that galvanised Nigerians to it in 2015, even though it must be said that Okorocha is not an uninterested party having been stopped by Chairman Oshiomhole, alongside a few others, who wanted to become emperors within the party, a situation that would have made APC infinitely worse.

But even if the does not suffer this massive internal haemorrhaging which  is enough to see it kicked out of power come 2023 , it is aggressively attracting to itself, minuses that  can very well ensure that.

As things stand today, one needs  no robotic science to know that APC  no longer enjoys the kind of support that saw President Buhari to office both  in 2015 and at his re election in 2019. Without a scintilla of doubt, APC  will now have to really struggle in the Middle Belt, in the Southwest, and both in the South East and Southsouth where it has never been hugely accepted.

We examine some of the reasons for this state of affairs.

President Buhari came to office promising to fight insecurity, beat back corruption and tame the economy which, towards the tail end of President Jonathan administration, was already headed, unerringly, for a recession.

Not unexpectedly , the President, a retired General, immediately delivered on insecurity as he very substantially degraded Boko Haram and sent them packing from all the Local Government Areas they  had taken over in the Northeast.

But that is now like ancient history as they attack, opportunistically, wherever and whenever, they choose in the same Northeast. A few weeks back some foreign intelligence agencies let it be known that Boko Haram is, actually, already in the North central.

Concerning the economy, the Covid -19 pandemic has ensured that the economies of even the most developed countries of the world have been very negatively impacted.

This, combined with the collapse in global crude oil prices and demand, has seen the country’s crude oil revenue tumble “from $336.65m in January to $281.14m in February, $184.59m in March and $148.86m in April and came all the way down by about  74.89 per cent  to a record low of $55.29m in July 2020”, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Given this gloomy state of the  economy, it seems to me like the mother of all surprises that the government could , by itself, be on the way to  making a complete mess of its anticorruptionn war regarding which it has, justifiably, received encomiums from far, and wide, and culminated in the President  being appointed the African Anti corruption Czar by the African Union.

Thanks to Professor Itse Sagay, Nigerians  now know the government’s plan to scrap the EFCC and turn  it to a plaything ìn the  hands of an Attorney- General who now wants  to exercise all those powers he had always craved. EFCC, or whatever remains of it,  will then  report, all the way, to an individual, all its autonomy gone.

This is how Sagay, Chairman of  the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC)  described the thickening plot to scrap the EFCC last  week:

“A plan to scrap the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is underway. A draft bill, now in circulation, seeks to replace the commission with an agency under the Federal Ministry of Justice under the Attorney-General of the Federation. It eliminates EFCC’s autonomy and replaces it with an entity to be under the complete control of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

According to him,  this  amounts  to “the mother of corruption fighting back”.

“The bill entitled: An Act to Repeal the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 (Act No. 1 of 2004) and enact the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act is coyly presented as a move to establish a more effective and efficient Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

In several sections, the bill gives the Attorney-General  so much power over the proposed new anti-corruption agency reducing  it to a “mere paper” department under the Federal Ministry of Justice.

For instance, the draft bill proposes a repeal of the EFCC Establishment Act 2004, the scrapping of the commission, and its placement with a department in the Federal Ministry of Justice under the Attorney-General of the Federation. Instead of a Chairman, it will now have a Director-General to be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the AGF, subject to confirmation by the Senate.

The AGF  can still discontinue the prosecution of criminal cases  just as he can cancel its prosecutorial powers whenever  he deems it fit. That is an individual who has just chickened out from testifying before the Panel of Enquiry at which he had inflicted the heaviest charges against a man who gave  the agency a new lease of life; a man with whom he had duelled, like for ever, for power.

How the President thinks this will enhance, or strengthen his anti corruption war passes me and it sure would not escape the well deserved judgment, and recompense, of Nigerians come 2023.

In like manner Nigerians woke up again this  past week only to hear Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, deliver his government’s message to Nigerians  to the effect that  the government was not backing down on its Water Resources Bill, that same bill that was rejected by the 8th National Assembly but has now been allegedly smuggled into the 9th. A Water Bill Resources Bill which has been opposed and rejected across board is now being  presented as a law intended to avert water wars.

Pray, what happened to the  February, 2018 invitation from nearby Kano state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to all Fulani herdsmen resident in other parts of the country, especially Benue and Taraba states, to relocate to his state since the state has vast grazing land to accommodate them and their cattle?

Who is doing all these to the APC but more to the country? 

If APC seriously wants to be in contention come 2023, the government  should not only stop all these provocations, daily garnering Nigerians’ angst, at least  in such places as the Middle Belt, Southern Kaduna, the Southwest, and the “never- APC” Southeast and Southsouth but begin to make serious moves for atonement.

And to be a force to reckon with in the next  election, I give the following advice, pro bono, to this APC  government to, expeditiously,

exhume the  El Rufai Power Devolution report, convene, through election, a Nigerian Reconfiguration  Assembly to completely, re engineer the  country as people, not just the Okorocha’s, are really getting pissed off with goings on in the country. APC must do everything to put a stoo to the Edo damage lest it becomes a mere tip of the iceberg.

May good counsel prevail in the right quarters,

Femi Orebe

Anyone who does not yet admit that the unworkable unitary constitutional arrangement of Nigeria is the tap from which all the miseries being lamented flow, and that the solution lies in turning off the tap instead of mopping more vigorously, is either irredeemably dishonest or hopelessly ignorant. Nigeria’s problem is structural and not the Leadership problem being bandied around. The former is directly responsible for the latter and the solution to Nigeria lies in the fundamental reconfiguration of it’s damaged constitutional basis and not in changing its leadership bandwagon. It is a monumental disaster that those who should know these are still discussing political party reconfiguration (ie Restructuring of Political Parties) instead of Union Reconfiguration (Restructuring of the Country)” – Tony Nnadi.

As you read this not a few Nigerians are now convinced that restructuring Nigeria is, in fact,  too little, too late, but not this columnist who many have accused of being an incurable optimist for believing not only that the country can still be salvaged but that it can, indeed, still rise to glorious heights as well as take its place among the comity of civilised Nations.

I admit though, that time is of the essence for an ailment left untreated can be fatal.

As a historian, I am neither forgetful, nor unmindful of what this country was in its days of competitive federalism; the pre ’66 days before the military mangled its essence, and a period that witnessed growth and development in every sphere of the economy, and in all parts of the country.

Agriculture – not this oil boom turned doom – was the country’s mainstay, in education, not only did Chief Obafemi Awolowo  give the West free education, each region established a University which has since been taken over by a predatory federal government. Industrialisation went apace with textile industries established in the North, and saw the very beginning of industrialisation in the East which has since emerged about the most industrialised part today, not forgetting Awo incredibly turning Ikeja and Apapa into a giant industrial complex. Among those myriad of  industries is the roofing number one company in Nigeria today , Nigerite Ltd, a Belgian – Odua company yours truly was privileged to have headed its board of directors.

In healthcare delivery, the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, ranked amongst the best hospitals in the entire Commonwealth. Fiscal freedom  facilitated all these, and more, to the extent that regions have their own envoys in overseas countries.

All those read like ancient history today but with restructuring, and a return to the pre ’66 era, though  with some minor adjustments here and there, Nigeria cannot only be salvaged but could still rise gloriously to become a great country; not the perennially feuding one we now have with a slew of  truly murderous organisations, in some instances, successfully battling the federal government for control of large swathes of territory.

It is in remembrance of  those days that I made it  celebration galore on these pages last Sunday as I reported on  how, patriotically, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) spoke in behalf of corporate Nigeria. , cogently presenting to the government of President Mohammadu Buhari what things it must now do  to reverse the country’s  galloping drift  to Golgotha.

Although my enthusiasm was, unfortunately, not shared by many, given the lukewarm reactions I got to the article, I remain persuaded, that restructuring is the way to go to keep Nigeria one.

Not a few believe that NEF was out on a decoy,  merely trying to lull the rest of us into a non existent revelry. They asked, for instance, how many times I heard former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, by far the most enthusiastic  Northern supporter of restructuring, mention restructuring in the North during the last presidential campaign. They hold that the North unduly enjoys, by far, too many  unfair  advantages to care and that, indeed, popular as President Buhari is in the North, his party would suffer massively, if he toys with the idea.

I, however,  believe that a man who could defend  his country on the battlefield, thus demonstrating his preparedness to pay the utmost price in its service, would not be put off by such puny ethnic considerations,  from doing that which will stabilise his country to an era of  peace and development. I do not think President Buhari needs any further lessons in patriotism.

For ease of reference, let us reproduce , in bold relief, some of NEF’s prescriptions for sustainable peace and progress  in Nigeria.

It opines as follows: “Nigeria’s future  rests largely on its willingness to address major constraints to EQUITY and JUSTICE  – (or where is equity when most consequential appointments go to only one section of the country, incidentally their own) –  a functional structure, – (one being bigger than the rest put together) – consistent good governance, security for all citizens – (when fissiparous tendencies are now  truly alarming) – a credible electoral process – (the least said the better since the return of democratic governance in ’99)-, growing understanding between, and among all groups – (like herders and farmers?)-  and an economy that grows and narrows inequalities between classes and regions.” ,- (were this the situation, 82 million Nigerians will not be living below poverty line).

“The Forum recommends the alternative of leaders of thought, elders, groups and professional organisations and representatives of government, to freely discuss every element of our co-existence as a country under principles of voluntarism, genuine representation – preferably by election – mutual respect and integrity of the process”.

Specifically, it said: “A Nigerian Peoples’ Conference on Review of the Constitution will benefit from past work in this direction in addition to contemporary challenges, which the country needs to address in a context that allows free and productive engagements without pre-determined ends.” “The outcome of this conference, it concluded, should be submitted to the two arms of government, which should provide for a referendum in the constitution so that Nigerians can directly decide on how they want their nation to be structured and function”.

In making a case for restructuring to the Buhari government, even though the APC  disdained the Jonathan 2014 National Conference, I am not asking President Buhari to re- invent the wheel. Should he not wish to proceed along the lines  suggested, or being  canvassed by the Northern Elders Forum, itself  an essemble of reputable Northerners who do not love the North less than the President  does – (since many believe that his attitude to restructuring derives from his fear of the  North losing some advantages it currently enjoys) – or just in case he does not agree with certain portions of the suggestions, then he should, at the very least, be able to  order that the report of his party’s El Rufai Committee on Devolution of  Power, be exhumed from whatever cooler it  has since been consigned.

The committee, while submitting its report to the  APC National Chairman , Chief John Odigie – Oyegun, in January 2018, told Nigerians that  it was making several  recommendations, based on the opinions of Nigerians.

Some of these are: resource control, making local government an affair of states, constitutional amendment to allow merger of states, state police, state court of appeal and independent candidacy, amongst others.

These recommendations were so well received, nationally, that not only was then Bayelsa state governor Seriake

Dickson, though of the opposition, PDP, literally euphoric about it, stalwarts of various  Niger – Delta movements equally commended it. It was therefore a rather bewildering  surprise that  despite these  positive vibes, and the fact that the party’s National Executive Committee allegedly approved it, the party still decided to remit it to a sub committee where it has, opportunistically, been gathering dust, some say in deference to the President’s body language, if not say so.

Nigeria does not deserve to splinter because the Northwest looks like dead set on continuing with the axyphisiating status quo. Apart from the wholesale advantages to the citizenry, a United Nigeria has too much to offer the world, especially Blacks all over the world, who see it as Motherland, – Ghana has already extended an official invitation to Black Americans to come and settle there – for a few people not to allow it to blossom and attain its destiny.

The story has become cruelly unendifying, talking about how Nigeria was at par with most   South East Asian countries at a point in time, some of which have now graduated to the First world while Nigeria continues to wallow at the very nadir of the Third, and shamefully dubbed the Poverty Capital (PC) of the world. This becomes more nauseating given its  natural endowments and stupendous  human resources – as the BBC reported on January 25, 2020 there are about 4000 Nigerian doctors  practicing in the USA, with another  5000 currently registered in the UK .The remaining are reportedly spread across Canada and Australia.

As the Northern Elders Forum  has shown, no section of this country, or least of it, individuals, has the right to unnecessarily hold Nigeria down . Not only has the presidency prevaricated, the National Assembly, though taking a large chunk of the country’s resources, has once surprisingly voted against Power Devolution.

President Buhari must now, once again, demonstrate his love for the country  by  setting in motion the process of convoking a national committee, preferably  along the lines suggested by NEF, to further add value to the recommendations of the APC  Power Devolution Committee.

By Femi Orebe

Until much later into the Buhari administration, I never  thought the day would  come when I would write an article like the one you are about to read, not  after once writing about then candidate Muhammadu Buhari  as quoted below by  his  friend, the  late virologist, Professor Tam David West, in “Buhari: The Politics Of Age”. (October 14, 2014): ”Nigeria, in its current dire straits needs Buhari more than he needs Nigeria.” – Femi Orebe – “The Nation, Sunday” September 28, 2014 Page 18″.

I wrote those words when the President was contesting the APC Presidential primaries with some absolutely  redoubtable candidates, some of who had more experience in politics than he did but given his very enviable pedigree, I hadn’t a scintilla of doubt that he was the candidate to beat. I  believed then, with all my heart,  that two years into a Buhari presidency,  insecurity would not only be history, corruption, which he famously said was capable of killing Nigeria, would have been greatly decimated. Neither  could I have also thought that after  last week’s article: “Is Nigeria Unravelling”, I could so soon be driven into having to warn about Nigeria’s closeness to the  precipice.

Unfortunately, the  re presentation, at the National Assembly,  of the National Water Resources Bill, long considered dead by Nigerians, has changed all that.

Those who know me or have been reading this column these  past 14 years,  know that I am neither flippant nor given to delusions. I  never go out of my way to seek trouble, but so have I never shied away from speaking truth to power.

I could never have believed , even in my wildest dreams, that for nothing more than ethnic reasons, President Buhari could resend that bill to the National Assembly. I considered him too patriotic to start asking  for the reconsideration of the National Water Resources Bill, so obnoxious the 8th  National Assembly – an Assembly I never ceased  excoriating on these pages for what I considered its anti- Buhari pecadilloes – was rational  enough to drop like hot potatoes, given its  inherent danger to the country. I have come to see that it is not for nothing that  Senate President Ahmed Lawan told Nigerians, a priori, that the National Assembly would swallow whatever it is, the executive throws at it. What one good, country impacting, reason did the executive give the National Assembly to make it drink this  hemlock?

Put another way, to what  extent would the Buhari government not go to literally hand over Nigeria  to a single ethnic group out of its over 250, namely the Fulani, particularly to the Fulani herdsmen which the Global Terrorism Index describes  as the fourth deadliest terror group, after Boko Haram, ISIS and al Shabab?

We  first saw this trend  in RUGA, the deceptively designed, expansionist programme, aimed at gifting Fulanis ancestral   lands belonging to other peoples, all over the country, in ‘new town’ settlements that would  have looked more like Government Reserved Areas than herdsmen’s redoubt, complete with Fulani paraphenalia.

When this was rejected across board, they coyly came up with a cleverly packaged National Livestock Transformation Plan which was RUGA by another name.

From that background, it is obvious that re -presenting  the Water Bill is an in -your – face insult to Nigerians, sans Fulanis. Apparently the thinking must be this: okay, you are accepting neither RUGA nor the Transformation Plan, wait until we  completely rob you  of your  entire water body, and the adjoining resources just to satisfy Fulani herdsmen who had shunned Governor Ganduje’s invitation to them to all come graze at nearby Kano.

Again I ask, can Nigerians be given one reason for this extreme move, other than to satisfy Fulani herdsmen?

And from what we have seen of this government, Fulanis do not take in half; they must take  nearly all. More confounding  is the asinine reason contained in the bill  as reason for this spirited attempt to pass it by the National Assembly, like it or not.

According to the Bill’s Section 2(1): “All surface water and ground water wherever it occurs, is a resource common to all people.’’

Can anything be more illogical?

Incidentally, this is not the first time Nigerians would hear this heresy from some Fulani ideologues. It first came from a one time senior colleague of mine at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, the one and only Prof Jubril Aminu, who deployed it to justify his claim then that the crude oil, sitting pretty under the feet of Niger- Deltans, messing up their ecosystem, vanquishing their means of livelihood and mindlessly pauperising the people , belonged  to the North. I had thought that had since died with military politics of anything goes.

How wrong?

Nor are the clauses of the bill anything other than unmitigated insults on non – Fulanis. Let us press The Guardian newspaper editorial on the subject which  it appropriately described  as a “dubious,  reckless and malevolent agenda , into service.

Wrote the paper:

“The Bill, entitled “National Water Resources Bill, 2020,  was arbitrarily reintroduced in the Green Chamber, in breach of its rules, legislative convention and provisions of the 1999 constitution. The House, on Thursday, July 23, 2020,  referring to Order 12, Rule 16 of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives, 9th Edition, shockingly passed the National Water Resources Bill, 2020, and committed it to a committee of the whole, for third reading and final passage”.

“This, it continued, was in clear breach  of  order 12, rule 16 of the Standing Orders of the House which states that a bill from a preceding Assembly must be gazetted,  with clean copies circulated”, none of which was done”.

I urge Nigerians to correlate this hurry with the recent infectious diseases bill which was about being rammed through Senate, to get a proper mental picture of this National Assembly that seems  determined not to serve the people but would rather make itself available to serve, and massage, narrow interests.

More insulting, The Bill seeks to bring all water resources (surface and underground) and the banks of the water sources (this, I guess, is  the primary intent of its drafters) under the control of the Federal Government through its agencies to be established by the Bill. The Bill further states in

Section 13 of the Bill that: “in implementing the principles under subsection (2) of this section, the institutions established under this Act shall promote integrated water resources management and the coordinated management of land and water resources, surface water and ground water resources, river basins and adjacent marine and coastal environment and upstream and downstream interests.”

And Nigerians ask: so that what will happen? Will that bring food to the table of poor Nigerians, inhabitants of the poverty capital of the world, most of who do not know where the next meal will come from?  And by the way, what have Nigerians benefitted from those critical services they have selfishly brought under their stranglehold at a time most Nigerians are rooting for true federalism at the lesst? Isn’t Nigeria, in reality, being prepared for  a massive influx of some  alien elements?

From what Nigerians now know of the Buhari government, literally all institutions under this bill, if it ever comes into being, but which God forbid will,  like the NNPC, be dominated by Northerners who would simply prepare the ground for the Bill’s primary intent – that of opening every part of the country to a massive inundation by Fulani herdsmen from all over the world.

Is it too much to expect our legislators to see through all these?

Of course, they live in too much opulence to  be bothered .

Though they are only a microcosm of the Nigerian population, they

take such disproportionate portion of the nation’s  resources that they can effortlessly afford to care less.

But in so  happily and eagerly doing  the bidding of the executive, do these legislators  expect the people, who are about  being robbed of their prized ancestral lands, handed over to them from generation to generation, to be happy and simply watch,  as they are dispossessed and some strangers come over to flourish at their expense, in their very backyard?

Do they know that the country would thereby harvest more trouble through this selfish scheme than presently confronts her from banditry when the dispossed, in hundreds of places, all over the country, clutch their machetes to fight to the death, not ready to so meekly surrender family  lands handed over to them by a long line of generations?

Must the National assembly be an accomplice in this forceful seizure?

Wont this worsen our security situation given that Boko Haram/ ISWA is becoming more menacing, siezing people whenever they choose, and bandits, severally and indiscriminately putting Nigerians to the sword? Or how will government finance its response to this fresh problem given a looming recession?

More importantly, must the National Assembly sleep walk Nigeria into another disaster?

They can be dead certain that those disinherited will not lie low.

Finally, as the Guardian editorial warns:”the Bill, if passed into law, will clip the wings of state and local government authorities as well as individuals from making use of the water at their backyard without a permit from Abuja. This development will engender serious contentions across Nigeria and the result would be water wars, which would be more devastating than the contentions over land grazing  and, even oilfields”.

A stitch in time can still save nine.

 Femi Orebe

It is interesting to observe  that despite the dire 2006 prediction by a U. S group which in its: ‘Mapping the Global Future report” – a project  projecting  global trends and likely scenarios up to 2020″ – had stated that:”Nigeria as a corporate entity was likely to splinter along tribal and sectarian lines by 2015 if some of the inherent fault lines were not properly managed and controlled”, here we still are, but with the country yet to resolve the national question, now terribly exacerbated by massive insecurity, corrosive corruption and a poor economy epitomised by a crippling, if not embarrassing, exchange rate now hovering between N379 to over N400 to the dollar and I know a bank  customer who couldnt get to buy from his bank for N470.

The way things are going, especially with another  recession very likely, and discounting the ethnic/ tribal distrust ravaging it, Nigeria looks like it is inexorably unsustainable and, therefore, about to unravel.

These have resulted in a flurry of activities at the seat of power with the president meeting severally  with  not just his military chiefs but also with state governors, on top of setting up a powerful judicial panel on corruption within the very agency set up to fight the cankerworm.

In the article: Insecurity in Nigeria – As Senator Ndume Opens a Pandora’s Box (26/7/20), I wrote inter alia that: “the  President’s three campaign promises – fighting corruption, fighting insecurity and reviving the economy, have  seemingly unravelled”.

As if  confirming that conclusion,  President Buhari  has since expressed  disappointment in his  political appointees who he claimed betrayed his trust,

just as he urged his service chiefs to ratchet up their game in both the Northwest and the Northeast geo- political zones where insecurity has assumed indescribable proportions.

Given that a combination of totally unexpected factors have eventuated in  all these –  the Covid- 19 pandemic, the global slump in oil prices, as well as trusted appointees egregiously disappointing him , the President sure  deserves more sympathy than excoriation.

That, however, should not stop one from  drawing attention to the fact that the country – now regarded  internationally as a violent country, – with many countries giving travel advise to their citizens as to where they should not venture visiting within the country, is increasingly looking  like headed for Golgotha. There is too much evidence to make our mentioning them needless.  They are right in our faces  with every media daily reporting monumental killings, kidnappings, heart rending armed robberies etc.

It was in an effort to know more about insecurity in the North, the very epicentre of insecurity in  Nigeria, which has, unfortunately, become a killing field, that I wrote as follows to  my friend, Anthony N Z Sani, a very top chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) who, I believe, should know.

“…let us seriously look at another issue – this time as objectively as we best can:

Insecurity in the north

What are the underlying causes of insecurity in the North?

Why are Northerners needlessly  killing themselves, this massively, and ever so often? Why is insecurity so intractable in the North and how can it be stopped?

Shouldn’t the president visit these centres of attrition and meet with the local leaders since he is hugely popular and respected in these parts?

In his reply, which is slightly edited for space, Sani wrote to the following effect:

Nigeria is like a big river being fed by tributaries and whenever one, or more, of these is poisoned, the whole river becomes contaminated with dire consequences. You asked the right questions as to why northerners  revel in killing themselves either through insurgency in the North East, banditry and cattle rustling in the North West, kidnappings or through herders and farmers clashes in North Central. The North is obviously at war with itself, and it can be likened to a situation where there is a swarm of locusts but we do not seem to know the pests. We have, therefore, not been able to come up with the  appropriate pesticides. Hence the groping.

All these can be attributed, he further said, to the paucity of resources needed to have enough well. trained, and adequately equipped security personnel, poor performance of the intelligence community culminating in their inability to identify the criminals for prosecution. Another factor he identified, as the fact that military might alone cannot end all the security challenges posed by non conventional conflicts.

He went on to  suggest that these challenges are the result of economic factors of livelihood, aggravated by poverty and ignorance. Too much poverty and ignorance in the North, he said, have  caused those affected to resolve to die, but not alone.

He suggested that to get out of all these, not  only leaders , but the entire citizenry, must do everything necessary to overcome the challenges confronting the North and,  ipso facto, Nigeria at large.

He agreed with  my suggestion that President  Buhari should personally visit the troubled  communities to deploy his tremendous good will to  urge communal leaders to help in the process of restoring peace without which there can be no  socio-economic development.

That way, he surmised, the president may be able to break the jinx and erect a foundation for sustainable peaceful coexistence that is a sine qua non for   development.

The same reasoning,  he said, underpins his earlier suggestion that the president can compel compliance with wearing face masks by Nigerians, in crowded places, if  he could lead the way by wearing them himself. No sacrifice, he concluded, are too much for saving lives.

I thank my friend for his seminal thoughts. Unfortunately, his views leave  us no farther than we were  as far as Nigeria’s corrosive corruption and axyphisiating insecurity are concerned.

As President Buhari never ceases to say, and as Lebanon has recently confirmed, corruption can absolutely destroy a country, qua country.

Corruption in Nigeria, which   presents  as bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, influence peddling, graft, or  embezzlement, points to a glaring lack of , on the one hand, equity and fairness in public affairs, but more poignantly, to a lack of governance.

While cronyism, nepotism, parochialism and influence peddling epitomise inequity, graft and embezzlement of unbelievable amounts of money from public coffers, speak to a clear lack of governance. In no serious government, even in banana republics, should the age long corruption which has immobilized  an agency like the NDDC happen. While lack of governance does not apply to the Buhari government alone, it is a crying shame that we still experience all these Jonathan-era recklessness  in a government whose mantra is change. There is just too much leakage in this government given what Nigerians are also hearing about the Northeast Development commission.

There is, therefore, an urgent need to put  in place, corrective measures to stem this bad trend but none would be greater than ensuring that public thieves have their day in court, in the utmost hope that the country’s equally corrupt judiciary would not merely compound  the peoples’ misery.

Though fuelled by corruption, insecurity in the North is mostly religion- inspired, the reason it has become more intractable, despite the gargantuan efforts of the Buhari government.

One recalls, in this respect, President Goodluck Jonathan once confessing that there were Boko Haram sympathisers in his government as well as in the security agencies. Nothing suggests that this is not equally applicable to the present government and this has nothing to do with a recent allegation linking a Northern governor to Boko Haram. Rather, it has everything to do with the hold religion usually has on its adherents. There are some individuals who owe greater allegiance to their religion than to the country and there had been reported instances where it was believed that our military suffered reverses simply because of internal sabotage like in its intelligence being compromised. Another example is why the British attempt to help rescue the Chibok girls allegedly  floundered. Also for religious purposes, many communities in the theatre of war may be more sympathetic to Boko Haram or to bandits than to our fighting men and women.

As indicated earlier, corruption is also a factor of insecurity in the North  and with all Nigerians  recently witnessed, nothing suggests that if $2.1B could be stolen under the nose of President Jonathan, such cannot happen now.

Regarding atrocities by murderous Fulani herders, what militates against its resolution of herders/ farmers crisis is collusion by security agents who, routinely, do not arrest the criminals, even where they kill in numbers.

Even where hundreds of them attacked, killing and burning down villages as happened in Benue state, which  resulted in a mass burial and,  as is presently  happening in Southern Kaduna, it is always a rarity to hear that a herdsman was arrested.

This is part of what I describe as lack of governance and unless all these factors that encourage and aggravate insecurity in all parts of Nigeria are consciously, and aggressively dealt away with, Nigeria would just be going round and round, like a barber’s chair, in its effort to rein in insecurity.

By Femi Orebe

This time last  week , it was a dirge as we remembered two illustrious Ekiti elder statesmen who recently passed on. Today, we are in sunny times as we celebrate the duo of  the Prince polyglot, Julius  Adelusi- Adeluyi and Chief (Dr) Deji Adegbite on their 80th birthday.

It is certainly audacious of me to co-join them, knowing full well that Oga Juli will ask “whether  Deji can get the one week that separates them to buy in the market”.

I write here of two absolutely brilliant elders both of who have had immense influence on my life, one as a mentor and the other as boss, and role model.

A warning, however. This is not going to be some hard stuff like a Sam Omatseye,  or Innocent Duru doing an ode to the Prince, detailing his rare, multi-faceted achievements like graduating in flying colours from the Nigerian law school or traversing the length and breath of the country, as Chairperson of MTN Foundation, helping that company to spread goodwill to all and sundry.

Nor will you be reading too much of  Oga Deji being the pillar around which Professor  Hezekiah Oluwasanmi built the superlative administrative team at the then  University of Ife, Ile – Ife. Rather, what you will read are nothing more than what we, back home in Ekiti, call: ‘Iresupa’ – a light hearted, moonlike, take by an aburo on his darling egbons; the type that Google will not give you on either of them.

Oga Juli, the multi-talented polyglot, is a very unique person. Versatile in many languages, Nigerian and foreign, I have sat at his table, listen to him discuss with His Eminence, the Sultan, in Hausa language, just as I have watched him waoh us at a meeting of the Professional Practice Group (PPG) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce.

He is at home, whether practising his law, pro bono, ferreting out from dingy prison cells,  some  helpless individuals who, not even a charge and bail lawyer would touch for anything; in church, where he is most at home, having spent a good part of his growing up years living with a Revd Father, in a Roman Catholic environment that will shape him for life, or within the Nigerian Pharmacy Academy, together with the leading lights of the profession, putting heads together to shape it for now and the future. He is equally at home with the plebean, just like he is with royalty. I already mentioned him and the Sultan. He is also the eyes of His Royal Majesty , the Ewi of Ado – Ekiti. I have watched him relate with all and sundry on the shop floor,  at his Juli Pharmacy in Ikeja, Lagos, on those occasions when I just wanted to stealthily go in, quickly buy some things, but having seen me on the CCTV, would dash down in a flash, accost me, most times with a hand across my neck, to the amusement, if not amazement, of onlookers, cracking some small jokes in his ever flawless Ekiti. And God! You need to see us on telephone, when he  launches into those  alluring, rib-cracking jokes in  Ekiti – I do match him at that though. I guess to his own amazenent.

With him, what you get is the authentic, the original; no quibbling, or any political tongue -in -cheek stuff that defines not a few. A man of impeccable integrity, you can go to sleep once  he gives you his word. A lover of people and an unabashed patriot, he never stops agonising over where this country, but especially Ekiti, is. It is a testimony to his patriotism that he founded the UGBIMO URE EKITI, bringing together well meaning Ekiti citizens for development and I feel certain he will not  mind my divulging the fact that he gave me the privilege of drafting  his inaugural address to that body.

He is respected, equally,  by each successive Ekiti  governor irrespective of  party platform. He is, as you read this,  the Chairperson of  Governor Kayode Fayemi’s rainbow,  Covid -19 Advisory Committee in which the governor assembled Ekiti’s best and brightest, and well connected, to assist him in the gargantuan task of taming the Covid -19  pandemic in the state.

Any write up on Oga Juli is, of course, incomplete without a well deserved  mention of his jewel of inestimable value – to quote the Avatar – who has been his  pillar of support for over a half century. Their amazing children give them tremendous joy.

Esisa, by His grace, ‘me i bo ya jiyan birthday mi leyin Covid o’ – in Ekiti -speak.

And may the good Lord continue to rest Remi, your incredible alter ego, who recently joined the Saints Triumphant.

That  brings me to ‘Taiwo’ , my Oga, the untiring workaholic,  the man Professor H.A Oluwasanmi, as Vice Chancellor, University of Ife, Ile – Ife , pulled  gently aside at an ongoing interview and told: “tell that young man to report in my office on Monday”.

Though that simple directive would end up changing the columnist from being a university teacher to an administrator, I haven’t the slightest regret as Oga Deji turned out the instrument God used to give me that incomparable grounding in university administration that I would soon  be sought after  both by registrars and Vice- Chancellors. I recently  told that story in my tribute to  the late Professor Akinkugbe.

As I wrote above, Dr Adegbite is your quintessential workaholic though I think it is a chicken and egg thing because you could  not have worked with Professor  Oluwasanmi and be anything  less. With a punishing backache, Professor Oluwasanmi, half lying on a settee, would be in that position  for  hours  with his Deputy, Professor A. A Adegbola and Oga Deji, as Executive Assistant, going through tonnes of correspondence, receiving reports from heads of departments, and resolving all manner of knotty issues without the slightest inkling of the ailment that was obviously ravaging him.  Oga Deji  worked  at such frenetic pace I never stopped wondering as to where  the energy was coming from . It took me long to know that no matter how late we closed, he would still get one or two games  of table tennis. That habit continues with him till today.

He had been specially recruited by Professor Oluwasanmi to be the pivot of an  administration department that would be the envy of other universities in the country. The  time coincided with a period of massive developmental programmes in the university with the trio of the  Architect Planner,(Oladeji) the Horticulturist,(Bankole) and the Chief Engineer,(Ogunseinde) literally working their socks out with Chief Adegbite coordinating their reports  for the Vice- Chancellor in addition to his own back breaking schedule.

All these so paid off  that when he got appointed as the inaugural registrar of the new Ondo state University, the consensus was that he would be a successful registrar of any university, whether here  in Nigeria, or  elsewhere.

He made such  great impact at the University that the institution is, this week,  proudly hosting a webinar for his 80th birthday.  The topic, fittingly, is: ‘Management of the Nigerian University System Post Covid’, under the distinguished Chairmanship of the Vice- Chancellor, Professor Eddy Olanipekun.

A man of incandescent integrity,  he is  respected across board.

Oga Deji is a sports aficionado; hardly misses  an English Premiership game, just as he  plays his table tennis everyday at the up scale Inland club, Ado – Ekiti.

His dear wife, of many decades, and their children, combine to be the bulwark of his life as he continues to age gracefully.

These are only  two  of the incredible people Ekiti is blessed with that you will  not but marvel at our atavistic politics, one in which reconciliation is fast becoming like an accursed word. That, certainly, is  not  us, and  it is obviously not the Ekiti I grew up in,  with the likes of Chiefs J.E Babatola and Oduola Osuntokun, as our leading political lights.

I, therefore, wish to seize this opportunity to appeal to our  politicians, especially the leaders of both APC and PDP to,  for the sake of our dear state, sheath their swords , both inter,  and intra party,  reconcile,  and work in harmony for the progress of the state and the well being of our people.

No state in Nigeria is half as homogenous as Ekiti. This should be a source of strength, not the  conundrum Ekiti has found itself for decades, graduating from one political problem to another and thus, negatively impacting development.

Concluding, I have been particularly lucky because just as I am at home with our elder statemen – the likes of Chief Alex Olu Ajayi, Pa Francis Daramola, Chief Deji Fasuan and Chief Dele Falegan to whom I speak often, so am I privileged to be close to our distinguished celebrants of today.

They are men of integrity whose friendship and advise, royalties seek for purposes of  communal development.

Ekiti, no Nigeria, is blessed to have them  and it is my prayer that the good Lord will  grant them long life, in blossoming health.

 Femi Orebe

What a sobering week it has been for us in Ekiti with two of our indomitable titans, great and loyal disciples of the Avatar, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, joining the Saints Truimphant. We are comforted, however , that none of them died young: Pa, Senator Ayo Fasanmi at 94, and Chief S.K Babalola at 89.

Their departure home,  therefore, is for us, a celebration  of life. They lived well, and served God and humanity well, and  are therefore, assured, by His grace, of eternal rest at the feet of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I was, initially,  not that  close to Chief Babalola, he a top party  chieftain, commissioner and the state party secretary, and little me,  onlyan unofficial spokesperson of the Omoboriowo faction  of the UPN, but one event would soon change that  for life.

As spokesperson,  I  severally debated the likes of both my good friend, Hon Alex Adedipe and  Chief Olaiya Fagbamigbe, two great logicians, and  both now of blessed memory.

May their souls rest in perfect peace.

Teacher, and principal of many schools, Chief Babalola was your dream politician, quintessential administrator, and great father.

The crisis in the  UPN had worsened after the party primaries which Chief Ajasin won, and not a few of Chief Omoboriowo’s top supporters were urging him to join PDP.  But until the hawks finally succeeded, he was,  body and soul, in the UPN  and  only eagerly awaited Chief Awolowo, who he loved very much, to come and give him a soft landing. But the Avatar was already so  annoyed that Akin, as he called him,  had let things go too far that he had only harsh words for him when he visited the state.

On the primary election day, Chief Akin  Omoboriowo’s  acceptance speech, which I had written, and he  had approved, and which I was to have delivered if he  won, was with me, as he had left town earlier.

His decampment gave some of us a  very  serious  sense of foreboding as we could not imagine ourselves in the NPN, for which  reason one of us,  my friend Olu Aduloju,  was beaten to a pulp at  Ijero shortly before a meeting to which I luckily arrived late.

That  was the point at which I ceased  every contact with the group. I did not, however,  rush back to the UPN as those were extremely  dangerous days, and one had to  be very careful.

I merely  went back to my business, an upscale relaxation centre which the Trade commissioner, Chief (Mrs) Osomo, representing the state governor, had officially declared open earlier in the year.

Some time after the primaries,  I would receive an unexpected visit by the trio  of Professor Agbede, Hon. Alex Adedipe, and my other friend, now Professor Remi Fayemii who had come to woo me back to the party.

Their pitch was simple: ‘Femi, they said, you have always been  a strong Awoist, and at Ife, you were one of the arrowheads of anything Awo. They went on to say they had observed that I no longer fraternise with the  Omoboriowo group since they joined NPN, concluding with a plea that I come back to the UPN.

They were, of course, preaching to the converted. After thanking them, the only thing I did was to give a conditionality: they must arrange a meeting for me with Papa Ajasin.

That meeting happened three days later at the state house. I am happy I have previously written about the  meeting before, and it is all in my forthcoming book: ‘Simply a Citizen Journalist’. I say that  because it is only by the  unmerited mercy  of God that I am still on this side of the divide, as all the other  participants: Papa Ajasin, Chief Babalola and Hon  Adedipe, have all passed on. Eternal rest grant them O Lord.

It was at the meeting Chief Babalola would make the greatest impression ever on me.

The governor nsturally spoke first. He went straight into how he had been told I always shredded his government, calling them names etc. It wasn’t his wont to talk too much, and did not on this occasion, but there was no missing how exactly he felt.

It was at that point Chief Babalola came in. He would not even allow me say a word in my  own defence.

“Papa, he said, with all due respect, Sir, that is not true of Mr Orebe, at all. If my wife and I heard during the network news at 9 o clock , that Mr Orebe  would be on television at 12 midnight, we would both suspend our sleep to listen to him because he always made a lot of sense. Although he will  vigorously make his point, he is never abusive”.

The governor did not contradict him one bit, but rather changed tack asking  what I would like the party to do for me.

I thanked him and told him that I was happy he attended the burial of his very good friend, our Leader, Chief Oloketuyi, not too long ago at Igbemo, adding that ideally, the road from Iworoko to Igbemo ought to have been declared closed  and that I would be most grateful if government would help us tar it.

If he was surprised I asked for no personal favours, the governor did not show it. Rather, he turned to Chief Babalola and authorised him to go and complete for our community,  the type of agreement the party has with Igede, a town  which was having issues with Iyin – Ekiti where General Adeyinka Adebayo, a  very top NPN leader came from.

Unfortunately, the Buhari coup of 31st December, 1983, cancelled that out  and it was not until 20 years later,  in 2003, that Governor  Adeniyi Adebayo would tar the road, demonstrating how, very badly, the military under – developed Nigeria.

From that day, my respect for Chief Babalola  knew no bounds. I became like a son to him and often went to his house where I was very warmly welcome.

Only God knows what Ekiti state would have become today had Chief Babalola won the 2003 governorship election which Governor Ayodele Fayose – no thanks to President Obasanjo and Bode George – won on the platform of the PDP.

That  is not to say that Governor Fayose did not do his best, but were Chief Babalola the governor,  Obasanjo would never have had any reason, nor the audacity, to serially come to Ekiti to excoriate everything we stand for. More than any other state in this country , Ekiti stands shoulder high, in integrity, honesty and sheer erudition; yet there was no name he did not call us, culminating in  his “fehin gbe pon”, as he was reported to have said,  in  the 2007 governorship election in the state.

Concerning the 2007 election, I have had the rare opportunity of telling our leader, Bamofin Afe Babalola, that he disappointed Ekiti hugely because we all looked up to him. This was at the Fountain Hotel, Ado- Ekiti in 2009 as he  accompanied  a group  of journalists who had come to visit his University, ABUAD.

As I met him, he made to shake my hand, but I, instead prostrated. It was the day the campaign of candidate John Kayode Fayemi  was going to my constituency.

Standing up, he now asked who I was and I told him it was in his house we coordinated the  Ekiti opposition to the plan  to make UNAD, the Ekiti state university multi- campus, with  only the Arts Faculty coming to Ekiti.

I told him that as our number one leader in the state, he should have dissuaded his friend, President Obasanjo, from rigging the state governorship election, (as the Appeal court has since affirmed) because the contestants, being friends, and both in E.11, would have worked together for Ekiti development, no mstter which of Oni or Fayemi Ekiti voted for on their own accord . I told him they would have found a modus vivendi, after some quid pro quo.

Baba agreed with me but said that some guys in E.11 misled him and that he  had now found out – to use his own words – that omo gidi bi iyan ni Fayemi  – meaning that I was  right in my critique of him, and that he has discovered that Fayemi is as good  as pounded yam – an Ekiti delicacy.

It was on that occasion he introduced his protege, and the longest serving Ekiti state Attorney – General , Gboyega Oyewole, now a member  of the inner bar, to me.

As for President Obasanjo, he would sooner, rather than later, get his full comeuppance for enjoying thrashing Ekiti when the two-term  Ekiti state governor, Dr Ayodele Fayose, showed him who a free born Ekiti is.

May the good Lord  grant  our indomitable and affable leader, Chief S K Babalola, eternal rest and comfort Mummy and my darling aburos, who would, forever, be proud they were sired by this incredible lodestar.