Category: Femi Orebe

By Femi Orebe

I have had cause in the past decade to write severally about the Hon. Mr Justice Isa Salami, that jurist of incandescent integrity, and the very epitome of what the Nigerian judiciary should be but is, unfortunately, not.

Two of the articles are: Justice Salami Must Assume Jurisdiction in the Ekiti case and Weep Not For Justice Salami both of which appeared on these pages and can be Googled .

In the former,  which I wrote when the series of Ekiti Election tribunals were becoming something of a conundrum, I suggested that  Justice Salami should  assume jurisdiction as was done by the Hon Justice Abdullahi, a former President of the Court of Appeal, when he  took over the Edo and Ondo  cases.

In it I wrote: “The judiciary should be left to sink or swim solely on its record of performance bearing in mind the fact that it has now become analogous to the Nigerian army which General Salihu, a former Chief of Army staff , once described  as an army of anything goes.

It is a shame really that it has come to this because, truth be told, there are still thousands of men and women of good conscience in that arm of government”.

Within and outside the Nigerian judiciary, Justice Salami shines like a thousand roses. Therefore, not a few Nigerians  were happy when in November, 2017, he declined to serve as Chairman of the Corruption Monitoring Committee  because he could not, in good conscience, serve with some of the lawyers on the committee.

Why then did he  accept to serve as Chairman of Presidential  Investigative Panel which literally held Magu, the former Acting EFCC Chairman, incommunicado for far more days than was legally permissible and  with  all his  rights, as a citizen of Nigeria, denied him?

Was it out of respect for the President  even though the Attorney – General who must have nominated him is Magu’s chief accuser?

While his acceptance demonstrated respect for  the president, wasn’t  Justice Salami seized of the mode of Magu’s state capture, on the streets, in  a manner so repugnant a group of global anti corruption organisations, which had, incidentally, cooperated copiously with the EFCC in the past, has  since  protested to the president?

Knowing the President as we do as  a man of incontestable personal integrity, it is  obvious that nobody can be considered as being above the law.

So let Magu be investigated for months, if need be and be tried, if found culpable, but for Christ’s sake do not treat him like a war prisoner.  Why was a court order not sought and obtained?

After all  he had not been convicted of any crime.

This is why I was surprised that with one of our finest jurists at the helm of affairs, the man in the eye of the storm allegedly didnt know the charges preferred against him but was, instead, being bombarded with  a deluge of charges which he was expected to answer,  there and then, even as he had no  access to his files.

Meanwhile, the Press, both the serious and the mundane, not forgetting the social media, were literally  roasting him, putting him under extreme pressure, as his lawyer later complained.

I felt personally scandalized at his ordeal as none of the media reported that Magu was being protected by his lordship, even where such might  have happened. Not even those who collapsed banks in this country went through such rigour.

I was, however, not surprised at his ordeal  because those who want him  out  really did their ground  work.  After all, they must have their pound of flesh for his alleged insurbodination.

And for them Mr Justice Salami’s integrity was a perfect cover; a sort of anesthesia for Nigerians, to be rest assured that all is well.

It can be assumed, with considerable justification, that had the eminent jurist threatened to recuse himself if Magu would not be treated with all decorum  I am sure nobody, or organisation, would today be writing the president to complain.

Subjecting Magu, the very face of President Buhari’s anti corruption war, to  such extremely pitiable treatment was, to say the least, unfortunate. and a highly regarded Justice Salami should have insisted on being put on record as a conscientious  objector.

What was wrong in letting him come from his house, daily, to answer to the charges even if you had to put a battalion of soldiers or police men on him?

But, of course, Magu has been such an adroit fighter against corruption that he had made by far too many enemies.

Ensuring that some powerful officials could neither protect their corrupt associates, or proteges, or allow files disappear upstairs, in some  higher offices was for them totally unacceptable .

He had also constituted himself into a major problem to those who would have made a Deziani look like an angel.

However, since every administration has it’s own fair share of  rogues, it is as sure as day follows the night, that comeuppance cometh.

Those who today feel like they are untouchable had better be careful, and watch their every step.

Nigerians are no fools and  can see those who, even in a pandemic are throwing money all around, yet vigorously denying their squandermania, even when the country itself has had to downsize its budget.

That Magu was able to stay as long as he did, can only be by the grace of  God and the President’s own belief in him.

Even with the legislature and the DSS bent on  throwing him  away like a wet rag, President Buhari stuck by him for a whole five years during which he epitomised the Nigerian  anti corruption war,  both here at home and abroad. I have no doubt that, like Ribadu, Magu will come to be appreciated

What exactly did they not do, to roast  Magu ? Even in total disregard for the President, some security officials had the audacity to write a negative confidential report to controvert the favourable one which the President attached to  his letter to the  Senate seeking his confirmation as chairman.

It will be extremely difficult to find anything  more repugnant than that, in- your – face opposition to the President. They completely took the President  for granted.

What then are the consequences  of this riveting  Magu apotheosis?  Well, they have began to  come in, fast and furious.

As mentioned  earlier,  a group of  global anti corruption organisations have since protested to  the President warning of dire consequences to his anti corruption war.

Their letter reads  as follows: “The unceremonious exit of former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, may erode the recent gains in the fight against corruption, What is going on in Nigeria is of concern to the international community.

Mr Magu has proved himself to be up to the task. His determination to fight corruption is evident by the recovery of stolen funds and properties plus his own high moral ground, earned at the cost of diligence and hardwork never before seen.

His political removal questions the will of Nigeria to deal with a major cause of the country’s underdevelopment which is corruption”.

They did not stop there but, knowing Nigeria as they do, having been collaborating with the EFCC on many investigations, went on to “express deep concern over the travails of Magu saying that the former EFCC boss may be a pawn in the desperate attempts by corrupt officials to kill the EFCC or turn the agency into a willing tool of corrupt politicians”.

What more can I say.

As is  already well known, serpentine plots will already be on to headhunt Magu’s successor from the usual quarters, that is the North, as if the EFCC chairman must be a police man or come from the North.

Nigerians have now witnessed four  former EFCC chairmen, all police officers, and all from the North that have literally been disgraced out of office that the time is now  opportune for a paradigm shift.

The President  should now seriously  consider  appointing a solid and respected  academic, with a legal background, but this time from the  south, constitute the EFCC board  with all its  relevant committees put in place so that the organisation can function properly like any other government agency.

For best results, EFCC must be truly independent meaning that its chairman should not be appointed by a sitting president. Obasanjo and Ribadu’s so called investigation of him should have long taught us that fact.

The greatest  problem with what is going on in the EFCC today, however,  concerns the President more than anybody else  because, when we all would  have played our part,  and departed,  names of  very many would not even appear  on the footnotes of Nigerian history.

That, obviously  can never be true of President Muhammadu Buhari, a two time Nigerian Head of state, who must always be mindful of his place in history. It is my prayer, and hope, that he would emerge on its right side.

By Femi Orebe

Emeritus Professor Olujimi Akinkugbe CON, CFR, FRCP, according to a forward written by no other than Dr Christopher Kolade, was certain to be a professor of something, as long as it was not Physical Education. Akinkugbe`sintellectual eminence, he reasoned, came from his studious curiousity. It was, therefore,  not surprising that he became a world authority in Medicine, and  a most articulate communicator in the English language, as attested to in  his “Swirling Currents: Swollen Streams “, a valedictory lecture delivered decades ago to a set of graduating medical students. He would go on, not surprisingly, to garner  accolade upon accolades. These, amongst  others, include: Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFR) the  National Order of Merit (NNOM). He was also the youngest Professor of Medicine to be appointed by an African University” – Prof Osita Agbu in: Hallmarks of Labour Volume 7.

Without a scintilla of doubt, you would be hard put to find, anywhere, anybody more humble, humane,  and,  forever, solicitous of the other person’s well – being  than the late Emeritus Professor Akinkugbe.

An illustrious scion of the eminently illustrious Akinkugbe family of Ondo –  a town which effortlessly oozes with intellectual  giants like the Akingba’s, the Akinla’s, the Akinsete’s,  and the Dosekun’s, not forgetting the Legal impressario , Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN, the late academic titan was  simply great.

I urge readers, however, to please know  that this write up will be more of  personal reminiscences.

Ever immacutely turned out, Professor Akinkugbe, born July 17, 1933 had, from  very early in life learnt, and appreciated from his father, the virtues of discipline, honesty, fairplay, sharing, accommodating and empathy.

My getting to know him, and becoming close to him , was absolutely fortuitous.

Unknown to me that the council of the University of Ibadan had mandated the  Registrar, Mr S.J Okudu, to headhunt an individual to come and drive preparations for the humonguous 25th anniversary of the University, scheduled for November, 1973, I suddenly found myself summoned to a meeting with the registrar at the staff club, University of Ife, Ile – Ife, during which he asked if I would mind joining  the university of Ibadan. When he noticed I was wondering where all this  was coming from, he quickly informed  me  that it was at the instance of his friends, who incidentally turned out to be two of the people I respected the most in the entire Ife university community, namely, Mr Sesan Dipeolu, the University Librarian, and my highly cherished  teacher, Dr Segun Osoba. For me, that was it, even as I knew what I was going to face, attempting to prise myself away from the Vice- Chancellor’s office. Hardly had I mooted my leaving than  the University showed its utmost displeasure, promptly  withdrawing  the  Association of African Universities’ Scholarship, tenable at the University of Legon, Ghana,  which I had won after an exacting process which involved  all Ife graduates on the staff of the university, who  had graduated with a First, or Second class (Upper Division) degree.

That, in short, was how I came to meet Professor Akinkugbe, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, and the Chair person of the University’s 25th Anniversary Ceremonials Committee. Even though designated as being responsible to the Registrar on Council Affairs, it was as secretary to the committee I reported daily to the Professor, in the office dedicated to the anniversary, servicing the six or so sub committees, in addition to the main one.

Even though working with the Vice Chancellor, Professor H.A Oluwasanmi at Ife, assisting Mr, now Dr Deji Adegbite, his Exacutive Assistant, was nerve racking enough, the first thing I noticed in my new job was that with Professor Akinkugbe time stood still, or better put, time simply died. He could work 24 hours non stop and in that circumstances, who are you to start asking  what time it  was?

Not surprisingly, we turned up a scintillating 25th anniversary of the founding of  Nigeria’s premeir university, to global acclaim.

However,  I was joking if I thought those tough days were over because in less than a month the Professor would request that the Registrar  redeploy me to the Faculy of Medicine where he was  the dean. The training and exposure I had, working with this academic cum administrative juggernaut was simply incredible. Ever so solicitous of your well being, you are only too happy to leave no job undone, however daunting. I was this tall in those days, yet Professor Akinkugbe would pat me on the back and say: “Femi well done. I know I can go to sleep whenever I give you an assignment”.

At the expiration of his tenure, I worked for about another 6 months with his successor,  the equally indomitable Professor Kayode Osuntokun, as dean, before I was recalled by the Registrar to the main campus, now strictly  as Assistant Registrar, Council Affairs.

But again, I joke, if I think Professor Akinkugbe had forgotten all about me. Early one morning, Mr Bayo Adeyinka,  the University Estate officer, to whom I was particularly close, called me to his office. “Femi, he said, am not calling you to write a memo for me this time around . Olu wants you in Ilorin. He wants you to respond to the advert which would be out in days”.

A few weeks back, Professor Akinkugbe  had been appointed foundation Principal of the University College, Ilorin.

He saw the bewilderment in my eyes. How again was I going to face Mr Okudu, the registrar, whose blue – eyed boy I  certainly was,  and who had come all the way to Ile- Ife, looking for me?

I raised this problem and Uncle Bayo simply said I shouldnt bother myself at all  as Olu and the registrar are pals. That again was how I packed bag and baggage and headed  for Ilorin and for some 6 months leaving my very young family back in Ibadan.

I shall be happy to be told anything that could be tougher than starting off a new university,  from scratch, and mostly on a virgin forest being mostly occupied by ancestral land owners. That was the task that confronted Professor Akinkugbe in Ilorin. The early days were consumed by his meeting with the communities whose  lands were to be taken over for this public good but who, nonetheless, were very uncoopetative. He did this literally from dawn to dusk everyday, but he was divinely sent an ‘angel’ in the state military administrator, Col. George Agbazika Innih, who am surprised the University of Ilorin is yet to honour all these  many years. Or did I miss that?

With his commissioner for Education, who would later be governor of the state, Uncle Cornelius Adebayo, himself a university teacher, things were made easier than they would, ordinarily,  have been.

As soon as he settled down, his utmost concern, apart from physical development, was staff development. He recruited  many young and brilliant graduate assistants who within  their  first year, were already on their way abroad for higher studies just as those  with the PhD degree were being given grants to attend learned conferences abroad.

This write up will not be complete if I fail to mention that Professor Akinkugbe loved  his Medicine so much that, in spite of his hectic schedule, he still arranged to practise it at the nearby Ilorin General hospital. Those who know him, professionally, am sure, must  be saying that is the essential Professor Akinkugbe.

It can be rightly said that everything he touched, turned  to gold,  even though,  God Almighty it was who saved  him  when some people in Zaria wanted  to kill him after the jumat service, one Friday when he was the Vice— Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University,  Zaria . His saviour turned out to be the Yoruba wife of a top Northern bureaucrat who, having  eavesdropped the plan, then  phoned him saying: Prof, you dont know me but today’s jumat service must not end before you flee your house. Run now, Prof,  and don’t even  bother to try save anything.

His maiguard would later be hacked down by the marauders, thus paying  the supreme sacrifice.

Concluding, below is part of my congratulatory message to the late Emeritus Professor, published on these pages,  on his 80th birthday: “…it was my distinct pleasure to see him more regularly in the last 12 months and, as dapper as ever: first at the wedding of the daughter of my dear brother, Bayo Jimoh, the Group Managing Director of the O’dua Investment Co Ltd, then at the  50th anniversary of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile -Ife, where his Government College Ibadan classmate, Ambassador (Dr) Christopher Kolade, gave the anniversary lecture and  lastly, at the epochal inauguration of his other GCI classmate, the Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, as the inaugural winner of the Awo Prize for Leadership, an event that truly showed Dr Tokunbo-Awolowo Dosumu as a true daughter of her illustrious father, the redoubtable Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Prof looked as radiant and  jovial as ever. He cracked jokes with Bayo Jimoh and I,  patted me on the back as he said: “Femi, those were the days”.

Sir, you have more than earned your stripes. Long may you live in glorious health, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen”.

Adieu Prof. Rest eternal at the bossom of your Lord and Master, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Femi Orebe

With the huge decapitation suffered by Boko Haram in the hands of  the  Chadian army led by President Idriss Deby, a few weeks ago, leading to the slaughter of about 1000 Boko Haram fighters in a decapitation so devastating the Boko Haram leadership went scampering all over the place and with the almost simultaneous movement to the battlefront of the Nigerian Chief of Army staff to lead his men in vanquishing what remained of the irritants, this past week’s literal slaughter of our compatriots in some Borno  state communities, reportedly accounting for no less than 99 deaths, must have come as a massive dampener to our men and women  in uniform, to the military leadership, the state governor but much more so to the President who has spared nothing in his government’s determination to wipe out the dare devils.

So greatly has the Nigerian army dealt with them since General Buratai moved to the war theatre that many couldn’t have seen this coming. And that precisely, is the essence of this short write up. Our military high command must now realise that they are dealing with internal saboteurs. There is no doubt in my mind that there are elements within our own people who are eavesdropping for the enemy and being a Muslim himself, General Buratai must know the meaning of swearing by the Koran. Such persons will be as committed as the Boko Haram fighters themselves who, unlike our patriotic fighters, are not thinking of leaving the battle front safely for home but rather, only eager to go and meet their 7 virgins, wherever.  This has therefore become a war of attrition with patriotic Nigerian soldiers fighting to preserve the unity of the country. Such inveterate enemies must be identified, flushed out and dealt with militarily.

Also as you read this, not many Nigerians believe that the Nigerian intelligence community know Boko Haram’s sources of funding. Everything must be done to ascertain these so that they could be cut off from that critical asset, a situation which will be guaranteed to completely asphyxiate them.

I salute our fighting forces.

KABIYESI K’ADE PE LORI

Hearty congratulations to His Royal Majesty, Oba Abdul-Wasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, Abisogun 11.

 

Long will you reign Kabiyesi.

Femi Orebe

While we’re still basking in the euphoria of June 12 recognition, it is important we remind President Muhammadu Buhari that, rather than being the closure, that monumental, even, states manly act of his, should be regarded only as the starting point of truly re- inventing Nigeria.

That is precisely what I intend to do in the piece below.

Beyond the wildest imagination of Nigerians, sans the microscopic few that might have been privy to it, President Muhammadu Buhari, a general of the Nigerian army who, though retired,  still falls within that narcissistic military that  guillotined the historic June 12,  1993 election, as well as a redoubtable member of the June 12 – loathing Fulani, on 6 June, 2018, rose far higher than his 6 foot plus frame, and proclaimed an executive order, recognizing both the  election, and  the winner, Chief  MKO Abiola, who he conferred with the highest honour in the land, GCFR, in a bold attempt to put a closure to a very pernicious phase of  Nigerian history.

Much has been written about June 12, but hardly would the relevance, and coverage of any national event, before or after that of 6 June, 2018, ever reach that crescendo.

But lest we get lost in the euphoria of the moment, it is time to let the president understand, and appreciate that, truth be told, rather than June 12 being the closure, it is, indeed, the very beginning of telling truth to ourselves; the starting point of very sincerely, and vigorously, confronting the demons that have been tearing at our whole being. The first of these should be the realisation that the Nigeria of today is nowhere near a federation, and that when we so petulantly describe it, we are repeating a similar lie like the one the extant Nigerian constitution tells against itself when it commences with: ‘we the people”.

The question then arises, what is a federation? To answer this million-naira question, I will, very respectfully, press my two- time teacher, Professor (Senator) Banji Akintoye, into service.

Writing, mutatis mutandis, on the topic: What is restructuring, in his column in The Nation of 6 January, 2018, the world reputed historian, statesman, (and now THE LEADER  of Yoruba World Congress (YWC), unarguably today’s leading socio-cultural organisation in Yoruba land, who we shall quote at great length, opined:

“The basic idea of a federation is that the various distinct parts of a country (especially a country comprising different ethnic nations) should be made a federating unit (or state). Each state should have the constitutional power to: manage its unique problems and concerns, develop its own resources for its people, manage its own security, and make its own contributions to the well-being of the whole country. The central entity (or federal government) should manage common matters like the defense of the country, the relationship of the country with the rest of the world (international relations), the country’s currency, the relations between the states of the country, and general principles like defense of human rights. That  exactly, was the federal arrangement which Nigeria’s founding fathers agreed upon in the 1950s.”

Continuing, he wrote:

“But, since independence, our leading politicians, and our military leaders have gradually destroyed this structure and replaced it with a structure in which the federal government is the controller of virtually all power and all resources as well as the power to develop all resources, in which the states have no control over their resources but must depend on federal allocations of funds to exist at all”. The federal government, he continued, “is (therefore) over-burdened, controls too much money, has become egregiously inefficient, corrupt and is, essentially, destroying Nigeria because the states have become impotent, cannot develop their resources, cannot fight poverty in their domains, and cannot make their contributions to the progress and prosperity of Nigeria. The cumulative effect of all these, he concluded, is that Nigeria, and Nigerians, have become horribly poor with most public facilities (roads, electricity, water installations, public administration, etc.) degraded, and not working properly with the result that most of our youths are unemployed and hopeless. Inter – ethnic relations have degenerated into enmity and hostility. Crimes have made life most unsafe all over the country. So bad have things become that some sections are asking to secede”.

Obviously, the President, who saw the inescapable desideratum of revisiting, and righting, the historic wrong of the June 12 annulment, like Professor Wole Soyinka said of the contradiction in that same person honouring Abiola and praising Abacha, can certainly not be found endorsing, or encouraging, the continuation of a status quo that eventuated all the negative consequences of Nigeria not being a proper, well defined federation of equal parts.

Fortunately, President Buhari is not being called upon here to do the impossible, or to re-invent the wheel.  His party, the APC, has effectively done that for him by setting up the El Rufai Committee on Power Devolution; a subject to which the party devoted a considerable part of its manifesto. As captured by The Guardian of 26 January, 2018,” the committee recommended that states should have considerable control on solid and oil resources in their domains, subject to the approval of the National Assembly. It called for policing to be moved to the concurrent list, enabling the creation of state police alongside a federal force with specified areas of jurisdiction. It also proposed more revenue for states and reduction of federal share of revenue.

More importantly, it recommended that: “all minerals, including oil and gas that are onshore, will be vested in the states of the federation”. “Minerals, oil, anything in the land, belongs to those that own the land, which is the state governments, adding this clincher: “We think the time has come to make this bold step and move away from over-centralisation of mineral resources”.

“There would be certain constitutional amendments. The Petroleum Act needs to be amended, so that states can issue oil-mining licenses. The Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act needs to be amended, to give states the power to do this. The Land Use Act will also need to be amended, to recognise the provisions in the Minerals and Mining Act. The Petroleum Profit Act 2007 will need to be amended. And we have drafted all the bills to give effect to these.”

Ensuring that power devolution is achieved before the presidential elections scheduled for February, 2019, is therefore, the irreducible, the absolute minimum, President Buhari, and the APC, must see through for the historic accomplishments of 6 June, 2018 not only  to earn their place in history,  but to launch Nigeria on the path of peace, and rapid social and economic development.

Unfortunately, that hope went unheeded by either the President or the party.

This article was first published, Sunday, June 17, 2018

And on this year’s anniversary of that historic event, I think it is apposite that we remind President Buhari of this critical next step if Nigeria is to ever take her place in the comity of democratic countries.

By Femi Orebe

“Wanting to fly”,  Sam Omatseye, Chairman, The Nation’s Editorial Board,  recently described the reaction of the Rivers’ State governor – please do not confuse with that of the Disaster – in Chief of Kogi State – apologies Comfort Obi of The Source – to some armstwisting by federal authorities in regard  to the management of the covid- 19 pandemic as “an issue of federalism and the rage of a state governor against a perceived central bully”,  indicating, in unmistakable terms, the fact that  restructuring has become long  overdue in  Nigeria.

In the U. S, the narcissistic President Trump was recently cut to size when he  attempted to claim more than the constitution permitted with regards to  Federal cum states’ relationship.  Indeed, he actually quickly backed off once his attention was called to the constitution. That is how countries can prosper, not by dik    tats from the Feds.  If, therefore, states and other levels of government in the United States, from where we copied the Presidential system can own themselves, and have freedom of action, such  should not be anathema in Nigeria.

No honest Nigerian can claim ignorance of the fact that the North, the Northwest in particular, apparently because of the undue advantages it  enjoys  from the status quo,  stands out as  the greatest stumbling block to restructuring Nigeria.

These advantages include, but are not limited to  preferential appointments, in number  and strategic importance, and, of course, the  superfluous financial advantages it derives from  the totally inequitable creation of Local Government Areas.  A good example of the latter is the fact that while  the number of Lagos state Local Government Areas has remained constant at  20, Kano state, which used to have the same number, now has  44 LGA’s even after Jigawa state, with 27 Local Government Areas, was created from it – no thanks to North -dominated military regimes of yore.

The inequality in Nigeria is beyoñd belief. Take for instance  NNPC, in respect of which the  Pan Niger Development Forum (PANDEF) recently drew the  President’s attention  to some  seeming nepotistic appointments at the expense of the Niger- Delta whose ecosystem has suffered massive degradation, alongside the millenial suffering  its peoples have, and continue, to suffer.

It must be said, however, that the Niger – Delta suffers what should correctly be described as double jeopardy as its own political leaders shamelessly steal most of the funds appropriated to  meaningfully impact  the peoples’  lives.  For years now the East- West road which should have opened up the entire area and  grow its economy, has become a sinkhole; with their local political champions taking turn to loot the funds  meant for its completion. The present  trouble  in the NDDC, where some people are desperately fighting, even unto death,  to upend the forensic audit ordered by the President  into the commission’s activities as billions, if not trillions, are reported to have been stolen through spurious contracts, says it all.

When Afenifere  in 2014 midwifed the Jonathan confab, it was in the hope that the President, being a minority, would rise to the occasion,  and be man enough to be the Moses of  the  deprived peoples of the Niger Delta area. Unfortunately, he chickened out because he had his eyes on re- election and egregiously let his people down.

Posterity will surely judge him harshly.

To banish all fears about restructuring of Nigeria which the North wrongly equates to Nigeria’s  disintegration, permit me readers, to present

Femi Orebe

It is for these reasons it behoves each and every one of us to wish to see Nigeria better, not worse, than we met her

“I, the LORD, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty” – Isaiah Chapter 13 v.11.

The more I study the word of God, the more I believe that Prophet Isaiah was sent to the land of Judah and Jerusalem at a time those lands were comparable to contemporary  Nigeria in its selfish and iniquitous ways and that their kings, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah could very well be  likened to  Nigeria’s last four Heads of State: Obasanjo, Yar Adua, Jonathan with Buhari, the last  of them, being urged, in Chapter 1:18, with regards to Nigeria and Nigerians to: “Come now, and let us reason together, and that though our  sins be as scarlet, we shall be as white as snow and that though we be red like crimson, we shall be as wool.19 If only we shall be willing and obedient, it will be good with Nigerians as we will eat the good of the land.

A little bit then about the Book  of Isaiah, the son of Amoz.

The Book, often divided into two by Bible scholars who, therefore, speak of two Isaiahs, viz: Chapters 1 – 39 and the remaining 27 Chapters which  just like the entire Bible’s 66 chapters – 39 in the Old and 27 in the New Testament , makes them  describe the Book as the mini Bible.

I digress.

From the United States of America which has experienced covid -19’s   highest mobidity with over 100,000 deaths, has come the term: ‘the new normal’, meaning that many things we never thought possible a few months ago,  have  since become the norm, the world over.

Among these, both in the United States, and here at home in Nigeria, would be such things as the following:

Who could have predicted, even as late as January, that the gains of the stock market, which President Trump had touted, with all bragging rights, as a measure of his financial wizardry and as a ringing testimony  to  his administration’s success, describing it as the “highest stock market In history, by far!”, would be all but gone without him being able to deploy his awesome powers to stop the Dow Jones average from going  lower than when he took office?

Who could have wagered  that unemployment in America to whose extremely  low  rate  he had sang panegyrics as the lowest in a century, would see 36.5 million jobs erased in two months, and still counting?

Back here at home who could have figured that social distancing would have so  neutralised our bonhomie, devil- may- care social interactions, at all manner of social and religious engagements, with not the faintest idea as to when they will be back, if ever they would,  and in what form?  That  is not to talk of the relations, friends, the parents etc, all over the world, that have succumbed to this unseen  enemy; origins  of which remain shrouded in a mystery we may never be able to concretely unearth beyond conjectures?

It is for these inscrutable happenings that we all, as Nigerians, high and low, must   rethink our  positions on the various  issues jarring at the unity of our dear country, Nigeria. It is by  the grace  of  the Almighty God that we are all still here on this side of the divide as we are in no way better than those covid -19 has consumed.

May the good Lord grant them eternal rest.

Therefore, whoever  we are, or whatever we may be,  and no matter our circumstances in life, we must always be reminded of what a writer has described as:”God’s love and sovereignty, He who has  the power to allow whatever happens to happen because he is wise, and just, and  knows the end from the  beginning”.

It is for these reasons it behoves each and every one of us to wish to see Nigeria better, not worse, than we met her.

Let us further interrogate the prophet Isaiah and his message to us, centuries after his  earthly sojourn. To let my Muslim readers in on Isaiah, he is  known as  Ashi»yâ’ in Arabic, and  though not directly mentioned in the Quran,  he appears “frequently as a prophet in Islamic sources, such as Qisas Al-Anbiya and Tafsir”.

This is the prophet who, uncannily, mirrors the  Nigeria of today as we  shall see in the following quoted verses of Isaiah, Chapter 1:

2.”Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9 Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow;

then,

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool(white).

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land”.

May the Almighty God forgive us all. Amen.

There is a lot  we the people, but more importantly, our leaders, in every sphere, but  government in particular, can do to heal Nigeria. Restructuring, which many Nigerians now see as  too little too late, can still salvage our country. I have never seen a Nigeria this divided and when in the late 60’s the Nigerian civil war happened, Northerners were not killing fellow Northerners as we see in the Northeast  nor were Southerners making a killing fest of themselves  for all manner of reasons as now happens.

Today, there are various theatres of ‘war’ with  lliterally every group wanting out of a Nigeria they say has outlived its usefulness, and passed its sell by date. This is where inequity  has  landed us.

With an equal opportunity pandemic raging,  knowing  neither tribe, sex, nor religion,  but  rather pummeling humanity,  we must all fear God and appreciate his awesomeness. Our leaders, in particular,  must bend over backwards and work assiduously towards pulling Nigeria back from this gaping precipice. This must be why Prophet Isaiah, says to us all,  in Chapter 1: 18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (white).Nigeria is a  blessed country, let us not further complicate,  and ruin it.

Femi Orebe

Below is how, mutatis mutandis, The Guardian captured this dangerous development in its editorial of  20 May, 2020.

Almajirai’s provocative exodus to Southern Nigeria 

It is indeed curious that the Northern governors’ decision to relocate the Almajirai to their states of origin to control the spread of the covid -19 pandemic has resched an anticlimax. The ostensible reason was to contain the spread of COVID-19, which might spread by the nature of the Almajirai’s lifestyle with no fixed address but eke out a living on the streets largely by begging and relying  on the benevolence of philanthropists. As explained by the governor of Kano State, the relocation was based on the belief that what they need at this critical point in time is care.

The exercise, still ongoing, but has virtually turned arbitrary as they are now being relocated to the South and Middle Belt where  Almajirai is not native to. These states have taken corresponding steps of denying them  admission , thus  accentuating issues of national significance such as the  orchestrated swamping of the South and the Middle Belt by able-bodied men coming from the North, and some reportedly from outside Nigeria.

For  instance, a truck load of herdsmen from Zamfara and Kano State, one of the epicentres of coronavirus in Nigeria, was stopped at the Ojodu-Berger area of Lagos. In Akure, Ondo State, 20 Almajirai from Sokoto and Kano states who sneaked into the state in a truck belonging to Dangote cement were arrested and sent packing. In Edo State, a truck and tanker loaded with able-bodied men, with no resemblance to the well-known Almajirai were intercepted at Jetu junction in Auchi. In Enugu, the government intercepted and turned back nine busloads of Almajirai attempting to move into the state through the Enugu-Benue boundaries at Udenu, Igbo-Eze North and Nsukka Local Government Area. Also, trailer and some buses loaded with the same neglected people were intercepted by community leaders at Opi in Nsukka. Similarly, Abia State intercepted some buses bringing in about 100 of them into the state. In Cross River, the state government reportedly turned back five truckloads of the beggars and other passengers from the North. The Benue State’s COVID-19 Action Committee intercepted 14 of the social wastrels allegedly being smuggled into the state.

This movement clearly breached the order banning movement between states emphasised by the president in his April 27 broadcast and has also drawn the attention of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19

The PTF had then urged the various commands of the security agencies to enhance their monitoring machinery to ensure that the objective of stopping the spread of the virus was attained.

This apparently well-organised mass movement appears to have gone beyond the Almajirai phenomenon, as many of those discovered were most likely herdsman or metcenaries, able-bodied youths who are at complete variance with the commonplace beggars we know only too well.

Viewed against the background of a longstanding  rumour of  Boko Haram insurgents  trying to infiltrate the South and Middle Belt of the country and the ongoing atrocities of herdsmen in the South and Middle Belt that have occasioned a carnage of indescribable proportion, this mass movement Southwards becomes really worrisome.

Leaders of both regions  have raised the alarm over the level of insecurity in the country occasioned by the influx of these people despite a Presidential  ban on interstate movements. Isn’t it unbelievable that not even the President’s ban on interstate travels, proclaimed right there on a national broadcast to the entire  nation would move  either the police or the other security agencies to ensure that this Northern armada was rendered a mission impossible? For me, what we have seen has proved, conclusively, that the decision  to have these people trucked down like commodities must have been taken at very high levels of gpvernment. Or can a truck, as huge as a Dangote’s , not to talk of several of them, move on the road, unseen, even if at night? It sounds quite reasonable to surmise that  the  security agencies which couldn’t see all these would not see anything if a foreign country decides to attack Nigeria.

The South and the Middle-Belt have experienced brutal killings by murderous Fulani herdsmen so if politicians in these two  areas are not bothered, not so the people, who have since owned their own security, trusting not in Nigeria’s security agencies some of who, according to General T. Y Danjuma are heavily compromised, but on their own innate devices. Marauders will be completely surprised as has happened elsewhere in Africa.

It must be realised, however, that this curious mass movement portends ill for the security of, and the continuous existence, of Nigeria as we know it.

It is recalled that there has been a  Boko Haram threat to invade the south and that the Fashola administration in Lagos state upended one attempt. It is, therefore, advised that this matter, unlike what the security agencies are doing, should not be treated with kid gloves.