The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Orebe

  • The agric option (TAO) development cluster: talking innovation in Ekiti State

    The agric option (TAO) development cluster: talking innovation in Ekiti State

    Incidentally, it was not until I came across Elder David’s comments on my last week article  that I became aware of the giant Agricultural innovation taking place in Ekiti state under the sterling leadership of governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji who seems to be getting it right all round in his handling of governance in the state.

    But first things first, a word about Elder David who is one of a kind amongst the thousands of  readers of this column who have been moved, for one reason or the other,  to react to any of my articles here since 2006, that is, 18 years ago,  as it actually debuted in the COMET a full two years before it became The Nation.

    As is often the case, I have not been privileged to meet Elder David who says he is, incidentally, Ekiti like me but it looks to me certain that he has all, or at least, most of my past articles stored up somewhere in his library. I think so because his comments, almost always, contain a fairly long verbatim quotation from a past article of mine relevant to the instant.

    I have nothing but admiration for him.

    Two other things he does: his comments, while appreciative, are always very critical, as he takes no prisoners. Finally, he appreciates the good work  governor Oyebanji is doing in Ekiti even though he continues to task him the more; the very reason I have once forwarded one of such comments to the governor via a WhatsApp message dated 2 December, 2024.       

    Read Also: Nigeria’s quest for energy security gets muscular   

    My message read as follows:

    “Excellency.

    E kale.

    I consider it necessary to let you see the following.

    It is a reader’s reaction to my article of Sunday, 1 December, 2024 titled:The North Wakes Up.

    The writer goes by the name Elder David but I have never met him.

    His Telephone number: sent to the governor but omitted here, being a public space.

    “They (Northerners) should NOT be happy living parasitically on freebies at the expense of the nation. Lagos State today is 5th economy in Africa. Let them point to any economy in the North like that. Instead, they are establishing several Islamic Universities, further digging their grave.

    Please ask Gov.Oyebanji to start competing with himself; breaking his own records in some very needful areas”.

    I replied:

    Which areas do you have in mind please?

    His answer:

    “The government needs the contribution of OPS for PPP, especially in Agro-business, Power generation,Cottage-industries,Cattle-ranching and other MSMEs that may create employment for the youth.

    If we cannot produce oil, like Ethiopia or Rwanda, we can be exporting cows\meat, and dairy products”.

    Thank you Excellency.

    That exactly is the stuff Elder David is made of.

    Attempts by governments to make Agriculture a worthwhile venture in Ekiti state is not new. What TAO is doing differently is in the scope and the number of stakeholder groups involved in the TAO venture. Its inclusion of the state’s Universities is quite laudable and impressive, given what its impact would be on research, especially research funding within the Universities, as well as job opportunities for the young graduates.

    One can only begin to imagine its economic impact, especially on the state’s GDP.

    Interestingly, governor Oyebanji whose solid encouragement to the investor must have laid this golden egg was intimately involved, as Secretary to the government of governor Kayode Fayemi, which also had a very aggressive Agric policy.

    For instance the government attracted more than one hundred million U.S dollars investments in the Rice and Cassava Value chains, as well as in Dairy milk production which saw Promasidor invest 5 million U.S dollars to renovate, and operate, the moribund Ikun dam Dairy Farm.

    A very key segment of that government’s Agric policy was the the Youth in Commercial Agricultural Development (YCAD) programme which was aimed at boosting commercial production of High Value Crops.

    The young beneficiaries  participated in a two-week Agro-business start up and managerial training programme tagged “Start and Improve Your Business” (SIYB).

    Summing up the results of the Fayemi government’s Agric policy in the article: ‘Hurray! The Ekiti Governorship Election Is A Week Away’, on 8 July, 2018 I wrote:

    “Hundreds of Ekiti youths, among them a trained medical doctor (turned farmer), were engaged in commercial agriculture under the Youth Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (YCAD) and 117,000 farmers were registered to benefit from the ADP programme.

    For the first time, Ekiti State had both the largest cassava productivity (yield/Ha) and cultivation. Yield was above national average at 15T/Ha (national average was 12T/Ha). Ekiti also had the largest expansion in cultivation in the country in 2012 with the addition of over 1,150Ha by YCAD Programme alone.

    By October 2013, YCAD’s critical objective had started to manifest as Ekiti State had the highest yield in cassava in the country. In an amazing manner, Ekiti State started  producing water melon and carrot which were,  hitherto,  exclusive produce of Northern states. 750Ha of land was cultivated under the Rice Expansion Programme where government supported farmers with 100% input for production. 2013 operation alone was aimed at achieving 3,000Ha capacity and government also flagged off N600 million irrigation project under which Ero and Itapaji dams  provided 1,700 hectares of irrigated land.

    For the first time, there was a joint constituency project in irrigation by the three Senators representing Ekiti State with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The irrigated land was at Itapaji and served from Itapaji dam, which also served Iyemero and Gede farm settlements while   Ero dam was planned to serve Ikosun, Igogo and Ewu farm settlements. 

    To restore cocoa to its prime position as the main cash crop as was the case in the First Republic, 150,000 cocoa seedlings were distributed to 15,000 farmers in 2013″.

    In doing everything to encourage this new investment, governor Oyebanji was, first and foremost, mindful of the place of Agriculture in a foremost agrarian state like Ekiti.

    It was for that reason he joined

    the Vice Chancellor of Ekiti State University (EKSU),  Professor  Joseph Ayodele and other dignitaries, this past week in Ado – Ekiti, the state capital, to  launch The Agricultural Option (TAO)  Development cluster in the state.

    The project is designed to do the following:

    a) promote foundational agricultural development with young people; b)improve food security; and,

    c) enhance economic prosperity in Ekiti and Nigeria.

    According to Dr Niyi Ojuolape, the  chief promoter, and Chairman, of  AgroMall, the investing Group, the  Cluster will engage agricultural students of good academic standing in productive agriculture where they will be exposed to the practice of farming, processing and agribusiness,in general, providing them with hands-on training and experience in productive and commercial agriculture.

    In addition to skills development, the programme will offer financial benefits of up to N2 million per annum which can go into tuition or other needs, all intended to empower them to become successful agricultural entrepreneurs.

    It is also intended to stimulate their interest in agriculture.

    Not done, Dr Ojuolape went further to say that they are in partnership with both the state governmeny and EKSU and that they hope by that partnership to see “the benefits  extend beyond the students. EKSU, he says, will benefit from the research and development aspects of the program, which will impact curriculum improvement as well as enhance the university’s reputation as a centre of excellence in agricultural education”.

    “Furthermore, he said, it will contribute significantly to Ekiti State’s food security and economic prosperity, with an annual economic activity expected to reach around 40 billion Naira”.

    The governor saw the occasion as “a groundbreaking event marking the beginning of a new era in agricultural development in the state, adding that he  “looks forward to seeing its positive impact on the state.”

    The EKSU Vice – Chancellor was no less ecstatic, describing the partnership “as a further testament to EKSU’s vision of producing graduates that are adequately equipped to handle contemporary socio-economic, and environmental challenges as TAO provides an additional opportunity towards solving some of the country’s most pressing socioeconomic challenges of youth unemployment, low economic growth and food insecurity.”

    Here is wishing the partnership well and I do, sincerely hope, that it will take Ekiti state to the envisaged heights and higher.

  • Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, 59-63 set’s 61st anniversary

    Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, 59-63 set’s 61st anniversary

    On Sunday 9, November, 2014 a year after our 50th graduation anniversary which we missed celebrating for unavoidable reasons, the article you are about to read below appeared on these pages.

    Last year too, for inescapable reasons, we were also unable to gather together at our Alma mata in Ado -Ekiti to celebrate our 60th – what with the literally unassailable insecurity buffeting the entire country, especially as our members are spread all over the country.

    in lieu of that, and to mentally land us all on AGIDIMO HILL, I have gone to my archives to retrieve that article which so perspicaciously captured our last anniversary celebration.

    So Guys till we meet again in 2033 by the grace of God.

    Happy reading to all my ever worthy readers.

    At a glorious 2014 Reunion & Home Coming event hosted by both the 59-63 / 70-74 sets from Friday, 23rd to Sunday, 25th October, 2014, my set (59-63) put together an absolutely unforgettable re-union that will long linger in our memories. It was, first and foremost, an opportunity for massive Thanksgiving to the good Lord who has kept us safe these many years; and having been weaned, from tender ages on Christ, there was no shortage of gratitude to God. And how exhilarating it was for us, jubilantly singing together again the school song: Christ is our corner stone (Songs of Praise 464) in those, once wondrously sonorous voices, now going croaky. The husky voices were, however, invigorated by those of the much younger 70-74 members and current students. Where I sat, directly in front of oga Dele Falegan, (Oga being our patented way of addressing seniors no matter the age difference) former Director of Research, Central Bank of Nigeria, it was easy to affirm beautiful singing as one of our major attributes at The School from the beautiful way he sang. It was simply exhilarating and spiritually uplifting.

    Our own segment of events had kicked off the evening of Friday, 23 October at a sumptuous ASUN (roasted goat meat) night hosted by Dr Oye Adegbite, FCA, and his dazzling wife, at their sprawling country home in the Government Reserved Area of the state capital. What a night of camaraderie and reminiscences. What a night to remember!

    We were particularly honoured by the presence of two great icons of The School. First, Chief F. A. Daramola, our highly revered teacher, and father of Hon Bimbo Daramola, who at 87 chooses to personally drive himself around. Be not surprised, he is The School’s most venerated games master after the unmatchable Chief R. A. Ogunlade of blessed memory. The other was Chief (Dr) JGO Adegbite, School goal keeper, senior prefect and, the first Registrar of the Ekiti State University who, coincidentally, is our host’s uterine brother.

    He was obviously the night’s hero as he regaled us with joke after joke.

    Wande Adebiyi, aka Flamengo, and incidentally another School goal keeper, was, however, not far behind.

    Yours truly relived the idiosyncrasies of one of our most loved teachers, the late Mr J. O. Iluku. And, of course, one of our own, the Venerable Jide Iyiola, said the prayers. In the meantime, Biodun Adu, Consultant Gynaecologist, far away from his London base, kept phoning in to share in the joy of the occasion. It was a night to remember. But looking back now, it is funny, if not surprising, that none of us that night remembered to recall that song, weaved around a mythical Asian king, and with which all students of our time, but now unfortunately discontinued, were socially welcomed into the life-long family of Christ’s School at an archetypical bullying event.

    Bullying has been described as the use of force, threat, or coercion, to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others, and has occasioned suicides in places like the U.S but not this thoroughly enjoyable one which requires some elucidation especially for the sake of readers not already conversant with it. Midway into this unforgettable night, at their very first attendance at a socials event in the school, new students are filed out on the expansive bowel of the Quadrangle, to be taught what is simply described as a song. The song, you are told, is about a king named O Watana, of Siam, who is presented in much more mythical terms. The new students are soon engrossed in this fascinating new song which they soon start singing  exuberantly, dancing in circles. That, however, is until they see their seniors, now a hilarious audience, singing back and pointing fingers at them. What they are singing now is what you get when you fully spelt out the king’s name which is ‘O What an ass, I Am’ but which the seniors now pluralise and turn to: O what asses you are, O what asses you are, O what an ass!

    Read Also: Oyebanji turns sod for 1,000 units Ado-Ekiti housing project

    Boy, you can only imagine the look on the new students’ faces but it is a night you will forever remember. The next day’s events took off a little behind schedule as a result of the state’s environmental exercise. So, to the school’s Alumni Hall we headed at 11 am, an hour later,  to kick start the 2014 Reunion and Homecoming Event proper with a lecture on ‘My Vision of Christ’s School By the Year 2033’; the Guest Lecturer being another iconic alumnus, Mr Kehinde Ojo, the immediate past Ekiti State Commissioner of Education who is, unarguably, a man of many firsts.

    A member of the school football team, he was Senior Prefect and later, principal. A state merit award winner, he was one of the first set of school principals to be appointed Tutor-General by the Ekiti State government. He was, therefore, the ideal person to envision The School as it turns 100 in 2033. And didn’t he make a wonderful job of it! This, however, was after the Chairman of the event, our teacher and now Acting Vice Chancellor of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Professor Femi Ajisafe, has called for the observation of a minute silence in remembrance of our  classmates who have joined the Saints Triumphant. May the good Lord continue to rest them and uphold the family they left behind.

    Chief Daramola, Professor Ajisafe and Mr Ojo were later presented with plaques in appreciation of their support.

    After this was the inauguration of projects. In tandem with the school’s new development plan, the set had, first of all, contacted the principal to identify its most urgent need which turned out to be a bore hole to serve the kitchen and the school clinic which presently do not have a running water of their own. This we agreed to do, thus solving a problem that has existed like forever. It was commissioned by Chief Daramola in the presence of the principal, his immediate predecessor, and a rapturous kitchen staff, some students and members of staff. As it turned out, the bore hole will now also serve the school chapel.

    In addition, we donated 5000 customised exercise books to the students. The last event for the day was the dinner hosted by the 70/74 set to which they had  graciously invited our set, and what a night of good food, wine and camaraderie, at the Fountain Hotel, Ado-Ekiti.

    We all punctually assembled the following morning at the School Chapel for the Anniversary Service which, for us, was a debt repaid us by the school.

     How so?

    Way back in December ’63, believing that the set was too troublesome, the Principal, Canon L.D Mason, had promptly sent us home directly after our School Certificate exams without allowing us have the luxury of the usual send forth service to which every set looked forward to. This service, therefore, mentally took us back fifty-one years; and how throatily we all sang trying to reenact those days of angelic voices. The sermon was taken by one of our most humane and revered teachers, and later university lecturer, The Very Revd John Olu Aina. As we look forward, trusting Christ, whose name we bear, to our 60th anniversary, we all agree that this was a truly wonderful occasion at which many of us were seeing again, for the very first time, since that day in December 1963 when we were hurriedly despatched to our various homes.

    We thank God for His grace upon our lives as we all very happily recite the School Prayer again:

    Grant O Lord

    That Christ School may be a Christian School

    Not in name only

    But, in deed, and in truth

    For the sake of Christ

    Whose name we bear.

    Amen.

    This short recap will not be complete without expressing the set’s deep appreciation to both our Chairman, Adegboyega Adepitan, and our indefatigable Secretary, Oyeniyi Allen Alebiosu, now of blessed memory, both of who literally abandoned their personal chores to ensure we had a glorious outing.

    Our hearty appreciation also goes to the elders and all those who made it a worthwhile outing.

  • The North wakes up

    The North wakes up

    There is this common saying among the Yoruba to the effect that as long as there are lies on the head, so long shall blood be present there.  Therefore, as long as the North remains Nigeria’s ‘enfant à problèmes’, its problem child, so long will writers and analysts continue to highlight issues there in the hope that relevant stakeholders will wake up to their responsibilities as Nasarawa State governor Abdullahi Sule, and a few other critical stakeholders demonstrated in the piece below.

    Speaking this past week at the inaugural regional conference on population dynamics, security, climate change, out-of-school children, and vulnerable children, held in Lafia, Nasarawa State, the governor and Chairman of the North Central Governors’ Forum, called for decisive action to address the longstanding challenges, especially, of the almajiri system in Northern Nigeria.

    Said the governor: “We must wake up and solve these problems ourselves without waiting for others to do it for us. We must take the bull by the horns and stop complaining”. That was after he attributed the persistence of this, and other problems in the region to systemic failures  and the neglect of parental responsibilities, emphasising the need to educate citizens on Islamic teachings, especially the fact that it is a sin to have more children, or  wives, than one can care for. Concluding, he asked: “Why should the North continue to hold the entire nation down when these   problems are theirs to solve?”

    These, incidentally, are questions Northerners are only now asking themselves. Indeed, they believed that whoever asked them were taunting them. For instance, for warning them of the consequences of considering education a haram for the children of the poor, many Northerners never forgave Chief Obafemi Awolowo.  

    But ere we are today with uneducated youths becoming a supermarket for the recruitment of bandits and Boko Haram elements.

    To show that this event was not all talk, the governor announced plans to establish three special schools in Lafia, Akwanga, and Keffi, specifically for the rehabilitation of almajiris.

    What a paradigm shift? Only a few years back, all these governors could do for them was, first repatriate them to their assumed states of origin before they were freighted, yes freighted in trucks, to Southern forests.

    God be praised for small mercies.

    Further confirming the seriousness of the occasion, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission of Almajiri and Out-of-School Children, Dr. Mohammed Sani Idris, after saying that Nigeria has over 18.3 million out-of-school children, the second highest in the world, after Pakistan, with over 30 million almajiris roaming Northern streets, informed the August gathering that

     the commission has launched a program, in Kaduna state, to integrate 350 almajiris into formal education and skill acquisition programs, with plans to send some beneficiaries to some Islamic Universities abroad”.

    Read Also: UNILORIN wins NOA North-Central campus debate, advances to national final

    Heartwarming too, is the fact that, unlike the usual jamborees we see in the North, masquerading as seminars on all manner of things, the conference was attended by some hardheaded critical stakeholders besides politicians; people one believes, will take these decisions to fruition.

    REACTIONS TO THREE ISSUES TO PONDER (The Nation, 10 November, 2024)

    Of the many reactions to the above, space constraint will not permit more than one which I consider quite quintessential.

    It came from a U.K based Attorney, Caleb Arogundade who. wrote the following.

    “I read through this article and two things engaged my attention. First is the issue of parental neglect of children’s education in some parts of Nigeria. I have never been a vociferous advocate of ‘balkanisation’ of Nigeria, but each time that I take a cursory look at our configuration in relation to our  religious and other beliefs, I become confused.

    A section believes in children’s education, while another believes in uncontrolled procreation but without regard to the educational, and general well-being of the children so produced.

    The ‘Rankadede’ culture in some areas is at variance with the ‘Aguda ò j¹ lab¹ G¹¹si’ culture of some other areas. I look at the attitudes of most of the leaders in the Northern parts of the country and I consider same to be wicked. You won’t find the children of the elite among  ‘Almajiris’.

    This is a culture they not only promote,  but defend aggressively.  The Yorubas would say: ‘ÌwÍ tó dil¹ ni Ècù ñ yá lò’. In other words, devil finds work for an idle hand. These hapless and mostly ‘parents-less’ children can be likened to a group of expendables!

    These children should, at least, be told that disruptive activities attract appropriate consequences, but the manner the recent matter involving some Northern children was treated, showed that justice was not served; that its handling left much to be desired. The worst part was that  some people chose to portray the government in bad light.

    Closely connected

    to this is the extent of banditry and how it is ravaging the North with these products of Almajiri being ready recruits.

    There are unconfirmed reports  that the security forces sometimes find it difficult to decimate the miscreants because some of the leaders in the North easily read religious undertone to the activities of bandits and terrorists, thus offering them protection.  They wrongly view their decimation as an attempt to reduce the number of their religious adherents; the reason one hears of ‘400 bandits killed, or 500 arrested’ with the supposedly arrested ones soon finding their ways back into the bush. .

    The second issue to address is our educational curriculum. I attended a certificate course in teaching at level 5 here some years ago. The training opened my eyes to a lot of defects in our educational curriculum development. I haven’t finished the course before I realised that our own curriculum cannot be said to be fit for purpose. There’s proliferation of Universities all over the country without any thought about what  result oriented activities would follow. We politicise everything in Nigeria. Our leaders send their children out to receive qualitative education while they provide quantitative education for Nigerian youths. Governments build hospitals that are nothing more than ‘mere consulting clinics’ but jet out to treat the smallest of ailments.

    One can go on and on, but I rest my case”.

  • What exactly does Obasanjo want? Good governance? Sure not because he never gave it

    What exactly does Obasanjo want? Good governance? Sure not because he never gave it

    Getting back to my mother, I still remember your beating her up continually when we were kids. What kids can forget that kind of violence against their mother?

    Your maltreatment of women is legendary. Many of your women have come out to denounce you in public but since your madness is also part of the madness of the society, it is the women that are usually ignored and mistreated” – Professor Iyabo Obasanjo, PhD, psychoanalysing her father in an unsparing, no holdsbarred letter dated December 16, 2013.

    The above should enable Nigerians know who is advising them because Yorubas say you should first look at what somebody offering to make a Christmas dress for you is wearing.

    After describing the 2023 Presidential election in which his candidate, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, through whom he may have intended to resurrect his Third Term Project, of yore, was beaten blue and black to the third place as a travesty, former President Olusegun Obasanjo,

    went on to say much more at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum in Yale University, U.S.A where he recently presented a paper on  ‘Leadership failure and state capture in Nigeria’.

    He sermonised:

    “As a matter of urgency, we must ensure the INEC Chairperson and their staff are thoroughly vetted. The vetting exercise should produce dispassionate, non-partisan actors with impeccable reputations.

    “Nigeria must ensure the appointment of new credible INEC leadership at the federal, state, local government, and municipal – city, town, and village – levels, with short tenures to prevent undesirable political influence and corruption, and to re-establish trust in the electoral system by its citizens, further adding that “The INEC Chairperson must not only be absolutely above board but must also be transparently independent and incorruptible.”

    Pray! When did Chief Obasanjo know all these: after he graduated from the Open University?

    Or, good as they are, how exactly did his 2007 hatchetman, the one and only Maurice Mmaduakolam

    Iwu, of blessed memory, square up to these his prescriptions?

    Knowing full well that the ol’ man did not act on his own, how come the man whose cross the unfortunate Professor carried to his grace, could now turn round to lay strictures against INEC?

    Indeed, how on earth should that proceed from the mouth of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a man who was the ‘Capo di tutti’ of election manipulation in the annals of Nigerian history, a mere 17 years after? He must really think he could so soon sell Nigerian a hagiography.

    But not so soon because as Google never forgets, History doesn’t, either.

    So to his face today, we would count the former president’ss nine toes.

    In the first place, consequent upon the rigging that characterised gubernatorial elections in the 2007 election cycle which was superintended over by his government, nearly all the elections in the Southwest, including Edo state, were voided by the Supreme Court.

    The election, his last in government, was scored very  low by everybody, its Chief beneficiary, the highly regarded President Umar Yar’ Adua inclusive, just as the U. S National Democratic Institute whose leader, Madeleine Albrigh, then U. S Secretary of State, herself an observer at the  selfsame election,  described it as the  worst election ever, anywhere in the whole world, Myanmar inclusive.

    It is important that Chief Obasanjo be freshly reminded of that shameful   election just in case it has escaped his very busy mind.

    I shall do this using the instrumentality of just one of my many articles on the luckiest ever Nigerian Public Servant.

    Titled ‘A Grandstanding Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’, and dated 8 April, 2018, it reads as follows:

    The letter below (that letter would not be included in this recall) from Chief Deji Fasuan MON, is the leitmotif for this article at a  time Obasanjo’s one-upmanship has again reached a crescendo.

    The two-term Nigerian Head of state has been grandstanding  of late describing, in lurid terms, the sitting President Muhammadu Buhari,  just as he has done to everybody who ever held that position other than himself.

    Many have tried to posit that it does not lie in Obasanjo’s place to  continuously trash a sitting President since he has access and has, indeed, been justifiably described as the greatest pilgrim to Buhari’s Aso Villa until recently. 

    But that is when you hear some busy bodies asking you to mind the message and not the messenger.

    Of course, I do not subscribe to such sentiments since my position is that deeds, rather than talk, which is cheap, should be the determining factor, being far more indicative of who the preacher really is.

    In justification of my views, I present below a sample of Obasanjo’s performance in office using election rigging, which was archetypical of everything he did in office.

    A decent, late President Yar Adua self-confessed the rigging of his own election, the reason I chose it for this analysis. 

    I present below, a report of that election as captured by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

     The Nigerian General Election, 2007.

     Reactions

    “Ikimi and Amusu,  representatives of the AC and the ANPP respectively, at the INEC Collation Centre in Abuja, denounced the results announced by the INEC Chairman. According to Ikimi, “In states like Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Akwa Ibom etc, we know that the elections did not start even as late as 5 pm.

    The results collated showed that over 80 percent of the votes being counted were in favour of the PDP and they are totally flawed. In most of the states, only the Resident Electoral Commissioners and PDP Agents signed results. We have been here since yesterday (Sunday) to observe this collation and we have collated only  eleven states when the INEC Chairman rushed down to declare the results  declaring Umoru Yar’Adua the winner.” Continued Ikimi: “The result sheets we viewed so far were not signed by any of our agents at the state level. They were only signed by Resident Electoral Commissioners and  PDP agents.”

    Also, Admiral Lanre Amusu who represented the ANPP concurred with what Chief Ikimi said. “Only results from13 states, and they were collated and signed by only the Resident Electoral Commissioners and the PDP Agents. Our agents did not sign these results.”

    The national Chairman of the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA), Chief Olu Falae, with leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Action Congress (AC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), National Advance Party (NAP) and the National Democratic Party (NDP), has called for the setting up of an Interim National Government to conduct credible elections in the country. Chief Falae suggested that the country needed an ING to guard against the emergence of the military.

    The Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation claimed that  INEC deliberately left 70 percent of the ballot papers in a warehouse in Johannesburg, South Africa. We heard that the contractors could have freighted the entire 200-ton consignment into the country three days before the election (Thursday) but INEC instructed them to bring only 30 percent of the ballot papers”.

    Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, said that the West should deny entry visas to INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu for his “complicity in the fraudulent elections.” He said he has heard of the financial prudence and moral uprightness of Yar’Adua. “I wish he [Yar’Adua] would carry his decency even further by publicly renouncing this poisoned chalice to say: ‘I’m not a receiver of stolen goods”,

    Observers

    Groups monitoring the Presidential election gave it a dismal assessment. Chief European Union observer, Max van den Berg, reported that the handling of the polls had “fallen far short” of basic international standards, and that “the process cannot be considered to be credible”, citing “poor election organisation, lack of transparency, significant evidence of fraud, voter disenfranchisement, violence and bias”. They described the election as “the worst they had ever seen anywhere in the world”, with “rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation”.

    One group of observers said that at one polling station in Yenagoa, in the oil-rich south, where 500 people were registered to vote, more than 2,000 votes were recorded.

    Bishop Felix Alaba Job, Head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, cited massive fraud and disorganisation, including result sheets being passed around to politicians who simply filled in figures as they chose, while bribed returning electoral officers looked away”.

    International Reaction

    A spokesman for the United States Department of State said it was “deeply troubled” by the election, calling them “flawed”. 

    “Nigeria has once again failed to rise to the occasion…. Size isn’t enough…. It is a failed giant,” said prominent Ghanaian economist Nii Moi Thompson who compared the elections to those of Liberia in 2005, saying, “Even Liberia, which is coming out of war, had more credible elections than Nigeria”.

    “There is the saying: ‘How goes Nigeria, so goes the rest of Africa’. To have this widespread abuse of the democratic initiative certainly doesn’t do Africa any good,” said Scott Baker, a professor at Champlain College in the US city of Burlington, Vermont. “How can Nigeria sit at the meetings of the African Union African Peer Review Mechanism or ECOWAS and talk about other peoples’ elections?” he asked.

    In conclusion, would President Obasanjo still be still be seing himself as a messiah, as he loves to do, in any decent country driven by democratic ethos?

    It’s time for an Election Malpractices Tribunal in Nigeria which, as happened in Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew, will have no respect for persons, no matter the office.

    Read Also: Obasanjo and his ‘failing state’ theory

    In Loving & Cherished Memory Of Ambassador Olufemi Ani.

    Not again!.

    Dipo this evening informed me of Bro Femi’s passing.

    It was an absolutely devastating news because I had a long, forever cherished relationship with the Ambassador, dating all the way back to 1958.

    That year he hosted me during my interview at Government College, Ibadan to which only 4 of us, Ekiti, were invited in Ondo state.

    I became very close to him in later life, and on one occasion recruited a Secretary for him.

    My wife and I used to joke that if the Ambassador bought something of N5000 from you, he would rather give you a cheque than pay cash, as he did a few times buying wine in our T.Club.

    A very handsome, ever sartorially turned out gentleman, Bro Femi was great to be with.

    He will be sorely missed but glory to God, he lived a highly impactful life which spanned not just diplomacy, his forte, but also such diverse areas as business, international relations, sports and community service.

    We thank God that he is survived by high achieving children who will keep the flag flying.

    May the Almighty God grant him eternal rest and comfort the family he left behind, our natal town, Are – Ekiti, which will be deeply impacted at the loss of another distinguished son, so soon after (that of) Professor Femi Olaofe inclusive.

    Adieu.

  • Now that they say another terror group Lakurawa has birthed in the North

    Now that they say another terror group Lakurawa has birthed in the North

    In the wake of the arrival of a new terror group, Lakurawa, in Northern Nigeria, a group which, funny enough, was said to have been initially invited by local leaders in the Gudu and Tangaza LGAs of Sokoto State in 2017 to address the then growing threat by bandits from Zamfara State, I think it is time Northern leadership, in all its ramification, wake up to help  the region get out of its literal strangulation.

    It is time they both in urgency, and unanimity, as they recently did tearing down the tax bill before the National Assembly,  find solutions to the myriad of insecurity and other social challenges aggressively convulsing that part of the country, rather than always misapplying – to put it nicely – funds put in care of some of them to get their out of school children into schools – reminds one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s titanic effort in that respect – or to fight terrorism, as it has just been alleged that millions of dollars appropriated for fighting Boko Haram was diverted into Luxury Real Estate in the United States by a former National Security Adviser.

    The PPLAAF report which contained that allegation  stated that tens of millions allegedly misappropriated by the Adviser ended up funding luxury properties in Los Angeles, California, and McLean, Virginia, a wealthy suburb of Washington, DC.

    This is not the first time the columnist is pleading with them to help the region  because, as my good friend, Tony Sani, the highly perceptive former ACF Publicity Secretary, never ceases to say, “Nigeria is a big river being fed by tributaries, and when one tributary is poisoned(as the North appears), the whole river gets contaminated.

    I urge my readers to come with me as I reproduce below, my article of 21 April , 2019 titled “The North: Militancy, Banditry And The Rest Of Us” which was published on these pages.

    Read Also; Inflation still biting hard

    Happy reading.

    “It is crunch time, indeed. This harvest of despair is the product of many years of servile bondage, repression, suppression, deliberate pauperization of the people and placing their destinies and lives at impossible angles. My late father used to warn the Northern elite. This is morning yet; the Somalization of the far North is fast becoming a reality” – Dr C.C. Nwagwu

    Completely unknown to me that this newspaper would be running an interview it had with Anthony N. Z Sani, my friend, and Secretary- General of the Arewa Consultative Forum in its edition of Sunday, 14 April 2019 in which, incidentally, my own article:’It is Crunch Time’ appeared, I had written to him a few days earlier as follows: “Tony what’s the problem with the North? Please talk to me at some length. Why has the North become a killing field? Is it that human lives mean nothing up there? I am at a complete loss; so am raising these questions in my column this Sunday.

    Without a doubt feudalism, I guess, is at the root of Northern problems. For far too long education was denied to the children of the poor. Of course, you know that more than religion, illiteracy is the problem and it is what invigorates Boko Haram. But who and who is funding BH and are our security agencies so helpless they can’t find them out all this while? Has it occurred to Northern leaders the region is becoming a massive drain on the country?What is the exact cause of the problems in Zamfara? However, the million-dollar question really is: how do we exit these North- inspired problems? Please feel free to share this within your circle so we can generate well distilled reactions”.

    Never known to disappoint, Tony wrote back as follows: “Good morning and thank you for the concern. I think there is a swarm of locust in the land and we do not seem to know the pests. Hence our inability to device the appropriate pesticides. I am happy some of you down there are also concerned. This is because Nigeria is a big river being fed by tributaries, and when one tributary is poisoned, the whole river is contaminated.

    When in 2011 there was post election problems in the North and hoodlums burnt down some traditional rulers’ houses, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi called, and warned about the consequences of destroying the only platform of effective control in the North. To him, it is not time to dismiss the vestiges of indirect rule. That is, he saw wisdom in indirect rule by the British. Then there was the problem of education whose slow pace of development in the North cannot be blamed entirely on the leadership all of who could not possibly be depicted as feckless. I told him to consider the time Western education started in the South and when it reached the North which is almost a century. There is also the factor of unbridled growth in population. I mentioned “unbridled growth in population” because, the rate is not commensurate with growth of the economy, hence the poverty that comes with unemployment. For instance, the population of Nigeria and Britain were at par at our independence but today Britain is 62M while Nigeria is about 180M. What rate of GDP can cope with such increase? Without a doubt, the challenges are far more overwhelming than  the capacity of the leaders, considering the difference between the level of education at independence and today, in the North. The difference is much.

    Somehow, I believe in what Lee Kuan Yew (of Singapore) once said that: order, justice, liberty, common decency, and prosperity are never the natural order of things, but are attained through ceaseless hard work by the leaders, and the led,  and  that there is no country or society that is perfect. What matters when challenges arise is consciously directed effort to overcome them. I believe that President Buhari has what it takes to overcome our challenges.

    Terrorism is universal, and unfolding; and Nigeria has predisposing factors that encourage it. The sponsors of BH may not even be Nigerians. During one of our interactions with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on the underlying factors of terrorism or insecurity, he traced BH to thugs used by Gov Mala Kachalla and Senator Modu Sheriff both of Borno state. The same thing with Niger- Delta militants and in Benue State where Gana, who was the leader of political thugs, turned out the  Frankenstein monster.

    Whether he is right or not, one cannot say. When the minister of finance (read Defence) accused traditional rulers in Zamfara of complicity in banditry, I had my doubts. But sad if it is true. Then it might be borne out of fear which one can liken to the Palestinian saga. When asked why they did not expose Hamas members, the Palestinians said doing so would have made Hamas kill them at night, and as they feared to expose them, the Israelis bombed them making them losers, either way.

    In the same way, our soldiers killed many village heads in the North East during the President Goodluck Jonathan administration because of the suspicion that they shielded members of the sects which they did out of fear. When PMB came in, and overwhelmed the sects, the same villagers started to give information to the security people. In the same way, some traditional rulers in Zamfara may shield the bandits out of fear for their and their peoples safety”.

    Sani and I went on, and on, in a few exchanges but let’s cut to the chase and properly distil his full-throated piece in which he identified: lack of education, uncontrolled and unbridled population growth and poor governance. It is sad that poor governance continues till today as exemplified in the 10M plus out of school children who wander about as Almajiris, whilst the governors go about in their free flowing babarigas, at best buying them okadas after which they are trucked down, in their hundreds, to every nook and cranny of the South, as Okada riders maiming themselves as well as their patrons. I am sure the governors see this as their own Youth Empowerment while they go on acquiring more wives.

    May Allah forgive them.

    So, what has been the response of the Northern elite to the debilitating factors so perspicaciously identified by the Secretary – General of the ‘numero uno’ Northern socio- political organisation which, for once, this past week, weighed in on the increasing Somalization of the region when it called on President Buhari to stop the killings? Northern political elite read politics into it when, before, and even after independence, Chief Obafemi Awolowo drew their attention to what trouble the North was breeding when it chose, deliberately, not to educate the children of the poor, but looked, askance, at both the Western and Eastern regions putting massive investment into education. Today village chiefs, even some minor Emirs, are being chased out of their palaces. And as Dr Nwagwu wrote in the intro this, unfortunately, is only the beginning as Somali, Sudan and Syria have comprehensively shown in other parts of the world.

    With regards to over population, what was the North’s take away when during the 2015 election campaigns Mrs Patience Jonathan, poked fun at the North on account of its many children, most of who are thrown into the streets from very early ages? Which one single governor made a move towards checking his state’s unproductive population growth? Or which cleric lent a hand in their tough preaching’s which (then) governor El Rufai had to warn against? The North has many, if not most, of our highly regarded monarchs. What has any of them done to mitigate the factors that continue to undermine the North  economically and socially,

    but with political privileges forever constant?

    Isn’t political, even traditional power, for a purpose? How exactly has the Northern traditional and religious elite – helped to positively impact governance at both state or local government levels,  and even at the  national level,  how are they helping a seemingly overwhelmed President Buhari?

    6Or wasn’t it only this past week we heard that Zamfara monarchs are helping bandits with intelligence? Have they taken out time to reflect on a future when the North begins to reap the whirlwind? And do they, or the North in general, ever reflect on what a drain it has become on the national treasury, even as nothing points to a remediation of current realities at a time when the country’s entire security apparatchik lies smack in the hands of Northerners who are supposed to know, and be quite familiar, with their own terrain?

    Finally, like Sani wrote, the Northern elite must reflect on the fact that: Nigeria is a big river being fed by tributaries, and when one tributary is poisoned, the whole river is contaminated”. They should, therefore, turn a new leaf, help out, and be their brothers’ keepers, as the holy books enjoin us all.

    It is time the North decides to help itself. As everybody knows, the North is more than capable of salvaging itself and, ipso facto, help this beleaguered country.

    Du Allah.

  • Nigeria: Three issues to ponder

    Nigeria: Three issues to ponder

    In this piece I shall be drawing my readers’  attention to three critical issues which Nigerians must, henceforth, begin to seriously interrogate as development, in all its ramification, continues to kiss our country bye.

    Granted that none of them concerns the current astronomical cost of living,  they are yet things we can  continue to neglect to our eternal regret, if not ultimate peril since they are that fundamental.

    Writing about how the near total parental neglect of children’s education, especially in Northern Nigeria, is the sole precursor of the recent presentation, in court for trial, of some extremely destructive minors in his column in The Nation of Thursday, 7 November, 2024, under the title ‘Underage rioters and presidential pardon’,

    Emeritus Professor Jide Osuntokun wrote, inter alia:’Why were underage children demonstrating in the first place? Where were their parents? Government should follow their release with knowing what kind of homes they come from. It could be they don’t even have homes they can call their own,  and are perhaps street urchins, as we find in many of our towns today.

    The time has come for our various governments, particularly states, and local governments, to develop policies to face this problem before they get out of hand. This lumpen proletariat are the stuff of violence and revolution in the future”.

    “Why were these children not in school where they should be learning a skill or acquiring knowledge that may be useful to them in the future? Since when has it become the responsibility of children to engage in political action in this country? Who were the people goading them to go to the streets? What kind of legitimate punishment can a society inflict on these errant children without appearing inhuman and harsh”? “We have remand homes for these kinds of children but are they available all over the country?

    My church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, has these kinds of homes in some parts of the country. Government should join such missions to make the system effective and more encompassing.  Is the fact that so many children were involved in these demonstrations not a manifestation of failure of parents and government to have institutions that will prepare our country for the future”?

    “What can we do, going forward in terms of overhauling our educational system so that our children can develop a sense of civic responsibility?”

    Of all these questions, all of which are eloquently germane to the issue Professor Osuntokun was writing about, only the very last one, namely, “what can we do, going forward in terms of overhauling our educational system so that our children can develop a sense of civic responsibility?”, is relevant to the purpose of this piece  and the relevance goes, far and beyond minors, encapsulating our entire educational system which renders even the most educated of us almost completely useless to the needs of our country.

    My job here is simple as all I have to do, is press into service, some individuals, (and a medium) who have, in the past interrogated the issues and left behind for humanity, some seminal thoughts.

    We begin with the highly regarded Professor Sophie Oluwole of the Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos who had a good look at many of the demons tearing at Nigeria’s throat, setting us back in every direction.

    She counselled as follows:”I have BSc, I have Master’s, I have PhD…, I’m a professor. What can you do to make yourself better ?

    This is the bane of the problems we are facing in Nigeria today.We must change the Nigerian Educational Curriculum to include Degrees in Vocational Trades.

    Similar to this is that, there should be a law regulating the number of children a family can have and it should not be more than a maximum  of 2 or 3.

    It is our failure to control our inner minds that makes us bring religion/culture into having many wives and children, especially persons who can not reasonably feed themselves, and are thereby,  causing all manner of nuisance all over Nigeria.

    Governments should also stop increasing retirement age from  60/65 years when  young graduates are roaming the Streets, looking for jobs.

    Read Also: Nigerians in diaspora remits over $20b annually –NIDOE boss

    25 years is enough for a government worker.

    Let our children/youths breathe.

    They are the future of this country. Failure to obey, and continuing with these self destructive practices will automatically doom Nigeria”.

    In ‘Nigeria: What Manner of Education’, the writer of a recently trending WhatsApp post looked at how beggarly Nigeria has become in respect of literally every aspect of life, but particularly  in matters of infrastructural development and wrote as follows:

    “Russia to build rail tracks for Nigeria.

    “China to build roads and bridges for Nigeria”.

    “India to import rolling stock to Nigeria and help Nigeria with its ICT development”.

    “Germany to build new power plants in Nigeria, US to provide vaccines to Nigeria”.

    “UNDP to provide grants to Nigerian farmers and improved seedlings”.

    “Bill and Melinda Foundation to provide Malaria vaccines to Nigeria”.

    “Turkey to build garment factory in Nigeria”.

    “England to build new oil terminal in the Niger Delta region to help Nigeria mine its oil…etc”.

    He then asks:

    What is the relevance of our education in this country if we cannot use it to solve even the minutest of our problems as we see daily in the meaningless   harangues in the National Assembly, and elsewhere?

    Or when last did any law of beneficit to Nigerians proceed from the National Assembly to the President’s table for his assent?

    All we hear, and see, is the National Assembly mutilating budgets  to make room for some useless, hardly ever executed, constituency projects.

    Finally, happily a timely warning has come but not from any of our several Universities of Agriculture, ministry of Agriculture, or any regulatory organ of government, but from a conscientious citizen who is very knowledgeable in his trade, and believes he owes it a duty to positively impact Nigeria in his own little way.

    I write here of Tunde Fabunmi, Founder/CEO of Bee Conservation  Project, who has counselled as follows regarding the kind of fertilisers being imported into Nigeria.

    In his mail to me titled ‘Can You Help Tell The Federal Government?’, he wrote:

    “What is the message for the Federal Government of Nigeria? The message for the Federal Government is about the kind of fertilisers being imported for Nigerian farmers. What is wrong with fertilizers being used in Nigeria? It contains high level of calcium. What is the health implications of calcium – rich fertilizers? They are: 1. The intake of magnesium is  lowered in our foods due to  calcium – rich fertilisers being used by our farmers;

    2. High calcium fertilizers increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases ( stroke, heart attack & hypertension), all of which were not as prevalent in Nigeria before the craze for chemical fertilizers as input in farming overtook us;

    3. High calcium fertilizers increase the risks of diabetes, a rarity in Nigeria when farming was purely organic.

    Low magnesium, and high calcium not only trigger diabetes, they also make diabetics prone to fatty liver, heart disease, atherosclerosis and retinopathy- which is a major cause of blindness for diabetics.

    In a study in the United States, the death rate due to diabetes was four times higher in areas with low magnesium in water level compared to areas with high level of magnesium in the water.

    4. High calcium fertilizers increase cases of suicide which was rare in Nigeria in the past, compared to what it is today.

    Several studies have shown that the lower the magnesium in both soil and water,  the higher the rate of suicides.

    5. High calcium fertilizers increase the risk of Parkinson disease which is increasing in Nigeria today.

    Incidentally, the countries from which we import these fertilisers are now aggressively campaigning against their use in their own countries, instead clamouring for organic farming.

    The question can then be asked: does farming really need fertilisers?

    Organic – dry leaves and cow dung –  Yes.

    But Chemical fertilisers – capital No.

    The agenda of those selling chemical  fertilisers to Africa is sinister.

    Quite unlike our forefathers, many younger Nigerians now contend with low quality health status and a shorter life span.

    At the moment, there are about 300 children currently battling with cancer in a hospital in Lagos. The question can then be legitimately asked:

    do we have  universities, properly so called,  or  mere POS in Nigeria?

    I ask this question because integral to the presence of  universities in any country is the need to conduct researches that will guide positive human development in all its ramification.

    Nigerians must now clamour for a ban on the importation of chemical fertilisers which not only  drains our foreign reserve but causes an epidemic of chronic diseases.

  • The call for military takeover – an indictment of the Nigerian political class

    The call for military takeover – an indictment of the Nigerian political class

    I am today yielding the column to Professor Steve Egbo, a Lecturer cum Resource Person at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies(NILDS), Abuja.

    A very profilic younger friend of mine who regular readers of the column must by now be quite familiar with as I have severally quoted him, contributing seminal interventions on many issues interrogated on these pages.

    He will be discussing the various ramifications of the recent, very unfortunate call for the return of the military by some people who were, no doubt, inspired to do so by politicians who failed  dismally at the 2023 Presidential election, alongside their idle hangers-on. They also recruited, in some parts of the country, some urchins who were instructed to be shouting  the name of President Putin, the same autocratic Russian  president, who was to come and help facilitate their intended illegality.

    Happy reading.

    Last week, the Guardian newspaper published an editorial comment in which it marvelled at seeing some Nigerians publicly calling for a military take over of power in the country. Before the publication, the social media had been awash with such calls, together with  rallies in some cities at which the military was being nudged on to so act.

    Also, during the #EndBadGovernance# protest of August, 2024, people were seen on streets, begging the military to intervene in the political process.

    Read Also: Concerns as silent rage of hazardous pollution threatens air quality

    In her book, ‘Times to Remember,’ Rose Kennedy, President JFK’s mother, stated that the most significant thing about living long is that things you never expected to happen, begin to happen. She wrote that book at age 83.

    Before now it would have been  unbelievable that any Nigerian, especially those above  age 40

    could, so openly and brazenly, be expressing a preference for military intervention in the governance of the country. Unfortunately, we have now all seen that happen, landing Nigeria at a torridly dangerous crossroad.

    It was Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a man of great intellect and wisdom, who famously stated that the worst civil government was infinitely better than the best military  government. Were Chief Awolowo  to stop by  in Nigeria today, and see the mess politicians have made of it, his reaction could only be left to the  imagination.

    So, how did we get here?

    After the blood and toil that Nigerians expended, ridding the country of the likes of Sani Abacha, Ibrahim Babangida, and their fellow conquistadors, it is benumbing, seeing Nigerians calling for their return.

    Not unexpectedly, government spokespersons have, grandiloquently come out to condemn the calls. The military high command has equally condemned, and rejected the cowardly invitation, while assuring Nigerians of the military’s commitment and loyalty to both the Nigerian constitution and the incumbent government.

    Comforting as this assurance is, it failed to answer the big question which is why despite the crudity, the human rights violations, abuses and sundry atrocities associated with military rule, anybody could wish to see soldiers back in power?

    This is the big question confronting us.

    Nigerians born in 1999, the very year Nigerians saw the back of the military,  are now in their mid- 20s, while those born under Babangida and Abacha would be in their late 20s and early, to mid 30s.

    They know little of what military rule truly was, and they had probably been too preoccupied, or plain uninterested, in reading any of the several books that chronicled what chaos that period represents in the  history of our country.

    But is this unconscionable call  just about the ignorance of our youth population, or the consuming hatred of those who are still smarting, and unable, to come to terms with the outcome of the last presidential election? Or are we, indeed, dealing with something much more fundamental and encompassing?

    Nigeria’s first republic lasted a mere five years followed by thirteen years of military rule. The second republic lasted another four years and the military was again in power for the next 16 years.

    With blood and tears, Nigerians fought relentlessly, clawing and biting, to send the soldiers back where they belong. Far too many Nigerians lost their lives in those better forgotten years of impunity and indescribable corruption, during which citizens were incarcerated and tortured, at will, in military dungeons. Nigerians who had the means simply fled into exile.

    In 1999, the military made its final retreat and handed over power to  politicians.

    And Nigerians thought that a new era was here at last.  Unfortunately, from that date till now, the country has steadily declined in spite of all the promises of life more  abundant.

    Winston Churchill it was who once said that “democracy may not be the best form of government, but insisted that “none is better”.

    Democracy has  characteristics that confer on it greater appeal than any other form of government. These include mass participation through the representative process, periodic elections, rule of law and adherence to the due process among others. Countries  that respect these principles have seen democracy work, and the citizens have reaped the dividends.

    But not Nigeria which has, unfortunately, moved in the opposite direction.

    Our elected representatives, when not beating up their fellow citizens, represent only themselves.  You would think they are drunk on something when you see them roughening up less privileged Nigerians.

    What we call elections are mere periodic selections, just as our constitution regulates nothing. Instead of the rule of law, what we have is the law of the rulers. It is what trumps everything.

    In government, due process is what the man at the top calls it – service rules be damned.

    What an unfortunate, thoroughly beleaguered country? The military was no good, nor are the politicians any better.

    The first republic was fashioned after the British parliamentary system. It failed.  We, thereafter, opted for the American presidential system and they have all but bastardised it. Indeed, its failure  has been more catastrophic as we merely changed the vehicle, but not the drivers.

    As Shakespeare once lamented, “the fault lies, not in our stars, but in ourselves…”. So, the fault is not in the system but squarely in the managers of the system – that is, the political class.

    They have deliberately and blatantly refused to adhere to the rules of the game.

    Nigerian politicians have heaped, and continue to heap, so much abuse on the process that the country has literally grounded to a halt. Impunity, recklessness, lawlessness, insensitivity, systemic abuse, gross manipulations, deliberate sabotage and several other forms of negativities are now arrayed against the country by those very persons, and institutions expected to make it liveable.

    It is all so sad.

    Every socio-political system has a responsibility to the citizenry. Nigerian political leaders, and office holders, have flatly neglected this responsibility to the Nigerian people. Public office has become  personalised and commercialised. They are bought and sold. And only those who can afford it can attain it. And in this commercial spirit and environment, no organ of government is spared the rot.

    People no longer aspire to any office in order to serve the public good. They buy office in order to serve personal interests and the interests of their families and friends.

    And while the buying and selling continue,  Nigerians are completely forgotten, left  only with the short end of the stick.

    Nigerian youths are the greatest victim. With poor, or no education, lack of employment opportunities and the absence of avenues to express their youthful energies, they find outlets in negative pastimes – drugs, alcohol, prostitution, yahoo yahoo etc.

    Poverty has become so socialised only those in the corridors of power do not experience it. Government policies, programs, preferences, values and priorities, even the words of their mouths, show serious disconnect from the realities on ground, as in when a senator bemoaned his ‘miniscule’ N14M monthly takehome. For them, it matters nothing if millions go to bed hungry every night.

    Nigerian leaders bastardised democracy so much so, that citizens, neglected, frustrated, left angry and hungry, now look up to the military as a refuge from democracy.

    Left at the mercy of bandits, kidnappers, murderers, extortionists and ritualists, life in Nigeria has relapsed into the dreadful state of nature which Thomas Hobbes denounced as   “solitary, poor, nasty, brutal and short”.

    Nigerians now sell everything they have to buy a one way ticket, for the entire family, to escape to foreign lands. Many migrate to menial jobs overseas, and endure whatever humiliation  they are subjected to, rather than stay in a country that offers them nothing.

    1999 was Nigeria’s second independence – a glorious dawn and a new beginning after  the military had been fought to a standstill, in much the same way as the nationalists fought the colonialists. Nigerians welcomed democracy with high hopes and great expectations.

    But all hope has now come to nothing, completely evaporated, the reason some people were, unreflectingly,  calling for the military to come back.

    But returning to one’s vomit is not an act of courage. Neither is it a prospect anyone contemplates with pride. It is an act of surrender to a condition that burdens the soul  and breaks the human spirit. Nigerians are broken. That Nigerians are asking for the return of the military is the greatest atrocity Nigerian politicians, and militricians, have perpetrated against the Nigerian people  and they must be held squarely responsible.

    Will the military heed their call? Absolutely not. They dare not because neither Nigeria, nor Nigerians fared better under them too.The military’s place is in the barracks. Period.

    But I have no doubt that when the story of this era in the annals of Nigerian history is told, historians will record that in the hands of predatory Nigerian rulers, democracy died.

  • Monday Sit-at-home: where are Southeast leaders?

    Monday Sit-at-home: where are Southeast leaders?

    The so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ are not unknown as they claim to be but are yet to be exposed because they are being pampered by landlords and other stakeholders…Criminals kidnapping people for ransom, killings and destruction are not agitating, but engaging in lucrative criminality. We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity” – Governor Charles Soludo.

    “Their modus operandi involves sporadic shooting, abduction, maiming, arson, jailbreak and extrajudicial killing. Their targets include private citizens, business owners, politicians, government institutions and business organisations. Their activities are carried out in rural and urban areas; in daytime or at night. The aftereffect of such attacks is the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages. Attacks by unknown gunmen. These attacks also have economic implications as the means of livelihood of several Nigerians have been destroyed, while foreign investors have been scared away from such volatile areas”

    – Victor Chukwugekwu Ebonine, Iyase Osariyekemwen Ambrose in ‘Unknown Gunmen and Insecurity in Nigeria’.

    Writ large on my mind when a few weeks ago I flew a kite regarding a Marshall Plan for Northern Nigeria, was a situation where the deployment of huge funds could be used to banish the crawling poverty in that part of the country by socially, and infrastructurally restructuring the region – get millions of out of school children heading to schools, tens of thousands of the citizens who are waiting to be  recruited by all manner of criminal gang’s, getting gainfully employed just as several agro- allied industries are established to process its more than abundant agricultural products. I had

     equally believed that seeing these possibilities, at least one or two, if nòt many more,  of the hundreds of Northernern billionaires would not only react to the article, but actually initiate the process of getting the Plan in place.

    But for where?

    I had forgotten  that many had become so stinkingly rich through government patronage, while those of them who are actually engaged in productive activities make their millions of dollars, on a daily basis, in Southern Nigeria where things are far less restive, and that their concern for the deleterious consequences of  the large scale insecurity convulsing their homeland does not go beyond  palliatives.

    Unfortunately, the reaction of Southeastern leaders – Obis, politicians, its world acclaimed Igbo intellectual, merchants of all manner of enterprise – has also shown that Northern leaders – Emirs, Generals, especially retired, super rich businessmen and the equally world acclaimed Northern intellectual, forever holding conferences all the year round, on all manner of subjects – do not have a monopoly of treating their homeland with benign neglect.

    I did my humble little in ‘It is Time For a Marshall Plan For Northern Nigeria’ (The Nation. 15 September, 2024) to prick the conscience of the average Northerner, to see what hell on earth their people are going through, being daily subjected to Boko Haram activities, banditry, sporadic shootings, abduction, maiming, arson as well as sundry extrajudicial killings.

    Unfortunately, not a whimper was heard in reaction.

    Today, I shall be turning my gaze Southwards to the Southeast where, for years, things have not been much better than we see in both the Northeast and the Northwest.

    Below, for instance, is a typical iteration of the Southeastern condition as reported by several newspapers this past week:

    “The Defence Headquarters on Thursday said Troops of Operation UDO KA at FOB Orsu in a sting operation apprehended a terrorist leader identified as Mr Pius Iguh after troops conducted an offensive operation in Orsu and Obubra LGAS of Imo and Cross River States respectively. Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba revealed while addressing media at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja that Troops also made contact with IPOB/ESN terrorists in Arochukwu LGA of Abia State.

    General Buba said the arrested Mr Pius Iguh is an IPOB terrorist founding father responsible for Orsu general area in Imo State. He also added that Troops conducted a sting operation and arrested IPOB/ESN terrorists in Ehime Mbano, Oguta and Orsu LGAs of Imo State as well as Udenu LGA of Enugu State respectively. In a separate development, troops at FOB Amaruku conducted a raid on an IPOB commander. The raid was successful and led to the arrest of the Commander identified as Emmanuel Onwugu in Mbano LGA of Abia State. In another development, troops and security forces conducted a combined sting operation. General Buba said the operation led to the arrest of a notorious cult leader named Ifeanyi Rock and 10 of his combatants in Arochukwu LGA of Abia StateOverall, troops of Operation UDO KA neutralized 24 terrorists, arrested 12 violent extremists and rescued one kidnapped hostage. Troops recovered 10 AK47 rifles, 15 pump action guns, 153 rounds of 7.62mm amongst other items.The ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations of the armed forces has dealt significant blows to terrorist capabilities. Troops have denied these terrorists from accomplishing their strategic objectives…”

    Now which of these ought to mean nothing to the average Igbo, especially its leaders: that after the slaughter of millions of Igbo youth in the unfortunate civil war, countless numbers of its very vibrant youth are, again now putting themselves to this needless death? Or the fact that not only are businesses unnecessarily disrupted weekly by the activities of these young men and, to quote the researchers we already referenced at some length: “the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages, a humanitarian crisis with an increase in the number of internally displaced persons, student abductions and wanton killings?”

    Why then has the Igbo leadership not moved, like one man, into some meaningful effort to stanch this horrible daily experience of their people?

    Read Also: Suspected sit-at-home enforcers kill two in Aba 

    I do not come into these issues, North and South, because I am some good Samaritan; rather it is simply because I can see what peace, Pan – Nigeria, can do for this currently thoroughly beleagured giant of Africa.

    I also do not intend to patronise Igbos when I say they are rigorous, brilliant, courageous and, above all, highly resourceful. But is all that only as far as money making is concerned, and nothing else matters?

    What is stopping Igbo intellectuals from acting if their politicians are playing timid, fearing they might lose their highly profitable sinecures?

    I once raised this question with a younger Igbo friend of mine, a professor.  He wisely told me that given what is going on in the Southeast, with hardly any respect for human life, it is only reasonable to wait and watch. Of course, I agree with him  because it is common knowledge that many Igbos, visiting from abroad, do not go beyond Lagos, or  have an occasional visit to Abuja, before going back. And if they must go home at all, they would have to pay protection money to whichever criminal gang controls their area.

    Were my advice sought on this matter, I would go straight to the words of Anambra state governor, Professor Charles Soludo when he says:“these are criminals kidnapping people for ransom. Killings and destruction, he emphasised, are not agitating but engaging in LUCRATIVE CRIMINALITY.

    We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity”.

    Now I am going to a very risky territory because I know how Igbos idolise their ‘young kings’ who, they actually believe, are the messiahs who will take them out of Nigeria, back to Israel since they claim they are Jews; these very boys oiling criminally in Igbo land. To touch them, as I am now doing, is to open oneself to a barrage of infantile name calling on social media. But what would that profit them? Besides, I’ve  been on this column since 2006 – do the arithmetic – and name calling has not succeeded in removing a strand of hair from my head.

    But what does the bible say about a people whose kings ( rulers/leaders) are children?

    Says Ecclesiastes 10:16-17-“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!”.

    These ‘young Igbo messiahs’, well aware of the Igbo psyche, always emerge, posing as freedom fighters but governor Soludo knows them.

    First was Ralph Uwazuruike who, thanks to a WhatsApp post which trended some months ago, we now know is a  multi- millionaire. From nowhere emerged the charismatic prince, Nnamdi Kanu, ever flamboyant, and blessed with the gift of the garb, who soon seduced every Igbo so much Igbo National Assembly members, fearful of losing election, literally worship him. One of them even signed up for him as surety, never believing the strong man could ever vote with his feet. The Nigerian government had to, creatively, bring him back home (rendition) from Kenya; an action already adjudged illegal by a court of law. And now the latest, and perhaps the most dangerous of them all – who singlehandedly, successfully shamed Nigeria by exposing her diplomatic impotence to the entire world.

    Simon Ekpa, ensconced in Finland now for years, instigating all manner of criminalities all over the Southeast, and only last week inviting the Nigerian Army to a contest of  weaponry, “if the Nigerian Army could dare”, has made mince meat of any influence the ‘giant of Africa’ may claim to possess as Nigeria has failed dismally to get Finland to move against him.

    But how do their activities advance the cause of the Igbo or how does the massive insecurity benefit Igbo businesses or life in general?

    If the answers to the questions above are all in negative territory, as they are, then when would Igbo leaders, its opinion leaders, their politicians, if they can be trusted, all get together, and say enough is enough?

    While it is true that the Igbo republican nature makes them independent minded, it is an undeniable fact that these Unknown Gun Men who Soludo told us are known, but not yet arrested, as they sure would, do have parents. Since Soludo also described what they  are doing as lucrative criminality, I make bold to say that if Igbo leaders are not being influenced by consideration for the huge fortune their ‘young kings’ are making, especially from Diasporan Igbo, then the time is now for the entire race to get together and say enough, because as things stand, Igbos are literally destroying themselves.

    With iron clad determination, they should be able to put an end to all these killings and economic strangulation in their homeland because, unlike in the North where the bandits, Boko Haram elements and the criminal Fulani herders tormenting the region are multinational, those ravaging Igboland are Igbos. Igboland can make do with a modicum of peace.

    I wish them all they wish themselves.

    “The so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ are not unknown as they claimed to be, but are yet to be exposed because they are being pampered by landlords and other stakeholders…Criminals kidnapping people for ransom, killings and destruction are not agitating, but engaging in lucrative criminality. We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity” – Governor Charles Soludo.

    “Their modus operandi involves sporadic shooting, abduction, maiming, arson, jailbreak and extrajudicial killing. Their targets include private citizens, business owners, politicians, government institutions and business organisations. Their activities are carried out in rural and urban areas; in daytime or at night. The aftereffect of such attacks is the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages. Attacks by unknown gunmen have led to a humanitarian crisis with an increase in the number of internally displaced persons, student abductions and wanton killings (SPD, 2021, p. 1). These attacks also have economic implications as the means of livelihood of several Nigerians have been destroyed, while foreign investors have been scared away from such volatile areas”

    Victor Chukwugekwu Ebonine, Iyase Osariyekemwen Ambros and in Unknown Gunmen and Insecurity in Nigeria.

    Writ large on my mind when a few weeks ago I flew a kite regarding a Marshall Plan for Northern Nigeria, was a situation where the deployment of huge funds could be used to banish the crawling poverty in that part of the country by socially and infrastructurally restructuring the region – get millions of out of school children heading to schools, tens of thousands of the citizens waiting to be eagerly recruited by all manner of criminal gang’s  getting gainfully employed as many agro- allied midlevel industries are established to process its more than abundant agricultural products.

    I equally believed that seeing these possibilities, at least one or two, if nòt many more,  of the hundreds of billionaires in that part of the country would not only react to the article but actually initiate the process of getting the Plan in place.

    But for where?

    I had forgotten  that many had become so stinkingly rich through government while those of them who are actually engaged in productive activities make their millions of dollars, on a daily basis, in Southern Nigeria where things are far less restive, and that their concern for the deleterious consequences of  the large scale insecurity convulsing their homeland does not go beyond sending palliatives.

    Unfortunately, the reaction of Southeastern leaders – Obis, politicians, its world acclaimed Igbo intellectual, merchants of all manner of enterprise – has shown, conclusively, that Northern leaders – Emirs, Generals, especially retired, super rich businessmen and the equally world acclaimed Northern intellectual, forever holding conferences, all the year round, on all manner of subjects – do not have a monopoly of treating their homeland with benign neglect.

    I did my humble little in ‘It is Time For a Marshall Plan For Northern Nigeria’ (The Nation. 15 September, 2024) to prick the conscience of the average Northerner, to see what hell on earth their people are going through, being daily subjected to Boko Haram activities, banditry, sporadic shootings, abduction, maiming, arson as well as sundry extrajudicial killings.

    Unfortunately, not a whimper was heard in reaction.

    Today, I shall be turning my gaze Southwards to the Southeast where, for years, things have not been better than we see in both the Northeast and the Northwest.

    Below is a typical iteration of the Southeastern condition as reported by several newspapers this past week:

    “The Defence Headquarters on Thursday said Troops of Operation UDO KA at FOB Orsu in a sting operation apprehended a terrorist leader identified as Mr Pius Iguh after troops conducted an offensive operation in Orsu and Obubra LGAS of Imo and Cross River States respectively. Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba revealed while addressing media at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja that Troops also made contact with IPOB/ESN terrorists in Arochukwu LGA of Abia State.

    General Buba said the arrested Mr Pius Iguh is an IPOB terrorist founding father responsible for Orsu general area in Imo State. He also added that Troops conducted a sting operation and arrested IPOB/ESN terrorists in Ehime Mbano, Oguta and Orsu LGAs of Imo State as well as Udenu LGA of Enugu State respectively. In a separate development, troops at FOB Amaruku conducted a raid on an IPOB commander. The raid was successful and led to the arrest of the Commander identified as Emmanuel Onwugu in Mbano LGA of Abia State. In another development, troops and security forces conducted a combined sting operation. General Buba said the operation led to the arrest of a notorious cult leader named Ifeanyi Rock and 10 of his combatants in Arochukwu LGA of Abia StateOverall, troops of Operation UDO KA neutralized 24 terrorists, arrested 12 violent extremists and rescued one kidnapped hostage. Troops recovered 10 AK47 rifles, 15 pump action guns, 153 rounds of 7.62mm amongst other items.The ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations of the armed forces has dealt significant blows to terrorist capabilities. Troops have denied these terrorists from accomplishing their strategic objectives…”

    Now which of these ought to mean nothing to the average Igbo, especially its leaders: that after the slaughter of millions of Igbo youth in the unfortunate civil war, countless numbers of its very vibrant youth aarenow putting themselves to this needless death? Or the fact that not only are businesses unnecessarily disrupted weekly by the activities of these young men and, to quote the researchers we already referenced at some length: “the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages, a humanitarian crisis with an increase in the number of internally displaced persons, student abductions and wanton killings?”

    Why then has the Igbo leadership not moved, like one man, into some meaningful effort to stanch this horrible daily experience of their people? I do not come into these issues, North and South, because I am some good Samaritan, rather it is simply because I can see what peace, Pan – Nigeria, can do for this currently thoroughly beleagured giant of Africa.

    I also do not intend to patronise Igbos when I say are rigorous, brilliant, courageous and, above all, highly resourceful.  But is all that only as far as money makinggis concerned, and nothing else matters?

    What is stopping637 Igbo intellectuals from acting if their politicians are playing timid, fearing they might lose their highly profitable sinecures?

    I once raised this very question with a younger Igbo friend of mine, a professor.  He wisely told me that given what is going on in the Southeast, with hardly any respect for human life, it is only reasonable to wait and watch. Of course, I agree with him  because it is common knowledge that many Igbos, visiting from abroad, do not go beyond Lagos, or  have an occasional visit to Abuja before going back. And if they must get home at all, they would have to pay protection money to whichever criminal gang controls their area.

    Were my advice sought on this matter, I would go straight to the words of Anambra state governor, Professor Charles Soludo when he says that: “these are criminals kidnapping people for ransom. Killings and destruction, he emphasised, are not agitating but engaging in LUCRATIVE CRIMINALITY. We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity”.

    Now I am going to a very risky territory because I know Igbos idolise their ‘young kings’ who they actually believe are the messiahs who will take them out of Nigeria back to Israel since they claim they are Jews; these very boys oiling criminally in Igbo land. To touch them, as am now doing, is to open oneself to a barrage on infantile name calling on social media. But what would that profit them. Besides, I’ve  been on this column since 2006 – do the arithmetic, and name calling has not succeeded in removing a strand of hair from my head.

    But what does the bible say about a people whose kings ( rulers/leaders) are children?

    Says Ecclesiastes 10:16-17-“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!”.

    These young Igbo messiahs, well aware of the Igbo psyche, always emerge posing as freedom fighters but Soludo knows them.

    First was Ralph Uwazuruike who, thanks to a WhatsApp post which trended some months ago, is now a  multi- millionaire. From nowhere emerged the charismatic prince, Nnamdi Kanu, ever flamboyant, and blessed with the gift of the garb, who soon seduced every Igbo so much Igbo National Assembly members, fearful of losing election, literally worship him. One of them even signed up for him as surety, never believing the strong man could ever vote with his feet. The Nigerian government had to, creatively, bring him back home (rendition) from Kenya; an action already adjudged illegal by a court of law. And now the latest, and perhaps the most dangerous of them all – who singlehandedly, successfully shamed Nigeria by exposing her diplomatic impotence to the entire world.

    Simon Ekpa, ensconced in Finland now for years, instigating all manner of criminalities all over the Southeast, and only last week inviting the Nigerian Army to a contest of  weaponry, “if the Nigerian Army could dare”, has made mince meat of any influence the ‘giant of Africa’ may claim to possess as Nigeria has failed dismally to get Finland to move against him.

    But how does that advance the cause of the Igbos or how does the massive insecurity benefit Igbo businesses or life in general?

    If all the answers are in negative territory, as they are, then when would Igbo leaders, its opinion leaders, their politicians, if they can be trusted, all get together, and say enough is enough?

    While it is true that the Igbo republican nature makes them independent minded, it is an undeniable fact that these Unknown Gun Men who Soludo told us are known, but not yet arrested, as they sure would, do have parents. Since Soludo also described what these criminals are doing as lucrative criminality, I make bold to say that if Igbo leaders are not being influenced by consideration for the huge fortune their ‘young kings’ are making, especially from Diasporan Igbo, then the time is now for the entire race to get together and say enough because as things stand, Igbos are literally destroying themselves.

    With iron clad determination, they should be able to put an end to all these killings and economic strangulation in their homeland because, unlike Northern Nigeria where the bandits, Boko Haram elements and the criminal Fulani herders tormenting the region are multinational, those ravaging Igboland are their own Igbos. Igboland can make do with a modicum of peace.

    I wish them all they wish themselves.

  • New Anambra Local Government Law: Desperate attempt to fiddle with state’s LG funds

    New Anambra Local Government Law: Desperate attempt to fiddle with state’s LG funds

    Master of obfuscation, governor Charles Soludo of Anambra state last week, on the occasion of  his signing the state’s new Local Government Law which would compel all  local governments in the state to remit a portion of their federal allocations into a consolidated account to be controlled by the state government

    declared, without a shred of evidence or, as if Anambra is the only state in the country, that:”Absolute autonomy for local governments would mean that each LG would have its own primary education policy, employ its own teachers, and pay them whatever it can afford and whenever it can do so”.

    “This, he said, would be a recipe for humongous chaos, not only for the administration of local government and pensions but more so in the primary education and primary health sectors.”

    The question that readily comes to mind is whether the governor ever sought the advice of his state’s Attorney – General and Commissioner for justice before deciding to act as an Appellate court  over a decision of the Supreme Court.

    Or shouldn’t it be a no brainer for the governor to know that he cannot, by himself, set aside a high court decision, talk less, that of the Supreme court?

    Read Also; NIS addresses visa-on-arrival application process

    I was, however,  not in the least surprised when he came up fulminating against the Supreme Court judgment in the lawsuit filed by the Attorney – General on behalf of the Federal Government, seeking full autonomy, and direct funding, to all the 774 local government councils in the country.

    This is because as far back as in my article: ‘It is Good That States Have Counter- sued on Local Government Autonomy’ of 16 June, 2024, I have quoted the governor as saying that:”Some people, including some APC members, are clamouring for local government autonomy which will take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is”. Continuing, he had said “that there is no federal system in the world where you have three federal units. In the U.S where we copied democracy from, their counties don’t go to  Washington  to collect money directly. Each state must have the power to design the kind of local government system it wants. That is what is called true federalism”. That was at Platform Nigeria 24, a programme organised by Covenant Nation to mark the 2024 Democracy Day.

    I quoted governor Soludo then in support of my position that Local Government Autonomy is antithetical to Federalism. I went further to support  my belief with copious quotes from Nigeria’s former Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, the inimitable,  Uncle Bola Ige, and concluded by saying that he, as both a lawyer and politician,  would be most distraught and disappointed by the action of the otherwise cerebral Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on account of what I described (then) as a professional misstep”.

    The question can be asked now as to why I am diametrically opposed to governor Soludo’s position on Local government autonomy, especially financial autonomy?

    The first reason is that I can see very clearly how he, an intellectual giant, has cleverly subborned his Lilliputian House of Assembly members, to coyly undo the decision of the Apex court so he could continue to have his hands in the Local Governments’ cookie jar, the very practice the Supreme Court decision had sought to remove.

    That this is the intention of  Anambra’s new law is in congruence with the general belief that Local Governments in the country remain largely  undeveloped because, to put it nicely, most state governors assume near total control of the allocations to their state’s local governments, only giving them whatever fraction of the allocation suits them.

    This tampering with local government funds is usually fraudulently done by state governors.

    For instance, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, September 30, 2024, arraigned former governor of Taraba State,

    Darius Dickson Ishaku and the former permanent secretary, Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, Bello Yero, for fraud before Justice S. C Oriji of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, in respect of Local Government funds claiming that they committed a criminal breach of trust in respect of the LG’s property when they dishonestly diverted the funds to their own use; an offence contrary to Section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria 2007, and punishable under the same Section”.

    This thus confirms the allegation that some state governors do pilfer Local Government funds.

    I cannot, in light of the above,  any longer, and in good conscience, support governor Soludo in his trenchant claim:”that granting full autonomy to Nigeria’s 774 local government areas will lead to “humongous chaos”.

    Anambra’s new Local Government Administration Law reminds me of  what, good old days, we used to colloquially describe as “stealing by style”.

    How, for instance, is this new law in accord with the Apex court’s decision which, in  granting LGs’ full autonomy, specifically declared that:

    (a) All the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves;

    (b)that it is the local government that should receive and manage funds meant for local government.

    (c)that the state government has no power or control to keep the local government council’s money or funds.

    (d)grant an order of injunction restraining the states, by themselves, agents or privies from spending local government allocation; and declare:

    (e)that no state government should be paid ANY money meant for the local government, while ordering “an immediate compliance with  the judgement”.

    Granted, as governor Soludo has not stopped saying, right  on roof tops, that the Supreme Court did not invalidate Section 7 of the constitution which empowers state governments to enact laws for the administration of local government areas as a way of underscoring the importance of state oversight, can’t he see the illogic, and the illegality, of uprooting a Supreme Court decision, no matter how cleverly he tried to do it?

    Also in fashioning out Laws as to how Anambra state spends its appropriated funds, did the House of Assembly, in any manner, or shape, insinuate a role for the Federal Government which it knows Anambra state is independent of? Therefore, if the hidden agenda is not for the state to  control part of LG funds, why did the House of Assembly not restrict the way and manner of expenditure of Local government funds to strictly within organs of the Local Government; factoring in, separately, how they are to meet their responsibilities on Joint state/LG projects?

    For me, all this is a ruse by a state governor, aimed at controlling a substantial part of LG funds through the back door, and the attempt must be fought to a standstill.

    Indeed, allocations to local government Areas in the state must be stopped immediately, and for as long as the Local governments believe themselves beholden to the illegal law. Anambra state can then head to the Supreme court to try prove the legality of its new law.

    Court

  • BAO-mania: How Oyebanji reset Ekiti politics(in celebration of governor’s 2nd anniversary)

    BAO-mania: How Oyebanji reset Ekiti politics(in celebration of governor’s 2nd anniversary)

    Fourteen years ago on 31 October, 2010 shortly after the Apeal Court, Ilorin, ruled in the Fayemi Vs. Oni election case, and I was reflecting on the way forward for my Ekiti state, I wrote as follows on these pages in the article ‘Ekiti: Beyond Politics’:

    “As William Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”

    You would think  the Bard of Avon had Ekiti in mind when he penned those memorable words as they fit us so uncannily, looking like a clarion call to every Ekiti, young and old, to take our destiny in our hands and blow off  the shibboleths that have stuck to us like  ‘amutorunwa spots’.

    The time is not now to ask how we got here. Rather, it is a time for total reconciliation: first, with our God, and then amongst ourselves, Ekitis. 

    The appropriate questions for us now are: what is the way forward? How do we rediscover, hold , cherish and nourish again, those pristine and immaculate Ekiti cultural traits which have served generations of Ekiti so splendidly? How do we get back that bonhomie, that espirit de corps that total strangers saw in us and thought we were all born of one mother?

    How do we begin to re- discover those economic traits that galvanized and enabled the poorest of our fathers to see his children and wards through college; how do we begin to seriously contend with the multi-faceted problems that today confront all of us, Ekitis, but especially our youth, educated  thousands of them, who are paving the streets of Abuja, Lagos and Ado-Ekiti in search of non-existent jobs? How do we take Ekiti back into the main economic artery of our nation? How do we get our respectability and honour back?

    Where do we go from here?”

    These are the questions, though  unknown to him, I imagine that governor Biodun  Oyebanji have, these  two years, been  answering with aplomb; and in ways that have greatly endeared him to Ekitis across board.

    It is my intention in this article, to examine what factors assisted him in breaking what can be described as ‘the circle of crises’, not only in our politics, but in everything pertaining to the state; a crises so all -encompassing we had a one- day governor, recorded, unlike any other Nigerian state, an inchoate impeachment and  witnessed series of politically motivated assassinations. 

    I shall try to unearth how the governor  birthed a  paradigm shift from Ekiti’s atavistic politics of many decades.

    Come 16 October, 2024 Ekiti state will go agog for governor Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji whose nickname, BAO, and the way the people rhapsodise it,  reminds one of the old ACB advert: ‘ACB, e dey for every corner’.

    BAO is everywhere on the lips of literally every Ekiti, man or woman, young and old – thanks to an Omoluabi governor who, within two years, has done everythig to re- set the state’s highly divisive politics; an achievement so compelling two of his predecessors, from other political parties, namely, Governors Ayo Fayose (PDP) and Segun Oni (SDP)  have already endorsed him ahead of the state’s next governorship election which is not due until 2026 – a complete rarity in a state where politics used to be played on the basis of ‘bo ba o pa, bo ba, o bu lese’ – that is, extremely dangerous politics.

    As if in confirmation of the above, and to show that notice is being taken of this ‘BAO phenomenon’, even beyond Ekiti state, the management of Marketing Edge, Nigeria’s leading Marketing and Advertising Magazine,      foreshadowed this article when, this past week, it named him winner of its 2024 ‘Most Outstanding Governor of the Year in the Inclusive Leadership and Grassroots Development category.

    According to the magazine, “Gov. Oyebanji was unanimously voted winner of the coveted category after painstakingly evaluating his approach to governance, development and leadership, alongside other Nigerian governors. The award, the magazine further noted, was in recognition, and celebration, of his not only impacting the people of the state with laudable projects and policies, but for also using his exalted position to redefine governance by promoting peace, and uniting leaders, in the state irrespective of their political and social background”.

    Within two years, governor Oyebanji has  demonstrated the truism in Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s categorical assertion that the ‘raison detre’ of government, qua government, is the welfare and happiness of the governed.

    His two years has reduced bile, and enemity, from within the people, especially from amongst politicians who, before now saw politics only as a slugfest, thus ensuring that Ekiti was always in the news for the wrong reasons.

    Truth be told, politics in the state had not always been that terrible or dangerous.

    While that is not to suggest that there were no fierce inter, and intra – party contestations,  especially during the UPN vs NPN days, politics in Ekiti was a lot more friendly as elders, the likes of Chiefs Babatola, Akerele, Akomolafe, Dr N.F Aina, Professor Banji Akintoye, Chief S.K Babalola and other leaders of the UPN, and their counterparts in the NPN, ensured that.

    Things, however, changed rapidly for the worse from around 2003 for two main reasons.

    Read Also: Oyebanji: Ongoing oddity?

    One of these can loosely be described as ‘sibling rivalry’, while the other, and much more virulent one, was the intrusion of busybodies from outside the state, spearheaded by none other than then President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose  one consuming ambition was to undo, and supplant, Awo’s esteemed position in Yoruba land. This past week, former Oyo state governor, Oba rashidi  Ladoja, whose illegal impeachment the former President engineered, gave a no holds- barred interview on President Obasanjo’s involvement in Oyo state politics; a near replica of what he did in Ekiti.

    Regarding what I describe loosely as sibling rivalry, it was a question of a good intention turned awry.

    E -11, a socio – cultural group from which a slew of Ekiti state governors subsequently emerged, was an

    ensemble of highly regarded, and well educated young Ekiti professionals who had started out intending to positively impact the state’s politics, and economic development. That was until there was a collision of ambitions.  The group thus floundered very badly, and its members headed into the two major political parties, and ferociously fought one another. E.11 was a group which, had the members remained ‘ad idem’, would have taken Ekiti to great heights.

    It was a missed opportunity.

    That fluid situation was what, together with external intervention, dominated the brigandage that engulfed the State House of Assembly when the two parties had equal number of members.

    President Obasanjo’s role in Ekiti politics, for instance, was completely deleterious.Together with Bode George, a PDP chieftain, and OBJ’s armour bearer, when they were not rubbishing PDP’s primary election results, picking the 3rd placed contestant as candidate instead of the first, they were scheming governor Fayose’s impeachment which would later turn out inchoate. All these eventuated in massive instability in the state. There were, for instance, cases of politicians within the same political party who, for years, did not exchange greetings. I should know because I intervened in one or two of such. Things were that bad.

    The above was  the state of affairs in Ekiti politics during the very contentious primaries that saw Oyebanji emerge as APC candidate for the 2022 election – contentious only because of the fallacious story which claimed that the incumbent governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was determined to impose him on the other candidates.

    I remember interviewing Dr Fayemi on this and subsequently reported my findings on this column.

    What then are the factors that informed governor Oyebanji’s decision to attempt a paradigm shift to the debilitating situation?

    Oyebanji has been a long-term observer/participant in the affairs of the state, and there can be no doubt, he must have many times belly- ached over the state of permanent crisis, and its negative consequences on the state’s economic development.

    He had probably wished he could be part of the solution.

    With his, probably, unanticipated election  as  governor, he had probably thanked God for the opportunity to try bring peace to this very unique state amongst Nigerian states. For those who may not know, Ekiti state is the only mono- lingual state in this country. We speak the same language just as we eat the same iyan (pounded yam)- LOL.

    What personal factors then played a role in achieving his ambition.

    I’d like to summise that the following must have helped:

    UPBRINGING

    The highly perceptive Yoruba have this saying: ile lati nko eso rode’,meaning that good upbringing underpins good manners.

    Therefore,

    without a scintilla of doubt, governor Oyebanji has  a solid home training to thank for all he has been able to do.

    This is sure to be an  upbringing rooted in very strict discipline,  respect, not just for elders, but for everybody he may interact with, just as loving your neighbour which Jesus Christ taught us, must have been a key part of it. I also feel certain that his loving parents must  have schooled him in the essence of contentment.

    How do I know these?

    Governor Oyebanji demonstrates them in his interactions with people, no matter how lowly they are, in spite of his high office. I have not, for instance, once seen him angry, or raise his voice and I didn’t know him yesterday.

    Concerning contentment, my WhatsApp chat with him on 30 June, 2021, regarding why I think he should contest the state’s 2022 governorship election, and his reply, about which I once reported on these pages, show not only an inner contentment, but his implicit confidence in God as his Guardian. Not in him any hint of unrestrained ambition

    Work Experience,  Knowledge of Ekiti State & Tutelage Under Two  Governors.

    As a young man, Chief Deji Fasuan had tapped Oyebanji as Secretary to the Committee For The Creation of Ekiti state. That was, however, only the beginning of his always being in vantage positions to know the state probably far more than his peers.

    In the course of his service in the state, he was privileged to have worked with two of the most consequential Ekiti state governors, namely, governors Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi.

    He also served in the following positions:

    As special Assistant  (Parliamentary affairs) to governor  Adebayo to whom he later served as Chief of staff.

    He was Commisnerfor integration and inter-governmental affairs;  Head,  office of Transformation, Strategy and Delivery (OTSD); Commissioner for Budget, and Economic Planning; and, later as Secretary to the State Government (SSG).

    Apart from  the leadership and managerial lqualities these positions require, to be effective, he must have many times seen the governors he worked with seriously agonise over the terrible state of Ekiti politics,  just as he must have seen how all these were not helping  development in a state that has offered him so much.

    He must have decided, therefore,  to attempt to use his lofty office to change the direction of politics in the state.

    The one other  factor which must have heavily facilitated his efforts must be the critical role being played by his wife, the First Lady, a humble, respectful and solid University Professor off whom,

    he must, have bounced everything  to get the most honest advice, at every stage of the business at hand.   

    Her greatest contribution towards achieving the goal has, however, been how, energetically, she has ensured the empowerment of women, widows and the youth in the state, an agenda which has ensured the success of the governor’s programmes and acceptance across the length and breath of the state.

    Thanks to her efforts, governor Oyebanji’s government enjoys the pride of place as about Nigeria’s most gender friendly administration. This is because the government has been relentless in “investing in the well-being of women, advocating for better policies and programes that target widows, youths and women, with the goal of fostering economic independence and reducing poverty level across the state”, as  Her Excellency Olayemi Oyebanji, a University Professor, once perspicaciously put it”, adding that in “Ekiti state today, we have a Deputy Governor who is a woman, just as the SSG, the Head of Service, the Accountant General and Auditor General are women. There are six women in the House of Assembly, 33 councilors who are women, 15  Vice Chairmen of LGs and   seven  that are chairmen”.

    The governor’s modus operandi was simple. He started off by jettisoning partisan politics and extended a genuine hand of friendship to all his predecessors from other political parties. He showed them a level of respect that was absent even between  governors who were of the same party. For instance, governor Ayo Fayose once told me that he values nothing more than respect, and that he fought his successor, governor Oni, the way he did because he extended none to him. Opposition party members also came to accept and respect governor Oyebanji when they saw how he was treating their leaders with respect and decorum.

    By acknowledging, and respecting past governors from other parties, governor Oyebanji killed more than two birds with one stone as the decibel of state wide political antagonism became significantly reduced; meaning that  the simple act of respecting his predecessors, acted  like a magnet in enhancing his acceptance by the teeming members of other political parties as well as the citizenry in general.

    The governor also turned attention to the welfare of the people, ensuring that nobody is left behind. He made sure that  workers, as well as the long – suffering pensioners, women and the youth are all appropriately factored into governance.

    Concluding, there can be no better reset of politics, anywhere, at all, than these because once the people are happy, fringe politicians, capable of fouling the air, would have nobody to recruit into their asinine mala fide.

    As the governor begins his 3rd year in office this week, I wish him well, and pray that the good lord will keep him and his family and continue to give him the enablement to  positively impact our lives in ekiti state.