The Nation Newspaper

Category: Nuances

  • The Wike-Fubara rodomontade

    The Wike-Fubara rodomontade

    AS 2024 ends, it’s expected that the immediate past Governor of Rivers State who is the incumbent Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, and the current Governor of the State, Siminalayi Fubara, who is Wike’s erstwhile most-favoured mentee, would be doing political stocktaking. It’s believed that money, or its euphemism, “party structure”, is what has put asunder the marriage made in heaven. And the schism is marked by ‘rodomontade’ which, alternatively, is called ‘braggadocio’, ‘grandstanding’, or simply, defined by Oxford Reference as “boastful or inflated talk or behaviour”.

    There was a golden opportunity to resolve the feud between the erstwhile political soulmates in December 2023. At the time, some stakeholders from Rivers State entreated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene between the contending parties. And he did, and some seemingly consensual terms of settlement were established at an Abuja meeting with the President on 18 December, 2023. However, once the parties in conflict returned to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, some other stakeholders began to stridently condemn the terms of agreement as being skewed in favour of Wike. They even said that the terms of agreement were unconstitutional.

    So, despite his avowal of the value of the President’s intervention, Governor Fubara did not implement the most critical terms in any substantial way. This led to the hardening of the positions of the feuding parties. One of the terms of the President’s attempt to broker peace was that the Governor should re-present the state’s N800 billion 2024 budget to the full Rivers State House of Assembly to repair the oddity of having presented it to just 4 members (loyal to the Governor) out of the 32-member House (including the 25 members loyal to Wike). Incidentally, this same scorned recommendation was one of the rulings given in the 10 October, 2024 judgement of the Court of Appeal on the Rivers State problem.

    Right from the beginning of the crisis, both political gladiators had been pressing rodomontade amply into service. In response to the demands of traditional and community leaders who paid him a solidarity visit on 16 July, 2024, Fubara boasted: “We appreciate what God has used people to also do in our lives, but we are not going to rule this state on our knees. We will go standing this way I am standing. … So, I will continue to stand tall.” Furthermore, to show that he was not dispirited by Wike’s boasts and threats that the Governor would not be allowed to have a second term, Fubara said lightheartedly to the leaders: “I’ve gone through your requests. If we take all these requests, it will be my first four years [full programme].” He was implying, here, that he had gone past threats and boasts, and was already anticipating assuredly his second term election victory.

    In relation to Fubara’s posturing, in a 13 September, 2024 interview with Channels Television’s Seun Okinbaloye, Wike boasted: “I will never support Fubara in my political life again. … It’s not about me. People laboured to put up a structure. People laboured where you [Fubara] … wouldn’t have even taken the fiftieth position [among candidates for the governorship nomination]. … I sacrificed to talk to the Ogonis. I sacrificed to talk to several people: ‘Let us go this way. Let’s see how things are.’ He turned it that I’m asking for 20 billion, 100 billion. … He turned up lies against me. … In every political family, you run election under people, and … we must have to keep our political structure.”

    Moreover, Fubara was at his boastful best, in the early hours of Friday, 4 October, 2024, when he visited the headquarters of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) in Port Harcourt and commented on the court order for the police not to provide security cover for the then-forthcoming 5 October, 2024 local government elections in the state. He said: “We came here this morning when we heard that the, according to what they call themselves, Nigerian police, are coming to take over the premises of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission and I have to come myself to find out why would such a thing happen. From what I heard, that one … is it … DC (Operation) brought them here to withdraw the policemen that are already here protecting this place so that new officers will take over the place, but I have to say this on a very strong note. We have seen enough nonsense from this institution.”

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    Fubara continued: “Everybody is aware of the Court judgement. … Did the ruling specify anywhere that election should not hold? He said don’t give voters register. What are we doing with it? Okay, police, don’t provide security. … Is this the same thing as blocking the election? … I don’t know the relationship between Inspector General of Police and one person who claims he has so much power in the state. … We don’t need your security. We will provide our own security. …Go away with your security, but this election must hold. If you like, whatever it is you want to do, do it. The election result will be declared. People will be sworn in.”

    Fubara castigated the IGP further: “You’re not ashamed of yourself. You call yourself Inspector-General of Police. … If I go back and I hear any problem, I will come back here. This is my property and you don’t have any power whatsoever to bar me from entering it.  Just try it, then that part of your history as a wicked and fraudulent police will include shooting Fubara. … Well, let me say it to all Rivers indigenes, everyone residing in Rivers State, election will hold. Anything that wants to happen, let it happen.”

    On 5 October, 2024, the election held without police support as Fubara had boasted that it will, but certain things did happen after, contrary to his boast. After the elections, probably to stop the allegation that the security forces had been compromised, the police authorities ordered the withdrawal of the police personnel who had, very much earlier, been deployed to the different local government headquarters to protect the facilities. Almost instantly, the headquarters began to be subjected to arson attack, in turn.

    This unsettled the Governor, and it was a more conciliatory Fubara who received the new Commissioner of Police to the state on 25 October, 2024. He said: “I can say that we are receiving you with open hands. That is the truth. We don’t have any option. … The worst of police is better than the best of criminals. So, we need to embrace you whichever way, because you are our friend. … Today, I want us to start a new relationship. Please, bygone is bygone. Please, let’s work as one… You’re the CP, you’re representing the IG. You can pass on my message to him. Please pass my goodwill message to him that we thank him for standing firm in believing in the cause of democracy; that we will continue to support him in whichever way we can to make him succeed.”

    As both Wike and Fubara, along with their respective supporters, continue to engage in euphoric rodomontade, they continue to record personal and communal losses. Especially noteworthy in this regard is the following Fubara expression of regret, in an interview with Channels Television’s Seun Okinbaloye, on 7 October, 2024, resulting from the arson following the local government elections of 5 October, 2024: “With all the problem we’re having, the wonderful jobs I’m doing in this state are not seen, because of the crisis.  … [T]he whole thing everybody is hearing is one crisis or another. … I need peace in the state. I don’t feel happy hearing every time Rivers State is in the news for bad reasons. It’s not good.”

    All the same, in response to the allegation that he had been weak in his handling of the security situation in Rivers State, Fubara boasted, in the same interview: “I can assure you I have all it takes. I have the guts. You’ve seen it in a few things. I can do a lot. But in all, I also try to control what I do, so that if I’m asked anywhere why is this action taken, I can defend my action.”

    Moreover, in a YouTube video of the opening of the 2024/2025 Rivers State Legal Year and Re-Dedication Service at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul’s, Anglican Communion, in Port Harcourt on 17 October, 2024, Fubara said: “I’m here today, to assure you that even if [it will be with] my last breath, I will defend the justice in this state. I know the journey has not been easy, because of all the troubles. The good works we are doing, the enemy is overshadowing it with bad news. … About this time last year, the story was different, but today, we are smiling, because we have what, even if you put all of them together, they don’t have. We have God, and when God is in your business, no matter what level of gang up, there is no way you can be defeated.”

    Incidentally, the Wike-Fubara crisis has extended beyond Rivers State. For example, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, Governor Bala Muhammed of Bauchi State, declared as follows: “The PDP Governors’ Forum 2024 fourth meeting held here in Jalingo, Taraba State, on Friday, August 23rd, 2024. … The PDP Governors’ Forum restates its stand and firm support for the Rivers State Governor … allowing His Excellency Governor Siminalayi Fubara to take his rightful leadership position of the party in the state.” In response, on 31 August, 2024, Wike said: “Let me assure all of you, not while we live will anybody take away the structure of the PDP from us. But let me tell people, I hear some governors who say they will take over the structure and give back to somebody. I pity those governors, because I will put fire in their states. When God has given you peace, you say you don’t want peace – anything you see, you take.”

    Creative boasts may generate applause, but also have the overriding tendency to aggravate crisis. So, while Wike and Fubara were savouring their rodomontades, and their adulations by their respective cheerleaders, the gyre of the Rivers State crisis was widening and the wound was festering. It is therefore incumbent on the mutually-abused elders of the Wike-Fubara divide to give all it takes to stem the tide of the retrogressive developments in the state, recognising that, as a Yoruba proverb puts it, “Ìjà ò d’olà; orúko níí so’ni.” (‘Quarrelling doesn’t bring fortune; it merely gives bad names.’)

    Wishing you a prosperous New Year 2025!

  • Kemi Badenoch and Yoruba values

    Kemi Badenoch and Yoruba values

    Born in the United Kingdom to Nigerian parents who belong to the Yoruba ethnic group of Southwestern Nigeria, the leader of the Conservative Party, 44-year-old Kemi Badenoch was brought to Nigeria as a child and returned to the UK at the age of sixteen. Kemi is a controversial figure on account of her devil-may-care speech style. For example, in response to Vice-President Kashim Shettima’s admonition to her to stop denigrating Nigeria, she remarked: “I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity (Yoruba). That’s what I really am. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, Boko Haram area, where the Islamism is. Those were our ethnic enemies and yet you end up being lumped in with those people.”

    Moreover, in the U.K., she was asked by a British interviewer: “Do you trust the British police?” To this question, she replied: “I do. I do. But um, you know, remember my experience with the police in Nigeria was very negative. And coming to the U.K., my first experience with the police was very positive. You know, the police in Nigeria would rob us. … I remember the police stole my brother’s shoes and his watch. … It’s a very poor country, so people do all sorts of things. And giving people a gun is just a license to intimidate. But that is not the bar we should use for the British Police. … When I was burgled, for example, the police were there. They were helpful before they eventually caught the person. This was in 2004, that was 20 years ago.”

    A Yoruba idiom would characterise Kemi Badenoch’s off-course response as follows: “À n wírú, ó n wírù.” (We’re talking about irú – locust beans, but she’s talking about – ìrù – tails.) In other words, she violates the conversational principle which requires that an answer be sufficiently relevant to its question. Moreover, Kemi’s stereotypically-rosy picture of British police does not accord with British media reports and official government records. For instance, on 10 July, 2020 Sky News reported as follows: “More than 200 serving police officers in the UK have convictions for criminal offences including assault, burglary, drug possession and animal cruelty.”

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    Furthermore, Sky News reported on 4 March, 2024: “Dozens of police officers across the UK have been convicted of crimes including rape, sexual assault and sex offences against children in the three years since the murder of Sarah Everard, new data shows. Officers have also been convicted of assault, possession of indecent images, harassment and controlling and coercive behaviour since 3 March 2021 – the day Ms Everard was abducted, a Sky News investigation has found. … Ms Everard was walking home in Clapham, south London, when she was abducted, raped and murdered by then-serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.”

    In addition, on 17 June, 2024, The Standard reported: “More than 90 car thefts a day went unsolved in London last year, data revealed on Monday. Since the last election in December 2019, a staggering 106,742 motor vehicles have been stolen in the capital without a culprit being caught, according to statistics released by the Home Office. Some 85 per cent of car theft cases reported to the Metropolitan Police between 2020 and 2023 were closed without a suspect ever being identified. Last year just 480 car thefts were solved by the force – just over one per cent of all cases.” These cases of unresolved motor vehicle thefts and the other police crimes outlined above belie Kemi Badenoch’s rosy picture of British police. This proves that as a Yoruba proverb says, “Oníkálukú, abitielára.” (‘To each their own.’). It also validates the Yoruba proverb, “Ìpàkó-onípàkó làá rí; eni eléni ní rí teni.” (‘It’s the back of the head of others that we see, and it’s others who see the back of our own heads.’)

    With respect to corruption, Independent (UK), on 11 December, 2024, reported on Badenoch: “During her unsuccessful bid to lead the Tory party in 2022 she said: ‘I grew up in Nigeria and I saw first-hand what happens when politicians are in it for themselves, when they use public money as their private piggy banks, when they promise the earth and pollute not just the air but the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others.’” As with ignoring British police crimes, these views illustrate the Yoruba idiom “Arítenimòówí, a f”àpáàdì rìgìdì bo tiè m’ólè.” (‘One who sees the mote in other peoples’ eyes, but doesn’t see the log in hers.’) This is a veritable propaganda technique which magnifies the negative aspects of a person’s object of hate and suppresses the negative aspects of their object of admiration. This point would become clearer in the next paragraph.

    According to a 13 June, 2024 report by Simon Kuper in Financial Times, titled “How the wrong chaps took charge of British politics,” “The Good Chaps’ codes forbade stealing. Britain in their era aimed to deter corruption with unspoken guidelines, rather than with vulgar written rules. From the 1990s, Good Chaps began dying out. As memories of wars gave way to Thatcherite wealth-worship, the idea of public service came to seem a bit silly.” Moreover, a 1 December, 2024 report by Transparency International UK said: “the most comprehensive analysis of suspect funds in UK politics to date, finds that millions of pounds donated to political parties and their members have come from unknown or questionable sources, including those who have been accused or found to have bought political access or involved in criminality.”

    Kemi has also been reported to have said “I don’t care about colonialism,” and that “UK’s wealth is not based on White privilege and colonialism.” She would not have said this if she had asked her puppeteers about British-Iranian history of the late 1940s to early 1950s which was marked by Iranian resistance to the continuation of the age-long British appropriation of Iranian oil to build British wealth. The heroic Iranian resistance is marked by the turbulent relations between Iran and the West which persist till today. If Badenoch truly does not know that British wealth remarkably derives from colonialism, she should be an intensely ignorant and arrogant person; but if she knows that and yet denies the fact, she would be a thoroughly dishonest and highly mischievous person.

    In an 8 May, 2024 article titled, “Why is Kemi Badenoch denying Britain’s colonialism helped its economic growth?”, in the UK’s The Voice Online, Richard Sudan, noted: “Britain had an empire and the reality is that virtually nothing in Britain would be what it is today without the role of slavery and colonialism. … Kemi Badenoch knows this, but is less concerned with truth and is focused on her own political ambitions.” According to Richard Sudan, Badenoch’s kind of stand is “a gift to all those opposing reparations, a campaign that has been gaining traction in recent years.”

    In doing the hatchet job for the White establishment, to get or sustain tokenist benefits, Kemi has been validating the British slang ‘coconut’ or its American equivalent ‘house negro’. According to a Tuesday, 29 June, 2010, article by Nuala McGovern titled “Is the term ‘coconut’ racist?”, in the World Have Your Say Blog, hosted by BBC News, “The term coconut, has been used to accuse someone of betraying their race, or culture, by implying that, like a coconut, they are brown on the outside but white on the inside. Similar racial terms to denote ‘acting white’ while from another ethnic group include ‘bounty bar’, ‘oreo’ and ‘banana’.”

    The concepts of ‘coconut’ and ‘house negro’ are related to the Yoruba idea of àserílégbé which literally means ‘obsequious conduct that is aimed at getting a person a place in the house or keeping them there’, and idiomatically means ‘obsequious behaviour aimed at achieving social acceptability and sustaining privilege.’ When Kemi Badenoch’s behaviour is thus described as àserílégbé, it is implied that she suffers from very deep low self-esteem and social insecurity, and she denigrates Nigeria in order to fill the psychological void and get herself relief. In fact, reminiscent of the English proverb “There is no zeal like that of a convert,” Kemi is reported to have zealously said: “I am here to protect [the crown] and I will die protecting this country because I know what’s out there.”

    Asked by a BBC journalist in a “Newsnight” interview posted on 30 September, 2024, “Are you too gaffe prone?”, she replied: “I’ve never had a gaffe. I’m a good communicator.” She was further asked by the interviewer: “Are you too gaffe prone to become leader, to become Prime Minister?”; and Kemi replied: “I’ve never had a gaffe. The truth is not gaffes.” The BBC journalists’ question seems to cohere with the Yoruba proverb which says, “Twenty year old pounded yam can still burn the fingers.” (‘Iyán ogún odún a maa jó’ni lówó.’) Moreover, a Yoruba idiom which describes what appears to be Kemi’s heightened delusion or warped sense of self-perception or self-assessment is “Eni tí à n wò ní àwòsukún tí ó n wo ara rè ní àwòrérín.” (‘A person we are looking at tearily, but who is looking at themselves with mirth.’)

    Asked about the comments, Badenoch’s spokesperson said, as reported by Sky News on 11 December, 2024, she “stands by what she says” and “is not the PR for Nigeria. … She tells the truth. She tells it like it is. She is not going to couch her words.” This may make her “Elétí ikún.” (‘A squirrel-eared person who can’t, won’t or doesn’t listen to good counsel.’) This idiom alludes to ikún – a kind of squirrel that is hard of hearing or deaf. It also calls to mind the Yoruba proverb, “Kàkà kó dè lára ewé àgbon, kokoko ló n le sii.” (‘Rather than softening, palm frond leaf hardens.’) This makes her, in Yoruba idiomatic language, “Elénu razor” (‘A razor-sharp-tongued person’) or even “Elénu oró” (‘A poison-tongued person.’) Unbending dispositions like Kemi’s recall the Yoruba idiom “Gun esin ayán.” (‘Mount a cockroach-sized horse.’) Delusional horses of that kind usually don’t carry anybody far.

    Looking at the range of opinions about her within and outside the UK, the Conservative Party leader has acquired the image of an obsequious Kemi, ignorant Kemi, arrogant Kemi, dishonest Kemi, hypocritical Kemi, and intransigent Kemi. She seems to have in her personality all of the ingredients for the making of a tragic hero – a character with immensely astounding attributes which are undermined by equally fundamental flaws. Kemi Badenoch’s indiscretions and her rise within the British political hierarchy, all the same, may just be what is needed to sensitise Africans anew to rolling back, in significant ways, insidious neo-colonialism on the continent.

  • Should Afe Babalola have ignored Dele Farotimi?

    Should Afe Babalola have ignored Dele Farotimi?

    In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, a satirical novel first published in 1726, this is what Gulliver told his master in Lilliput about lawyers in Part 4, Chapter 5: “… there was a society of [people] among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves.” About judges, he said: “Now your honour is to know, that these judges are persons appointed to decide all controversies of property, as well as for the trial of criminals, and picked out from the most dexterous lawyers, who are grown old or lazy; and having been biased all their lives against truth and equity, lie under such a fatal necessity of favouring fraud, perjury, and oppression, that I have known some of them refuse a large bribe from the side where justice lay, rather than injure the faculty, by doing any thing unbecoming their nature or their office.”

    In this fictional world, Gulliver could only have been accused of the negative stereotyping of lawyers and judges. He could also have been accused of being a closed mind incapable of and unwilling to countenance individual differences. But that is not the case with Dele Farotimi, a Nigerian lawyer and activist. He published a book titled Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System. Aggrieved by what he considered to be the criminal defamation of his person, office and associates, Babalola reported the case to the police. Accordingly, the police have decided to prosecute Farotimi for the offence.

    The case has generated immense controversy, with some arguments sounding tenuous, fallacious, or self-contradictory. In the opinion of Donu Kogbara, a veteran media personality, in a 10 December, 2024 Arise TV interview titled, “I don’t understand how Peter Obi has gone from top to bottom – Kogbara,” “It’s quite clear that Dele Farotimi is being victimized for being a strong government critic.” It is, however, important to note here that neither Farotimi nor Babalola is an associate or supporter of the incumbent government.

    In a 12th December, 2024 article titled, “Afe Babalola: Of a man and his weakness,” in The Punch, Abimbola Adelakun stated: “Even if he wins the case, what will be the social value of a reputation held up by the courts? If Farotimi begs him as [Babalola’s] lawyer and others have enjoined, what is done cannot be undone. … Given the contradictions of his profession, Babalola should have been circumspect enough to not jump into a public contest over his reputation. He seems to me like a man who has invested in being nice just so that he would not be remembered as a villain in Nigeria’s story. Now he is no longer the man with the carefully curated legacy who set out to redeem his image but the one who proved his critic right.”

    In a 5 December, 2024 interview with Channels Television, Laolu Akande, former aide to former Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, said: “I think the first place to start is that … Pa Afe Babalola, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, a legal luminary that we all respect, felt that he’s been libelled … and I think there are very significant proofs … I don’t think Farotimi himself made any pretensions that he’s actually going after this guy. So, there is a basis for Afe Babalola to be aggrieved, and there’s a basis for him to pursue redress. What I think is inelegant, if I can use that language, is that you will expect somebody like Chief Afe Babalola … would rather pursue this matter as a civil case. … The man is aggrieved. And I understand that. … You’ve got to see the ferocity and audacity of Dele Farotimi. … Go after Dele Farotimi, by all means, but go through a civil suit.”

    In order to put psychological pressure on Afe Babalola, some of Dele Farotimi’s supporters are dramatising the claim that, as a consequence of Babalola’s legal action, Dele Farotimi’s Afe-Babalola-tormenting book has become a “bestseller”. Here, reference to the King James Version of the Bible in Titus 1: 10-11 is useful. It enjoins: “10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers …: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” The New King James Version of the Bible refers to “filthy lucre” as “dishonest gain”, and this makes gloating over or romaticising filthy lucre, acquired through tormenting Afe Babalola, to be absurd. 

    In a further attempt to pile psychological pressure on Afe Babalola, biblical allusion has been made to the David and Goliath story. This allusion shows how complex the case is, because it’s not easy to determine who really is David and who is Goliath between Farotimi and Babalola, with respect to physical stature and presumed power. This is one example of how the use of metaphor creates vagueness and ambivalence. If you say A is B, as metaphor typically does, the fact that each of A and B have various features on the basis of which direct comparison could be made, raises the question, “With respect to which shared feature is A called B?”

    To make this point clearer, let’s look at the biblical story as it is narrated in 1 Samuel 17: 1-53. The Israelites and Philistines were in contention. The Philistines included a physically huge and towering, fearsomely-amoured, meanly-boastful and Israelite-taunting Goliath, and the Israelite side included a young, small, seemingly ill-kitted, easily-dismissible David, who all the same, felt compelled to attempt to end the torment and humiliation of his people by the awesome and arrogant Goliath. With just a sling, the unlikely David aimed for Goliath’s head, hit him right and brought him down, and brought an end to the suffering of his people. As the Bible put it, “51 … And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.” This is the classical manifestation of deterrence.

    Moreover, those invoking Yoruba culture as the reason why Aare Afe Babalola should not have reacted the way he did seem not to know or remember that part of Yoruba child-raising ethics includes teaching the child not to inflict pain on others. This child-upbringing practice often involves tolerating a young child hitting the mother or an older person, with the mother or older one merely showing pain and rubbing the point of the attack. Upon seeing their capacity to make an older person suffer, a naïve child hits the older person again. This time around, the older person hits back, and the child begins to cry. By the time the crying ends, the child would have learnt the life-long lesson of not setting out to hurt those who are capable of paying back with due effect.

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    Even Afenifere, the foremost Yoruba socio-political group is aware that the Farotimi-Babalola feud has been taken out of the Yoruba cultural context and has defied Yoruba cultural ethics. Accordingly, the group’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, in a 7 December, 2024 story in Vanguard, titled “Babalola vs Farotimi: Allow courts do justice, Afenifere cautions parties,” was reported to have said: “Afenifere is of the view that the appropriate forum to determine whose rights have been breached and how, is the court of law as established by our constitution. Meaning that the matter is presently where it ought to be, to enable all parties to prove their case. We enjoin all parties to conduct themselves in total submission to and respect for the rule of law.”

    Like Afenifere, Alex Enumah, in a 7 December, 2024 opinion in an article titled, “Let Farotimi, Babalola have their day in court,” in ThisDay newspaper said: “A popular axiom holds that, ‘A person’s freedom ends where another’s begins.’ So, as criticism and condemnation of the arrest and arraignment of popular activist and lawyer, Mr Dele Farotimi, continues to mount, it is expedient to … state that elder statesman and legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, at the receiving end of Farotimi’s action, deserves some protection also.”

    In an 11 December, 2024 article titled, “Afe Babalola, Farotimi and a dangerous culture of wokeism (1),” in Vanguard, Rotimi Fasan remarked: “As far as these allegations stand today, however, [Farotimi] could have been speaking to a group of free newspaper readers engaged in their kind of morning banter and argument with generous support of ogogoro by the road side or, say, under the Ikeja Bridge Roundabout. He could be speaking the truth, who knows. But where is the evidence? It is the burden of evidence that compels us to be careful of what we say even if true. Otherwise, our world would be upended if anyone could just say anything they have in mind. Farotimi probably wanted no more than to show his disdain for a respected individual he does not care two straws about.”

    Moreover, Fasan noted: “To bear a legal lion like Babalola in his den, poking a finger in his eye and twisting his tail might well be the object of Farotimi’s action rather than the necessity of offering evidence. But even that undermines his authority as the intelligent man that he is, not to mention his standing as a trained lawyer. He has for some time now been treading a thin line between political critique and blatant disrespect of individuals and state institutions. He is too free with words and insults that he dispenses as if it is the only way he could demonstrate his supposed fearlessness. This is unnecessary.” Jiti Ogunye also cautioned: “If you don’t have proofs, don’t make such allegations. … [At] the end of the day, you will not be able to dictate to the victim which course of action to take.”

    Idowu Akinlotan, in his Palladium column in The Nation of 8 December, 2024, posited: “Not going to court is not an option, considering the weighty claims levelled against him. And beyond standing with Chief Babalola or supporting Mr Farotimi, it may be time for Nigerians to stand for the rule of law, despite the judicial system’s weaknesses, rather than tolerate the anarchic proclivity of activists who protest against everything because they suspect everything and denigrate everyone.”

    In the unbridled exercise of their media power, some gore others with their words. With hackles raised, eyes bulging, teeth blood-soaked and mouth blood-stained, they seem to end every episode of verbal savagery with the warning, “There’s more to come.” It’s victims of this kind of viciousness that Afe Babalola seems to be seeking to protect by legally challenging swaggering impunity. The legal challenge is thus a desirable deterrent to culprits and the dissuasion of potential copycats.

  • CONUA and ASUU again

    CONUA and ASUU again

    In an effort to ensure stability within the Nigerian University System, a renegotiation committee on the 2009 agreement has been constituted by the federal government. The committee is chaired by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed – a former Minister of Defence, a former Head of Civil Service, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the current Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the current Chair of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities (CPCNFU).

    The Congress of University Academics (CONUA) was formed in 2018 in reaction to the constriction of the democratic space within the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). According to CONUA, this tendency became unbearable when, in 2013, the duly-won victory of certain members of ASUU in a free and fair election was annulled by some autocratic forces within the union. Things came to a head in 2018 when over seven hundred members of ASUU were suspended and expelled from the union for expressing their dissatisfaction with the trajectory of the union. The suspended and expelled members came together and formed CONUA on 12 February, 2018, as a means of resistance to peer oppression, and proceeded to apply for registration. The application for registration, dated 30 April, 2018, was submitted on 2 May, 2018 at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Abuja. The union was presented a certificate of registration by the then-Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on 17 January, 2023. On 14 December, 2023, the Trade Union Congress announced its admission of CONUA as one of its new affiliates.

    Meanwhile, on 26 October, 2022, ASUU had prematurely filed a suit at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) challenging the registration of CONUA (and the Nigeria Association of Medical Academics – NAMDA). In the suit, it prayed the court to declare the registration illegal, and pleaded for the court to order the withdrawal of the certificates of registration of the two unions. It is important to note here that as at the time ASUU was making this plea, the certificates had actually not yet been issued. On 25 July, 2023, ASUU lost the case and the NICN declared the registration of CONUA and NAMDA legal.

    The NICN judgement was based principally on the provision of Article 2 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 87 which stipulates as follows: “Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the organisation concerned, to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation.” Also noteworthy here is Section 12 (4) of the 2004 Trade Union Act which expressly states: “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act, membership of a trade union by employees shall be voluntary and no employee shall be forced to join any trade union or be victimised for refusing to join or remain a member.”On its website, CONUA also referred to Sections 20 and 21 of the 1990 Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility which state: “Members of the intellectual community have a responsibility to promote the spirit of tolerance towards different views and positions and enhance democratic debate and discussion. No one group of the intellectual community shall indulge in the harassment, domination or oppressive behaviour towards another group. All differences among the intellectual community shall be approached and resolved in the spirit of equality, non-discrimination and democracy.”

    Regarding the renegotiation committee, CONUA wrote to the then-Minister of Education, Professor Mamman Tahir, and noted that there was an oversight, because the bona fide and duly registered union was not invited to be part of the renegotiation. The union argued that as at the time the 2009 agreement was reached, most of those who constitute CONUA were members of ASUU and were therefore major stakeholders in relation to the agreement. CONUA further noted that since the outcome of the ongoing renegotiation would affect CONUA members, the right thing to do is to include representatives of the union. CONUA also remarked that it was only representatives of the union that could best project and protect its interests.

    In reaction to the CONUA call for inclusivity, the Coordinator of the Lagos Zone of ASUU, Professor Adelaja Odukoya, who has been described as “the Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lagos, Akoka,” was reported in a story, titled “You’re not relevant, ASUU knocks CONUA”, by the Nigerian Tribune of 14 November, 2024, to have said: “If they [CONUA] were once part of ASUU as they argued in the media report, they should answer for themselves if they are part of ASUU now? So, they cannot leverage on what they were in the past but what they are now is the in-thing. So, they should wake up from their self-delusion as they have been used and dumped by Ngige.”

    Professor Odukoya was also reported to have said: “And the earlier they realize that unionism etched on opportunism and charlatanism will always end in disgrace and heartbreak. They should realise that they have miscalculated. And if they have any iota of shame and any honour, they would not [broach] the idea of being included in the FGN-ASUU negotiation in whatever form. I particularly for one think that honour is not a commodity they have. And they should stop asking for undue relevance.”

    If indeed Professor Adelaja Odukoya is the Dean of a Faculty at the University of Lagos, this kind of intemperate language, where rational arguments would have sufficed, doesn’t represent the University of Lagos well, and neither does it represent ASUU well. In Yoruba culture, to which he belongs, such conduct would be categorised as that of a white fowl which doesn’t recognise itself as an elder, and so acts out of tune with the honour ascribed to the position. (“Adìe funfun ò mo’ra rè lágbà.”) As things have now turned out, CONUA has begun to match Professor Odukoya and ASUU expletive for expletive.

    Dr. Nasiru Yunusa, the North-West Coordinator and Chairperson of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, chapter of CONUA, was reported in a story, titled “You have to face new realities, CONUA replies ASUU,” to have said that since the letter pointing out the Ministry of Education’s oversight was not addressed to ASUU, ASUU’s outbursts indicated a refusal to hoe one’s own row. Secondly, CONUA argued that, if it was ab initio eminently qualified for registration in 2018, but the registration was withheld for five long years, and justice finally prevailed in 2023 with its eventual registration, “nothing could … be more asinine than ASUU’s labelling of CONUA’s epochal success as being ‘used and dumped!’” CONUA further castigated Professor Odukoya as follows: “It is indeed a betrayal of deep-thinking scholarship that a university Professor would be ignorantly bleating about ‘unionism etched on opportunism and charlatanism will always end in disgrace and heartbreak.’”

    Moreover, CONUA said it was hypocritical for ASUU to be talking of honour. It asked where ASUU’s honour lay when, in declaring the 2022 strike, the union said the strike would be “total, indefinite, comprehensive and suffocating”; but once the Federal Government invoked the “no work, no pay” rule, ASUU capitulated and claimed that it was only the “teaching” component of its duties that it abandoned during the strike. CONUA was, thus, of the view that ASUU lacked the courage of its convictions. CONUA also noted: “This is a dawn of a new era where our universities are free from the shackles of incessant closures, and ASUU should smell the coffee and get used to the new realities.”

    Meanwhile, some side-players have also joined the fray. For example, in the 18 October, 2024 edition of TVC’s “Journalists’ Hangout”, Babajide Kolade-Otitoju remarked: “CONUA … had complained that their members were oppressed, needlessly punished, under ASUU regime and that this was what caused ASUU to be divided. But when you look at CONUA, if you have to choose between CONUA and ASUU in terms of the number of people that ASUU represents, CONUA literally does not exist beside ASUU. In fact, there are very few … universities where CONUA is present.” First, this is the typical logic of autocrats and oppressors. But, as George Orwell aptly asserts, “Sanity is not statistical.” Second, the argument is akin to rationalising a hypothetical decision, by INEC, not to invite the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Labour Party and New Nigeria People’s Party to meetings to discuss critical political matters that would affect them, just because each of these parties controls only one state, whilst APC controls 21states and PDP controls 12.

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    In the same edition of “Journalists’ Hangout”, dropping all pretence to objectivity, Kolade-Otitoju said about CONUA, in relation to ASUU’s 2022 8-month-long strike and CONUA’s exclusion from the negotiating committee in 2024: “You rebelled against your own colleagues. You were silent as your colleagues fought aggressively against the oppressor. You behaved like you were not seeing what was going on. Now, the same oppressor has decided to sideline you.” Whilst Kolade-Otitoju saw resistance to ASUU’s autocratic and oppressive streak as rebellion, CONUA saw it as acting in line with the exhortation that “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.” It is unclear why Babajide Kolade-Otitoju persistently gets so easily worked up and lapses into hubris over the fact that CONUA members have been or are exercising their constitutionally-guaranteed, ILO-sanctioned and court-upheld freedom of association.

    The combination of old positions with new perspectives can only benefit the Nigerian university system. It is in this sense that “Two heads are better than one.” It was therefore wrong for the former Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, to have excluded CONUA from the renegotiation committee. It is hoped that the current Minister, Dr. Tunji Alausa, would rectify this anomaly, in the interest of equity and the overall interest of university education in the country. The Minister also needs to direct the heads of MDAs under the ministry, such as the National Universities Commission, TETfund and Vice-Chancellors, to accord all registered unions in the university system due recognition and include them in meetings or programmes in which they ought to be major stakeholders.

    The democratic spirit and the intellectual temperament dictate the recognition, acceptance and respect for diversity of choice. It is thus hoped that ASUU would reconcile itself to the reality of the existence of CONUA and sheathe its sword. It is also hoped that CONUA would note that any hostility against it from ASUU and its associates is a passing phase. CONUA should therefore resist being drawn into unnecessary acrimony. Going forward, ASUU and CONUA should begin, consciously, to cultivate mutual respect, while noting that, as a Yoruba proverb says, “There’s enough room in the sky for birds to fly without colliding (Ojú òrun tó eye fò láì fara kan ra.)  

  • Nigeria’s somnolent opposition

    Nigeria’s somnolent opposition

    There is some level of consensus about the idea that Nigeria’s opposition political parties are somnolent. This condition results in listlessness, silence or speaking without coordination or even what, in common parlance, is called ‘not knowing what one is saying’. According to the 31 October, 2024 editorial of the Guardian titled, “For a resilient and disciplined political party system,” there is “the propensity for opposition parties to slip into coma and disarray once they lose an election and fail to form government, becoming weak, rudderless and unable to project alternate policy options to those offered by the government of the day.” The editorial then admonishes the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the foremost opposition party, “to wake up and put its house in order.”

    Similarly, a story tellingly titled “PDP sleep-walks as opposition goes into oblivion,” in the 18 August, 2024 issue of BusinessDay noted: “[Except] only former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who seems to be a lonely voice from the party against the APC, other leaders appear to be in a slumber or in bed with the ruling party. There is hardly any strong opposition with constructive or disruptive views. Since the end of the last elections, the opposition political parties have gone to sleep, leaving the ruling APC and the federal government to ride roughshod over Nigerians.”

    Veteran media personality, Mr. Tonnie Iredia, had also remarked, in a 30 June, 2024 article titled, “Unending weak political opposition in Nigeria,” in the Vanguard: “Only Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi who were the candidates of [PDP and Labour Party] respectively [in the 2023 presidential elections] have been the ones speaking or making any move that provides some evidence that they may contest again; thereby turning opposition politics into a personality affair. Not much is done in what should have been a daily robust evaluation and analysis of government policies item by item that can push office-holders into retracing some of their steps or be cautious of their next move.”

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    A 28 September, 2024 story by Emmanuel Oladesu, titled “Nigerian opposition in disarray,” in The Nation posits: “[The] Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and Labour Party (LP) – are currently in disarray. Public servants elected on these platforms jump ship at will. They hide under the crisis rocking their parties to defect to the ruling party instead of building an effective opposition. … Four reasons are responsible for the escalation of crisis in the three parties. These are the absence of unifying ideas beyond the aspiration to hijack power, poor adjustment to limiting conditions of opposition platforms outside government, lack of effective leadership that commands respect and weakness of crisis resolution mechanism that has made reconciliation impossible.”

    In the absence of intellectual rigour, Nigeria’s opposition parties lapse into the less-mentally-demanding option of political insults, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been their target of choice.  The President has been demonised so much that, ironically, heroic elements of his personality begin to shine out brightly. At the same time, the chimera they have created in their imagination about him is beginning to cast real fear into the hearts of the opposition and their associates. This fear is manifested in the ongoing obsession with the presumed Tinubu and APC schemes to create a one-party state.

    It is interesting to note, in this regard, a 4 November, 2024 interview granted by foundation PDP member and elder statesperson Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Trust TV’s Manir Dan Ali. In it, Lamido said: “Do you know Tinubu at all? … God save you if you don’t know him. … I know his capacity. … I mean his capacity, sagacity, the skill. This is somebody who can manipulate anything to get what he wants. So, fear him.” Lamido went further: “He schemed and survived. … Against all institutions, historical institutions against all formations, against ACF, against Ohaneze, against Afenifere, against everything.”

    Lamido continued: “The [present] government is essentially owned by him. … With Tinubu in that place [Presidency] now, if you look at his history, no Nigerian leader has been there on his own. … They are all coming from institutions or a constituency. … But Tinubu is his own personality. There is neither constituency today nor institution that can say I made Tinubu.” With the seeming desire on the part of Sule Lamido to portray Tinubu uncomplimentarily and the seeming inadvertent portrayal of the President heroically, Manir Dan Ali asked rhetorically: “Isn’t that [set of qualities] a novelty to be celebrated rather than derided?”

    Due to the inability or unwillingness to take responsibility for their failures, some members of the opposition ascribe the problems in their parties to machinations by President Tinubu and the APC. For example, in an 18 October, 2024 Guardian story titled “APC accused of meddling ahead of 2027 polls as PDP, LP reel from internal crises,” the National Chairman, of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Ajuji Ahmed, was reported to have said: “The APC is doing everything possible to win the 2027 general election. Indeed, there is evidence everywhere that they are interfering with the other parties.” Moreover, in a 16 October, 2024 Arise News interview, Kola Ologbondiyan, former National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, alleged that “they” have “put fire” in the NNPP, LP and PDP, thereby creating “a dangerous trend” towards reducing Nigeria to a “one-party state.”

    The individual efforts at performing opposition duties, which parties have left undone, have opened the parties to bearing responsibility for the unsalutary aspects of those individuals’ antecedents. For example, Atiku Abubakar has worsened the fissures in the PDP by refusing to respect the zoning provision of the party’s constitution which required a Southerner to be fielded as presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. Rather inconsistently, he has been reported to have proposed a revision of the nation’s constitution to provide for rotational presidency. This is not reassuring about his potentials to respect the rule of law, if he becomes president.

    In addition, in what amounts to a serious level of indiscretion, Peter Obi, seemingly the most vocal opposition figure, stoked ethnic controversy by alluding to the Tinubu presidency: “It’s our turn. He’s a Yoruba man. Ask the people in Ogun here, is there any place where you people buy bread cheaper? I can follow you and buy one.” Meanwhile, Obi’s own major basis of joining the presidential race was that it was time for Igbo presidency. Ironically, some prominent Yoruba leaders such as former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Pa Ayo Adebanjo were among the most vociferous champions of Ibolokan (‘It’s the turn of Igbos’) during the campaigns. Doyin Okupe, a Yoruba man, who is a former Director-General of Obi’s presidential campaign committee took exception to Obi’s ethnic taunts, which surely are not an endearing course of action for an aspiring president.

    To be evenhanded, it would have been nice for Peter Obi to taunt Igbos for voting massively for his Labour Party in Abia State in 2023, within the broader context of the idea that it was time for Igbo presidency. Igbo pensioners in that state governed by Peter Obi’s party have been intimidated and manipulated into signing government-produced documents which purport inhumanely that the pensioners had agreed to forfeit their many months of unpaid pensions. The acquiescent silence of Peter Obi and indeed the opposition in general in the pension travesty in that state is not the way to earn electorate trust. Is the callousness with which Igbo pensioners are currently being treated in Abia State an indication of what awaits Igbos generally, should Obi become president?

    Peter Obi has also upset his religious base. For the 2023 elections, Obi frequented churches, and exhorted them: “Church, wake up, take back its country.” He also framed his presidential contest as a religious war. However, in a currently trending video, Obi linked the widespread presence of churches with unproductiveness, and declared: “We’re going to turn night vigil to night shift, so that people can be productive.” Some of his religion-motivated supporters have expressed anger at this seemingly hypocritical declaration. This worrisome inconsistency and ficklesomeness are not reassuring for the over 200 million Nigerians who desire a stable leader.

    Furthermore, Obi said as follows in a speech to Nursing School students, as reported in the 11 November, 2024 issue of Daily Post: “I have always told the Nursing Council not to restrict you people from travelling abroad after graduation. If it is not going to work for you here, go to where it will work for you. … If you want to seek greener pastures outside, please go. I’m sure that when we build a greater Nigeria, you will come back.” This is a pedestrian and superficial understanding of the current Nigerian condition.  It suggests that Peter Obi doesn’t believe that the students or youth have the capacity or the responsibility to contribute to making the country better, and is rather promoting escapism. This certainly is not a reassuring feature of opposition leadership promise.

    Moreover, when the Supreme Court delivered its 11 July, 2024 judgement boosting local government autonomy, there was jubilation across the nation. So far, the two governments which seem to have taken the most hostile steps against that widely-popular, constitutionally-backed and legally-sanctioned local government autonomy initiative of the ruling APC national government are the opposition PDP-controlled Oyo State government and the opposition APGA-controlled Anambra State. Their anti-local-government-autonomy moves could signal opposition parties’ disengagement with the electorate, and can scarcely be expected to endear these parties to the voters, especially, at the national level.

    Indeed, it appears as if no systematic and workable ideas on solving any of Nigeria’s sundry problems can be credited to the country’s opposition. Nigeria’s current opposition parties thus seem not to know how to get positive attention and build credibility. As the BusinessDay report referred to earlier puts it, “Many observers believe that the current opposition is weak, uncoordinated, and ineffective. Where the opposition parties are not internally polarised, fragmented and compromised, they are very ineffective and incompetent.”

    The opposition APC worked hard to defeat the ruling PDP in Nigeria in 2015; the opposition worked hard in Ghana in 2016 to unseat the ruling National Democratic Congress; the opposition worked hard in Liberia in 2023 to defeat the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change; and the opposition worked hard to earn victory over the ruling Botswana Democratic Party in 2024. So, opposition parties don’t get into office through a defeatist phobia for a one-party system, nor do they win elections through dramatising a sense of entitlement, but gain ascendance through concrete, conscientious and consistent hard work. Not recognising these facts would make Nigeria’s present somnolent or somnambulist opposition parties to continue to be unattractive options to the ruling APC.

  • Nigeria and the Botswana elections

    Nigeria and the Botswana elections

    On 30 October, 2024, the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) led by Duma Boko defeated the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) which had been the ruling party since 1966 when the country gained independence. The incumbent President Mokgweetsi Masisi of the BDP who was seeking a second term in office, having first assumed office in 2018, conceded defeat before the vote count was completed, and called and congratulated the winner, Duma Boko.

    On 1 November, 2024, Masisi said: “For now, the evidence is overwhelming. We lost this election massively … And we need to come to terms with it, and make space and give opportunity to the newly elected leaders, and respect them and support them, so that they can succeed, because it’s Botswana’s success that’s most important.” He also declared: “Starting from tomorrow or, as in my discussion with the President-Elect, at a time convenient to him, we will begin all administrative work to facilitate the transition and I assure you that I will not take any actions to hinder or slow down this process.”

    Interestingly, it was former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan who was appointed as the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) for the Botswana elections, and Masisi’s experience must have resonated with him. In 2015, President Jonathan had himself lost a presidential election, in Nigeria, to a new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), that was formed from a fusion of some opposition parties and elements. Like Masisi, he had conceded defeat before the completion of the tallying of votes, and had congratulated Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the APC.

    In President Duma Boko’s first public speech on 1 November, 2024, he said that he was not just the President of UDC, but of the whole of Botswana. He also remarked: “I pledge with every fiber of my being that I will do everything I can not to fail, not to disappoint, appreciating always the enormity of the responsibility bestowed upon me by the people of this republic. It is their government … and I approach it with all the humility I can muster. And so, that is why I lay myself open to criticism. Even if it is acerbic and fierce and vicious, I’ll listen and heed and try always to do what is right for the people, by them and for their country.”   

    At a meeting he and Masisi held with senior government officials on 5 November, 2024, the new President also said: “Botswana has demonstrated to the whole world that the accolades that we’ve enjoyed as a shining example of democracy were more than well-deserved. … [If] I had respect, and I did, for the former President, my respect for him reached the stratosphere. … We may not appreciate the seriousness, the enormity and the profundity of what he has done.” He noted that if it had been in some other countries, they would have been “embroiled in conflict, civil strife, because an incumbent refuses to accept an outcome.” He then remarked with adulation: “Not in Botswana. Not with this former President. And for that we are eternally grateful.”

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    Three noteworthy features of the Botswana elections are Diaspora Voting, Early Voting and Independent Candidacy. Diaspora voting allowed registered citizens of Botswana to vote in their countries of residence outside Botswana. Early voting was limited to and allowed election and police officers (who are normally on duty on election day) and Diaspora voters to cast their votes before 30 October, 2024. Independent candidacy allowed citizens who did not wish to be affiliated with any political party to contest elections, and one independent candidate actually won in last week’s national assembly elections. Nigeria has lessons to learn from Botswana, which is a country of 2.7 million people, with respect to these admirable features of multi-party politics.

    It would be highly beneficial for Nigeria, like Botswana, to adopt the advance voting system and expand its beneficiaries to include election officials, security personnel, local observers, transporters, journalists (who are often posted outside their registration areas or constituencies during elections), and just about any eligible voter who, for one reason or the other, may prefer the option. Moreover, introducing Diaspora Voting into the Nigerian system would be of immense value, especially if the opportunities for it to be abused, manipulated or undermined could be curtailed. Furthermore, making provision for independent candidacy in the Nigerian electoral system, as is the case in Botswana, would expand the democratic space.

    On 30 October, 2024 in Botswana, local government elections were held concurrently with the parliamentary and presidential elections, indicating a mainstreaming of the local government elections and administration, and leaving little room for the kind of obscene manipulation of local elections by state governments that is being witnessed now in Nigeria. If there’s still merit in having elections on two days, Nigeria should consider having local government, State Houses of Assembly and governorship elections on the same day, subsequent to making the tenure of local government administrations four years.

    In Botswana, as pointed out in the South African Development Commission (SADC) Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM) report on last week’s election, voter accreditation was done manually, thereby elongating the process. This is unlike Nigeria’s electronic voter accreditation system which reduces accreditation time considerably. Moreover, in Botswana, as SEOM noted, votes were not counted at the respective polling stations where the votes were cast, but were conveyed to designated counting/collation centres. This exposes the votes cast to sundry risks including ballot box snatching, ballot box stuffing and malicious votes destruction. In the Nigerian system, these risks are minimised, because votes are counted and the results are announced at the polling stations, and party agents are issued official copies of the results instantly.

    From the official results issued after counting votes at a polling station, as happens in Nigeria, a party has a fair chance of knowing its relative overall performance, even before the official declaration of final results. Moreover, counting votes at polling stations reduces the risk of results alteration or falsification; and where such electoral fraud occurs, and the victims choose to challenge the fraud at an election tribunal or court, the official results issued at the polling stations come in handy as significant evidence. It would therefore be beneficial for Botswana to adopt this time-tested system.

    Botswana witnessed a “seismic” election result and a “whirlwind” transition of power. The President-Elect was sworn in in a simple closed-door ceremony in the office of the Chief Justice, a few hours after the concession of defeat. So, as the victor assumed office immediately, the person the people of Botswana knew as President in the morning of 1 November, 2024 had become “former President” a few hours later, on that same day. The public inauguration followed, a week later, on 8 November, 2024.

    President Duma Boko had earlier contested and lost elections for president in 2014 and 2019. After each defeat, he girded his loins and continued the struggle. Neither he nor his supporters marched to the Botswana Defence Force (equivalent of the Nigerian Army) headquarters to incite the army to takeover government. And neither did they set up a global propaganda machinery to defame their country nor set up a complex web of sabotage to bring Botswana down. And they didn’t ascribe all of their troubles to the desire by the ruling party to create and perpetuate a one-party state.

    In the 2009 general elections, the BDP won 45 out of 57 parliamentary seats (where 31 seats were required to be declared winner). The remaining 12 seats were shared among 4 opposition parties. In the 2014 elections in which Duma Boko’s UDC, formed in November 2012, contested for the first time, BDP won 37 seats, UDC came second with 17 seats, and another party won the remaining 3 seats. In the 2019 elections, BDP won 38 seats, UDC again came second with 15 seats, and the remaining 4 seats were shared by 2 other opposition parties. Then came the fateful 2024 elections and, by the morning of 1 November, UDC had won 35 seats, and BDP had won a mere 4 seats, making Duma Boko President. The heroism, tenacity and focus of Duma Boko and the UDC provide a great model for Nigeria’s jumpy and inconstant, nectar-seeking opposition.

    In a congratulatory message, Nigeria said: “As Botswana remains an important ally and partner, Nigeria shares the hopes and aspirations of the brotherly government and people of Botswana, as they delve into the next chapter of their nationhood.” It is hoped that the country would assiduously promote its strategic interests in Botswana, as Nigeria has a lot to learn from it with respect to the protection and management of mineral resources and animal husbandry. The latter is particularly important due to Nigeria’s creation of the new Federal Ministry of Livestock Development.

    As former British Prime Minister Theresa May reminded us, “compromise is not a dirty word.” This is what Botswana’s former President Mokgweetsi Masisi may have realised so clearly now, considering the effect of the very high level of acrimony and mutual grandstanding between him and Ian Khama. Crisis had developed between Masisi and Ian Khama who was his immediate predecessor and whom he had served as Vice-President from 12 November, 2014 to 1 April, 2018. Khama said that the crisis resulted from the disloyal and autocratic tendencies of Masisi, but Masisi said that it resulted from Khama’s attempts to interfere with and undermine Masisi’s government.

    At the peak of the reconciliation-shunning crisis, Khama had to go into exile fearing for his freedom and for his life. He then boasted that having made the big mistake of supporting and handpicking the ‘deceptive’ Masisi as president in 2018, he was going to ensure that Masisi did not get a second term in office in 2024. So, for the 2024 elections, Khama campaigned vigorously around the country, especially in BDP strongholds, not necessarily for his own Botswana Patriotic Front to win, but for Masisi’s BDP to lose. With the loss of Masisi’s second term bid in the elections that held on 30 October, 2024, Khama’s threat has proved to be no mere grandstanding.

    It would be recalled that a 17 December, 2023 article titled “Wike and Khama; Fubara and Masisi,” in this column, highlighted the correspondence between the feud between the former Governor of Nigeria’s Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, and his successor, Siminalayi Fubara, and the one between Botswana’s Ian Khama and Mokgweetsi Masisi. As Khama threatened to stop his successor Masisi from getting a second term of office as president in 2024, Wike boasted that Fubara would not get a second term as governor in 2027. Khama’s threat has proved to be no empty boast. Will Wike’s also be more than huffing and puffing? Time will tell.

  • America’s momentous election

    America’s momentous election

    Americans go to the polls on 5 November, 2024 to elect their 47th President, and the election is attracting international attention. This is understandable, because, among other reasons, America is perceived as the bastion of democracy and a standard against which many other democracies are measured. The quality of its presidential candidates, the tenor of their campaigns and the conduct of the election are therefore generating keen interest. The American system allows absentee voting (for those who are unable or unwilling to go to the polling stations on Election Day) and voting-by-mail. Voters who prefer any of these early voting options have already started casting their votes.

    This year’s US election comes up about two months after the 23rd anniversary of the world-changing 11 September, 2001 Al-Qaeda bombing of critical symbols of American power. President George W. Bush’s 20 September, 2001 speech to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People put the catastrophe in perspective as follows: “On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country.  Americans have known wars – but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941.  Americans have known the casualties of war – but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning.  Americans have known surprise attacks – but never before on thousands of civilians.  All of this was brought upon us in a single day – and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack. … Americans are asking, why do they hate us?”

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    Among other answers, President Bush provided the following: “They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.  They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East.  They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa. These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life.  With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends.  They stand against us, because we stand in their way.” Conversely, in a video address, on 20 September, 2001, Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader, said: “As to America, I say to it and its people a few words: I swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before all the army of infidels depart the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him.”

    Incidentally, the Israeli-Hamas war is currently raging with many around the world accusing the United States of strengthening the hands of Israel as it commits what is perceived as genocide and war crimes. In fact, Israel is a campaign issue in the US election, with the Republican Party’s former President Donald Trump saying as follows, in the presidential debate he had with incumbent Vice-President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party on 10 September, 2024: “She hates Israel. … If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now.”

    The US election is also coming up at a time when the Russia-Ukraine war is raging, with America and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supporting Ukraine; and with China, Iran and North Korea, among others, backing Russia. The election is holding at a time when Africa, especially Francophone Africa, is becoming increasingly hostile to America, and when the BRICS group of countries is waxing stronger as a fascinating alternative intergovernmental development platform.

    Further denigrating Harris, Trump said: “She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father’s a Marxist professor in economics. And he taught her well. … Well, bad immigration is the worst thing that can happen to our economy. They have and she has destroyed our country with policy that’s insane. Almost policy that you’d say they have to hate our country.” Here, Trump attempts to exploit the American predilection to be discomfited by association with Marxism. The reference to her father as a “Marxist professor in economics” who “taught her well” is thus an attempt to portray her as a dyed-in-the-wool or ‘congenital’ Marxist who is bad for America’s Capitalist economy.

    In addition, demonising immigrants, Trump said in the debate: “…we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they’re coming in and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions. … You see what’s happening with towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country. And they’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous. They’re at the highest level of criminality. And we have to get them out. We have to get them out fast.”

    To this, Kamala Harris responded: “[If] you want to really know the inside track on who the former president is, if he didn’t make it clear already, just ask people who have worked with him. His former chief of staff, a four-star general, has said he has contempt for the constitution of the United States. His former national security adviser has said he is dangerous and unfit. His former secretary of defense has said the nation, the republic, would never survive another Trump term. And when we listen to this kind of rhetoric, when the issues that affect the American people are not being addressed, I think the choice is clear in this election.”

    In her 29 October, 2024 Ellipse Park, Washington, D.C., campaign remarks regarding Trump’s description of Democrats and others as “the enemy from within,” Harris said: “Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are. … And the fact that someone disagrees with us, does not make them ‘the enemy within.’ … America, for too long, we have been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust. … It is time to turn the page on the drama and conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America. And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next President of the United States.”

    Harris had also said in the presidential debate of 10 September, 2024: “I think you’ve heard tonight two very different visions for our country. One that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past. … And I do believe that the American people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us and we can chart a new way forward. I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining America’s standing in the world and ensuring we have the respect that we so rightly deserve … I’ll tell you, I started my career as a prosecutor. I was a D.A. [district attorney]. I was an attorney general. A United States senator. And now vice president. I’ve only had one client. The people.”

    America has never had a female President, contrary to what has become a global trend. For example, Indira Ghandi was Prime Minister of India, from 1966 – 1977 and from 1980 – 1984; Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 – 1990; Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 – 1990 and from 1993 – 1996; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was President of Liberia from 2006 – 2018; Jacinda Ardern was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2017 – 2023; Salome Zurabishvili has been President of Georgia from 2018 till date; and Samia Suluhu Hasan has been  President of Tanzania from 2021 till date. Given these endearing examples, will America vote in its first female president in this week’s election?

    On 26 October, 2024, at a Michigan campaign for Harris, Michelle Obama remarked: “We are once again holding Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent. We expect her to be intelligent and articulate, to have a clear set of policies, to never show too much anger, to prove time and time again that she belongs. But for Trump, we expect nothing at all, no understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals. … [We] are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slum lord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse, all of this while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do.”

    Earlier in the speech, Michelle Obama said that she had had to ask herself, “Why on earth is this race even close?” She then passionately appealed to Americans: “I am praying that we consider the decades of sacrifice and struggle by all of our ancestors, the folks who marched and sacrificed and shed their blood for us. We have to ask ourselves: is a vote for Trump or no vote at all the way we honor their lives? And if that’s the case, well, that surely doesn’t sound like freedom to me. Because let me tell you, in any other profession or arena Trump’s criminal track record and amoral character would be embarrassing, shameful, and disqualifying.”

    In these volatile times, the choice of who becomes the 47th President of the United States is that of Americans to make, and the process will be completed on 5 November, 2024, all things being equal. All things being equal? Isn’t that a strange proviso for an American election? From the electoral evolution which the Trump factor has set off, especially considering the 6 January, 2021 violent mob attack on Capitol Hill in rejection of the 2020 election results, and allegations already being made by the Trump camp that the 2024 early voting is being rigged, wouldn’t it be impolitic to take anything for granted? In fact, in the presidential debate, VP Harris said: “Donald Trump … has said … there will be a bloodbath, if … the outcome of this election is not to his liking.”

    Consequently, the following adaptation of the YouTube-accessible admonition, in Pidgin English, to Nigerians by the US Consul-General, Lagos, Mr. Will Stevens, a day before the 25 February, 2023 presidential election, is a fitting one to Americans today: “My people, una well done o. My name na Will Stevens. … Election dis year na for [November 5th]. … I take God beg una, election no be war oo. No follow anybody fight because of vote. … God go bless [America]. God go bless [Nigeria] sef join.”

  • Oloyede in editorials

    Oloyede in editorials

    Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, the incumbent Registrar/CEO of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), reached the age of 70 on 10 October, 2024, and retired, on that day, from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, where he has been a Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence. To mark the occasion, the high and mighty, including newspaper editorial boards, have been pouring encomiums on him.

    An editorial board is an assemblage of the crème-de-la-crème of a publication consisting of elite in-house writers and invited respectable members of society whose characteristically profound and highly influential opinions on a wide range of issues represent the collective positions of the publication. The editorial boards of different publications are often varied in their positions, and they cannot be easily railroaded into adopting a common perspective. Together, their editorials reveal the pulse of a nation. It is for this reason that this column today focuses on the views of an array of editorials published on 10 and 11 October, 2024 on Professor Is-haq Oloyede.

    The 11 October, 2024 editorial of The Nation is titled “JAMB’s rare breed is 70″ and read in part: “Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, the registrar/chief executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has every reason to celebrate at 70. At the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, where he was once vice-chancellor, his achievements remain indelible. … Oloyede’s profile has continued to soar, not only because of the sanity he has brought into the conduct of the UTME but significantly by the astute manner he has been managing resources, human and material.”

    The editorial also noted: “One of the very first things he did as chief executive was reduce to the barest minimum human interaction in the conduct of the UTME. Today, the processes are largely seamless and devoid of human interface, with concepts like the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) that he introduced, which automates the admission process; IBASS, the Integrated Brochure and Syllabus System for prompt delivery of admission requirements, E-Ticketing for complaints, E-Slip, and use of biometric authentication to confirm validity of registration, etc. It is now mandatory for Computer-Based Test centres to have CCTV cameras to monitor the examination and registration, real time. All of these have helped considerably in checking examination fraud. The board has also instituted various schemes to make life easy for people with disabilities sitting the UTME.”

    Furthermore, the editorial observed: “From year one, he had been remitting billions into the Federal Government’s purse. This was unprecedented in JAMB’s history. Even the then Minister of Finance could not believe that such a profit was coming from JAMB which had in its 38 years before Oloyede’s coming on board relied heavily on government subvention. To date, JAMB has paid more than N55bn into the government’s coffers since Oloyede assumed office. And all of these despite reduction in application fees! In a rare show of transparency and accountability, the board has been publishing its income and expenditure weekly in its bulletin for possible public perusal.”

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    The 10 0ctober, 2024 editorial of The Punch titled “Laurels for Oloyede at 70” also declared as follows: “Oloyede entered the national limelight after his appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin in 2007. During his five-year tenure at his alma mater, the institution became Nigeria’s preferred destination for university candidates. Interestingly, his achievement at Ilorin was not a fluke, it gave him the platform for higher national service. This became clear when he took up the gauntlet for another cause: in 2016, the then President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.” The editorial further notes: “Under him, JAMB has introduced technology … to enhance its operations. Results are quicker; cheats are exposed faster.”

    The editorial continued: “Although a religious person, Oloyede is a realist. … Advising Nigerians on the interplay between religion and success, he said, ‘We are too religious, and we are not that godly. We are in love with prayer, but we don’t know the difference between prayer and hard work. Too many prayers without work is part of our problems in Nigeria. …’ For a country that has lost its moral compass, Nigeria can learn solid lessons from Oloyede’s life of service, rectitude, and selflessness. Nigeria needs more Oloyedes and his determination to succeed in daunting assignments without losing focus offers hope for the country’s future.”

    The Nigerian Tribune, in its 11 October, 2024 editorial titled “Ishaq Oloyede: A profile in excellence” asserted: “IN a badly governed clime like Nigeria, there usually aren’t many heroes. But even the strictest of analysts would readily admit that Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede (CON, OFR), Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), is a hero by any standards. An academic and administrator par excellence, Oloyede comes across as one of those few Nigerians who have left giant [footprints] on the sands of time and hewn for themselves a pride of place in the history of nationhood.”

    The editorial continued: “At the helm of affairs in JAMB, an examining body whose leadership was at a time associated with mindboggling, monumental sleaze, Oloyede has earned plaudits as an administrator unflinchingly dedicated to the cause of probity, accountability and forthrightness, and as he turns 70, his story is one that inspires by the sheer resonance of its beauty, a shining light, as it were, in a dark terrain, and we join millions of Nigerians in acknowledging and celebrating his genius.”

    Moreover, the Nigerian Tribune editorial noted: “In his birthday tribute to Oloyede, President Bola Tinubu said: … ‘His impactful tenure at the University of Ilorin, during which he introduced landmark ideas and innovations that helped the institution attain enviable heights, is on record … Perhaps more remarkable is Prof. Oloyede’s transformative leadership at JAMB. He pioneered and sustained a series of reforms and technological innovations that have made the admission process in Nigeria transparent and credible. In his eight years of stewardship at the board, thus far, Prof. Oloyede has demonstrated an uncommon commitment to financial integrity and accountability in public service. He has also raised the bar in administration and management.”

    According to the editorial, “The president’s submission is hard to fault. As JAMB Registrar, Oloyede is credited with the creation of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG), a body tasked with ensuring that no one is discriminated against at any point in the board’s assessment and admission process on account of mobility challenges; the computer-based test, and the nine-key initiative, which simplifies the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by ensuring that candidates use only nine computer keys.”

    In addition, the Nigerian Tribune editorial declared: “[I]n a country where the ministries, departments and agencies of the government have acquired notoriety as cesspools of corruption, Oloyede’s JAMB has been a refreshing departure from the norm. The JAMB registrar has been keen to prove the fact that even today, honesty, as they say, is the best policy.”

    In its own 10 October, 2024 editorial titled “Prof Is-haq Oloyede at 70”, Vanguard said: “If you ask any discerning Nigerian why [their] country is backward instead of occupying its rightful place at the top in Africa and beyond, they will blame it on three factors: poor/bad leadership, corruption and lack of willingness or capacity to faithfully implement policies and plans. Prof Oloyede in his over 40 years of public service, has demonstrated sound leadership, capacity and integrity, and thus made the difference wherever he has found himself.”

    The editorial further noted: “Before his appointment as JAMB’s Registrar on August 9, 2016 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, Oloyede was known more for his outspoken and strong views as an Islamic scholar and activist. Indeed, many worried Nigerians read conspiratorial meanings into his appointment, especially given Buhari’s perceived religious and sectional tendencies. However, within one year, Oloyede’s administration at JAMB started making the news – surprisingly good news.” The editorial then remarked: “We appreciate Prof Oloyede, a Vanguard Newspapers exemplary public service award winner, for his services to the nation, and wish him many more happy birthdays.”

    According to the 10 October, 2024 editorial of The Sun titled “Is-haq Oloyede at 70,” “Some of the good qualities that stand this Professor of Islamic Studies out are his honesty, diligence and accountability. … In 2023, news went round that a young girl called Miss Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme had the highest score in that year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). She purportedly got 362 over 400. JAMB debunked the news, but Miss Ejikeme and some of her supporters drew daggers with the institution. Painstakingly, JAMB explained the examination processes and how Ejikeme falsified her results. When it dawned on the candidate that there was no escape route, she owned up to her forgery and apologized. This is part of the fruits of the sanitization of the admission processes into our universities which JAMB under Oloyede instituted.”

    The 10 October, 2024 editorial of Blueprint, titled “Tribute to Ishaq Oloyede at 70”, also stated: “Oloyede’s leadership is characterised by a commitment to merit, transparency, and accountability. His approach to governance appears to be deeply influenced by his background as an Islamic scholar and his strong spiritual convictions. These qualities, combined with his personal attributes of humility, humour, and sincerity, have earned him widespread respect and admiration.”

    The editorial further observed: “Oloyede’s contributions to education and public service have been widely recognised. He is a recipient of two national honours: Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 2014 and Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 2022. His other accolades include the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award and the Nigeria Excellence Award in Public Service (Education Category) in 2022.”

    The editorial then concluded: “Blueprint wishes Oloyede a joyous 70th birthday celebration. We express our gratitude for his continued meritorious service to Nigeria and humanity at large. His life and work serve as an inspiration, demonstrating the profound impact that integrity, dedication, and visionary leadership can have on public institutions and society as a whole.”

    The media have often been accused of propagating negative views about Nigeria and Nigerians.  It is as such gratifying that, with respect to positive performance by Professor Is-haq Oloyede, there is a rare consensus among four newspaper editorials published on his birthday, on 10 October, 2024, and two published the next day. This is apart from the several columnists who have been extolling his virtues. This is a testimony to the solidity of his reputation. It is thus hoped that a critical mass of Nigerians would find Professor Oloyede’s model attractive and easy enough to adopt to raise the quality of life in the country and enhance the nation’s international profile.   

  • Pension woes

    Pension woes

    The image of the miserable government pensioner has existed for a very long time now in Nigeria. An extreme manifestation of it has been that of pensioners collapsing, fainting or dying while in queues awaiting verification for the processing of their meagre entitlements years after the effective dates of their retirement. Presumably to mitigate the suffering of these and other pensioners – people who had spent the most active parts of their lives serving the nation diligently – the Pension Reform Act was established in 2004 and repealed and re-enacted in 2014.

    According to a National Pension Commission (PenCom) 2020 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document, “PenCom is the regulator and supervisor of all pension matters in Nigeria. It licenses all pension operators; issues regulations and guidelines; and ensures effective administration of all pension schemes in Nigeria.” The 2014 system is a Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). About this, the FAQs document states: “Under the CPS, both the employer and employee contribute certain percentages of the employee’s monthly emoluments to build a retirement fund from which benefits are paid at retirement while under the Defined Benefits (DB) Scheme, total pension obligation is borne by the employer.”

    Moreover, the PenCom publication notes: “The main objective of the CPS is to ensure that every person that worked in either the public or private sectors in Nigeria, including the self-employed persons, receives his/her retirement benefits as and when due.” Going by the experience of retirees, including one who called as this article was being prepared, “as and when due” is currently around two years of waiting. This is unacceptable. PenCom also declares in its document: “Unlike a bank account, the RSA can only be accessed at retirement, loss of job, medical incapacitation or in the event of death.”

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    It is important here to note that PENCOM’s promotional is “NATIONAL PENSION COMMISSION … Pension Guaranteed”. However, hardly could a day pass without a personal narration or media report of pension woes. The story has often been that of delay in pension payment leading to the inability to meet basic needs, including cost of healthcare. This is important when it is noted that some workers, for example university Professors, retire at the age of 70. This is the age at which people are most susceptible to debilitating health challenges and weakened capacity to withstand the vagaries of life. 

    In a country in which life expectancy as at 2022 was fixed at below 60 years by the National Bureau of Statistics, delaying payment of pension entitlements for as long as around two years for federal pensioners is a sure way of committing them to a pitiable existence. At their very vulnerable age, especially those who retire at the age of 70, deaths before the payment of pension entitlements are increasing. The pension entitlements are therefore increasingly becoming more of items of inheritance than facilities for pensioners to live well after service.

    It is this worrisome development that motivated the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) to organise a webinar on “Pension Administration in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Way Forward” on 26 September, 2024. Opening the webinar, the President of CONUA, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, noted that it is in its effort to contribute to the general good governance of Nigeria and the welfare of its members and other stakeholders in the Nigerian University System that the Council of National Officers of CONUA has deemed it fit to institute a regular webinar series.

    In these webinar series, important national issues are to be identified and brought up for interrogation by panels of specialists and resource persons and opportunities are provided for questions and answers by the concerned stakeholders and participants, and that the issue of retirement and pensions was considered as one of the most pressing issues facing public servants in contemporary Nigeria. The specific aims of the webinar were to prepare active workers for better life in retirement; to tackle obstacles retirees face; to proffer solutions to challenges of gratuities payment; and to ease the process of pensions payment.

    The webinar Moderators were Mrs. Romelia Esangbedo who is a Broadcast Journalist with Gemelia Consult Nigeria Ltd; Mr. Nelson Ayaebene-Nelson who is a Senior Programme Editor with TVC; Dr. Michael Awoleye who is a Senior Research Fellow, African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation, OAU, Ile-Ife; and Dr. Niyi Sunmonu who is CONUA’s National President. The Speakers and Resource Persons were Barrister Muhammad Sani Muhammad who is the Secretary and Legal Adviser of PenCom; Mr. Tobiloba Adenuga who is the Regional Manager (South West/South Central) at Stanbic IBTC Pensions; Mr. Femi Fagbohun who is Zonal Manager (South), Stanbic IBTC Pensions; and Mr. Ismaila Abdulsalam who is Head, Business Development (North), Premium Pensions.

    The Keynote Presentation was made by Barrister Muhammad Sani Muhammad of PenCom. He noted that in carrying out its regulatory role, PenCom carries along all stakeholders such as Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), National Union Pensioners (NUP), and so on. He further observed that the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) which was operated in Nigeria before 2004 was badly managed and created many problems and liabilities for both the government and pensioners. He also stated that in 2004, the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) was introduced through the 2004 Pension Reforms Act. He was of the view that the CPS has been a better, sustainable and fully funded scheme under the regulation of PenCom and activities of registered fund custodians and pension fund administrators (PFAs).

    According to him, the use of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) into which the employers pay monthly and the public servants also contribute monthly is one of the features of the CPS, and that the PFAs invest the funds and the accruals are remitted, consolidated and paid to the contributors at retirement. He said that Pensioners in the CPS can continue to draw their pensions while on post-retirement paid jobs. He however declared that pension regulations do not permit more than 25% withdrawal while still in service. He also identified the fact that PenCom is monitoring the investment of pension funds by the PFAs and that the security of the funds is guaranteed by this fact is an advantage of the scheme, but that the CPS is restricted to employees of treasury funded agencies.

    Barrister Muhammad also listed some of the notable problems with the implementation of the new pension scheme. These include the fact that (1) over the years, the government has not been up to date in its counterpart contributions, (2) residual legacy problems from the old pension scheme, (3) the National Assembly always cuts the appropriation meant for payment of pensioners, and (4) delay in releasing funds by the appropriate government agencies. Others are the fact that accruing benefits are not being easily harnessed by the contributors, pension accumulation and liabilities, lack of prompt remittance to PFAs, delays in promotions by MDAs, official corruption, and inadequate enlightenment about the Scheme.

    During the Question-and-Answer session of the Webinar, the following, among other issues, were interrogated: the need to increase percentage amount that can be withdrawn by RSA holder while still in active service from the existing 25% to 50%; the need for RSA holders to have information and say on the kind of investments that their funds can be utilised for; the need to ensure that PFAs do  not cheat the RSA holders from investment returns; the need for elasticity in the pension acts, laws and regulations; the need to consider right/choice of retired person to collect their full money at once after retirement instead of just 50% upfront and 50% as monthly pensions; the fear that the government may fail in the contributory pension scheme the way it failed during the pre-2004 period; and the possibility and ease of changing pension administrators by RSA holders.

    The Keynote Speaker from PenCom and representatives of Stanbic IBTC and Premium Pensions responded to these and other questions by allaying the fears of RSA holders. Among other things, it was emphasised that the CPS was introduced to protect the interest of retirees and that it is a work in progress which is open to constructive criticisms and capable of improvements in future amendments of its Act.

    The summary of submissions and recommendations at the Webinar include the following: (1) The government (executive and legislature) must treat pension fund appropriation as important as monthly salaries and wages. (2) The government must endeavour to promptly remit its counterpart monthly contributions to prevent failure of the CPS like its predecessor. (3) Wider consultations of stakeholders must be carried out in future pension reforms. (4) There must be voluntary agreement between employers and employees about alternative retirement benefits. (5) There must be regular reviews and reforms of pensions policies and regulations. (6) There must be multiple buckets. (7) There is a need to increase the percentage of retirement savings that can be accessed by contributors while still in active service. (8) There must be prior compilation of details of prospective retirees well ahead of the year of retirement. (9) Severance benefits must be mainstreamed and promoted by employers of labours. (10) All hands must be on deck to address the grey areas in CPS for more effective, seamless and timely payment of gratuities and access to pensions by retiring public servants. 

    In closing the webinar, the Chairperson of CONUA, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, chapter, Prof. Folasade Hunsu, noted that CONUA is poised for doing unionism with a difference and proffering solutions to problems facing the university education sector in particular and Nigeria in general; and this particular webinar was just the beginning. It is hoped that this town-and-gown effort would be sustained and the academia would continue to make itself more relevant to the efforts to make Nigeria a more livable country.

  • Oloyede: In a blaze of glory

    Oloyede: In a blaze of glory

    Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL), reached the Platinum age of 70 on Thursday, 10 October, 2024. His retirement from the services of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Ilorin, Kwara State, as a Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence, was one of the landmarks of that epochal day. 

    Professor Is-haq Oloyede is a multi-dimensional personality. He was a member of the Students Representative Council, a National President of the UNILORIN Alumni Association, an Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) stalwart, an active member of the UNILORIN Staff Club, a long-term member of the Governing Council of the university, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) and a Vice-Chancellor (VC). He was also the Chairman of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU).

    On Wednesday, 9 October, 2024, marking his retirement, he was invited to deliver the University Lecture for this year on the topic “Artificial intelligence and the future of the humanities.” Then on 10 October, 2024, the public presentation of two books in his honour occurred. The first book is titled Islamics, scholarship and service to society: A festschrift for Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, edited by Mahfouz A. Adedimeji and AbdulGafar O. Fahm. The second book is titled Glimpses into the giant: A tapestry of tributes to Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede at 70 and is edited by Mahfouz A. Adedimeji and published in 2024 by the Consortium of Universities in Kwara State (KU8+) and the University of Ilorin.

    When a person has attained Professor Oloyede’s kind of status, controversy becomes part of his essence, or even his tonic. Following his distinguished service as UNILORIN VC, he was appointed the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in 2016. This national recognition was met with vehement protest by ASUU.

    In a 15 August, 2016 press conference, the President of the union at the time, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said: “Given our inside knowledge of his anti-democratic and anti-union antecedents, Professor Oloyede is the last person that we expected to be so honoured with a national appointment of that status in the education sector.”  He also said: “The Union has resolved to lodge an official complaint with the appropriate authorities and to demand investigation into the activities of Oloyede while in office as VC of UNILORIN.”

    Some other critics had asked, “What can a Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies offer the nation in public examination matters?” Contrary to the expectation of cynics, Professor Oloyede has broken myths and shattered stereotypes; and his tenure as JAMB Registrar/CEO has proved to be indisputably the most innovative, most revolutionary and most prudent so far. Certainly, those who appointed him saw more in him than the ASUU hierarchy and his sundry critics could see.  

    Read Also: Tinubu eulogises JAMB Registrar Oloyede at 70

    He was also subjected to attack quite blatantly by ethnic and religious bigots. The seemingly misleadingly-named Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), was a classic example. An Igbo candidate Ms. Joy Mesoma Ejikeme had falsified her University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result to portray herself as the best performing student in the examination for 2023. Through JAMB’s diligence and efficient deployment of technology, the fraud was discovered.

    However, in its reaction, HURIWA framed the incident as that of a Muslim Yoruba head of JAMB who wanted to deny a Christian Igbo girl her well-deserved glory. Specifically, HURIWA, through its President, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said as follows at a press conference on 5 July, 2023: “The Islamic man that was made a JAMB head by former President Muhammadu Buhari is Igbophobic.” Other ethnic and religious bigots in high places jumped on to the HURIWA bandwagon. But as the English proverb says, “lies have short legs;” and so, in no time, the truth caught up with it, Mesoma confessed to the examination fraud, and Professor Is-haq Oloyede and JAMB were vindicated.

    Incidentally, Professor Mahfouz A. Adedimeji, the editor of the book of tributes and Vice-Chancellor of African School of Economics (the Pan-African University of Excellence), Abuja, noted in Professor Oloyede’s citation in the book: “Though well known as a devout Muslim, the former 1st National Vice-President of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria and current Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) is renowned for justice and fairness in dealing with people. Prof. Oloyede does what he preaches and preaches what he does. Ethnic sentiments have no meaning to him while merit is never sacrificed for religious affiliation.  For most part of his tenure as Vice-Chancellor, all of his Principal Officers were Christians.” As Professor Adedimeji further noted, “Prof. Oloyede has consulted for the World Council of Churches.”

    Moreover, the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Wahab O. Egbewole (SAN), observed as follows in the tributes: “The innovative streak of Prof. Oloyede is unbeatable at the University of Ilorin. It was under his watch that many Centres and Units were established. Indeed, the Centre for International Education and Advancement Centre were created for the advancement of knowledge and development of the University. As a man of law, he equally signed numerous Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) and Memoranda of Action (MOA) with many universities, international organisations and agencies and so on, to place the University on the global map. Professor Oloyede was also the initiator of the Association of West African Universities (AWAU) and a Board member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and International Association of Universities (IAU). Prof. Oloyede marketed the University of Ilorin locally, nationally and internationally.”

    Professor Yusuf Ali (SAN), former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Osun State University and former Chairman of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria (COPSUN), remarked as follows about Professor Oloyede in the foreword to the book of tributes: “Oloyede brings his ingenuity to bear on all the places and activities he led and has been called upon to render services. Mention the University of Ilorin, the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, you will be left in awe of how Allah has packed all the qualities described in the essays that make up this book in just one person.”

    In his case, Professor Salisu Shehu, the Vice-Chancellor, Al-Istiqamah University, Sumaila, Kano, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), noted: “As Oloyede was beckoned by fate to become the Secretary-General of the NSCIA (SG), so was I similarly fated to be appointed in 2016 as its Deputy Secretary-General (DSG). … My appointment as the DSG … availed me the opportunity to work closely with Prof. Oloyede and indeed to be under his direct mentoring and tutelage. … Working with Oloyede would reveal that although he is a scholar that is truly erudite … he is not an arm-chair academic that enjoys pontificating in his own intellectual utopia. He is a very practical and down to earth leader and administrator. … He abhors mediocrity, he distastes … fraudulent behaviour and he is not given to cowardice.”

    Professor Oloyede never suffers laggards gladly. According to a tribute to him by Professor Lateef Onireti Ibrahim, the Director, Centre for International Education, UNILORIN, his demand for “perfection, promptness, diligence, and appropriateness in everything” accounts for the discomfiture of those who could not measure up. Professor Rhoda O. Oduwaiye, of the Department of Educational Management, UNILORIN, a former National President of the UNILORIN Alumni Association, noted, in this regard, that at the end of Professor Oloyede’s  tenure as VC in the university, when asked the question “’What do you want to be remembered for?’; he replied, ‘Discipline.’” To achieve this, among other objectives, he deployed technology. For example, to monitor attendance at Senate meetings, he introduced electronic entry into the chambers.

    Professor Is-haq Oloyede holds his personal relationships very dearly, and continues to be very comfortable in the company of even those with whom he attended the madrassa in his youth. According to Michelle Obama, former American First Lady, a position of influence doesn’t change who you are; it only reveals who you are. An amazingly empathetic, outstandingly generous, yet exemplarily prudent man, when it comes to speaking the truth, Professor Oloyede spares neither friend nor foe.

    In an 8 October, 2024 tribute by Mr. Kunle Akogun, Director, Corporate Affairs, UNILORIN, titled “Inside Prof Ishaq Oloyede’s 70 years of impactful service career, By Kunle Akogun”, in Premium Times, he said: “In the face of a national feeling of hopelessness, despondency and unending apprehension over whether anything good could ever come out of Nigeria, fuelled by a near general belief that the country is probably primed for failure or even decidedly doomed to perdition, the actions of a few exceptional Nigerians tend to elicit a glimmer of exultation. The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is one of these rare breed Nigerians, who have rejected the way we do things here and are frantically proving to us all that Nigeria … can indeed be made to work for Nigerians, function properly and take its rightful place in the committee of sane nations.”

    Similarly, Mallam Aliu Badmus, the Proprietor of Iqra Group of Schools, Ilorin, asserts in the book of tributes: “It is [people] like Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede that move the world forward and he has shown this convincingly. Despite the great odds, under his watch, University of Ilorin became truly ‘better by far’ (ascended to the 1st position in web raking of Nigerian universities) and JAMB attained global reckoning among examination bodies. This gives us hope

    that Nigeria is not beyond redemption, if Allah spares the life of Professor Is-haq Oloyede for long with sound health to enable him to do more for the country; and also makes many more people in positions to emulate him.” 

    Kenyans call their late President Daniel Arap Moi “the Political Giraffe” for his capacity to see far politically; and Professor Is-haq Oloyede may as well be called an ‘Intellectual Giraffe’ for his capacity to project very far into the future academically. He has himself benefited from this gift of vision; and so have his family, friends, associates and mentees. He has met this Socrates requirement: “Let [those] who would move the world, first move [themselves].” Then he has lived by this Booker T. Washington principle: “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Professor Oloyede has lifted up very many people and he has himself ended up constantly upward bound.

    As Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede exits UNILORIN in a blaze of glory, this is wishing the trailblazer a grace-filled retirement life and renewed vigour as he continues to offer distinguished service to the nation as the Registrar/CEO of JAMB and in various other capacities.