The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

SNAPSONGS 199

Warflames (1)

Humanity must perforce prey on itself,

Like monsters of the deep*.

Once again, old scars have festered

  Into new wounds. Snakes half scorched

Are hissing like lethal drones in sleepless nights

     Resurgent madness contains the streets

Warflames in the Middle East

     Warflames in the Black Sea basin

Lethal rockets in the evening sky like

     Christmas fireworks of careless children

Towers tumble like hapless matchboxes

     Sane streets twist into a metal mesh

Beneath the rubble which now rules the roads,

     Aloud, the inaudible screams of

The dead, the living-dead

     Whose living rooms have suddenly

Turned into fiery graves; countless babies

     Whose corpses coil like question marks

Between the benighted pages

     Of crushing concrete slabs. Whole cities

Pummeled into toxic powder: this glittering

     Race back to medieval darkness

Those who roast in this blaze are just

     A fatal fraction of a world undone by its heat

From the Black Sea to the Mediterranean

     Fishes fry in broiling waters

Humanity must perforce prey on itself,

Like monsters of the deep*.

“The extraordinary majesty of our ordinance!”

     Exclaims a tv news anchor, his eyes aglow

With patriotic fervour. ”Our men will do it in no time

     And be back here in the shortest order”

A truly majestic night it was

Read Also: Fed Govt launches release of 4,068 inmates

     With the awe in the ordinance wreaking hell

Under another sky: wasted cities, damaged dreams

     The widowing, orphaning majesty of

Blind bombs and their blinder makers

     Arrogant arogunyo* for whom

Bloody war is video game

     Whose endless thirst is watered

By tears from foreign fronts

     The armoury is full

The rockets are rocking

     The banks overflow with crimson profit

Endless cycles of senseless wars

     Of partial peace-brokers

With broken Truth between their teeth

     Striving to douse little fires with bigger ones

They nail Justice to the Cross

     Then wonder why Violence never leaves their doorsteps

They who only bow in the Temple of Power

     To the cannibal majesty of Supreme Awedinance

* William Shakespeare   King Lear, Act 4, Scene 2.

** War monger

                 (Continued next week)

November 19, 2023
Oshiomhole right on Imo, Ajaero and NLC strike

For two harrowing days last week, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) subjected Nigerians to a national strike called mainly to protest the brutalisation of their president, Joe Ajaero. They were disturbed by the federal government’s nonchalance in dealing with the hoodlums who beat up the NLC president weeks ago in Imo State. Before the national strike, the unions had first plunged Imo State into darkness by cutting electricity supply to the state. They also promised to sustain the punishment until certain conditions were met. They held the state by its jugular. When those conditions were not met, the unions escalated the crisis to the national level by punishing the entire country for two days over issues completely unrelated to the other 35 states. Union leaders were unanimous over the issue of the brutalisation of their president, and everyone who disagreed with them or commented on the crisis had first prefaced their disagreement or comment with a condemnation of the attack on Mr Ajaero.

This writer refused to join the bandwagon last week of assuaging the unions. He commented on the NLC/TUC strike decision without first pouring libation at the unions’ shrine. Mr Ajaero was intemperate and his judgement poor, the writer had concluded. And by brazenly displaying partisanship and believing himself to be the embodiment of the union, the writer also argued, Mr Ajaero had attracted the insults and assault by the state’s homegrown enforcers. There was no dignity to his statements regarding the dispute between some public sector workers in the state and the government, nor was his boisterous and unguarded action in trying to arm-twist the state to achieve partisan ends defensible. Fortunately, even before the unions called off their strike, which lasted only two undignified and reckless days, Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North – APC) had staked his reputation and legacy by denouncing the unions for elevating local and even personal issues to a national problem. The senator did his best to smother his unease with the unions’ misjudgement. He didn’t quite succeed, for, unlike many of his dissembling colleagues and the pussyfooting federal government, it was clear where he stood.

Last Thursday Sen. Oshiomhole was on Channels Television to speak on the strike issue again, especially because he had raised a few eyebrows in his earlier stance a day or two before. Having been president of the NLC between 1999 and 2007, the Edo senator was naturally expected to be sympathetic to the unions’ position. But if he disagreed with their strike response, they thought he should be loth to oppose his former comrades publicly. However, on Channels Tv, the senator denounced the strike, deplored the trivialisation of the sacred instrument of trade union activism, and wondered why Mr Aajero was so unabashedly partisan to the point of even equating himself with the NLC. Leadership, the senator counseled, involved the capacity to sacrifice personal comforts and operate magisterially above the common level and routine indignity. He then delved into the beginnings of the Imo stalemate and explained that as a matter of fact, the fracture in the Imo NLC leadership, which the state exploited, was traceable to Mr Ajaero’s obtruding personality and refusal to let the state chapter order their own affairs.

What probably upset Sen. Oshiomhole the most was Mr Ajaero’s flagrant partisanship and absolute lack of moderation and restraint. The elections were over, he said, and commonsense required that everyone and every union, particularly the NLC which advocates better living conditions for workers, needed to support the efforts to revivify the country’s distressed economy. Many analysts, including this writer, had told the unreflective NLC president this truth many times, but he has remained intransigent. This is where Sen. Oshiomhole’s public rebuke of the NLC leaders becomes relevant. If Mr Ajaero and the TUC president who cried more than the bereaved last week still have the humility to profit from good advice, they should reflect on what their former president said last week. It is now more urgent than before that the unions must take responsibility for electing sound leaders. It is not enough to just elect fiery rhetoricians and hell-raisers; they also need to diligently assess candidates for leadership, men and women of sound judgement able to decipher the most complex of issues pertaining to labour and their wellbeing.

Sen. Oshiomhole has done the unions a great service by opposing their excesses from within, both as a friend and committed unionist. The unions should not wait for their enemies to undermine them. Outsiders could be more merciless. By denouncing the unions’ methods and rationalisations publicly and eloquently, the Edo senator showed why he was a successful union leader, engaging politician, and governor for two terms; and he is well on the way to becoming one of Nigeria’s highly impactful senators. He has done well as a unionist and politician, and from all indications, he will continue to do impressively well in anything he does. Sen. Oshiomhole is of course not a theoretician, and his ideological leaning, which seems left of centre, is more practical and eclectic than theoretical. But he has often effortlessly come to conclusions which far more educated public servants and politicians come to laboriously and without certainty. Not only does he speak very well and with self-assured panache, and is capable of sustaining his logic and coherence of thought over the distance, he is also principled, thoughtful and admirably consistent.

Read Also: Fed Govt seeks more lands for irrigation farming in states

His private ethics may be a different thing altogether, and he is also probably generous in his dalliances; but he is not alone when his principles are juxtaposed with the private scruples of his colleagues in the other arms of government. Sen. Oshiomhole will not throw the first stone knowing what his house is made of. And when it comes to such arcane matters as developing the next generation of leaders for his state or promoting a successor, he may exhibit weak knees and flustered hands. In fact, he may come across as less strategic and futuristic than his otherwise brilliant qualities would presuppose. But as far as public service is concerned, whether as union leader, or party leader, or governor, there are not many as gifted as he is. Even the self-satisfied Godwin Obaseki, the current Edo governor, cannot hold the candle to him. Indeed, whether the senator is deferential or not, he seems exactly the kind of man, party leader or politician who should have the president’s or senate president’s ear.

But will Mr Ajaero listen to Sen. Oshiomhole on how not to mix politics with unionism? It is doubtful. The NLC president will have to be compelled by union executives to clean up his act. He will not do it willingly; nay, he cannot do it because he does not have it in him to paddle the union canoe with the moderation and intellect it deserves and demands. He meddled in the Imo chapter of the NLC, caused disaffection in the state chapter as a result of preferring one over the other, and has begun in recent weeks to feel megalomaniacally competent to build or to demolish anything that catches his fancy. After the Labour Party suffered a crushing defeat in the February presidential poll despite exploitating regional and religious sentiments and expectations, Mr Ajaero took leave of his senses and began to whoop hysterically. His party’s candidate, Peter Obi, ever the rational trader, briefly abandoned reason too but quickly reminded himself that there was a future to consider, and that such a future could not be built on the parsimony that formed the core of his cynical politics. Mr Obi’s running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, for reasons unclear to both politics and science, has disturbingly walked the entire gamut of extremism.

Mr Ajaero is unlikely to moderate anytime soon, assuming he has the poise. He claimed not to hold a party card. He is just being disingenuous. He is as partisan as they come. He is a dyed-in-the-wool LP patron, and would as soon commit a felony for the sake of LP as foment a rebellion for his favoured candidates within the NLC. TUC’s Festus Usifo had always seemed a stoical and reflective union leader, especially in the early weeks of the Bola Tinubu presidency when the LP and Mr Ajaero, instigated by shadowy characters, tried to instigate street revolt against the new administration and democracy. Mr Usifo was unconvinced that the right thing to do was subvert democracy so early in the life of a new administration. But when he took up the gauntlet and led last week’s fight to redress Mr Ajaero’s battered body and image, it was thought that he was propelled by nobility. But when told that the National Industrial Court (NIC) order prohibiting the unions from protesting was still subsisting, he insinuated that the order could be disobeyed because the federal government was itself serially disobedient. It takes one small act or statement to take the measure of a leader. Mr Usifo has determined who he is. He may not be as recalcitrant as Mr Ajaero or as dismissive and conspiratorial, but it is impossible to imbue him with more than his ambition.

With more gifted and courageous polemicists like Sen. Oshiomhole, there is yet hope that in the cut and thrust of Nigerian politics, there will always be enough men and women who can be counted to be the conscience of the nation. He was short on tactics and strategies when he led his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), but he is not short on sound judgement when it counts, nor devoid of the chutzpah required to give counsels that resonate on the national scene. He has rebuked and counseled the unions under Mr Ajaero; it is up to them to listen and take corrections. If they will not, it will not dampen the enthusiasm of the senator, nor vitiate the import of his reproofs; it will, however, be on record that someone spoke up in good faith as the unions careened into the abyss.

November 19, 2023
2027 mergers: Atiku wise after the fact

Last week, former vice president and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February presidential poll, Atiku Abubakar, gradually and finally began to embrace the dismal reality of electoral rejection. He and his supporters had initially insisted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) rigged the poll and got INEC to install President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner, thereby demonising the electoral commission and anyone and any organisation which drew attention to the fact that disunity in the PDP cost the opposition the election. He completely ignored what most analysts said about the poll, and shouted himself hoarse over the illusions that kept him from admitting the truth. Now, he has begun to equivocate.

On Tuesday, while hosting the Inter-Party Advisory Council Nigeria (IPAC), he curiously admitted the indispensability of unity among opposition parties as a precondition for dislodging the APC in the next elections. Before the February poll, the PDP had split into four factions, three of which presented presidential candidates and scored a combined total of 14.58 million votes to the APC’s 8.79m. Rather than the opposition hugging shadows, any reasonable analyst could easily surmise that the PDP undid itself. Well, better late than never. Alhaji Atiku is now calling opposition parties to unite in the face of what seemed like political suicide for the PDP in 2027. But whether he has the political capital left at close to 77 years old to inspire that unity is another thing entirely. There is, however, nothing wrong with finally embracing reality and projecting ambition.

Read Also: FG to engage guards to secure over 853KM coastline, 10,000 perimeters waterways

Speaking to his visitors, he advised: “The project of protecting democracy in our country is not about just one man. You have come here today to say that we should cooperate in order to promote democracy. But the truth of the matter is that our democracy is fast becoming a one-party system; and, of course, you know that when we have a one party system, we should just forget about democracy. We have all seen how the APC is increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party. If we don’t come together to challenge what the ruling party is trying to create, our democracy will suffer for it, and the consequences of it will affect the generations yet unborn.”

As sensible as his latest admissions seem to be, he has again shown how superficial he has become. Alhaji Atiku has run for the highest office about six times, and on at least two occasions missed the diadem narrowly. Yet, it is strange that his knowledge of the world and his understanding of global politics, not to say the many variants of democracy that exist, lead him unquestionably to the anachronistic conclusion that only Western-type multiparty democracy qualifies to be described as democracy. Much more importantly, apart from his customary deception demonstrated in his quest for opposition unity, he argues that the APC is ‘increasingly turning’ Nigeria into a one-party state. How? He doesn’t say. Clearly, it is just one of his usual exaggerations designed to frighten and stampede the parties into the unity they casually repudiated months ago.

Unfortunately, while still addressing his IPAC guests, he kept harping on the conclusion that APC rigged the presidential poll, in total disregard for the logical premises he had just presented before his hosts to justify political merger. His stock has waned considerably, and he is unlikely to get the merger he hankers after. There may be some mergers in the years ahead among the opposition, but at over 80 years old, he will not be the one to inspire it or take advantage of it. Instead of promoting internal and comprehensive reform in the PDP immediately after his electoral loss, he had initially embarked on totally extraneous fishing expeditions to the United States to delegitimise the poll, scandalise the judiciary, and taint the image of the country before the whole world. Both the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), which he hoped to ally with, and perhaps with him at the head of the coalition, have snubbed his efforts. They see him as ossified and outdated. He will be shocked to see in the next one year how quickly the party reforms itself while consigning him to the periphery.

November 19, 2023
Gov Adeleke flouts NJC, Industrial Court

Last Thursday, Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State finally suspended the state’s chief judge, Justice Oyebola Adepele-Ojo. He rested the suspension on the State House of Assembly resolution asking the judge to step aside pending investigations into allegations of abuse of power, misconduct, corruption, and subversion of the rule of law. When the controversy swirling around the chief judge began, she headed for the National Industrial Court (NIC) which granted an interim injunction restraining the governor from removing her. The court also adjourned the case till December 12 for hearing. But the governor’s spokesman, Olawale Rasheed, announced her removal and hinged it on the legislature.

Like everything else about Osun, state policies and decisions are not often based on carefully debated and well thought-out rationalisations. Opposition parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), have accused the state government of mediocre performance as well as outsourcing governor’s powers to unelected officials. The governor denies the allegations, but he has been unable to explain why he is avoiding Government House in Osogbo, or why one of his siblings seemed to be acting in his place in everything but the ceremonial. By suspending the chief judge, a fact he is said to have denied, Mr Adeleke easily flouts constitutional provisions regarding the discipline of judges, and bypasses the National Judicial Council (NJC) on which the authority to discipline judges is vested.

By next week, it will be clear whether the governor has changed his mind on the suspension of the chief judge or whether he has simply bought time. But there is no doubt that apart from his spokesman issuing a statement indicating that the chief judge had been suspended, the House of Assembly had also passed a resolution asking for her suspension from office. It is, however, strange that both the legislature and the executive could plead ignorance of constitutional provisions regarding the removal of judges. The constitution is unambiguous on the subject. The absence of ambiguity has, however, not deterred some state governments from flouting the constitution and disregarding the NJC.

Read Also: Fed Govt seeks more lands for irrigation farming in states

Removal of chief judges has been litigated up to the Supreme Court. But despite such judicial history, it is surprising that Osun State has not learnt any lesson on the futility of abridging the process. In 2018, the Kogi State government and legislature removed Justice Nasir Ajanah and the chief registrar of the High Court, Yahaya Adamu. In deciding the case in 2019, Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, who had adjudicated a similar case in 2008 when the then Kogi State chief judge Umaru Ali Eri was removed by the legislature, established as follows: “The issue that arises here is the first question formulated by the claimants which is whether or not the defendants can jointly on their own validly remove the 1st claimant as the Chief Judge of Kogi State. The fact that the 1st claimant is a Judicial Officer within the meaning of section 318 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), is not in doubt. He is also the Head of Kogi State Judiciary. By item 21 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the National Judicial Council (NJC) is the body empowered to exercise disciplinary control over all Judicial Officers of Nigeria. It is also the said National Judicial Council established under Section 153 (1) of the Constitution (as amended) that has the power to recommend to the Governor, the removal of a Judicial Officer. Where a Chief Judge of a State is to be removed, for whatever reason, it is the National Judicial Council, not a state House of Assembly, that is empowered to make recommendations to the Governor of a State under item 21(d) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution. In Elelu-Habeeb v. A.G. Federation & Ors, the Supreme Court held: ‘It is after the recommendation of the 2nd appellant under paragraph 21 (d) of part 1 of the 3rd schedule has been made to the State Governor that the provisions of Section 292 (1) (a) (ii) comes into operation.’

“In this case, there is evidence that the 4th defendant had approached the National Judicial Council, through a petition (Exhibit D), over this matter. The defendants ought to exercise patience to await the outcome of the petition. To allow only the House of Assembly and the Governor of a State to remove the Chief Judge of a State or any Judicial Officer for that matter, without the input of the National Judicial Council (NJC), will be monstrous and outrageous, as it is capable of destroying the very substratum of justice and introducing a system of servitude, utterly inconsistent with the constitutional independence of judges. It is all about the independence of the Judiciary, which must be preserved! In some climes, the battle for independence of the Judiciary had been won, though, not on a platter of gold, but had been the work of ages to establish, and the sacrifices of courageous men to attain. In Nigeria, it is still a work in progress. I answer the first question with a negative. The defendants cannot, either jointly or unilaterally, validly exercise any power of disciplinary control by way of removal of the 1st claimant from office as Chief Judge of Kogi State…”

Should Mr Adeleke fail to retrace his steps, he will plunge Osun into a judicial crisis. Neither he nor the House of Assembly has the power they have appropriated to themselves. Even if they contrive a long stalemate by refusing to reverse themselves, they will still come to grief eventually, for they have no constitutional leg to stand on. The Osun governor is known to be inattentive to policy matters, especially when they are complicated and nuanced. In the suspension of the state’s chief judge, he may have snarled himself in a needless crisis, regardless of whatever political undercurrents inform the move.

November 19, 2023
Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi again

Last week, this writer suggested in another place that the APC would win Imo while the PDP would take Bayelsa. He also suggested that the APC was undeserving of victory in Kogi, regardless of the political and ethnic permutations of the state. The outcomes of the off-cycle November 11 polls in the three states bore out these predictions. The elections might have been fiddled with a little, but no matter what arithmetic the courts use, including deducting excess votes or adding uncounted votes, APC will still keep Imo, and PDP, Bayelsa.

Read Also: No more strike in varsities, Tinubu declares

The sticky point still remains Kogi State where abominable politics and balloting took place. Kogi governor Yahaya Bello may have done enough to pocket Kogi Central senatorial district votes for his preferred candidate, but there is no moral or political justification whatsoever to present his hometown man to succeed him. Kogi East cast that ugly precedent in granite; now they are also reaping the benefits of unobtrusive unfairness. As indeed the trusting and seemingly conniving Kogi West voters will discover in four years’ time when they encounter the fickleness of Governor Bello and Governor-elect Usman Ododo, the incentive to be fair in Kogi hardly exists.

November 19, 2023
Chief Marketing Officer represents brand Nigeria to Saudis

It was another week spent in active public service to all Nigerians, home and abroad, by President Bola Tinubu, though most of that week was spent abroad. You will recall I announced his plans to attend the Saudi-Africa Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Well, he was in Saudi Arabia most part of the week, exactly one week in the country that hosts the Holy City of Makkah, and transacted business on behalf of Nigeria and Nigerians, with God and men.

While in Saudi, the wheel of the state did not ground to a halt, I think to make this point, because he ensured to put people of intellect and intuition in charge, led by his trusted friend and lieutenant, Vice President Kashim Shettima, who was leading the charge back home, so the Jagaban was focused on the task that took him far away from home.

Almost immediately he was done with the general reason for the trip, being the Saudi-African Summit, the President jumped on the next train to the venues of other primary security and economic issues affecting Nigeria. The first was the Nigeria-Saudi Investment Roundtable, still in Riyadh.

At this roundtable, which was well attended by both Nigerian and Saudi public and private representatives, the President gave a passionate reassurance to the Saudis. Above everything, he told them of how his administration is removing impediments to smooth and profitable business climate in the country, through policy changes and realignments, and categorically told them “Nigeria is open for business”.

At this forum, besides an array of relevant government functionaries, there were dozens of chief executive officers from several Saudi conglomerates, specializing in construction, finance, new and traditional energy, healthcare, agriculture, electric power, mining, aviation, telecommunications, creative arts, and hospitality were present and made their exploratory pitches to President Tinubu on areas of tangible collaboration.

Then on Sunday, November 12, the Jagaban headed for the Holy City of Makkah, where he, along with his entourage, performed the lesser Hajj (Umrah). He expressed his excitement about seeking God’s face on Nigeria’s behalf, as President, while speaking to the Nigerian Television Authority’s (NTA) Musbau Dan-Wahab, saying he was in Makkah for the first time after his election as President, to thank God for answering his prayers and those of Nigerians, at the elections. He went on to pray for the country on the new path it is following.

“For Nigeria, may our prosperity grow, and may humanity be kind to each of us. The prospect of the country is yet to blossom to the level that we require. It needs hard work and consistent prayers and we’re giving it our mind and our spirit in every way possible. Our strength is in our diversity and we’ll continue to build on that for the prospect and the sake of the country”, he said.

Then on Tuesday, November 14, after he had rested from the work of faith at the Great Mosque, also known as Masjid al-Haram, President Tinubu went on, in Makkah, to meet the authorities at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), to advance negotiations on a multi-billion dollar infrastructure finance facility from the bank. This finance facility, according to a statement issued by the President’s spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, will service the funding of a multi-sectoral portfolio of infrastructural projects at both the national and sub-national levels of the country.

Read Also: Sanwo-Olu unveils ‘Perfect Lagos Selfies’

It was at this meeting that the leadership of the IsDB, led by the bank’s Vice President in charge of Country Programmes, Dr Mansur Muhtar, revealed that the banking world has been watching recent positive developments in Nigeria and has come to the conclusion that our country has come of age and is ready for business, a reason the bank believes Nigeria, as the largest market and economy on the African continent, will take a lion’s share of a new investment vote worth $50 billion by the Arab Coordination Group (ACG) for African countries.

“Mr. President, we know you inherited a very tough set of circumstances. It is to your credit that you have taken very bold steps without delay. We are ready to work with you. We are ready to support big investments in Nigeria. We agree that if Nigeria succeeds, Africa succeeds. And the world needs Africa to succeed.

“The Islamic Development Bank President announced the provision of $50 billion U.S. Dollars of new investment for the African continent from the Arab Coordination Group (ACG). This was announced at the Saudi-Arab-African Economic Summit. As the largest market and the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria will certainly receive a significant share. We look forward to supporting Nigeria’s economic transformation”, Muhtar said.

The Saudi outing has generally received acceptance and praises from various shades of opinions and interests globally, described as a major achievement of the Bola Tinubu administration that must be celebrated. At home, people from various backgrounds, especially those in the business, trade and investment world, who really understand what the President is doing very well, have been giving positive reviews of the events that transpired in Saudi.

A strong voice among Nigerian youths, who has vehemently followed and highlighted President Tinubu’s achievements on his X handle, Wale Adedayo, who also identifies himself as Pro-Nigerian, while commenting on Jagaban’s speech at the Nigeria-Saudi Investment Roundtable, described him as Nigeria’s Chief Marketer and added “if this man keeps selling Nigeria like this, he will do third term”.

Also reviewing the various engagements the President had in Saudi, Eguando Tone Jeff, a Public Affair Commentator, particularly highlighted how he was able to earn the trust of the Saudi and other Arabia businessmen in just one trip.

“Personally, I think his outing was successful, if you ask me. I was proudly watching him telling them and the world we are open for business, removing bottlenecks and restating the role he played as a Deloitte member of staff in building the Saudi State Oil giant, Aramco. That again gives confidence to the Saudis and most willing investors in the Arab world that this President is one who is business minded and can be trusted with their funds and investments. You noticed the ease the Saudis pledged to make investments in some critical areas of our economy? It’s because Jagaban is trusted”, Eguando said.

Builder Bolaji Olaye, an Abuja-based businessman and housing expert, while undertaking an evaluation of the President’s outing in Saudi Arabia, located how the President’s marketing to Saudi Arabia government and business world will positively tell on the Nigerian economy and his particular sector, directly. He expressed some eagerness to see the investment hunting bear fruits for him directly.

“Aside the announcement by the Saudi’s Crown Prince, HRH Mohammad bin Salman, that the Arab nation has pledged to invest in the revamp of Nigeria’s refineries, as well as provide financial support to sustain the government’s foreign exchange reforms, one part that excites me the most is the affirmation and assurances by Saudi Arabia’s Trade and Investment Minister, Kahlid El-Falih, that his nation is poised and their investment community willing and ready to invest across several sectors of the Nigerian economy. To further show their readiness, he hinted that he will be visiting Nigeria later this year in company of Saudi’s Minister of Commerce with a very large delegation of Saudi CEOs from all key sectors.

“In the industry of mass housing development and as a private developer myself, access to finance is a critical factor in the provision of affordable housing for masses of Nigerians and that at an affordable interest rate, would be immensely beneficial for both the developers and the would-be beneficiaries of such houses.

“With the announcement of a multi-billion dollar of new investments coming into Nigeria from the Islamic Development Bank for funding multi-sectoral portfolio of infrastructure projects across Nigeria, of which mass housing would be a major sector for investment, President Tinubu’s visit to Riyadh is indeed a positive development for the nation and I am seriously looking forward to this substantial new investments yielding positive fruits across several sectors of our nation’s economy”, he said.

Then on Thursday, Jagaban, who is also the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, landed in Guinea-Bissau to honour President Umaro Sissoco Embalo’s invitation to the country’s 50th Independence Day Anniversary. His presence at the event was particularly significant for democracy, especially in Africa, considering the trend recently witnessed in West Africa. His message on his verified X handle aptly depicted his reason for attending: “Today, I joined President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of Guinea Bissau and other world leaders to commemorate the country’s 50th Independence in Bissau. Nigeria remains committed to supporting peace and democracy, not only in Guinea Bissau, but the rest of West Africa, and the world”.

He is starting this week in Germany, where he arrived yesterday to participate in the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) Conference in Berlin. In Germany, he is expected to come back with more goods, for the benefit of all Nigerians.

A Note on Ribadu

You must definitely have also noted how strongly the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has been serving the nation, with merits, since he assumed office, the most recent of which was the way he brought the organized Labour’s nationwide strike to an end within hours. Many people might not have known that in the last few Government-Labour interactions on sorting out issues trailing fuel subsidy removal, NSA Ribadu has constantly been a stabilizing factor, who has managed to get Labour’s understanding. He did it during the week when Labour started a nationwide strike on Tuesday and Ribadu got them to end it Wednesday evening. This happened while the ‘Landlord’ was away in Saudi Arabia

He has been proving himself relevant and as a strategic asset to the nation. Ribadu has again proven the whispers about the President’s talent hunting skills. Baba always knows what people are good for and never misses on getting the best hands to work with. Let’s give it up for Ribadu, another skillful negotiator.

November 19, 2023
An afternoon for Femi Olugbile

To the cavernous bowel of the NIIA auditorium this wet and windy Wednesday afternoon for the launch of Femi Olugbile’s fictional tribute to Madam Alimotu Pelewura, an iconic avatar of Nigeria’s anti-colonial struggle and one of those amazing women regularly thrown up by Nigeria’s turbulent history. In the event, it turned out to be a literary tour de force as well as a cultural and historical moveable feast.

The audience that came to honour Olugbile this pleasant afternoon was an A-grade list of the illustrious who have reached the pinnacle of their profession and have made some difference to their society. The chairman of the occasion was Dr Patrick Dele Cole, diplomat, top state bureaucrat and accomplished pen pusher in his own right.

The father of the day was Alhaji Musiliu Adeola Adekunbi Smith, former Inspector General of the Police and lately Chairman of the Police Service Commission. An urbane and quintessential Lagosian gentleman, the former top cop wondered aloud as to why he should be the father of the day when there were far older people in the gathering.

The reviewer was the irrepressible JK Randle, one of the nation’s top notch accountants and author of many fascinating books in his own right. In all likelihood, Randle will be remembered as a notable writer who also did sums.

A royal splash was added by the Oniru, Oba Abdulwasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, who has made a seamless transition from former top cop and former commissioner to the preeminent paterfamilias of his people. There were also Dr Abayomi Finnih, Fola Adeola and the boss of Emzor Pharmaceutics, Stella Okojie, a formidable matriarch in her own right who made a stirring pitch for the rights of women.

Quiet, contemplative and self-effacing, Olugbile can also be an indignant and abrasive fellow when rubbed the wrong way. A psychiatrist at the cutting edge of his profession, Olugbile has acquired a massive reputation as one of Nigeria’s finest and most accomplished writers. It is polished writing at the very summit of the trade: finely honed and well-nuanced, with a hint of public school prim.

    Olugbile wields his pen like a surgeon’s scalpel: poised, surgical and lancing with delicate precision. It is writing meant for the aficionados and impresarios of the trade. Overtly apolitical and deliberately uncontroversial, he avoids drawing blood, as if he has seen enough of this on the operating table. The literary pugilist will search in vain for the savage putdown or the sledgehammer dismissal.

     Ever since he burst on the scene with his 1986 collection of short stories, titled Lonely Men which won the Association of Nigerian Authors’ prize for prose fiction for that year, Olugbile has not looked back, writing newspaper columns and publishing other works of fiction including Batolica and the outstanding Heroes and Others.

Sigismund Freud, the great pioneering psychoanalyst, often worshipped Fyodor Dostoevsky, the revered Russian novelist, as his master and mentor when it came to the deep probing of the human psyche. When you add a dash of Anton Chekhov, the gifted Russian writer who was himself a trained physician to this mix, you get a hint of Olugbile’s illustrious precursors.

    The psychoanalyst can only add clinical certainty and clarity to what a creative artist with the fecundity of imagination had already glimpsed as he plumbs the deep catacombs of the human conundrum. If he tarries, the artist himself becomes mere collateral damage, a casualty of the maze. And so does the clinical psychiatrist. According to a character in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Cancer Ward, the greatest affliction that can befall a doctor is to suffer an illness in his own area of specialization.

   Perish the thought, Olugbile is far from the road to Aro. But his professional affiliations seem to confer a special terrorist status on him. It is a profoundly ironic development. In a land of the noble and upright, the psychiatrist is seen as a friendly healer, welcomed with relief by all. But in a society bristling with deviants of the highest order and at the top echelons, furtive glances are exchanged whenever the word psychiatrist is mentioned.

   Consequently, a Foucauldian chill descended on the hall last Wednesday whenever the dreaded word dropped from somebody. Setting the pace was no less a person than the chairman of the occasion who in his jokey, self-depreciating manner let it be known that he ultimately consented to chairing the occasion out of the fear of being declared “mad” if he had refused.

Another guest, Sigismund Oludoye Fernandez, seasoned administrator and a scion of the notable Fernandez clan who was a member of the interviewing board that gave Olugbile his first job as a certified psychiatrist, also noted rather warily that he could not afford to miss the august gathering in honour of Olugbile out of the fear of being sectioned. Innocent jokes have a way of reflecting general turmoil and anxieties.

Read Also: Tinubu will reposition economy for progress- Minister

Gimlet-eyed, soaking up all the plaudits and the occasionally cagey commendations of his professional distinctions was the author himself, a figure of Olympian rectitude and steely forbearance. There is always something mildly unnerving about Olugbile’s calm composure and placid comportment. Like an ancient deity of his people, the author hides it all behind a wall of reticence and veiled bemusement.

This writer must now confess that he once let Olugbile on to the case of his bosom friend who had puzzled and confounded him to no end since university days at Ife. Billionaire, philanthropist and a leading patron of the arts and prime culture, our man is also an indefatigable non-conformist from his days as a student union activist at Ife. Within a few years of graduation, he had made a dramatic transition as a leading boardroom guru where he continues to ply his devil may care, irreverent trade.

As the chairman of a committee to present his unusual memoir to the public, yours sincerely decided to invite Olugbile to solve a psychoanalytical conundrum for posterity. In his memoir, the rebel magnate with a touch of Croesus had described his political and business praxis as an example of positive deviance.

Yours sincerely described it as creative neurosis so imbued with emotional intelligence and gutsy nous that it would have been impossible to stop the fellow from reaching the pinnacle of his trade, no matter the adverse circumstances. Unlike his bookworm hidebound contemporaries, our man was already seeing beyond his fellow students and teachers alike who were unable to think out of the box.

The Civic Centre banquet hall came aglow that morning as Olugbile mounted the rostrum. Having reviewed the facts and the evidence, Olugbile concluded that what was before him was a classic case of positive psychosis. It was the hallmark of genius. The audience, including the sovereign of Ondo township, Oba Kiladejo, himself a noted medical practitioner, erupted in applause. A few days later, my friend called and insisted on meeting the remarkable psychiatrist.

    It can be said that the practice of psychiatry has helped Olugbile a lot in his literary endeavours. Deploying a technique which can be justly described as de-estrangement, the writer relentlessly chips and chisels away at the subject matter from all angles until he gets to the heart of the matter. It is literary creativity on the couch.

   This technique is very much in evidence in this remarkable fictionalized biography of an equally remarkable woman. The result is an outstanding work of art which is at the same time a historical and cultural tour de force. The Alimotu Pelewura that comes alive on these pages is a woman of uncommon grace, compassion, civility, courage and fearless patriotism.

   The reviewer, Basorun J.K Randle, takes a mild and genial umbrage at Olugbile’s unrelenting capacity to conflate history with fiction and to fictionalize actual history. In the psychiatrist’s alchemy, fiction is historicized and history is fictionalized.

    On a closer scrutiny, J.K Randle would have noticed his own illustrious grandfather, the eminent physician, explaining to the bemused Pelewura the surgical procedure for removing a particularly nasty fibroid tissue from her womb. The dialogue may be flat and flaccid but both Pelewura and Dr Randle are on the same page and in the right place, too.

   So is Femi Olugbile’s feel for native politics in the colonial period which remains unfailingly acute. The Randle progenitor was an integral part of the anticolonial turmoil which convulsed the Lagos colony for almost a century.

Originally a Pharmacy Assistant, the then Mr Randle was handed a severe rebuke by an European doctor for daring to raise an alarm about the humongous dosage the doctor was giving a native patient. Randle resigned his appointment over this colonial contumely and headed abroad and to Edinburgh University. He did not return until he had qualified as a medical practitioner.

    This is not a literary review. That can come later. It is the celebration of the life of an amazon, an unlettered female avatar who rose from very humble beginnings as a fishmonger to the pinnacle of power and glory. Nigeria’s colonial and postcolonial history has the knack of throwing up remarkable specimens of the female species. It is a trend that has continued till date.

   After a particularly grueling encounter with the Ahomey invaders, the Egba warriors decided to take the corpse of one of their tormentors to their base. Upon close examination after stripping the body of charms and other escutcheons of war, they discovered that it was a woman. Thereupon the war chiefs concluded that it would amount to a mortal affront to Egba national pride to be defeated by an army of women. They rejoined the battle with greater ferocity and drove the invaders out of town.

   From Efunsetan Aniwura who was gruesomely executed on the orders of Aare Latosa, the Ibadan generalissimo, through Madam Tinubu who was expelled from Lagos to later day heroines of resistance against external and internal colonialism such as Funmilayo Ransome- Kuti, Humani Alaga, Abibat Mogaji, Madam Bisoye Tejuoso and Kudirat Abiola, the Nigerian political firmament continues to throw up these amazing amazons. This fictional recall of one of them, Alimotu Pelewura by Femi Olugbile, is a major tribute to these heroic exemplars. May their brood continue to grow.

November 19, 2023
Okon cooks for Dino

As they say, man pikin be man pikin. You cannot summon the tiger to devour a badly behaved chap. No one can be completely useless, at least they can always serve as an ignoble example of ignominy. Readers will be surprised that this weathered lothario was not completely averse to Dino Melaye until he crossed certain borders of gender civility and sensitivity in the senate which showed him up as an uncouth, ill-bred lout.

But even then, yours sincerely retains a sneaking fascination for the rogue politico from the Yoruba plains of Kogi State. On a good day, and given his tendency for histrionics and ham-acting, the totally self-absorbed but self-mismanaging politician is a good copy for social media scavengers and other hyenas of the underground press. But man must whack even after a historic drubbing.

A day after the resounding shellacking his gubernatorial bid received in the hands of the Kogi Kaiser, Yahaya Bello, and his Amalgamated Army of Ebira Revanchists, Dino was seen in public shedding tons of tears and verbiage as usual. After collecting their pay cheques, the crowd had thinned even further.

The poor boy seems to have a great future firmly behind him. A notable Kogi philosopher who claims to be a distant uncle of Dino from their Aiyetoro Gbede enclave once rued with usual cerebral acumen that if Dino does not harm politics, politics will harm him. That day of reckoning seems to be upon us.

Last Wednesday, Okon, the ultimate undertaker, was sighted carrying two full cans with exaggerated caution. Having earlier declared an industrial dispute over pay matters and other emoluments, yours sincerely thought that it might well be that the mad boy had come to put finishing touches and torches to the entire household. He was followed by a drunken Baba Lekki who was chanting war songs and ancient ditties from Odolaiye Aremu brimming with sly innuendoes and subversive animosities.

“Okon what is that you are carrying?” yours sincerely demanded rather fearfully.

“ Ha oga, na tears from dem yeye Dino boy. Him cry sotey he come fill four cans”, the mad boy retorted with sadistic relish. “I tell you dem crazy boy sabi cry well well and him com dey sound like dem trailer wey him engine come knock as he dey climb Miliki Hill for Enugu”.

“So what do you want to do with Dino’s tears?” one asked the mad boy mightily relieved.

“ Ha oga, I wan use am cook amala for dem poor boy”, the mad boy retorted.

Read Also: Sanwo-Olu unveils ‘Perfect Lagos Selfies’

“ Okon dat one no be amala again oo, na dat one dem dey call amulumala”, Baba Lekki snorted as he burst into a deranged fit of convulsive laughter which reminded one of asthmatic baboons in the jungle.

“Baba wetin be amulumulu again? You don come with your Yoruba jibiti again?” Okon crowed.

“Ha!! Omo were!! Na dat one dem dey call omipojoka or water pass yam flour. Wetin kukuruku small boy like you sabi?” Baba Lekki crowed as he began singing and dancing to a classic tune from the unforgettable Odolaiye Aremu.

Ti won bape e wa gberu awon

B’eru o bati danu

Afi b’eleru o safira

Tio safira ooo

Afi b’eleru o safira.

The ancient crook was quite a sight to behold as he cantered forward and capered sideway like a possessed votary of some ancient deity. The mad boy cut short his celebration.

“Baba as dem thing dey sweet you pass anything, make you no forget say dem use one stone finish two birds for Kogi. As dem finish Dino, dem don finish him people oo. He sweet me say Yoruba people no fit see power for dem place again lai lai”, the crazy boy sneered.

“Kai, kai Okon na dem IBB and dem Daura man cause dat one. Thunder fire all of them”, the old man screamed and vanished into the shadow leaving Okon to carry his cans of tears.

November 19, 2023
Money can’t buy me love

It is often said these days that what goes round, comes around. A few Sundays ago, the series of articles about money began with the title of a song which was made popular on a global scale and because many things go round, it is appropriate to at least complete the circle with another song about money which again the Beatles turned into a monster hit. After saying Money – that’s what I want, they turned round to dismiss the very idea of money by saying that Money can’t buy me love. It is pertinent to point out that like the other song, this song also came out of Tamla Motown and is not a Beatles original. Anyway, for all our love of money, we are reminded that after all said and done, money cannot buy love. That saying is open to contention but whichever way you stand in the matter, it has to be said that money cannot take you all the way all the time. Another musical icon who had something weighty to say about money was the evergreen Bob Marley who on his deathbed declared with great authority that money cannot buy life. He certainly knew what he was talking about because if money could buy his life, he certainly had enough of it to buy just one life, his own.

There are many, especially those who have very little money of their own who confidently declare that money cannot buy happiness and since in the final analysis what we all want is happiness, then the limit of money can never be regarded as being far enough to justify all the effort that people make to lay hands on a large store of money. An appropriate riposte to the argument about money and happiness is that money can buy you a lot of things that can make you happy. At the very least, it can make it possible for you to make other people deliriously happy by giving them enough money to make it possible for some of their wishes to come true. From personal experience, I know that my generousity index goes up in tandem with the amount of money in my pockets. Ask me for any amount, however small of money at the wrong time of the month and I am likely to react as if I have been stung by a particularly unfriendly insect in the category of a wasp. On the other hand, when I can hear the jingling of money in my pockets, I am likely to part with some of it with a tight little smile on my lips. Ladies married to impecunious Nigerian professors such as I have been for far too long will nod their collective head in agreement with the point I have made here. I am of the opinion that money can buy you love, happiness and many other things beside. Try persuading a geriatric multimillionaire of the truth of this statement and you will be barking up the wrong tree. You may think that the young supermodel with a figure to die for hanging on his ancient arm is just an item of decoration but the small army of doctors at his beck and call may, but for patient -doctor confidentiality consideration, disabuse your mind of that error. There really is no end to what money can buy under the right set of circumstances. That is why it is true to say, money, that’s what I want as the Beatles most famously affirmed in that song.

It is often said that money is the root of all evil and there are so many examples of the veracity of this statement that it is not worth arguing over. This is why the men who built their fortunes in what has now been described as the Gilded Age in the USA will, for all time be referred to as robber barons, ruthless early capitalists who accumulated stupendous wealth through the brutal exploitation of prevailing circumstances and their fellow men. In an age when money in individual pockets was as scarce as hen’s teeth, these men appropriated to themselves more millions of dollars than they could be reasonably expected to spend in a million life times. The men who made up this caste were a small handful and were represented in popular folk lore by Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt. They built up huge fortunes which are still being enlarged more than a century after they died. Ironically, they all gave away so much of their fortunes to charitable causes that they are now known more for the charitable foundations which bear their names than for their rapaciousness as business men. For all their charity however, they still epitomise the Yoruba assertion to the effect that great wealth is built on a foundation of filth. The validity of this assertion is so strong that you can assume that the extravagant wealth being displayed by your neighbour is camouflage for a shameful secret or indeed a catalogue of shameful deeds for which penance should be done.

It has to be said however that some people just have a talent or a penchant for making money. Indeed, everything they touch turns to gold in the manner of the mythical King Midas who was so far captivated by the beauty of gold that he could not get enough of this precious metal. In his desperation for more and more gold, he prayed for the power to turn everything he touched into gold. To his great delight, his wish was granted and he was transported into his own version of heaven when he discovered that he could turn anything to gold with a touch. He enjoyed himself immensely until the time came for him to eat and the food placed in front of him turned into gold as soon as he touched it and instantly became inedible. Just as the seriousness of his condition dawned on him his daughter whom he loved even more than gold came into his golden presence but as soon as he returned her hug, she was instantly turned into a gold statue! His previous elation was instantly wiped away and he prayed that his power be revoked so that he could eat and have his precious daughter back. This may be the reason why the robber barons strongly felt the need to make restitution for the way and manner by which they acquired their enormous wealth and were impelled to give most of it away. It is in keeping true to type that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, two of the richest men in the world today have declared their resolve to give most of their wealth to charity. After all, there is only so much that an individual, however profligate can consume in one lifetime however long it is. In the end, when confronted with their impending mortality, hardly anyone will depart the world with the thoughts of their wealth on their mind. The rest is vanity, as empty as the vacuum into which they are being sucked and where they are forgotten distressingly sooner rather than later.

Read Also: Sanwo-Olu unveils ‘Perfect Lagos Selfies’

When the colonialists arrived in Africa to take over their respective inheritance from the infamous Berlin conference, they were dismayed to find a rudimentary currency system. This was not to their liking as their primary mission was to exploit their colonies maximally and without a currency with which to run their economy, their intentions were likely to be thwarted. It was therefore imperative that those cowries and manilas with which the colonised people carried on their trade be phased out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the colonial coins which were to replace local currency were in very short supply. Indeed, those foreign coins circulated only within restricted government circles which meant that only those who dealt directly colonial institutions had any real money. Such people; court officials, teachers, railway workers, clerks and other minor actors were paid in the new coins and were instantly elevated far above the common herd who had to navigate somehow, the mine field of colonial officialdom. These people formed the nascent elite class, playing both sides against the middle and making off with as much of the money available as they could without landing in jail. These formed the first members of the elite class which has expanded relentlessly to include the multitude that have, in present circumstances, become so disillusioned by their dwindling share of what is sharable in Nigeria that they are packing their bags and going off in continuous search for coins to places where they perceive the grass to be greener. On the same scale, the underclass, those who do not have two coins to rub together, are having to deal with the shortage of everything that make lives tolerable. In other words, our so called economy is in tatters and countless lives are being rubbished by a shortage of funds. Surely, a little more money will expand their happiness index to the level of the inflow of money into their pockets.

With money in such short supply and inflation, rampant inflation for that matter making a mockery of whatever sum is in your pocket, people are concerned more than ever to grab unto themselves more than their fair share of the money available. Just as it was at the dawn of the colonial age. It is now a case of the end justifying the means. Many of the fortunes, if not the overwhelming majority were created by corruption, so much so that this is the fuel which powers the engine that runs this country. Virtually everyone, especially those operating within the public domain are corrupt but the private system is not far behind. Think of any group of Nigerians including those in the so called liberal professions and you will find that corruption rules. Each one is corrupt to the limit of their opportunity to loot the public treasury. Funds which are meant for societal development are simply looted and in some cases buried in a convenient soak-away pit, now instantly converted into a bank vault. Were just half of such monies to be retrieved from wherever they are concealed, our economy would rise from the ashes. After all, the sum of $12 billion has been known to simply disappear from government account in those heydays of the first Gulf War. Were such a sum of money to be injected into our economy today, the precipitous slide in the value of the Naira would not only be halted but reversed promptly.

Not too long ago, ladies in certain parts of the country had to mount guard on their laundry spread out to dry. This was because their underwear had suddenly become a target for thieves who had somehow come to the bizarre conclusion that it was possible to use lacy underwear to create money. The craze of stealing freshly laundered underwear has quietly faded away as suddenly as it cropped up and young ladies can now go back to the days when their underwear were not a target for the attention of petty thieves.

On the other hand, there is the far more serious matter of stealing and killing people in the unfathomable belief that body parts can be made to conjure up money, lots of currency notes to convert yesterday’s pauper into a fabulously wealthy person today. Now, that is a depth of nastiness to which no member of a modern society should stoop to. But unfortunately, this is a reality with which we have to grapple a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century. It is a grisly reality which is fatal to far too many young ladies. In other parts of the world, people are killed to provide body parts; kidneys, lungs, livers and eyes to be transplanted into ailing but rich people who need these parts, no questions asked. Here, people are simply butchered, some choice parts especially breasts and genitalia removed and the rest of the body buried in the proverbial shallow graves which are now being discovered with distressing frequency all over the place. People are now having to take stern precaution to prevent grave robbers from digging up their recently dead relatives so that their organs would not be harvested and somehow be converted into currency notes. These truly alarming beliefs and practices stem from ignorance of the dynamics of money and unfortunately, the practitioners of these evil practices would not have availed themselves of the opportunity of reading these articles on money, to disabuse their evil, little minds of the error of their ways.

November 19, 2023
All sleeping and facing in one direction

NLC & TUC

When Emefiele confiscated Naira and hunger and death swept across the land, these AJAERO SIAMESE TWINS were not in Nigeria.

They were in WONDERLAND” – a trending WhatsApp snapshot.

Many Igbo friends of mine often think I am denigrating them (never, denigrate a whole over – achieving race, both here at home in Nigeria and Diasporan?), when I say that Igbos literally all sleep and face in one direction.

On the contrary, I say that, when I do, to show admiration for how mostly ‘ad idem’, they always are, on matters concerning Igbo interest, regardless of where in Igbo land they hail from.

Witness, for instance, the near unanimity that IPOB’S ‘Sit At Home on Mondays’ enjoys as a potent instrument in the Biafran actualisation effort, and

compare it with the near total disdain Yorubas extended to a chivalrous Sunday Igboho whose dream of a brand new Oduduwa Republic they tossed in the winds, even when they knew the yeoman’s sacrifices, blood and tears, he invested in his Yoruba Nation effort; almost losing his dear life in the process.

That is a major difference between the two principal ethnic groups, South of River Niger, and it reflects, to a considerable extent, the politics of both.

While in the Southwest you would find elders, even an Acting Leader of the region’s leading Socio- Cultural Organisation, literally setting fire to the group he putatively leads, while celebrating to high heavens, and endorsing everything belonging to the other almost diametrically opposed ethnic group, whereas, you will hardly ever find any persons of substance behave in that manner, amongst those he genuflects to.

It is beyond shameful.

Many have argued, though, that this is majorly the case because of the fear that one may, willy nilly, prematurely answer his maker’s call, if he/ she foolishly goes outside groupthink.

The result is that you hardly ever find, among the Yoruba, the near unanimity you quite easily see among Igbos.

To be able to freely choose like the Yoruba, for example, you will either have to decide to damn the consequences of your action, or be made in the mould of a David Umahi, a Hope Uzodinma, or perhaps, an Uzor Orji Kalu. That, they say, is the only way you can freely make your personal political choices, without having a lingering fear of some brutal consequences. Many Igbo will deny this, anyway.

But it is so obvious.

The absence of these negative consequences accounts for why, there is a lot of freedom of choice, or seeming non unanimity on issues, among the Yoruba. Neither ethnic nor religious consideration constrains Yorubas in their choice of who to marry, what political party to join, or vote for, or the name to give their child.

None of these is simple among the Igbo if you do not wish to be hauled before the ancestors, or worse..

The Igbo cultural/ political practice is that powerful and universal and feared or respected.

For the same factors, some things enjoy near unanimous support in the East which should ordinarily have been better examined if people enjoy freedom of choice.

A good example is Peter Obi and the Igbo wholesale support for the Labour party which saw the party cleaning the votes in favour of Obi in the Presidential election int all the Southeast states.

You would think that the people have forgotten Obi’s years as Anambra state governor –

a time in Anambra state when non- Anambrarian Igbos were deprived of their jobs and sent home, when Anglicans, and non Catholic Christians were literally declared persona non grata and treated harshly, only a little less than Hausa traders who were ex- communicated from Anambra and banished to Delta state; so traumatised His Majesty, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, had to come all the way to Anambra state to plead with the plenipotentiary on behalf of the Northerners but without success.

Read Also: Tinubu will reposition economy for progress- Minister

But even if the people had remembered all these before the votes were cast on February 25, it would still have been dangerous to vote any party other than Labour; at least, not if you do not want your head hanged in the market place.

While that was about partisan politics, almost the same groupthink has just happened in the Ajaero fiasco.

NLC President, Joe Ajaero believing he had to take off their anti – Tinubu war from where the judiciary left it, decided to, coyly, rail road the NLC & the TUC, into the war some Igbo Intellectuals, home and abroad, have already commenced on behalf of Peter Obi.

It is another phase they intend to engage in till 2027, that is, if they cannot subordinate extra – democratic forces to their side to effect a change of government earlier.

Their media acolytes are, of course, not yet tired as Sam Amadi showed on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Thursday, 16 November, waxing much more lyrical than their unionist counterparts, calling Senator Adam Oshiomhole, the indomitable Union leader and ‘Professor of trade unionism’ where the Ajaero’s of this world are floor members, names.

He even had the effrontery to suggest that Oshiomhole should apologise to Ajaero.

Infradig!

Regarding this part of the article, I crave the indulgence of my readers to press into service, the versatile Ajibola Omole(author “Newsgrid

Uyo Political Series) in what he titled ‘Ajaero And His Activities’.

He wrote:

“Tinubu cannot be paternalistic to Ajaero like Buhari, who

paternalistically allowed Nnamdi Kanu to rage, and rant, instigating disaffection against certain sections of the country as well as individuals, and causing incalculable destruction to his own peóple, apart from setting up a parallel security outfit before he was picked up in Kenya.

Tinubu’s government, perhaps for reasons of being new, is intolerably developing a leadership weakness while Ajaero is fast becoming a national security risk.

It is time security agencies look into his activities which are a threat against the state.

His take over of the Abuja international airport should be seen as a direct threat to state security for which he should be made to face the consequences.

The man is no longer into labour activities but active partisan politics, with a clear intent to overwhelm the country and instigate a change of government.

Security agencies must now invite Ajaero and his co – conspirators before it is too late, as obtaining court injuctions each time he threatens the country, is obviously not the solution. He has to be shown that there is only one elected national government, and source of power in Nigeria.

November 19, 2023