The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Letting poor breathe looks like conditional cash transfers

    It was another week of events and other hectic engagements for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and they were targeted at the achievement of the Renewed Hope Agenda of his administration. Right from Monday, when he presided over the second edition of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of his administration, Jagaban has kept the pace of activities tight, receiving briefings from top government officials who oversee various departments and agencies under them.

    Besides the updates from public officials, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), ministers and chief executive officers of agencies, the President also hosted many official and courtesy visits, some by governors, others by local and diplomatic callers. He also made a number of new appointments across sectors and all of these will come under mentions before the end of this piece, but first let us talk about what made the Jagaban’s week tick.

    He had loads of events during the week in review, but the launch of the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer initiative on Tuesday got the star sign. It gained the star position because of the acclaims and reviews garnered along the week. In most quarters, especially those who understand socioeconomics, this initiative, which is not a new way of handling the issues of poverty in the developing parts of the world, the RHACCT initiative, if allowed to run as designed and intended, will change a lot about the nation’s poverty index and ultimately the economy.

    You will recall that the President had given a hint to this launch when he addressed Nigerians on Independence Day. Nigeria is going through one of its most try periods and it is at this time that the forces of Nature have placed him at the helms of affairs, perhaps because he was actually designed for this purpose; like Moses of the Israelites, whose purpose was to break the Egyptian bounds on his people, Bola Tinubu of Nigeria has come at a time like this, when the strings have become tightest and all hells are about breaking loose, to come as the beacon in these very dark hours.

    “There is no joy in seeing the people of this nation shoulder burdens that should have been shed years ago. I wish today’s difficulties did not exist. But we must endure if we are to reach the good side of our future. Commencing this month, the social safety net is being extended through the expansion of cash transfer programs to an additional 15 million vulnerable households”, were the words defining the significant launch of the RHACCT initiative on Tuesday.

    The President is compassionate, as attested to by those closest to him or who have suckled from his milk of human kindness, but he has also proven to be a single-minded pursuer of purpose. Though he derives no joy in seeing his people hurt, he also knows this is time to heal the nation from the injuries of mismanagement and the havocs of corruption, so though he feels what Nigerians feel, the pain of labour is not enough reason to abort the joy of a successful delivery. 

    The N1.125 trillion-valued programme, schemed to be run under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, according to Dr Betta Edu, the Minister superintending over the Humanitarian Ministry, is aimed at taking financial relief to about 61 million Nigerians, belonging to 15 million households nationwide.

    “He, today, is matching words with actions, to mark this day for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the President, who is ably represented by the SGF, would be flagging off the disbursement of N25,000 to 15 million households in Nigeria and this is expected to happen for three months. So in total, 15 million households will be receiving N75,000 over a space of three months. This equates to about 61 million Nigerians directly benefiting from the conditional cash transfer”, Edu explained during the launching.

    Of course, Nigerians always have their opinions of every policy coming from government and rightly so, the direct and indirect effects of such policies end with them. From feelers, the initiative has been received very well from the quarters of the proposed beneficiaries. However, fine as the programme seems, opinion molders still have their reservations and have been suggesting steps to take to make it a success.

    Mallam Bolaji Lawal, a Port Harcourt-based former banker, who is now a farmer, said though he would naturally vote against ‘cash donations’ from public purses in Nigeria, conditional cash transfer is not peculiar to Nigeria. His hope in this new initiative though is the man behind it; President Bola Tinubu, the ‘Idan gan-gan’, who has proven he has as way to do everything differently, to make a success out of journeys that have failed with others.   

    “I don’t believe in it. Not because there is anything wrong with the intent of the policy but because similar policies in the last 24 years never got to the intended, the poor. However President Tinubu has proven time and time again that he is a magic, recent example of his magic is the clearing of backlog of International Passports. It will be a big relief to the poor if the Tinubu Magic is extended to the conditional cash transfer.

    “A way to change the story of highly placed Nigerians hijacking palliatives for the poor is for government to look at the NIN policy again, so it can improve the overall economy of Nigeria like it did in India”, Mallam Lawal said.

    Though it was a cheering development, the RHACCT launch was not the only event of the week. As a matter of fact, there were quite a number of them witnessed across the week. Like it was reflected earlier, the second FEC meeting held on Monday and besides the fact that serious national issues were discussed, the President swore in three more ministers. Dr Jamila Ibrahim-Bio and Ayodele Olawande were inaugurated as Minister of Youth and Minister of State for Youth, respectively, while Alhaji Balarabe Abbas Lawal, was inaugurated a Minister of Environment.

    At the end of the FEC meeting, ministers, coordinated by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, briefed on some of the approvals granted. While the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, informed of the approval granted to apply for World Bank’s Budget Support Loan of $1.5 billion and an African Development Bank’s (AfDB) $800 million financing for the Ekiti Knowledge Zone (EKZ) project, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, informed of the approval for a N26 trillion expenditure bill for the 2024 Budget, among others.

    Read Also: Ex-militants seek pipeline protection contract for Ondo, Ogun, Lagos

    Besides the FEC meeting and its fruits, it was another week with rains of appointments. Right from Tuesday, the President has been fixing people in various offices, starting with the appointment of a new management team for the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), with Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu as Chairman, pending the Senate’s confirmation. He also appointed Clifford Okwudiri Oparaodu as Secretary of the Commission.

    Same Tuesday, he appointed former Permanent Secretary of the State House, Alhaji Jalal Ahmad Arabi, as acting Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON); and Alhaji Ahmed Galadima Aminu as acting Executive Secretary (ES) of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).

    Then on Wednesday, because his administration’s focus in the education sector is towards the development of the skills-oriented academic institutions, Jagaban instructed the Minister of Education, Dr Mamman Tahir, to announce the approval of a phased take-off of six of the fourteen institutions approved in the last administration. The Minister explained that they will be those specialised in Education, Agriculture and Health.

    It started raining appointments on Thursday again as he released, through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, ten more names for critical appointments. While eight agencies of the Ministry of Information and National Orientation got new heads, both the Bank of Industry and National Agricultural Development Fund got their own too. Friday did not escape the rain of appointments as he appointed a new Auditor-General, in the person of Mr Shaakaa Chira, as well as approved Mr Adewale Adeniyi’s confirmation as the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service.

    Perhaps the most cheering development of Friday, at least for those in the segments the organised Labour affected. As the day was closing, the President announced two waivers on salaries withheld on the grounds of No work-No pay order. First it was an exceptional waiver for the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), for a 17 strike and the it was the turn of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), with partial waiver for four months’ pay out of eight. Some have described this as another show of his magnanimity, especially considering the times.

    A random though from the streets:

    Just a random thought on the Asiwaju’s administration, like from the beginning of it, then these suffocating socioeconomic realities that have attended the good-intentioned efforts he has invested in his dream of a stable and strong Nigeria, some people are really becoming excited about what they anticipate. One of such people is Dauda al-Hassan, a former civil servant and Abuja resident.

    In a one-on-one conversation, al-Hassan, who was in one of the defunct federal agencies, said he is beginning to feel hope again because of what he has heard of the activities of the Tinubu administration in recent times, despite the extremely biting conditions around him. He said he has endured years of hunger, but that he feels government’s policies are about to unlock his comfort and contentment to him.

    “Walahi I feel like my prayers are about to be answered. With all I hear Tinubu has been doing, I believe things will soon be soft, at least feeding will not be a problem again. I feel if all these policies and plans work, in the next two years we should be able to forget we ever suffered like this. I believe by then the Naira should be strong enough and holding should give you confidence.

    Even if it is just for these last few days’ efforts, Nigeria is already hoping to reap some dividends, which will translate to some comfortable. Tinubu has done a lot in a very short time, it is just for us to wait for the maturation of all the efforts and if the tempo is sustained, it’s just a matter of time before all those that have ‘japaed’ start coming back to identify with their country”, al-Hassan said.

    It is the beginning of a new work week, let’s how this one pans out.

  • BAO: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

    Monday 16 October, 2023 , Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, more popularly known as BAO, confidently waltzed into his second year as governor of Ekiti state – the land of honour – Ile Iyi, Ile eye. He has deservedly, been celebrated to high heavens as a cool, calm and highly focused administrator, with many plaudits credited to him in his one year in office. And to parody the trending GLO BEREKETE TV advert, I loudly proclaim: ‘And I say BAO never finish o!’ He is actually just starting.

    Interestingly some of the writers of those articles celebrating him showed that they actually do not know the man, close up, and probably knew him only after he achieved high office. Of course, they need feel no remorse at that because, even at his desk, as Secretary to the State Government, Biodun remained a self- effacing gentleman, even though, an untiring workhorse in that high octave and very critical office.

    He simply had no alternative to being as calm and collected. He is, after all, the protege of two of Ekiti’s best, and most consequential, governors, each of who deservedly earned the sobriquet Omoluabi, and was remarkable for hard, impactful service to the people of Ekiti state.

    Let us take Governor Kayode Fayemi, for instance, under who BAO served as Commissioner in two different portfolios, and later, as Secretary to the Government.

    I remember this occasion, which I had once written about on these pages when, at about 1.30 am sometimes in 2013, I asked him what he was still doing, pouring over files in his office at that ungodly hour and it was his good friend, the much missed, late Professor Abubakar Momoh, who replied by saying that working that late, even all night, has become a habit for both Kayode, and himself, since their gruelling pro – democracy days in the u. K. BAO must, certainly, have severally been with governor Fayemi far past 1.30.am, still fast at work on serious state matters.

    Even though it goes without saying that Oyebanji is well bred, that is, from home, his almost unparalleled respect for people, young and old, must have a lot to do with his long tutelage under the Omoluabi governor, per excellence, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, whose Chief of Staff he was, just as governor Fayemi’s natural, decent and quiet mien, must have positively robbed off on him.

    I have this interesting story about Governor Fayemi’s

    imperturbability which leads me to boldly say that, but for politics, he would most probably have been an introvert, his involvement in student union politics not withstanding.

    Many people know how close I am to him. I was, therefore, being assailed by many, asking me to advise him to play politics like politicians, that is, be loud and publicity seeking, even atimes winding down his car windows half way, and furiously waving to the public as he drove past. Knowing him, it took me some time to so advise him. But

    Very genuinely astounded when I did, he let out a guffaw; after which he now told me: “Oga, se e fe ki nma se politics bi Oshoko ni? meaning, do you really want me to play politics like Oshoko?

    What this means is that BAO, warm and welcoming as he is, you will never see him being unduly exuberant, or seeking after public applause. He is cut from an entirely different cloth.

    BAO showed his potentialities very early, serving as early as in his 20’s, as Secretary to the Chief Deji Fasuan – led Committee for the creation of Ekiti.

    I have arrived Ado – Ekiti highly agitated one Friday morning during the hectic days after the primaries which produced BAO and headed straight to my Uncle, Chief Deji Fasuan’s house. That was because of the things I was hearing, even in faraway Lagos, concerning on which candidate’s side Ado -Ekiti was leaning; an indigene of the town having been named as deputy governorship candidate by another political party.

    There was/is, a reason for my fears concerning which side Ado – Ekiti was supporting. And it is this:

    In order to resolve the extremely contentious senatorial contest for Ekiti Central in 2011 which involved the trio of Dele Alake, Opeyemi Bamidele and Femi Ojudu, three of Ekiti’s most politically astute youngmen, the party had a final meeting of about 12 of us at which the late Governor Dele Olumilua presided. Two other governors, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi were also present.

    Otunba Adebayo was backing Opeyemi but he couldn’t fault Governor Fayemi’s position that the party could only disdain Ado – Ekiti, whose son, Ojudu he was backing, with dire consequences, come the real elections.

    Even though the meeting was inconclusive, I remain convinced till today, that I was not the only attendee who went away from the meeting with a perfect understanding of Ado- Ekiti’s position in any election in Ekiti.

    Let me digress briefly to dilate on what that event should teach our young politicians especially in Ekiti about patience, and allowing God to dominate in their affairs.

    By the time I invited the 3 gentlemen to have a chat with them, Dele had already left for Lagos, abandoning everything and I pleaded with the duo of Femi and Opeyemi to be patient, and allow peace reign during the re – run election slated for the following day. In reality, Governor Fayemi was aware that I phoned our present President, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the party leader, to urge him to advise ‘his two Boys’, to demonstrate restraint during the re- run election the following day because each side was armed to the teeth.

    As of today, God has given each of the three gentlemen the opportunity to serve Ekiti and Nigeria at the National level: Dele as current minister of Solid Mineral Development, and the remaining two as distinguished senators of the Federal Republic. I haven’t the slightest doubt that the mature, and calculating, politician that Femi Ojudu is, he will soon find his way back into political reckoning.

    For budding Ekiti politicians, therefore, I would like to leave for them, the following words by Dele Alake, as he opted out of the senatorial contest: “

    “When I joined the race for the senatorial seat in Ekiti, I was motivated by the higher ideal of offering service and quality representation to the people of Ekiti Central Senatorial District in particular, Ekiti State and Nigeria in general”.

    Read Also: Ex-militants seek pipeline protection contract for Ondo, Ogun, Lagos

    “I felt that my God-given intellect, talent, elocution, erudition and articulation, experience, exposure, knowledge and vision would be best put to the service of my people in the National Assembly through a clean electoral process”.

    “I did not envisage that an intra-party primary could degenerate into malpractices, fraud, violence and brigandage”. “I do not believe that in order to serve the people you either have to induce them with money, buy their conscience or resort to thuggery, hooliganism and brigandage. I strongly believed that if one wants to serve, you offer yourself and convince the people with ideas, programmes,

    plans and your manifesto”.

    “In the light of this and after due consultations with well-meaning Nigerians across the geo-political divides, and given the fact that I subscribed to the principle and value of playing the game by the rule, and also the fact that I cherish the quality of my name, status, stature and my image , I have decided not to be part of any such arrangement because there is no guarantee that the same thing will not occur again”. “Politics, for me, is not a do-or-die affair. I , therefore, withdraw my participation.”

    How nice would it be if this ‘Alake Mantra’ could become the Credo of all our politicians in Ekiti state.

    I digress.

    The pole position Ado – Ekiti enjoys in elections in the state was why I headed to Chief Fasuan to have a better understanding of what exctly was going on.

    “Femi, wo de de ni ni o, being our Are – Afao – Ekiti way of saying ‘Femi you have come again o”. “Okay, give me some two minutes”.

    He, thereupon, telephoned His Royal Majesty, the Ewi of Ado – Ekiti, Oba

    Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe Aladesanmi III CON, who himself played a leading role in the struggle for the creation of the state.

    I overheard Kabiyesi recall Biodun’s yeoman’s efforts as Secretary of the Baba Fasuan – led committee, saying that the young man deserved to reap from where he sowed and concluded that his people are with him in his support for BAO.

    By the time they finished their discussion, all my fears were gone. Hurray! Oyebanji was their man in Ado – Ekiti and that really gladdened me..

    Besides Governor Fayemi, I would be mightily surprised if anybody, before me, saw BAO as the most appropriate person to succeed him, or mentioned it.

    As a writer, and close to government, even though not a government official, I have seen BAO at work, have keenly observed this quiet, and easy going ‘complete Ekiti bureaucrat’, who not only studied mostly locally here within Ekiti, but have served, meritoriously, in various sections of the state government over a long time, and is attested to by those who should know, as a loyal and competent gentleman who knows both the Ekiti people and the terrain very well, and I have concluded that he should be a perfect fit as governor Fayemi’s successor, God willing.

    Even if Governor Fayemi knew all these, as I guess he did, he was in no position to push it because, as the story below will affirm, he was determined to be scrupulously neutral in how his successor emerged.

    Let me then first apologise to governor Oyebanji for having to bring his private communication with me to the public space.

    When early in June 2021, I sent him a chat regarding the ’22 governorship election, and why I consider him most fit, he had not even adverted his mind to the possibility as the following response from him abundantly proves:

    “Good evening Sir. I will definitely come to you when the coast is clear Sir. Am believing in God to guide Mr Governor asap Sir. I can’t do anything without him Sir”.

    What can be more decent than that from a serving officer who knew he has all it would take to be governor?

    When the noise from the other side subsequently assumed an unpleasant trajectory with some people claiming that the governor was trying to inflict Oyebanji on the state, I decided to meet Governor Fayemi to know exactly how BAO emerged the party’s candidate.

    Below is how I captured my interaction with him on the BAO candidacy in my article: Re: Ekiti: Again I ask Must Our Politicians Always Fight to The Death? of 13 February, ’22:

    “I did not stop at merely writing my appeal of 9 January, ’22 titled:”Ekiti’22: In Order Not To Snatch Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory Warring APC Chieftains Must Sheathe Their Swords,

    as the allegation literally ruled the airwaves wherever you went. Indeed, Professor Bolaji Aluko would confirm that long before the primaries, he and I, had worked behind the scene, trying to work out some things. We knew we were on our own but had we succeeded, things might have turned out differently.

    I, therefore, made enquiries directly from the governor as to the truth or falsity of the allegation. My finding dear reader, and I have never had cause, not even once in our long years of very close relationship, which many of the contestants are very well aware of , to doubt Governor Fayemi.

    They should, therefore, sleep easy, when they read here that Biodun Oyebanji was the product of a scientific process – a commissioned GALLUP POLL which had no specific names given to the pollster, – a professional group of very solid repute -whose remit was to identify, and prequalify, persons with requisite political exposure, competence and experience and who could be the party’s governorship candidate in the June 2022 governorship election with the proviso that this be not limited to those in government. Far be it, therefore, that anybody hand picked the young man who is now the APC candidate for the June ’22 election.

    Instead, what played out is that the idea of a home grown Biodun Oyebanji who, only in his 20’s, was Secretary to the Chief Deji Fasuan – led committee of leading Ekiti personalities, and Kabiyesis, for the creation of Ekiti state, as well as his having creditably held many high public offices in the governments of both governors Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi, two of Ekiti’s most impactful governors, and the fact that he went round the state far more than any of his competitors, resonated very well with party members and supporters who were not just seeing him only at election time having just resigned as Secretary to Government (SSG). They could only barely conceal their enthusiasm for him”.

    I would later hear that two of the gentlemen who I mentioned in the article, who incidentally are aburos I respect very much, and they know this for a fact, took exception to what I wrote about them.

    Of course, I did not set out to present them in bad light.

    Knowing, for instance, how warmly governor Fayemi spoke to me about Senator Opeyemi Bamidele who he saw, as if he saw tomorrow, as one Ekiti politician who, because of his exposure, experience and sundry competences should, ideally, represent the state at the National level – a matter he told me he discussed with him – regarding how he could easily emerge one of the highest ranking Senators. Today Senator Opeyemi is No.3 in that hallowed chamber.

    I had criticised him for being rather too intent on playing only at the sub national level. Who would not remember that he did take the bullet for governor Fayemi and that the latter could not have wished him ill. I learnt it was the same for my own dashing congressman, Bimbo Daramola, who I believed should have championed Opeyemi going to senate having himself been a member of the National Assembly and knows how useful to Ekiti a senator Opeyemi would be. I am sure they now both understand my position about how the senator could impact Ekiti’s minfrastructural development. Indeed, he is already facilitating a University for Ekiti to be sited in Iyin – Ekiti. Am proved right

    Happily, all is well that ends well. For Ekiti state as a whole today, there is unbelievable peace; a state of affairs for which we Ekitis are all hugely obligated to the gentleman governor in the saddle. .

    Completely across board, and irrespective of political party, BAO has extended a hand of not just fellowship, but of distinct respect to all Ekiti and, in particular, to many Ekiti titans who, for decades, were bitter political enemies.

    The resultant quietude and peaceful state of affairs all over the state has enabled BAO to do so much in so short a time.

    He came into office at a time Ekiti was very politically tense and fractious, but seeing the way he has led with humility, and hostility to none, Ekiti is fast returning to that era when, even on the most desolate of roads, if an Ekiti man saw a vehicle with a WP registered number parked in search of assistance, he was, as if on command, obligated to immediately stop and render assistance, no matter how much hurry he was in.

    I heartily congratulate governor Oyebanji on his 2nd Anniversary, and would like to extend my congratulations to his better half, the delectable First Lady, Her Excellency, Dr (Mrs) Olayemi Oyebanji who, as I predicted back during the campaigns, took off absolutely brilliantly from where Erelu, Her Excellency, Bisi Fayemi, left off and has since taken up the additional, very impressive step of going to lecture at the Afe Babalola University, the fastest growing University on the West Coast of Africa.

    In conclusion, I commend the governor for internalising, not only his good home upbringing, but for also bringing to bear on governance, everything he learnt at the feet of his two remarkable bosses.

    Indeed, of a truth, an apple does not fall far from the tree.

  • Nigeria, wars and global uncertainties

    Nigeria, wars and global uncertainties

    Few observers gave Nigeria any chance of surmounting the electoral uncertainties and socio-political and economic crises that plagued the country in the past one year. But the country triumphed, not because it knew how to save itself from itself, nor because it had any magic wand to wave, but because forces far stronger and probably celestial simply decided to intervene. Despite enormous amount of negative pronouncements and threats, the election campaigns were largely violence-free, and the elections and inauguration went on without any significant hitch. Insidious attempts by a few powerful individuals and former presidents to abort the process also miscarried. In the midst of global uncertainties, wars and economic downturns, and despite its knack for economic mismanagement and national failings, Nigeria has remained inexplicably and surreally an oasis of stability and hope.

    The rest of the world has not been so fortunate. Russia is at war with Ukraine, a needless and avoidable conflict based on ideological absurdity and national pride. Thousands of lives have been lost, billions of dollars in property and infrastructural damage sustained, and global and debilitating economic forces unleashed. The war is no nearer being resolved than it was when the first shot was fired in hubris. Parts of Southwest and Southeast Asia are also up in arms. In the Taiwan Strait, China is sabre rattling against Taiwan, North Korea is projecting bellicosity, and South China Sea is no longer at ease, especially with a resurgent Philippines and fretful Japan waking up to their historic duties in the region. Meanwhile the Middle East never stopped smouldering, and with ISIS recently decapitated, and Syria hobbled by war and economic and infrastructural disaster, it has been one crisis after another. Then Azerbaijan, using military force and caviar diplomacy, marched into Nagorno-Karabakh last month and put paid to decades of Armenian self-determination struggle. No one, not even the United States, is strong enough to check the wholesale destabiliation of these regions.

    Just before the paroxysm of rage and fire in Palestine two Saturdays ago, West Africa, a region the world expects Nigeria to influence positively, also caught the flu of coups upon coups. Guinea, Burkina Faso (which wants to build a nuclear reactor with the help of Russians after driving out the French), Mali, Niger Republic, and Gabon have suddenly discovered their hidden fascination for coups d’etat, while military officers are bent on gratifying their hunger for power. They have not enacted visionary laws to ginger their societies into greatness, nor built economic models that are sustainable, nor yet found a solution to Jihadi extremism inundating the Sahelian region. Instead, they have remained apoplectic, stultified by leadership incompetence and almost total lack of vision and altruism. Gabon’s coup was simply musical chairs; Niger’s was a palace coup; Mali’s was a pirouette of superfluous leadership changes; and Burkina Faso’s was even more farcical, as Lt.-Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba took over in January 2022 only to be replaced eight months later by 34-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore, a special forces commander. Neither had been able to reclaim about 40 percent of the country lost to Jihadist rebels in the North. In West Africa’s coup belt, Russia is replacing France.

    Read Also: Ohanaeze to meet Tinubu over Kanu, says Iwuanyanwu

    The unease in Central Africa has not abated, nor has East Africa been completely pacified, what with Somalia still a failed state, and Ethiopia, Eritrea and others still disquieted by instability and economic crises. It was expected that Nigeria, having escaped doomsday by rampaging bandits in the Northwest, Boko Haram in the Northeast, herdsmen fury in the Middle Belt, so-called Unknown Gunmen in the Southeast, and self-inflicted injuries by past administrations deploying ethnic exceptionalism and economic cronyism, the electoral success the country pulled off early in the year would inspire the political and business elites to curtail their exuberance and vote for peace. Instead, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, leaders of the opposition PDP and LP, and labour unions unmindful of decades of economic depredation, have been calling for insurrection, either through coups or through street protests. They seemed determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and war from the tremulous hands of peace. No national elite has been so irresponsible since the advent of the Fourth Republic, as they seek to return Nigeria to the 1966 and 1967 era, and supposing that in the face of trouble or chaos they would escape unscathed.

    Africa is convulsed by unrest, even as the rest of the world is fixated on the Israeli-Palestinian nightmare. It is time Nigeria took its responsibility to the sub-region and the rest of Africa more seriously, firstly by reordering its priorities, and secondly by taking deliberate and sensible steps to establish peace and order. No country is immune. Israel woke up one morning to the sound of gunfire and RPGs, and has now mobilised for war; so, too, did Ukraine. The consequences to global energy and food prices are incalculable. It is thus dismaying that with fairly calm and acquiescent neighbours, Nigeria is nevertheless foolishly turning on itself to engender war when peace beckons so bravely and eagerly.

  • Israel versus Gaza/Hamas: wars without end

    Israel versus Gaza/Hamas: wars without end

    The October 7 attack on Israel by over a thousand Hamas Palestinian militants has so far, even in the absence of ground offensive into Hamas base in Gaza, cost nearly four thousand lives. The estimates are about 1,350 killed in Israel, and 2,200 (and counting) killed in Gaza in reprisal attacks. More than 11,000 have been injured. But far beyond the casualty figures, the share scale of the surprise Hamas offensive, and the execution of civilians and infants in a world where social media amplifies and sometimes valorises violence, may have cost Hamas as much as it believed it had gained. Middle Eastern countries and other militant groups which should have rallied enthusiastically to its cause have, on account of the details and images that came out of the attacks on Israeli Kibbutzim, been less eager to lend massive and unfettered support. In contrast, nearly all of Western Europe and the United States have been so horrified by what took place on October 7 that they have not thought twice about rallying behind the Israeli banner.

    Yet, Israel has not always been a model of exemplary behavior in the region, a fact that accounted for the previously uneasy relationship between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States president Joe Biden. Before the Hamas attack, Mr Netanyahu’s governing coalition had been ultra-right, leading to the steady expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, police operations on Al-Aqsa mosque, and bloody forays into Gaza. Decades of war of attrition had turned Gaza into what some Palestinian activists and other global security analysts describe as an open-air prison. Having spurned a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian crisis about five times, preferring instead the extermination of Jews in Palestine, particularly with the encouragement of Iran, the competing Palestinian authorities in Gaza and the West Bank have watched helplessly and frustratingly as Israel hardened its position over four or five Israeli-Gaza wars.

    The Hamas attack of two Saturdays ago must be understood from the perspective of the social and economic conditions in Gaza, the frustrations over the long stalemate, and the periodic shelling of the strip that follows every missile attack on Israel. Communities in most parts of the Middle East and some other parts of the world first erupted in joy on learning about the success of the surprise attacks, and how Hamas gave Israel a bloody nose, not to talk of the about 150 Israeli hostages ferried back into Gaza. While nearly all Arab countries are still thrilled by the Hamas invasion, there is great apprehension as to what would happen next, especially with the determined steps taken by the US to forestall a widening of the war. Iran has been somewhat ambivalent about the attacks, while still expressing general support for the Palestinian and Hamas cause. But the rest of the Middle East has been chastened by the deployment of brutal medieval tactics and methods by the militants. The world seems to be saying that missile killings and aircraft bombings, while they cause death and destruction, are nevertheless not the same as massacres and executions. Worse, the Hamas tactics also galvanised the West against the militants whom they describe as terrorists.

    Read Also: How Israel dropped the ball on Hamas invasion

    The days ahead are ominous should Israel embark on a ground offensive. While siege and targeted probing attacks would do the job more effectively, boots on the ground appear to be more popular in Israel. They have the hardware and the financial muscle to carry out the campaign; but it will be bloody and perhaps less efficient, without the possibility of bringing about a desirable outcome in the long term. Hamas and Islamic Jihad may both be destroyed and expelled from Gaza, but it will not be the end of militancy in the region, either in terms of missile or terror attacks from Gaza or through Intifada in Israel, as long as the predisposing factors remain. And as long as Israeli politics remains fractionalised, working out a peace deal may become increasingly complicated, especially with hardliners like Mr Netanyahu remaining in office, and the geopolitical significance of Jerusalem continuing to tantalise the world.

    Hamas may have introduced an unprecedented chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian war, overall, however, many analysts are pessimistic that a solution can be found to this extensive and regional battle for a piece of estate not longer than 20 minutes journey from one end to the other. It is not a religious war, contrary to what many people think, though Christians have tended to back Judaistic Israel, and Muslims back the Palestinians. There are debates about the histories of the original inhabitants of the land, with the Jews insisting they predated the Arab Palestinians in that corner of the world. And while both sides to the conflict in Palestine share in the blame, there are also other strategic considerations and calculations complicating the crisis. Indeed, some analysts believe that the precipitate action of Hamas militants two Saturdays ago may have been designed to truncate the impending Saudi Arabia /Israel peace deal gloated over by Mr Netanyahu just weeks ago at the UNGA, a deal Iran and Hamas clearly objurgated. The Middle East is a veritable smorgasbord of hard line politics and ambitions, mediated and sometimes moderated by great and super powers. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian cause may in fact be just a few of the pawns in an extensive and long-running regional and international power play.

    Israel is responding massively to the unprecedented Hamas attack. If Mr Netanyahu does not satisfy his countrymen’s popular and sanguinary craving, his government will fall. Indeed, there is no Israeli government that will not respond with clear severity to the humiliating provocation of October 7. Prime Minister Golda Meir (fourth prime minister, 1969 to 1974) responded fiercely to the Yom Kippur war in 1973, but her party lost the elections the following year, though she was not blamed for the surprise attack by a coalition of Arab forces led by Egypt and Syria. After her party’s 1974 electoral loss, she resigned as prime minister. Mr Netanyahu will almost certainly be punished one way or the other after the Gaza war, even if Israel were to achieve a stunning victory against Hamas. His least consideration now, however, is not the tenuousness of his position as prime minister. His main concern will be how to win a complicated war in Gaza foisted on him by militants who have turned that narrow and densely populated 40km strip of land into a maze of booby traps undergirded by human and hostage shields. He will also be less bothered by what Bible prophecies say about another dispersal occurring to the Jews before the end of days.

  • Certificate conundrums for Atiku, Obi

    Certificate conundrums for Atiku, Obi

    Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, was admittedly reluctant to make an issue out of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate imbroglio. Perhaps he knew he was living in a glass house, and was loth to throw stone. But eventually he overcame his phobia, and last Wednesday heartily threw stones. He probably realised that if he didn’t throw anything in consonance with former vice president Atiku Abubakar’s solicitation five days earlier, the former vice president’s APC enemies would still associate him with the saga and hurl a few missiles in his direction anyway. But the first person to throw stones and make it a great and fearsome issue was Alhaji Atiku himself, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He travelled to the United States, filed a suit in a US court to compel the president’s alma mater to release his academic records, and was determined to file it before the Nigerian Supreme Court

    Alhaji Atiku was successful in his US expedition, even though the records released to him are of doubtful legal utility. Mr Obi was largely a bystander in all this until he plunged into the murky certificate waters and began to muckrake. While the expedition lasted, and notwithstanding the tenuousness of the president’s records that revealed little, both Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi did not imagine that the table could easily turn against them. The problem, they now know, is that they both live in glass houses. Detractors have established, and are pressing the matter, that Alhaji Atiku had changed his name twice with repect to his certificates for apparently no substantial reasons, and both the chronology of his academic credentials as well as their integrity are now being called into question. His master’s degree, critics say, has no real predicative legs to stand upon, and with the exception of his college certificate, all his other certificates lack rhyme and reason.

    Read Also: Certificate saga: When Atiku’s ambition begets malice

    For the initially reticent Mr Obi, the situation is much worse. There are issues with the names on his certificates, which are all muddled up; and there are also issues with the chronology of those certificates, with one of them, the school certificate, procured after his philosophy degree. Critics were also dismayed and puzzled to discover that he tendered nothing beyond his school certificate to Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, though he claimed to possess a university degree. What was he hiding? they queried. Both Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi are now on the defensive, and will find it hard to extricate themselves.

    What is even much worse, indeed infinitely appalling, is that both presidential candidates had uninspiring school certificates which expose them to be below average students, unfit to cope with the intellectual rigours of high office in a complex and modernising world. Their school certificate results showed them just a little bit above dullards. No wonder their pontifications during the presidential campaigns were jejune and trivial. It is good they made the president’s certificates an issue, for there was no other way their own dismal and contradictory academic records would have been exposed.

  • The Phoenix and the week of mixed sorts

    The Phoenix and the week of mixed sorts

    It was indeed a week of the Phoenix for President Bola Tinubu; he re-emerged more visibly to the public eye, engaging in the normal, everyday activities of the President’s office. He had decided to take it slow and give the body some of the needed rest after returning from the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

    Prior to his return to Nigeria from the UNGA event, the Jagaban had traversed thousands of kilometres across the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, spending almost 40 hours in the air. So when he decided to take the chill pills for a week, it was understandable.

    During the week, President Tinubu did most of the work in the office, but he did a lot of it. Right from Monday morning, when he met with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, and dropped a loaded code on his X handle, to announce his he was back.

    “Moving Nigeria Forward. Received a briefing from SGF Akume at the State House this morning. All hands must be on deck in the great task of positioning our dear nation for progress. #Focused #RenewingNigeria” was his cryptic message to reassure Nigerians he is back and ready to roll and ever since that day, it has been a colourful array of visitors, from different aspects of the President’s background, coming for various reasons.

    Between Monday and Friday, he had received about the largest number of visitors in recent memory; on Monday the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari was one of the first few to enjoy the grace of conversing with Baba; on Tuesday, he met with the acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso; the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Ganduje; and the Minister for Works, Engr. Dave Umahi.

    The hectic engagements were kept steady all through the week because they continued to troop in from Wednesday on; he saw his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman; Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd); the Group Chief Executive Officer of Matrix Group, Alhaji Abdulkabir Aliu; APC candidate in the upcoming House of Representatives bye-election for the Surulere 1 Federal Constituency, Faud Laguda.

    Also on the list were Saudi Arabia’s Special Envoy and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,, Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir; Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio; Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State; ministers of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abunakar; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite; Budget, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu; Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike; and former Sokoto State governor, Senator Aliyu Wamako; Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, among others.

    It was not just about hosting guests to tea and bantering on personal matters, the week also saw a huge number of appointments into public positions. The most earthshaking of the appointments was considered to be that of Mr. Ola Olukoyede as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Mr. Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda as the Secretary of the Commission on Thursday.

    On Monday, he approved the appointment of five persons into the Media & Publicity Directorate, including Mr. Fela Durotoye (Senior Special Assistant to the President — National Values & Social Justice); Mr. Fredrick Nwabufo (Senior Special Assistant to the President — Public Engagement); Mrs. Linda Nwabuwa Akhigbe (Senior Special Assistant to the President — Strategic Communications); Mr. Aliyu Audu (Special Assistant to the President — Public Affairs); and Mr. Francis Adah Abah (Personal Assistant to the President — Special Duties).

    Read Also: Ohanaeze to meet Tinubu over Kanu, says Iwuanyanwu

    Also on Wednesday, he approved the appointment of new and returning Chief Executives to fresh terms in office across multiple agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy. He also appointed a Special Adviser on Technology and Digital Economy.

    The appointmenst included EVC/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) — Aminu Maida; MD/CEO, Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) — Nkechi Egerton-Idehen; DG/CEO, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) — Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi; National Commissioner/CEO, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) — Dr. Vincent Olatunji; and Postmaster General/CEO, Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) — Tola Odeyemi and Idris Alubankudi as SA on Technology and Digital Economy.

    Then on Friday, he continued with the appointments by filling fourteen of the agencies under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment with new chief executives. According to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu’s action took roots from his focus on establishing the nation’s economic survival on trade expansion, using the small, medium and large scale industries as springboard.

    The agencies that got new headships included Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) — Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, SAN; Industrial Training Fund (ITF) — Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin: National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) — Kamar Bakrin; Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) — Olufemi Ogunyemi; Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) — Nonye Ayeni.

    Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) — Aisha Rimi; Oil & Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA) — Bamanga Usman Jada; Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) — Charles Odii; Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) — Ifeanyi Chukwunonso Okeke.

    Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) — Rabiu Olowo; Nigeria Commodities Exchange (NCE) — Anthony Atuche, CFA; Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (LITFCMB) — Veronica Safiya Ndanusa; Tafawa Balewa Square Management Board (TBSMB) — Lucia Shittu; National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) — Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin.

    Also on Friday, he approved the appointment of the Board and Management of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), making good of a hint given on Thursday by Umahi. The list of the members of the Board and Management included Chairman of FERMA Board — Engr. Imam Ibrahim Kashim Imam; Managing Director of FERMA — Engr. Chukwuemeka Agbasi; member (NARTO) — Yusuf Lawal Othman; Member (FMW) — Engr. Ibi Terna Manasseh; member (FRSC) — ACM Shehu Mohammed; member (Finance) — Babatunde Daramola-Oniru; member (South-South) — Hon. Preye Oseke; member (South-West) — Hon. Oye Ojobe; member (South-East) — Dr. Kenneth Ugbala; member (North-Central) — Sen. Timothy Adudu; member (North-East) — Engr. Abubakar Bappa; member (North-West) — Aminu Adamu Papa.

    He also found time, at some occasions, to give direction and guidance through a couple of policy statements he made during the week. For instance, on Tuesday, through Vice President Kashim Shettima, President Tinubu directed the constitution of an ad-hoc committee to put an action plan together against flooding and appointed the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, as Chairman of the committee. Also during the week, he approved contracts for emergency road repairs across the country, covering over 260 roads, as well as upgrading of some other existing ones, all running into billions of naira.

    One other development during the last week, which the public found rather exciting was the President’s response to the petitions filed at the Supreme Court by the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Among other things, the Jagaban noted that the entire process being pursued by his erstwhile associate was a nothing more than “laced with thrilling suspense, stunning surprises and ecstatic hide-and-seek recreational activities”, not worth the court’s time and the Justices efforts.

    Speaking particularly to the sensational “journey to Chicago” by Abubakar, in search of a certificate that was never lost, Tinubu described the who episode in the legal battle as his opponent’s attempts at creating a crime out of a non-issue, saying “it was at this point that they rolled out their drums of cooked-up allegations of discrepancies in the second respondent’s (Tinubu’s) academic qualifications… bemusing allegations from the backdoor”.

    Many in the public had attempted intervening on the matter, especially those trying to get the Atiku Abubakar and PDP camps to calm down and take another look at their own rather weak and suspicious argument on the needless ‘excursion’ to the Chicago State University (CSU), but one of such interventions, the one by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Temitope Ajayi, was rather instructive. According to him, no one forges what he genuinely possesses

    “We should be clear. In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the University said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake. The University insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honours and even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors not the University. The claim that President Tinubu submitted fake certificate to INEC does not make sense. A man cannot forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have”, he said in one of his many attempts at straightening the logic that those who went on the excursion to CSU were attempting to blur.

    In its own way, the week was not without colour and things definitely got done. The new week is here and the activities can only get more tasking for the man who is known as the back-to-back President. Tag along as the week roles by.

  • Ekiti: Trajectory to titillating transformation?

    Ekiti: Trajectory to titillating transformation?

    On my Unique Value Proposition (UVP), I have been a major player in both the private and public sectors; and my eleven years’ experience in governance has exposed me to the nuances of governance and also being a private sector person, it has also exposed me to the pains and issues in the private sector … We also know that expectations of the people keep increasing on a daily basis, so we must be able to navigate all these curves and deliver on the promises we have made to our people. And we can only deliver this by doing more with less, by prioritizing issues that will give happiness to the greatest number of our people; and by reducing wastes in governance; and by also ensuring that we rely more on the use of technology; and reduce our error margin to the barest minimum.” – Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, Nation, Sunday 12th June 2022.

    Incidentally, 16th of October 2022 fell on a Sunday. This author, then serving as a columnist with the Nation’s newspaper, wrote an article titled: “EKITI: Enter Excellent Era!” Coincidentally, that day was the official inauguration of the Mr. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji as the state helmsman in Ado Ekiti. The state capital, Ado Ekiti, was in an ecstatic mood with the creme de la creme of the Nigerian society. Yours sincerely was amongst the enthusiastic and elated Ekitikete present at the venue of the inauguration – Ekiti Parapo Pavilion, Ado Ekiti. It was marked with pomp and pageantry! This writer, being a dogged follower, fan and friend of Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) for 10 years, had a one-to-one talk with him a few days preceding the June 18, 2022 gubernatorial election in Ekiti. BAO, as popularly called by his adherents and admirers, having been in the corridors of power in Ekiti for the past 11 years stated inter alia: “. . . We also know that expectations of the people keep increasing on a daily basis, so we must be able to navigate all these curves and deliver on the promises we have made to our people. And we can only deliver this by doing more with less … and by reducing wastes in governance; and by also ensuring that we rely more on the use of technology.”

    Juxtaposing the article of 16th October 2022 with the scenario on ground in Ekiti, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. It is akin to a pilot taking off announcing to his passengers cheerfully of an excellent weather at take-off, and seemingly similar weather at landing, only to be confronted whilst airborne, and some minutes into the trip, with an unexpected storm. Consequently, BAO as a dexterous pilot, adept to nuances of politics and governance has to manoeuvre the plane on course despite the lumpy bumpy ride! It is therefore not unexpected the delay in constituting the full cabinet, resolving the then imbroglio in the Ekiti House of Assembly that many analysts foresaw lingering to months as it happened in Ogun and Edo States, and surmounting the initial low morale of pensioners and civil servants, owed backlog of entitlements. BAO, being a processed person and great listener took headlong the challenges and with God and the good people of Ekiti on his side navigated the ship of state to a safe haven! Indeed, truth must be told, the time we thought certain targets would be met definitely has shifted, albeit the ship of state is on course by the strategic and sagacious steps taken thus far in putting round pegs in round holes in appointments; creation of new agencies and restructuring of existing agencies; and focusing on such programmes and projects that are directly linked up to the 6 Strategic Actionable Pillars of the administration. Ekiti now has the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; Ministry of Youth Development; Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment; and Ministry of Innovation, Science and Digital Economy, Ministry of Transportation, etc.

    As a corollary, in his televised broadcast to the people of Ekiti on the 27th year of her existence and coincidentally Nigeria’s 63rd independence anniversary, Governor Oyebanji succinctly and saliently applauded the contributions of past helmsmen of the state, mentioning them one by one, believing that they had contributed their quota to the development of Ekiti quoting Williams Shakespeare who depicted the world as a stage while we, human beings, are players. In his own diction: “. . .but the business of nation building is a growing concern. It is never a completed task; each generation is faced with different challenges and the test of their place in history is how well they are able to courageously confront the most pressing of their contemporary challenges. Today, we are generally faced with the web of challenges of insecurity, unemployment, poverty, and inequality.” The Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji – led administration, in rightly responding to these contemporary challenges, emerged with the 6 Strategic Actionable Pillars with the ultimate aim of impacting shared prosperity to Ekitikete. These 6 Pillars are: Youth Development and Job Creation; Human Capital Development; Agriculture and Rural Development; Infrastructure and Industrialization; Arts, Culture and Tourism; and Governance. All these, conscientiously and consciously, broken down into programmes and projects, are to ensure job creation, inclusive growth and collective development that will not leave anyone behind. The ultimate objective is shared prosperity. The incumbent government in Ekiti is really poised and focused in her developmental strides despite lean resources amidst high agitations for more interventions by the people. The government, in doing this, is aligning every programme to the Ekiti Development Plan 2021 – 2050.

    Read Also:Ekiti govt partners UN agency on urban renewal

    Arising from the constitution of the full cabinet in early August 2023, all the executive members of the state cabinet and accounting officers were ushered into a robust and rigorous 3-day retreat at the famous Biodun Adetiloye Hall. The author of this piece was both a participant and a facilitator at the retreat. It is noteworthy, and on record, that Governor Oyebanji displayed exemplary leadership in attending fully all the sessions of the 3-day retreat where all the Honourable Commissioners sign a performance charter, Thereafter, he stated that his government will commend results rather than efforts, and therefore enjoined all to work together towards results than indulging in activities leading to nowhere.

    Oyebanji is upbeat on the continuity slogan seeing himself as an off-shoot of the Dr. John Kayode Fayemi administration. However, continuity means “completing all on-going projects of the immediate administration and abandoned projects of past administrations that are useful and valuable to Ekitikete. For instance, the administration has completed the Ado Bus Terminal, the Ekiti Council of Traditional Rulers Chamber, 10 Secondary Health Facilities, Major Street Lights, Reconnection of Ekiti East/Ayekire, and some parts of Ekiti West and Ikole Local Government Areas to the National Grid after many years of darkness” (Oyebanji in his1st October 2023 address to Ekitikete).

    It should be pointed out that virtually all arterial roads entering and exiting Ekiti were seemingly unmotorable as at the time of inaugurating the present government in October 2022. BAO swung into action with constant visit and interfacing with principal officers of the federal government and members of the National Assembly in Abuja. The numerous engagements paid off, as the federal roads were repaired and made motorable. However, trailers and trucks have diverted from other bad roads in other states to the roads in Ekiti. It is alarming to witness them with heavy haulage that the roads were not designed for. It is hoped that the present Minister of Works, His Excellency, Engineer Dave Umahi, will pay attention to our plight in Ekiti by helping to link Ekiti with Osun, Ondo, Kogi and Kwara to engender socio-economic development with these neighbouring states.

    Be that as it may, the incumbent government in Ekiti is not folding her arms whilst waiting for Abuja. In the word of the set man, Oyebanji: “we have also undertaken new projects such as: rehabilitation of many internal roads in Ado Ekiti, we are continuing with Ikole Township Roads, just as we are rehabilitating the Ilawe – Igede Road; Ado – Ilawe Road; Ikere – Ilawe; and Erijiyan – Ilawe Road. We are also reconstructing the Igbara – Odo – Ikogosi; Ikole – Ara – Isinbode Road, among others, even as more projects would be captured for execution in the on-going budget preparation exercise.” This writer was present in a forum where Governor Biodun Oyebanji stated that the thinking of the government is strategic in concentrating on these roads. It is in strategically linking up Ekiti with access to Akure, Ibadan and Lagos with a view to shortening the travel time. Hitherto, BAO is not relenting in shuttling between Ado and Abuja to meet key heads of federal agencies and core members of the National Assembly (NASS) thus amplifying the biblical Macedonian call: “Come and help us!”

    According to the dreams of the founding fathers, Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) is working in concert with the appropriate federal agencies in exploiting the abundant mineral resources in many parts of the state. It is even consequential as the incumbent Honourable Minister of Solid Minerals Development is a proud son of Ekiti, in person of Mr. Dele Alake. There is indeed a titillating transformational trajectory, even though laced with processes and precepts, as the present administration in Ekiti led by the indefatigable and affable Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji is assiduously working to actualize the shared prosperity mantra to Ekitikete. Harnessing our God-given mineral resources properly is a major way of creating wealth, increasing our internally generated revenue which is presently rising (kudos to Ekiti State Internal Revenue Service (EKIRS).

    Arising from the State Treasury Board (STB) meeting recently, as part of the budgeting process towards enacting the state’s Appropriation Act 2024, there is tangible trajectory to transformation as the proposed Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) to Recurrent Expenditure is in the ratio of 45 to 55. It is worth pinpointing as previous budgets of few years back had less than 35% for CAPEX. This is a pointer that Oyebanji means business in governance as he conscientiously and consciously intends touching the lives of Ekitikete in audaciously delivering life – impacting programmes and projects focusing on the 6 Strategic Actionable Pillars – the social contract that got him hired to serve Ekitikete. It is noteworthy that every 100 Days, he had consistently presented his report card to the people stating succinctly that the Ekiti people, as his employer, should be updated with his stewardship accordingly. The first 100 Days Stakeholders’ Engagement was in Ado Ekiti; the second, 200 Days in office, was in Ido Ekiti, whilst the third, signifying the 300 Days in office, took place in Omuo Ekiti. The choice of the towns was based on the Senatorial Districts – Ekiti Central, Ekiti North and Ekiti South, in that order.

    It is not all gloomy in Ekiti. We may not be where we desire to be. However, in certain aspects of the Human Development Indices (HDI), the State has excelled. Ekiti is a front liner in Education, Life Expectancy, Access to Quality Health Care Services, Access to Water, Peace, Ease of Doing Business, Gender Equality, and Social Inclusion among others. Ekiti is poised and positioned to deliver on the shared prosperity mantra of the Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji – led administration. In this regard, the Office of Transformation and Service Delivery (OTSD), ably supported by the government of Ekiti State, is keeping a tab on all MDAs to ensure timely delivery of their work plans. It is the directive of Mr. Governor for all MDAs to have their work plans passed through OTSD before it can be captured in the 2024 budget. This step has sifted the chaff from the wheat resulting in the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) – Recurrent Expenditure ratio of 45 to 55. It can only get better!

    • Dr. John Moyo Ekundayo, Special Adviser/Director General, Office of Transformation and Service Delivery (OTSD) writes from Ado Ekiti, and could be reached at: drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com
  • Atiku: Desperation is your name

    Atiku: Desperation is your name

    First, let us enquire into this Breaking News of SADIQ ABUBAKAR and the circumstances which led to VP Atiku Abubakar’s change of name. Can we, with all due respect, ask the following questions:

    What names are on  his first school leaving certificate?

    Can he give Nigerians the school’s address so they can authenticate the veracity of this story? If this is no longer feasible, can he volunteer names of 5 persons who will be willing to swear on the Quoran or the Holy Bible, affirming  that they know him as Sadiq, or is it Sidiq?

    Or can he willingly produce the certificate or any other document which identifies him as Sidiq for Nigerians to see?

    We ask these questions because all the etymological effusions by  Phrank Shaibu, his Special Assistant on Public Communication, to spin off the circumstances of  the name change  simply do not clarify how this case is different from that of persons who either procure others to write examinations for them, or simply buy off certificates.

    And, by the way, can the respected former Vice President please react to this rumour going round that he has a brother named Sadiq? In fact a trending WhatsApp video carries the gentleman’s photo.

    I digress.

    The article you are about to read was first published a year ago on 23 October, 2022. By that date,  the Turakin Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar,  had shown enough indication that the 2023 Presidental election – I think his 6th attempt, and most probably his last (1993,2007,2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023 – woe betide marabouts) will be a do or die affair.

    It was for that reason he ended up selfishly splitting PDP into: Peter Obi and his Labour party,  Rabiu Kwankwaso and the NNPP, the ramp of PDP itself and the very robust group of 5 governors who resisted his selfish politics and flatly refused to have anything to do with his campaign.

    It was in this desperation that Atiku defeated himself and has since been beating about the bush, like Peter Obi, going all over the globe searching for his stolen mandate.

    Before we go into that, this other, rather, pathetic matter of the amputee, Sunday Fakunle.

    Last week, I called the attention of the Oyo state governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, to the parlous state of Mr Fakunle who is a below the knee amputee, and pleaded for his kind assistance for the gentle man.

    While we are still waiting for the governor, some Nigerians have risen to Alheri’s assistance by sending him money.

    It was never my intention to use this medium to raise funds for him. However, I urge you to please mentally picture a man whose leg is amputated below the knee trying to make ends meet in today’s Nigeria, and be  touched enough to assist him.  God in his infinite mercy will handsomely reward you.

    Below is his bank details.

    Sunday Fakunle

     A/c No.0 0 7 1 8 7 6 6 3 9  Access bank.

    I digress.   

    Read Also: Saint Atiku as moral exemplar? (1)

    Were General Musa Yar Adua to resurrect today, indicating he wanted to contest for the presidency of Nigeria, those who know his old protege, Atiku Abubakar, well enough, contend that the latter would also announce his interest in the same post. This is the spirit that has seen Atiku contesting for the presidency since the 90’s, and for him, everything goes.

    Let us briefly sketch his 30+ years on this journey. In doing that, let us respectfully,  press into service, his one-time boss, ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo as well as the inimitable journalist, Louis Odion.

    The contributions from these two  will show why nobody should have been surprised when Atiku said as follows before the Northern Elders who were interrogating his programmes ahead of the presidential election:”What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country”.”This is what the Northerner needs;  He/ she doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I stand before you as a Pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”

    That is the Atiku Abubakar some people are trying to sell to Nigerians as a unifier, even if his party, the PDP is in turmoil.

    Without a scintilla of doubt, and as will be confirmed by the following testimonies, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is being driven by an un-tameable desperation to be the Nigerian president but certainly not because he has anything tangible to offer a country in desperate need of rebuilding and re-engineering. Even as Vice -President, he was more concerned with upstaging his boss and becoming the President as he had been promised by marabouts who had earlier, uncannily, predicted his political trajectory. Ex-president Obasanjo had the following to say about his Vice: “… From the day I nominated Atiku to be my vice, he set his mind not for any good, benefit or service to the country, but on furiously planning to upstage, supplant or remove me at all cost and to take my place”. “That was what I brought him for, but he was impatient and over-ambitious. He was not ready to learn and to wait. His marabout, who predicted that despite being elected as governor, he would not be sworn in as a governor, which happened, also assured him that he would take over from me in a matter of months rather than years”. “All his plans, appointments of people and his actions were towards the actualisation of his marabout’s prediction. Once I realised his intention and programme, I watched him like a hawk without giving any indication of what I knew and letting down my guard. I could not succumb to the distraction, diversion and malevolence of an ambitious but unwise deputy”.

    If that was many years ago, let us hear Louis Odion as he describes Atiku’s Israelite’s journey towards the Nigerian presidency.

    In the article: Atiku: The Peril of inordinate ambition (The Nation, 16 October, ’22), he wrote inter alia:

    “ Atiku is a conflicted bigot, consumed by inordinate ambition. He remains a bare-foot slave to an empire the Nigeria of the twenty-first century has outgrown. In 2011, he battled Jonathan for PDP ticket, on the argument that the ‘North has not used up its two term slots’, following Yar’Adua’s death in office on May 5, 2010. (Forget that he stubbornly refused entreaties not to go to court when the same Umar Yar’Adua was declared winner in 2007 in the spirit of ‘northern solidarity’) and fought like a wounded lion up to  the Supreme Court).But he got a shellacking at the PDP primaries in 2011. In 2014, he, still driven by that inordinate ambition, again led the rebellion of nPDP to evacuate PDP in protest of Jonathan’s bid for 2nd (3rd?) term; that it was ‘the turn of power to shift to the North’, for the ‘sake of justice and equity’. In 2018, realising he stood no chance against President Buhari’s winning 2nd term in 2019, he migrated back to PDP.

    Of course, he suffered another shellacking in 2019. With the power of Dollars, and a thoughtless invocation of the ethnic card at PDP’s May primaries, he overpowered Southern contenders (like Wike) to the presidential ticket”.

    While Northern politicians like  the APC Northern governors, were more concerned with fairness , equity and the unity of Nigeria and so conceded the party’s presidential slot to the South, as Governor El Rufai of Kaduna state said Sir Ahmadu Bello and the Northern founding fathers would have wished, Atiku, in Odion’s words, “ sacrifised national unity, put a knife on the fragile thread that holds Nigeria together, in a desperation to rig the fulfilment of the long-standing prophecy by marabouts (according to ex-President Obasanjo) of ruling Nigeria some day”.

    But that is not all  for the man who ‘just must rule Nigeria’, come shine, come rain, as Nyesom Wike,  Governor of Rivers state, attests to Atiku’s unreliability.

    For instance, Wike said:” “Now, when we finished our convention, the candidate of the party came to see me in my house in Abuja on Monday, around 10:30am and said ‘Listen, I want us to work together.’ Ayu must go.’I said ‘why?’, and he said because when a candidate comes from the north, the chairman will come from the south. And I am saying, ‘implement what you told me’. There are many other instances of Atiku’s double dealing.

    Speaking at a meeting with PDP stakeholders from the South-East in Enugu on Tuesday, September 27, Atiku said he was interested in repositioning the region to play bigger roles in the country’s survival, noting that for his love for the region, he twice chose Igbos as his running mate; and has now, for the third time chosen another. Therefore, concluded the man trading the Nigerian presidency all over the place, “I make it quite clear and confidently, too: I will be your stepping stone to becoming president”.

    But before the cock could crow, listen to Atiku talking to an estranged Governor Nyesom Wike.

    Worried by the danger posed to his ambition in next year’s presidential election by the camp of the Rivers State governor, the PDP flag bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had to offer the governor the presidency, come 2027, on the condition, however, that Wike would  sheathe his sword and support him (Atiku) in the 2023 election.

    Quickly forgetting his promise to the Southeast, both men met on Thursday in Abuja in a fresh bid to patch up their differences, with Atiku promising to support Wike’s presidential bid in 2027 if he (Wike) agreed to  support him (Atiku) in the 2023 election.

    I do not think there is a better way to end this article than as Odion did when he wrote:”  This presidential ‘candidate of habit’ will soon find again that the Nigeria of his depraved, bigoted dream no longer exists”.

    If that was a year ago, Atiku’s desperation to become President, even after he had grandly lost the election and the Presidential Election Tribunal Court has dismissed his petition, has become far worse, making one wonder as to what would become of him when the Supreme court  finally knocks him out..

  • Oil in the Middle East equation

    Oil in the Middle East equation

    Exactly fifty years ago, combined Egyptian and Syrian armies attacked Israel on the Jewish holy holiday of Yom Kippur and did some extensive damage to Israeli military capabilities. The powerful Israeli war machine was initially taken by surprise and suffered considerable damage to their undoubted brutal capacity to wage war. However, after the initial and unexpected success of the Arab armies, the Israeli armed forces recovered from their uncharacteristic inertia and with more than a little help from their major sponsor, the United States, began to fight back vigorously. Within a few days, the invading armies had been pushed back and the status quo ante had been restored. And the Palestinians on behalf of whom the surrounding Arab armies had launched their attack were forced back into their wretched camps, to resume their tedious life in exile.

    Although the mission to liberate the Palestinians and extract them from under Israeli boots failed, the world was made to feel the weight of combined Arab displeasure. A lot of the crude oil which fuelled the industrial activities of the rest of the world was extracted from the oil wells which existed in some profusion in Arab lands, especially  in Saudi Arabia. Before what had come to be known as the Yom Kippur war, the price of crude oil was hovering around $3 a barrel and the oil trade was concentrated in the hands of seven Western oil companies, the Oil Sisters who had firm control on oil prices. This control made it possible for those rapacious sisters to set oil prices very low, to the advantage of the industrialised Western countries and to the detriment of the rest of the world. This made it possible for petrol to be sold at the pumps at ridiculously low prices and indulged American preference for monstrously large cars, which burned prodigious amounts of petrol in their powerful internal combustion engines with which they polluted the land with joyous abandon.

    Without the overt help rendered to the Israelis by the USA, the Yom Kippur war would have been a closer affair than it was even, >Ø#Ýthough it must be said that the Arab war effort also had the support of the Soviet Union. The two super powers of the time were flying in arms and ammunition to replace those damaged in the conflict at an unsustainable rate, putting the rest of the world in danger of exposure to a war characterised by a global spread.

    The Arab countries under the political leadership of Saudi Arabia were understandingly miffed by the turn of events which had truncated their jihad and in their helplessness turned to their oil to redress the situation. First, they placed an embargo on the supply of oil to several Western countries with the USA being on top of the list and Japan which did not have a drop of their own oil tagged to the list.

    The effect of the embargo was immediate and shattering as the machines which produced all those home comforts to the Western countries were stopped in their tracks and industrial output fell close to zero. There was very little petrol to dispense in petrol stations and the price of what little was available went through the roof. Life as it was known turned to dust and ashes but more misery was on the way. As a graduate student in England at the time, I experienced the privations which characterised that period first hand. It was the period of three day working weeks, power cuts, very cold winter nights and galloping inflation.

    The embargo did not last very long but when it was lifted, people woke up to an era of expensive oil, the price of which quadrupled within a period of three months or so. Working within the structure of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries), the Saudis relentlessly pushed up the price of crude oil bringing unprecedented prosperity to members of OPEC including Nigeria, or perhaps more appropriately, especially Nigeria. The consequences of that glorious or if you prefer, inglorious period, were so far reaching that they are still plaguing our lives.

    Money poured in torrents into our national coffers after the Yom Kippur war so much so that according to our overwhelmed Head of State at the time, the availability of money stopped being a problem but how to spend it. Like the proverbial prodigal son, we spent all that largess at a furious rate so that within six years we were broke, stone broke and scandalously deprived. In the mean time, we had acquired such expensive tastes that we could not bear to tone down our newly acquired expensive tastes. But in that short period of affluence we burnt tons of cash mostly in the acquisition of baubles lacking any lasting value.

    Read Also: Crude oil production hits 1.7mb/d, says Lokpobiri

    For example, it was at this time that the Federal government took over the ownership of all universities in the land and for good measure abolished the payment of school fees in those institutions. To sweeten the deal further, bursaries were paid to students making tertiary education the cheapest commodity in the land. In an ill-advised fit of generosity, government awarded substantial salary increases to all workers but did not stop at that. Those increases were back dated long enough to create a substantial  nest egg to every worker thus setting off inflationary pressures, the benefits of which are still blighting our lives fifty years later.

     The consequences of the oil embargo and steep increases in the price of crude oil were felt in practically all parts of the world. Changes had to be made to accommodate the new and unpalatable reality, especially in Europe and the USA. Many changes had to be made with the expressed purpose of reducing reliance on crude oil. New technologies were invented and adopted so the amount of oil required to run their economy was drastically reduced, to such an extent that there was the danger of an oil glut and a reduction in oil prices became inevitable, which is the reason why Nigeria got into serious financial difficulty within only a few years.

    Although Japan had no oil and had to suffer like the rest of the world, she was perhaps one of the greatest beneficiaries of the new oil price situation. A great deal of gas was guzzled by those larger than life American cars and one of the immediate consequences of expensive oil was the abandonment of those heavy American cars for nifty Japanese and Korean cars which were so fuel efficient that they could travel vast distances without the need of a refill. This being the case, the centre of the global motor car industry shifted suddenly and decisively from the USA to Japan and Japanese cars began to be the vehicles of choice on roads from New York to New Zealand and everywhere in between. The Japanese did not stop at revolutionising the motor car industry but moved massively away from the production of electrical goods and moved on to the production of electronic gadgets for the simple reason that the manufacturing process for electronic goods consumed far less power than electrical goods. The Japanese economy boomed as a result of these adjustments and at one time threatened to become the workshop to the world. It was only in the last ten to fifteen years that this distinction passed on to China, by far the greatest exporter of manufactured goods the world has ever seen. Coincidentally, like Japan, China has had to import every drop of oil needed to produce goods on an industrial scale.

    Perhaps the most fundamental changes took place in OPEC countries which now had access to more money than they could have possibly dreamt of having only a few years before. What has happened in the Middle East since that time is nothing short of an economic miracle. The governments of these countries, all of them monarchies; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar set about building social infrastructures at an unprecedented rate, overtaking  Western countries in this regard. Libya under the long lived dictatorship of Gadhafi was another country where massive changes were going on. Norway, a country sitting so close to the arctic circle as to make no difference also benefitted immensely from rising oil prices even though it was not a member of OPEC. The country has continued along the path of her previous existence but has set up a Sovereign wealth fund now worth $1.4 trillion whilst the size of the counterpart fund for Nigeria is a paltry $2.3 billion. The Arab states also have humongous sums of money in their respective sovereign wealth funds. Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar are spending some of these funds to attract positive attention to themselves. Qatar hosted the World Cup last year and Saudi Arabia is looking forward to hosting it in 2034, all from the proceeds of selling crude oil to the rest of the world. To put things in perspective, Nigeria, albeit in a joint venture with Togo and Benin has just lost a bid to host the African Cup of Nations!

    When Sadat launched his army across the Sinaidesert in 1973, his target was freedom for the Palestinians. He could have thought that his adventure was going to change the world in any way let alone the far reaching consequences of that action. Fifty years on Hamas the controlling body in Palestine has followed in the foot prints left in the sand by Sadat. At the end of a Jewish holiday last week, forces loyal to Hamas stormed the formidable ramparts of the occupying Israeli state in an attempt to inflict some damage to Israel and in doing so, remind the world that  Palestinians are still living under intolerable conditions on the fringes of Israel with which no accommodation has been possible. Both Hamas and Hezbollah the ruling body in Lebanon, lack the weapons to push back the Israeli state and there is no doubt that the Israelis will cause a rain of destructive and deadly bombs to fall on Gaza and other places as punishment for the incursion of Hamas into Israel. Israel is now in a state of war and messages of solidarity with Israel are coming from Europe and the USA which, as was the case in 1973, is offering more than spiritual comfort to Israel. In addition, the USA has reinforced her forces in the region by ordering the largest battle ship in the world and her extensive flotilla of support vessels into the region of conflict in the same way as it was flying war material into the region fifty years ago. The action of the USA and her allies precipitated a crisis which changed the world significantly in 1973. Fifty years later, an identical situation has developed and the West has responded in an identical manner. It seems that the inability of governments to learn from history is causing history to repeat itself. Bearing in mind what Nigeria got out of the Yom Kippur war, I wonder what the future holds for Nigeria this time around.

  • Atiku’s wild goose chase

    Atiku’s wild goose chase

    I deliberately refrained from commenting on the allegation by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu forged the certificate of the Chicago State University (CSU) in the United States of America that he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), until the deposition by the university, for obvious reasons. I could not have imagined that someone would go to the extent that Atiku went in search of what has now turned out to be so little.

    But the university has now spoken.

    As usual with such issue, all manner of ‘experts’ have hijacked the media space such that other voices have been drowned in the cacophony of ignorance.

    CSU spoke in simple English language that should have put paid to the now needless saga. Indeed, the 125-page  deposition by Mr Caleb Westberg, the university’s current registrar, speaks to Tinubu’s education at the university, his identity, and the certificate issued to him.

    For me, the questions are: did Tinubu attend CSU? Yes, he did. Did he graduate from there? Again, the answer is yes. Westberg confirmed that “He was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with Honors on June 22, 1979. His major was accounting.”

    Is Bola Ahmed Tinubu the same person as Bola A. Tinubu whose name is on the certificate in question? Again, given the response by Westberg, the university said it believes that both are one and the same person.

    Indeed, part of the reasons I was initially hesitant to comment on the matter was because, as a graduate, if I misplace my certificate, I would expect a replacement from the university where I graduated. But CSU says it is not in the habit of replacing such certificate, being a purely ceremonial matter. But vendors are permitted to replace such certificate.

    So, what is the ‘shock find’ here?

    He may not be able to admit it publicly, but I have cause to believe that what Atiku got from that university couldn’t have been the reason he spent what must have been a fortune to pursue.

    Indeed, something keeps telling me that Atiku knows he has reached a dead end in his quest to prove that Tinubu either did not attend CSU or, if he did, he never graduated there. But, having raised the  hopes of most of the usually gullible Nigerians, Atiku cannot afford to tell them he returned virtually empty-handed from the U.S.A. Hence, his pretensions to have gotten something weighty enough to present to the Supreme Court, to show that Tinubu committed forgery.

    Obviously, Atiku is fighting his last political battle. I don’t see him shining again as to clinch the second position that he got in the 2023 election in 2027. Indeed, for Atiku, it does not seem there would be any such opportunity in 2027. Not that I wish him dead; it is just that things happening in the political terrain make him an unlikely marketable material in any future election in the country.

    He would be about 80 by the time we are having the 2027 elections. This may not be enough reason to disqualify him, even if unofficially, though, because I have argued severally on this page that age may not be an issue in all circumstances. I won’t deviate from that position now because the issue is Atiku. The present American President, Joe Biden, is about 80 years. Meaning he was about 78 when he was sworn in on January 20, 2021. And, Jagunlabi (Biden) is looking forward to contesting next year’s election at 81. If he is able to make it, he would be sworn in as the 47th President of God’s own country in January 2025 when he would be over 82. His predecessor, Donald Trump, who wants to return to the White House to pick what he forgot there is not by any stretch of imagination young either.

    Read Also: Strip Atiku of national honours, CSOs tell Tinubu

     But Nigeria is not America. The many years of bad governance by largely those, in the Babangida years we referred to as ‘old breed’ politicians may make Atiku and people in his age bracket not to be in contention again. Nigerians would have been tired of them and would be routing for something different. Whether the something different would be refreshingly so is however in the womb of time. I have said it before that President Tinubu may be the last of that generation to rule Nigeria if he disappoints Nigerians.

    So, we can see why Atiku is so desperate not to allow this last opportunity, as it were, slip pass him. We can understand why he is running from pillar to post in search of the presidential seat. Atiku is running against time and no amount of counselling can convince him to retrace his steps.

    Let no one make no mistake about it. What Atiku is doing now is merely a continuation of the politics of the 2023 election by some other means; a thing they started long before the polls. And he is not alone in this. He is only the face of the anti-Tinubu cabal. All the shenanigans they brought into play; the cashless economy and all, which ensured that one candidate (or probably more than one candidate) got enough cash, naira and forex, to prosecute the election while effectively denying another major contender in that election, specifically Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the much-needed cash. At least so they thought. That Tinubu still won the election has remained a jigsaw puzzle to them, knowing full well the numerous landmines they put on his way.

    It is in the bid to cover up their dirty tracks that many of those involved in the illegalities that were perpetrated during the Muhammadu Buhari years decided to do all that was humanly possible to ensure Tinubu did not win the election. Now that all their evil plans had crashed like a pack of cards, they are afraid of their shadows. So, the war must continue at some other levels.

    Be that as it may, the discerning would have observed that Atiku is not even talking more about the allegation that he was out-rigged in the election again. May be he has realised the dead-end that that has become. If three people from the same party went their different ways at election time, it would take a repeat of the Miracle of Dammam for any of them to win an election in which they had a formidable challenger. May be that has dawned on him, rather belatedly. His emphasis is now on CSU. In other words, it is technicality to the rescue. His miserable world press conference confirmed that much.

    And, to show how desperate Atiku and his silent orchestra have become, it is now if you miss the ball, don’t miss the leg.

    But this is not the first time that politicians in Nigeria would be exploiting the gullibility of Nigerians for selfish reasons. A time there was when, in the Buhari years, it was claimed that the then president was not the original Buhari that we knew. That the original Buhari had died and what have you. Interestingly, many Nigerians believed this and still do. In fact, not only did they believe, they were helping to circulate that falsehood. Meaning virtually everyone could be conned? That was the implication of that falsehood. The original Buhari’s wife, Aisha, would have agreed to be under ruffling sheets in ‘the other room’ with a fake husband? The original Buhari’s children would have agreed to call a person that was swapped their authentic father? Buhari’s colleagues in the military, the international community and all could be successfully made to believe that the original Buhari was indeed dead! Come of it! But that is the level of ignorance in the country. Many Nigerians would always believe what they want to believe; they are not interested in evidence.

    Still on Buhari. Recall the time he was sick and was being flown abroad for treatment on several occasions? We cannot forget how at a point the then president was said to have died abroad in the course of treatment. His ‘obituary’ was even released by some politicians at a point. So, how many times would Muhammadu Buhari  die? If the man was a Christian, I am sure some people would have organised service of songs and wake-keep for him while urging Nigerians to await his corpse for state burial!

    What is not funny is that many Nigerians believe such tales by moonlight and, to worsen matters, they are ever ready to flog into line those who try to tell them there is no iota of truth in their claims. Such is the ignorance that the (anti) social media spreads like bush fire.

    Obviously, the harsh situation in the country has contributed in no small measure to the Atiku crowd and anti-Tinubu sentiment. The government must therefore take decisive steps to reduce the hardship in the country.  Atiku does not deserve the kind of popularity he seems to be enjoying, especially in the permissive new media.

    This is a rolling stone without ideological conviction. In his inordinate ambition to rule Nigeria, nothing noble matters to him. He jumps in and out of political trains as soon as he discovers he cannot get the presidential ticket where he is. There must be something inherently wrong in the ambition of a man who wants to succeed his ethnic stock in a plural society like Nigeria. Atiku had made six attempts at the presidency and lost. If he tries a seventh time he will still lose if he remains his unstable or selfish self.

    Anyway, it is a matter of time for us to  find out whether the man now masquerading as freedom fighter and lover of equity has the clean hands to pursue such noble objectives.

    All said, this is the time for lawyers to make money off politicians. I suspect Atiku’s lawyers are still the ones urging him on. When lawyers who are eager to make money off politicians meet incurable optimists that many of our politicians are, the result is the kind of desperation that is making Atiku run helter-skelter, having returned from America almost empty-handed, when he had hoped to bring in the joker to nail the Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency.