The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Okon brings small chops to his friend, Aremu, in jail

    Okon brings small chops to his friend, Aremu, in jail

    To Awolumate Maximum Security Centre where Okon has been having a running battle with officials for two days over his insistence on seeing an important state detainee that he claimed had been hauled in in the middle of the night three days earlier on the suspicion of inciting the military to insurrection. Okon claimed that his friend’s life was in acute danger if he did not receive his medication for logorrhea and multiple incontinence and the small chops of squirrel meat he was very partial to.

      “Oga, I sab dem man you dey talk about. We no get am. But we don dey expect am anytime. I don prepare him room. I don tell dem boys make dem look for yellow ants make we put am under dem bed. When dem bite him blokos finish him go no say you no dey do shakara for dem gobment. Last time around dem mala kukuma kaput am. This time him go no say Gambari fit kill Fulani  “, the supervisor, a gap-toothed rogue with a sinister affability, noted as he rubbed his hands with savage relish.

      “ Liar!! Stupid stinking Yoruba liar. So who be dem man dem bring in for night and him de scream and him de bite everybody like dem digbolugi dog?” Okon raved at the man.

      “Oga, no be like dat. Dat one na General Overseer for Okokomaiko church and him dey cry awonlokan, awonlokan. And I don oversee am with dem bilala. Walahi, him come dey see vision as I dey wire am”, the mad rogue sniggered.

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       “Wetin him do sef?” Okon asked trying to be firm and unsmiling.

       “ Na 419 him dey do for him own people. He get time like dat him dey charge one million from anybody who wan talk direct with dem God. Proper gbajue as dem Nobel Lawrence go call am”.

     “You see if to say I be Yoruba man now and I come dey speak dem gbegiri language, you for allow me to see dem man. Na Yoruba people dey scatter dis dem kontri “, Okon whimpered in frustration as he tried to play the ethnic card.

       “ Ha oga mi I no be Yoruba man oo. I be Kukuruku from Ibilo even though we dey bear dem Yoruba name. Even dem man you dey talk about no be him dey abuse dem obonge Yoruba oba?”, the rogue supervisor demanded from Okon.

        “Na for inside cell we go settle am dis time around. My kabiyesi don curse am with werewere”, one man jeered from inside one of the cells and then lapsed into pure Sepenteri dialect. Aati yan bata soro babanla baba were ee”.

     From inside one of the cells, a distraught detainee suddenly unleashed a staccato burst from a semi-automatic weapon sending everyone scampering for safety.

  • Exactly the way to go

    Not since Kwame Nkrumah and his vision for a pan-African agenda for development, has a speech ever been delivered by any African leader on behalf of the 54 nations of Africa. Africa will have itself to blame if it fails to build on the important policy speech by President Tinubu at the United Nations General Assembly” – Olisa Agbakoba, former President, Nigeria Bar Association.

    Really, et tu Olisa Agbakoba?

    Above is the soul lifting comment by Olisa Agbakoba, former NBA President, 2006 – 2008, on President Bola Tinubu’s address last Wednesday, 20 September, 2023 to world leaders at the 78th session of UNGA in which he stressed that unfair treatment, and foreign exploitation, have stunted Africa’s progress, emphasising that Africans are not beggars, but equal partners.

    He said further: “Many proclamations have been made, yet our troubles remain. Failures in good governance have hindered Africa. But broken promises, unfair treatment and outright exploitation from abroad have also exacted a heavy toll on our ability to progress. If this year’s theme is to have any impact at all, global institutions, other countries and their private sector actors must see African development as a priority, not just for Africa but in their own interest as well.

    The question is not whether Nigeria is open for business. It is how much of the world is truly open to doing business with Nigeria and Africa in an equal, mutually beneficial manner. “Direct investment in critical industries, opening their ports to a wider range and larger quantity of African exports and meaningful debt relief”, he said, “are important aspects of the cooperation we seek”.

    Concluding his robust advocacy for Africa, and its peoples at the ‘numero uno’ world organisation, President Tinubu declared: “As for Africa, we seek to be neither appendage nor patron. We do not wish to replace old shackles with new ones.

    Instead, we hope to walk the rich African soil and live under the magnificent African sky free of the wrongs of the past and clear of their associated encumbrances. We desire a prosperous, vibrant democratic living space for our people. To the rest of the world, I say walk with us as true friends and partners. Africa is not a problem to be avoided nor is it to be pitied. Africa is nothing less than the key to the world’s future”.

    This article is, stricto sensu, not about the President’s address to the August body. Rather, it is about Agbakoba’s bold and fascinating comment on it, regardless of how his brother Obidients might tear into him for appearing supportive of anything Tinubu.

    Truth be told, not since Murtala Mohammed’s historic 1976 “Africa Has Come of Age”  speech on Angola, has Africa seen anything comparable. For the sake of posterity, but particularly because Murtala’s immediate successor later cancelled the study of History in Nigerian schools, let me, very briefly, recall that event as refreshingly captured in Chila Andrew Aondofa’s article of February 12, 2022.

    He wrote:”…There is an overwhelming consensus that Murtala Mohamed was an incorruptible hero who would have, given the time, rid Nigeria of the scourge of corruption that has infected her. His focus wasn’t just Nigeria. The commitment he showed to the liberation struggle in Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and, to the pan African issue in general, was unparalleled.

    On the 3rd of January, 1976, the American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Donald Easum, brought a letter addressed to the Nigerian Head of state by the United States President, Gerald Ford. The same letter was sent to many other African leaders. Murtala considered it a contemptuous gesture – an attempt by the U. S to dictate policy regarding the Angolan liberation struggle. He took the bold and unprecedented step of releasing the letter to the press and followed that up with a very strong response, calling the letter a “gross insult”;  basically telling the Americans to go to hell. This event triggered his decision to attend the OAU conference in Addis AbabAbaba to deliver his message to the world.

    On the 11th of January, at the extraordinary summit conference of the OAU held in Addis Ababa, he gave one of the most powerful speeches ever delivered by a Nigerian leader, pulling no punches as he railed against the forces of neo-colonialism and imperialism, aiming to keep Africans in poverty and strife.

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    In the speech, he paid special attention to the “Pretoria-Lisbon-Salisbury” axis (the governments of South Africa, Portugal, and Rhodesia) and, to the United States of America, who he claimed were interested in maintaining “white supremacist minority regimes” in Africa.

    Just over a month later, Murtala Muhammed was killed at the age of 37; victim of a failed military coup.

    One of the leaders of the coup accused Murtala Muhammed of, among other things, “going Communist”.

    Back then to the article proper.

    Olisa Agbakoba is not new to this column at all. Beginning with his highly Nostradamic “Naira Will Soon Exchange For N1,000 To The Dollar” of  September 2016, his many ‘lives’ with President Obasanjo and others’ political guinea pigs, and lately, his  Obidientist interventions on behalf of either Peter Obi or the Igbo race, as both are some times indistinguishable?

     I have written here, ad nauseam, about how Agbakoba literally authored this whole nonsense about a candidate having to score 25 per cent of FCT votes to be declared winner of a Presidential election, never seeing the folly of a candidate winning that in 36 states but not in Abuja, with his competitors winning a quarter in no more than 16 states like Obi.

    Each time I write about this, I have always held the view he did so strictly for ethnic reasons since Igbos look like being in the majority in Abuja.

    I was further strengthened in this belief when Agbakoba came up with his unbelievable proposal of  having the Presidential Election Petition at the PETC decided  in 7 days. Apparently, the appeal would then take hours at the Supreme Court.

    How Solomonic?

    Eager to make Peter Obi, his fellow Igbo, president of Nigeria, below is his ‘seminal suggestion’.

    The Clever lawyer that Agbakoba is, he tied the suggestion to his people’s call for an interim government – which he knows is illegal – due to what he described as “expectations”(whose?) – that the tribunal may not deliver judgement before May 29. Please note that Obidients did not want the winner of the election  sworn in on 29 May, 2023 as constitutionally prescribed.

    Therefore,said Agbakoba,”under arbitration matters, orders/directions are issued peremptorily to resolve complex jurisdictional and procedural issues”. He then went on to specifically list the grounds for Obi’s petition – not Atiku’s –  and urged “the presidential election tribunal to adapt the procedures familiar with speedy conclusion of arbitration matters”, as if Election matters is one. He went further to claim that decisions on such a very important national matter don’t have to take too long, taking into consideration the impact that such a delay can have on the nation’s sanity, as if this is the first presidential election to be litigated.

    Nigeria has not yet evaporated even though the PETC took weeks.

    Our SAN actually petulantly suggested that: “the Tribunal and the Supreme Court, yes the Supreme Court, should give the order, address the jurisdictional issues raised, and release final summary judgment”. In what jurisdiction is that done in election matters?

    I wonder how he must be feeling now.

    Then to the critical questions, and the very rationale for this article:

    *What exactly drove Agbakoba away, this time around, from their narrow, ethnically predetermined, way of seeing whatever Tinubu does or does not do?

    *Knowing how Obidients, his soul- mates, threw all caution to the wind and pulverised, if not desecrate, both Dr Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, the WTO Director – General, and the Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka for doing nothing more than saying what they considered anti- Obi, what led him into praising President Tinubu’s speech?

    *Is it that as a High Priest of Obidientism, he is exempt from any pillory, abuse, even physical assault from those totally excretable characters?

    Whichever of these is the answer, I congratulate Agbakoba, and say that this, indeed, is the way to go; not obsequosness, but hard- headed approach to issues  and Agbakoba, unless he does not know it, is generally very highly regarded for his past contributions to nation building. It should not be beyond him to know that cooperation, rather than antagonism, is the answer to Nigeria’s problems.

  • 78th UNGA speech: Like Cicero, like Jagaban

    It was yet another busy week for President Bola Tinubu as he continued the drive to better both the economic and diplomatic images of the country. Just like the week before it, the President spent virtually the entire week abroad, this time around, attending the 78th United Nations’ General Assembly in New York, as well as several other bilateral and business meetings. Remember he was in the capital of India, New Delhi, the week before to participate in the G-20 Leaders’ Summit, as well as attending other critical engagements that were targeted at bettering the economy.

    Although he was involved in several activities at various levels, including a town hall meeting Diaspora Nigerians from across the United States, diplomatic bilateral and business roundtable with global captains of industry, the one tipped as the most significant of the Jagaba’s outing in ‘the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave’ was his 46-paragraphed National Statement to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, September 19.

    To many Nigerians, just as applicable to other coloured peoples in different parts of the world, the Nigerian President took the UN rostrum to speak the truth to power, speaking on behalf of all the struggling and oppressed nations, those sacrificing everything just to claim a place among those who have forever employed all manners of cunning and force to take all without yielding anything. That outing, in the view of many who have over the years served as the voice for Justice and Equality, was a bold venture for the President of one of the most endowed, but repressed potential powers in parts other than the Global West.

    In such reviews, President Tinubu knew it was a risk to speak out, pointing to the hypocrisy of the big economies, those most of the ‘rest’ of the world are patronising just to be allowed to take steps that will make them count, yet he summoned the courage to say it the way it is, pointing to how corporations and businesses from the developed world pillage African resources, a representation of the struggling economies of the Americas and those in Asia, and such actors never get sanctioned, but protected by their mother-countries through hypocritical technicalities.

    He summarised his truth-poking statement in the closing, saying “as I close, let me emphasize that Nigeria’s objectives accord with the guiding principles of this world body: peace, security, human rights and development. In fundamental ways, nature has been kind to Africa, giving abundant land, resources and creative and industrious people. Yet, man has too often been unkind to his fellow man and this sad tendency has brought sustained hardship to Africa’s doorstep.

    “To keep faith with the tenets of this world body and the theme of this year’s Assembly, the poverty of nations must end. The pillage of one nation’s resources by the overreach of firms and people of stronger nations must end. The will of the people must be respected. This beauty, generous and forgiving planet must be protected.

    “As for Africa, we seek to be neither appendage nor patron. We do not wish to replace old shackles with new one. Instead, we hope to walk the rich African soil and live under the magnificent African sky free of the wrongs of the past and clear of their associated encumbrances. We desire a prosperous, vibrant democratic living space for our people. To the rest of the world, I say walk with us as true friends and partners. Africa is not a problem to be avoided nor is it to be pitied. Africa is nothing less than the key to the world’s future”, he said.

    In another forum, specifically his meeting with the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, Baba told the world that Nigeria and African will no longer fall for the gimmick of the West; collaborating with their rogue corporations and nationals who come to these parts to steal resources, flood our lands with lethal substances like firearms, ammunition, drugs, toxic wastes and other such inhuman practices, then turning back to invoke ‘human rights’ to gain clemency through the back door.

    “We are facing the great challenge of scavengers ravaging our lands and oppressing our people on illegal mines—taking our gold and mineral wealth back to developed economies by stealth and violence against Nigerians. Where one’s human right ends, the rights of another begin, most especially for self-protection. If we fight, they say ‘human rights,’ but we will now be aggressive and we will question motives. We will stop what is happening in our land. We require your effective collaboration”, Baba had told Guterres.

    However, reviews have rated the President’s outing most successful. Starting with the truth-telling on the floors of the General Assembly on Tuesday, opinions across the world have put President Tinubu’s speech among the best ever delivered by leaders of developing countries to the rest of the world.

    Read Also: Tinubu steering Nigeria through turbulent waters, says Akpabio

    A legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr Olisa Agbakoba, who many will not call “an everyday friend of President Tinubu, in his review of the President’s National Statement, described it as “a well-received statement at UNGA”.

    Agbakoba, who is never known for praise-singing, dropped a message on his verified X handle, @oagbakoba commending the President for his message to the world, saying “never in the history of UNGA has an African President spoken for the entire African continent, asserting that we are not beggars but equal partners with the geopolitical blocs of the world.

    “Not since Kwame Nkrumah and his vision for a pan-African agenda for development has any African leader delivered a speech on behalf of the 54 nations of Africa. Africa has only itself to blame if it fails to build upon the significant policy speech delivered by President Tinubu at the United Nations General Assembly. Let all of us in Africa rally our collective energies and declare to the world that we are awake and not beggars but partners”, he said.

    Also, a senior media practitioner and former Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, in his summation of the President’s outing said he (Tinubu) was apt in locating the escalating crisis of development in Nigeria and other African countries in the crippling unemployment across the regions, lauding him for the foresight and expressing optimism that sorting this crisis out will help to speed up development.

    “Over the years political and economic analysts in Nigeria have had cause to express grave concern over youth unemployment in the country. Some of them have described lack of job opportunities for Nigerian youths as a ticking time bomb.

    “In cognisance of this national crisis, President Tinubu, during his speech at the Union Nations rightly emphasised that for Nigeria and other African countries to fulfil their duties to their people must create jobs. There is no doubt that one of the socio-economic problems facing Nigeria today is unemployment. And the President has clearly pointed out that creating more and better quality jobs is key to boosting growth, reducing poverty and increasing social cohesion.

    “To this end, I consider President Tinubu’s assertion that Africa’s largest economy is open for business, aimed at attracting foreign direct investment, as most commendable. Nigeria stands to benefit immensely from foreign direct investment through technology transfer, human capital development, job creation, stem insecurity, increased competitiveness, and improve export. This will, no doubt, help to further develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nigeria”, Ebiri said.

    Besides the outing at the UNGA, the President also took part in a number of other engagements targeted at economic growth and development, even the meeting with the Diaspora Nigerians in across the US was still devoted to asking them to bring their resources home for investment. These engagements have also been weighed and sized as steps in the right direction for a President desperate to bring a comatose system back to life.

    One of such reviews was by the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu, who spoke to journalists after the Jagaba rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ.

    “Today is extremely symbolic for us as Nigerians, we should be very proud to see our President come to New York, we have had many Presidents in the past who come for UNGA, but they didn’t pay this kind of attention to coming to a place like this. This is symbolic, it helps people to know that our leader is ready for business, he supports business and he will create the enabling environment for businesses to succeed.

    “There’s so much private global capital looking for the right investment destination and this capital will go to where it’s most welcomed. Seeing the President of Nigeria, come to New York, coming to NASDAQ to ring the closing bell says a lot, that he’s a man that’s pro-business. We need a pro-business leadership to take Nigeria to the next level, it’s all about confidence and trust.

    “If people have confidence in the Nigeria’s economy, if people have confidence in our leadership, the money we need in Nigeria to develop our economy, to drive infrastructure, to even improve our foreign exchange reserve will come to the country. So I’m very happy and that’s why personally I cancelled some engagements to be here with Mr President

    “Also, when we go back home, they should match it with actions to make sure that the promises we made to foreign investors is sustained. What is good for foreign investor is good for local investor. We want to see a vibrant economy in Nigeria and to achieve that, we need to create the enabling environment”, Elumelu said.

    Well, another week of offshore victories ended in America on Thursday evening as the Jagaban headed out of that country, en rout France, back home, for another week of activities. What those activities will be, we will have to wait to see.

  • PBAT the negotiator and the reopening of Emirati corridor

    PBAT the negotiator and the reopening of Emirati corridor

    it was another very exciting week and especially so because President Bola Tinubu continued with the streak and momentum of the week before. The week before last week, he did it home front to offshore, but last week it was offshore to home front. He started his week in New Delhi, India, where he has been from the week before and the event that took him that far from home happened to close on the first day of the week.

    Last week Sunday, just as the G-20 Leaders Forum was winding down in New Delhi, a couple of sidelines meetings were organised among various heads of states. President Tinubu met with three world leaders that day; Prime Minister of the host country, India, Narendra Modi; German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz; and the South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol. The day before then, he had had what his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, described as ‘informal exchanges of views’ with U.S. President Joe R. Biden; European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen; and World Bank President, Ajay Banga, amongst many others.

    In one of the meetings, the one he held with the South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, President Tinubu showed purpose and single-mindedness. While his counterpart was busy with patronage and pleasantries, trying to make him feel good about himself, Jagaban just switched to what was his primary reason for meeting with anybody at all, like “let’s talk about business and our economies, enough of pleasantries”.

    “We will leave nothing hanging. We will finalise what we agree to and we will execute. We will work point-by-point with you to secure rapidly implementable MoUs across sectors of partnership that will involve the active presence of your biggest firms, not just in terms of Nigerian consumption, but in local Nigerian production, from telecommunications to technology, and oil and gas”, Tinubu assured Yeol.

    However, of all the very exciting developments of the last week, the stopover he made in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi, seemed to stand out and won him the star event of the week. When his spokesman, Ngelale, right from India, where he was attending the G-20 Summit, announced the President’s plan to make a stopover in Abu Dhabi, not many people immediately figured the purpose out.

    It became the toast and talk of the town on Monday when multiple sources, including President Tinubu himself and Ngelale, unveiled the details of the fruits of the Abu Dhabi engagement. Of course we knew he was going to meet with his counterpart, the President of the UAE, but details of what they should be discussing were not out there for everyone to know. Except, however, for some who immediately guessed it might all be about the souring relations between both countries since last year, which has affected business in many sectors.

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    “Today, in unity with my friend, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, we have initiated a new era of collaboration and friendship between our nations – Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. We’ve also laid a robust foundation for substantial investments in various sectors in Nigeria, a testament to our shared vision for a prosperous future. Together, we are committed to building bridges and fostering a friendship that stands the test of time. As part of our discussions, the following have been reached:

    “Immediate lifting of the visa ban placed on Nigerian travelers by the UAE. Resumption of flight schedules into and out of Nigeria by Etihad Airlines and Emirates Airlines, without any immediate payment required from the Nigerian government; an agreed framework for new investments worth several billions of U.S. dollars into the Nigerian economy by the UAE government, covering multiple sectors including defense and agriculture; a joint, new foreign exchange liquidity programme between Nigeria and the UAE, details of which will be announced in the coming weeks; a commitment to normalize and enhance the relations between the two countries, fostered by the collaboration between myself and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan”, President Tinubu disclosed on his verified X handle on Monday.

    Almost immediately the news hit the town, reactions excitedly started streaming in. Even if it was meant to be operational in a matter of days, talking about the lifting of travel ban and the reopening of the operations of the two airliners, Nigerians, both back home, in UAE or in other parts of the world, started praising the President for his boldness and thoughts for Nigerian interests anywhere in the world.

    Miss X is a well travelled Nigerian professional in the media industry, she has traveled to the UAE; either Dubai or Abu Dhabi, a couple of times, besides the fact that she is quite informed about the operations of travel agencies. To her, Tinubu has taken a rather strategic step, especially considering the shape of diplomatic politics these days.

    “In this era of evolving geopolitics and global alliances, I firmly believe that no nation should isolate itself. Nigeria, too, must keep pace with these changes. Strengthening our ties with the UAE can bring significant mutual benefits, and one crucial step is facilitating travel between our countries. Therefore, the prospective lifting of the visa ban and the resumption of Emirates and Etihad flights are indeed positive developments.

    “I hope these plans can be realized without undue delay. It’s worth noting that this achievement reflects positively on the Tinubu administration, especially considering the previous unsuccessful attempts by the Buhari government to lift the ban and reinstate these flights”, Miss X said.

    Another outstanding activity during the President’s week was the approval for the establishment of a Presidential Committee dedicated to the reform of the livestock industry and the provision of long-term solutions to recurring clashes between herders and farmers in the country, headed by the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Ganduje. The Committee will be attending to an issue touching various social issues like security, food security, productive agriculture and many others. Besides, it is an issue touching many lives and cultures and which has fueled fears in many ramifications.

    While meeting the Committee, the President explained that the it is expected to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and propose recommendations aimed at fostering a peaceful co-existence between herders and farmers while ensuring the security and economic well-being of all Nigerians. The most significant item on the list of recommendations by the committee has been said to be the proposition for a Ministry of Livestock Economy.

    “The federal government is fully prepared to cover the cost of acquiring the land. These opportunities will provide gainful employment for our veterinary doctors, while opening doors for the private sector as the provision of new educational opportunities for herders’ and their children emerge. Medical facilities will be established. This is a life-changing opportunity that we have.

    “Imagine us producing enough milk for our school children. Imagine us becoming net exporters of cheese and yoghurt. Imagine us producing the skin massively with a major Nigerian leather industry. Imagine us providing cold storage facilities and employment across the nation. These things are possible in front of us,” the President charged.

    Taking a look at the route now being plied by the President in the attempt to put an end to farmers-herders age-long conflict, the National Chairman of the Arewa Economic Forum (AEF), who also happens to have a background in Agriculture, Ibrahim Shehu Yahaya, popularly known as Dandakata, hailed the innovation, but still expressed the opinion that only the creation of a Ministry of Livestock Economy will bring the best out of the entire idea. 

    “While we see the acceptance of the report by the President of Nigeria as a sign of excellent and positive response to a very good initiative and extensive work by the committee, we remain fully behind the creation of a Ministry of Livestock Economy, not a committee.

    “It’s pertinent to note that the pastoralists do not enjoy much benefit from the government at all levels. While other citizens that are engaged in various businesses get all kinds of support from governments like markets, schools, access roads, inputs at subsidised rates, water, electricity and various kinds of assistance and incentives the pastoralist gets not much if any.

    “Meanwhile the grazing routes and reserves are not available for their use. The calls for ranching doesn’t take into consideration the amount of funds needed to develop that business unit, which no bank has funds available to offer those in the business, coupled with the fact that the main requirement for a loan in Nigeria, land collateral, isn’t available to the pastoralists while at the same time the govt hasn’t provided them with education and the facilities that will enable them navigate the intricate financial system to be able to negotiate for such funds.

    “Our call is for the establishment of the ministry which will engender a positive platform for the pastoralists to be fully engaged in the formal economic sector and the revival of nomadic education that will ensure the pastoralists are brought into the 21st century as other citizens”, Dandakata said.

    Still on Thursday, President Tinubu hosted the very colourful Rivers people, who visited to show solidarity, pledge their loyalty and support. This visit came with some revelations. Of course, the visitors, drawn from across political parties, besides securing a commitment from the President on the repair or reconstruction of the Eleme Junction axis of the East-West Road, they made him blow the cover on his relationship with the former Rivers State governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike. Jagaban revealed that Wike is not just his minister, but an adviser and admirer, whose works as minister so far he credited.

    Then during the week he made a number of very critical appointments, which will tell on how the administration performs financially, eventually. He appointed Zacch Adedeji, a man who has been described as a numbers genius, as Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Thursday and on Friday named Dr Yemi Cardoso as Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). There were still others though.

    Now this week is just starting, but it is safe to say from now that it is going to be largely offshore as he leaves today to participate in the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the USA. We’ll wait to see how it goes.

  • These irredeemable sore losers have lost it for all time

    These irredeemable sore losers have lost it for all time

    So, I am not Nostradamus, that French astrologer, physician, and reputed seer, “who is best known for his book ‘Les Prophéties’, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains predicting future events” many of which, the 9/11 catastrophe inclusive, have happened almost to the letter.

    I have literally laughed myself hoarse reading, or listening on television, to the post – PETC decision babble of  not just the  presidential wannabes themselves, but  their court jesters like Daniel Bwala, Sam Amadi and a host of others whose cheer leader, however, is none other than  Dele Momodu.

    How I once liked him?

    In ‘The Illogic of Dele Momodu …’, 30 October, ’22 I wrote concerning him:”For me, it is simply impossible not to like Dele Momodu – avuncular, sartorial and derring-do. Dele has carved a niche for himself, not only here in Nigeria but all over the West African sub region, if not all over the world. That he is an alumnus of the University of Ife, aka Great Ife, my Alma Mata, raises my admiration for him a notch higher”.

    That was the piece in which I shredded the puerile reasons on which he had erected his dream  of an Atiku victory in the then forthcoming  2023 Presidential election; a fairy tale I knew would never come true for a self – conceited politician like Atiku.

    Momodu, never known for moderation, took direct aim, and mercilessly pulverised the 5 Justices who found against Atiku at the PETC writing: “I watched in utter amazement and wonderment how our constitution was brazenly

    and deliberately turned upside down by those who lack a sense of history and care less about the verdict of history”. “What all men and women of good conscience should have for them is pity and not anger…”

    Just imagine a man who should be pitied, a man Nigerians know would have waxed lyrical in his praise of the same judges had they found in favour of his two pals even as their lawyers made a complete mess of their petitions.

    Fortunately, I need not break a single sweat in reacting to him this time around.

    I shall, instead, rely on His Lordship, Mr Justice Niki Tobi, JSC, of blessed memory who, as far back as 2008, had foreseen, and dealt severely for posterity, with the likes of Dele  Momodu, that is,  media blackmailers of the judiciary.

    To his Lordship’s immortal words in Buhari vs. INEC & Ors (2008), LPELR-814 SC), @  pages 175-178 on the subject of Media Blackmail and Intimidation of the Judiciary I shall, therefore, revert.

    “The Court of Appeal cannot collect evidence from the market overt; for example from Balogun market, Lagos; Dugbe market, Ibadan; main market, Jos; Central market, Kaduna; Central market (former Gwari market), Minna; Wuse market, Abuja. On the contrary, the Court of Appeal, has to wait for evidence, as the court did, in the court building duly constituted as a court qua adjudicatory body. Courts of law being legal and sacred institutions, do not go on a frolic or on a journey to collect inculpatory or exculpatory evidence. On the contrary, they deal only with evidence before them which is procedurally built on arid legalism.

    For the avoidance of doubt, I am not saying by this judgment that all was well with the conduct of the Presidential Election conducted in 2007. What I am saying is that there was no evidence before the Court of Appeal to dislodge section 146(1) of the Electoral Act.

    It is sad that so much has been said in the newspapers of this country on the case. The new technology of internet reporting (Social media venerated by Obidients and Atikulators – my words) has added to the comments, some of them doubting our integrity to do justice according to law. I regard them as blackmail and I will not succumb to blackmail,

    I swore on that eventful day as a High Court Judge to do justice to all manner of persons without fear or favour. I have never departed from that oath and I will not, God helping. It is too late in the day to do so. Nigeria is a country where suspicion of wrong doing is the past time of the citizens. Nigerians should realise that some public officers should be trusted to do the right thing. Why not the Judges!

    Nigeria is one vast and huge country made up of so many diversities in terms of tribes, cultures, sociology, anthropology and above all, quite a number of political parties (some large, some small). These diversities, coupled with the usual aggressiveness of Nigerians arising particularly from the do or die behaviour in politics; there must be irregularities. Courts of law must therefore take the irregularities for granted unless they are of such compelling proportion or magnitude as to “affect substantially the result of the election.” This may appear to the ordinary Nigerian mind as a stupid statement but that is the law as provided in section 146(1) of the Electoral Act and there is nothing anybody can do about it, as long as the Legislature keeps it in the Electoral Act. The subsection is like the rock of Gibraltar, solidly standing behind and for a respondent to an election petition. I am not saying that a Presidential Election can never succeed in the light of section 146(1). No. It can if the petitioner discharges the burden the subsection places on him.

    The way politics in this country is played frightens me every dawning day. It is a fight to finish affair.

    Nobody accepts defeat at the polls.

    The Judges must be the final bus stop. And when they come to the Judges and the Judges in their professional minds give judgment, they call them all sorts of names. To the party who wins the case, the Judiciary is the best place and real hope of the common man. To the party who loses, the Judiciary is bad. Even when a party loses a case because of serious blunder of Counsel, it is the Judge who is blamed. Why?

    While I know as a matter of fact that in every case, the Judge makes an additional enemy, if I use the word unguardedly, I must say that the Judge does not regard the person as his enemy. The Judge who has given judgment in the light of the law, should not be castigated in the way it is done in this country. That is a primitive conduct and I condemn it. It is a conduct that does not help the promotion of the administration of justice. It is rather a conduct that is likely to affect adversely the administration of justice in this country. I feel very strongly that Nigerian Judges should be allowed to perform their judicial functions to the best of their ability. I should also say that no amount of bad name-calling will deter Nigerian Judges from performing their constitutional functions of deciding cases between two or more competing parties. Somebody must be trusted in doing the correct thing. Why not the Nigerian Judge?”

    If these sore losers are still capable of any learning, they should see the pedagogical  position of the hugely respected Judge as a learning curve.

    They should correlate it to the wise words of Justice Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf who, in dismissing the petitions said, inter alia, as follows:

    “The petitioners did not understand the explanation of the first respondent or were just fixated on their belief that they won the election without any cogent and credible evidence as they did not  bother to place any credible evidence before this court.”

    “Were they expecting the court to go and gather evidence from the street, or the market? Or to be persuaded or intimidated by threats on social media? That is not the way of the court”.I hope Obidients and their cousins, the Atikulators, heard that clearly. Since they will not be pleading anything new at the apex court, they should know that   discretion, as the saying goes, is  the better part of valor.

    A word should be enough for the wise.

  • An extraordinary woman who tried everything

    An extraordinary woman who tried everything

    When I was eleven, I pleaded (or maybe demanded) that my mother allow me to attend boarding school. The common entrance exam results had just been released, and judging by my score, I was qualified to attend the elitist Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC) in Benin City, Edo State. I didn’t know back then that my mother’s meager salary as a teacher was insufficient to cover the expenses. But somehow, she made it happen.

    When I was twenty-one, I was selected to participate in a six-month youth exchange program sponsored by the British Council and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in the United Kingdom. For the first three months, I volunteered as a researcher in a nonprofit organization based in Birmingham, U.K. For another three months, along with other youth volunteers (eight British and nine Nigerians), we spent another three months volunteering in Jos Plateau State, Nigeria. These experiences influenced my career choice in global development, and my mother’s investment in helping me gain independence early on built my confidence and grit.

    I never got a chance to connect these dots with my mother through a reflective reminisce because, on June 26, 2023, four days before my 39th (thirty-ninth) birthday, she transitioned from this precarious world as we know it.

    My mother

    My mother, Princess (Mrs.) Margaret Otayo Ehidiamen, née Oseghale, was a lover of life. She cultivated every second of it, sharing her life and light with others. Born to the royal family of Omontuemen Okojie, my mother grew up in Uromi, Edo state. She attended Our Lady of Lourdes Girls Grammar School Uromi; Mary Mount College (OLA), Agbor, Delta State; and College of Education Abraka, Delta State (which has evolved into Delta State University); and the University of Ibadan, where she earned her educational certificates.

    My mother pursued careers in sports and teaching. She represented her schools in many sporting events, including swimming, track, long tennis, and badminton. Her athletic prowess was well-known to many, and she often talked about how she took part in a track competition while pregnant.

    My mother married my father, Asia Ehidiamen, at an early age, and they had seven children (six surviving children) in good wealth. I am the sixth (technically, the seventh) child, and the two greatest gifts I received from my parents are a good name (good character) and a quality education.

    Growing up, I enjoyed being called a teacher’s daughter and all the extras that came with the title, such as not paying for the famous PTA levy, not being punished by other teachers, and not being mishandled by peers or bullies at school. From my mother, I learned the art and act of being strong and tenacious. As a teacher, she spent years contributing to the human capital development of the youths in Uromi before moving to Lagos State, where she continued to work as a teacher, then elevated to the position of assistant headmistress and retired as a headteacher (headmistress) after 35 years of active service as a civil servant. Many accolades/awards of excellence distinguished my mum’s career as a teacher. I have had one or two people stop me on the street or send me messages on Facebook to ask if I am Mrs. Ehidiamen’s daughter. They would then recount how their lives were impacted positively by my mother’s classroom influence in primary school. It is always very inspiring to take it all in.

    Multi-dimensional problem-solver

    My mother was undoubtedly a hardworking, multi-talented woman who invested time in solving multi-dimensional challenges in her community. Even though she was a teacher by profession, she expressed her entrepreneurial acumen and talents through other channels. My mum was a talented singer and thrived as a chorister at the Church of God Mission, where she first embraced the gift of Salvation and generously propagated the gospel of Christ to others, including her family members. She was a hair stylist (she owned a Salon in the early years). She was a farmer (in Uromi), and many years later, she still enjoyed keeping a small garden (in her house in Akute/Magboro).

  • LP, NLC, Catholic bishops now official opposition

    LP, NLC, Catholic bishops now official opposition

    Despite having about 13 governors, 36 senators and 118 House of Representatives members in the National Assembly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is playing second fiddle as the main opposition party after the 2023 general election. Increasingly, the Labour Party (LP), with one governor, eight senators and 35 House of Representatives members, assisted by others, is talking, acting and behaving as the official opposition. The trend will worsen in the months ahead if the PDP does not shake off its lethargy and incompetent politicking. However, the game is not yet over for the PDP. It has a far bigger and better structure than the LP, more active and experienced politicians and vote herders, and far more pugnacious governors and local government administrators. While it is indeed hard imagining the party dead anytime soon, at least not in the next four years, its morbidity has become unsettlingly obvious, particularly in the face of the aggressive and anarchic politics of the LP.

    Last April, when Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka crossed swords with LP presidential running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed over the latter’s unbridled vituperations against the judiciary, and again last Wednesday as he snorted at LP presidential candidate Peter Obi’s insistence that he won the February 25 election, many analysts accused the laureate and other commentators of been obsessed with the LP. There is, however, little to suggest any obsession. Mr Obi may speak and gesture more often and more wildly than the PDP presidential candidate in that election, Atiku Abubakar, and continues to weave many far-fetched conspiracies around his purported victory, but whatever fixations are noticeable around him have little to do with him as a person or his politics. He may appeal to a cross-section of Nigerians, some of them young and too angry to rationalise their pains and goals, but he remains essentially insular and his politics annoyingly predictable. For the perceptive, both Mr Obi and the LP have become objects of derision much more than they have become objects of fascination or obsession.

    Read Also: APC, PDP, LP and unending firefights

    The reason is not far to seek. By some incredible conjunction of events and personalities, a different kind of opposition appears to be budding through a coalition of angry ethnic and sectarian diehards. It may not last, for the coalition energising that unusual opposition is incapable of enduring for long, but while it lasts it will shake the leadership rafters, upset the political applecart, and attempt to dismantle the cultural and bureaucratic ramparts upon which Nigeria rested. On its own, and regardless of the ferocity and population of the politically alienated in the country, the LP could not achieve the heights it has reached in the past one year. Mr Obi lacks the unifying and ideological depth required to vivify even his own indeterminate brand of politics. And for someone so parsimonious as to be offensive, he needed funds and a certain gregariousness to concretise and amplify his amorphous message. It is true he had been a two-term governor, an unprincipled party defector, and a one-time running mate to former vice president Atiku. But he needed much more than himself and his political peregrinations to win national recognition visible enough to upset the regnant power structure that has held the country in thrall for decades. By no special and gifted deeds of his making, and certainly not by dint of education or extraordinary grasp of the fundamentals of development, he achieved that renown through a coalition that thrust him awkwardly and apocalyptically upon Nigeria beginning from 2022. Yes, just one dizzying and incredible year.

    Mr Obi did not deliberately put that coalition together. Nor did any other arm of that coalition consciously worm its way into the group. The Book of Proverbs talks about time and chance happening to people and predisposing them to the vagaries of human existence. Something closely resembling that happenstance foisted the Obi-led coalition upon Nigeria. The All Progressives Congress (APC), which eventually won the February poll, had presented a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket to a country driven to insane rage by religious divisions. The Christians were, therefore, not going to have such insult, and were determined to put down the Muslim dervishes. They needed a champion, and they found one in the unconscionable Mr Obi who in any other circumstance could be taken for an atheist despite his fulsome show of religiosity. The Pentecostal bishops lined up behind Mr Obi, and backed him with thunderous and unremitting prophecies. The Catholic bishops also breathed undiluted anger against the APC same-faith ticket. Onward into battle they all marched with Mr Obi, unperturbed by his follies and foibles. Indeed they couldn’t care less if he were the very devil himself, or Lucifer’s lieutenant.

    But the dissembling Mr Obi and the presumptuous bishops were not sufficient to form the Axis powers against the APC. They easily found a second leg in the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which claimed the LP as its baby. Maternal instincts, the NLC claims, not the ethnic instincts alleged against the NLC president Joe Ajaero from Abia State, explained the filial bond with Mr Obi. The coalition, however, needed one more leg to form a tripod. They found one in the Igbo ethnic group of the Southeast pained by the audacity of the Southwest to want to take the presidency soon after ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo occupied the throne for eight years and his Ogun State kinsman Yemi Osinbajo assumed the vice presidency a little later for another eight years. The Southeast would have none of that provocation. Irate and full of righteous ethnic rage and pride, they saw Mr Obi as their infallible and immutable champion. If the former Anambra State governor had remained in the PDP, they might have won the 2023 poll, but they would not have the untrammelled joy of having one of their own in Aso Villa. Had Mr Obi stayed put in the PDP, he could not of course attract as many votes as he did in the LP, not to say across many states as he managed, but the contest would have been settled before the first ballot was cast. To the Southeast, therefore, Mr Obi became a folk hero, and his native region was determined to swim or sink with him, through crocodile infested waters and through a Niagara of lies and utter fabrications.

    With that troika of support, the Obi coalition became ironclad and was ready to steamroll the enemy. They would still have achieved the same results that have today warmed the cockles of their hearts, but nature gifted them an extra brigade by adding a section of disaffected southern youths riled by incompetent policing. The EndSARS generation, indulgent, entitled, hyperactive and immoderate also saw in Mr Obi a champion, not an ethnic or religious champion, but an authentic leader forever and delectably cooing about Asian Tigers and utopias. The youths were themselves not questioning or discriminating, and the facile logic of the LP candidate could not be subjected to any validity tests, so it was easy for Mr Obi to pull wool over their faces and bamboozle them with highfalutin economic jargons and dainty phrases. With this icing on the cake, but with no substantial grounding whatsoever or coherent logic of any kind, Mr Obi took the political arena by storm and has since then waved his sorcery under the noses of his supporters, helped no doubt by a few Southwest dissenters and political titans.

    But after repeatedly coming to grief on their prophetic Golgotha, the Pentecostal bishops have seen the light and have largely and shamefacedly retreated into their cocoons, sometimes giving the Tinubu administration grudging respect, support and admiration. A few hardy bishops are still in the trenches or in the mountains calling down fire, but on the whole the Pentecostals appeared convinced that the arms of God were not shortened that they could not save last February. Had the Almighty wanted a different outcome, it would not have taken him a second to throw the Tinubu candidacy out of kilter. If the Pentecostals are chastened by inaccurate prophecies and mortified by defeat, the same is not true of the Catholic bishops, one leg of the Obi-led formidable opposition. Staid, less given to prophecy, and Catholic like Mr Obi himself, these other bishops seem determined to perish with their champion who has gone down in defeat. Dissatisfied with the results they got from opposing the APC before and immediately after the elections, they have happily joined the LP candidate in opposing the administrations’ economic, social and political policies at every whim. All they need is to sense which way Mr Obi is turning or which direction the APC is going in order to adjust their compass.

    Sadly, the Catholic Church in Nigeria is now fully a political machine, no longer an instrument for peace, righteousness and salvation. At every turn, and together with the NLC and the Southeast, they have belittled the APC, refused to acknowledge the victory of President Tinubu, and have sneered at the courts and inveighed against their juridical competence. Mr Obi could not have asked for better comrades-in-arms. For the foreseeable future, the APC will have to come to grips with the new and unorthodox opposition. They will require far more exquisite skills and technology to battle an opposition that is inconversant with logic and contemptuous of ideas, for an opposition propelled by sentiments and self-righteous zeal is not easy to persuade and is far more difficult to defeat.

  • PEPC judgement and Nigeria’s future

    PEPC judgement and Nigeria’s future

    It is not surprising that Nigerians have seemed to limit themselves to ruminating over the judicial implications of the September 6 Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) judgement in the three suits filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). Gradually, however, the focus may be starting to shift from pure legalism to the more overarching issue of Nigeria’s future. That shift may be slow and exasperating, and can sometimes create more complications, but it is nevertheless perceptible. First and foremost, the PEPC judgement has wider implications for jurisprudence, a fact that has been reiterated in the media and especially among lawyers, including dissenting and prejudiced lawyers.

    The length of the judgement, all of 798 pages, and the about 12 hours it took to read it, carved a juridical niche in Nigeria. In summary, the petitioners proved nothing, as their final written addresses ominously presaged. They could not prove double nominations of the APC ticket, nor cast provable doubt on the qualification of the winner of the election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, nor yet show electoral malpractices. They also demonstrated farcical understanding of the so-called special status of Abuja and also the jurisprudential value of the promise by INEC to use the result viewing portal, IReV. The petitioners also did not appreciate how to deploy the law of evidence to underscore their arguments. Though many commentators declined to read the judgement, perhaps on account of its length, or simply because they chose ab initio to believe a lie, the five justices encountered no difficulty whatsoever in coming to a unanimous decision to dismiss the petitions with significant and exemplary fines.

    However, apart from the juridical import of the PEPC judgement, and notwithstanding the skepticism of analysts and lawyers deliberately acting mala fide, the outcome of the cases is bound to have far-reaching impact on Nigeria in the years ahead. Had the judgement validated the LP’s tenuous claim of victory, for instance, it would have canonised ethnic politics and ingrained it into the body politic. Mr Obi’s presidential campaign was largely targeted at his ethnic group whether in his native Southeast or clusters of his ethnic compatriots wherever they might be found in the country. His tactic was also deliberate, mischievous, ruthless and remorseless. His tacticians probably suspected that since the APC opted for same-faith ticket, he had free reins to exploit the country’s religious sensibility to farm the Christian vote and couple it with ethnic vote to create a groundswell capable of sweeping him into the State House. His calculations were tactically sound but immoral and inherently destabilising. Given the country’s ethnic and religious pastiche, that tactics was unlikely to work. But if the PEPC had validated his election, credit would have been given to the exploitation of religious and ethnic factors. In the years ahead, candidates will now be reluctant farming ethnic and religious votes so flagrantly.

    Read Also: Why we agree with lead judgment, by four PEPC justices

    The PEPC judgement has also exposed and defined in bolder and shocking reliefs the character and politics of the candidates. The expositions are so revelatory that their impact goes beyond the gloominess of defeat and the exhilaration of victory. It is not known how President Bola Tinubu would take a devastating electoral loss, considering how immune he claims to be against electoral loss since he cut his political teeth. He hosts a permanent grin on his face, and may perhaps take losses with perfect equanimity; but until it happens, no one can predict the depth or magnitude of his reaction. But for Mr Obi and ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, their reactions to their losses have altered public perceptions of their politics, mettle and judgement in ways impossible to measure.

    By reacting so badly to their losses, the LP and PDP candidates may have demonstrated their opportunism, superficial appreciation of democracy, and lack of interest in upholding the constitution. Alhaji Atiku may be chafing under serial electoral losses, perhaps also suspecting that he could never contest again on account of his age; but for Mr Obi, this was his first major loss as a presidential candidate, making it incomprehensible that he would risk his political future so casually to claim an election he actually stood no chance of winning. Some analysts suggest that Mr Obi’s intransigence is designed to sustain his political relevance, nurture his supporters’ loyalty by gratifying their childish desires, and raise his stock in public estimation. On the contrary, having short-sightedly corralled ethnic votes and accentuated the country’s fierce religious divides, Mr Obi has capped his unsteady and superficial appreciation of democracy with a questionable display as a bad loser, and virtually shown just how poorly equipped he is for national leadership.

    The PEPC judgement has also shown in unquantifiable ways that the judiciary can indeed withstand attacks and rise above prejudices and the mundane. More, given the unanimity of the judgement, the suavity and fluidity of the reasoning upon which they bludgeoned the puny efforts of the losing candidates, and the emphatic manner and clear conscience with which they came to their decisions, it is unavoidable that Nigeria must revisit its leadership recruitment process. Too many Nigerian leaders have come up short in reckoning. Had either Alhaji Atiku or Mr Obi won, the country would never have discovered their ideational failings, lack of democratic conviction, and almost total absence of leadership character. Hopefully, the next election cycle will probably sieve out most of the current frontrunners, including the 2023 PDP and LP candidates, and undoubtedly throw up far more nonnatural factors that will shape the country’s future.

  • APC, PDP, LP and unending firefights

    APC, PDP, LP and unending firefights

    The needless jousting between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the watermark on the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) judgement indicates that long after the dust must have settled and the guns fallen silent on the 2023 presidential election, the war will still continue by any other means possible. The problem clearly is not the erudition of the justices in delivering the judgement, though some analysts unbelievably took issue with their elocution, nor the promptness and comprehensiveness of the court in coming to judgement; the problem is the obstinate refusal of the defeated to admit that their campaign ineptitude and incompetent legal challenge doomed their chances. The defeated, deploying all contrivances, no matter how farcical, including jostling over watermarks, are determined to make water flow uphill.

    Two Thursdays ago, the parties collected their copies of the judgement, a very simple and uncomplicated process. But, given the already foul mood of the defeated parties, nothing is direct and simple anymore. Hence the battle of the watermarks. The PDP fired the first short by suggesting that every certified copy of the judgement bore the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT) watermark, insinuating that either the APC provided secretarial services for the court or originated the document. The PDP then drew a distinction between watermark and a header, arguing that what was inscribed on the now controversial document was a header, not a watermark. It then proceeded stealthily into a definitional maze waxing hot about headers, footers and watermarks. The party refused to address the inane suggestion that the ‘unintentional’ watermark made the APC to exhibit its ‘crime’. Yet the PDP refused to respond to APC rebuttal that the opposition party actually collected the first certified copy.

    Read Also: Ganduje commissions APC Campaign Council Secretariat in Imo

    The questions then remain: who collected the first copy, and does that copy reflect any watermark, or header, as the party prefers to label the inscription? The PDP said it had no wish to trigger a controversy, but in rushing to town with accusations it had not fully investigated, the party did nothing but stirred a storm in a teacup. The APC claimed that the certified copies issued to the parties, including its own, bore no watermark, and that the Tinubu team merely embossed their copy to differentiate it from those of others. Days after the PDP allegation, neither the LP nor the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) was yet to comment on the infamous watermark. If the two other defeated parties also applied for and collected copies, surely they should be in a position to say something. Moreover, though the LP began the campaign of scurrility, escalating it to the point of even insinuating that a coup would be desirable, the PDP has taken over the plot to delegitimise the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

    The watermark controversy is thus merely the latest weapon seized upon by the opposition parties to cloud and foul the 2023 election cycle, wrong-foot the ruling party, and put the APC presidential candidate perpetually on the defensive. The opposition has been largely successful. Then candidate Tinubu’s birth was never real or, if real, not good enough. Perhaps he was a phantom. His certificate was equally dubious and illegally procured, and the university he attended, had the PDP had its way, would also have been passed off as fictional. After their shock defeat, which they tried to abort using the devices of election annulment, the opposition parties fiercely transited into maligning and defaming the judiciary, and then zeroing in on the justices who would hear the case, including questioning their competence, morality, sense of fairness and patriotism.

    Sensing that these campaigns were still not yielding the expected results, the opposition started a blitzkrieg of threatening and inciting billboard campaigns against the judiciary in order to procure a predetermined outcome favourable to either the PDP or LP. It is instructive that nearly throughout the campaigns and incitements, the PDP and the LP never attacked each other. They would be satisfied with either party taking the presidency, anyone but the APC. So they have focused their attacks on the APC, especially the president, and have remained undaunted. The PEPC judgement, rather than weaken their attacks and sober their intentions, has spurred them to further malignity. Increasingly, unable to find any legal or political leg to stand on, the opposition has inched dangerously into the province of insurrection, even wishing the entire system to collapse. If they cannot intimidate national institutions into the service of opposition objectives, then, in their view, they have either been compromised or are undeserving of sustenance. At no time in the nation’s history have opposition parties engaged in such open and bitter campaigns against national stability.

    Will the campaigns stop even after the Supreme Court might have denied them their wish? Certainly not. What is fuelling their fanaticism is not political virtue or moral principle; they came to that realisation barely weeks after the election. Instead, they are propelled, together with many powerful individuals who connive at their malevolence, by their irrational desire to destroy the suitress if they cannot have her. Ultimately, the opposition campaigns will fail, but given their dominance of the social media, the inanity on display on the social media, and the inability of the APC to launch effective counterattack, the campaign of scurrility and mendacity will continue for a little longer than it deserves.

  • Obi takes refuge in poetry

    Obi takes refuge in poetry

    After losing the 2023 presidential election, coming an unbridgeable third, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) has kept up a fusillade of verbal and rhetorical attacks on the ruling party and anyone and institution standing in the way of his ascension to power. In the process, he has painted himself as the sole Nigerian paragon, and every other person evil and unfit to live. There is of course no basis for his sanctimoniousness, but the LP candidate has never been incommoded by illogic, falsehood or exaggeration. Now, tired of stirring his people to strong indignation, and unsure how else to proceed, given the ineffectiveness of his post-election campaigns, he has taken refuge in literature to appeal to his supporters.

    Read Also: LP knew Obi didn’t win, says Soyinka

    He said in a message probably crafted by one of his troubadours: “Understandably, there has been a note of general disappointment within our fold and indeed the general population of Nigerians who hoped that the outcome of the February 25 presidential election would usher in a new and different Nigeria of our dreams. That dream has only been deferred for now but remains alive for all times…Since the tribunal verdict, there has been a note of general despair among Obidients and the generality of our supporters but let me assure us all that on this journey, despair or surrender is not our options. Today, I want to personally reach out and encourage you all to keep hope alive. Considering the challenges that lie ahead of us as a movement, despair is not an option.”

    Mr Obi is fond of exaggerations, not to say presumptions about the size of the population he claims to represent. A practical but unideological man, it is paradoxical that his self-portrait as a realist leads him inescapably towards projecting the galling contrasts that have influenced and attenuated his politics for decades.