The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Controversial billboard and judicial blackmail

    Controversial billboard and judicial blackmail

    Just weeks before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) deliver judgement, the losers in the February 25 election have ratcheted up their pressures on the judiciary, and especially on the justices hearing their suits. Part of the pressures involved controversial billboards projecting the message “All eyes on the election tribunal judges”, and purporting to be sponsored by Diaspora’s for Good Governance. Erected in Abuja and a few other states, the billboards were clearly designed to pressure and intimidate both the election courts and the judiciary as a whole. In the name of free speech and constitutional guarantees, the intimidation has been insidious and unchecked since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) lost the presidential poll.

    Read Also: JUST IN: PEPC to deliver judgment in Obi’s petition

    The pithy but deplorable message on the controversial billboards was not lost on anyone. It was a brazen and intentional innuendo to let the adjudicating judges know that only one outcome was expected and ‘just’ – the dethronement of the APC from Aso Villa. It was surprising that the billboards lasted a few days before they were brought down. Indeed, at a point, few people were sure that the relevant advertising regulatory bodies would have the courage to tackle the provocative billboards, afraid that constitutional provisions supported the unprecedented and insidious pressures on the judges. In the end, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) wielded the big stick. It is unlikely that going forward, at least in the foreseeable future, such wanton disregard for legal and political propriety would be tolerated.

    In dealing with the regulatory lapses that enabled the erection of the billboards, ARCON did not mince words. It said: “The attention of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria [ARCON) has been drawn to the ‘All eyes on the Judiciary’ advertisements exposed on some billboards across the country. The Advertising Standards Panel (ASP) of the Council also erred in the approval of one of the concepts as the advertisement failed to vet guidelines on the following grounds: The cause forming the central theme of the campaign in the advertisement is a matter pending before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. Hence, it is jus pendis… The advertisement is controversial and capable of instigating public unrest and breach of public peace. The advertisement is considered blackmail against the Nigerian judiciary, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, and particularly the honourable justices of the tribunal who are expected to discharge their judicial functions without fear or favour over a matter that is currently jus pendis.”

    Predictably, there has been a great hue and cry over the dissolution of the standards panel that appeared to have approved the advertisement and the investigation launched to expose the sponsors of the advertisement. The hue and cry will lead nowhere. The billboard message was indefensible by any consideration, and it clearly put the lives and families of the judges at risk. The message seemed to suggest from the beginning that the judges were incapable of delivering justice, and that the judges were innately disposed to cruelly denying justice to the supposed ‘winners’ of the poll. The provocative and inciting billboards were undoubtedly designed to intimidate, unsettle and unnerve the judges into producing only one ‘desirable’ outcome in favour of the complainants. Despite two leading opposition parties filing suits against the APC victory, it is widely believed that the billboards were inspired by the fractious and intemperate supporters of the LP, the so-called Obidients, whose irrational displays since their defeat had tested the patience of the government and the silent majority to the limit. Such behaviour is unprecedented in the history of elections in Nigeria.

    It is unclear how the LP thought it won the presidential poll, nor why it felt it was denied victory. It had months to prove its case in the election court, but party leaders suspect its lawyers had been unable to offer those proofs. Thus, since the case began, the party had engaged in various subterfuges designed to deliver to itself a favourable outcome, to wit, either annulling an election it swore it won, or calling for a runoff in which both the LP and the PDP, being two sides of the same coin, could confect their own victory. Unsure that both PDP and LP could prove their cases in court, the two had, right from the start of the court case, advocated for live coverage where they hoped their histrionics and the powerful use to which they had put the social media would help instigate popular outrage designed to skewer the judges and leave them helpless, fearful and amenable. The billboard gambit was just a logical progression of the nefarious baits thrown before the judges, baits that impugned the integrity of many of the justices, including, unfortunately, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) himself, Olukayode Ariwoola, who was repeatedly slandered.

    But the country has taken note of the slanders, subterfuges, and the nightmarish deployment of ethnicity and religion in the last presidential race. It knows which party is behind these practices, and which candidate was unable to take defeat gamely without wishing to plunge the country into chaos. It knows those who have weaponised the social media and seduced the unwary, many of them educated and highly placed, to nihilistic politics. The country will await them in 2027, and will have an opportunity to prove that the world does not begin and end with them and their tantrums.

  • Akpabio needs gravitas, not comedy

    Akpabio needs gravitas, not comedy

    Senate president Godswill Akpabio is naturally humorous. As governor of Akwa Ibom State, he was gregarious in his approach to politics and fecund in the production of terms and phrases which festooned his public statements. Even after his governorship, he has clearly not lost his conviviality. Getting into the Senate, he has also kept and nurtured his exuberance. And now that he has become the senate president, but needing to quietly and gravely substitute his feistiness for a little more sobriety and gravitas, he has instead awakened his latent capacity for flippancy and frivolity. Since mounting the senate throne, he has been having a ball, flinging wisecracks everywhere and anywhere, shooting grisly jokes at public midriffs, alas, in the midst of serious legislative work.

    Read Also: Group urges stakeholders to support Akpabio

    Notable among his many wisecracks was his “Let the poor breathe” in imitation, if not mockery, of the campaign by anti-deregulation advocates for low fuel prices and low cost of living. Then came his ‘little token’ allowances paid into the accounts of lawmakers to make their vacation palatable, little tokens that became ‘prayer tokens’ when he was sensitised to the import of his goof. If he is not to be impeached sometime in the future, he must learn to rein in his jokes and acquire more restraint and gravitas. Yes, his position needs humour to lessen the tedium of lawmaking, but his jokes must be measured, appropriate and sophisticated. The problem with the senate president’s jokes is that they are close to being ribald and generally off-putting. Better a tonne of sternness than an ounce of comedy.

  • Southeast premier, IPOB’s Nnamdi Kanu

    Southeast premier, IPOB’s Nnamdi Kanu

    About two years after the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) began enforcing its Monday sit-at-home order to promote self-determination and secure the release of the detained leader of the movement, the measure appears to be waning. Past and present Southeast governors have fought valiantly to end the self-flagellation, but IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was at first noncommittal, for the order was partly designed to facilitate his freedom, while self-acclaimed deputy leader Simon Ekpa was too obsessed with self-promotion to relent. The two IPOB chiefs thereafter embarked on a game of cat and mouse that exasperated the governors and the entire Igbo business community who wondered how the self-punishment could ever profit them.

    The Monday protest has been ruinous to the region and beyond. By some educated guesses, the economic loss occasioned by the order was in excess of billions of naira weekly, and close to four trillion over two years. Though the figures remain controversial, there is no denying that the region suffered huge losses every Monday. The sit-at-home order is now thankfully in abeyance; the outcome of the Southeast governors’ efforts to frustrate IPOB’s tactics and give fillip to the region’s vast economic potential. Mr Kanu’s apparent change of heart has strengthened the Southeast governors’ resolve. He now ‘talks’ freely and fervently about peace and development. One of his lawyers, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, claims the IPOB leader speaks through him. South-easterners were at first sceptical, but soon, everyone seemed to think that the lawyer’s communication of the thoughts and grandiosity of Mr Kanu were neither calculated to deceive nor meant to confuse by exaggerations.

    Last Monday, the sit-at-home order had begun to peter out. Vulnerable commercial institutions were of course hesitant to open for business; but in all the Southeast states, indigenes went about their businesses unmolested. It seemed that the Igbo people gave Mr Ejiofor, who released a statement in the name of the IPOB leader, the benefit of the doubt.

    Forgive the highfalutin tone of the statement, or the pointed barb at Mr Ekpa who lives out of harm’s way in Finland and is portrayed as a liar. Ignore also the statement’s lack of elegance and conciseness, since this sort of weakness often accompanies statements issued in the name of detainees who are unable to verify the integrity of words attributed to them. What matters is that the statement massages Mr Kanu’s ego and replaces the Monday sit-at-home order with Economic Empowerment Day (EED). As galling as it seems, the governors had no choice but to pressure the IPOB leader to rescind an order they could do little mitigating as well as coaxed him to disavow Mr Ekpa’s self-gratifying fanaticism. Though the Finland-based agitator sought to cast doubt on the messages Mr Kanu’s lawyers disseminated, insisting that no prisoner could negotiate behind bars, the Southeast was tired of immolating itself and allowing the region’s economic development to be retarded.

    Read Also; One man, one gun

    At long last, the fame Mr Kanu coveted while he was a free man, but was denied because he lacked constitutional legitimacy, has become his. The sit-at-home order ensured that his stature grew in proportion to the biting effect of the order. He has now disavowed the order, but he will undoubtedly be convinced that while it lasted, and given the sweeping manner it was obeyed, first willingly, as he acknowledged, and later by coercion, it nonetheless made him virtually the region’s premier. The whole political elite, including governors and nearly all federal and state lawmakers from the region, agitated for his unconditional release and also pressured him to cancel the Monday order. They had announced to the world that Mr Kanu was central to any discussion of peace in the region, while they equally sought to persuade Abuja to free him. So far, Abuja has not buckled; but his detention has reinforced the high esteem in which he is held in the Southeast, either because of the currency and resonance of his ideas about self-determination or because of the violence his henchmen were willing to practice without discrimination upon the region.

    Mr Kanu is in court fighting all manner of charges, including treason, brought against him by the past administration. He had fought some of the charges successfully, but fresh ones had been filed against him almost immediately. The present administration is unlikely to embrace such disreputable tactics, but no one knows whether any out-of-court settlement would be reached sometime soon. The IPOB leader has underscored and reinforced his social and political relevance in the Southeast; whether he is released or not, that relevance may not immediately diminish. But if ending the Monday order is not a precondition for his release – a sort of good faith offer from him – then it is indeed a risky gamble. Re-imposing the order, should his release not happen as quickly as he probably expects, may not meet with the unqualified success of the last two years of agitation. Meanwhile, he can at least bask in the euphoria of being a, if not the, central figure in the Southeast’s search for peace.

    Niger Republic crisis recalibrates

    Judging from President Bola Tinubu’s opening remarks at the Second Extraordinary Summit on the Socio-Political Situation in the Republic of Niger last Thursday, ECOWAS handling of the problem may invariably become tempered by new realities. The regional body had raged over the earlier coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, but in the end, they discovered how utterly difficult it was to rein in sovereign countries. Mali dithered over what to do with their own coups, but they eventually surrendered to their hunger for power as well as for freedom from France. Indeed, after Niger Republic defied ECOWAS and dared the region to attempt a military intervention to restore the presidency of Mohamed Bazoum, the regional body has woken up to the reality of its dilemma.

    ECOWAS intentions are noble and unimpeachable. Anchoring their resolve on the nobility of their motives led them sadly to biting more than they could chew and promising more than they could deliver. It is true that the coupists were led by the baser motives of acquiring power essentially for their own sakes. However, they have also been clever in resting their arguments on the horrifying neo-colonial exploitation of the region by France. It is this latter excuse that the coupists have pushed to the front burner, leading them to form a coalition of the damned. ECOWAS may rank democracy over the bitter and more damaging details of French exploitation and expropriation, but for the rest of the continent, the nefarious activities of France remain very persuasive in justifying the coup. ECOWAS will probably ignore the French connection. In fact, the regional body stands the risk of helping Niger Republic’s exploiters, to wit, France, United States and others in their neocolonial designs upon West Africa and the rest of the continent.

    For now, ECOWAS has entered a cul de sac, a phony war of back and forth. The Niger Republic coupists have constituted a cabinet and are digging in. They have received helping hands from Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Russia. Clearly, military intervention will be messy and without a certain nor probably welcome outcome. It is now the turn of tortuous negotiations and diplomatic interventions. If outside powers successfully raise and finance a Tuareg rebellion, it will shorten the coupists stay in power. But even this will leave unresolved the terrible afflictions that have undermined peace and development in the Sahel.   

  • ORUKU TINDI TINDI 2

    ORUKU TINDI TINDI 2

    Oruku tindi tindi

    Oruku tindi tindi

    To pave your way to our Senate’s consent

    Bow to the right, bow to the left

    Gather your papers, adjust your robe

    Strut out of the chambers to a hail of cheers

    Oruku tindi tindi

    That snake which swallowed a quarter

    Of our national budget some moons ago

    Where is it now? Where is the Custodian

    Who superintended the wonder diet?

    Oruku tindi tindi

    The mob who murdered a comely maiden

    For calling God a ‘different’ name

    Where are they now? What powerful

    Temple condoned their crime?

    Read Also: U.S., ECOWAS warn Niger junta over ousted President

    Oruku tindi tindi

    How many legs does your Legislator have

    How many millions massage their pocket

    How many lies adorn your rags

    In the roofless shack you share with rats?

    Oruku tindi tindi

    Curiosity saves the cat

    Silence slays the sloth

    A people robbed of their tongue

    Are deader than the dead

    Oruku tindi tindi

    Oruku tindi tindi  

  • Niger coup and fallout

    Niger coup and fallout

    Just when it seemed the whole narrative about the opposition to the July 26 coup in Niger Republic revolved around Nigeria, presidency officials as well as Cote D’Ivoire president Alassane Ouattara have tried to redirect the focus to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The point in contention is not the issue of sanctions, some of which can be quietly taken off the table if necessary, but the issue of deploying force to compel the restoration of democracy. Closely leashed to that is the dispute over the propriety and lawfulness of using force against the coupists as indicated in the first seven-day ultimatum issued by the regional body on July 30, and, after the second extraordinary summit last Thursday, putting the regional intervention force on standby. War seems to perfuse the air, and until a few days ago, Nigeria was accused of warmongering. But with more than half of Niger Republic of Hausa descent, hardly any northern Nigerian favours military intervention.

    Critics may wish to give Nigeria the benefit of the doubt regarding who is behind the threat to use force to restore democracy in Niger Republic. Legally speaking, the threat is the unanimous decision of the regional body. But when the issue of defending democracy in the region first reared its head, Nigeria had enthusiastically owned the decision, perhaps because the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, just assumed the chairmanship of ECOWAS. As time went on and the proponents of force got the blessing of the United States, France, Germany and Italy, all of which have vested economic and political interests in the Uranium-rich country, many Nigerians and critics became less assured intervention would not lead to war, perhaps intractable war. At the moment, hardly any Nigerian supports the military option, whether it is led or inspired by Nigeria or not. By putting the intervention force on standby, and with the junta in Niger Republic promptly constituting their ministerial cabinet and digging in, Nigeria will have to determine whether to join or lead ECOWAS in a war Nigerians and their legislature detest. The option facing the presidency is indeed unpleasant.

    Redirecting to ECOWAS the issue of who is championing military intervention instead of Nigeria is ingenious, however, the fact is that the use of force will be led and financed principally by Nigeria and, to a lesser extent, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire. Yet all three countries are neck-deep in economic and financial troubles, while Nigeria faces an intractable insurgency to its north. If ECOWAS is inspiring the whole intervention option, so be it. What matters is how to determine whether the regional body has sensibly considered the Niger Republic affair beyond the noble action of defending democracy, or the nobler issue of preventing the spread of military takeover in the region. There is doubt that it has; and there is even more scepticism that Nigeria has helped the regional body to rationally examine all the issues involved, not to say the global context which West Africa cannot afford to gloss over.

    Publicly, the US, France and Germany have advocated peaceful resolution of the crisis anchored on the restoration of the Mohamed Bazoum presidency. Behind closed doors, however, they have given the impression they might be willing to aid the deployment of force. ECOWAS may curiously be gambling on that help. But should military and financial help come from foreign countries, ECOWAS would become a tool in the hands of the ‘occupying’ powers. Before voting for the use of force, ECOWAS clearly failed to appreciate the deeper underlying reasons triggering the turmoil in Francophone West African countries, particularly the damage years of neocolonial control of the revolting countries and the deep and merciless expropriation of their resources have caused. Cote D’Ivoire is also a victim, despite siding with the majority against Niger. Having secured their own ‘liberation’, Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso have promised to lend a helping hand to Niger Republic. France and the US, which both have bases in Niger Republic, are desperate to sustain the status quo, especially with Russia peering in.

    ECOWAS is afraid that military takeovers could spread in the region. That fear is not irrational. But their angry perspective could lead to a far worse outcome: the spread of discontent and revolution throughout the region, whether Niger Republic coup leaders are ousted or not. Not only do West Africans loath the spectre of foreign involvement and control in Niger Republic and the region as a whole, the region is facing dire economic problems. As Nigeria has shown with the Senate refusal to endorse military intervention, ECOWAS parliaments are unlikely to go along with the resolutions of their presidents formulated at the second extraordinary and Defence chiefs summits. Support for the use of force hardly exists. ECOWAS will be risking too muchto go ahead with their threat of force. Who blinks first?

    Niger Republic coup leader Abdourahamane Tchiani is cleverer than ECOWAS. The coup started as a power struggle between him and President Bazoum who was about to sack him. The coup was, therefore, first and foremost preemptive. And having learnt from his fellow aggrieved Francophone neighbours, he quickly draped his coup in altruistic and nationalistic colours, suggesting to a gullible public that his coup was carried out to reclaim Niger Republic’s sovereignty and financial independence. The country’s demographics favour him. The ousted President Bazoum belongs to a tiny minority ethnic group, and had ingratiated himself with France. He was consequently left with few supporters. To worsen matters, there was nothing spectacular about his presidency. Even if ECOWAS restores him, it is hard to see how he will govern. Risking their own presidencies to shore up a hated president does not appear the wisest move by ECOWAS. Ghana has an inflation rate that is surging, Nigeria is poised on the edge of nightmarish financial crisis, and Cote D’Ivoire is facing domestic turmoil as well as economic hassles. While the goal of restoring democracy is noble, ECOWAS leaders will be risking too much to engineer an unpopular intervention they are ill-equipped to handle. Hypothetically, what happens if Nigeria, instead of Niger Republic, had come under military rule? Who would plan military intervention if Nigeria called their bluff?

    Since ECOWAS, rather than Nigeria, has owned up to the controversial plan to restore democracy in Niger Republic, the regional body must be advised to study the reasons predisposing Francophone West Africa to turmoil. Those reasons will not be dissipated with just one restoration. Regional leaders need to set up a committee to suggest ways to deal with the crisis and anticipate future occurrences. They allowed emotions to get the better of them at their first extraordinary summit in Abuja on July 30, while at the same time they worded their responses and ultimatums amateurishly, almost as if the region lacked experts in such matters. They will still face bitter challenges in the future: they must, therefore, put structures and measures in place to anticipate those complexities and deal with them in light of global economic and political events. Their chairman, President Tinubu, warned Africa not to let itself experience another scramble. But that is precisely what a military intervention in Niger Republic will be exposing them to. Nigeria and ECOWAS should do far better than the desultory approach with which they have responded to the Niger Republic coup.

    Read Also; Ekpa raises the alarm over Kanu’s health

    Wike and others: the anonymity crisis

    If the nomination of former Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai is finally withdrawn, eight ex-governors will remain on President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial list. The eight have been screened and passed fit for service. Given their stature in Nigerian politics, and barring the intrigues of increasingly powerful officials in the presidency, they will probably get top ministerial portfolios. The former governors may be controversial, and would have been even much more so with Mallam el-Rufai on the list, but they have contradistinctively grown in renown, have acquired varying degrees of competence, and will doubtless add electoral, if not image, value to the administration. With the possible exception of former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, the other governors are not naturally or instinctively given to controversy. Even Mr Wike, a former junior Education minister, manifested his preference for controversy mainly after he became governor and needed to fight to retain his independence from the stranglehold of his one-time benefactor, former governor Rotimi Amaechi.

    Having eight former governors scheming their way into a ministerial list, especially when some of them either lost elections to the Senate or lost the state all together to the opposition, indicates and reinforces politicians’ age-old proclivity for continuous and unbroken stay in the limelight. They abhor anonymity, and would do anything, including groveling, to avoid that fate. Nothing seems more loathsome to them than to be retired to the shelf, especially at a fairly good age, perhaps less than 70. They are not alone in that fear of anonymity. Civil servants, military generals, judges, and ordinary and unknown retirees, dread being consigned to the shelf. Everybody wants perpetual relevance, regardless of how difficult it is to get it.

    The eight or nine former governors schemed for the ministerial appointments, and are among the dozen others who unsuccessfully angled for the job. Mallam el-Rufai is waspish and controversial, but he is bright and hardworking. He has reportedly nominated a replacement. He is fortunate to have an ongoing PhD programme that will shelter him from the cruel vagaries of anonymity. It is not clear that he would not have preferred a ministerial offer, especially given the fact that he seemed to have a prior arrangement with the president to lend electoral support in return for staying behind to manage the country’s convoluted and blighted power sector. Rivers’ Mr Wike is also voluble but hardworking, gregarious, candid, and an asset to anyone or group he lends support. His presence in the cabinet will not be without controversies and incidents; but he will lend colour and substance to the administration. Ebonyi’s David Umahi is a quiet performer, though sometimes eclectic and gaffe-prone. But he is studious, foresighted, and meticulous.

    All eight or nine governors are united by their loathing for the black hole in which gubernatorial stars are buried, often alive. They gambled well by supporting the Tinubu presidential bid when it mattered, when it didn’t seem safe or realistic, and are now reaping the reward of their investments, plucked from the black hole and fated to be recycled for at least another four years. The appointments will not only salve their outsized egos, they will help them maintain relevance in their states. Their luckless colleagues, even if they enthroned new governors, will now face the ordeal of placating and massaging the egos of their successors with weakened hands. They will tiptoe around their successors’ policies and programmes, and must tread carefully on the state’s political minefields. Having a federal appointment does not completely insulate a minister from the arrows of his successor or the vagaries of politics; not having that appointment can, however, be a death sentence.

    For some time to come, former governors will become notable inclusions in federal cabinets. They will never stop investing in incoming administrations, and except they turn down the appointments, nothing will stop them harvesting the fruits of their labour. The bigger crisis in cabinet composition is not which former governors are deserving of inclusion, but whether in trying to balance a ministerial list and rewarding those who helped a president procure victory, a new administration will itself not be trapped in its own chicaneries. A cabal is a spontaneous offshoot of new administrations. When a cabal holds an administration in a vice-like grip, all sorts of manoeuvres and intrigues take place. A kitchen cabinet on the other hand is a tamer, more refined, and often deliberate assembly of brain trust. Unlike a cabal, it is wholly and fanatically dedicated to the success of an administration. Former governors may occupy the commanding heights of the Tinubu administration, and may even remain controversial for a little while more, but how they are deployed and what successes the government achieves will indicate whether the country is dealing with a new cabal, as the Muhammadu Buhari administration discovered on assumption of office, or a great and farsighted kitchen cabinet.

    Sabre rattling in Kano

    The corrosive exchange between ex-governors Rabiu Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Ganduje is unlikely to end anytime soon. The animosity is about eight years deep, and it has created a gulf between the two top Kano State politicians. Both are PhD holders, with the latter serving twice in 2003 and 2011 as the deputy governor to the former, notwithstanding a four-year interregnum. This was a significant relationship that sadly went very sour, indeed very bitter, and is now very pronounced and probably irresoluble.

    Yet, it is a totally needless quarrel. Worse, it is driven on the wings of pride: pride from Dr Kwankwaso who is peeved that his subaltern could look him in the face and spit on him; and pride from Dr Ganduje that in his dealings with his former mentor, he was not going to keep abnegating his views and personality. There are of course other grave issues poisoning their relationship, some of them bordering on how Kano was governed, the absence of consultations, and the issue of godfather and godson complexes.

    Months ago, Dr Ganduje feigned readiness to smack his mentor across the face had he met him within the Aso Villa premises. Dr Kwankwaso repaid the compliment with his own Kano-made threats, not to say the demolition and erasure of some of Ganduje’s signature projects, while also taking legal steps to try, disgrace and jail the former governor. It is not certain how far Dr Kwankwaso and the new ‘loyal’ governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, will go in rubbishing the former governor who is now the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Nor can anyone guess whether somewhere along the line the newfound love between Dr Kwankwaso and Mr Yusuf, who is also his son-in-law, will not go sour.

    For now, however, the ruling party in Kano, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), has waded in with its own special delivery brickbat. In the party’s reckoning, Dr Kwankwaso is not Dr Ganduje’s mate in politics, so the former governor’s effrontery in asking his mentor to return to the APC is an affront the party would not tolerate. More acerbic exchange should be expected in the weeks and months ahead.

  • Wike and others: the anonymity crisis

    Wike and others: the anonymity crisis

    If the nomination of former Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai is finally withdrawn, eight ex-governors will remain on President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial list. The eight have been screened and passed fit for service. Given their stature in Nigerian politics, and barring the intrigues of increasingly powerful officials in the presidency, they will probably get top ministerial portfolios. The former governors may be controversial, and would have been even much more so with Mallam el-Rufai on the list, but they have contradistinctively grown in renown, have acquired varying degrees of competence, and will doubtless add electoral, if not image, value to the administration. With the possible exception of former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, the other governors are not naturally or instinctively given to controversy. Even Mr Wike, a former junior Education minister, manifested his preference for controversy mainly after he became governor and needed to fight to retain his independence from the stranglehold of his one-time benefactor, former governor Rotimi Amaechi.

    Having eight former governors scheming their way into a ministerial list, especially when some of them either lost elections to the Senate or lost the state all together to the opposition, indicates and reinforces politicians’ age-old proclivity for continuous and unbroken stay in the limelight. They abhor anonymity, and would do anything, including groveling, to avoid that fate. Nothing seems more loathsome to them than to be retired to the shelf, especially at a fairly good age, perhaps less than 70. They are not alone in that fear of anonymity. Civil servants, military generals, judges, and ordinary and unknown retirees, dread being consigned to the shelf. Everybody wants perpetual relevance, regardless of how difficult it is to get it.

    The eight or nine former governors schemed for the ministerial appointments, and are among the dozen others who unsuccessfully angled for the job. Mallam el-Rufai is waspish and controversial, but he is bright and hardworking. He has reportedly nominated a replacement. He is fortunate to have an ongoing PhD programme that will shelter him from the cruel vagaries of anonymity. It is not clear that he would not have preferred a ministerial offer, especially given the fact that he seemed to have a prior arrangement with the president to lend electoral support in return for staying behind to manage the country’s convoluted and blighted power sector. Rivers’ Mr Wike is also voluble but hardworking, gregarious, candid, and an asset to anyone or group he lends support. His presence in the cabinet will not be without controversies and incidents; but he will lend colour and substance to the administration. Ebonyi’s David Umahi is a quiet performer, though sometimes eclectic and gaffe-prone. But he is studious, foresighted, and meticulous.

    Read Also: U.S., ECOWAS warn Niger junta over ousted President

    All eight or nine governors are united by their loathing for the black hole in which gubernatorial stars are buried, often alive. They gambled well by supporting the Tinubu presidential bid when it mattered, when it didn’t seem safe or realistic, and are now reaping the reward of their investments, plucked from the black hole and fated to be recycled for at least another four years. The appointments will not only salve their outsized egos, they will help them maintain relevance in their states. Their luckless colleagues, even if they enthroned new governors, will now face the ordeal of placating and massaging the egos of their successors with weakened hands. They will tiptoe around their successors’ policies and programmes, and must tread carefully on the state’s political minefields. Having a federal appointment does not completely insulate a minister from the arrows of his successor or the vagaries of politics; not having that appointment can, however, be a death sentence.

    For some time to come, former governors will become notable inclusions in federal cabinets. They will never stop investing in incoming administrations, and except they turn down the appointments, nothing will stop them harvesting the fruits of their labour. The bigger crisis in cabinet composition is not which former governors are deserving of inclusion, but whether in trying to balance a ministerial list and rewarding those who helped a president procure victory, a new administration will itself not be trapped in its own chicaneries. A cabal is a spontaneous offshoot of new administrations. When a cabal holds an administration in a vice-like grip, all sorts of manoeuvres and intrigues take place. A kitchen cabinet on the other hand is a tamer, more refined, and often deliberate assembly of brain trust. Unlike a cabal, it is wholly and fanatically dedicated to the success of an administration. Former governors may occupy the commanding heights of the Tinubu administration, and may even remain controversial for a little while more, but how they are deployed and what successes the government achieves will indicate whether the country is dealing with a new cabal, as the Muhammadu Buhari administration discovered on assumption of office, or a great and farsighted kitchen cabinet.

  • Sabre rattling in Kano

    Sabre rattling in Kano

    The corrosive exchange between ex-governors Rabiu Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Ganduje is unlikely to end anytime soon. The animosity is about eight years deep, and it has created a gulf between the two top Kano State politicians. Both are PhD holders, with the latter serving twice in 2003 and 2011 as the deputy governor to the former, notwithstanding a four-year interregnum. This was a significant relationship that sadly went very sour, indeed very bitter, and is now very pronounced and probably irresoluble.

    Yet, it is a totally needless quarrel. Worse, it is driven on the wings of pride: pride from Dr Kwankwaso who is peeved that his subaltern could look him in the face and spit on him; and pride from Dr Ganduje that in his dealings with his former mentor, he was not going to keep abnegating his views and personality. There are of course other grave issues poisoning their relationship, some of them bordering on how Kano was governed, the absence of consultations, and the issue of godfather and godson complexes.

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    Months ago, Dr Ganduje feigned readiness to smack his mentor across the face had he met him within the Aso Villa premises. Dr Kwankwaso repaid the compliment with his own Kano-made threats, not to say the demolition and erasure of some of Ganduje’s signature projects, while also taking legal steps to try, disgrace and jail the former governor. It is not certain how far Dr Kwankwaso and the new ‘loyal’ governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, will go in rubbishing the former governor who is now the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Nor can anyone guess whether somewhere along the line the newfound love between Dr Kwankwaso and Mr Yusuf, who is also his son-in-law, will not go sour.

    For now, however, the ruling party in Kano, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), has waded in with its own special delivery brickbat. In the party’s reckoning, Dr Kwankwaso is not Dr Ganduje’s mate in politics, so the former governor’s effrontery in asking his mentor to return to the APC is an affront the party would not tolerate. More acerbic exchange should be expected in the weeks and months ahead.

  • Tweets: Tijani’s day of reckoning

    Tweets: Tijani’s day of reckoning

    The case of the ministerial nominee from Ogun state, Bosun Tijani who was confronted about the snide remarks he once made about Senators and the country on Twitter during the recent ministerial screening is an excellent example of why people should be careful of what they say or write offline and primarily online.

    He should be grateful that his apology was accepted by the Senators who have enough reasons to teach careless youths like him and others who abuse the freedom of expression they have on social media a lesson against using uncouth language no matter how angry or frustrated as Bosun claimed he was when he posted his various offensive tweets.

    How angry could Bosun have been about the situation in the country that he called legislators old enough to be his fathers and mothers morons? He never expected that a day would come for him to stand before the legislators to be screened for anything.

    Why should anyone openly denounce his or her country and nationality for whatever reason forgetting that he or she may one day be considered for an appointment which will require official screening and approval?

    But there he was, forced to apologize for what he wrote about the legislators and the country and pleaded for forgiveness.

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    Perhaps if he has rejected the nomination as some of his suggested, he would have proven that he is a person of strong convictions based on what he wrote earlier. His apology confirmed that he must have thrown caution to the wind like many others who forget that what they write can haunt them in various ways more than even government appointments.

    There are people who have lost opportunities they are entitled to considering their skills and qualifications just because of one unguarded online post or the other.  In some cases, they would not be told that they did not get what they want because of how they are perceived based on things they have written in the past and would keep wondering what their undoing is.

    The point must be made that being talented and skilful is not enough consideration, but the character also matters. People who cannot control their anger may not be suitable for important positions or assignments.

    People should be free to express how they feel about any situation, like the challenges Nigerians have to cope with due to the actions and in actions of our leaders, but resorting to abuse and name-calling is uncalled for.

    Bosun is lucky to have Senators who pleaded for him and termed his posts as youthful exuberance, but many others who have been misled to think that they can say whatever they like online may not be as fortunate as he is on the day they have to account for their online rage.

    The last general election brought out the worst on many online users who now are still in their so-called anger and disappointment with the results and are still indulging in all manner of abuse forgetting that they are documenting for the future what will be used to evaluate their kind of person, even by those they claim to be supporting.

    The saying that the Internet never forgets is not a joke and must be taken seriously by anyone who does not want to regret their posts in years to come. A Kenyan journalist working with CNN in the United States lost his job based on what he had tweeted ten years earlier while still back in his home country. That’s why what one posts and how it is written matter in the digital age.

  • Dr. Diaso could have lived

    Dr. Diaso could have lived

    The most profound lesson is to get her justice and also prevent such avoidable tragedies in future.

    Where do you start from? Is it from the victim’s odyssey from probably nursery school to primary, then secondary school and finally the university? Or the investment of her parents who sent her to one of the best private universities in the country to study Medicine? Yes Medicine. Or the pride of her parents that at last they now have a doctor in the family? Their once little Vwaere Diaso that they had nurtured from the cradle and now, sadly, to the grave? This is taboo in Africa. It is the wish of all parents, (I want to believe worldwide) to be survived by their children. And not the other way round.

    I get pained by Diaso’s manner of death for these and several other reasons. The poor young lady has been deprived the benefit of reaping the fruits of her labour. The sleepless nights she had in the course of her education. The assignments, the pleasures that she must have denied herself of, hoping to catch up with after she would have accomplished her mission of becoming a medical doctor. A thing that doesn’t come cheap or easy even in the best of climes with a conducive environment for studies, not to talk of Nigeria where very many things do not work.

    Ms Diaso got killed in the elevator of the staff quarters of the Lagos State  General Hospital, Odan, Lagos State, on August 1.

    I wonder what would have been going on in her mind in her very last moments. She would initially had thought it was a dream. Even after it might have dawned on her that what she was passing through in the malfunctioning elevator that took her life was for real, and a thing she might not survive, several thoughts would have crossed her mind. She would have remembered dad and mum, her siblings and other loved ones, especially realising she may never see them again. Above all, she would have remembered that oft-quoted maxim of life being short and brutish in Nigeria.

    Yet, that was not what she bargained for when she woke up that fateful day.

    But, come to think of it; but for the fact that death, according to William Shakespeare, is a necessary end that will  come when it will come, why would she have had to go downstairs to collect her food that was brought by courier, in the process of which she got stuck in the malfunctioning elevator?

    Her manner of death is certainly a most painful way to go. This is why the Lagos State government must come down hard on all those responsible for the malfunctioning elevator. It is good that certain preliminary disciplinary actions had been taken by the government on the matter.

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    Indeed, the swift reaction of the state government to this unfortunate incident is commendable, even though some people would argue that the facts were too obvious to take any elaborate investigation to unravel. The government immediately set up a panel to investigate the circumstances that surrounded the death of Diaso the day after she died. Five days later, the report was ready, even as the government immediately began to serve those in charge of maintaining the facility their due comeuppance, in line with the recommendations of the panel.

    The state government suspended the General Manager of the Lagos State Infrastructure and Asset Management Agency (LASIAMA), Adenike Adekanbi.

    The government also sacked and blacklisted the facility management company. It, however, did not name the company. I don’t know why this should be so. Such companies should be named so that people would be wary of engaging them.

    One other commendable decision taken was to now involve the hospital’s management in maintenance of the facility. That this was not so ab initio was an error.

     The government has handed over the matter to the police. “The police will also investigate anyone else that might have been found to be negligent.” Ordinarily, this is also good. But my fear is that like most others before it, it may eventually get swept under the carpet. This is especially so that the state government has decided to shield the name of the facility management company.

     lt is also good that “The state’s safety commission has been directed to immediately carry out an audit of all elevators in public offices.” The only thing I would like to add is that this should not be a once-and-for-all thing. It should be a regular exercise in all establishments where there are elevators.

     Indeed, it should extend to other areas where such checks should be regular or periodic. I am here talking about things like fire extinguishers, power generators, air conditioners, etc.

    Accidents by their very nature can happen at any time. But most times  they are preventable when people are diligent at their work. Unfortunately, most accidents in our clime are caused by negligence and corruption.

    Otherwise, how could an elevator said to have been bought in 2021 have so deteriorated to the point that it had to claim a life to bring whatever fault it had to the fore?

     But, was the elevator really brand new when it was bought? Was it certified as such, and by who? Who cross-checked to confirm that it was really new? Was it supposed to have any regular servicing? Was this done faithfully?

    This and many other questions are begging for answers.

    However, it seemed the victim received the best possible treatment. It is just unfortunate she could not make it. According to the panel, the incident happened around 6.50 p.m. However, help could not reach her until about an hour later, even as she cried in agony, begging that she wanted to live. The doors of the elevator were damaged and needed to be forced open to gain access to her. Obviously, the time lag between the critical moments and the time help finally came was significant in Ms Diaso’s rescue efforts as it is usually in such circumstances.

    “She was extracted at about 7.50 p.m., and resuscitation commenced immediately. She was wheeled to the emergency room and was immediately attended to by a medical team led by a highly experienced consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon.”

    “The team was also joined by two consultant anaesthetists, including the Medical Director, who intubated the patient.

    Unfortunately, Ms. Diaso died at about 8.59 pm, in spite of all these efforts.

    Those who believe in fatalism can say that was the way she chose her own (bo se yan tie niyen). That she only alighted when she got to her bus stop. I however beg to disagree. She died because of ineptitude and or corruption on the part of some people.

    In a country with an acute shortage of medical doctors, Ms Diaso’s death is one too many. Forget all the nonsense that Chris Ngige, unfortunately himself a medical doctor, said as labour minister in the immediate past Muhammadu Buhari administration, that he saw nothing wrong in our medical doctors leaving the country in droves for greener pastures abroad.

    All said, granted that nothing can bring back Dr Diaso’s life, the least the government owes her is to ensure she gets justice and her death should be the last of such avoidable tragedies.

    In this regard, I commend an opinion piece in the August 10 edition of ‘The Sun’ titled “Mr. Governor, death still lurking despite Vwaere Diaso’s death” to relevant officials of the Lagos State government. The government should take the message and ignore the messenger if it likes. I have had cause to discuss some of the issues with some people who can testify to this.  Particularly the many open manholes on Lagos roads. And street lights, like the ones on Fatai Atere Way which never blinked since the Ambode years. If the issue is money, government should scale down some grandiose projects and face the brag tacks, in line with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

    Tears on my pillow; pain in my heart anytime the Diaso story props up in my mind. If I could feel this way despite not knowing her, I can only imagine the agony of the people with whom she was very close.

    May Dr Diaso’s soul rest in peace. And may God Almighty grant her parents and other relations the fortitude to bear the loss.

  • The story of Georgia

    Nigeria is today faced with a myriad of challenges, among them insecurity, poor economy and, of course, an  atrocious corruption which is believed, in serious circles, to be the mother of all our problems. That was what led then President Muhammadu Buhari to observe that corruption would kill Nigeria if Nigeria did not kill it first.

    Corruption, which drove the CBN and underpinned all its actions throughout Buhari’s  eight years, underlies all our problems be it the now rested fuel subsidy, the war against insurgency or even the anti- corruption war itself as EFCC cannot, honestly, account for the proceeds of properties legally confiscated from corrupt officials. It is hoped that the former Attorney – General and minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, would soon be invited by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government  to shed light on that.

    The above is what led me to my archives to fish out my article of the above title first published 11 years ago on 2 December, 2012.

    The recall is, however, primarily intended for the attention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who needs no introduction to this column, for whatever of it he can adopt in his inescapable war against the corruption cankerworm.

    The article, slightly edited, is published below. Georgia ranks alongside Finland as having the least corrupt police force in the world. Although corruption has long become analogous to a directive principle of state policy in Nigeria, it is obvious that  President Goodluck Jonathan did not introduce it to the country. It is also untrue, whatever his contribution to it, that IBB socialised corruption in the country. That honour belongs to the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua who, from his Katsina

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    “That honour belongs to the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua who, from his  Katsina redoubt, but operating mainly from Lagos, corrupted the political process by sending huge sums of money …” redoubt, though operating mainly from Lagos, corrupted the political process by sending huge sums of money, as logistics, all over the country, towards his presidential ambition in the early ‘90’s whereas the practice before then was for party members, of all classes, to make monthly contributions towards party funding. 

    In the Awo days, nothing made an Action Group member more proud than showing his party monthly contribution card. At that point in Nigerian history, members truly owned their political parties.

    What is true, however, is that under the current presidency, corruption has multiplied a hundred fold largely because President Jonathan defied PDP’s zoning policy in 2011.

    The consequence was that he had to outspend the campaign of Atiku Abubakar, the perennial Northern candidate, which was not cheap at all.

    That humongous funding would then have to come mostly from sources known, and unknown, and the need to recoup same contributed, in no small measure, to what a recent PUNCH newspaper investigation showed as a total of N5 Trillion in stolen funds under this barely 18 month-old Jonathan government. That publication is yet to be controverted by the government.

    The above notwithstanding, I am positive that President Goodluck Jonathan can still translate to a statesman but for that to happen,  he must be ready to relinquish every intent to contest the 2015 election and then, GO AFTER THE ROGUES, big and small, that are perverting the Nigerian economy. 

    The President is not being asked to re-invent the wheel. Rather, he is being called upon to emulate one-time GEORGIAN president, Mikhail Saakashvili, in the way he dealt with corruption in his own country.

    This is a story which should strengthen our hope of defeating corruption in Nigeria. When Nika Gilauri, the Premier of Georgia, tells you that the prosperity of his country has been achieved because it has become one of the least corrupt countries in the world, you, the investor must take note. But it was not always like that.

    After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia  was one of the most corrupt countries in the world.  Bribe-to-drive was the norm; police stopped cars at least twice within an hour to extort money. The then Interior Minister infamously quipped: “Give me petrol only; my people will take care of their own salaries.” 

    Being a traffic cop was so lucrative that you had to pay a bribe of between $2,000 and $20,000 to get the job in the first place. Graft was endemic. Georgians passed more envelopes to corrupt officials than the post office does letters. Meanwhile the economy crumbled and the state became bankrupt, and powerless.

    The election of Mikhail Saakashili changed everything. A bold reformer, he was swept to power in the “Rose Revolution” at the end of 2003 by the overwhelming desire for radical change. 

    Here in Nigeria, I am not unaware of the PDP which destroyed itself, split into smithreens, emerging as the remnants of PDP, with a presidential candidate who has contested for the position like forever, Labour party with Peter Obi emerging its presidential candidate in a manner unknown to the extant Electoral Law, Musa Kwankwaso, turning out  candidate of the  NNPP, and then, the very nail on the pdp coffin – the G-5 Group of the party’s governors – who adamantly refused to work for the party’s candidate because his emergence contradicted the Southern governors’ decision that the party’s presidential candidare must come from the South. 

    It is apt to recall that even as one united party, PDP was defeated and swept off into political Siberia in 2015 by the APC, and failed, miserably, to defeat the same party in two subsequent national elections. Therefore, not minding the nauseating distraction currently being orchestrated by some ethnic and religious bigots – some  have even hoisted photos of the 5 judges at the PETC, with their pastors raining prayers to make their man win. Nigerians are only laughing,  well aware that their exertions at the Election Tribunal will come to nothing.

    Back then to Gergia.

    Saakashvili’s closely-knit team is unified by a common vision and supported by both the parliament and the judiciary. The new government was not just radical – it shocked and awed. Ministers, oligarchs and officials were sacked or arrested, as we have seen the Tinubu government do with both CBN and EFCC. Those who resisted were dealt with decisively. 

    The state confiscated $1bn worth of property. Custom officials bore collective responsibility: an entire shift would be punished if one officer was  caught accepting bribes. Corrupt university professors were kicked out with a lifetime ban from academia. But ‘the piece de la resistance’ was Saakashvili’s order to sack the entire 16,000-strong police force on a single day, to replace them with some of the best and brightest university graduates. 

    Today, Georgia ranks alongside Finland as having the least corrupt police force in the world.

    The campaign expanded irresistibly. Tax offices were equipped with CCTV; university examination papers were printed in the UK and held in bank vaults until needed; and officials were constantly tested insting operations. 

    The proactive assault on graft was accompanied by a PR campaign to undermine respect for criminal groups and introduce respect for the law. The campaign then turned to the sectors. 

    First was the power sector which had, hitherto, been widely used as a cash cow, as it is here in Nigeria, for well-connected oligarchs. In less than a year, Georgia went from net importer to exporter of electricity and the sector became the target of long-term foreign investment.

    Tax collection followed. Georgia’s tax base consisted of just 80,000 companies in 2003 and tax collection was a mere 12% of GDP.

    Saakashvili slashed red tape and introduced flat personal and corporate taxes. Eight years later over 250,000 companies are on the register, and pay the equivalent of 25% of GDP. Georgia now boasts one of the most liberal tax regimes in the world, at par with the Gulf States and Hong Kong.

    Lastly came deregulation, with many rules and agencies simply abolished, removing channels of corruption in the process. 

    Among other things, car registration became so easy that used cars became the largest export item in 2011. Georgia moved swiftly from the bottom of the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking (112) into the top 20 (16) by 2012. Foreign investment followed and fuelled a multi-year surge.

    But perhaps, the most lucrative Georgian export would be the fight against corruption itself – from which many states mired in graft, like Nigeria, could benefit. The Georgians patented a process whose steps are replicable, namely: establish early reform credibility by radical action, launch a frontal assault excluding no sacred cows, attract new blood, limit the role of the state via privatization and deregulation, use technology and communication to maximum effect, and above all, be bold and purposeful. 

    Georgia’s close and distant neighbours should take heed. Their prime ministers and presidents have got their job cut out for them.

    Without a doubt, the time has come for Nigeria to embrace the spirit and letter of such radical reform to avoid the sickening poverty, insecurity and under development that now characterise our country. 

    Corruption will, no doubt, fight back as it did in Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew and a group of Singaporean leaders bonded together, frontally confronted corruption in its most virulent form, and transformed a poor, multi-racial city state into an astonishingly

    successful and corruption-free nation. Interested readers should grab a copy of : FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST: The Singapore Story – 1965-2000 by Lee.Kuan Yew.