The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • The dancers’ uprising

    The dancers’ uprising

    Chronicle of a tragedy foretold
    I have now seen the enemy, and he looks so familiar

    The Boxer Uprising from which this piece takes its remote inspiration was a Chinese revolt against colonization and the occupation of parts of China. The Chinese at that point in time were arguably at the nadir of their national fortunes. Beaten black and blue by the Japanese to the West, tormented by the Russians to the North East, they  found themselves within an inch of being formally colonized by the greatest naval power of the epoch.

    For a proud people who have lived continuously in that corner of the globe for over five thousand years, this was as humiliating and demeaning as it could get. The Chinese who believe there is always plenty of time for a people to recoup everything they have lost would have been nonplussed. Where were the English, the Russians and even the Americans when their own doughty ancestors were sending mighty ocean-going vessels to the world and as far as Mombasa in Africa in the seventh century?

    The Chinese resistance to British rule was encased and encrusted in The Boxer Uprising, so called because the rebels were fond of dressing in boxers’ shorts and were experts in martial arts. Though eventually crushed, it was the beginning of events that would culminate in the Chinese Revolution several decades later.

    It should be obvious that the spirit of the carnival has entered Nigeria’s chequered political transformation. It can be seen in the dancing, singing and joyous clapping as the people cock a snook at the authorities or wrest power from them. It can be seen in the increasing number of actors, actresses, singers, dancers and thespians being nominated for higher office in the land.

    To be sure, these entertainers are themselves steeped in the ruling class and its mores. One or two of them are billionaires in their own right, and they have acquired the habits and tastes of the super- rich. And there is nothing on ground to suggest that they are bringing fresh ideas about how to improve the lot of Nigerians to the table or a novel vision of societal transformation. It is essentially an intra-elite scuffle rather than the classic notion of class warfare.

    What can happen is that their constant badgering and chipping away at the foundation of the state parties may so undermine and subvert the legitimacy and authority of the dominant political hegemony in a way that opens the door to more potent social forces which are beyond their own ken and comprehension. They themselves may then become casualties of the forces that they have helped to unleash.  This is what may be approaching, like a silent turbo locomotive.

    It has been argued by a certain category of social theorists that revolutions and societal transformation cannot live by blood and bloodshed alone. Sometimes, radical social transformations need fun, real fun and this is when the carnival spirit enters the spirit of fierce protest and social rebellion.

    Recent human history attests to this fact as seen in the social tornadoes that toppled the frozen and fossilized socialist autocracies of Eastern Europe, the momentous and almost spontaneous upheaval that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and recent pictures from Sri Lanka. In all these, a cancerous and obdurate social order that has become a burden to the people it is supposed to protect from hunger, misery and the vicissitudes of human existence finally meets its nemesis.

    Nigeria is a different kettle of fish. All human societies are alike in certain respects. But that is where the verisimilitude ends. There are human societies and there are human societies. No two human societies are the same in the dynamics that power the way they evolve. Yet since laughter and crying are universal verities among the gamut of human emotions, it is obvious that no society can be exempt from the spirit of the carnival.

    The spirit of carnival entered the miniscule state of Osun this past week as the major streets of the major towns were said to have erupted in dancing, singing, clapping and hooting of horns as the winner of an epic gubernatorial duel was announced. A report in The Nation on Wednesday actually noted the carnival-like atmosphere in which voting and celebration took place in the ancient town of Ila-Orangun.

    It must be noted that although this was a fiercely partisan crowd, no attempt was made to disrupt or debar the joyous procession by the electorally vanquished. No guns boomed. It was all very polite and civilised, a model of crowd rejoicing. The dancers have elected the dancer in chief as the chief executive of the state. It is the dancers’ uprising.

    To be sure, the people of this core Yoruba state are no rabid electoral regicides. Neither are they flaming revolutionists. In fact it is possible that they are traumatised and disoriented by the tragedy of unfulfilled expectations, the lot of many Nigerians since the Fourth Republic and the advent of civil rule.

    But at every point and at every turn, like the democratic royalists that they are, they seem bent on their inalienable right to choose their electoral king or elect their democratic sovereign no matter the circumstances. It is a right they have insisted on exercising even where it leads to absurdity or a developmental cul de sac. The will of the people must prevail.

    Here are the cold statistics. Like the sister Oyo state from whose cavernous belly it was hewn by the military authorities in 1991, the baton of gubernatorial rulership has been exchanged thrice since 1999 between countervailing forces in the two states.

    In all likelihood, Oyo state was won in 2007 by the late Abiola Ajimobi flying the ANPP banner. But his victory was suborned by the powers that be. In 2011, Ajimobi returned to trounce the incumbent before his own senatorial bid succumbed to adversity in 2019 after two terms as governor.

    In 1999 in Osun State, Bisi Akande romped to victory as the AD carried the day in the old west. The legitimacy and authority of the old men of NADECO could not be challenged in anywhere in Yorubaland. But Akande was ousted four years later in 2003 by the PDP flag bearer, Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Such was the scale of the electoral heist in that election that it has made it impossible to establish the true wishes of Osun people that year.

    In 2007, the Oranmiyan tsunami steamrolled Oyinlola and the PDP. But Rauf Aregbesola was denied victory through some spellbinding electoral magic. It took three whole years, an activist judiciary led by Justice Isa Ayo Salami and some clinical forensic evidence, to retrieve Aregbesola’s hijacked mandate. One interesting twist to the story is that Osun State under Aregbesola was the only state in the South West that voted for Nuhu Ribadu in the presidential election of 2011.

    After two terms, the people of Osun State appeared to have tired of what was perceived as Aregbesola’s failings and excesses and seemed bent once again on exacting their pound of flesh on his party candidate. Only some cliffhanging magic and a judicial sleight of hand allowed the APC to cling on to power. Last week, the people came back baying for blood.

    It should be noted that the Osun election was not a referendum on actual performance. Were it to be, Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola ought to have won hands down. Glumly uncommunicative, politically unskilled and socially self-distancing he may be, but he had turned in a decent performance in the efficacious management of scarce resources and prudent managerial oversight.

    In four years, he paid salaries and other benefits regularly. He improved the state’s IGR from a paltry 10 billion to 19 billion and he succeeded in moving the state several notches up the perception index. Several inner road projects were also undertaken. But as usual, the stormy and unpredictable Osun electorate reserve the right of first and last refusal.

    First seek yee the political kingdom and every other thing will be added. Several things went wrong in Osun State. In the abiding interest of friendship and fealty to a certain Yoruba creed of honour and chivalry, this columnist will not even attempt to wash the APC dirty linen in public. But two things must be pointed out for clarity of analysis and political house-cleaning.

    The relationship with the consequential Adeleke family of Ede could have been better managed. Had the brother been given the senatorial ticket the family demanded upon the death of their notable son, the story might have been different. The Adelekes are cut from the progressive loins, their father, Raji Ayoola Adeleke, being a die-hard Action Grouper and a UPN senator in the Second Republic.

    Watching from the grave beyond, only God knows what the spare, Spartan and austere former nurse and trade unionist would be thinking as his descendants mount a devastating siege on the stronghold of the very progressive tradition he had helped to build through thick and thin.  Just what on earth can be going on?

    But we live in a period steeped in deep and cruel ironies. The late James Ajibola Ige told this columnist of how, as the chairman of the SDP Screening Committee, he had helped to clean up the late Isiaka Tunji Adeleke’s credentials when he ran as governor in Osun State out of abiding respect to a friend and much esteemed political comrade.

    Now, the falcon can no longer hear the falconer. The epigones of old heroes crisscross different ideological fortresses as if they are mere market stalls. All that was once solid melts into thin air, leaving the bewildered but politically naïve struggling with vapours. In political dystopia, there is no room for idealism, only harsh pragmatism and coldblooded calculations.

    To inject some humour into this grim and unremitting analysis, it is useful to point out that Adeleke will not be the only preening and prancing dancer to have ruled Osun State in the Fourth Republic even though he appears to have taken the art of jigging and flapping about to its extreme physical frontiers. It is as if the people of this core Yoruba state take their dancing very seriously. It must be something in the genes.

    Towards the end of his first tenure, Aregbesola took to the stage himself, capering and cantering with impish relish. Anybody who has chanced upon Olagunsoye Oyinlola doing his princely and courtly strides in measured aristocratic cadences will appreciate the influence of traditional court music on this ancient people and brainbox of empire.

    There will still be plenty of room for convergence of contrasting interests as Nigeria’s brutal and turbulent postcolonial history unfolds. If Jackson Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke does not want to end up as a dancer of disaster, he will need to roll up his sleeves and get to hard slogging work. In the light of the foregoing, any talk about the people of Osun having seceded from the progressive bastion is mere froth.

    The advent of electronic voting and the liberation of the Nigerian electorate will make them even more irritable and more unpredictable in the nearest future. All will not be quiet on the western front. But as history has shown, they know where to pitch their tent when they face collective existential threats.

  • Adieu, Kemi Nelson

    Adieu, Kemi Nelson

    Life is an enchanting mystery lived to the hilt by those who are not afraid of enchanting mystery. How can a person so full of zest, energy, vitality and enthusiasm and pizazz succumb so casually and without any warning? Snooper mourns the passing this past weekend of Mme Kemi Nelson, she of the surging and fanciful headgear and dancing dowager of many gathering of the high and the mighty.

    An ardent fan and devoted reader of this column in its opening incarnation, the former commissioner in Lagos State, former APC Women leader in Lagos state and former Executive Director in Abuja,  was the nearest equivalent of what can be described as a woman of timber and calibre in politics.

    Read Also; Requiem: Kemi Nelson (1956 – 2022)

    She flourished where and when other women froze with fear or fright. Despite a playful mien, she had nerves of steel and could not be fazed by anything or anybody for that matter. She relished trading political tackles and like a female boxer, she gave as much as she got in the political ring.

    A few inhibited and hindered women in the upper class bracket will dismiss this as brazen hustling but many aspiring women from the lower classes clawing their way up the craggy hills of social inequities will hail her as a heroine of female opportunities in a hard and harsh society where nobody offers you anything unless you demand for it. As they say, power is not served a la carte.

    Snooper recalls that the late politician served on two committees that yours sincerely chaired. First was the Lagos State Electoral Reform Panel, 2008-2009; and the Governor’s Advisory Committee, 2009- 2015. She acquitted herself very well and with commendable zest and energy. She was often the soul of meetings with her loaded jokes and perceptive interventions.

    Her brother, Sola Ladeinde, a quiet and urbane former Texaco top executive will miss her, and so will her husband, Yemi Nelson, an affable and impeccably well-bred retired Federal bureaucrat and scion of old Lagos money. May her soul rest in peace.

  • Mama Igosun’s Sallah goat succumbs to a technical knock out

    Mama Igosun’s Sallah goat succumbs to a technical knock out

    A week after the Sallah festivities, yours sincerely was roused from afternoon siesta by some commotion on the street. A goat was bleating in distress in the distance with a distraught old woman screaming and raining curses on the poor animal. Lo! It was Mama Igosun dragging the Sallah goat yours sincerely had bought for her through the streets while heaping imprecations and indignities on the fellow.

    One would have thought that a ram bought for Sallah would have become victual history a week after the Sallah celebrations, but not so. Mama had actually cajoled one to buying a hefty ram for her by announcing that she was tri-religious, being a worshipper of Orisa Oko, a faithful adherent of Islam religion and a worshipper of Christ all at the same time. “ Na Saadatu be my name before I follow my husband go join dem Alakatakiti ( Ancient Yoruba name for Cherubim and Seraphim Church members). Even your yeye mother him name be Moriamo!”she charged at one.

    Despite her bellicose tone the fact remains that she observed both religions in the breach, going  neither to the church nor observing Muslim prayer rituals. When questioned she will respond with a sneer. “Bo se wuni laa se imale eni, abi no be so?” (We practise our Islam the way we choose) Upon being asked about the whereabouts of the goat on Sallah day, the old woman retorted that she had forwarded it to Alale for onward distribution among ancestors.

    But the mystery cleared last Friday as mama barged into the room, screaming “Akanbi, Akanbi!! You no see this dem yeye goat? Nonsense animal. Common Godogodo goat him no fit fight. He come pretend to reverse but he come vamoose go run under dem butcher’s table. Naim I come drag am out”, the old woman chanted breathlessly.

    “Mama, what is going on?” snooper asked in alarm.

    “Na goat dey fight goat for market. Godogodo goat, Ibo goat, Yoruba goat, Kukuruku goat, Kanakana goat dem all dey fight. Na Okon be organiser and referee”, Mama cried.

    “I see, what a great allegory!”snooper sighed and sank back.

  • Zamfara’s royal bandits

    Zamfara’s royal bandits

    Ado Aleru, Ada Aleru, Adamu Alero: the media are unsure how to spell his name or what to call him. For the purpose of this piece, he will be called Ada Aleru, though his real name is Adamu Yankuzo, not because that is surely the spelling of his alias, but because it is necessary to cut the Gordian knot, assured that what matters most now is not really his aliases but his feats, his murderous feats. He is 47 years old. He had earlier been declared wanted by the police after his gang went on a murderous spree killing over 100 – some say over 200 – men and women and children at two communities in Katsina State, Kadisau and Faskari . Remorseless, cocky and reckless, he and scores of his bandits two Saturdays ago, however, breezed into Yandoton Daji, an emirate carved out of Tsafe Emirate in Zamfara State on May 18, to be conferred with the chieftaincy title of Sarkin Fulani. Conferring a title on a terrorist suspect obviously rankled with the state government. By the last count, three emirs and a number of district heads had been suspended or deposed in Zamfara State for aiding or abetting banditry.

    The whole story about the chieftaincy conferment has not come out yet. The state government’s dissociation from the conferment was neither spontaneous nor, to many outside Zamfara State, convincing. National outrage seemed to have goaded the government into action. (As a matter of fact none of the royal fathers suspended or deposed for aiding or abetting banditry has been charged in court so far). For a ceremony in which government and security agents were present, it is remarkable that the government feigned ignorance or lack of interest. At the ceremony was the Emir of Yandoton Daji, Aliyu Marafa. So too, according to some reports, were Home Affairs and Security commissioner, Mamman Tsafe, security advisor to the governor, Abubakar Dauran, Tsafe local government chairman, Aminu Mudi, representatives of the Information commissioner, and many others. The emir and his officials claimed Mallam Aleru was a repentant bandit, and had hoped that as a title holder, he could be coaxed into sustaining the ‘peace’ deal he entered into with the emirate.

    The problem, however, is that Mallam Aleru is an alleged cross border bandit and killer with N5m bounty on his head. Had his terror been limited to Zamfara, the purported peace deal with him, and perhaps too his penitence, might have made sense and acquired credibility. But he is also wanted in Katsina for acts of terrorism, while some of his victims even in the emirate where he was conferred with a title are reportedly livid with the state for ignoring their concerns and feelings. The state may not have had any choice but to revoke the gratuitous title and punish the emir, but the problem of how to deal with surging terrorism in the region remains on the front burner. Many emirs and district heads have been punished for allegedly fraternising with bandits, but peace has proved elusive because the fundamental problems that birthed outlawry and gives it fillip remain largely untouched. Meanwhile, it has been suggested in most of those blighted regions that what seemed like emirate connivance at terrorism is nothing more than a desperate and last resort attempt to forge peace, a task that had obviously eluded overstretched security agencies.

    Zamfara has constituted a six-man committee to investigate what informed the emir’s action. It is not clear whether the state’s remedial action will amount to anything. It seems someone will in the end be made the fall guy. It is also possible that some emirate officials are colluding with terrorists and profiting from booty exchange. But overall, and indeed far more than the direct victims of terrorism or even the government, the emirs and district heads who have watched their people needlessly slaughtered carry the biggest burden of the unrelenting bloodshed in the region. Perhaps this dilemma accounts for why the state government has lacked the courage and the moral right to prosecute suspended or deposed emirate officials. The quandary will intensify as the months go on and as long as banditry and terrorism continue unabated. Sadly, there is nothing on ground at the moment, particularly as it concerns the economy and interethnic disputes and cultural clashes, to suggest that the situation will inevitably improve significantly in the months ahead. For positive changes to occur, there will have to be revolutionary interventions in the economy, society and politics.

    ASUU and NLC sympathy protest

    It is incredible that this year’s university teachers’ strike has lasted for about five months. After incalculable damage had been done, the federal government, beginning from the presidency, has finally stirred itself to do something. President Muhammadu Buhari has asked negotiations to be restarted, and has given a two-week ultimatum for a resolution to be reached. Great. More remarkably, he has ousted the showy and imperious Labour and Employment minister, Chris Ngige, from heading the negotiating team. In his place, ordered the president, the more realistic and accommodating Education minister Adamu Adamu should take control. It does not seem like Mr Adamu has a chip on his shoulder; he will be sensible and understanding in leading the negotiations and reaching a resolution, perhaps surprising to the university teachers themselves.

    But meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), having waited endlessly for the federal government to demonstrate seriousness, recognised the pains idle students and their long-suffering parents had endured for months, if not years and decades, and tired of watching such damage inflicted on the young of Nigeria without any kind of abatement, has waded into the fray and scheduled a sympathy protest for early in the week. They will receive tremendous support, regardless of their own fickleness and sometimes duplicity in negotiating demands touching on Labour matters. The sympathy action may be coming a little late in the day, seeing how evidently everyone, including the government, had virtually given up in frustration; but like they say, better late than never.

    Whether the NLC protest will amount to much or be superfluous is not clear. For whatever it is worth, let the protest hold, let it be total, let Labour’s voice be heard loud and clear, and let the country be sensitised to the issues at stake. Above all, let it be made clear, to quote the president on the issue, that enough is enough. How could this generation forgive itself that in their lifetime, they watched as the lives of Nigerian youths were wasted and stymied by irresponsible and unresponsive leadership?

    The Academic Staff of University Union (ASUU) is sometimes blamed for being too inflexible and dogmatic in negotiations. But given the rot in the universities and the near total collapse of tertiary education, an ugly situation that cruelly mocks ASUU, the teachers have been quite tame in their view of strike. They are blameless. After this strike is called off, would all the stakeholders be kind enough to call a conference to hammer out a realistic and workable template for tertiary education, please? The alternative to sanity in the education sector, particularly tertiary education, is too grim to contemplate.

  • Tinubu tinkering through?

    Tinubu tinkering through?

    “The Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian ticket is a difficult and slippery area. So, what I will say is that the political office holders should look at the heartbeat of the country as well as the desires of the people. Politicians should know that they are not there for themselves. They are there for all of us. They should ask and make their researches about what the nation wants. They should ask and make their researches on what the country wants, what the people want; if they listen to the people, we will be confident that they will listen to us when they get there …,” – Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, Daily Post of 22nd June 2022

    There was sometimes a discussion around a highly controversial subject while studying at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. It was in the early eighties. One of my classmates at the then Civil Engineering Department of the great citadel of learning waded in with a whimsical saying of Igbo origin by saying: “it is only a man with a one-legged wife that knows how he sleeps with his wife.” This succinct and salient statement abruptly sounded the death knell of whatever argument on the hot topic as virtually all of us began pondering and reflecting on the profound proverb. This brings me to the hot subject streaming in the social, print and electronic media space as well as within the country’s political circles regarding the issue of picking the vice-presidential candidate of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential flagbearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). It is interesting and intriguing that when his counterpart in the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, made his own choice publicly known, there was such hoopla to the extent some tagged and termed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as a betrayer. Are there some things these political leaders and their inner caucuses and circles are seeing and the rest of the followers are not perceiving? The hoopla and hullabaloo that heralded the unveiling of Senator Kashim Shettima as the vice-presidential flag bearer of the APC was much more than that of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. Muslim-Muslim ticket is both sickening and sourly to some sections of the citizenry who are still bugged, burdened and bothered with so much religious reservations even in matters of politics.

    The Tinubu That Tinkers …

    Aftermath of the memorable June 2014 gubernatorial election in Ekiti, this columnist was conferring with my brother and friend, Segun Ayobolu, erstwhile close aide of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He was so enraptured with my ethnographic capturing of the election that he demanded that I accompany him to Bourdillon, the house of Jagaban Borgu, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as he would be there that weekend. However, he pointedly stated: “Would you be able to say all these when you get to Bourdillon?” I retorted in the affirmative. Expectedly, Ayobolu called me and off we set from different locations in Lagos. We met there. There were many coming and going out with more people streaming in than out! To my surprise, he would come out at intervals to apologize for keeping us waiting and that he would attend to all of us. As a researcher, I was not only waiting but watching ethnographically. At one point, he looked round and my face was the only seemingly strange one to which I quickly responded that I was there at the instance of my friend, Ayobolu. It was getting to around 6pm, Asiwaju came out from the inner room and said, it was time to eat and I was surprised that he invited all of us remaining in the big sitting room to join him at a big oval dining table that up to around 14 to 16 people could sit round. Chefs came demanding our choices. I was pleasantly surprised! Then, we, as Asians do, for this columnist sojourned among them for seven years, were eating and talking serious stuff with many notable figures on that table, even still relevant in the political calculation of today. The Ekiti election came in.

    This columnist listened with rapt attention to leaders speaking one after the other, Then, I interjected unexpectedly, albeit with much reference knowing the calibre of men within the context I was emplaced. Immediately, Asiwaju’s listening instinct was aroused and activated as signalled by his body language. Then, I saliently and succinctly stated: “It seems in Nigeria, nay Africa, leaders think for followers thinking the followers’ leaning, longing and yearning are not vital!” He cast a furtive glance at this columnist and responded swiftly that in the context of Ekiti, he actually sent in men to conduct a survey and the report he got, which would not be divulged here, was not really depicting the loss recorded by the candidate of the APC in that election. Nigerians later knew all the rigmarole that played out during the President Goodluck Jonathan era in ensuring by all means that the PDP candidate won that election. All have been consigned to history. However, why go this route and how related is it to the topic of this piece?

    Muslim-Muslim Mandate

    There are seemingly many discordant and deafening voices vehemently raised against the Muslim-Muslim ticket adopted by the ruling APC. The main vociferous and vehement voices of the Christian faith had overtly opposed this move severally. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) would not tolerate such a “match-making” at the apex of leadership for any political party as they consider it demeaning and denigrating to their faith. In all the much ado about the choice of a vice-presidential candidate within the ruling party, there has been three voices of reason, within the Christian leaders, in the seeming unfolding scenario. As at June 22nd, General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, the highly revered Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi stated inter alia: “The Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian ticket is a difficult and slippery area. So, what I will say is that the political office holders should look at the heartbeat of the country as well as the desires of the people. Politicians should know that they are not there for themselves. They are there for all of us. They should ask and make their researches about what the nation wants. They should ask and make their researches on what the country wants, what the people want; if they listen to the people, we will be confident that they will listen to us when they get there (sic),” – Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, Daily Post. In essence, the revered clergy and mathematician was calling for possible research study to be conducted to mine the mood and mind of the followers (electorates) and not just thinking for the followers the aspirants aspire to lead. Secondly, the highly referred Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, opinionated that Asiwaju Tinubu’s choice should be viewed as a team selection and, logically, people will take responsibility for their choices. He stated simply and squarely in his own words: “This is what you call team selection and everybody will choose depending on what they think will give them a fair chance. So people will take responsibility for the choices they have made. For me, it is not something to lose sleep over, …” Thirdly, the seemingly controversial pentecostal pastor who is the founder of Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations Kyiv, Ukraine, Europe, Pastor Sunday Adelaja, glossed past the hotly debated topic fixating on the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Tinubu and Shettima. Pastor Sunday Adelaja, in a widely publicized piece, adduced ten reasons that would enthrone the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the sixteen President of Nigeria come 29th May 2023. In his own words, he stated inter alia: “During the APC convention while younger men were falling asleep, Tinubu was agile all night. Following his victory at the convention we can all see how he has been galloping from one state to another. No one out of the candidates have been as hard working and busy as he is. His close associates talk about how Tinubu outworks all of them, working 14 to 20 hours every day. What else do people want for Christ’s sake? My take is this: as long as Mr. Tinubu is sharp mentally, so long as he can see clearly as a visionary, we need his leadership before he leaves us to a better world. We shouldn’t waste the huge potential and life experiences that he carries inside (sic).”

     

     

    Time To Task Tinubu

    In concluding this piece of the “Followership Challenge”, it is imperative and instructive on the part of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make some strategic, smart and savvy moves. In my earlier televised appearances on TVC and writings in this column, I had harped on the need to consult widely, especially zeroing on Christians leaders. Asiwaju has many positive attributes in this direction if strategically and sagaciously pursued looking at his antecedents in Lagos. He had array of savvy minds in his cabinet of both faiths – Christians and Islam – and many of multiethnic background. He was the first helmsman in Nigeria to initiate Annual Thanksgiving Service yearly in which virtually the highly revered General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye preaches. This bespeaks magnanimity, large-heartedness and tolerance. It has not ceased; in fact, I was present with my wife in the edition of this year where Baba Adeboye gave a short but powerful exhortation. Moreover, the wife of Asiwaju, the distinguished Senator Oluremi Tinubu, is an ordained Assistant Pastor (minister) in the RCCG and one that is very close to virtually all top-ranking ministers of God nationally. What is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do? In Yoruba common parlance, it is said by elders that: “elegbo lo se lanka-lanka to alabe lo” (meaning: it is the man that carries a putrefying or odoriferous sore that saunters towards a medicine man (surgeon)). It is high time Asiwaju Tinubu ate the humble pie in initiating a frank tête-à-tête with the leaders of CAN and PFN regarding his choice and mandate. There is the need to douse the tension and correct the notion that Christians would be marginalized; terrorism would be heightened, and there is virtually nothing in it for the Church if he eventually emerges as the next President of Nigeria. The discourse and dialogue should be frank and end in what Asians referred to as a win-win scenario, after all, after the Vice President slot, if he eventually wins, there are other positions that Christians could be placated or pacified with provided there is a display of sincerity, humility and empathy in the tête-à-tête, and not just in circumventing the Christian faith with a view to win election especially in the midst of escalating and excruciating insecurity hurting the country even though the present Muslim-Christian ticket of the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Pastor Yemi Osinbajo could not resolve the seemingly intractable killings, kidnappings, farmers-herders clashes, destruction of homesteads and farmlands, etc. Asiwaju Tinubu should not wait but watchfully waddle through the waters to cross over to the other side. The time to act is now, delay is dangerous!

    John Ekundayo, Ph.D. – Harvard-Certified Leadership Strategist, and also a Development Consultant, can be reached via 08155262360 (SMS only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com

     

     

  • Muslim-Muslim ticket brouhaha: if only President Buhari had ruled fairly

    Muslim-Muslim ticket brouhaha: if only President Buhari had ruled fairly

    I have met Governor Shettima at different fora and I must say I have been very much attracted to his personality. He is a leader whose vision is broad and whose hands are large enough to embrace everybody.ý Earlier, the Archbishop of Maiduguri Diocese, Bishop Oliver Dashe, had in his introductory comments, spoken of how Governor Shettima had been rebuilding churches destroyed by Boko Haram, supporting activities of Christian bodies for all denominations and being fair to Christians in the affairs of government” – The Daily Post, 26 November, 2017 quoting Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, and his brother, ArchBishop, Oliver Dashe, of Maiduguri Diocese.

    I perfectly understand, and do appreciate, the position of Christians who are genuinely miffed in regard to APC’s Muslim – Muslim presidential ticket.

    But that is when you think only as a Christian, and perhaps, momentarily forgetting that your country, Nigeria, is in such dire straits that you can, with considerable justification, say it is verily on the verge of becoming a failed state. You can, at that stage, be as justifiably  emotional, angry, vitriolic even iconoclastic, as one Pastor Sam Aiyedogbon was this past week when he appeared on the interview segment of Arise TV’s Morning Show programme. The way he  spoke, you  could see he has obviously shed his pastoral garb, and transmogrified to a political consultant, from which new position he now speaks like he had gone round all Christians  in the country to ascertain how they would vote in the 2023 Presidential election. The sheer Babel that  has descended on the country this past one week shows that Pastor Aiyedogbon is certainly not alone in his rabid posturing at a time when what is called for is a sober

    reflection on the current Nigerian condition – no thanks to the Muhammadu  Buhari government’s untramelled iniquitous mode of  governance that places a section, a minority at that, over all others in every part of government which  makes everybody, particularly  Christians, see in the horizon, the possibility of an attempt at Islamising Nigeria, if not by the President himself, but obviously by elements who, leveraging on his insular government, now do whatever it is they like, with law enforcement agencies becoming nothing more than onlookers.

    When the Fulani Nationality Movement is not threatening war on Nigeria, with both the IGP and the SSS Director- General looking askance, and not once inviting them for questioning, murderous herdsmen – turned killers, and kidnappers for ransom, are in all nooks and crannies of the country unleashing mayhem, whether at Owo, in Shiroro, Kuje or elsewhere, gruesomely killing in numbers. Worse is it the fact that even as they attack in hundreds, never is a single one of them arrested. So nauseating is this fact that not a few are now  asking why the police, the military and assorted government forces could so heavily descend on IPOB and Igboho but not on the ubiquitous marauders from the North and outside Nigeria who have turned Nigeria to worse than Somalia.

    Nor has it not been suggested that these are organised crimes, complete with controllers who are amassing funds for the war they have long promised. This is the only way one can understand how  something that started out as ragtag  essemble over 10 years ago have almost bested our fighting forces, especially anigerian army that  is widely respected and once eagerly craved by the UN for all its military engagements all over the world. Why, for instance, would the  C – in – C, not give the military the directive to go and free the Nigerians kidnapped from the Abuja- Kaduna train as far back as Monday, 27 March, 22 rather than his almost impossible go and “wipe out terrorists” command of last week?

    Who in these circumstances would not understand the fears of the average Nigerian Christian for that time in the near future when both the President and his vice are both Muslims?

    But that exactly  is where the error originates from as all that has nothing to do with religion but Fulani exceptionalism.

    As you read this, moslems are also being killed in their thousands especially in the North where some people have already fled to neighbouring countries, just as hundreds of thousand Moslems in IDP camps with their villages and lands already taken over by marauding Fulani herdsmen who never get questioned by Nigerian so- called, law enforcement officers. Also, despite the lies of presidential spokespersons and the minister of information, large parts of states like Niger, and Zamfara, are now directly under the control of Boko Haram and bandits who permanently govern them and,  like an elected government, collect takes from the people. Information has it that in some parts of Kaduna State, rather than the Nigerian police, elements of Ansaru, an Islamic fundamentalist Jihadist militant organisation, now provide ‘security’, and collect huge taxes  from farmers to be able to go to their farms.

    Given these extant circumstances what should concern Nigerians the most, rather than raising hell over religion , or even ethnicity,  should be the enthronement, in 2023, of  a government that would rule for all, and not for only a section of the country.

    To do this, a political party would have to win election, and winning an election is, as the saying goes, a matter of numbers.  What the presidential candidate of the APC  did in opting for governor Shettima as running mate, therefore, is to have on the ticket, a running mate who has not only demonstrated competence during his 8 years as governor of Bornor state, but is  well known to be very emphatetic to Christians as he  showed in re-building  churches that were burnt, indeed obliterated, by Boko Haram, as well as sponsoring many Christians  on pilgrimage, and who is also more than capable of attracting votes in large numbers in the North from where comes the candidate’s main opponent, the equally formidable Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

    I, therefore,  expect any sober Christian,  weighing in on this matter of a Muslim – Muslim ticket, to ask who, or which Christian Northern member of the APC, could appropriately fit the bill, rather than simply be opposing  for the sake of opposition.

    There are, without a doubt, many of such but who, for one reason, or the other couldn’t have  been chosen.

    Let us now critically, and quite objectively, interrogate such individuals, again, bearing in mind the very crucial question of that Christian APC chieftain who, in a Muslim dominated North, will be able to attract votes in the quantum required by a southern presidential candidate to win a presidential election as election is not analogous to Olympic games in which participation is more for the mere honour  (of participation) than for winning.   .

    In doing this, we should remember that of the 11 names submitted to the presidential candidate by Engr Babachir Lawal, who chaired the candidate’s Planning and Strategy committee of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation saddled with the responsibility – but who has since Senator Shettima’s announcement been shedding crocodile tears – only the names of two Christians appeared.

    Now to the possible Christian VP candidates:

    Babachir Lawal

    Lawal is no doubt a respected and  very experienced professional, and a good friend of the presidential candidate. He is also a former Secretary to the government of the ,Federation.  He should, however,  be the very first person to object, were he to have been nominated.  This is because his candidature would have had a k- leg, arising from  his yet to be rested grass – gate court case. Otherwise, both the media and  political opponents would simply have eaten him raw. He is, therefore, very much out of contention as, rather than be an asset, he would have fatally impacted the ticket.

    BOSS MUSTAPHA

    Lawyer and  politician, Mustapha is  the suave and decent, incumbent Secretary to the the Government of the Federation (SSG). Unfortunately, he comes from Adamawa state, the same state  as the presidential candidate of the PDP. For a certainty, he wont be in any position to attract enough votes, not just in his home state,  but elsewhere in the North, for a candidate who is very desirous of victory.

    Governor Simon Lalong

    Another very  decent gentleman and experienced politician, serving his second term as governor of Plateau state  but whose reach, being a minority, would surely hamper his ability to attract significant votes in the crucial Northwest and Northeast regions with very high voting population.

     Yakubu Dogara

    A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and of a minority tribe in Bauchi state, he has. since leaving office, literally been fighting for his political life. He is obviously not the man to compliment a candidate who has set his eyes on huge votes from a region from where his most potent opponent comes from.

    These observations should not, in any way, be seen as detracting from the incredible worth of these highly regarded  chieftains of the APC, whose critical support, one and all, is very important, and will be much needed for the party’s victory in the election.

    Another unavoidable area to examine is: who is this Muslim Vice- Presidential candidate over whom there has so much needless fuss? Where is he coming from, and with what track record?

    Fortunately, we have, among others,  the views of no less a Christain personage than that of the respected Borno state Chairman  of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), Bishop Naga Williams Mohammed to rely on.   Concerning Senator Kashim Shettima, the bishop said the following and that was far back in 2017:

    “Governor Shettima, in the history of Borno, is the only Governor that has sponsored the highest number of Christian Pilgrims every year since 2011. When Gwoza people were driven from their ancestral homes and they fled to Maiduguri, the Governor personally came to CAN Centre in Jerusalem ward two times, in June and July 2014. He gave N10 million for their upkeep. By the end of October 2014 when the IDPs from Gwoza increased to 42,000 in that camp alone, he came again and gave another N10 million. He also gave  N5 million for Christians from Borno who fled to Cameroon to be returned home. He gave another N5 million for non-indigenes who fled to Cameron to come back to Nigeria, and directed the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA to be supplying food directly to the IDPs in under the Christian leadership”. He also added that, in two instalments, Governor Shettima gave the CAN leadership N205M to rebuild the churches that were burnt by Boko Haram.

    Is that the man over whom some people are shouting themselves hoarse for reasons of religion, or they are merely, coyly campaigning for the political parties they belong to or support?

    Does Senator Kashim Shettima or Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate, whose wife is a pastor of the Redeened Christian Church of God, look like people who could think of Islamising Nigeria?

    As I have indicated earlier, I cannot blame Christians because a lot has happened in this country in the last few years of the Buhari administration to make Nigerians honestly fear. For instance, it is well known that  the primary objective of both Boko Haram and ISWAP, both of which the Nigerian military has been unable to finally defeat, and thousands of whose members are being aggressively rehabilitated under a de- radicalisation programme, is the Islamisation of Nigeria as they have severally said. Added to that is the fact that murderous Fulani herdsmen literally do whatever it is they like, completely unchecked, just as bandits kill, maim and kidnap as they wish.

     

    These are the factors needlessly fuelling the opposition to a Muslim – Muslim ticket. It is not that Nigerian Christians do not know that Tinubu,  whose wife is a pastor, does not carry religion on his sleeves or that Shettima has been anything other than a friend, supporter and financier of Christians as well as their causes.

    Rather, it is President Muhammadu Buhari who has given the complainants the reasons for their objection, having  unfortunately mismanaged the Nigerian diversity. Or was it not only in 2011, a mere 12 years ago, that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of the ACN, a Muslim, chose the banker, Fola Adeola, another Muslim, as his running mate without Nigerians  raising any eyebrow whatever? That is, in fact, not to go all the way back 30 years  when Chief MKO Abiola and Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, ran on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, and won the 1993 presidential election.

    Unfortunately, between 2015 when President Buhari came into office, and now, so much water has passed under the bridge that today, Nigeria has become completely run down by a combination grinding  poverty, an indescribable insecurity, but much more, a fractured inter- ethnic relationship the type of which Nigeria has never experienced in its entire history.

    It is important to let our protesting pastors know the objective  Nigerian  political realities which the APC cannot afford to disdain in choosing its Vice- presidential candidate, especially, after having elected Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,  a Muslim from the South as its Presidential candidate.

    That is presented below as brilliantly captured by a friend of mine:

    “I lived and worked in the North for a considerable period of time. I know that it is largely assumed that most Northern Christians are Middle Belters, even if they reside in Sokoto but below is Nigeria’s political reality:

    Christian Northern states – Benue, Taraba and Adamawa are  ALL NON-APC states, going by their respective state governments;

    Christian states in the South East are mostly NON -APC  states judging by the people’s sentiment, and past voting pattern.

    For instance, most of them  voted President Goodluck Jonathan by almost 90 per cent in 2011.

    Christian states in the South South are no different, being  largely NON – APC states, judging by the state governments in the region.

    Southwest Christians are, of course, mostly APC, judging by their state governments, and their progressive voting pattern, going back more than half a century.

    Sans the Southwest, Nigerian Christian states can reasonably  be designated as PDP states.

    We are here discussing APC and its chances of victory at the 2023 Presidential election and as we learn in Politics 101,the primary objective of a political party is to win elections, and then, to use that power to improve the lot of the people through a judicious allocation of state resources.

    Therefore, APC like every other right-thinking political party, the world over,  is in politics to win. It is not in politics for the mere fancy of it, or to  please some people who, incidentally, mostly belong to opposing political

    parties, anyway.

    Who then, should APC try to please in the choice of its Vice Presidential candidate from the North, when Christians there, as in the South, mostly vote for the opposition party? The party is also aware that for some historical, and primordial reasons, some ethnic groups  would not vote for the APC candidate, even if he chose Bishop Hassan Kukah as his running mate”.

    That said, it is apposite to further expatiate on the very unfortunate circumstances that have seen a country of over 200M people, in Black Man’s most populous nation on earth, reduce an election which is guaranteed to be so consequential it will impact her far into the second half of this century, to mundane issues of religion and ethnicity, especially, at a time a full- blooded Nigerian, Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch, is  in the running for the Prime ministership of  United Kingdom, that very country that colonised Nigeria.

    If that does nothing else it should, at least, tell us exactly where Nigeria currently finds itself.

    It  can bear a repetition, in fact for the  umpteenth time, that so much did I admire, and believed, in then candidate Muhammadu Buhari that I wrote in 2014, well ahead of the APC presidential primaries that:”Nigeria, in its current dire straits, needs Buhari more than he needs Nigeria.”

    The quote was later echoed in a book by  his friend, the late Professor Tam David West, when he wrote in his book: “Buhari -The Politics Of Age: “Nigeria, in its current dire straits needs Buhari more than he needs Nigeria.” -Femi Orebe – “The Nation On Sunday”, September 28, 2014, Page 183 .

    Unfortunately, President Buhari  has not justified Nigerians expectations but  has  demonstrated “an unbending and unyielding pandering to tribe and religion” to quote a friend,  all the while making short shrift of everything the generality of Nigerians want.

    I give instances.

    To ensure that murderous Fulani herdsmen cannot be easily smoked out of other peoples’ communities, and forests, which had become the hideouts from which they launch their daily killing and kidnapping escapades, President Buhari saw to it that state Police did not see the light of day. That in spite of the support of most of the 36 state governors. That is not all. To further concretise their official protection, “the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris NPM, mni, on 21st February, 2018 directed the Commissioners of Police of all the State Commands of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and their Supervising Assistant Inspectors General of Police of the Twelve Zonal Commands in the Country; to immediately commence simultaneously throughout the Country, the disarmament and recovery of prohibited firearms, ammunition and weapons in the possession of all suspected Militias, Bandits, vigilante groups, Neighbourhood watch and other groups or Individual(s) or Bodies bearing prohibited firearms and ammunition, illegal weapons and lethal devices whether locally fabricated, modified or otherwise fashioned to kill or that can cause harm or injury to persons or that can cause panic, fear, apprehension, security breach, breach of Peace or that can cause threat to law and order anywhere in the Country”. Good as that looks, while all these guns were withdrawn from the millions of  Nigerians having them for peaceful purposes, Fulani herdsmen as well as bandits, even boys  looking no older than 16 years, are today, everywhere carrying AK47 all over the country, be it on city streets, village alleys or in the deep forests;  the  very reason they were able to commit their holocausts in Owo, in Shiroro, on the Abuja – Kaduna  train etc. As you read this, not a single one of these irritants, who attack in hundreds,  has been reported arrested.

    Nor is the Buhari government done yet. Nigerians saw how aggressively RUGA, cattle colonies and a National Water Resources Bill were being pursued- the last remains a cat with nine lives, having just been represented to the National Assembly. Indeed, at a time, President Buhari even gave his Attorney – General the marching orders to gazette a no longer existing grazing routes,  just so  Fulani herdsmen  could very easily seize other peoples’ ancestral lands.

    While all these are happening, worsened by Northerners having a proponderance of all the consequential appointments in the country, President Buhari has stood ramrod against restructuring, which all Nigerians, except the Northwest, want even calling its advocates “naive and dangerous”. He even proudly told Nigerians that he did not read the report of the 2014 National Confab.

    It is the inequity that Christians see at the highest level of  government that Nigerians should hold squarely responsible for the outright Babel the country has become since the presidential candidates of the two leading political parties named their running mates, rather than thanking both parties for attempting to kill off our two demons of religion and ethnicity both of which have retarded the country.

    We must put the responsibility for this all- round mayhem: the killings, the kidnappings, the darkness,  the long fuel queues, the strikes  and all the indescribable fear permeating the entire nation, squarely where it belongs and these pentecistal pastors should, please not add, to the utter bedlam convulsing the nation.

    This is, after all,  an election,and everybody  should just go and vote his/her conscience. We need not be at daggers drawn, nor should we give those who had long threatened war on Nigeria, the flimsiest excuse to go and rouse the sleeper cells which they have, allegedly, planted all over the country. Equally, we must all refrain from tempting any anti- democratic groups who may see these times as being ideal to foist on Nigeria, things we would all come to regret dearly. Therefore, our so – called “genuine heaven- bound Christians” should please, in the name of God, do no more than plan towards casting, and protecting their votes, come February, 2023, while the Almighty God, in His infinite mercy, does the very best for Nigeria. Enough of the harangue, the call to arms, and all the hell raising by anybody, or group of persons.

     

     

  • SNAPSONG 164

    SNAPSONG 164

    Our enviable chaos

    Our fantastically corrupt propensity

    Our globally certified incompetence

    Our preference for fast and easy wealth

     

    Our act-first-think-later ‘philosophy’

    Our leave-it-to-God religiosity

    Our world-famous disdain for Science

    Our unbreakable bond with ignorance

     

    Our rabid aversion to Reason

    Our impatience with the through and thorough

    Our seed-eater’s improvidence

    Our headless covenant with the here-and-now

     

    Fifteen million Nigerian children out of school

    The straight and sure way

    From babyhood to bandithood

    And the trail of tears that drown the nation

     

    Failing factories, booming churches

    The jobless join the hopeless

    Miracle crowds on tenuous hopes

    Predatory pastors and their phantom faiths

     

    Happy through them all

    Our eyes glow in the dark

    Dancing and shouting in garish garments

    We the owambe crowd of a happy nation

  • Fuel: Our worrisome hopeless state

    Fuel: Our worrisome hopeless state

    About two weeks ago, I drove to a fuel station along Ijoko road, Otta, Ogun State where I live to buy fuel at the cost of N180 per litre which is the selling price whenever there is fuel scarcity instead of the official price of N165.

    With my fuel tank almost empty, I couldn’t afford to drive too far to find where I could get the fuel at the official rate or less than N180.  Unknown to me, the station has even increased its price to N200 per litre. Apparently, that was what the attendant was trying to tell me which I didn’t pay attention to since I saw N180 on the dispensing machine.

    When he told me how much I was to pay, I said he was wrong and he responded that he told me a litre was N200.

    I had no choice but to pay. Two weeks after, the same station is still selling for N200 per litre. The station manager says he cannot afford to sell at a loss, claiming that that is the price he can sell considering what it costs him to get the fuel to his station and other variables.

    I and others who bought at N200 have the option of not buying from the station if we insist on the official price. We can keep vehicles at home or join the long queues for hours where we can get fuel for a lower price.

    Across the country, there have been fuel scarcity and the price per litre where motorists are lucky to get to buy varies. The official price for fuel, diesel has become unrealistic according to the Public Relations Officer of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, Chief Chinedu Ukadike because the products are all imported and Nigeria is heavily dependent on imports because the refineries are not working.

    “The private tank farms are now used to supply petroleum products to marketers. We are now left in their hands and whatever they sell to us, we will mark up our margins and sell to customers, the end users,” Ukadike explained.

    It’s a shame that despite being an oil-producing country our refineries are not working and we have to rely so much on the importation of oil products at exorbitant prices which has affected not only vehicular movements and flights but many others operations that depend on fuel and diesel, especially power generation.

    Many man hours are lost at work as many organizations are increasingly finding it difficult to operate at full capacity without electricity. The price of diesel has become unaffordable. Some banks and companies have adjusted their opening and closing time, broadcast stations now stay on the air for fewer hours than they used to. The cost of production by companies has increased so much that they have increased the prices of their products and services.

    While there may be some other factors responsible for the present scarcity and high cost, including the Russia-Ukraine war, what we are paying for as a country is years of mismanagement of our abundant resources which unfortunately is not improving.

    If our refineries have been properly managed over the years and money allocated for enhancing the facilities in the sector properly utilized and not embezzled, we should not have found ourselves in a situation where fuel scarcity has become frequent with no indication that the situation will get better.

    Fuel subsidy has become a channel for siphoning so much money from government covers by those profiting from it.

    Despite not processing crude oil in June this year, three refineries in the country still cost N10.23 billion in expenses, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The refineries, located in Warri, Port-Harcourt and Kaduna, processed no crude because of the rehabilitation works being carried out on them.

    We definitely cannot continue the way we are now with the crippling effect of fuel scarcity. The government has to do what is necessary to ensure our refineries have the capacity to generate a sizeable amount of fuel and other product requirements considering the amount being spent on them. Hopefully, the licensed private refineries will boost fuel production in the country, but until then, we remain at the mercy of fuel stations that decide how much they will sell per litre.

  • Shettima, APC ticket: Tinubu bites the bullet

    Shettima, APC ticket: Tinubu bites the bullet

    WHEN the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, announced the selection of ex-governor Kashim Shettima as running mate, and said he did it with pride, it all but settled misgivings as to whether he had carefully thought through his action of offering Nigeria a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket. It is not clear why the APC postponed the presentation of the former Borno State governor to the public, but it obviously has nothing to do with any quest to revisit the selection, or buyer’s remorse. In 2023, the Tinubu/Shettima ticket will be presenting itself for consideration as men fit to run the country, men in whose hands Nigerians hope their existential crises would be resolved, politicians who envision a country transcending its parochial limitations and aspiring to a greatness as competitive as, if not superior to, the Asian Tigers and the United Arab Emirate (UAE).

    In the same 2023, the electorate will be called upon to accept the same-faith ticket, or after President Buhari’s eight years in office, opt for another Muslim northerner, ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, or half-heartedly embrace the Peter Obi candidacy, notwithstanding its many warts. But if the strident attacks against the APC ticket are any indication, it seems that the country subconsciously fears that the Atiku ticket is plagued by too many ills, and the Obi ticket by too many doubts. But here is the conundrum: the APC ticket could not be otherwise, despite the hysteria of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, if it is to stand a great chance, indeed any chance, of winning the presidential poll. In explaining his choice of Mr Shettima, Asiwaju Tinubu spoke of taking bold decisions reminiscent of great leaders. There is no doubt that his antecedents, more than those of his contemporaries, indicate he has the nerves of steel to take visionary but unpopular decisions. It is left for this generation to determine whether for their own sake and the future of their unborn children they will embrace him and the ticket he has audaciously flung at their bewildered faces.

    Asiwaju Tinubu has bitten the bullet. Judging from his antecedents and the reasons he picked Mr Shettima, he will gladly do it again. He bluffs a lot, and his bluffs as governor, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader, and chief inspirer of the formation of the APC have proved uncannily prescient. He has reasoned Nigeria’s existential dilemma to be one that needs bold, definitive and pragmatic solutions to untangle, in the process showing how obviously contemptuous of the vice of timidity he has become. If he has not gone too far up the mountaintop, it is possible that eventually Nigerians will believe him when he bellows from that peak that he has seen the Promised Land. His extempore speeches may lack grace and cadence, his jokes sometimes misplaced and misread, and the permanent grin on his face (as evidenced by most of his public photographs) appearing to exude defiance and arrogance, but there is no doubt that he knows what he is doing, what he wants, and remains probably the most far-sighted politician of his generation. It riles his opponent to no end that a man of such humble birth, which they have turned into a birther controversy, could be so endowed.

    Nigeria’s political and religious opinion moulders now face the humbling and difficult task of determining whether to reject Asiwaju Tinubu because of the complexion, not the substance, of his ticket, in favour of Alhaji Atiku or Mr Obi. Having settled the fact that Mr Shettima is the APC candidate’s winning formula in the circumstance, regardless of the militating religious factor, the opinion moulders and leaders will have to examine Alhaji Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and determine whether he approximates their ambivalent ideals. Mr Obi of the Labour Party may have overtaken the PDP in social media popularity, but in reality, the PDP remains a solid and unassailable second in the ranking. He was a gritty and controversial vice president, and he attracts technocrats to himself, and has in fact nurtured a few. What is more, he also produces great position papers; but there are doubts he has the capacity to internalise the papers. Above all, his supporters will have to determine whether it would not amount to cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face to enthrone another northerner, a Fulani and Muslim, after eight years of President Buhari.

    Unable to surmount the Atiku dilemma, many vociferous southern opinion leaders with affinity to the EndSARS movement have romanticised and embraced the Obi ticket. He is Nigerian after all, they said, to justify why some of them from the Southwest would cross the Niger River in search of a champion, one who is Christian. And he is young, frugal and oratorically persuasive to boot. Many of the statistics he assails the public with have of course been questioned, and Southeast governors who know him well and the uninspiring governorship he offered Anambra, a state he left virtually the same way he met it, have wondered whether the armchair opinion leaders railing on social media and in the churches really know the man. But to many of his distant supporters, knowing him is secondary to the more salient and satisfying goal of punishing a Muslim-Muslim ticket. That their bawling against Muslim-Muslim ticket provokes a significant section of the electorate and insinuates an insidious discrimination against opposing religions matter little to them.

    Other than the legacy of the Buhari administration, three other major factors will probably be relevant in helping the electorate determine which among the three parties making waves to embrace in 2023. The hoopla over the APC same-faith ticket will die down after a while, and more sober considerations will come into play. Firstly, the Southwest will have to determine whether the eight years of crass religionisation of federal administration by the Buhari administration is enough to cause a tectonic shift in their secular worldview. More than any ethnic group in Nigeria, the Yoruba are the most secular, as their history and antecedents show. It is impossible to repudiate this identity simply because of the complexion, not the substance, of the APC ticket without correspondingly losing their great cultural and spiritual moorings. Such loss, should it happen, will reduce them to the national mean which they have sneered at and fought for decades. Proceeding along that labyrinth is like being sucked into the red gullet of crises and mediocrity whose consequence, even to their race, cannot be accurately gauged, let alone controlled once unbound. It would also mean that finally, non-secular Nigeria had successfully fought and bested the cultural lighthouse and political lodestar of the Southwest.

    Secondly, it is not clear why the church has worked itself into a dilemma in their approach to the Nigerian conundrum, why they equate the APC ticket to an evil and subterranean plot to Islamise the country, despite the glaring secularist proclivities of Asiwaju Tinubu and Mr Shettima in the two states they governed. The evangelicals made a mess of Christian doctrine in the United States and embraced the incompetence and dissoluteness of the Trump presidency as if the defence of the church lies in the hands of man rather than Jesus Christ. In Nigeria, the experience between 2015 and now suggests that a vice president’s religion is inconsequential to the Nigerian presidency, especially with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo clearly unable to mitigate the drastic sectarian turn of the presidency of which he is number two. The church should not bow to any man or party man to defend it or feel secure. To therefore equate a party’s ticket with evil simply because a Christian is not on it is doctrinally presumptuous, openly partisan and indefensibly contemptuous of the diversities in the church. It is a slippery slope for the church to abandon their neutrality and main assignment to the lost, whether Jew or Greek, animist or Buddhist.

    Thirdly, Nigeria is not insulated from the global collapse of leadership standard. Social media bears a huge part of the blame, and as Britain under Boris Johnson and Russia under Vladimir Putin are demonstrating, emotions, nationalism, and poor judgement by political leaders without the character indispensable for presiding over multiethnic and multi-religious nations have provoked needless crises and wars, all leading ultimately to state collapse. Sectarianism and predatory clannishness, not to say authoritarianism, undid Somalia, retarded Egypt, balkanised Libya, rendered much of West Africa retrogressively nostalgic of coups, and generally blighted the continent. Nigerian social media campaigners are urging the electorate to repudiate ethnicity, with subtle hints of what ethnicity they have in mind, while others are giving disingenuous hints of revolution whose end is unfathomable. Well, in the First Republic, ethnicity polluted the election, and the country got off to a bad start. Now, it is religion, and most people are not even aware how dangerously complicit they have become.

    The campaigns are, however, still a long way off. Hopefully, in the intervening months, Nigerians will step back from the brink, downplay religion which they excuse on the grounds of the condemnable sectarian predilections of the Buhari administration, remain impassive to oratorical and statistical fecundity falsely and glibly marshalled, and judge each party’s ticket on the basis of the character of the candidates, on their antecedents, and on their visions. Surely, that exercise can’t be too arduous, considering how clearly incomparable the three tickets are.

     

    Buhari’s unsettling eagerness to go

    FOR most presidents anywhere in the world, constitutional term limit is a hindrance to their work and vision. Either the term limit is too short for their ‘world-changing’ visions or the powers and privileges of office are too tempting. But in the case of President Muhammadu Buhari, he can’t wait to go. He had achieved two terms as elected president, and that achievement is deeply satisfying. Barely a year or so after winning a second term, he had seemed already contented as a leader, and could hardly wait for the next three years to come and go quickly. When a few people suggested there was a conspiracy to get him tenure elongation, this column had sworn that any conspiracy, if it really existed on the scale some observers had insinuated, would amount to nothing in the face of the president’s determination to go. He may not always be a man of his word, susceptible as many people now know him to be to egregious modifications of promises, colourful prejudicies and even alternative truths, but on the issue of third term or the kind of tenure elongation ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo gave vent to in 2006/2007, President Buhari was unalterably opposed.

    He was and still remains pristine and genuine on the subject of respecting term limits. He is unlikely to quibble over it. His basic instinct, though sometimes overwrought, rejects anything politically complicated and devious; and as everybody knows, the issue of third term or elongated tenure is truly complicated. It addles wits and tasks the strongest and bravest of men to their limit. It is a credit to the president that right from the outset, third term never crossed his mind, not even when, as presidential spokesman Garba Shehu recently insinuated, tenure elongation conspirators shuffled their pampered feet around him. Analysts may suspect why he seems dead set against third term, including reasons connected with his health and the overweening dependence on other people’s brains to navigate complex policies and ideas, but in the end the country may have to accept his reasons for respecting term limit. As he put it last Monday when he received APC governors, legislators and political leaders who visited him on Sallah Day, “I am eager to go. I can tell you it has been tough. I am grateful to God that people appreciate the personal sacrifices we have been making. By this time next year, I would have made the most out of the two terms, and the remaining months I will do my best.”

    The president really never contemplated third term. He is more anxious to complete his second term than seek for an extension of dubious benefit, as he confessed last month in Rwanda when he sneered at his predecessor whose unconstitutional machinations ensured he ‘didn’t end well’. But in those Sallah remarks are indicants of worrisome and hardly altruistic reasons for his eagerness to end his tenure and return to Daura, his home town. When he suggests that the job of president is tough, it implies that many factors, including his age, health and education probably circumscribe his capacity to handle the job with the kind of aplomb that should make it either easy or at least exciting and challenging to accomplish. Even his plaintive declaration that he would do his best in his remaining 11 months was suffused with hesitation. There was no conviction in his promise to ‘make the most out of his two terms’ or ‘to do his best’. In sum, his Sallah remarks indicate someone who has virtually given up. This is where the danger lies.

    The next 10 to 11 months are fraught with a lot of dangers and difficulties. Apart from the elections and the bad-tempered campaigns preceding them, the economy is in a tailspin, while hunger, anger and violence are rife and festering. Banditry is laying much of the country waste, and ISWAP/Boko Haram terrorism has caused massive dislocations in the North. No part of the country is safe from kidnappers, cultists and highway robbers. The Ukraine-Russia war has worsened everything, depleted national savings, pummeled exchange rate, and caused inflation rate to soar through the roof. Yes, these issues are tough for the most consummate of presidents to tackle, let alone one just marking time, but the times call for the president to go beyond doing his best to positively believing in himself and confessing his capacity to solve the problems and resolve the crises. The next few months, even to the most optimistic, can quickly turn nasty and revolutionary, as Sri Lanka has shown and developed economies exhibit as they fray at the edges. With no enduring structures or constitutional and institutional ramparts, not to say workable policies to address the crises, situations can quickly deteriorate.

    The president’s Sallah comments to the visiting governors are certainly not good enough. They do not inspire confidence that Nigeria would survive the testy times ahead. This is where the ruling party and party leaders must step in. The APC must rally round the president to help him, for mercifully the situation has not spiralled out of control. Perhaps the president still misses the late Abba Kyari, his former chief of staff, while the cabals around him, which had for long retained a menacing vice-grip on his presidency, have overreached themselves and have become less potent than in earlier years. APC stakeholders must gently coax the president to take far-reaching decisions on the economy, ASUU strike, epileptic power supply and irrational billing, anti-terrorism war which can be ended swiftly if the political will exists, and other crises which are still amenable to control and amelioration. The past few months have witnessed a lot of governmental lethargy and desultory policies. If the country is to transcend these perilous times and hold elections as scheduled, the presidency and the ruling party must reestablish control and give a sense of direction and purpose. The president’s comments do not give confidence that his administration plans to do that. But it can be done if in his final stretch he yields to better, deeper and more inclusive instinct to stabilise and propel the country into the right orbit.

  • Obsession with politicians’ certificates

    Obsession with politicians’ certificates

    It will take some time, probably many years, before the obsession with politicians’ certificates abate significantly to allow sensible focus on issues and ideologies in Nigerian politics. The obsession, not to say the controversy that often accompanies it, will likely get worse in the months ahead before it gets better in years to come.  The list of candidates for the next elections whose certificates have either been misplaced or lost altogether is growing longer. Scrutinised properly, the list may in fact be much longer than anyone has imagined. Delta State governor and running mate to ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election, Ifeanyi Okowa, demonstrates why the obsession with certificates will not cool anytime soon.

    Defending himself against cynical politicians who mock his loss of school certificate as wrongful conduct, the Delta governor seized the occasion of an inspection of ongoing projects in the state to boast of his scholarly exploits. Said he: “On the issue of my certificate, I think it is a misconception. People try to play politics with everything. Yes, I lost my WAEC certificate, but I have the printout from Edo College, Benin-City, which clearly stated that I have distinction in all subjects. The Higher School Certificate was attached and it has been acknowledged by Edo College and the school put it out there that I made an ‘A’ `B’ `B’. I do not pride myself but it was very difficult to make such grade in higher school at that time. My high school result was the second best nationally in 1976, when I finished. So, many universities admitted me through Telegram as at that time, and I had to start making choices of which to accept. Of course, it’s very clear that I finished medical school at the University of Ibadan. I was 21years and some months; I was less than 22 years of age.”

    Well, after this deserved boast, it remains to be seen who else would summon the courage to attack Dr Okowa again. For not only did his alma mater attest to his bona fides, they appear proud of him. The governor is proud of himself too. Would his attackers like to show their faces, and be made to produce their own certificates, perhaps to see just how scholarly they were? It is unlikely. Dr Okowa has silenced his traducers; they are unlikely to produce even a whisper ever again on the governor’s lost certificates. As a matter of fact, his accusers will hope that no enterprising social media fanatic or traditional media reporter would go after them. Should they attempt to seek the governor’s accusers out and peruse their certificates, there might be some embarrassment. Dr OKowa has won this round; his accusers will need to restock.

    But there are many more out there, politicians and all, who have genuine cases of missing certificates. After changing residences a number of times, and despite the most meticulous bookkeeping, scores of highly placed people may fall within the bracket of officials who have lost their certificates and have not bothered to make good as Dr Okowa did with school-attested printouts. This columnist falls within that bracket. Not only has he done change of name, he has moved residence nearly a dozen times, photocopied his certificates and forgot some of the documents in the photocopiers, and fallen victim to thieves who rifled through his property and made away with documents.

    Admittedly, it is politics for desperate politicians and their lackeys in the social and traditional media to take advantage of the misfortune of their rivals and opponents. The grumblers may have had their fingers burnt in the case of Dr Okowa, but nothing will dissuade them from making similar attempts in the future. The tardier in bookkeeping the politician, the more versatile his rivals become in drawing him out into the open for ridicule. As the attempt to derail the campaign of the then Candidate Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 over his school leaving certificate shows, the effort often falls flat, especially considering that nearly all the politicians in question had gone on to much higher studies and educational successes. The certificate issue will, however, remain a weapon, albeit a weak and momentary one, in destabilising the campaigns of political rivals.

    What the certificate campaigners, some of whom have even morphed into birther critics, conveniently ignore is whether the victimised politician is competent to provide sound leadership, at least sometimes, if not nearly always, in contrast to the certificated politician. Dr Okowa boasted of his certificates, but critics should really interrogate his leadership ability, his administrative acumen, his behaviour under pressure and under fire, his adherence to ethics in governance; in sum, his character. These are the more germane virtues critics and certificate advocates have entirely glossed over. But as certain as day follows night, these critics, knowing themselves to have feet of clay, will be extremely reluctant to draw attention to virtues they do not, and probably can never, possess lest they be hoisted with their own petard.

    Pampered bandits push the envelope on terrorism

    It needed no expertise in soothsaying to anticipate that once the March 28 Abuja train attack terrorists freed their men from Kuje jail in Abuja, they would immediately begin to monetise the release of their captives held for over 100 days. By the last count, some 43 are still being held hostage in the terrorists’ dens. About seven were released two Saturdays ago after N100m (in dollars) ransom was allegedly paid for each hostage. The remaining captives are having a hard time shelling out such princely sums.

    The whole saga is mystifying. Some ‘300’ terrorists, perhaps ISWAP members and affiliates, were said to have swooped down on Kuje, a community and local council deep in the bowels of the Federal Capital City of Abuja, on June 6 and attacked the correctional centre in the town. It is not clear how anyone estimated the number of terrorists, for the attack happened in the night. But given the number of the attackers and the weapons they packed, it is shocking they waltzed their way through checkpoints, bypassed security establishments, including electronic surveillance and even direct alerts by human assets, and attacked the jail for more than an hour without any significant response.

    More shocking is the fact that after that bravura display, they took all their jailed comrades away without any hindrance, still waltzing through the town and the FCT, until they reached their dens. Satisfied that they had got their bargaining chips without any hassle or bargain, they are proceeding to profit from the misery of their captives. Yet, they are in Nigeria, obviously not too far away, and are laundering money and organising open shows in a country with intelligence assets capable of interdicting self-determination advocates in far-flung places outside the country. Any wonder some Nigerians smell complicity and conspiracy? As the terrorists push the envelope, more Nigerians are becoming convinced that there is really no official will to deal with the bandits and terrorists, whether they are Boko Haram or ISWAP.

     

    Jandor, Funke: a political cohabitation

    It seemed a joke at first that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos had become so capricious that they would produce a starry-eyed ticket to fight the next governorship poll in the state. But there is no rabbit this social media generation cannot produce from their uppity hats. Surprise! They pulled one out last week when the PDP, leveraging on their social media presence, paired Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, alias Jandor, with Nollywood sensation Funke Akindele, alias Jenifa. They will be contesting the Lagos governorship poll next year, hoping that their fame and notoriety, not to say the capriciousness of disenchanted youths, would get them the diadem.

    Lagos has a population in excess of 20 million. Governing them surely can’t be a cakewalk, nor entertainment. But Jandor and Jenifa, like the musician Davido and the dancing Osun senator Ademola Adeleke, swear it is entertainment borne on the wings of social media following.