The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Is presidential election an Olympic event in which participation is only for mere honour?

    Is presidential election an Olympic event in which participation is only for mere honour?

    The success or lack of it of a Muslim/Muslim ticket will depend largely on WHO the Muslim Vice Presidential candidate will be.

    If it is a Muslim that has a track record of killing, persecuting, denigrating, hating, undermining, marginalising or working against Christians in ANY shape or form, I and millions of Christians all over this country will oppose it decisively and aggressively regardless of the consequences because we will not allow anyone to destroy the church, intimidate or persecute our people or mess with our faith – Femi Fani Kayode

    Pray, what does CAN want in this country? Is it good leadership or a failed one even if their religious member is the vice president? All the while we have been having Muslim – Christian ticket, has it in any way translated to good governance? How has that helped Nigeria as a country? The presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his remarks shortly after his victory at the Eagle Square in Abuja, emphasized that religion is of the mind, meaning that it is what you do, your concept of life, and your attitude to your neighbor that will determine if you are what you claim to be; not the religion you profess – Ifeonu Okolo.

    Participation in the Olympic Games is, by common consent, for the honour and not necessarily for winning. Do I understand some Nigerians as saying that what a candidate in a presidential election seeks is mere honour, and not victory?

    It will be asinine to believe the latter, and so to proceed, therefrom, to say that the APC cannot choose a Muslim Vice Presidential candidate will be absolutely disingenuous.

    What should decide who a Vice Presidential candidate is, for any serious political party, should be the running mate’s capacity to enhance the party’s chances to win an election. Election mathematics, not emotional therapy.

    Having said that, let me quickly add a caveat to show that I perfectly understand where the naysayers are coming from. It is, is fear, legitimate fear. Given the absolutely unfair manner the Nigerian diversity, particularly religion and ethnicity, has been flagrantly mismanaged in the Buhari administration, there is no way we could have avoided the present rancorous debate on the desirability, or otherwise, of a Muslim – Muslim ticket, about which the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has become so bellicose you would think that President Buhari’s VP was a Muslim when the Methodist Prelate, His Eminence, Samuel Kanu-Uche, was kidnapped and had to cough out a humongous N100m in ransom to his kidnappers. Therefore, what is on display, simpli cita,  is the truism that we cannot plant potatoes and harvest yams.

    The outgoing Buhari administration has, most unnecessarily, given undue attention to our ethnic and religious divides. Today, not a few Nigerians believe that we would not be in our present insecurity quagmire if the president had not allowed these divides to underpin most of his actions and policies, especially his do nothing stance toward the murderous activities of the herdsmen who were the forerunners of the banditry that has since overrun the country.

    On no occasion, for instance, did Nigerians hear President Buhari condemn their criminalities; not even when they killed so many people in Benue State that Governor Ortom had to undertake the gory duty of superintending over their mass burial. When the president paid them a ‘sympathy’ visit, he did not truly empathise with the people as all he told them was to learn to cooperate with their neighbours; the same people they allegedly killed their compatriots.

    Also, many of the policies dear to the President -RUGA,  which Bauchi State governor, Bala Muhammed, said must accommodate Fulanis from all over the world because, as he put it, ‘Fulanis have no nationality’; Grazing routes – the now completely non-existent paths the president ordered his Attorney – General to Gazette and the National Water Bill which they did everything, though unsuccessfully, to get the  National Assembly to pass all with the primary intent of facilitating herdsmen’s seizure of ancestral lands all over the country.

    Conversely, as I have mentioned on these pages before, President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered unruly OPC members, his Yoruba kinsmen, shot at sight. I have personally wondered at the sudden spike in killings, and kidnappings, since immediately after the recent 16 – nation Fulani conference which we were told was to discuss “The Future of Fulani Pastoralists in Nigeria.”

    The Owo gruesome killings and several kidnappings of church personalities since then have brought this ‘coincidence’ into bold relief.

    These essentially are the facts feeding this, otherwise, the unnecessary debate as if the Muslim VP candidate will be headhunted from Yemen, or Afghanistan.

    But what really is the truth?

    Before I go on to the specific issue of the APC presidential candidate, a man who, as if he knew that today would ever come, had tremendously shown what a Christ-like human being he is, let me quote the views of a friend of mine, a retired Commissioner of Police who has been on duty in literally all parts of the country and knows the average Nigeria’s duplicitous approach to religion. He wrote as follows in a Whatsapp post:

    “I do not know where the pendulum would eventually swing but whichever way it does, heaven will not fall. I, as a bona fide citizen of this great country, will like to be caught on the side of Truth”. Who are the real Muslims or Christians in this country? I dare say we only mouth religions, but they are not in our hearts.” Who are the thieves in this country? Who are the bad policemen, the corrupt Custom and Immigration officers, or the audacious legislators? The thieving, corrupt public and civil servants, who or what are they? Who are the fraudsters? Who are the gamblers? Who are the drug barons and who are the big smugglers? Who are those who have cornered and converted our commonwealth then and now? Who annulled the freest election ever in this country leading to the loss of lives and property, and the consequent economic disequilibrium from which we are yet to recover?” “Who are the sex for mark professors? Who are the slippery, conscienceless delegates who recently milked candidates/contestants to the bone, and still vote with a blank conscience?

    Aren’t they all Muslims and Christians?”

    “So why are we fretting over the religions that have no obvious impact on our day -to- day activities? Why are we deceptively sounding concerned about whether a VP is from  Islam or Christianity that haven’t the least meaning in our lives?” “Go to the courts or the prisons. Everybody there bears Abdullai or John. How come? Let me now get a little more personal. I am a Muslim and I say with all sincerity that except for the few fanatical ones, Muslims are more tolerant of Christians than the other way round. Muslims are not bothered when their co-students or co-workers or business associates are Christians. Now the clincher: Muslims freely marry Christians. It is not so on the Christian side. Check out among the top politicians: be it Tinubu, Raji Fashola, Amosun, Ajimobi, and a host of others who have Christian wives and in the process end up having their children become Christians. If we can entrust our lives into the hands of our Christian wives,  how come the larger Christian world still mistrust us? How many prominent Christian politicians in Nigeria have, live with, and flaunt their Moslem wives in the open like Muslims do with their Christian wives”? Let us go ahead and pick people who are “human beings,” with human feelings who will be Godly. Christians and Muslims have failed the test. They cannot now pass. Let us pick a good, committed individual who will love Nigeria and Nigerians and wipe away our political, social, and economic tears.

    Let me now correlate the above with the life trajectory of the man in the eye of the storm, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate. Here is a man who has always wanted the best for this country and has, for that reason, spared nothing in the past several decades – not his time, resources, or intellect.

    Some ignoramuses who have done nothing to uplift even their villages, or communities, in any way, go about saying Tinubu’s health is not good, as if they are his doctors. If only they know what this man has done for Nigeria and, particularly for democracy, not just here in Nigeria, but in the entire West African sub-region where he has ensured the electoral victory of more than two Presidents, and is, for that reason today, the most recognised contemporary Nigerian politician. If only they knew that many Nigerians no longer remember the names of half of those with whom Tinubu was in the Senate, or that of those who were state governors with him when he turned Lagos State to the 5th biggest economy in Africa. Yet he remains this relevant in, and to our country.  If only they knew that he was one of the pillars of NADECO, that incredible pan – Nigerian organisation that sent the military back to the barracks, thereby ensuring that democracy survived in Nigeria against the vile hopes of many a military general who wanted to transmute to Life Presidents, and ipso facto, bury democracy in Nigeria. Nor could they have known that in the past 20 years or so, that is from his time as governor of Lagos State,  this man hardly sleeps before 4 am, busy working on one Nigerian challenge, or the other, unlike some cavorting with women of easy virtue, as the immortal AWO put it. This is a man who in the past 3 months has criss- crossed the entire country like no one else, and is still going strong. All these on top of an excruciating knee surgery.

    Do some people think at all?

    These are the reasons we continue to thank God for his life and pray that God is God, who knows the minds of all men, and therefore knows Tinubu’s plan for Nigeria will, in His Almightiness, see him to victory at the next presidential election in February 2023, defeating all those who sold Nigeria’s prime possessions, on the cheap, thereby denying millions of well- educated Nigerian youths gainful employment and leaving them no alternative to hopping abroad, some through the desert.

    Let me now present the views of the unknown author of a trending Whatsapp post on the APC presidential candidate.

    Wrote the unknown author in what he titled ‘Justice for Tinubu on religious sentiment’: “When Tinubu was donating to churches, sponsoring pastors and contributing huge sums of money to Christians, they didn’t reject him because of his religion. When he empowered them financially, CAN & PFN didn’t call him a Muslim.

    When he nominated Osinbajo, a Pentecostal pastor, as VP, almost all these Christians sang his praises. They didn’t call him by his religion.

    Between 2011-2019 in the Southwest when Muslims dominated the region as governors, CAN was all over the place shouting marginalization, Islamization. But now that the only Muslim governor is that of Osun State, CAN is silent.

    In Osun State, where there is a significant population of Muslims, PDP has settled for a Christian/Christian ticket for the 2023 governorship election. You will never hear CAN speak against it.

     

     

    Now, because two pastors contested and lost to Tinubu in the just concluded APC presidential primaries, CAN has started crying foul, playing the religious card. Do they really want Tinubu to win the presidential election? Of course, no. Rather, they are secretly rooting for Peter Obi, the Christian.

    Although there are many capable Northern Christians, who can perform as VP, what if that puts Tinubu’s candidacy at a disadvantage? Is he in the race to win or to balance some religious equation? Are CAN and those saying he should pick a Christian as VP sincere? Many of them will not vote for him, even if he picks Bishop Kukah as VP.”

    “However, there are still many of us in Christendom, who are independent-minded and see things differently. We do not relate with people based on religion or tribe. We relate based on the mutual understanding that we are all creations of God, who must love and help one another. And by God’s grace, we will massively vote for Tinubu in 2023.

    “The only sin Tinubu committed against CAN and Southeasterners was his support for Buhari to defeat Jonathan in 2015. CAN just  played along all these many years because Osinbajo is VP. So now that Osinbajo lost to Tinubu, all hell is let loose.

    It is time, therefore, to end this needless debate”.

    For the APC to choose a Christian VP, in a region that is globally regarded as having  Muslims in the majority, would be an egregious disrespect to the likes of the Sultan and the party will pay dearly for it. Courtesy, common sense,  as well as realpolitik, demands that a Muslim VP be chosen from the North. Otherwise, it would simply be to gift the election to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is not only on record as dead set to sell whatever remains of our common patrimony if he ever becomes president, and would think nothing of throwing Nigerians,  particularly the poor masses, into the cold and unfeeling hands of economic forces which could see a litre of petrol go for more than N500 and cost of cooking gas, and electricity increase, geometrically, beyond the reach of most Nigerians.

    Finally, a matter of urgent national interest. For the second time in as many years, I have come across some allegations against His Excellency, Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. In the petition, written on behalf of IGBO KWENU, and signed by the duo of Edwin Chukwujekwu, (Chairman), and Nonyelum Nwokoye (Secretary), grievous accusations of drug dealing and use, were made.

    Not since I first came across it some two years ago and now that it has popped up again, have I been privileged to read governor Obi’s denial nor have I heard he has taken his accusers to court for defamation. Now that he has emerged as a highly rated presidential candidate in the  2023 presidential election in which he says the only political structure he needs to win is the Nigerian youths, I believe it behooves him, for the sake of these youths, to now come out of the shadows, and exhaustively, react to damning allegations.

    The Die Is Cast (2) will be in limbo until we rest this debate.

     

  • Post-annulment prospects for Nigeria

    Post-annulment prospects for Nigeria

    Last week was the twenty ninth anniversary of the historic June 12,1993 presidential election. It also marked the canonization of the day as the official democracy day by the Buhari administration.  It is important for those who think history is a quick fix to take a cue from the June 12 tragedy and the ebb and flow of events after the annulment. It was an election whose aftermath shook the nation to its foundation and whose reverberations continue to echo in the innermost sanctuaries of power games in postcolonial Nigeria.

    History unfolds in unfathomable and confounding ways. It is never a quick fix. Historical contradictions take time to mature and to work out. What often looks like the final resolution is not always the last word. Although history eventually vindicates the just, it is not always a short blast of restitution but a long slog of relentless demolition of the walls of lies and treacheries.

    As it is now officially confirmed and ratified, the epoch-making election was won by the late business mogul, MKO Abiola.  Although Abiola lost his life in the course of the struggle to redeem the mandate freely and fairly given to him by millions of his compatriots, a cult of heroic example has gradually grown around the Egba billionaire. He has become a symbol of democratic hope and national redemption; an avatar of the struggles of Nigerians against military despotism and neo-colonial feudal servitude.

    A man with an acute even if bucolic sense of humour and a highly developed awareness of the dangers lurking around the political gymnasium, this was not the final script Abiola himself would have written about his life. If anybody had told him the political game would cost him his life, the demystification of the military as an institution and the destruction of the reputation of his military acolytes, Abiola would have pooh-poohed the whole proposition or dismissed it with a local proverb from his rich native repertoire.

    All his life, Abiola had made a career of daring danger and adversity and trumping them both, until it proved a bridge too far. He was not going to be fazed by any hobgoblin moaning in the deep forest or any monstrous troll crying in the dead of the night. Let them bring it on. As the Yoruba will put it, a person who is afraid of dying will never inherit the sacred traditional stool of his ancestors.

    Abiola never acceded to the golden stool. He was poleaxed on the way to democratic affirmation by ambitious military officers who had come to believe that Nigeria was their personal property. It was a daring assault on the psyche and electoral integrity of the nation. But last week as we celebrated the twenty ninth anniversary of the historic election, Abiola has been fully restored to the glory of the ancestral stool and completely rehabilitated as an elected president of Nigeria who was never allowed to serve out his tenure.

    It was a pivotal moment of history for many Nigerians who fought on the side of justice and a time to savour the sweet nectar of historical vindication for those illustrious Nigerians who stood firmly at the barricades for almost three decades without flinching or wavering. Historians call it the moment of apotheosis when a great hero, tragically wronged and denied of his rightful place in the national pantheon, finally came into his own.

    The victory came with more than a touch of bitter ironies and contradictions. Despite the restoration of some semblance of democratic rule, all the costly struggles of the past three decades could not restore Abiola’s mandate; nor could they overturn the subsisting military culture of impunity and authoritarian arrogance that terminated his electoral triumph in the first instance. It should be recalled that before General Buhari, two Southern presidents gave neither Abiola nor his mandate a look in.

    One of them from Abiola’s own catchment area was so hostile that he could not abide Abiola’s name being mentioned in his presence. It has taken a Northern ruler from the same background and dominant military formation as those who annulled Abiola’s mandate to grab the bull by the horn. Whether Buhari is motivated by a spiteful disdain for his former military boss, General Obasanjo, or by an abiding animus against those who toppled him from power in such a humiliating manner is beside the point.

    Future historians will regard the moment of Abiola’s restoration and political rehabilitation as perhaps the high noon of the Buhari administration whatever its startling failures in other departments. It is the objective reality of historical actions that matters rather than their private motivations or personal motives.

    Yet as we have been taught in Literary Theory, a work of art willy-nilly the author must reveal the conditions of its own possibilities as well as the enabling atmosphere of cultural production. The same also goes for major political initiatives which subversively reveal the conditions of their possibility as well as the dominant environment of political production. To explore these conditions is to glimpse how past contradictions shape contemporary political developments even where the actors are masking their true inclinations.

    In an impassioned broadcast to his compatriots on the twenty ninth anniversary of the June 12 imbroglio, General Buhari noted that the annulled presidential election represented the best of times and the worst of times for Nigeria and Nigerians. The election brought out the best in Nigerians. But it also brought out the worst aspects of military despotism: a frank disregard for the wish and will of millions of Nigerians.

    Without any hint of underlying irony, the president named Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, Abiola’s running mate and a loyal accomplice, collaborator and enabler of militarized politics, as a former vice president of Nigeria. This decision drew the ire of many of Abiola’s Yoruba compatriots and pro-democratic champions who believed that it is honour and recognition very well misplaced since Kingibe is widely believed to have abandoned Abiola and deserted the cause at the most critical moment.

    By going rogue, Kingibe removed a major plank from the legitimacy and authority of the struggle to de-annul the election. In any case in legal parlance, an annulment presupposes that something or event did not take place in the first instance. So, any supporter of a government based on the annulment of Abiola’s mandate cannot and must not be seen to benefit or profit from a subsequent rehabilitation of the mandate.

    But to insist on this line of argument is also to remove the plank on which Abiola’s rehabilitation is based. Kingibe is a hardboiled and thick-skinned apparatchic of the military and post-military state in Nigeria and whether we like and applaud him or not, whether we approve of his less than noble conduct or not, there can be no denying that he was Abiola’s running mate and that their joint ticket won a presidential election.

    A more sensitive and politically correct government could have kept quiet on this and could have given Kingibe his dues away from public glare without further affronting an already tense ethnic situation. But the management of ethnic equations is not one of the strengths of this outgoing administration and we must let it be at this point.

    The real import of all this is that almost thirty years after the annulment and seventy years after northern delegates walked out on their southern colleagues, the nation is still dealing with the final working out of the contradictions particularly the resurgence of ethnic and regional suspicion and mistrust unleashed by the unfortunate annulment.

    The political, economic, cultural and spiritual trauma untrammelled military rule and its autocratic semi-military successors have caused the nation in the last three decades is immeasurable. From a pole position in the commonwealth, Nigeria has plunged to the nadir of nations. This past week, Angola overtook Nigeria as the continent’s leading oil producer.

    Almost thirty years after, the nation is on the cusp of another great and momentous election which may mark the final transition of Nigeria from a post-military authoritarian semi-democracy to a more benign, people-friendly civilian-ordered rule. But if care is not taken, it could also mark a relapse into some form of authoritarian semi-feudal rule or a despotic re-militarization of the nation before a terminal tipping over.

    Already the fireworks of national distemper have started souring the atmosphere. There is a lot of loose talk about gender-balancing in a nation in which large swathes are still caught in a medieval time-warp. For a nation just coming out of the trauma of a regional and ethnically motivated annulment of a presidential election, there is a deliberately hyped hysteria against a particular combination of contestants based on religious objections.

    The media is agog with sensationalized reports of a looming Third Force with disruptive possibilities.  Its hysteric honchos are already proclaiming the nunc dimittis of the old political class and its remaining patriarchs just like that as if disruption is a tea party. In all the societies where this has happened, there is a higher seriousness, an organizational genius which is remarkably absent from the sloganeering and donation-driven emptiness of the moment. Disruption should be made of sterner stuff, and should be less rowdy.

    The real danger in all this is that the jejune disruptors and juvenile purveyors of systemic chaos may just play into the hands of more ruthless disruptors and professional managers of chaos and anarchy waiting in the wings. The unfolding situation may be tailor made for them. On the other hand, the aimless noise and dins emanating from the social media may panic the expiring old political class into one last act of Samsonite grandstanding.

    Whichever way one looks at it the auguries are not very good. With the virtual abnegation of social and political responsibility by the government, the nation may be careering towards a political, economic and spiritual meltdown. There is no organic political party capable of managing an ordered transition. Neither of the two major political parties have the guts to campaign to the nation based on their subsisting records. The two leading candidates have wisely refrained from doing so and have been campaigning based on their past records and name recognition.

    This is the picture that flashed through the mind as one saw the selfsame Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe in close photo-op with the presidential candidate of the APC, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “Only my master knows what my master is thinking about”, the military aide to General Simon Bolivar said in Gabriel Marquez’s Labyrinth of the General. Whatever could have been going on in the famous spymaster’s inventive and fecund mind as he attempted to psyche out the equally redoubtable master of political cliffhanging? Are we going to have a repeat of the Abiola saga?

    It is going to be a real rumble in the jungle. Nigeria is back to its 1953 reset mode. It is seventy years of solipsism where tribe and tongue differed and as tribe and tongue continue to differ. It has been noted by political astrologers that Nigeria evolves through periodic crises which take a thirty year cycle to wear off. 1963, 1993 and 2023? We are surely on the cusp of momentous events.

  • Okon is upstaged by Baba Lekki

    Okon is upstaged by Baba Lekki

    Still basking in the false glory of being appointed Commander of the order of Good Values by a rogue organisation, Okon has become totally impossible to handle. Even in the kitchen, he insists on wearing the insignia of the Commander of the Order of Good Values (COGV) like a talisman to ward off the heat.

    Snooper was quietly enjoying the spectacle of a whole commander cooking for him when the mad Calabar boy erupted in a furious counter offensive. After a short visit home to celebrate his award, the crazy rogue sidled up to snooper one fine morning.

    “Oga,”, Okon began as he eyed his boss with mirth and relish. “As I don become important man for Lagos, my people say make I look for good person who go write my life tory with better grammar. I come tell dem say na you be the person, and dem come gree.”

    “May God punish you and your stupid people”, I screamed at him as I aimed a big book at his coconut skull.

    Meanwhile, the interview proper with the feisty television station was pure dynamite with Okon in his roguish and inflammatory elements. Accompanied by a pole-hugging drunk Baba Lekki who was quite a sight in his kembe pants and abetiaja cap, it was clear that the duo had come to bury the system and not to praise it.

    The old man fell into a deep slumber, snoring and revving like a decrepit trailer going up a steep hill. Okon eyed the moribund pile with savage relish and snorted, “Burukutu don finish baba”.

    The interview began cautiously, with each side probing for the other’s soft underbelly. “First, we will like to congratulate you on your recent award. It was a honour richly deserved”, the leading man opened with much civility and good breeding, and a syrupy smile to match.

    “Point of incorrect!!” Okon thundered. “Dem rich people no deserve honor. I no be like dem yeye people. I no dey sell sugar, I no dey sell oil. Na bushmeat Okon dey sell. And even dat one dem come finish me for Obodo”.

    “Okay, okay. Congrats on your great award”, the poor chap corrected.

    “Hen, hen, na dat one you for say. But my brother see me see trouble, see how dem mad MEND boys come disgrace Niger Delta. See how dem come reject my brother Ekaette as dem minister. Anytime Cross Riverman hit gold, dem Egbesu  go go gaga”. Okon noted with a miserable mien. Baba Lekki turned on his side.

    “Your Ette brother na useless man. When Obasanjo dey there, na im god, but when he done leave now, he come dey yab am for senate, abi? Crayfish no dey get backbone”,

    Baba Lekki rumbled and let out a leonine yawn.

    “Baba, shut up. Dis one no be burukutu conference with dem ganja people for Okoko”, Okon snarled, making a threatening advance.

    “Okay, mo tigbo”, Baba moaned and fell back asleep even as he complained of being hard pressed by nature.

    “Sir, what is your take on the state of the nation?” the second interviewer asked with quiet polish.

    “I no take am at all. Dem get thirty six states but no nation. When oil money don finish patapata everybody go pick race for dem obodo. As Fela come say, na beasts of no nation dey rule una”, Okon snapped.

    “If you are so critical, what is the way out?” the lady asked with sweet bewilderment.

    “Dat one na yeye question. He get as he be for obodo Nigeria. You see when two dogs come lock after dem fire demsefs finish dem go drag each other around so tey until dem Kaput or until  God come release dem. Sebi you sabi wetin I dey talk about?” Okon asked the lady with wild relish as she squirmed with embarrassment. Everybody started laughing, including Baba Lekki, who was now eyeing the proceeding with a sleepy stare.

    “Kai kai wonna shege yaro ne”, Baba muttered, lapsing into corrupt Hausa.

    “Sir, how do you see this Ribadu and el-Rufai palaver?” the second interviewer asked. But before Okon could answer the question, Baba Lekki crawled forward.

    “Let me answer that one. El-Rufai is a fugitive offender while Ribadu is an offending fugitive”, Baba Lekki screamed at the top of his voice.

    “Don’t listen to baba. I don tell una say him head no correct at all”, Okon snapped as he beheld Baba with amused contempt.

    “But since he appears to know so much, let us ask him the final question”, the sweet lady proposed with angelic innocence. On that note, Baba Lekki rose to his full height and assumed a professorial frown even as he eyed everybody with donnish disdain.

    “No, no no. I don’t take part in this kind of nonsense”, the old hell raiser began with perfect Queen’s diction. “This is bourgeois disquisition of no consequence to the suffering masses, full of putrid prevarications and pusillanimous pomposities”. He had begun to wet the floor in full public glare. Pandemonium quickly followed and the station went off the air.

    First published in 2009.

     

  • ASUU’s complicated strike

    ASUU’s complicated strike

    I’m not sure Nigerians think resolving the four months old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is simple as the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed suggested while briefing journalists after the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja last Wednesday.

    According to him, a lot is going on behind the scenes with the setting up of all the committees which have been meeting with the union executive.

    “If we are not concerned, we will not be looking for means to even assuage the feelings of the union. We’re worried. We’re concerned, and we’ll continue to work towards finding an early resolution of the problem,” Mohammed stated.

    Nigerians sure know that the issue is very complicated, considering that successive governments, including the present admiration, have not honoured past agreements with the lecturers who are not ready for an empty promise like in past years, but there is no clear indication how soon the strike would be called off.

    If only the federal government had taken the warning strike by the lecturers seriously, and not made them appear like making unnecessary demands, maybe the issue would not have lasted this long. Typically, the government dared the lecturers and they have proved that this time around, they will insist on their demands being met however long it takes.

    While delaying to respond to ASUU’s demands, three other university unions have also embarked on strike and the negotiations have become more complicated with even unions in Polytechnics and Colleges of Education also making their own demands.

    Some of the demands of the university lecturers for embarking on strike since February 14, include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for universities and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution.

    If meeting the above demands and others, which are very basic to enhancing the quality of university education in the country and the welfare of the staff, is really more complicated than what Nigerians think as the Minister stated, the government should explain what the complications are and not assume that we should know.

    If as Alhaji Mohammed said the Minister of Education would be in a better position to explain what is being done to resolve the strike, why is he not speaking up on the matter. Why does the federal government appear not sufficiently worried about the closure of all the public universities in the country to give it the urgent attention it deserves?

    According to the ASUU’s President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke the last meeting with the government negotiation committee led by  Professor Nimi  Briggs was fair and the union is expecting the government to respond to the issues they discussed with the committee.

    The government need to respond as quickly as it should and save the country the embarrassment of having the institutions of learning to remain closed. Already the strike has done incalculable damage to all concerned and the earlier the issue is resolved once and for all in better.

    It’s unfair that while public universities remain closed, academic sessions in private universities continue to run. The government should not wait until the affected students go beyond their present peaceful protest against the strike before doing what it should do.

    While ASUU may be right in insisting that all its demands should be met, it should also be considerate to make some concessions, more in the interests of the students than the government.

  • Tinubu’s triumph

    Tinubu’s triumph

    Despite the shenanigans, despite the high wire politics; despite the labyrinth of land, sea and air mines laced on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s path by the powers-that-be in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and perhaps their collaborators outside the party; despite the almost most insurmountable difficulties; despite all odds; despite… despite…, Tinubu finally emerged the presidential flag bearer of the APC on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. Ordinarily, this was predictable, given the winner’s pedigree as a political maestro since his incursion into politics about 30 years ago. Indeed, for Tinubu, the saying that ‘if men were God’ truly adheres. If men were God, the story of the APC’s presidential primary would have been different. That is to say Tinubu would have lost the ticket. Indeed, he would have lost his deposit. It takes someone with more than nine lives to wade through the manmade hurdles that Tinubu successfully waded through. It looked more like another ‘Miracle of Dammam’.

    While this victory was sweet for Tinubu and his innumerable supporters, it was bad music in the camp of his opponents, particularly Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition party as a whole, and understandably so. With due respect to all the 14 aspirants that participated in the APC presidential primary (most of them eventually stepped down for Tinubu), all of them combined could not have given Atiku any sleepless night. There is no gainsaying the fact that Atiku must have been praying fervently that Tinubu should not emerge the ruling party’s candidate. One does not need to be a soothsayer to know that for Atiku, the fear of Tinubu is the beginning of election wisdom.

    Indeed, some people have alleged that Atiku was party to the troubles that Tinubu faced on the way to the primary. That he joined forces with Tinubu’s opponents in the ruling party to stop him from emerging as APC’s presidential flag bearer at all cost. But, since what will be will be; or, better still, since what has been has been, the die appears cast, as the nation eagerly awaits the General Election billed for early next year, for both candidates to test their popularity at the polls.

    Before then, however, there are some salient points and lessons that must be learnt from Tinubu’s victory. One of the lessons reminds me of a joke we used to crack in The Punch in those days; that someone may work at Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and get his reward at Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL). For the benefit of the younger generation who may not know, NIPOST and NITEL were both Federal Government institutions. NIPOST had to do with postal services while NITEL pertained to telecommunications. While the former is still alive, the latter is now defunct. Of course the one that is still alive is doing so at the mercy of the government while the latter became defunct after the government enacted the Nigerian Communications Commission Act which allowed other entrants into the telecommunication sector that used to be the sole preserve of NITEL. While NIPOST was like the church rat of old (because church rats these days are no longer poor), NITEL was supposed to be rich, given the monopoly of its services and the desirability by many Nigerians. So, it was indeed a prayer for one to work at NIPOST and to be rewarded at NITEL. Meaning; it is not necessarily the person that one is good to that would repay that goodness.

    But that is not where I am going.

    If Tinubu says becoming Nigeria’s president is his lifelong ambition, he was right. Most of us have ambitions but only a few realise them because only a few doggedly pursue those ambitions. Tinubu has been oiling the wheels of his ambition for decades. He has been building bridges across the country’s geopolitical zones; his generosity sans borders. That is why it is not surprising that mostly governors from the northern part of the country stood by him when it mattered most, at a time many of his own people that God had used him to help become something in life turned their back on him. These people, most of whom Tinubu had helped climb several political ladders simply rejected him and were more than ready to remove whatever ladder their benefactor wanted to use to attain his lifelong ambition.

    Let me shock those who believe that some of these people should have stepped down for Tinubu before the primary, instead of throwing their hats too into the ring. If you ask me, I would tell you that this is within their democratic right if they met other requirements for the office. Whether what appears legally sound is also morally permissible is a different matter entirely. For me, however, it is good that these people who refused to step down (perhaps hoping that crutches would come from somewhere to assist them), had attempted and failed the popularity contest. If they had been persuaded to withdraw from the race, they would not have known that they are political Lilliputians. They still would have been going about with their over-bloated ego. It is only after the hunchback has attempted to stand upright that he can better appreciate what those who are standing upright are going through.

    One can only hope that these people whose minds are all bent against one man: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have all learnt their lessons. You must have performed some tasks before you can sip palm wine from the palm tree. It does not just happen. Tinubu has been doing that something over the decades. Those who wish to do what he has done or can do must first catch up with him, and then overtake him. How can people who do not have any political structure want to become the country’s president? Since when have human beings succeeded in building something on nothing?

    But it is ironical and amazing (definitely not amusing) that it is the very people that benefitted from Tinubu’s generosity and what they term his undemocratic tendencies, that are his most strident critics. But I was happy that at one of Tinubu’s birthday colloquiums when one of such persons made the allegation some years ago, Tinubu gave it back to him in a way that drew a loud applause from the audience. He told him that if he (Tinubu) had been democratic, that person accusing him of being undemocratic would not have become governor. And this was true. That person was not in the calculation of the party’s political leaders for the governorship post. His anointing for the job by Tinubu angered the party’s elders and Tinubu himself said he had to prostrate for them to let that person be.

    Of course Tinubu pleaded with the party elders to allow the person do the job because he knew all the people in the party very well. But, he saw some things in that person that other party elders probably did not see, or saw but chose to ignore. Hence, Tinubu’s routing for him to be governor.

    And that is the man, Bola Ahmed Tinubu for you. He is a man who would want to put round pegs in round holes, without any primordial sentiments, for the overall benefit of the society. This is an invaluable asset expected of any country’s Number One citizen.

    We have seen the impressive transformation that Lagos has witnessed in the last 23 years, under Tinubu’s tutelage. I will always concede that there is still room for improvement, but it takes the mischievous to see an elephant and say it seems he just saw something. Unfortunately, that has been the usual song of some opposition PDP leaders in the state. They say the developments in Lagos fall far short of expectation considering the quantum of money that the state rakes in monthly, apart from the state government’s allocation from the Federation Account. What such critics conveniently forget is the load that the state is carrying because of the mad rush into Lagos from all over the country, since there is little or no governance in many of the other states, including those under the PDP, and which are also getting derivation funds to boot!

    If Lagos is this rich as the critics contend, it is also because Tinubu and his successors did a lot of critical reasoning to rejig the state’s finances; a thing that should be going on nationwide, but is not. We need such critical thinking out of the box at the national level. Nigeria has for long been doing the same thing the same way and expecting different result. It will never happen.

  • Garba Shehu’s unconvincing theories

    Garba Shehu’s unconvincing theories

    Last Tuesday, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu attempted a spin on the leadership trait of President Muhammadu Buhari and the role he played in the recent All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary. The president is not an autocrat, he says, nor did he try to impose a presidential standard-bearer on the party on June 7. It needs to be clarified that the president, to his eternal credit, ended up doing the right thing in the primary. The role he played in the primary has consolidated his leadership and helped him to transcend the appalling precedent and meddlesomeness of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo who foisted an unpopular successor on the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the country as a whole.

    Mr Shehu, however, misreported the president’s role before, during and after the APC presidential primary. His public statement was in fact unnecessary. It was enough that the president finally did the right thing, stabilised the ruling party by his benevolent neutrality, and has probably positioned it for a clean sweep of the next polls. There was no need for Mr Shehu to explain or rationalise the president’s motives and actions. The spokesman inadvertently faced the risk of misrepresenting facts and colouring roles, as his statement has illustrated. Indeed, it is clear to everyone who has praised the president that his role and actions were either unintended or a deliberate feint he kept strictly to himself. Take for instance Mr Shehu insisting that the president was not an autocrat. Alas, the president, given his speech during a meeting with progressive governors on May 31 before the APC presidential primary, indicated that he needed to give ‘stronger leadership’ to the party as it selected its standard-bearer. He had said: “As I begin the final year of my second term as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and leader of the party, I recognise the compelling need for me to provide stronger leadership to the party under this transition process and to ensure that it happens in an orderly manner. Such leadership is required so that the party remains strong and united. It is also needed to improve our electoral fortunes by ensuring that it retains power at the center, hold the great majority in various legislative chambers and also gain additional number of states at state levels.”

    But here are Mr Shehu’s other expostulations. “Those still assailing the APC and the President, expounding conspiracy theories and making all manner of speculations about who did what or did not, need to understand the important point about the country’s leader: President Buhari takes his own decisions and carries them out without the backup of a so-called ‘cabal’ or backroom boys. So, what a disappointment the All Progressives Congress party flag bearer primary must have been for those who assembled to witness a catastrophe? No intrigue, no division, no disagreement, no defeated candidates rejecting the result, no splits, no third-party runs. Only determination to rally around the chosen flag bearer to deliver victory and an APC third term in February 2023. The media are being inundated with made-up stories speculating about the role of the President in the flag bearer contest: whether he had a favoured candidate, and whether manoeuvres were made to install them; whether the chosen flag bearer was the President’s choice, or another. And on and on…Speculation is easy. But facts are simple. The President always said he had a favoured candidate. He said that candidate was whoever was chosen by the APC in a democratic primary to lead the party at the election.”

    On the controversy of the president favouring a candidate, Mr Shehu spoke tongue-in-cheek, insisting that the favoured candidate the president was accused of favouring to the exclusion of others was actually whoever emerged as candidate. Yes, it turned out to be so, and the president has admirably reconciled himself with the candidate that finally emerged from the presidential primary. But it is difficult to argue that that was his intention when he addressed the progressive governors on May 31. Here is what the president said on that occasion:  “…For example, first term governors who have served credibly well have been encouraged to stand for re-election. Similarly, second term governors have been accorded the privilege of promoting successors that are capable of driving their visions as well as the ideals of the party. In keeping with the established internal policies of the party and as we approach the convention in a few days, therefore, I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.” Soon after the president asked to be allowed to pick his successor, controversy flared, and the presidency in fact attempted to walk back the statement. There was no ambiguity in the president’s demand. If anything, Mr Shehu has simply reminded the public about the confusion that inundated the presidency in the build-up to the APC primary.

    More controversially, Mr Shehu tried to debunk the popular belief that a cabal controlled the presidency. Is it not rather late in the day to make such a refutation? There is hardly any Nigerian who thinks a cabal did not, and probably still does not, influence the presidency. They may have been unsuccessful in elongating that influence to manipulating the president’s choice (or pick) of successor, but it was hardly for lack of trying. Not only did the cabal try to influence that choice, they were accused of instigating the entrance into the presidential race of at least two aspirants. Going forward, as the Buhari presidency winds down, the cabal will become less and less influential, for everything that has a beginning must inescapably have an end; but they certainly tried to run things. In any case, for the past seven years, the cabal had been known to vigorously peddle influence beyond politics to matters as esoteric as monetary policies. Their story will be written one of these days, and that story is unlikely to be palatable. Mr Shehu had better believe it.

     

    Democracy Day speech and addendum

    june12It is not quite clear why President Muhammadu Buhari felt the need to issue an addendum to his Democracy Day speech of June 12. But three days later, some newspapers published an advertorial from the president entitled “Letter to Nigerians at Democracy Day Season”, and signed by him. It was of course a boon to newspapers, but it was, again, like presidential spokesman Garba Shehu’s statement on the president and the cabal, totally needless. The addendum address reads like a scorecard, when there will still be plenty of time to organise and publish more definitive scorecards. Despite controversies and many failings, there is no question that the Buhari presidency made some great marks.

    The Democracy Day Season address published on June 15 made tedious reading. It harked back to the military era when every speech, regardless of the subject, was punctuated with records of achievements. On the other hand, the June 12 address was exactly what he needed to read to the nation. It was of course not inspiring and made no philosophical pretense, but it dealt with the right subject, limited itself very sensibly to the right themes, and unlike many of his other speeches, was spartan, disciplined and concise. It would have profited from excursions into the arcanum of democracy, with relevant Nigerian postulations and illustrations; but despite those failings, not to say the fulsome capitalisations that pockmarked the speech, it was still a fine outing for the president. But somebody simply had to spoil the fun with a replay of the customary excesses this administration is noted for.

  • APC presidential primary and uncertainties

    APC presidential primary and uncertainties

    IN the end, the All Progressives Congress (APC) didn’t need any consensus to pick the party’s presidential candidate. Party chairman Abdullahi Adamu’s curt announcement days to the primary that the president had backed the senate president, Ahmad Lawan, collapsed as soon as it was made public. Nor did the president get his wish to be allowed to ‘pick’ his successor in the same way he allowed progressive governors to ‘promote’ their successors or secure a second term ticket. In fact, all the rigmarole of more than a year to evade honouring the gentlemen’s agreement to rotate the presidency between the North and the South, led to nought in the face of the combined and determined efforts by about a dozen northern governors and ex-Lagos governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu to salvage the trust being noisily dissipated by the party, its chairman, Aso Villa cabals, and perhaps the quizzical vacillations of the president. This formula, which has saved the ruling party from implosion, may be a template for the future.

    It is pointless rehashing the machinations of the party against the eventual winner of the June 7-8 APC presidential primary, or the people and interests involved in the plots. Having won the primary by an embarrassing landslide of 1,271 votes, the party’s standard-bearer, Asiwaju Tinubu, has begun the process of healing the needless divides that had fouled trust within the party, turned the North against the South, and exposed the disorder sapping the vitality and vision of the Buhari administration. It is sufficient to mention that all the plots, ranging from drafting ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwunmi Adesina, and last-ditch weapon Sen Lawan, collapsed before the brilliant and dogged politicking of Asiwaju Tinubu and the circumspection, ethicism and pertinacity of a faction of northern governors probably inspired by Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State and Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State.

    If credit for the peaceful and transparent outcome of the primary is given to the referenced northern governors, that is, discounting the staying power and chutzpah of Asiwaju Tinubu who dared the cabal and won, it is richly deserved. They may be opportunistic in fighting for a cause whose dividends they hope to cash in the years ahead, but they proved more resolute in standing for progressive politics, despite the intimidations of Aso Villa and the northern rabble. Their southern counterparts, particularly some south-western governors, proved not only less resolute but even far less strategic. Whereas the northern governors put their money where their mouths were, nearly returning overwhelming number of votes in favour of the eventual winner, the southern governors dissipated their votes, quibbled inordinately, and even proved shifty in at least one state.

    As this column consistently maintained for two months or three, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stood no chance at all. How and why he and his supporters failed to see the handwriting on the wall is a mystery. Yes, their presence on social media was unexampled, and the aspirant’s reliance on his eloquence overweening, but those gifts and tactics are wholly unsuited to the dynamics of party primaries. The elitist and snobbish south-western audience distrusted and disliked Asiwaju Tinubu for his earthy politics and the permanent grin on his face, preferring instead the inscrutable seriousness and intellectual gravity on Prof. Osinbajo’s face, but their assumptions were not only off-key, they were also too romantic and inapplicable to the political exigencies of Nigeria. They wanted a saint, as it were, even though they had little understanding of what that meant; but in the face of hard-boiled politics, as against their political fantasies, their expectations were truly jejune. On June 7 and 8, some 1,271 APC delegates, exploded their myths and rub their noses in the dirt. Those triumphant and iconoclastic delegates conceded only 235 votes to Prof Osinbajo, 316 to ex-Rivers governor Rotimi Amaechi, and 152 votes to party chairman Adamu’s consensus pick, Sen Lawan. The margins were humiliating; but much more, they represent something new in Nigerian politics.

    By given Asiwaju Tinubu only 10 votes out of a possible 288 votes, the Southeast once again manifests a troubling disconnect with that new something. The dithering Southwest is more flexible, and will sooner or later recalibrate its politics to suit the exigencies of the moment. While the North will likely continue to show fortitude and imagination in its practice and understanding of politics in the years ahead, and the South-South dithers, the Southeast may inadvertently proceed in playing the outsider politics, not only in the APC as seen in this case, but also in its PDP redoubt. Changes are no doubt afoot. The North is proving more anticipatory, calculating and responsive, if not entirely savvy and realistic, in its politics than the South. The APC presidential primary was supposed to showcase the strength and savvy of the South, particularly the Southwest, but it was the North that stole everyone’s thunder. Now, it has seemed that the North gifted Asiwaju Tinubu the crown, and even the candidate’s own talent, brilliance, decades of networking, and years of altruistic support for many Nigerian politicians, individuals and worthy causes appeared to pale in comparison.

    Until next week when the candidates announce their running mates, the battle for 2023 presidency will not be truly joined. The PDP has presented ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, an old acquaintance of the APC candidate, to carry its flag into that brutal contest. They have fought together, played together, bantered with each other, mourned together, and since 2014/15 duelled. One of the two will emerge triumphant. It is not clear whether their choice of running mates will play a significant role in the outcome, but their style, which is not too dissimilar, and their depth of knowledge and understanding will undoubtedly become huge factors in the coming plebiscite. Alhaji Atiku is uniting the PDP behind him, so, too, Asiwaju Tinubu. Both parties are likely to go to war united behind their banners. The APC, however, has more to lose, having in recent years produced more ethically challenged chief executives of government agencies. So, they will force themselves into unaccustomed unity behind their candidate. Luckily for the candidate, he won the primary by an emphatic and unquestionable margin, and the losers have no straw or even broken reed to clutch at. The PDP senior elite have been harried and derided by the APC for nearly eight years; they need fear no further fall. But even they will also be united behind their party’s banner and give a good account of themselves.

    The most pressing task before the candidates is the choice of running mates. Neither candidate is in a position to boast or grin mischievously about the discomfort the other is facing. The APC candidate, being a southerner, will have to surmount the religious distemper viciously coursing through the land to pick a running mate that truly suits his political calculations. And the PDP candidate will have to reckon with the atrocious happenings in the Southeast, not to say with the somewhat controversial and unlikely options in the South-South, to pick someone who will add significant value to his ticket. Neither choice will be easy. Worse, both candidates, like all the other parties, are being stampeded to make that choice in just a week, unfortunately over the din of ethno-religious clamour in the North and South. During the APC primary, one of Asiwaju Tinubu’s opponents disseminated a story that the eventual winner had picked a Muslim running mate. The candidate scrambled to debunk the story. If he would pick a Muslim, it seemed, he would want to do so after the votes, not before.

    Since this piece is essentially about the outcome of the APC primary, it is necessary to say a definitive word about who Asiwaju Tinubu’s running mate might be. That choice will be hugely controversial, but since his savvy is not in doubt, what is required next is for him to approach the issue with a lot of courage. For the APC to retain its frontrunner position and stand a good and sumptuous chance of winning and retaining the presidency, the candidate and his handlers must do their electoral arithmetic well and situate it within the context of regional cultures and politics. In the coming polls, and as things stand today, the party is expected to take the Northwest by a tremendous margin, the Northeast by a decent margin, the North Central by a slim margin, and the Southwest by a clean sweep. What stands, in a manner of speaking, in the way of this calculation, it is suggested wildly in many fora and on social and to some extent traditional media, is the APC candidate picking a Muslim running mate.

    But there is hardly one potential Christian running mate in the three zones in the North capable of galvanising the kind of votes and margins sufficient for an APC victory. So, if he picks a Muslim running mate, there will be outcry in the religiously polarised, indeed Pentecostal, Southwest, and North Central. But months later that outcry will be mollified by other factors that favourably dispose the candidate to the two zones. There are strident voices in the North Central and Northeast rejecting and even criminalising the choice of Muslim running mate; but the candidate will calculate the opportunity cost of a Christian running mate being unable to galvanise the rich and undiscriminating vote of the Northwest and Northeast. The APC saw the statistical glimmers of these tendencies in the primary.  The Southwest will, for instance, have to decide, on account of Muslim running mate, whether they would be prepared to sacrifice and exchange their Southwest son for a north-easterner. And the North Central, which had always thrived regardless of the religion of whoever ruled the nation, would have to determine whether the Muslim running mate factor is strong enough to make them disregard their natural instinct to embrace and promote progressive leadership.

    The APC candidate will take consolation in the fact that voters, to the extent of their enlightenment, are unlikely to limit their decisions to just the issue of running mate. They will probably see the issues surrounding the polls holistically. They will want to know who can better handle the existential conundrum the country has been pushed into by years of gross leadership incompetence. Whatever drawbacks the APC candidate will grapple with in selecting a running mate will be more than counterbalanced by his publicly acclaimed intuitive grasp of developmental issues, his well-known competence in discovering and managing next generation leaders, his deep and abiding belief in the rule of law and democratic practices, and his courage, candour, earthiness, visionary policies, and depth of knowledge. A section of the electorate will prefer to continue scoffing at both his background and records as governor as well as pillory his business models and practices, not to say his statements sometimes framed in inexact and even provocative terminologies, but his inner self-confidence and his sensible distrust of elitism should serve his argument well and drive his campaign. More than his opponent, nearly everyone knows him to be a shrewd accountant and auditor; this should frighten malfeasant public officers and endear him to those exasperated by decades of desperate filching of national resources.

    Asiwaju Tinubu won the primary by a wide and unequivocal margin. This is just the beginning. He knows his PDP opponents are keeping their gunpowder dry. They will unleash a fusillade at the appropriate time, especially seeing how easily the Prof. Osinbajo netizen crowd bullied and overwhelmed the APC candidate on social media during the primary. The PDP, together with his other enemies, will ask questions about his health, and keep at it for a very long time, including focusing on his quivering hand. He must prepare an answer, for he cannot shoo them away or ignore them and hope they will tire. They will refrain from focusing on his age, except to question its accuracy, for his main challenger is even older and less agile. He has had a knee surgery and sometimes has difficulty climbing stairs, but beyond a tremulous hand and a difficult knee, he is surprisingly much stronger and imbued with far more stamina than many people younger than he. No matter what he says, however, most of his opponents will persist in denouncing him. He will have to steel both his mind and gaze in order not to be distracted from emphasising his copious strengths.

    His doggedness helped him overcome his opponents and enemies within the party, many of them highly placed party officials. Someone made of less sterner stuff would have capitulated. Asiwaju Tinubu will have to draw on that kind of resoluteness to surmount what is certain to be a bad-tempered campaign, some of it projected by his supposed friends. As the Ekiti delegates’ votes showed during the primary, which is yet to be refuted, injuries inflicted by those close to home will rattle him more than injuries from outside. He may have overcome his enemies within the party, he will, however, be naïve to imagine that all of them have reconciled with his presidential primary victory, not to talk of preparing to welcome his anticipated triumph in the 2023 presidential poll. He of course does not display the kind of malice and malignant hatred some key leaders in the party and his Southwest region show intermittently, a virtue he should struggle against all odds to sustain in the months ahead, he must, however, be on his toes, expecting the best and tolerating the worst.

    He will also have to find a fitting response to the controversial posers thrown at his campaign by the overt politicking of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). It is not clear how the body of Christ hopes a Christian vice president would be of any help to the church, especially in view of the unique and iconic history of the early church. But for the church to repose so much hope in their running mate campaign almost to the detriment of carefully examining the pros and cons of the candidates themselves appears perplexing. In the best of times, and with the most uncontroversial of doctrines, unity in the church had always remained a chimera. For CAN to seek to herd the church in one direction against one party or the other, when their help does not come from any hill, must qualify as one of the most engaging puzzles of modern church life. There are anchors that sustain the church: crass politicking is not one of them. If other faiths repose hope in such gestures, it is not for the church to mimic the world system. In any case, the insistence on religion to define running mates may be a northern phenomenon; it is not a southern phenomenon. The church obviously flounders when it walks with strange gods.

    After the running mates are known, and the shape of the combatants become clear, the nature of the impending battle to redefine Nigeria and move the country forward can be better examined. Whatever comments anyone makes now may be just prefatory. At last, however, Asiwaju Tinubu has found in Alhaji Atiku an opponent worthy of the name. The campaigns will be great and entertaining, and the outcome epochal. Many Nigerians are miffed by the ineluctable choices presented them by the APC and PDP primaries, and have even begun to fantasise, largely on social media, the candidacy of Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Their romantic notions of the presidential sweepstakes are nothing but blowsy delusions. The Obi campaign is unlikely to gain significant traction. Instead, the focus will be on APC and PDP.

     

  • Short-lived presidential campaign DGs

    Short-lived presidential campaign DGs

    Of all the presidential aspirants’ campaign directors-general, two prominent men stood out in the recently concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries. They stood out for being controversially prominent as individuals, and short-lived as campaign managers. Senate President Ahmad Lawan engaged former Abia State governor Orji Uzor Kalu as his campaign DG virtually weeks to the spectacular debacle that came upon his attempt to win the ruling party’s primary. Sen Lawan was of course a latter day convert to the presidential campaign, having been persuaded, against his personal wish and desire, to run for the presidency once it was clear the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was set to elect ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar as standard-bearer. The colourful and grandiloquent Mr Kalu, an apostle of grand political mendacity, plunged into the role with unforgettable gestures, postulations and gross exaggerations.

    This column had this to say about him last week, beginning with his repudiation of the Igbo presidency agenda: “His main argument for jettisoning the Igbo presidential project and backing Sen Lawan for the APC presidential ticket is simply because the PDP gave the ticket to a north-easterner, former vice president Atiku Abubakar. That logic is insane; but it is rife in the ruling party, and has obviously gained traction as party leaders prevaricate over the morality of keeping the presidency in the North for another eight years. In his statement declaring support for Sen Lawan, the former Abia governor painted a doomsday scenario of the APC being sent into premature retirement should it give its ticket to any southerner. It is not clear why he thinks he can speak for the entire South. If his self-abnegating politics leads him to trade Igbo pride for a pittance, surely he must know that other parts of the South still possess, and would wish to retain, their self-pride.

    “Sen Kalu then caps his ignoble politicking with the abominable argument that President Muhammadu Buhari reserves the right to pick his successor. It is true that last week the president seemed to have asked a meeting of progressive governors to give him that honour, but Sen Kalu comes from a region wailing against marginalisation, alienation and even provocation orchestrated by quislings and other agents provocateurs killing and maiming in the Southeast. His political instincts, had they been well developed, should have prompted him into embracing at least the silhouette of democracy. That faint democratic instinct should have nurtured in him respect for proper democratic elections either in intraparty affairs or inter-party affairs. Sen Kalu, alas, is destitute of any democratic instinct.

    “In fact, his support for Sen Lawan and the northern presidential agenda is, strictly speaking, business. He and the senate president are close friends, some say, right from their University of Maiduguri undergraduate days; and so Sen Kalu elevates the narrow purviews of friendship and business above the existential struggles of his Igbo race. He can of course repudiate any respect and affection for the rest of the South, but to rubbish the Igbo cause with shallow and pedantic arguments about the ogre of PDP challenge betrays the little regard Abia and the Igbo people had for him that made him a two-term governor.”

    It is uncertain whether Mr Kalu will find a role in the presidential campaign of the eventual winner of last week’s primary, ex-Lagos State governor and national leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But whether he does or does not, his reputation for running a brief and short-lived campaign of undistinguished severity will endure for a long time, partly because of the many principles and ideas that suffered collateral damage as a result of his decision. But as this column noted last week, Mr Kalu is in incurable political romantic, an expert at ingratiating himself into any person’s confidence and any politician’s campaign. If they do not find a role for him, he will probably create one for himself anyway, for after all, the struggle to corral the Igbo vote in 2023 will be a herculean exercise.

    The other DG, still referring to the APC, is of course the unforgettable Hafsat Abiola-Costello, whom this column also commented on two Sundays ago. She is a daughter of the dogged democracy fighter, Kudirat Abiola, who was slain in the course of her struggle to reclaim her husband’s June 12, 1993 presidential election win. Mrs Abiola not only lost her life for a worthy cause, her husband, Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, also lost his life for the same cause. Unexpectedly, however, Mrs Abiola-Costello pitched her tent with the frivolous and flighty Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello who also desired the APC presidential ticket. He failed, as expected, but not before exhuming Jonathan Zwingina, DG of the Abiola Hope 1993 presidential campaign, and dragging into his doomed campaign the inexperienced and enthusiastic daughter of the two late democracy icons.

    Here is what this column said of Mrs Abiola-Costello on May 22, 2022: “…Addressing journalists in Lagos last Monday, she said a few things out of sync with her brilliance and altruism. Defending her role as DG of the Yahaya Bello campaign, not to say her optimism about the relevance and qualification of the aspirant, she declared: “I am proud of GYB because of his development records in Kogi. This is a governor that is always looking for progress and the development of lives of his people. This is me, a Yoruba, supporting someone from North Central. There is no progress without demands; I lost my parents, though unfortunately, because Nigerians believed in them. I’ve been working with GYB for a while and I have seen that he has the courage and intelligence to deliver Nigeria.

    “No, madam, GYB does not have the courage and intelligence to deliver anything, not himself, not Kogi, let alone Nigeria. And as to GYB looking for the progress and development of the lives of his people, nothing could be further from the truth. Mrs Abiola-Costello said a few more glamorous things about the aspirant, including his economic record. She exaggerated his credentials and capacity. The aspirant she described is completely alien to Kogi people. Kogites would like to meet such a man, real or fictional. Having ruled the state for about six years, GYB has proved nothing near what the director-general painted. She painted a myth; Kogites know a monstrous failure.”

    Perhaps the Tinubu campaign can find a role befitting her enthusiasm, much more than a role recognising the grandiloquence of Mr Kalu. But surely both Mr Kalu and Mrs Abiola-Costello cannot claim they didn’t know their principals’ campaigns were doomed. The campaigns were doomed from the beginning, regardless of the secret promises they had received from Aso Villa power mongers, and the lips of the president they had claimed expertise in reading.

    Owo massacre may inspire worse monstrosities

    While the grief over the killing of some 40 worshippers at a church in Owo, Ondo State, was yet to be assuaged, other killings occurred in different parts of the country. It is predictable. Mass killings have become commonplace in Nigeria, some of them so horrendous that they seem to redefine bestiality. On the day (June 5) this column warned that the gory Anambra and Imo killings were likely to birth more monstrous killings, the Owo massacre occurred. It does not, therefore, require any special endowment to anticipate that the problem is far from over. The reason is not farfetched.

    Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies are hopelessly antiquated, unable to serve the growing and complex needs of a nation of more than 200m people. Not only is the structure misshapen, the  system is also underfunded, and law enforcement agents are poorly trained, poorly equipped, unresponsive, inadequate and poorly managed. The agencies are also structured in a way that blinds them to the peculiar and differentiated needs of a nation consisting of, in reality, dozens of nations. The present law enforcement system is a product of misconceived political system and power configuration. Until these foundational paradigms are redefined and restructured, the country’s law enforcement system will continue to atrophy, with no solution to the killings.

    Obviating further and perhaps more gruesome killings will require the altruism of responsive leadership. They are reluctant to honestly grapple with the problems now; but if they do not resolve them, the country will be exposed to worse cataclysm with all the attendant consequences for peace and stability.

  • 2023: The die is cast (1)

    2023: The die is cast (1)

    The aphrosim ‘the die is cast’ is usually employed to describe the situation when an event has happened, or a decision taken, that cannot be changed except in very unusual circumstances as happened when a victorious governorship candidate died shortly before he was officially announced as such by the appropriate government agency.

    INEC time table for the conduct of the presidential primaries for the 2023 Presidential election has Thursday, 9 June, 2022 as deadline. Going forward, the parties now have to compile the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates and upload them to the INEC Candidates’ Nomination Portal from Friday 10 June to June 17, 2022. Although INEC has a September date for the  publication of the final list of nominated candidates, this article will assume that no such changes shall be made and, if made, they wont substantially affect the pivot of the article.

    The Presidential election, scheduled for 25 February, 2023 has, as the late Chief K. O Mbadiwe of blessed memory would have put it, real men of ‘timber and calibre’, as candidates. However, because the time for a third force in Nigerian politics is yet to come, I shall limit the candidates to be considered here to those of  only 3 political parties even though Governor Peter Obi is guaranteed to make waves especially in the Southeast, if he ends up being the candidate of the Labour party in place of newcomer, Jude Nwafor.

    The candidates are, therefore, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,  Presidential candidate of the PDP, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC  and, of course, only tangentially, NNPP’s Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who, like President Muhammadu Buhari of old, would do well only in the North. The first part of the 2- part article will examine these candidates looking particularly at what we remember about them when they were in public office.

    Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

    Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was, between 1999 – 2007, the Vice – President to the rambunctious President Olusegun Obasanjo but their honey moon practically ended when  the Obasanjo government ordered him disqualified to contest the 2007 presidential election as the candidate of the Action Congress (AC); a decision which the courts declared “unconstitutional, illegal, null and void, and of no effect, whatsoever”.

    Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was a very vivacious and effective Vice President the way he handled the Economy which was under his portfolio.  Unfortunately, this was where, by common consent, he was adjudged to have hurt the country the most.

    That being such a weighty charge,  I shall proceed  to prove it.

    Atiku’s handling of the Privatisation programme of the Obasanjo administration has been severally described as nothing short of  “The criminal auctioning of Nigeria”.

    In an article by IS’HAQ MODIBBO KAWU, captioned as above, and from which I shall be quoting in extensio, Kawu wrote,  inter alia:

    “WHATEVER might be the reasons for its decision, we must thank the Nigerian Senate for the investigation conducted last week, into the privatisation and commercialisation programme of the (Obasanjo) government”.

    “Let me state that as early as the 1980s, when the imperialist powers began to ram down the throats of the ruling classes of neo-colonial countries like Nigeria, the mantra of privatising national assets as the cure-all remedy for economic problems, I have been stoutly opposed to the programme. In 1986, I wrote a piece titled, “Imperialism’s Privatisation Panacea”, for THE HERALD newspaper in Ilorin, warning of the dire consequences for the development of national productive forces and the danger to national sovereignty, of the much-touted advantages of off-loading national assets to the international bourgeoisie and their local appendages”.

    “As it turned out, from the Babangida/Falae Structural Adjustment Policies, SAP, of the mid-eighties, but especially in the freewheeling, neo-liberal banditry of the Obasanjo period, between 1999 and 2007, privatisation was literally turned to the holy grail of government policy in Nigeria”.

    “Our ruling class is actually a group of glorified thieves, and privatisation became effusively embraced, because it allowed them to pretend that they were doing something more noble than theft, by privatising national assets, while spewing the ideological garbage that ‘government has no business with business’; ‘only the private-sector can profitably run enterprises’, and such utter tosh!”.  “In truth, what was being done was to uproot Nigeria as we knew it, especially from the 1970s, when import-substitution industrialisation at least created jobs, around Nigeria. The process of privatization which the Obasanjo years foisted on Nigeria, has led to the cheap sales of many strategic national assets; stripping of valuables from these assets; de-industrialisation and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs; and the entrenchment in the economic and political space of Nigeria, of the worst specimens of humans without patriotism, but an obscene gluttony and greed for theft and more theft!”.This has been my summary of the criminal process of privatization of Nigerian assets by the political regimes of SAP and neo-liberalism”.

    “The revelations from last week’s Senate hearings were truly scandalous. It was revealed that the Aluminium Smelting Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, which was set up with $3.2 billion, was sold to a Russian firm, Russal, for a paltry $130million. Similarly, Delta Steel which was set up in 2005, at a cost of $1.5billion, was sold to Global Infrastructure for just $30million. ALSCON had been given $120million for the dredging of the Imo River, but it was never carried out”.

    What is worse is that as late as during his 2019 presidential election, Atiku was still promising to sell even NNPC, whenever it is, he assumes office as President.

    Hear him: “I shall privatise the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), if elected President on  Saturday. The NNPC will be sold to Nigerians with money to buy it”.

    Simply put, woe beside that Nigerian who is not rich.

    Still talking privatisation under Vice President Atiku Abubakar, however, the least said about NITEL/MTEL the better, and for purposes of space constraint, I shall suggest that the reader Googles the article by Kunle Bello, who had to voluntarily retire as MD/CEO of  Nigeria Mobile Telecoms Limited (Mtel) after 27 years, over what he described as “the gargantuan and immeasurable destruction Messrs’ Pentascope unleashed on NITEL/MTEL and former staffers”.

    Part 2 of the article will have more to say on the veracity, or otherwise, of the charge that Atiku, as VP, hurt Nigeria more than he helped her and, may need to be doubly scrutinised for his suitability for the presidency of Nigeria.

    Bola Ahmed Tinubu

    “Lagos State had begun the twenty-first century as a boomtown crippled by crime, traffic, blight, and corruption. A regional economic hub and burgeoning state of 13.4 million people, the megalopolis had a global reputation for government dysfunction. Two successively elected governors, Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola, worked in tandem to set the state on a new course. Beginning in 1999, their administrations overhauled city governance, raised new revenues, improved security and sanitation, reduced traffic, expanded infrastructure and transportation, and attracted global investment. By following through on their promises to constituents and forging a new civic contract between Lagos and its taxpayers, Tinubu and Fashola laid the foundation of a functional, livable, and sustainable metropolis” –  Gabriel Kuris, in ‘Remaking a Neglected Megacity: A Civic Transformation in Lagos State, 1999-2012’.

    Coincidentally, as at the time all the nation pilfering were going  on in Abuja and companies as far apart as Warri and Calabar were being signed off in sweet heart deals, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was confronted with a post military Lagos where the least problem was the mountain high waste products dotting every part of the metropolis. He had  no alternative to setting up a high powered transition committee of some  brilliant individuals, with experience in diverse disciplines, as well as hands -on experience, to come and assist him in  clearing the Augean stable that Lagos had become.

    He then went ahead to reform the civil service, reduce corruption and improved state infrastructure.  He reformed the waste management system and put an end to the financial mismanagement within the system. He improved incentives for civil servants, and the judiciary,  and improved the quality and hygiene of the working environment. His payroll-system reforms removed thousands of ghost workers. He also  brought in expatriates to improve the hospitals and transportation system.  Here I just must tell a story he told Professor Bayo William’s and I about how he got the funding to turn Lagos into the 5th biggest economy in Africa.

    It goes thus: fearing Northern reaction after 13 per cent derivation was approved for oil producing states, President Obasanjo did not authorise payment of the funds. Sensing this, he said he approached Governor Segun Osoba to intercede with Northern governors many of who were his personal friends, and it worked like magic as Obasanjo then released the funds.

    This was where the highly perspicacious Tinubu was going. According to him, he knew that his Southsouth colleagues could not immediately use those funds and that since banks would not like to sit on idle funds, if Lagos state, where they all had their headquarters, had bankable projects, they would not refuse to fund such projects.

    That exactly was how states began to take bonds to fund their important projects.

    Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

    A man very much after my heart except for his seeming political harlotry, running round political parties chasing presidential candidacy.

    Before Alhaji Buba Galadima, the one time ally, and friend, of President Buhari became his enthusiastic spokesperson – he says he is not a member of NNPP – my dear aburo from our Ekiti roots – and political analyst extra-ordinaire, Tokunbo Omolase, has endeared the Kwankwasiyya leader to me for his extra- ordinary philanthropy, especially in education.

    I have, however, tried in vain, to understand why he failed to pay WAEC fees on behalf of the two Northern states which failed to enrol students for WAEC in 2022. He should need not be told that this is the greatest assistance anybody can render the North especially at the levels of children who otherwise become Almajeris.

    Without a doubt the Presidential candidate of the NNPP will do very well in Kano where he might even defeat the PDP candidate.

    • TO BE CONTINUED.

  • Ekiti Decides 2022: Oyebanji outsmarting opponents?

    Ekiti Decides 2022: Oyebanji outsmarting opponents?

    “What we are doing as a party is that we have changed the face of campaigning in the state, and you will discover that we have not done so much open campaigning in Ekiti State, this is deliberate. We have been embarking on stakeholders’ meetings with every critical stakeholder in Ekiti State. We want to take feedback from them; we want to know their expectations, and we want to have one-on-one contact with them. This was done in all the units in Ekiti State and I believe that this has been helpful.” – Oyebanji

    While growing up, in this columnist’s days of yore, there was this famous advertisement tagline of a non-alcoholic drink that despite living then in apparently analogue age, went viral! It had the tagline: “The Difference is Clear!” Several billboards were literally screaming with the advert; airwaves of radio were rent with it; the newsprint media was awash with it; the nascent television era caught the bug as well. Ubiquitous and unique in this depiction and display was the branding of some taxis in such a way that they were fitted with mounted mobile billboards of: “The Difference is Clear!” The heavy advertisement investment paid up for the firm producing the drink – 7Up! The sales shut up thus increasing the product’s market share and temporarily outsmarted other competitors in the food and beverage industry of the time. Of course, the bottom lines of the manufacturing firm greatly improved to the excitement of the business owners, distributors, retailers and shareholders. There is something about the slogan: “The Difference is Clear!” This is what in strategic studies is referred to as the Unique Value Proposition (UVP). According to Harvard Business School, Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, “a value proposition defines the kind of value a company will create for its customers. Finding a unique value proposition usually involves a new way of segmenting (differentiating) the market (sic).” What were uniquely attractive to customers in 7Up that other notable competitors of that era did not possess? Simply and squarely stated: the size, shape, content and price of the drink! The bottle design was unique; the size was bigger and of course, the content was evidently magnanimous to consumers than other competitors in the market. Added to these was the unique and uncommon lower price penetration in the market with incentives to distributors to demand for more quantities.

    One-on-one with Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO)

    The race to Oke Ayoba, as Ekiti Government House is referred to in Ekiti common parlance, is nearing the finishing line with less than a week by the time this publication penetrates the public domain – exactly 6 days! Having been keenly following political developments and events in Ekiti for some years, this essayist, sought one-on-one interactive session with the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (popularly called: BAO), in the June 18 Gubernatorial election in Ekiti. Despite his heavy campaign schedule, he was magnanimous and gracious in acceding to the request. Three salient questions were asked as they were three strong contenders, BAO of APC inclusive, in the race to Oke Ayoba. The others are: Engr. Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Chief Bisi Kolawole of the People Democratic Party (PDP).

    It is good to hear from APC flag bearer himself:

    Question 1:

    In less than a week, to the gubernatorial election coming up in Ekiti State, precisely on 18th June 2022, how confident are you that you would emerge as the winner of that election?

    BAO:

    I am confident of victory because I am not new to Ekiti people, we have come a long way; we have done a lot of things together. I have been with Ekiti people at every defining moment in their history as a state. I was part and parcel of the team that fought for the creation of Ekiti State. I was even the Secretary of that Committee and I put together the blueprint for the development of Ekiti State. This is at the communal level. At the governmental level, I have served Ekiti in various capacities for eleven years. Of all the people aspiring to that office, I am the most experienced in terms of understanding the nuances of governance in Ekiti State. Also, I have been selling my manifesto to every critical stakeholder in Ekiti State, and I believe that this has been helpful.

    Question 2:

    There are actually three main contenders in the election coming up on the 18th of June, Engr. Segun Oni, representing the Social Democratic Party (SDP); Chief Bisi Kolawole of the People Democratic Party (PDP) and you, BAO, flying the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC), how do you think you can outsmart these other two contenders and emerge victorious?

    BAO:

    What we are doing as a party is that we have changed the face of campaigning in the state, and you will discover that we have not done so much open campaigning in Ekiti State, this is deliberate. We have been embarking on stakeholders’ meetings with every critical stakeholder in Ekiti State. We want to take feedback from them; we want to know their expectations, and we want to have one-on-one contact with them. This was done in all the units in Ekiti State and I believe that this has been helpful because it has actually given us the opportunity to actually connect with the voters and to know their expectations which would help us by the time we get into government. Now that we have completed this one-on-one campaign, the house-to-house campaign is still on-going, as I speak, we now embark on an open campaign to garner support from our people (sic). The beauty of the house-to-house campaign is, it afforded us the opportunity to sell our manifesto to them and to hear from them one-by-one their expectations from the government. So, by the time we get to office, we would not be shooting from the dark, and I think this has been helpful and this one thing that we are doing differently from other parties. We have also massively engaged the youths on social media to get to the population on the social media and to take feedback from them. This is a game changer in the history of campaigns in Ekiti State and it has been extremely helpful.

    Question 3:

    If you can see yourself as the incoming Governor of Ekiti State come October 18, this year, what would you say, in your career both in the public service and private sector, is your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) or Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to Ekiti people in this regard?

    BAO:

    On my Unique Value Proposition (UVP), I have been a major player in both the private and public sectors; and my eleven years’ experience in governance has exposed me to the nuances of governance and also being a private sector person, it has also exposed me to the pains and issues in the private sector. One thing we are going to do, we are going to run a very smart government; we are going to rely heavily on the use of data because our margin of error must be reduced. We do not want to play with the future and aspirations of our people. So that our government would run smartly. We would do more with less. We are conscious of the precarious situation of our country; we are conscious of the dwindling federal allocation to states.  We also know that expectations of the people keep increasing on a daily basis, so we must be able to navigate all these curves and deliver on the promises we have made to our people. And we can only deliver this by doing more with less, by prioritizing issues that will give happiness to the greatest number of our people; and by reducing wastes in governance; and by also ensuring that we rely more on the use of technology; and reduce our error margin to the barest minimum.

    Will Oyebanji Outsmart His Opponents?

    In the introductory part of this article, there was the mention of the once famous 7Up advertisement. Analogous to the 7Up advertisement tagline, are there some Unique Value or Selling Proposition of the candidacy of Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), of the All Progressive Congress (APC) that would be readily perceived by Ekitikete as they head for the polls this Saturday, 18th June 2022? This columnist, as a researcher and analyst, called on some people residing and/or working in Ekiti to decipher their understanding of the grassroot feelings, yearnings and longings of the Ekitikete regarding the possible outcome of the gubernatorial election. Virtually, the verdict is that BAO is on ground in all towns and villages in Ekiti and is going to carry the day if election is held as stipulated and devoid of violence, acrimony or irregularities. The 6 Point Actionable Strategic Agenda that encapsulates: 1. Youth Development and Job Creation; 2. Human Capital Development, 3. Agriculture and Rural Development, 4. Infrastructure and Industrialization, 5. Arts, Tourism and Culture; and 6. Governance, speak glowingly of the incoming government of BAO if voted into office by the good people of Ekiti State. Presently, a team of experts is working on the key performance indicators (kpis) that would be tailored and targeted whilst being tracked to ensure measurable performance from day one!

    Concluding remarks:

    In concluding this piece, Ekitikete should follow a man with a veritable manifesto among the top contenders as BAO is seemingly the only one with such a document that is already being further worked upon by monitoring, evaluation and learning experts that will dovetail into tangible inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts in aligning with the Result Based Management (RBM) approach. Key performance indicators (kpis) are being established already with some having low hanging target dates for fruition – 30 day; 60 day; 100 day, etc. Enough is enough of stomach infrastructure aspirants (politicians) offering fish without teaching Ekitikete how to catch fish! Imagine aspirants promising regular payment of salaries, pension and gratuity as a programme!! Any responsible employer should meet up with his obligation to his or her employees, be it in the private or public sector. Doing so is exhibiting responsibility rather than achieving a feat. Ekitikete should ask these other contenders what to expect from them at the end of one, two, three or four years!

    In raising the level of awareness and participation in the electoral process, strategically, the BAO team engaged in some unique road shows – first of its kind in Ekiti. In these epoch-making shows, his avowed and vociferous supporters rent the air with shouts of “BAO! BAO!! BAO!!!” synonymous with the support of the people of such towns and villages for the party, APC, and the candidacy of Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO). It is BAO all the way crisscrossing all towns and villages of Ekiti. It is high time, party members, unanimously worked for victory come this Saturday, 18th June 2022, even as many are defecting from opposing camps and parties to align with BAO, having seeing the star and signal of victory in the horizon, synonymous to many defecting to the camp of David in Biblical times when it was his time to reign as recorded in 1Chronicles 12v21-22. Ekitikete, ure de ooo! A ro’ju, a r’aye ooo!! (Ekiti people, good has come! We shall witness it in a good frame of mind!!)

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