The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • 2023: IBB wise after the fact

    2023: IBB wise after the fact

    There is no consensus, even among those who think highly of him, that ex-head of state Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was a great leader. He was affable when he chose to, mild-mannered in a deceptive and corrosive way, proud of his network of acolytes around the country, and loved policy experimentation. But beyond these, his military regime was swirled in controversies and expired in an even bigger electoral controversy. In 2011, around the age of 70, he attempted to return to office as an elected president but was roundly rebuffed. However, at 80, he has begun to pontificate on who the next Nigerian president should be in 2023 and what should qualify such a leader. It is hard to explain what gave him the confidence to speak on a subject in which he neither displayed rigour as military head of state nor stood out among the pantheon of great world leaders. But IBB, as he is more widely known, has never been incommoded by his own failings.

    Speaking to Arise TV last August, he arbitrarily suggests, among other qualifications, that the next president in 2023 should be in his 60s. Why not 40s, 50s, or even 70s? He does not explain, beyond adding a few more qualifications to the effect that no student of leadership would accord any significance. IBB is of course casuistic. No one can predict him or tell where his arguments are heading, or what self-serving purposes he intends them. Hear him: “If you get a good leader that links with the people and tries to talk with the people; not talking on top of the people, then we would be okay. I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader. That is, a person who travels across the country and has a friend virtually everywhere he travels to, and he knows at least one person that he can communicate with. That is a person, who is very versed in economics and is also a good politician, who should be able to talk to Nigerians and so on. I have seen one or two or three of such persons already in his 60s. I believe so, if we can get him.”

    And in another interview with Daily Trust TV last week, he further explicates his view on the next president. Says he: “Any person who fits these criteria, then he is the right person as long as he is a Nigerian, a politician, not old like I am, is very conversant with the country, he communicates, he is a very good communicator. He should be able to communicate because a president should be able to walk into a group of people and talk to them on issues concerning Nigeria; not all the time but most of the time. He must have somebody he knows in every part of the country. It is not a tall order. You could limit it to states, you could limit it to local governments, even to the wards if you can, but somebody such that once you hear the name, it is somebody you will say, yes, I have heard that name before either in the country or in his profession; if he is a doctor, a journalist or whatever, all areas, we have heard the name before; okay then I will make an effort to know more about him.”

    It is hard to resist the temptation of thinking he was visualising himself when he was in power. At least he was a fair communicator, and had a network of friends around the country, among other qualities he has been very proud of. That he is, however, simply scratching the veneer of leadership, great leadership, that is, does not occur to him at all. Quite clearly, whether in power or out of power, IBB has spent little time reading up on leadership beyond Niccolo Machiavelli’s 16th century book, The Prince, and Sun Tzu’s 5th century BC Chinese classic, The Art of War. Contemporary books on leaders and leadership have escaped him. So, he is unable to appreciate the place of intelligence, intuition, judgement and character in forging great leadership. Having spent his years in power subverting the country and the principles and values that have shaped it, and creating antagonisms between the country’s elites as well as weakening them by his generosity, it is not surprising that what was uppermost in his mind was surviving in office rather than envisioning a great future for the country.

    Now, IBB has the audacity to advise the country on leadership. And he talks about age and about being a great communicator. Really? Worse, rather than the deep mortification that should accompany his deliberate destruction of the Third Republic, which he spent huge amount of Nigerian money to erect, Nigerians hear nothing but justifications from him: annulment of the elections because a coup was in the offing, and retention of the crassly ambitious Gen Sani Abacha in office to ‘help’ undergird the Ernest Shonekan interim government contraption. Of Gen Abacha’s regime that sacked the Shonekan contraption, here is what IBB said in the Trust interview: “Abacha’s government was very smart. They knew who were the most vociferous discussants about the election, about the coup, about June 12 and so on. They started talking to them and sold a dummy to them and encouraged them to get rid of the interim government: ‘when we get rid of the interim government, we will bring you back to come and take over your democracy so that a civilian government would be installed’. They sold that dummy to the public and to some prominent persons within the society, and when Abacha stepped in, there were drumming and sighs; ‘Good thing! Next thing is going to be a democratically-elected government’. I knew, we knew, that it wouldn’t be because the argument was: ‘Why should I risk my life only to come and hand over power to you?’ That was what happened.”

    Very smart, or very devious? And could he realistically absolve himself of responsibility for that destructive and murderous Abacha regime? Alas, he tried. More, he even blamed the country’s elite and civil society for being naïve. It is such a man that is now advising the country on their next president in 2023. The country would listen to him at their peril. He is 80; he really should be silent, considering that his views had neither changed over the years due to remorse nor improved in quality due to new knowledge. It is puzzling that anyone lends him an ear.

    Gov Matawalle and endless banditry

    After prognosticating the future trajectory of banditry, suggesting alarmingly that it would not end anytime soon, Zamfara’s governor Bello Matawalle went on to identify the chief reason for his doomsday prophecy. According to him, some notable politicians are playing politics with banditry to embarrass both the federal and state governments. He puts it balefully: “So you see with the kind of people we have in Zamfara State, I don’t think this issue of banditry will end very soon because, already, some people are behind it. Some people are using it. And all they need is at least to show Nigerians that both the federal and Zamfara state governments are not serious on the issue of insecurity, despite the fact that some of them are involved in the crisis of this insecurity. But we’re doing our best.”

    This is scapegoatism at its worst. Perhaps tired of being accused of not doing enough to ameliorate the socio-economic conditions of the state, where poverty is endemic and school enrolment is dismal, the governor has veered into Nigerian politics’ familiar hunting ground – blaming others for woes engendered by years of governmental ineptitude. Religion, it appears, is no longer sufficient to blindfold poor and hungry people, and so violence, which banditry connotes, seemed the logical outcome for years of deprivation. Mr Matawalle was of course not the cause of the crisis, but he has had enough time to affect the problem. Scapegoatism is whining: it is not a panacea.

  • Couples’ sexuality facts

    Couples’ sexuality facts

    The primary reason for this column is to make married couples sex life a blissful one. So today, I have gathered some facts about the patterns of men and women’s sex drives that researchers and sex therapist have found out. However, couples should bear in mind that individuals may vary from these norms.  According to the National Opinion Research Centre, an average couple has sex 66 times a year. Couples under age 30 say they have sex an average of 109 times a year. The average number drops to 70 times per year for 40-somethings and 52 times a year for couples in their 50s.

    Experts say men’s and women’s sex drives differ. They say women’s sexual inclinations are more complicated than men’s. While men may be rigid and specific about what they become aroused by, women have less-directed sex drives. Researchers say women are more likely to be more influenced by lots of irrelevant things and factors. Sexual desire in women is extremely sensitive to environment and context.

    Experts say men score higher in libido, while women’s sex drive is more about intimacy. That does not mean that men do not seek intimacy, love, and connection in a relationship, just as women do; most men crave more foreplay, they just view the role of sex differently. “Women want to talk first, connect first, and then have sex. For men, sex is the connection. Sex is the language men use to express their tender loving vulnerable side; it is their language of intimacy.”

    Study after study illustrates that men’s sex drives are not only stronger than women’s, but also much more straightforward. The sources of women’s libidos, by contrast, are much more difficult to pin down. It is common wisdom that women place more value on emotional connection as a spark of sexual desire.

    Men want sex more often than women at the start of a relationship, in the middle of it, and after many years of it, about two-thirds say they masturbate, even though they feel guilty about it, but they are forced to masturbate because they are constantly being refused by their wives. 80 something percentages of married men confessed having cheated on their wives though they say they feel guilty about it but also gave the reason for this – their wives’ deliberate insensitivities to their sexual fantasies, need and lack of innovation and tastelessness.

    Men and women travel slightly different paths to arrive at sexual desire. I hear women say in my office that sexual desire originates much more between their ears than between their legs. For most married women, there is a need for a plan hence the romance, affection and the foreplay. It is more about the anticipation, how you get there; it is the longing that is the fuel for desire, women’s desire “is more contextual, more subjective, more layered on a lattice of emotion.” Men, by contrast, don’t need to have nearly as much imagination, since sex is simpler and more straightforward for them.

    Most married women are more influenced by the attitudes of their peer group in their decisions about sex. Wives who are not ‘religious’ are likely to have liberal attitudes about sex, they let go and release themselves to the pleasure sex has to offer than the most ‘religious’ ones.  Married women with higher education levels were more likely to have performed a wider variety of sexual practices, education made less of a difference with men. Women were more likely to show inconsistency between their expressed values about sexual activities

    Most married women under age 60 think about sex less than once a day.

    While the majority of married men under 60 think about sex at least once a day, only about one-quarter of married women report this level of frequency. As men and women age, each fantasize less, but married men still fantasize about twice as often. Men reported more spontaneous sexual arousal and had more frequent and varied fantasies. They are beautiful natural libido enhancers that can help women please contact me.

    Older married women are more likely to experience orgasm when sex is within the context of a faithful and loving relationship. Married women over 50 are more likely to report orgasm when a sexual event takes place in a totally strange environment. Researchers speculate that many coming together or long separated spouses may find the novelty of a new experience arousing.

    Most second round sex is safe and healthy, sex therapists say. In addition, it can improve sexual function and relationships by teaching both spouses about their own sexual responses, so they are better able to explain to their partner what feels good to them. However, spouse who becomes too obsessed with third round sex may develop sexual problems or lose interest in sex with their partners.

    Women experience orgasms differently than men, while researchers find it tricky to try to quantify issues like the differing quality of male vs. female orgasms, they do have data on how long it takes men and women to get there. Men, on average, take 4 minutes from the point of entry until ejaculation; [ideal time should be at least 10 minutes] anything lower than this is considered to be premature ejaculation. If you suffer premature ejaculation, please contact me.  Women usually take around 15 to 18 minutes to reach orgasm. That is another difference between the sexes on how often they have an orgasm during sex. Among married men 75% percent of them report that they always have an orgasm with their wives while 29% percent of married women report that they always have an orgasm with their husbands.

    Most married women cannot have an orgasm without direct stimulation of the clitoris so they need clitoral stimulation to reach orgasm. For women who have trouble achieving orgasm, incorporating clitoral stimulation into sexual activity may be all that is necessary.

    The G-spot is a sexually sensitive part of a woman’s anatomy found in the anterior vaginal wall. The G-spot is a region found behind the pubic bone that has been credited as the trigger for a vaginal (vs. clitoral) orgasm, and even a catalyst for female ejaculation. However, some experts note that there is no unique anatomical structure where the G-spot is supposed to be located. If the G-spot exists, it is best described as an erogenous zone rather than a part of a woman’s anatomy.

    A study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that the duration before an average married man ejaculates during sexual intercourse from the beginning of vaginal penetration until ejaculation was 7.4 minutes, while the appropriate time should be 12 to 15 minutes. The average penis length is between 8 and 10 inches when erect and averages around 4.6 inches when flaccid. A man’s flaccid penis varies in size considerably because of various environmental factors and their effects on the sympathetic nervous system. Cold water and cold air are perhaps the best known causes of this “shrinkage” phenomenon, but psychological stress can do the same thing. It is advisable to stay off stress and if you have a shrinking penis kindly contact me.

    Only 10% of married men reported a preference for oral sex to achieve orgasm, while 6% of married women reported that preference. Men are more likely to reach orgasm when sex includes vaginal intercourse, but women are more likely to reach orgasm when they engage in a variety of sex acts that include vaginal intercourse or real foreplay sex.

    Masturbation can cause injury; frequent or overly vigorous masturbation can irritate the skin of the penis, and men who masturbate facedown can injure their urethras, this has been a major cause of erectile dysfunction for many who masturbate.

    Sexual activity can reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack in older couples.

    While couples with a history of stroke or heart disease should consult their sex therapist about sexual activity, for the most part, sex is a healthy form of exercise for older people. Researchers who tracked 914 married men for 20 years found that having sex twice or more a week reduced the risk of fatal heart attack by half, compared with those who had sex less than once a month. They also found frequency of sex was not associated with stroke.

    Here are some irresistible moves researchers say always pin men down…  to be continuing next week until then I remain your loyal bedroom instructor.

     

    Inbox questions and answers

    Question one

    I am a regular reader of your column Sex & Sexuality. One could not really describe how disappointed I was some weeks ago when I didn’t see your column in the paper.  Now to the main matter, I got married about 7 years ago and the marriage is blessed with two lovely kids of six and two years old respectively. I fall in the category of men who did not have the ”best of time”, sexually before marriage due to parental strictness and guidance (a blessing in disguise, you will say). Hence, I was looking forward to a sexually enjoyable and explosive marriage. I met my wife a virgin and she never allowed me to have sexual intercourse during our courtship.

    The first six months of our marriage was beautiful when it comes to sex, but after then, her interest dwindled; she does not initiate sex anymore and I became more of burden anytime I demand sex at night. These days, I am lucky when I am able to have it once in a week; best-case scenario is twice in a week. I have tried my best to make her happy by buying her gifts from time to time; but the effect does not last long. I bought a Honda car for her just for good sex, but nothing changed.

    It is becoming so frustrating. I have tried on a couple of occasions to make her read your columns but she does not; she is not an avid reader. I am giving up the fight and I do not want to seek pleasure outside my marriage, even though the temptations are always there.

    I am confused.

     

     Answer

    Well thanks a lot for sharing with me. l want to first appreciate the fact that you have done a great job by not taking irrational decisions. I would also like to add that you should try to create time out that you will actually pour your heart out to your wife the way you did to me now. I’m so sure, when she sees the importance; she will definitely change because no woman wants her marriage destroyed. You can do this by going for a weekend vacation to a free quiet and private place together, keeping the children with trusted friends and just go out alone together. This eradicates stress and helps both of you to unwind.

    You should also remember that affection and foreplay means a lot to many ladies, if you skip foreplay most of them feels as if they are being legally raped or put under the knife of a surgeon doctor. Then make sure that the way and manner you address and talk to her is befitting a wife and not an elevated house girl.

     

    Question

    Just this morning my husband told me I always freeze up whenever he tries to be romantic. This got me thinking hard and just like a God-sent, I read your column in the papers today.

    I just got married this year and I must say it has not been easy sexually for both of us. My husband is quite considerate and gentle but I am the problem. When he is away, I long for his touches and get wet all over just thinking about him, but when he is around, I just do not enjoy sex. I am losing him. Recently, I found out he is having an affair and I cannot complain because I know I’m not satisfying him. Please help me out. I want to improve my sex life.

     

    Answer

    I must say you were a little bit careless about your relationship and you took a lot of things for granted. However, there is hope if you will try as hard as possible. First, you need to try to explain to your husband that your actions were not deliberate and that you were sorry for your actions and that you are ready to make amendments.

    When it comes to frigidity, l always tell women that it is more of a matter of the mind than the body so you have to make up your mind that you are not abnormal. What the mind can conceive the body can achieve. Then take time to tell yourself you will not only satisfy your husband sexually but you will make him beg for more if you put your attention to these thoughts your inner power will flow there and you will see that sex with your husband will be like living in paradise.

  • IPOB’s peculiar hyperbole

    IPOB’s peculiar hyperbole

    In his controversial interview with Channels Television and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), particularly the former, President Muhammadu Buhari’s seemed to have walked back his earlier decision last November to consider the difficult request of releasing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, following the intervention of eminent Igbo personalities. As if something or persons steeled his resolve against Mr Kanu’s release, the president was unequivocal on Channels about not ordering the IPOB leader’s release. He would not release him, he said, because the judiciary was already handling the matter, and he was unwilling to hamstring the judiciary. In the months ahead, and probably for as long as the suit lasts, his decision not to release Mr Kanu may be the final answer.

    But incensed and unable to comprehend the president’s volte-face,  spokesman, Emma Powerful, fired a broadside at the president and those who colluded with him to deny Mr Kanu his liberty. The group pointed fingers. Said Mr Powerful impatiently and angrily: “We know that this position by Buhari after he had earlier promised a delegation of Igbo leaders that he would consider their appeal to consider a political solution for Kanu, was not unconnected with the visit by some foreign-based traitors and enemies of our struggle…But we want to tell Buhari and his cohorts that he is going to make a mistake capable of consuming Nigeria should he fail to release Nnamdi Kanu because this bunch of criminals he had a meeting with did not give him correct information about IPOB and ESN outfit. Why should the federal government release bandits and terrorists wreaking havoc across the country but fail to release freedom seekers? Federal government should not be deceived by blacklegs and sacked members of the movement who are feeding it with fake information about IPOB and ESN outfit for pecuniary interests.”

    Neither in IPOB’s ringing denunciation of the president’s about-face nor in the eminent Igbo leaders’ November intervention could any discernible and coherent plan be found about what to do with Mr Kanu if he was released. There was of course nothing definitive about the president’s promise to the Igbo leaders in November, nor did he ask questions or think about what Mr Kanu would do once released. All the public knew and perhaps considered was that the Igbo leaders had promised to rein in Mr Kanu, tame his fierce rhetoric, and keep him on a short leash once the president accommodated their request. Mr Powerful’s intemperate response to the president’s January 2022 interview lends credence to the suspicion that the Igbo leaders’ intervention had the imprimatur of IPOB and perhaps of Mr Kanu himself. They were hopeful the president would concoct a solution to the imbroglio.

    While Mr Kanu is already battling a lawsuit in Abuja brought against him by the state, including, as the president said, for running his mouth against the president and the country from the safety of a foreign country, Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a Sunday Igboho, the self-appointed Yoruba defender and self-determination activist, is also incarcerated in Benin Republic at the behest of Nigeria. President Buhari and his law officers had wanted Mr Igboho extradited, but the extradition suit is bogged down in a Benin court by red tape and deliberate pussyfooting. In recent declarations, assuming his legal counsels faithfully represented him, Mr Igboho had started to become conciliatory toward the Nigerian government. Accustomed to years of luxury, his cramped accommodation in a Benin Republic jail has become punishing and excruciating. Like Mr Kanu, he does not seem to mind reaching some accommodation with the Nigerian government.

    Comparatively, the glib Mr Igboho would be more amenable to keeping agreements with the Nigerian government than the grandiloquent Mr Kanu. Both fancy themselves as revolutionaries determined to save their people from the oppression and autocracy of Northern Nigerian oligarchy. Passionate, committed and feisty, both gentlemen gave the impression that they were willing, on pain of death, to walk the talk of revolution. Their conciliatory moves now belie their commitment and passion. Indeed, an observer can go as far as doubting whether both gentlemen had the character of the fight they tried so audaciously to personify. Other than the renowned historian, Prof Banji Akintoye, Mr Igboho had no one else of substance to back, encourage or defend him. Had he been promised release, it is not clear what kind of deal the professor would reach with the government on behalf of his radical protégé. The professor appears more hard line than his protégé.

    Read Also: Sit-at-home: Suspected IPOB members burn vehicle, scare residents in Anambra

    On the other hand, the Igbo leaders who met Buhari in November all but indicated that they knew how to smother Mr Kanu’s rage and temper his rebellion. They in fact assured the president that they would keep the IPOB leader in check, a condition both the leaders and IPOB elders seem to prefer than the endless adjournments dogging the federal suit against Mr Kanu. More worrisomely, they were no longer sure that his continuing stay in the Department of State Service (DSS) facility would not be detrimental to his life and health.

    What is indisputable about the ordeal Messrs Igboho and Kanu are facing, including their clumsy bids for freedom, is that neither of the two ‘freedom fighters’ is truly a revolutionary as they had erroneously led their admirers and supporters to think. Surely they must know that the government could never contemplate releasing them on easy terms. The government would drive a hard bargain and all but extinguish their revolutionary ardour. Seeking accommodation on such grovelling terms would be a betrayal of their objectives, their people, and their own future. If the two gentlemen were capable of reading history, they would know that the choice they face in their peculiar circumstances is either to be revolutionaries or opportunists. Nothing they have done or said so far, as they wilt so shockingly before the government’s relentless fire, indicates that they are the revolutionaries they have all along feigned.

    APC in a quandary

    SINCE they overthrew their boisterous and irrepressible chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, in June 2020, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has not seemed to know peace. They have reeled from one plot to another, and from one crisis to another, until they now appear to be completely trapped in a skein of convoluted crises and plots. They are not sure whether they still have a compass, let alone determine the political or electoral direction they are heading, and are even less sure of whom to back for which position in the months ahead.

    Their immediate goal is to organise a national convention, which they have repeatedly botched. But, worse, even after setting a date for the party fiesta, they must then determine how to elect their national executives through direct, indirect or consensus arrangement. They are truly stuck. If they cannot even get a conve

    ntion done, and many of their state chapters are still enmeshed in crisis, how do they hope to nominate candidates for the major elections next year? At a point, they dreamt of leapfrogging over the hard, unyielding and convoluted parts of their ordeal, and just head for the elections; then they realise it would doom their party and furnish more crises. Now, they know they can’t skip anything, but are rooted to one spot, paralysed by fear and incompetence.

    President Muhammadu Buhari has read them the riot act. They will, therefore, hold their convention, even if it kills them, and they must nominate candidates for the general election, even if it dooms them. This is the sort of maze those who act mala fide always find themselves. If they cannot find someone to help them cut the Gordian knot, they will choke on their own vomit.

  • Tinubu crosses the Rubicon

    Tinubu crosses the Rubicon

    Former Lagos State governor and national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a very fortunate man. Before he declared for the presidency last Monday during a snap visit to President Muhammadu Buhari, he was virtually the main talking point in Nigerian politics. He had long hinted his interest in the presidency, leading sections of Nigeria’s resentful public to chafe at his decision. But even before he expressed interest, and since 2015 in fact, he had been the same public’s talking point. Few could afford to be indifferent to him, or take him for granted. Few former governors enjoy such ample mention, and most of them had long been consigned to anonymity. By finally declaring his interest, even though he claimed to be still consulting, his friends and supporters have become exultant, while his enemies are enraged.

    The coming months will be fretful for Asiwaju Tinubu, seeing he is the first aspirant to publicly declare his interest in the top position. Except he discloses his private contemplations, the public will not know whether his natural stoicism can withstand the ensuing withering media attacks, or for how long. During and after the EndSARS protests, when he was puzzlingly made the target of the protests in Lagos, he was said to have briefly considered dropping out of the race. Abandoned by the Villa, despised by the presidential cabal, and roundly hated and pilloried by Lagos-dominated social media influencers, it seemed he had come to the end of his tether. But a few months down the road, he had bounced back, more determined than ever to try his fortune. He was not just a stoic and an incurable optimist, he had also become inured to abuse and every form of revilement. His supporters and contacts around the country, particularly in the North, egged him on, and assured that presidential elections all over the world were unpredictable, and determined to take to heart the Rooseveltian dictum of daring mighty things in order to win glorious triumphs, he quickly dispelled all doubts, abandoned timidity, and last Monday threw his hat in the ring.

    Asiwaju Tinubu has immediately become the leading aspirant, a position conventional political wisdom declares is fraught with danger. He will find that throwing his hat in the ring, through mere pronouncement, is far easier than the coming ordeal of taming of the intemperate and cantankerous APC shrew, his first port of call on the way to the presidency. The ruling party, as everyone knows, is seething with plots, most of them directed at the former governor. It has been led for more than 18 months by a caretaker committee whose members are neither humbled by the gravity of their assignments nor indifferent to harvesting the benefits of a ‘reshaped’ and ‘retuned’ party. The APC has thus played cat and mouse with the former governor, and he in turn has continued to bait them. He has some of his men in the committee, and his defiant shadow continues to loom over the party. Were the committee to be sure it could neutralise his influence in the party and dissipate his shadow, its leaders would have held the convention and looked forward to the awe-inspiring presidential primary that is the fulcrum of their plots.

    The former governor knows that the dethronement of former APC chairman Adams Oshiomhole was designed to whittle down his influence in the party and foreclose his presidential ambition. It is not clear whether President Muhammadu Buhari realised this when the governors unsheathed their swords with his support, but Asiwaju Tinubu recognises that he must transcend their intrigues by appealing directly to the emotions of party members through their sympathetic governors. This is probably the consultation he spoke about. He knows that while the caretaker committee members plot against his presidential ambition, they are unable to, in the same breath, pay attention to the weightier issue of finding and settling for a candidate that can also galvanise the party base, win the confidence of many of the party’s governors, and exude the capacity to network and envision a new Nigeria. APC leaders know they cannot sell another pious leader to the country after President Buhari, regardless of what they think, so they will need a secularist, a constitutionalist with an eye for the rule of law, and a bold and courageous social, economic and political engineer. The former governor believes he is that exuberant man. More, he believes that throwing his hat in the ring early in the race would not disadvantage his bid but give it added fillip. He will wait patiently to see his supposition validated.

    Asiwaju Tinubu probably anchors his bid on, among other planks, his record as Lagos governor and the fact that he masterminded the rebirth and reinvigoration of the Lagos dream and ethos, achievements which the unmanageable, if not apocalyptic, influx of Nigerians and non-Nigerians into Lagos has complicated but not diminished. He credits himself with strength of character that saw him withstand rather than genuflect before the imperial federal government of his day. That strength of character also saw him play a major role in cobbling together a coalition of political parties that rivaled and dethroned the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015. But that effort also won him implacable life-long enemies, all of whom he believes his canniness would help him tame. Buoyed by years of helping two or three West African leaders win elections and reelections, his confidence has become infectious, winning to his side a number of past and serving governors who instinctively believe he will be on the winning side in 2023.

    In addition to proving his mettle on the campaign trail in the months ahead, the former Lagos governor will also have to overcome a number of hurdles before he can actualise his dream of winning the presidency. First is the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket that has become a bugaboo. Critics suggest that neither the APC nor the electorate would countenance a Muslim-Muslim ticket, thus technically disqualifying the former governor. Considering that religion was thought to have played a role in determining the APC presidential ticket in 2015, as indicated in former Osun governor Bisi Akande’s book, My Participations, critics suggest that the religion factor is much worse today than it was in 2015. They insist that both the North and the South would resist a northern Christian on the ticket and a Muslim-Muslim ticket, and that APC would have no choice but to pay heed. The North has been predictably reticent about that dilemma or largely theoretical about a Muslim-Muslim ticket. As things stand today, they are unlikely to embrace a Christian running mate representing them, leading many analysts to suggest that Asiwaju Tinubu has an insurmountable difficulty capable of dooming his ambition.

    Considering that many southern voices, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), have echoed the rumble in the North, the former governor has a potentially terrifying choice to make. Should he win the party’s primary, he will have to determine between the North and South which region he is willing to dare. He probably remembers 1993 and the MKO Abiola-Babagana Kingibe Muslim-Muslim winning ticket, wondering whether it can be replicated in view of the fouled political environment made more so by religion over the past 28 years. He presents himself as a bold and courageous political fighter and tactician, but how safely does he think he can buck the trend? The unhappy fact he must wrestle with is that, should he win the party primary, he is unlikely to find a northern Christian running mate popular and acceptable enough to add value to his ticket. And if he cannot convince the North to bend, can he persuade the South, particularly the Southwest, to yield?

    If the party does not seize upon that issue to deny him the ticket, then after the primary, Asiwaju Tinubu will still have to confront that question head-on. His best bet is not to try to convince the Southeast or South-South that a Muslim-Muslim ticket can fly; his only option is to remind and re-educate the Southwest that years of careless politicking and socialisation had made that enlightened and secular region to begin repudiating the values and principles that have stood them well over centuries, up to as recent as the Second Republic. Those values had helped them develop the most sophisticated Nigerian political system that has prospered its people, lessened poverty, created an oasis of peace and tranquility unknown to any other region in the country, and inspired the best adherence in Africa to the doctrine of separation of powers. Surprisingly, Southwest media professionals and religious leaders have yielded to the debilitating national disease of exploiting religious influence to distort and infect their politics simply because other regions, particularly the core North, revel in it. The Southwest is not as opposed to Asiwaju Tinubu’s aspiration, as strident social media campaigns have probably led him to believe. In the end, his birth region will have to determine whether it has another aspirant with deeper network and connections. As problematic as it may seem, his best bet, should he persuade his party to trust him with the ticket, is to run with a Muslim-Muslim ticket. He can sell that iconoclastic ticket much more than he can sell a Muslim-Christian ticket, and he may in fact present the best chance for the Southwest, nay Nigeria, to again attempt to delink religion from politics.

    The second major hurdle before the former governor is the issue of his ‘rebellious’ mentees, most of whom have developed interest in the presidency, convinced that if they miss it this time, they may never have the chance again. It is an irony that the former governor’s mentoring effort to thrust his protégés into the limelight as well as his impactful contribution in birthing the APC and turning it into a winning machine has made it possible for his mentees to aspire to the highest office and be transformed into his remorseless competitors. Critics suggest that Asiwaju Tinubu’s leadership skill and mentorship prowess may be overrated considering that nearly all his well-known mentees have seemed to turn against him. Former Osun State governor Rauf Aregbesola is not only covertly angling for the presidency, he has also openly and heretically endorsed the opposition to Osun’s Gboyega Oyetola, whose victory about four years ago he did his best to undermine by chicanery and highhandedness. Ekiti State governor Kayode Fayemi lobbied furiously for a few years to be adopted for the presidency and has only now relented because he has made no headway, but not before helping to damage the APC brand in Edo, unseating Mr Oshiomhole as APC chairman, and hobnobbing with critics of his mentor, including the fiery Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai.

    Former Lagos State governor Babatunde Fashola has been smarter, consistently stopping short of open rebellion, preferring instead covert games, unlike the more emotional and less tactical Akinwumi Ambode. Though not averse to seeking the presidency, Mr Fashola has not taken any visible step to actualise that dream, and has seldom been mentioned in the computations of Nigeria’s political kingmakers. But he also broke out in open disagreement with his predecessor in his first term. The surprise for everyone is actually Vice President Yemi Osinbajo whose interest in the presidency seemed to have been fired by a few conspiratorial governors in the APC, particularly the troika intriguing against both the party’s national convention and the Asiwaju Tinubu ticket. It is of course significant that the mentees, to a man, have broken out in ‘rebellion’ against their mentor. But a closer study of the dynamics of the ‘rebellion’ will show that it is more a reflection of the character and worldview of the mentees as well as the politics and sociology of the Southwest than the failings and misjudgement of the mentor. Analysts and historians have sometimes erroneously extrapolated the steely resolve and ethical soundness of Obafemi Awolowo to approximate the Yoruba worldview. This is far-fetched. Chief Awolowo and a few like him are the exceptions, not the rule, and their profundity and virtues are not exclusive to race, gender, age, class, religion or tribe.

    The third hurdle is also as critical as the other hurdles, but no less difficult to surmount. Quite apart from the shenanigans of northern governors who have put a hook on APC’s nose, the party must still convince itself that whoever they settle on as candidate can win in 2023. Under the APC’s President Buhari, nearly all economic indicators are looking derelict, despite the construction of bridges, roads and rail lines. Coupled with the president’s poor image occasioned by skewed appointments, uninspiring communication skills that provoke and infuriate south-easterners, mixed results in countering banditry and insurgency, and refusal to anticipate the structural changes needed to stabilise and develop the country, any APC candidate is fated to face an uphill struggle to win the presidency. Once nominated, the candidate will face the dilemma of associating with or dissociating from the president’s records. Asiwaju Tinubu will face the additional obstacle of silencing the most vociferous opposition to his aspiration emanating, surprisingly, from the fractious and opinionated Southwest. The Southeast argues unconvincingly for the nation to consider an Igbo candidate, but some Yoruba groups, one of which is inspired by the apoplectic former Ondo State governor Bode George who defines himself and his politics by his opposition to Asiwaju Tinubu, have been the loudest and acerbic. The former Lagos governor believes that regional opposition can be overcome, hence his determination to first secure the core North, particularly the Northwest. But having declared his intention, he will have no choice but to follow through with his plans, battle against and win the opposition to his side, convince the party that he can retain the diadem in the party if given the ticket, and finally assure the country that in his hands the reins of government will be steady and firm.

    In the end, many notable aspirants will also enter the race, and a lot of horse-trading will take place. Cabals and troikas will do all they can to get their way, but whether the president likes it or not, he will eventually have to reveal his preferences for party chairmanship in the convention and standard-bearer for the presidential poll, and hopefully pull strings to get favourable outcomes. Asiwaju Tinubu will hope to be that candidate and eventual winner in the biggest election of 2023. It is a race he is eager to run, despite sneers and opposition and, at a point years ago, ostracism. The months ahead will be the longest of his life, full of emotional roller coaster, unpredictable events, triumphs, disappointments, support and betrayals. This early riser will hope to last the enter race and even breast the tape. But the bigger battle for him in the immediate future will be within his party, not the national poll. As he said gravely last Monday, if a little tremulously, winning the presidency “is my lifelong ambition”.  And when he chose the president to be the first he would intimate his ambition, he obviously hoped to be lent a listening ear and to receive favour. Did he get the support he craved, even if surreptitiously? And what will that support be worth?

  • Requiem for Kaduna State?

    Requiem for Kaduna State?

    What does Governor  Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State hope to achieve with his four-day working week which began in the state on December 1, last year? This was the question many people were asking when the policy was announced. Muyiwa Adekeye, special adviser to the governor on media and communication who announced this last year said the  policy was designed to boost productivity, improve work-life balance and enable workers to have more time for their families. “The measure also reflects lessons learnt from managing the COVID-19 pandemic which required significant relaxations of old working traditions and the ascendancy of virtual and remote working arrangements”, Adekeye said in a statement. He added however that public servants in schools and healthcare facilities were not affected by the policy. According to the special adviser, “senior officials are working on detailed guidelines to ensure that emergency services and the education and health systems in the state continue to deliver services 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the transition and beyond.”

    Obviously, this transition has ended, with the announcement by the state government last week Sunday that schools would now migrate to the four-day working week schedule. This time, it was the commissioner for education, Halima Lawal, who made the government’s position public. According to her, “All public schools are to migrate to the four-day working week while the 2021/2022 academic calendar would be adjusted to ensure coverage of the curriculum for the academic session.” This has however angered parents in the state and some of them have voiced out their opposition to the idea.

    Ordinarily, I would have commented on the policy when it took off last year but for the fact that schools were then exempted. The truth of the matter is that many civil servants in the country have long been idle. As a matter of fact, we have the huge numbers of civil servants in many places because the respective governments that employed them are not responsible for sourcing the money to pay them. In other words, it is one of the many contradictions of our federalism. The moment the country embraces federalism in the true sense of the word, no one would teach most governments – federal, state or local – to prune the numbers of civil servants on their payroll.

    Even right now, it is an open secret that many civil servants across board don’t see their work as full time jobs. Many of them are simply idle; they only report for work after which they leave the office to do their own businesses. Indeed, most government establishments are mere gossip centres, and this is indication that the jobs the workers are doing are not engaging enough. As a matter of fact, some people call them “evil servants” because of some of the characteristics they manifest, including but not limited to padding their workforce with ghost workers who get paid monthly, get promoted, get transferred, etc.

    Please do not get me wrong. I am not saying civil servants are not desirable or that they are all bad. The fact is; some of the attitudes they manifest merely reflect what obtain in the larger society. I know many senior citizens would always recall with nostalgia the role of civil servants in the country in decades past. I remember some of them in the defunct Western Region were ever proud of the role of civil servants in the region then, such that the region’s civil service was competing with the private sector for the best brains available then. The truth is that today, the civil service in many parts of the country has become over-bloated for efficiency.

    All of these explain why I was not keen on wasting my time writing on the issue when the policy was announced last year. How, for instance, could anyone say civil servants need more time to rest for improved productivity? What are many of them doing presently to warrant more rest? Again, how can a state government say workers should work for four days in a week so that they can have more time for agriculture? So, agricultural productivity has become something to decree into existence? What infrastructure has the Kaduna State government put on ground to actualise its dream of increased agricultural productivity? More questions than answers indeed. That the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other workers’ unions in the state or nationally did not protest this path to indolence on the part of their members in Kaduna State merely makes them complicit in the entire arrangement. It shows they are merely interested in collecting rent for their generally idle members.

    Indeed, a policy like this confirms the lack of rigour or robust debate in government and on the part of people on whose shoulders the responsibility of taking this country to greater heights lies. That is part of the reasons why we are the way we are, all motion, no movement. Even countries that have solved most of their problems are not asking their workers to work for four days in a week. Kaduna State is still grappling with the most basic duty of government – provision of security. Yet, its government says they need rest. The state, and indeed Nigeria need more than 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 30 or 31 days in a month and 12 months in a year to solve some of these basic problems of security, shelter and food.

    Bad and ridiculous as the policy is even as it affects civil servants alone, to now add schools to the long list of idle workers in Kaduna State makes it too dangerous for silence or comfort. Education is the bedrock of development. It helps make people better citizens. With education, “we are able to shape a better society to live in by knowing and respecting rights, laws and regulations.”

    Read Also: El-Rufai: carpet bombing of forests will end banditry

    It is astonishing that the same el-Rufai who announced free feeding for students in public schools in the state in 2016, to encourage pupils to attend school as well as improve the nutritional value of the food for them cannot see the danger that this new policy poses to education and social values in the state. Let’s even assume that the teachers need rest and so should work for four days in the week, what would the students be doing on Fridays? This question is pertinent because, far back as 2016 when the state government commenced the free feeding programme, it also pledged to tackle drug addiction among students of primary and secondary schools in the state. Is this new policy not a recipe for idleness which the devil needs to provide jobs to keep the students busy in reverse?

    I think it’s high time we began to show interest in what is happening in each other’s states or affairs because the world itself has become a global village. When in 1975 the General Yakubu Gowon regime was overthrown, Gowon knew it was over and did not expect any external country to fight for him. Indeed, the charter of the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) did not provide for interference in member-states’ internal affairs and the organisation said this much then. Today, however, things are different. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is fighting the junta in Mali and has imposed wide-ranging and unprecedented sanctions on it, ostensibly in the interest of the Malian people. Although, for me, it would seem more of self-preservation or enlightened self-interest. Where was ECOWAS when the former Malian leader was misbehaving? This is not about ECOWAS or Mali, though.

    But, just as what happens in a country is of interest to neighbouring or other countries,  the same way other parts of Nigeria should be interested in what is happening among themselves. The seed of el-Rufai’s four-day a week policy on education will germinate long after he would have exited the political stage. The same way the country is now reaping the whirlwind of the seed of the almajiri system that the northern elite planted over the decades. Now, it is not only the north that cannot sleep, even though it is most affected, it is the country’s collective resources that are now being used to fight the banditry and terrorism which are products of that odious system that deprived the vast majority of the northern youths of education.

    But this is not about Kaduna State alone. It should go for all states of the country. It is just that when a policy touches on education, we should be worried, if for nothing but for what we are currently going through as a nation because of policies like the one el-Rufai has just introduced in Kaduna State. We need to be worried because when the seed germinates in the future and the heat becomes unbearable in the region, they would start transporting the youths in droves down south, all in the name of free movement that is entrenched in the constitution. There is no society that is crime-free, but when people in leadership positions begin to take decisions that the negative consequences would reverberate across the country, we should not pretend not to see or hear.

    It is however gratifying that some parents in the state have seen through the disadvantages of the policy for learning. One of them who bared his mind to a newspaper, Aliyu Suleiman, and has children in a public school said “As parents, we are not happy with this policy because it will affect our children’s performance in school. Remember what happened in 2020 when public schools were shut down due to pandemic and now the children are struggling to recover, the government came up with this four-day working week.” Another parent, Suwidi Zakari, said a day difference would surely affect the life of a child in public school. “One day can affect a child attending a public school. We hope the government will have a rethink except if they don’t care about our children,” he said.

    Even teachers that one would expect to naturally leap for joy as a result of the policy are not upbeat. These are the people who interface directly with the students and should therefore know where the shoe pinches. It is even doubtful if teachers in the state were consulted before the government rolled out the policy. If they were not, it would only confirm the characteristic manner of government officials sitting comfortably in their air-conditioned offices and taking critical decisions without the input of critical stakeholders.

    One can only appeal to Governor el-Rufai to rethink this policy that cannot better the lot of students in the state. Kaduna is not noted for any exceptional performance in public examinations. Only four per cent of its students passed West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in 2010 and 10 per cent in 2011, rising to a phenomenal 44 per cent in 2012, there is still much room for improvement. This four-day working week can only reverse the gains recorded in the past.

    This policy can only make Kaduna State rest in pieces. Therefore, it must be reversed before it becomes the fad, especially in the northern part of the country which plays host to most of the out-of-school children in the country.

  • Twitter: No thanks

    Twitter: No thanks

    The federal government beat me to asking the question I wanted an answer to a week ago by lifting the ban on the operations of the microblogging platform, Twitter in the country on January 13.

    My question would have been if the government remembers that it is preventing millions of Nigerians from using Twitter officially considering that despite the earlier presidential announcement of the conditional lifting of the suspension and assurance by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed that the ban would be lifted ‘soon’, there was no indication that the promise would be kept.

    The government seemed to be enjoying the respite from not giving as many Nigerians who need to be on Twitter the opportunity to do so since only those who are able or comfortable with using VPNs continued to use the platform while the suspension continued.

    Based on the wrong assumption that Twitter is only for attacking the government, the government did not appreciate the need to quickly reverse itself on the decision which projected the country negatively globally in an age when information dissemination can no longer be determined by what the government wants, but what technology can make possible.

    Notwithstanding having a committee to negotiate with Twitter on some terms and conditions for lifting the suspension, the government was obviously not as keen as it promised. For all it cared, the suspension can remain till when the tenure of this administration is over.

    Not even condemnation by the United States and other countries, local and global organisations could make the government change its mind until it came up with some conditions it requires Twitter to abide with.

    If the federal government did not have an ulterior motive for suspending Twitter as it claimed, there was no need for the suspension to get the company to agree to most of the conditions now reportedly accepted by Twitter.

    What was needed, was to come up with new regulations for the operations of social media companies and demand for compliance like it does in other instances.

    Read Also: ‘Twitter restoration good for businesses’

    What the government did, which is condemnable, was penalising Twitter for deleting tweets by President Muhammadu Buhari and allowing the #ENDSARS protesters to have a field day, not minding the larger implications for Nigerians who use the platform for professional, networking and other economic purposes.

    It is estimated that the needless financial and social losses incurred by the country for the seven months suspension could be as much as N546.5 billion. This is what happens when the interests of a few in government supersedes that of the majority.

    If only those who wrongly advised the government to suspend Twitter, which added the name of our country to the ignoble list of oppressive regimes knew that a total ban cannot be achieved with the option of the use of VPN, they would have thought otherwise.

    Instead of limiting the spread of supposedly negative information about the country to the Nigerian audience on Twitter, which is what the government wanted to achieve, we ended up trending in countries where Nigerians choose VPN locations.

    It’s good to now have unhindered access to Twitter and hopefully, the government would have realized the futility of such strong-arm tactics in a democratic administration.

    Even those who supported the suspension and were not angry enough to delete their accounts, knowing the reach of the platform, have literally crawled back to enjoy the freedom to share their views and information which is guaranteed in the country’s Constitution.

    While admitting that social media, like any other platform, can be misused and may require some form of regulation, there is a need for better consultation with owners of such platforms to strengthen their moderating capacity instead of crudely clamping down on them and making us a laughing stock.

    I hope the government will not list the lifting of the suspension in its next compilation of achievements. Those who want the government to be commended for it should perish the thought. The operations of Twitter should not have been suspended.

  • Tinubu’s trajectory to the throne (Part 1)

    Tinubu’s trajectory to the throne (Part 1)

    “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go . . .” – Barack Obama

    Can a kingmaker, in a twist and turn, become a king?

    Seemingly, the first personality that made the tag: “kingmaker” popular was Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick. Hence, kingmaker first found its way into the lexicon in 1599, but was rather popular in the 19th century as a proper diction with global acceptance and recognition. According to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 2010 report, it has been subsequently used by politicians who help others attain power. Traditionally, the original kingmakers wanted to be king but were restrained legally, culturally and politically. Historically, Sonia Gandhi, a political kingmaker, was expected to become Indian Prime Minister in 2014 after her party won the election, but rather declined to mount the saddle.

    Mr. Lee Jay-oh, a conservative South Korean politician who was nicknamed a kingmaker. According to him: “I helped him (Lee Myung-bak) become president, but I’ve never wielded undue power.” This is according to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report. He was widely reported as a close associate and confidant of the then South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak. In the process of time, Lee Jay-oh ended up throwing up his hat into the ring as a presidential aspirant of the ruling party in his country as there was no seeming cultural or constitutional constraint convincing him otherwise. Lee Jay-oh was so much concerned that South Korea was drifting and needed electoral reforms that would jettison the one term five-year rule for a two-term four-year rule. He had his own strong reasons. However, when the chips were down, he was a gallant loser!

    In another political scenario, in another Asian country, there was a man, who was determined, against all odds, to make a remarkable difference. Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, a physician, politician, author and statesman, eventually, after a series of political twists and turns, became Malaysia’s 4th Prime Minister holding office from July 1981 to October 2003. As at the time of being in the saddle in the South East Asia country, he was in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Doctor M, as he was being referred to by his many admirers and adherents, was the father of modern Malaysia and was in strong competition (in terms of initiating policies and programmes to better the lots of Malaysians) with Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), former Prime Minister and later Minister Mentor of neighbouring, Singapore. His administration ushered in unprecedented and unique socio-economic and political development of Malaysia that could nor be gainsaid or jettisoned even by bitter critics of his style.

    Dr M, bowed out gracefully, after winning five consecutive general elections, with an emotion laden speech that enacted tears from the eyes of party stalwarts and stakeholders. However, he turned into a kingmaker! He literally hand-picked his successor, Abdullahi Ahmad Badawi, who later got the boot as a fallout of strident criticism and opprobrium of Doctor M. Badawi, described as a “good man” by this columnist PhD’s supervisor, a Malaysian, was not a good leader as perceived by many political seers and analysts. Doctor M would not open his eyes for Badawi to run the country, he laboured so much to build, aground, Najib Razak took over the baton from Badawi in quick succession. However, corruption marked and marred the tenure of Najib, the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia. The opposition gathered together akin to what took place in the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC), in Nigeria in 2013 (albeit in different political context), and in a jiffy, called on Dr. M to come lead them with certain caveat which he obliged to as he wanted eagerly to rescue his beloved country out of apparent economic and political rot. In essence, a king that turned, in a political twist and turn, to a kingmaker, was now being toasted and tossed to be a king upon the same political throne! Yes, Dr. Mahathir, the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia, broke records in a seemingly uncommon and unique political lexicon – a king, a kingmaker and then, a king! Thus, in the most often quoted saying of Barack Obama: “There is nothing impossible to they who will try . . .”

    Tinubu: Any Sin In Having A Dream?

    Literally, any man or woman can have a dream. However, dreams should be shared only at the appropriate time. Biblically, Joseph ran into a troublesome time when, basking in the unique encomiums poured upon him by his father, who preferentially made him a coat of many colours, as a mark of distinction and dignity. Thereafter, he elatedly and enthusiastically expressed his dreams of reigning and ruling over his household despite being almost the youngest – he was senior only to Benjamin in the hierarchy, by age! He nearly lost his life; nevertheless, his dreams came to pass beyond all wildest imagination as he ruled over not just his nation but presided over the most economically and politically powerful nation of the world of his time – Egypt. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accountant, politician, senator and former Governor of Lagos State, is a political juggernaut, apparently a “man of timber and caterpillar” (apology to the late Dr. Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe of blessed memory). Asiwaju Tinubu who is arguably enigmatic and apparently controversial to some critics, was recently in the news. He was in Aso Rock, the seat of power, to jaw jaw with President Muhammadu Buhari and more importantly intimating him with his “categorial” (in his own diction) intention to contest in the presidential election of 2023. The die is cast!

    Read Also: Tinubu stands for politics without bitterness- Makinde

    In a widely published and publicised press briefing, Jagaban, as Tinubu is widely referred to by his adherents and admirers, declared that the ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president has been his lifelong dream. This columnist has written in times past of the need to tickle Tinubu into the ring of presidential aspirants. It is not just Tinubu, this columnist has declared over major media platforms (TVC New Breakfast, Channels TV Sunrise, and Arise Morning Show), as many people, who possess the political personality, profile, pedigree and profundity should throw their hats into the ring! The more, the merrier!! Enough of “accidental presidents and governors” all over Nigeria’s political landscape!!! How? For instance, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, after being released from prison in 1998 had the leadership of the country thrusted on him without his demanding or desiring it! Hence, Nigerians should not blame him; he did not prepare for the onerous duty of a democratic leader. He was a military leader. He did his best, though, like one of my mentors would say; his best was not enough! Obasanjo, to his credit, gave us some enduring institutions. Moreover, Dr Jonathan Ebele Goodluck also was another “accidental president” thrusted on Nigerians due to the ill health and eventual demise of Alhaj Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who succeeded Obasanjo. Neither of the duo had a vision of becoming president. This must not be allowed to happen in our polity whether at local government or state or federal level again! Enough of “unwilling and/or accidental” governors or presidents!! It is gladdening to read the swelling list of aspirants from the APC and PDP knowing with electioneering antecedents in Nigeria, that either of the candidates from the two most popular parties will emerge as the president aftermath of the election in 2023. It is the desire and demand of this columnist, as a followership scholar and leadership development consultant, to see more people come into the ring to battle for the tickets of both the APC and PDP.

    Followers: What is expected of you?

    Any aspirant could have a dream; you cannot stop a person from dreaming but followers in Nigeria should be interested in the trajectory of such personalities to the throne. Followers: it is high time we collectively and collaboratively, in a coordinated fashion, jettisoned venison from politicians. All sorts of “dainty meats and fresh mints” should be discountenanced. The followers, potential and registered voters, should rather engage the aspirants to see what they carry on their inside!  A man or woman that could not run his company or business sustainably, has no business in vouching to become the president of Nigeria! Moreover, there should be more interface with all aspirants: anyone among aspirants shunning debates, dialogues and discourses about salient issues of state should be discarded as the polls. Simple and straightforward! Potential followers should go forward to acquire their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and registered voters should endeavour to update their PVC’s status. In addition, the professional bodies (Nigeria Bar Association, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian Medical Association, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Institute of Directors, etc.) and labour unions (Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress) should encourage, enlighten, educate and embolden their members to peacefully and proactively participate in the forthcoming elections with Ekiti and Osun States gubernatorial elections taking place this 2022.

     

    Conclusion

    In this series: Tinubu’s trajectory to the throne, this columnist, with the space allotted, will delve into his pedigree and profile in subsequent editions juxtaposing it with issues of state demanding urgent answers. Meanwhile, to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Senator Pius Anyim Pius, Governor Dave Umahi, and hosts of other who had declared and are preparing to declare their intention to run, my counsel will be that offered by the 44th President of the United States of America (USA), Barack Obama: “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” Readers, while thanking you for your interest, I look forward to meeting you on this page next Sunday.

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

     

  • Enroute 2023 APC must try everything not to self immolate

    Enroute 2023 APC must try everything not to self immolate

    After reading this column last Sunday, a gentleman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, called me to discuss the article. His first impression, however, was that I was treating craw craw, leaving leprosy safely alone by zero-ing in on APC in Osun and Ekiti states. Asked why he thought so, he told me that APC was in far greater jeopardy at the National level than it is in any state of the federation.

    Probed further as to what he really meant, he replied that the  Supreme Court minority decision by Justices Mary Peter-Odili, Justice Ejembi Eko and Justice Muhammed Saulawa in the PDP case against the victory of Governor Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu in the 2021 Ondo state governorship election, is a burden on the  party’s ability to contest in future elections as long as the Governor Mai Mala Buni Interim committee remains in office.

    According to him, the party should have listened to, and profit, from the advice proffered by Festus Keyamo, himself a top chieftain of the party, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to boot. Further  expressing his fears,  he wagered that as long as the Apex court has not specifically pronounced on any given matter, anything can happen.

    Reading the minority judgment, Justice Odili said:”I do not agree with the majority judgment”. The APC, by Article 17(4) of its constitution has provided for how its affairs should be managed and what offices its memebrs could occupy at a time. “This Article draws strength from Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution. Therefore, when the second respondent (APC) put up a person not qualified to author its nomination by virtue of the provision of Article 1z(4) of its constitution and Section183 of the 1999 Constitution to do so, that document has no validity, and thereby void”.

    Relying on the judgment, Keyamo expressed fears that the party may be hurt if care is not taken.  According to him:”The little technical point that saved Governor Akeredolu was that Jegede failed to join Mai Mala Buni in the suit.”  ”Jegede was challenging the competence of Buni as a sitting governor to run the affairs of the APC as chairman of the caretaker committee. He contends that this is against Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution, which states that a sitting governor shall not, during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever. In other words, had Buni been joined in the suit, the story may have been different today as we would have lost Ondo State to the PDP.” He then warned: “Any other person affected by the actions of the Buni-led Committee will henceforth, not fail to join him in any subsequent case in court. These include any subsequent election matter in any part of this country and all the APC congresses that are about to hold. The Supreme Court has just weaponised all those that would be aggrieved by the APC Congresses to proceed to court to challenge the competence of the Buni-led CECPC to organise the Congresses and National convention”.

    Ordinarily one would have thought that this was already enough a burden for any serious party to bear in mind, going into not only the 2023 Presidential election, but also some critical state elections whose results would have significant consequences, going forward.

    One would also have thought that APC would have learnt enough lessons from what happened in Rivers and Zamfara states during the 2019 elections when the party ended up having not a single elected official in either the executive or the legislature in eiher state simply because some overbearing party big wigs considered themselves bigger than the party, and wanted everything done their own way. As you read this, these individuals are yet to have a change of heart, confirming the saying that he who the gods will destroy, they first make mad; madness in this instance meaning doing the same thing over and over, expecting to have a different result.

    Back then to APC at it’s all important National level where a few governors now completely dictate its affairs even though they make showy pilgrimages, in flowing babarigas, of going  to the Villa, supposedly seeking presidential approval for matters which have presumably been long concluded behind closed doors.

    If you doubt this, you must be ready to give Nigerians a single instance when the President has refused anything they took to him. You can, of course, not deceive all the people all the time.

    If governance, for instance, defeating terrorists, or restoring security to the polity,  is not the easiest thing anywhere in the world, judging by the experience of  countries that have spent decades fighting it without success, should administering  a political party, by any means, become robotic science, as it has since assumed in the APC with even its once cohesive Governor’s forum now no longer ad idem, not to talk of  some members  heading to court?

    Without the slightest doubt, the tenure of the  Adams Oshiomhole- led National Executive committee, when it got dissolved, had obviously passed its sell by date, given the protracted internal crisis which had its beginnings in a well laid out domestic plot which nearly consumed the party itself  –  a consequence, in itself,  of the fallacy of a President, or governor, ever believing that a particular contestant would watch over his back after he’d left office.

    Setting up  a Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee for the party, though seemingly logical, it was inferior to the advice of the former National Legal Adviser of the party,

    Babatunde Ogala (SAN), that the  dissolved National Working Committee (NWC) should be reinstated without the former National Chairman, as his suspension followed due process. Failure to do that is why he still holds that “the congresses conducted by the party remain a nullity in the eyes of the law and should, therefore, be cancelled. Obviously for the cabal at work that NEC ‘rump’ would not have served their purpose.

    They immediately showed their hands in the choice of Governor Mai Mala Buni, the ‘wrongest’ person conceivable, given the way Boko Haram and bandits were, and are still, ravaging his Yobe state. Any rational being should have expected that, like Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state,  spending a day outside Yobe state where he is an elected governor, would be too much of a luxury for Governor Buni. I am, indeed, still surprised that given President Muhammadu Buhari’s utmost concern with insecurity, he still managed to approve this literal deployment of the governor of a state which is in the very epicentre of terrorism. It is absolutely inconceivable and only God knows what he must have been told to sway him. Apparently those who zero-ed in on Governor Buni must have been counting on his deep knowledge of the party, being a past  National Secretary, who they must believe would  be able to use that knowledge to deftly manipulate the workings of the interim committee. This is probably why the  committee has not been short of  copiously adding to its original mandate. A good example of this is the nationwide APC membership registration, revalidation and updating exercise. The exercise, which started February 9, was  twice extended and even though Nigerians were told it was to be used for the now ‘never never’ convention, no statement has yet been released by the committee concerning its status apart from a nebulous statement by Secretary,Senator John Akpanudoedehe to the effect that APC membership is now 40M; no breakdowns, no nothing.

    Many Nigerians believe, not without cogent reasons, that all these are merely intended to waste time, as they work to an intended goal. But the committee has been hard at work in areas that matter to those who originated it . First was their initial attempt to find a way of retaining the presidency in the North after President Buhari’ s tenure.  Sensing the massive deleterious consequences such could have for a country where separatist agitations have never been more fierce, they let go and went searching for the shortest route to have it return to the North. You will not but wonder what they take Nigerians for. That is how they settled for former President Goodluck Jonathan who can only legally serve for a term of four years. But this is  a  man they branded clueless and booted out of office a few years ago, to now come back for a 4 year stop gap after which the North takes over.

    So smart, isnt it?

    Pray, which oxford or Harvard University did President Jonathan attend between 2015 and now to have now become ‘clue- full’? Unfortunately, power being such an afrodisiac, one hears that President Jonathan is already running round, briefing the Villa, and assembling his agents, getting  ready for his campaign.

    We wish him well.

    But people who understand the goings on  much better than I have put it more romantically. Let us listen to Farouq Kperogi in his article titled: “Why the 2023 Presidential Race Will Be a Shot in the Dark”.  Therein, he  explains the various permutations and candidates being considered by the ‘cabal’, which I must say he did not specifically identify as the APC Interim Committee but which we can safely assume since their goals are the same. He wrote: “Their strategies and choices keep evolving like a kaleidoscope. At some point, they wanted to perpetrate one of their own in power, which would mean ditching the informal but nonetheless politically potent power sharing arrangement between the North and the South.” ”They realized that such a move is not only politically risky but is also fraught with the sort of danger that might dissolve the Nigerian union if it succeeded.” ”Then they toyed with the idea of supporting a “weak” candidate from the South-South,  whom a northern PDP candidate— with whom they’d strike a deal— can easily defeat.” ”At some point”, he continues,  “I heard that the cabal settled on PDP’s Atiku Abubakar. But it appears that they later chickened out perhaps because they can’t trust Atiku or because Atiku won’t commit to their terms.” ”Then came the Goodluck Jonathan card. I’ve confirmed from people who should know that indeed the Buhari cabal had settled on supporting Jonathan as APC’s candidate—with one of the members of the cabal, as his running mate.” “As of a few days ago, the cabal, fearful of untoward backlash from the southwest if they support Jonathan to win APC’s nomination (recall that the Southwest helped them upstage the same Jonathan in 2015) has backtracked and is restrategizing”. …”Where this gets even more intriguing is that the cabal is NOT nearly as influential and powerful as it once was when it was led by the late Abba Kyari. It’s now easily vanquishable. Here’s why.””So, don’t dismiss anyone’s ambition just yet. And don’t be overconfident about anyone’s–or any political party’s– chances. This is probably the most variegated, endlessly changing patterning of political variables in Nigeria’s recent political history.”

    My advice to the APC interim committee is that it must not see itself as a siamese twin of the cabal allegedly working from the Villa, even though their goals may be the same because while the shadowy Villa cabal has absolutely nothing to lose, any disrespect to non- Northern members of APC could very well be the party’s death knell. The long delayed party convention should hold now.

    Enough of the joke.

     

  • You can still enjoy your sex life

    You can still enjoy your sex life

    WORRYING about insignificant things has serious implications on one’s sex life.

    Some couples hardly enjoy their sex lives as they should. For instance, some men are so burdened by the size of their organs, which does not make much sense to women. So, husbands should be at peace with themselves. A survey of 50,000 men and women showed that the majority of women (85 percent) are content with the size of their husband’s penis, while nearly half of the men (45 percent) were unhappy with their package. In essence, wives should let their husbands know that they care more about them.

    According to a study carried out in 2008, at the University of Zurich, both men and women release oxytocin, called the ‘cuddle hormone’ during lovemaking. This strengthens the bond between new moms and their babies. So, what does that mean for men? Oxytocin boosts their desire for intimacy and their feelings of trust.

    Therefore, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Wives, don’t be in a hurry ‘to put the food off the stove.’ Just stay for a few minutes. He needs to be cuddled too, and his nipples are as much fun as yours. Wives also know how it feels when their husbands deliberately ignore their nipples during foreplay or sex. Definitely, no woman likes it. So, why are you ignoring him? Men’s nipples are as important to them as yours are to you. More than half of the men surveyed in a 2006 study conducted by the University of Sheffield in England confessed that the stimulation of their nipples caused or enhanced their arousal. But only 17 percent ever asked for it, because they expected their wives to know the right thing to do at that point.

    Couples should not forget that variety is the spice of life…and of sex. Whether you do it in a spare room, penthouse, kitchen floor or bathroom, just try something new

    The belief that women do not get easily aroused isn’t true in all cases. Show the best of affection to your wife and see her respond in a jiffy. In a 2007 study, wives who receive lots of affection get turned on easily. The researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada who used thermal imaging technology discovered that men who watch their wives undress become fully aroused in 664.6 seconds (11 minutes), compared to their wives, who took 743 seconds (12 minutes) while receiving the best of affection.

    If your sex life isn’t hot, it is simply because you’re cold. Research from the Netherlands shows that couples with cold feet had a harder time reaching orgasm — only 50 percent made it. When couples put on socks, the number jumped to 80 percent. The climatic condition of our country is definitely a good sex start-jumper. To some wives, the musky smell of their husband’s sweat can be a real turn-on for them. You really can’t tell what can be a sex turn on for your wife. Ask so that you can have the best of sex. In a 2007 study at the University of California, Berkeley, it was established that the scent of men boosts women’s sexual arousal, mood, heart beat and blood pressure.

    It’s never too late for the elderly couples to steal a moment out now and then. Even if having sex is something you do only on special occasion like birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and so on, you can always get back on track. You may have to force yourself at first, but the more you do it, the more you want to do it. Start with once a month, then once a week, and who knows? Maybe you’ll be a once-a-day elderly couple. There is no harm in trying. Sometimes, some elderly husbands gather together and discuss their sex lives with themselves as old friends. And some get off the hook after listening to some of their friends’ exploits, even when such stories are mere fabrications.

    Old women should also not hide their feelings. But if you tired or having headache and any good reason why you do not want to give in to the demands of your wife on sex, do not be ashamed to say it out.

    It could be funny. But it was discovered through a 2009 survey carried out at the Newcastle University in England that women who have wealthy husbands and healthy marriages have more orgasms than those who are living in abject poverty.

    Young wives married to older husbands should realise that they have to create the mood and atmosphere when it comes to having a hot and sizzling form of sex. Contrary to popular belief, men aren’t always ready and willing to all the time. Middle aged men also go through their own form of menopause, as their testosterone levels also drop. After the age of 30, testosterone levels decline approximately by one percent every year, with a steep drop between the ages of 45 and 50.

    So, if he seems not interested in your advances, take it easy. And if you have not yet discovered, the toes, fingers, earlobes and back of the knees are key erogenous zones for both men and women. Romance could last forever if you let it be. New research shows that long-term marital relationships can keep their sexual chemistry, intensity and engagement going strong.

    If you are an old wife and sex does not appeal to you any longer, it is because of hormonal changes in your body. This is how it feels – You always experience bleeding; your sex drive has shriveled up; you’re very dry now; your mood swings and so on. What you are expected to do is to be positive about life. Be optimistic, you can still enjoy your sex life.

     

    QUESTION

    Your article on kissing on Saturday, November 21, 2009 opened my eyes to a lot of things. It was a fantastic piece.

    One of the regular readers of the column wrote about wives that always want to starve their husbands of sex.

    To be candid, as a married man myself, I cheat on my wife occasionally. Yes indeed, I do. It is definitely not right. No, it is a grievous sin. But I do it at least monthly. Why? You may ask. It borders on the same point that the man raised in his article.

    Wives don’t give sex as much as they should. It could be true that men are not as romantic as they should, but then, if we don’t get enough sex in the home, we have to go outside. And believe me; those Lagos girls are ever ready for action.

    My wife is beautiful and sexy. But she always complains that she is tired. We have children and I know this makes it challenging. However, it does not mean we should only do it once in three weeks. I thought it was only me. But after reading your column last week, I realised that it is an epidemic. Yes, Funmi, men cheat on their wives too much. It is not right. I think both men and women are at fault.

    It would be shocking to tell you that at least 60% of Lagos men cheat on their wives. Yes. While wives always complain of tiredness, men come under pressure from these pretty girls all over the place. I know that most of the men in my company (telecoms sector) regularly do it. Many don’t even enjoy it. But it’s the only way to relieve pressure, while we don’t want our wives to know.

    Now, I have two girls that I see regularly. They are nice single girls and we like each other. They know I’m married, but they don’t really mind. They do it because they enjoy the sex too. Many say it is because of money, but the truth is that it is not so. These single girls want men who care for them, spend time with them and say nice things which they don’t see from single men of their age.

    I am writing this because I don’t like cheating on my wife. I don’t. I love her so much. But as any man in his forties would confess, we need good sex regularly, at least once a week. When I don’t get it, I always call these girls and we meet after work. We don’t love each other, but we enjoy each other’s company and have great sex.

    Now, I am much older. I can understand why our fathers always used to have girls out there. And the mothers used to say the girls had juju or something. It is all a big lie – the girls always get the married men because their legs are ready to open without any begging, pleading and bribing.

    I feel wives should be implored to stop destroying their marriages. There is an epidemic here that we need to watch out for. I have promised myself that I won’t do it again. But if I don’t get sex from my wife for three weeks, I know I will do it again.

     

    ANSWER

    Thanks for your comment. I am sure this is food for thought and l know our women out there will not only read this, but will make necessary adjustments. However, I would like to say that the mere fact that everybody is doing something does not make it right. With the help of God, we can make up our minds to be an exception.

     

    QUESTION

    I got married about seven years ago and the marriage is blessed with two lovely kids; a girl and a boy of 6 and 2 years old respectively. I fall in the category of men who didn’t have the ‘best of time’ sexually before marriage due to parental strictness and guidance (a blessing in disguise, you will say). Hence, I was looking forward to a sexually enjoyable and explosive marriage. I met my wife a virgin and she never allowed me to have sexual intercourse during our courtship.

    The first six months of our marriage was beautiful when it comes to sex between couples. After then, her interest dwindled; she did not initiate sex anymore and I became more of burden anytime I demanded sex at night. I am a Christian and I know what the Bible says about adultery.

    These days, I’m lucky when I’m able to have it once in a week; best case scenario is twice in a week. I’ve tried my best to make her happy by buying her gifts from time to time; but the effect does not last long. I bought a Honda for her use (even though the registration is in my name).

    It’s becoming so frustrating. I’ve tried on a couple of occasions to make her read your columns, but she doesn’t; she’s not an avid reader. I’m giving up the fight and I don’t want to look for pleasure outside my marriage, even though the temptation is always there.

    I’m confused.

     

    ANSWER

    Sincere appreciation for sharing your experience with me, especially, the fact that you have not taken irrational decisions. I would also want to add that you should try and create a time to actually pour out your heart to your wife. I’m so sure that when she sees the importance, she would definitely change, because no woman wants to see her marriage destroyed. You can do this by going on a weekend vacation to a free, quiet and private place together. Keep the children with trusted friends and just go out alone together. This eradicates stress and helps both of you to unwind.

    You should also remember that affection and foreplay means a lot to many ladies. If you skip foreplay, most of them feel as if they are being legally raped or put under the knife of a surgeon. Then, make sure that you address her in a befitting manner, and not the way a house girl is addressed.

     

    QUESTION

    My wife is slim. She says penetrative sex does not make her experience orgasm. When I read your column about foreplay and I tried what you said, it didn’t work. I don’t know the part of her body that will make her experience orgasm faster and her breast is just too small; smaller than a bra 32 size. As for ‘eating’ her, I can’t do that. Please reply to me and I would be grateful.

     

    ANSWER

    There are many parts in a lady’s body that can make her experience orgasm. Virtually all the areas of a woman’s body can help her experience it; even by talking to her emotions. A simple talk, caresses whisperings and passionate touches here and there in any part of her body will do the magic. So, irrespective of the size of her breast, she can still experience orgasm with or without penetrative sex. To your second question, using your tongue on your wife’s vagina has no negative effect on your health; just make sure her vagina is very clean and neat.

  • How to be what you claim on your CV

    How to be what you claim on your CV

    I usually have a good laugh when I read the curriculum vitae of many applicants these days. In many cases, the professional summary, critical skills and others, which are now common features of CVs, are similar.

    They are copied from existing templates provided by human resources experts and job solutions specialists who train people on how to write CVs and apply for jobs.

    Some applicants don’t know how to adjust the samples to fit their personality, skills and the job they are applying for. What they do is that they end up claiming to be what they are not and don’t have the capacity to prove it when asked to do so, besides the false claim about ages and documents some present to make them suitable for the vacancies.

    If only some of the applicants know what the real meaning of some of the words they use to describe themselves are, they will not use them, even if they want to impress the interviewers. Some can’t even convincingly articulate the attributes they ascribe to themselves. They assume that they can just claim to be what the employers’ desire or what they wish to be and they will not be taken to task on them.

    You claim to have excellent communication skills but you are not communicating well enough at the interview. You claim to have analytical and critical thinking skills but your response to questions on your view on some issues are shallow. How can someone claim to be passionate about a profession but has not done anything to show it while waiting to be employed.

    Job seekers need to realise that it’s not what they have on paper as their attributes and qualifications that matter, but what they can showcase and explain articulately at interviews.

    Anyone can claim to be anything in the CV but the true test of what you are will be apparent when you seat before the panel of interviewers trying to your true worth. Even your body language can reveal your true personality no matter how you try to mask it.

    There is also now better ways for background checks of claims on CVs, including your social media engagements.

    You can claim to be someone who respect other people’s opinion and a team player, respectful in your CV, but your social media rants will give you out when they are checked.

    While it may be necessary to project yourself as suitable for the job you applying for, don’t exaggerate your capacity. Employers know all the tricks about false claims and know how to match claims with actual capacity and ability.

    Being what you claim on paper requires knowing the skills employers want and having them through necessary training beyond what they are taught in class or outdated knowledge.

    Even if you don’t have the required years of experience, your response to questions can reveal how intelligent you are and capable for the position you are being interviewed for.

    Employment support companies should not only help applicants to write their CVs and profiles, but also need to adequately train them to have necessary capacity.