The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Obasanjo and his Carter eulogy

    Obasanjo and his Carter eulogy

    Former president Olusegun Obasanjo last Sunday justified why he organised a memorial service for the late United States president Jimmy Carter who died a centenarian. Speaking at the service held at the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King within his presidential library complex, Chief Obasanjo gushed over both the similarities he shared with Mr Carter and the great lesson he claimed he learnt from his life and presidency.  Referencing the similarities, Chief Obasanjo said of Mr Carter: “He was born into a farming family in Plains, Georgia, and I was born into a farming family in the rural village of Ibogun-Olaogun in Ogun. He grew up under parents who were disciplinarians, who instilled in him the essence of discipline, morality, hard work, integrity, kindness and humility, compassion for the poor and strong belief in God.” Then he added that Mr Carter “was a lover of humanity, a man of God” whom he would miss, “a great and true friend” he was certain he would meet again in Paradise.

    It is reassuring that Chief Obasanjo knows the qualifications for paradise, and if the similarities he claimed to share with Mr Carter are to be believed, Nigerians should also feel sanguine that in the two periods Chief Obasanjo presided over the affairs of Nigeria, he tried to imitate the former US president. Among the virtues he claimed he had imbibed from his parents are discipline, morality, hard work, integrity, kindness, humility, compassion, and strong belief in God. As a former military officer, he can very well speak about formal military discipline and hard work, two virtues that Nigerians undoubtedly saw in him, whether they liked him or not as their president. But morality? When did he begin to exude that virtue? In his old age, perhaps. Integrity? He will hope that his massive land acquisitions in some parts of the country and the vanity of his investments, particularly his presidential complex and university, validate his self-professed association with that virtue.

    Kindness and compassion? How could Chief Obasanjo speak so glibly of virtues he knows little about, virtues so alien to his mental constitution that it is a miracle he recognises, let alone confesses, them. His record as a military officer, not to say even more poignantly his record as a former head of state and elected president amply proved that nothing about him showed an atom of compassion or kindness. Not when he smashed his way through his party’s primaries, and certainly not when he whimsically enthroned and dethroned his party’s chairmen. In his hands, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) suffered untold abuse and hardship. Before his ascension, the party was solid, organised, focused and predictable. By the time of his exit from office eight years later, the party was unrecognisable, having transformed from a robust and futuristic party to an anaemic, stunted and phlegmatic organisation. It is bewildering that Chief Obasanjo, known to mouth imprecates with the profundity of a shortchanged vixen, could in the same breath mouth the virtues of kindness and compassion. He had no pretext to mention those noble virtues.

    And then wonder of all wonders, standing on the altar, he talked about his ‘strong belief in God’, almost cavalierly and mockingly. Chief Obasanjo put his audience in a dismal and unfamiliar position of judging him when they really have no business doing so. But who could resist punning a man so self-righteous as to sometimes think of himself superior to God, who openly and unabashedly once suggested that nothing he asked God was refused him, a morbid reference to the untruths he told about his third term ambition. No one in or outside the US thought Mr Carter did not possess strong and abiding faith in God. He demonstrated it copiously, not by speaking it, but by living it, even when he was president, and all the more since he left office. More, he taught it in Sunday school, drawing more crowds whenever he did than the main Sunday service of his local church. Chief Obasanjo has admittedly talked up a storm about his ‘faith’, but it is doubtful whether God was ever in his self-made earthquakes or fires.

    Read Also: Obasanjo lists similarities with Jimmy Carter

    Worse of all his panegyrics, Chief Obasanjo claimed to have learnt a great and unforgettable lesson from his departed ‘soulmate’, Mr Carter. Hear him: “One great lesson I learnt from (the late) President Carter was that in his leadership, he carried along an army of co-workers that shared the ideal and the burden of the work with him.  He led by example and in humility, and that made success to attend his way.” Forget the trite part of carrying along kindred spirit co-workers; everyone, including exploitative businessmen and women, knows the value of working with people who share or pretend to share visions with them. Politicians are not exempted from that truism. What is indeed humongous about his claim of learning from Mr Carter is his quaint extrapolation of the virtue of humility and leadership by example. But, pray, in what ways and since when has Chief Obasanjo shown any humility or led by example? Before he was elected president, when he badgered everyone with talk of his superiority and infallibility? Or in office as elected president when he pummeled everybody into submitting to his ‘indomitable’ will? Which example was he talking about, and which humility, when even in his twilight years he still talks profusely about himself, deifies his own name, nurses old grudges, keeping their vitriol potent and hot?

    No one can take anything away from Chief Obasanjo’s affection for Mr Carter, or his attempt to keep his memories fresh in his and everyone’s mind. He is thus entitled to his friendships and affections, and even more at liberty to demonstrate those affections as he deems fit. But he should not tell us tall and mawkish stories about learning anything from Mr Carter or from anyone else. Chief Obasanjo is incapable of learning anything new, and obviously even less capable of teaching anyone anything. He glories in being the first Nigerian head of state to receive a visiting US president, Mr Carter. Let him treasure that for the rest of his days. He can’t have more.

  • Still on Armed Forces Remembrance Day

    Still on Armed Forces Remembrance Day

    Last week’s Remembrance Day activities, particularly the interviews some television stations had with retired military personnel and widows of fallen heroes, should be an opportunity to reflect on the enormous sacrifices men in arms have made to the stability and defence of the country’s territorial integrity. It should also be an opportunity to examine whether the nation has done or is doing enough to appreciate serving, retired or fallen military personnel. The many insurgencies in some parts of the country make this examination more urgent. Daily, soldiers are either killed, maimed or psychologically impaired for life, implying lives truncated, families and family ties disrupted, and ambitions delayed or destroyed. Despite the sometimes difficult relationship between military and civilians, and the appalling records of particularly murderous military regimes, it is time to focus attention in the right direction of making military service worthwhile for soldiers.

    Read Also: Armed Forces Remembrance Day: Tinubu urges Nigerians to shun violence, promote unity

    Far beyond building barracks or adequately funding educational and health institutions run by the military, it may also be time, especially at a time of grinding economic upheavals, to establish and fund highly discounted markets and supermarkets for military personnel, where they could buy necessities for approximately half the price. Then the government must find the right formula that continues to cater for retired personnel as well as shield, within acceptable and reasonable limits, families of fallen heroes from economic vicissitudes. The government can of course not underwrite these changes alone, but they have a duty to lead the effort and campaign. Sometimes, little things matter. Soldiers at the war front need to know that sacrificing their lives, or ambitions in case of lifelong injuries, for a noble cause would not be in vain, and that their loved ones would not end up holding the short end of the stick. 

  • Emir Sanusi takes offence

    Emir Sanusi takes offence

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor and Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, was unsparing of the Bola Tinubu administration’s economic management style last week in Lagos when he gave a few remarks at the 21st memorial lecture of Chief Gani Fawehinmi organised by the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Without his effervescent and controversial remarks, it is doubtful whether the NBA (Ikeja branch) lecture would have attracted the kind of publicity it received in the following day’s media reports. The emir, whose throne is still disputed in court following his deposition by former governor Abdullahi Ganduje and reinstatement by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, can be trusted to attract newspaper headlines any day.

    In his remarks at the NBA lecture he seemed unsure he still had friends in the administration, perhaps because he doubted their commitment to his efforts to reclaim the stool he believed he lost unfairly when the then governor, Dr Ganduje, who is now the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, deposed him. When he spoke of their lack of commitment to him, it was an oblique reference to the protractedness of the court cases barring him from being the undisputed Kano emir. When he spoke about the administration’s controversial and unnerving economic reforms, it was also an indication that he still recognised them as friends who were nevertheless reluctant or unwilling to behave as friends. If they were reluctant to requite his love, he would not feel bound to help them, he said, inferring both their absolution and their pigheadedness.

    Said he: “I have decided not to speak about the economy or the reforms, nor to explain anything regarding them. If I explained, it would only benefit this government, and I don’t want to aid this government. I can stand here today, to be honest, and give a few points that are contrary, a few points that explain perhaps what we’re going through and how it was totally predictable—most of it, and maybe avoidable. But I’m not going to do that. They’re my friends. If they don’t behave like friends, I don’t behave like a friend. So, I watch them being stewed, and they don’t even have people with credibility who can come and explain what they’re doing. But I’m not going to help. Let them come and explain to Nigerians why the policies that are being pursued are being pursued. Meanwhile, I’m watching a very nice movie with popcorn in my hands. What we are going through today is, at least in part—not totally, at least in part—a necessary consequence of decades of irresponsible economic management.”

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    The administration’s response was rather copious but also tame. They do not need his approval, Information minister Mohammed Idris said, suggesting pointedly that the administration understood that the emir was unable or unkeen to subsume personal interest under national interest. Indeed, apart from justifying their economic measures and proving that they had the competence to explain themselves, contrary to the emir’s cavil, the administration centred its rebuttal on the shocking fact that for Emir Sanusi, it was all about his person, not strictly the policies of the administration nor presidency staff. In his remarks at the NBA lecture, the emir deployed pungent satire to capture the administration’s troubles with Nigeria’s long-suffering public. Hear him: “I don’t want to aid this government; I’m watching them being stewed; they don’t have people with credibility who can explain their policies; I’m watching a very nice movie with popcorn in my hands…”

    Emir Sanusi has always been controversial and impetuous. The problem, as the Information minister said, is not that he took issue with any government policy, the big problem is how he failed to realise that his statements show the disturbing inner workings of his mind: his immense self-centredness, his obsession with his ‘immaculate’ worldview, and his incredible willingness to sacrifice anything, including friendship and patriotism, to achieve his private and limited objectives. He is probably right that despite pursuing the right course and policies, the administration has been awkward in explaining themselves. He is also probably right that some of the administration’s policies have been blunted or even inadequate in tackling the country’s socio-economic crisis. And who can refute the emir’s conviction that some of the administration’s officials have been ill-equipped for the tasks at hand. Yes, the emir has ample reasons to be cautious about his optimism, but he also probably flaunts and exaggerates his eloquence which he sometimes substitute for substance, as his alleged profligate first term on the Kano throne indicated, not to talk of his equally controversial and partially undisciplined tenure at the CBN also showed.

    In his NBA lecture remarks, Emir Sanusi may have displayed uncommon candour, but he probably underestimates the intelligence and character of many of his listeners, some of whom would have been dismayed at how petty he sounded. To withhold advice to the nation, if not an administration he confessed was staffed by his friends, simply because he was spurned, is to display the crassest measure of self-importance and meanness anyone is capable of exhibiting. His audience would have seen him for what he truly is, a man and traditional ruler strangely lacking in wisdom and noblesse oblige. If he didn’t see the pitfalls of being viewed as a man lacking in generosity of spirit, then he is in fact overrated, regardless of his intellectual profundity and eloquence. When he made the statement of not being eager to help the administration, the applause was muted, and the snickers subdued. His audience probably shuddered at his confessions and shrunk at his lack of circumspection. Indeed, there is a limit to candour and selfishness.

    Emir Sanusi forgets himself very quickly. He may disregard the reasons behind his dethronement, but it will be baffling if he also downplays the superficial and crassly political reasons for his restoration to the throne. He is a ready and clearly willing tool in the fight between New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a former governor of the state, and Dr Ganduje, Gov Yusuf’s predecessor. The combatants can’t stand each other, and will deploy anyone or tool in the service of prosecuting the war. This is why the restored emir is useful, probably only or mainly as a battering ram. But few Kanawa can forget that Dr Ganduje managed to carry out his wish against the emir through a process that passed muster. There was a query, an inquiry, then a dethronement. The inquiry was largely hinged on the emir’s alleged profligacy and refusal to be accountable, a strange behaviour for someone who rose to the position of Governor of the nation’s Central Bank. Had the emir been less voluble and critical of the governor’s policies and style of governance, Dr Ganduje, who was immersed in controversies of his own, would have been sparing. But the emir displayed immense sense of entitlement, not responsibility, and he further scoffed at the efforts to remove him, culminating in his deposition in March 2020.

    Emir Sanusi possesses the capacity to always reenact his overreach, sermonising against his unfriendly friends as well as his enemies with equal passion. In the NBA lecture, he trained his guns on the current federal administration, revealing to everyone’s amazement that he was doing so because the administration refused to acknowledge him in certain ways and over certain issues. This style has become, for him, idiosyncratic. He will repeat the NBA-like harangue now or in the future when anyone, friend or foe, crosses his path. He can’t help it. There is no altruism in his methods, and he does not care. Consumed by self-consideration, he will not be denied what he thought heaven and tradition, not to say intellect and aristocracy, has vouchsafed him. It is just as well that one of his closest friends is the stormy petrel of Kaduna politics, the inimitable Nasir el-Rufai, a former governor. Both are incurably entitled, and both can be appallingly acerbic when denied. They do not think they are ever wrong; indeed they do not think they can be wrong. Intelligent, courageous, proud of their Fulani heritage, and imperial and ruthlessly vindictive, all that remains for them, as their chequered years in politics and monarchy have exposed, is to develop the character necessary to produce the staying power they covet and the pillars to anchor their tall ambitions.

  • State courts troubling, undermining democracy

    State courts troubling, undermining democracy

    Sooner or later, the Bola Tinubu administration will have to focus on state courts, far beyond the laudable feats of raising the pay of judicial officers and driving the financial autonomy of the judiciary. The reason is simple: at the states level, judges and magistrates are overweeningly beholden to governors and senior state officials. Many of the judges lack any sense of independence and judicial rectitude. Judgements from state courts in Rivers (Governor Siminalayi Fubara V. Nyesom Wike), in Kogi (In the heady days of the pretentious Yahaya Bello), and in Kano (The battle of the emirs) have been troubling and depressing. There are of course many other examples elsewhere in the states, examples designed to stymie justice and fair play, but in recent months and years, the Kano, Kogi and especially Rivers examples of far-fetched legal interpretations or outright perversion of justice take the biscuit.

    Reforms are desperately needed to curb the malady. Nigeria’s various judicial regulatory authorities, including the National Judicial Council, Federal Judicial Service Commission, and State Judicial Service Commission, have only made a partial dent on keeping judicial appointees on the straight and narrow path. In addition, neither the Nigerian Bar Association nor the Body of Benchers has been able to aid the effort to make judicial officers models of rectitude. There is plenty of work to be done, not only in sanitising the judiciary and raising its competence level; there is also quite a lot to be done to get state judicial administrators, working by themselves or in league with state executives, to institute fairness in the administration of justice. In fact, and sadly, many state judiciaries have managed disreputably to suffuse their operations with ethnic and religious colourations.

    In the months Mr Bello of Kogi State played hide-and-seek with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) when they sought him, one or two state courts startled everyone with their ill-considered judgements. In Kano, the courts are stalling and playing ducks and drakes with its emirs’ stability and composure. And in Rivers, the courts forsook reason, abandoned their independence, and are playing the harlot with the executive branch. They cannot be trusted to self-regulate, regardless of what the law says. They are too far gone in their excesses and harlotry. The Tinubu administration cannot pretend that these dire problems do not exist, and he can also not attempt to dive into the quagmire and directly reform and recalibrate the judiciary. Yet, it has a duty not to leave the judiciary as it met it. Everyone knows that the third arm of government is in trouble, and is also troubling Nigerian democracy. The administration must, therefore, first empanel a group of legal experts to study the problem and get to the root of the crisis before proposing lasting remedies. Yes, Nigerians have a fair idea of what is wrong, but the panel should be able to dig deeper. Secondly, the administration should thereafter sponsor legislation, not too dissimilar to the new tax reform bills, to tackle the rot. Here it will need the help of retired but incorruptible jurists who have tracked the decay and decline in the judiciary for years, if not for decades.

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    The Tinubu administration cannot afford to leave the judiciary as it is, abandoning the third arm of government to appointees who lack the intellect and character needed to preserve, promote and strengthen the judicial arm. Nigerians sneer at the tainted process of appointing judicial officers, which are sometimes carried out in flagrant disregard of competence, and sometimes to promote ethnic and religious agenda. Nigerians are exhausted with the operations of their courts, and they need to be succoured, not palliated with cosmetic changes. The National Assembly could attempt a fundamental remake of the judiciary through novel lawmaking, but lawmakers are either too distracted to pay attention to the problem or too tainted themselves to exercise both the gumption and character needed for a comprehensive overhaul. Much more, the legislature does not have the kind of courage President Tinubu summoned to back the tax reform bills to the hilt. The lawmakers seem prone to wilt in the face of the most perfunctory and tepid of challenges. That leaves only the executive branch, assuming President Tinubu can be encouraged to turn his attention to an arm of government certain to doom Nigerian democracy if it is left to its own devices.

    It would be a relief if the president can be persuaded to turn his gaze upon the judiciary. Would it be certain that whatever reforms he proposed could do the job of repositioning the third arm of government? No one can tell with certainty. Hopefully, he will get it right, as he has done with the tax bills, and indeed with so many of his other policies, despite initial misgivings and hiccups. The operation of the rule of law upon which investment in any country is hinged depends on the justice system. But Nigeria has only a form of justice system; it is sadly crippled by incompetent and cowardly judicial officers. Their problem is, however, not a lack of brilliance; the problem is that in the Nigerian judiciary, often competent and courageous judges are endangered species weeded out by perverse forms of natural selection. Hopefully, the reforms, if and when they come, will repair the breaches.    

  • IGP and insurance snafu

    IGP and insurance snafu

    Two factors informed the rather unusual and direct intervention of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, in the looming enforcement of Motor Third Party insurance cover for vehicles on Nigerian roads. One, according to him and estimates by insurance experts, only about 30 percent of vehicles plying Nigerian roads are insured. Two, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has itself entered the insurance business by establishing the NPF Insurance Limited, and was recently granted licence, according to a business newspaper. So, when the IGP announced the beginning of enforcement from February 1, it is clear what the motivations are.

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    With the entry into the fray of the police insurance company, the police are clearly out to make money and profits, especially as third party premiums are virtually free money to operators. That the motoring public would conclude that most police enforcements are profit driven, including the illogical annual revalidation of vehicle proof of ownership, is not an exaggeration. The police are clearly underfunded; but to engage in brazen measures that earn the police economic profit in its interactions with the public during law enforcement may indicate that the Ministry of Police Affairs and the National Assembly have abdicated their responsibilities to the public, and have shown a debilitating misconception of the philosophy of law enforcement and national security.

    Like military chiefs under the last administration who instigated the siting of tertiary institutions in their homesteads, the police are setting themselves up for a dangerous enactment of conflict of interest. They have always been accused of extortion during law enforcement, but they have consistently denied the allegations and even punished malfeasant officers who ran afoul of service regulations, now they will lack the legitimacy to argue their innocence. At a time when insecurity has multiplied by leaps and bounds, the police appear determined to be distracted. It remains to find out who will nudge them to retrace their steps and increase and sharpen their professionalism.

  • Institutional decay and the ancient tradition

    Institutional decay and the ancient tradition

    • Towards a reform of the Yoruba kingship system

    A royal drama of succession has just wound down in the storied metropolis of Oyo. While it lasted, the whole world waited with bated breath to see which way the pendulum would swing. This is not the first time people would be witnessing such fierce and bitter contention among royal siblings who can trace their genealogy to the same primogenitor, and it will not be the last time as long as the authorities fail to do the needful to reflect changing times and their changing ethos.

     The Yoruba royal institution has suffered so much battering and indignities in recent time that it will take years if not decades to redeem its image and return it to its old prestige and pristine grandeur. Luckily, traditional rulers do not die every day. So, there is plenty of room for much needed reforms of the Obaship institution. All this may just be warning signals or indications of an approaching end of an epoch. The fact that three major Yoruba towns, namely Ogbomosho, Ilesha and Oyo, have been plagued in quick succession by much discord and rancour particularly among the ruling elite of the cities is a dire omen which should not be ignored.

       When you combine inevitable institutional decay with the irreversible onslaught of modernity, this is the most likely outcome and it is often so bizarre and fanciful that the audience can no longer be separated from the drama, like worshippers hypnotized into mass frenzy in a religious revival. The drummer no longer communicates with the dancer and the wondrous symphony of shared cultural affinities is lost. Disharmony and disruption of rhythm reign supreme and mere confusion is unleashed on the community. Sometimes, we have seen the process work perfectly and seamlessly, that is if the voice of the oracle is also the voice of the most powerful, most influential and richest in the land. But all hell is let loose when there is a rupture of consensus; when the oracle is seen to be misled and misleading to the bargain leading to a crisis of spiritual confidence.

      In certain communities, this oracular confusion or mendacity is viewed with such displeasure that both the oracles and the ancient deities were assembled for summary execution. Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God opened with such apocalyptic bloodletting when the people felt that the old gods could no longer pass muster and promptly took them out for open dismemberment. Surveying the Homeric gore and other indignant infractions of the sacred procedure from the optics of his myth-ridden and god-suffused Yoruba people, Wole Soyinka chided Achebe for a dogged and relentless secularization of the profoundly mystical.

       Well, let the profoundly mystical beware. And let those who casually dispose of their gods and oracles also beware. These ancient curios are nothing but ideological state apparatuses with which the old pre-colonial state instilled terror and compliance in the populace and through which they contain the murderous mobs and the hysterical masses. It is not out of frivolity that Peter Morton, an early visitor to the new Egba settlement of Abeokuta, described members of the Ogboni Confraternity, those grizzled custodians of the Yoruba Deep State, as “mystery-mongering greybeards”. Little wonder that these ideological apparatuses retain a lingering efficacy beyond the superannuation of their material and historical basis.                                                                                                                         

     But human memory is short and brittle indeed. Those who accuse Seyi Makinde of a political sleight of hand and of reaching for a metaphysical deus ex machina to leverage his secular authority in this matter might have succumbed to habits of forgetfulness. It is not the first time this will be happening in the checkered history of the Yoruba people. At the risk of sounding sacrilegious, the oracle is made for humankind and not the other way round. Makinde has not discarded it. But in the circumstance, he has done the wisest and most politically savvy thing to reach the oracle through a different spiritual medium, in this case, the distinguished and much garlanded spiritualist and Ifa priest, Professor Wande Abimbola. According to his school mates at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, the professor was known as Wande Iroko in that youthful incarnation, a storied cognomen which bespoke the native prowess of his forbears.

       Almost sixty years ago after the incumbent Alaafin, Oba Gbadegesin Ladigbolu, joined his ancestors, the struggle to produce the next Alaafin became so rancorous and hate-filled that the military government of Western Nigeria was forced put a lid on the deadlocked process citing the civil war and the need for all hands to be on deck. Upon resumption of the search immediately after the civil war, the authorities jettisoned the old spiritual mediums and went for a new one in the person of the much revered Oni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi, who immediately went into spiritual seclusion. After seven days of deep consultation, the great man emerged to inform the emissaries that the oracle was in favour of any of the contestants whose father ”has done it before”. (Omo eniti o ti seri)

      The royal cap fitted Prince Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi and from that point, he became the last man standing.  Nobody could fault the old Oba because of his matchless integrity, his unimpeachable character and sterling reputation for fairness and justice. Please note that the Ife monarch had no business extending any sympathy to the son of a man who was his stubborn political adversary and an unwavering NCNC supporter.  So far, nobody has faulted Professor Wande Abimbola’s equally fearsome reputation for honesty and integrity. By his own admission, he was approached by members of the Oyomesi in council to juggle with the finding of the oracle, a move which he stoutly rebuffed. Had he compromised or succumbed in any manner, the whole thing would have been an exercise in futility and there is every possibility that the ancient town would have erupted.

       That possibility can still not be lightly discounted. The sparse crowd that accompanied the new king to his royal domain suggests a deeply divided royal metropolis. It is a long time the new Alaafin’s branch of the royal household produced an incumbent. He himself has been away in the Diaspora for quite some time without any sterling connection with the home crowd. He is acceding to the throne of his forefathers in an emergency, so to say. He will need to reach out to numerous former rivals in the extended Atiba dynasty. This is not the first time a leading Yoruba monarch has been forced to master the ropes while on the throne. He will need to assemble a team of first class royal groomers. An obviously humble and unassuming fellow, he will need to stamp his authority on his domain as quickly as possible. There is some need for improvement in mien and carriage. Oba Akeem Abimbola Owoade will not be the first leading Yoruba monarch to learn on the job and to go on to excel, surpassing all expectations. The polity is surfeit with glorious examples.

      Lastly, it must be noted that this less than edifying episode is a confirmation of the institutional decay and decline of the royal rampart which was the pride of the entire Yoruba race and the old Oyo Empire.  First, the empire succumbed to the feudal cavalry mounted from the new Sultanate outpost of Ilorin. But this only resulted in displacement and disparagement rather than total destruction. However, if the colonial irruption stripped it of the power of enforcement and coercion, the relentless onslaught of modernity has shorn it of its feudal prestige and aura of invincibility. In the event, any selection process anchored on these pillars of legitimacy is bound to end an unworthy charade. This is what has just played out. There is an urgent need for a reform of the process.

    The role of the Oyomesi in this royal fiasco is not particularly ennobling. They have come to see the selection of an Alaafin as a once in a lifetime bazaar and royal round tripping. The Ifa oracle itself must be exhausted and impoverished after the latest round of royal extortion. This would have been unthinkable in generations of yore when the empire was at the zenith of its power and glory. They would have tasted the swift retribution meant for those in breach of royal regulations. But it must be remembered that they are products of their age and time, just like the fabled Elesin Oba who refused against the demand of timeworn tradition to follow his principal to his final resting abode. No single individual however exceptional and heroic, or class, or creed, or guild or caste can be made to bear full responsibility for institutional decay or systemic unraveling. Everybody must have made their contribution either in fault or by default. This is why Governor Makinde must give the Oyomesi some breather by dropping the threat of prosecution once the old men have indicated a willingness to buy into the new order.

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      It is in the light of the institutional degeneracy that many critics are calling for an outright abolition of the whole indigenous ruling system. This is akin to throwing the baby out with the tub water and the tub itself. This is not possible or feasible except in a situation of momentous revolutionary upheaval and total convulsion which opens the door to anarchy and chaos. Except we are enamoured of the situation in Sudan,  the Democratic Republic of Congo and the CAR, the subsisting multi-ethnic and multi-identity framework of postcolonial Nigeria does not admit of such violent disruptions. The traditional institution is the least of Nigeria’s problems. As a matter of fact, despite its hobbled nature, the institution has been closest to the pulse of the people. When the local rulers are drivers of the process as farmers or traders, they foster accelerated agricultural growth and development. This is a process yours sincerely has monitored in several Yoruba communities. When blessed with wisdom and judgment, indigenous Obas and Baales also settle communal strife and douse inter-communal friction in a way that is beyond the vision and capacity of the political class.

      Given the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious nature of the nation, the performance of its indigenous rulers is bound to be mixed and uneven, even when it is true that they were all put in the colonial slammer. Whatever the systemic infirmities and frailties, it will be difficult to persuade an average Yoruba person to let go of the system. The same is also true of people in the ancillary states of Kogi, Edo, Delta and Benue who share some cultural affinities with the Yoruba people. In the last century since the collapse of the old indigenous order and triumph of colonialism, Yoruba Obas have become endlessly resourceful in political matters and ceaseless self-inventing when it comes to crowd psychology.

      Of these remarkable sovereigns, none was more versatile and gifted than the last incumbent to occupy the Oyo throne. The late Alaafin was a scholar, a journalist, a historian, a boxer with a lethal left hook,  a dancer of exemplary skills and an occultist of great power.. He was also a man of immense personal charm and electrifying magnetism. Barely five years after acceding to the throne of his ancestors both Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade, the two leading Yoruba musicians, were already singing his praises to high heavens. It is a tough act to follow and the new Alaafin should not even bother. He should follow his own instincts and lay down his own example through his God-given endowments. There lies the path to distinction.

      As we can see from the above, it is not over yet for traditional rulership in Yorubaland, despite the tumult and turbulence occasioned by the onslaught of modernity. But some fundamental tinkering with the process of selection is imperative at this point. To the various princes of the Atiba clan, it is  apt to remind them that but for the quick thinking, bravery, farsightedness and capacity for reform and innovation of the founding father, the entire dynasty and perhaps the throne itself could have perished in the ruins and rubble of the old capital at Oyo-Ile after the empire finally crumbled. To fight bravely and to retreat courageously is the hallmark of the Oyo people. It must not be said that a lion gave birth to lizards.   

  • FOR MARK NWAGWU

    FOR MARK NWAGWU

    (Forever Chimes)

    Forever  chimes

    That guileless smile on your lips

    Cordial  like a cool, refreshing breeze

    Forever chimes

    Your  laugher, clear and vigorous

    Like the music of a friendly wind

    Forever chimes

    Catholic in their protean possibilities

    Inclusive  in their  ecumenical span

    Forever chimes

    The plural capacity  of  your tent

    Its wide and wondrous canvas

    Forever chimes

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    The polyphony of its quests

    The rousing rainbow of its dreams

    Forever chimes

    The Science of your being

    The Being of your Science

    Forever chimes

    Of that double helix

    At the crossroads of our biding essence

    Forever chimes

    Its spiral song, crimson chorus

    And vital complexities

    Forever chimes

    The seeker’s  relentless  search

    The microscope’s Eureka moments  

    Scientist, Poet, Scholar without Borders

    The season rocks to the music of your Muse

    Forever chimes….

    Title of   one  of  Professor  Nwagwu’s literary works

  • The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (III)

    The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (III)

    The North American colonies were peopled predominantly by the English although the available spaces were contested with the French in the North and the Dutch in the North East. For example, the city we now know as New York was originally called New Amsterdam as it was originally a Dutch colony, the island of Manhattan having been purchased from the indigenous people for the princely sum of $24 in 1626. In time however the Dutch were supplanted by the English who developed the island into a trading centre and now the centre of global trade. These colonies were part of the emerging British empire and were ruled from London until they famously won their independence in 1776.

    Immediately eastwards of the British colonies, in the Caribbean ocean, the European powers of the day settled on the islands which dotted that area. There, they set up another form of colonies, the slave colonies on which European settlement was limited. As a matter of fact, these islands represented the limit of Columbus penetration as that explorer did not go beyond them. The original inhabitants of those islands now collectively and derogatorily referred to as Caribs and described as cannibals were quickly disposed of. It is interesting to note that the cannibals which gave Robinson Crusoe in the eponymous novel by Daniel Defoe an almighty fright were supposed to represent these unfortunate people in literature. Beginning in the sixteenth century, various European powers including the British, French and Spanish began to squabble among themselves for the mastery of those islands some of which changed hands as the Europeans made this region the centrepiece of war and diplomatic activities over several centuries. The rivalry was so fierce because it was realised quite early on that the soil of that region was particularly suited for the planting of sugar.

    Sugar cane was first domesticated in both Papua New Guinea and parts of India and gradually spread through Arab conquests to Southern Europe in areas around the Mediterranean sea, into Portugal and Spain. As with several other commodities, the use of sugar was introduced into Europe during the Crusades even though both the Greeks and the Romans had a familiarity with sugar but only as medicine.

    Sugar cane is a very demanding crop as it requires high temperature and humidity for growth. In addition, its cultivation is highly labour intensive and over the years was only profitable with the availability of slave labour. These conditions were admirably met in the West Indian islands and parts of the American mainland. All the usual European suspects starting with the Dutch got in on the act and started producing sugar in the New World with Columbus planting the first sugar seedlings on the island of Hispaniola in 1493. These sugar islands were supplied with slaves from Africa for hundreds of years and it is instructive that Cuba, the leading sugar producer in the Caribbean was also the last to abolish slavery in 1888. The lives of the slaves that had to plant, hoe sugar, harvest the cane and produce sugar was extremely brutal with the life expectancy of a slave that was landed on the island of Barbados at the height of slavery being only four years. Being transported to that island from Africa was therefore a short life sentence with extreme hard labour. When the slaves died, their dry bones were ground up and mixed with animal bones and used to whiten the sugar produced on the plantations. Slaves were not even allowed to rest in peace after their labours!

    Another aspect of slave sugar production was mechanisation. Sugar cane is very bulky and therefore very difficult to transport over long distances. This meant that sugar was produced on each plantation by the slaves who had grown the crop in the first place. All the pieces of equipment; crushers, rollers, and evaporators used in refining sugar were either moving or very hot and accidents leading to the loss of lives and limbs were frequent. Each machine had a machete within easy reach so that when a finger was caught in the machine, the band of the unfortunate slave was simply chopped off so that it was not necessary to stop the machine for the offending finger to be extricated from the machine. That mutilation was as good as a death sentence because from that point on,  the slave in question was no longer productive and had become expendable and well, slaves never retired. Those who could no longer work were surplus to requirement and were quickly disposed of. Their bones were then ground up to bleach sugar. Sugar fuelled the trans- Atlantic slave trade as no other commodity was able to do but in the end sugar also contributed to the end of the slave trade and ultimately, the emancipation of slaves on all British ruled territories in 1834.

    The central importance of slavery to the rise of capitalism is illustrated by the story of the voyage of the Zong, a British slave ship which sailed from Accra in present day Ghana with a cargo of 442 slaves bound for Jamaica in 1781. In the first place the Zong, in order to maximise profit was carrying more than double the number of slaves she was allowed to carry even by the terrible standards of the day. In addition, the substantive captain of the ship was incapacitated by illness and command fell to the ship surgeon who had no practical sailing experience. There came a time when through all manner of navigation errors, the ship faced a devastating water shortage and the response of the crew was to begin to throw the slaves overboard in an attempt to stretch the availability of water. It was reasoned that the cost of the slaves murdered in that manner was covered by insurance but that if they died of thirst, they would not be able to collect insurance of £30 for each dead slave. In the normal course of events, no less than 62 slaves had died of ‘natural causes’ during the voyage before the decision to execute other slaves by drowning was taken. All in all, 132 slaves were drowned over three days and ten others jumped into the sea of their own accord in protest at the inhumane conditions they were being subjected to. All other slaves were eventually safely delivered to Jamaica and sold on average for £36 each.  In addition, the ship owners put in a claim for the drowned slaves and won their claim. However, the insurers refused to pay up and the case ended up in court. Judgement in favour of the ship owners was predicated on the fact that the slaves were in fact items of cargo and did not deserve to be treated like human beings. The second trial ended in triumph for the insurers on the ground that the crew of the ship had been negligent and that was what led to the death of the enslaved people on board. An attempt to try the negligent crew for murder was however unsuccessful.

    Read Also: The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (I)

    The man who brought the issue of murder on the Zong to public notice was Olaudah Equiano  a former slave of Igbo descent. He joined forces with Grenville Sharp, an abolitionist who insisted that what took place on the Zong was murder but virtually nobody agreed with them since the victims were just Africans on their way to a short life of slavery. Eventually however, the Zong incident was a catalyst for ending British participation in the slave trade some thirty years later and the emancipation of slaves more than fifty years later.

    The point to be made here is that without the humongous profit made by the enslavement of Africans in the Americas, the capital needed for fuelling the Industrial revolution would never have become available. An example will help prove this point. The home port of the Zong was Liverpool, a town which owed its economic importance to the slave trade as it was the home port to many slave ships. One of the owners of Zong was Gregson, at that time the mayor of Liverpool. It has been calculated that Gregson was personally involved over a lifetime of slave trading in the transportation of at least 58,000 Africans into slavery in the West Indies. The man built up a mountain of capital to bring about the rise and rise of capitalism. There were many others like him who built up their capital in the same way. Some of these men were, in the manner of Gregson, individuals but others were formidable institutions like the Royal African Company and its Dutch counterpart, the Dutch West Indian company which had control of the sugar plantations in Surinam which remains a Dutch colony today.

    The slave trade was a massive commercial, and even municipal enterprise as we have seen with the city of Liverpool which was once a lowly fishing village but became a city, complete with a Cathedral within a short period of her involvement in the slave trade. Today, Liverpool is one of the largest cities in Britain, her murky past in the slave trade all but forgotten completely.

    The slave trade was very profitable. Commodities were brought to Europe in ships which were loaded down with sugar, cotton, indigo, rice and other commodities which were sold at an immense profit. The ships then took on the tawdry trade goods so beloved of African slave traders and sold again at great profit. Finally, the ships were overloaded with human cargo and transported across the Atlantic for yet another round of profit taking. But things did not always work according to plan as the case of the voyage of the Zango clearly shows. These traders needed trading capital which they got from banks as well as insurance cover which insurance companies readily provided. Some of these institutions which facilitated the slave trade are still in business today. For example, Lloyds of London is still very much in business but fully 40% of her business in those days was provided by slave trading activities. Barclays bank is another institution which has survived to the present day. Like Lloyds, Barclays bank was involved in the slave trade as she provided loans to slave traders thereby facilitating their trade. It cannot be overstated that without the slave trade, capitalism could not have engineered the Industrial revolution which over the years has changed the world profoundly.

    • To be continued.
  • By end of 2026 Nigerians will be clamouring for continuation of Tinubu administration

    By end of 2026 Nigerians will be clamouring for continuation of Tinubu administration

    YES. I wrote that even as I am neither God nor see into the future. As to any of us being alive December ’26 and beyond, you and I can only hope in the munificence of the Almighty God.

    So think not that I am playing God. Rather, I am looking at trends. At history.

    And by the way, I am not in any way suggesting that Tinubu’s political enemies, the likes of  Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Kwankwaso or the Obidients, whose own existence depends solely on feeding fat on eethnicity would have evaporated from the face of the earth. No. not by any chance. Indeed, more anti – Tinubu groups would most probably have mushroomed as the 2027 elections draw nearer. All these are no prophecy but truisms waiting to materialise.

    I say these things for two main reasons, namely: one, the fact that, like a miracle, I have watched this ‘anjonu’ – read as Tinubu – two decades ago, turn around near disaster into a grand opportunity for massive renewal,  and a comparatively worse situation turned around to mark the very beginning of today’s thriving Lagos economy, now 4th in the African continent of 54 countries. Yes, he  did it and please just don’t just joke with that man who the Almighty God has set apart.

    Do you know how many waters Bola Ahmed Tinubu has passed through?

    Apart from all the schemes of the opposition, did President Muhammadu Buhari want him as his own successor? Where, today, are the court jesters rooting for Emefiele or do you any longer hear of then APC’s Chairman,   who would have done anything to instal. .?

    Put nothing beyond Tinubu as long as it is in the best interest of Nigeria.

    The second reason  is the fact that Nigerians are no fools. Once they see their circumstances improve, turned around for the better, they would stick by you through thick and thin. Trust them.

    I, intact, have already seen one asking for a Tinubu for Anambra state. Yet they haven’t seen anything yet.  They should give Tinubu  12 more  months and many will marvel.

    I am not only a chronicler of historical events. I am, first and foremost, a trained historian – Kudos to the greats, my teachers – Akinjogbin, Anjorin, Segun Osoba, Igbafe, Afolayan, Omosini, Olaniyan and others too numerous to mention – who all took me through the crucible.

    As governor of Lagos state in 1999, Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited a state plagued by, among others, a galaxy  of stinking and suffocating streets, poor infrastructure,  and a very low internal revenue generation, implying very poor resources.

    Within his first year in office, Tinubu had begun to turn things around, laying the foundation that will turn Lagos into the thriving megacity it is today.

    About his first area of focus was education. wherein he initiated a comprehensive reform  aimed at making public schools attractive.  This included the rehabilitation of primary and secondary schools,  provision of free education in all public primary and secondary schools and the payment of WAEC/NECO fees for all students. These tremendously increased access to education for thousands of pupils with little or no additional stress for parents. He immediately prioritised infrastructure development, initiating several projects aimed at improving the state’s road network, expanding its water supply system as well as vigorously enhanced its waste management infrastructure. Not surprisingly,

    these efforts helped tremendously in improving the overall quality of life of the citizens.

    He also aggressively implemented  initiatives aimed at improving the state’s poor, if not negligible, internal revenue. This he did by introducing a new tax system,  expanding  the state’s tax base, and  implementing measures aimed at reducing tax evasion. He then computerised the entire payment system, to crown it all.

    When a few years ago, during a visit to him at his Bourdillon home he told Professor Bayo Williams and I the story of how he, as Lagos state governor, birthed the very first bond as a source of funding for Lagos state in the modern era, we could only marvel.

    As a result of his fear of Northern governors, President Olusegun Obasanjo could not start effecting payment of the 13 per cent derivation to oil producing state’s despite the latter’s pressure.

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    Tinubu noticed the lacuna and persuaded the highly versatile governor Segun Osoba who had many friends among them, to plead with his Northern colleagues to relent, which he successfully did and payment began.

    Tinubu did that knowing full well that most of those huge funds would be sitting idle in banks, all of whose headoffices are domiciled in Lagos, well aware that banks would be receptive to funding solid state loan proposals. That was how he creatively got funding for all his massive infrastructural programmes in the  state.

    His administration also made significant investments in healthcare and social welfare. It initiated several projects aimed at improving the state’s healthcare infrastructure.

    Before you know it, a new Lagos was born,  to be vigorously nourished,  subsequently, by an uninterrupted succession system – which he birthed – and saw his party in power since 1999 till date.

    Let us now gravitate towards contemporary Nigeria and examine why, from the above experiences, I feel positive that President Tinubu will so impact Nigeria and Nigerians that, come election time in 2026 – 27, Nigerians will be clamouring – mind you not begging please – for his election and continuation in office in spite of the current efforts by opposition elements to demarket his government, shouting ‘ebi npa mi’.

    Considering the ambitious economic growth plan  he has unveiled for the country, it is obvious that I am in no fantasy land with my projection even if some doubt it.

    Among other things, Tinubu’s economic  plan aims at elevating Nigeria’s  GDP to $1 trillion by 2026 and to further expand it to $3 trillion by the end of the decade. 

    This will not only transform Nigeria’s economy, but so significantly improve the lives of Nigerians that ‘ebi npa mi’ would have long become history.

    Our current GDP is around $450 billion and taking it to $1 trillion would involve large scale investment and innovation. This will involve creating the right socio – economic environment for businesses to thrive, attract foreign investment, as well as develop the country’s infrastructure, none of which is beyond the capabilities of the technocratic and experienced politician we have in Tinubu. Indeed, a daring – do Tinubu has already shown himself as not only fearless, but sure- footed enough, to do whatever is necessary to make all these happen.

    As is already well known, his economic  plan is built around the following:

    *Infrastructure Development – investing in critical infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, and seaports to facilitate trade and commerce, but certainly without eggregiously straying into building railways into foreign lands;

    *Industrialization – manufacturing and mining, in particular, to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.

    *Massive Agricultural Development – investing in Agriculture to increase food security, reduce food imports, and create jobs for rural communities especially through the establishment of food processing industries;

    *Human Capital Development –  investing in education, healthcare, and skills development to create a more productive and competitive workforce.

    It can bear repetition that Tinubu has the requisite competences, and experience,  to achieve, maximally, in these key areas and put the country on the road to a level of growth which will lead to increased prosperity as well as improved living standards for all.

    The impediments to achieving all these are, albeit, humongous and some will definitely require tact, and statesmanship, to resolve.

    First of all, apart from her ambitious politicians like Atiku and Kwankwaso, the North, as a political zone, has shown itself a major stumbling bloc to Tinubu’s success that no matter what some spokespersons say now in 2025, the North cannot truly wish to see President Tinubu succeed, not even for the sake of Nigeria. This should ordinarily be a surprise given the huge votes the North gave him in the 2023 election. The reality though is the fact that the North is immortality averse to not being in power.

    Only this past week, for the simple reason that it is currently not in power, and regardless of whether Tinubu created a  ministry of Livestock Development, or not,  a trending WhatsApp video showed a Northern group threatening to declare war on Nigeria. The  more sober ones are aggressiveky planning to drag former President Goodluck Jonathan out to contest not because they love him but rather because he can only now constitutionally spend a term. Forget, in the meantime, that this is the same man they disgraced out of office so their own Buhari could rule.

    For the North, therefore, just imagine the difference a mere four years can make.

    Corruption is another major impediment. It remains a significant challenge and President Tinubu would have to do far more than his government is currently  doing fighting the cankerworn as it can appear in any guise, to scuttle his administration at election.

    Insecurity is something  some people deliberately deploy, and escalate, to make the Tinubu government unpopular .

    On top of the challenges, as President Tinubu should know by now are the twin evils of hunger and the high and increasing cost of living.

    The realisation of my hope of Nigerians rooting for Tinubu’s continuation in office will rest squarely on how successfully, or not, he conquers these two.

    All things being equal, I haven’t the slightest doubt he will conquer because it is not for nothing that ThisDay Board of Editors recently wrote concerning him:”Overall, the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has by every note, caution, indication and inaction, earned the THISDAY Man of the Year, because of his doggedness,  resilience and his ability to take tough decisions even against the grain.”

    Once President Tinubu creatively addresses the impediments and gets them out of the way, he will be on the road to becoming a darling of Nigerians and I feel certain he will make a roaring success of his socio – economic programmes.

    I repeat: his ambitious economic growth plan has the potential to transform the Nigeria and improve the lives of all Nigerians.

  • Arikana Chihombori-Quao and the French condition in West Africa

    Arikana Chihombori-Quao and the French condition in West Africa

    Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, MD, is a Zimbabwean medical doctor, precisely, a Family Medicine expert, married to the very supportive Ghanaian Pan-Africanist Dr. Nii Saban Quao, MD, specialist in Internal Medicine, whom she met in the United States. According to her, she was quietly plying her trade, when, in 2017, she was unexpectedly invited by HE Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to take up the position of African Union (AU) Representative to the United States. When, reluctantly, she assumed office, she was confronted most directly with Western policies and practices detrimental to African interests; and, like the Pan-African activist that she was, she voiced her dissatisfaction stridently.

    Finding her African liberationist voice intolerable, as reported by the 24 October, 2019 issue of Amsterdam News (New York), a letter to her from the AU Chair at the time, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, a former Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, read in part: “I have the honor to inform you that, in line with the terms and conditions of the service governing your appointment as Permanent Representative of the African Union Mission to the United States in Washington, D.C., I have decided to terminate your contract in that capacity with effect from Nov. 1, 2019.”

    The sack sparked swift international outrage. In this regard, the Amsterdam News (New York) noted: “Supporters such as Jerry Rawlings, the former president of Ghana who, upon learning of her dismissal tweeted: ‘The dismissal of Arikana Chihombori-Quao, AU ambassador to the United States, raises serious questions about the independence of the AU. For someone who spoke her mind about the detrimental effects of colonization and the huge cost of French control in several parts of Africa, this is an act that can best be described as coming from French-controlled colonized-minds.’”

    Moreover, a petition demanding her reinstatement gathered over 100,000 signatures. Asked if she was surprised by the massive global support, she said: “Absolutely. … I did not realize that the work that I had been doing had reached that far. I was just a mother, a grandmother, who happened to be a diplomat speaking our truth. But also I felt that I had been given a platform to represent 1.27 billion people on the planet and 250 million within the Americas and that if I did not speak up about the evils and the ills I see every day, I saw every day, and continue to see every day, then that would mean the 1.27 billion people on the continent and the 250 million in the Americas will be voiceless. That is not something I was willing to do.”

    As such, rather than make her cower before the international powers-that-be, the dismissal strengthened her resolve to play her part in liberating Africa. Chihombori-Quao’s thesis is that, in 1884, the Berlin Conference held in which Europeans divided Africa among themselves; and did so in a cynical way, by cutting up erstwhile solid states or vast empires into tiny ineffectual countries which couldn’t assert themselves on the global scene, but needed props from the European hegemons. The vulnerable condition of these countries facilitated the continuation of colonialism by other means. She has been of the view that France was most predatory in its colonial exertions, and that when the country was pressurised to leave the continent, France emplaced inequitable conditions which undermined the sovereignty of the colonised nations and ensured that French colonialism continued effectively, especially in West Africa.

    The French policy of ending colonisation without decolonisng is referred to by the obnoxious term ‘Françafrique’. According to a 5 February, 2020 piece by Filip Noubel titled “’Françafrique’: A term for a contested reality in Franco-African relations,” in GlobalVoices.org, “’Françafrique’ is a term that describes the historical relationship between France and its former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. … A portmanteau linking ‘France’ and the French word for Africa. … In its broadest definition, it encompasses the political, financial, military, cultural, and linguistic relations between France and the countries that came under French rule or influence – Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal.”

    Moreover, in a 23 March, 2018 article, titled “Françafrique: A brief history of a scandalous word,” in New African magazine, Boubacar Boris Diop states: “A Janus-faced entity – one African, the other French – Françafrique is the ultimate symbol of a confiscated, perverted sovereignty. … [T]his singular coinage perfectly illustrates France’s dogged refusal to decolonise.”

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    Adem Kiliç lists the terms of the agreement as follows: “According to the signed colonization agreements, (1) The newly independent countries have to pay for the infrastructure that France built in the country during colonialism. (2) African countries have to deposit their national monetary resources in the Bank of France. (3) France has the priority in purchasing all natural resources of its former colonies. (4) In public tenders, it is imperative to give priority to French companies. (5) Africans have to send their senior education officers to France or French military infrastructures, due to a multifaceted system of scholarships and grants tied to the colonization treaty. (6) In accordance with the signed colonization agreement, France has the right to intervene militarily in African countries and permanently deploy troops in military bases and facilities managed by the French.”

    Others include: “(7) According to the colonization agreement, these countries are subject to the obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language of instruction. (8) According to the agreement, these countries are also obliged to use the CFA Franc. (9) Again, according to the agreement, these countries, in the event of a global war or crisis that may arise, have to ally with France.” Two additional terms which Mawuna Koutonin had mentioned on 28 January, 2014 in an article in Silicon Africa.com titled, “14 African countries forced by France to pay colonial tax for the benefits of slavery and colonization,” are (10) “Renunciation to enter into military alliance with any other country unless authorized by France” and (11) “Obligation to send France annual balance and reserve report, [and] without the report, [the defaulting country would have]  no money.”

    Boubacar Boris Diop further notes: “To be frank, the meek silence of Francophone African intellectuals is the main reason why French public opinion thinks there is nothing wrong with Françafrique.” He also states: “There are many signs that the situation is changing. France is no longer the great world power she used to be three decades ago, when Paris could easily topple an African head of state without too much fuss. Now, she needs the ‘approval’ of the UN – and the money – to do so. Moreover, most of the new African leaders were born after these strange ‘independences’ their fathers threw so cowardly to the dogs. Even though many of these young presidents still have a slave mentality vis-à-vis Paris, some of them refuse to act as its obedient lackeys. Ironically, these ‘resisters’ are the ones who will, at last, decolonise France, a country still haunted by its colonial past – tragicomically at times.”

    In a conversation with students and alumni of the University of South Africa, on Africa Web TV on 13 March, 2024, Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa, gave the details of one of the agreements as follows: “I think we’ve got to understand this about the West Africa situation. A few years back, you remember we had to work with Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), to help them to get sorted out. One of the things we found was that there was an agreement with France signed at the point of the independence of Cote D’Ivoire that France would maintain a military barrack in Abidjan, the capital, and the Commander of the French troops, in any situation where he felt the security of Cote D’Ivoire or the security of France was threatened, he had the power, the sovereign power, a French General, to take over the public station broadcasting and announce whatever he liked. It’s one of the twelve or so agreements that not only Cote D’Ivoire but many Francophone countries signed with France at independence. Mali has just repudiated all of those agreements.”

    President Mbeki continued: “Part of what is happening in West Africa is a rebellion by young officers against French neo-colonialism. It’s not only military coups to remove some elected president, but these young soldiers are saying ‘Our politics since independence has respected this junior relationship with France that must end. … It’s an anti-neo-colonial rebellion.’”

    And by the way, Adem Kiliç, in a 16 November, 2021 piece on “The system of Western exploitation in Africa and the case of France,” in the United World International, recalls the cruel antecedents of today’s debilitating exploitation of the continent and the victims’ resistance efforts: “The influence of the Western countries on Africa was the result of a bloody process and completely based on obtaining the resources of the region. There were violent conflicts and wars with the indigenous peoples who resisted the influence of the West in the African Continent. Indigenous peoples who resisted were violently and bloodily neutralized. The enthusiasm of the West to obtain resources on land and above ground in the beginning has evolved into another dimension with the determination of precious metals and strategic mines in the future.” That future is here.

    With France steadily losing its stranglehold on its former colonies and an uncertain diplomatic and economic future in West Africa lying ahead of the country, it seems as if France is now courting other countries, especially Nigeria. But Nigeria’s experience with France hasn’t been particularly reassuring. During the Nigerian Civil war (1967 to 1970), France supported and supplied arms to the Biafran side. Two of the motives some experts gave for the French actions were to control the oil resources of Biafra and to weaken and reduce Nigeria’s influence on French-speaking West African states. Given these and other antecedents, Nigeria needs to be quite cautious in the new relationship with France, and regularly ask the question, “Can the leopard change its spots?”

    It’s a credit to Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao’s profundity, foresight and tenacity that elements of the post-coup speeches and policies of current soldiers who ousted their pro-France governments, and even some democratically-elected ones, in West Africa sound like pages from Dr. Chihombori-Quao’s playbook. For example, the Alliance of Sahel States (French: ‘Alliance des États du Sahel [AES]’) has been established to get the benefits of unity, a common liberationist theme in Chihombori-Quao’s counsel, in order to enjoy the benefits of common vision and common action and ensure the stability and the enhancement of the sovereignty of the uniting countries. Moreover, the countries, including democratically-governed ones like Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire, have asked French troops to leave.