The Nation Newspaper

Category: Gbenga Omotoso

  • Reminiscences (GG at 85)

    Reminiscences (GG at 85)

    First, a confession: The subject of this article is well known to this reporter. So, dear reader, take it easy, if you feel that there is more than a tinge of subjectivity here. But, I assure you, “Notebook” will be as conscientious as it has always been.

    Our first meeting was in September, 1974. The sun was getting set to set, its recession a bit slow. Behind the hills that ring the town, the sun was showing its face, bright but weak. And there he was, just after a long row of palm trees that lined the red-earth, dusty road that led to the school premises, mowing a field of green grass that had grown wild. He had on only a pair of white shorts, his trademark, as I discovered later. No top.

    As he looked up from what I later found out to be a routine for him when students were on holiday, he wiped the sweat off his brow and continued his business. I announced my presence.

    “Good evening sir.”

    “Pele o (hello). How’re you?”

    “I’m Gbenga Omotoso, the table tennis player you discussed with Mr Babajide in Ibadan.”

    His face brightened up. He burst into laughter and seized my hand as he screamed: “Ping pong!”

    And so began my relationship with the man who paid my – and many others’ – way through secondary school, a teachers’ teacher, father of many children –none of them his, biologically – worthy chief, consummate farmer, confident trainer and frontline humanist.

    Chief Guy Gargiulo, an Italian naturalised Briton, was the headmaster at Ajuwa Grammar School, Okeagbe – Akoko, Ondo State, from 1963 to 1978. He had had a stint as a Physics teacher at Igbobi College, Lagos before moving to Okeagbe to help give the new school a push.

    He reached age 85 on August 13, but all was quiet as he was away in England. He has since returned to Nigeria and a reception was held in his honour last Saturday on the very premises where he helped shape the future of many students who are today prominent citizens

    Among them: Otunba Solomon Oladunni, former Vice Chair, Mobil; Tuyi Ehindero, ex-Managing Director, Unilever, Zambia; Dr Tunji Abayomi, rights activist-lawyer and politician; Akinwunmi Bada, ex-CEO, Transmission Company of Nigeria; Oba Oladunjoye Fajana, ex-African Development Bank/World Bank chief and now Ajana of Afa, Okeagbe; The Right Rev. Jacob Ajetunmobi, Bishop of the Anglican Communion, Ibadan Diocese; Tayo Alasoadura, former Commissioner for Finance, Ondo State; Rear Admiral Sanmi Alade, Commandant of the National War College; Mike Igbokwe, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a legion of others in banking, sports, industry and government.

    There are not many people of whom one can say: “O…he had a great influence on my life.” Many there are who can proudly say this of GG, as we excitedly call him. All his efforts were geared towards implanting in us all the virtues to which he subscribed – hard work, courage, loyalty, endurance, honesty and more.

    He feared nothing. The only fear he ever had was being bitten by snakes, he told us. But the day he held one and was bitten, the fear ended. Then he started reading about snakes. We were taught how to catch and keep them. But GG warned us never to go near the cobra, saying there was no remedy to its poison. The last time I visited, he had at home two snakes, one of which he nicknamed Angelina.

    Gargiulo’s idea of education is not the mere acquisition of a certificate as a visa to some perceived Eldorado; not a theoretical exploration of some esoteric facts and figures, but a total package to prepare the youth for any challenge that life may hurl on their way. Every student was encouraged to learn a trade – bricklaying, auto mechanic and others. The Ajuwa Printing Press, which was run by students, was central to the programme.   It printed our exercise books, report cards, inspirational poems, such as Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling’s “If” , and the ubiquitous poster, “Speak English, remember your WASCE” that adorned our classrooms.

    Gargiulo persuaded us all to love farming – we all had copies of a poem he wrote on then Head of State General Olusegun Obasanjo’s “Operation feed the nation” (everything in that military era was an “operation”) as he led the way every evening. The maize farm was a beauty to behold, the sheer greenery and the glittering golden, thread-like strands sprouting from the cobs. The vast row of teak, shedding their rustling leaves in the harmattan.  The short palm trees and their scarlet fruits. The gmelina.

    Our yam came from the school farm. The eggs we had once a week came from the school poultry. It was fun caring for the rabbits and watching the cows graze .Our farm produce were sold and the proceeds invested in shares in the name of the school.

    Sport was for GG a priority. The yearly marathon was compulsory for all. So was swimming. The community and the students built a dam to facilitate this. From the dark brown pool and the pontoon that were carved out of the dam, boys and girls were moulded into national champions. No fewer than two former students are now coaches. This reporter was a table tennis star, the very reason he won GG’s heart.

    GG believed that no student was so bad that there was no redeeming feature. He once told of a student who led the mechanics club. He was poor, academically, but Gargiulo predicted his greatness. The man rose to become a top Leventis Motors manager, admired by all for his deep understanding of Mercedes cars, just like the Germans who built them.

    It was not all fun at Ajuwa, however. I recall a riot. GG had gone to Ibadan to buy books. The day he was to return, students stormed the Okeagbe-Ikare road, wielding cudgels and clubs and chanting war songs. Some sympathisers advised GG to stay away to save his life. He refused.

    He parked the van a few metres away from the school, walked.  His face creased by a big frown, he asked the unruly students:”What’s going on here?” “You want to kill me? Go ahead now!” He was booming like a lion and swearing–he always did when seized by anger. His hair sprang up and his hands betrayed red hot blood coursing through his veins. His face was red – it was always so whenever he got angry. Oh, how we used to panic on such occasions.

    One after the other, the students dropped their weapons, ran to hide behind the palm trees and sneaked into the classrooms. Later that night, GG relived the incident. “I saw that you, like the others, held a stick, but I was damn sure you wouldn’t hit me,” he told me.” “It was the wise thing to do; otherwise you would be attacked,” he added. “I never knew he saw me among the mob.”

    GG had few friends.  Prominent among them was the late Tai Solarin, the frontline educationist and social activist.

    GG was always struggling to speak Yoruba. He reasoned that if he could speak Yoruba, there was no reason for us not to speak English. His favourite proverb is “Aya nini ju oogun lo” (Being bold is greater than having juju). To those who scorned him for always wearing shorts, he would say: “Sokoto gbooro ko d’ola” (A pair of trousers is no symbol of wealth). He wore trousers only on special occasions, such as when a governor was visiting.

    When Immigration officials harassed him in Akure, the Ondo State capital, demanding his papers, they got more than they bargained for. They asked him to be reporting in their office every day, wondering why he would not relinquish his British citizenship if he so much loved Nigeria. One day when he was tired of it all, GG faced the officials and said: “Gentlemen, “ ti a ba ti n fi apari isu han alejo…” (When hosts begin to show the guest the hard top of the yam, it’s time to leave.”

    “They didn’t let me finish,” he recalled. They said ‘go; just go now!’ That was the end of the matter.

    But he wondered why he should suffer to earn a permanent stay here after about 30 years. “Even in my old age, I can still contribute to building this great country.”

    Thankfully, Gargiulo’s immigration issue has been resolved. I hope and trust that Nigeria will reward him with a national honour – soon.

    The last time I visited my alma mater, less than two years ago, I learnt of how Gargiulo shed tears on seeing the destruction of his dream. I was touched. Ajuwa is  like a war- ravaged town, battered and bludgeoned by the very people who swore to care for it. Plundered. An old lady, used and dumped. Gone is the press. Wrecked are the mechanic’s workshop and the tractor . No cows and chicks. Rabbits? Gone. All gone.

    Rot, rot, rot everywhere.  But this is the story in almost all areas of our national life.   Ajuwa’s fate is not strange. But, when cometh another GG?

     

    • This article,first published in 2013, is being rerun with some changes as a tribute to this exemplary man, who was 85 on August 13.

     

     

    Charly Boy and the angry traders

    Eccentric musician Charles Oputa (aka Charly Boy) has grabbed the headlines, but not for a new hit song. He is in the news for leading the “Our mumu don do” (Enough of our stupidity) campaign asking President Muhammadu Buhari to “return or resign”.

    That is a legitimate venture. So is Buhari’s medical vacation.

    When Charly Boy, 66, carried the campaign to Wuse Market in Abuja on Tuesday, he was attacked by traders, who obviously believe that most Nigerians are no “mumu”.

    The Wuse attack was an attack on freedom of expression. It is unacceptable.

    A taxi-cab driver who claimed to have witnessed it all told of how Charly Boy escaped miraculously. One source told me that the musician was truly manhandled, but that it was incorrect that he lost all his custom-made jewellery. Intact are the hand chains, neck chains, ankle chains, waist chains, ear rings, nose ring and other pieces that define the essential Charly Boy.

    He escaped with all his trademark trinkets, to lead another demonstration again, soon, I gather   Nice work, Charly Boy.

  • The coming debates

    The coming debates

    What would life be like without politicians? It is all dull, drab and damp, no doubt.

    Politicians are like the ocean and its rippling waves. When they blow their top, the effects reverberate all over the land. When they tear at one another at the National Assembly, the media bring us the scenes live in the comfort of our homes. We are entertained and for a while there is no talk of being shortchanged; we get value for our votes – and cash into the bargain, sometimes.

    Forthrightness is not their defining attribute. When they cause trouble, they tell us it is all for peace. When they are blinded by ambition, turning against their benefactors, they claim it is all in the interest of the people. When they award themselves hefty allowances and salaries, they call it service.

    Our politicians are in their best elements when they are provoked to strike at one another, hurling invectives like some Balogun market traders who have not sold anything all day. They exhibit uncommon creativity, waxing lyrical and philosophical – all at the same time. Besides, they could deliver their anger with the savagery of a lion dared by a goat, sinking their teeth into their opponent’s body.

    Consider the encounter between Imo State Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha and former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode, who claimed the visit of some governors to President Muhammadu Buhari in London was a fluke. The governor called Fani-Kayode “unintelligent” and “disrespectful”. He said Fani-Kayode was living on his father’s and grandfather’s glory.

    Besides, he called him an “overpampered child”. A pampered  child at over 50?

    Who is a pampered child?

    The obese one who swims in ice cream and gobbles pizza like a hungry workman? The one who, even though of age and mature, still treats everything of value like the toys of his childhood days?

    Does this description fit the former minister? Does he behave so? Is this a fair comment or a blow below the belt?

    The former minister picked up the gauntlet. He joined battle with Okorocha, describing him as a “sociopathic self-hating Igbo who is suffering from a terrible and debilitating inferiority complex”. He challenged His Excellency to a public debate for Nigerians to decide who between the twain has “native sense”.

    What is native sense? Even before the big debate that Fani-Kayode proposed, some public commentators have launched their own unsolicited and unrestrained debate. They have been describing and defining “native intelligence”, saying: “Is it collecting N1.7b (according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)) from the arms cash and telling the judge, “yes I collected, but it’s all in the line of duty and I don’t think I owe anybody any account”?

    No date has been fixed for the debate.

    No love is lost between former Delta State Governor Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan and university teacher cum businessman Pat Utomi, a professor who is aspiring to be governor of Delta on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Uduaghan advised Utomi to start his aspiration as a councillor.  A professor as a councilor, of all things? What aberration, Utomi may have thought.

    He lunged at Uduaghan, asking the former helmsman to account for N20b Independent Power Project (IPP) funds.  He  accused Uduaghan of plunging the state into a N600b debt onto which his successor Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has piled some N60b. The professor would like a public debate on how to use scarce resources for the benefit of the people.

    The former governor described Utomi as “the last managing director of Volkswagen Nigeria”, which he accused him of running aground.

    A former commissioner, Chief Paulinus Akpeki, weighed in. He recalled that Utomi was an honorary adviser to Uduaghan. “Ask him the project that he said they should do in his village, what happened to it? What role did he play on the project? It is very sad that people who have skeletons in their cupboards should begin to make noise.”

    Even as we are yet to hear from the ebullient professor, the busybodies masquerading as public affairs commentators have been making all manner of insinuations,  Did Utomi corner some juicy contracts? What was the project meant for his village and what happened to it?

    Perhaps Utomi is waiting for the proposed debate to shed light on these and other matters.  Step in, please, event planners.

    The other day when the Presidency released the picture of recuperating President Buhari and some governors, it sparked off a bitter argument. Some, among them Fani-Kayode, said it was all some abracadabra.

    Fani-Kayode said the picture from London was “old and fake” because it was indeed taken on another occasion, His proof: he was “reliably told” and “curiously, all the drinks on the table are Nigerian products and Nigerian-made”.

    “Did the governors take all those drinks along with them to London to see the President?” Fani-Kayode asked.

    Instead of simply calling for a debate, those who do not like Fani-Kayode dismissed the former minister’s argument as “illogical, puerile and foolishly mischievous in conception and plainly stupid in delivery”.

    Is it difficult to find Nigerian drinks in London, which is the second home of many Nigerians? they queried.

    A source close to the former minister has just told me that despite everything the Presidency has said, he insists that the photograph was fake all through. He will soon issue a challenge for a full town hall-type debate on the picture.

    Apparently taking a cue from Fani-Kayode, one of its most valued members, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) joined the fray. It described the photograph as “an insult on Nigerians”. “They don’t even think that it is necessary for the President to send message to Nigerians or for themselves to come and tell us what happened during that meeting,” PDP spokesman Dayo Adeyeye said.

    Some of the governors came on television to talk about Buhari’s health. Alhaji Al-Makura, the Nasarawa State governor, swore that he made the trip to London. He said whoever was in doubt was free to inspect his travel papers.

    Against the background of people saying only APC governors were on the trip, the Presidency facilitated another trip to London. Two PDP governors joined the delegation. Was the PDP persuaded?  Doubtful.

    I wonder why the PDP and Fani-Kayode have not called for a debate on this sensitive matter. That must have been a big oversight.

    Even before the PDP joined the fray, one of its men whose public image many would argue is a true testimony to all that the party stands for had challenged the APC to show proof that Buhari was alive. Ayo Fayose, the governor of Ekiti State, threatened to release what he said were the authentic photographs of the President who he swore was on life support.

    After the governors’ London trip, all has been quiet. What went wrong?

    Is Fayose in possession of some strange photographs, perhaps taken by some sophisticated electronic device planted somewhere at the hilltop mansion in which His Excellency lives in Ado-Ekiti? Was Fayose scammed? Who did?

    If indeed he had been scammed as some of his opponents have been saying, then the scammers must indeed be among the world’s first eleven in the business.

    We are really looking forward to when His Excellency will put this sensitive matter behind him at a well organised public debate.

    In Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, so much has been going on. The governor’s ability to perform despite his belligerency has been hailed as a rare gift of nature, which His Excellency Nyesom Wike continues to bask in. His former boss and predecessor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation, says Wike continues to stack up documents to push the charge that he (Amaechi) is corrupt. Wike keeps threatening to unleash such documents on the public space.

    Why not a well-structured public debate to settle this matter once and for all?

    Senate President Bukola Abubakar Saraki has been talking about how and why the upper chamber refused to clear Ibrahim Magu for the EFCC job and why the budgetary allocation for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was slashed. Minister Babatunde Fashola says the slashed votes went into some boreholes and such community projects which the lawmakers consider more crucial.

    Motorists continue to die on this road as if it was built to take lives. Now the contractor Julius Berger, has left the site because it has not been paid. Southwest leaders are up in arms against the lawmakers. They do not have to be.

    They should simply call for a debate on why they think this road deserves attention. The lawmakers will then have the chance to state their grouse against the road.

    Isn’t that the way of democracy?

  • PDP’s renewed threat

    PDP’s renewed threat

    Since the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the beleaguered Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the ferocious legal battle for its control, things have been looking up for the main opposition party.

    Amid the euphoria of the victory, the party has renewed so stridently its threat to return to power in 2019. Its leading lights have suddenly found their voices, which had been muffled and muzzled by the civil war that wracked the party.

    Ayo Fayose, the energetic loudmouth governor of Ekiti State, has announced his political future. He wants to be president. The Makarfi faction offered the Ali Modu Sheriff faction a general amnesty, which it rejected, vowing to fight on as if  litigation is a Lagos owambe street revelry that goes on ad infinitum.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan took some time off the lecture circuit to join the jollification. He urged party chiefs not to see the Supreme Court’s verdict as “victory for a section of the party but as moral victory for constitutionality over arbitrariness”.

    “I believe in our jurists. We may have issues with some individuals but the Nigerian judiciary deserves respect and commendation,” Dr Jonathan said. He was not done. “I hereby call on all those who left the party…to return to their natural home and build the PDP. We see Nigerians as human beings, deserving of the rule of law, separation of power and free market economy that provides level playing ground for all.

    “The party that gave Nigeria the largest economy in Africa is a party with large heart enough to find a place for all Nigerians.”

    Dr Jonathan has said it all. Rule of law. Respect for Nigerians. Separation of powers.  And free market economy. Consider the case of the judiciary. The other day when Directorate of State Services (DSS) operatives stormed the homes of some judges, rousing them from sleep and seizing them as if they were some amateur Lagos pickpockets, there were no protests. In those good old days of the PDP, could such an egregious abuse of privacy have been imagined let alone executed in such a brutal manner that left so much to be desired about our human rights identity? Never.  Such a plan would never have seen the light of day.

    Can judges, who are seen to be next to the gods, be corruptible? Even if they are, is it fit and proper for some young gun-wielding fellows to grab them and whisk them off to be detained? Where is the old respect and adulation and admiration and veneration for judges even when hefty sums in hard currency are found in their bedrooms?

    They said they found vaults of huge sums of money in various currencies in their Lordships’ homes, questioned them and hauled them before their brother judges who wasted no time in applying the law.

    Is it a crime to own a vault? Is owning a vault a symbol of corruption? Has anybody complained that his money is missing? Is corruption the same as stealing? Wasn’t that argument settled a long time ago? It is all muddled up.

    Those who know nothing about the spirit and the principle of law and the workings of jurisprudential theories attacked their Lordships and claimed that there was enough evidence to nail the beleaguered judges. Of course, the ignorant few who raised such vacuous objection were simply ignored. Today, the judges have gone back to their courts, dispensing justice. I hope they have forgiven all those who played one role or the other in their travails. It is a measure of their unusual magnanimity that their Lordships have not demanded apologies nor claimed damages from the government for the brazen assault on their privacy and integrity.

    Again, could that have happened in the days of the PDP? Never. Now the PDP has vowed to reverse such injustice.

    At the National Assembly, the news is always about one pet project or the other that has little  to do with the public interest. Lawmaking has taken the back seat. What better proof do we need than the Bill on amnesty for treasury looters. How could it have taken so long to pass  such a law?

    In the days of the PDP, it would have zipped through without all the noise, even from people who know nothing about lawmaking.

    The other day when Sambo Dasuki, the young man who manned the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in the Jonathan administration, spoke of how Boko Haram had been defeated before the Buhari administration took the reins, the Presidency urged Nigerians to ignore him.

    Not so fast, I dare say. When PDP eventually carries out its threat to return to power, the Dasuki imbroglio, I bet, will be the first to be settled. Here is a man who was only obeying presidential orders. Now he has been bundled into detention for allegedly disbursing some $2.1b  meant for arms to fight Boko Haram.

    Walking free are some of those who confessed to participating in the massive bazaar Dasuki is being accused of superintending. Former Sokoto Governor Attahiru Bafarawa said he got N200m for prayers. A politician who obviously has some experience in spiritual matters has reckoned that the country would not have slipped into this biting recession if the Buhari administration had paid attention to prayers, dishing out hefty grants on such a venture.

    No doubt the PDP is not only the biggest party in Africa, it is the most spiritual. Its return will guarantee steady income for marabouts, necromancers, soothsayers and seers whose lucrative trade has fallen on bad times since the party left power. Were it not for their prayers, you will agree with me, the recession would have landed here a long time ago.

    Besides, when experts cried that the hard times were imminent, former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala, arguably one of our most inventive ever, simply dug into her bag of tricks and pulled out one that reset the engine. She announced the rebasing of the economy. Suddenly, the troubled economy became Africa’s largest. We hailed the magic formula. Only the PDP could have pulled off such a rare feat.

    Okonjo-Iweala was later quoted as saying: “I told them to save ahead of eventualities but Jonathan had no political will to do so and this is the reason why we are in crisis, because we squandered our boom.”

    Is she also getting set for the PDP’s return to power?

    Since the PDP left, the Naira has suffered many reversals – and abuses. Some prominent citizens, obviously afraid that they could be accused of either stealing or corruption, buried their fortune (dollar bills and more) in cemeteries. Others built or hired safe houses to keep theirs.

    Former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) chief Andrew Yakubu hid his in a bungalow tucked away in a derelict part of Kaduna. A whistle-blower squealed on him. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed the place and hauled out the cash, some $79m. Now, Yakubu has launched a desperate legal battle to recover the cash, which he swore was a gift from his ever appreciative friends.

    In the days of the PDP, nobody hid cash. In fact, the dollar was the preferred currency in hotels and some elitist businesses. It was sprayed at private parties by the wealthy who pasted it on the foreheads of musicians either as a mark of appreciation of their art or simply to show class and style. Will the PDP bring back such good times?

    What role for Dr Jonathan and his amiable consort, Dame Patience Jonathan? A colleague recalled the other day how Mama Peace was wondering what the change slogan was all about. In a classic instance of the wothering putdown for which the former First Lady is well known, she was quoted as saying: “These people shouting ‘change’, ‘change’, dem be bus conductor?”

    Poor lady. She has been fighting to retrieve a $15m fortune which a court ordered to be frozen. She got reprieve from the courts, but the EFCC won’t let go; it appealed a court ruling granting her custody of the money, which the affable woman claimed to have inherited from her loving mother.

    In the days of the PDP, who would have questioned the First Lady’s right to inherit her mother’s treasure?

    The ruling APC believes the PDP is only dreaming. Really? Here is a party that threatened to rule for 60 years, in the first instance. It was on course for 16 unbroken years, until fate supervened and truncated the journey. Well, a journey of fantasy is no political sin; the APC should concede to the opposition party its right to dream.

    A reader, who obviously supports the APC’s position, sent me one of the posters that were common on the Internet before the 2015 election. It reads: “Final word. Thou shall say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house to die there. Jeremiah 38: 26. Vote wisely.”

    Without dreams there will be no expression for our abundant talents and energy. Dreams spark off the fire of ambition, which is pursued relentlessly by will. With dreams, there will be competition, which enlivens life.

    The PDP has the right imagination., however deluded Shouldn’t it be allowed to exercise it?

  • ABC of restructuring

    ABC of restructuring

    THESE are exciting times. It all looks so surreal; the dizzying rate at which events occur.

    After a long while in detention, Nnamdi Kanu, the enigmatic separatist, was let off on bail. He defied the bail conditions and carried on like an outlaw. Some youths in the North took a cue from him and issued an October deadline for the Igbo to leave the North. Ever since, nobody has rested.

    From the extremist secession campaign and hate speeches, the row was scaled down to referendum. Now it is restructuring, which has elbowed off the front page kidnapping – the six Lagos pupils remain in captivity and Evans “The Fearsome” has gone to court to assert his fundamental rights –and terrorism (Boko Haram chiefs are said to be turning themselves in). Cultism makes occasional appearances. And, as has just been discovered, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps have changed from being workshops for officials with itchy palms to veritable baby making factories. Talk of the wonders of adversity (apologies to the bard).

    How do we make sense of all this? To the barber shop I returned the other day to have a feel of how an average Nigerian sees the drama.

    It was alive, as usual. The conviviality and the camaraderie were easily noticeable. Two men, surrounded by a small crowd of youths, were slugging it out on the draught board. Then a rotund old man with a glittering Hitler-style moustache walked in, dragging his ageing feet like a drunken reveller.

    “Papi D is here,’’ a young man screamed excitedly. “It’s time for national issues,” he said.

    The old fellow smiled, his mouth betraying a set of thick, brownish teeth. They looked starved of a good tooth paste. He must have had more than his share of kolanuts. He lit a cigarette and turned his face up to let the huge smoke billow into the air.

    Papi D sank into an old arm chair, which one of the youths yielded to him as a mark of respect. “I won’t stay long today. I need to see a doctor,” he announced he to the crowd of anxious youths, who began to fire questions at him.

    “Sir, what is this diversification the Buhari administration has been shouting?”

    “What a question. When you explore one path for so long and you’re making no progress, you quit that line and start anew. The other day I was reading how that wicked boy Evans spoke about his beginning as a spare parts dealer. Customs seized his goods and he lost everything. He then diversified into drug. His South African partner got angry one day and trained his gun on him. He fled to Nigeria and then tried his hands on armed robbery. Evans dumped that. Again, he diversified – to kidnapping. He was reaping bountifully from that until he was captured. Now he has sued the police, demanding N300m damages and people are asking: ‘Did he kidnap the IG?’ “

    “Nigeria has just exported its first consignment of yams. Oil is under threat. That is diversification, my dear. Instead of praising Audu Ogbeh’s ingenuity, some are scorning him. On the internet, those hailing the move to earn more forex through yam export and critics of the idea, who are crying that it would spark a huge shortage, are tearing at one another.

    “Know why they are angry? GEJ converted dollars to yam. PMB is converting yam to dollars,’ one of the gladiators wrote. Must we shred every idea?”

    All was quiet as the man spoke. He cleared his throat and coughed violently. Gbaa!Gbaa!Hmmm.

    “I apologise for that brief interruption, gentlemen.”

    One of the youths said: “Thank you sir. What is quit notice?”

    “Now you’re going technical. That is what you get when a landlord wants to assert his land lordship. I guess you are referring to the one issued by some youths in the North to the Igbo. An eviction notice is sent by a lawyer, not necessarily an ogbologbo lawyer. It is either a seven-day notice or a 30-day notice, depending on how much the landlord’s mood has been fouled. This one from the youths is more than five months. That is why we scholars see it as a comical relief in a tragic situation.

    “Usually, the lawyer will write: ‘I, Chief Adewale Ajantala of Gbotikuyo Chambers, Advocate and Notary Public, write on behalf of Mr Oley Intashua, hereinafter referred to as our client. The same Mr Intashua, aforementioned, being your landlord and owner of the four-room bungalow which you currently occupy as a tenant on 2, Lampai Crescent, Kano, has instructed us and we have instructions from him to ask you to deliver up and surrender to him possession of the said four-bedroom bungalow that lies and situate at the said 2, Lampai Crescent, Kano and all its appurtenances on or before the 30th day of July 2017.

    “The landlord, our client, aforementioned, needs the said bungalow, which your good self occupy, for his private and personal use. We have been informed and we have verified and confirmed that you have done so much damage to the premises by your indecent activities of noisy parties and excessive smoking and drinking.

    “You are required to settle and pay all outstanding electricity and water bills and keep the bungalow in a tenantable condition.

    “Take notice that should you ignore this notice or fail to comply with the above demands, an action will be instituted against you in a competent court of law to recover our client’s property and all payment arrears accordingly. A word is enough for the wise.”

    “Now tell me, who are these youths issuing the Igbo an ultimatum? Are they lawyers? Are they learned? How much are the Igbo owing? From where did they acquire the right to issue such deadlines? Please, give me a break.”

    A  brief bout of laughter. Applause. The audience seemed mesmerized by the old lawyer’s wisdom. He smiled with a sense of satisfaction.

    “Thank you, Papi D. One more; what is this restructuring cry all over the place? How do we restructure?”

    “Simple. You see, when a building is distressed, you issue an advertorial in a national newspaper, calling for an Expression of Interest from chartered structural engineers, structural designers, structural architects, structural builders and structural dredgers. These are the experts who will advise if you need to knock down the building or patch it and dress it up with new paints and accoutrements. Is a new foundation required? Do we pile the site with more sand to strengthen the building?

    “What is the opinion of the residents who occupy this building? How do we get them to agree that we need to restructure in a particular way that will accommodate them all?”

    Another coughing bout.Gbau!Gbauuu! Hmmm.Apologies.Papi D dipped his hand into his jacket’s pocket, brought out a small bottle, which he opened gently, apparently in respect of the contents. He poured it all into his mouth and frowned like a whipped kid, his mouth firmly shut. The smell of gin hit the air. More cough. Apologies.

    “You see, these are spiritual matters. One needs to be in the spirit to ventilate them. Why the restructuring and secession cry now when Nigerians are making waves all over the world? Our students are breaking records. Our soccer stars are teaching the world how to play. Some of our Chibok girls were at the White House. We have a world boxing champion. At home, we ramble, fumble and tumble.

    “Let’s face the fact: all we need is good leadership that will tackle corruption, nepotism and ethnicism.  There should be equity, justice and the fear of God. And a robust sense of humour.”

    Applause. Applause.

     

     

    And the Senate got it ALL wrong

    MANY Nigerians were disappointed on Tuesday when senators drew a line in the sand and resolved to shun nominations from the executive. They have been called names and accused of plotting to derail our democracy with their legislative pomposity.

    The distinguished senators brought this upon themselves. Against all expectations, they shunned a serious matter concerning a fellow senator and plunged headlong into a needless test of strength with the Executive.

    I speak of the matter involving Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, the distinguished senator representing the good people of Yobe East and a former governor. A video purported to be that of His Excellency in a romp with two women has been making the rounds. I have refused to watch it so as not to be charged with willful intrusion of the integrity of a distinguished senator for which one could be summoned.

    Why has the Senate overlooked this matter of grave security implications? Where is Senator Dino Melaye? Shouldn’t he have taken a few minutes off his battle against recall to raise this “urgent matter of national security”?

    Who decides how many women should warm a senator’s bed at a time? Isn’t this a private matter? Have matters  of concupiscence ever resulted in any legislative laxity? Was anybody’s daughter missing?

    Ibrahim’s traducers, who we all know are politically motivated anyway, are shouting shame. Pray, whatever is shameful in a senator having a test of his manliness? Must we take the anger –and envy – against our senators to this ridiculous level of regulating their copulatory  activities? How many of these biased critics can perform the senator’s feat?

    Not one to run away from a fight, Ibrahim has told his disparagers to go to hell. He said it was all between consenting adults.

    The other time when Senator Sani Ahmed Yerima married the love of his life, those envious fellows who will never mind their own business, said the bride was a child. They even attempted to charge the former Zamfara governor and chief advocate of the Sharia with child abuse. He was called a pedophiliac.

    If the Senate had moved then to check that abuse of a member’s right, Ibrahim wouldn’t have suffered this wanton damage to his glittering reputation.

    Now a point of order. I hereby move that the Senate pass a resolution not to consider any public bill until all those watching this salacious video have appeared before the Ethics Committee to purge themselves of this egregious intrusion.

    Any seconder?

     

  • Evans ‘the terrible’

    Evans ‘the terrible’

    Who is Chukwudumeje George Onuamadike, aka Evans?

    That question would have been appropriate before June 10. Not now. Until then, he was known only among security agents and those who had the misfortune of being his guests. His victims, perhaps out of fear, spoke in the comfort of their bedrooms about him; never in public.

    The police describe him as the “most creative and craftiest” kidnapper.

    Before him was Henry Chibueze, aka Vampire, “the deadliest” of them all, whose gang members once stormed a court hearing his case, shot at soldiers and snatched him away – leg chains and all. It  was like  a scene from a Hollywood thriller. He was later to die in a gun duel with the police. Americana, whose gang is believed to be holding the Lagos pupils, is said to be just as vicious.

    Evans was captured in Magodo, a highbrow Lagos neighbourhood.  Residents   were shocked. His homes – there are two of them in the estate – are beautiful but not extraordinary, compared with the others. He did not show off his dirty wealth. No big cars were parked in his compound. No stream of visitors driving latest limousines. No owambe parties. He rarely mixed.

    It was all part of his strategy to evade arrest.

    The mask fell off on June 10.  Evans was unmasked as the tsar of the underworld with specialisation in kidnapping men of immense means who pay handsomely for their freedom. Now the number of joggers has reduced in Magodo where residents talk about gbenigbeni (the kidnapper) as against the once popular  gbomogbomo  (the kidnapper of kids).

    Now that he has been captured, residents who had given up early morning jogging for fear of ending up in some God-forsaken bush in Igando or in the throbbing lakande Estate in fawaray Isolo  where Evans has his safe houses of horror will not rush back to the tracks with their pot bellies.

    The rich do not take chances. They would not be won back by the fact that Evans has been seized by the police. They fear members of his gang may launch a reprisal.

    Who can blame them?

    Evans collected ransom in hard currency because he wanted “to be different”.  His victims include frontline businessmen. A potential victim would put him on a retainer, as an insured against being kidnapped. His victims were kept under inhuman conditions for months, manacled.

    One of them got Evans angry. His family was said to have been rude. They paid more and got their man back later than expected.

    When a victim is released and he goes to church for thanksgiving, Evans features as one of the honoured guests. How does he feel in church? Does he also shout “alleluia” and “amen”? When he kneels down, what does he tell God; to bless him? Does he feel his exploits come from above? Does he have a conscience? Does he ever spare a moment for reflections?

    In detention, Evans has asked for a copy of the Holy Bible, which he has been reading as if he is preparing for a Bible College exam. His favourite books are said to be Psalms and Job. In fact, he is said to love reading Psalms 23 –”The Lord is my shepherd…”. Really? Who then is the shepherd of his victims?

    Ivan the Terrible, who is also known as Ivan the Fearsome (August 25, 1530 – March 18, 1584), was Russia’s first tsar. He ruled with an iron hand. His was a bloody, brutal reign.  Ivan brooked no opposition. He was believed to be mentally troubled.   In a fit of anger, he killed his son, Ivan Ivanovich, who would have succeeded him.  Is Evans mentally stable?

    He was loved by few, loathed by many and feared by all. So is Evans.

    In police custody, Evans has been sobered up. He has been singing like a bird. He has told of how his father did not send him to school. He has talked about his gang and its mode of operation. He says his wife has been having a time of her life; she denies being lavished with cash and gifts.  He claimed to have given his father N3m and luxury motorcars.

    The Evans fairytale has raised many questions about our moral values, law enforcement, parental care, citizen responsibility and more. Why did it take so long to capture Evans? The police had been searching for him since 2013. A bounty of N30 million was placed on his head. That seemed to have done the magic, but must citizens wait for such enticement before performing their duty to society? Why did his victims fail to give information which the police could use to track him down?

    How do Evans’ parents feel? Regrets? If they were too poor to send him to school, why didn’t they ensure that he learned a trade and stuck to it? He said his goods were seized by Customs. He then went into drug trafficking, a trade he dumped after his partner cheated him and attempted to kill him. He tried his hands on armed robbery. Not pleased, he went into kidnapping, which proved to be a goldmine.

    Must a man be involved in such lethal undertakings all in the battle to get rich? What is wealth when it can buy only comfort but cannot secure peace of mind?

    Our society regards those who are not wealthy as failures. When cash is involved, morality is thrown overboard. That is why a professor commands no attention at a village meeting but everybody yields the floor to a man whose only qualification to sit at such a gathering is that he is “loaded”. “Na prof we go chop?” We scorn professionals who do not have wealth to exhibit, even as they are rich in intellect and other natural endowments which they have worked so much to develop.

    Why is kidnapping such a lucrative trade that is so attractive despite the punishment? Is it just the mad ambition of a bad mind to get wealth? Or just man’s inhumanity to man? Why is man so inhuman?

    Many of us are guilty of aiding and abetting this abominable crime. Who is the doctor who treated one of Evans’ victims who was shot? The doctor went to one of Evans’ detention centres to do the job, which many hospitals would not touch, even with the approval of the police. Who is the businessman who paid Evans in lieu of being kidnapped? Who are his bankers? Did they care about the nature of his trade that brought such hefty deposits?  How did he run his accounts in these days of cashless policy?  Who sold Evans the Magodo luxury homes? Did they conduct background checks?

    He was said to have used 126 mobile phone numbers.  Who are the service providers? Are the cards registered as required by law?

    A woman was said to have played some roles in untying the Evans knot. How Does he also say “I love you” to her? Does he kiss and hug? Is he capable of showing affection, despite his wicked ways?

    When he collects a ransom, says Evans, he takes his share and gives the rest to “the owners”. Who are the owners?

    Where is the place of law in all this?  An interview with Evans’ wife published by a newspaper shows that  ogbologbo lawyers are already at work. She is being schooled to portray Evans as a victim of societal and parental neglect who deserves sympathy and rehabilitation.

    Soon, the lawyers, flying the banner of human rights, will set their hands to the plough, filing an application to enforce Evans’ fundamental rights. They will be asking for bail. They will be seeking the leave of the court to enforce his right to medical care, overseas, naturally. The court will be urged to consider the principle of animus nocendi and establish beyond a reasonable doubt whether Evans deliberately set out to harm those who got physically harmed during his escapades.

    After all, an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, the court will be reminded. And justice, being blind and no respecter of status, may shun the din of the marketplace and follow its dictates. Then, it will all become an academic debate on the letter of the law in contradistinction to the spirit of the law.

    The police deserve garlands for capturing Evans. But, there are many Evans out there. The six Lagos pupils remain in captivity, several weeks after. Ondo State All Progressives Congress (APC) chief Olumide Odimayo’s body was dumped  by his abductors. The police have some suspects; they  should go after the others. But the police require everybody’s co-operation to succeed.

    We all should help to expose these enemies of humanity.

  • Not too early to cry

    Not too early to cry

    MAY 29 is gone. Not so the deep emotions it evoked.

    Of all the Democracy Day goodwill messages, none was as touching as that issued by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the faction led by Ahmed Makarfi –many insist he’s a nice man in a bad company –  that is. It was a flashback to those good old days when life was like an endlessLagos owambe party, when the rich did not have to hide their wealth in cemeteries; when champagne flowed at parties as if it was rain water in June and former lords of the creeks became landlords of mansions, commuting in jets and partying like Hollywood stars.

    The message was as pungent as it was moving. Elegiac.  “APC has destroyed all we built,” one of the headlines screamed, quoting PDP spokesman Dayo Adeyeye’s acerbic statement to mark the occasion.

    Poor PDP. Nothing can be as painful as a legacy shredded like scrap paper. My sympathies.

    Consider one of the videos that made the rounds just before the 2015 general elections. It had a party scene in which the celebrator and his friends danced themselves into a frenzy. They sprayed dollar bills on their fellow revellers and the musician. At a point, they felt the confetti of dollar bills would not do; they started throwing up bundles of $100 bills from a steel box brought in by an aide. Soon the dancing floor was strewn with the  green back and the naira. The frolicking went on and on.

    Those were the days.

    To the well-connected, the dollar was the currency of first choice. Today, even factories are striving to keep their machines roaring as the exchange rate has refused to come down after being jerked up so violently by crashing oil prices.

    Isn’t this enough for the PDP, which superintended over high oil prices, more than $110 a barrel at a point, to look back and mourn its loss? Being human, the party’s loyal supporters and dutiful officials will surely have memories of those days when forex was not our problem but how to spend it. We imported toothpicks, handkerchiefs, eyelashes, eye shadow , eyeshades and such important goods.

    The other day when distinguished Senator Daniel Dino Melaye presented his book, “Antidote for Corruption”, there were few donors, despite the presence of an army of dignitaries, some of them victims of the war against corruption who should be  happy that at last a manual on the right way to wage the all-important  battle was finally available.

    Senate President Bukola Saraki bought copies for all 109 members at N5.5m. House Speaker Yakubu Dogara shelled out N18m for a copy for each of the 360 members. Can that be a reasonable  reward for such an intellectual exertion on a subject that has been such a difficult knot to untie even for renowned academics?

    In those good PDP days, the Senate President would have ordered copies for the Sergeant-at-Arms, all senators’ laundrymen, chauffeurs, stewards, gardeners and  just anybody who deserved to have one – in the national interest.

    The price?

    It would have been whispered in the author’s ears, lest the poor whom the lawmakers are dying to uplift feel offended.

    Instead of praising Melaye’s deep commitment to scholarship, many have been talking about the lexical shortcoming of the book’s title. Some, who like Alaba traders know little or nothing about our copyright laws, dismissed the work as a mere compilation of other people’s ideas. Others latched onto the debate to define corruption in contradistinction to stealing.

    One of such rationalisation: “Beat a Nigerian child. Console him/her with biscuits. Ask him/her: ‘who beat you?’ He or she will point to another person. That was how bribery and corruption began in Nigeria.”

    The other day when the Directorate of State Services (DSS) stormed the homes of some judges in the dead of the night, rousing their Lordships from sleep, there was uproar from some quarters. Don’t judges deserve some respect? Should they be hunted like common thieves? Who ordered the raids? Where is the separation of powers that we preach? Is this democracy? Don’t judges have a right to snore away the night after a hard day’s job?

    The operatives found troves of foreign currencies and huge sums in Naira.  The government hauled the judges before the courts. Some of them have been freed and restored to their offices. No apologies. No remorse by the DSS and any of its agents.

    In the days of the PDP, the thought of raiding a judge’s home, let alone seizing their hard earned hard currency, would have been considered sacrilegious, and would have attracted the highest sanction – like treason. If anyone dared to commit such an egregious abuse of the rights of their Lordships to earn, own and keep cash in whatever currency, the executive would have apologised profusely. Besides, adequate compensation would have been paid to the aggrieved parties. Not now.

    Oh, good old days.

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has approached a court to stop the DSS and the police from searching his house. Recall that His Excellency had to rush out of bed the other night to physically stop DSS operatives from storming a judge’s home. That heroic feat of protecting the right of a citizen was derided as obstruction of justice. They forgot Chief Wike is a lawyer.

    In those days he wouldn’t have needed the stress of filing an action. Who would have contemplated searching a governor’s home?

    When a court granted the former First Lady, Dame Patience “Mama Peace” Jonathan the right to her $15m accounts, the tension that had built up in the hearts of ordinary citizens melted like ice cream under the scorching sun. Relieved, Her Excellency hit the bank to withdraw some cash for a long overdue shopping spree.

    Unrepentant, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which insisted that the cash was a proceed of some unstated illicit undertaking, asked the court to stop her. It obliged.

    Only in the current atmosphere can such audacious affront happen. Not in the days of the PDP when the rule of law took preeminence over all other things and everybody was happy.

    Not even Dame Patience’s  passionate plea that the money was part of a fortune given to her by her aged mother could move the anti-graft agency. It had made up its mind that such a huge amount of money must have come from some crime.

    In its May 29 speech, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo urged Nigerians to make more sacrifices. Some cynical fellows who had taken up the unassigned role of public rights defenders tore at him. They sneered: “Sacrifices; what sacrifices? What else do they want, these change people? Haven’t we done enough?”

    Those were the objective critics anyway. The scurrilous ones recalled the good days of the PDP when “making sacrifices” had a meaning, when a former governor collected N4.6b for some spiritual exercises and nobody raised an eyebrow.

    Scarcity of funds never featured in the PDP’s deliberations. In fact, when prominent citizens raised the alarm that the economy was in trouble, the government, one of the most inventive that has ever taken office anywhere in the world, dug  deep into its bag of tricks, brought out some strange figures, juggled them and announced triumphantly that ours was the biggest economy in Africa. It called the magic “rebasing”.

    Those were the days when we had real experts. Take a bow Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

    Before the Buhari administration took the reins, Boko Haram, the evil sect giving Islam a bad name, had already carved out of Nigeria its Islamic State. The Armed Forces were impotent. Soldiers were dying in hundreds. Civilians were murdered in an orgy of violence never seen in these parts. Funds voted for weapons were shared by PDP chiefs, their wards and friends. Anytime they ran out of cash, they rushed down to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), which dished out funds in local and foreign currencies. Everybody was happy. Oh, the good times. Not anymore.

    Those who are lashing the PDP for crying too early, saying after all Buhari has done just two years out of his four-year tenure are sorely lacking in the empathy that the calamity that befell the party requires. Here was a party that boasted of being Africa’s biggest , a party that vowed to rule  for 60 years in the first instance and wowed us all with its vote harvesting gimmicks, now a shadow of its old self. A party wracked and wrecked by a feud that has turned friends into foes.

    I won’t join those castigating the PDP. It deserves our sympathy. Its leading lights should be allowed to mourn.   More tears gentlemen!

     

    NOT SO FAST, MAJOR

    After a short break, the Major Hamza Al- Mustapha (retd.) road show has returned. In Ibadan last week, the dreaded Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Gen. Sani Abacha (of dreadful memory) attempted to rewrite history by turning facts on their heads. He said he was bundled into detention because he had a video on the murder of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election – Nigeria’s freest and fairest ever – which was annulled by military leader Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Bababngida for no just reason.

    Nobody is fooled. The facts of the matter are clear. The charges are clear. Al-Mustapha, the prosecution believes, knew about the plot that led to the daylight murder of Abiola’s wife, Kudirat, the indefatigable defender of democracy.

    If Al-Mustapha has a box-office-hit -video, let him release it, if only to show that he is not a villain and a coward as charged. Otherwise, he should face his case forthrightly,  seek restitution and desist from offending people’s sensibilities.

  • A season of parties

    A season of parties

    It has been a season of revelry.

    Minna was throbbing with the rich and the powerful on May 13. So was Lagos where the pulsating rhythm of the state’s 50th anniversary flowed into other jollification, including the society wedding of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s son. Abuja was also in a party mood; former Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion turned 60. Deputy Senate President Ike  Ekweremadu  clocked 55.

    Minna snatched away the prize for hosting the biggest of the parties, not because of its lavishness and grandeur, but for the  impressive congregation of the crème de la crème of politics and power. A mixture of grandees and prominent personalities – in business and the professions.

    That was only to be expected at the wedding of former military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s daughter Halima.

    The array of private jets that landed at the city’s airport was breathtaking. For days it became the subject of gossip in the social media. With such men of means, why do we have so much poverty with us? Do these people live among us?

    Some of the comments were lurid; others lucid. For how long are we going to begrudge our men of affluence, their taste and style?

    Anyway, that isn’t the story. Just consider the A class guests list and the sitting arrangement. The chance meetings. Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan shared the front row with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They sat beside each other.

    I do not know if they had met since the 2015 election, which then incumbent Dr Jonathan lost. They exchanged greetings quite all right. But banter? What was going through their minds as they maintained their straight faces. Those occasional smiles were about other matters at the party, I bet.

    What would Dr Jonathan have loved to tell Tinubu, the architect of the coalition of progressives that dealt the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) its most devastating blow ever?

    “Were you fair to me? Are you pleased with the situation of things now? Why didn’t you help me? What exactly did I do wrong? They said I didn’t fight corruption and I tried to educate them; corruption and stealing are two different issues; we don’t have to mix them. Now you can see how complex the whole thing is. I won’t criticise anybody o, but is this the change you envisioned?”

    “Thank you, your Excellency. We had to do what we did to save everybody, including you. To have allowed the nonsense to go on endlessly would have amounted to a class suicide. It had to stop. No apologies.”

    Former Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and his rival Ahmed Makarfi were there. Both are leading the two major factions of what is left of the PDP. They shook hands and smiled. What was going on in their belligerent minds?

    “You’ll soon see yourself, yeye man; the Supreme Court will deliver the hammer blow.”

    “You can’t chase me out of a house that  others and I sweated to build.”

    “We’ll see what you’ll do after this case. We’ll see the man who has the people’s support.”

    “On the rule of law I stand. You people invited me to save the party and you decided to dump me. Just like that.  No. Nobody can use me. I’m too big for that.”

    Former Niger State Governor  Babangida “Servant Leader” Aliyu, fresh from a brief detention, was there. He was all smiles, perhaps to tell his adversaries whose efforts have landed him in court for alleged corruption, that he wasn’t finished yet. Talk of resilience. Did he pump his successor Abubakar Sani-Bello’s hand? What kind of meeting was it? Warm? Cold? Felicitious? Convivial?

    This is the first time in a long time that former First Ladies Turai Yar’Adua and Dame Patience “Mama Peace” Jonathan have had the unusual chance of sitting next to each other. When last did they meet? What did they talk about? Was it just the usual “good to see you again”? Did the Abuja land dispute in which they tore at each other like some prized fighter crop up?

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai was there. So was Senator Shehu Sani, his arch-rival and critic-in-chief. Did they exchange pleasantries? Both were photographed – separately – smiling broadly. The two prominent citizens have been locked in a bitter war of wits over the governor’s style. Sani was once suspended for anti-party activity, but the senator would not keep quiet. He keeps hurling invectives at His Excellency, overstretching his capacity to tolerate dissent

    Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was there – red cap and all. Did he run into his successor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje? Interestingly, Ganduje would not drop the red cap, the symbol of Kwankwasiyya, the political movement nurtured by the former governor, even as both politicians are holding each other by the throat over the control of the state’s politics. In Kano, it is Kwankwasiyya versus Gandujiyya. And there they were, the two leading lights, partying.

    It was perhaps Abdullahi Dikko Inde’s first outing in a long time. The former Customs chief had disappeared from the social radar after some yet unproven allegations of serious fraud.

    Right there in Minna were men who have played major roles in the Nigerian story – from the military era to civil rule. They symbolise our success and failure, our defeat and victory, our heroic struggles and villainous enterprises, our gains and pains.

    From Minna, the party moved to Lagos where former President Olusegun Obasanjo hosted a colourful wedding for his son, Olujonwo and Tope, daughter of frontline businessman Chief Adebutu “Baba Ijebu” Kessington.

    There were governors and former governors, foremost businessmen and traditional rulers. Chief Olabode George was there. “O, he has settled with Baba,” a colleague screamed upon seeing the photograph of the PDP chieftain and his wife Roli at the wedding.  Beside George sat Makarfi, cool and composed as usual. Then somebody asked: “Where is Sheriff?”

    Former Governor Gbenga Daniel was also there, all smiles. And so was Dr Doyin Okupe, Obasanjo’s former spokesman who once fell out of favour. “Okupe? Baba has really changed; he is magnanimous now,” a guest remarked.

    Chief Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion’s 60th birthday party in Abuja was nothing close to those fairytale birthdays of yore that the family patriarch Chief Osawaru Igbinedion celebrated on at least three continents. In New York, Johannesburg and, of course, London.

    Apparently in the spirit of the recession and in line with the body language of the present administration, Lucky Igbinedion decided to celebrate his day in Abuja.  A touch of modesty there.  Those he thought  he had lost some weight – in cash – got the message.  How wrong they were!

    The celebrator, decked out in an all-white Bini outfit, , fire-red beads dangling from his neck and his trademark heavy moustache lush as ever, was in a festive mood.

    “So, Lucky is now 60,” a colleague said, wondering how old the former governor was when he ruled Edo State. The cynical fellow recalled how Chief Igbinedion mounted the podium to campaign for his beloved son in whom the people had apparently lost confidence.

    The old man saved his son’s shot at a second term when he told a cheering crowd of supporters: “Una say Lucky fail, Lucky fail. Yes. If your pickin fail for one class, he no go repeat?”

    The message hit home. Igbinedion got another term. He was later to be convicted for corruption and ordered to pay a hefty fine.  Action man that he is, he simply strolled to his car, opened its trunk, dug out the cash, paid the fine, and walked away a free man.

    At the Abuja party was Chief James Onanefe “Ogidigboigbo” Ibori, who has just finished doing a term in London. He was the toast of the show, I am told. Everybody wanted to shake his hand. But for the fact that it was well advertised as Igbinedion’s birthday, the event would have been mistaken for one of those parties to welcome Ibori from the London trip – his longest and, definitely, most memorable ever. Only two days ago, he was awarded a staggering sum of one pound (N483) damages against the UK authorities for a two-day illegal detention after his release from jail. Justice – at last.

    Unknown to many, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark had been preparing for his 90th birthday. Today. He took some time off the planning the other day to throw a jab at Obasanjo over some aspects of Segun Adeniyi’s books, which he felt the former President influenced. Obasanjo, a master of repartee and put-downs, simply ignored the Ijaw leader.

    The merrymaking goes on – recession or no recession.  Will they ever spare a thought for the poor?

     

    The coup talk and all that hysteria

    It is reassuring that the military came out yesterday to say that there are no plots to roll out tanks and halt our democratic march. Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai’s warning to officers hobnobbing with politicians was nothing out of the ordinary, the Defence Headquarters said.

    But why did the clarification come this late? Was somebody flying a kite?

    I gather from knowledgeable sources that the mammy market has not recovered its  rhythm since the Gen. Buratai warning shot.

    With the clarification, we can safely and merrily return to sharing bowls of steaming-hot peppersoup with our military brothers.

    All’s well that ends well.

          

     

     

  • The lucky 82

    The lucky 82

    WHY does politics always get in the way all the time?

    We do not seem to know where to draw the line between our interests and our sense of patriotism. That was what happened on Monday when the two main factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) tore at each other over the process that led to the release of 82 Chibok girls who had spent about three years in Boko Haram’s captivity.

    The PDP, needless to say, is like the proverbial dog whose ears were deaf to the hunter’s whistle. The self-proclaimed largest party in Africa is wracked by an internecine war from which it may not survive. Pity. But that is by the way.

    The Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee denounced the swapping of the girls with some Boko Haram commanders. “We do not think that exchanging innocent girls for hardened criminals like the terrorists is the right thing to do,” the party said in a statement dripping with disdainful conceit.

    It was obviously meant to douse the excitement that greeted the release of the girls. It didn’t. In fact, some cynical fellows began to redefine who a criminal is and who should be swapped for whom. Some of them suggested our senators, those distinguished fellows making laws for our well-being whose dangerous job is never appreciated–in cash and kind. Are senators criminals? I really don’t get that.

    In a tough language, the Federal Government descended on the faction. It described its criticism as indecent and inhuman. Could the PDP, Makarfi faction that is, have preferred that the government paid for the release of the girls? What is wrong with swapping, an internationally accepted process? Must the party talk just to remind its supporters that it is still alive and kicking?

    Not to be left out, the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the troubled party joined the fray. It lashed out at its rival and dismissed its criticism as unnecessary. Besides, it reminded us that the Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration started it all. It was ready to swap the girls with some Boko Haram elements.

    Spokesman Cairo Ojougboh spoke of how a World Bank consultant approached Chief Edwin Clark, the one who was Jonathan’s dad until it was as clear as day that an electoral waterloo was imminent. Clark, an inventive community leader – cunning, his critics insist – disowned Jonathan and called him a weakling who failed to fight corruption. Permit my diversion.

    Clark got Jonathan’s nod to pursue the matter. The process collapsed even before it began, as it later turned out.

    There were even rumours of the loss of a fortune–in dollars–to fake negotiators. Jonathan made at least two quick visits to Chad. All to no avail. I hope the former president will oblige us of the details of his trips to Chad someday when he takes time off the lecture circuit to write his memoirs.

    Nobody, not the least the distraught parents of the girls, cared about how they were retrieved. To them, it was an emotional issue; not one for political gymnastics.

    What should be of great concern is how to secure the release of the remaining girls. We should also spare a thought for the future of the freed girls. Many of them look good, unlike those released earlier by the terrorists. How was Boko Haram able to keep them so? Do they have good doctors? How do they get their drugs and other supplies?

    That the evil sect still has the capacity to keep such a huge number of captives without detection should be a big puzzle to the intelligence community. Could they have done this without the collaboration of some of our neighbours?

    We were told that 83 girls were actually freed, but one refused to accept freedom. She elected to stay with Boko Haram. This is absurd. Why will a young girl choose to stay in a strange land, far away from her parents and friends? Is she radicalised? Is she scared of the stigmatisation that may follow her return from  the den of the dreaded sect? Has she found affection in the place? Is she old enough to experience true affection?

    What rational decision can a teenager snatched off her dormitory by terrorists and forced to go through unpleasant, sometimes brutal, situations for three years take? Is it a matter of honour? A university undergraduate recently committed suicide because she was accused of stealing. That is strange in a country where people go to court to claim their loot after being caught pants down having their hands in the till.

    It is not yet clear which of the Boko Haram factions released the girls. We have  heard tales of how Abubakar Shekau, the brutal leader of one of the factions, got killed, injured and killed again, the latest being that he was injured in an air bombardment of a gathering of the infernal sect’s members. Every time he was pronounced injured or dead, Shekau, loquacious and uncouth, returned to threaten more assaults. So where is Shekau?

    President Muhammadu Buhari deserves commendation for the return of these innocent ones. His critics – and some of his admirers, I dare say – prefer to talk about his ill health rather than focus more on the gains of his administration, no matter how little they have been. Looters are grumbling as they give account in court. The terrorists have, no doubt, been weakened to the point that we are now talking about an end to the hostilities.

    The girls were snatched off under the watch of a government headed by a healthy president who woke up too late to the reality of the situation. The then government’s response was the subject of many beer parlour jokes and barber shop talks.

    Many will recall how the former First Lady, Mrs  Patience  Fakabelema Jonathan, summoned a meeting at the Villa. She broke down on television, sobbing: “Prinspal, do you come with two teachers? Ehn? You were not informed too? Kotinuu. No problem. God will see us.  There is God. There is God in everything we are doing. Those blood that are sharing in Boronu will answer.

    “What of two teachers. WAYEC, two teachers …ehn two, ehn what of two teachers who can tell us that they conducted that exam? Do you come with any? Prinspal, no too?

    “You, only you waka come. Okay. Now the First Lady is calling you: come I want to help you. Come to find ya child, your missing child. Will you keep quiet? Chei!Chei! There is God o! There is God o! The bloods we are sharing. There is God o…”

    What is all that? The administration reduced the tragedy to politics and responded with sickening drama. Jonathan  did not believe that over 200 girls could be trucked away just like that. By the time the government woke up to the terrible reality of the girls’ forced departure, the trucks had gone far and deep into the hellish Sambisa forest.

    There is no need for the PDP factions to fight over this momentous event. They should find other decent ways of asserting supremacy since they seem to be impatient for the Supreme Court’s pronouncement on their battle for the party.

    Must politics be seen in every situation, no matter how grave or sacred?

     

    Coordinator: A lexical analysis

    LEGAL experts have dismissed as unnecessary the fuss over President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter to the Senate on his medical vacation. He says in his absence, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will coordinate the government’s activities. To Senator Mao Ohuabunwa (Abia North), that is not enough. Buhari should have said specifically that Prof. Osinbajo will be Acting President.
    What is the ambiguity in this? Is the letter written in Latin? Section 145 of the Constitution is clear as to what should be done in this situation. When the President sends a letter to the National Assembly, it is automatic that the Vice President steps in. We dissipate so much energy on trivial issues. The 2017 budget is yet to be passed. Other matters remain pending.
    There are suggestions that a cabal may have been behind the style of the letter that sparked the seeming ambiguity. That is neither here nor there. The nomenclature is not important. Coordinator. Collaborator. Harmoniser. Hibernator. Acting President. Whatever. It is all semantics. No need for a lexical analysis. In plain language, Osinbajo is Acting President. Is that clear, senator?

  • A golden weapon

    A golden weapon

    Of all the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s policies, none has been as popular – and effective, I dare say – as whistle-blowing.

    Not even the crippling of the infernal Boko Haram machine has matched whistle-blowing on the scale of popularity. Nor the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that has hauled into the public treasury funds that would have gone into private pockets.

    Where is Julian Paul Assange, the Australian computer programmer and WikiLeaks chief? Edward Snowden? Come over. The game is on here.

    Consider the sheer amount of cash that has been recovered. Mind-boggling. The $43.6m the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) found in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos; the $9.8m former Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) boss Andrew Yakubu stashed away in a Kaduna slum; the N449m found in a Lagos bureau de change; the N250m dumped in a Lagos market; and the N49m abandoned at the Kaduna Airport. And much more.

    If anybody is still in doubt of the efficacy of this policy, the government has dismissed such doubts. The policy, it has announced with great confidence, will be extended to weapons recovery to reduce violent crimes. After that, I am told by a fellow who claims to know the thinking in the bureaucracy, it will be extended to prostitution, gambling, drug abuse and other ailments that trouble our society.

    No symposium or seminar is complete these days without young  participants, declaring that they would like to become whistle-blowers. All of a sudden, it is no longer fashionable to dream of becoming a lawyer, a doctor, a pilot, a soldier and a footballer.

    Why?

    The golden policy cedes five per cent of recovered to the whistle-blower. Imagine five per cent of $43.6m, probably tax-free.  A considerable fortune, recession or no recession, and without working up a sweat.

    Just before the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) came out to claim that the Ikoyi cash belongs to it, a neighbour of an uncle of mine had briefed an ogbologbo lawyer(apologies to former President Olusegun Obasanjo) to file on his behalf a writ compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release the haul to him,  to enter an unreserved apology, and to desist from further invading his privacy.

    The learned attorney reminded the petitioner that it was an open secret that the mountain of cash was found in a luxury apartment in an elegant mansion in Ikoyi – the home of the rich and the powerful. “When did you become one of them?” the lawyer asked him.   The fellow then reluctantly dropped the idea.

    Even the Senate (yes, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) threatened to intervene in the matter if the EFCC would not speedily name the owner of the cash. The plan was to summon the leadership of the Commission to bring to the hallowed chamber all the documents relevant to the matter.

    Many have sneered at this legislative oversight being contemplated. Which EFCC, the one headed by Ibrahim Magu whom senators refused to clear for chairman? Is a senator planning to claim the cash?  Is a public hearing, one of those dramatic inquisitions, on the way? Or a town hall meeting?

    Before the Senate could carry out its threat, the Presidency sprang up to some action. It announced the suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, over the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) contracts and NIA boss Ayo Oke, who had said that the cash was kept in the flat at the Osborne Towers for safety.

    Lately, some cheeky fellows, whose claim to being frontline estate surveyors, valuers and  property managers is as reliable as the Lagos weather, have been  erecting  billboards announcing that they had safe houses to let or lease. Such houses, they said, are available in any part of the country. The thinking, according to an Abuja sociologist who is researching into the wave of recoveries, is that the banks may soon become obsolete as more and more people will seek to hide their cash in the so-called safe houses.   There is now a wave of investments in such facilities.

    There will be no Bank Verification Number (BVN) issues. A depositor will not be required to state his or her personal details. No deposit slips. No cheques. No guarantors. And no withdrawal and deposit limits. No hidden charges whatsoever.

    But there are, despite the safety record of the safe house, those who have little confidence in the system. They now bury their cash in cemeteries. We were let into this secret the other day by no less a personality than the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    Ah, if only the dead could talk! I can bet some would have risen in fury to smack and hack down these strange funeral corteges. “Isn’t this the cash you could have poured into building good hospitals and paying doctors to stop them from going on strike and thus keep us alive?   Why bring it all here now? Do we spend dollars here? Don’t you have no fear, no shame, and no respect?  Why come here to disturb  our peace?

    The ranks of  whistle-blowers is swelling by the day, I can report with confidence.  They now include elders, unpaid pensioners and angry civil servants, also unpaid.  And they  have decided to regulate the trade, albeit discreetly.

    They have asked a lawyer to register at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)  the National Association of Chartered Whistle-blowers of Nigeria, hereinafter referred to as NACWON, for short. A notice has appeared in a national newspaper announcing the plan to register the organisation. Whoever has an objection should raise it within seven days or keep quiet forever. Members will be permitted to add after their names the title of “Fellow, NACWON”.

    In academic circles, a frontline scholar has told me, talks are going on about how universities can parlay the success of whistle-blowing into making their graduates job-creators and not job-hunters. They are busy drawing up courses that will lead to a Bachelor of Science degree in whistle-blowing.

    Trust Nigerians. Like so many other serious matters of national security and survival, the whistle-blowing policy has been the subject of insensitive jokes. There is one in which an angry woman scorns her FIFA-graded referee husband for not coming home with a fortune. “Which kin yeye whistle you dey blow for all these years? Your mates who don’t even wear any uniforms and are not running all over the place to catch some boys fighting over a ball are making billions just by blowing correct whistles,” she yelled at the confused man.

    Another spoke of how a trader boarded  a flight for China to get a customised whistle. He took the decision after all the major markets had run out of whistles. He was in Geri Kasuwa (Kaduna), Ariaria International Market (Aba), Balogun (Lagos) and others.

    There is also “a manual for whistle-blowers who want to be successful”. It lists the steps to take: “Locate where Ghana-must-go bags are sold. Identify anyone buying two or more bags. Follow the person discreetly. If he goes to a high class neighbourhood, you are on your way to being a millionaire. Hang around the neighbourhood and watch the movement of the bags. You can then blow your whistle.”

    “You can also hang around cemeteries to look out for what is being buried. It could be pound sterling, yen or dollar or all and more.”

    “Apply to be either a cook or a driver or a house help to a big man, a legislator or a Customs chief or any senior government official or a top military officer. If you land such a job with a governor, you are already a millionaire. Just shine ya eye.”

    “Slip into any place where a septic tank is being dug and find out what is going into the pit. Ditto for overhead tanks installation.”

    “If you do not succeed after trying these methods, blame it all on the old woman in your village.”

    Is whistle-blowing new? No. The problem is that we have all neglected our responsibility. Now that we get paid to squeal on suspected thieves, everyone wants a piece of the action. Should financial reward be the tonic for civic responsibility?

  • Thoughts on a new cabinet

    Thoughts on a new cabinet

    Is a cabinet shake-up imminent?

    The media have so reported  a couple of times, with some quoting “authoritative sources” as saying that President Muhammadu Buhari has made up his mind to either reshape his team or disband it.

    It took the President months to set up the cabinet. He took his time. Critics and advocates of today’s popular fast food-style of doing things, no matter how serious or sacred, scorned him for being “Baba Go-Slow”. He would not be stampeded. He stood firm.

    Less than two years into his four-year tenure, the speculators, manipulators and self-appointed regulators are on song again. Will Buhari succumb to pressure and disband this team in whom he seems to be so pleased? If  he does, will the new team include familiar names or relatively unknown men and women? Will he just move people around? Will he have a complete overhaul?

    Here are a few suggestions as to who should make the cabinet, were the President inclined to take another look at his team. It is all in the spirit of the patriotism for which “Editorial Notebook” is well known.

    Zamfara State Governor Abdualaziz Yari remains unrepentant over his comment on the lethal meningitis outbreak that has hit his state and some others in the North. That is the way it should be. The chairman of all governors should never be seen as a weakling who will suddenly disavow his pronouncements on any issue, no matter how sensitive, just to dodge a fight.

    What did His Excellency say to provoke the huge outrage that greeted his simple and logical comment, which, according to a reliable State House source, was made after a thorough research involving an army of religious giants and top-flight scientists, who remain anonymous because of the ethics of their trade?

    “What we used to know as far as meningitis is concerned is the type A virus. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has carried out  vaccinations against  this type A virus not just in Zamfara, but many other states.

    “However, because people refused to stop their nefarious activities, God now decided to send type C virus, for which there is no vaccine. People have turned away from God and He has promised that ‘if you do anyhow, you see anyhow’. That is just the case of this outbreak, as far as I am concerned.

    “There is no way fornication will be rampant and God will not send a disease that will not be cured.”

    They, those fellows who usually hide under some dubious nomenclatures, such as analysts, stakeholders and critics, descended on Yari. They said his theory had no scientific backing? How about its logic? They tore at the messenger and dumped the message. When did God start discussing with our governors?  Is Yari a philosopher or an exponent of theocentric edification? They asked scornfully.

    Minister of State for Health Osagie Ehanire, apparently without any proof, dismissed Yari’s theory. He said the outbreak had nothing to do with Nigerians’ moral and spiritual lifestyles. Not to be left out, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi, hit Yari for his “not Islamically correct statement”.

    The fact remains that Yari has brought a new perspective to our health issues. The nation can gain a lot from His Excellency’s newly acquired expertise, no doubt.  I nominate him enthusiastically for the health portfolio?

    Asked how the anti-corruption war can get more muscle, former President Olusegun Obasanjo suggested that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should hire ogbologbo lawyers to prosecute its cases.

    What a timely piece of advice, coming when High Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), once popular for his rights advocacy, is celebrating a rare feat of defeating the EFCC thrice in one month.

    A brief background. One of  Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose’s bank accounts was frozen by the EFCC. Ozekhome went to court and got the account unfrozen. Then the EFCC checked Ozekhome’s bank account Nestling in there was a hefty sum of money, about N75m. The EFCC impounded it. The lawyer cried out. He said it was a deposit from his client, the governor, for services rendered.  Outrage. But when has a lawyer’s professional fee become the subject of a public debate in beer parlours and soccer viewing centres? Do doctors disclose their fees?

    There is no doubt that Ozekhome is the kind of  ogbologbo Obasanjo had in mind.

    Interestingly, he is also defending Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Raymond Dokpesi, who is charged with alleged corruption for collecting about N2.1billion from the Office of the National Security Adviser. How about the  garrulous SAN for Attorney-General  for the anti-corruption war to hit a new phase?

    Until his academic records became the subject of public scrutiny, nobody knew that Dino Melaye, the distinguished senator representing the good people of Kogi West, had a third class degree.

    The other day when the Senate was discussing how to encourage patronage of made-in-Nigeria goods, Melaye stood up, gathered his agbada, cleared his throat and urged Nigerians to shun foreign spouses. Only a genius could have found the link between these seemingly dissimilar subjects.

    In the heat of the probe of his academic records, Melaye stormed the Senate in a doctoral degree holder’s gown. How he pulled this off remains a mystery till date. The busybodies, who always think everybody’s business is theirs, went to town. They excoriated the distinguished senator for no just cause: “Does he have no shame? Where did he get the gown from? Isn’t this wilful denigration of scholarship? Did he hire it? Why is he celebrating a third class?” They went on and on, lampooning the ingenuity of this inventive fellow.

    For Dino, I think Minister of Education will not be a bad idea. His talents will find full expression and blossom like  daffodils in spring. Our youths, many of who are said to be enjoying his scholarship, will know that with a third class, you could be on your way to fame – and fortune – faster than ever thought.

    Solomon Dalung should retain his job as minister of Youths and Sport. Instead of his great achievements, many talk only about his dressing,  his military police beret and khaki shirt and trousers. Some describe him as an ex-soldier-turned- Lagos Island hotel doorman. To others, he is a Nigeria Civil Defence Corps (NCDC) recruit awaiting his first set of uniforms.

    The other day when the honourable minister told a House of Representatives panel that the money allocated to the Olympic Games was “well spended”, his critics protested. It was as if he had committed a murder. Trust Dalung; he took it all on the chin.

    For weeks, some youths were in Lagos preparing for the ITTF African Junior Championship in Tunis. They were sent home last weekend when the ministry could not fund the trip. Again, the minister is the whipping boy.

    There is no doubt that contrary to the popular opinion that sport is dying, and  our youths are more interested in reality shows, such as the just concluded Big Brother Naija,  all is well. Dalung should retain his job – for his calmness in the face of a clear storm.

    Many are impressed by the tactical way Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal fended off questions over the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) contracts, among them the controversial N1.3billion grass-cutting job he was said to have awarded to a company in which he had an interest. A well organised man, Lawal has since dissociated himself from the scandal. An attempt by the House to summon him over that matter was rejected because it was the subject of a legal dispute. Besides, he was expressly cleared by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).

    It has been suggested in some circles that Lawal should be minister of Works and Due Process. I concur.

    Ben Murray Bruce (where in the world is he?) periodically issues videos in which he comments on matters of national interest. He once said civil servants and politicians were stealing because they had no hope of ever owning a home.  The distinguished senator recently advocated that government officials should be jailed for bad behaviour. And many were asking: “Are senators included?” “Is taking money from banks and not paying  good behaviour?” They taunted the urbane senator – all because the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) sealed off his movie houses, an action that lasted just a few days.

    I have heard some perceptive observers say Murray-Bruce will do well as minister of Tourism, when his skill as a beauty pageant organiser is pressed to service. They have a point, considering the government’s desperation to diversify the economy.

    The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, was once quoted that all he wanted in life was to sit on the revered throne. He has achieved that.  An Islamic scholar of no mean stature and a finance expert of immense energy, Sanusi does not suffer fools gladly.

    In doubt? Ask the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the Seventh Senate and, most recently, Yari and other leaders of the North.

    There is the rumour that the Emir would not mind being president. That seat being not vacant, would he like to be Finance minister, even if it is just a rehearsal for the real show?

    The nominations continue.