The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • What ails Trump and his allies

    What ails Trump and his allies

    Of all post-independence Nigerian leaders, President Tinubu is perhaps the only one who has a clear idea of the forces that have held our nation down since 1960.

    First, as a nation with nominal independence, we cannot be talking of sovereignty when neo-colonialism, which Kwame Nkrumah described as “the last stage of imperialism”, a situation where our economic system and political policies are dictated from outside, was what replaced colonialism.

    Many even believe neo-colonialism is worse than colonialism. At least with the latter we could report the misdeed of their satellite based official to political office holders in the metropolitan. It is on record that Herbert Macaulay once took the case of land grabbing by British officials to London where he secured victory for his client. Unfortunately, the multinationals that took over from the colonial masters are driven only by profit motive and responsible only to the metropolitan power.

    As a first step towards reclaiming our sovereignty, President Tinubu without upsetting our traditional friends that have exploited us for decades, quietly diversified our economy by focusing on other areas than oil. He also diversified our friends by moving closer to Russia and China.

    Why many concerned Nigerians were calling for restructuring and a return to 1963 constitution, Tinubu understands tribes and religion are relics of colonial rule. He did not think that was the best road to take especially since it is the legacies of colonial rule that shape our today’s political landscape.

    For him, our problem since independence has been that of governance. For instance, all his predecessors embraced inherited colonial government model that promoted ethnic rivalry, inequality and allowed primitive accumulation by the elites who openly pillaged our resources.

    His answer to self-serving critics of his fuel subsidy removal was simple: Nigeria cannot continue to spend the future of their children’

    In any case, the wailing elite were prominent in the fuel subsidy scam, the sharing of power sector assets after government injection of billions of tax payers’ money, the collapse of the banking sector where they have refused to pay millions of naira AMCON deployed to save some of the banks, etc. Tinubu understands these greed-driven elite operate above society and its government. What was needed was persuasion to let them see the need to be on the side of Nigeria. The president stooped to conquer to do exactly that.

    With solid home support of those who own society, he was ready to take on the multinationals. He embarked on diversification of the economy and our friends. He shifted attention to gas and paid less attention to oil where the multinationals have ensured the more oil we sell the poorer we become. In no time, President Tinubu announced to Nigerians that the country now makes more money from other areas of the economy than oil.

    Dangote’s refinery, the biggest in the world became symbol of our independence and sovereignty by meeting our domestic need and exporting aviation fuel to Europe. Dangote stopped the tragic situation where, because we could not refine our own oil, we sell to multinationals at $60 per barrel and buy it back as refined PMS at $840.

    This is not just our victory but victory for Africa where Ivory Coast, the highest world producer of cocoa gets for one year’s pain, about ten percent of the profit of just one chocolate manufacturer in USA.

    There is massive infrastructural development going in the areas of railways, roads, communication etc. courtesy China who did not give us conditions that will compromise our sovereignty. These are facilities we could not secure from our western friends who often referred us to IMF and World Bank that have only prolonged the misery of customers from the third world nations.

    Our ability to stand on our own is Donald Trump’s anguish.  America and the West will not mind creating chaos or even regime change to end our current efforts to end decades of exploitation.

    Insurgency has been with us for over 15 years. American Special Forces involved in training have worked closely with our security men in the area of training technic in fighting insurgency.

    Unfortunately when immigrant Fulani herdsmen and their local promoters engaged in periodic mindless killing, their victims are often Christians because the area is inhabited by predominantly Christians. For the same reason, victim of Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast are both Muslims and Christians while the victims of the of the civil war between Fulani and their Hausa kinsmen, in the Northwest will be Muslims.

    Unfortunately these are facts not known to Trump who supporters of jailed IPOB leader Kanu with permanent lobby group in the US and those of: Peter Obi who campaigned in 2023 exploiting tribal and religion sentiments, are inviting to Nigeria to fight their battle. .

    But let us remind those who refuse to learn from history.

    Those calling for Trump’s help must be reminded of the tragedy that befell nations where opposition elements have, because of social dislocations, sided with American invasion of their countries. The first victims are the people, who often end up without a country,

    Bush in 2001 heading a US military coalition of Great Britain, Canada and allied forces went to Afghanistan to overthrow Taliban and dismantle al Qaeda. America was frustrated out after 20 years .and succeeded by the Taliban.

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    Libya under Muammar Gaddafi where  newlyweds were provided with new government apartments, where education within or outside Libya was free, where there was full employment because all university graduates secured job after graduation and where salaries, allowances and pensions allowed people was the envy of the world.

    But claiming Gaddafi broke the ‘no flying zone over rebels trying to bring his government down, NATO’s embarked on indiscriminate bombing of Libya in violation of the mandate of the UN Security Council. NATO aided rebels to capture Gadhafi as he tried to escape. After his summary execution by rebels who wanted freedom from his tyranny, they discovered there was no more Libya which had “by 2011 achieved economic independence, with its own water, its own food, its own oil, its own money, and its own state-owned bank” to return to. At the end they settled for the caves where they and their grandfathers lived before Gadhafi transformed a desert to a paradise

    It is instructive to note one of the first things to be bombed by NATO was Gadhafi irrigation program,” the Great man-made River (GMMR)” an enormous engineering project considered the world largest irrigation system.

    But we now know from 2016 publication of Hillary Clinton’s emails that he was killed “to prevent the creation of an independent hard currency in Africa that would free the continent from its economic bondage under the dollar, the IMF and the French African franc. That hard currency would have allowed Africa to shake off the last heavy chains of colonial exploitation”.

    Saddam Hussein in an effort to annex the oil-rich Khuzestan province of Iran, launched an invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980. He was armed by America while the war went on for eight years. It was not until Saddam’s nationalization of Iraq oil that America remembered he was a dictator who killed close to 200 of his Barth Party opponents to remain in power. They knew Saddam did not have weapon of mass destruction, but they lied to the UN and the world.  They needed to kill Saddam, destroy Iraq and create chaos in Iraq society in order to take over Iraq oil. And that was exactly what they did after the execution of Saddam Hussein on December 20 2006.

    Riley Moore who on November 7 introduced a resolution in the house “condemning the ongoing persecution ….after meeting Nigerian delegation led by Ribadu issued a statement on the 19, talking of opportunities to strengthen cooperation and coordination between US and Nigeria”. Last week’s special house special sitting on Nigeria was deadlocked. There are also testimonies by those who know the complexities of a nation of 240million, speaking over 500 languages. But Trump on Fox last Saturday still accused Nigerian government of not doing enough, a narrative he must have got from a section of Nigeria media.  “What is happening in Nigeria is a disgrace”, he said.

    Everything must be done to stop disturbed Trump from coming gun a blazing.

    Proponents of the theory of ‘Comparative Advantage “are also unhappy that we are doubly favoured by same law by virtue owning our raw materials and the capacity to add value.  Promoters of globalisation as the new god we must all worship are in panic because Nigeria now exports aviation fuel to Europe. If trump is allowed to come gun a blazing, his target will be Dangote’s refinery, the symbol of our freedom and source of his anguish.

  • Quest for state police

    Quest for state police

    Of all apparatuses of state power, the police have more influence and wield more power than judges, bishops, politicians and soldiers. It is also perhaps the most critical institution for the smooth running of communities and survival of society as we today know it. The alternative to public order, enforcement of law and protection of citizen and their property, is of course anarchy, where life becomes the survival of the fittest. It is the de facto government in most rural communities and to some extent in some urban settings. They perform the role of jurors, judges, priests, therapists, peace maker etc. Their station is the first port of call for the aggrieved, depraved, warring housewives and elite members eager to protect the disproportionate share of the nation’s resources they have cornered. This is why a nation that plays politics with its police often pay dearly for its folly.

    But for our continued desecration of principles of federal arrangement, the huge expenses wasted on failed  ‘Operation Sharan Daji (Sweep the Forest)’, ‘Operation Harbin Kunama (Scorpion Sting) Operation Diran Mikiya (Eagle Fighting), “Operation Puff Adder,” “Operation Maximum Safety” aimed not only “at taking the battle to the doorsteps of the criminals” but to “rout-out, arrest and prosecute armed bandits, vicious kidnappers for ransom and cattle rustling gangs operating in Zamfara State, would have been saved. The relief nine years of bombing could not secure for besieged people of Zamfara is what community policing routinely secures for communities where they wield power and influence as representative of government.

    And the reason for this is simple. As against indiscriminate bombing of siblings in Zamfara for example, by strangers, local police recruits from the warring Hausa subsistence farmers and Fulani herders would have constituted themselves into a balance of terror faced with a choice of continued mindless killing of themselves or resolving their differences in the interest of their different communities that look up to them for direction.

    But beyond this, there are places in the north according to Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, where one can drive for three hours without sighting policemen who are expected to constitute government of such areas. Since there is no vacuum in nature, such areas become haven for insurgents and bandits. This is why for him – there is no alternative to decentralization of the police architecture in order to create state police if “we are sincere in addressing the problem of criminal activities of banditry and kidnapping”.

    Unfortunately, until recently, politicians from the south and the north have always taken irreconcilable positions on the issue of state police The Fulani ruling elite for fear of allowing children of the oppressed Hausa to operate in areas they have monopolized for long, opposed state and community policing even with most part of the north under siege.

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    The governor of Kaduna State, an advocate of state police, took the crusade to the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Distinguished Lecture Series, where he delivered a lecture titled, “The Role of State Governments in Overcoming Insecurity in Nigeria where he insisted “there is no alternative to creation of state police if we are sincere in addressing the problem criminal activities, banditry, kidnapping”.

    President Tinubu who seems to have his hands tied by political consideration has always been a crusader for decentralization and state police. Decentralisation was in fact part of his campaign promises.

    In February 2024, his government inaugurated a committee to develop a framework for state policing. Not long after, the National Economic Council (NEC) announced that nearly all the 36 states had submitted memoranda on the creation of state police, with most of them in agreement with the proposal. The president thereafter, reiterated that the creation of state police is no longer optional but a necessary step to strengthen Nigeria’s security architecture in the face of persistent threats across the country.

    In September this year, the president told the Council of State the need of a revisit to state police after hailing the performance of JTF helping people returning to their homes: “I have looked more carefully at the security situation. I see the efforts of civilian JTF and communities. This has again provoked my thinking on state police. We can work with the National Assembly to design a framework that guarantees local ownership while ensuring political neutrality,” the president declared.

    The president also used the occasion of a recent visit by a delegation of Katsina indigenes led by Governor Dikko Radda to the Presidential Villa in Abuja to assure them of his government’s commitment to the creation of state police. “I am reviewing all the aspects of security; I have to create state police. We are looking at that holistically”.

    It must be noted that the Buhari administration was not opposed to creation of state police following the general demand by majority of the state governors. His only fear according to Garba Shehu, his senior media adviser, was about the capacity of state governors in arrears of staff salaries to carry the burden of new salaries. That fear no more exist today with the humongous amount of money going to the states and local governments.

    Of course we cannot decree against some overbearing state governors from abusing state police.  The consolation is that there will be rule of engagement and there will be a system of check and balancing.

    Our major crisis of nation-building since the collapse of the first republic is non-adherence to principles of federal arrangement as enshrined in our constitution. Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo started the process of overloading the exclusive list with items removed from concurrent list to fulfil their ill-advised policy of ensuring ethnic nationalities at different levels of cultural development even before the advent of colonial rule, now operate at the same level. With the total disappearance of residual list, we started operating unitary rule in the name of federal arrangement.

    Unfortunately, neither the classical model builders that see federalism as “a form of government in which sovereignty or political power is divided between the central and local governments, in such a way that each of them is independent within its sphere”, nor modern proponents of cooperative federalism that emphasize cooperation between the centre and the federating states envisaged a situation where the centre which in any case, is not superior to the subunits, will usurp the power of the subunits to police themselves.

    How will states perform their primary role of protecting lives and properties of citizen if denied the right to police themselves?

    Abridging the constitutional right of the subunits to police themselves is the source of social dislocations we witness across the country. For instance, the sources of conflict in places like Zamfara, Katsina, Benue and Plateau is the rivalry between indigenes and settlers over control of political and economic resources. The cheapest approach since both groups have been condemned to live together would have been recruiting state and community police among the two warring groups. That outcome will be balance of terror that could force the two warring groups to sit down and address their common problem since the alternative to living in peace will be endless reprisal killings.

    Again, quest for state policing is a symptom of self-inflicted crisis of nation-building. The truth is that some of our powerful leaders have no faith in the country. They are more interested in what they can take out of the country than building a nation. All our self-proclaiming patriotic leaders including those who fraudulently claimed they “sacrificed their present for our future”, are responsible for the nation’s nightmare since the collapse of the first republic. After all, it was never lost on any of them that there is hardly any state with federal structure from India to Brazil, Canada to Germany and the US from where we copied our constitution that does not operate a decentralized police force.

    The president has expressed his commitment to creation of state police He must walk the talk by prevailing on the National Assembly to be on the side of the people. Instead of throwing bombs and deploying soldiers to fight warring siblings who live among themselves, I think it is time to allow local people under the supervision of local police who are stakeholders face their own demon. As Governor Uba Sani told us “when states take ownership of security and development, peace becomes sustainable”.

  • Thieves as victims of tankers explosions

    Thieves as victims of tankers explosions

    Life has today become very cheap in Nigeria. If it is not Boko Haram insurgents indiscriminately killing people and abducting young schoolgirls in the northeast, immigrant Fulani terrorists visiting death on subsistence farmers at night and confiscating victims’ sacked villages in the middle belt region, it is Fulani settlers engaged in reprisal killings with their Hausa hosts with whom they have co-existed for close to 200 years in in northwest states of Zamfara and Katsina. And now driven by greed, even those Nigerians who are not under siege are dying in droves while attempting to scoop fuel from overturned tankers.

    Data from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), showed that 1,531 petrol tanker crashes occurred in 2020 alone, claiming 535 lives and injuring 1,142 people while report from National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) claims victims often met their untimely death when they rush to the scene of overturned tankers with jerry can to scoop petrol. We also gathered from the same FRSC statistics that  in 2024, at least 411 Nigerians lost their lives while in the last  three months over 300 people have literarily committed suicide while attempting to scoop fuel from overturned fuel tankers.

    Of this figure, about 42 came from an oil tanker explosion which occurred near the Essan and Badeggi communities along the Bida-Agaie road in the Katcha Local Government Area of Niger State, with 52 people with varying degrees of injuries according to Abdullahi Baba Ara, head of the Niger State Emergency Service. Captured within this figure were over 100 bodies of residents recovered from the scene and buried, with most victims burned beyond recognition when a truck carrying about 60,000 litres of petrol overturned near Suleja, also in Niger State. These avoidable deaths continue to occur in spite of several awareness campaigns about the danger of scooping oil from fallen tankers.

    Unfortunately, for some newspapers, TV news anchors and civil society groups, the government, often accused of not paying sufficient attention to bad roads and general infrastructural decay is often the culprit. They often ignore other variables such as deployment of old rickety petrol tankers by NUPENG and PENGASAN and the aggression of the fuel scoopers.  Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency recently revealed how “the police arrived almost 20 minutes before the fire and tried to prevent the people from approaching the product, but the security personnel are often chased away, before the explosion occurred”.

    And precisely because victims are quite aware of the danger is one more reason why many believe Onilu’s recently launched new campaign which brought together traditional rulers, religious leaders, youth and women groups, and security agencies to address the deadly trend is not likely going to stop the recurring explosions and loss of lives which he has associated with poor community leadership and eroded national values.

    We live in an environment where we don’t speak ill of the dead. But much as we feel for those who literarily committed suicide, empathize with those they left behind, there can be no other name for those who are ready to fight  security men trying to stop them from taking what does not belong to them than thieves. And if you are wondering at the source of such audacity, just take a look at our new-breed military-baked politicians who have since the birth of the fourth republic in 1999 behaved like an army of occupation interested only in sharing spoils of war.

    In 2001, claiming they were anxious to recoup their expenses having sold properties to contest election, National Assembly members created artificial fuel scarcity. They stampeded Obasanjo to sign a bill into law which became the instrument PDP politicians and their children used to defraud Nigeria of billions of naira. Under the ill-implemented privatization programme, they sold Nigeria’s total investment of over $100b to themselves at a paltry $1.5b. Under their monetization policy, they sold to themselves properties dating back to pre-independence period.

    I have searched without finding any difference between those who chased away policemen trying to prevent them from taking what they considered as their own share of the national cake and David Mark, who as senate president, bought the senate president mansion and was quick to drag EFCC to court to protect what he believes was his own share of the national cake. Didn’t the fuel scoopers witness how presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan arm-twisted sitting governors and government contractors to raise over N7b each with which they built private presidential library in Abeokuta and recreational centre and church in Otuoke? They have seen their religious leaders receive huge tithes from criminals and our traditional rulers share 5% of LGA allocation without any constitutional role or the policemen shoot drivers who refuse to give them bribe.

    Lastly, those risking their life to scoop fuel from overturned fuel tankers are aware some of the fuels are in any case being ferried illegally across our borders to neighbouring countries. For many impoverished Nigerians, the prospect of getting free fuel is seen as part of their own national cake. As Professor Wande Abimbola, former vice chancellor of University of Ife who was ridiculed for not having a car after serving as majority leader in the senate has observed, Nigerians expected their elected representatives in Abuja to steal funds meant for development and share with their constituency members. As far as he is concerned, most of us are thieves.

    It is just as well Onilu recalled that Tinubu in his speech on January 1 had promised to unveil the National Values Charter for the benefit of all Nigerians. But it has to start with our youths who in spite of opportunities available to them today, have continued to complain of betrayal. It is hard for them to imagine that even in Western Region that guaranteed free education at the primary school level, youths had to go to farm settlement to save enough money to go to Modern School, then Teachers Training Colleges from where many secured their GCE O/ level through correspondence that opened the door to the university if you have a sponsorship or secure a scholarship.

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    Many of our today’s youths who have an opportunity of free education from primary to secondary school in many of the states cannot just imagine what it meant to be youths in the sixties and seventies when poverty struck people directly in the face in most of our rural areas. Yet, that was the period when traders openly displayed their wares by the road side while prospective buyers pick their choice and drop money. Sometimes the sellers may not turn up for over a week to collect their money.

    Since it will be difficult to change the mind-set of our current leaders, the target of President Tinubu’s National Values Charter, should be the youths from primary through secondary school to the university.

    However, as well intentioned as the charter may be, many believe it can only succeed if we first address our crisis of nation-building. Nigeria is a multicultural and heterogeneous society with different groups at different levels of cultural development. No one group can impose its values on the other. The challenge will be how to balance the interest of those who work for a more egalitarian society and those who believe stealing government funds meant for development is not corruption but misapplication of funds – (apology to Augustus Aikhomu).

  • The transformation of Soludo

    The transformation of Soludo

    In another four days, November, the people of Anambra State will go to the polls to elect a new governor.  The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has so far cleared 16 candidates for the battle. Of the 16, Chukwuma Soludo, an outsider and the incumbent governor who joined politics only four years ago however remains the candidate to beat. Political pundits have in fact tipped him to win with a landslide beating all his other seasoned and professional politicians round and square.

    The rise of Soludo is unprecedented. Many are therefore anxious to know the sources of his transformation. In fact, on account of his unparalleled rise and extraordinary performance, not a few believe the Soludo brand will require future studies by intellectuals. Here was a cynical intellectual who has spent his most productive years in the Ivory Tower.  He was a professor of Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; visiting professor at Swarthmore College, USA; Smuts research fellow at Cambridge University; visiting scholar at University of Warwick and Oxford University; visiting fellow at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; research fellow at UN-Economic Commission for Africa, Ethiopia and a visiting scholar at IMF research department, among others.

    He was a former Finance Adviser to the federal government and one time governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. He was the founding chairman of the African Finance Corporation and has consulted for many international organisations including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), UNCTAD, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the African Development Bank (ADB), etc.

    Nothing therefore prepared Soludo, an intellectual, a cynical breed that regards all men as fortune hunters, for politics as a calling. Many of his predecessors who took the risk ended up in grief. They were unable to survive in the real world of politics where being a politician itself is a nightmare because all politicians are regarded as tricksters, corrupt, untrustworthy and an unscrupulous breed. 

    Beyond the struggle to protect their integrity as builders of institutions including  bureaucracy without which society decays, involvement of  intellectuals in politics meant learning anew how to survive party intrigues, betrayal by trusted allies and stabbing in the back by those driven by party ambition. And if they survive navigating that purgatory, then comes the true test of being in power – balancing self-interest of pressure groups and that of public interest they are elected to serve. This task, as many who fell by the way side have discovered, often requires a politician’s versatility, brinkmanship and skilful exploitation of innermost fears of the masses in order to satisfy the demand of the rich, the real owners of society and the power behind the throne.

    That Soludo was able to successfully balance the interest of the poor masses of Anambra and the greed of their economic elite regarded as the richest group in Nigeria was part of Soludo’s unique record he celebrated through dancing and rendition of local songs about Igbo folklores and folktales as he carried his campaign message from one Local Council Area to the other. And that was all he needed to win the trust of ordinary people of Anambra who freely added their widows mite to the huge donations from Anambra super rich, to offset Soludo’s campaign expenses.

    But Soludo, a highly resourceful fellow, in spite of that advantage did not take his peoples’ support for granted. He campaigned vigorously, selling a new vision without forgetting to remind his people of fulfilled promises.

     On the other hand, many of his opponents are unknown, are without structures while some launched their campaign a week to Election Day, forcing Soludo to observe: “This is shocking and a mockery for a political party like the APC to flag off its campaign seven days to the voting process”.

    It is not just that Soludo’s opponents in the battle coming up in four days’ time are unprepared; they don’t appear to have anything to sell beyond fear. They are apprehensive that Soludo might rig the election through either vote buying or the use of the state security apparatus to intimidate opposition.

    This was the narrative of three of Soludo’s opponents viz John Nwosu of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chioma Ifemudilike of African Action Congress (AAC) and Onyekwelu  YPP’s spokesman who stood in for  Paul Chukwuma, candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) during their last Saturday’s encounter with  Channel TV’s  Ayo Makinde.

    For instance, the governorship candidate of ADC, John Nwosu who listed his assets as ‘18 branches of his IT firm’, his expertise as a trained economist and IT expert, has declared that the only thing that stands between him and victory is Soludo’s possible vote buying and abuse of the of Anambra security outfit to intimidate the opposition’. He was silent on the fact that his party, ADC has no structure to man the polling booths in Anambra in an election that comes up in another four days.

    The excuse of Chioma Ifemudilike, the governorship candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), whose party is not known to the masses, and has no structure or even agenda, was not different. The only reason she could lose the election is if Soludo rigs the election. Similarly, Onyekwelu YPP’s spokesman alerted Nigerians that if his principal, Paul Chukwuma, loses, it will not be because his party is unknown but because Soludo rigs.

    This why many believe that Soludo’s opponents have made his victory inevitable. For while they sell fear, he advertises his achievements. Campaigning in Oguata LGA last Saturday, Soludo reminded the people of how he dislodged IPOB terrorists from eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) it controlled before he assumed office in 2021. He also told them of how he employed 8000 teachers, over 1000 doctors and nurses and empowered over 13,000 youths.

    As November 8 draws nearer, Soludo’s records continue to speak for him. The latest recognition came from BudgIT which rated, Anambra State as 2025 Nigeria’s best-performing state in fiscal management, rising from second position in 2024, to beat Lagos to the second, as well as Kwara (third), Abia (fourth), and Edo to the fifth position. Anambra government has attributed the feat to Soludo’s “strategic economic reforms and disciplined financial management, which have placed the state on a sustainable growth path.”

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    On the health sector, Governor Soludo’s administration according to his commissioner of health has revolutionised the state’s health sector through the “construction of five new general hospitals and the rehabilitation of over 130 others, including primary healthcare centres, across the state within three years.”

    Soludo’s education policies focus on free and compulsory education from nursery to senior secondary school in Anambra State, “to ensure that children from all socio-economic backgrounds can access quality education and develop their full potential”.

    On agriculture, Soludo has said his agriculture policy in the last three years focused on ‘an agriculture-led transformation in Anambra State to boost food security and create wealth’. To achieve his government set goals, some of his administration’s initiatives include the “Farm to Feed” campaign”.

    The lack of seriousness on the path of Soludo’s 15 opponents is the reason many believe that the problem with elections in Nigeria has always been politicians who exploit our religion and ethnic faults to behave like outlaws. We remember Chief Remi Fani Kayode of NNDP in the First Republic, emboldened by Nnamdi and Ahmadu Bello, swore his party would win the 1965 Western Region election  whether the people voted for his party or not. That sounded the death knell of the First Republic. In 1983, the same group with Walter Ofonagoro as rain doctor spoke of ‘landslide and sea-slide victory in opposition strongholds”. That led to the sacking of the Second Republic by the military. In 2023, the same group led by unprincipled serial cross-carpeters – Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, driven by greed on the eve of an election splintered their party into three. For two years each of them has continued to claim victory despite the verdicts by INEC and the Supreme Court. Following their rhetoric, their unthinking followers openly canvassed for insurrection or military takeover thereby once again, bringing the past to pain.

    As we have often said, the federal arrangement often produces egocentric men who behave like outlaws. Solution can therefore not come through electoral law but through politics. With defecting politicians almost turning the nation to one party state, the president has the yam and the knife.

  • Enablers of Kanu self-destructive behaviour

    Enablers of Kanu self-destructive behaviour

    As seductive as the federal arrangement, a social  system that guarantees ‘unity in diversity’ is, it also has the prospect of producing arrogant leaders with inflated sense of self-importance as representative of groups with their own clear vision of society. By strange coincidence, all our three founding fathers suffered from this federalism’s major infirmity.

    Obafemi Awolowo was an efficient administrator and an unrepentant federalist. His unrivalled achievement in education, communication and industrialization and drive towards an egalitarian society in a world of endless class wars, placed his Western Region ahead of other regions.

    But his audacity to dream he could replicate his West achievement all over the country, a crusade not shared by his more Yoruba irredentist deputy, Chief SL Akintola, the trusted ally he effectively used to keep the colonial masters and the feudal north at bay. This marked the beginning of the fall of the West as Ahmadu Bello who could not stand Awo’s arrogance put him out of circulation after independence courtesy NPC/NCNC alliance.

    Prof Banji Akintoye recently quoted a colleague with whom he was doing a project on Nigeria as saying “the Yoruba people are very proud; whoever told the north wanted free education?”

    Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik was admired by Lagos intelligentsia for his erudition and worshipped by Lagos Igbo urban immigrants who had for long yearned for a spokesman. They believed whatever Zik said.  But the price the Igbo nation paid for Zik’s audacity to mislead his Igbo compatriots that unitary system is best for a multi-cultural society has been coups, pogroms, civil war and a nation that has remained ungovernable since independence.

    For Ahmadu Bello, a feudal lord, loyalty was feudalism first badge of honour. He did not forgive Awo for trying to undermine his authority among those that literarily worshiped him.  He had no apology for single handedly manipulating the constitution to remove one leg of Nigeria tripod holding Nigeria together. The consequence of Ahmadu Bello’s exploitation of innermost fears of his subjects is that the north has not moved far from where it was in 1966.

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    However, the battle today is against Nnamdi Kanu, an egocentric leader with inflated sense of self-importance but with neither a grand worldview nor even a clear vision of where he intends to take the Igbo nation to. In fact, his display of reckless power, arrogance and erratic outbursts such as “burn down Lagos”, burn down Oyigbo and kill all the policemen” when not railing against judges and lawyers old enough to be his grandfather, have led many to doubt if indeed he had enough time to imbibe the celebrated deep Igbo culture before moving to London to start his crusade.

    But his irascible behaviours have not stopped him from having millions of worshippers.  There are the Igbo youths with sense of siege and persecution complex arising from jaundiced narrative of Nigerian history of ethnic rivalries. There are also millions of children of anger in the social media who today swear by the name of Nnamdi Kanu, the long awaited messiah who will take Igbo out of the zoo run by Fulani illiterates supported by Yoruba who recently replaced Igbo as spare tyre.

    And topping the list Kanu’s enablers are a section of the media. And their award winning journalists, a segment of Igbo political elite with reputation for playing the ostrich and a section of the noble profession who has faith in the judiciary only when they are beneficiaries.

    As for Kanus media enablers, the central focus of the two platforms Channels TV and ARISE TV used for this piece was the failure of government to successfully prosecute Kanu they claimed was kept in detention for five years; that it was within the constitutional right of Sowore and Kanu’s defence lawyer to move to the street few days to Justice Omotosho’s six days accelerated hearing of Kanu’s case.

    They argued with intent to mislead the public that the court order obtained by the police banning Sowore and his group from some sensitive areas in Abuja was inferior to the constitution. They did not see Sowore’s refusal to obey court order as invitation to anarchy; for them the arrest and arraignment of Sowore and others who broke law by the police was immoral and constitute an anti-people behaviour on the part of the police.

    “If they did not say it was sub judice when Gani Fawehinmi-led demonstration’s years ago, why is it that it is now sub judice when Kanu’s lawyer is demonstration against a case in which he was a leading counsel”  Arise TV’s Rufai Oseni bellowed.  He continued “why is it that those who only yesterday demonstrated against Jonathan are today afraid of demonstration? This is exactly why we say Nigeria is a big joke”, he concluded.

    And his colleagues ominously reminded us of the Arab Spring without telling us if the nations involved are today better off for it. They did not forget to remind Nigerian government they alleged was anti-people, of the Gen-Z uprising across the globe.  They however failed to add that the current attention-seeking Sowore and a few others disturbing the peace of Abuja did not represent resourceful Nigerian youths who as far back as 1920 first demanded from the colonial masters that Nigeria federation be modelled after that of Switzerland.

    Neither could the current social media anarchists and those who called themselves ‘obidient’ be compared with our youth who in the sixties moved around the world where they engaged in debate about how to make the world better for humanity.

    I am not aware of any these platforms that covered Sowore frees Kanu’s s protest last week that informed their audience that Kanu was the architect of his own misfortune with his periodic attack and rejection of judges, intimidation of judicial officers  and abuse of the judicial process. All we got from a more restrained Laolu Akande was “Kanu wants a political solution”.

    But the leopard hardly changes its skin. With Kanu sacking his legal team, demand for 90 days as against six days of accelerated hearing granted by Justice Omotosho, his hypocritical anti-government and anti-Nigeria media enablers now understand that we now know those behind Nigeria’s nightmare even when they daily swear in the name patriotism, the last refuge of the scoundrels .

    Of course the critical enablers of Kanu are a segment of Igbo political elite. Channel TV’s Seun Okinbaloye and Charles Aniagolu last week spoke with two leading members of the group, Dan Iwuanyawu, a Labour Zenith chieftain and the other, an elected Labour Party member of the House of Representatives. 

    For Iwuanyawu, Kanu has not done anything against Nigerian state. Our problem, he insists is double standard. He tried to draw a parallel between Kanu’s IPOB and Fulani terrorist currently negotiating with government. He however failed to indicate the negotiation is at subnational level where tribal war between Fulani and their Hausa hosts which remained intractable despite thousands of deaths and over 12 years of federal government failed attempt to use force to install peace among siblings.

    And for the Labour Party National Assembly member, the ongoing trial of Kanu was a carryover of Yoruba-Igbo war. And his reason which the news anchor did not try to correct was that the current president is Yoruba, the  Attorney General and Minister of Justice is Yoruba, the presiding judge  in Kanu’s case, Justice Omotosho is Yoruba and Kanu’s prosecuting Lawyers are Yoruba. Therefore, Kanu’s case which preceded Tinubu’s government by about seven years is a Yoruba war against Igbo!

    These Igbo leaders unfortunately live in denial claiming periodic mindless killing of policemen and innocent Igbos arising from Kanu and his recently jailed Finland based deputy, Simon Ekpa’s ‘sit at home order’ were sponsored from outside. But we have Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra who recently disclosed to the world that “99.9% of those caught and indicted for mindless killing of Igbos, are Igbos”.

    From the outburst of some of Kanu’s defence lawyers who in the past openly spoke of persecution, it is not difficult to know from where Kanu derived his audacity and reckless bravery. These senior experienced lawyers hardly disagree with Kanu. Many have therefore argued that it may also not be difficult for them to also don the ethnic toga when Kanu insists what was going on was a persecution and not prosecution.

    Journalists as politicians pretending to be advocates of the people should be reminded that the primary role of the Fourth Estate of the Realm besides keeping government under watch is supporting all our institutions since the alternative is anarchy. The only reason there are journalists is because we have this “our own dear native land, where tribe and tongue may differ, but in brotherhood we stand” and an imperfect government trying to balance the interest of the people and that of the owners of society.

  • Tinubu’s strength: Reward for party loyalty

    Tinubu’s strength: Reward for party loyalty

    Loyalty is political party’s highest badge of honour. Therefore parties hardly invest in those with shifting loyalty. Of course the party oligarchy made up investors, former office holders, current office holders, also have obligations to party members. What therefore sustains political party is members’ trust that their leader will always do the right thing.

    If APC has in recent months become an irresistible refuge for PDP and Labour Party elected members trying to escape from what President Bola Tinubu describes as a sinking ship without life jacket, it is precisely that they found trust in APC and its leadership which unfortunately was absent in PDP during their 16 years of war of attrition, called family wars over the sharing of our national resources. Although President Tinubu had said as a democrat, he was not expected to reject anyone trying to escape from a sinking ship, I am sure he must have today become overwhelmed by what seems to have become a tsunami.

    The irony is that APC is an amalgam of strange bedfellow made up ACN with progressive world outlook, Muhammadu Buhari’s ultraconservative CPC, a faction of ANPP and APGA joined by a faction of PDP led by Atiku Abubakar and a few PDP governors bent on bringing down their party over the sharing of proceeds of fuel subsidy scam. In fact, leading members of PDP including the late Doyin Okupe, President Obasanjo’s erstwhile attack dog, swore APC would implode after three months. Rather, the party has gone on to uproot PDP that had boasted to govern for 60 years, from power in 2015 and defeated it round and square in a keenly contested 2023 election because of the usual greed of leading light of the party which led to its splintering into three factions on the eve of what Obasanjo would have described in his days as ‘do or die election’.

    But if it is going to be of any relief to PDP, they must be told that what stood out for APC was a group of loyal party members led by Bola Tinubu who understands the role of political party as modernization agent in the 20th century. Indeed this group of loyal party men and women did not include the late President Buhari, Tinubu’s collaborator during the 2013 APC formation. Buhari neither loved politicians neither did he see political party beyond a tool for attaining political power.

    Tinubu as APC leader was never discouraged by internal betrayals and party in intrigues. He remained a committed party man even after Nasir El Rufai and some PDP stalwarts, who, Buhari’s wife claimed had no idea about APC manifesto, prevented an access to an ‘un-electable’ Buhari he carried on his back around the country, he remained a committed party man as against NCNC and NPP of first and second republics who for similar reason pupped down their coalition.

    As a loyal party man, he was on hand to dance around Nigeria with Adam Oshiomhole for Buhari’s re-election. He remained steadfast and worked for Burari’s re-election. But not long after this, betrayal came from his southwest serving and former governors he had invested heavily on. Driven by ambition, they bought the dummy sold by Buhari’s Abuja loyal gatekeepers of automatic presidential ticket once their principal was out of the way. They soon joined hands with their principal’s potential rivals, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Rotimi Amaechi and his political foes including El Rufai and Governor Boni, to illegally remove Oshiomhole as APC chairman thereby preventing their principal’s access to a party in which he was by far the greatest investor.

    If President Tinubu took risk to remove the fuel subsidy scam which allowed criminals in shining suits to rape Nigeria using NUPENG and PENGASSON  to inflict suffering and untold hardship on Nigerians, facts available to his predecessors who did not have the courage to rescue Nigeria, it was because Tinubu has his party behind him.

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    If he frontally confronted the bank owners, principal owners of society and Godwin Emefiele their CBN governor-collaborator and others who became billionaires overnight as a result of foreign exchange round tripping, it was because he was sure his party would shield him from dangerous sharks.

    If he dared states and LGAs to whom much resources had been deployed to do more for their people at the grassroots level, it was because he knew his party has faith in him as an independent arbiter when it comes to the sharing of resources.

    Governor Peter Mba of Enugu’s principal reason for joining the Tinubu train besides the vexxed issue of Igbo voice not being heard when it mattered most, was “seeking affiliation where our interest as a region are represented in the form of fair partnership” and our vision is heard at the federal level. Mba in summary was talking about trust since “Igbo DNA does not change; their “destiny does not change; even while their “vision now finds stronger reinforcement at the federal level”.

    For Governors Oborevwori’s “the decision to align with APC is strategic and thoughtful move driven by a singular objective: to fast-track Delta State development through enhanced collaboration with the federal government”.

    But I think his predecessor Senator Okowa captured it better.

    “People wondered why, but in the history of a people, there is always a time to change their path for the common good of the people, and whatever decision we took was based on that common good and the need to change our path in the best interest of our state”.  It is just as well if APC is the instrument Delta whose successive leaders have been accused and in fact indicted for frittering away billions that would have changed the lives of impoverished people of Delta for better, in underwriting campaign expenses of President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 and allegedly, Atiku Abubakar in 2023. I think it will be a big relief for a people whose leaders including the late Augustus Aikhomu and ex-president Jonathan did not see stealing government money as corruption.

    Akwa Ibom governor, Pastor Umoh Eno went biblical by aligning himself with the children of Issachar in the Holy Bible who were able to interpret the times and flow with the tide by declaring “I have progressively moved to All Progressives Congress (APC) I have changed my political affiliation; we are support the president for second term in office to complete reforms he has started”.

    Everything boils down to trust.

    Nigeria has been haunted by lack of elite consensus since the run up to independence with the tenuous one secured through the British stick and carrot approach collapsing barely two years into independence. The result was a descent into turmoil of warring groups starting with Isaac Boro’s Niger Delta insurrection, the Middle Belt violent resistance, military coups, and pogrom; civil war, and 30 years of military dictatorship. And when they were finally humiliated out of power in 1999, they replaced themselves with military-baked “new breed politician’ who behave like military occupation. In what they often describe as ‘family quarrel’, they spent 16 years fighting over illegal sharing of the resources kept in their temporary care. The era witnessed the privatization scandal through which Nigeria’s total investment of over $100b was according to House probe, sold to PDP stalwarts for $1.5b; fuel subsidy scandal through which PDP leading light and their children embarked on monumental theft of the nation’s resources.

    President Jonathan unbundled PHCN after government’s injection of billions of taxpayers’ monies and sold them to PDP stalwarts. They even in the name of dubious monetization policy sold properties dating back to pre-independence period kept in their care for our children to themselves.

    President Tinubu, of all our past leaders, is today in a unique position to address the source of the nation’s nightmare. With those who have moved into his APC in droves with the party now in control of 72 senators in the red chamber, 265 in the green chamber and 24 of the 36 state governors, he should be able to leverage on those who have claimed to be driven by his courage to take hard decisions on behalf of the nation.

    He has shown by his institutionalisation of six development commissions that he doesn’t need to go back to 1957 or 1963 that we and our fathers have agitated for in the last 50 years. His former political foes now turned political collaborators are all he needs to prevail on National Assembly to legitimize the development commissions as federating states with central police patterned after Amotekun of southwest with local and community police holding sway in the states.

  • Gen. Irabor’s scars and Tinubu challenge

    Gen. Irabor’s scars and Tinubu challenge

    General Lucky Irabor (retd) can at best be described as intellectual in military uniform. But that only reminds us of the glorious days of the Nigerian military before criminals in uniform mindlessly murdered their colleagues and Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha turned the military into “an army of anything is possible”. Irabor speaking last week at the public presentation of his book, Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum reminded us of some of those truths about ourselves we have tried to ignore. He told us that the book is “not an indictment, but a national soul-searching presentation; an awakening reality to either act dutifully for progress, or do nothing and turn towards extinction”. He wants the book “to serve as an opportunity for Nigerians to reflect on past experiences and recommit to justice, equity, and peace”.

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu  could not have agreed any less. Speaking as special guest of honour through his Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru during the launch, he admitted that Scars tells a story, reminds us of pain but it also proves that survival is possible adding that the book “will provide guidance and serve as a roadmap for the nation to build a safer future” because it reminds us that “the scar we carry as a nation are evidence of our resilience and of the sacrifice of our heroes past, soldiers, displaced families, and communities”. He therefore wants Nigerians to “use the occasion not only to acknowledge the book but also to affirm our commitment to working together toward a future where every Nigerian can live without fear, thrive in peace, and contribute to the nation’s greatness”.

    The book could not have come at a better time for embattled President Bola Tinubu. Those who love Nigeria and who understand that we have been fighting tribal wars by another name since independence, for two years have mounted pressure on him to address the national question. They have all argued that all our woes, including corruption, poverty, Fulani terrorism/banditry and economic crisis arising from fuel subsidy scam and foreign currency speculation, are all but symptoms of our failure to first seek the kingdom of politics, as advised by the great Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. We need to first define who owns Nigeria.

    The Patriots led by  Chief Emeka Anyaoku, an elder statesman and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth not too long ago visited the president making two demands. First, was: “The convening of a National Constituent Assembly of directly elected individuals, on a non-political basis, from the 36 states of the federation, possibly three individuals per state, and one from the FCT with the mandate to produce a draft people’s democratic constitution. And that  “the draft constitution produced by the constituent assembly, to be put to a national referendum and if approved, should then be signed by the president as the genuine Nigerian people’s constitution”. 

    The president while assuring them of “listening to their two major requests on the path to referendum which should lead to constitutional measures that will fit our diversity and governance so that we avoid conflicts and break-ups”, however insisted that he is “currently preoccupied with economic reform, his first priority after which he would “look at other options, including constitutional review as recommended along other options, as soon as possible”.

    Before the Patriots’ last call was Olu Falae, a former secretary to the government of the federation. Canvassing that the regions which used to be federating units, in today’s Nigeria, to now be called federal regions because states have been created in the regions, he wants us to go “back to that arrangement which all of us agreed at independence and not what Abacha imposed on us”.

    Of course we have had other groups including the late  nationalist, Pa Enahoro’s ‘Movement for National Reformation’ ( MNR), Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO),  National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), foremost socio-cultural  ethnic groups such as Afenifere, Ohaneze, Pan Niger Deltal Forum (PANDEF) and Middle Belt Forum, (MDF) for whom periodic agitation for restructuring of the country was a crusade.

    President Tinubu who is always working ahead of his colleagues probably understand better that the rain started to beat us since the run up to independence because of lack of elite consensus or consensus of military-baked newbreed that bred corruption.

     The three dominant Nigerian ethnic groups and their leaders have different worldviews of how Nigeria should be run. The Yoruba who by nature are federalist wanted federal arrangement, a social system that has demonstrated in Europe and in over half of the world where it is adopted as capable of ensuring unity in diversity in deeply divided societies like ours. In fact, Awo wrote his Path to Nigeria Progress in the late 1940s where he advocated for a Nigerian federation based on the major ethic groups.

    Of course, the Fulani hegemonic powers in the north have never hidden their desire to conquer Nigeria for their fellow stateless Fulani all over Africa. Uthman dan Fodio demonstrated this when after his 1804 Jihad and conquest of the Hausa states, 12 of the 13 people he appointed as Emirs were his Fulani compatriots while only one Hausa was found pious enough to be appointed an emir in an area where Islam had thrived for over 400 years before Dan Fodio, the Fulani revered Islamic teacher who first appeared in Gobir as the guest of the King Yuma.

    But Nnamdi Azikiwe, the foremost nationalist that up to 1959 insisted on unitary system for a multi-ethnic Nigeria was less sincere.  What he and his Igbo colleagues, from a landlocked country of hostile neighbours wanted in truth was a Nigeria where their highly resourceful youths who like the Jews thrive in other peoples land, can operate without hindrance.

    I am also sure he understood this is the source of periodic tribal wars in Nigeria since independence. The first victim was Awolowo and his Yoruba people (1962-63). With one leg of a tripod that held Nigeria together removed, the next tribal war was between Igbo and Fulani (1964-1970). In 1993 when MKO Abiola pan-Nigerian mandate was annulled, the victim was unarguably Yoruba with Arthur Nzeribe placing advert in various newspapers saying Igbo will not accept a Yoruba president.

    South-south was the victim between 2011 and 2015. The northern elite kept their peace when Boko Haram first started attacking Christians and churches. In fact, it was claimed that late president, Buhari insisted Boko Haram insurgents should be treated like Niger Delta freedom fighters with monthly stipend from government.

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    Of course Tinubu understands he and his Yoruba people are the victim since 2022 when Igbo, supported by Obasanjo and Pa Ayo Adebanjo, started to accuse him and his Yoruba people of betrayal for not ceding the presidency to the East. Even though he was out of power for 16 years while Igbo political elite ate with their 10 fingers. Two years into his presidency, the tribal wars has only become more fierce.

    But President Tinubu is a unique politician who has probably moved beyond call for a return to pre-independence constitution because he understands the need for an elite consensus. Today, he has sufficient support from the east and the north to be held down by old prejudices. He has quietly worked toward mobilization of the elite because he knows the elite that “often determine the direction of their country even for the purpose of self-preservation” (Yemi Osinbajo). And that democracy is best preserved, enhanced and stabilized on existing consensus among political elite (Rustow).

    While his opponents are busy abusing him, questioning the authenticity of his university degree and even his identity, he was busy and quietly trying to win the confidence of elected members of the elite. And today, with close to his party’s control of close to 80 members of the red chamber from its modest 59 in at inauguration in 2023, and about 265 in the Green Chamber from 175 in 2023, with about 22 governors, his labour has not been in vain. He now has an historic opportunity to take our country back to ‘the Path to Nigeria Progress’ never taken.

    With a rancorous National Assembly whose result will never be acceptable to those who have held Nigeria hostage for 85 years, I think his establishment of development commissions in all the six geo-political zones is a step in the right direction. For those who are passionate about their independence and who do not want anyone in Abuja to dictate to us the education of our children, the road we pass through or the water we drink, they have an answer in the development commissions which have the potential to become the building block for our new Nigeria. Just imagine if the states covered by each commission decided to come up with one police force with local police and community police running their states.

  • Oshiomhole and union leaders

    Oshiomhole and union leaders

    Senator Adams Oshiomhole, former Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) president, is one labour leader that has earned the respect of Nigerians. His pursuit of justice, fairness and equity for all Nigerians was perhaps behind his success in labour as in politics where he fought many debilitating wars.

    Starting from his native Edo State, he retired the powerful late Chief Anthony Akhakon Anenih, regarded as PDP’s “Mr. Fixer” before taming both Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and his son, Lucky, who was later indicted by the court for financial malfeasance against Edo State.

    He then moved to Kwara State where he retired Bukola Saraki, former Senate President and owner of Kwara fiefdom, before crossing over to Imo State where he ended Rochas Okorocha’s dream of establishing a dynasty in Imo Government House. 

    When Oshiomhole, who no doubt must have been watching  the siege of NUPENG, PENGASSAN and IPMAN on Nigeria in the last few years, last week took a temporary leave from politics  to  return to Labour, his natural habitat, it was on the side of besieged Nigeria.

    Admonishing the unions while speaking in an interview with Arise Television last Friday, he had said: “that in seeking to protect a particular set of workers, you do not then risk the jobs of several other workers. When you are pursuing a dispute, the tools you deploy must be such that they do not undermine other people’s jobs”. Oshiomhole cited his deft handling of the Union Bank crisis which ensured innocent banks did not suffer collateral damage.

    Unlike the current era of terrorism, lies, bullying, intimidation etc., leaders, including those in labour in the past, earned their position through strategic planning. I first saw Oshiomhole demonstrate this sometimes in 2001 when he was invited to NUJ, The Guardian chapter, to resolve the dispute between its members and The Guardian management.

    The Guardian had been shut down for two weeks over salary dispute.  All efforts, including the intervention of Ministry of Labour, failed. Oshiomhole, who by his level of interaction probably knew more about The Guardian than those within, was brought in at the last minute, I suspect by his friend in the house who had thought he would be on their side. 

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    As soon as Oshiomhole who was hailed in settled down, he took one look at our management side led by the late Andy Akporugo, the Executive Consultant, Editorial and said “I don’t even know if you people put ‘otumopo’ (juju) in your paper  which  forced readers to pick your paper as the paper of first choice”. Of course, he knew we were the highest circulating newspaper and that we were about the only paper paying salaries as at when due within the industry.

    Turning to the NUJ executives without showing any interest in the papers and figures they had bandied around for two weeks, he said “there is NUJ Guardian because there is the flagship. You guys cannot make a demand that will kill the flagship”. The idea that our journalists would do anything that would affect the health of the flagship was inconceivable. In truth, salary was not one of the motivations for the flagship journalists. The Guardian journalists were attracted to the paper because The Guardian  gave them so much freedom to practice their profession at a period, government’s take-over of The Daily Times and New Nigerian have turned the papers into ‘government ‘views papers’. Journalists of the era were proud to work for The Guardian”. Oketunbi, leading the NUJ sprang to his feet to counter Oshiomhole, adding at the end that NUJ was returning to RUTAM House to sort out issues with the management.

    And I think that was classic Oshiomhole. His commitment to just, fair and peaceful resolution of disputes and skills to negotiate, persuade and make consensus” were skills Oshiomhole  promised to deploy to help the executive  and legislature to find a common ground” if he became chairman of APC.

    Unfortunately, what we today have are lawlessness, lies and terror tactics by noisy union leaders. For instance, NUPENG and PENGASSAN openly lied by claiming they were fighting because of some 800 staff sacked by Dangote. Those staff have since denied being sacked, claiming they were only transferred to other subsidiaries, an exercise within the prerogative of the employer.

    But hiding under such lies, NUPENG and PENGASSAN that have nothing at stake, decided to, in the words of Oshiomhole, shut down facilities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other firms because of issues at Dangote – an act that was “ill-considered”.

    Other NUPENG and PENGASSAN lies include their claim that Dangote sacked all Nigerian workers in the refinery even when over 3000 Nigerians, according to Dangote work in the refinery.

    Finally, unlike sponsors of Boko Haram, terrorists and bandits that have remained elusive for 15 years, Nigerians can identify their oil sector enemies: They include NNPC, regarded as the cesspool of corruption; NUPENG and PENGASSAN that bullied the Yar’Adua government into rescinding the sales of Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries for $750 to BlueStar Consortium led by Dangote in 2007 while their staff members have continued to draw salaries from dysfunctional refineries.

    Those who vandalized the 4,900 kilometres pipeline commissioned in 1979, to ferry oil products from Lagos to all parts of Nigeria; IPMAN and their truck drivers who secured NNPC contract to store NNPC imported products and distribute same across the nation; IPMAN whose trucks ferry petroleum products across the border; those opposed to “the Nigeria First Policy” announced by President Tinubu, particularly that it should apply to petroleum sector and all other sectors even when America, Canada and European countries are doing the same to protect local investors, and of course those  opposed to Dangote’s 4,000 brand-new compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks, capable of eliminating an estimated N1.07 trillion yearly in fuel distribution costs.

    Finally, if Dangote Refinery is a national asset as argued by many Nigerians, what it urgently needs is government protection and not procrastination.

  • The Jonathan attraction

    The Jonathan attraction

    President Jonathan’s last Thursday close-door meeting with David Mark, the ADC chairman in Abuja, was reported by The Nation and a couple of other newspapers. Jonathan wanted to be reassured he could secure the ADC presidential ticket before joining the party. Jonathan’s current gamble must have been encouraged by his several years of political engagement during which he has always had his palm kernel cracked for him by a benevolent spirit (apology to Chinua Achebe).

    Jonathan is a man who has always had all his battles fought on his behalf. He has never been called to take responsibility even for his follies. He was minding his business as a fishery lecturer in the university when he was summoned to come and become deputy governor. Not long after, with the impeachment of his principal, he became governor by providence. Just as he was settling down in his new position, he was named vice president by Olusegun Obasanjo.

    And when the Yar’Adua front led by Chief James Ibori raised the question of propriety about his becoming acting president following Yar’Adua’s illness , Pastor Tunde Bakare and a host of other civil society groups took over the street of Lagos and Abuja, forcing the National Assembly to come up with the ‘doctrine of necessity’. He became president in spite of resistance from the north because Obasanjo was on ground to carry him on his back across the north probably to assure them Jonathan would do only one term. Of course, the south rallied round him because they saw in Jonathan an underdog being bullied by an overbearing north with their usual sense of entitlement. If Jonathan made any contribution at all, it was his almost inaudible s shriek cries “I am a shoeless school boy from Otuoke village; I know your pains because I have been there”.

    In a nation where the national question has been compounded by the dominant ethnic groups, their political parties and their politicians who insisted no one gets what they cannot get, Jonathan changed the paradigm. He secured an electoral victory without having to be adopted by any of the dominant groups. Obasanjo his godfather had little or no electoral value in his home base where he could not win in his polling booth. On their part, the owners of PDP in the north- Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Aliyu Gusau, Adamu Ciroma and Atiku Ababakar built an alliance of opposition against Jonathan on the eve of an election. Of course the age-long rivalry between the southeast and south-south affected his level of support in the two zones. Added to these challenges was PDP, Jonathan’s platform which had become more of a liability than an asset, having misgoverned the country for 12 years. There was no doubt Jonathan won the election in spite of PDP.

    Unfortunately because others have always fought Jonathan’s wars, he was unable to manage victories that came his way so cheaply. His first political debacle was his appointment of secretary to government. It did not take time for his government to start taking an ethnic colouration. Even the ministry of finance office of our revered Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was taken over by one ethnic group and when confronted, she said her people got their positions on merit.

    President Jonathan unfortunately was unable to manage or confront the hijackers of his government. He could not do more than writhe his hands as Diezani Alison-Maduekwe, his minister of petroleum stole the country blind. There were institutional reports that questioned the aviation minister’s handling of the $360 subsidy to the airlines and the $500m Chinese loan out of which 30 brand new aircraft were to be bought for the ailing airlines. But to President Jonathan, Princess Stella Oduah who later accompanied him on a pilgrimage to Rome, remained untouchable.

    Depending on whose figure you are adopting between President Yar’Adua, Speaker Dimeji Bankole, Power Minister Lyel Imoke, government spent between $6billion and $16billion on unbundling of PHCN.   Under Jonathan administration, the unbundled companies were sold as discos to PDP stalwarts including his serving minister of power and others who knew next to nothing about electricity. A bank owner who later donated N3b to Jonathan’s presidential campaign fund bought one of the discos. Another went to a professor of Geography who had spoken for every government in power since Shehu Shagari’s 1979 presidency.  He served as the head of delegation of new disco owners seeking bail-out and equity participation from a government that had just privatized the discos while setting aside $500m for support.

    It is also on record that President Jonathan only paid lip service to fighting corruption. He had in fact dismissively said “if they have succeeded in fighting, corruption, corruption would not have been with us today”.

    It is therefore not difficult to understand why James Ibori who sponsored  the Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s presidential ticket in 2007 served jail terms in London for the same offence over which he secured reprieve from an Asaba High Court; why Edo governor, Lucky Igbinedion got a slap on the wrist for running the finances of Edo State aground and why a convicted felon who converted 70% of his state resources to personal use got presidential pardon in order to, in the words of Doyin Okupe “make more contributions to the development of his fatherland”.

    Under Jonathan, KPMG’s report on NNPC; the report on fuel subsidy regime; pending cases against prominent PDP members in the banking sector, those of oil subsidy fraudsters; the $10b NNPC missing fund President Jonathan said would be unravelled through forensic inquiry and the $30b from excess crude account consistently raised by governors Adams Oshiomhole and Rotimi Amaechi remained stalled because the “wheel of justice according to the president grinds slowly”.

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    Jonathan who has always overcome challenges through luck must have taken note of all the above personal failings before convincing himself that that today, fate beckons on him  as the only one who can bring back PDP years of the locust. Although all those earnestly praying for the return of President Jonathan including Bauchi governor Bala Mohammed and the embattled disco owners who for lack of technical knowhow and financial muscle, have lost their cherished discos to banks, have not denied being driven by self-interest. Jonathan however believes he is the one ordained to bring back the glory PDP lost as a result of their endless violent family dispute over the sharing of our resources.

    But just as Jonathan who is now convinced he has been called upon by destiny to trade his earned status of African statesman to joining the current toxic Nigerian political environment where an unthinking mob called ‘Obidients’ threaten to visit violence on critics of their leader who daily mouth democracy without a demonstration of democratic ethos such as congratulating a victorious opponent, let me call his attention to the implication of his rejection of the voice of reason.

    He will be haunted by the legacies of his five years of maladministration covering incompetence, his alleged sponsorship of militant groups as governor of Bayelsa and his mishandling of the power sector privatization which according to Punch newspaper “transferred most of the generation and distribution companies to untested, incompetent domestic consortia that have saddled Nigeria with a legal quagmire’.

    There was the report of an international judicial probe that claimed that Nigerian government was defrauded to the tune of $1.1bn through the Malabu oil field scam. The case of Jonathan’s unconstitutional removal of Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor for alerting Nigerians of missing $20b from NNPC account and the heavy price Nigeria paid for replacing him with unqualified, incompetent and a man without character like Godwin Emefiele .Of course, Jonathan will be reminded as soon as he joins the political fray that he an ethnic jingoist who came to Lagos to appeal to non-Yoruba residents to vote out the resourceful Lagos State governor; traded  Obasanjo he had earlier described as “after God and his father, Obasanjo is the next”, for Chief Edwin Clark, his fellow Ijaw man, and his deployment of the leadership of the Ijaw militant groups he had empowered through award of multibillion dollar contracts to unleash ‘verbal terrorism’ on the leadership of the Hausa Fulani.

    Finally, Jonathan will be haunted by his failed attempt to write his own account of his “five years of corrupt-ridden administration” dismissed by a Punch newspaper editorial as “a potpourri of falsehoods, hypocrisy and lame excuses”. And of course there was the London Economist’s damning verdict that Jonathan was the ‘most corrupt, most clueless government in Nigeria’s history”.

  • Oil sector and greedy elite

    Oil sector and greedy elite

    Those of us, victims of years of abuse by Nigeria’s oil sector parasitic greedy elite, who spent hours and sometimes kept vigil at filling stations, had our days disrupted by drivers’ strike,  paid double the fuel pump price in spite  of equalization fund, have been going through great stress and strain in the last two weeks.

    We have had our sensibilities assaulted by parasitic elites, dressed in fine suits, appearing on TV platforms as representatives of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), (junior staff and production workers in the oil and gas industry), the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), the Depot and Petroleum Product Marketers Association of Nigeria, (DAPPMAN) and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, (PETROAN).

    That we did not have anyone to speak for us while they disingenuously spoke of rule of law, battle against business monopoly and rights of workers only brought the past to pain.

    On September 7, NUPENG, without any consideration for the health of Nigerians, the health of the economy and the security of the nation, declared a strike to start on September 8 over Dangote’s decision to take control over distribution of products of his $20b refinery. He had announced importing 4000 CNG trucks to take products from his factory directly to buyers to ensure price uniformity and prevent periodic disruption due to strikes over equalization funds that were difficult to manage.

    Our rosy-cheeked oil sector parasitic elite expressed their opposition to monopoly, a charge Dangote who reminded them of the over 30 refinery, licences issued to private players denied. Dangote however made it clear that while “they don’t want a monopoly, and want other players in the business, they cannot come to a soccer field and want to play cricket because you would wound somebody”.

    The Department of State Security, DSS, adept at eating with the devil using a long spoon, effortlessly worked out a truce. When the truce collapsed, three days later over claim stickers were ordered to be removed from some trucks, the parasitic elite who have very little to lose threatened to resume their strike.

    On Saturday September 18, DAPPMAN accused the Dangote Refinery of “adopting pricing practices that distort competition, strain domestic businesses, and contradict its public claims of prioritizing Nigerian consumers”. But this was like the pot calling the kettle black since DAPPMAN is a  profit-driven Nigerian trading company whose only stake is raising foreign exchange to bring in cheap refined products that will guarantee maximum profits, a practice long banned by the US and Europe to protect the health of their local industries.

    BillGillis-Harry, the national President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAM) was last remembered presenting an award to the Group Chief Executive Officers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari as the most productive Group Chief Executive Officer in August 2024 even while the four refineries under him remained moribund.   But Harry was on Saturday September 20, on Channels TV speaking of the love of their associations for the Dangote’s Group while reminding him of the need to protect investment of other players and right of workers.

    But Nigerians are not deceived. We remember Obafemi Awolowo’s admonition some 80 years back that our educated political elite will remain the scourge of Nigeria because of their greed.  In fact, he went on to say that given a choice between the departing colonial masters , the traditional rulers and the Nigerian educated elite, Nigerians would choose in reverse order because with the colonial masters, they were assured of justice.

    Of course, it was not long after independence that greed and love of self-started manifesting. For our new power inheritors, it was what was in it for me and not what was in it for Nigeria.

    Ozumba Mbadiwe, a minister in Tafawa Balewa government used his position to buy government land in Ijora Apapa at a giveaway price. He erected a mansion on it which he rented back to the same federal government at a mouth-watering price. He then took the proceeds to build a mansion among the squalor of his village peoples which he named “The Peoples Palace”.

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    Awolowo was to admit not long after of being a victim of greed of one of his trusted allies. He claimed Ayo Rosiji gave false testimony against him during his treasonable trial because he had cancelled his contract for importation of water pipes which Awo said could be produced in Nigeria at the period.

    The response of our educated political elite to Babangida’s commercialisation policy was predictable. They colluded with some multinationals to embark on massive importation of substandard goods, including drugs which not only killed Nigerians but our budding industries, thereby rendering thousands of our qualified university graduates jobless.

    They outwitted Obasanjo and his privatization programme, which the World Bank predicted would lead to creation of seven million jobs for our youth. Our greedy political elite sold the nation’s total investments of over $100b acquired between 1960 and 1998 to themselves at a paltry $1.5b.

    The educated political elite then came up with monetization policy through which physical assets dating back to the pre-colonial period were shared among top civil servants and government functionaries.

    The educated political elite still behave as if they are doing Nigerian a favour for presiding over our affairs. We don’t know the salaries of our elected lawmakers. We don’t know the sources of private projects they routinely launch on behalf of the people.

    The reason we didn’t have anyone to defend us even as greedy elite in the oil sector was publicly humiliating us in the last two weeks was because there is no difference between the fuel sector parasitic elite, their counterparts in the airline industries  which shortly after N300b intervention fund secured another $500m Chinese loan which a former commandant of Murtala Muhammed International  Airport described as a “recycling of public fund for some people”  Both are tarred with the same brush with their fellow banking sector greedy elites who deployed depositors money to buy private jets and landed properties in Dubai in the name of their children forcing government to buy up their toxic loans through AMCON.

    Perhaps our ongoing experience will sober uninformed critics of government who wrongly assume government is an independent arbiter between greedy educated political and economic elite that have captured society and the rest of us. Government cannot do more than what many have been asking it to do this past two weeks – perform a balancing act between those who are technically owners of society who want an empire of slaves, and the rest of us who without government help, will be forced to buy the air we breathe.