The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • INEC and our suicidal political elite

    INEC chairman and his men have been going through severe stress and strain since last week’s postponement of the presidential election. Leading the attack on INEC are politicians, the cause of INEC failure and the source of our nation’s nightmare. In their blind fury, they ignored the fact that INEC is just a symptom of a dysfunctional system foisted on Nigeria since 1964 by dishonest, anti-democratic and self-serving governing political elite that periodically undermine the democratization process by sabotaging successive electoral bodies. There is no evidence the political class ever wanted an independent electoral empire.

    It is on record that while grandstanding, Obasanjo, the self-appointed perennial kingmaker  was using the late Tony Anenih, ‘Mr. Fixer’, to undermine the democratization process across the country, he was blaming cheated aggrieved victims and  the electorate claiming, “Nigerians would complain even if Jesus came down to conduct election”. But that was before the judiciary retrieved stolen mandates from his boys in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun and with the late Umaru Yar’Adua, the embarrassed winner of the 2007 presidential election, going on to set up the Uwais commission to prevent the repeat of the 2007 tragedy.

    INEC as a product of its environment is but a reflection of the discredited political class to which free and fair election has never been an attraction. That was why when Humphrey Nwosu successfully broke the jinx in 1993, the election was annulled even before he could announce the official result. The anti-democratic kingmakers, led by Generals Babangida and Obasanjo who have held the country to ransom since the end of the civil war jointly foisted an interim contraption headed by Ernest Shonekan on the country.

    It was Obasanjo who as president in 2003 declared election as “a do or die” affair, a euphemism for war. Sadly almost 20 years into the fourth republic, both PDP and APC have not demonstrated they see election beyond Obasanjo’s “do or die affair’. Not a few Nigerians must have come to this sad conclusion after their last week  television  appearance during which they threatened the peace of the country after blaming INEC and everyone else except themselves and their members that have done everything to undermine the integrity of INEC. They spoke not as leaders of political parties, the 17th century ingenious creation of intellectuals for deeper reflection on how to confront societal problems, but as leaders of factions working for warlords.

    Oshiomhole, accused INEC of colluding with PDP claiming “From all we have now known, I can put my hand on the Holy Koran that INEC leadership knew that they were going to postpone the elections. They shared this information with the People’s Democratic Party and advised them not to waste their resources, while pretending to us that they are on top of the situation”. On the other hand the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign council alleged the commission’s action was ‘a vindication of its earlier position that the electoral body is working with the APC-led federal government to truncate the country’s democracy.’

    In spite of INEC’s “We promised Nigerians that we shall be open, transparent and responsive”, both PDP and APC leadership have continued to incite their supporters who look up to them for direction against INEC.Their representatives who appeared in a segment of the media owned by their principals, interested only in dragging Nigeria to their levels, pontificate about the civilized world, membership of which we have been denied since 1962. By saying they have no faith in INEC, Secondus and Oshiomhole   seem to be preparing the nation for an apocalypse since one party has to win and one has to lose.

    Yet both PDP and APC cannot wash themselves clean of INEC’s claim of possible sabotage by the politicians. In a space of two weeks, they had to deal with serious fire incidents in three of their offices in IsialaNgwa South Local Government Area of Abia State, Qu’an Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State and Anambra State Office at Awka where fire destroyed over 4,600 Smart Card Readers which took at least six months to procure.

    Both Secondus and Oshiomhole could not admit they preside over an undisciplined political class. There are 91 registered parties with 79 presidential candidates including many who cannot even articulate our crisis of nationality. For that reason, INEC will be “printing ‘421.7 million ballot papers for six scheduled elections, as well as 13.6 million leaves of result forms for the 79 Presidentialcandidates alone” whereas in order to get on the ballot in the US, a presidential candidate must meet ballot access requirements  -”a variety of complex, state-specific filing requirements and deadlines” well in advance of primaries, caucuses, and the general election. In the US 2016 election, perhaps because of the stringent condition, only about 28 including six independent candidates were on the ballot.

    But in Nigeria, INEC has been sued or joined in over 640 court cases, while as at February 15, the eve of the postponed election, there were 40 different court orders against the commission on whether to add or drop candidates. In Rivers and Zamfarawhere APC  have no candidates because INEC was obliged to obey court orders following disputed party primaries, members of the ruling party  are now threatening to disrupt next Saturday’s election. In Imo and Ogun, elected governors who were restrained from imposing their successors by party guidelines are sponsoring opposition candidates while contesting for senate seats on the platform of APC.

    INEC has other challenges. Besides anti-democratic mischief makers as godfathers and king-makers, we also have errant elders who are in the main driven by other considerations other than love for the free and fair electoral process. In the Niger Delta where it is said votes are allocated because of the terrain, the elders and political leaders are driven more by consideration for resource control than a desire for free and fair election. The Middle Belt Forum and their elders are driven by fears of herdsmen. Ohanaeze says it is supporting Atiku/Obi ticket because Obi is their own. The confused Yoruba Afenifere elders probably on account of blurred vision  are casting their lot with Atiku/Obi in the believe that where Buhari who enjoys a cult-like followership in the north has been unable to risk  removing feeding bottle from the mouth of northern LGAs who depend on revenue from the federation account to survive, Atiku will. And more bizarre, they believe Obi will forgo the current unstructured anarchy that work for the interest of Igbo as itinerant traders all over the country especially in the north where according to a northern governor, they occupy an area larger than the five southeast states put together.

    Since Nigeria political class, the self-appointed kingmakers and chieftains of ethnic groups are not particularly interested in free and fair elections, marginalized and impoverished ordinary Nigerians whose future is at stake must help INEC succeed on Saturday. They must vote for candidates of their choice as advised by the president without fomenting trouble if only to put to shame PDP combative leaders who have taken up arms against the president for warning would-be armed ballot box snatchers who in the past killed, maimed as in Rivers and in Ekiti where they cut-of the leg of an opposition party agent.

  • Facts amidst ritual of endorsements

    Presidential candidates of APC and PDP in next week’s election have in the last four weeks visited many parts of the country selling their candidacy. And desperate to secure the support of the electorate, promoters of each candidate have turned the past week into a season of endorsement.

    Obasanjo is the arrow head of the anti-Buhari group. He has written two letters, all designed to delegitimize his administration. He first floated a coalition led by many of those responsible for the state of affairs in our nation today. He then explored the possibility of mobilizing the youths. He then tried unsuccessfully to align his coalition with Olu Falae’s SDP. When all his efforts failed, he returned to PDP where he has tried to promote the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar demonised since 2007.  Last Sunday, out of desperation, Obasanjo, who prides himself on being Mr. Nigeria as against being a representative of an ethnic group, joined Ayo Adebanjo, the unrepentant Yoruba ethnic irredentist and leader of Pan-Yoruba Afenifere group to reposition himself as the  rallying point for  other regional leaders and socio-cultural groups from other zones of the country viz Northern Elders Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Pan-Niger Delta Forum and the Middle Belt Forum  to adopt  Atiku Abubakar  as their consensus candidate for the 2019 election.

    The group, after blaming Buhari for ‘the banditry in parts of Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and the insurgency in Borno went on to convince voters that  ‘Atiku possessed the intelligence, capability and knowledge to lead the nation state”. Ayo Adebanjo, campaigning against his own son, Vice President Osinbajo, appealed to those present to “do everything in your(their) power to ensure Atiku wins”, because a vote for Atiku, according to him ‘is a vote for national unity’. And for Atiku Abubakar, the endorsement “is a loud statement that there is hope for our country’

    However for Balarabe Musa, former governor of Kaduna in the second republic, Obasanjo and his group “are clearly ganging up against Buhari not because they don’t know that Atiku is no match to him, but because they are aware that Atiku will not revisit their past misdeeds” and went on to warn that “Nigerians risk having a fascist government under Atiku because of his open alignment with former heads of state and retired generals, who have some questions to answer”.

    But last Monday, barely 24 hours after Obasanjo’s group endorsement of Atiku, 91 retired Generals, also made their way to Abuja to endorse President Buhari.  Speaking on their behalf, Brigadier General Marwa said “We, the retired armed forces officers, representing 99.9% of our colleagues say that we are proud of you; proud to be associated with your administration; and proud to witness this era of Nigeria rising again under your able leadership.

    “We support you fully and totally in the presidential elections next week and will do whatever we can within the law to contribute to your emergence as the victor in the election in order to take Nigeria to the next level.’’

    The most senior of the retired officers, Jubrila Ayinla, a retired vice admiral and former Chief of Naval Staff, said future generations would acquit Buhari as the “most creditable” personality of his time. He went on to congratulate Buhari on behalf of the Generals ‘on the tremendous work done by this administration, and assured him of their support in next week election. Responding, President  Buhari  who said he could not complain over anything he is going through  since he sought for the position, thanked the retired Generals for their support and reiterated that he would continue to do his best in serving the nation”.

    But as Obasanjo, Babangida and Danjuma along with other PDP leading light proclaim themselves as new messiah, it is important to remind ourselves where we were coming from. Buhari inherited a decadent governing elite with a self-serving legislature that short-changed the people from 1999 to 2015 and an untouchable judiciary manned by men that have since been discovered to be ordinary men with feet of clay. With many former PDP party chairmen, ex-senate presidents, ex-speakers of the lower house, ex-governors, serving house committee chairmen, declared ordinary felons through different judicial pronouncements, it was clear, the nation was in firm grips of brigands.

    For instance, Obasanjo inherited a total power capacity of 1,500mw in 1999. The projection while inaugurating the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) in 2001 was to add 10,000MW to the national grid before the end of his term in 2007. But despite Dr. Doyin Okupe’s claim, that ‘before the end of 2014, Nigerians’ long held dream of joining the world’s list of countries with uninterrupted power supply will be closer in reality than it has ever been’ and President Jonathan’s promise that any Nigerian with generator would by 2014 have no need for them, Nigeria was generating 3,717MW by the time PDP was voted out of power in 2015. The true legacy was that after the expenditure of between Yar’Adua’s, $16billion and United Nations special rapporteurs’ $51b, PHCN was shared among those PDP’s leading light including Jerry Gana, the president of the association of distribution companies, who on behalf of his undisclosed friends donated N5b to Jonathan campaign fund in 2014.

    The Lawan Farouk House committee report alleged a theft of N1.7trillion. On January 13, 2013, EFCC had dragged some children of leading PDP leaders to Ikeja High Court for fuel subsidy fraud charges preferred against them.The Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force discovered N10trillion was lost to crude oil theft, from a yearly loss of 250,000 barrels per day or N1trillion yearly. This  include over 60,000 barrels per day from Shell according to Mutiu Sunmonu, Shell Nigeria’s managing director, who went on to appeal “to government confront the big men behind oil theft” put at $7billion in 2011.

    The major beneficiary of Sanusi’s ‘banking Tsunami’ turned out to be known PDP members and their friends. They reaped from the tragedy of helpless Nigerians by buying the banks after Sanusi’s injection of about N400billion of public fund while ordinary investors with less than 200,000 shares were left with nothing

    It is also on record that crisis between herdsmen and Benue people predates Buhari’s presidency. Under President Jonathan, there was a presidential peace committee  led by Michael Zoukumor, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), and Brigadier General John Atom Kpera (rtd), the state chairman, Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Committee, with Alhaji Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, the national president, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, where all members of the peace committee agreed on cessation of hostilities by Fulani herdsmen and their host communities in Benue State in Government House, Makurdi.

    But indiscriminate killing continued with Iyordye Akaahena village and Akuroko village in Guma LGA in Benue losing 34 and with Governor Suswan surviving an ambush during his sympathy visit to Gbajimba LGA.  Maru LGA of Zamfara also lost over 215 while holding a vigilante meeting according to Emir of Dansadau, Alhaji Hussaini Adamu. A simultaneous attack between April 1 and April 2 left 20 dead in Yobe, 32 in Plateau and 30 in Kaduna, while the attack on Tarawa village on April 19 2014   left 77 dead.

    Buhari was elected to put an end to the above mindless killings. But for the purpose of next week election, the electorate must be protected from the falsehood being spread by Obasanjo, Danjuma and other Christians without the spirit of Christ to the effect that Buhari  was behind the activities evil and criminal minded Nigerians and immigrants.

  • OBJ, statesman as mischief-maker

    Obasanjo is a global statesman. His contemporaries include Jimmy Carter, the 39th American president (1977-81), George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of US (1989-1993, ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of United Kingdom (1979-1990). He was very active in the international mediation efforts in Angola, Burundi, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. He played a leading role in the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), designed to promote democracy and good governance. Only last week, he got another “invitation of the UN Secretary-General to be a member of his 18-member High-Level Board of Advisers on Mediation.”

    Obasanjo, unfortunately, is a prophet without honour among his own people. While he might have succeeded in bewitching the international community, many Nigerians regard him  an ‘incredible opportunist’ (Brigadier General Alabi Isama, Tragedy of Victory) and a mischief maker on account of his periodic letters designed to de-legitimize every government after him  starting with  Shehu Shagari, Babangida, Abacha, Yar’Adua and Jonathan. With a second inciting  letter on the eve of a crucial election, he alleged without proof, that President Buhari is set to rig  while also accusing him of  massive corruption: “If we expose them, all of them will enter hell; they will not only go to jail”. Many are bound to conclude that Obasanjo is probably suffering from messianic complex.

    Discerning Nigerians are aware that since Obasanjo’s first coming as head of a military junta (1976-1979), he has done everything but promote the democratization process. He publicly admitted that as an umpire in 1978 presidential election, he took sides with the late Shagari to spite his more illustrious fellow Yoruba compatriot, Obafemi Awolowo, who according to Biafra Civil war leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu “was the best president Nigeria never had”. His perfidy was to lead to the derailment of the second republic experiment at democratization when the ill-prepared Shagari administration awarded his party ‘landslide and sea-slide’ victories especially in opposition strongholds in the 1983 election.

    Nigerians can also still remember how Obasanjo, the democracy crusader supported Babangida’s interim contraption to deny MKO Abiola, his Egba compatriot, of his pan-Nigerian mandate by claiming the winner was not the messiah Nigerians were waiting for. And after being imposed on Nigeria by General Babangida and his anti-democratic elements, Obasanjo undermined the democratisation process in 2003 and 2007 through massive election rigging and failed third term agenda and in 2011 by imposing Jonathan on the country. Until President Buhari “the dictator” recently honoured MKO Abiola for his supreme sacrifice that democracy may thrive, Obasanjo and his fellow PDP democracy warriors, for 18 years desecrated Abiola’s grave.

    Nigerians, except the wailing and wayward PDP children who instead of telling Nigerian what they intend to do differently from their 16 years of locust have focused more on Buhari’s personal failings, are not deceived. Atiku who as Obasanjo’s deputy did not only publicly denounce him as false democratic and anti-corruption crusader but also alleged helping to disburse public funds for private concerns, is promising to continue with privatization of public enterprises. He thinks Nigerians have forgotten a House of Representatives probe report that claimed the country recouped only about $1.5b from total investments of over $100b between1960-1998. This was in addition to the loss of seven million jobs projected by World Bank because beneficiaries were more interested in asset stripping.

    Besides, Atiku other Obasanjo’s PDP children who will probably be ready to swear their adopted father is a false democratic and anti-corruption crusaders include the late Diepreye Alamieseigha who he chased from France to Britain where he escaped to Nigeria dressed like a woman. The late ‘Governor-General of Ijaw People’ was finally impeached by Obasanjo’s kangaroo impeachment panel of about half a dozen state lawmakers holed up in a hotel room in Lagos. We also have Rivers’ Peter Odili. Although he was saved by the Nigeria’s troubled judiciary that ruled he must not be tried or arrested by EFCC for allegedly defrauding his state, he however lost his dream of succeeding Obasanjo as president. There is also James Ibori who like Odili, was also saved by Nigerian judiciary but finally jailed for the same offences by the British judiciary. Obasanjo’s other estranged PDP children  include Lucky Igbinedion, Doyin Okupe, Ayo Fayose, Gbenga Daniel, Jolly Nyame, Joshua Dariye,  Boni Haruna, Adamu Mu’azu, Chris Uba  and others.

    But those who are really  interested in a critical assessment of Obasanjo’s credentials as democracy and anti-corruption crusader will find  the verdict of Ayo Fayose, Dino Melaye, Gbenga Daniel and Bukola Saraki ,  who are in all respects a match to their godfather’s intrigue, abrasiveness and uncouthness instructive.

    Ayo Fayose, a student of the late Pa Adedibu, the late exponent of ‘amala politics’ and the garrison commander of Ibadan Politics, was foisted on Ekiti by Obasanjo. They later fell apart over Fayose’s chicken farm scam.  Fayose had described Obasanjo while taking a temporary leave of absence from PDP as “a man without honour”  who “shouldn’t just tear his PDP membership card; but should relinquish the ownership of Bells University, Obasanjo Farms, Obasanjo Presidential Library, and other financial benefits he got during his eight years as President.’’  Fayose, the adopted son of Obasanjo, the democracy crusader, according to EFCC, allegedly collected about N3b from Jonathan to rig the 2014 Ekiti election. As governor-elect, he led some of his thugs to a court premises to beat up a judge presiding over his case.  He thereafter with the help of the thugs chased out 15 majority state lawmakers out of the state.

    Gbenga Daniel was drafted from Lagos by Obasanjo to supplant Aremo Olusegun Osoba as governor of Ogun State. When relationship between father and son became sour, Daniel with nine loyal state lawmakers impeached 15 majority who scurried out of the state while Daniel unconstitutionally put the state House of Assembly under lock and key. Obasanjo had to call on those he described as “men of goodwill within and outside,” made up of his secondary school classmates and Afe Babalola, his friend and lawyer to placate Daniel.

    Fresh from medical college, Bukola Saraki’s illustrious father donated him to Obasanjo who without hesitation appointed him special assistant on budgeting. He went on to become Kwara’s two-term governor and a senator.  When he usurped the senate presidency by, according to his confession, outwitting his 51 APC senators to be proclaimed senate president by acclamation by 49 opposition PDP senators, Obasanjo’s house was his first port of call.

    However when Obasanjo in a letter dated January 13, 2016 complained about ‘the mind-boggling expenditure going into cars, furniture, housing renovation which he said were ‘veritable sources of waste and corruption’ and went on to accuse the lawmakers of “massive corruption, greed, impunity and lawlessness..”, Saraki, directed his half-brother, Dino Melaiye who Obasanjo had also appointed adviser on youths, to disrobe their father publicly.

    Dino wrote: “‘Our leader has mistaken the 8th National Assembly as the same National Assembly that defrauded him in 2007; that is those who collected his money and refused to implement the third term agenda. I appeal to Baba that we are not the ones please”. He did not forget to rub it in: “There was the case of bribery introduced by the Obasanjo regime in the desperate attempt to remove Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba from office then. In fact, there was an open display of that bribery money on the floor of the House”. Concluding, Melaye asks; “I hope this is not in an attempt to cover up and distract attention from the Halliburton and Siemens corruption allegations?’’

    Dear compatriots, behold the democracy and anti-corruption crusader according to his PDP children.

  • Onnoghen and his fair-weather friends

    Because of their judicial temperament, professional ethics, courage and integrity, Supreme Court judges ‘lead lives of probity, free from scandal, drama, rebellion and colour’. They hardly have friends.  Unarguably, CJN Walter Onnoghen fitted very well the picture of a good judge in our heads. He is never afraid to walk alone. It will be recalled he along with justices Maryam Aloma Muktar and Adesola Oguntade once wrote a powerful dissenting opinions in the controversial case of Muhammadu Buhari vs. Independent National Electoral Commission. But as Ken Saro-Wiwa once said, Africa kills its own ‘sun’. Onnoghen is probably the latest victim of the Nigerian system.

    The Nigerian ruling classes populated by senior lawyers are hardly known for their altruism. It is therefore not too much of a coincidence to see unanimity among PDP nation-wreckers and those who aided them in their war against Nigeria either as mandate snatchers or wreckers of the banking sector. The struggle to demonstrate who loves Onnoghen best started even before he was arraigned by before the CCT over non-declaration of assets which allegedly  include some 55 houses and some  $3m in five different bank accounts with 94 lawyers including 40 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) led by Chief Oluwole Olanipekun. His admission of guilt “I forgot to make a declaration of my assets after the expiration of my 2005 declaration in 2009…Following my appointment as acting CJN in November, 2016, the need to declare my assets anew made me to realize the mistake” – seemed to have galvanized support of additional legal warriors. In the forefront of fair-weather friends from outside the CJN’s constituency was PDP supported by Atiku Abubakar, its flagbearer in 2019 election, Uche Secundus, the party chairman and senate president, Bukola Saraki.

    But because PDP thinks Nigerians have short memories, they probably believe Nigerians have forgotten the state of the judiciary during their 16 years reign.  Under Obasanjo (1999-2007), PDP had no faith in the judiciary. They settled disputes usually over sharing of seized assets by eliminating themselves. The party was described by Wole Soyinka as ‘a nest of killers’. Obasanjo, the chief security officer of state, was organizing a kangaroo panel of abducted five or half a dozen state lawmakers locked up in a hotel room and blackmailed to impeach governors of Bayelsa, Plateau and, Ekiti states and Oyo states. The judiciary looked the other way. Corruption stank to the high heavens.

    The following was the picture painted by Audu Ogbeh, one time chairman of PDP: “We are trying to battle with the rule of law; it is not working too well. There are jokes now that you shouldn’t pay a lawyer. It is better to pay a judge which the current Chief Justice (Maryam Aloma Murktar) is fighting because the judiciary got destroyed by politicians. I have been warning that if we carry on like this, the politicians will destroy the judiciary irreparably. The bribes are just too large and in foreign exchange, too attractive. People pack huge volumes of cash and go around at night, corrupting judges and making it impossible for them to give justice”.

    The judiciary under Umaru Yar’Adua was reduced to an arm of PDP with James Ibori using the police to hunt down or drive EFCC members that probed him and his friend, Bukola Saraki, out of the police force and the country. Ibori was freed by an Asaba High Court judge for the same offences that earned him 14 years imprisonment at a London court. Peter Odili, a Nigerian high court ruled, must not be probed for his alleged mismanagement of his state resources. Ex-governor Lucky Igbinedion got a pat on the arm for looting Edo State.

    Under President Jonathan, Ayo Fayose led a gang of thugs to beat up a judge inside his court room while the judiciary looked the other way.  Justice Isa Salami of the Appeal court was suspended for retrieving a stolen mandate from Segun Oni of Ekiti and Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun and for averring in a suit in court that Chief Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu had asked that the governorship election petition in Sokoto State be decided in favour of the candidate of the ruling party.

    Jonathan during the swearing-in-ceremony of the Justice Dahiru Musdapher, as CJN on September 27, 2011, spoke of the “widespread perception of a growing crisis of integrity in the judiciary”, while pointing out that “A partisan judge compromises his or her oath of office and acts unfairly. A corrupt judge disgraces the Bench on which he or she sits and the title that he or she wears”.

    But that was yesterday. Today PDP says “the attempt to drag the CJN to the CCT is a grave and dangerous escalation of the assault on institutions of state including the National Assembly and judiciary”. Atiku, Obasanjo’s accomplice in his illegal seizure of Lagos State LGA now says “Nigerians will resist any attempt by the Buhari presidency to intimidate the judiciary”. The Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, some of whose members are in court over alleged bribing of judges, is “urging respect for the constitution, the rule of law, separation of powers, due process and the proper administration of justice”.

    The president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Paul Usoro who is in court for alleged N1. 5b money laundering sees the Onnoghen case as a “continuing attack on the justice sector”.

    It is obvious that the concern of Onnoghen’s fair-weather friends is about jurisdiction, a technical method some senior lawyers often use to delay cases. Citing the Court of Appeal’s Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa case, Chief Mike Ozekhome asserted that: “The Federal prosecutors are also aware of extant decisions of the Court of Appeal, to the effect that unless and until the NJC pronounces a judicial officer guilty, he cannot be arraigned in court. But Professor Itse Sagay, trying to put the record straight has told Nigerians that “Those hiding behind jurisdiction are trying to cover up iniquities of some sort”. The NJC according to him has only power to determine administrative misconduct of judicial officers whereas what is before the CCT is a criminal allegation.

    For him, only a grossly ignorant man or an extremely mischievous one could seriously suggest that the CJN, who is not only the chairman of the NJC, but also the appointer of 20 out of the NJC’s 23 members adjudicate in his own case. Such will be, a clear violation, not only of the constitution but also of a long standing common law principle coming all the way from Magna Carta 1215.

    Just as the NJC betrayed the nation  during PDP 16 years, “It has also by its recent actions, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Prosecutions, Okoi Obono-Obla, “betrayed the nation when the body recalled Hon. Justice John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Uwani Abba Aji of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Hydiazira A. Nganjiwa of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice A. F. A. Ademola of the Federal High Court, who has been discharged and acquitted, Hon. Justice Musa H. Kurya of the Federal High Court, and Hon. Justice Agbadu James Fishim of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.” without any consultation  with the anti-corruption agencies and the DSS, that arrested them in the first place.

    Finally, those who probably pay money to Onnoghen’s account claim the case is all about politics. Tragically, Buhari and Osinbajo are no politicians or students of Machiavelli.  Lawyers who pay and the judge  who’s account was credited would have become government hostages without unnecessary dissipation of energy in the courts where bribes in foreign exchange, according to Audu Ogbeh, makes it impossible for judges to give justice.

  • Jimi Agbaje and his politics

    Those who know Jimi Agbaje, the Lagos PDP serial gubernatorial candidate say he is a fine gentleman. Most discerning people however agree that running Lagos State, the fifth biggest economy in Africa, requires much more. Unfortunately, with no experience in the public service and without a record of any outstanding achievement in the private sector where he has since 1982, managed a one-shop pharmacy enterprise, many believe he is driven more by opportunism, bereft of vision and perhaps by a sense of self-worth and a sense of entitlement.

    First rather than pay his dues in his first party, CAN, he migrated to Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA) that had a gubernatorial ticket to hawk. He waited until the eve of the next election to join PDP where he fought a bitter primary with those he met in the party. And when the position of PDP chairman zoned to the west was up for grab, he squared up against Bode George, his godfather, Professor Tunde Adeniran, RashidiLadoja and other PDP stalwarts. He was only forced to step down 24 hours to the contest by Ayo Fayose who whilst admonishing him to “pursue his aspiration with decorum and make sure that the PDP and Nigeria remained his focus instead of personal interests”, reminded him that “with seven out of all nine aspirants coming from the Southwest will work to the detriment of our zone when it comes to voting.”

    From his last week outing, there was no evidence he is changing his old strategy. Just as in 2014 when he allegedly promised to create a fiefdom for Igbo in Lagos where they would have their own king by declaring without restraint that the political class in Lagos State does not like the Igbo or as he put it “The narrative that Lagos dislikes the Igbos is extremely false…, your political establishment does”, he is once again set to exploit the schism between the Igbo Lagos immigrant and their Yoruba hosts. Besides the only discernible message that he is seeking election to pursue Igbo agenda, his other motivation, he says is to displace the current leadership in the state. In his words: “This time round, we intend to take over Lagos in 2019; we have a situation where it had been under the grip of one or two persons and we are tired of that.” He did not say what happens after. He did not talk of another blueprint. He simply assumes today’s prosperous Lagos is an accident. He also took up arms against the Oba of Lagos who back in 2014 warned him not to trade off the interest of Lagos in the pursuit of his ambition. According to him, “the royal utterance of 2015 is still fresh in mind of the entire electorate”. With no new vision unveiled, one can safely conclude Agbaje is on a vengeance mission to right the perceived wrongs done to Igbo.

    But I think Agbaje is a poor student of history. By their culture and values, the Yoruba are very receptive to immigrants. In fact, this is their strength. What the Lagos elite have tried to do was to protect Lagos and the Yoruba from, first, the Portuguese and the British fortune-seekers and since the 1930s, Igbo self-serving leaders, trading with the name of their compatriots and successive Nigerian military and civilian leaders who after building their fortune and political career in Lagos, often turn around to bite the finger that fed them.

    The Oba and Lagos political elite’s grouse, Agbaje ought to know, is not with Igbo and other immigrants who made their living in Lagos and in the process contribute immensely to the development of the city. It is against such  mischief makers who claim they were on civilization drive to turn Lagos which had a population 99,890  in 1921 compared to Enugu, a mining village’s 3,170, Aba’s 2,327 and Onitsha’s 10,309, from a jungle to a modern city. It is against self-style beautiful brides like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, admired in most Yoruba urban towns, deeply loved by Lagos white cap chiefs and Imams who regarded him as an adopted son of Herbert Macaulay. Even though he was according to Richard Sclar, the only Igbo man during the inaugural meeting of NCNC shortly before it transformed into a political party in 1944, he had no opposition from Yoruba majority when he assumed the leadership of NCNC following the death of Macaulay in 1947.  But Zik saw nothing wrong in ceding the NCNC presidency to Okpara when he vacated the position as against Fadahunsi, the candidate of TOS Benson and his Yoruba group. Similarly when Zik also vacated the senate presidency in 1960, he ceded the office not to any of the Yoruba NCNC stalwarts but to Dennis Osadebey. The only reason Jimi Agbaje found this historical facts objectionable can only be opportunism.

    It is perhaps only Agbaje on a vengeance mission that will regard Lagos establishment’s rejection of Zik’s labeling of Yoruba as tribalist over NCNC intra-party feuds in the forties. Prince AdelekeAdedoyin and Dr. Olorunnimbe, members of NCNC delegation to Britain had accused the leadership of NCNC of mismanagement of funds and Zik of being the sole author of the memorandum and constitutional proposal submitted to the colonial secretary. The two were consequently expelled but the expulsion was ineffective as Olorunnimbe went on to win an election to the central legislature because Lagos NCNC was not owned by Igbo. And later when attempt by the party to prevail on Olorunnimbe to step down to pave way for Zik failed, Zik claimed he was being marginalized as an Igbo man by Yoruba tribalists. The Lagos Igbo State Union believed him. OzumbaMbadiwe thereafter embarked on a crusade to separate Lagos from the West. The irony was that this was in the 1940s a time when non-indigenous Onitsha were regarded as settlers and denied the same privileges as the Onitsha indigenes.

    But blinded by ambition without preparation, Agbaje in search of Igbo votes has unwittingly joined the league of political adventurers and fortune seekers who treat Lagos as victim of envy and vengeance. Balewa was made in Lagos. Yet when DrMajekodunmi, his friend and personal doctor introduced a health bill that would be beneficial to Lagos workers, Balewa did nothing when the northern back benchers opposed it just because it was not going to be replicated in the north.

    In 1966 when Lagos  was turned to a battle ground by warring Fulani and Igbo estranged coalition partners and their military sympathisers, but for the intervention of Britain and US, Murtala Muhammed was about to sink Lagos with a dynamite. Babangida after exploiting the Lagos media that crowned him ‘the prince of the lower Niger’, promulgated Decree 52 of 1993 backdated to January 1, 1975 to confiscate 150 choice plots at the reclaimed Osborne Road as parting gifts to his ministers. He later annulled the June 1993 election won by MKO Abiola. There was also the late Shehu Shagari, who according Alhaji Lateef Jakande, his friend, derailed the Lagos metro line project out of envy. We can add President Obasanjo who illegally sat on Lagos State LGA allocations for two years because he did not want Lagos to become London.

    And finally, if only Agbaje had taken time to study the role of Obas in Yoruba land, he would have known that the Oba of Lagos cannot swim against the tide. Unlike such places like Ogoni land where traditional rulers have been described by SaroWiwa as ‘vultures’ feeding on the misery of their people, Obas in Yoruba land can only want what their subjects want. As Thomas Hodgin has explained, ‘Yoruba Obas are constitutional monarchs who ratify decisions made by council of hereditary lineage chiefs who had consulted the wishes of their people’

  • Badeh: Even a villain has right to life

    Fortunately, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh was not a villain. He was never so pronounced by the courts. When last week he died a cheap death, a common feature of contemporary Nigeria, he died a victim of our dysfunctional system that couldneither protect him nor our children routinely carted away like sheep from their schools by insurgents, farmers killed or driven away from their farms by suspected migrating herdsmen, travellers kidnapped for rituals or ransoms, and of course thousands who die a slowdeath following consumption of fake drugs. Our cities and villages are taking the form of Hobbesian society where life is nasty, cheap and short.

    With Badeh’s death,we areall losers, starting with a nation that invested heavily in sending him to the best military academies across the world; the government andits security apparatus who on account of their turf wars sealed Badeh’s fate by leaving him at the mercy of those he was said to have offended and of course the judiciary which, by its penchant to resort to technicalities instead of substance,made sure that for Badeh, justice delayed was justice denied.

    Alex SabunduBadeh was a four-star flag officer of the Nigerian Air force. Before he was killed on December 18, 2018, he had served as the 18th Chief of Air Staff and the 15th Chief of Defence Staff of the armed forces of Nigeria. He did hisundergraduate pilot training at Vance Air Force Base of the United States Air Force. He passed through the Armed Forces Command and Staff as well as the National War College. Besides a M.Sc. degree in Strategic Studies from the University of Ibadan, he also attended Safety International Institute at Teterboro in New York for a course in simulator recurrence,all at taxpayers’ expense. He laterserved asthe Director National Military Strategy at the National Defence College, Director of Research and Chief of Policy Plans, Nigeria Air Force Headquarters. In other climes, Badeh would have remained an asset to the armed forces even in retirement.

    Badeh was alleged to have committed the most heinous sin in the military – betraying his foot soldiers,(a General’s greatest assets)whose welfare and safety he was alleged to have traded for personal gains.He allegedly diverted about N3.9b, funds meant for procurement of arms and for the welfare of his soldiers towards procuring houses for himself and his children.

    According to EFCC,parts of the funds was allegedly used to buy mansion at No 6 Ogun River Crescent, Maitama worth N1.1 billion; shopping plaza at Plot 1386 Oda Crescent, Cadastral Zone A, Wuse 11, Abuja worth N1.6bn; set of duplexes in Wuse 11 for his children, Alex Badeh Jnr and Kam Badeh worth N260m and N330m respectively. EFCC also alleged about N150m was paid to Platinum Universal Projects for the renovation and furnishing of Badeh Jnr’s house. Badeh’s N150m personal house in Yola, Adamawa State was also said to have come from the diverted fund.

    And in court, the Director of Finance and Account of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Air Commodore AliyuYishau (retd.) Yishau revealed how the former Chief of Defence Staff converted N558 million from funds meant for the NAF into dollars for his personal use.The witness also narrated how he  used dollar equivalent of the sum of N1.4billion removed from the accounts of the Nigerian Air Force to purchase a mansion situated at No. 6, Ogun River Street, Off Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja

    Then Anna Awe Akuson, another witness in the N3.9billion fraud trial as far back as Wednesday, February 28, 2018 told Justice OkonAbang of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja how a search conducted on a property allegedly belonging to Alex Badeh, the defendant led to the recovery of $1million suspected to be proceeds of illicit deals.

    But the lawyers slowed down Badeh’s trial using one technical issue after the other until Justice OkonAbang was forced to orderBadeh to open his defence on January 16 and 17. That for Badeh turned out a bridge too far to cross.

    In the courts and in the courts of public opinion, the stakes could not have been higher for Badeh especially when the sufferings of thousands of those who were driven from their homes in the 19 LGAs taken over by Boko Haram insurgents and hundreds of our ill-equipped soldiers who died on the battle field were attributed toBadeh’srecklessness. Badeh appeared to have assaulted sensibilities of both civilians and soldiers.

    But how we or  President Buhari’s round pegs in square holes in the police, defence and internal affairs ministries where  inflammatoryrhetoricare often substituted for deep  thinking ,feel does not attract death penalty. As an accused, Badeh had the right to life. It is for this reason many believe it was too much a coincidence that the four soldiers detailed to protect Badeh were said to be some kilometres away from where an Air Chief Marshall was killed like a chicken.

    But the Nigerian police whose overzealous IG thinksit is his responsibility to pursue perceived enemies of thepresident seems to have started on a wrong footing by swallowing hook and line, the claim by Rabione of the suspects, that they killed Badeh because of “information that Badeh was in possession of a huge sum of money which he wanted to use in purchasing a parcel of land in Nasarawa State”.

    According to Rabi, after the killing “we opened the car and found a bag of money and went with it. When they opened the bag, the money was beyond what I had ever seen before”.For now, Rabi and the police seem to have agreed to keep the figures or where recovered funds are warehoused secret.

    There are more unanswered questions. IfBadeh was killed in the evening between Koso and Kugwaru communitieson December 18, 2018 while returning from his farm, what would he still be doing with humongous amount he was supposed to have used to buy land?

    Worse, Badeh’s family has dismissed Rabi and the police narrative as a subterfuge to cover the tracks of Badeh’sreal killers. They insisted Badeh, whose salary and pensions account had been frozen and who on account of this could not meet his financial obligations to his domestic staff, his farm workers and the Abuja Environmental Protection Board that had refused to clear huge refuse dump at his house in Abuja, couldn’t have been carrying huge sums of money as at the time he was killed.

    With the confiscation of most of Badeh and his sons’ properties regarded as proceeds of fraud by EFCC, the question that should ordinarily interest the police is who stands to gain from Badeh’s death? Unfortunately, the over enthusiasm of the police to carry out the now stalled parade of two of Badeh’s suspected assailants while the rest are still at large seems to have betrayed their mind-set.

    For critics of President Buhari’s security apparatus, the pursuit of Rabi’s narrative alone amount to chasing shadows. Nigerians look up to the president on whose desk the buck stops to ensure Badeh’s killing does not follow the pattern of other unresolved high profile killings in the country.

     

  • 2023: In defence of Fashola and Osinbajo

    Students of Nigerian political history concluded a long time ago that our crisis of nationhood, starting from the first republic, can be located within Nigeria’s dominant ethnic groups, their regionally-based political parties and their ethnic irredentist political leaders. Fifty-two years after the collapse of that republic as a result of the struggle by each of the dominant group to impose her values on the nation, not much has changed,

    The Yoruba, according to Professor Banji Akintoye by culture and world outlook, are natural federalists. Their new emergent political elite organized themselves into Afenifere (those who want for others what they want for themselves). Their leader came up with what he called ‘path to Nigerian freedom’, as solution to instabilities associated with multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies.

    Ignoring the warning of the departing colonial masters that ethnic groups in Nigeria are at different levels of cultural development, they tried to impose their values on the rest of the country with disastrous consequences.  Those whose freedom they sought confirmed their status by fighting like slaves during the July 1966 vengeance coup, through the civil war (1967-70) and since the beginning of the fourth republic when on accounts of crumbs, forgot their forbears’ uncompleted war which recently resurfaced with vengeance with some of their leaders now threatening a belated rebellion.

    In 2003, after almost 50 years of Afenifere’s failed battle for restructuring using the same strategy, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his Afenifere Renewal Group became convinced a new approach was needed  but not until they had retired their war-weary  fathers. In 2015, the group displaced the Igbos from their natural position of playing second fiddle to Hausa-Fulani. Unfortunately, Buhari has not been able to deliver on his promise of restructuring perhaps because as a civil war hero, he sees any attempt at restructuring as a threat to the unity he fought for or as many others have argued, suffers from Fulani mindset. After almost four years in government, Tinubu’s younger colleagues – Fashola and Osinbajo – are saying if the country is to be restructured for sustainable development, it has to be done with those who have faith in a restructured Nigeria occupying the driver’s seat.

    And their argument is unassailable. Democracy is nothing more than a process for winning election in order to acquire power. The Yoruba was a factor in Buhari’s success in 2015 after his three earlier failures, two of which his Igbo vice presidential candidates abandoned him in the courts to take appointments from the victorious party. They are now trying to impress it on their people that 2023 is for Yoruba to pick if they aid Buhari to win again in 2019 since Igbo would most likely give their block vote to Atiku’s PDP as they did for Jonathan in 2015.

    But both have come under vicious attack. The first salvo came from Afenifere’s spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin who challenged Osinbajo to show what he has done for the Yoruba during his four years in office. Odumakin seems to forget that the Yoruba do not want anything but good governance and government policies that will allow them do things for themselves. It is also a disservice to the Yoruba people that pride themselves over the right of individual to call God by their preferred names, that Odumakin is introducing a religious dimension by accusing Osinbajo of doing nothing “When they killed the Yoruba evangelist of the Redeemed Christian Church of God under his nose in Abuja as vice-president”. Again, students of Nigerian politics know no one dictates to the Yoruba who won the June 12 battle without a shot, when to fight their wars.

    The spokesman for the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Uche Achi-Okpaga says that “the 2023 Yoruba presidency is a plot presumably well-hatched and efforts are being exerted to win it successfully as dramatised in the public pronouncements earlier by Fashola and now the bleeding utterances of Osinbajo”. That in itself is also not an illegitimate ambition in a participatory democracy.  But he introduced a new dimension by adding: “The Igbo are the descendants of King David, the man after God’s heart. Anything you do in Nigeria without the active cooperation and participation of the lgbo would always crumble as exemplified in the present administration of PMB. The Igbo are to Nigeria what Israel is to the world today”. That is scary. The Israelis are descendant of a rebellious group that killed Jesus, their illustrious son and the messiah for chiding them against rebelliousness. They are today international outlaws.

    But a journey through memory actually shows that these two dominant ethnic groups do not want a restructured Nigeria but a Nigeria which Awo likened to a fattened cow held down while being milked by a few powerful people.

    For the core northern political elite, the dream of planting the sword in the sea by their grandfather is alive. They also share Ahmadu Bello’s 1953 vision that there should be no boundary adjustment in Nigeria since the middle belt including Ilorin where they planted emirs is their grandfather’s conquered territories. The 1999 military supervised constitution seem to support such an illusion.

    Let us also examine the following historical facts:  Zik reneged on earlier agreement with Awo to make state creation a precondition for independence during the 1957 independence London conference and in 1959, settled for governor-general when he had an option to be prime minister. After the January 1966 coup, Nwabueze was credited with drafting Ironsi’s Unification Decree 34. In 1967, Ojukwu’s soldiers, led by Brigadier Banjo, overran Midwest and chose Albert Okonkwo as military administrator against Banjo’s choice of a Midwesterner. In his 1967 letter to Banjo, Ojukwu said “you will have nothing to do with the military administrator in the Mid-West territory during your sojourn there prior to your move to the West; on the liberation of the Yoruba land, you will be appointed as the military governor of that territory. During the period of Biafra’s troops’ presence in your territory, all political measures, statements or decrees shall be subject to the approval, in writing, by myself or on my authority. Should our troops arrive and liberate Lagos, the government of the Republic of Biafra reserves the right to appoint a military administrator for the territory. Such an administrator will remain in office until a merger of that territory with Yoruba land is affected by Biafra troops.”

    In 1979, Zik chose to become the beautiful bride to Shehu Shagari with Ojukwu the warlord returning from exile to consolidate Igbo position in Shagari government. In 1993, Igbo’s leading lights, including Nwabueze who drafted the interim contraption decree sealed the fate of MKO Abiola and his June 12 mandate while Ojukwu became Abacha’s envoy to Europe where he hilariously told western leaders that Abiola could not be president on the basis of his many wives. In1998, they teamed up with their traditional rivals, Hausa/Fulani to impose an Obasanjo’s government in which they played leading role.

    Even if the two dominant ethnic groups have not betrayed the struggle for a federal arrangement that satisfies the legitimate demand for justice and fairness by Nigerian federating units, the quest by Fashola and Osinbajo for the Yoruba to be in the driver’s seat come 2023 is a legitimate ambition in a participatory democracy where power is not acquired by swearing on a false sense of entitlement, but through astute scheming and bargaining among critical groups.

     

  • Neither presidential nor parliamentary

    While our past and present leaders and other beneficiaries of our current dysfunctional structure continue to play the ostrich, a bill to return Nigeria to the parliamentary system of government sponsored by 71 members of the lower house passed its first reading at plenary last Thursday . The lawmakers whose membership cut across party lines  are seeking an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to revert from the current presidential system to the parliamentary system, first introduced by 1954 Lyttleton constitution and was in operation until  the first republic was wrecked in 1966 by military self-proclaiming messiahs.

    They advanced reasons for their proposed bill. “Studies”, according to them, “have shown that countries run by presidential regimes consistently produce lower output growth, higher and more volatile inflation, and greater income inequality relative to those under parliamentary ones”.They also spoke ofquick passage of economic bills due to the fusion of power that it embodies and promotion of”inclusion and collectiveness, which is critical to equality of income distribution and opportunities.”

    With frustrations because of resistance to change, it is easy to find justification to dump the current dysfunctional system. For instance, unlike what we today have under the presidential system where lawmakers elected on the platform of the same party works against the interest of theirparty, the executive branch of governmentin the parliamentary system has the direct or indirect support of the parliament.

    It is bad enough that we run a unitary system where 36 states and 774 LGAs look up to the centre for survival and fraudulently insist it is federal. But the problem is not in the label but in the character of our leaders who shamelessly exploit the virtues of the labels for personal gains at the expense of the nation.

    But I think what we need first is restructuring. It is the structure that defines the system. This has been the experience of India parliamentary system where the prime minister determines when a state which threatens stability of India ceases being a state. It is France’ structure that determined her hybrid system. It is similarly the structure of the US after their civil war and that of Germany at the end of World War 2 that determined their federal systems. It is on record that the golden era of our country was when we practiced parliamentary system as dictated by our structure between 1954 and 1966 contrary to the claim by the military that it introduced presidentialism in response to restiveness and acrimonies that defined the first republic.

    Once again, a brief journey through memory will reveal how and why we derailed. In the run up to independence, the preoccupation of the dominant ethnic groups – Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba was the struggle for the control of their regions. And their weapons of war were their ethnic based political parties: Northern People’s Congress, (NPC), National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC), and Action Group (AG).  But besides the dominant ethnic groups,there were also sub-national groups located within each of the dominant regions that equally craved for self-actualisation within the greater Nigerian nation. And to throw away the hegemony of their local oppressors, they sought the help from political enemies of their local oppressors. It was a win-win situation for the ethnic based parties that needed alliances to win election at the national level.

    Unlike Awolowo’s colleagues such as Bode Thomas, S L Akintola, RotimiWillaims and others in AG, who were satisfied with regionalism which as far as they were concerned was enough to prevent the country from being run by a one-eye king, Awolowo, whether  driven by his believe in federalism, the object of his lifelong research which resulted in his “path to Nigerian freedom” – a treatise on managing crisis of social dislocations in a multicultural Nigeria or  by his ambition to rule Nigeria one day, became the chief crusader for minority rights. In the process, he stepped onAhmadu Bello’s toes.

    One must also appreciate the fears of Ahmadu Bello who regarded Awo’s attempt to liberate those he described as his grandfather’s slaves as an attempt to undermine his authority in his region. This was an era when democracy, the new value system that places emphasis on individuals as against group, was yet to be fully embraced in the more educationally advanced Western Region where the deadly struggle between Alaafin of Oyo and Bode Thomas led to the deposition of the former and the sudden death of the latter. There was also Ife where an attempt by Fani-Kayode (born in London, groomed in Lagos) to treat Modakeke farmers and potential voters as equal with Ife landowners set him against the Ooni and  led to his loss of two consecutive elections before decamping to NCNC in 1959.

    But in 1962, Ahmadu Bello got his pound of flesh by supporting Akintola in his bitter struggle against his party. The coalition partners (NPC and NCNC) in breach of the constitution, interfered in the affairs of the west, declared state of emergency, sent Awo to detention, imposed Akintola who had been constitutionally removed by the governor of the west as premier, without election. Then the coalition partners  while ignoring agitation for state creations by restive minority groups in the north and east, went on to create Midwest in an effort to weaken the political base of Awolowo, the self-appointed  minority rights chief crusader.

    The 1963 republican constitution merely reinforced the lopsidedness of the federation. This effectively left the north with bigger land area and more population than the southern regions, to rule in perpetuity since democracy is a game of numbers.

    The 1964 disputed federal election led to constitutional crisis between the president and the prime minister during which both sought the help of the military. In the end, it was resolved in favour of the prime minister. The northern-controlled federal government, now used to having its ways, went on to supervise the rigging of 1965 Western Region election on behalf of embattled S.L Akintola. An attempt by the Sardauna to impose a premier rejected by the people on the west led to an orgy of violence.

    The Ironsi-led military junta that emerged after January 1966 coup, the MurtalaMuhammed and Theophilus Danjuma-led vengeance coup of July 1966, the plunging of the nation into a civil war by Ojukwu and Gowon,  Murtala/ Obasanjo, Buhari/Babangida/Abacha and Abdulaslami Abubakar juntasthat seized resources of regions to fund new states and LGAs created to consolidate the lopsidedness of the north, were proxy wars on behalf of the east and the north that have held the nation to ransom since 1966.

    The mandate of custodians of our constitution and their ‘newbreed’ politicians was as clear in 1966 as it is today. In 1966, it was to deal decisively with those who betrayed the letter and the spirit of the constitution and made change impossible. That simple task was elusive 52 years ago just as it is today with our current leaders’ continued resistance to restructuring without advancing a superior argument to prove it is not all about maintaining the status quo.

  • Democracy and disciplined political party are Siamese twins

    Nigerian governors wield enormous powers. And answerable to none including the electorate in an era when ‘stomach infrastructure’ has become a substitute for party manifesto; they are perhaps the most powerful political office holders in the world. For them, voters are nothing but mere participants in a four year periodic ritual called election. They are also untouchable because they have constitutional immunity which precludes them from prosecution even for criminal offences while in office. And with some of them presiding over huge budgets sometimes bigger than those of some African countries, governors in Nigeria are dispensers of patronages. And because they control their party state structures, they are the custodian of elective and appointive positions.  The fate of LGA, state and National Assembly office seekers is therefore in their hands. We must not also forget that governors’ words are laws. They once declared 17 greater than 19 during one of their forum’s elections and Jonah Jang who by their crooked logic won by securing lower votes celebrated his victory by doing a thanksgiving in his church.

    Although governors approve mouth-watering severance packages covering houses in their states and Abuja, periodic change of cars and salaries for life, they never retire. They just ease themselves into the senate after installing their preferred successors. This has been the narrative since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1999.

    In fairness to outgoing Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha and his Ogun State counterpart, Ibikunle Amosun, who have been under great stress and strain these past weeks, they have not demanded for anything extraordinary. All they have tried to do after securing their party’s ticket to the senate in the 2019 election was to follow an already established tradition of installing their own successors. Then came APC new  chairman, Adams Oshiomhole who during his own time  criss-crossed  the whole of Edo State selling his preferred successor to the electorate as if his life depended on it, now armed with  a  retroactive law targeted at those he describes as ‘dynasty and empire’ builders.

    The two governors who have so much in common have however sworn that Oshiomhole and APC will know no peace except their demands to impose their successors are met. Already Ibikunle Amosun has said that his anointed candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, has his “full blessing” to pursue his governorship ambition in the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). “I, Senator Ibikunle Amosun will not work for any other candidate that they are rooting for to become governor”, he recently declared with a ring of foreboding finality. He has also expressed open support for another 26 of his aggrieved loyalists that crossed over to APM to contest for Ogun State House of Assembly seats.  Rochas Okorocha has also adopted Amosun’s template. They have also sought relief from the courts despite the dangling of  ‘Article 20, Subsection 10’ of APC constitution which talks about charges of ‘subversion of party regulations for members who fail to exhaust the party’s intermediation processes before going to court’ by chairman Oshiomhole.

    Unfortunately, the problem is not with the two governors who have done no wrong by trying to observe existing PDP and APC protocols. The tragedy of our political party system is located within our ill-equipped military that whimsically destroyed our political socialization process in 1966 and went on to arrogantly arrogate to themselves the powers to teach Nigerians that started experiment on party formation in 1923, how to form political parties. Babangida hilariously decreed short-lived  NRC and SDP  (1990-93) followed by  Abacha’s ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ with his Congress for National Consensus (CNC), Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) and the National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN) among others and the military packaged PDP, consisting of   groups such as the G-18 and G-34.  PDP has since its formation in 1998 run by garrison commanders led by President Obasanjo who shuffled senate presidents and party chairmen according to his mood. Audu Ogbeh once narrated how Obasanjo had a lunch of pounded yam with him  after which he brought out from his pocket, a prepared letter of his resignation as PDP chairman for him to sign.

    Far from being a political party, PDP is an association of traders and rent seekers camouflaging as one. Anxious to recoup the funds they claimed they expended on 1999 election, they hurriedly set up PPPRA, an instrument their members according to a house probe deployed for stealing about N1.7trillion under fuel subsidy scam. With their self-serving monetization policy, they shared inherited landed properties dating back to the colonial period. With its ill-implemented privatization policy, they shared our budding industries among themselves. Only last week, APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu reminded Nigerians of how PDP spent $16b on the power sector and went on to share it among themselves on the eve of their departure from office all in the name of privatization.

    It was not long PDP imploded over sharing of spoils of office with Bukola Saraki and some others joining APC. By his own admission, Saraki confessed selling his new party’s victory for a pot of porridge in order to snatch the presidency of the senate. There-after, he made the country ungovernable for about three years before crawling back to PDP where he lost his presidential bid to Abubakar Atiku, who by his own periodic haggling for presidential ticket among Nigerian parties has also demonstrated his lack of abiding faith in the ideals of a political party.

    Of course the APC, until the emergence of Oshiomhole not too long ago, was seen by many as an extension of PDP. Its elected senators and House of Representative members are marketable commodities.  Although both houses are controlled by APC, elected party members have behaved more like opposition working against the policies of their president.

    As for Amosun and Okorocha, a part cannot be holier than the whole. By their own antecedents they have not shown they are any different from their PDP and APC trading colleagues. Okorocha had decamped from the PDP to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He was suspended by APGA in December 2011 for allegedly storming the Imo State secretariat of APGA with dozens of thugs, who allegedly beat up several top officers of the party. But despite his suspension by APGA, he went on to win the 2011 election.  Rochas decamped to the All Progressives Congress in 2013. For the 2015 he also went on to defeat former deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha. Amosun was also first elected to the seat of Ogun Central Senatorial district in 2003 on the platform of ANPP. He failed to win the 2007 governorship election and thereafter joined ACN where he won the 2011 and 2015 elections. With their antecedents, it is no surprise they have chosen to now run with the hare and hunt with the hound.

    I sympathise with Oshiomhole, the APC chairman. His argument in support of a crusade for a strong disciplined political party is unassailable. The 600 years head start Europe and other industrialised and developed democracies had over the underdeveloped societies have been attributed to the ingenious creation and deployment of disciplined political parties as modernization agents by European political elite of the 15th century. The golden age of our nation, 1952-62 was the period our founding fathers, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello and Obafemi Awolowo, relied on political parties (NCNC, NPC and AG) as modernization agents.

    Democracy and disciplined political party are like Siamese twins. One cannot survive without the other. If Oshiomhole and his APC are serious about consolidating the democratization process, this is an opportunity to take a decisive action even if it involves using the big stick against Amosun and Okorocha who appear not to be in a hurry to jettison their old ways.

  • Obasanjo’s crusade for LG autonomy

    President Obasanjo fights for anything he believes in with all his might. As military Head of State back in the mid- 70s, he midwifed  the 1976 local government reforms, considered back then as the most revolutionary in the history of local government reforms in the country dating back to 1914. Not too long ago, he embarked on a new crusade for local government autonomy. Responding to an appeal for backing towards the actualization of an autonomous local government system by Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, the National Union of Local Government Employees, (NULGE) who led other union leaders on a working visit to him in Abeokuta not too long ago, he had said: “When in 1976, we brought in local government reforms, it was meant to be the third tier of the government and not meant to be subjected to the whims and caprices of any other government”.

    “Local Government”, he continued “is meant to be autonomous from the state government just the same way that the state government is autonomous from the federal government.” Accusing states executives of ‘stealing local government funds’ and labelling legislatures that have prevented the bill from being passed as ‘enemies of the people’, he asks “if the federal government allows the states to enjoy their autonomy, why don’t you want local government to enjoy autonomy?”

    Here, Obasanjo, in his new crusade for local government autonomy, a continuation of the 1976 got it all wrong by giving the impression that the states exist at the behest of the federal government. The principle of federal arrangement everywhere in the world is that the states are not inferior to the centre. The centre and the federating states operate on the basis of a constitution which allocates power to the centre and the federating states.

    In view of the contradictions associated with Obasanjo’s 1976 local government reforms, it is difficult to fault the argument of those who claim it was designed to buy legitimacy and undermine state governments as against vehicles for development of the rural areas as canvassed by the then military government.

    Let us try to be charitable by accepting Robin Luckman’s sociological analysis of Nigerian military misadventure into politics that they were motivated by patriotism but became clueless when confronted by socio-economic realities they were ill-equipped to address. We can then amuse ourselves with the belief that Obasanjo, like many of his military adventurers who foisted ill-digested policies such as  Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that unfortunately turned our nation to importer of the labour of other societies,  decreed  political parties  that gulped  a whopping N531m as take-off grant with N3billion party headquarters later taken over by reptiles, breeding the current set of ‘new breed’ politicians from their school of democracy, substitution of  our working federal structure with  unviable 36 states and 774 LGAs created without objective criteria beyond pleasing their family members and political associates, indeed had good intentions with the 1976 revolutionary local government reform.

    The problem however is that confronted with the consequences of their failed policy initiatives which have on a few occasions brought us closer to the brink of the precipice, it is most improbable that they would have continued to live in denial. For instance, it is only President Buhari and his military colleague, ex- President Obasanjo who cannot see the contradictions in the 1976 reform and the injustice in the country’s current 36 states and 774 councils structure they continue to promote.

    First, unlike the  1914-1950 Native Authority or Indirect Rule reform, which was initiated because the illiterate traditional rulers who ‘executed delegated policies of the colonial power had no power to meet the demands of their people’ and the 1950 to 1966, local administration system and 1967 to 1976, changes which stemmed from 1947 policy thrust of the last colonial secretary of state, Lord Creech-Jones,  that: “the key to resolving the problems of African administration lay in the development of an efficient and democratic local government that is close to the people”, the 1976 reform tried to create uniformity among the federating states by making the newly reformed democratic local government councils a third tier of government with constitutional recognition.

    If we accept local government as “a political subdivision of a nation or (in a federal system) state, which is constituted by law and has substantial control of local affairs including the powers to impose taxes or to exact labour for prescribed purpose”, this is an aberration. There is no known federation where the local councils which are part of the state are described as third tier of government. In fact our 1999 constitution forecloses this type of abuse of federal power when it clearly states: “The House of Assembly of a state shall have power to make laws for the peace or good governance of the state or any part thereof with respect to any matter not included in the concurrent legislative list”.

    The foundation of the 1976 reform was no doubt built on a shifting ground. This perhaps explains why in spite of many changes starting with the 1984 Dasuki Report; the 1988 Civil Service Reforms; the 1989 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 2003 Review of Local Government Council in Nigeria, the current local council structure has continued to be a source of tension and resentment among Nigerians. The current structure is illegal, immoral and unjust.

    What, if one may ask are the objective criteria for creating 413 councils for the north and 355 to the south? Ex-President Obasanjo, his fellow mainstreamers and opponents of a restructured Nigeria have not explained to Nigerians why for instance, Kano and Jigawa, that used to be one state with same population as Lagos have federal funded 71 councils to Lagos’ 20. What is the explanation for decreeing uniformity in terms of minimum wage and remuneration for the governor between Lagos whose IGR exceeds those of all the northern states put together?

    Local government is a state affair. It is immoral for the federal government to forcibly seize resources of the states and deploy parts of it to local councils that are not accountable to it, to buy legitimacy and undermine developmental efforts of state governments. It was Professor Soludo, one time governor of the CBN who observed not too long ago that Nigeria is the only known nation in the world where the centre allocates funds to LGAs that are not accountable to it.

    Credible voices in our land have warned our governing elite who have chosen to play the ostrich of the consequences of current injustice across the land. They have recommended restructuring of the country along the lines of sustainable development as the first step towards resolving our crisis of nation-building. And they are not alone. Before them, the 2014 Jonathan National Political Confab debated the issue of restructuring and recommended that federal government stop allocating funds to LGAs but only to the recognized federating states.