The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • Self-proclaiming messiahs

    But for its tragic consequences, images of Babangida /Falae and Obasanjo/Oyinlola adorning front pages of newspapers as they proclaimed themselves as new messiahs would have been dismissed as expressions of sardonic humour.  Babangida had during Olu Falae’s pilgrimage to Minna called on women and youths to support the Social Democratic Party (SDP), because with of Olu Falae, his former secretary to government, Professors Jerry Gana and Adeniran at different times heads of his MAMSA , Falae’s new SDP he says, approximates the “vision of the security and wellbeing of Nigerians” just like his old SDP – the party whose historical victory he had annulled.

    Last week Friday, 28 April, Obasanjo, the chief promoter of Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), supported by Olagunsoye Oyinlola the National Coordinator of the movement; asked Nigerian youths to “be prepared. (Because)It will not be easy to wrest powers from Buhari” Born-again Obasanjo who supervised the massive rigging of 2007 presidential and gubernatorial elections in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun, according to Appeal Court rulings,  did not forget to add  “with God, all things are possible”.

    The target of both former leaders are youths below forty years of age many of whom cannot articulate our current crisis of nationhood as a result of education policy thrust of both leaders which did not only eradicate the teaching of history in our schools but resulted in thousands of school drop-outs and areas boys that have today become easy tools in the hands of politicians and prosperity prophets. These youths must be told where we were coming from.

    Buhari was recruited as Head of State in 1984 by veteran coup plotters Babangida, Abacha and Gusau following massive corruption, chaos and indiscipline of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) stalwarts (1979-83). He insisted we must eat what we produce or go hungry. Within a year, our problem was how to store the quantity of our locally produced wheat. But Buhari was afflicted with serious character flaws such as rigidity, making virtue of self-righteousness and serious human right abuses. That was all those opposed to his economic policies needed to chase him out of power.

    In 2015 however, following three previous failed attempts (2003, 2007 and 2011} his story became that of the rejected cornerstone. Ignoring his disabilities and inadequacies, Nigerians at a period of national despair wanted anybody but clueless Jonathan who was imposed by Obasanjo to preside over ‘thieving newbreed’ politicians, he and Babangida groomed.

    In 2018 as it was in 1985, his modest achievements in war against corruption, stabilizing the economy and self-sufficiency in food production seem to have been overshadowed by his character flaws. And just as he came under vicious attack of  wheat importers and IMF foot soldiers while the Western powers using MKO Abiola and Babangida  removed him from office in order to protect their economic interest in 1985, today victims of his current anti-corruption war have teamed up for the final show down in 2019. The strategy is the same- exploit his apparent lack of understanding of how a multi ethnic society works, his substitution of sense of righteousness for compromise, and lack of political will to resort to mischief to counter the evil machinations of his political enemies who want freedom for themselves while scheming to preside over an empire of slaves.

    Part of the fallout of this is the ongoing mindless killing of Innocent Nigerians in the Middle Belt Region which many Nigerians and non-Nigerians including President Donald Trump have come to equate with ethnic cleansing or war against Christians. If the purpose of government primarily is security of life and properties of the governed, it is understandable why many well informed Nigerians are joining our tormentors to call for Buhari’s head.

    But I think we must not allow ourselves to once again be distracted. In 1985, we allowed those who wanted to enslave us by all means to sponsor Babangda and their World Bank/IMF Nigeria foot soldiers including MKO Abiola, Kalu Idika Kalu and Olu Falae who claimed there was no alternative to SAP to turn our country into importers of labour of other societies. While Babangida’s fraudulent transition programme paved the way for Abacha dictatorship and Obasnajo presidency, his blurred economic vision led to the current economic woes.

    If Babangida and Olu Falae assaulted our sensibilities, Obasanjo and Oyinlola believe we are a people with short memories. Obasanjo, the main beneficiary of Babangida and Abacha’s conspiracy against Nigeria in 1999 embarked on selective anti-corruption war against common thieves who pocketed infrastructural funds while he at the same time presided over the sharing of our blue chips companies that escaped confiscation during Babangida’s dubious commercialization programme.  If our highly educated youths are fleeing the country in droves today, it is due to Obasanjo’s ill-implementation of privatization programme which the World Bank that packaged it claimed would create 7m jobs.

    Just as Nigerians also expect apologies from Obasanjo for his role in grooming ‘newbreed’ politicians that breed only corruption, Nigerians also expect apologies from Oyinlola as a representative of Banbangida and Obasanjo boys. Oyinlola as part of south west military admnistrators that constituted the vanguard of what they termed ‘Abacha historic mission’ left Lagos at the mercy of Abacha state sponsored violence, un-cleared Lagos refuse dumps and collapsed and broken roads. His administration of Osun is a lesson in PDP governors at work. His government took a loan of N18.35b out of which a big chunk of N10b was used to make advance payments to those who won contracts for the construction of six stadia even before the sites were cleared, all in the name of Osun youths. And above all, he was indicted for the theft of Aregbesola’s mandated by a tribunal.

    To Babangida and Obasanjo, the two new self-proclaiming messiahs, we can add the main opposition PDP, rumoured to be packaging Atiku, Saraki and Ekweremadu to take over from Buhari. The problem is that like the first two groups, all they have to sell is Buhari’s character flaws.

    Last week, Atiku who has not told the nation what he will do differently from how he and Obasanjo fought themselves over the sharing of our national patrimony among their party members said he was going to probe Buhari over the use of excess crude funds for procurement of military fighter jets. Saraki who also dressed in APC borrowed robes is quietly mobilizing his 8th senate for Buhari’s impeachment over the same issue.

    Amidst the ocean of mental chaos in Saraki’s 8th Senate,  efforts by Senator Abu Ibrahim to introduce some sanity by reminding his colleagues that heavens did not fall when ex-President Obasanjo withdrew $17.7b from the same account to offset Paris club debt or  when Jonathan depleted the same account from over $20b he inherited in 2008 to less than $4b  or even in 2014, when senator Akpabio as governor moved the motion for the withdrawal of $2b  at the National Economic Council, for the purpose of fighting Boko Haram insurgency, all without reference or with belated reference to the National Assembly.

    Dear compatriots, let us first identify our real enemies and to the Nigerian youths, ‘shine your eyes’ before picking between our self-proclaiming messiahs.

     

  • Omo-Agege as victim of high-handedness

    Delinquency, thuggery and criminality as well as self-help are metaphors for the 8th Senate. With last week’s invasion of the Senate chambers and carting away of the mace by those described as thugs and criminals allegedly sponsored by embattled Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, it was the case of those who sowed the wind reaping the whirl-wind. But this has not stopped the nation from being assailed with precipitate recriminations, denunciations and loud wailings especially by masters of political intrigues and veterans of self-help.

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who finally found his voice after the hoodlums had accomplished their mission saw the assault as “an institutional infraction” while his soul mate, Bukola Saraki, the Senate President says “What happened was a disgrace.  To Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, “The action is an act of treason.” Organised Labour on its part says the invasion was a “violation of the sanctity of the Senate”. For Femi Gbajabiamila, it was “an indication the lawmakers are a sitting duck”. And while the opposition PDP saw it as “a direct assault on the legislature”, the ruling APC saw “the invasion as an attack on democracy.” Unfortunately, the fire, fury and the wailings have in the main focused on symptoms instead of the fundamental problem of a culture of self-help, impunity and delinquency which define the 8th Senate.

    Again, it is worth repeating how waywardness of the current leadership of the Senate got us to this sorry pass.  In 2015, APC as a party duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged. Dissatisfied, Saraki after trading off the position of deputy senate president to the opposition outwitted his fellow 51 APC senators holding a meeting with the president in another venue and sneaked into the chambers to be pronounced senate president by acclamation after a motion by Senator Dino Melaye supported by predominantly PDP opposition senators. Prof. Itse Sagay had then described the act of treachery which propelled Saraki to power as “an act of illegality and criminality, because there is no way a Senate can be formally inaugurated without all the members present –provided they want to be present”. For him, Saraki’s perfidy was nothing but an attempted coup”.

    To consolidate the position, Senate Standing Rules were allegedly forged, a claim confirmed by the police interim report. Based on the report, Saraki’s aggrieved and outwitted colleagues dragged him and his deputy, Ekweremadu, to court. The Senate leadership quickly resorted to self-help by passing a resolution to the effect that there was no forgery. Since, courts cannot question how the Senate runs its internal affairs, the protesting senators lost out.

    Saraki, Melaye and their group celebrated their victory at the Senate executive session of July 12, 2016. It was there Senator Dino Melaye gave an order that “because already there is a resolution of the Senate that the rules of the Senate were not forged, all those who have gone to court should go and withdraw their names from court and that if at the end of the day those who refused to withdraw their names from court, we should penalise them by suspending them”.

    And if further evidence that the Senate resorted to self-help to pervert justice is needed,  the statement issued by Lagos State senators to denounce Dino Melaye’s harassment and intimidation of Senator Remi Tinubu provided just that. According to the statement, “As distinguished members of the Red Chamber, we are strongly in favour of resolving any conflict that has arisen in the course of our representation and national duty through dialogue and due process and we will not be part of any solution obtained through any form of coercion, threat, intimidation and ungentlemanly conduct of the distinguished office of a senator.”

    Unfortunately, little has changed in the way the senate is run three years down the line.

    It can also now be argued that Saraki probably deployed self-help tactics to mollify some of the protesting APC senators. The salaries of senators have been shrouded in secrecy until a few weeks back, when ‘saint’ Senator Shehu Sani told the nation that in addition to senators’ N700, 000 official monthly salary, senators also collect N13.5m monthly which they are free to spend as they like as long as they are retired with receipts. This he said was in addition to the N200m constituency project budget senators preside over. I cannot think of a more plausible explanation as to why APC senators who once pretended to be on the side of the people would choose to drown with the Senate leadership even as they got embroiled in more scandals.

    For instance, on March 18, 2017, Sahara Reporters had with a howling headline reported “Senate on Vengeance after Nigerian Customs Seized Senator Saraki’s Bulletproof Range Rover over Fake Documents”. The story was that the customs “ had on January 11, 2017, intercepted and impounded a Range Rover SUV which carried documents that claimed its chassis number was “SALGV3TF3EA190243”, valued  at  N298 million, with an alleged fake documents presented by the driver showing payment of N8m as against expected customs duty of N74 million. The Senate quickly resorted to self-help. The Senate, after adopting a motion raised by Senator Dino Melaye against Hameed Ali, the Comptroller General of Customs, was ordered to appear in the upper house. Dino Melaye insisted he must appear wearing Customs-General uniform despite Femi Falana’s argument that “Neither the constitution not the Rules of Procedure of the Senate has conferred on it the power to compel the CGC to wear customs uniform when he is not a serving customs officer.” The Senate at the end became a judge in its own case with its internal probe exonerating the Senate President while putting the blame squarely on the importer of the car.

    Finally, we can mention a few other instances when the Senate resorted to self-help to pervert the course of justice. Following newspapers’ investigations that showed some serving senators including the Senate President who were once governors were earning double salaries, the Senate through an internal probe came out to inform the public that the governor-turned senators were receiving pensions and not salaries.

    When Minister Raji Fashola in 2017 decried lawmakers’ diversion of budgetary allocations from critical projects designed to benefit the people to their controversial constituency projects, he was summoned and browbeaten while the then Acting President Osinbajo who was critical of the lawmakers action was threatened with impeachment.

    In the Sahara Reporters claim that Senator Melaye was dressing himself in borrowed robes by claiming to be alumni of some prestigious institutions around the world, instead of allowing an independent body to examine the online newspaper claim, they once again resorted to self-help by setting up an internal probe which confirmed that Dino Melaye indeed earned a third class degree certificate in Geography from ABU, Zaria.

    Omo-Agege has not denied he belongs to the Buhari Support Group. It was perhaps for this reason he alleged that because “only 36 of 360 members of the House of Representatives adopted the report on the amendment to the Electoral Act while the Senate did not form a quorum the day it passed the bill”, the whole exercise was aimed at undermining Buhari’s chances in 2019.

    Even after he had been forced to apologise for his comments, Dino Melaye the Senate ‘enforcer’ still went ahead to move a motion for his suspension for 181 days. And Saraki,  claiming to be concerned about the preservation of the integrity of the Senate  as an institution, approved Melaye’s motion but reduced the suspension to 90 legislative days’ subject to his withdrawing his case against the Senate in court.

    Even the rebellious Jews in response to Jesus Christ’s “let him without sin throw the first stone” John (8:7) simply melted away. Senator Saraki and Senator Dino Melaye seem to think Nigerians cannot see through their perfidy.

  • Price of ignoring public opinion

    In democracy as in dictatorship, public opinion is everything. And   because government is built around people’s sentiments, leaders can only ignore public opinion at their own peril. As Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American president, credited with an extraordinary gift of interpreting the sentiments of the people without display of emotions puts it: “Whoever can change public opinion can change the government”. We don’t need to look further for evidence beyond the tragic end and baleful legacies of Nigeria successive leaders who first rode on the sentiments of the people to power but came to grieve when they chose to ignore public opinion in preference to their blurred vision of society between the end of our civil war in 1970 and 2015 when a serving government that boasted to rule for 60 years was voted out of power.

    General Yakubu Gowon, hero of the civil war and author of “no victor no vanquished” lost out when he succumbed to pressure of some of his federal commissioners to insist 1976, the year widely accepted by Nigerians as the handover date by the military, was no more realistic. He was marooned in Britain where as a former Head of State, joined fresh undergraduates to queue for food.

    Buhari, anti-imperialist, anti-corruption crusader and the author of “Nigerians have no other country than Nigeria”, quickly became the conscience of the nation following Shagari and Akinloye NPN’s profligate years (1979-1984). He ended up in prison when he ignored the sentiments of Nigerians and went ahead to kill drug offenders under a retroactive decree and jailed Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor both of The Guardian under his junta’s obnoxious Decree Four which prescribed jail terms for journalists who publish the truth if such truth embarrasses government officials who are mere servants of the people.

    Ibrahim Babangida who exploited the groundswell of unfavourable public opinion against Buhari to topple his government in 1985, took Nigeria to Organisation of Islamic countries (OIC) in 1986 despite the sentiments of Nigerians as to the secularity status of their country and the fact that Christianity and Islam, the two dominant Abrahamic religions are among many other religions in Nigeria.  From them on, Babangida the ‘maradona’ of Nigeria politics who acquired scores of honorary degrees and as many chieftaincy titles across the country, moved from disaster to disaster.  He ignored Nigerians’ anti-World Bank/IMF sentiments and with the support of Kalu Idika Kalu, his Minister of Finance and Olu Falae, his Secretary to the Government of the Federation, foisted the IMF-inspired Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) on Nigeria. Inflation immediately went up from about 5.4% to about 54%; foreign exchange rate nose-dived from about N1 to $1 to about N6 to $1. And with the collapse of all our budding industries, the nation became a dumping ground for all manners of goods from ceramics, furniture to food items. Our country became net importer of labour of other societies, marking the beginning of today’s massive unemployment of our youths.

    And still giddy with power, Babangida, the ‘evil genius’ discountenanced the vote of 14m Nigerians and annulled the result of the most credible election ever conducted in our country’s history. With the support of Obasanjo who said MKO Abiola, the president-elect was not the messiah Nigerians were waiting for, Babangida foisted an illegal contraption called Interim National Government headed by Ernest Shonekan on Nigeria. Babangida was later humiliated out of office with the help of Nigerian public opinion moulders, civil society groups and the press. The response of Abacha, his comrade in arms and crime who succeeded him to unfavourable public opinion was assassination of critics. Abacha, the terror of Nigerians, also came to a miserable and tragic end after allegedly eating some apples procured by some Indian prostitutes.

    He was followed by Abdulsalami Abubakar, who kept faith with Nigerians by implementing a transition programme which Babangida could not implement in eight years in one year. It is instructive that he remains the only Nigerian past leader with his honour intact.

    Obasanjo, following his election in 1999 made it clear he was not obliged to listen to his advisers let alone be swayed by public sentiments. Obasanjo who suffers from messianic complex admitted influencing the emergence of Shagari in 1979, Yar’Adua in 2007 and an ill-prepared Jonathan in 2011 as presidents. Insisting he knows what Nigerians want without asking them, he is currently grooming what someone has described as a “coalition of disgruntled politicians”  to take over power from Buhari whom he had accused of incompetence and failure  for failing to clear the mess he, Babangida and their ‘new breed’ politicians created between 1985 and 2015.

    President Buhari who has unfortunately refused to learn from his past mistakes or those of others is today haunted by his perceived disdain for public opinion.

    For instance, it is only he and he alone  who can explain why he has chosen to shoot himself in the leg by refusing to label herdsmen killers  a terrorist group even after Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State  has disclosed the  killer group is made up of diaspora Fulani herdsmen and even when from the president’s pronouncement in London last week, he is convinced the killers are remnants of Gadhafi’ armed gangs let loose on sub-Sahara Africa following dictator’s death, and long after the international security watch has proclaimed the killers ‘the fourth most dreaded terrorist group in the world’.

    It is the president alone who can justify retaining in his cabinet a defence minister who by his public utterances is considered  by victims of mindless killings in the middle belt region of Benue, Plateau, Taraba and Nazarawa whose votes will be critical to the president’s re-election bid in 2019. It is the president alone that can explain why he has been trying to validate the sentiments of  those that have accused him of selective anti-corruption war  by authorizing the recall of Professor Usman Yusuf, the embattled National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) boss who is facing EFCC investigation over alleged N919m fraud, from suspension  and for retaining Abubakar Malami as Attorney General and Minister of Justice after his failed attempt to re-instate Abdulrasheed Maina, chairman of the defunct Presidential Task Team on Pension reforms, a fugitive offender earlier indicted by a house probe and who was facing EFCC alleged fraud charges back into the civil service through the back door.

    If there is any threat to Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid, such will not be coming from discredited  PDP whose only strategy for now seem to be exploitation of Buhari’s failings without a genuine attempt at rebuilding their battered image. It will also not be coming from ex-President Obasanjo and his coalition of ‘disgruntled politicians” many of whom have been found to be men with feet of clay.

    If you ask me, I will say what President Buhari who has been busy in the past  week trying to build support for his 2019 re-election bid in faraway Great Britain, needs most is changing the unfavourable perception and sentiments of Nigerians whose expectations he has not met these past three years and whose opinions he has continued to ignore. “Public sentiments”, as Abraham Lincoln once warned “is everything. With it nothing can fail. Against it nothing can succeed. Whoever moulds public sentiments goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions”.

  • When PDP plays victim

    I can hazard a guess as to why PDP looters, indicted, in court struggling to establish their innocence or on the run from justice, exude neither a sense of shame nor a feeling of regret for their 16 years of rape of our commonwealth in form of periodic rigging of elections as recently confirmed by Senator Ibrahim Mantu during a live Channels Television programme.  Or the theft of our commonwealth through diversion of the nation’s resources to personal use or outright confiscation of a national patrimony kept in their care for the use of our children. Did ex-President Obasanjo who they fondly call ‘Baba’  (father) not too long ago told Nigerians  nothing embarrasses him? The truth of the matter is that PDP looters have no sense of shame. Instead of remorse, they play the victim whipping up sentiments about media trial and daring government take them to court where according to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former CBN Governor, “it took two years to secure only one indictment out of 164 banking sector fraud cases” with Jonathan blaming everything on ‘slow wheel of justice’.

    The near-collapsed economy and the massive unemployment of our youths which ex-President Obasanjo expects Buhari to fix in three years stemmed from the self-serving PDP policies such as  privatisation which according to a House probe report, was a device for confiscating our budding, hospitality, banking, manufacturing and  service industries. Ignoring this major source of nation’s travail, Vice President Osinbajo two weeks back, chose to speak only about looters, (the common thieves) who “withdrew and shared over N150b two weeks before the 2015 elections but who  the opposition and their backers would brook no reference to”.

    Obviously working on the theory that Nigerians have short memories, PDP spokesperson, Kola Ologbodiyan immediately dared him to name the PDP looters. And when in response to the challenge, Lai Mohammed, the Information Minister released some names of alleged looters, Reno Omokri, a spokesperson for former President Goodluck Jonathan, came out with what he described as “The Real Looters List That Buhari and Lai Mohammed Do Not Want You To Know About.”

    Then my very good friend, Chief Mike Ozekhome, a very resourceful counsel and a toast of alleged looters decided to join the fray. Ozekhome, it will be recalled, successfully defended ex- President Jonathan over his removal of Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor for playing the role of a whistleblower in the alleged missing   $20b NNPC fund. He then went on to floor the government and its EFCC  over an allegation that Ayo Fayose received N3b from President Jonathan NSA  even with Senator Musliu Obanikoro who not only admitted ferrying the money in two aircraft to Akure en route Ado Ekiti but started refunding back to government his own portion of about N8b as a prosecution witness. Chief Ozekhome is also currently defending Patience Jonathan, the ex-president better half over her claim to some $15m traced to some suspicious bank accounts which did not bear her name.

    Probably acting in his capacity as a respected human right lawyer, Chief Ozekhome who is not known to be a PDP counsel, has decided to do battle with the Buhari administration. According to him: “Everything they have done is what we call red herring, a diversionary tactics to divert the attention of suffering Nigerians from the woeful failure of this government….This government has failed on all indices; it’s a government that has made deep corruption its cradle rather than anti-corruption. This is the most corrupt government in Nigeria since the Lugardian amalgamation on January 1, 1914″.

    Although the chief has never known failure in his many crusades on behalf of alleged looters, I will however counsel that the issue of whose administration between Jonathan and Buhari is more corrupt should be left to social scientists who know how to attach weights to public opinion.

    But let us return to issue of looters. So far it is obvious PDP alleged looters are not interested in invalidating Professor Osinbajo’s claim. Their angst seems to be about other suspected APC looters in government whose names did not feature in Lai Mohammed’s list. And here let me also offer an unsolicited advice. If PDP’s current fight with APC is about reinforcing the old theory about Buhari’s alleged selective anti-corruption war, they should stop dissipating energy and equip their arsenals for the 2019 election. Because of their baleful legacies, they cannot make the case better than APC Senator Shehu Sani who has accused the president of fighting corruption among the opposition with insecticide but with deodorant among his own party men. It is also not lost on Nigerian electorate that Pa Bisi Akande, the interim chairman of APC was recently quoted as saying that John Odigie-Oyegun, who has been going around the country recruiting ex PDP alleged looters into the APC, has destroyed the APC he inherited.

    I think, what should be of concern to PDP’s alleged looters is how to establish their innocence, defend their honour and refund whatever they looted with apologies to Nigerians instead of thinking that they can, on the basis of Buhari’s failings, ride back to power in 2019, or on the back of Ayo Fayose and Nyesom Wike, the new owners of PDP.

    But beyond looted N150b, let me also give an unsolicited advice to PDP, Jonathan and Obasanjo their father on areas of concentration as they get ready for 2019. With the retirement of Tony Anenih ‘the fixer’ and Senator Mantu becoming a ‘born again’ politician, they should get answers ready for the following unresolved monumental stealing:

    Obasanjo, who recently dismissed Buhari’s government as “ineffective, incompetent and a failure’ inherited a total power capacity of 1500mw in 1999. He however promised Nigerians while inaugurating the Nigeria Integrated Power Project (NIPP) in 2001 that the scheme would add 10,000MW to the national grid before the end of his term in 2007 and hoped his successors would be driven with the same zeal and move the planned target up to 20,000MW by 2015. President Jonathan himself was to say later that any Nigerian with generator would by 2014 have no need for them. Unfortunately what both father and son bequeathed on Nigeria by 2015 was a meager 3117MW. Jonathan similarly never responded to two United Nations Special Rapporteurs’ November 2013 letter demanding accountability “for a total of $51billion sunk in Nigeria’s power sector over a period of 10 years.”

    In 2011 through acts of omission of Diezani Alison-Madueke, minister of petroleum and Ahmadu Alli, former chairman of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, a whopping N1.7 trillion was, according to House committee probe report, allegedly stolen by those with close links with PDP and government.

    Akinwunmi Adesina, as Minister of Agriculture confirmed during “Agbeloba’ Agro Business Forum 2013″ organised by Ekiti State government that “Nigerian leaders stole N776 billion out of N873 billion released for fertilizer subsidy between 1980 and 2010”. (PDP was in government for 11 of those 30 years).

    There was also the ‘Oduahgate’ in which the minister of aviation was alleged to have approved an expenditure of $800,000 for a BMW armoured car whose market going price is $200,000.

    PDP and their father should also be reminded of EFCC’s claim that the rural electrification exercise “were used as conduit pipes with which funds of the Rural Electrification Agency were siphoned by the two houses” leading to misappropriation of over N10 billion of public funds. We can add for the benefit of those concerned the kerosene rip off through which President Jonathan’s trusted friends allegedly spent over N500b within four years purportedly on kerosene subsidy.

  • Unmasking of Odigie-Oyegun

    John Odigie-Oyegun, the chairman of APC, is a man of many colours. To his admirers, he is ‘a purist, a democrat, a strategist; and a tactician, adept in political engineering. But many of his critics will swear, he is a ‘weak, unprincipled, ‘come and chop’ politician. If you ask Itse Sagay, he will not hesitate to tell you that “the leadership of APC is comprised of not only most unprincipled group of people who are “encouraging and accepting rogues…but also of appeasers set to destroy the party because they are weak and unable to confront evil”.

    With President Buhari’s last week rejection of tenure elongation for Odigie-Oyegun, and his National Working Committee (NWC), the sun finally appears set for a man whose politics like those of other military-created ‘new breed politicians’ is defined by divide and rule tactics. Buhari seems to have finally seen through the political subterfuge of Oyegun who after failing to hold congress or conduct elections for three years now cites impending “party elections, second set of elections of governmental aspirants, other Houses of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate, governorship and so on”, as justification for term elongation which, according to the president is not only undemocratic but a breach of APC as well as the country’s constitutions.

    It must be remembered that Odigie-Oyegun was a military creation. Following the vacuum created in the bureaucracy by Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo ‘bureaucratic cleansing’ when they took over power in 1975, Oyegun became one of the nation’s youngest permanent secretary at 37 and after only 13 years in service. His fortune has been on the rise ever since. He went on to become the governor of Edo State in 1992 under Babangida’s ill-fated third republic, ANPP chairman at the onset of the fourth republic, and APC chairman in 2014.

    For several weeks after APC’s 2015 victory, secured by a coalition of political parties led by Tinubu’s ACN and Buhari’s CPC, with disparate world views, Oyegun sat back to enjoy the vicious battle for spoils of war by the coalition parties.  The meeting of APC’s elected senators with Buhari fixed for the morning of inauguration of senate presidency was seen by many as part of the political subterfuge. Bukola Saraki, who first claimed not to have been informed of the meeting, later confessed hiding inside a small car, parked in front of the Senate building for over three hours to ensure his fellow 51 APC senators fully settled down for a meeting with the president in another venue before sneaking into the Senate chambers where he was proclaimed Senate President by predominantly PDP senators.

    Treachery within a political party, a cult-like association to which you either belong or not, are unpardonable. But rather than use the big stick to discipline Saraki for his perfidy, Oyegun opted for what Professor Itse Sagay described as policy of appeasement. According to him   “John Odigie-Oyegun and one Bolaji Abdullahi, Saraki’s Man Friday are appeasers … dinning with the devil who will destroy the party”.

    Tinubu, a leading member of the coalition that brought Buhari to power, for insisting on party supremacy, was demonized by Oyegun who in turn impressed it on politically naïve President Buhari that the remedy for eye problem was not eye removal.  A chasm was thus created between Buhari, Tinubu and the Senate. Oyegun was to become the sole beneficiary of the rift between the executive, the Senate and the party leadership at the national level.

    Beyond irreconcilable disagreement between the leadership of the party at the national level, the party soon descended into chaos in about 12 states of the federation. Kano which gave President Buhari the highest vote in 2015 is in turmoil over ego battle between Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, his predecessor in office while party followers that look up to the leadership for direction are in disarray. In Kaduna, where there are two factions of APC, el-Rufai, is locked in a battle of wits with Senator Shehu Sani, his most vocal critic. Just as in Kaduna, there are also two factions of APC in Gombe where disagreement over the 2015 primaries lingers on. In Borno State, Senator Abu Kyari governorship ambition was said to be the cause of the rift between him and Governor Kashim Shettima. In Bauchi, there is no love lost between Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Governor Mohammed Abubakar. In Ondo State, the rift between Akeredolu backed by Oyegun and Abraham backed by Bola Tinubu during the last election is yet to be bridged. In Kogi State where the governor is at war with Senator Melaye, Tony Momoh-led fact finding and reconciliation committee’s 300 page report has not been able to secure peace.

    With the party in disarray under Oyegun, President Buhari, serially betrayed, first by military politicians who deposed and imprisoned him for over three years for implementing a junta’s joint decision, and by politicians who abandoned him in the trenches to haggle for political appointments from victorious PDP, was driven to the embrace of his trusted “cousins and nephews’ who unfortunately do not share his pro-Nigeria sentiments.

    With the fortune of APC, with or without Buhari at stake in 2019, President Buhari appointed Bola Tinubu, the rejected corner stone to reconcile the warring APC factions. Giving a brief on what led to his appointment by Buhari, Tinubu recalled that “since the (2015) elections, there have been allegations of self-induced crisis resulting from merchandising of internal processes. We all must agree that the party was bound to suffer growing pains but not to the extent of losing part of the substantial goodwill that brought us to power.”

    But Oyegun doesn’t seem to bother about the squandering of the goodwill of APC supporters as long as he is in control. If we needed further evidence, Tinubu’s allegation that Oyegun breached ‘promised unalloyed support for {his} mission’ was all that was needed. Tinubu went on to add “Unfortunately, the spirit of understanding and of cooperative undertaking to revive the party seems not to have lived beyond the temporal confines of that meeting. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of the APC.”

    And finally, it has become difficult to make a distinction between APC and PDP once widely derided as a party of looters by the former. Although Oyegun proclaimed publicly while welcoming senators Florence Ita-Giwa and Marc Wabara to APC that “APC is not for integrity-challenged politicians currently within the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’, he has gone on to praise Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State who has been facing EFCC charges for alleged corruption since the end of his tenure in 2007 “for making APC vibrant in the south-eastern part of the country.” He has welcomed with open hands, senators Musliu Obanikoro, Jim Nwobodo and many other former PDP stalwarts facing EFCC charges, creating in the process, credibility crisis for the president and the party.

    For many, it is a relief, that Oyegun, the master of political subterfuge who poses as a democrat has finally been unmasked. His quest for tenure elongation for himself and his executive officers across the 36 states of the federation would have meant tenure extension of all elected officials comprising the president, governors, and national and state assembly members.

    It is however a sad commentary on the true character of Nigerian political class, whether APC or PDP, that it has taken a converted democrat like President Buhari who would have been a major beneficiary of tenure elongation  and much persecuted Bola Tinubu, a committed democrat, to show that  Oyegun and some governors led by Rochas Okorocha, the chairman of APC governors forum who has been busy collecting signatories from political appointees to endorse his son-in-law as APC candidate in Imo State, are not different from other anti-democratic military-created new breed politicians such as Tom Ikimi and Tony Anenih, who in 1993 jointly supported the military to derail Babangida’s  eight years of fraudulent transition programme.

  • Danjuma’s belated rebellion

    Open grazing, Miyyeti Allah say with a foreboding finality, is not just the culture of Fulani, it is also their hobby. That non-negotiable position immediately forecloses

    ranching, which represents the world’s best practices as an option.  But open grazing in a multi-ethnic society is an invitation to conflict especially between subsistence farmers and herdsmen. Confrontation between AK-47 riffle-wielding herdsmen who value the life of a cow to that of a man and poor subsistence farmers protecting their farms  with bare hands have led to a harvest of deaths especially among the farmers in recent years.

    To forestall further clashes and the attendant mindless killings, some states passed anti-open grazing laws. The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) however was reported as insisting such states laws could not be implemented until after such states have provided ranches for herdsmen. The killings continue across the states with the police and the army unable to apprehend the marauders who openly graze their cattle on captured territories. The president appealed for calm while admonishing the aggrieved to be accommodating of settlers in their midst. But the nation remains under siege by those many believe are not even Nigerians who have turned the country to a killing field. And while the nation, according to Professor Wole Soyinka, an elder statesman, had expected President Buhari to “give orders that the bloodthirsty terrorists are brought to book, what the nation got was a president showing up at the arena of human desecration to shed unjust tears.”

    But President Buhari who often wrongly equates his righteousness with effective governance also seems not to be listening to anyone outside his cult of trusted allies. Earlier, precisely on January 29, Amnesty International issued a statement claiming “The Nigerian authorities’ response to communal violence is totally inadequate, too slow and ineffective, and in some cases unlawful. They revealed that “Clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Ondo and Kaduna have resulted in 168 deaths in January 2018 alone”. There have been several deaths between then and now.

    Last week, the usual taciturn retired General Theophilus Danjuma, former Minister of Defence joined the growing list of concerned Nigerians who fear our country is heading for a shipwreck. While describing what is “happening in Taraba and other states as ethnic cleansing’ which needed to be stopped if we are to prevent the nation from the fate of Somalia, he called on “Nigerians, to be alert to defend their country and their territories, because they have nowhere to go”. Danjuma went further to allege that the armed forces, by colluding and facilitating “the movement of those who kill Nigerians, are not neutral”.

    In the face of government’s apparent helplessness, Danjuma’s call on the people to defend themselves as provided for in our constitution can hardly be faulted. Rather than a call to arms, I think it is a challenge to the states that often wait on federal government for everything to set up vigilante groups which can be supported by underfunded police formations in their states with contributions from their state security votes as Lagos State first did with LASTMA. Besides, a  call from taciturn Danjuma to  taciturn Buhari who listens to no one but a small circle of his trusted confidants who we now know do not necessarily share his pan Nigeria passion, may be a wakeup call from his deep slumber.

    But far more important is Danjuma’s reference to the betrayal of the country by the military. Danjuma is eminently qualified to speak on the Nigerian military that often fraudulently claim to sacrifice their present for our future. The recent attempt by the army spokesman to debunk Danjuma’s allegation of army collusion with those who harbour anti-Nigeria agenda is not supported by facts of history the military whether now nor in the past has never been neutral observers on the issues of Nigerian politics.

    The Nigerian military from the onset was a colonial specially crafted sectional apparatus for power and domination. It was no surprise therefore that by 1961, just one year after independence, it became a tool used by the northern ruling political elite to suppress the legitimate aspiration of the oppressed Tivs for self-actualization.

    In 1962, the military stood by as the First Republic Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, and his NPC used a group of thugs to effectively abridge the progress of the Western Region. In 1964, the so-called custodian of our constitution watched Balewa’s NPC award itself over 23 million votes out of total votes of 23.6 million without forgetting to allocate 4,863 and 1,103 votes to (AG) and NCNC respectively. The military stood by the fraud in the constitutional crisis between Prime Minister Balewa and President Azikiwe that followed.

    In July 1966, when an armed northern mob in military uniform protesting over the killing of northern military officers and political leaders during the Igbo-inspired January 1966 coup, Major Danjuma, capitalising on the fact that there were only 50 Yoruba soldiers out of 500 based in Ibadan and 26 out of a battalion based in Abeokuta selected the most able loyal northern to replace Major General Aguiyi Ironsi’s normal guards. And thereafter told him with bravado “you are under arrest; you organized the killings of our brothers in January… you will answer for your action”. Ironsi and Fajuyi, his chief hosts were later shot. Except Murtala Muhammed who was bent on northern secession and sinking of Lagos with a dynamite, the other main actors in the July vengeance coup that led to the death of over 200 military officers include Danjuma, Gowon and Martin Adamu and a number of other  middle belters have often tried to be more northerner than the northerners. Although, they all claimed to have been driven by patriotism, but we have no evidence such patriotic zeal was driven by altruism since they were all richly rewarded for their pains with Gowon with over 11 senior military officers ahead of him becoming Head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and Danjuma becoming one of the nation’s best army chief who went on to make huge personal fortune from the state.

    In 1993, when the most credible election in our country won by MKO Abiola was annulled on behalf of Fulani Hausa north, according to Babangida. The dirty job was executed by Ibrahim Babangida, Joshua Dongoyaro, late John Shagaya, Jeremiah Useni and David Mark, all from the now-besieged middle belt region. And when the military under Babangida and Abacha degenerated to “an army of anything is possible” and  became an instrument for creating more states, more LGAs and foisting of  a unitary constitution on Nigeria in 1998,Danjuma and his middle belt officers worked tirelessly for their northern natural leaders.

    General Abacha, the maximum ruler sustained his war against the Yoruba and by extension Nigeria with some help from Danjuma who for his pains got an oil block.  Danjuma was also a pillar of support for Obasanjo during his ‘mainstreaming’ war against Yoruba.

    Middle Belt’s current political leaders in deference to their Hausa/Fulani natural leaders but in total betrayal of their illustrious forbears, have always been violently opposed to restructuring and state police. Ex-Governor Gabriel Suzwan narrowly escaped death during an ambush by herdsmen. David Mark as Senate President for eight years only shed crocodile tears each time scores of his people got killed. Chief Audu Ogbe, Minister for Agriculture is the chief exponent of ‘cattle colonies’ in Middle Belt and southern states for whom the  argument of those who believe the uncharted Sambisa forest said to be six times the size of Lagos state is a better alternative count for little.

    With the exception of Danjuma’s current belated rebellion, the restructuring battle for which Middle Belt’s illustrious forbears fought and died holds no attraction for current leaders. The potential for integration into the northern ruling caste through political appointments, business connections or by marriage has become a more rewarding option.

  • Police tales of herdsmen exploits

    Police as a vital state institution often defines a society. The orderliness our people experience in Britain, their second home is but a reflection of the British trust in their police, a trust earned by its ability to draw a balance between public safety, social order and individual liberty and freedom. But back home, Nigerians have faith neither in her police that behave like an army of occupation, nor in in our politicians who seem to live on the blood of the people. Unfortunately, rather than address the national question which often defines identity and loyalty, we have chosen to play the ostrich by embarking on fruitless subliminal crusade with campaign line such as “the police is your friend”.

    This perhaps explains why we today carry a burden of ill-trained, ill-mannered and overworked and underpaid disgruntled police force that is answerable  not to the state but ethnic groups and powerful individuals including criminals. People’s police, as we have in Britain, many have argued, can only emerge from community policing which our successive leaders since the end of the civil war have opposed because of a mind-set of control as we had under the military or mainstreaming, as we have under PDP and APC.

    Unfortunately, rather than interrogate reasons for the failure of successive Inspectors General of Police (IGPs) since the birth of the Fourth Republic, the House of Representative last week passed a resolution calling on President Buhari to sack the IGP Ibrahim Idris, over his “lack of capacity” to address security challenges in the country, particularly the killings by herdsmen in Benue State.

    If our lawmakers are sincere, they know no IGP, even if he comes from the moon, can successfully tackle our security challenges with the police as currently structured. This is not because Idris’ appointment, like those of his predecessors, was not based on merit or that he has had to study the president’s body language before appearing before lawmakers to echo the president sentiments about peaceful coexistence without justice. According to him, “to reduce the incidence of clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria, state governments should endeavour to establish grazing ranches in their various states before enacting laws to prohibit open rearing and grazing”. He concluded by insisting, “It is when grazing ranches are established that herders can be arrested and punished for rearing and grazing on the open places.”

    A structure that sustains an IGP’s arrogance in selectively determining which states laws to implement cannot effectively address states’ security challenges.  This is why it has been tales after tales from Idris and his police even as killings of innocent Nigerian continue in many of the states.

    Only last Friday, there was a report of “five persons in Ughoha and Odiguete communities, in the Esan South-East and the Ovia North-East Local Government Areas of Edo State, who were said to have been ambushed by suspected herdsmen who opened fire on them and later invaded the community shooting sporadically, killing two persons in the process. From the picture painted, the alleged unimaginative killer headsmen that attacked their host community could only have escaped with their cattle with the help of the police.

    The previous  Wednesday,  we were told of how about 500 suspected Fulani herdsmen in military fatigue, wielding AK-47 assault rifles arrived to lay waste communities in Dekina and Omala Local Government Areas of Kogi State. They vanished into the thin air after killing 32 and torching 20 houses.  Again but for the confirmation by the Deputy Commissioner of Police Monday Bala during a press conference, the incident itself sounded like a police tale of no arrest and no clue as to the whereabouts of the killers.

    And if the attack was a reprisal for a 2016 altercation that led to the death of four Fulani herdsmen and an unspecified number of cattle, according to a resident, what did the Nigerian police do to bring perpetrators to book?  Or did they just wait for aggrieved victims to return for their own pound of flesh while they looked the other way?

    More intriguing was the herdsmen attack in Kogi State. This is a state whose governor, Yahaya Bello only in February donated 15,000 hectares of land for the controversial federal government’s cattle colony policy. Of course only Idris and his men who call themselves Nigerian Police by virtue of uniform they wear, have an answer as to why the suspected herdsmen chose to shoot themselves in the leg by attacking their trusted ally.

    The herdsmen’s attack and killing of 23 in Plateau State, another trusted ally is no less intriguing. As in character, the police including the DSS, the grassroot operators, heard nothing, saw nothing and did nothing. Even the 23 bodies recovered at Mararaba Dare, shortly before Rafiki Village on Wednesday, March 14, was done by the military.

    Similarly, in spite of many leads that could have led to the unravelling of notorious killers that feast on their hosts, it has all been tales after tales from the Idris and his men.

    It will be recalled that at the first General Assembly of the Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace in Abuja, the Sultan of Sokoto as patron of Miyetti Allah had urged the federal government to go after perpetrators of the herdsmen killings, while assuring Nigerians “We will never condone anybody taking up arms to kill innocent citizens.” This was long before the latest round of mindless killings in Benue, Taraba, Plateau and Kogi states. The Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II at the same conference challenged the police to unravel the sources of “AK-47carried by herdsmen in full public glare, where the arms came from and who is arming them”.

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar also issued a statement only on March 11, claiming – “Labelling the attackers as Fulani is wrong. Fulani people are peaceful and live in harmony with other ethnicities. To call the killer herdsmen Fulani is a misnomer”. Unfortunately so far no one has been prosecuted by Idris and his men to validate or invalidate Atiku’s thesis.

    Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna not too long ago also told us that killer herdsmen “are non-Nigerian Fulani from Niger, Mali, Chad and other such places”. He was also reported as saying some amount of money was paid to the marauders to stop the attack on his people. Without looking at the merits and demerits of his initiative, this was a lead that could also have led to the unraveling of the herdsmen’s mystery of killing, and confiscation of farmlands of victims by killers who, according to police tales, disappear into the thin air after each round of mindless killings.

    And finally if IGP Idris and his Nigerian police talebearers needed  further lead, Governor Ortom provided that when he called the attention of the president during his last visit to Benue: the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore May 30, 2017 ‘World Press Conference’ held in Abuja, where they expressed opposition to Benue  ranching law and ‘called on Fulani herders in all of West Africa to come into Benue to help them reclaim their land’; the Miyetti Allah Cattle Herders Association’s press conference where they ‘declared that more blood will flow in Benue if the ranching law is not rescinded’. Blood has not ceased flowing ever since and there is no evidence Idris and his men have questioned any of these arrogant Fulani leaders despite denunciation of their pronouncements and actions by credible Fulani leaders like the Sultan and Atiku Abubakar.

  • Senators’ earnings as mere symptoms

    Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, back in 2010, as CBN governor was the first to alert the nation of the danger the consumptive pattern of a National Assembly that cornered 25% of the national budget posed to the well-being of Nigerians and the growth of the economy. The National Assembly denied Sanusi’s claim but for over seven years refused to make public the breakdown of its budget despite public demand for transparency.

    We have however now been told that our senators, widely rumoured as the highest paid lawmakers in the world, only earn a modest N750,000, monthly and another N13.5m to be receipted for. Individual senators, we also now know, presides over how N200m constituency projects are executed annually.  Credit for these facts goes to Senator Shehu Sani, a very credible source whose claim that President Buhari was fighting corruption among his close allies with deodorant while using insecticides to wage the same crusade among his political foes was validated when the president, after initial vacillation was forced to sack Babachir Lawal, his secretary to government who was to be later recommended for prosecution over alleged corruption and abuse of office.

    But long before Shehu Sani finally laid to rest the controversy surrounding what our lawmakers pay themselves, suspended House of Representative Appropriation Committee chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin had revealed  the 2016 budget was inflated by as much as N4b to fund constituency projects of members. However, his allegation that principal officers of the lower house including the Speaker, benefitted from such illegal diversion, did not throw much light on what the lawmakers pay themselves. Jibril himself suffered from credibility deficit as his allegations came after his suspension over his committee’s alleged unilateral removal or diversion of budgeted funds for Lagos-Calabar coastal railway.

    That what the lawmakers pay themselves was shrouded in secrecy was not the only source of worry to Nigerians. Consensuses among all those who have dealings with the upper and lower houses seem to confirm the two as houses of deals. Minister Raji Fashola disclosed how allocations in the 2017 budget to important federal projects including the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which is critical to the development of the economy was slashed to accommodate lawmakers’ constituency borehole projects. President Buhari had also taken his frustration with the lawmakers to the court of public opinion by calling attention to how, in spite of his advice, the lawmakers frittered away public funds on state of the art expensive toys even after collecting personal car loans often retired through earned allowances. And finally, worried by the level of larceny going on the National Assembly, ex-President Obasanjo who was instrumental to the removal of about three senate presidents in quick succession over corruption charges described our legislators as ‘armed robbers’. Of course Obasanjo, now out of office should, from the benefit of hindsight, know better. He is not expected to have kind words for those who during his administration, deployed the instrumentality of government policy thrust to defraud the nation,  derail his energy sector reforms as well as the rural electrification contracts which they awarded to their own companies.

    But no matter how much we rail against thieving members of the National Assembly, they are mere symptoms of our crisis of nationhood. The fundamental question we have failed to address is why members of the governing elite have waged endless war against Nigeria since 1962. Since studies have shown people are indifferent and in fact work for the collapse of a system in which they have no stake, the most plausible explanation is lack of faith in Nigeria as a corporate entity by Nigerian critical stakeholders. Ahmadu Bello’s “the mistake of 1914 has come to play” following disagreement over Enahoros 1953 motion for “independence in 1956” more than captured this. And before him, Obafemi Awolowo had also admitted Nigeria was a geographical expression while Balewa was to later describe Nigeria as a British intention. In other words, Nigeria was nothing but an idea, first nurtured by the colonial masters and later by representative of nationalities that own the space described as Nigeria. But our ill-informed and ill-educated military thought the structural blocks designed to build the Nigerian nation were the problems and decreed them out of existence. Unfortunately, 60 years after the death of an idea, the military as represented by retired Generals Obasanjo and Buhari and their fronts – the major beneficiaries of the current anarchy, have continued to confuse symptoms with the fundamental cause of our crisis of nationhood.

    Their fraudulent claim we can literarily climb the palm tree from the top by imposing a nation on nationalities without first resolving the fundamental issue of how the nationalities want to live together, probably explains why, every emerging new set of the parasitic ruling elite, loyal to none but themselves, is often worse than the one preceding it.  For instance, as if they were not called upon to serve the nation, the 1999 set insisted on recouping funds they expended on fighting elections. The David Mark/Ekweremadu that followed supervised free looting of the nation with Mark going to court to defend his immoral confiscation of the senate presidential mansion for an amount EFCC alleged was far below market price of the structure.

    The Saraki/Ekweremadu set holds no pretence to any form of morality. Those who by their own accounts literarily sold off the victory of their party cannot be said to be driven by any lofty ideals or loyalty to the state. That they have resolutely stood against government’s pro-Nigeria policies in the last three years  more than demonstrate they are in office to serve none but themselves. The Senate’s spokesperson, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi has even tried to justify the scandalous N13.5m senators’ monthly running costs by claiming “almost all holders of elective or appointive office have running costs allocated to their offices”  without citing where else in the world whether in a democracy or dictatorship  such practice is sustained.

    Thieving members of the executive, lawmakers or ‘armed robbers’, as Obasanjo calls them, or supreme courts judges that trade in justice as well as the compromised members of the fourth estate of the realm, are not the sources of our nation’s nightmare.  They are all symptoms of a state as an orphan.

    The truth is that we are today back to 1962 when those who had no faith in Nigeria seized the country. A clear evidence of this is the recent APC response to clamour for the restructuring of the country. The recommendation by its committee on restructuring headed by Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State that ‘indigene-ship’ be replaced with residency or citizenship in a federal constitution is a reinforcement of an old policy that has been successfully used for the pacification and assimilation of all the Hausa-conquered territories in the north. It is also a policy whose covert implementation in the unconquered Middle Belt territories has resulted in social dislocations among a people that are being prevented from taking their own destinies in their own hands.  APC’s ploy is nothing but another name for the military and its PDP political arm’s failed ‘mainstreaming’ gamble.

    Finally, modelling Nigeria, inhabited by unconquered nationalities that cherish and celebrate their different cultures and values after America, a nation conquered through force of arms by adventurers and criminals from Europe, amounts to intellectual fraud. If there is a lesson to be learnt at all, it has to be from our European colonial masters who, based on their own long history of internal strife and two devastating world wars, had advised us on path to peaceful co-existence, a path we traded for mainstreaming in 1962.

  • Of awards by media umpires

    Of awards by media umpires

    Temporary power holders in Nigeria wishing to humour themselves have in recent years found an unusual ally in the media, often, like everywhere else, captive of those who have taken more than their own disproportionate share of national resources. The media, although constitutionally empowered as an integral part of the political process to hold government accountable and interpret its policies for the benefit of the governed, has in recent years traded this role for a more rewarding business of giving awards to highest bidders. Many have therefore argued that it is fraudulent to claim the media, owned and controlled directly by those in power or by their allies and proxies who daily assault our sensibilities with their warped view of society, is a free market place of ideas

    We have since 1985 been under assault of a section of the media that want Nigerians to see only their own reality. While Babangida for instance, destroyed all the values we once held sacred, according to Chief Obasanjo, derailed our political socialization process, destroyed  the economy by turning our nation to importers of labour of other societies, he was celebrated and crowned ‘the Prince of the Lower Niger’. He and his wife acquired awards after awards from various institutions topping it up with that of Fellowship of the Nigerian Economic Society, ostensibly for his economic wizardry even as he planted the root of today’s economic woes.

    The strings of awards of his successor, General Sani Abacha, the maximum ruler who history has shown was a common thief for stacking away billions of Nigeria’s foreign earnings in foreign banks, encouraged his supporters to humour him by claiming without him there would be no Nigeria. They assailed and assaulted us with their song of “Abacha today, Abacha tomorrow and Abacha forever”.

    At the birth of the fourth republic in 1999, Obasanjo topped his own numerous awards with that of ‘the father of the nation and founder of modern Nigeria’ courtesy of his PDP. It was however during the Obasanjo administration that managers of the media decided to extend the high rewarding business of media awards to government fronts and other generous givers in the business community. Two of the leading bankers that got awards after awards from the media and other clowning institutions at that period can be identified as Cecilia Ibru, former CEO of Oceanic Bank, who after plead bargaining over 25 counts of fraud and mismanagement, was sentenced to six months in prison for fraud and ordered to hand over $1.2bn (£786m) in cash and assets and, Erastus Akingbola, of Intercontinental Bank, indicted by the British judicial system while he is still trying to defend his integrity in Nigeria courts.

    In recent weeks, there has been a gale of awards targeted at politicians. New Telegraph, The Sun and Silverbird Television, featured Ayo Fayose, Nyesom Wike and Bukola Saraki, as their role models during their recent different outings.

    Dr. Bukola Saraki, who back in 2015 traded off the victory of his party to become Senate President went home with the “Outstanding Politician of the Year Award” for “brazing all odds and against a strong and formidable opposition from within his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to emerge President of the 8th Senate in June 2015”. Ayo Fayose of Ekiti, a man who according the EFCC received N3b from Jonathan administration to influence his election as governor, who mobilized thugs to chase out of town 19 elected members of his state House of Assembly, a man who supervised the beating up of a judge presiding over his case in his court premises and a governor who is owing several months in workers’ salary arrears was nominated for the ‘Silverbird ‘man of the people award’. Wike, his friend and co- owner of PDP who had with his firm control of militants made Rivers State ungovernable for Rotimi Amaechi his godfather  before riding to power by unleashing terror on his fellow compatriots was nominated for the Silverbird Television star award –‘The governor of the year’ – ‘for embarking on a massive infrastructure development in Rivers State’.

    Before his latest record breaking 2016 Sun Newspaper Award as the governor of the year for the second year running, Wike was also the Daily Independent newspaper 2016 ‘Governor of the year’, “for defying the recession and breaking new grounds in infrastructure and human resources development in Rivers State”. Then more honours followed with Wike carting home the New Telegraph Man of the Year, 2017, Leadership Newspaper Governor of the Year 2017 and Independent Newspaper Political Icon of the Year 2017 awards respectively”.

    Not even the Nigeria Guild of Editors could ignore Wike’s magic. In a communiqué issued after its meeting in Port Harcourt, it commended Wike “not only for economic development but also for the steps he has taken to improve the state of security in Rivers.’

    However, our umpires-turned cheerful award donors conveniently failed to point out that Rivers as an oil producing state earns in one month what some non-oil producing states cannot earn in a year. It is also curious how these bodies concluded that by bringing peace and stability to Rivers, Wike who as leader and mobiliser of militants and local touts made Rivers State ungovernable for Rotimi Amaechi, his godfather, is deserving of awards for reining in his boys.

    And finally, as it is often said in this business, ‘the medium is the message’. A critical look at the forces behind the award spinning media houses might provide an insight as to what weight to attach to the new wave of awards for Wike, Fayose and Saraki.

    Daily Independent is owned by South-south Chief James Ibori, the former Delta State governor who was let off the hook by an Asaba High court for allegation of monumental corruption and impoverisation of his people but indicted and jailed for the same offence by the British judicial system. He recently returned home to a massive reception by his people after serving his term.

    The New Telegraph and the Daily Sun are owned by Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State who has been facing EFCC charges of corrupt enrichment since he left office on 2007. He was again in 2016 dragged to court by EFCC over alleged N3.2b fraud.

    South-south Senator Ben Murray Bruce, the owner of Silverbird Television was a successful business man before his brief service in government which probably encouraged him to contest for a Senate seat in 2014.  However, The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) was in June 2016 reported to have taken over the assets of his Silverbird Galleria Limited, Silverbird Promotions Limited and Silverbird Showtime Limited appointing Muiz Banire as receiver/manager following an interim court order over N11b debt. Kunle Adegoke, an attorney working for Muiz Banire, the debt recovery manager appointed by AMCON was reported to have said: “It must be borne in mind that innocent depositors money is what the common sense propagator and his brothers have been living large and feeding fat upon without the recourse to the interest of the real labourers who own the money”.

    While chieftains of award churning media outfits by their ongoing travails have not committed any crime, the baggage they carry however raises questions not only about the value of their awards, but also questions the propriety of their decision to set standard of behaviour for Nigerians.

  • Dapchi as failure of leadership

    Dapchi as failure of leadership

    Governments exist primarily for the protection of lives and properties of the governed. Sadly in spite of President Buhari’s giant strides in his crusade against corruption, revamping of the economy and ending the nation’s drift after 16 years of impunity, the February 19 carting away of 110 students of Government Girls’ Science Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, in 11 trucks by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in military fatigues, was but a confirmation that all that has been going on  either in Abuja or Damaturu, Yobe State, were nothing but motion without movement with little or no governance

    The president decision to beg the traumatised parents of the abducted girls was at least an admission that the buck stops at his table. However, his description of Dapchi as tragedy  while the April 14, 2014 abduction of 214 Chibok schoolgirls which formed part of the President 2015 campaign promises was yet to be resolved and on the heels of  an ongoing mindless killing  and sacking of communities by suspected Fulani herdsmen across the country, as ‘a national disaster’ was an understatement. It was a national embarrassment, or as Isha Sesay of CNN puts it – “a national disgrace”.

    Both President Buhari and Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State should be held responsible for the Dapchi tragedy. It was all about failure of leadership. This often finds expression in absence of governance. By governing with a mind-set of an emir while delegating governance to his unelected aides that from their actions and pronouncements, are widely believed to harbour anti-Nigeria agenda, the president has betrayed the nation. Yobe’s Gaidam, like his predecessors in office was also until recently opposed to state and community policing. This reactionary mind-set cannot be said to be borne out of a desire to safeguard the interest of the governed in Yobe State.

    A people that fail to learn from history, as the Chinese say, will be punished by history. Apparently not much lesson has been learnt from the failure of ex-President Jonathan by the Buhari administration if anything, criticism of his handling of the Chibok tragedy as it has now turned out, was an excuse for in-effective governance. It has now taken a government that blamed its failure to rescue all the Chibok girls on Jonathan’s foot-dragging within the first 24 hours of the Chibok tragedy, several days before “urging Nigerians, including the rural dwellers who might have information that could lead to the location of the girls, to bring such information to the attention of the military authorities?” But Nigerians would want to know the measures put in place by the minister of internal affairs and his counterpart, in defence to protect the girls’ school – a soft target for Boko Haram insurgents in the north? What happened to the DSS officials whose duties were to carry out covert activities for other security arms? Where were the police and military joint checkpoints when 11 trucks laden with priceless Dapchi girls sped through our ‘borderless’ borders to Niger far away from Nigerian territory we were told was secured a long time ago?

    The military has also denied Governor Ibrahim Gaidam’s allegation that “prior to the attack, the army units stationed in Dapchi and Bayamari towns were removed”. But I think the military owes their commander-in-chief and by extension Nigerians, an explanation on why a military formation located only 30 kilometres from the scene of the tragedy needed the president’s directive several days later before sending “more troops and surveillance aircraft to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found?”

    If indeed there was anyone in charge before the tragedy, why did we need to resort to our usual ‘fire-brigade’ approach by declaring after the tragedy that “henceforth, the police and the Civil Defence Corps will ensure that their presence is strong in every school to serve as a deterrent to the insurgents?”

    Babagana Monguno, the National Security Adviser (NSA) who announced deployment of 100 jet fighters to search for the missing girls eight days after the tragedy and  constituted a committee with  membership from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Police, Department of State Services (DSS); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) “to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction”, should have done that two years back to forestall the Dapchi tragedy.  Monguno who lives in an analogue age has no business in modern government. And indeed if there is any form of governance going on in Abuja, he and others that have failed the nation ought to have by now tendered their letters of resignation if the president will not fire them.

    Similarly, the protection of lives and properties of the governed in spite of the constraints of our imperfect constitution is the core responsibility of elected governors. Unfortunately, with the exception of Lagos and a handful of others, many other state governors behave like parasites collecting huge allocations in addition to security votes from Abuja and turn around to blame the centre for their security challenges. That Governor Ibrahim Gaidam and his entourage were stoned by traumatised parents of the abducted girls was not just a vote of no confidence in his government, but sufficient proof that the governed also know their real enemies.

    It is on record that since the death of Ahmadu Bello, the revered northern premier in 1966, nearly all northern governors have continued to oppose community and state policing. Many observers believe the only plausible explanation for this reactionary mind-set in an age when community policing has been adjudged as ideal for fighting municipal crimes and securing communities, is probably the desire of northern minority rulers to guarantee easy passage for their fellow Fulani cattle-grazing compatriots who live across Nigeria’s borders and who often become important variable during census, election and religious crisis that define Nigerian politics.

    They have cited the recent subtle support by some prominent northern emirs for herdsmen’s resistance to anti-grazing laws promulgated by some states. There was also the recent threat by the leadership of Miyetti Allah to invite Fulani herdsmen across West Africa to wage war on Nigeria if their demand for open grazing was not met. They have equally cited the case of an influential emir from the northeast who during the 2014 Confab told his colleagues during the debate on the national question that unlike them, he had an option of crossing over to join his fellow Fulani in northern Cameroon if Nigeria descended into chaos.

    Many informed Nigerians believe Dapchi tragedy could have been avoided if there had been community and state policing. It is not likely indigenes, unlike the military and the Nigeria police who are today trading blames after a monumental tragedy, would stand by and allow their daughters to be shipped away in 11 trucks by those who exhibit instincts worse than those of animals.

    Now the chicken has come home to roost. The nation is haunted by perfidy of those who allowed our nation to be infiltrated by jihadist in the guise of Fulani herdsmen. And more tragically, four weeks after an agreement between the Presidency, governors and lawmakers that state policing is the only answer to effective governance, beyond a consensus celebrated on pages of newspapers with howling headlines, there is no evidence any bill has been initiated.