The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • The new anti-corruption crusaders

    When the cat is abroad, the rats take charge of the homestead”.

    Dino Melaye, the Kogi West “Great Motivator of Students’, ‘Icon of Good Leadership’ and a man who freely celebrates his audacity, never does anything in half measures. We cannot easily forget the celebration of his victory over Sahara Reporters, his estranged friends that had accused him of parading himself in borrowed robes by laying claim to chain of degrees from ABU and other ivy universities across the globe. When the ethics committee of his Senate finally ruled he indeed obtain a third class degree in geography from ABU Zaria after other foreign universities had debunked his claim, he appeared in the Senate adorning a Ph.D academic gown as if ‘the cloak makes the monk’.

    Neither can one forget Melaye’s obsession with exotic cars.

    The launching of his book ‘Antidote for Corruption-the Nigeria story’, four days ago in Abuja was no exception. He had in attendance, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Yakubu Dogara, the House or Representative Speaker and the former First Lady, Patience Jonathan. There were also Anyim Pius Anyim, former Senate President and the erstwhile secretary to Jonathan and Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Productivity all of whom share something with their chief host and can best be described as victims of what Saraki has dismissed as Buhari’s misplaced war on corruption.

    Let us start with Ngige. He was as incumbent governor of Anambra State during President Obasanjo’s first term (1999-2003} kidnapped and locked up like a common criminal. His godfather, Chris Uba, a chieftain of PDP in Anambra had alleged Ngige reneged on his promise to share Anambra State monthly allocation with those who helped him to rig the election. He further alleged Ngige took an oath before the Okija shrine to abide with the deal.

    Patience Jonathan is in court trying to lay claim to some $15m traced to some accounts EFCC has asked her to disclose to the courts the sources the funds since she was only a civil servant and President’s spouse. Besides, she has been asked to explain the sources of the funding of some multi-billion properties and hotels linked to her in Abuja and Bayelsa.

    Then there was the Speaker Dogara who according to suspended  former chairman, Appropriation Committee Abdulmumin Jibrin  not only allegedly diverted a federal government water project to his farm but also allegedly blackmailed an unnamed construction company to work on his Asokoro new mansion.”  Jibrin’s suspension by the House has deprived the Speaker the opportunity of defending his honour. As for Anyim Pius Anyim, he was recently accused of ‘tricking President Jonathan to sign fraudulent multibillion-dollar Abuja Centenary Housing deal’.

    Of course, there was Saraki himself, the biggest masquerade once described by Melaye as the  “irremovable president of the Nigerian Senate”, “fighting pervasive corruption and incompetence in the Customs” on “behalf of the poor masses, the talakawas and the mekunus.”  It was his honour to dismiss Buhari’s anti-corruption war and propose 11 new approaches to fighting corruption.

    Well, with the new sheriff out of  town, confined  by illness to his sick bed in far way Great Britain, I think the choice of who is best suited to lead the new crusade between acting President Osinbajo and Saraki, is very clear. The former who’s only known weapon as a pastor is fervent prayers and perhaps some logic as a university professor which are in adequate as tools for political warfare in the murky water of Nigerian politics cannot be considered a match to Saraki, a veteran of many wars in the Nigerian zero-sum struggle for power. Let us look at a few examples.

    Saraki effortlessly shamed all the detractors that in 1990 accused him of involvement in an N9b fraud against Societe General, a bank in which his father had controlling shares in Nigeria. Then he survived Erastus Akingbola who, alleged Saraki’s multi-billion naira deals contributed to the collapse of his bank. Saraki similarly survived the hysteria of the people of Kwara, over the collapse of their Trade Bank during his tenure as governor.

    Then on the strength of ‘several petitions from various groups including  ‘Kwara Freedom Network’, all bordering on abuse of office, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering,  Saraki was again  dragged before the Code Of Conduct Tribunal for prosecution over “13 counts of false and anticipatory asset declaration. “. Michael Wetkas, a detective with EFCC told the tribunal how Saraki as governor allegedly diverted Kwara State government funds to pay loans he took to buy properties from Presidential Implementation Committee on Government Properties and some that were bought from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Now EFCC‘s case seems to be in tatters as the records of those transactions have been reported lost in a fire outbreak in the affected banks.

    Wetkas also told the tribunal that ‘Saraki collected salary as the governor of Kwara State for about four years after completing his second term in 2011’. But EFCC and Saraki detractors were shamed with the testimony of the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, who insisted Saraki was only collecting a pension of N578, 188.00 which increased to N1, 239,493.94 monthly from October, 2014 as other past governors in the country.

    Then an offshore dimension was introduced.  A German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, identified  four assets: Sandon Development Limited, a vehicle used in acquiring a property on 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia, London, in 2012;  Girol Properties Ltd, which was registered on August 25, 2004 (a year after Mrs. Saraki’s husband became governor of Kwara) in the British Virgin Island (BVI); Landfield International Developments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands on April 8, 2014, with  Mrs. Saraki as sole shareholder; and Longmeadow Holdings Limited.   Saraki has told Nigerians that all the properties belong to his wife and her famous family. His detractors are yet to tell us if it is a crime to be married to a rich and famous family. Shame to all of you, Saraki’s detractors.

    Now let us turn to all those  who have been raising false alarm claiming the war on corruption cannot be fought without Buhari and Magu starting with Itse Sagay who says  “Since Nuhu Ribadu left, we have not had a man with such sterling qualities as Ibrahim Magu”, or Palladium, who says “those who rejected him for the second time  knew he was the right man for the job, they knew they were putting down a public figure who seemed to have prepared for this job all his life, they knew it would be difficult to find someone so imbued with his kind type of commitment”.

    I think with the dazzling performance of Saraki and his new anti-corruption crusaders four days ago, they must swallow their words. Saraki has on behalf of his group canvassed not only for the dumping of Buhari’s approach which he claims was in favour of punishment rather than deterrence, but  also proffers a replacement which is aimed at ‘’Strengthening  accountability, limiting discretion in public spending and promoting  greater  openness”.

    Dear compatriots, victims of sardonic humour, behold Bukola Saraki, Dino Melaye, Yakubu Dogara, Patience Jonathan, Anyim Pius Anyim, our new anti-corruption crusaders.

  • GEJ’s chronicle of untruths

    An attempt to twist facts and colour reality by ex-President Jonathan in Segun Adeniyi’s book –  “Against the Run of Play’ has attracted a lot of fury from aggrieved Nigerians who grief over his attempt to hide under our military-incubated ‘new breed’s political culture –‘big men are above the law’, to assault the sensibilities of victims of his five years of corruption-ridden administration. Some have dismissed Jonathan’s chronicle of untruths as ‘an attempt at writing a revisionist history’ while The Punch has in an editorial dismissed it as “a potpourri of falsehoods, hypocrisy, and, lame excuses”

    The consolation however is that most Nigerians know who Jonathan Goodluck is and what he represents. The exceptions perhaps will be the likes of Chief Obasanjo who, with his control of awesome state apparatus of power was better placed to know the limitations of his godson but chose to impose him on Nigeria just as he did unprepared Shehu Shagari and ailing Umaru Yar’Adua probably out of deceit or mischief only to lament about a President Jonathan “overwhelmed by the weight of his office”. Jonathan, once described by the London Economist as the ‘most corrupt, most clueless government in Nigeria’s history” is a man who would stand by while others fight his battle, takes responsibility for nothing including his own follies  and always ready to play the victim. Thus it took his defeat by Buhari for him to realize he was caged all through his presidency by PDP, or that his defeat was engineered by Mu’azu, his party chairman, the Inspector General of Police (IG), Professor Attahiru Jega – the INEC chairman, who he claimed got additional help from western leaders such as David Cameron, former British Prime Minster, Francois Hollande of France and the former US President Barack Obama.

    Jonathan knew he lost the election before the first ballot was cast. The truth of the matter was that in the absence of those who had helped him fight his past battles, Jonathan, for once in his life, was forced to fight for himself. He started by first undermining the constitution of his party on zoning of which he had been a major beneficiary. He then shortly after publicly humiliating Obasanjo, his godfather, traded him for Chief Edwin Clark, his fellow Ijaw. He next deployed the leadership of the Ijaw militant groups he had empowered through award of multi-billion dollar contracts to unleash ‘verbal terrorism’ on the leadership of the Hausa Fulani as if the strategy was to win the presidency with only South-south and South- east votes. The Yoruba nation, he had marginalized for close to five years, waiting until the eve of the election to start moving from one Oba’s palace to the other with tons of dollars while ignoring the advice of Awujale of Ijebu Ode that Obas in Yoruba land cannot go against the wishes of their subjects. In Lagos, he introduced ethnicity, appealing to non-Yoruba resident in the state to vote for him and his party.

    Then Jonathan, who can at best be described as a campaign manager’s nightmare, went on to appoint those who had just secured bail from detention following a House probe that indicted them for defrauding the country to the tune of about N1.6trillion through the fuel subsidy scam.

    Of course Nigerians also understand why Jonathan cannot see any redeeming grace in Buhari’s current commitment to fighting corruption. Not too long ago, he had told Nigerians that ‘stealing government money is not corruption’. And with the help of ‘ogbologbo’ lawyer’ (apology to Obasanjo), he unconstitutionally and effortlessly removed Lamido Sanusi, the then CBN governor for alerting Nigerians of missing $20b from NNPC account.  Jonathan is also on record as having shielded ministers of aviation and petroleum, indicted at different times by House probe for financial malfeasance. Jonathan did not see anything wrong in authorizing import duty waivers that resulted in the loss of about N630b in government revenues to a few party faithful.

    Ex-President Jonathan and his family are not insulated. There was the report of an international judicial probe that claimed Nigerian government was defrauded to the tune of $1.1bn through the Malabu oil field scam. Jonathan was personally fingered by the report along with Adoke, his former Attorney General, Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum, Shell, Agip, and others.  In recent time, four companies were convicted for laundering Patience Jonathan’s $15.5m. The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders’(CACOL) is also demanding that  Patience Jonathan, a civil servant  must disclose the source of  the N10b she expended on her hotel- Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa, Yenagoa, inaugurated in April 2015.  Rather than address any of the above issues, Jonathan has chosen to accuse Buhari’s government of harassment of his family members.

    And finally, our hypocritical leaders who are now shedding crocodile tears, as well as many of our compatriots who often behave as if they are suffering from collective amnesia knew back in 2011, that PDP was a tragedy. The party had nothing to show for its 10 years of pillaging the country’s resources. It was on record that about 17 of the close to two dozen governors elected on the platform of PDP were in various courts defending their integrity.  Some serving PDP governors had been impeached for tampering with the finances of their states. And in case we have all forgotten, Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chair, only recently during a reception organized to mark Obasanjo’s 80th birthday confirmed that 99% of those arrested for corruption between 20003 and 2007 were PDP members.

    PDP in 2011 therefore had nothing to sell to Nigerians. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the shoeless PDP candidate the party presented was carrying his own baggage. The same Segun Adeniyi’s book has called our attention to a report by the US Ambassador in Nigeria that questioned Jonathan’s competence, made reference to his alleged sponsorship of militant groups as governor of Bayelsa and touched on the alleged seizure of huge sums of money in dollars from his wife by EFCC at the airport.

    Then our inimitable Sonala Olumhense in his syndicated article in many Nigerian newspapers warned that if we voted Jonathan, he would sell what is left of Nigeria to PDP. And that was exactly what Jonathan did. The only thing Olumhense did not envisage was the involvement of Jonathan’s wife and some of his family members in the buying up of what were left of our country.

    But one thing going for Jonathan is that he is a true son of his adopted fathers, Babangida and Obasanjo both of whom he regarded as role models. The two fathers and Jonathan, their only son share some parallels. The fathers took our country through a privatization programme that ended with the sharing of our national assets among some privileged elite. Jonathan, their beloved son also mismanaged the power sector.

  • Beyond the drama of recovered billions

    Left alone to face his own demons, ex-President Jonathan has gone through severe stress and stains in the past two years. He has had to account for the monumental looting of our national resources during his presidency. Some of our stolen funds, according to EFCC, have been traced to his aides, trusted ministers, governors and even his immediate family members. This development seems to have overshadowed his act of statesmanship in conceding defeat after the 2015 General Election despite Elder Orubebe and other PDP stalwarts’ resolve to pull the edifice down over their heads rather than allow power they had sworn to hold for 60 years slip away. If we forgot Jonathan’s huge sacrifice because of his current travails, some of his sympathisers have reminded us. First was Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto Catholic Archdiocese who reminded us that the nation owes Jonathan some respect for conceding defeat instead of behaving like his other African leaders who would rather turn their nations into a killing field than relinquish power after losing election. A few days ago, Col, Umar Kangiwa, former military governor of Kaduna State who along with embattled. Col. Sambo Dasuki sold Buhari to slippery Babangida during the night of long knives in 1985 also reminded us of Jonathan graceful exit.

    However, majority of Nigerians hold Jonathan responsible for the level of debauchery that took place during his presidency. First it was the $2.2b arms funds said to have been ferried in boxes under the watchful eyes of the current CBN governor, brought in to replace cantankerous and stiff Lamido Sanusi who had just then raised an alarm about missing $20b from NNPC account to the office of Dasuki, Jonathan’s National Security Adviser.

    The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has since asked Jonathan to explain to Nigerians what he “knew or had reason to know on the apparent diversion and sharing of over $2 billion meant for purchase of arms to fight Boko Haram.”.There was Diezani Alison-Madueke, his minister of petroleum who according to EFCC invested huge sums of money she allegedly pilfered from NNPC on properties in and outside Nigeria.  His closest confidants including t Babangida Aliu, the self-styled chief servant of Niger State that was dragged to court by EFCC two days ago over an alleged theft of N3billion are in various courts trying to defend their honour. Before then, huge sum of funds had been traced to Jonathan’s wife, cousin and other relatives.   Some N1b, $2m and 4m pounds suspected to be stolen funds were seized by EFCC between Buhari’s inauguration in May 2015 and Dec 2016. Following the introduction of government’s whistle blowing  policy, the haulage has been in droves with about  N145 b, $217m  and 2m pounds  raked in between December 2016 and April this year according to SB  Morgen Intelligence.

    But shoeless, ex-President Jonathan, in spite of the haulage of these huge sums of loose is funds is just a symptom of our problem. The rain started beating us long before he became President. All Jonathan, who admitted he was caged by PDP all through his presidency did, was to build on the legacies of his predecessors beginning with General Babangida, the man he described as his ‘father’ and General Obasanjo who he once described as the third greatest influence on his life after God and his biological father. These two leaders should be held responsible for our current nightmare. They presided over systematic sales of our national assets and sharing of a national patrimony, handed over to Balewa, Zik and Awo by the departing colonial masters which they in turn preserved for our children.

    Our nightmare started with IBB who along with his military prefects sold off many of our once viable companies covering hospitality, pharmaceutical beverages and other industries to themselves and their fronts sometimes at less than the cost of land on which they were built. Obasanjo and Atiku under the ill-managed privatization exercise sold off what IBB could not sell off before he was forced by Nigerians and civil society to step aside after he had annulled the most credible election in our nation’s history.  El Rufai, current governor of Kaduna State who presided over BPE at the period , is on record as having told a House of Representatives probe that  what the nation recouped from an investment of over $100b was just a little over $1.5b.

    President Jonathan was programmed by those who imposed him on the nation to continue with the legacies of his predecessors. Unfortunately there was little left to sell or share by the time he got into office. Tormented and harassed by those he claimed caged him, he came up with his crooked, logic that ‘stealing of government funds is not corruption’.  From then on, Jonathan was unrestrained. The huge earnings from the oil sector which dwarfed the total accruable to the nation between 1999 and 2010 ended up in the pockets of politicians and their fronts. Jonathan did not forget his family members. Only this week, it was revealed that the sum of $43.4million haul made from the Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, was part of the $289 million allegedly withdrawn from the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) Company’s accounts then headed by Jonathan’s kinsman.

    While aggrieved Nigerians most of whom live below $2 a day have the luxury of engaging in the drama about alleged stolen billions traced to peoples’ homes, abandoned at airports or bureau de changes offices, or buried in cemeteries, Buhari and his APC were given a mandate to resolve our economic crisis and our crisis of nationhood through politics and not through the judiciary which we all know has remained the scourge of the nation since independence.

    And here, no one is asking Buhari and APC to invent the wheel. Faced with similar crisis a few years ago, Russia under Putin chose politics over judiciary. Like many other nations did before him, he refused to engage in a battle with the enemies of his nation who subscribed to the rule of the jungle, using rule of law. He was however fair to those who had turned Russia into a candidate for western aids. Those who shared Russian national patrimony through dubious privatisation programme under drunken Yeltsin and who had failed to keep to the terms of sales were forced to cede the confiscated assets to the state. We have more than enough evidence that our nation was short-changed during the ill-implemented privatization programme. We know many of the new investors embarked on asset stripping while some others have gone ahead to sell the confiscated national assets to foreigners. These are some of the reasons why our graduates roam the street while we import the labour of other societies in form of fake products including drugs. Recovered billions can change this narrative.

    Those who brought our nation to its knees did so by exploiting political power. This was why we gave President Buhari and his APC political power to resolve our economic crisis and our crisis of nationhood through restructuring. They have spent two years unable to appreciate the value of political power at their disposal. In less than two years, they will have to face the electorate to account for their stewardship. Drama about recovered billions will be an appendix.

  • Bamaiyi and perfidious Generals

    General Ishaya  Bamaiyi’s ‘Vindication of a General’ which came out recently once again calls attention to the tragedy of our military misadventure into politics since 1966.  It is the story of betrayal of our nation by the custodians of our constitution. In character with earlier contributions from other Generals, it was first tales of self-conceit. Bamaiyi told us he was feared by General Abdulsalami Abubakar and some of his people who thought he could overthrow Gen. Obasanjo’s government”. He also wants us to know he was different from other Abacha Generals as he lived above board. “They started by checking army accounts to see if I had stolen money. They spoke to the Director of Army Finance and Accounts, DAFA, Maj. Gen. Omosebi who told them he had never worked with an officer who believed in accountability like I did” , he stated with an apparent satisfaction. The book is also about the tales of conspiracy and intrigue that characterized the Babangida and Abacha years and his personal wars with his fellow treacherous Babangida and Abacha Generals in an era when the military according to Saliu Ibrahim, a former Chief of Army Staff, had become “an army of anything is possible”. And finally, Bamaiyi’s tales also confirm General Gowon’s thesis that the military lost its innocence with its involvement in politics and Professor Omo Omoruyi, Babangida’s confidant and the brain behind his derailed transition programme, that the “nature of the armed forces especially after the second coup, has been dog eat dog” and that “Nigeria can never be in peace until the political generals and political soldiers leave the scene”.

    Bamaiyi narrative is all about war of succession. It is either about the marginalization of Abacha according to Col Kangiwa Umar which Omo Omoruyi, the Aso rock professor of military political intrigue told us was the derailment of a pact between Babangida who was to spend five years and hand over to Abacha, or the balance of terror among warlords angling to take over from Babangida as military president or from Abacha as head of the military if Abiola succeeded in retrieving his pan-Nigeria mandate. These were the preoccupations of our generals while they unleashed terror on critics murdering Pa Rewane inside his house, Kudirat Abiola on the street of Lagos in broad day light, Tosin Onagoruwa close to his father’s house and many others.

    First Bamayi started from the area that touches him most. He had hoped to take over the military under MKO Abiola’s presidency. Abiola’s sudden death put an end to that dream. Bamayi now wants Nigerians to hold Abdulsalami, the then head of state responsible for Abiola’s death. Bamaiyi is right. The problem however is how to convince Nigerians he is different from his other perfidious generals who are driven only by self-interest. His case is not helped by the claim of Gabriel Ajayi, who was accused of co-plotting the 1995 coup. While describing Bamaiyi as a liar, he dismissed his tales as a comedy of errors. “How could he claim that Gen. Abdulsalami should be held accountable for Abiola’s death when he was among those who tortured Abiola before his death?” he had asked.

    Next, Bamaiyi has an axe to grind with ex-President Obasanjo under whose administration he was detained for eight years. He maintains Obasnajo was part of the phantom Diya 1995 coup even though Bello Fadile who was said to have privately and publicly apologised to Obasanjo, claiming he was tortured to frame him’ has exonerated Obasanjo upon release from prison. Bamaiyi went on to insist his eight years’ incarceration stemmed from his opposition to Obasanjo who was imposed on the country in 1999 as president by Generals Theophilus Danjuma, Babangida, Aliyu Gusau and Abdulsalami Abubakar. He says Obasanjo wanted to assassinate him because of his principled opposition to his candidacy. Reaction, an incensed Obasanjo asked: “That I wanted to kill him? What of the people he killed? My government did not plot to kill him,” adding “My government asked him to answer to those that were alleged to have been killed by him and that is legitimate”.

    Of course, Bamaiyi has nothing but disdain for Oladipo Diya who was one of the warlords under Babangida. He has continued to insist he was behind the phantom coup and that General Malu was right to have condemned him to death. Diya has not denied. In fact he had told Abacha ‘if the army has decided to remove you and I didn’t join them, I could be a target’. Abacha, then went on to remind Diya how ‘he had been instrumental several times in the past in saving Diya’s career and how he went ahead to make him the CDS” {Tell. Jan.26. 1998). That Diya and his other generals did not realize that they were being set up by Bamaiyi speaks volumes about the worth of generals under Abacha who according to some accounts was never reckoned to go beyond a colonel in the military.

    Abdulkarim Adisa , a groveling  General, who once swore  to die for General Babangida, his benefactor and who was also roped into the  phantom coup is not alife lo react to Bamaiyi’s tales. For General Olanrewaju however, Bamaiyi was trying to twist history. Bamaiyi’s book he says,  “can open the eyes of all Nigerians to see the footprints of an ambitious soldier that Bamaiyi epitomises as detailed in every account of the power play, which appears unfavourable to him, but favourable to both General Abdulsalami Abubakar as Abacha’s successor and General Olusegun Obasanjo as 1999 civilian president. He lost out in the power play.”

    Bamayi also had problem from the home front. His brother, he says wanted him jailed while in detention. The Emir of Zuru he helped installed, he says wrote Maccido and Gusau to have his assets investigated.  Bamaiyi seems to have problem with everyone. While he blames Obasanjo for his detention, he also acknowledges that when he visited Gusau in his office, he was told “an investigation was on and that CP Danbaba said he (Bamaiyi) had authorized him to issue a weapon with which Mr. Alex Ibru was shot”. The question is whether it was possible for CP Danbaba who was alleged to anchor the activities of the Abacha killing squad in Lagos to forget the identities of members of his group.

    It is not enough for Generals who owned their epaulets by the grace of professional coup plotters or as Omo Omoruyi puts it, the duo that “have been engaged in this coup thing all their life” to deny and denounce Bamaiyi’s tales. The travails of our nation started with pact between the two professional coup makers on August 5, 1986. They did not only destroy the military as Gowon has observed, they also left behind baleful legacies. Structural Adjustment Programme that we were told would last for 18 months went on for five years. We today reap its effects in form of imported labour of other societies while our own children roam the streets in search of jobs. The Directorate of Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) like Better Life for Rural Women with its alleged N400m funding from Central Bank collapsed with Babangida. His synthetic two parties we were told would allow the masses at the grassroots to mobilise the urban elite they look up to for direction collapsed on their head. The N5b spent on building headquarters for the two synthetic parties was a waste just like the N40b frittered away on a transition programme that was designed to fail. The czar of the Centre for Democratic Studies ( CDS) that was to breed new breed politicians according to Omo Omoruyi, traded away Babangida’s interim contraption ‘on a platter of naira’ while the new breeds produced by the school graduated into national politics where they breed nothing but corruption. The perfidious Generals for the above reasons need to tell their own stories.

  • Sagay’s anguish

    Itse Sagay does not need any help in his current battle against the  bullies in the 8th Senate  which he has predicted ‘will go down as he worst in our nation’s history’ neither does he require any support  to withstand the subtle intimidation from  beseeching  APC, the party in government but not in power. He has abundantly demonstrated over the years that he is capable of fighting his wars against any form of injustice.  It will however not be out of place to remind APC to face its own demons. Sagay is not APC nightmare but Bukola Saraki who traded off  its victory for a port of porridge  and adopted blackmail and self- help tactics to hold on to his coveted trophy. Sagay is similarly not responsible for APC’s failure to cut off a leprous finger and rule with as few as 20 pro-Nigeria senators that share its philosophy. He also did not ask APC to wait until its very foundation is threatened with the same strategy Saraki deployed to destroy PDP, his former party as recently observed by ex-President Obasanjo. Except APC leadership, that had expected  Saraki to suddenly become a left handed man at middle age, Nigerians know Saraki who has never lost a deal since he joined politics is a vicious  trader of influence and power. His father, Oloye Saraki was a victim of his son’s brand of politics. Bukola Saraki was the whistle-blower in the fuel subsidy scandal that finally exposed PDP before it finally disintegrated. Ribadu and Lamornde, past chairmen of EFCC who crossed his path in the past ended up with bloody noses. It is also no more in doubt that Magu’s current travails is not unrelated to his  investigation of Saraki and his wife over alleged financial malfeasance  as well as  some ex-governors turned senators who allegedly stole their states blind when they held sway as, in the words of  London prosecutor of convicted James Ibori, ‘thieves in government houses’.  Senator Ndume suffered the worst fate. For forcing   Saraki and Melaye to clear their names over  Nigerian Customs Service and Sahara Reporters allegations  through a Senate internal  probe that has since confirmed a multimillion bullet-proof SUV vehicle cleared with forged papers to evade the tariff accruable to government was an addition to the Senate President’s fleet; and that irrepressible  and loud  Melaye managed to graduate  from ABU with a third class after spending eight years for a four -year programme, he  was suspended for six months.

    Itse Sagay must have been anguished that our nation is under siege as Saraki has continued to hold us to ransom after capturing the 8th Senate.  Our senators don’t feel obliged to tell us what they pay themselves as salaries. All we know is that some of them who denied collecting double salaries admitted collecting pensions in addition to their huge salaries alleged to be the highest in the world. When El Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State recently dared the senators to inform the nation what they earn as salaries, they resorted to blackmail by challenging him to first disclose his own salary and security vote.

    The travails of Sagay who has fought injustice all his life started when he recently decided to take up arms against senators who according to him  “ think they have power and decided to be unjust, oppressive and dismiss the interest of this country with levity and contempt.”.  He cited as an example the rejection of Magu who he says is “one of the best in a country that is like a cesspool, smelling and rotten with corruption “, as EFCC chairman. He says the Senate which  ‘seems to see itself as  if it is presiding over kindergartens  has developed kindergarten mentality by asking ambassadorial nominee to recite national anthem or by ordering the Customs Comptroller General to wear uniform like a school boy instead of addressing the issues of shortchanging Nigerians’.  He says  the Senate’s directive to the President to first sack Magu before it performs its constitutional duty of confirming names of INEC commissioners  was ‘childish and irresponsible’. But for claiming the Senate is filled with people of questionable character, Deputy Senate leader Bala Ibn Na’allah who insisted the senators do not have questionable characters, pleaded with his colleagues to summon Sagay to come and help them identify if he is aware of any. When Sagay was summoned, he threatened to sue the bullying senators who according to him “have no sense of responsibility, who have no feeling and are there for just vanity and are ready to bring down the country in order to feel important”.

    Tragically, APC leadership that has not been able to find its bearing in the last two years let alone demonstrate to the public what it is doing about APC dominated sick Senate, the subject of Sagay’s anguish, now says it believes ‘the comments attributed to Prof. Sagay are uncalled for, regrettable and could further complicate the relationship between these vital arms of government’. Except the leadership of APC that lives a lie, most Nigerians are aware there can be no meeting point between President Buhari who is committed to fighting corruption and the corrupt-ridden judiciary and the legislature. It is just as well that noble Sagay has insisted APC is not in a position to lecture him on what the relationship between institutions of democracy should be.

    Visibly irritated Sagay must however take solace in the fact that ours is a nation that often finds a way around a problem rather than solve it. In this regard, a brief resort to memory will help. The credit for the federal arrangement that heralded in our independence for instance must go to the colonial masters that served as umpire. They told us some truth about ourselves which for reasons of greed and the desire to dominate others, some of our founding fathers refused to acknowledge. The umpire literarily imposed the three regional federal structure on us.

    By 1962, one leg of our tripod that constituted the federal structure was deliberately removed by those who wanted to dominate others. After the Nigerian judiciary failed to solve that simple problem, the Privy Council, the then highest judicial body tried to bring in sanity. But those who have always held our country down passed a retroactive law to reject the Privy Council ruling.  Again, the task before the military, the custodian of our constitution in 1966 was simple. But instead of restoring order by upholding the sanctity of our constitution, they took over power, plunged the nation into a civil war and between 1970 and 1999 embarked on what has come to be known as social engineering efforts through which they took over education from primary school to university, health sector from primary health care to teaching hospitals, roads and agriculture ending up with a constitution without a residual list. The only thing they have not done is solve the problem. In 1993, Abiola won a pan Nigeria mandate. It was annulled by Babangida who like Idi Amin of Uganda had wanted to hold on to power.  Instead of restoring the mandate freely given to Abiola by Nigerians, the enemies of our nation bargained for an illegal Interim National Government. In 2015, APC and its presidential candidate won a landslide victory over its PDP rival. Saraki and Melaye traded the victory for a senate presidency. Today two years down the line, only a few Nigerians remember the source of our current nightmare. And by intimidating Sagay, APC, the major stakeholder seems to be saying that Saraki’s capture of the 8th Senate has become a force- majeure. Dancing around problem is in our character.

  • Dino Melaye as the Nigerian story

    Who is Dino Melaye? This is a question that has agitated the minds of Nigerians whose sensibilities have come under severe assault in the last two years. However, relief seems to have come the way of affronted Nigerians with the outcome of a probe of educational claims of Melaye by the Senate Committee of Ethics and Privileges. The outcome has convinced outraged Nigerians that besides sympathy and understanding, Melaye deserves admiration for his courage to turn adversity into opportunity. Melaye represents the archetypal Nigerians who Chinua Achebe in his “The trouble with Nigeria” says have been in the rain for too long, and the moment they got out of the rain, swore none of their generations would go back to the rain.

    We now have an explanation for Melaye’s obsession with exotic cars each of which he named after himself. We now know why he proudly told a reporter he had built his Abuja mansions long before he became a senator in 2015 even though available records show the only job he ever did besides serving as Special Adviser on Youths under Obasanjo’s presidency in 2005 was as a member of House of Representatives for four years. This also gave us an idea as to how Melaye has been able to secure the support of. Nigerian youths especially those from his Kogi West who were falling over each other to give him awards upon awards  and their community leaders that overwhelmed him with chieftaincy titles. And finally the outcome of the probe provides an insight into why Melaye and Saraki were desperate to capture the 8th Senate.

    For Melaye, charity begins at home. He launched his crusade by first seducing our miracle-seeking Nigerian youths, starting with those of his Kogi West Local Government, by attributing the source of his stupendous wealth to God. And to secure their unwavering loyalty, he swore he was in politics to ensure ‘Nigerian youths get their own fair share of the national resources.’This message of miracle from Melaye whose life itself is a miracle resonates well with our jobless youths, especially those of his Kogi West.  The passionate appeal by Oby Ezekiweili, a former Education Minister,  to Nigerian youths to take their future in their hands  and  stop laughing ‘while tragi-comedians that cost more than 100 billion’ carry on at the national assembly’, went into the deaf ears as the youths honoured Melaye with award after award. He is today the proud recipient of the following awards: the ‘Best Honourable Representative of the Year from the Global Youth Awareness and Development Initiative; the ‘Protector of the Youth’ award from the PDP National Youth Vanguard, ‘the Epitome of Servant’ from the National Association of Kogi State Students …And  to the  Nigerian Economic Students Association,  he is ‘ Great Motivator of Students’  and to the  Kogi Peoples Forum, he is the ‘Icon of Good Leadership and from the Vision 2020 Youth Group, he acquired ‘ the most performed National Legislator’ award.

    Melaye has since extended his exploits to the elders of his Kogi West community who, like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, have traded their taste for local wine for imported spirits, and the value they once placed on name and character for free money either in form of 5% LG budget allocation from Abuja or direct donation from their Abuja representatives or ministers. That Melaye has found acceptance among his community elders is evidenced by the number of chieftaincy titles he has so far acquired.  They include  the ‘Otunba of Bunu Kingdom’, the Arogundade of Ogagi Amuro; Olugbayi of Gbede; Gbeluro of Ogidi; Ariwajoye of Ekinrin Adde; Oluamofin of Okoro Gbede; Asiwaju of Oke-Offin; Olugbeye of Aiyetoro-Gbede; Alutushe of Oke-bukun;and Bolagunwa of Obajana, among others.

    To move from the home front to the national arena, Melaye came up with other strategies. He became a social critic and a crusader who, according to Magu, was fighting corruption along with EFCC operatives…As a senator elect in 2015, he was sure of his mission in the Senate. His popularity and influence have been on the rise from the moment he seconded Yerima’s motion to adopt Saraki as President of the Senate by acclamation in the absence of 51 elected APC members. He has moved on to become the de facto deputy senate president whose major assignment seems to be crude attack on his principal’s political adversaries. To execute this goal, he constituted himself into an effective leadership of the ‘82 like minds senators’ that have demonstrated on many occasions that they are ready to swim or drown with Saraki. If there is any doubt as to who the 8th  Senate is out to serve,  Melaye cleared such doubt during his last week interview with Channels Television over the suspension of Senator Ndume for calling for a probe into the Customs and Sahara Reporters allegations against Saraki and Melaye.  According to him, ‘if Ndume shows remorse, apologises to the senate’, Bukola Saraki who is a compassionate leader who does not engage in witch-hunting, will persuade members to either reduce the punishment or to forgive him.’  Dear compatriots, what is the worth of the Nigerian 8th Senate?  The picture of the 8th Senate in people’s head after this unguarded and unrestrained statement is that of Kwara fiefdom Bukola Saraki inherited from his father after fifty years of manipulation and exploitation of the state’s hapless citizens.

    Perhaps what may end up as Melaye’s  greatest victory is the current efforts at dragging the nation to their level. Some otherwise credible Nigerian opinion leaders are already saying the answer to Melaye and Saraki is negotiation and that the name of the game in the US is lobbying. But while both houses in the US protect interests of groups, what the Saraki and Melaye new converts are not telling Nigerians is whose interest Melaye and the 82 like mind senators are protecting. The more we look, the more blurred the difference between the interest of Saraki and those of the captured 82 like mind senators becomes.

    Melaye, according to the outcome of the probe by the Senate Ethics and Privileges Committee, is a third class graduate of ABU. And I think for holding in check 82 like mind senators, some of whom are professors, captains of industries and accomplished professionals, he deserves our admiration. As Bishop Mathew Kukahw reportedly  observed: the story of our country is that the first-class brains read medicine and engineering, the second-class brains read MBAs to manage the most talented in our society while the third class go into politics to manage all of us.

  • Between Ambode and Fashola 

    Governor Ambode is a politician. Ex-Governor Fashola is a technocrat. They will naturally see things differently. Their body language during their recent official engagement in Lagos did not only bring out their differences but also betrayed the frosty relationship between them. If you missed that, you couldn’t have but observed their choice of words as they laboured to give an impression that all was well. As if to soothe the raw nerves of his guest whom he had accused of frustrating the efforts of his administration, Ambode broke the ice by observing that ”whatever it is that we have done in the last 22 months is just more or less a fall out of the great achievements the former governor had already put in place.”

    Ambode, the brilliant politician, however did not forget to quickly add that the “remarkable change between 1999 and now was made possible by the solid foundation laid by Ahmed Bola Tinubu.” Reading in between the lines, it is not difficult to understand Ambode’s subliminal message: If Tinubu, in spite of laying the solid foundation, was humble enough to describe himself as ‘the visionary’ and Fashola ‘the actualiser’, the minister should look beyond mischief makers demonstrating in his name to emulate Tinubu who as a leader did not feel diminished by the success of his predecessor.

    The chilly relationship had been kept away from the public until Ambode’s public expression of frustration with Fashola’s Ministry of Works over his efforts to fix the broken MM International Airport Road. He had told journalists while inspecting some ongoing projects in Lagos that, ”the present state of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road was a national disgrace and required immediate attention to salvage the nation’s image.”  He blames the Federal Ministry of Works which, according to him, “believe that they should do the road, but have not been able to do it all these years past,” and has now constituted itself into a stumbling block at a time the state is ready with “a design of 10 lanes from Oshodi to the International Airport, cash and a willing contractor set to start and finish the work in six months.”

    Fashola , the technocrat, seems satisfied  establishing his ministry’s support for Lagos State which,  according to him, approved ‘the use of the Federal Ministry of Works yard at Oworonsoki for Lagos State Government to create a lay-by to ease traffic; granted Lagos State the Rights to manage the Street Lighting on the 3rd Mainland Bridge to support the security initiatives of the State, a request which the previous Federal Government administration had denied Lagos State for years; and that the Hon Minister also ‘supported the approval of the World Bank Loan of $200m to Lagos State, again a request the previous administration had denied Lagos State.” But the technocrat missed the point. His narratives are unrelated to the broken MM International Airport Road. In fact, with Fashola’s tales, it is not out of place to be wondering if he wants a medal for doing the right thing.

    And when it came to addressing the source of Ambode’s frustration, it was a litany of excuses. First, Raji Fashola tries to educate us on the complexity of decision-making process by the National Executive Council (NEC).  This, according to him, involves thorough debate of all issues,  and in the case of roads, it sometimes requires making surveys, maps and other material available to assist members understand the location and connectivity of the roads.’ He also wants the public to understand that Ambode’s request is complex as two of the roads he wants to take over connect Ogun State. Kaduna State, with a less complex request, according to him, followed due process by waiting for ten months to get NEC’s nod. Fashola, who does not see this as evidence of indolence on the part of NEC, seems to be asking Ambode to suspend all plans and await NEC’s due process.

    With the above scenario, we need not search any further as to why our federal system is dysfunctional at a period government has become a science with templates for managing federal government projects, procurement,  acquiring real properties and for construction. It explains why, instead of adopting the best practices in the world, we would rather settle for retroactive laws to legalise confiscation of private and public land and properties, as was the case with Babangida,   or come up with disingenuous laws enacted for the purpose of sharing our national patrimony, as was the case under the Obasanjo’s monetisation policy

    Fashola is probably too refined to become intoxicated by federal power, to deliberately set out to sabotage a state he had selflessly served for eight years as governor, but this does not make him any less dangerous to Lagos State or the west he represents in Abuja. Fashola, as a technocrat performing a political function, poses a danger to those he represents.

    For instance, as governor of Lagos State, his critics claim he was not particularly supportive of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN). His artless argument was that Lagos was not part of the west. It is only Fashola, the technocrat, who would not remember that the Federal  Capital  administered by the  Federal Ministry of Lagos Affairs had always been part of the west; that it was after  Dr. Olorunnibe’s  refusal to step down to allow Zik go to the centre to represent Lagos  in the early fifties that politicians like Ozumba Mbadiwe moved the motion to cede Lagos out of west, a motion ignored by Prime Minister Tafawa Balewwa  and that Ikeja, Agege, Mushin, Ikorodu, Epe, and Badagry  were taking out of   western Nigeria by Decree 14 of 25 May, 1967,  to create the present Lagos State.

    Hiding under the excuse that the roads Ambode wants to take over connect Ogun State as the reason for inaction seems to vindicate those who said the west did not need a technocrat but an astute politician in Abuja where everything is politics and where, with devious moves, deal makers could reduce a victorious party to an opposition party overnight. Fashola must realise that even as President Buhari’s foreman, he is in Abuja as a politician to protect the interest of the west, especially after eight years of marginalisation by a vindictive ex-President Obasanjo and another six years under ex-President Jonathan, his godson.

    He must not delude himself by assuming President Buhari, his principal, is not a politician. Politics flows naturally in his blood and, by the way, no one understands power politics more than a Fulani man.

  • Senate as self-proclaimed friend of the masses

    I am not sure many Nigerians, except perhaps the miracle seekers among us who believe they can reap what they did not sow, expect much joy from Saraki/Ekwerenmadu’s 8th Senate. For throwing his party into disarray after trading off its hard-earned victory at the 2015 polls, it was obvious to many that Saraki was motivated by reasons other than service.

    The leadership of the Senate represented by Saraki has not only defied his party, rendering it impotent, it has moved on to defy public opinion whether in frittering away over three hundred million naira to buy state-of the-art Toyota land cruisers , paying themselves outrageous salaries, and earning pensions as serving Senators against public service rule. The Senate’s tools include blackmail and self-help tactics.

    Thus, hiding under the anonymity of ‘ayes’ and ‘nays’, two weeks back, the Senate, for the second time, rejected the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive chairman of EFCC. There is a record to show Magu is a conscientious, efficient and dedicated public officer His achievements have been celebrated locally and internationally.

    Reflecting on the Senate conspiracy against Nigeria last week, Itse Sagay said: ”Since Nuru Ribadu left, we have not had a man with such sterling qualities as Ibrahim Magu.” But that counts for little to a Senate that often forgets power goes with responsibility. As Palladium, who is not a fan of Magu’s methods, also put it last Sunday:”those who rejected him for the second time last week knew he was the right man for the job, they knew they were putting down a public figure who seemed to have prepared for this job all his life, they knew it would be difficult to find someone so imbued with his kind type of commitment but the conspirators had too much to lose to care.”

    Magu was rejected on the basis of DSS uncomplimentary report, even after the man had robustly defended himself before the Senate. But the Senate, which has often resorted to blackmail and self-help when its interest is threatened, predictably attached more weight to   the words of DSS than the embattled Magu. The problem, however, was that there were two contradictory DSS reports.  For failing to invite the leadership of the DSS to appear before it to explain the manifest contradictions and inconsistencies in its reports, the “Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) believes the Senate seems to have acted mala fide by picking and choosing the least favourable DSS report to reject Magu’s nomination.”

    To seal Magu’s fate, Dino Melaye, quoting the SSS report dated March 14, stated: “ Magu has failed the integrity test and will eventually constitute a liability to the anti-corruption stand of the current government.” For most Nigerians, it is the Senate that has failed the integrity test. Nigerians don’t need to be reminded that, for many of the Senators facing corruption charges, the fear of Magu is the beginning of wisdom.

     

    Senate vs. Ali

    Once again, the on-going faceoff between the Senate and the Comptroller- General of Nigeria Customs will appear to be about self-help. To begin with, in his examination of the legal validity of the controversial Nigeria Customs policy and the legal competence of the Senate to summon the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) to justify the policy, activist lawyer, Femi Falana has said:  ”the policy is illegal as the NCS is completely estopped from collecting additional duties from vehicle owners who had paid the duties charged at the time of importation.” The choice before the management of the NCS, according to him, therefore, is not a suspension of the illegal policy but its outright annulment without any further delay. This, of course, according to him, does not preclude the authorities of the NCS from arresting and prosecuting highly placed individuals who usually forge importation documents.

    And also quoting relevant section of the constitution (88 (2 ) he   submitted that “the Senate lacks the vires to summon the CGC on policy matters,” since the decision of the Senate has nothing to do with making laws or exposing corruption, inefficiency or waste in the disbursement of funds appropriated by it. “The summoning of the CGC therefore constitutes not only a blatant violation of the Constitution, there is also “no legal, or moral basis for the arrogance of power being displayed by the Senate, whose leadership has recently been linked with the illegal importation of a bullet-proof limousine with fake papers to evade the payment of appropriate customs duties.

    But Melaye, speaking for the Senate, says   the battle of the Senate against the Customs chief is over “Pervasive corruption and incompetence in the Customs Service.” He puffs and huffs about the ”vibrant, sincere, patriotic excellent Senate under the leadership of the irremovable president of the Nigerian senate.” The problem, however, is that Nigerians are already familiar with a Senate that has demonstrated over time that it is deficit in honour and integrity by resorting to self-help each time its members are called upon to face their own demons. For instance,  rather than allow their leader to defend his honour before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, 84 like- mind Senators passed a vote of confidence in their leader, they also insisted the president of the Tribunal cannot try their leader because one of his personal staff was once indicted for corruption and, finally,  they alleged their leader would not receive fair hearing because of some past comments by the judge. Two years on, they have continued to prevent their leader from defending his honour and integrity.

    The Senate’s case is not helped by an on-line platform, the Sahara Reporters, which revealed that on January 11, 2017, the Nigeria Customs impounded a Range Rover Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) worth N298m that would have normally attracted a duty of N74m but on which a measly N8m was paid. The online publication further alleged that “Shortly after the seizure of the car, the Nigerian Senate mounted a vigorous attack on the Nigeria Customs Service, demanding that the agency stops any further efforts to confiscate vehicles found to have evaded payment of duties.”

    In defence of the Senate leadership, one can argue its political enemies bent on witch-hunting are once again on the prowl. The tragedy for the Senate and its leadership, however, is that in the past such witch-hunting produced many witches. It is also like when Melaye puffs and huffs about the democratic setting of their current 8th Senate, Nigerians are bound to ask:  What was democratic in a process where Saraki admitted hiding in a car for 4 hours, and sneaking into the Red Chamber to be adopted by acclamation by 49 opposition members and a handful of his supporters, effectively disenfranchising 51 of his fellow APC Senators who were at the period having a meeting with the president?

    And when Melaye assaults our sensibilities with his ”vibrant, sincere, patriotic excellent Senate under the leadership of the irremovable president of the Nigerian Senate,” fighting “pervasive corruption and incompetence in the Customs” on “behalf of the poor masses, the talakawas and the mekunus,” the masses they are trying to seduce know better that with friends like the Senate, Saraki and Melaye, they need no enemies.

  • Obasanjo’s legacies at 80

    For both  admirers and political foes of Obasanjo, the presence of former United States’ Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Andrew Young, former Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Mr. Kofi Annan, and about fourteen serving and former African Presidents  and who is who in Nigeria politics at the inauguration of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) to mark his 80th birthday in Abeokuta two weeks back, was but a confirmation of his status as a “global statesman,” a pride of Africa and a gift to Nigeria.

    Many have attributed Obasanjo’s rise from a “barefooted village-school boy” to fame and fortune to destiny. But I think fate has very little to do with Obasanjo’s larger-than -life achievements.  He “set out early at dawn”to haunt for fame and fortune and pursued his goals with great tenacity without, in the words of Andrew Young, “caring about who he made mad.” He does not share the prejudices of his Yoruba people. Other people’s laws are never his laws. He publicly admitted “nothing embarrasses him.” He routinely cuts deals with enemies of his political foes as long as the end justifies the means.

    Yes, Obasanjo, as Sunday Mbang has said, built a church in Aso Villa, attended morning devotions with his family; but Obasanjo has never been a miracle-seeker. Knowing fate without hard work is dead (James 214-16); he worked hard during his first coming to build a solid economic base for Nigeria.  He set up a number of refineries connected by about, 4,500 kilometres of pipeline across the country. He reorganised Nigeria Airways, leaving it with about 33 aircraft by the time he left office in 1979. He established vehicle assembly plants in Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu and decreed government must use assembled-in-Nigeria Peugeot cars. To guarantee we feed ourselves, he launched Operation Feed the Nation and followed up with a land use decree to make land available to state governments and private investors.  He built up a huge external reserve and our naira was as strong as the pound sterling, and much stronger than the dollar. Obasanjo, as Sunday Mbang has said, remains the best Nigerian president to date.

    Obasanjo  also moved beyond Murtala Mohammed’s rhetoric of “Africa has come of age,” by working  with others to strengthen the Africa Union, establish the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), designed to promote democracy and good governance. He has also “served as chairman of the Group of 77, chairman of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and chairman of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee.” He was very active in the international mediation efforts in Angola, Burundi, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. Obasanjo undoubtedly remains the face of Africa in the international community. For the former US Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Andrew Young, “without Obasanjo, Africa might have still been in a desperate position.”

    But as chroniclers of history, we must also search for how Obasanjo broke out of his lowly background and in the words of Vice President Osinbajo became ”a world statesman and a gift to humanity.”Let us examine the flowing explanations from military scholars and Vice President Osinbajo.

    But first, the sociological explanation from Ahmadu Bello who in his autobiography, My Life, told us it was the disadvantaged in society that were first recruited into the colonial army. President Muhammadu Buhari was humble enough to admit that but for Ahmadu Bello who picked him up from his Daura village to join the military he would have remained a Fulani herdsman Most of those who joined the military, therefore, did so in order to climb the social ladder.

    This historical fact seems to get further support from the late Professor Takena Tamuno’s “status coup” thesis  which finds expression in the least endowed  even within the military (a Sergeant Doe in Liberia, Mobutu, a cook in Congo, Ironsi and Abacha in Nigeria)taking over political power. Obasanjo was to write in his My Command that he achieved on a platter what Awo, his superior, could not achieve through a lifelong struggle.  They killed merit. Their values became the values of society.

    Vice President Osinbajo presented another intellectual explanation for how Obasanjo, literally “climbed the palm tree from the top.” As a beneficiary of Tamuno’s “status coup,” theory, Obasanjo became one of the few men in history known to “make history and write history in his own words.” Consequently, when Obasanjo, a leader who believes heavens help those who help themselves, had an opportunity to make history, he made investments with high dividends in view.

    That the same northern military and political elite that rejected the leadership of Brigadier Ogundipe ten years earlier (1966)  endorsed him as Head of State in 1976, was  a reward for his pro-north and pro-Nigeria stand during the civil war ((1967-1970).  His movement from prison to the presidential palace in 1999 by the same northern military and political elite that rejected MKO Abiola and his pan-Nigeria 1993 mandate was a payback  for foisting  incompetent Shehu Shagari instead of competent Awo, who according to Odumegwu Ojukwu, was the “best President Nigeria never had,” on Nigeria in 1979. And from hindsight, his foisting of ailing Yar Adua and incompetent Goodluck Jonathan on Nigeria was self-serving.

    And precisely because Obasanjo is writing the history, he conveniently ignores Robin Luckman’s observation that his generation “plunged the nation into a civil war.” Instead, he and his generation chose to hold the nation hostage in the name of war of unity; or as Babangida fraudulently puts it, “sacrificing their present for our future.”

    And finally, Brigadier General Alabi Isama who described Obasanjo as an “Incredible opportunist” in his Tragedy of Victory presented Obasanjo and his generation’s baleful legacies. Our unity, he says, is more tenuous today than it was in 1966; that the two million lives lost (out of which the Igbo accounted for 1.5 million) were lost in vain and that while those killed on the allegation of corruption left no estates behind, Obasanjo’s generation seized all the estates including those inherited from the colonial masters.

    We can also add that they destroyed the best bureaucracy in Africa, traded the best universities that produced the Wole Soyinkas, Chinua Achebes, and Awojobis for their own high fee-paying private universities and left us with carcasses of once thriving industries they forcefully seized through an ill- implemented privatisation programme. And perhaps more tragically, they destroyed a party system and abridged a political socialisation process dating back to 1923; and in their place, they foisted on the nation a PDP, run with military mentality of sharing spoils of war from conquered territories.

  • Challenges of Southern Kaduna

    Fulani herdsmen, despite increased security measures put in place by government, not too long ago once again carried out a deadly attack on Atakad-District Local Government and Baki –Kogi Goska District of Jama’a Local Government Area of Southern Kaduna killing 16 innocent people. Government reaction was predictable. The Acting President summoned the IG to Aso Rock Presidential Villa, gave him a directive to restore law and order to the affected communities.  In addition to deployment of troops, the formation of a new military unit to be stationed in Southern Kaduna was announced.

    The only difference this time around however was that, the Ag. President as a devout Christian in a speech  at  the PFN 14th  Biennial conference in Benin city, told  his fellow Christians who constitute  the majority of Fulani herdsmen victims, that  ” those  ”who come  in to your community annually  to kill  as many as they can find ; who throw bombs in the marketplace and in motor parks, kill children in their  beds,  who in Bunu Yadi, killed 59 children in boarding school, “ were driven by   ‘hate and the devil’.. “Today,” he continued, “the greatest enemy of our faith and our nation is hate, a device of the devil.”  And for him, the “answer to hate can only be found “in the Gospel of Jesus Christ: “Love your enemies  and bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you  and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be sons of your father which is in heaven.”

    While one cannot take up issues with an ordained pastor of God, it is however doubtful from the point of view of a social scientist if God or the cursed devil have anything to do with our self-inflicted problems. Obasanjo, although without admitting his generation laid the foundation for the ‘hate’ by insisting on ‘unity without justice’ and by breeding the current generation of ‘newbreed’ politicians that breed only corruption, while speaking as chairman of the 38 Kaduna Trade Fair, however, put the blame squarely on “”our leaders who lack focus, commitment, continuity and sometimes proper knowledge about economic and development issues.” He wants them to stop   blaming ”God for the nation’s woes.” In fact, he was of the opinion that we should be thanking and praising God for giving us everything we need to be a great nation.

    The truth of the matter is that our founding fathers, Muslims Christians and traditional religion worshippers correctly identified absence of justice and fairness as potential source of ‘hate’ some 60 years ago and went on to bequeath on to us a constitution that guaranteed justice and fairness. The military in the name of unity destroyed this superstructure, imposed a new one that promotes injustice, celebrates idleness of federating states and breeds parasitic multi-billionaires who feast on the blood of the poor. Unfortunately, instead of going back to ‘path to Nigeria greatness’ we have been tinkering with military social engineering efforts from which the nation has derived little joy while others who are in a position to properly articulate our crisis of nationhood now want us to pray for miracle even when we have been told heaven helps only those who help themselves.

    Let us start with land ownership, the core source of dispute between Fulani herdsmen and their host communities.  The native Tiv, Idoma, Berom, Angas, Kwalla and Taroh people  of Benue and Plateau States and Southern Kaduna took ownership of their  land following the collapse of the Sokoto caliphate, founded in 1809 by Uthman  dan Fodio  and   sustained with slave labour of about  2 million slaves captured mostly from non-muslim minority groups in the north, on March 13 1903. Frederick Lugard stated very clearly that the power once exercised by the defeated   caliphate had reverted to the British, at the inauguration of AttahiruII, as the new Caliph. There was no evidence power was given back to the Fulani after independence. It was an attempt to contest the ownership of the land by the descendants of defeated Fulani feudal lords that led to the Tiv popular uprising after independence.

    Beyond Frederick Lugard’s declaration, the issue of land ownership was not in doubt even before the amalgamation of 1914. For instance, by 1908, Herbert Macaulay had successfully launched a campaign against the   Hausa Land Ordinance which gave the colonial power  an unlimited right to acquire  any land This was also done in Lagos when after losing in Nigeria, he took Chief Oluwa’s case against government to the Privy Council in London which upheld Chief Oluwa’s appeal over the acquisition of his family land and compelled the colonial government to pay full compensation  of 22,500 pounds for his acquired family land.

    One hundred years later, power  and privileges won and lost on the battle field and in the court rooms  have become  sources of tension among Nigerians because of military imposition of a fraudulent ‘Land Use Decree’ and a unitary constitution that was never debated by Nigerians. The embattled natives of Southern Kaduna along with other minorities in the north who as non-believers provided slave labour to sustain the caliphate have once again become victims of Fulani herdsmen marauders

    The restiveness in the Niger Delta is not markedly different from the crisis in the middle belt regions. The Niger Delta crisis is about resource control. Fifty years of conflict must have convinced the military who as self-proclaiming custodian of the Nigeria constitution, destroyed what it inherited and in the pursuit of Nigeria’s unity unilaterally confiscated the resources of a group for the use of all. We have continued to resist a cheaper approach to Nigeria unity such as allowing Niger Delta to control its resources and pay tax to the centre as was the case in the first republic.

    A restructured strong middle belt region (which the current governors and law makers may be opposed to out of selfish interest) with enough economic muscle to embark on economies of scale, such as adding value to their agricultural products, establishing ranches to provide jobs for youths, creating local and community police to prevent infiltration of Fulani herdsmen from Niger, Sudan and northern Cameroon  will appear from the benefit of hindsight,  a  cheaper way to generate national integration to deployment of federal police, helicopters and soldiers as we have done since independence.

    Perhaps now is the time to stop living a lie by our leaders’ empty claim that the unity of our country even amidst glaring injustice is not negotiable. Perhaps  it is time to take a cue from our founding fathers who garnered more bounteous yields from diversification of politics between 1952 and 1959, a feat yet to be matched  by our endless economic diversification efforts  since the Babangida years. With governors now forming regional groups for economic integration of their various areas, APC government that campaigned on the basis of restructuring should see the development as an opportunity to lay a new foundation for the unity and economic prosperity of the country.