The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • Travails of Arumemi-Ikhide and Arik

    Although like most of those featured on these pages in the last seven years, I have never been privileged to meet  Arumemi-Ikhide, but watching from afar, his exploits and travails, I think he is a unique Nigerian who if only for his courage and bold initiatives, deserve our sympathy. More than his personal failings as a manager, an investor and the Arik airlines corporate misgovernance, I strongly believe he is a victim of the Nigerian system and the ‘fantastically’ corrupt federal government of patronage which stifles initiatives and abridges dreams of unique risk-takers like Arumemi-Ikhide.

    First to have survived the stress and the strain associated with the frightening scenarios painted by AMCON while taking over his beleaguered Arik Airlines two weeks back, Arumemi-Ikhide must have been a man with a heart of steel. His airline was said to be indebted to creditors to the tune of staggering N300billion, accused of owing several months in arrears of staff salaries and of defrauding the federal government for years by not remitting the taxes of workers to relevant bodies, his airline was also said to be in perpetual default in its lease payments and insurance, leading to regular and embarrassing repossession of its aircraft by lessors. Above all, his unpaid workers became targets of attack by aggrieved irate local and international passengers.

    If one may ask, how does a man like Arumemi-Ikhide cope with such  stress and strain and still able to sleep at night?

    It will be recalled that this was a risk-taker who was never given a chance from the onset. Many tales were woven around him by many of his detractors who like the faithful servant in Jesus’ parable of the talents( Mathew 2514-30) chose to bury his talents in order to please a master who he acknowledged ‘reaps from where he does not sow’. First, were wild rumours that he was fronting for either ex-President Obasanjo, or ex-Governor Odilli of Rivers or both. Then without evidence, they alleged the airline was established with stolen funds. But Arumemi-Ikhide proved all tale-bearers wrong. When his Arik Airlines  took over the assets of liquidated national carrier in 2006, unlike others in  the aviation industry who diverted government bailouts into other businesses before declaring bankruptcy, or others that embarked on asset stripping after buying government privatized companies under the flawed government  privatization  policy, he braved all the vicissitudes of the airline industry and took delivery of three new Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft to operate on domestic routes, a gamble that enabled the airline capture 55% of Nigeria’s domestic airline market.

    In 2008, his Arik Airline launched its first long-haul flight between Lagos and London Heathrow with an Airbus A340-500, while in June 2009, it commenced flights to its second long haul destination in Johannesburg, South Africa and other West African nations, including Sierra Leone, Senegal, The Gambia, Benin Republic and Ghana. It went on to launch its New York route in 2009 with non-stop flight services three times a week. This was a feat that is yet to be matched by any domestic airline.

    His bold initiative was not only greeted with resentments by his competitors in the industry, the Jonathan government hardly took notice of Arumemi-Ikhide’s unique contribution to a nation without a national carrier whose citizens were left at the mercy of shylock foreign airlines. He was denied of government’s much-needed patronage by ex-President Jonathan and his PDP national wreckers for whom the health of the Nigerian economy was in the number of private jets owned by governors and senators who in one day invaded Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with as many as 11 private jets.

    It was an era of debauchery and licentiousness when Abuja lawmakers who chose not to have shinning private jets routinely grounded foreign airlines that failed to offer them and their families, first class seats.

    Arumemi-Ikhide’s Arik airline did not fare better under the APC notoriously lethargic government of change that spent almost two years without reconstituting various small governments that it needed for governance. The government therefore watched as troubled Arik wobbled until its belated admission two weeks back that government intervention will “stabilise the operations of the airline, enhance its long-term economic value and revitalize its ailing operations as well as sustain safety standards in view of Arik Air’s pivotal role in the Nigerian aviation sector.”

    Two years of inaction by a government of change that held on to the bulk of 10 aircrafts inherited from the previous administration while Arik airlines, the closest to a national carrier wobbled on was indefensible. In fact one may not be far from the truth by saying the Buhari languid government was forced by exigencies of the time to act. The ministers which many believe only act based on the body language of President Buhari, “our baba go slow” suddenly realized it was in the enlightened self-interest of the federal government to take control of Arik airlines. The foreign exchange is simply not available for junketing around. The truth of the matter is that the government and Nigerians today need Arik Airlines more than Arumemi-Ikhide needs Arik. That probably explains why the Federal Ministry of Aviation has undertaken to ‘support the new management of the strategic carrier, and ensure that there would be no undue disruption to Arik’s regular businesses’.

    Weak institutions have been acknowledged as the bane of our society. But the federal government that often exploits these institutions as weapons for political patronage hardly helps matters. It is for instance not enough to accuse  Arumemi-Ikhide of hiring his son, Martins Arumemi-Ikhide on a monthly salary of N30m,  hiring more expatriates, notably Indians than Nigerians, or of dedicating a private jet to fly Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie to Rome at short notice with all expenses borne by Arik Air Ltd. The question was why the regulatory agencies especially the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which apart from ‘certifying every single technical personnel, equipment and airport’ has  dossier on all the 554 licensed pilots; 913 licensed engineers and 1700 cabin personnel  in the industry outwitted by Arumemi-Ikhide who allegedly populated his organization with expatriates at the detriment of Nigerians.

    Again, the most plausible answer is the federal government that institutionalizes corruption through imposition of ministry of aviation on the aviation industry, a practice long jettisoned by many nations including Ghana our closest neighbour. The position of many aviation experts including Capt. Daniel Omale who recently canvassed for the scrapping of the aviation ministry is strengthened by the fact that most of our past aviation ministers in the last 16 years were found to be men with feet of clay with some of them still in court trying to defend their honour.

    Arumemi-Ikhide’s travails can therefore not be separated from the federal government’s sponsorship of corruption through allocation of resources generated by other federating units to an irrelevant and unproductive federal ministry of aviation.

    In a restructured Nigeria where the federal government is made to face issues of security, foreign relations and external trade while those who generate revenue decide how to spend their revenue, there will be no room for a parasitic insensitive centre to deviate from internationally accepted best practices. Like that of the United Kingdom where ‘the UK Government requires that the CAA’s costs are met entirely from its charges on those whom it regulates’ our own NCAA should be able to run their institutions without depending on federal allocations which ministers in most cases deploy to buy bullet proof cars or convert to personal use along with revenues generated by the regulatory bodies from sundry sources such as advertising.

  • Villain as hero, patriot as traitor

    It is a season for expression of solidarity and dissent. It is not unusual during such periods to see villains celebrated as heroes and patriots as traitors. The massive rally that canonise convicted ex-Governor James Ibori in Delta and demonstration against President Muhammadu Buhari’s handling of the affairs of the nation in the last two  weeks once again highlighted our crisis of nationhood. The canonization of Ibori as a hero and Buhari as a traitor define who we are -a nation of divisive nationalities with different cultures, values and world view who disagree on virtually everything including who qualifies as Nigerian heroes. Two weeks back, the people of Niger Delta, welcomed back home their hero with an ecstatic crowd led by Mr. Festus Ovie Agas, the Secretary to the state government who stood in for the governor who was alleged to have made provision for N350m to organise a welcome party for their Niger Delta illustrious son. Ibori dearly loved by his people but disparaged by many Nigerians and foreigners including misguided London court that chose to weep louder than the bereaved by describing him as ‘a thief in government house’ before jailing him for thirteen years for converting his state public fund to private use, offence for which he had been discharged and acquitted by an Asaba court with some help from the then Delta state government, returned to the warm embrace of his people.

    For them, Ibori is a hero perhaps because of what they perceive as his triumph over his past travails and exploits in the murky waters of Nigerian politics. These, of course, include his conviction in 1991 and 1992 for credit card fraud in Britain,  his  allegedly conviction for criminal breach of trust in Nigeria and his subsequent exoneration by the Nigerian Supreme Court that chose to ignore the evidence of the judge that convicted him, his deployment of an estimated Niger Delta N50b to  procure  a Yar Adua’s  electoral victory in the flawed 2007 election,  the dismissal and humiliation of Nuhu Ribadu from the police following his refusal to play ball  even with a mouth watering $15m bribe and the dismissal of Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the leading key investigators  into politically exposed persons, ‘for keeping files of accused in his house’ .

    And from the accounts of his wild jubilating kinsmen, we can also add to this list of his heroic exploits to his ability to influence the emergence of Bukola Saraki, his friend as Senate President, install the current Delta State Governor as well as law makers, including his daughter from inside his prison walls in far away in London.

    The Asaba wild rally was followed by last week’s protests and demonstrations, in Lagos and Abuja against President Muhammadu Buhari, a 74-year-old former military ruler currently on medical leave in Britain. They were organised by those who regarded him a villain  and therefore proclaim their “duty is to liberate Nigeria from shackle of poverty, suffering, disease, squalor and undemocratic tendencies of Buhari’s government”.  Buhari ironically is a Nigerian patriot who during his first coming as a head of a military junta in 1984 strived to make Nigeria a better place for all insisting Nigerian has no other place to call their own. Except for few excesses associated with military juntas, he demonstrated his passion for service to the country until he was removed through a palace coup by Babangida and Abacha for threatening corrupt elements within the military. Elected after three earlier attempts in 2015 on pledges to diversify the economy and fight corruption, his administration has come under serious threat in the last two years by corrupt elements that bled the nation for sixteen years and today openly justify the unwholesome activities of sponsored Niger Delta militants.

    However, Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of APC while appealing to the misguided protesters who are at best victims of misplaced aggression for patience and understanding, reminded them that “We are two years into the administration. To make those changes effectively and positively eventually, we have to be patient; we have to have the hope. The damage of 16 years will go through the system. You cannot get water out of a dry land.”

    Addressing the Abuja protesters put at about 700 by Reuters, Osinbajo, the acting President, blamed corruption which he says is “wealthy, powerful, influential and it is in every aspect of our lives,” And finally assuring the misguided protesters he said. “Things might be difficult today, but I am completely sure if we stay the course this country will not only get out of recession but always go to the path of sustainable development,”

    Bola Tinubu, the ‘Jagaban’ of Nigerian politics’ who went around the nation mouthing restructuring and Professor Osinbajo, an eminent legal mind know that whatever victory is achieved after this economic recession will be a pyrrhic victory. Unlike some of the misguided protesters who did not demonstrate against Jonathan creeping dictatorship when he sacked CBN governor for raising an alarm about missing  $20b in NNPC account, sacked a justice of an appeal court that ruled against his party but now want Nigerians to believe they are fighting Buhari’s dictatorship  and many of their co- travelers occupying state houses as governors and national assembly’s as law makers, who cannot articulate our crisis of nationhood, they know the truth. They know our crisis of nationhood is politics and not economics or economic recession.

    Our problem is the tyranny of the state which federal arrangement sets out to resolve. We should find out why restive groups are prepared to wreck the nation. Why are Niger Delta leaders and avengers sabotaging the economy of the country? Why   were federal ministers stealing and stacking dollars in their homes? Why did federal ministers of Finance who know importation of labour of other societies would sound the death knell of our own economy deploy the bulk of our foreign earnings to importation of everything under the sun for 16 years?  Why do bureaucrats steal pensioners’ funds? Why are our two houses of assemblies, houses of deals? The most plausible answer is that people are ready to destroy the system they don’t have faith in. After all, no sane man sets out to destroy his father’s house.

    The celebration of a villain as a hero and the morbid wish of those who want Buhari dead because with exchange rate of N500 to a dollar, they could no more make easy billions through importation of everything under the sun at the expense of poor Nigerians is a call for a restructured Nigeria. Nigeria will be better off with a Niger Delta region or group of states paying dividends on the nations investment which Kachikwu put at $40b and 50% taxation on her earnings as it was in the first republic than the current situation where we do not know what was produce or when what was refined or imported is diverted to private dumps owned by some ministers.

    A restructured Nigeria is  a win-win for every group. The Niger Delta will be free to celebrate their heroes. With industries springing up in the east, unpatriotic importers of substandard goods in the name of business will be forced to look inwards. A viable middle belt region can contain the threat of Fulani herdsmen. The Fulani who currently armed killers because the constitution allows them to invade other people’s farms and homes will be forced live in the 21st century by providing deep water irrigation to feed their cattle and they will be free to welcome their kit and kin from Northern Cameroon and Niger who they claim are the foreign cattle rustlers. And of course the south west that survives on yam and tomatoes from the north and consumes10,000 head of cows daily  will be forced to look inward or pay the economic rate for products of those who without government subsidy ferry their goods in  amidst man- made huddles including police bribes at every state border.

  • Ambode’s traffic enforcers

    Ambode , ‘Nigeria’s alpha governor’ (apology to Sam Omatseye,) as worthy successor to his trail-blazing predecessors has in the last one and half years continued to validate the over 2000 years old Plato’s thesis that those best equipped to manage society are the philosopher kings.  His preparation through acquisition of relevant training from the best schools across the world has shown in the quality of leadership he has so far offered the good people of Lagos. When many of us shortly after his assumption office urged him to cage danfo drivers and Okada riders who wanted to take his government hostage following false hopes they received from defeated PDP, he in what has become the style of his administration, took time to study the problem before arriving at his own unassailable position which was that even animals with appropriate approach could be tamed. He shortly afterwards inaugurated his Lagos traffic law aimed at taming those who “engage in flagrant disregard or violation of traffic rules with impunity; break traffic rules at will and cause needless traffic snag, drive against traffic and beat the traffic lights, destroy traffic furniture and infrastructure, drive across the road median and through their lawlessness and irresponsible actions, daily inflict pains, grieve and sorrow on fellow citizens.”

    The reservation of some, including yours truly  as expressed on these pages on September 1, 2016 was that“ some of the penalties for some of the 11 new laws which range from  “three years imprisonment without option of fine for ‘One-Way’ driving;  a fine of N50,000 or three years imprisonment, or both; for abandoning vehicle on highway; a fine of N20,000 for riding Motorcycle against traffic, or without crash helmet and smoking while driving ,etc can neither achieved the intended objectives – whether deterrence or to raise revenues for the state – because such stiff penalties provided enough incentives for exploitation of victims by those saddled with implementation of the laws.

    My encounter with some touts pretending as traffic law enforcers about a 100 yards after the Mile 12 bridge and my over one hour observation at their Ikorodu yard for ‘haggling and bargaining’ convinced me beyond any doubt that some of the touts are on the road for other reasons other than the  Governor Ambode’s above stated objectives

    I had overtaken a wobbling truck in front of me as I descended the Mile 12 bridge towards Ikorodu, at about 8.30 a.m last Thursday. There emerged within seconds, two stick-wielding touts and two policemen menacingly pointing their guns at my car. As I rolled down the window of the passenger’s seat to find out what was happening, one of the two boys forced himself into the back seat while one of the policemen still with his gun cocked eased himself into the front seat. I was accused of taking the BRT lane. Shocked, I asked why any sane person at that hour of the morning when an Ikorodu inward motorist driving against the traffic can see as far as 500 yards ahead opt to take a BRT lane. I called their attention to over 10 vehicles that did exactly what I did-(overtake a vehicle) while we were arguing inside my car. They however insisted I must follow them to their Ikorodu office.

    At the Ikorodu office located behind TOS Benson Estate, I was taking before the head of the traffic task force, a young man of about 28. I told him his boys were up to some mischief as I did not commit any offence. After collecting my key, he then took time to explain to me that the portion of the road after the Mile 12 bridge spanning a distance of about 100 yards was marked with two solid lines and that once a motorist tyres pass over that portion, an offence has been committed. His verdict was that I was guilty as charged and would have to go and pay fine in Oshodi before returning to retrieve my impounded car. As he left me standing in the scorching sun along with scores of other victims I met there, he announced openly to no one in particular but for the benefit of all that the fine was N50,000 and those who are not satisfied have the option of going to court.

    After about 30 minutes in the hot sun, the policeman who had earlier forced his way into my car came to advice I introduce myself to the young man. Defeated and deflated, I did, appealing to him to educate unsuspecting motorists like us who obtained our driving license some 50 years back on the relevance of two solid lines on a portion of a road shared by BRT buses and other motorists. Besides I told the chief traffic law enforcer that I was slated to deliver a lecture at 10am in a nearby university. He asked me to go and wait by my car while he consulted with his key men and some policemen under a shed. Shortly afterwards, he came as promised, returned my car key and asked me to go. And when I told the touts manning the gate who insisted on collecting a gate fees of N500 that I had no money left on me except I looked for an ATM around, he graciously came down to open the gate to let me out .

    As I drove out of the place, what was on mind was not the lecture that was already one hour behind schedule. I was overwhelmed with a sense of shame and guilt. Many of those I left inside the burning sun trying to haggle and bargain their way out  trouble because they could not ‘introduce themselves’ as I did are probably victims like me with their day and plan ruined. I felt a further sense of shame that I could not suddenly transform myself into a Femi Falana and fight for the rights and dignity of those with  forlorn long look on their faces who by looking at me as I drove out Ikorodu yard of ‘haggling and bargaining’, I subconsciously believe were indeed accusing of betrayal.

    The pangs of pain increased with the realization that some traffic offence enforcers and their police accomplices who hide at obscure portions of the road to arrest unsuspecting road users who had no incentive whatsoever for BRT lane violation will return to their families with bountiful returns at the end of the day in good conscience. Stiff penalties from which only few thinking animals will not try to haggle and bargain himself from only serve as additional incentive for the sadistic enforcers who set up innocent people for a contrived offence in Mile 12, dragging them to Ikorodu where their vehicles are impounded while they find their way by public transport to Oshodi to pay fine before returning for their vehicles.

    Here is an enlightened Governor Ambode working hard to tame some products of social dislocations in the urban centres while those saddled with executing his noble objective exhibit even worse base instincts than those Ambode set out to reform.

    Ikorodu ‘haggling and bargaining’ yard is only symptomatic of what is going on all over Lagos State where danfo drivers routinely take BRT lane on even  the ever busy Ikorodu Road as in many other places and okada riders ride against traffic unmolested.

  • The Agatu/Fulani herdsmen deal

    Last week the peace deal between  the warring Agatu people of Benue and the Fulani herdsmen  midwifed by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue and his Nasarawa  State counterpart, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura to rebuild confidence after  what the former described as  “ the massive and unprecedented destruction of Agatu and killings by herdsmen”, and the latter as “the culture of impunity where a group of individuals entered other people’s land and began to kill them or attack others and their cattle” crumbled no sooner it was publicly proclaimed by the peace makers. The highlights of the collapsed peace deal designed to end five decades of reprisal massacre of cows and human beings  include  the call for “forgiveness by  the  victims while keeping silent on the need for genuine contrition;  a creation  of  dedicated grazing route along Oguto Adanyi – Ogumagbo- Bagana  communities for the movement of cattle by indigenous Fulani herdsmen’; a proposal by the peace makers  to make representation  to the Federal Government, donor  agencies, development partners, voluntary organizations and philanthropists to assist victims of the crisis in the affected communities of Benue and Nassarawa states and contribution of the sum of N30m by the two peacemakers  which would be used to provide building materials for the ravaged Agatu Communities”.

    I sympathise with both governors. It was obvious from their body language they were trying to walk the tight rope instead of striking the nail on the head (apology to Alhaji Ishmael Jose). These are governors who under a freely negotiated   federal arrangement   are expected to be independent and equal with the centre but who in reality exist at the behest of a dysfunctional centre that runs a multi-ethnic society without residual powers for the federating units. The result is that the federating units that depend on the centre for payment of salaries of local council workers, primary school teachers, and protection of life and properties which is the major reason they exist as states, cannot publicly admit the problem of our nation is the tyranny of the government at the centre.

    Thus, instead of Al Makura talking truth to the Fulani hegemonic power whose members arm herdsmen with sophisticated weapons, he spoke from both sides of the mouth without making a distinction between the victims and aggressors.  Of course, Ortorn like his fellow  new generation of Middle Belt politicians like Gabriel  Suswam, Joshua Dariye and Jonah Jang  appealed to his compatriots to allow God fight their battle while reminding them that  the only safeguard for peace and  development is forgiveness as if there can be peace without justice. The Middle Belt military politicians are not different. Their genius only find expression in planning coups (military and civilian) or threatening to shoot MKO Abiola if his mandate was allowed to stand. None of the grovelling military Generals-turned-politicians have been able to tell truth to the Fulani hegemonic power, in the manner of  the inimitable Joseph Tarka  who suffered deprivations  from the dominant northern establishment  over his demand for self-actualization  for his people within the context of Nigerian politics in the pre- and post-independence  years.

    Of course, vengeance as Governor Ortorn has said, belongs to God. Of course, the indigenous Fulani born in the land who have no other place to call home and identify with the aspirations of their host communities should be supported by the community to make a living like the rest of the people. But peace as end of justice can only be achieved by listening and coming to the aid of those whose source of subsistence living has been destroyed.  Compensating those whose cattle were massacred and above all, bringing those who engaged in mindless killing of innocent men, women and children to justice.

    Our crisis of nationhood as this column has consistently maintained, is the resistance to restructuring to make our federal arrangement work by the groups that seem to derive temporary benefit from the current unwieldy and unviable 36 states and 774 LGAs. This is why some federal lawmakers with false sense of self-worth will declare during a grazing bill debate that herdsmen have the right to graze their cattle anywhere in the country by virtue of the constitution. The question that follows is which constitution? The current constitution as many informed Nigerians have concluded  is a military document designed to keep the military that has directly or indirectly been in power since 1966  relevant in our national affairs? The document gave an edge to the North because the military leadership was dominated within this period (1967 and 1999) by military officers of northern extraction. Obasanjo, the only influential exception owes allegiance to the North that tolerated him as Head of State following the assassination of Murtala Mohammed in 1976.  (Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe who as the most senior surviving military officer, was rejected as Head of State by the North in 1966). The result of this is the emergence of a new generation of northern politicians who despite lacking the vision and mission of the late revered Ahmadu Bello who once referred the restive Middle Belt region shortly after independence as extension of his great grandfather’s fiefdom, have with this false sense of entitlement   continued to resist restructuring of the country to free federating units from the tyranny of a dysfunctional federal centre.

    It is but a dysfunctional centre that will choose to waste resources it does not generate on grazing  zones over state lands it does not control when it has the options  of either establishing or empowering private  concerns to establish  commercial ranches as obtains elsewhere in the world. And  precisely because the centre has been busy playing politics with resources it does not generate instead of providing leadership, few of the unwieldy 36 states have exhibited the type of resourcefulness  associated with pre and post-independence regional leaders,

    Why for instance can’t the government of Benue, Nasarawa and some other states in the north jointly set up or empower the wealthy Fulani farmers to set up commercial ranches that can provide employment for thousands of unemployed northern youths? Why can’t a Governor Ayo Fayose, currently obsessed with building bridges over land and an airport take a break from chasing errant cows around farms to rehabilitate the dairy farm established by Adekunle Ajasin during the Second Republic in order to take advantage of South-west’s huge market where 10,000 cows are consumed daily?

    And finally for the patrons of Fulani herdsmen in the National Assembly  who want to live in the 19th century  with their thesis of fear about  desertification  forcing  Fulani herdsmen to overrun  the southern states in desperate search for grazing field if the passage of the grazing bill failed, let me call their attention to the miracle of Botswana. Here is a country of two million people, the size of France with 70% of the land covered by Kalahari desert but exports more meat to the world than the combined efforts of other African countries. Cattle are the mainstay of Botswana economy which depends on deep-bore-hole water for 95% of her human and animal water need. Botswana was one of the poorest nations in the world with per capita income of about $70 at independence in 1964 but today one of the fastest growing economies in Africa with per capita of about $18,825.

  • Travails of El-Zakzaky

    Governments, saddled with the responsibility of protecting the interest of the noble, the ignoble and the insane who engage in activities that often defy reasoning, are constituted by ordinary men. For this reason, they are prone to political crime. Their arduous task is not made any easier by the fact that these ordinary men are not immune to the deep-seated prejudices of their group. The result is that quite often, private interest is substituted for public interest.

    To many critical minds, the ongoing war against El- Zakzaky and his Shia group viciously waged by state actors who happen to be members of the predominant rival Sunni Islam, the medium is the message. It is believed Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Umaru Yar’Adua and now Buhari under whose administrations El Zakzaky and his Shia Islam group have experienced some form deprivations cannot be independent arbiters. There are just too many coincidences to invalidate such a conspiracy theory.

    Let us first trace the Sunni and Shi’a political rivalry back to Saudi Arabia tribal groups put together as Islamic state by Holy Prophet Mohammed and the war of succession that followed his death in 632 A.D. Available literature has shown that in the ensuing war of succession, the Shi’a made up of Prophet Mohammed’s family and the Muhajirun, supported Ali Ibn Abi Talib, his cousin and son-in-law as his authentic successor while the Sunni, predominantly made up of tribal leaders of Mecca and Medina who were initially opposed to Prophet Mohammed insisted the Prophet died without appointing a successor and proceeded to vote for Abu Bakr as the new Caliph to  head the Islamic state. Beyond politics, what separates the two warring groups are a number disputed Hadiths relating to aspects of prayers and marriage. Therefore, that the war has gone on for about 14 centuries despite the fact that there is no serious disagreement on theological teaching only confirms it is all about politics rather than quest for salvation of souls.

    Nigeria where over 95% of Muslims faithful belong to the Sunni group did not get entangled in the endless battle until mid-80s when Ibrahim El-Zakzaky probably of Ebira ethno-linguistic group, born in Zaria, formerly known as Zazzau, one of the original Hausa states that embraced Islamic religion in mid 1450s, long before it was captured by the Fulani jihadists in 1805, introduced Shia Islam to Nigeria. Just as it was in the early days of the rivalry in Mecca, El Zakzaky and his Shi’a group drew most of their support from the poor and the disadvantaged indigenous tribal groups in the north. And just as in Saudi Arabia where the political actors hide under the state to wage a proxy war against Shia states like Iran, the belief is that political state actors in Nigeria have on behalf of the dominant Sunni Islam, waged a proxy war under the guise of protecting the Nigerian society from El Zakzaky’s dangerous religious teachings.

    And what are these dangerous teachings? As defined by the state actors, they include El-Zakzaky and his Shi’a Islam group’s claim that ‘sovereignty lies only with Allah’, their call for a stringent application of the Islamic law and  their yearning for a theocratic state patterned after post- Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution Iran. But to many objective observers, these so-called dangerous teachings are not any more inimical to the health of our nation than the pronouncements and actions of prominent mainstream Sunni northern Muslims including governors who sent hundreds of northern youths for religious indoctrination under Bin Laden while he took political refuge in Sudan.

    It is also debatable if El-Zakzaky is any more dangerous than Senator Ahmed Yerima, who as governor of Zamfara, one of the poorest and educationally backward states in the federation, assembled prominent northern Sunni Islam members along with ambassadors of Muslim nations who hailed him as he hilariously launched what President Obasanjo then described as ‘political Sharia that will soon fade away’. Yerima’s action, more than El-Zakzaky’s cravings was a direct assault on Nigeria constitution and a threat to the unity of the country as it led to massive demonstrations and killings of hundreds of people in Kano, Kaduna and a few other states in the north.

    To deny the possibility of the state proxy war on behalf of dominant Sunni in Nigeria is to deny the fact that Sunni Saudi Arabia is waging a proxy war on demonized Shia Iran long after it was established by the international intelligence community that the former which pretends to fight God’s war is a fertile breeding ground for radical Islam and by extension global terrorism.

    But perhaps what has made the argument of the state and its actors about protecting our nation from the dangerous teachings of El-Zakzaky and his Shia group more tenuous has been the various pronouncements by the judiciary since the travails of El-Zakzaky began during Babangida regime in the 90s, all of which contradicted the state claim that he constitutes a danger to society.

    El-Zakzaky’s latest victory and the judicial pronouncement came after one year in detention without charges. Arrested by the military on December 14, 2015, and detained following a clash with the military during which about 347 members of his Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) were killed, he approached the court through his lawyer, Femi Falana to demand for his freedom. Rejecting submission by Tijjani Gazali, the  SSS lawyer, that “decision to hold the Islamic cleric and his wife for their safety was not based on law,”  Justice Gabriel Kolawole, ordered El-Zakzaky’s release saying, “I have not been shown any incident report or any complaint lodged by residents around the neighborhood that the applicant has become a nuisance to his neighborhood.”

    Long before this victory, El-Zakzaky  had back in 1996 after a protracted judicial battle secured another landmark judicial victory over General Abacha who  had  ordered his  detention in February 1996 for causing public disaffection against his military junta.

    And it is also on record that while the  April 21, 1998,  Muslim Brotherhood’s violent protest against the arrest of El-Zakzaky’s wife and children failed to secure their release, it was the court that later ordered the release of Zeenah, El-Zakzaky’s wife, her six children along with eight other women detained for insulting Abacha. Again when the Abdulsalami regime failed to extend the general amnesty enjoyed by many Abacha detainees to El-Zakzaky in August 27, 1998, following Abacha’s death, the judiciary ordered his release.  It is safe to conclude from this string of judicial victories that contrary to the claim by the state, the judiciary does not consider El-Zakzaky a danger to society.

    El-Zakzaky has not denied his preference for a more stringent application of Islamic legal system or indeed the establishment of a theocracy modeled after Iran, but he has insisted “Our weapon is positive reasoning, truth and good conduct. Guns are for the reckless and foolhardy. We have been conducting our affairs peacefully, calling people to the truth for the last 36 years… We save lives, not kill them.”

    Since the  judiciary has consistently insisted that El-Zakzaky and his Shia group are not a threat to the country’s security, the state has to provide proof to invalidate his thesis that he and his group are victims of religious intolerance that have come to define  the once-celebrated ‘one north, one people’ since  the assassination of Ahmadu Bello in 1966.

  • Nurturing our own Joe Biden

    The modesty, integrity, selfless service as well as the quality of leadership provided by Joe Biden, the outgoing American Vice President has been wildly celebrated by the social media in the last two weeks. The tragic death of his son, a veteran of Iran war and a former Attorney General of his state of Delaware in USA provided an opportunity for the celebration of his unique qualities and the quality of responsible leadership he offered his people. Biden, we are told was elected into the American Senate at 29. And for the next 35 years, he daily went from his Delaware home to Washington DC by train to perform his duties. Then tragedy struck. His son was diagnosed with cancer. He was about to sell his only house to supplement the treatment of his sick son, when Obama came to his aid by making contribution from his personal savings. Unfortunately Biden’s illustrious son did not survive the cancer scourge.  Joe Biden, we are reminded will return by train back to his native Delaware on January 20 after serving as vice president of the most powerful nation on earth for eight years.

    The Biden narrative was probably to draw a parallel between American democracy that produces men of solid character that can be counted upon to provide selfless and responsible leadership and our own variant of democracy that has produced many leaders without character who have since the beginning of the second republic betrayed the trust of the people.  Since those behind the Biden story were trying to provide a parallel between tales of responsive and responsible leadership in the US and our nation where leaders believe and behave as if they are doing us a favour by serving us,  the well-circulated Ajimobi of Oyo’s story of ‘ I am the constituted authority’ and the scandal of how our Abuja power wielders between  2009  and 2016 frittered away about N7b in the guise of providing residential mansion for our own vice president which hit the social media immediately after  the Biden narrative last Monday  provided just that.

    Unlike Biden who hops into the train every day to perform his assignment in Washington, the account was that government desirous of building a befitting mansion for the then VP, a man of means who had piled up great fortunes as an architect and later a contractor to northern state governors with string of houses in Abuja and a personal jet long before owning one became a fad among the then ruling PDP leading lights, a contract was awarded. After N6.215 had been paid to the contractors, the then Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, in 2012 submitted a request for additional N9billion, after his initial N13b variation was greeted with public disapproval. Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) later scaled down the figure to N6billion. Herman Hembe, chairman of the House Committee on FCT claimed that while 87% of the amount had been paid, only 50% of the job has been executed. The mansion, we are told, will include a N258m house for the VP’s ADC, N228m house for his security officer, a N95m mosque, an N84m church, a N84 boys quarters, N114m security quarters, N55m gate house and N1.7 billion infrastructure. The abandoned mansion, we have been reminded is one of about 19,000 abandoned projects requiring about N12 trillion to complete.

    And come to think of it, unlike Biden who apart from being the president of the American Senate, steps into the office of President if the president is out of Washington, the office of Nigeria’s vice president is superfluous. His allotted functions such as membership of the National Security Council, the National Defence Council, Federal Executive Council and chairman of National Economic Council are at the behest of the Presidency. Nigerians have not forgotten how President Obasanjo chased Vice President Atiku out of Aso rock and out of his official residence or how Yar’Adua’s wife, his son-in-law and James Ibori, then governor of Delta State took over his presidency following Yar’Adua’s illness until Pastor Tunde Bakare and his group forced the National Assembly to come up with the ‘doctrine of necessity.’

    The Biden narrative also reminds Nigerians how the  federal government,  through the FCT  in 2013  budgeted  N50b for designing and constructing  of residences  for Senate President David Mark, his deputy, Ekweremadu, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, his deputy Emeka Ihedioha.

    The story was that under the dubious government monetization policy, some of these officers bought their residences. The government did not think it owed Nigerians who were then called upon to foot the construction of new mansions any explanation as to what became of the proceeds of the sales of the old mansions to their occupiers. We were similarly not told how much the then Senate President and the current one, who recently moved from his Maitama private residence to the Senate guest house, were paid for the pains of residing in their personal houses to serve us.

    And talking of Biden going by train from Delaware to Washington, also reminds us how Senate President Saraki recently added a sleek Mercedes state-of-the-art limousine   to the Senate President’s fleet. But that was not until he had in spite of unfavourable public opinion expended about N3.7b to procure state-of-the-art Toyota Prados for senators who had shortly before then given themselves personal car loans.

    And finally, the Biden narrative also reminds us of the battle between Ibrahim Idris, the current IG who accused Arase, his predecessor in office of departing with 24 vehicles including two official bullet proof BMW cars apart from four vehicles he was entitled to take away with him on retirement. Arase denied the charges but not without, in a reportedly written letter to Idris, revealing how two past police chiefs left the office of IG with 22 cars.

    Since Nigeria literarily copied the American constitution with slight modifications, the difference between responsive and responsible leadership by American politician like Biden can only be attributed to existence of solid institutions and the American political socialization process. Moulded by the American socialization process, Biden couldn’t have been anything other than Biden even if he had wanted to. No one assumes leadership position by accident. America is unlike Nigeria, where an Obasanjo will literarily climb the palm tree from the top to become president of a federation without a political base; where Atiku Abubakar, or Namadi Sambo will become vice presidents on account of the financial muscle they wielded within PDP; or where Jonathan would move from obscure position of an Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) Assistant Director to the presidency or an Osinbajo who would by Bola Tinubu’s nod become vice president.

    While in the American system, the centre cannot spend the money it does not generate; our own constitution has no provision for a residual list. The centre fixes minimum wages for Lagos and Kebbi and Ekiti and Rivers. Whereas when minimum wage was introduced by the Western Region in the fifties, the northern and eastern region that could not afford it did not bother to replicate it in their regions. When ‘free education’ indirectly funded by heavy taxation of the adults and cocoa farmers was introduced  by the Western Region after an initial attempt to derail it by the NCNC, the opposition party in Ibadan failed, it embarked on its own short-lived free education programme in the east. The north did not pronounce it as a policy.

    As long as continue to reject call for restructuring preferring the current military ‘unitarism’ which  allows an unproductive centre to determine the fate of other federating units , our own equivalent of Joe Biden will continue to be the Atiku Abubakars, Goodluck Jonathans, David Marks and Bukola Sarakis.

  • Wike Vs Police

    In the hierarchy of state security apparatus of power, the police take preeminence.  Either as guarantee against a descent into a state of nature where it is the survival of the fittest with everyone at war with one another or for security of life and property, peace and harmony, the police beyond taking care of the deviants also serve as arbitrators between warring husband and wives, landlords and tenants and the privileged and under privileged. In recent times, they have been called upon to navigate unfamiliar terrains such as protecting the public from governors as ‘thieves in government houses’, ensuring military Generals as accomplices in the sacking of military barracks and murder of military officers by Boko Haram face the law and alleged corrupt supreme court judges as merchants of injustice, receive a dose of what they routinely administer to criminals if they are found guilty.

    Our underpaid and overstretched police force, often accommodated in decrepit decaying buildings has received little attention from an ill-equipped self-serving political class. But then our military created ‘new breed’ politicians, who’s only known political socialization took place within the military unitary system cannot give what they don’t have. It is therefore not an accident that they have not been able to properly articulate our crisis of nationhood which, more than anything else is political in the last 17 years either because of their limitations or because they are beneficiaries of a lie we live as a federation. This explains why a Senator Dino Melaye will say “his goal in politics is to ensure youths get their own share of our resources”, a Tambuwal, former Speaker of the lower house and now governor of Sokoto State will say our fundamental crisis of nationhood can be solved with the centre pumping more money to the states without any reflection about a constitution of a multi-ethnic society that makes provision for only exclusive  and concurrent list with the former overriding the later in case of conflict which means the states can go to sleep waiting for hand-outs from a parasitic centre that pretends to own everything. And for our purpose which is the abuse of the Nigerian Police by ill-equipped politicians, we can add both Ayo Fayose of Ekiti and Nyesom Wike of Rivers who either out of ignorance or deceit see the federal police only as a veneer to commit illegality. It is not an accident that governing elite that obfuscate the role of police in society cannot see those who fell in the course of duty in the Boko Haram besieged North-east, in the Fulani herdsmen ravaged Middle Belt and in the dangerous Niger Delta creeks which added DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) Alkali Mohammed, of Mobile Police Unit 48, and his orderly to its long list of its victims on December 10, 2016 beyond just numbers.

    According to the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the newly-created Sixth Division of the Army in Port Harcourt, Maj.-Gen. Kasimu Abdulkarim, DSP Alkali Mohammed and his orderly were beheaded by hoodlums on Saturday December 10, 2016 during Rivers rerun legislative election at Ujju community near Omoku in Ogba/Edema/Ndoni council area, where the state’s chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Felix Obuah, hails from. The incident allegedly followed a false alarm by Wike and Obuah that the army and policemen had killed three PDP members, an allegation, Maj.-Gen. Abdulkarim dismissed as “mere farce to garner sympathy”, or a “design aimed at tarnishing the army’s image”.

    As it turned out, devious governing elite that have not deemed it fit to celebrate any of our past fallen police officers are not now in a hurry to secure justice for those “killed because they answered the call of duty to serve in an election”. The arrest of five suspects- Noble Nwaerema, Dike Deinpiribo, Valentine Alalibo, Onwunari J. Warmate, and Iloke Stephen and the decision of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to set up a high powered investigation team, we now know are not enough guarantee these fallen police officers will ever get justice in the circumstances where Governor Nyesom Wike has already queried the position of IGP Ibrahim Idris and the army. He recently asked with an undisguised malice, ”The army announced that they recovered the uniforms from the forest; was there a polling unit in the forest?” Other questions followed in quick succession. “What is the polling unit where he was killed? “Where is the call log of a former commissioner who was alleged to have communicated with the killers? For Wike, the recovery of the headless body of the officer and the arrest of his suspected killers count for very little.

    And this was as the police top hierarchy insisted Wike deployed the services of the officers attached to him for illegal activities. According to statement signed by Force Public Relations Officer, Don N. Awunah, “police officers in the convoy of Rivers State governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, on the day of the election misused the firearms in their possession contrary to the provisions of Force Order 237”. The statement added “The service personnel became overzealous, took laws into their hands and opened fire, causing panic in the crowd. They joined in storming the Port Harcourt City Council Secretariat and prevented the movement of election results of Mocha polling unit to the appropriate collation centre designated by INEC, in flagrant disregard and disobedience to senior Police officers present at the venue.”

    However, following the dismissal of the affected police officers by the police authorities, Wike insisted “The dismissed officers committed no crime other than foil a carefully-orchestrated electoral heist by officials of INEC in collusion with the APC and the Nigeria Police Force.” For him “The claim by the police that the affected officers misused their firearms while in the convoy of Governor Wake on December 10, 2016 is a wrong and cruel fabrication.” But he has not denied he had the police officers with him when by his own admission, “Two days after the elections, on December 12, 2016, he led thousands of Rivers people, to resist “an invasion by the police on the premises of the Port Harcourt City Local Government Council, in a brazen attempt to rig the elections in favor of the APC”.

    First, how can Wike who was not the one that issued out arms to the police officers dispute the claim by those who issued out the arms that the arms were misused? Then what is the motive of a governor who opted to deploy the police apparatus meant his protection to confront other senior police officers legally deployed to protect INEC office? One can hazard a guess as to the motive if it is recalled that not too long ago, Governor Wike protected by the police, allegedly in company of thugs, drove from the Government House to physically prevent a judge accused of corruption from being arrested in the middle of the night.

    And for Wike’s PDP, “The hurried dismissal” of the police men is another valid pointer to the pre-election rigging plans and the assassination attempt on Governor Wike”. The proof according to the Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the party spokesman: “NPC withdrawal of over 70 percent of its personnel deployed to Rivers State Government House and the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the Governor a few days to the election.”

    It is on record that INEC had long before the election, condemned in very strong terms “the relentless false allegations, provocative and dangerous comments being made by Wike, all of which are capable of inciting people to commit violent acts” Maj.-Gen. Kasimu Abdulkarim put it differently “when you have people in leadership who do not take the responsibility of being a leader, this is what happens and they are issues that constitute threat to ordinary Nigerians.”

  • The ‘war’ in Southern Kaduna

    Reacting to latest mayhem in Southern Kaduna, Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan, Ibrahim Yakubu told a press conference last week that “53 villages in four local council areas came under attack resulting in the death of 808 people, torching of 1,422 houses, 16 churches, 19 shops and one primary school”. This cycle of violence in the name of religion must have prompted Pastor Adeboye, a leading member of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to praise Ayo Fayose of Ekiti for his courage in facing up to the challenges posed by Fulani herdsmen in his state. Commending the controversial governor, he had said “We thank God for your courage, for your boldness. We are grateful to God for being willing to take risks so that your people can be protected. You have been a governor who knows when to say enough is enough in defence of his people.  And I am sure you know what I am talking about and I am sure the world knows”. I am sure many understand this is not an endorsement of Fayose’s puerile fantasies, infantile rhetoric against Buhari or his receipt of N1.3b ‘Dazukigate’ slush fund as confirmed by Musliu Obanikoro for the pacification of Ekiti in 2014 and acquisition of mansions in choice areas of Lagos and Abuja while salaries of worker are in arrears of several months.

    Adeboye was probably frustrated by lack of resourcefulness of other governors including his brother pastor, Jonah Jang of Plateau who at a period he should be addressing the Fulani herdsmen’s challenge was attempting to steal the chairmanship of governors’ forum after losing the election by 16 to 19 with the help of President Jonathan who once said stealing was not corruption.

    Fayose has not done much beyond his threat to arrest cows and arm his people against Fulani herdsmen who seem to have forgotten Lugard’s declaration after the defeat of the Caliphate in 1903 that the British, the new conquerors, had taken over the powers they once wielded over the conquered Hausa territories but today speak in the National Assembly as if the whole Nigeria is Fulani fiefdom.

    A governor is the chief security officer of the state. The strange ‘unitary’ constitution imposed on federal state by the military has not clearly spelt out how this was to be done with the control of the police and other state apparatus of power by the federal government. But a more resourceful governor from the besieged Middle Belt region could have borrowed a leaf from Lagos State that outwitted the inefficient federal government and its traffic bodies and set up LASTMA to solve perennial Lagos traffic gridlock.

    If nothing else, such an outfit can monitor the movement of Fulani herdsmen who the federal government with its awesome control of apparatus of state power claims is invincible. In seven years, there has been no record of court appearance or indictment of any member of a group described as the ‘fourth most deadly terrorist group in the world’ despite the fact that the group often takes possession of conquered territories. Except the Sultan of Sokoto who claimed ‘Fulani herdsmen are criminals’  and Governor El Rufai of Kaduna who admitted  paying them compensation to forestall further mindless killing of innocent Nigerians, both ex-President Jonathan and  President Buhari have said very little about them.

    I sympathise with Pastor Adeboye and his other Christian leaders who have been forced despite Jesus admonition of ‘turning the other cheek’ to now canvass ‘an eye for an eye’ as contained in the Jewish Torah and in their Arab  half-brother’s Holy Quran, as answer to brutal killings of their members. Unfortunately, the cycle of violence and mindless killing of the innocents have nothing to do with religion. It is nothing but a continuation of 1802 Fulani war over their host’s land as source of economic and political power fought in the name of religion.  The Zangon Kataf mid-May 1992 rioting which spread to Kaduna resulting in the death of about 100 people was according to Babangida who should know better, designed to derail his “transition without end’. We have since realized it afforded him an opportunity to nail Major General Zamani Lekwot, his political rival.

    The May 1999 Southern Kaduna Kafanchan outbreak of violence was undoubtedly political. It afforded many residents of Jama‘a emirate to protest not only against the appointment of a new Emir of Jama‘a but the entire emirate system. The appointment of an emir does not often reflect the wishes of the people. Theoretically, the people of an emirate select their emir for the sultan’s endorsement. But in reality, the choice is often restricted to the linage of the first 12 first flag bearers appointed by Uthman Dan fodio back in 1804.

    The June 24, 2012 bombing of the Christ the King Catholic in Zaria, leading to the death of 14 worshippers, with 32 injured, the bombing of the ECWA Church, in Wusasa, leading to the death of three people as well as the attack on Kaduna Shalom Church International by a suicide bomber leading to three deaths were all means to an end by those who hide under religion to pursue their selfish economic agenda. The Southern Kaduna  Christian youths  who came out on a revenge mission killing over 70 Hausa Muslims within two hours, and the response of their Muslim counterparts two days later attacking Christian targets in Tudun Wada, Unguwan Mua’azu, Trikania, Panteka and Kawo played out as scripted by their authors.

    The truth is that little has changed between the relations of the Fulani and its neighbors since pre-colonial period. Fulani settlers were once considered as aliens by the Hausa, their chief host with whom they were engaged in endless conflicts over grazing right and destruction of agricultural crops. The Fulani ended the conflicts by taking over political power from their Hausa hosts after the jihad.   It is instructive that of the 12 flag bearers appointed by Uthman Dan Fodio after his victory, only one was Hausa. Although the deposed reigning king of Gobir was not a believer, Islam had existed in the Hausa states for over 400 years before the Jihad.

    The crisis in Southern Zaria like those in other parts of Hausaland is over land. The Zango Katafs with their neigbours, Ikuku, Kaje Kamatan tribes consider themselves the owners of their land. They had coexisted in relative peace with the Hausa settlers who handled the marketing of their farm products. The Fulani conquest of the Hausa states changed the equation as the Zango Katafs had to pay a tribute of about 100 slaves annually to the Emir of Zaria. They were in fact in revolt against Zaria as at the time of the British conquest. Although the British colonial power took the power to levy away after the 1903 defeat of the Caliphate, they have after independence continued to view some of these areas as part of their grandfather’s fiefdom. Ahmadu Bello said this much during the Tiv populular uprising shortly after independence.

    The ongoing mindless killings by Fulani herdsmen in the Middle Belt region and the militancy in the Niger Delta unfortunately remain part of the unfinished Awo’s battle at the London constitutional conference that heralded Nigeria into Independence. He was the last man left standing insisting that ‘freedom for Nigeria must be freedom for individuals and groups making up the federation’ long after both Zik and Ahmadu Bello had reached a secret agreement to accept British proposal that the minority issue be postponed until after independence. Awo paid for his principled stand. Accused of encouraging the minorities to rise against their feudal lords in the name of democracy, he was incarcerated in 1962 with the Mid-West created out of the west, the most homogenous of the regions in 1963, not as an answer to demand of restive groups for self-actualization but to weaken Awo’s political base.

  • In defence of Ibori and Niger Delta

    James Ibori, celebrated at home by his people but haunted into prison by his Nigerian and foreign detractors, is unarguably a Niger Delta hero. Jailed by Southwark Crown court  on April 17, 2012 for 13 years after he ‘pleaded guilty to 10 counts of money laundering and stealing $50m from the Delta State treasury’, he was released from prison last week. For turning out in their thousands across Niger Delta region to celebrate his release, the good people of Niger Delta have gone through severe stress and strain.  Professional mourners who weep louder than the bereaved have continued to libel, malign and vilify Ibori’s Niger Delta compatriots. Critics have not been restrained by the Delta State government official statement that acknowledged Ibori as the political leader of the people of Niger Delta. Speaking on behalf of the government, the Commissioner for Information, Patrick Ukah, stated unequivocally, “We are all very happy that our son, our brother, former governor has been released. … As a state, we don’t have issues with our former governor.”  “Ibori remains our political messiah”, added Chief Robert Eyaufe, One of Ibori’s classmates in secondary school,

    Neither have they been restrained by the intervention of Senator Peter Nwabaoshi (PDP, Delta North) who flew to London to pass a vote of confidence on James Ibori as ‘a good man’. According to him, “There may never be a governor in Nigeria who will sit in the cell or prison and make a governor; make a senator, support the Senate President, and make his daughter a member of the House of Assembly… and make a Speaker (of the House of Representatives).

    Rather than be humbled by this level of support, what we got was a cheeky remark by Debo Adeniran, the executive chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, that “Ibori has become a king in a community of thieves”, adding that   “demonstration and celebration of Ibori’s release  is a demonstration that crime is a cultural act in that community”. He was joined by Olanrewaju Suraj of Civil Society Network against Corruption, who also says that ‘Ibori’s conviction cannot be said to be politically motivated because it was not carried out by Nigerian courts but by courts of international jurisdiction.’ If you ask me, I will say such statement is in itself politically motivated. Who but the victim is in a better position to determine a politically motivated conviction? Suraj instead of stopping at that went on to add that ‘the majority of the people there (Niger Delta) don’t see their so-called own people as the enemies of the progress of the region”. The verdict of those who voted for him twice and declared him ‘political leader and a messiah’ after serving prison term for the theft of their funds should in my view carry more weight.

    I think what can be said of the Niger Delta region is that it is a land of two extremes where the poor and disadvantaged suffer persecution complex while the privileged who Ken Saro-Wiwa christened “vultures”, that live on the blood of their poor”, suffer from entitlement complex. To the former, outsiders are the villains while those live by swearing in their names, are the heroes. This perhaps explains why Ibori’s other Niger Delta leaders were no less loved.

    Navy Commander Alfred Diette Spiff, governor of River from May 1967 to 1975, who could not pay River State teachers’ salaries as at when due was found to be cruising on the high seas in his private ship on the night of Murtala Muhammed’s coup against Gowon in 1975. Following the probe of Gowon’s military administrators, Diette Spiff lost a rank, his ship and some 16 properties in choice areas of Port Harcourt. His people’s faith in his leadership remained unshaken. They went on to crown him the ‘Amanyanabo Twon’ of Brass in Bayelsa. Peter Odili was governor of Rivers 1999-2007. He was accused by EFCC of diverting N100b states fund for personal use at the end of his tenure. He however secured Justice Ibrahim Buba’s perpetual injunction against trial, an injunction recently described by Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption (PACAC) that has gone on to recommend his retrial by EFCC, as ’odious, perverted and irresponsible’. Odili, highly respected by the dreadful Niger Delta militants was the kingmaker of all his successor governors including Wike who recently acknowledged his contribution during a church thanksgiving service to his emergence as governor of Rivers. We had the late Diepreye Almieyeseigha, governor of Bayelsa 199-2007. He was first arrested in London in 2005 for stealing the resources of his people to buy four houses worth about 10 million pounds in London and for keeping one million pounds cash at his London home and about two million pounds in his bank account. After jumping bail to escape to Nigeria, he was accused by EFCC of spending his people’s funds to buy $401,913 house in Massachusetts and another $600,000 house in Rockville Maryland USA. EFCC got him indicted through the courts but received presidential amnesty from President Jonathan, another illustrious son of Niger Delta in 2013. Lucky Igbinedion was governor of Edo 1999-2007. He was found guilty of embezzling $24m and was ordered by Justice Abdulahi Kafarati of Federal High Court Enugu to pay a fine of N3m. His indictment had little effect on his popularity among his people. Despite the decay and collapse infrastructure he left behind at the end of his tenure, the candidate he openly supported and promoted in the recent governorship election in Edo State scored about 250,000 votes to the 290,000 of Obaseki, the candidate of Oshiomhole generally praised for his outstanding performance compared only to the Ogbemudia magic era of the 70s.  And finally was Ibori for whom the drums are being rolled out after successfully serving a prison term for stealing $50m from the Delta state treasury.

    Add to the above the declaration of President Jonathan the most successful Niger Delta politician of this century that ‘stealing is not corruption’; we begin to see a trend. It is not an accident that women from Niger Delta along with some 23 different groups from the area have been demonstrating in Lagos and Abuja in solidarity with Mrs. Patience Jonathan who without shame belatedly laid claim to some fictitious accounts to which EFCC had traced some of the ‘Dazukigate’ slush funds.

    And finally, we cannot vilify groups within a federal set up, if they choose to celebrate their culture without apologies. The British we have blamed for our woes for 50 years warned us that as a multi-ethnic society where different groups are at different levels of cultural development, the federating units must run a government based on the culture and creativity of their forebears. Our ill-equipped military for selfish reasons turned our country into a ‘unitary federalism’ creating in the process more divisions. What is going on in the Niger Delta region is not different from what obtains in even advanced cultures of the Western societies where the privileged elite exploit the underprivileged. The difference is only in paradigm change from the law of nature which is the survival of the fittest.

    With a federal arrangement based on consensus of federating ethnic groups, political elite that choose to retain the strategy deployed by the Fulani invaders of the Hausa states after 1804 and those who believe it is in their enlightened self-interest to advance to the one Awo and his new emergent political elite adopted to transform their agrarian Yoruba society between 1952 and 1959 will be at liberty to do so.

  • Magu, victim of government of Non politicians

    The echo of Buhari’s if ‘we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us’ has continued to resonate. He has however devoted the last 16 months of his administration to a crusade against only those who have explicitly stated ‘stealing government funds is not corruption’, leaving those who are directly responsible for the current depression through their mismanagement of the privatization policy that scuttled the IMF projected seven million jobs, and turned our country to importers of labour of other nations with millions of our own youths thrown into the unemployment market.

    And because the nation has been frightened into frenzy by the level of debauchery exposed on daily basis by government, we have failed to acknowledge that part of our current problem is the preponderance of men of faith rather than politicians in government. The result is a regime that seems to daily find excuses for failure by blaming its predecessors whose forces including those used by Ibori and Saraki to run Ribadu out of town and Magu out of EFCC into detention are still visible in government. Unlike advanced democracies driven by Orwell’s fictional Nineteen Eighty Four, where everyone is a slave to the state, we are piloted by a physically exhausted 74 years old Buhari, a national icon who would rather run the state by prayers than politics. He is ably supported by an equally apolitical but praying Vice President, Pastor Osinbajo. There is also Pastor Babachir, the SGF.  A few others who hold critical position in government are said to fuel intra party crisis in order to present themselves as alternative to physically fatigued Buhari in 2019 in case he chooses not to run. Conspicuously missing in Buhari’s team are the real politicians.

    Raged against President Buhari on the other side are his well known adversaries hooded in APC cloak. They live and thrive through intrigue, serial betrayals and opportunism. They blame Buhari for all the woes of the country including the continued sabotage of the economy by ravaging Niger Delta Avengers they secretly sponsored and equipped. Their open antagonism to Buhari’s war on corruption finally found expression in their refusal to confirm Magu as chairman of EFCC last week.

    The script was modelled after the one used to take over the Senate. Giving themselves enough time to perfect the script, they had held on to President Buhari’s request for five months. Then as if the Senate was doing Nigeria a favour after the long delay, the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, announced at plenary on Wednesday that the confirmation hearing would hold on Thursday – the following morning.  Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption chairman, Chukwuka Utazi, PDP-Enugu, went on to confirm to Premium Times the hearing would hold as scheduled.  But curiously on Thursday morning, the Senate failed to list the Magu’s confirmation in the Order Paper. Those who understand how the Senate Mafia operates will agree the chamber did not receive the DSS report that was deployed to scuttle Magu’s confirmation only that morning.

    Unfortunately many of us who as columnists try to interpret government action for the benefit of the public have not been of much help to President Buhari. When he postponed quenching of a raging fire in his house until the very morning the election of the Senate leadership was to take place, we attributed his naive ‘I am ready to work with anyone’ as respect for independence of four arms of government. We justified government indolence for spending six months to constitute a cabinet, a task often executed within 24 in other democracies. When reminded that those who did not contribute to his electoral success or understand the policy thrust of APC have hijacked his presidency, we allowed the President to get away with a righteous indignation that he understands politics better than anyone else on account of having contested for the presidency three times. When Pa Bisi Akande first raised alarm about the self-serving group that was set to destabilise the APC they had worked hard to build, we wrongly credited Buhari with Fulani’s famed mastery of power politics.

    Now with an  attempted derailment of Buhari’s war on corruption by the Senate using  Daura’s DSS report and the SGF alleged award of contracts to the company in which he has an interest using the Senate Ad Hoc committee report, the pertinent question is who Daura is working for?  How come Saraki and his ‘Like Mind Senators’ who have demonstrated their opposition to the President’s war on corruption had the DSS report ahead of the executive that controls the awesome apparatus of state power. We can then proceed to ask how come the DSS brief about  Magu’s alleged flight to Maiduguri alongside Mohammed and  Nnamdi Okonkwo of Fidelity Bank who are being investigated by his commission and the alleged award of contract by FCDA to his Africa Energy to lavishly furnish his residence at a cost of N43m was never passed to the President before Magu’s name was forwarded to the Senate for confirmation.

    How come DSS that organized a sting operation at the middle of the night to retrieve alleged proceeds of corruption from residences of some Supreme Court justices was unable to capture an abuse of office by the SGF who has not denied awarding contracts to ‘Rholavision’, a company he claimed to have founded in 1990 but from whose board he claimed to have resigned in 2015. The two tragic events seem to vindicate the claim by many concerned Nigerians including the President’s wife  that some of those currently surrounding  the President are working neither for Buhari nor Nigeria but for themselves.

    And once again, it will appear Buhari and his APC government of men of faith has been outwitted by Saraki and his ‘like mind senators’. The forces that demoted Ribadu, chased him out of the country, and replaced him with a candidate of their own choice; arrested, detained and suspended Magu from the police for several months without salary before he was finally transferred out of EFCC ‘for illegally keeping case files of top politicians being investigated by EFCC in his house’ until he was rehabilitated by President Jonathan are still very influential in Buhari’s government of change.

    The immediate target and victim is Magu, regarded by his peers as ‘an incorruptible and courageous officer’, who as head of the sensitive unit charged with the investigation of senior public officers, investigated the role of  Bukola Saraki in the collapse of  Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria as well as James Ibori, former Governor of Delta  currently serving jail term in London  in addition to recording in one year, more high profile convictions than all his   predecessors put together.  The ultimate target however is Buhari’s war on corruption which they intend to discredit