The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • Nigerians expect final PDP rites of passage

    Nigerians expect final PDP rites of passage

    Last week, the entire political structure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in what has been tagged political tsunami dissolved into the All Progressives Congress (APC) because, in the words of Sheriff Oborevwori, the Delta State governor, “the drinking pattern needed to change as a result of changes in the taste of the palm wine”.

    To observers of Nigerian politics that have watched the descent of ‘PDP family feud over the sharing of our resources” into war of attrition, the development sounded the death knell of the PDP.

    To PDP enablers and self-proclaiming crusaders of democracy however, the development constitutes a threat to survival of democracy which is believed to thrive better within multi-party system. But from their chat with Chief Bode George, anchored by Reuben Abati of Arise TV and his crew and with Dele Momodu by Channel TV’s Seun Okinbaloye however, death of PDP spells doom for our democracy and should that happen, the president and his APC should be held responsible.

    The truth is that PDP is not a political party in spite of its media enablers’ efforts to cloak it in borrowed robes of political party. John Campbell, a former American ambassador to Nigeria had during proceedings at a hearing on the topic: Nigeria In Turmoil on March 19, 2010 described PDP as “an elite cartel at the centre of power in Nigeria… a political party that came together with no ideological or programmatic basis, but simply as essentially a club of elites for sharing of oil rents and political spoils”.

    That thesis has been validated several times over.

    The first act of betrayal of Nigeria by PDP National Assembly members who publicly expressed the eagerness to recoup their election expenses having sold houses to prosecute the election was the passage of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) Bill within three months. With that, the number of fuel importers went from four major oil companies to over a hundred. The new outfit which merely duplicated the functions Ministry of Petroleum Resources became an instrument by which PDP stalwarts and their children defrauded the nation to the tune of about NI.7 trillion “without importing a pint of fuel” according to Audu Ogbe, the then PDP chairman.

    Then President Obasanjo and his PDP in the name of privatization between 1999-2014 sold off most of Nigerian public enterprises estimated at over $100b for a paltry $1.5b to their members or their fronts. It was on account of this the 7th Senate report of November 30, 2011 directed the National Council on Privatization to:

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     “Rescind the sale of Abuja International Hotels Limited (Nicon Luxury Hotel) as well as Sheraton Hotel and Towers;  that the sales of assets of Daily Times Nigeria PLC  by Folio Communications Limited and its directors  be investigated by anti-graft agencies and the sold assets recovered; that the Share Purchase Agreement of Volkswagen Nigeria Limited now (VON)  be rescinded and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the economic crimes being perpetrated against the nation at VON Automobile Nigeria Limited premises in Lagos by Barbedos Ventures Limited; that NICON Insurance PLC  should immediately refund with interest, the sum of N900 million to the Federal Government being money paid by BPE in February 2007 as contribution for recapitalization with accrued interest; that Nigeria Re-insurance PLC  should immediately refund the sum of N1 billion paid by BPE in February 2007 as contribution of the Federal Government for recapitalization with accrued interest and that  the former Directors-General, Nasir el-Rufai,  Julius Bala and  Irene Nkechi Chigbue should be reprimanded by the National Council on Privatization”.

    The privatization of the power sector was not different. After an injection of between $8.2-$15b of taxpayers’ money by the federal government, 15 companies made up of 10 Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and five Generation Companies (GENCOs)  paid $2.238b to take over 60% of unbundled PHCN in August 2013. President Jonathan on the occasion assured Nigerians that his administration will ensure that “Nigerians enjoy a minimum of 18 hours of electricity supply a day”.

    Speaking on this betrayal of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, during   the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium had said, “The PDP administration shared our generation, distribution and transmission to their friends and cronies without very deep and thoughtful research and evaluation. It has now become pork chops. He therefore  suggested  that “for a more constructive reform to improve generation, transmission and distribution, this privatization must be reviewed by putting experts together at all costs”, without prejudice to the legal implications.

    PDP members that always regard themselves as family members are tarred with the same brush. Obasanjo who chased Diepreye Alamieyeseigha from Germany to London from where he escaped to Nigeria, dressed as a woman for defrauding his Bayelsa State; Obasanjo who ensured 17 of PDP and ANPP 24 governors between 1999 and 2007 were dragged by EFCC to court for financial malfeasance; Obasanjo who described National Assembly members  as “pen robbers”  for budget padding, arm-twisted governors and government contractors to collect N7 billion to build a personal presidential library while the national library he initiated in 2006 is still under construction 20 years after.

    His godson, President Goodluck Jonathan, taking after his footsteps also secured N7 billion from serving governors and government contractors to build a church and recreation centre in his native Otueke village. Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo’s vice president was indicted for his role in the privatization programme forcing Obasanjo to declare: “If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support.”

    Dimeji Bankole, a former speaker of the House of Representatives was accused of immorally purchasing his official house while David Mark, the former senate president in “2011 purchased the official residence of the senate president, built on 1.6 hectares of land, a national monument that was not meant to be acquired by an individual and was never reflected in the federal government’s gazette as required”.

    Bukola Saraki, another PDP leading light, was the whistle blower in the PDP N1.6trillion fuel subsidy scandal. In anger, he joined other disgruntled PDP members to pull down PDP for alleging the company in which he had interest was involved in the fuel subsidy scandal. In APC, Saraki confessed to literarily stealing the senate presidency by ceding the control of the senate with 60 APC majorities to PDP with 49 senators. He also traded off the deputy senate president’s position which by convention belongs to the ruling party with a majority, to Ekwerenmadu of PDP.

    Prof Itse Sagay, a renowned constitutional lawyer had back then described Saraki’s victory as “a victory for impunity, a victory for fraud and a victory for political desperation and indiscipline. Similarly his victory was dismissed by Anwalu Yadudu, former Dean Faculty of Law, Bayero University as ‘lies in the face of democratic ideals, having stemmed from ‘a flawed election by a fraction of yet to be constituted senate”.

    Nearly all the leading lights of PDP allegedly partook in the sharing of $2.4 billion loan for military wares and welfares. While Dazuki’s account’s officer reportedly claimed his boss asked him to get $11M from the CBN, Dasuki’ was widely quoted as saying the president asked to change N10b dollars to be shared to delegates.

    Other PDP partakers according to EFCC include Iyorchia Ayu, Bode George, Attahiru Bafarawa, Raymond Dokpesi, Peter Odili, Jim Nwobodo and N950m shared in Shekarau’s house. Aziboala, GEJ’s cousin allegedly received N6 billion, Nenadi Usman N3.5 billion; Ayodele Fayose N3 billion and Musiliu Obanikoro, N4 billion. Tony Anenih – N400 million; Olisa Metuh took N400 million, Jolly Nyame- N2.4 billion and Joshua Dariye -N700 million etc.

    Prof Chukwuma Soludo told Nigerians that “Over N30 trillion is mismanaged, unaccounted for or missing under Jonathan” while Obi Ekwesili, Obasanjo’s education minister lamented that “Our reserve is depleted and our savings are squandered. Our nation is in trouble.”

    The greatest tragedy that can befall a nation, according to Wole Soyinka, the conscience of the nation, “is for her citizens to suffer collective amnesia”.  PDP and its media enablers believe Nigerians have short memories,

    They also think we are incapable of drawing a parallel between massive defrauding of the nation in the years of the locust and the ‘japa’ syndrome which has taken thousands of our jobless youths into second slavery in Europe and America.

    I am not sure Nigerians, earnestly awaiting PDP rites of passage will shed tears for PDP who, while in power, fought over sharing of our resources and properties kept in their care for our children and out of power, are today engaged in war of attrition over who, out of established fraudsters, should lead the next assault on Nigeria.

  • Rivers as ATM without password

    Rivers as ATM without password

    Spending unappropriated revenue is a serious offence in a democracy. But that may not be applicable to us here where equality before the law is not only a myth but where our governors who are above the law can feely fritter away N300m. As if that is not bad enough, there are just too many ignoble fortune-seekers within the noble profession of law who will rather trade in chaos than in stability.

    If you are in doubt, just take one look at the two-year old war against Fubara’s government. What you see are reckless elders fuelling the crisis by talking from both sides of the mouth; hungry and angry youths who expect crumbs following and hailing Fubara after every act of sabotage against his own government, television platforms that lionize clueless Fubara every morning while they smile to the banks in the afternoon with millions they haul in through news commercialization.

    We cannot easily forget, Ugochinyere, an interloper from Imo State who became Fubara interpreter of court judgments. 

    And of course we now know those ignoble men in the judiciary who after collecting Fubara’s N300m gift, failed the people of the Rivers by not availing their governor of the proper interpretation of court judgments or bold enough to remind him the buck stops at his table. However, to make up for their betrayal, they are today blindly fighting the perceived enemies of Fubara – the executive, legislature and even the Supreme Court, moving from one television house to the other.

    But it must be said that we have always had ignoble fortune-seekers in our judiciary.  The first republic threw up Ben Nwabueze, the author of Unitary Decree 34 of 1966 which led to a civil war and whose effect continues to haunt the country. He also featured in the aborted third republic with his interim government decree that effectively aborted the third republic, paving the way for Sani Abacha, an evil dictator to wage a five-year war against Nigeria.

    In the second republic, we had Chief Kehinde Sofola, an attorney general and one-time chairman of Body of Benchers who sadly admitted that “the primary duty of the judiciary is to protect the judiciary”.  In the fourth republic, we have had an Abubakar Malami, attorney general who sabotaged Buhari’s anti-corruption war by attempting to smuggle and indicted fellow into the civil service, chased out of office the chair of the EFCC he had falsely accused of fraud, and misled President Buhari on the war against Nigeria by immigrant herdsmen whose illegal infiltration of reserved forest in the southwest he encouraged.

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    Now let us examine how the NBA chairman is prosecuting his defence of Fubara’s N300m gift.

    Governor Fubara, unable to manage his own government, committed an error of judgment by opting to deal with Victor Oko-Jumbo-led three-man House of Assembly, despite Court of Appeal affirmation of a Federal High Court order that it was constitutionally wrong of him to deal with only three of the 32-man assembly. Fubara had insisted that 27 members of his House of Assembly do not exist.  In February, the Supreme Court put an end to such conceit by declaring that:  “What is clear is that the 27 lawmakers are still valid members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and cannot be prevented from participating in the proceedings of the House by the governor in cahoots with the four other members” and made it clear that “Sections 102 and 109 cannot be invoked in aid of this unconstitutional enterprise”.

    The Supreme Court was to add that “As it is, there is no government in Rivers State… political disagreements cannot justify these attacks and contempt for the rule of law by the governor of a state or any person. What he has done is to destroy the government for the fear of being impeached”.

    Afam Osigwe who slept all through two years of what the Supreme Court described as ‘Fubara’s despotic rule’ did not wake up from his slumber long after the fallout of the supreme court judgment with the aggrieved 27 House of Assembly members whose salaries had been seized for two years, demanding their pound of flesh by slamming the governor with impeachment notice.

    Exploiting the ethnic divide as the first Ijaw man to be elected governor of Rivers State, Fubara was ready for a showdown. He publicly told jobless and marginalised Rivers youths who follow him around streets of Port Harcourt to wait for instructions. Less than 24 hours later, oil pipeline whether by fifth columnists as argued by his supporters, or his supporters, started exploding.

    The president chaired a security meeting of his security chiefs. He promptly shared the intelligence at his disposal with the National Assembly and what followed was declaration of six months of state emergency and suspension of the warring governor and his state House of Assembly members jointly responsible for absence of government in the past two years in Rivers.

    Since Rivers State allocation was ordered to be withheld by the Supreme Court following Fubara’s breach of one of the most serious impeachable offences in a democracy- spending taxpayers money without appropriation, a sole administrator needed to be appointed to ensure payment of salaries to essential workers such as teachers, medical workers and civil servants.

    It was not until this time Osigwe woke up from his deep slumber. But that did not stop him from concluding that the situation in Rivers did not call for declaration of a state of emergency. Osigwe, who is not privy to the information at the disposal of the president and the National Assembly that have upheld the decision of the president insisted the president’s action was illegal. He also declared the president’s suspension of the governor and other elected members of the state assembly unconstitutional ignoring the fact that the constitution gives the president discretionary power to do whatever he deems fit to avert anarchy.

    As an officer in the temple of justice, he did not wait to allow the courts that can make a distinction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law to decide if the president’s discretionary powers cover suspension of the main obstacle to peace and the democratic process, i.e, the fumbling Governor Fubara and his vengeance-seeking lawmakers.

    Afam decided to usurp the role of opposition leaders like Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi who are at liberty to exploit every action of the president for political gain like opposition politicians; Afam started moving from one television station to the other selling what can at best be described as warped logic.

    But we now know, courtesy of the Rivers’ sole administrator, that Afam’s blind fury is all about Fubara’s N300m gift to NBA which the sole administrator insists must be returned. He anchored his argument on the fact that since the money does not belong to Fubara but to Rivers State programed to benefit from hosting the NBA’s conference, which Afam had unilaterally moved to Enugu as if Rivers has ceased to exist because of Fubara’s temporary absence, there was no basis to refund the money.

    As if taking  N300m that would have been enough to build an hospital or a cottage industry that could absorb some Rivers street boys was not enough assault on sensibility of Nigerians, the claim  by the chairman of the NBA 2025 Conference Planning Committee, Emeka Obegolu’s (SAN), that the money was “an unconditional gift to support the event” was insensitive.

    It is also not of any relief that while successive governors of Rivers including Fubara, Nyesom Wike, Rotimi Amaechi often try to outdo each other by bringing notable Nigerians to commission projects, the readily available jobs to the teeming youths of Rivers remain blowing up of oil pipelines when the elite want to blackmail the federal government or torching of government buildings, and visiting violence on each other when involved in intra-party feuds that have come to define every election in Rivers.

    It is reassuring that credible voices in NBA including that of Andrew Emwanta, president of the African Public Interest Lawyers Union are already warning Osigwe who after sleeping all through two years of Fubara’s ‘despotic rule’. He accused him of starting a condemnation of the emergency move “barely two hours after the broadcast”. For him, “The proper thing to do, “to save the image of our profession, is for that money to be refunded. It’s Rivers taxpayers’ money. If you are not doing business with them, return their money.”

     It is sad that NBA’s Afam Osigwe and some of his fellow travellers are not ashamed of joining PDP parasites whose elections Wike claimed he partly funded and their media enablers who regard Rivers as ATM without password.

  • Middle Belt leaders and the law of self-preservation

    Middle Belt leaders and the law of self-preservation

    Periodic harvest of death through mindless killing of innocent men, women and children by bandits which have unfortunately become regular feature of the Middle Belt region especially the Benue/Plateau axis, according to Governor Caleb Mutfwang occurred  again last week resulting in the massacre of over 50 people in Bokkos.

    But, as common with Middle Belt region leaders who got integrated into the power structure through either marriage, business or politics by the hegemonic power in the north, self-preservation is often the first law. This was why the governor was going to play the ostrich so as not to rock the boat until Channel TV’s Seun Okinbaloye’s probing question left him no room for equivocation. He was forced to declare – “as I speak to you there are not less than 64 communities taken over, renamed and people are living there on land they push people away from”. Writhing his hands in helplessness like his predecessors in office, he attributed the nightmare of his people to “genocide sponsored by terrorist from somewhere” and “proliferation of sophisticated arms”.

    Mutfwang cannot out of desire for self-preservation suppress facts about the killings in the Middle Belt and those behind the killings. It is on record that no less than 1,000 persons were killed in Jos and its environs as a result of ethno-religious conflagrations in n 2001, about 700 killed due to communal clashes in Yelwa, southern Plateau, in 2004; Scores in Jos in January 2010 as a result of sectarian clashes including the killing of nearly 150 Muslims in Kan Karama while December 2010’s Christmas eve explosions in two Christian neighbourhoods in Jos, followed by several days of sectarian violence, left at least 107 persons dead.

    We have also been told that the number of renamed communities in 2020 was about 102 while as at July 2023, we have  an estimated 18,751 internally displaced persons, many of them  condemned to IDP camps where they face hunger diseases and uncertain future .( Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation).

    The governor was hesitant when it came to disclosing the identities of those assailants sacking communities, confiscating land and sending victims to IDP camps. He can keep his peace as credible Fulani voices like Sheik Gumi, Nasir El Rufai, Aminu Masari and Abdullahi Ganduje have already identified them as disgruntled immigrant Fulani herders who want recognition and compensation after their heinous crimes. The tragedy of besieged people of Benue and Plateau is that they have continued to be betrayed by their leaders.

    For fear of antagonizing the hegemonic power in the north, the Justice Nikki Tobi Commission report that came out during Obasanjo’s presidency was for instance never implemented; Joshua Dariye’s introduction of vigilante groups- The Rainbow Boys – was not allowed to operate just as Jonah Jang’s anti-land grabbing and anti-kidnapping bills were never passed by the state House of Assembly.

    It was for the same reason successive leaders of the Middle Belt region who for a long time opposed state and community policing could not replicate the Southwest Amotekun security architecture model. It was the same reason they would rather listen to Shehu Garba’s criticism of community policing than the timely advice by Theophilus Danjuma, the crusader for Middle Belt self-actualization to the effect that those facing threat of genocide can defend themselves by procuring guns from where their tormentors got their own if government refused to give them licence to officially buy guns to protect themselves.

    The people of the Middle Belt have not changed. They remain the same people whose land was never conquered, the same brave warriors Uthman Dan Fodio hired as mercenaries to prosecute his wars and the same people who staged an insurrection immediately after independence to press their demand for self-actualisation. What changed are leaders driven more by consideration for self-preservation than patriotic zeal to serve their people.

    The nightmare of the people of Middle Belt region started with the death of Joseph Tarka, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo the greatest advocate for the creation of the Middle Belt Region. Awolowo remained the last man standing during the 1957 London constitutional debate following betrayal by Ahmadu Bello, the NPC leader and Nnamdi Azikiwe the NCNC leader, both of whom were driven by greed to corner land belonging to various Nigerian ethnic nationalities for the exclusive use of their own people.

    A brief journey through history will show how both shared a common philosophy of how to manage Nigerian land spaces.

    Ahmadu Bello and the hegemonic power in the north saw Nigeria as a land ordained by God for the stateless Fulani across West Africa with his great grandfathers capturing of Hausa land over which he imposed 13 of his kinsmen and one Hausa as Emirs. On his part, Zik who believed Igbo race had been ordained  by God to lead the children of Africa, was also convinced that everywhere in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa should be home to his industrious and entrepreneurial Igbo people.

    It is therefore not difficult to see why Zik and his supporters did not see any contradiction in recommending a unitary system for a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Nigeria or attempting to take over Yoruba nation in 1952 in the name of fake nationalism using his West African Pilot as tool of propaganda.

    And if further reasons are needed, Emeka Ojukwu’s strategy for the civil war which started as a war between the north and the east also said it all. For instance, instead of confronting the northern soldiers that attacked the Eastern Region from Makurdi, the Biafra Army overran Midwest, appointed an Igbo administrator and was on the way to Lagos before they were stopped at Ore, in Ondo State. But that was not before his insolent letter to Victor Banjo stating that he Ojukwu would decide who the administrator of Lagos would be after the pacification of Yoruba land.

    Not much has changed since the beginning of the Fourth Republic. The new campaign is no more unitarism but citizenship as the answer to the national question. In this regard, there is currently a bill in the National Assembly by Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu which will legitimise immigrants’ takeover of ancestral home of host communities, a superior alternative to the ongoing bandits’ mindless killings in the Middle Belt region.

    The Fulani leaders never pretended about what they wanted out of Nigeria. With Uthman Dan Fodio’s subjugation of Hausa and sharing of their land among his siblings, his grandchildren believe Nigeria is a land ordained for stateless Fulani across West Africa. Ilorin was later to be seized through the help of Afonja, the Oyo Are Ona Kanakafo stationed in Ilorin. Oyo was later sacked by Fulani invaders who were stopped at Osogbo by the Ibadan army.

    What the Fulani leader could not get through war, they got through British colonial power. At the 1950 Ibadan constitutional conference, they insisted and secured 50% of membership of the Nigerian legislative house as condition for remaining part of post independent Nigeria.

    Read Also: Why Nigeria should not return to regionalism, by Middle Belt elder

    For the Fulani, like their Igbo rivals, not much have changed. It is still the same sense of entitlement over land that is fuelling the crisis in The Middle Belt and elsewhere in the country. Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation once insisted that armed immigrant Fulani herders have right to occupy Ondo forest reserve. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi publicly encouraged Fulani herders to disobey Benue State’s anti-open grazing laws. Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed not too long ago passed a ‘fatwa’ through Channels TV, declaring any Fulani from any part of Africa, a Nigerian. Leaders of the herders wrote a 70-page letter to Muhammadu Buhari as president insisting open grazing is part of Fulani culture and threatened to make the country ungovernable if restricted from grazing in any part of the country.

    And their strategy for managing power has not changed. Tafawa Balewa, a minority from southern Bauchi was picked as prime minister in the first republic. He did everything Ahmadu Bello wanted including ‘doing nothing’ because of self-preservation even as the West burned.

    Gowon was installed Head of State after the 1966 July military vengeance coup over his seniors in breach of military protocol.  It was not a surprise that when the rivalry between the Igbo and Fulani ended in a civil war, Gowon and other notable Middle Belt military officers including Danjuma who has today become a leading voice of resistance, fought like slaves because of self-preservation.

    Chiefs Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbe, Ahmadu Ali, Kawu Baraje were for 16 years chairmen of the then ruling PDP. But they all pretended not to see the daily harvest of death from their home. David Mark and Bukola Saraki jointly occupied the senate presidency, the third most powerful office for 12 years. But fear of Fulani hegemonic power blinded them to the daily misery of their people.

    For all Middle Belt politicians, it is always the law of self-preservation. 

  • Bokkos massacre: The buck stops at the president’s desk

    Bokkos massacre: The buck stops at the president’s desk

    If the essence of government is the security of life and properties of citizens, President Tinubu must take responsibility for last week’s massacre of over 65 innocent Nigerians in Bokkos, Plateau State. This is not just because the buck stops at his desk or even because of what former vice president, Atiku Abubakar described as: “The failure of Bola Tinubu’s security architecture which has now become an endemic nationwide phenomenon …” Nigerians are proud of their military’s heroic battle with insurgents in the last two years compared to preceding eight years of daily harvest of death when Buhari from commander in chief became ‘mourner in chief’. As a mark of their faith in the military, survivors of last week dastardly act who spoke to the press have nothing but praises for the military’s heroic confrontation with the marauders.

    But the buck stops at the president table because of the choices he made. President Tinubu understands the historical antecedent of the quest for self-actualization by different Nigerian groups especially the Ijaw of south-south and the people of the Middle Belt region that at different times after independence embarked on insurrection that had to be suppressed by the Nigerian military. He is aware of the confiscation and sharing of Hausa land among Uthman Dan Fodio’s 12 Fulani kinsmen and one Hausa appointed as emirs following Uthman Dan Fodio Jihad of 1803-1808; the decision to hold on to the land despite the 1903 Frederick Lugard’s “the power once exercised by the defeated caliphate had reverted to the British” after sacking of Sokoto Sunni Muslim and Herbert Macaulay’s 1908 successful campaign against the Hausa Land Ordinance. The president understands the quest for distributive justice without which a nation decays.

    President Tinubu, more than anyone else, understands the issues at stake because he spent 20 years preparing for his job. That was the source of his confidence when on the eve of the 2023 election, he declared without restraint ‘emi l’okan’ (it is my turn). 

    And if there was anything he forgot, Nigerian stakeholders especially the leaders of ethnic nationalities, the real owners of Nigeria, the Afenifere, Ohaneze, MDF etc. were on hand to remind him that  Nigeria needs “a restructured Nigeria with constituent parts having power over law and order, education and public information; a restructured Nigeria where there is freedom and justice for all; a restructured Nigeria that protects the right of indigenes as enshrined in the UN charter;  a restructured Nigeria that puts an end to an orgy of killing of helpless women and children at night in the Middle Belt region by unidentified herdsmen”.

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    The president also had the privilege of hosting the ‘Patriots’, a group of credible Nigerian stakeholders led by Pa Emeka Anyaoku, the former Commonwealth Secretary General.

    The president while not disagreeing with these Nigerian patriots who want the best for our nation said he would like to first pursue his economic agenda to bring prosperity to all Nigerians. But many have warned that it would amount to putting the cart before the horse since our problem is politics and not economics. Prosperity for all, will not resolve the national question neither will it eliminate peoples’ desires to have control over their lives, their culture and education of their children.

    If short-sighted opponents of federal arrangement that have often benefited from our tragedy cannot see how the social system ended centuries of intertribal wars in Europe, it cannot be lost on them how nations like Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Netherlands that currently top the list of the ‘happiest nations in the world’ only yesterday took control of their lives after negotiating peaceful federal arrangement.

    Tragically, today as it was in 1951/52, we are still being haunted by the national question. It was the resistance of Yoruba to attempt by newly emergent Igbo leaders of Lagos urban immigrants to take over the west in the name of democracy, the newly imported god that earned the Yoruba the bastion of tribalism in Nigeria and fraudulently promoted by otherwise enlightened Igbo intellectuals including Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian ‘sun’ (apologies to Saro Wiwa).

    From 1999, leading Igbo politicians and intellectuals including Kalu Uzor Kalu and Obiageli Ezekwesili sold the idea of ‘citizenship’ as answer to the national question even when it was obvious to the Yoruba whose First Eepublic leading NCNC leader, TOS Benson, could not secure a plot of land from Governor Sam Mbakwe to erect a building to bury his Igbo first wife and who today knows it will be an impossible task to get a market stall in Onitsha market.

    In 2023, some Igbo elements in Lagos openly canvassed for Lagos governor of Delta origin on account of their population and business investments in Lagos. In fact, Peter Obi who left Anambra like a war-ravaged state after two terms as governor attempted to impose an untested candidate on Lagos. The natural reaction from Yoruba discriminatory voters, who unlike the Igbo don’t exhibit herd behaviour while voting, was to mobilise for their performing Yoruba son. With propaganda and manipulation of the social media, some Yoruba were labelled anti-democrats with their names presented for sanctions to the US administration and the UN which incidentally has clause in its charter for the protection of indigenous groups.

    Those who truly love our country know that adopting any variant of federal arrangement we operated in the first republic will allow state governors take control of their states, provide security through state and community policing, defend their states against mindless killers described by ex-governors Masari  and El Rufai as ‘disgruntled immigrant Fulani herdsmen’, and of course have death sentence clause in their state statutes to take care of importers of killer fake drugs devastating our urban centres.

    There are other reasons why the president must take responsibility for the Bokkos massacre. The president’s policy since assuming office has been about appeasement of elements responsible for mindless killing of Nigerians as against pursuit of justice for victims. Mindless killings have therefore continued because criminals hardly get sanctioned for their heinous crimes.

    As Garba Shehu, President Buhari’s senior media adviser puts it in his July 21, 2020 statement ‘the problem in Southern Kaduna is an evil combination of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds’. Echoing this point was Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, who at a meeting of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council (NTRC) and Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) insisted that violence has continued to thrive in northern Nigeria and Middle Belt because ‘no one is punished for the criminal doings they commit’.

    Wole Soyinka, in one of his messages to Buhari while in office had also said: “Crimes against our humanity have been committed, and restitution must be made. Nothing less will restore confidence in government, and reassure the people of its integrity, its commitment to equity in internal relationships and the rightful custodianship of ancient resources”.

    To many of us the governed who do not know the challenges of government, the least the president could have done upon assumption of power, was to return those forcefully uprooted from their ancestral land back to their homes , if necessary, protected by our soldiers instead of being abandoned in IDP camps.

    Since no one is above the law , the Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who openly encouraged herdsmen in Benue to disobey Benue State anti-open grazing laws, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, which encouraged his mostly foreign Fulani herdsmen to reject modern grazing methods while insisting that open grazing is part of Fulani culture, its Secretary- General, Saleh Al- Hassan  who haughtily insists herders can graze in Nigeria since herders ‘do not recognize international boundaries’; Bala Mohammed, Bauchi State governor  and Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation who publicly promoted the invasion of reserved forests in the south by armed immigrants Fulani herdsmen should have been questioned in the interest of justice.

    And finally, with the near unanimity of all the 36 states on state and community policing, Nigerians don’t believe the president needed two years to appease the hegemonic power in the north that see state and local policing as threat to their stranglehold on power.

    Political enemies of the president insist if he could mobilise the National Assembly in 24 hours to support his Rivers State Emergency declaration, he must take full responsibility for the Bokkos massacre which they believe could have been averted with state and community policing.

  • Oby Ezekwesili’s wars without rhyme

    Oby Ezekwesili’s wars without rhyme

    Not a few Nigerians are upset by the name-calling to express contempt between Oby Ezekwesili, a celebrated Nigerian icon and distinguished senator, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi on the hallowed floor of the senate last week. It is just as well the senator has since apologized for what many saw as an assault on the person of a distinguished woman that has done us proud at home and abroad. But not without Ezekwesili’s detractors saying she got what she deserved

    Oby Ezekwesili has earned her stripes. Her strings of achievements and honour at home and abroad speak for her. She was a two times minister, first as Minister of Solid Mineral and Minister of Education at different periods. As a public servant, she has been celebrated for her role in crafting the Bureau for Public Procurement legislation, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) legislation and currently, as founder-chairperson of the Board of School of Politics Policy and Governance in Abuja.

    She has also been globally celebrated as a former vice president of the World Bank (Africa region} and co-founder and pioneer director of Transparency International-TI, the Berlin-based global anti-corruption organization.

    It is however hoped that Ezekwesili still remembers she earned her stripes not through emotional blackmail as the weaker sex or by allowing her vision to be blurred by local politics, but by being able to stand her own among the best in the world. However, since we cannot stop her from doing what she does best – seeking justice for the poor and the disadvantaged, many believe it is time for her to critically examine the character and motives of those whose battle she takes head on.

    For instance, as a role model for many young Nigerians, many thought she would have distanced herself from the ongoing Natasha family war, being waged not on the basis of facts available to most Nigerians but because she seems to have an axe to grind with her husband’s friend, the senate president and she is ready to bring to disrepute all other male senators that passed a vote of confidence on the senate president.

    What Nigerians witnessed on the floor of the senate was an ill-tempered Natasha who was not prepared for the distinguished office of a senator of Nigeria. But reporting the outburst of visibly angry Senator Natasha the following morning, it was from Rufai Oseni of Arise TV that we heard that there might have been other underlying reasons for Natasha’s ignoble behaviour whereupon he publicly threw her a challenge to come to Arise TV and tell Nigerians her story. A few days later, we saw Natasha sobbing while narrating how the senate president held her hand while showing her and her husband (we have since learnt there were other senators) around his new house and whispered to her about the possibility of coming to spend quality time w ith him in the new house.  This revelation was coming about 14 months after working together amicably including accompanying Godswill Akpabio to the 148th IPU General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland along with other senators and securing some advantages including chairmanship of juicy committee on local content.

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    But following her six months suspension for her unruly behaviour with a proviso for forgiveness if she tenders an apology to the senate’s Ethics Committee whose invitation she ignored, she changed the narrative, falsely claiming she was suspended over her sexual harassment petition allegation against the senate president.

    This falsehood was echoed by Arise TV, her chief promoter.

    Five days later, the suspended Natasha was illegally at the UN Inter-Parliamentary Union where she falsely claimed she was illegally suspended for her sexual harassment petition against the Nigerian senate president which she described as a “punishment for speaking out against impunity, corruption, and gender-based violence in Nigeria”. She then moved to BBC where she told the world how a few powerful men silence voices of women in Nigeria, with her media promoters pretending not to see the damage being done to the reputation of our country.

    Of course her message of underrepresentation of women in Nigeria where we have only four senators in a sena te of 109 resonated well with her women supporters. This seems to be the basis for her support among Nigerian women, if the conclusion of some well-educated and highly successful Nigerian women professional who often feature on TVC programme “Life with Morayo” last week is anything to go by. After their healthy debate, one of them stood up and said “Natasha out of the senate is minus one for women, this battle must be fought” right or wrong”!

    Sadly, this seem to be the mind-set of even our distinguished Oby Ezekwezili and Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Senator Natasha’s witness and lawyer respectively during their appearance before the Senate Committee on Ethics last week. They did everything including discrediting the chairman of the committee, the committee members and the senate except pursuit of truth and justice. While calming they were not there to create a stalemate, they did everything to frustrate efforts by the committee to hear Senator Natasha’s petition.

    Many also believe Ezekwesili’s decision to join Obasanjo, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN) the Nigerian Bar Association chair who speaks more as a politician to fight the Fubara battle was ill-informed. Ezekwezili, a star minister under anti-democratic and corrupt administration of Obasanjo where N300b budget for road reconstruction between 1999 and 2003 disappeared with no single road constructed, where children of PDP stalwarts stole N1.6trillion forging documents without supplying a litre of fuel, where about 18 of PDP and ANPP governors between 1999 and 2007 were dragged to court by EFCC for financial malfeasance, where Nigeria’s total investment of over $100b was sold for a paltry $1.5b to PDP stalwarts in the name of privatization, and where she, herself complained openly about monumental corruption under Jonathan administration, has seen nothing but doom in Tinubu’s administration.

    In fact many believe her criticism of the president’s action in Rivers which prevented a descent into chaos and anarchy amounts to agonizing over the president’s success.

    The co-organiser of ‘BringBackOurGirls’, kidnapped by Boko Haram in faraway Borno State who has today joined the new crusaders for democracy, did not do anything as Fubara ruled from her backyard like a despot for close to two years after his coup against the state House of Assembly.

    She had the following to say to people of Rivers after president’s proactive action which many believe has prevented a descent into chaos: “To all the Good People of Rivers State, I send this Quote of Wael Ghonim with solidarity and kindness: “The Power of the People is greater than the People in Power”.

    Before her last week undignified senate outing, was another ignoble interference in the battle between the openly partisan Arise Television and 2023 Candidate Tinubu’s handlers, Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake. They insisted their candidate was not going to feature on Arise TV debate anchored by Reuben Abati, who they claimed was a card-carrying member of PDP and a former Ogun State PDP deputy governorship candidate to the late Buruji Kashamu.

    They also had cause to report Rufai Oseni to the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) for unprofessional behaviour. Ask any journalism teacher who teaches attributes of news anchor in our universities, they will tell you Rufai Oseni is the worst example of how not to be a news anchor. But Ezekwezili, who knows next to nothing in journalism, organized a one woman crusade in support of Oseni, whose job she claimed was under threat. Of course many read politics into Ezekwesili’s ill-informed intervention.

    She could have saved herself from her last week disastrous outing where attempt was made to demystify her if she, as a national icon, sat back  and allow Rufai Oseni and Arise TV to fight Senator Natasha’s battle they so valiantly promoted hiding under the banner of patriotism, ‘the last refuge of the scoundrels”.

    Many have since come to the sad conclusion that Oby Ezekwesili miscalculated by taking sides in an unwinnable war between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and her husband’s friend and long-time associate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, a two-term governor and senate president, who like most accomplished politicians and professionals including journalists, can afford four wives instead of risking the fury of a scorned friend’s wife.

  • Tinubu’s occupational hazards

    Tinubu’s occupational hazards

    Being a politician in itself is a major nightmare. But perhaps one of the major occupational hazards of a politician is taking hard decisions on behalf of the people even when he is misunderstood by the very society he serves. This is why politics is not for the faint-hearted but for risk takers who promise miracles without knowing how the miracle will come about.  This is why governance which includes defending fortune-seekers who do not know what is in their best interest can be very challenging.

    What is not always apparent to the governed however is that government is not an independent arbiter but a tool in the hands of those who with their control of a disproportionate share of the national resources, are out to preside over an empire of slaves?  It is ironic that it is this same people that often mobilise those bent on pulling down government.

    I sympathise with President Tinubu who before last week anti-government conspiracy he survived had been going through stress and strain over his government’s harsh economic policies. Last week’s mass mobilisation of critical segment of Nigerians including those whose battle he was fighting against by his many political foes must have been very distressing.

    For taking a bold decision to confront those who have for two years held people of Rivers hostage, his government was painted  a Leviathan, a huge fearful sea monster that must be brought down.  And leading the war with a battle cry of “the democracy we fought for” are fake democrats without democratic ethos.  We have PDP sore losers like Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi who, two years after losing an election won round and square by their opponents, are yet to congratulate the victor.

    Others include Pat Utomi who has professed that the president’s interference to end the siege on Rivers by those benefiting from their misery sounded the death knell of democracy in Nigeria. There is Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir El-Rufai, former APC insiders who have decided to start urinating inside from outside. We have the Nigerian Bar Association that one had thought would be more introspective but has chosen to declare the president a ‘totalitarian’ based on its jaundiced judgment.

    And finally anchoring the activities of the president’s political foes was Fubara’s media meddlers who swear in the name of patriotism which as has been shown can be “the last refuge of the scoundrels”. (Samuel Johnson 1775).

    Even with his celebrated versatility and political brinkmanship, President Tinubu must have felt lonely last week with all round denunciation and condemnation of his bold move to stop the drift in Rivers. Not even from Rivers came any form of relief as a segment of the elders, first identified by Saro Wiwa, an Ogoni hero as ‘vultures’ who feed on the blood of their people, Rivers women for Fubara, restive jobless Rivers youths forgotten as successive governors became obsessed with infrastructural development since 1999, threatening Ijaw youths, meddling politicians from outside Rivers, all taking up arms against the government and insisting Rivers has been short-changed by the president’s action. Of course, except for the president who is always one step ahead of his political opponents, no one knew what was going to happen in view of tension that took over the country until relief came from the National Assembly after two days that was like an eternity.

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    And how did it start?

    For close to two years, Fubara the democratically elected governor of Rivers was at war with his state lawmakers said to be loyal to his godfather Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister. Unable to understand that compromise is the highest badge of honour in a democracy where the ruler rules while others dictate the tune, he reneged on the truce he reached with his other arm of his government in a meeting presided over by the president. He opted to rule with an assembly of three people. And of the other 27 elected lawmakers, he had said:

     “They are not existing; these are people eating in my house, I helped to pay their children school fees when I was not even a governor, I accepted the accord to give them a floating, their existence is me allowing them to exist”.

    The February 28, Supreme Court judgment indicted the governor for demolishing the state House of Assembly to prevent his impeachment, for disobeying Abuja High Court judgment, Abuja appeal court judgment that declared presentation of budget to three people unconstitutional and mandated him to present the budget to the 27 member House of Assembly recognized by the Supreme Court after being made redundant for close to two years. While the governor embarked on what most people saw as his game of ostrich playing, the House slammed him with notice of impeachment.

    The president after lamenting that he “made personal interventions between the contending parties for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, but my efforts have been largely ignored by the parties to the crisis, the president echoing aspects of the Supreme Court’s decisions, accusing the governor of frantically working to collapse the state’s legislature said,

    “In the circumstance, having soberly reflected on and evaluated the political situation in Rivers State and the governor and deputy governor of Rivers State having failed to make a request to me as President to issue this proclamation as required by section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, it has become inevitably compelling for me to invoke the provision of section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State with effect from today, 18th March, 2025 and I so do.”

    Then the war mongers went to town. PDP that watched the Rivers crisis drift for two years claimed the president action was “an attempt to suspend the 1999 Constitution and overturn a democratic government”. Pat Utomi, a chieftain of Labour Party said “the act signals the end of democracy in Nigeria; Rotimi Amaechi alleged it “points to a brazen attempt at power grab in the state by force”. The respected human rights lawyer Clement Nwankwo blamed the National Assembly.

    Joining the hordes of partisans was the chairman of Nigerian Bar Association who should know better but was more reckless. He claimed the situation in Rivers “has not called for state of emergency”. Since he is not the president or member of the National Assembly, he was not in the position to make such assertion.

    But without restraint, the NBA chairman declared “At this inauspicious moment in our nation’s trajectory, all people of goodwill and conscience should rise to oppose this audacious violation of our constitution and rape of our democracy.

    “Mr. President must be made to know and understand in unmistakable terms that this illegality cannot stand”. He concluded by “asking politicians across Nigeria to speak up and rise against the country’s descent into totalitarianism.”

    Section 305 of the Constitution which vests the president with the power to declare a state of emergency, also gives him power of discretion. He could adopt any strategy he deems fit to bring sanity to a troubled area. The NBA chairman deliberately ignored that fact.

    In any case, if the NBA chairman believes the president has committed an infraction, the best place to go is the court where we have competent and discerning judges who can make a distinction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law; i.e. the underlying aim purpose and intended ethical considerations behind legal statutes as opposed to its literal wordings”.

    Then there are the Fubara media meddlers. They hailed him the morning after masterminding the bombing of Rivers state House of Assembly as he matched with thugs on the street of Port Harcourt.

    They lionized him and encouraged him to abandon a truce he reached with the warring members of his state assembly supervised by the president.

    When the Abuja High Court and Abuja Appeal court ruled it was an aberration to present the state budget before three people, they asked tongue in cheek, ‘why should his opponents approach the Abuja Court?’

    And when on February 28, the Supreme Court ruled there has been no government in Rivers since he removed one leg of a tripod that sustains democratic government, the Supreme Court was disparaged.

    When the president finally declared state of emergency, Fubara media meddlers who angrily said anyone who disagrees with their views must be ‘stupid’ said the president committed impeachable offence and must be impeached. They tried to blackmail the National Assembly not to endorse the president’s action while they arrogantly advised the administrator nominee to reject the president’s appointment.

    Senator Magnus Abe, a stakeholder in Rivers who appeared on their platform and pleaded they tone down the rhetoric and lower the temperature in the interest of Rivers State people who just want to reconcile their difference and live in peace was bullied.

    Fubara’s media meddlers want to continue the war. They claim they are more patriotic than Nigeria’s elected president, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court, all of which they freely bullied in the last two years.

    What the Leviathan Nigeria should worry about is not Tinubu’s government but Fubara’s media meddlers.

  • Rivers State and her fair-weather friends

    Rivers State and her fair-weather friends

    There has been no dull moment in Rivers State since 2023 when Siminialayi Fubara upon inauguration chose to fight his own government. But with the Supreme Court’s February 28 declaration that there has been no government in Rivers in the last two years, in spite of all the drama, including bombing of the assembly complex, conducting LGA election in defiance of court order, and presentation of budget to a three-man assembly, we now know all have been noise without substance or ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’ (William Shakespeare).

     No thanks to Rivers fair weather friends led by the likes of Ikenga Ugochinyere, an Imo member  of the House of Representatives, who today claims to speak on behalf of opposition lawmakers coalition in the House. His undefined mission during most of his N6.5m one-hour “news commercialization’ appearances, seems to be targeted at further destabilization of PDP or prolonging the nightmare of people of Rivers State. Of course, we also have sympathisers of Labour and PDP in borrowed toga of Arise TV journalists whose motive for fighting Fubara’s war like a slave is Wike, his estranged impetuous and abrasive godfather.

    Fubara by virtue of the February 28 Supreme Court ruling had an opportunity to dig himself out of the hole. President Tinubu’s call on him to stoop to conquer because ‘compromise is democracy’s highest badge of honour was another chance. Fubara however chose to keep huffing and bluffing because of backing by meddlers like Ugochinyere and Arise TV. Last Thursday, the former gave vent to this by first taking an hour slot of “news commercialisation” in TVC and later the same day in Arise platform to embark on his usual monologue.

     And what did he fritter the N6.5m on? The assembly’s alleged intention to seek court order to stop the conduct of the local government and, the assembly’s plan to amend the Rivers Independent Electoral Commission law.

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    It is sad Fubara thinks some windbags from outside his state love his state more than the state’s elected lawmakers who by the way, do not need permission of interlopers to make laws.

    And as for Arise TV, its last Thursday’s analysis of Wike’s Wednesday chat with some journalists was a disservice to journalism. There were misrepresentation of facts, outright lies, odious comparisons and an attempt to set the Ijaw nation against other nationalities in the Niger Delta region.

    First, Arise TV along with Jake Epelle, their invited quest, agreed that Governor Fubara has been thoroughly humiliated, ridiculed and dishonoured because of his humility. They all agreed Fubara needs to become more Machiavellian since his humility has become a burden. They declared with shocking finality, that Tinubu was behind the crisis in Rivers even without proof.

    They falsely claimed Rivers House of Assembly locked out the governor. How do you lock out someone who was not being expected? Governor Fubara himself confirmed he was on a road show or out to play to the gallery by branching at the assembly quarters when he was scheduled to commission some projects in Okirika at 10am. He left with the following parting words “maybe they are still working on the letter and will later get in touch with me”.

    On impeachment, it was unfair to impute meaning to what Wike said in an answer to Arise TV question. He had said impeachment which is enshrined in our constitution is not criminal and that heaven will not fall if anyone who committed impeachable offence is impeached. In any case, if anyone slammed with impeachment charges is a good politician, he will know what to do, he added.

    It was also pure mischief to give the impression that Wike was disrespectful of the Ijaw nation during the chat. In fact what can be taken away from what he said was that those making threat to destroy pipelines are politicians in government; that Ijaw whose sons including Tompolo secured the contract to protect the oil pipelines cannot at the same time be threatening to blow off the pipeline. He said people should stop arrogating power to blow off the pipelines only to Ijaw as other groups within the Niger Delta are also capable of doing the same.

    The fact that the Ijaw national body has denounced the Ijaw Youths making such reckless statement seem to have vindicated Wike’s claim that such threats were planted by politicians in government

    I am not sure the issues of the population of Ijaw nation, the fourth largest group in Nigeria was the focus of discussion. Wike’s reference to Ijaw during the media chat was to the effect that except in Balyelsa State, the Ijaw nation does not constitute a majority in Akwa Ibom, Delta, and Rivers; that in the spirit of live and let live, he and some illustrious Ijaw elders agreed the gubernatorial ticket should be ceded to Ijaw in 2023. Arise TV only demonstrated its partisanship by exhibiting such  disdain for Wike who they said does not know Ijaw constitutes the fourth largest population because of what they attributed to his academic deficit!

    Finally, attempt by Arise TV to draw a parallel between the tragic mismanagement of our crisis of nation-building by President Nnamdi Azikiwe and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa which led  to the collapse of the first republic and current crisis in  Rivers where an elected governor is at war with an arm of his government is borne out of mischief.

    And what are the facts?

    S. L. Akintola, the Premier of Western Region was legally removed by his party, a decision upheld by the Privy Council in London, the highest judicial body at the period. Akintola then sought the help of Zik and Balewa, coalition partners at the centre against his principal.  The duo had been bitter enemies of the West out of envy for her giant strides and for leading the battle for the creation for the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR) and Middle Belt states from the east and the north respectively.

    Zik and Balewa, who did not see the need to declare state of emergency in the east or in the north where Isaac Boro’s Niger Delta Uprising and Tiv’s popular uprising had to be suppressed by the military, illegally declared state of emergency in the West because a few NCNC member started throwing chairs just as vote of confidence was about to be passed on Adegbenro by the Western House as enshrined in the constitution. (Premiers Ahmadu Bello and Okpara had earlier breached the constitution by their refusal to recognize Adegbenro).

    The first victim of the state of emergency was Awo who was detained in mosquito-infested Lekki while Akintola who had been constitutionally removed and Fani-Kayode of NCNC were imposed as Premier and deputy premier of Western region by Balewa and Zik.

    In breach of constitutional provision which disallowed the centre from interfering in the affairs of the regions, Zik and Balewa decided to probe the administration of Western Region between 1952 and 1962. At the end Awo was indicted and  accused of theft while his deputy who single-handedly controlled the affairs of the region from 1959 was let off the hook because he served as the prosecution witness.

    To ensure Awo will be too old to ask how Nigeria was being run by the time he gets out of prison, he was slammed with  treasonable charges which provided an excuse for Zik and Balewa, the coalition leaders, to send Awo and his colleagues to 10 years imprisonment.

    The Yoruba waited patiently for the 1964 Western Regional election to liberate themselves but Fani-Kayode publicly swore he and Akintola would win the election whether the people voted for them or not. Zik and Balewa, as coalition leaders, went on to massively rig the 1964 election in favour of their stooges – Akintola and Fani-Kayode.

    It was at this point the people of the West resolved that ‘those who sowed the wind must reap the whirlwind’. Violence, code-named “Operation wet e” broke out with dead bodies littering major streets of major towns in Yoruba land. The battle was against those Yoruba identified as traitors.

    We cannot trivialise the above historical facts by attempting to draw a parallel between it and Fubara’s self-inflicted 2023 crisis when he blindly decided to fight his own government. And except for those engaged in mischief to give a false narrative of our past history, there is no basis to compare Zik and Balewa’s malevolent handling of Western Region crisis with President Tinubu’s handling of Fubara’s disagreement with an arm of his government.

    President Tinubu did what a statesman should do by making Fubara sign a truce with the warring members of an arm of his government in the presence of Rivers elders. If he breached his undertaking, it was because he, as an office holder, who does not know that in a democracy, rulers rule but others dictate the tune, allowed himself to be misled by Arise TV and non-politicians in politics who probably do not know better.

  • Who will save Rivers from her warring children?

    Who will save Rivers from her warring children?

    Politics has been variously defined as ‘authoritative allocation of values or “who gets what when and how”. But I think in terms of intrigue that goes into balancing the interest of pressure groups and public interest, deviousness and ruthlessness of office seekers and for our purpose in this write up ‘politics as the art of the possible will be more appropriate (Otto Von Bismarck, German statesman and First Chancellor of Unified Germany 1815-1898).

    The truth is that not all office seekers or office holders are politicians. Politicians are a special breed of selfless public servants who are not deterred by the fact they that are hardly trusted by the public they serve who often see them as corrupt, devious and men of many words. These largely misunderstood patriots ruled and may sometimes be addressed as their excellences, but others call the tune. Unfortunately, no matter how much politicians are detested, our survival as an organized society depends on their resourcefulness and brinkmanship.

    Of course, bluffing Governor Similayi Fubara who had all his past battle fought for him is not a politician. In fact he is not smart enough to learn from our recent history.

    We once had a Raji Babatunde Fashola, a non-politician but a very smart guy as governor of Lagos State. He was not his party’s but his godfather’s choice. When he had a slight disagreement with his godfather, all those who had wanted his job, rose up in his defence not because they loved him, but to spite his godfather. Opposition parties were dangling their party’s’ ticket in his face in case he was denied his party’s ticket for a second term.

    But instead of swallowing the poison as Fubara did, he went for an international engagement where he gave a lecture and announced to the whole world that “Tinubu made me governor”. That became newspaper headlines in both local and international newspaper the following day. The godfather was humbled. If the godfather today takes credit for landmark projects like the Lagos rail line and Atlantic City, it was because his trusted godson, the actualiser, unlike Ambode who ignored some of the projects during his four years tenure, remained faithful to his godfather and his dream project.

    Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, following some disagreement with Obasanjo also joined forces with his estranged godfather’s political foes including James Ibori who also headed the Yar’Adua group that did not want Jonathan to succeed the ailing President Yar’Adua. This was long after he had declared publicly that apart from God and his biological parents, Obasanjo was the next most important personality in is life. Jonathan was hijacked by the late pa Edwin Clark, who gave himself the title of ’father of the president’ to spite Obasanjo. Jonathan forgot his battle was fought by the likes of Tunde Bakare on the streets of Lagos and Abuja with the ‘doctrine of necessity’ slogan. The rest is history.

    Today, facing the same scenario, Fubara, like Jonathan, teamed up with enemies of Wike, his estranged godfather including Imo Ikenga Ugochinyere, who has today become Fubara’s interpreter of court pronouncements. Others include PDP stalwarts in borrowed robe of media men who would not forgive Wike for bringing PDP down during the 2023 elections. Some of them pretend to be news anchors without appreciating that the greatest attributes of a news anchor include  journalistic integrity, professionalism  and ability to be ‘silent and listen”. These men lionized Fubara, encouraged him to stand up to his estranged godfather and talked him out of his initial undertaking to implement term of truce reached when the president first intervened.

    Unfortunately, Fubara still does not understand that the only people benefiting from the tragedy he has inadvertently brought upon his people are these self-serving advisers and media promoters who smile to the banks at the expense of besieged people of Rivers.

    For instance, ‘News commercialisation’ which refers to situation “whereby the electronic media report as news or news analysis a commercial message by an unidentified or unidentifiable sponsor giving the audience the impression that news is fair, objective and socially responsible”(Nnorom,1994) is not cheap. The 30 minutes slot cannot be anything less than N20m. That is what someone coughs out to allow the likes of Ikenga Ugochinyere to speak without substance on TV for 30 minutes in the name of fighting Fubara’s war. He was pathetic to watch last week on Fubara’s favourite TV platform as he gave his own interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment after which he urged Fubara to ‘carry on’ the battle.

    The above forces that exploited Fubara’s lack of capacity to understand that sometimes in political warfare , you may have to stoop to conquer, were behind his missing of an historic opportunity provided by last week landmark  Supreme Court judgment to end his people’s nightmare after two years of his unstable government.

    The Supreme Court judgment was straight forward.

    The court ruled there is no evidence that the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), because without evidence presented before the court, in the eyes of the law, no defection took place and consequently the status quo in the House of Assembly must remain.

    It criticized the governor for behaving likes a despot by demolishing the House of Assembly complex and preventing the 27 lawmakers from sitting. It also condemned Fubara for destroying of Rivers State over his fear of impeachment

    “Since the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him to govern without the legislature as a despot, the Supreme Court held that “As it is, there is no government in Rivers State”.

    It held that “The doctrine of necessity cannot be invoked to justify the continued existence of a deliberately contrived illegal or unconstitutional status quo.

    That “political disagreements cannot justify these attacks and contempt for the rule of law by the governor of a state or any person.

    That “The part of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, affirming the judgment of the Federal High Court in suit No. FHC/AB)/CS/984/2024 is hereby affirmed.

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    That “The said judgment of the Federal High Court in suit No. FHC/AB)/CS/984/2024 is hereby restored.

    That “For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby ordered that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Accountant General of the Federation should forthwith stop releasing and paying to the Government of Rivers State, its organs,… until an Appropriation Law is made by Rivers State House of Assembly constituted as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution.

    That “The Rt. Honourable Martin Chike Amaewhule and the other 26 members should forthwith resume unhindered sitting as Speaker and members respectively of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

    With all the roads blocked, if only Fubara understands politics as the art of the possible, and had without the meddlesomeness of elders and politicians on both sides of the aisle who speak from both sides of the mouth, picked up the phone to congratulate the speaker of his state House of Assembly and his colleagues over their victory at the court and offer to forward the 2025 budget and the list of his commissioners as directed by the Supreme Court, the following day.

    And let us for a moment imagine Fubara with awesome apparatus of his office storming Wike’s victory church thanksgiving in Abuja and insisting Rivers State seat of power remains in his house until he agrees to join him for another thanksgiving in Port Harcourt to convince the mass of Rivers people in whose name they all swore, that the battle was over.

    Of course Fubara would have seized the initiative while Wike would have been humbled.

    Unfortunately, Fubara who cannot appreciate the worth of the office he never fought for will rather keep on playing the ostrich. Whilst he claims to wait for certified copy of the court judgment to start complying with the Supreme Court judgment, that has not stopped him from starting preparation for the conduct of a new local government election.  A few days after informing his street boys to wait for signals, a trending video of AK-47 wielding militants in the creeks threatening to attack oil installations emerged. The Punch gave an elaborate coverage to them and their demand.

    Ijaw youths have also joined the fray in support of Fubara, the first Rivers governor of Ijaw ethnic extraction.

    The question now is with Fubara’s resolve to continue waging war against his own government, politicians admitting treachery against their state, elders speaking from both side of the mouth while our once beautiful ‘Garden City’ turns into a city of blood by militants groomed and armed by Rivers’ successive governors, who is going to save Rivers?

  • Ohanaeze and the battle for reparation

    Ohanaeze and the battle for reparation

    Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Deputy President General of Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, last week demanded N10tn reparation and a letter of apology from President Bola Tinubu because of “the erroneous classification of the 1966 January coup as an Igbo insurrection”. He commended Babangida “for his exemption of the Igbo people from the unjust label of being ‘enemies of the North’ whilst not forgetting to hail him over his claim that the objective of Nzeogwu and his fellow insurrectionists was “to free Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Nigeria’s leader”.

    The problem is that besides Isuguzoro, I am not sure many Nigerian will take Babangida serious. This is a man who has been trying to rationalize the unjust and malicious murder of Mamman Vatsa, his child hood friend while Vatsa’s appeal over alleged coup plotting was pending (General Donkat Balli The News May 22, 2006), a con man who took Nigerian through “eight years of transition without end” only to annul the most credible election in our nation’s history won by MKO Abiola his friend and business partner only to resort to buck passing 32 years later. And this is a man whose controversial book has been described as “a collection of distorted facts which cannot serve as a reference book for the younger generation but a good reference book for criminal-minded people”. (Jonathan Vatsa, Punch Feb 28). It is doubtful if much weight can be attached to Babangida’s mendacities. There are just too many lose ends in his tales.

    For instance, he claims the  “primary objective of the January 1966 coup was to free Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Nigeria’s leader” without telling us his source. And if his source was Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who first sold the dummy during an interview, that also only raises more questions. If Ojukwu, who claimed to have foiled the coup in Kaduna while Aguiyi Ironsi foiled it in Lagos, were in possession of such privileged information, what stopped the duo from releasing Awo from an unjust incarceration despite his three different letters of appeal to Ironsi?

    And if the coup plotters were performing their duty as custodian of the constitution as Babangida would want us to believe, the cleansing ought to have started with premiers Okpara and Ahmadu Bello, who refused to recognize Dauda Adegbenro, the Western Region recognised premier, followed by President Azikiwe and Prime Minister Balewa, who masterminded an illegal declaration of state of emergency in the West, imposition of Akintola of NNDP and Fani Kayode of NCNC as premier and deputy premier without election and  imprisonment of Awo over a fabricated claim he was about to overthrow the government of Her Majesty, the Queen.

    Read Also: Tinubu’s administration not skewing road projects to South — Umahi

    And lastly, Babangida is a master of obfuscation; there is no evidence in our recent history to show Igbo ‘are enemies of Hausa/Fulani’ or that there has been any form of love lost between Igbo and Yoruba. Indeed if the phrase that best captures relationship between the former is ‘conjugal bliss’, the later will be “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.

    When it comes to power sharing, Igbo find Hausa/Fulani irresistible. For instance, following the outcome of the 1959 election Awo conceded leadership to Zik and agreed to work under him as finance minister. While his group was waiting in Asaba to seal the deal, Zik and his group were already in Kaduna cutting a deal that produced the NPC/NCNC alliance.

    That the 1959 marriage of convenience ended in a civil war did not discourage the marriage between NPN/NPP in 1979 (both metamorphosed from NPC/NCNC of the first republic). Ojukwu the rebel leader returned from 10 years exile to join the new alliance which again collapsed in 1983, not over how best to serve Nigeria, but over sharing of perks of office.

    Then came Babangida’s 1993 ‘transition without end” (Oyediran). All the Igbo states except Anambra voted for Tofa, the NRC presidential candidate. Over 80% of those Babangida named during his last week book presentation as conspirators in the annulment of the election won by MKO Abiola were of Igbo ethnic extraction.

    In 1999, Igbo voted massively for PDP and Obasanjo, the candidate the northern hegemonic power imposed as Yoruba candidate as against Olu Falae, the Yoruba sponsored candidate.

    Unlike the enduring love of the Igbo, the ever ready beautiful bride and their Hausa/Fulani suitors, there has been no love lost between Yoruba and Igbo political elite since the 1930s when as leaders of urban immigrants, Igbo political elite wanted to make themselves relevant in the politics of Lagos and intimidation, blackmail and propaganda were some of the weapons of war freely deployed by Igbo against their Yoruba hosts.

    This played out in 1934 during a struggle to have a member of the Nigerian Youth Movement move to the House of Representatives. Awo had supported Earnest Ikoli, an easterner against Akinsanya, his fellow Ijebu kinsman, sponsored by Zik. Because Akinsanya, Zik’s candidate lost the election after a bitter campaign, Zik pulled out all Igbo members and collapsed the movement accusing Awo and Yoruba of playing tribal politics. The seed of mutual distrust was thus sowed.

    The Ibo Federal Union was formed in 1943. Zik became its national president. According to Obafemi Awolowo, “Dr Azikiwe himself was an unabashed Ibo jingoist who gave the game away when he said during his presidential speech at the Ibo Federal Union in 1949 that “It would appear the god of Africa has specially created the Igbo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages, not only to conquer others but also adapt themselves to the role of preserver”, (Awo autobiography PP 172). 

    However when Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed in Lagos in 1949 by Awolowo to unite the Yoruba, Zik, claiming it was targeted at Igbo and 27million Nigerians unleashed virulent attack on the Egbe and its leaders who were physically attacked along their properties in Lagos by  Zikist youths.

    In1951, after the regional election, of the five members elected on the platform of Ibadan Progressive Union, Adegoke Adelabu remained loyal to Zik and NCNC, while Adisa Akinloye and others joined Awolowo’s Action Group. This followed a stalemate as Mbadiwe  and other Zik’s supporters insisted he should become the premier of the West while leading members of NCNC like Olu Akinfosile and TOS Benson, who regarded NCNC as a Yoruba party as there was only one non-Yoruba in its inaugural meeting, insisted one of them be chosen to be premier.

    The decision of some Yoruba in NCNC to join Awo’s AG in order to control their own destiny became a subject of intense propaganda and blackmail and misinformation by Zik; today’s equivalent of the ‘Obdients’. They crowned Obafemi Awolowo, who emerged leader of government, king of tribal politics and enemy of Igbo.  Not even the world-celebrated Chinua Achebe could restrain himself from spreading misinformation when he wrote in his last major work – There was a country – that he witnessed carpet crossing of Zik supporters on the floor of Western House in 1952.

    The misinformation and misrepresentation of the 1952 events have continued to define Yoruba and Igbo politics.

    Finally, I think Ohanaeze will have to search beyond Babangida’s tenuous claim to justify their N10trn reparation demand especially in the face of overwhelming evidence that confirmed  that both the January insurrectionists and Ironsi were mere pawns in the hands of highly cerebral Igbo political leaders including Dr. Nwafor Orizu, the senate president, Dr  Ben Nwabueze, Ironsi’s adviser  and Dr. Ozunba Mbadiwe (the man of ‘timber and calibre’), a cabinet minister  during the January 31 night of many knives.

    For instance, it has now been established that Zik was the first to seek the support of the military following the constitutional gridlock that followed the massively rigged 1964 election. It was believed it was the negative response of the military that claimed to be answerable to the prime minister that precipitated insurrection by younger elements in the military sympathetic to Zik’s course in January 1966.

    There was also sufficient evidence from those present at the meeting, including Richard Akinjide, that the senate president, instead of supervising the election of the most senor surviving minister as acting prime minister, was playing the ostrich game until Ironsi declared himself head of state.

    And finally, Igbo’s  two other dominant ethnic groups will need to be convinced that Ironsi’s Decree 34 that turned a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural  federal state into a unitary state, a system promoted by Igbo up to the London 1957 Constitutional Conference, was not an Igbo agenda.

  • Beyond Babangida’s Abuja crowd

    Beyond Babangida’s Abuja crowd

    The make-up of Babangida’s Abuja crowd during the public presentation of his autobiography- ‘A Journey in Service ‘last week was in character with a leader who like ‘Maradona’ takes delight in devious scheming. On hand to give him solidarity were five of his fellow former military Heads of State who see manipulation of the governed as great asset. They all believe that government doesn’t need to ask what the governed want. Why are they leaders if they cannot dream for their people?

     The second group is made up of former products of Babangida’s school of democracy; he personally christened them ‘new breed’ politicians. They were from the onset forbidden from making contact with neither the past nor their corrupt leaders. Today, some are in the private sector while others have become part of our current governing class. The military is their role model and for them, government is about sharing spoils of war. They didn’t have problem raising N17billion towards the building a presidential library for their godfather, ex-President Babangida, accused by detractors of institutionalising corruption in Nigeria.

    Babangida, the self-styled evil genius, often obsessed with self-preservation, loves none but self. He is as selfish as he is self-centred. He is a leader with no abiding faith. Babangida was the leader who carried out a palace coup against his principal he accused of not carrying people along in decision making only for him to take IMF loan roundly rejected by Nigerians as shown by the result of a national survey he commissioned. Despite experts’ advice and general rejection of the Structural Adjustment Programme, it was embraced by Babangida even as the result was the turning of our country into a dumping ground for foreign manufactured goods from all over the world. And finally, the evil genius, thinking he knew what we want, took a multi-cultural and multi-religion nation like Nigeria into OIC without consulting Nigerians.

    This is why I think his last week act of contrition over his role in the June 12 1993 fiasco during the public presentation of his autobiography- ‘A Journey in Service’ was an assault on sensibilities of thousands of Nigerians beaten by and detained by the police or killed by soldiers while demonstrating in Lagos and across Nigeria against Babangida’s coup against the nation.

     For anyone who is familiar with the style of the ‘Maradona’ who dribbled the academia, the media that made him, and the traditional institutions that bestowed on him honours without end across Nigeria including the (Opu Omu Alabo), the chief war leader of Rivers, the Oka ome Eme (a man of his words of Enugu) and the Comforter of the Igbos), it is not difficult to dismiss his last week act of contrition over his June 12 1993 coup against Nigeria an assault on sensibilities of Nigerians

    And if one may ask, what is the Maradona apologizing for after blaming everyone else for the coup except self? As if the evil genius thinks he is still the Commander-in-Chief 32 years after Nigerians angrily chased him out office, he is identifying those Nigerians should hold responsible for the 1993 coup many believe he masterminded but executed by his friends. He has identified, Arthur Nzeribe, the Association to Better Nigeria (ABN), he admitted was his friend as the one who secured an illegal midnight judgment that threatened the conduct of the election; he named his Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Clement Akpamgbo who in clear violation of Decree 13, which barred any court from interfering with INEC’s conduct or scheduling of the elections, he said misadvised government and  Akpamgbo’s godson, Justice Ikpeme, whose Abuja High Court granted the ABN an injunction stopping NEC from conducting the June 12 elections.in the dead of night. Babangida also wants Nduka Irabor sanctioned. According to him the June 12 elections “was annulled on June 23, 1993 through “a terse, poorly worded statement from a scrap of paper, which bore neither the presidential seal nor the official letterhead of the government, read out by Nduka Irabor”.

    Unfortunately, Babangida forgot that in spite his current denials and buck passing, he validated, all the above decisions he now says were not approved through a public broadcast and press conference where he also laid out plan for his Interim National Government contraption.

     Sadly, Babangida, a common trickster thinks no one sees though his subterfuge. The other five perfidious generals who were out with him last week suffer from the same affliction

    But how did we get here?

    We are an endowed nation. At independence, Nigeria was seen as the hope of the black race. The East was rated as having the highest growing economy in the world, The West had television ahead of Belgium and Germany and was through welfarist policies including free education and free health services, was on the verge of creating an egalitarian society. Our dreams and hopes came into an abrupt end when ethnic irredentists turned the Nigerian Army into an army of balance of terror in 1966.

    It is precisely because Babangida style is not different from those of other Nigerian former generals that ruled us like conquered people that I want us to look beyond his Abuja crowd and interrogate how total disrespect for Nigerians by our successive military leaders from Aguiyi Ironsi to Abdulsalami Abubakar has brought the nation to her knees.

    Read Alao: Why Nigeria intervened in Liberia’s civil war, by Babangida

    First let us take a journey through memory to see how we got here.

    There was a military insurrection in January 1966. Ironsi who emerged as the new leader of the country in a moment of madness promulgated Decree 34 of 1966 that overnight turned a multi-cultural Federal Republic of Nigeria into a unitary state. Unitarism was a social system long canvassed by the Igbo ethnic group.

    The response of the north to unification was the July 1966 vengeance coup that led to the killing of many Igbo military officers, massacre of Igbo people in the north and eventual civil war.

    Gowon played the ethnic card by allowing himself to be railroaded into power in breach of espirit de corps of the military which favoured Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, then the most senior surviving military officer as Head of State. Of course, there wouldn’t have been any civil war but for Gowon’s refusal to abide by the terms of the Aburi Accord.

    Obasanjo also betrayed the country when he, as an umpire in the 1979 election, chose to support Shehu Shagari. The rest of the country viewed Obasanjo’s action as a form of payback to the northern hegemonic power that allowed him to succeed assassinated Murtala Mohammed in 1976.

    Buhari actually believed he could rule Nigeria without Nigerians’ consent.  In 1984, he treated northern politicians with kid gloves while he sent their southern counterparts who, as government, officially cornered contract commissions to build universities and health facilities for the mass of their people in Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos to prison years ranging from 100 to 200.

    Besides stealing the country blind, Abacha, the maximum dictator ruled the country on his own terms. He waged war against Abiola and his Yoruba people while preparing himself for self-perpetuation

    Abdulsalami, besides imposing the 1999 Constitution regarded by many as Decree 24 as it was never discussed by Nigerians, believed he and other northern military officers that brought Obasanjo  out of prison, and imposed him as Yoruba preferred candidate and went on to work for his victory, have neither patience or respect for the sensibilities of the Yoruba people.

    The net effect of this on the nation was that at the birth of the fourth republic in 1999, there were no politicians with experience in parliamentary democracy or even or even the party system. What we had were military-baked new breed politicians that saw only the outgoing soldiers as role models.

    This was why Ayo Opadokun, a former NADECO chieftain, speaking on the legacies of Ayo Adebanjo and Pa Edwin Clark who died after lifelong struggle on Channels Television last week said he holds exception to being told our current political class are politicians. To him as well as to many other Nigerians, they are military apologists who since 1999 could not even guarantee the status of citizenship Nigerians enjoyed under colonialism especially in terms of constitutional engineering.

    As a way forward, Opadokun says President Tinubu who understands and has been part of the struggle for nation-building should engage the leaders of ethnic nationalities, the owners of Nigeria.

    I think it is time to stop playing the ostrich and let those who claim they don’t know the meaning of restructuring that it is a quest to return our country to a federal arrangement which most multi-cultural societies in the world believe guarantees unity in diversity.