Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

For some people and organisations, nothing will satisfy them more than the cancellation of the February 25 presidential election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Their reason for such hope is absurd.

They are working on a well-conceived Plan B to scuttle the poll even before its conclusion, if it does not go their way. Shortly before the election, they started flying the kite about the interpretation of Section 134 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution, which borders on the requirements for winning the poll.

The provision reads:

A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election – he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Now, FCT is not a state, but is deemed to be so under Section 299 of the Constitution. Deeming a thing to be something is not the same as that thing being the actual thing. According to the section:

The provisions of this Constitution shall apply to the FCT, Abuja as if it were one of the states of the Federation. “As if it were a state”! So, how can something referred to “as if it were” then be taking as it is? Those arguing that FCT is a state are doing so for selfish reasons. They are pushing an illegal and illogical cause.  FCT is not and cannot be a state. If FCT is a state, where is its governor? If it is a state, where are its commissioners that should constitute the executive council (EXCO) as we have them in the constitutionally recognised 36 states?

I stand to be corrected as a layman as I posit that a territory without a governor or an executive council cannot be a state. The framers of the Constitution did not include Section 134 (2) (b) in it to create confusion, as some lawyers and politicians, who should know better are now doing. The section was included, in the framers’ wisdom, to ensure that an elected president has a national outlook. Though, he may not win outright in all the states, he should garner at least 25 percent of the votes to reflect a national spread. No nation wants a sectional leader, they all desire a national leader.

Our desire for a national leader must not now be misconstrued by mischief makers to impute into the Constitution what is not there. Politics, so much so election, may be war by other means, as Carl von Clausewitz theorised, but it should not be allowed to degenerate to what is now happening over the February 25 poll.

From the roadshow by those opposed to President-elect Tinubu’s victory, it is obvious that there is a grand design to stop him from becoming president, at all costs. It is not about not winning 25 percent of the votes cast in FCT, it goes beyond that. They are merely hiding under that provision to deceive the gullible that they have a case. They will know the truth at the Supreme Court where they will meet their Waterloo, just as it happened in the naira redesign policy case.

This ides of March drama, which is happening before the 15th, which is known as ides in ancient Roman calendar, is all about themselves and their unbridled desire to acquire power. The electoral umpire had hardly begun collating the results when Atiku Abubakar’s lackey Dino Melaye, who unfortunately for Nigeria was in its Senate and House of Representatives at a time, started throwing up tantrums.

Without any evidence, he claimed that the returns were not authentic because they were not uploaded on INEC’s result portal known as IReV. No law says that the results should be so transmitted. Were their agents not at the polling units where the results were counted? Didn’t those agents sign the results? Is entertainer Dino alleging that they signed under duress?

What about former President Olusegun Obasanjo? Where is he coming from that he should call for the scuttling of an ongoing electoral process? Presidents as statesmen have a code of conduct that they should never breach.

Unfortunately, Obasanjo makes and lives by his own rules. Time and again, he descends into the arena when he should be above the fray. Having endorsed Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), should he have been seen complaining about the election when his candidate was losing? They are doing everything to rubbish the election.

From seeking to inspect the election materials, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), to using some sections of the media to misinterpret statements made by some developed countries, where we have seen Presidents desecrating the hallowed chambers of their legislatures, multilateral and bilateral organisations, the Atiku and Obi groups are ready to play dirty to have their way.

The nation awaits what the court will say. But for now, the people have spoken and their voice can be heard loud and clear: Tinubu is the president-elect and so shall it remain. No amount of protests by overfed men wearing black to mourn their loss or the distortion of facts and figures by their media agents can change things. By the way, is it The Nation, This Day or Arise News that should watch it? This paper’s record speaks for it as a medium.

But, the same cannot be said of This Day and Arise News. Millions watched worldwide the day eminent lawyer Robert Clarke (SAN) accused Arise News on air of siding with some politicians to mislead Nigerians over the naira policy. The outcome of the case at the Supreme Court has vindicated Clarke and this paper. What has Arise News now got to say on its position that CBN should have been joined as a party and the suit instituted at the Federal High Court?

They lost in that crusade and they will surely lose in their campaign of calumny against Tinubu and this paper on air. I understand. They are still delirious over the presidential poll results in Lagos. They will be shocked back to their senses by the outcome of Saturday’s governorship election in the state, which is just 48 hours away. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu will, God willing, win hands down.

It WAS a hard fought battle. The battle climaxed in the early hours of yesterday when President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of the February 25 election at 4.10 a.m. The nation’s Chief Electoral Officer, Prof Mahmood Yakubu,who made the declaration, said Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to beat his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 6,984,520, and Peter Obi, Labour Party (LP), 6,101,533. Tinubu’s victory marks the beginning of perhaps, the most vital phase of his political odyssey.

Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos and Jagaban Borgu, two of his many traditional titles by which he is popularly known is not a political journeyman but a master of the game. He did not just wake up one morning and resolved to run for president.  It was a project which he thought through and bide his time before throwing his hat in the ring. When he started moving around the country to consult people on his aspiration, it became crystal clear that he meant business.

Nothing and nobody was going to stop him. From one state to the other, from one political stalwart to the other, he canvassed support for his bid. Tinubu was ready to give in order to receive, but the terms must be mutually agreed upon. They must not be one-sided terms under which a party may feel shortchanged. As a strategist, Tinubu plays by the principle of give-and-take. ‘’If you rub my back, I rub your back’’, as people say. This principle is the bedrock of his political belief. He is often surrounded by people because they know that he will always be there for them.  His nationwide consultations were, therefore, merely a formality.

But as an astute politician, he knows that people should not be taken for granted, no matter the political favours they might owe you. He opened the race for the presidential ticket of his party after he went to the State House, Abuja, to inform President Muhammadu Buhari, of his aspiration. The President gave him his blessings and from then on, Tinubu never looked back. At the party’s convention at the Eagle Square, Abuja, last June, all eyes were on him despite the large field of aspirants. But one after the other, many of the aspirants stepped down for him, paving the way for his election as APC’s standard-bearer.

Although, he defeated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi and cleric-politician Pastor Tunde Bakare, to pick the ticket, he quickly put his victory behind him and visited them to seek their support in winning the election. His magnanimity and generosity are legendary. He owes his political survival to these attributes, which many other politicians overlook. But then, Tinubu does not suffer fools gladly. You cannot abuse his large-heartedness and tolerance again and again and expect him to keep quiet. His capacity to absorb shock, betrayal, deceit and the shenanigans of those who should be his eyes and ears is astounding.

As he begins a new political life as president-elect, waiting to assume office on May 29, many of his estranged political associates will surely want to reconnect with him. From now till his swearing-in all roads will lead to his house, with all sorts of people seeking his attention. Things have changed and they will do well to know that. The Tinubu of yesterday is different from the Tinubu of today. When we said in this space last week that by this time this week, his status would have changed, one was not being prophetic, but realistic. As I said then, he was head and shoulder above his fellow contestants. I knew that it was not going to be an easy race, but never knew it would be that tough, with the incredible performance by Obi.

Bookmakers are still wondering what happened in Lagos State, where Obi won, beating Tinubu to a close second. To Obi’s supporters, especially former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Ebora Owu,who we all refer to as Baba, that poll was okay because Tinubu lost. But in the states where Tinubu won, the polls, to use Obasanjo’s words, were “not credible and transparent”. Were the polls in Lagos, Osun, Nasarawa, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Delta, Cross River, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, all where Obi won, and the states where Tinubu carried the day, not conducted by the same INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) which Obasanjo and his ilk are crucifying?

What makes the polls in Benue, Borno, Ekiti, Jigawa, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers and Zamfara, all where Tinubu won, “tainted” to borrow the word of their media collaborators, and those of Obi and Atiku Abubakar, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) untainted. Why are they not using the same parameters to assess the election? Must they hate a man to the extent of trying to delegitimise the election that he legitimately won? What is Tinubu’s offence? What did he buy from them that he did not pay? Now that the election has been won and lost, one only prays that they will stop bellyaching over the matter. The nation has concluded one electoral process.

The stage is set for the other, which is the seeking of redress at the tribunal by the aggrieved, if they think that they have a case. If I were in the shoes of these people, I will pick up the phone today and call Tinubu to congratulate him for a hard fought election, in which Obi, in particular, stunned the nation. Will they do so? The choice is theirs. In the interest of all, they should, in the meantime, tell their loyalists to stop overheating the polity with the falsehood they are spreading over the election.  

Tinubu has won and God willing, he will take his oath of office on May 29 and also be decorated with the highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR). As the nation awaits the inauguration of its president-in-waiting, let us join him and his family in prayers for a successful tenure. May his time bode well for Nigeria.    

WHICHEVER way the President rules on the matter, as the seven days he requested for ends tomorrow, there is no doubt about the systemic disruptions so far caused by the naira redesign policy. The policy got the President’s blessings from the outset, but his economic team was kept in the dark about the plan purportedly initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to control inflation by mopping up the excess cash in people’s homes.

It was an enthusiastic CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, that unveiled the plan last October. It was a multi-pronged programme, which began with the cash withdrawal limit for individuals and organisations. For individuals, the cap was N100,000 per week, and organisations, N500,000. The public kicked and at the end of the day, commonsense prevailed. The limit was raised to N500,000 and N5 million weekly.

It took the intervention of the National Assembly to get Emefiele to make that U-turn. The CBN’s long term plan is to bequeath to the nation a cashless economy. This started years ago, with the introduction of the debit card under the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) regime. The ATM has been a huge success, despite hiccups here and there.

The nation entered the naira redesign phase of the plan with a bang. With the specimens of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1000 notes unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari last November, the stage was set for their formal introduction as legal tender. Emefiele quickly rolled out the arrangements for phasing out the old notes as he implored depositors to pay them into their accounts in exchange for the new ones by January 31.

The time frame, many argued then, was too short. Emefiele, who announced the redesign plan last October 26, presented the cash specimens to the President on November 23 and set January 31 as deadline for phasing out the old notes, turned a deaf ear to their cries. Whereas, he did not put his house in order, as events showed before fixing the January 31 deadline. By the time the expiration of the deadline was drawing near, it was obvious that those in the rural areas and the unbanked in many cities would lose their hard-earned money, through no fault of theirs, for failing to pay it into the bank. How could they when they had no access to banks?

But Emefiele would have none of that. As far as he was concerned, people had enough time to return the old notes and get the new ones but chose not to act fast until it was too late. He insisted that there was no going back on the deadline, but two days to its expiration, he suddenly showed up in Daura, the President’s hometown in Katsina State, to get an approval for extension. Even, with the extension of the deadline to February 10, not much progress has been made. The deadline expires tomorrow, with a seven-day grace for people to still take their old notes, which would have become illegal tender (that is can no longer be spent) anyway, to the bank for exchange.

People have returned tonnes of cash to the bank, but they were not given new notes in return. The redesigned notes are simply not there. “We do not have the notes”, the banks are saying by their action. Where then are the new notes? How come currency hawkers have them in abundance, while many other Nigerians find it difficult to get? Are banks hoarding the notes – and for what reasons? Is CBN sincere in its implementation of the policy? Did it print enough of the notes? In its own eyes, CBN believes that it has done well. The jury is still out on that.

The nation is on edge today because of CBN’s acts of omission and commission. How can it recall N2.1 trillion and pump in only N300 billion? To the discerning, that was a deliberate ploy to create scarcity of the new notes and foist on the nation a crisis of monumental proportion on the eve of a major election – the February 25 presidential poll. In a situation like this, the governors could not have sat on their hands, watching, while Emefiele took the country for a ride. Their intervention made the President promise to see what could be done in seven days, which coincide with tomorrow’s  expiration of the February 10 deadline.

The President asked for time to enable him engage in wide consultations before making his decision. Political observers, however,  believe that he does not need such a long time to resolve the matter. To them, he only needs to decree it and the deadline will be extended again. Who did he consult before approving the extension of the January 31 deadline to February 10? They asked.

His request for time is good, but the President should bear in mind that the people did not vote for Emefiele nor many of those he is meeting with. They only voted for him and the governors who have read the situation correctly and given him sound advice to allow the old and new notes to be used together as legal tender. To take the advice of others may count for something, but at the end of the day, the final decision is that of the head. Is the President happy with what is happening across the country? The chaotic fuel, banking halls’ and ATMs’ queues. The protests across the country in which some lives have been lost.

What else does he need to take a life-saving decision for many Nigerians? The President should be mindful of the judgement of history, with the kind of advice he gets from these consultations. He should bear in mind that the buck stops at his table. This was why Emefiele ran to him on January 29 to get an extension from January 31 to February 10. If he could do that then, he can still do it now.

As President, he can never be short of advice, whether sought or not. What matters is what he does with the advice. The advice he needs now is one that will get protesters off the streets and clear the long queues at filling stations, banking halls and ATM portals. This is the advice that can defuse the tensions across the country. It is only those who do not wish him and his administration well that will tell him to stick to the February 10 deadline for phasing out the old notes.

With the raging protests across the country over the biting cash crunch, anarchy looms ahead, with just 16 days away from the presidential election. No matter how much they try, the President should not allow small-minded people to bring Nigeria down on his head. If tomorrow comes, he will certainly do right by the citizenry and end this nightmarish naira scarcity never before witnessed in Nigeria. Even during the civil war (1967-1970), money was not this scarce. Why now – in peace time? Only the President can save the country from this self-inflicted crisis.

Never again will such an incident happen, the public was promised after the Kaduna train attack in 2022. Ten months later, a similar attack has happened in Edo State, leaving everyone appalled. Even, the government and the security agencies are flummoxed. How did the abductors strike again without the attack nipped in the bud?

It is too soon after the March 28, 2022 Kaduna train attack for another one to happen. Sadly, this is what the nation is faced with, following the January 7 incident at the remote Tom Ikimi Train Station, Igueben, Edo State. The incident was said to have happened at Ekehen specifically.

Ekehen is a village close to Igueben. Igueben and Ekehen may be coterminous towns, but Ikimi’s name has conferred a higher status on the former that earned it the train station’s name. What happened in that remote village on Saturday raises questions once again about security issues.

How do the security agencies do their work? What are the lessons they learn from any attack? What do they do after studying the investigation reports? What is the place of intelligence gathering in what they do? When Kuje Prisons in Abuja was attacked on July 6, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari blamed it on failure of intelligence and took his security chiefs to the cleaners.

More than six months after the incident, hundreds of inmates who escaped from the prison have not been rearrested and no security chief is known to have been made to answer for what happened. The country has carried on as if nothing happened at Kuje. It has been business as usual, until another incident occurs to shake our leaders out of their lethargy. They are being woken up from the slumber they fell into after the Kaduna train abduction now by the Edo incident.

The usual noises are being made all over the place, following the incident, without anyone asking what was done to avert such attacks in future after what we saw in Kaduna. That incident should have told our security men something and that is: the nation could no longer leave its train stations not well secured. The Kaduna attack was a wake up call to the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), police, Department of State Service (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and related agencies to return to the drawing board to fashion out a strategy for averting train attacks.

These agencies should have known that after succeeding in Kaduna, the perpetrators will want to try their luck elsewhere after biding their time. Criminals are good at planning and waiting, but these are not attributes peculiar to them. Security agents are expected to be better than them in those departments. If security agents cannot plan and wait, no matter how long, to avert crime, then the nation must be wasting its resources on them. I am not saying that this was what happened in this instance, but one thing is for sure, our security agents were once again, caught napping.

The herdsmen who attacked the Ekehen station could not have done so on the spur of the moment. No criminal, no matter how daring he is, storms a train to kidnap passengers like a pickpocket stalking a commuter would do at a bus stop. It takes a lot of planning to attack a train. No matter the remoteness of a train station, passengers should not be left at the mercy of the elements and criminals. Unfortunately, this is what the NRC and the security agencies have done in this instance. Perhaps, they thought that what happened in Kaduna would only be limited to the north and would never occur down south. They now know better.

Criminals have twisted minds, but they are sharp. They study every situation well before making their moves. They struck at Ekehen on Saturday because they knew that their chances of being caught were nil. This is a remote territory without security. So, who would stop them? They knew that before help could come after the alarm is raised, they would have long escaped. As usual, the Fidet Okhiria-led NRC and the security agencies are now trying to shut the stable after the horse had fled. I wish them well.

My appeal is that they should stop playing with people’s lives. It is all the government’s fault. What has it done since the Kaduna incident to fortify rail stations? Security is not all about posting personnel to places. The government  should be thinking more of deploying technology in this fight against criminals. Where there are no security men, technology will come handy. Just imagine what a Closed-circuit Television (CCTV), if there was one, would have done in fishing out those behind the Ekehen train attack, who the security men are now combing the forests for.

It is the height of irresponsibility by NRC for train stations to remain without state-of-the-art security, as we have seen in the Ekehen case, 10 months after the Kaduna train attack. This means that it learnt nothing from the Kaduna attack. Apparently because of  its laxity, lightning has struck the same place twice. Human lives are precious. So, the government and its agencies should place high premium on lives.

Which is better? Securing lives to avert danger or engaging in negotiations with terrorists after every abduction? I prefer the former. Reason: prevention is better than cure.

Arbitarily demeaning and killing Nigerians is deeply woven into the very fabric of policing in Nigeria. It’s a long shot to wonder if that would change anytime soon, but the first step is not just realising that the Nigerian Police is NOT your friend, it’s realising the institutional, contextual and historical reasons why…

-thenativemag.com

PEOPLE from all walks of life are outraged over the killing of an expectant mother, Mrs Omobolanle Raheem, on Christmas Day in Lagos by a police officer. Their rage is justified. The cold-blooded murder should not have happened at all. It happened because the police have not learnt any lessons from such occurrences in the past. Police killings of citizens are not new. They have become part of us.

But, this is wrong. The people should not live with something that is bad and sinister. Mrs Raheem was with her family when she was shot in cold blood by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Dambri Vandi. This was not just a senior officer, but one that had gone through the mill having put in 33 years of service. If after 33 years, an officer does not know how to handle his weapon in public, what does that say of him? How will he guide those under him?

A recruit or constable is not expected to be that careless with the handling of his weapon. Unfortunately, many policemen wield their guns carelessly. They carry it with the intention to kill. It is as if they are going hunting, with the hapless citizens as game. What then do we expect when the police treat those they are expected to protect as game?

They huddle at road intersections, doing nothing. They pretend to be busy when in fact, all they are doing is extorting money from motorists. I am pretty sure that the ASP, who shot Raheem dead, was on such a mission that fateful day! What were he and his men from the notorious Ajiwe Police Division whose personnel also killed one Gafaru Buraimoh 18 days earlier, doing that early morning under the Ajah bridge? Were they after hoodlums or just maintaining their presence there to prevent crime?

In any sane society, having the police on the road should put the minds of law-abiding citizens at rest. Their presence is enough to assure passers-by that they are secure and safe to go about their businesses. The reverse is, however, the case here. When people see police on the road, their hearts beat faster than normal, with some developing hypertension in the process. Motorists, whether their vehicle papers are intact or not, feel uncomfortable at the sight of the police. It should not be so.

This has become the norm because of the reputation of the police. In eight out of 10 cases, they are on the road not to ensure that vehicle particulars are correct, but for what they can obtain from motorists. As soon as they see a motorist coming, they cock their guns, and at the same time wave the vehicle to stop. What a dangerous way of stopping a motorist. How can you be cocking your gun with one hand and at the same time, be stopping an oncoming vehicle with the other?

It is out of the mercy of God that our roads are not littered with bodies daily as a result of our policemen’s nonchalance. To them, their weapons have become a licence to kill. Those who survive their brutality are maimed for life. As the nativemag.com noted in an article in October 2021, to mark the first anniversary of the #EndSARS protests, the police atrocities have continued despite that earthshaking demonstration.

Ironically, the protest ended in brutality too! What was supposed to draw attention to police brutality became atrocious at the end of the day, with the police and troops chasing protesters all over the place across towns and cities. The protests were specifically against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which had become notorious for stopping people, especially backpack-bearing youngsters on the road, claiming that they are Yahoo boys, and extorting heavy sums of money from them.

Read Also: Ban policemen from drinking alcohol, say Reps

Two years after #EndSARS protests, nothing has really changed. SARS may have been scrapped, but police brutality has not stopped. The police still kill people arbitrarily and get away with the dastardly act. Will Raheem’s death change anything? Will her distraught mother’s cry pierce our hearts? Will her consolation only be in leaving everything to God as she was urged by Lagos State Police Commissioner Abiodun Alabi?

God will do His own bit for sure, but will government ensure that justice is done so that the poor woman does not lose her only child in vain? Beyond the usual noises of condemnations and commiserations with the bereaved family, what are the assurances that this will be the last of such killings?

President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned it and called  for the strongest punishment for the culprit(s).  The leading presidential candidates have also expressed similar sentiments. Inspector-General of Police (IG) Usman Baba and the Police Service Commission (PSC)  sang the same song.

“The cop who fired the fatal shot will not go unpunished. The police will be reformed to ensure that this kind of killing does not happen again”. These are familiar refrains which the people have heard before. Their ears tingle from this singsong. All they want is an end to police brutality and the way the government does that is its business.

The citizens are tired of being killed by fiends who claim to be their friends, as boldly displayed at complaints’ counters across the country in many stations: “Police is your friend”. How can your friend be your killer? It is absurd. My heart goes out to the bereaved family. May Raheem and her unborn twins find rest in the Lord’s bosom. May such killings not rear their heads in 2023. Happy New Year in advance.