The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • Election as war

    POLITICIANS view election in different light. To some, it is a game in which a winner and loser must emerge. To others, it is do or die. It is either they win or nobody does. Election as a pillar of democracy is a forum for political parties and their candidates to test their popularity. They put themselves forward for the electorate to decide their fate. In making that decision, the electorate are guided by the parties’ programmes.

    In Nigeria, programmes do not determine who wins election, brawn does. This is why parties invest in thugs, arms and ammunition during election. The campaign is just a smokescreen to deceive the uninitiated about the actual intent of the parties, which prepare for election as if they are going to war. Election is war by other means, as some politicians are wont to say. So, ahead of the poll, they procure men and material.

    These men are the children of other people who live in the backwaters of the city, where there is no light, good schools and potable water. These people live in a slum and their prayer daily is that their children will become big and take them out of those seedy communities. Their prayer to have successful children is truncated by politicians who use the same kids as thugs. Unfortunately, many of these children end up being killed in electoral violence.

    The irony is that these politicians keep their own children away from the fray. They send their children to some of the best schools in the world to prepare them to take over the reins of leadership once they reach an advanced age. Election is not supposed to be war; it is supposed to be a peaceful means of transferring power. But politicians who are not sure of their standing with the electorate have turned it to a killing field.

    It is pathetic that what should ordinarily be a game where contestants congratulate one another after it is all over has become a theatre of war. No matter the election, the outcome is predictable. Whether the election is general, that is held nationwide, or isolated, that is held in some parts of the country, it is always marred with violence. For instance, the nation has yet to get over the fall-out of the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa and Kogi states.

    Read Also: INEC, Police, APC to Dickson: Nobody died during Bayelsa election

     

    It lived up to the predictions that it would be violent. Before the election, analysts said there would be bloodshed in both states because the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were determined to win at all costs. Nigerians had expected that the conduct of elections will be different under the APC. Their expectation of a free, fair and credible poll under the watch of APC has largely not been met. As it was under PDP, so it is under APC election wise.

    APC was a bad loser when PDP was in power, so as PDP is a bad loser today that APC is in power. As a progressive party, the electorate had expected APC to make a difference by showing that it can conduct transparent elections which will be the template for future polls. As things are now, we still have a long way to go. Is it so difficult to hold free, fair elections? Is there any written code that a ruling party must win the election it conducts? What is the big deal in a ruling party losing election?

    As long as parties believe that they must win the election they conduct so long will the process be violent. Election is no war and the earlier the parties realise this, the better for the society. What happened in Bayelsa and Kogi last month could have been averted if the parties had played by the rule. APC and PDP saw the poll as do or die and approached it as such. We cannot continue to hold election, with axes, cudgels and other lethal weapons flying all over the place.

    Over 60,000 policemen were deployed in both states for the election, yet there was violence. That was not all. They were joined by a reasonable number of soldiers and secret agents. But what was the result with all this high number of security? Violence, killing, looting and maiming. In Kogi, a woman was burnt to death in her home. So, where were the security operatives when all these were going on. It is not the number of security men deployed in an election that matters, but the readiness of politicians to allow the exercise to go smoothly.

    If our politicians are ready to do this, thuggery will disappear from the electoral process. No amount of policemen and soldiers can confer legitimacy on our election as long as politicians are ready to do anything to win.

  • Long dawn on Long Bridge

    IT was bound to happen. You did not need a crystal ball to tell you that evil was lurking around the corner. The Long Bridge of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway is a notorious spot where evil doers carry out their dastardly act. Since work began at the Kara end of the bridge on September 2, bad boys have been having a field day snatching valauables from motorists and commuters.

    Only God knows the number of their victims so far. Motorists and commuters move on the bridge with their hearts in their mouths. Nobody is safe on the bridge. No matter who you are, the hoodlums will not think twice before descending on you. They attack the rich and the poor; the strong and the weak and flee into the dark recesses under the bridge.

    Where do they stay there? There is a large community of people of different tribe and tongue under the Long Bridge. Do these people know the shady characters who operate on the bridge and flee under it to make good their escape? Besides being a trading outpost, people also live, work and school in the community. Can it be a den of criminals and still be inhabited by many law abiding citizens?

    For the nation to get to the root of the criminal acts on the bridge, law enforcement agents must dig into what is happening under it in the day time and at night. The bridge is most dangerous at night and in the early hours of the day. The middle of the bridge is a death spot. A motorist who has a break down there will have to decide whether he likes his life more or his car. Before the motorist even alights from his car, he would have been surrounded by urchins baying for blood.

    Giving them money or all you have may not save you. They will take your car, take your money and take your life as they did to a retired general some years ago. What have those who ply the bridge daily not seen? It does not take time to drive through the bridge when the road is free, but you will start to appreciate  that it is indeed long when there is a gridlock. It is then you will start wondering if  this is not the same Long Bridge, which takes you less than 10  minutes to breeze through.

    The perennial traffic on the bridge since the rehabilitation started has made it easier for hoodlums to hit their victims who most times are sitting pretty in their cars, waiting for the traffic to ease and drive off.  At times, the gridlock stretches beyond Wawa to as far as Move, leaving motorists groaning and grunting.

    With the government’s promise to deploy security and road safety personnel to work round the clock during the rehabilitation, the public thought there was nothing to fear. But many have lost limbs and lives on that road in the past two months of the rehabilitation. On Tuesday, what many motorists feared most happened. Armed robbers struck, creating fear and panic among the motorists plying the road. As usual, many had set out early in order to beat the traffic that has become part of their daily life.

    The WhatsApp platforms on which traffic news is shared were already buzzing with information. The first post on one of the platforms came in at 4.10a.m.,with  the information seeker, who after wishing the house “good morning”, asked: “Please, who knows what’s going on? The traffic is stand still around ASCON?” Another motorist spoke of “stand still on the Long Bridge”, adding: “People are facing one way (driving against traffic) already”.

    Read Also: Lagos-Ibadan rail to be ready April 2020, says Amaechi

     

    Then came the chilling information: “I hear there are armed robbers on the Long Bridge”. A flurry of prayers followed, with many praying for those already on the bridge. As I got to the gate of my estate, the guards told me in Yoruba: ‘’Daddy, won ma ni awon ole wa lori Long Bridge” (we learnt there are robbers on the bridge). I thanked them and drove off as the motorist in front of me moved aside for me to  pass. The other motorist drove back home as I headed for the express, praying silently for the Lord’s protection.

    Having got wind of the robbery, members of Operation Awatse based in the Journalists’ Estate, Arepo, headed for the bridge. Their presence reassured those of us driving out that the robbers were done for.  The Lagos Traffic Radio also reported the incident and called on security agents to move to the scene. That was what saved the day, as the robbers vanished into thin air when they saw that their game was up.

    For as long as the rehabilitation continues so will motorists be at risk. To ensure the safety of life and property, there should be a 24-hour security watch on the Long Bridge, which is the most dangerous part of that stretch of the road. Government should not wait until people are killed in tens and hundreds before doing the needful. It promised before the work started to do everything to minimise the pains of the people. So far,  it has been all talk and no action.

    From all indications, the work may not be completed next month as the government earlier promised. This is the more reason security should be strengthened. We cannot overemphasise the importance of security while this rehabilitation is ongoing. Who knows what might have happened on Tuesday if not for the swift intervention of  Operation Awatse and other security agents.

  • No roads like ours!

    ‘We have some of the best roads in the universe! Go to any part of the country, you will see things for yourself. You do not need a minister to tell you how good or bad our roads are’

     

    ANY Nigerians are outraged by the statement credited to Minister of Works & Housing Babatunde Fashola that ‘’Nigerian roads are not that bad’’. I am not joining the fray because I do not believe that the honourable minister will ever say that. He has since accused the media of misquoting him. As someone observed at our meeting on Tuesday, ‘’they (public officers) are always accusing us of misquoting them’’.

    As a polished person, no one ever expected the minister to speak like that in public. He is too refined and urbane to lend himself to such inanities. We  know the state of our roads. We have some of the best roads in the universe! Go to any part of the country, you will see things for yourself. You do not need any minister to tell you how good or bad our roads are.

    Whether in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Kano, Rivers, Kaduna, Gombe, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Borno, Plateau, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Bayelsa, Osun, Anambra, Imo, Abia, Delta, Edo, et al, our roads are a beauty to behold. From afar, you will see the roads gleaming in the sun. Like a mirage, it will appear as if you are seeing an ocean ahead of you while driving. The roads are just too good and well paved. Not even the developed countries have our kind of roads.

    I will take you on a journey on some of them, especially in the Southwest, so that you will know how lucky and blessed we are to have such infrastructure. So, if the minister said our roads are ‘’not that bad’’, he sure knows what he is talking about. Our roads are not bad. It is as simple as that. If you say they are bad, the onus is on you to provide the evidence. Do not forget that the minister is not only a lawyer, but a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for that matter.

    Read Also: Roads situation: I was misquoted, says Fashola

     

    If you expect me to say the roads are bad, after the minister’s pass verdict on them, you are wasting your time. Who am I to challenge the minister who knows all our roads like the back of his hands? The man who sleeps and wakes on these roads should know what he was saying when he said the roads are ‘’not that bad’’. Go through those  three-letter words again. The man was not saying what you and I do not know after all. He did not say the roads were not bad; he said they were ‘’not that bad’’.

    So, why do some people want to skin him alive on the social and mainstream media? If people do not have work to do, they better go and look for one. Is it an offence for a public officer to be frank with his countrymen. This is the problem with us; we prefer leaders who lie to us. When we see one as honest and brutally frank like Fashola, we start to call them names. ‘’What does he know? Why should he say the roads ‘are not that bad’? Is it because he does not ride on them? Pray, if the works minister does not ride on our roads, why is he holding that post?

    Our people are bellyaching for nothing. They should let the minister be. Come with me to the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway where Julius Berger and RCC have been working for the past two years. The road cannot be said to be in the best condition. If it were, will Berger and RCC be working on it? No, dumb head. That’s what the minister was saying that you are calling for his head. Check out the Lagos – Badagry Expressway. As governor of Lagos State between 2007 and 2015, Fashola began work on the deplorable road, but could not complete it before he left office.

    In his first coming as minister of power, works and housing in this present administration, he wanted to finish what he started on that road, but the differences between him and his successor as governor did not allow that. Today, contractors have returned to the road, courtesy of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. I refuse o accept that our roads are death traps! They are not. I just pray that motorists will not come to harm driving on them. How can roads that are so smooth be death traps and the haven of highway robbers? Ask me o, as if I don’t know.

    But wait a minute. Have you ever travelled on these roads – Ibadan – Oyo – Ogbomoso. Ibadan – Iwo – Osogbo. Ibadan – Ife. Ibadan – Iseyin – Shaki.   Agbara – Magbon – Atan – Sango.  Sango – Ifo – Abeokuta.  Lokoja – Okene – Auchi – Ekpoma. Asaba – Enugu.  Benin – Port Harcourt.  Egbema – Omoku – Ahoada, Calabar – Uyo. Enugu – Onitsha. Aba – Ikot Ekpene – Calabar – Itu. Abuja – Minna. Kano – Saminaka –Ugwan Bawan – Jos. Maiduguri – Ngala.  Biu – Gombe. Damaturu – Biu? If you have, you will get what the minister was saying about ‘’Nigerian roads not that bad’’. You drive on these roads with your heart in your mouth. You have to move slowly because virtually every portion of these roads has collapsed. As you are dodging one crater here, another will just pop up in front of you and if you are not careful, you will end up in it and be at the mercy of prowling hoodlums looking for who to devour.

    Are we not lucky to have such good roads on which we sleep and slip into dream world as we cruise on them? Why won’t the minister boast of them?

  • Cold room

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    Cold room is not a strange word. It is a word freely used in conversations. Women in particular cherish the cold room, but not in the sense that the word was used by a University of Lagos (UNILAG) lecturer, Dr Boniface Igbeneghu, in his bid to seduce a would-be student. To the ‘randy’ teacher and his ilk, they used what he called  the UNILAG ‘cold room’ as a slaughter slab. The room was not created for that.

    The Functions Room, which they turned into a cold room, was created for a different purpose. Just as they have them in world-class hotels, Functions Rooms serve as meeting places, conference halls and seminar venue. To satisfy their libidinal appetite,  Igbeneghu of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies and his bedfellows turned it to a slaughter room, where they slept with brainwashed girls.

    As the name implies, a cold room serves for preserving meat, chicken, fish and drink, among other items, at regulated temperature. You now know why women love cold rooms. Perhaps, these teachers saw these girls as objects that must be preserved at regulated temperature before being devoured. Our dons have a creative way of seducing female students, as we saw in the popular British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa Eye video, which gave Igbeneghu away. They do not go straight for their would-be victims; they go about it in a roundabout manner, but leave them without doubt about what they want.

    Igbeneghu’s case is interesting. He is not only a teacher but also a minister in the temple of God. A pastor with the Foursquare Gospel Church who should show people the way is leading them astray. Who knows the number of girls he has led into temptation, all in his bid to have his way with them? In a society, which values paper qualification more than a person’s ability, many girls would have fallen prey to him in their desperation to get a degree. The craze for a degree has made many female students to do what they should not do.

    Someone is likely to say that the girls fell into the teachers’  trap because they too were interested in such affairs. There are certain things which are beyond our ken and until we find ourselves in such unpleasant situation we may not know what those people went through. A teacher and a pastor to boot should be above board. He should be a mentor and a father figure to his students. But when he starts to plan how to sleep with his students, he has lost every moral and spiritual right to his teaching and priestly offices.

    What kind of teacher and priest is that, that would plan to take a girl of 17 to bed? If that girl were his daughter, would he have shown such amorous interest in her? If someone else does that to his own daughter, how would he feel? Being a teacher is not a licence to sexually harass a student. Unfortunately, it has become the practice among some teachers to lure students to have sex with them in return for good grades.

    No matter how brilliant a student is, if she does not give in to her lecturer’s request, she may not pass his course. To avoid being failed, many girls sheepishly accept their teachers’ advances and unknowingly become the butt of crude jokes  among those lecturers. When the game is up, the teachers become a shadow of themselves. The tough talking teacher threatening to fail a student if she refuses him, suddenly loses his power to talk. When questioned, he will look at you like a goat tied to a stake. His sin has found him out and with no means of escape, he becomes as lonely as his victims when he confronted them with the stinker: your body or you fail?

    Igbeneghu, according to some of  his former students, is notorious for such acts. For years, he molested students and got away with it. Is UNILAG saying it never got wind of his escapades? That will be hard to believe. Thank God for the BBC Africa Eye that blew everything open, otherwise the university will still be believing in denial. What becomes of Igbeneghu in the aftermath of this scandal? Will he be tried? For now he has been suspended pending investigation of the BBC story.

    I only hope that at the end of the day, a verdict that no student  came forward to buttress the BBC story will not be passed.

    The Taraba Five

    REMEMBER, the three policemen and two civilians that were killed in Ibi, Taraba State, on August 6? At last, the panel set up by the Defence Headquarters has recommended that those behind the dastardly act be disciplined. Of course, they should be disciplined and the first step towards that should be their dismissal from the services of the army and the police.

    I still cannot fathom why a policeman will kill a fellow policeman. Why? Come to think of it, the slain policemen had come from Abuja and lodged a report of their mission at the Ibi Police Division in Traraba State. It was from that same police station that some of their colleagues, who are on the payroll of the kidnap suspect Hamisu Bala aka Wadume, they came to arrest, hatched the plot to kill them after blowing their cover.

    Now, they have to pay for their sin. The panel indicted Captain Tijani Balarabe, Sergeant Ibrahim Mohammed, a soldier, as well as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Aondoona Iorbee, Inspector Aliyu Dadje and Corporal Bartholomew Obanye of the Ibi Police Division. The panel recommended that ‘’necessary disciplinary measures’’ be taken against them. Their murder trial should start in earnest.

  • Logjam

    THAT morning, time appeared frozen for a while. Everything stood still and there was chaos everywhere. Both sides of the road were blocked. Those going to Lagos who were taking the right lane and those heading the same way but following the wrong way were stuck in traffic.

    The situation was beyond the security agencies; they just looked on as motorists sweated it out in traffic that early morning. It was just 6.07a.m., and everywhere was locked down. Ascending the Long Bridge at Wawa was impossible as traffic stretched backward from there to MFM.

    It was also impossible descending the bridge at the same point as those trying to ascend it the wrong way blocked oncoming vehicles. Policemen from the nearby Wawa Police Division shouted themselves hoarse as they tried to restore sanity. But the motorists did not budge. They were determined to have their way despite being in the wrong.

    What happened around that corridor of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway on Monday was sheer madness. All hell was let loose as motorists attempted to get out of the traffic congestion at the same time at all costs,  but the more they did so, the more they compounded the gridlock. It was not something that should have caught the security agencies offguard because it all started on Sunday. They should have prepared for the Monday madness going by what happened the previous day.

    Anybody who followed that road on Sunday would have foreseen what happened on Monday. I was prepared for it, thinking that by leaving home around 6a.m., I would not be caught in the logjam. I was wrong. By the time I hit the express around 6.06a.m., I knew there was trouble. I was not prepared for what I saw. My calculation was that I would have ascended the bridge before running into traffic. But I ran into traffic virtually in front of my home.

    As I took my turn in the Lagos-bound traffic from Arepo busstop, I surveyed my surrounding; I had ample time to do that since we were not moving anyway. The drama on the other side of the road kept us busy as motorists blocking oncoming vehicles stood their ground.  There would not have been any need for that if the security agencies had got their act right ahead of time going by what we were told before Julius Berger began work at the Kara/Berger axis last month.

    They should have envisaged what happened on Monday and taken precautionary steps. Men and materials should have been stationed at both ends of the Long Bridge at Wawa long before dawn to stop any motorist from driving against traffic. As usual, they left everything to chance. You do not take chances in matters like this knowing full well the way many motorists behave at the slightest sign of traffic jam.

    The presence of the police and road safety personnel would have deterred motorists from driving against traffic. There is no other time than now for them to make their presence felt more on that  road,  at least until Julius Berger finishes its work there. Traffic on that road is something that motorists have come to live with, but their pains can be eased, especially during this difficult period of its rehabilitation by Julius Berger. This can be done with the police and road safety personnel maintaining a 24-hour vigilance on the road.

    The police and road safety personnel should not just appear on the scene when things have gone awry and think that they can perform magic. We have talked and talked about alternative routes to ease motorists’ pain without anything being done about the issue.

    Rather than improve on the untarred route from Wawa that bursts out at the OPIC intersection, Julius Berger has dug a ditch across the road, making it unusable. If the place had been available on Monday, things would not have been that bad. Why did Julius Berger do that? We may never know as the citizenry and their wellbeing matter little to the government and its contractors in matters like this. So, I will not be surprised if that Monday episode repeats itself. It was the last day of September and it turned out to be the most memorable day of the month. A September to remember! You can say that again.

    Cry of distress

    THE cry came from the depths of her heart. “Why do they like to kidnap me?” Madam Beauty Uguoere Siasia asked no one in particular. She was thinking out loud. She answered the poser thus: “They said my son is a millionaire”. Is it an offence for someone’s child to be well to do?

    I fear for Mama Siasia who kidnappers have now turned into ATM. They know that if they kidnap her, her son Samson will cough out any amount to get her back. For how long will she and her family live in fear of kidnappers? The first time they came for her in  2015, they held her for 12 days.

    They returned for her on July 19 and kept her till Sunday before releasing her after collecting an undisclosed amount of ransom. At 80, she does not deserve this kind of treatment. What she deserves now is round the clock protection by the police. Will that be asking for too much? I do not think so.

  • The gods are to blame!

    IT sounds incredible, but it is real. It is unlike one of those tales told by people who also heard it from people that also heard it from people and so on and so forth. You may have heard such incredulous stories of a woman turning into a bird in broad daylight from people who will swear heaven and earth about the authenticity of their tales. But asked for proof, they will become tongue tied.

    They will start hemming and hawing and biting their lips in their attempt to make you believe them. I have never believed such tales. I thought it was one of such tales again when on Sunday the social media was awash with the story of the 36 cows struck dead by thunder at Oke Owa in Ijare, Ondo State.

    It was a story like no other story. It was not the stuff of partners getting stuck together during an illicit affair; it was not one of disappearing manhood after an handshake nor was it that of a boy turning into a fowl after picking money on the floor. This was the real thing – a true life story of the gods dealing instantly with an offender, even when the offender is not human.

    The story has been the talk of town since it broke on Sunday. The incident happened on Saturday night when some herdsmen took their cows to graze on the Oke Owa mountain, which is described as sacred. It is not a mountain that you visit anyhow; it is a no-go area even for those who hail from the place. Their tradition forbids them from going to the sacred grove. It is the exclusive preserve of their king to enter the grove and perform some rites as and when occasion demands. Virgins are the only other persons allowed into the place.

    It was not time for such rites last Saturday when the herders took their cows to graze at the Owa cave.The hilly cave looks frightening from afar. Climbing it is no child’s play, according to the Ondo State Radio Corporation (OSRC) correspondent, who visited the place in the wake of the incident. According to him, it takes “an hour to go from the foot to the top of the hill”. How then did the cows climb the mountain? That is as mysterious as their death.

    To the people of Ijare, the cows’ fate is the consequence of their action – invasion of a sacred place. To traditionalists, the power of the gods is potent and there is no escaping it if they are angry. Was it that the gods were angry with the cows for desecrating their shrine? Is the incident a subtle way of reminding us of the awesome powers of these gods? If there is anything it has done, the incident has succeeded in opening the eyes of many to the much touted powers of the gods, which were well celebrated in the past.

    These powers are now, again being celebrated by the people of Ijare, following the incident. People are also trooping to the town to see things for themselves. Do the gods really have such powers to fight for themselves when their territory is invaded? It all depends on where one stands on matters like this. The people of Ijare and other core traditionalists believe that the gods fought for themselves, pointing out that  they did so in the past and will still do so in future.

    Going down memory lane, prime minister of Ijare Wemimo Olaniran told OSRC that people who desecrated the hill in the past were killed by thunder. He said the Olujare stays in the innermost part of the cave for a day while in seclusion, explaining that the place is out of bounds to other people. Were the herders aware of that? Or did they deliberately take their cows there to test the will of the gods? Why didn’t the thunder also strike the herders?

    What now happens to the carcasses of the cows? Will they be offered to the gods? Is there a sacrifice to be performed before they are removed from those hallowed grounds? To the people of Ijare, life goes on, with Olaniran saying: ‘’what has happened has happened and at our own end, we regard it as an act of God for which nobody can be queried’’. Ondo State police spokesman Femi Joseph spoke in the same vein. ‘’It was a natural disaster and there is nothing anyone can do about it. It is very unfortunate’’, he said.

    May we not incur the wrath of the gods.

  • Death in the cantonment

    MILITARY bases are fortresses. They are not places to be accessed with ease by anybody, no matter who they are. Unfortunately, our military formations are not as secure as expected. They have become so porous that hoodlums easily find their way in there. That a place is called a base is enough to instill fear in intruders. This is why when people see walls on which the legend is written: ‘’military zone, keep off’’, they keep their distance. But some daredevils have found military bases so easy to penetrate to commit crime. They go in, kill and vanish into thin air. Just like that. It should not be so. If bases are no longer safe, we are all in trouble because nobody will be safe. What should deter miscreants from entering military formations is that the people there are armed and sworn to kill.

    Whether it is familiarity or what, I cannot say. The fact remains that these formations have lost their bite before hoodlums whose latest victim was Commander Oluwayemisi Ogundana, the Commandant of the Armed Forces Command Secondary School and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, Kaduna State. Ogundana was allegedly killed by a teacher in the school, Bernard Simon, her body dismembered, bagged and dumped in a well in a village near the cantonment. She did not meet death on the road. She was slain in her home and her remains taken outside the barracks to be dumped inside a well. How did her killers gain access into her home? Didn’t she have security guards? If our military bases cannot stop killers who are on the rampage nationwide from entering the barracks then there is no need maintaining those cantonments. If they cannot secure themselves, how can they secure the country?

  • When strange things happen

    The President could not have asked for a better deputy. Any president who has Prof Yemi Osinbajo as his deputy would consider himself lucky. President Muhammadu Buhari knows that Osinbajo is God sent – not many vice presidents are made like the Professor of Law. Osinbajo is meek and humble, but it will be a grave mistake to take these attributes as a sign of weakness.

    He knows the true meaning of loyalty and he has stood by the President through thick and thin. His loyalty has never been in doubt and the President himself attested to this fact when his deputy turned 61 last year. In a birthday message to Osinbajo, Buhari said: “…Thank you for being a loyal and dependable partner on this journey. I join millions of your friends and well wishers around the world to wish you many more years of service to God, to Nigeria and to humanity”.

    Their partnership was and is still the envy of many politicians who keep on wondering how they have been working together in the past four years without any hitch, at least that is known to the public. In a clime where a leader dreads his deputy – at least we saw what happened in the Presidency in the past as well as in some states also in the past and now. Going by their cordial relations, many can swear that Osinbajo can do no wrong by Buhari.

    A cool, calm and calculated man, Osinbajo does not throw the weight of his office about. You will hardly notice him in a gathering except he is pointed out to you. Although he and the President are not known to be at loggerheads, Monday’s constitution of an economic team seems to tell a different story. The question is: is everything okay at Aso Rock? The question is pertinent because constitutionally, the vice president is vested with the power to oversee the economy with recourse to the President.

    Besides, he chairs the Economic Management Team (EMT) with the President’s consent. All these have changed, with the coming of the Prof Doyin Salami-led Economic Advisory Council (EAC). It goes without saying that the EAC has replaced the EMT, but can it take the place of the constitutionally created National Economic Council (NEC) which is headed by the vice president? According to the Constitution, the NEC shall comprise the following members –

    • the vice president who shall be the chairman
    • the governor of each state of the federation; and
    • the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

    established under the Central Bank of Nigeria Decree 1991 or any enactment replacing that decree.

    The Constitution vests the NEC with power to advise the President concerning the economic affairs of the federation and in particular on measures necessary for the co-ordination of the economic planning efforts or economic programmes of the various governments of the federation.

    Now, the EAC is also expected to advise the President on economic policy matters, including fiscal analysis, economic growth and a range of internal and global economic issues working with the relevant cabinet members and heads of monetary and fiscal agencies. ‘’The EAC will have monthly technical sessions as well as scheduled quarterly meetings with the President. The chairman may, however, request for unscheduled meetings, if the need arises’’, said a statement by presidential spokesman Femi Adesina.

    With this mandate, the EAC will be usurping the functions of the NEC. Will it be proper to have another body performing the constitutional functions of NEC? Can the President set up such a rival body without the amendment of the Constitution? There is bound to be a conflict in the functions of the two bodies if allowed to perform side by side. Why did the President constitute the EAC? Has he lost confidence in NEC? Or did NEC overreach itself? Is there a rift in Aso Rock that the people are not aware of? Was the EAC set up to spite Osinbajo? Where does the constitution of the EAC leave us?

    The EAC is to perform virtually all the constitutional functions of the NEC, but without the vice president, which is empowered to head it, and all  the  state and CBN governors as its members. The President may have inadvertently breached the Constitution by constituting the EAC. I may be wrong though, giving that in a presidential system, the President has the power to do and undo. But does that power include a constitutional breach? I do not think so. It may after all be another executive order!

    Something must have informed the constitution of the EAC and that is likely to be political. Has the President begun to suspect his ‘loyal’ deputy? What brought about the suspicion? Is it all about 2023? The country saw the cost of a divided Presidency between 1999 and 2007 when Obasanjo and Atiku almost tore themselves apart.  Nigerians are not prepared to travel that road again. Whatever the differences between the President and his deputy are should be kept to themselves and not allowed to overheat the system.

    Tacitly taking away the vice president’s constitutional duty through the EAC may not serve any useful purpose. It will only compound whatever the problem is rather than solve it. Buhari and Osinbajo have come a long way to allow anything at this stage to mar their relationship. Or am I crying wolf where there is none? I will be happy if it is so.

    A singer’s day in court

    Muscians are ever too happy to perform before a live audience. When popular artiste Johnson Oyindamola aka Dammy Krane had that opportunity at an Igbosere Chief Magistrates’ Court on Monday, he grabbed it with both hands. He was in court with Merrybet Gold Ltd. Prosecuting police Inspector J. I. Enang did not want Chief Magistrate Afolashade Botoku to grant him bail.

    But his lawyer Adebayo Oniyelu urged the court to grant him bail being ‘’a popular musician’’ who will always come for his trial. The prosecutor quickly jumped up, shouting that he did not know Dammy Krane as a musician.

    The magistrate ran her eyes through the court and calmly asked Dammy Krane if he is a musician. When he answered in the affirmative, she asked him to sing one of his songs. Dammy Krane took up the challenge without batting an eyelid, as his voice rang out: Help me say amin ooo… Ama kole mole…, to which the audience chorused: amin ooo… And the singer walked away with a N50,000 bail.

  • Before another attack

    Giving its history, a country like South Africa should be seen promoting tolerance and unity. As a country which rose from the ashes of racism, it should have learnt a big lesson from its dark past. South Africa was virtually a pariah nation when White supremacists cornered every part of it, riding roughshod over Blacks and other people of colour. The world refused to keep silent and that was what saved South Africa from the hands of the Whites.

    Nigeria played a key role in the fight for a democratic South Africa. It committed, man, money and material into the cause. It took up Britain again and again over the issue because of the insincerity of the United Kingdom (UK) in the fight against apartheid. Our leaders and musicians saw the South African cause as  personal. In their individual capacity, they waged war against the evil known as apartheid.

    Musicians waxed albums to condemn the evil practice. Our head of state, the late Gen Murtala Muhammed showed true leadership when at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1976, he came down hard on world powers, especially the United States (US) for their support for apartheid. ‘’When I contemplate the evils of apartheid’’, he began, ‘’my heart bleeds and I am sure the heart of every true blooded African bleeds…

    “Rather than join hands with the forces fighting for self determination and against racism and apartheid, US policy makers clearly decided that it was in the best interest of their country to maintain White supremacy and minority regimes in Africa…Africa has come of age. It is no longer under the orbit of any extra continental power…’’ It took 18 years after that no holds barred speech for South Africa to become democratic and it was democracy well earned few years after its iconic leader, the late President Nelson Mandela, was released from 27 years imprisonment.

    Since then, South Africa has not looked back, but it seems to have forgotten where it is coming from. These days, some South Africans take delight in attacking foreigners in their land, levelling all sorts of allegations against them. If they do not describe them as drug barons, they will accuse the foreigners of taking their jobs. How are these foreigners depriving them of employment? The thing is they are suffering from inferiority complex. They hate to see foreigners, Nigerians especially because they cannot stand up to them in every facet of life. The next best thing to do in the circumstance, in their thinking, is to make wild allegations against these foreigners and descend on them in large numbers.

    These xenophobic attacks did not start today. They have been on for years and Nigeria has, in the spirit of African brotherhood, been considerate, too, too considerate in handling the matter. I can see reason with our leaders. They do not want to destroy the house they built with their own hands. But what if the occupants of the house keep making the house too hot for you as the South Africans are doing? Our government’s lukewarm attitude over the years may have emboldened the South Africans to continue to treat Nigerians like pests.

    We are no pests nor irritants. Nigerians are a proud people who can hold their own anywhere in the world. South Africans are not a match for us. I am not advocating a tit for tat, but it is high time these South Africans were put in their place. What do they think of themselves? Their people and government are not showing any remorse despite the diplomatic way Nigeria is handling the matter. Does South Africa think it can take on Nigeria if our relationship breaks down?

    Nigeria is speaking diplomatically, but they are talking aggressively. What do you make of this statement from Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, South Africa’s Minister of Defence: “we cannot stop the xenophobic attacks. The truth is that we are an angry nation. What is happening cannot be prevented by any government’’. Haha! The minister was only toeing the path of some of her compatriots who perceive the Nigerians in their country as layabouts. This is why they call our people all sorts of names in order to justify the unwarranted attacks on them.

    If as the minister said no government can stop these attacks, then the government must have failed in its duty of enthroning law and order. A government that cannot control its citizens is no government. Perhaps, the simple explanation to all this is that the government is privy to what is happening and it is only pretending to sympathise with the victims. How will the South African government feel if Nigerians were the ones doing this to its citizens?

    It will not be happy just as Nigeria is feeling bad over the killing, maiming of its citizens and the destruction of their properties. When did it become an offence to seek greener pastures in a foreign land?

  • Daily shuttle, daily suffering

    FOR those living on the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway axis, these are not the best of times. Going and coming on that road since work began on the Kara bridge – Berger portion on September 2 has been hell. Be it in the morning, afternoon or night, movement is not smooth. The traffic is always crawling. When you think you have left home early to beat the traffic (was that not what they advised us to do?), you will still run into it one way or the other.

    What is confounding is that you will not know the cause of the problem. On Monday, the traffic was so bad that those who took the untarred road that bursts out at the OPIC intersection were swearing under their breath. Those on the express did not fare better. If Julius Berger had worked on the untarred road as an alternative route, it would have been in good condition whether it rains or not.

    It was in a terrible condition because of the rain which fell at the weekend. It was clogged as motorists tried to beat the traffic on the express. Everywhere was jammed as motorists sought the way out. From the look of things, there may be no way out until Julius Berger completes the job. And that is going to take 120 days. Hmm! We are in for it.