The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • The Shi’ites war

    THE group has never hidden its disdain for constituted authority. It looks down on those in power and goes out of its way to court trouble. The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) popularly known as Shi’ites is law unto itself in its base in Zaria, Kaduna State. Its leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, holds court there and his word is law. As the the all-in-all of the Shia sect in Nigeria, El-Zakzaky enjoys the respect of his followers. They deify him and at his behest, they can kill. We have been seeing the result of this blind following in the past four years.

    The Shi’ites, as it were, bit more than they can chew in December 2015 when they attacked the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, who was on his way to the military academy in Zaria for an official function. Coincidentally, that day, the Shi’ites were having a procession. The group does not joke with its procession and whenever it is on the road every other person must give way. No one, no matter how powerful dares to pass the road during such procession.

    But no army chief will take that nonsense. Instead of turning back, Buratai’s men cleared the road blockade to ease their boss’ passage. The Shi’ites felt slighted. Who could do that in their territory? They mused. They felt it was a slap on their face and fought back. The soldiers too wondered who these ‘bloody civilians’ are to challenge them and in no time, a gun battle ensued. Since soldiers will be soldiers, they returned the next day in full force to continue from where they stopped the previous day. At the end of the assault, they went away with El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat. The couple and some of their followers have been in detention since then. Last year, El-Zakzaky was charged with murder, culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of the public peace, among other offences. Two years before his arraignment, the court had ordered that he be released.

    The government has not complied with the order. His followers have resorted to holding series of protest to force the government to release him. The Shi’ites did well by resorting to protest, but where they got it wrong was in becoming violent. They would have made their point better with a peaceful protest than with violence. Violence does not breed anything good and we can see that from what happened in Abuja on July 9 and last Monday, just to cite these two instances. Even if one has sympathy for the group, the way its members went about attacking motorists on July 9 under the guise of protesting the continued detention of their leader would kill such support.

    The impression has always been that the group is violent and it has proved this assertion with its July 9 and 22 actions. What happened on July 9 is child’s play compared to that of July 22. Last Monday, many people including a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Usman Umar, and a Corps member serving with Channels Television, Precious Owolabi, died during the group’s protest. The sect has since said it did not kill the DCP and the reporter, claiming that they might have been hit by stray bullets. But something gave rise to those ‘stray bullets’ and that is the Shi’ites violent action, which the police wanted to contain. But a DCP killed by a stray bullet! It sounds somehow. The Shi’ites cannot continue this way, no matter the amount of support they enjoy locally and internationally.

    The government, no doubt, is wrong in not obeying court orders on El-Zakzaky’s release, but the solution is not  for his followers to take to killing, maiming and destroying public and private properties. The Shi’ites may have a good case, but that case is not being helped by their antecedents and some of the things they are doing now. The Shi’ites should remember one thing. They have issues with the government and not the innocent lives lost in the course of their protest. The bereaved families will never be happy that their loved ones died this way. And they will forever blame the sect for it. So, it should let reason prevail and mend its ways.

     

    COZA house of arrest

    A CHURCH is a public place. People go there to seek salvation. There are no restrictions in church. You are free to come and go as long as you do not disturb the gathering. More important, pastors are happy to welcome a crowd (multitude, they call it)  into their churches. To them, the more the people, the better. Pastors take pride in having a full church week in, week out. If possible, they will prefer it to be day in, day out. As the temple of God, the church is also a place of refuge; people go there to find relief. Jesus never drove people away from the temple except those who turned it to a house of selling, buying and gambling. Why will a church scan worshippers, arrest and detain them, if it has nothing to hide?

    Since Mrs Busola Dakolo accused Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of the Commonwealth of Zion Abuja (COZA) of raping her as a teenager, his church has become out of bounds to some worshippers. But many of these worshippers do not know. Barrel-chested bodyguards, follow  the pastor like his shadow, keep watch on those coming in. They even have the photographs of those they do not want to see in their church. Unknowingly, one of such people, Abimbola Adelakun, a columnist with The Punch, walked into the place last Sunday and she was promptly fished out and taken to the security post. When they realised that she had sent out word of being held against her will, they hurriedly took her to the police station and filed a complaint. The police then accused her of ‘’criminal trespass’’. Oh, my God! In a church? Is that possible? Can a worshipper commit ‘criminal trespass’ in the house of God? There is nothing we will not see in COZA. But the police should be wary of being used by men of God who seem to have something to hide. Otherwise, we may soon be hearing of worshippers disappearing without trace in some churches

  • Killers at large

    THESE are trying times. What with the killings and kidnapping across the country, things cannot be worse than this. Every day the people wake up, they are greeted with the grim news of one murder or the other and one kidnapping or the other. Everywhere they turn to, it is trouble. The roads are not safe; our homes are not safe; our offices are not better. Not even the hallowed precinct of the National Assembly can be said to be secure. The other day, members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) popularly known as Shi’ites nearly overran the place while protesting the continued detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.

    The way people are killed on the road, on their farms and in their homes is frightening. It shows that security has broken down. These are not the usual Boko Haram attacks perpetrated by those indoctrinated to believe that they are killing and dying for a cause. They are the handiwork of those who are out to destabilise the country. These hoodlums are cashing in on the herders – farmers clashes in some parts of the country to perpetrate atrocities nationwide. They know that the attacks will be blamed on herders, some of who have turned some states in North central to killing fields.

    They invade farms with their cattle, leaving death and destruction in their trail. Some of them even came down south, hitting the farm of former Alliance for Democracy (AD) presidential candidate in the 1999 election Chief Olu Falae. They went away with him and only let him off after the Ondo State Government allegedly paid a ransom. If they were real herdsmen would they have collected ransom? This calls to question the real identity of those killing, maiming and kidnapping all over the place. Where are they from? Are they an offshoot of the Boko Haram insurgents? These are some of the posers that need urgent answers before things explode.

    The killing of Afenifere leader Pa Reuben Fasoranti’s daughter Mrs Funke Olakunri on Friday has made it extremely urgent for the nation to address the issue of insecurity frontally. The government has wasted too much matter in tackling these marauders and this might have given them the impression that they are above the law. No government worth its name will keep quiet when its citizens are being mauled by hoodlums. We have laws and these laws must be applied against those who commit crime.

    Killings and kidnapping are crimes under the law. What is the police doing about bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to book? Why is it so difficult to arrest them? This is the crux of the matter. Is it that some people are shielding these criminals? It was like this when herdsmen and their cattle were destroying farms. Nobody was arrested. This is why victims and their families are pointing fingers at herdsmen as perpetrators of these dastardly acts in the Southwest.

    Mrs Olakunri is dead. Nobody can bring her back, but her death will not be in vain if her killers are brought to book. The police must work like never before to get her killers because if they do not, the consequences will be too grave for us as a nation. It seems it was a premeditated attack as her vehicle was reportedly continuously shot at as her chauffeur drove furiously with reverse to get away from the scene. Despite his efforts, they still got her. The law will get them too. This is the wish of Nigerians so that our country is not thrown into another bitter enterprise.

     

    The loaded governor

    OYO State Governor Seyi Makinde has done what many in his position cannot do. He has made public details of his asset declaration. He is worth over N48 billion.

    I commend him for setting the pace in a society where many public officers believe it is a taboo to release such information. If all public officers can only be like him, the society will be better for it.

    But no, they will hide under the constitutional provision that asset declaration is not for public consumption!

    Adieu Sir Odafe

    IN the Daily Times Newsroom of yore, Sir Odafe Othihiwa, who died on Tuesday, stood out. He was 77. Ever before people like me, who are very junior to him, joined the Daily Times, Sir Odafe was already a reporting legend. Wherever there was news break, there you will find him. He crisscrossed beats in search of stories. As expected, his forays into their’ beats did not go down well with the reporters, who saw it as ‘invasion’. Many complained to no end about his activities, but Sir Odafe was not moved. He kept on doing what he loved to do. Sir Odafe  loved journalism and he gave his all to the job. No assignment was too small for him to cover. To him, both big and small assignments were the same and you must give them your best shot in order to turn out a good report. Sir Odafe was a reporter’s reporter. He was versed in the art of reporting. You could not but respect him when you met him on the beat. Journalism ran in his veins; that was why he always wanted to be where things were happening.

    I remember when Immanuel Odumosu aka Jesu Oyingbo died in 1990. Sir Odafe was there at Jesu Oyingbo’s Maryland enclave to cover the enigma’s passage. I was with The Punch then. I was intrigued that at his age, he could join us junior reporters to cover that event. He went about the place like us snooping for details about the man’s death as his followers were not forthcoming with information. Sir Odafe gave me a ride in his Peugeot 504 car to Olowu Street junction off Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja, as we headed back to our offices. As I alighted from the car, he gave me money, saying: Gba kofi wo moto.

    The late Sir Odafe

    When I joined the Daily Times, our relationship blossomed. He wanted me to remain in Abuja when I went on relief duty there in 1993, but I played a fast one on him and returned to Lagos before he could take the matter up officially. Sir Odafe lived and breathed journalism. Nothing made him happier than to go after good stories. Even when he became an administrator, the reporter in him never left him. This was why after he retired from Daily Times, shortly before its eclipse in 2004, he found his way to Africa Independent Television (AIT) to work as General Manager, Current Affairs. If there was a born reporter, Sir Odafe was one. May he find rest in the Lord’s bosom.

  • The one who fell

    IT IS easy to condemn; very easy because it is in human nature to delight in the mistakes of others. Yes, it is good to tongue lash people when they misbehave, but we should not forget the log in our own eyes when we are removing the speck in the eyes of others. In a society like others where we pretend a lot, those in positions of trust, especially men of God, must be beyond reproach. As ministers in the temple of God, they cannot be calling on people to follow the straight and narrow path, while they prefer the wide and crooked route.

    It is only meet and proper for those who claim to be called to live up to their calling. The Lord puts it succinctly: “any man who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is unworthy of God’s kingdom”.

    Come to think of it, what kind of pastors are we breeding these days? Many are end-time pastors, who believe that their reward is here on earth and not in heaven. This is why they engage in all sorts of atrocities – in the name of God.

    Virtually, the whole world now knows about the Busola Dakolo story. Busola was an impressionable young girl of 16 when she claimed she was raped by her pastor, Biodun Fatoyinbo, of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, about 20 years ago. It all happened one early morning when the pastor came calling when nobody was at home and had his way with her. After the show, Pastor Fatoyinbo allegedly gave her a bottle of Krest bitter lemon, that famous drink of which we have heard a lot of tales. Such tales include that it is good as contraceptive for men and women!

    The second part of the show allegedly followed few weeks later on the hood of the pastor’s car. Rape whether by a man of God or by anybody else is a crime. It is also a sin before God. I am not here to judge Pastor Fatoyinbo; his conscience and the law will do that, but to use this development to assess the human character, particularly of those of us now playing the judge. Like many of us, Fatoyinbo needs spiritual help.

    We have virtually seen his nakedness now because of Mrs Dakolo’s allegations against him. What has happened to him should be a big lesson to all, especially those of us who are pastors. As a pastor, what kind of relationship do you have with the female members of your church? Is it the kind of relationship that can compromise your standing with God? Then, it is better for you to flee from every appearance of evil if you do not want to fall. He who thinks he stands, says the Bible, should take heed, lest he falls. Pastors must be conscious of this admonition in order not to dig their own graves.

    There is no amount of anointing that can save a man of God who sees evil (in form of female flesh) and stands by instead of running for his life. If you are easily attracted by the female flesh and you know that to be your weakness, the best thing to do is to run. If you think that your anointing will cover that, you will know better by the time you are consumed by that same flesh. It is of God’s mercy that we are not consumed, it is not by our might or power. It is because many pastors forget this fact that they fall easily. I pity Fatoyinbo. We are roasting him today because he was exposed. There are many like him out there having a fling with their church members and when the bubble bursts, they will say “it is the devil”.

    Which devil? There is nothing hidden before God. Your sin will find you out, says the Bible. God will not cover your sin because you are a pastor. Rather, He will expose such pastor to show that He is not a partial God. A pastor can only find favour with God if he lives up to His expectations and call on his flock to also do so. But what do we have? Shepherds who use the name of God to deceive their sheep and tell them after they have satisfied their urge: “you should be happy a man of God did this to you’’. What is so special about a man of God that he should deflower a 16-year-old girl, who is a minor under the law?

    Pastors are no special breed; they are human like every one of us and therefore fallible. You are not a pastor because you are infallible; you are infallible as a pastor only to the extent that you minister to the needs of your flock. But this does not include taking undue advantage of them. The earlier pastors realise this, the better for them and the society at large. I feel for Mrs Omodele Fatoyinbo, who has stood by her husband. That is how it should be.

    But in whatever she does or says, she should refrain from making it look like a case of a loose girl that pushed her husband into sin. From all indication, that was not what happened. How much does Mrs Fatoyinbo know about this her ‘faithful’ husband? Do not harden your heart to the truth, madam. Come to terms with it and let it set you free.

     

    Mayhem

    MEMBERS of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) aka Shi’ite went on the rampage, again, in Abuja on Tuesday. They stormed the National Assembly to protest the continued detention of their leader Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. They attacked the police for stopping them from entering the assembly complex. The protesters blocked all roads leading to the place as they took the law into their hands. They vandalised vehicles, including those belonging to individuals.

    They did not stop at that. One of them was seen on national television as he clambered the rooftop of a car, which wriggled its way out of their road block, and smashed the windshield with an iron, as the motorist drove furiously to get out of danger. The motorist threw him off when he suddenly marched the brakes. For how long will we continue to witness this Shi’ite mayhem in Abuja and Kaduna, especially. Those sympathetic to the sect’s cause should call these people to order now. Violence is not the way to go. It will not help their cause; it will only portray them as an unruly bunch of fundamentalists and give Islam, which is a religion of peace, a bad name.

  • Much ado about a server

    DID the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) store the results of the February 23 presidential election in a central server? This is the biggest political question in the land today. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, claim that the results were processed through a server. INEC denies the claim. A server is a computer device for storing information, data and related documents.

    The electoral umpire admitted toying with the idea of a server  in order to have a transparent election. But, it added that it could not realise that dream because of President Muhammadu Buhariu’s refusal to sign the Electoral Act, as amended,  by the National Assembly. The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, President Buhari, have keyed into INEC’s denial in their bid to kill PDP and Atiku’s petition before the election tribunal.

    On Monday, the tribunal refused PDP and Atiku’s request to access the ‘INEC server’. According to the tribunal, it could not allow Atiku to access a server which INEC says does not exist. That, political watchers thought, should have ended  the matter. No, it did not. The matter is growing by the day. Barely 24 hours after the ruling, against which Atiku has served a notice of appeal, others not involved in the legal battle have joined the fray.

    Though they did not bring an application to be joined as necessary parties, they are waging their own war in the court of public opinion. At a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, 60 of the 73 parties that took part in the election claimed that INEC told them before the poll that results would not be electronically transmitted, meaning, according to them that  no server would be used. How did the server issue come about? Long before the presidential poll, INEC, in its desire to ensure free and fair elections, experimented with a server in Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states.

    The National Assembly had not amended the electoral law when governorship elections took place in those states. So, it was safe to use a server in those places then without any one raising any legal issue after the elections. The commission planned to do same with the presidential election, but the President declined to sign the Electoral Act. This is the genesis of the server story. If indeed INEC told the parties that it would not use a server for the presidential poll, why then are some of its officials claiming that it did?

    Are these officials acting a script? Where did Atiku get the information that a server was used? How did INEC process results nationwide, if it did not use a server? Could it have concluded the election at the time it did If the results were manually processed? Or would INEC have finished the exercise earlier if the results were electronically collated? Why are the 60 parties joining the fray at this point? What informed their stand? To spoil the chances of one of the parties at the tribunal or what?

    Atiku is not taking things lying low. Even though he has gone on appeal, he is fighting on all fronts. In a statement on Tuesday, he threw more light on the tribunal’s ruling, explaining that it did not reject his request to access ‘INEC server’. The tribunal, he said, merely noted that the matter was still at its preliminary stage where such a request could not be looked into. That is neither here nor there. The tribunal rejected the request at this stage to enable it take a closer look at the opposing parties’ positions on the matter when the main hearing begins.

    The parties have joined issues. PDP and Atiku say there is a server, INEC, APC and Buhari contend that there is no server. It is now left for the tribunal to do justice by looking at their pleadings during the hearing of the substantive matter. How will it go? What will the Supreme Court say on the PDP, Atiku appeal? Will it agree with Atiku that the tribunal’s ruling amounts to ‘’tying your hands behind your back and expecting you to fight’’.

    Or will it concur with the President that granting Atiku’s request “would have amounted to the determination that the server indeed existed even when its existence is being contested”. Whichever way it goes, the existence or otherwise of this server will go a long way in determining the outcome of the PDP, Atiku petition.

     

    Buratai’s cracker

    THE statement made headline news. It is rare for generals to run down their men. But when they do, the damage is unquantifiable. Most times, they do not know this until they see it in print.

    Army chief Lt Gen Tukur Buratai was said to have touched on vital military matters, especially the conduct of troops in the ongoing war against insurgency, at the opening of a training workshop for middle cadre officers and soldiers on June 18.

    On Monday, he denied ever saying soldiers lacked commitment in the war against Boko Haram. Then, what did he say? Will he do the media the favour of availing us the unedited text of his speech on that occasion? Somewhere in that speech is the truth and that is what will clear the air on whether or not he was quoted out of context.

     

    A big boy’s roadshow

    IN these days of social media, events are reported at the speed of light. God save the traditional media from the shenanigan of their more daring Internet counterpart. For the social media, there is nothing like playing by the rules. They do not have the time to crosscheck a story before running it. Once they see it, they rush to post it on their platforms. With the social media, bringing everything to the open first and fast, whether true or not, is the byword. There are no secrets; what you want to keep secret you do behind close doors where you make sure there are no cameras or any other hidden gadgets that can be used to capture whatever you are doing. On Monday, the social media was abuzz with the story of a man that caused a stir on Benin – Ore Road. He was said to be in a gridlock that stretched the length of the road. Traffic was at a standstill. And what did our guy do? He reportedly sent for a chopper! Other motorists were awestruck as they saw the helicopter hovering above them looking for where to land.
    In no time, his men were all over the place, clearing the gridlock to create space for the chopper to land. As soon as the chopper landed, it picked the money man and off it went, with the crowd of onlookers cheering and snapping pictures with their phones. Did that incident really happen? Did the billionaire call for the chopper to lift him out of that traffic mess? Or was it the medical evacuation of his loved one as another post said? Who is this man that has kept many trolling on the social media for days? There is the picture of one Osula trending along with the story on the social media. Is that really the guy?

  • Many sides of June 12

    THE June 12 story is well known, but it is a story that cannot be told at a go. It will take ages to tell the story and the accounts will surely differ from one narrator to the other. Those in the thick of it and those who knew next to nothing about it  have today made themselves heroes of June 12.

    These self-styled heroes are talking and painting a fantastic picture of their roles in the June 12 struggle. Many of the story tellers are deceiving themselves; they are only trying to be clever by half. But Nigerians are wiser than that. They know these people and what they did with June 12.

    Those who traded away June 12, a mandate, which the symbol of the struggle, the late Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola, said was freely given to him by the Nigerian people, are now throwing stones at others. Even, they are not sparing Abiola, who gave his all in his determination to reclaim the mandate, but died in the process. Some people should not be seen talking about June 12 and one of such people, with due respect, is Ambassador Babagana Kingibe.

    Wherever a discussion on June 12 is being held, what such people should do is to excuse themselves and take their leave. But, no, they will not do that. It is not their fault. They are exploiting the opportunity given them by the society, which has decided to let sleeping dogs lie, to spew all kinds of nonsense about June 12. A co-custodian of the mandate,  Kingibe sold his mandate on the altar of ministerial appointment when Abiola, the President-elect, was in detention.

    Did he confer with Abiola before accepting to serve as minister in the Abacha junta.  He did not and he said that much when he visited Borno State Governor Prof Babagana Zulum. It was a visit to, wait for it, thank the governor for celebrating June 12 as Democracy Day following its adoption as such by President Muhammadu Buhari. Today, it is appalling that Kingibe can unabashedly lay claim to being a ‘’critical player’’ of June 12 after flirting with the Abacha junta at a time he should be in the trenches with Abiola. How is he different from say, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who he accused of being ‘’an architect of the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment’’?

    What Kingibe and his ilk did not know is that by hobnobbing with Abacha, they further killed any hope of reclaiming June 12 after Abiola declared himself President at Epetedo, Lagos, on June 11, 1994. If only he had stood firm, instead of trading away his joint ticket with Abiola on the crest of the Social Democratic Party to further his selfish interest which he today describes as ‘’national interest’’, Abiola may not have met a fatal end.

    If  Kingibe and his ilk had stood firm, Abacha would not have become so audacious to do all he did. They provided him with the munition to deal with Abiola and today they are reaping from where they did not sow and unfortunately, the sower, who made all these possible, is gone. Thank God for President Buhari, who has done the right thing by honouring Abiola.

    If not for the President, the likes of Kingibe would have made Nigerians to forget all about Abiola and his struggles for reclaiming June 12. Today, Kingibe has benefited most from a mandate which he disowned for a mere ministerial job. How can you equate the position of vice president with that of a minister? There is no basis for comparison at all. Kingibe should please spare us the talk of doing what he did in the ‘national interest’.

    He should just quietly enjoy the gift of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) and also quietly make peace with his God. Nigerians know the true heroes of June 12 and he is certainly not one of them, not even with his GCON, an award for invaluable vice presidents. The award is not for those who willingly sold off their mandate for a lesser position as they never knew a day like this will come.

     

    Animal Cashdom

    SNAKE. Monkey. Gorilla. What do these animals have in common? Answer : swallowing of money. Mind you, this only happens in our country. Elsewhere, these animals do not swallow money. Snakes go for eggs and other poultry products, monkeys and gorillas like bananas. So, how come, they have suddenly fallen in love with cash here? In Nigeria, anything can happen because it is a society of anything goes. These animals were not just discovered today. They have been in our midst for ages, going about in the wild doing their thing. They do not cohabit with humans. But in exceptional cases, some people keep them as pets. Do those people feed them with money? No. We never knew that these animals feed on money until Prof Ishaq Oloyede began his reforms at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
    Corrupt officials and exam cheats are wondering what hit them since he mounted the saddle there. Philo Chiese, a JAMB official in Benue State, thought she was smart. When called upon to account for money realised from the sale of JAMB forms through scratch card, she could not do so. She claimed the money was kept in the office from where it was swallowed by a ‘spiritual snake’. Is she lying? The court, where she is now standing trial, will decide that. Before you could say ‘’distinguished’’, a monkey jumped into the Red Chamber and allegedly ran away with N70million kept with  Senator Abdullahi Adamu during the Eighth Senate. The money, Senator Shehu Sani said, was handed over to the Northern Senators Forum by its secretary, Ahmad Lawan after he became Senate Leader. Adamu denied that a monkey swallowed any money, saying it was a smear campaign against him because of his stand on certain issues.
    Not to be left out, a gorilla burst onto the scene, with a zookeeper in Kano, claiming that the animal swallowed the N6.8million realised in sales during the Eid-El-Fitri celebrations. How did the gorilla get to the money? Was it left (such huge cash, even if only in N1000 denomination) in the open? But there is a twist to the tale, with Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, saying the zoo does not harbour gorillas. Then where did the cash-swallowing gorilla come from? Was it brought from outside to wreak havoc on the zoo? Was it dressed in human form, among the armed robbers said to have invaded the zoo? The public is eagerly awaiting the outcome of Ganduje’s probe of the matter. Nigeria, Odikwa too much! May God save us from humans who put on animal skin to swallow cash.

  • Getting it right

    NATION building, a joint task. This was the catch phrase of the Gbaja/Wase Campaign Organisation.  Indeed, nation building is a joint task. We do not need to be reminded of that by any campaign organisation. It requires the contributions of every citizen to develop a nation. It is not a job that should be left to only those in power. By adopting this slogan, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and his deputy Ahmed Idris Wase were not only sending a message to their colleagues in the House of Representatives, but to the whole country.

    As citizens, we all have a stake in the Nigerian Project. If things go well, it will be for the good of all and if they do not, we will bear the brunt jointly and severally. Now the campaigns for the leadership of the National Assembly are over, with the emergence of Ahmad Lawan, Ovie Omo-Agege, Gbajabiamila and Wase as Senate president, deputy Senate president, Speaker and deputy Speaker, on Tuesday. These men will in the next four years pilot the affairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

    It is a job that comes with enormous responsibilities. So, these men have a great task ahead of them. They have told us that they have what it takes to preside over the Red and Green Chambers. Their colleagues believed in them and so gave them their mandate. The National Assembly got it right in picking its leaders. But, that is just the tip of the iceberg. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) did its homework well on the matter to avoid what happened in 2015. Much of what we witnessed on the floors of both chambers on Tuesday were settled outside those houses.

    Part of the spade work was done by the party, which quickly retraced its steps after initially making some false moves. The greater job was done by the candidates who brought in their colleagues from the other parties into their campaigns. This bipartisan approach saved the APC from the 2015 horror which we all saw when the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) contested and won the deputy Senate president’s seat four years ago.

    APC learnt its lesson the hard way. But the major task for the party, President Muhammadu Buhari and the assembly leadership lies ahead. They have scaled the first hurdle by getting the National Assembly leadership elections out of the way. What comes next now is governance. How can the people feel the impact of government? This is what should engage the minds of the party and its leadership. As a party, APC no doubt means well for the people. It seemed it could not do much in its first four years in office between 2015 and May 2019 because of what the President called the ‘unpatriotic’ National Assembly leadership he worked with.

    The party claimed that it was hamstrung by the leadership of the eighth National Assembly. Also, APC spent its time, blaming the party in power before it for every ill that befell the country, even in its own time. It was the PDP this or PDP that, whenever there was any problem in the polity. The people are tired of hearing the party talk like that. Their desire is to see the party working for their good. APC did all the talking as it should have done when PDP was in power. It was proper then to criticise PDP because it was in power.

    But having left office for four years now, will it still be proper to blame the party for anything? What APC owes Nigerians is to find solutions to the problems of poverty, insecurity, unemployment, economic and social imbalance plaguing the country. The problems are rising by the day because of our growing population. APC has its hands full for it to waste precious time, blaming PDP for everything under the sun. For 16 years, it talked and talked about PDP’s bad governance. The people applauded it because things were bad, damn bad, under PDP between 1999 and 2015. And they compensated the party with their votes in 2015. What they expect in return is good governance.

    So, by now, they expect APC to be done with the talking. They waited patiently for four years, but there was no dice, and now they have given the party another four years to bring the change it promised them. It should no longer be time to talk; it is time to do. There is no better time to do what is expected of the party than now that it has another four-year mandate from the people. The party has got the National Assembly leadership right. As its Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole said on Tuesday, “we can no longer say we are blocked by the parliament’’. Now that it has the parliament it wants, what is left for the party is to get governance right too.

    If the President needs to “shake the table”, to borrow the words of Speaker Gbajabiamila, to do that, he should not hesitate to do so. The buck stops at his table and at the end of the day, he will carry the can if the APC does not deliver. But if the party does well, the glory will, of course, be his. To mean well for the people is good, but to do well for them, is better. May the next four years be better than the last four.

  • There, they go again

    FOR the All Progressives Congress (APC), it seems the National Assembly leadership tussle has become a quadrennial issue. Since it took over power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, APC appears not to get it right when it comes to picking the assembly’s leaders as the majority party in the bicameral legislature. But, it was not so when PDP was in power for 16 years from 1999 to May 2015.

    In PDP’s day, it was a piece of cake picking the Senate president and House Speaker and their deputies at the end of each legislative session of four years. But when it became APC’s turn to have a go at the same offices in 2015, they became bones that stuck in the party’s throat. Why? The party and its elected National Assembly members did not agree on the issue. The party wanted certain people for the jobs, but the legislators had different people in mind.

    For the Senate, APC settled for Ahmad Lawan as president and Femi Gbajabiamila as House Speaker. Its elected legislators kicked. They had their own candidates and they told the party so unequivocally. The candidates too did not hide their ambitions. They came out, in defiance of their party, to woo their fellow lawmakers from the opposing parties to support them. The APC merely watched as Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara and their loyalists went to town campaigning. Since the duo were until their defection to APC, members of PDP, it was easy for them  getting the backing  of legislators in the main opposition party.

    So, at the proclamation of the National Assembly last June 9, they had their way easily. And to rub it in, PDP got the deputy Senate president, something that never happened before in the history of the then 16-year-old National Assembly. Luckily, PDP could not muscle the strength to do the same thing in the House of Representatives where Gbajabiamila slugged it out with Dogara and narrowly lost in a keen contest. Lawan and Gbajabiamila are again in the race for these coveted seats in the Ninth National Assembly which will be inaugurated, from all indications, next Tuesday.

    Will Lawan and Gbajabiamila have an easy run this time around? Will other candidates from their party step down for them? Will President Muhammadu Buhari do the needful this time around by stepping in to call these candidates to order before the imminent duel on inauguration day? Will party supremacy prevail at the end of the day? Or will it be like 2015 when some of the candidates defied the party, contested and won? The convention is for the majority party to pick the Senate president and House Speaker and their deputies without  by the minority party raising an eyebrow.

    For 16 years, the main opposition party did not break this convention as it allowed PDP to have its way in such matters. Why then is PDP today challenging APC for these positions? It is because of the infighting among those contesting for the top jobs among APC legislators. They have left a crack in their rank which is widening by the day, thereby giving PDP an opening to challenge the convention of picking the assembly’s presiding officers . PDP cannot be blamed for capitalising on APC’s self inflicted wound to want to retain its hold on the assembly’s leadership despite no longer being the majority party.

    What can APC do to ensure that it does not lose hold of the assembly’s leadership? Its trump card is the President, who as the party leader, could intervene in the matter now before the inauguration day. Who does he want as Senate president and House Speaker? Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and former Abia State governor and senator-elect Orji Kalu claim that the President’s candidates are Lawan and Gbajabiamila. But what has the President done to sell his ‘candidates’ to the party’s other elected legislators like Ali Ndume, Danjuma Goje, both in the Senate, and John Dyegh, Olusegun Odebunmi, Ado Doguwa, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and Umaru Bago, among others, all of the House, who are also  interested in the jobs?

    What the party cannot do, the President can do, if he takes it upon himself to douse the tension. Nothing meaningful will be achieved if he stands aloof, and in his characteristic manner, ask the lawmakers to vote for whoever they like as their presiding officers. We are all living witnesses to what happened the last time he did that. The President has to make his stand known and the time to do so is now. Otherwise, it may be too late in the day, as we witnessed in 2015, by the time he decides to invite all the candidates for a heart to heart talk to sort things out.

    This is not an issue to be resolved through body language. Nobody is interested in watching anyone’s body because bodies do not talk. They want to see the President show leadership by inviting the lawmakers and telling them, hoha, to borrow that street lingo, that Lawan and Gbajabiamila are ‘’my candidates’’. Will the President do that?

    There is still time to avoid the mistake of 2015, or else he will, again, find himself working with a National Assembly leadership that is distant from him and his objective. By then, it will be too late to label anybody as “unpatriotic”.

    Another Abacha loot!

    IT seems the Abacha loot is every where abroad. More and more of it is being discovered in more countries and tiny islands. When we thought we had heard the last about this loot, we were assailed with another discovery in the Channel Islands in the Normandy region of France.

    About 211 million pound sterling was said to have been discovered in Jersey, Channel Islands. The money was kept there by a British Virgin Island firm, Doraville Properties Corporation. It was laundered through the United States (US). Gen Sani Abacha died in 1998, but his name and loot keep popping up all over the world. Only God knows how much he stashed abroad during his almost five-year rule as head of state. Abacha could not have done all this alone. Some people helped him. As we trace this loot across the world, can we not also trace these people and bring them to book? Reason: some of them may still be in the corridors of power,  teaching the likes of Abacha,  how to steal the country blind and stash the loot abroad.

    Before this latest discovery, about $322 million Abacha loot  was said to have been returned to the country. We are doomed as a nation, if only one man could steal that much. And it seems, we are still counting!

  • The Promise

    BEFORE his inauguration yesterday in Abuja for a second and final term in office, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday,  gave an insight into his plan for the country in the next four years. He spoke jokingly, but what he said showed that he is abreast of what is being said about him across the country. Those who voted for Buhari in 2015 did so because of the belief that he would move with utmost dispatch to transform (read as change) the country.

    When the first year came, followed by the second, third and the fourth, and it seemed things were not moving at the pace they wished, they became disenchanted and tagged him Baba go slow. They described him as ‘slow’ in everything. For instance, they noted that he was slow in constituting his cabinet. It took him almost five months to name his ministers after being sworn in on May 29, 2015. Will that repeat itself in 2019?

    It may not, going by what he said during a special interview on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on Monday night as part of his inauguration activities.  In the interview, he noted that Nigerians were calling him Baba go slow, promising that in his second term, things would be different. Yes, the people will be happy to see their President moving fast in this dispensation, which started yesterday.

    They know that he has what it takes to make a swift and sharp movement. He is strong, fit and agile, some of them said, referring to how he jogged in Mecca while running between Safa and Marwa during the lesser hajj. The President told his interviewer that it was an exercise he had to perform as part of the lesser hajj rites. It was not a big deal to have run between those pillars of Safa and Marwa, he intoned.

    To make Nigeria work for the greater good of all in his last term in office, the President has to show the same dexterity that he displayed in Mecca. He is equal to the task, he told the millions of NTA viewers. His promise may well be the plank on which his last term in office will rest. Things might have been slow in the last four years because of the President’s health challenge for which he sought treatment abroad. But since his return, he has been up and doing. He should be able o do more in the next four years before he leaves in 2023.

    The people will hold him to his promise that: “All those who call me Baba go slow will see whether I am slow or fast. I will fast-forward the police and the judiciary to be hard. And where I discover that they are not hard, I will try and trace who is responsible for the slowness in terms of command”. The President should do more than that. He should shake things up within the Federal Executive Council too, with ministers directed to deliver on projects in real time.

    Those who are not ready to work at his new fast pace should be shown the way out. It should not be said of a general that he could not deliver on his election promises because he is slow.

     

    Woman of steel

    It was a test for the Court of Appeal, and its President, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, passed with flying colours. But the same cannot be said of the panel of justices, which she headed, that heard the case. Though, it was more a test for her than her brother-justices. The issue at stake was her eligibility to preside over the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal hearing the case filed by PDP standard-bearer Alhaji Atiku Abubakar against the election of APC’s President Muhammadu Buhari. Atiku and his party asked her to recuse herself from the case because her husband is an APC senator-elect and her son a governorship aspirant on the party’s platform in Gombe State. It was a tricky case, but she navigated through it with tact. Though the court, in a lead ruling by Justice P. O. Ige, dismissed the applicants’ motion, Justice Bulkachuwa withdrew from the case for “personal reason’’. It is for this same “personal reason’’ that the court should have upheld the motion. The applicants made a straightforward case of likelihood of bias against Justice Bulkachuwa. Not only is she  married to an APC senator-elect, her son also contested for the party’s governorship ticket. And here, she is expected to preside over a case involving the party.

    Justice Bulkachuwa

    Her relationship with her husband and son, who are card carrying members of APC is enough to disqualify her from sitting on the case. To me, the court has not settled the matter with its ruling, as some judges may cite it in future when a similar issue is raised against them. I understand the position of their lordship, but  for this matter to be settled once-and-for-all, Atiku and PDP may need to challenge the ruling at the Supreme Court. With that ruling, should that panel still handle the substantive case? As the maxim goes, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.

     

    APC’s huge loss

    FRIDAY’S Supreme Court judgement voiding the victory of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)  in the last elections in Zamfara State was a bolt out of the blue. The earth-shaking verdict was least expected. At best, the parties were hoping that it would be in favour of one of them. It did not go that way. It went to unexpected quarters – the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – which had quietly accepted defeated and moved on.  APC gave its victory away because of the  infighting in its Zamfara chapter.

    Why didn’t the parties resolve their differences in their party’s interest after winning the governorship, National Assembly and House of Assembly polls? Why did they have to fight to the finish and give victory to PDP by default?

    The blame game is on now in the party, but the truth is the matter was not properly handled ab initio. So, it is too late to cry while the head is off. Instead of blaming the court, the party should blame itself for not putting its house in order.

  • Next Level

    BY this time next week, the inauguration would have come and gone President Muhammadu Buhari would lead the way as he and the governors, both returning and incoming, take their oath of office. For the President and the returning governors, it would be their second and final four-year term, which will round off their constitutionally approved eight-year tenure in 2023. The May 29 Inauguration will be low key because the day will only be for the swearing in of the President and governors. There will be no pomp and ceremony as was the case in the past 19 years.

    In the past, at least since the nation returned to democracy in 1999, May 29 was a high pedestal in the nation’s political calendar. It was observed as Inauguration and Democracy Day. Since it served that dual purpose, the day was marked with fanfare. The drums were rolled out at the national and state levels in celebration of democracy and the oath takers’ victory at the polls.

    All that has changed with the adoption of June 12 as Democracy Day. June 12 is no ordinary date in the nation’s  annals. What makes it significant is the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which is considered the freest and fairest poll in the country’s history. The late newspaper mogul, Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola, of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) won the election hands down, but was never allowed to assume office. Former military president Ibrahim Babangida annulled the election and threw the nation into crisis.

    The crisis consumed him as he was forced to step aside on August 27, 1993. The Interim National Government (ING), which he installed, was sacked by the late dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, who detained Abiola for four years after he declared himself president at Epetedo, Lagos, in his bid to reclaim his mandate. Abacha and Abiola died in controversial circumstances one after the order in a space of one month in 1998.

    With the President taking his final oath of office on May 29, he and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) have another chance to fulfil their promise to the people. The people have seen how the President fared in his first term. His final four-year term is expected to be defining. Not many have good things to say about his first four-year term. To these people, the President did not meet Nigerians’ expectations. They wanted to see a President that will transform their lives in a twinkling of an eye. But that did not happen.

    Really, the President and his party gave the citizenry the impression that  things will change overnight on their coming to office. They promised CHANGE; the people took them on their word, expecting instant change. But such change does not come like instant coffee. If it were that easy, our country would have been transformed by now. What with the promise to ensure regular power supply within six months and statements such as any government that cannot guarantee that should simply pack and go within a few months! Those who talked like that now know better.

    The party seemed to have spoken out of turn before coming to office and that came back to haunt it when it mounted the saddle. Its perception of what  to do and the reality on ground were diametrically opposed. The rot left by their predecessor was endemic and the President and APC did not know this until May 29, 2015. After four years, it is expected that the President and his team should have devised means of overcoming the problems of governance. Nigerians, in the next four years of this administration, will not be interested in why it cannot discharge its obligations.

    Of course, they are also tired of hearing government officials heaping the blame of everything that is wrong on the ‘’16 years misrule’’  of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was in power between 1999 and 2015. There will be no room for such talks in this coming dispensation. What the people are interested in as the government begins its second term  is how it  will improve their lot before the next elections in 2023. Its campaign slogan was Next Level meaning that it will move the people from their present position to the next. It is a promise to take them to greater heights. Next Level means promotion; it means better days ahead, a rosier future. Anything short of this in the next four years cannot be tagged Next Level.

    The Buhari administration can deliver on its Next Level promise by facing the issue of governance squarely without blaming the previous government for every problem that rears its head. Government is a continuum no matter the change in the party at the centre. It is the beauty of democracy for power to change hands between parties. This is not a big deal.  It happens elsewhere and it does not disrupt governance. The case should not be different here. A change in the party in power should not be an excuse for not delivering dividends of democracy to our long-suffering people.

    Rather, it should be an impetus to win them over to become the party’s die-hard supporters based on its performance. A party that delivers will always win elections because the people will fall in love with it. But, if it does not deliver, it can never count on the people’s support. APC knows what to do if it wishes to remain in power longer than the years spent on the saddle by PDP. The people’s prayer is for the President to take them to the Next Level before he finally bows out of office in 2023.

  • The weed of money

    MONEY has a peculiar smell, especially when it is mint fresh. The smell is soothing to the nose. It does not emit the smell that can make you puke when the currency is torn and dirty. New notes are a joy to behold. They do not fill your pocket nor make you feel as if you are carrying a load. But not so old notes which make your pocket heavy.

    Money comes from different sources. We earn money from the work we do; we also make money from trading. We equally make money from the disposal of human waste and from the export of commodities in which nations have comparative advantage. The sources are endless. Money making does not come cheap. It comes with a lot of thinking and planning. What some see as sources of money making may not hold an attraction for others.

    There was a time we were exporting cocoa, palm kernel, groundnut and other crops from which we derived huge foreign earnings. Sadly, these days, we export crude and import it back as refined product to sell at N145 per litre to consumers. What we make from this venture is only known to the sharks in the oil sector who parlay the gain into their own use, while the nation is bleeding. The country needs foreign earnings badly in these hard times in order to provide schools, hospitals, roads and other amenities to make life better for the people.

    Money rules the world and those who have it are lords over others. The developed economies look down on countries like ours because we do not have their kind of resources. These countries have no qualms when it comes to making money. There is nothing  they cannot dabble into for the sake of money. Whether legal or illegal, to them, the venture is good as long as it yields money. With their technological know-how, they can turn virtually anything into money. Some of them have turned what was once considered illegal into a source of making money.

    I am talking about weed, or if you like, marijuana or cannabis sativa, which is popularly known as Indian hemp. For ages, Indian hemp has been used in the making of hair pomade and as an ingredient in some foods and drugs. But Indian hemp smoking was frowned at in many countries. Those caught were made to face the law. The situation has changed as these countries have legalised the smoking of weed. The latest country to do so was Canada, which last November, approved Indian hemp for ‘’recreational use’’. Whatever that means!

    But because they rule the world, they can get away with anything. The developing economies like to toe their line because we think whatever they do is right. Indian hemp is a banned substance in Nigeria. It is an offence to grow or traffic it. The late maverick musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti called it vegetable, describing it as a stimulant which energises the system. He was once arrested for being in possession of the substance. The police claimed that he chewed it when they came for him in order to evade arrest.  To prove their case against the Abami Eda, they induced him to defecate.

    Fela defecated and defecated, yet the police could not trace the weed in his faeces. This led Fela to sing Expensive Shit. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) hangs around every nook and cranny of the country, including the sea and airports and borders looking for those carrying Indian hemp and other hard drugs. Soon, very soon, it may no longer be an offence to be in possession of Indian hemp, courtesy of NDLEA and the  Ondo State government, which are collaborating to make the weed a foreign earner. The love of money can lead man to do anything indeed. Apparently taking a cue from what is happening in some parts of the world, Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and NDLEA boss Muhammad Abdullah are pushing for converting Indian hemp into a  foreign earner to boost the economy. In these days of diversifying the economy, their proposal sounds like music in the ear. At a meeting in Thailand to learn how to turn Indian hemp into a money-spinner, they made a case for Nigeria’s adoption of the substance to its benefit.

    “We all know that Ondo State is the hot bed of cannabis cultivation in Nigeria. We know how to grow it and it thrives well in the Sunshine State. With an estimated value of $145 billion in 2025, we will be shortchanging ourselves if we failed to tap into the Legal Marijuana Market. Our focus now is medical marijuana cultivation in controlled plantations under the full supervision of the NDLEA. I strongly implore the Federal Government to take this seriously as it is a thriving industry that will create thousands of jobs for our youths and spur economic diversification’’, said Akeredolu.

    Abdullah noted : ‘’We are here to study how cannabis can be of more advantage to Ondo State and Nigeria at large just the way the Thailand government has done. The current trend in the world is to look into the advantages of cannabis in the making of foods and drugs’’. If the developed economies had not taken the lead, would we be thinking along this line? I do not think so. We would have thought twice before going this way because we do not know how they will feel about our move.

    Do we have what it takes to check the abuse of the system when Ondo starts the production of legal marijuana for the food and drug industry? I am sorry to say this :  we are good at copying the developed economies, but we lack the capacity in addressing the problems that may arise therefrom. This may be a good move because it is going to bring in money. And money made from human waste disposal, according to a Yoruba adage, does not smell. So, the money made from the planned Indian hemp export will not reek of the weed. Lobatan.  But we need to think the proposal through so that it does not become an albatross at the end of the day.