The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

Queens of Africa soccer

On Saturday, the Super Falcons came from behind to beat the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco to lift the Women Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) trophy for the 10th time. Our girls were already two goals down in the first 27 minutes of the game. Many watching would have lost hope and assumed that it is all over. The final of any competition is not easy to play. Be it soccer, as in this instant case, table tennis, volleyball, hockey or badminton, the players are cautious and calculating as they do all they can to avoid mistakes.

They hate to concede early goals or lose cheap points. But when they do, they fall back on their reserve energy to redeem themselves. Our girls did just that when they refused to give up. To equalise two goals and score a third to win is the stuff of which soccer legends are made. Nigeria is good at coming back to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Remember, Damman Miracle in Saudi Arabia when Nigeria’s Under 20 team came from four nil down to beat USSR in the FIFA World Youth Champioship? As the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. The girls got going, and their resilience paid off. They were awarded a penalty in the run of play and Esther Okoronkwo converted her chance, with a superb spot kick.

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The goal paved the way for the two goals that followed. Esther assisted the scorers of both goals. She deservedly got the Player of the Match award. Once again, it was Nigeria’s finest hour on the continental soccer stage. Ahead of the competition, the team had tagged its campaign: Mission X (to win the 10th trophy). They accomplished the mission in style, leaving the Moroccans and their home fans stunned at the end of the game in regulation time.

July 31, 2025
2027: North as ‘beautiful bride’!

When In the build up to the 1982 presidential election in the aborted Second Republic the flamboyant Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe described himself as the “beautiful bride” of Nigerian politics, it was for a reason and just for that season. The late President Shehu Shagari was seeking reelection, and he required all the votes that he can muster to return to office.

As it were, votes from the Southeast and Southwest where Zik and the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Shagari’s formidable opponents came from, were locked down for the duo. Shagari needed votes from both regions to win, just as the duo required those votes and more from the north to oust him. It became a game of political romance among the trio in order to get the winning votes. Election is a game of numbers; it is not only about popularity. Zik and Awo found out the hard way in the 1978 elections which ushered in the Second Republic on October 1, 1979.

They were popular than Shagari by the fact of their political antecedents. Mind you, Shagari too was no push over, but he was not in the class of Awo and Zik, who once held sway in the western and eastern regions before they left their bases in Ibadan and Enugu to play national politics in Lagos. As it was then, so it is today. There must be some sort of political marriage between the north and south before any candidate can become president. No region can go it alone. It would be impolitic for any candidate to go on a solo mission, no matter the millions of votes he can garner from his region.

The late President Muhammadu Buhari is a clear case in point. He finally made it to the Presidency in 2015, after three failed attempts in 2003, 2007 and 2011, following his strategic alignment with the Southwest. It has now dawned on all pragmatic politicians that this alignment must be sustained for power to continue to rotate between both regions seamlessly until we get to the stage where such things no longer matter, except competence. The north takes delight in the fact that it has the numbers to make a president, but the reality is things are not as simple as that.

The ‘huge’ numbers are there, no doubt, but those figures alone cannot do the magic. They must be supported by the ‘marginal’ or what many top northerners, in the wake of Buhari’s victory in the 2015 and 2019 elections, now consider the “inconsequential” votes from the south. No matter how meagre the south’s votes are, they are as important as the north’s large votes in an electoral contest. Many contestants have lost elections, which they could have easily won, just by one vote because of their hubris. The search for these magical numbers which can turn the tide in an election has become intense..

The aim is to wrest power from President Bola Tinubu in 2027, the way he led the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to oust President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. Since then, the APC has been in power, with Tinubu succeeding Buhari in 2023. Many who were with Tinubu then have joined forces with others to work against him now. Their coalition led to the takeover of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which is more of a vehicle for electoral contest than a political platform. ADC is now in disarray, with some old members rejecting the new comers.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding their platform, they have been playing the northern card ahead of 2027. They are heaping all the problems of the north on the present administration. Some of their leading lights claim that the north is backward; the north is neglected; the north is marginalised and without infrastructure, and blame it all on the President who came into office only two years ago. They conveniently forget that some of them were in office at the highest level not too long ago and never did anything for the region.

Their cry has political undertone. It is to whip up northern sentiments against the government and hinder its return to power in 2027. Do they have the power to sway the people of the region to their side? They do not. Many of them do not command any following. They rode on Buhari’s back to power as governors and lawmakers. Following Buhari’s death about three weeks ago, they are orphaned. They craved Buhari’s blessings for their gang up against Tinubu and APC so that they could present that to the people as his endorsement of their new found group.

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Buhari was wary of them. But at every opportunity, they dropped his name, as they angled for ways to use it to worm their way into the hearts of the poor people of the region who consistently gave Buhari millions of votes in all the elections he contested in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. Are those votes said to be 12 million still intact? If Buhari were alive today, could he have influenced the talakawa to vote for any of these people who when they had the opportunity to lead the country did nothing for them?

Looking at the federal level alone, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is desperate to have the ADC coalition as a special purpose vehicle for running for president again in 2027, and erstwhile Senate president David Mark, ADC interim chairman, were at a time the numbers two and three citizens of this country and they are from the north. What did they do for the region whose condition they are deploring today? The north has the votes to make a candidate president, but it is not beholden to Atiku, Mark and their ADC crowd to give them those votes.

Those votes are not transferable from Buhari to them. If they want those votes, they must earn them like Buhari did by living a spartan and frugal life. They should stop throwing the north in people’s faces. The region and its people are important, but they are not at the beck and call of these self conceited politicians. The talakawa know the way to go in 2027. They do not need Atiku, Mark, Nasir El-Rufai, and co, to tell them what to do.

July 31, 2025
Natasha: Sound and fury…

Since the July 4 decision of the Federal High Court on the famous Natasha case, the plaintiff and her enablers have been treating the public to all kinds of drama over what the judge said and did not say. On the day of the verdict, the social media, which is known more for its sensationalism and recklessness in the way it treats sensitive and even, non-sensitive issues, reported that Justice Binta Nyako had ordered that Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan be recalled from her six-month suspension.

Did the court really say that? We will answer the question presently. As Natasha wanted, the story trended on social media, a space where she is comfortable fighting her suspension battles, rather than laying the cards on the table. The traditional media too did not help matters in reporting the verdict. The story was slanted to put in the court’s mouth what it did not say. The certified true copy (CTC) of the verdict has put the lie to these reports.

Natasha is wittingly using the media to fight her battle. She knows the power of the media, and she is exploiting it, especially the online platforms, to paint herself as a victim in a family dispute of sorts, which could have been settled internally within the Senate without too much fuss. But Natasha will not be Natasha without the gra gra and the showboating that have become her stock in trade. Honestly, I do not have anything against Natasha. I like her guts as a woman who is ready to stand up for her rights and speak her mind, any time, any day.

But she needs to tone down the drama. Theatrics will never help her case, particularly in a judicial dispute where everything is black and white. There is nothing hidden in a court matter. The cards are usually face up, as the facts are there – for all to see. She did no wrong by going to court in anticipation of a breach of her fundamental right, as held by Justice Nyako. But, without mincing words, she and her enablers made the wrong move by trying to colour the verdict to favour her. That was patently wrong. No litigant can ever colour a judgment in order to change its content to suit his or her wish because court proceedings, like the hansard of parliament, are well kept.

If these documents are doctored, it means that something untoward must have happened inhouse. As the Yoruba will say: ejo l’owo ‘nu (someone has tampered with the records). Justice Nyako was clear and unambiguous in her pronouncement in the 33-page judgment in the Natasha case, which was well reviewed by our Abuja Bureau Deputy Chief Eric Ikhilae on the Law pages of this paper on Tuesday. The judge was careful in her use of words. She could not understand why the Senate who sits for 181 legislative days would suspend a member for 180 days.

To her, “to make a law that has no end is excessive”. She was referring to the Senate Rules that allow the upper chamber to suspend a senator for as long as it wishes. But she could not do anything about it because her hands are tied under the doctrine of separation of powers – that is to say the court cannot interfere in the work of the legislature – except there is a breach or anticipatory breach of a person’s fundamental right. The court made its position clear on page 31 of the judgment. Justice Nyako held that it was not the intention of the Constitution that a senator be suspended ad infinitum (forever).

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She refrained from making any order, citing the principle of separation of powers, and chose to appeal to the conscience of the Senate to forgive Natasha. She held: “I am of the opinion that the Senate has the power to review…the Senate Rules and even amend Section 14 (2) of the Legislative Houses (Powers & Privileges) Act for being over reaching. The Senate has the power to and I believe should recall the plaintiff and allow her to same time, represent the people who sent her there to represent them”. In law, this is not an order, but an opinion, which a judge can digress and make in the course of delivering a judgment.

It is called obiter dictum (‘something said in passing’) and the ninth edition of Black’s Law Dictionary defines it as: “a comment made while delivering a judicial opinion, but one that is unnecessary to the decision in the case and therefore not precedential (although it may be considered persuasive)”. So, if the Senate is persuaded enough by the opinion, it may recall Natasha, but if not, the heavens will not fall if it does not recall her. The court did not compel the Senate to recall her. As a lawyer, she knows what to do to end this matter. It is not by trying to force her way back into the National Assembly Complex with her enablers and a motley crowd in tow, as they attempted to do on Tuesday. Enough of the drama!

Natasha knows that the court did not order her recall. She is deliberately raising the political temperature by resorting to self help to enforce, mind you an opinion, which is different from an order, which Black’s Law Dictionary describes as “a written direction or command delivered by a judge”. Ironically, the orders the court made were all against her for contempt. For now, Natasha should cut the drama and allow the matter to run its course at the appellate courts, where she and Akpabio have headed for. This is the right thing to do.

She should concentrate on her appeal and stop this shenanigan of trying to come through the back door to get what the court did not give her in the first place. It will not work. It is an action full of sound and fury signifying nothing, apologies to Shakespeare.

July 24, 2025
Death and the Mai Gaskiya

Mai Gaskiya ne; Mai Gaskiya ne, the crowd roared and roared as the convoy of vehicles screeched to a halt on one of his campaign trails in the north. Of course, you guessed right. The roaring crowd, made up of the masses, was hailing none other than General Muhammadu Buhari. Mai Gaskiya, the honest one, was an appellation that stuck to him like a second skin until his death five days ago. Buhari died in London on Sunday and was buried in his Daura hometown in Katsina State on Tuesday. Buhari was a crowd puller in the north, especially among the talakawa, the hoi poloi, that never got a second look from many other politicians, except at election time.

Buhari had time for them all the time. He was at home with the poor, the vulnerable and the downtrodden. Buhari did not just happen on the political scene. Long before his foray into politics, he was a military general known for his ruthlessness. His tough reputation preceded his coming into office in 1983 as military head of state, following the ouster of the Shagari government. His first coming as the nation’s leader is remembered till today because of his relentless war against indiscipline, corruption, and drug abuse.

He ruled with fiat like all military dictators, sending people to jail and death, even before prosecution! He jokingly referred to this era in one of his rare interviews as civilian President. Buhari rued that he could not rule with such iron fists in a democratic setting no matter how strongly he felt about certain issues. Things must follow due process and cannot be done with ‘automatic alacrity’ a’la the military. He ruled with decrees, churning them out at a frightening rate that made the public shiver. The more famous ones were Decrees 2, 3 and 4.

Decree 2 was for the detention of persons for eternity until the junta decides otherwise ; Decree 3 established the military tribunals under which many Second Republic politicians were tried and jailed for donkey years for corruption; and Decree 4 was the anti-media law that punished practitioners even for publishing the truth. Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor had a bitter taste of Decree 4. Many Nigerians, save for the talakawa, who saw themselves in him because of his asceticism, never forgave him for his deeds between 1984 and August 1985 when he held office as military ruler.

His deputy, Tunde Idiagbon, was not different. They were two of a kind. And the duo struck fear into Nigerians. Buhari took a big gamble when he decided to go into politics, some years ago. Does he think we have forgotten what he did as military ruler? Is that what he wants to come and replicate as President? President ko, President ni. The questions and remarks came in torrents. Amid the umbrage, he took the plunge, pitching his tent with the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). To the political class, Buhari was an outsider to be kept at arm’s length. They could not give him the cold shoulder for long, though, because he was ‘a man of the people’.

There is nothing more that politicians crave than to have such a man in their corner. With Buhari on their side, his party members were sure that they would get block votes from the north. The question was: will his much-touted 12 million votes be enough to get him the Presidency? It was a poser that they could not answer during three election cycles spanning 2003 to 2011. Buhari was always sweeping the polls in the north, making mincemeats of his opponents, leaving them with little or no votes in the presidential elections of 2003, 2007 and 2011. His talakawa again and again delivered the votes in those polls, as he emerged as the north’s top politician since the days of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Mallam Aminu Kano, and Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. A new northern leader has risen, but the handshake across the Southwest that would give him the Presidency was elusive. He needed that handshake badly in order to cross the presidential finish line.

In 2014, the handshake that will shake the foundation of the nation finally took place when Buhari joined forces with President Bola Tinubu. Tinubu was then the leader of the Action Congress of Nigera (ACN), while Buhari was the stalwart of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). With the rumps of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and ANPP from which Buhari had carved out CPC, the two political titans built the All Progressives Congress (APC). APC created a major political upset, the first in the country’s annals when it defeated the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of PDP.

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From then on, Buhari’s political fortunes changed. After three attempts, he finally made it to the Presidency. All eyes were now on him as he succeeded Jonathan at a time of great anxiety. The challenges were legion. Insecurity and the economic doldrums were the major issues. With his military background, Buhari was expected to tame the monster of banditry, terrorism and kidnapping. With some states and local government areas in the hands of Boko Haram, he was expected to move with haste to liberate those territories. After all, he did so before as a military officer.

When shortly after assuming office, he said he was relocating to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, which remains the epicentre of Boko Haram insurgency, a troubled nation hoped that at last, the troublers of Nigeria had met their match. Buhari was a veteran of such battles. As general officer commanding (GOC) in the Second Republic, he pursued members of the Maitatsine sect who wreaked havoc on Kaduna out of the country. Even when asked to stop by his commander-in-chief, he reportedly did not relent until he achieved his goal. Since then, the Maitatsinists seem to have learnt a lesson. Why did he not do the same to Boko Haram? Some analysts have asked, claiming that there is no difference between both sects

They also question his economic credentials. There is a reason or reasons for every season and epoch in every country. Some leaders attain geat heights in certain seasons, while others do not. Buhari might have had his shortcomings, but he had a good heart. Good heart may not be enough to run a nation, but it is enough to chart the path for others to follow. Buhari led to the best of his ability. He remained true to himself to the end. People around him may have capitalised on his simplicity and his health challenge to commit all kinds of atrocities in the name of governance. He might have found out too late also that politicians ose nu enu fun (politicians cannot be trusted) as the Yoruba will say.

Governance is no tea party. Buhari knew that well having been a military ruler earlier. But as he later learnt, democracy is a different ball game. He might have been overwhelmed by the art of nation building, but his concerns for a united and indivisible Nigeria where the people, especially his beloved talakawa live a good life, were true and genuine. Little wonder that the heavens themselves blazed forth his exit. Adieu, Mai Gaskiya.

July 17, 2025
ADC: The stirrings of an abiku

Since its formation in 2005, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has never been a force to reckon with as a political party. It is more of a vehicle which utility value can only be guaranteed for the period that any user needs it. It is the same vehicle, wait for it, that Pat Utomi used to contest the presidential election in 2007.

Wikipedia, the online information portal, even describes Utomi as ADC founder. This information may not be entirely correct. I stand to be corrected, though. I say so because Utomi cannot be the founder of such a party that has no ideology and stands for nothing, according to Dumebi Kachikwu, its presidential candidate in the 2023 elections. It has been 20 years since ADC was formed in 2005, and 18 years that Utomi was adopted as its pioneer presidential candidate in 2007.

That was the party’s first-ever participation in national elections, and over the years, it has consistently failed to pull its weight in the polls, apparently due to the calibre of the candidates it presented. Elections anywhere in the world are not prosecuted by parading academic qualifications and pontificating on social and economic theories which a contestant cannot marry with the needs of the country (s)he wants to lead. The party and the person flying its flag must be versed in the art of politics, as well as its intricacies, and engage in acts that will endear it to the electorate.

Utomi parted ways with ADC in the 2011 election, as he contested that year’s presidential poll on the crest of Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP) and lost again. Since then, he has been rolling with the waves like ADC. ADC has become the spirit or wanderer child known as abiku in Yoruba mythology. It is not a party in the true sense of the word. It is also not a platform. It is more of a vehicle that ambitious politicians board and disembark from when they get to their destination. If it does not take them to their destination, they dump it, and look for another.

This has been the fate of ADC. Its presidential candidates come and go. They do not stay to build it to a structure that can stand its own against other parties. Some strange bedfellows have now found home in the party. After a long search for a platform to build their so-called national coalition to challenge President Bola Tinubu in 2027, they finally settled for ADC. They may have berthed, but from the look of things, they seem not safely anchored yet. They are facing threats from some of those they met in the party who are protesting what they called the ‘hijacking’ of ADC.

The coalitioners or coalitionists, if you like, are desperate. Their desperation drove them to takeover ADC from a pliable national chairman, Ralph Nwosu, who has since stepped down from office for the soldier-politician David Mark, who was senate president for eight years. The row which broke out after the coalition’s takeover of ADC is proof that the deal was not tidy. Many things go into the signing, sealing and delivering of such arrangements, really.

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Certain, if not all interests must be taking care of to avoid any fallout, the sort of which we are now witnessing in ADC. Kachikwu, who is leading those against the takeover, by virtue of his status as the party’s presidential candidate in 2023, should from all intents and purposes, be one of such interests. His candidacy may have expired with the election won and lost, but that should not have diminished his importance within the party. If he had won in 2023, he would have automatically become the party’s leader. His loss should not deprive him of that status, to the extent that deals would be struck behind him.

Though, strange bedfellows, Atiku, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi, Rauf Aregbesola and Mark, among other leaders of the coalition settled for ADC because the party was divided. Where the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which they intially sought to ‘acquire’ stood firm because of the principled stand of its presidential candidate in 2023, Prince Adewole Adebayo, ADC was an easy pick.

Reason: Nwosu had the upper hand in the fight for ADC’s control with Kachikwu, and went with the coalition. He was excited when he gave away the party to the coalition in Abuja. Amid the pomp and ceremony, the crack within ADC surfaced. ADC is not for sale, Kachikwu thundered at another ceremony where he held court. ‘What the coalition bought is bad market as you cannot build something on nothing’, he said. This has always been the case with ADC in its 20 years of existence. Dead today and alive tomorrow.

It is this abiku nature of the party that has stunted its growth. Beyond the singing and dancing at the coalition’s ‘acquisition’ of ADC is the character of its champions. They are worlds apart on many fronts. They are diametrically opposed to one another on many socio-economic issues. They are only united now in their desire to wrest power from Tinubu. It is their right to seek to lead the country, but first, they should tell the people what they have to offer. Some of them had the chance to lead as vice president, senate president, governor and minister in the past, with nothing to show for their tenures in office.

Today, they are claiming that there is hunger in the land because of the economic policies of the present administration. What was the economy like in the immediate past administration in which Amaechi and Aregbesola served as transport and interior ministers? How did Atiku, who has suddenly become an anti-graft czar, help to fight corruption as vice president between 1999 and 2007? It is funny to see these people coming out to seek office again, considering how they ran the country in their own time.

Nothing best describes how some of them are than what Atiku and El-Rufai said about each other a few years ago during a rift sparked by the former Kaduna State governor’s memoir: ‘Accidental public servant’. It was a messy affair as the duo engaged in verbal warfare. El-Rufai, who believes that he is a saint, spoke of how Atiku influencèd things in the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) then in order to get favours for some firms. El-Rufai was BPE director-general and Atiku, National Council on Privatisation (NCP) chairman, by virtue of being VP.

In a statement entitled: ‘Atiku haunted by his corrupt demons’ on November 15, 2016, El-Rufai challenged Atiku to visit the United States (US) if the ex-VP was not culpable in wiring $40 million to that country in the famous Halliburton case. He added that Atiku was obsessed with the ambition of becoming president, and as such, ‘fond of spewing out lies in an attempt to rejuvenate his image’. What more can anyone add to this? As the Yoruba saying goes: fun r’awon niwon ma fun r’awon l’ogun je (they will poison themselves with their own hands).

How then can they redeem themselves under a party that is dying and returning to life every now and then? After 2027, that is if the party survives the Kachikwu onslaught, the electorate may not hear of ADC again until 2031, which is another election year.

July 10, 2025
Soldiers of June 12

DAUDA MUSA KOMO, remember him? He was the soldier who struck fear into the Ogoni people of Rivers State as their administrator between December 1993 and August 1996. To the Ogoni, the native home of renowned playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed with eight of his kinsmen on November 10, 1995 by the Abacha junta, Komo was a terror.

The execution of the Ogoni 9 was a bestial act carried out under judicial cover. History will remember Komo’s role in what culminated in their execution. Komo’s tenure in Rivers where he was born in 1959, and died last May 30, left Ogoni worse off. The scars he left in Ogoni are still as visible today as they were then because of the way he handled things. He was more interested in working with Shell, the multinational oil firm, than the people.

As Fela sang in one of his popular songs, Komo left the military trademark of sorrow, tears and blood (STB), in his trail after his exit from office. Since that incident which happened in 1994/95, Komo has been in the black book of many Nigerians, irrespective of where they come from. But this same Komo who acted more as a dictator is now being painted as a democrat by a fellow officer, the irrepressible Col Umar Abubakar Dangiwa, who deserves the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) that he got. As a witness to the June 12 history, I can attest to his role. That is a story for another day.

Komo’s name appeared prominently on Dangiwa’s list of army officers who fought for the revalidation of Chief M.K.O Abiola’s mandate, but who were not given national honours during the celebration of Democracy Day last June 12. Dangiwa too was not among the honorees, but the President corrected the omission later by giving him CFR. In his reaction to the President’s decision, Dangiwa said there were other officers deserving of such honours too, and listed Komo, among them.

To Dangiwa, Komo was a democrat at heart. However, he looked more a dictator, a terror, and a nightmare in the face to those he was supposed to lead in Rivers then. It is obvious that besides Komo, there are other names that would not have made it to that list, if it had been compiled by other persons, regardless of their profession. The post-June 12 actions of many officers on Dangiwa’s list did not portray them as soldiers of democracy; they acted more as opportunists when fortune smiled on them. I am not here to bùry anybody, but to state the facts as they are.

This is a matter that is in public domain and which was witnessed by many who have come of age today. We know of some of the things that Dangiwa wrote about, though we were not in the barracks with him. We got tips about those who wanted the election results announced and Abiola formally declared winner; as well as those who did not want the election upheld because a court had stopped the poll; and those who wanted Abiola arrested and detained, with the key thrown into the ocean.

Above the level of officers listed by Dangiwa as June 12 ‘heroes’ were their superiors, the Generals, who were also said to be in favour of Abiola taking office. These Generals were not on the list. It was believed then that if these Generals had their way, they would take over from the maximum ruler Ibrahim Babangida and hand over to Abiola, who was duly elected President on June 12, 1993. But Sani Abacha took over, and nothing of sort happened, to the shock of many, who had in their benign ignorance, counted him among those Generals.

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What did we not hear then? Just wait, you will see. As soon as Abacha comes to power, he will invite Abiola and handover to him to form the government. This ING (interim national government) led by Chief Ernest Shonekan is what it is fidi e (interim), it won’t last. Awon soja ma gba s’egbe, wa gbe ijoba fun Abiola, eyin ema wo (soldiers will kick ING aside, bring in Abiola and hand over to him and end this interim nonsense). These and many more were the tales the public was regaled with.

So, when Abacha removed Shonekan on November 17, 1993, the people’s expectations were high as they looked forward to him handing over to Abiola. It turned out to be the beginning of the nation’s long night – four years of the locust that only ended following Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998. Abacha sent Komo to Rivers to do an hatchet job. Komo executed it with clinical efficency, using his sidekick Major Paul Okutimo to make life hell for Saro-Wiwa, especially. It was Komo’s and Okutimo’s poor handling of things that fueled the Ogoni crisis. It eventually led to the unfortunate killing of the Ogoni 4 in 1994, an act that appeared to have been orchestrated to get Saro-Wiwa.

Saro-Wiwa and Abacha were no strangers to each other. They served together in Alfred Diete-Spiff’s executive council in the state in the late 60s and early 70s. Saro-Wiwa was a commissioner, while Abacha was then a military commander in Rivers. You will think that they should be friends, but it was otherwise. Abacha could not stand the sight of Saro-Wiwa. Thus, he needed a trusted officer to send to Rivers to stop the environmental rights campaign, gathering momentum then, which was championed by Saro-Wiwa and Ledum Mitee, among others. Mitee escaped the hangman’s noose in 1995, as the court freed him to give a semblance of a fair trial of the Ogoni 9.

Komo fitted the bill, and he discharged his mandate to his master’s delight. What Komo and Okutimo did in Rivers between 1993 and 1996 paved the way for the Niger Delta crisis which engulfed the oil-rich region in the early days of the return to democracy in 1999. Komo might have fought for the revalidation of Abiola’s ‘sacred mandate’ as the business mogul himself put it in the heat of the fight for June 12, but he changed course when he became Rivers administrator in December 1993, barely five months after the annulment of the election.

Dangiwa, Komo and others might have fought for the restoration of June 12, but some of them did not stand to the end. They changed gear when they became politically exposed. Only a few remained true to their commission to the end. No matter what some people, whether as soldiers or politicians might have done for June 12 in the initial stage of the struggle, once they capitulated thereafter, they they no longer deserve any honours. As the scriptures say, only those who persevere to the end will be saved. Likewise, only those who stood on June 12 to the end, should get national honours.

It will be absurd for anyone to suggest today that Abacha be honoured for fighting for June 12 when he did not do the needful when he had the opportunity to do so, no matter the impression he created that he believed in the cause? Like him, others, many of them his subordinates later got into political office, either elected or appointed, and messed up. Such people too deserve no national honours. Some even traded their mandate for political office, and got away with it. Their betrayal of the June 12 cause does not justify the honour they got. But then in life, some get luckier than others, no matter their misdemeanours.

This does not mean that everybody should benefit from their betrayal of a cause they once fought for. Komo, who was from Kebbi State, is dead now. God rests his soul. Since the June 12 saga will outlive those of us who witnessed it all, it is important that things are put in perspective for the sake of posterity. By the way, another officer who deserves to be honoured for his stand on June 12 is Major-General Ishola Williams. I know his time would surely come. These are the kinds of officers we should celebrate, and not those who either as politicians or soldiers traded with June 12.

July 3, 2025
PDP to INEC: Tell us our secretary!

It was the most embarrassing and shameful question that any group can ask a non-member of the group. On Tuesday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was at the Abuja headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to wait for it, ask the agency who the party’s secretary is. It was, as someone noted yesterday, one question too many.

How can PDP expect INEC to determine who the party’s secretary is for it? What is INEC’s business with who the person is? It should be PDP telling INEC who its secretary is and not the other way round. But what will Nigerians not see from PDP? Its visit to INEC was prompted by the agency’s query over its correspondence on its forthcoming National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. The party wrote to INEC, informing the agency of its NEC meeting fixed for June 30. The letter was solely signed by its national chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum. Whereas, it should have been jointly signed with the secretary.

So, you can now understand why it asked INEC: “who is our secretary?”. The bemused INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, there and then proceeded to lecture the party and its chieftains and asked them to return home to put their house in order. PDP cannot be easily forgotten in the political annals of Nigeria. It has played a leading role in the present democratic journey which began in 1999. It remains to be seen whether its NEC meeting will hold, as scheduled, because of the communication problem.

PDP was the first party to rule Nigeria. Between 1999 and 2015 that it held sway, PDP was larger than life itself. It swept every other party out of the way, and at the height of its reign, it boasted in 2008 that it would be in power for 60 years. Since pride goes before a fall, that boast by its then national chairman, Vincent Ogbulafor, was the beginning of its end. It fell yakata at the polls seven years later! A coalition of parties that became known as All Progressives Congress (APC) wrested power from it 10 years ago.

The coalition comprised a rump of PDP known then as nPDP, a breakaway faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the dissolved Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). These legacy parties, especially CPC and ACN gave up their identities to form APC, but PDP and APGA remained in one form or the other. Indeed, some PDP and APGA members who played leading roles in the formation of APC have since returned to their original parties.

Just as they did to PDP, some of those who championed APC’s formation like Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El-Rufai, are now planning to give APC the same treatment. El-Rufai has left the party. Amaechi has not formally done so, but he is as good as gone. Both men are in the vanguard of what they call a ‘national coalition’ to unseat APC in 2027. Coalition appears the easy way to go, but those that they look down upon as ‘small parties,’ like the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the All Democratic Congress (ADC), may play the spoiler.

Reason: these ‘small parties’ that they are planning to hijack and name as their new platform, is not playing ball. The alternative is to form a new party and that is not an easy route to take, going by the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the registration of parties.

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Invariably, some PDP stalwarts who are the brains behind the coalition, incurred the ire of the governors and National Assembly members elected on the party’s platform, among others. Do not mind that these latter-day ‘die-hard’ PDP members were also in the not too distant past involved in this kind of game of building a coalition right under the nose of their own party that was then in power, just as Amaechi and a few other APC members, who have not left the party are doing now.

Even, one of PDP’s leading lights, Atiku Abubakar, who has changed parties as often as a woman changes wrappers, in his hunger for presidential power can be assessed on the same parameters. Political watchers, are however, wondering why he should be talking of a coalition instead of working for the cohesion of his party. PDP is sharply divided. It has lost many of its members, including governors and National and state assemblies’ members to APC in the last few months. There is also trouble in its National Working Committee (NWC) over who the party’s secretary is.

Senator Samuel Anyanwu held the position until he went to contest the last governorship election in his home state of Imo. The post was not filled in his absence. After the election, Anyanwu cashed in on the lacuna to take back his job. The NWC rebuffed his move, insisting that Sunday Ude-Okoye had been appointed as secretary. The NWC did that without recourse to the NEC, which has the sole authority to so act. The legality of the matter became an issue. At the end of the day, the Supreme Court, in a back to sender manner, ordered the litigants to go and resolve what it called the ‘party’s internal affair’.

Since then, the party has been running from pillar to post and experimenting with different secretaries in its dealings with others, using the one that suits its purpose at any point in time. For its landmark 100th NEC meeting billed for June 30, it tried to be clever by half, but INEC saw through its trick. INEC faulted the party’s correspondence on grounds that it was not co-signed by the secretary and urged the party to go and do the right thing.

The party insisted that it did nothing wrong since the NEC meeting is non-elective, meaning it is not for the election of its executive, which INEC must monitor upon being notified in a letter jointly written and signed by its chairman and secretary. But it was tongue-tied when it was told that on the 99 previous occasions that it wrote to INEC on its NEC meeting, the letters had always borne the signatures of its chairman and secretary. According to INEC, “we are happy that this is the 100th meeting. Meaning that 99 times in the past you wrote to us. On those 99 occasions, the letters were signed by the chairman and secretary”.

In recent times, INEC recalled that it has been receiving letters from the party signed by different secretaries. “At a time, we received a letter signed by Anyanwu. We got another one signed by Ude-Okoye; then another came from Anyanwu and we got another from Setonji Koshoedo”. Who is really PDP National Secretary? It looks like a simple question, but it is not that easy for PDP to answer. It went to INEC to seek clarification and came out “more confused”, according to this paper’s lead headline yesterday. How can a party not know its own national secretary.

PDP went to INEC pretending not to know who is its secretary, and asked the agency to bail it out. Oh, blimey! What a party? How come PDP led this country for 16 years with this kind of infantilism? For God’s sake, how can a party, not any party for that matter, but PDP and its chieftains go to INEC and be asking, probably with hands behind their backs, like schoolboys: “sir, please, who is our secretary?” PDP has become a joke of a party, and nothing portrays this more than its childlike act at INEC office. Is this the party that wants to return to power in 2027?

Nigeria and its people deserve more than that. The country cannot afford to be led again by a party that does not know its right from its left. If PDP does not know who its secretary is, how then can it figure out what the country’s challenges are if given the chance to lead again? Nigeria cannot afford to return to Egypt. PDP should return to the drawing board and put its house in order, as Yakubu advised.

•postscript: Anyanwu has been reinstated as secretary

June 26, 2025
Journey of growth

On the eve of its inception on May 29, 2023, this paper set agenda for the Tinubu administration. In a special package published on May 28 of that year, the paper looked at critical areas of national life and made some far reaching suggestions. The state of the economy, as it then was, was our major concern and we reeled out what can be done to revive it. It is now on the rebound.

Today, I return to the section on ‘National reorientation and rediscovery of values’, another topic dear to our hearts, as a way of assessing what has been done in that area, especially as the President spoke about unveiling the National Charter of Values (NCV) in his New Year’s speech. It is good that the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has come up with such a charter. However, having the charter is one thing, making it work is another.

The charter will chart a new course in the value reorientation journey. To begin with, the external perception of Nigeria is worrisome. It is as a result of how we are perceived as ‘no do-gooders’, an image wrongly used to characterise us. Our identity is one of repute – a people of strength and character – with citizens in top places in many parts of the world.

Ahead of NCV’s launch, NOA’s Director-General Lanre Issa-Onilu and his team have perfected work on its key ingredients which have been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).These ingredients known as the Seven Institutions (The 7 Is) of Nurturing will form the plank of the charter. NOA styles it 7 for 7, that is the seven things expected of the citizens and the seven to be done in reciprocity by the government. To Issa-Onilu, our identity is our pride, and it must be used to our global advantage.

The charter will restore Nigerians’ faith in Nigeria and make the world to stand up and recognise us for who we really are. The charter preaches positivity and optimism. It aims to change the negative narratives which in most cases Nigerians give about themselves even to outsiders. The job has begun in earnest. We see NOA campaigns these days in the media on citizenship education and advocacy. It is a job that should not be left to the agency alone. It requires our collective efforts to succeed.

Issa-Onilu speaks with conviction about value rediscovery. With attitudinal change, a lot can be achieved. But the cynicism of many is not helping matters. Issa-Onilu disagrees with the cynics. “Our glass is half full, not half empty”, he says. In other words, people should stop seeing things from the negative perspective. He likens the charter to the ‘holy book’ which we must meditate on day and night in the process of social interactions.

Believe him or not, he argues that “we have found our destination; we have also found a path to that destination and we have embarked on the journey”. No matter how long a journey is, it starts with the first step. The fashioning of The 7 Is is a turning point. These are Citizenship Studies; Nationalisation of Cartoons; Creation of Citizens’ Brigade; Inculcation of Value Orientation into National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)/Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Two-week value orientation for elected and appointed officers (taking along with the police, military and paramilitary forces), Strengthening belief in our national symbols – flag, coat of arms, anthem, currency, Constitution, National Identity Card), and Global Reputational Management.

Putting Nigeria first, and not running it down, at home or abroad, is the first port of call. What will it profit a Nigerian to own the whole world, but lose his identity? Our identity is our Nigerian-ness, if I can use that word. Being our unique identity, it tells who we are and stands us out in the crowd. So, we must guide this unique identity jealously anywhere we are. Lest we forget, Nigeria is not the worst country on earth. Unfortunately, through acts of omissions and commissions, we make it look as if it is.

The idea behind the 7 Is is that they would help reshape our values and rebrand Nigeria. Citizenship Studies is expected to replace civic education in schools. It will be taught from primary to tertiary education levels. Pupils and students will learn in graduated form what it means to be a citizen of Nigeria, which qualifies them to call themselves Nigerians. Nationalisation of Cartoons will ensure that children grow up knowledgeable about their nation’s history and do not imbibe western culture through the foreign cartoons that they watch on television and social media these days. The localisation of these cartoons’ contents will help them to know more about their ancestry and allow them to choose their true heroes.

There was a time that the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Boys’ Brigade were a spectacle to behold as they marched through the streets in their uniforms. As school boys in the late 1960s and 1970s, many of us joined the Boy Scouts. At various times, we went camping to learn about self defence, safety and security. These organisations are virtually non-existent today, except for the Boys’ Brigade which can still be found in some churches today. NOA is proposing that the Citizens’ Brigade (CB) be created to play a pivotal role in value reorientation. Under CB, which will be introduced in primary and secondary schools, 1000 Brigades will be recruited per state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the first year, translating to 37,000 Brigades.

For now, NYSC emphasises rigorous military like training, while ITF concentrates on vocational skill acquisition. Value orientation will be inculcated in their curricular to help shape their intakes mindset about Nigeria. With ITF said to have 12.7 million registered artisans, and the million that complete national service each year, NOA will be building a huge value orientation army. Also, the two-week value orientation for elected and appointed officers is imperative so that they can take the driver’s seat in their respective capacities in pushing the message. As disciplined forces, value orientation should not be strange to the police, military and paramilitary organisations.

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Respect for our national symbols should be a given. People should get up without being prompted when the national anthem is being played; you do not tear the flag or fly it at half mast or use it as wrapping paper. You don it at a moment of glory when you represent Nigeria at a regional or global event. You show respect to the naira, our legal tender; the Constitution, Coat of Arms and the National Identity Card, the symbols of nationalism. A patriot waves his nation’s flag when he excels in what he does, not tear it in annoyance for whatever reasons.

Global Reputational Management is about cleaning up after Nigerians. What can we do as a people to correct the perception about us? Nigerians are not scammers and confidence tricksters. This is not our identity. Our identity is that of an industrious and intelligent people. There are many Nigerians making waves in the Diaspora in various fields of endeavours. So, why does the world judge us from the prism of some bad sheep? While NOA is determined to crack the nut, the public must join the campaign to make it work.

In passing the government’s messages to the people, NOA has cleared some grey areas about certain programmes, especially the Nigerian Education Trust Fund (NELFUND) from which thousands of students have benefited in a short time. After initial teething issues, the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative(P-CNGI) is going on, though not at the speed many expected. There are credit schemes for consumers, small and medium enterprises and big businesses, thereby putting the economy on a rebound. These point to the fact that with the right values, greater things can be achieved. So, NOA should not rest on what it has achieved in the last 20 months.

It must continue to drive the values process through concerted efforts, but not by pushing out slogans alone. Slogans are good, but they will only have impact when matched with the human element in the drive and desire for the change that will expand the frontiers of renewed hope. Or, if you like, “hope renewed”, as Issa-Onilu tags it now.

June 19, 2025
El-Rufai: My error

In this space last week, I reported that Justice Hauwa’u Buhari of the Federal High Court ordered former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to pay nine Adara community elders led by Awemi Maisamari N900 million for violation of their rights. I have since learnt that the court never made such an order. The error was inadvertent.

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June 12, 2025
June 12 and a ‘N45b debt’

Today is June 12, and the country remembers as it has done in the past 32 years the presidential election that took place that day in 1993. Why did the military annul the election won by the late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola? We may never know because a key figure in the saga, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, is not ready to open up on the issue. He had an opportunity to do so in his book: A journey in service. He did not; instead, he blamed those under him then, especially Gen Sani Abacha, for the annulment.

But former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, who was secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on which platform Abiola contested the election said it was annulled because of the N45 billion owed the business magnate by the military government for a contract in the 1970s when former head of state, the late Gen Murtala Muhammed, was federal commissioner for communication. The military, he said, at the release of his own memoir: Being true to myself last month, felt that Abiola would use his office to recover his money if allowed to become president. Why deprive a candidate of his mandate because of the money he legitimately earned? Contract execution and election are not related. If a man has discharged his contractual obligation, he is entitled to be paid.

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Abiola was doubly wronged. He was denied his money and his election was annulled for fear that he would use his position to right the first wrong done him. For how long will we continue to bury our heads in the sand like ostrich over this matter? Is Abiola owed that much? Did he work for the money? If the answers are yes, why did the military not pay him? If there were isssues, the best the military could have done was to go to court and not to arbitrarily withhold his money, and subsequently also deny him his mandate. I agree with Lamido that it was the height of injustice. There is no nexus between the contract and the June 12 election.

Paying his family the money now, with interest, may not really address the criminal act of annulling the June 12 poll, but it will serve as some form of compensation for them. It may not be too bad if President Bola Tinubu weighs in on the matter in his address to the joint session of the National Assembly today. The claim has dragged on for too long.

June 12, 2025