The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

Ogunlewe: Lesson from a rebellious son

It is often said that there is always something new out of western Nigeria. It was the first participatory democracy in this part of the world where an elected premier rather than step down honourably following his constitutional removal from office, opted to pull down the whole edifice (Akintola taku).

It was also the first democracy where, following Chief Remi Fani-Kayode’s boast that the election would be won whether the people voted or not, a regional premier was elected without the electorate. It was also from the West that a leading national opposition leader was framed up by his kinsmen and handed over to his political foes that promptly sent him to 10 years imprisonment for recommending the path to Nigeria freedom.

It was also from there that a flamboyant politician who after securing a pan-Nigeria mandate in a nationwide election in which he trounced his opposition in his Kano base, was denounced by his kinsmen who after claiming he was not the messiah Nigerian were waiting for, handed him over to his political foes who ensured he spent his four year tenure, not in a presidential palace but in prison where he died mysteriously.

Last week, from the West also came what can be described as political socialization in reverse order with a 76-year old Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, a veteran of Lagos politics, looking up to his son for political direction. Announcing his plan to decamp from PDP some 30 days earlier, he had said “my son is already there and he is expecting me to join him”. And that was exactly what he did last week while proclaiming “I have no regret decamping to APC”.

Political socialization thesis speaks of a process through which children acquire values and opinions that shape their political beliefs and world view, through agents of socialization starting with family, schools, media and religion inclination. The world view of children who having nothing to compare their fathers with and naturally see their fathers as the greatest in the world, is often heavily influenced by preferences and world view of their parents.

A 76-year old veteran looking up for political direction from his young son might appear bizarre but I think rather than invalidate the political socialization thesis, it only reinforces it. Since the thesis posits that people don’t join political parties by accident but often as a result of a long period of preparation and acquisition of political beliefs, it is safe to argue Moyosore Ogunlewe abandoned his father in PDP and embraced APC whose progressive ideals align with those he had acquired under his father while growing up long before his father embraced “come and chop” PDP politics of Lagos State.

Available facts show Adeseye Ogunlewe has always identified with Lagos’ progressive politics. That in fact was the reason he was elected a senator on the platform of AD in 1999. The story was that although Obasanjo was said to have won the 1999 election, he remained a political orphan having been roundly rejected by his own people. He then needed a political base at any price.

Ogunlewe’s political enemies claimed he was given an offer he could not resist. Unable to find credible argument to severe the umbilical cord between him and his progressive family members and to rationalize his defection to PDP, he had accused Bola Tinubu, the then governor of Lagos State of awarding contracts to his friends.

If any proof is needed that Ogunlewe was driven to PDP in 2003 by selfish interest, his political foes have pointed out that he is today remembered not as Obasanjo’s Minister for Works, but more for fighting Obasanjo wars like a slave. He publicly canvassed for a third term for Obasanjo.

He took a leading role in Obasanjo’s ‘mainstreaming’ agenda, designed to pacify the West and humiliate its leaders including Pa Adesanya, the late Afenifere leader who told Obasanjo to his face in the run up to the 1999 elections that the Yoruba would not give him support since he has never identified with aspirations of the Yoruba people.

As a further proof, Ogunlewe in 2004, organized thugs in the guise of federal road traffic marshals to unleash terror on officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority that Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Alliance for Democracy administration had creatively put in place to tackle the perennial Lagos State traffic problems.

While Ogunlewe was busy prosecuting Obasanjo’s ‘mainstreaming’ agenda, the state of federal roads in the country became more deplorable despite federal government allocation of billions for road rehabilitation. Some governors including that of Lagos started rehabilitating federal roads within their territories in order to alleviate the sufferings of their people.

Ogunlewe’s July 2003 announcement that the federal government would invest about US$2.85 billion in rehabilitating and upgrading the nation’s highway network, and planned to make all roads in the country accessible by year end, remained mere promises. It was the same with his August 2004 announcement that the World Bank and the African Development Bank planned to cooperate with Nigeria to build the Trans-West African Highway from Lagos to Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott and his October 2004 declaration that the year 2005 would see faster rapid progress in road repair and construction.

Ogunlewe was dumped by Obasanjo in March 2006. His earlier services to Obasanjo did not however stop him from being questioned and detained temporarily over the death of Funsho Williams, the political opponent he was to square up with in the 2007 PDP primaries for Lagos governorship ticket. It also did not stop his indictment along with Anthony Anenih and other ministers of works for “alleged serial malpractices” in road contracting over a 10-year period by Heineken Lokpobiri’s November 2009 Senate ad hoc committee’s report.

Ogunlewe attributed his last week decision to look up to his son for political direction to the unending crisis in Lagos PDP. Without admitting his role in destabilising the party as an intruder, he moaned: “You see, for now, there is no chairman in PDP. We don’t have leaders and you don’t expect me to stay in a party that is not stable and with people that lack focus”.

Then he went on to accuse his party members of greed and selfish interest. “What these people care about is only their selfish interests and not the interest of the party”. But he forgets that objective watchers can easily observe that when Ogunlewe points one finger at others, the remaining four are pointing at himself. Here was a man who secured a ministerial appointment without being a foundation member of the party in Lagos State.

This also perhaps explains why Adeseye Ogunlewe, all through his sojourn at PDP, was at war with Lagos State PDP foundation members. He once called on the leadership of the party in the state to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to probe Chief Bode George over the N50 million campaign funds disbursed by Abuja for local government elections in the state.

Despite Ogunlewe’s feeling of self-worth, he and his son lost all the elections in which they participated as chieftains of PDP in Lagos State since 2003. Without electoral worth, one can hazard a guess that what drove Ogunlewe out of APC to PDP is not different from what is today driving him back to APC: Self-preservation.

July 4, 2019
Immigration and poor image of Nigerian embassies

The dramatic venting out his anger by a temporarily insane Nigerian applicant for a new passport in London U.K. puts in bold relief the problems faced by our diplomatic missions all over the world. Our citizens rightly expect some of their problems to be solved by the representatives of their country in their host countries. Nigerians living abroad have imbibed the culture of the relative efficiency of institutions in their host countries and they expect the dictum that “while in Rome do as the Romans do” to apply to their diplomatic missions.

Most of our people living abroad are not particularly happy people for several reasons. Some are economic migrants looking for better lives in hostile and unwelcoming countries. Many are migrants who got to their various countries of residence illegally. Some reach their destinations claiming to be refugees from whatever African country that was at war with itself at the time of their fleeing the continent. It used to be South Africa, North and South Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe and Zambia or any of the then colonial or settlers dominated countries in Southern Africa or in recent times Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. Nigerians being very clever people; after settling in the various countries that gave them refuge under false pretences and identities would then saunter into their embassies demanding passports. The immigration attaches would then try to determine their nationality and consequently subject them to the interminable bureaucratic process of verification.

There are also the normal applicants wanting new passports or renewal of the old ones. This should be a straightforward process but they are also subjected to the bureaucratic rigmarole and interminable delay. These Nigerians no matter how they got to their host countries are operating under intense pressure and tension of racism as well as doing jobs nobody wants just to keep bodies and souls together and also to provide for their families. So at any little “provocation “by the snail-speed of the normal and generally inefficient Nigerian way of doing things, they flare up and become sometimes violent.

The other side of the coin is that sometimes Nigerian missions lack the capacity to respond adequately to our people’s genuine problems. For many months, embassies do not get financial support in terms of annual budget from home and they have to go hungry for months and they cannot tell their Nigerian nationals the state of their country’s affair so that they are not accused of de-marketing and running down their country. Most embassies would like to throw parties and invite their nationals as other countries do but our missions are handicapped in this respect. The annual national and Independence Day celebrations are most times quietly marked. Entertainment is the soul and oil of diplomacy. This is why most countries have reasonable budgets for entertainment. If there were resources, embassy officials would meet at intervals with their nationals to get to know their problems. The shortfall in budgetary allocation leads to all round frustration.

Specifically, the problem of passport issuance is not within the purview of the embassies. This is a matter of a separate – Ministry of Interior (Internal Affairs). Ambassadors have no control over the Immigration Department in the embassies. The embassy merely provides diplomatic cover for immigration officers to do their work. Immigration officers in the embassy are not diplomats. They are attaches and carry no diplomatic passports. But all attaches in the embassies including those of defence, information, education and others defer to the ambassador which means the ambassador is vicariously responsible for any shortcomings of the immigration department of the embassies. The Immigration itself lacks control of its finances unless budgeted for by its headquarters in Abuja. So we have a situation of shortage of passport booklets in all our missions and immigration headquarters have to route their request through the ministry of finance for funding. The request is usually delayed sometimes for a year while poor Nigerians at home and abroad wait interminably for passports. These passports are not printed in Nigeria. Something as simple as passport booklets which should have been printed by the Mint is farmed out to a company in Malaysia or some other country. If it is a matter of security, who says secure documents cannot be fiddled with abroad? Malaysia where I understand Nigerian passports are printed is presently trying its former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife for embezzlement running into billions of dollars. Fish rots from the head so like prime minister like country. So what is so special about Malaysia that we should be printing our passports in that country? Is it beyond our ken to either print our passports here or empower a local company with security supervision to print our passports in Nigeria?

The present situation where Nigerians abroad have to fight their ways into our embassies to get new passports or renew old ones is not good enough. I have personally seen this ugly situation in Canada, USA and the U.K. Imagine a Nigerian resident in Vancouver in British Columbia flying six or so hours to Ottawa for passport renewal of new passport after securing an appointment with the relevant immigration officials only to get to the embassy to meet the mission closed due to one of our numerous public holidays. Such an applicant would go berserk because of the inconvenience, the cost of flight and hotel accommodation and the possibility of he or she losing his or her job for being absent from work unduly. Imagine somebody from Texas flying to Atlanta or New York and experiencing the same thing or somebody flying from Aberdeen in Scotland to London and meeting the excuse of no booklets. Recently, people all over Canada were complaining about our High Commission in that country not being open after they had travelled long distances to Ottawa. What was most galling was the fact that the Canadian media gave prominence to their case and obviously to the embarrassment of our country.

We have to do something about this problem. Immigration is a revenue-generating department of government. They make money from issuance of visas and passports as well as work permits for foreign companies doing business in Nigeria. The Nigerian Diaspora which sometimes needs their services and attention are not beggars they are also revenue-generating region for the country. They should be treated with deference and preference like the oil producing Niger Delta. This is because they contribute more than oil to the foreign exchange revenue of our country. Last year, the diaspora, we are told, contributed about $28 billion to the foreign exchange revenue of the country compared to about $20 billion from the oil and gas sector which made a commentator to say what we are running in this country is not an oil economy but a knowledge economy. Our nationals abroad deserve therefore respect from our government. This will be in consonance with the new thinking of the African Union which now recognizes the African Diaspora as a region of Africa equal with the North, East, West and Southern regions of the continent. This thinking should also lead us to treat our diaspora as if it were the Seventh zone in Nigeria in its revenue contribution and he who pays the piper must dictate the tune.

So the way forward to the perennial passport problems particularly in large countries where we have large numbers of Nigerians, such as the United Kingdom, USA, Canada and Germany is to remove the immigration department from the embassies and locate them away from the diplomatic missions, which will then only have to do normal diplomatic business. The separated immigration department will then employ electronic communication media to reach and communicate with our nationals abroad including capturing their biometric data and mailing back passports to applicants without their converging in the capital cities where they are resident except when absolutely necessary. The new 10-year expiration of passports would also reduce the volume of people crowding the embassies which in most cases do not have large halls to accommodate the usually surging crowd. On no occasion must any Nigerian, as happened in London recently, get so angry and wired up to the extent of engaging in Luddite action of damaging embassy properties which are the property of taxpaying Nigerians.

July 4, 2019
The RUGA toxic rhyme

Muhammadu Buhari is a man beseiged by wild drama. As President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is thrust in the hungry maw of a plebeian spectacle. The resultant scenes prove him an unlikely hero, who keeps battling the lure of chthonian nemesis.

Yet there are two facets to his presidential character: the fabled, passive Spartan and his innate, earthly antagonist. Both aspects of him incarnate multiple personae thus his unfurling like a cast of thousands played by one.

The antagonist, however, overwhelms the Spartan, recurrently rifling through his politics, thus making his ultimate threat more perceptual and self-embowered.

His proposed implementation of the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) as solution to the recurring conflict between nomadic herders and farmers, for instance, has incited outrage among all classes of Nigerians. Camp Buhari says he means well. His virulent critics state otherwise.

And while the idea is cleverly depicted by the RUGA acronym, its precepts flare disconcertingly across public circuits. Ruga also translates to cow settlement in Hausa and this irks several nationalities of the country’s southern divide.

Commentary on social and mainstream media meanders wildly, from abject horror to shock over what certain leading commentators have termed the presidency’s brazen insensitivity to sections of the country on the receiving end of the herders-farmers’ conflict.

Besides pillorying the initiative as the crudest form of assault on inclusivity in a multi-ethnic Nigeria, Buhari’s critics downsouth insist he flirts with mayhem. Left to them, the initiative reeks of a desire for landgrabbing and conquest. Is it?

In response to the widespread outcry and condemnation of the proposed project, the presidency’s spokesmen have dismissed apprehensions about the project.

The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Umar, announced on Tuesday, June 25, that the settlements will house nomadic herdsmen who breed animals.

“We want to put them in a place that has been developed as a settlement, where we provide water for their animals, pasture, schools for their children, security, agro-rangers, etc.

“We are going to change their lifestyle, take them away from our streets and from wandering in the bush and develop districts, hamlets and towns and definitely in the next five to 10 years you will never see a nomad moving about, wandering or kidnapping. And this will end all these security challenges,” he said.

In the same vein, the presidency, in a statement, said the RUGA settlement/Ruga was conceived to address the clashes between farmers and herders in the country.

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, condemned the “unhelpful comments regarding the plan to stop roaming of cattle herders with the attendant clashes with farmers stressing that beneficiaries will include all persons in animal husbandry, not only Fulani herders. He also stressed that the Federal Government was planning the programme to curb open grazing of animals that continue to pose security threats to farmers and herders.

“The overall benefit to the nation includes a drastic reduction in conflicts between herders and farmers, a boost in animal protection complete with a value chain that will increase the quality and hygiene of livestock in terms of beef and milk production, increased quality of feeding and access to animal care and private sector participation in commercial pasture production by way of investments.

“Other gains are job creation, access to credit facilities, security for pastoral families and curtailment of cattle rustling,” he said.

And it gets quite interesting as Shehu added, that, “Stripped of the politics and howling that has attended the recent comments, there is no government plan to seize state land, colonize territory or impose Ruga on any part of the federation. Government has made it clear time and again that the programme is voluntary.

“So far, twelve states have applied to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture…Unfortunately, some state governments that have not signified interest in the scheme and, therefore, are not on the invitation list have been misleading people that the Federal Government is embarking on a scheme to take away their lands.

“Mostly, these are state leaders that have no explanation to offer their people for continued non-payment of workers’ salaries. It is true that government at the centre has gazetted lands in all states of the federation but because the idea is not to force this programme on anyone, the government has limited the take-off to the dozen states with valid requests,” he said.

Vintage Shehu. With spokespersons like him, President Buhari may be assured of an eclipse of goodwill perhaps. Although he stressed that the presidency seeks a permanent solution to the unwanted conflicts, and that “efforts must be made to ensure that no innocent person faces any kind of deprivation or loss of right and freedom under our laws,” Shehu failed to address what measures have been put in place to compensate victims of the herdsmen’s murder sprees as they invaded southern farmlands to forcibly feed their herd.

Benue still smarts from the maniacal massacre of 73 villagers and farmers, mostly women and children, in Guma and Logo local councils, by suspected herdsmen. Alleged mastermind of the attack and leader of the herdsmen gang, 40-year-old Alhaji Laggi, and cohorts: Mallam Mumini Abdullahi, 34 years; Muhammed Adamu, 30 years and Ibrahim Sule, 32 years old, reportedly confessed to the crime, acoording to the police. So did Muhammadu Bimini, who was arrested by riot policemen on March 8, at Daffo, Plateau State, with an AK-47 rifle with serial number: HC2614.

Late Omowole Orimisan stays interred six-feet under, after he was murdered at the Hands Down area of Ore, in Odigbo, Ondo State.

Suspected herdsmen killed Omowole while he worked on his farm. Four of the five culprits were arrested. They are Ibrahim Yussuf, 19; Soja, 20; Halti, 20; and Musa 25.

Critics argue that via Ruga, the criminally-minded among the herdsmen, may get compensated for the mayhem and death they visited on helpless, indigent farmers. And what do the farmers get in return? Garba Shehu may consider himself truth-sayer, but the Ruga cynic likens him to the proverbial huckster, who would market dystopia to seekers of Eden.

Rather than attack dissenters for their apprehensions, Shehu would do better to highlight plans by his principal’s administration to pacify bereaved victims of herdsmen attacks knowing that the latter’s brazen cuddling via RUGA/Ruga ought to be accompanied by mitigatory measures in the interest of their victims. If there aren’t such plans, he would do right by his principal to propose such initiatve.

On the flipside, Buhari’s critics should quit attacking his presidency as that is akin to shooting peas at Gibraltar, and instead, direct their grievances to their state governors and other elected representatives in the National Assembly. The governors and lawmakers, they would find, are merely paying lipservice to the ongoing protest against RUGA/Ruga.

Buhari and company would do better to reconsider the RUGA/Ruga venture. Let them be guided by Eze Onyekpere’s implied wisdom. Niger State, for instance, he opines, is about 76,363 square kilometres and home to the great Shiroro and Kainji dams.

“It has water and provides the environment for all year-round farming and cattle rearing. Compare this with Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states with a combined land mass of 29,525 square kilometres, which is less than 40 per cent of the size of Niger State.”

Such is the tenor of the argument against RUGA/Ruga. Of course, all Mr. President’s men would object.

July 3, 2019
Up there in the sky and back to earth

THAT an exciting week we seem to be having. With many things happening at the same time and in such a dizzying manner, it is a bit difficult for a commentator to catch up and do justice to these contemporary issues. But for experience and duty, he would have been as confused as his audience, who keeps wondering what the hell is going on.

But, that is not to say that all the events are important. No. You consider the excitement and the revulsion they have created and wonder why we pay so much attention, knowing that we are never short of oddities and that sardonic feeling that has helped us to waddle through in obviously difficult times. You think about the hysteria and, in some cases, wonder where goes our sense of humour.

Take, for instance, the video that hit the social media on Monday or thereabout. There is a grinding traffic jam on a major highway. Nothing unusual about this; we have learnt to live with it and all the discomfort it brings. Passengers disembark to free their legs cramps and ease themselves in the bush. Suddenly, a helicopter shows up overhead, roaring and humming, seeking a space to land. A movie? Not quite. People reach for their mobile phones and begin to record the scene, like excited village kids seeing an aircraft for the first time. The chopper lands right there on the highway. A passenger hops in. And off flies the chopper.

Then the debate. Some, including self-proclaimed aeronautics experts, said a billionaire who felt uncomfortable with the crippling traffic in which his girlfriend had been caught hired the helicopter to fetch her. To back their story, the purveyors of this line threw in the picture of a bearded man in a private jet and claimed that he was the one who sent the chopper. The man’s friends kicked. They said their man had not left Lagos for a while.

So, who is the mystery billionaire? Who is the lucky girlfriend? If a girlfriend could get such a royal treatment, how about the wife? Could she have got such a thrilling experience? Is this the first time this has been done? Hasn’t the mystery billionaire taken romance to the “next level”? How much did this exclusive service cost? How did the other people left on the ground to sort themselves out feel as they watched the chopper disappeared into the hot afternoon air? Was this a mere stunt by a crazy moneybag? Didn’t Femi Otedola ride on a Molue, the rugged mass of metals and steel contraption that has been in the service of Lagos commuters for ages?

Dear reader, I am sad to report that all these questions are merely postulational. Our reporting skills have, once again, failed us. Thankfully, aviation authorities have announced that the matter is being investigated, even as experts say no wrong has been done as an emergency may have been established.

Before the helicopter puzzle could be resolved, another controversy had set the social media on fire. Tonye Cole (remember him? The young businessman whose dream of flying the Rivers APC flag at the last election collapsed like a building with a weak foundation) tweeted Prof Wole Soyinka’s picture on an aircraft, a young man sitting beside him. The young passenger was said to have demanded that Soyinka quit the window seat allotted him by the airline for his (the Prof’s) seat on the aisle.

The social media began to rumble. Was the young man right to have asked Kongi to leave his seat? Who is this “insolent” young man? Could he have asked Davido or Naira Marley or Tonto Dikeh (She of the my-man-lasts-45-seconds fame) or Whizkid and others of that clan to quit? Is this a matter of right or what and who is right? An issue of morality, respect for elders, which Africans hold so dearly? Home training?

So loud was the noise that it all became a jungle affair, with people hurling abuses at one another. Some said the young man holds a doctorate degree and actually recognised Soyinka (one of the world’s most recognisable figures – Nobel laureate and those glittering white hairs that symbolise many years of struggle, intellect and wisdom), but was only following protocol. Others said, “to hell, all passengers are equal; why will prof not take his allotted seat?” “Will prof not have done the same thing if he were in the young man’s shoes?”

Yet, others contrived a reaction, supposedly by the young man. They said he had some medical condition that necessitated his choice of a window seat. In fact, said the purveyors of this “reaction”, the mystery passenger exchanged contacts with Soyinka and promised to keep in touch with him. So, why the noise?

Case closed? No. Not yet. Soyinka, in a reply to inquiries from Mo Abudu, the popular television personality, said of the “minor thing”: “I’d forgotten all about it. However, after reading the boy’s response, I became curious. First, I never spoke a word with him throughout beyond inviting him to take his allotted seat. Never spoke a word to him after that. Certainly never exchanged contact. So, of course, I wonder if it’s the very individual who’s posted this or a total fake. The phenomenon of stolen identities takes very strange dimensions and has become a source of worry. I wonder if this is one such. .. .”

Tonye Cole we know fairly well. Who is this “mystery” young man who sparked off this raging dispute in which social media “hyenas” are tearing at one another, even as some moderate voices are trying to weigh in? Does Tonye-Cole know him? Which airline was involved ? Is there a case of an identity theft? Who made up all the salacious stories about this “minor” incident? Was there a plan to embarrass Soyinka? Why will anybody do that?

Again, dear reader, I am sorry to admit that we reporters have failed to resolve this matter, giving room for the sharks and barracudas of the social media to, as usual, sink in their bloody teeth.

From the air planes, back to land. The Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal ruled that PDP and its candidate Atiku Abubakar will not have their request to access INEC’s server granted because, said the tribunal, doing so will mean deciding the subject matter of the petition. Atiku says he, not President Muhammadu Buhari, won the election and the tribunal should so hold. INEC says it has no server for Atiku to access. Case closed? No, said Atiku and PDP. They have resolved to fight on, even as 60 parties have asked them to pull the brakes on their struggle because the electoral umpire did not transmit the results electronically. So, said the parties, there is no question of any server anywhere.

To a famous lawyer a colleague of mine went yesterday to resolve this matter. He met him at a popular pub where he was relaxing after a gruelling court session.

“Good day sir. I am a reporter for AJ News. I would like to have your reaction to the INEC server issue and the PDP-Atiku case.”

“Thank you, young man. Although I don’t talk to the press, I’ll talk now in the public interest. What is a server? A barman who serves is a server. So long as he renders this all-important service, he is a server. Important because if the server refuses to serve, there will be no service and there will be trouble in the bar. Understand?”

“No sir. I don’t get it. I’m talking about the INEC server, which the tribunal says Atiku can’t check now.”

“The server issue is as clear as day. For those of us who have been at the bar for so long, it is not an issue. I was called to the bar before you were born. Nobody lobbied for me. The big boys just looked at me where I was hitting the bottle outside this place and they said, ‘boy, you’ve been here for too long, come right inside.’ That was how I became a member of the inner bar.

I was called to the bar.

“So if I try to tell you about a server, you listen. If there is no server, no need to access the bar. If INEC says it has no server, why insist you want to see its server? Non poteris aedficare aliquid ex nihilo. Can you build something on nothing? You have server, I don’t have server. Case closed. Chikena.”

“Thank you sir.”

Mad houseboys, evil housemaids

LAGOS High Court has sentenced to life the cook who killed Credit Switch Ltd. boss Ope Bademosi. Justice Mobolanle Okikiolu-Ighile convicted Sunday Adefonuo Anani (not to be confused with the deadly robber Lawrence Anini of terrible memory), after the Togolese pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Many believe the punishment is a mere slap on the wrist, considering the status of his victim, the circumstances of the horrible incident and its shattering effects. But, that is the law.

Anani’s conviction came just after last Thursday’s alleged murder of an 89-year-old woman, Adejoke John and her daughter, Oreoluwa John,38, in Lagos. The suspect? A houseboy, Joseph Ogbu, who is being held by the police.

There are many other instances of domestic workers taking the lives of their bosses, leaving their families to mourn their irreparable losses. We hardly do background checks on such people, who find it so easy to escape justice. This should change to prevent more losses in the lethal hands of these evil fellows whose dark minds conceive fiendish actions. Besides, those who deploy them must have their activities well controlled by the police. Even in our state of disorder, there must be some sense of order.

June 27, 2019
Our crisis of nationality

President Buhari’s commitment to a more peaceful and prosperous Nigeria has never been in doubt. This is a sentiment shared not only by his supporters but also those political foes who disagree with his style and politics.

This commitment is perhaps behind his last Thursday’s appeal during the inauguration of the 2019 – 2023 National Economic Council (NEC) to the 36 states governors of the federation, the CBN governor, ministers of finance, budget and national planning, agriculture, FCT and the Minister of State, Petroleum, to join him in fighting the menace of poverty, challenges of decayed education, health, and agriculture sectors as well as the ongoing insecurity in the land.

Unfortunately, these are mere symptoms of our crisis of nationality. And this perhaps explains why they have remained intractable despite the valiant efforts of President Buhari’s immediate predecessors in office. What the nation is confronted with is crisis of nationality. And as it has been shown by experiences of other multi-ethnic societies around the world, crisis of nationality is often resolved through politics by the political class with eyes on history.

President Muhammadu Buhari had during the said inauguration directed the governors to “enforce very rigorously the statutory provisions on free and compulsory basic education especially Section 18(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended (designed to eradicate illiteracy and provide free and compulsory education) and “Section 2 of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act which mandates every government in Nigeria to “provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age”. Like his predecessors, he also did not forget to reassure the governors of federal government assistance to access the counterpart funding provided by UBEC for the development of basic education.

That all the nation has to show for similar past appeal and commitments by President Buhari’s predecessors are today’s over 10 million children of school age that are out of school, is evidence enough that chasing shadows instead of a return to ‘the path to Nigerian freedom’ never taken, is not likely going to produce a different result.

In the department of health, the president said he strongly believes “it is in our collective interest that each and every citizen gets at least a minimal access to healthcare, including primary, preventive and emergency care.” He went on to express the hope that the implementation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, will ultimately achieve “at least 65 percent increase in the share of the population covered by primary healthcare by 2023, up from the 12.6 percent we cover at the moment”. President Buhari therefore wants the governors to strive to make the universal health insurance scheme work in their respective domains while assuring them of federal government assistance to enable them cover “the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, who cannot even afford to pay the premium.’’

Unfortunately, Nigerians have passed through that route before. Similar past promises remain just promises. The old Western Region ran a successful primary health care system between 1952 and 1966. However, Nigerians in the rural areas today derive little or no joy from the involvement of a federal government that cannot successfully manage teaching hospitals or State House hospital located under the nose of the president, in the primary health centres spread around remote areas of the country. This is a betrayal of federalism. The states and local governments who know their needs are better equipped to manage their own affairs.

In the area of agriculture, the president challenged the governors to imitate the federal government by deploying more resources to the sector while not forgetting to remind them that “Of our nearly one million hectares of land, about 77% is confirmed suitable for agriculture”.

What the president did not admit however is that of the one million hectares, the federal government does not possess an inch. The truth of the matter is that beyond the funding of federal research agriculture centres, the bulk of annual appropriation on agriculture should go to the states instead of a dysfunctional centre that is known to throw money around blindly.

And finally, the president who alone controls the security apparatus of state wants the governors to secure their states in the face ongoing assault by banditry, kidnappers for ransom and armed robbers. In this regard, the president according Governor Kayode Fayemi, chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, has promised to “work with them to address questions of intelligence, broadening community policing, ensuring inter-service coordination, among the various security agencies”.

Most experts have cited state policing as the panacea to insecurity in the states. Unfortunately, the governors instead of letting the president know during the said meeting that he cannot swim against the tide of public opinion, chose to engage in needless adulation treating the president as an emir as against an elected servant of the people.

Fayemi who cited funding as a potential disincentive to state policing after declaring “Already, all of us are involved in funding; there is no governor that is not buying security vehicles, ammunition for police, giving allowances to our security agencies, be they SSS or police or in some cases, the military, where the military is involved”, cannot be right. I think it is a question of states getting their priority right. It is claimed the state governors collect between N250m and N1b monthly as security votes. And when the federal government stops its unconstitutional interference in the affairs of LGAs, the state governments can do away with many parasites populating the so-called third tier of government or integrate those that are qualified into the state or LGA police force.

Our problem is the tyranny of the state as represented by an all-powerful federal centre that has always stood against ‘the path to Nigeria freedom’. With government off our back and with devolution of powers to the states, a state like Zamfara, abandoned to warlords by the current governor who like his predecessors is said to have taken refuge in Dubai, will be able to mine her gold and other precious gems, pay tax to federal government and still have enough to employ doctors to run their 30 hospitals currently manned by a doctor each and hundreds of schools that could currently boast of only one teacher per school.

And with oil rich Niger Delta in charge of her resources, paying taxes to the federal government as it was in the first republic, when revenue sharing was on the basis of derivation, sponsorship of frustrated unemployed youths by self-serving Niger Delta politicians to sabotage the economic interest of the nation will become less attractive. State police will not only end insecurity across the land, it will bring prosperity to all with herders and farmers forced to run their businesses as an ongoing enterprises and prices of their products determined by market forces.

June 27, 2019
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?

June 27, 2019
Terrorism a global problem

To forgive the terrorists is up to God but to send them to him is up to me – Vladimir Putin

Not many people know that even Russia ruled with Vladimir Putin’s iron fist is plagued and afflicted by terrorism. Terrorists largely coming from the Caucasus southern Islamic region of the Russian federation have made life difficult occasionally for the new Russian Czar. But in his characteristic tough approach, Putin has sent many of them beyond this world by unleashing the power of the state to put down any act of terrorism or insurrection in any part of Russia. The scourge of terrorism is global. It is a cancer that has metastasized and to treat the disease the cancerous part has to be surgically removed or else it will kill the patient. President Donald J. Trump issued the same sentiment as President Putin when he said many of the terrorists bothering the world belong in jail and most belong in hell and that they would be removed from this earth by him. He followed this up by introducing new mega bombs in his country’s campaign in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria which eventually ended the caliphate of Abubakar el Baghdadi and put the so-called “Caliph” on the run. I was not comfortable with the bombing of the innocents in Syria and Iraq but the terrorists made no distinction between Muslims and Christians in their murderous campaign to impose their Wahhabism on all Muslims. If their campaign had been successful, all Shiites and other non-Muslims would have been put to the sword. There was nothing Islamic in the terrorism previously sweeping the Middle East and some parts of the Islamic world. Our own Boko Haram terrorists are certainly not Muslims. Wiring up children and women to blow themselves up are acts of cowardice and cannot be said to be the way of genuine Muslims. We must of course admit that the greater part of the ummah that is the Muslim community globally does not subscribe to terrorism. But some of the acts of state sponsored murder whether by Communist, fundamentalist or right wing regimes must be condemned. It behoves on all Islamic leaders all over the world to condemn any act of violence and intolerance taken against innocent people, particularly children, old people and women as un-Islamic and inhuman. The same condemnation must be declared against any long arm of a state involving itself in extra judicial murder, terror and genocide.

Refusal to condemn any form of terrorism makes those in authority accessory to the charge of state-sponsored murder and genocide. In the whirligig of time, such people when they are no longer protected by the office they hold may find themselves tried and sentenced to die or to long imprisonment. People should learn from the case of the leaders of Serbs such as Slobodan Milosevic (who died in detention), Kadovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic who have been hauled before the International Criminal Court in The Hague and sentenced to long term imprisonment. Many of those Serbs also hid under the camouflage of protecting Christian Europe against Islam. This harked back to the control of most of the Balkans in medieval times by the Sublime Porte in the Ottoman Caliphate. In other words, there were instances of Christian terrorism in modern times but this is few and far between and certainly not like the crusade against Islam started by Pope Urban ll in 1095 for the liberation of Jerusalem during which time Christian knights fought with terroristic fervor against the Muslims between 1095 and 1296. The world will not easily forget the atrocious Nazi genocide against six million Jews, an atrocity rooted in Christian antipathy and hatred for Jews on religious grounds. The leadership of the Nazi regime who did not take their own lives by committing suicide were tried and hanged by the victorious Allies in 1945. Earlier persecution against the people of God had taken place all over Europe climaxing in pogroms against the Jews in 19th century Russia. Terrorism rooted in communist ideology in modern times have wiped out millions of people in Stalin‘s Soviet Union and Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic of China and Pol Pot’s Laos. The surviving leaders of the Pol Pot regime responsible for murdering more than three million of their people between 1976 and 1979 have seen nemesis catching up with them in recent times even in their old age.

The murderous campaign being waged by Boko Haram against their fatherland must not go without retribution eventually. This must be made clear to all those who have raised arms against their fatherland. There must be no amnesty without justice. This is the message our government must pass on to ALL insurgents in the land, be they criminal terrorists, so-called Islamic fundamentalists and their sponsors, cattle rustlers and cattle herders, kidnappers and all kinds of brigands and molesters. Children who say their mothers would not sleep would also not be allowed to doze off. I will like President Muhammadu Buhari to follow the footsteps of Putin and Trump by issuing a statement unequivocally condemning all acts of terrorism and promising swift punishment for those captured. It is when punishment is sure and swift that it has deterrent effect and value. No society can progress in chaos and without order and expect development and employment. A Hobbesian society like we seem to have now in Nigeria will not allow us to develop. This is why we must take drastic measures to stamp out this incendiary Jacobinism spreading into all parts of Nigeria.

Things are so bad now that everybody is calling on non-state actors to step in and provide security where the state seems to have failed. From the North to the South the trend has been the same. Some of the ethnic organizations are even calling for arms to be given to them to fight the terrorists and kidnappers hiding in the forests all over Nigeria. Our people are supporting them without thinking through what may be the consequence of rabble groups armed with precision weapons and not subjected to military discipline, training and control. In Borno, Civilian Joint Task Force is fighting alongside the Nigerian Army against the Boko Haram insurgents. Such civilian forces are now in one form or the other fighting in several parts of the north. Such armed militant groups have been in the Delta and the Southeast for some time. The Southwest is gearing to join the rest of the country by asking the OPC to join the fray. We need to put our thinking caps on right away because the consequence of abdicating our security to rabble forces may not augur well for our future.

We should immediately begin recruiting members of these irregular constabulary into the various organized armed forces of the Navy, Air Force and the army as well as an expanded police, Civil Defence Force, Immigration, Customs and a reinvigorated road safety organisation redefined as road traffic force or mobile highway patrol provided with powerful patrol cars and motor bikes. All this will have a costly tag. This will have to be funded by special tax levied on all of us and those doing business in Nigeria. It is becoming increasingly difficult to farm and produce enough food in Nigeria. It is even more difficult to trade farm products to the urban conurbations. The result is incipient famine and starvation. The insecurity has also destroyed our social lives in the sense that those living in the urban areas can no longer visit home in rural Nigeria and fellowship with their brethren in the interior or visit the graves of their parents and ancestors. People are now being advised to either leave the country or acquire AK–47 guns after sending their children and wives out of the country. Desperation has driven our people to the point of abandoning their common sense. I say this because there is growing hostility against Nigerians virtually everywhere in the world. The western capitalist countries where we used to find succor in the past no longer want us in the face of rising populist politics and xenophobia. The East Europeans who were not exposed to colonial contact with Africans are militantly hostile to Africans coming to live among them. Russia dislike Africans and their history of antisemitism and Islamophobia has not prepared them for welcoming Africans. Africans are treated as slaves in most of the Middle East where there is lingering racism dating back to Arab slave raids in Africa. In Asia dark people among them are treated with disdain and intolerance. In India in particular, the lower caste among them are usually the dark ones. China, Japan and the rest of Asia would rather that Africans stay in their own countries. Fellow Africans are even hesitant about welcoming Nigerians to their countries. In other words, emigration and running to other people’s countries is not the solution to our problems of insecurity and under development. We had better stay in Nigeria and solve the problem together. Unfortunately the problem of underdevelopment is intricately linked with insecurity. If we must kill the dragon of underdevelopment, we must first slaughter the bear of insecurity.

June 27, 2019
Governor Fayemi’s riddle

Now, to consider Kayode Fayemi in terms of political personae; Ekiti’s cerebral governor recently emerged as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) thus heading a deified circuit, ritual precinct of tin gods. He may not control it but he endows it with a face and voice, synthesising glassy intellect with the forum’s coarse flux. Under his leadership, will the NGF remain state and skull, riding the serpent desires of bowel and belly?

Knowing Fayemi, he would most likely appropriate the title of progressive hero and modern idealist in his prefectship of the NGF. But as chairman of the forum, can he truly wield his girth and repute to patch his colleagues’ shortcomings? Can he tame their vulgar inclinations?

Consider for instance, the NGF’s curious agitation for increased ‘security vote’ and state police; there is no gainsaying that the governors’ agitation rankles an ominous note.

Do the 36 state governors, possess the emotional maturity, intelligence and character necessary to wield such enormous powers? Despite their shrill outcry, oft touted in defence of citizenry imperilled by terrorism, gang violence and banditry in their respective domains, their antecedents reveal disconcerting truths about their capacity to wield such powers.

Many governors would undoubtedly, pervert the provisions for state police, and promptly turn the paramilitary force into attack dogs, using them to hound the press, critics and perceived ‘political detractors.’

The state police would also become powerful tools by which a governor may tame, harass and hound his ‘political godfather.’ In fact, the joke resounds in governors’ circuits, that, if they could achieve their dreams of establishing a state police, they would decisively silence their oft ‘overbearing godfathers.’

Well, as far as juvenile fantasies go, that may be achievable in only the realms of their wild imaginations – as most of their handlers or perceived ‘godfathers’ are equally re-strategising to establish formidable stakes in the state police, in preparation for ‘betrayal’ by the governors, or any such eventuality.

A likely consequence of the brewing storm is that the state police would comprise hostile factions loyal to the incumbent governor and his political godfather; eventually, each state would be cast in turmoil as warring factions seize the proposed security outfit to the detriment of the citizenry.

Nonetheless, the Head, Media and Public Affairs of the NGF, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, feverishly argued, that, the establishment of state police would resolve the states’ security woes, Despite the governors’ massive investments to boost their states’ security infrastructure, the state police commissioners aren’t answerable to them, he lamented, recently, on Channels TV Sunrise Daily.

Bello-Barkindo urged people to reduce the criticisms lashed out at governors over accountability. Of course his argument is wholly untenable in the face of truth. Bello-Barkindo conveniently failed to acknowledge that many, if not all of Nigeria’s 36 state governors, get power drunk soon after they assume office and a power-drunk governor is likable to a drunkard cop with an uncorked rifle; the consequences are better imagined.

Just recently, Premium Times reported that ex-governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, surrendered about four million rounds of ammunition, 1,000 units of AK47 assault rifles, 1,000 units of bulletproof vests and an armoured personnel carrier (APC) to the state’s Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, from a secret armoury in the Government House.

“Amosun’s anointed candidate for the March 9 governorship election, Adekunle Akinlade of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), had been roundly defeated by Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the governor was now desperate to clear the Government House of any incriminating material as Mr Abiodun moved in to take charge,” the online publication wrote.

Amosun said he procured the arms and ammunition to check the widespread insecurity in his state of 3,751,140 residents, according to the 2006 census. This is no doubt instructive about the depths a governor like Amosun could descend, for ‘security’ reasons.

Lest we forget the NGF’s troubling clamour for increased security votes; security votes are opaque security funding, drawn monthly from the federal purse in hundreds of millions of naira, to fund often fictive security expenses.

A significant percentage of the country’s overall security spending, these secretive, unaccounted-for outlays add up to an estimated $670 million (N241.2 billion) annually, and are never subject to audit or legislative oversight, according to the Transparency International’s Africa Director for Defence and Security Programme, Christina Hildrew.

At the backdrop of TI’s claims, Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has alleged that some state governors covertly promote insecurity as justification to inflate their security vote. Magu said this at the induction of new and returning governors at the Old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Transacted mostly in cash, the security vote is not subject to legislative oversight or independent audit and the veil of secrecy, predictably, protects state governors, who embezzle the money and divert it to fund their political interests.

Recent estimates reveal that the sum total of Nigeria’s security votes dwarf the international security assistance it receives. In just one year, notes TI, these off-budget expenditures add up to over nine times the amount of US security assistance to Nigeria and the total amount of counterterrorism support the UK has promised to give the country by 2020.

Nigeria arguably would not need such assistance if it curtailed the use of security votes and reprogrammed them into the country’s formal defence and security budget, according to pundits.

A constructive first step would be for state governors to ditch their obsession with security votes for a security trust fund model akin to the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF).

A more substantive fix for the states’ security problems would be for the governors to midwife more realistic models to empower the youth and minors often deployed as agents of mayhem by criminal masterminds.

While the use of security votes has expanded in both scope and scale under President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership, Fayemi’s emergence as NGF chairman provides him an opportunity to espouse his “progressive ideals,” and work with the President and fellow governors to reverse the trend.

So doing, he may burnish his democratic credentials for more purposeful public service.

To the governors who may object, Fayemi may remind them of the epic ruling by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which affirmed that failure of public officers to give an account of security votes entrusted to them amounted to stealing and criminal misappropriation akin to genocide.

This formed part of the reasons the court affirmed the conviction of a former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, who had earlier been convicted and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment on June 30, 2018 by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.

It’s a good thing that Fayemi emerged as the NGF’s chairman, perhaps. Some would call him the voice of the virile statesman. But he flaunts no virility yet. Right now, amid the ranks of the NGF, he is a product of perception.

Let’s hope he doesn’t end up a sacrificial mascot tied to a stake.

June 26, 2019
Buratai’s bombshell

IT was a big indictment – and that is being mild. A bombshell. Chief of Army Staff Lt.- Gen. Tukur Buratai said the painful setback we have had in the fight against Boko Haram has been due to “insufficient commitment to a common national and military cause by those at the frontlines”. He spoke on Tuesday at the opening of a five-day leadership workshop for mid-level officers and soldiers in Abuja.

Was the audience shocked? I do not know, but those of us watching on television were horrified. If such a criticism had come from some civilians in some far-flung place, away from the battleground, one would have dismissed it as alarmist. This is not, coming from the army chief who is in the engine-room of the operations against the insurgents.

Many have been wondering how the terrorists we once claimed to have decimated have now become a big pain in the neck, attacking military bases and revving up their suicide bombing machine. We seem to be resolving the puzzle of why we do not seem to be getting this monkey off our back, with Gen Buratai’s adjuration.

From attacking refugee camps and worship places, the emboldened terrorists now target military bases. But what does Gen. Buratai mean by “insufficient commitment”? Are our soldiers refusing to fight? If so – I really don’t think so – why? Inadequate equipment? Lack of other motivational incentives? Poor commanders who lack the character that can inspire the troops to give their all? Sheer lack of patriotism? Incompetence? Sabotage? None of these? Or all of them?

At what point did the army chief discover that his men were not sufficiently committed to fighting and winning this all-important war? “It is unfortunate that almost every setback the Nigerian Army has had in our operations in recent times can be traced to insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks or simply insufficient commitment to a common national and military cause by those at the frontlines,” he said, adding: “Many of those on whom the responsibility for physical actions against the adversary squarely falls are yet to fully take ownership of our common national or service cause… .” He noted that there were proven cases of soldiers refusing to carry out assignments. Incredible.

Boko Haram has recently attacked at least four military bases. There have been attacks on Mobbar, Monguno,Gajiram and Damask. The casualty figures remain unknown, but certainly troubling. Throw in the 30 or so who died at the viewing centre in Konduga, Borno State Sunday night. The insurgents must really be celebrating their bloody exploits. Besides, they now have the information that our troups are refusing orders. But, is the Boko Haram headache insuperable? No.

Great armies are made of men of steely character who blend their physical and mental abilities to deliver their target, most of the time, under tough conditions. Discipline, physical and mental fitness, patriotism and professionalism are the hallmarks of a great army. Is the chief saying our army lacks these and, probably, more? Is it the army that used to win accolades while on UN assignments outside Nigeria – Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and others? Or the one described by one of its former leading lights as “an army of anything goes?”

Consider the Turkish army in the days of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938), who told his men at the battle of Gallipoli in April 1915: “Men, I am not ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die. In the time it takes us to die, other forces and commanders can come and take our place” – as quoted in “Studies in Battle Command” by Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College, p.89.

At the War Museum in Istanbul, I once saw a remarkable quote, “Turkish commanders know how to command and Turkish soldiers know how to die”. That, many believe, is the secret of the Turkish military’s success. And that was before the politicians came to destroy such a national pride.

Why are our men on the frontlines not sufficiently inspired to fight Boko Haram? Are the insurgents better equipped? Is their welfare better? What drives their fiendish thirst for blood? A General once told me that the media should stop encouraging Nigerians to keep criticising the military when it was generally acknowledged that Boko Haram seemed to be having the upper hand.

He said: “Look, the army does not owe a soldier anything more than the rifle he is carrying. If he must die, he should die, holding it. Other equipment, such as tanks, aircraft, grenades and bombs, are mere additional incentives. But what do you see nowadays? When Boko Haram strikes, a soldier drops his gun and begins to flee alongside civilians. It is unheard of.”

Why is this so? The General, who will remain anonymous because I do not have his permission to name him, said: “The corruption in the larger society has, no doubt, permeated the military. Nowadays, children of big men want to join the army. Some of them are not cut out for the job, but they love the glamour. Others are just infatuated with the uniform. I think we should note this point.

“So, if you don’t stop the unnecessary criticism, you will wake up one day to find out that these boys are in Abuja. What will you do?”

Gen. Buratai’s submission has again shown us the futility of just throwing money at our challenges. Cash without that patriotic instinct of a true Nigerian –and the right equipment, which can boost confidence–is meaningless. In my view, the Boko Haram boys are simply daring in their deadly enterprise, willing to die for whatever misbegotten cause they believe they are fighting, hiding under Islam.

I hope the deliberations at the Abuja talk shop will be as frank as Gen. Buratai’s opening remarks. The answer to the problem, however, goes beyond the seminar hall; it lies right there on the frontlines. Why are our men so disillusioned that they will refuse to carry out assigned tasks? How do we motivate them physically and psychologically? How trustworthy are the commanders? What do they tell their men? Do we have the weapons to fight?

How patriotic are Nigerians about this war? What are we doing to support our soldiers? Who gave the enemy information about troops movement? Are they insured? Does an average soldier have the feeling that if he dies in battle his family will not suffer? Why are we not taking the battle to the insurgents? Where are they coming from? Are our neighbours as committed to the anti-insurgency campaign as we are? The popular thinking is that we do not have enough arms and ammunition to fight “the deadliest terrorist group in the world”. Why don’t we find a faster way of procuring arms and ammunition? Where are those countries who claim to be our friends?

There have been calls for the removal of the Service Chiefs. Proponents of this view believe that fresh ideas are needed to push back the insurgents and eventually overwhelm them. However, opponents of their removal believe it is not tactical to change commanders in the middle of a war, adding that they are not the problem.

This is the dilemma we face. The buck stops on President Muhammadu Buhari’s table. He should act.

Justice for all in the Kano gorilla case

Where are our animal rights activists? The other time it was a case of a snake swallowing N36m JAMB funds. Now a gorilla has munched some N6.8m Sallah holidays takings at the Kano Zoological Gardens, according to an accounts officer. Some suspects have been charged to court over the missing cash.

That, in my humble view, is not enough. Why is the chief suspect, the gorilla, not arrested and investigated? Some said the accounts officer may have been lying that the poor animal broke into an office, grabbed the cash and snacked on it. Point of observation: this is not just a gorilla in one dark and deep jungle where there is no law and order. No. This is a Nigerian gorilla, for goodness sake.

Has anybody taken samples of the gorilla’s wastes to check if indeed it gorged itself on the cash? Was the gorilla’s blood sample taken for a lab test which could easily have detected some of the properties of the naira notes in its body?

Fair is fair. There seems to be no thorough investigation before this matter was taken to the court. The principal suspect, who has been accused of gobbling the cash, remains at large. Or the police are not keen on interrogating it?

The incident will, no doubt, spark a huge row among animals. King of the jungle lion is said to be the most voracious. The python swallows its preys. So does the crocodile. Now the gorilla is in the race for the most voracious in the jungle. I bet the snake will also be in contention. After all, what is N6.8m when we talk about N36m.

I hope our animal rights activists will soon be moved to action to defend these poor creatures. Otherwise, we will wake up one day to find a gorilla being hauled before a court to answer some theft charges. And that will be the day.

June 20, 2019
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.

June 20, 2019