The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Governors on the art of connecting

    MANY of them are young, bold and brave. They are audacious and inventive, unlike some of their forerunners who were staid, laid back and conservative.

    Not for them the deep, reflective language of old, aimed at pricking the people’s conscience and stoking the fire of patriotism. Nor those dull, drab and sober campaign phrases and songs that just won’t “connect” or show that “they are on ground”. Nor the stale theory of “my work should speak for me”. No.

    Regrettably, besides some awards that are not worthy of the fine wood with which the plaques are made, our governors hardly get any credit for their exertions.

    Take, for instance, the youthful Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello. Nothing the hard working man has done – no matter how worthy – has gone down well with his large army of critics. They describe him as lazy and his performance as lacklustre. Some even ask:  “What do you expect of a man who was dashed the governor’s seat, just like that?”

    I disagree. Where were they, the armchair critics and busybodies hiding behind the veneer of “social critic and rights activist” when Bello hit the road, a pack of fliers on one hand, to advise drivers against over-speeding? Besides, he mounted the traffic warden’s stand to ensure a smooth flow of vehicles in the capital city, Lokoja.

    If these would not convince the so-called critics that Yahaya is “connecting” and about his passion for the job, how about the way he handled the herders-farmers’ clashes? Bello visited a frontline monarch and warned him to support cattle colony–the Buhari administration’s controversial answer to the bloody clashes – or risk deposition. Many were shocked at his audacity. Did His Excellency get any credit for this? No. Instead, he was tongue-lashed for being so harsh and brash. Some even accused him of immaturity.

    The state, like many others, has been finding it difficult to pay its workers. Instead of showing understanding–declining allocation from the federal purse and rising cost of governance, among other factors – Bello has been labelled a spendthrift. Not one to be caught panting for an answer, the governor plunked down some millions to buy space in a newspaper for the periodic publication of the names and offices of those who got paid. Ever since, nobody has accused the government of not “connecting”workers.

    Remarkable as Bello’s inventiveness has been, it is incomparable with the creativity of his Ekiti State counterpart, Mr – no; I take that back–Chief Ayo Fayose, “architect of modern Ekiti, leader of the opposition, Osokomole”. When the herders’ problem was knocking at the door in Ekiti, His Excellency ordered youths to seize any cow that strayed into a farm and have it for dinner. Not one who fails to lead by example, the governor actually joined some youths to hunt down a big cow and, in the full glare of all, cameras flashing, dealt with the animal.

    But the herders would not relent. They threatened violence. His Excellency, not one to be intimidated, gathered all the hunters in the state – guns, cutlasses, knives, catapults, amulets and all–to issue a counter threat. Herders who would not control their herds would pay dearly for their insensitivity, he said.

    To demonstrate the seriousness of the matter at hand, His Excellency was decked out in a military camouflage. He was in a war mood. When it was widely rumoured that killer-herdsmen were on the way, it was to the security agencies that governor cried out for help. And people were asking: where are the hunters?

    In his early days in office, Fayose would not just join firemen at work whenever there was fire in the capital city, Ado- Ekiti. He would mount the fire vehicle’s driver’s seat and, on getting to the scene, grab the hose and train it on the inferno. Heroism.

    This year’s Federal Government budget was sent to the National Assembly on November 7, last year. It was passed only last week. Not so in Ekiti. When Fayose took the state’s budget to the House, he strolled in with his own gavel – a source said a replica of the mace was in his car, should the original disappear – and a crowd of supporters.

    “If you want this budget passed speedily, say yes,” he announced, after stressing that the “state is my constituency”. The gallery yelled: “Yeh.” If you want this budget passed speedily, say yes.” “Yeh!”. “Those who want the budget passed speedily, say yes”. “Yeh!.”Those who doesn’t  (sic) want this budget to be passed speedily, say no.” All was quiet. Fayose banged the table with the gavel. Applause. Applause.

    His Excellency has since graduated from munching corn on the street and eating at roadside canteens. He now serves himself, stirring the stew of itinerary food vendors and turning cassava powder into gari. An average Ekiti resident owes his rotundity and chubby cheeks to Stomach Infrastructure, the governor’s popular poll harvesting strategy.  The governor’s opponents may accuse him of many things, not “connecting” is surely not one of them. He “connects”.

    In Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai has been barging into one controversy after the other. He ordered beggars off the street–to have a spick and span environment. That worthy cause became a subject of attack from (who else?) his political opponents, who claimed that it was insensitive.

    When bandits posing as herdsmen stormed the state, His Excellency simply called them and settled. Those who were never privy to the arrangement accused El-Rufai of bribing murderers. Haba! Trust the governor; he simply ignored them.

    A splinter group of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) recently set up a parallel secretariat. Unable to stand such irritants, El-Rufai ordered in the bulldozer to level the new secretariat, just as the headquarters of the El-Zak Zaky group was demolished to have peace. Now, many states, I am told, are planning to visit Kaduna for lessons in how to make demolition a state policy that can bring peace when all else fails. Yet, his opponents say he is not “connecting”. Not one to bandy words with such people, His Excellency simply rained curses on them and incited the public against them.

    Whenever Owelle Rochas Okorocha screams “my people, my people”, Imo State residents reply: “Our governor, our governor.” Such is the bond between the leader and his followers. He “connects”. Routinely, His Excellency would take the seat at a roadside corn vendor’s stand, the vendor’s baby on his lap, in one instance, and turn the stuff to ensure it is well roasted.

    That, however, was in the early days of his tenure. Now, Okorocha is taking loftier steps, such as the creation of the Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfilment, headed by His Excellency’s sister. Those who know nothing about governance are accusing Okorocha of making his sister the head of the ministry. Who else can the governor trust with such a sensitive portfolio? He has simply ignored them. But those who are saying Okorocha plans to install his son-in-law as his successor would not be ignored. He is teaching them new lessons in politics and governance.

    Owerri ‘s landscape has been beautified by statues of some prominent Africans, among them former South African President Jacob Zuma, who was forced out of office for alleged corruption. Seeing the statues alone, many residents have confessed, is enough armour against the hunger induced by non-payment of pensions and salaries. Yet, His Excellency gets no kudos but knocks for this creativity.

    Many were shocked when Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje visited a project site and tried to “connect” with the workers. He filled a head pan with sand, lifted it with both hands and placed it on his head. The crowd roared.

    It used to be mass weddings only in Kano. Now, tea vendors, known as “mai shai” in the local language, are being empowered with milk, sugar and other ingredients of their trade. Everybody is happy that His Excellency “connects”.

    Apparently not to be seen as not “connecting”, Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu led the executive council out on a sanitation drive. His Excellency jumped into a stinking gutter and began to shovel out the dirt. He forgot to add that it was simply part of “connecting”. It was all in a bid to fight malaria, an aide said.

    Some idle fellows have been attacking Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom for giving out branded wheelbarrows to youths. They said other governors were building roads and bridges and hospitals and schools and houses, but he chose to give out what they called a symbol of poverty. A smart fellow, Ortom simply dismissed them as “jealous”.

    After all, what is governance if  not “connecting”?

     

    Buhari, Obasanjo $16b power (no) show

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s remark on the power situation has set many people fighting in the dark. He told members of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) who visited him at the Villa: “One of the former Heads of State…was bragging that he spent more than 16 billion American dollars (not naira) on power. Where is the power? Where is the power?”

    Buhari and Obasanjo
    Buhari and Obasanjo

    Although his name was not mentioned, former President Olusegun Obasanjo apparently felt the innuendo was clear. He picked up the gauntlet. He replied: “The answer is simple. The power is in the seven National Integrated Power Projects and 18 gas turbines that Chief Obasanjo’s successor who originally made the allegation of $16b did not clear from the ports for over a year and the civil works done on the sites.”

    Fine. But there is a problem:  an uncle of my friend whose residence has been plunged into darkness for God-knows-when has been away at the Lagos port. “I’m searching for power,” he told his daughter who called his mobile phone to find out where he had been all-day. “Obasanjo says it is in some turbines here. Who knows, I may be lucky to get some.”

    And the power game goes on.

  • 2019 : The Obasanjo, Afenifere mix

    SINCE his famous January 23 Special Press Statement, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been unrelenting in his campaign to stop President Muhammadu Buhari from seeking a second term. In his no holds barred statement, Obasanjo pointedly advised the President not to seek reelection in 2019 because he has nothing to show for his first term, which third anniversary comes up on Tuesday. Obasanjo yields no ground to his opponents during a battle. He fights with all he has as well as what he does not have.

    As a soldier, he knows the rules of engagement. You cannot afford to be on his wrong side and you cannot fight him and go to sleep. You must be on your guard always because you do not know his next move. Obasanjo’s main preoccupation these days is to stop Buhari from seeking reelection next year. Since the President has rejected his advice, Obasanjo has become more determined than ever to stop him.

    To achieve his aim, he has resorted to courting the political foes of his own foe. To borrow the popular language, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is the political strategy Obasanjo is using in his fight against Buhari. To get Buhari out of the 2019 race is, according to him, a task that must be accomplished. And he is working hard to achieve this goal. He might not have worked on some of his fellow generals before he got their tacit support for his project, but getting the support of many other Nigerians may not be that easy.

    This is why he has embarked on a political shuttle beginning with some Southwest leaders so as to get them in his camp. It was learnt that he would be embarking on similar visits to the remaining five geopolitical regions over the same issue. Obasanjo has a Herculean task up his sleeves. He is up against a man who remains the beloved of many despite his seeming shortcomings. Buhari may not be that outstanding leader many voted for in 2015, but he  has his integrity and uncompromising stand on corruption still going for him.

    When former military head of state Gen Yakubu Gowon said the other day that large scale corruption took root in the country after his exit from office, he was indicting some of his successors of whom Obasanjo is one. The late Gen Murtala Muhammed succeeded Gowon, but he spent six months in office before he was killed in an abortive coup. Obasanjo took over from him in 1976 and handed over to former President Shehu Shagari in 1979. Following the 1983 coup,  Buhari took over and was toppled in 1985 by his army chief Gen Ibrahim Babangida in a palace coup. Babangida hurriedly handed over to the Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government (ING) after he ‘’stepped aside’’ in 1993. The late Gen Sani Abacha took over from Shonekan that same year. He died in office in 1998, paving the way for Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar whose administration midwifed this democracy.

    Without even indicating, many know the direction Gowon’s finger is pointing. We do not need to name them; what they did while in office is enough for us to judge them. On Tuesday, Buhari wondered what happened to the $16billion voted for power projects during Obasanjo’s tenure between 1999 and 2007. Recall that just last week, he said he was toppled in 1985 because of his fight against corruption. You do not need to look far to know who he was referring to. The message he is sending across is clear : I am ready to take on all those against my second term bid.  The fight promises to be interesting in the days ahead. To stop the President’s second term bid, Obasanjo is now romancing Afenifere. Nothing bad in that, you will say. But many are questioning Obasanjo’s moral authority to take up this crusade. Then, as some argue, there is no morality in politics. Obasanjo did not start romancing Afenifere today. He tried to woo the Yoruba socio-cultural group for his political bids in 1999 and 2003, but failed.

    The group’s late leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, told him that Afenifere would never support him because he did not belong to the association. Now in order to get at Buhari, he has returned to Afenifere. Will he have his way this time around? I do not think so because many have come to know him for who he is. Obasanjo, they say, only courts people when he needs them, and once he gets what he wants, he dumps them. What did he do for Afenifere while in power? Did he recognise the group’s leaders when they visited him in Abuja while in office? Moreover, Afenifere is divided; so the group cannot speak with one voice on Buhari’s second term bid.

    The group will surely differ on the issue. Some will speak for, and others against, the President’s second term bid. So, where will that leave him? Can the faction he is romancing help him in his self-serving cause? This is the question for him to ponder as he steps up his crusade to stop Buhari, who seems ready to fight back with the poser he raised over the $16billion power fund.

     

    Who lifts the cup?

    THE big eared cup as the Champions League diadem is called is up for grabs on Saturday as Real Madrid and Liverpool play in the final of the competition. The Champions League Final comes up in Kiev, Ukraine, but millions across the globe will be glued to television, watching the biggest soccer tourney in Europe.
    The Champions League is a big deal to clubs in Europe and many of them are crazy about winning it. But only one club can lift the trophy in any given year. Real Madrid are the defending champions of the trophy, which they have won for 12 times in the history of the competition. They are aiming to win the cup for the third consecutive season, having won it in the  2015/2016 and 2016/2017 seasons.
    Real Madrid may have a rich history of winning the European Cup as the trophy was hitherto known, but Liverpool are no push over too when it comes to this competition. They have won the cup five times and are now gunning for their sixth. Can they get it at the expense of Real Madrid which is aiming for their 13th title? Many soccer pundits say they cannot. But they seem to forget that Liverpool beat Real Madrid in Paris, France, in 1981 to win the cup.
    Many things are at stake in Saturday’s final – prestige, fame, money and history. Will Real Madrid make history by winning the trophy for the 13th time and the third consecutive season? If they do, they will be keeping the cup for good. Will Liverpool achieve fame by stopping them? We will know in 48 hours when the game would have been won and lost. May the best team win.

  • nPDP nostalgia for PDP years of the locust

    The difference between PDP and nPDP which recently issued a seven day ultimatum to APC is that of 12 and half a dozen. It will therefore not be out of place to argue that the nPDP led senate and the Lower house have spent the past three years trying to undermine Buhari’s administration precisely because they share the same world view. A brief journey through memory will clearly show both suffer from the same affliction-greed

    Unlike modernizing political parties with a set of common values and principles, what defines PDP, a creation of retired military war lords is its vicious battle for spoils of  victory in elections which had by 2007 under Obasanjo become “a do or die affair”, a euphemism for war. It is on record that President Obasanjo and vice president Atiku Abubakar, the then leading lights of the party between 1999 and 2003, often engaged in public duel as to who among the duo was more corrupt. The same endless battle over the sharing of spoils of office by other PDP leading lights led to a game of musical chairs as Ahmadu Alli, Ogbuluafor, Nwodo  and Mu’azu.it replaced each other in quick succession as PDP chairman. It was warring and disgruntled PDP members that revealed to Nigerians the story of how children of PDP leading lights such as Bamangar Tukur, Amadu Alli, Arisekola and others allegedly defrauded Nigeria to the tune of N1.6trilion by forging documents to collect money without supplying a pint of fuel. It was what turned Bukola Saraki to a fuel subsidy scam whistle blower and an anti-corruption hero until his PDP family members who alleged one of the companies in which he had an interest was also a beneficiary, insisted a part cannot be holier than the whole. It was PDP’s War over who gets what and when that turned  Farouk Lawal the chairman of the House committee that uncovered the  fuel subsidy scan to a villain following Femi Otedola’s release of his video tape receiving part of agreed bribe in dollars. It was PDP family squabbles over the sharing of our common patrimony that led to the setting up of a House probe to examine the handling of the privatization programme by BPE which went on to inform Nigerians of how 51% of NITEL that posted N53bn profit in 2002 was sold for $1.317b,  Daily Times whose NSE building at custom street besides others in Ikoyi and London was worth several billions was sold for N1,2b, and how ALSCON, built with $3.2b dollars was sold off for a paltry $250m, out of which the buyer paid only $130m.

    To the above, we can add the fall-out of other PDP family squabbles over the sharing of our resources. The Ribadu Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force’s discovery of  a yearly loss of N1 trillion  and N178 billion worth of refined petroleum products stolen from the pipelines; the loss of $7b to oil theft in  2011, which forced Mutiu Sunmonu, Shell Nigeria’s Managing Director at the time to appeal  to government ‘to confront the big men behind oil theft’;  President Umaru Yar Adua’s claim that  “Obasanjo spent $10b on energy sector without anything to show for it” and the 300b aviation intervention fund that PDP beneficiaries diverted into other businesses.

    Although leaders of nPDP were active participants in the rape of our econmy, this did not stop Baraje from shifting all the blame on President Jonathan whom he had accused while announcing the birth of nPDP in 2013 of presiding over “massive scale of officially-induced oil theft, the dwindling returns from oil and massive looting which has put the nation on the brink of economic collapse despite claim to the contrary by his administration, in futile bid to deceive Nigerians”.

    But nPDP’s outing in the last three years has shown the party was driven by anything but altruism. First, its leading light, Saraki and Dogara, hijacked leadership of the two houses, traded off the victory of their party by selling  the vice senate president position as well as chairmanship of juicy committees  to PDP with whom they share a common affliction-greed. As it was under PDP, budget padding and diversion of budgetary allocations from critical projects designed to serve overall public interest to their controversial constituency projects even under “APC government of Change”. Of course we can add their illegal monthly collection of N13, 5m in addition to their monthly N700, 000 salaries,

    Since a leopard hardly changes its skin, it can easily be inferred that a letter signed on behalf of nPDP by Abubakar Kawu Baraje and Olagunsoye Oyinlola (former nPDP chairman and national secretary respectively), major actors during PDP years of the locust, has more to do with greed and a nostalgic craving for the return of the years of the locust. A critical examination of their demands supports this thesis. They alleged underrepresentation at federal Executive Council, a body which under Jonathan did more of contract awarding; they demand more representatives in government agencies and parastatals, probably with Nigerian Ports Authority, Customs, and FIRS.  NNPC and 11 other revenue-generating agencies of the federal government which an auditing firm, KPMG  recently indicted for failing to remit N8.1 trillion to the Federation Account between 2010 and 2015 in mind. And finally they alleged that some nPDP leaders are denied the security cover necessary to visit their constituencies and they bellyache over a few others facing harassment from security agencies for their roles in the economic sabotage of the country. Those who accuse President Buhari of selective anti-corruption war have no problem laying claim to being  members of APC but immediately become members of nPDP when called upon to account for their past.

    Finally they alleged five former PDP key states that contributed to the success of APC in 2015 are marginalized. But with the exception of Rivers state, four of the five states are controlled by APC governors, their state houses of assembly by APC, their representatives at the senate and House of representative by APC and like the rest of 31 states got one ministerial slot each. In view of the fact that the states also get their monthly allocation like others, Baraje and Oyinlola could only have been craving for the return of PDP years of the locust when President Jonathan followed Governor Daniel around Ogun state commissioning empty swamps as projects, when Oyinlola as Oshun PDP governors secured bank loans and paid in advance contractors chosen for construction of five stadia even before the sights were identified or when Musliu Obanikoro, a PDP serving minister chartered two air crafts to ferry N3b cash to Ayo Fayose of Ekiti for the purpose of rigging a gubernatorial election with the bulk of the money, according to EFCC traced to his accounts or traced to properties located in high-brow area of Lagos and Abuja.

    The now expired nPDP seven day ultimatum has finally exposed senate president Saraki and Speaker Dogara who have made the country ungovernable in the last three years. Swearing by the name of their own strange variant of democracy, those elected on the ticket of the ruling APC party have turned both houses to houses of opposition where nothing gets down. They defied party directives and on three different occasions failed to confirm Magu, as substantive chairman of EFCC; they squandered voter’s goodwill by wasting tax payer’s money on frivolities and are at war with government agencies such as Nigeria Ports Authority, the Customs, and FIRS that are now making a difference in terms of revenue generation. To spite the president, the two houses passed an electoral law now invalidated by the courts without any of them forming a quorum.

  • With Fayemi in truth and indeed

    The primary election of who to carry the flag of the APC into the coming gubernatorial election in July has finally been concluded in spite of the expected stiff competition and attendant acrimony. In a contest where 33 equally qualified professional and experienced men vied for one position the person who emerged must necessarily have overwhelming merit. Dr John Kayode Fayemi Ph.D London   In truth and in deed has merit. The task at hand now is the need for collective leadership which the leadership of the APC in the South West and the nation at large has called for .Ekiti State is blessed with good people and there is no reason why our putative state should not do well. Now that Fayemi is leaving the federal executive we pray that the president will immediately fill the vacant position with chief Segun Oni who was previously governor of the state and who came second to Fayemi in the primary election and who until recently was vice chairman of the APC for the South West. He is an excellent person for any position requiring experience, honesty and tact.

    Fayemi is tried and tested and has proved himself to be a good manager of people and resources. In his first incarnation as governor of Ekiti he was too busy thinking like Obafemi Awolowo, about how to make the lives of the people better that he forgot he was first a politician before being a governor and allowed himself to be rigged out of the gubernatorial position. He really had no chance in the face of overwhelming odds. His opponent, while using federal might under President Goodluck Jonathan, got Fayemi on Election Day, confined to his country home and prevented from coming out of his compound while the current governor and his supporters including people like senator Obanikoro were roaming the state with bags of money accompanied by police and soldiers to ensure the election was no contest. That is now history. After having been dealt a cruel blow President Jonathan cynically conferred on Fayemi the National honour of CFR (Commander of the order of Federal Republic). As a Christian Fayemi took his plight with equanimity and was later called to serve as minister of Solid minerals where for more than two years he has carefully laid down the rules to guide solid mineral exploitation and the revival of the moribund iron and steel sector of the economy in spite of the meddlesome intervention of the National Assembly which sometimes leaves law making only to assume executive actions. To Fayemi charity begins at home. He could easily remain a federal minister and distant himself from the banality of the local politics of his state and bury himself in the much more exciting politics at the Centre. But for Kayode Fayemi, all politics is local

    Fayemi has been a good representative of Ekiti people. Ekiti people are known for the courage, doggedness, hard work and academic brilliance among other attributes. We are also known for culture, respect for elders, honesty and service. I grew up knowing all these attributes and seeing my parents bowing to the demands of societal values. I know Kayode Fayemi epitomizes these values. Ability to out shout your opponent and to bring down governance to the level of the hoi polloi is not what a developing society that is desirous of catching up with the rest of the world needs, rather it needs sobriety, introspection, reflection and policies based on research and experience. This is how the rest of the world operates. This is what Kayode Fayemi has come to be known for.

    I remember the first time I met Professor Chike Obi the great mathematician who, said Ekiti people within a generation caught up with all those who preceded them in the acquisition of western education. This is the Ekiti that I am proud of and not the Ekiti of “stomach infrastructure “I do not want to be misunderstood. Every man has a role to play in the stage of life. The current governor, no doubt has done his best but we do not want a third term for him because that is what electing Prof Olusola will mean. Even prince Adeyeye the former propagandist of the PDP and an Ekiti patriot has said this much. After the boisterous last four years we need some time of quiet and respite to plan for an uncertain future. We are entering a phase in our national life which requires thinking out of the box and the future belongs to those who can think while standing.

    In kayode Fayemi’s last Administration We all saw how he crisscrossed the state with good roads. I remember Femi Fani- Kayode  and Ribadu asking him ,in my presence ,what was the  magic wand he used to accomplish  the extraordinary and excellent network of roads in Ekiti when compared  with the terrible situation   they witnessed in Kogi State  while  driving from Abuja to Ekiti in 2013. Ekiti is a poor state depending almost totally on federal statutory allocation and external technical assistance if we have a governor like Fayemi who was able to tap that source when he was in power. Ekiti would have to look inwards and find ways to increase internally generated revenue through tourism ,the hospitality business and mechanized agriculture .Professor Olusola the PDP  side kick of Fayose May be educated  locally but he lacks the global experience and exposure to run a modern state. His experience does not go beyond tutelage under the pedestrian administration of a man with limited education but with more enthusiasm than wisdom. I know that the present governor has won the support and admiration of all of us for resisting killers disguised as herders terrorizing innocent people in the state. I salute him for his courage. He has earned his rest and his deputy should go back to his class room where because of his young age he can still give many years of fruitful service to the Nation.

    I write this not to curry any favor from anybody.  There is nothing I want more than to leave this world and Ekiti State better than how I met it .I write because I am a stakeholder in Ekiti. My great grandfather was one of the commanders of the Ekiti parapo army and my family has been at the vanguard of protecting Ekiti interest in modern times. God willing, if Fayemi wins, I will only offer advice if asked and would not accept any remuneration whatsoever. I want the best for  Ekiti so  that like the romans of old my son can say “ civis Ekitius sum” and expect to be accorded the respect which our hard fighting ancestors have earned for us.

  • Nigeria’s special fools

    Cowards with columns pass as men of valour. I am a columnist and perhaps a coward. But you would never know. You could never tell if I am true to the calling or just another character pushing pen and idle rant to make ends meet.

    It is never my intent to arrogate to myself some blundering heroism or self-abnegating priesthood, there is too many of my ilk doing that. I write to vex your ego and caress it, as your prejudices dictate. I write to contend and affirm those defining moments in which you have discovered me to be a coward or villain, time and over again.

    Nigeria has taught me that heroism is overrated, villainy could be relative and cowardliness is a virtue, where perverted will consorts with ill.

    You are entitled to whatever you think of me. And I am entitled to what random thought I deem worthy of your readership – knowing the tenor of my rant inadvertently guides you to define me. So, if I am your hero, I believe you think too much of me. If I am your villain or contemptible coward, I guess it pleases you.

    But if you consider me to be an idiot, I hope you finally get to understand that no one can be a Nigerian without being in the strictest sense, an idiot. The average Nigerian is a special fool. The higher his status, the more adroit he is in perpetuating his folly. But this is hardly flak for the Nigerian fool in high places. It has always been his luck to find some greater fool to admire him. This is about the greater fool.

    This is about men and women whose nerves are disoriented and moral fiber, handicapped. This is about men and women presumably of higher learning and good breeding. Those extraordinary Nigerians by whose talent and individuality, Nigeria customarily channels pride and banalities of a better tomorrow.

    This is about the Nigerian columnist, the one whose dazzling intellectualism Moliere’s riposte of the knowledgeable fool fittingly substantiates.

    Today, the Nigerian columnist grovels at the feet of the ruling class, like mongrels. Today, we recognize the stench of the looter with the fattest envelope and our trained eyeballs hardly misses the deep pocket with the promising smile.

    In our calling, there are still no-go areas. We can never question religion save the instances we get to castigate one faith to elevate another, in the heat of poverty-induced pogroms we have learnt to call ‘religious crises and ‘politics.’

    Need I say people are simply hungry? They are jobless too. That is why they become willing muscles to criminal masterminds. The labourer still goes home with heavy steps, and the heart of the casual worker resuming night shift shrivels desolately, like fresh mutton sautéed with local gin. Even the newborn arrives sorrow-clad; he wishes that he had waited till never.

    Within this cheerlessness, the masses stare resignedly at our cover pages with knowing glares. They know they would never hear the infinitesimal clangour of chilled truth neither shall they enjoy the comfort of temperate hope because we have become the aberration of their desperate circumstances.

    Yet we pride ourselves as national heroes. Noble intellectuals and men and women of letters. Such is the wonder of a newspaper column; it goads too many of us columnists to think too highly of ourselves.

    Add to the mix, a mass of fawning, frosty readership and you have a perfect cocktail that makes a narcissist and lapdog of even the most modest journalist.

    How far we evolve depends on the quality of citizenship exhibited by the most patronizing and hostile audience. Yet it would never do to lay the blame for what we have become on society. That would be tantamount to perpetuating the “Nigerian factor” – that ageless pretext we have learnt to incite every time we fall short of measure.

    Are we truly great and heroic? Are we uncommon, high-cultivated men and women of letters; stout seekers of truth and shiners of hope?

    We claim: ‘If we are no heroic shiners of light, it’s because our readers aren’t heroic seekers of it.” True, most columnists live to fight monstrosities visited on us by the ruling class because they covet the beauty of ‘stomach infrastructure’ as their teeming readership.

    Columnists live to echo the cynicism and intolerable disloyalty of all manners of readership. And many a reader lives to applaud such treachery because it is politically correct to do so. The result is the gang of conscienceless and duplicitous citizenry that we have. Thus Nigeria embellishes truths into absurdities and bad lies.

    Every day, we fail our people with shame we do not feel. We have become the stamen that lets down the azalea, the comforter that brings grief, the emissaries of needless hate. We have become slaves to the tyrants we ought to remove. Did we fight the military to a standstill so that we may become their instruments when they turned democratic tyrants?

    We offer no direction save our shenanigans in the interest of the ruling class. Today every columnist seeks friends in high places but then, we are only being Nigerian. It’s time we inspired by the wisdom of sages from whose ashes we struggle to rise.

    Let us put heart to what our pens intone. Let us become the conscience of the ruling class and the pulse of the breadlines lest we become dead to future generations; lest they never get to read of our selfless beginnings and know of the noon that confused us and the sunset of our debauchery.

    If we fail to change, our twilight will malign us. And in death, we shall lay rapt in lowly graves, our ears keen for the least abrasive diatribe we may get to treasure as the eulogies we never had.

    Let us brighten our world with truth. Let us imbue it with wisdom and deep delight.

  • Non passing of budget is dereliction of responsibility

    In the last three years of the Buhari Government the National Assembly has routinely delayed the  passing into law of the budget submitted to it by the president . It sometimes  delays the approval and or modification till the middle of the year . Yet this is the most important duty of any responsible parliament any where in the world . A national budget is the road map to a nation’s economic direction for the year . It sets out the expectation of economic performance and the revenue and expenditure of government. From it the central bank derives  it’s policy of whether to raise interest rate or not . Foreign investors study it to explore what sectors would be most profitable for investment. Banks study it to determine the rate of lending and what area of the economy to lend to .  Individuals also study  the budget so as to plan their lives  on what to buy and at what prices, what to expect in terms of interests on savings and debts and for pensioners what to expect in the year and finally individuals want to know if taxes would go up or come down .In short no serious parliament will trifle with the appropriations process .

    In Great Britain the presentation of the budget is done  with pomp and pageantry in Autumn (Fall) usually in September or October . After the formality accompanying the budget presentation the chancellor of the exchequer  would later on  give the detailed  breakdown and its policy implications and also the philosophy behind it . When the Conservative(Tory) Party is in power in Britain , budget is driven by attempt at  ensuring fiscal responsibility, reducing the role of the state , reducing fiscal deficit, reducing and cutting down the welfare state and reduction of capital tax to encourage investment . and increase in Defence spending  and reduction of the national debt .When Labour is in power expansionist ideas about raising the minimum wage abolition or reduction of university fees , increase  in budgets for health and social welfare as well as increase for International assistance to poor countries and reduction in Defence expenditure  and general increase of taxes paid by the wealthy and corporations…  It is expected that by Christmas parliament would have approved  it so that people would know  what to expect in the new year .

    The budget presentation in the USA is less formal and it too is usually in Fall say from October to the end of September the following year . The great debate is usually about whether to increase or lower the national debt . This debate is usually ideology driven with the Republicans wanting to lower the national debt , while at the same time increasing Defence spending while cutting taxes and vastly reducing welfare packages and entitlement programs while the Democrats usually go in the opposite philosophical direction . Sometimes when the approval takes time , approval from Senate is sought to tide over the period of waiting and because of political wrangling government work has been known to be shut down for the reason of lack of money to pay its workers . This cannot happen in Britain or in any parliamentary democracy because there is really no absolute separation of powers as in the USA and other presidential system patterned after it . In Britain the executive is part of parliament and this is why some of us have been advocating a return to the parliamentary system we had before and after independence.

    In Nigeria both at the regions and at the federal level the budget Day was a day of formality , pomp and pageantry. Those old enough will remember budget presentation by chief  Festus Samuel Okotie -Eboh who held the post of minister of finance from 1958 to  January 1966  when he was assassinated during the first coup d’etat in Nigeria. He usually came into parliament accompanied by two servants carrying his long itshekiri wrapper after him . In the western region the ceremony was equally colorful . This writer should know because his 34 year old brother was minister of finance in 1956 in the western region the most prosperous and difficult to catch up with region in the country in terms of development.. The point I am making is that it is a pity that we no longer take the work of government with the seriousness it deserves . Rather members of parliament are roaming around inspecting buildings under construction and inviting contractors to see them in secret as part of their so called oversight duties. They find time to visit errant members with police cases apparently in solidarity with  their colleagues and with the thought that if  and when they too get into trouble their colleagues will shut down parliament as they have been doing in the last three years with little or no provocation. This is not right . These people are being paid huge salaries, allowances and constituency budgets totaling one million per day in a country where the minimum wage is 18,000 Naira which many of the impoverished and impecunious states cannot pay . The result of no budget is that government legally falls back on the contrivance of running on the previous budget to pay salaries , pensions and other emoluments without legal grounds to embark on any developmental projects .

    A year before a general election  in Nigeria , parliament is either deliberately or unintentionally sabotaging the Buhari Government. What I find curious is that the APC has a majority in both Houses of Parliament viz the National Assembly and the Senate. The reason for this anomaly is that we are not running a government based on political party system . If we were , some of those who are acting as cogs in the running of government would have been expelled by the party and from parliament because once you withdraw the whip from them they would have nothing to stand on . How did we get to a situation where a majority party cannot pass its budget . It is the fault of the president who “belongs to nobody but to everybody “  The result is what we are witnessing where the tail is wagging the dog and a senate run by  its president who is always on tour and its deputy who belongs to the opposition party whose duty it is to bring down the government. If the situation were not pitiable and a serious contradiction of party government to the detriment of smooth operation of government and predictable development I would have said the APC is making a unique contribution to the politics of government.

    What is to be done? Pressure should be mounted on the legislature to do its work. There is a need to look into the remuneration of members of parliament to reduce the humongous allowances they are earning  so that they can come down from their Olympian height to the level of struggling humanity . There is a need to look at the party structure before the next election . There ought to be an irreducible minimum behavior a member of parliament will not be allowed to cross before such a party man is shown the way out . The premier of western Nigeria chief SLA Akintola a political giant compared with these Lilliputians running around was expelled from the Action Group for anti party activities . So also was ozumba Mbadiwe the man of “timber and caliber” expelled from the NCNC for the same reasons  . We must try and reinvent proper political parties rather than what we have at the present which are mere coalitions and agglomerations of interest groups sometimes working at cross purposes and against each other .we must transit from this to a proper party system . The president should use the enormous powers in his hand to mound his party together and weed out parasites eating at the core of the party . The president must come out  and declare that he now belongs not to everybody but to his party whose mandate it is to run a functional government determined to do his best for the country according to the mandate solemnly given to him by the Nigerian people . After leaving office he would have the pleasure and luxury of belonging to everybody but right now he belongs to the APC who brought him to power.

  • Buhari as target of Idris and Saraki proxy war

    Our consolation amidst the ongoing disinformation war between Ibrahim Idris whose lot it is to helplessly standby as unidentified criminals kill his fellow compatriots in their thousands and Saraki’s 8th senate which according to Itse sagay is “probably the worst we’ve ever had since the return to civilian rule” in 1999, to divert attention from the pains both have continued to inflict on Nigerians, is that they will not be the ones to write their own history. We should take solace in the fact that Nigeria that has survived the intrigues of some more devious past leaders will outlive both men who by the letter and spirit of our constitution are supposed to be part of President Buhari’s administration but have  become a metaphor for all that is wrong with the administration.

    Idris and Saraki are the same side of a coin. Saraki’s 8th Senate has done everything except the promotion of democratic values and ethos. Following the hijacking of the senate through an inelegant way including disenfranchising 51 of the 104 senators, it has become notorious for undermining principles of check and balances with bizarre resolutions that make them judges in their own cases. It abridges free speech. It is intolerant of dissent among its own members. They have no apologies for smiling to their banks with an illegal N13.5m monthly windfall in addition to their official salaries. Yet the 8th Senate, as an institution of state, wants us to accept it is serving Nigerians better than IG Idris’ Nigeria Police Force.

    Although no one expects our ill- equipped and underfunded police force to perform miracles, the problem however is that there has never been a period in our nation’s history when criminal’s elements exploiting the incompetence of an IG, moved around killing and confiscating land without challenge. IG Ibrahim Idris appears unmanageable. He flouted the president’s order to relocate to the troubled north-central just as he has for three years failed to implement an order that police men attached to some category of politicians be withdrawn. Today, criminals undergoing police investigation or those fresh from EFCC detention routinely move around with police escorts. People’s sensibilities are daily assaulted by sights of AK-47 wielding police men carrying shopping bags for some Chinese boys in local fish markets.

    Idris and Saraki who are technically part of Buhari’s government have spent the past two weeks on disinformation war with both trying to outdo each other in their expression of love for Nigeria. It all started with the Clerk of the Senate, Nelson Ayewoh’s letter entitled; “Invitation to brief the Senate on the poor treatment of Senator Dino Melaye over case that is in a competent law court, and other killings across Nigeria.” The Police immediately advised the senate president to stop hiding behind one finger, insisting “The emphasis on security matters in the invitation letters was diversionary to attract undeserved public sympathy in the Senate’s desperate bid to trivialize and water down the crime and criminal liabilities for which Senator Dino Melaye is standing trial”. The IGP swore not to be intimidated by a senate notorious for its hard tackling and hitting its victims even when they are down.

    Saraki’s 8th Senate which is never afraid to fight rough, tactically dropped the Melaye’s case claiming it had been overtaken by events while the Senate President assistant went on to release facts about  when and where about 900 Nigerians lost their lives to the rampaging herdsmen between January and April this year. The IG’s claim that the list was unverified was dismissed by the senate as an attempt to hold on to a straw. They challenged the IGP to inform the public measures put in place to end mindless killings of Nigerians. The senate followed up with a resolution declaring the police IG an enemy of democracy who is not fit to hold public office in Nigeria or anywhere in the world.

    Now the Idris and Saraki disinformation war has taken a new turn with a number of warriors lining up behind each. Yinka Odumakin,  Afenifere scribe and  Aisha Yusuf the co-convener of Bring Back Our Girls campaign as well as many victims of ongoing mindless killings have criticized the IG for his incompetence, disdain for rule of law and arrogance.

    On Idris side, we have Femi Falana, (SAN) a human right activists and Itse Sagay, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC). They have both come down heavily on Saraki’s 8th Senate. For Femi Falana, if the senate is interested in the ongoing bloodletting, the right persons the senators ought to have invited were the Interior Minister Gen. Abdurrahman Dambazau and Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami. Refusing to deal with police DIG and insistence on the physical presence of the IG Sagay argued, was because the senate “just want their vanity to be assuaged, and for people to know they have power and are big”. And for him, a senate that “refused to confirm any nominee, regardless of how urgent and important the assignment is for this nation because they were angry with the executive for not sacking Ibrahim Magu”, a senate that suspends a work of legislation and “would adjourn sitting and go to the Code of Conduct Tribunal in solidarity with their President, should not be calling anybody unfit for anything”

    Others have tried to make a distinction between the constitutional duties of the police which is maintenance of law and order and the senate which is one of the major institutions of democracy. If there is any threat to the survival of democracy in Nigeria at all, they believe it can only be coming from the senate that emerged through disenfranchisement of 51 of 104 members, routinely undermines check and balance principle and abridges dissension even within its own ranks.

    Unfortunately, the loser in the ongoing Idris and Saraki’s tragic proxy war is our nation. While the incompetence of the former has led to accusation of ethinic cleansing and religious war by victims, charges that threaten the very survival of our nation, the later haunted by long history of intrigue and betrayal has continued to demonstrate his mission was to undermine Buhari’s government. And here is an elected president who has refused to use the power imbued in the presidency to deal decisively with his very vulnerable political enemies who have abundantly demonstrated they are out to serve none but themselves. Nigeria is perhaps the only known democracy where an unrepentant legislature  smiling to banks with N13.5m illegal windfall and where many who are yet to defend their honour over EFCC allegation of financial malfeasance either as former governors or as supervisors of ill implemented constituency projects  will hold the sovereign and the nation to ransom.

    In America whose constitution we copied and where the legislature, like Caesar’s wife is often above board, no law maker dares the elected president. The two houses controlled by the Republican have tried to find accommodation with Donald Trump, their unpredictable elected sovereign, who does not even share the values of the Republican Party. Rather than undermine his leadership or work for the failure of his administration as Saraki has done in the last three years, the leaders of the two houses chose their party and their country above self by offering to resign.

  • Corruption’s ugly face

    IN this age and time, journalists need not look far for information. Stories are there for the picking on the social media. Because of the Internet, many have become emergency reporters. They are commonly referred to as Citizen Journalists. They are so-called because they report happenings with the speed of light, without  waiting to ascertain the truth.

    To them, the hotter and the more damaging the story, the better for them and their millions of followers, who can swear by them, while telling you that since it is trending it must be true. The social media has become so powerful that it is today a big threat to the mainstream media.

    But, those who know the worth of true journalism, like my friend and brother Kolade Roberts will always revert to the traditional media for real news and analysis. Whenever he sees anything in the social media that catches his fancy, he is always quick to draw my attention to it, with the caveat, “I will sincerely appreciate your comment”. Few days before I received his latest message, same had been posted to me on another WhatsApp platform to which I belong.

    The message centres on corruption and how the malaise has destroyed the social fabric over the years. Roberts is passionate about Nigeria and its growth. The article painted vividly how some of our past leaders allowed corruption to fester under them. Rather than attack the problem frontally, they turned a blind eye to it in order to save those found to have soiled their hands. How do you explain it that a top politician put in charge of his town union’s scholarship funds diverted the money into his own use and nothing was done to him by the powers-that-be until the court stepped in?

    He was tried and jailed for seven years after concerted efforts by those in power to save him failed. What the judge said before sending him to prison is instructive. “This court is not a department under the government and it is not subject to any political party”. If only our courts can still maintain such integrity, we would have been better off today.

    Another, a doctor, went about with a fake doctoral certificate from a Canadian university. He used the certificate to get a top job at the premier university and then the bubble burst when a scholar from the university he claimed to have attended visited Nigeria. The scholar was shocked that the Nigerian was parading a doctoral degree and he blew the whistle. Again, the powers-that-be did not allow the law to take its course. They saw the scandal as ‘’persecution’’ of their man and stood by him even when his partner in crime, his mistress, had owned up back in Canada and was fired from her job. Corruption is not a Nigerian word, but unfortunately, we have made it so. We have unwittingly been sending across a message that corruption pays by allowing the corrupt to go unpunished.

    A foremost nationalist was also found in the same mess when he was caught diverting public land into his personal use. He was jailed for forgery and perjury and he was barred from holding office. The colonial leaders rebuffed all entreaties for his pardon. But when Nigeria became independent in 1960, the convicts of yesterday became those who decided the fate of others.

    Through the making of our leaders, corruption has become our bane. As it was then, so it is today. Our past leaders fought corruption merely with words. So also do today’s leaders. Everybody, except them and their acolytes, is corrupt.

    President Muhammadu Buhari has shown uncommon courage in fighting the malaise. No matter what some may say, his administration has been tackling the problem frontally. There may be one or two cases where the government did not get it right, but that cannot rubbish what it has been doing in the past three years. If past governments had done a fraction of what the Buhari administration is doing today, we may not be this neck deep in corruption.

    As the president noted on Tuesday while opening the new headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), “fighting corruption is not easy because the corrupt will fight back”. With what he has started, we cannot afford to look back in the fight against corruption. He has shone the light for us to find the way out of this malaise. Will we take that path?

     

    For Omofade at 72

    Years after he retired as a permanent secretary in Lagos State, Dr Adelaja Omofade is still strong and active. I got to know Dr Omofade in January when he called me up on the assignment given to us by the Anwar-ul Islam College Agege Old Students Association (ACAOSA). The college turned 70 on April 5. To mark the anniversary, ACAOSA has lined up a lot of activities, including a book launch, for between August 30 and September 2. Dr Omofade chairs the Book Review Committee of which I am a member. He was calling  to know when I would be chanced for us to hold our inaugural meeting. I quickly replied ‘anytime sir’, to which he said ‘’as an editor, I know that you will be very busy; just tell me when you will be available for us to meet’’. To me, that was humbling. For a while, I was tongue-tied and when I found my voice, I said ‘Wednesday, January 24 sir’ and he endorsed it. The committee held its inaugural meeting that day and since then we have been meeting at his church, the St Paul African Church at Ilupeju, which is close to my office. He deliberately chose that venue because of me. Dr Omofade is older than me by far. He was at Anwar-ul Islam College, formerly Ahmadiyya College, Agege, between 1960 and 1964. I was there between 1973 and 1977/78. As he turns 72 tomorrow, we continue to pray for good health for him. From Mr Sikiru Idowu Lawal (1965/68 set), Hadji Olajide Tairu (1968-74), Abubakar Adenle (1979/80), Abdulhazeem Olajide (1991/92),  Tajudeen Ishola (1992-98) and myself, we wish you a happy birthday.

  • Where are they now?

    “Hey, General, look here, look here. Listen to me and do what I say,” he said in a sharp, raucous voice.

    “You can’t get promotion without me sitting on top of your military council. If I am a happy man tomorrow night the sky is your limit, and at the end of the day if I’m unhappy; I’m not here for tea party; I’m on a special assignment by the president.”  For a short while, all was quiet. And the confabulation continued.

    That was strange. A general taking orders from a civilian. But he was not just serious. It was to win a gubernatorial election, no less. But to the small circle of power mongers, it was a war to capture an enemy territory. Dear reader, no prize for guessing who the minister was.

    Musiliu Obanikoro, now a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), after jumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ship, is itching to return to the Senate. But many are questioning his democratic credentials and asking: has he settled his matter with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)?

    But Koro, as his admirers call him, is just one of the many men of power and means who had so much influence on our lives in the recent past. It is pertinent to ask: Where are they now?

    Jelili Adeshiyan (you remember him?), the former Police Affairs minister, was Obanikoro’s comrade-in-arms in the last governorship election in Ekiti State. The PDP chief had a big ambition that the weight of office would not allow him to fulfil. He looked forward to realising it after leaving office. The dream – to physically beat up the late Isiaka “Serubawon” Adeleke (of fond memories), the first civilian governor of Osun State.

    A source told me that Adeshiyan never fulfilled his dream until Adeleke passed on. Since he congratulated Senator Ademola Adeleke, who won the Osun West Senatorial District election in 2017, nothing has been heard of him. The source, who pleaded to remain anonymous, said confidentially that Adeshiyan had been busy sharpening his pugilistic skills to be on top of the PDP crisis in the state.

    Before the coming of the Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration, little was known about Chief Government Ekpemupolo (simply known as Tompolo) beyond the creeks of the Niger Delta where he was adored by some and feared by all. He was believed to be the head of a militant group that blew up oil pipelines at the least provocation. By the time the administration was in full swing, Tompolo had become a big businessman who had done so well for himself –  mouth-watering contracts, beautiful homes, luxury living in big hotels and two private jets.

    He has since turned a fugitive, running away from the law. Just last month he turned 47. Ijaw youths then pleaded with the government to drop charges against him because he is “a true hero”. Tompolo was rumoured to have fled to Libya, but his associates insist he is hale and hearty in Nigeria. Since all seems to be quiet in the creeks nowadays, will the government allow the chief to enjoy his rest?

    Former Attorney-General Mohammed Bello Adoke has been battling to distance himself from the $1.3b Malabu oil deal scandal. The government has been struggling to know who got what in the deal in which Nigeria is believed to have been grossly cheated. Adoke has been overseas from where he has been claiming that he acted on former President Jonathan’s orders.

    Adoke assured all – his friends and foes – that he was in school overseas. As soon as he was done with his studies, he promised, he would fly home to exculpate himself. More than one year after, the former chief law officer is yet to show up in Abuja. Those who know him closely insist that he is not the type to bolt from the law.

    But the question remains, when will Adoke return home to defend his integrity?

    Former Senate President David Bonaventure Mark has been quiet since he left the much-coveted seat. He hardly contributes to debates on the floor of the upper chamber. Some of his opponents claim that he rarely attends sittings; others insist, without proof anyway, that he has been away overseas tending his golf courses and working on his swing in a bid to return with a bang to the game the business of lawmaking did not let him face squarely.

    I can confirm that the former Senate President is in Abuja. In fact, he recently issued a statement on the killings in his home-state of Benue.

    Former presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe, who was drafted into the Jonathan Campaign in 2015, has been unusually quiet. Has he returned to his long-abandoned medical practice? Is he chasing contracts all over the place?  Okupe and a few others with whom he worked were grabbed by the EFCC and asked to refund some money to which they were not entitled. It is not yet clear if Dr Okupe, a prince, paid back some cash or promised to do so.

    His picture bobbed up on the Internet the other day; he was prostrating for his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, whom he had lambasted severally. Is Okupe heading for the African Democratic Congress (ADC)?

    The ADC, remember, is the party that Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), a symbol of the subterfuge and obfuscation with which many credit the former president, has morphed into. When Baba Iyabo publicly tore his PDP card and declared himself a statesman, many knew it was a question of time for him to return to politics – surreptitiously. Here we are.

    Nnamdi Kanu was everything that his followers desired – and more. He was believed to be imbued with spiritual powers. Some even confessed that upon touching his garment, their ailment disappeared. In fact, to many, he was the chosen one who would take them to the Promised Land.

    He lapped it all up – the adulation, the adoration and the reverence. The leader of the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) championed the cause of those wishing Biafra to happen. He talked tough. Then the military launched Operation Python Dance, which it swore was never aimed at the group and its leadership but criminals.

    A clash. And Kanu disappeared.  Ever since he left his Afara Ukwu, Abia State home in mysterious circumstances on September 14, last year, the IPOB chief has not said anything about the struggle that has cost many their lives, some their limbs and others their means of livelihood. He simply vanished. Incommunicado.

    Where is Kanu? Malaysia? Cameroon? Umuahia? Germany? Ghana? Honolulu? Chattanooga? Quagadougou? Not even the threat of action against those who stood surety for him would make the IPOB leader show up. Nor the arrest some days ago of some fellows described as Jewish worshippers in his home. Nor the protest of some of his sympathisers in London. Nor his family’s frustration over his sudden disappearance.

    After a long battle for the PDP leadership, which he lost, Ali Modu Sheriff  is back in the APC. Initially, his return was resisted by other party chiefs, who obviously felt Sheriff could not be trusted. Will Sheriff be at peace with Governor  Shettima? The PDP will never forget that a certain Sheriff almost killed and buried the party as it became a cesspool of crises, with its leaders abusing one another as if politics is all about acrimony.

    Will Sheriff stay in APC? That is a difficult question, considering his antecedent.

     

    Dino Melaye and other matters

    THE courts had a busy day yesterday. Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) got some respite from his battle of wits with the police. Justice Nasiru Ajanah of the Kogi State High Court sitting in Lokoja granted him bail in the sum of N10m. He considered his health challenge.

    In Abuja, the Senate lost its bid to stop Senator Obarisi Ovie Omo –Agege’s resumption.

    Melaye

    Also in Abuja, the High Court barred the police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Directorate of State Services (DSS) from searching Rivers State Governor  Nyesom Wike’s home. The order invoked memories of the perpetual injunction obtained by a former governor against arrest and probe by the security agencies.

    For Melaye, it is a well-deserved time-out. His fans-and foes- were already wondering  when  he would be strong enough to shoot another video, his favourite pastime, besides driving fast cars and heavy motorbikes. Now, they can rest assured that the distinguished senator will soon be back in the studio.

    A source has just told me that he plans to relive how he almost pre-empted the police plan to arraign him for alleged crimes in Kogi by jumping off a moving vehicle. No doubt it will be a box office hit.

  • Year of the funeral pyre

    February 2017. A pretty, young girl blew up in Muna Dalti. She was a casualty of fear, the terror that makes us bestial. There were corn rows on the head of the girl bomber. There was a colourful bead on her wrist too. She probably loved to play dress-up and look good. Everybody forgets these bits of her.

    Folk remember her as the ‘vixen’ who flicked a switch and blew up, into a puddle of flesh and bone fragments. No one cares if she was ever innocent or raised in virtue. The village is thankful that she took no innocent life, save her teenage accomplice’s. Their carcass lay strewn about the rustic community in Maiduguri, Borno State. Their innards and blood spatter sully the village even as you read.

    Viewing her in the dust few metres from her shredded mate, the girl with the cornrows evoked the dread that wild weeds induce at the base of shoots. Two hours after her ‘sister’ and agent of a terrorist group, Boko Haram, detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the Muna vehicle park, injuring eight people and burning 13 freight trucks, the girl with the cornrows sauntered into Muna Dalti with another ‘sister’ to explode among soft targets.

    Till date, nobody knows the names of the  girls that blew up in Muna Dalti but several folk would remember Maryam Alhaji-Wakil in whom the girl died on a sunlit afternoon in Bama. That fateful day in 2014, Boko Haram insurgents invaded her town and burnt her home. They killed her relatives and decapitated her neighbours. Then they abducted her. She was nine years old.

    Maryam’s abductors whisked her to Sambisa Forest, their terror enclave. There, she was forcibly married to Modu, a ‘violent’ member of the sect. In two days, little Maryam was violently thrust into womanhood. Modu, 35, forced his way into her unripe orifice, robbing her of innocence and the mystic pleasure of first adult sexual experience. Modu was hasty and rough thus making her ‘first time’ bestial and replete with pain. She screamed in agony but Modu didn’t care. “The louder I screamed, the more violently he shoved into me until I passed out,” she told me in an exclusive interview.

    When she came to, the nine-year-old from Bama had transformed into a broken woman in the corpse of a child.

    Cut to a fresh hodgepodge of bloodshed and mayhem perpetrated in Benue, from dusk through dawn and you have a perfect picture of terror afflicting the Nigerian State.

    Contrary to widespread belief, the terror we face are hardly the podgy, covetous creatures we ennoble with public office and the Nigerian till; true terror lives in the Nigerian youth. The contemporary youth is both a victim and perpetrator of terror.

    January 2018 till date; season of the funeral pyre. Hundreds are hacked to death weekly, on the pretext of herdsmen vs. host communities’ crisis. In the wake of the genocide, public officers and politicians of the ruling party trade blame with opposition. They play to the gallery.

    At the backdrop of their shenanigans, poor, helpless kids like Maryam and the butchered residents of Benue lose their lives.

    Irrational brick bats, unbelievable platitudes and senseless bloodshed have shaped our politics for too long. Many Nigerians, youth in particular, are probably living through the worst decade of their lives. They read of bloody genocides at dawn, poverty and strife in the next city – many more live through such. And as usual, an economy patched with foreign loans and dubious tales of growth. If Nigeria is prospering, it hasn’t manifested in the lives of the citizenry.

    It took a perfect gathering of bad leadership to get to this moment. It would take electing an imperfect cannonball of a man or woman to brave through it and survive it. It’s about time Nigeria’s youth elected men of uncommon grit and fibre into public offices.

    Come 2019, what we should be interested in are candidates, president-elect in particular, capable of fostering policies that would generate employment, a functional health sector and an educational system capable of providing the skilled manpower that Nigeria needs to power her industry.

    If the youth are gainfully employed, they won’t become vulnerable to criminal masterminds using them to foment mayhem. Today is spitting out monsters and tomorrow portends the emergence of a thousand more ogres.

    What Nigeria needs at the moment are youth driven by moral courage to change the status quo; by influencing change beneficial to all. Moral courage encompasses the nerve to do the right thing and speak the truth always. It involves defying the mob as a solitary individual; to spurn the invigorating embrace of comradeship; to be disobedient to authority, even at the risk of your life, for a higher principle.

    And with moral courage comes persecution and any other form of repercussion that exposes the individual as a defenseless mark to be preyed upon. Gani Fawehinmi had moral courage, so did Malcolm X. Predictably, advocates of such morality are either maligned by fate or ascribed rogue status by the state. Routinely they are accused and charged for treason.

    But in their touted notoriety subsists the irony of an incontrovertible metaphor; they usually represent the best of mankind and civilization in their time.

    Come 2019, the youth should root for a candidate identifiable as the window into the Nigerian psyche. The one who internalises the grief he has learnt from the streets. I speak of the candidate that manifests as the blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes can rally to project their dreams and needs; the passive yet active instrument by which Nigeria may prosper and we could achieve our dreams.

    To find such a candidate, the search begins now. None of the current contenders is worthy of the Nigerian vote. If Nigeria recycles them in power, the world that awaits us would be more painful and difficult.