He was a law unto himself. He had his own army – well kitted and well armed. He was loved by few, loathed by many and dreaded by all. He ran an underworld ring of kidnappers, pirates, pipeline vandals, armed robbers, cultists and thugs that troubled many parts of the Niger Delta.
It all ended last Saturday – the sensational life of Igwedibia ‘Don Waney’ Johnson, self-styled “General” of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, Rivers State. The military said he was gunned down as he and two members of his deadly gang tried to flee when security agents came for them somewhere in Enugu.
Troops stormed his palatial home in Omoku, Rivers State, demolished it and destroyed all the fruits of his criminal exploits.
After embracing Governor Nyesom Wike’s amnesty, Waney was in December 2016 rewarded with the chieftaincy title of Oyirimiba I of Ogbaland. Apparently, he wasn’t fulfilled. He went back to his old ways, but his cup was full when on New Year’s Day 22 worshippers were killed in cold blood. He was the prime suspect.
Nobody is mourning Waney and his men. Such men do not deserve anybody’s sympathy; they had none for anybody. They were mean, brutal and wicked. That they were eventually vanquished is a lesson to all wayward men –and women. Crime does not pay. The end is always sad and bitter for criminals.
Let’s hope that Omoku residents will now have peace.
IT WAS A terrible experience. Like other motorists, I least expected what I went through on the Lagos – Abeokuta Expressway on Sunday. As I entered the road from under the bridge at Cement bus stop, what I saw ahead was not amusing at all. It was a stretch of vehicles coming from God knows where. It stretched as far as the eyes could see. I panicked as I wondered how I would get to work in good time. It was about 2.30 p.m. Can I stay in this log jam? I wondered as I looked for a way, any way, out to facilitate my movement to work.
Then I saw an opening through the road median. I took it and turned back to pass through Dopemu, thinking it would be better. That was my greatest mistake. If only I had known I would have stayed on the express. Getting off the Dopemu road to connect Dairy Farm behind Oniwaya Road took some time. That did not bother me much because I thought once I leave there it would be smooth sailing to connect Agege Motor Road off the old Lagos – Abeokuta road. By the time I got to Dairy Farm junction, it was past 3 o’clock. I was still not bothered. The traffic would soon ease, I mused to myself.
It was wishful thinking. The traffic refused to move. For about 20 minutes, we were on one spot. Many motorists in front of me and behind me started to turn back. As they did, they created a little space for those of us still in the traffic, but it was no consolation. As we took up the space they left, we had no other room to maneouvre. Is this how I will stay in this traffic for the whole day? Won’t I turn back and go and take Capitol Road? Will that road be better considering the ongoing work on the Pen Cinema flyover? I ruminated as I thought of how to free myself from the traffic mess.
After weighing all my options, I resolved to stay put on the Dairy Farm road, especially after listening to the Lagos Traffic Radio report update on the chaotic traffic jam. It was total chaos. The express was jampacked; Dopemu was not better and the Agege Motor Road by Sule Street junction linking Ile Zik to connect Ikeja Along was a bedlam. I have been in bad traffic before but that of Sunday was in a class of its own. Agege was locked down. If I was not driving, I would have found an alternative way out. But I could not abandon my car and just take off like that. Even if I wanted to, there was nowhere to park because every available space was taken up by vehicles.
As we crawled towards Sule Street junction to burst out on Agege Motor Road, an oncoming commercial bus driver who caught my eyes, said ”oga, if you are going to Oshodi, you better follow the express”. But how do I return to the express from which I turned back about two hours earlier thinking that going through Dopemu will be better. As it were, I was stuck. I gritted my teeth for what lay ahead. It cannot be worse than what I have experienced so far, I muttered under my breathe. After some minutes, we started moving again. And the time was flying. By 6 p.m., we started sighting Sule Street junction in front. The traffic, as they say in local parlance, was not smiling at all. The police and Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officials were there.
But they could not do much. They were overwhelmed by the situation. Getting out of Sule Street junction was a battle on its own. Those coming from Agege and others from the opposite direction were not ready to give way to those of us trying to join Agege Motor Road. The police and LASTMA officials came in here to restore order. It was one of the many rivers to cross. Few meters ahead were two or three other junctions from which vehicles were streaming out. Come and see people on the road that evening. Many passengers resorted to trekking after sitting inside buses for hours without movement. The kerb was brimming with people trudging to their destinations, while vehicles jostled for space on the road.
At last, I got to Ile Zik and heaved a sigh of relief. From there to Airport bus stop, the traffic was still bad because of those either driving against traffic or turning on the main road. With ongoing work on the express and Pen Cinema, there is need for the law enforcement agencies to introduce traffic control measures to avoid the kind of mess we saw in that axis on Sunday. I learnt that it was not different last Friday. There is still a long way to go before the job is completed, which will ease traffic in that area. Between now and then, people should be able to drive without fear of sleeping or wasting too many manhour on the road. Over to the police and LASTMA.
Dele Momodu is a star wildly celebrated by thousands of his admirers. As publisher of ‘Ovation International’, one of Africa’s most popular celebrity bi-lingual magazines that celebrate human vanity, he is patron to many of these fame and prosperity-seeking youths. For politicians, traditional rulers and others in society who derive joy in celebrating their sense of importance, he is an indispensable ally whose friendship is widely cultivated. As the author of a weekly Thisday back page column called “PENdulum” where current affairs and issues in Nigerian politics are critically examined, he is highly regarded by many of his admirers. Above all, as a former presidential candidate, he is to many youths especially those who have been taken hostage by the social media, the hope for tomorrow. For all the above reasons and more, when our multi-talented Dele Momodu speaks, it is incumbent for us to pay attention.
He recently, in an open letter, advised President Buhari ‘to quit while the ovation is loudest’. His reasons: non-performance and a sudden realization that Buhari’s administration is worse than that of President Goodluck Jonathan, his predecessor in office. Of course we can advance many reasons why President Buhari should go and take a well-deserved rest and hand power over to a younger person as Mandela did not too long ago in South Africa were our circumstances to be the same. But comparing Buhari with Jonathan is odious, just as a charge of non-performance is not supported by available fact. Momodu’s motive therefore is not only suspect, his current intervention raises the question as to whether his politics is not just an extension of what he does for a living – celebration of ego.
This was brought to play in his open letter to President Buhari. The letter for instance opens with a celebration of his own sense of importance. He first reminded Buhari about how valiantly he fought on his side during his 2015 presidential contest against Jonathan; he took pains to present the president with a compilation of his articles as proof.
And opening his assault, Momodu said he “never expected that our situation could ever get worse under the APC government that almost literally promised heaven and earth”. Momodu’s verdict finds parallel only in the claim of some of his followers on social media that Buhari has failed because the $1000 sent home by those who managed to escape the hell that is Nigeria fetched them N360, 000. Momodu doesn’t seem to believe there is a need to tighten our belt and become self-sufficient in things we can produce following the collapse of price of crude oil, the major source of our foreign earnings, from Jonathan’s all time high of $120 per barrel to $35 in the world market. It is most unlikely, Momodu will not understand that the only alternative to enduring some pain now in expectation of a better tomorrow, is a path that leads straight to Venezuela especially since the return to Jonathan profligate years he is craving for is no more an option.
It is also hard to believe Momodu actually thought Buhari “truly possessed the magic wand and talismanic effect to make all our problems evaporate and vamoose in a jiffy”. But if he did, it must have been a serious error of judgment on his part. This probably misled him to dissipate energy campaigning for Buhari, an endeavour he now regrets, when he could have cast his lot with our prosperity prophets, the only people millions of Nigerians look up to for life of bliss without work, a luxury the Jews – the chosen people who labour daily to turn desert into farmlands – do not enjoy.
Momodu also has an axe to grind with President Buhari for allowing a ‘cabal’ to hijack his government. As he put it: “We definitely want you to succeed but it seems some demons are desperately determined to make you fail by all means”. But Momodu could not have suddenly forgotten that when Pa Bisi Akande first identified the presence of this cabal in Buhari’s government, a section of the media labelled him a Yoruba irredentist fighting Yoruba war. And instead of Momodu joining the crusade against those harbouring anti-Nigeria agenda back then, he chose to lionise Buhari, claiming he won the election on his own merit as if Nigerians did not know he had tried and failed three times before a coalition of some disparate political interest groups swept him into power in 2015.
Momodu also says Buhari’s administration is “directionless”, blaming this on the quality of his appointees. “The quality of your appointees in recent time points to how directionless your government has finally become”, he says. He doesn’t seem to think much of some of Buhari’s shining stars in FIRS, Customs, Nigerian Ports Authority, EFCC etc.
Momodu at the end made it clear he was withdrawing his support for the president. “Your Excellency”, he declares with brutal finality, “it has become very difficult, if not impossible to defend the excessive shortcomings of your government”.
I am however not sure if Buhari, a leader who prides himself on his righteousness will see Momodu’s threat beyond self-promotion by a man who lives on celebration of vanity. He will remember it was not too long ago that Momodu lionised him and more or less proclaimed him a messiah.
As a final shot, he predicted defeat for Buhari in 2019 if his advice is not heeded, claiming Buhari has nothing to “tell and sell to the electorate this time, particularly after the colossal failure of the last three years”.
Now Buhari’s supporters have taken the battle back to Momodu, using his major platform-the social media which has become abuzz with a unique campaign copy, targeted at the private fears and anxieties of Nigerians. “Now that they say you have failed, dear PMB, they plead: “come May 2019, give them back their corruption, their terrorism, their thieving military Generals, their Tompolos, Dokubos, Shekaus and their corrupt judges”etc.
And now the battle line seems clearly drawn. While Momodu’s nostalgic craving for the return of PDP was apparent from his virulent attack, Festus Keyamo, claiming he was ‘one of those who fought to oust PDP and its bad ruling system’, has said a call for change is a call for “a return to culture of misrule of the past, executive recklessness, impunity, leadership visionlessness, indiscipline and irresponsibility and merciless looting of the resources of Nigeria”. In the absence of a third order political system, the only option according to him “is to continue to engage the present one for better delivery of government services and improvement”. Unlike Momodu, for him, Buhari’s government “is still a lot better compared to the past one”.
It is amazing how time flies. We age every second, minute and every day. Time is also a healer. I remember losing my loved ones, parents, siblings, even two prematurely born boys and above all, my wife, who departed this sinful life almost 15 years ago. I did not know I could ever get used to living without her. I also know how bitter I was when Sani Abacha detained me during the latter part of his inglorious thieving roguish regime. I probably would have been one of Abacha’s casualties but for the love I had for my wife. I was so angry that I would have given up because I felt much injustice had been done to me for no just cause. After my detention, I was told that General Ike Nwachukwu, my friend of many years, the late Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu, and Chief Ernest Sonekan pleaded for my freedom. While in detention for months, no provision was made for my feeding and money could not be smuggled to me by my wife because she did not know where I was. I suppose I was lucky that there was no bullet accidentally discharged into me. To treat a former ambassador of Nigeria the way I was treated remains unexplainable. This reminds me of what Sir Kashim Ibrahim told me in 1982 when I wrote his biography that after the 1966 January coup d’état, he was simply flown to Maiduguri without provision for where he would stay and pensions for his upkeep. He told me he was expected “to just go and die” yet this was a man who from 1951 to 1966 was regional minister, central minister, governor of the whole of northern Nigeria. I do not know why a befitting federal institution has not been named after Sir Kashim Ibrahim.
Back to my suffering in the hands of Abacha. Even though almost forgotten but how can one be expected to forgive even though our three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam enjoin us to forgive our traducers? But we are human.
At the beginning of each year, I always look back to examine my life and to see what I need to change in order to live a more perfect life knowing that I am not going to live for ever and also knowing my maker is numbering my days and no one knows when the owner of our days will say one’s time is up! When I hear about the death of friends, I always say it could have been me. The fact that I-am alive is the grace of the Almighty.
My wife Abiodun Olayinka of evergreen memory would have been 70 yesterday, January 10. It just sounds so incredible that my young wife, if she had lived, would have been this old. I myself passed this threshold a couple of years ago but that was me. What does one say for one’s departed soul mate at what would have been a turning point in her life and mine. Will happy birthday not sound a bit out of place?
But time ‘like an ever rolling stream/ Bears all its sons (daughters) away/ They fly forgotten, as a dream, dies at the opening day’.
This is what a divine wrote about Our God in ages past and it is still true several generations afterwards. I say happy birthday to my late wife who remains unforgettable all these difficult years. One never knows the value of what one has until one has lost it. Marriage is for three things, sex, procreation and companionship. Sex would wane, children will leave but what endures is companionship. This is what widows and widowers have to go through without in their lives until the end. It seems women are psychologically stronger than men and I believe they can cope better. They are more skilled in domestic arts but most especially in taking care of their partners. I am not the type who could have remarried. For me the most terrible aspect of widowhood is loneliness and not having someone you can share your inner feelings with or someone who will stay with you for better, for worse, in times of health but most especially in time of sickness, in times of poverty and in times of prosperity. I find sleeping alone is the most challenging because you sometimes in your sleep imagine someone is besides you only to wake up to find that it was an illusion. Spousal loss should never happen to anybody and my prayer is that all couples should live together for a long time so that there is no long separation of souls.
My advice to young couples is to try and live full lives without ever postponing enjoyment of their marriages till the future when in expectation there would be time after the children would have grown up and when whatever resources that are left after educating the children would be available for personal satisfaction and indulgence. We should all live modest lives and do whatever will make us happy within the restraint of our cultures and religions so that when we are old we can turn back and say “ I did it my way “. One of the most comforting things for me is the naming of two of my granddaughters Abiodun and Olayinka. My three year-old granddaughter sometimes talks about her grandmother “Abi” who she will never see except in her dream. But for me memories are for ever. Happy birthday dear wife and “emi oga”.
TO REFER to Muhammadu Buhari as an accidental president will be a misnomer. He cannot by any stretch of imagination be so tagged. President Buhari was not asked to come and occupy that exalted office; he sought the job, not once, not twice, not thrice. It was after the third try that he said he was no longer going to contest because it seems the country was not yet ready for a leader like him. But on the fourth try, he made history by beating a sitting president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan. The history of how he became president is well known to all, so there is no need rehashing it here. The issue is : what has he made of his presidency? His first four-year tenure ends next year. He has since told some Nigerians living in Cote d’ Ivoire that he may be seeking their votes again in future. The President has the right to do that, just as the electorate have the right to vote for who they like. Should Buhari run again? His loyalists say he should; his foes do not see any reason for him to seek a second term because in their estimation he has so far not done well. In matters like this, others usually do the talking while those concerned maintain silence. On Monday, while we were discussing the matter, a colleague asked me who will the people vote for if they do not vote Buhari in 2019? I told him some people also asked that question in 2015 when Buhari contested against Jonathan? Who did the people eventually vote for despite all that Jonathan’s men did? Buhari. Likewise, the electorate will know the choice to make when the time comes in 2019 whether or not Buhari runs.
THIS is, no doubt, the season of fire and fury. President Donald Trump is fighting desperately to defend his mental status. He says he is a genius. But, there are suggestions that the United States should draw from its rich directory of psychiatrists to settle the matter once and for all. Will that fly?
In Nigeria, it is not an individual’s mental status that has become a subject of bitter acrimony. Some gunmen are on a bloody mission, killing and maiming. Are these herdsmen or madmen or herdsmen-madmen?
Two governors are locked in a row over who is harbouring the gunmen. Benue State Governor Ortom, who was all tears the other day as he beheld the bodies of his compatriots felled by the bullets of the assailants, says the gunmen are camped in Nasarawa. Governor Tanko Al- Makura disagrees.
When governors turn cry-babies and whine, we all know that the matter is, indeed, grievous. But who will console them? How will they be consoled?
Cows have seized the beautiful countryside we all love to visit – clean, fresh air, the greenery and the sheer lushness of the grass; chirping birds and colourful insects perching on flowers – and threatening to march on towns and cities. Farmers are mourning their murdered loved ones and devastated farmlands. Crops that represent many months of sweating and toiling are being burnt. There are fears of food shortage.
Flags are flying at half mast in Benue where workers will be on break today to undertake the grim but necessary task of burying the dead, including women and kids. They-73 in all- had dreams, big dreams – of a greater tomorrow, of bountiful harvests and good times, not of bullets, blows and blood.
The government of Benue State is humbled and hobbled by the deadly paradox of a law that is expected to bring peace between herdsmen and farmers, but has brought misery on a scale beyond belief.
The President has deployed police chief Ibrahim Idris to the trouble spot, even as two mobile policemen have just been killed. Isn’t this more than police work? Definitely, this is no rioting that requires batons, helmets and horsewhips. No. It is a war situation. Besides, are the police trained to operate in such a terrain?
Ortom insists that the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore cattle dealers are the brains behind the savagery. The group rejects the allegation, but it agrees that the anti-open grazing law sparked the bloodletting. So, who are the killers? Are they from outer space? Are they foreigners looking for territories to conquer for their cattle as claimed in some circles? If so, where are they from?
Many are asking, what kind of cows are these that drink human blood? Are their minders genuine herdsmen or savage criminals preying on defenceless people? Is this the Fulani herdsman – quiet, a stick on his hand, a wide hat protecting his head from the scorching sun, a dagger in a leather scabbard, a water bottle and a small leather purse dangling from his shoulder – that we used to know?
When and how did he become a kidnapper, a gentleman of the highway and a heartless bandit powered by a blind ambition to conquer and occupy another man’s territory? Who are those beating the drum to which he is dancing? Who arms him? Who trained him to handle sophisticated weapons?
Those who are blaming it on Ortom are unfair. They say he should have asked his people to defend themselves. What powers do governors have in a skewed Federal system that is screwed up by an avaricious centre with a ravenous appetite? Governors are called chief security officers for nothing. They lack the muscle to enforce laws. Even the Commissioner of Police takes orders from Abuja.
The canvass of blood is wide. It spreads to Taraba where many have been killed – no fewer than 55 are said to have been murdered last weekend. There are other places where grazing has turned into razing. Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Chief Olu Falae was kidnapped on his farm. That was enough sign that we had a big problem on our hands. As usual, we just moved on after apprehending his abductors.
What do we do? The problem requires quick, decisive action, which the government, unfortunately, has not taken or is slow in taking. The matter requires creativity, imagination and innovation. Who are our thinkers in government? Is it enough to just copy what is done overseas?
Should every community begin to organise its own army?
Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose was decked out in military fatigue yesterday. Surrounded by hunters bearing all manner of weapons – dane guns, cudgels, catapaults and all that – His Excellency asked everybody to get set for a likely herdsmen’s invasion. Pray, what do we call this? Was that just another stunt? It is neither here nor there, but for sure this is more than hunting grasscutters and rabbits.
Is the herdsman to blame? Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh says we are all to blame for neglecting him for so long. “I am sad to tell you that in the last 50 years, we may have done enough for the rice farmer… but we haven’t done much for the herdsman and that inability or omission on our part is resulting in the crises that we are witnessing today.
“In Europe, every cow that is farmed gets a subsidy of six euros (N2,580) per day. We have done next to nothing for the cattle rarer here and as a result, their operations have become a threat to the existence of our farmers.”
With due respect, this logic seems sickening. We are yet to recover the billions that went into the drain of nomadic education. Should the herdsman get special treatment to appease his cattle that drink blood? What have we done for our doctors, soldiers, teachers, policemen, drivers, carpenters, engineers and other professionals? Should we now expect the day the almajiri will drop his begging bowl and pick up a rifle to deal with everybody for neglecting him? Who will carry the can of the army of thugs that politicians have always built?
Ogbeh seems to have turned logic on its head. Isn’t this merely simplifying the problem? Escapism? Or can this so-called neglect be said to be a strong enough justification for the slaughter of innocents?
Benue State has ordered every cattle farmer to have a ranch. The herdsmen do not like that. They want to keep roaming the land, destroying farms on which many communities lay their hope. Why are herdsmen against ranching?
The Federal Government has proposed colonies. Is that the answer?
We do not need to mend this problem; we should end it. Now.
Some have suggested a beef boycott. This is also simplifying the knotty problem. A beef boycott will spark another problem. All manner of emergency nutritionists, gastroenterologists and pediatricians will spring up to pontificate on the negative effects of such an action on the health of adults and children not just in this generation but also the next– malnourishment, weakness, weight loss and all that. The effects will be couched in some esoteric jargons that will send panic all over the place.
The government, ever quick to respond to emergencies of this nature, will organise seminars and workshops. Experts will be flown in to speak. Radio jingles and television adverts will follow, not forgetting the newspapers. Traditional rulers will be flown to Abuja to listen at such seminars. Village associations will be drafted in to join the campaign. We will be told that a nation without beef is doomed to fail. Thereafter, all will be quiet. We will return to beef. Then, the attackers, now better armed, will resume their fiendish campaign.
This is the year of the funeral pyre. The calendar year in which ‘patriots’ carve bullets and axes from soapboxes; and for the sport of politicians, increase the number of the dead.
This is the year in which criminals, hired assassins and mass murderers actualise their dreams of bliss that they might become governors, legislators, local government chairmen and councilors in 2019.
Like the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC) turned governance and citizenship into a Darwinian spectacle of turbulent energies: hate-mongering, blaming, fleeing, chasing, murdering and devouring, these past three years.
Despite this sad reality, gangs of critics who fought Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP off, tend to downplay Buhari and his APC’s ineptitude and ethical ambiguities. For instance, ex-pension boss, Abdulrasheed Maina’s scandalous reinstatement in very suspicious circumstances, has failed to incite appropriate resent. But that is just a tip of the iceberg.
At the moment, gangs of oil thieves, striving in twos and threes, fours and fives have made it on to the boards of Nigeria’s most lucrative cash cows, the country’s public corporations. From their vantage positions, it becomes easier to cause fuel scarcity, prevent stable electricity, dominate import/export business, steal public funds, influence election results. No thanks to President Buhari and his expedient gospel of ‘change.’
Buhari wants to free Nigeria from corruption but he is hobbled by desperate lust to play sweetheart to the Nigerian electorate and the nefarious cabal by whose designs he believes he is able to maintain his feeble hold on power.
Jonathan’s government was atrocious but Buhari’s government as it is, manifests as a political grand opera of instability, double-speak, over-hyped achievements, anguish and resentment.
There is no use blaming Buhari. He probably meant well until the lust for power overwhelmed the supposed patriot in him. Ensconced in his high office, he lives immune to the ravages of infrastructural lack, declining naira, power outage, insecurity, unemployment and endemic poverty snuffing lives out in the cities, suburbs and backwaters.
Thus it was mortifying to hear his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, harp on the APC’s capacity to live up to its campaign promise by paying N5, 000 monthly to impoverished families in the country. Where? How? Why should that be an achievement to be proud of?
Speaking on the initiative in the run-up to the March 28 presidential polls, Osinbajo stated that the initiative was meant to support 25 million of 119 million extremely poor Nigerians who earn less than N200 a day to take care of their families. The vice president added that the fast way of dealing with that was the N5,000 monthly Conditional Cash Transfer Programme.
“We will give N5, 000 to the poorest 25 million over a phased period, if their children are enrolled in school and participate in immunization…So we are actually doing two things; we are giving stipends to the very poorest and ensuring that in order to earn that stipend they certify two conditions,” he said.
Hmmm…To think we had higher expectations of Osinbajo and Buhari. I would rather they regale us with facts and figures about measures they took to restore stable electricity supply, revivify comatose industry, revolutionise education, healthcare, provide good roads among others.
These were achievable in the past three years – at least in convincing phases – had the APC truly devoted resources to tackling crucial social problems.
Buhari and Osinbajo were supposed to be great men. Nigerians reposed trust in them believing they were invulnerable to the lure of illusionary politics and celebritized governance.
A vote for Buhari/Osinbajo resonated as a vote for men with permanent personalities, integrity and values. The Buhari/Osinbajo Nigerians voted for didn’t just care about winning for personal gain alone – at least we thought – or conquering to perpetrate vendettas, hedonism, and oppression – atrocities several members of their cabinet and the ruling party are guilty of.
We didn’t vote Buhari/Osinbajo to celebritise victimhood or blame-casting. We voted them to improve governance, provide stable electricity, revivify comatose industry, enable entrepreneurship, provide employment opportunities, improve quality healthcare, education, among others.
Does the APC’s performance in the past three years excite electorate will to retain it in power come 2019? Has the Buhari/Osinbajo team performed well? I would give them a resounding score of 20 over 100 (20%) – obtainable by the administration’s convincing anti-corruption war.
Notwithstanding the incumbent administration’s apparent shortcomings, the ancient political rite of domination by the attractive person with deep pocket or sheer political capital, will manifest in keeping it in power. We see it in political cult followership of characters like Atiku Abubakar, and President Buhari.
Thus this year, Nigerians will foolishly bicker and fight in support or against Atiku Abubakar, Buhari and any situational clown that would express his ambition to contest the presidential seat.
Nigerians will make uninformed choices, as usual. The eye elects and the mind accepts a galvanizing object and formalizes the union in espoused politics, bigotries, ethics – all of a political nature.
This imposes a hierarchic character on the electorate, making all receptors of the beloved’s manna. The structure is sadomasochistic. Infinitely subservient.
This year, the cycle continues and the feeling accentuates of Nigeria as the proverbial ragged babe caught in a cycle of cannibalism enacted by the APC and PDP, savages attacking and retreating in obsessive rhythms of victory and defeat.
Nigeria, the ragged babe, is thrust to the savages for the umpteenth time; they nail her down to a rock in their slaughterhouse of greed; they bind iron thorns around her head, pierce her unformed nipples, hands and feet. They cut her heart out to sup on its blood.
Picture us as the ragged child; the pre-nubile damaged girl. The savages live on our shrieks and cries. They nourish from our interminable miseries, pain and death. They grow young as we grow old.
If we retain them in power, innocence dies by degenerate experience.
PULPITS are burning with the fire of predictions. Pentecostal giants are delivering their messages to guide the flock. Necromancers, sorcerers, tricksters, fraudsters and pranksters are also busy. The town is abuzz with predictions – and resolutions -for the New Year.
Now that genuine religious patriarchs and matriarchs have spoken; charlatans, who claim to be that voice of the One crying in the wilderness, have been heard and the pandemonium has subsided, it is time for “Editorial Notebook” to weigh in and reveal, for the benefit of the dedicated reader, what lies in the belly of the year.
Here then, dear reader, are what to expect in the new year. First, the political scene. After all, many have called this the year of politics, in a veiled reference to the run-up to the 2019 general elections.
The pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to run will be more intense. The army of sycophants, including some cunning and corny governors, will grow. They will be more vociferous in their Buhari-for-ever campaign. Buhari and the attentive public should ignore them. They are battling to feather their own nests.
The President should ask himself some basic questions: How well have I done? Can my health carry on? Should I just go home and rest? Haven’t I missed my farm so much? What will my family’s stand be? Will my wife Aisha (bless another foray into months of electioneering?) Phrase in brackets not clear. Please review.
Still on politics: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will continue to threaten to run. His opponents will be asking: Where is he running to? Who is pursuing him? Why? Those are, it should be noted, the soft critics. The harsh ones will ask: is the seat for sale?
Atiku, a man of uncommon zest, will soldier on. He will rally the youth and claim to understand how they feel. His battle to secure the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will almost split the PDP. Party leaders should pray for its survival. They should curse the spirit of deception and obfuscation, the type that sparked the Ali Modu Sheriff – Ahmed Markarfi leadership war.
Some men will approach Atiku, asking to be hired at a fortune for a walk from Lagos to Abuja to back his ambition. He should not touch them with a long pole. They are as fake as Internet fraudsters.
It will be the year of stunts and stunts men. No more will serious politicians be satisfied with devouring in public view corn-on-the cob from roadside vendors; many will transform themselves into hawkers of groundnuts, garden eggs, candy, phone recharge cards and all such stuff. They will be screaming for patronage in a manner that will lead many to think that they are mad. No. They are not. No need to rush at them. It is all in a desperate bid to identify with the masses.
Rejoice, area fathers and area boys, roughnecks, bouncers, thugs and fake herbalists. It is your season; the season of politics, of expensive spiritual intercessions, of emergency publicists, of dubious advocates, of free cash and, of course, of free food and drinks.
Senators will continue to resist Ibrahim Magu’s headship of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They will rework the EFCC Act, run a public hearing where Magu will be thoroughly scorned and maligned and, eventually, find a more suitable candidate to replace him– most likely a senator or a former lawmaker.
There will be outrage. Activists will march. Ordinary folks will scream: “Ah senators!” Some will repeat those unproven allegations against the distinguished senators. They will describe the chamber as a conclave of drug barons, ex-convicts, pedophiles and crooks. But fair is fair; who can handle the beat better than a man who has seen it all?
In Ekiti, the PDP will be divided as Governor Ayo Fayose will insist on fielding his deputy, Kolapo Olusola, a professor of building technology. Many party chiefs will kick. They will claim to be the best to keep alive Fayose’s enviable legacies, including the magical vote harvesting formula, stomach infrastructure, that has got every Ekiti resident sporting chubby cheeks and protruding stomachs, their rotundity the envy of all.
“Who is he?” they will be asking of Fayose’s candidate. Does he possess the talents – tailor, fireman, motorcyclist, cooked food vendor and more – that have distinguished Fayose among his peers? How many titles does he have? How many battles has he fought?
Needless to say, Fayose will have his way, but the main election will prove a hard nut to crack.
In Oyo, the “ewedu, gbegiri and amala” politics will return, pushing aside the present intellectual bent that has been much criticised as elitist and sectional. Why? Many devotees of the Adedibu School have joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), bringing along many years of experience.
More states will try to catch up with Imo, which will continue to make waves with its Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment, erection of statues and demolition of troublesome markets. Unable to cope with the army of people from other states flooding Imo in search of happiness and fulfillment, Governor Rochas Okorocha will mount a massive campaign that will be tagged “Imo First” or something like that. He will be fighting that all indigenes should first taste of this unique phenomenon that is drawing people as bees to honey.
Akinwunmi Ambode’s image will keep soaring. The Lagos governor’s ambitious programmes will win global accolades. None shall match him. The opposition will find it hard to find a candidate to confront him. There will be a rash of groups campaigning for his return.
Efforts to unite them will not work as more groups spring up like mushrooms.
The Federal Government must move fast to stop cows from taking over our towns and cities, including Abuja. The animals have become the indisputable conquerors of the countryside. Gangsters posing as herdsmen will continue their bloody campaign, killing and maiming. The governors, helpless as usual, will console the bereaved, visit morgues and shed tears. They should wear bullet proof vests on such visits to deny the gunmen of snatching away a big trophy.
Pressed to react, the Federal Government will issue a statement, sympathising with those who lost their loved ones and asking the security agents to go after the “perpetrators of the dastardly act”. It will threaten to turn the screw on them and bring “the full weight of the law” upon them. Their backers, the government will stress, will face the “full wrath of the law”. All will be quiet for a while. Then, another attack; a round of condemnation and tears. The old statement is whipped off the shelf, reworked and issued. All will be quiet – until another massacre.
There will be the temptation to withdraw $1b from the Excess Crude Account to fight the criminals, but some governors, those who kicked against spending such funds on the anti-Boko Haram war and other security challenges, will rise. We should be careful as it all becomes a matter of academics and legal gymnastics.
The Super Eagles will be at the World Cup in Russia. There will be a massive campaign to ensure that we make history as the first African country to win the trophy. The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will call for prayers – from people of all faiths and atheists.
The odds are against our team, but the world will acknowledge that we have got talents. One thing: Minister Solomon Dalung should watch his tongue. No more “we qualified without conceding a goal” and such empty bathroom talks. Besides, he should ensure that the team is not declared missing (he claimed not to know their whereabouts of our team just before the 2016 Olympics in Brazil).
Frontline entertainers P-Square will be under pressure from their heart broken fans, who will be begging them to reunite. Both sides will mount a massive verbal war. After a while, the twins will announce that in the interest of their numerous fans, they are back together – strong and hot.
On the foreign scene, North Korea will continue to get plenty of attention. Its leader Kim Jong-un will remain a pain in the neck for United States President Donald Trump. North Korea will forge ahead with its nuclear programme, testing more intercontinental ballistic missiles. Trump, in a series of tweets, will keep saying that the United States will not allow a nuclear power North Korea. Kim Jon-un will assure all that the nuclear button is right on his table, but he will neither be provoked nor tempted to press it. Trump will reply that his button is bigger than Kim’s. And the battle of wits and muscle flexing will go on ad infinitum.
The year will end on a rather busy note. Motorists will be running around like sheep without a shepherd, hunting for fuel. Fares will rise. Airports will be jammed as harmattan – harsh, dry, dusty and cloudy – impairs visibility. The government will announce with magisterial aplomb that it has discovered those behind the perennial petrol shortage – blackmailers. They will be warned to pull the brakes on their evil act or face the full wrath of the law for their “unacceptable” conduct. They won’t listen.
In all, it will be an exciting year – all things being equal.
Iron Mike Tyson and his new trade
mike-tyson
BOXING great Michael Gerard Tyson has come a long way. World heavyweight champion – 50 wins (44 by knockouts) and six losses – ex-convict, film star, dad and darling of fans all over the world. He earned – and blew – $300m.
Like many ex-stars, he couldn’t manage his success. He went to prison for rape. He lost his daughter and he started begging for roles in movies to avoid dying in penury.
Now the “Iron man” has found a new trade – he has opened a cannabis ranch in California. The 40-acre property is in California City, a town with a population of just 15,000 people southwest of Death Valley. The ranch will be researching into clinical benefits of marijuana. Medical marijuana has been legalised in California in the past 20 years. Farmers will be taught how to grow the stuff in the Tyson Cultivation School. There are other facilities.
The legend’s grass-to-grace story, which many won’t hesitate to describe as zero-to-hero and hero-to-zero, offers a big lesson to all who strive to excel. To remain a success is the real test of a successful men.
Professor Kayode Osuntokun, one of Africa’s foremost neuroscientists passed on more than 22 years ago when the ovation of his remarkable life was loudest. He was only 60 years old. He was born on January 6, 1935. January 6 is the feast of Epiphany so the lecture today is holding close to his birthday. His death was a great loss to his wife and children and to us his siblings, and medical academy in Nigeria, Africa and the world. If he had lived longer, he could have been a candidate for the Nobel laureate in medical sciences. His life was a proof of the statement of the poet William Wordsworth that the “child is the father of the man” or what the poet John Milton meant when he said “childhood shows the man as morning shows the day”. He was a precocious child who by the time he was six years old had read the Bible from page to page. He was barely 17 when he left high school and this was a record time in those days when people went to school when they were really mature. His power of recall of events was prodigious. He was so totally organized that he kept documents and letters as if he was an archivist. I do not need to regale my readers about his prizes and awards all over the world and as being the first black person to achieve the various feats he attained in the field of medicine. He was recognized worldwide and an appreciative home land conferred on him the Officer of Federal Republic (OFR) and the Nigerian National Order Of merit (NNOM). He spent virtually his adult life at the University of Ibadan and at its University College Hospital (UCH) where he rose to the rank of Professor of Medicine in the subspecialty of Neurology at a young age and subsequently became the Dean, College of Medicine and later Chief Medical Director. Two of his children and a granddaughter have followed his footsteps into the medical profession while three of his other children have wisely followed the much more lucrative fields of law and finance! The college of medicine has honoured him by naming one of the auditoriums in the college “The Kayode Osuntokun Auditorium” where the annual lecture organized by the Kayode Osuntokun Trust chaired by his equally academically distinguished wife, companion and partner, retired professor of ophthalmology, Professor Olabopo Osuntokun. Professor Kayode Osuntokun was not just a bookworm, he was also a sportsman who played soccer both in high school and at the University College. At one time he was the lawn tennis champion of the then Western Nigeria. Even though he was at heart shy and introverted, he nevertheless had a wide circle of friends with whom he was very close. He definitely left his footprints on the sand of time. He is certainly unforgettable. The World Health Organisation organized annual lectures in his remembrance but after a few of such lectures, the enthusiasm seems to have waned but the fire in Ibadan keeps on burning.
There have been 19 annual lectures and symposium since 1996 when the lectures began. The lecture did not hold last year because the linchpin of these lectures, Professor Olabopo Osuntokun was under the weather and the Trust did not want to hold the parade, so to say, without the celebrant. Thank God for this year’s lecture. The lecturer this year is the globally distinguished virologist and former vice chancellor of the Redeemer’s University, Professor Oyewale Tomori. He was president, Nigerian Academy of Sciences and Fellow of American Academy of Medical Sciences. He has spent all his life in the frontier of discovering and finding solutions to the myriad of dangerous viruses that litter the African environment. Professor Tomori will be following the footsteps of other medically known and distinguished academics from Nigeria, the USA and the United Kingdom one of who was Sir Keith Peters, Regius Professor of Physic (Medicine) in Cambridge who wrote when Kayode died “That as a young doctor, Kayode came to learn from us in the United Kingdom, but by the time he died we were all learning from him”. What better accolade could one have expected from his colleagues? The lectures have not been limited to the Akinkugbes, Aminus, Salakos , Esans , Adeloyes, Akpans, Kukus, Oyebodes, Awojobis, Falusi-Ololade s and other distinguished medical luminaries alone. Professor Akin Mabogunje brought his erudition to give a most insightful lecture on the dire social condition of Nigeria within which medical scientists operate. The lectures have been chaired by distinguished Nigerians such as Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and a distinguished international civil servant, the late Professor Tekena Tamuno, former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan , Chief Folake Solanke SAN, Professor Bolanle Awe, Professor Olumide Lucas among others. The late Deacon Gamaliel Onosode also came a few years ago and contributed substantial amount of his hard-earned money to assist the Kayode Osuntokun Trust in its support for research, and award of prizes to the best student in Christ School Ado Ekiti in the WAEC examination and in the best student in the final Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery examinations of the University of Ibadan. In his will and last testament, Kayode Osuntokun virtually gave all his hard-earned savings from years of consultations at the WHO, guest lectures all over the world and earnings during sabbatical leaves in British and American universities and at the National Institute of Health ( NIH ) in the USA running to millions of naira in 1995. The prizes at Christ School and in the medical school are being doubled this year because of the declining value of the naira. The funds directly given to the University of Ibadan have been so totally mismanaged that the least said about it the better. At a time the money could not be traced in the university bursary. The traumatic effect on Professor Olabopo Osuntokun can only be imagined. The effect on me in particular was such that when I endowed prizes in Ekiti State and Redeemer’s universities, it was with trepidation and an academic colleague actually said I was wasting my resources. I hope this scenario is not a general phenomenon in Nigerian universities because if it is, it will discourage academics and others from bequeathing money to our universities. In civilized countries of the world, universities are run largely from such funds. My PhD was sponsored by the Izaak Walton Killam Trust /Foundation which were funds provided by Dorothy Killam to celebrate her most distinguished industrialist-husband by funding research in the universities of Alberta, Dalhousie and British Columbia. What has happened to the funds provided by the Kayode Osuntokun Trust in the University of Ibadan is most annoying and painful because the institution has betrayed the late Osuntokun’s hopes in the university. I know a few people who said in1995 when we read my brothers will that he should just have given his entire estate to his wife and children. When Professor Jide Bademosi, a distinguished neurologist was reluctantly appointed Kayode Osuntokun Professor of Neurology, he was for months never paid because the funds from the Trust had been muddled up. This is bad for a university of the age of the University of Ibadan of which as an alumnus I am proud. Perhaps all is not lost and the situation may yet be redeemable. But what happened in the University of Ibadan is a symptom of the general malaise not just in the Nigerian university system but in Nigerian life in general.
Welcome to the Kayode Osuntokun lecture. One hopes that Nigeria of our dreams will one day be a reality. It is in this spirit that Professor Tomori’s lecture will be relevant. The chairman of the occasion is Professor George Fola Esan, distinguished haematologist and Christ School alumnus and one of the brightest persons I have ever known apart from Kayode Osuntokun and Tosin Lyon, MD a non-invasive cardiologist in Toronto who happens to be my daughter. It seems brilliance is in the Osuntokun gene!
Finally, let me use this medium to remember two of my classmates and friends Dr. Omololu Odukunle and Otunba Noah Olutola Fadayomi, two distinguished Nigerians who joined the saints triumphant at the close of last year. May God rest Noah and Lolu’s souls in perfect peace.
It is four days into the year today and the air is still suffused with greetings of Happy New Year. It is customary for us to greet ourselves in that manner at the beginning of a new year. It is not out of place to see a friend shouting out to another : “Old boy, I saw you last, last year o; Happy New Year”. The greeting is a show of love and gratitude to God for surviving the previous year. 2017 was a mixed bag for many of us. At the beginning of that year, we greeted ourselves ”happy new year” the same way we are doing now.
Beyond that wish, some people, especially pastors, have spoken on what the year holds for us. Their predictions are not that frightening really, considering some of the prophesies we heard in the past. To the Prelate of the Anglican Church, Primate Nicholas Okoh, it willl be a year of happiness for all. ”There may be life in descent. You have difficulties you cannot solve, probably with child bearing, in 2018, you will reap the fruit of your labour. The Lord will visit you and you will know laughter again.
”Do not be frustrated or unhappy as the Lord is working out a miracle. We will experience the mighty power of the one that created all things”, Okoh said. ”Corrupt people will fall this year”, predicted Dr Daniel Olukoya, General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry (MFM). I can hear a lot of Nigerians saying amen to that. He continued : ”2018 will be sad for rebellious characters and wasters; the pestle will defeat the mortar. God will demonstrate His raw power, kill rebellious kings and rulers and disgrace the strongman of terror and fear. Terror will swallow terror”.
General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Enoch Adeboye said ”significant Goliaths will fall”, adding : ”Many people will wake up to realise that their future is not in the hand of any government and as a result a lot of loss ground will be reclaimed”; and ”sabotuers will be disgraced and displaced”. He brought some good tidings too, saying : ”Before the end of the year, there will be rays of hope that all will still be well”.
My prayer has always been that all will be well with our country. It is when it is well with Nigeria that it can be well with the citizenry. If things are tough, there is no way that it will not reflect in the people’s standard of living. Many will be living from hand to mouth though they may be working and earning salaries, which cannot take them anywhere. Those who are unemployed wil be worse off. In 2018, things are likely to look up for the employed and unemployed because of the improvement in our economy.
Since the economy came out of recession in the second quarter of 2017, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the outlook has been bright. Many businesses are picking up and producing at over 70 percent of their capacity unlike before when they were working below capacity. The horizon looks good for the real sector to play its leading role in revamping the economy and creating the much needed jobs to take many graduates off the streets.
With the presidential order on the ease of doing business, the door is equally open for investors to come in and buoy up the economy. I foresee foreign and local investors capitalising on the provisions of the ease of doing business to set up businesses, thereby creating jobs. There will also be openings in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). Sources say there have always been openings in those places, but many could not get jobs there because of what they described as ”systemic corruption”. The Buhari government will tackle that frontally this year to ensure more jobs are created in the public sector.
With the rebound in the capital market, which was hailed by the western media, the economy will go up, up and up in 2018. The market entered 2018 strong and it is expected to maintain that run, barring any unforeseen hitch. Luckily for us, ours is not an economy where acts of omission and commission by those in power can cause hiccup in the market. The market can only tumble from the underhand deals of traders. The traders hold the key to the continued prosperity of the market and so must be watched closely by the regulators for investors’ sake. As a corollary, the money market is likely to loosen up a bit so as to bring down the double digit interest rate, which is now killing business.
Politics and sports will dominate 2018. Although the general election comes up in 2019, preparations for the poll will be made this year. Who picks the presidential tickets of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), All Progressive Grand Allianace (APGA) and the over 56 remaining parties is an issue that will be determined this year. Very soon, governance will begin to suffer for politicking. The APC governors are rooting for a second term for President Muhammadu Buhari, who appears not averse to the idea.
At the African Union (AU) – European Union (EU) Summit in Cote d’ivoire the other day, he told the Nigerian community that he may be asking for their votes in future. That future is around the corner. I predict that he will run again in 2019 after picking his party’s ticket at its convention this year. Who will challenge him for the ticket anyway? Nobody. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who would have done so, has since returned to PDP. But will Atiku get the party’s ticket? He may be disappointed because the forces against him are more than he can imagine. Many in PDP see him as a liability and will not back him as their candidate. They prefer fresh blood, so to say, and they are looking towards former caretaker chairman Senator Ahmed Makarfi and outgoing Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo. Former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido is also eyeing the ticket. But Makarfi has an edge over them.
There will be governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states on July 14 and September 22, this year. The elections will be a straight fight between APC and PDP. Will PDP’s Governor Ayo Fayose overcome the APC threat in Ekiti? His party may carry the day if the APC does not get its act right. In Osun, outgoing Governor Rauf Aregbesola has a Herculean task returning the APC to power. Some say he has done well, but the people, especially the workers and pensioners, seem uncomfortable with his style. Will he succeed in installing his successor? Yes, he will, but at a cost.
It is the World Cup year and Nigerians will do anything to see the Super Eagles win the mundial in Russia. How far can we go in the football tourney? Will we scale through the group stage where we are playing against Croatia, Iceland and Argentina? Our first game with Croatia matters and by beating them on June 16, we would have started off on the right note. Argentina? Yes, they are the biggest threat in our group, but we can beat them. We may not win the World Cup, but we can make it to the quarterfinals. Oh! I almost forgot. There will petrol sarcity at Yuletide. You will say I said so. Happy New Year, dear readers.
