The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

Orphans of the republic

History will never be kind to the staff of the Federal Scholarships Board (FSB), who dared starving and homeless scholars abroad, to come back home and flog the education minister.

Beyond his contempt for the state-sponsored scholars cum recipients of the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), subsists an inordinate lack of tact and sensibility, perhaps. Another tragic manifestation of systemic and human failings.

The BEA, an ambitious pact between Nigeria and fifteen other countries, was meant to serve as a bridge to intellectual prosperity and national progress. Instead, it manifests as a dark channel, where the light of scholarship dims to neglect.

For years, the Nigerian government has defaulted on its obligations, leaving its scholars marooned on foreign shores, forsaken by the very nation that pledged to sustain them. It was in 2023, however, that this dereliction assumed horrific proportions. Reports from The Nation, FIJ, and The Cable, among others, have revealed the traumatic fate of these students, time and over again.

These scholars, scattered across participating countries, were to receive $7,450 annually for postgraduate studies and $6,450 for undergraduates. This stipend was meant to take cater for their health insurance, medical allowances, and daily sustenance. The host nations honored their end of the bargain, covering tuition and accommodation, but Nigeria has serially defaulted – failing to pay the promised stipends. By the beginning of 2025, the stipends had vanished into a void of bureaucratic indifference.

For the supposed beneficiaries, the impact has been devastating. How does a nation explain the sight of its brightest minds scrounging through garbage bins? How do we explain the tragic reality of our BEA scholars, some of whom have resorted to shoplifting – stealing bread to quiet the growl of their bellies. abroad? A recent report by the FIJ revealed how some BEA scholars in Europe were caught shoplifting.

Desperation is an acid that corrodes dignity. With each skipped stipend, each Nigerian student abroad inches closer to insanity. In Hungary, the law forbids them from working. In Morocco, the host universities provide no accommodation. Some have been evicted, tossed onto streets that offer nothing but the cold draft of abandonment. Some battle depression, their minds cracking under the weight of uncertainty. Some contemplate asylum, seeking refuge from hardship foisted on them by a homeland that treats them as disposable chaff. A postgraduate scholar in one of the country’s European partners revealed that their stipend had been slashed from $500 to $220. Rent alone costs €250. Once gainfully employed in Nigeria, this student had resigned in pursuit of knowledge, believing in the certitude of government support. Now, he is adrift, an intellectual pauper betrayed by the very system that courted him.

It’s even more alarming to mull the Federal Government’s response to the students’ plight. When they dared to raise their voices, what did they get? Silence, at first, then contempt. During a virtual meeting with a senior official of the Federal Scholarship Board (FSB), the students suffered unimaginable derision from the character who reportedly mocked them, saying that if they were so angry, they should come back home and beat the Minister of Education.

And what of the $1,000 deducted from each student’s stipend in 2023, a sum promised for reimbursement when funds became available? Nothing. The promise to refund the money stays buried, till date, in a fog of bureaucratic opacity. Equally worrisome is the fate of graduates of the BEA programme, some of whom are still expectant of their arrears, forced to bear the weight of debts their own government refuses to settle.

If the state cannot uphold its obligations, then why persist in the deception? If these scholarships are to be nothing more than instruments of torment, let them be abolished. There is no dignity in a scholarship that starves its recipient, no honor in a contract whose terms are ghosted in ink and empty promises.

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It’s about time we understood that the affected students are not mere beneficiaries of a scholarship scheme but Nigeria’s ambassadors, sent to burnish the country’s intellectual prowess. And yet, they are now symbols of shame, reduced to mendicants and shoplifters. Their plight manifests as both an academic crisis and diplomatic disgrace.

There is a tragic irony in the government’s contempt for these scholars. It is as though the government approves of the contempt meted to the students by the FSB officials responsible for their upkeep overseas – the latter lamented that some of the state officers see them as nothing more than the children of peasants—unworthy of the full dignity of a promise kept.

If the Nigerian government still possesses a shred of integrity, it must act swiftly and decisively. First, the arrears must be cleared, and every kobo accounted for. The students must be paid what they are owed, and those who have graduated must not be left in limbo. Second, the administration of the BEA scheme must be overhauled. It must no longer be weaponized with bureaucratic contempt and as a cudgel against vulnerable scholarship beneficiaries. Third, and most crucially, Nigeria must rethink its educational priorities. Instead of sustaining a scholarship programme riddled with administrative failure, fluctuating currency value, and corruption, why not invest those resources into the nation’s universities?

President Bola Tinubu has done well with the students’ loan scheme but a lot still has to be done. In the 2024 fiscal year, a meagre N1.59 trillion—only 5.52% of the national budget—was allocated to the Ministry of Education. This falls woefully short of UNESCO’s recommended 15-20%. A recourse to educational foundations, in the light of Arnold’s 1869 treatise, could be in Nigeria’s best interest. President Tinubu could lay the foundation for such a monument by increasing Nigeria’s education budget to 18 per cent.

Countries like Finland and Japan have shown that a robust, well-funded educational system can transform a nation. Nigeria could take a cue from either. The transformation of the Finnish education system, for instance, began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardised test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math.

Finnish schools are publicly funded. School managers at all levels are educators, not businessmen or politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education irrespective of his or her descent. The differences between the weakest and strongest students in Finland are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The foundations of Nigerian scholarship must be reconstructed to guarantee more progressive responses to internal problems of social advancement: problems of work and wages, of families and homes, of morals and the true value of life.

True knowledge is never simply to teach bread-winning, furnish teachers for the public schools or vocation for the unemployed. It should above all, be an appendage of that fine adjustment between what Du Bois calls reality and the flourishing knowledge of life. An improvement of civilisation and solution to its seemingly intractable problems.

March 13, 2025
A woman’s world?

The Natashagate has reopened the vexed debate on gender parity. Feminists crave parity with men. They argue that men and women should be treated equally in all facets of life. Many men have come to accept their female counterpart’s position, not only for peace to reign but also because they believe that women like men should be given a chance in life too. It is an unending conversation, which has even pitched men against themselves. What a woman cannot do does not exist!

Though born the same way as a man, the life of a woman is defined right from birth. From being a girl to becoming a woman she passes through some good and rough patches. What many women are complaining about today started long ago, precisely on the day they were born. Unlike her male counterparts, the girl-child has a set of rules to live by.

The boys too have their own. You cannot grow up in the 50s, 60s and some years in the 70s without living under the strict ‘terms and conditions’ of hardcore parents who brooked no nonsense. They did not spare the rod so as not to spoil the child. But for the girls, the rules were sterner and they must not be broken under any condition. The girls broke them at their own risk. Interestingly, these rules were not meant to cage the girl-child, they were set to put them on the straight and narrow path.

The path that they would follow in later years that people who did not know their backgrounds would see them and say: “you were raised well”. More often than not, they followed it up with the question: “who are your parents?”. From time immemorial, ours has been a society of morals and values. A society that places much store in the dignity, chastity and honour of a woman, than those of a man.

This is why the girl-child comes into the world already ‘profiled’. From the cradle, she is taught how to be a woman and mother, who must always look down and not into others’ faces while she is being addressed. Society did and still does all these for the good upbringing of the woman. In the days of yore, this arrangement was accepted without fuss. Our mothers grew up to know their place in society, and they accepted what fate had chosen for them.

Since as they say, the only constant thing in life is change, the modern day disruptive rules of raising children have come to rock the system. But the ‘Old School Way’ of doing things remains a constant. You can only change what is bad and improve on what is good. Just as no one changes a winning team, you also cannot change that ‘archaic’ (their word, not mine) way of bringing up a child. Today’s feminists are fighting the old order because they perceive those rules as ‘constricting’ and fashioned against women.

What they do not realise is that there is nothing in the old order of raising children that says a woman cannot compete with a man. Nor fight for all the good things of life; go in search of knowledge in any part of the world, no matter how distant; seek the best jobs and aim for the highest positions available.

All of these come with a fiat to do so with their heads held high. However, they should not in the desire to achieve their goals become a nuisance to themselves. As our parents were wont to say then: “remember the child of whom you are”.

These words still ring in our ears today. Like a man, a woman is free to fight for a seat (this word again) at the table. Nothing and nobody should stop a woman from doing so. What society demands, just as it was instilled in us as we were growing up, is that the woman should not lose her decency in whatever she does, whether in the public or private domain. A woman must be a woman in deed, honour and character.

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Nobody is saying that the woman should be a second fiddle. No, not at all. All that is being said is that a woman should not because of the perks of office be a disgrace to herself and her family. In whatever situation she finds herself, she must like Caesar’s wife be above board. A woman who acts indecently in order to get to high office will always face the repercussions, if not now, certainly sometime in the future because those who witnessed it all will never forget.

The gender debate was ignited by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s out of the blue allegation of sexual harassment against Senate President Godswill Akpabio. The matter is being blown out of proportions by feminists, while the live issue of Natasha breaking the Senate Rules called the Red Book has been overlooked. This writer has nothing against women and I am not advocating that their place remains the kitchen.

Our society has since passed that stage. Women whether in the political or any other space should be able to hold their own and learn to play by the rules (this word too!). It should not be one set of rules for them and another for men. Rules are rules and they are made for the peaceful coexistence of the members of a group as well as the larger society.

No matter how many times men and women fight, they will continue to live together. This is why it is unfair for feminists and their co-travellers to always shout misogyny whenever issues arise as they are bound to, in any human enterprise. When they arise, the wise thing to do is to come and let us reason together. The truth is we shall continue to fight and live to fight again and again as man and woman. Are men misogynist when they insist on women doing the right thing by following the rules?

Are they misogynist when they ask for proof from a woman accusing them of sexual advances and/or harassment? Are they misogynist when they demand of a female member to follow the group’s rules? So, for the fear of being accused of misogynism, a man should allow a woman to malign him and get away with it? All this noise about misogynism is to obfuscate matters so as to drown the main issue, but it will not work.

With the ill-advised externalisation of her sexual harassment claim that is sub judice and best handled at home, those mouthing misogynism should by now know where the accuser who is doing everything to nail the accused is coming from and probably heading to. Our Senate may not be perfect just like any other political institution here or abroad, but it remains our highest law making body, and it should be accorded the respect it deserves by members and non-members.

Before I am crucified, I make bold to say that I am a he for she. But for the fear of being called misogynists, many men are siding Natasha. They conveniently chose to forget that the accused deserves the benefit of doubt until clearcut evidence says otherwise.

I will not for the fear of being tagged a misogynist back any woman, no matter how highly placed, who accuses a man of sexual misbehaviour until she proves the allegation. This is the rational way to go. People should not allow their emotions to get the better of them over this matter.

March 13, 2025
Supreme Court clears political fog over Rivers

The much-awaited certified true copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court verdict on the Rivers State political crisis which was released on Thursday has ended all legal disputes among the feuding parties. With the court’s profound findings, any matter pending in court has died a natural death. The court without mincing words defined the status of the 27 lawmakers led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule as authentic, adding that it is the only body that Governor Siminalayi Fubara can do business with.

Until the decision, Fubara was comfortable dealing with the then Victor Oko-Jumbo-led three-man assembly, claiming that the Amaewhule group had defected from the Peoples Democratic (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Even after the Court of Appeal affirmed a Federal High Court order that it was constitutionally wrong of him to deal with only three of the 32-man assembly, Fubara disobeyed the orders. He insisted on having his way, boasting that the “house exists at his pleasure”.

Rather than do as directed by the high and appeal courts in Abuja so that peace can reign in the state, he went to a state high court in Port Harcourt to obtain an order to enable him present the 2025 budget to the Oko-Jumbo group, even after his presentation of the 2024 budget to the same set of lawmakers had been declared illegal. It was an error on his part. The apex court was unsparing in its reprimand of the governor, who it described as a despot that collapsed the government of the state so that he could have his way. Indeed, it was needless for him to have gone to the high court, while pursuing a cross-appeal at the apex court, which pronouncement would swallow whatever the lower court comes up with, no matter how brilliant.

Fubara was only buying time and postponing the day of reckoning which finally came on February 28 . Still he did not see the handwriting on the wall when Amaewhule and co., went to court to stop him from further receiving allocations from the central bank and the accountant-general of the federation as he was not operating a valid budget. The high court decided in the plaintiffs’ favour. The governor went on appeal and won. The appeal court held that it was a constitutional matter on which the high court had no jurisdiction. The Supreme Court disagreed. It restored the high court order. Quoting from the appeal court verdict, the apex court held:

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“The objective of the high court case is to stop the release of funds to the governor so as to compel him to cause the making of the appropriation law by the Rivers State House of Assembly properly constituted as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution… the Court of Appeal also acknowledged that based on two of its judgments as at today the Amaewhule group who allegedly defected are still legitimate members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and empowered to conduct the business of the Rivers State House of Assembly”. It said it was therefore wrong of the appeal court to have declared that the high court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the fund allocation case.

According to the apex court, Fubara’s fear of impeachment led to his cat-and-mouse relationship with the Amaewhule group. Justice Emmanuel Agim, in the lead judgment, held that the governor started the prevention of the sittings of the assembly as constituted by its members as prescribed by Section 96 of the Constitution. His reliance on Sections 102 and 109 of the Constitution and the Doctrine of Necessity, His Lordship said, “is to continue the brazen subversion of Rivers State House of Assembly, the 1999 Constitution and legitimate government in Rivers State. Having by his own admission engaged in a series of illegal activities just to prevent the other 27 lawmakers from participating in the proceedings of the House to carry out their legitimate legislative duties which they were elected to do, his resort to the aforesaid Sections 102 and 109 and the Doctrine of Necessity on the basis of his allegation that they have defected is a red herring to perpetuate his subversion of the Rivers State House of Assembly, the 1999 Constitution and democratic government in Rivers State”.

The court was not done: “The governor had collapsed the Rivers State House of Assembly. Therefore, no question about any member having lost his seat in that House due to defection can validly arise. There must be a House of Assembly for any constitutional processes therein to take place. The claim that the 27 members are no longer members of the House on the basis of an alleged defection is a continuation of his determination to prevent them from participating in the proceedings of the House. It is an engagement in chicanery. What is clear is that the 27 lawmakers are still valid members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and cannot be prevented from participating in the proceedings of the House by the governor in cahoots with the four other members. Sections 102 and 109 cannot be invoked in aid of this unconstitutional enterprise”.

Berating the governor for choosing to collapse the legislature to enable him govern as a despot, the apex court declared: “As it is, there is no government in Rivers State… political disagreements cannot justify these attacks and contempt for the rule of law by the governor of a state or any person. What he has done is to destroy the government for the fear of being impeached”. With this decision, the case before the Port Harcourt High Court seeking to sack the 27 lawmakers for alleged defection has become mere academic exercise. It is as dead as a dodo.

March 12, 2025
Who will save Rivers from her warring children?

Politics has been variously defined as ‘authoritative allocation of values or “who gets what when and how”. But I think in terms of intrigue that goes into balancing the interest of pressure groups and public interest, deviousness and ruthlessness of office seekers and for our purpose in this write up ‘politics as the art of the possible will be more appropriate (Otto Von Bismarck, German statesman and First Chancellor of Unified Germany 1815-1898).

The truth is that not all office seekers or office holders are politicians. Politicians are a special breed of selfless public servants who are not deterred by the fact they that are hardly trusted by the public they serve who often see them as corrupt, devious and men of many words. These largely misunderstood patriots ruled and may sometimes be addressed as their excellences, but others call the tune. Unfortunately, no matter how much politicians are detested, our survival as an organized society depends on their resourcefulness and brinkmanship.

Of course, bluffing Governor Similayi Fubara who had all his past battle fought for him is not a politician. In fact he is not smart enough to learn from our recent history.

We once had a Raji Babatunde Fashola, a non-politician but a very smart guy as governor of Lagos State. He was not his party’s but his godfather’s choice. When he had a slight disagreement with his godfather, all those who had wanted his job, rose up in his defence not because they loved him, but to spite his godfather. Opposition parties were dangling their party’s’ ticket in his face in case he was denied his party’s ticket for a second term.

But instead of swallowing the poison as Fubara did, he went for an international engagement where he gave a lecture and announced to the whole world that “Tinubu made me governor”. That became newspaper headlines in both local and international newspaper the following day. The godfather was humbled. If the godfather today takes credit for landmark projects like the Lagos rail line and Atlantic City, it was because his trusted godson, the actualiser, unlike Ambode who ignored some of the projects during his four years tenure, remained faithful to his godfather and his dream project.

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, following some disagreement with Obasanjo also joined forces with his estranged godfather’s political foes including James Ibori who also headed the Yar’Adua group that did not want Jonathan to succeed the ailing President Yar’Adua. This was long after he had declared publicly that apart from God and his biological parents, Obasanjo was the next most important personality in is life. Jonathan was hijacked by the late pa Edwin Clark, who gave himself the title of ’father of the president’ to spite Obasanjo. Jonathan forgot his battle was fought by the likes of Tunde Bakare on the streets of Lagos and Abuja with the ‘doctrine of necessity’ slogan. The rest is history.

Today, facing the same scenario, Fubara, like Jonathan, teamed up with enemies of Wike, his estranged godfather including Imo Ikenga Ugochinyere, who has today become Fubara’s interpreter of court pronouncements. Others include PDP stalwarts in borrowed robe of media men who would not forgive Wike for bringing PDP down during the 2023 elections. Some of them pretend to be news anchors without appreciating that the greatest attributes of a news anchor include journalistic integrity, professionalism and ability to be ‘silent and listen”. These men lionized Fubara, encouraged him to stand up to his estranged godfather and talked him out of his initial undertaking to implement term of truce reached when the president first intervened.

Unfortunately, Fubara still does not understand that the only people benefiting from the tragedy he has inadvertently brought upon his people are these self-serving advisers and media promoters who smile to the banks at the expense of besieged people of Rivers.

For instance, ‘News commercialisation’ which refers to situation “whereby the electronic media report as news or news analysis a commercial message by an unidentified or unidentifiable sponsor giving the audience the impression that news is fair, objective and socially responsible”(Nnorom,1994) is not cheap. The 30 minutes slot cannot be anything less than N20m. That is what someone coughs out to allow the likes of Ikenga Ugochinyere to speak without substance on TV for 30 minutes in the name of fighting Fubara’s war. He was pathetic to watch last week on Fubara’s favourite TV platform as he gave his own interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment after which he urged Fubara to ‘carry on’ the battle.

The above forces that exploited Fubara’s lack of capacity to understand that sometimes in political warfare , you may have to stoop to conquer, were behind his missing of an historic opportunity provided by last week landmark Supreme Court judgment to end his people’s nightmare after two years of his unstable government.

The Supreme Court judgment was straight forward.

The court ruled there is no evidence that the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), because without evidence presented before the court, in the eyes of the law, no defection took place and consequently the status quo in the House of Assembly must remain.

It criticized the governor for behaving likes a despot by demolishing the House of Assembly complex and preventing the 27 lawmakers from sitting. It also condemned Fubara for destroying of Rivers State over his fear of impeachment

“Since the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him to govern without the legislature as a despot, the Supreme Court held that “As it is, there is no government in Rivers State”.

It held that “The doctrine of necessity cannot be invoked to justify the continued existence of a deliberately contrived illegal or unconstitutional status quo.

That “political disagreements cannot justify these attacks and contempt for the rule of law by the governor of a state or any person.

That “The part of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, affirming the judgment of the Federal High Court in suit No. FHC/AB)/CS/984/2024 is hereby affirmed.

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That “The said judgment of the Federal High Court in suit No. FHC/AB)/CS/984/2024 is hereby restored.

That “For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby ordered that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Accountant General of the Federation should forthwith stop releasing and paying to the Government of Rivers State, its organs,… until an Appropriation Law is made by Rivers State House of Assembly constituted as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution.

That “The Rt. Honourable Martin Chike Amaewhule and the other 26 members should forthwith resume unhindered sitting as Speaker and members respectively of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

With all the roads blocked, if only Fubara understands politics as the art of the possible, and had without the meddlesomeness of elders and politicians on both sides of the aisle who speak from both sides of the mouth, picked up the phone to congratulate the speaker of his state House of Assembly and his colleagues over their victory at the court and offer to forward the 2025 budget and the list of his commissioners as directed by the Supreme Court, the following day.

And let us for a moment imagine Fubara with awesome apparatus of his office storming Wike’s victory church thanksgiving in Abuja and insisting Rivers State seat of power remains in his house until he agrees to join him for another thanksgiving in Port Harcourt to convince the mass of Rivers people in whose name they all swore, that the battle was over.

Of course Fubara would have seized the initiative while Wike would have been humbled.

Unfortunately, Fubara who cannot appreciate the worth of the office he never fought for will rather keep on playing the ostrich. Whilst he claims to wait for certified copy of the court judgment to start complying with the Supreme Court judgment, that has not stopped him from starting preparation for the conduct of a new local government election. A few days after informing his street boys to wait for signals, a trending video of AK-47 wielding militants in the creeks threatening to attack oil installations emerged. The Punch gave an elaborate coverage to them and their demand.

Ijaw youths have also joined the fray in support of Fubara, the first Rivers governor of Ijaw ethnic extraction.

The question now is with Fubara’s resolve to continue waging war against his own government, politicians admitting treachery against their state, elders speaking from both side of the mouth while our once beautiful ‘Garden City’ turns into a city of blood by militants groomed and armed by Rivers’ successive governors, who is going to save Rivers?

March 11, 2025
Supreme Court clears political fog over Rivers

ANALYSIS

The much-awaited certified true copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court verdict on the Rivers State political crisis which was released on Thursday has ended all legal disputes among the feuding parties. With the court’s profound findings, any matter pending in court has died a natural death. The court without mincing words defined the status of the 27 lawmakers led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule as authentic, adding that it is the only body that Governor Siminalayi Fubara can do business with.

Until the decision, Fubara was comfortable dealing with the then Victor Oko-Jumbo-led three-man assembly, claiming that the Amaewhule group had defected from the Peoples Democratic (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Even after the Court of Appeal affirmed a Federal High Court order that it was constitutionally wrong of him to deal with only three of the 32-man assembly, Fubara disobeyed the orders. He insisted on having his way, boasting that the “house exists at his pleasure”.

Rather than do as directed by the high and appeal courts in Abuja so that peace can reign in the state, he went to a state high court in Port Harcourt to obtain an order to enable him present the 2025 budget to the Oko-Jumbo group, even after his presentation of the 2024 budget to the same set of lawmakers had been declared illegal. It was an error on his part. The apex court was unsparing in its reprimand of the governor, who it described as a despot that collapsed the government of the state so that he could have his way. Indeed, it was needless for him to have gone to the high court, while pursuing a cross-appeal at the apex court, which pronouncement would swallow whatever the lower court comes up with, no matter how brilliant.

Fubara was only buying time and postponing the day of reckoning which finally came on February 28 . Still he did not see the handwriting on the wall when Amaewhule and co., went to court to stop him from further receiving allocations from the central bank and the accountant-general of the federation as he was not operating a valid budget. The high court decided in the plaintiffs’ favour. The governor went on appeal and won. The appeal court held that it was a constitutional matter on which the high court had no jurisdiction. The Supreme Court disagreed. It restored the high court order. Quoting from the appeal court verdict, the apex court held:

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“The objective of the high court case is to stop the release of funds to the governor so as to compel him to cause the making of the appropriation law by the Rivers State House of Assembly properly constituted as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution… the Court of Appeal also acknowledged that based on two of its judgments as at today the Amaewhule group who allegedly defected are still legitimate members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and empowered to conduct the business of the Rivers State House of Assembly”. It said it was therefore wrong of the appeal court to have declared that the high court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the fund allocation case.

According to the apex court, Fubara’s fear of impeachment led to his cat-and-mouse relationship with the Amaewhule group. Justice Emmanuel Agim, in the lead judgment, held that the governor started the prevention of the sittings of the assembly as constituted by its members as prescribed by Section 96 of the Constitution. His reliance on Sections 102 and 109 of the Constitution and the Doctrine of Necessity, His Lordship said, “is to continue the brazen subversion of Rivers State House of Assembly, the 1999 Constitution and legitimate government in Rivers State. Having by his own admission engaged in a series of illegal activities just to prevent the other 27 lawmakers from participating in the proceedings of the House to carry out their legitimate legislative duties which they were elected to do, his resort to the aforesaid Sections 102 and 109 and the Doctrine of Necessity on the basis of his allegation that they have defected is a red herring to perpetuate his subversion of the Rivers State House of Assembly, the 1999 Constitution and democratic government in Rivers State”.

The court was not done: “The governor had collapsed the Rivers State House of Assembly. Therefore, no question about any member having lost his seat in that House due to defection can validly arise. There must be a House of Assembly for any constitutional processes therein to take place. The claim that the 27 members are no longer members of the House on the basis of an alleged defection is a continuation of his determination to prevent them from participating in the proceedings of the House. It is an engagement in chicanery. What is clear is that the 27 lawmakers are still valid members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and cannot be prevented from participating in the proceedings of the House by the governor in cahoots with the four other members. Sections 102 and 109 cannot be invoked in aid of this unconstitutional enterprise”.

Berating the governor for choosing to collapse the legislature to enable him govern as a despot, the apex court declared: “As it is, there is no government in Rivers State… political disagreements cannot justify these attacks and contempt for the rule of law by the governor of a state or any person. What he has done is to destroy the government for the fear of being impeached”. With this decision, the case before the Port Harcourt High Court seeking to sack the 27 lawmakers for alleged defection has become mere academic exercise. It is as dead as a dodo.

March 11, 2025
Trump-Zelensky confrontation

Any student of diplomacy and foreign affairs will immediately recognise the genesis, development and trajectory of the demand for “open covenants openly negotiated” being a product of the First World War which leaders blamed on “secret diplomacy“. The total casualties of the conflict have been estimated at about40 million people, broken down to around 15 to 22 million deaths and about 23 wounded military personnel ranking it among the cruellest and deadliest conflicts in human history. This estimate perhaps did not take account of the casualties of colonial subjects like the famous “Senegalese tirailleurs” from France’s empire in West Africa and soldiers from British and German colonial empires who were drafted to fight in a conflict for which they knew nothing about the cause.

The end of the war was also followed by the so-called Spanish influenza pandemic which killed between 50 to 100 million people worldwide between 1918 to 1919.

To say that this tragedy was caused mainly by the events that followed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro- Hungarian Empire by a Serbian nationalist in Croatia in Sarajevo in 1914 is simplistic. But it is true that if the Vienna regime did not have a secret treaty with the German Second Reich’s supporting it for any action it might take against Serbia, it would have been more restrained in its reaction. The moment the Serbian government was given an almost impossible ultimatum which it still complied with and the Vienna government mobilised against it militarily, Russia came into the picture on the side of Serbia as a protector of Slavic peoples and Germany responded by ordering military mobilisation and both France and Britain because of their secret treaty obligations to Russia, mobilised to support their ally Russia, thus the event in Sarajevo led to a world-wide conflagration. It was therefore understandable for people to find out the fundamental cause of the war which was zeroed on “secret treaties”.

Nigeria can earn $2.5billion annually from trades with Morocco – Abbas

The democratic forces in Europe, led by the centre for democratic control of foreign policy in Britain, and by the European socialists, following the overthrow of the Kaiser in Berlin, and the emergence of the new Bolshevik government in Russia, following the overthrow of the Czarist regime in Saint Petersburg, supported the idea of secret treaties being responsible for the war. Governments all over Europe published official national documents blaming the pre-1914 governments for the failure of diplomacy in Europe. This apparently was picked up by the American government of President Woodrow Wilson who made the abolition of secret deals as means of conducting foreign policy the core of his foreign policy and guiding principle of the League of Nations, the precursor of the United Nations.

Since then, foreign policy experts have laboured to keep sensitive information away from the public but the American penchant for exhibitionism has always prevailed to the chagrin of the whole world which the whole world saw in the fracas just short of blows between the American president, Donald J. Trump, aided by his vice president, JD Vance and president Volodymyr Oleksanddrovych Zelenskyy of beleaguered Ukraine in the White House last Friday, February 28. Despite embracing “open covenants” as a new way of conducting foreign policy, the Second World War still broke out in 1939 because of the onerous diktat of the Versailles peace settlement of 1918-1919 which ignored genuine and fundamental reasons for the First World War.

It is arguable whether the settlement of 1945, based on total defeat of Germany and Japan and a world peace imposed by the United States and Russian hegemony would endure in the face of rising powers of China, India, Germany and Japan and other countries not happy with the current situation.

What seems to be happening is that the Trump regime as disruptors has apparently decided to abandon the long-term American policy of hemming in Russia by building allies around it in Eastern and South-eastern Europe as well as in the NATO expansion to the Baltic states. Ukraine and Georgia’s membership of NATO would have made it possible to surround Russia with NATO short range ABM missiles. In the abandonment of this policy, Ukraine has become expendable. This is why for a whole week, Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, had openly lambasted Zelenskyy as an illegitimate president running an expired term in office since his government had postponed elections because of the exigencies of war in his country which is understandable.

In fact Trump had blamed him for starting the Russian-Ukrainian war thus turning the victim into the aggressor. Trump went on to call him a dictator to the embarrassment of even some members of his Republican Party, rather than calling Vladimir Putin a dictator. He had publicly said Ukraine must be ready to cede Russian-conquered territories to it and that Ukraine should not expect to join NATO. Then the American president without any facts said his country had spent $350 billion in military supplies to Ukraine since 2014 which is way larger than the about $150 billion internationally verifiable figure. For this huge amount, Trump openly began sending emissaries to Ukraine asking its government to cede mineral rights worth about $500 billion to the American government in an open, imperialistic fashion totally unhidden from the rest of the world and different from such old tactics in which the policy would have been presented as helping a nascent democratic country.

This not only caused embarrassment to American allies but to many Americans themselves. To smoothen the way of Zelenskyy‘s visit to the White House, President Emmanuel Macron of France went to genuflect before Trump and to humour him to support Ukraine. This was followed by the visit of the British prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer to say that Trump must not give in to all Putin’s demands or else there will be nothing to negotiate. So when Zelenskyy came, no one was expecting the blow-up that followed. For reminding the American president that President Putin didn’t keep his words in the past, Trump exploded, joined by the American vice president that Zelenskyy was not grateful to President Trump for wanting to stop the bleeding of his country to which Zelenskyy replied he had expressed his gratitude many times at least to the American people and their government. Zelenskyy should have kept quiet but he refused to do so as a leader of a country at war. If this had happened in a normal diplomatic setting outside the glare of the world, it would not have assumed the total breakdown between the American peacemaker Trump and the struggling Ukrainian government and its weak European supporters that it now has assumed.

It is remarkable that the American president does not want to hear about the fears of Zelenskyy, the president of the Ukraine and even that of Europe on behalf of which he will be presumably negotiating. In a normal situation, Ukraine should be at the negotiating table and so should the Europeans, but Trump considers them as irritants. Unfortunately, Trump is right to say it is only him as a major backer of Ukraine who can bring Putin to the negotiating table, not the crowd of weak European states and that he has the understanding of the Russian government that it will abide with agreements negotiated with him and he had told Putin that Russia has much to gain from an honourable peace in Ukraine especially from lifting of American and western economic sanctions and opening up of American investment in Russia itself and lessening of global tensions as a result of peace between Ukraine and Russia. He said he can only achieve rapprochement with Russia with overt friendship and not antagonism to President Putin.

He is right that without an all-out war on the European continent, his approach seems to be the only viable option for now. This is however very sad especially the way Ukraine is being made to part on one hand with 20% of its territory to Russia and substantial amount of its mineral wealth to America, supposedly a supporter. This should teach the whole world that the days of global consensus are gone and we have arrived at a period of open rape of weaker countries by the stronger ones and that the idea of sacrosanct and inviolable international borders based on the principle of territorial integrity is gone for ever.

March 6, 2025
Rivers: Jungle don mature

A local government council cannot be governed or administered by the Federal Government, state government, governor of a state, local government caretaker committee, administrator, head of local government or by whatever name called or by any other state agency or other body. The government of a local government area other than by a democratically-elected council is not in accordance with the 1999 Constitution

– Supreme Court verdict on local government autonomy

Nothing… shall preclude a House of Assembly from making laws with respect to election to a local government council in addition to but not inconsistent with any made by the National Assembly – The Constitution

The Supreme Court’s verdict on Friday on the Rivers political impasse touched on many issues ranging from the legality of the state’s 2025 budget, to its allocations from the Federation Account, to the conduct of the last local government election, as well as the status of the Martin Amaewhule-led 27 lawmakers and the executive council (EXCO) as presently constituted, albeit tangentially.

Though, the court did not specifically make any pronouncements on the propriety or otherwise of the EXCO peopled mainly by commissioners that must be screened and cleared by a duly-comprised House of Assembly, its non-recognition of the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led three-man assembly that confirmed them has made the positions they occupy illegal.

Despite the court’s unambiguous orders, these commissioners are still parading themselves in office as well as speaking on the judgment. It is the fashion these days for governors and their lieutenants to treat court orders with contempt. With the aid of their lawyers, who are mostly Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), they pick and choose which court orders to obey. They only see good in the judgements that favour them.

When they do not, the judge or judges must be corrupt and the losing party goes to town, again supported by these senior lawyers to run down the judiciary. Since the Supreme Court put him in his place on Friday, Governor Siminalayi Fubara has not been himself. He is not happy with the verdict and he is not hiding it. When he first spoke on the judgment on Sunday, he grudgingly promised to comply with the far-reaching orders therein, which he said he did not agree with.

Really, he does not have to agree with the verdict in toto before complying with it – so far he does so fully. There is nothing like partial compliance with court orders. It is either you comply or you do not and face the consequences of your action, which is imprisonment for contempt, no matter the status of the contemnor.

Pretending to be complying with the judgment, he directed the local government chairmen who were elected last October 5, in defiance of a high court order, to hand over to the heads of their councils. The Supreme Court frowns at such arrangements and the governor cannot claim to be unaware of what the highest court in the land said in the local government autonomy case (See the top of this piece) in which his state was well represented by his attorney-general whose office is no longer tenable in view of last Friday’s decision.

Since he facilitated their election, the council chiefs complied promptly. I was not surprised. The puppeteer was only pulling the strings of his puppets. Since the apex court has sacked the council chiefs, they needed no prompting by the governor or any other person for that matter before packing their bags and go. Fubara claims he is obeying the apex court. What kind of obedience is that when he is, in the same breathe, flouting the same court’s order that only a democratically-elected government can run a local government area?

Last July 10, the court as per Justice Emmanuel Agim, in the lead judgment, held that it is unconstitutional to have undemocratically-elected governments at that level. Under the cover of obeying one order, Fubara is deliberately disobeying another one because he does not want to deal with the 27 lawmakers that the court told him to represent the 2025 budget to. But for how long will he continue to bury his head in the sand like ostrich? The governor should stop deceiving himself.

Nigeria can earn $2.5billion annually from trades with Morocco – Abbas

If he does not know, he should hear it now that the market is over. To borrow the famous words which he uttered while swearing in his Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice last year: Jungle don mature, while threatening to probe the immediate past administration of his now estranged godfather, Nyesom Wike. I am not gloating over Fubara’s fate, but the truth is that he is the architect of his own problems. He can boast all he likes while talking in public, but he should not forget that he has become more vulnerable than ever.

The truth is he is now at the mercy of the Amaewhule-led assembly which on Monday gave him 48 hours to present the 2025 budget as directed by the apex court. This was the same thing the President asked him to do when the First Citizen intervened in the initial stages of this crisis. Who knows, the crisis would have been long settled and forgotten by now, if he did.

But based on bad advice, he demurred, claiming that he was “ambushed” to sign the presidential peace pact. Which is better: that missed political solution or this judicial lashing? Let nobody weep for Fubara. He may take all the time in the world to apply for the certified true copy (CTC) of the judgment, but the lawmakers do not owe him a duty to wait for him.

The governor is not in a position to dictate what he wants to do or does not want to do. He is alone in the crowd of his commissioners (can they still be called that?) and other aides that surround him. They know that the party is over and one by one, they will start jumping ship so that he goes down alone, if he remains recalcitrant. Fubara can still salvage the situation if he manages things well as he is at his political nadir.

Present (or represent) the 2025 budget, dissolve his EXCO and send a fresh list of nominees to Amaewhule and co., and allow them to work out the modalities for a fresh local government poll. These things should not be too hard for him. All he needs to do is to eat the humble pie. If he decides to play smart, he risks impeachment. His ominous statement on Monday that to “leave office is the worse that will happen to me” does not have to come to pass, and only him can prevent that from happening.

Whatever may be his choice, Fubara should not misadvise others, especially the gullible youths of his state. What does he mean by the statement: “to our youths be strong, don’t be perturbed. At the right time, you will get instructions”. What instructions? I hope he is not planning something sinister. Well, the security agencies are not sleeping.

LAST WORD: I had finished writing and sent in this piece when reports filtered in that Fubara won’t honour the assembly’s ultimatum. The choice is his. May I remind him of the saying: “As you make your bed, so you shall lie on it”.

March 6, 2025
The good Nigerian

The Hausa tricycle driver did not set out to be a hero. He owns no newspaper column, has no audience hanging onto his every word, and wields no influence beyond the handlebars of his humble Keke NAPEP (tricycle). Yet, in the holy month of Ramadan, while inflation alternates its grip on random food prices and every naira bears the weight of a thousand worries, he made a simple choice: to give. He scrawled a declaration on his tricycle: Ramadan Discount: From N200 to N100 per Drop.

He did not do it for fame or political points. But as a measure of unpretentious goodwill and for the unadorned virtue of kindness. The beneficiaries of his generosity are not predetermined by ethnicity or religious affiliation. They are Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Christian, Muslim, and those who worship in silence. In his small act of selflessness, he weaves a stronger fabric of unity and compassion than the questionable intellectuals who, from their lofty perches and soapboxes, sow discord in the name of activism.

The critic, channeling fiery cynicism, parades himself as a self-anointed custodian of truth, but he is a prophet of doom in disguise. At the first whiff of roses, he starts looking for a coffin. He is the silent epidemic that gnaws at the soul of the country, more insidious than the crisis of governance and the spectre of economic hardship. He is the proverbial future, now walking with a slouched spirit.

Cynicism, now pervasive, is cultivated by an unrelenting stream of discontent. Every day, the public sphere becomes a battlefield, rife with the narratives of doomsayers: politicians, activists, and frustrated elites who have been denied the fruits of power. Once silenced by ambition, these voices now rage with venom, spewing defeatism and prophesying Nigeria’s inevitable collapse. Yet, behind their calls for change is a lurking self-interest, the bitter taste of being left out of the corridors of influence. They are neither patriots nor prophets; they are casualties of their own desires. The youth, in their vulnerability, have become their prey.

Young Nigerians must exercise caution in choosing their role models. It is easy to be swayed by voices that loudly condemn the state of the nation, but not all who decry Nigeria’s failures seek her restoration. Many are simply opportunists in waiting, men and women who will seize power not to heal but to gorge themselves on the spoils of a broken system.

Any youth that emulates them will simply burden himself with disillusionment and perpetual cynicism until he can ill afford the luxury of dreaming. Therein lies the death of his conscience and fervour to see Nigeria succeed. His heart will become a graveyard of lost hopes, pulsating only to despair. Even when he fancies himself a thinker, his words drip with venomous cynicism. He stalks the corridors of national discourse, like a vulture circling a dying beast, waiting for the collapse of the Nigerian enterprise so he can proclaim, with gleeful sanctimoniousness: “I told you so!”

Nigeria can earn $2.5billion annually from trades with Morocco – Abbas

For many of his ilk, Nigeria has been on a death watch since Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as the country’s president. They do not simply anticipate calamity; they yearn for it, that their chosen narratives might be justified. At each flicker of crisis—each naira that plummets, each scandal that erupts—they rejoice and dance with macabre delight. And even when tragedy strikes in the form of system failures, disasters, or celebrity deaths, they belabour the premise of cause and effect, eagerly laying blame at the feet of the president, the government, the nation itself. Their cynical gospel spreads like wildfire among disillusioned youths, who, in their thirst for change, mistake nihilism for wisdom.

Yet, the Good Nigerian does not preach; he acts. His love for country is not found in vitriolic essays or televised debates but in tangible, everyday kindness. His simple discount may seem inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, yet to the weary commuter clutching his last naira, it offers relief. The nation may bleed from a thousand cuts, but when its nationals manifest such heartfelt gestures of kindness, even in its smallest dose, it will begin to heal.

The response to the tricycle driver’s gesture is as telling as the act itself. Across social media, voices from every corner of the country rose in admiration. A Christian woman prayed for Allah to bless him. A security guard, accustomed to receiving food from fasting Muslims, marveled at the consistency of their generosity. An Igbo man, weary of holiday season price hikes in his homeland, acknowledged the contrast with a wry smile. The lesson is unmistakable—here, in the small frame of a commercial transporter, is a true patriot, a man who understands that love of country is not merely an anthem sung but a kindness given. This is the Good Nigerian.

The critics, in contrast, know little of giving. They pontificate on patriotism, yet their patriotism is conditional. They wield their critiques like scythes, severing hope wherever it dares to sprout. They celebrate nothing but decay and languish in the luxury of discontent. Their weapon is not action but rhetoric—fiery words that scorch the land but plant no seed. If the nation crumbles, they will be there to gloat rather than rebuild. Their cynicism is no longer just an affliction; it is an agenda.

But the tricycle driver? He does not speak of love; he lives it. And his love, though seemingly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, resonates louder than the critic’s flamethrower words. The Good Nigerian does not look for scapegoats. He does not sneer from the sidelines, unwilling to engage unless conditions are perfect. He understands that patriotism is not in the cynical condemnation of the land but in the conscious, deliberate acts of service that make the land better. He knows that a nation is not only its rulers; it is its people, its daily interactions, its gestures of solidarity in the face of shared struggle.

This is the lesson that must be learned. Nigeria’s problem is not only the failure of governance; it is the erosion of goodwill among its citizens. The political elite did not fall from outer space or descend from the heavens; they are products of our homes, our schools, and our society. If we demand better leadership, we must first demand better citizens. The Good Nigerian understands this. The critic does not.

Let the so-called intellectual take heed. His towering ego and exaggerated sense of worth serve neither him nor the country. If wisdom is the measure of greatness, then this tricycle driver, with his modest means and boundless heart, has taught more in a single act than the critic has in all his essays and televised debates. The country does not need another cynic cloaked in the guise of patriotism. It needs more men and women who, in their small corners, choose to give rather than take, to mend rather than tear apart, to believe rather than curse the darkness.

And so, shall we, like the tricycle driver, embrace the quiet heroism of practical patriotism? Or shall we continue to wallow in the quicksand of bitter cynicism? The answer will determine not just the fate of Nigeria but the soul of her people.

March 6, 2025
Ohanaeze and the battle for reparation

Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Deputy President General of Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, last week demanded N10tn reparation and a letter of apology from President Bola Tinubu because of “the erroneous classification of the 1966 January coup as an Igbo insurrection”. He commended Babangida “for his exemption of the Igbo people from the unjust label of being ‘enemies of the North’ whilst not forgetting to hail him over his claim that the objective of Nzeogwu and his fellow insurrectionists was “to free Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Nigeria’s leader”.

The problem is that besides Isuguzoro, I am not sure many Nigerian will take Babangida serious. This is a man who has been trying to rationalize the unjust and malicious murder of Mamman Vatsa, his child hood friend while Vatsa’s appeal over alleged coup plotting was pending (General Donkat Balli The News May 22, 2006), a con man who took Nigerian through “eight years of transition without end” only to annul the most credible election in our nation’s history won by MKO Abiola his friend and business partner only to resort to buck passing 32 years later. And this is a man whose controversial book has been described as “a collection of distorted facts which cannot serve as a reference book for the younger generation but a good reference book for criminal-minded people”. (Jonathan Vatsa, Punch Feb 28). It is doubtful if much weight can be attached to Babangida’s mendacities. There are just too many lose ends in his tales.

For instance, he claims the “primary objective of the January 1966 coup was to free Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Nigeria’s leader” without telling us his source. And if his source was Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who first sold the dummy during an interview, that also only raises more questions. If Ojukwu, who claimed to have foiled the coup in Kaduna while Aguiyi Ironsi foiled it in Lagos, were in possession of such privileged information, what stopped the duo from releasing Awo from an unjust incarceration despite his three different letters of appeal to Ironsi?

And if the coup plotters were performing their duty as custodian of the constitution as Babangida would want us to believe, the cleansing ought to have started with premiers Okpara and Ahmadu Bello, who refused to recognize Dauda Adegbenro, the Western Region recognised premier, followed by President Azikiwe and Prime Minister Balewa, who masterminded an illegal declaration of state of emergency in the West, imposition of Akintola of NNDP and Fani Kayode of NCNC as premier and deputy premier without election and imprisonment of Awo over a fabricated claim he was about to overthrow the government of Her Majesty, the Queen.

Read Also: Tinubu’s administration not skewing road projects to South — Umahi

And lastly, Babangida is a master of obfuscation; there is no evidence in our recent history to show Igbo ‘are enemies of Hausa/Fulani’ or that there has been any form of love lost between Igbo and Yoruba. Indeed if the phrase that best captures relationship between the former is ‘conjugal bliss’, the later will be “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.

When it comes to power sharing, Igbo find Hausa/Fulani irresistible. For instance, following the outcome of the 1959 election Awo conceded leadership to Zik and agreed to work under him as finance minister. While his group was waiting in Asaba to seal the deal, Zik and his group were already in Kaduna cutting a deal that produced the NPC/NCNC alliance.

That the 1959 marriage of convenience ended in a civil war did not discourage the marriage between NPN/NPP in 1979 (both metamorphosed from NPC/NCNC of the first republic). Ojukwu the rebel leader returned from 10 years exile to join the new alliance which again collapsed in 1983, not over how best to serve Nigeria, but over sharing of perks of office.

Then came Babangida’s 1993 ‘transition without end” (Oyediran). All the Igbo states except Anambra voted for Tofa, the NRC presidential candidate. Over 80% of those Babangida named during his last week book presentation as conspirators in the annulment of the election won by MKO Abiola were of Igbo ethnic extraction.

In 1999, Igbo voted massively for PDP and Obasanjo, the candidate the northern hegemonic power imposed as Yoruba candidate as against Olu Falae, the Yoruba sponsored candidate.

Unlike the enduring love of the Igbo, the ever ready beautiful bride and their Hausa/Fulani suitors, there has been no love lost between Yoruba and Igbo political elite since the 1930s when as leaders of urban immigrants, Igbo political elite wanted to make themselves relevant in the politics of Lagos and intimidation, blackmail and propaganda were some of the weapons of war freely deployed by Igbo against their Yoruba hosts.

This played out in 1934 during a struggle to have a member of the Nigerian Youth Movement move to the House of Representatives. Awo had supported Earnest Ikoli, an easterner against Akinsanya, his fellow Ijebu kinsman, sponsored by Zik. Because Akinsanya, Zik’s candidate lost the election after a bitter campaign, Zik pulled out all Igbo members and collapsed the movement accusing Awo and Yoruba of playing tribal politics. The seed of mutual distrust was thus sowed.

The Ibo Federal Union was formed in 1943. Zik became its national president. According to Obafemi Awolowo, “Dr Azikiwe himself was an unabashed Ibo jingoist who gave the game away when he said during his presidential speech at the Ibo Federal Union in 1949 that “It would appear the god of Africa has specially created the Igbo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages, not only to conquer others but also adapt themselves to the role of preserver”, (Awo autobiography PP 172).

However when Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed in Lagos in 1949 by Awolowo to unite the Yoruba, Zik, claiming it was targeted at Igbo and 27million Nigerians unleashed virulent attack on the Egbe and its leaders who were physically attacked along their properties in Lagos by Zikist youths.

In1951, after the regional election, of the five members elected on the platform of Ibadan Progressive Union, Adegoke Adelabu remained loyal to Zik and NCNC, while Adisa Akinloye and others joined Awolowo’s Action Group. This followed a stalemate as Mbadiwe and other Zik’s supporters insisted he should become the premier of the West while leading members of NCNC like Olu Akinfosile and TOS Benson, who regarded NCNC as a Yoruba party as there was only one non-Yoruba in its inaugural meeting, insisted one of them be chosen to be premier.

The decision of some Yoruba in NCNC to join Awo’s AG in order to control their own destiny became a subject of intense propaganda and blackmail and misinformation by Zik; today’s equivalent of the ‘Obdients’. They crowned Obafemi Awolowo, who emerged leader of government, king of tribal politics and enemy of Igbo. Not even the world-celebrated Chinua Achebe could restrain himself from spreading misinformation when he wrote in his last major work – There was a country – that he witnessed carpet crossing of Zik supporters on the floor of Western House in 1952.

The misinformation and misrepresentation of the 1952 events have continued to define Yoruba and Igbo politics.

Finally, I think Ohanaeze will have to search beyond Babangida’s tenuous claim to justify their N10trn reparation demand especially in the face of overwhelming evidence that confirmed that both the January insurrectionists and Ironsi were mere pawns in the hands of highly cerebral Igbo political leaders including Dr. Nwafor Orizu, the senate president, Dr Ben Nwabueze, Ironsi’s adviser and Dr. Ozunba Mbadiwe (the man of ‘timber and calibre’), a cabinet minister during the January 31 night of many knives.

For instance, it has now been established that Zik was the first to seek the support of the military following the constitutional gridlock that followed the massively rigged 1964 election. It was believed it was the negative response of the military that claimed to be answerable to the prime minister that precipitated insurrection by younger elements in the military sympathetic to Zik’s course in January 1966.

There was also sufficient evidence from those present at the meeting, including Richard Akinjide, that the senate president, instead of supervising the election of the most senor surviving minister as acting prime minister, was playing the ostrich game until Ironsi declared himself head of state.

And finally, Igbo’s two other dominant ethnic groups will need to be convinced that Ironsi’s Decree 34 that turned a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural federal state into a unitary state, a system promoted by Igbo up to the London 1957 Constitutional Conference, was not an Igbo agenda.

March 4, 2025
Gaslighters

Gaslighters live on fancied time. A curious affliction bedecks their psyche—I’d call it antipathy for bitter truth. In Nigeria, this anomaly transcends personal and social relationships and spills into the political space.

Whether online or offline, gaslighting manifests in layered self-deception; it presents as a shared national pastime where illusion is venerated and reality is exiled.

In the gaslighter’s nirvana, to be Nigerian is to be perpetually blameless, untarnished amid a nation drowning in corruption, bigotry, and decay. Every man and woman wears a halo of infallibility, casting themselves as messiahs while damning all who dare question their fabricated integrity and version of events.

Gaslighting, a term borrowed from 1940s theatre, portends a sinister dance where the lead manipulator persuades the partner to doubt their own senses, to question the very ground beneath their feet. As all things ruinous, Nigerians take to this waltz with masterful flair. Narratives are implanted with surgical precision, cloaked in secrecy and pseudo-realism thus making the implausible plausible and the absurd bankable.

The truth is swiftly deconstructed, labelled as ‘conspiracy theory,’ and cast to the outer margins of public discourse. Meanwhile, fabricated reality is adorned in the finery of ‘gospel truth’ and paraded on the esplanades of media consumption with pomp and flourish. This inversion of reality creates a social space where citizens wander, perpetually lost, their moral compass desensitized to relentless manipulation.

For instance, the ongoing banter in social space, about Rtd. General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB)’s recently launched autobiography, is incantatory of Nigerian mind and nature. Whether online or offline, the tenor of the debate is overtly ritualistic and sorely politicised. Suddenly, IBB adorns the garb of a truth-sayer, and everyone else, a self-styled gadfly cum bleeding-heart patriot, who must condemn the brazen artifice and pageantry of a book launch that scored N17.5 billion worth of donations to IBB’s presidential library project.

Far from the racket and patois of accidental bleeding hearts, most enjoyable and educative is erudite essayist cum leader writer, Sam Omatseye’s unsparing deconstruction of the author and the book; likewise Lasisi Olagunju’s incisive take on IBB and his controversial literature.

Yet this is less IBB’s frantic search for closure and redemption and more about ‘guiltless’ Nigerians’ predilection to mount the soapbox just to spout off and be seen in fabricated reality’s public sphere.

The retired general’s fanciful memoir parallels post-Muhammadu Buhari era. Triggered by the 2023 election results, aggrieved politicians and electorate reconstruct Nigeria into a narrow commune, beholden to their selfish interpretations of citizenship, power, politics, and democratic dividends.

Each stakeholder manifests a peculiar morass of patriotic experience. Amid the drama, Nigeria thrives as a political theatre – an expansive stage where people of vast partisan stripes are entertained, misinformed, and gaslighted.

The process, in recent times, assumes the course of indoctrination by courtiers. The latter manifests as our most malignant affliction. Comprising journalists, politicians, NGOs, and rights activists, their machinations are oft inimical to nationhood, stability, and growth – perhaps because too many among them are deployed as weapons of adverse programming.

This may no doubt resonate as far-fetched to individuals and groups profiting from the status quo, especially the press and civil societies. That is understandable. It is often the nature of bacterium responsible for a pandemic to deem itself the next best thing to happen to earthlings.

For a people programmed for conquest, Nigerians carry on with unabashed ignorance and arrogance. Arrogance is pitiable. But ignorance is expensive and quite scary. Yet Nigerians soldier on unperturbed by the ramifications of it all.

This is what happens when a nation becomes unmoored from reality. It retreats into a fictive nirvana. In this predetermined cosmology, reality is redefined to suit dubious whims, and facts are manufactured to soothe relative bias. Consequently, national discourse is dominated by fabricated events. From performative grief over insecurity, misgovernance, national history and disasters to celebrity gossip, this country is sold to desperate narratives at home and abroad.

Whether it is the soaring price of Premium Methylated Spirit (PMS), the insurgent creed of violence resonant with brainwashed minors and young adults, or the virulent manifestations of partisan politics, the compelling nature of the grievances articulated and the pervasiveness of despair are wielded to justify the rationale for Nigeria’s creed of carnage and enduring portrayal as a banana republic by foreign governments and consulates.

A history of corruption and neglect at the federal, state, and local levels of government, among others, has equally morphed into a major source of widespread dissatisfaction towards politicians, the legal system, and law enforcement by the masses.

These sentiments thrive in greater depths across geographic and virtual spaces; as Nigeria rejuvenates from the intrigues of disputed polls, a wave of validation and reproof of the incumbent political class and the opposition seeking to dislodge it has produced a charged atmosphere of warring critics and apologists, cynics, and anarchists – all wired to gaslight whatever reality conflicts with their preferred versions of events.

Of the latter, the majority parade flawed presence because they have no real persona and moral substance. Yet Nigeria suffers their storm of spunk and slogans through minor and major upheavals.

The participation of large segments of the press, academia, and civil society in this political gaslighting has been largely driven by funded partisanship but like Arundhati Roy would say, “I’m not against people being funded—because we’re running out of options, but we have to understand, ‘Are you walking the dog or is the dog walking you? Who’s the dog and who are you?”

The situation triggers existential questions about the quality of political participation in Nigeria. How do we determine real and funded patriotism? Are Nigerians inured to the precepts of partisanship astride the politics of reality and illusions?

The jostling over reality and illusion becomes most intense in a toxic public sphere where both distort to preserve the status quo of exploitation or repudiate it. A failure to achieve a balance between oppressive reality and the placebo of illusion eventually leads to anarchy and societal collapse.

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In his book, Collapse, economist Jared Diamond lists five precursors to social decay, including a failure to understand and prevent causes of environmental damage; climate change; pillage by hostile neighbours; the inability of friendly neighbours to continue trade; and finally, how the society itself deals with the problems raised by the first four factors.

A common failing of the last item is the dislocation between the short-term interests of elites and the longer-term interests of the societies they dominate and exploit. Diamond’s last point is critical. The ruling elite’s penchant for corruption, maladministration, and circumventing the law, almost always triggers widespread cynicism, disillusionment, apathy, and finally, rage. Those who suffer the consequences of misgovernance characteristically scorn loyalty to the nation and increasingly nurse fantasies of violent insurrection as revenge.

The concept of the common good, mocked by the predation of the privileged minority, vanishes and is replaced by the self-seeking “Me-Credo” of the underprivileged majority. Society burns as individuals gaslight their own shortcomings and in repudiation of systemic failings, submit to primal lust.

But all hope is not lost. Gaslighting, for all its potency, has a fatal flaw—it crumbles in the face of truth. It’s about time we cultivated a more critical culture of appraisal, of self, reality, and the narratives handed to us. We must equally demand greater transparency from our elected representatives. But if only we hold our thoughts and ourselves to the same unimpeachable standards.

February 27, 2025