The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Misguided war against Niger Delta leaders

    Misguided war against Niger Delta leaders

    Last week, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, the former governor of Delta State was arrested by EFCC over an alleged N1.3tn fraud. If you asked me, I will say this, once again, is another evidence of war of attrition by Nigerian state against Niger Delta whose leadership has come under intense scrutiny since the birth of the 4th republic. EFCC’s periodic attempt at dragging leaders of the region to court over corruption charges, when we, the assumed victims, never asked outsiders for help, is seen as an attempt to cause disaffection between the people and their leaders.

    A people, as it is often said deserve the leadership they get. I am sure the leaders of the Niger Delta who are about the most educated, most sophisticated, professionally accomplished, leaders in the banking, entrepreneurship and the media where they maintain a complete monopoly cannot be said not to know what is best for their impoverished people. In any case, the poor but proud people of the Niger Delta whose leaders often say “Warri no dey carry last’ have not sought for help.

    The problem with our successive leaders who are ill-trained in the art of governance since the collapse of the first republic has been their failure to appreciate the fact that as a multi-cultural society with groups at different level of cultural development, no one group can impose its own value system on the other. It was for this reason, Sir Ahmadu Belo in the run-up to independence warned Zik that rather than forget our differences for the sake of independence, they, the founding fathers  must first try to understand them.

    Awolowo unfortunately learnt this lesson too late.

    He had gone to the Middle Belt and north-eastern regions of Nigeria to preach egalitarianism and free education. Ahmadu Bello at their last meeting held in the house of a common friend in Ikorodu insisted those Awo wanted to liberate were his great grandfather’s slaves. And this became very clear after Tarka’s death when successive leadership of the Middle Belt chose to align with northern conservative parties from NPN to PDP rather than Awo’s progressive UPN.

    And as if to prove Ahmadu Bello right, the Middle Belt that had always provided soldiers of fortune for the northern jihadists, had Yakubu Gowon, Theophilus Danjuma and other Middle Belt officers. leading  the war which at the beginning was essentially between the north and the east until it became ‘war to keep Nigeria one”’ when the attack on the West and Midwest by the secessionist convinced the two regions that sitting on the fence would only turn their regions to theatre of war.

    It is the same story with the Ibibio, Efiks and the minorities in the East whose battle Awo carried on his head to the London Constitutional Conference. The people of the area after independence probably realized their best safeguard against their more aggressive Igbo neighbours was an alignment with the north and that has been the trend till today.

    Nearer home, except for the Benins that are culturally related to the Yoruba, the Urhobos, Ijaws and the Isokos have since independence aligned with the northern conservatives. In fact Pa Edwin Clark while trying to play politics of identity not too long ago, was reminded by a prominent northern leader that, he, Clark must remember he was always at the head of Ijaw group seeking coalition with the north.

    What history has taught us therefore is that no individual or groups can impose their values on others who are not ready for change. Change can only be effected from inside when the people are ready for it. This universal truth is no less true of the people of Niger Delta, a microcosm of Nigeria. And this explains why EFCC’s periodic indictment of Niger Delta leaders for corruption has led to no uprising or even condemnation of their leaders.

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    Instead, the people remain unequivocal on their demand for a revenue sharing formula, based on derivation as was the case in the first republic and in the worst scenario, a sharing formula that provides succour for farmers, fishermen and youths who no more have access to land, rivers and employment opportunities.

    In any case, corruption, for the people of Niger Delta according to President Jonathan is not a big deal. “What many Nigerians refer to as corruption is actually stealing.  Stealing is not the same thing as corruption”. And even if you ignore Jonathan’s Freudian, slip, the impoverished people of Niger Delta have demonstrated to our anti-corruption crusaders from Obasanjo to Buhari who like the proverbial undertakers cry louder than the bereaved, that the more the billions of their monies converted to personal use, the more the honours such vilified leaders get.

    Let us start with Alfred Diette-Spiff. He was at 25, the first governor of Rivers under the administration of Gowon. Following Murtala Mohammed’s coup against Gowon, the governor was missing for three days. When he was eventually located, it was on the high seas where he was cruising with his friends in his private ship. Although he was demoted by Murtala Mohammed regime and a number of houses seized from him in Port Harcourt, Alfred Papapreye Diette-Spiff has gone on to become the Amayanabo (king) Twon Brass and remains one of the most powerful voices from Balyelsa.

    The case of Chief Diepreye Alameyeseigha, Governor- General of the Ijaws and the brain behind rampaging Niger Delta militants in the Creeks was more intriguing. In fact, he was being groomed by his people as Obasanjo’s potential successor. But that was before his successful contest for the PDP presidential primaries after which Obasanjo declared him morally bankrupt to aspire to lead Nigeria. He was chased from Germany to France and to Britain from where he escaped to Nigeria dressed like a woman.

    Following mobilization of Britain, USA, South Africa, Bahamas and Seychelles and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes and the World Bank under the stolen Assets Recovery by President Obasanjo, we were told of his accumulated properties , bank accounts, investments in cash of up to 10 million pounds in five banks in the UK, Cyprus, Denmark and the US;  his four London properties acquired for a total of four million pounds; a Cape town Harbour penthouse acquired for one million pounds, houses in the US and  about one million pounds stored in one of his London properties.

    Living a lavish ostentatious life style at the expense the people, as it turned out, only endeared the Ijaw governor general to his impoverished people. Then Ribadu committed an affront by securing his conviction. An attempt was not only made on Ribadu’s life, he was demoted and forced to flee the country. And his judicial victory was a pyrrhic one as President Jonathan who declared “when God gives us power, we must use it for the glory of his name” wasted no time in granting his ‘Ijaw Governor General and former boss, presidential amnesty.

    James Ibori was another Niger Delta governor widely celebrated by his impoverished people for converting their commonwealth to private use. He was dragged before an Asaba High Court over financial malfeasance against his people by EFCC. The case was thrown out for lack of substance. But the same case, with the same evidence, the Metropolitan Police in London secured James Ibori indictment and jailed him for 13 years.

    But the ancient Asaba town and its environs were literally paralyzed in jubilation, when the news of his release from London prison where he had served 10-year jail term for money laundering and other offences filtered into Asaba and its environs.  The event was described by one newspapers as follows: “Thousands of supporters, admirers and friends of the ex-convict, James Onanefe Ibori, converged Sunday morning for the thanksgiving service at First Baptist Church”. “Various Quarters’ residents, especially Asaba youths, rolled out their drums to celebrate the man they described as “Odidigborigbo.”

    The youths sang Asaba-Ibo songs along Nnebisi Road, Summit Junction; they danced freely to drumbeats, causing serious traffic gridlock. Popular Ogbeogonogo Market Women were not left out in the jubilation. Chief Ibori who wore Urhobo traditional attire, a gold-coloured lace top with blue wrapper to match, arrived at the church in an unmarked Lexus SUV at exactly 10.20 am, amidst cheers from his admirers”.

    Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta who many believed was single-handedly installed by Ibori, as “a way to show gratitude to Chief Ibori” allegedly bankrolled the elaborate church thanksgiving service and reception to the tune of N350m.

    Uche Secondus, the then national chairman of PDP confirmed Okowa’s indebtedness to Ibori when he spoke in March 2018 at a thanksgiving and grand reception organised by Olorogun John Oguma, in honour of Ibori at the Ibru Unity Square, Ovwor-Olomu, Ughelli South Local Government According to him, “Before the 2015 elections, I received a call from our leader (Ibori), and I asked him the direction. He (Ibori) told me Okowa should be supported.”

    We don’t need a soothsayer to know that with the support of his impoverished but proud people who detest outsiders reminding them of the inhumanity of their leaders, Okowa corruption case will end like those of his predecessors.

    Let us all hail Niger Delta leaders for keeping faith with their people.

  • Underage rioters and presidential pardon

    Underage rioters and presidential pardon

    There have been comments on the incarceration of juvenile delinquents in prison following the violent demonstrations in Abuja and elsewhere against what they called “bad governance”. We should all salute the president for asking the children to be released immediately. There are so many questions troubling my mind about this. Why were underage children demonstrating in the first place? Where were their parents? Government should follow their release with knowing what kind of homes they came from. It could be they don’t have homes and perhaps they are street urchins as we find in many of our towns today.

    The time has come for our various governments particularly the states and local governments to develop policies to face this problem before they get out of hands. This lumpen proletariat are the stuff of violence and revolution in the future. Why were these children not in school where they should be learning a skill or acquiring knowledge that may be useful to them in the future?

    Since when has it become the responsibility of children to engage in political action in this country? Who were the people goading these children to go to the streets? What kind of legitimate punishment can a society inflict on these errant children without appearing inhuman and harsh? We have remand homes for these kinds of children but are they available all over the country? My church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, has these kinds of homes in some parts of the country. Government should join such missions to make the system effective and more encompassing.  Is the fact that so many children were involved in these demonstrations not a manifestation of failure of parents and government to have institutions that will prepare our country for the future?

    What can we do, going forward in terms of overhauling our educational system so that our children can develop a sense of civic responsibility? Of course, responsible adults have the right to protest against what they consider bad policies, but they should not bring children to swell their ranks and create a mob instead of responsible demonstration. Generally speaking, people tend to find security in committing crimes or misdemeanour when they are in large numbers and individuals cannot be easily caught for their bad behaviour. It is for this reason that demonstrators tend to recruit all and sundry to join them in creating a mob mentality in which crimes are not seen as crimes and easily detected.

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    Recently in Valencia, Spain, demonstrators were seen throwing stones and mud at the king and queen and the Spanish prime minister who went to commiserate with victims of flood in the country. This will not happen ordinarily but when people demonstrating are joined by others and become a mob, all sense of responsibility departs from them. In the case under reference, the prime minister of Spain was quickly spirited away to avoid being killed, the king and queen showing a sense noblesse oblige stayed despite the violence on the poor couple!

    Do we in our country sincerely have the correct attitude about demonstration against government policies without injecting ethnic sentiments which seem to ruin everything at every point our politics in this country and which in turn draws the anger and negative reaction of our governments whether at state or national level? All these are issues which we must discuss not only to deal with the problems of now but also that of the future.

    Are there genuine reasons to criticize our present government? The answer is of course yes.  The present government is certainly not responsible for the downturn of the economy but it is currently in situ and the government in power; so the government is vicariously responsible for the bad situation. There is no doubt that the people are suffering. We have never had it so bad in this country. The value of the Naira is so bad that it reminds one of Weimar Germany or Zimbabwe where one took money to the market in a basket and brought home in one’s hand a loaf of bread. A good loaf of bread now costs N2,000. If one wants to replace bread with yams, the cost is also prohibitive. I sometimes joke with yam sellers in my area whether the rate of exchange of dollars is also affecting the cost of yams. The answer is that the cost of transportation has led to the astronomical cost of home grown vegetables, fruits, yams, cassava and other Nigerian staples. The solution to this is massive production of food items. But who will produce this food items when the farming population has drifted to the towns and left farming to old men and women? 

    The role of government in this case is to embark on mass education to let the people know the solution to our problems. Government must not allow itself to be pushed to importing rice and other food items when we have the land and water and abundant sunshine as well as the people to produce what we will eat. The Holy Bible says he who does not work shall not eat. It is as simple as that. The purpose of government is to provide the security within which the people will fend for themselves. It is partly the absence of this security that is at the root of all our problems.

    If government that controls the organised means of violence is unable to guarantee violence-free society, the people would take to self-help leading to a war of everybody against everyone until a dictator arrives to provide this for all. Our commitment and embrace of democracy ends when that democracy fails to secure our lives. This is why people will protest. But government alone cannot solve all our problems. We as a people must also be determined to help ourselves. When I see young men roaming aimlessly around the streets sometimes begging, I know we have a problem. Escaping to other countries to do jobs they will not do at home is not the solution. We need a campaign of going back to the land. This campaign has to be based on our local government areas and states and not on the federation. The role of the federal government should be mobilising national and international support for the production and adding value to our products and exporting our surplus. This does not mean everybody must be a farmer. Only 4% of the population of the United States is actively involved in agriculture and through mechanisation and industrialisation of the process, they not only feed the entire United States but have enough to feed the whole world. This is the path to go. We have to move away from back bending hoe and cutlass agriculture to modern farming practice. Government and the banking sector have to generously fund agricultural production in our country and it is by massive production and exchange with the rest of the world that we will have enough resources to develop other sectors of our economy leading to having a stable economy and stable currency that would guarantee security of our savings and secure our economic future. Nobody is going to do this for us. There is no free lunch anywhere and we don’t have to be slaves to either capitalist free enterprise or centralised command socialist system that may have worked elsewhere. What we do and do well and if it works is what we need to adopt as a working paradigm for us and our own clime. There is no perfect system or country anywhere in this world. Many of the countries our people run to are actually in decline and are looking for what works better than what they have. The past in which some countries fed fat on the subjugation of others is gradually becoming a thing of the past and many centres of colonial imposition are not what they used to be and it is in the nature of things to see old things yield for the new and if we understand this and play our cards well and work hard, the future may yet be ours. We just have to be realistic. When I was at the University of Ibadan in the 1960s, students lived as spoiled brats. We had a choice of meals three times a day. We even had stewards waiting on us. Our rooms were cleaned by hired hands and we were entitled to laundry service up to 10 pieces of clothing including bed sheets every week. We had it too good and we didn’t know it!

    Sometimes I am ashamed to admit that my generation contributed to our current problems. We however have to snap out of our dreams and face the reality. Unfortunately our young people hark back to the past and they don’t want to pay for appropriate services as their colleagues do in other parts of the world and some of the parents goad them in their struggle with governments. This is why I applaud President Tinubu’s proposed conference of youth with the leadership of the present government who must be prepared to listen honestly to the young people who are our future and they must also be prepared to answer difficult questions which the youth will ask them.

  • Beyond the minors’ release

    Beyond the minors’ release

    They populate streets across the country, mostly in the well known commercial cities of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Warri, Benin, Kano and Kaduna. Any little spark in these cities, they troop out as footsoldiers ready and willing to be used by politicians and their likes whose children can never be found in similar circumstances.

    They are young and impressionable kids who can be easily swayed to join a cause that they know little or nothing about. They are mere tools to be used. All that is needed to propel them to action is money, just a meagre sum of 2k, that is N2000, will turn their heads. When the stake is as much as 5k, you can be sure that they will kill and destroy public and private properties to make their paymasters happy.

    We have lived with the menace of these youngsters for years. To these little boys and sometimes, girls, the street is their home. They rule it with iron hand and even fight for territories among themselves. They become united around  a common cause in time of politics and protests when they are hired for a job. The hirer has an agenda, which unknown to these kids is to pursue a selfish aim which could be either political or economic.

    Unfortunately, the north has the highest number of these out-of-school kids whose ages range from 10 to 15. At times, their age could be as low as 10. Similarly, some may be above 18, but when trouble comes they quickly claim to be underage so that the law won’t take its course. It is in the aftermath of trouble in which these kids are used to maim, kill and destroy, as was witnessed in the August Protests, that their so-called vulnerability is brought to public consciousness by self-righteous crusaders.

    After such incidents, they are forgotten and abandoned to their wiles on the streets, until there is another operation to be executed for the paymaster. We are all guilty of what has become of our underage across the country. Politicians are especially liable. They use these boys to fight their opponents. They arm them and let them loose on the households of their opponents. They get them to register as voters and use them for other sundry selfish projects. Their parents look on because they do not have the means to take care of these children.

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    This is what the rich and powerful capitalise on to destroy the lives of our children. When the chips are down, they heap the blame on the government. The lives of out-of-school kids have become what it is today because of our failure as a people and a community to play the parenting role the way we should. Do many of these kids even know their parents? Or even the relations of their fathers and mothers? The life many of them know is in the street where they were abandoned at birth.

    So, why won’t they join protests or other causes that they do not understand at all? Why won’t they carry the flags of countries that they cannot even identify when called upon to do so? Why won’t they kill, maim, rape and destroy when they do not know the value of life and property? We see the pictures of these kids in newspapers and on television, queuing to vote in elections, and wielding lethal weapons during protests. Most of us say nothing until the law is applied.

    Then, we remember that these are minors who cannot be brought before the conventional court. Thus, when these minors commit heinous crimes, we turn a blind eye, believing that we can use the same law to spring them out of trouble. I am against the maltreatment of any minor, but a minor who breaks the law should be made to pay the price for his action. Age should not be an excuse for breaking the law and getting away with it.

    The law is wide enough to take care of all offenders, no matter their age. Whether a minor or not, the law is there to protect and punish, as the case may be. The arraignment of the so-called minors arrested over the August Protests in some northern states may not have been well handled by the law enforcement agencies. This is not to say that the suspects should not be made to pay the price for their actions.

    In doing so, however, we should ensure that they are well taken care of and kept in safe custody until the determination of their case, which the President has graciously terminated. The President acted like a father, who was moved by the condition in which he saw those kids. A condition that they brought upon themselves by being part of the protests that they were instigated to join. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that being part of a protest is wrong.

    It is the right of every Nigerian to protest as long as it is within the limits of the law. The kids were not arraigned for protesting. They were charged with treason and treasonable offences, which in the long run the prosecutor must prove in court to get a conviction. The charge does not mean that they are guilty; they are presumed innocent until proved guilty, according to the law. Those crying foul over the charge should hold their breath. They do not know the evidence that the prosecution has. Come to think of it, what did these people do to stop these children from becoming wayward, in the first place?

    We do not know how the case would have gone because of the President’s intervention that the charge be withdrawn. The President has played his role as the father of the nation by coming to the minors’ rescue. What should be uppermost in the minds of the governors of these kids’ states is how to keep them off the streets so that they do not remain soldiers for hire by people with evil intentions couched in national causes.

    The rehabilitation of these minors deserves urgent and immediate actions. They should not just be taken back home and dumped somewhere from where they can easily return to the streets. They can be enrolled in schools or in any trade of their choice to learn vocational skills that will be beneficial to them and the society. I saw one of them on television on Tuesday night speaking good English. There may be many more like him among the kids. They should be encouraged to go back to school to brush up their knowledge.

    The gain of what the President has done will endure if these kids turn a new leaf and become better citizens. No useful purpose will be served if their future is not properly managed by the governors, who have become their custodians, so that they do not return to their past life. I only hope that some lessons have been learnt from this. Who says these minors may not become better citizens tomorrow who will look back and thank the government for this chance to redeem themselves?

  • The return of Trump

    The return of Trump

    Donald Trump made it back yesterday as United States (U.S.,) President. He beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the election, which many around the world had prayed that he should lose. Since Americans have settled for him again, there is nothing people elsewhere can do.

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    For sure, it is going to be another interesting four years with Trump in charge. The world saw the kind of person he is in his first tenure as the 45th president of U.S., between 2017 and 2021. The world is holding its breath as he returns as the 47th president, after his swearing in, in January, 2025. Will he change his ways? Or will he remain the same truculent and turbulent Trump? Your guess is as good as mine.

  • Bleeding heart theatre

    Bleeding heart theatre

    Behind the pageantry of public scorn, the curtains of outrage and virtue-signalling, every bleeding heart activist is a grifter perhaps. Strike that! Most people condemning the federal government’s initial attempt to prosecute 32 minors—among the 76 individuals detained for participating in the August #EndBadGovernance protests are emotional scam artists.

    This is not to undermine, however, the truly conscientious child rights activists driven by humane intent to condemn the maltreatment of the boys.

    The government’s initial move to prosecute the 32 minors predictably, incited not just anger but a palpable moral theatre. Intellectuals, political elites, and activists lambasted the government for alleged cruelty toward these young detainees, who had been locked away for three harsh months across Abuja, Kaduna, Gombe, Jos, Katsina, and Kano.

    Politicians, rights advocates and civil society groups likened the government’s action to a betrayal of human dignity. Indeed, these boys appeared pitiful: unkempt, hollow-cheeked, desperate for scraps of water and biscuits in viral footage that flooded social media. Yet the orchestrated outpour of rage, condemning their “cruel and unusual” detention, reveals a selective blindness within Nigeria’s moral compass. Where was this storm of indignation when minors elsewhere in this country became fodder for far graver brutalities?

    Inside the courtroom, the sight was sombre, with these boys barely able to stand, their bodies bent and wracked in pain. Four boys collapsed as proceedings began, and they were borne out like broken statues of misjudged rebellion. As they writhed and groaned on the courtroom floor, high-ranking figures—from lawyers to the National President of the NBA, Afam Osigwe—decried their treatment as a ghastly violation of human rights. “This does not make us look good at all,” Osigwe proclaimed, mourning the international stain on Nigeria’s repute and questioning the humanity within the nation’s correctional facilities.

    Yes, such condemnation may indeed be warranted. The treatment of these young detainees may be indefensible, yet the deafening din from today’s impassioned critics drowns out the crimes inflicted by these same boys upon their communities, in the name of revolution.

    The August protest, beginning as a peaceful demand for an end to economic hardship and governmental waste, spiralled rapidly into plunder and ruin. Riots flared in Kaduna, and within days, a firestorm of chaos swept the North, from Kano to Katsina, to Jos, to Gombe, to Niger. Public spaces were shattered, private properties sacked, and chain stores emptied in the gluttonous frenzy of looters.

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    Along the highways and the narrow streets of packed suburbs, scenes of carnage left an indelible scar on countless lives and livelihoods. The looters advanced, a swarm of adolescent boys with outstretched hands and pockets laden with ill-gotten goods—clothes, electronics, cartons of yoghurt—all hastily stuffed into sacks and trash bags. In Kano alone, more than 600 arrests were made; the majority of these pillagers were underage, ensnared in a theatre of destruction fueled by a cause that had long lost its innocence.

    What started as a march for justice and economic security was swiftly commandeered by the very agents of chaos it opposed, using minors as willing instruments in an insidious campaign of ruin. In Katsina, young boys brazenly marched past the residence of former President Muhammadu Buhari, raising foreign flags and chanting for a military takeover. The bitter irony could not be clearer: these minor participants had not only become instruments of a perverted revolution but were now living testimonies to the erosion of authority and societal decay.

    And now, the same clique of Nigeria’s moral defenders—the intelligentsia, the elites, the “bleeding heart” activists—proclaim themselves champions of child welfare and justice. Yet they have carefully sidestepped the young children in the North, who are conscripted into terrorist factions, brainwashed into becoming martyrs of anarchy.

    They remain silent about the minors in Buni Yadi, a haunting memory when adolescent terrorists breached the Federal Government College, murdering 59 innocent students in their sleep. These blood-curdling atrocities elicited not the faintest hint of outrage, nor did any organized protests or op-eds emerge from our self-styled champions of child rights. Silence swallowed the terror in Yobe; oblivion, the outrage.

    When child soldiers in the Northeast are armed and sent forth into combat, or when young girls are used as suicide bombers, we are met with nothing but a vacuum of empathy. The voice of outrage is nowhere to be heard. Indeed, the same activists demanding dignity for the minors detained in Abuja have often called for the death or lifelong incarceration of the very young survivors of Boko Haram’s horrific manipulations.

    Where is the consistency in this selective advocacy? Why does our moral outrage ebb and flow only when it suits a particular narrative while ignoring the systemic neglect that perpetuates the cycle of violence and exploitation?

    This is not to say that the indignation over the government’s treatment of these detained minors lacks validity. On the contrary, to ignore their suffering would be to harden our hearts. But it is time to balance the narrative, to accept the wider view that these boys are products of our national failures—failings in family, in education, in social systems, and, perhaps most grievously, in leadership. If we are truly concerned for their welfare, then let us also address the broader socio-economic conditions that leave them so vulnerable to exploitation and weaponization.

    Nigeria’s heart must awaken, and so must its vision of justice—a righteousness that does not merely wax indignant over injustices borne of convenience but seeks to rectify the root causes that sow the seeds of rebellion. Without an honest reckoning, Nigeria’s young will remain on the front lines, not of meaningful change but of manipulated destruction.

    If we truly wish to prevent further tragedies, then our advocacy must shun selective theatrics for a genuine, practical commitment to the welfare of the northern boy child and the impoverished youth across Nigeria. Programmes to combat illiteracy, end generational poverty, and dismantle the appeal of extremist ideologies must take precedence.

    Community and religious leaders must unite to restore value and vision to a generation now floundering in the dark. Only then can we hope to salvage the dreams of these minors, redirecting their youthful vigour from the flames of revolt to the light of purpose.

    In the end, the choice is ours to make: will our empathy extend only as far as a public spectacle, or will it dare to pierce the heart of Nigeria’s social crises?

    To truly care is not merely to cry foul for the abused but to devote our energies to understanding and repairing a cycle of harm and abandonment. It is far harder to build structures that prevent these injustices from arising, to forge policies that guard each boy’s potential, to demand a society where our youth are more than tools in a theatre of chaos. If we must protest, let it be a protest against the apathy that makes these tragedies possible—a call not for outrage, but for true, unwavering reform.

    The northern boy child deserves more than the brief spotlight of trial or detention; he deserves a place in a nation that values his mind over his might, his growth over his exploitation. The region cries out for reformation that reaches beyond rhetoric and takes shape in tangible protections: schools that shelter, leaders who safeguard, and a society that sees each child as a future to be nurtured, not a force to be wielded.

  • The media and Rivers crisis

    The media and Rivers crisis

    Most Nigerians identify with the plight of the people of Niger Delta precisely because their land remains a scotched land as a result of pollution arising from oil exploration and exploitation. The conspiracy against the people is not just from the dysfunctional centre that has consistently undermined the principle of federalism, but also the local leadership that often fraudulently swears in the name of the people while diverting some of the resources that would have impacted positively on the lives of impoverished people for personal use. Display of a sense of entitlement and occasional resort culture of self-help, a euphemism for anarchy, is tolerated by Nigerians who identify with their battle against distributive injustice.

    This perhaps explains why little attention has been paid to the quality of leadership of local leaders who many believe are behind fuel theft, illegal refineries or the resort to brute force such as when Governor Rotimi Amaechi supervised the pummelling of the five lawmakers that had behaved like thugs with Okey Chindah, one of the five having to be flown abroad by PDP for medical treatment, or when Sim Fubara’s first reaction  to impeachment threat was the torching of the assembly complex by his supporters  before visiting the complex with a mob and ordering its demolition.

    The battle cry from Pa Edwin Clark of Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) to Government Ekpemupolo, leader of Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), to Alhaji Asari Dokubo of Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), is a threat to return to the creeks to sabotage oil production.

    Unfortunately, this is going to continue  until the nation stops playing the ostrich and faces its demons by addressing its crisis of nation-building; the Niger Delta leaders, will continue to impose their own view of society no matter how warped on the rest of the country.

    For instance, the ongoing disagreement between Wike and Fubara that has paralysed governance in Rivers since December last year has nothing to do with the people of Rivers but everything to do with taking ownership of the resources of the oil rich state as has been the practice with all south-south governors.

    Wike says his battle is over the control the PDP party structure in the state. Fubara insists as the new inheritor of power, the structure belongs to him. Following an impeachment notice by 27 lawmakers loyal to Wike, Fubara’s reaction was predictable. His supporters resorted to self-help by burning down the state House of Assembly.

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    President Tinubu’s intervention led to the drawing up of eight point agreement which included withdrawal of impeachment notice and representation of the budget to legally constituted state assembly as against Fubara’s four loyal members. The governor promised to implement the agreement claiming no price was too high for peace in his state.

    But four days after the  peace agreement was brokered between Governor  Fubara and FCT Minister Wike, by President Bola Tinubu to end the political imbroglio Rivers State, former Commissioner for Water Resources, Chief David Briggs, who attended the peace meeting alleged that President Tinubu intimidated Fubara into signing the eight-point peace resolution with Wike.

    Just few days ago, November 1,  Chidi Lloyd a former member of Rivers State House of Assembly who  pleaded “with the National Assembly to kindly consider a legislation that criminalizes aspersions on judicial officers because they must be protected” gave his own version of what transpired at the meeting. According to him, Peter Odili, a former governor of Rivers and Fubara’s supporter read the eight point agreement; Fubara was given a chance to react to each of the eight point programme after which everyone signed.

    The National Working Committee, (NWC), of the PDP, later warned leaders and members of the party against making unguarded statements capable of bringing the party to disrepute. National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement, in Abuja said the decision to issue the warning was taken at an emergency meeting.

    But PDP media owners who set up their platform for no nobler reason beyond making money especially through news commercialization would have none of that. Long after Fubara had said he would implement terms of agreement, PDP media stalwarts lionized the governor. They wanted him to stand up to his godfather’s bully. Lionized Fubara, who now thinks just anyone, can be a politician, thought the answers to various judicial pronouncements that declared his action as unconstitutional was going around Port Harcourt with a mob and to churches claiming God’s support, forgetting God only helps those who help themselves. Tragically, his media promoters are publicly encouraging him to disobey court orders by questioning the right of his opponents to seek relief from Abuja court.

    It has been established that PDP is “an elite cartel at the centre of power in Nigeria with no ideological or programmatic basis, but simply as essentially a club of elites for sharing of oil rents and political spoils”. Even as a party in power at the beginning of the 4th republic, it was involved in massive corruption and election rigging, activities that were injurious to the health of party system. It is on record that Wike was the creation of PDP media stalwarts.

    Let us start with Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation, a magazine that celebrates vainglory or ostentatious pride in one’s achievements. Speaking last week on the crisis in Rivers State, beyond accusing President Tinubu of bias in his efforts to broker a truce, Momodu who did not show interest in the way forward declared: “I used to do some media thing for Wike. Anyone that knows Fubara will know he is the most perfect gentleman you would ever know”. He was silent on how much Wike paid him for his media work but since it has been established PDP stalwarts set up their outfits to make money and we saw this play out with the Jonathan administration having to dip into borrowed $2b arms and welfare fund of soldiers fighting Boko Haram, to pay Raymond Dokpesi N2billion for the media work he claimed to have carried out for the president, Momodu’s media work for Wike couldn’t have been free.

    Wike was a creation of PDP media owners.  He was winning award after award. Wike who, with his firm control of militants made Rivers State ungovernable for Rotimi Amaechi, his godfather before riding to power, was nominated for the Silverbird Television star award. For both The SUN and Daily Independent, Wike was the Sun Man of the Year 2016 and The Independent Best Nigerian Governor in 2016, Leadership Newspaper Governor of the Year 2017 and Independent Newspaper Political Icon of the Year 2017 awards respectively”.

    Wike’s friend, Ayo Fayose, accused by EFCC of receiving N3b from President Jonathan to prosecute his re-election bid after mobilizing thugs to chase out of town 19 elected members of his state House of Assembly and ruled with five loyal members was honoured and proclaimed “the role model for our youths by Ben Bruce’s Silverbird organization. Bukola Saraki who publicly narrated how he literarily ‘stole’ the 8th senate presidency got an award for ‘“bracing all to emerge president of the 8th Senate in June 2015”.

    And finally, since ‘the medium is the message’, a critical look at the forces behind the award-spinning PDP media stalwarts  will show that awards are nothing but articles of trade. It is therefore left to us to decide what weight to attach to  award given by The Daily Independent, owned  by chief James Ibori, former Delta State governor who served jail terms in Britain for financial malfeasance against his own people, The Sun and New Telegraph owned by Kalu Uzor Kalu, former Abia State governor who was serving jail term for allegedly short-changing his people to the tune of N3.2b until his recent freedom through technicalities, Ben Murray Bruce, the owner of Silverbird Television  who while churning out award after award to PDP politician was indebted to AMCON to the tune of N11b  which according to Muiz Banire, the debt recovery manager appointed by AMCON said  were “innocent depositors money which the common sense propagator and his brothers have been living large and feeding fat upon without the recourse to the interest of the real labourers who own the money”.

    Sadly, the media have become a captive of those who have illegally taken more than their proportionate share of the national resources and temporary power holders who want to humour themselves with both daily assaulting sensibilities of Nigerians.

  • Rivers: There’s no sentiment in law

    Rivers: There’s no sentiment in law

    Are there similarities between the case of Rivers State and that of Lagos which happened 20 years before it? The answer is no. But mischief makers have been trying to paint both cases the same. The Rivers case has to do with a minority group of four lawmakers passing a budget for the state. The Lagos case is different in every material particular. It had to do with the unilateral action of President Obasanjo, as he then was, to stop the allocations of Lagos State local governments. He took the action following the creation of 37 local council development areas (LCDAs) by the state House of Assembly, which is constitutionally empowered to do so.

    What Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Abuja Federal High Court did on Wednesday was to protect the Constitution from flagrant abuse by four lawmakers sitting in what she described as an improperly constituted assembly. They passed the N800 billion budget which Governor Siminalayi Fubara has been implementing. In the case of Lagos, the Supreme Court did the same thing by curtailing what it called the unconstitutional act of Obasanjo in unilaterally withholding the state’s councils’ funds. While noting that the President by virtue of his oath of office was bound to protect and defend the Constitution, the apex court wondered: “does such power extend to the President committing an illegality?”

    “Our attention has not been drawn to any other provision of the Constitution which empowers the President to exercise the power of withholding or suspending any payment of allocation from the Federation Account to local government councils or to state governments on behalf of the local government councils as provided by Section 162 (3) and (5) of the Constitution… In other words, the obligation of the President which is to protect and defend the Constitution can be exercised through the courts as provided by the Constitution itself”, the Supreme Court said.

    If the apex court did not keep silent in the face of Obasanjo’s affront to the Constitution, how then should Justice Abdulmalik ignore the serial breaches of the Constitution by Fubara and the four lawmakers? The leader of the group, Edison Ehie, resigned to become the governor’s chief of staff. In the Rivers case, due process was followed in stopping the state’s allocations. This was not the case in that of Lagos and the Supreme Court descended on Obasanjo for assuming the powers of the court in taking a decision he is not judicially empowered to make. Whatever may be the position of Fubara and the four now turned three lawmakers on the Martin Amaewhule-led 27 legislators can only be determined by the courts.

    It is not for them to say that the 27 have lost their seats for purportedly defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). It was this kind of unilateral act by Obasanjo that the Supreme Court frowned upon in 2004. What then is the crime of Justice Abdulmalik in punishing impunity? To Fubara and his loyalists, the 27 automatically lost their seats after their ‘defection’. The position of the governor and his men is contrary to the provision of the Constitution which states that a defecting lawmaker can only lose his seat, if there is no crisis in his original party.

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    This squabble polarised the assembly into the Wike and Fubara groups. The 27 are for Wike. Justice Abdulmalik was only stating the position of the law when she ordered that Rivers allocations should be withheld forthwith. She was not acting ultra vires (beyond her powers); she was delivering judgment on a case properly brought before her.  There was no legal dispute, as the Supreme Court noted in the Lagos case before Obasanjo unilaterally withheld the state’s local government funds. Should Justice Abdulmalik have shut her eyes to the acts of impunity going on in Rivers for fear of being tarred and not do the right thing?

    All those comparing the Lagos case with that of Rivers miss the point. There is no basis for such comparison. Under the Constitution, a governor can only spend funds appropriated by a House of Assembly. The question then arises: can the four members that passed the Rivers budget pass for a properly constituted assembly? Justice Abdulmalik answered the question in the negative, citing the judgments of her brother-judge, Justice James Omotosho, of the same Abuja court, and the Court of Appeal, delivered on January 22 and October 10, respectively.

    Mischief makers may have a field day, but the law will remain the law. The courts, as Justice Abdulmalik held, would not stand by and allow illegality to thrive. “Where there is a dereliction of constitutional order as in this instant case, this court will surely not shy away from its sacred constitutional responsibility to do what it considers just in the circumstances”, she declared.

  • Mr who are you?

    Mr who are you?

    Many Nigerians, whether rich or poor, like to play the big man. They like to portray themselves as what they are not in order to create false impression about themselves. The essence of their actions is to make the other party cringe in fear and kowtow to them. They derive satisfaction from so doing, especially with a crowd of onlookers around.

       As the ‘big man’ shouts and curses, the lesser mortal, in most cases, looks askance, wondering how he would get out of trouble. ‘What kind of trouble is this?’ He mutters inaudibly. His case is not helped by those who rather than side with the truth, will be asking him to beg and set himself free. ‘Beg for what?’ He thinks. All the same, he bides his time, hoping that things will sort themselves out.

      This is a common scenario which plays out on the streets virtually on a daily basis. The oppressor may be a nobody but he would have put the fear of God into the oppressed who has turned jelly. As Fela, whose title of the song: “Who are you?” we have borrowed for this piece, noted in another song many years ago, “my people fear too much. We fear to fight for freedom; we fear to fight for liberty…”

        As a result of fear, we suffer in silence in the face of oppression. Last Sunday, somewhere in Abuja this kind of ‘power show’, another one from Fela’s stable, was on display in Abuja when a member of the House of Representatives, Alex Mascot Ikwechegh, decided to dance naked. It was an unnecessary show of shame for which today he has become remorseful. All he needed to do in that situation was to calm down, but the people of his village, as they say, seemed to be after him.

      He lost all sense of reason as he descended on the e-hailing cab driver, Stephen Abuwatseya, who came to deliver an item to him in his home at the highbrow Maitama district. He believes that his stay in Maitama, the billionaires’ playground confers special status on him as a member of the National Assembly. The Bolt driver, to him, was a common taxi driver, who could be abused and tongue-lashed like a slave.

    So, Mascot felt such a man deserves no respect. If only it was really a mascot that treated Abuwatseya that way, people would have seen it as an object that was misbehaving, but this was a human being and a representative of the people, for that matter, treating a person that he should ordinarily have protected shabbily. He was disdainful of Abuwatseya, as he asked the cabman time and time again: “do you know who I am?”

    Many public officials suffer from this big man disease. They have a penchant for flaunting their influence and affluence at any given opportunity. They throw it in the face of others and before you ask: ‘Mr who are you?’, the words: ‘do you know who I am?’ would have tumbled out of their mouths. They utter the words with an air of importance, as they cast their look wide look. In all seriousness, they do not need to go to such extent, as bigmanism needs no heralding.

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    It announces itself without fuss, just as a tiger does not need to show its tigritude. As it was the case in the past, Ikwechegh would have gotten away with his verbal and physical assaults of the poor cab driver, but for the advancement in technology, which enabled his victim to record everything on phone. Despite being aware of the recording, he was not deterred. He continued to boast and declared that he could make Abuwatseya disappear without trace and no Jupiter on earth would do anything to him.

    He spoke as if he had the Inspector-General of Police in his pockets. It was all braggadocio. The lawmaker turned lawbreaker now knows better that nobody is above the law. He has publicly apologised and initiated amicable resolution of the dispute. Ikwechegh learnt his lesson the bitter way – pride goes before a fall. He fell because he did not know when to stop, not even  when the driver was cautioning him during the incident: “you have been insulting me and I have been quiet… Are you slapping me? Did you just slap me three times?”

    Now, he faces the whole country over this matter. The police have taken it up; so also are his colleagues who have begun investigating him. It is enough that he has admitted his guilt and shown remorse. If an offender admits his crime, the elders say, he does not stay long on his knees begging. He should be allowed to go and sin no more, after going out there to apologise to Abuwatseya as well as duly compensate him for the public assault. The compensation will be besides paying the driver for his services.

      Perhaps, this way, our big men, especially lawmakers, will realise that they cannot just assault commoners and go scot-free. A senator did it to an expectant mother a few years ago, now a representative has followed suit. There may be many other unreported cases that we have yet to know about. It is high time everything was done to stop these people from being law unto themselves.

  • Courts don’t act in vain

    Courts don’t act in vain

    The message in Wednesday’s verdict by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in the now famous N800 billion Rivers State budget passed by a four-man House of Assembly is that courts do not make orders in vain. Whether an order is right or wrong, it must be obeyed until set aside by a higher court. It is not for a party to, on its own, make that decision, as some states’ attorneys-general have been doing. That is contempt.

    Justice Abdulmalik stopped the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing financial allocations to the state. Will Governor Siminalayi Fubara now see reason to obey the courts and stop implementing the budget? Or will he continue to allow himself to be misled by people surrounding him who claim that the “budget is a process” and as such anybody asking for its non-implementation is ‘daydreaming’.

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    In the face of the many similar court orders on the budget, those people are the “daydreamers”. The court has again spoken. It will do well for the government to obey, just as it exercises its right of appeal. As Justice Abdulmalik said: “the governor’s decision to present the budget to an improperly constituted assembly should not be allowed to stand”. That will be the day when the courts allow illegalities to stand.

  • Middle East: Struggle between Israel and Iran

    Middle East: Struggle between Israel and Iran

    Last Saturday, October  26, missile  and air attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran by Israel were predictably expected and from all indications were choreographed to do tolerable damage on the aerial defence of Iran and damage the republic’s missile and drone production while avoiding its nuclear infrastructure and economic assets of oil and gas production. It is expected that Iran would exercise restraint and not go on tit-for-tat military response. But there is no certainty in all this. What needs to be said as an independent observer is the fact that the two dominant powers in the Middle East are Israel and Iran. They have again emphasised and demonstrated their resolve to protect and defend their interests no matter what. This fact was even recently asserted by the Israeli prime minister,  Benjamin Netanyahu  in a moment of candour, when he said that the  two ancient peoples of the Middle East, the Persians and the Jews would have to accommodate each other with the caveat that the Iranians must get rid of its obscurantist  terrorist, Shia, fundamentalist  regime bent on destroying the Jewish state of Israel while the Iranian government  on the other hand sees Israel as a Zionist regime imposed as a cancer on the Middle East on peaceful Arab population who are justly struggling to be free.

    Can these two wide gulfs in perception and strategic positions be bridged? The two regimes are victims of their own history and until they go from historical perception to the reality of the moment, peace would not be achieved. Whatever anybody may wish to say, it is a fact that Israel has come to stay. On its own, Israel is a major military power in the Middle East. In terms of science and know-how, Israel is a major contributor to knowledge and the wise application of this knowledge is power in the hands of the state of Israel.  With a population approaching 10 million, 2.1 million of which are Arabs, in an area of 22,145 square kilometres (8,630square miles), Israel is 420 kilometres in length and 115 kilometres in width at the widest point. Israel is much smaller than Belgium and compared with Nigeria’s size of 923,770 square kilometres, Israel is very tiny. While geographical size of a state may be an element of power because it would be difficult to quickly overrun and overpower such a state, but size is not always a big asset and the compact size of Israel means, it can easily be defended.

    The people of Israel are highly educated and can easily be mobilised in crisis.  Israel is a closet nuclear power. Israel also enjoys almost an unquestioning support of the most powerful country in the world, the United States. Some have even argued that it is the Israeli tail that wags the American dog!

    On the other hand, Iran (Persia) is a country of ancient people, the Persians who since Biblical times have maintained imperial dominance on the Middle East and part of Asia stretching to Afghanistan and across to South Asian modern states of Pakistan and India. Darius the great the fourth king of the Achaemenid Persian empire stretching from the Caucasus and West Asia to the Balkans in south eastern Europe and even to Egypt and North Africa before the birth of Christ ruled almost 44% of the then known world. In relatively recent times, it was the Persians who dominated the Islamic world, founding the largest empire during the Abbasid Caliphate between 750 and 1258, the third Islamic empire after Prophet Muhammad.

    In short, even in the present era, Persia or its modern variant, Iran, has been a victim of European occupation during the First World War by Russians in the North and the British in the South and during the Second World War by Germans and The Allies. The country as a result of its abundant oil and gas has been a victim of Anglo-American oil political shenanigans in relatively modern times until the Islamic revolution rid the country of foreign domination and influence. Iran has a proud past and is not likely to want to be subservient to any country either in the Middle East or anywhere else. There is no doubt about Iran’s place as a force in world history.

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    Iran follows the Shia tradition of Islam which seems to be the dominant tradition in Iraq, parts of Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and some parts of Afghanistan while the rest of the Islamic world follows the much more loosely organised conservative Sunni tradition that does not appear to have the hierarchical clergy of Ayatollahs and grand Ayatollahs.

    The strength of Iran lies in its vast territory of 1,648,195sq kilometres (636,372 sq. miles).

    It has a multi-ethnic population of 90 million people; the multi ethnicity is considered a source of weakness for the state and working towards fissiparous tendencies in the country. Iran has vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Iran is relatively scientifically advanced with capable nuclear scientists with capacity to produce advanced nuclear reactors and some will say nuclear bombs for which the country has been under severe sanctions by the United States and the rest of its western allies.

    Iran maintains strategic but loose ties with Russia and China but not on the same level that Israel has with the United States and its allies in the West. The proximity of Iran to the Arab states is both an asset and weakness strategically. American forces and influence in countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE sometimes poses a threat to Iran. A western led or Israeli war with Iran could lead to the destruction of gas and oil infrastructure in the Arab Middle East, the blockade of the straits of Hormuz, the major shipping of oil and gas to the rest of the world passes and consequent collapse of global economy. Because of this, a general war between Iran and Israel backed by the United States is very unattractive. This is why America would do its utmost to prevail on Israel not to be too aggressive and adventurous towards Iran.

    By taking on Gaza and Lebanon and particularly the parts dominated previously by Nasrallah and the party of God – Hezbollah and decapitating the movement by killing its leaders and also killing Yayah Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, Israel has achieved most of its war aims. The long hand of Iran around Israel has been cut and the threat posed by Iranian proxy near Israel has been virtually neutralized. In other words Israel doesn’t need to continue the war and this is the time to have ceasefire and negotiations with its neighbours and work towards a two-state solution with the rump of Palestine which is not likely to pose any threat to it. With peace with the Palestinians, the casus belli between Iran and Israel would have been removed and Iran can concentrate its efforts of economic development at home while remaining a champion and protector to weak Gulf and Arab states and maintaining a modus vivendi with Israel.

    Peace is a necessary condition for development and countries just have to get used to a world in which hopefully war will become old fashioned. This is particularly necessary in the tinderbox of the Middle East, the most explosive part of the world where there is an intermixture of religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), sea and air routes and energy resources.