The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

The answer to LGA third-tier fraud

Again we are back to square one. While the celebration over July 11 Supreme Court judgment that granted financial autonomy to the 774 Local Government Areas across the country lasted, not a few had wondered if the Supreme Court was not putting the cart before the horse by embarking on a judicial misadventure over what was unarguably a political issue. And now, the National Assembly, which but for its hypocrisy has the power to confront the nation’s demon, is bellyaching about sections 13, 14 and 16 of Anambra LGA new bill which seek to compel the local governments to pay their federal allocation into an account to be established by the state government, a bill it claims runs afoul of the Supreme Court judgment.

Perhaps our National Assembly that that often treat Nigerian with less dignity than even the colonial masters, think Nigerians are suffering from collective amnesia since neither the said Supreme Court judgment nor the National Assembly has removed the constitutional power of the state Houses of Assembly to make laws for local government.

One was however not surprised that this was coming from Governor Chukwuma Soludo who, as CBN governor, called attention to the chicanery of our leaders with his “Nigeria is the only known federation in the world where the centre allocates funds to third tier of government it does not supervise”.

The truth is that military arbitrarily created local government as third tier of government like the 36 states also created without logic or rhyme are a fraud by those driven by command and control military mind-set. If the fervour was about rural development, we did not see that play out during Babangida’s regime when most of the badly executed or abandoned DFFRI projects were cornered by retired military officers.

And If it was to deepen democracy as Obasanjo wanted us to believe, very few will be persuaded that deepening democracy at grassroots level was by providing money, cars and logistics to feuding intra-party members to destroy their party or destabilise their state as he was reported to have done in Ekiti by ferrying a few members of state House of Assembly out of their states to Abuja to impeach their governors for opposing his third term bid has a familiar ring of fascism.

It was not a surprise most of the professors Obasanjo dragged to his LGA’s ‘third tier crusade’, parted way with him when they discovered they had been used. Both Professor Ben Nwabueze and Chief Rotimi Williams who helped Obasanjo to destroy whatever was left of our federalism in 1979 by ceding almost 70% of the items in the constitution to the exclusive list with nothing in residual list publicly regretted betraying the country before their passage to the great beyond.

The tragedy of our nation is that unlike the unambitious set of leaders we have had since 1999, Nigeria once had selfless and visionary leaders for whom the nation came first. Ex-president Jonathan acknowledged this during his 51st independence anniversary by “thanking our founding fathers who brought joy and hope to the hearts of our people after six decades of colonial rule by working together to restore dignity and honour to a multicultural and multilingual nation of diverse people with more than 250 distinct languages and ethnic groups”.

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This they achieved in spite of the initial lack of consensus on the national question with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and his group canvassing for unitary system, Obafemi Awolowo and his Yoruba group insisting on federalism while Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who believed “Nigerian unity is a British invention” and Ahmadu Bello who expressed grief over “the mistake of 1914” settled for confederacy. But at the end, realizing their responsibility to those that look up to them for direction, these illustrious Nigerian pathfinders settled for a federal arrangement that allowed groups to develop at their own pace.

Unfortunately, nearly all northern governors have since 1999 been opposed to returning the country to a federal arrangement, a social system that promises ‘unity in diversity’, justice and fairness. The reasoning behind the northern governors short-sightedness is that the north because of its numerical advantage in the number of states and LGAs, not only collect more free monies from the federation account, but gives it a veto power over any form of constitutional amendment.

But for refusing to confront our demon, everyone is a loser. Nuhu Ribadu some two years back had challenged these northern leaders to show how billions of naira collected from the federation account since 1999 have impacted on the lives of the poor in the north. It is in this regard, one can also ask the Niger Delta’s self-serving leaders who many believe are behind oil bunkering, if lives of ordinary people of the Niger Delta are better today than in 1999 when they first embarked on economic sabotage of the country. And what has been the fate of ordinary people in the Southwest and Southeast where governors surreptitiously worked against restructuring of the country for fear of losing easy money coming from Abuja which they often deploy towards ‘building bridges over land?

Again, for the sake of our uninformed youths, we must go through history our leaders want to supplant with revisionism which celebrates criminals as heroes.

Between 1962 and 1963, the constitution bequeathed onto us by our founding fathers was breached by NPC/NCNC coalition partners of Prime Minister Balewa, President Nnamdi Azikiwe and Premiers Ahmadu Bello and Okpara, who jointly refused to recognise Dauda Soroye Adegbenro, the duly elected and Privy Council recognized Premier of Western Region. That paved the way for the incarceration of Obafemi Awolowo, the setting back of the giant strides made by the West and the installation of Ladoke Akintola as premier by the coalition partners without election. Anarchy was let loose on the west when those denied the right to determine their own fate decided to make sure those who sowed the wind reaped the whirlwind through ‘operation wet e’.

While the west was burning, the north buried its fangs on the neck of the east after the disputed 1962/63 census exercises and the massively rigged 1964 election. Zik as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces had approached the military for support but was reminded that operationally, the military reports to the prime minister. Zik while pretending to be going for medical check-up but in reality embarked on ship cruise to South America, after handing power over to Dr Nwafor Orizu, the Senate President.

In January 1966, Igbo young military adventurers sympathetic to Zik, in breach of the military espirit de corps, selectively murdered their friends, about eight northern senior military officers and their political leaders, two western senior military leaders and their premier while conveniently sparing their over 30 Igbo military officers and Igbo political leaders.

Aguiyi Ironsi after quashing the insurrection took over power with the help of the Senate President who according to Richard Akinjide, refused to swear in the next available minister in the absence of the prime minister as stipulated by the constitution.

Ironsi’s greatest undoing was the promulgation of Decree 34 which turned the country from a federal into a unitary state. That was quickly interpreted as an Igbo agenda having canvassed for a unitary system during the various constitutional debate from 1954 up to the 1957 London Constitutional Conference where NCNC leaders insisted Nigeria should be divided into a federation of 17 provinces which Awolowo claimed would amount to bringing unitary system through the back door.

In July 1966, another set of adventurers led by Murtala Mohammed, Danjuma, Babangida, and others initiated their vengeance coup called Araba (secession) during which all Ibo military officers on sight were brutally murdered.

At the end the civil war that followed, successive northern military leaders created more states and LGAs for the north thus making northern leaders the 1950 Nigeria they could control a fait accompli.

The way forward is not through a third tier fraud or unviable states created without rhyme. The cheapest and tested option before us is to confront our demons by embracing a federation of six geo-political zones as canvassed by Nigerian stakeholders including leaders of ethnic nationalities, the true owners of Nigeria.

This is the answer to distributive injustice in the South-south, tribal war over control of political power and resources on the in the Northwest, Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast and the apparent ethnic cleansing in the North-central where majority of our compatriots live in IDP camps in their own country.

And as for our embattled President Tinubu who voluntarily offered himself a sacrificial lamb after 58 years of crisis of nation-building, he has a choice as to whether he wants to be remembered as a Nigerian statesman or like his predecessors including Buhari, the best statesman we never had.

October 15, 2024
Asiwaju Tinubu: The Lagos factor in Nigerian politics

Any study of Nigerian politics without special attention paid to the political economy of Lagos within the Nigerian political complex will be missing the key role of Lagos metropolis in the history and politics of Nigeria. Just as in the past, Lagos for the foreseeable future remains a formidable factor in Nigerian economy and politics controlling about 60% of the economy of the country and its major entrepôt. Historically, Lagos was the entry point of Britain into Nigeria. When a naval squadron bombarded the city in 1851, ostensibly to stop the slave trade, the people of Lagos realised that the wider world was interested in what went on in Lagos. This naval promenade was repeated in 1861 and Lagos was permanently annexed to the British Empire and run sometimes from the Spanish Island of Fernando Po, (now Bioko) and later from the Gold Coast where the British had had an older settlement. By the middle of the 1860s, Lagos then had its own administration but still subordinated to the Gold Coast administration. Up on till 1875, the British were not really sure of what to make of its West African colonies. The West African Coast was regarded as the “white man’s grave” because of the malaria fever which killed off the white man within weeks of mosquitoes bite. Even when quinine was used in the 1820s as prophylactic against malaria, its effectiveness was still debated but was widely used by black liberated slaves on the West African coast especially from the settlements of liberated slaves in Saint Louis, Dakar, Freetown and Monrovia. Eventually white men began to tolerate the inhospitable climate and what was considered unhealthy environment of the coast for white people.

In the meantime, black people at least in the immediate hinterland of Lagos kept moving in droves to Lagos. Lagos had existed as a small fishing village established by the Awori people circa 1200AD. Over the years, they had witnessed Egba, Ijebu, Egun people coming to join them. The dramatic movement of some Edo warriors in the mid-15th century to the place did not quite change the demography of Lagos but its government which from then on was patterned after the monarchical institution of Benin which it too had inherited from Ile Ife. This was the settlement the British took over in 1861. The population of Lagos increased exponentially from the 1820s onwards from the considerable influx of liberated slaves from Brazil and Sierra Leone. These were Yoruba ex-slaves who knew the area of their birth. This population increased from 1876 onwards because of the century of warfare in Yorubaland which began with the Owu war in 1796 and was terminated by the British conquest of Ilorin in 1896. The period of war in Yorubaland facilitated the exodus of people into Lagos.

It is a surprising coincidence that just as warfare in Yorubaland intensified in 1876, the British a year before had stated through its Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, the Tory businessman from Birmingham, that Britain was then determined to acquire tropical colonies as “undeveloped estate of the realm”. This meant a forward policy in West Africa and in the Yorubaland hinterland of Lagos. By the time the British were effectively in the control of Nigeria in the 1890s, Lagos population had grown from the original Awori settlement to what can be called a cosmopolitan city without losing its Yoruba essence with cultural contributions from the various people who had made the city their home particularly the Anglophone Creole from Freetown and their counterparts, the Brazilians with their strong attachment to Catholicism while the indigenous Muslim elements were concentrated in the centre of the city with accretions from sizeable Nupe elements.

Lagos has always been a province of opportunity and freedom not only for Nigerians but also for West Africans.

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Lagos was also the city which saw the emergence of virile newspapers with healthy dose of anti-colonial sentiments. With the press grew the sentiment of freedom and demand that Africa should be ruled by Africans and not by imperialists whose civilization was found to be exotic and different from acceptable African culture. The so-called educated elite in Lagos did not abhor everything British; what they were opposed to was the discriminatory practice which elevated the pigmentation of the skin over the character of the person. It is remarkable to note how advanced the political sociology of the Lagos elite was when compared with modern views of a racially neutral world. When the early Lagos nationalists like Drs J.K Randle and Obasa and Herbert Macaulay organised the very first political movements in Nigeria, they concentrated on the amelioration of social and political situation of the people of Lagos with the intention that a secure Lagos will be an attractive beacon to the rest of Nigeria. They have largely been proved right because over the years, Lagos has nurtured the political destinies of people like Herbert Macaulay, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, and now Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu. Other politicians have bestrode the Lagos firmament but on lesser scale than those of these three. It is remarkable that the three of them can trace their ancestry to places outside Lagos. Lagos has been a welcoming city and anybody who is prepared to work hard and struggle can make it in business and politics in Lagos. It is true that Lagos belongs to Lagosians. Lagos has never been a no man’s land. It was never a terra incognita. It was always an abode of people. People have always migrated to Lagos and have been absorbed by the people and their culture. People who come to Lagos and want to be Lagosians must embrace the people and their culture. This was what Yoruba speaking Herbert Macaulay from Sierra Leone and Nnamdi Azikiwe from Onitsha and what several Lagosians from diverse ancestry have done. Those who say Tinubu is not a Lagosian and that Alhaji Lateef Jakande was not a Lagosian do not know the history of modern Lagos. There are also those who say Atiku Abubakar is a Cameroonian and that the Baba Ahmeds are from Mauritania. Such people forget that we are all ancestrally from somewhere from where we are today. Besides, migration is a common factor in African history and that is why many of our northern Nigerians became Nigerians.

My ancestors came from Ajase Ipo in present day Kwara and I am very proud of it. This does not mean I am not an Ekiti, a place where my great grandfather, Dada “Agbo dumogun bere uja, taku taku a bija pe” fought for and was ready to die for. Unfortunately the assimilationist tendencies now seem frozen because of electoral democracy where every vote counts.

These preambular statements are designed to establish the point I want to make that is, we are from where we have fought and were ready to die for. I don’t know anybody who is more Lagosian than Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Tinubu withstood the federal political hurricane unleashed on Lagos during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency and used the period of adversity to look inwards and develop Lagos into the fifth largest economy in Africa. He was prepared to die in the process for his belief. He definitely has paid his due.

Now to the kernel of my piece. People have said Tinubu is not physically fit and the man said appropriately that the presidency is not a boxing arena. Buhari despite his health challenge held fort there for eight years. Although Asiwaju does not intend to follow the Buhari trajectory because he has better business and economic ideas far superior to that of Buhari. He has also proved beyond debate that he is an organiser of men and material to achieve designed targets. He proved this in Lagos and his successors have followed the same trajectory. While governor of Lagos, he built a formidable civil service and teaching service open to all residents of Lagos marrying in good proportion the interests of “Omo Eko” and “Ara Eko”. Tinubu would never ignore the interests of Lagos indigenes and subordinate them to those of residents who have claims in other states apart from Lagos but at the same time, he believes in careers open to talents and would use the talents of outsiders to develop his favourite Lagos and now his country Nigeria. Tinubu’s reach globally is very long and wide. I remember when he developed his policy of land use, he tapped the knowledge of Canadians and I can testify to this verity because I was then the chairman of Nigerian-Canada Chamber of Commerce. As long as we continue to embrace the capitalist model of development, Tinubu has the golden touch to deliver even if he is not as robust as when he was much younger. Tinubu is now president of Nigeria and he has a wider canvass on which to paint and he still possesses the organising ability to assemble a winning team and perhaps he is one of the few people who can turn the economy around. But in doing this he needs the understanding of the people and their support, tolerance and the readiness to do whatever it takes and suffer the pain to see the country through the economic doldrums to which his predecessors have driven Nigeria into.

For those who know a little bit of history, the most successful president of America in modern times was Fredrick Delano Roosevelt who engineered from his wheelchair the most radical social and political transformation of that country.

October 10, 2024
The council elections magic

It Did Not start today. The domination of local government elections by the ruling party in a state has, painfully, become entrenched in the political system. It is now a given that the party in power must win the election, irrespective of how strong the other contesting parties may be.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, no ruling party has lost any council poll held under its watch. The ruling party only loses where it decides to, by switching overnight to another party through the sitting governor’s proxies as the whole nation just witnessed in the October 5 Rivers State local government election.

It was a no-brainer that the unknown Action Peoples Party (APP), with its elephant logo, was going to top the poll, once the governor’s men moved there en masse on the eve of the election. The circumstances surrounding the defection of the former council caretaker chiefs to APP, while their godfather, Governor Siminilayi Fubara, remains in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for now, are well known. That APP came from political obscurity to prominence to win council election within weeks is the stuff of which electoral victory are not made.

There is nowhere in the world that a party of no political consequence rises just like that and wins election at the grass roots, where political power flows not from the barrel of a gun, nor the deep pockets of a moneybag, but from the love and acceptance of the people. The people must believe in a candidate and his party first in order to go with them in local elections. If this is not the case, then something must have gone wrong. How did APP perform the magic of beating PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the two well known parties in the state, at their own game?

The fact is that it was a case of he who pays the piper, calling the tune. Local government elections are the babies of the state independent electoral commissions (SIECs), which are constitutionally recognised to undertake the job. The framers of the Constitution must have meant well by giving SIECs this responsibility, instead of saddling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which handles the other elections with the additional duty. They probably thought that what is in council elections that SIECs cannot easily crack.

The problem is not the election but its conduct by umpires that allow themselves to be led by the nose by the governors who appointed them. Go through the outcomes of the council elections held recently across the country, you will be shocked by what by you see. It was a cleansweep of the polls by the party in power from Adamawa to Yobe.

Check: In Adamawa, PDP took all the 21 chairmanship seats at stake; Akwa Ibom, 30 out of 31 for PDP; Anambra, 21 over 21 for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Bauchi, 17 out of 17, with 15 returned unopposed for PDP; Benue, 27 over 27 for APC; Delta, 25 over 25 for PDP; Kebbi, 21 over 21 for APC; Sokoto, 23 out of 23 for APC, and Rivers 22 over 23 for APP. Meaning that they all got a perfect score of 100 percent! It is inexplicable. Only the SIECs can tell the public what happened.

You ask yourself: if these parties are this popular at the grass roots, how come that they do not replicate these victories in state/national assembly, governorship and presidential elections? After all, it is said, all elections are local, no matter the names they carry. Though APP is not in power in Rivers, it has a father-figure in Fubara, who smoothened its path to victory, defeating the governor’s own party, PDP, in the process. As he said, tongue-in-cheek before the election: “I’m the greatest loser because my party is not contesting”. A loser indeed!

Read Also: Tinubu orders police to end Rivers post-election violence

Fubara should not rejoice yet over the results of the election, which was held in defiance of the judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja. Though he relied on the injunction of a Port Harcourt High Court to conduct the election, it waits to be seen what the appellate courts would say on the matter. In relying on that injunction, he claimed to have what he called a ‘first-in-hand’ order that protects him in conducting the election.

Is that really true? The Rivers injunction was given on September 4, while the Abuja judgment which came after the hearing of the case was delivered on September 30. It must be noted that the matter was not heard and decided in one day. It was filed in July and a similar restraining order was made then, which Fubara and the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), that is headed by a retired judge, chose to ignore.

So, talking about the principle of ‘first-in-time’, which the governor seems to know a lot about, the Abuja order takes precedent over that of Rivers. The appellate courts, and not any make-believe local government election tribunal, will eventually decide whether or not the poll will stand. It must be noted that, for the first time in the nation’s political history, the police did not participate in the election. Much weather is being made out of this police action.

While I accept that it is wrong for the police not to secure any part of the country at any point in time, I beg to disagree that they did anything wrong in this instance. They only acted in compliance with the Abuja order. What the police did was to distance themselves from the election venues and not from policing the state. Not being at polling booths on the election day is not the same as not policing the whole state. Where will Rivers be today if the police had withdrawn from all other parts of the state last Saturday?

Fubara, his loyalists and RSIEC have had their way, it is now left for the courts to decide whether they are right or not. The earlier the courts do this, the better for the people of Rivers so that they can know whether it is a truly democratically-elected local government administration, and not a contrived one, that is now in place in their domains, in line with the July 11 Supreme Court’s judgment.

October 10, 2024
Three Timesmen at 70

In Nigeria of today, it is no mean feat to live up to 70. Some even argue that people should roll out the drums and celebrate if they are lucky enough to clock 50, not to talk of 70. Today, I celebrate three elders and senior members of my profession, who joined the Club of Septuagenarians a few days ago. I am talking about the highly- cerebral Gbenga Oni-Olusola aka Ogbologbo, Gabriel Omonhinmin and Clement Iloba. These are men that I met many years ago in the line of duty. They are thoroughbred professionals who were a delight to work with. They were masters of their art who dazzled like diamonds in their work.

They held senior editorial positions at the Daily Times and mentored many who are today following their footsteps. Of the trio, I am closer to Ogbologbo, who I first met when I was in The Punch. Quiet, easygoing, but hard and tough, Ogbologbo’s brilliance and sense of humour easily come to the fore when you speak with him. He rose to become Editor of the Sunday Times. I will not talk about fidi p’ejo (if you know, you know) here sir. I see Ogbologbo reeling in laughter if he sees this line.

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Omonhinmin was a writer par excellence too. His enchanting articles were a delight to read in the Daily Times and Sunday Times. It was like a war whenever he and Ogbologbo engaged in their usually ‘hot’ debates (in English and Bini languages which they speak fluently). The debates always ended with both of them roaring in laughter and sharing cigarettes and beers, to the consternation of the onlookers waiting for them to exchange blows.

Iloba was on the quiet side, but highly effective too. As Editor of Evening Times, he took the paper to a higher level, paving the way for his deployment to the federal capital to start Abuja Times shortly after the movement of the seat of government there. Ogbologbo, who was covering Dodan Barracks then, followed the government to Abuja too. Ogbologbo later returned to Lagos to take up higher responsibilities. Happy birthday, my dear Egbons, for attaining the biblical age of three scores and 10. May you be blessed with good health and sound mind.

October 10, 2024
Borno: After the deluge

In Borno, where the desert once nourished from the banks of hope, the Alau Dam stood like an aquatic sentinel. For nearly four decades, its concrete walls held back the turbulent surge of water, offering both life and sustenance to the people of Maiduguri and its environs.

But time, much like neglect, erodes even the strongest of foundations. And on September 10, 2024, the dam, once a symbol of resilience, collapsed. The waters burst forth in a deluge of destruction, sweeping away homes, livelihoods, and dreams. The tragedy that followed was not merely an act of nature, but the catastrophic consequence of human failure.

The floodwaters did not rise overnight, nor did the crisis. For years, the people of Jere Local Government Area, who lived in the shadow of the dam, had voiced their concerns—complaints that fell on deaf ears. They had seen the cracks in the dam’s weathered face, the warnings etched into its weakening structure. They pleaded with the authorities, like desperate travellers seeking refuge from a storm, but the government, cloaked in indifference, remained unmoved. The dam, they said, would hold. It always had. But even the most steadfast walls will crumble under the weight of negligence.

And so, the flood that ravaged Borno was no mere happenstance. It was a disaster born of abandonment, a bitter fruit of years of neglect, and a sobering reminder that governments, too often, wait until the very last moment—until the floodgates are breached—before they stir into action. This is a tragic cycle of reactive governance, where problems are ignored while they fester, only to be met with hurried gestures and frantic cash offerings when they erupt into full-blown crises. Billions of naira are thrown in the aftermath, a palliative balm for wounds that could have been prevented.

The Alau Dam’s collapse was not a surprise to those who knew its history. Built between 1984 and 1986, it was intended to serve as a lifeline for irrigation and potable water. Yet, like so many relics of a forgotten past, it was allowed to languish, its needs ignored by those entrusted with its care. In September of 1994, exactly thirty years before the most recent flood, the dam had already shown its vulnerability, spilling over into Maiduguri with less destructive consequences. But the warning signs were clear even then: this was not a structure built to withstand the ages. And still, the government turned a blind eye.

Experts, those who understand the intricate dance between man and nature, have long blamed this disaster on negligence and misappropriation of funds—accusations that are difficult to ignore when one considers the budgetary allocations made for the dam’s rehabilitation over the years. In 2020, N285 million was earmarked for repairs. In 2021, an additional N80 million. Another N37 million in 2022. And yet, the dam remained in disrepair, its strength whittled away by the passage of time and the indifference of those responsible for its upkeep.

Read Also: SERAP seeks probe of Borno ecological funds

It is imperative to uncover where these funds disappeared; how much was released, and how much was stolen and diverted into bureaucratic limbo? Both the federal and state governments must interrogate the disbursement and alleged misappropriation of the funding. And while the government scurries to rebuild the dam, and compensate the people with palliatives, it must be understood that money alone will not solve this problem.

A billion-naira band-aid cannot mend a society wounded by years of neglect. The people of Borno are not asking for handouts. They seek justice. They demand that their voices be heard and that their concerns be met with action, not hollow reassurances. Alhaji Bukar Tijani, the Secretary to the Borno State Government, stood before the people in early September, just days before the floodwaters tore through their lives, and assured them that the dam was sound. “There is no need to panic,” he said. And yet, panic is all that remains in the wake of his words—panic, and the debris of shattered homes and broken lives.

The Alau community has rejected the government’s claim that climate change alone is to blame. They know better. They know that the dam’s gates had been faulty for years, that the “temporary hill” constructed in place of proper repairs was nothing more than a stopgap, diverting waters that should have been contained. The community tried, in vain, to shore up the dam’s failing walls, but their efforts were like trying to hold back a hurricane with bare hands. The flood was inevitable, and the damage, incalculable.

As the floodwaters recede, the task of rebuilding begins. But this must not be a mere exercise in patching up the cracks. The government must go beyond the immediate relief efforts, beyond the distribution of palliatives, and focus on restoring the dignity and livelihoods of the people. Roads and bridges must be rebuilt, schools reopened, clean water and sanitation services restored. The agricultural economy that once sustained these communities must be revived, and those who lost everything—homes, businesses, loved ones—must be given the support they need to rebuild their lives.

But most importantly, there must be accountability. The people of Borno have suffered for too long at the hands of a government that prioritises reaction over prevention. This cannot be allowed to continue. The federal and state governments must work hand in hand, not just in moments of crisis but in the long-term governance of the region. The Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has shown a commitment to his people, but his efforts alone are not enough. The federal government must step up, ensuring that every naira allocated to the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure is spent as intended. And those who failed to heed the warnings of the people, those who allowed the dam to deteriorate while pocketing the funds meant to repair it, must be held accountable.

The Alau Dam, in its collapse, has become a symbol of all that is broken in Nigeria’s governance—a dam built to nourish, allowed to wither, and finally to drown the very people it was meant to protect. But in its ruins lies the potential for a new beginning, if only the government can learn from its mistakes and take the necessary steps to rebuild, not just the dam, but the trust and faith of the people.

In Borno, the waters have receded, but the scars remain. The time for knee-jerk reactions is over. What is needed now is a comprehensive, sustained effort to restore hope and rebuild lives. As we wade through the ruins of what has been lost, we must also look forward. The recovery phase has begun, and with it, the opportunity to rebuild—not just the homes, schools, and hospitals swept away by the floodwaters, but the very fabric of governance that allowed this disaster to occur. Schools may reopen, health services can be restored, and clean water may flow once more through the pipes of Maiduguri and Jere. But neither cash nor homilies could bring back the lives that have been lost.

In the rising and falling of the tides, there is always a moment of stillness, a brief pause where the waters neither rise nor retreat. It is in such moments that we find the opportunity to act, to rebuild, to protect. Let this be that moment for Borno. Let the government stand as a dam against the flood of neglect. Let them act before the waters rise again.

October 10, 2024
Nigeria at 64: Haunted by identity politics and toxic elections

At 64, Nigeria a product of our visionary leaders and intellectuals mainly in the profession of journalism, medicine, law and teaching, committed to the emergence of a nation where the wellbeing of the privileged is the well-being of others, has come of age. I cannot find a more befitting tribute to our founding fathers than the following trending social media message.

“My father was a refuse collector, I went to FGC Warri. Government gave us uniforms, books; we ate chicken, we were paid transport fare to go back home. I could enter medical school in Ibadan without knowing anyone. I schooled with Odutola’s grandchild. Can anyone enter Ekpoma to read medicine today without knowing anyone?”

Many of those who promoted the idea of a more egalitarian society rose through their boot strings. Many of them never enjoyed the privileges and opportunities they gave others to become somebody in life. They loved and served their people. They planned for the survival of their nation. It was in this regard that Bode Thomas, who was to later die at 33, proposed regionalism “to prevent the country from the reign of one-eyed kings.”

Tragically, what we have had since the collapse of the first republic starting with Aguiyi Ironsi who decreed a unitary system for a heterogeneous society, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo, who destroyed academy and bureaucracy without which society decays, through to Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari who destroyed the legacies of our founding fathers in desperate search for their blurred vision of society, was at best reign of half blind men. It could have not been any less distressing they insisted they knew what was good for us without asking us.

When we express nostalgic feeling for our once thriving world class universities, they reminded us of their Bells, Babangida or Atiku Abubakar universities. When our self-proclaiming messiahs are reminded UCH Ibadan was one of the best three Teaching Hospitals in the Commonwealth of Nations, they have many alternatives including India. If they are reminded of our national airline with 33 aircraft flown by Nigerian pilots, they push down our throat, Okada, Sosoliso and other funny names. Our old shipping lines have substitutes in Raymond Dokpesi and Musa Yar’Adua Shipping lines; when we reminded of pipe-borne water in our city centres, they direct us to Coca-Cola and their other agents to buy water.

Unfortunately, for the greater part of our 64 years, their deadly tools for bringing us to our knees include politics of identity and toxic elections. With propaganda, disinformation, misinformation, outright lies, reality becomes picture in our heads. In terms of diatribes, disparaging propaganda, ethnic baiting, exploitation of the innermost fears of those who look up to us for direction, the 2023 presidential election was by the far the worst in our nation’s history.

But how did we get here?

Identity politics and toxic elections did not start until the 1931 Nigerian Youth Movement’s keenly and fiercely fought election. In that election, truth and principles became victim. Lagos youths that once saw themselves as Nigerians at war against a common enemy – the British imperialists – lost their innocence.

In that historic battle, Obafemi Awolowo had on the principle that the acting president had the right of first refusal, supported Ernest Ikoli, an Ijaw from the East against Akinsanya, his fellow Ijebu man sponsored by Dr Azikiwe. After a fierce battle, Ikoli won the election. But with Zik and his West African Pilot propaganda, Awolowo was declared a tribalist. That sounded a huge joke. But for Zik’s Igbo and Ijebu supporters, the most educated African of his era cannot be wrong. They all followed him out of NYM and the first major platform for Nigerian youths collapsed.

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Between August and December 1951, ethnic nationalism and religion sentiments had mounted with NPC winning the north, NCNC winning the east and AG the west. In the 1952, elections into the Federal House of Representatives, members of the central House were to be elected by the regional houses from among its members. The constitution recognized Lagos as part of West. The five seats meant for Lagos were therefore to come from the western-dominated house.

But Zik insisted on contesting in Lagos because as he rightly claimed, he was based in Lagos. But conscious of the western house’s unwillingness to have him as their representative to the federal legislature, he cut a deal with the five Lagos elected representatives so that three of them could step down for him. Unfortunately, two of them, Prince Adeleke Adedoyin and Dr Olorunnibe refused to step down, thereby preventing Zik from going to the central legislature. The response to the new development was to seek refuge under politics of identity.

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 Zik and Mbadiwe and Zik’s other 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 the Yoruba in NCNC to be masters of their own fate at a period the north was administered by a northerner and the east by easterners became a subject of intense propaganda and blackmail and misinformation to the generation of Igbo youths. Of course, Obafemi Awolowo, who emerged leader of government, was crowned king of tribal politics. Even our world-celebrated Chinua Achebe could not restrain himself from dishing out disinformation 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.

It is all about character and adherence to principles. Sadly our politics, has since become politics without principles. If Zik cannot manipulate the constitution to represent the west through the back door, Lagos must be separated from the west. If Awo would not give up on creation of states for minorities, the coalition partners can create just the Midwest to teach Awo a lesson (Balewa). If the constitution provided for non-interference of the centre in the affairs of the regions, the coalition could pass a retroactive law to undermine the constitution. If the Privy Council ‘s judgment was not favourable, , we may on the basis of our 1963 republican constitution replace it as the highest judicial body with our Chief Justice appointed by our president after dissolution of the judicial council.

NCNC’s 1959 coalition with NPC, a party with which it shared no ideological orientation, was probably driven by opportunism than any form of principles. NPP/NPN 1979 coalition after 33 months of war of attrition was not different. Opposition to MKO Abiola’s1993 landslide victory and Bola Tinubu’s 2023 travails fit the same narrative. What was not in doubt was the groundswell of opposition to MKO Abiola’s victory with Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu serving as Abacha’s envoy to de-market Abiola in Europe. There was a smear campaign against Tinubu with intent to hurt. He was vilified and abused by children of anger who would rather have military dictatorship to Tinubu presidency. The common denominator between these tormentors is lack of principle.

Identity politics thrives because nationalism is sometimes not without altruism. And as we have now seen from electoral records dating back to 1964, identity politics cannot guarantee electoral success. At some point, the coalition game has to be played. And periodic spoiler game has its limit. Since politics is a game where trust is perhaps the most important variable, spoiler game only keeps other groups on their guard.

Finally, it is just as well the president has invited the youths for a CONFAB where they can organize themselves for challenges of nation-building. Their future is in their hands. And that future is not going to be built on the street by an unthinking mob, trading lies in place of principles .Today’s reining god is democracy. And democracy has its ethos.

October 8, 2024
Deplorable state of some schools in Oyo State

Some years ago while I was still teaching at the Redeemer’s University, Ede, I decided to bring some final year students to the city of Ibadan to see some landmarks in the city as part of the students’ course in nation-building. We began our visit to the vast city of Ibadan, the biggest city in tropical Africa or perhaps the biggest city in Africa in terms of its spread. The city of Ibadan, because of its history and size has problems that are peculiar to it. The city is a combination of modernity and underdevelopment; it is both city and village in some layout, and it is both conservative and liberal at the same time and it is the favourite of many people.

One can have both city life and village life depending on which part of the city one lives in. Many of us consider the city home but we all know the limitations imposed on residents by the history of the city at least in contemporary political times. Ibadan was founded by immigrants coming from several Yoruba kingdoms but predominantly from Oyo. In the history of Ibadan, the military caste or people with military prowess have largely given the city its character.

Despite its cosmopolitan beginnings, the city today does not permit new arrivals the same assimilation into its citizenship as before. This is why it will be difficult for residents who can even trace the arrival of their parents in the city over a hundred years to be elected into any posts in the city. It seems the old Ibadan melting point tendencies ended centuries ago. Ibadan is not alone in this tendency; it seems most Nigerian cities are like that today. It will be interesting for sociologists to investigate why Nigerian cities do not manifest the renewal tendencies and assimilation process manifested in many cities in other parts of the world. I hope my readers will permit this meandering preamble!

Back to the issue under discussion. I took my students to Mapo Hall which was the seat of the local government in times past , some kind of “hotel de ville” if one can borrow from the history of Paris in France. There must have been some events at that time when we visited Ibadan precisely in 2015. The situation at Mapo Hall surrounding was noisy and rowdy and it seemed as if some local tough guys were showing who was in charge in the place. We saw some guys being hailed and heralded by followers and “Dundun” “Gangan” and “Bata” drummers and from what I could see there was some show off of power. My “ajebota” students were confused and not prepared for what we saw and I quickly took them out of the place after telling them a bit of the history of the place in colonial and modern Nigeria. Mapo Hall is now the rallying point for political gathering, mobilisation and demonstration in Ibadan.

After Mapo Hall, we visited Saint Anne’s School, the oldest girls’ secondary school in Nigeria. We were welcomed by the principal who gave a short history of the school to the students and I asked one of my students to respond and to tell the senior students of the secondary school why they should choose our university as their first choice of universities they wish to attend. Saint Anne’s showed what impact a virile old students association can do for the maintenance of their old school. Like Christs school Ado Ekiti, Saint Anne’s is a good example of a school remaining a pride to both old and new students. We then drove to Ibadan Grammar School, one of my Alma mater because I went to Christ School Ado Ekiti first before going to higher school in Ibadan Grammar School which was one of the access routes to universities in Nigeria in the 1960s.

I must say going to Ibadan Grammar School was with trepidation because I didn’t know the state of the school. The road to the school was virtually unpaved and a bridge over a small stream on the road seemed as if it might fall any time soon. It seemed to be a bridge too far to put it in military terms of the Second World War! We eventually got to the school and believe me, I could not recognise any place there. Not even the assembly hall/chapel, the classrooms where I studied for two years, nor the windowless adjunct hall which I shared with 10 other boys as dormitory. The entire place looked so totally unkempt and abandoned and grown with wild grass. This was a school founded by Bishop Akinyele and the Anglican community in Ibadan in 1913 and where Archdeacon Emmanuel Alayande, the Bishop’s son-in-law, was principal for many years.

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My students were eager to find out if Ibadan Grammar School was my old school. I couldn’t deny it and I had no explanation why the school of great men like the late Chief Bola Ige, Chief Bayo Akinnola, Professor Akin Mabogunje and many other people of blessed memory and those of us on this side of the heavenly divide went to remained in the dilapidated form we found it. The entire place lacked neither order nor rhythm nor reason. This school used to be a boarding school during my time. Sir Francis Ibiam, the governor of Eastern Nigeria sent his only son to the school and Sir Adesoji Aderemi, the governor of Western Nigeria had about three sons there. Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s son was there and the children of many distinguished men and women in the country were there. Our teachers came from all over the world, principally from England, India, and America and of course Nigeria. It was the school to go if one was not accepted in the strictly selective Government College Ibadan.

Recently, just a week ago, I went back to the school out of curiosity and I was shocked to my bone marrow that to put it mildly, God seems to have departed from Israel. The situation was worse than what it was in 2015. My driver asked me why I was crying. I had to tell him that on seeing the bust of Baba Alayande in front of one of the rundown buildings, I just couldn’t restrain myself. I became very emotional about the total deprivation, despair and destruction of a great institution.

Why is it that Nigerians don’t maintain anything and have a sense of history? Why must we begin building from the scratch? This is our national affliction also. We seem to reinvent the wheel every time whether it is the case of roads, railways, industries, universities, hospitals, you name them: our governments are always building and commissioning new things while abandoning the old ones to disrepair. There are no simple toilets in our schools and universities! Yet we expect that the students going through the portals of these institutions will be ladies and gentlemen! Not a fat chance! It will not happen. Perhaps we need to resolve as a country that this will not happen again at all levels of government.

During my historical provenance to Ibadan, I took my students to the Government College Ibadan, the pride of Ibadan and Nigeria in the past and I discovered that what I saw in Ibadan Grammar School was a microcosm of a general malady in Oyo State. There was no shred of what used to be a great school before now and yet this was the school that produced Wole Soyinka, Professor Dipo Akinkugbe, Dr Omololu Olunloyo, Chief Adegoke Adelabu and my own brother Abiodun Osuntokun. I did not bother to go to the Methodist Teachers College where Awolowo schooled. The situation would definitely have been the same. I remember Professor Jibril Aminu suggesting to the government of General Obasanjo that the federal government should take over the historic government colleges of Ibadan, Umuahia, Barewa and Kings College, Lagos for special development and preservation as educational monuments for future generation. I wonder what would have happened if his suggestion had been accepted. Will the old daemon of lack of maintenance culture not have reared its ugly head?

Unless we realise that we as a country have a national problem of lack of maintenance culture, all the monies of this world would not suffice for our national development.

My appeal to the Oyo State governor and all other governors of all the states of this federation is that they go round in cognito visiting all schools in their domains particularly the historic schools and find out what is going on there. Right in Mokola in Ibadan, the roofs of primary schools have been blown off with no sign of anybody responsible for repairs. I know some old students abroad are collecting money for repairs of some of these schools and incredibly as it may sound, state governments are asking for money so collected to be routed through them for repairs. There ought to be a special committee for schools repair and redesign and redevelopment with annual budgets. Students should be made to pay for school repairs and maintenance. I asked whether students do not routinely maintain their lawns again? All encroachment on schools grounds should be pulled down and roads to these schools should be upgraded and maintained. We should all know that our children are our future and if we don’t take care of them, they will all grow up to kill us and our children who are attending well maintained private primary and secondary schools while the children of the poor are in these wild environments where we have herded them as if they are animals .

October 3, 2024
Memo to CJN Kekere-Ekun

Lex non cogit ad impossibilia –

A court does not make an order in vain and will not make an order that cannot be carried out

IT may not be wrong to say that you are coming to office at the most trying time for the judiciary. Never in the over 180-year history of the institution has it been this vilified and abused, as the people have seen in the past 20 months. As the third arm of government, the judiciary should stand out. It ought to be because it is the arbiter to which the other arms run to when in dispute.

It is not referred to as the last hope of the common man for nothing. It earned the appellation because whether rich or poor everybody is treated as equal before the law. Therefore, the judiciary must be clean, transparent, open, credible, accountable, responsible and above all incorruptible. Of course, not all the allegations against the judiciary are true. Many were fabricated to give the judiciary a bad name in order to hang it. The nagging question is how helpful has the judiciary been in maintaining its integrity?

This is the crux of the matter. The judex, that is judicial officers, who man the various courts cannot be seen hobnobbing with all sorts of character and expect not to be tarred. Judges are expected to be conservatives and not social animals because of the nature of their job. My Lord, you know too well the danger in a judge that is a man-about-town. Such a judge will sell not only his judgments but his soul for a mess of porridge. Do not get me wrong, I am not condemning judges. I am only painting a scenario.

I covered the courts as a reporter and I can recall vividly the occasions that the late Justice Moronkeji Onalaja, then of the Ikeja High Court, stopped proceedings to talk about lawyers trying to induce him. On those occasions that he spoke, he was livid with rage. With the benefit of hindsight, he might have done it purposely so that it could be reported by the media since he knew reporters were in court

But Justice Onalaja, who rose to the appeal court was not saying it to make headline news, he was doing so to protect the sanctity of the court and expose the bad eggs among lawyers who were tarnishing the image of the judiciary. The court is a sacred place and should not be desecrated by ministers, who in this case are the judges and lawyers in the temple of justice.

As you well know, the court has gone through a lot since the last presidential election and now. It is disheartening to see how its orders are being contemptuously treated these days by parties, especially governors, who should know better. These governors, with their undue executive rascality perceive themselves as above the law. As the opening quote of this article says in latin, courts do not act in vain; they act with the judicial authority to deal with any power or principality, be it a governor or whatsoever called, that treats them disdainfully.

But our courts have failed to bite in some cases in Edo, Kano and Rivers where the governors have overreached themselves. I still do not know why the courts have not bared their fangs against the governors who have shown utter contempt for their orders. Governorship does not confer power to disrespect court orders on occupants of that executive office. Their immunity is against prosecution. If they misbehave as some of them have done by disobeying court orders, they should be called out and lampooned by the judge, even without being tried for contempt.

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If the courts treat governors with the respect that they do not return, then the law should be thrown at them like any other citizen. To the ordinary man, it is annoying seeing some of these governors and their attorneys-general turning themselves into appellate courts, sitting in judgment over the decisions of lower courts. From where do they derive such powers? Certainly, it is not from the Constitution, which clearly imbues the court with judicial authority.

Honestly, Milord, I blame judges for all these. Why? Most of them cannot assert their authority and apply the law as it is because they have been compromised. The compromise may not necessarily be in the form of inducement. It stems from the fact of knowingly taking the wrong steps in making some of these orders. If it was a mistake of the head and not of the heart, they would not be afraid. It is trite that you cannot build something on nothing. How can a judge who wittingly acted wrongly ab initio be courageous to enforce his order?

This is precisely the point. Even, where a judge gives an order out of jurisdiction, he should be bold enough to stand up for his action, if he acted altruistically. Many cannot because they acted with ulterior motives. You have your job cut out for you. You know the judiciary inside-out, having started from the magistrates’ court. Those days at the Lagos Magistrates’ Court at Igbosere where you sat in the underground Courtroom 1, you did your job without fear or favour, affection or illwill. It was in the 1990s when there were sordid tales about corruption in the magistrates’ courts.

Your name never featured in those tales and reporters of that era noted it. Since then, they concluded that you have a long way to go in your career. Today, you have become the numero uno of the judiciary by dint of hard work, transparency and accountability. You have to bring all these attributes and more to bear on your new assignment as CJN. You have only four years to do that. To me, that is enough time for you to reform the institution. You have promised to change the negative narratives about the judiciary.

I believe you because I know that you have the will to do it, having watched you at work from afar for years. As you know, it is not going to be an easy task, as those benefiting from the existing rot would resist any change. You are a firm and tenacious person, who brooks no nonsense. Many lawyers know what you can do and what you stand for, but they will still try to put you in an awkward position so that they can have their way.

My Lord, the ball is in your court. Make our courts to bark and bite in your time. Get the judges to apply the law as it is and ensure that courts in different locations with concurrent jurisdiction do not wittingly issue conflicting orders on the same matters based on their biases. The public will like to see a strong and virile judiciary under your watch. A judiciary that will dispense justice without looking at the faces of the parties.

A judiciary of the people, by the people and for the people. A judiciary with human face, integrity, honour and conscience. A judiciary that is above board like Caesar’s wife. A judiciary that cannot be bought. If there is any person that can do these and more, you fit the bill, Milord. Your four-year time starts now. All the best.

October 3, 2024
Restoring the Nigerian dream at 64

At sixty-four, Nigeria stands like an ageless Baobab, gnarled by the elements, but rooted in resilience. Beneath its broad canopy, government, the people, and social institutions tangle in a snarl of afflictions.

The country hums with a paradoxical mix of pride and despair, buckling under hardship and the crushing weight of untapped promise. Amid the melee of pain and survival, the Nigerian family, once a bulwark of hope and resilience, currently reels from the storms of disintegration, inflation, and the bittersweet draft of ‘Renewed Hope.’

Inflation’s feral wind, untamed by the removal of the fuel subsidy and the floatation of the naira, has eroded the stability that once defined the middle class. What was once the hallmark of the Nigerian Dream—education, hard work, homeownership—has become a fading ideal in a nation where even the middle class is vanishing like mist before the sun.

As austerity become the new normal, and ingenuity, the currency of survival, fathers double their hustle, taking on blue collar and menial jobs from dusk through dawn, transforming themselves into jugglers of uncertainty. Mothers—silent matriarchs—become alchemists, conjuring meals out of thin air, making a feast from famine. And the children, bright-eyed and once hopeful, now watch with muted anxiety as the Nigerian Dream slowly erodes into a feverish scramble to “Japa”—flee—abroad, to lands where they believe fortunes wait like ripe fruit ready to be plucked.

The Nigerian Dream, once a collective vision of prosperity, unity, and achievement, has splintered. What remains is a contest of survival, a zero-sum game where victory means finding a way out, and failure means staying behind to suffer.

Amid the chaos, millions of disgruntled youths find themselves pitted against a political class grossly insensitive to their plight. It hardly matters if a great number among them personify the same ills depicted by the ruling class they despise – all that matters is their entitlement to grief and rage.

As President Bola Tinubu embarks on a radical re-engineering of the economy and social institutions via his gospel of renewed hope, it becomes increasingly difficult to counsel patriotism or faith in his vision. How can he preach patience and love for a country that has thus far reduced millions of youths to mere statistics of deprivation?

To these youths, the admonition to “be patient” resonates as a cruel joke. Patriotism, once a shared language of citizenship, has fractured into two vastly different dialects: one spoken by the privileged few who navigate the corridors of power with ease, and another by the masses who endure the daily indignities of poverty, joblessness, and insecurity.

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Patriotism is indeed a hard sell to those confined to the fringes of a society, where the ruling class and their children flaunt their wealth and privileges on social media. It’s no surprise that the masses, feeling abandoned, would prefer to see Nigeria break and burn, rather than watch it evolve into a paradise that excludes them.

To the latter, Tinubu’s gospel of “Renewed Hope” feels hollow when their daily reality is characterised by soaring food prices and hardships that outstrip their means. The government’s plea for patience and understanding falls on ears tuned to the dirge of unfulfilled promises.

And yet, in the corridors of power, there is a dissonance, a belief that the suffering masses can be appeased with empty words. How can they be? The man who cannot afford to eat today will not be consoled by promises of a feast tomorrow.

The perception that Nigeria is only for the elite—those with connections to cabals, and powerful friends—has become entrenched. So, when President Tinubu’s apologists proclaim that he is doing so much that goes unappreciated, the millions who bear the brunt of economic hardships have no patience for such an excuse. They will not listen to appeals for understanding and stoic acceptance of hardships while the ruling class enjoys obscene privileges and spoils from the commonwealth.

The removal of the fuel subsidy was expected to stabilise the economy, to provide the funds needed to rebuild a crumbling nation. Since the subsidy was lifted, the states have seen a significant increase in their monthly revenue from the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC). Bauchi’s, for instance, rose by 51.5%, and Nasarawa’s by 185.3%, yet nothing has changed. In Enugu, Anambra, Bauchi, Delta, among others, the masses have yet to enjoy any corresponding benefits even as they see efforts to ameliorate their pains get sabotaged by state governors, civil servants, and their cronies.

Many governors have refused to pay salaries, backlogs of arrears and pensions to retirees. Where are the new roads, the improved hospitals, the schools that could lift a generation out of ignorance? Instead, the governors divert their increased allocations to purchase mansions abroad and secure their children’s future in foreign lands far from the misery they preside over.

This widening chasm between the FAAC’s soaring allocations and the stagnation of progress at the state level is a bitter pill to swallow. If the ruling class persists down this path, the seeds of discontent they sow will eventually bear bitter fruit. If the masses resort to anarchy, there will be no country left to loot.

But while the ruling class has much to answer for, the citizenry, especially the more literate and insightful among us, must display greater tact and caution. Journalists and activists, in particular, must desist from inciting the populace and inflaming the polity with partisan views and fabrications. They must understand that the dubious demagogues pulling their strings—those who lost at the 2023 elections—have second and third addresses abroad. If Nigeria implodes, they will flee, leaving us to bear the brunt of the chaos they helped incite.

Nigeria must avoid the fate of nations afflicted by the Arab Spring, where the promise of revolution gave way to brutal dictatorships. The ruling class must take more proactive steps to humanely engage with the people. He must counsel his political class to make grand gestures of sacrifice in identification with the people’s plight while enforcing accountability at all levels of governance.

Nigeria will be salvaged only if we recognise the truth of our collective complicity. We must unmask and shun the pseudo-events that clutter our consciousness and replace them with genuine narratives of progress and renewal. We must redefine success, not as the accumulation of wealth or status but as the collective advancement of the Nigerian people.

It’s about time we espoused a new vision—a centrally articulated and nationally acceptable model of the Nigerian Dream that transcends the narrow bounds of self-interest. This dream must be anchored in patriotism, resilience, and the pursuit of the common good. We must reclaim our educational system, rebuild our institutions, and ensure that the opportunities for success are not the exclusive preserve of the few but the rightful inheritance of all.

President Tinubu’s Gospel of Renewed Hope, while imperfect, is a necessary awakening. It forces us to confront the harsh realities we have long denied. Tinubu’s policies—though painful in the short term—are designed to lay the groundwork for a more sustainable future. The removal of the fuel subsidy and the floatation of the naira may have worsened inflation in the immediate term, but they are essential steps toward stabilising the economy and creating a more equitable distribution of resources. But the government cannot do it alone. The Nigerian family must rise to the challenge. We must restore the values that once defined us—hard work, integrity, and community—and reject the toxic individualism that has come to dominate our culture.

October 3, 2024
The media and Edo election

The media as the fourth estate of the realm, more than any institutions of state today, poses greater danger to the democratization process The prevailing opinion here as elsewhere in the world is that the media has been fractionalized along ethnic, religious and ownership divides – (Olufemi Onabajo, Jide Oluwajuyitan, Bello Olaide Wasiu: The Interplay of Media Theories, Media Ethics and the Objectivity Question in Media Performance in 2023 elections in Nigeria (Annals of the Constatin Brancusi University of Targu Jiu Letters and Social Science Series(1/2024).

For those who have taken the pains to study Nigerian politics and political process, the outcome of the 2023 presidential election was predictable. With PDP fractionalized into four, it was apparent the party was doomed. Unfortunately, leading lights of the party including Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso and other warring groups who, out of greed for power, unwittingly ceded the coveted prize to a more versatile politician with a better brinkmanship on how to cope with party intrigues and ambitions of party and non-party members. Sadly, these are variables ignored by some openly partisan Nigerian TV platforms in the coverage and analysis of the 2023 election.

The recently concluded Edo State gubernatorial election suffers from the same affliction. I think reproach by Reno Omokri, a chieftain of PDP and former special adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to gassy gang who wail more than the bereaved perhaps captures this better. “Let us learn to accept the results of elections in Nigeria. The PDP won this same election in 2020 when the APC controlled the federal government because we were united. This time around, Philip Shuaibu and Orbih were with our opponents.” He then interrogate the wisdom of a subject questioning the right of godlike authority of Oba of Benin over the abode of his ancestors’ returned British stolen Benin artefacts.

Unarguably, Nigerian journalists, starring Herbert Macaulay, through Ernest Ikoli, Azikiwe, who came to ‘elezikify’ the Nigerian press in 1937, with, in Awolowo’s words, his “fire eating and aggressive nationalist paper of the highest order”, H O Davies, Tony Enahoro and others were the fathers of Nigeria.

But Zik’s erudition and famous lectures at Methodist Boys High School, Faji and Anssar-ru-Deen Alakoro on his economic and political philosophy for Africa under main headings of “Political risorginmento, economic determinism and social resurgence and spiritual balance he delivered in charming and disarming manners and received to the uproar and applause of youths”, did not fetch him votes. He won votes because he was the adopted son of Lagos white cap chiefs.

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As a victim of discrimination as an Onitsha Igbo, he stood no chance of winning election in his Eastern Region with his erudition. The premiership of the east he later secured after Zik of Africa and foremost Nigerian nationalists had been told charity should start from home was through a coup against Eyo Ita, the leader of Eastern government from Creek Town in today’s Cross Rivers State.

Of course the success of Awo in spite of being a great deep thinker “among the Yoruba, a fastidious, critical and discerning people who will not do anything in politics merely to oblige a fellow Yoruba if he is not satisfied your policy is good and will serve his self-interest” (Awo page 261), was because of grassroots mobilization. In fact, he admitted NCNC would have won the1951 western regional election “if it had been as organized as AG in the Yoruba rural areas”.

Unfortunately, these are facts of history lost on some of our today’s new set of journalists trying to break a new ground who think election can be won through erudition. This fallacy was laid to rest with last week’s Monday Okpebholo victory over Asue Akintunde Igbodalo and Olumide Akpata, the preferred candidates of ARISE TV and its crew anchored by Reuben Abati, President Jonathan’s ex Media Adviser, a persuasive Guardian columnist and chairman of Guardian editorial board, and a distinguished colleague with whom I often throw banter at our Monday editorial content review meetings. Although, he alone of all his sometimes irritable and belligerent opinionated colleagues pretending to be journalist possesses the attributes of a news anchor, but he could not helping becoming irascible that Monday Okpebholo could not match ARISE’s preferred candidates in erudition.

His former principal, ex-President Jonathan, once observed that it was easy for journalists to be critical. Reuben’s first attempt in competitive election was a disaster. With all his erudition, many have questioned his choice of PDP as a platform in a progressive state, where ex-President Obasanjo according to local and international election reports had to rig–out grass root Aremo Olusegun Osoba by manipulating electoral vote returns which produced move voters than registered electorate. It was not any less bewildering that he had hoped to become deputy governor of Ogun State by pairing up with late Buruji Kashamu, who for Britain, Obasanjo had wanted repatriated to the US to face drug charges.

ARISE did everything to de-market candidate Okpebholo including veiled appeal to Edo voters not to vote for candidate who refused to be tutored by the know-all, ill-humoured teachers. And the sarcasm in “we pray for Edo people” after Okpabolo’s decisive victory was not lost on discerning Edo people they tried to demean.

Crusaders for democracy pretended not to be aware that democracy cannot survive without adherence to its ethics. Besides remaining silent on Obaseki’s betrayal of all his former benefactors, they failed to remind their audience that he failed to swear in 16 elected members of Edo House of Assembly for four years while he reigned with 10 lawmakers sworn in the middle of the night.

They enthusiastically gave adequate coverage to the irresponsible and illegal declaration of Ighodalo as duly elected governor of Edo by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, amidst INEC’s ongoing collation of results, an act described “as a severe violation of Sections 178 and 179 of the 1999 Constitution, with a potential to erode public trust in our democratic processes”.

They celebrated Yiaga Africa, their favourite analyst’s claim of widespread manipulation of result, while less attention was paid to the verdict of the Centre for Credible Leadership and Citizens Awareness (CCLCA) that declared “We as 51 INEC Accredited observer organizations hereby unequivocally declare that this election was transparent, free, fair, and credible”.

They made their platform available to losers trying to incite violence. Hear drowning Ighodalo: “APC party has taken over all institutions that governed this electoral process. I am disappointed. It will appear we are having the worst in the history of election being conducted in the history of our country. If INEC does not turn a new leaf, we cannot accept injustice…We see the crass manipulation, this subversion of the will of Edo State is untenable and unacceptable…”

About to be buried by his “do or die” prediction, Obaseki’s promoters gave him a platform to gas: “The people of Edo State are sad, they feel pained, they are worried their true intentions and desires are about to be subverted. I know the people of Edo State are strong willed people. I think the people of Edo will stand up and speak for themselves as things unfold but I am hoping very seriously that INEC will retrace itself and it will understand it cannot be used”.

Olumide Akpata acknowledged the unwavering support of ARISE TV by declaring himself the winner quoting Rufai Oseni’s TV-conducted poll which gave him 71% of Edo votes. As a perceptive observer puts it: “When you see a man that relies on Rufai Oseni’s online poll, you already see a man that is not ready to win the election. Rufai himself is a joke.”

Owners of platforms set them up for a purpose, Major General IBM Haruna (rtd), (Nigeria’s one-time Federal Commissioner for Information and Culture (1975-1977), once reminded ill-tempered Oseni on his ARISE platform. But there was before this, another timely warning from Alhaji Babatunde Jose, the doyen of Nigerian Press, who admonished the media to “learn to walk the tight rope”.

October 1, 2024