The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

On recent elections in parts of Western Europe

It was that 18th century judge and philosopher, Charles Louis de secondat Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu who once said system of government is climatically determined and that people in the tropics are more or less doomed to experience autocratic governments while those in the temperate zones are more democratically disposed. He was better known for his writings about separation of powers into the legislature, executive and judiciary as the secret of democratic stability. His theory he claimed was arrived at from the study of history and therefore empirically determined.

We course know that all societies, depending on their size and historical experience can enjoy any form of democratic governance as long as they are not driven by any ideological determinism. Democracy can also be defined in such a broad way that many current systems of government would pass some of the democratic tests. Nowadays, the western monopolistic definition of democracy seems to be what is universally acceptable especially in the Lincolnian form of a government of the people by the people for the people. The Athenian roots of this definition derived from the government of the city of Athens which seems limited in the sense that direct democracy is today not practicable. Even in Athens, participation was limited to free citizens while foreigners and slaves and women were excluded.

After a long time of trial and error, democracy is now defined as representative democracy based on periodic elections. To function properly, the roles of political parties are fundamental. Political parties help to bring together people of the same ideas about how states should be run sometimes based on certain ideologies. These ideologies usually embrace certain economic ideas ranging from free enterprise or what is usually called laissez faire economics first enunciated by Adam Smith in his book the “Wealth of Nations” which embraces the freedom for individuals to make as much money as his or her talents permit within an organised polity. But many definition of democracy now embraces social and economic responsibility of the state to its individual members.

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The extreme form of this is based on the Marxian praxis in which contribution to the economy is based on one’s ability while society’s responsibility is based on one’s need. This ideological utopia has not really worked anywhere, certainly not in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Cuba, Vietnam, nor is it likely to work in China where lip service continues to be paid to the communist ideology of what is called the “people’s republic” while in practice, they are operating some kind of gerontocratic state capitalism. In other words, democracy of government of the people by the true representative of the people meaning the communist party and for the people is seen as people’s democracy.

Who is going to judge which one is correct between the free for all in the United States and the “guided democracy” of China? There is much to say for what is derisively called guided democracy because the concept of the Plato’s philosopher king is not alien to western philosophy. For after all, governance is about people. A governance system as in China that can lift hundreds of millions of people from poverty to the middle class within a generation cannot be far from government of the people for the people. What is now clear is that for democracy to work, there must be a system of fair and credible election in a society where the rule of law prevails and where there is a civil service or bureaucracy recruited on merit embracing the French revolutionary idea of “careers open to talents” or what its enemies derisively call “the deep state”. This civil service provides continuity in government and offers advice impartially to whatever new government that emerges after a fresh election.

The role of career civil service is so fundamental to the proper working of any modern democratic state that with government coming and going like revolving doors, the state always remains.

Of course, not all democratic states like the idea of a permanent bureaucracy. Sometimes, some democratic states want to bring into government new hands rather than relying on old civil servants who have loyalty to no one but the state. It is usual for the “deep state” in this regard to be criticised by neo conservatives who look at it as unelected apparatchiks wielding power to the detriment of those elected by the people through the electoral process.

Whatever criticism that may be levied against states permanent bureaucracy, they have become critical in continuity of governance and not only in democratic states but even in non-democratic states. It must be clearly stated that the civil service role cannot be underestimated.

Peaceful transfer of power as happened in Great Britain could never have happened if there were no fair and credible elections organised by knowledgeable bureaucrats. The seamless and credible conduct of elections in both France and Great Britain this week has demonstrated the reason for peaceful transfer of power in democracies that not only have ancient traditions of political fairness and civic behaviour.

Imagine what could have happened in France if the Rassemblement Nationale of Marine Le Pen was not satisfied with the French parliamentary election of Saturday July 7 in which there was the fear that France was about to abandon its tradition of equality of people (egalitarianism)) for some woolly racism in which one was judged not by the quality of one’s character but by the pigmentation of one’s colour? At the last moment, the French electorate that a few weeks ago had voted for the parties of the Right in European-wide elections now swung to the Left and Centre when France’s political shift was beginning to be interpreted as rejection not only of other European countries and the EU but also of La Francophone idea. What the Right now regard as a gang up by the Centre and the Left to deny them the premiership of France would not have been acceptable but for the non-partisanship of the strong civil service or the “deep state”.

The democratic tradition was better and dramatically displayed in the recent British election of July 4. The results of the election the following day gave the opposition Labour Party a majority of 412 seats to the Conservative Party’s 121 seats. In the first pass, the post system of elections rather than perhaps the fairer proportional representative system in the continent of Europe, this was a massive electoral victory. Once the results came in, there was no dispute whatsoever, no running to challenge the results. The results were accepted with resignation and equanimity. The then sitting prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the first prime minister in Britain of Indian descent, addressed the press in front of 10 Downing Street and told members of the press that he had phoned earlier to congratulate Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party and the coming prime minister. He praised the British people for their generosity of spirit and racial tolerance which allowed a man of Indian ancestry to become their prime minister and ended by describing his successor as a decent man who is his worthy successor and that he was in the British tradition going to Buckingham palace to tender his resignation to King Charles 111 who technically and constitutionally appointed him. As soon as he said this, he drove to the palace accompanied by his wife in the prime minister’s car led by despatch riders. The king received him in the privacy of his office in the palace and apparently wished him well. Whatever the two said traditionally remained private.

The new prime minister to be drove in by another gate to the palace to “kiss” the hand of the king who appointed him as prime minister. Once this was done, he drove to the official residence and office of the prime minister at 10 Downing Street where he addressed the press and went in to assume the office of prime minister and gradually began to appoint members of his government. Within 24 hours, the previous prime minister had left the official residence without any fuss about being allowed to disengage in a leisurely fashion. This is the most beautiful thing about the British political tradition. There was no hiatus of months and days characteristic of American and African or pointedly Nigerian system. There is no question of writing “hand over notes” because the civil service is up to date about government business. The whole world can learn a lesson from the British about democratic transition and continuity of governance and government. If we in Africa are to develop, we must remove rancour from our electoral system and inculcate fairness and transparency into our electoral system and have a civil service that is neutral but committed to public good. Elections must not be opportune moments for members of the legal profession to use their technical skills to make huge and humongous amount of money and make judges rather than the electorate choose who rules them. It is important to note what Marquis de Montesquieu said about judges arrogating to themselves the role of the electorate when he said “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice” Above all, those elected by the people must see themselves as being given opportunities to serve and not to steal in such a way that there is total disconnect between the electorate and the elected as has been the situation in Africa.

July 11, 2024
Much ado about nothing

The media worldwide walks a tight-rope. It must be thorough and painstaking in the discharge of its duty. It cannot afford to leave anything to chance because a mistake, no matter how little, can be costly. Such a costly mistake can cause discontent in the land. So, a medium must check, check and cross-check its facts before publishing. You do not publish first, and fact-check (as they call it these days) later.

The rule of thumb is you do not rush to publish a story no matter how hot it is for fear of being beaten to it by the competition so as to avoid giving untenable reasons later for your action. No paper worth its salt would run a story with distorted and disjointed facts just to get at the government of the day. The media and the government are neither friends nor enemies. They are more of partners in progress for the sake of their country. The media can be critical, which it should be anyway, of the government without being destructive.

It is constructive criticism that elevates a nation. To tell it as it is so that the government can get a feel of what is really happening in the larger society. The 1999 Constitution mandates the media to hold the government accountable to the people. To discharge this mandate, the media must first show itself worthy of taking up this responsibility. The media must therefore be deep and sombre. It cannot just pick a story and run with it, especially when the report is even contradicting itself, like the Samoa Agreement stuff ran by Daily Trust on July 4. As colleagues, let us tell ourselves the same truth that we always want to hold the government to.

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There was no story in that story. It was just written to paint the government in bad light. The question any right-thinking person will then ask is why? Why will a paper that parades itself as the voice of the north run a story that it knows can lead to mayhem in the same region? Was it done so that the north will erupt in violence? What will it gain if that happens? Media work goes beyond having a good story, that is where the story is really good, it has to do more with the handling of such a story. Where a story is even good but can cause a crisis, a matured editor is expected to weigh things and make a reasonable decision in such circumstance.

An editor who knows his onions will consider national security paramout in the circumstance and do the needful. The media is not expected to be at war with the government for no other reason than it does not like the face of those running it. Should we throw the baby away with bath water all because some people have their own agenda of not seeing anything good in what the government does? Contrary to Daily Trust’s claim in its report, there is nowhere in the Samoa Agreement which states that the right of LGBTQ+ is recognised. Its report contradicted itself. On one hand, the paper claimed that the agreement contained clauses that recognised LGBTQ+ right, and on the other, it ran two clauses which negated that claim.

So, did the editors not see these contradictions when they read the story? Why will a paper in one breathe make a claim and in another repudiate that claim? It seemed the story was just slammed in the paper without being edited. The paper was even cautioned by some people it spoke to that the said LGBTQ+ clauses were not in the agreement. It ignored those voices of reason because it was working towards an answer. And that is to embarrass the government and set the country on fire. In a country where LGBTQ+ right is not recognised, what do you expect if fundamentalists read such a story?

They will go on the rampage, demanding the non-implememtation of the agreement, which in fact does not contain those contentious clauses. What Daily Trust did was to get unsuspecting respondents to react to a non-existing story in order to incite the public against the government. No responsible medium does that. Why will a paper make a false claim? What does it mean by “the agreement reportedly has some clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing nations to support the agitations by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community for recognition, as condition for getting financial and other supports from advanced societies”?

Can it reconcile the above statement with another one credited to a top official of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in the same report, to wit, “the 403-page document containing 104 articles given to the legal director of NSCIA contains no same-sex marriage”. Despite efforts by Bolaji Adebiyi who works with Budget Minister Atiku Bagudu to correct the wrong impression the paper has about the agreement, it ignored him. Daily Trust chose to believe a misleading article by a lawyer who only knows the agenda he is pushing.

Should Daily Trust have allowed itself to be led by the nose? Well, it is hoped that it has learnt a big lesson from this and will do everything to avert a recurrence. I am still wondering what the paper wss up to, considering that the Articles 2.5 and 29.5 of the agreement, which it quoted in its story also did not say anything about LGBTQ+ right. Where did it get the non-existing LGBTQ+ clauses from? Its fertile imagination? Sorry, Daily Trust, journalism is more than that. You do not rely on a lie sold by a disgruntled element with an ax to grind with government to write such a sensitive story.

The paper has done the right thing after its initial bluffing, by apologising for bringing our noble profession to such an all-time low in recent times.

July 11, 2024
Balarabes’ unending wars with northern establishment

Ibrahim Balarabe Musa is a scion of his illustrious father, Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, a Nigerian left-wing politician who fought the northern establishment and remained committed to his ideals despite having his nose bruised. Balarabe Musa, the father, was elected governor of Kaduna State in 1979. His tenure however was truncated when he was impeached on June 23, 1981. He was to later attribute his impeachment to his efforts at creating a more equitable, just and egalitarian society for the people of the north.

Ibrahim Balarabe seems to have followed in the footstep of his father. Where most northern elite who hope to get integrated into the ruling hegemonic class in the north through politics, marriage or businesses kept their peace and live in denial, Ibrahim, like his illustrious father, was ready to speak truth to power by calling a spade by its name. In an interview with Punch newspapers not too long ago, he insisted “the worst enemies of the north are the northern governors.” For him, successive northern governors should be held responsible for the ravaging poverty in the north. And as for the current insecurity in the north, while he believes that the ordinary people in the north are good and peace-loving, he did not spare the politicians, retired military officers and civil servants

Apart from Nuhu Ribadu, current National Security Adviser who accused the northern governors of having little to show for the over N8tn collected as allocation between 1999 and 2015 as against Ahmadu Bello who maintained security, built the biggest business conglomerate in Africa, south of the Sahara, established Ahmadu Bello University among others with revenue less than what one local government today collects as allocation, other northern leaders have continued to play the ostrich.

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A journey through history easily confirms the fact that the northern leaders are the scourge of northern masses. The north at independence constituted five–eighths of the entire territory of Nigeria with 56 per cent of the entire population. Their system according to Awolowo “was feudal and autocratic at best, oligarchic and authoritarian and completely antithetical to liberal tradition of the Western Region and egalitarian beliefs of the Eastern Region”. He therefore believed “the problem of Nigeria “cannot be solved until the problem of the north has been solved”. To therefore avoid social dislocation we are today witnessing in the north, Awolowo canvassed for the introduction of universal adult suffrage, free education, Abolition of electoral colleges and territorial commission to revise boundaries.

But the northern political elite who only see the northern masses as instruments for political bargaining would have none of Awolowo’s apocalyptic prediction. And while they sent their own children to the best schools in the world, back home, they groomed an army of ‘almajiris’ and ‘labourers born labourers’, who they periodically lionized to terrorize southern leaders including Awolowo and Azikiwe who tried to spread message of freedom and liberty to the north.

In the early fifties, NPC had an extremist terrorist group which called itself the MAHAUKATA (madmen) and NEPU, “Positive Action Wing’. When AG decided to carry its crusade to Kano, the mad men and the cruder inhabitants of both and old Kano cities were making cutlasses and stick ready to receive the people “who had insulted their leaders”. The northern leaders of the period were determined to stop both Zik and Akintola from lecturing their young men. An attempt to prevent AG’s S. L. Akintola from lecturing northern youths on democracy in 1953 left 40 dead in Kano.

Seventy years later, not much has changed. At the beginning of the 4th republic, 13 northern governors allegedly sent northern youths for indoctrination under Osama Bin Laden while hibernating in Sudan. Many of them came back as the governors were institutionalising what Obasanjo called “political Sharia”, to form the nucleus of today’s insurgents groups including Boko Haram, herdsmen killer group and bandits that have today made the north ungovernable.

Unfortunately northern leaders have continued to play the ostrich. And instead of retracing their steps back by rejecting feudalism and embracing modernity, they have been trying to export northern self-inflicted tragedy to the south. This became apparent under the Buhari presidency when his “loyal gatekeepers”, serving other tendencies in his government tried to justify infiltration of southern reserved forest by armed killer herdsmen.

When the southern leaders called for restructuring as a reaction to attempt by northern elected politicians including President Buhari and those in the National Assembly to export self-inflicted tragedies of the north to the south, northern political elite pretended not to know the meaning of restructuring. But except for the fact that they are playing the ostrich, they have Tafawa Balewa’s speech at the 1954 London Conference as a guide. Balewa in the speech had said “The future of Nigeria will be imperilled by anything but a loose federation; there should be complete regional autonomy and the regions should be allowed to develop at their own pace without interference in their affairs from other regions.”

As against confederacy, our founding fathers settled for federalism, a social system that equally has the capacity of liberating individuals and groups from the tyranny of the state.

And when tragedy struck with substitutions of federalism with ‘unitarism’ by ill-informed soldiers, the military social engineering strategies including quota system of admission into the tertiary institutions, military and the bureaucracy and revenue allocation formula that did not allocate value to productivity, the parasitic northern governors and their southern counterparts who go to Abuja cap in hand every month to collect handout from a dysfunctional centre, have little incentive to address the challenges of governance.

The above provides the answer to Ribadu’s question. After all, economists have long warned that failure to abide with law of input-output which requires a corresponding input into output will lead to disequilibrium. It is therefore not an accident that northern governors and their southern counterparts often squander free monies they did not work for, on marrying new wives or buying new houses in and outside the country as we have seen through various EFCC probes.

This was the reason ‘Statisense’ (UNIICEF, 2023) recorded about 15.28million out of school children in the north as against 2.58m of the south, despite the existence of counterpart funding and Universal Basic Education schemes which many governors have refused to access.

It was also the reason the 2022 Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report said the north with an average poverty index of between 0.351 and 0.425 is leading other regions of the country. (The Guardian July 7, 2023).

And as for the current challenges of Boko-Haram insurgency, banditry and kidnapping for ransom, that have turned the north into hell on earth, Muazu Babangida Aliyu, speaking as a guest lecturer at Annual Lecture and General Meeting of the Kaduna chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) on December 2, 2023 attributed them to political elite corruption which he said “is the mainframe that eroded northern Nigeria’s values and continue to fuel insecurity in the north”

That the northern population which is supposed to be a blessing has become a disaster is not because the northerners are unproductive but because they have been betrayed by leaders who only see them as instrument for political bargaining. That the majority of the northern governors since the birth of the 4th republic failed to take advantage of counterpart funding to take some of the over 15m ‘out of School children’ off the street just as they did not see the imperative of setting up marketing boards to safeguard the interest of northern farmers who are periodically swindled by middlemen, only but confirm the Balarabe’s claim that northern governors are the scourge of the northern masses.

July 11, 2024
Beyond Steez: Ogun’s paradox of grandeur, deathly roads (2)

In governance, few things are as disheartening as a leader who mistakes photo ops for decisiveness and progress. Yet, Governor Dapo Abiodun’s recent visit to Akute, an Ogun border town, must be commended even if symbolic of his Initial Gra Gra (I.G.G.)—a colloquialism for showboating without follow-through.

The governor’s appearance, amid the clamour of a disenchanted populace, is probably not emblematic of a leadership style more concerned with optics than tangible change.

Governor Abiodun’s eleventh hour sojourn to Iju-Akute few days before his re-election was equally laden with promises of road repairs. His commitment, however, dissipated like the morning mist, once the polls closed. His recent visit appears to be a reprise of such performance, leaving many to wonder if his promise to repair the road in two weeks is merely a prelude to abandonment.

Beyond his presumed artifice, Ogun manifests as a sick rose, even as his administration paints lurid portraits of the state as a bower of bliss. His administration’s frantic art of concealment necessitates that truth’s approach must take the form of a raid. The press and civil society must rise to the challenge.

In Akute, Abiodun responded to critics, breathing spunk and rebuke, thus setting in motion, an erratic contradiction of his feigned vigour. His lackeys would insist that his vigour is real in a desperate caress akin to rubbing a lantern to make a genie appear; the charade often persists, until fabricated repute splits to reality’s vengeful lashes.

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It is particularly galling that he took umbrage at criticisms of Ogun’s road conditions while boasting of 600 kilometers of constructed roads. His achievements, often painted in fervid superlatives by his loyalists, do little to mask the glaring deficiencies in the state’s infrastructure. It is not the duty of every Ogun citizen to blindly applaud his modest accomplishments; rather, it is essential that we, the concerned citizenry, continually highlight his shortcomings against the backdrop of hyperbolic chants of his lackeys.

Constructive criticism is vital to preventing any leader from becoming complacent or developing a god-complex. No one, least of all a public servant, is beyond reproach.

The governor’s argument that federal roads are beyond his control falls flat, especially now that the federal government greenlit the repair of the old Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway by him and Lagos governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, promising reimbursement. Previous assertion that federal jurisdiction absolves him of responsibility is a shallow excuse, as communities along these federal routes languish in neglect.

The deplorable roads in Owode-Iyana Ilogbo, Ijako, Ijoko, Singer, Arigbajo, Ifo, Kurata, Itele, Lambe, Waasimi, Ewekoro, Papalanto, Obafemi Owode, among others, have consigned residents to a dystopian existence, exacerbating crime and economic stagnation.

In fairness to Governor Abiodun, he probably means well, at least going by his lament that he and Governor Sanwo-Olu were frustrated by delays from the Federal Government, right from the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. And even though President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has subsequently granted their request to take over the road’s repair, Abiodun yesterday revealed that he faces stiff opposition from some federal officials on the transfer, which forced the state government to formally award the contract in May, with or without the necessary transfer papers. Could President Tinubu and the Minister of Works, David Umahi, please intervene?

Is Governor Abiodun being sabotaged, or is he being misled by a crooked sense of the reality around him? Even so, his performance hasn’t been spectacular, for a man superintending a treasure trove like Ogun State. Abiodun must be wary lest he ends his tenure like the proverbial prodigal, who assumes invincibility of self, squandering goodwill, public trust and state funds.

Power intoxicates and corrupts. Yet this writer believes that Governor Abiodun’s maturity should shield him from its ravage. He must rein in exuberant aides who have morphed into frantic sophists and dubious apologists, and counsel them to go easy on their attempts to rationalise the coarse manifestations of his administrative lapses.

More worrisome are the antics of a member of his cabinet with a knack for berating critics under different pseudonyms. It’s mortifying to see the liberty he takes. Contrary to this obsequious flunky’s claims, Abiodun’s government is not hopeless before the ravages of inherited rot, it is simply stunted by hubris and acquiescence to corruptive adulation.

A governor’s character and intentions are crucial to his state’s performance; Abiodun could learn from his Niger State counterpart, Governor Mohammed Bago. From the get-go, Bago committed to a blueprint of affordable priorities, mostly realistic and relatable to his people’s needs.

One of Bago’s most significant achievements is the overhaul of Niger’s road network. With federal approval, his government commenced the rehabilitation of critical federal roads, ensuring seamless connectivity and facilitating economic growth. To date, the administration has constructed an impressive 1,000 kilometres of roads, including 400 kilometers of federal roads, thereby enhancing the state’s transportation infrastructure and boosting commerce.

Governor Abiodun must understand that his role is not one of benevolence but duty. He is handsomely remunerated for the position he holds, and his tendency to rationalise inefficiency and issue clapback at critics is unbecoming of a public servant. Instead, he should channel his energies into tangible improvements in public governance.

The paradox of celebrating the Ojude Oba festival in Ijebu Ode, while the state crumbles, is stark. This grand display of tradition is overshadowed by the reality of citizens traveling on deathly roads to participate. The plight of Ogun residents is akin to the proverbial prodigals ti aiye nwo ni awosunkun, sugbon ti won nwo ara won ni aworerin—those who the world watches with pity, yet they console themselves with laughter.

Governor Abiodun must shun cosmetic progress and mediocrity, and commit to rebuilding Ogun’s infrastructure. His cronies and aides may recklessly extol his ordinary day in office as extraordinary but the rest of us must hold him accountable. When he does something extraordinary, this writer, in particular, and many more Ogun citizenry will applaud and celebrate him, unsparingly.

The dire state of roads in Owode Ijako, Agoro Road, Iyana Ilogbo, Ewekoro, Lafenwa, Iyana Iyesi, Itele, among others is a clarion call for action. These deplorable roads are not just an inconvenience; they are a death trap.

Governor Abiodun must shun hubristic complacency and listen to the voices of the people, not the bootlickers who tell him what he wants to hear. The fate of Ogun citizens hangs in a precarious balance between dystopia and neglect. It is time for the governor to gird his loins and find repair Ogun’s bad roads.

If Governor Abiodun’s visit to Akute was a PR stunt, it projects disturbing imagery of the workings of his mind and the nature of his cabinet. The gesture manifests as a vaunting totem of egotism and paltriness. The harsh clangour of such intent could infinitely corrupt his administration’s native lyric and stifle his prospects of becoming a folk hero.

Amid the dystopian expanse of Ogun’s highway communities, echoes of his modest accomplishments dissimulate like a peat bog housing horror beneath humaneness. Deathly roads, insecurity and commuter deaths ruin his administration’s repute in real time, and no degree of spin could launder it clean.

Let Abiodun man up and devote precious time to the task for which he was elected. Life in Ogun townships is in grave decline. The neglected tracts constitute a sick rose accentuating the state’s deterioration into a food for worms – which reignites the cheerless rhetoric: At the last elections, did Ogun retain a knight in shiny armour or did it suffer the affliction of a tarnished knight?

July 11, 2024
Beyond Steez: Ogun’s paradox of grandeur, deathly roads

Ogun State, a land of rich heritage and promising horizons, finds itself ensnared in a paradox that both baffles and infuriates. Picture Governor Dapo Abiodun, resplendent in his regalia at the 2024 Ojude Oba festival, basking in the cultural splendour of Ijebu Ode while his constituents navigated a labyrinth of deathly roads to partake in the festivities. This striking contrast—between the pomp of tradition and the grim reality of infrastructure decay—calls for an urgent reassessment of priorities.

But who cares? The show must go on. Thus, the pageantry persisted through filth and foul. The Ojude Oba festival, while a magnificent celebration of culture, highlights a glaring disconnect. How can such grandeur coexist with abysmal neglect? Participants travelled from near and far, braving the perilous roads to celebrate, their plight akin to the proverbial prodigals who weep outwardly but laugh inwardly. This spectacle underscores the chasm between leadership and the led.

Consider another paradox in the recently completed Gateway International Airport – supposedly a symbol of progress and ambition. The facility is purportedly built for cargo and passenger flights, while the other zones within the Aerotropolis are marked for concession.

The Commissioner for Finance and Chief Economic Adviser to Ogun State, Dapo Okubadejo, recently revealed that the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has almost tripled from N50 billion in 2020 to almost N150 billion in 2023, thereby ranking Ogun 3rd in IGR drive.

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Okubadejo was enthused about the proposed Kajola Dry Container Port, which is meant to provide efficient and cost-effective operations for manufacturing companies. He also stated that the state had initiated discussions with the Lagos State Government to extend their Blue Line and Red Line rail networks into the state. Okubadejo, who disclosed this at the 2024 K.P.M.G. Alumni cocktail in Lagos, said with over 6,000 industries and over 500 km of roads constructed alongside six Economic Development Clusters (E.D.C.), Ogun is the investors’ destination of choice,

Yet, the very roads leading to this gateway of commerce are pocked with craters, turning journeys into treacherous odysseys. The irony is palpable: a state that boasts of industrial and aeronautical advancements cannot guarantee safe passage on its terrestrial routes.

Will Governor Abiodun ignore the decline of Ogun’s major highways, where decay and death spit venom at hapless citizenry like Siamese cobras daily?

Once a proud artery of connectivity, the old Lagos-Abeokuta expressway has degenerated into a death trap, claiming lives with ruthless regularity. Commuters dread its lethal stretches and hazardous bypasses, where every journey is a gamble with fate.

Ignorance is never an excuse for denying the citizenry good governance and fundamental human rights, like access to good and safe roads. It is never “politically expedient” to neglect a class of the governed just because, by will or circumstance, they inhabit parts of the state the ruling class would rather not lose sleep over, except at the time of election or re-election.

Highway communities like Owode Ijako, Owode Iyana Ilogbo, Ewekoro, Lafenwa, Iyana Iyesi, and Itele are mired in misery, their hopes for development dashed by neglect. The recent outcry from residents of Ijere, Pakuro, Magbon, and other communities in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area over the deplorable state of their roads echoes across the state. They yearn for the basic infrastructure that remains a distant dream.

Now in his second term, Governor Abiodun must resist the hubristic complacency that often plagues re-elected leaders. This is not the time for regal indifference. He must transcend the chorus of sycophantic aides and confront the stark reality of Ogun’s infrastructural failures lest his inaction and mistakes deny him of an enduring legacy.

Save an empty promise made by Abiodun in the early days of his administration that he and his Lagos State counterpart, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had gotten approval from the federal government to repair the highway and earn a toll from it; nothing has been done to rehabilitate the treacherous stretch.

Abiodun must learn from the failure of his predecessor, Ibikunle Amosun, who neglected the dangerous state of the Lagos-Ibadan highway simply because it was a federal road. The world would never forget in a hurry the poor, helpless souls that thrashed out and gave their final gasps in grotesque, bloody accidents on the road on Amosun’s watch.

Omolade Ogunnoiki, 17, was a 100 Level History student at Olabisi Onabanjo University (O.O.U.). Together with her friend, Funmilayo Pampam, 18, and Olatunji Dairo, a 2014 Physics graduate of O.O.U., she was crushed to death when a truck carrying an unlatched container and their Lagos-bound passenger bus on the Ilishan- Sagamu highway in Ogun State.

In a bid to avoid inadequate portions on the road, the driver of the truck reportedly drove against the traffic until its container fell off its hinges, crushing the students, the bus driver and nine other undergraduates to death. The deceased probably nursed dreams of greatness. Those dreams lie six feet under red earth now.

On Monday, July 1, Governor Abiodun trended on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for his inability to rid Ogun of bad roads. Images of the state’s derelict roads flooded timelines, accompanied by scathing critiques of Abiodun’s broken promises. One poignant post read: “In 2020, when Dapo Abiodun was looking for votes, he said to us on X that he was fixing a few roads listed in his tweets. Here is the condition of some of the roads in his tweet. He fix am abi him no fix am? I will allow you to judge.”

On the night of Tuesday, July 2, social media and major news sites buzzed with the outrage of citizens over the abduction of about 20 commuters on the Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode highway. In the grim episode, gunmen abducted three Indian nationals and several Nigerian travellers, exploiting the road’s dilapidated state to execute their crime. Such incidents are not isolated; kidnappers lurk around Ogun’s crumbling highways, preying on innocent travellers. The governor’s recent call for security operatives to hunt these criminals is commendable, but the root cause—deplorable infrastructure—remains unaddressed.

This writer harbours no personal resentment for Governor Abiodun but holds an unwavering desire to see him rise to the occasion. Hence, exuberant ‘influencers’ and apologists of the state governor may digest this cautiously; would they defend him unquestioningly if they had lost their loved ones on Ogun’s bad roads?

Nonetheless, fanatical apologists would argue that Abiodun has done right by Ogun State. Anthony Storr, a late British writer and psychiatrist, would term this one of the many delusions that render the continual neglect of the state’s highways and dirt roads justifiable for Abiodun’s zealots and, as such, defensible against admonishment and reason.

People are dying on Ogun roads. It’s about time Governor Abiodun heeded the cries of his constituents. If he were the people’s messiah, he wouldn’t ignore the death traps on Ijoko, Agoro, Ijako, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ilepa, Lafenwa and Itele roads. He would stop ignoring the bloody ravines dotting Alade, Elekunmefa, Imise, Onihale, Singer, and Iju, to mention a few. At Toll-gate junction, Joju, Temidire, and environ, mucky pools still stagnate in perilous craters along the bypasses because these scenes of deadly accidents are inconsequential to Governor Abiodun.

This is not just about infrastructure; it is about the lives and livelihoods of his people. Perhaps Governor Abiodun would answer as the humane, proactive administrator he professes to be and save commuters in Ogun State from untimely death.

July 4, 2024
Keyamo’s victories and challenges

The aviation industry was a pride of Nigerians and remembering the glorious years of Nigeria Airways only brings the past to pain. With 33 aircrafts flown by Nigerian pilots directly to London, New York and other parts of the world, Nigerian airline passengers were proud to be Nigerians. I have never forgotten the joy and pride I felt being flown in the late seventies and early eighties, first from Lagos to Port Harcourt for my NYSC and later from Lagos to London by a Captain Robert Adegbulugbe, my secondary school senior at St Joseph College Ondo. I am sure many Nigerians craving for the return of the glorious days of Nigerian Airways also share this nostalgic feeling.

But like everything else the Nigerian military and their ‘new breed’ politicians that breed only corruption touched, the Nigerian Airways was destroyed. President Obasanjo’s 2001 judicial commission on Nigeria Airways indicted two former aviation ministers: – Alabo Graham-Douglas, a former presidential candidate, and Patrick Koshoni, a retired Admiral from the Nigerian Navy. In total, 90 government officials were named in the report. The probe uncovered “Fraudulent invoicing and questionable payments, and payments made for planes that were never delivered. Others included free tickets and assets stripping including the sale of Nigeria Airways House in London for less than half its value.

Unfortunately aviation ministers since 1999 from Olusegun Agagu, Babalola Borisade, Isa Yuguda, Femi Fani-Kayode, Fidelia Njeze, Stella Oduah to Hadi Sirika (2019-2023) have been unable to recreate the lost glorious past. Quite a number of them in fact ended up getting their fingers burnt. And no thanks to the entrenched bureaucracy in the aviation industry.

In this regard, Isa Yuguda was recently heard lamenting openly how his effort to bring back the lost glory of Nigeria Airways by securing a direct flight from Lagos to Britain and Nigeria to New York by partnering with Richards Branson’s “Virgin Atlantic”, was sabotaged by his successors.

According to him “Virgin Nigeria, was founded in 2004 as a replacement for the then-defunct Nigeria Airways, as a joint venture between Nigerian investors and British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group’. Partnering with Branson, for him, was the best for Nigeria because “he has Virgin Australia, Virgin America, Virgin India, and so many others, which are very successful airlines.”

But according to him “we blew the opportunity’ because his successors “decided to advise the government that they should drive away Richard Branson who was on CNN, saying, ‘Nigeria is the worst place you can do business’. Yuguda predicted that ‘Nigeria might need no less than $200-$300 million to be able to set up an airline that it can call its own”.

This was the genesis of the gamble with Ethiopian Airline project, suspended in September last year by Minister Festus Keyamo.

Following the submission of the report of a probe to the president, Keyamo on May 27 spoke of a ‘‘national carrier’ that was supposed to be an indigenous project, sparking hope for Nigerians, but was flawed with a lot of secrecy and fraudulent activities.”

Days earlier, precisely on Thursday May 23, Hadi Abubakar Sirika, his brother Ahmad Abubakar Sirika and two companies Enginos Nigeria Limited and Samahah Integrated Investment Limited were, arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before Justice S.B. Belgore on an amended 10-count charge bordering on contract fraud to the tune of N5.8 billion.

But before him was Aviation Minister Stella Oduah who was accused of mismanaging a N500b Chinese loan to rehabilitate and upgrade some airport infrastructures. Accused of laundering public funds to the tune of about N5 billion, in connivance with others, she was subsequently arraigned alongside Gloria Odita, Nwosu Emmanuel, Nnamdi, Chukwuma, Irene Chinyere, Global Offshore and Marine Ltd, Tip Top Global Resources Ltd, Crystal Television Ltd, Sobora International Ltd and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Nigeria Ltd.

Read Also: Keyamo advocates inclusion of African Foreign Affairs Ministers in SAATM implementation

And before her was former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode, who was arrested by Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency in 2008 over alleged mismanagement of some amount meant for the rehabilitation of some airport runways but discharged in February 2014 because Keyamo, the EFCC prosecuting lawyer could not prove his case beyond reasonable doubt.

Following his appointment as Aviation Minister, Keyamo decided to take the battle directly to the bureaucrats in the aviation industry while resolving from the onset that “transparency, team spirit and selflessness are key principles that can lead to the actualization of the mandate given to him by the president for the aviation sector.”

Some of his recorded victories include stopping the indiscriminate parking by government ‘big men’ and security personnel at the entrance of MM International Airport; relocation of FAAN’s headquarters from Abuja to Lagos, citing the fact that the agency spent about N1 billion in 2023 on Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) and air tickets for travels between Abuja and Lagos; ensuring the clearance of the longstanding backlog of trapped funds for foreign airlines and withdrawing the ticket payment exemption granted to highly placed Nigerians at the nation’s airports.

He has also taken the battle to private aircraft owners. He has while inaugurating a Ministerial Taskforce Committee alleged that some private aircraft operating in Nigeria are being used for ‘money laundering, drug trafficking and other illegal activities.’ He cited the National Security Adviser’s letter “alerting us of the spike in money laundering, drug-trafficking and other illegal activities through the use of private aircrafts in the country”.

Keyamo’s latest victory over evil men in government was the outcome of the House Committee on Public Assets investigation reports on the purported sale of two Bell 206L-3 helicopters belonging to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna. The two helicopters, Bell 206L4 BZB and Bell M2061-L4, were bought during ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration at $2.4 billion but were hurriedly sold in March 2023, days before the end of the Buhari administration by the College of Aviation authorities at $1.2 billion without the approval of the Federal Executive Council.

Based on the report of the Committee, the House of Representatives last Tuesday ordered the immediate arrest of an alleged unlicensed auctioneer and NCAT’s Director of Quality Control by the Police for allegedly providing false information on oath, and the sale of two helicopters for $1.2 billion.

Even with the baleful legacies of past aviation ministers, failure is not an option for activist Keyamo; otherwise he will have no constituency to return to. But it is however hoped he understands that in spite of some evil men in government, there is no alternative to government because men are fortune seekers who only want freedom to preside over an empire of slaves.

This is why only billionaires get government bail outs.

In November 2020, government according to Hadi Sirika, approved the sum of N4 billion as bailout funds for airlines to cushion the effects of COVID-19. This was in addition to additional USD2.5 million in funding to aviation agencies, there was a zero duty on imported aircraft, zero VAT (value-added tax) on imported aircraft, zero VAT on air transport tickets, forcing the chairman of Peace Airline to admit “Nigeria Airlines have never had it so good”.

Between 2012 -2020, there was also the N50bn injected by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), ‘solely to stabilize the nation’s aviation sector.

There was also the CBN 2009 investment of the sum of N300 billion Debenture Stock to be issued by the Bank of Industry to power and airline projects.

AMCON also went ahead to purchase about US$1bn Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) owed Nigerian banks by major Nigerian airlines, including Aero Contractors, Arik Air, amongst others which did not stop government from taking over Arik Airline in 2017.

Nigerian Airways unlike billionaire-owned private airlines, thrived without enslaving Nigerians. The lasting legacy of Keyamo therefore is bringing back Nigerian Airways.

July 4, 2024
The Diezani love story

In the charged atmosphere that we now find ourselves as a nation, there is nothing good like a love story to soothe the nerves. A story of two persons who are madly in love with each other. A love story is a love story whether it has gone sour or not.

But a sweet love story is much more better. The love story of Diezani has brought a comic relief of sorts to the tension in the land. We all know Diezani, whether she tags that name with Alison-Madueke or her nee, Agama, will not detract from the recognition she gets when you hear the name.

Diezani, the one and only Diezani for any other one is a counterfeit is embroiled in a marital dispute with her ex, Rear Admiral Alison Madueke, who is a former Chief of Naval Staff. Their love story started way back in the nineties and culminated in marriage on June 30, 1999, according to papers filed in court by the former naval boss, who is praying that she stopped using his name.

Until now, many never knew that they were no longer married. Their love story was thought to be still as hot as it was when they first met. Their marriage broke down in 2015 when they stopped living together after Diezani moved abroad shortly after the Jonathan administration was ousted in that year’s election. In law, co-habitation is a good ground for dissolving a marriage.

It has been nine years since Diezani fled abroad, where a renowned journalist-politician once reported that she was undergoing cancer treatment. That lie of a story has since been punctured for what it was – a PR stuff to save the beautiful face of Diezani who is being tried at home and in London for corruption. Her trial is the main reason why the patent owner of the name Alison-Madueke wants her to stop using it as her last name.

Revert to your maiden name of Agama, he tells his estranged wife. When a love story goes sour it takes everything down with it. The relationship, the name, the property become crippled. Even the family on both sides suffers one way or the other. Alison-Madueke and Diezani are no longer married. The marriage, according to him, was dissolved by a Nasarawa State High Court in 2022 on the strength of a petition by his former wife.

Read Also; Diezani’s estranged husband asks court to stop ex-minister from using his name

If Diezani went to court to dissolve her marriage, why then is she still keeping her husband’s name? If she wants to retain the name, why did she sue for divorce? She cannot have her cake and eat it. She must choose one. Either to eat the cake or to have it. She has made her choice and so she should live with it by returning the name Alison-Madueke to the rightful owner. She has her own name Agama to return to and she should do that speedily.

The court did not say she should keep her husband’s name after dissolving the marriage in 2022, with a decree nisi (interim dissolution until the affected party, within a specified time, shows why it should be set aside). The decree has since become absolute by the force of law since Alison-Madueke never sought to set it aside. In fact, Alison-Madueke never contested the petition. He allowed Diezani to have her way. Divorce she wanted and divorce she got. Now, Alison-Madueke too wants his name back. Why is that hard for Diezani, who went to court to dissolve the marriage, to do?

In the eyes of the law, Diezani is no longer Alison-Madueke’s wife. This is why the retired naval chief is bringing a petition for jactitation of marriage. In essence, he is accusing Diezani of falsely alleging that she is married to him. He is therefore praying the court to perpetually restrain her from making such claims. Where will Diezani hide under the law to stop her estranged husband from having his way?

Love is sweet when the going is good. When the going gets tough and rough, love becomes like a cactus that tears at the flesh and every other thing that the lovers once held dear. Love and life have happened to Diezani. Not all love stories end well. It must be remembered though that she wrote the script of the ending of of her marriage when she went to court in 2021 and got a favourable judgment in 2022.

Alison-Madueke is only paying her back in her own coin. She cannot deep her feet inside water and be complaining of cold. She cannot with one hand drive her husband away and with the other insist on retaining the same man’s name. They are no longer one; they have become two different persons, just as they were before marriage in 1999. Diezani is no longer the bone of Alison-Madueke’s bones.

She wanted out and she got out of the marriage. So, she should also let the man go with his name. As Shakespeare asked rhetorically in his play – Romeo and Juliet -”What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet”. Agama may not sound the same as Alison-Madueke, but it is still a name. Diezani should revert to her father’s name. At the end of the day, we will all bear our fathers’ names.

July 4, 2024
Confusing global trends

Many of us observers are confused about what exactly is happening and about to happen in the world judging by results and projected results and forecasts about future political situation in the world. Judging from the disastrous performance of President Joe Biden in his CNN debate against the Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump and the near certainty of him becoming president of the United States after the election next year and shift of global politics to the right and all the negative tendencies accompanying it, the entire global community especially the liberal wing of it, begins to tremble. We add to this the renewal of the mandate of Prime Minister Narenda Modi in recently concluded Indian election with reduced national support but still enough to form a government after bringing in some minority parties to form a ruling cabinet. This leaves the 200 million Indian Muslims and other minorities in the cold as potential recruits for terrorists capable of destabilising one fifth of the world’s population in the South Indian subcontinent.

In Africa, we witness the organised and managed victory in Egypt of President Muhammad Abdel Fattah Al Sisi which makes no pretence about human rights and any form of liberalism after stamping out the Muslim Brotherhood and consigning into prison until he died their leader Muhammad Morsi who was elected president of Egypt in a fair and legitimate election.

In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has kept his job by bringing into a coalition to form a government, remnants of the white apartheid supporters in the Democratic Alliance party and the Inkatha Freedom Party of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi in what can be called a rightist government far away from the revolutionary roots of the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela.

In Europe, the snap election called by President Emanuel Macron has exposed the underlying rightist tendency growing in continental Europe from Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Austria and now France in a big way. If this trend continues to grow in Europe, it may undermine the unity of the European Union (EU). The cause of the National Rally’s parliamentary group is being pursued by the 28-year old son of Italian immigrants Jordan Bardella under the overall leadership of Marine Le Pen who inherited the party from her father Jean Marie Le Pen. Although nothing is certain and won’t be certain until the second round of the French national polls take place on July the 7, there is however the possibility of President Macron being in a difficult cohabitation with the National Rally prime minister after the July 7 elections. This has several ramifications. The government will not be able to support as before the beleaguered government of Ukraine. With rising racism against black and non-white immigrants in France will grow resentment against the French people and call for dissolution of the colonial ties, despite so-called independence, with France from which they have benefited economically for almost a century. France without its economic exploitation of its neo colonial hold on Francophone Africa will be an economic drag on the EU and Germany will have to bridge the gap. This will put pressure on Germany and make attractive the nationalist program of the Alernativ fur Deutschland (AFD) party which aims at building a powerful nationalist Germany with consequences for the EU and the world.

The EU is founded on France’s convergence of interest with that of Germany in securing the peace of Europe after centuries of rivalry between the two nations which had led to devastating wars since 1870. The new nationalism of the Rassemblement Nationale of Marine Le pen may unravel the peace of Europe and the world.

If Trump wins the election next year, the alliance of America and right wing government in France will definitely ruin the chances of Ukraine remaining independent in its struggle with Vladimir Putin’s Russian federation and disrupt the boundaries of Europe imposed or negotiated after the disastrous Second World War.

Read Also: #EndSARS earns top spot in global trends

With rightist governments in Slovakia, Hungary and France and possibly the Netherlands, the conservative nationalism which had been responsible for wars in Europe in the past is being let out of the bottle with the rest of the world being brought into their infernal and eternal conflict as it has been in the past. The only saving grace against the drum of war is the possible victory of Sir Keir Starmer, the successor to left wing extremist Jeremy Corbyn after 14 years of Tory rule in the United Kingdom. Even if Starmar wins in the United Kingdom, he will be politically isolated with only the chancellor of Germany understanding his centrist views and even then the German chancellor is in a weak situation because his coalition government at home is in a very shaky and precarious foundation. The British government’s voice would be muffled within the cacophony of rightist governments’ voices on the international scene.

To add to the puzzle of elections and their possible impact on global events come the election in Iran to replace the late Ibrahim Raisi who fell in the line of duty when his helicopter crashed in northeast Iran where he was going to commission a water and hydroelectric plant a couple weeks ago. The election in Iran was not like the usual election we are used to but it was still an election between two members of the regime, the pro-reform candidate, Mashoud Pezeshkhian a 69-year old surgeon who favours opening to the world and conservative nuclear hard liner, Saeed Jalili. The contest is still guided by the inner council of the Islamic theocracy headed by Ayatollah Khamenei that rules the country. It will not really matter who the people want because the external political environment hostile to the Islamic republic would determine the reaction of whoever becomes the new president.

If President Trump returns to the White House as being projected by the political pundits, the hostility of America to Iran would continue because nothing would have changed since Iran would not abandon its national interest and the nuclear programme which it hopes will guarantee the independence of the country as it has done to North Korea. In other words, the situation of conflict will continue and the weak Arab states will be forced to depend on the United States which will coerce them to reach a rapprochement with Israel after the destruction of the Palestinian entity in Gaza and the West Bank of River Jordan. The Palestinians will therefore be driven underground and would be like dormant volcanoes erupting whenever possible all over the world until the world treats them with respect.

Where do all these events leave the world? What appears certain is that for years to come, we will be faced with uncertainty and insecurity. Force of arms have been proved not to secure mankind historically because the resentful whether subject minorities, persecuted religious minorities or economically deprived people, will always find ways to assert themselves in spite of whatever circumstances and consequences to themselves until they have justice. The oceans do not separate Europe from America as the history of the world has shown. Isolationism will not secure the Americas from consequences of European political difficulties nor will the rest of the world remain unaffected by problems in Europe, America Asia or Africa. It is not just that the problem in one part of the world has ramifications in all parts of our common global village, the world is so totally intertwined that events in one part of the world like the recent pandemic of Covid -19 so sadly illustrated, have tendencies of affecting the rest of the world. This should guide our approach to the problem of extremism in one part of the world. This is why events in America are of immense interest to the rest of the world because for now America remains a global hegemon. This is not to say events in other parts of the world are of no concern to common humanity.

July 4, 2024
Criminal act, muted reaction

It was pure luck that he came out of the awful plot to let him rot in jail or ki. He was shaken and traumatised by the incident, but his consolation is that he lives to tell the story. Some before him were not that lucky. They died in the process and were entombed with the stigma of being sexual predators.

Rev Israel Kristilere was spared that kind of disgrace by divine intervention. The plot was well hatched, with members of the Egyptian security forces at the Cairo International Airport involved in its execution. Every stage of the plot was well rehearsed and choreographed. There was to be no room of escape for their victim, as the noose was tightened around his neck.

But the criminals failed to reckon with divine intervention. Except the Lord builds the house, we are told, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes in vain. Kristilere relived his harrowing experience in a video that went viral earlier in the month. Before I saw the video, I had heard the story from one of his friends, Rev Biodun Okunade (JP) of the Christ Apostolic Miracle Centre (CAMC) Lagos.

His narration was not different from Kristilere’s account as reported by this paper on June 8. The reverend gentleman was on his way to Amman, Jordan when he fell into the hands of a band of criminals operating as security and other related officials at the Cairo International Airport. Now, an international airport indicates a place that is safe and secure. An haven of peace and quiet where passengers from all parts of the world can relax and feel at home.

Kristilere and his entourage were on stopover at the airport en route Amman. He was with a woman pilgrim at one of the airport’s lounges, having a deserved rest and chatting with the lady pending the time for the continuation of their journey. He was at the head of a 28-pilgrim delegation. He did not just start this business of taking people on pilgrimage and back through his outfit, Oasis of Faith International Limited.

Read Also: ‘Egyptian policemen tried to frame me up in Cairo’

To him, the journey was in line of duty. The other pilgrims had gone their different ways in twos, threes and ones, exploring the airport and the environs, but with their eyes on the scheduled time for the resumption of their flight. The time finally came and the drama started. As boarding of passengers began, Kristilere and the woman were ignored. Apparently worried, Mrs Chinyere Ofoha, who witnessed everything asked her pastor why they were not being attended to.

Just like her, Kristilere did not know. All he could do was to approach the so-called airport officials over the matter. He was told that they would soon be attended to. But in a jiffy, no fewer than 15 people described as policemen by Ofoha arrived and asked Kristilere to move out of the queue and stand aside. Why? She asked and one of the men said he ‘does not speak English’. She knew immediately that something was wrong.

She was ignored despite her insistence on speaking with an official that understands English. The officials comprising men and women were acting a script. She and her pastor did not know this. These criminals single out a passenger at random, detain him on flimsy grounds and extort money from him. Where he cannot pay his way out, he ends up in jail. On this fateful day, they picked on the wrong target. But they succeeded in harassing and tormenting him for hours.

It is worrisome that an international airport like that of Cairo is unsafe. At such airports when passengers sight uniformed officials, it is an assurance that they are safe and will come to no harm. A passenger is digging his own grave, if he sights a policeman or any other uniformed personnel at the Cairo International Airport and he does not ‘pick race’, to borrow a local parlance. Kristilere was saved by the pilgrims in his entourage who stood their grounds of not boarding their flight until they see their pastor.

It was their indomitable spirit and the grace of God that saved the day. But should the matter die like that? Why are the appropriate authorities in Nigeria and Egypt not speaking on the matter? It is a shame that a Nigerian cleric will be so shabbily treated abroad and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will act mute. It is not a time for silence, but a time to speak – loud and clear – so that no nation on earth will treat any Nigerian like a scum when passing through their countries.

Indeed, as the man of God’s name implies, to serve the Lord is gain. May He continue to save His own from the snare of the fowler and any planned reputation destruction.

June 27, 2024
In defence of Fubara, the man of peace

I sympathise with Governor Siminalayi Fubara. He has been going through stress and strain since his confrontation with his estranged godfather. Despite boasting that he rose to become Accountant General of Rivers State, his detractors have continued to insist that nothing prepared him for the high position he today occupies. He has also been accused of lacking character or what Aristotle described as ‘balance between passion and caution of political actors, a virtue without which democracy is nothing but the tyranny of the majority. For this reason he is said to be unfit to become the custodian of participatory democracy.

But why should Fubara be made the scapegoat for anti-democratic tendencies of Nigerian politicians? In any case, we have been told that democracy was a new value system embraced by Nigerian new inheritors of power even when democratic institutions it needed to thrive were at formative stages. But even beyond this, it was obvious our new inheritors of power after independence embraced democracy only as a means to an end and not necessarily because they had faith in the democratic system.

And there is nowhere else this has been expressly demonstrated than among Fubara’s illustrious political forebears of the Niger Delta region. Successive Niger Delta governors from Alfred Diette-Spiff who was governor at 25, found on the high seas cruising with friends in his private ship during 1975 Murtala Obasanjo coup, through Diepreye Alamieseigha, who escaped to Nigeria from London dressed like a woman while facing money laundering charges, Peter Odili, shielded from prosecution for corruption by Nigerian judicial pronouncement, James Ibori who served jail terms in London for defrauding his Delta State through Rotimi Amaechi and the private jet scandal and Nyesom Wike who according to Prof Itse Sagay rode to government house on the dead bodies of his people, the vicious battle has always been about self-preservation.

Although he has also been accused of stabbing his benefactor on the back as well as deploying strong-arm tactics and self-help tactics, a euphemism for anarchy in his confrontation with his estranged godfather as if those were not celebrated virtues his predecessors. I cannot therefore see what Governor Fubara has done differently from his illustrious forebears. He is not the author of self-help tactics. He was not the first to deploy strong –arm tactics in the quest for self- preservation. And he was not the first to falsely swear in the name of Rivers people during their struggle for power.

Read Also: Rivers youths march to police headquarters in anti-CTC protest

The Yoruba say that you don’t begrudge a man for resembling his father. Fubara is a true son of his political fathers. Amaechi betrayed Odili his godfather. Wike, the faithful ally, trusted chief of staff and enforcer of Amaechi’s self-help tactics betrayed Amaechi. Fubara also betrayed Wike. It is all family affairs. Although Amaechi and Wike, both belong to Ikwere clan, the former from Ubima in Ikwerre LGA and the later from Rumueprikom in Obio/Akpor council. That did not stop their fierce Trans-Amadi Road battle of November 11, 2016 during which both resorted to self-help tactics. Speaking of the battle, Simeon Nwakaudu, who claimed Wike was attacked while on project inspection had said: “Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, on Saturday escaped assassination, as Special Anti-Robbery Squad operatives and soldiers of the Nigerian Army in the motorcade of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, attacked his convoy.”

Giving their own narrative, Amaechi’s spokesman had also said “Suddenly, gun-toting security men attached to Wike’s convoy surrounded the minister’s car, threatening to shoot him. They hit the car, tried to smash the windscreens, “The Rivers governor and his troops physically assaulted by slapping and bruising the policemen…the governor made away with the AK-47 rifle of Sgt. Princewill Ubaji”.

Some of Fubara detractors have also criticized him for leading a solidarity rally made up of jobless youths and errant elders to the torched state House of Assembly before ordering its demolition. With all the elected Local Council chairmen lining behind Wike and 25 of the 28 House of Assembly declaring their loyalty to him, Fubara only decided to borrow a leave from Amaechi’s playbook.

It is on record that Amaechi led the invasion of the Rivers State of Assembly when, five members of Rivers House of Assembly swearing in the name of President Jonathan’s wife, impeached the House speaker supported by the majority of members. Amaechi took charge of the police and his thugs who not only rescued his caged loyal lawmakers but also pummelled the five opposition lawmakers to stupor leading to Okey Chindah, having to be flown abroad by PDP for medical treatment.

From the above, it is difficult to disagree with those who claim Fubara is a man of peace. For instance after Wike’s outburst that he had directed Fubara to ‘‘Do this, do this, do this, do this’, and you agreed before Mr. President and you did not do it”, Fubara, many have argued, could have stopped Wike from coming to mobilise his thugs in Port Harcourt.

But instead, Fubara, only reminded Wike in case he has forgotten: “I am now in power even if it was by mistake”. It was not until he was threatened with impeachment that he descended to the level of his godfathers with his loyalists the torching of the assembly complex on October 29, 2023 and leading a mob to declare the assembly sick before ordering its demolition.

To demonstrate he is a successful graduate of Wike’s school of political intrigue and subterfuge, Fubara refused to represent the budget earlier approved by three suspended loyal state lawmakers even after the warring 25 state legislators withdrew their impeachment threat.

And Fubara, the man of peace, capitalizing on the threat by the 25 lawmakers of Rivers State of Assembly to decamp to APC (the court has since ruled they are not members of APC), Fubara’s three loyal members of the House declared the seats of the 25 majority vacant and got the judiciary to uphold their action. The same three-man legislature that vetted his budget, screened his new cabinet members also screened his newly appointed Local Council chairmen who were sworn in last week. The method may be different but the goal is the same- self-preservation.

The Ijaw elders have denounced Fubara’s attempt to position Wike as enemies of Ijaws. But I don’t think anyone should blame this man of peace for attempting to exploit ethnic sentiments as part of war strategy against his estranged godfather. Let us remember that the roads to power by both Amaechi and Wike were paved with appeal to ethnic sentiments.

It is on record that when Governor Amaechi was accused of betraying Niger Delta by not supporting President Jonathan’s re-election bid, his shrill cry was “They have taken our oil wells from Etche; they have taken our oil wells from Kalabari; they have taken our oil wells from Andoni and they are battling to take over those in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni. We are losing our oil wells every day; …Part of the problems were facing now is that we are fighting to protect our oil wells.”

And similarly when in 2016, Itse Sagay alleged “Wike climbed to the governorship seat over dead bodies”, Wike who called Sagay a frustrated intellectual because “APC was not allowed to overrun the state and loot its treasury dry” also admitted through his information commissioner that he “had urged on his people to defend their right to freely choose their leaders with their blood”.

Fubara, the man of peace, while avoiding the violent rough road trodden by his godfathers, is driven by no less self-serving objective- self-preservation.

June 27, 2024