The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Sim the Tragic

    Sim the Tragic

    Some historical monikers are sane.  Others, by contemporary temper, absolutely insane.

    Alexander the Great (256-323 BC), formally Alexander III, King of Macedonia, was not only the greatest warrior-king in Greek history.  He also counts among the greatest military strategists of all time.  At 30, he had carved out an empire, which stretched from Greece to the western part of India’s north.

    If ‘Alexander the Great’ made sense, William the Bastard (1028-1087) made little sense – or did it? William the Conqueror – as he was otherwise called – sure earned his stripes: from the Duke of Normandy and eventually, the first Norman King of England.

    But not even all his accomplishments, in war and in peace, could blot the sobriquet: William the Bastard. His parents, Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva of Falaise, both in France, were unmarried.  Medieval temper was much starker and far less filtered!

    If we pivot from ancient wars to the eternal war that is the Rivers’ present politics, how would you brand the leading dramatis personae?  Riled godfather, ex-governor, and now explosive Abuja Minister, Nyesom Wike: Ezenwo the Brash?

    Or foxy but extremely annoying godson, with a gubernatorial term of one day, one trouble, Siminalayi Fubara: Sim the Tragic?  He goes on dabbing himself with petrol, knowing full well the Wike camp won’t blink from lighting up the fire that could burn him to ashes!

    By the way, given the political straws now posturing with Fubara, in his meaningless, yet explosive grandstanding, the Rivers six-month emergency debacle seems to have taught the governor nothing.

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    One is Daniel Bwala, a Tinubu loyalist from Borno State, North East – until the issue of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.  Pronto, he bailed from the winning boat, in a blind splash to the losers’ camp – whatever the northern Christian minority fears, which pushed the sheer panic of his jump.  But later, he would pivot back from the failed Atiku Abubakar camp, landing the visible sinecure of the presidential special adviser on Policy Communication.

    Does Bwala think his posturing, on Fubara’s account, would weigh more with the president – who seeks a second term – when the chips are down?  Bwala, who bailed out at the first hint of ticket danger, would weigh more than Wike – hate him or love him – who grinded everything out, when the danger was red-hot, though he belonged to the rival PDP?

    What hubris!  Folks who enjoy the grace of second chances should learn to be humble!

    The other is Ajibola Basiru, PhD, eminent lawyer and a former senator to boot, from Osun, South West!  Did former Senator Basiru think national visibility, as APC national scribe, equate a full grasp and control of local politics?

    Well, if he did, he has learnt nothing from his predecessor, Iyiola Omisore! Once-upon-a-time, Omisore enjoyed that exact klieg light.  But it proved utterly useless when issues returned to the realpolitik of Osun politics.  Pray, how did national secretary-emeritus help Omisore’s umpteenth bid for Osun governor 2026?

    Just as well Basiru is walking back his talk!  He and Bwala ought to have been far more circumspect.  If they cannot ease their principal’s bid for a second term, they should avoid empty noise that could make it tougher.

    But back to Rivers emergency rule and its plus-and-minus for embattled Governor Fubara.  Yes, it could have been worse: that emergency shunted him aside for six months. But it also preserved his battered office.  Had emergency rule not come as some contrived wonder-machine, which froze his looming impeachment, he would probably have been history by now.

    True, no one could have predicted the political thunder to follow that interregnum, including the Armageddon his famed “Ijaw youths” could have unleashed in the creeks.  But no meltdown could have restored him to office, except the courts fault his impeachment processes.  It’s the grim beauty of the rule of law!

    That is why it is tragic that the governor seems to have forgotten the baleful, shrieking, if impotent, voices that last pushed him to the brink, while he committed impeachable offences that would have made his political guillotining a breeze.  He seems repeating the same mistake, post-emergency.  Sad!

    Between Wike (warts and all) and Fubara (all guile, little gumption), is a huge study in contrasts.

    Wike’s politics, no matter its rough exterior, shows a sure-footed mastery of his environment, mastering the push before they come to the shove.  Outside politics qua politics, he has also proved a brilliant policy boss.  That is clear from his records, both as Rivers two-term governor, and as sitting FCT minister. 

    That’s why it’s such a laugh: the clearly sponsored media hysteria, calling for his sack – for what exactly?  For showing, so far, a near-complete mastery of his Rivers political environment: morphing from a strict PDP partisan to cobbling together a cross-party ensemble he dubs the Rivers Renewed Hope Ambassadors, for Tinubu’s reelection in 2027?  Or: for brilliantly delivering on his FCT ministerial mandate?

    Put Fubara on a similar podium and what do you see?  A 21st century Greek, Icarus, in the thunder of Rivers politics!  Daedalius had warned his son, Icarius, not to fly too close to the sun, lest the heat melt the wax that grafted his wings!  But in the euphoria of the moment, Icarus soared too high, got his wax melted, and plunged into the sea!

    The classic making of Sim the Tragic: this running, gripping, all-riveting tale of self-doom?  Yet, with a tad of political gumption, it just might have been doom avoidable!

    Still, is Wike’s own politics all that immaculate?  Hardly!  Wike seems deaf to the wails of the drum he beats, ever so violently.  As the drum wails, he beats it even more.  That the drum might tear hardly ever occurs to him! Wike’s hamartia? He never knows when to stop!  But until that drum tears, he holds the ace!

    Let Fubara change tack, if it’s not already too late.  He should renounce any pretence to a second term.  He has made enough bungle of his gubernatorial tour of thorns.

  • IPOB: Not again

    IPOB: Not again

    A rump of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has threatened to resume the enforcement of the Monday sit-at-home which was started over four years ago as a way to force the federal government to heed the call for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, then detained by the government of late President Muhammadu Buhari. IPOB grew out, from the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). IPOB has itself mutated, even though the mutants have no new name, known to the public.

    The recent threat is a reaction to the effort by the governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, to stop the wasteful sit-at-home on Mondays which IPOB used to draw attention to the trial of Nnamdi Kanu who has now been jailed for terrorism related charges. The group initially enforced the order on the days Kanu went to court, but eventually included every Monday, to push their campaign. According to Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s lawyer, his principal had since ordered a stop of the sit-at-home, but some of his followers remained defiant.

    One of the leaders of the mutants, Simeon Ekpa, has been jailed in Finland for terrorism. This writer was particularly irked about Ekpa’s style of making light the consequences of his messages in the region. In one video, he was dancing and said he was enjoying himself, while his detractors were claiming he was under detention, which showed the so-called fight for Biafra was a joke for him. The cavalier manner he treated the grave issue of the deaths and mayhem in the southeast resulting from his actions showed he didn’t care a hoot about the so-called struggle.

    Before they were jailed, Ekpa had openly defied Kanu over the latter’s order to end the sit-at-home. With Kanu in detention, Ekpa had assumed leadership even while pretending to be acting in the interest of the Kanu. Of course, there appears to be cells operating independently of the leadership, dishing out instructions and countermanding orders from the IPOB leadership. The results have been killing of the ordinary persons, by what came to be regarded as the unknown gunmen.

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    At the height of his confrontation with the Nigerian state, Kanu with tremendous gift of garb, framed the fight as one between the quest for an independent republic of Biafra, and the hegemonic powers that ruled Nigeria. A bombastic fellow, Kanu held his followers captive, with eloquent denunciation of the challenges bedeviling Nigeria. Courted and cult-ed, he became a folk hero, amongst the downtrodden and disposessed, in the region. Soon, some members of the intelligentsia and the business class also warmed up to him and that made him more daring.

    Like Ralph Uwazurike of MASSOB, to tantalize his supporters, Kanu began to make promises he had no way of keeping. He gave dates and events that will culminate into the birth of Biafra republic. As if in a conspiracy, the government of late President Muhammad Buhari, in rhetoric and in action, gave the impression that Igbos of southeast were dispensable in determining the future of Nigeria. And as if in concert, terrorism by herdsmen under Buhari, added a new dimension to the Nigerian fault lines.

    Those who hitherto were dismissive of a purported ethnic/religious agenda, under the government began to believe that something was really afoot. In remote villages across the southeast, and of course other parts of Nigeria, herdsmen clutching AK47 rifles, became the symbol that Armageddon was near the gate. So, when Kanu said that there are plans for the Fulani ethnic group to take over other parts of the country by force, even the doubters believed. Like a prophet whose last prediction came to pass, Kanu was emboldened to make more predictions and issue more threats.

    With Kanu’s image getting far larger than those elected to govern at the federal and the state levels in the southeast, it was definite, as the pre-eminent Tatalo Alamu, of this newspaper would say, that something had to give. There are several conspiracy theories as to how Kanu was rendered back to Nigeria from Kenya by the Buhari regime. There are many political leaders in the region, who have been smeared with the tag of saboteur, for allegedly rendering Kanu back to Nigeria.

    The Buhari regime despite its best efforts could not bring the trial of Kanu at the Federal High Court Abuja, to an end. Kanu was able to outfox the regime for about four years, with all manner of legal gymnastics, as some have called it. He changed his lawyers many times, defended himself a few times, and forced changes of judges at other times. While that was going on, the economy of the southeast was haemorrhaging profusely. The economic loss is projected in several billions of naira, the loss of life in monumental proportions, and the dislocation of social life, very substantial.

    With the Buhari regime and its concomitant idiosyncrasies ending in 2023, many thought the challenges associated with the crisis would dissipate. Leaders of the southeast tried to outdo each other, to position to claim credit, believing that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would release Kanu from the gulag. Kanu even toned down his rhetoric, in the earnest hope that the new regime’s renewed hope agenda would grant him freedom. Instead of a political solution, the courts went for a legal solution as Justice James Omotosho ignored all legal mischiefs, and went ahead to conclude the trial and jail Kanu, for life. 

    With a mischievous obiter dictum that Kanu should be jailed in any prison that pleases the powers that be, he was sent to the Sokoto Correctional Centre, the seat of the Caliphate that he had been lampooning in his rise to prominence. In a tinge of irony, like a youth corps member, it seems he was sent to learn the ways and means of Fulani, so he can become a better pan-Nigerian. With Kanu put away in faraway, Sokoto, many have been wondering whether IPOB would continue to dissipate and eventually disappear.

    But the ever loquacious spirit-man, Emma Powerful, the spokesman of IPOB, seems to have a different agenda. He is giving the impression that IPOB is a phoenix. He has called for renewal of the sit-at-home agenda, which has never augured well for the region. This writer urges those pushing for the sit-at-home order to continue to please abandon a strategy that has hurt the southeast more that it has benefited it and hope that President Tinubu would release Kanu and help the region to recuperate. The southeast has suffered enough, from the Buhari-era crisis.    

    Of course, while the southeast was haemorrhaging, the national economy was bleeding.  Governor Soludo, who made the contested order, has threatened traders with grave consequences if they fail to resume on Mondays. This column hopes he has put plans in place to secure those willing to work on Mondays from criminals masquerading as liberation fighters.

  • Key messages in 2027 elections

    Key messages in 2027 elections

    Whether the ordinary folks like it or not, the main issue that will be in the front burner of the national discourse henceforth shall be the politics of 2027 general elections. Politicians understand that the few months of campaign period, approved by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in its guidelines, in accordance with the Electoral Act, are not enough. INEC’s guideline usually provides for a period of 90 days, as the campaign period before elections. For this column, as the campaign ramps up, the core issue should be which of the presidential candidate has the best competence to grow the national economy, which will reduce the poverty level in the country, which will in turn substantially abate the ravaging insecurity across the country.

    So, the core issues should be who has the best competence to improve the national economy and the capacity to deal with the mutating insecurity across the country. Obviously the frontrunner is the incumbent, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT). Amongst the contenders, the two with some chance of giving the president a run for his money, remains, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, now both of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Their former parties, the PDP and the Labour Party are in disarray and instead of waiting to see whether the political carcasses would fall on them, have joined other aggrieved politicians to seek refuge in ADC.     

    Before Tinubu took over from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, this column had argued on occasions that amongst the then three leading candidates (same as now), Tinubu had the best credentials to deal with the staggering national economy. The fact is that he has not disappointed on that score. The twin challenges haemorrhaging the national economy before the 2023 general elections, were the fuel subsidy scam and the multiple foreign exchange platforms. To the shock of many Nigerians, PBAT confronted them head on, and after the initial headwinds, no one can doubt that the national economy is stronger since then.

    The other two candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, agreed with the need to tackle those twin challenges, albeit with a caveat that they would have done it differently. Obi argued that the government should have put forward some palliative before slaying the dragons. I am not sure what Atiku said he would have done differently, apart from the claim that the timing was wrong. Since the deed had been done, the duo should come up with what they can do better to quicken the healing process of the very necessary economic operation the nation went through in 2023. The Tinubu administration would on its part push for stability, through a re-election, to achieve full recuperation for the patient.    

    But to keep themselves in the mind of the electorates, politicians design all manner of subterfuge to engage in campaign well ahead of the period provided by the laws. Of interest, despite the provision of section 977(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022, the campaigns oscillate around religion and tribe. That section provides: “A candidate, person or association who engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on religion, tribal, or section reason for the purpose of promoting or opposing a particular political party or the election of a particular candidate, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction – (a) to a maximum fine of N1,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both; and (b) in the case of political party to a minimum of N10,000,000.”  

    Despite the clear provision of section 97(1) of the Electoral Act, most of the campaign materials and argument, especially on the presidential election, have been based “on religious, tribal, or sectional reason”. For many Nigerians, it will be very absurd, if a presidential candidate from the southern part of the country is not allowed to complete eight years as president, when the immediate past president, from the northern part of the country, late President Buhari, spent full eight years, in power. The issue of religion is also on the front burner, the candidates and their supporters have always pushed that issue, especially if they have a presidential and vice presidential candidates from the two main religions in the country. 

    Even the constitution of some political parties, are reputed to provide for rotating the presidency between the north and south, and governorship election between the senatorial zones. Section 7(2)(c) of the constitution of the PDP, provides “The Party shall pursue these aims and objectives – adhering to the policy of the rotation and zoning of Party and Public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness.” On its part, Article 20(iv)(e) of the constitution of the APC, provides: “Procedure for Nomination of Candidates – Without prejudice to Article 20(u) and (iii) of this Constitution, the National Working Committee shall subject to the approval of the National Executive Committee make Rules and Regulations for the nomination of candidates through primary elections. All such Rules, Regulations and Guidelines shall take into consideration and uphold the principle of federal character, gender balance, geo-political spread and rotation of offices, so as to as much as possible ensure balance within the constituency covered.”

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    Can it be argued that section 97(1) of the Electoral Act, which prohibits campaigning, based on ethnic or sectional reason offends the principle of federal character, as enshrined in the 1999 constitution? Section 14(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended), provides: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few state or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”

    Perhaps, it is the superiority of the constitution over the Electoral Act that makes the candidates and their supporters to significantly ignore the warning as provided in section 97(1) of the Electoral Act. While section 14(3) is silent on religion, it was explicit on banning persons from a few states, few ethnic or other sectional groups from dominating the government or any of its agencies.

    This column believes that apart from the twin challenges of economy and security, upon which most other things revolve, the question whether it would be fair for northern part of the country to produce another president, when the southern part of the country has not completed eight years, after the eight years of Buhari, would be a fair campaign issue. So, inevitably, the issue of religion, ethnicity and what section of the country, a presidential candidate comes from, would all play a part in shaping the 2027 elections.

  • Still on the tax laws matter

    Still on the tax laws matter

    From all indications, the last has not been heard on the alleged alteration of the tax laws. By this I do not mean its status in the books given that the law is already fully operative. Rather, I refer to the latest wave of offensive to shred it of any iota of legitimacy by a self-proclaimed Ad-hoc Committee on Tax Laws put up by a minority caucus in the National Assembly, led by Afam Ogene, the individual who represents Ogbaru Federal Constituency of Anambra State in the National Assembly.

    Even for those who choose to see politics as the art of the possible, the latest intervention, far from being the typical legislative petulance speaks to something graver –more like a dangerous play in deliberate, institutional subversion.

    Two weeks ago on this page, I had raised the poser – what next – in the background of the still strident opposition to the tax laws. Talk of legislations, which in their draft form, had survived a well-laid ambush by the National Economic Council (NEC) – a body of 36 governors chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima. They also survived the ferocious tackles by regional hegemons and their allies of various hues, and then the legion of opponents for whom every initiative by the Bola Tinubu administration, no matter how well meaning, must be shot down. And then the laws – four of them in all – waded through the legislative mill to emerge – again against the run of play so to speak – as the most consequential pieces of legislations under the current dispensation. And that is discounting the sustained campaign of misinformation launched against it by vested interests, all in the bid to render it toxic.

    Just like the saying of the old Volkswagen Beetle advert, there appears to be no killing this particular Bettle!  

    Still, those expecting the losers in the earlier plot to truncate its implementation to keep their peace and thus allow the law to run seamlessly have proven to be grossly mistaken.  Forget the well-timed intervention by the leaderships of the National Assembly; this has failed to douse the fires of their artfully crafted mischief.  And so they move on.

    Remember the initial dusts thrown up by a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki alleging discrepancies between the versions of the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and those circulated to the public. Most Nigerians would have ordinarily considered the allegations unsettling were it not for the needless drama that attended to it and the palpable bad faith by the sponsors. More than a month after the setting up of a seven-man committee composed of Muktar Aliyu Betara, former Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase, Sada Soli, James Abiodun Faleke, Fred Agbedi, Babajimi Benson and Iduma Igariwey by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas to examine the issues; there are no indications of the muddying ending anytime soon.

    And just when one imagines that the findings of the committee are being prepped for plenary, a so-called Ad-hoc Committee on Tax Laws, perhaps unknown to the National Assembly as a body, said to have been set up by the minority caucus led by Afam Ogene, would emerge from the shadows to take things up from where their colleague – Dasuki stopped, throwing muck around. Needless to state that his committee all but confirmed the group’s hare-brained hypothesis that discrepancies indeed existed between the versions of the tax reform Acts passed. More specifically, the committee alleged that reporting thresholds were lowered, that mandatory deposits were introduced as conditions for tax appeals, and that enforcement powers were expanded to include arrest and the disposal of seized assets without court orders. It also alleged changes to the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, including the removal of provisions that guarantee the National Assembly’s oversight powers.

    By the way, it didn’t help that Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen and Senate President Godswill Akpabio took the wind from their sail with the public release of the certified true copies of the laws. That changed nothing or could it? In any case, it seems unlikely that anything – short of keeping the law in perpetual abeyance – could mollify or appease those for whom the texts of the laws, being so patently embossed in satanic calligraphy, could have been anything but good!

    Now that the project to make the laws inoperable if not to put the integrity of the entire architecture of governance into peril by any means fair or foul, has since moved into an entirely new chapter, not only are citizens forced to relearn the distinction between good and bad faith, but questions about their next move have become inevitable.

    By the way, it helps that the so-called minority caucus recognises that the work of the Muktar Betara-led bipartisan committee is still on-going. This of course begs the question of why the minority committee couldn’t wait to see the process through before jumping the gun. Was it a case of not trusting his colleagues to do a thorough job?

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    Surely, if the world took interest in the establishment of the Betara committee given the uproar that the allegations generated at the time, the same could not be said of the secret committee of the minority caucus, which from all appearances, seem designed to undermine the work of the former. Little wonder they could not afford the luxury of taking their colleagues into confidence before inundating the media space with what could only have been a hatchet job. Now that that they have made their presentations in television studios in what is at best an exercise in showmanship, Nigerians wait to see how what impact it would make on the proceedings in the house.

    Fortunately, the house through its spokesman, Akin Rotimi has responded with a tutorial: “The House recognises the legitimate role of the minority caucus within parliamentary democracy and affirms its right to express dissenting opinions, engage in policy advocacy, and raise public concerns.

    “However, it is necessary to distinguish clearly between political activities and the formal parliamentary processes of the House.

    “The Standing Orders of the House (Eleventh Edition) vest the power to constitute ad hoc committees solely in the House acting in plenary or in the Speaker exercising powers conferred under the Standing Orders”.

    Well spoken – I dare say!

    But then that is merely the preliminary. Considering that the parliamentary privileges of the members appear to have been breached, the next step should be a call for full accounting for the delinquency.

    I rise!!!

  • January 15: tragic cabal, lronsi mess

    January 15: tragic cabal, lronsi mess

    By Azubike Nass

    I am a seeker after facts in historical matters. I have read, and continue to read books and commentaries on the events of January 1966; and the developments that followed, leading to the 30 months civil war of 1967-1970.

    I have also sought and had personal discussions with three of the active planners and participants in that coup, asking frank and uncomfortable questions. I have tried to keep aside emotions and sentiments, to confront the naked facts.

    The fact is that about 90% of the original planners of that coup were officers of Igbo extraction. Among the prominent victims of the coup included: Sir Ahmadu Bello (Premier of Northern Region), Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola (Premier of Western Region), Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa (Prime Minister),  Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun (Commander, 1 Brigade Kaduna); Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari (Commander, 2 Brigade Lagos); Col. Raphael Shodeinde (Commandant NDA, Kaduna).

    The others were Lt-Cols James Pam, Kur Mohammed, Abogo Legema and Arthur Unegbe.  Unegbe was the Quartermaster-General: an Igbo who was shot when the coup was already on.  Some of the plotters got to him and demanded more arms and ammo from the arms store.  He got shot when he attempted to notify Ironsi on the phone, of what was happening). 

    Though there were other lesser known victims, the officers that led the teams that executed the killings were virtually all of Igbo extraction.

    Who were Nigeria’s Five Majors — the title of a book, by Ben Gbulie — that originally hatched the 15 January 1966 coup? Majors Chukwuma Nzeogwu,  Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Donald Okafor, Chris Anuforo and Humphrey Chukwuka.  They were all of Igbo extraction. 

    There were other officers, though, mostly captains and lieutenants.  They included Capts Ben Gbulie and Emmanuel Nwobosi — both again, Igbo.

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    But there were also Capt. Adewale Ademoyega: a Yoruba and signal officer based in Lagos, who was mostly communicating the timing with the groups in Lagos, Ibadan and Kaduna, and some others.

    There were yet some other coup participants who were not really part of the planning, such as Lt Harris Eghagha: an Urhobo native, who had turned out for a programmed training exercise in the Nigerian Army Training School, Jaji, Kaduna, only to discover that Major Nzeogwu and other Igbo officers had turned it into a coup plot; and had secured live ammo.

    He was briefed on the spot and asked to declare his position. He paused for a moment and declared to go along. It was obvious he would be eliminated if he did otherwise.

    After any failed coup, there would be multiple arrests, which would include identified plotters and any officer whose movement at that time could attract suspicion, whether you travelled on official pass, or you attended a night party somewhere. The Special Investigating Panel (SIP) would sift through the arrested people and decide who to free and who to indict to face trial for what offence. That’s the normal thing.

    From this perspective, the number of officers arrested and detained for the coup may not be a good indication of those actually involved in the coup. And in the January 1966 coup, the benefitting Head of State, Major-Gen Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, flatly ignored persistent calls to investigate and try the coup plotters, in accordance with standard military law.

    Was it an Igbo coup? Semantics of language may come in here, but certain facts remain sacred.

    The Igbos as an ethnic group never sat down in a meeting or had any consensus to plan a coup. The coup, which was very bloody, was a military boys’ affair.  But the killings were skewed against other regions and ethnic groups. Every military officer planning a coup knows the consequences of failure.

    The coup had failed and was causing much anger and bitterness among those who bore the brunt of the killings. And Ironsi, who became a beneficiary of the coup, flatly ignored all calls to try the coup plotters, as if he didn’t even want them to lose their ranks and commission. 

    He acted as if they were welcome revolutionaries who had committed no serious crime. He had hawkish Igbo advisers, in control of national authority, preening in their Igbo exceptionalism.

    Besides, Ironsi was enjoying the glamour of unexpectedly acquiring national authority.  Clannish advice from his close Igbo aides drummed into his head that it was his golden turn.

    In the heat of the explosive anger, created by the actions and inactions of the Ironsi military government, more related actions were adding salt to the injuries of those adversely affected.

    Just one sample: in the annual Army promotion exercise of April 1966, out of 21 officers promoted from Major to Lt-Colonel, 18 were Igbo-speaking.  Only three were non-Igbo. That was the height of insensitivity to the sensibilities of other members of the Nigerian space. The fuse of the time bomb was burning fast.  Soon, it exploded in catastrophe — a catastrophe that consumed Ironsi’s military government with no remedy.

    I remain blunt and fearless in condemnation of such stupid and insensitive actions of the past. I remain convinced that if one refuses to learn from past stupid actions, he/she would remain incapable of making correction and will be condemned to cycles of disaster, always pointing accusing fingers elsewhere, and blaming the gods for misfortunes, when the gods are really not to blame.

    It’s from this perspective that I repeatedly condemn the shenanigans of some of our Igbo leaders on the matter of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

    He and his group have committed every imaginable form of bestial criminality and hate violence, in the name of fighting to re-establish the dead and decayed Biafra Republic, which was a misery better forgotten.

    It has been an explosive cocktail: wild claims of marginalisation without any rigour of verifiable evidence to prove the case. Endless propaganda and hate against other members of the Nigerian space. No apology, no remorse, no repentance. Clearly curting disaster in many ways!

    I have told some of my Igbo close friends that if President Tinubu ever made the mistake of releasing Nnamdi Kanu — just like that — he would have faced a negative whiplash from the military and other law-enforcement institutions; just as there would be a furious reaction from the North, who were the primary victims of Kanu’s hate propaganda and gun attacks.

    I remain unapologetically stubborn to my conviction on this matter. I fear no evil. “Death is a necessary end which will come when it will”.

    •Azubike Nass, Enugu, 19 January 2026.

  • U.S. felon, global outlaw

    U.S. felon, global outlaw

    US felon, global outlaw?  A grim logic, isn’t that? So, why is the globe acting surprised? 

    Whatever the utterly insecure US President, Donald Trump, tries with the world — thus making it far less safe — he had practised (and gone away with) in his own country. Will he get away with global outlawry?  That is still in the womb of time!

    Back to his American felony.  On 30 May 2024, Trump earned due conviction for 34 felonies in his native New York.  Instead of the state tossing him inside the can, though an ex-president, all he got was a confetti of votes to return to the White House.

    In that theatre of the absurd, the US court that should sentence for felony duly proven, solemnly pronounced its own impotence.  After being voted president though a proven felon, the court neutered its power to punish, after due process.

    The final verdict?  “Unconditional discharge” — to commit more felonies?  That was 10 January 2025, after Trump’s triumph in the November 2024 presidential election.

    Four years hitherto — 6 January 2021 — he had spat and shat on the holiest shrine of American democracy.  That day, to reverse his defeat by Joe Biden in November 2020, he had marshalled his thugs to sack the US Capitol.

    But by institutional self-loathing and partisan brinksmanship, the Republican segment of the US Senate gave Trump a slap on the wrist, though the House of Representatives did own duty to duly impeach.

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    The moral of this judicial-legislative abandonment: if Trump’s own country fled  from bringing the felon to heel — if not for out-and-out criminality, then for violent political chaos — what global order, which at best runs on conventions, can stop Trump from becoming a preening, dashing, unfazed global outlaw, unleashing US fearsome might to hide his personal shame and sate his sundry insecurities?

    That’s the Trump global tragedy playing out!  US felon, global outlaw!

    On 25 September 2025 when Trump went to the United Nations General Assembly to ridicule everyone (see “Nebuchadnezzar”, 30 September 2025), this column dismissed the US president as the 21st century Nebuchadnezzar, doomed to falling on his sword, at the zenith of his hubris, just as the Babylonian original (reigned: 605 BC-562 BC).

    But that image is a tad too restrictive.  Nebuchadnezzar seems even truer of the American electorate.  If a fella had sacked your parliament — the very sacred symbol of your republicanism, your liberty and your democracy — and was also duly convicted by your court — what sort of hubris would make you pick him as your president?

    The haunting words of Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic Party opponent, still hang eerily in the air, an eternal rebuke, long after the deed had been done!

    “On day one, if elected,” Vice President Harris had warned, “Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list … Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him.  People he calls ‘the enemy from within’.  This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make you better.  This is someone,” she insisted, “who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power”!

    Talk of Kamala hitting the bull’s eye, home and abroad!  What prescience!

    At home, Trump’s paramilitary US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with icy terror, wields raw power to maul, crush or even kill, particularly that Trumpian scum, called “immigrants”. 

    Incidentally, documented or not, Trump and fellow hypocrites and xenophobes, once belonged to this class, being settlers from Europe and elsewhere.  Only the native Indians were no immigrants.  They owned the land.  But those had been near-blotted out by frontier savages, the western world imposed on their native horizon.

    Then, the US president’s flagrant misuse of the National Guard, against Democratic states he dubs “enemies”, though he has been forced to retreat in some states, after being blocked by the courts.

    But either by ICE terror or National Guard muscling, the “immigrant” scum aren’t the only victims.  Collateral damage seeps into the Trump racial blue bloods, as the Minneapolis woman in Minnesota, Rennee Nicol Good, fatally shot by an ICE agent. She was neither Latino nor Black, nor was she an “immigrant”!  The rich also cry?

    Still, it’s on the global plain that Trump’s mail-fisted outlawry has been most rankling in its triumphalism.

    After his initial rhapsody over seizing Canada as America’s 51st state, punching Mexico hollow with US trade tariffs and unilaterally renaming Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America — a move the world ignored with quiet scorn — Trump made the most brazen of his move, thus far, at the turn of 2026.

    On January 3, he announced that his goons had captured and kidnapped Venezuela President, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. In a fit that hovers between triumphalist glee and outright power lunacy, the US President, a few days later, even proclaimed himself “Acting President of Venezuela”, on his Truth Social platform, to a roar of applause from his MAGA fanatics!

    Though he code-named that invasion “Operation Absolute Resolve”, it’s Trump’s own roguish “Operation Shock and Awe” — a parody of President George W. Bush’s 22 March-9 April 2003 Iraq II campaign, which not only nabbed Iraqi strongman, Saddam Hussein, but eventually hanged him on a Sallah day!

    That Iraq invasion — crooked, to be sure, but glossed by the legal technicality of a UN Security Council approval — stole the Iraqi soul.  But it also unleashed ISIS terror on the globe.  What further chaos will the Venezuela invasion and Maduro capture unleash on the Americas?

    Flush from this roguish victory — and his insane lusting after Venezuela’s oil — Trump has upped his ante to grab Greenland, a frigid, autonomous region of Denmark,  whether “they like it or not!”  Indeed, such is the gripping power lunacy, sweet and delirious, that Randy Fine, a Republican member of the House of Representatives has drafted a bill to cover the proposed Trump steal! 

    Just imagine: the US House of Representatives turning House of Representathieves over Greenland!  Still, there’s a counter-Bill by a Democratic member, aside a bi-partisan Senate bill.  Trump times!

    A menacing, self-destruct image looms: a mad dog mauls foes, no big deal. But when it mauls its owner?  That’s the Trump misadventure into Greenland! That land is under NATO protection, which guarantor-in-chief is Trump’s America!  That he’s threatening his Europe opposers on Greenland, with hefty tariffs, is a classic bandit’s bay!

    Much eerier: Trump’s global outlawry is flaring in 2026 — the year America clocks 250 years!  At 250 years, the British Empire, hitherto the ruthless global lord of the manor, started melting.  So did the Ottoman Empire, which peaked at 250.

    By this year too, trust in US public institutions will sink below 20%. That fatal threshold (19% trust in public institutions), triggered the fall of the old Soviet Empire in 1991.

    So, deja vu America at 250?  We’ll see!  That obtuse Trump can’t grasp the force of history is a red flag.  So, are a FIFA President gifting Trump — a war monger — global football’s peace tinsel, and Maria Corina Machado, giving Trump her Nobel Peace Prize he’ll never own, in a fit of self-loathing!  Both are a false lull, in a historical tempest.

    But one thing is clear: the American century and days of blind global bullying is ebbing! 

    Nigeria — and other smart nations — should brace up for a post-American epoch.

    Happy new year, folks!  It’s nice to be back!

  • Rivers’ anomie season 2.0

    Rivers’ anomie season 2.0

    Given how quickly the different actors in the Rivers’ political divide have gone back into the trenches, it is obvious that no lessons have been learnt either in the simple understanding of politics as art of the possible, not to talk of the body of organising rules on which the superstructure of governance is grounded and which the feuding parties are supposedly sworn to perform their duties. For if the period between March 18, 2025, when President Bola Tinubu clamped emergency rule on the state and September 17, 2025 when he rolled back the emergency, was supposed to afford the combatants sufficient window for introspection, what ought to be obvious now is how pretty little has changed in any sense. In fact, take out the restraining hand of President Tinubu, the state would probably be back on that uniquely perilous journey characterised by arson, sabotage, and other variants of anomie and delinquency. Remember, the jungle don mature as the governor once proclaimed in a fit of supposedly holy, self-righteous, rage.

    And that was even long after the symbol of representative governance – the parliament was torched by – some will argue – agents of the executive. Of course, the bigger drama on the status of the assembly itself would follow later. Indeed, it came in a moment of unforced error, when the majority lawmakers – numbering 27, changed parties on television in Abuja – as against their wards where they registered!

    I recall the governor swearing, at some point, that the legislature, not only existed at his pleasure but that the seats of the majority had been voided from then on! Thereafter, he opted to work with a parliament of three members, even when the self-appointed parliament fell short of a quorum in the eyes of the law. From then on, governance, in the Garden City state, simply became a charade – from the budgetary process, the procedural screening of the members of the state executive council, right up to the sham of a so-called local council elections; everything became a one-man show with a throng of conflict entrepreneurs egging the governor on!

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    While these were going on, the dominant narrative was that the governor, Sim Fubara was the more sinned against, just as his sparring partner, Nyesom Wike, the supposedly vile godfather-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, was the sinner. An element of that narrative was that Nigerians cared far less about the crimes of arson, the disregard to the constitution and the brazen outlawry that the governor had come to represent than they do of the godfather’s overbearing antics if not volubility! This was what the army of Wike’s opponents, armed with talking points, sold in their media rounds and duly amplified by their media house allies.  They probably won that segment of the battle even if in the end, they lost the war rather ignominiously, where it mattered most – the Supreme Court.

    February last year, the justices in their 62-page opinion signed by Justice Emmanuel Agim had pointedly accused the governor of democratic subversion.

    “Having by his own admission engaged in a series of illegal activities just to prevent the other 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from participating in the proceedings of the House to carry out their legitimate legislative duties which they were elected to do, his resort to Sections 102 and 109 of the 1999 Constitution and the doctrine of necessity on the basis of his allegation that they have defected is a red herring to perpetuate his subversion of the Rivers State House of Assembly, the 1999 Constitution and democratic government in Rivers State”, part of the judgment read.

    More seriously, the apex court would not even be persuaded that a government, properly defined, existed at the time in Rivers State: “A government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the government of a state under the 1999 Constitution. In this case, the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him govern without the legislature as a despot. As it is, there is no government in Rivers State”.

    The court then made what I consider a point, which I consider particularly relevant at this time: “Political disagreements cannot justify…contempt for the rule of law by the governor of a state or any person. What the 8th respondent (Fubara) has done is to destroy the government because of his fear of being impeached”.

    Familiar?

    Remember: that was the charade that President Tinubu terminated with the expectation that the feuding parties would use the opportunity to mend their ways.  But what do we see months after? The return of the same old playbook in slow motion; of exclusion, of deliberate, systematic emasculation of the legislature – a simple failure to perform a public duty – the constitution of the state executive council. The language though different, conveys the same unmistakeable message: Jungle don mature.

    Like in times past, the lawmakers are vexed. And many argue that they have reasons to be – given that the law appears to be on their side. This is particularly so as they are the sole authority on how the monies belonging to the state are spent. And to the extent that they have neither received nor processed the budget instrument on the basis of which the governor could be spending the people’s money, the governor could be deemed to have broken the law. The other matter is that there is no state executive council, properly constituted to run the business of government.

    To be honest, the minders of Governor Fubara have not been particularly convincing on either of the issues: the other day, one of them claimed that the governor is still implementing the appropriation passed during the emergency and that the governor has only chosen to run the business of governance with his team of advisers because it is convenient for him!

    In the meantime, Nigerians are being asked to choose between the noxious play of the supposedly power-drunk politician and his band of supporters on one hand, and the opportunistic manoeuvres of a wayward godson and his tribe of jesters on the other. Surely, the last thing Nigerians want to indulge is the now familiar swagger of absolutism, of players acting and treating the law as if it exists for mere convenience, and the attempt to deodorise gross misconduct. And now the most tragic of them all: the judiciary being called upon to insert itself into a process that the constitution clearly pronounces as “off limits”!

    Yes, I understand the politicians and their mind games and why some doses of madness from their quarters are sometimes necessary to spice up the democratic space.  As for the elders – Rivers elders, I understand that those who haven’t gone AWOL have splintered into compartments of ethnicity and the pursuit of lucre. As for the judiciary, I am, sufficiently worried at the ease with which it has been called into the dirty job. The world, surely, is watching!

  • Rivers of free money

    Rivers of free money

    This writer believes that some privileged persons within and outside Rivers State benefit from the instability always plaguing the state. Otherwise, how does one explain the resurgence of the political warfare between forces loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Minister Nyesom Wike, few months after the state of emergency was lifted? The general belief was that the state of emergency provided an opportunity for the combatants and their foot soldiers to reach a political détente.

    But alas, as Chinua Achebe said, in Arrow of God, “for when we see a bird dancing in the middle of the pathway, we must know that its drummer is in the nearby bush.” But who are the drummers for the combatants in Rivers State who must truly be in the nearby bush? For this writer, the drummers are those seeking access to what I call the “free money” in the state. For Wike, it is those who want a share of the humongous N600 billion, left behind by the departed sole administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd).

    Before Fubara took refuge in the All Progressive Congress (APC), his supporters had alleged that the fight between Wike and Fubara, was because of the former’s interest in controlling that “free money”. While the Rivers State 2025 budget of N1.846 trillion is enormous, there is a huge chance that the resources which causes the intractable debacles dating back to the beginning of this republic, may actually be the ones unbudgeted for.

    Since the return of democracy in 1999, Rivers State has shown itself as the richest state with pots of “free money”. The evidence in support of that claim, is monumentally abundant. The first governor 1999-2007, Peter Odili, was given the acronym, “Donatus”, because he always donated handsomely at every public event he was invited to. To show that the money in question was not mere small change for donations, he became the biggest financier of the PDP in that era.

    But for former president, Olusegun Obasanjo’s alleged interference, Odili, who ran the costliest campaign to succeed Obasanjo, had enough resources to appropriate the presidential ticket in 2007. The man, to whom Odili handed over, Rotimi Amechi, went on to repeat the same feat when he backed the election of late president, Muhammadu Buhari, against President Goodluck Jonathan. As Rivers State governor, he was reputed as one of the biggest financers of the election of the former president.

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    To show that his resources is as deep as the oil wells in the state he governed, the former governor and later Minister for Transport, successfully ran a well-oiled campaign during the APC presidential primary. He came second behind the winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who went ahead to win the presidential election.  Amaechi, was succeeded by Wike, who became a master class intervener in strategic capital projects, of national importance. Hardly ever worried about the flow of resources, he took many gigantic federal projects. 

    Wike, built massive infrastructure for a new Nigeria Law School, in Rivers State. He built houses for judges of federal courts, amongst several of such projects. Like his predecessors, Rivers money also flowed towards the presidential campaigns, during his tenure. First, he was reputed to have sponsored his former friend, Aminu Tambuwal, against Atiku Abubakar, in the Peoples Democratic Party primaries, in 2019. When he completed his second tenure, he sought the presidential crown for himself, in 2023, and if we are to believe Dele Momodu, he outspent the doyen of presidential election contests in Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar.

    When Wike’s ambition was blocked at the PDP primary, which was as contentious, as a presidential campaign, Wike engaged his financial vehicle in a reverse gear, driving furiously and desperately, as if on a forward speed gear. The success of APC, which he supported, in 2023 election, earned him the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. And with the power and influence he holds, he is more or less the most dreaded political leader in Rivers State. Presently, Wike’s eyes are on the 2027 election, not as a candidate, but as a supporter of President Tinubu.

    Obviously, Fubara joined APC, the president’s party, to counter the enormous political weight of Wike. But, he did not take into consideration that Wike’s men may have planted several mines in APC, just as he did in PDP, awaiting Fubara to make his entry. Despite his entry into APC, the state lawmakers who had earlier joined APC, have started an impeachment proceeding against the governor. Thinking it may help, Fubara’s men threw mud on the lawmakers accusing them of helping themselves with Rivers “free money”, while the sole administrator held sway.

    Many presidential election pundits have argued that any presidential candidate who wants to be successful at the polls must have his eyes trained on Rivers, Kano and Lagos states. While the general attention is on the enormous registered voters that the states have, the more underlining factor may be the enormous financial resources the three states boast of. While their various state budgets show their enormous financial powers, the unbudgeted financial resources, may be the critical factor which contenders seek to have influence over, by controlling the states.

    The influence of the three states extend far beyond the states. Recall that while Wike was in power, as Rivers State governor, he had enormous influence in the elections in the entire South-south. Former governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki confessed that it was Wike who made his reelection possible after he defected to PDP, haven fallen out with his sponsors in APC. Wike, as governor of Rivers State, was also influential in who won election in Bayelsa State.

    Sadly, for Fubara, Wike had used the last local government election to cement the rings he ran around Fubara in Rivers State and he showed what the future may look like, during his recent thank you tour of the councils. Wike, also has the state legislators firmly with him, and even the flicker of light for Fubara, when four members of the state House of Assembly demurred about the impeachment proceedings, dimmed almost immediately. Not surprisingly, the 25 present member legislators are presently in one accord that Fubara has committed gross misconducts, as envisaged by section 188 of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

    Fubara, may need the help of President Tinubu to stop the impeachment proceedings, even though he is hoping to use the courts to emasculate the legislators. But, this writer wonders what the court would say to justify denying the legislators the power to engage in a constitutional process. And to compound the matter for Fubara, he may have engaged in several constitutional infringements in the fights that led to the declaration of state of emergency in the state and he can still be punished for those infringements.

    This writer wonders why Fubara can’t play politics to survive, or perhaps summon the Rivers free money, to wash away his sins.

  • Trump as Europe’s nemesis

    Trump as Europe’s nemesis

    At the Berlin conference in 1884, European nations gathered in Berlin, Germany, to share Africa, as one would share a cake. Their only authority to do that was that they wielded enormous military powers which the African peoples lacked. The driving force for them was economic, political and social factors. They wanted secured sources of raw materials, to power their emergent industrial revolution, enhance their national prestige as major powers, and feel good that they are liberating others from ignorance.

    No African nation or people were represented and after the giddy conference, each of the participants went to Africa to tend what they got from what their historians christened the scramble for Africa. While Europeans lived happily thereafter, the savagery and brigandage that went into the invasion, conquest and colonization of the scrambled territory is better imagined. What drew my interest to this history was the lamentation of the President of Germany, (the same country where the war monger, Chancellor Von Bismarck, presided over the unlawful partition and sharing of Africa,) following President Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela (subject of my intervention last week) and Trump’s umpteenth threat to use force, if diplomacy fails, to acquire Greenland.

    President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, while urging for caution, said: “It is about preventing the world from turning into a den of robbers, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of a few great powers.” That statement tantalized this writer. In very clear words, the revered president of Germany confirmed without equivocation that German Chancellor von Bismarck and those who gathered in Berlin in 1884-1885, to treat Africa as the property of the then great powers were no better than a den of robbers.

    Upon hearing and relishing the confession, I wished Chief MKO Abiola, the most notable leader of those pursuing reparation for the unlawful colonization of Africa, was alive to witness this historical admission of guilt. Those pursuing reparation for the criminal appropriation of the resources of Africa should latch on this statement, as a proof beyond any iota of doubt that the colonization and expropriation of the resources of Africa should be atoned and paid for. Even worse than colonization, was the brigandage that attended slavery, as a business.

    According to AI overview, between 16th to 19th century, an estimated 12.5 million African were forcibly shipped to the Americas. The European nations which participated in this inhuman trade went on to become great economic powers and the African nations, whose strongest segment of their society were taken out as commodities, have not recovered from the human capital expropriation. When Europe moved from plantation-based economy in the new world to industrialization, they changed their strategy in Africa, from slavery to scramble and partition of Africa, for raw materials, mineral resources, markets, and leisure parks.

    The trajectory has since moved to neo-colonialism under which Europe struggles to remotely control Africa, albeit with competition from, America, China and Russia. It is that competition that is driving United States, originally conceived as Europe’s military and economic outpost, crazy, to the consternation of European leaders. Again, the German President Steinmeier, captured the fears: “There is a breakdown of values by our most important partner, the USA, which helped build this world order.” This writer agrees that Trump is destroying the world order, set up by Europe and its allies, principally for their own benefit.

    While acknowledging that Trump’s different world outlook is fraught with immense danger, many in this part of the world, believe that perhaps Europe is getting its deserved comeuppance, for centuries of exploitation of other peoples. Of course, the leaders of Europe would be banking on the next election in US, to return to status quo. In the meantime, they should worry about how much damage Trump will do, before his tenure expires, and whether he would succeed in swinging Americans, to choose at the next election, another president in his own image.

    Hoping the apocalypse won’t come sooner than later. While European leaders lament, Trump at a meeting with oil and gas executives, at the White House, last week, maintained: “If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will take Greenland, and I am not going to let that happen.” He went on: “One way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland, whether they like it or not.” He argued that the existing Pituffik Space Base agreement, with Denmark will not suffice. He contended: “You defend ownership. You don’t defend leases.”

    On Venezuela, Trump remains upbeat about realizing his economic plans for America, regardless of whose ox is gored. He told the oil and gas executives: “We are going to be extracting numbers in terms of oil like few people have seen.” He continued: “Venezuela is going to be very successful, and the people of the United States are going to big beneficiaries.” He went on: “The plan is for them (oil and gas companies) to spend, meaning our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100bn of their money, not the government’s money. They don’t need government money, but they need government protection and government security.”  

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    The Europeans are apprehensive that China and Russia may want to ape America, elsewhere, more so as President Vladimir Putin of Russia has encouraged US in its quest for Greenland. He argued that Trump’s expressed determination to have Greenland is grounded in historical context, considering that America has been trying to gain the country as far back as 1868. According to CNN, “US interest in Greenland dates back to the 19th century, when then Secretary of State William H. Seward, fresh of the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, floated the idea of buying Greenland and Iceland from Denmark.”

    During the World War II, US had to protect Greenland territory after Denmark was attacked by Nazi Germany. For this writer, the most tenable reason why US can acquire Greenland is that Danes were never the original inhabitants of Greenland. Their ownership is no different from the way Europe laid claims to countries of Africa, with some living off the resources of Africa, the same way a gang of thieves live off a booty or a loot. The people who should determine the future of Greenland in a fairer world, are Greenlanders, without the interference of Danes.

    The pretence that Greenland is part of Denmark stems from the same mentality that inspires US to want to acquire Greenland. It is a derivative of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s statement that the world is about a den of robbers where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of a few great powers. If European nations want the world’s sympathy, they should enter into negotiation on how to pay reparation to Africa, for centuries of exploitation through slavery, colonization and neo-colonization.

  • Nigeria marches on…

    Nigeria marches on…

    For many across the globe, the past year must have been enervating not just with Donald Trump’s steep, punishing tariff walls, but his slow-motion torpedoing of the rules-based global order and the emerging rule of unrestrained, unchallengeable power. Thanks to Trump’s new-fangled Donroe doctrine, oil-rich Venezuela is practically under American receivership for debts which the Orange Man insists a certain Maduro owed Uncle Sam.  It is a brand new world order – one that is not so much a matter of choice but of compulsion – and if it becomes necessary, extortion.

    For Nigeria, the acclaimed giant in the sun, the outgone year must have been one of a new realism and adjustments all the way. First was the burden of a 15 percent tariff clamped on her by Donald Trump under a rather dubious concept of reciprocity; second, the additional burden of fighting a war of terror with America not only breathing down her neck but deliberately mischaracterising as ‘Christian genocide’, and third, the well timed, low intensity scheme to torpedo the administration’s four signature tax laws – arguably the most consequential yet by the Bola Tinubu Presidency.

    While the first two were exogenous and so the administration had little or no control over them, it is, nonetheless in my view, safe to say that the administration handled them admirably. 

    Surely, there are figures to show. Going by the National Bureau of Statistics trade statistics, Nigeria’s exports to Africa in the third quarter of 2025 surged 97.16 per cent year-on-year to N4.9tn, a signal of how much realignment toward emerging markets is taking place, particularly intra-African trade and the BRICS bloc. Notably, exports to the United States and India reportedly declined significantly during the period. In other words, it’s not been exactly a season of lamentation, tariff or no tariff.

    And we know the truth about Trump’s so called Christmas present – the precision strike operations were launched with the “explicit approval” of President Bola Tinubu and with “the full involvement of the armed forces of Nigeria”. In any case, that the terror war is being fought with renewed vigour and determination is no longer in doubt.

    As for the third, the four tax laws on which the Tinubu administration had staked its reputation as incurable reformer, although the challenge had presented as a test of will for the administration, it was one instance that the administration will prove several steps ahead of an opposition sworn to ensure that the reforms do not see the light of the day.

    Nigerians will recall the event of December 17, 2025, when an opposition member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsammad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), raised concerns over alleged inconsistencies between the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions later gazetted and released to the public. Since then, all manners of conspiracy theories have been spawned all of them pouring fuel on the matter but adding little knowledge to the discourse on what matters most: the integrity of the process.

    The man, Dasuki, conveniently forgot that four laws were actually passed by the parliament – The Nigeria Tax Act, The Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA), The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act (NRSA) and The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act (JRBA). He didn’t care to tell Nigerians which of the law was altered. He even pretended not to know that the laws had perforce of presidential assent, were already in operation and so could only be amended through legislative action. For these, the usually excitable partisan mob were led into a wild goose chase over nothing; even as our hordes of street commentariat hopped from one television station to another with barely digested talking points all in the bid to bring down the roof!  

    For the opposition and those sworn to help them muddy things up, it was sufficient to impugn the process, hoping that by so doing, the law would be rendered inoperable!  Well they were wrong! The laws are live!

    For me, there is something fundamentally dishonest in what appears to be a calculated ambush of a process that Nigerians saw through with their own eyes. We saw it at the beginning when the Council of States openly kicked against the bill when the draft was first presented to them.

    Ever since, it has been bad faith all the way! In fact, it became, at a point, a north-south affair with the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), asking northern lawmakers to reject certain components due to concerns it would disproportionately disadvantage the region, particularly the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT). 

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    Even the Northern Elders Forum described it as a policy conceived in bad faith and thus threatening national cohesion; none in the north in particular, seems persuaded that the bills deserved to be considered on its merit. A particular northern senator said he could not be bothered to read it let alone contemplate a discussion on it at the chambers! Which is why it is not entirely surprising that the opponents of the new laws are back on the same course. 

    We are referring here to bills that experts had spent considerable time putting together; in this particular instance, it concerns a subject that the president had long signalled its importance to his administration’s reform agenda.  Here is a president who, all along didn’t pretend that he had all the answers to the questions raised by the bills’ opponents, requesting at a stage that objections be channelled to the parliament as part of the process. And to imagine in the final count that the outcome still fell short of satisfying the bloc of those who think that the president does not deserve a landmark legislation to his name! And to further imagine that they are not even about to give up the fight long after the laws have been in operation can only be a measure of the depth of their desperation!

    How far will they go?

    At this time, it’s hard to imagine. I salute the chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele. He has done a yeoman’s job of breaking down the issues for the ordinary Nigerian to understand. Mercifully too, the House of Representatives has released the certified copies of the four tax reform Acts. However, while the resort to open blackmail and campaign of misinformation has, thus far failed, I think the House of Representatives still owes the nation one additional duty: the man who came under the shield of privilege in parliament to raise hell must be compelled to show proof; in the event of failure to do that, he must be compelled to apologise to Nigerians whose privileges he has criminally violated.

    Happy New Year, dear readers.