The Nation Newspaper

Category: Gabriel Amalu

  • Buhari as bride

    Buhari as bride

    As Nigerian politicians turn their proboscis to the 2027 general elections, former President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) is being serenaded as the beautiful bride in other to garner votes in the north, particularly the northwest. Suitors who had scorned him in the past have put a veil on their past indiscretions and in a variegated marque dance, are determined to seduce the one advertised as having over 12 million votes stuck safely in his Babariga.

    While many believe that his poor performance as president from 2015 to 2023 may have whittled down his followership and influence in the north, the politicians, ever optimistic, are not leaving anything to chance. So, to Kaduna where the “sterile general” has been relocated to, from his native Kastina, the train of politicians are all headed to. The inimitable wily former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, angrily hyperactive, since he was nominated as a minister and then dropped, was the first to visit the General for political blessing.

    According to El-Rufai, who has decamped to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he sought the permission of the General before leaving the All Progressive Congress (APC). He claimed the General sanctioned his voyage and had in fact prayed for his success. Of course, that claim is a cryptic message to other disgruntled members of the APC to think PMB has tacitly encouraged them to move to SDP. El-Rufai must have calculated that Buhari in his usual aloofness to political matters that doesn’t concern him directly, would not comment, and allow him press that haze of uncertainty to his advantage.

    Perhaps, knowing who they are dealing with, Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, quickly reaffirmed his principal’s loyalty to APC on whose platform he won the presidency twice. This writer doubts if PMB, being a man who believes in the principle of an eye for an eye, would ever betray President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT). The inner core of PMB, is that the measure you give to him, is the measure you will receive. That explains why he justified sidelining the southeast by his infamous 97 versus five percent of votes, as the determinant of political appointments, even though he slightly mended his way later.

    Fearing that the El-Rufai’s storm in a tea cup may turn into a hurricane, governors elected on the platform of APC otherwise referred to as Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), quickly made a dash to the Kaduna residence of PMB, to pay homage. The governors had apparently gone to douse the claim that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) bloc in the APC were planning to exit the party. Some leading lights of that block include the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas. 

    Will Speaker Abass emulate the former speaker of the House of Representative, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, then a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but effectively in opposition until the end of his tenure, when he officially joined the APC, to contest as governor of Sokoto State? To successfully emulate Tambuwal, Tajudeen would have to join forces to orchestrate crisis in APC, knowing that he would automatically lose his speakership if he joins El-Rufai in SDP. 

    Read Also:APC applauds Buhari’s loyalty to party

    Agreed, he may be an acolyte of El-Rufai, since El-Rufai after the success of APC at the polls, had said that making Tajudeen speaker, was the only recompense he wanted for helping the party win at the 2023 polls. But will Tajudeen sacrifice the joy of his speakership, to make El-Rufai happy? He may rather cut his political kinship with El-Rufai, if that would free him to enjoy the spoils of his present office. 

    Across the northern states, the SDP is a neophyte, politically, and despite his pretenses, El-Rufai lacks the charisma to excite the talakawas, like Buhari. He also lacks the messaging ability or even the message that can resonate amongst any political demography. Unlike Peter Obi, of the Labour Party, who in the 2023 general elections, galvanized the youths and the Christians, as their preferred candidate in the elections. Obi was so successful that he gave the APC and the PDP with hundreds of notable personalities, a run for their money.

    Even though he belonged to the old order, having been a member of APGA, and later the PDP, Obi was able to sell himself as different from the rest of them, and presented himself as the candidate to kill the hegemon of corruption and waste in government. El-Rufai, who is leading the quarry against the APC, has not shown himself capable of reigniting any such messaging or capacity. That perhaps explains why he is desperately seeking a coalition, with those he believes are desperate to win the presidency, in 2027.

    Atiku Abubakar would have little chance of ever being a president if he misses 2027. Beyond 2027, Atiku may become unelectable because of his age. Currently 78, he would be 84 by 2031, and even with the best of health, the electorate would not likely look his way. On his part, Obi though less affected by age should PBAT serve a second term, knows the presidency would move north for eight years, to berth in the south in 2039. By then, Obi would be 73 years, and who knows whether his message will still resonate.

    So, El-Rufai is feeding on their fear, to position himself as the successor to both PMB and Atiku, when PBAT would likely finish his second tenure in 2031. Currently 65 years, El Rufai would be 71 years in 2031, and if he succeeds to give the impression that he did all he can to help Atiku and Obi succeed but they couldn’t, he can then offer Obi a vice presidency slot to fight whoever APC may nominate. Knowing that the northern power hegemons aside from Atiku Abubakar may not wish to truncate the southern presidency in 2027, El-Rufai may actually be working for 2031, for himself. 

    Interestingly, one of the northern power brokers, former military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, has already thrown his heavy weight in favour of PBAT, perhaps as a thank you for the emotional rehabilitation during his recent book lunch. Even as an ordinary politician, PBAT showed himself an expert in building coalitions for a long term goal, how much more as a sitting president. While 2027 will not be a walkover, defeating PBAT at the polls will be a very tall order, and the coalition to achieve that may likely not happen within two years.

    Again, PBAT, having invested heavily in the Buhari presidency, on the two occasions he won, when other political power hegemons, were against his contest, those relying on the proverbial 12 million northern votes of PMB to shove PBAT aside in 2027, may be making a wrong political calculation. Even if he refuses to campaign for PBAT in 2027, PMB will likely not campaign against him.

  • Mediating political disputes

    Mediating political disputes

    Political disputes can benefit from the mediation process if parties submit to an experienced mediator to settle their disputes. Even high profile cases making the headlines like the dispute between the suspended governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, versus members of the state House of Assembly, and even that between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan versus Senate President Godswill Akpabio can benefit from mediation instead of the long-winded adversarial adjudication offered by the courts. But who will bell the cat considering the untrammeled ego at play?

    What constitutes mediation? The Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse Neutrals’ Handbook, defines mediation as “a process by which a neutral third party assists two or more people to address issues in conflict in order to give them an opportunity to reach a mutually agreed solution.” It went on: “The mediator uses a variety of skill and techniques to help the parties negotiate but does not make any decisions for them.” It concluded: “Some of the more common types of mediation are “interest based facilitative mediation” and “evaluation mediation.”

    Of course, while practitioners of mediation undergo training to learn modern skills associated with its practice, and are more susceptible to neutrality and successes, non-trained persons can mediate disputes. As I like to say while mediating disputes, mediation was originally the African way of settling disputes between parties before the introduction of the litigation based approach. And in mediation, the parties agree on the terms of settlement, while in litigation, a judge is authorized to impose a settlement on parties.

    Take for example the dispute between Fubara and the legislators. Before it got entangled in unconstitutional conducts, it was principally a dispute about the contending interests of the parties. To untie the knots, whoever is asked to mediate needs to go back to those issues in dispute and help agree to a resolution through the process of give and take. If the original issues in contention are resolved between the parties, that standard will be used to deal with all the issues that may have arisen since the disputants refused to agree.

    While untying the knots of the disputes, it would become clearer to the parties, where and how they derailed from either an express agreement or expected standard of engagement in political relationship. The mediator would help all the sides understand what were the expectations that were not met, and help the offending party explain why or how the expectations were met. In disputes, sometimes the real issue that is important to one of the parties may not be known to the opposing party, and through a mediation process the issue crystallizes and a resolution applied.

    Read Also: Beyond the game: 10 Super Eagles players with academic degrees

    And in professional mediation, unlike in litigation, a contending party is free to negotiate a settlement and if the mediation does not succeed, the concessions made during the mediation process would not be held against him in court. For example, if in a dispute over a contract sum due and payable, one of the parties offers to pay a certain sum to end the dispute, if the opposing party declines, that offer cannot be pleaded as a reference benchmark in court. So, the offer fails or succeeds at mediation.

    Of course, under the rules of mediation which the parties have to submit to, the mediator cannot be called to give evidence of what the parties said or agreed to at the various sessions. And the mediator is not expected to keep records of the mediation. So there will be no opportunity for subpoena ad testificandum to compel the mediator to testify, or subpoena duces tecum to compel the mediator to produce a document before the court.

    Professional mediators are persons who are preeminently neutral in any dispute they are called to mediate. So, at the beginning, the mediator declares whether he/she has an interest in the issue he/she is called to mediate. If the mediator has an interest, a neutral mediator is assigned the dispute. Again, because mediation is party driven, where any of the party objects to a named mediator, he/she is changed, since the cooperation of the parties are fundamental to a successful mediation. Where either of the party don’t agree with an ongoing process, the mediation fails.

    Another important factor is that when an agreement is reached and parties sign off on it, it becomes binding and efficacious as the judgment of the court. The Natasha versus Akpabio dispute which is already in court would enjoy that benefit, should the matter be sent to mediation either by the court suo moto, or upon the request of either of the parties. Of course, while many would want the lugubrious allegation against Akpabio to continue to tantalize their dry sense of humour, the parties can choose mediation to end the saga.

    The parties can agree on the terms of settlement, including an agreement to keep the terms secret from the general public. A party can agree to settle a dispute for its nuisance value, not necessary out of guilt as alleged. Again, despite the titillating allegations of sexual harassment, the diatribe from the parties shows that there are other undulating forces and factors at, beyond the salacious details of alleged sexual advances. And if the parties resolve that open opera through mediation, it can cinch all the tales.

    Even electoral disputes can be a subject of mediation as some of the causa belli for approaching election petition tribunals can be settled at mediation, instead of the resource-wasting approach to the tribunals. In some instances, a party may be aggrieved that the resources expended in the electoral process have been wasted and he/she approaches the tribunal to vent the anger. Through mediation, that anger can be assuaged, through some form of appeasement. There are instances where a simple apology satiates anger, while in some, monetary or other form of comfort help resolve a dispute.

    In discussing the benefits of mediation, the LMDC Handbook, noted: “Mediation allows parties to come to a resolution of their dispute within the context of their relationship. This is particularly important when the relation is going to continue, such as the relationship that parents have with one another even after a divorce, the relationship of one business partner with another, the relationship of employer and employee, the relationship of neighbors, etc.” Of course, in the two political cases referred to, both parties are likely to have a relationship for some time to come.

    The dispute in Rivers State is one that the principal parties should by now have realized the urgent need to submit to some form of mediation in the interest of all the parties affected. As should be clear to the suspended governor and the legislators, the country would move on without them, instead of allowing their dispute to upend the economic well-being of the nation.

  • Nwosu stirs the Senate

    Nwosu stirs the Senate

    The complex contradictions, over the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election stirred the senate the past week as the burial of the late chairman of the National Electoral Commission, (NEC), Professor Humphrey Nwosu, approached. Nwosu, a distinguished professor of political science, died in October 2024, and was buried last weekend. The controversy was whether he was hero or a villain, and emotions stirred a commotion in the senate, after Nwosu’s kinsmen demanded for a national honour for the departed soul. Leading the charge was Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, representing Abia South.

    The June 12 election, referred by many as the most transparent election in the history of Nigeria, was supervised by Professor Nwosu and it is a paradox why those who agree with that postulation would deny that the person who conducted the election does not qualify as a hero. Of course, the major underlying tragedy is that the announcement of the election result was stopped mid-way after the military rulers set in motion a series of actions that culminated in the illegal annulment of the presidential election.

    The events of the June 1993, a little over 30 years ago, and the actions of the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babaginda, leading to it, are within the living memory of majority of the senators serving in the 10th senate. Who did what, is known to them. Amongst the well-celebrated villains were the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), led by the late Arthur Nzeribe, Abimbola Davies and Brigadier Haliru Akilu. Their mission was to abort the democratic process and install Babangida as a civilian president.

    On the judicial bench, were Justices Bassey Ikpeme and Dahiru Saleh, who gave judgments that gave some form of judicial imprimatur to the annulment of the election. Justice Ikpeme gave the infamous mid-night injunctive relief to the members of the ABN, ordering that the election should not hold, while adumbrating that the NEC can ignore his orders. When the order was ignored and the elections held, Justice Saleh declared the election a nullity, on the ground that the order of Justice Ikpeme was disobeyed.

    In between the concocted judgments of the courts, the military regime of Babagida was breathing down the neck of NEC, and but for the dire warnings of the United States of America, and more subtly that of Britain, the regime was prepared to truncate the transition programme before the election on June 12. It was in-between the threats, injunctions from the courts, subterfuge from those who created the NEC and appointed its officials that the best election in Nigeria, by many accounts, held.

    Read Also: Makinde, Ladoja inspect Ibadan circular road project

    Indeed, it was on the night of June 10 that Justice Ikpeme, delivered the ruling granting an injunction against the election, and it was in the evening of June 11, that NEC announced that the election must hold. Many Nigerians may have legitimately believed that the election had been truncated by the same regime that had banned, unbanned and re-banned politicians, without a wimp from those directly affected and the rest of Nigerians, including those pontificating as heroes in the chambers of the senate.

    Interestingly, few weeks ago, the chief culprit of the annulment, Babangida, tried to whitewash his responsibility for the annulment of the election, and the senate of the National Assembly did not rise up to condemn what clearly amounted to a historical revisionism. Some of them, may have even attended that event, and would gleefully have shaken the hands of Babangida despite the fact that he bears primary responsibility for the June 12 election, annulment.

    Until the courageous intervention of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who recognized June 12, as Democracy Day and awarded the winner, Chief Moshood Abiola, the highest national honour reserved mainly for the heads of state, many of the senators passing off as June 12 sympathizers, would have peed on the grave of the winner if it ever came up in a discussion in the senate. After all, one of their own, David Mark, who rose to become the president of senate from 2007 to 2015, was reputed to be arch-opponent of the June 12 election and yet he has the second highest national honour ascribed to his name.

    On a fair assessment, it was miraculous that the June 12 election, despite the roadblocks, put on its way by the military regime of Babangida, and the courts, subpoenaed to do the biddings of its surrogates, turned out to be the best presidential election by several accounts. Considering the game plan of the military administrators to truncate the election even on the eve of the election, it is most likely that the military junta had hoped that the elections would be marred by logistical nightmare.

    If by June 10, an order of court said the election should not hold, those who never wanted the election in the first place may have hoped that the electoral commission would by itself demand a postponement, which would have played into their hands. Again, if those who refused to acknowledge the sheer courage and determination of Prof Nwosu in the senate last week are themselves sincere, they would acknowledge that it required a lot of dexterity and courage to continue to plan and eventually execute the best organized presidential election in the midst of destabilization plots by those who appointed the officials.

    One of the opposing senators on the floor of the senate last week said that he lost a relation, following the annulment, and by his jejune account, the late NEC chairman should be held responsible for that sad incident. That argument sounded so pedestrian. But for deep rooted prejudices, this writer wonders how an electoral officer would be expected to subjugate a military regime, to his whims and caprices, without grave consequences – a military regime, which the courts have recognized to have extra constitutional powers, legitimately.

    Without doubt, the sad events of the June 12 presidential election cannot legitimately be laid at the feet of Professor Humphrey Nwosu and his colleagues. To do so, is to turn logic on its head. But, whether those in the senate wish to support a motion that he should be honoured is their prerogative. As should be clear to the senators, there are those who would refuse to accept any honour from the senators, perhaps on the premise that they are not distinguished enough.              

    As a matter of fact, the entire senators have only one motion which cannot immortalize Professor Nwosu to muster. The power to honour the departed Prof Nwosu, by naming a national monument after him really lies with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Why the southeast senate caucus chose such an issue to stake a walkout in the senate is bemusing. If they want Professor Humphrey Nwosu to be granted a national honour, the lobbying is done behind the scene.

  • What may save Fubara

    What may save Fubara

    The political interpretations of the judgments of the Supreme Court in the cases principally between the suspended governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara and the suspended members of Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martins Amaewhule, are quite interesting. In one of the judgments, the Supreme Court affirmed the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the High Court presided over by Justice James Omotosho. The apex court affirmed that Governor Fubara had collapsed the democratic structure in the state, principally the legislative arm of the government, and declared several of his actions unlawful.

    By the provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended), the legislature is the first arm of the government, followed by the executive and finally the judiciary. But according to the three layers of the judiciary, Fubara had subjugated the legislature and had been governing as a despot. The apex court held that Fubara had not only demolished the physical structure of the state House of Assembly, but had collapsed the state democratic structure, by refusing to deal with 27 members out of the 32-member House of Assembly.

    The courts came down hard on the governor for dealing with a four-member House of Assembly, who he quartered in the executive branch of the government, and who despite the clear provisions of the 1999 constitution, purported to pass the 2024 and 2025 budgets, amongst under illegalities. Despite the pronouncements of the High Court that the passing of the budgets and other legislative approvals by the four-man gang were illegal, Fubara continued to deal with them. He purported to have cleared the commissioners and the members of the Rivers State Independent Election Commission, before the four member gang.

    As a governor who has desecrated the constitution which he swore to uphold, and who has been described as a despot by the apex court of the land, Fubara, but for the state of emergency, was a sitting duck for impeachment by the state House of Assembly members, under section 188 of the 1999 constitution (as amended). After all, the worst crime the executive can committee is to spend state money without authorization through an appropriation law, supplementary appropriation or monies charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state.

    A sin Fubara admitted he committed in the apex court, leading to the dismissal of one of the cases before the court. According to his lawyers, the unconstitutional conduct of the expenditure without authorization for year 2024 had been completed, and there was nothing the governor could do, to redeem himself. The matter of expenditure for 2025 which had been set in motion, and monies spent without legislative approval was what the governor wanted to remedy by re-representing the year’s budget before the state assembly.   

    Read Also: I have no link to any militant group, says Fubara

    It is strange that despite Fubara’s several constitutional misconducts, which has been affirmed by the highest court in our country, many legal opinions while commenting on Fubara’s suspension from office, makes light weather of those gross misconducts. For this column, every person who did not call Fubara to order while he reigned as a despot in Rivers State has no moral justification to rail against his removal, which is arguably justifiable in the circumstances of his peculiar mess.

    Except if one views the gross abuse of power committed by Fubara, through the prism of politics, the findings of the Supreme Court concerning the state of democracy in Rivers State, was arguably enough justification for the president to exercise the powers envisioned in section 305, of the 1999 constitution (as amended), to declare a state of emergency in the state. The Supreme Court, per Justice Agim had said: “The concurrent findings of facts in the Court of Appeal judgment in Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CV/133/20249 (exhibit RSHA 5) indicate that some months after the 8th respondent was elected and sworn in as governor of Rivers State in 2023, he began to fear that, instigated by his political opponents, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly were planning or initiating proceedings to impeach him from office as governor of the state.”

    He went on: “That to pre-empt his said impeachment, 8th respondent took several steps such as attempting to get the National Assembly to take over the exercise of the legislative powers of Rivers State from the Rivers state House of Assembly, preventing the Rivers State House of Assembly from sitting with its complete members or constitutionally prescribed quorum of one-third of the 32 members and arranged for initially four members and subsequently three members to be sitting as Rivers State House of Assembly outside the Legislative building of the Rivers State House of Assembly, withholding Rivers State House of Assembly funds, removing the Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the Rivers state House of Assembly, using caterpillars, bulldozers and other earth-moving vehicles and equipment to pull down, dismantle and destroy the legislative building of the Rivers State House of Assembly.”

    Fubara prevented lawmakers and other staff of the state assembly: “from having access to the House of Assembly Complex to do official work and engaging in all these actions in disobedience of interim restraining orders of courts that were obtained by the said 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly in suits to restrain these actions.”  A democratically elected governor who has desecrated democracy in the manner aforesaid, is not operating within the realms of law, and has constituted himself as an aberration unknown to the constitution, under which he pretends to govern.

    His Lordship further said: “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.” Furthermore: “In this case, the head of 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.” As the courts hold, and lawyers like to quote, you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. With a court finding that there is no democratic government in Rivers State, can it not be argued that a state of emergency already exists in the state?

    Those who misled Governor Fubara into thinking and acting like Louis XIV of France, who famously declared “I am the state” are now goading him to live the illusion that he is a victim of the crisis that has bedevilled Rivers State, when in reality he is a major protagonist. When he declared that 27 elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, are only recognized at his pleasure, and went ahead to demolish the River State House of Assembly, I knew that the spirits beating the drums for him were of the dangerous type. The way out of the political stalemate in Rivers State, is through negotiation, not the shenanigan of false pretences.

  • El-Rufai and Fubara: Accidental politicians?

    El-Rufai and Fubara: Accidental politicians?

    When Mallam Nasir El-Rufai referred to himself as an accidental public servant, it resonated with the public, because he approached public service with the mind-set of a private pursuit. A person who works for himself/herself determines what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. But a public servant does not hold all the aces. Public servants are guided by laid down procedures, interests and factors which sometimes are beyond their control. 

    This column recalls that after El-Rufai was propelled by forces to become the Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprise and later Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, he operated substantially as an accidental public servant. As Minister of FCT, Abuja, he cared not whose ox is gored in his single-minded determination to restore Abuja to its original master plan. While his bulldozers roared, those who appointed him were taking the heat and cleaning the fallout mess. 

    To get him to pass through the senate to become minister, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, who nominated him, had to dye the wool, while El-Rufai was enjoying his night sleep. However, when El-Rufai saw that his godfather and benefactor, Atiku, had fallen out with President Olusegun Obasanjo, he shifted allegiance to the president and that shift allowed him to continue his pursuit of public service with the mind-set of a private person.

    With his intellectual sagacity, El-Rufai was able to endear himself to President Obasanjo, such that he became a member of the inner circle, otherwise called the kitchen cabinet of the president. While not knowledgeable in the crafty nuances of the public service and/or politics, his capacity to deliver on assignments, which served the purpose, shone brightly. So, with his work as the DG of BPE and Minister of FCT, El-Rufai acquired enough reputation to dream dreams and to assert himself.

    When Obasanjo’s successor, President Umaru Yar’Adua showed complete lack of appetite to the idiosyncrasies of El-Rufai, of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, the accidental public servant saw danger and fled. With Yar’Adua, a scion of the northern oligarchy in power, there was no space for blackmail and shenanigans, and so El-Rufai decided to put his combustible energy to further studies abroad. Hibernating abroad and biding his time, an opening came with the death of Yar’Adua, and the subsequent President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid for a second term.

    Read Also: How economic predators ganged up against Tinubu over fuel subsidy removal, by Bamidele

    El-Rufai again put forward his sagacious intellect to the service of the emergent coalition of forces which metamorphosed into the All Progressive Congress (APC), the political behemoth that ousted the incumbent president and the candidate of his former party, the PDP. Since he was at the table where the sharing took place, he cornered for himself, Kaduna State as its gubernatorial candidate. With the bandwagon of Sai Baba, El-Rufai, swept into power as Kaduna State governor in 2015; and with the power of incumbency at state and federal levels, coupled with his religious divide and rule tactics, El-Rufai secured a second term in 2019.

    Out of power for merely two years, El-Rufai’s impudence and impatience is once again at play. Angry that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu refused to make him a minister, he has left the APC and has joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and is inviting every aggrieved member of APC, PDP and the distraught Labour Party (LP), to join in his new sojourn. Former President Buhari, who learnt the political ropes the hard way, quickly disassociated himself from the gamble.

    Of course, it would amount to political hara-kiri for Atiku Abubakar to accept to become a boy to his former boy (El-Rufai), by agreeing to follow him to his new gamble. The candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, will likely not take the bait considering the mess that El-Rufai as governor made of his relationship with the people of Kaduna south, mainly Christians. Considering the religious bigotry that El-Rufai left behind in Kaduna, which his successor, Uba Sani, with the help of President Tinubu is trying to clean up, with strategic appointments and social reengineering, no farsighted politician will jump ship with El-Rufai.       

    Unlike the time of his being an accidental civil servant when he had employers who were ready and willing to clean the mess he lives behind as his bulldozer rumbled through human and material resources in his political endeavour, in SDP, as he was in Kaduna as governor, he would either clean any mess he rakes up, or it will live with him. Going forward, even his past mess will be stirred by his adversaries and the stench may be quite overwhelming. One major explanation he owes Nigerians is his connection with the killer Fulanis whom he admitted he had paid to stop killing Nigerians, and why despite the bribe, they never stopped.

    The other accidental politician in the public space presently is Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State. Drafted from his perfunctory civil service duties as an accountant, Fubara was foisted on the highly octane gubernatorial post of the combustible Rivers State. To further compound his challenges, after winning, he immediately entered into a dogfight with his rambunctious former godfather-turned-foe, Nyesom Wike. A political warrior’s warrior, Wike, has shown himself a rancorous marathon fighter with the capacity to deliver upending uppercuts with devastating precisions.

    This column had wondered how Fubara managed to become a governor after he threw away the peace deal President Tinubu had helped him negotiate with Wike. Not only that, he told the president that he was a meddlesome interloper, and he was not obligated to obey his ‘unconstitutional’ peace deal. This column had wondered how Fubara wandered into the government house. Even when the loquacious Wike boasted that he would keep pushing Fubara, to keep making mistakes, like a man afflicted by Cyprian Ekwensi’s sokugo or wandering spirit, Fubara kept stumbling from one error to another.

    When the jungle was merely at its infancy, Governor Fubara naively claimed that the jungle has matured. Now that the Supreme Court has withdrawn the carpets he was standing on to grandstand and boast, he was locked out of ‘his property’ (the state legislative quarters) by the (legislators) he had naively inferred were ‘his tenants’. To show that he is an accidental politician, Fubara made a shameful visit to the estranged legislators, in the daytime, with his sirens blaring and the cameras clicking.

    If Fubara had any modicum of political sagacity, or even reasonable knowledge of history, philosophy, sociology or political science, he would have sent emissaries to make peace behind the scene, before the showboat of the disgraceful lockout. This column hopes Governor Fubara and Mallam El Rufai are not driving political cars without brakes?

  • Trial of Senator Natasha

    Trial of Senator Natasha

    Distinguished Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is arguably the most popular senator in the country as I write this piece. Of course, some would rather say, the most notorious senator. It all depends on the pundit’s sympathy. Some have referenced her as the biblical Delilah, who was recruited by the Philistines to seduce Samson, in this case, Senate President Goodswill Akpabio, to reveal the source of his strength and die. The more compassionate see her as Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, whom King David, cornered to himself, and then dinned with Uriah, to his death.

    Yet others, have out rightly dressed Natasha as Potiphar’s wife, who tried to lure Joseph to her warm embrace, and when he rejected the offer, roped him in as a rapist, and was jailed. For most people, Natasha’s troubles or stardom, started a few weeks ago, over where she must sit, to be heard, in the hallowed chambers of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A directive by the senate leadership to relocate to a new seat, was met by an Amazonian defiance, which rattled the senate, as the social media, dry-cleaned the senate laundry in public.

    Rising with poise and defiance, and raising the omnibus Order 10 of the senate rules, on privileges, Senator Natasha, refused all entreaties to move to her newly assigned chair, before she can be heard. As if propelled by forces, far bigger than her delicate frame, she confronted the senate president frontally, ignoring threats of a walkout, by the senate sergeant-at-arms, and declared fearlessly that she cannot be intimidated. Entreaties by colleagues, well-wishers and detractors alike, were brushed aside. Sensing that the senate chamber was turning into a real-time theater, the plenary proceeded, as if nothing happened. 

    Before the brouhaha, over the sitting arrangement, Senator Natasha was like the rest of other female senators. Only those who followed her fight with the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello (alias the White Lion), to get to the senate, would have taken notice of her. In fairness to Senator Natasha, the way she fought off the “White Lion”, who may have taken that name to scare his opponents showed that she was not a mewing but a ferocious member of the feline family.    

    Read Also: Nigeria-UK current trade volume hits £7.8b 

    That sterner stuff showed on the floor of the senate when what was a mere altercation snowballed into a hurricane, which some quickly predicted would consume the President of Senate, Godswill Akpabio. First, Natasha thundered that she would release a bombshell, should Akpabio dare her. Perhaps, not wanting to be discouraged from ‘bombing’ the senate president, Natasha went to a radio and television stations, to allege that Akpabio had harassed her sexually – guess when, in December, 2023.

    Like an expectant mother, Natasha must have gone home to her beloved husband, Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan, expecting an earthquake in the senate, after igniting what she thought was seismic disruptions. Most distinguished senators were neither amused nor scared, of what they considered the antics of a derailed member. Citing several orders from their red book, they were nearly unanimous that Natasha has brought the senate to disrepute, and violated the privileges of other senators. Natasha was quickly referred to the committee on ethics and privileges.

    Her spirited effort to deflate the matter, through an action for defamation, against the senate president, based on statements made by his aides, could not detract the guns aimed at her. Of course, whether defamatory suit is an action in persona or in rem, is a matter for the courts to determination. Again, a petition to the senate, alleging sexual harassment against the senate president, which apparently was intended to force Akpabio to surrender his presidency, while the matter is investigated, fell through on the premise that a senator cannot sign a petition to be presented to the senate for adjudication.

    While seeking the intervention of the senate to investigate her petition, against Akpabio, Natasha refused to submit to the senate committee, she was referred to, following her tantrums in the chambers, and the subsequent radio and television interviews. Expectedly, the senate committee reached a verdict, that Natasha should be suspended for six months, and her allowances and security details withdrawn. The committee added that the punishment can only be rescinded if she offers a written apology to her colleagues. Meanwhile Akpabio’s wife has gone to court, claiming that Natasha defamed her and her children, while Natasha’s husband is strongly defending the wife in the public space.

    In the midst of these imbroglio, some pundits are wondering what is driving Natasha, in her quest to bomb Akpabio out of his exalted senate seat? Could it be the alleged incidence of holding her hand in December 2023, and proposing in a hush tone, while the husband is answering a call, an adulterous return to Akpabio’s den sometime in the future? Or could it be the removal from her plum senate committee chair on local content, obviously well after the alleged invitation to an adulterous treat, failed?

    Could the answers lie in the questions raised in the midnight call by the senate majority leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, querying what Natasha would gain, from bringing Akpabio down, from his exalted seat. Exploring that theme, could it be that Natasha is a whip in the hands of Akpabio’s detractors, wishing to bring him down? Is there a chance that Natasha is recruited like Delilah, in the Biblical story, to bring Akpabio down? Or worse still, Potiphar’s wife? Conversely, could she be like the wife of Uriah, whom King David coveted and adulterously converted to his own?

    Delilah, was a beautiful Philistine woman, whom Samson loved, against good reasoning. She was recruited to entrap Samson, to reveal his source of strength, and swayed by her beauty, Samson revealed his secret and eventually brought the roof down on himself and his enemies. According to Senator Ireti Kingibe, Senator Natasha has received more privileges in the senate than her. So, what changed. Recall, that the senate president had within weeks of Natasha’s entrance, as a rookie senator, made her the chairman of a committee considered plum.

    Chief Uduaghan, is(was) clearly a good friend of Senator Akpabio, and the family relationship precedes Natasha’s emergence, as a senator. If that friendship played a part in Natasha’s rise in the senate, is it playing a part in her troubles? And will it play a part in its denouement? Some women pressure groups are threatening fire and brimstone against Senator Akpabio and the senate, should the senate fail to recall Senator Natasha from the six-month’s suspension handed her, by the senate. Part of their grievance is that Senator Akpabio, cannot be a judge in his own cause. Will Natasha play by the senate rules and mend her part, or will she fight on from outside, as many are baiting her?

  • Quack street judges

    Quack street judges

    There is the custom of quackery in nearly every profession on earth. There are even quack messiahs, who claim to be what they are not. There is a story of a fake Jesus in Targaryen Kenya who refused to be crucified like Christ when his congregation asked him to die the way the original Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary. There are also quack lawyers who usually get caught when they appear in court, to pass off, as real lawyers. 

    But the resurgence of what this writer has chosen to call quack street judges in our country is very worrisome. Of course, disagreeing with a judgement of the court and even criticizing same, is a legitimate right, consistent with fundamental human rights, enshrined in the 1999 constitution (as amended). Section 39(1) provides: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”

    So, it will be unconstitutional, to seek to abridge that right except in the manner and for the purpose envisaged in section 45 of the same constitution. Thus, for example, no person can, in pursuit of the provision of section 39, hold the opinion and espouse the claim that an analgesic is a drug for aids. There are multiple examples of what one cannot do in the exercise of the right “to hold opinion and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.” 

    But a quack street judge is a different kettle of fish. To make matters worse, these quack street judges do not operate in the courts. They are on televisions and in some cases, have greater influence on the masses than the real judges in courts. The Nigerian space is afflicted with many such quacks, misinterpreting and reinterpreting the judgment of the courts, especially cases rooted in political disputes. In recent times, the several judgements with respect to the political disputes in Rivers State, have thrown up all manner of quack judges.

    Perhaps, one of the most prominent quack street judge on the Rivers State imbroglio is Ugochinyere Michael Ikeagwuonu, also known as Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, a member of House of Representatives, representing Ideato Federal Constituency. Ikenga, is also reputed as the spokesman of CUPP. A lawyer by training, Ikenga, under the guise of press conferences, ingeniously engages in misinterpretation and reinterpretation of judgments of court as a business. One of such judgments was the Supreme Court ruling dismissing the appeal filed by Governor Siminalaya Fubara, after his lawyers filed a notice of discontinuance of a matter, in which the parties have joined issues before the court.

    Read Also: NSCDC boss presents N188m cheques to families of deceased personnel

    In the interview, Ikenga kept hammering that Fubara’s lawyers, in their notice of discontinuance, said the matter had been overtaken by events, and so the court struck it out. Throughout his interview, Ikenga never used the word used by the Supreme Court which is that the matter has been dismissed. As a lawyer, Ikenga Ugochinyere knows that there is a difference between dismissal and striking out a case. In Okereke vs N.D.I.C, (2002) F.W.L.R pg 1406, the Court of Appeal held: “There is a difference between an application which has been heard on the merits and dismissed and another which is merely struck out.” The court further held “When an appeal is withdrawn “wholly”, it presupposes that the appeal is withdrawn in its entirety. In such a situation the appellant cannot come back again on the same appeal.” 

    Ikenga, contends that Governor Fubara can transact legislative business with the four-member gang led by Victor Oko-Jumbo, despite the proviso to section 91 of the 1999 constitution. It says: “provided that a House of Assembly of a State shall consist of not less than twenty-four and not more than forty members.” Ikenga and his fellow quack street judges, keep urging Governor Fubara to continue conducting legislative business with the four-man gang, ironically claiming to be advancing constitutionalism. 

    Another strange argument of Ikenga and his likes, is the misinterpretation of section 109 of the constitution. Section 109(1)(g) provides: “A member of the House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if – being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which the House was elected.” This much quoted provision has a proviso, which says “provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or a merger of two or more political or faction by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

    There is also, sub section 2 which provides that “the speaker of the House of Assembly shall give effect to subsection (1) of this section, so however that the Speaker or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of the member.” Sadly, despite these clear provisos, which even require the affirmation of the courts, the quack street judges keep saying that section 109(1)(g) is self-executory.    

    Again, few days ago, the Supreme Court made far reaching decision that Governor Siminalayi Fubara is engaged in gross constitutional misconduct by relying on the four-member gang to conduct legislative business of the state. The court held that monies from the federation account should not be released to the state government until the governor presents a budget before the legislative assembly led by Martins Amawhuele. The apex court also nullified the local government election conducted by Fubara, few weeks ago, in disregard of the order of a Federal High Court.

    Despite the very far-reaching implications of the judgment, Ikenga again interpreted the judgment as he wished. According to him, the judgment of the Supreme Court that Amaewhule is the speaker of the state House of Assembly, should be disregarded until a specific case, at the Court of Appeal, on the issue of cross-carpeting of Amaewhule, is determined by the Supreme Court. As if an oracle, he declares that the government of Rivers State will continue to run smoothly, despite the obvious danger ahead.

    Sadly, Ikenga, usually emphasises that they are fighting for constitutionalism. Even when he has not defined who the ‘they’ are, it can be assumed that he has subsumed himself and his gang, as one and the same, as the government of Rivers State. Surprisingly, Fubara and his illegal attorney general, Dagogo Iboroma, SAN, have continued to act as if the provisions of section 188 of the constitution, on the removal of a governor from office, does not matter. Fubara, should pray the state House of Assembly does not go that way, for his sins are legion.

  • IBB dribbles history

    IBB dribbles history

    Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, popularly called IBB, surely has a mysterious gift of celestial mercy. Otherwise, how can his grave sins against Nigerian democracy be atoned by democratically elected leaders who ordinarily should be hounding him? The launch of his autobiography: “A Journey of Service” last week, in Abuja is reminiscent of Isaiah 1:18, which said: “come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as wool.” 

    While he reigned as military president, IBB was called Maradona, after the famous Argentine footballer, Diego Maradona, a gifted dribbler, who used his hand (he called it the hand of god) to score a goal against England in the 1986 world cup quarter finals and got away with it. Short and sturdy like IBB, the Argentinian football maestro had leaped into the air and with a feint of his hand, made up the remaining inches needed to score against England. Unlike now, then, there was no video review to crosscheck what happened.

    Until last week, pundits would easily have written off IBB as belonging to the infamy of Nigerian history. His gravest sin was the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election which Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO), won handsomely. That action set a chain of reactions, which resulted in the death of the winner of the election, his wife, Kudirat Abiola, and several other persons killed to enforce the annulment. Many great political careers were annihilated for supporting the malicious annulment or for seemingly condoning it.

    Three decades after, the chief culprit of the annulment, seems to be the beneficiary of fulsome forgiveness in the manner Prophet Isaiah wrote thousands of years ago. While accepting responsibility for the criminal annulment of the election, the wily general also sought to exculpate himself from the criminal act, by laying the actual doing of the act (actus reus and mens rea) on late Gen. Sani Abacha, who he is sure is more loathed, by many. Of course, if you doubt IBB, you can go ask Abacha, his own side of the story.

    A case of eating your cake, and still having it in the fridge or approbating and re-approbating, as we say in legalism. By IBB’s account, if you believe him, he was as much a victim as those who were consumed by the criminal annulment. The worse, he wants history to say of him, is that he was just a coward, who could not stare down Abacha, his subordinate army chief. Perhaps, that may be a better historical indignity to live with, than the criminal indictment of annulling a democratic election.

    It is hoped that a list of those who lost their lives to that act of cowardice of IBB answering the commander-in-chief, when in actual fact, it was his chief of army staff, Sani Abacha, that was the chief commander of the nation’s army, will be published as addendum to IBB’s book of apology. It would also be necessary to acknowledge the personal and national economic losses, Nigerians and the nation suffered as a result of his allowing Abacha to annul the election, as he is now alleging.    

    Of note, many Nigerians, who were mere accessory after the criminal act of the annulment and who had died without the atonement and reasoning together of last week, have been wished the hottest part of hell by many aggrieved Nigerians. If a wish list is made of those who should be in the hottest part of the hades, many of those who were mere errand boys to IBB in the criminal annulment of the 1993 election would feature prominently.

    But, against the run of play, IBB is niftily seeking to come clean, to escape the historic condemnation for the sin which by his own admission, he accepts responsibility for. The members of the human rights community, who may have been nursing the secret wish that IBB can be hauled before a court to answer for the illegal annulment of that election are greatly disappointed. They may have imagined that since Nigerian democracy has become entrenched, and those who were on the firing line of the annulment army, like President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are now in power, the time for IBB’s criminal indictment is drawing near. 

    But here we are, the man who had dribbled politicians with an unending transition programme; who had banned, unbanned, and re-banned politicians, in a manner reminiscent of dribbles by Diego Amando Maradona, in the soccer field, instead of taking a hit from the offended, not only received plaudits, but garlands from the president and the committee of living past presidents and leaders. And not only the political class, the mega billionaires in Nigeria, were there in their numbers, seeking to outdo each other, in praises and donations for a presidential library of a retired military head of state. 

    Read Also: Nigerian Breweries hits N1tr turnover

    Surely, IBB is a lucky man. A cursory look through the internet would reveal that presidential library is rooted in democracy. But IBB despite being a past military leader has successfully appropriated that symbol of democracy, which he spurned, as military leader. The google says that Presidential Library system formally began in 1939, when President Franklin Roosevelt donated his personal and presidential papers to the US federal government. Now, IBB has rewritten the histories of presidential library by launching one, though he was a military president.

    His legendry skill in making friends was at display at the event, marking the public presentation of his autobiographical book and the launch of his presidential library. Apart from the presence of the former heads of state, the venue was brimming with retired military officers, political heavyweights and leading businessmen, even when many thought that he has become inconsequential in the political scheming of Nigeria. This writer doubts if any other former Nigeria leader can influence the assemblage of such influential men, when the beneficiary can no longer repay such loyalty.

    Many writers have called for forgiveness, more so with Abacha put forward as the escape goat by IBB. Considering IBB’s interest in history, he may actually crave that forgiveness more than the humongous billions raised at the book presentation and launch of presidential library last week. While many living June 12 democracy activists would never give him the benefit of doubt, the wily general is setting up a legacy project that would project his positive side, and seek to write his history in his own image.

    Loathed and feared by his adversaries; loved and adored by his admirers, the one they call the evil genius has shown his uncanny ingenuity even at his twilight. With perhaps his last official performance last week, has IBB succeeded in dribbling history, to his favourable acclaim? History will tell.

  • State creation as metaphor

    State creation as metaphor

    The report of the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review which proposed the creation of 31 new states is a metaphor of the unthinking political elite that populate the National Assembly. While the report showed the wishful thinking of the committee members, there is no report of any rigorous evaluation of the viability of the proposed states accompanying the report. So, it will not be unreasonable for one to say that the committee merely gathered like children, discussing an upcoming festival, each one mentioning the kind of attire they wish to wear for the ceremony.

    To say that the proposal for the creation of 31 new states is childish is to be mild-mannered. But sadly, that proposal shows how most of the political elite who preside over the affairs of Nigeria, actually think. That explains why, despite the huge resources the country has earned over the decades, the country is still very poor. Many Nigerians would cringe when they remember that it is these legislators that are constitutionally empowered to determine the yearly budget of the country.

    The work of the committee on creation of new states explains how the legislators abuse their powers as envisaged in Section 80(2),(3)&(4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). By the provisions of sub-section (2), “no money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation except to meet the expenditure that is charged upon the fund by this constitution or where the issue of these monies has been authorized by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or an Act passed in pursuant to section 81 of this Constitution.”

    Section 80(3) prohibits any withdrawal from “any public fund of the Federation other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation unless the issue of those moneys has been authorized by an Act of the National Assembly.” On its part section 80(4) provides “No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.” It is these enormous powers that the National Assembly abuse especially when we have a weak president. 

    Because we have legislators who see the powers they have as opportunity for personal aggrandizement, most of them are interested in inserting monies into the budget. It is such juvenile exercise of powers, instead of acting as statesmen that is the bane of budgets without impacts. Lacking statesmanlike qualities, the legislators compete to outdo each other in budget padding. We have had reports of some committee chairmen inserting facilities, for example, solar panels for their private farms in the national budget. 

    Sometimes, you see a signboard for a road bearing the name of an institution in a state, different from where the project is being executed. Mostly, the so-called constituency projects for which the nation is blackmailed every year end up as lucre for corrupt enrichment. What the legislators do, they invariably teach those who are supposed to execute the projects. The contractors receive the money and vire it into different private projects, with little or no consequences.        

    Also, a legislative arm which does not see their responsibility as a sacred responsibility lacks the motivation to exercise the enormous powers conferred on them by section 88 of the Constitution. Section 88(1) provides: “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, each House of the National Assembly shall have power by resolution published in its journal or in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation to direct or cause to be directed investigation into – (a) any matter or thing with respect to which it has power to make laws;”

    And (b) “the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty of or responsibility for – (i) executing or administering laws enacted by National Assembly, and (ii) disbursing or administering moneys appropriated or to be appropriated by the National Assembly.” By these provisions, the National Assembly is conferred with enormous power of oversight, to ensure that funds appropriated by them, are used for the purpose they are meant for.

    Unfortunately, instead of diligently monitoring the use of funds they have appropriated, some of them use the oversight function merely to enrich themselves. Instead of investigating to oversee what uses the resources allocated have been put to, they oversee to see what can come to their personal purse. Of course, those who paid to procure a budgetary allocation would not be afraid of the same people coming to confirm what the budget was used for. The result is that same line item is budgeted perennially for, every year, without the item or project ever executed.

    Read Also: Nigeria intensifies push for Artificial Intelligence adoption

    This column has argued many times, that unless we have a National Assembly populated by statesmen, who understand the enormity of powers they have to check the executive branch, the nation would only progress at the pace dictated by the executive branch alone. Of note, apart from the president and the vice president who are elected, the heads of departments and ministers are appointed. And being appointees who have no need to come back to the people for a renewal of their mandate, through elections, they operate to please the powers that appointed them.     

    So, where the president is lethargic, as we saw during the time of former President Muhammadu Buhari, a ministerial appointment became for most, an eight-year tenure regardless of capacity and performance. But if the legislators are active and alive to their responsibilities, they are constitutionally empowered to put the ministries and departments on their toes. But as depicted by the committee on new states creation, legislators and those they are supposed to supervise are in the same bed having an unholy alliance, of extortions and debauchery.

    Indeed, the members of the committee who recommended the creation of 31 new states, in the midst of the waste that state executives have become should be ashamed of themselves. As they ought to know, many of the states in the federation borrow to finance their bloated executive and legislative assemblies. The recurrent expenditures of the many of the current 36 states are higher than their capital expenditure. But for what writers call Nigeria’s feeding bottle federalism, most states in the country cannot pay staff salaries talk less of executing any meaningful project in their states.

    If the committee members were serious, they should have understudied whether the atomization of the country into smaller states have any greater benefits to justify their recommendation. They should have analysed the quality of life when Nigeria had regions, and presently when they have many states carved out from those regions, to show the benefits of multiple bureaucracies. Perhaps, the committee members should be investigated to know what motivated their unrealizable recommendations.

  • Goodnight Prof Picardo

    Goodnight Prof Picardo

    As Jesus laid on the Cross of Calvary, the chief priests and the scribes mocked him, saying: “He saved others, he cannot save himself.” I am sure that as Professor Neri Picardo, writhed in pains and gasped for breath, following a heart attack while attending to his patient, many would have said of him, what they said of Jesus on the Cross. Perhaps, not in mockery, but believing that the man who had saved so many lives, should have the capacity to save himself.

    No doubt, Prof was a mere mortal, but a very gifted one, who served his Lord Jesus Christ with all the gifts He gave him. In the 43 years that Professor Picardo practiced medicine in Nigeria, particularly in the southeast, he rose to become the most sought-after specialist in internal medicine. Prof consulted for the crème de la crème in the clergy, politics, public service, and the society. He was a teacher of teachers, and mentor to thousands of medical students and practitioners. He was humane, humble and humorous.

    My mother, Bernadette Uzodinma Amalu, who was one, out of his uncountable patients, looked forward to every medical appointment, while she lived. Prof would poke fun, listen with rapt attention, throw in humorous anecdotes, draw local parallels and mimic her smattering English and her local language while consulting. And like other patients, she would be psychologically upbeat even before the medicine is administered. Wherever Prof consulted, more than three quarter of the older patients, would rather stay for long hours to see Picardo.       

    While ruminating the circumstances of his death as relayed to me by one of his closest friends, Frank Offor, (my brother-in-law), I privately wished that Picardo had the capacity to hand over his skills to one of his colleagues while he laid there. For such a colleague could have proffered a solution to Picardo’s heart attack. I am pretty sure that thousands of his patients, who have benefited from his exceptional gifts, as a physician, would agree with me.

    If only Prof could speak, while he lay there, he would have told his colleagues, the medical procedure to get his heart to start breathing again. I recall with a sense of awe, the medical miracle that Picardo did for my maternal uncle, Obuekwe Ejegha, over 30 years ago. My uncle was in his late 50s and had been diagnosed with Cirrhosis of the liver after several months of mistreatment, with unorthodox medications. And for many doctors, it was hopeless case. 

    But Picardo after a series of tests, told my family members that if the scarred part of the liver could be cut off, there is a chance the man could survive. After the operation, my uncle survived and lived for another 30 years. On occasions, Picardo referred to my uncle as the man who cheated death. On his part, my witty uncle regarded him as the white wizard.

    Another profound medical experience I had with Professor Picardo, concerned my father-in-law, Donatus Nebo. The man was admitted at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, under the care of the most famous professor in the hospital then. My father-in-law had taken some local medicinal concoction which apparently bashed his organs. So, he went to the UNTH, for treatment. Following repeated information that the illness was getting worse, after some weeks, and the man may likely pass away, I decided to travel from Lagos, to see things for myself.

    On getting to the hospital, my father-in-law managed to whisper to me that he was dying and truly, some of his relations were already conversing on the next step, since for them, the end was imminent. When I consulted with Picardo’s friend, Frank Offor, he advised me to demand that the man be discharged so I could take him to Prof Picardo at Niger Foundation, for consultation. He warned that the hospital may refuse, unless I sign an undertaking to be responsible for the discharge.

    Read Also: End of Fubara’s ‘rascality’ close, says Speaker Amaewhule

    With a straight face, I went to the matron and requested that my father-in-law be discharged immediately. When she saw that I was dead serious, she brought an undertaking for me to sign. After consulting with my wife’s elder brother, I signed the undertaking, and took my father-in-law to Niger Foundation Hospital. Picardo asked what happened to the man, and was told by my mother-in-law that her husband had gone to the hospital to check what was happening to him, after taking some local herbs, that terribly upset his system.

    Terribly disappointed by the medical attention Nebo received at UNTH in the hands of his renowned colleague, Professor Picardo’s thundered that he would hold the Prof responsible should anything happen to my father-in-law. To our pleasant surprise, my father-in-law was stabilized within 24 hours and in less than seven days walked to the car after he was discharged. My father-in-law lived for another 13 years, as he passed on in 2015.

    One of Prof’s extra ordinary gifts as a medical doctor is his listening skill. Whether the patient was young or old, Prof would listen attentively to the medical history of the patient, before making his prognosis. Another special quality was what I personally believe is an interlude of prayer, for divine revelation of the underlining cause of the intricate web of stories from a sick patient. I usually notice what I consider a quite communion between Prof and angelic spirits while he is consulting.                  

    Prof was a celibate member of the Catholic society of the Opus Dei (Work of God), founded by St. Josemaria Escriva. He was a Papal Knight of St. Gregory the Great. In a tribute, titled Prof Neri Picardo: A life of service, sacrifice, and medical excellence, Sonnie Ekwowusi, gave deep insight into the training and working career of the one, some colleagues call the Indian magician. A Professor of Internal Medicine, at College of Medicine, Ebonyi State University, he was the first Chief Medical Officer of the Niger Foundation Hospital, Enugu. Also the Head of the Gastroenterology/Endoscopy Unit at the UNTH, as well as an external examiner for graduating students.

    I listened to a broadcaster on Afia Television say that her mother told her she would not have survived, after birth, if not for Prof Picardo. I also believe that my mother, who passed on, in 2016, lived to be 86 years, because of the medical attention over the years by Prof Picardo. Since Prof’s death on Wednesday, February 5 while on active duty, they have been deluge of mourning in many homes at the demise of the one who God used extra-ordinarily to heal the infirm, especially the aged.

    As Prof is buried next Thursday, February 13, I believe strongly that his soul is in Heaven, interceding for the living. Goodnight the one, who had the attributes of a saint.