The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • PENGASSAN: Same old tactics

    PENGASSAN: Same old tactics

    Save for the disruptive, needlessly atavistic waves generated in its wake, it is at once tempting to pass-off the latest showdown between Dangote Refinery and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) over an alleged disengagement of 800 workers by the management of the refinery as the last kicks of a dying horse.

    However, with PENGASSAN not merely stopping at threatening fire and brimstone on a wearied nation, but apparently sworn to bring the roof over the heads of everyone, Nigeria and Nigerians ought to be alarmed at the extent to which our industrial unions, many of whose self-entitlement are as legendary as their resort to union power has become mindlessly destructive, could go to force their will on just any institution and anyone.

    Guess it was inevitable that PENGASSAN would again put the country on the war mode so soon after its alter ego, the no-less powerful tanker drivers unit of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG-PTD) sought to disrupt the nation’s peace.

    Thanks to their nemesis, Dangote Refinery, it has been a case of each breaking of the dawn forcing new lessons on an unwilling, recalcitrant pupil.

    For NUPENG, it came to a challenge of their strange financial orthodoxy: a hefty levy of N50,000 delivered to the union coffers on every single truck loaded at the gantry – an imposition neither sanctioned by the industry regulators nor the tax authorities, but which has been accepted as convention to keep the union fat cats happy but for which business mogul, Aliko Dangote insists on applying its rightful appellation of plain extortion!

    Imagine calling out the Dangote behemoth for refusing to play the enabler for that extortion ring whose operative motif is power without responsibility!

    It is not exactly that the elements in the PENGASSAN industrial action are not worthy of careful consideration. Starting with the issue of the sack of 800 locals, PENGASSAN says Dangote Refinery has since replaced them with 2000 foreigners – an unpatriotic act, if true. PENGASSAN president, Festus Osifo noted that the problem actually started when close to 1000 workers filled forms to join PENGASSAN in accordance with Section 40 of the constitution. He claimed that the union wrote to Dangote Refinery to inform it of the development and that the company sent teams from unit to unit to verify those names only to issue them sack letters thereafter. 

    Dangote Refinery has since denied that this was not the case. It frames the entire saga as one of a union overreach; a schism designed to buoy the union’s fading relevance as well as enhance its purse. In fact, its summary of the issues as contained in the four-page advertisement in yesterday’s edition of this newspaper obviously says it all:  PENGASSAN, given its antecedents, has long ceased to be a force for good, in terms of enhancing the welfare of its members, but rather as a destructive force in the industry. One example it cited, and which has become an albatross on its neck, is the union’s role in aborting the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries to Bluestar Consortium promoted by business mogul, Aliko Dangote.  More than a decade and half after, the entities have remained the relics they were, and these after billions of dollars of public funds were sunk into their Turn Around Maintenances (TAMs).

    So, to suggest that there is no love-lost between the Dangote and PENGASSAN is merely stating the obvious. Like parallel lines, their interests are as divergent as to be irreconcilable. The point here is that there is nothing new in what PENGASSAN has said of the Dangote Refinery or Dangote’s other business interests that have not been said by Nigerians in one way or the other.

    At this point in time, my guess is that the issue is not that those in charge of regulation and fair consumer practices are unaware, but a case of the behemoth being entitled to some forbearance given that the terrain could, for the most part, be described as uncharted. That it continues to find sympathy among Nigerians is essentially because, its promoter, Aliko Dangote, chose to plod on where his peers would rather engage in buying and selling. This, most certainly, could not be said of PENGASSAN whose role has been more of an enabler of the rot for which the industry has long earned notoriety.

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    Talking of union overreach: calling its members in various offices, companies, institutions, and agencies, including those in the field to cease all services effective Monday, September 29 offers of classic example of mindless use of union power.  Just as ominous was the strike instrument as signed by its General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa: “All processes involving gas and crude supply to Dangote Refinery should be halted immediately…All IOC (International Oil Companies) branches must ramp down gas production and supply to Dangote Refinery and petrochemicals.”

    It is akin to a declaration of war, not just on the refinery as an entity, but the citizens of this country; a case of the interest of the 800 workers towering above those of 200 million odd citizens. Perhaps lost to PENGASSAN is the irony of its invocation of the constitutional safeguards regarding the right of the workers to join any association to advance their interests and presenting those rights as so expansive as if to strip the management of its prerogatives to determine how their enterprise is run, while seeking to deny other Nigerians their rights to live in peace and to enjoy those services that they are ordinarily entitled.

    Where will all of these end? It seems doubtful that the two unions ever understood the import of the saying about ‘an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object’ else they would have been more restrained in calling for a war they could never hope to win. Between union power and management prerogative, who says the former is fated to win?

    Moreover, to the extent that the lessons of the past weeks has proven a revelation of their astounding lack of strategy, I believe that their very survival would depend on their ability to better appreciate the nature of the current time and the imperative of flexibility in the choice of means to fight whatever cause they deem fit. As of the moment, our two foremost unions in the oil industry, have, sadly not even begun the slow march to unlearning their old, destructive ways!

    Two weeks ago, I had ended my piece about NUPENG’s sunset and those of its DAPPMAN allies as potentially ‘slow and drawn out’, and that ‘hoping against hope that the ship that had long departed the shores could still be halted midstream would at best be an exercise in futility’; I believe the statement applies as much to PENGASSAN as those two.

  • Nebuchadnezzar

    Nebuchadnezzar

    Before pouring jeremiads on Nigeria at 65, behold the parallels between Emperor Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (reigned: 605-562 BC) and US President Donald Trump, as America approaches its 250th year in 2026!

    Much more than a warrior-king, Nebuchadnezzar was a renowned builder.  His neo-Babylonian Empire, of course, provided a surfeit of forced labour.

    Trump is a real estate magnate.  But with Trump accused as a shark that often shirks payment for work done, duped labour is answer to Nebuchadnezzar’s forced labour.

    Nebuchadnezzar drove Jews into exile, among hated Gentiles, in his prized Babylon city, with his 586 BC razing of Jerusalem; and his capture and torture of rebellious Judah King Zedekiah.

    In a settler country with neither Jew nor Gentile, Trump is creating fake Gentiles of US illegal immigrants, and dumping them in fake Babylon: in Africa, South America and Asia, where as the ancient Jews in Babylon, they might not even know anyone!

    But it’s in preening hubris that the Trump-Nebuchadnezzar parallel is eeriest.

    At the zenith of his self-worship — even with a prophetic caution, by Daniel the Jew to humble himself — Nebuchadnezzar crowed: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built, as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

    Compare and contrast that with Trump’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) September 25 conceit, and you’ll spot the tragic similarity between the two.

    Using his native New York and UN base as Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon city, Trump bluffed and blustered, abused and traduced, cursed and smeared everyone in sight.

    The United Nations was useless for alleged escalator and TelePrompTer sabotage; and for not aiding him to stop “seven wars” — a brazen lie by the way — even though America picks up the biggest chunk of the UN tab, which is true.

    Global science is wrong on climate change, only because a loud Trump — even with combative ignorance — declared it’s “the greatest con ever perpetrated on the world.”

    Europe earned Trump’s ire, for not herding own “illegal immigrants” into human pens like hens; and, like the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), cart them off to wherever the wannabe emperor damn well pleases! 

    For shunning that icy savagery, Trump foreswore Europe would go to hell!  Besides, having numbed uppity America with his cocktail of bare-faced lies, and pushing his deep vices as high virtues, he pitches such vile claptrap to the globe.  What hubris!

    Prof. Wole Soyinka just christened Trump “Idi Amin of America”: after that odious 20th century military brute, that made Uganda — and Africa — a global laughing stock.  By his UNGA huff-and-puff, Trump further branded himself some neo-Nebuchadnezzar.

    But it’s all thanks to American democracy, just shy of its 250th year: returning the Idi Amin favour, and delivering America’s own 21st century global laughing stock!

    Dolly Parton, that great American country music megastar, with a sweet but haunting voice, once sang “It’s my time to cry …” in one of her fetching numbers. 

    Africa and the third world, often savagely caricatured by a condescending America and the rest of the West are, in Trump, grabbing their chance to laugh — or even gloat!  Indeed, Trump’s bubbly bumbling would have been so sweet, were it not so tragic!

    Nigeria is 65.  America, 249 years.  But its doubtful if a Trump, with his clear flaws, can gain the Nigerian presidency, even with Nigeria’s many challenges!

    Which is why, the world leaders at UNGA, condemned to enduring Trump’s tirade — at least the historic-minded among them — would not but wonder if this was not after all a 21st century Nebuchadnezzar eating grass, after burst hubris!

    To be sure, core historians claim that was a Jewish biblical fable — for in truth, no hard core historical account recorded Nebuchadnezzar as eating grass.  But it’s a powerful metaphor: pride goes before a fall.  That might just be America’s fate under Trump.  He radically disrupts the world.  Yet, his thinking — and whining — are baby-like!

    Still, an ambivalence gifts Trump apologists — quite a number! — some cold comfort.

    Nebuchadnezzar was the divine rod from Jehovah himself — thus goes the biblical account — to punish the decadence of Judah.

    Trump too, might just be the divine rod to conk the Democratic Party, often blamed for the moral decay of America. The grand irony, though: no single person epitomizes that decay more than Trump! 

    Still, never mind: Trump as divine rod is why America’s White Evangelicals support him — aside the snouting elephant of White racism in the room!  Some priggish Nigerians also buy into that “divine” apologia.

    Just as well Trump merrily emits raw American wrongs, buried under more than two centuries of — hypocritical (?) — breeding.  But it would appear crunch time!

    Still, America is famous for self-correcting, after major crises.  Might there then be redemption, after profane Divine Rod Trump is long gone?  Maybe! 

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    But a chilly video making the rounds, tracking a 250-year empire rise-and-bust cycle, suggests otherwise.

    On 4 July 2026, America will be 250 years.  Rome: 244 years from republic to empire.  Ottoman: 250 years from its rise to its peak.  Britain: 251 years from empire to a bust.

    What’s more?  America suffers socio-economic dissonance that bodes ill. Its rich 0.1%, claims the video, corral more wealth than the rest 90%.  Trust in institutions has fallen 54% from 1970.  By 2026, it would plunge below 20% — the Soviet Union sank at 19%.  America’s political polarization is almost at par with its civil war period.  By its 250th year — 2016 —  that fissure would reach nadir not plumbed by any modern democracy.

    Incidentally, Trump, the unfazed face of this rot, is here bang at the crunch: levying war against Congress and getting away with it, convicted on 34-point felony yet elected president, and whines regularly to divide, not unite, his country.

    Now, if he goes to UNGA to play Nebuchadnezzar, after wreaking the system at home, it’s signal to the rest of the world that America’s global awe is dated.

    That has started in earnest: Brazil’s President Lula da Silva, at those same UNGA portals, already told Trump to buzz off pushing political outlawry in Brazil, with his daft support for the jailed Jair Bolsonaro who, after defeat, staged a Trump-like siege on Parliament to stay in power. Unlike Trump, however, he just got tossed into the can.

    Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, right there in New York, told American soldiers to, on Palestine, disobey outlawry orders from their commander-in-chief!

    Even the French, philosopher-Kings of America’s “liberty and fraternity” credo: their president had to abandon his car, and trek to own embassy, because insecure Trump must project raw power, and seal up the entire New York!

    For these diplomatic incivilities, Trump has the mandate of his people. They voted him.  So, if they drown, they drown in concert.

    The saving grace is America might not remain a global bully much longer, though it can continue ruling or misruling itself in its vast insular territory.

    So, how does Nigeria at 65 take advantage of this winking global opportunity?  Use natural and human resources to build Nigeria for formidable global trade — and peace.

    That — and not stale jeremiads at 65 — should drive Nigerian thinking.

  • Of Jonathan and g(l)ory elephant

    Of Jonathan and g(l)ory elephant

    “The words of our elders,” went a long running promo on Radio Nigeria (later Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN), “are words of freedom.”

    So, are our folklores: a trove of wisdom — but strictly for those willing to learn.

    Link that to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s reported appetite to run again for president, after his defeat in 2015, and you’ll have quite a lot to chew.

    The Jonathan ambition, if true, is no crime.  It’s his inalienable citizen right.  Still, he must first contend that right with Section 137(3) of the 1999 Constitution.  That clause bars anyone previously sworn in twice as president from running again.

    But the lore that speaks to Jonathan’s hopeful presidential encore is a Yoruba folktale: a ploy to see the elephant mount the throne. 

    All the hoodwinked elephant saw was glory and endless glory.  But all his plotters planted was out-and-out sorry-and-gory sight, with the elephant soaked in own blood.

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    The cynical tale burst into an impish chant: “Erin ka rele o, ko wa joba … Erin ye-ye, Erin ye-ye … Iwoyi ola re … Eje a mase bala … Esinsin a mase woyin …”

    The depth of this chant can hardly be grasped my non-Yoruba speakers. 

    But suffice it to say it was dire warning, couched in subversive flattery: “By this time tomorrow, blood will freely flow, and flies will swarm, buzz and drone … all feasting on the elephant’s blood and gore — in a glory tale turned gory!

    Our folklores are a trove of wisdom — but only for those willing to learn!

    Of course, no arm will come to Jonathan.  But what remains of his presidential essence would be totally savaged — no thanks to an incomparable tenure: in abject failure, and near-total emptiness, on almost all fronts.

    Yet, Jonathan happened on the scene as something fresh. Indeed, one of his campaign adverts sold him as “a breath of fresh air” — and yes he was, in a way.

    He was a minority of the minorities. But he broke the numbers mould; and trumped the majority of majorities, to be elected Nigerian president (2011-2015).  That was after, as Vice President, he had completed the tenure of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who died in office (2010-2011).

    His troubled presidency left the air not only dank but stale, with a foreboding of total collapse.  That fear powered the late President Muhammadu Buhari into office.

    Indeed, the Jonathan irony: his finest hour — and high redemption — was his defeat in 2015, not his victory in 2011.  That irony ought to remind Jonathan of his stark presidency.

    His victory in 2011 was the sheer ecstasy of the “Nigerian dream” — a sheer plagiarism of the so-called America dream, before Donald Trump, a roiling chunk of damaged humanity, rolled out from America’s troubled shadows.

    A shoeless boy, from the tiniest minority of his minority Ijaw clan from Bayelsa State, just romped into power as third president, of Nigeria’s 4th Republic!  Dreams!

    What was more?  He even built on the late Yar’Adua, who had a Master’s degree. Jonathan was the first Nigerian president to boast a PhD — and it wasn’t honorary! 

    So, from goodwill that romped a minority into elected office over grubby numbers; to scholastic élan that promised rigorous public policy, a logical handmaiden of rational politics, everything promised a new dawn!

    But alas!  Jonathan delivered the diametric opposite, almost on all scores!  Instead of rigour, flabby was the word — policies or politics! If ever there was a time Nigeria came close to a total collapse, it was during the Jonathan years, when high-stake public sector heists became almost iconic!

    In a way, there is much to be said that Jonathan’s woes issued from the systemic rot of the Olusegun Obasanjo years, which the Owu chief nevertheless white-washed as some holiest of holies, just because the self-named Mr. Right was involved. 

    In trying to chisel the ruling PDP in own grim image, the first president of the 4th Republic had, almost beyond measure, profaned everything — corrupted policies, and near-collapsed the new and very, very delicate democratic institutions.

    Recall: the botched power sector privatization, its failed upgrade, the ugly tiff between president and vice president, the Obasanjo presidential library strange “donations” and the defeated third term attempt: a public knowledge, which the man continues to deny.  Aside: the “simple minority” impeachments that nearly tanked the political order!

    Besides, Jonathan himself became an equal-opportunity target for Obasanjo’s cynical derision because, many swear, he refused to be Obasanjo’s poodle.  That was a grand distraction.

    So, there is some merit in holding that Jonathan was a fall guy of the 11-year PDP vice, before he took over.  Still, Jonathan added his own bumbling to the ugly mix.

    But then, came salvation from the oddest of places: electoral defeat!  For not only accepting defeat but also shunning wasteful post-defeat litigation, Jonathan became a democracy hero of a sort.  Indeed, blessed are they, whose sins are covered!

    It’s this suspect halo that Jonathan risks shattering, with his rumoured come-back.

    Still, Jonathan must know: those prompting him to a comeback — not unlike the anti- elephant sweet plotters — are cold-blooded calculators.  Whatever fate befalls their quarry is no business of theirs.

    With a flash of vaulting ambition, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar virtually erased PDP in the South East: PDP only maintained a gubernatorial foothold in Enugu; and badly dented PDP in the South-South: retaining Bayelsa, Delta and, well, Rivers. But Wike’s Rivers wasn’t exactly the flavour Atiku craved!

    Post-2023: Delta is gone; Edo and Akwa-Ibom too.  Wike’s Rivers, on the balance of power, roots for Tinubu 2027. Cross River had crossed over in 2023. So, out of pre-2023 six near-”sure banker” states, only in one — Jonathan’s Bayelsa — can PDP hope there is hope, even then, marginally!

    What the Tinubu order has done is radically change the path to the Presidency, at least in that bloc!  Against this blitzkrieg, the counter-strategy of the Atiku PDP faction, now flexing muscles in ADC, is to parlay hunger as electoral strategy in his native North; and lay much store by the many anti-North lies and bogeys Atiku and allies have planted in the Tinubu court.

    It’s this desperation — this cold calculation — to chip away at the emerging APC southern phalanx that the Jonathan comeback orchestra is striking up new tunes.

    Tinubu has responded by dropping discrete IOUs in sundry demographics: student loans (youth), consumer credit (the broke(n) middle class), conditional cash transfer (for the dirt poor), regional development commissions, etc. 

    Aside endorsements across party lines — as fickle as that may be — the First Lady’s Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), across sundry sectors, is busy charming citizens, via soft power, nationwide.

    To be sure, a Jonathan entry should alter the electoral calculations.  But the question is: how much?  And at what cost to him?

    Dr. Jonathan had better be well guided. So that his fate doesn’t equate the tragic elephant’s: eyes sparkling for glory but fatally shut with gory tales.

  • Natasha’s dilemma

    Natasha’s dilemma

    Distinguished Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is back in the news after a six-month hiatus. The delectable beauty who represents Kogi Central in the senate was suspended for six months, in March, by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions after she refused to submit to the committee’s summons to answer allegations of breaching the privileges of her colleagues. She had refused to go to her assigned seat, before speaking, and later made disparaging statements about the senate leadership on radio and television. Arguing that the six months has elapsed, Natasha wrote to the senate clerk that she would resume plenary.

    The clerk told her that she cannot resume because the dispute over her suspension is sub judice, since she took the senate to court, arguing that it lacked the power to suspend her. The Honourable Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court had held that while the senate has powers to discipline its members, six months was a long time to deny a constituency representation in the senate chambers. The court ordered the distinguished senator to apologize and pay a fine of N5million for ignoring a gag order not to discuss the matter in public while the case was in court.

    Senator Natasha went on appeal against parts of the judgment since the High Court did not hold that her suspension was illegal, which is what she wanted. The defendants also cross-appealed, contending the powers of the senate to self-regulate its members. With the matter pending on appeal, the senate leadership prompted the clerk to reply Senator Natasha that parties would have to wait for the courts to determine the dispute first. The further explanation by the clerk that the decision about her return will be made by the senate leadership may not change the current position of the senate.

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    Of course, what they are telling Natasha is that you cannot be in court and still seek what they consider an administrative remedy. On her part, the suspended senator has vowed to resume plenary regardless of the decision of the senate and its administrative organs. This writer wonders how Natasha would carry out her threats. Would she bring in her supporters to enforce her return and keep vigil to ensure she stays and attends senate plenaries?

    If she takes the matter into her hands or allow her supporters to do so, the chances are that she may again be accused of running afoul of the senate rules and the consequences could be another round of brouhaha. It is interesting that Natasha appears determined to be recalled on her own terms, that is, keeping the cases in court and refusing to apologize and return to the senate to continue her legislative duties.

    That would be viewed by her supporters as giving the senate a bloody nose, and she ought to know that the leadership would not easily yield to that. If her recall is left for the courts to determine, the chances are that it may take a pretty long time to come. Even with the best effort of her lawyers, it will take some months before the Court of Appeal determines the appeal and cross-appeal, and after that, any of the party who loses may proceed to the Supreme Court for the final determination of the controversy.

    Perhaps, Natasha was hoping that the controversy would bring down the senate president, Senator Godswill Akpabio, from his exalted position. If that had happened, as many of Natasha’s supporters had wished, the senator would have been recalled back to the red chamber without much ado. But so far, the senate president has survived, and with the maintenance of strong legislative collaboration with the executive arm of government, in passing critical executive bills, bringing down Akpabio, won’t be an easy task at all.

    As I wrote in March, with respect to this saga, which I titled: Trial of Senator Natasha, the distinguished senator has shown herself a fearless warrior, but unfortunately tactless. The allegations of sexual harassment which she made against the senate president did not carry much hurricane, because it was in the midst of her missteps in the red chamber. Showing herself a rookie, she refused a simple senate rule that a senator can only be recognized to speak from his/her assigned seat.

    Her claim in the red chambers of victimization by the senate president, while she refused the entreaties of her colleagues to move to her newly assigned seat, robbed off on her, as an indecorous person. All the complaints she made that day went to no issue, as she was not properly recognized to speak. Her rantings in front her fellow senators and the cameras, while making her notorious amongst social media netizens, gave her out as cantankerous, to the discerning public.

    Again her refusal to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, after she was appropriately invited, robbed her of the claim of a breach of her fundamental rights. She failed to realize that snubbing that committee amounted to desecrating the integrity of the entire senate. If she was properly guided, she should have appeared to make her case, and that would give her the locus to challenge their findings. She thought that her case against senate president, equates to contention with the entire senate.

    This writer does not agree with those who contend that the senate or any legislative assembly should not have the powers to discipline her members. Without such power, the senate or indeed any such legislative assembly would be a rancorous market place. If every senator should have the right to throw tantrums and engage in riotous conduct, without internal mechanism for review and punishment, the legislative assembly would be a riotous assembly. What needs to be done is to make the committee on ethics and the review process respectful and fair.

    As a body, the senate or any other legislative assembly should have settled precedents or codes for members, with accompanying consequences for disobedience by members. When a member breaches a code, he/she should know the likely consequences, if found culpable by a body of colleagues entrusted with the power of review. The senate or such other legislative assembly should as a body have a way of ensuring that the committee entrusted with the responsibility to discipline members always act responsibly.

    To end the present imbroglio with the senate, the Kogi senator, should seek counsel from her older colleagues. Her present counsellors are more of pubic activists, without requisite experience, on how to navigate the shark-infested legislative waters, and they have not brought her requisite remedy. Since their tactics is not working, she should try other measures, unless she does not care whether she returns to the red chambers or not, as soon as possible. At least, if not for herself, she should consider the interest of her constituency.

  • Climbing opposition bus

    Climbing opposition bus

    Few weeks ago, the former governor of Kaduna State, the petit Mallam Nasir El Rufai, inadvertently dramatized the unpreparedness of the opposition claiming to ready to oust President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) at the next general election in 2027. El Rufai, scrambled and kicked as some roughnecks helped him clamber onto an open lorry so he can speak at a campaign stop. His preferred candidate expectedly lost woefully at the by-election.

    What caught my eye was the complete lack of preparedness by the campaigners, otherwise why didn’t they provide a means for El Rufai to climb the lorry with some modicum of dignity. The video of the incident showed El Rufai struggling like a bus conductor being helped onto the back of a truck with all the drama associated with it. For this column, what transpired showed how disorganized the opposition is; yet they won’t stop claiming their determination to win in 2027.

    But as I write this piece, the so-called coalition of opposition has not yet determined under which party to contest the next general election. While El Rufai is claiming to be a member of the Social Democratic Party, (SDP), he campaigned for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the last by-election. Meanwhile leaders of SDP in Kaduna State have claimed that El Rufai is not a registered member of the party in the state. Also, national leaders of the party have said that El Rufai is an imposter as far as membership of the party is concerned.

    Despite this confusion, El Rufai still claims boldly that the coalition is ready and prepared to oust the All Progressive Congress (APC). But what afflicts El Rufai, is also true of the other major opposition figures. Again, as I write, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last general election, former governor, Peter Obi (Okwute), operates in a state of flux as far as his membership of a political party is concerned. There is no certainty which party Obi belongs to.

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    While he has not formerly resigned from LP, the faction led by Nenadi Usman, which is loyal to him is locked in a mortal battle with the other, headed by Julius Abure for recognition from INEC. Yet, there is a significant third faction, led by Lamidi Apapa, which claims to be the authentic leadership of the party. At the last by-election, Obi campaigned for the candidate of ADC in Onitsha, Anambra State who failed woefully at the polls.

    With respect to the upcoming off-cycle governorship election in Anambra State, no one knows with certainty which party, the former governor is campaigning for, between ADC and LP. Obi, an indisputable gentleman, is finding it difficult to rein in the combatants in LP, and that has weakened his base. Many have accused Obi of lacking the capacity to fight the inevitable battles associated with partisan politics in a developing democracy like ours.

    The loquacious former actor, recently called to the Nigerian Bar, Kenneth Okonkwo, who spoke for Obi during the last general election, has left Obi and LP, because the former presidential candidate has not shown the grit to determine the boat he will be sailing with full force. Okonkwo, appears to know better than Obi, that no one will serve him the candidacy of a major political party, just because he is a nice guy.

    What is true of El Rufai and Peter Obi is also true of the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, a former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). While he made a big drama of leaving the PDP, he has been mum about which party he has moved to. He is content at being touted as the big masquerade, behind the ADC, who engineered the forceful takeover of the party leadership, by former senate president, David Mark, and former governor of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, as chairman and secretary respectively.

    Atiku, and his fellow coalitionists or ‘collisionists’ (apologies to PBAT), are clearly unsure which boat to use for the sailing expedition. That explains why El Rufai, initially moved to SDP to await Atiku and company. But when it dawned on them that SDP may not be easily manipulated, they tried to form a new party, the All Democratic Alliance, (ADA), whose emoji, of Atiku, Obi, and others, dressed as dancing females went viral (Ada is a name for a female in Igbo). But unsure that ADA will scale through the hurdle of registration, they demurred. Now that ADA has been granted provincial approval, by INEC, will they be aroused again?

    Meanwhile, some members of ADC are in court over the constitutionality of the takeover by the new executive which INEC recently recognized. On his part, Aregbesola, foisted as the party secretary has been upbeat that his new party will beat the APC and PDP hands down in the off-cycle Osun governorship election due later in 2026. How he intends to fend off the campaign against him, that he is a traitor, with the far-reaching consequences of such a polish in southwest, remains to be seen.

    The latest entrant into the labyrinth of presidential aspirants is former president, Goodluck Jonathan. While he has not confirmed his interest, there are claims that he is consulting widely. Recently, he went to the Hill Top mansion of the former military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), perhaps to consult him. His aides have also aggressively argued that he is not constitutionally barred from contesting, despite the provisions of section 137(3), of the 1999 constitution (as amended). That section was enacted to stop the likes of Jonathan, from contesting the presidential election again.

    Section 137 (3), provides that “a person who was sworn in as president to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term”. Former president, Jonathan is such a person, since after completing the term of office of late president, Umaru Yar’Adua, he was elected to such office in 2011. When Jonathan contested the 2015 presidential election, which he lost to President Muhammadu Buhari, that amendment made in 2017, was not yet in place.

    So, the only issue which will be open to the courts to determine, should Jonathan run, is whether, the law contemplated a retroactive effect. While in jurisprudence, there is the general rule against retroactive legislation, or the principle of non-retroactivity, the courts may be minded to hear arguments on the doctrine of mischief rule. Mischief rule, allows a court to look at the mischief which a law was designed to remedy, rather than the literal wording of a legislation. What baffles this writer is how in such state of unpreparedness, the opposition is assiduously claiming to be ready to oust PBAT in 2027. Perhaps, they are merely waiting to spread lies and chaos, when they inevitably lose at the polls.

  • Dangote and ‘friends’

    Dangote and ‘friends’

    Last weekend, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) resumed their hostilities with the Dangote Refinery over what it alleged to be ‘violations of the resolutions reached during a truce brokered by the federal government’. In its notice posted on Thursday, September 11 in Abuja, NUPENG President, Comrade Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Comrade Afolabi Olawale, alleged that commitments made at a meeting facilitated by the State Security Service (SSS) which had in attendance Finance Minister Wale Edun, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) officials, and management of Dangote Refinery, were already being flouted.

    Interestingly, while it seems unlikely that most Nigerians barely understood the issues beyond those nebulous claims about monopoly on the one hand and the disruptive union power on the other, the fog, nonetheless, would appear to be clearing by the simple fact of NUPENG’s insistence of making it a holy grail.

    We are referring to a so-called agreement that not only let out few details on the basis of which the ordinary citizen could make an informed judgment, but was so carefully couched in ambiguity thus raising more questions than answers.

    Talking of the agreement, let’s consider the origin of the latest round of tiff to see whether sense could be made of it. According to NUPENG, based on the agreement reached by the parties Thursday last week, their members working with Dangote Refinery were free to have their stickers, their insignia on the trucks, to facilitate loading at the refinery complex. The problem, according to them was that Dangote Refinery’s Alh Sayyu Aliu Dantata saw things differently; he instructed all his truck drivers who are supposedly NUPENG-PTD members to remove them! Not only that, he, allegedly instructed them to forcefully drive into Dangote Refinery to load during which union officials stopped them from entering the refinery to load because their trucks violated union loading rules and regulations. (My emphasis).

    To quote one of the union leaders who spoke to Daily Trust: “When we came here this morning (Thursday), we noticed that all the pasted stickers had been removed. This negates the agreement we had during the Tuesday’s meeting,”

    Now, the billion naira question is – what exactly is contained in the agreement? Was it part of the agreement that every truck must carry the stickers? Note the union’s reference to an alleged violation of union loading rules and regulations; to what extent could those regulations by the unions be forced on a private entity based solely on the fact their members earn their living there? And what is the big deal about the stickers anyway?

    Read Also: 2027: PDP sets stage for Ibadan convention, vows to reclaim power

    To understand the issues, let’s start with how the furore started.

    Weeks back, NUPENG had served notice of impending strike to protest against what it described as anti-union labour practices, linked to the deployment of newly imported compressed natural gas trucks by the Dangote Refinery, for direct distribution of petroleum products.

    In this, Nigeria Labour Congress and some of affiliate unions like NARTO openly decried Dangote’s plan for free distribution of petroleum products, citing its unsustainability and potential to eliminate independent transporters who operate over 30,000 trucks across the country. NLC president, Joe Ajaero, in particular would accuse the Dangote Group of “exploiting Nigerian workers while disregarding their constitutional rights.” Perhaps not unexpectedly, the depots owners, under their umbrella, the equally powerful Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) would  join the tango in what promises to be an interesting play of the giants.

    In all of these, Dangote Refinery on its part continues to insist that the different actors and their backers are mere crying wolf where none exist, and that the issue is not so much about unionisation but a play by vested interests to maintain their iron grip on the industry for their narrow and ostensibly subversive ends. Its investment, whether in the refinery or in the fuel haulage business, it insists, is guided by national interest, a principle long subverted by the activities of a cartel that would rather feast on the misery of the people than deliver real solutions.

    The truth is in between.

    To start with, NUPENG is entitled to stake its claims as a leading player in the industry within the limits of the law. What it is not entitled to is operate as a law unto itself.  Again, most interesting, NUPENG would allege that some truck drivers removed their stickers overnight as directed by the Dangote Group managing director. That might well be. What the union could not have told Nigerians is that these drivers were coerced at any point to do that.

    To anyone with the barest knowledge of the industry, the whole idea of getting every truck to carry NUPENG stickers, is actually a ploy by NUPENG to enforce their rules on just about any driver – member or not!  As a matter of fact, that truth, loudly spoken in whispers, is that the stickers attract an extortionate fee of N70,000 or thereabout, levied on every single truck passed by NUPENG for loading daily, ostensibly to keep the boys happy! Dangote Refinery would of course have none of that!  Yes, the casus belli!

    In other words, the referenced loading rules and regulations, said to have been violated by Dangote Refinery management and for which the entire country would have to pay a steep price!

    Dangote Refinery’s unforgivable sin, in the circumstance therefore, is letting in those trucks without stickers into the gantry, minus the gravy. Does anyone still see why the love of money is the root of all evil? Or why their declared war is not about us let alone any budding monopoly as alleged, but one designed to retain that old gravy from which the greed of the shadowy players are serviced?   

    Granted, the fear of the coming of Dangote trucks is somewhat legitimate; but this is only to the extent that it might in the end put NUPENG members under severe strain of competition; thus exposing the inefficiency that the union in particular, has nurtured. The chicks are therefore merely home to roost. Even at that, this is neither unlawful nor unheard of; flowing from the wholesale inefficiency that have long characterised that segment of the supply/distribution chain, there is no doubt, some logic to it.

    In any case, it is certainly not the fault of Dangote Refinery that the industry segment failed to retool in the last few years; it was somewhat assumed that the evisceration of the pipelines network, of which the unions are primarily complicit, the result of which the nation continues to burn its candle on both ends – through unbearably high logistical costs and the daily destruction of the roads infrastructure – would remain in perpetuity! Now that the wheels are beginning to turn, it seems the easy way out is to enlist Nigerians in praying out the individual who knew how to put his money where his mouth is!

    NUPENG’s sunset as indeed those of its DAPPMAN allies may be slow and drawn out, however, throwing tantrums and hoping against hope that the ship that had long departed the shores could still be halted midstream would at best be an exercise in futility.   

  • Their Imperial Majesties (TIMs)

    Their Imperial Majesties (TIMs)

    No less than three top Yoruba potentates say they are Imperial Majesties.

    The Alaafin of Oyo is one — and rightly so.  His forebears were the only ones that ever ran an empire: the Oyo Empire (14th to 17th century).  It faded from 1835.  The final sunset was with the Kiriji War armistice of 1893.  Its rose from circa 1300s.

    The Ooni of Ife has also declared himself His Imperial Majesty (HIM).  So, has the newly crowned Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland.

    The irony of HIM appears totally lost on these two otherwise revered monarchs.

    But first: this piece, from a proud Yoruba boy, is not about to mock the Yoruba treasure: their monarchy. That institution is a clear proof of vast political sophistication, long before British colonial intruders came to truncate that civilization.

    No doubt, the Yoruba love their kings.  Their brightest and best seek self-actualization via chieftaincy titles.  It’s one golden atavism that richly connects with a storied past.

    The Nigerian state too admits of the glorious past of its many cultures.  Yes, Nigeria has a republican constitution, which deems every citizen equal.  Yet, it cohabits with the Yoruba Oba who, by culture, cannot be questioned — Kabiyesi! — so long as basic decencies are not breached.

    Still, even in its pristine form, the Kabiyesi was not absolutely unquestionable. As an empire, Oyo had its Oyomesi: Basorun, Agbaakin, Samu, Alapini, Laguna, Akinku and Asipa — the seven native principalities that not only helped to select the Alaafin but also constituted checks and balances on his awesome royal powers.

    The Ijebu — a Yoruba sub-group never under Oyo imperial rule — had their own Osugbo cult: to deal with the excesses of the Awujale, the paramount ruler of all Ijebu.

    Now, this is no foray into pan-Yoruba history; but to point out a pan-Yoruba aversion for royal excesses and vanities — and that ingrained in their very ancient feudalism.

    This piece taps into that sacred licence, without reducing the awe in which these Oba are held by their respective subjects, who nevertheless are Nigerian citizens!

    Now, back to TIMs: Their Imperial Majesties!

    Why the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, affable, debonair and admired, would soil his immaculate hold on pristine Yoruba essence, with the blood and gore of an empire that never was, beggars belief.

    Before the roar of war; the power and the glory corralled by gore; the imperial plunder: the smashed skulls and hewn limbs of the vanquished, the Ooni had reigned supreme. 

    Even after Oyo had risen and faded, the Ooni’s spiritual supremacy is undiminished.  The pristine cultural artifacts, including the Opa Oranyan — the mythical obelisk,  sacred grove and temple of Oranmiyan, the famed founder of the Oyo Empire and Bini Kingdom, is today in Ife, the undisputed source of Yoruba nativity and heritage.

    So, why would the Ooni profane all that with a vanity that ogles imperial savagery?

    Read Also: 2027: PDP sets stage for Ibadan convention, vows to reclaim power

    The irony of HIM — His Imperial Majesty — is even more lost on the new Ijesa supreme monarch, Oba Clement Adesuyi Haastrup, Ajimoko III, in his Ilesa metropolis. 

    Why would the Ajimoko III glorify imperial crime, which his illustrious forebear, the Ajimoko I, Owa Frederick Kumokun Adedeji Haastrup, rebuffed? He gloriously funded the Ekiti Parapo army, the common bastion of the Ijesa, and other repressed people of the Yoruba nation, to halt Ibadan invasion and plunder.

    That military challenge forced the Kiriji War stalemate, which snuffed out the final embers of the dying Oyo Empire!

    Kiriji War (1877-1893)! Does the Ajimoko III even realize that the Ajimoko I gained the throne, and founded the present Ajimoko-Haastrup dynastic line, as a reward for his heroic role in that grim enterprise?

    What of Ogedengbe, the famed Ijesa General and Kiriji War hero?  Ogedengbe trained at Ibadan’s famous garrison.  Yet, he turned against his Ibadan masters, to throw off the Ibadan yoke, under a fading Oyo Empire. 

    When Ogedengbe breached the Kiriji armistice, and got detained by the British Resident in Iwo, the Ajimoko I not only bailed him out with a huge ransom, he also gave Ogedengbe the title of Oba’la, next in rank to the Owa himself, to secure his sinecures and wean him from war spoils, which was raw trouble under the new British regime.

    How would the Ogedengbe offspring feel with the Owa romancing a horrid past that brought their forebear much grief, even after halting Ibadan, and the chaos of the crumbling empire?

    HIM is Alaafin Abimbola Akeem Owoade’s historical right, which no one can begrudge his royal court.  He is the only monarch entitled to HIM by right.

    Even then, that esteemed monarch must be wary of throwing that severe political crime in the face of past victims, more so the same offspring of Oduduwa, shackled by own kith-and-kin, and even sold into slavery, because the Oyo boasted superior arms.

    For context: if military rule — a country’s army usurping the legitimate government — is abhorrent, empires were doubly so: for in search of spoils, they came killing, maiming, raping and plundering; making legitimate rulers of weaker orders mere vassals, to sate own imperial greed.

    This atavistic preening, rather insensitive, issues from the so-called “… of Yorubaland” titles.  That is fraudulent, to be sure — at least to the Ijebu, who were never under Oyo or Ibadan conquest. 

    But even to areas under the old empire, to who those titles are harmless and honorific, though anchored by history, the limit came when the Ooni allegedly named an Ibadan son the “Okanlomo of Yorubaland”. 

    The new Alaafin harshly balked (with unprintable anti-Ooni expletives streaming from his court).  But the present-day Ibadan beneficiaries rallied for their own, and reminded the Alaafin that Oyo Empire is ancient history!

    Ceasefire only came, when Dotun Sanusi, the title beneficiary for his 2020 COVID-19 heroics of rare care, clarified that his title was “Okanlomo Oodua”, not Okanlomo of Yorubaland! 

    It’s instructive that no one — not even the Alaafin — has questioned the Ooni’s eminent right to granting the Oodua titles. Ancient order trumps temporary power!  He is sole custodian, even with no recourse to arm!

    Still, fair is fair: monarchs, in old empire areas, must eschew contending space with the Alaafin. The Olubadan too, for instance, seems addicted to HIM. That, again, is farcical.

    Ibadan, at the decline of the Oyo Empire, might have been the glorious military teeth at the Alaafin’s disposal.  Indeed, in the name of Oyo, they halted the Fulani Calvary foray into Yorubaland, at the decisive battle of Osogbo (c. 1840).

    But Ibadan itself — under a Baale (Duke) for long — was never an empire, though it proudly bullied other sub-Yoruba ethnics, under the Alaafin’s sovereignty. 

    So, the Olubadan as HIM is both a moral and historical monstrosity, beyond the royal vanity of the moment.

    But again, that’s the grand message.  Yoruba monarchs, steeped in normative culture, must offer their people ancient guardrails against modern perils.  That’s far better than swearing by ancient crimes, seized by modern vanity.

  • Six for the PM

    Six for the PM

    The Yoruba have a quip: a child with no home training is fated to a harsh tutorial outside. 

    That’s the fitting fate of Simon Ekpa, the self-appointed “Prime Minister” of Biafra, set to cool his heels in a Finnish jail house for the next six years, for levying terrorism on his native South East, to hurt Nigeria.  Ekpa hails from Ebonyi State.

    But as we knock callow youths for rash choices, let’s not forget to cudgel elders too for wizened folly — masquerading as ancestral wisdom — pressed from ancestral feuding.

    That explains the South East anarchy that birthed both Nnamdi Kanu and new jail bird, Ekpa. 

    It was also behind the South West anomie — read Fulani disdain — that peaked under President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), as Yoruba “Nesan” agitation. 

    A Fulani was president; and Yoruba Fulani haters pushed the insecurity challenges to run PMB political associates out of town: explicitly current President Bola Tinubu.  His crime? The clear spirit behind the APC grand merger, that powered PMB’s presidential triumph!

    Well, thank God, the anti-Fulani hysteria is gradually ebbing; and pipers of that toxic tune, gradually fading out — by death or by political irrelevance; or even, in the case of Ekpa, bottled in a foreign slammer!

    Still, for Nigeria’s collective good and political sanity, folks should always keep in mind how it all started — particularly, the present northern ensemble, spewing ethnic bile; and thundering northern arrogance, just because PBAT is sitting president.

    A southern lobby once tried that nonsense — witness: the halcyon days of “Fulani herdsmen”, as the southern media boomed, committing all the heinous crimes Nigeria-wide, while local felons snoozed in blissful retirement! But see how it’s all petering out?

    Ripples opposed the South’s ethnic-baiting of Arewa under PMB.  It will, with equal rigour, resist the North’s ethnic-taunting of the South under PBAT. 

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    That mutual hate is the last Nigeria needs.  On the contrary, it must harness its very best, across the board, to face down its humongous challenges.

    But back to the South East IPOB crisis, and its philosopher kings, long gone; yet, leave their offspring biting the dust.

    Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian — nay global — literary hero.  His everlasting literary accomplishments would always be with us, for us to ever cherish.

    But sorry: same can’t be said of his political distemper, so glaring with — to Ripples at least — his rather forgettable swan song: There Was A Country (2012), with his rather one-sided account of the tragic Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970).

    Yes, Achebe was entitled to his personal and intimate account of the war.  But the anarchy after shows the one-sided colouring could have been better handled.

    That account provided the philosophical spur for the current neo-Biafra agitations. It threw up Kanu, and later, Ekpa and allied fixers — the post-Civil War generation that neither saw war nor felt gore, except with the fake thrills of a combat film.

    These tragic romantics dreamed gung-ho agitations, until IPOB — under Kanu and Ekpa — unleashed naked terror, pain and misery, on own people; in a tragic living orgy of cutting your nose to spite your face, just to prove the Igbo can hurt Nigeria! 

    The nadir, even after Kanu’s caging, came with the so-called Monday sit-at-home protests, which not only harvested skulls and limbs of the ordinary Igbo seeking peaceful daily bread, but also inflicted a deep gash on the South East economy.

    Emma Powerful, the bombastic IPOB spokesperson, first spun sit-at-home, as some civil force to spring Kanu from “unjust” detention. But as Ekpa progressively unleashed own Frankenstein monster, even Emma, in all his garrulous majesty, became famously powerless to rein in Ekpa, who gloried from gory mischief to mischief!

    Of course, between Kanu and Ekpa, there is little to choose in extreme bad breeding.  Kanu cursed and mocked every non-Igbo to push his neo-Biafra cause.  During the EndSARS crisis of 2020, he levied war and arson on Lagos.  Ekpa, in his Finland cocoon, openly danced at his people’s misery.

    But at Ekpa’s judicial crunch, he claimed he was a content creator that meant no harm!  In a parallel plea in a Nigerian court, Kanu too proclaimed his democratic right to untrammelled agitation!

    The Finnish court pooh-poohed Ekpa’s claim, and threw him into the slammer.  Will Kanu fare better before a Nigerian court?  We’ll have to wait to find out.

    But however Kanu’s case is resolved, Ekpa’s jailing has reiterated a clear — but hardly novel — precedent: every action (good or bad) has consequences.  It’s a natural order codified by law, and enforced by the courts, after due process.

    With Ekpa’s jailing, South East politicians, who love to brag that Kanu be released “unconditionally”, just to impress folks back home, have to invent another bluster.  Both act in IPOB plots.

    But the Kanu-Ekpa ensemble did not act solo.  The South West too joined in the anti-Fulani rumble.  It was a rich, frothy season of Fulani bogey! 

    Why, even former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a non-Fulani grand beneficiary of Fulani hegemony, if ever there was one, also chimed in with “Fulanization”, just to put PMB’s nose out of joint.  Typical!

    But for philosophical underpinnings, Prof. Banji Akintoye and his Yoruba Nation project took the cake.  No less, was the late Chief Ayo Adebanjo (God bless his soul!) with his “Afenifere” progressivism, and a swagger of Yoruba supremacism! Besides, the chief’s famous turf war, with PBAT and younger Yoruba progressives, was an open secret.

    Then, the battling rams: the likes of Sunday Igboho, the South West equivalents of Kanu and Ekpa, were at the ready, spewing Fulani hate, in defence of Yoruba “Nesan”!  But it was a missed Golgotha.  The South West dodged that bullet — but just!

    No doubt, from the anti-Lagos/PBAT sight and sound, issuing from the post-PMB “North”, there is a clear proof of northern hegemonists, blind to civil power balance, for Nigeria to nurture sustained nationhood, in peace and harmony.

    Still, why would PMB, whose bloc partnered PBAT to win federal power, goad the so-called “Fulani herdsmen” to raze the South West, the political space of his partner?  Does that even make any sense?  It’s out-and-out hysteria, stupid!

    What’s more?  All the ugly tags — nepotism, Fulanization, Katsina cabal, clueless, incompetent, etc — curated by the booming southern media to blight PMB, are being rebranded and hauled back at PBAT, by northern irredentists! 

    What goes around comes around, doesn’t it?

    As we speak, there is even a Yoruba vs Igbo lunatic army on X, arrayed against each other, dubbing either ethnic as ugly descendants of gorillas and chimpanzees!  How grown, reasonable adults would sign up on such brazen toxicity beats one hollow!

    Then, from the North comes anti-Lagos brickbats, clearly to demonize Nigeria’s No. 1 centre of opportunities, as no more than Tinubu’s glittering trophy of Yoruba nepotism! 

    That’s gas, of course!  But it’s what it is — too much toxicity in the political space!

    Ekpa has received his harsh tutorial in Finland.  But his jailing is a good juncture to apply the brakes!  No nation develops by mutual hating and ethnic-baiting.

  • NBA’s fatal regression

    NBA’s fatal regression

    It must be deeply troubling, that in none of the running commentaries on the recently concluded Nigerian Bar Association conference has there been any acknowledgment of anything profound or even serious coming from the annual conclave of the supposedly foremost professional body. More like a gathering of a people needing the time out to escape the humdrum of the times, what emerged could be described as a charade – like those ubiquitous parliaments of anything goes in street corners, where serious issues of governance, drenched in extravagant hilarious banters, are reduced to the puerile, partisan stuff as one might expect in typical street debates.

    Nothing of a serious dissection of the ailments plaguing the justice sector let alone the society as a whole; none of the searing questions about the depth that the profession has sunk let alone where it is headed, particularly the derogation of the meaning and the purpose of justice by the supposed ministers in its sacred temple, a tribe which insists on being dubbed as learned!

    Again, aside jarring partisan rants that has since become the trademark of the Obidients of which a good chunk of its attendees insist on being numbered, nothing in the entire deliberations suggested any appreciation of the dire situation which came upon the nation, let alone a robust interrogation of the policies of the Tinubu administration on the basis of which an actionable suggestion(s) could be availed the government, going forward.

    Even the appearance of the Minister of Interior, Tunji Ojo, meant to give informed perspectives to what the government has done to address those age-long structural issues that had plagued governance was reduced to a spectacle of sorts with incessant howling by those for whom the administration could never do anything right; and with the all-knowing, fit-for-every-purpose Obiageli Ezekwesili on hand to proclaim with her typical magistracy, all that is wrong with the Tinubu administration, the perfect setting for the inquisition that became of it was all but in place.

    For me however, the biggest joke of the farcical outing was when a poorly scripted act by Channel TV’s Seun Okinbaloye turned out to be a revelation, not so much about the inherent biases, but the pathetic lack of depth of the boisterous presenter! For an individual who proclaims a ‘commitment to delivering accurate and unbiased news’, it was shocking if not shameful to hear the questions framed the way he did.

    “Is Nigeria better today than two years ago?”

    That was supposed to be an ‘educated’ question to the lawyers in conference! For those still enamoured with their specious one-liners, how about flipping the question this way: Could Nigeria have continued on the ruinous trajectory of keeping fuel prices below their actual costs using the funds it does not even have to keep up the appearance of a caring, welfare state? 

    Or this: “Do you think the nation is on the right path with the policies of the Tinubu government?” Even granted that the issue of perception is valid to the individual, the very idea of framing things in the manner that he did would seem ordinarily ‘uneducated’, not only because he failed to narrow it to the specifics but that it was done in clear ignorance of the complex variables which underlie and shape them.

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    So which of the policies could he be referring to here? Is it the most contentious one – the removal of fuel subsidy on which the treasury gets to shell out trillions of naira for the joy of keeping the millions of rickety contraptions on the poorly maintained roads? Or the state-licenced bazaar under which only the high and mighty could access foreign exchange at official sources which are more often than not sold at the black market at premium with nary value addition to the national economy? Could it be a return to the ‘good old days’, when foreign airlines, hit by the non-remittance of sales proceeds were leaving Nigeria in droves? 

    Still, there is another question that came forth: “Is your hope renewed now?”

    Aside being the uncharitable, it is perhaps the most banal and uneducated. Of course, our ‘world acclaimed’ journalist got the answer that he wanted. Yet, I verily believe that he did himself a lot of injustice in the way he pandered to street narratives on the history and the trajectory of the economy. That question – ‘Is your hope renewed now’ – would at normal times, stand as an indictment to a profession that require depth and rigour as indeed a proper, contextual frame of analysis. Once let out, it is hard to imagine greater violence to the ancient craft by an individual, all in the service of narrow, partisan ends.  It is, like someone said the other day – like law; like journalism. Sad. 

    But I digress.

    At issue of course is the future of the justice sector itself. The other day, I saw a video of an elder of the profession openly lament the supplanting of the rules of seniority by the latter days actors; the new kids on the block – the television lawyers, emergency activists and the usual stragglers. Poor fellow, he couldn’t understand why the front row, ordinarily reserved for the elders were taken by baby lawyers leaving them to scramble for the back seats. And why would he, when only a few days prior, one of the freshly minted wigs, was on the social media to advertise his sprawling chambers which he claimed was worth more than the value of his innumerable exotic cars at N50 million! In other words, since when did a wig cease to be a wig?

    By the way, I choose to pass off, the moral question posed by the leadership of the elite body, a body with scores of millionaires in its rank, going cap in hand to state governments, for funds to host its conference. So also is its leadership’s insistence on keeping Rivers’ N300 million when the latter asked for a refund after it reneged on the hosting rights.

    To those who still care to remember, neither the rot nor the ingrained delinquency, start yesterday. Once upon a time, there was a well-reported story of a learned fellow, who brazenly accused a judge in the open court, of demanding a bribe from his client! The judge, far from rattled, merely insisted that the matter be promptly be investigated so the business of delivering justice could proceed, unimpeded! It turned out that the accusation was baseless as the innocence of the judge was firmly established beyond doubts.

    Here is the twist: the same counsel, whose mouth spewed the gibberish  would go on to request that the judge recuse himself, since his (the counsel’s) travesty, already deemed unpardonable, would not allow the hapless judge to dispense justice without bias! Talk of a sample of how to be a minister in the temple of justice, the Nigerian way!

    Let me close with the words of the ancient proverb – physician heal thyself! Seems to me that this particular physician, being far too gone, is unlikely to be of use to anyone let alone the society, anytime soon!

  • As Fubara returns

    As Fubara returns

    All appears set for the return of Sir Siminalayi Fubara to his exalted position as governor of Rivers State. The six month’s state of emergency imposed on the state by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT), on March 18, will expire on September 17. According to reports, the president had met with Fubara apparently to discuss his impending return before departing for his 10-days working leave outside the country. Neither the presidency nor Fubara’s camp issued statement with respect to what transpired at the meeting.

    Unlike in the past, the vile supporters of the governor have kept mum. They have not gone on to condemn the visit, excoriate the president, and analyse what they consider the constitutional impediments a president has, with respect to the rights of a sub-national government. For many of them, the president acted ultra vires in suspending Governor Fubara, and they are disappointed that the Supreme Court has not gone ahead to declare the state of emergency in Rivers State a nullity.

    It is not unlikely that many of them would be nursing the ambition and waiting for an opportunity to exert their pound of flesh on the governor’s opponents. Since they cannot do it by themselves, except perhaps at the polls, they may be waiting for the governor to return to his seat, before pilling pressure on him to return to the trenches. Many of them, from what transpired before the state of emergency was declared are averse to political reasoning. They prefer the “oshobe” approach, which the wiser Fubara, has now decried.

    Fubara, who when he was goaded on deceptively by inexperienced activists, had declared that the jungle has matured, eventually discovered that the political jungle is not for amateur pugilists. The governor, obviously a featherweight political combatant made the error of taking on his mentor and godfather, Nyesom Wike, a tested political warrior without first developing the muscle and capacity to fight in heavyweight category. Fubara, who was drafted from the urbane civil service into the combustible arena of political combat needed to develop the muscles first.

    To attempt to move straight from featherweight to heavyweight, showed the naivety of the suspended governor. In the boxing arena, there is no known person who moved from featherweight to heavyweight, because it requires a pugilist to gain a lot of weight for such a transition. If Fubara had good advisers, he would have first developed the muscle to move from amateur to professional, and as a professional, gently move from bantamweight to featherweight, to lightweight, before contemplating heavyweight categories.

    Perhaps, Fubara, was misled into thinking that the allegory of boxing in political duels, was on all fours, with political weight categories. For if Fubara was to be in real boxing fight with Wike, he would certainly match him grit for grit considering their near real weight categories. And should Wike make the grave error of punching above his weight, Fubara would have dueled him effectively. But, alas, fights in political duels are not measured by the real weight of combatants on a measurement scale.

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    Fubara, also made the grave mistake of opening another warfront by declaring the mediatory intervention of President Tinubu as meddlesomeness. This column recalls that in October, 2023, merely five months after Fubara was sworn in, Rivers was already in turmoil and President Tinubu had called a meeting of the two major gladiators, Fubara and Wike, and other leaders in the state to agree on a peace deal. Even after agreeing to implement the deal, Fubara was misled into badmouthing the agreement as merely political, and not constitutionally binding on him.

    As I argued in my piece: Fubara versus Wike on May 14, 2024: “while constitutionally he (Fubara) does not serve at the pleasure of the president, he needs the friendship of the president to serve pleasurably…. For his own success as governor, Simi must project respect, even when displaying strength, in dealing with Nigeria’s presidential behemoth.” Less than a year after the dire warning, the crisis in Rivers compelled the president to exercise his powers as provided for, in section 305 of the 1999 constitution (as amended).  

    But like a person whose spell had been cast off, after the state of emergency was declared, Fubara was all thanks to Tinubu, less than two weeks after the state of emergency was imposed. Admitting that he had come down from his high horses, he effusively thanked the president for his intervention, and said but for the intervention, the story in Rivers would have been different. Indeed, but for opening a war front with the president in his speech, after his Abuja trip, the story may have been different.

    The burlesque of unlimited power by an elected state governor was what led Fubara to the six-month suspension. Hopefully, he has lent his lessons, and he will spend the next 20 months trying to etch his name in the sands of time in Rivers State. He could do that by efficiently and effectively using the enormous resources of the state for the benefit of the people. No doubt, Rivers State is one of the richest states in Nigeria, both with respect to earning from the federation account and internally generated revenue.

    By several accounts, Rivers is the second richest state in Nigeria, after Lagos State. Fubara should concentrate on touching the lives of the people, not through the unsustainable populist programmes he was doing when he was fighting Wike, but through sustainable legacy projects. With his second term foreclosed, except a miracle happens, the temptation would be to ape his brother governors who engage in white elephant projects, to siphon money for their unborn generations. But Fubara, must realize that he will be under intense monitoring, for the remainder of his tenure.

    Unfortunately, he would have to work with a state legislature that is his sworn enemy. So, he has to plead for every approval and should he bare his teeth, they would knock it off, without warning. He will also not get the best cooperation from the newly (s)elected local government councilors and chairmen. Since they are products of a political compromise to save what is left of his governorship tenure, they would treat him, as a lame-duck governor. Even his appointees will work with caution.

    How he manages the remainder of his tenure, will be a study in political survival. While the trust between him and Wike has been damaged, he could with an obvious sense of humility, do a lot of damage control. More so, Wike, needs his cooperation to deliver on his political promises, to his benefactors. Because, even in his brokenness, it is still Fubara, that will give final approval for the release of state funds, for projects and other benefits. And while Wike, may have won now, the future is ever pregnant.