The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Religion and politics

    Religion and politics

    It is most probable that most Nigerians missed the deeper import of the big stick wielded by the presiding bishop of Catholic Diocese of Enugu on his wayward cleric, Fr. Ejike Mbaka and his Adoration Ministry, based in Emene, Enugu on Friday last week. It wasn’t that most didn’t know that the man’s cup had long been full and running over. Rather, it was a question of how long the church would continue to suffer the embarrassment by that immensely charismatic individual, who, in his show-boat appropriation of the church liturgy, had become something of a law unto himself.

    As the story went, Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, had visited the controversial cleric in the course of his weekly ministration services in his Emene base. Apparently recalling an earlier visit during which the businessman-politician refused, despite entreaties, to donate money to the church, he had pointedly accused him of being “stingy man” and thereafter proclaimed that unless Obi returned to his ministry to apologise for refusing to make donation when he was asked to do so, his ambition to become president of Nigeria would be fruitless.

    As it turned, if the world barely paid attention to the individual who had come to relish the self-appointed image of being scourge to the high and mighty, particular the tribe that refused to yield their pockets; a figure that only a few years back predicted political doom for President Muhammadu Buhari following his refusal to do a project for his ministry, after prayers on adoration altar made him president; and then Atiku Abubakar whose presidential dream he had dismissed on the same grounds, the matter of Peter Obi, a practising Catholic, had to be the red line.

    “And after having given him pastoral directives and guidelines for the Ministry Chaplaincy, which he persistently violated; and in fulfilment of my pastoral duties as the Chief Shepherd with the obligation to promote and safeguard the Catholic faith and morals in Enugu Diocese, I hereby prohibit all Catholics (clergy, religious and lay faithful) henceforth from attending all religious and liturgical activities of the Adoration Ministry until the due canonical process initiated by the Diocese is concluded”.

    The above, the pastoral injunction issued by the Bishop of the Diocese, Most Rev Dr. Callistus Onaga, on Friday, would seal his fate and that of his adoration grounds ministry. More than a routine sanction of a wayward cleric, an emphatic disclaimer of the errant doctrine of infallibility and the cult worship of that individual for whom the sacred altar meant no more than a political, an ego-massaging altar; the more profound but underlying message of the dangerous lurch by the church into the arena of politics as the nation cruises into the 2023 elections is one that should not be missed.

    As it is, the nation is still torn right through the middle on which path to take going forward. Thanks to the leadership of the leading political parties for yielding to wise counsel, despite the many misgivings about the many booby-traps in the electoral laws and the parties internal democratic practices, the conventions of the parties finally and the results generally accepted as representing fair outcomes. The Peoples Democratic Party has its flag bearer in Atiku Abubakar, the old war-horse and veteran presidential contestant; so does the All Progressives Party, APC, in the doughty Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who not only surmounted the impregnable odds laid on his path, but left with such margin of victory that left no doubt about his acceptance among his party’s rank and file. Now, we have Peter Obi for the Labour Party and Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as indeed a motley assembly of other fringe players in a race whose outcome would prove decisive for the largest black nation on earth.

    Few months back, the main topic was the part of the country that the successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, would come from. The argument was thought to be fairly straight-forward: after an eight year presidency of Muhammadu Buhari, the southern section of the country was unreservedly deserving of the top position. Not so however for the PDP, a party that has been shut out of the presidency since the electoral shellacking of 2014; their chief concern was which candidate was best – geography or not; and equity be damned – to lead the party to victory!

    In that, they found an Atiku Abubakar, another northerner, and Fulani like the incumbent to lead the charge!

    Unfortunately, if one had thought that the APC had a lesser dilemma to deal with, they were to be reminded that Nigeria, a country of multiple cleavages of tongues, tribes, clans and altars, still has a hurdle to cross in the tribe of opportunistic leaders sworn to mislead the people using the bully pulpit of their supposedly sacred altars.

    Today, the supposedly hot-button issue is the religious ticket; whether the APC could afford to push on with a Muslim-Muslim ticket. In other words, the quest for balance between the altars of the principal and the running mate!

    I do understand why a powerful body like the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, would insist on having its voice heard on the subject. Only the most hypocritical would deny CAN what other religious bodies, notably the likes of MURIC and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) routinely does. In any case, the current climate of intolerance not only makes religious sensitivities compelling, it is something that the nation’s diversity recommends.

    But when a supposedly distinguished body, in a fit of emotion, leaves out the substance to chase shadows, the adherents of the faith have reasons to worry. My worry of course is the fatwa pronounced by CAN on any political party that would dare to field candidates whose combination does not pander to the nation’s religious plurality.

    Says CAN’s General Secretary, Rev. Joseph Bade Daramola, in a statement “We give notice to all political parties that we will protect the religious diversity of the Nigerian state and will mobilise politically against any political party that sows the seed of religious conflict by presenting to Nigeria a presidential ticket that is Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian”.

    Such a statement, coming from CAN smack of desperation as against wisdom. How will the body achieve this? Call out its members within the party to withdraw from the party?  How? It certainly speaks to a new low in leadership that a body that was once led by such moderate and eminent voices such as Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, John Onaiyekan would descend into such ignoble arena. Clearly, if we thought we’d seen enough in the galling politics of influence that the CAN leadership played to the hilt under the Jonathan administration that took its reputation to the nadir, surely, the latest tantrums must have come as a new low in the chequered history of the body.

    If we may, at least for a moment, lay aside the credentials of the APC flag bearer; a man whose sojourn in the Lagos Governor’s Lodge has remained a reference in leadership possibilities; in fairness and equity, there is a lot that could be said of the process that produced the APC flag bearer as not only transparent, credible but world class. Of course, the party, like any serious institution, would certainly have its own internal mechanisms for carrying out its business. For yours truly, one of the high moments in the primary sweepstakes was when the party’s northern governors insisted, while emphasising an earlier pact to return power to the south, restated its resolve not to be swayed by what the opposition chose to do or not to do – an argument that could be pressed to mean that the party would insist on following strictly its own rules and electoral calculus on who runs alongside its candidate!

    Imagine a body like CAN – certainly not the body of Christ – thinking it could stampede the party into making a choice on the exaggerated assumption of power and influence!

    Of course, we have seen more bizarre moments before. In the build-up to the election of the 46 president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., the America’s Christian Right, obviously convinced of possessing the heaven’s hotline not only announced Donald Trump as the anointed one, the likes of Paula White, the White House Religious Counsellor sought the services of the Nigerian Pentecostal movement to help force the Divine Hand in foisting another Trump term.

    I’m told they are yet to live down the embarrassment of the ignoble defeat.

    Nigeria at this time needs praying men and women, not tradesmen in the altars of worship.

  • Omolúàbí!

    Omolúàbí!

    Omolúàbí!  — Yoruba for good breeding of the purest crust — seized South West public imagination from 2011, after the final collapse of the Olusegun Obasanjo willy-nilly mainstreaming, which left the region of Awolowo dazed with electoral capture.

    As Rauf Aregbesola, in November 2010, regained his stolen Osun governorship — the last of the slew of PDP-stolen mandates: after Edo, Ondo and Ekiti, spanning almost four years —Omolúàbí  reverberated among the Yoruba electorate.

    It was severe electoral beauty against Obasanjo’s brutal political thraldom.  Ogun (Obasanjo’s home state) and Oyo (the Yoruba political capital) would be free of the conservative shackles after 2011’s general election; thus confirming the supremacy of political Omolúàbí in the old Yoruba West.

    Needless to repeat: the main gladiators, in that progressives’ counter-attack from 2007, were Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (from retired Army General, the ex-president had become generalissimo of conservative forces) and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor, who led the progressives army.

    Aregbesola was first to capture the essence of the moment.  In an elaborate rebrand, he re-made Osun as Ìpínle Omolúàbí, (State of the Well-Bred, against the original moniker: State of the Living Spring).

    Kayode Fayemi’s Ekiti would weigh in with its new variant: Oni Uyì, Oni Eye — Ekiti dialect for “People of Honour”, another Omolúàbí variant.

    But in the brutal run-up to the APC presidential primaries, which Asiwaju Tinubu eventually won, pretty little of the Yoruba political Omolúàbí played out.  Rather, it was elements from the North that stood firm.

    For context, see the political trajectory of Governor Fayemi and former Senator Dayo Adeyeye.  In 2007, Adeyeye huffed out of the Action Congress (precursor to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria and today’s APC) because he alleged the AC Ekiti gubernatorial ticket was skewed for Fayemi against him and others.  Those miffed, back then blamed Tinubu for it all; and for that, Adeyeye stormed into political Siberia in PDP.

    In 2022, Fayemi (the “favoured boy” of 2007) was contesting the APC presidential ticket against Tinubu while Adeyeye, the complainant-in-chief back then, was rooting for the Asiwaju as chair of SWAGA — the South West Agenda for Asiwaju!  How roles change!

    Yes, Governor Fayemi redeemed his honour, on the convention grounds by stepping down for Tinubu.  For this, he earned due plaudits: it was a remarkable act in courage and common sense, with such high and electrifying stakes.

    Yet, in the Omolúàbí cosmos, such last-minute redemption could hardly excuse not knowing the ètò (Yoruba for norm) and not respecting the eto (legitimate due).  The hallmark of Omolúàbí demands you know the eto and respect the ètò.

    It’s the Yoruba equivalent of the Biblical golden rule: do unto others as you want others to do unto you; to teach that English aphorism: prevention is better than cure.

    That the Ekiti governor ran against his age-old benefactor at all violently breached Fayemi’s own “Oni Uyì, Oni Eye” credo.  Still, Fayemi saved himself — virtually by the bell, to borrow that evocative imagery of boxing.  Kudos!

    Now, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (PYO), Vice President of the Federal Republic, Tinubu beneficiary and eternal ally?  Well, before you judge him too harshly, witness how others in history — well, literature — fared at critical junctures, when stakes were really, really high.

    Rehoboam, heir to the throne of King Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, gobbled up the fatal folly of “useless young men” — as a version of the Bible described his debacle — and fulfilled the dire prophesy that the self-exiled Jeroboam would rule over 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel!  That was 931 BC, thus splitting old Israel into Samaria and Judah.

    Mark Anthony, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, was the swashbuckling general who led the forces that crushed the conspirators that killed Caesar, when Octavian (later, Augustus), Caesar’s adopted son, was but only a callow subaltern.

    Yet, in Anthony and Cleopara, the same Anthony, lost in the seductive bosoms of alluring Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, threw a party on the eve of a crucial battle against Augustus.  That was the beginning of his end as co-ruler of Rome, in the post-Caesar triumvirate of Anthony, Lepidus and Augustus Caesar.

    The Omolúàbí purists are within their bounds if they insist on the ètò and the eto; and lampoon poor Prof. Osinbajo as no more than, to put it in spicy Yoruba, “eni rí n kàn he, tó fé kú pelú e; owo  eni tó ti sonù n ko?...”(Remember the evergreen Ebenezer Obey lyric?)

    That translated into English could mean: “If you’d rather die than part with a chanced treasure, what would the one that lost that trove do?”

    It’s the ultimate moral censure in the Yoruba cosmos, without which Yoruba politics is incomplete.

    Yet, culture is culture; politics is politics though one is incomplete without the other.  That the British Constitution is “unwritten” yet it has run for centuries underscores the crucial role of culture, mores, conventions, etc, in politics.

    Unlike Fayemi, Vice President Osinbajo didn’t step down at the last minute.  Yet, he has congratulated the victor and pledged his full support — a cardinal democratic canon of gallant loss and graceful win.  That might not be enough for culture but it’s certainly decent closure for politics.

    PYO, in his post-defeat address to his TPP (The Progressive Project) coalition, even hinted at building a future network on that movement.  That can’t be bad for democratic deepening.

    Still, were that to mature and PYO become a formidable political force, perhaps he would appreciate the deep feeling of hurt, from brazen plots, to prise you off the network you’d built and nurtured all your political life.

    That triggered Tinubu’s Abeokuta “Eléyìí” thunder; and Adam Oshiomhole’s  jumpy foxtrot at the Eagle Square, after the Asiwaju’s triumph. The fear of Asiwaju cost Oshiomhole his APC national chair; and rubbed in his Edo Obaseki humiliation. You can’t therefore grudge Oshiomhole his dramatic “toast” to those two Pyrrhic victories!

    Reggae great, Jimmy Cliff, once crooned: “Every tub has to sit on its own bottom; every man has to stand on his own two feet.”  The Yoruba too would say: ”Ojú àwo l’àwo fi n gb’obe”: the dish soaks in the stew with its dominant part.  In other words, take your destiny in your hands.  That about captures the Abeokuta Eléyìí spirit.

    But the morning after, the Asiwaju had moved on — not given to base gloating and allied destructive passions, though every inch human.

    That is just as well — for Tinubu would need every help in his titanic tangle with Abubakar Atiku, the PDP candidate, Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, and others for the Nigerian presidency.

    Let bygones be bygones.  It’s a new day!

  • Agents provocateurs

    Agents provocateurs

    An agent provocateur is defined as a person employed to induce others to break the law so that they can be convicted. Such a person(s) can precipitate an action which triggers a chain of reactions, which could have dire consequences for a group of people. He or she could be a member of a group in which the action and reaction takes place or he could belong to a competing interest group, who does the action to prompt the opponent group to react.

    There are clearly such agent provocateurs at work trying to precipitate wars in Nigeria, in the past few years. Without argument, they lurk in large numbers in the northern part of the country, as ISWAP, Boko Haram, terrorists, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and the like. While these variant agents of war and destruction may not have a common agenda, they are likely hoping to gain from the anarchy they want to foist on the country. The kidnappers, cattle rustlers and similar groups may be interested merely in the immediate gain from their criminal activities.

    Some pundits however argue that the potpourri of these incendiary elements form part of a common group with the agenda to foist a Fulani Islamic hegemony on the rest of the country. Indeed, some commentaries even claim that there are agent provocateur in government and the military, and that is why the war on terror in Nigeria is protracted. Again, they argue that while some of these military agents want immediate financial gains, some fight for the agenda to destabilise and occupy the Nigerian space.

    In fairness to President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, the Boko Haram which is the major agent provocateur in the north-eastern part of the country has been substantially contained. While there are occasional attacks on innocent civilians, the criminals are no longer foisting their flags across local governments like before, to show their presence. The ISWAP which for many Nigerians are one and the same with Boko Haram, are also no longer laying claims to regular successful atrocities to show their presence, as was common in the not too distant past.

    But two recent incidents in the southern part of the country have precipitated a rash of arguments that the highly volatile criminal elements which hitherto operate in the northern part of the country have relocated to the southern part of the country to continue the agenda to destabilise, occupy and Islamize the rest of the country. There is also the lingering attacks in the southeast part of the country, which has left the governments and citizens debating over who, why, and what agenda.

    The first incident was the kidnap of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence, Samuel Uche Kalu, (and two other church ministers) who upon his release gave a startling revelation about the kidnappers’ operation. Shockingly within days, the second incident confirmed the alleged boast of the kidnappers when St Francis Catholic Church Owo, was attacked. According to some reports, the revered prelate revealed that his abductors are of Fulani stock, who had boasted that they are embedded in the forests of the southwest of Nigeria, fully armed, and ready to take action once the command is given.

    They also reportedly boasted that the huge ransom of N100 million extorted from the Methodist prelate would be used to buy more arms which they would use to overrun the southeast region. The most worrisome allegation was that the Nigerian soldiers, manning the check points near the incident area, who are of the same stock as the kidnappers, may actually be complicit in the criminal activities of the kidnappers.

    Since his bombshell of accusations against the Nigerian Army, no believable counter narrative has been given by the army, except the terse statement that the army would invite the prelate for debriefing. The prelate also claimed that from his interactions with his abductors, it was those who masquerade as herdsmen that are also operate the kidnappers. They use the cow as a decoy to deceive people that they are into a legitimate business, but the cows are also used to cause obstruction and slow down the cars on highways, so they can pounce on their victims.

    Barely a week after the revelation by the prelate that the ‘pretentious army of occupation’ claimed they are across the forests in the southwest, they actually struck at the St. Francis Catholic Church Owo, is a most gruesome manner. The attackers who reportedly used grenades and very sophisticated assault rifles left about 40 worshippers dead, and several of them injured. They chose to attack the town and state of the most outspoken governor of the southwest region, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN.

    The revered Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, talked about ‘the who, the why, the where, and the what’ message the attackers passed to the people of southwest. As far as he is concerned, the action is not a mere criminal incidence, but intended to put the region on notice. He on behalf of the region acknowledged the receipt of the dastardly message, and promises an adequate response accordingly. It is also intriguing that the purported message was passed on the cusp of the historic All Progressive Congress presidential primary, which the Lion of Bourdillon, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu won resoundingly.

    The third denominator which has lost traction in the public consciousness is the issue of unknown gunmen in the southeast. While some state governments in the region and of course the federal government and its agencies blame IPOB and its affiliates for the atrocities going on in the region, the IPOB group denies any complicity in the abominable murders of Igbos and non-Igbos in the region. They claim that it is those working to foist Fulani hegemony on the rest of the country that are the unknown gunmen.

    So, it is legitimate to ask whether the recent kidnap and the revealing interview by the Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria and the confirmatory incidence of the bombing of St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, in the Southwest, show a confounding connection to the heinous crimes ascribed to unknown gunmen in the southeast. Or could these be three disparate agent provocateurs seeking to precipitate the destruction of our dear country?

    If we still have national security agencies which are altruistic, and which have the interest of the survival of Nigeria at heart, then their jobs are cut out for them. Of course, if they fail to connect the missing dots in the puzzle, by arresting those who kidnapped His Eminence, those who bombed parishioners of St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, and the ubiquitous unknown gunmen who kill and maim at will in the southeast, the swirl of conspiracy theories could overwhelm the entire country.

  • Undelegated delegates

    Undelegated delegates

    The legal maxim delegate non potest delegare appears not to hold water in the Nigerian context, especially with respect to delegates to party conventions and congresses. The maxim simply means that a delegate cannot delegate his power to another. In its fuller meaning, it presupposes that the source of the delegated power has to define the mandate, and the delegate is supposed to exercise the directives of those who delegated him/her.

    Learned author, Ese Malami, in his book on Administrative Law, defined a delegate as “a person who is appointed, authorised, empowered or commissioned to act instead of another person, usually the person giving him authority to so act. A delegate is a person who is appointed by another to act on his behalf.” He explains that “delegation is the transfer of authority by one person to another person to empower that other person to perform a task on behalf of the donor of the power.”

    In political governance they are three types of power which can be delegated: the legislative, executive and the judicial powers. Under the 1999 constitution, the Nigerian people delegated their powers to the three branches. The legislature has the power to make laws, the executive the power of implementing the laws made by the legislature, and the judiciary the powers to interpret the laws, and adjudicate disputes arising therefrom.

    The legislative powers are delegated under section 4 of the 1999 constitution. Section 4(1) provides that the “legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” Sub-section 2 provides that “The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative list set out in Part 1 of the Second Schedule to this Constitution.” For the constituent parts of the Federation, section 4(6) provides “The Legislative powers of a state of the Federation shall be vested in the House of Assembly of the State.”

    The executive powers are delegated under section 5 of the 1999 constitution. Section 5(1)(a) provides: “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of the federation shall be vested in the president and may subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the vice president and ministers of the government of the federation or officers in the public service of the federation.” The constitution goes ahead to define the extent those powers.

    In section 5(2), the constitution provides “Subject to the provisions of this constitution, the executive powers of a state shall be vested in the governor of the state and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by a House of Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the deputy governor and commissioners of government of that state or officers in the public service of the state.” The constitution also defines the extent of those powers.

    Finally section 6 of the 1999 constitution delegates the judicial powers to the judiciary. While section 6(1) provides that “The judicial powers of a state shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established for the federation” section 6(2) provides “the judicial powers of a state shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established, subject as provided by this constitution, for a state.” The constitution further goes ahead to define the courts, and the extent of the powers conferred on them.

    From the foregoing, the 1999 constitution defined the constituent authority which has been delegated powers, and the extent of the powers delegated to them, in other to avoid confusion and abuse of the delegated authority. Yet, despite the elaborate efforts of the constitution and other extant legislations made pursuant to the delegated powers, there is abundance of confusion, mismanagement and abuse of those powers unequivocally made pursuant to the delegated powers.

    So, we can imagine when power is delegated without definition and control. In the past week, and perhaps as this column is published, the precise import of delegated authority has assumed a strange nomenclature in our legal and political lexicon. The recent political party conventions particularly that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), during which delegates turned themselves to political whores, in pursuit of personal aggrandizement, in the absence of a clear mandate as to the nature and extent of powers delegated to them, is a case in point. Of course what happened in PDP may likely happen in the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) convention.

    Perhaps, the weakness lies in the inchoate legal provision of who a delegate is, and the extent of powers of a delegate, both in the Electoral Act, and of course, the poorly drafted constitutions of the political parties. Section 84(8) of the 2022 Electoral Act, viewed as revolutionary provides: “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall clearly outline in its constitution and rule the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.”

    In their tit-for-tat abuses of powers delegated to them, the National Assembly inserted a nebulous provision, of who a delegate shall not be. Section 84(12) of the Act provides: “No political appointee at any level shall be voting delegates or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.” The result of the poor legislative drafting on who a delegate should be, and the extent of the powers conferred has thrown up mendacious delegates, who turned the convention of political parties to a bazaar.

    An example of the degradation of the delegate system, is exemplified by one Tanko Sabo, of Kaduna State, who reportedly spent N6.9 million of his ‘loot’ as a delegate on the less privileged in his community. Aping the famous Robin Hood, he spent the illegal earnings from his misunderstood duty as a delegate to do some good. He paid WAEC and NECO fees for orphans, gave money to elders, women and beggars, and supported footballing among youths.

    The tragedy of our nation is that despite the abundance of evidence of bribery and corruption in the primaries, the anti-corruption agencies are indifferent. How Nigerians think we can elect worthy candidates and selfless political office holders from these fraudulent processes beats this column. Without hesitation, there is the urgent need to predefine a delegate, his responsibilities, and the extent of the delegated power if we want the nation to make progress.

  • Cost of an eye

    Cost of an eye

    I dreamt I saw an eye
    In your hands
    Glittering, wet and sickening
    Like a dull onyx set in a crown of thorns
    I did not know you were dead
    When you dropped it in my lap …
    — Kwesi Brew, “The Executioner’s Dream”

    No, no, no one died — not by the hand of an executioner; not by any other.

    Rather, it was eye restoration by a quad of angel-surgeons, on a short procedure to remove a stubborn cataract that for too long had held that eye captive.

    Did the eye glitter in their hand?  Was it wet too?  Was it sparkling or sickening — like the one the Executioner saw in his dream?  Honestly, you couldn’t say!

    Your head was bottled up in a surgical muffle, leaving open only the cataract-blocked eye.  You felt only a scratch on the eye, suggesting the lightest of surgical touches.

    Then, you saw the most enchanting wave of stars, thousands and thousands of them, in blue family colours, cool and gentle, like some galaxy, in some starry paradise.  As the procedure lasted, the richer the galaxy, and the sweeter the colours.

    Any pains?  Hardly.  The light sedation took a good care of that.  But you were all nerves, though calm — laying there all helpless; at the mercy of God and the skilled hands of the surgeons; and praying furiously!

    There, you suddenly remembered that cynical quip: “Danger averted, God forgotten!”  How futile and foolish!  How could you even forget God, any time, in prosperity or in adversity, since He held all the aces over all creatures?

    What if something went wrong?  What if there were some complications, which threw the surgeons at the end of their wit and skill?  What if the eye was never the same again?  What if …

    Then, the sing-song voices of Dr. Omolola Okunade and her surgeon peers, exchanging banters and helpful clinical ideas, wafted across to you at the other side of numb consciousness.  That cooled your nerves.

    “Are you okay?  Are you comfy?” came the calm yet bright voices.

    “Yes, ma’am”, you returned.

    All of them were women, save the surgical assistant, who had earlier thrown rib-cracking riffs at your gaunt psyche, as you waited, all anxiety, with some five other patients at the theatre’s dressing room and waiting wing.

    Still, the procedure couldn’t have gone off to a more worrying start.  The old lady that just got off the surgery bed suddenly declared she couldn’t see — not with the left eye just operated upon (which was patched up, anyway) but with the right, untouched by the surgeon’s scalpel.

    “How come?” The doctors wondered aloud, “we didn’t touch the other eye?”  Even then, there was no panic, just some nonplussed wonder.  That got you, the next patient, asking; and your nerves jangling: would I have the same complaints after?

    You later got to know the eye was okay; that nothing was amiss, save patients’ post-surgery theatrics, which the surgeons were used to.  As that reassuring piece of news drifted to you, you felt relief and bolstered confidence.

    The journey to the Victoria Island eye theatre of Skipper Eye-Q, an Indo-Nigerian chain of eye hospitals, boasting 42 eye hospitals in India and Nigeria; and tucking 14 years of eye care under its belt, dated back to no less than five years.

    Driving on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on a travel jaunt, Ripples blinked and felt some light clouds floating on the left eye.  That cloudy see-saw would continue as the cataract grew, and well-nigh “captured” the eye.

    An earlier attempt at surgery, at the Guinness Eye Centre of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), was aborted: no thanks to a high sugar level, which called for a radical change of diet.

    But as the surgery got delayed, so did the anxiety mount.  Meanwhile, for the eye, no respite, as you flogged it in routine daily labour: acute research, writing and never-ending deadlines, and even more endless glare at the computer screen!

    You could bank on public sector doctors, more so at teaching hospitals like LUTH.  The cost too was not unreasonable. But not so the indifferent, condescending medics; and their rude support staff — not to mention the market-like crowds on consultation days!

    But can you on private hospitals — on delicate procedures as the eye?  How much can you trust these folks, in an ultra-delicate procedure: a precise operation that left almost a zero margin of error?  If you could, can you pay the huge service cost?

    The anxiety to commit, even after sound referrals!  Then, the fearful fire to burn your pocket!

    In its Facebook promotional pitch, Skipper Eye-Q claimed that in all of its facilities, patients got the quality treatment they would in the United States, or in the United Kingdom, India or any other part of the globe.  It not only boasted the latest technology in eye care, it had also, under its wings, world-class surgeons.

    If the taste of the pudding were in the eating, the hospital was all that and more — if you had the cash!

    From its Ilupeju tributary where Ripples linked up after referral from Hillcrest Hospital, one of The Nation  official clinics, to its Victoria Island head hospital and theatre, Skipper Eye Q was the epitome exceeding care: pre- and post-surgery; and certainly during the procedure itself.

    Sure, the cost was stiff!  Not many could afford the N400, 000 to N900, 000 bracket, minus pre-surgery tests (to reconfirm the eye’s vitality, aside from testing for Glaucoma) to ensure cataract was the only problem.  For those tests, add another N55, 000.  The stiff cost of an eye!

    But it’s as they say: if education is expensive, try ignorance!  If value is costly, try quackery!  The hefty cost of an eye!

    This imperative for value in critical surgeries again makes the urgent case for mainstreaming health insurance.  With vibrant health insurance, much of the cost would be absorbed: from the low-end to the premium surgical and general healthcare market; and much more could afford critical value at far cheaper costs.

    For now, Ripples is all thanks for the doughty institutional support by The Nation.  From Victor Ifijeh, managing director and editor-in-chief, to about everyone, the support was awesome!  Thank you folks.

    The Editorial Board?  My peers in there were something else!  Sam Omatseye’s call came just as Ripples was being prepped for surgery!  You know how awesome that felt?

    Then, Mrs Omatseye, goodly woman!  She was prayer advocate-in-chief on her prayer-warrior WhatsApp platform!  All this from a woman I’d met only twice!  Thanks all so much madam. God bless you and yours!

    My colleagues on the Editorial Board, can I ever thank you enough — your sweet yet unobtrusive inquiries, love-wrapped care and wishes, telephone calls, heal-soon text messages?  Thanks guys!

    For readers, fulsome apologies for missing in action for two long weeks!  That’s pretty much eternity in Nigeria, where events tumble out at a crazy pace!  Thanks too for your texts and good wishes.

    Now, where did we leave off?  It’s time to play catch-up!

  • APC: Game over?

    APC: Game over?

    Those who expected that President Muhammadu Buhari will, by some stroke of luck, find some genius to recover and re-direct the ship of state must have finally realised to their grim disappointment that nothing of sort will happen: the man is far too gone to make things happen. It is obvious that neither the leader nor the team that he leads still pretend to any understanding of the moment, the fierce urgency of action to arrest the reign of anarchy set upon the nation, let alone the mood of a distraught people, enough to pull the brakes.

    It is apparent that the leader and the cabal surrounding him simply do not care. For some, it must have come as a grave tragedy, that the individual, in whom many had invested much hope, could squander same in such cold-blooded, cavalier manner.

    Remember those tears at Abuja’s International Conference Centre? It seems like yesterday when the CPC candidate Buhari swore that the 2011 contest would be his last pursuit of the presidency.

    And those beautifully couched words: “I need nothing and I have nothing more to prove. I am in this solely for the love of my country and concern for its destiny and the fate of its people. And that is why, despite the many disappointments along the way, I am still in the struggle and will remain in it to the end. I have decided to dedicate the remainder of my life to fighting for the people of this country-until their right is restored to them”.

    That was April 2011. A decade and one year plus and a gifted presidency to boot, the people of Nigeria now know better than to take appearance for real substance! That if the man was ever prepared to govern in any meaningful sense; that must have been aeons ago! Now, the realisation is that his pretence to any appreciable understanding of the Nigerian terrain after years of being out in the cold is just as suspect as his avowal of being a born-again democrat! How about the rather strange but pervasive philosophy of leadership couched in abdication that has turned to the nation’s Achilles’ heel? And the pledge to fight for the people until their rights is restored to them? Now the debate is on which people the president has in mind? Talk of a teachable moment for all!

    Today, on virtually all fronts, the country is either broke or broken. Unemployment is currently at the highest levels ever; the same with inflation. Power remains as it was – unavailable. From being the poverty capital of the universe until a year or two ago, we have managed to slip to the second place with India on the top spot only on account of the absolute number of the poor in the Asian country! Thanks to our frenemy – the IMF, we are said to spend amount nearly equal to our entire revenue on debts service. Greater thanks to the on-going industrial scale theft of our crude oil; it is on record that we can’t even produce enough to cover our OPEC quota.

    By the way, once upon a time, our erstwhile minister of petroleum sensationally declared fuel subsidy a hoax; now his presidency, after seven years of inaction of the nation’s four refineries, is asking for N6 trillion to pay for the same subsidy! Never mind that the administration has also expended billions of taxpayers’ money into a fruitless rehabilitation with nary hope that the contraptions will ever refine a single litre of fuel.

    As for security, the situation remains extremely grave. Two days ago, 50 worshippers at St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State were mowed down by unknown gunmen. But then, as it is in Katsina, the president’s home state, so it is in Kaduna, his adopted state; the terrorists, misnamed as terrorists, continue to run rings round the security system. Although the country is not officially at war; yet the daily casualty exceeds those of Ukraine currently fighting a war with Russia.

    All of the above would however seem only a minor part of the wholesome mismanagement ingrained into the administration’s DNA that has left the nation severely sundered.

    However, if anyone ever harboured a thought that the administration would somehow find the wisdom to halt its arbitrary nature and its inverted sense of justice and equity so it does not end up in bringing the roof crashing down the heads of everyone, yesterday’s play within the play, by elements within the All Progressives Congress, ought to have cleared by now. Thanks to Abdullahi Adamu, the now, re-purposed vehicle; the same Special Purpose Vehicle on which the president rode to power in 2015 and on whose platform he was re-elected in 2019, finally took the dive; the first step in its hitherto barely concealed mission to stop Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu from gunning for the nation’s topmost job. Yesterday, the party of Adamu,  under the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari is said to have finally declared Ahmed Lawan, the anointed one!

    Just like that!

    Yes; the game is finally in the open! The bits, formerly apart, are finally coming together. The charade on the Electoral Act and the associated cat and mouse game of amendments; the artful manoeuvres and judicial manipulation by Abubakar Malami and co; the extravagant presidential lapsus linguae (slip of tongue) and the ensuing crass, nonsensical but patently indulgent semantics that followed by devious, unscrupulous officials for the most part of the past week; add to these the shifty electoral umpire – the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC forced to bend backwards to accommodate the shenanigans of the ruling party – all of them finally let out in the shameless disregard for the rules of fairness, decency and the law – under a strange variant of consensus!

    And where do these all lead? For now, it is hard to know. One thing is sure though: the party, APC will never remain the same – certainly not after this. The northern governors will no doubt attempt to salvage the situation. How long they will hold out is however a different matter. So also will some sensible members of the National Working Committee of the party be expected to press their dissent? In the end, the hawks in the party, guided by the Abdullahi Adamu, will still try to force their way.

    Such is the awesome powers of our nebulous presidency that no one could be said to be in charge; hence laws could be broken without fears of any real or potential consequences. Yet, the chief of state is Mai Gaskiya!

    Is the wait then, finally over?

    Ours may be an incredible country; there are still some things that will not simply pass – and rightly too!

  • Incredible country!

    Incredible country!

    Watching last week’s Abuja thriller starring Rochas Okorocha, former governor of Imo State and the men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, one is immediately let into that sordid spectacle that governance has been plunged by the supposed midwives of the establishment. Whereas some aptly described it as a show of shame and national embarrassment, both of which in the circumstance qualifies as an understatement, it is in fact a fitting characterisation of the elite pathology and one whose symptom is to be found in the most avant-garde contempt for laws and national institutions, that have become so commonplace by wielders of power and influence.

    Now, in the height of the past week’s drama, it seems highly likely that few still remember where it all started from. I mean the alleged heist involving billions of naira of funds – N2.9 billion –said to belong to the state where the governor once ruled, a section of which he currently sits as its most distinguished senator. Even more unlikely perhaps are the minor background details such as an alleged jumping an administrative bail granted him by the commission and evasion of service all in the bid to get the individual to answer questions on same. At least, not when the images of doors being smashed and roofs of the building being removed by supposedly overzealous operatives are all over the social media – including images of their ostensibly frightened ‘victim’ spread-eagled, praying mantis-like, on the luxuriant canvas in some contrived supplication to an apparently distant god! Talk of the minor suddenly assuming the central plot in the intriguing, never-ending scandal of a nation on a roller-coaster ride to the abyss. And talk of the past week passing as another teachable moment for Nigerians in civics education on the broad provinces of state power and the obligation (or lack thereof) of the citizens to acquiesce to the majesty of the law!

    That was last week. The preceding week, by the way, was similar in kind – without of course the preambles of drama. Then, it was the nation’s number one book keeper, Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris being picked up by operatives of the EFCC over an alleged N80bn fraud.

    The AGF, said the EFCC, “raked off the funds through bogus consultancies and other illegal activities using proxies, family members and close associates”, funds said to have been laundered through real estate investments in Kano and Abuja.

    Like Okorocha, Idris was arrested after reportedly “failing to honour invitations by the EFCC to respond to issues connected to the fraudulent acts”. This newspaper in its update on the unfolding scandal, has since reported another separate finding of N90 billion to bring the alleged heist to N170billion said to involve an unnamed permanent secretary and a minister.

    As all Nigerians probably know, this is where the real drama is expected to begin. First, the battle over the rights of the accused to bail – stemming as it were from their presumption of innocence. Expectedly, the courts will be pressed for accommodation to enable this class of Nigerians travel abroad for elite care and other medical exigencies. And while these play out, the main trial would be held in abeyance. If the precedence from the Orji Uzor Kalu case is anything to go by, the nation had better prepare for a long running farce of a trial!

    Remember; the alleged N7.65 billion fraud by the former governor, now Chief Whip of the Senate took 12 years to prosecute. But even when, against all odds, the trial ended in a committal, the Supreme Court would later pronounce the judgment a nullity strictly on the ground that the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, had, at the time he delivered the judgment, been elevated to the Court of Appeal!

    Months on, we are stuck with the drama, or if you like, a play within the play: the contestation on whether the apex court actually ordered a retrial, which would seem a fair summary of what the eminent justices said, or the averment by the accused persons and their legal teams that a retrial will put them in double jeopardy – which in effect means scuttling the process!

    And so to those putting much stock on the events of the past few weeks, my unsolicited advisory would, in the circumstance be the seven letter word: caution!

    But surely, the drama is not restricted to the justice sector alone. Perhaps, unknown to most Nigerians, a more riveting drama actually played out at the National Assembly also within the month. And the subject? You guessed right; the controversial Electoral Act 2022.

    Now a little background.  Nigerians would remember that President Muhammadu Buhari had sometime in December last year declined to asset to the draft bill sent to him. His reasons were that the law in prescribing only the direct primaries needlessly tied the parties to pick their candidates; in other words that the parties should have the leeway to pick from the options of direct, indirect and consensus options as against the single prescription of direct primary. He also alluded to the issue of insecurity the cost of direct primaries to the parties should the option be allowed as passed. Subsequently, the lawmakers amended the bill, sometime I believe in January. A month later, the president signed the bill into law.

    Case closed? Not quite as there remained a troubling provision: Clause 84(12).

    The clause reads, “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.” Needless to state that the president wanted the section deleted hence his letters to the leadership of the two chambers which were promptly rejected. Little did they realise that they had an unforced error in section 84(8) – a provision which also excludes statutory delegates from participation in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties.

    “This is an unintended error, and we can only correct it with this amendment now before us”; crooned the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central) moments before the rushed amendment. An error by a parliament which boasts of seasoned lawyers and supposedly high fliers in other professions?

    Too late? Nada!  An articulate silence would appear more preferable to our apparently seething president!

    Thank heavens, we have more manageable elected delegates taking part in a major landmark event of electing parties flag bearers; an unprecedented one in which the president, vice president, the all-powerful governors, national and state lawmakers and the hordes so-called statutory delegates are mere spectators.

    I imagine that the 109-member assembly of senators and 360-member representatives would rather have the inexplicable omission – which border on gross ineptitude and criminal dereliction – passed off as a non-event?

    Trust me; it can only happen in Nigeria.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Rich sound of music

    Rich sound of music

    This essay is dedicated to Professor Richard and Dr (Mrs) Cecilia Okafor, who celebrated the golden jubilee of their wedding anniversary in pomp and pageantry last Saturday. A biopic of the crescendo and diminuendo of the lives of Rich and Cey enthrals like the famous music drama, the sound of music. At the beginning in 1969, it was in their bucolic village, Amofia, under the shadows of the Nigerian civil war that the love story started, and by 1972 they were married.

    Back then, Rich was a grade two teacher, and Cey a school certificate holder, with bleak future like other Igbos. But today, Rich and Cey are polished giant 24 carat gold. While Rich is a retired renowned Professor of Music Education and Ethnomusicology, who holds BA (Hons), from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a PhD from Queens University, Belfast, Cey is a retired Senior Lecturer, with a B.Sc from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, an MPA, M.Sc. and PhD from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu.

    Rich’s metamorphosis to stardom is indeed rich, and he rose on the sounds of music. As the choir master and organist of the renowned St. Patrick’s Catholic Church Choir, Ogbete, Enugu, from 1958 to 1976, Rich’s fame like Okonkwo of the Things Fall Apart, spread far and near. He was a famed star choral conductor, whose body movement and gyrations as he performed at several Catholic Diocesan Choir competitions, was a cynosure of eye and public enchantment.

    Perhaps, it was the legendry of those great music performances that attracted Cey to Rich. But definitely so, for late Bishop G. M. P. Okoye, CSSP, who asked Rich to seek university admission with a promise to sponsor him. Rich got admission to study music few months after he married Cey. He had on his room door a statement of intent: “All those who have the wings of eagle, let them fly, I too shall arrive”. And he indeed arrived in style.

    Cey on her part was also a dogged fighter for fame and fortune. With a child either in her tommy, or on her back, or beside her, she climbed the ladder of higher education with aplomb. Her second son Uchenna, describes her trajectory. While he was in primary school, his mother was a primary school teacher, while in secondary school, she had graduated and was teaching in secondary school, and by the time he became an undergraduate, she obtained her PhD and became a university lecturer.

    Cey held on the tail of the high flying Rich, and together they soared like eagles. While Rich entered the university on the scholarship of the Bishop of Enugu, he soon won the university’s Foundation Scholarship as the best student in his department, and subsequently a national scholarship with which he completed his university education, obtaining second class (upper division). With a good degree, he went straight for his PhD at the Queen’s University, Belfast, while Cey studied for a Diploma in Montessori Method of Education.

    As pioneers and exemplars of doggedness, endeavour and triumph, Rich and Cey pointed the light for their siblings, their relations and people who clustered around them as soon as they returned to Nigeria, in 1980. They started off at University of Uyo, where Rich was the head of department of music, from 1980-81, and later pioneer staff of College of Education, Eha-Amufu, 1981- 1989. He moved over to Anambra State University of Technology, in 1989, where he became a Professor of Music Education and Ethnomusicology in 1991. He retired in 2005, as Dean of Post Graduate School, and has over 20 books, and 76 peer reviewed journals to his credit. He subsequently became the pioneer director of General Studies Education, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, named after the Bishop who gave him scholarship in 1972.

    On her part, Cey obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Education/Government from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1986, and Masters in Public Administration and Political Science in 1997 and 2003, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2005, from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology. She joined ESUT in 1999 as a Research Fellow II, and was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2005. She became the Head of Department of Political Science for two terms from 2007-2011, before she retired in 2016.

    In the cause of their lives, Rich and Cey have mentored distinguished personalities from all works of life, and so last Saturday, friends, relations and well-wishers gathered to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in style. A couple with human milk of kindness, their homes even till now remains a welcoming nest for even distant relations. As teachers, all their adult lives, the couple has moulded thousands of successful people. Deeply rooted in the Catholic faith, the clergy and the religious came in their numbers to celebrate their golden jubilee anniversary.

    The Catholic Bishop of Enugu, His Lordship Most Rev. Dr. Callistus Valentine Chukwuma Onaga, led the special thanksgiving Mass, at the Omnium Santorum Chaplaincy, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. In his homely, the vice chancellor of the university, and rector of the chaplaincy, Rev. Fr. Prof Christian Anieke, FLSN, FAL, described Rich and Cey as good people. He told of how Rich gives his all to the university, particularly in remembrance of his benefactor, Bishop Okoye.

    Bishop Onaga guided the couple as they renewed their marriage vow to the excitement of the worshippers. After the liturgy of the word, the celebration moved over to the Peter Mbah auditorium beside the chaplaincy, for the liturgy of the stomach, an afternoon and evening of sumptuous lunch and dinner for over a thousand guests. Disregarding the failing national economy, the couple, their children, relations and friends, under the planning leadership of Professor I.J. Chidobem, former vice chancellor of ESUT, and in-law of the celebrants, organised a one-in-town anniversary.

    In a toast to the couple, Chief Christopher Okafor, Ogbakokpo, retired Deputy Director of Central Bank of Nigeria, and younger brother of Professor Okafor, retold the humble beginnings of Rich. He recalled how Rich joyously went to Teachers Training College, to quickly equip himself to help his humble late parents Ogbueshu James and Mrs Veronica Okafor train his other 10 siblings, including himself. While Cey’s late parents Chief Michael and Uzodimma Amalu were of the middle class, the couple nevertheless bonded in love, from the beginning.

    That love relationship has produced five wonderful children, who are all happily married. They are Engr. Chukwuweike and Ijeoma Okafor, Engr. Uchenna and Ijedumma Okafor, Chibuzor and Chioma Okafor, Nwadunobu and Christian Aneke (nee Okafor) and Ihezuakor and Chukwunweike Okechukwu (nee Okafor), with 19 grandchildren. This column wishes Ogbueshu Ugobelunoji and my sister, Oke omume n’egbu nma, the joy of unblemished love.

     

     

     

  • Nation without statesmen

    Nation without statesmen

    The controversy generated by the latest attempt to further amend the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2022, which the president had not signed as this column went to bed exposes our office holders as self-serving bigots. The National Assembly in her effort to curb the excesses of the state governors who pack state primaries with outrageous number of statutory delegates, seems to have outlawed themselves and other statutory delegates, including past and present presidents and their vice, past and present governors and their deputies, the chairman and members of the National Executive Committee, and the horde of past legislative leaders from voting in the national convention.

    With selfish interests driving the executive and legislators, there is utter confusion few days to the state primaries and national convention of political parties, which will determine those who will contest in the 2023 elections. To further muddle up the situation, while the president and his attorney general are in court seeking to strike down section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022, which the plaintiffs consider unduly advantageous to the legislators, the latter in turn have rushed out a further amendment to the Act, and is helplessly begging the president to sign same, to grant the excluded statutory delegates the right to participate in the primaries.

    For this column, our dear nation is a victim of self-serving political actors, who are selfish, and who think less of establishing a stable electoral process for the good of the country. That explains why at every electoral cycle since 1999, the nation is jittery as political actors wobble and fumble with experimental additions to the nation’s electoral laws that will serve their selfish interest. And because majority of the present day political actors are not statesmen, they will wait until the election year is close by before they start their jejune experiments.

    Perhaps, some of them derive sadistic pleasure from the tension that grip the nation, as they practice their dangerous games. And come to think of it, the National Assembly is packed with highly paid legislative assistants, who are supposed to be experts in all that is required to make good laws. Apparently, what is lacking is the patriotism needed to make laws that will serve the nation and not merely those occupying temporal positions.

    What baffles this column is that after making life difficult for members of the National Assembly, the governors who are the tormentors-in-chief end up in the National Assembly, where they in turn suffer similar abuses from their successors. Ordinarily, if our elected officials are clear-headed, they will realise that power is transient, and as such they will make laws that are fair and equitable for everyone, regardless of the temporal positions they occupy.

    A cursory look through the laws shows that Nigeria has amended the Electoral Act many times. There is the Electoral Act 2010, Electoral (Amendment) Act 2010, Electoral (Amendment) Act 2011, Electoral (Amendment No. 2) Act 2011, Electoral (Amendment) Act 2015, and Electoral (Amendment) Act 2022 which came after several attempts, and now the pending amendment No. 2 of 2022, awaiting the president’s signature as this column is being written. It should worry Nigerians that despite the several amendments, the nation is still edgy because of the failure to get it right.

    The contending parties should therefore have a rethink, if they want this democracy to survive. For instance, instead of forestalling all appointed persons from participating in the primaries, whether as delegates or as contestants, the legislators can peg the number or category of appointed persons that can participate as delegates. In the present political dispensation, senators have resigned to take up appointments as minsters, showing the importance of that office. Indeed, a former senate president was appointed secretary to the federal government.

    If those positions are important in the political dispensation, it is absurd that a political party would exclude them from an important political programme such as a party primary or national convention. The same logic applies to those appointed as commissioners and heads of important parastatals and agencies of government. If they command political influence and extend patronages to members of the public, it is absurd that when such influence should be used to scurry support for the party, the holders are excluded.

    Perhaps, the problem is not with the electoral acts, but with political practitioners who are always determined to have their way all the time. That explains why the legislators are after the jugular of the executive, while the executive in turn treats legislators as appendages of their office. Yet, members of both arms of government profess to belong to the same political interest group, and sometimes serve on the same side of the divide at one time or the other.

    Beyond the self-serving interests of the political actors, the powers granted the president and governors by the 1999 constitution (as amended) are too expansive, and that is a contributing factor to the crisis. The worst part is that at the federal level, the constitution packs all the powers of any modern state in the exclusive legislative list, while the remnants of the executive powers are reserved for the state executives which do everything in their power to fend any attempt to near their throne.

    It is this over-concentration of power in the hands of the executive arms that is causing the desperation by contestants, their sponsors and supporters. The tragedy of over-concentration of power in the hands of the chief executive at the federal and state levels is compounded by the weak institutional checks and balances. The most recent manifestation of such weakness is the alleged misappropriation of N80 billion by the suspended accountant general of the federation, Ahmed Idris.

    If Idris could have such humongous resources at his disposal, one can imagine what is available to ministers and heads of governmental agencies, sometimes, to deal with, as it pleases them. While the officials of government in the states may not have such huge sums to play ping-pong with, what is available in their care is still huge by every standard.

    So, the main concern of Nigerians should be how to ensure that those elected or selected to govern or make laws are accountable to the rest of Nigerians. If there are no free money to be stolen or unduly earned from the political positions, there will be no desperation to win elections, or gain appointments at all costs. And so our country will not be on tenterhooks, because of a general election.

    As we prepare for the 2023 elections, there is no doubt that Nigeria is in urgent need of statesmen, whether as lawmakers or the chief executives. May God help Nigerians to make the right choices.

  • Time to run

    Time to run

    The book of Ecclesiastes teaches there is time for everything. Unfortunately, the sacked ministers in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari refused to heed that exhortation. They played humpty dumpty, sitting pretty in office while running for an elective post, and they had a great fall. President Buhari after much prevarication became a prophet of interpretation to them. With a little shove, he ran them out of his government, so they can run their partisan races.

    Some said the president was angry, when he prophesied. Perhaps, he may have seen them as greedy or potential spoilers for his party. If not for desperation, they ought to have seen the signs, in view of section 84(12) of Electoral Act 2022. But now, they have been set free, it is time to run their races, with their own spikes. We know they wanted to enjoy the speed from the crest of their appointed offices. They wanted a wind-aided race.

    One of them, Rotimi Amaechi, the former Minister of Transportation, desperately tried to turn running for elections into running on race tracks. He wanted to pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians. But the gimmick failed. Instead of receiving accolades for running aimlessly around the stadium, he received opprobrium for attempting to trick the public. He was reminded that if all that is required to win an election and be a good leader is the capacity to run on race tracks, the Okagbares of this world would win all the offices.

    Another political trickster is the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele. He wants to eat his cake, and still have it in the oven. He wants to run for president, but is afraid to venture into the muddy terrain without his governor’s boots. He sought a court order to cover his sins, and when he was caught, instead of being remorseful, he said his accusers should suffer heart attack, that heart attack is good. May such goodness not come his way?

    But it is silly of Emefiele to want to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. He wants to run as president, while cooing in the office of apex bank. What an abuse of privilege. A highlife maestro from my town, Mike Ejeagha, sang that one should be careful when a companion on a hunt in the woods, turns around to say that one’s leg is looking like that of an antelope. Such a person can kill remorselessly.

    To show how incendiary his malignant intention to run for election while remaining the governor of CBN is, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is reportedly reconsidering where to keep sensitive election materials, usually kept in the custody of the CBN. Many bystanders are already insinuating that he may have fingered past elections in favour of his political party, and all he could say is that those raising legitimate questions about his sense of propriety should suffer heart attack. A man with such an emotional imbalance should not near the presidency.

    And that is the man who has been in charge of our common patrimony for eight years. No wonder he turned to a Father Christmas with resources that do not belong to him. For those whom he thought would make him president, he gave access to as much of the resources put in his care as they want; while those who he disagrees with should wallow in policies that induce heart attack. Having shown his partisanship, it is time he is forced to run from the CBN.

    Despite all his gragra, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami SAN, is actually a political coward. After boasting and buying cars for his campaign, he could not muster the courage to run the gubernatorial race. The way the former AGF flagrantly ignored the provisions of the law on gaining questionable benefits in the line of his duty befuddles this column. And yet the AGF is constitutionally presupposed to be the chief driver of the anti-corruption programme of the Buhari administration.

    But for what appears to be a last minute reality check, former President Goodluck Jonathan was almost ensnared to trade his honour for a pie in the sky. If he had agreed to run, those who called him clueless would have gained a confirmation, even in the eyes of his ardent supporters. How on earth he even considered running on APC platform is intriguing. If the foolish plan went through, those who ran a very excruciatingly damaging campaign against him in 2014/2015 would now turn around to tell people, that Jonathan is the best thing to happen since our flag independence.

    If truly Jonathan ever contemplated running the 2023 presidential race on the platform of APC, then he is as dumb as his enemies think of him. For this columnist, the only reason he could have prevaricated all this while should be to make those who abused him in the past eat a humble pie. For this column, the invitation to run as APC presidential candidate is like receiving a call from a known 419 person, asking one to send one’s bank pin number, so one’s account can be credited.

    Those who lied to Jonathan that President Buhari would stick out his neck to support his candidature if he agreed to run, must have been living in the moon in the past seven years. President Buhari would never do that; for how can he turn around to defend the material damage done to Jonathan’s reputation by the APC propaganda machine on his behalf, in the run up to 2015 general election. To do so, Buhari would have to admit that Jonathan was a better president than him.

    It is interesting that the controversial section 84(12) of Electoral Act 2022, has pushed the hand of Buhari to release his ministers who want to run for political offices to leave his cabinet. While I believe the provision is unfair and should be struck down by the court as unconstitutional, it has served to stifle the galling indiscipline amongst the present political office holders. It is the abuse of executive privileges, especially by governors that drove the legislators to raise that red flag.

    What each political party should do is to determine the number and type of political appointees that qualify as statutory delegates at party primaries, to starve the abusive tendency of executive governors who flood the delegates’ list with all manner of political appointees. Now that the knuckles are out, we will know those who truly have the balls to run for elections, and those egged on to play spoilers for serious contenders. Let those prepared to run in the primaries run, while the unprepared run for cover.