The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

Stuck with Abiku DisCos

Having sparred for so long with his local electricity distribution company (DisCo) with no respite anywhere in sight, my colleague, Tunji Adegboyega, is wont to tell anyone that cares to listen that the sector has no future in the hands of the operators in that segment of the value chain.

Unlike most Nigerians who would rather hand over the matter to God and hope that by some miracle, the local electricity supplier will become ‘born again’ and hence mend their ways, the irrepressible journalist’s pen has been as sharp and unsparing as his presence in his local NERC consumer forum has been constant and consistent.

To our regular but sometimes pesky joke of likening his odyssey to the proverbial thief helping himself to a bird from the pen of the neighbourhood pauper and who must endure his daily rant – this rather than dampen, seems to have an opposite effect of strengthening our colleagues’ resolve.

That is the only way to explain the scores of mails not only to his service provider but to the regulator on subjects ranging from poor service delivery, non-provision of prepaid meters, outrageous billing system; name it.

In one of his numerous tangos with the service provider at the NERC consumer forum in April, one recalls that he actually got the body to direct Ikeja Electric to immediately reconnect him after being yanked off the National Grid for almost six months – never mind that the directive was roundly ignored.

After marking his first anniversary without a joule of electricity from his local supplier, now he tells me he can write a bestseller based on his travails in the hand of an irresponsible service provider!

His ordeal, like those of millions of ill-served electricity consumers, endures. In other words, he is not alone in this affliction. And neither is the ill-treatment of the electricity consumer exclusive to any service provider.

As my colleague is often reminded, aside epileptic supply which has remained standard fare, the luxury of paying for the unit consumed, or the option of a credible medium to ventilate perceived grievances, still belongs in the future.

And that is when he’s not called up to pay for the supply service cables, transformers and – you guessed right – pre-paid meters!

That is however only one-half of the story of the 11 inept entities foisted on a hapless people under the dubious privatization; the other, more insidious, is the revelation is that we may have been nursing a blood-sucking horde all along.

Consider for instance, this alarming statistics from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading, NBET, Plc on the electricity sold to the Discos from January to August.

Of the N419.18bn invoice for the energy received for the eight-month period, The Punch, quoting NBET reports that the 11 Discos only managed to pay N97.04bn (23 percent) leaving the system with an N322.14b hole.

According to the newspaper, Kaduna Electric did not remit a dime to the bulk trader in February, March, April, June and August.

For Port Harcourt DisCo, nothing was paid in February, March and April; ditto Kano Electricity Distribution Company for the months of February, March and July.

For Benin Electricity Plc nothing was paid in March and July, while Enugu Electricity Distribution Company made no remittance in April and July.

Jos Electricity Distribution Company paid nothing in March and June, and Yola Electricity Distribution Company, failed to make any payment in March.

To imagine the toll on the other players – the gas suppliers, the generating companies and the transmission company – is to appreciate why the system, as currently configured, is not only doomed but programmed to bring down the roof on everyone’s’ head!

But then, if that is any revelation, it could hardly be described as new. Neither is last week’s unflattering characterization of the privatization exercise by Senate President Ahmad Lawan as “fraudulent”.

Indeed, there have been manifestations of the affliction although in different shades over the course 14 years since the entities were handed to the current owners.

One such was at the 2017 23rd Nigeria Economic Summit (NES) when, Tony Elumelu, the billionaire chairman of Heirs Holding – one of the operators in the power sector –requested for funds to bail out the sector during one of the plenaries – to which Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, had retorted: transfer ownership to new investors if you can’t get the business going!

Two years on, we have finally come the full cycle. A bunch of operators that takes without replenishing, and yet have, in equal measure, failed to deliver value.

They remain the weakest link in the power sector value chain. Worse, their failure to live up to their billings both in service obligations to the consumer and more critically, to their suppliers, now threatens to throw the entire sector into jeopardy.

Read Also: NEC raises panel to review DisCos’ ownership

That is the sorry situation in which the nation has found itself.

Little wonder the current shuffling of feet on what to do. Few weeks back, an obviously distraught National Economic Council reportedly charged Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State with the task of reviewing government’s 40% stake in the distribution companies.

A little earlier, the regulator had served a cancellation notice on eight power distribution companies viz – Abuja, Benin, Enugu, Ikeja, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt and Yola DisCos – for their alleged breach of the provisions of Electric Power Sector Reform Act and the 2016 – 2018 Minor Review of Multi Year Tariff Order and Minimum Remittance Order for the Year with a December 7 deadline.

Taken together with the proposed final review of the five-year performance agreement of the DisCos expected to take place by December 31, the die would ordinarily appear to have been cast!

But then, haven’t we seen all that before? Here, I am reminded of what Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed said a little over two years ago – at the aforementioned 23rd Nigeria Economic Summit (NES): “We have now come to the point where government which is a stakeholder in the power sector and other stakeholders must come together and decide and cede some of their holdings to new investors that will inject new funding; investors that have the expertise to grow the power sector that will serve Nigerians.”

“It’s a process that is on-going; it involves negotiating with the existing owners and also with the government in deciding the right level of holdings that will go up for another round of sale.

“The privatisation has not worked out. We discovered that many of the companies are indebted to the banks, making it difficult for them to make fresh investments in their infrastructure. All stakeholders must come together to grow the sector, especially in discussing with the existing owners.”

“We have now come to the point…” That was in October 2017. Precisely the same point we are in December 2019!

December 17, 2019
Right to education

The report that 38 percent of Nigerians are illiterates, explains the high rate of crime in our society. The figure was given recently, by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, while asking for support to a bill he sponsored, seeking to make basic education a fundamental right.

If the speaker is interested in making history, instead of a piecemeal restoration of the dignity of fellow Nigerians, he should sponsor a bill to repeal section 6(6)(c) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

While the 1999 constitution is not autochthonous, its provisions on fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy, in chapter II, and that on fundamental rights in chapter IV, where framed in tandem with the Universal Declaration of Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and similar international fundaments on which our claim to common humanity is based. So, if chapter II of the constitution is restored as justiciable right, it would restore dignity to Nigerians.

It is unfair that after the far-reaching provisions of chapter II were made, persons of vagrant mind in the constitution making process, inserted the contradictory section 6(6)(c), which took away what the constitution gave in that far-reaching chapter.

Although our present elite has not exhibited such potentials, they could learn from the words of the Singaporean avatar, Lee Kuan Yew, who took his country by the bootstraps and dragged it into modernity.

In his book, From Third World to First, he postulated: “The other valuable asset we have was our people – hardworking, thrifty, eager to learn.

Although divided into several races, I believed a fair and even handed policy would get them to live peacefully together, especially if such hardships as unemployment were shared equally and not carried mainly by the minority groups.

It was crucial to keep united Singapore’s multi-lingual, multicultural, multi-religious society, and make it rugged and dynamic enough to compete in modern markets.”

Of course the road to that Eldorado is strewn with enormous hard work, and there are no signs that the present elite has such contemplation in mind. But such an egalitarian society is the vision of chapter II of the constitution, and the National Assembly instead of quarrelling over the so-called constituency projects, which is akin to a fractional part of the vision, should restore chapter II to parity with chapter IV, as a wholesome effort to start the difficult process of nation building.

Chapter II starts with the fundamental obligation of government. In section 13, it provides: “It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this chapter of this constitution.”

It then went on in section 14(2)(b) to state that: “It is hereby accordingly declared that – the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government….”

The chapter listed lofty objectives on political, economic, social, educational, environmental, cultural, and ethical principles of a modern state.

It also listed the national objectives on foreign policy, mass media and duties of the citizens. On educational objectives, section 18(1) provides succinctly: “Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels.”

The sub-section 3 provides: “Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy and to this end government shall as and when practicable provide – free, compulsory and universal primary education; free university education, and free adult literacy programme.”

If the above provision and others become obligatory, there would be less resources to steal, and even lesser for the criminal self-aggrandizement our governing elite engage in, by way of unconstitutional emoluments.

The savings from this would ensure the implementation of section 16(2)(d) which provides: “The state shall direct its policy towards ensuring – that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens.”

Clearly making chapter II justiciable would promote the greatest good for the greatest number, for Nigerians. And so, the Speaker and his colleagues should concentrate their efforts on deleting section 6(6)(c) which is anti-democratic and duplicitous.

The obnoxious section provides: “The judicial powers vested in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section – shall not, except as otherwise provided by this constitution, extend to any issue or question as to whether any act or omission by any authority or person or as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy set out in chapter II of this constitution.”

Read Also: Reps to make free education fundamental right of Nigerians

I urge the Speaker and his colleagues in the National Assembly to make history, by excising that section from the constitution. So that Nigerians can compel governments at all levels to spend the nation’s resources for the benefit of the citizens.

A situation where the per capita budget for education is abysmally low can then be challenged in the courts by aggrieved persons, based on the legal maxim of ubi jus ibi remedium. Because where there is a right, the courts will grant a remedy.

As Lord Holt CJ, said in Ashby vs. White: “If the plaintiff has a right he must of necessity have the means to vindicate it, and a remedy, if he is injured in the exercise of it, and indeed it is a vain thing to imagine a right without a remedy, for want of right and remedy are reciprocal.”

The citizens would also be entitled to challenge the bogus expenditure on the maintenance of government officials, including the unconscionable emoluments of members of the National Assembly.

Until the courts are imbued with the power to adjudicate on the socio-economic rights of Nigerians, some of the rights provided in chapter IV of the constitution would amount to mere platitudes.

How can citizens truly exercise their fundamental right to life, when they lack the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter? Since our legislators are selfish, the courts should engage in judicial activism, and infer the inclusion of socio-economic rights as integral to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution.

As succinctly expounded by Justice P. N. Bhagwatt, former Chief Justice of India and Convenor of the Judicial Colloquium in Bangalore:

“The right to life is not confirmed merely to physical existence but it includes also the right to live with basic human dignity – with the basic necessities of life such as food, health, education, shelter etc….”

Dear Reader, this column wishes you a merry Christmas and Happy New Year, as yours sincerely proceeds on a Christmas break.

December 17, 2019
Matters miscellaneous

Olatunji Dare

THOUGH appearing at unpredictable intervals, “Matters miscellaneous” has become such a well-known feature of this page that I will, with your permission, dispense with a prefatory note and go right into business.

On the floor of the Eighth Senate, the member for Kogi West, Dino Melaye, never made an intervention without fawning references to, and sugared glorification of, its “irremovable president,” Dr Bukola Saraki.

In that phrasing, Melaye’s principal came across the attentive audience as if he were a stain, a blemish, an impurity on that body that nothing could wash away, whereas what the best-selling author of Antidotes to Corruption: The Nigerian Story probably meant was that Saraki could not be replaced, supplanted, or impeached, in the normal course of business.

Some people should really watch their language, especially if their relationship with the English language is somewhat complicated, as has been said of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s relationship to truth, and be said with even more truthfully and with and greater justice of US President Donald Trump’s relationship to actuality and to everything that signifies it.

Now, both principal and acolyte stand removed, the one swept off the Kwara political chessboard of which he was once touted as grandmaster extraordinary by the o too ge gale, and the other in a re-run of the Senate race he had lost with a margin deemed insufficient to constitute an emphatic defeat.

With regard to matters lexical, Melaye is certainly not the worst offender. The leading contenders for that title would have to include a two-term state governor, international business mogul and most recently influential senator recently divested of the assets they said he had acquired with public funds. Withal, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

You know him, don’t you?

There was no quibbling as to whether the funds were in truth embezzled, merely allocated or simply misapplied, finely-calibrated distinctions that former vice present Augustus Aikhomu in General Ibrahim Babangida’s military presidency had explicated in perhaps the best-known of his forays into applied socio-linguistics, in which, according to the best authorities, the dour mariner was no mere dilettante.

Neither was there at play the taxonomic exactitude that former President Goodluck Jonathan would         have called up, as befits an ichthyologist of great repute, to spell out the essential distinction between old-fashioned stealing and the thing now called corruption.

Two images of the subject of this tale will forever cling in my memory.

The first, from the mid-1980s, came out of a grand ceremony in Maiduguri, at the official launch of the Borno State Development Fund. Back then, it was the custom for every state government, and what a spectacle it usually was.

Barons of industry, wealthy men and women from all over the country,, or those we used to regard as wealthy, gathered in a stadium were treated to pulsating music cultural displays by pubescent maidens. On cue, they rose from their plush seats in the manner that only the wealthy do best, made self-serving speeches and announced a “modest donation” or “widow’s mite,” usually in the amount of hundreds of thousands of Naira at the higher end, and tens of thousands at the lower.

The melodramatic Gabriel Exemption (his given name by the way, not a nickname) Igbinedion would arrive decked out in the robes and paraphernalia of a high chief of Edo Kingdom, with his aides lugging a huge chest that needed an improvised forklift to move to centre stage, where it would be displayed, to everyone’s awe.

The chest never opened at the launch. The presumption was that it contained a sum that would stagger the imagination; so better not to display or even announce it, in the presence of a mass audience comprising all sorts and conditions of people, many of them famished or starving.   There was no telling what it would do to their precarious condition.

To return to the Maiduguri launch: to the platform ambled a young man in his mid-twenties, the type rarely seen as such gatherings except as ushers or fun-seekers looking for a quick hook-up or some        other thrill. And there, right in from of him, lay a gargantuan chest, secured with locks so stout and so numerous that Houdini himself could not have cracked them if he were trapped inside.

Who could this young man be?

Curiosity deepened when word went round that he was, of all things an undergraduate at the University of Maiduguri.   If he was wealthy enough to donate the millions concealed in the chest to Borno State’s Development Fund, what was he doing in the university? Most likely a new-breed Nigerian in the making, the type that Babangida was expecting to spearhead the new politics?

You couldn’t forget the mystery man, and you couldn’t forget his mystery gift.

It is our custom that you do not unwrap a gift in the presence of the giver. So, several days later, they unlocked the chest with help from technicians at the Ministry of Works and Engineering Services. Thunderous clapping swept the mansion, with not a few of the privileged dignitaries admitted to witness the event in the secure precincts of Government House bursting into unrestrained song and dance.

Overlaying the dense-packed chest were loose, N20 (Murtala) banknotes, so highly prized even outside Nigeria that that they practically served as the official currency in the ECOWAs region, after the CFA Under the notes lay pile upon pile in neat bundles that appeared to consist of nothing but the prized N20 notes.

By one estimate, the chest was about two metres deep and three metres wide. Clearly, it held much more than a small fortune. The assembled dignitaries had not fully digested the stunning spectacle when a sharp-eyed official noticed something incongruous.

Bundle after bundle was interspersed with copy paper cut to the same size. Entire bundles consisted of nothing but copy paper, except for the bank notes at the top and bottom.

Soon, the police were looking for the donor.

Who could have perpetuated this gigantic swindle? The donor insisted that the chest must have been switched by some unscrupulous persons out to tarnish his name and ruin his future. He maintained that he had, for obvious reasons, packed the trunk unaided and in the privacy of his own home, with nothing but the real stuff, proceeds of his immensely lucrative trade in palm oil.

For there part, the recipients must have chastised themselves keeping for keeping faith with the custom that you do not unwrap a gift in the presence of the giver.

But all this is speculation. To this day, the mystery remains unsolved.

The second image that clings in my memory is of the subject in a more serene setting, an examination centre at Abia State University, Uturu. As befits the university’s Visitor and proprietor, he had the entire room to himself. There he was, pen in hand, leaning back in an ordinary chair, behind a nondescript student’s desk, drawing on his mental resources to workout answers to questions prepared by one of the most demanding professors in the university.

In Nigeria, stark actuality routinely trumps the most embellished fictional narrative.

And now, a more ennobling development: The University of Transportation, due to open in 2021, in President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown, Daura., courtesy of a consortium of grateful Chinese construction firms.

They say Daura was especially suited to the scheme because of some major rail initiatives coming up in that region, including a rail siding from Kano to Kaduna that would pass through Katsina and loop with the proposed rail route from Katsina to Jibia, in Niger Republic.

The usual people are already caviling at the prospect. Not me.

I am sure the authorities will not be found unprepared by the demands that are sure to follow for specialized universities for water transportation, air and wind transportation, danfo transportation, bicycle and keke marwa transportation, forest transportation and what have you.

Personally, I will not be surprised if Nigerians demand that a University of Trekking be established to restore the dying art of walking long distances while balancing a huge load on the head, a child strapped to the back.

December 10, 2019
World Bank’s ‘unfriendly’ note

Merely by its serial doomsday prognostications on the Nigerian economy, it is probably safe to assume that the World Bank’s cup – in the eyes of the Nigerian government – will now be full and running over. If you consider that the bank, and its Breton Woods cousin, the IMF, have been running their mouth over just about every matter Nigerian – from its unsustainable debts burden to negative social indices, you will understand why the federal government not only goes cagey each time the global institution trains its searchlight on the country’s affairs but would go as far as putting out a disclaimer.

Guess you already know what our dear president thinks about the World Bank and their figures. In case you don’t, here is what he said not too long ago about the World Bank and IMF: “Today, most of the statistics quoted about Nigeria are developed abroad by the World Bank, IMF and other foreign bodies…Some of the statistics we get relating to Nigeria are wild estimates and bear no relation to the facts on the ground”. In other words, the stats are spurious!

Spurious or not, here is the latest offering taken from the bank’s website – last updated in October: “Growth averaged 1.9% in 2018 and remained stable at 2% in the first half of 2019…Growth is too low to lift the bottom half of the population out of poverty. The weakness of the agriculture sector weakens prospects for the rural poor, while high food inflation adversely impacts the livelihoods of the urban poor. Despite expansion in some sectors, employment creation remains weak and insufficient to absorb the fast-growing labor force, resulting in high rate of unemployment (23% in 2018), with another 20% of the labor force underemployed. Furthermore, the instability in the North and the resulting displacement of people contribute to the high incidence of poverty in the North East”.

And the grim conclusion: Without significant structural policy reforms, Nigeria’s medium-term growth is projected to remain stable around 2%. Given that the economy is expected to grow more slowly than the population, living standards are expected to worsen….”

Now, say what you may of this rather unflattering prognosis, I wager that most Nigerians would readily agree that the signs are neither deniable nor are the symptoms overstated. Whereas the most excitable ones among us cite the World Poverty Clock as sufficient proof that poverty has found a new capital in the biggest economy on the continent, the greater majority would appear to be in wonder if indeed those behind the clock are not light years behind in their reading. In any case, the latest and perhaps by far the most brutal putdown of the acclaimed deliverables of governance by no less a personality than the First Lady Hajia Aisha Buhari at the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) General Assembly and National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja recently has more than validated what the World Bank has been saying all these while.

Her words: “We should either fasten our seatbelts and do the needful or we will all regret it very soon because, at the rate things are going, things are getting completely out of hand.”

“People”, she went on, “cannot afford potable water in this country while we have governors. Since this is the highest decision-making body of Islamic affairs, for those that are listening, we should fear God, and we should know that one day, we will return to God and account for our deeds here on earth.”

And now, as if that was not already damning enough, the global institution in its latest Nigeria Economic Update released on December 2, puts Nigeria’s low ranking on the Human Capital Index on the poor quality of education or inadequate learning. In a section ‘Financing Human Capital Development: Basic Education’, the bank says “Inadequate learning has contributed to Nigeria’s low rank on the Human Capital Index of 0.34, placing the country at 152 out of 157″. In other words, our country is sixth worst nation on earth based on the HCI survey. In this, it shares the ignoble spots with Chad, South Sudan, Niger, Mali and Liberia in that order.

Read Also: Aisha Buhari, World Bank and the Nigerian condition

Talk of the Nigerian nightmare; we know precisely what these are. The first is spiraling, uncontrolled population. At current grow levels of 2.6 percent per annum at a time the economy is sub 2 percent, some reckon that it would take 31 years for the Malthusian dilemma – defined as the survival of the fittest – to set upon us. By that time, the country would have it 402 million in population – nearly twice the current population!

Think of the other part of the story – the extremely poor investment in basic education and vocational training. Whereas our leaders have mastered the refrain about the 10 – point something million kids currently out of school, there’s yet nothing of a matching strategy to clear the mess. Like an element on a typical party manifesto, it seems sufficient for our leaders to kick the problem down the road, or in some instances, deploying it, as one will, as talking points in a public forum. Just imagine what would happen in say, 20 or 30 years’ time without a matching attention to the unfolding tragedy!

Add to this the 1.9 million-odd admission seekers into the nation’s tertiary institutions. Once we thought JAMB was the problem; then came Post-JAMB and other devices meant to keep those hapless children out of the elite class. And then, we had tertiary institutions mushrooming, Nigerian style only to find that the supply can’t match the pace of demand. And now, we have settled on how to get Prof Ishaq Oloyede and his crew at JAMB to fix the 1.9 million kids in the 520,000 available spaces!

And so we hear unemployment – more so youth unemployment – is a ticking bomb; I say it’s probably worse. But then, it is a symptom of the profound structural maladies in our society. It is a vicious circle, no doubt. Imagine the same kids denied places in high schools and yet can’t find room in vocational schools to learn skills in a world that is increasingly finicky about skills.

I understand the frenetic pace of investment in highways and railroads. However, we need to do more in the area of putting our kids in school and training them in appropriate skills. There is no other way to guarantee the future that we all desire. Without deliberate efforts to match the pace of physical development with the human components, even the current modest efforts in infrastructural development, sooner than later, come to naught. The great Singaporean leader, Lee Kuan Yew learnt this early via the globally acclaimed transition of his tiny country from third to first world. That to me is the wisdom in the World Bank position.

December 10, 2019
Peace departs

Few weeks ago, Chief Allen Onyema, founder of the Air Peace airline, was the toast of Nigerians.

The business mogul had recently invested over N300 million, to clean shame from the face of the country, on the international scene. He had sent his aircraft to South Africa to evacuate stranded Nigerian men, women and children, who had become targets of xenophobic attacks.

Many of those evacuated had become economic refugees, and needed the lift to make it back to Nigeria.

So, Onyema, like instant coffee, turned a national hero, by that act. Again, like Okonkwo, in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Onyema’s fame quickly spread far and wide, and I could imagine him walking with the gait of Amalinze the cat, the famed wrestler, whose back would never touch the earth, until Okonkwo threw him in a fight.

I would not be surprised if Onyema had received a call on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari congratulating him for his act of patriotism.

The fate of the Nigerians had become a subject of humiliation in the hands of those who had forgotten how we feed and clothed them, when they were in the apartheid prison.

The intervention became a form of spiritual pilgrimage for Nigerians. Each time Air Peace departed Nigeria en-route to South Africa, our country men and women spiritually journeyed with the crew, as they navigated thousands of nautical miles until they landed safely.

When the South African authorities raised some technical mumbo-jumbo about landing rights, Onyema was at peace with the delay, not minding the further costs incurred.

The national adulation for Air Peace chief executive became so loud that some persons started clamouring for the airline to be accorded the status of the national carrier.

Of note, in a space of few years, Air Peace had become the dominant airline in the country, and was making plans to become a regional and international player. Everything seemed to be going well for the airline, and there were rumours that Onyema may throw his hat into the political ring, with the fame and fortune that had come his way.

Just like Okonkwo, Onyema had become known throughout the federation, when suddenly the American criminal justice system, appear to conspire to break the season of fame for the owner of the Air Peace airline.

Has Onyema committed an offence of strict liability, like Okonkwo who in a fit of justifiable anger beat his wife Ojiugo, in the ‘week of peace’? The indictment against Onyema talked about alleged illegitimate transfers from Nigeria to America, and not about illegitimate earnings.

Would that become an albatross, to weigh down Air Peace, or merely a misdemeanour for which Onyema may be asked to pay a fine, like Okonkwo for beating Ojiugo?

Or is Onyema going to pay heavily, like Okonkwo did, for the accidental discharge that resulted in the death of his kinsman during the burial rites of Chief Ezeudu, in Things Fall Apart? For killing his kinsman, albeit inadvertently, Okonkwo had to go on exile to live with his mother’s kinsmen in Abanta for seven years. Strikingly, in the story, after tragedy had befallen Okonkwo, his friends and family rallied round him to salvage what they could before the day-break, at which friends and foes alike joined their kinsmen to cleanse the land, by destroying the homestead of Okonkwo.

Will the Nigerian state, which Onyema had served when she needed his help, take steps to save the man and his airline, assuming they had committed any infractions? Or will they feign indifference or even join forces with foreign forces to throw him to the dogs? Of course, as was done for Okonkwo, the Nigerian state can salvage what can be salvaged before meting out punishment, if he is guilty. Since I do not have the brief of the airline and its owners, let me place a caveat that the indicted persons have denied any wrong doing, and has expressed willingness to submit themselves for investigation.

So this write-up is a private excursion, and by no means an acceptance of guilt by the airline and its owners.

But in the court of public opinion, Onyema has turned from a national hero to a near pariah, within a few weeks interval, and it is important to extrapolate in the circumstance. Even the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has jumped into the fray, by hauling in Onyema and other indicted person for questioning. Well, the public is unaware whether the American criminal justice system has requested for help on the principle of national reciprocity, or the agency is merely acting excitably.

Read Also: NANS makes case for Air Peace CEO

While the EFCC should know its brief, it is important that they accord their own citizen the benefit of doubt, until the American legal system takes its course, and they are forced to intervene in the spirit of reciprocity. If there is no formal request, it will be preposterous for our national government and its agencies to cry more than the bereaved, unless of course, Nigerian laws have been breached.

Of note, as the indictment clearly stated, those indicted must be treated as innocent, until otherwise is proved.That may explain the show of solidarity by the Southeast governors. Apart from connecting the Southeast to the nation, with his airline, Onyema had portrayed the region in good light by his generosity to the Nigerian citizens stranded in South Africa. So, it is expected that his kinsmen should show him compassion.

But it is not only for Onyema that peace has eluded. It has also departed for Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, of Abia State. As one headline roared, he has moved from governor, to senate, to prison. Many taunt him that his movement to APC has not saved him as if the charges were initiated since the birth of APC. Far from the insinuation of immunity in APC, President Buhari’s government has not intervened in any trial process.

Perhaps the APC government may have through workshops enhanced the use of Administration of Criminal Justice Act to forestall the undue delays that characterised the trial of Orji Uzor Kalu and his class of governors who finished their terms since 2007. But if we are to believe the jailed senator, it was all part of the intrigues for the 2023 general elections. Surely he would approach the appeal court, to upturn the sentence, but the onus will lie on him to convince the court.

While the debate rages on over whether other political big wigs across party lines would soon join the former governor in prison, the Buhari government has one more boast that the anti-corruption war is raging.

December 10, 2019
A primer for this season
Olatunji Dare

Happy new month,” my caller from Nigeria said a tad solicitously last Saturday.

“Happy new month to you too,” I responded perfunctorily, while trying to figure out the caller’s identity

“Happy last month of the year sir,” the caller said in a tone solicitous still but more emphatic.

Then, I got it.

It is December, the month of Christmas, of goodwill to all men and women as enjoined by Christian scripture. It is the time of Father Christmas, the time of family, town and clan reunions and all kinds of anniversaries, weddings and burials, a season of giving and receiving – the former more than the latter.

A time of interstate and international travel to show the gleaming SUV and other blessings of sojourn in Lagos and abroad to the village folk; a time to “warm” new houses, take new brides and take new titles, etc, etc.

Sadly, like everything else, Christmas is no longer what it used to be.

I remember the scenes at the check-in counter in New York of the national carrier Nigeria Airways, unfortunately no longer with us, at this time of year. To call those scenes riotous would be courteous. The place was a combat zone, bar the shooting. Whenever you saw an unusually large police detachment at the airport, you knew that a Nigeria Airways flight was set to depart.

Passengers and touts, at least four abreast, spilled on to the street, pushing and shoving and jostling and shouting and cursing; they shook their fists at frazzled airline staff who dared to insist that their oversize baggage could not pass for hand luggage and must be paid for accordingly.

I distinctly recall a young man who wanted to board the plane with a Christmas tree with all the lights and bells and whistles, insisting that he had settled for only one hand luggage when he was entitled to two and deserved to be treated with respect.

The plane finally took off some three hours after its scheduled time. As it cruised over the Long Island, the friendly and reassuring voice of Captain Bara Allwell-Brown welcomed all on board, apologized for the delay and announced that there would be a refueling stop at Robertsville Airport in Monrovia, Liberia.

In the spirit of Christmas, what with passengers taking home presents to loved ones, the plane had to shed 15 tons of fuel to accommodate excess freight, he said. The refueling stop stretch arrival time by no more than two hours.

Nigeria Airways is no more. Attempts to revive it have gulped hundreds of millions of Naira, with nary a trial taxiing down the runway to show for it. I gather that flying out of Atlanta or Dallas to New York is not the most pleasant experience, but I bet it is almost a picnic compared with flying out of New York in those good-bad old days of Nigeria Airways.

Christmas, as I was saying, is no longer what it used to be, especially if you are travelling by road. In almost every case, it is a painful, scary and unnerving trip, and you would probably have to spend the first two or three days of your arrival nursing your bumps and bruises and digestive system to recovery. But that is probably the easy part.

No longer can you take your safety for granted. Not when headed out, not when returning, and not while visiting. You have to keep a sharp lookout for kidnappers and their agents, and may even have to arm yourself or engage armed help.

Here are some helpful hints for the road, furnished gratis in the spirit of the season by the boss of one of the leading kidnapping syndicates: Don’t post pictures of your new limousines or latest acquisitions on Facebook.

Don’t spread pictures of your lavish parties all over the newspapers and the internet.

Don’t post a video of the opening of your palatial home all over the place.

Operatives of the syndicate being preliminary fieldwork by scouring the neighbourhood and the internet for tell-tale pictures wealthy persons taking new brides or giving away their daughters in marriage, burying a parent again 23 years later, and in the process flinging N1,000 banknotes or ten-dollar bills or bundles thereof into the crowd.

Confirmation follows. The process is usually rigorous. You don’t want to take in a poseur, or even worse, a flunkey. It would be a waste of time and effort, and a blight on the profession, to take in someone who might have to be given financial assistance to find his way back to the village.

So, beware, holiday-maker.

Those who are forever yearning for the good old times will no doubt be consoled that one thing has remained unchanged. Christmas is still the season of fakes and faking, or the faking season, since there is always so much taking place anyway.

Fake merchandise is already everywhere, with fake bargains to suit every pocket. Fake rice, laced with granular plastic. Fake apples. Fake wines. Fake cakes. Fake beef. Fake poultry parts. Fake cooking oil. Fake tomato puree. Fake honey. Fake table salt. Even fake toothpicks.

Fake designer apparel, fake designer watches, handbags, shoes, jewelry, and what have you.

What has changed perhaps is that the art of faking has now advanced to the point that the most practised eye or the best calibrated instrument can no longer separate the fake from the original.

But the merchants are never as solicitous as the automotive spare-parts dealers at Ladipo Market, Lagos, who cheerfully volunteer the price of an original as against the price of a fake, and assures you as just as cheerfully that they carry only originals when you tell you would rather settle for the fake, and with their hand on their hearts assure you that they don’t know and have never heard of any shops that sell fake parts.

The closure of Nigeria’s official land borders to curb smuggling has reduced the inflow of merchandise to a trickle while, paradoxically, boosting customs revenues to new heights, apparently decongesting the ports to allow for speedier collection of custom. For the Federal Government, it is a win-win outcome.

But since smuggling is carried out for the most part through unofficial routes which are beyond government control, closing the official borders may not curb it to the extent desired. Closing the border may have the opposite effect of sharpening the appetite for consumer goods that have vanished from the markets as well and of course the propensity for to fake them.

But all this is in the realm of theory.

Just remember that, even without the border closures, Christmas is the season for fake stuff.

Take especial care extra when buying wines, body lotion, cologne, and other bottled products. Check them for scratches and crushed crowns. Make sure the labels are not photocopies. Apply the lotion or cologne to a tiny portion of your face or body for a start. If it doesn’t burn your skin, you can be sure that it is not at first blush harmful, not that it is the real stuff.

If the wine doesn’t scorch your tongue or throat, you can proceed to have a judicious sip, hoping that it will not your gastronomy.

The internet, I need hardly add, is just as accommodating to fake news as it is to fake merchandise. You cannot touch or feel or smell the stuff on offer. It is some consolation that you can return it and get your money back. But even with the more reputable marketers, it can be a hassle. With the shadowy ones who prowl the internet and bury the merchandize in reams of fine print, the process is guaranteed to be traumatic.

Since we are dealing with a highly dynamic situation, his cannot be the last word on the matter. An update is in already in the works.
- For comments, send SMS to 08111813080
December 3, 2019
A minister’s conceit

Yours truly has been struggling to make sense of the showboat activism of the type mounted by Isa Ibrahim Pantami, since his assumption of office as President Buhari’s Minister for Minister of Communication and Digital Economy. It started with a ‘directive’ by the minister to the Nigerian Communications Commission “to compel telecommunications service providers to reduce the prices of data being offered subscribers” and to stop “illegal deduction of subscribers’ data by the telcos”. The minister’s personal assistant on new media, Yusuf Abubakar, said his boss issued the directive after he received a progress report on the implementation of Short-Term Performance Targets set for the NCC.

The rationale: A country of over 174 million internet users should rank among the top 10 African countries with low average price of data. As if the prevailing high cost of data in Nigeria is not bad enough, the minister claims that “citizens still do not enjoy value for money as subscribers battle daily with illegal deduction of data, poor quality of service, among others”.

The NCC, he said is to “immediately work hand in hand with the telecom operators and ensure a downward review of the price of data…improve the quality of service and check the illegal deduction of subscribers’ data”.

Now, if you considered that strange from a minister, how about the fiat issued to the NCC Board on November 5? Receiving the Olabiyi Durojaiye-led board on a courtesy visit, the minister had insisted that the NCC must work out modalities to reduce the price of data in the interest of Nigerians.

“His office”, he said “has been inundated with complaints from concerned Nigerians about the high cost of data by telecoms.

He then went on to canvass the now worn argument: “If you go to other countries, even countries that are not as largely populated as Nigeria, data prices are not this high”.

The long and short of it is that the minister wants data prices reduced – initially within FIVE working days and as it now seems –at all costs. As for the complaints by the telcos – of poor infrastructure, insecurity, multiple tariffs etc. – which although preceded the current administration but has gone unaddressed, the minister’s word appears to be – obey first; complain later!

And now that his fiat has been ignored, the minister is alleging blackmail by forces he claims are opposed to his ‘people-friendly’ policies!

Read Also: Pantami, populism and telecom sector

Hear the minister’s spokesman – Uwa Suleiman on the subject only last week: “Since assumption of office, the honourable minister has consistently rolled out policies that strive to protect the consumer and entrench discipline and professionalism in the sector, this stand has obviously ruffled some feathers whose sole aim is to discredit Dr Pantami’s mass-friendly policies.”

“The strategy”, he said “is to compromise the media, using financial inducements and they have raised a considerable amount of money for this campaign.”

The essence, according to Uwa, “was to intimidate Pantami’s office into allowing the continued exploitation of Nigerians by compromising regulators”.

The minister certainly deserves pity. If, as one suspects that his problem is with the regulator, he should simply go ahead to report things to his principal? Wouldn’t that have been better than casting a veiled aspersion on one of the few institutions that have managed to stand the integrity test? By the way, isn’t the NCC a creation of law – as against being another parastatal – prone to being micro-managed by a powerful minister?

We must pity the minister for his exaggerated notion of the office that he occupies hence his promise of what is clearly beyond his powers to deliver! The minister obviously didn’t think that his remit stops at formulating and implementing policies for the digital economy; he wants to play the regulator as well including descending into the arena of tariff formulation whenever he deems necessary. And now that he’s apparently run into the brick wall, he in a moment of grand delusion would recline to playing the patriotism card!

“Mass-friendly policies”; sole-minded resolve “to protect the consumer and entrench discipline and professionalism in the sector”; what else are we not going to hear?

Or that the entire world, including his own regulator – NCC united against the all-knowing Pantami! And the media too! Over what?

Such conceit! Does anyone smell blackmail?

And to imagine Pantami is not your typical, run-of-the-mill political appointee. Until his current station, he was supposed to have been the top gun the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) – a key agency in the digital economy orbit. A graduate of Computer Science from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, he also holds a PhD from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

I do understand the seduction to populism. It is however too cheap. Unfortunately, that is the way we do business here. For other ministers, it is not sufficient to prance about in project sites even at the cost of distraction to busy contractors, outlandish promises have often come as part of the package if only to prove that the minister is truly working for the people! Just imagine what would have happened were the minister to have had his way with his so-called ‘directive’ on the telcos. For sure, he would have emerged as the darling of the masses; more, he would have secured for himself the spot of number one activist in government – never mind that this would have come at the cost of a fatal misunderstanding of his remit!

Now the minister is being forced to learn the hard way – that things are not necessarily as they seem; that issues of tariff determination in a complex sector like telecoms are neither simple nor straightforward; and that arbitrariness, no matter how well packaged has its limits. The awareness obviously makes the minister mad – hence his rage at imaginary enemies!

Here’s my one kobo: the minister should eat the humble pie by seeking the counsel from wide and near to carve a way forward. If he has a problem with NCC, he needs to sort it out fast!

He needs to engage the telcos as the key drivers of his digital dream – if ever there was one. He needs to understand that without the telcos, there will be no ministry to preside over! Aside seeking to understand their problems, he should be in the vanguard of the creative policies to address them. To put it in street lingo, the current adversarial postures won’t cut! In all, to learn to work with the relevant stakeholders for the public good.

December 3, 2019
Kogi rats

Rats are usually associated with destructive tendencies, in homes, where they nibble at prized documents, food, and sometimes humans. Rats also live in sewers, and dirty environments, eating filth and digging holes, where they bury their filthy selves. In socio-economic parlance, rats are associated with destructive practices. So, you hear things like wharf-rats, to describe thieves that wreak havoc on items waiting to be cleared from the wharf.

Penultimate Saturday, we had Kogi rats running riot and wreaking havoc in the state’s gubernatorial election. They also, like the now sulking former senator, Dino Melaye, did songs to eulogise their ignoble role as rats. While they thought they were singing about the sound of gun they used to intimidate voters during that election, they were actually mimicking their specie, rats. With their rat mentality, they indeed wreaked monumental havoc in the state, by roasting alive a woman leader of the opposition party, the PDP, Mrs Salome Abuh, in her home, at Ochamadu, Kogi State.

Like rats, they are, after wreaking havoc in the open, they scurried back into the sewages, whence they came from. Late Madam Abuh’s sin, is that she held a different political interest from the Kogi rats that ravaged the state, two weeks ago. Of course, rats are purveyors of pestilence, and unless strong insecticide is applied to kill them off, the pestilence may spread to epidemic proportion.

So, those who owe us the responsibility to protect our lives and properties should smoke out the rats in Kogi and deal with them appropriately. It is because they did not deal with similar rat mentality in other states in the previous elections that more rats are mutating. So Kogi is just the latest rat colony. Those who also owe Nigerians the responsibility to ensure free, fair and credible election, should wake-up to save our nation from electoral perils. It should be unacceptable that contestants can empower thugs, to freely intimidate their opponents, without any consequences.

It is good that the president has given a marching order to the police in Kogi State, to fish out the killers of Mrs Abuh, and it is encouraging that the police has reportedly apprehended the rats, responsible for her death. Since some commentators have doubted that the persons arrested are the real Kogi rats, the president should make it clear to the police that he would not accept any underhand dealing in the matter. The president should remember that those who have benefited from the mayhem would not have their name recorded as being in charge when a female opposition leader was burnt alive, during an election.

Read Also: ‘Kogi, Bayelsa polls heart rendering’

It is President Muhammadu Buhari that history will record as having the ultimate responsibility for security during the Kogi and Bayelsa elections. The international community and Nigerians would only compare elections under President Buhari and his predecessors. Nobody, would hold Governor Yahaya Bello or Seriake Dickson responsible for the security in place, vis-à-vis the crisis recorded during the polls. So, the president should not accept any half measure, from those investigating the killing of the opposition leader.

Neither should the president accept any compromised security report, on the widespread violence which assailed our sights in the videos on the Kogi election that have gone viral. The president should give marching orders that security agents fish out those who reduced the Kogi elections to warfare and have them face the wrath of the law. If the police is incapable of dealing with fishing out those pooh-poohing our elections in those videos, the authorities should call in the state security services, to trace those involved, and charge them to court.

As part of his legacy, the president should push for electoral reforms, particularly the criminalisation of electoral violence. He should ask his attorney general to dust up the electoral bill passed by the eighth national assembly, which he didn’t assent to, and get it re-presented to the ninth assembly for legislative action. Since the reason for not giving assent to the bill the last time was because the 2019 elections was close at hand when it was passed, the president should not wait for the 2023 elections to come close, before necessary steps are taken.

As I have argued here on many occasions, it is the president that Nigerians will remember when the history of this era is written. Nobody will remember the so-called kitchen cabinet or the cabal, accused of running things in Aso Rock, when apportioning blame or pouring praises, depending on the performance of the regime. So the president should gird his loins, and make history by bequeathing to Nigerians an improved electoral system, instead of retrogressing to the era of do-or-die politics of the ancient regime.

Knights visit prisons

Yours sincerely, was privileged to join the Knights of St. Mulumba, (KSM), Amuwo Odofin, Sub-Council, led by Worthy Brother Joe Nnodum (Grand Knight), to visit the inmates of the Federal Correctional Centre, Badagry, last Sunday. As part of their charity work, the KSM Supreme Council, mandate all subordinate councils to visit the inmates of prisons, within their jurisdiction, with basic necessities. To efficiently perform the humanitarian service, the Knights in Lagos Metropolitan Council, work in concert with the Prison Ministry of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, whose chaplain is Rev. Fr. Kingsley Agada.

The Knights joined the prisoners at a Mass, as part of the visit. The inmates who were in high spirit, sang from the hymn book, with a stanza: “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers.” Interestingly, the correctional centre was clean, and under populated, unlike some others I had visited in the past. But most of the inmates as usual, where not persons who have been convicted of any offence, but rather those accused of misdemeanour and are awaiting trials.

CONGRATULATIONS SAM

Sam Omatseye, chairman, editorial board, The Nation Newspaper, last week, received The National Productivity Order of Merit Award, alongside 24 other distinguished Nigerians, at a colourful ceremony in Abuja.

Some of the other top awardees, included, Alike Dangote of the Dangote Group, Tony Elumelu of United Bank of Africa, and Prof Is-haq Oloyede of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. These and others on the list, are highly productive Nigerians, and deserve the awards.

In the past 12 years, I have known Sam, he remained a weekly columnist, and became a distinguished novelist, poet, playwright and biographer. He also anchors a weekly television programme. Without doubt, Sam deserves national recognition. So, congratulations Sam.

December 3, 2019
Children for sale

There seems to be an urgent need to review the law authorising the establishment of charity homes especially in Imo and Abia states. In the two states, if reports in recent times in newspapers are a measure, there is a prevalence of baby factories, masquerading as charity homes. So, the governments in the two states, should take legal and social steps, to stem the ugly development. Perhaps, the first step should be, a law criminalising the turning of charity homes, into a baby vending factory.

The picture of 14 expectant girls, rescued last week, from one so called Mma Charity Home, at Umumkpe Village, in Isiala Ngwa South local council area of Abia State, is a common feature in recent years. The report that the parents of the teenagers are not aware that their teenage girls are somewhere trying to ‘earn’ between N300-N350 thousand, (depending on the sex of the baby) by getting pregnant and selling their unwanted baby, rankles. How can parents not know where their wards are for at least nine months?

After recklessly wasting their youthful ages, selling the fruits of their womb, the girls may end up trying to buy babies when they get married, and the wages of their sins become infertility. Of course, while infertility may be a biological challenge, which deserves sympathy, it could become the deserved punishment, for those who had traded on their fertility earlier in their lives. So, the pandemic of teenagers producing babies for sale, for few pieces of naira, deserves the attention of state and local governments, in the southeast states.

Perhaps, there may be the need to commission a survey on the psychological make-up of the teenagers who have engaged in that infamy, to understand what really drives them. Is it merely their love for the money they would be paid, or a manifestation of parental and societal neglect, or a form of psychotic disorder or merely disoriented moral values? Of note, under the criminal code, there are laws to punish those who procure underage persons for defilement or prostitution or provide abode for such; but the code did not contemplate prostituting pregnancy for money.

‘It is also important that moral institutions, like churches, rise up to the new challenge facing the society. Like Mary Slessor, the famous Scottish missionary, who fought to eradicate the killing of twins, new champions should rise up to fight the scourge of prostituting pregnancy, with the intent to sell the infants’

To make matters worse, the criminal code did not contemplate that persons like Mrs Mma Achumba, who run the ‘charity home’, would set up a charity home, and use it to aid underage girls, to trade in pregnancy and new babies. Of course, if a charge is preferred against Mrs Achumba, under section 219 of the criminal code, which provides punishment for an owner or occupier, who permits the use of his premises for the defilement of underage girls, such charge may be difficult to prove.

While some of such charity homes, may allow the impregnating sessions to take place within their premises, akin to breeding of animals, it would be easy for their owners to fend off the charge of being a brothel, and insist that they are charity homes who merely provide succour for teenagers who are pregnant; even when their main intent is breeding and selling babies at infancy. So, there is need for a new law to catch up with the likes of Mrs Achumba, and those who work with them.

As bizarre as it may sound, could Mrs Achumba and her ilk, be said to be engaged in child labour, which is prohibited by the Labour Act? Well maybe it is child labour, figuratively and literally speaking. For truly, while it may be a dishonourable contract, there is the likelihood that the teenage girls operate under an unenforceable contract that there are to be catered for while they are pregnant, and paid the agreed fees, at the birth and sale of their child.

Of note, the Labour Act, prohibits child labour. Section 9(3) of the act provides: “Except in the case of a contract of apprenticeship, no person under the age of sixteen years shall be capable of entering into a contract of employment under this Act.” Section 59 of the Act, which deals with the kind of work and the working period a young person can be engaged for, could not have contemplated the type of work, Mma Charity Home and their type, provide for the young girls.

Read Also: NGO sensitises communities on dangers of travelling

Again the Labour Act, in section 60, prohibits the employment of young persons during the night; and most likely, the sweating job usually takes place during the night. But regardless of what the parties may have agreed, a contract to breed children for sale, is unenforceable; if for no reason, for being reprehensible to public morals. Talking seriously, except the states have domesticated Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law, and Child Rights Act, which will be applicable to punish the botched sale of the twins harvested from a 25-year old Onunwa Grace Nwachukwu, from Imo State, there may be no appropriate laws, to deal with the challenge.

So, if the laws to punish Mrs Achumba, for converting a charity home, to a centre for warehousing pregnant young women, with the intent to subsequently sell their babies are not there, she may just suffer some indignities for a while, after which she goes home, to enjoy the loot from her nefarious trade. Of note, with the stated age of Mrs Nwachukwu, whose community’s youths’ protest for her shameful conduct, triggered the investigation, it may even be wrong to call the girls engaged in the bizarre trade, young persons as defined by our laws.

Perhaps if the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act to Provide Measurers against Trafficking and for other related Matters has local variants in the concerned states, the equivalent of section 13(4)(b) may provide the states, the opportunity to punish those involved, in the botched sale. The section provides: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation, shall be considered trafficking in persons even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in the definition of trafficking in persons in this Act.”

It is also important that moral institutions, like churches, rise up to the new challenge facing the society. Like Mary Slessor, the famous Scottish missionary, who fought to eradicate the killing of twins, new champions should rise up to fight the scourge of prostituting pregnancy, with the intent to sell the infants. Such persons or bodies, should train their searchlight on persons who run Charity Homes, and help alert security agencies, whenever there is a gathering of pregnant girls, like vultures.

Parents should also wake up to the vocation of parenting, and take responsibility for the upbringing of their children. Those involved, must also know that such immoral behaviour, will hunt them forever.

November 26, 2019
Kogi: An election and its aftermath

IF you have not watched one particular video currently trending in the aftermath of the victory of Yahaya Bello in the just concluded gubernatorial election of Kogi State, you may have missed out on one vital element in the understanding of the blood-fest that the election and its aftermath turned out to be. In this, the nation surely owes the much vilified social media a debt of gratitude for not missing out on minor but important elements as the nation grapples not just with its electoral future but also its future as a stable, organic entity.

I am here referring to the one featuring a group of young ladies dancing to pulsating tunes rendered in a hybrid of English and one of the local dialects in Kogi.

The refrain went thus:

Who is saying that Yahaya Bello will not be governor? Dem go hear am ta-ta-ta-ta-ta…What are you saying? What are you talking…etc?

Coincidentally, another version, just as boisterous, has since surfaced with the latter featuring a group of young men (more like rough-necks) popping champagne in some wild celebration over the governor’s victory. As if an anthem of sorts, it was the same song; same message with the underlying fatwa on anyone who dared to stand in the way of the governor’s second term ambition

Dem go hear am ta-ta-ta-ta-ta…

I suppose those for whom the message was meant for have heard loud and clear. To be sure, the governor, despite initial projections of an emphatic shellacking, has won his election by a wide berth. For his opponents, theirs have been weeping and gnashing their teeth both on accounts of the scale of electoral loss and of the near dozen lives lost. By the reckoning of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), 10 deaths in the 79 cases of violence and election malpractices were recorded across the 21 LGAs in Kogi State.

However, much as each case of death is deemed tragic enough, one particular one stands out in unsurpassable bestiality –the murder of Salome Abuh, woman leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ofu local government area of the state said to have been burnt alive in her home by jubilant Bello supporters and thugs in what the various accounts hinted as a case of pre-meditated murder.

Read Also: Burning of Salome Abuh, Kogi PDP Women leader, a reprisal attack- Police

As the gory details of the murder filtered out – and this came days after President Buhari had congratulated the governor for a well fought victory – an obviously anguished president caused to be issued an unequivocal denunciation of the gruesome act even as he called for “scrupulous investigation into the heinous murder”. Specifically, he charged all “security agencies involved in the investigation to do a thorough and expeditious job on the matter, so that justice could be served without fear or favour”.

In calling for justice to be meted to the perpetrators of the heinous crime, the president obviously means well; however, considering that nine other cases of murder were reported, the president ought to have gone the full hog by empanelling a body to investigate every single case and the circumstances of murder during the election to ensure that perpetrators are duly punished.

If I may put things in proper context, Madam Abuh’s murder was merely the climax in the long string of impunities unleashed by the different actors in the farcical play that the Kogi gubernatorial election turned out to be. In Kogi, we saw a supposedly unbiased electoral umpire attempt to shut a candidate on a ground that would ordinarily be deemed flimsy. I refer to the SDP candidate Natasha Akpoti which INEC attempted to shut until the courts stepped in at the last minute to rescue the ticket. Thanks to the social media, we saw ‘live’ pictures of helicopters dropping tear-gas as eligible voters scampered for safety; there were also images of “fake policemen” not only running rings round the hordes of security men and women deployed to maintain order but carting away ballot boxes in broad daylight!

As it is, the world knows better than to describe the charade of November 16 as an electoral contest. It was democracy by conquest – the conqueror being the party that had the superior firepower, a contest in which the elector was at best a spectator!

It was truly as yours sincerely had predicted on this page given the vast the army of enforcers already on the leash in the build-up to the poll: it would hardly matter how many heads will be broken or lives lost, an electoral contest would have taken place and democracy a la Kogi would be deemed on the march!

It is just as well that President Buhari has called for justice for Madam Abuh. The people of Kogi deserve no less. I am not talking here of the electoral abracadabra under which three local governments would deliver nearly half of the entire votes cast to one contestant. That is the job for the electoral petition tribunal – the turf of lawyers. Trust the lawyers – head or tail, they win – never mind that the electors are more often than not – bewildered.

What the president owes the people of Kogi is the burden of establishing what went wrong. Interestingly, his Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has given Nigerians a clue: the ‘policemen’ that disrupted governorship poll in parts of Bayelsa and Kogi States were “fake” and not the personnel officially deployed for election duties. According to him, all security personnel, who worked during the poll, had “special identification tags”, and that anyone without the tags was on illegal duty. He couldn’t have been referring to the ones graphically captured by the social media.

Or could he truly be referring to those seen with the appurtenances of government at their beck and call as “fake”?

What about the helicopters? Were they “fake” too? Or could they have been receiving fake orders?

The people of Kogi surely deserve to know. And who else but their president can help them unravel the mystery more so as they have to now live under the terror of those guns freely deployed by the fake policemen on the election day!

‘The world knows better than to describe the charade of November 16 as an electoral contest. It was democracy by conquest – the conqueror being the party that had the superior firepower, a contest in which the elector was at best a spectator!’

November 26, 2019