Category: Sanya Oni

Glad to be back. By now, even the most ardent observers of Nigeria’s public finance must have given up on the possibility of ever finding those ‘unknown’ elements in its many-sided, quasi-federalist, quadratic equations. Unlike the traditional quadratic function where you keep some elements constant while cracking the unknown, the Nigerian equation, like a perennially moving target, keeps morphing not very much amoeba-like, of better still, like a mutant variant of a wayward gene; until you find that the solution you sought was neither understood nor in any sense captured in the originating hypotheses! And so the problem, like the gangrenous ulcer, not only festers but actually defies imminent solution!

A lot has of course happened since early August when this columnist went on vacation. First, the apex bank has ‘duelled’ with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC over what is remitted into the nation’s piggy bank. Then, at issue was an alleged non-remittance of dollars into the nation’s foreign reserves by NNPC which the apex bank claimed to be the reason for the plunge of the naira in the official and parallel markets. Although a document from the NNPC later surfaced to show it remitted a total of $2.7bn into its accounts with the CBN from January to June, it still fell short of satisfactorily addressing the underlying discrepancy as both of them could not have been right at the same time! The last that was heard on the matter was that the presidency had waded into a matter!

That dust had barely settled before another joust erupted between the NNPC and the National Customs Service. This time, the issue is on the former’s claim that it supplies about 98 million litres of petrol for the country on a daily basis even when actual consumption is no more than 60 million litres. In essence, that a whopping 38 million litres of fuel are smuggled across the borders daily – and this under the watch of the men of the customs!

Expectedly, the Customs Comptroller-General, Hammed Ali, would have none of it. While appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, he had asked somewhat incredulously: ‘If you say you release 98 million litres and then, we use only 60 million litres; the balance will be 38 million litres.

How many trucks will that 38 million litres every day be? That will be almost 500 trucks; which roads are they following, where are they carrying them to’? He had asked.

By the way, that was the same million naira question raised by the revered columnist Olatunji Dare last week.

This columnist is not aware that the question has been satisfactorily answered by the NNPC. Or by anyone in government for that matter. Yet, this quantum – more than half of the national requirement – form part of the stock on which the country is expected to pay the subsidy under which the economy currently reels.

Finally, the Nigerian Navy, as if waiting to be prompted has, amidst the unrelenting claims of massive theft of crude oil, has sought, perhaps finally, to demolish the claim by the NNPC and by extension, the federal government, of that massive theft.

Read Also: NNPCL: petrol to sell for N462/litre without subsidy

Occasion was the briefing to commence the 64th anniversary celebrations of the Nigerian Navy in Abuja. There, Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, would argue that much of the talk about crude theft is sheer hogwash. Maintaining that the figures, which range from 200,000 to 400,000 barrels a day, was impracticable, he insisted that many of the presentations on the subject was borne either out of ignorance or mischief.

Says he: “We need to understand the differences between oil theft and of course, oil loss. While oil theft is siphoning oil from vandalised pipes into barges, oil losses occur when there is non-production, especially during shut-ins and force majeure as the federal government does not earn the desired revenue it should”.  To him, the problem is that oftentimes, the volumes from shut-ins due to non-production are added to oil theft data instead of accounting for them as oil losses by the authorities.

For context, he says 100,000 barrels of crude oil is equivalent to 15,800,000 litres of crude, which requires a five-ton barge making 3,160 trips per day to convey out of the creeks!

And the ponderous question: “How do you pass the estuaries with this? So, let’s assume now you even have many barges because of the time required to carry out this product. That means you entirely close the navigable waters heading out to sea, through the estuaries, to embark them or to transit them into a mother vessel that will eventually take them out of the country.

“Of course, this is most unlikely considering the heightened presence of security agencies in the maritime environment as well as the launch of the subsisting operations by the Nigerian Navy, including of course, the deployment of the maritime domain awareness facilities”.

So much for the clarification that leaves out the million-dollar the question of how a country that once delivered in excess of two million barrels of crude has failed to meet up its 1.8 million OPEC quota. Not once or twice have yours truly heard from those who should know, that we may have all along been looking at the wrong direction for the unexplained or better still, unexplainable shortfalls in crude production. Rather than those barges in the creeks, some have actually suggested that we shift our gazes to our marble palaces where all things unimaginable take place!

And while the blame game goes on, between the triumvirate of a corrupt, inept and hopelessly inefficient national oil corporation, an out-of-control apex bank that has virtually re-written all the rule books about central banking and a customs service off the leash, our dear president Muhammadu Buhari, has finally found an answer in the Presidential Committee on National Economy inaugurated last week!

The committee, according to the president, is expected to review the national economic situation and propose measures to ensure the progress of the economy, receive regular updates on economic conditions in the country, identify issues that require urgent intervention to improve macroeconomic and fiscal conditions, review the impact of existing and new policies on the economy and provide directions to relevant institutions responsible for fiscal, monetary and other relevant policies.

By the way, does this president still have Economic Advisory Council (EAC)? And what is the role of the National Economic Council in all of these?

Were the country not to be in dire emergency, the latest development would have been tagged comical. In other words, no garlands for leaving the country on auto-pilot; a country which the fiscal side of governance has been on a long Rip Van Winkle sleep and the apex bank in the absence of the established restraints of convention and governance has not only been left to fly solo, but also blind.

Is anyone still in wonder why the naira, the symbol of the nation’s economic strength, is on a free-fall with no respite in sight? Or why inflation is running riot while those in charge would rather shop for alibis?

Exactly three weeks after, the country continues to grope in search of explanations for the stupefying breach of that supposedly impregnable custodial centre within an earshot to the Nigeria’s seat of power. Built in 1989, the Kuje Custodial Centre came under the fire of terrorists at the end of which over 800 prisoners, notable among of which were 60 Boko Haram terrorists, simply took a walk. Before the Kuje incident, there had been similar attacks on correctional facilities in Owerri, Bauchi, Ubiaja in Edo State, Kurmawa in Kano, Jos, Kabba in Kogi, and Abolongo in Oyo State.

Never mind the serial humiliation of the country and the astounding rationalisation of incompetence that followed, Nigerians, if not the world, has since been gifted with copious literature on how not to handle a sensitive national security institution like a correctional centre. Now, the joke in town is that no institution is inviolable; not even the supposedly sacred precincts of Abuja’s Three Arm Zone – no thanks to the bungling by officials who, were things to be normal, should have no business in the sensitive security sector.

So much for the running national security tragedy thought to have climaxed in the March 28 blow-up of the Abuja – Kaduna rail and the consequent killing of eight people and abduction of 63 others. Clearly, if that terrible incident was meant to present a teachable moment for the nation and its security apparatus, other serial humiliations that have followed, topmost of which is the horrendous killing of at least 43 people including 30 soldiers and seven mobile police personnel in an attack on a mining site in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, have since presented in stark colours, the difference between a de facto government and a de jure one.  For without as much as the hoisting of the terrorists’ flag on the soil of the Nigerlites, the good people of Shiroro, like their kin in Zamfara and Katsina, surely know the difference between the formal authority flowing from Minna and the raw power oozing from the redoubt of the terrorists not to appreciate the essence of true allegiance!

Of course, if anyone ever imagined those serial killings would somehow mark the moment to draw the line to what seems to be a determined humbling of the African Giant by the rabid band of terrorists; two recent but related events – the turbaning of the bandit leader – Adamu Aliero – as Serkin Fulani (leader of Fulani) by the now suspended Emir of Yandoto, Aliyu Garba Marafa, and the trending video of the victims of the railways abductions being flogged by the terrorists, would appear the final rite of humiliation for a country whose armed forces were once rated among the best, not just in the continent but in the global south. Just imagine – the loonies, now emboldened, are no longer content with hunting for high net worth victims, they now want the heads of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nasir El- Rufai served on a platter!

Talk of a country that has gone full cycle. A little while back, Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina not only embraced the bandits, he actually negotiated and granted them amnesty. His words: “Because they (terrorists) said they are Muslims, we went as far as asking them to swear to the Holy Qur’an that they will never participate in banditry again”.

Well, they did – only to return to the lucrative business of banditry a little while after.  He would later tell a visiting United Nations Development Programme delegation that he had negotiated with “thieves”.

“Anybody who says he is going to engage them on anything is free. I will pray for him but I will not do it again,” he was quoted to have said, saying that after failing him twice, he would be a fool “to go the same way”.

That was then. The bandits have not only become implacable, they have since transformed into full-time terrorists, setting up camps and military bases with highly sophisticated network of informants complete with communications systems. With Rocket Propelled Guns, they even dared to take down an aircraft at some point! Just as they have camps that can house hundreds of their kidnapped victims, in all likelihood, they have hundreds of fighting men primed to engage at any given point. And then the matching logistics to guarantee not just that the basic living standards are met but such other equipment considered necessary for their deadly operations.

Their modus operandi as has become evident is to deploy the instrument of fear to enforce their will. Now, the government, initially reluctant to declare the terrorists as such, have since done so.

Sadly, whereas the scale appears to have fallen from the eyes of the Nigerian leadership, nothing in their new awareness of the character of the enemy appears to have led to any change of strategy or tactics. If anything, it has been more of the same. From imponderable dilatoriness to sometimes empty posturing, government’s responses to the terror challenge has been most pathetic.

When they talk about engagement, negotiation or whatever, it is oftentimes more out of weakness than strength; from dictating the terms and conditions for releasing their luckless victims to such profile escapades and show of force, such has been the daring attempt by the terrorits to present the government as weak and ineffectual and the military as lacking the fighting spirit.

Say what you may of the poor Zamfara emir; he probably had enough good sense to know what it means to hearken to the daily yearnings of his people to be left to enjoy their lives in peace than what the government in Gusau or even the Federal Government cares to understand. For while his understanding might have been that a title on the bandit leader would be worth more than its value in gold should peace finally to return to the beleaguered emirate, the chap in Gusau, Bello Matawalle, who wears the title of the Chief Security Officer, and President Muhammadu Buhari, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces would in the same vein seem to him as far too distant, and certainly too remote to be able to address his immediate existential challenges hence his resort to self-help! Talk of an unenviable position to be in! His banishment to Siberia should afford him enough time to rue the lessons.

Finally, on the trending video on the flogging of the kidnap victims. Truly, it is gut-wrenching – so much so that some have described it is the final (?) crossing of the proverbial red line. Agreed. But then, how many of such red lines have those savages crossed in the last seven years with the government betraying utter helplessness? And why should anyone expect this latest provocation to be different?

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.

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!

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With one score plus presidential hopefuls and countless other pretenders crowding the field weeks to the primaries, those who brought up the idea of a hefty prize for the first hurdle must be ruing the decision not to make the cost even stiffer. I understand that some Nigerians still can’t wrap their heads around the princely N100 million fee for a job whose entire compensation package over a four-year comes to a mere fraction of the tidy sum. But then, that – given the experience of the past week – has in itself, has turned a gross misreading of the psychology of the cult from Nigeria’s College of Comedy. For whereas APC Abdullahi Adamu’s N100 million hurdle – and to a lesser still, Iyorchia Ayu’s N40 million presidential tag – may have been meant to separate the boys from the men, a bridge to cross if only to spare the citizen the headache of separating the line-up of delinquents from the row of serious contenders, we have again been handed additional evidence of the peccadilloes of elements so utterly out of touch with the Nigerian reality; a band so tragically lacking in character and so irredeemably impervious to good judgment that it would be a travesty to describe them as leaders!

Yes, the Nigerian delinquency with its infinite capacity to mutate never ceases to amaze. The other day, newspapers reported the nation’s number one law officer, Abubakar Malami, as distributing 30 exotic cars to his political associates and supporters in Kebbi State. Among the pricey toys are 14 Mercedes-Benz (GLK) said to be for ‘dedicated social media influencers promoting his gubernatorial ambition’, eight Prado SUVs, four Toyota Hilux, and four Lexus LX 570 for other sundry operatives.

Now, did he do any wrong? Of course the answer would depend of which end of the moral totem pole the assessor chooses to stand. Yes, Umar Gwandu, his media hand has since clarified that the vehicles in question were donated by friends and associates to members of his foundation and not to APC delegates or stakeholders in the state. I believe him. We all should. In any case, as the Chief Law Officer of the federation, he should know enough of the law not to run afoul of the provisions of Paragraph 6 (1) of the Code of Conduct for public officers. That section provides that: ‘A public officer shall not ask for or accept property or benefits of any kind for himself or any other person on account of anything done or omitted to be done by him in the discharge of his duties”. Never mind that the public officer in question has only days before declared his intention to run for an elective office in his home state of Kebbi.

Why bother with optics when politics is in full bloom?

Today, the critics ought to know better than query the powerful individual whose word is now law; a legal functionary who, vide an ingenious judicial manoeuvre in a Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, outsmarted the parliament and rendered the entire Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act a nullity! To those who do not know, the provision says: ‘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’.

Take a bow – Messrs Chris Ngige, Rotimi Amaechi, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba; some laws are best kept in abeyance particularly when some powerful political operatives of the Buhari administration are involved!

However, it is Godwin Emefiele, the nation’s number one banker under whom the apex bank has transmuted into the lender of the first and last resort that we must turn for a classic in political delinquency. Never mind his penchant to play the coy mistress; that the man covets the top job is no longer news. The only problem is that the corpse that the Meffy gang has sought to inter deep beneath the earth has its legs jutting out as if to dare the sun!

Talk of the scores of Meffy branded campaign vehicles which speak to months and perhaps years of careful preparation; the choice media ads that leaves no one in doubt about the deep pockets behind the quest, the spectacular endorsement by some loonies wearing military camouflage while brandishing AK-47s. Minus the latter’s display of illegal weapons and heedless outlawry, all of the above would have been just fine! To these fuzzy backgrounds has now been added last week’s disclosure that a group of amorphous farmers under the banner of a coalition of commodity associations has finally taken the unprecedented step of pooling N100 million to enable Emefiele run for the dream office.

Yes, not a few worry that the man may have crossed the line.  In this, no one has suggested that the chief superintendent of the free-spending CBN is not ‘qualified’ to run for the highest job. What appears at issue is his fidelity to the CBN Act which governs the appointment of the number one banker, his professional judgment in the circumstance that the office requires a hands-on tenure; the dictates of public morality and the imperative that goes with safeguarding its institutional integrity.

Needless to state that two top lawyers – Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, the Ondo State governor, and Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a law professor – see the man as coming miserably short on all the counts. They say he wants to eat his cake and still have it. And that rather than the three-month notice which the law demanded in the circumstance, the man would rather latch on some threadbare legality as if to inoculate himself from the harsh judgment of history.

Imagine, to his full time job at the CBN corporate headquarters would now be added the potentially enervating shuttles to the courts all in the desperate bid to secure a legal shield to remain in office. A distraction? Think of the hustings that go with the quest for the presidential trophy – something that the CBN Act neither envisaged nor permitted; and all of these in the midst of an unprecedented social and economic crisis. That is how costly political delinquency can sometimes be under an ineffectual, vacillating presidency!

I end today’s piece with a little note on Tambuwal Doctrine. Yes, there’s no guessing the name behind it – it is Aminu Tambuwal, the Sokoto State governor. Although not fleshed out in any formal sense, the doctrine was supposed to be a caveat, a sort of warning, meant for the proponents of zoning in his party – the PDP even if I dare say that the APC has since caught the bug.

It goes like this: Zoning might be sweet music to the ears and perhaps choice strategy for those who seek justice and fair-play in the Nigerian federation; winning is far sweeter still!

In a clear message to those angling for the former, he says they only need to consider the demographic composition of the country and the trend in past election results to appreciate the difference!

You summed it right; political opportunism has no other name!