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Category: Niyi Akinnaso

  • Three reflections

    Three reflections

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    OCCASIONAL pause is always necessary to give room for reflection. Today, I reflect on three issues on which I have commented in order to have some clarity for tomorrow.

    COVID-19 on the rise again

    There are many Nigerians who ignorantly insist that there is “no coro” in the country. Others who know full well that the virus is real and has infected nearly 70,000 and killed nearly 1,200 Nigerians may now think that the pandemic era has ended, following the sharp decline in infections in October. For example, there were only 48 infections in 5 states and the Federal Capital Territory on October 24, 2020. That was toward the tail end of the #EndSARS protest and the looting that followed.

    However, the figures started trending upwards from November 24, 2020, exactly one month after the dip, hitting the 200s several times before the end of the month.  By December 3, 2000, the infection figure was over 300 and it stayed that way for five days in a row, hitting 390 on December 7, 2020. Today, the infection rate is trending toward the 400 mark.

    This upward trend can be attributed to four factors. One, the mostly maskless #EndSARS protesters and the maskless looters that followed may have aided the spread of the virus, leading to a spike three to four weeks later.

    Second, the relaxation of major prevention guidelines by the general population, partly due to negligence or ignorance and partly due to COVID-19 fatigue, may also have aided the spread of the virus.

    Third, the winter (cold weather), which keeps people longer indoors in Western countries has led to a major spike in Europe and North America. This has serious implications for Nigeria as some returnees from these countries have been found to be positive for the virus after their 7-day quarantine period. Such people may have infected others, given the finding that the virus is transmitted even before symptoms are detected.

    Fourth, the negligence of several state governments in following through on testing is another contributory factor. Several vectors of the virus might have been left untested and, therefore, undetected, thereby infecting others.

    #EndSARS in the news again

    The government’s doublespeak on the #EndSARS protest is directly responsible for the attempted resurgence of the protest this week. The protesters are demanding the release of suspected promoters and the unfreezing of their accounts.

    The government’s initial actions of looking into the protesters’ demands and setting up judicial panels of inquiry into their grievances as well as President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent statement that the youths have the right to protest have been hailed as responsive actions. However, they do not square with the arrests of suspected promoters of the protests and the freezing of their accounts.

    If the suspected promoters of the protest were arrested and their accounts frozen in order to find out the big movers behind their action, the government is mistaken as such information (if it existed) could still be obtained without arrests and without freezing accounts. Only a government that lacks a proper intelligence architecture would go that rout. The method of arresting to obtain information, rather than letting information lead to arrests, is not the best way to uphold the rule of law.

    Besides, the government may be mistaken in concluding that the youths could not raise about N150 million Naira within two weeks in this digital age, especially given the globalization of their protest. The government’s action demonstrates its disbelief in the ability of today’s youths to raise funds for a good course. Yet, the government is happy to be bailed out of financial conundrum over COVID-19, by relying on the Coalition Alliance Against COVID-19, which had raised nearly N40 billion from about 200 donors by then end of November, 2020.

    The government would do well to release those arrested and unfreeze their accounts, while moving forward with its investigations. Otherwise, the government would continue to undercut the genuineness of its initial response to the #EndSARS protest.

    UNILAG, Mumuni, and Bad optics

    It is unfortunate that Mikail Mumuni chose to deliver a slave message like a true slave, rather than delivering it like a freeborn. He strayed from the omoluabi ethos in his response to my article, UNILAG: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat (The Nation, November 18, 2020).

    In his response, wrongly titled UNILAG: Akinnaso’s contempt for facts (The Nation, November 25, 2020), Mumuni echoed his master’s voice like the needle of an old gramophone. Rather than contest the facts in my essay, he played up other facts, which he claimed I ignored, by echoing the allegations made against the reinstated Vice Chancellor, Professor Toyin Ogundipe, by his paymaster, the then Chairman of the dissolved Governing Council, Dr. Wale Babalakin.

    Mumuni missed the point completely. The ad hoc Visitation Panel did exactly what it was set up to do, namely, to look into (a) the procedure by which Ogundipe was removed as Vice Chancellor and (b) the procedure by which the Acting Vice Chancellor was appointed. The other terms of reference revolve around these two.

    In both cases, Babalakin’s Council flouted the procedure. It failed to set up a Joint Committee of Council and Senate to give Ogundipe the opportunity to defend himself. It also failed to involve the University Senate in the appointment of the Acting Vice Chancellor. Worse still, it was alleged that Council did not vote to remove the Vice Chancellor after all, but that the votes were reportedly manipulated to achieve removal.

    The Panel made the right recommendations, which the Visitor to the University, President Muhammadu Buhari, upheld. In addition to dissolving the Governing Council and reinstating the Vice Chancellor, the Panel also recommended the setting up of a full Visitation Panel to look into how the university had been run.

    This is where the Nation Editorial, Bad optics (The Nation, November 23, 2020) got it wrong. The Vice Chancellor need not step aside for the University Visitation Panel to do its job. That is never the practice. Ideally, a Visitation Panel should be set up every five years to investigate every aspect of university life over the past five years or more. Such a Panel often meets for months, rather than for a few weeks as the recent ad hoc Panel did. The Vice Chancellor is needed to provide critical information to the Panel. This does not preclude his being a casualty of the Panel’s findings.

     

  • Oyetola: Two years gone, 2 more plus 4

    Oyetola: Two years gone, 2 more plus 4

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    I write to congratulate you on the second anniversary of your administration. I look back with pride and nostalgia to the hard-fought battle of your election and the continuation of progressive administration in the State of Osun.

    There have been challenges along the line—the inclement national financial weather, the COVID-19 pandemic and others not so significant. But you have weathered the storm admirably and steadied the ship of state.”

    — Excerpts from the congratulatory letter to the Governor of the State of Osun, Gboyega Oyetola, on his second year anniversary, from his immediate predecessor in office, now the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.

    Not all anniversaries are worth celebrating and some are worth celebrating more than others. The opening quote from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior and Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s immediate predecessor in office, advanced at least three reasons why Oyetola’s second year anniversary was worth celebrating. They are: the harsh national financial situation; the raging COVID-19 pandemic; and what Aregbesola categorized as “others not so significant”. I will elaborate on these reasons and even advance others equally significant.

    Technically, Oyetola may have spent two years in office. Pragmatically, however, he has been able to do only about a year’s worth of work. First, his government was literally in limbo as his tenure was not sure for nearly eight months until the Supreme Court validated his election on July 5, 2019. He had barely worked for 8 months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation in February, 2020.

    By March, 2020, Osun was badly hit by 127 returnees to Ejigbo from Ivory Coast, among whom were those who carried a high viral load of the virus. But for advance preparations and effective management, Osun easily could have been the epicenter of the pandemic in Nigeria. Nevertheless, it put the state on guard and stringent measures had to be employed, including the closure of schools and businesses. A significant portion of the government’s bureaucratic machinery was shut down for months.

    It would have been easy to quickly bounce back, if sufficient resources were available. But blaming the harsh national financial situation, which cut the state’s federal allocation virtually in half, is only part of the story. The late take-off, due to the protracted litigation, and the equally protracted pandemic also had negative effects on the state’s ability to generate sufficient revenue on its own.

    To complicate these adverse financial conditions, Oyetola also inherited a debt burden to settle, including arrears of salaries and pensions. The saving grace for him derives from three sources. One, he was Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff for eight years. He knew where the roof leaked and where to start mending. Two, as a finance expert, who managed a successful Insurance business on his own, he knows how to walk the financial terrain. Three, he seeks and listens to advice; he seeks the consent of the governed; and he carefully, but deliberatively, implements his agenda.

    True, he modified some of the policies he inherited, such as those in education, as demanded by the people, but he never departed from the template left behind by Aregbesola. Rather, he continued to elaborate on it in keeping with the continuity pledge he made during the campaign. This is quite evident in all sectors, especially health, infrastructure, education, the economy, agriculture, mineral resources (notably gold), culture and tourism, and citizens’ welfare.

    Let me use the health sector as a point of reference, because there is no Local Government Area that has been left untouched in the massive investment in the sector. Look at it this way: There are 332 wards in the state. Oyetola has built or remodelled 332 Primary Health Centres on a one-per-ward basis. He also made sure that each was supplied with necessary medical equipment and appropriate disposables. In addition, each was equipped with a motorized borehole and an overhead tank.

    The effect on patronage has been dramatic. This is particularly true of neonatal and maternal care. For example, there were 50,500 successful deliveries between November 2018 and July 2020 in the different PHCs since the modifications began, compared to 30,599 deliveries between March 2017 and October 2018.

    Similarly, those who needed secondary or tertiary healthcare are getting the benefit of their money or insurance premium at the General Hospitals, Mercyland Hospital, and the State Specialist Hospital, Asubiaro, where value was added in various categories. For example, the General Hospital in Ejigbo was completely rebuilt and equipped. Additional wards and Intensive Care Units were built or revitalized in Mercyland Hospital and the Specialist Hospital.

    These developments are separate from the various Isolation Centres constructed throughout the state in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic for which the state proactively began to prepare even before Nigeria had her index case. It was this advance preparation that enabled the state to cope with the 127 returnees and has continued to put the state in good stead in fighting the pandemic. These physical advances were supplemented with medical supplies for which the OHIS Drug Distribution Centre was purposefully established.

    The capstone of the healthcare strides is the establishment of the Osun Health Insurance Scheme for which seed money was provided by the state government. In addition, nearly 500 million Naira was paid to purchase the OHIS premiums for vulnerable citizens.

    What Oyetola was able to achieve in the health sector is even less than the advances in infrastructure, which is being capped by a flyover at the famous Olaiya intersection in Osogbo, where major roads from different parts of the state and beyond intersect right in the heart of the city.

    A less visible, but quite effective, achievement is the regular payment of salaries. He lifted the embargo placed on promotion. He is paying the revised salary structure for medical and allied health workers. And he is implementing the new minimum wage.

    It was not only the weight and spread of Oyetola’s impact within a very short time that endeared him to Osun citizens. His demeanour and style—let my action speak for me—has met with high approval. That’s why he successfully waded through the “not so significant” problems.

    It’s no wonder then that the grand finale of the weeklong celebration of his second year in office last Friday was converted into a second term endorsement by a cross-section of the state. Hence the title of this piece.

  • #EndSARS protest as metaphor

    #EndSARS protest as metaphor

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    Each time I reflect on the #EndSARS protest and its aftermath, the twin subject of despair and futility comes to mind. And I remember once again Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus, a Greek legend used by Camus to theorize the meaninglessness of human existence in a hostile and orderless world.

    In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned for his trickery by the gods to repeatedly roll a boulder up a hill only to have it roll down again once he got to the top. He would repeat the same process over and over again for eternity.

    Sisyphus’s condition is an apt metaphor for the human condition in contemporary Nigeria, where everything undesirable in life has become routine; where the worthlessness of existence is dramatized on a daily basis; and where the same mistakes are made over and over again. Which is why advertised change hardly happens. And if change happens at all, it is often for the worse. So it is with the fight against corruption. So it is with the security of lives and property. And so it is with the economy as Nigeria slips into the worst recession in 36 years, according to the World Bank.

    The government borrows and then borrows more to pay back previous loans. Some government officials steal and steal and steal again, and then hand the baton to the next set of officials,who do the same thing. The more the government seeks to alleviate poverty, the more the poor population increases. The more tokens the government throws out as employment opportunities, the longer the unemployment and underemployment lines grow.

    Infrastructure is crumbling. Public waterworks have been reduced to private boreholes and deep wells. The government breaks its promises, denies reality, and then goes on to chastise critics. Yet, we know that different results cannot be expected from making the same mistakes over and over again.

    The #EndSARS protest, organized largely by youths, sought to bring an end to one major cycle of hostility and suffering, namely, police brutality, especially as perpetrated by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Disbelieving that change would come from the same Inspector General of Police, who had broken an earlier promise to end the SARS, the youths increased their list of demands but remained focused on police reform. The announcement by the IG within 48 hours of an alternative police unit further confounded the youths’ disbelief and contributed to their persistence.

    Then hoodlums infiltrated the Nigeria-flag-carrying protesters. And the Army came in. An otherwise peaceful protest ended violently, opening the door to more violence in the form of massive looting and destruction of lives and property. And the nation is back not just to Square One, but almost to Ground Zero, as the government scrambles to heal self-inflicted wounds.

    The #EndSARS protest thus becomes a metaphor of the Nigerian condition. The protesters and the looters reflect the hopelessness of the Nigerian condition. The bungled intervention by the government, which set up the orgy of violence, is itself a metaphor of failed governance in the country.

    At federal and state levels, most new administrations start out with lofty ideas and ideals but fail to deliver. This is particularly true of the present federal government, which campaigned on change and promised to be for all people. Today, the government is perceived as being largely for a section of the country.

    After five years in government, more aspects of our national life have changed for the worse than for the better. It was the lack of change in one sector that initially led to the #EndSARS protest. The change that followed the protest was for the worst show of violent looting. The deepening recession can only make it much more difficult for the government to dig the nation out of the hole into which it has been plunged.

    Of particular significance is the juxtaposition of peace and violence, which marked the two ends of the protest. The protest’s peaceful outlook suddenly became eclipsed by violent looting and destruction. These contradictory tendencies are typical of the dualities of existence in Nigeria.

    On the political plane, political campaigns often start out peacefully. As election approaches, thugs are released on opponents, maiming some and killing others. Hence the need for so-called peace agreements between opposing candidates, an unnecessary step in a normal democracy.

    On the social plane, the opulence of the few is juxtaposed with the poverty and squalour of the many. While the few are holding lavish parties, where food and wine are served into the middle of the night, many are scavenging for food and livelihood. The cycle of hopelessness gets wider and wider in circumference.

    The handling of the #EndSARS protest by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is also a metaphor of his governance approach: Sit back and watch matters get out hand before intervening. In the case of the  recent protest, the youths were confused by the inchoate signals. Such an approach ushered in the Buhari administration in 2015, which led to undesirable leadership election outcome in the National Assembly. We saw it in the herdsmen-farmers clashes, in kidnapping for ransom, and now in banditry in the North.

    The administration’s contradictory signals are also part of the dualities that typify Buhari’s governance style: Yes, to the protesters’ demands. But forcefully stop the protest, arrest their leaders, and freeze their accounts. Typically, this government arrests suspects in order to fish for evidence, instead of piling up evidence before going on to arrest. This arm-twisting approach by the government only illustrates the failure of the nation’s intelligence architecture.

    If it was alive to its duty, the Department of State Services should have been tracking the donations organized largely by the newly formed (July 2020) Feminist Coalition, using various verifiable platforms. At the end of the protest, the Coalition published the total donations collected (N147,855,788.28), how much was spent (N60,403,235.00), and how much was leftover (N87,452,553.28)

    So long as the government’s futile governance style persists, Nigerians will keep groping for order in an orderless and hopeless world. This should never have been our plight. That was the message of the young protesters last October. If we learned anything at all from them, it was their cry for change. Arresting and harassing them is not the best way to respond to their cry.

  • UNILAG: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat

    UNILAG: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    Each time I receive a message from two of my friends with whom I communicate frequently, the subject of power tickles my mind, because each of them has a maxim about power in the signature section of their message box. One of them, “Power is transient”, focuses on the temporariness of power. This applies in particular to rotational positions, such as that of the Governor of a state or the Chairman of a committee. The other maxim, “Power is responsibility”, draws attention to the burden of accountability on the shoulders of anyone in a position of power.

    Put simply, power is the ability or potential of a person or group of persons to dominate or control another person or group of persons. This is why Michel Foucault, a renowned French philosopher and social theorist, focused on the exercise of power. Indeed, for him, power exists only in its exercise as a form of social control through societal institutions.

    We know from various examples of leadership roles that there are two basic ways in which leaders exercise power. One way is to use power to facilitate access to resources by empowering institutions and their agents. Those who exercise power this way are often interested in providing the greatest good for the largest number of people. This is what I admired in Rauf Aregbesola as Governor of the State of Osun.

    Another way is to use power as a form of control of limited resources by bypassing institutions and even necessary agents, including diverting resources away from some stakeholders in order to benefit others, usually a small minority or even to benefit the power-holder him/herself. As we have discovered, such power-holders tend to be authoritarian. The outgoing President of the United States, Donald Trump, is a living example.

    The key here lies in “bypassing institutions” and laid down rules as in the case of Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN), the erstwhile Chairman of the University of Lagos Governing Council. As he often claimed, he did not use power to benefit himself. However, it was alleged that he empowered the University Registrar to disregard the Vice Chancellor, Professor Toyin Ogundipe to the point that the VC’s situation report allegedly did not even make it to the agenda of Council meetings.

    Babalakin’s attitude to, and treatment of, the VC attracted the attention of the university community and beyond. Various individuals and groups, including former and serving VCs and Pro-Chancellors, appealed to Babalakin but to no avail. Matters seemed to have come to a head with the postponement of the UNILAG convocation in March this year, which Babalakin engineered. It was later alleged that the convocation date conflicted with a personal engagement he had outside the country.

    I called Babalakin before my first article on the postponement (see UNILAG convocation: Hanging between Council and Management, The Nation, March 25, 2010) but I could not reach him. I later learned he was out of the country. As soon as I learned that he had returned, I called again to have his perspective on the same matter before writing my second article (Clarifications on the postponement of UNILAG convocation, The Nation, April 1, 2020). He picked my call and spent most of the time harassing me over the earlier article and threatening to sue me if I wrote nonsense.

    When I first learned about the zealotry with which Babalakin went afterOgundipe, the analogy that came to mind was the excessive hatred Nwibe had for the madman in the lead story, titled The Madman, in Chinua Achebe’s collection of short stories, Girls at War. When Dr. Babalakin eventually got Ogundipe removed as Vice Chancellor, I suspected that he might have given himself the Nwibe treatment.

    Nwibe was a wealthy man, who was on the path to joining the hierarchy of titled men in his village. But there was a madman who walked through the village on market days, and Nwibe hated his guts. His children would throw stones at the madman. Nwibe himself once joined other men to bundle the madman out of a market stall. He also joined other passengers to assault the madman on the highway the madman had come to call his own.

    The madman’s revenge came one morning on a market day as Nwibe was bathing himself in the stream. On identifying Nwibe as the man in the stream, the madman packed his clothes and ran with them toward the market. Nwibe, now naked, pursued the madman for his clothes, shouting obscenities and threatening to kill him. Blinded by anger and revenge, he kept pursuing the madman, who by now had vanished into the market crowd. Anger drew Nwibe to the market square, naked from head to toe. Villagers, including relatives, wasted no time in concluding that Nwibe had gone mad.

    Babalakin’s “madness” matured when he took the meeting of UNILAG Governing Council all the way to Abuja just to get Ogundipe removed from office. The problem, of course, was not the location of the meeting but the process Babalakin chose to follow, without regard to the standard procedure of removing a Vice Chancellor, as laid out in the UNILAG Act. Some members of Council at the meeting even questioned the vote tally on Ogundipe’s removal.

    Babalakin did not stop there. He also disregarded proper procedure in appointing an Acting Vice Chancellor. Furthermore, he questioned the composition of the Visitation Panel set up to examine the steps taken on the removal of the VC and the appointment of the Acting VC. If you wondered why Babalakin, a lawyer, would set the law aside like he did and castigate a Federal Government panel, just remember how anger drove Nwibe to the market square, all naked.

    It was not clear whether Babalakin was advised to resign; but he he did so, hours after the Visitation Panel submitted its report. As the Panel recommended, the Governing Council was dissolved and Ogundipe was reinstated as Vice Chancellor. Jim Mackay’s famous opening of ABC’s Wide World of Sports now rings true: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat.

    There is a great lesson here about power and its exercise. The two maxims about power cited earlier provide a good guide. Anyone in a position of power must always remember the enormous burden of responsibility it entails. Its transience requires that power holders must be wary of the legacy they will leave behind.

  • Intelligence and morality gaps in the nation

    Intelligence and morality gaps in the nation

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    THE #EndSARS protest should be distinguished from the destruction and looting of public and private property that followed and enveloped it. The protest was peaceful and civil, while the looting was downright violent and criminal. The majority of the protesters are well educated and come from middle and upper class families. Some of them even trained abroad.

    The looters were frustrated, largely unemployed or underemployed youths. Most of them have experienced no other world than the corrupt social and political space that Nigeria has become. Their rampage has left jaws ajar, with federal and state governments groping for answers and solutions.

    This is particularly the case in the Southwest, which suffered the most widespread destruction in the region’s history. Not even the three-year civil war brought anything close to the damage that occurred within the four dark days of destruction and mass looting during October 21-24, 2020.

    Two basic types of destruction took place during the short period. One type of destruction was carried out to provide access into certain facilities, such as the palliative warehouses, malls, stores, shops, police stations (to steal guns), and so on.

    The other type of destruction appeared calculated, perhaps to wreak vengeance or run some nefarious errand. This applies in particular to the destruction of personal and business assets associated with targeted members of the All Progressives Congress across the Southwest.

    Moreover, some destruction took place where there was little or nothing to loot. This was particularly the case in Lagos, where as many as 89 municipal buses; several local government structures; and historic monuments, such as Lagos City Hall and Igbosere High Court (Nigeria’s oldest judicial building) were destroyed.

    Clearly, huge gaps in the nation’s moral fabric and the intelligence architecture provided room for these horrendous activities to take place unhinged. But, first, we must not lose sight of the underlying causes of the discontent that made the looters lose their moral compass to engage in these criminal activities. They include the deep-rooted social, economic, educational, governance, and ethical lapses that have been allowed to fester for far too long. Even the Nigeria Governors Forum acknowledged some of these underlying causes in its communique after its virtual meeting on Wednesday, November 5, 2020. The NGF noted that the destruction and looting were “attributable to social and economic inequalities in the country”.

    Ironically, governors and other top federal, state, and local government officials are viewed as responsible for the inequalities, which they often showcase in public spaces, especially on the highway and in social gatherings. They are perceived as looters of public treasury, corruptly draining resources away from desirable political goods, such as good roads, adequate power and water supply, quality healthcare, and valuable education. These deficits have made it impossible to sustain industries and the enterprises needed to create employment opportunities for the teeming youth population.

    Development agencies have repeatedly warned that Nigeria sits on a keg of gunpowder due to a bulging youth population and a high poverty level. Nigeria has one of the largest youth populations in the world, with about 60 percent of her total population aged 0 to 35 years. It is also the poverty capital of the world with at least 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Yet, there is no realistic manpower planning that factors in this explosive demographic trend.

    History shows that any nation with high youth unemployment and rising food and rent costs sits on a ticking time bomb. The bomb exploded in France during the French revolution, which began in 1789, and eventually ended the monarchy. It also exploded in Egypt in 2011 and led to regime change. It only ticked aloud in Nigeria during the #EndSARS protest and nearly exploded with the destruction and looting that followed. The next explosion may be uncontrollable.

    However, Nigeria is not the only country in the modern world where these problems exist. They exist in Venezuela, where citizens had to scramble for food donations by foreign governments and agencies. Yet, the youths neither destroyed structures nor looted property.

    It takes a serious erosion of values to engage in such criminal activities. But such a morality gap has been evident for quite some time in Nigeria, and politicians are viewed as contributing to this gap, by promoting thuggery and violence; by looting the public treasury, thereby shortchanging the people of needed resources; and by neglecting the youths.

    The nation witnessed wanton destruction of lives and livelihoods, especially of political opponents in the Southwest in 1965 and 1983 as well as in the North in 2011. The arson was executed largely by youths operating as party thugs. Such post-election arson was often passed off as mob reaction to stolen mandate.

    However, arson has spread to higher institutions. For example, in April 2016, even in the middle of their examinations, students of Adekunle Ajasin University destroyed property within the university, blocked a major arterial highway, and looted shops outside the campus in reaction to the death of one of their colleagues due to a motorcycle accident outside the campus. Two months later, part-time students of Auchi Polytechnic destroyed various structures within the institution and numerous staff vehicles in reaction to the institution’s ‘no pay, no exam’ policy.

    The above shows that we’ve known for quite some time that some of our youths express anger and frustration, by destroying property. This is the crop of youths that has hardly known a better climate than one in which politicians, police officers, essential service providers, and gatekeepers everywhere are corrupt to the teeth.

    Nothing in the foregoing should be strange to an effective intelligence agency. Yet, at federal and state levels, the intelligence architecture collapsed in October. It could not foresee trouble, even as skirmishes of violence occurred in Osun on Saturday, October 17, 2020, when the governor’s convoy was attacked while addressing protesters, and in Edo on Monday, October 19, 2020, when hoodlums broke into the Correctional Facility to release prisoners.

    The Department of State Services has a lot to learn from the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. It will be recalled that the FBI arrested a right wing group accused of plotting to kidnap the Michigan state Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, following a barrage of attacks on her by President Donald Trump and his supporters over her strict measures to combat COVID in her state.

     

  • Oyetola’s loot return amnesty

    Oyetola’s loot return amnesty

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    “THOSE who participated in looting should return the loot. Those machines that were stolen have serial numbers, which can be easily traced. So, I implored them to return them within 72-hour to the traditional rulers or the local government chairmen around them. If they do that on their own, they are pardoned, but if they fail to do so, we shall get them. It is an opportunity now to return them within 72 hours. We have enough evidence to track the looters.”

    Governor Gboyega Oyetola, at the Osun Garment Factory on October 25, 2020, issuing a 72-hour amnesty to looters of public and private property to return their loot or face prosecution.

    “This afternoon, I inspected looted items that have been recovered so far. I urge persons still in possession of stolen items to return them within the Amnesty period which expires in 24 hrs. Those who refuse to return looted items won’t be spared; they’ll be tracked and prosecuted.”

    Governor Gboyega Oyetola, at a press conference on October 27, 2020, after inspecting the loot returned so far, warning looters about the repercussion of not returning their loot within the 72-hour amnesty period.

    When Governor Gboyega Oyetola granted a 72-hour amnesty to looters of public and private goods in Osun state, following the chaos that enveloped the peaceful #EndSARS protest, some observers, especially on social media, laughed off the policy as a joke. “He won’t get anything”, a social media commentator wrote.

    The commentators were wrong, because they failed to appreciate the genius of Oyetola’s loot return amnesty. They failed to understand the victim-first orientation of the policy, rather than mere focus on prosecution, which may not bring back looted property. Don’t we know too well that prosecuting looters in this country is more of a mirage than real law enforcement? How many big time looters of our common patrimony have really been jailed for their offense?

    It is also important to gloss the Governor’s statement in the first quote more closely. “We have enough evidence to track the looters” and “…we shall get them” must be understood against the backdrop of various videos on various media outlet, especially TV and social media as well as the phones of citizens, who watched the looting in their neighbourhood.

    The looters must know that the government has tracked down these videos and that they might eventually be caught. Besides, some of the looters were actually caught and arrested during or shortly after they looted. The fear of being caught and punished became a motivation for many looters to comply with the governor’s amnesty policy.

    Some of the looters must have been surprised at the governor’s offer of amnesty, realising that he could still be angry at those who attacked him while addressing the #EndSARS protesters at Osogbo on Saturday, October 17, 2020. After all, there is hardly a distinction between the looters and those who attacked him during the preceding week.

    As the second opening quote shows, many goods had been returned 48 hours after amnesty was granted. I marvelled at the goods returned and the rate of return, when I visited the site of the returned goods on that day. They included expensive furniture, refrigerators, deep freezers, motorcycles, industrial machines, fertilizers, mattresses, television sets, generators, fertilizers, and so on.

    Interestingly, however, food items were hardly returned. They included chicken, pigs, cows, and various grains. Some items were stolen from government facilities, while others were stolen from private farms and shops. Particularly hit was Tuns Farms International, where pigs, chicken, and even equipment were looted. Worse still, a farm worker was killed in the process.

    To avoid showing their faces, some looters simply dropped off their loot by the roadside very early in the morning, instead of taking them to the nearby Oba’s palace or Local Government Chairman as the directive stated. Whatever was returned was picked up, no matter where they were dropped off. This was possible because the government enlisted the assistance of the army, police, Amotekun, and other government staff.

    Oyetola’s loot return policy is actually an echo of the federal government’s anti-corruption playbook. In response to poor or botched prosecution, President Muhammadu Buhari put the emphasis of his fight against corruption on asset recovery rather than mere prosecution and jailing of looters of public funds.

    There is, however, a clear distinction. Implicit in Oyetola’s loot return amnesty is the realization that many of the looters are victims of unemployment, poverty, and hunger. While none of these problems is justification for looting, it is also true that a hungry person is an angry person (I replaced “man” with “person” in this old adage, not just for gender sensitivity or political correctness but also because there were women among the looters).

    A major crisis like the looting spree, which occurred during the last week of October, 2020, across many states, especially in the Southwest, offers leaders the opportunity to demonstrate good leadership. Such demonstration need not be total. Good leadership may be demonstrated in a specific instance or in a specific way, where others are groping for solution.

    Oyetola’s loot return amnesty demonstrates compassion for the victims as well as an understanding of the plight of the looters. Leaders are often rewarded for understanding the context in which events happen and demonstrating compassion.

    Such was the case with Prime Minister Jacinda Adern of New Zealand. Before she won accolades for successfully controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in her country, her popularity rating rose beyond the 50 percent mark for the first time for her compassionate handling of the shooting, which killed 50 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch. Wearing a red head scarf, she quickly comforted Muslim families affected by the massacre and got a gun law passed, which banned semi-automatic weapons within a month of the shooting.

    Oyetola should build on the successful handling of looting in his state by getting an anti-looting legislation passed, which stipulates stiff punishment for future looters. At the same time, he should double up on his youth employment policy in order to get as many Osun youths as possible out of the street. It is as important to take care of the moment as it is to take care of the future. That’s the best way to ensure that Osun remains the showpiece of peace and social protection it always has been.

     

  • From #EndSARS to #EndLOOTING: It’s time to heal

    From #EndSARS to #EndLOOTING: It’s time to heal

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    My heart goes out to all the victims of the #EndSARS protest and the victims of the wanton destruction of lives and property that eventually enveloped the protest. I particularly mourn the vandalisation of Oba Rilwanu Akiolu’s palace, including the theft of his staff of office (eewo!); the loss of the maternal home of the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who attended to the course of the protest, even at the risk of his own life; and former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who lost invaluable business assets serving the Southwest, the nation as a whole, and the global community, not only in disseminating information but also in providing employment and livelihood to others.

    Before our eyes, the protest started out well on Thursday, October 8, 2020, and ended up on another note, clearly out of the protesters’ control. The protests, per se, which lasted about two weeks, demand a separate analysis from the destruction, lasting about one week, which enveloped it.

    The protest had diverse participants and supporters, including various firms and startups, artistes, various professionals, Yahoo Boys, many well educated aje-butter and being-to kids, the Feminist Coalition, and Nigerians in the Diaspora.

    True, the protesters claimed there were no leaders, but the Feminist Coalition, which organised the fundraising, confirmed that N147.8 million was raised by the end of two weeks of the protest. The Coalition indicated that only about N60.4 million was disbursed on feasting and entertaining the protesters, providing first aid supplies, paying medical and legal bills, and even assisting needy protesters in other areas.

    A semiotic analysis reveals two interrelated meanings in the protest. On the denotative level, the protest was a call for and end to police brutality, specifically as exhibited by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, whose disbandment was the initial sole demand. This was the initial advertised, official, message of the protest.

    For the first time, President Muhammadu Buhari responded to this demand within 72 hours. SARS was disbanded. However, the communication of the government’s decision and the subsequent action of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, became understandably controversial.

    The IG and his immediate predecessor had on four previous occasions made unfulfilled promises to reform or disband SARS. To complicate matters, the IG announced the formation of SWAT as a replacement for SARS within 48 hours. The protesters viewed SWAT as SARS in new clothing and wanted the President to issue an executive order or speak directly to them about the dissolution of SARS.

    Although the President spoke on the matter on Monday, October 12, 2020, during the launch of the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme, the protesters went ahead to extend their demands to five, all relating to police reform. In further identifying with the protesters, Governor Sanwo-Olu took their extended demands directly to the President on October 13. The President agreed to meet those demands and set the process in motion. States began to set up Judicial Panels of Inquiry to look into the protesters’ grievances against the police and the victims of police brutality.

    This is where things started growing out of hand. No leaders came forward to negotiate on the protesters’ behalf. Instead, before the tollgate incident on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, more demands had appeared on posters, followed by verbal elaboration on same during protest rallies. The stage was set for the connotative message of the protest to emerge.

    It is difficult to dismiss the connotative message, which was covert at the beginning. However, as the protest went on, it became more and more evident. Salary reduction for legislators. Restructuring. Regime change, and more, had almost replaced police reform. Political thugs and other miscreants had started to infiltrate peaceful protesters.

    For example, they attacked protesters and the convoy of the Osun state Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, on Saturday, October 17, 2020, at the popular Ola-Iya junction in Osogbo, where he was addressing the protesters, after taking a peaceful walk with them. The weapons wielded by the attackers and the viciousness of the attack indicated a sinister motive.

    The Lekki tollgate incident on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, whose details remain shrouded in controversy, was turned into a launching pad for unleashing terror, first on Lagos, and then elsewhere in the country. Within minutes of the incident, social media became a platform for circulating, sometimes manufacturing, information about the incident. Some claimed they saw dead bodies being carted away by soldiers, who allegedly shot at them. A lady, who participated in the protests, displayed several bullets in a revisionist video of the incident. A woman in London claimed on social media that her son was killed in the incident. The same technology used to organize the protests was turned into a technology for fuelling destruction.

    Even mainstream media, including some TV stations and newspapers, used words, such as “massacre” to describe the incident. It even featured in the title of the Wikipedia entry on the incident. Yet, the official figure so far is one dead, and that the person died  a day later from head trauma, rather than from gunshot wound. Hopefully, parents will appear before the Judicial Panel, now sitting in Lagos, with claims on innocent protesters killed at the Lekki tollgate incident.

    It is now time for federal and state governments to work on plans for reconstruction and compensation. In Osun, looters have begun to return stolen goods to the Loots Recovery Committee, chaired by Abdullahi Binuyo, the Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Gboyega Oyetola, in response to the Governor’s 72-hour ultimatum.

    The protesters must have learned that protests and strikes against the government, calling for specific changes or entitlements, must end at a negotiation table. If a protest developed spontaneously, leaders quickly must be identified to follow up on the demands. In this particular case, protesters should have identified key leaders and demands at the beginning, rather than come up with a growing list of demands without leaders.

    But even more importantly, questions must be raised about the nation’s intelligence and security architecture. Why were the State Security Service and the Nigerian Security Organisation silent in the face of what the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, described as “the determination of some unscrupulous individuals and groups (set) to destabilise Nigeria by all means”?

  • The danger of #ENDSARS prolonged protests

    The danger of #ENDSARS prolonged protests

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    The ongoing #ENDSARS protests started very well exactly two weeks ago and the protesters had legitimate demands. Their initial demand was simple enough: Dissolve the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, because of the highhandedness of its officers, who were notorious for profiling youths and arresting, molesting, maiming, and even killing them in the name of going after robbers and fraudsters, especially the so-called Yahoo-Yahoo Boys.

    Incidentally, it was General Muhammadu Buhari, as Military Head of State, who established SARS in 1984 to tackle the growing problem of armed robberies in the country. The human rights abuses of the police unit began in the 1990s. The abuses quickly attracted the attention of Amnesty International and other rights groups, which began documenting a series of grave allegations against the unit. These abuses have worsened in recent years, ironically since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power.

    The rise in abuses may have been due to three factors. One, SARS began to focus more and more on youths, partly because of the high incidence of cyber fraud committed by so-called Yahoo Boys and partly because of the teeming population of youths, many of whom move about with sleazy mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. SARS wrongly profiled many youths and arrested them. Typically, innocent youths often resist arrest and the payment of bribes to be let off scotfree. Many were wrongly arrested, molested, mailed, and killed in the process.

    Two, the lethargy with which the Buhari administration has responded to cases of kidnapping and herdsmen’s rampage must have emboldened SARS officers, who then took the law into their hands. Amnesty International alone documented at least 82 cases of torture, maltreatment, and extra-judicial killings by SARS between 2017 and 2020 alone.

    Three, the insatiable demand of police officers for bribe is a sore point for all Nigerians, especially the youths who have been the target of attack by SARS officers.

    In 2017, these excesses by SARS prompted youths and activists to take to the streets; to send out a tweet with the #ENDSARS hashtag, which went viral; and to send a petition to the National Assembly, signed by over 10,000 people. Ever since that year, successive failed attempts have been made to reform or disband SARS, one in 2017 by the then Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; one in 2018 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, when he was Acting President; and two by the present Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu in January 2019 and February 2020.

    It is against these backgrounds that the ongoing #ENDSARS protests took off on Thursday, October 8, 2020. Two separate killings by SARS officers within three days provided the immediate motivation. The victims were young men, who were shot dead on the spot, each in front of a hotel

    The spontaneity of the protest, its widening membership within 24 hours, and its lack of leadership were immediately noticeable. Within 72 hours, the Federal Government responded to the protesters’ primary demand. SARS was disbanded.

    Unfortunately, however, the announcement was made by the IG, who had made similar promises before and flouted them. The protesters insisted that they wanted the President to issue an executive order on the dissolution of SARS or speak to the nation about the dissolution. Just as the protesters were making this demand, the IG came around within 48 hours to announce the formation of Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (SWAT) as a replacement for SARS. More insensitive is the training of officers for the new unit even as the protests raged.

    In the meantime, hoodlums, miscreants, touts, and thugs had crept into the crowd of protesters. In Osun, for example, known political thugs of an opposition party were among the miscreants, who beat their way through peaceful protesters to attack Governor Gboyega Oyetola and his convoy as they hurried back into their vehicles after taking a long walk with the protesters and exchanging views them.

    In Lagos, Abeokuta, Benin, Abuja, Jos, and other cities, miscreants had turned the protests into bonfire, jailbreak, and wanton destruction of lives and property. The time to bring a halt to its continuation was heralded by the appeal of party leaders.

    By Tuesday night, various state governments, especially in the Southwest, had imposed a curfew and the IG had deployed the special anti-riot squad nation-wide.

    Various lessons abound for the protesters and the government. But let me address one issue outright. True, the #ENDSARS protests appear leaderless on the surface, but one wonders how a leaderless group of protesters was able to raise over N70 million within a few days and how the feeding of protesters was quickly arranged, especially in Lagos. Moreover, who coordinated the protesters’ demands? But these were only the easy tasks for the protesters.

    A major lesson for them or any group planning a prolonged nation-wide protest in Nigeria is the high possibility of having to contend with the infiltration of jobless youths, thugs, touts, and other miscreants, who would use protests as a cover to perpetrate various kinds of atrocities, while also looking for avenues to loot shops and markets as they did in Osogbo.

    This, of course, is not peculiar to Nigeria. It is a feature of widespread protests everywhere there is a high rate of poverty and unemployment or there is weak or biased leadership. This, for example, is the case in the United States, where the #Black Lives Matter protests were infiltrated by Trump supporters and others, who looted shops, burned buildings, and even killed some of the protesters.

    The government has far too many lessons to learn from the protests.

    One, the growing youth population is a ticking time bomb, as poverty and unemployment levels rise. Two, the intelligence architecture at the national and sub-national levels is weak. The direction of the protests, their infiltration by miscreants, and their fueling by opposition politicians were evident within hours. Decisive, rather than piecemeal, action should have been taken within a few days of the protests.

    All that was needed was the President to quickly meet with state governors, speak directly to the protesters, assure them of the dissolution of SARS, and announce the setting up of Judicial Panels of Inquiry in each state to which protesters should submit their grievances and demands. Fortunately, however, that’s where we are now, but it should not have taken two weeks to arrive there.

     

  • Gifts Buhari should not have rejected

    Gifts Buhari should not have rejected

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    ORDINARILY, the celebration of a nation’s independence anniversary is an occasion for reckoning and self-assessment. The nation’s gains and failures are evaluated by the government and the governed. In the process, gifts are exchanged between the government and the people. Such gifts are often symbolic, rather than material.

    The government’s symbolic gifts are often packaged in a speech by the nation’s leader, as witnessed on the occasion of Nigeria’s independence anniversary on October 1, 2020. Perhaps unkowingly, the President invited symbolic gifts of counsel from the citizens in Paragraph 9 of his speech: “Sixty years of nationhood provides an opportunity to ask ourselves questions on the extent to which we have sustained the aspirations of our founding fathers. Where did we do the right things? Are we on course? If not, where did we stray and how can we remedy and retrace our steps?” The gifts of counsel discussed below are various attempts to identify where things went wrong and how they could be remedied.

    As usual, one-time military Head of State and two-term President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, initiated the series of citizens’ symbolic gifts on September 11, 2020. The shattered debris of the World Trade Centre, plane-bombed by a terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, lurked in the background as a coincidental backdrop for Obasanjo’s warning against the disintegration of Nigeria in the face of what he aptly described as “mismanagement of diversity and socio-economic development of our country”.

    The “mismanagement” has engendered various indices of possible failure-terrorism, banditry, sectarianism, nepotism, kidnapping, religious and ethnic bigotry, a depressed economy, rising inflation, separatist agitations, and so on. The thrust of Obasanjo’s statement was a call to mend broken and breaking fences in order to avert state failure, realising that “… even if Nigeria is broken up, the separated parts will still be neighbors … they will have to find accommodation as neighbors or they will be ever at war.”

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, followed with an endorsement of Obasanjo’s advice and chastised government functionaries for the insolent response in which Obasanjo was described, among other things, as “Divider-in-Chief”.

    A few days later, Lt. General Alani Akinrinade, former Chief of Army Staff and later Chief of Defence Staff, offered his own gift of counsel to Buhari through Lt General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the present Chief of Army Staff, on the occasion of the latter’s visit to commission projects in Osun, Akinrinade’s home state.

    After highlighting popular public perception of President Buhari in mainstream and social media as an ethnic bigot, a religious fundamentalist, a purveyor of lopsided appointments, and a failed fighter against terrorism, Akinrinade called on him to take charge: “He needs to stand on his table against the motley crowd of advisers and take a firm stand on their organisation of our country, physically, politically, economically and socially.” The veiled reference to Buhari’s aloofness, torpidity, and tardiness cannot be missed in Akinriande’s speech. The key solution he suggested is the restructuring of the country, which he likened to “reorganisation” in the Army.

    More recently, three respected clergymen came up independently with their own offerings, all reinforcing a similar message to President Buhari: Act quickly to avoid disaster in the face of various problems facing the country today.

    Admitting that “Nigeria is sick unto death”, Catholic Bishop Emeritus of Lagos, Cardinal-Priest, Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, highlighted four significant sources of downfall to avoid, namely, (1) selfishness; (2) falsehood; (3) the 1999 Constitution; and (4) “those who would manipulate our ethnic, religious and regional differences to attain and remain in power”. Echoes of Obasanjo’s and Akinrinade’s gifts are unmistakable.

    The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, sees Nigeria literally as “a pool of blood”, starting with the cold-blooded murder of our first Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, in the name of a military coup in 1966. Today, “After 60 years of bloodletting, blood has become embedded in our culture of existence”, Kukah added. He concluded that “our country now looks like a boiling pot in which everyone is trying to escape” owing to disrespect for the nation’s Constitution, sectionalism, and failure to fulfill campaign promises.

    The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, completes the trilogy of gifts by Men of God. Without mincing words, he advised the Federal Government to pay immediate attention to restructuring the country in order to provide a lasting solution to Nigeria’s economic challenges and separatist agitations. Adeboye recommended adaptation of aspects of presidential and parliamentary systems as well as the inclusion of traditional rulers in governance, by constituting a House of Chiefs.

    The language of the above presentations may appear strident, conveying a sense of urgency. Nevertheless, the call for restructuring the country is an old song. Two national conferences have even been held, each suggesting various forms of modification of the current structure.

    Central to these suggestions is the need to restructure the country in order to make it more governable and more responsive to the people’s yearnings and aspirations. This was also the key message of the Nigeria Governors Forum, as echoed by its Chairman, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, following the meeting of all 36 state governors last week. The Governors called for two types of restructuring. One, they want their present loans restructured. Two, they want the country restructured. Specifically, they called for the devolution of powers and fiscal federalism.

    The average age of the six interventionists discussed earlier is 80! The Buhari administration may not always agree with their views. However, dismissing them with a wave of the hand and calling any of them names is the height of insolence, as acknowledged by Professor Soyinka: “In place of reasoned response and openness to some serious dialogue, what this nation has been obliged to endure has been insolent distractions from garrulous and coarsened functionaries, apologists and sectarian opportunists.”

    By rejecting the gifts of counsel and remaining impervious to the calls for restructuring, Buhari is perpetuating widespread public perception of a sectarian leader, who panders largely to a particular ethnic group. The persistent resistance of leaders of that ethnic group to restructuring is all too familiar.

    Yet, restructuring would have been Buhari’s major legacy had he listened. But whether he does or not, this country will be restructured sooner or later.

     

  • The semiotics of the Edo governorship election

    The semiotics of the Edo governorship election

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    A proper semiotic study of the recently concluded governorship election in Edo state throws up many interesting electoral signs. Some of the signs were symbolic (language, songs, dance, etc.), while others were iconic (pictures, images, videos, etc.). Yet other signs were hidden from view but had significant impact on the outcome of the election. These signs were used to convey denotative (explicit, direct) and connotative (implicit, deductive) meanings.

    At the end of the day, Edo voters reacted more positively to the signs heard, seen, and Godwin Obaseki, incumbent Governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, by giving him as much as 307,955 votes against 223,619 votes for his rival, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress.

    A combination of various signs was key to Obaseki’s victory. First, he successfully played up his record of achievement as the incumbent Governor by contrasting it sharply with that of his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole. He also successfully recruited both community leaders and ordinary folks on the street from the three Senatorial Districts to provide helpful testimonials.

    The contrast he drew with Oshiomole benefitted from three background factors. One, Oshiomhole had far too hefty a negative baggage that easily drew Edo voter’s attention. One, he had become the disgraced ex-Chairman of the APC, a position to which he was dragged by the protracted cockfighting between him and Obaseki, the successor he hand-picked and imposed on the party and the voters. Their erstwhile cozy relationship fell apart with Obaseki presenting Oshiomhole as overbearing. And Oshiomhole’s style does appear to be overbearing.

    Two, Obaseki capitalized on the godfather theme to buttress the overbearing oga message, by escalating, during the campaign, a theme he has been using against Oshiomhole in the course of their fight. It was a theme Oshiomhole himself had used to kill the leadership position of Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion and Chief Tony Anenih in Edo politics. Against this background, a video message to Edo people not to vote for Obaseki backfired, leading to the refrain, Edo no be Lagos.

    Three, Oshiomhole’s marital recklessness was also invoked. After the death of his first wife, Clara, in 2010, he married Iara, a pretty lady from Cape Verde in 2015 in a Who is Who society wedding. However, the marriage did not last.The lady left him with bitter words in her mouth, according to reports. This generated a comic lyric, sung during Obaseki’s campaign to deride Oshiomhole, thus:

    Oshi ooo, Oshi ooo.

    Oshi carry money

    Marry Oyinbo

    Oyinbo run away

    Oshi dey cry

    Second, Obaseki’s self-marketing strategy was enhanced by a combination of signs used to de-market his rival, Ize-Iyamu. One, while Ize-Iyamu focused unconvincingly on Oshiomhole’s record as Governor, because he served on the administration, Obaseki focused on his own achievements as incumbent Governor, promising to build on them and do more.

    Two, Obaseki successfully used the negative language Oshiomhole employed in de-marketing Ize-Iyamu in 2016, while foisting Obaseki on the party. Both candidates were rivals in 2016 but swapped political parties for the 2020 election after Obaseki was disqualified from the APC primary, apparently to pave way for Ize-Iyamu’s candidacy of that party. Obaseki quickly defected to the PDP, which gave him its ticket.

    The shenanigans surrounding Obaseki’s disqualification no doubt drew some sympathy votes. Some voters wondered how Oshiomhole could sponsor Obaseki four years ago to be Governor with the same qualifications only to find him unqualified in 2020. The saga even drew the prestigious University of Ibadan to certify Obaseki’s degree from the institution.

    Thus, while Ize-Iyamu appeared stuck on Obaseki’s putative disqualification, the latter wisely sidetracked the qualification issue by focusing his campaign ads on the positive testimonials Oshiomhole gave him in 2016, while battering Ize-Iyamu during the same 2016 campaign. The contrast was too sharp for voters to ignore, and it worked in Obaseki’s favour.

    The implication for Oshiomhole’s image was strikingly obvious. The adverts portrayed him as speaking from both sides of the mouth, one praising A, while condemning B, and the switching four years later to condemning A, while praising B.

    As a result, Obaseki successfully turned the election into a plebiscite on the relevance of Oshiomhole in Edo politics, having been earlier relegated in national politics by his removal by a Court of Law as the Chairman of the APC.

    Obaseki’s contribution to Oshiomhole’s political demise is noteworthy. To start with, he refused to swear in the legislators reportedly sponsored by Oshiomhole. Second, he got the party executive in Oshiomole’s ward to expel him from the party. The expulsion was eventually dragged up to the Appeals Court, which ruled that appropriate procedures were followed and, therefore, the expulsion was upheld. The story threw the National Executive of the APC into turmoil until President Muhammadu Buhari stepped in to get a Caretaker Committee set up.

    There were also hidden signs involving intrigues and permutations for the 2023 presidential election. There are viral stories online naming some key APC governors, who reportedly worked behind the scenes for Obaseki’s victory, with the hope that he would later cross over to the APC to assist in their presidential ambition.

    Several lessons stand out about Obaseki’s victory and the APC’s loss of Edo to the PDP, thus constituting the South-south into a solid PDP bloc. APC leaders should have seen this coming. They should have called Oshiomhole to order early enough. They should have stepped in to stop his slow but gradual roasting by Obaseki. The party has a chance now to set the path straight for 2023 by preventing situations that would make party members engage in anti-party activities and by atoning member’ grievances and settling various intra-party disputes.

    True, the election was adjudged to be free and fair and Obaseki’s victory resounding enough to warrant the concession of the rank and file of the APC, including the party’s candidate. Nevertheless, the political party remains the weakest link in Nigeria’s democratic growth. The shenanigans surrounding APC primaries and the ease with which members switch parties belie the standard of party politics in the country. Clearly, the political party remains only a platform for participating in elections. There is no party loyalty, because there is no ideology or set of values to which party members are philosophically or emotionally tied.