The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

Abia 2015: Ukwa/Ngwa holds the ace

Politicking periods are usually interesting times. A lot of unprintable things happen. Quislings barefacedly distort facts and history at mere inducement with filthy lucre. All sorts of illogicalities, innuendos and twisted arguments are advanced to justify people’s partisan leanings. Political jobbers and carpetbaggers float mushroom and sycophantic groups to dance to the rhythm of political vampires that don’t mean well for the people. And like in every war or crisis situation, the chief casualty is the truth but truth in this scenario, is comparable to the proverbial phoenix bird that emerges strongly from ashes of defeat and near-extinction, even when all hope is lost.

That is what is steadily but clumsily playing out in Abia today, in the build-up to the 2015 gubernatorial contest. The consensus opinion is that Ukwa/Ngwa should produce the next governor of Abia State, in the spirit of equity, fairness and the principle of ‘live and let live’. To this end, a flurry of political activities have commenced with legion of aspirants from Ukwa/Ngwa bloc struggling to take a shot at the coveted seat. Those aspirants from old Bende bloc who insist on defying the torrents of public opinion, to test political waters on governorship seat, are now battling with courage of conviction and a baggage of moral burden.

Indeed, Ukwa/Ngwa bloc has demographic strength with nine out of the 17 LGAs. They are: Isiala Ngwa North, Isiala Ngwa South, Osisioma, Obi Ngwa, Aba North, Aba South, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa East and Ukwa West LGAs; but the bloc has never produced a governor right from the era of the East Central State, to the old Imo State and now, Abia State. Ukwa/Ngwa bloc has been confined to the position of Deputy Governor for years, a position that lacks a clear-cut constitutional role to drive a developmental course for any people. A corollary of the foregoing is that over the years, the struggle for power shift had remained on the platform of Ukwa/Ngwa bloc. One could remember vividly that during the countdown to the governorship election in 2003, the ‘Otu Onu’ mantra which contextually means ‘a single term’ was used to rally Ukwa/Ngwa solidarity to challenge the second term bid of former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, when Ukwa/Ngwa, which parades the highest number of the LGAs in the state had not taken at least a tenure. The campaign was spearheaded by the former Deputy Governor and now Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who sought to make a political capital from the genuine aspiration of Ukwa La Ngwa. Though the bloc lost the fiercely contested election yet that has continued to reverberate a feeling of deprivation and a lack of fulfillment in the minds of full-bloodied Ukwa/Ngwa persons.

Unfortunately, those who championed the clamour in those days are today leading the pack of a negligible few who wants the three Ukwa/Ngwa LGAs in Abia Central shut out from the race. It is therefore preposterous and self-serving to insist that the justifiable power shift to Ukwa/Ngwa bloc should be restricted to the LGAs in Abia South, excluding the core Ngwa LGAs – Isiala Ngwa North, Isiala Ngwa South and Osisioma that were excised to Abia Central through INEC’s constituency delimitation. It would be a tactical miscalculation that would breed unforeseen backlash for Ukwa/Ngwa solidarity. It is unconscionable to shut out fellow soldiers of war during the allocation of spoils of victory. It is an injustice of monumental proportion which its fruits of victory would be ashes in the mouth. The simmering discontent arising from the mere clandestine mooting of the idea is snowballing to a tinder box and its wounds, if allowed to fester, can mar the gains of the disposition of other Abians to give Ukwa/Ngwa a chance. He that goes to equity must have clean hands. Ethnic bond maintained by the ancestors for several years should not be sacrificed on the altar of power game. The agitations for power shift in Abia have been along old Bende and Ukwa/Ngwa or old Aba blocs. The recent permutation along senatorial zones is unsustainable.

Take for instance, if a governor from Abia South decides to pick a deputy from Abia Central and he chooses him/her from one of the three Ukwa/Ngwa LGAs in Abia Central, will that be acceptable to Abians? Will it make for harmony and a good spread of political offices? Do you think that Abians will not feel short-changed? These fundamental questions that must crop up in the future are supposed to be yardstick and the building blocks of an egalitarian society which we earnestly desire. The proponents of power shift to Abia South alone are inadvertently setting the Ukwa/Ngwa extraction against one another. The present governor of the State was elected based on the fact that he is from Umuahia and not necessarily from Abia Central. The obnoxious proposal will engender instability and raise security fears. The essence of power rotation is to give sense of belonging to every section but the inability of the handlers to market the idea with strong convictions will defeat its purpose. This first attempt to address the age-long agitations for power shift should be thrown open to all Ukwa/Ngwa or the old Aba Division people who teamed up together to fight for the plum ambition. Anything short of this position will stoke tensions and avoidable political squabbles. Those who resort to quoting Abia Charter of Equity always fail to inform the people that rotation of power along senatorial zones in Abia is not part of the document. The loud silence over this relevant information is understood. It is intended to hoodwink the unwary public and beat them into line, in order to actualize a predetermined end. Already, intelligence reports arising from Ngwaland indicate ominous signs of internal explosion among the Ukwa/Ngwa socio-political milieu. This vexed issue of lopsided application of power sharing principle becomes more unbearable, when one remembers that virtually all the plum federal appointments meant for Ukwa/Ngwa people had gone to Abia South. Without mincing words, this unacceptable kite that is being flown, is targeted at distracting the vibrant campaign train of credible candidates like Senator Nkechi Nwogu whose towering profile, even as the only woman in the race, is sending shivers down the spines of fellow contestants, and their co-travellers in the ‘dead-on-arrival’ plot. Her campaign outfit has already metamorphosed to a mass movement. Having excelled in the private sector before joining the shark-infested waters of politics, with many historic ‘firsts’ marking her footprints, she is poised to spring up surprises and be the game changer. As the only legislator in Abia State that came to the National Assembly from the opposition in 2003, the chances of emerging the first female governor in Nigeria is not an impossibility. Embedded in this path-breaking mission is the disposition of the PDP-led federal government to empower women to greater positions in government. Indeed, the groundswell of grassroot support based on the Senator’s sterling performance cannot be wished away. Abians cannot afford a greenhorn in its quest for stability. In all good conscience and to avoid sending a permanent sword of Damocles on Ukwa/Ngwa unity, the fair-minded power shift should be for Ukwa/Ngwa or the old Aba Division. When that is done, Abians can sit down and work out the most feasible power rotation formula that will take into cognizance, the nuances of our political firmament. The Abia Charter of Equity that was written over 20 years ago, by the founding fathers should be reviewed, with a view to capture the present realities. This is the veritable path to sustainable peace during and after the 2015 transition in Abia State.

July 23, 2014
Osun governorship election: Aregbesola’s big challenge

If elections are won or lost on character and performance, as they should, Osun State’s governorship election coming up on August 9 should be a shoo-in for the incumbent, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. But then, as we saw in the June 21 Ekiti State governorship election, the almost universally hailed character and performance of the incumbent, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, seemed to have counted for practically nothing when he suffered heavy defeat at the hands of Mr Ayo Fayose, the candidate of the country’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In Ekiti at least, what seemed to matter most was instant gratification for the people through the so-called “infrastructure of the stomach” and, even more importantly, the use of Federal Might (with capital F and capital M) to cow any opposition (It’s only a foolhardy man who would challenge the well-armed 30,000 security agents drafted into the state for the election who, as the governor said based on intelligence at his disposal as the state’s chief security officer, had instructions to “mow down” anyone who dared raise his figure in protest at their open partisanship).

As it was in Ekiti so would the PDP like it to be in Osun. One big difference, however, is that, unlike in Ekiti, a not-so-subtle religious propaganda weapon against the governor is being added to the other two.

No less a person than the PDP governorship candidate himself, Senator Iyore Omisore, gave this game away. Asked in an interview in PUNCH (July 18) if he was sure he would win the election, he said: “Of course, yes. I mean the indices are there for all to see; the decaying infrastructure, the disrupted education system, THE RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY, infrastructural inconvenience, social malaise, impoverishment of our people.” (emphasis mine).

Omisore went further to accuse the governor of wrongly “lumping students from Islam-based faith schools with students of Christianity-based faith schools together AND EXPECTING ONE RELIGION TO SUPERCEDE THE OTHER…” (Again emphasis mine). As a Christian, it is obvious Omisore is accusing the Muslim governor of favouring Islam.

Since Aregbesola dared to declare a public holiday to celebrate an Islamic New Year in the state two years ago, many of his critics have worked overtime to cast him in the image of a Muslim extremist. For many of such critics, the absurdity of the logic that what is good for one religion is necessarily bad for the other has clearly escaped them.

Not surprisingly, beneath Omisore’s apparently inadvertent betrayal of his religious animosity towards the governor, an even more insidious crude religious campaign is being waged where Christians in the state are being told that a vote for Omisore is 10 votes for Christ!

In this manipulation of religion to gain power, Omisore is only in the excellent company of our president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, for whom the Church had for a long time become his platform for issuing policy statements and indirectly denigrating Islam. Even then for anyone to equate Omisore with Christ is really the height of blasphemy. But then this is Nigeria where politicians think nothing of invoking the Good Lord’s name in vain.

For someone who, at the least, is not averse to being compared to Christ, it was truly amazing how he could lie through his teeth about his relationship with the late Chief Bola Ige, whose murder several years ago he was implicated in and tried for and eventually acquitted.

In the PUNCH interview I’ve referred to, the newspaper asked him point blank if he did not kill Ige. “I did not,” he replied, “kill Chief Bola Ige at all. I can’t kill anybody, anyway, not to talk of Chief Bola Ige. Chief Bola Ige was my leader. He was like an uncle in-law to me.” He did not, he also said, instigate the removal of Ige’s cap and glasses in the palace of the Ooni of Ife, a humiliation which presaged Ige’s brutal murder in his own residence in Ibadan.

An amicable relationship between the two was definitely not what it looked like nearly 13 years ago when Omisore denigrated the chief in an interview in the rested TEMPO weekly newspaper (December 27, 2001). In that interview, he called Chief Bisi Akande, who he was deputy governor to and from whom he was estranged at the time, some of the foulest names imaginable and added Ige to the target of his diatribe.

“Recently too,” he said in the interview, “Bola Ige came on radio here to insult me and my family. THAT IS THE LAST ONE. He was beaten yesterday, the people of Ife beat him up and he was crying like a baby as they removed his cap and his glasses…He was disgraced out of Ife, he had to be dressed like a woman to get out of town.”(Again, emphasis mine).

Asked in effect if he approved Ige’s humiliation, he said yes in effect. “He has offended Ife people. If he insults me, he has insulted my people and they have the right to react.”

Omisore concluded the interview by describing Ige as a Yoruba traitor. “Bola Ige,” he said, “is a traitor to Afenifere… He is the Akintola of our time. What Akintola did to Awolowo is what Bola Ige is doing to Adesanya and to the Yoruba people.”

It is truly amazing how the man can now turn around to say he never held anything against Ige but, instead, had always regarded the chief as his leader and an “uncle in-law”, whatever that means.

Omisore would not only tell a lie about his relationships to curry favour with Osun voters to the extent that his implication in the murder of Ige is an issue in the elections, it is also obvious he is afraid to engage Aregbesola in any debate over what each of them can offer the good people of their state. Challenged to a debate by the governor, first he said Aregbesola was mentally unfit. When that did not seem to wash with the public he changed his tune and said in effect that the governor is a thug-in-chief. “Going to participate in a debate with violent people with array of thugs will be too much of a risk to take for us,” he said in another interview in PUNCH (July 20).

In an interview in The Guardian (July 10), Aregbesola said he was confident he would win any election in his state that was “credible, transparent, free and fair.” Therein lies the catch; an election can look credible, transparent, free and fair but the reality may be totally the opposite. An election in which a central government squeezes the opposition by slashing revenue allocation to states under the guise of falling revenue due to massive oil thefts and delays the release of even the little that is left in order to cause disaffection between opposition states and their civil servants, an election in which huge numbers of security agents are deployed to intimidate the opposition, etc, such election can hardly be described as credible, transparent, free and fair.

Actually the rigging of elections can be even more cynical than financially squeezing opposition states and deploying massive force to intimidate. The other day, I received an email about the election which, on the surface, seemed too farfetched.

“Do u ever thk along this line…” it said in the arcane language of texts. “200,000 ballot papers thumb printed in Abj, CBN abj convey to CBN Ado ekiti, CBN Ado to some selected commercial banks, some selected commercial banks to some party leaders in Ekiti land, party leaders to some ward leaders, ward leaders to 10 women per polling unit…Each woman with 10 already in their body, they pick one each and drop 11 in the box where they v bought agent.”

My instinct was to dismiss this as an outlandish conspiracy theory. But then when I remembered the memorable words of Major-General IBM Haruna, a former minister of information, in one of the most interesting interviews published by the rested Citizen, which I headed, I said to myself this may not be as outrageous as it sounds. As the general said, any time anyone tells you something is impossible in Nigeria, consider it done.

In spite of all these great odds against Aregbesola, I believe Ekiti is unlikely to be repeated in Osun on August 9. But then so many impossible things have happened in the country since 1999 that it will not surprise me if, in spite of Aregbesola’s character and performance, he loses the election.

TWO OMISSIONS…

In response to my column of last week, two readers, Chief Femi Alafe-Aluko and Olu Sangotikun, drew my attention to my omission of Aremo Segun Osoba among the country’s journalism icons who celebrated their birthdays this month. Segun, probably the country’s best reporter ever, celebrated his 75th birthday on July 15.

Another journalism icon, Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of Thisday and President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) celebrated his 55th birthday on July 14.

Here’s wishing both Happy Birthdays and many more returns in arrears.

July 23, 2014
Getting 2015 debate back on track

If one week is a long time in politics, then one month is an absolute life time. In the space of 30 days the All Progressives Congress (APC) which has in the last few months positioned itself as a credible alternative to the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), has had some wind knocked out of its sails.

In that time it lost Ekiti State in circumstances that can only be described as stunning and mystifying. It has had Adamawa State pinched from under its nose. But the fate that befell it in the latter has been one of the worst kept secrets in political circles. For ages the media has been reporting that at the right moment the PDP would move against ex-Governor Murtala Nyako.

The ruling party’s goal of recovering the ground lost to APC following the ‘New-PDP’ rebellion has moved on to the next stage with the impeachment notice served on Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura. It is also said to have Imo, Osun and Rivers States in its sights. Whether these states will meekly surrender as happened in Adamawa remains to be seen.

What is not in doubt is the fact that the ruling party members and some pundits would see the opposition reverses as a clear portent for PDP victory at the center in 2015. But that would be presumptuous, just as it would be foolish for the APC to start feeling sorry for itself. There is still so much to fight for going into the next general election. What we have witnessed so far are just skirmishes: there’s still the war to be won.

What needs to change if the opposition is going to prevail is a redefinition of the terms of engagement. Several months ago I wrote in this column that the APC needs to quickly move beyond celebrating the number of ruling party deserters joining its ranks, to highlighting the abysmal record of the Goodluck Jonathan regime, as well as setting out the alternative it offers.

Nigerian politicians are fickle. They will jump ship at the drop of a hat and not because of any deep principle. We have seen that play out with the shameless crisscrossing between the two camps by those who would offer as an excuse such inanities as: ‘Our people have always belonged to the ruling party.’

It is not surprising that where no principle is involved, it has been very easy to reverse the direction of defections in favour of the ruling party. The opposition has cried out that its ranks were being depleted by a desperate government using mindboggling sums as inducement. But did they expect a regime that has shown itself willing to use all means necessary to achieve its ends to play fair?

Those presently locked in a power struggle with the administration make several mistakes. First, they underrate Jonathan. He has shown that he’s no longer the timid, tentative player of the early years of his presidency; he is a wily operator who can play the power game with the masters.

Secondly, people underestimate the crowd that has the president’s ear. They fail to understand that the level of desperation we see in the abuse of the instruments of state is driven not just by Jonathan’s second term ambition, but also by the fact that those who are relevant today are in no hurry to become irrelevant if they allow the opposition seize power. Such people would do things Jonathan would not even dream of – in the president’s name.

Thirdly, what looks like a bastion from which an opposition onslaught to unseat the government can be launched – the North – is just an illusion. If you thought the North was split in 2011, now it is virtually fragmented.

The likes of former minister and Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, may rage all they like and declare with ‘certainty’ that the region is taking back power, the reality is its elite are so divided that coherent regional action is virtually impossible.

Never before has the ‘One North’ myth been laid bare than in today’s Nigeria. The Boko Haram insurgency, with its diabolical efforts to set Muslim against Christian, has driven a sharp knife through communal bonds that used to unite the people. Anyone who thinks that the death of thousands felled by the insurgents in minority areas of the region, would not affect the political picture is naïve. It is the very reason the ruling party is making the outlandish claim that the insurgency is a creation of the opposition.

The disarray in the region is made worse by the typical nature of the political elite to be found anywhere in Nigeria. No one can come out to say there’s a consensus for power to return to the North in 2014. For every Ango Abdullahi who insists that it must be so, there are scores of others who are willing to live with another four years of Jonathan if that will clear the way for their own presidential bids in 2019. In the meantime, they will remain relevant. Acquiescing to an opposition takeover, however, would be tantamount to committing political suicide.

So on the face of it the decks appear stacked in favour of the incumbent. But as we have seen in the Ekiti election this year and in the past, incumbency can be a vastly overrated factor in determining which way a Nigerian election would swing. Dr. Kayode Fayemi lost to Ayo Fayose, but we must not forget also that Fayemi as challenger also toppled the then PDP governor, Segun Oni.

Some would say that a state governor’s incumbency advantages are greatly vitiated by the desperation of federal forces who manipulated the polls using cash and soldiers. But it should also be pointed out that Nigeria doesn’t have enough soldiers to intimidate every voter when the nation would be voting as one in 2015.

So what can the opposition do if it really wants change? It must quickly change the narrative. APC is not going to prevail in a slanging match. That suits the PDP perfectly because it takes away the focus from Jonathan’s Achilles Heel which is his record.

That is why rather than discussing its record, the ruling party has been more concerned with painting the opposition in terms which strike a chord with our most primordial instincts. That is why APC is being defined as an anti-Christian, pro-Muslim and therefore pro-insurgency party.

It was no help that the party in its drive to strengthen its ranks opened up to all and sundry – something that is unavoidable for a public institution like a political party. One of those ensnared in that recruitment drive was former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, under whose tenure Boko Haram really took off as a malevolent organization.

The PDP used his membership of APC to telling effect as it tried to tie the opposition to the insurgency. Now that he has defected to the ruling party can we then conclude that PDP is for Boko Haram?

Those in APC who blithely dismiss the PDP charges as silly and worthy of being ignored would be shocked at how the undiscerning are lapping them up and accepting them as gospel truth.

Jonathan will not be dislodged just because someone says power must return to the North. There is no consensus around that idea. Add to that the fact that the Boko Haram insurgency has so polarised the nation along ethnic, regional and religious lines that any bid for power that is driven by what is perceived as some sectional agenda will founder in today’s environment.

The only way change will come in 2015 is by focusing like a laser on Jonathan’s record. In 2011 he swept into office on a crest of sentiment – the self-effacing politician with humble beginnings. He was a breath of ‘fresh air’ with a story that tugged at our heart strings.

Four years later a chunk of the country has become a war front, millions are unemployed, the economy is prostate, personal freedoms are being rolled back in an unprecedented manner, democracy is being given a black eye as the military stages a comeback into our everyday life, and Obasanjo-era impeachments have become the order of the day.

Do you reward a man for this kind of demolition job? In any other country on this earth such a record will topple any incumbent.

Whether at state or federal level we must ensure that the next elections are determined by the records of the incumbents. Let us not be duped by the sleight of hands by political con artists, nor should we be impressed by stage-managed impeachments which may yet be upturned in the courts of law.

July 20, 2014
A hashtag headache

Imagine if there were no #BringBackOurGirls campaigners, Nigeria and its government would have long abandoned the over 200 innocent girls still in the hands of Boko Haram terrorists. This plucky band of Nigerians are a positive sign that there are still people in these parts driven by higher ideals. The y may not be popular with government for keeping the issue on the front burner, but I nominate them for a national award for their patriotism and humanity.

For the Jonathan administration and security agencies they are a headache. But any attempt to cure this ‘irritation’ using blackmail and trumped-up charges will fail because the world is watching. The only thing that will excise the headache is the safe return of the Chibok girls. The campaigners deserve our support in the face of bare-faced intimidation by the authorities.

July 20, 2014
‘Our Girls’; WSoyinka@80; NSNC: Urgent increase life of driving licence to 5-10 years pls

Where are ‘Our Girls’, missing since April 15, when they were wickedly kidnapped, destroying hopes and dreams and instilling terror. The kidnapping destroyed the laughter of their families and most Nigerians.

On Sunday July 13,, we celebrated Nobel Laureate, theatre guru and passionate road safety maestro Professor Wole Soyinka’s 80th Birthday in the Theatre Arts Department in the University of Ibadan with a reading from Ake-The Years Of Childhood page 25, Soyinka’s first day at school at nearly three years old, which I had the honour to read-and which should be in every home as Soyinka is NOT difficult. The short extract was followed by the entertaining performance of the Wole Soyinka play Alapata Apata with Yemi Akintokundirecting the Oracles Repertory Theatre Company and with film and literary guru Professor Akinunmi Ishola, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) president Professor Remi Raji-Oyelade and Oyo State ANA chairman Dr Solomon Iguanre, Professor Nelson Fashina in close support with an approximately 200 plus keen audience. And a fine time was had by all. In this event we joined similar nationwide events and thousands of theatre arts professionals, students, literary giants, gurus and aficionados and many millions of Nigerians just happy that our human rights and democracy champion has defied the military and political odds and reached this 80th milestone in one democratic piece.

As we congratulate him we must encourage all parents and youth to fight to get Soyinka books available in every home and booklist. Has Nigeria monetised books, recommending on the booklist only those for which money has changed hands, ‘book corruption’? Is it possible that corruption disrespects even a Noble Prize sufficiently to allow governors and commissioners to strike a Nobel Prize winner from every booklist unless money has changed hands? There is no excuse for Soyinka not to be permanent number one to be on every Nigerian and African book list. Shame. And congratulations to Akin Bello, former chairman of ANA, Oyo State for winning the 2014 International Soyinka Prize for Literature. Google him and buy the book. Will it make booklists nationwide?

Stop Press: Even at this closing stage, can the Non-Sovereign National Conference (NSNC) or the Senate or Reps recommend that driving licences be issued for five and probably ten years. This is especially important because of the managerial stress experienced in obtaining the new licence needing renewal in three years. Shame. Nigerians must value their time and fight anything which can be streamlined by extending the life of any government instrument like a passport or a driving licence. I am sure the ‘ayes’ will have it and save millions of Nigerians billions of hours in queues.

You will recall that I suggested in this column at the beginning of this NSNC that the delegates should visit a day and a night across the Niger and Benue rivers to see first-hand one another’s territory? Such an exchange visit, had it been carried out, would perhaps have given opposing sides in the resource control debate a deeper understanding of decay, destruction and denial of the use of the land for livelihood, water, food or rest caused by oil and gas flaring on one hand and the severe effects of desertification caused by the sun, sand and Sahara empathy for the other. One should add first-hand look at erosion troubles also. Whatever figure is agreed we all know that the reason why Nigeria is 50 years behind in development in most areas has nothing to do with revenue allocation formulas and everything to do with massive political and civil service corruption.

Every state, every local government has had more than enough to provide and equip all the hospitals, clinics, schools, roads and running water needed to be first class. Our national, state and LGA primary problem remains corruption at every level from politics to civil service to contractor corruption taking up to 50% and sometimes even 100% of allocated funds. This is clearly shown by the huge sums involved in corruption cases across Nigeria. Just imagine where the amenities and social services would be with such sums properly utilised.

Unless the NSNC can offer severe quick penalties for political, civil service and contractor corruption, no revenue allocation formula will translate to an improves standard of living for the masses of people living near and in the poverty range in Nigeria. The politicians, the powerful and contractors will continue to steal in the name under the evil cloak of politics. The NSNC can recommend a corruption-proof funding strategy for all political parties. If not we may as well invite the political class to continue to rape and rob us through excessive salaries and perks, (SAP) and constitutional projects from which only 1/3 to ½ of the funds are estimated to actually reach the citizens. NSNC should have studied international practice and related political salaries to other jobs to reduce hyper-salaries. It has recommended part-time sitting. Hurray! Did it recommend one house- Senorep or Reposen House – the house of survivors?

O yes, the World Cup is over and it goes to Germany and shamefully still no footballs in Nigerian schools to train Generation Next! Is it not diversionary ‘foolball’ as politicians, civil servants and contractors collude to steal our inheritance? What gain, what pain, what cost? What corruption and incompetence in the NFF? Not all work is play! Now we can get back to work.

July 16, 2014
Reminiscing about Odukomaiya @ 80

It was Arthur Gordon, famously known as “Art” Linkletter, a Canadian-born American radio and television personality (July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010), who said: “There are four stages of man: infancy, childhood, adolescence…and obsolescence”. In all through these stages, the first two – infancy and childhood- though form the building blocks of a man’s life, are hardly well documented like the events of the other stages of his life. That is why it is safe to conclude that growing old, gracefully, is something to cherish, especially when you have played your part so well in life. For Prince Henry Olukayode Odukomaiya, who clocked 80 last Thursday, July 10, he has played his part well. If you had come across him during his busy days as a journalist, of course, I have no apology for not saying his active days in Nigeria journalism, because the man is damn still active. Not ‘obsolete’. Not expired either. The story of his meteoric rise in his chosen profession has been properly placed in the public domain by the man himself in series of interviews in the newspapers.

Odukomaiya is a product of the late Babatunde Jose’s hard-nosed journalism school. After his stint with the Daily Times, where he rose to be the Editor, he was invited by the late business mogul, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, otherwise known as M.K.O. Abiola, to pioneer his Concord group of newspapers as the first Editor-in-Chief. A few years after his exit from Concord, he was again invited by multi-millionaire businessman, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, to set up and become the first Editor-in-Chief of Champion newspapers. You may wonder why Odukomaiya was such a hot cake that was sought after by every investor that wanted to put his money in the newspaper business. The reason is simple. Odukomaiya is a thoroughbred journalist of the highest professional hue who handles news publishing with a fiendish fervor that would make investors and practising journalists anywhere in the world green with envy.

Myfirstencounter with Baba, as Odukomaiya was then called, was in 1988. On the day I met him, I had gone to the corporate headquarters of the Champion newspapers in Lagos, armed with a letter from the late Frank Russel, and addressed to the late Alhaji Jamiu Fola Ashiru, who was then an Executive Director with Champion newspapers. As soon as Alhaji Ashiru opened the letter, he asked me a few questions which I promptly answered. There and then, he led me out of his office to Baba’s office. We met Baba who was busy working on some materials on his table. Nevertheless, he took time off to listen to Alhaji Ashiru who introduced me to him and showed him the letter from Russel. Baba asked me a few questions too after which he invited Emma Agu, the editor. I was later told to report for work within a few days.

I had a challenging but highly rewarding engagement in the almost three years I spent in Champion newspapers from December 1988 to June 1991. Baba was a no-nonsense administrator, thoroughly professional and very strict on matters relating to the ethics of the journalism profession. He led by example. He was always the last to leave office and often returned early every day. On a normal day, Baba resumed at work at about 8 a.m and remained permanently in the office, except there were official engagements to be attended to outside the office, till about 8:30 pm, Monday to Friday. On Saturdays, he came in around noon and stayed till about 8:30pm. On Sundays, he came in immediately after Sunday service at about 1 to 2pm and remained till around 8:30pm. During his days at the helm of affairs, the rule was that whoever was driving out of the compound should open his car booth to enable the security men to undertake a check before driving out. Most evenings, Baba drove himself. As soon as he got to the gate in his lemon-coloured Peugeot 505 saloon car, Baba would stop and personally come down to open his booth for the security men to do their job. He never missed it.

There was no lazing around whenever Baba was in the office and everybody knew this. Whenever he was coming in, his presence was always heralded by commotion, particularly among those who would have gathered at the reception area doing nothing. As soon as his car was sighted, you would find people falling over one another to escape to their various offices. For the members of the editorial department, each day was like writing examination. Usually, Baba held a copy of the first edition of the newspaper and went through from the front page to the back page as a routine every day. In the process, he did a lot of markings with either green or red biro to point out errors which might either be in the casting of the headlines, typographical or punctuation errors, transposition, wrong bylines, wrong photo illustrations, bad captions, wrong application of in-house styles and many others.

So, naturally, even if you call yourself an editor, there was another superior editor somewhere in the person of Baba who was ever willing and ready to summon you at the sight of the slightest mistake or error in the newspaper. Depending on how grievous the error or mistake was, you could either earn a verbal warning, especially for a first offender or a suspension or even a sack or dismissal, whatever the case may be. If you are in the production department, if the error or mistake warranted using additional materials like films, plates and others, you were instantly surcharged. That strictness kept everybody on his toes as long as you wanted to remain a staff of Champion newspapers. Here was a man who took active interest in whatever went on in the company from the highest quarters to the bottom of the company’s organogram.

However, Baba’s work does not terminate in the office or during official hours alone. He carries his work to his house where he maintains an office complete with all gadgets. This was the area I had the greatest of my challenges. Every evening, on his way out of the compound, Baba stopped by in my office located on the ground floor to oversee what was going on at the proof–reading section and also to find out how quick production was going. As he made to leave, the usual refrain was: “Dele, give me the first call at 2:30 am. I have a lot to clear on my table”. What this means is that though he had closed for the day in the office, he would want to be woken up from sleep at 2:30 am in other to do some work. This could either be some office work, simply reading or putting things together for another hectic day in office.

Baba is a workaholic. From morning till night, when he closed, he was always working on his desk. He ate right there in his office. Some afternoons, when he felt like relaxing, especially on Sundays, you could enter his office and see some fried, peppered ‘goat meat’ on a saucer on his table with a bottle of ice-cold, chilled beer, usually Harp, waiting to be gulped down. He is kind, humane with a listening ear. At the same time, Baba does not brook any nonsense as he is quick to temper but his anger subsides as quickly as it rises. That is Baba’s nature and I am told he is still like that. Just don’t play any pranks with him and you will be the best of friends.

Mary Kathleen Turner, popularly known as Kathleen Turner, 60-year-old (born on June 19, 1954), American actress, singer and stage director, once shrugged off an inquisitive reporter who was all over her determined to know her age, by saying: “Professionally, I have no age”. Odukomaiya’s exceptional contributions to Nigerian journalism practice must have attracted eminent Nigerians who gathered in Lagos last Thursday to celebrate with him as he joined the Octogenarian club. Though, now an Octogenarian, professionally, Baba is ageless!

July 16, 2014
Comment

For Olatunji Dare

Dare, “Once upon another commonwealth games” relieved me of pressure as I read it along because there are some funny bits, especially towards its tail end. For example, your feeling cheated by government for claiming that it triggered boycott of the games instead of The Guardian. It is funny because if the accolade was given to Guardian, it would still have been reported as championed by Nigeria. Another funny side is your bringing the issue to the general public exactly 30 years after. I thank God for sparing your life to tell us what confused us then. How I wish I were Jonathan, I would have given all the Guardian staff connected with the globe-stirring action next to the highest national honour immediately; for your achievement. Those were the days of true journalism unlike now that most mediamen are tied to aprong string of their corrupt political masters. God save us, Amen. From Lai Ashadele.

If Nigerian Government actualy boycotted Common-Wealth Game consequent upon The Guardian editorial, it was still proper to be refered as d Nigeria-led boycott, and not The Guardian. The newspaper merely presented its well-argued case on why d country shouldnt participate in the game,and never forced the government to boycott. The decision to participate or not to was still on the government to decide.That it eventually opted to withdraw from participation shouldn’t then mean that the credit should authomaticaly go to The Guardian newspapers, if the whole matter is logically followed – From Emmanuel Egwu

For Gbenga Omotoso

An elegy for Brazil: it is not true that Brazilians did not walk out of the stadium.They did, the commentator mentioned it. You always look for the exit door when you face shame. It is natural, don’t make it look like a Nigerian spirit. From Emma, Lafia

The introduction of armed forces into the politics of Nigeria of today has alter the political calculation in the country. Nigeria will remain in darkness as long as politics of stomach infrastructure persist. Long live Federal Republic of order from above. Long live amala politics. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Apapa Lagos.

In your elegy you wrote and I quote “The Super Eagles went on strike to force the government to pay their appearance fees.” Bad leaders plus followers equals systems failure! Anonymous

Re-2015: A Lexical analysis-The new method of rigging is Stomachstructure which is not strange in Nigeria Politics starting from NPN ERA.It is unfor tunate that our power drunk politicians can never have a change of heart. It is a bad omen for the future of this country. From Past odunmbaku.

How can a country like Nigeria under the vicious grip of unrepentant and kleptomanic cabals of election riggers and looters ever learn? Our leaders are demonic and thrive in impunity.They even dare God. Our sitiuation appear hopeless especially with the type of masses we have as shown in Ekiti State. From Chief Solomon Egwuenu, Delta State

Nigeria will learn when people like you the media show patriotism in your write up about her.when you learn to stand by our leaders and support them in times of nation trials irrespective of where he comes from. Anonymous

Gbenga, your write up . Lexical analysis. On point of correction, Tom is not a short form for Thabo Mbeki to the best of my knowledge. Secondly, Thabo Mbeki was not rejected by African National Congress (ANC), Thabo Mbeki ran into trouble with ANC during the second term and that necessitated temporary replacement before the election that brought in Jacob Zuma. From Chief Olabode Majekodunmi. Abeokuta

I enjoyed your lexical analysis of 2015. One little fox, however: you mentioned Barnabas (who was rather the “son of encouragement”) instead of “Barabas”! From Brother Ame A. Aba.

The Brazilian/German encounter may be shocking to many, for me there is nothing spectacular about the result of that match. That is football for you! Talking about patriotism: an average Nigerian is a self-centred animal, the fault being in our nature. We have not yet arrived at nationhood-The Gods are to blame. From Moyosore Aladetohun, Iyana Ipaja.

Why were they crying as if winning is their birthright. There is nothing Nigeria should learn from then. We crashed out from round 16 we did our best. From Patrick, Abuja

Having had about the passion of Ekiti people for education,I thought free, qaulity education would have earned governor Fayemi a second term in office, but he seems to be elite minded only to learn in a bitter way that the so-called poor are equally stakeholders in the state and are the majority he need to remain in the state house. He should be more realistic if the opportunity comes again just like it did to Fayose. From Uzoma, Owerri.

For Tunji Adegboyega

It is good to praise achievers so they can do more, instead of showering encomiums on never-do-well leaders. Ajibola Ogunshola deserves encomiums for lifting The Punch newspaper when it was about going under. Ogunshola demonstrated leadership worthy of emulation for making Punch readable worldwide. Happy birthday, Chief Ogunshola. Congratulations! From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

Re: Ajibola Ogunshola at 70. Why I admire Chief Ogunshola so much is because of his unassuming nature. He goes about unnoticed despite his societal stature. This is an example of a leader Nigeria needs. An actuary could do a lot with mathematics to turn things around hence, extremely few people venture into specialising in the course. Not even many universities include Actuarial Science as a course. The thinking level is equivalent of that for Geology, Medicine and Surgery! To have been able to turn The Punch around from the grave is consequent upon his actuary science and personal discipline qualities. I join millions of Nigerians in wishing Chief Ogunshola a happy 70th birthday. From Lanre Oseni.

What makes a man a good leader is his integrity and straightforwardness. Chief Ogunshola has proved to the world that a leader without integrity has no business being a leader. Our leaders are stealing our money because of lack of integrity; politicians trying to differentiate stealing from corruption because of lack of integrity. Integrity makes a man; without it you become nothing. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

Good day, Tunji. I read your article “Ajibola Ogunshola at 70: The actuary who brought The Punch ‘back from the dead’ joins the septuagenarian club tomorrow” (i.e. July 14). In the first place let me congratulate Chief Ogunshola for clocking three scores plus 10. Also, let me commend you for going down memory lane on progress so far made towards uplifting Punch by Chief Ogunshola. This is a man who knew every individual in the newsroom by his or her full names. He is a crisis manager of great dimension. I could recollect as a former Punch chief crime correspondent and later assistant editor, Chief Ogunshola would say “Musa, come and see me in my office in Lagos”. He would want to know what your individual problems were and how to enhance efficiency in the organisation. He however felt very sad when I resigned my appointment with the company in 1989. The Punch has produced great writers; Tunji, you are one of these. Others are Kunle Fagbemi, Prince Dayo Adeyeye (now Minister of State for Works), Lateef Ibirogba, Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Innocent Adikwu, Demola Osinubi, the current managing director of Punch. I praise the magnanimity of Chief Ogunshola for making the late Chief James Olubunmi Aboderin realise his dreams, even if post-humously, as his eldest son Wale is now chairman of Punch Nigeria Ltd. Congratulations, Chief Ogunshola and well done, Tunji. From Abubakar Musa Abuja.

July 16, 2014
A season of “celebrity” birthdays

For the second time within a few weeks after I broke my rule not to publish responses to my column, which are more than 300 words, I feel obliged to break it again. I hope readers will understand and forgive me for the breach.

The reason this time is a response from Malam Ya’u Shehu Darazo, the spokesman for a former head of state and now a chieftain of the leading opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd); to my column last week, which was an orbit of Dr. Umaru Dikko, probably the most powerful minister during the short-lived Second Republic (October 1979 to December 1983) under President Shehu Shagari.

Apparently Darazo felt obliged to defend his principal over the role I said the general played as the head of state in the so-called Dikko Affair, i.e. the attempt to kidnap Dikko in broad daylight in front of his home in London where he lived in self-exile and bring him to justice in Nigeria for sundry charges. Dikko had turned himself in self-exile as the most virulent critic of the military regime that threw out the Second Republic.

Darazo is right to say I was wrong to claim that Dikko kept his vow that he would never return to Nigeria as long as the military were in power. As he pointed out, Dikko did return to Nigeria during the five-year rule of Gen. Sani Abacha between 1993 and 1998 and played an active part in Abacha’s transition politics. He is also right to say I was wrong to claim no one denied the claim by Major M. H. Jokolo, Buhari’s ADC, that the plan to kidnap Dikko was approved by his principal. As Darazo said, my memory clearly failed me in not remembering that his principal issued a widely-publicised denial of Jokolo’s claim.

Even then, I am sure few people will believe that the denial amounted to much given the central role Jokolo played in the coup that brought Darazo’s boss to power and given the fact that ADCs of heads of state are like their clearing houses for virtually everything.

Whatever the case, Darazo’s letter is reproduced below. Before then, however, I should note that readers must have observed that we seem to be in a season of birthdays of veteran journalists and literary giants this month, with no fewer than four of them celebrating their birthdays.

First, we had Mr. Henry Odukomaiya, one of the most celebrated editors of the now rested Daily Times, one of Africa’s biggest success stories in newspaper publishing. The gentleman also holds the record for successfully establishing three newspapers in the country, most notably Concord, which, before it went down, once overtook Daily Times as the widest circulating newspaper in Nigeria. Odukomaiya turned an octogenarian on July 12.

Next, Chief Ajibola Ogunsola, an actuarian by profession, whose revival of a comatose PUNCH in the late 80’s must rank among God’s little miracles in Nigeria. Ogunsola retired from the newspaper as the chairman when the ovation was still loud. While the chairman of PUNCH, he became the chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN). It spoke volumes of the man’s character that as soon as he left PUNCH and he decided not to seek another term as NPAN’s chairman, he resigned his board membership of the News Agency of Nigeria, which he had occupied by virtue of his chairing the club of newspaper publishers.

Ogunsola turned a septuagenarian on July 14.

Tomorrow, one of Nigeria’s foremost columnists and among my top five all-time satirists in the country, Dr. Olatunji Dare, will turn 70. Dare has moved from the classroom to practice and back to the classroom as a journalist and in the process has left a huge mark on the profession that is hard to surpass.

The biggest of the masquerades this month is, of course, Wole Soyinka, teacher, poet, political activist and Africa’s foremost playwright and black Africa’s first Literature Nobel laureate. Soyinka turned 80 on July 13 and, as is to be expected, the throbbing of the celebratory drums is yet to die down.

Happy Birthday to the four foremost Nigeria’s literati. Here’s many more returns to you all.

And now to Darazo.

Sir,

Writing on a contemporary subject can be tasking in the sense that many who are either players or witnesses of the events may very much be around and can easily detect some obvious mistakes or misrepresentations. Mohammed Haruna’s piece, which was published on the cover of the Daily Trust of Wednesday, July 9, fell victim of three errors.

Firstly, quoting Major Mustapha Jokolo’s paid advert in the now defunct Citizen in which he (Jokolo) claimed that General TY Danjuma, who had “scores to settle with Dikko for shutting down all private jetties in the country, including Danjuma’s because of the information he had as transport minister that many of them were being used for smuggling” was the reason behind General Danjuma’s role in the abduction saga of Umaru Dikko.

According to Mohammed, one day, Jokolo said, “the former army chief rang him to book for an appointment to see Buhari. He made his proposals which sounded attractive. He said he could bring Umaru Dikko back, using his Israeli connections”. Mohammed Haruna mistakenly asserted that “none of the principal actors Jokolo mentioned EVER CONTESTED”(emphasis mine). Mohammed’s memory clearly failed him. A few weeks after Jokolo’s advert, General Buhari, in a widely circulated interview published by the now defunct Democrat debunked Jokolo’s claim, adding that Jokolo was too junior to understand the workings of the government.

The second mistake Mohammed made was quoting a heresy to corroborate Jokolo’s claim. Quoting what he described as definitive 2012 biography of General Babangida, titled: IBRAHIM BABANGIDA: The Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria by veteran journalist Dan Agbese, Babangida, according to Mohammed, told Dan that the “initiative actually came from the Israelis, who sold it to a retired general, WHO DAN DID NOT NAME BUT WHO, OBVIOUSLY, WAS DANJUMA (emphasis mine), Danjuma, in turn sold it to Babangida, who in turn sold it to Buhari” The question is obvious to who? How can a definitive biography carry a faceless personality in an event that is very important to the subject. For as long as Babangida refuses to disclose the name of the “retired general” in his “definitive” biography, that aspect of information remains speculative and using it as referral or corroborative discourse is defective.

The third error is where Mohammed Haruna said, as a result of the trauma of being crated alive in the bungled kidnap attempt, “Dikko vowed never to return to Nigeria as long as the military remained in power. He kept his vow even after some of his partners in self-exile like Chief Joseph Wayas, the Senate president, Alhaji Uba Ahmed, NPN’s general secretary, and Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, one of Shagari’s top aides, returned at various times to participate in Babangida’s long transition politics between 1985 and 1993.” This is also an error. We all know that Alhaji Umaru Dikko returned to the country during Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime, which was for sure, a military government. Dikko fully participated in Abacha’s political programme, in which he (Dikko ) even formed his own political party.

Ya’u Shehu Darazo

darazo58@yahoo.com

July 16, 2014
Military, media and national security

John Boyd, an American military strategist and essayist once said “Machines do not fight wars. People do, and they use their minds and the destruction and distortion of the enemy’s will to win and perception of reality through ambiguous posturing, and severing of the communication and information infrastructure should be the driving force in mental warfare “.This in my view underscores the strategic role of the military and media in the war against terrorism in Nigeria.

Indeed in the past, relationship between the military and the media has been marked by periods of distrust particularly during the Buhari -Idiagbon and the Babaginda – Abacha era. But since the return of civil rule in 1999, there has been cordial relationship with the media without harassment and intimidation. With the recent clamp down and seizures of copies of newspapers, the relationship has again suffered some major setback and indeed reminding us of the dark past of the military and obnoxious Decree 4 of 1984.

Regretably, this acrimonious row is being driven by the Boko Haram insurgency in the north and the perceived negative reportage of the military engagement strategies with the terrorist and also the unfounded notion that media is being used by the opposition party to heat up the polity. However, the media, especially the press in contemporary Nigeria, is undeniably the most responsible arm of the state. The social responsibility role of the media which essentially include impartiality and self censorship mechanism in my view is the key driver in setting agenda for public opinion and the military do not have the monopoly of what constitutes national interest.

The experience of the military across the world in the fight against insurgency and separatist movements and the Boko Haram in the case of Nigeria, has shown that victory on the battlefield is not simple as defeating criminal gangs by force of arms but rather successes is defined by public perception which the media helps to shape through its reportage. Therefore, the military high command in my view stands to gain more than ever before from the media in their engagement strategy and indeed in shaping their operational output.

While International Humanitarian laws and conventions which regulates the conduct of war do not reflect the critical role of the media in shaping outcome of internal conflicts, the media is given a primacy of the right of civilian population as a neutral force on the battlefield. Therefore the military high command should close the gaps in its relationship with the media with a view to galvanizing supports for its operational strategy and other engagement with the civilian population.

The perceived possibility of bad press has always been a challenge to the military high command, but indeed bad reportage does occur. But it is expedient on the military particularly the directorate of defence information to understand that reporters bring their own perceptions, level of access and the freedom to publish what is considered in the public interest.

Going forward, the relationship between the military and media should be hinged on the understanding of the impartiality and balanced media reporting and on other hand, the military objectives of internal security particularly on terrorism and other perceived threat to the corporate existence of Nigeria. The military high command must also purge itself of the arrogance of the gun and the clandestine seizure of publications in the name of national interest and security. Therefore, the military should give attention on how they can influence the activities and output of the media for national security.

Fudamentally,there is need to draw up internal security reporting manual or code for the media in Nigeria that would help to shape public perceptions which will help to balance the interest of the media in the pursuit of headline stories and similarly, the military pursuit in winning the war against insurgents. It is instructive to note that in the United State of America with a long history of democratic values, warfare and strategic engagement with the media has a guideline called, The US Army Field Manual: Public Affairs Tactics, Techniques and Procedures which has helped to shape information operations and ensuring that the media themes and messages are consistent with national aspirations and interest. This in my view has reduced the area of conflict between the military and media in reporting war. Therefore a code of engagement with the media and the larger civilian population must be clearly defined in a democratic setting.

The military must also be strategic in their engagement with the media beyond news conferences and releases to more robust techniques of understanding the political slants and media representation in the area of operations and media ownership. The wide variety of non- traditional media should be explored to engage the enemy rather than open confrontation with the media in recent time.

More importantly, the principle of embedding which is a feature of conventional warfare has been used by the US military to influence the media. Reporters are embedded with different units of the military and the strategic-level news presentations is given by senior military personnel before they are relayed to the news rooms. The mechanism also provide the military with the power of influence media output allowing the media a firsthand experience in tactical, operational and strategic dimensions of military campaigns.

Lastly, the media has increasingly become an important party in the fight against insurgents because of the growing importance of information management in warfare whether they are non conventional as the case of Boko Haram or not. Furthermore, the military means and objectives of winning the war against terrorism has changed dramatically, the media itself particularly the press has undergone some transformation in recent years. These developments cannot be under estimated. From 24 – hours rolling news stations, on-line media platforms and websites, the Nigerian discerning public and indeed the world have greater sources of information more than ever before, and the military in my view has a more complex task in information management and intelligence rather than clamping on the press. Therefore the military and the media must build an enduring partnership and consensus to address the new realities of war-reporting in the interest of national security.

• Orovwuje, Founder, Humanitarian Care for Displaced Persons writes from Lagos.

July 16, 2014
Umaru Dikko, the ultimate enforcer (1936 – 2014)

He was your quintessential Mr. Fix-It. And like all enforcers, he inspired fear more than love, a fact attested to by his inability, for example, to win the seat of northern Kaduna senatorial district in the old Kaduna State that included his native Zaria.

He contested for the seat in 1978 on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the most conservative of the five parties approved by the regime of Generals Murtala Mohammed/ Olusegun Obasanjo for the transition programme between 1975 and 1979.

Alhaji Umaru Dikko’s nemesis was a little known Alhaji Ibrahim Barau, a businessman, who contested on the platform of the radical Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) led by Malam Aminu Kano. At the time of the Mohammed/Obasanjo transition programme, Dikko had become a household name, having held several public offices, including commissionerships in the then North-Central State comprising Zaria and Katsina provinces. He was one of the most forceful and outspoken members of the 1977/78 Constituent Assembly (CA).

It was this well-known Dikko, who died last Tuesday, that Barau, a Bazazzagi like himself, defeated for the seat of northern Kaduna senatorial district. Undeterred, he worked his way into becoming the campaign manager of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the presidential candidate of the NPN.

As New Nigerian’s reporter who covered Shagari’s presidential campaign, I could not but marvel at the energy and passion with which Dikko threw himself into the job, often sleeping on the carpeted floor of the campaign office on Victoria Island, Lagos, just to make sure he was always on hand to get things done. He thus became probably the closest confidant of Shagari, bar his friend, Alhaji Isiyaku Ibrahim, the campaign’s principal financier, by the time Shagari emerged the winner.

It was not surprising therefore that Dikko became the most powerful minister in Shagari’s cabinet as transport minister, eclipsing even more prominent members of the party – at least nominally – like Malam Adamu Ciroma and Saraki, who were presidential aspirants and even party chairman, Chief Adisa Akinloye and Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, in his apparent proximity to Shagari.

Power, as Dr. Henry Kissinger, America’s most famous Secretary of State in modern times, once reportedly said, is the ultimate aphrodisiac; it attracts as much envy from enemies as it does obsequiousness from admirers. Soon enough Dikko became the target of some of the most vicious attacks, especially in the press, by opposition elements, particularly from the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), whose presidential candidate, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, came a close second to Shagari and lost through a controversial Supreme Court interpretation of what 2/3rd of 19 states were from which a candidate had to score at least a quarter of votes cast before he could be declared winner.

Shagari met the condition in 12 states whereas 2/3rd of 19 were 12.666 states, a statistical incongruity. UPN insisted the ratio meant 13 states which, in turn, meant there should be a second ballot between its candidate and Shagari. Chief Akinjide, NPN’s legal adviser, thought otherwise and asked the courts to declare Shagari the winner. They did, and thus set the context for the bitter politics of the Second Republic throughout the odd four years it lasted.

As if Dikko was not powerful enough as transport minister and a Shagari confidant, the president appointed him to chair his committee on rice importation at a time of NPN’s suspicion, justified or otherwise, that the opposition had plans to frustrate its policy of food sufficiency through hoarding. It was as chair of the committee that he made a statement that was to prove a propaganda nightmare for him for the rest of the Second Republic.

“As long as we are in government,” he had said in defence of the setting up of his committee, “we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that there is sufficient food in Nigeria and nobody will eat from dustbin.” For some not-so-inexplicable reason the opposition press turned the statement on its head and reported the man as saying there was no hunger in the land because no one as yet was eating from dustbins.

Predictably, this attracted much public opprobrium to the minister and nothing he said thereafter ever convinced the public that he was not an arrogant and insensitive politician.

It was NPN’s attempt to counter such bad press for itself and for its administration which eventually led to the rise of Chief M.K.O. Abiola as a chieftain of the party, whose foundation member he was. As Dikko himself told it in one of his most definitive interviews in the defunct Citizen (January 31, 1993) as an exile in the UK: “In the NPN, we realised that our greatest obstacle was that we were surrounded by a hostile press, because they did not belong to us at all. Nor were they ready to be objective…As a result of this predicament, people began to say the NPN must have its own paper.”

It was then, he said in the interview, that Abiola offered to start a newspaper to counter the opposition press. All Abiola said he needed, Dikko said, was “necessary assistance to minimise bureaucracy,” which he got. Besides, Dikko said, even the name of the newspaper, National Concord, was Shagari’s suggestion. “This,” he said, “was something I know and Abiola knows that I know.”

However, he said in effect, speculations that NPN funded the establishment of the newspaper were not true. “Everything was made easy for him. Where he got his money to start it, I don’t know. Only he knows.”

Any observer of Nigeria’s political scene during the Second Republic would agree that the opposition press more than met their match in the Concord. Staffed with some of the smartest and well motivated brains in Nigerian journalism, Abiola’s newspapers took the battle to the enemy’s territory, giving Nigerians exposes like the Maroko land scandal which implicated Chief Awolowo in damaging allegations of land grab from the poor.

Apparently Concord’s success led Abiola to the conclusion that he deserved a seat in NPN’s inner sanctum. First, he sought to be its chairman, a job Akinloye was holding much, it seemed, to the satisfaction of the party establishment. Key members of this establishment, Dikko in particular, were apparently not amused by Abiola’s attempt to replace Akinloye. They did everything to frustrate Abiola’s bid and succeeded.

Undeterred, Abiola next sought to vie for the party’s presidential ticket against the 1983 elections. Once again the party establishment blocked him. Worse, Dikko went on to deride the chief by making his now famous statement that the NPN’s presidential ticket was “not for sale to the highest bidder,” or some words to that effect.

An angry Abiola left the party and not only took his newspaper with him. He joined it with the opposition press in their war which sought to portray NPN as bad for Nigeria and Dikko, specifically, as the chief villain of the Second Republic.

It seems his image as the Bad Boy of the Second Republic left its mark even among his fellow party men. For, when he sought to replace Alhaji Shehu Ahmadu Musa as the highly respected Secretary of the Government of the Federation, probably as payback for engineering Shagari’s “landslide” victory in the 1983 presidential election, his principal demurred. Instead the president appointed him a Minister for Special Duties, which looked more or less like being shunted sideways from his previous powerful position.

It was as Minister for Special Duties that he fled into self-exile in the UK when the soldiers overthrew the Second Republic on December 31, 1983, barely three months into Shagari’s second term. In exile, he quickly became the most outspoken critic of the new military regime under General Muhammadu Buhari.

The regime soon returned Dikko’s compliment; short of exactly saying so, it declared him the most wanted politician among the exiles. It wanted him so badly it quickly bought a proposal by Lt-General T. Y. Danjuma, to date the most powerful army chief, to kidnap and return him to Nigeria for trial as allegedly one of the country’s most corrupt ministers, if not the most corrupt. This was according to Buhari’s Aide de Camp, Major Mustapha Jokolo, in a paid eight-page advert in Citizen (November 9, 1992) which none of the principal actors Jokolo mentioned ever contested.

In the advert which he entitled “A soldier’s soldier or a soldier of fortune?”, Jokolo said Danjuma’s motivation was to settle scores with Dikko for shutting down all private jetties in the country, including Danjuma’s, because of information he had as transport minister that many of them were being used for smuggling.

One day, Jokolo said, the former army chief rang him to book for an appointment to see Buhari. “He made his proposals which sounded attractive. He said he could bring Umaru Dikko back using his Israeli connections.”

Jokolo’s claim has since been corroborated by former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, in his definitive 2012 biography, IBRAHIM BABANGIDA: The Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria, by veteran journalist Dan Agbese. Babangida was Buhari’s army chief before he overthrew his boss in a bloodless palace coup in August 1985.

According to Agbese, Babangida said the initiative actually came from the Israelis who sold it to a retired general who Dan did not name but who, obviously, was Danjuma. Danjuma, in turn sold it to Babangida who in turn sold it to Buhari but eventually took no part in its execution. The Israelis demanded $10 million for the job.

It is not clear if the amount was paid but, as we all now know, their attempt to execute the job in broad daylight in front of Dikko’s house on the streets of London on July 4, 1984, failed and the Dikko Affair, as it was dubbed by the media, led to a break in diplomatic ties between Nigeria and Britain.

Perhaps it was the trauma of being crated alive in the bungled kidnap attempt, but Dikko vowed never to return to Nigeria as long as the military remained in power. He kept his vow even after some of his partners in self-exile like Chief Joseph Wayas, the Senate president, Alhaji Uba Ahmed, NPN’s general secretary, and Dr Chuba Okadigbo, one of Shagari’s top aide, returned at various times to participate in Babangida’s long transition politics between 1985 and 1993.

When he returned in the end and joined the political fray by eventually forming his own party, he made little impact. The long exile, it seemed, had taken the fire which made him perhaps the most powerful minister during the Second Republic out of his belly.

For someone whose enemies liked to paint as one of Nigeria’s most corrupt politicians, Dikko died in relative poverty. The fact, however, was that even though he was a power freak, he never used it to amass wealth for himself, a fact which seemed apparent from his modest residence in Kaduna even during the height of his power.

May Allah forgive his transgressions and reward his good deeds with aljanna firdaus.

July 9, 2014