The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • In bad taste

    In bad taste

    Hardball

    Death is a universal experience that denominates mortality and inescapably awaits all humans. It is a leveler that makes no distinction between people’s statuses, ethnicity, creed, convictions and actions, hence it isn’t typically an event upon which differences are celebrated. Culturally – particularly in Africa – it is an occurrence upon which all talk of differences are suspended and there is acknowledgement of common humanity and  unanimity of grief over loss.

    That was the general mood, and rightly so, when ace cultural enthusiast cum human rights and pro-democracy activist, Yinka Odumakin, died a week ago of Covid-19 complications in Lagos. Given the life of activism he lived, which impacted strongly on Nigerian national life, his untimely death opened a floodgate of sympathy from far and near, the high and the lowly, from the east, west, north and south both for the immediate family of the deceased and the Afenifere socio-cultural group for which he was spokesman until death, even for the Yoruba nation whose cause he vocally fought all his life.

    One group that didn’t seem so enamoured with  conventional niceties, however, was the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which in its condolence message highlighted differences it had with the late activist and the Afenifere for which he was spokesman. In a statement by its mouthpiece, Emmanuel Yawe, the northern group said: “While he was alive, Yinka held on to his views very strongly. We often disagreed with him on many issues. Our disagreements were, however, on principle and not personal. The fundamental difference is that the Afenifere group admits only descendants of Oduduwa as members, while we in the ACF admit even descendants of Oduduwa who are northerners. The nature of our membership, accommodating hundreds of ethnic groups has made it very difficult to always agree with a group whose membership is limited to one ethnic group.”

    ACF added: “We continue to hope that the Afenifere will one day turn a new leaf and see issues not from the narrow and limited perspective of one ethnic group but from the broad perspective of a multi-ethnic federal republic. We had hoped that Odumakin will live long enough to work for and see the new day. His death today has robbed us of that opportunity.”

    How sympathetic do you rate the tone of this message? Hardball says: not good enough; because there is embedded a sardonicism almost similar to the condolence by former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the death of former Senator Buruji Kashamu in August, last year, where he said Kashamu had used the manoeuvre of law and politics to escape facing justice over alleged criminal offences but could not stop the cold hands of death when it came calling. Those aren’t the kind of things to be said in condolence messages. Such’s in bad taste.

  • Sterile controversies

    Sterile controversies

    Hardball

     

    Like the proverbial bolt out of the blue, President Muhammadu Buhari just announced a new Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

    He is DIG Alkali Baba Usman, called upon you take charge, going into the final month, of the three-month extension granted the outgoing IGP, Muhammad Adamu.

    Adamu’s term lapsed on February 1, but was given a three-month extension to “enable a detailed process of appointing a new IG”, to quote Police Affairs minister,  Maigari Dingyadi.

    But as expected, sterile controversies are breaking out, while the real issues are buried in the hubbub.

    O, he is from the North, an umpteenth proof that the president is “Fulanizing” Nigeria’s security infrastructure.

    Why, the impassioned segment of the Igbo lobby could even claim the president missed a golden opportunity to include the South East in the national security mix, since the only Igbo among the security red necks now, Gen. Leo Irabor, is from Delta State, in the South-South.

    In the days to come, you can even expect some other folks to launch into a fit of demonization of the outgoing IGP, while frothing, on both sides of the mouth, to paint the IGP as new Samson in town to crush all the security challenges.

    Read Also: 8 things to know about new IGP Usman Alkali Baba

     

    At the exit of the last set of service chiefs, it was all hell let loose to demonstrate how “useless” they all were; and how, somewhat, they all must be consigned to the garbage of incompetent and useless officers.

    Yet, the entry of the new set of service chiefs has not quite offered the expected “open sesame” that powered the scurrilous condemnation of the departing quad, as if they were the latest band of unfazed outlaws in town.  But that has not happened because the challenge is systemic.  So, a change of personnel, if the same system persists, would not amount to much.

    It’s from this systemic prism that some of the controversies, over the new IGP, must be viewed and redirected.  No matter where the new police boss comes from, and whatever his opening fox trots, any initial success is not likely to last.

    This is because the present security challenges require a federalized police, which could tackle the problems from the tiny roots, before they germinate into big boughs and become real crises.

    Which is why the issue shouldn’t be who is; or where the new IGP is from; but rather how fast critical reforms, to federalize the police, can come on board.  In truth, Nigeria needs less a new police czar, without prejudice to IGP Adamu quitting as decreed by law.

    Rather, what Nigeria needs more is a federalized police: a concert of central and state police corps, working seamlessly to face down the Herculean challenge of violent crimes, rocking the country.

    So, instead of empty controversies, the entry of a new IGP should serve to re-focus public attention on that urgent imperative.  That is the only way Nigeria can grapple with — and surmount — its current security challenges.

  • Fighting the messenger

    Fighting the messenger

    Hardball

    Once again, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Matthew Kukah has told the President Muhammadu Buhari administration a few home truths about the state of the nation. His observations in his Easter message are observable.

    Predictably, the government focused more on the messenger rather than the message.  Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu implied that Kukah’s criticisms were based on his own version of the truth. “But if you profess to being a man of God… ideology should not stand in the way of facts and fairness,” he responded.

    Shehu’s attempt to fault some of Kukah’s observations was insignificant because the priest was largely correct. For instance, Kukah said: “Our clay-footed fight against corruption has not moved the needle of transparency forward.”

    It is obvious that the Buhari administration has not fought corruption the way he had promised to, and the way he was expected to. After his first term, from 2015 to 2019, he started his second term with the same unconvincing approach to the fight against corruption. Today, nearly two years into his final term, corruption is still hale and hearty, and strutting all over the land.

    President Buhari had also vowed to deal with insecurity. But the country’s security crisis has reached an alarming level, and the administration seems powerless.

    Read Also: ‘Kukah’s Buhari bashing is ungodly’

    Kukah’s portrait is accurate. He said: “Taunted by Boko Haram, ravaged by bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, and other merchants of death across the nation, there is collective fear as to whether Nigeria’s glory is about to depart! Retired military and intelligence officers lament over what has become of their glorious profession as they watch the humiliation of our military personnel. Traumatised citizens are tortured daily by bandits.”

    The Bishop also observed: “A thick and suffocating cloud of desperation, despondency, desolation, gloom, and misery hangs in the hot air. We have no message and have no idea how long this will last. Our people seek solace and protection, but frustration and darkness threaten to drown them. Is their government on AWOL?”

    Indeed, the scale of insecurity suggests that the government is absent.  Shehu attempted to defend the indefensible, and ended up attacking the messenger. The point is the failings of the administration are glaring.

    The administration should address the factual observations, and stop arguing that things are not as bad as Kukah says.  Things are not only bad but worsening. If the administration is out of touch with reality, it should, at least, recognise that there are those who are in touch with reality.

  • Royal fighters

    Royal fighters

    Hardball

    Traditional rulers in Nigerian colloquialism are called royal fathers. This obviously implies expectations of a paternal disposition from them towards all, regardless of preceding circumstances of contact or relationship. Conventional fathers typically are large hearted towards those under their fatherly ambit, and one thing you would hardly find fathers do is resort to open fisticuffs, apparently because that would be unexemplary to their observing ‘children.’

    But we have had cases of royal fathers turning royal fighters over personal differences with people under their fatherly oversight. In February, last year, Oluwo of Iwoland Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi, as chairman of the Iwo Traditional Council, exercised his pugilistic skills against another royal member of the council, Agbowu of Ogbaagbaa Oba Dhikrulahi Akinropo, which saw the latter landing in hospital. It took deft mediation by the Osun State Government and the Council of Traditional Rulers to contain the fallouts.

    We have the latest show of royal pugilism in the encounter early last week between former Chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, and ex-Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha. The royal father reportedly attacked the former governor – currently a senator representing Imo West district in the Senate – with a walking stick when their paths crossed on an aircraft at Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri penultimate Sunday. The monarch, according to reports, was sitting in the business class of the aircraft before Okorocha sauntered in, upon which he charged at the senator and clubbed him with his walking stick, repeatedly screaming at him to stay away from Orlu. He was said to be aggrieved with Okorocha for being one of the two monarchs he dethroned in June 2014 while he was Imo governor. Before the dethronement, the then governor had removed Ilomuanya as chairman of the state Council of Traditional Rulers. Okorocha’s successor, Emeka Ihedioha, who governed Imo from 2019 to 2020 reinstated Ilomuanya as traditional ruler.

    The on-board encounter began mildly, but snowballed into hot confrontation as the monarch railed at Okorocha. It took the intervention of the flight captain and cabin attendants to calm things down and re-sit the former governor away from Ilomuanya, but Okorocha was reported to have kept a calm demeanour throughout the encounter.

    In African culture, monarchs are regarded as semi-deities with character potentials beyond mortal frailty. That is why it is important that in all circumstances, they stay above irritation or provocation that could make them discard royal grace and resort to gutter level physicality in expressing themselves. But there is a moral also for power actors: namely that there is life after office and that whatever is done in power could rebound even when the protection of power is no longer there. No condition, as they say, is permanent.

  • Common sense massacre

    Common sense massacre

    Hardball

     

    When does a massacre dawn first, then you scramble for dead bodies and hewn limbs, later?

    When, at Lekki, frenzied e-activists conjure their worst visions!  It was a massacre of common sense, that would have been so comic were it not so tragic!

    Just as well the US Department of State just blasted the last bit of that costly fiction.  That was reminiscent of the Yoruba quip that it takes only a second for truth to tower over fibs, in the air for eons.

    In its 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, the United States declared there were no verifiable evidence on the reported slaughter, by Nigerian soldiers, that moved in to break up curfew-busting protesters, at the Lekki tollgate, on 20 October 2020.

    But really: must it take a yearly US report to prove what, ab initio, was an out and out fraud?  Its comical conjuring was well and truly benumbing.

    One after the other, celebrities, many of them part of the crowd of protesters, were declared massacred, in the rich imaginations of some e-activists, who live and die in their e-world, with absolutely no reference to the real world.

    And sure as the day follows the night, each and every of the “massacred” celebrities resurrected in the real world, but were somewhat not offended, nay felt almost honoured, to have been “massacred”, by the phantom claim.

    Read Also: U.S report on Lekki shooting prejudicial, says Falana

     

    Hardball remembers clearly the reaction of Eniola Badmus, of the film, Omo Ghetto fame.  She said though she was proudly part of the protests, she was kilometres away from the Lekki tollgate site, on the “massacre” night.

    Of course, despite all the denials, a massacre was decreed and so a massacre it must be.  DJ Switch, a start-up music act-turned-wannabe activist, screeched the first hot lie.

    Then, she rushed off to Canada to seek political asylum from political prosecution at home.  The Canadians swallowed the crap.  But perhaps Switch really needed an asylum switch, over the Atlantic.  Really, spewing and spinning such colorful lies border on suspect mental health.

    Then Amnesty International (AI) jumped into the fray, manufacturing 10 dead, in the first instance, in its fretful imaginations!  Now, doesn’t AI itself need realtime amnesty, for pushing brazen lies on the spur, because such conform to its bigoted mindset?  It would recant much later, when it was clear the so-called massacre was a rich fib.

    Then Nima Elbagir, the CNN Sudanese reporter, galloped into town with her own version of massacre-sans-back-up-videos, even if CNN is the globe’s preeminent video news channel.  The body language of the CNN report: even if there was no massacre, there must be one, now that CNN had decreed it!

    When challenged for conclusive proof, CNN only responded with a technical report, telling probable stories of bullet kinetics!  Days later, however, CNN quietly backed off, after “standing by our story” — their fiction, they meant  — but without any apologies for misleading millions of viewers with such unfazed whim and arrogance.

    But even with all of these, cyber-soldiers, fighting malice in the public space, continue to pour e-malice of their own — “Lekki massacre”, willy-nilly!  But don’t expect the US Department of State report would shut them up.  They are far too gone in their e- and cyber-delusion.

  • Wike the humorist

    Wike the humorist

    Hardball

    Governor Nyesom Wike is a natural humorist, the sort that amuses in his state of nature. He has been in a state of humour of late. We are all witnesses to his humorous dance of late, or shall we call it gubernatorial kinetics. Those who follow online performances, especially of the VIP types, wouldn’t have missed it.

    It was first a solo act before it morphed into dual whirligig, a sort of duet with another past master of natural humour, former Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha. But what became even more interesting was Wike’s public foray into Pidgin English. He sat with a BBC pidgin host to discuss politics in a grassroots language, and he was rather good at it.

    But what concerns Hardball here is not that he was partisan. No man can be more partisan and even astute at it than Wike, with his scratchy voice. He said he would not support his master, Goodluck Jonathan, if the Otuoke man pivots to APC for his try for a second coming as president. He said it with defiance, and it was clear he was in another mood, if not humour.

    This time he wanted to bite the fingers that fed him. He did that in a broadside at Jonathan. So, he could not spare his familiar foe, his predecessor and transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi. The interviewer did not even mention Amaechi’s reference to the fact that Wike was a member of his staff before Wike broached the subject. Wike practically denied he was a member of the former governor’s staff, even if his position was the only one that carried the appellation of “staff.” He was chief of staff. Maybe he imagined that being “chief” of staff made him above the staff. He did not explain that.

    Before then, he was the director general of Amaechi’s campaign to be governor of Rivers State. Ironically, the man who became chief of staff said he chose that position over any other. He implied that he could not be a member of his staff because he chose to be chief of staff. Laugh!

    He practically competed with God in asserting who made Amaechi governor. He wondered how he could be a member of his staff if he made him governor. Wike became governor once, and then he is serving his fruits of his second victory in his second term. He needs to learn a little humility. He has a chief of staff today. Tomorrow, when Wike will be somewhere in his village in political retirement or limbo, will his present chief of staff say he was not a member of Wike’s staff?

    Wike may be governor today, but before then one Amaechi occupied that chair, and Amaechi was the boss. That is what the hierarchy says. That is what the law commands. That is what history echoes. He cannot deny what was true. The governor signs orders, including the salaries that all members of his staff, including their chief, earn. Wike was at the mercy of Amaechi, who even set the stage for his national spotlight by making him minister and handing him over to the other master, Jonathan, who he banded with to fight his first master, Amaechi. Governor Wike, with all his bluster, can learn a little gubernatorial modesty.

  • As Zamfara plays watchdog

    As Zamfara plays watchdog

    Hardball

     

    Zamfara State government is not very happy with media performance over reportage of the insecurity challenge within its troubled territory. But it has chosen a curious way to show displeasure, and an even more curious strategy for seeking redress. The government has enlisted the Police, Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to join itself in playing the watchdog over the media performance and pull in journalists for sanction over “unprofessional conduct.”

    From indications, it is this August watchdog squad that would set the parameters of media’s “professional conduct” and define the code of conduct to which operators are to be held, and for which they will be made liable upon perceived violations. It is a nightmarish scenario for media professionalism and independence, and a minefield of power arbitrariness by the state government.

    Zamfara Information Commissioner Ibrahim Dosara addressed a press briefing in Gusau last Thursday at which he decried “the ill effects of fake news, (and) unguarded utterances by members of both conventional and the social media.” He addressed the briefing jointly with the state Police Commissioner, Director of DSS and NSCDC Commandant at the police command headquarters, saying the state government would no longer tolerate the trend. The catch is: he didn’t mention involving industry players in determining what constitutes fake news and unprofessional conduct, meaning such determination would be the preserve of the new enforcer-squad. Under such circumstance, ‘fake news’ could be any report that spoils  the fun of government, whether true or not.

    Dosara said: “The Zamfara State government, among its resolutions, recently decided to take appropriate action against unprofessional conduct in media practices. The state government realises that the print and electronic media activities, especially social media handlers, undermine the peace process of the state government…The commissioner of police, the DSS, the civil defence and I, as commissioner, have been saddled with the responsibility of ensuring compliance with professionalism in media practices, as well as cyber-crimes and the violation of public peace, fundamental human rights and the rule of law.” He added that government would not allow media reports sabotage its peace process.

    Zamfara government may have genuine imperatives arising from the security situation in that state, but it needs to be reminded that this isn’t a banana republic. There is an industry code to which media operators are answerable and on which basis the industry self-regulates; and if there are genuine violations, there is a watchdog system internal to the industry that may be leveraged, besides the ultimate option of recourse to the courts for adjudication over proven abuses. The Zamfara government – or any other complainant for that matter – cannot self-determine media code of ethics, and neither should it resort to self-help in redressing perceived violations. That would be jungle rule in the extreme.

  • Worry over Warri

    Worry over Warri

    Hardball

    The Nation on Sunday report of March 28, headlined “Warri Kingdom crisis: The Nation reporter gets death threats,” should really worry The Nation family nationwide.

    Why would a reporter, doing legitimate reportage, and not accused of presenting fiction as fact, be in harm’s way?

    That’s understandable: for life is irreplaceable once lost; and anything concerning a threat to life must never be taken lightly.

    Yet, the real worry should be over Warri.  What faceless “youth”, of a forward-looking city or community would threaten the press, the way Shola O’Neill is reportedly being threatened, covering their numbers and swearing Armageddon, simply because these “youths” don’t like the content of the reporter’s story?

    Okay, when royal personages pass, there is always the conflict of modernity versus tradition.  Modernity wants to break news, in the best tradition of an open and democratic society.

    But tradition insists on own protocols: the king doesn’t die; he only transits to higher realms.  Covering his passage, as that of any of the hoi polloi, could be frowned upon as sacrilege.  That is understood — which is why reports must be filed with due sensitivity to the host people’s tradition and custom, especially here, as it concerns core culture and royal practices.

    But hey, that line is not always respected, by often overzealous reporters.  Why, when Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the late Ooni of Ife passed,  a senior journalist and columnist even went to town with an “Abobaku” (Yoruba for die-with-the-King) fib — a long abandoned custom — claiming such a rite of passage accompanied the late Ooni’s passage.  It did not.  So, these modernity-tradition tension and conflicts abound.

    Still, the reporter would file what (s)he thinks is newsworthy; and the reading publics wouldn’t like every bit of it.  Indeed, the immediate culture public could frown at it all.  But everyone would talk about it, and with adequate feedback and mutual respect, folks would get over it and life goes on.

    Kudos to the elders of the Itsekiri royal court that dutifully called Shola, in polite and civil protest, over segments of the story they didn’t like.  That’s the correct approach: with adequate feedback and mutual respect, everyone gets better informed; and crisis is averted the next time round.

    But the faceless youth threatening life?  Perish the thought!  That’s no way to go.  A society that threatens to take life, just because it can’t face conflicts, which are everyday affairs, is buried in the past.

    Warri, the famous oil-rich city, and the Iteskiri, with their pomp and ceremony, should be way past all that.  There should be no such barbaric worry over Warri.

     

  • Political dreamer

    Political dreamer

    Hardball

     

    Perhaps he was simply enthusiastic, or over-enthusiastic. He got carried away and lost his sense of self-restraint. As interim national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni thought he should let the public know that the party intends to remain in power for a long time.

    During the inauguration of the party’s 61-member Strategy and Contact Committee in Abuja, on March 23, Buni declared: “Our vision is to provide a wheel that will drive the party to go beyond 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and even 10th term of office to effectively implement the party manifesto, improve the lives of Nigerians and, to remain Nigeria’s leading political party.”

    APC came to power in 2015, six years ago. By Buni’s calculation, the party should be in power for at least 40 years, which is the equivalent of 10 consecutive four-year terms.

    Buni emerged as the party’s interim national chairman in June 2020 following the dissolution of its national working committee. His interim committee, appointed initially for six months, is supposed to organise the party’s extraordinary national convention.  Its tenure was extended for another six months in December 2020.

    Read Also: Why APC will retain power in 2023 – Badaru

     

    So Buni was produced by a crisis, and he is expected to resolve a crisis.  He has his work cut out for him. He needs to concentrate on his immediate task, which is keeping the party intact, which is difficult enough, without getting involved in dreaming about the distant future.

    It is doubtful that APC enjoys the degree of popularity that brought it to power in 2015 and kept it in power in 2019.

    There was a time the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the ruling party, and boasted that it would be in power for at least 60 years. The party, now the country’s main opposition party, fell after 16 years in power.

    It may well be a political affliction to boast about retaining power for a very long time, and lose sight of the present and what should be done to ensure that the people keep the party in power.

    Power belongs to the people. It is wiser in a democracy for a political party to have the people on its side than to believe in some kind of political destiny.

    Buni should learn from the rise and fall of PDP. He should keep his political dream about APC’s time in power to himself. Only the people can decide that.

  • Reps’ teachable moment

    Reps’ teachable moment

     Hardball

     

    The House of Representatives, last Tuesday, subtly walked back a recent decision by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase to block a petition by some Nigerians resident abroad, which had left many citizens consternated and Diasporans baying for blood. House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila invited Mark Terseer Gbillah, representing Gwer East / Gwer West constituency of Benue State, to table a petition by the Mutual Union of Tiv in America (MUTA) against the Federal Government over insecurity and displacement of their people from ancestral lands in the Benue trough and environs. Gbajabiamila  said the House would welcome petitions directed to it no matter where they were coming from.

    While sitting in for the speaker to preside over House plenary penultimate Thursday, Wase had stopped Gbillah from presenting the petition on account of the location of the petitioners. Though he later ascribed his beef to parliamentary procedure and not prejudice against the petitioner-group, vibes from the encounter revealed otherwise.

    When Gbillah announced the petition as coming from MUTA, the sheer location of the petitioners touched off palpable irritation in the deputy speaker, who bristled at the member: “Did you say Tivs in America? What do they know about Nigeria? What is their business? They can’t sit in their comfort zones and know what is happening in Nigeria.” He fumed about people with dual nationality outside this country meddling in the national conversation, saying it would “be understandable” if the petition came from those within the country. For his part, Gbillah assayed to make a case for the right of Nigerians abroad to partake in the national discourse and associate together on issues of collective interest. He even argued from the point of inclusiveness that Nigeria pursues as a policy regarding citizens in the Diaspora. Wase wasn’t persuaded, however, as he queried whether the proposed petitioner-group was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. “I’m not convinced that we have to take the petition,” he submitted with finality in preemption of further debate.

    Many in-country Nigerians were outraged. And so were Nigerians abroad under the auspices of the Nigeria Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), who threatened blowbacks including a freeze on home remittances that have historically shored up Nigeria’s economy. But the deputy speaker came up to explain that the encounter with Gbillah was all about “legal identity (and flowing from that, the locus) of the petitioners, and not on whether  Nigerians in Diaspora have a right to petition the House or not.” Even if you wanted to see his point, it came fatally flawed because if the issue was only about procedure, parliamentary procedure, not despotic tantrum, should as well have been applied in sidelining the petition.

    It is redemptive that the House eventually took in the petition. But also, it needs to educate its fold more, especially the leadership cadre, on ethos of democracy.