The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • ADC fib 

    ADC fib 

    Bolaji Abdullahi, African Democratic Congress (ADC) interim national publicity secretary, knew what he claimed was a fib — that the Tinubu government had been using the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s funeral rites to launder itself.

    Since ADC is mainly the Atiku PDP — old wine in hired, new skin — Abdullahi should know how his wild claim echoes the sterile PDP freshly out-of-power old ones.  But these hare-brained yarns sunk PDP further into the power wilderness.  Today, the Atiku faction, with glee, acts the cheerful undertaker to bury — alive! — their former ruling party.  Talk of brazen, unmitigated perfidy!

    But Abdullahi’s take is a fib, only to the extent of Buhari’s death.  It’s a pointer — even if cynical and self-serving, coming from ADC — to how APC willfully failed to maximize the Buhari mystique, while still alive.

    Had that path been taken, it’s a moot point if these opportunistic wanderers would have felt it worth their while to move into ADC, to pursue Atiku’s forlorn presidency.  Even if they had, the joke would still have been on them, for their partisan thunder would have have sounded as a baby’s silly moan, to a contemptuous polity.

    But that wouldn’t have been solely because of the late PMB’s famed integrity: built on an incorruptible nature, both private and public.

    It would have been firmly anchored on the sound gestation period of public policy.  Imagine if the APC had branded their achievements solely on when they took power in 2015, against the PDP era (1999-2015), instead of one APC faction barking against the other, and inviting outsiders to help rubbish legacies they should collectively toast and cherish?

    That branding would have thrown up stark contrasts: Obasanjo and Atiku were at each other’s throat.  Buhari and Osinbajo were a model of presidential trust and mutual respect, even with disparate caucuses in the ruling party.  Better revenue but near-nil infrastructure versus a parched purse, sprouting a flower of infrastructure. 

    Read Also: Tinubu urges unity, pays tribute to late Awujale of Ijebuland

    Obasanjo wanted third term to perpetuate himself.  Buhari shunned such with all his Spartan will.  Local rice, as symbol of food security, hardly featured in the PDP-era agenda.  The APC era started with that, as the rallying cry: grow what you eat and eat what you grow!

    This is not saying the APC era has turned Nigeria into an el-dorado.  But it offered a fresh start, from the free-wheeling chaos of the PDP epoch.  The resultant hardship came, not from pains from death pangs, but from difficult surgeries which, if well managed, would save the patient’s life.

    Imagine if all of these had been carefully curated and grafted into the government’s strategic public communication, would it not have been easier to establish a credible case of brewing hope, even as PMB had handed over to President Bola Tinubu? 

    Or which truth was told after PMB died that was a lie while he was alive?  It was a lost opportunity not to maximize that strength! That’s the cynical truth from Abdullahi’s self-serving fiction.

    The APC, as the ruling party, should learn to play to its strengths.  The grandstanding Abdullahi knew ADC would do everything to have a dead Buhari in its camp than a living Atiku.  It’s all about the public service records of both.

    That’s what the funeral red herring was all about.  Still, APC should not shy away from milking its own, when the subject is selfless service and patriotism, ala PMB.  Let ADC flaunt Atiku — or better still, Obasanjo, Atiku’s everlasting nemesis!

  • Veteran of gerontocracy

    Veteran of gerontocracy

    Cameroonian President Paul Biya has just reinforced his country’s gerontocratic order with a declaration to seek an eighth term in office at the next presidential election. The 92-year-old could remain in power till close to 100 years of age if he has his way at the poll scheduled for 12th October, and if he lives out a new term.

    Biya, Africa’s second-longest-serving president after Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, is reputed as the world’s oldest head of state presently. Not that his health is so robust, as he frequently falls ill and travels abroad for medical attention. Last year, there were speculations he had died when he disappeared from public view for 42 days. The government denied the rumour and claimed he was fine, but it banned further discussion of his health, saying it was a matter of national security.

    The nonagenarian came to power in1982 following the resignation of his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo. He is the second president since Cameroon’s independence from France in 1960. In the more than 40-year-rule, his government faced allegations of corruption and a secessionist movement in the country’s English-speaking region that has forced thousands out of school and triggered deadly clashes with security forces. Biya scrapped term limits in 2008, clearing the way to run indefinitely, and he won his current term in 2018 through an election in which opposition parties – perhaps typically so – alleged widespread fraud.

    Read Also: 36 commissioners oppose Senate-proposed Electricity Act Amendment Bill

    It was in 2018 Biya first used the social media to announce his candidacy for that year’s presidential contest, marking a rare direct engagement with Cameroonians on digital platform. He had recently been posting frequently on his verified X handle in a build-up to the latest announcement. In a post last Sunday in both French and English, he told his citizens: “I am a candidate in the presidential election,” adding: “Rest assured that my determination to serve you matches the urgency of the challenges we face.” His re-election bid had been widely anticipated since he fixed October 2025 for the new poll, but not formally confirmed until Sunday’s post.

    Members of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and other supporters have since last year publicly called for Biya to seek another term. But opposition parties and civil society groups argue that his long rule has stifled economic and democratic development. Two former allies have quit the governing coalition and declared their own plans to run for the presidency. “President Biya’s announcement to run again is a clear sign of Cameroon’s stalled political transition. After over 40 years in power, what the country needs is renewal – not repetition. Cameroonians deserve democratic change and accountable leadership,” a human rights advocate and lawyer was reported telling The Associated Press.

    In a country of 28.4 million people, you would wonder if there is so much lack of new vigour and capacity as to warrant a would-be centenarian ruling the turf.

  • Troubling refinery review

    Troubling refinery review

    Money spent by the Federal Government to rehabilitate Nigeria’s refineries, which had been inoperative for years, may well have gone down the drain. The new Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Ojulari, who was appointed in April, said the refineries may be sold.

    “We’re reviewing all our refinery strategies now,” Ojulari was reported saying at the 9th OPEC International Seminar in Vienna, Austria. He added: “sale is not out of the question.”

    Interestingly, in November 2024, NNPCL declared that it had revived the 60,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Harcourt refinery in the Niger Delta. In December 2024, the company said it had resumed some operations at its 125,000 bpd Warri refinery, also located in the Niger Delta, which was shut down in 2015. There was understandable excitement, especially in Nigerian government circles.

    Read Also: Buhari’s death a major loss to Nigeria, Africa, says Shettima 

    However, the revived refineries failed to deliver the expected result and continue to have issues.  The country’s oil problems had been partly blamed on the four inactive state-owned refineries with a combined capacity of 445,000 bpd, including the 110,000 bpd Kaduna plant in the north and another one in Port Harcourt with a capacity of 150,000 bpd.

    Following President Bola Tinubu’s removal of fuel subsidy when he assumed office in May 2023, which led to sharp increases in fuel prices, making the problematic refineries operational was expected to lower fuel costs.   The high fuel cost resulting from the removal of fuel subsidy is among the identified major factors responsible for the cost-of-living crisis in the country.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was reported to be investigating the disbursement of $1,559,239,084.36 to the Port Harcourt refinery, $740,669,600 to the Kaduna refinery, and $656,963,938 to the Warri refinery. The commission said it was “a case of abuse of office and misappropriation of funds.”

    The Federal Government has been accused of staging the revival of the refineries to deceive the public. Indeed, some observers argue that it was a waste of money trying to rehabilitate the refineries in the first place.

    Were the refineries repairable, to start with? If they are, why did the money spent on rehabilitation not achieve the intended result?  The ongoing corruption-related investigation should be comprehensive and thorough, leaving no room for untouchable suspects.

    A further question is whether they can attract buyers if a decision is taken to sell them.  The picture of futile rehabilitation efforts and unsellable refineries is a grim one indeed. 

  • Black Sunday 

    Black Sunday 

    Sunday, 13 July 2025, would pass as one of the blackest days in Nigerian history.  Two patriots, one a soldier-statesman, the other, a natural ruler, but both straight as a pin and respected for forthrightness and integrity, passed.

    The question is: what do you want to be defined by, when you die?  These two already wrote their obituaries.

    Like some rude thunder, the news flashed that Muhammadu Buhari, former two-term elected president (2015-2023) and former military Head of State (1 January 1984 – 27 August 1985) had died in a London hospital, finally bowing to an illness.

    Then hours later, another sad thunderbolt: the Awujale of Ijebuland and paramount ruler of all the Ijebu, in Ogun State, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, Ogbagba II, had passed too, but this time at home.  He reigned for 65 years: April 1960 – July 2025.

    Read Also: We cannot defeat Tinubu in 2027 divided, says Edo PDP

    It instructive how their lives — and deaths — of both crossed.

    In 1984, the Awujale was virtually left for dead. It was his own era of graceless politicking on the throne — at least the ruling Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), in Ogun State, thought so.  He was accused of frolicking with the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) — the ruling federal party of the 2nd Republic — and was all but deposed by one of his subjects, the late Olabisi Onabanjo but the Ogun elected governor.  But the Buhari coup torpedoed the deposition.

    Both would warm up to each other, as their lives progressed.  The near-deposition shocker changed the Awujale in a positive way.  He became progressively more popular with his subjects, and got more principled in public affairs.  The apogee came with the June 12 crisis, when the Awujale virtually told the annullers to go jump and drown in the lake.

    Buhari, of course, for life had been the living symbol of the narrow way, that leads nowhere but probity and salvation.  No surprise then that both became life-long friends, with mutual respect for each other.

    So, when both died, on the same day, though two continents apart, they were yoked in death as they had been yoked in life.

    But there was also something else.  The Awujale wasn’t defined by the splendour of royalty, which nevertheless he had in excess, as a first-class monarch of 65 years.  Rather, his legacy were candour and courage.

    Neither was Buhari defined by the vice and sleaze of his military age.  Even after leading Nigeria thrice — and those three times the worst of times in plundered resources he had to fix — what he evinced, in life and death, are integrity and Spartan will.

    Again, how would you like to be defined when you die?  Buhari and the late Awujale pointed a twin-way to redemption. 

    Just wonder how the grim ripper would take away this twin-gold, leaving the too many tinsels to continue fouling the environment.  Legacy!

  • Rule of force

    Rule of force

    When you owe electricity bills and get disconnected, the proper thing to do is defray the debt or negotiate with the electricity distribution company (DisCo) concerned for consideration. But Mobile Police Force operatives in Makurdi, Benue State, apparently had no appetite for such niceties and allegedly leveraged brute force in showing displeasure over the disconnection of power supply to their barracks owing to unpaid bills. Now, they will stew in the blackout. Jos Electricity Distribution Plc (JED) has vowed to keep the barracks disconnected until the outstanding debt is settled, especially as the policemen brutalised its personnel to vent their displeasure.

    The barracks was reported to be owing more than N112.4million in electricity bills and was thus disconnected by the DisCo. But mobile police officers, penultimate Sunday afternoon, allegedly stormed the JED business unit office in Makurdi and beat up the security guard on duty. A statement by the DisCo said the staff was beaten to stupor and had his head broken. JED spokesperson Friday Elijah condemned the assault, which he explained was linked to the disconnection of power supply to the mobile police barracks over the huge unpaid bills.

    “The policemen stormed the office in a commando style and descended on the security guard on duty – Mr. Hassan Ademu. He was beaten to stupor and had his head broken. The management of JED Plc plans to write a protest letter to the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command, over the attack on its staff,” the statement said. According to Elijah, the electricity distribution company’s management vowed to take further action to protect its employees. “The management has warned that the Mobile barracks will remain disconnected until the outstanding debt is settled,” he stated.

    Read Also: He was one of the most patriotic Nigerians, say Speaker, deputy

    Reports said when contacted, Benue police command spokesperson Udeme Edet, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) said she had yet to get information on the incident. “I am yet to receive the report,” Edet responded to media inquiry.

    Benue police command authorities and higher up – indeed, up to the level of Police Inspector-General Kayode Egbetokun – need to investigate the alleged assault on Jos DisCo office in Makurdi and bring culpable personnel to book. It was rank indiscipline in the extreme for policemen concerned to have taken the law into their own hands in seeking redress for the disconnection of electricity supply to the barracks. Considering it wasn’t even their direct call to address the indebtedness but that of police management, they obviously applied what they considered to be their advantage – the sleigh of hand. Now, they must have realised it has its limitations in delivering desired results. If Jos DisCo carries through with its threat, they will remain in darkness for some long while.

  • Unending insecurity

    Unending insecurity

    National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu painted a stark picture of Nigeria’s insecurity before President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023. He stated that the situation “was threatening the very cohesion, stability, and integrity” of the country. According to Ribadu, the Tinubu administration “inherited five intractable security challenges that had brought our nation to the brink.”

     While speaking at the 50th anniversary dinner of the Nigerian Defence Academy’s 18th Regular Course in Abuja, on July 4, he listed the five major security threats as the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West and North-Central, separatist agitations in the South-East, economic sabotage in the Niger Delta, and communal conflicts in states like Benue and Plateau.

    Notably, he reported that the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East had caused over 35,000 deaths, displaced millions, and destroyed entire communities. Regarding banditry, he stated it had claimed more than 12,000 lives and displaced one million people. As of October 2021, banditry had also forced another one million children out of school. He further noted that in 2022 alone, 1,192 Nigerians were killed and 3,348 others kidnapped.

    In the South-East, he stated that attacks by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network, had led to large-scale destruction. These attacks resulted in 164 police stations being destroyed, 128 policemen killed, and 144 injured. Additionally, there were three prison breaks, with one incident freeing 1,841 inmates.

    Read Also: Insecurity: Why Nigeria is resilient, by NSA

    However, Ribadu explained that the security narrative had substantially changed under the Tinubu administration. In the North-West, for instance, 11,250 hostages were rescued in Zamfara and Kaduna states. In the North-East, 13,543 terrorists and criminals were eliminated, and many bandit leaders were neutralised. He also stated that IPOB had been considerably weakened in the South-East, where over 50 police stations had been rebuilt and attacks on security personnel had reduced.

    Despite Ribadu’s presentation on the progress in the fight against insecurity, continuing insecurity means that the fight has not been won.  Indeed, the country’s security crisis remains a big issue.   

    It is unclear how long insecurity will remain a major issue in the country, or how soon the authorities will be able to make it a thing of the past. The achievements mentioned by Ribadu are outstripped by the existing challenges that perpetuate insecurity.  The war against insecurity should not be a war without end.

  • Natasha: Beyond bluff and bluster

    Natasha: Beyond bluff and bluster

    Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, former Lagos governor just quipped: anger is no strategy.  But neither is bluff and bluster, a romantic cousin of anger.

    Trouble is Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, PDP senator for Kogi Central, seems not driven by this wise aphorism.  If she were, the futility of going to court, over a case good sense and less bluster could have resolved, with far less cost, would have scowled at her.  Instead, that futility smiled at her — a witchy smile that has set her on a journey to nowhere.

    What did Chinua Achebe say, with his rich repertoire of Igbo proverbs?  A man that flees, for eons, from a certain death but eventually dies the same death, has lost his care!

    At the Senate debate to suspend Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, Godswill Akpabio, the Senate president, beat down a voice vote that said no to extracting a Natasha apology to cut short her suspension.  Though the “nays” rejected that compromise with voice vote, a crafty Akpabio, using his clout among his peers, interpreted it otherwise.  But the anti-Natasha radicals let the sleeping dog lie — clearly deferring to their leader.

    That was a window of opportunity.  But the senator wouldn’t take it: preferring to go on an overseas tour, weeping profusely, and selling the untruth that she was suspended because of macho politics in the Senate, not because she flouted Senate rules.

    But online propaganda to harvest feminist emotions and three court cases after, the verdict of one of those cases found Natasha in breach of Senate standing rules.  The same court found her guilty of contempt, for her cynical and satirical apology on Facebook. 

    But the same court appealled to the Senate to recall her, so she could represent her constituents.  Nevertheless, it still asked her to apologize (within seven days) — though now to the court, aside paying N5 million as fine!

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    Apology again, you’d say!  But instead, she and supporters latched onto sheer emotions to declare victory!  To save face?  Whose face?  And for what result?

    Pronto, she swore to resume at the Senate — the court-ordered apology in two national newspapers and her FB page be damned! — only to gobble her vomit, claiming she acted on legal advice!  Was that advice in Mars when she first made the bluster to resume, which she knew was pure gas?

    A simple apology, ab initio, would have saved the senator all of these hassles. Well, if prone to apologies, why not just play by the rule: and throw whatever verbal bazookas at Akpabio, from her approved seat?

    Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan should learn to wisely pick her battles, if only in the interest of her constituents.  There’s a limit to empty bluff and bluster.  As it stands, her suit is a net-loss — until she appeals the matter. 

    Kogi Central has a right to representation, not one-day-one-drama in sterile combat, in or outside the courts.

  • Awaiting trial inmates

    Awaiting trial inmates

    It’s an old issue that has refused to go away. “Overcrowding, no doubt, stands out as the most pressing challenge of the NCoS,” the Acting Controller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Sylvester Nwakuche, noted during an interactive session with field officers on January 13.  He said 48,932 inmates in the country’s correctional facilities were Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs), many of them “on non-bailable offences.”

    He unveiled his plans to tackle the problem, saying, “I intend to interface with the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, the inspector-general of police, and other prosecuting-agencies and critical stakeholders to fast track the trial of these inmates. This is necessary, especially those on non-bailable offences like armed robbery, murder, and others that constitute over 60 percent of awaiting trial persons (ATPs).”

    He added: “While engaging state chief executives to expedite the trial of the over 90 percent state offenders in custody, the use of non-custodial measures and early release mechanisms will be taken up with the judiciary. We will also fast-track the construction of proposed 3,000-capacity ultramodern custodial facilities and other centres across the country.”

    Read Also: FCT police, DSS, military activate joint patrols to curb kidnapping, one chance

    Notably, Segun Olowookere, who controversially spent 14 years on death row before he was recently pardoned by Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke, drew attention to prison conditions in the country in an interview published after his release.

    He was sentenced to death and life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and robbery with firearms, and to three years imprisonment for stealing. But the popular narrative that he was given a death sentence for stealing fowls ultimately led to pardon by the governor. 

    He was in Ilesa prison, Osun State, “throughout the trial of the case.” After the judgment, he was moved to Ibara Prison, Abeokuta, Ogun State. He was later moved to Kirikiri Maximum Prison in Lagos, in 2016.

     According to him, “The major challenge was congestion. There were too many people inside a limited space. Because of the population, 50 inmates would occupy a room that should naturally contain a maximum of 10 people. We sleep like fishes packed in a carton because everywhere is measured for us. As an inmate, a space is measured for you to sleep because of congestion.”

    •First published January 29, 2025

  • Frivolous party applications

    Frivolous party applications

    No fewer than 110 applications for party registration were received by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as of 23rd June, the electoral body recently made known. Twelve more were reported to have been received by 2nd July, in the build-up towards the 2027 general election.

    INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu gave assurance that the commission was determined to conduct due diligence on all the applications in assessing their merit, and it would be impartial. “We will treat all requests fairly irrespective of the status of their promoters – be they ordinary or prominent citizens. Nigerians will be fully briefed of the actions taken by the commission every step of the way,” he said.

    Speaking at a consultative meeting with media executives in Abuja, the electoral chief recalled the trend that had characterised Nigerian elections. “For the 2019 general election, there were 91 political parties and 73 presidential candidates. The commission was criticised in some quarters for registering too many political parties. After the election, the commission deregistered over 70 political parties as provided by law,” Yakubu said, adding that as at Monday, 23rd June, the commission had received letters of intent from 110 associations wishing to freshly register as political parties. The commission currently has 18 registered parties on its roll.

    Read Also: PDP chieftain Waziri joins ADC, decries party’s loss of credibility

    Agency analysis of the official list of new applications published by INEC showed that two groups submitted multiple requests to the electoral body seeking registration of five associations as political parties. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), one particular group is seeking registration for three political parties, using same individuals for protem chairman and protem secretary, same address and logo but with slightly varied acronyms in the logos. The names of proposed parties are New Green Generation Coalition Party (NGGCP), New Green Congress (NGC) and New Green Coalition Party (NGCP), with the names of Malam Idris Abdulkarim submitted as protem chairman and Crystal Ogu as protem secretary in all three applications. Two other associations seeking registration, namely Zuma Reform (ZR) and Zonal Rescue Movement (ZRM), have Atanda Bamidele as the protem chairman and Udeze Azubuike as protem secretary for both proposed parties.

    It was further observed that many associations did not provide at least one of the required details in their applications like proposed acronyms, logos, names of their protem chairmen, secretaries and addresses. Others have duplicated identities, like the All Democratic Alliance and Advanced Democratic Alliance that filed ADA as their respective acronym.

    The obvious frivolity attending some of the applications betrays a cavalier disposition in the promoters that will become a clog in the electoral process if the associations get registered as political parties. INEC should thus subject the applications to the strictest provisions of the law as well as its regulations and guidelines, lest the country be saddled with a horde of electoral spoilers.

  • IDPs: A critical crisis

    IDPs: A critical crisis

    It is alarming that the number of Nigeria’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) keeps increasing. Indeed, with a figure of about 8.18 million IDPs, the country has the largest number in West Africa, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) June 2025 situation report. The agency says the number excludes nomads in transit and unregistered city migrants.

    Nigeria’s close neighbours, for instance, have significantly lower numbers of IDPs. Burkina Faso has 3.58 million, Niger 2.06 million, Mali 931,000, and Cameroon 1.42 million. Although Nigeria is far more populous, it is not just a question of population.

    The country’s displaced population is reported to have increased phenomenally since 2014 following Boko Haram attacks that devastated villages in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. Tragically, the terrorist insurgency has continued, compounded by new terror factions operating in those states, banditry in Zamfara and Katsina states, farmer–herder clashes in Benue and Plateau states, and oil-theft-related violence in parts of the Niger Delta, among others.

    The complicated security crisis has resulted in displaced persons finding their way to informal host communities rather than purpose-built camps. This negatively affects aid delivery and leaves many outside formal structures.  

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    The drivers of the displacements are similar in the sub-region, including jihadist offensives in Burkina Faso’s northern provinces, Islamic State expansion along Niger’s Tillabéri corridor, and livestock conflicts in Mali’s Mopti region. However, Nigeria’s number of IDPs has risen faster than any of its neighbours. The report attributes this partly to the country’s population. But there is more to the problem.

     It is noteworthy that National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu described the security situation inherited by the President Bola Tinubu administration in 2023 as a “sobering reality,” while speaking at the 50th anniversary dinner of the Nigerian Defence Academy’s 18th Regular Course in Abuja, on July 4. He said: It was threatening the very cohesion, stability, and integrity of our Nigerian state. We inherited five intractable security challenges that had brought our nation to the brink.”

     He listed the five major security threats as the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West and North-Central, separatist agitations in the South-East, economic sabotage in the Niger Delta, and communal conflicts in states like Benue and Plateau.

    However, Ribadu’s description of the inherited insecurity’s scale cannot be used as an excuse in the fight against insecurity. There is no question that continuing insecurity fuels the IDP problem and is responsible for the increasing number of IDPs in the country.