Category: Hardball

Hardball

 

ASUU, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, has with glee announced what it is paid to do: go on strike — and that strike is in aid of thousands of its students, whose future it risks with an umpteenth rupture of the academic calendar!  The Nigerian academic space is over-run by a band of charlatans!

The latest gambit is a two-week warning strike, protesting the non-payment of salaries of dons that have refused to enrol in the Federal Government’s integrated personnel and payroll informations system (IPPIS).  Did anyone ever hear of an employee decreeing what format his employer must pay him?  That is the manifest absurdity of the latest ASUU strike.

Perhaps to cover its patent emptiness by this strike — absolutely needless if you ask Hardball — is a shameless gallery play, with ASUU dusting up alleged past agreements yet to be consummated by the Federal Government!  ASUU has the interest of its students at heart, see?  Humbug never was so absurd!

To convince — more likely, to confuse — the gullible, the lecturers’ union stacks its cards: flashing the 2009 ASUU-Federal Government agreement, the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the 2017 MOU — lest all the memorandum of understanding become memorandum of misunderstanding, how noble!  It would have been so comic were it not so tragic.

So, even as the golden employees that have seized the democratic right to dictate to their employers, such diktats are not only the refusal to join IPPIS, no, no!  It is also in the students’ interest, to radically improve the Nigerian academia.

As it stands however, only ASUU is impressed by its own crap, since in its craftiness, it has assumed the all-knowing conceit of the silly tortoise in the Yoruba tale, who claimed it had warehoused all gumption in a gourd.  Yet, it could not summon the most basic of gumption, of pushing the gourd, hanging from its neck, to its back, for him to climb a palm tree!

With all its scholarship and academic brilliance, ASUU continues to manifest the SLA Akintola quip, with which he nettled his great partisan opponents: they manifest book brilliance without basic gumption!  Otherwise, why would ASUU not realize each time it goes on its predictable strikes, it only projects itself as a joke?  Or is it because it deludes itself it has the muscle to impose that joke, even to the detriment of its own brand equity?

By ASUU’s self-destruct steps, it’s only a matter of time before it declares it is paid to strike, not to teach; and expect captive Nigerians, at its imperial and imperious mercy, to clap and hail it for its rare wisdom!  But if it still has thinking leaders among its ranks, it would know that is tantamount to the subversive praise, that propelled Ajanaku — the elephant — to its doom, in that famous Yoruba folktale.

Perhaps this present band of ASUU leaders are beyond redemption.  But perhaps it is time for their right-thinking members to speak up and rouse the quiet and pliant majority, to save the rest from the vice grip of a noxious minority, hiding behind union and Labour privileges.

The way this reckless band is going, maybe when the chips are down, not the government but their own pissed students would storm the Bastille and call their conceited lecturers’ bluff.

Hardball however prays it doesn’t come to that.  Still, there is a limit to mindless academic rascality.   That is what ASUU projects right now.

Hardball

Is the continued absence of Governor Darius Ishaku from Taraba State good for governance? Ishaku has been away from the state for more than two months, “up to 77 days today,” according to a March 8 report.  Ishaku, 65, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was reelected for a second term last year.

The report said: “The governor’s media aide, Bala Dan Abu, said his absence from the state is because of a “domestic accident” the governor had, which has compelled him to seek medical attention in Abuja FCT. Abu, however, did not disclose details of the governor’s domestic accident.

“Ishaku’s last official outing in Taraba State was on December 19, 2019, when he presented the 2020 appropriation bill to the State House of Assembly. He reportedly left Jalingo – the state capital on December 22, 2019 and has since not returned.”

It is unsurprising that the opposition criticised the governor’s absence.   The All Progressives Congress (APC) lamented that the governor’s absence had paralysed governance in the state.

It is puzzling that the governor’s media aide said in a defensive statement: “They (APC) know and even acknowledge that the machinery of governance in Taraba State has not suffered any setback with Ishaku in Abuja but will not admit the truth in public.

“His meeting with World Bank officials, the inaugural meeting of the sensitisation committee on the all-important Mambilla Hydropower project which he hosted and the consultative meeting of governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) among many other activities were carried out by the governor while in Abuja. The overall outcome of these events will tell positively on the social and economic wellbeing of Taraba State. At home in Taraba State, all programmes and projects of the administration are going on smoothly. Nothing has suffered any form of setback just because Ishaku is out of town.”

In other words, the governor is governing the state from Abuja. Does it mean the governor can govern from anywhere outside the state for as long as he wants?   Why doesn’t Ishaku transfer power to his deputy, Haruna Manu, so that he can concentrate on receiving medical treatment?

“A photograph of Ishaku undergoing medical checkup has gone viral on the social space, with the posters seeking prayers for the governor,” the report said.  “In the photo, Ishaku and his medical handlers are seen wearing masks.”

If the purpose of the photo is to show that the governor is receiving medical attention outside the state, it fails to justify the fact that the governor is governing from outside the state. Ishaku shouldn’t be an absentee governor.

Hardball

No mas, no mas — Spanish for “no more, no more” — came into universal boxing lingo in November 1980.

Panamanian Roberto Duran had, earlier in June 1980 in Montreal Canada, drubbed American Sugar Ray Leonard to his first ever defeat, in a slam bang that a popular American international magazine described as the ring artist losing his title to a banger in Montreal.

But the November 1980 rematch was another prospect altogether.  After Sugar Ray had toyed with the Panamanian “fist of stone” for eight painful rounds, Duran suddenly turned away from his sweet tormentor, a few seconds to the end of round eight — no mas, no mas.  It was Boxing’s most famous surrender!

Well, this is no boxing history recap.  It is just locating, in the Duran sentiment, how Nigerians are quitting transactions at Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, a policy that wasn’t only meant to boost the government’s cashless policy but also, if you add the N50 stamp duty charge on PoS transactions, supposed to generate tax from that policy.

The snag though is that the merchants have illegally passed the N50 charge to their customers — in retail supermarkets, fuel stations, etc — a practice the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has declared illegal but which nevertheless has continued, because the apex bank has done little to enforce it.

Well, the market response has been stunning!  According to a front page report in The Nation of March 9, Nigerians are shunning PoS transactions in a big way — no mas, no mas!

Stats from the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) report reveal the use of PoS, to pay for transactions, dropped by 4.83 billion between December 2019 and January 2020 — from 46.13 billion transactions in December 2019, to 41.3 billion in January 2020.

The actual value of the reduced deals is N60 billion — from the N373 billion posted as stamp duty for December 2019, to N313 billion in January 2020.  That is N60 billion less in the public till, in consumer tax!

You could say what the heck and why all the fuss over just N50?  Yet, you could see and feel how ultra-sensitive the market has reacted to what it correctly read as wrong consumer taxation, with a chunk of the market voting with its feet — no mas, no mas!

The CBN and allied monetary authorities had better enforce the payment of stamp duty by the rightful payers under the law.  Otherwise, if this negative trend continues, the government’s cashless policy could suffer a terrible setback.

That could have terrible crime implications, as brazen cash robbery, which the modest success of the cashless policy appears to have somewhat curtailed, could come roaring back.

That won’t be pretty — either for the private pocket or for the economy.

Hardball

For the embattled embattled Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, it would appear a season of probe without end.

After a February 21 voiding of a recommendation to suspend the Emir, following  a probe by the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), the Kano parliament on March 4 raised another probe, as a news report in The Nation of March 5 put it, over Emir Sanusi’s “alleged violations violation of cultural, traditional religious norms and values of the people.”

On the old PCACC charge, the Emir got off the hook.  The Federal High Court in Kano ruled that the Emir was not given an opportunity to defend himself.  But it appears the new parliamentary probe would likely not suffer such technical impairment.

The Emir’s new accusers, the Kano State for Promotion of Education and Culture, a state parastatal and Mohammed Mukthar Ja’en Yamma, a goodly citizen — of culture and tradition? — from Gwale Local Government area, came prepared with videos to underscore their royal allegations.  Except the Royal father stayed off the House probe invitation, the charge of natural fairness might not be available to save the Emir, should the probe return a verdict of culpability.  It has only one week for its assignment.

Aside from the rather strange allegations that an Emir, the custodian of culture and tradition falling short on traditional matters, the Kano PCACC is also bristling with a fresh charge.  It is hauling in a charge of alleged misappropriation of N3.4 billion, by the Kano Emirate Council under Sanusi’s watch.

A Kano palace source told The Nation, on the Emir’s likely disposition to the twin-probes: “That I may not confirm to you, but you know that Emir Sanusi is a law-abiding leader.  He has not discussed the development with anyone of us; but I believe he may honour the invitation in person or send a senior palace chief who is capable of standing for him.”

Now, given the apparent no-love-lost between the Emir and Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, are these fresh charges the real deal or only the voice of Jacob complementing the hands of Esau?

Hardball is all for probity, integrity and accountability but it’s rather difficult not to regard the latest probes with a pinch of salt.  First: what would appear a rather flexible charge of “cultural offences” (Hardball’s own coinage) that on the surface appear neither here nor there; or the PCACC encore, which eerily looks like reopening a case a court had flung out.

But whatever it is, Governor Ganduje will do well to stop distracting himself, with this ding-dong with Emir Sanusi.  This is because Ganduje, like Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso before him, is doing much to upgrade Kano’s physical and social infrastructure.  He should focus on that line.

On Emir Sanusi’s side, the spectre of deposition by political authorities, appears real — the same fate that befell his grandfather, in the hands of the Northern Region government of his time.

Should history repeat itself?  That would be a pity and tragic too.  This is because

Emir Sanusi, outspokenness and all, is perhaps the most piercing traditional voice the North needs now, to always remind it; and help galvanize the region from its dire developmental deficits.

Let the governor work with the Emir.  But let the Emir too be more sensitive in his outbursts.  Both Ganduje and Sanusi can form a winning developmental pair for Kano.  That would be a big deal for the North.

 

Hardball

 

IT would have been hard to believe the information if it hadn’t come from the horse’s mouth. On March 2, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, Prof. Jesse Abiodun Otegbayo, spoke at an event to mark his first anniversary in office.

Otegbayo said: “I would say that the three major challenges we are facing at UCH currently are power, power and light.

“It may interest you to note that we have almost 75 generators in different locations within the premises.”

It is bad enough that the hospital depends on generators to function. It is worse that the hospital needs such a number of generators to function.

“On average, we generate N200m monthly,” the CMD was quoted as saying. “That should not be looked at in isolation. You will ask how much we spend also on diesel, buying and repairing generators and meeting other needs. I want to say this amount is still not enough. Fortunately, we have people of goodwill who make donations to supplement what we are generating.”

If the hospital generates such a sum monthly, Hardball wonders how much it spends on its “almost 75 generators”. Thanks to public-spirited donors who augment the hospital’s revenue, but it isn’t supposed to depend on such donations to function.

The hospital’s situation is alarming. Otegbayo didn’t need to explain that power and water are necessities in a hospital environment.  But his explanation may well have been necessary to shame the authorities expected to provide power and water. Indeed, the authorities should be ashamed of their failure to provide power and water.

Otegbayo lamented:  “The topmost challenge, for us, is power. This is a hospital environment; you cannot over-emphasise the need for regular power supply. Imagine if a patient is being operated and the power goes off. A lot of things can go wrong. If you ask me, power is number one. Then, number two is power and number three is light. Number four will now be water.”

Dr Toyin Okeowo, who spoke on behalf of the board of trustees of the hospital, recalled that there was a time UCH was rated as the fourth best hospital in the Commonwealth. That was a long time ago.

Today, UCH is a shadow of its former self.  No power, no water, can’t make UCH rank among the best, among other things.  Those responsible for this decline should hang their heads in shame.

Hardball

 

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, the famed Ebora Owu, appears in some Ebora purgatory.

First, he just declared himself a convert of “restructuring” — restructuring that he, throughout his two-term elected presidency, regarded as the ultimate political heresy, to be crushed by the ruthless weight of the state!

Then, he’s fresh factory-minted crusader for “Constituent Assembly”, Sege-speak for the good old Sovereign National Conference, the Obasanjo Presidency’s high crime against the state!

If that aspiration could not be crushed by the might of Obasanjo’s all-conquering state, then it must be scuppered by a useless National Constitutional Conference (which gulped billions from the common purse); and even a more devious parliamentary constitutional review, which ultimate — if not sole — aim was to gift Baba Iyabo an unlawful third term!  Thank God, that gambit collapsed!

But it is the depth of the Obasanjo purgatory, and the debt of apologies he owes Nigerians, while still alive, for wrong and wilful policies, that he now confesses his lack of faith in constitutional reviews by the National Assembly!  What really has changed in the Ebora, beyond the opportunistic getting wise after the fact?

Then, the ultimate collapse: beatifying the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) founder, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun in death, after the all-powerful President Obasanjo had thoroughly demonized him in life!

Remember how Obasanjo, as the tragic Nebuchadnezzer impressed by his power and glory, flexed his rippling presidential muscles, and pronounced a shoot-at-sight diktat on any OPC scum (not excluding the now canonized Fasehun, and his then deputy, Gani Adams) that the Police set their eyes on?

Perhaps what saved Fasehun and Adams then was they were both herded in detention?  Even then, didn’t the Afenifere, another fallen regional lobby then at the zenith of its powers, scream and screech the duo’s lives might be at stake, because Obasanjo was trying to please his northern patrons, who installed him as president, against the ethnic will of his Yoruba people?

Ethnic will!  That sure echoes Obasanjo’s Not my Will, the callow memoirs of a shallow youth, flush from accidental military power, who nevertheless beatified himself as some eternal wit!

In that book — you must remember — he mocked Awolowo as lusting for power that he, Obasanjo, got easily by the barrel of the gun!  He also ridiculed the great Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first and last ceremonial president and famed nationalist, as plumbing from the Zik of Africa to Owelle of Onitsha!

Well, what new height is Obasanjo, hitherto the hot and breathless lover of Nigeria and self-named founder of modern Nigeria, scaling — serenading Amotekun, which Obasanjo would have crushed, with white nationalistic rage, in his presidential years?

Where is the epiphany of rejecting being a second class citizen, in a Nigeria he loves more than his own life, coming from?  When did that epiphany flash?

Before the so-called first-class citizens — to dread being second class, there must be first class now! — corralled him, against his “will and personal desire”, to military power after Murtala Muhammed’s assassination in 1976?

Or after the same lobby in 1999, dragged him from gaol to president, in lieu of MKO Abiola’s martyrdom after his foiled presidency, against the Yoruba will, for which the Ebora never showed a second of respect or regret?

Obasanjo talks the restructuring talk — hardly a crime!  But he does so with his customary galloping hypocrisy and graceless cant.  He probably flushes with his cleverness, knowing the country boasts little institutional memory.

But in his heart of heart, he knows he is in purgatory, publicly swallowing the full emptiness he pushed, during his high noon of power.

What ultimate karma and ironic justice — to live long enough to publicly swallow your public and arrogant vomit!

It’s the making of Ebora purgatory!

Hardball

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu misses the point by thinking that the solution to the problem of insecurity is throwing money at it. He listed the requirements of the police at a public hearing organised last week by the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs on ‘Repositioning the Nigeria Police for an Enhanced Service Delivery.’

The IGP, who was represented at the event by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operations), Abdulmajid Ali, said the Force needed more personnel, not less than 1,000 Armoured Personnel Carriers, and 250,000 assault rifles with corresponding ammunition, to effectively police the country.

He also said the police needed 2,000,000 tear gas canisters and smoke grenades, 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, and 774 operational drones, among others.

Of course, these requirements will cost money, almost N1tn, according to the police boss. Specifically, the police authorities are asking for N944, 856,416,800 to combat rising insecurity across the country.

It’s easy to ask for money. What is the guarantee that police performance will improve with the funds?

Hardball and the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law are on the same page concerning the police proposal. The group said in a statement:  “The IGP should provide concrete answers to the following: how many rifles, APCs and related weapons and ammunitions, as well as personnel are there in the Nigeria Police Force? Where are they? Are the rifles and related weapons safely or porously managed? Are they being used for purposes they are legally meant for or illegally used for motley of ‘service crimes and atrocities’ such as being used in aiding ‘religious and economic terrorist activities’ and high profile street and roadway criminalities, i.e., kidnappings?

“Are the weapons and personnel truly used for securing generality of the citizens or for sundry roadway crimes such as extortion? Is it correct to say that many of these weapons and personnel are channelled into protection of the so-called VIPs and corporate establishments such as banks and multinational companies, all done in return for payment of billions of naira monthly, which never reflect in any police budget except in private pockets or coffers?”

The point is that the police need to show how well they have used what they have. It’s too easy to suggest that they could do better  with  what they don’t have. More importantly, the police need to reimagine their role and reinvent the police force.

Hardball

 

IN Vegas USA, champion American Deontay Wilder, emerged like some combined Egungun and Gelede masquerade — a scary costume to be sure, oozing with ominous black and grey, and a hideous mask to match!   To put the fear of God in challenger and self-named Gipsy King, British Tyson Fury?

Maybe.  But the challenger seemed to have come armed with “mariwo”, the palm fronds and ultimate whip, in Yoruba tradition cosmos, to tan such guttural irritants!

Alas, after the battle was lost and won, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) belt had been won and lost, the dethroned champ claimed he was weighed down by the sheer heft of his freely chosen costume!  Sweet story for the marines?

On February 22, at Vegas therefore, it was quite a sight, as Hurricane Fury blew away the Bronze Bomber!  It was Boxing’s equivalent of Operation Shock and Awe!

Want to feel, in graphic and full Technicolor, the furious boxing of the ear?  Just check out poor, bleeding Wilder!  Fury simply blasted away his ear drum!

Besides, it was the Boxing replica of the biblical kingdom suffering violence!  You don’t suppress a strong man, and take away what is his, until you had given him a comprehensive thrashing, do you?

That was poor Wilder’s fate at the hands of furious Fury!  Things completely fell apart.  The American, with the famous right hand bomb, went crashing out to his first-ever defeat — and surrendering his WBC Heavyweight belt, in a 7th round TKO.  It was a total rout — the stuff epic falls are made of!

By the Fury defeat, Wilder’s game strategy of facing virtual sissies, and posting zero defeat in 42 fights, ended a sad cropper.  Dead as dodo too, was his famed right hand.  In the course of persistent and comprehensive beating, his lone arsenal and right-hand bomb simply refused to detonate!

Again at Vegas, the puncher staked his belt against the boxer, and kissed his title bye-bye!  It was the ultimate gamble!

What happens next?  Would Banger Wilder risk going after Conqueror Fury again, thus re-igniting the magic of the more illustrious Sugar Ray Leonard, the near-ultimate boxing artist that on 20 June 1980 lost his WBC Welterweight title against Roberto Duran.  But in a re-match on 25 November 1980, he would drub Duran, with the Panamanian uttering “no mas, no mas” (no more! no more!), in abject surrender!

That appears tempting, except that, aside from his big right hand, Wilder is no boxer, not to talk of a boxer-artist and crafty fighter, that Sugar Ray was.

It would appear more similar to the George Foreman-Joe Frazier rematch, which ended even in a more comprehensive beating for the Smokin’ Joe, by the murderously punching Foreman.  But then, you never know!

Meanwhile, everything in the heavyweight division points to a Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua unification bout.  Someone whispered the Saudi government was already offering a mouth-watering budget for that mouth-watering clash!

It would be quite a sight, as two Brits clash under the Saudi dunes, to decide the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, the very first after the retirement of the Brit Lennox Lewis, the last undisputed world heavyweight champion.

But did Hardball say two Brits?  Not exactly!  AJ is only British by veneer!  He is essentially Nigerian — a self-proclaimed “Sagamite”, after his Sagamu, Ogun State, roots.

If the fight ever happens, Nigeria would be out there rooting for him!

 

 

Hardball

A truthful eyewitness is supposed to be a reliable eyewitness. But when an eyewitness is allegedly untruthful, making his testimony unreliable, it complicates things. It’s worse when such an eyewitness is a top police officer. If policemen can’t be relied upon to provide truthful testimony, then the society faces a grave problem indeed.

It’s disturbing that the Agbowu of Ogbagbaa, Oba Sikirulahi Akinropo, the traditional ruler at the receiving end in an assault drama that also involved the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, described Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Bashir Makama as an unreliable eyewitness. Indeed, he called him “a bloody liar”.

Oba Akinropo said in an interview: “The most painful thing is the report police AIG submitted to the council of obas that we never fought in his presence. We need to be careful in this country. Police are one of the major problems we have. Oluwo himself claimed it was self-defence but AIG told council of obas that he did not witness any fight. I feel much betrayed by the police. The AIG is a bloody liar.”

Read Also: I’ll abide by my suspension – Oluwo

In his account of the royal clash, Oba Akinropo had said: “Perhaps, I would be dead by now if not for AIG that forcefully dragged him away.”  Incredibly, the same AIG is said to have testified that he didn’t witness any fight.

It’s worth mentioning that Oba Akinropo got a cut on his face as a result of the incident. “I think the ring he wore or the car key he held while beating me gave me the wound on my face,” he had said.  If there was no physical contact between the two traditional rulers, how did one of them get wounded?

The AIG, who was present, was expected to clarify what happened. His version of what happened only created further uncertainty about what happened.

Oba Akinropo lamented:  “I have been betrayed by the police. The AIG disappointed all Nigerians. We have to be scared of the police and not trust them. We are not safe. I am not against the government but I felt bad the commissioner for chieftaincy affairs who witnessed it did not report to the governor and I’ve been left to carry my cross.”

Is there a conspiracy of silence concerning this matter, considering that  government representatives present when the incident happened are not forthcoming about what actually happened?

Those who were there and saw what happened are not serving the cause of justice by their evasion of the truth. Their posture is condemnable.