Category: Hardball

Hardball

 

 

SEEING how the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s leading opposition party, joys and swoons (when stuff favours it) but yelps and frets (when it doesn’t), like a child ecstatic at receiving a lolly but woe-begotten at losing it, you can’t but think it shamelessly epitomizes crying wolf when there is not.

One thing is sure about PDP, as it languishes in opposition and making hash of it, just as it made a mess of its power years: it must throw a tantrum anytime it faces a setback, like some wild, wayward and uncouth child.

But as in that English saying, if you scream “wolf!” most times where there was no wolf, how do folks believe you, those few times, when actually there may have been an invading pack of wolves?

On Imo’s Emeka Ihedioha’s gubernatorial ouster, PDP is playing true to type, as hysterical and undignified as they come, howling injustice, threatening childish thunder and making a nuisance of itself.

Nuisance?  O yes!  What do you call a party that would appropriate injustice with relish when it suits it; but screech and screed, when the same “injustice” blights it?

On Imo it’s threatening, railing and cursing.  It is even instigating laughable street shows — against what exactly?  A verdict, by the apex court, which cannot be appealled?  But on Zamfara, it savoured the delicious menu, even if it came from the same “injustice” kitchen.

In Imo, PDP lost only the governorship.  In Zamfara, courtesy of the same Supreme Court, the ruling APC lost all it won, fair and square, on the electoral front: governorship, Senate, House of Representatives, State House of Assembly — the clean sweep of wins turned judicial loss, all swept into PDP’s plate!

What did the beneficiary back then plead?  Well, you don’t spew out manna spooned in your lucky mouth by benevolent spirits — this same Supreme Court!  Then, democracy wasn’t “murdered”; and one-man-one-vote wasn’t in danger.  Neither was the “international community” summoned to see how PDP was “chopping” the sweet morsel of “injustice”!

Himself Uche Secondus, PDP national chairman, was even trying to make a funny distinction between Zamfara and Imo, posturing about “truth” — what truth?  That Zamfara was fair and Imo was foul?

And the peripatetic Abubakar Atiku, former Vice President of the Federal Republic, at the peak of the PDP power years:  straight-faced, he claimed PDP bequeathed “democracy”, after ruling from 1999-2015!  That was why it lost power in 2015 — really?

What he conveniently forgot to tell his concert of mutual deceivers: that by 2015, even he, Atiku, had baled out of PDP, knowing that by its own iniquity, it had cropped a fair ship-wreck!  How politicians wish there was no institutional memory!

The earlier PDP abandoned its ill-advised brinkmanship as opposition strategy, the better for its collective health and survival.  If it thinks it can intimidate anyone by demonizing the Bench, the joke is on nobody but it.

At the end of the day, the psychologists are right: you can’t know the core of a person until he riles in crisis.  PDP is showing its essence.  Maybe it’s marvellous in its blighted eyes!

 

 

 

 

Not surprisingly, the Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Anambra State, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, is enjoying the public attention that followed the fulfillment of his prophecy that Hope Uzodinma would become Imo State Governor after the removal of Emeka Ihedioha.

Mbaka had said: “In spite of all that will happen this 2020, there is hope. In Imo State, there is hope. Imo people have suffered (but) God is raising a new hope that would be an agent of salvation for them.”

The priest shed light on his prophecy, and spoke of someone “coming with a new flag,” and “a new leadership that will break barriers,” and “a new government in Imo.”  For clarity’s sake, he declared: “I bless Hope Uzodinma, and empower him to spiritually take over.”

It’s food for thought that the Supreme Court judgement of January 14 was consistent with Mbaka’s prophecy.  It was bragging time, and a euphoric Mbaka took advantage of it.

His spokesman, Maximus Ugwuoke, said in a statement:  “Uzodinma becoming the governor of Imo was just a part of the about 40 prophetic prayers Fr. Mbaka made on December 31. But that became the only issue people satanically picked against him.

“God has vindicated Fr. Mbaka as He has always done for Fr. Mbaka and adoration ministry in all the battles, vituperations and attacks the ministry had faced in the past. To God be the glory.”

The spokesman crowed:  “We are not all gifted alike, Fr. Mbaka’s prophetic gift should be a source of pride for the Catholic Church and indeed all true Christians as a living evidence of divine presence within the  Church. As a lawyer, I tell you that there are double fold angles to this miracle.

“One is the miraculous resuscitation of Hope Uzodinma from the far away position he was placed in the election result announced by INEC in Imo State. The second is the unanimous confirmation of the seven Justices of the Supreme Court (without a dissent view) that Uzodinma was the rightful winner of the election.”

So Mbaka has about 39 other prophecies, which the attentive public doesn’t know about because the Uzodinma prophecy overshadowed them.  What are these other prophecies about? Will these other prophecies be fulfilled in the same way the Uzodinma prophecy was fulfilled?

Mbaka shouldn’t give the impression that his prophecies are infallible. That would amount to allowing his success regarding the Imo State governorship issue to go to his head.

 

 

SINCE Catholic priest, Reverend Father Mbaka, started it all in his Adoration Ministries’ 2020 new year prophesy, we may well view the latest political drama in Imo State as a manifestation of the Almighty Himself confounding the wise — if you don’t mind Hardball going spiritual on the political plane.

Ousted Governor, Emeka Ihedioha, must have done a lot of good, in his laudable aganda to “Rebuild Imo”.  In his rather moving and quite noble speech accepting his judicial ouster, he rose to the occasion and was quite gracious in adversity, while chalking all he did in his seven-month reign.

Reign? O yes, reign!  That was the impression he gave, an elected ruler guaranteed the swagger, permanence and perpetuity of an absolute monarch, when he pounced on his predecessor, Rochas Okocha, demonized him to his heart’s content and dismantled everything dismantle-able of his work, including, of course, Okorocha’s controversial monuments.

It was such a blitz of savage distraction that Hardball was alarmed enough to warn Ihedioha to quit the destructive showmanship and focus on his mandate to serve the Imo people.  Little did anyone know all would end in a fiasco!

But give Ihedioha his due: he exhibited great nobility at his fall.  How Hardball wished he did that at his power peak!  It’s all gone down to history now!

And Okorocha himself?  His supporters may have perceived him as Ihedioha’s arch-victim but he is even guiltier than the ousted governor at playing God.  Here was an outgoing two-term governor, ready to wreck all, just because rival lobbies in the party — including the now triumphant Hope Uzodinma — resisted his plan for his in-law to succeed him.

For that, Okorocha tried  some manny tricks, may of them outright execrable.  Or how would you describe such vile anti-party manoeuvres as running for Senate on his party’s ticket but encouraging his in-law to run on another party, thus splitting the fortune of a party he struck his neck to build in Imo!

The eternal electoral devastation stares Imo APC in the face.  Though its candidate, Hope Uzodinma, has been restored as governor, it is doubtful if APC has any elected member in the Imo legislature.  Other things being equal, how does a governor even govern with a legislature dominated by opposition parties?

How can anyone manage such political schizophrenia, without something giving?  How do you drive such contrasting mandates, without risking needless tensions?  That is the albatross the Uzodinma governorship would carry.  He would need more than mere hope — his name — to prevail.  He would need a cool head, uncommon accommodation and tremendous grace, as well as gubernatorial long-suffering, to forge ahead.

But all these would have been unnecessary, had Okorocha not played God, dismally failed and put his party in jeopardy — until the judicial restoration..

Hope Uzodinma would also do well to learn from Ihediora and Okorocha, both now biting the humble pie.  Humility, especially in power, doesn’t kill.  On the contrary, it sharpens your focus and gifts you the right temper to face governance, which is never easy.

After all shock and drama, the least the Imo folks deserve is a government that stays true to their aspirations.  This, the new governor must deeply appreciate, as he takes the mantle.

 

 

What might be the priority of Sale Mamman, the Power minister — supplying that all-crucial utility to long-suffering Nigerians to better their economies, or projecting power as the undisputed czar of the Power ministry?

Though the minister just disclosed his ministry and parastatals under it were putting measures in place to ensure Nigerians got up to 18 hours of power a day, that question is legitimate given the minister’s ill-fated tango with Amazons under his ministry, from which he ate crow.

First, the minister announced the suspension of Damilola Ogunbiyi, the former managing director of Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA), the golden girl that analysts insist wrought great wonders at REA, by the off-grid electrification results she posted at that agency, including the still evolving non-grid 24-hour electrification of every federal-owned tertiary institution in Nigeria.

Though the United Nations has since snapped up Mrs Ogunbiyi for pressing global power supply solutions, she was on the cusp of bearing the tar of suspension from office, by her own home government, until President Muhammadu Buhari intervened to over-rule the minister, for not following due process.  The president not only quashed the ministerial order, he also accepted Mrs. Ogunbiyi’s resignation to take up her new UN job.

That was a close shave, for it would have been a sight watching the minister working with a REA chief executive, whose suspension was voided!

Then just virtually on Christmas Eve 2019, not exactly working in concert with Christendom’s season of goodwill, the minister ordered the suspension of Marilyn Amobi, another Power Amazon and managing director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company of Nigeria Ltd (NBET).

The minister ordered Ms Amobi to hand over to the most senior NBET director, pending the resolution of the matter.  But again on January 9, the president over-ruled the minister, asking Ms Amobi to stay on at her beat.

Saved by the bell?  O yes — but not Ms Amobi alone!  Yes, the NBET chief executive certainly was, coming back from the virtual dead, to reclaim her job.

But the minister, even more so: by the Presidency moving NBET to the Finance ministry — a move some Power critical lobbies aren’t exactly pleased about — the Power minister has  escaped being condemned to working with an NBET chief executive he suspended but who his boss reinstated.

Still, after two botched suspensions — who knows: the minister might have had the best of intentions, only foiled by a warped process — perhaps Minister Mamman should conceptually re-tweak himself.

As Power minister, shouldn’t he focus more on supplying power,  to Nigerians’ thunderous admiration; rather than projecting power, to their veiled disgust?  Power projection, sans adequate supply, could well make his position untenable!

Besides, the Power Ministry is too vital an infrastructural fortress to suffer any self-inflicted distraction.  It holds the key to the second wind, sorely needed to power Nigeria’s economy, neglected for much too long.

 

WHAT will extortionate policemen think of next?  A shocking video of a police officer with a Point of Sale (POS) machine, demanding Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards from people in a vehicle shows that extortionate policemen don’t care if their actions give the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) a bad name. The police officer allegedly used the cards he collected to transfer money to his account.

A report said: “In the video, one of the passengers was heard telling the officer whose name is yet to be known, to take it easy with his ATM card to avoid damaging it.

“Another passenger was equally heard insisting that he would never hand over his ATM card to the officer. The man who can best be described as one who knows his right argued that he has not seen a police officer in Nigeria demanding ATM card from civilians.

“Though he spoke in pidgin, his words were properly understood. His words: “I will not give you my ATM. There is nothing on earth that would make me hand it over to you. I haven’t seen a police officer demanding ATM from people.”

The video was damaging enough to attract the attention of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu. The NPF said in a statement on January 10: “The Nigeria Police Force has commenced investigations to unravel the authenticity of the video, location of incident and identity of persons captured in the viral video where some persons in Police uniform were captured, allegedly with POS machine and demanding ATM card from a member of the public.

“The IGP condemns all acts of corruption by Public Servants, particularly Police officers and is committed to bringing to book any officer found wanting in this regard.”

It’s reassuring that the police authorities have launched an investigation into the embarrassing incident. Police extortion is particularly inexcusable because the police are supposed to enforce the law and not to break the law. When policemen become extortionists, they demonstrate that those paid to enforce the law are not always on the side of the law.

The video represents a new low in the history of police extortion in the country. It suggests that extortionate policemen are getting worse. The police authorities shouldn’t allow this new approach to extortion to further damage the image of the police force. POS machines aren’t needed by policemen to maintain law and order.

 

Is Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta underdeveloped because the international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the country neglected the area or because the Federal Government abandoned its responsibility to develop the region?

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, in his goodwill message at the 4th National Council on Hydrocarbons (NCH) held in Abuja, continued on the old path by suggesting that the IOCs are responsible for the Niger Delta’s underdevelopment.

Enang was quoted as saying the NCH should take “cognisance that the host communities were still being impoverished while the IOCs keep making profits.”

Are the IOCs not expected to make profits from their oil business? What is the connection between their profits and the impoverishment of the host communities?  The truth is that the IOCs will always have limits regarding how much they can spend from their profits on host community development. It is worth mentioning that the IOCs pay taxes, which the authorities are supposed to use to develop the region.

For instance, a Reuters report in February 2019 said the Federal Government had asked Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Eni, Total and Equinor to pay between $2.5 billion and $5 billion each, which were said to be outstanding royalties and taxes for oil and gas production.

Apart from taxes, the IOCs development activities in the host communities, which come under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), will always need to be complemented by governmental actions.

Interestingly, in October 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari had apologised for the bad governance responsible for the region’s underdevelopment during the reopening of Oil Mining Lease (OML)-25 facility in coastal Belema in Kula Kingdom, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, more than two years after a shocking protest had stopped activities at the site.

Enang, who represented Buhari at the event, had said:  “We have been to the communities (in Kula Kingdom). I felt touched that the people were asking for schools, hospitals and potable water in 2019, after 40 years of oil and gas being taken from their soils. I scooped water from the pond that the people drink. It was smeared with crude oil.

“On behalf of the nation, I apologise to you. We will change for the better. We will not only build schools, hospitals and provide potable water for you; we will provide complete communities for you. We will work with the Rivers State government, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), amnesty office and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.”

The Federal Government needs soul-searching, and should stop pointing the finger at the IOCs.

 

Hardball

 

Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, is playing the blame game concerning the country’s age-long electricity problem. But blaming others isn’t the solution he is expected to provide.

It’s curious that Mamman is blaming his predecessor for the current state of the power sector, particularly when they are both members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to Mamman’s spokesman, Aaron Artimas, “All right-thinking Nigerians are aware that since assuming power in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari has poured billions of naira and attracted huge foreign investments into the power sector with the aim of improving the generation and distribution of electricity to Nigerians.

“Nigerians should be asking why there was not much improvement in the sector after such concerted efforts by the government.”

The spokesman added that the power ministry had no “tangible results” to show, four years after Babatunde Fashola headed the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing from 2015 to 2019. Fashola, who is now Minister of Works and Housing, must be wondering what his successor’s spokesman is talking about.

President Buhari should be interested in Mamman’s criticism of Fashola, considering that both ministers are members of his administration. In particular, Buhari should be interested in Mamman’s assessment of the power sector under his government.

The observation of Mamman’s spokesman about the alleged failed efforts of the Buhari administration to improve the country’s power sector is actually a criticism of the government, rather than a criticism of Fashola.

Indeed, Mamman’s spokesman spoke without a sense of the concept of collective responsibility. If Fashola, as the former power minister, was a member of the Buhari government that is said to have invested billions in the power sector and attracted enormous foreign investments to improve electricity generation and distribution, then blaming Fashola for alleged lack of improvement in the power sector is illogical.

It is noteworthy that Mamman is at the centre of a controversial move by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to increase electricity tarrifs. A Federal High Court in Lagos has stopped the planned tarrif hike, pending the determination of a motion challenging it. Mamman is among the respondents in a suit by the Incorporated Trustees of Human Rights Foundation.

It remains to be seen how Mamman would perform in office and what his legacy would be. He should concentrate on his job, and improve the power sector, rather than playing the blame game when it makes no sense to do so.

Interestingly, the Serving Overseer, Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, believes he will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

Last September, he was quoted as saying during a sermon, “As far as politics of Nigeria is concerned, President Buhari is number 15 and yours sincerely is number 16… nothing can change it, in the name of Jesus. He (Buhari) is number 15; I am number 16.”

When Buhari unsuccessfully ran for president in 2011, Bakare was his running mate. But when Buhari successfully ran for president in 2015, after three failed attempts in 2003, 2007 and 2011, Bakare wasn’t his running mate.  Bakare’s visit to Buhari at the State House, Abuja, on December 30 last year,  made the headlines. It’s unclear why the pastor visited the President. About a week later, Bakare was quoted as saying that Buhari needs to pick his successor.

During a sermon in his church on January 5, Bakare said:   ”Let us ask God for grace of accurate succession; that he (Buhari) will not hand over the baton of government and governance to thieves and perverts, to corrupt and power-drunk individuals, but those who are true patriots…”

According to Bakare, “God is into succession. Anyone in government that does not concern himself about succession is destroying his own legacy because the person coming after you can just mess up everything.”  He described “accurate succession” as “a task that must be done.”

If Bakare believes he will succeed Buhari, is he suggesting that Buhari should pick him as presidential successor? It may well be that Bakare finds it difficult to forget that he was Buhari’s running mate in 2011,  thinking   he would have been vice president if he had also been Buhari’s running mate in the 2015 presidential election. Possibly, he would also have been Buhari’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election, which Buhari won, and he would have been vice president a second time.  But things didn’t happen that way.

It’s unclear why Bakare believes he will be Nigeria’s next president; and it’s unclear how he expects this to happen. By asking Buhari to pick his successor, Bakare is suggesting a succession process that may not be democratic.

It’s clear that Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will need to present a presidential candidate who can win the presidential election. Certainly, there will be candidates from other parties running for president when the time comes.  Bakare’s thinking suggests that whoever Buhari picks as his successor will become president.  That is simplistic thinking.