The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Oshiomhole vs Air Peace

    Oshiomhole vs Air Peace

    The match-up between Air Peace, arguably Nigeria’s No. 1 airline today, and Senator Adams Oshiomhole, is well and truly titanic.  It still ripples, with no one knowing the denouement of the high drama.

    But clearly, you could see a clear attempt of “cancelling out” by horrid propaganda, particularly on the Air Peace side.  Some parts of its story clearly don’t check out.  But maybe the senator also over-blew or under-played his own part. 

    But everything given, it’s the type of fight that Oshiomole, formerly a fiery Labour leader, would crave to be in.  Hard luck for Air Peace for taking on the wrong guy.  Spin wouldn’t throw these dice, without prejudice to still emerging facts.

    First, Air Peace, in their first report, did a lot of innuendoes, which tended towards mischief.  Yet, it admitted that Oshiomhole arrived their check-in facility at 6:05 am for a 6:30 am flight.  When does boarding close for 6:30 am flights?  They should have released that information.

    But even if they were forthright, and the senator indeed arrived late for boarding, why were other passengers still boarding, when the senator could not?  Why, as the senator claimed, and Air Peace has not denied, did one of its top official approach him for “sorting”?  To divert his attention from the alleged ticket racketeering and extortion going on?

    Again, another question over another claim: is there anything like checking in online as the senator claimed?  If there is, why would arriving at 6:05 am for a 6:30 am flight be “late” for boarding?  Shouldn’t he just have breezed into the cabin physically, what he had already done online?

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    The authorities should do a thorough investigation into the matter.  But on that, the statement by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, was arrogant and disappointing, to say the least.  Yes, aviation may not be “molue” as he crowed.  But people that pay the premium for plane tickets too are not exactly area boys.  They have the right to protest shabbily treatment.  And this coming from a consumer protection chief!

    Air Peace goes on and on about violence and disruption, good!  But for whatever reasons, decreeing “lateness”, and earning customers’ rage — is that not emotional violence and disruption too?  How do you decry the same thing your customer accused you of,  and still think that’s a doughty line of defence, simply because it’s a rich line for frothing blackmail, of a public officer, at least to the obtuse?

    Let NCAA, the Police and even the DSS probe whatever happened and revert with findings.  But based on past behaviours in the public space, Hardball would believe Oshiomhole more than the Air Peace line, without prejudice to fresh facts.

    Air Peace should use this confrontation to do a sober soul-searching.  If indeed a racket is going on in its ticketing department, it should nip such in the bud.  We are all witnesses to Nigerian Airways at its prime.  It’s such unholy practices that brought it down. 

    May Air Peace’s case not be like that.  But on its alleged shabby treatment of its passengers, tongues have been wagging for long.

  • Different strokes: NIS vs FRSC 

    Different strokes: NIS vs FRSC 

    Between the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), under the supervision of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), it’s a clear case of different strokes.

    This stark difference is from the latest news from FRSC.  It just announced an increase in what applicants for drivers’ licences would pay, in the two categories of three years and five years.

    No, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), under the Interior ministry, is not introducing a new regime of tariffs, no.  The difference is in service response, in which the two camps are poles apart.  It’s as if they are in two separate worlds.  Yet, both are agencies under the same Federal Government of Nigeria.

    It takes an average of three weeks for NIS to push out the Nigerian international passport, after data capture.  With FRSC, it’s another world, in any case, since 2023.

    Before 2023, FRSC managed to push out drivers’ licences some two, three months after data capture — but not since 2023!  Since that year, it would appear its data capture and licence production unit has been struck with some paralysis.

    There are many folks who have paid and done data capture.  Yet, since December 2023, the driver’s licence is yet to materialize.  True: the local offices issue temporary licences, valid for three months or so, subject to re-issue, until the real licence is out.

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    Still, is it not ridiculous?  For instance, if you paid for a three-year licence since 2023; and by 2025, you’re still placed on a temporary licence!  What sort of service is that? 

    Reaching mid-year in the second of your valid three years, and your licence is still in your dreams!  Even if you paid for five years, it’s already near-two years gone!  Again, compare and contrast: NIS — three weeks.  FRSC: more than one year and still counting!  Different strokes!

    Which is why Hardball asks: on what basis are the tariffs being jacked up?  For preening lack of service?  If tariffs must go up because of rising costs, let FRSC match that increase with far better service delivery.

    Yes, even NIS was not always what it is today.  But whatever surgical policies the Interior Minister pressed to achieve the current NIS level of service delivery, the SGF should push the Corps Marshall too wave such “magic wand”.

    The SGF should act today.  Issuing a driver’s licence one year after — or more — is ode to preening public disservice that should never be tolerated.

  • From ‘first buddy’ to ‘first foe’

    From ‘first buddy’ to ‘first foe’

    When the going was good between United States President Donald Trump and moneyman Elon Musk, you would think it was a relationship made in heaven. Musk, the world’s richest, deployed his vast wealth and penetrating influence – he’s the owner of X (formerly Twitter) – in support of Trump’s 2024 electioneering.

    After Trump took the White House, he named Musk special advisor and saddled him with running a so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In that role, Musk was the mastermind of all Trump’s executive sleight of hand and was answerable to no one – well, perhaps other than Trump. He was not elected and neither did he go through congressional clearance to hold office; yet he wielded more disruptive power than all members of Trump’s cabinet who faced Congress. Among others, he engineered mass retrenchment of US government workers and gutted the arrowhead of US soft power, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), all to save costs for the Trump administration.

    But like all ties in Trump universe, the political marriage is in a messy meltdown with the two having taken to public glare to vent their mutual spleen. Musk’s highly publicised, but largely ineffective, government cost-saving mission ended with the president’s proposal of a massive tax-cutting legislation that he dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” but which Musk opposed. An Oval Office send-off for the tech mogul recently featured mutual plaudits between the president and “The Dogefather” (the banner printed on Musk’s T-shirt for the day), only the bonhomie didn’t last.

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    Musk shortly after took to X to lampoon Trump’s deficit spending agenda: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore, This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it.” He escalated the spat along the line by alleging that Trump’s name appears in files on disgraced New York financier and sex offender, the late Jeffrey Epstein, saying that was why the files were not being declassified. Trump isn’t one to let criticism lie and he described Musk as a spent force, threatening to discontinue government subsidies to his businesses. “Elon was wearing thin, I asked him to leave. I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” the president wrote before Musk’s claim about the Epstein files. “The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

    At the last count, the feud threatened to sink Musk’s businesses and incurred $34billion wipeout in his personal net worth. To many Americans and others across the world harmed by Trump’s polices he inspired, it is karma.

  • Afenifere wannabe

    Afenifere wannabe

    Afenifere in 2025 is a mere shadow of the mighty Afenifere, which in 1999 packed quite a muscle; and wore a chip on its shoulders, determining who got what in political Yorubaland.

    Still, playing the Afenifere leadership wannabe, even in its present sorry state, has own consequences.  That appears completely lost on the scions of the Afenifere faction that Chief Ayo Adebanjo created before he died.

    Chief Adebanjo deluded himself as “leader” of Afenifere, when he knew the Afenifere Leader, Baba Reuben Fasoranti, was alive and well, if not so active.  When his wings were clipped, he declared himself “national leader” — non-existent in Afenifere storied lore.

    Baba Adebanjo’s power grab was scuttled by the grim reaper. He probably thought Baba Fasoranti, older by two years, would go first.  Adebanjo did. 

    No one can say the late chief didn’t live an impactful life as a celebrated progressive.  But even his most doting fan would admit the “last-minute” stain to his name, by trying to upstage his leader, now risks defining his memory. History never forgets such things!

    Still, the dead stay dead but the living have their daily chores to pursue.  Which is why the irony of Chief Adebanjo’s exit has not sunk in the band over which he paraded himself as “national leader”.

    Oba Oladipo Olaitan — the new “national leader”? — and factional spokesperson, Justice Faloye, took the Tinubu Presidency at two to the cleaners.  That’s no crime. It’s a democracy, for God’s sake!

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    But when a traditional ruler dabbles into politics, under whatever cover, it seldom ends well. 

    Well, the Kano debacle is still playing out.  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the radical  social critic, conflated self with Muhammadu Sanusi II, the conservative traditional ruler.  That led into a deposition.  Even the bid to return Sanusi to the throne has led to a peculiar mess, breeding two Emirs, one throne!

    Even, history.  The Afenifere tendency are not unaware of the one-kobo-a-year royal salary.  They perfected it during the Action Group (AG) days.  That might be antiquated now, but there are always risks for royals playing blatant politics.

    Still, if you must do that, why must it be linked to organizational disloyalty — Afenifere’s No. 1 crime — with which Baba Adebanjo signed off? 

    Let the “national leader” faction be careful.  The dead stay dumb.  But let the living not lug a needless can!

  • Soyinka’s fallacy on Amaechi

    Soyinka’s fallacy on Amaechi

    When former transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi marked his 60th birthday, he was a glum man, or pretended to be. Dressed in a bright shirt with distinctive Niger Delta beads, he basked in the moment of his celebration like a sad man. A celebrant in sackcloth.

    “I am hungry” he declared, falling short of saying it in the tone of the Ebi np awa populism because, although he bears the name Rotimi, he cannot speak Yoruba. Anytime he has an opportunity to speak, he roars inelegantly about removing the president, as though it were military uprising or push for a putsch he was trying to inspire.

    If he says he is hungry, Hardball would like to know how much he spent on his birthday bash, and if it was not enough to feed a thousand Naira. If his bash could slake thirsts and stop rumbling stomach, where is the place of his hunger? He is plenty crying like empty. Hardball also wants his response to his kinsman and successor as Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, that he only decided he was hungry after serving in government, not as a clerk, but as a helmsman from 1999 to 2023. Hefty 24 years. He was speaker, governor, minister. People say he was too privileged to complain. They say he had ‘juicy’ positions all through. Joblessness has not juice, so the man is crying in public like an agitator. Crying without tears. He only knew he was hungry because he has not been in government for a mere two years.

    But Hardball sees that as only a tangential affair for this page today. Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, who has made it a point of interest to align with the former minister for whatever reason, committed a fallacy of comparison on his birthday.

    He said he admired Amaechi because he was giving President Bola Tinubu a dose of his own medicine. He adverted to the primary that Tinubu won when candidate after candidate withdrew for the Jagaban. He confessed he was not in the country but followed it from his base in Abu Dhabi.

    “…it gave me a great, most malicious pleasure, rascally, if you like, pleasure to see the incumbent president being given a dose of his own medicine,” he said. He asserted that Tinubu fought former president Olusegun Obasanjo “to a standstill” for trying to change the constitution and impose a third term. Obsasanjo also cowed other governors but not Tinubu, the laureate reminded the audience.

    “But one man. He was the last man standing. Well, he obtained a dose of his own medicine from Rotimi Amaechi during the primaries. I enjoyed that very much.”

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    Well, Soyinka got two things abysmally wrong. Tinubu’s fight against OBJ were for fundamental principles of our democracy. He fought to save it from an autocrat who wanted to upturn a republican idea and make a fiefdom of the country. Secondly, OBJ pursued a policy of suffocating the federal idea by taking their funds. Tinubu fought against OBJ for these issues the way he fought against the army. Soyinka was a partner with Tinubu in the now NADECO Abroad. Amaechi was only fighting for power, not for any grand ideal because he never enunciated any. It was a a quest for personal power, a massage of a juvenile ego. Soyinka knows what a grand idea is and he never attributed any to the celebrant that day. Where was Amaechi when Tinubu was drawing swords against OBJ, who Kongi loves to barb.

    More potently, Tinubu won in all his fights. Amaechi, on that night of the primaries, did not step down, but in the language of our politics, o lule in the primaries. And who won? The last man standing. That is why he is bitter. He has no medal, but Tinubu is president. It seems to be his nightmare. I wonder whether he can stand to watch Tinubu on television playing his role as leader of the country.

    So, when our Nobel Laureate praises his man, he should not enjoy a barker, the noise of an empty barrel of a loser “very much.”

  • To laugh or to cry?

    To laugh or to cry?

    At least, the likes of Peter Obi, flaunting “capacity”, which progressively shows nothing beyond full emptiness, would not go berserk on X and allied social media, sharing it as “proof” that they are the messiah.

    The Financial Times (FT) editorial on two years of President Bola Tinubu took care of that.  It generally approved of the government’s reform policy thrust; and even claimed Nigeria was turning the bend; and the economy probably at its comparative best!

    Yet, reading the editorial, you don’t know whether to laugh or to cry, because of its insufferable condescension, bristling arrogance and arrant rudeness. Must these western media write their stuff as if they are patronizing children that know neither their right hand from their left? 

    It’s all so tiring, now that Donald Trump is running Uncle Sam ragged; and these hypocrites are not exactly gung-ho in their criticism — in any case, not the way they would have galloped into town, were “Trump” to  happen to Africa, Asia or even part of Eastern Europe.

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    Hear the FT all-knowing wizards: “The tiny green shoots have come because Tinubu’s  government has tackled — albeit in often haphazard fashion …”

    Or: “Politicians still spend on fripperies like an extravagant presidential jet …”

    Or, even: “That so much has been achieved by a government stuffed with cronies — and, to be fair, one or two competent technocrats …”

    What arrant nonsense!  What goring patronising!  What devilish insults!

    So, to the self-appointed gods of FT, Nigeria is incapable of re-ordering its challenges without being haphazard?  The federal cabinet can’t but be peopled by “cronies” — whatever that means — sans the so-called “competent technocrats”?

    But maybe FT should first categorize the president himself: is he the free-loading “crony”?  Or the overrated “technocrat”, always lord in FT and sundry lore?  So long for arrogant categorization with no iota of depth!

    Unfortunately, the administration’s officials themselves would be eagerly sharing this very rude endorsement, if lexis can carry such a violent contradiction in terms!  Enough of this house negro mindset, needing validation from the cruel slave master!

    Still, there’s something to take away from FT: the economic numbers are looking good, as good as the cost of living crisis is looking bad. 

    That’s the crunch to work upon in this second half of the president’s first term.

  • Before the next ‘Biafra Day’

    Before the next ‘Biafra Day’

    Businesses were paralysed again last Friday as residents of cities and communities in the South-east region stayed indoors in apparent commemoration of 2025 ‘Biafra Day.’ Not that they were voluntary commemorators. Many residents obliged the directive by proscribed separatist group, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), to sit at home to avoid potential consequences of defiance. Meanwhile, the region loses monumentally in forfeited revenue every time commerce gets suspended.

    IPOB has for many years asked South-east residents to stay indoors on May 30th in honour of fallen heroes of the stillborn Biafra Republic. That directive was over time enforced by violence, with supposed members of the separatist group using lethal means to make residents sit at home as directed, resulting in many deaths. There has been de-escalation in enforcement vigour over recent years. But the dread of rogue enforcers lingers with most residents, making them err on the side of caution whenever the separatist group calls another sit-at-home.

    That was the case last Friday with government offices, banks, schools, marketplaces, motor parks, shopping centres, filling stations and restaurants paralysed and streets deserted as residents kept indoors in South-east states. Media reports cited some residents attributing the apparent compliance to fear of violence outdoors, while some said they used the day to rest after busy schedules earlier in the week.

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    A resident was reported saying the day could well be adopted as a cultural landmark region-wide to appease the historical sensibility of the people. “There’s nothing wrong for governments of South-east states to declare a public holiday every May 30th for Biafra Day. If it were in the South-west, their leaders would have pressed the Federal Government to declare a national holiday… Why must soldiers, police and other security agencies take on youths in the South-east because of Biafra Day? By so doing, people will continue the agitation and tension will persist,” he argued.

    Imo streets were deserted despite heavy security presence across the state and admonition that the residents should go about their normal business chores. Traders who spoke with journalists said they stayed away to avoid attack on their business premises under whatever guise; even when Imo police command spokesperson, Henry Okoye, pledged readiness by security agencies to ensure safety of lives and property. “Joint security operatives have been strategically deployed across the 27 council areas of the state. These operatives are currently undertaking intensive confidence-building patrols and operation show-of-force to deter criminal elements and reassure members of the public,” he said.

    It seems obvious that while separatist actors have lost the hearts of residents of the region, they rule their minds with fear of the unknown. Authorities in the South-east must thus find what works to dispel this fear and free the people to operate their normal lives, so the periodic haemorrhage on the regional economy is stopped.

  • 2027 mandators and reluctant aspirants

    2027 mandators and reluctant aspirants

    When it comes to ambition for political office in this country, you never really know with many politicians. There seems to be a perceived virtue in showing unwillingness while supporters press you to go for a particular office, so it gets said in effect: “It was my people who forced me to serve.” This accounts for the syndrome of reluctant public office holders, which unfortunately vitiates accountability for performance in the office ‘reluctantly’ aspired to. But is that the best for our democracy? We need willing aspirants to office, not reluctant ones.

    Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has repeatedly debunked indications that he will contest a senatorial position in 2027, but supporters just won’t let him be. Early last week, he was out again to restate his resolve not to seek the Nasarawa North constituency seat in the Senate in 2027 when his governorship tenure expires. Recent reports cited him as having agreed to run for the seat, but he again denied the report and said he hadn’t asked anyone to announce otherwise.

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    Few hours earlier, Director-General of the Nasarawa State Bureau for Pension Administration, Suleiman Musa Nagogo, disclosed that Governor Sule had agreed to run for the Senate. Speaking to All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders in Wamba council area, he said the governor had notified him of his intention to run for the legislative seat and raised a panel to handle the project across the senatorial district concerned. “That committee is still a committee of work in progress because we have yet to reach any reasonable milestone in the process of execution of this project. But I consider it imperative that, as the saying goes, charity begins at home. I should take it upon myself to call on my own people of Wamba Local Government and inform them about this project,” he told the constituents.

    In apparent rejoinder, spokesman for the governor, Ibrahim Addra, said his principal did not send anyone to declare his intention to contest the Senate seat. Referencing social media publications, Addra said: “For avoidance of doubt, Engr. Sule has never invited anyone to confirm that he is running, or to sell his candidature for Senate or any other office.” He acknowledged “several calls by individuals and groups on the governor to declare interest and run for the Senate seat,” adding however: “In all instances, Governor Sule politely but firmly declined such calls, maintaining that his attention remains focused on delivering on his covenant with the people of Nasarawa State as their democratically-elected governor.”

    You would wonder why the spokesman did not call out the particular official who made the claim, or could it be they were codeswitching on a decision already made? If not, supporters should let Mr. Governor come to his own conviction and spare him the ritual of mandating the unwilling.

  • Last gash

    Last gash

    The Yoruba have a saying: the latter stab is far more painful than the earlier one.  With the Akwa Ibom governor threatening to repeat the Delta mass defection from PDP to APC, that should capture the minds of the historically minded, even among PDP members. 

    By this time in 2003 — May 2003 — the PDP had just cleared out all the South West governors of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) — except Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos.  The media promptly dubbed him the “last man standing”!

    Then President Olusegun Obasanjo, smug in triumph, had quite a smirk on his face, for that ruthless bit of military ambush, that cleaned the AD from its South West lair, though he did not quite achieve his reported battle cry of take Lagos at all cost!

    Seeing the ruin and confusion now tearing PDP apart, with gale of defections and more defections to the ruling APC, that smirk must have frozen, replaced by a grimace — everything allegedly being strutted by the last man standing of 2003!

    Yes, Baba Iyabo has since declared himself “non-partisan” elder statesman.  You can tell that to the marines!  His soul is in PDP — and justifiably so.  He’s likelier to pop up at a PDP governor’s show, and praise the fellow to high heavens, just to reassure himself that he could still confer honours, as when he was feared PDP czar.

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    Indeed, the former president’s pains would be deep.  The one he tried to toss into the political sea in 2003 has not only powered the political comeback that tossed PDP into power Siberia in 2015, he is allegedly strutting the boom orchestra, now turning the PDP inside out!

    In truth, the very last cut sinks far deeper than the first! 

    So, the former president is condemned to fretting and watching the very gashes he inflicted on AG and even the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), now being received by PDP!  Though AD died, ANPP is one of the legacy partners that fused into APC.  A case of tormentor-turned-tormented?  Ha!

    Still, the APC too should know.  Its legacy won’t be cemented by how many governors and elected people that it snatched from other parties, mouthing the cant — as PDP did before it — of democratic choice and free gathering.  Rather, it would be based on how many lives it changed for the better. 

    The tragic story of PDP is that it wasted its power years — and Nigerians’ lives with it.  That’s why the history-minded won’t pity it, even with its present meltdown.  APC should learn from PDP’s pitfall.  The same history now messing up PDP awaits APC in the future.

  • Trump and Qatar’s plane gift

    Trump and Qatar’s plane gift

    When Americans returned President Donald Trump to the White House for a second term, they knew too well trying days lay ahead for their more than two century-old constitutional democracy. Now, they’re dealing with the reality. The country lately roiled in controversy over the president’s determination to accept a luxury aircraft offered as gift by oil-rich Qatar. He insists the offer is “a great gesture,” but critics argue that accepting the gift is “wildly illegal” under American law. The controversy rages as we speak.

    The American leader recently concluded a four-day trip to the Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), during which he pressed for investment in the United States economy. Ahead of that trip, the Qatari royal family offered his administration the gift of a luxury Boeing 747-8 dubbed a “flying palace” and estimated to be worth $400million. Under the terms of the offer, the 13-year-old jumbo jet is being gifted the US Department of Defence, to be retrofitted as Air Force One for official use by Trump; and when he leaves office in 2029, the ownership will be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library.

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    By the current provision of American law, US officials can only accept gifts valued at less than $480. The country’s Constitution also has a provision known as the Emoluments Clause, designed to prevent leaders from becoming beholden to foreign governments by restricting what gifts US presidents can accept from foreign governments. The Constitution also says no elected official could accept “any present…of any kind whatever” from the leader of a foreign state without congressional approval.

    None of these provisions is considered an impediment by the American president regarding the Qatari plane gift, however. When questioned by reporters, Trump said: “It’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer.” He also posted on his Truth Social platform: “The Defense Department is getting a gift, free of charge, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction.”  Legal opinion formulated by Trump’s Department of Justice and White House counsel argued that the gift is permissible because it isn’t being offered to the president personally but to his government, and after his tenure would not be available for his private use but transferred to the presidential library.

    The catch is, retrofitting the gifted aircraft to make it suitable for transporting the American commander-in-chief would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. The makeover by Boeing is expected to last till close to the end of Trump’s tenure, meaning the aircraft will be in use for only a short period before being discarded as memorabilia. But that is the choice Americans made in the last elections.