The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Democracy and duress

    It’s one thing to be declared the winner of an election; it’s another thing to be given a certificate of return to reinforce the declaration. Some election candidates who were declared winners don’t understand this. They think the declaration should be enough to get the certificate.

    It is interesting that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is interested in how election winners were declared winners. Take the case of Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared winner of the Imo West Senatorial District election held on February 23. When the Returning Officer, Prof Innocent Ibeawuchi, alleged that he was forced to declare Okorocha the winner of the poll, the allegation changed the situation.

    Ibeawuchi had told reporters that he was held hostage from 7pm on February 24 till 11am the following day.  He was quoted as saying:  “I was compelled to announce the result which was inconclusive. I am a man of integrity and it is not true that the governor slapped me but I was held hostage by agents working for him. I was manhandled and I thank God I came back alive.”

    Of course, the professor’s claim that he had declared Okorocha winner “under duress” calls into question how the governor won the senatorial election. It is striking that there are others like Okorocha whose election victories are doubtful because the returning officers involved were allegedly forced to declare them winners.

    INEC’s National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, said the commission had received similar reports concerning the National Assembly poll in Oju/Obi Federal Constituency in Benue State, as well as the House of Assembly elections in Niger and Akwa Ibom states.

    He told reporters in Makurdi on March 22: “The commission has not given a certificate of return to anyone from Obi/Oju, the same thing with Agaye state constituency in Niger State. There is also another state constituency in Akwa Ibom. So as of today, there are four areas where declarations were made under duress and we said we will not give certificates of return to those individuals.”

    “Some of them are already in court,” Okoye added, which means the public should expect riveting drama when the returning officers and the election candidates concerned tell their stories in court. A certificate of return should not be in the hands of an election candidate whose victory was declared under duress. Democracy is not about duress.

  • Osun: Ebora Owu finds mojo

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on the Osun election tribunal verdict, just re-found his muffled voice — and just as well!

    But that voice cares little about basic justice — an old man that throws childish tantrums, just because his hypocritical whims are done and dusted with!

    Indeed, Obasanjo’s response was a high horse in grand delusion.  But that won’t fend off his creeping irrelevance.

    The release he personally signed, with the heading: “Statement by HE Olusegun Obasanjo on the judgement of the Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal”, started with the usual Obasanjo show-off : “While I was in Dubai to attend the Global Education  and Skills Forum meeting…”

    The much vaunted “global statesman”, but with little community value at home, needed to reassure himself he was still relevant — no crime!

    Then, the usual tumbling adjectives, that define Obasanjo’s hypocrisy more than any other: “We will continue to sustain Nigeria in stability and unity on the altar of justice, equity, fairness, freedom, human rights and democracy.”  Yeah right — the normal Obasanjo and his pious but empty platitudes!

    On justice, equity, fairness, human rights and democracy, the Obasanjo presidency woefully failed.  The Odi and Zaki Biam massacres were Obasanjo’s stellar records in human rights; while Obasanjo was so fair, equitable and just, he sat on the Lagos council funds, despite the express order of the judiciary he now praises to high heavens!

    And on democracy?  Well, this same Osun (with Ondo, Edo and Ekiti) was a great testimony to Obasanjo’s democracy credentials.

    He was so democratic he conducted the 2007 do-or-die election, from which Olagunsoye Oyinlola enjoyed nearly a four-year illegal term, before the courts drove him out!  Besides, in that virtual war, many in Osun lost their lives and limbs, for Obasanjo’s do-or-die children to prevail!

    On the surface, Obasanjo seemed celebrating Ademola Adeleke’s win.  But really, he was grudging his so-called “international community” friends, for their refusal to demonize Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election, as Obasanjo’s troubled fancies did, well ahead of the exercise, with his 16-page letter conjuring nothing but Armageddon.

    The actual election came and went but the “international community” validated the election as fair.  But this same “international community” had condemned the 2007 (s)election Obasanjo conducted as a travesty. That hurts!

    Listen to the direct Ebora growl, pouncing on his former friends-turned-bitter fiends: “… those who call themselves our development partners and friends, and preach social justice on the altar of so-called stability, are enemies of justice, democracy and Nigeria” — yeah right!  Obasanjo, sole owner of Nigeria, has thus decreed!

    And how about this deviousness, on the conceptual plane? “… if Buhari could go to court three times to seek justice [and behold: this italicized phrase is the crunch], even without reasonable cause, any Nigerian who feels denied of justice must feel free to go to court”!

    So, Adeleke and Atiku (Obasanjo’s new friends) can go to court without conditions; while well, Buhari (Obasanjo’s old foe), too could go  — though “without reasonable cause”! — even with those fanciful Obasanjo-era “election” tallies, when they just wrote figures?  Or why is the voting tally shrinking, when the voting population is increasing?

    It’s another cant from the Ebora Owu stable!  But then, humbug is the lot of those that have neither conscience nor a sense of justice.

    Friends of Obasanjo should tell him to spare us his sour grape gratings!  They not only rankle, they ooze with virulent self-indictment and condemnation!

  • A paragraph for Daniel

    Would men live their names, the world would be a wonderful place. Indeed, many of us have names inspired by lofty ideal and high expectations and the Holy Bible may be said to be the treasure trove of names-to-love. Samuel, Joshua, Moses, Daniel, Stephen, John, Paul, Peter – a thousand ready-names!  No doubt, parents christen their children after biblical heroes so those names could redound on their lives.

    But hardly anyone remembers anymore, it seems, the import and meaning of these names. How could a Moses, for instance, be bereft of leadership acumen and spiritual prowess? Why would a man be named Paul yet he be ordinary; yet he be not imbued with burning zeal for Christ?

    But let’s concern ourselves with Daniel today. Daniel of the Bible is such a man of impact and character that he makes a book of the Bible. And his is no ordinary book just as he is no mean man. Daniel epitomizes godliness. His very life is a book on faithfulness, integrity, discipline and contentment. For instance, Daniel preferred vegetables and water to the king’s special delicacies. The king’s meal is abomination to Daniel; a defilement. (Dan. 8:18).

    King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of that ancient kingdom was so thrilled by Daniels divine nature that he bowed before Daniel and worshipped Daniel’s God. And at the height of his power and eminence, Daniel prevailed even in the den of wild lions. The captive boy from Judah had been catapulted by sheer excellent spirit to exalted position of leadership. Overtaken by envy, the owners of the land plotted against him… but the plotters and their families ended up not only in the den, but in the belly of lions.

    Most spectacularly, Daniel’s escapade led King Darius to write:

    “To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: … I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel… for He is the living God” (Dan. 6: 25-26, KJV).

    But a certain other Daniel of Nigerian stock has not read much about his namesake, it appears. Though, just as Daniel, the captive boy from Judah is imbued with leadership, Otunba Justus Olugbenga Daniel, OGD for short, is also a leader of his people. But in the news currently, OGD acts like a flagellating antenna. He has just abandoned his political party which he led to an electoral defeat. He made to hop on to the moving train of the winning party but for the horde of booing crowd. Right now he sits right there in the puddle of his own equivocations, the butt of raucous jokes. Not a Daniel is he?

     

  • A witness and evidence

    Former Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro’s answer to a question in court prompted other questions. Obanikoro, a witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the ongoing trial of former Ekiti State governor Ayo Fayose, can be described as a star witness.

    A March 20 report said: “Under cross-examination by counsel for Spotless Limited, Fayose’s co-accused, Mr Olalekan Ojo (SAN), Obanikoro said there was no documentary evidence to back up all he said in court. Ojo asked him: “Did you produce any evidence to back any of your assertions before this court?” Obanikoro answered: “No.” This happened at the Federal High Court in Lagos.

    Fayose is on trial for allegedly receiving and keeping N1.2 billion and $5 million allegedly stolen from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), contrary to the Money Laundering Act.  Obanikoro had allegedly delivered the money to Fayose to fund the former governor’s 2014 governorship campaign.   The EFCC listed Obanikoro as one of 22 witnesses to testify in the trial.

    Before the trial, in 2016, while Obanikoro was being questioned by the EFCC in connection with the distribution of over N4billion taken from the ONSA, he was quoted as saying: “Out of N4.685billon transferred to Sylva McNamara Limited, N3.880billion was transferred to both Ayodele Fayose and Senator Omisore through cash and bank transfers. The dollars contents were handed over to Fayose personally by me in the presence of some party leaders and he collected it and took it to the room next to where we were all seated.”

    Fayose had pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned on an 11-count charge last October. Obanikoro’s testimony was supposed to show that Fayose is guilty. The question is: Can this happen without “documentary evidence?”

    The lawyer’s question, Obanikoro’s response, and Fayose’s claim that he isn’t guilty, present an interesting picture. It suggests that this is a matter of Obanikoro’s word against Fayose’s.

    Obanikoro’s admitted failure to produce any evidence to back any of his assertions before the court could be problematic. Of course, there are other EFCC witnesses in the trial. However, it remains to be seen how Obanikoro’s non-presentation of evidence may affect the final outcome of the trial.

    From the look of things, Obanikoro never expected a day when he would be expected to provide corruption-related evidence against Fayose in court. Their corrupt collaboration, which Obanikoro testified to, will haunt them.

  • Rivers: the smelly sore of a nation

    Rivers lives also matter”, an advert by some prominent Rivers indigenes, should pass for the appeal of the moment: given the Armageddon the 2019 elections have turned in that troubled state.

    The Rivers sons that signed that advert are Atedo N. A. Peterside, George Etomi, Tein George, Emmanuel T. Georgewill, John Azuta Mbata, O.C.J. Okocha, SAN, and Herbert Wigwe.

    The advert touched the core of the Rivers crisis in the arch undemocratic, win-by-all-means-necessary culture, so entrenched in Rivers politics.

    “We are deeply troubled,” the advert lamented, “by the inability of the political leaders in our state to manage their rivalries and differences within acceptable norms of a civilized society as has been done in several other states in Nigeria.”

    The clincher “as has been done in several other states in Nigeria” really underscores the crisis.  While, even within the imperfections of Nigeria’s evolving democracy, the elite in most other states have at least agreed to some facsimile of elections, the Rivers political elite appear sold on election as nothing but bloody vote muscling.

    But even as this advertisement points one finger at the real problems, its four other fingers point to another source too sweet to resist — the Army in the Rivers election.  Yet, the Army as scapegoat won’t take the stain away.

    Now, whoever, among the military personnel involved in the crisis, that betrayed his service code, should be punished.  If it takes a judicial commission of inquiry to determine and punish all of the guilty parties, as the advert suggested, so be it.

    But the question still remains: was it only in Rivers the military were involved in the elections?  And wasn’t the military involved, in the first place, to secure the ballot, since there were serious threats of armed ballot-box snatching?

    So, why was it that it was only in Rivers that killings, maiming and destruction hit such a nadir, during an exercise that should ordinarily be a free carnival to re-elect performing leaders or sack fumbling ones, as the people do in a democracy?

    The bitter truth is that mostly in the past elections, qua elections, never took place in Rivers.  The introduction of the card reader, in 2015, brought fresh panic.  That year, much of that machine was subverted, to make way for the usual phantom returns in the name of “elections”.

    That year, 2015, too saw a split among the mainstream political elite: with Rotimi Amaechi going the new All Progressives Congress (APC) and Nyesom Wike, primed by “Okrika girl” and then sitting First Lady, Patience Jonathan, flying the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag.

    In fact, in 2015, the violence that greeted the Rivers election — pre, during and post — was more far spread and much more hideous, than this year’s.  Then, there were reports of near free-wheeling beheading, and the complete massacres of some families, just because they differ in political opinions.

    The only difference between then and now, it would appear, was because a home boy, Goodluck Jonathan, was the outgoing president; and playing down the massacre was quite expedient.

    If the Rivers people really want to be sincere, they should do a thorough soul-searching.  If they did, they would find out the military involvement was to checkmate the usual practice of muscling the vote, beam their torch on the local political warlords and put the blame squarely where it should be.

    Rivers lives do matter, yes.  But it’s Rivers local political potentates — not INEC, not the police and definitely not the military, which motives were to secure the vote — that endanger those lives.

    So, until the Rivers people tell themselves some home truth, that four-yearly slaughter may well continue.   Too sad and too bad!

  • Too much of a good thing

    There is an Igbo saying to the effect that you do not feed your son to death just because he is an incarnate of your father. This of course suggests that the Igbo of eastern Nigeria believe that life consists of an unbroken cycle of goings and comings… unto eternity.

    This must also be true of other tribes of Nigeria and peoples of the Black race generally. It explains why in the days of yore a new born child is taken before the diviner who would proclaim that alas, it is Nnamdi, meaning that Papa never died after all, here he is with us. Or that this baby girl before me is Yetunde: Mama who has returned to us.

    But as Hardball is won’t, this piece is not a disquisition on Nigerian and African traditional rites. As usual we are interrogating another situation of mis-governance which has lapsed into a conundrum.

    That small matter of acute governance paralysis concerns the nation’s ports management. The federal government has so much focused on the ports in Lagos that like the proverbial father-incarnate, the ports have been fed to suffocation and near death.

    The problem is better capture by the Vice-President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto when he said that, “Our total dependence on the Lagos ports is no longer good for business; it is over-burdening the city and its amenities, especially roads and bridges.”

    The situation simply is that the ports in Lagos – about three of them – have been fed with so much import and export businesses to the point that if they were humans they would have died of acute constipation.

    For more than five years the ports of Lagos which are in the Apapa axis have been over-burdened with so much outbound and inbound cargo that there is a spillage of trucks for about 10 to 15 kilometres into the city. Farinto thinks the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) must do the right thing for the overall good of the country by urgently making the other ports in the land viable.

    There are six other ports in Nigeria that ought to service the southern and northeastern parts of Nigeria. These are Onne, Koko,Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and Ibom Deep Sea port. But these have been rendered largely redundant due to overall mis-governance and poor understanding of the strategic economic importance of ports to the country.

    Concentrating on Lagos ports has vastly diminished the capacity of Nigeria’s maritime economy, while the economy and overall wellbeing of Lagos have been hampered: too much of a good thing.

    NPA must unleash the dragon of huge economic benefits in ports development.

     

  • El-Rufai’s self-importance

    Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State said something that attracted attention on the March 9 governorship election day.  El-Rufai, who was seeking re-election, had said to journalists while waiting to cast his vote: “I have no fears if I win or not because the president has already won his re-election. The worst thing that could happen is for me to lose the election. But since the president has already won his re-election bid, it means I already have a job in Abuja. Only my staff are jittery if I win or not and I usually share this joke with them.”

    It is interesting that El-Rufai sounded so sure about a job waiting for him in the Muhammadu Buhari presidency should he fail to get re-elected as governor. If he wasn’t re-elected after a four-year term, it would have suggested that his administration had failed and the electorate wanted a change.

    But he was re-elected. “Alhamdulillah! We campaigned vigorously on our record and continuously prayed for God to choose the best leader for Kaduna State even if that choice is someone else!! God has decided. We are grateful to over 1 million Kaduna voters through whom He made us the choice,” he tweeted following the announcement of the result.

    El-Rufai, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), got 1,045,427 votes. Alhaji Isah Ashiru of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 814,168 votes. The APC won in 14 local government areas (LGAs). The PDP won in nine LGAs. There are 23 LGAs in the state.

    By boasting that the Presidency would have given him a job if he had lost the governorship election, El-Rufai unwittingly gave an insight into how some people get jobs in the Presidency. Why was El-Rufai so confident that he would get a job if he had lost the governorship election?

    Had he been promised a job? Was a job reserved for him? On what basis would he deserve a job if he had lost the governorship election? Or was it just an empty boast? Was El-Rufai just trying to show that he had solid connections in the Presidency, and that given Buhari’s re-election there was no way he would be out of the power loop even if he had lost the governorship election?

    This is how some people in power go about promoting their self-defined relevance.  Such people are full of self-importance.

  • IE’s formula

    In James Hadley Chase’s Want to Stay Alive, Poke Toholo declared: “I’ve found the formula that opens wallets – fear”!

    In that Chase crime thriller, Toholo proceeded to savagely poke his victims, with his terrible formula, with tragic consequences — until the all-mighty law found him out; and put him where all criminals belonged.

    Ever found a corporate version of Poke Toholo – and in real business life, not in Chase’s fiction?  Well, Ikeja Electric Plc (IE), as other electricity distribution companies (DiScos), busy fleecing helpless customers, month-in, month-out, may just fit the bill.

    These DiScos have sure found a formula to, willy-nilly, open the wallet of electricity consumers – estimated billing, at its highly lucrative, reckless and customer-exploitative worst!

    The enabler of this toxic gold is forced disconnection; a notorious inheritance from the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) days, legacies of fraud and brazen cheating that still rankle.

    The question is: will the law ever catch up with these DisCos, as it did of Chase’s Toholo?  It had better, before these unconscionable, cheating DisCos cause a social uproar; which they continue to bait from their cheated customers.

    Take IE and a customer with account no. 0100218678, in the Okota neighbourhood, in that community collectively called Okota Residents Association (ORA) Zone A, whose members have been, “forever” engaging IE over what they call “crazy bills”.

    However, IE appears too busy enjoying its illicit loot, from supplying darkness, to care a hoot – beyond its merry-go-round of all talk, no walk.

    In the February bill dated 07-03-2019, IE awarded itself N14, 306.25 as “current bill”.  Yet, almost half of that period, a local fault always resulted in a sudden collapse of voltage, causing the light to be switched off, for umpteenth repairs.

    IE, as greedy as it is merry, was probably buoyed by that customer’s decision to pay all his claimed January bill: N13, 001, up from the N10, 000 he always paid, knowing the electricity he enjoyed was far less than that.

    And voodoo of voodoos!  IE is claiming a “net arrears” of N13, 531.78, all previous arbitrary billings the customers had shunned, but which IE duly rolled over, in its voodoo book of “debts”.

    What is more?  In February, with even less supply, IE’s bill popped up by another N1, 000 – N14, 306.25, up from N13, 000, IE’s “normal” monthly award to itself, on that customer’s account!

    Now, if that isn’t corporate greed and fraud, Hardball would like to know what it is!

    The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had better call IE and other DisCos to order.  Babatunde Fashola, the minister of Power, Works and Housing, should join in this crusade to curb these cheats.

    Since the latest round of “crazy bills” hit households in the ORA Zone A, Okota neighbourhood, the reaction has been a shriek and a shrill, with furious residents challenging the ORA executive over its endless dialogue with IE.

    But that reaction approximates nationwide households’ anger at unfair bills, which the deluded DisCos expect customers to continue paying.

    The authorities had better intervene, before jaw-jaw turns war-war.  A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.

  • Pastor Thomas meets Jabez

    You don’t know Pastor Thomas because he doesn’t exist. He is a figment of Hardball’s imagination. But recall that Hardball is as fecund of imagination as a woman pregnant with triplets. Yes, even if he says so himself.

    Pastor Thomson is a mere model of today’s mammon evangelism. He is a perfect picture of sons of mammon who have debauched the good book; who have managed to craft carnality into spirituality and unbeknownst to them, they go about spreading Tramadol gospel and they feed the flock with aphrodisiacal of faith.

    A mammon evangelist, the verisimilitude of a Pastor Thomson is often big and swashbuckling. Or shall we say living unwholesomely by bread alone often renders him oversized and disproportionate. He therefore covers his carnal mass with profusion of garments… large, overflowing gowns, extra-sized three-piece suits and elaborate silk robes that hardly conceal his obscene flatulence. He lives in the biggest mansion and owns the biggest cars and jets. He is a god in his own carnal image..

    A mammon evangelist is often of small and humble beginning; but because his eyes are eternally trained on worldly fripperies and gems, he soon begins to trade in the Word. The Bible warns that we be wary of fake pastors who steal in his name.

    But when you organise crusades every week with the hidden motive of fleecing the lost; when you target vulnerable rich widows for special prayers; when you guilefully ‘obtain’ unsuspecting foreign missions; and you commoditise miracles, you are mammon-driven and you are merchandising the gospel. You are stealing in the name of God.

    Now what is the connection between a Pastor Thomson and good old Jabez of the Old Testament age?

    Jabez (1Chronicles 4: 9-10) is one of the most enigmatic characters of the Bible. He is a one-paragraph personality who has spawned more reviews than some books. He is introduced as more honourable than his brothers. But his mother named him Jabez because he bore him in pain.

    Then the famous Jabez prayer: “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

    The Bible says: “So God granted him what he requested.”

    Now Pastor Thomson and the horde of mammon evangelists of this day must have read about Jabez but they obviously have no understanding.

    Old Jabez asks his Maker to bless him and enlarge his coast and is quick to plead that God’s hands be on him and keep him from evil. Why?

    Simple: Because mammon is the route of all evil and without God’s steadying hand, you would end up serving Mammon like all Pastor Thomsons of today.

     

    • First published August 30, 2018

  • Ajimobi and posterity

    Traducers are at it. Malefactors seem to be in a party. They are gloating that Senator Abiola Ajimobi somehow did not succeed as governor because his party failed to produce a successor in the recent governorship battle for the Oyo State prime seat. More so, since he did not win his senate bid.

    In a fight against memory, such critics want to pretend that his two-term eight years as governor of Oyo State did not exist and did not count. They want to believe it, and others ride on such a hollow illusion.

    After Winston Churchill led the British through the most harrowing years of its history, the people voted him out. They said it did not matter that he was the lion that roared ahead of his countrymen through the Second World War, above the rubbles and tragedy of the trauma. They dismissed him as a warmonger and they said they wanted a man of peace instead as prime minister. His foes conned the majority into repudiating the orator and statesman, who would later be regarded, by common consent, as the best English man who ever lived. Just as Awolowo is to the Yoruba race.

    When Bill Clinton was president, he gave the United States the greatest economic expansion in history. Yet Americans rejected his chosen successor, Al Gore, and gave the crown to George W. Bush, the man who led them to an absurd war that would kill so many Americans, obliterate the economic gains of the Clinton Years and sow the seed of the Islamic insurgency that gave birth to Al Qaeda and ISIS arising from the conflagration of Sept 11, 2001.

    In the memory of politics, sometimes the big picture suffers. But Senator Ajimobi does not need to shout to the rooftop about all he has done. People will not forget in a hurry that before he became governor, the state, especially in heartland of Ibadan, was a cesspool of factional turbulence. We had the menace as legacy from the man of amala politics, Adedibu, who had transformed populism into a grassroots excuse for blood and death. Or road transport workers who saw any febrile moment as a platform to throw scare into Ibadan streets, leaving deaths, fear and trembling in their wake. Came Ajimobi, came calm.

    Nor can it be forgotten in a hurry what he accomplished in infrastructure work of many kilometres across the state. Is it the roads like dualisation of several interchanges, the construction of townships roads in Ibadan, Ogbomosho, Oyo, etc, or the landmark roads like the Ife Gate, or is it the bridges that rose from the earth to cancel the tragedies of the great flood like the Mokola Bridge? Or shall we forget that Ibadan was the dirtiest city in West Africa when he took over, with grime and dust and rot and all the violations of innocent nostrils with its stench. All that is gone now. What of legacy roads like the Ibadan Circular Road abandoned for 15 years or the Asejire Waterworks left to fallow for about 17 years.

    In the spirit of Awolowo, education and schools blossomed again, and he brought foreign direct investment of more than $61 billion with jobs. What of free trade zone and industrial park and agriculture. And more.

    Some may forget now, but history will never forget. That’s why statesmen govern – for posterity.