The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Atiku the acrobat

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar still wants to be president. He said   at a ceremony to re-launch his power project on July 21: “It is time to now re-embrace the party that has given us unity, prosperity and security in this country.” Abubakar was talking about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).  “Now what the PDP is going to do is to restore our economy, to unite our country, to ensure we have security of lives and property, “he added.

    It was yet another spectacular somersault in a political career known for political acrobatics.  Abubakar, 71, Nigeria’s second in command from 1999 to 2007, keeps moving from party to party in a striking demonstration of rootlessness.  Here is a picture of his political mobility:  Peoples Democratic Party (1998 – 2006, 2009- 2013); Action Congress (2006-2009); All Progressives Congress (2013-2017); Peoples Democratic Party (2017-Present).

    There is no question that Abubakar’s ambition to be president drives his perpetual motion.  Being a political acrobat must come with its own difficulties.  These constant flips put him in a tough position. They don’t enhance his image. But he continues to indulge in spins.

    There was a time he described APC as “a party of change committed to the improvement of the lives of our people and to the continued existence and development of Nigeria as one indivisible country.”  Then he moved again.

    Abubakar’s acrobatics show that his political trajectory is not informed by any firm philosophy.  It is too easy and unconvincing merely to appeal to a self-righteous interest in working for thoroughgoing socio-political change and advancement, without any demonstration of a fundamental guiding principle. Talk is cheap!

    Perhaps Abubakar wasn’t joking when he said good things about PDP, but he sounded like a joker.  As a federal ruling party, PDP was not progressive and could even be said to have been anti-people. It is easier to give a party a pro-people name than to ensure that the party is pro-people.

    Abubakar’s moves and movements betray his chameleonic politics.  This unprincipled changeability darkens the integrity of his ambition.  As presidential aspirants focus on next year’s general election, there will be more acrobatic displays.  Abubakar should not be ruled out. The question is: For how long will this going and coming go on?  This going and coming cannot go on forever.

     

     

  • Ekiti: The mo(u)rning after

    Today, Hardball “pilfers” from Professor Olatunji Dare’s column on the Ekiti gubernatorial election, which he called “Ekiti: the morning after”.  That was on July 17, when victory was still fresh; and defeat was so stark.  Bitter-sweet, that’s how life rolls!

    But a week later, both defeat and victory are seeping in, and that morning, of golden rays for the victors, and hanging clouds for the losers, could well be assuming some heavy hues  — and in both camps too.

    Hence, a Hardball pun: “Ekiti: the mo(u)rning after!

    Perhaps to symbolise new mourning for Governor Ayodele Fayose, the self-acclaimed “irunmole to nje jollof rice” (the demon that devours and savours jollof rice), who nevertheless failed to instal his side-kick, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, his deputy as his successor as he had bragged, it’s yet mo(u)rning — that pun again — on humility day.

    From the Oshoko camp, it’s been jeremiad all round.  Once boisterous, the Oshoko has since been eating crow — not the delicious jollof rice, in the best spirit of stomach infrastructure, buried under ponmo, shaki, edo, fuku and allied orisirisi, the incomparable innards of the Yoruba “mama-put” — when he went visiting the Ewi, the paramount ruler of the state capital, Ado-Ekiti, clad in black.  Might the outgoing governor be mourning?

    The one who hitherto would thunder and literarily dare the Kabiyesi to controvert him was fully prostrate, his six-foot frame long.  And he wouldn’t get up until the Kabiyesi said so — Kabiyesi oooooooooo!

    And the gubernatorial complaints came in torrents: security agencies had barricaded Government House, security helicopters were hovering over in the skies, and his gubernatorial humiliation was complete.  The Ewi promptly promised to help do “something”.

    Well, it’s hard to believe whatever Fayose claims.  Having cried wolf too many times when there was none, it’s very difficult to believe whatever gambit he rustles up again.  Still, if the allegations are true, the federal authorities should ease off.  For all his empty brinkmanship, Fayose is still Ekiti governor.  Even if everyone finds it difficult to respect his person, folks should respect the Ekiti electorate that put him there; and are enduring his gubernatorial tomfoolery.

    But the mourning after is not limited to the Fayose camp alone.  After the giddiness of victory, there is some sobriety, if not outright mourning, creeping in on the Fayemi camp.

    For starters, Fayemi would have to clear salary backlogs, a problem not his creation at his first coming exit, despite Fayose, as governor-elect, wilfully causing a one-month delay, because he threatened the banks, who balked from their arrangement with the Ekiti government.

    Aside from salaries, the Ikogosi question is dire metaphor for Fayose’s wilful retardation, in just four short years.  Not only is the Ikogosi resort decrepit again, Gossy bottled spring water, a public-private sector investment in the warm springs, has vanished — again in four short years!  And that with the budding bubbling rural economy that came with it.

    That would take the mourning to the early months of the Fayemi gubernatorial encore, when the workers bay for unpaid salary logs, literarily putting a gun to Fayemi’s head!  But they should “chill” — as they say, with the street lingo.

    The Ekiti debacle requires a serious, sober and collective effort.  The first few months would be tetchy.  But if Ekiti must reclaim their future, after voting for the past four years ago, they must be reasonable partners, not bristling and squealing aliens, in the salvage mission.

  • Ortom’s autumnal?

    Hardball is in a bit of a daze: yes, you read it right; tizzy, dizzy if not tipsy. Who wouldn’t? Not if you are assailed by an armada of thousands of trucks and articulated vehicles in your city; not if you are doing a journey of 30 minutes in three hours and you are cooped in your vehicle deep into the night and exposed to all the elements of a rowdy city’s night. You are sure to get bleary eyed if you have to park your car on one end of a grisly traffic divide and walk to another end of the logjam…

    And you might be quick to seek the nexus between Hardball’s vicissitudinous city life and the byzantine ways of a state governor; wondering whether the connection is not far-fetched by some measure. Far from it.

    You must know Samuel Ioraer Ortom, the quixotic governor of the embattled Benue State in north central Nigeria. Now there is a de ja vu about everything concerning Ortom including the above title. It seems to Hardball he had deployed this title once before but cannot ascertain that just now.

    It is the same way Hardball cannot ascertain the true content, character and persona of Gov. Ortom right now. The governor has the mien and visage of a callow gentleman and a gritty godfather messed into one. In all the troubles visited on his state and people by their herdsmen compatriot, Ortom stole the spotlight. He enacted the contentious anti-grazing law his neighbors could not; in the ensuing massacre of his people, he played the perfect victim and pacifist in equal and dignified measures!

    Just when you think Ortom is confused; confounded even, he pulls the ace from his bold black-and-white striped medicine man’s sack.

    How about this new twist in the life of an emerging regional political juggernaut: as you read this, this governor who has admitted that he did stints as a motor-park tout is listed by Wikipedia as having announced his departure from his party, the all Progressives Congress (APC), in July 2018.

    But Wikipedia would have to reverse itself quickly as Ortom has made a swift back-flip that even Obafemi Martins would envy. Recalled that last week, Ortom announced he had been given a ‘red card’ by his party, APC. But before another market day cycle has passed Ortom sings a new song: “I am here in APC… I am still flying the flag of APC… I only said I was given a red card and that has been corrected by the national leadership of the party.

    Could this be construed as Ortom’s autumnal? Just wondering…

     

     

  • Credit, discredit and accreditation

    An oriental wisdom suggests that while the dead lie in state, the living, if need be, would be made to lie in a state. This, Hardball would translate to mean that the same delicate art of managing a cadaver could be applied in managing walking body. Or put differently again, just because a body is up and about does not mean that it is in a proper state of mind; it may well be lying in state – vertically!

    Now why is Hardball in a morbid mode in this season of goodwill? Well, a story broke over the weekend that medical students of the University of Abuja had to spend 12 years to graduate instead of six years! And it is not because they are particularly dull-heads that needed a minimum of two years to achieve an academic year.

    No! It was actually for no fault of the students who were actually rendered prostrate by the state. It just happens that the Federal Government that owns the institution through the instrumentality of the Federal Ministry of Education must have been in a certain awkward state while this aberration persisted. Or if you prefer, government and the university administration may have been lying in state (or lying about its state) for 12 years while all this lasted.

    This is exactly Hardball’s sentiments which also inform this hoary morbidity in a time of Yuletide. And there is no credit in the explanation that the institution was broiled in accreditation matters. Again that discredits both government and institution in equal measure.

    Why would a federal tertiary institution for that matter lack the necessary prerequisite for the statutory accreditation of its courses? And why would a university admit students into departments and faculties not properly accredited by the requisite accrediting authorities? Why would government and school management watch students suffer for so long; wasting time and resources for twelve years; inflicting emotional and psychological trauma on helpless students?

    This horrifically horizontal state of affairs is not peculiar to UniAbuja; many so- called federal tertiary institutions have become a hollow shell burdened by their old glory. University of Ife for instance, a once glorious citadel has its Law and Medicine programmes in a shambles right now.

    If gold rusts! It is a known fact that most state-owned universities and technical schools are just destinations for academic dereliction. For many, they are just going through the motion of studying as a good number of their courses are without accreditation at any given time.

    What really is the duty of the National Universities Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education? They are a most discredited bunch if federal institutions of learning are suffering accreditation hiccups. Are they lying in state?

     

  • Bad record

    Outgoing Governor of Ekiti State Ayo Fayose once again showed his stuff as he reportedly went on the air to declare Prof Kolapo Olusola as the winner of the governorship election of July 14. Olusola, the deputy governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, was Fayose’s personal choice, but he needed to win the election.

    While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prepared to officially announce the election result, Fayose announced on the Ekiti State Broadcast Service (EKBS) that his choice had won the election. Olusola didn’t win. Dr Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the election.

    Fayose’s radio broadcast was illegal. He knew it was illegal. The information was erroneous.  He knew it was erroneous. It is commendable that the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) swiftly shut down EKBS. The NBC accused the station of breaching provisions of the electoral act and broadcasting code by allowing the governor to declare the result of the governorship election, which was INEC’s responsibility.

    The NBC said in a statement: “The commission has taken the decision to curb the continued breach of the Electoral Act and the Broadcasting Code on Political Broadcast. The commission is particularly irked by the unauthorised declaration of results by the governor in the state broadcast station. This is after he went on air to make malicious and unsubstantiated comments against INEC, the Police and the SSS. The station will remain shut down until further notice.”

    When it comes to succession, there are kingmakers who don’t understand that kingmaking has  its limits. This is the heart of the matter. Fayose wasn’t going to follow the path of democracy and allow the democratic process to elect his successor. The problem with kingmakers is that they are usually willing to do anything to bring their candidates to power.

    It is noteworthy that Fayose caused a stir last year when he named his deputy as his successor.

    Justifying his choice, Fayose had said during a thanksgiving service to mark his third year in office:  ”I wanted Kayode Osho, but the Lord said it is Kolapo Olusola and I had no choice but to obey.”

    Governors who think they must pick their successors appear desperate to remain in power after their tenure. It is contrived continuity. Again and again, outgoing governors want to impose their choices on the people, claiming that it is in the people’s interest. Fayose set a bad record by his radio broadcast.

  • The slum in my head

    Never mind the above title. Hardball can reveal to you that it actually means nothing. After a long week – Monday to Friday – you have battered your cranium so much that by Friday afternoon, it has become semi-shutdown and seeking very much to be liberated from your unforgiving keyboard and screen. So after searching for hours for a lead on the next story and deadline stares you down, you better put down any title that appeals to you and move on with it.

    This is the story of the above title, dear reader. So make nothing of it.

    But segue into the story of today about the nation’s premier sea ports in Apapa, Lagos. A story which is the report of a study says that about 4,500 trucks head into the precincts of the Apapa ports daily that have no business heading in that direction. The story emanates from a survey carried out by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), so it may be save to say that they ought to know.

    This of course means chaos with an oversized ‘C’. And this is what Africa’s largest country’s port has become in the last five years or so. The Apapa vicinities which holds three ports has been on a ruinous lockdown occasioned by this swarm of trucks; failed highways; long-dysfunctional and abandoned rail lines and sludge-in-the-mind leadership.

    With truck occupying most of the precincts of the ports, business and commercial activities have been left comatose. Then human wastes from truck drivers and truck hands who have no other conveniences pile up on the roads and pavements. Thick stench rises each day with the sun and completes the ugly picture of a sea port vicinity-turned into a shanty.

    Importers cannot retrieve their goods and charges pile like the wastes outside the ports. Export produce are trapped outside the ports for weeks, often diminishing their export quality. Everyone bleeds profusely, physically, mentally and even spiritually… the nation dries up and shrivels from loss of huge revenues and jobs.

    And if you have seen ports, especially some of the largest and best ports in the world, your heart is bound to bleed to knock point. The Automated Offshore Container Terminal is the 4th phase of the Shanghai International Port Group. It recently earned its place as the largest offshore container port in the world. It is also the busiest. It is fully automated to the point that it is called a ghost port. Hardly any soul is found on the sprawling sea empire; well, except tourists.

    It handled about 35 million containers about four years ago, it has about 125 berths and over five thousand cargo handling equipment.

    Last Word: If perchance you have seen the Shanghai wonder you would contemplate Apapa as a slum won’t you?

  • Direct vs indirect primaries

    Osun is in a whirr, over the mode its gubernatorial primary elections, billed for July 19, should take: a direct primary, involving every card-carrying member of the party; or an indirect one, in which picked delegates vote to choose the party’s candidate, on behalf of entire party membership?

    The indirect primary is backed by the concept of delegation, from which “delegates” comes.  In terms of logistics, it is cheaper, would appear easier to control and track, and definitely would appear easier to secure, since all of the delegates would be under one roof; or gathered in an open arena like a stadium, etc.  That would appear to explain its pull with political parties, since the return of democracy in 1999.

    Still, despite its cheapness and tendency for easy control and tracking, it has proved very costly on one front: corruption.  Most, if not all, of the indirect primaries conducted so far have been blighted by savage tales of voter contamination with money.  It would appear another illicit market where money, not conscience is king.  Such brazen bribing of delegates, to choose party candidates, is one of the gargoyle of our current democracy.  Sad.

    Direct primary?  Like the indirect primary, nothing is wrong with the concept.  As indirect primary is restricted to a few picked members, the direct primary is open to every registered member, ready and willing to vote.

    Because it involves every party member, it also holds the prospects of galvanizing every partisan, during the primary election period, thus rousing them in readiness for the big one.  If well managed, it could be a positive show of strength, in which the party members rally and the opposition disappear into their partisan hole!

    But it does have a critical factor: logistics and security.  Before adopting the direct primary, the party must be sure of its logistics, such that exercise is managed, such that it looks credible to everyone — winners or losers.  And security must be tight and adequate too.  Otherwise, it would be a waste.

    Is it corruption-free?  Definitely not.  But because a larger number of party people are involved, and resources are scare and fixed, it logically follows that those jumbo bribe-for-vote stories, often reported from indirect primaries, are more difficult to achieve.

    So, perhaps political parties should try direct primaries, but plug every possible hole of voter bribery?

    If well organized, it might just be a better alternative — more party members are in the decision chain.  That should translate into higher legitimacy, especially if the exercise is perceived by all to be free, fair, clean and transparent.

    Still, no system is good or bad.  It is how people maintain the integrity of each.  So, if direct primaries must be tried, it had better be immaculately organized, such that it can earn the confidence of all.

    But more than the integrity of whichever one chosen, a vital precursor is to ensure most of the members are convinced and have bought into the idea.  Whichever way, the decision of the overwhelming members of the party is key.

    At the end of the day, however, deepening democratic choice should be paramount in the mind of everyone.  If that means trying direct primaries in lieu of the delegate system, it’s probably worth a try.

  • Directors who are not directors

    It is interesting that the Federal High Court in Lagos on July 3 dismissed an application for a plea reversal by four companies that had pleaded guilty to laundering $15.5 million allegedly belonging to former First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan. The firms’ lawyer argued that those who represented them were not authorised to do so. The lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), reportedly declared:  “They’re just busybodies and interlopers, who were pressured to come and plead guilty. They had no mandate to do so.”

    According to a report, Ozekhome said he was briefed to represent the companies after its directors pleaded guilty despite not being authorised by the board to do so. He prayed that the trial be done de novo (afresh) and that the previous proceedings and the companies’ conviction be declared null, void and unsustainable in law.

    The prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, countered the claim that the directors who pleaded guilty were not authorised, saying there was evidence from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and from the companies’ bank accounts that they were indeed directors.

    It is interesting that the companies’ lawyer introduced this twist.  The claim that the said directors “were pressured to come and plead guilty” suggested that they were directors.  On what basis were they allegedly pressured to plead guilty, if they were not directors?  On what basis did they plead guilty, if they were not directors?

    It is interesting that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the companies with a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to President Jonathan, Dr. Waripamo Dudafa; a lawyer, Amajuoyi Briggs, who is the companies’ secretary, and a banker, Adedamola Bolodeoku. Unlike the companies, Dudafa, Briggs and Bolodeoku pleaded not guilty to the 17-count charge.

    If the said directors were forced to plead guilty as the lawyer claimed, did those who pleaded not guilty do so because they were not forced to plead guilty, or because they refused to plead guilty?

    This is a corruption–related case involving a huge amount of money. The said directors who pleaded guilty have not said that they were pressured to do so. Who are the directors that should have represented the companies, if those who did were not authorised to do so?

    The point is that the move by the companies’ lawyer was intended to complicate an uncomplicated case. As the court ruled, the prayers amounted to asking the judge to revisit his ruling and to assume the position of an appellate court. It was laughable.

     

    • This article was first published on July 9, 2018

     

  • Ekiti: History, tragedy and farce

    With Governor Ayo Fayose’s latest theatrics in Ekiti, you cannot but recall how apt is the Karl Marx famous quip: history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.

    The slight exception here is that Fayose’s current theatrics, of grave allegations of some presidential order to kill both himself and his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka — as hare-brained as they come — is a double turbo-charge: tragedy and farce all rolled into one; and dramatically and forcefully served, with more than enough cant and crocodile tears to spare.

    Instructive: the Ekiti Mobile Police unit is central to the whole drama — which brings back the ghosts of 2014, a friendly apparition now turned infernally fiendish, from which Fayose now flees in blind panic. Poor guy!

    Roll back to 2014. It was Fayose’s triumphant re-entry, when he strutted around in DSS bullet-proof vests, the toast of the Goodluck Jonathan-era security personnel, from the Army, DSS to the Police, who waited on him: just snap your fingers, our emperor, and we would jump at your bidding!

    Aside from the security regulars, illicit flexing of muscles wasn’t left behind, as some suspected Niger Delta militants, camouflaged as regular security personnel, were alleged to be on the prowl, ready to strike. President Jonathan was determined to “capture” the Southwest, using Ekiti and Osun as opening gambits.

    It was a period of high madness. The Jonathan security apparatus banned even partisan governors and other party heavyweights from accessing Ekiti, to attend Kayode Fayemi’s campaign rally, turning them back at Ikere-Ekiti.

    At the climax of this brazen power show, the commander of the Ekiti local MOPOL declared, to a harried Fayemi, though a sitting governor, and Ekiti’s chief security officer: he knew of no governor. He only took orders from the IGP!

    Fayose would later go on to win 16-0! That was a time, if there was any, when Wole Soyinka’s famous tongue-in-cheek became dire reality: the end justifies the meanness.

    Four years later, change — which Heraclitus the Greek says is the only permanent thing in life — has shown itself. Those security apparatuses have changed hands. The friendly and enabling ghosts of 2014 have suddenly turned, for Fayose, fiendish and disabling ones.

    To be sure, the change of sides could be real, given Nigeria’s sociology of power. But for a dramatist and soulless demagogue like Fayose, it could well be a case of the guilty fleeing, when no one pursues them.

    Still, why would any president, whose party is going into an election, order the summary execution of Fayose (sitting governor) and his deputy (governorship candidate) — to what end?

    But then, imagine the troubled soul that rot was coming from — that, in the middle of high delirium, “ordered” the president of the Federal Republic, come to campaign for his party’s candidate, to get out of Ekiti, where Fayose, in his own words, was “commander-in-chief”!

    It was a classic case of high underdog rascality, in an insane gallery play. Well, it turned out, from Fayose’s tearful drama, that the so-called Ekiti commander-in-chief could command nothing but pitiful tears, which genuineness you can’t even vouch for.

    Besides, did the other party crowd the streets with counter-partisans when Fayose’s PDP was holding its own mega-rally? Did anyone try to induce transporters to ground the state, for an alleged exchange of N10, 000 each, which alleged non-consummation reportedly resulted in the fracas, which the Police had to break up with teargas, in Government House precinct?

    Whatever happens tomorrow, Ekiti should have learnt its lesson not to ever again vote a cur as governor. A gubernatorial cur is a curse to all. That summarises Ekiti’s situation today.

     

  • Okorocha marches on

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha will leave office next year after two four-year terms.  Okorocha wants his son-in-law, Chief Uche Nwosu, to succeed him. Nwosu is Chief of Staff, Government House, under his father-in-law.

    It is clear that Okorocha doesn’t care whether the deputy governor, Eze Madumere, wants to be governor. “I will tell the deputy governor to go to the Senate,” he said in February during the inauguration of members of Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC) at Government House, Owerri.

    Madumere had rejected Okorocha’s kingmaker role.   “God’s given vision to better the lot of Imo people is in no man’s hands,” he had responded in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Uche Onwuchekwa, describing Okorocha’s role as a betrayal.

    But, from the look of things, Okorocha is marching on.  A July 11 report said: “Careful political watchers in the state were jolted, when the assemblymen who at their last sitting announced a two-month vacation were recalled by the leadership of the House yesterday. The pro-Governor Rochas Okorocha lawmakers had last month, suspended four lawmakers believed to be loyal to Madumere. Prior to the main issue of the day and in a bid to get the required number to commence and actualise the impeachment process, another lawmaker, Donatus Onuigwe, representing Oru West constituency was summarily suspended.”

    The report continued: “The member representing Owerri Municipality, who doubles as the House Majority Leader, Lugard Osuji, moved the motion for Onuigwe’s suspension. With Onuigwe out of the way, the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Ugonna Ozuruigbo, took his turn and read out what he alleged were the sins of the Deputy Governor.”

    In a petition signed by 13 of the 27 members of the House, the deputy governor was accused of absconding from his office for more than three months without permission. Other allegations: the deputy governor’s refusal to carry out official duties assigned him by the governor, refusal to attend State Executive Council meetings, refusal to hold meetings with the governor and commissioners and imprisonment for theft in the United States.

    The alleged gross misconduct and dereliction of duty should be punished with impeachment, the lawmakers argued, and directed Chief Judge Paschal Nnadi to constitute an investigative committee.

    So, Madumere is faced with a possibility of impeachment. It is understandable that protesters reportedly “took to the streets of Owerri to condemn the impeachment proceedings.”

    The sequence of events is food for thought.  It looks like Okorocha is marching on.