The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • June 12: of life and death

    Twenty-five years tomorrow, June 12, 1993 to be precise, Basorun MKO Abiola, won a watershed election, many still refer to as the freest and fairest ever in Nigerian history.

    On 23 June 1993, the military junta, headed by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, would purport to have annulled that election, in a most arrogant and cynical of manners.  Nduka Irabor, press secretary to Babangida’s No. 2, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, would saunter into the press and drop an unsigned statement, claiming the election had been annulled.  What arrogance!  What outlawry!

    Then on 7 July 1998, after Sani Abacha’s sudden expiry on 8 June 1998, sitting Head of State, Gen.  Abdulsalami Abubakar, would announce MKO’s sudden death, after taking tea, in the presence of some American diplomatic visitors, he met after four years in detention, for declaring himself president, based on the June 12 presidential results.

    The people knew what Abubakar did not say and did not want them to think: MKO had been martyred, to clear the ground for a fresh start: IBB had stepped aside, Abacha had expired and MKO had been martyred!  Clinical, wasn’t it?

    Even Olusegun Obasanjo, product of a 1999 presidency the late Fela would dismiss as Army Arrangement (AA), haughtily announced May 29 — after the 29 May 1999 that he took power — as his Democracy Day; and, inaction, deeds, body language and all, he all but decreed June 12 had been buried; and MKO’s martyrdom with it!  The dead, as James Hadley Chase, in one of his crime thrillers would say, stay dumb!

    That subsisted until Wednesday, 6 June 2018, when MKO triumphantly resurrected, golden thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari’s recognition of his martyrdom, and restoration of the watershed June 12 as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day, effective 12 June 2019.

    It was a pleasant bolt from the blues, that gave MKO life but instantly degraded his traducers — most of them fortunately still living — into the living dead, out of indefensible shame.

    At the height of that most wayward of irresponsibilities, IBB boasted he was not only in government, he was also in power.  Thank Allah, and during the holy month of

    Ramadan too, a fellow retired general, a former military head of state like himself and a fellow Muslim, PMB, is now showing IBB a few golden tutorials on how to use governance and power for public good and manifest justice.

    Obasanjo, the chief beneficiary of MKO’s martyrdom, who went through his eight years of imperial presidency and who apparently could not find anywhere to hide his face, has come out with stunning allegations about someone, somewhere trying to frame him as Abacha did; and how his life was no longer safe.  Nice try!

    Though Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Information and Culture minister, has poured ice-cold water on the allegations, dismissing them as frivolous and as red herring wilfully timed to deflect attention from the June 12 rehabilitation issue, let the state act fair with Obasanjo, as it just did with MKO.

    The Bible, the Christian holy book, says righteousness exalts a nation.  So, it is with the June 12 issue.  No matter how long injustice might last, justice overtakes it in a jiffy.

    Congrats, PMB!  Congrats, fair-minded Nigerians.  Viva , MKO.  Nigeria will yet be great.

  • A promise is a debt

    What does it take to keep a promise? Seriousness is what it takes. When the government announced that it would reward former Super Eagles coach Bonfrere Jo with a three-bedroom flat for the country’s soccer victory at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia, it wasn’t expected that  the Dutchman would wait for 24 years to get the reward. Bonfrere also played a role in the national U23 team’s football gold medal win at the Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games.

    When Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on June 5, gave Bonfrere the keys to a three-bedroom apartment in Gwagwalada, Abuja, he had to apologise for the unbelievable delay:  “Let me on behalf of the President apologise to you that it has taken so long for the Nigerian government to come through. We thank you for your contributions to the development of our country, our youth, football and to say that it is better late than never.”

    Fashola observed: “Ordinarily, this ought to be a short meeting but if it takes 24 years for the government of the country to respond to its citizens, it must assume a news making event.” Why did it take so long? Governments come and go, but that’s no excuse.

    The timing of this event is interesting. The Super Eagles are set for this year’s World Cup competition in Russia, and Fashola said he hoped that it would “serve as an inspiration to our players going to the World Cup and the officials that this government will be there for you all the way.” The question must be asked: If this wasn’t a World Cup year, would this government have remembered Bonfrere and the unkept promise?

    Bonfrere, now 71years old, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government, but he must have wondered about the years that have passed. Many others must be wondering too.

    The unencouraging attitude that delayed Bonfrere’s reward has made several sportsmen and women turn their backs on the country.  The authorities need to grasp an important principle: if they can’t keep their promises, they shouldn’t make them in the first place.

    This is not only about sports. In other areas too, those in power tend to behave as though their predecessor’s promises do not matter. There are promises that transcend the tenure of incumbents, like the promise to Bonfrere.

    Congratulations to Bonfrere.  Shame on those whose small-mindedness kept him waiting for 24 years.

  • Achilles the cat

    A chilles the Cat, Paul the Octopus — those are the sound bites you hear when the FIFA World Cup fever hits its crescendo.

    Paul the Octopus (hatched: 26 January 2008 in Weymouth, England and died 26 October 2010 in Oberhausen, Germany) it was, the animal oracle sensation that not only correctly predicted all of Germany’s matches at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but also correctly predicted Spain would be crowned world champions.

    According to Wikipedia, this was how Octopus Paul worked — and ‘divined’: “During divinations, Paul’s keepers would present him with two boxes containing food.  The boxes were identical except that they were decorated with different team flags of the competitors in an upcoming football match.  Whichever box Paul ate from was considered his prediction for which team would win the match.”

    Paul would go ahead to correctly predict 12 out of 14 matches, in the run-on from Germany’s participation in Euro 2008 (the European Nations Cup) to the World Cup, chalking an accurate rate of 85.7 per cent.

    Well, just as well there was no Octopus running the prediction show at Brazil 2014.  It would have been interesting to see anyone — man or animal — predict the result of that one, with Germany thrashing mighty Brazil 7-1, in front of their own home crowd at the Maracana, the stadium that boasts the biggest crowd bowl in the world!

    Well, in Russia, Achilles the Cat would run the show.  For starters, Achilles now lives in St. Petersburg, at the Hermitage museum, which once served as the winter palace for the Russian czar.  Call it a royal celebrity, if you like.  O, St. Petersburg is where Nigeria would play its last group stage match against Argentina.

    What would Achillies predict of Nigeria, when the time comes?  That is in the womb of time, even if going by predecessor Octopus Paul, which prediction was driven basically by matches which involved Germany, Achilles would probably do its stuff on Nigeria, if ever Nigeria met with Russia or, well, played the ultimate match in the final.

    But just know.  Achilles is deaf.  But pundits say that is no disadvantage.  Indeed, they say that deafness would further boost its cat sense, to make up for its hearing impairment.  Besides, the deafness comes with a big advantage, since it would mean Achilles won’t be distracted by the noisy and effervescent players and fans, when Achilles is called upon to make his divinations!

    By the way, the original Achilles, in Greek mythology, had a weakness, and a fatal one — his heel.  That was how the expression, “Achilles heel” — a person’s weakest point — came about.  But Achilles the Cat?  It’s deafness is no weakness at all!

    So, ball fans, all roads, as the expression says, lead to Russia.  We’ll see how Achilles would fare — better or worse than Paul the Octopus, of South Africa 2010.

    If it trumps Octopus Paul, it would probably also trump Achilles Original, who had a fatal heel. But if Paul trumps Achilles — and badly too. Well, maybe a fresh expression would dawn — Achilles ear!  The deaf cat would have transformed Achilles problems from a glass heel (remember the glass jaw in boxing?) to plain deafness!

    Well, Hardball wishes our Super Eagles the best of luck with Achilles the Cat!  But hey, the World Cup is here.  Let’s all savour the fun!

  • Lessons not learnt

    Accidents happen. But after that, what happens?  It was a tragedy when a Dana Airline plane crashed at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos, on June 3, 2012, killing 159 people. The dead included passengers, crew members and residents of the two-storey building the plane crashed into.

    At a ceremony to mark the sixth anniversary of the disaster on June 3, a consultant pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr. Festus Emiogun, gave an insight into how the hospital identified 148 victims of the plane crash. Most of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition, he said, but pathologists recorded 97.4 per cent identification success.

    Emiogun’s observations are noteworthy: “There is need for biometric capturing of all Nigerians. We had problems with preparedness of the state during the emergency. The state could have been better prepared, and it is a good thing they learnt from that experience because the government has invested in emergency management. But it has to do more.”

    It is tragic that Emiogun observed that the country had “not learnt any lesson” from the tragedy. This suggests that should a similar plane crash occur today, pathologists and others would face the same challenges as it happened six years ago.

    He said: “As a country, we have not learnt any lesson. After Dana, we have had series of near mishaps. Except for Lagos State government, there is no functional Coronal Law at the Federal or any other state level. There is need to pressure government to provide more infrastructure for preservation of human remains and have a standing Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team.”

    The remembrance event was organised by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and a lawyer, Mrs. Oladunni Afolabi. It is a positive thing that the organisers remembered the victims of the tragedy. Beyond the ceremony, it is important to demonstrate that the country learnt lessons that should have been learnt.

    For instance, LASEMA’s General Manager, Tiamiyu Adesina, said: “You have all heard that crowd control was one of the major problems responders faced in this incident. The 30 minutes they spent trying to navigate the crowd when they got to the scene would have made a lot of difference in that incident.”

    There are other issues, which the Accident Investigation Bureau highlighted in its final report on the crash in March 2017.  The AIB said mechanical failure and pilot error caused the air crash. “Lack of situation awareness, inappropriate decision-making and poor airmanship”, the investigators said, were also to blame for the crash.

    The question is: Has the country learnt any lesson?

  • Cultists ahoy?

    Imohimi Edgal, the Lagos State Police Commissioner, outed with a rather chilling piece of statistics: six out of 10 young people — Hardball supposes it’s in Lagos, though the Police boss could well have been talking of Nigeria as a whole — are cultists.

    That cannot be true was Hardball’s initial reaction.  Even after due reflection, Hardball still came to that same conclusion.  That six out every 10 youths one is likely to meet in the streets, or run into in public places as shopping malls, or haggle with in the traditional market, or even meet at the stall next door, are putative cultists!  Certainly, things can’t be that bad.

    Still, the cold sweat that suggested the claim could be true compelled a closer reading of the news story, published in The Nation of June 4, combing it to see if the CP mentioned any particular research, from which he came out with that grim conclusion.  There was none.

    But there was a follow-up “research”, to probe the reasons for the alleged cult epidemic — if three out of every five young people is a cultist, wouldn’t that be a social epidemic?

    The reported findings were quite instructive: cultism gave members peer advantages and prevented youths from being bullied.  Has our society collapsed that much, social mores completely broken down and security agencies so effete our young people now need illicit fixers and rogue bouncers to protect them from street and neighbourhood bullies?

    If the CP  had released any authoritative study he was quoting from, it would have been interesting to know the gender breakdown of the alleged cultist madness.  Are the females well represented?  Do they dominate the groups?  Or do the males, the perpetual bad boys, still rule the cultist roost?

    But aside the hyperbole — Hardball verily believes it was the CP’s hyperbole to underscore the imperative to integrate good and responsible parenthood into the routine security network to prevent crime — any such suggestion should automatically clang the emergency bell.

    Indeed, even if three out of every 10 young people are cultists (that is half the CP’s projected rate), the society should affirm itself as failed, or in any case failing; and therefore rush out a redemptive programme, to correct the grave anomaly.

    That would, of course, start with the family.  A failed society starts with failed family units.  If every home took particular care of its own, then it would be easier for the collective to deal with the few general miscreants.  But if indeed three out of every five young people are potential cultists, then we would be talking of a majority that is crooked.

    That itself would turn, on its head, the traditional crime statistics; and the Police, as other security agencies, would appear to have developed as much headache as Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in the tragic play of the same name, that had murdered sleep, and therefore could sleep no more!  After all, even in the worst of cases, only a minority indulge in crime.

    But hyperbole or not, the CP’s alert is a good wake-up call to every home, parent and guardian.  It is time to revisit that crucial role of good parenting and stellar guarding.

    We can’t afford a young population that teems with cultists and allied miscreants.

  • Ekiti: bloody opening to grim electioneering?

    Obuko de, oorun de”, the Yoruba would say with a wink of deja vu. The Yoruba-English translation of that isn’t easy, without the expression losing its drama and its flavour.

    But suffice it to say that it has to do with the billy goat and its over-powering smell. In that context, it signifies noting but mischief, at best; disaster at worst.

    So, when on July 1, shots rang out at the inaugural Kayode Fayemi campaign to kick off his electioneering for the July 14 Ekiti gubernatorial election, at the All Progressives Congress (APC) state secretariat, not a few didn’t think twice before pointing fingers towards the Ayo Fayose government’s way, arguing with knowing looks, that it was an “assassination attempt” against Fayemi.

    Opeyemi Bamidele, however, got caught in the crossfire.  He has, according to reports, since undergone a successful surgery and he is said to be recuperating from the wounds.

    But the Fayose camp, ever ready to roll in the bog, pronounced itself game, trying to hang the mess on neighbouring Ondo Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu’s neck.  From the Fayose propaganda machine, the policeman, from whose gun the bullets came flying, was one of the many, it alleged, Akeredolu “rented” and drafted into Ekiti, to terrorize and subdue the people, in Fayemi’s favour!

    Even, Dayo Adeyeye, newly defected from the Ekiti Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC, after losing the party’s gubernatorial nomination, laid claim to a part of the assassination theory.  According to him, he was the target, because someone, somewhere in Fayose’s camp had allegedly threatened him — you need to be alive, he quoted the alleged malcontent to have said, to defect anywhere!  Obuko de, oorun de!

    Mercifully, however, all these claims would appear the over-fertile imagination that often plagues the immediate aftermath of disaster or near-diasaster, weaving  colourful tales!  Preliminary investigation suggests the shooting, as costly as it was, appeared an accidental discharge from a mobile police officer, who nevertheless the police authorities said was on “illegal duty”.  The police should give us detailed briefings, as they get more information.

    Still, that accident may well be a stiff eye opener for a potentially bloody and tension-soaked campaign, in the run up to the July 14 governorship elections.

    Both camps have been talking tough, in a manner of a bloody, no-retreat-no-surrender war, that must be settled on the battle field, with clear winners and losers.

    Perhaps fearing a return dose of the notorious “federal might” that delivered his own election in 2014, Governor Fayose has betrayed excessive excitability, predicting doom for whoever dares to “rig” the election, sparing at real or imagined “federal might”, not unlike Don Quixote tilting at the windmills!

    The Fayemi camp has been no less bellicose, declaring it wasn’t at all fazed by Fayose’s infantile wolf-cry, insisting that wouldn’t prevent the PDP electoral ouster on July 14.

    At the end of the day, however, it is only an election, not war!  If Ekiti makes a wise choice, they would enjoy the dividends for the next four years, till 2022.  If they make a foolish one, it is strictly theirs to endure for four long years.  But choice must be sacrosanct and free of any illicit pressure of any kind.  Democracy demands no less.

    Which is why the security agencies must take the July 1 shooting as a wake-up call, and wrap a safety and security ring around Ekiti, during this electioneering period.

    Prevention, they say, is better than cure; and sure, there would be life after the July 14 polls.  The security agencies should, therefore, demonstrate zero tolerance for bloodshed during this campaign period.

     

  • Jolly goes to jail

    Former Taraba Governor, Jolly Nyame (1991-1993; 1999-2007), is going to jail for sleaze, but there is nothing jolly about it — not for him; not for the society, which feels diminished.

    By a former governor going to jail, the political elite takes a hit, even if you could say politics and politicians were never top notch, in the society’s pyramid of trust.

    As a clergy man, the Revd. Jolly Nyame, as jailed former governor, crushes the moral bragging right, of the religious elite.

    Were Geoffery Chaucer, the old English poet, alive in contemporary Nigeria, his old quip, about the lone sane Parson among the Canterbury pilgrims, in his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, would still have held true: if gold rusts, what would iron do?

    But that would appear another huge blow in symbolic term: Chaucer-era Parson was the lone sane voice, among a brood of venal characters, on a showy pilgrimage to Canterbury, in Catholic England.

    On the contrary, jailing a reverend gentleman, in today’s Nigeria, appears a further confirmation of the clergy as yet another racket, with the unfazed outrage of many a Pentecostal pastor; and the penchant of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to play blatant politics with everything, even if the matter — the war against sleaze, for instance — demands, by the sheer essence of its calling, that CAN should champion such.  But alas!

    Still, projecting Nyame’s conviction as proof of blanket condemnation of the clerical class is nothing but reckless fallacy.  That cannot be true, for Nigeria still boasts thousands of decent, if quiet, clergymen, in and out of politics.  Such should speak louder, against folks giving their noble calling a bad name.

    But in the Nyame conviction, the society is generally diminished.  It’s all trite to maintain the law is no respecter of persons, and whoever commits the crime must do the time.  Fair enough — and for those culling skulls, the Nyame conviction is proof that the anti-corruption war is beginning to cruise at the right altitude, with high profile convictions.

    Still, there is that pathos and bathos that ripple through society like an electric shock, and draws great pity — not because of the convict per se, but because in such tragedies, the society tastes the gall of a high personage tripping and falling into disgrace.

    It is such bathos and pathos that drive Shakespeare and its dramatic tragedies,  defined as “fatal flaws”; or what the Greeks would call “Achilles  heel”, from which even the most respectable and most honoured of mortals must fall.

    If you dig deeper in Greek mythology, you even got a glimpse of deep superstition, nay fatalism, that mortals were only playthings in the hands of gods — malevolent gods — and that these flaws were their built-in trigger to make mortals falls, so gods could have their spiteful kick!  But you could also guess these were even inventions of humans, who had failed in controlling their internal flaws, and decided to blame such on the gods who, even if they could defend themselves, considered that infra dig, before wayward humans!

    Still, however you interpret it, a mighty man that trips and falls evokes deep sympathy.  That fuels the classical drama.

    In contemporary Nigeria, with its free-for-all stealing, the “fatal flaw” is clearly sleaze.  That was the abnormal that had become the norm.

    But can any normal mind claim he is unmoved that a three-time governor, straddling the aborted Third Republic (1991-1993) and two terms in the present dispensation (1999-2007), is now a convict for sleaze?

    Public office holders must fix their ways, to avert diminishing the rest of us with such convictions.  In the final analysis, everyone is better off on the narrow and winding way.

     

     

     

  • To a history shaper at 60

    Yes, Hardball has acquired the reputation for hitting hard, delivering stiff, hard and telling blows on Nigeria’s “troublers of Israel” — and they are so, so many!

    So, pardon Hardball if he hits out almost all of the time.  It’s a chore that must be done to keep our country sane.

    Still, when you work hard, you must also play hard.  When you nail those malcontents, trying to drive everyone down, you must also hail those true heroes, doing stuff to lift the rest of us.

    One of such heroes is Kunle Ajibade, who turned 60 on May 28 but was celebrated by friends, in a two-part festival of ideas, yesterday — May 30: first, at a colloquium, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island; and later, from 6:30 pm, at Freedom Park, the former Broad Street Prisons, also in Lagos.

    Freedom Park would boast an especial rich symbolism, in the Nigerian ding-dong between citizens’ liberty and the Nigerian state, especially under military rule, which fancies itself some Leviathan, before whom luckless citizens must tremble!

    Well, the real God may well dispose, and man only propose.  Indeed, the tin gods of the military era wanted to fully dispose of citizens as they liked — maim, kill, gaol and detain at will.

    But thanks to the Ajibades of this world, they found such “dispositions” not at all settled.  In fact, they became no more than explosive propositions, the disposal of which even they had absolutely no idea, even if they bluffed, with martial brawn, that they did.

    That was why the Sani Abacha junta would throw Ajibade into the slammer — for life! — and for doing nothing except his job as a journalist, reporting on an alleged coup.  Still, those tin gods moved fast to decree his paper, The News’ report was prejudicial to the coup trial, and therefore the information published was tantamount to accessory to coup!  Talk of tin gods, that held the power of life and death!

    But where are these blokes today?  Not only gone, but also, by their irresponsibility, demonized for life, their profession, the otherwise honourable military, by the poison of reckless power.  But here is Kunle Ajibade, waxing strong: a cultured man of history.  Indeed, the poet Obari Gomba, a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, referred to him as “Elder Kunle Ajibade”, to some applause from the audience.  Indeed, the idealist and driven youths of yore are becoming sagacious elders of today!

    The story of Kunle Ajibade, genteel, calm and deep, is the story of the triumph of personal sanity when the collective was running raving mad.  The pen is mightier than the sword might be a flattering poetic quip. But the stark reality is far less awesome.  Still, Ajibade and co faced military brute with their journalistic push and talent — and triumphed to tell the story.

    The personages out their to honour the celebrator at 60 spoke volumes: Prof. Wole Soyinka, former Governor Segun Osoba, Vanguard Publisher, Sam Amuka-Pemu, Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (who picked a lexical grudge with “celebrator”, insisting she referred to the birthday boy as “celebrant” — don’t worry, Erelu, celebrator is also correct usage), Ayisha Osori, the young woman who burnt her fingers for daring to join a political party, the poet, Odia Ofeimum, enduring Vanguard columnist, Owei Lakemfa, Femi Falana, SAN, Mrs Ayo Obe, former president, Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), Senator Femi Ojudu, Omoba Yemisi Shyllon, Idowu Obasa and The Nation’s Sam Omatseye (who though an emergency kept away) were a tribute to the deep debt of gratitude Nigeria today owes Ajibade, and his brave comrades back then.

    “Elder” Kunle Ajibade, Hardball heartily welcomes you to the Diamond chamber of 60!

  • Falz’ Nigeria, false Nigeria, fault Nigeria

    We cannot run away from the power of art, especially in the corridor of power.  We know of what a poem can do, or a work of drama can incite. Music, as a force, has become very powerful. One of such is going viral now, and it is either resonating or nudging, depending your world view. But Falz, one of the original artistes of his generation, has taken the art form to counter the misanthropy of the Nigerian state and the moral derailment of its social and religious elite. He has used kits of comedy of manners mocking tropes of speech and gestures, and bringing a refreshing vitality into the aesthetics of persons like Gringory, Clarus and Zebrudaya. But he has elevated the art form into a biting satire. He is a sort of Fela in a theatre. Only that he also sings, tearing into the fabric of a society that refuses to heal itself.

    Now, he has come up with a new one, known as This Is Nigeria. It is an edgy foray into contemporary Nigeria. It’s less about the song and more about its histrionics. Falz, who is also the son of Femi Falana SAN, stands in the middle of a spare stage and behind him is an array of hijab-wearing damsels in a chaotic dance known as shaku shaku, the hijab flying and exposing their tights. It’s the Chibok girls at play. But what presages that dance is a herdsman who brings his machete over victim, a horrific evocation of the barbarous hordes going through swaths of the north.

    We also see random fights in the background, indicating a perpetual unease in the land. Remember Philomena who claimed that a snake had the audacity to swallow N36 million. Here Falz makes it clear that everybody is a thief in Nigeria. It may be an extravagant claim. But he does well to show that it is not restricted to tribe or faith or class.

    As a nation, we are drowned in iniquity. It is not stealing alone. It is also perversity. Young men in ecstasy of drugs and drinks. Girls of footloose sexuality. Of course, we know the health care is bad and power is so out at nights that the chugging of “I better pass my neighbour” generators is a motif of our life. The politicians cart away billions but no one is convicted, an echo of Professor Wole Soyinka’s recent jibe at the war on corruption. We see a politician in his profligate moment in between two scantily clad vixens as he sprays the air with his ill-gotten sheaves of naira.

    If he goes to the Islamic wrong doers, he comes down vehemently on the Pentecostal waywards who take advantage of credulous faithful, and taking the tithes from the poor to build universities for the rich. Bribes of police, a stumbling IG are not spared.

    Falz work is an adaptation of American artiste Childish Gambino, who ribbed the oppression of blacks in the spirit of black Lives matter.

     

     

     

  • Irrationality

    This time last year, there was unwanted tension triggered by an unwelcome sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). The sit-at-home order was meant to take effect in the Southeast on May 30, 2017, to mark the 50th anniversary of Biafra, a secession project that failed.

    This year, IPOB has again issued a so-called sit-at-home order.  A statement by the group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said: “All road journeys should be terminated at exactly 6pm on the 29th. Any vehicle seen on the road after 6pm on May 29 will be regarded as a mark of disrespect and treated as an enemy of the Biafran people because May 30 of every year is a designated public holiday across Biafra land.”

    According to a report, the spokesman stressed that the sit-at-home order meant to take effect on May 30 “would be observed in about 20 states in the country.” It continued: “The group said the day would witness a total lockdown of the South-East and South-South.”

    Either IPOB doesn’t know its limits or it just doesn’t recognise  how far it can go in imposing its separatist project on others who are not necessarily sympathetic to its cause. The group’s sit-at-home approach is not only nonsensical; it shows deep delusions.

    Why does this group, which claims to be fighting for its right to pursue separatism, think it has the right to disrespect the right of others to freedom of association and freedom of movement?

    Of course, this separatist group is entitled to its enthusiasm for separatism. But when its over-enthusiasm results in overreaching, it must be told in clear terms that there are boundaries.

    As expected, the Anambra State Police Command has lived up to its role, saying that IPOB can’t lawfully issue a sit-at-home order, and telling the people to disregard the group’s order. Commissioner of Police Garba Umar said in a statement:  ”The command with other security agencies will not hesitate to deal with any individual or groups under any guise that will disrupt public peace.”

    Why does this group arrogate to itself power and authority to issue a sit-at-home order?  Obviously, IPOB is desperate to be relevant and struggling to be relevant. But it can’t achieve relevance through irrational methods. Its sit-at-home order only projects irrationality.