The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Time to skin the cats ensemble

    Reggae group, UB40 pushed out a sensational hit, about fixing the rat in the kitchen.  On the surface, it sounded ludicrous, if not outright senseless.  But on deep reflection, it made a lot of sense — the rat as metaphor for shifty characters, gnawing away and troubling the pantry!

    The mercurial Prof. Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) , has echoed such rats, located as fat cats, in the public space, burying their heads in the public barn.

    The other day, at a public lecture in Lagos, Prof. Sagay railed at some bank cats, colluding with looters to hide stolen funds.  Those greedy and sleazy bank chiefs, he assured, would be brought to justice.

    Before he was done with the lecture, however, he had identified an ensemble of fat cats, across Nigeria’s crucial sectors of Banking, the Bar and the Bench — the B raised to power three and evil trinity for graft, determined to thwart any effort to stamp out corruption in Nigerian public life.

    That is a pity.  But it is such of a tragic hue, for this evil trinity shows an unflattering face of the Nigerian contemporary elite, so used to sleaze it would pull all stops to maintain its ruinous ways.

    Sagay charged: senior lawyers and some hostile and powerful judges are proudly enlisted in this anti-social army, such that “there is a gang-up of the powerful political, business and banking elite that is determined to frustrate the anti-corruption struggle.”

    Pray, if the political and business and banking and judicial elites’ jaw are tightly set against fighting corruption, who then is left?

    Yet, that is the grim reality — an elite too far gone, in its old rapacious ways, to realize its true enlightened self-interest.  It is the open sore of a country indeed, where the commanding heights do not seem to see that winning the corruption war as the ultimate liberating force, to set the country on the road to development and ultimate prosperity, en route to fulfilling its manifest destiny.

    Still, it’s no time to fold arms and moan.  Rather, it is time to seize the season, pick the gauntlet and wrestle — to the death, if necessary — this parasitic minority, strongly determined to ensure the majority perishes, just for this few to indulge themselves.

    That is why Hardball fully backs Prof. Sagay’s campaign.  The government should not tarry to dock such colluding bank chiefs.  To start with, banking is the very epitome of trust.  Allowing somebody to keep your hard earned trove, with little fear that it would vanish, is nothing but near-absolute trust.  That modern banking procedures have been so routinized, that it now appears common place, doesn’t  take anything away from that pristine trust.

    Yet, it is this same trust these bank cats are abusing by colluding with looters to salt away public funds for a fee.  That must be condemned by every right-thinking Nigerian.

    As for corrupt lawyers, judges and politicians, the system cannot be harsh enough.  As they plot their path of perdition, that would put the innocent majority in jeopardy, we should also plot our own counter-plot of redemption, that would put these greedy character in the can where they belong.

    Folks, let’s go skin these fat cats!

  • Palm Avenue: open sore of a council

    In one of his countless interventions, Prof. Wole Soyinka, our on WS, spoke of The Open Sore of a Continent, as his personal narrative on the Nigerian conundrum.

    Back in the University of Ibadan, in those years — maybe, still now? — you’d hear excited freshers, just introduced to the less-than-fair international order, prattle about the “centre of the periphery” and “periphery of the centre”; with only a few piping the “centre of the centre”, the golden core of the metropole, where, as they say, the real action is.

    Is Hardball essaying Political Science 101 garnished with literary putdowns, ala WS, on contemporary seedy politics?  Hardly.  Well, maybe — if a road that hosts a council headquarters (in that metropolitan lingo, the “centre of the centre”, is so neglected it can easily pass for the very “centre of the periphery”.)

    In all of Mushin, it is doubtful if any road boasts the panache of Palm Avenue. These days there are not many palm trees, nestling this major artery, in their magical foliage.  Were there ever any, from the very beginning?

    Still you feel some calm, some rare order.  You could never have believed the raucous Mushin Oloosa, and allied neighbourhoods, that gifted Mushin its tough reputation, were just a stone throw away!  Little wonder the Mushin Council, even in its original pristine form, claimed a spot on that road as its fitting headquarters.

    Today, however, Palm Avenue is so debased and degraded it indeed passes for the open sore of a council.

    At the Owhin Street T-junction with Palm Avenue is a huge crater.  Those who well and truly love their cars can’t just trundle inside and out.  They therefore wait for the opposing traffic, before stealing past those craters. That often results in needless jams.  That once-upon-a-road is almost bang in front of the Mushin council headquarters.

    Then, just barely 30 metres away, past the Mobil service station, is another; at the Oremeji Street T-junction with Palm Avenue.

    Pray, how can two huge craters, within a 30-meter distance, hem in a council headquarters, and the council’s public work gang appears to have no presence of mind, not to talk of institutional shame, to do some repair works to ameliorate the situation?

    Where, in the name of God, is this council’s sense of community service, nay duty, to so neglect its immediate environment so gravely, yet still has the audacity to answer the name local government council?  What government — that of the unfeeling? And what council — council of the insensate, with zero community value?

    Congrats to the newly elected Mushin Local Government chairman.  But he must know that his council is a big joke, if it can’t at least fix the road which hosts its headquarters.

    If it fails in that, how does it cater for other numerous roads, the real “periphery of the periphery”, always screaming for attention?   Indeed, on open sore.

     

     

  • Cutting off the nose to spite the face

    What will happen on September 10, the date fixed by the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators (CNDA) for renewal of its attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta? Will the group carry out this troubling threat and launch fresh attacks?  It was quoted as saying: “September 10 is the day we will resume attacks (on oil installations). By September 10, which is on Sunday, over 5,000 members of the Niger Delta Coalition of Agitators will shut down no less than over 20 platforms.”

    Equally troubling is the group’s unchanged position on the quit notice it issued to Hausa and Yoruba in the Niger Delta in August, asking them to  to leave before October 1 or be forced out of the region.

    CNDA leader John Duku was quoted as saying: “Our intelligence department has given us the list of the oil wells owned by the northerners. The northerners have over 90 per cent of the oil wells and the Yoruba have about seven per cent, while the Igbo have about two per cent and the Niger Delta people do not have up to one per cent of the oil wells.”

    He added: “We are not talking only about the notice to quit; we are also talking about the Niger Delta Republic. We have seen that the Federal Government is not serious about the Niger Delta issue. Let me make a point here; the Academic Staff Union of Universities is on strike and the government has set up a committee to engage in a dialogue with ASUU. This has never happened in the case of the Niger Delta; the Federal Government has never inaugurated a committee to handle the Niger Delta issue. The only language the Federal Government seems to understand is violence.”Is this the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

    Why does CNDA think that violence is the solution? It is obvious that violent disruption of oil operations will have undesirable effects, and will be detrimental to the country, which includes the region. The group’s extremism means that it is willing to act against the interests of the region while claiming to be a defender of the region’s interests. To be interested in defending the region’s interests should mean not doing things that would further damage its interests.

    Cutting off the nose to spite the face describes what CNDA is planning and threatening to do. It is not a wise thing to do. If the group doesn’t know this, it must be lacking in wisdom.

  • Blood festival

    These are times that stump even the best minds. There is so much blood-letting in the land one wonders why the entire ground of our land has not become crimson. We speak of blood spill of the most brutish types. It is blood festival of sort we may well be celebrating.

    We speak of gory violence mainly from kidnappers, ritual gangs and street kids. Spilling of blood and summary killings may well be the new pass time of many youths of today going by daily news reports.

    Last Friday on this page, Hardball had fulminated on the horror of a policeman who was buried standing (perhaps alive), in Lagos; the escapee university undergraduate who beheaded his 8-year-old relative and violated her body. We also reported the case of cultists caught by police in Ahoada area of Rivers State spot on the act of preparing human parts pepper-soup. Also noted is the multitudinous case of rape of infants, children ladies and even septuagenarians.

    But these were last week’s tales; fresh, sizzling and even bloodier ones are trending. Let us take only two examples. Over the weekend, a young man, Oluwaseun Jobarteh, a celebrity and winner of a major reality show bonanza over a decade ago, was gunned down in Agege area of Lagos. According to report, he may have been trailed to his house from the airport after he had picked a sibling. He was shot dead at point blank range right in his house and his assailants made away with nothing. It is suspected to be cult-related.

    But the gruesome murder over the weekend of Rev. Fr. Cyriacus Onunkwo of the Orlu Catholic Diocese of Imo State must be the star prize of the week. Fr. Onunkwo said to be on his way to his village to prepare for the burial of his father last Friday evening was kidnapped at Amaifeke, Orlu. His body was found the following day at Omuma, in Oru East Local Government Area, still in Imo state.

    It is not only that one too many kidnap cases are happening in Imo State, it may also be said that one too many priests a coming to jeopardy in this heartland state of the southeast. Why are clergymen seemingly targeted? And why the recent upsurge of violent killings in Imo State? But more telling, why is the state government not raising any eyebrows about these horrific incidents. Recall the case of Ben Onyechere who was slaughtered like a chicken in the heart of owerri a few months ago. Not a word.

    Has it become the norm in Imo to kidnap, maim and kill? Are we by any chance inching towards anomie down there? A festival of blood?

  • Complicating the uncomplicated

    Interestingly, that lawyer is in the news again. Mr. Olukoya Ogungbeje, the lawyer representing the self-confessed big-time billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, better known as Evans, grabbed the headlines again, this time by declaring that his client was forced to plead guilty.

    On August 30, Evans was arraigned before Justice Hakeem Oshodi of an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, for alleged kidnapping of Dunu Donatus, a Lagos-based businessman. Evans and five suspected members of his gang, who have been in police custody since June 10, faced “a two-count charge offence bordering on conspiracy and kidnapping.” The others were “a woman, Ogechi Uchechukwu, the third defendant; Uche Amadi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi and Victor Chukwunonso Aduba, second, fourth, fifth and sixth defendants.”

    A report said: “In count one, the defendants were alleged to have “on February 14, 2017, at about 7.45pm along Obokun Street, Ilupeju, Lagos, conspired to commit felony to wit kidnapping.” In count two, they were alleged to have “between February 14 and April 12, 2017, along Obokun Street, Ilupeju, Lagos,  while armed with guns and other weapons, captured detained and collected a ransom of 223,000 Euros from one Dunu Donatus for release”…. Evans, Amadi and Nwachukwu entered a guilty plea. His other three alleged accomplices, Uchechukwu, Ifeanyi and Aduba, pleaded not guilty to the charges.”

    The case looked straightforward enough until Ogungbeje entered the picture, and issued a statement that said: “After the purported guilty plea of our client and the court rose, our client told us clearly that the police told him to plead guilty failing which the police will kill him…Our client pointedly told us that being informed now, he will change his ‘police motivated guilty plea’ to ‘not guilty’ at the next adjourned date.”

    In other words, at the resumed hearing on October 19, the public should expect a twist in the tale. It is intriguing that Evans and two others pleaded guilty to the crime while the three other suspects pleaded not guilty. If Evans was forced to plead guilty as Ogungbeje claims, were the other two who pleaded guilty also forced to do so? Did the three who pleaded not guilty do so because they were not forced to plead guilty, or because they refused to plead guilty?

    It is noteworthy that Evans had confessed to the crime right from the time he was arrested, and before he was charged to court. By pleading guilty in court, Evans only restated his guilt.

    So, what is this lawyer up to? Is he trying to complicate what looks like an uncomplicated case?

  • Losers in winners, winners in losers

    On September 1, Nigeria hit Cameroon for four.  The Eagles romped to a famous Sallah Day victory, clearly their most emphatic competitive scoreline against the Indomitable Lions, that proved very much domitable.  The once-untamable Lions were completely tamed!

    It was sheer ecstasy in the Nigerian camp, with even a devastating pun making the cut in cyberspace: “Lions so, so Indomie-table!” The Cameroon Lions were sweet Indomie Noodles —spicy, hot, fresh and smoking!

    Yet, another self-deprecating joke, from Nigeria’s virulent political plane, where nothing is settled; as contrasted to sheer bliss on the victory-suffused sports plain, where the country’s unity is well and truly settled.

    “Newsflash:”, goes the phoney news.  “FIFA has cancelled the Nigeria-Cameroon match, in which Nigeria scored four goals, following a Cameroon protest.  How can two countries, Nigeria and Biafra, play against Cameroon?”!

    Indeed, bragging rights, against an old nemesis, never came more crowing!

    Still Cameroon are reigning African champions.  Cameroon, old foe, beat Nigeria in three African Nations Cup finals (1984, 1988 and 2000, that home final loss in Lagos).  Cameroon, with a truly formidable African World Cup qualifying records, were the first African side to hit the quarter-finals at the Mundial, a record Nigeria is yet to equal.

    That same Cameroon was downed for four and heavens did not fall.  Hardball doesn’t know the depth of bitterness in the Cameroonian camp.  Still, their Uyo post-defeat body language proclaimed it was only a game of football.

    Moral: any team can beat any rival, any how, on a bad day.  So, it was with Cameroon on September 1.

    But contrast this toasting to the roasting, of the Eagles, the last time they lost 0-2 to South Africa, on the same Uyo, Akwa Ibom, pitch, in an African Cup of Nations qualifier.

    It was a painful loss at home, no doubt.  Indeed, a biting epochal loss: the first time ever South Africa would thrash Nigeria in a competitive match.  So, the Mandela boys were strutting the moon!

    In Nigeria?  It was sudden end-times, with the country trapped in the Christian hell, raging with whistling fire — such was the gnashing of teeth, the eternal moans and everlasting woes!  The Eagles were useless;  Gernot Rohr, their manager, was clueless; in fact, the whole Nigeria was headless!

    And all that for just losing a game of football, the very first loss by the manager! And more horror of horrors: not a few swore and grumbled: as long as the ungrammatical Solomon Dalung remained Sports minister, nothing good could come out of Nigeria’s house of sports!

    That was sore-losing at its most irrational worst, of course.  To be sure, under Dalung, Nigeria posted a miserable outing at the World Athletics Championship in London.

    But under him too, Nigeria beat Cameroon black-and-blue, en route to a Cinderella Africa World Cup qualifications series, wrapping up their first three matches (2-1, away against Zambia; 3-1 home against Algeria; and 4-0 home against Cameroon), in a very tough group.

    Should the Eagles prevail in Yaounde today, they would have qualified for Russia 2018 with two matches to spare.  Should they falter, they would still be on the driving seat, needing just three more points, in case of a loss, or just two, in case of a draw.

    O, under the same Dalung, Nigeria’s D-Tigress, the female national basketball squad, just in Mali defeated Senegal, the defending champions, to win their third Afro-Basketball title.  So, where is the sports Armageddon painted under Dalung, just because of a defeat?

    Nigerians must learn to be winners-in-losers.  That’s the sporting spirit.  You can’t win all of the time, even if that is desirable.  To be bad losers, is to be losers-in-winners.

  • Sons of perdition

    Every new day seems to dawn with new demons. Today’s burns your ears and you think it could never be worse; but tomorrow’s news seeks to burst your tympanum and your chest threatens to explode.

    The other day, it was discovered that a police inspector was buried in a standing position. Some conjecture that he must have been interred alive with his hands and feet tied. Call it communal bestiality or collective Satanism for it would have taken a community to agree and to dig a sizeable grave to accommodate a standing man. Even the village Bale (head) of this infernal community in the Ajah area of Lagos State who is now with the police, is alleged to have led this sacrilege.

    In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, a year two student of the University of Port Harcourt allegedly defiled an eight-year-old child of his relative and benefactor. He then went on to behead her and harvested some of her body parts. But this is just half the story; he was arrested by local vigilante and handed to the State Police Command and now the real story: the mysterious disappearance of this son of perdition from the safety of the police station.

    And how about this? Cult men apprehended while preparing pepper-soup with the intestines and liver of his kidnap victim. The men of darkness, according to the Police, kidnapped a pastor in Ahoada area of the state, August 15, 2017.  They had severed his head and were caught as they made the soup and plantain portage with his internal parts.

    Rape has become so commonplace in the land today that the country may well be christened the land of rape. Recently in Kano, a group of women could not take the daily rape bulletin any longer. Under the aegis of Professional Women Group in kano, they took to the streets. They needed to do something drastic to save their daughters from unguided rampaging phalluses.

    Priests, teachers, fathers, uncles, neighbours, everyone seems to be marching on this road to Golgotha. And there is no age limit or range – from a pulpy few days’ old baby to grandmas, none is safe. One of such cases that prompted the Kano women involved a 14-year-old Hassana who claimed that her father had defiled her since she was seven.

    The good book, the bible has described such men as captured here as sons of perdition or the lawless ones. It also terms what is happening today as the mystery of lawlessness. The Book says that because they did not know the truth, they are under great delusion enjoying the pleasure of unrighteousness. They are those bound to perish, as recorded by Apostle Paul in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians. If only they know…

  • PANDEF Vs PNDPC

    There appears a turf war brewing in the Niger Delta.

    What is not clear is whether the war is for the soul of Niger Deltans, in an umpteenth attempt to corral a better deal from the Federal Government; or a hustling attempt to catch the attention of Abuja, that a new bunch of “leaders” has hit town.

    It all depends on which part of the divide you stand.

    “PANDEF remains authentic voice of N-Delta” went a story in the Vanguard of August 30, quoting the durable Edwin Clark, who had been strutting on the Niger Delta turf, as a young federal commissioner under Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Military Head of State from 1966-1975.

    In that story, Alfred Mulade, quoted as PANDEF’s coordinating secretary, urged the security agencies to probe an alleged faction of PANDEF, known as the Pan-Niger Delta People’s Congress (PNDPC).

    But you ask, when did being a faction of a group become a crime, necessitating the probe of security agencies?  Well, Dr. Mulade claimed that faction was baiting a coalition of “militant” groups to make noise and foment trouble, just to claim PANDEF had been overthrown by PNDPC as the authentic negotiating voice for the Niger Delta. Claims and counter-claims!

    Well, in PNDPC’s ranks, aside from the “ghost” militant group that PANDEF claims are real faces, with at least a traditional ruler.  PANDEF fingered HRM Pere Charles Ayemi-Botu, the paramount ruler of Sembiri Kingdom and Chief Mike Loyibo, claimed PNDPC national leader and coordinator.  They would appear the PANDEF truducers-in-chief, drumming support for the rival PNDPC.

    But from the PANDEF disclaimer, the PNDPC threat would appear potent enough for PANDEF to a ringing renunciation of phoney “militants” PNDPC allegedly uses as scarecrow, to create a siege situation.

    “There was never at any time any group of militants that goes by any of those names gave PANDEF any mandate, as these groups do not exist anywhere,” PANDEF declared. “This is a clear handiwork or creation of mischievous persons of no consequence and grassroots relevance attempting to mislead the public, to appropriate the gains PANDEF has recorded for the Niger Delta, to curry cheap popularity.”

    Impressive denunciation!  But a legitimate question: how much of it is notorious facts, as the lawyers would say?  And much of it is stacking of cards, to drown the PNDPC, in the eye of the storm, in a flurry of blows?  That would not be known, until PNDPC takes its own turn under the sun.

    Still, one thing is clear: the Niger Delta, under northern military heads of state and elected presidents, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, and under own son Goodluck Jonathan, has always held the short end of the stick, with many of its own greedy elite making it so.

    The latest manifestation is the alleged Diezani greed, under Jonathan.  If the allegations are true, then Diezani with the humongous sleaze plaguing her name, runs the legitimate chance of becoming a fair and proper human symbol for sheer greed.  Yet, the Niger Delta poor were the ultimate victims.  Yet, Diezani and Jonathan are Niger Delta daughter and son!

    That is why these groups should quit these barren turf wars and focus on getting the best deal for their long-suffering people.

  • Kanu needs reality check

    Nnamdi Kanu, the controversial leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was granted bail by a Federal High Court on April 25, after many sympathetic voices had called for his release from prolonged detention for separatist activities. Specifically, Kalu is facing trial for “alleged offences of conspiracy to commit acts of treasonable felony and other related offences.”  Of course, there are conditions attached to his bail.

    Now the Federal Government wants his bail revoked, and it would appear that there are good reasons for this. A report said: “The government is also seeking an order of court directing the arrest and committing Kanu to custody pending trial as well as any such order the court may deem fit in the circumstance.”

    The government’s argument: “The offence for which he is standing trial is not ordinarily bailable, but due to the magnanimity of the court and its quest for justice and fairness, he was granted bail on health grounds. Among the other conditions for his bail is that he should not be seen in a crowd exceeding 10 people and he should not grant any interviews, hold or attend any rallies. And that he should file in court, medical updates of his health status every month. But rather than observing all of the conditions listed above, Kanu, in flagrant disobedience to the court order, flouted all conditions of the bail.”  Furthermore, according to the government, Kanu has taken his rebellion further by inaugurating a so-called Biafra Security Service, which it considers a serious threat to national security and national unity.

    Kanu was characteristically rebellious in his response to the government’s move. When he addressed a crowd on August 27 at the Boys Technical College (BTC) on Faulks Road in Aba North Local Government Area of Abia State, it was clear that the crowd exceeded 10 people; this was contrary to the terms of his bail, and corroborated the government’s position.

    According to a report, “He used the forum to reiterate that there would not be election in Anambra in November or any part of “Biafra Land” even in 2019, unless the group’s clamour for referendum got the blessings of government.”  He was quoted as saying: “I’m a Biafran and we are going to crumble the zoo. Some idiots who are not educated said that they’ll arrest me, and I ask them to come. I’m in Biafra land. If any of them leaves Biafra land alive, know that this is not IPOB.”

    This sounds like the voice of a delusional character who badly needs a reality check.

     

     

     

     

  • Nigeria Po-lice Force

    They must hold the prize as the most disdained if not derided of all government agencies. In spite of their best efforts to make people love them, the police the world over and from ancient times have remained feared as well as detested. It must be stated upfront that it is very difficult to love the fellow in uniform known as police.

    First, he represents the ugly face and strong arm of the promethean known as government to the civil populace. Two, until recently, most members of this force are ill-educated thus lacked the intellectual capacity to wear the requisite self-esteem needed in a fast-changing knowledge world. Three, since they have the backing of government and are in possession of the instruments of coercion, they tend to be quick to act in vengeance against the populace instead of in protection. Thus they are in perpetual conflict with the people they are supposed to protect.

    So who could love a man who ab initio, is not capable of being friendly and is indeed not friendly? A man who visibly wears his inferiority complex like his uniform and who uses his gun to boost his ego. Further, apart from the gun he totes, he has no other equipment, mental or psychological to handle his tasks. He is often poorly remunerated to boot.

    When therefore he is confronted with a simple, complex (!) matter of two people fighting or man rapes girl, he dissembles or in fact disintegrates. Apart from often not having the tools and capacity to discern and sieve the little nuances embedded in human frailties brought before him, he is entangled in the pecuniary web of conflicts. Facts are often traded off and guilt monetized.

    The police all over and their eternal or infernal narrative have been subject of tomes of books. Recently in South Africa, a unit of the Police gagged a Nigerian man to death on suspicion that he may have swallowed his cocaine. The police in Port Harcourt had a suspected ritual killer slip through their fingers.

    But of a particular interest to Hardball here is the current face-off between a sitting senator, Mohammed Isa Hamman Misau aka Sen. Isah Misau and the Nigeria Police Force.

    According to police tale, Misau, a former Deputy Superintendent of Police is alleged to have deserted the force since 2010. The force did nothing about it. He became a senator of the Federal Republic, nothing. Last week he accused the Inspector-General of involving in a dizzying bribery cycle and he is suddenly declared a police deserter.

    What can one say than to add one more to the rich dictionary of horrific police names: Po-lice