The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Whither Boko Haram?

    January 25, 2015, and The Telegraph of UK’s report on Boko Haram:  “Militants from Nigeria’s Boko Haram have attacked Maiduguri, the biggest city in the country’s Northeast, with residents reporting heavy gunfire and shelling from early on Sunday morning and dozens of combatants are said to have been killed.

    “… Maiduguri is the capital of Borno State and would be a major prize for the insurgents, who already control large areas of the state and key border crossings into neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and Chad…”

    Chilling excerpts that gave the not incredulous impression that Boko Haram, the murderous, bloodthirsty and deranged Islamist group, was here to stay and do as it wished!

    January 25, 2016, and a report from Nigeria’s Daily Sun: “Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have launched a deadly attack in Adamawa State, raiding six villages in Girei Local Government of Adamawa State and leaving at least 15 people dead.  The attack came in the wake of President Muhammadu Buhari’s assertion that the war on Boko Haram has been significantly won and gave assurances that everything possible would be done to keep the terrorists away from reclaimed villages.

    Media reports “… said that there was an exchange of gunfire between the Nigerian military and the attackers who were forced to retreat into the bushes.”

    Exactly one year later.  So, is  Boko Haram alive and well?  Not quite.

    For one, the frontal attacks on big towns and cities, with the anarchists thumping their noses against Nigeria’s much-vaunted federal might has fizzled out.  So has the lunatic boasts of Abubakar Shekau or his corresponding ghosts, as he bobbed up from yes-he’s-dead-no-he’s-not-dead sickening tales from the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, and its army high command.

    But the threat seems to have retreated to the pristine hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, of Boko Haram’s battle-entry strategy, before it was allowed to festered by an apologetic and hesitating presidency.  That a DPO reportedly lost his life in the Adawama attack echos those dire beginnings, when Boko Haram on Okada would attack police posts, kill luckless policemen in there and set free detainees in the facilities’ cells.

    Yet, between January 2015 and January 2016, Boko Haram has been so heavily degraded that  talks about mass resettlement of the thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) don’t sound so fantastic and far-fetched again.

    If Hardball were even to be more date-dramatic, he would insist that in seven months, a sure-footed and determined government has all but checkmated a seven-year insurgency, that looked like raging undeterred for no less than another seven years, at the very least!

    But if the media remains sceptical at President Buhari’s claim that the war against Boko Haram had been substantially won, it is because humans are basically pain-avoiding; a traumatised people, even more so.  That would explain the seeming waywardness and obduracy of the Biblical Israelites who, after being saved from Egyptian tyranny, en route to the promised land, would forget the last celestial munificence, no matter how grand, and scream at Jehovah to return them to Egypt, rather kill them all in the desert between Egypt and Canaan.

    Of course, the 15 killed in the latest Adamawa attack are humans with flesh and blood, families and loved ones.  They are not just mere stats to be compared and discounted.  That means the war won’t be fully won, until every inch of Nigerian territory is safe from Boko Haram’s plague.

    Still, Nigerians cannot afford to be as obdurate and stiff-necked as the Israelites of old.  We should applaud the government to more success, when it is doing well, just as we reserve the right to excoriate it, when it falters.

    On Boko Haram, the Buhari Presidency has done well.  But it should not rest until those blood-sucking criminals are totally sacked from our land.

  • Jangebe’s revenge

    Where is Buba Jangebe now? If only Hardball can find him. One would love to find and engage that lean, wiry rustic from Jangebe village, Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, Northwest of Nigeria. He must be the most important news personality (MINP) in Nigeria today. One would like to sit with him over bowls of fura da nunu and speak late into the night, picking his mind about everything under the sun: life, Nigeria, leaders, followers, affluence, poverty, stealing, crime, punishment… Governor Sani Yerima, etc.

    Hardball would prod Jangebe relentlessly until he has plowed the entire recesses of his mind. Why Hardball would embark on such an odyssey, would be the natural question? But the discerning would have cottoned unto the fact of the matter at hand; this is what has been described above as Jangebe’s revenge.

    Here it goes: about 16 years ago, a certain Sani Yerima was governor of Zamfara State, a much blighted outer fringes of Northeast Nigeria bordering Niger Republic. Intoxicated with his new-found powers in a fledgling democracy, Yerima had declared his state a ‘Sharia Republic’ of sort. It was not that Sharia law was not applied in the North of Nigeria prior to the emergence of Yerima, but it was applied with commonsense and tact.

    But untutored Yerima, as if possessed, insisted upon puritan application of Sharia in his domain. This of course, suggested that the luxuriantly bearded governor and later senator, was as pure as snow in his behaviour and moral conducts.

    As if to prove that he meant business, his government made an example: Jangebe was convicted of stealing a cow in 2000 and his right hand was severed from near his wrist. The entire world was alarmed and horrified at the blood-chilling zeal of Nigeria’s new puritan mullah. The hue and cry of the world buoyed by the new world wide web of Internet information system, only bolstered Yerima as he basked in his new-found global infamy.

    In May 2001, his government supervised another bloody ritual: Malam Lawali Isa was convicted of stealing bicycles. Isa had to pay with his right hand. Mercifully, Isa’s was the second and last of Yerima’s savagery. He seemed to have sated his thirst.

    However, it came to pass and indeed to the knowledge of all that as Yerima was busy chopping off the hands of his hapless citizens, he allegedly deployed his own hands and legs and entire body to siphoning the state’s treasury and laundering funds in billions of naira.

    A former boss of an anti-graft agency that investigated said the governor must have thrown his entire body in the putrid stuff that the stench of it could be perceived all the way down to Abuja.

    Last week, Yerima was finally docked by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) with his cohorts for allegedly stealing over N1 billion.  The senator says all his expenditures were approved by the House.

    This must be different from the N2.6 billion fraud rap slammed on him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).

    Are we safe to conclude that this is Jangebe and Isa’s revenge?

  • Ekiti circus

    Looking back now, James Hadley Chase, the late English writer of American crime thrillers, couldn’t have been more laconic, titling one of his best sellers, The Guilty Are Afraid. That simple, almost casual truism is turning Ayo Fayose’s Ekiti into a circus, with hilarious echoes of “double vote of confidence.”

    And hurray!  For those who burn precious forex going abroad in search of titillating circuses, good news!  Fayose’s Ado Ekiti boasts the best parliamentary circus in town.  There, you would meet a full complement of clowns, pooh-poohing a report they don’t even have; and comically pronouncing a “double vote of confidence” — whatever that means — on a party the report purportedly indicted!  Indeed, the guilty are afraid!

    At plenary on January 19, the Ekiti legislature got rather over-excited over the Gen. Adeniyi Oyebode-chaired military board of enquiry that probed the secret audio recording, which captured the alleged voices of Ayo Fayose, Musiliu Obanikoro, Iyiola Omisore, Jelili Adesiyan and another person.  The party was hectoring and bullying Brig-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, on why he had not implemented their rigging masterplan, which Obanikoro, then minister of Defence (Army), boasted was a mission from the president.  The board commended servicemen that foiled, while also indicting those involved in the rigging plot; and proscribed due reward and punishment.

    Does the Ekiti legislature have a copy of the report?  That is doubtful.  In any case, none of the over-excited legislators at plenary brandished any copy.  But like Samson shorn of his hair of grace and power; and fuming to his doom, the Ekiti legislators were lashing out with wild allegations.

    They had gathered intelligence, they claimed, that the Federal Government was on the brink of using the findings of the report to remove Governor Fayose, their comical “opposition leader”; and if that failed, “assassinate” him outright. The Ekiti Assembly, with all 26 members Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) partisans, accused President Muhammadu Buhari of alleged dictatorship, bent on muscling the opposition.

    But wait a minute!  Has Fayose been found guilty?  Could he even be tried right now, even if the report indicted him?  Doesn’t he have constitutional immunity as sitting governor under extant Nigerian laws?  So, if he cannot be tried, how can somebody forcefully remove him from an office he has constitutional security?

    Or, has it been found that it was really Fayose’s voice badgering the poor army one-star general, simply because some illicit coins had changed hands? And if indeed Fayose was caught, metaphorically with fingers locked in the cookie jar, and he did cause the election to be rigged in his favour, is the clownish assembly scared that it would lack the guts to remove the governor, when confronted with notorious facts, since all are gubernatorial puppets?

    Ah, the bit about “double vote of confidence” is so reminiscent of the famous Wole Soyinka anti-Negritude poetic movement quip: a tiger does not proclaim its tigeritude!  When a legislature starts making a thunderclap of “double vote of confidence”, does that translate to double diffidence in its own confidence?

    Really, this assembly should get real.  Lawmaking is too serious and the legislative chamber too sacred to be left to clowns.

     

  • Telcos: Ambush Business Model (ABM)

    Telephony in Nigeria has had a chequered history and up till this moment, telephone business around here remains a conundrum that has grown impertinently into full-blown, legitimised subterfuge. Forgive Hardball’s uncharacteristically winding introduction, but telecoms companies (that is euphemism for GSM firms) in Nigeria have mastered a new and unwritten business model that thrives on trickery and ambush.

    Let us start from the fact that Nigeria is probably the only country in the world that has completely phased out landlines, thus the entire population numbering about 170 million people depend on the expensive GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) for voice, messages and all forms of exchange. So what we have is one huge oligopolistic cartel that offers extremely expensive services. And we live with it and boast about our success story in a liberalised telecommunications age.

    But what is our reality? Have you seen the ribald spectacle of a Nigerian desperately trying to make a call? The kind who holds his cell phone to his lips as if it were a chocolate bar? He takes turns to yell into the phone before he places it to his ears to try to listen. In between talking into the phone and pasting it to his ears, the call drops. Unknown to him, he returns the phone to his mouth yelling at the top of his voice; breaking out in sweat.

    It has become impossible to make nary a one-minute call without losing connection; and if one manages to succeed with it, half of the period the connection is poor, perhaps deliberately so (Hardball would want to wager) so most times, subscribers would stay two minutes on the line for what would have been a 30 seconds’ conversation.

    But these are yet benign tactics. Some of the networks choose the company they keep and do business with. One or two networks never seem to interconnect and when perchance the subscriber manages to bridge the gap between them he pays premium. For such antagonistic networks, the story, when you dial, is that “the subscriber is not available”. But how could that be? Even when the subscriber you call is the phone on your left hand…

    If you think these guys are getting away with daylight heist, wait for this: we are now in the age of unsolicited messages and even phone calls. Disruptive messages throng your phones in their dozens daily. If you think you have mastered the art of ignoring and indeed quickly deleting them, you are wrong. Indeed, your are suckered. Some of the networks and their collaborators would sign you on to crazy deals you know nothing about and go ahead to deduct your account.

    And to get the goat in you; as if they are watching you, when you set about doing the things you love most, a call comes in… you pick it… it is a recorded message from your beguiling network… and you could lose your mind if you don’t check yourself.

    Today, all the networks are making us do all over again, a biometric register we had done about twice before. And they set up a tortuous process that could mess up all of two or three days of your life. And nobody seems to care.

  • Worthless awards

    What’S the meaning of a celebratory international award when the recipient is not considered award-worthy at home?

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan was decorated as 2015 International Person of the Year by African Sun Times. After receiving the award, Jonathan said: “In 2015, despite challenges, we held violence-free elections that transferred power from one political party to another and from an incumbent to the opposition, without rancour, bitterness or strife.”  Correction: But there was so much rancour, bitterness and strife; it was a huge relief to many that the country didn’t explode.

    Jonathan continued: “In the process, we proved that nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian or any national of any country for that matter. That, to me, is a most worthy testimonial of the character of the Nigeria nation and the resilience of our people, which is why I dedicate the honour to them.” The majority of Nigerians would most probably dissociate themselves from Jonathan’s so-called honour simply because it is dishonourable.

    Then Jonathan was adorned with the President’s Award by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an African-American civil rights organisation based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Interestingly, Jonathan was recognised for his leadership in human rights, social justice and the universal fight for freedom.

    Jonathan’s response: “I thank Dr. Charles Steele Jr, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, and the executive of the SCLC for honouring me…It was also a pleasure to meet Naomi King, the sister of the late American Civil Rights leader and founder of the SCLC, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who was kind enough to attend the event and identify with the goals and aspirations of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation. By this award, I am further inspired to continue to work for the advancement of democracy, peace and progress in Nigeria and Africa.”

    Without question, Jonathan’s track record as president contradicts the suggestion that he worked for the advancement of democracy, peace and progress. So he cannot talk about continuation.

    Those who considered Jonathan worthy of awards and gave him awards are unworthy of respect.

  • Olisa the goat?

    William the Bastard (or more courtly, William the  Conqueror: ruled 1066-1087), was the first Norman king of England.  Though dubbed “illegitimate” because he was sired by the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, after a liaison with mistress Herleva, it was an age of conquest when what mattered, it appeared, was the muscle of your plundering arm, not necessarily the force of your morals.

    Sure, William did run into some storm on account of his nativity.  But that didn’t stop him from being the first Norman to conquer and rule England.

    There was also Philip the Bastard, product of randy English King Richard I aka Richard the Lion Heart and Lady Falconbridge, when her husband was away on a business trip.  Philip, later integrated into the court of succeeding King John,  was a major character in Shakespeare’s play, King John.

    So, if Bastards could force their way into reckoning in prudish England, why not metaphorical goats in debauched Nigeria, in this era of “goats, yams and barns”, never mind the impassioned cry for “de-goatification”, following ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s best forgotten era of reckless elite sleaze?

    Hardball is just intrigued by the alleged attempt by Olisa Metuh, embattled publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to shred his statement to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigators — he actually reportedly did — and chew the paper like a starved goat, especially after days of self-imposed hunger strike!

    What was Mr. Metuh trying to do?  To press his inalienable right to impunity, even when accused of a definite crime or two?  Or just to make the snappy point that for consummate (wo)men of power and glory, impunity is forever?

    You would recall the mighty Olisa, at the summit of his pluck as PDP spokesman, dismissed the then emerging All Progressives Congress (APC) coalition as nothing but a deluded band with “Janjaweed” philosophy.  In a deft verbal flourish, Mr. Metuh had likened the new opposition party to Sudan’s Muslim-on-Muslim terror, with its murderous Janjaweed militia.

    But Metuh was not alone in his power triumphalism.  Even, PDP’s national secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, on hearing of Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as APC presidential candidate, boasted the general, a mere “army illiterate”, was doomed from start, competing against his erudite principal, Goodluck Jonathan, then sitting president.

    Not to be outdone, Metuh also descended on Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari’s vice-presidential pick, as some nondescript lawyer, not even worth a contemptuous look.  Yet, Osinbajo could likely have taught Metuh’s law teachers the basics of evidence, a branch of law Osinbajo is near-globally renowned.

    But what did it matter!  When power-powered impunity looms, every other thing takes a dive!

    So, having in his glory days contended with, confounded and dusted “betters”, who are these uncircumcised EFCC agents to hold him to account — and shame of shame: ask him to sign some goddamn, god-forsaken confessional statement!

    Besides, after days of hunger strike, didn’t they know it was a time of pang and ire, when even confessional papers become legitimate fare — and proudly so?

    So, for pressing his right to everlasting impunity, shall we hail Olisa the Goat, and help press his democratic right to shred and wolf down evidence papers?

  • Hardball Haberdasheries LLC

    Hardball prided himself on being creative, but recent newsbreaks have splashed egg on his face. In spite of what he might think, among ‘knowing’ circles, the joke is actually on him. This may explain why he seeks to make amends now though laughingly belated.

    Please take another look at the above title. Do not be fooled; it is not a title, it is a call card of sort, a billboard and an advertisement of Hardball’s new venture in expectation of the next great Dasukiboom.

    If you still don’t get the gist, sorry, am afraid you are probably as dull as Hardball. Here is it. Last Monday, the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, (made popular by a certain Col. Sambo Dasuki) a list of companies and organisations that had done contracts with the ONSA during the Dasuki epoch.

    Before we proceed, let it be said that any adult Nigerian who does not know about Dasukigate now must be a security risk to the nation and must be arrested forthwith, tried for treasonable felony and put away indefinitely in protective custody. No apologies for digression.

    Hardball had counted about 241 names of companies from that list published by the ONSA. And a prior notice had been published on December 14, 2015, we are told. We speak of no fewer than 300 largely emergency  companies/ contractors.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Now you begin to see the picture; can you see the sheer throng of cloven foot trooping to the ONSA. Even the Federal Tenders Board could not have done better in such a short time. What it means is that the NSA had more ‘quality’ time with contractors than the service chiefs prosecuting the terror.

    But what struck Hardball first was the sheer genius of Nigerians in matters of contracts and making quick bucks. On the list are names of enterprises probably crafted from paradise. Let’s take some samples: London Advertising Limited; Sky Expert Nigeria Limited; Centre for Etiquette Protocol and Social Graces Limited; 2020 Nigeria Limited; Brains & Hammers Limited; Forum for Protection of Critical National Infrastructure; People & Passion Consult Limited; Coordinating Committee of Traditional Rulers; Nigeria in Safe hands and Traditional rulers of Nigeria, to pick on a few.

    Just by way of an aside: there is on the list also, a certain Romix Technologies Limited infamous for a N2 billion scam case pending for nearly a decade. Now the EFCC can do a remix of the Romix album abi? But we digress.

    Finally, the real pain for Hardball is that this huge bazaar happened under his nose, yet he had no inkling of it. Where on earth was he when the rest of the world was having a ball? Jeez, he could have been crushed with bags of cash and he would never have known!

    Well, now let it be known by all that Hardball could at least think up a company name, as written above (registered or not). Let it be seen that Hardball could design a letter-headed paper and rustle up a proposal. Better late than never, isn’t it? Please look out for Hardball Haberdasheries LLC!

  • IMF: ‘I’ for interlopers…

    The truth is that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is much detested around here. This is why anything to do with this Western world money house often triggers irritation and much revulsion among the critical populace. Wetin IMF dey do sef may well be the new refrain as their roles in world economy, especially as concerns developing countries, seem very circumspect today.

    The recent visit of IMF’s chief to Nigeria may therefore have been received with such animus and ill-will. Hardball must confess that what  irks always is IMF’s know-it-all attitude and the attempt to pass down solutions to countries like Nigeria as if her leaders are stupid. (And even if perchance they happen to be, need IMF rub it in?). Would IMF visit any Western European country and openly dictate economic policies and directions?

    During her visit recently, Christine Lagarde, managing director of IMF, did not disappoint. She played the part of an oracle as usual, postulating and pontificating. Let’s take excerpts:

    “The new reality of low oil prices and low oil revenues means that the fiscal challenge facing government is no longer about how to divide the proceeds of Nigeria’s oil wealth… This means that hard decisions will need to be taken on revenue, expenditure, debt and investment going forward. My policy refrain is this: by stepping up revenue mobilisation. The first step is to broaden the tax base and reduce leakages by improving compliance and enhancing collection efficiency.

    “At the same time, public finances can be bolstered further to meet the huge expenditure needs. For example, the current VAT rate is among the lowest in the world and well below the rates in other ECOWAS member-countries, so increase should be considered.”

    Hardball is piqued by Lagarde’s economic homily for several reasons. First, the tone of it is downright disrespectful, imperious and authoritarian. She passes down orders, almost forgetting that Nigeria is a sovereign nation.

    Second, though there may be merit in some of her suggestions, she has not said anything we did not know. But more worrisome is her recommendations for all sorts of punitive economic solutions that are inimical to the people. She orders the removal of petrol subsidy; she urges tax raise and an increase in VAT all in one fell swoop.

    It is particularly troubling that IMF’s remedies never seem to work anywhere (at least not in Nigeria, yet they are quick to proffer them). IMF must someday admit that it does not really understand the complexities of most developing economies.

    One often wonders why IMF is always compelled to come around only in troubled times. If it had been alive to its assumed duties of being the economic watchdog of the world, it would have visited about five years ago when the country was in boom. It would have insisted that the leaders of that time invested in critical infrastructure that would have curtailed dumping of Western junks on developing countries.

    Finally, Hardball expected a word from Lagarde about Nigeria’s immediate need for refineries and investment in agric. Did I hear any word on huge funds stolen from Nigeria and Africa and stashed in Western vaults? IMF must speak up and see to the urgent repatriation of these ‘blood’ monies.

  • Governor, read this letter

    Letters can be revealing. A letter by Tosin Adesile published in The Nation, January 10, revealed a thing or two about a governor and his media performance. It was titled “Issues with Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s media chat”.

    The governor in question was Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State. Adesile wrote: “The media chat held on Sunday,  January 3, 2016, is a disgrace to the media profession because the governor forcefully used executive powers to jettison core media practice by declaring without consultation that the two-hour governor’s media chat will now end in three hours and not two hours as advertised.”

    The writer of the letter quoted the governor as saying: “Two hours cannot be enough, so I declare that it will now run for three hours.” Apparently, it didn’t matter to the governor that there is such a thing as a programme schedule. Or perhaps he just didn’t give a damn. He must have reasoned that as the state’s chief executive officer, he could do and undo. Or more specifically, he could schedule and reschedule.

    This was letter writing as reporting. The reporter said: “Still on media chat, it took a serious war before the presenters drawn from Vanguard, Ogun State Television, (OGTV), Ogun State Broadcasting Service (OGBC) and Rock City FM could go on a short break. The governor asked them why they were going on a break. It was after their insistence that it’s professional they go before he succumbed.”

    Wait a minute. Is this account true to life? Adesile wrote: “The most annoying and embarrassing thing is that all the argument was live and people were hearing it.” In other words, viewers got something extra.

    Before you ask why Adesile wrote the letter to the newspaper, it is noteworthy that he said: “My continuous watch on activities of the Ogun State governor and others is a step to make them better.” He added: “My advice to the governor is to allow professional ethics run always.” Is Governor Amosun listening?

  • Falae: Chilly, chilly winter years

    One month ago, no one could have imagined the current odyssey of High Chief Oluyemisi Falae, Afenifere chieftain, former presidential candidate, former secretary to the Federal Military Government, former Finance minister and — hitherto? — man of unquestioned and unquestionable integrity.  Yes, “hitherto” boasts a question mark, because the Ondo high chief has not been found guilty of any crime.

    Still, the Falae odyssey is well and truly shattering.  Even Falae? — some contemporary Nigerian equivalent of the Shakespeare Julius Caesar’s E tu Brute?  That appears the dark, condemnatory tone, sweeping through the land, like some evil cloud.

    Fiends sneer.  Friends grimace.  In-between, there is hardly anyone.  The old man is in the dock of public opinion; and the metaphorical plebs bay for blood over the Sambo Dasuki revelations.  The Ilu Abo, Akure, ruler would appear fated to a chilly, instant and final judgment by the mob!

    Indeed, the Falae N100 million saga, which he reportedly collected from Chief Tony Anenih, the durable Mr. Fix It, that seems himself fated to a final fix, has every trapping of a Greek tragedy.  Ah, the Greek gods of old contend: only the dead is well and truly happy!

    The Falae/Anenih tale has a spice of gripping and biting irony.  The first time Anenih pulled off his umpteenth fixing, he was perched as national chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).  Between him and the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, their People’s Front (PF) faction of SDP conspired to rid MKO Abiola of his June 12, 1993, presidential mandate.

    MKO was to die in gaol, fighting to reclaim that mandate; and Falae, this same Falae, announced the formation of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the formidable Abacha-era platform that fought to the bitterest end, in a war of attrition that also sent Abacha to the grave, in a rather dramatic fashion.

    Now, if the Dasuki alleged heists would really be Anenih’s last fix before he himself gets fixed, Falae was national chairman of a resurrected SDP.  Since the old SDP debacle, Anenih, building his awesome “fix-it” credentials, had logged records seldom noble in the public space: for “fix-it” was a mere euphemism for Anenih’s evergreen formula to, willy-nilly, corral votes for his PDP — well, until the 2015 polls.

    Falae, on the other hand, had veered off on an extremely opposite tangent, building for himself and his Afenifere group, the reputation of the very epitome of nobility and integrity in the public space — and the chief and co were never shy to rub it in.

    Yet boom!  At that fatal juncture, Falae would take N100 million from Anenih, to help PDP win the presidential election — the same PDP abhorrence Falae and his Afenifere conclave had spent all their ideological years fighting!  So, what has changed?  Or, to return to the Greeks, could it be some malevolent gods just bent on destroying Chief Falae at the winter of his life?

    However the Akure high chief gets out of this one, he faces extremely chilly winter years.  Indeed, only the dead are truly happy!