The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • For Jonathan, charity doesn’t begin at home

    What is one to make of news of water scarcity in Otuoke, a community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State whose claim to fame is that former President Goodluck Jonathan hails from there?  With Jonathan’s influence in his power years, a federal university and a teaching hospital materialised on his hometown’s soil, but the lack of potable water takes the shine off these.

    A report quoted Emmanuel Agede, a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) serving in the area: “You will not believe it that here in Otuoke, we use water from an unused soak-away pit dug near our lodge, for washing clothes and bathing. For cooking and drinking, we buy sachet water; life is very difficult here; we spend the bulk of our monthly allowances on water for survival.”

    The reason for this scandalous situation, reportedly offered by the Chairman of the Community Development Committee (CDC) in Otuoke, Mr. Elijah Ateki, shifted the blame. It is unclear whether he did so innocently. “Otuoke community depends on rivers and now that all the rivers are polluted by oil, it is difficult for us to get potable water,” Ateki was quoted as saying.   His explanation was simply simplistic.

    It is relevant to take a look at Jonathan’s profile as the community’s most famous son. Jonathan was president for five years (2010–2015) and vice-president for three years (2007–2010). In Bayelsa State, he was deputy governor (1999-2005) and then governor (2005-2007). So, for 16 years Jonathan was in power at various levels, but failed to provide potable water for residents of his village. By extension, he also failed to do so at the state and federal levels, considering the revealing statistics that over half of the country’s 160 million population lack access to pipe-borne water.

    Jonathan’s failure to use the leadership positions he enjoyed to better the life of people in his immediate community and the country at large is probably a reflection of his poverty of ideas and anti-people thinking.

    This is the same character that spent public funds as if they were meant to be employed solely for self-aggrandisement and the pursuit of personal glory. It is generally agreed that the amount he sank into his doomed presidential re-election campaign ahead of the 2015 general elections contributed in no small measure to the ruin of the country’s treasury.

    Against the background of the water problem, it may be said that Jonathan didn’t give a damn whether the people were thirsty or whether they could quench their thirst with drinkable water.

    Jonathan himself was so thirsty for power that he focused on his own thirst to the detriment of the country. In the process, he rubbished the saying: Charity begins at home. To employ gardening metaphor, Jonathan failed to water the plant he was elected to tend. He was a lousy gardener.

  • Tina, Baba’s latest romance

    Himself, the Incomparable Ebora Owu, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has a new love: the delectable Lady TINA — There Is No Alternative!

    Like a troubadour sworn to the cause of his lady, Baba serenaded TINA, at his enchanting Abeokuta hilltop haven, to a visiting delegation of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), restless souls come, perhaps, as they say of Paris in those days, to “see the magical hilltop chambers and die”!

    But the Ebora made the visit all the more alluring: he waxed poetic in TINA’s praise, but made it clear that TINA’s patron saint is incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari.

    “God forbid that this present democratic dispensation should fail,” Baba intoned, all holy, all sacred, “because we have no alternative … There is no alternative to democracy. The alternative to democracy,” he insisted,  “is even worse than the imperfection of democracy”.

    On democracy and alternatives, Baba was spot on; though not a few would stress there is always an alternative, if the searcher searches enough.  In a way, however, the former president spoke from the popular mindset of either democracy or military rule, which itself is a function of not-so-rigorous thinking.

    Military rule itself ought not have been an alternative for any thinking country: not in the past, with the military’s disastrous record in governance; not in future, when every patriot must snap “never again!”, and certainly, not in the present, with the grim irony of pretending to run a democracy without democrats!

    And to those who would sap Obasanjo with near-idolisation of the presidential incumbent, in the leadership promise of President Buhari, especially when the issue is transparent governance, Baba Iyabo entered a caveat, navigating a middle course from his infamous “Abiola-is-no-messiah” punch line of yore, a punch line that would not only help to frustrate the presidential mandate of MKO, but nearly drew Obasanjo himself to Sani Abacha’s gallows.

    If Obasanjo had not contributed to MKO’s subverted mandate, there probably would not have been an Abacha.  Without Abacha, there would not have been this Fourth Republic, of which Obasanjo was first president and under whom the decay started, a decay that Goodluck Jonathan brought to its nadir, necessitating Buhari’s second coming.

    Hear the Baba’s revised view: “There is no angel, for me there is no messiah, except Jesus Christ, but there are leaders who are concerned about what is happening in this country; leaders that are so passionate about this country, and who are ready to stick out their necks for this country; and God has given us such an individual as the president of this country.”  There, you have it!

    But wasn’t this also true of Jonathan, once upon a time, particularly at the height of the zoning debate?

    Give the devil his due (and Baba is certainly no devil!): The Ebora, with equal passion and vengeance, promoted Jonathan (when he thought the Ijaw man would make good) and demoted Jonathan (when he thought the Ijaw man was damaged good).  But at the end, it’s back to square one.

    But God, in His infinite mercy, has preserved Baba’s life to witness the debacle he helped create from his presidential days.  He has even given the Ebora Owu the vigour, to be an active agent in the correction process, leveraging all on President Buhari —good!

    But the president, while savouring Obasanjo’s praise showers, should focus on his work.  He may well save Obasanjo’s power elite from themselves.  That, Hardball thinks, is the A to Z of Obasanjo’s love affair with TINA.

  • Whimsical Willie

    Hardball had always thought of him as whimsical and quirky, but sometimes impressions are far removed from reality. But one found some corroboration recently when the subject of this discourse, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State, was granted a fine platform to show the stuff he is truly made of and showcase his activities in the last one year. It was the Distinguished Lecture Series of the School of Media Communications of the Pan-Atlantic University. There couldn’t be a better podium for a powerful pitch.

    But the man who governs one of the most significant states in the federation, Anambra, aptly referred to as: Light of the Nation, fluffed the opportunity, to put it plainly. In fact, the stage proved too large for him and by the time he was done, he had become diminished. Or perhaps he simply shrunk to his original size.

    Let us consider a few of the fluffy points. First, the organisers of the lecture in their wisdom and rightly so, tagged it: “Sustaining the Legacy of Growth and Development in Anambra State.” It ought to be apparent to even a dummy that this topic is back-grounded and anchored on the activities of Obiano’s immediate predecessor, Mr. Peter Obi. Legacy in simple terms suggests a bequeathal, an inheritance. But Obiano, the legatee, spoke in total denial of yesterday.

    Instead, he took credit for the model his state is today, putting it down to his foresight. Hear him: “We analysed the Nigerian economy and foresaw that oil prices would crash to about $55 per barrel in less than one year. We foresaw that if oil prices crashed, it would bring down our revenue by 50 per cent. Having figured that out, we began to work on improving our IGR by restructuring our revenue sources.”

    One would wager that even the organisers of the lecture must have been thoroughly let down as much as Hardball. If not that the Obi era happened recently, if not that it all happened before our eyes and if not that we happened to be privy to Governor Obi’s outstanding legacy, we may have been fooled.

    Gov. Obi, for those who may not know, barely a year ago, handed over to Gov. Obiano, about N75 billion in savings, among other rich-yielding investments. To achieve this, Obi never borrowed a kobo for eight years of his tenure and no salary arrears either. So there was no debt burden for Obiano to worry about. In the last five years of the Obi era, Anambra candidates topped in most national common entrance examinations; a testimony to Obi’s passion for education development.

    The Peter Obi impact is too monumental for anyone not to notice or attempt to deny. In decidedly abstaining from as much as mentioning Obi in a longish lecture, Obiano has thoroughly diminished himself in the eyes of discerning people. He has presented himself as a man not given to grace and magnanimity.

     And to think that he has not managed to initiate an original thought so far in the running of the state; again, to think that Obiano’s predecessor virtually forded the River Niger to ensure his ascendance. Let’s grant that Obiano still has about two years to rewire his heart.

  • Anti-graft War: IBB’s baccalaureate

    “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered”. That is the pithy line from the Psalmist. It is found in the very first line of Psalm 32. Behold, there is joy in abundance to be mined from the timeless and regenerative verses of David and his co-authors as contained in that glorious body of Biblical works – the Psalms.

    Hardball commends it to those who seek wisdom and understanding. But the line quoted above is particularly instructive for its relevance to the matter at hand today. Just as it was in the Old Testament pre-Christ era that no man was without sin, so it is today.

    Sin abounds today; man does not only live it, he seems to revel in it. Many today go through a lifetime without knowing any scripture or abiding by any moral codes. They live purely according to their whims and caprices often oblivious of the difference between right and wrong. But the holy book recognises that from age to age, man in his frailty, is bound to fail and fall. Thus, man is offered escape and redemption.

    What this means is that you could work for your redemption and go through bouts of penitential rigours to atone for sin. Then there is also a select few who enjoy divine favours, whose transgressions are automatically forgiven; whose sins are overlooked and indeed written off like bad debt.

    Such is the sunny story of some of our former leaders and ‘statesmen’ in the recent past who managed the affairs of state in such riotous and prodigal manner. Over the years they have hedged from giving account of their stewardship. At the beginning of the current dispensation, it seemed the chicken would come home to roost this time but somehow they have managed to wriggle out of it and instead, signing on as advisers and confidants of the new government.

    But one of them has gone even one step further; he has become an expert on sleaze control and anti-graft wars. He is no other than the inimitable gap-toothed former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who turned 74 recently. The indefatigable political impresario, whole held Nigeria by the scrotum for eight turbulent years (1985 – 1993) recently granted interviews rendering a baccalaureate on how to recover stolen funds.

    Hear it from the one fondly call IBB: “If he (President Buhari) is resolute, I believe he will achieve some degree of (success in the recovery of) stolen funds.” To abridge a long tale, the IBB years were long, licentious and reckless. It was an era of debasement of not only the system but the very soul of the nation.

    That debilitating era was capped by the spiriting away of a $12.3 billion Gulf oil windfall that is yet to be resolved today. On a serious note, if only President Buhari would resolute enough to revisit the $12.3b affair.

    And on a final note, the times call for sobriety and comportment; especially from those whose atrocities have been overlooked.

     

  • IBB: Many happy returns

    Words and their meanings may be confusing at times. A congratulatory message to former military ruler Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi  Babangida (IBB) on his 74th birthday on August 17 was a study in word usage likely to create confusion.

    It is unclear whether the word user was confused, or whether the words were consciously used to achieve confusion. A full-page colour newspaper advertisement said of IBB: “Your life comes to us as a sterling example of how true leaders are; urbane, cosmopolitan, courageous, flexible yet firm, liberal-minded, imbued with a deep sense of patriotism. You have inspired some of us in your journey through life; reminding us that love for our nation should supersede love for self, in our collective effort to make Nigeria a greater stake for all.”

    These are hard to understand:  ”imbued with a deep sense of patriotism” and “reminding us that love for our nation should supersede love for self.” The word user’s understanding of the meaning of his words must be different from the popular understanding of these words.

    Irrespective of the country’s undulating political landscape and its perhaps unpredictable features, attempts to idealise  Babangida’s time in power surely  leave a sour taste in the mouth.  Much more unsettling is the falsification that accompanies such experimentation. Although it is 22 years since Babangida’s epic betrayal of the people and the country’s consequent loss of epochal opportunity, the logic of dynamism should not promote selective perception or, even worse, willful forgetfulness.

    The people remember how IBB killed their dreams by dictatorially annulling the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election won by Chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory.  Abiola didn’t survive the brutality he suffered in the course of asserting his popular mandate; his controversial death in 1998, under a different military administration that nevertheless owed its perpetuation to IBB’s original sin, still haunts the polity to this day. It will always be a question to ponder whether the country, indeed, lost a positive turning-point opportunity by IBB’s inscrutable indiscretion, considering that Abiola’s “Hope 93” campaign was full of motivational energy and the majority eagerly bought his promise of constructive change.

    It must still hurt Babangida that he left the stage broken and humiliated by the popular resistance to his display of raw power, leading to his rushed and unceremonious exit, even though he installed a puppet civilian administration in a futile face-saving terminal move. Not surprisingly, seeking the elusive perfect ending, he indicated interest in the presidency some years ago, only to learn, to his extreme chagrin, that he was generally considered a defective product that could not benefit from even the most creative promotional stunts. In a manner of speaking, he could not be made to smell like a rose.

    Clearly, the image laundering efforts continue, and launderers are not in short supply   as demonstrated by the latest advertisement, which was signed by a governor with supposedly progressive credentials.  In this case, not only the message is important, the messenger is too. It is fitting to wish IBB many happy returns of image laundering.

  • Wike: curse to the rescue?

    Nyesom Wike, Rivers governor, seems morphing from the wike wike brag-fest, in his unending battle with Chubuike Amaechi, his predecessor; to a seasoned “curser”, perhaps in office but not yet in power?

    Or how else does Hardball interpret this headline in the August 17 issue of The Nation: “Wike: God’ll disgrace those plotting against my government? O, you think it is rather a negative prayer than a positive curse?  Maybe!  But to what ends?

    Mr. Wike was reported to have prayed the prayer or cursed the curse at a crusade, in Port Harcourt, of the Lord’s Chosen Renewal Charismatic Ministry, at which the ministry’s general overseer, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, was tending to the flock.

    An ecstatic Wike went on memory lane, underscoring his faith in the religious body with yet another curse — or well, something close to it.  It was at a previous Chosen crusade, he recalled with glee, that he volunteered that if indeed he was a cultist, he should not win the election.  So, because he won the election, the rumours that alleged he was one was false, halleluiah!  How about that for circular (il)logic!

    And the gubernatorial triumphalism, above the din of brethren’s roar! “The way the God of the Lord’s Chosen did it on April 11, that is how he will do it again!”  Amen? Hardball would imagine.  Aaammeeeeeen!!! The flock would thunder, putting the gubernatorial child of God in the true and proper mood for his negative prayer or positive curse.

    “Those who are fighting and plotting to truncate the lifespan of the mandate freely given to me by the people of Rivers State,” there you have it, “will be disgraced by the God of the Lord’s Chosen”!  Hmmnnn, might that peculiar God, customised to “the Lord’s Chosen”, be partisan too? And a Wike supporter to boot?  Ah!

    Trust politicians to steal one on their opponents.  But trust clerics too to be savour projecting influence, no matter how seeming inappropriate.  It is rare bragging rights in Nigerian Pentecostalism, in the daily combat for market share to win souls!  It is the gripping daily drama that makes Nigeria such a never-boring prospect for the media person.

    But more seriously, beyond the drama: would any conscientious human, let alone of God, countenance the reported brutal harvest of lives and limbs, the virtual wiping out of whole families, the forced exile of many more, in the macabre show that passed for the Rivers elections?  Of course, Hardball is in no place to judge, which of the parties in the election disputes is right or wrong.  The election tribunals are doing that; and soon enough, they should be out with their verdict.

    But from media reports during the elections, how can anyone so casually link God’s name — and with wanton triumphalism to boot! — to what the media and election monitors painted as a clear debacle?

    Given the ugly turn of events during the Rivers election, beyond the winners and the vanquished, what the Rivers people need is closure: the victims’ right to go back to their shattered lives; and a responsible government’s duty to be sensitive to that right.

    That was what Mr Wike tragically missed at his crusade triumphalism; and the collateral damage he inflicted on a perfectly legitimate crusade, even if the cleric himself should have impressed on the governor the imperative for tact, at such a delicate juncture.

    By the way, a parting shot: why does Governor Wike curse so throatily — to underscore that, until the tribunals rule, he is just in office but far away from power?  Ah!

     

  • Multichoice, little choice

    South African multinationals operating in Nigeria are fast gaining notoriety for shylock practices. Ask the average Nigerian MTN subscriber what he feels about the telecoms giant that has found incredible fortune here and you won’t get any flattering appraisals. Even a dog is not allowed to lap up MTN’s poo, is the refrain in a certain part of the country.

    MTN’s calls termination notice has been object of jokes in some quarters for years:  “Your call credit is exhausted and your call is being TERMINATED!” Yes, the word, terminated is seemingly rendered in capital letters. It comes across as if you were a petty thief trying to pinch credit from MTN. These stingy people never allow people a second extra, many would often grumble.

    But it’s not about MTN today; it is about another South African firm that has so much cause to be charitable to Nigerian subscribers, but rather treats them like dirt. Hardball talks about MultiChoice, the satellite paytv quasi-monopoly. To be fair, this operator of the DSTV channels is not a monopoly. Let’s just say it has more resources and has proved to have a more ingenious business model.

    MultiChoice is not the pioneer paytv firm in Nigeria but again let’s say it stole the thunder from such indigenous firms, such as ABG and even HiTV, later. DSTV blazed the trail by remaking the music channels (with Channel O) to accommodate home-made African music videos. DSTV literally picked Nollywood from the Nigerian bins and made it a huge African brand. It has been doing things with Nigeria’s Premier League; same for basketball and boxing.

    DSTV has played roles that a department of the Nigerian Television Authority (the largest network in Africa!) ought to have pioneered two decades ago, but for crippling mediocrity. Today, the country’s broadcast system is still fossilised in the analog age. It is so sad that to get a crisp view of NTA and most Nigerian channels, it has to be through the DSTV.

    Even at that, what quality of content? A young boy once told his father that the worst punishment he could ever exact upon him was to make him watch NTA for an entire day; that he would simply die of boredom. This is why some Nigerians erroneously describe DSTV as a monopoly; it isn’t. The sky is large enough for all and content abound in the atmosphere. Hardball wagers that we have mined only the tip of the content that is possible in Nigeria and the entire African continent.

    The foregoing notwithstanding, DSTV stands accused of treating her Nigerian consumers with levity and scorn. Last April it increased subscription rates drastically without good reasons. Last week, it blatantly denied subscribers the opportunity of watching the English Premier League, the only reason most people still stick to DSTV.

    DSTV simply created Supersport 5 in the premium bouquet and consigned major EPL matches therein. So the sub-premium Compact-plus subscribers who had paid nearly N10, 000 are brusquely denied the EPL. To think that just four months ago, a sharp increase in rate was executed. Now you have to pay about N14, 000 to get a chance to watch the EPL. And you may wait a month to do that if you had just renewed.

    What an ignominious way to treat loyal subscribers.

  • A legislator’s withdrawal method

    It is curious that a member of the House of Representatives, Segun Adekola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), unexpectedly and inexplicably withdrew a motion already listed for debate. The motion was entitled: “Urgent need to curb unwholesome practices of Chinese, Indian and Lebanese companies in Nigeria.”

    A report said: “In his argument of the motion, as contained on the Order paper, the lawmaker said a media report on an incident at Wempo where it was alleged that a Nigerian worker’s head got smashed by a faulty machine called for concern.” It also said: “As stated on the Order paper, the lawmaker expressed concern that some of the foreign companies act with impunity by subjecting their workers to degrading working conditions and a near absence of safety measures in flagrant disobedience of Nigerian Labour laws.”

    Adekola’s withdrawal of the motion was anti-climactic and disturbing enough.  But even more worrying is the information: “In accordance with House rules, the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, granted the request.” This raises a question about rules that appear to encourage abdication of responsibility. Isn’t the matter grave enough to seize the attention of the other members of the House, beyond Adekola’s vacillation and inconsistency? Who is expected to pursue such a pro-people cause, if those elected by the people to protect and promote their interests seem ignorant of what is expected of them?

    It is unclear why Adekola withdrew the motion. It is disappointing that he did so, considering that the subject remains topical. Or is he suggesting that there is no longer an “urgent need to curb the unwholesome practices of Chinese, Indian and Lebanese companies in Nigeria”? It was reported: “In his prayers, Adekola wanted the House to mandate the Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, when constituted to investigate the incident at Wempo and other unwholesome practices of foreign companies operating in Nigeria with a view to bringing an end to the unhealthy trends.”

    It is reasonable to think that the targets of the motion are aware of the development and must feel relieved. The alleged “unwholesome practices” have continued and will continue because of the on-and-off approach by those who are in a position to do something about them.

    This case of indefensible discontinuity deserves attention because it may well be the result of a lobby, which would make it even more condemnable. The legislator’s about-turn reflects unseriousness.

  • Gani the guard

    When a contractor’s cheese has been moved, particularly if it’s a large chunk of cheese, expect contractor confusion. A reflection of such confusion: “All I’m saying is that government can merge the community residents and law enforcement agents to police the neighbourhood. But my fear is that, if they are being merged, how are we sure that the law enforcement agents would not compromise members of the community?”

    Who was that? Well, the speaker was no other than Gani Adams, a factional chief of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), in a published interview. His company, Donyx Global Concept Nigeria Limited, recently lost a controversial oil pipeline security contract because the Muhammadu Buhari presidency considered it unworthy of renewal.

    What Adams meant was that militiamen, euphemistically described as “community residents”,   should be allowed to operate side by side with the official security agents. Adam’s company was one of the militia-related companies that enjoyed multi-billion naira security contracts when Goodluck Jonathan was president. From the beginning, the contracts in question were politically-coloured, which is a way of saying they were corrupted by politics and politicians. “About 4,000 workers were engaged by our companies – New Age Security Company owned by Dr. Fasehun; Galaxy Security Outfit Nigeria Limited owned by General Shoot-at-Sight and Donyx Global Concept Nigeria Limited owned by me.” That was Adams again in another interview.

    Apart from the absurdity of the imagined combination of forces, Adams’ expressed “fear” that the regular security personnel may have a corrupting influence on the irregular workers is laughable because it attempts to paint them in unrealistically positive colours.

    Adams’ self-promoting thinking: “The contract expired on the 15th of June. Between that 15th of June when we left and now, we have all seen what happened to our oil pipelines, especially in Arepo, in Ogun State. Every activity of these vandals, we tactically blocked during the three months which the contract lasted…But rather than get the support of the people, they were going up and down, calling us all manner of names, using the media to fight us.”

    Can anyone make Adams see the nonsense of downgrading the normal security agencies in favour of militiamen?  Can Adams understand the irrationality of the enrichment of militia leaders to the detriment of the empowerment of the country’s security personnel? Listen to him again: “The only way we can reduce pipeline vandalism is through community efforts.” He means through the use of militiamen. He said boastfully: “When we came on board, some of the vandals came to my house, promising me heaven on earth if I cooperate with them. But I walked them out.” Hail Gani, the incorruptible guard!

  • Unnecessary begging?

    Ha, Hardball wished Fela, the Abami Eda himself, were still alive!

    If he were, how would he have tackled the August 6 Goodluck Jonathan “secret” meeting with his successor, Muhammadu Buhari, the reported details of which The Nation nevertheless splashed as front page lead on August 10?

    Were he in President Buhari’s shoes, he probably, all biting and laconic humour, have crowed: “e don beg me”, as he did of Justice Okoro Idogu, the judge who gaoled Fela for currency offences but who Fela insisted apologised for alleged miscarriage of justice.  That was ironically during the first coming of Major-Gen. Buhari as military head of state, he with the Unsmiling One, the late Tunde Idiagbon — the duo the media promptly christened the “Buhari-Idiagbon regime”?

    Or Fela could play the vintage and unrepentant iconoclast, as he did in one of his immortal numbers: “Unnecessary begging, dem dey call am for area o, or’ebe o sele!” (Roughly: folks call it unnecessary begging — because begging is uncalled for!)

    Well, Hardball could not in all good conscience, even from The Nation report, assert that Jonathan went to “beg” Buhari, over the grave corruption allegations that seem to swirl his administration, as ants would swirl  cubes of sugar.  But he can’t also, in all good conscience, deny that the former president appeared in desperate search of some soft landing — should those grave allegations be proven.

    The Nation report claimed Buhari told Jonathan point-blank: looted funds must be returned!  The former leader reportedly confessed he was hearing the allegations of industrial-scale graft for the first time.  That probably showed the tight hold he had on a government in which about everything was done by his name.

    He also reportedly pleaded the Abdulsalami Abubakar-chaired 2013 Peace Committee, as some magical quid-pro-quo: I have given up power after losing; so, open sesame, vanish any allegation, no matter how dripping in scarlet; and my garment and my ministers’, become as white as snow!

    Even before the visit, media reports had spoken of a rather agitated Jonathan, reportedly pressuring Gen. Abubakar to intervene with Buhari to remember the letter — and well, the spirit — of the agreement.  Abubakar, on his part, had tried to connect the president and possibly set up an appointment between the two.

    But after the meeting, the Peace Committee protocol would appear not the “open sesame” that Jonathan had hoped.  The best deal he would get, it appears, was to be shielded from the direct line of fire.  But what if a particularly irreverent former official of state caught in the sleaze web, insists he won’t go down alone, does the unthinkable?  Perish the thought!

    And former President Olusegun Obasanjo, now with no love lost between him and Jonathan, did he visit Buhari to knock down whatever reliefs he felt Jonathan could have secured?  That, in all fairness nothing indicates.  But then, it won’t be out of character for Baba Iyabo, the political warrior that takes no prisoners!  May you never have his likes as opponent, let alone of enemy!

    Anyway, Hardball’s golden lesson from the embattled former president: always have a grip on yourself and your staff, when in position of authority.

    Post-power years, it just might make all the difference: for how can Jonathan, even if true, seriously say he had no idea humongous sleaze was taking place virtually under his nose?