The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Ogbeni and the Ebudola prospect

    Hardball just heard Iyiola Omisore, beaten Osun Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, tell Governor Rauf Aregbesola to resign! That drew a throaty and instinctive laugh.

    But on a second thought — what if Omi’s suggestion was right; and the governor did resign, what then?  Would that, open sesame, magically clear the backlog of workers’ salaries?

    Then, the laugh returned — now, not instinctive, but a full derisive guffaw that sent Hardball’s frame convulsing. How could anyone be capable of such infantile thinking — and a wannabe governor and two-term senator?  Ha!

    But don’t get Hardball wrong. It is never salutary to owe workers’ salaries — even for one day, given the level of poverty and suffering in the land. Now to talk of seven months!  The workers would just flip — and who wouldn’t?

    That is why Hardball joins the nationwide appeal to all state governments owing workers to do everything possible to find means of paying them.  But even that, beyond the sound of one’s voice, is as vacuous as they come.

    This is because though the states in the eye of the storm are the present object of hate and ridicule (and just as well, for when the pocket hurts, nothing can placate it but cash), the real culprit was the criminal profligacy of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency.

    This was a government that made arguably more money than any previous government, yet left the central till in a shambles. It was also a government that declared no less than one out of every five barrels of crude daily stolen, yet declared itself powerless!

    These were the crises, coupled with the fall in global crude prices, that have put most of Nigeria’s 36 states in financial quandary, with no less than 24 owing salary backlogs. Indeed, Hardball would go to this extent: since the old Federal Government caused the problem, the new Buhari Presidency should view it as a national emergency, and help to clear this monumental national shame.

    Of course, that is not to say that many states were not careless in their fund-husbandry.  Indeed, not a few have been remiss. Such behaviours should be decried.  Still, Hardball would be wary of Omisore’s grand wisdom (more of cheap folly, really) of the governors to “resign”, when that is no solution.

    That takes the matter back to the State of Osun. Ogbeni Aregbesola must be a very lonely man now, being walloped left, right and centre by subversive sympathisers of his workers, milking the Osun civil servants’ misery to make triumphalist political statements.

    Even many, that Hardball calls clinical sympathisers, have harangued the governor, their all-wise accusation ranging from his near-childish zeal for infrastructure; and utter failure to appreciate his cash flow before embarking on gigantic projects. But thank God: not even the most reckless have suggested Aregbesola diverted Osun money to personal use.

    In truth, Ogbeni must have learned some hard lessons from his present odyssey. But even when his spirit is at the lowest, he must remember Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Ebudola (insults-turned-praise) experience.

    When Awo was building the future by his radical policies, which necessitated higher taxation and sundry present discomfiture, his opponents went to town, emotively blackmailing him; and goading the ultimate beneficiaries to rebellion.  Those were the “Omisores” of Awo’s age.  But who remembers them today?

    Ogbeni must find solutions to this cash meltdown — and fast.  But beyond that, he must not surrender his vision — for developmentally, Osun never to be the same again.  If he doesn’t falter — and he must not — the Osun generation next would, in future, adulate and venerate Aregbe, while Omisore would have been buried and long forgotten, in the dust heap of history.

     

  • Psalm 32 for Sylva

    He must be the happiest man in the land today. He must have been throwing parties and indeed, must have thrown in an elaborate thanksgiving in the sanctuary of the holy one yesterday. Hardball speaks of Mr. Timipre Sylva, the former governor of Bayelsa State.

    Gangling Timi has just gotten a reprieve. The taut noose around his neck has not only been loosened, it has been removed. In fact, this particular noose, the ugly device of the equally ugly hangman which had Timi’s number on it has been cast into a raging fire. It was such finality that seemed to proclaim to him: no more shall a noose hang around your neck. Be gone because you are loosed and no man shall bind you again.

    Such is the impression Hardball gets as the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja last Wednesday, declared Big Timi free of N19.2 billion fraud charges against him. You now see why Hardball is moved to a cataclysmic ecstasy on account of another man’s triumph. Common, empires would rise and fall over 19 billion big ones; in any currency, this is an earth shaker. Wars can be started and ended with this kind of money.

    Again, people are languishing in Nigeria’s dingy detentions across the country for merely playing tricks with cheap Chinese phones. Some luckless fellows have been pulled in and never to return for ‘playing’ with a wandering goat or flicking a second-hand bra off a neighbour’s line. Yes, the law is blind and sometimes crazy so strange stuff does happen, especially when you do it cheap.

    The law seems to have a particular dislike for the poor and the cheap. It treats the poor with so much disdain that it keeps him on awaiting trial bind until he expires or becomes a worthless destitute; whichever suits it.

    But not so for the big shot; the learned jurist in his ruling, proclaimed the majesty and eminence of justice and law with which he loosed Timi. Here is a sampler (just as Hardball did not understand it, you, an unlearned layman, are not expected to comprehend the fine enunciation of justice.): Justice Ahmed Mohammed held: “ By withdrawing the charge at court 8, the prosecution didn’t really want to prosecute the matter.

    “I say so because the allegation of abuse is against the charge before this court.

    “Whatever decision the prosecution arrived at did not prevent them from continuing the charge at court 8, since it was earlier in time and was not targeted by the allegation of abuse.

    “Based on the above findings, the charge, FHC/ABJ/CR/167/2013, amounted to an abuse of court and same is accordingly dismissed.”

    All this N19.2 billion caper which had been on since 2012 when Timi was torpedoed from his gubernatorial perch has been quash very speedily in just one month. Yes, the matter has been truly dismissed and Timi is free, discharged, acquitted, unfettered, unrestrained, etc.

    But Hardball hereby sentences him to Psalm 32. He must study it, learn it by mind and recite it every morning and night for the rest of his life. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven…”

  • Alimi coup

    I lorin history speaks of a dynastic coup in the 19th century by Alimi (formerly, Salih Janta), a Fulani Islamic scholar and adviser in the court of Afonja, the Ilorin Yoruba ruler.  Though the religious nomad, Alimi, came to Ilorin with Afonja’s help, when Afonja was assassinated in 1824, Alimi’s son, Abdulsalami, became the first Fulani ruler of the town.

    But many insist — not without fairness — that Afonja got his own comeuppance; because Afonja himself, as the Aare Ona Kakanfo to the Alaafin of Oyo, rebelled against the Alaafin, with Alimi’s help.  So, when Afonja himself was put to Alimi’s sword, it was one treachery cancelling out another.

    Whatever the matter between the two personages, that very act sentenced Ilorin to its neither-nor political geography.  Though it is southernmost enough to be part of Western Nigeria, it is geographically North. Though Ilorin’s dominant culture is ethnic Yoruba, it remains a Fulani suzerainty.

    On June 9, an Alimi-like coup took place in the hallowed chambers of the Senate, in the National Assembly.  The major player in that coup was Bukola Saraki, incidentally an Ilorin indigene and head of the second-generation Oloye political dynasty — the Oloye himself being the senior Saraki, now dead, Dr. Olusola Saraki.

    It was the election of the president for the eighth Senate of the Federal Republic.  Senator Saraki had disagreed with his party, the All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) official nominee for the position.  But striking a deal with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators, Senator Saraki got 12 of his party’s 59 votes with wholesale bloc votes from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to nick the Senate presidency with 57 votes.  It was a rebellion so brazen!

    In the aftermath have been emotive responses, charging the Saraki camp with treachery, indiscipline and self-ambition over collective interest — not totally illegitimate or unfair allegations.  Not a few have even linked the Saraki coup to the Alimi coup in 19th century Ilorin, therefore seeking historical justifications to suggest something eternally slimy and treacherous about the Saraki political persona.

    But Saraki’s supporters and sympathisers have countered that what happened was the Tambuwalisation of the Senate; and from the PDP it was simply payback time!  Aminu Tambuwal, former House of Representatives Speaker and now Sokoto governor, became speaker, against PDP’s wish, with the vote of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), both legacy parties now merged into APC.

    But after justification and counter-justification, the APC stakeholders must realise one chilling fact: PDP would be damned to have APC succeed, being the party that ended its 16-year rule.  In PDP’s shoes, APC would probably behave the same way.  It is politics, after all!

    Then, a no less chilling follow-up: with Saraki doing a deal with PDP, APC has a potent enemy in the house.  Why, for instance, would the PDP vote that powered Saraki to the Senate presidency zealously power the APC agenda which, if successful, would forever bury PDP?

    That is why the winners in the APC camp should stop gloating and the losers stop threatening.  APC  was elected to make a definitive change in Nigerians’ lives.  It should shake off this crisis and do exactly just that.

    Nigerians would be the ultimate losers, should this crisis — as major as it is — derail the promises APC enunciated so brilliantly during electioneering, against the background of a hugely disappointing PDP Jonathan presidency.

    APC should activate its internal crisis-resolution mechanism.  Let the bickering stop.  There is work to do for Nigeria — and the task is tough and arduous.

  • The story of Mrs. Fayose

    Hardballwas in a mirthful mode when he came upon the story of the ‘venerable’ Mrs. Feyisetan Fayose. Well, let’s say her current story (there are quite a few to regale you with in the course of this journey) as told last Sunday at the Deeper Life Church Camp ground, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State. Madam is of course the wife of the inimitable Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State.

    But no true gentleman of Hardball, as Hardball has proved to be, would want to deride a member of the female gender; not by any hint. And not for that matter, a demure lady of the standing of a first lady of a state. It is for this reason that Hardball held back his barbs otherwise the title of this piece was destined to be, Itan Feyisetan, which translates roughly to: the remarkable tales of Feyisetan.

    We shall return to the meaning and import of that missed title later. Meanwhile, last Sunday at the thanksgiving church service by Governor Fayose to acknowledge an obvious divine intervention in his vanquishing of his ‘enemies’, a fresh revelation emerged. Feyisetan had told the congregation that God had revealed to her in a dream that the months of March and April would be most turbulent period for their tenure, but the good Lord never abandons His own. Hallelujah, somebody!

    She did not mince words and for the avoidance of doubt, let’s hear it from Madam: “In the dream, God told me that March and April will be stubborn. He said we should get prepared for it. But God promised to see us through.”

    Wow, Hardball feels ashamed each time he reads about so many Nigerians receiving so freely, celestial missives as if they were sms from a goodly friend. Let me confess that I have never ever received nary a hint from our father above, sleeping or awake. Is one too sleepy-headed or too wakeful to hear our Lord calling out!

    But Hardball is not in the class of Feyisetan in this business divine ministration from above. In fact, if you call her eni itan, that is one who came wrapped in wonderful tales, it would be quite apt. But for the moment, let’s dwell on itan Feyisetan (I hope you don’t mispronounce this for Hardball will not be responsible for what would be a most inelegant error).

    Speaking of tales, this remarkable woman of noted piety is reputed to have foretold the fall from grace of her husband during his first coming. She was also said to have prophesied that her husband would surely return to power. It came to pass.

    So what would Madam see next about her ebullient and conquering husband who has roundly beaten flat his foes the way the tinker beats pan. The legislature, the judiciary and the opposition party he has flattened. He is yet hungry for more fights everyday as if he was born to feud.

    Hardball is not a seer of any sort but he can only admonish that Madam would need more fervency in her supplications as her hero carries on like that fellow in a certain fable, who finding no other opponent to duel with, took on his shadow in a vicious contest. And that, really, is the tale.

  • Tankers’ inferno

    Tankers’ inferno — does that remind you of Dante’s Inferno, the first of the Italian Dante Alighieri’s 14th century three-part epic poetry Divine Comedy, the second and third parts being Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise)?

    Dante’s Divine Comedy is an allegory of the progressive purification of a God-seeking soul, from the nine earthly “circles of punishment” (limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery), to the grim mount of purgatory and finally, to paradise.

    To find heaven, man must purge himself of all carnal dross. Comedy was Dante’s contribution to medieval stick-and-carrot evangelism.

    Not so, today Tankers’ inferno, which in Lagos has assumed added hellish fury, these last seven days. These secular infernos, which reckless fuel tanker drivers perpetrate, have nothing to do with the afterlife. It is rather cumulative driving indiscipline, which end in hideous fatality and wanton wastes: in lives, limbs and property.

    June 2, Iyana Ipaja, a Lagos suburb: About 2 am, a tanker loaded with petrol, fell off the Ipaja bridge, reportedly because of brake failure. Despite the yeoman efforts by personnel of the Lagos Fire Service, an estimated N20 million worth of goods and property were consumed. Even shop keepers, who left proceeds of the previous day’s sale in their shops, got the cash burnt.  Estimates in trauma, with most of the victims watching their life labour go up in flame, was almost unquantifiable.  But no life was immediately lost.

    June 5, Idimu, another Lagos suburb: one of two racing petroleum-bearing tankers, at about 12 midnight, fell off a flyover, spilling its 33, 000-litre combustible content into adjoining gutters; and exploded in a humongous blaze. At the end, 34 houses, 70 shops and one tricycle got consumed.  Though no life was reportedly lost, not a few of the traumatised victims effectively ended up as the virtual living dead: their houses, businesses and even inheritances got gutted — just like that!

    June 7, Oribawa Bus Stop, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos: another fuel tanker fell, spilling its content on the expressway, incidentally in front of a service station.  Had that spill  resulted in a fire, the station would have been engulfed in the blaze, and the adjoining buildings, at great risk. But thank goodness, no fire. Neither was there collateral auto crashes, borne out of slippery roads — all thanks to the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA).

    Three fuel tanker spills in a week might be some hideous welcome to Akinwunmi Ambode, the new Lagos governor. But certainly, no coincidence: falling tankers, spilling their contents and causing innocent motorists and other passers-by needless grief, are rather routine.

    What to do?  Governor Ambode spoke of a confab with tanker owners, drivers and allied stakeholders — not a bad idea.

    But the rapidity of these tragic incidents are no accidents. They are rather headless incidents from wilful players; who reinforce extremely bad habits simply because they got off lightly from previous reckless acts.

    So, whatever the fuel tanker confab agenda, crime and punishment must top it.  For too long, innocent citizens have perished because careless citizens have defaulted in their safety responsibilities.

    It is therefore high time the governor read the riot act. Harsh punishments must be meted to these suicidal on the road.  Then tanker owners must be made to bear the full brunt of the costly mistakes of their employees.  That should be immediate.

    Of course, there should also be mass enlightenment for this class of Nigerians to depart from their suicidal ways.  But never again must a careless minority lead the innocent majority to avoidable grief.

  • What’s this clean crooked stove?

    Did you ever hear of a cooking device known as clean cookstove? Would you recognise one if someone handed it to you? Did you ever have a problem about how to cook your meals? Do you think handing stove to people – whether cookstove or crooked ones, should ever be a matter for the Federal Executive Council, FEC, where the president of a country sits to consider urgent matters of grave national importance?

    It is because of matters like this that Hardball is eternally and wholesomely cynical about the President Goodluck Jonathan era and thinks it is the most pathetic regime that ever happened here. Please let us consider the clean cookstove saga and tell me thereafter if Jona cynicism is not a most healthful emotion to sustain.

    Late last year, at the onset of the current economic recession when Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was telling us about belt-tightening, FEC announced to a bewildered nation one of those Wednesdays that it had awarded a contract for the purchase and distribution of 750,000 clean cookstoves. Contract sum: N9.2 billion. Ha, just like that, where is this stove thing coming from all of a sudden? And all this money – about one tenth of some African country’s budget –  just for some stove?

    The entire stove narrative is as incongruous as the Jonathan administration was an absurdity. Environment is among the single most important issue elsewhere; here it is honey pot for politicians and civil servants. All the funds for preserving our world here are simply debased and designated as ‘free fund’ and then vaporised by people in authority who need it most to import bigger autos (‘machines’) to further debase the environment. It’s suicidal irony. So the clean cookstove is one such ironies of Nigeria’s environment.

    Why would the Federal Government get into the mire of purchasing stoves for rural Nigerians? What would some of these people do with these stoves when they have not earned salary for months? How would a mere 750,000 units of stove help our vast country and large population? Why is each unit of stove sold for N4,000 in the open market ordered at N12,000 by the Federal Government? Why did the former president approve for us to import stoves we can manufacture here? Kenya is said to have set up an industrial complex to manufacture millions of even better such stoves for only N1 billion? Why are the contractors supplying gas stoves instead of clean cook stoves?

    Questions are too numerous. And we ask finally, why was it the pastime of the Jonathan government to do things that always left a trail of embarrassing questions?

    Finally, what is the out-gone Minister of Environment, Mama Lawrencia Laraba-Mallam, doing plodding about in this unclean, crooked stove mess? If we must play in the muck of graft, we allowed to apply some commonsense; a little bit of method makes madness palatable, they say.

    What’s this clean crooked stove?

  • Our Osoko has gone mad again!

    Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, goes the famous comedy from the theatrical stable of Professor Ola Rotimi, the late Nigerian playwright and academic. From the dark tragedy of The Gods Are Not to Blame, modelled after the Greek Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Our Husband is some catharsis, showing that life, no matter how imperfect or grim, could not be 100 per cent gloom.

    But some comedies could be tragic, if not by broad classification, then by application.  A live example of such is the latest stunt by the Osoko, Ayo Fayose, enfant terrible governor of Ekiti and self-christened Irumale to nje jollof rice (Demon that feasts on jollof rice).

    In his latest theatrics, Fayose has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, practically staking a right to nominate a minister for him.  His bona fides?  Ekiti is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state through and through: from governor, Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly — 100 per cent!

    So, as Ekiti-Kete lord of manor and commander-in-chief of the Ekiti political warriors, shaped in Fayose’s rambunctious image, he wanted to bless the president with the nomination of a minister of genuine Ekiti extraction.  Fair enough.

    For effect, he promised Buhari “a worthy and competent Ekiti professional for appointment”.  Well, well, well!

    “Worthy and competent” — in what field, Hardball might ask?

    In political mugging?  In truth, this polity can testify to Fayose’s expertise in that line.  Since he took office, his army of political muggers and allied underclass denizens have found absolute fulfilment in Ekiti’s one-day-one-trouble odyssey.

    In legislative subversion?  Walahi, sai Baba, he is your man!  If you ever have cause to defrock a pea-cocky National Assembly; and cut to size both the Senate and the House of Representatives, Fayose’s nominee is the one to give the tutorials.

    See, as mighty as the constitution is, Fayose has proved mightier. He has sacked parliament, has spent the people’s money without parliamentary approval and has even appointed commissioners, as sole political Leviathan.  What is more?  He has not only boasted, he has shown that no court can touch him; and no parliament, unhorse him.

    In rabble-baiting? Again, surely a proven expertise!  As we speak, Fayose’s energetic rabble have rammed trailers to cordon off vital highways, just to shut out exiled Ekiti parliamentarians, allegedly coming to town to impeach Fayose, the mighty man of the people!

    Meanwhile, the same Fayose, aka Mr. No Apology, was unapologetically behind the most condemnable hate adverts, during electioneering, claiming the then candidate of the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), would die, if Nigerians made the mistake of electing him.

    Why, only a few days ago, at the height of the impeachment saga, a clearly harried Fayose was sending an SOS to this same Buhari, to prevail on Ekiti APC legislators not to impeach him, even if he has committed brazen constitutional crimes! Today, a mischievous Fayose is staking powers to ministerial nominations! That is Fayose for you, blowing hot and cold.

    Hardball genuinely feels Fayose should keep his rascality to Ekiti, which people appear to have the extremely elastic capacity to suffer fools gladly. Besides, if the president has spurned governors from his own APC on ministerial nominations, why would he listen to Fayose, a very unserious and unstable character?

    Of course, to him, everything is stunt and show-boating.  That is why he cuts the picture of a parody of Ola Rotimi: Our Osoko Has Gone Mad Again!

  • As ‘The Fixer’ slinks quietly away

    The epochal fall from power by PDP sure came with a splash. While President Goodluck Jonathan may be the horned protagonist of that lost paradise, victims are plenteous.

    Consider Tom Ikimi, the astute political fortune hunter of that infamous PDP era. He was part of the ‘stranger’ elements (pun intended) who helped to cobble up the now ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). A man as large as his ego, he left the new party in a huff a few months to the historic election, much depressed that he was shunted for the chairmanship position.

    He raged, raved and ran back to his PDP puddle. His angst was understandable for a man used to heading political associations in Nigeria. And it mattered nothing how ignoble the body he heads may be. Just throw him in the mix of power and pork and leave the rest to him to mix up.

    There are numerous other bit players in this political tragic-comedy that is the fall of PDP. Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, two-time governor of Abia State and founder of the now withered Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), could have done anything to return to PDP a few months to the last election. Yes he was willing to do just anything; including unhinging his state, Abia. He levied so much ‘war’ on the government of the day one would think PDP was paradise.

    Others who would now yawn wish they were a little pluckier if not perspicacious are Chief Richard Akinjide who with his minister daughter were beaten silly even in their polling units. There is Chief Ahmadu Ali, former chairman and director of the last campaign who seems to wish he is neither seen nor heard ever again. When was the last time you sighted ‘Ali must go’ in public?

    Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu must stand up and take his final bow – from politics that is. I doubt that Ndigbo would miss him. Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was still in court challenging his removal as chairman regardless that he was ‘compensated’ with another juicy position as replacement for the PDP top job. We hope he continues in court and pray he reclaims his seat.

    What do you say of Senator David Mark, two-time Senate president, now floor member; 20 years already in the Senate and gunning for 24? Now that PDP has fallen from grace, the people of Benue would require a special dispensation to unseat him or if they know any better, seek a “doctrine of necessity” to impose a term limit for parliamentarians too.

    Erstwhile governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Babangida Aliyu (Niger) are a double-hearted duo. They are not exactly a double-ganger in the true sense of the word but they take the prize for doing the greatest political back-flip of our history. They led other decamping PDP governors to a decisive meeting. But the duo simply ran away from the venue when it was time to initial agreements. Now they are trapped in PDP.

    Finally, these fellows are children of the ‘master’ and ‘fixer’ of the PDP age, Chief Tony Anenih. Hardball would just conclude that the king-cat has quietly slunk away from whence he came.

  • FFK serenades RFK

    “Chief Remilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode, SAN, QC, CON,” goes the tribute on Femi Fani-Kayode’s Facebook wall, posted 9:01 pm on Sunday, May 30. “Balogun of Ile-Ife, Regional Minister for Chieftaincy and Local Government Affairs, Deputy Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria and Deputy Leader of the Yoruba”, with RFK’s picture virtually facing you, with a roguish half-smile, rakish beard and rakish cap.

    Admirable!  Toasting one’s parents, after all, is the filial nobility. Even the Bible, gives an express injunction: honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long, on the land that your God has given you.”

    So does the Quran: Chapter 31, Verse 14, instructs: “And we have enjoined on man (to be dutiful and good) to his parents.  His mother bore him in weakness and hardship upon weakness and hardship, and his weaning is in two years. Give thanks to Me and to your parents, unto Me is the final destination.”

    So, FFK did well toasting his dead dad; although he didn’t mention what the occasion was.

    Still, there is a big difference between filial fealty and historical fealty.

    FFK claimed RFK was deputy premier of Western Region — fact, under Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola’s, SLA’s Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) — Demo for short. But Deputy Leader of the Yoruba?

    Which Yoruba — the one that thoroughly hated Demo for egregiously trampling on their vote, for which RFK himself was widely scorned, as the unfazed face of that brazen heist? Besides, RFK was the hated author of that notorious boast: whether or not you vote for us, we will win. And the brazen execution of that threat elicited the wetie insurrection, which tinder lit up the blaze that consumed the First Republic.

    Though SLA was Western premier, he was no “Yoruba leader” outside his party’s contrived electoral “win”.  So, if SLA was no “Yoruba leader”, RFK couldn’t have been deputy leader.  In any case, which sane people would pelt their leader with mass hate, instead of smothered love?

    RFK was probably an exceptional father in private and was, without a doubt, a brilliant lawyer, QC, SAN. But to romanticise him as a force for public good, with all due respect to the loving memory of his relations, is pure balderdash.

    That was what FFK tried to do by dubbing him as “deputy Yoruba leader”.  He was absolutely nothing of the sort.

    But why is Hardball so concerned to set the records straight — particularly on the senior Fani-Kayode, in the context of the inviolability of the vote?

    Simple: FFK has contempt for the truth, which he always tries to overthrow with cheap bluff and bluster.

    At the Osun governorship election of 2014, FFK boasted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Fourth Republic Demo, was winning with thousands of phantom votes. He also bluffed, even as everyone knew PDP had lost the presidency, that by his private, mythical tally, Goodluck Jonathan was leading with at least three million votes — and “we won’t be robbed”.  Both proved lies from the very pit of hell!

    FFK may well be an electoral reincarnation of his father. But it is Hardball’s patriotic duty to show that he draws exactly the same mass jeers his father drew some 50 years ago.

    Lest some future Fani-Kayode come tell a future generation some gobbledegook about some contrived heroism of the present.

  • The Monday after

    What would Hardball not pay to acquire some special powers that would make him capable of embedding in the lives of men of power and influence? Imagine, dear reader, what juicy morsels of information I would regale you with everyday. Imagine that I was fly on the wall, the ubiquitous gecko or even a lice, tucked somewhere in the crease and crevice of that high office of the president.

    It would have been most interesting to find out what our brand new president, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, would do in office on his first day in Aso Rock. Hardball would have loved to record it for you minute-by-minute, breath-by-breath and motion-by-motion. Of course, no president would want to miss the very first day in office. Not after contesting for such an office four times would he miss the first glorious day at work.

    First day, what historically significant day it is. Hardball could write a book on it. It is not only of utmost significance that he misses not this day, the time of arrival, the manner of arrival, the mode of dressing and  speech and body language to the ground staff would all be matters of great import. He is coming in with a distracting retinue shuffling after him?

    He does not want to arrive late on first day. He must set the code of dressing and the tone of speech and conduct. Would he spend a few hours doing the extended greeting routine or taking a salubrious walk around the exotic grounds? Or would he alight sharply from the car and walk briskly to his office barely nodding acknowledgements to greetings from Aso Rock denizens.

    Now in the power office: Monday June 1st, 2015. The president takes his seat. Being a Muslim, he would have had his morning observances much before dawn so no question of beginning with a prayer session as a Christian president may have done. Of course, his close aides would immediately gather and try to lay out both the plan of the complex and the work plan. Would he sit back and listen to them for the next few hours or would he rather seek a few hours to allot his time, gather his thoughts and marshal his day? Would he embark on an elaborate tour of his pristine environment? Would he call a meeting of the key Aso Rock old guards for a welcome pep talk?

    The day, the day, what really is the task for the day? There are of course, urgent appointments to finalise and announce. Of course, the stream of visitor would commence without let; especially party wigs who seek final inputs in the hot lists. Would he break for prayers; would he break for lunch; what time would he be done for the day and head home? Some former occupants Hardball knew never closed; they ‘worked’ and wearied themselves as if the country would collapse if they closed for work at 5 .00 pm.

    How would it be for Mr. Buhari and most important, how would the first day be? What an interesting day this special day could be in the life of a man. It’s a day of destiny isn’t it?