The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Clark’s latest bluster

    Clark’s latest bluster

    Ijaw Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, savours the appellation of “elder statesman” — a cliche the uncritical media attaches to about any name that has droned, over decades, in Nigeria’s troubled public space.

    But if “elder statesmen” are indeed expected to use wisdom to trouble-shoot and quell crises, this one glories in looking for trouble and compounding crises, by the use of explosive commentaries, like some excitable rookie, who glories in nothing but trouble.

    More worrying: beyond Ijaw tribalism, Clark is well-nigh defanged.  In supreme but laughable pretence, however, he frames such under “national”, altruistic sentiments — skewed nationalism and altruism the Ijaw old man can tell to the Niger Delta marines!

    All of that Clark has manifested, since the Rivers crisis broke out between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and estranged godfather, benefactor-turned-malefactor and predecessor, Nyesom Wike, now FCT minister.

    Clark’s intervention is nothing but naked Ijaw tribalism.  His rally for Fubara, since President Bola Tinubu and respected Rivers elders had tried to put out the smoke very early, was Clark’s uncritical support for his “Ijaw boy”, Fubara. 

    Clark isn’t even from Rivers — he’s from Delta.  Besides, where was he, when Wike was pulling all stops to make Fubara governor?  Didn’t Clark’s immaculate Ijaw boy know there were “terms and conditions” attached to being unfairly favoured over others?

    Clark’s latest tirade, in form of an open letter to Umar Damagum, PDP acting national chairman, headlined “PDP needs probe panel, not reconciliation, says Clark” by The Nation (August 21), follows Clark’s same one-sided Ijaw tribalist rally for Fubara.

    Always, Fubara is the saint and Wike is the devil.  His latest call was for Damagun to be nabbed for allegedly abetting Wike’s devilry.  The irony is totally lost on the old man: that Damagun could also call him out — “elder statesman” and all! — for enabling Fubara’s skewed saintlihood, and making the embattled governor to blunder into bad decisions — very bad decisions he may yet gravely regret.

    Between Wike and Fubara, there is no saint — except in Clark’s Ijaw tribal bubble.  Strictly, Hardball harbours no sympathy for either: Fubara does to Wike what Wike did to Rotimi Amaechi; and Fubara’s future beneficiary — if Fubara survives — will surely do to him!  That’s settled by karma. Now, Fubara is trapped in crass opportunism-turned-awry.

    Read Also: PDP needs probe panel, not reconciliation committee, says Clark

    So, Wike and Fubara are only playing games to survive — and so far, the result has been a fearsome stalemate.  If only Clark could snap out of his bubble, he’d realize Fubara had blundered into serious constitutional crimes that could cost him dear.  Yet, “elders” like Clark uncritically urge him on.

    What elders should do is find a middle point in a bad stalemate, in the spirit of give-and-take.  But that wise middle ground hardly exists in Clark’s Ijaw zero sum game — the same tactics that cost Goodluck Jonathan a second term, after which the radical old man promptly disowned the poor bloke from Otuoke!

    Fubara had better be wise, lest Clark’s trenchant Ijaw chorus orchestra push him into political Golgotha.  If he doubts, he should call Jonathan! 

    Clark’s blusters aren’t helping matters.  The old man is better off quiet.

  • Promise of Senegal

    Promise of Senegal

    The promise of Senegal is not the attempt by its youthful President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to impose price control over staple foods and essential commodities: rice, bread, cement and fertilizer, to curb inflation.

    Spiralling cost of living appears a global crisis; and any measure to make things more bearable must be appreciated.  It’s a moot point, however, if price control ever works. From reports, however, the latest Senegalese attempt would appear more of subsidy to modulate high prices, than outright price control in its harsh form.

    By it, the government would let go of its earnings, in customs duty on (food and essential commodity) imports, to the tune 53.3 billion CFA (US$ 87 million).  Well, we’ll see as it goes.  But price control hardly works anywhere.

    Again, that’s not the promise of Senegal.  Rather, it’s in its youthful president as a champion of legitimate power; contrasted to at least two of Senegal’s neighbours: Mali and Burkina Faso, preening poster boys of youths as romantic power robbers.

    President Faye is 44.  Mali’s junta head, Assimi Goita is 40 years.  Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traore, an Army Captain, is even six years younger at 34.

    Unlike Goita and Traore that betrayed their country’s sacred trust, using legitimate arms to grab illegitimate power, Faye was part of a movement that, against all odds, pushed, campaigned for, and won democratic power.

    Of course, winning power is the easier part, no matter how daunting. The real do is to deliver, which President Faye now tries to do with the food subsidy cum price control.

    Unlike his Mali and Burkinabe pair, however, he doesn’t have to don ludicrous camouflage and over-worked military gears, just to put some sheen over power robbery by state arms, pure and simple. 

    Read Also: Mutfwang suspends two Commissioners, two Special Advisers

    Faye, as elected president, is also commander-in-chief.  If he chooses, he can clad himself in ceremonial military wear, and it would still all be graceful and legitimate.

    At the beginning of that power rascality in Nigeria, Wole Soyinka, in the final, closing phrase of his “Jero’s Metamorphosis”, put down those comics as ‘desk generals’. “After all,” dapper prophetic swindler Jero quipped, “it’s the fashion these days to be a desk general!”

    The inimitable Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo (God bless his soul!) was even more clinically dismissive: “Our Generals are coup heroes” — and that at the height of that rascality!

    The promise of Faye, therefore, is weaning the thieving power youths of Mali and Burkina Faso from romanticizing power procured by the barrel of the gun.  Their contemporary next door is showing youths can be less knee-jack in their thinking.

    Sooner than later, Mali’s Goita will morph into a socio-economic goiter on Mali’s neck, with dire political consequences.  Only a counter-gun can remove him.  An army power grab seldom ends well.

    Even if Faye falters, the next election is virtually by the corner.  So, no fundamental damage is done.  Youths can take power by the depth of their intellect, not as hare-brained power bums, hiding behind army uniforms. 

    Faye is a living example.

    •This article was first published on June 18, 2024

  • Fantastic figure

    Fantastic figure

    Many Nigerans facing a crushing cost-of-living crisis were shocked to learn how much the country’s senators get for so-called running costs. The information was supplied by one of the senators, which made it credible. Senator Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), representing Kano South, said on BBC Hausa Service: “My monthly salary is less than N1 million. After deductions, the figure comes down to a little over N600,000. Given the increase in the Senate, each senator gets N21 million every month as running cost.” What? Did he say N21m monthly?

    But the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Muhammed Shehu, had said each senator received a total monthly salary and allowances of N1,063,860. The agency is responsible for fixing salaries and allowances of public servants. This suggests that the figure revealed by the senator is unknown to the agency.  That looks like an anomaly.

    Public reaction to the information was predictably negative because it didn’t make sense that senators got so much to cover so-called running costs, particularly when many Nigerians are facing hardship as a result of hyperinflation.

    Read Also: Tinubu appoints new management team for NDPHC

    Commendably, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) wrote a letter, dated 17 August 2024, to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, saying it is “concerned about the practice by the lawmakers of fixing their salaries, allowances and running costs, and the opacity and in the spending of millions of naira in running costs by lawmakers.” The body is a Nigerian non-profit promoting socio-economic rights, transparency and accountability in the country. 

    SERAP said: “The allegations that members of the National Assembly are fixing their own salaries, allowances and running costs are entirely inconsistent and incompatible with the constitutional oath of office and the object and purpose of the UN Convention against Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party.”

    The non-governmental organization (NGO) urged Akpabio and Abbas to “promptly end the alleged practice by the National Assembly of fixing its own salaries, allowances and running costs”; to “end the alleged practice of paying running costs into the personal accounts of lawmakers”; and to “promptly disclose the total amount of running costs that have so far been paid to and received by the lawmakers and to ensure the return of any misused or mismanaged public funds.”

    It looks like the federal legislators have lost touch with reality. They obviously need a reality check.

  • Again, OBJ talks the talk

    Again, OBJ talks the talk

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has a personal blight: he must talk down others to look good.  That rather nasty habit has been emblazoned in all of his books: My Command, Not My Will, My Watch and sundry other self-glorifying tomes he has churned out, worshipping himself, demonizing others.

    But Obasanjo has one terrible Hercules’ heel: he lacks any self-propelling models to push, beyond his annoying platitudes.

    In truth, a part in Obasanjo knows the right things and perhaps craves those in his cheap talks.  But he is simply wired against such nobility.  He’s just too narcissistic and too vain-glorious to pay that huge price.

    He played it all out during his latest grandstanding over qualities of leadership — beloved qualities he never lived out during his three tours as Nigerian dealer — sorry, leader: one as military junta head; the other two as elected president: his second term is still buried in a heinous controversy of vote-fixing, his execrable gunning for an illegal “third term” is still fresh; and, that checkmated, he organized the most rotten election, in 2007, in the current 4th Republic, if not in the entire history of Nigeria.

    Yet, Obasanjo harbours the hubris of pontificating over “good leadership”!

    Read Also: Labour House raid

    Even if things like rigged elections, and trying to subvert the Constitution to grab a third term are soon forgotten by contemporary Nigeria with faint institutional memory, crass materialism is always there, staring at the grand pretender — and that was the grand irony from Obasanjo’s latest posturing, issuing from the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), first in Africa!

    From that gangling monument to corruption, Obasanjo roared that most Nigerian leaders ought to be in jail, or even be shot!  Did he realize if that were to be, he’d probably be among the very first to be nabbed — and fairly so?

    OOPL is personal trophy for his years as elected president.  That was personal service.  Facing that outrageous edifice is another eminently public asset: the Wole Soyinka Train Station, Abeokuta. 

    That is public service, left by President Muhammadu Buhari, for the travelling pleasure of Nigerians, high or low, even in hard times, compared to the Obasanjo presidential era, when Nigerian earned humongous revenue from oil.  Yet, the taciturn Buhari is not lecturing anyone on “leadership”.

    If OOPL was Obasanjo’s trophy for his elected presidency, Obasanjo Farms Nigeria (OFN) was Obasanjo’s personal trophy from his military junta years.  His government ironically ran Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) under which the Land Use Decree (later Land Use Act: LUA) ceded the control of all land to state governors. 

    Might LUA have been a subterfuge to power a post-power venture of the exiting Head of State, just as states and government contractors in Oil and Gas, and banks were suborned to “donate” for OOPL, by a sitting president and substantive Oil minister?  Hard but quite legitimate question!

    Those that walk back to their vomit for Obasanjo’s endorsement — as the House of Representatives members that visited OOPL — are entitled to their democratic folly.  Obasanjo belongs to the past — a seedy past that hardly deserves any reference.

    Obasanjo himself must remember that those whose palm kernels are cracked for them by benevolent spirits should learn to be humble.  Should those spirit turn malevolent — as Greek mythology always warns — that could turn well and truly tragic.

    Let Obasanjo keep his grating leadership tutorials.  From his conduct in office, he has nothing to teach anyone.

  • Strange suspect

    Strange suspect

    In the aftermath of the nationwide so-called hunger protest that turned violent in parts of the country, the Kano State Police Command announced the arrest of hundreds of suspects, including “76 suspects flying Russian flags.”  The Commissioner of Police in Kano State, Salman Garba, said the 76 suspects had been transferred to the Force Headquarters, Abuja “for discreet investigation on charges of sedition.”

    Also, the Department of State Services (DSS) posted on its X handle that it had “apprehended some tailors in Kano State responsible for making Russian flags being distributed in the area. Some of their sponsors have also been picked. An investigation is ongoing.”

    However, the family of one of the alleged tailors, 21-year-old Ahmad Yusuf Muhammad, was reported saying “he was never a tailor.”  According to Nasiru Yusuf Muhammad, who described Ahmad as his “biological brother,” he was arrested because “they said he was the one sewing the Russian flag. I want to clarify that he was never a tailor, he had never been and doesn’t even know how to handle a sewing machine.

    “He is a used water sachet recycling dealer, we are all into it, he directly works under me, that’s our business. He was never a tailor. Even the sewing machine that was said to be his was not his own and was not picked in our house. It was in a neighbour’s house and the owner has since run away.

    “The flag was not even in his custody. Ahmad had not participated in the protest and did not raise any flag.”

    Read Also: Protest: Kano police command parades 873 suspects, recover huge exhibits

    He appealed to the authorities to “look critically into this issue and release him. He was not a tailor and has not committed the offence he is being held for.”

    This counter-narrative raises questions about the announcement that police in the state had arrested “873 suspects” in connection with the #EndBadGovernance protest, which they said had resulted in “wanton destruction and looting of government and public properties in Kano State.”

    Ahmad’s case is a curious one. How did a young man who was said to have nothing to do with tailoring get arrested for allegedly sewing Russian flags? His family’s counter-narrative deserves attention.

    It is unclear whether other arrested suspects have similar counter-narratives. It is important to bring the perpetrators of crimes during the protest to justice for its deterrent effect. But the authorities must ensure that innocent people are not punished for crimes they did not commit.

  • So near, so far away

    So near, so far away

    So near, yet so far away — that aptly captures the grim reality of local refining of petroleum products.  Yet, imported petrol appears the No. 1 driver of inflation.  Inflation is the No. 1 challenge to the Tinubu Presidency, in this very critical short run.

    Costly fuel drives up transport cost.  Transport cost drives up everything.  If you buy fuel for N800 a litre in Lagos, how much will you buy it in the hinterlands?  And what’s the outlook of that for inflation — and by extension poverty and hopelessness?

    That is why the current controversy over the Dangote Refinery is absolutely misplaced.  That is a strategic investment.  Why is it that at every critical juncture of Nigeria’s life, the elite just yak away at one another, with hardly any sense of self-preservation?

    Yes, Dangote has had a long streak of ruthless monopoly.  So, anchoring the soon-to-boom petroleum downstream, on rigorous antitrust processes, is imperative.  After eons of wasteful exports of crude on the cheap, and re-importing refined petroleum at a premium, no one wants a monopoly to take the gains away, by just fixing outrageous prices — just because they could.  Setting the industry right, from the very beginning, is vital.

    Yet, setting things right is one thing.  Wilfully getting in the way, is another.  The NNPCL vs Dangote controversy looks more like getting in the way.  Our long-suffering folks can “smell” local refining, and close to heaving a huge relief in reduced fuel — and — transportation cost.  Anything prolonging that is insensitive.  It just doesn’t cut it at all.

    Which is why President Bola Tinubu should move fast to cut through whatever demons that could be in the way.  The first crucial step is the Federal Executive Council (FEC) decision — rightly a presidential memo — to sell crude to local refiners in Naira, not in dollar.  That is a very strategic step.

    Read Also: Wike threatens to revoke land titles over non-payment of C-of-O Fees

    What the President should do is a firm follow-up by ensuring these local refineries have crude to process.  If they so, that would cool off the high inflation. That is one jab in the arm that the economy needs more than anything now.

    If the President must adopt pulpit bully tactics, let him do so.  Let him read the riot act.  Let the market be hit by local petrol, and let fuel pump prices come tumbling down. That should offer the people — as well as the administration — great relief.  That is imperative in the short term.

    In the long run, compressed natural gas (CNG) is even sweeter.  But if that can’t be mainstreamed until earliest another year or two.  Thus, really crashing fuel pump prices, without returning to the old subsidy regime, make extreme common sense.  CNG is that joker.  But you need to quieten the turf before that big gun.

    Let the President impress it upon NNCPL and Dangote to cease fire in their “civil war”.  This is a crucial national juncture, which could make all of the difference, in re-setting the economy to new post-subsidy realities.

    The time to act is NOW!

  • Rice issues

    Rice issues

    About a month after the Federal Government announced that it will send 740 trucks of rice to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in response to food inflation in the country, there are indications that things are not going according to plan. Each state and the FCT was supposed to get 20 trucks, each carrying 1,200 25kg bags of rice, which were to be distributed to the most vulnerable people. 

    However, according to a report published at the weekend, some states said they had not received the trucks of rice, including Taraba, Delta, Niger, Plateau, Zamfara and Abia. States that said they had received the consignment of rice include Kwara, Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Oyo, Akwa–Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa.

    It is unclear why not all the states have received the trucks of rice, about a month after the announcement. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, obviously has a lot of explaining to do. 

    Another move by the Federal Government to cushion the hardship arising from food inflation went awry as the authorities announced the suspension of the plan to sell subsidised 50kg bags of rice to civil servants for N40,000. The Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs had earlier supplied information on the procedure for the purchase of the rice, saying it would be sold to “interested public servants in Abuja.”

    It is unclear why the sale of the rice was suspended. The development was reported to have affected many civil servants who had registered to buy the rice. There is a need for clarification. 

    Interestingly, a well-known economist and Executive Director of Financial Derivatives, Bismarck Rewane, alleged that some civil servants bought 50kg bags of rice at N40,000 and resold it at N85,000.  He said: “Our team went into the market… The price of rice coincidentally went up by 3.62 percent to N85,000. This is happening at the time the federal government is selling rice to public servants at N40,000 per 50-kilogram bag.”

    Read Also: Consumer commission to meet market leaders over goods’ prices

    Notably, Nigerians continue to complain about the cost of rice, which is a staple. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in April said the average price of 1kg rice (local, sold loose) was N1, 399.34 from N546.76 recorded in April 2023.

    Figures released last month by NBS in its Selected Food Price Watch for June 2024 showed that the public outcry over crushing food inflation in the country is not baseless.

    For instance, NBS said the prices of tomatoes, beans, and yam rose by about 300 percent in June 2024 from their previous prices in the corresponding period of 2023. These are staple items, and the astronomical increase in their prices suggests that many Nigerians are struggling to survive the food crisis.

  • Atiku: masses’ defender

    Atiku: masses’ defender

    The Presidency, via Bayo Onanuga, presidential special adviser on Information and Strategy, had every reason to call out former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for playing to the gallery at a period of great national angst.

    Teflon Atiku!  He proved that yet again by conflating — to gain cheap political points — peaceful protesters with violent looters. 

    With that emotive premise, he blamed the security agencies, praised by many for their even-handed handling of that explosive, yet delicate challenge, for “use of lethal force against peaceful civilian protesters.”  Hollow claim!  That was a dangerous mob.

    Were he commander-in-chief, what would he have the security people do, faced with ignorant, violent rioters, wielding cudgels and sundry weapons, waving the Russian flag?

    Atiku, the great defender of the masses, feels good about himself.  Yeah, that was brilliant, if cynical, politicking; and he must pat himself on the back, like the tortoise that fell from the high Iroko tree, and praised itself, even if no one else did.

    But look closely at the former Vice President.  All you see is a cheap politician.  The choice of a statesman, befitting his former high office that gifted him the second highest national honour of GCFR?  That is gone — or was it ever there?  Was it just a mirage with glow and sheen, but was only a mere facade?

    At election time, Atiku failed the “nationalist” test he had always postured.  When he broke PDP’s unwritten rule to cede the Presidency to the South, he declared himself the official “northern” candidate; and told every northerner to vote for him.  Blood, after all, is thicker than water! 

    But he forgot that power greed of his made him and Peter Obi cancel out each other, with both comically claiming they “won” after the harm had been done!

    Read Also: NAF strikes destroy 13 illegal refineries, 10 overhead tanks in Rivers

    At the protests, in which Atiku rallied for his riotous urchins — his blessed “peaceful protesters”, the irony was completely lost on him that he bore part-responsibility for how the North has turned out, underscored by those horror riots.

    He was Vice President for eight years.  During that time, Nigeria had the second oil boom: humongous earnings from exported crude.  But when he and his principal, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, were not shelling out US$ 12 billion to buy out a US$ 18 billion debts, they were fighting themselves to the virtual death; and building for selves private universities, when the federal public ones in their care rotted away.

    Did Atiku for a second pause to think, about a possible changed scenario, had their government sank that US$ 12 billion into infrastructure, physical and social, to drive the economy?  If they had done that, would his native North have remained this bastion of poverty, hopelessness and squalor that just exploded?

    Let someone tell this to the ex-Vice President.  It’s legitimate to play politics.  But playing a cynical one, at critical national junctures, is politics pushed too far.  That sucks, yet it aptly captured his conduct during these last riots.  Shame!

  • Unready for science

    Unready for science

    Incredible! The winners of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG)-sponsored 2024 Science Quiz Competition, Nnanna Peace and Raphael Ataisi of Government Secondary School (GSS), Oyigbo, Rivers State, were reported saying, “To the glory of God, we came first. In our GSS Oyigbo, we lack computer and science laboratories in our school. We have no equipment in our school to experiment. So, we learn without experiment, we learn only theory.”

    They beat contestants from six other public secondary schools in the final of the competition, which was held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. It is unclear whether the same situation exists in the other schools. 

    NLNG’s General Manager of External Relations and Sustainable Development, Andy Odeh, said the competition “is an opportunity to test our children’s knowledge, ignite their creativity, and hone their problem-solving skills – essential ingredients for innovation.

    “Through this competition, we aim to promote scientific and technological literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, encouraging young people to pursue careers in science, engineering, and technology.”

    Read Also: TUC demands investigation into alleged invasion of NLC Headquarters

    He also said NLNG is “deeply committed to science education because we believe it is the cornerstone of development.” This year’s theme was ‘Artificial Intelligence: Innovating the Future.’  He added that the company’s commitment to science education extends beyond the competition, mentioning initiatives such as its University Support Programme, scholarship programmes, and infrastructure development in host communities.

    However, going by the remarks of the winners of the competition, there is still a lot more to be done to boost science education. The company should take urgent action to ensure that their school, and others in the same situation, have the necessary tools for science education.

    Obviously, Rivers State, where GSS Oyigbo is located, also has a role to play in equipping public schools in the state for science education. The Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Chinedum Chukuma, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Ebere Emenike, was reported saying, “Rivers State is very happy with what NLNG is doing by exposing our kids to these kinds of competitions and we urge other corporate bodies to emulate NLNG. These kinds of competitions expose our kids to critical thinking and instill a passion for innovation, which is the hallmark of STEM education.”

    It is easy to talk about STEM, an approach to learning and development that integrates science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and promotes scientific thinking and creativity by emphasising application and inquiry. But STEM needs an enabling environment.

    Is the Rivers State government aware of the situation at GSS Oyigbo as described by the winners of the science competition? It’s counter-productive and inexcusable.

  • Soyinka and Yellow Vests

    Soyinka and Yellow Vests

    Let’s get this right. Professor Wole Soyinka is an asset to our society and to anyone. He is a man who has written plays and could be written as play against tyranny as he staged earlier this year. It is no happenstance that he is Nigeria’s most decorated literary figure, and the most revered. Quite fittingly, his name now garlands Nigeria top theatre when President Bola Tinubu named the National Theatre, Iganmu in Lagos, after him. Hardball can never underwrite any comment that underplays his value.

    Yet, even he can err. Recently he commented on the speech of the president in reaction to the protests in some major cities in the country. In a statement, he condemned the President for not condemning the use of live bullets, and asserted that the “time is long overdue, surely, to abandon, permanently, the anachronistic resort to lethal means by the security agencies of governance.”

    Read Also: FERMA begins CNG conversion of operational vehicles

    He also commented on the items President Tinubu reeled out as measures he has taken to tackle the problems. He left that to experts. For a social commentator we expect more interest in order to enrich his understanding and context of the imbroglio of the past week. Rather he eulogized the hunger march as a staple of any protest. He also sidestepped the “collateral claims emblazoned on posters.” As a man of great subtlety, he should have looked at some of the issues emblazoned like the call for the overthrow of the 1999 constitution. That could not be collateral.

    But his reference to the Yellow Vests, a group in France that protested for years against high cost of living, was mistaken. He said the police did not wield any lethal weapons on them. Very wrong. He said what he saw lacked any provocation from the police. He should have researched more.

    The Yellow Vests careened out of control in cities and far-flung rural reaches. The police did not only use lethal weapons, they also lobbed grenades at them. About a dozen persons died during the protests, many lost the use of their limbs and eyes because of the weapons unleashed, including “flash-balls, tear gas, stun grenades, batons and water cannons.”

    We are witnesses to the ongoing turmoil in Britain and the prime minister has said he would not tolerate any form of unruly acts.

    President Tinubu said that in his speech. Hardball would like to know Professor Soyinka’s response to the damages in Kano and Kaduna, and the hoisting of flags and calls for the return of the army that he fought gallantly to their exit.