The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • SUVs not everything

    SUVs not everything

    While many people across the country are lamenting about the cost-of-living crisis, some Nigerian senators are complaining about the delay in getting their official Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs).

    The protesting senators blamed the Chairman of the Committee on Senate Services, Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West), for the delay, and criticised his method of distributing the vehicles.  They accused Karimi of bias, saying some senators had received their SUVs while others were still waiting for theirs. 

    The vehicles, reported to cost N160m each, were purchased for members of the National Assembly. Principal officers of the National Assembly were to receive bulletproof vehicle. The leadership of the National Assembly was   reported to have started taking delivery of the SUVs in October 2023, amid intense public criticism triggered by the high cost of the vehicles. The last batch of the vehicles for the senators was expected to be delivered before the end of 2023. 

    An aggrieved senator was reported saying, “Karimi has been playing God with the distribution of the vehicles. Most lawmakers in the opposition have yet to get vehicles.

    “Karimi has been the one giving them out based on his personal preference. We are all senators but some are favoured more than others.

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    “Some get things without asking while others have to keep asking whether they are ranking (lawmakers) or not. The cabals have turned themselves to God.”

    Another senator said: “Karimi is the culprit behind the delay in the distribution of the SUVs. He feels it’s his time to flex his muscles; if you are in his cabal or caucus, you would readily get things that are meant to be for all of us.

    “In the House of Representatives where there are 360 lawmakers, almost all of them have received their SUVs whereas, we in the Senate who are just 109 have yet to get ours.

    “What National Assembly bureaucracy is delaying the distribution of the vehicles to senators but giving them to the House of Representatives? The whole thing starts and ends on Karimi’s table.”

    Senator Karimi has not responded to the allegations. He needs to do so. Is he truly discriminating against opposition senators, and other senators not in his circle, in the distribution of the vehicles?

    More importantly, Nigerian senators, and indeed all members of the National Assembly, should focus more on improving living conditions in the country. That is the main reason they were voted into office. 

  • Ningi: what irks ACF?

    Ningi: what irks ACF?

    What irks the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on the fate of Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central), who just earned a three-month suspension for making claims on BBC Hausa Service he couldn’t back, with facts and figures in plenary, when the chips were down?

    That he had a democratic — nay, parliamentary — right to making false claims, just because he’s an elected senator from the “North”?

    That any senator from the “South”, claiming similar parliamentary — or is it regional diktat now? — could in future run his mouth over things he couldn’t defend and “northern” senators would suffer gladly his foolery, because he pops up his “southern” solidarity flag?

    What’s all that ACF veiled threat about: of Ningi’s legal options to challenge and roll back his suspension?  Is the judicial system a captive to anyone or any interest?  Isn’t the blind-folded Lady of Justice guided only by facts, figures and logic?

    In a federal set-up — particularly in a struggling federation like Nigeria’s in which every segment tries to game the other if it can — regional lobbies are not illegitimate, since they look after the interests of their own. 

    The snag, however, comes with legitimate lobbies backing illegitimate strivings: as ACF is trying to, with Senator Ningi, who used his position as former chair of the Northern Senators Forum, to levy frivolous anti-North budgetary charges against the Senate and the Federal Government.

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    Would the “North” have accepted such conduct from the “South”, were things to be flipped; and tolerated a southern lobby making empty excuses, instead of flaying what is bad and unacceptable as just that?

    Really, there must be a limit to the use of North or South as bogey for political expediencies.  Very early in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure, the Zamfara Governor, Sani Yerima, floated political Shari’ah, which swept through the North as some end time message.  But it petered out after fulfilling its nuisance value.

    Another northern Governor, Ahmed Makarfi — of Kaduna — did his state (and the rest of Nigeria) a world of good when he somewhat figured out and stopped the periodic blood-letting in southerner-northerner clashes, in the North’s grand political capital.  Since his exit, such killings have stopped.  Today, every Nigerian living in Kaduna must remember him with fondness, for that sole act.

    Why?  Even Obasanjo, who political Shari’ah was supposed to checkmate, won a controversial second term and was even dreaming bad dreams about an illegal third — until his constitution-amendment rascality blew up in his face.  It’s all in his ugly past record now, no matter how hard he tries to deny it.

    No region worth its name and dignity would send a partisan to go misbehave.  When such do — North or South — don’t go offering them sentimental but empty support. 

    ACF, let Ningi carry his can.  He had a chance, in the open, to defend himself. He failed.

  • Lessons from ECOWAS sanctions debacle

    Lessons from ECOWAS sanctions debacle

    The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) must doubtless have learnt some hard lessons from its recent sanctions debacle. It had imposed or reinforced already imposed sanctions on Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic, and briefly and alarmingly even contemplated military intervention in some of them to restore elected governments. In the face of widespread and regional opposition to some of the decisions of the regional body, the option of deploying troops to quell coups and restore civil rule was quickly jettisoned. Sanctions, however, remained in force and were even tightened. But after a few months of dithering, and many more months of sober calculations and introspections, ECOWAS leaders recognised the limit of their power and deftly seized upon well-meaning calls by former leaders to soften their stand. Military intervention was dispensed with, and sanctions also lifted.

    At their February 4, 2024 extraordinary session in Abuja, Nigeria, ECOWAS leaders had announced the unilateral lifting of sanctions on the four errant dictatorships in the sub-region without getting corresponding concessions. This column was mystified. Last week, the sanctioning countries had begun to relax their mneasures. None of them disclosed what concessions had led them to their drastic actions. Nor did ECOWAS leaders say what they got in return when they lifted sanctions last month. All they said was that sanctions had been partially lifted. In the kitchen midden of broken diplomatic forays, there was no indication about which sanctions were retained. Meanwhile, the four affected military governments barely said a word: they kept their gravitas and were secretly pleased that ECOWAS leaders blinked first, and no concession had been wrung from them. In the case of Nigeria and Niger Republic which share borders, the climb-down was even more dismal, with Nigeria’s food security much more threatened than anticipated. Of course, there were some rumours about the impending release of the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, but nothing was concrete, not even a scintilla of hope that the coupists would reverse themselves in their formation of the tripartite Alliance of Sahel States or their subordination to Russian hegemony.

    Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu is the current ECOWAS chairman, and he had the onerous task of dealing with the madness in the Sahel barely weeks into his leadership. His efforts backfired badly. But it was not under him that sanctions were first proved both desultory and nugatory. Indeed, the sub-region has consistently proved in more than a decade that sanctions never really worked – not in West Africa, and not anywhere else. In most cases, sanctions merely and paradoxically served to inspire internal cohesion as well as rally the people around their military tormentors. The brusque exit of Niger Republic, Mali and Burkina Faso from ECOWAS should have served to present ECOWAS with other more credible and visionary options of dealing with recalcitrant and erring members. Instead, the regional body panicked, embraced a chimera, and allowed itself to be trundled off in the wrong but predictable and futile path of jaded diplomacy.

    On March 3 and weeks before then, this column had suggested that ECOWAS call the bluff of the erring coupists. Admittedly, the suggestion was weighty and too fraught with difficulties and diplomatic uncertainties; but it was certainly better and far more promising than the unilateral actions of the regional leaders. If they will get any concessions whatsoever, they will be little, grudging and even galling. They should have stuck to their guns and resisted the pressures by former ECOWAS leaders whose calculations were unsure, misplaced and sentimental. Will the current set of regional leaders ever get another chance of resetting the course of the region and imposing discipline? It is doubtful. Their unilateral actions have emboldened the erring military dictators who will now have no reason to amend their ways, and it will probably take another set of regional leaders to remake West Africa and enthrone democracy throughout the sub-region.

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    This column had argued two weeks ago along these lines: “There are suggestions that sanctions were also hurting the rest of ECOWAS, not just the outcasts…The new dimension of establishing another sub-regional body under Russian gaze instead of French tutelage may also have panicked the regional body. However, the lifting of sanctions is certain to have long-term consequences for ECOWAS. The decision may serve to arrest the centrifugal tendencies in the group in the short run, but it will be a double-edged sword that cuts and wounds both ways, delivering few benefits. This appeasement will hurt the sub-region by encouraging military adventurism, rewarding disobedience to regional rules, and indicating that coupists would no longer face retribution for rascality. ECOWAS may have shown itself flexible in order to prevent fracturing an organisation founded in 1975, but what becomes of the laws binding the region together? Last month, former Nigerian military head of state Yakubu Gowon wrote a letter to the heads of state of ECOWAS, coaxing them into taking steps to reunite the sub-region and reverse the fragmentation of ECOWAS. They appear to have heeded him. But of what use is peace at any cost, when it was the sanctioned members that sacked elected governments by force and violated the rules and regulations of the regional body?

    “ECOWAS will now have to wait to see whether the errant military rulers will take their olive branch. But the embattled military rulers will find no incentive in taking the regional body’s offer, for after their untidy and amateurish exit, they have become used to no one breathing down their necks. They will suffer from withdrawal symptoms should they return to ECOWAS, and may even be tempted to dictate terms. If they deign to take the olive branch, they may even demand to attend meetings in civil impersonator dresses. There is no rule they won’t violate, and no aspiration they won’t covet. ECOWAS is made up of 15 members. Only three members had conspired to upend the tranquility of the regional organisation and called its bluff, almost without consequence. Instead of the one-sided rapprochement ECOWAS has embarked upon, it would have been better had the group looked inwards, reinvented the regional body and turned it into a showpiece. There is of course the uncomfortable factor of some of the borders being virtually artificial and tough to police, such as the Nigeria-Niger Republic borders, but there are ways to manage those problems without endangering the unity and credibility of the organisation. ECOWAS may yet rue the appeasement it has embarked upon in the name of Lent and Ramadan and other sentimental considerations.”

  • Hoodlums, NEMA and sentry duty

    Hoodlums, NEMA and sentry duty

    By constitutional provisions, the core task of the Nigerian military is defence of the country’s territorial integrity against external aggression. Sections 217 to 220 of the 1999 Constitution prescribe other likely duties to include suppressing insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore order “when called upon to do so by the President, but subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly (NASS);” and performing other similar functions as may be prescribed by an Act of the NASS. It is doubtful that in all these, the constitution envisaged military personnel keeping sentry duty at consumables warehouses.

    But that is what the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is calling on the military to do. The agency lately requested that military personnel be posted at its warehouses to forestall security breach. It made the request against the backdrop of a recent attack on a government warehouse in Abuja suburbs by hoodlums who looted food items and other valuables from the facility. The warehouse belonging to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) was initially reported to be NEMA’s; but the agency came up to disclaim ownership and its Director-General, Mustapha Ahmed, ordered improved security at NEMA zonal offices and warehouses nationwide to avert similar incident.

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    Towards implementing that directive, NEMA Northwest Zonal Coordinator, Imam Garki, last week visited the Commanding Officer, 2 Battalion Nigerian Army in Kaduna, Lieutenant-Col. Abdulqadir Abdullahi, to “solicit military support to have a standby security personnel positioned to safeguard the agency’s warehouse facilities.” Represented by Head of Unit, Search and Rescue of the agency, Abdulkadir Mohammed, the NEMA chieftain noted that the agency already has a working relationship with the Army, which serves as one of its Disaster Response Units (DRUs). He said the visit was in order to strengthen security at the agency’s various warehouses. In his response, the commanding officer assured the agency of the Army`s continuing cooperation to deal with emergent situations.

    It wasn’t clear if the Army boss merely spoke in glib terms; but obliging to post soldiers on sentry duty at warehouses harbouring consumables to deter fist-wielding hoodlums is stretching the military’s involvement in domestic law-keeping too far. The Army’s role as one of NEMA’s DRUs is perfectly understood in view of the extreme exertion typically involved in response to disasters. But keeping largely sedentary sentry duty at consumables warehouses isn’t of the same task mould and smacks of resource abuse. What are police personnel and private security agents for if the military have to be assigned to watch over warehouses.

  • In these harsh times

    In these harsh times

    President Bola Tinubu’s striking plea to state governors, towards softening the prevailing hard living conditions in the country, made the headlines this week.

    At the launch of the Food Security and Agricultural Mechanization Programme in Niger State, he was reported saying, “We need to relieve our people of hunger. Let all the sub-nationals start paying wage awards, pending when the minimum wage is increased. I am not giving an order; I am only appealing.”

    The Federal Government had approved N35,000 as wage award for its workers with effect from September, last year. The state governments were expected to follow the example of the federal authorities, and implement the same wage award to cushion the harsh socio-economic effects of the controversial removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government in May.

    The Tinubu presidency had reached an agreement with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) in October, following the dispute arising from withdrawal of subsidy on the price of premium motor spirit (PMS), and the threat of a nationwide strike by the unions. Based on the agreement, the Tinubu administration approved the payment of a wage award of N35,000 monthly, for six months, to all federal government workers, starting from September, and “pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.”

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    The Federal Government is reported to have paid the provisional wage award for five months. But in many states, state government workers are still hoping for some succour. According to an investigative report published last November, out of the 36 states of the federation, 34 made excuses for their non-implementation of the N35,000 wage award.  State government officials were quoted as saying they were still considering the financial implication of the wage award, or they were waiting to “see what obtains in other states,” or they were in the process of arriving at the appropriate support for workers within the available means of their states. The governments of Oyo and Enugu states were reported to have negotiated the payment of N25,000 as wage award to their workers.

    It is unclear what the situation is today, how many states are paying wage awards to their workers, and how much they are paying. Notably, the states have received more money from the federation account as a result of the removal of petrol subsidy. “Whereas, the amount shared to the tiers of government averaged between N650 billion and N850 billion before the withdrawal of petrol subsidy, the average now is N1.1trillion,” a report said.  So, it is inexcusable if any state is not paying a wage award.

     Evidently, not only workers in the country’s public sector deserve wage awards. Private-sector workers are also affected by the current harsh living conditions, and they need succour too. 

  • The “North” as ultimate bogey

    The “North” as ultimate bogey

    Want to sight the human Pavlovian dog?  Just drop a whiff of scandal in Nigeria!

    The journalist would swoon.  The analyst would whirr in bliss.  Even the market folks would shun frenetic haggling to soak in the latest gist of rot in town!

    That very much marked the “budget padding”, courtesy of PDP Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central), chair of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF).  The tale — hope not by the moonlight? — spoke of a N3 trillion budget padding in the 2024 Appropriation Act.

    Now, link rot with regional bogeys, and viola! You’d see ethnic champions creeping from under the woodworks.  It’s just how conventional Nigerian politicians are wired — North, South, East or West!

    Senator Ningi alleged “padding”.  To boot, that “padding” was skewed against the North — perhaps because a southerner was Senate president?

    Without noticing the in-built alarms in the story — alarms already addressed by the Presidency and three among the northern senators Ningi claimed to protest for — a section of the media was already out in the streets, searching out fire-belching analysts; and specialists defining budget padding: pros and cons!

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    That itself isn’t bad.  The media must think on its feet.  Yet, it’s amazing how strong self-loathing is here — so much so that the rule of thumb is always believe the worst!

    Budget 2023 — as the Presidency has reminded everyone — was well publicized, from when the National Assembly got the estimates; to when the Parliament passed it as Appropriation Bill.  Why then didn’t these specialists refresh themselves with the facts before joining the “padding” fray?

    Well, budget-making is not unlike sausages.  What you snacked on so, so sweetly was a mesh of mess — literarily speaking — though so, so comely on the palate.

    On the National Assembly floors, the budget must have been a product of give-and-take. So, a few porks here or there come with the territory.

    But to suggest a widely reported document still harboured a “padding” of N3 trillion seems to push the love of scandals far too far! 

    When that is linked to allegations of being skewed against the “North”, from an opposition senator using the regional body he chairs as opportunistic front, then mischief — for whatever motive — might not be so far off.

    Still, for all it is worth, let everyone come clean on the matter — Parliament, the executive and even the senator(s) making the allegations.  Until then, however, let those eager to comment keep their peace. 

    Commentary without hard facts is nothing but din that distracts.  As sectional champions, the North — or the South, for that matter — is more than a mere bogey for mischief.

  • Shaibu going…

    Shaibu going…

    Edo State Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu is on the verge of being kicked out of office, unless judicial intervention holds back the boot. The Edo House of Assembly, last week, commenced impeachment proceedings against him that are all but certain to carry through, because Shaibu isn’t likely to defend himself against the charges and the lawmakers aren’t exactly keen on fair hearing.

    The assembly on Wednesday unveiled the impeachment bid, which it anchored on alleged perjury and disclosure of government’s secrets by the deputy governor. Majority Leader Charity Aiguobarueghian announced the impeachment notice during plenary, saying it was based on a petition dated March 5th, 2024 and signed by 21 out of the 24 members of the House. “The number of members who signed the petition was more than the two-thirds requirement stipulated in the Constitution,” he added. House Speaker Blessing Agbebaku, who acknowledged receipt of the petition, directed the Clerk of the House to serve the impeachment notice on Shaibu and gave the deputy governor seven days to respond.

    Moves by the lawmakers to sack Shaibu are obviously an escalation in his war of attrition with Governor Godwin Obaseki over his (Shaibu’s) insistence on contesting the September 2024 Edo governorship poll on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Obaseki prefers as successor Asue Ighodalo, who emerged party torchbearer at a primary election held on February 22nd at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin. Shaibu boycotted that primary and was declared winner at a parallel poll held at his Benin residence, and where he was sole contestant. He has since insisted he is the rightful party candidate, though the party leadership issued Ighodalo the certificate of return.

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     Earlier on in his face-off with Governor Obaseki, Shaibu caged the impeachment moves by securing a preemptive court injunction. He subsequently let go that injunction as part of truce mediation by state elders. Now that lawmakers have beaten him to serving an impeachment notice, it remains to be seen if he could yet find refuge with the judiciary. Following his parallel primary, he had spurned impeachment threat and vowed to stay the course in his governorship pursuit, even if doing so would lead to the state assembly moving against him.

    At last, the deputy governor has come to daggers drawn with the lawmakers. The allegation of leaking government secrets levelled against him is spurious because it is doubtful any secret was shared with him since he got kicked out of the governor’s office complex and relocated to a remote corner of town last year. But he also has made the Edo situation more tense than necessary by nominally staying in government and pissing in. Something needs to give, and it seems it is about to.   

  • Looting galore

    Looting galore

    It is concerning that the cost-of-living crisis in Nigeria has worsened. Recent incidents showed a dangerous degeneration.

     For instance, some youths stole food items from trucks stuck in traffic on the Kaduna Road in the Suleja area of Niger State.

     Also, hoodlums attacked a warehouse belonging to the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration, in the Dei-Dei area of the capital city, and looted foodstuffs, among others.

    An attempt to loot a private warehouse in Idu Industrial Estate, Jabi, Abuja, was foiled by soldiers guarding the place.

    Armed hoodlums attacked a truck conveying raw materials from the Dangote Cement Plant in Ibese, Ogun State.  The truck was en route to Obajana in Kogi State. According to the police, “After the attack, they made away with the truck along with all the consignments that were inside. The three victims were rushed to Live Well Hospital Ajaka in Sagamu for medical attention.”

    Also, in Kaduna State, hoodlums hijacked and looted a food truck at Dogarawa in the Zaria area. The driver had parked to observe prayer when the vehicle was looted. A viral video showed people carting away cartons of spaghetti from the truck.

    The owner of the popular Sufaye Stores in Kano, Alhaji Ahmad Sufaye, was reported saying, “We resolved to evacuate all the wares in our warehouses located outside the city to safer places because of the recent happenings in the state.’’

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    The Minister of State of the FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, described the attack on the warehouse as “really a bad situation” and “a sign that we need to reinforce the security situation around all our warehouses because you just have to keep food.” She added: “But the way this thing happened actually is beyond hunger. This is a criminal act. Somebody hungry cannot move out to remove all the roofing, all the doors, windows, and also the gates.’’

    She missed the point that desperately hungry people were not only likely to steal food but also take other things that could bring money to cushion their hardship.

    It was reassuring that the police announced the arrest of 15 suspects in connection with the attack on the warehouse, including two local security guards employed to protect the warehouse.  Hunger or hardship cannot be an excuse for committing crimes. Those involved in the looting must not go unpunished.

    These attacks and looting, believed to be connected with hunger or hardship, showed that the perpetrators made no distinction between government and private property, which underlined their desperation. Such criminal activities must not be allowed to continue. The authorities must urgently take concrete action to discourage anarchy.

  • Obj: so Jonathan has any redemptive value?

    Obj: so Jonathan has any redemptive value?

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s 87th birthday lecture, at which his latest book, “The Art of Leading: Unconventional Wisdom from Biblical”, rippled with so many ironies.

    First, former President Goodluck Jonathan was chair at the occasion — the luckless Jonathan, whose 2015 defeat at the polls sparked frenetic dancing and drumming from a special purpose Obasanjo crowd, with Baba Iyabo himself dancing like King David in front of the Ark of Covenant!  The same Jonathan Baba savaged with ferocious letters ringing with taunts and abuse?

    Holy, holy!  Poor Jonathan still has some redemptive value, despite Baba’s old ire!  Otherwise, he wouldn’t be among the high priests, at a birthday’s high day, at the high altar, of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) high shrine!

    Then, the crowd at the lecture talked of service!  Being bottled inside OOPL is a weird form of “service” — maybe personal service of the crudest hue? 

    Given the OOPL provenance — how a sitting president had government contractors and state governments merrily “donating”, was certainly a crude abuse of the concept of American presidential libraries. 

    It sure jarred against the grain of “biblical wisdom”, which the holy Olusegun Obasanjo now preaches in his new book.  It is called hypocrisy of the purest crust.

    Why, one of the zealots inside — a sitting northern governor — spoke of Obasanjo  as a transformative president!  Really?  Surely “transformation” must have a core meaning beyond just lobbing happy words at happy occasions? 

    Incidentally, sitting “behind” OOPL (in the same Laderin, Abeokuta, neighbourhood) is the Wole Soyinka Train Station, which daily serves millions of nameless Nigerians.  Now, that’s transformation and the Obasanjo government’s legacy is far, far from that!

    By the way, WS didn’t name that station for himself.  Muhammadu Buhari did, sitting on the same presidential seat Obasanjo sat on to build for himself OOPL!  Yet, poor PMB is who everyone now rushes to demonize!  Nigeria and Nigerians!

    Transformation? Maybe self-transformation — remember the regnant “self-settlement” of the IBB years, which Obasanjo throatily condemned?  Ha! 

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    The last of the unending ironies was the theme of Christians in politics and how they must make a difference.  Good call — except that Bishop Matthew Kukah (among the old Obasanjo faithful from his military rule days) reviewed the book: again no harm.

    But given how a section of the Catholic Church in their reckless support for Peter Obi brought out the beast in Christians in politics, that sounded very rich.  Incidentally, Jonathan himself, who started weaponing Christianity in politics, for a futile bid for second term, was also there as chair!  Karma has own peculiar jokes!

    Hardball isn’t trying to crash Obasanjo’s 87th birthday fun.  But had the former president been less imperial, and driven more by service to the collective, all of this post-power grating would have been absolutely needless. 

    Still, wishing the Ebora Owu a happy birthday.  May God keep Baba alive long enough to witness real transformation in the polity.

  • Bash Ali’s lamentations

    Bash Ali’s lamentations

    Former world boxing cruiserweight champion, Bashiru Lawrence Ali, better known as Bash Ali, is inveterately a fighter. And that isn’t just in the ring, but also in life. He has for a while been duelling to stage a Guinness World Record boxing championship fight in Nigeria, and at 68 years of age he isn’t giving up. He lately said he planned to remain in professional boxing until he’s 70 years old. We must hope he got sound medical advice on that.

    The boxer’s last professional fight was in 2004 when he knocked out Tony Booth, then British cruiserweight champion, in the fourth round. But he hasn’t hung his gloves just yet and bids to take on another opponent for world record purposes. He wants the duel staged in Nigeria and somehow believes it is the country’s nationhood responsibility to underwrite the bill for this private ambition. His demands on the national treasury has not been readily met, and he’s been waging a bullish crusade to force concession. That crusade at different times set him on collision course with constituted authority, only that he put the challenge down to systemic corruption.

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    Bash Ali, in a social media post to mark his 68th birthday early last week, reflected on the crusade that he lamented impoverished him but has left him undaunted. Writing on his Facebook page, he said inter alia: “For 17 years I struggled in vain to host in my country, Nigeria, my Guinness World Record Boxing Championship Fight because I was bold to say no to corruption in sport in particular, and in Nigeria in general. In 17 years, I went from being a millionaire in dollars to a zeronaire in naira. In 17 years, I was beaten and injured, such that I had to be admitted twice and treated at the National Hospital in Abuja. In 17 years, I was detained eight times at various police stations in Abuja. In 17 years, I was once detained at Kuje Prison for 43 days.” He also said he did not give up on Nigeria and spurned “juicy offers” to fight outside the country, adding: “Today, our dream is finally becoming a reality and because I am an extraordinary human being, I am going to fight until I am 70 years old, retire young and healthy with a lot of money and then go on to be the President of Nigeria. This is my ultimate goal so mark my words.”

    The pugilist’s optimism is heart-warming.. But his chokehold on the country to fund the record fight is queer. He could explore alternative sources for the proposed big match, like private sector funding. The bruising struggle might just be pointless.