The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • ‘Japa’ desperation on steroids

    ‘Japa’ desperation on steroids

    Desperation by some Nigerians to leave this country for ‘greener pastures’ is getting more intense by the day. It is now such that a citizen reportedly walked in to the Police and begged to be declared wanted in support of an asylum bid.

    Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, recently shared the story of how a fella made the shocking request of him. In a post on his X handle, he narrated: “’Please, declare me wanted!’ I was stupefied. I blinked and looked at him again. ‘What did you say,’ I asked.

    “’Please, I want you to declare me wanted,’ he repeated.

    “’Why do you want to be declared wanted,’ I inquired, amused.

    ‘Actually, I am applying for asylum at XYZ embassy. During the interview, I told them that I am being persecuted to the point of being declared wanted by the police.

    ‘They now asked for evidence of the ‘wanted’ declaration. I can easily do the artwork but I know they will come and verify. That is why I want it from the source.’”

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    The Police, obviously, could not have obliged such request. But the sheer audacity of making it to the security agency is confounding. A man was telling a boldfaced lie before the world against his country, and he was asking the security establishment in charge of civil law-keeping to abet him. Just how further could desperation get! Besides, this fellow didn’t seem to have thought through his bid. If the Police declared you wanted, it would be for a criminal offence; and it is unlikely the intended country of asylum would simply throw their doors open to a criminal fugitive without ascertaining that his purported crime is either wrongly alleged or it is domesticated – that is, it is not a crime elsewhere even if so in Nigeria.

    The emigration syndrome, known as ‘Japa,’ has seen many Nigerians throwing caution to the wind in their frantic bid to leave the country. And they are leaving in droves. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in December, last year, said no fewer than 260,000 Nigerians approached it for assistance to emigrate from the country in 2023. But the agency also raised the alarm that many emigrants were getting stranded in destination countries, and advised that those wishing to leave the shores of Nigeria should do so by legitimate means and on sound advice.

    That is the crux: emigrate by lawful means and after fully weighing the cost to avoid getting stranded, as the grass is not always greener on the other side. But we must also hope Nigeria soon becomes conducive for living to dissuade ‘Japaing’.

  • Yahaya Bello: Oddities

    Yahaya Bello: Oddities

    There were some observable oddities shortly after Yahaya Bello finished two terms as governor of Kogi State. Barely 48 hours after ending his eight-year gubernatorial adventure, there were signals that he was preparing to start another phase in power as national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Reports said campaign posters with the picture of Bello were seen all over the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), including the national secretariat of the APC, promoting his candidacy for the position of national chairman of the party.  

    The posters prompted questions about the incumbent APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, a former governor of Kano State, who has spent six months in office. Was there a problem in the APC? When did the position become vacant?

    The National Publicity Secretary of APC, Felix Morka, provided answers at a press conference at the national secretariat of the party. He said: “There is no vacancy in the office of the APC National Chairman. Dr Abdullahi Ganduje remains our chairman. This is a democracy where people do what they want.

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    “We have total confidence in the leadership of the party. But, make no mistake because the office of the national chairman is properly and fully occupied. Nobody is asking for that office to be declared vacant and it is not vacant. I will want to warn those who are throwing these papers around to desist from doing that.”

    Bello’s media office, in a statement, later dissociated him from the campaign posters, attributing them to “some opposition leaders and some fifth columnists within the party,” adding that “there is absolutely no basis for anyone to circulate any posters for party offices.” The statement declared that Bello “did not authorise anyone to circulate any posters on his behalf as he remains a loyal party man” committed to the APC leadership under Ganduje.

    It was odd that Bello disowned the campaign posters only after the party spoke against the mysterious campaigners. The delay was suspicious, and did not help his case.      

    It was also odd that following Bello’s exit as governor, 16 commissioner nominees picked to work under the new governor, Usman Ododo, included seven returnees who had worked under Bello. Nine of them are new. The seven returnee commissioners are Salami Ozigi-Deedat, Bashiru Abubakar-Gegu, Wemi Jones, Kingsley Fanwo, Timothy Ojoma, Asiwaju Idris-Asiru and Mohammed Abdulmutalib. This was also suspicious, and suggested a concrete continuation of the Bello administration.

    There may well be more oddities to observe as Bello continues with life after his governorship years.

  • Bad vibes from Ganduje

    Bad vibes from Ganduje

    That the national chairman of a ruling party would call on an opposition party to  subvert its mandate, truly won, and defect to the ruling party, is nothing but bad vibes. 

    Indeed, were Nigeria a theocracy, that should pass for an apostasy, that should earn the stiffest of sanctions.  Good, it’s a democracy, not a theocracy.  But there should be zero tolerance for any call to subvert the crux of the game.

    The call by Abdullahi Ganduje, APC national chairman, for Kano’s New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) governor, Abba Yusuf, to defect to APC with his NNPP mandate, is well and truly rotten. 

    Even worse is Ganduje’s call for other Kano NNPP legislators to do same.  Further, his boast that other opposition members in the National Assembly would soon defect to APC, with their parties’ mandates, is subversive of democracy.  Besides, don’t the latest constitutional amendments already outlaw such?

    For this reckless statement, Ganduje must draw the flak of all — at least among those who believe in fairness and democracy.  The vibes are just too bad.

    Indeed, a ruling party doesn’t, by that alone, automatically become superior to other parties.  It’s a ruling party today by the grace of the last set of elections.  That mandate will be under review at the next polling season; and fortunes may well flip.

    In a democracy with a sound party system, what any party does is focus on driving its policies and programmers to deliver the goods.  Other things being equal, the more a party delivers, the better its chances of winning elections — and the opposition taking over as ruling party or vice versa. 

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    But the swagger in Ganduje’s outrageous call just shows that the hubris of Nigeria’s ruling party hierarchs is undiminished.  Not long ago, a PDP national chairman boasted that his party would rule Nigeria for 60 years at the first instance — after the best-forgotten 2007 (s)elections.  APC, the immediate beneficiary of that PDP hubris, ought to have learnt a lot from the PDP crash.

    But it’s good and welcome that Governor Yusuf has told Ganduje off — that’s the right response.  The governor should deliver on his NNPP mandate, even if that itself appears bruised by the governor’s demolish-first-think-later stance of his earliest days in power.  Even then, only the Kano electorate can punish him for that — no one else.

    Former Governor Ganduje should know grave responsibilities come with his high office as the national chairman of the ruling party.  That’s why he can’t run his mouth anyhow. For starters, APC must learn from the power conceit of PDP.

    So, Dr. Ganduje must focus on pressing governments controlled by his party — federal and states — to deliver on their electoral promises.  Success on that front is the only way to fend off opposition challenge. 

    It’s also the only way to deepen democracy and development — not playing rogue by ogling mandates freely given other parties.

  • Can the US retain global leadership?

    Can the US retain global leadership?

    • By Askold S. Lozynskyj

    We understand that there’s concern about the safety, security and sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty.”

    Words spoken by House Speaker Mike Johnson in response to a reporter’s inquiry as to why he was holding up aid for Ukraine. The question was certainly a challenge to both his political legislative and Christian qualifications.

    I would submit that even 100,000 Central American asylum seekers, mostly unarmed, including women and children along the US’ southern border, do not measure up to 150,000 Russian soldiers armed to the teeth with artillery backup at Ukraine’s eastern border, as was the case on the eve of Russia’s vicious full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

    Lest I should appear to agree on anything with the notorious extremist Steve Bannon, who is also not happy with Johnson and recently offered a rant against the Speaker for negotiating with the White House. He proceeded to attack Johnson’s Christianity and suggested it be replaced with Islam, thus forming for the Speaker a backbone made of titanium. I will refrain from further criticism of the Speaker, despite his poor choice of metaphors and bizarre political reasoning.

    President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos to a mostly cordial reception, including assurances that the EU, with its 27 members or 26 members if one excludes Hungary, will approve a €50 billion aid package to Ukraine on or about Feb. 1, 2024. NATO members the UK, France and Germany, along with new aspirant Sweden, have all stepped up recently to fill an obvious void caused by such political primitives as “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) Republicans and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary.

    A source familiar with the talks said negotiators were trying to “revive” the effort by altering the legislation to bolster its appeal to Senate conservatives.

    With strengthening European support, the lack of US leadership will become much less a problem for Ukraine, even if the US reverts to a time not so long ago when Donald Trump was president.  US global leadership was then lacking, much to the amusement of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and then US President Trump was ridiculed by most western allies, even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

    So, the ball is now in the US court, not only to help Ukraine win a war where the sides are clearly marked as representative of good and evil. But the mantle of global leadership is moving away from the US, and this represents a more serious problem for Ukraine, the US and the wider world.

    The problem of US exceptionalism

    To a simple but isolated, even educated but normally selfish mind, the obligations and expenses of global leadership far exceed any perceived benefits. Prestige is a consideration, but to an isolated mind, prestige is only that which is recognized locally.

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    Much has been made of the fact that the MAGA Republicans cater to, and resultingly are overwhelmingly supported by, those who lack a college degree. This was displayed recently in Iowa. However, much would appear to depend not so much on the level of education as the field of studies. In fact, are so many examples of contradictions in this regard that a meaningful analysis is impossible.

    The views of doctors, lawyers, political scientists, even clerics and divinity students, are varied. Consider such bizarre examples as former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee and his daughter and current governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders who as press secretary for President Trump lied at will.

    Why are Evangelicals opposed to aid for Ukraine when the war in Ukraine is manifestly a struggle of good versus evil?

    US exceptionalism and the US as the beacon of freedom and hope are simply intangibles. Being the land of opportunity is a well-deserved moniker but also the cause of the country’s problems along its southern border. The biggest impediment to a global perspective is that many Americans have never left the continent.

    Isolationism was a malaise that afflicted Americans only several generations ago. The Japanese woke us up and suddenly we realized that we had interests all over the world. Then we recognized that we were a superpower and were treated as such by the rest of the world.

    English became the universal language. If we travelled beyond our shores, we experienced an uplifting treatment, even somewhat undeserved. That treatment was appreciated by some of us. Other Americans took this as an opportunity to become ugly. Nevertheless, our interests beyond the continent compelled us to be involved. And then, of course, there was the moral component largely unknown to the MAGA contingent.

    Ukraine continues to fight the good fight, often relying on US weapons previously provided. The role of Javelins, Patriots and Abrams (soon F-16s) among other weapons the US has manufactured and supplied cannot be overstated.

    Still, our investment not only in Ukraine, but in global security and peace, may be wasted unless we protect our investment. These, along with the moral component, are just some of the reasons why the US should not relinquish its mantle of global leadership.

    •This article was first published in www.kyivpost.com

  • Rubbing salt in the wound

    Rubbing salt in the wound

    Last month’s accidental bombing of Tudun Biri in Kaduna State by the Nigerian Army’s drone unit drew a lot of sympathy for the victims from many political players, among others.  Indeed, at some point, it seemed there was a contest as high-profile sympathisers announced various donations regarding the December 3, 2023 tragedy in which more than 100 villagers were killed.

    Many political players pledged monetary donations to the community after the incident. For instance, the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, during a condolence visit by a group of senators, in December, said: “We have decided that we are going to donate our salaries for a full month to be given to those who were affected by this incident. So, a total of N109m will be made available to the governor to be channelled to help bring succour to those affected by the unfortunate incident at Tudun Biri.” The country has 109 senators. He expressed sadness over “the lost lives and those who sustained injuries.”

    Sadly, the senators have not fulfilled their pledge.  Senate spokesman Yemi Adaramodu was reported saying the delay “is merely procedural.” According to him, “We pledged December monthly salaries and these would come in January. We are still in January.”  Have the senators not received their December salaries?

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    The political players who pledged donations include the Northern Caucus of the House of Representatives, which pledged N350m projects for the area and a donation of N45m to the victims.  Also, the Northern States Governors’ Forum pledged N180m.

    The Kaduna State government set up a committee to take inventory of all the donations made by the Federal Government, National Assembly, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Corporate Organisations and well-meaning Nigerians as well as develop a framework for disbursement of the funds and ensure prompt disbursement to actual beneficiaries.

    This committee’s work has been complicated by those who have failed to fulfil their pledge.  A state government official was reported saying the committee had received about N140m, adding that some politicians who had pledged money were now reluctant to keep their word.

    The Army not only took responsibility for the accident but also apologised. The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen.  Christopher Musa, five days after the incident, set up an eight-man investigation panel, and the Defence Headquarters said “The outcome of their effort will be communicated in due course.”

    Nearly two months after the tragic incident, some significant political players who made pledges have not kept their word, and the outcome of the official probe is still being awaited. That’s lamentable. It’s like rubbing salt into the community’s wounds.

  • Excitement on the Plateau

    Excitement on the Plateau

    The Supreme Court could well toast itself as a bastion of legal conservatism, for its final decisions on the gubernatorial cases in Plateau, Kano and Zamfara — cases that seemed eerily close to being flipped in the courts, after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared PDP candidates as winners.

    The same too could be said of Nasarawa, though INEC had declared the APC candidate and sitting governor, only for the Nasarawa Election Tribunal, in a split 2-1 decision, to flip it for the PDP candidate.  Here too, the Supreme Court calmed jagged nerves, though the Court of Appeal had earlier reversed the tribunal’s decision.

    The apex court did well.  Whatever the legal purity of the lower courts for their decisions, the stage was set for explosive street costs, were those verdicts to stand.  But that’s not to say the apex court pandered to political expediency. 

    Still, before the Supreme Court starts wearing a chip on its shoulders, let it be reminded that it, in 2019, started this romp into judicial radicalism — pronounce justice even if heavens fall! — which trail the Court of Appeal followed, by their 2023 verdicts.

    APC’s David Lyon won the Bayelsa governorship in November 2019.  The poor fellow was rehearsing for his inauguration, on the eve of swear-in, when came the thunderbolt: his win had been nullified, on the basis of alleged forgery by his running mate.  Lyon did no wrong.  His deputy allegedly did. 

    But a lower court later dismissed the so-called “forgery”, insisting that the names were proven different names, of the same person, at different phases of his life.  That was ringing judicial injustice imposed by the apex court.  Yet, nobody had seen the court apologize for this reckless verdict.  Lyon lost his win — and heavens didn’t fall!

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    In Zamfara, declared winners — with thumping margins — were pronounced losers, by both the Court of Appeal (the final stop for legislative challenges) and the Supreme Court (governorship).  The irony though was that the court-declared PDP governorship “winner”, perhaps seeing the balance of political forces, defected to APC, sacrificing his deputy, who stayed faithful to their PDP ticket and declared he wasn’t defecting.

    Why this long background story, though?  Simple: the excitement on the Plateau — the 16 PDP legislators that the Court of Appeal sacked, gifting their seats to APC — isn’t novel.  It happened before in Zamfara.  Heavens didn’t fall.  If that bore the imprimatur of the Court of Appeal, the brazen injustice to David Lyon bore the stamp of the Supreme Court.  Duoye Diri, loser to Lyon in 2019 — by 143, 172 to 352, 552 votes — just won a second term, after the Supreme Court-gifted one.  Life moved on!

    So, let the sacked PDP legislators in Plateau take a chill.  Whatever the merit of their case, they can’t take the law into own hands — any more than the Bayelsa and Zamfara people did.  Everyone must follow due process.  Even if at the end their sack is confirmed, so be it.  Heavens won’t fall!

    In all of this though, let the Supreme Court stay humble.  The genesis of the present confusion came from its stable on the Lyon case.  That, after four years, its Saul just turned to Paul, won’t take out that stain.

  • Crisis of learning

    Crisis of learning

    Nigeria faces a crisis of learning if findings from an Enugu State survey accurately reflect what obtains nationwide. And it most likely does. Secretary to the Enugu State Government (SSG), Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, recently disclosed that 50 percent of pupils in the state could not read in English or solve basic mathematical problems. Those who manage to read, he added, faced challenges with comprehension.

    Onyia made the findings known in a keynote address he delivered at the quadrennial convention of the Old Boys Association of Union Secondary School, Awkunanaw. The Enugu government, according to him, made the discovery in its Baseline Assessment of primary schools in the state conducted in November 2023. “Our findings were shocking. After six years of primary school, 50 percent of our children cannot read a single word in English, and those who manage to read face challenges in comprehension. On top of that, 50 per cent of our children are unable to tackle simple subtraction problems. What we’ve found in Enugu State mirrors the situation across our nation,” he said.

    The SSG bemoaned the state of things, but expectedly spoke of remedial measures being implemented by the administration of Governor Peter Mbah in which he serves. He said that in Nigeria, three out of four children who complete basic education lacked proficiency in literacy and numeracy – a situation that some international agencies described as ‘the Nigerian Learning Crisis.’ Part of the problem, according to Onyia, is that teaching methods fail to equip children with vital skills in science, technology, productivity and digital competence.

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    Although he didn’t provide details, Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas apparently had the same crisis in mind when he recently announced a policy to raise the minimum qualification criteria for teachers in his state. He said his administration planned to make Master’s degree the minimum qualification for teaching in the state’s secondary schools, while a Bachelor will be the minimum qualification for teaching in primary schools. Speaking when he hosted journalists to a dinner in Jalingo, the governor said the era where the National Certificate of Education (NCE) is the minimum academic qualification for primary school teachers was coming to an end. “In no distant time, primary schoolteachers in Taraba must be first degree holders, while secondary school teachers must have a minimum of Master’s degree to enhance the quality of education in the state,” he stated inter alia.

    The country is blighted by a new generation of neoliths, and it is helpful this is being officially acknowledged. But merely raising the certification level of teachers will not cut it; there is rather a need to cultivate passionate educators with requisite career incentives. That is what is lacking and need be emplaced.

  • Internal cleansing

    Internal cleansing

    It’s not just a new year for personnel of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the agency’s boss, Ola Olukoyede, promises a new way of working.

    In his New Year address, he warned the agency’s investigators against unprofessional conduct, particularly taking bribes. “I need to strongly reiterate the issue of discipline, integrity and sense of responsibility in the way we do our work,” he said.

    According to him, “Public opinions about the conduct of some of our investigators are adverse. The craze and quest for gratification, bribes and other compromises by some of our investigators are becoming too embarrassing and this must not continue.” He added that the image of the commission was “too important” to be put on the line by any corrupt officer.

    There is no question that the commission has an image problem, which the new boss seeks to address. When President Bola Tinubu appointed Olukoyede as the EFCC helmsman in October 2023, the administration described his role as an “important national assignment” towards “a newly invigorated war on corruption.”

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     The immediate past chairman of the agency, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had eventually resigned after the Tinubu administration suspended him “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.” The Federal Government said there were “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.”

    Notably, a former governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, not only made damning allegations against Bawa but also claimed to have damaging evidence. “He requested a bribe of $2 million from me and I have evidence of this,” he said.

    Also, anti-corruption crusaders in the country had alleged that, under Bawa, some of the commission’s officials simply negotiated with suspects, and engaged in corrupt bargaining for self-enrichment. 

    Olukoyede inherited “no fewer than 25 high-profile corruption cases involving former governors, ministers and senators,” according to an investigative report published in October 2023. The cases involve “not less than N772.2bn and another $2.2bn, alleged to have gone missing through money laundering, fund diversion and misappropriation,” the report said. Some of the cases seem interminable. It remains to be seen whether Olukoyede will do more than talk. 

    It is counter-productive for the country to have an anti-corruption agency that lacks credibility. This is why Olukoyede’s address is commendable.  The anti-corruption war cannot be won with corrupt fighters. The war demands credible combatants. Without credibility, the EFCC will be a caricature of an anti-corruption agency.  That isn’t what Nigeria needs to fight corruption, and win the anti-corruption war.

  • Soludo running scared?

    Soludo running scared?

    Is Anambra Governor Chukwuma Soludo running scared?  Or is it just stage one of near-term end paranoia? 

    Whatever it is, his slugfest with Anambra traditional rulers, as reported in The Nation of January 18, isn’t looking pretty — all the uglier because Soludo appears getting the jitters over Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, a putative opponent in Anambra’s next gubernatorial election.

    Nothing cuts deeper than Soludo’s rebuke, by Igwe Alfred Achebe, the Obi of Ontisha, for what the royal father called the denigration of Anambra’s traditional institution, on account of Ubah’s Yuletide chieftaincies.

    “Without providing evidence for your sweeping statement about trading chieftaincy titles for money,” the Obi of Onitsha thundered, in a letter to Soludo’s commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Collins Nwabunwanne, “you … indicted the entire traditional institution in the state,” though the Obi admitted the one that first drew Soludo’s ire was well-neigh an impostor — a non-member of the native rulers’ council.

    But Igwe Achebe didn’t hee-haw on the Soludo government’s disparaging tone on Ubah: “Your reference to a second-term distinguished senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as ‘one Senator Ifeanyi Ubah’ is most disrespectful, offensive, and unbecoming of one holding a political office as commissioner,” went the ringing royal reprimand.  So long for rude officialese trumping the etiquette of public communication!

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    Senator Ubah, his reported gubernatorial dreams and his defection to APC, from his Young People’s Party (YPP) platform, to probably actualize his dreams, would appear the casus-belli for all the excitement in the Soludo camp.

    For starters, the Soludo government has muscled three other traditional rulers that honoured Ubah during the last Yuletide into withdrawing the titles.

    “The monarchs have respectively apologized to the Anambra State government and withdrawn and cancelled the phantom chieftaincy titles …” crowed Chistian Aburime, Soludo’s chief press secretary, in glorious officialese, “consequently, the titles of “Ikemba Ojoto”, “Odenjiinji Neni” and “Dike Eje Ogu” earlier bestowed on Senator Ifeanyi Ubah have been withdrawn and cancelled by the three Igwes.”

    Still, does that single act portray the Soludo government as strong?  On the contrary.  It projects the government as a bully and miserable wimp, scared of own shadows!

    Soludo had better face his gubernatorial duties; and rededicate himself to working for his Anambra people, instead of running scared on phantom — that word again! — distractions!

    If Soludo does a solid first-term job, it might not matter how many titles Ubah took.  Or does the former CBN governor now realize solid theorizing doesn’t equate solid governance?

  • Yusuf and Kano rumour mill

    Yusuf and Kano rumour mill

    When you fight with a pig, you can’t escape being smeared with mud. And when you stoop that low, you also get your habitat stained with mud. That is a moral Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf didn’t seem to imbibe when he openly engaged a rumour about he and Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Abdullahi Baffa Bichi taking on each other in a physical punch-up.

    The SSG has been away for some while, reportedly in Saudi Arabia for medicare. In his absence, the governor assigned Head of Civil Service Abdullahi Musa to hold forth in acting capacity. But there has been rumour, especially in social media circles, that the duo had a brawl following arrest and prosecution of a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor caught diverting foodstuff palliative meant for  vulnerable people in the state. The SSA is allegedly from the same quarters as the SSG and his public prosecution reportedly rankled with the top official, who complained bitterly to the governor. The rumour further had it that the encounter resulted in fisticuffs between the governor and his SSG, following which Yusuf allegedly sacked the government scribe and drafted the Head of Service in acting capacity.

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    Speaking on New Year day after swearing in 21 permanent secretaries, 15 advisers and one council chairman at the Government House in Kano, Yusuf thumbed down the rumour of a misunderstanding, much less physical brawl between him and the SSG, and  denied that Bichi had been sacked. The governor explained that the SSG is presently recuperating from his ailment and that as soon as he is back, he will resume his office. “I overheard someone speaking with authority on local radio that there was an exchange of deadly blows between myself and the SSG. You know, some people who are jobless see politics as their source of living, and they always try to concoct rumours deliberately to generate unnecessary tension. But this time, they have failed woefully,”  he said. The governor added: “SSG is still there in his position, unshakable, and we are thankful to him for the kind of contributions he has made and hope when he returns, he will sustains the tempo. That Head of Service holds the position in his absence doesn’t mean that he was sacked. We have not relieved him of his position.”

    The rumour was pedestrian. But Yusuf also cheapened his office by directly engaging it. Fisticuffs between a governor and SSG is the height of idle chatter. If he must give it traction, Yusuf could have left that to the most junior among his many communication aides. His personally taking on the issue was infra dig.