The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • ‘Make some noise’ on Gabon

    ‘Make some noise’ on Gabon

    Following his ouster and detention under house arrest late in August by junta actors, deposed President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon was shown in a viral video calling on the international community to ‘make some noise.’ The message obviously was that sabre rattling could pressure the soldiers into chickening out, or at the minimum release Bongo and his family members from detention. Bongo’s wife, Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, and eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, are among principal figures of the Bongo era held by the coup makers. His call came against the backdrop of pressure plied at the time by the international community on putschists in Niger Republic who sacked President Mohamed Bazoum from power on 26th July.

    Bongo’s call, however, did not get the traction he apparently wished with the global community. The junta has been consolidating its hold on power and it lately jailed his wife for allegedly embezzling public funds. Sylvia, who has been under house arrest in Libreville, the Gabonese capital, since the 30th August coup that ousted her husband, was charged on 28th September with money laundering, forgery and falsification of records, and jailed 11th October. Her lawyer, Francois Zimeray, described the trial as arbitrary and illegal. He was reported by frontline news agency, AFP,  saying: “We condemned this illegal procedure, There is a difference between justice and arbitrary actions, between the law and revenge.”

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    Noureddin, who is Sylvia and Bongo’s eldest son, has himself been charged alongside several former cabinet members with corruption and embezzling public funds. The coup makers accuse the wife and son of manipulating the former president, who has not fully recovered from a debilitating stroke he suffered in 2018. Ali Bongo, 64, had ruled the central African country since 2009 before he was overthrown by soldiers shortly after being declared winner in a presidential election that the soldiers argued was rigged. His ouster pulled the curtains on nearly 56-year-long rule by the Bongo dynasty, because Ali Bongo became president in succession to his father, Omar, who died in 2009 after some 42 years in power. Gabon is Africa’s third-richest nation in terms of per-capita GDP, but one in three people lives below the poverty line according to the World Bank.

    Many Gabonese saw the soldiers’ intervention as more an act of liberation than a military coup, and that is perhaps why the junta is consolidating. But a junta is a junta and can’t be a legitimate substitute for civilian rule – even a bad one. Besides, Sylvia’s fate could signpost that of others being currently held, especially Noureddin who is also accused of treason. So, it may be time to really ‘make some noise.’

  • Counting the cost

    Counting the cost

    Corruption has serious consequences for the country, and the new chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, gave an insight into how corruption works against Nigeria’s development during his recent screening for the position by the Senate.

     He shared his thoughts on how he intends to fight corruption, saying, “I will do more in the areas of blocking the leakages. We spend more money fighting corruption when we could have spent less to prevent it.”

    He gave concrete facts and figures concerning a survey he did, which covered three years, 2018 to 2020. The picture was food for thought. “I picked just one scheme, one species of fraud, which is called contract and procurement fraud. I discovered that within the three years, Nigeria lost N2.9tn,” he narrated.

    “When I put my figures together, I discovered that if the country had prevented the money from being stolen, it would have given us 1,000 kilometres of road, it would have built close to 200 standard tertiary institutions; it would have also educated about 6,000 children from primary to tertiary levels at N16m per child.

    “It would have also delivered more than 20,000 units of three-bedroom houses across the country. It would have given us a world-class teaching hospital in each of the 36 states of the country and the federal capital territory.”

    Olukoyede inherited “no fewer than 25 high-profile corruption cases involving former governors, ministers and senators,” according to an investigative report published on October 22. 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. Imagine how these humongous sums could have helped to develop the country, if they had not been stolen!

    In another striking instance, the then president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, in November 2019, had lamented that N1tr had been earmarked for constituency projects within 10 years without visible grassroots benefits.  National Assembly members in the period were to blame, according to an investigation. 

    Read Also: EFCC: Olukoyede calls for united efforts in combating corruption

     The then chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, was quoted as saying, ”Constituency projects are intended to be developmental, such as provision of water, rural electrification, rural clinics, schools, community centres and bursary for indigent students.

     ”In the light of annual budgetary allocations to constituency projects and based on actual releases by the government, it is firmly believed that the impact of constituency projects on the lives of ordinary Nigerians ought to be more visible…The concern is that in Nigeria, rather than address the needs of constituents, many constituency projects have become avenues of corruption.”

    The Bola Tinubu administration, with its mantra of Renewed Hope, should not only count the cost of corruption but focus on winning the war on corruption.  

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  • Hawks and Ondo wars

    Hawks and Ondo wars

    The Ondo gubernatorial impeachment wars have hit a dangerous tempo, with the hawks on both sides going for broke.  The APC should stay steady: it should defang these hawks and negotiate a truce.  

    That’s the party’s best bet, if it must not blunder into a self-set ambush, at governorship election time, less than a year away.  A house divided against itself seldom stands.

    The latest salvo came from the Ondo legislature, fearing the fiery impeachment threat to Deputy Governor Lucky Ayedatiwa might be turning cold ash — no thanks (or is it thanks?) to an intervention by the APC National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.

    In a sudden twist, the Ondo House wrote to the Chief Judge of Ondo State, Justice Olusola Odusola, to go ahead and put in place the impeachment probe panel, claiming the restriction order on it, by a Federal High Court in Abuja, had lapsed.  

    In playing to that new gallery, the House not only touted its huge number of pro-impeachment deputies, it also bragged it was superior to the ruling party, without which platform they couldn’t have been elected, on “constitutional” matters.  Ego!

    But Ayedatiwa’s lawyers, kamikaze-like, responded, warning the pro-impeachment  legislative bastion not to get ahead of itself by misdirecting the CJ, over “conjectures, misconceptions, inconsistencies, undue desperation and misconstruction of the law” — what a torrent!  What a mouthful!  Counter-ego!

    The lawyers, led by Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, told the CJ to maintain the status quo.

    Another batch of self-named pro-Ayedatiwa Ondo native-lawyers then raised the stakes: Governor Rotimi Akeredolu should not only address a press conference to “declare his health status”, it also goaded the Ondo State Executive Council to trigger Section 189(1) of the 1999 Constitution, with the dangerous insinuation that Aketi was “incapacitated and unable to perform the functions of his office”!

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    But mercifully, if incidentally, as all that drama was unfolding in Akure, Aketi was meeting the South West governors, in his Ibadan home, in his capacity as chair of the South West Governors Forum.

    The optics of that was sweet and sour.  Sweet, because Akeredolu looked much improved and appeared gaining weight.  Perhaps that was his traducers’ “press conference”!

    But sour because, by and by, the governor’s health was becoming fair(?) fare in the fierce impeachment war!  That’s isn’t helping Aketi’s recuperation much.

    This impeachment, either way, is a bad idea that turns everyone into a loser.  Let both parties therefore lick their wounds and tactically withdraw.  

    The governor going after the deputy or vice-versa, is less strategic than earning a fresh four-year mandate less than a year away.  That should be APC’s message to the hawks, who easily can destroy but hardly can build.

  • Again, the ‘arm-up’ gospel

    Again, the ‘arm-up’ gospel

    Katsina State Governor Dikko Umar Radda became the latest proponent of the self-defense gospel by canvassing, last week, that Nigerian civilians be permitted to bear AK-47 rifles and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) to defend themselves against terrorists and other criminals. He said it was the right way to go, and wondered why the civil populace were denied the right to bear arms when criminals had easy access to deadly weapons with which they tyrannised same people.

    Addressing journalists in Abuja, the Katsina governor said: “If a bandit can go to the market and buy AK-47, RPG and all of those weapons, what about people that want to protect themselves? They too should equally be allowed to do so. These people (criminals) are holding it (the weapons) illegally, we are trying to hold it legally. Why can’t the government allow the people to hold this thing and equally confront the challenges?” He added: “We must protect ourselves. It is even against our religious belief to allow someone to just come and kill us and take our property, just like that.”

    Radda spoke against the backdrop of his recent inauguration of 1500-strong Community Watch Corps in Katsina, saying he was determined to battle criminals to a standstill despite threats to his life by those already feeling the heat. He also vowed to not negotiate with bandits – unless bandits get pressed by the state’s firepower to become penitent and seek re-absorption into society. “I will not go begging bandits to come for negotiations… When you negotiate with bandits, it is a sign of weakness, for me. Let’s deal with the situation, if they are weak, let them come out, let us negotiate and we will reintegrate them back into society,” he said.

    Read Also: Akeredolu shocks critics, appears in public

    The ‘arm-up’ advocacy is a recurring refrain with the northern power elite. Radda’s immediate predecessor, former Katsina Governor Bello Masari, once urged residents of areas prone to banditry to acquire weapons and defend themselves, saying it was morally wrong to submit meekly to outlaws. In June, last year, the administration of former Zamfara State Governor and currently Defence Minister of State, Bello Matawalle, directed state residents to move towards obtaining guns for self-defense by applying to the police for licence. The security establishment has always argued in rejoinder, however, that criminals were taking a shellacking, with Defence Headquarters insisting last week that troops were winning the war against them.

    Like all past advocates, Radda didn’t address how proliferation of arms would do damage only to criminals and not to law-abiding people like is being experienced currently in the United States. Meanwhile, it would be instructive to get Matawalle’s take from where he now stands, because for him experience has gone full circle.

  • Belated zeal

    Belated zeal

    From the look of things, the recent mass demolition of alleged illegal buildings blocking drainage channels in the Lekki Phase II and Ikota areas of the state was inevitable.  

    The Director, Drainage Enforcement and Compliance, Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Mahmood Adegbite, was reported saying the state government had been serving contravention notices on the affected property owners since 2020 when the structures were at their foundation level.  This suggests that the Lagos State government did what it had to do.

    The owners of the demolished buildings suffered a huge cost in monetary terms, among others. Reports said several houses knocked down at Venux Homes Phase 1, Ikota GRA, the Megamound end of Lekki Phase II, and Ikota Villa Estate, were worth between N50m and N80m.

    Also, the authorities were reported to have given residents at Cluster 1, Lekki County Estate, Ikota GRA and Megamound Estate within Lekki Phase II, a final warning to leave their houses because of the planned demolition of the buildings.   

    The President, Lekki Estates Residents and Stakeholders Association (LERSA), Alhaji Sulyman Bello, was quoted as saying, “this environment is suffering from a lot of flooding and a lot of other environmental challenges on account of abuse of water channels, canals and contravention of water guidelines.”

    He added: “Those who built on canals and waterways have no case… We all have been begging the government not to turn its eyes away from the Lekki area because of the many challenges that we are facing.”  

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    But there are questions that demand answers. The houses marked for demolition were not built overnight. The affected housing estates were not constructed overnight. If the demolished constructions were indeed illegal, why were they allowed to stand in the first place? Why the delay before the bulldozers struck?

    The LERSA president also made an observation that raised questions about the building approval process. He was reported saying, “We also know there are people who would have genuine cases of having got approval from the government and such should be entitled to compensation.” 

    Are there indeed such people? If there are, why were their buildings demolished despite having official approval? Shouldn’t they be compensated?

    Those who built houses without proper approval cannot claim innocence. Those responsible for ensuring compliance with government regulations have no excuse for poor enforcement. It is puzzling that the authorities accommodated violations for a number of years before the belated awakening.  

  • School execution in Zaria?

    School execution in Zaria?

    The alleged flogging to death, of a student of Al-Azhar Academy in Zaria, Kaduna State, under the guise of corporal punishment, must chill your bones!

    The ill-fated Marwanu Nuhu Sambo, a JSS 3 pupil, was accused of skipping classes –which he shouldn’t have.  Still, the school’s principal (unnamed in the story, reported in The Nation of October 22) was alleged to have sentenced the erring student to 105 strokes of the cane.

    If that was barbaric enough — you can imagine the pains spurting through the body as a result of executing such hideous tanning — the reported execution, allegedly between the principal and his whip-happy prefects, was simply cruelty forged in hell!

    Three paragraphs from the chilling report, quoting Mansir Hassan, the public relations officer for the Kaduna State Police Command:

    “At the assembly, the principal ordered that Marwanu should be given 105 strokes of the cane.  Thereafter, they took him to the office, removed his clothes and trousers and continued beating him with sticks on the head and back and his body.

    “The principal later handed him over to the school prefects who continued beating him with sticks until one of his teeth fell off.  It was at that point that the deceased went into a coma.

    “But instead of rushing him to the hospital, the prefects brought him out and dumped his body in the school premises near the male toilets until closing time”!

    Could this be a school in 21st century Nigeria?

    The Al-Azhar Academy management did well to wash their hands off the gory mess, regretting it as out of line, condoling with the relations of the killed boy and reportedly handing the suspects to the Police.

    Still, disowning isn’t enough in this case.  That the principal could, in full flourish, subject a boy to 105 strokes suggests such harsh punishments are not unusual. 

    That prefects could proceed from where the principal allegedly left off suggests a sick institutional cruelty in the school’s governing culture. 

    That only panicky students and teachers rallied to rush the boy to the hospital (where he was dead on arrival), after his body had been dumped near the school’s toilets, suggests a culture of paralyzing fear, even in the face of glaring wrongs.

    Read Also: Police arrest school principal, deputy for flogging student to death

    Overt or covert therefore, the Al-Azhar Academy owners/management bear vicarious responsibility, even if the principal and his vice take direct faults for this tragic incident.

    Which is why the Police must get to the root of the matter, throughly investigate it and diligently prosecute everyone that had a hand in the boy’s avoidable death. 

    No matter the gravity of infractions, punishments shouldn’t become school executions.  That was what happened in Zaria.

  • Alarmists and the mobs

    Alarmists and the mobs

    The police in Abuja lately said they had arrested and charged to court no fewer than 14 persons for raising false alarm over alleged disappearance of their genitals. The alarmists, according to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) command, spurred mob attacks against suspects accused of the genital theft, thereby causing public disturbance. Luckily, police operatives have been arriving on the scene before the mob attacks result in fatality. And in all the cases, when the  alarmists were taken to hospital for evaluation, medical tests showed their organs were intact.

    Early last week, the FCT police charged a 20-year-old man at Wuse Zone II Magistrate’s Court with causing grievous hurt, attempted culpable homicide, theft and giving fake information to members of the public against a complainant. Police prosecutor E.A. Inegbenoise said the defendant “unlawfully and falsefully accused the complainant of stealing his manhood. The complainant was beaten and stabbed with all kinds of dangerous weapons by members of the defendant’s gang (who) later ran away while he was apprehended. As a result of the beating, the complainant sustained some degree of injuries.” The prosecutor added that the complainant’s mobile phone and wallet containing important documents were stolen in the mob attack, and that during interrogation at the police station, the defendant reported that his “disappeared manhood” was back and functional. Offences the defendant was being charged with, according to him, contravened sections of the Penal Code.

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    False alarms over alleged missing genitals became so rampant that FCT Police Commissioner Haruna Garba had to publicly flag it. “The FCT Police Command has recorded over 10 cases of alleged disappearance of male organs across the territory and escalating incidents of mob action by irate youths. It took the intervention of the command to prevent loss of lives and property and restore law and order. Fourteen suspects who claimed their male organs had disappeared were taken to hospital where medical doctors confirmed their organs were intact and active. Consequently, they were charged in court with giving false information and inciting public disturbance,” he recently told journalists. In neighbouring Nasarawa State, the police command issued residents a stern warning against “mob action and jungle justice, or raising false alarm that leads to grievous assault on any member of the public,” saying anyone involved would be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.

    But how did we come to this? Pray, how does the genital get stolen, and how is the alleged theft proved to mobs before they pick the gauntlet to pounce on suspects of such theft? There’s so much in the trend that is unreasoning and should never feature among homo sapiens!

  • No further delay

    No further delay

    For years, the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta Road has been in very bad shape, and overdue for reconstruction. It is good news that the Federal Government has finally given the Ogun State government permission to fix the road, which was categorised as a federal road.

    Minister of Works David Umahi announced the new arrangement after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja on October 16, saying the state government had requested to be allowed to “do the road on their own.”  He said: “No refunds for that but they will do it and toll it.”

    Ogun State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure Ade Akinsanya said the state government “has been rehabilitating the road since 2019,” adding that “With the transfer done now, we are happy and ready to immediately take over the project and turn around the fortunes of the road.” 

    Notably, last weekend, just before the announcement that the road had changed hands, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun had lamented the terrible condition of the road.

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    Akpabio noted the extremely bad condition of the road when he visited the state to attend the grand finale of the Yewa Cultural Festival, and receive a traditional title, Aare Fiwagboye of Yewa land. According to him, he decided to pass through the Lagos-Abeokuta, Papalanto-Ilaro road where he spent about two hours in traffic on Papalanto-Ilaro road “because two tankers fell on the road.” He told the people at the event: “I really sympathise with you. I went through what you people are going through on a daily basis.”  

    When the governor spoke, he also told a sad story, telling Akpabio that “it took me three hours to get here from Abeokuta. I am sure it took you just as much to get here from Lagos because of the deplorable state of Lagos-Abeokuta Road.”

    He pleaded for Akpabio’s intervention, saying, “Please help us with the Federal Government to transfer this road to us. This road is very key to our socio-economic economic development.” 

    Given the widely acknowledged importance of the road, it is lamentable that it was abandoned for so long by the Federal Government, which worsened its condition. Also, it is puzzling that the federal authorities refused to permit the state to fix the road before now.  

    The Ogun State government should urgently focus on fixing the road, and do it well. There is no room for any further delay.

  • Ondo: the hunterturning the hunted?

    Ondo: the hunterturning the hunted?

    The Ondo impeachment drama is getting more and more carouser, as the hunter is turning the hunted, even as the original prey isn’t out of danger.

    It’s one big distraction that shouldn’t have been, and yet it is, no thanks to political hawks.  The endgame isn’t looking pretty for the ruling APC, that seeks a fresh mandate one year away.

    Endangered Deputy Governor Lucky — not so lucky now, it seems — Ayedatiwa appears fated to try every trick necessary to save his job.  He still faces an impeachment noose.

    His latest gambit is to fend off proceedings in his legal challenge, until the national APC could somewhat midwife some peace among its warring Ondo members.  But the court all but gave that a short shrift, by rejecting an indefinite adjournment of his suit, while the parties sued for peace.

    So, by October 20, the court’s ruling will either loosen or tighten the noose.  The impeachment prey is still very much in danger!

    Still, who is down needs no further fall?  That could apply to Ayedatiwa, not Rotimi Akeredolu, the governor who, by the impeachment, seeks his deputy’s scalp.  But Ayedatiwa’s impeachment also somewhat turns Akeredolu from the hunter to the hunted.

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    After arriving Nigeria after a successful medical tour of Germany, hardly anyone knew the governor was still cocooned in his Ibadan home, instead of sweating in his Akure Governor’s Office — until the opposition Ondo PDP made it a cynical public issue.

    “Resume or resign” went one of the placards/banners, taunting the recuperating governor, making his health issue a reckless and insensitive, if not hostile and cynical, public matter.  It’s the last thing Aketi needs in his delicate state.

    Yet, due to hawks on both sides, the governor has turned defensive, citing how Ondo government was effectively running, even without him in-situ.  Again, this is totally avoidable.

    By picking a wrong fight at a wrong time, the Ondo APC has proved it lacks elders, with consummate wisdom and strategic thinking.  The national APC should therefore intervene to save its Ondo branch from itself.

    One year to an election, this impeachment gambit is out-and-out bad business.  The national APC had better dive in to pacify the combatants.

    Otherwise, it should brace itself for a cynical and ruthless PDP onslaught on a bitter, headless and divided party, with bitterness deepening by the hour.  The awaiting catastrophe won’t be pretty.  

    Those who have ears, let them hear!  Or is it already too late?

  • Dalung’s dyspepsia

    Dalung’s dyspepsia

    Dyspepsia is a medical term translating in simple English to ‘indigestion.’ That might be what ails former Sports and Youth Development Minister Solomon Dalung. The ex-minister may be having challenges with digesting his mid-span displacement from the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari, and may be chewing the cud of bitterness long after. Buhari was a two-term president from 2015-2023, but Dalung was minister during only the first term (2015-2019).

    Recently, the ex-minister dismissed the Buhari era as an egregious mishap, saying he failed to fulfill promises made to Nigerians during the 2015 electioneering, got his name dragged in the mud by people around him and must now be living in regretful retirement. Speaking with Trust Radio, the former minister touted being a founding member of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and, hence, has a responsibility to speak the truth. “We failed to meet expectations, and I am not hypocritical because as a major stakeholder who campaigned vigorously in 2015 and went to the nooks and crannies of the North, of all the promises we made, we fulfilled none of them,” he said inter alia, adding: “The political covenant we had with Nigerians was that we were going to address the security situation, we were going to revamp the economy and we were going to give corruption a major blow so that we could minimize it to the barest minimum. Looking back, reflecting and evaluating the situation as it is today, we failed woefully.”

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    But Dalung’s political antecedents do not show he is sufficiently dispassionate to make such iterations as could be regarded with all gravity. After being dropped as minister, he rubbished the ex-president’s era a couple of times as about the worst in Nigeria’s history. Yet his own performance as minister was viewed by many as distinctively inept in public service record. And not only was Dalung inept administratively, so also was he politically. In the 2019 elections, APC lost his polling unit and ward to opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Asked by journalists if that had not disqualified him from being re-nominated in Buhari’s second term, he said he wasn’t bothered about not being able to deliver his constituencies for the party because “I am not doing all my good works as minister for any political gain or mobilization… What I am currently doing for my people and the nation at large is beyond winning elections for my party in my ward.” Unfortunately, only Dalung saw what he claimed to be doing, and it surprised no one that Buhari didn’t return him as minister. He has since defected from the APC and has featured prominently in other political parties. Whatever he now says can hardly be seen beyond ‘sour grapes’ syndrome of an opposition partisan.