The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • NNPP wars

    NNPP wars

    It’s the fashion these days for everyone to be a desk general!”, WS, our own Nobel Laureate, wrote in Jero’s Metamorphosis.  

    It was the play’s final sentence; and the final sarcastic flourish struck the acute literati with a comic bite, in those days, as in Niger Republic now, when Nigerian generals were not only coup heroes (apologies to the late Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo) and real desk generals, with zero real war medals!

    Well, times have changed, ala democracy, and thank God!  Now, it’s the fashion for everyone to, in this epoch, be “national leader” of political parties.

    Peter Obi, even in relation to Labour Party, the political whore that always offers its platform to the highest bidder each election cycle, savours the appellation, “National Leader” on account of an election over-performance, seasoned with lies and deceit.

    Then, Rab’iu Musa Kwankwaso, as National Leader of the new New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP): though at least he had enough street savvy to displace the federal ruling party in his native Kano; and the NNPP Kano governor has gone on a demolition blitz, many say, more to settle political scores than for any high state ideals.

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    The “craze” for “National Leader” is, of course, the triumph of influence over formal power, as epitomized by the president, for eight years under President Muhammadu Buhari, when he bore the honorific title of APC “National Leader”, though the former president was the de jure holder, by convention of presidential democracy.   

    Before APC, however, Tinubu had birthed at least two parties: Action Congress (AC: 2007) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN: 2011), even gifting perpetual runner, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the AC presidential ticket, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo would rather run him out of town.  

    Moral? “National Leader” no be “moin-moin” — in that famous local lingo.  It requires more balls, loads and loads of sacrifice and, of course, political savvy.  

    That brings the matter back to the NNPP “wars”.  Out of the blues, the NNPP Board of Trustees yesterday announced in Lagos it had suspended Kwankwaso, its presidential candidate in the February 25 presidential election, and “National Leader”.  

    It handed out a six-month “suspension” to further probe Kwankwaso’s alleged anti-party activities: allegedly hobnobbing with President Tinubu, former Vice President Abubakar and Peter Obi.  The NNPP must have taken quite an umbrage at the reported news of Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso, all veteran PDP folks, kissing and making up, in what appears like slamming the stable gate shut, after the stallion had galloped clear!

    But how NNPP would walk its talk is not clear.  Kwankwaso appears not only its most notable political name, his Kano is critical to the future of the party, if it has any.

    Still, it offers a very intriguing scenario.  How will it all play out?  Could this be the beginning of the end for NNPP?  Or just awaiting the Kwankwaso faction to seize the whip and thrash the other faction as some failed coup plotters?

    Interesting times!  It’s the fashion these days to be a “National Leader”!

  • One man’s meat

    One man’s meat

    There is this saying that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison.” It seemed relevant as Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara criticised the Federal Government for awarding a huge oil pipelines protection contract to “one man.”

    Fubara recently complained to a Federal Government delegation on the security of oil and gas assets led by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu. His words: “Security of pipelines should not be given to one man or one person. How can someone from Kalabari be controlling the pipeline in Ogoni? There is no way it will work.” It can be said that the governor views the existing arrangement as “poison.”   

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    The ex-President Muhammadu Buhari administration, in 2022, entered into a controversial N48bn-per-year pipelines surveillance deal with a private security company, Tantita Security Services, to check the massive oil theft in the Niger Delta. 

    The company was linked to Government Ekpemupolo, popularly called Tompolo, a former militant activist who led a group called Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta.  The contract can be described as “meat” for the company, and Tompolo may well be the person the governor referred to as “one man.” He didn’t name the person.

     Tompolo was reported saying the firm was “only providing intelligence for the security people to assist to do the work.” But many Nigerians saw the Federal Government’s action as an abdication of responsibility and an admission of incapacity. In other words, the contract partly exposed the failure of the authorities in terms of security.  

    At the time news of the contract grabbed the headlines, the chief executive officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, justified the deal, saying, “The security agencies are doing their part; end-to-end pipeline surveillance would require the involvement of private entities and community stakeholders.” He added: “We need private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines. So, we put up a framework for contractors to come and bid and they were selected through a tender process. And we believe we made the right decision.”

    Predictably, beneficiaries of the contract, that is, those who got the “meat,” have no problem with the arrangement. But there are those who have issues with the deal, that is, those who see it as “poison.” These, of course, include Governor Fubara, and several militant groups in the region said to be angry that they were excluded from the “juicy” arrangement.

     Fubara advised the delegation, saying, “We must look at bringing all the key people in the various communities.” This was another way of condemning the so-called “one man” contract approach.

    Ultimately, the authorities should review this approach to oil pipelines security, and rely more on state actors.   

  • Trump and sweet rot

    Trump and sweet rot

    Donald Trump, America’s 45th President, sinks into the bog of history.  But his vanity and debauchery tell him he soars at history’s apogee!  It’s doubtful if any man in all history has been more grandly deluded!

    By the plumb of Trump, an ex-American president and an aspiring new one — he plans to run in 2024, should he gross the GOP nomination, of which he is the front runner — boasts a Foulton County, Georgia, jail number: PO1135809.  He also boasts that jailhouse’s mug shot!  

    In that infamous photo, Trump scowled at the camera.  But in full time, Trump would realize it was history scowling back at him for what mess he had made of himself, his family, his country and the high office of the American President!  

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    To boot: Trump’s inmate stats, though out on bail, are: height — six foot, three inches (1.9 meters); weight: 215 pounds (97 kilograms); hair colour: ‘blond or strawberry’ — as dumb as blond?  Were he to crop conviction, he would have been worth his every pound in ultimate infamy!

    Why?  For one, Trump gleefully subverts — and he’s never even sober about it — the very core of American civilization: its democracy.

    For another, as a perpetual child trapped in the skin of a 77-year-old, he blathers with shameful excuses even a child, whose head is screwed in the right place, would be well and truly scandalized by.

    Take the Georgia case.  How can a sitting president pick up his phone and ask the electoral chief of a state to “find the votes” to reverse Trump’s electoral hiding in Georgia, as he did in his infamous call to Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger?  That call principally drove the Georgia indictment: the fourth for the most unworthy of America’s apex office.

    For context: just flash back to 2015 and imagine a losing President Goodluck Jonathan calling the then INEC Chair, Prof. Attahiru Jega, ordering him to “find votes” to retrieve his lost presidency!  That’s the rot in which Donald Trump glories — and in the so-called bastion of global democracy!

    True, the fish rots from the head!  The Trump rot is symbolic of America’s decline.  But more than that: the happy missteps of Trump also speak to classical tragedy: a character of high standing hauled down by his own high folly, from which he never snaps awake, until he is dust!

    A character of high standing?  Naaaa!  Trump was never one, though somehow, he gamed America’s notorious capitalist system, and sizzled with a load of cash!  Uncle Sam’s Achilles heel was allowing such a mogul, with zero character, access to his highest office as president.  America will yet pay the full price for its folly, long after Trump is long gone, but never forgotten for his epochal and cacophonous notoriety.

    By the way, what really has happened to the party of Abe Lincoln, the man that staked everything — including his life and the possible scattering of the Union — to banish formal slavery from the United States?

    Trump did — and the Republican Party will wake up after the crash, with clear eyes riveted at its own self-imposed happy tragedy.  Perhaps it would emerge a shattered Humpty-Dumpty of the nursery rime, that could never be put together again?

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  • ‘Men in Army uniform’

    ‘Men in Army uniform’

    Disturbing allegations by Senator Solomon Adeola on the mysterious and tragic killing of his senior aide, Adeniyi Oluwatosin Sanni, in Lagos, on August 5, introduced unexpected possibilities. He alleged that the killers were soldiers of the Nigerian Army, in a recent statement he personally signed, and demanded justice.  

    He said “based on available facts at the disposal of the Police,” Sanni “was killed by a syndicate of soldiers operating under the newly deployed Commander of 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Nsikan John Edet, through mounting of checkpoints and robbing of lone occupants of cars.”  This is a serious accusation, which should be treated seriously.  

    He added: “Top Police sources familiar with the investigation informed me that a similar brutal killing and armed robbery occurred around the same Ojodu- Berger late Thursday night of August 17, 2023 resulting in the killing of another Nigerian whose body was discovered around Iyana- Ipaja after he was taken away by soldiers from the checkpoint.”  

     He continued: “Unknown to the soldiers, the occupant of the car they killed, and took away his car, was the second car in a convoy of two heading towards the same destination. 

    “The first car passed the soldiers checkpoint but the second car was stopped to check his vehicle’s papers. 

    “On noticing the absence of the second car after a while, the occupant of the first car (name withheld) placed a call to his colleague in the second car who informed him that he was being taken to Iyana Ipaja by the soldiers at the checkpoint. 

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    “That was the last he heard from him and his dead body was later discovered dumped on the road just like Mr. Sanni. 

    “The survivor in the first car reported the case to the Police and a pattern of armed robbery and killing in the area involving men in Army uniform was established.”

    In Sanni’s case, he was initially said to have been stopped by “security agents” at a checkpoint around the Ojodu- Berger Area of Lagos on his way to his home at Isheri.  He was asked to provide the documents of the car he was driving, and he called his wife who sent the documents to his phone via WhatsApp. His bullet-riddled body was later found at the Toyota Bus Stop area of Oshodi, close to a military barracks. The senator lamented that “the black Toyota Camry of Mr. Sanni, his phones and other valuables are yet to be recovered.”

    The Nigerian Army authorities should be concerned about Senator Adeola’s specific details regarding the alleged killers, their base, and how they operate.  

  • Diezani’s day in court  

    Diezani’s day in court  

    Dub her the Queen of Rot out of the Goodluck Jonathan era, and you wouldn’t be so wrong — so grievous are the allegations of sundry sleaze around her name.  

    Yet, by the prosecutorial legal system Nigeria and the United Kingdom operate, even if you were caught with the proverbial smoking gun, you’re presumed innocent until the majesty of due process decides otherwise.

    Which is why it’s rather nice: Diezani Alison-Madueke, President Jonathan’s high-flying Oil minister, but on self-exile in the UK, is finally having her day in court.  At last, the court will decide: is she the charming economic villain that all the charges swirling around her suggest?  Or just an innocent soul just caught in a warp of sleaze?

    The news didn’t exactly come out of the blues.  Just as with our Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the International Corruption Unit of the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA), just charged Mrs. Alison-Madueke with receiving £100, 000 in bribes, among other alleged felonies.  

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    The investigation has been going on since 2015.  Indeed, all these years, she has been on administrative bail.  But on August 22, the NCA decided to dock her on October 2.  It’s early days yet.  But it could be the beginning of closure for the alleged economic crimes the former minister had become notorious for.

    Indeed, between the local EFCC findings and the U.K. agency’s there would appear a convergence of charges: vanity fairs and lifestyle crimes, with alleged illicit property acquisitions to boot. 

    UK charges her with allegedly pocketing £100, 000 in bribe cash, aside from sundry others in kind: chauffeur-driven cars, sweet flights in private jets, luxury holidays for self and family, and enjoying multiple London properties — alleged illicit favours from oil and gas contractors.

    She’s also alleged to have gone on another binge of gratifications: payment of private tuitions, gifts from high-end designer shops: as Cartier jewel leery and Louis Vuitton high-end luxuries, furniture gifts — all the works in vanity fair.

    At 63, it might be a long night in the criminal justice system across two continents.   “We suspect Diezani Allison-Madueke abused her power in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards for awarding multi-million-pound contracts,” said Andy Kelly.  ”These charges are a milestone in what has been a thorough and complex international investigation.”

    Here in Abuja, the Federal High Court, in January 2022, had issued a second arrest warrant against Mrs.  Allison-Madueke for alleged money laundering for which EFCC is charging her.  Her lawyers, home and abroad, are swearing to prove her innocence.

    Let justice prevail!

  • Isese

    Isese

    It turned out some glorious cultural domino, with a quad of South Western states: Lagos, the crown jewel, Oyo, the Yoruba political capital, Ogun, emerging economic dynamo and Osun, the most urbanised state in all of Africa, declaring Monday, August 21, their Isese Day — the public holiday for traditional worship.

    For Lagos particularly, it’s a learning curve.  Had there been decent Isese  knowledge, no brood of hyper-educated yet combatively ignorant young filmmakers would traduce the Adamu Orisa — a most peaceable play — as among some violent gang of Lagos!

    Indeed, the actual days fell on a Sunday.  But to give Yoruba traditional adherents their full day in the sun, all the four governments declared last Monday a public holiday for civil servants.

    This is democracy!  This is equity along faith lines.  This is equality before the law for different faith practices, particularly traditional worship, which some zealots of foreign faiths often snub in empty bigotry.

    Indeed, no spirituality is superior or inferior to the other.  Each is unique.  If you’re no master of your spirituality, other races would ride roughshod over you — and that might make the difference between prosperity and crunching poverty.

    Western prosperity, which had roots in western science and technology, is firmly anchored in western spirituality.  If you doubt, take a brief tutorial in Greek physical philosophy and see how the ancient Greeks built their philosophy, on the back of their myths.

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    If that appears too ancient, just imagine how China clawed back from a global good-for-nothing, as late as 50 years ago, into a global manufacturing Dynamo and superpower!  They didn’t do that by pandering to western spirituality!  

    The classical flip: if Africa has been the global laggard, much worse than Asia, it’s because we always strive to be who we are not.  Among the biggest global churches and maybe mosques, are in Africa.  But they make pretty little dent on acute spirituality — that shapes public conduct and puts you on the straight-and-narrow.

    But the credit for this Isese  consciousness goes to no one than Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Osun governor (2010-2018).  Though a fervent Muslim himself — and unapologetically so — his government nurtured a radical equal opportunity philosophy to faith access, so much so that Christians, Isese and Muslims prayed at official functions.  

    Aside from the conventional holidays, he declared not only Hijra, the Islamic New Year, he also declared for Osun a yearly Isese Day.  For both, he was subject of vicious attacks.  But today, we know whose ideas were winsome.  It’s such a blessing to live ahead of your age!

    By the way, it’s good the South West is showing umpteenth leadership in faith tolerance.  A scandal, it really was, to see a section of Kwara Muslims trying to stop traditional worshippers from doing their thing.  It’s human and constitutional rights for folks to practice their faith: Christianity, Islam and Isese.  None is superior to the other.

    Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun — it was nice the first concerted Isese Day fell on Ojo Aje, the chief day of commerce!  Between the spiritual and the material, there’s always a vital link.

  • Ogun’s dark communities

    Ogun’s dark communities

    Is it true that about 20 communities in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area, Ogun State, have “not been supplied electricity from the national grid” for more than seven years?

    That is the claim of the Chairman of the Ogun Waterside Patriotic Forum, Alhaji Dayo Oyenuga, in a publicised letter to the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly.  The letter was also signed by seven traditional rulers in the local government area.  

    According to the signatories, “the entirety of Ogun Waterside Local Government Area has been offline for more than seven years because the cables connecting us to the power sub-station have been carted away by vandals.

    “The Local Government administration’s efforts to maintain or protect and at times replace the facilities parts whenever they were stolen have not yielded the desired result as the vandals seem to have capitalised on the non-supply of light (power) regularly to vandalise and cart away the aluminium cables.”

    This picture indicates that the local government area also has security problems, which compounded the situation. Why do the said vandals find it so easy to steal the cables? This cannot be attributed only to darkness. It suggests poor law enforcement in the local government area.  

    They also said the communities made an attempt “to subscribe to an OFF-GRID merchant with a view to finding an alternative power supply, but the conditions precedent to such an arrangement were beyond us. So, we had to stop.”

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    They explained that the letter to the Ogun State House of Assembly was a last resort, “having exhausted all possible means of getting our electricity restored and yet without any result.” 

    The objective of the desperate communication, they said, was “to get our light restored with a view to taking the communities in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State out of total darkness that has been there since about seven years ago.”

    They alleged that “some of our communities have never been remembered for electrification,” which is another matter. The authorities need to make a clarification regarding this particular allegation.

    They complained that “All our efforts to get the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) to restore our electricity have not yielded the desired result”; and hoped that “succour would come from a source like this hallowed chamber” to put an end to “pain and agony” in the communities.

    The Ogun State government should look into this matter without delay. It’s inexcusable that these communities in the state have not enjoyed electricity supply for so long.

  • Unhelpful silence

    Unhelpful silence

    Curiously, the Federal Government has remained silent on the puzzling claims of Niger Delta activist Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, who is described as the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force (NDPSF). 

    He said in a recent viral video: “I don’t have an army, but I have a private military company that was engaged by the Nigerian government and I have been doing the work for the Nigerian State.”  

    He explained that his so-called private military company “is engaged by the government and we are fighting side by side with the Nigerian military in many places. Like Niger, Plateau, Abia, Imo and in parts of Rivers State. We were in Anambra too. We are doing a good job and we are being commended by the host communities.”

    His claims, uncorroborated by any information in the public domain, were discredited by the Director Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, who was reported saying ”The veracity of his claim can only be ascertained by the relevant agency, statutorily mandated to license such outfits.” Which agency is that? It is unhelpful that the agency in question has not clarified the issue.

    Nwachukwu clarified that “the Nigerian Army is not in any form of partnership or collaborative pact with the ex-militant or whatever private security outfit he claims to own.” He added that “contrary to his claims, the Nigerian Army has never conducted any operation jointly or side by side with Asari or the organisation he represents, in any of those areas he mentioned or in any theatre of operations.”

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    Which of these conflicting narratives is true? The picture suggests that the country’s struggle with insecurity is unstructured.  There is an urgent need for clarity on this issue. Who struck such a deal with Asari-Dokubo, if it is true that the claimed arrangement exists? What are the details of the deal?  

    Interestingly, in 2013, he was reported to have renounced his Nigerian citizenship, saying he did so “in protest against the inability of Nigeria to grant Ijaw Republic.” He said he had relocated his “corporate investments” to Benin Republic, which he described as “my adopted homeland.” It can be said that his citizenship status is unclear.  It is a measure of the perceived threat posed by Asari-Dokubo and his force that the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), in a statement, last month, observed that the President Bola Tinubu administration “seems to be afraid of Asari-Dokubo.”

    He has been seen in several viral videos playing the role of militia commander in the midst of gun-wielding robots. The Federal Government needs to clarify the status of Asari-Dokubo’s so-called private military company and its alleged role in the fight to bring security to the country. 

    The Federal Government’s silence is not helping matters. The burning questions demand clear answers.

  • Criminals docking innocent?

    Criminals docking innocent?

    Imagine coup plotters, after fissuring the constitutional order, threatening to put their victim on trial for high treason!  Indeed, who should try who?

    Well, there must be a limit to bluff in neighbouring Niger, as the putschists come with one infantile ploy after another.  A threat to try President Mohamed Bazoum for treason is their latest response to the international clamour to free Bazoum from detention.

    But then, isn’t that the overall image of junta rule: turning logic on its head and swearing it’s regnant wisdom — until they totally ruin their people with their arrant folly? That’s the story of Africa and military rule!

    Even then, the international response to that bluff is clear: the German government just called for the immediate release of President Bazoum, joining voices with those of the United States and France, and most of the international community.

    If the junta has been stone-deaf to those, for the impassioned bogey of the evil of former colonial powers, what of the solidarity message from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), through a mission Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba, just sent President Bola Tinubu on the Niger power grab?

    Aside from calling for the immediate release of Bazoum, the ECCAS chair declared that military interference in democratic government had become an anathema, must be condemned, and therefore called on Nigeria and ECOWAS to stay the democracy cause, and never give the Niger junta a moment of respite.

    In response, the Nigerian President assured: “We are working to keep the sanctions in place and we are following them to the letter.”

    That simple piece of chill can’t be good news to the coup makers, despite their grandstanding.

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    Which is why it’s reassuring that ECOWAS is out there with its neither peace nor war psychological siege.  There must be zero reward for stealing power by the barrel of the gun.  It’s a monumental breach of public trust.  That must continue to be restated as long as necessary.

    Besides, from today, ECOWAS military chiefs start a two-day meeting to put building blocks on the possible activation of a standby force.  Of course, that doesn’t automatically guarantee there would be war in Niger.  Why should there be, if these power dreamers snap awake from their colourful reverie, face stark reality, resume their regimental duties and leave governance and politics to the Niger politicians?  But should they prove stubborn playing with fire, why shouldn’t fire burn them and raze their subversive ambition to hell?

    The anti-war lobby somehow casting ECOWAS as some war-mongers miss the point.  Those that brought “war” to Niger are no more than soldiers of fortune that ruptured their own constitutional order.  

    A child may swear his mother won’t sleep.  But his own brows too won’t taste the lightest of sleep.  It’s game on, Niger!  It’s long, long night for the power grabbers over there.

  • Catch them

    Catch them

    It’s disturbing that so many escapees are still on the loose in the country. For instance, according to a report last week, the website of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) shows that 460 inmates, among those who escaped from the Kuje Custodial Centre, Abuja, in July 2022, are still at large.

    They escaped more than a year ago. About 900 inmates escaped in the alarming Kuje prison break, including 64 “high-profile Boko Haram terrorists.” The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) claimed responsibility for the attack. Official figures indicate that 421 escapees were recaptured. It’s unclear if these included the terrorists.  

    The report said the agency’s website also displayed the names, images, and prison identification numbers of the escapees who have not been recaptured and have been declared wanted. Also, the Federal Government is reported to have uploaded their data to the International Criminal Police Organisation’s database.

    Earlier, NCoS spokesperson Umar Abubakar was quoted as saying “All security agencies are on the same page looking for the escapees to be recaptured and brought back to custody and to answer for their offences. Until then, it is still work in progress.”

    This is a bad situation. With so many inmates still on the loose after the Kuje jailbreak more than a year ago, there is an atmosphere of danger. The situation calls into question the capacity of the country’s security agencies.  

    The failure of the relevant government agencies to recapture so many Kuje escapees continues a negative story of ineffectiveness. In November 2021, about 262 inmates escaped from the Jos Correctional Centre in Plateau State when gunmen attacked the facility. Less than 30 of them were recaptured, according to official figures at the time. 

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    A December 2021 report said 5,238 inmates escaped from various prisons across Nigeria within a one-year period from October 2020. Within the period, there were “15 incidents of jailbreak and eight were successful,” the report said.    

    In Imo State, for instance, gunmen attacked a correctional centre in Owerri, the state capital, in April 2021, and freed 1,844 prisoners. Officials said 84 inmates were recaptured.

    In September 2021, armed men attacked the prison facility in Kabba, Kogi State, and freed 240 inmates. About 114 escapees were recaptured.

     The following month, the Abolongo Custodial Centre in Oyo, Oyo State, was attacked and 837 inmates escaped from the facility.  The interior ministry said 262 had been recaptured, and released information on 575 on the loose.

    There is no clear picture of the overall number of escapees still at large in the country. But the available figures show that unacceptably large numbers of escapees have not been recaptured. This is a cause for concern.