Category: Hardball

He’s no Daniel but Chief Bode George just pressed his democratic right to come to judgment over others — no crime.  Still, shouldn’t somebody judging others first quietly judge himself?

“My personal assessment is that he failed (referring to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari), not completely in every sector,” he told The Guardian.  “… I can give them (meaning the administration) five per cent — even the five per cent requires a lot of introspection.”

Bode comes to judgment!

Between George and former President Muhammadu Buhari, there are rich parallels.

Both belonged to the political military that brought Nigeria down to its knees before democratic forces showed them the door.  Indeed, after Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s palace coup that sacked Major-Gen. Buhari (as he then was) as military head of state, IBB named Navy Captain George as military governor of old Ondo State (now Ondo and Ekiti states).  Can anyone, from those two states, remember any achievement traced to George’s tenure?

After military rule, both Buhari and George joined politics, post-1999.  Buhari would be elected president, the office he just vacated on May 29.  George never rose beyond his election as PDP deputy national chairman (South).

Read Also: Why I will not congratulate Tinubu for presidential victory – Bode George

Before the PDP 2003 South West “capture”, all what George and his PDP did, in concert with Obasanjo’s Abuja, was to play the dog in the manger to Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos.

After that “capture”, all Obasanjo’s PDP did — and the old man George never raised his voice in protest — was try to sabotage Governor Tinubu and his successor, Governor Babatunde Fashola. 

The PDP’s South West failure (starting from 2007, though stolen elections stalled it till much later) preceded its federal collapse in 2015.  So, if “Judge” George and his PDP had brilliantly passed as federal ruling party, how come new “failure” Buhari ever had a chance to get there?  Talk is cheap!

Former President Buhari had his challenges, as any other person or government.  But whatever he did — or did not do — he still left far better landmarks in eight years of relative bust than PDP left in 16 years of relative boom. 

And if George’s military governorship posting attained as much as even five per cent of Buhari’s presidential record, George’s name will perhaps still be on the lips of Nigerians from those two states today.  But alas!  What many remember was Governor George’s life-size sculpture of IBB, a gesture that IBB even instantly rejected on account of his Muslim faith.

Talk is cheap — and cheaper still because it’s a democracy and folks love to run their mouths, in a country with scant institutional memory.  With old man George’s military-era governorship record, any postulation from him, on others’ tenure, is rather rich.

It’s a cause for concern that 10 months after the Kuje prison attack and jailbreak in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in July 2022, there are more than 400 escapees still at large. Their names, pictures and prison identification numbers were reported to be on the website of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).

The Federal Government was also said to have uploaded their data to the International Criminal Police Organisation’s database, and circulated the information to the various security agencies in the country. 

 The incident at the medium custodial centre was a national nightmare. The then chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Correctional Service, Edwin Anayo, was quoted as saying 421 escapees had been recaptured, but 454 were on the run.

During an oversight visit to the facility, he said the committee had summoned the then Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, and Comptroller-General of the NCoS Haliru Nababa to appear before it following the terrorist attack on the Kuje Custodial Centre, Abuja. The committee had also invited the Commander of the Nigerian Army Platoon on duty on the night of the attack, he added. 

Many Boko Haram members were among the escapees.  The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) claimed responsibility for the raid on the prison. The release of terrorists by terrorists was disturbing.

Contradictory responses from two ministers did not help matters. The then Police Affairs Minister, Maigari Dingyadi, said the defenders were overpowered because the attackers were more in number and better armed, while Aregbesola said the protectors were enough in number and adequately equipped.

The authorities failed, and had a lot of explaining to do. But explanations were pointless when the situation demanded action.

NCoS spokesperson Umar Abubakar was last week reported saying, “Security issue has no time limit until one is able to achieve a set target. As such, 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 a work in progress.” It is unclear if the so-called work in progress is making any progress.

The escapees that have not been recaptured pose a serious security threat. The police and other security agencies should spare no effort in ensuring that they are back in the cage. The longer they remain uncaged, the more likely they will not be recaptured. Their continued freedom is ultimately a setback for the country’s struggle to tackle insecurity. 

Until his last days in office, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai was as controversial as controversy gets. He was frontal in taking on adversaries just as he was on issues.  Less than a week to the expiration of his tenure as governor, he deposed some traditional rulers and sacked the clerk of the Kaduna State legislature and some perm secs, among others who came in line of his fire. He wasn’t one to shy away from battle where he felt strongly there was a battle to pick.

But that wasn’t the el-Rufai who came across in the ex-governor’s review of his state’s finances during a valedictory media chat early last week. Speaking on the Hausa service of a state-owned radio, the ex-governor accused some of his predecessors of stealing Kaduna’s resources to build mansions in Dubai and other places. He challenged the past governors to face the people and swear with the Holy Qur’an that they never stole from government coffers during their respective tenure. “Where did they get money to build those mansions? What type of business were they doing? We know,” he quipped. And he distanced himself from the syndrome, saying he never stole a dime from the state’s treasury: “I can swear I never stole a kobo from the government coffers,” he stated.

Read Also: El-Rufai sacks Kaduna Assembly clerk, Perm Sec, one other

They say no one can blow your trumpet as you would, so el-Rufai spared no breath in applauding his own performance record, which he argued outweighed what his predecessors offered Kaduna residents. “The work we have started and the quality of the work, we are going to spend years enjoying them. It is not the type of roads they did in the past that, after two rainy seasons, the roads would spoil. The work we are doing, we are doing them with quality,” he said, adding: “I am happy with what I have seen, but there is still more to be done. To us, we want people to enter Kaduna and see no untarred road anywhere. That was our wish, but due to the difficult circumstance our government met, we couldn’t do everything we planned to do.”

It is curious, though, that the ex-governor presided over the state’s affairs for all of eight years and harboured suspicions about his predecessors as he just disclosed, yet did nothing to deal justice against suspects. It is more curious that having tooth-combed the state’s books for those eight years, he was appealing to the integrity of the Holy Book in calling his predecessors to account, and not any concrete evidence that had been detected. The allegation was too sweeping to hold much water and el-Rufai could have done better in calling alleged suspects to account.  

In every society, decency provides that the privacy of individuals be respected even when they are public officials. By virtue of public office, though, people forfeit some measure of their privacy because they invariably are role models. That is why it is incumbent on public officials to also go the extra mile to abide by the codes of societal morality; because when they affront those codes, they invite an invasion of what is left of the borders of their privacy. Things could be worse where they use public office as the very platform to affront communal morality.

That would seem the case of the Minister of Primary, Secondary and Technical Education (EPST) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tony Mwaba Kazadi, and Deputy Minister for the same portfolio, Aminata Namasia, who got entangled in personal affairs beyond the business of government. Tony is said to have gotten Aminata into the family way and reportedly claimed it was an accident at work. Local reports said Tony and Aminata have had a love affair going for some while as they worked together at the DRC education ministry despite being respectively married. Reports didn’t indicate when Tony got into government, but Aminata was appointed deputy minister in the education ministry in April 2021.

A local newspaper, The Street Journal, last weekend said a DRC journalist, Lungila John, exposed the affair on Twitter, prompting heavy criticism from fellow citizens who accused the two officials of reeking bad conduct and immorality. A tweeter, Archy Lema, was reported saying DRC was a country of shame, and that Aminata had no education to impart to any young lady in the country. Another citizen said if politicians like Tony and Aminata wanted to be addressed as “excellencies” or “honourables,” their conducts should be more excellent and honourable, especially as they are popular and wealthy unlike many other Congolese.

Aminata was, however, cited fighting back on her Twitter page, saying outside of her official and public duties she has a life that must be respected by all – a right she claimed is guaranteed to all Congolese by their constitution. She further said she would not condone tarnishing her image because it could harm not only her commitments but also the reputation of her married male colleagues and their homes, adding: “On the eve of the electoral contests scheduled for December of this year, political detractors can attack my opinions and political actions rather than opting for practices tending to smear my person…This is a strictly private life that must be respected at the risk of undermining human dignity.”

Aminata and Tony, like everybody else, has right to their privacy. But it’s ancient wisdom that people who live in glass houses do not throw stones.     

Senator-elect and outgoing governor of Ebonyi State Dave Umahi, last week, gave an insight into his thoughts on the role of federal legislators and their tenure during an interview on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast show on Channels Television.

The two-term governor, who is leaving the position after eight years in the saddle, was reported to have argued for a review of the tenure of federal lawmakers, and proposed that senators and members of the House of Representatives should have a fixed three-term tenure of 12 years.

Under the constitution, their four-year term can be renewed through reelection, and there is no limit to how many times they can be reelected. Umahi wants a 12-year tenure made up of three four-year terms.    

He said: “The tenures of the executives are fixed; the tenures of the legislators are not fixed. And you have to ask yourself, have we really benefited by not fixing the tenures of legislators?”

“But I will strongly suggest that the tenures of legislators should be fixed… You can give them three tenures, three tenures of four years.”

The president and governors have an initial four-year tenure, and can be reelected; but they cannot serve more than two terms, meaning their tenure is limited to eight years. Umahi’s exit as governor is based on this situation.   

It is curious that he wants three terms for federal legislators. If two four-year terms are good enough for the executive branch of the federal government, why should that not be good enough for the legislative branch too?    

 Then there is the question of state governments. State governors are also limited to two four-year terms, but not so for state legislators who can be reelected without limit. Umahi’s proposal doesn’t address the tenure of state legislators – or does it?  Does this mean that he thinks a review of legislative tenure is needed only at the federal level? Why does he suggest legislative tenure change at the federal level only? 

In addition, he suggested that “there should also be age limits for legislators,” saying, “Age limit of 70 years will be good.”  He offered no justification for his ageism. Is it justifiable?

It is unclear whether he will seek support for these proposals in the Senate, or whether he will get the backing of fellow senators regarding them. It will be interesting to see if his co-senators are on the same page with him. What will he think of next?

Outgoing Abia State administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is said to be bent on conducting a local government election before leaving office on 29th May. Speculations were that the election could hold this weekend or in the course of next week, just days before handover to a new administration that happens to be from a different political party. Governor Ikpeazu is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while his incoming successor, Dr. Alex Otti, is of the Labour Party (LP).

Recent reports cited Abia stakeholders counselling against the proposed council poll, saying it would be wasteful and futile since the incoming administration will almost certainly sack the councils soon after assuming office. Opposition parties have already indicated they would boycott the election, meaning it will be a rollercoaster for candidates of the governor’s party, the PDP. It requires no skill in punditry to project that the incoming administration will not recognise the winners and will likely pull the rug from beneath them at the earliest opportunity – thus creating a political crisis  because the councils, having been elected, are likely to challenge the sleight of hand to the limit possible in the courts. Besides, an interested party has already obtained a court injunction restraining Ikpeazu’s administration from going ahead with conducting the poll.

Stakeholders, among them a self-professing Abia State Elders Consultative Forum, were reported questioning why huge resources typically involved in conducting elections would be squandered on an exercise that ab initio is ill-fated, more so when there are other commitments of government crying to be funded, like unpaid salaries of workers for which reason labour in Abia is at daggers drawn with the state government. Other critics alleged it all had to do with the money to be splashed on conducting the poll that would be sourced from local government allocations.

But the state government stoutly defended the proposed poll. Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Eze Chikamnayo, argued that it had long been scheduled and the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC) had in January released a timetable, only that the schedule was shifted because of the 2023 polls. On the likelihood of the councils being sacked, he said he expected the incoming administration to respect democratic institutions. And reminded there’s a court injunction against conducting the poll, his response was that ABSIEC and the Abia government would do whatever is necessary within the law as it affects court orders.

But why would the Ikpeazu administration commit the state’s scarce resources to an election that portends disability in conduct, outcome and future prospect? It is not an election justifiable by any stretch of argument other than hidden rewards being eyed. A venture can’t be more doomed!

Seun Kuti’s public assault and battery of a police officer again echoes Karl Marx’s famous jive about history repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce.

Contrasted with Seun’s father, Fela’s glorious assault and battery, by the security establishment during the best-forgotten military era, Seun’s “police bashing” is twin tragedy and farce.

Even with all his bohemian excesses, Fela still grabbed popular imagination as a free spirit uncaged by conventional shackles; and unfazed by military bullies just because the law grants them free arms and uniforms.

For Seun, his Third Mainland Bridge show of shame evokes nothing but contempt.  For whatever reason, how can you publicly push, shove and slap a police officer?  After — or was it before: which would have proclaimed his preening outlawry? — you recorded a video bragging about how many police officers “you don tear slap”? 

Disgusting!  Even the Fela essence would have puked — for his legend, as stubborn goat for liberty, endured as a near-powerless victim of arrogant power, even if his rebellious music was sheer pain to his authoritarian tormentors and traducers.

Still, Seun’s outrageous stuff is indicative of a current temper: the post-EndSARS era of liberty as licence, by wanna-be activists (and patrons) who push anarchy as liberty. 

Read Also: Seun Kuti to remain in police custody for 48 hours

That was clear from the concerted push, even by some SAN-patrons, of the fatal fib of “Lekki massacre”, even without evidence — an unfortunate fib that later empowered anarchists, with sundry evil motives, to kill, loot and burn hitherto sacred public assets and institutions, in the belief — honest or wilful? — that there was indeed a massacre.

With fascism embedded in today’s so-called activism, particularly on social media, it was no wonder these activists even tried to rig the judicial probe into the matter until they were virtually shouted down with facts.  Fascism is also clear from election losers who brag they must be declared winners.

Seun, as many of his generation drunk with social media freedom under democracy, often brag about outlandish stuff, of turning black into white; or collapsing the skies — and “nothing would happen”.  But Seun’s tragedy is walking that destructive talk.  Now, he’s seeing “something would happen.”

But no matter what happens — if there is crime, there must be punishment — let it be a learning curve for all. 

A handcuffed Seun, facing alleged jeers and taunts from the clearly hurt police cadres, must have woken him up to harsh reality. 

Even if the matter goes to trial, we’re unlikely to see another “e don beg me” episode between Fela and Justice Gregory Okoro-Idogu, whose Port Harcourt zone of the Exchange Control (Anti-Sabotage) Tribunal jailed Fela on currency charges, a conviction not a few still insist was unfair.

Worst-case scenario, Seun would have wilfully walked himself into trouble.  But let it be just a stumble, after the young man would have learnt his lessons — the hard way.  It need not end the Seun music and showbiz promise.