The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Utomi’s shadow

    Utomi’s shadow

    Prof. Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School (LBS) just got a DSS judicial pin fall, in his well-earned failure to impose a so-called shadow cabinet on a presidential — as against a parliamentary — constitution. 

    But might that be cheap cant and frothy bluster to bad-mouth the 2023 presidential election, which his candidate Peter Obi lost? 

    The same Utomi, far younger then, had rallied for that travesty of 1983.  The late President Shehu Shagari and his National Party of Nigeria (NPN) “won” that election.  Compared to 2023, nevertheless, 1983, with its contrived “space-slide”, was well and truly rotten!

    But that neither stopped the young, idealistic Utomi — who loves to pronounce ethics and value as his twin-middle name — from dry-cleaning that clear fraud on the NTA network; nor landing a job with the ill-fated Shagari government, before the equally rotten military kicked that government out, after three months, on 31 December 1983.

    Segun Ayobolu, The Nation Saturday back-page columnist on October 11, did that 40-year tie-back between 2023 and 1983.  Utomi’s unapologetic defence of Shagari’s rotten mandate of 1983 blights Utomi’s pretences to electoral reforms.  It’s a grand pretence that utterly corrupts that virtue!

    Still, over the years, might Utomi’s Saul (of hailing an insane election), have turned Paul (the no-nonsense patron saint of sane polls)?  To be fair to Utomi, he was prominent among the Concerned Professionals (CP) that junked narrow professional comfort zones to rally for Basorun Moshood Abiola’s June 12 presidential mandate of 1993.

    If he had found redemption, away from the Shagari howler, in MKO’s Hope ‘93, what is it with Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope mandate of 2023 — 30 years later — that lurched him back to old vomit, as a callow youth of 1983?  Simple: thick, base bias, hiding behind highfalutin ideas! 

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    This same rabid bias launched him into his shadow cabinet gambit.  Just as well: he got his well-deserved comeuppance from DSS, via the same due process.  Sweet!

    Make no mistake: 1983 was rotten on all scores.  That’s a fact.  Yet, Utomi would hail 1983 but nail 2023, prompting him to propose a shadowy “shadow cabinet” — whatever that means — choosing confederates, who in bitter defeat, have been telling lies about 2023. Brazen cant! But again, DSS just checkmated all that!

    Sundry activism today is that populist vanity that projects brazen bias as idealism, but easily scams the messiah-craving younger population, who have near-zero knowledge of national political history. 

    Whoever would have thought the sacred St. Patrick openly hailed the seediest of elections in 1983 — and profited from that by earning government appointment as a young “technocrat”, long before that term became notorious for comfy opportunism: highfalutin freeloaders for public appointments, masquerading as experts!

    Thank God the government has not only reinstated history in the school curriculum, it has also grafted civics — contemporary politics and governance — with heritage studies, which is conventional history, at senior secondary school level.

    When youths can ask the right questions, activism as crass opportunism should vanish.  Shadow cabinet, indeed!  What a shadow!

  • Monarchs at war

    Monarchs at war

    Among the Yoruba, kings are regarded as semi-deities because they are deemed representatives of the gods. The air of sacredness that they carry is such that they are typically esteemed beyond the realm of the mundane. That is why it sucks when royal fathers descend to the gutters like ordinary folks, as was the case recently with their royal highnesses in Osun State Council of Obas.

    Royal fathers from Ife North council area on the platform of Origbo Meje Obas, last week Thursday, gave the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, a 21-day ultimatum to substantiate allegations he made against the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, or face a lawsuit. At a press conference, the acting vice-chairman of Ife North Traditional Council, Oba Kehinde Adesoji, who is the Salu of Edunabon, accused the Oluwo of denigrating the stool of the Ooni and demanded retraction of all allegations he made against Oba Ogunwusi.

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    The Oluwo had triggered controversy two days earlier when he publicly accused the Ooni of domestic conspiracy by which Oba Ogunwusi allegedly planted his (Akanbi’s) ex-wife in his palace to kill him. According to him, the Ooni conspired with former Queen Chanel to whom he was married for three years to poison him on multiple occasions. Oba Akanbi further alleged that while the marriage lasted, Chanel was in constant touch with the Ooni to plot his elimination. He said after he sent the ex-queen away, Oba Ogunwusi allegedly secured her an apartment and kept an affair with her. The Oluwo promised to soon provide evidence of his claims.

    The Origbo Meje Obas, however, slammed Oba Akanbi for his allegations, which they described as defamatory and “an insult and disrespect” to the Ooni. They expressed deep concern that the Oluwo’s actions were bringing the entire institution of Yoruba traditional rulership into disrepute and ridicule. At the press briefing where he was flanked by the Olulamokun of Yakooyo, Oba Meshach Oyediran, and the Alakinlalu of Akinlalu, Oba Oluwabusola Oloyede, Oba Adesoji accused the Oluwo of a history of misconducts, including once resorting to fisticuffs against the Agbowu of Ogbaagba at a meeting of the Obas’ council upon which his membership was suspended after due investigation by the Ooni, who is the council chairman.

    The Salu further said the Oluwo’s claim that the Ooni conspired with his ex-wife to poison him amounted to a criminal allegation. “He who alleges must prove. On this note, we are giving the Oluwo of Iwo a 21-day ultimatum to write to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, or sue our father, His Imperial Majesty the Ooni of Ife, over the allegations. Otherwise, the Origbo Meje Obas will take legal action against the Oluwo at the expiration of this ultimatum,” he stated.

    Ex-Queen Chanel herself issued a statement on her Instagram page in which she described the Oluwo’s allegations as “false, misleading, and damaging to our sacred Yoruba traditional institution.”

    It’s a shame that their royal highnesses are washing their dirty linens in the public.

  • Exit, the demon(?)

    Exit, the demon(?)

    Does the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, after a 10-year tour of duty, exit as the electoral demon?  No!

    But it just rivets the Nigerian mind to the ugly finger-pointing and arch-demonizing of election umpires, by foul-tempered Nigerian losers, who pour all venom on electoral managers, in a classic case of a failed artisan blaming his tools!

    To be sure: INEC and allied election managers have not always been above board.  No.  But since the exit of the real demon, Prof. Maurice Iwu, of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s do-or-die electoral heist of 2007, INEC, first under Prof. Attahiru Jega, and then under Prof. Yakubu, has broken new grounds.

    Which is why Yakubu’s exit should have been met with due praise; or at least, a rigorous critique of his tenure: lauding him where he did well and knocking him where he did not.  But some electoral desperadoes, who already wail in advance for the election they would lose in 2027, because they have pretty little to campaign on, have condemned Yakubu and his INEC as eternal devils.  Not so!

    In any case, Bible-speak, the INEC prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, among his own people.  How?  The same demonized INEC is being toasted by Ethiopia electoral managers, who just came to town to understudy INEC’s strides.  Do folks understudy unmitigated failures?  That’s food for thought for the many INEC critics, who seem to spew vitriol before they even think!

    Prof. Yakubu, during his tenure, was certainly not an angel.  He would be Angel the Immaculate, had INEC, under his charge, got everything right.  He wasn’t — as they didn’t.  Logistics on polling days, with complaints of late arrival of the polling staff and materials, is an area the new INEC chair should work upon with all vigour.

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    But from the tragic depth Iwu plumbed in 2007, the INEC Yakubu is leaving behind is another life, to borrow the title of that very popular TV series of yore, Another Life (1981-1984), from America’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).

    Indeed, old Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, sensationally declared: you can’t step in the same river twice!  From Iwu to Yakubu, it’s like crossing endless rivers and seeing the difference.  INEC, in terms of public trust, is not exactly where it should be.  But even its bitterest foes would admit that under Yakubu, it strove hard and improved itself.  It must continue on that lonely path.

    But one thing Yakubu’s successor must learn from the exiting good professor: that art — or is it science? — of strategic deafness: that blocks out the market din and imposes severe focus on the work.

    Losers would bleat, row and growl.  But Yakubu’s successor should ensure such din does not distract him — or her.  Yakubu’s lack of loose talk, and golden lack of controversy, is one ethos all INEC staff should imbibe, as they work on better elections still, in the post-Yakubu era.

  • The hermit’s outing

    The hermit’s outing

    North Korea is widely known as the hermit state because it is unapologetically reclusive and cares next to nothing about world opinion. The leader, Kim Jong-un, does not have too many friends or allies internationally and hasn’t shown keenness looking for one. He rules his country by despotic, sometimes lethal, whims though the country is officially designated Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

    Countries that have some friendly relations with North Korea are Russia and China, but that perhaps is because these themselves, though great economic and military powers, are treated like pariahs in the West-dominated world system. Russia forged closer diplomatic and military ties with North Korea since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Jong-un visiting each other’s countries in recent times. Russia also engages North Korean troops to fight Ukraine that has the support of most Western powers.

    It was like the axiomatic rural recluse coming to town when North Korea featured at the just-concluded United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. The last time it participated in the yearly convocation of world heads of state and governments was in 2018 when its foreign minister travelled to New York for the event. Now, after six years of abstention, North Korea sent a further downgraded representation in Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong, which in diplomatic culture could mean intensified disdain for the world body.

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    Son-gyong had his say for his country and told the global gathering North Korea would never give up its nuclear program. “Imposition of ‘denuclearization’ on the DPRK is tantamount to demanding it to surrender sovereignty and right to existence and violate the Constitution,” the official said, adding: “We will never give up sovereignty, abandon the right to existence and violate the Constitution.” He further said: “Thanks to our state’s enhanced physical war deterrent in direct proportion to the growing threat of aggression of the U.S. and its allies, the will of the enemy states to provoke a war is thoroughly contained and the balance of power on the Korean peninsula is ensured.”

    United States President Donald Trump had in September said he wanted to meet Jong-un this year. According to reports, since the American leader’s January inauguration, Jong-un has ignored his repeated calls to revive the direct diplomacy he pursued during his 2017-2021 term in office that produced no deal to halt North Korea’s nuclear program. Son-gyong made known there was no reason to avoid talks with the U.S. if Washington stopped insisting his country give up nuclear weapons, because it would never abandon its nuclear arsenal to end sanctions.

    North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006, and the measures have been steadily fortified over the years with the aim of halting Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. The message at UNGA is that it yet has a long road to travel.

  • Strategy or blind panic?

    Strategy or blind panic?

    Look into the opposition camp and what do you see — a winning strategy or just blind panic? 

    That’s a very interesting question, with the ADC huff-and-puff; and PDP’s seeming very difficult rebirth — and just as well, with the havoc it wreaked during its best-forgotten ruling years!  Karma never forgets!

    But first, the antics of the opposition leading voices — and the “I’m hungry” burlesque of Rotimi Amaechi, ex-passionate Transport minister, credited with Nigeria’s rail renaissance and former Rivers governor, is a fitting starting point.

    A “hungry” Amaechi, with a bulging pouch, and designer clothing, talk less of cars, is one riveting comedy image of the age!  He has moved from that to yammering about how outgoing INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, is the “worst” INEC chair ever!  Even the dullest of political dunces know that’s eternally reserved for Maurice Iwu!

    Someone should tell Amaechi, decent Rivers governor and energetic “rail” minister, that his present whining, as living patron saint of the “Ebi npawa” — we’re hungry — orchestra, ill defines his political essence. But then, that’s what desperation brings to the table.

    Desperation?  Take a dart, the tragic Goodluck Jonathan, the man that snatched redemption from conceding a presidential election defeat — first in Nigeria — to push at gobbling the old vomit of disgrace, by seeking a forlorn electoral “rofo-rofo” encore!

    Desperation — and maybe cynicism? — is solidly defined by Jonathan seeking automatic presidential ticket from his old party, PDP, and its new clone, ADC!  Which gores most: Jonathan’s taunting of his old phalanx, PDP?   Or romancing new mirage, ADC?  Quintessential Jonathan!

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    Peter Obi?  The more that one opens his mouth, the more he de-markets himself! With his China stats — and good helpings from Argentina, Egypt and Bangladesh: pray, how did Nepal miss out! — he establishes a pattern, hardly flattering.

    He used and dumped APGA, despite eternal commitment vow to Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.  He left PDP after a vice-presidential defeat.  His latest tryst with LP seems headed to end in tears, as he shops for a new platform to pursue his opportunism!

    How can any good, on nation-building, come from eternal opportunism, spiked with cynical deceit of projecting with zeal what you’re not?  That’s the Obi conundrum!

    Atiku Abubakar?  Perhaps the most delusional of the whole lot!  From an unfazed candidate of the “North” in 2023, he’s posturing as a born-again nationalist but still running on that same anti-South non-power-sharing anchor, with which he wiped out, almost wholesale, the PDP southern base in 2023!  He carries out as if all is normal!

    This pitiable ensemble — challenging for power on such slippery grounds?  The Tinubu government will answer own “hunger” problems.  But is this funny bunch helping in that challenge at all? 

    Again, is this sound strategy or just blind panic?  Year 2027 beckons!

  • Labour war and collaterals

    Labour war and collaterals

    There is a cultural axiom about the impunity of one who has a beef with only an individual but afflicts an entire community with his spleen. Such is the impunity of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in its battle with Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals over unionisation. The battle rages over claims that Dangote Refinery sacked some 800 of its workers because of their decision to join the labour union, allegedly against the policy of the refinery management to not to have its employees unionise. The refinery management denies, however, that it obstructs workers who so desire from unionising, but rather that it undertook some reorganisation based on security concerns within the establishment.

    PENGASSAN announced an industrial action last weekend, directing its members in various field locations to down tools from 6:00am on Sunday, September 28, and embark on round-the-clock prayer vigil. That directive resulted in a shutdown of major oil and gas regulatory agencies as well as critical industry operators, bringing activities in the sector to a halt.  The shutdown of gas supply caused a drastic shortfall in national power generation and threw the country partially in darkness.

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    The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) said the industrial action within the gas supply chain dipped power generation by more than 1,100megawatts on 28th September. According to the agency, available generation on the national grid dropped from over 4,300mw in the early hours of that day to about 3,200mw at the lowest point. NISO said in a statement, Tuesday, that the development heightened pressure on the grid, necessitating emergency measures to stabilise supply and avert nationwide blackout. To mitigate the crisis, the agency said it ramped up generation from major hydropower stations, injecting over 400mw to cushion the shortfall from gas-fired plants. It also implemented real-time load adjustments, frequency support measures and selective load shedding to preserve operational security.

    NISO outlined other measures it adopted to include “voltage and frequency support” by which it undertook continuous deployment of reactive power compensation and reserve monitoring to safeguard system integrity, and “demand-side management” that involved selective load shedding applied as a last resort to avert a system-wide collapse and ensure fair power distribution.  “These timely actions enabled the NISO NCC (National Control Centre) to minimise the impact of the labour-induced gas shortages, sustain operational security and maintain supply to critical loads, thereby averting a nationwide blackout,” the agency added.

    In practical terms for the average electricity consumer, there was no public power supply for much of Sunday. It took NISO’s statement two days later to explain what happened, which was that PENGASSAN’s war with Dangote Refinery crippled national power supply. You just wonder if they think through the consequences when they call these battles.

  • Suicidal vs executioner

    Suicidal vs executioner

    Just as well, some breakthrough: in the crunch between the gutsy suicidal and the ruthless executioner, as the Yoruba would call it.

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), plucky union, just faced down Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals, biggest single-tranche crude oil refinery in the world and employers that take no prisoners!  It wasn’t pretty!

    Who blinked first?  At what cost to the delicate economy?  Even with the truce, what  impact on inflation, which trend-down, for months now, has signified a cool-off of the economy, pending a healthier re-take-off, following very painful reforms?

    Will soaring energy costs return the economy to higher inflation, since petrol and diesel remain core to fuelling and powering the economy? 

    Has the shock been arrested before real harm was done?  Kudos to the Federal Government for moving in fast, appealing to the good sense of both combatants!

    Still, the fundamentals are awry.  Local refining couldn’t have drawn a stormier re-entry.   The old is giving way to the new.  But the new not yet able to kick out stock, old practices!  That’s the ugly lacuna playing out.

    PENGASSAN and NUPENG, beyond their unionist do-gooding, stand accused of strong-arm tactics.  That suggests many of their screeches  are fired more by illicit cream-offs, than by members’ protection and welfare.

    That intera-union cabal, PENGASSAN foes love to allege, is so powerful that even their members are unsure which is worse: the parasitic union or the overarching employer.  It’s the classic choice between the red devil and the blue sea!

    On Dangote.  Lovers of its refinery, touting it a nationalistic downstream rescue, fend off the budding monopolist charge, which its foes hang on its neck.  Fair enough.

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    Still, like Microsoft’s Bill Gates, not even the most fanatical of Dangote’s fans would deny it rather loves to compete — and win!  Without robust anti-trust checks — the same tools the US government used to checkmate Microsoft — petroleum downstream monopoly might just blight the market.  That’s hardly desirable.

    In other words, aside tackling this immediate clash, the Federal Government must put in place doughty anti-trust regulations, for the strategic wellness of that oil sub-sector. But robust anti-trust checks begin with diversifying the local supply of refined products. So, as many refineries as possible should be aided to fight for market share against Dangote Refinery.

    But back to the present huff.  Both PENGASSAN and Dangote should learn to always tow the middle line.  Inasmuch as PENGASSAN blockage of crude oil and gas supply to Dangote Refinery was extreme — indeed, near-anarchic — the refinery’s sack of 800 workers, under the guise of “reorganization”, is both suspect and the height of corporate sophistry.

    While PENGASSAN should resist the urge to always go for broke, Dangote should be wary of throwing around its weight as the dominant — nay, near-sole — local crude refiner.

    The Federal Government should commit all local crude oil refining players to healthy compromises.  Otherwise, energy security, a critical gain of its painful reforms, would go up in smoke!

  • Failed Doomsday Displaced Persons

    Failed Doomsday Displaced Persons

    In crisis situations, there are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). These are hapless victims of whatever crisis befell their communities and forced them to leave; they are usually the responsibility of government to care for till peace returns to their troubled homesteads and they get resettled back. Not so with Failed Doomsday Displaced Persons (FDDPs). These are people who chose to believe a lie and self-dislocated their own lives – not because of external aggression but from inner delusion. Anyone in this category cannot hope for government to rehabilitate them. They are on their own.

    It is one week now since the failed prediction of a date for the biblical ‘rapture,’ and those taken in are ruing their self-dispossession in gullible anticipation of an escape from the earth. Rapture is an end-time event by which believers in the Christian faith expect to be supernaturally translocated from the terrestrial plane ahead of a coming period of intense suffering, known as the Tribulation, by those left behind. This event in biblical narrative will mark the second coming of Jesus Christ.

    South African preacher, Pastor Joshua Mhlakela, recently gained worldwide attention after he claimed Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said he would return during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah, which held between 22nd and 24th September. “The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not, the rapture will happen in 14 days from now,” Mhlakela had told a YouTube channel, adding: “I’m a billion percent sure that we are going to see the Lord, the rapture is going to happen. I don’t know how to assure you, but I give you a billion percent that it is going to happen. The date of the 23rd, which is going to be the rapture of the church, is irrefutable and final.”

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    On the day predicted by Mhlakela, videos showed hundreds of people gathered in woods, waiting to be taken up. The preacher himself went live online, joined by some followers, declaring with confidence that the rapture was imminent. After several hours passed without anything happening, Mhlakela said, “I wonder how God works this out. What I know is that it will happen within these two days, but I cannot tell how He arranges the minutes and the seconds, because at any moment something could happen.” He urged his followers to be patient and hopeful.

    Those who believed Mhlakela had taken steps to sign out from planet earth. Social media platforms were flooded with videos from devastated persons who were so convinced doomsday was coming they resigned their jobs and gave away prized possessions. Tilahun Desalegn, an Australian, shared a clip of his car being towed away, saying: “I won’t need her beyond September, because I’m going home.” Kingsalem Igwe, a self-identified Nigerian prophet, said in a video shared on TikTok: “I’m here with all humility to apologise to everyone. I only believed a man who claimed Jesus told him.” Others were seen sobbing over the failed prediction, lamenting that they now had to go back to work. Well, they’re in good time to wake up to the smell of coffee!

  • From privileged to hunted

    From privileged to hunted

    For the love of greener pastures, two senior medical personnel were recently declared wanted by the Akwa Ibom State government. They were allegedly trained for eight years by the state and had not served to justify that investment before taking their services elsewhere.

    Commissioner for Health Ekem John, at a press conference in Uyo, named the two medical officers – one a consultant radiologist and the other a consultant haematologist with the state health ministry. He said the doctors abandoned their duty posts for greener pastures without first serving the state to cover the cost of their training by the state government. Worse, according to him, was that the two were yet receiving salary from the state. “The state government has repeatedly said that medical personnel it trains are bound to first serve the state to cover the cost of the training before they will be allowed to leave for greener pastures,” the commissioner said, adding: “The Ministry of Health has declared them wanted. We will stop their salaries, track them until we find them. Any country they go to, we will go to the medical and dental council of that country and we will stop them.”

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    John gave the indicted doctors two options: either to return to their duty posts in the state service or refund what was spent on their training. He warned that the government should not be blamed for whatever becomes of them once the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) begins to sit. MDCN regulates medical and dental practice in Nigeria and can stop a doctor from practising by withdrawing his licence. “Now that they have not been invited, we ask that their families reach out to them to immediately report to the Ministry of Health,” he added.

    The commissioner further stated that henceforth, medical officers trained by the state government must serve out the agreed number of years before being allowed to resign. He stressed that the government would not permit it’s best hands exiting the state service for “greener pastures” without first serving Akwa Ibom people whose resources were used in training them.

    Nigeria faces a dearth of medical personnel, and the dispute in Akwa Ibom illustrates the dilemma as to where doctors’ primary duty lie: their service obligation or their personal welfare. Sometime in 2023, the United Kingdom red-listed Nigeria among countries not to be targeted for “active” recruitment of medical workers to avert the collapse of local health systems owing to personnel flight. Also, the House of Representatives proposed a bill to bind Nigerian-trained medics to work in-country for five years before they can seek to export their skills. Neither of those measures, among others, has stemmed the flight of these essential workers for greener pastures. Doctors must cultivate a heart to give back to the society that trained them, but the society too must find a way to make it worth their while.

  • The last lie?

    The last lie?

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for the umpteenth time, has insisted it was a lie that he sought a third term.  He challenged: any Nigerian that he called on the project should speak up or forever shut up.

    “I’m not a fool,” he declared at a Goodluck Jonathan Foundation democracy talk show in Accra, Ghana.  “If I wanted a short term, I knew how to set about it.”

    But no sooner did his voice come off the mike than Usman Bugaje, a House of Representatives member during that period, declared that Obasanjo’s latest denial was a frothy bluff — a euphemism for a grand lie.

    He might not have directly called anyone, Bugaje countered. But his proxies did: trying to bribe and suborn everyone to subvert the grund norm; and its sacred provision of a maximum two-term presidency of four years each.

    But putting the controversy aside, the grand irony is lost on the former I’m-never-wrong president; not the least also on former President Jonathan, whose electoral ouster Obasanjo hailed with his hyena laugh; and with a wild dance in the street.

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    After Obasanjo, President Muhammadu Buhari lived, served and died.  But no one had had to accuse him of third term, with the transparent manner he conducted himself on term limit.  He absolutely shunned its subversion.  Obasanjo was the exact opposite.

    Then, Jonathan who Obasanjo, in his imperial gracelessness, pushed every grubby effort to disgrace, offered a platform for the old man’s denial in Accra, Ghana —  18 long years after Obasanjo had left office!

    What’s this about “third term” that the shriller Obasanjo denies it, the hollower he sounds, even to himself and his parched conscience? 

    On an another denial: Obasanjo once told a foreign interviewer, on foreign TV, that PDP won the grand heist that was the 2007 election fair and square.  But we all knew what happened, with the Supreme Court’s 4-3 bare acceptance of that robbery, and the Court of Appeal dismissal of PDP “elected” governors in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun!

    Is that all Obasanjo’s bluff is worth?  Even former Senator Shehu Sani added a grim humour.  If Obasanjo insists on his claim, why don’t we all invite former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, to testify?  He presided over that final Senate session; and he revealed, at the launch of his book, “Standing Strong: Legislative Reforms, Third Term and Others Issues of the 5th Senate”, in 2021, the strategies he employed to checkmate the gambit. 

    And assuming without conceding that Obasanjo knew nothing of his proxies’ rascality: why didn’t he shout it down, as PMB did?  One of the so-called human rights lawyers had tagged PMB with “hidden agenda”.  But PMB, straight as rod, disowned it so fiercely the fellow never mentioned such nonsense again.

    Obasanjo’s last lie or his eternal truth?  Whatever it is, it gives impish pleasure that “third term” is Obasanjo’s latter-year purgatory.  He will wrestle with it till his maker calls him!  Sweet!