Celestine Omehia, the former governor of Rivers that was not, just tasted the pang of a Greek’s gift that was not. No tears from here.  As the biting pidgin goes, “awoof de purge!”  Beware of the Greek and his gift!

Legislative gangsterism is not new.  In the heyday of military misrule, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida handed the late Chief Ernest Shonekan the poisoned chalice of Head of Interim National Government (ING) — a clear prize as co-conspirator in voiding Basorun MKO Abiola’s presidential mandate.

When the law unhorsed Shonekan in November 1993 and the late Gen. Sani Abacha rode that crass opportunism to power, he used a military decree to “re-validate” Shonekan as “former Head of State”.  The Egba chief was lucky to live that lie till he died.  But that was because he was wise enough to know his limits.

Not so Omehia, another avoidable disaster by another General of yesteryear, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.  Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi had won the Rivers governorship ticket for 2007.  But the meddlesome Obasanjo suddenly declared  Amaechi’s ticket “don get k-leg”.

Long story short: Omehia “won” the election.  But Amaechi eventually took power, courtesy a Supreme Court verdict that ruled Amaechi was the “right” candidate, with legitimate claim to his party’s win.

But then came legislative rascality, powered by extant political expediency.  Nyesom Wike, soon to become post-Amaechi Rivers lord of the manor, goaded the Rivers legislature to “ratify” Omehia’s power misadventure as “former governor” entitled to pension, the prefix “His Excellency” and other privileges flowing from that office — an office he himself knew was phantom.  That, just to spite Amaechi.

But then the catch: Omehia, like the late Shonekan, would always know his place.  Not so!  Omehia clearly forgot his place, by being part of the Atiku Abubakar local Rivers plot to cut Wike to size, in the 2023 presidential election sweepstakes.

Like the Yoruba butterfly that thinks himself a bird, Omehia strayed — and Wike and co promptly reminded him of his butterfly status, “de-listing” him as governor — and  told him to, pronto, return all the cash he had grossed from the phantom privilege.

Well, no tears from here.  Omehia should have mastered the Shonekan primer.  Still, his  denuding is umpteenth reminder of the barbarity of Nigerian politics.  Sad.

With the latest stadium disaster from Indonesia, does Pele, the Brazilian great, still think football is “the beautiful game”?

Bitter rivals, visiting Persebaya Surabaya had pipped homers Arema FC 3-2, at the over-packed Kanjuruhan Stadium. The irate home fans would have none of that.

They invaded the pitch.  The police reacted with baton charges after bursts of tear gas.  Then, 125 lay dead, including 33 children — Indonesia’s worst football disaster.

That should turn every blood cold!  But it reminded Hardball of Lagos 1979: after the Challenge Cup semi-final match between IICC Shooting Stars.

It was 13 August 1979.  IICC just avenged their 2-0 thumping, in the hands of Bendel Insurance, on the same National Stadium, Lagos turf, at the same Challenge Cup stage in 1978.   They went on to win the cup that year.

Minutes after the match, the floodlights went off.  A stampede ensued.  When the lights came back, 24 fans lay dead.  Tens of others were rushed to the hospital.

Read Also: 125 dead in Indonesia football stadium stampede

That tragedy is best forgotten.  But not so the days when local Nigeria football thrived and there were great rivalries:  IICC vs Rangers; IICC vs Supers Stores; Stores vs Lagos NEPA, Rangers vs Vasco Da Gama, Enugu; IICC vs Water Corporation, Ibadan, etc.

Stampedes causing fans’ death are to be decried.  As long as they hang in the shadows, Pele’s beautiful game could be decidedly ugly.  Still, you talk of stampedes when stadia are packed.  That appears lost history for the Nigerian game.

That Indonesian stadia are still over-packed, when two local rivals lock horns, is a thing to celebrate, when the global fad is to be view-trapped on the English Premiership, the French Ligue 1, the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A, the German Bundensliga, to mention some Europe’s top leagues, where the globe’s best players play.

But not even this football globalization (read: structural under-development of not-so-well-endowed leagues outside Europe), it appears, has dented the Indonesian hunger for hot home football, though this one made global headlines for all the wrong reasons.

So, as Nigeria’s so-called experts on foreign leagues chirp stats on Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Chelsea, City and United to mention just a few, they should know Nigerian football can’t really truly blossom without packed local stadia.

Indonesia is living example that is no impossibility.  Nigeria is the diametric opposite.  Fleeing your country — the “japa” culture —  is, at best, strategic poison.

An interesting piece of news showed that some bandits reviewed ransom demand. They seem to have arrived at the idea that ransom payers don’t necessarily have to pay cash.

In Birnin-Gwari, Kaduna State, bandits last month released six kidnapees after receiving “20 mudu (measures) of rice, 20 mudu of beans, 25 litres of red oil, 25 litres of groundnut oil and recharge card of N10,000” as ransom.

Perhaps the kidnappers were aware that their captives, or those who sought their release, would be unable to pay cash. The total cost of the food items is unclear, but it does not come near the huge sums usually reported when money changes hands in kidnap cases.

This is not to say that the cost of the food items was insignificant, particularly given the apparently lowly status of those involved, and the fact that food inflation has led to higher prices for staples in the country, including rice and bread.

The bandits were unwilling to release the kidnapees for free. They wanted something to show for their criminal act, no matter if the kidnapees had little to give.

Cashless ransom demand was observed in November 2020 when parents of nine students at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, who were kidnapped, said the abductors demanded “crates of malt drinks and cartons of milk,” apart from cash.

Read Also: I’ve paid N30m ransom for my priests-Bishop Kukah

The students were travelling to Lagos for a programme at the Nigeria French Language Village in Badagry when they were kidnapped on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway. They spent a week in captivity, and were released after their parents had paid ransom.

Many parts of the country have become increasingly unsafe. Figures from SBM intelligence show that 2,371 people were kidnapped in the first six months of 2021 (2020: 2,860).

This year, at least 3,823 people have been abducted. There were 2, 840 incidents related to insecurity in the country from January to July.

None of the country’s six geopolitical zones is outside the orbit of insecurity.  The Northeast recorded 344 kidnap cases. In the Northwest, 1,989 people were abducted. In the North-central, 950 people were kidnapped.

The Southwest recorded 195 cases of abduction.   At least 157 people were kidnapped in the Southeast.  In the South- south, 195 people were kidnapped.

It is uncertain if the idea of cashless ransom demand will become popular among kidnappers.  But it doesn’t make kidnapping less criminal, or less condemnable. It only further demonstrates that kidnappers for ransom are desperados who should be tackled by the authorities.

It is understandable that Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu wants the best for personnel of the state security outfit, Amotekun, which includes equipping them adequately to carry out their duties.

He recently said his administration had “decided to fulfill its legal, constitutional and moral duty to the citizens of the state, by acquiring arms to protect them.”

But the governor based the decision on an unconfirmed viral video. This was a fundamental fault that exposed his argument as possibly baseless.

He had argued: “The video making the rounds showing the equivalent of the Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun Corps) in Katsina, obtaining the approval of the Federal Government to bear arms is fraught with great dangers.

“Denying Amotekun the urgently needed rights to legitimately bear arms is a repudiation of the basis of true federalism which we have been clamouring for.

“That Katsina was able to arm its state security force, with the display of AK47 means we are pursuing one country, two systems solution to the national question.”

Responses from the Katsina State police command and the Federal Government showed that Akeredolu wasn’t sure of his facts.  The police said the vigilantes were “just trained on how to defend themselves,” adding “It is not that they were given a licence or that the federal government has approved that they should use AK-47 rifles.”

The presidency also issued a statement, saying “as it is at this moment, no such approvals have been issued to any state government.”

Operation Amotekun was launched in 2020 by the governors of the six states in the country’s Southwest – Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states – “to ensure an end to insecurity in the South Western, Nigerian region.”  It was born of necessity following security problems in the region caused by armed bandits and herdsmen.  It is the country’s “first regional security outfit initiated by a geopolitical zone.”

The corps faces a major disadvantage because its personnel are not allowed to carry certain grades of weapons. The commanders of the corps across the Southwest have complained that it is suicidal having to face bandits and herdsmen who are armed with automatic guns compared with their own Dane guns and other less sophisticated weapons.

Though Akeredolu could not prove his claim about arms approval in Katsina State, his posers in a statement by his chief press secretary, Richard Olatunde, demand answers from the federal authorities.

The questions are:  Where did the guns come from?  Who approved their use?  Were the guns returned to the armoury after use? The AK47, as seen from the TVC news report, was about usage. If not, what purpose does training with the guns serve?

There are clearly more questions than answers.

It’s grist for contemporary classical tragedy, Vladimir Putin!

Hubris maroons a tragic figure.  Far from beating a dignified retreat, he rather digs in, hugs self-destruction and pushes his luckless people to ruin.

That is the long-running tragedy of Russian President Putin since his so-called “special military operation” rumbled into Ukraine on February 24.

Now, that was reckless lie brazenly told.  If your cause was just, why lying to your people, whose sons and daughters would be your cannon fodder, in a reckless war?

But was that comic presumption now turned tragic?  That delusion suggested that in 48 hours, or maximum seven days, you must have crushed Ukraine and captured its president and his generals, to parade them all in Moscow, like some triumphant Caesar parading his vanquished in chains, in the streets of Rome?

Yet, seven months after, your nose is badly out of joint like a disoriented devil, ultra-ugly in its wounds!  Even then, you feel the way out of that jam is another frothy lie?

With virtual near-collapse on the war front, Putin seizes on magical “referendum” in areas of Ukraine, some of which Russia only partially occupies: the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s republics, both self-declared by Russia.

Now, Russia posts comic “results” of that sham, none of them lower than 90% “yes” to join Russia!

For context: to correct a blunder, why would Nigeria, a vast country, seek to annex part of Benin Republic, just because Benin has a thriving ethnic Yoruba population?  Russia is the world’s largest country.  What is adding 15 per cent of Ukraine’s land, except hubris-powered lunacy?

Then, in response to bitter defeat, Putin decrees “partial mobilization” of  military reservists, to draft 300, 000 more soldiers to the Ukraine war.

But many of those affected vote with their feet: cars and cars and cars, kilometres long, of Russian youths, fleeing their country because they share none of Putin’s grudge against Ukraine and would rather not be part of his war.

These are aside open anti-war protests, in Russian cities, with women accusing Prrsident Putin and his Kremlin of plucking off “other mothers’ sons” to be butchered in war!

Earlier from Samarkand had come the ultimate rebuff.  China, ever so focused on own trade diplomacy, was so cool to Putin’s war that Putin himself acknowledged it wanted clear answers.  India, which made hay with cheap Russian fuel, bluntly told Putin the age of wanton wars was gone!

A trapped Putin then bluffed it would do anything — read: use nuclear weapons — but insisted he wasn’t bluffing!  Still, if the West, via Ukraine, seems to have Putin where it wants him now — demystified, disgraced, almost defeated — where would the Russian president think a nuclear escalation would fetch him a better result?

President Putin and his Kremlin hawks need help against themselves!

President Muhammadu Buhari is not known to be a singer. But he sings occasionally. Recently, he sang one of his favourite songs yet again. It’s the one about fighting corruption.

The occasion was in New York, USA. It was an event co-hosted by African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The event happened on September 23, on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly. It focused on ‘Food Security Response: Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Securing Asset Returns for Sustainable Development.’

Buhari, in his address, said he was “grateful to the African Union for making me the continental organisation’s champion on efforts to eliminate corruption, nationally and continent-wide.”

Then he sang his familiar song. “Corruption has dwarfed our growth and tainted our nations and continent,” he lamented.  “Africa remains at the far end of the development index…”

He continued enthusiastically: “We must work tirelessly to get rid of corruption by fighting it 24/7.

“This fight is a necessity and not a choice to give our citizens a better life through economic prosperity, social peace and security.”

But five months ago, in April, the Buhari administration had made a move that could not be considered as anti-corruption. Indeed, it was widely seen as a corruption-friendly action.

Read Also: Buhari back in Abuja after UNGA77 events

The presidency had listed a former governor of Taraba State, Rev. Jolly Nyame, and a former governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, among 159 people granted pardon and clemency based on the approval of the Council of State following recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM).

They were two-term governors from 1999 to 2007.   Nyame was serving a 12-year jail term, and Dariye was serving a 10-year jail term. “Both men were jailed for criminal misappropriation, diversion of public funds, and criminal breach of public trust and misappropriation of public funds,” the EFCC had said in a statement.

There were more questions than answers following their unexpected pardon. They were not expected to be set loose without completing their prison terms.

Their indefensible pardon was ultimately counter-productive. It sent the wrong message to those who occupy high office that corruption-related imprisonment is not to be taken seriously, and can always be cancelled by the powers that be.

The Buhari administration boasts that it is waging a war against corruption, but the Nyame/Dariye affair was a huge contradiction.

Against this backdrop, it is curious that Buhari sang about the unacceptability of corruption at the event in America. It is a monotonous song.  In Nigeria, the people are tired of this song. They want to see anti-corruption results.