Category: Hardball

A pressure group, the Yoruba Youth Congress (YYC), just dismissed Chief Ayo Adebanjo’s endorsement of Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate.  Dapo Adepoju, speaking for YYC, said Adebanjo’s endorsement didn’t equate a Yoruba one.

But who doesn’t know that?  Who doesn’t know that the chief, who is madly in love with his own voice and who madly savours his combative personal drama, speaks for no one but himself?  Who doesn’t know that the Ijebu chief is a general without troops?

Besides, the rump of Afenifere that he heads has seen better days.  Shrivelled as it is, perhaps the last moral authority left with the exit of Chief Reuben Fasoranti (wise one!), who left this particular Afenifere’s sinking ship, for the rambunctious Chief Adebanjo, whose combative antics, by the way, helped in no small way to chisel away Afenifere’s once-upon-a-time, larger-than-life influence.

“This particular Afenifere”?  O yes!  No thanks to the “our-way-or-no-way” antics of Chief Adebanjo and like-minds, the original  Afenifere has badly fissured.  Out of it had come the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) where the younger elements took refuge.

Then, there is Afenifere Egbe Ilosiwaju Yoruba, which the late Senator Ayo Fasanmi headed.  Now, members were — and still are — the well and true old guard, featuring the likes of the equally late, but suave Senator Biyi Durojaiye, who outnumbered the Adebanjo group, both in number and in influence.

But the Nigerian media love drama and combat to energise their thumping headlines.  So, they love to humour the Ijebu chief, who loves to hug the headlines.  By that, however, they sell their readers a pig in a poke: making out the noisiest, but the weakest of the Afenifere factions as the real deal!

Even if those who should know really know, the chief began to believe his faction’s sacred lies, so much so that at every slightest chance, he claims he speaks for the “Yoruba”.

That delusion of grandeur got to a climax when the respected Chief Fasonranti left; and Chief Adebanjo became lord of manor of a near-shell.  Well, everyone is entitled to their democratic delusions!

The Adebanjo’s Obi endorsement was nothing but political pantomime.  How can a chief who hardly can marshal opinion in his Lekki-Lagos neighbourhood, or win a council election in his Ijebu homestead, speak with such sweeping finality on Yoruba votes?

It is the way of the civilian equivalent of a general without troops.  YYC need not waste its breath.  That majestic delusion is an open secret.

I don’t hide it. My former commander said if I want to collect money, I should collect what I can share with him, and he will defend me.”  These words and other ones he uttered got Richard Gele into trouble. He spoke in pidgin English.

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has dismissed him after finding him guilty of unprofessional conduct.  Force Public Relations Officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement, described him as “the Police Inspector caught in a viral video dignifying and justifying extortion of members of the public and official corruption which trended from the 25th of July, 2022.”

He was “attached to Police Mobile Force 77 Squadron, Okene, Kogi State and deployed to the Itobe – Anyigba Road, for safety of road users and commuters, along the route, where the incident occurred,” the police said.

He hails from Benue State, and joined the police in September 2000. This means that he had been a policeman for more than 20 years before he got into trouble.

It is unclear when he started extorting money from members of the public. It is also unclear how much he had made from extortion.

“His dismissal came after subjection to internal disciplinary mechanism and being found wanting of the charges levelled against him in line with extant laws governing the conduct of police personnel,” the police said.

He has been “de-kitted and handed over to the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State, for further necessary action.” It is unclear what will happen to him next.

According to the statement, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba “warned all personnel to eschew extortion, unprofessionalism, official corruption and other inappropriate acts,” and “urged them to display exemplary courage and patriotism in the discharge of their duties.”

There is no question that extortion gives the police a negative image. Police extortion is inexcusable because the police are supposed to enforce the law and not break the law. It amounts to role failure when policemen become extortionists.

But Gele could not have been the only policeman around when the incident happened. What happened to the other policemen who were with him? Is it possible that they did not participate in extortion at the place?  Or did they escape punishment because they did not utter words that could implicate them? What about Gele’s former commander who had allegedly encouraged him to extort money from members of the public? Is he still in the NPF?

The point is that there are still many policemen who are proud to be extortionists like Gele.  Indeed, the country’s police are notorious for corruption. What is the NPF doing to weed out crooked policemen and policewomen?

The story of Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United is a gripping one.  CR7 — the emergency messiah United had always craved instead of wholesale rebuilding after the Sir Alex Ferguson years — delivered.   But the collective limped, as always.

Now, the messiah wants out only to be shown a plan of serious rebuilding under new manager, the Dutch Erik ten Hag; and Ronaldo’s cemented place in it.

The snag is the messiah isn’t convinced.  But neither is United interested in letting him go.

United’s hands are strengthened because hardly any mouth-watering offer is coming for CR-7, now 37.  In a way, he is approaching the profile of the supreme athlete as an old man!  Even he, in the mega-buck football sell-and-buy market, isn’t about to defy gravity!

The question is: how would the parting end?  Nasty with CR7 insisting he wanted out no matter what?  Or staying back, even though his heart is elsewhere?

Elsewhere: but where?  Some sporting rumours are already claiming Atletico Madrid, fierce and local rivals of Real Madrid, where Ronaldo had his best football years, are already opening the door a notch.  Well, until any deal is done, it stays just that — rumour!

CR7 has made a name for himself as a highly drilled athlete, almost a crazy goal robot in flesh-and-blood, though he lacks the audacious and frothy skills of Lionel Messi, his great Argentine rival, who is a more complete player, though younger by a year or two.

Still, can CR7 pull his stunt for United, week-in, week-out, if his mind is not at Old Trafford?  It’s testy time ahead of United’s boisterous fans, more so when CR7 and his manager have already moved that the star player be released from his two-year contract after just a year.

Well, however it turns out, it would be hard lessons for United.  The team Sir Alex left was crap, though the legendary Scot had infused in them such a formidable winning mentality that they seem not to realise it.

Then, came the virtual slaughter, on the altar of quick fix, of David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho — the not-so-Special One these days — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the golden United player under Sir Alex turned tinsel manager, and Ralf Rangnick, calm but luckless interim manager, under whom United finally pathetically collapsed.

Just imagine if the club had shunned the quick-fix and rebuilt, immediately after sacrificing Moyes, after only 10 months in a six-year contract!  Moyes had left his legend-like status at Everton to summary disgrace at United.  But thank goodness Moyes is regaining part of his honour at West Ham United.

Re-build, with or without CR7.  That’s the message Hag should imbibe.  Else, it’s just a matter of time before his own blood too is splattered on the managerial chop-board.

Bread is a staple food and one of the cheapest ‘grab and go’ foods that is available for both the poor and rich,”  said the spokesperson for the Premium Bread makers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), Babalola Thomas, in a statement  announcing a four-day  strike, “in the first instance,”  from July 21.

According to him, that is why the Federal Government should ensure “the survival and sustainability” of the bread making industry. The move, he had explained, was to “ensure the survival of the premium bread making industry in Nigeria.”

The group had threatened to extend the withdrawal of services if the government failed to intervene, adding that several meetings with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Abuja, in 2021 had been fruitless.

Among other things, the association wants the government to stop the 15 percent “wheat development levy on wheat import.”  It also wants the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to “review downwards the N154, 000 penalty charged bakeries on late renewal of certificates.”

Additionally, it wants the government to give its members “access to grants and soft loans being given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),” as well as “stoppage of multi-agencies regulation of the bread making industry.”

Before the so-called warning strike was announced, press reports said the price of bread had increased as N300 loaves were sold for N400 and N100 loaves cost N150.

After the strike, the chairman, Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, Kogi Chapter, Gabriel Bamidele-Adeniyi, was reported saying the price of bread would “definitely increase by 20 per cent” from July 25.  He attributed the rise to “the increase in the prices of commodities we use in bread production,” saying “We want the government to see to it that prices of yeast, sugar and flour being imported are drastically reduced.”

Press reports said people complained about bread price increase following the bakers’ strike.  Bread consumers are paying more for bread now. But that is not the end of the matter.

There is a possibility of another strike by bread makers after the one that just ended if the production conditions do not change positively. This means that the price of bread could increase further.

The authorities need to address the issues raised by bread makers. Bread is a staple food in the country and its price should not make consumers wonder what is happening.

You can’t excuse the hypocrisy of the western powers, led by the United States.  They growl “international law” when stuff don’t go their way.  Yet, they are hardly apostles of international rule of law.

Global politics is still pretty much realpolitik powered by might, hardly by law or by what is right.  Might — not law — is right.

Still, you hardly can fault their hysteria over the disastrous impact blatant outlawry of rogue states could have on the fragile and delicate global peace.

The West goes berserk at the mere thought of the nuclear bomb falling into the hands of North Korea (the West’s favourite pariah state); or perhaps Iran — ethnic Persians that just wouldn’t allow the West to bowl them over, though Iran won’t mind doing business with Russia, the West’s Euro-cousin to the East!

My enemy’s enemy is my friend?  Perhaps!

Still, the worst dreams from North Korea and Iran are coming from Euro Coz Russia, with its recklessness in Ukraine.  It’s not even sure if Russia’s brutality is not the beginning of the end for the United Nations, as Hitler’s outlawry led to the crash of the League of Nations, thus provoking World War 2 (1939-1945).

As Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland sparkling that infamous quip: “Warsaw saw war” — a brilliant lexical gerrymandering, if ever there was one, to hallmark that avoidable tragedy — Putin’s Russia has invaded Ukraine, and nobody knows when and where the madness will stop.

But to further underscore its arrant outlawry, Russia just bombed the Odesa port, just a day after signing a grain-passage agreement!  Ukraine signed the agreement, not with Russia but with the UN, the guarantor.  Russia signed with UN too, but not before a rogue wriggle out of some limited Western-powered economic sanctions.  Turkey was host and conciliator.

At the signing ceremony, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, scoffed that Russia wasn’t worthy of signing any agreement with.  He insisted Ukraine had a deal with the UN, not with Russia.

Less than 24 hours later, Russia proved him right by firing missiles at Odesa port, the epicentre of Ukraine’s grain exports by sea!  Besides, Russia from reports bombs civilian areas at will, and kills helpless women and kids to make up for its troops’ tardiness on the front lines.  The annoying thing is that Russia feels it could spin its bad conduct, as it tries to rationalize the Odesa bombing.

Russia is exhibiting every crazy conduct of a rogue bully: from purportedly granting “independence” to people of another country just because most of them are ethnic Russians; to unashamedly ogling a large chunk of Ukraine, even if it doesn’t quite lack a vast expanse of land itself.

Putin is proving another Hitler-incarnate.  The international community had better devise a way to checkmate him before he throws the globe into another conflagration.

It was perhaps predictable that terrorists in the country would at some point aim for the sky if they are allowed to continue their terroristic activities.

The terrorists who threatened to kidnap President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrated their lack of respect for the country’s security agencies. Their threat was the ultimate statement on the scale of insecurity in the country and the impotency of its security system.

The threat was part of a disturbing video released by the terrorists who abducted more than 60 train passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna route on March 28.

The new video showed the terrorists flogging some of the abductees still in captivity. One of them said:  “This is our message to the government of Nigeria and just as you have seen these people here, by God’s grace, you will see your leaders; your senators and governors will come before us. These ones you are seeing here, we will keep some as our slaves and sell them off just as our Imam told you in the past.”

He added: “Just like the Chibok girls that were sold off, we will equally sell these ones as slaves. If you don’t adhere to our demands, we will kill the ones we need to kill and sell the remaining. By God’s grace, El-Rufai, Buhari, we will bring you here.”

The speaker spoke in Hausa and sounded serious.  His words suggested that the terrorists were targeting Buhari, who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, and Governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai.

By declaring their intention to kidnap the president, and even governors and senators, the terrorists showed that they want to take terrorism to a new level in the country.

It is noteworthy that suspected terrorists had, on July 5, attacked President Buhari’s advance team of security guards, protocol and media officers. “The attackers opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions,” said Buhari’s spokesman.  Two policemen were killed. The incident happened near Dutsinma, Katsina State. The team was travelling to Daura ahead of Buhari’s trip to his hometown for Sallah.

In a reaction to the new video and the threat, the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu, said in a statement: “The country’s security and defence forces are not clueless or helpless. They have their plans and ways of doing things… It suffices to say that the security forces are not relenting. They are acutely aware of their duties, responsibilities and what the nation expects of them.”

There is only one response to this routine reaction: Talk is cheap.

What kind of rice should rice consumers in the country expect from collaboration between the Yobe State government and Chinese investors in a trial agricultural project in the state?

Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni said a group of investors from China would establish 10,000 hectares of rice plantation in the state as part of his administration’s efforts to develop agriculture.

“We are ready to partner with you and we should immediately take advantage of the cropping season,” he was reported saying when the investors visited him in the state capital, Damaturu, on July 20.

Yung Wang, the leader of the group, said investing in the state’s agricultural sector would boost food security and contribute to economic growth, according to a statement issued by Mamman Mohammed, the governor’s press and media affairs aide.

“The variety would produce five times the quantity of local rice produced on the same piece of land,” Wang was quoted as saying. “We are transferring modern agricultural technology currently used in agricultural production in China.”

Agricultural technology transfer is one thing; the introduction of another variety of rice is another thing. From Wang’s words, the said variety, which will be produced locally, is different from local rice. It is unclear what the variety looks like and tastes like.

Interestingly, President Muhammadu Buhari had spoken about rice production and consumption in the country when he addressed local government chairmen from Katsina State in Daura on July 15.

A statement issued by his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, quoted Buhari as saying:  “I said we must grow what we eat and eat what we grow. This is a country that was once dependent on foreign rice. We closed the border to foreign rice. I said why can’t we eat Nigerian rice. And with the policies put in place, Nigerians are eating home-grown rice.”

The Yobe State rice project with Chinese collaborators prompts questions.  Is Nigerian rice any rice grown in the country? Does home-grown rice mean rice grown or produced in the country; or rice belonging to, or originating in the country?

Wang’s words suggest that the Chinese are coming with a new type of rice, unknown in the country.  If that is the case, it can be described as foreign rice, until it is domesticated.

Efforts to boost rice production in the country are commendable, but the people want more than that. The price of rice, which is one of the country’s staple foods, has been rising. Improved production is expected to bring down the price.  When that happens, it will be very good news indeed to very many Nigerians.

If it were not so serious, it would have been so contemptuously comic — or else how do you jack up electricity billing from N44, 969.29 to N63, 317.93, from one month to the other, and in a residential flat too!

In the month in question — June — it was an open secret that the national grid collapsed on June 12, leading to massive low shedding.  On some days during that low-shedding, electricity was available for a maximum of four hours.  There was even a day it was off for 24 hours — day and night.

Besides, how can IE build a bill for a customer that has a record of routine and regular payment, yet by its records the “debt” he owes IE keeps on rising?  Or perhaps between May and June in question, the IE intelligence unit suddenly found that the residential flat indeed operated an underground factory!  Hence: the senseless jack-up even when the power supplied gloriously crashed!

The annoying thing is how IE pronto debits customer accounts with its voodoo debt!  By that, in its books, it carries a bogus customer debt profile: money that only exists in its ultra-rich imaginations, which it may never get — because it never delivered that service.  Yet, it keeps on deceiving itself it has some money somewhere. Rainbow dreams!

It amazing what economy can sustain jacking up a month-to-month bill from under N45, 000 to N63, 000. As outrageous as that is, if it had been arrived at with fair metering, the consumer could say well, at least, I am billed for what I consumed.

Rather, it is the criminal estimated billing, by which IE and other DisCos sit in the comfort of their air-conditioned offices and award themselves thumping bills for supplying preening darkness!

That, of course, is comic hyperbole, which nevertheless captures the bitter sentiments of customers raped by outrageous bills, month after month.  The stark reality is that IE can’t secure its product; and can’t discipline those who steal from it.  So, it sits down and punishes law-abiding customers, with its so-called “estimated billing” — more like estimated racket!

Instead of IE to facilitate mass metering to charge fairly, it is trying to hustle and muscle desperate customers to buy meters.  If it put only half of the efforts it put into pushing its meter-selling racket into securing its product, it would have done away with the fraudulent estimated billing a long time ago.

IE can continue humouring itself.  Market resistance would continue hurting its bottom line until something terrible gives.  Those the gods would destroy they first make mad!

Kemi Badenoch’s bid for British Prime Minister after Boris Johnson has grabbed media excitement — and rightly so.

A woman of Nigerian descent, married to Hamish Badenoch of Irish descent, both of them London-born, with three kids strutting a bi-racial heritage, with all its complications and exciting challenges, is bound to trigger wild excitement.

But flip it the other way: it could also throw up Britain’s historical burdens, given the country’s not-so-palatable adventures in the past.

Kemi might show off her Irish name now.  But even that triggers memories of brutal English crimes against her husband’s Irish homeland.  Remember, W.B. Yeats’s “Easter 1919” poem, a dirge on British brutality against the Irish Easter uprising against British iron rule?

Her own Yoruba roots are no better testimonials, given the mess British colonialism made of cultures and civilizations roughly cobbled together by British greed, in what has become today’s Nigeria.

Which makes it all the more surprising that Kemi would throw the country of her descent under the bus, in her ardour for British PM.

“I grew up in Nigeria and I saw firsthand when politicians are in it for themselves,” she told the British press, “when they use public money as their piggybanks, when they promise the earth and they pollute not just the earth, but the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others.”

Unfortunately, this is some galling truth — particularly high public sector corruption, where Nigeria in truth has a stiff challenge!  But if that were such a Nigerian monopoly, Mrs Badenoch wouldn’t be pushing for Boris Johnson’s position right now — would she? — after Bo-Jo’s brilliant rout of others at the last British general election.

Besides, should Kemi’s Yoruba roots not have taught her that Yoruba quip that says whatever the wise mumble in uneasy secrecy, only the fool recklessly blubbers?

Even if Nigeria has challenges, must it be mouthed by a person of Nigerian descent, and for the sake of grabbing Brit power?  Is that not crass opportunism of an executive house negro, bawling and screaming and screeching to belong?

If any of the four minority ethnics triumphs to succeed Boris Johnson, Britain would only come under the rule of the offspring of those whose forebears it had trampled upon in the past — good riddance!

Still, the stiff upper lip masters of laconic and sardonic humour would just hum, to themselves, the immortal tune of Reggae great, Jamaican Jimmy Cliff: “Poor slave, they take the shackles off your body … Poor slave, they put the chains on your mind …”

Let Kemi push for British PM.  But let her leave Nigeria out of it.  Let her deal with British challenges.  Nigeria is dealing with hers.