Category: Hardball

The video went viral — of an Igbo priest applying his faith’s bully pulpit to Igbo nationalism and presidency.  Since none of the two major parties has found an Igbo good enough for their presidential ticket, Ndigbo should secede — or something like that.

Now, don’t judge the man of God too harshly.  He was Igbo first before he became man of God; and just couldn’t understand why neither APC nor PDP found one of his stock suitable as presidential standard bearer.  The Igbo are one of the three majority ethnics, for God’s sake!

You could relate to that sort of frustration, in a trust-deficient Nigeria, always thick with mutual suspicion; and rippling with cross-ethnic bile.  Indeed, the Igbo priest’s outburst is all too reminiscent of immediate post-Awolowo Yorubaland and pre-June 12, 1993 and immediate post-June 12 explosive activism.

Maximum ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, was ready to kill.  The Yoruba-led NADECO activists were ready to “die”.  That was the hideous stalemate that birthed democracy in 1999.  Yet, for the South West progressive mainstream, it was a pig in a poke, even if Olusegun Obasanjo, a peculiar “Yoruba man” was “arrangee” president!

It could really be roiling.  Still, neither playing the victim nor issuing reckless, even if understandable, threats would get the result.  Building pan-Nigerian bridges and linkages would.

That is one lesson the Igbo political elite must learn.  You would wonder why, even in PDP which the mainstream Igbo political elite have backed since 1999, the likes of Nyesom Wike, after six years of Goodluck Jonathan, would face-off any Igbo for the PDP presidential ticket?  And after all the Igbo support and near-extreme veneration of the president from Wike’s own South-South?

Even now the PDP, by its reported choice of Wike as Atiku’s running mate, would appear backing the South-South (with its comparative smaller numbers) over the South East (the great southern ethnic majority) which, with the Yoruba in the West and Hausa-Fulani in the North, make up the Nigerian ethnic majority tripod!

Even if Atiku’s reported picking of Delta’s Ifeanyi Okowa turns out to be true, the theory still holds: minority Igbo in the South-South for now still trump the South East majority in intra-PDP influence!

The lesson is grim but clear: the Igbo elite should build bridges.  No matter your numbers, you can’t win the presidency without linkages with others.  Besides, as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu always says, power is not served a la carte.  You have to build nationwide bridges and structures to nab it.  That played out, with all of its hard knuckles, in his own hard-earned triumph, in getting the APC ticket.

Let the South East political elite re-strategize and rebuild.  Peter Obi snatching the Labour Party ticket is opportunism that leads nowhere.  Their chances, for now, are brightest with PDP.  It could also be excellent in future with APC.  All these folks need is to re-strategize and change tack.

It is a remarkable twist of fate whenever the hunter suddenly becomes the hunted. The shoe shifts to the other foot and ‘the hunter’ gets dealt the rough hand he’s gotten used to – and perhaps relish – dealing to others; he thereby gets a dose of his own medicine and knows how it tastes in the mouths of others.

That was what happened to operators of commercial motorbikes, known as Okada, who are notorious for leveraging the mob factor in redressing perceived wrongs to their individual and collective interests. It is for mob tyranny they’ve been banned from some council areas of Lagos State,  after a sound engineer was killed and his body burnt while a pair of his colleagues got severely injured by a mob of Okada riders many weeks ago in the Lekki area. All of that resulted from a dispute over N100 change between the hapless engineer and the motorcyclist from whom he had gotten a ride. Outside of Lagos, they likewise leverage the mob factor. Some four weeks ago in the federal capital, they laid siege on Same Global Estate in Lokogoma area in pursuit of a motorist who reportedly knocked down an Okada rider in an accident around the area and thereafter ran into the estate for safety.

In another area of Lagos where they’re allowed to operate, Okada riders were late last week on the run from mob attack by members of the public who burnt 25 of their motorbikes over alleged killing of a female pedestrian by a motorcyclist. The burnt motorcycles had been abandoned by riders when they fled the accident scene. Reports said the pedestrian was accidentally hit and killed by a commercial motorcyclist on Jakande / Isheri Road. Lagos State police command spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, was cited saying the motorcyclist veered off the road and hit the pedestrian. “Unfortunately, the pedestrian died on the spot. People around decided to lynch the motorcycle rider but the police arrived on the scene in time and rescued the rider. The police immediately took the rider to a hospital for treatment and evacuated the pedestrian. Before the police returned to the scene, a mob was already burning motorcycles left behind by fleeing riders. Twenty-five motorcycles were burnt,” he was reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to have said.

The police spokesman condemned the recourse to jungle justice, warning that anyone caught would be dealt with in accordance with the law. It would be nice if Okada riders themselves learn this lesson from the receiving end.

It’s a cause for concern that justices of the country’s Supreme Court are complaining about their working conditions. Their work-related complaints reflect just how bad things are in the country generally.

The report of a welfare committee set up by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice lbrahim Tanko Muhammad, following a letter of protest by the justices, listed their grievances, including non-replacement of poor vehicles, accommodation problem, lack of drugs at the Supreme Court clinic, unreliable electricity supply to the Supreme Court, increase in electricity tariff, no increase in the allowances for diesel, lack of internet services to residences and chambers.

Others are non-signing of amended Rules of Court for almost three years, stoppage of two to three foreign workshops and training per annum for justices, no provision of qualified legal assistants.

The effect not only on the justices but also the justice system can be imagined. Sources in the apex court provided concrete information that showed just how deplorable their working conditions are.

“Recently, the Chief Registrar served justices with an internal memo, that electricity would be supplied to the court between the hours of 8am and 4pm daily, for lack of diesel,” a source was reported saying.  But justices require electricity to work at home after closing at 4pm because of the policy, and they need improved diesel allowance in the face of huge diesel price hike.

The justices also need restoration of their monthly internet allowance as they require uninterrupted internet service for access to online material to write judgments.

Quite a lot of their vehicles are due for replacement. Some of the vehicles supplied are either refurbished or substandard.

“The state of health care in the court has deteriorated,” another source was reported saying.  “The Supreme Court clinic has become a mere consulting clinic. Drugs are not available to treat minor ailments.”

Also, the amended Rules of Court, which are expected to aid speedy delivery of justice, have been unsigned for almost three years.

Another issue is the non- provision of qualified legal assistants for the justices.  According to the source, the justices are “confronted with various complex legal issues of national significance with the addition of time-bound matters coming in between our regular court sittings,” and the provision of assistants would enhance their performance.

The problems have been attributed to poor funding. Delay in releasing funds to back the Supreme Court budget, which has frozen at N110bn since 2018, is said to be a major issue.  Also, the salaries and allowances of the justices were said to have been last reviewed in 2017.

The point is: This situation amounts to killing the Supreme Court slowly.

Kola Abiola, MKO’s “Daudu” — first son — and People’s Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate, somewhat reminds you of Karl Marx’s famous put-down of Louis Bonarparte, nephew of the great Napoleon Bonaparte, after Poor Louis tried to appropriate Great Uncle’s old glory; proclaiming himself some imperial reincarnation.

In an essay he entitled “The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon”, first published in 1852, Marx contrasted Napoleon Bonaparte’s original seizure of French power, post-French Revolution and its all-roiling chaos (on 9 November 1799 aka 18 Brumaire Year VIII, according to the French Republican calendar), to Nephew Louis Bonaparte’s French coup of 1851.

“History repeats itself,” Karl Marx scoffed, “first as tragedy and then as farce”!  That Louis soon capitulated with his tinsel glory gave Marx’s quip epochal relevance.

Kola Abiola — with sibling, Hafsat’s theatrics in the Yahaya Bello camp — not to mention Tundun Abiola’s explosion from her Arise TV desk, echo Karl Marx all over again.

It’s the season of June 12 when ace martyr Basorun MKO Abiola ought to be venerated and celebrated anew.  Yet, the living Abiolas that bore the brunt and grief of losing their famous paterfamilias, for winning a clean and free election, embark on what seems needless distractions.

Kola Abiola just nicked the presidential ticket of the late Aminu Kano’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP).  Now, that’s a telling piece of contrarian political history.  Even while IBB was bullying everyone and crashing every structure to impose the twin parties (SDP and NRC), and their “new breed” that finally threw up MKO,  the brave Aminu Kano, storied “talakawa” (common folks) general, held his own by calling IBB’s bluff.  That’s why PRP is alive today, from its 2nd Republic (1979-1983) nativity.

PRP has the likes of Atahiru Jega, former INEC chair, and other comparative “radical”- patriots, who love their country no doubt.  But a likely election winning machine?  Hardly!  PRP never was in its 2nd Republic heyday; is not likely at present; maybe could be in the future.

That somewhat introduces Louis Napoleon and his Marx savage put-down, especially if Kola dreams to pull off the June 12 feat of his great father.

Then, Hafsat.  For so gratuitously gifting Governor Yahaya Bello her father’s well earned traits, in exchange for her appointment of campaign director-general, riled Sister Tundun to no end; and she blew her tops (to borrow that picturesque American expression) right on live TV to register her protest.

That “siblings-at-war” created a comedy of errors, which seems to frown hard and ask an even harder question: could ultra-acute mind cohabiting unbridled naivety, part of the MKO Abiola family DNA?

Whatever, however, always remember: MKO died that Nigerian democracy might live.  No matter his offspring’s shortfall, Nigeria eternally owes the great man.  Viva June 12!

Fiery preacher and Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC) Senior Pastor Tunde Bakare did not get a single vote at the recent presidential primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC). But he had predicted he would inherit the reins of power at the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. With his outing at the primary, the prophecy that was delivered on repeated occasions with cocksureness is up in the air.

In a sermon before the 2019 poll, the activist clergyman told his congregation: “Take it to the mountain top. If you have never heard it before, I am saying it to you this morning: in the scheme of things as far as the politics of Nigeria is concerned, President Muhammadu Buhari is No. 15 and yours sincerely, I’m No. 16.” That declaration with prophetic gravity elicited excited cheer from the members, and he continued: “I make it plain this morning, nothing can change it. He is No. 15, I am No. 16. To this end was I born, and for this purpose came I into the world…”

On another occasion, the cleric recounted a dream he said he had in 2008 in which he sat between late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo and former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon as they pored over the map of Nigeria and discussed its bright future. In the course of that narration, Pastor Bakare called out a church member and the following conversation ensued: Pastor: “2008 was the year my father’s house was turned into a historical heritage museum, courtesy of Ogun State. You were in government then, I was sitting outside. I said, ‘Go up and down and count the number of steps.’ What happened, sir?” Member: “I went up and came down and said to you, 16 steps.” Pastor: “So, what did I say to you?” Member: “You said to me, ‘Write it down, I will be the 16th President of Nigeria.’”

Prior to ballots being cast at the APC presidential primary last week, the preacher, who is no stranger to Nigerian politics, shunned calls to step down for stronger contenders and vowed he would rather step up. After the vote, however, he justified his outing on refusal to compromise ethical values, saying: “I am happy that I have passed the test of character by not paying any delegate. I passed the test of courage by speaking the truth in the midst of wolves, and the test of conviction by standing true to my beliefs. Those who will make a difference must be different.” Sounded like the prophetic bubble burst and down to reality!

When the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Rauf Olaniyan, announced his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), did he expect that it would be business as usual after the switch? If he did, then he was unrealistic.

He announced his defection during an interaction with journalists in his office, in Ojoo, Ibadan, on June 5. There had been rumours of a wall between him and Governor Seyi Makinde. His exit from the ruling party in the state confirmed the disharmony.

Strangely, he said he remained the deputy governor of the state, adding that his defection did not affect his relationship with the governor.

“This was a joint ticket,” he argued.  “Whatever the governor expects from me, I will do. I have been sidelined in politics. So there is no problem with us. I am still loyal to him except they want to misinterpret the meaning of loyalty.”

It’s unclear how he defines loyalty. Having left the governor’s party, how can he expect the governor to consider him loyal after his defection?

Not surprisingly, the PDP in Oyo State has asked him to resign without delay.  In a statement, the party said Olaniyan should not “pretend not to know the right thing to do after leaving the platform that sponsored him and Governor Seyi Makinde on the joint ticket if truly he has any atom of the Yoruba omoluabi toga he always ascribed to himself.”

The party argued that “Oyo people did not vote for a PDP/APC ticket, they voted entirely for a PDP mandate.”  It also said: “The Oyo PDP, which is the rightful owner of the mandate, will retrieve it back soon, using every available legal means, if Olaniyan fails to humbly resign as a gentleman.”

That is the crux of the matter. A gentleman, properly so called, should know and do what is proper in the circumstances. Olaniyan cannot expect to work smoothly with Makinde after defecting from the PDP. It’s just the way things work.

To be fair to the deputy governor, antagonistic forces in the PDP may have made the party too hot for him. But he had the choice of staying in the kitchen despite the heat. If the situation was unbearable, he also had the choice of leaving the party, which he has done. But he cannot leave the party for an opposing party, and try to keep his position as deputy governor, expecting that there would be no headaches.  That’s unrealistic.

When a person collects money and fails to deliver service — what do you charge that individual for?  Collecting money under false pretences, a branch of fraud?  What do you call corporates that indulge in such vices?

Subscriber 7022387143, a premium bouquet which by DStv’s latest controversial tariff, goes for N21, 000, was fully paid for, from 17 May to 16 June 2022.  That tariff itself is corporate outlawry.  The last time Hardball checked, the Nigerian parliament had asked for a freeze, until the controversy was sorted out.

Yet, DStv, never compromising on its corporate insensitivity and greed, pronto marked it up — parliament or anyone be damned!

Still, that apart.  A package marked “ACTIVE” on DStv own “My DStv” platform suddenly went blank on the evening of June 5.  For three days running: from June 5 to June 8, it’s been an endless blankness that haunts — and no one knows when it will end!

Yet, by DStv’s frenetic countdown, it’s already hustling the subscriber: the next subscription is due on June 17!  Pray, what about the service for which money was already collected?  Who pays for those blank days of service denied?  DStv has no clue, nor does it especially care a hoot!

The irritating message on the blank screen: “We are confirming your subscription.  This may take a few minutes.  If the error continues, please contact us for assistance.”

Yeah right, some assistance!  Every thing DStv suggested bounced back in your face, flushed with impotent rage.

The first: “SMS RESET 7022387143 to 30333” — suggested on the blank TV screen produced zero result.

Another mail to dstvnigeria@mc.mypurecloud.ie claimed the error had been fixed after a polite and fulsome apology.  But the “confirming your subscription” glitch stared even more fixedly at you and household!  So, what was that polite apology translate into: polite insult, after taking money and not delivering service?

Another mail dstvnigeria@multichoice.com told you their response time — earliest — was four hours!  It however referred you to e-platforms where you could remotely correct the glitch.  But the first thing that screams at you was “ERROR!  Please try again” — no matter how many times you tried!

How industry regulators would allow DStv mug, head butt and cheat its subscribers at will, yet collects its subscription with ease and greed beggars belief!  This wasn’t the first time subscriber 7022387143 is experiencing this raw rip-off.

The last time, absolutely no compensation.  You don’t even know when this latest rip-off will end.  Yet, DStv is baying for fresh subscriptions for service gleefully and wilfully not rendered!

The market regulators must do far better to wean DStv from its tariff outlawry and routine cheating.  It must be made to pay a hefty price for both.

Kogi State First Lady Hajiya Rashida Yahaya Bello was in the news recently for layering her domestic staff and security aides with one million naira each as ad hoc benefit outside of their official remuneration. The gesture, reportedly in appreciation of their loyalty and diligent service, brought much joy to the beneficiaries and they exploded in excitement upon receiving the largess.

A video clip that went viral online showed the first lady handing out two bundles of raw currencies in N1,000 denomination – at N500,000 in each bundle – to the staff, some of whom were momentarily benumbed in apparent disbelief at their luck before they rallied themselves to collect the package. The cash haul was kept in ‘Ghana-must-go’ sacks, from where she picked the portion she handed out to each visibly delighted staff amidst zestful cheers in the background at her large heartedness. Reports said the latest gesture came few months after the first lady gifted cars to some staff members. Kogi government sources were cited saying it was typical of her to occasionally surprise them with cash and gifts. Besides, she has sponsored many abroad on different occasions.

The Kogi first lady was entirely within her rights to show generosity to her staff and whosoever else she desired, so long as she wasn’t doing that with the state’s funds. She is said to operate a foundation through which she undertakes charity campaigns within and outside Kogi State. It is hoped the resources deployed to those ends are distinct and separate from the resources of the Kogi government that belong to neither her nor her husband, but the Kogi people’s commonwealth.

Even if it was her personal funds being used, however, there are tidier ways of gifting cash in these days of acute insecurity, and with available facility of electronic transfers. The raw cash gifting was archaic, and it exposed many people to danger along the transactional chain – from those who brought in the cash from the vaults to beneficiaries who went away with cash in their pockets. Anyone of these could have been targets of ambush and attack by miscreants. The risk taken was entirely needless when beneficiaries could have had their accounts credited. The only reason some transactions are not routed through the banking system is so they can’t be tracked and interrogated by anti-graft authorities if the need arises. It is hoped that wasn’t a motive in the procedure adopted by Her Excellency.

Predictably, there have been strong verbal reactions to the horrific Sunday church killings in Owo, Ondo State, on June 5, particularly from those responsible for security that are expected to take action.

The Director of Social Communication at the Catholic Diocese of Ondo, Rev. Fr. Augustine Ikwu, in a statement, gave the context and scale of the tragedy: “It is Pentecost Sunday, a time every Catholic is expected to be in Church to commemorate the solemnity. It is so sad to say that while the Holy Mass was going on, men of unknown origin, wielding guns attacked St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State.

“Many are feared dead and many others injured and the Church violated. The identity of the perpetrators remains unknown while the situation has left the community devastated.”  There were conflicting reports on the number of deaths, including “over 35” and “over 50.”

President Muhammadu Buhari, in a release issued by his Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, said “eternal sorrow awaits the perpetrators of the bad act both on earth here and ultimately in the hereafter.”  He added: “No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light. Nigeria will eventually win.”

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde, described the mysterious attackers as “the enemies of the people.” “We shall never bow to the machinations of heartless elements in our resolve to rid our state of criminals,” he declared.

The Ondo State Police Command, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Funmilayo Odunlami, said “all efforts are being intensified to arrest those who perpetrated this evil.”

It is good and proper to condemn the blood-curdling attack on innocent worshippers. But condemnation is certainly not enough. The perpetrators must be caught and punished.

Notably, the expression “unknown,” used to describe the assailants, surfaced in various narratives.  Again and again, the agents of evil carry out devilish acts, and it seems nobody can identify them. Indeed, it seems they are unidentifiable.

But those who carried out the horrifying killings are not spirits. They were likely under the influence of evil spirits, but they are flesh and blood. This means they should be identifiable.

If they are identifiable, then the criminals should be identified and brought to justice. It is the role of law enforcement to identify them, catch them and prosecute them.

The yet-to-be-identified gunmen that assaulted the country’s psyche by the horrendous Owo killings must not be allowed to get away with murder.