Category: Hardball

Butchers of Bucha?  That’s one ignoble tag retreating Russian troops may well earn, if their alleged war crimes are proven.

The Mayor of Bucha, in the region of Kyiv the Ukraine capital, accused Russian troops of killing defenseless civilians, while scrambling from the firepower of counter-attacking Ukraine troops.

The mayor told Al-Jazeera that Russian troops killed no less than 22 civilians: their bodies a macabre litter of the streets.  One was felled on his get-away bicycle, a gory video showed. A few others, with hands tightly tied to their backs, were despatched to the great beyond, in apparent horror killing.

Russian soldiers themselves suffered great casualties, with bodies of luckless troops strewn in mangled tanks and trucks.  It all portrayed the lunacy of war.  Yet, Man feels inexorably drawn to that doom.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, also claimed cruel Russian soldiers, under heavy fire from the Ukraine Army driving the Russians from the Kyiv region, freely planted mines in their retreat.

An account said as the Russians unleashed heavy artillery fire to hide their retreat, they also laid free mines in the path of their pursuers — to hobble them, slow them down and keep the Russians safe in their troubled get-away.

While that might have made sound military tactics, the Ukraine Army warned civilians: keep clear until we clear the areas of all mines.  Indeed, another video on Al Jazeera showed mines allegedly hidden in cars, with looted electronics — and even hand phones!

The way the 50-day war is turning out, the modern-day David still slays Goliath!  The Russians, masters of the skies, turned bombarded Ukraine into ash, many of their victims hapless, defenseless civilians.

But then, the bullies of the skies turned sudden sissies on the ground, when matched with fierce Ukraine resistance: the ground troops seizing and destroying heavy Russian tanks; and making a cannon fodder of the hitherto formidable Russian Army.

Russia apparently is abandoning its campaign to seize Kyiv and plant a puppet regime in there to supplant the Zelenskyy order — a clear pipe dream.

Ukraine, on the other hand, is screaming “liberation!”  Zelenskyy forces are putting their mightier enemy on the run, as Russia makes a dash for the Dombas region of South East Ukraine, where it still dreams territorial dreams, with annexed Crimea as crown jewel.

Between the glory of 2014 annexation of Crimea and today’s bungling into a Ukraine invasion, Vladimir Putin suffers the ultimate blues.  It would appear the best Russia can get out of this one is a costly stalemate.

Though it’s early days yet, it appears too an emerging triumph of brain over brawn — and just as well!  Seized Russian global assets may yet be turned into rebuilding and restoring Ukraine.

Butchers of Bucha?  Not a bad parting tag for authors of a hare-brained invasion!

It’s the political silly season as the 2023 general election approaches. Some political aspirants will claim they heard a divine voice prompting them to run for governor or president, or any of the political offices available in the election. Some will say the people pressured them to throw their hat into the ring.

Talking of pressure, it is curious that some people in Gombe State are asking the state high court to compel the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, to contest the 2023 governorship election in the state under the banner of any party of his choice.

The case, which has Pantami and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as defendants, will be heard by Justice A. Y. Abubakar of Gombe State High Court.

The coordinator of the group, Muhammad Abdullahi, said they resorted to the legal action because they had been unable to get the minister to take them seriously, adding that they were convinced that he was the best man for the job.

His words:  “To demonstrate our commitment to this cause is to use the law to compel Professor Isa Ali Pantami to perform his duty in Gombe State by vying for the upcoming primaries in any party of his choice. This legal action was entered by 114 persons across the 114 wards; like-minded youths have decided to buy his nomination form. This petition is to awaken the interest of our leader (Isa Pantami).

“For the sake of the continuous prosperity of this great state, and with the evident track record and honorary achievement of one of its own, we hereby take this bold action to call on a leader and saviour who we believe is the perfect candidate. This is Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami. He is young, learned, vibrant, who in the past had shown that he has the capacity to take our dear state to greater heights.”

This is an intriguing development. Their stated decision to buy the nomination form for the minister only continues a familiar drama. Some presidential aspirants, for instance, have had nomination forms bought for them by groups that claim to believe in them. That is the narrative presented to the public.

But trying to get a court to compel the minister to run for governor takes things too far. It’s simply silly. What will they think of next?  It remains to be seen if the court will help the group’s cause.  Or could the group just be preparing the ground for Pantami to claim he was pressured to run for governor?

The irony seems totally lost on the PDP presidential zoning pugilists — that Samuel Ortom, Benue governor, is chairman of the 37-man zoning committee tasked with resolving the zoning question.

The southern bloc, which chief strategy appears shaming some PDP northern lights into abandoning their PDP presidential ticket bid, should know the zoning committee chairman was also guilty of the “crime” they accused their northern peers of.

The PDP Conscience Group (read southerners gunning for the party’s presidential ticket; and are determined to name-and-shame northern rivals out of it) accused — without for now naming names — leading northern lights of abandoning the party for APC in 2015.

They didn’t mention any particular names.  But you can be sure they are referring to Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki and Aminu Tambuwal.  Now, they could jolly well put Ortom on that list too, though he is zoning committee chair!

He too, giddy with the wine of profitable defection, crossed the party isle, grabbed the APC Benue gubernatorial ticket in triumphant opportunism, and coasted home to thumping victory!

However, he later fell out with his reported godfather, former governor and former senator George Akume.  After that, Ortom did a back-flip — and back he was, into PDP, for his second term!  Blessed are those whose sins are covered?

So, if Ortom stands fairly charged with the likes of Atiku, Saraki and Tambuwal, what do you expect of the zoning committee that he chairs and is expected to fairly look into the matter?  Ortom-atic (sorry, automatic) meltdown?

On what moral basis would the committee adjudicate and expect either of the sides to stay quiet and compliant?  Should he favour the southern Turks, would he not be accused of appeasement of the illicit hue?

Should his committee find for the northern group, who under the Justice and Equity Group (JEG) are pushing for no zoning, would the losers not accuse the zoning committee chair of illicit sympathy, if not solidarity?

By the way, isn’t there something eerily familiar about JEG?  Have we not seen something like it before?  Just flip JEG, what do you get?  GEJ: Goodluck Ebele Jonathan!  Under President Jonathan, zoning was mismanaged which eventually cost the PDP federal power!

And now, the zoning committee is chaired by Ortom, who was part of the 2015 defection brouhaha?  The making of Ortom-atic bedlam?

Some high drama appears a-foot!  Well, let’s see how it goes!

There is an extremely dangerous new group in the country, which compounds the prevailing security crisis. According to the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje, this Kano-based group is made up of unemployed youths.

“They are called the anarchists,” Bugaje said at the annual general meeting of the Science and Technology Forum (STF) held in Kaduna. “They say they have been abandoned by the government and therefore they would be destroying all government installations they come across. It is a small group for now, but we need to take action now before the group grows and becomes another serious security threat to the country.”

This was not the only alarming information from Bugaje. Describing the unemployment rate in Nigeria as “alarming,” he added that there were “about 90 million unemployed youths” in the country. He said the majority of them were educated, and had degrees and diplomas from tertiary institutions. He argued that high unemployment was mainly responsible for the country’s increasing security challenges.

If Bugaje’s figure on unemployed youths is correct, the country is sitting on a powder keg.   With a population of about 216 million, Nigeria is in trouble if it truly has “about 90 million” unemployed youth population.

As a solution, he advocated skill acquisition.  “This is why we are mandating our tertiary institutions to ensure they offer training in Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) because we are hoping that by next year, we will not offer accreditation to any course without the institutions offering courses on TVET,” he said.

Beyond this, the Federal Government needs to do more to improve socio-economic conditions. In January, information that the number of poor Nigerians had increased to about 91 million showed the gravity of the situation.  Fittingly, the launch of the 2022 Macroeconomic Outlook Re­port in Abuja that month focused on reforms towards signif­icant improvement in nation­al economic outcomes.

The United Nations (UN) defines extreme poverty as “a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.”

The reported number of unemployed youths plus the stated number of the poor is equal to a combustible combination. This is a terrifying mix. The reality and its security implications are clear enough. This is why the authorities must act with a sense of urgency to prevent combustion.

Remember the biblical Tower of Babel?  Well, what do you call this intra-PDP power bawl and brawl en route to 2023?

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar started it all.  PDP would wilt and perish, he warned, if it didn’t capture power by 2023.  For that catastrophe not to happen — applause! applause! —  Atiku Abubakar was the go-to guy!  He walked his talk by pronto grabbing his presidential nomination form.

But like the red rag to the battling bull, the Atiku roar brought out the worst in intra-party rivals, as all shrieked and thundered: not on your life!  The new rage clearly rips any regional solidarity.

Before you could call Atiku, the former No. 2 man’s northern rivals floated a “consultative meeting”, which optics nevertheless looked more like some loose tri-alliance: Aminu Tambuwal, Bukola Saraki and Bala Mohammed. Perhaps for  the sole attention of Atiku, Dr. Saraki, former Senate president, hinted the trio could agree to a consensus candidate among them.

He also hinted they could sell the consensus idea to Atiku. Easier said than done?

But then from the South East came a fresh growl: for equity, justice and inclusion, it’s the Igbo turn!  Since 1999, the Yoruba, the North and even the South-South minorities have had a go.  Only the South East have not.  For effect, Peter Obi declared his candidacy, to join Anyim Pius Anyim, another former Senate president.

Well, not exactly from the blue, the South-South minorities are staking own claim too.  From a redoubt in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, current South-South PDP governors swore no one was worthier than their region, despite former President Goodluck Jonathan’s six-year tenure.  They claimed the South-South had been the most loyal to the party.  A day or two later, Nyesom Wike, Rivers governor, jumped into the fray!

No one, Wike exploded with his trademark bragging right, was more qualified than he — he that never moved an inch, when some of the so-called founding fathers slunk away!  Well said, from the well-loved braggart-in-chief!  That could well pave the way to be commander-in-chief!

Still, how does one open his presidential bid by alienating others and crowing about it? Well, the inimitable Wike sure knows his way, his partisan wonders to perform!  Wike, when the time comes, would carry Wike’s cross!

Still, apart from Wike’s personal derring-do, the South-South bid would especially rankle with the South East.  Why can’t these folks, they would wonder, be there for Nidgbo, as Ndigbo was there for Dr. Jonathan, their newfound Azikiwe?  Realpolitik?  Ha!

Meanwhile, the Babel gets more and more carouser that you wonder how it would end.  Would bluff soon make way for common sense — which by no means is common?  Or would the sluggers duel to the bitter end, as the biblical voices of Babel ranted themselves into confusion and exhaustion?

Time will tell!

It hosts Nollywood and fitness buffs. Then the unspeakable happened. It hosted straggles of protesters. The rest is history.

After claims and counter-claims, the business of the Lekki-Link Bridge has reared its head, and no one should listen to those who have chosen atavistic rage over the future. EndSars rage has run its course. The Lekki Link Bridge preceded the protests and it has survived them. It was a blind witness to the story of the night when some claimed a massacre without evidence. Now, some are getting hysterical over its reopening. That is the toll gate. They say they want statues instead of toll gates.

Some of them, according Gbenga Omotoso, have been wailing from thousands of miles away. Omotoso is commissioner of information in Lagos State. Some of the wailers may even be as far as Canada and United States or outer Mongolia. No stakeholders, of course, in the journey of bridge, no less the journey of Nigeria.

They are working from afar. They are doing their jobs and earning incomes while the 500 plus staff of the Lekki Concession Company are idle, jobless and at the mercy of the unfortunate event that happened about 18 months ago and that they neither inspired nor enjoyed.

“Also, there are about 500 workers at LCC, about 90 per cent of them have been idle for the past 18 months and they have families to feed; they have friends and relations to attend to. So, for the company to want to return now, and like I said, people have shown tremendous understanding,” said Omotoso.

The LCC has been agitating to resume tolling about a year ago. But the Lagos State government has wisely temporised on the subject given the dithering nerves around the state and discordant voices around the country.

Even if something is right, it has to happen at the right time. To do the right thing at the wrong time is to court the consequence of over-righteousness. As the good book says, you must redeem the time.

The debt is staggering, and when debts mount, so do interests.  The LCC cannot fulfil its obligation out of charity and it is N11.6 billion and not N11 thousand. And its $31.1 million and not N31 million.

To toll is not a sin. The Lekki Link bridge is one of the infrastructural pieces of magnificence of this republic, and a pride of Lagos. Nollywood has seen it as its interval marvel. They are yet to secure a better sight for their teeming movie buffs.

Yet the decision to reopen is not, in any sense, arbitrary. It is a democratic one. As Omotoso disclosed, the government consulted with stakeholders in the area. They include the residents’ association of the vicinity, transporters and traditional rulers. If those who live and will pay the toll say yes, then the naysays must come from afar, interlopers in other people’s businesses.

All politics, they say, is local. If the intractable voices of the Endsars crowd continue, they will find themselves in the margin of the facts.

In Ile-Ife, Osun State, town and gown are not on the same page on the appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. But they don’t have to be on the same page on the selection, which is strictly the university’s business.

There are Ife indigenes that have a contrary view, believing the town is a stakeholder in the university’s business because it is its location, and should produce the new VC. This is a wrong-headed position.

The university has its own lawful method of choosing a VC, and the town cannot impose its preference on the institution. The indigenes that have a sense of entitlement should have a rethink.

They went too far in their protests against the appointment of Prof. Adebayo Simeon Bamire, a professor of Agricultural Economics, as the 12th substantive VC of OAU.

After the University Governing Council announced the result of the selection process, Ife indigenes that felt cheated reacted in a manner that deserves condemnation.

The university said in a statement that the protests by Ife indigenes started on March 17:  “The protesters, who initially blocked the main gate of the university on the first day and threatened staff and students to stay away from campus, became very violent the second day as they beat up workers, particularly the staff of the security unit, and vandalized their office at the main gate. Some of the security staff had to be taken to the university’s health centre for treatment.”

The situation worsened on March 21. The university said: “Things took more dangerous dimensions as the indigenes beat up some OAU students who they met at the gate, blocked the two major gates as early as 6: 00 am, coming into the campus with charms, and other fetish items. They assembled at the motion ground of the university secretariat, dressed in all-white spiritual traditional attire, chanting incantations while performing rituals.”

Interestingly, the participation of apparent devotees of Yoruba traditional religion in the protests, and their rituals, overshadowed the reported physical violence done by the protesters. Otherworldly actions raised the protests to another level as the traditionalists sought the intervention of divinities.

The university stated that “due processes were followed and merit was the basis for the appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor.”  That is what right-thinking people expect.

But the protesting Ife indigenes aren’t listening. They are driven by an entitlement mentality. But they can’t win. They should let reason prevail.

The Pentecostal segment of Nigerian Christendom are striking a rather triumphant tune towards partisan politics.

Like onward Christian soldiers marching unto to war, they have rolled the drums, jaunted, danced and strummed to their latest diktat: brethren, people of the body of Christ, set up your own holy political directorate — halleluyah!

It started with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).  Then, the political hooray was echoed, pronto, by the general body of the sect, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN).

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is yet to avail Nigerians of its own thinking.  If it concurs with its PFN siblings, then Nigeria’s orthodox Christendom: the Catholics, the Anglican, the Baptist, the Methodist, etc, aside from the first set of native Nigerian Pentecostals, the C & S Aladura and allied sects, not forgetting Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) and the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), would be joining the political fray — whoopee!

Well, it’s all so constitutional; as nothing precludes any religious bloc from looking out for its own and galvanizing its members to deliver for them, should they be interested in elective offices.

But just imagine for a while if it was NASFAT, the Islamic praying band, that had let fly this diktat: Jama’ah, go set up your own political directorate!

Christian lobbies would, by now, be foaming in the mouth, bawling “Islamization!”  The Solomon Asemota-chaired National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) would probably be screaming and screeching about the umpteenth proof of dark plots to replace Nigeria’s democracy with the  Sharia.  Only on February 11, the NCEF warned of that alleged plot.

The Christian-leaning segment of the media, ever ready to rally for any illusion or delusion that catches its fancy on the religious front, would have been screaming with Armageddon-warning headlines, aside from romanticizing the latest of Bishop Matthew Kukah’s latest interface with the US Congress, to save Nigerian Christians as endangered species!

Yet, the Muslim lobby has, so far, been rather cool toward this latest Pentecostal foray.  Is that proof of better inter-faith tolerance from that camp?  Whatever it is, that would appear the right temper.

Still, Pentecostal plunge into politics is not new.  In 2015, many priests turned their pulpits into hate rallies to push the failed re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.  But it appears little lesson has been learned from that fiasco.

Still, to be clear: Christians, as Muslims, have the right as Nigerians to aspire to any elective office.  But they should push that right with due sensitivity.

Neither Muslims nor Christians per se.  What Nigerians need is who best can get the job done — including the largely silenced people who adhere to traditional faiths.  So, beware of creating new problems in the course of fixing current ones.