The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • TRUMPing democracy

    TRUMPing democracy

    They are contrasting cultures and different sociology but three Yoruba sayings may well capture former US President Donald Trump’s January 6 assault on the US Capitol.

    Trump wishes January 6 would go away, with more lies and renewed bluster.  But his opposers, in the liberal press, would be damned to allow that.

    Which takes the matter back to the tri-Yoruba sayings.  One declares: he who steals a chick from the poor condemns himself to ceaseless grumbles.  The other: if you do what no one has done you’re fated to seeing what no one has seen.

    The third may well be the most lethal for Trump, as he manoeuvres his zombie base and fiddles the legal process to escape fair sanctions for his power rascality: Tortoise was asked when he’d come back.  He snapped: when I’m thoroughly disgraced!

    What have all these, you’d ask Hardball, got to do with America, its politics and its problem adult former president?  Plenty — except, of course, you have not seen the latest CNN special report: Trumping Democracy: An American coup, by CNN popular anchor, Jake Tapper.

    For starters, “Trumping democracy” is a devastating pun on the Trump name, in that negative context of Trump supporters storming the US Capitol, in a daft move to roll back an election already lost and won.

    Remember the first quip about stealing a fowl from the poor?  Trump and brood try to divert attention from January 6.  But CNN and co-liberal media, The New York Times, Washington Post, et al  won’t just stop digging up new angles, to keep the outrage on the front burner.

    Trump on January 6 snatched their liberal fowl.  He’s therefore condemned to constant reportage and commentaries from them!  CNN’s Trumping Democracy is the latest — but hardly the last — of such ugly reminders.

    Read Also: Democrats: Capitol Building attackers were answering Trump’s call

    Well, Trump did what no American president — at least of the modern era — has never done before.  So, he’s fated to comeuppance no American president has ever got: for starters, the “coup” blight to his name — hardly unfair!

    Besides, Liz Cheney, Republican blue blood, daughter of former VP Dick Cheney but Trump’s No. 1 nemesis in this crusade, put it with icy chill: “No president has done this before,” she told Tapper in the documentary, “we’ll make sure no president does it again.”

    Tapper himself tapped into an open secret which nevertheless could have escaped the not-so-attentive viewer: everyone interviewed in the documentary — Ms Cheney (Wyoming), Adam Kinzinger (Illinois) and Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), were no Democrats but puritanical Republicans, who pride long-term Republican wellness above Trump’s fair-weather demagoguery; and are determined to push Trump’s nose out of joint, to clear the GOP from Trump’s January 6 outrage.

    But Trump, the ultimate rabble rouser and perhaps America’s answer to Adolf Hitler in peddling race grudges and culture clashes, is hardly folding his arms and tumbling over.  He’s busy mobilizing and energizing his gullible and excitable base to a probable fight-to-finish.

    He had better triumph!  Already, Ms Cheney is headed for a testy primary to retain her House seat, to which Trump is sponsoring a lackey.  Cheney feels she’ll win but even if she loses, punishing Trump is far worthier than retaining her seat under Trump’s lies.

    Kinzinger had already ruled himself out but warned it’s only a tactical “stepping aside”, to borrow IBB’s infamous post-June 12 debacle lingo.  Gonzalez has also dropped out after two terms, declaring Trumpian fumes too noxious for his political health.

    So, Trump had better triumph!  If he fails, then he’s condemned to the Tortoise’s voluntary fate: not to return until he’s utterly disgraced!  That remains a looming possibility.

    If President Biden gets his domestic agenda right, by 2024 Trump might just have become a blundering, blustering relic who no one touches — even with the proverbial six-foot pole!

    Hardball, God willing, would be at the ringside to report which is which!

     

  • Disruptive umpire

    Disruptive umpire

    Ironically, the Anambra State governorship election of November 6 was marred by problems linked to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The electoral agency that was supposed to provide answers provoked questions.

    Before Election Day, there were fears that secessionists might disrupt the poll. But the disruption came unexpectedly from INEC, which extended voting by 24 hours following the failure of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and logistics challenges.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Nkwachukwu Orji, said “the extension of time arose out of several field reports that voters have had problems with accreditation.”  He added that “the accreditation devices, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), have worked perfectly in some polling units, but not in others.”

    He also explained that “on account of security concerns, some of the transporters that were mobilised and collected 50 per cent of their sign-on fee backed out at the last moment, leaving some of our ad hoc staff stranded. Also, some of the trained ad hoc staff backed out at the last moment.”

    Read Also: Anambra poll: Ex-APGA chairman lauds INEC over BVAS, peaceful exercise

    But explanations are not enough. INEC was supposed to be ready to conduct the election and also ready to tackle agency-related problems that might arise in the course of the election without significant disruption. Extending the election by 24 hours, which made voting to continue the next day, left much to be desired.

    Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), said he was shocked by INEC’s technology breakdown. “This BVAS technology is a complete failure… It raises fundamental questions,” he lamented.

    Predictably, the failures exposed INEC to public criticism that was avoidable. Soludo, for instance, advised the agency to “train and retrain the people that operate these machines because you do not need to have this kind of problem.”

    His description of the problem and how it disrupts polling is alarming. He said of the accreditation machine and the agency’s approach to its operation:  “If it stops working, before you call for technical assistance, it can take about an hour. When the guy comes, fiddles with it, it might accredit another five voters and it goes bad again then you have to wait for another hour for somebody else to come.”

    INEC needs to review its BVAS in particular to correct the operational problems that led to the extension of voting. It is inexcusable that the agency’s accreditation machines failed and caused disruption.

  • NIMC’s dummy lines

    NIMC’s dummy lines

    You would take it for granted that every organisation dealing primarily and directly with the public, and as well professing commitment to customer care would be easily reachable by its clients through publicised contact lines. But that isn’t what you get with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) despite that it is currently a cynosure, courtesy of ongoing registration for the National Identification Number (NIN) by members of the public and with the deadline set by government for linkage of the NIN with phone numbers by telecoms subscribers only just extended again to the end of 2021.

    In posturing as an easily accessible public agency, NIMC on its web page outlined a painstaking customer care interface procedure that in reality could well be a ruse, because if you cared to explore the procedure – as of today, at least – you would hit a stone wall and won’t be near getting through to the commission with enquiries, requests and complaints as it touted. This procedure, said to be presided over by NIMC’s customer care unit, involves four channels of interface with the agency namely email, phone call, direct interface with customer care officers and the social media. But none of these channels is in practical terms available.

    The commission touts a general contact line beginning with 0700 that, whenever you call in, perpetually relays a recorded message notifying you all agents are busy and you should rather send a message to 100, which is a bottomless voicemail pit to which you send messages and never get acknowledgement, much less actioned response. There are three other lines being paraded, all beginning with 0815, but calls to these lines get dropped preemptively and never connect. In pretention of keen customer responsiveness, the commission even touts an escalation path where issues not resolved at lower levels could be taken up to the Manager, Customercare and still further to the Principal Manager, but both officials’ phone lines are perpetually ‘not available’ when you call. Meanwhile, other touted contact channels are no better. Mails sent into customercare@nimc.gov.ng as well as servicom@nimc.gov.ng either bounce back or go into ‘God-knows-where’ because there is no automated acknowledgement pending necessary action as is customary in modern communication, and neither eventual response by the agency to issues raised.

    NIMC not only boasts 24-hour service with its contact channels, it touts a response time of within 24 hours, resolution time at first level support within 24 hours, and resolution time at second level support within five working days. But try any of those channels now and you’ll get neither response nor resolution  for ever. For an agency under the new age Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, NIMC’s inaccessibility is grossly antediluvian.

  • Youth octopus vs princely old guard

    Youth octopus vs princely old guard

    Yoruba names can be picturesque — Arapaja!  Just imagine a human octopus brimming with many arms and landing telling blows in an impassioned scuffle!  Arapaja!

    That was the combative image that gripped the battle for PDP Deputy National Chairman (South) — now lost and won — between Oyo’s Taofeek Arapaja and Osun’s Olagunsoye Oyinlola, an Okuku Prince and, to boot, a retired brigadier-general of the Nigerian Army!

    More than his blue blood and jackboot flexing, Oyinlola in that battle represented the PDP old guard, with its retired military wing that loves to crush everyone; and Arapaja, the more civilianized bloc that wanted to gore the old guard.

    Remember then President Olusegun Obasanjo bolstering Col. Ahmadu Ali, his militarized chairman, to tell the cudgelled Governor Rashidi Ladoja to surrender to Lamidi Adedibu (aka Alaafin Molete) as his Oyo garrison commander?

    Irony of ironies!  This same Taofeek Arapaja was part of the Oyo Obasanjo military-political complex! He paired Adebayo Alao-Akala to toss Ladoja from Agodi into the Ogunpa River, even after the embattled governor had survived a most humiliating but illegal impeachment.

    So, you can understand Oyinola’s grand delusion that that military muscle, reminiscent of the Obasanjo high noon, was still there — there to checkmate Arapaja, protégée of the callow Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State, political neophyte and bloody civilian to boot!  Well, Oyinlola reckoned wrongly and he got roundly trounced!  To think old beneficiary of the military-political complex would turn present nemesis!

    It was good old Greek, Heraclitus that said you could never step in the same river twice — it’s such a flux that it’s a different step, a different river.  Our very own Harrysong crooned: after the reggae comes the blues …

    Well, at the Eagle Square, Abuja convention grounds, the PDP military reggae had vanished!  All Oyinlola tasted was the blues, for he was well thrashed.  Indeed, Heraclitus-speak: the river had changed.  But how was Oyinlola to know?

    But the political Arapaja, the one whose many arms beat Oyinlola black-and-blue, is only a synecdoche for the current PDP gubernatorial brood that want to muscle everyone — not unlike the Obasanjo caste of old.  It’s some grim poetry: muscling the old muscle!

    Still, the governors’ penchant to gobble up everything may well be their nemesis.  Somewhat, they seem playing out the Achebe tale of “All of You” — remember the rogue tortoise of that emergency name, in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart?  Well, it re-christened itself All of You to corner all the lollies.  But then, he came crashing from the skies …

    Well, it’s early days yet.  But while Oyinlola and his political military caste lick their wounds, the PDP Governors must beware of the All of You complex in them.

    Even more: though they checkmated everyone else at the convention, making a near-clean sweep of party offices, they should be wary of the sure triumphalism to come; and a false sense of invincibility that often breeds Pyrrhic victories.

    Meanwhile, Arapaja!  The princely ‘Lagun and his old guard won’t forget that name in a hurry!

  • Gumi’s doctrine

    Gumi’s doctrine

    The way frontline Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi carries on, he would sooner have the notion accepted that bandits responsible for dastardly  criminalities against Nigeria are hapless victims who need protection. By the same token, the brutalised nation is to be perceived as the wicked victimiser needing to urgently repent and restitute against the bandits. That is the gist of the cleric’s narrative since he embarked on a controversial mission of negotiating with the bandits.

    In the latest instance, the cleric branded Nigerian journalists criminals for describing the activities of bandits as criminality. Speaking when he featured on Arise Television late last week, he said the media was fuelling insecurity in Nigeria with words being used on bandits; and that for the bandits to surrender, they should not be castigated or referred to as criminals but rather that nice words be used in reporting them. “You are emphasising on criminality, even the press (journalists) are criminals too because they are putting oil into fire. These people are listening to you, you should not address them as criminals if you want them to succumb,” Gumi said, adding: “Youths are ready to put down their weapons, now they hear you call them criminals, how do you want them to cooperate? You have to show them that they are Nigerians, that they should not hurt children and that they should be law-abiding. That is the language we want to hear from the press to assist us in getting the boys. You see, when we talk to them in nice words they are ready to listen to us (and) put their weapons down; but when the language is about criminality, this is what we will keep having.”

    The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) rejoined to the cleric, saying his utterances showed him up as an abettor  and inciter of bandits. “Sheikh Gumi’s attempts to seek amnesty for killers and abductors of innocent citizens, especially school children, is most unfortunate… In saner climes, a non-state actor involved in negotiations with criminal elements should have been behind bars,” NUJ President, Chris Isiguzo, said inter alia in a statement.

    Since he undertook negotiating with bandits, Sheikh Gumi has become their advocate and deodorizer; he argues more for redress for them than for victims of their misbegotten enterprise. But his advocacy ignores the terminally ruinous effects of those attacks like people who get killed directly or by association, for which there ought to be hard accounting by the bandits, not to mention the battered psyche of victims who survive the experience. Besides, his mission and advocacy doesn’t seem to have had much restraining effect on the bandits themselves. Now, if they are not to be called criminals, what are they: saints?

    The Yoruba have a saying that you do not because you want to eat beef call cow senior kinsman. But that is what Sheikh Gumi is demanding of us. C’mon, cajoling has its limits.

     

  • The remaining four

    The remaining four

    It’s sad that four of the 121 students abducted from Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, in Kaduna State, are still in captivity.  They have spent about four months in the kidnappers’ den since their kidnap on July 5.

    Predictably, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is troubled about the situation. The Vice President of CAN (19 Northern states and Abuja) and its chairman in Kaduna State, Rev. Joseph John Hayab, said in a statement: We have appealed and cried out to the government and those who we think are responsible for the security of our nation but the journey to freedom for these children has been with a speed of a snail.” He added that the government should “double its efforts to stop the evil these criminals are causing fellow citizens.”

    It’s indeed disappointing that the authorities failed to rescue the kidnapees as days became weeks, and weeks became months.  The bandits freed the kidnapped students in batches.  On July 25, 28 of them were freed after 20 days in captivity. On August 19, 15 of them were released; and on August 27, 32 of them were released.

    The batch-by-batch approach continued.  On September 26, 10 of the remaining 21 abductees were set free. According to a report, the parents of the 10 students “went into fresh negotiation with the bandits before they released the students. This was after they had collected a total sum of N100m ransom.”

    More abductees were freed on October 8.  “Glory be to God! Five of our Bethel Baptist High School students and the matron, making six, have just been released to us this evening, October 8,” the President, Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. Dr Israel Akanji, announced, adding  “We thank God and trust that the remaining four students will also be released.”  It remains to be seen when the last four will be released.

    In September, the police in Abuja showed to the public three suspects, Adamu Bello, Isiaku Lawal and Muazu Abubakar, who allegedly participated in the mass abduction.  One of them, Abubakar, was quoted as saying 25 people carried out the kidnapping.   “We kidnapped them because we needed money,” he was reported saying.

    It remains to be seen whether the arrest of these three suspects will lead to the rescue of the four students still in captivity, and the arrest and prosecution of the others involved in the crime.  The police say they are “closing in on the others.”  Four months after the incident, the police have not gone beyond this point. That leaves much to be desired.

  • Capitulation by other name?

    Capitulation by other name?

    Beginning from this last weekend, the Anambra State government formally instituted Saturday schooling within its domain to make up for weekly loss by pupils to the ‘ghost Monday’ campaign called by the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to protest ongoing detention of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

    The campaign, which kicked off on 9th August, entered its 12th week last Monday with nearly total compliance reported in three Southeast states namely Anambra, Abia and Imo. Ebonyi recorded only partial compliance, while most of Enugu residents spurned the lockdown. IPOB had itself returned on 13th August to call off the weekly lockdown and modify it to whenever Kanu is to appear in court, but that backdown was trailed by controversy within the group over who had the power to call the action off, and apparent dread among Southeast residents of IPOB agents violently enforcing the measure. Governors of states in the region, including Anambra’s Willie Obiano, as well as security agencies had assured residents of protection and charged them to ignore directives by non-state actors; but those assurances failed to embolden the people, especially as there have been successful attacks staged against lockdown non-compliers.

    Read Also: UN raises concerns over Kanu’s arrest, alleged torture

    Anambra government, penultimate weekend, issued a statement approving Saturday as a school day  in view of IPOB’s ‘ghost Monday’ campaign. Information and Public Enlightenment Commissioner Don Adinuba confirmed that all school heads had been directed to notify teachers, pupils and parents of the new policy. He said: “Quality Assurance supervision and every other supervision, henceforth, will hold on Saturdays,” adding that Saturday classes would commence on 30th October. Adinuba explained that the state government approved Saturday classes because it wanted the children to learn well and not miss anything. Executive Chairman of the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB), Patrick Ugboaja, also told The Nation that the decision was in the interest of “our children and education in general.”

    It would be piggy-headed to be in haste to fault the Anambra government for its move, because faced with the reality of civic paralysis on Mondays, it was a choice between the rock and a hard place: to indulge official narrative and live in wasteful denial, or confront negative reality and act to ameliorate its impact. It obviously opted for the latter in hard-headed pragmatism, which is quite courageous. But then, the Anambra government must be prepared to live through implications of the path chosen. No longer can it dismiss threats by IPOB with a wave of the hand or tell state residents such threats amounted to nothing; it should rather make a realistic appraisal of every situation and act pragmatically on empirical evidence. Worse is that it has given vicarious effect to ‘ghost Mondays’ and made the campaign more difficult to rein in now.

  • Diezani’s things

    Diezani’s things

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) just exposed the vanity fair, of Jonathan-era high state officials, which has condemned millions of Nigerians to avoidable poverty.

    It’s in seized assets, evaluated at billions of Naira, soon to be auctioned.  In this shocking firmament of grab-to-enrich-self-but-impoverish-others, Diezani Alison-Madueke, President Goodluck Jonathan’s Oil — and wonder — minister, was in a world of her own!

    One of her bras — or was it a relay of bras — to be put on the block was reportedly valued at US$ 12.5 million (approximately N6.8 billion, by current parity)!  Imagine how many poor and vulnerable families, beneficiaries of the current government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT), would be covered by the cost of those magical bras!

    Or, applying the principle that prevention is better than cure: how many facilities might N6.8 billion have put in place, to avert these folks slipping into poverty — many of them, penury?  And the huge social cost — in avoidable anguish — of that grim slip?

    It’s indeed the satanic cost of a bra — or a pack of magical bras, visible or invisible!

    Indeed, the Diezani stocks come with sobering shock, in all its audacious range of exotic greed, courtesy of the EFCC auction register: 125 pieces of wedding gowns, 13 small gowns, 41 waste trainers, 73 hard flowers, 11 suits, 11 invisible bras, 73 veils, 30 braziers, two standing fans, 17 magic skirts, six blankets, one table blanket and 64 pairs of shoes.

    From invisible bras, to magic skirts, to fashionable veils, to Imelda Marcos-like fancy and endless shoes, Diezani had it all — and each and every of those items, allegedly sourced from sucking the common wealth, sentenced millions of her compatriots to avoidable poverty!

    Though Diezani was the glittering Lucifer in that dark cosmos of graft and sleaze, she wasn’t the only player.  Another was the late Alex Badeh, Air Marshal and President Jonathan’s chief of Defence staff (CDS), whose village was even one of the territories that Boko Haram seized, at the height of their Islamist insanity.

    Yet, all Badeh did — at least according to the EFCC case against him before gunmen killed him en route to his farm, on Abuja-Keffi road — was salt away crucial cash meant for arms and ammunition procurement, to acquire illicit assets.

    Badeh’s two houses in tony Wuse 2 and Maitama, both in Abuja, are also heading for the block.

    As always, the media are all titillation at this sensation of abnormal greed.  Yet, they do pretty little to tie-back the present mass suffering to the reckless waste of the past, dating back to 1999 under the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidency; and that Jonathan was just the not un-guilty fall guy, under whose presidency everything collapsed!

    If from Obasanjo to Jonathan the Federal Government had saved just 20 per cent of the composite greed of its high state officials, and spent such on physical and social infrastructure, the poverty today would perhaps be much lowered.

    But, of course, the media have moved on from all that; and are too adept at lazy lowest-common-denominator reporting and analyses, to make that crucial link.

    Still, thanks to Diezani’s bra — a sickly but fair metaphor of that era of brazen steal and reckless waste — it’s not complete amnesia, despite cheap media hysteria.

  • Mosquito matter

    Mosquito matter

    There are more questions than answers regarding the Federal Government’s Malaria Programme.  It was appropriate that the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Loans on October 26 questioned the Federal Ministry of Health’s plan to borrow $200m to buy mosquito nets under the 2022 budget.

    The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mahmuda Mamman had tried to explain why the loan was necessary, saying,  “The loan if approved by the National Assembly and accessed, will be used to medically fight malaria in the 13 orphan states which cover 208 local government councils and 3, 536 primary health care centres.”

    The explanation was confusing. A member of the committee and Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, observed that N450m was budgeted for malaria treatment in the proposed 2022 budget, and wondered why the ministry was asking for approval to borrow $200m for the same purpose. “This is unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying, adding “This is a clear case of money and jobs for the boys.”  The suggestion of corruption was clear enough.

    Read Also: World Malaria Day: Nothing has changed

    Interestingly, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, had offered further clarification. He said that the $200m was for importation and local production of mosquito nets. It was a confusing clarification indeed.

    The matter was unresolved as the committee demanded further information in order to determine if there was any need for borrowing. It remains to be seen how the ministry will convince the committee to approve its proposal.

    It is noteworthy that the issue of questionable procurement and distribution of mosquito nets is not new. In May 2019,   First Lady Aisha Buhari questioned the implementation of the Federal Government’s Malaria Programme during an interactive programme she organised for women at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    She said:  “I have heard about mosquito nets, Nigeria paid its counterpart fund, $16m. I asked them to give me my own share of the nets to send them to my village people. I didn’t get them.

    “They have spent $16m in buying mosquito nets, I did not get it; maybe some people have got it. But I feel that, that’s my personal opinion, $16m is enough to fumigate mosquitoes in Nigeria. That’s my opinion.” The report said there was “applause from women in the hall.”  Again, the suggestion of corruption was clear enough.

    It is striking that two years after the First Lady cast doubt on the malaria programme, the Senate committee has also raised questions on the subject.  This malaria business may well be monkey business.

  • Lamido’s standoff with history

    Lamido’s standoff with history

    A video clip that lately made the rounds on social media showed the 14th Emir of Kano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, hitting back with inexplicable angst at having been addressed as a former emir. The incident occurred at the Kaduna Investment Summit in September, where Sanusi openly took umbrage at former Chief of Staff to Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai, Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, keeping fidelity with sacred facts of history on his status. The ex-royal as well flaunted living in denial.

    In recognising cultural and political dignitaries at the event while making a speech, Abdullahi had introduced Sanusi – not without due respect – as “the former Emir of Kano.” The Kaduna official made the point to address him along with the reigning Emir of Zazzau as “Your Royal Highness.” But that didn’t seem to cut it for Lamido and when it was time for him to speak, he bristled with bruised ego and subtly threatened that Abdullahi would pay. “To be honest, when I listened to the…I will call him ‘former chief of staff’ and you’ll understand why later…Next time, don’t call me ‘former emir.’ There is nothing like that,” he said.

    Lamido’s remarks at that event took on shrill resonance when two weeks later, Kaduna Governor el-Rufai who is best of friends with him kicked out Abdullahi as chief of staff in a cabinet reshuffle and redeployed him as Planning & Budget Commissioner. el-Rufai did not provide any explanation for that reshuffle, but Abdullahi had been chief of staff since 2019 before his redeployment which was widely perceived as a downgrade. It was following that reshuffle the clip from the investment summit hit the wires, because Lamido’s message freshly struck home: he had threatened that Abdullahi would become ‘former chief of staff’ for addressing him as ‘former emir,’ and he (Abdullahi) has so become.

    But Sanusi Lamido is indeed a former emir, not minding the merit or otherwise of his ouster from the royal office. He was dethroned in March 2020 by incumbent Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and consigned to house arrest in a local community in Nasarawa State, where he cooled him heels some while until he was freed by judicial order. He has been away from the historical city of Kano ever since, and the current Emir of Kano is Ado Bayero who was tipped in his place by Ganduje. He may hold pseudo-court in his current environment, but that is without official recognition in law, culture  or community contexts. Abdullahi couldn’t have referred to him as Emir of Kano with a straight face, just as he did the Emir of Zazzau who is holding office. It isn’t only a shame that Lamido lived so blatantly in denial, but also that el-Rufai colluded in playing victimiser of the innocent over an indubitable fact of history. Those aren’t traits befitting of people regarded to be among Nigeria’s brightest. Shame!