Category: Letters

Sir: The current situation of Nigerian students being trapped in Sudan as a result of a battle for hegemony between two leaders of the country has caused many Nigerians to entertain multiple thoughts and reflections about our welfare as citizens.

Many people have wondered why any Nigerian would prefer to go to Sudan to study instead of their own country. Others have poignantly resolved the puzzle with an explanation that our own country pays less attention to education compared with Sudan.

Anyhow one may look at it, there is an undeniable causal nexus between our country’s abandonment of the education sector and the increasing numbers of citizens who leave the country to get education abroad.

From 2017 to 2022 (in 5years alone), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has gone on strike for 21 months (that is, 1 year 9 months), leaving the Nigerian students to bear the pains of abandonment and setbacks.

Despite this frustration, as citizens, we keep renewing our hope for change in this country amidst daily disappointments from our governments. We have done so in recent times through the 2023 general elections. We hope that the sore situation of our tertiary education under this administration will end with the swearing in of the President-elect.

 Inadequate investment in our education has left a void in the sector, and the citizens who obviously value education will definitely go wherever they can find good education.  

Humans everywhere in the world deserve an environment that will help them to actualise their purpose in life. One of the three important elements of the concept of the Rule of Law as was determined at the Delhi Congress of International Commission of Jurists, 1959, states: “The establishment of social, economic and cultural conditions which permit men to live in dignity and to fulfil their legitimate aspirations.”

Our Constitution (as amended,1999) confirms this as the primary function of government and asserts in Section 14(2)(b) that Security and WELFARE of the people shall be the primary purpose of Government.

Any government which fails to provide the necessary conditions of life that will favour the flourishing of her citizens has failed.

We expect a lot from the incoming President, and will not excuse or pardon the continuance of this perennial gap between promise and performance. While we do not expect him to perform magic in bringing the country to El Dorado overnight, we expect him to strengthen our vital institutions, one of which is education.

 Senator Udo Udoma said, and I agree, that “Men are powerless to secure the future; institutions alone fix the destiny of nations.”

The Supreme Constitution (as amended, 1999) of Nigeria in Section 18(1) provides: “Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels”

A resolve by the incoming President to pay huge attention to the Education Sector would be a minimal undertaking to transform this country. This is our right as a people and we hope he will incline to the duty of protecting this right. It is the least thing we expect him to do amongst many other things.

•David Antia,

Topfaith University, Mkpatak,

 Akwa Ibom State

Sir: Everything that has a beginning must have an end. That is the case with the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari. With just a few days remaining, we will bid farewell to the diminishing era of Buharism.

Unfortunately, Buharism was like a revolution for the rebirth of the nation but lacked a visionary foundation. Just as Buhari is eager to relinquish office on May 29, so are Nigerians anxious to see the end of what has been a political disappointment.

Buhari’s ascension to power in 2015 came with two glad tidings.  We were psychologically intimidated that the country would collapse and be thrown into doom.  But this fear of scripted anarchy was reversed after Buhari’s victory. Also, the gigantic merger project that resulted in his electoral victory was seen as a good sign for Nigeria’s unity.  However, the unity was squandered by his ineptitude through total withdrawal of the forces and elements of unification.

Unknown to us, Buhari’s emergence would be both a personal and national tragedy. We saw how his lackadaisical attitude towards national cohesion had driven the country to the verge of disintegration with the eruptions of ethnic nationalists and gorillas. Not only that, he deployed some inimical economic policies that cemented the roots of poverty, inflation and unemployment in an unprecedented dimension. Frightening insecurity became a national character, with particular reference to banditry, kidnapping and other waves of crimes. Amazingly, the man whom we trusted to be aggressive against corrupt persons was later found to be sympathetic to them by condoning their nefarious acts and granting state amnesty to convicted corrupt Nigerians. 

Buharism has produced many casualties, including Buhari himself. He is a victim of his own failure, a product of self-demystification. He is also a casualty of his own unlimited self-glorification, who sees himself as sacrosanct. There is also the larger victim, the country of Nigeria. He will leave it worse than he met it. The government itself is a victim of a degenerated leadership.

In a wider scope, democracy has suffered as a casualty for two main reasons. One is the legislative enslavement in which the negative influence of Buhari on the National Assembly has resulted in the accumulation of a humongous debt. The judiciary has been rendered a casualty by Buhari’s refusal to comply with various injunctions on critical issues. The general populace will have an everlasting and disgusting impression about Buhari for mortgaging their collective hopes and dreams.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is also a big political victim of Buhari’s poor performance. Many Nigerians feel that Buhari’s failure is the party’s making. If not for the emergence of Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso as presidential aspirants, the APC would have been a loser in the last presidential election. Even the Villa cabals are casualties. This is owing to the fact that Buhari had given them much power which they literally abused, culminating in their failure to impose on the nation their preferred presidential candidate. They are really victims because Buhari aided them to laugh but will end up not having the last laugh.

For long, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will continue to be a giant victim of Buharism. The prolonged strike did not only victimise lecturers, but also students, their parents and the university system.

The immediate future will also be a waiting casualty as the prevailing socio-economic upheavals will have a long-lasting effect. Even those who have held different positions, and have acquired ill-gotten wealth and perhaps may go unpunished, have entered the class of casualties. This is because their perpetrated felony will not go down in vain in the hereafter, and they must account for their misdeeds. In a nutshell therefore, we are all casualties of Baba Buhari’s failed leadership!

What is fundamentally wrong with Buhari’s leadership? Many lapses can be recorded and scrutinised, but the major ones will be mentioned here. Buhari lacks the political will to administer both politics and administration effectively. This gives rise to the display of self-indulgences by people entrusted with responsibilities. With immunity, they have played the destructive game of putting themselves first before the nation and its people. 

Though Buhari’s incorruptibility is still unquestionable, he lacks vital qualities of leadership such as competence and vision. On competence, it is imperative to quote the Islamic philosopher Ibn Taymiyya that he would prefer a candidate with competence without integrity to a candidate with integrity but without competence. His basic argument is that integrity affects the individual only but incompetence will have devastating effects on the society.

How long will it take the nation to heal from the deep wounds of these eight years? Has Buhari agreed that his poor leadership is responsible for all these casualties, and that is why he is begging to be forgiven?

•Abdu Abdullahi,

aaringim68@gmail.com

By Richard Odusanya

SIR:  Nigeria, on May 29, will usher in a new wind, our beloved country is on the threshold of history, this time around, a wind of change in the most populated black nation and Africa’s largest economy is about to witness a new dawn.

 Nigeria was long overdue for a change in all realms and ramifications. How badly you want something, your determination to succeed is what differentiates you from others. Life is a performance, made up of the things we do and what we don’t do. As a nation destined for greatness, we are on a voyage with a new sheriff who doubles as the navigator.

 Regrettably, it became a national outcry from the citizenry, the economy, educational institutions, the infrastructural assets, our healthcare facilities took a state of decay at all levels, stimulating a high rate of death and agitation amongst the general workforce across the board. When a living thing is deprived of air, death elements set in.

 Despite the unpleasant situations and near hopelessness, there is a ‘Renewed Hope‘ in the making. Our beloved country Nigeria will rise again – from despondency and shortchanged feelings to vibrancy in all regions.

 It is instructive, to note that leadership-cum-politics are phenomenal realities – let it be clearly stated that the Nigerian people who are united in subjugation, and deprivation, and bear the brunt of our leaders’ inept leadership have risen to make a clean, compassionate, decent, sensitive, upright yet radical and revolutionary entreaty to the incoming President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,  who is saddled with the unenviable responsibility of kick-starting the healing process which should begin with the bonding of the three major tribes: our vibrant Hausa, Igbo and the Yoruba great people. The new President should consider such responsibility for unity of purpose in governance, which must be guarded jealously – ‘Unity-Trinity.’

 For clarification, it can no longer be business as usual. Thankfully, in the words of the President-elect: “I am coming with a private sector mindset. “This means that the days of indolence and unproductive civil service and rogue public office holders are over and never to be witnessed again. A new dawn and a new sheriff have been born. Therefore, the issues of Unity and Progress, Mind Restructuring and the 4th Industrial Revolution should be the topmost priority.

  • Richard Odusanya, odusanyagold@gmail.com

By Victor Okeke

SIR: Imo State is located in the southeast region of Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 5 million people. The state has a high burden of communicable diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, as well as non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Access to healthcare services in the state is limited, especially in rural areas, where there are inadequate health facilities and healthcare workers. As a result, many people in Imo State rely on traditional healers or self-medication, which can lead to complications and even death.

 A study conducted by Charles Ezenduka and colleagues on the Imo State healthcare system and published in The PubMed shows that healthcare purchasing in the state is dominated by the State Ministry of Health (SMOH) using a general tax-based and public health system, making government revenue a major source of funding and provision of healthcare services. However, purchasing of health services is passive and the stewardship role of government is significantly weak, characterized by insufficient budgetary allocations, inadequate infrastructure and poor accountability.

 In 2018, the government launched the “Imo State Health Insurance Agency” (IMSHIA), which is a mandatory health insurance programme for all civil servants and their dependents. The Imo State Health Insurance Agency was established by Law 4, 2018. The scheme was launched on 27th October, 2018.

 The IMSHIA is designed to provide affordable healthcare services to civil servants and their dependents and to improve the quality of healthcare services in public healthcare facilities.

 Under the IMSHIA, civil servants and their dependents are required to pay a monthly premium, which is based on their salary level. The premiums are subsidized by the government, and the funds are used to pay for healthcare services provided by accredited public and private healthcare providers. The IMSHIA covers a wide range of healthcare services, including inpatient and outpatient care, laboratory services, and medications.

  The IMHIA has been well received by civil servants and their dependents, who have reported improved access to healthcare services and a reduction in out-of-pocket expenses. The scheme has also helped to improve the quality of healthcare services in public healthcare facilities, as the funds generated from the premiums are used to upgrade facilities and equipment and to train healthcare workers.

 The IMSHIA Law provides for a mandatory health insurance scheme for every person resident in the state. The agency comprises two key components; a mandatory health insurance scheme for all, and a voluntary (private) health insurance component with various plans which serves to complement the compulsory one.

 The government of Imo state has also invested in the training and recruitment of healthcare workers. The state government has recruited and deployed over 500 healthcare workers to rural areas, where there is a shortage of healthcare workers. The government has also provided training and capacity-building programmes for healthcare workers, aimed at improving their skills and knowledge.

 Despite these efforts, there are still several challenges that need to be addressed to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Imo State. One of the main challenges is the inadequate funding of the healthcare sector. The state government currently spends only a small fraction of its budget on healthcare, which is insufficient to meet the healthcare needs of the population.

 Therefore, the establishment of the Imo State Health Insurance Agency represents an opportunity for boosting strategic healthcare purchasing in the state for enhanced progress towards universal health coverage. Building capacity and awareness of the benefits of good strategic health practices among policy-makers and programme managers will improve the efficiency and equity of health purchasing in the state.

• Victor Okeke, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Nigeria

By Peter Ovie Akus

SIR: The news that the Federal Government of Nigeria will be increasing the excise tax on tobacco products from 30 percent ad-valorem to 50 percent is a welcome development and a step in the right direction. It will boost the nation’s non-oil sector earnings and move the government closer towards realising its goal of weaning the economy from its over-reliance on oil revenues.

 However, I disagree with the assertion by Dr Mangai Malau, Head of the Tobacco Control Unit, Noncommunicable Diseases Division, in the Federal Ministry of Health, that the tax increase is part of the federal government’s effort to control smoking in the country.

Tobacco causes more than eight million deaths annually around the world, with more than seven million of those deaths as a result of direct tobacco use. In Nigeria, over 20,000 deaths annually are as a result of tobacco use. It is the greatest risk factor for non-communicable diseases like hypertension, stroke, cancers, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

Tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke is a leading cause of mortality, morbidity, disability and impoverishment in the world. About 1.2 million deaths globally are as a result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Also, there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke and even a brief exposure can be harmful to one’s health.

We need to embrace smoke-free policies if we are serious about controlling the sale and use of tobacco products. Smoke-free policies which have been legislated in many European countries have proven their effectiveness, and have reduced illness and death caused by tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. They have protected millions from the harmful effects of secondhand smoking.

Smoking bans are a necessity. It is an idea whose time has come. No matter how much tax the federal government imposes on tobacco products, the manufacturers will simply shift the cost to the consumers, who will pay no matter how expensive it is.

Tobacco use is an addiction, and like all other addictions, addicts will always find a way to satisfy their cravings, even if they have to sell everything that they have.

 Smoking bans will limit the amount of tobacco that an individual can smoke. These smoking bans should include all public spaces, public and private workplaces, government buildings, airports, restaurants, buses, taxis, and even private cars if there are other occupants. There should be strict enforcement of the smoking bans by the regulatory authorities to ensure compliance, and offenders should be punished with steep fines.

• Peter Ovie Akus, akuspeter@gmail.com

By Ike Willie-Nwobu

SIR: Undoubtedly, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous democracy and economy, faces great challenges, and indeed a race against time to be considered a developed nation.

A confluence of shocks and factors has drained the country of the prodigious promise shown at independence in 1960.

In many ways, Nigeria is a lesson in how not to manage a country, especially one as gifted with human and material resources. In fact, even the devastating civil war of 1967-1970 could have been averted if wisdom was engaged. That the scars of that horrible war continue to mark Nigeria more than forty years later in the form of secessionist agitations is testament to a country that has been defiant and directionless for far too long as to be fatal.

But how many of Nigeria’s multifaceted problems are locally made, and how many of them are imported into the country from other countries?

One of the most glaring deficiencies of globalisation manifests in the fact that for all its benefits, it has left developing countries like Nigeria horribly exposed to the antics of some developed countries, who for all their altruism, are not immune to the occasional dollop of opportunism.

For most of the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Nigeria has been racked by forceful fits of insecurity. What Boko Haram has left in the northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, bandits have consumed in the northwestern states of Kaduna, Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara.

What terrorist Fulani herdsmen have left in the north central states of Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau and Niger, unknown gunmen have ripped apart in the southeastern states of Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo.

In fact, the activities of the disparate but deadly non-state actors in the country in the past eight years have made it look like the country has been in an all-out war.

Now, it has emerged that the resource curse is haunting Nigeria again, with the revelation that some Chinese expatriates know more than they are letting on about the criminals who kill and maim Nigerians.

In a damning report by The Times, a British national daily, it was revealed that Chinese nationals in Nigeria’s mining sector are funding terrorists to secure easy access to Nigeria’s vast mineral reserves. The report went further to accuse China of using bribes and illegal transactions to fund terror in Africa’s largest economy.

The exhaustive report underpinned by research conducted with SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based think-thank showed that the network that weaves insecurity in Nigeria is indeed a complicated one.

Though the Chinese embassy in Nigeria has debunked the report, it confirms long-held suspicion among everyday Nigerians that powerful interests are behind Nigeria’s sprawling insecurity, which has so far proven impossible to contain.

In many states of the country, people are killed every day with the government showing an embarrassing helplessness.

In 2021, the United Arab Emirates drew up an authentic list of some of those sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria. Until this day, Nigerians do not know if the law took its full course against those on the list.

That is what obtains in a country that lacks transparency, a country where impunity thrives because anything goes.

It doesn’t matter the identity of those driving insecurity in Nigeria. Nigerians demand accountability from their government, and then from locals and foreigners alike who sow terror in Nigeria and have succeeded in turning a once peaceful and prosperous country into a pool of blood.

Buhari’s government has had eight years in which to clean the Augean stables of insecurity in Nigeria. To say it has failed abysmally is to put it mildly. On its watch, terrorists have run Nigeria ragged, showing chilling audacity in the way and manner they have ransacked states like Benue, Kaduna and Niger that border the Federal Capital Territory.

When on July 5, 2022, terrorists cracked the medium security correctional facility at Kuje, and let loose some of Nigeria’s most dangerous criminals, an embarrassed Buhari had wondered why there were no security cameras in the prison.

It is doubtful that other correctional facilities in the country have since been upgraded to match growing security threats.

The Nigerian government should be embarrassed that its failure to secure Nigerians has enabled foreigners to play poker with Nigerian lives.

But in a country where shame in public office is an impossibly scarce commodity, it will take an eternity for anyone to flinch.

• Ike Willie-Nwobu, Ikewilly9@gmail.com

By Dapo Okubanjo

The 2023 general elections have come and gone. In spite of all the post-election noise and desperate machinations of the opposition, we have a president-elect and vice president-elect in the persons of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima, who will be sworn in come May 29, 2023. 

This election season was very instructive in a number of ways as it threw up a number of issues which had gnawed at our national consciousness and proven to be leverage points for mischievous politicians to drive their personal ambitions and benefits. Two of these are PDP legacy issues of power distribution between the Northern and Southern regions, and the two most popular religions, Christianity and Islam.

Thus, if the presidency is zoned to the North, the vice presidency is zoned to the South. Also, if the presidential candidate is Christian, the vice-presidential candidate would then be Muslim and vice versa. 

The intention of this arrangement is purportedly in keeping with a desire to balance national character. This arrangement seeks to pacify the two broad regions and religions. However, it is instructive to recall that the freest and fairest election thus far in our national history, the MKO Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe ticket in 1993, only agreed in principle to the arrangement of the North and South spread but differed on the religion spread tenet with a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

A quick recall of the events leading to the selection of Senator Kashim Shettima might be instructive. APC northern governors and stalwarts had agreed to a Southern presidential candidate for the party and this led to the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the party’s presidential candidate. The next hurdle became the choice of a vice presidential candidate. The expected norm, as stated above, is to find a Northern, Christian candidate as the running mate. This was when the political drama and intrigues began.

For the team of the presidential candidate, it was imperative that a politically strong candidate with the requisite political capital and grassroots support be chosen as the running mate. The team considered a lot of options with the intention of agreeing on a suitable North-South, Muslim-Christian arrangement. Unfortunately, all the permutations considered by the political models revealed that there wasn’t a suitable Northern Christian candidate that could deliver the crucial northern votes. Hopefuls like Babachir Lawal, Boss Mustapha and Yakubu Dogara fell short due to their inability to command the requisite leverage required for electoral success in the north.

At this point, it became inevitable that a Northern Muslim would be chosen as the running mate for the party’s vice-presidential position. The only question at this point was who. After a rigorous review period, Senator Kashim Shettima emerged the best option to guarantee electoral success. 

It must be emphasised here that this option was a matter of political expediency and not an attempt to slight the received wisdom of North-South, Christian-Muslim ticket. Elections are not mere stages for showmanship but a platform driven by the deployment of the best machinations to deliver electoral success. The attempt to play to the gallery that would ultimately dilute the chances of winning at the polls is the height of self-sabotage.

Suffice it to say that there were members of the APC who felt aggrieved by this permutation, and had hoped to be the running mate based on the received arrangement. Their personal ambitions forgot the June 12, 1993 electoral victory of MKO Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe, a same-faith ticket that romped to undeniable national electoral victory with aplomb. 

These erstwhile acolytes and party leaders formed themselves into an in-house opposition bloc within the APC. They declared, as boldly stated by Babachir Lawal, that no Christian would vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muslim-Muslim ticket, and went ahead to rally opposition among adherents of the Christian faith against the ruling party.

He said, “Now tell me which Christian will vote for APC with the following contraption: Muslim Presidential Candidate (Lagos), Muslim Vice-Presidential Candidate (Borno), Muslim National Chairman (Nasarawa), Muslim Deputy National Chairman (Borno), Muslim President (Katsina); Muslim Senate President (Yobe); Muslim Speaker (Lagos); Muslim Deputy Speaker (Plateau) etc.”

This created tension within the party and led to significant public malignment of party faithful who chose to see the big picture that works in the party’s favour. The likes of Plateau State governor Simon Lalong and Minister for Special Duties George Akume were called names. However, arguably none suffered more humiliation than what one-time chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the FCT and erstwhile APC National Chairman and Deputy National Chairman aspirant, Sunny Moniedafe, endured especially after he publicly went on Channels Politics Today to rally support for the Tinubu-Shettima ticket, contrary to the position of many Adamawa Christians in the ruling party.

Sunny Sylvester Moniedafe, the Jagaban of Jimeta, is an enigmatic APC faithful, who is originally Urhobo but born and bred in Adamawa State, in the same North East region as the ringleaders of the so-called APC Northern Christian Leaders who wanted one of theirs as Tinubu’s running mate solely on the grounds of religious balancing.

He was derided and specifically singled out as a traitor and a betrayer of the Christian faith. Interestingly, he had always stayed true to the progressive ideals that birthed APC from his years in one of the legacy parties that came together to form the ruling party in 2014, the All Congress of Nigeria (ACN)

A true party man, he ran for the National Chairmanship of the APC but stepped down for the incumbent Senator Abdullahi Adamu based on the consensus candidacy arrangement advanced by President Buhari.

 Even when the Vice Presidency was zoned to his region, and he eminently qualified to challenge for the position based on his Christian faith, he conceded that Senator Shettima offered the best chance of electoral victory to the party and gladly supported the presidential ambitions of both he and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. As time has shown, the loyalty and trust in what was best for the party was actualised in the eventual electoral victory of the party’s ticket bearers.

Following APC’s electoral victory, it is only fitting that these party faithful are rewarded for their loyalty and faithfulness in the face of bullying, embarrassment and public ridicule. In fact, not only were the Northern Christian men and women faithful, they also mobilised and rallied the Northern Christian community in the region for the party’s ticket. They chose national interest over personal ambition and ethnoreligious bigotry. These are true Nigerians!

Rewarding these men and women with cabinet positions and other positions of interest would go a long way in dousing the tension created by the Babachir Lawal group, which gave the impression to Christian communities in the North that a Muslim-Muslim ticket amounts to an Islamization agenda. 

Clearly, there is a serious need for confidence building in the values the party stands for and abides by. 

 Thus, party faithful like Moniedafe, Lalong, Akume and others deserve seats in government to silence the naysayers who, despite their sabotage manoeuvres, are still hanging around hoping to nick government positions at the expense of the Northern Christian leaders. 

This will be a mockery of these brave individuals who stuck out their necks against the odds and personal ambition in support of the Tinubu-Shettima Muslim-Muslim ticket.

• Okubanjo, dokubanjo@yahoo.co.uk 

Sir: Since February 9th, 2023, when a young innocent Junior Secondary School student at Chrisland School, Lagos, Whitney Adeniran, died in a controversial circumstance during the Annual Inter House-Sports event of the school at Agege Stadium, I have resisted the urge to join the debate that followed the development for several reasons.  I imagined how the parents of the promising young girl who lost her life would feel. Of course, I also imagined the damage the death would do to the image and public perception of the Chrisland brand.

Two months after, the accusations, counter-accusations, varied public views and government’s action on the matter have confirmed my worries. Mr and Mrs Adeniran had lost their lovely daughter, Chrisland had lost its precious student and almost having its treasured brand smeared, teaching and non-teaching staffers of the school are temporarily jobless. Above all, students in their hundreds have, since the government wielded its big stick, remained at home.

Expectedly, the situation has attracted interventions from various stakeholders. I’m still emotionally down over the issue but reality appears to have dawned on me on the need for the government, and the parents of our dear late Whitney, to pause and consider the havoc the continued lockdown of the school could cause.  

A nongovernmental organization, Human Rights Monitoring Agenda (HURMA), observed: “Unfortunately, as Chrisland School and Whitney’s parents were mourning the loss of their beloved student and daughter, some unscrupulous elements took advantage of the situation to feed people on the social media with various distorted versions of the inaccurate accounts of the incident that resulted in the death of Whitney Adeniran.”

According to the NGO, there is available evidence that counters “the public uproars, sentiments and misinformation subsequent to the sad incident.”

 To me, the furore generated by the circumstances that surrounded the death of the young girl could have been properly managed by the major parties concerned, Whitney’s parents, the school and the government.

By all this sensationalism, the wound caused by the death has refused to heal, and the image of the esteemed Chrisland School is daily being battered.  By implication, the destinies of many other students are being toyed with because their school has remained under lock and key. The truth remains that no school, Chrisland or any school at all, will ever want any of its students to die. I am also concerned about the future of the other students.

HURMA argued that “closing the school is not in the best interest of the school or the government because such closure is seriously detrimental to the future of the students.”

 I commend the Lagos State government for allowing students in terminal classes i.e., the J.S.S 3 and S.S.S 3, to go back to school to prepare for their upcoming examinations.

Like others who have appealed to the government, I am also hereby humbly pleading that the school be fully reopened and other students be allowed to resume their studies.

•Jide Alabi,

 Ondo, Ondo State

Sir: Now that the storm in the drama-filled Adamawa gubernatorial election has subsided, the two big contenders – Aishatu Dahiru Binani and Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri – will have the opportunity to reflect, and strategize for their next steps. 

On Binani’s part, there are two possibilities – first, stick to the moment. Second, make a U-turn to a new path. 

The fact is, the actions of the now-suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa Ari, have ‘dented’ Binani’s public sympathy, especially outside Adamawa. The REC’s actions have put the APC on the edge. So, Binani needs both ‘on-the-shelves’ and ‘off-the-shelves’ strategies, as her next moves may make and mar her political future. She has three options.

First, continue to insist that she is the Governor-elect, as declared by REC Hudu Yunusa Ari. In this case, Binani will approach the tribunal with a sole demand – the court to proclaim her Governor-elect,  based on Section 149 of the Electoral Act 2022, which states that: ‘Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act, any defect or error arising from any actions taken by an official of the Commission in relation to any notice, form or document made or given or other things done by the official in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution or of this Act, or any rules made thereunder remain valid, unless otherwise challenged and declared invalid by a competent court of law or tribunal.’

The second option for Binani is to pursue her cause through the tribunal while completely ignoring Hudu’s bizarre actions. She can reinforce her case by hammering on the alleged irregularities in some local government areas, during the 18th March 2023 gubernatorial election. Places like Governor Ahmadu Umaru’s village – Madagali LGA, which claimed a whopping 42.2 percent voter turnout

Binani’s third option is to retreat- congratulate Fintiri, discard the option of any litigation and move for the future.

These three options have implications for Binani, Adamawa politics, and the Nigerian polity.

 If Binani and her team decide to take the first option, she would be testing the effectiveness and the efficacy of section 149 of the Electoral Act 2022. While it will be good for democracy, as the court will interpret the section, INEC will do whatever possible to save its face. The Tinubu government may be interested as well, because it may want to distance itself from Hudu’s actions to show the international community and Nigerian ‘eagle eyes’ that the election which brought Tinubu to power was fair and that the umpiring was not jungle-like.  Binani taking this option means that many heads will roll, as Hudu may spill the beans. Binani may also continue to lose support because Hudu’s actions were a ‘third-rate’ action in politics, (elections are best won at the polling units). REC Hudu’s action has attracted many observers even outside Nigeria.

 For the second option, Binani has good advantages over Fintiri, if she can assemble an excellent legal team, alongside experienced politicians, political experts, and intellectuals from Adamawa to provide data, facts and figures, and pieces of evidence to back up the claims of irregularities during the elections.  Binani has a bright chance of winning the case based on technicalities, while Fintiri will face a lot of hurdles here. This option is very expensive and requires both political and individual commitment from Binani’s team.

The third option for Binani is to retreat, congratulate Fintiri, and move on. This is the most difficult option for her, in fact, for any politician who has come as far as she has. If Binani goes for this option, many of her supporters will be initially demoralized. But in the long run, she would relieve the entire polity of the suspense, uncertainty, and the unknowns. In fact, the investigations on Hudu Yunusa Ari, securities heads, and other people will be inconsequential.

 Binani will rediscover herself, remove the dent of Hudu’s action on her political outlook, and technically trounce her adversaries in the Adamawa APC. She will create the road to becoming Adamawa’s version of Kwankwasiya because of her well-known philosophical activities and for being an Iron Lady. Furthermore, with this option- Binani will ‘save the day’ for many people. But it is a very difficult option, only politicians operating with a complete mind of their own will opt for such an option. It requires foresight to see tomorrow from today.

 Binani may have depleted her arsenal, but she has had a good fight – Fintiri will not forget her in a jiffy.

•Zayyad I. Muhammad,

Abuja