Category: Letters

By Aliyu Sulaiman

SIR: President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving office in three months’ time, and while he will be remembered for a lot of things, surely, spending eight years as the most powerful person in the most populous black nation is enough flex to leave indelible marks on the country’s history. Eight years is enough time for many to yearn for a breath of fresh air, and a change of stewardship. This administration has touched virtually every life in Nigeria, positively and negatively. We have felt it and will continue to feel it. It has been a rollercoaster, but I digress.

However, President Buhari’s deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo will particularly be missed by many, particularly this writer.

I have never been close to Professor Osinbajo physically, not to talk of meeting him personally. I do not need to do that to appreciate him, his impact and potentials. I had really hoped that Nigerians bought in to his ideas and style, because I am sure he would have made one hell of a fine president!

I am a student of great and controversial men. From Bola Tinubu’s ability to scout, harness and project allies into positions of power, to Nasir El-rufai’s ability to be controversial, stubborn and lead with conviction and to Peter Obi’s humble and modest rhetoric. Even Atiku Abubakar is for me an evil genius, in spite of his failed attempts to become president in several times of asking. I am always in awe of the dynamics and intrigues that led to the rise, fall and resurrection of our past leaders since independence. 

Osinbajo to me is a hybrid specimen of all of the traits of a good leader. It is not enough that he projects humility despite his credentials and background. It is the poise in which he uses to portray his strong verbal communication skills to all categories of audience. It is his palpable display of empathy and grace while painting an optimistic future of Nigeria, despite its current challenges. His decisiveness is perhaps for me, his most useful and pronounced trait.

Perhaps a book about his leadership and rhetoric, which would portray all of these traits during his eight-year reign, should suffice, along with a signed foreword by his boss, President Buhari.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will bow out as a fine public servant that will surely be missed by me and millions of other Nigerians. Do not bet on him becoming irrelevant as the months and years come. Happy 66th to his Excellency, the star boy. ‘We move’!

• Aliyu Sulaiman, saliyu50@gmail.com

By Emmanuel Akaolisa

SIR: You are without doubt, an enviable man for so many glaring reasons. One of which is that you have ruled and led the giant of Africa both as a military general and twice as a democratically elected president.

Fast forward to 2003, after the end of military rule and the re-entrance of democracy in 1999, you sought to lead the country again through the nascent democracy and people were wondering if you had an unfinished business in Aso Rock which you could not relinquish.

You lost the 2003 presidential election; tried again in 2007 which you also lost and it was the same story in 2011 as you were edged out again in a keenly contested election.

Viola! In 2015, you won on your fourth attempt, a commendable lesson on resilience from you to the records of history. Pundits did not really expect you to do much other than fight corruption which was and is still believed to be the root cause of Nigeria’s many problems alongside disunity. Not many expected you to tackle education crisis, perform economic wonders or lead a tsunami of ICT development; if you could just tackle corruption every other thing will fall in place, or so many thought.

After you were sworn in on May 29, 2015 and you gave your legendary speech of “I am for everybody and for nobody”, it took you about six months to form a cabinet. This and other issues at that time made people call you “Baba Go Slow”. It was believed in some quarters that you and your party the APC did not expect to win the 2015 general elections which was why the APC administration appeared to be at a loss many times as to what to do with power and administration. 

Experts and novices alike have relied on what they call body language to at least keep abreast with your moves for a major part of your leadership, something that can be seen as poor communication. 

Among the many promises you made to Nigerians, from improving the strength of the naira against the dollar, to fighting corruption and insecurity, building infrastructure, reducing unemployment, etc. it appears you only did much in the area of infrastructure.

 In fact, in so many instances, the areas you promised to work on turned out worse when compared to the PDP era. Naira lost more value, unemployment and poverty increased, insecurity worsened, ASUU was on strike for eight months.

One clear extreme to which your administration went was in the appointment of government officials to top posts. The records are there; the perception is that you favoured a section of the country in an unprecedented ration for a federal structure like Nigeria. The best explanation that could be given to this is that you were in search of loyalty from your appointees.

After eight years in power, you will be handing over to a new administration in about three months from now. Some say it is not a long time, yet 24 hours means a lot in politics. The question is: Are you satisfied? Has the hunger which pushed you to power after many attempts been satiated?

Let these coming months be the hardest you work, to check contracts your administration awarded and their performance; heal wounds, check on those awaiting justice, sweeten sour relationships through diplomacy, both in Nigeria and abroad (even if you have to travel out for a month, you have a capable vice president who can stand in for you). Even if you can’t clear your large table, at least clear your mind and heart in these final moments. 

• Emmanuel Akaolisa, Emma.Akaolisa@thenews-chronicle.com

By Ademola ‘Bablow’ Babalola

SIR: The just concluded presidential election should be adjudged to be the best presidential election Nigerians had ever witnessed from 1999 till date. The outcome of this election, without a doubt, did not only expose the antics of some fake prophets, but also distinguished the real men of God from their fake counterparts. Those prophets, who had predicted the failure of a particular candidate, I think, must have realized how not to come out publicly to feed people with lies. But the question is: do they have any shame whatsoever?

To put the record straight, this election has shown Nigerian electorate that their votes did count and that it will continue to count. I understand that some politicians, whose party was defeated, still doubt the credibility of the election, but one thing they fail to ask is: how come a dark horse, Peter Obi, was able to defeat the two gladiators, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, in their domains if the election did not truly reflect the wishes of the electorate?

Would there have been any complaint from Atiku and Peter Obi’s camps if the victory had gone to their sides?

Unless we’re not ready to be sincere, and still want to live in the world of denial, this presidential election has shown that the process by which elections are being conducted in today’s Nigeria has considerably improved. The only thing that the players of politics in Nigeria need to work on is to learn how to accept defeat. They need to show maturity, and desist from allowing their emotions to override their reasoning in the face of defeat.

It’s unfortunate some politicians do not yet realise that in elections, there must always be winners and losers. And the only way to identify a real and decent politician is through his/her display of spirit of sportsmanship. A decent politician must be ready to display maturity in whichever way the direction of any election result goes. 

Of course, there is a provision in the constitution that allows defeated candidates or parties to go to court for redress. But I do not think the constitution gives room for any kind of protest to show one’s grievance or disagreement over the outcomes or results of elections.

That is why it is disheartening to see the protest led by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP, alongside Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP chairman, and Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto State governor – persons who ought to have known better. If Atiku could go down so low as witnessed in the protest, is it not a blessing that Atiku did not win the previous election? If Atiku could jettison the constitutional path for street protests, imagine if he had managed to become the president?

Instead of staging an unnecessary protest at the INEC office in Abuja, Atiku and his party should have sought their lawyers’ counsel about what the law says should be the next step to take whenever this kind of situation arises.

Has Atiku forgotten the step taken by Chief Olu Falae and his party, APP, to challenge the result of the election that ushered him and his boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, in in 1999? Why couldn’t Atiku and his party borrow a leaf out from those mature politicians’ books, instead of engaging in this fruitless effort? 

Atiku and his party need to realize that Nigerians have spoken loudly with their votes. They voted for the candidate of their choice, and I don’t think anything can alter their decision. Perhaps we should remind Atiku and his supporters about the saying: 

“The voice of the people is the voice of God”. “Vox Populi, vox dei”.

• Ademola ‘Bablow’ Babalola, babalolaademola39@gmail.com

SIR: As expected, some defeated opposition parties’ candidates in the election are crying blue murder for not being able to carry through their plans to subvert the wishes of many Nigerians at the polls. Two of them, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have decided to go to court to challenge the victory of APC in the election.

It is the right thing to do in a democratic dispensation, rather than throw the country into crisis and violence arising from street protests.

The two opposition parties claimed to be very popular and have strong support bases across the country to win the election convincingly. The APC never argued with them nor took their boasts for granted, going into the elections.

That was why the APC campaigned vigorously and tirelessly in the nooks and crannies of the country, to call out the votes. When the results were announced, the party triumphed, though not without severe bruises arising from the rigging machinery of the PDP and LP respectively.

As the ruling party, with 21 state governors going into the presidential election, the APC was defeated in 12 of those states when the results were announced. It, therefore, becomes ironical to accuse the same APC of election rigging.

The question to be asked then is, where did the APC rig the election, and in whose favour? The party candidate lost in his state of Lagos, lost in Katsina, the state of the state of the sitting president, in Nasarawa, the state of the party’s national chairman and in Plateau, the state of the party’s campaign director general.

What is certain about the election is its competitive nature, which went to the wires. Out of the four front-runners in the election, the candidate of the APC was the only one that lost his state.

Yet, the same party is accused of rigging the election, in which it could not rig for its candidate to win his state. Meanwhile, the other three front-runners won their respective states in landslide manners without questioning.

He who seeks equity must come to justice with clean hands and you don’t live in a glass house and be throwing stones. The People’s Democratic Party and the Labour Party should not assume that because the All Progressives Congress is not raising eyebrows, all was well at the polls.

Does it bother anyone that the Labour Party candidate won in the five states of the Southeast with between 80% and 95% of the votes? How come no other candidate could achieve such a feat in his region in the same election?

The People’s Democratic Party defeated the ruling party in most states in the North, including the states where the APC has sitting governors. The opposition parties should not assume that they possess the monopoly of knowledge of infractions they caused in the election. 

They should be aware that the shenanigans that they displayed in the election are to the knowledge of the ruling party, with documented evidence. They should be prepared to face the exposure of the infractions they committed during the election when they get to the court.

•Vincent G. Uba,

Abuja.

SIR: It is a well-known fact that majority of Nigerians are into informal economy. Millions earn their living through small and medium enterprises. The businesses under SMEs include cobblers, nail-cutters, barbers, motorcycle operators, taxi drivers, groundnut oil sellers, pure water vendors, newspaper vendors and host of others. These micro enterprises are collapsing every day as a result of the ill-thought out Naira redesign policy. It is obvious that the formulators of this policy did not have these categories of business owners in mind when designing their policy.

Take for example, how can one make transfer of N100 to an okada rider, taxi driver or a nail-cutter? 

Today, the cash is not accessible because of this policy. To get even N2,000 is a tedious task. I could remember, the last time I withdrew N2,000, I had to stand in queue under the scorching sun for six hours.

What is even more worrying is that in spite of the ruling by the Supreme Court, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks are yet to comply. This is dangerous. Nigerian leaders should help this country from derailing. We need leaders who respect the rule of law.

I therefore use this medium to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to comply with the Supreme Court ruling and direct the CBN to make cash available in the country.

•Comrade Bishir Dauda Sabuwar,

Unguwa Katsina.

SIR: Although several countries, such as the United Kingdom, China, the United States, Egypt, Niger, Ghana and a host of others have congratulated the winner, Senator Ahmed Tinubu, some also charged the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, to improve on the electoral process and called for those who have genuine grievances to pursue them through the judiciary system.

INEC, on its own called the election free, fair and credible, even when several observers, including the European Union, said the election was not as transparent as expected. Nigeria’s main opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Labour Party, LP, said the results of the election were “heavily doctored and manipulated” in a joint news conference.

“We won this election as Labour Party, we are going to claim our mandate as Labour Party,” said Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the party’s vice presidential candidate.

These statements are not also far from statements made by PDP and several of its spokespersons, including the serial presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. 

My point of departure from these rings of imperfections, which were both human and technological, remains that the personal integrity of the chairman of the commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud, is not in question. The  results from the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, does  not show they were wilfully manipulated by the commission. At best, people freely voted their conscience, and such relatively new and unknown parties won in unexpected places. In a manipulated election, the candidate of Labour Party who cleared all Eastern states with very wide margins could not have been allowed to win in Lagos State, the state of Senator Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect. He has held the politics of Lagos State since 1999 until the Labour Party defeated him there on February 25.

Again, PDP won the presidential election in Osun State, while APC cleared Oyo State including other elective positions which has cast doubt on the re-election of the incumbent governor, Seyi Makinde. 

Edo State under the embattled Godwin Obaseki, that has always had PDP win presidential elections since 1999 was overrun by the force of the Labour Party and even got a senatorial seat to add to its kitty. 

An election where the nine months old Peter Obi Labour Party won Delta, Cross Rivers, Plateau, FCT and  Nasarawa states cannot be said to be manipulated by the commission. An election where PDP won Osun, Kastina State, the home state of President Buhari, cannot be said to be manipulated by INEC in favour of any of the contestants. In an election where the Southwest candidate, Tinubu, won in the north; Borno, Zamfara, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa and Kwara states, with two candidates from the zone cannot be said to be a manipulated election. 

In this same election, a legislative aide, Nedun Imasuen, won a senate seat in Edo and an Okada rider, Donatus Mathew, won a House of Representatives seat under the Labour Party in Kaduna State against all odds?

Even in Nasarawa State, the fairly unknown party, Social Democratic Party, SDP, won a senate seat. Ireti Kingibe of the Labour Party defeated the incumbent Senator, Philip Aduda in FCT. Three of the G5 PDP governors lost their elections. Ortom lost his election bid for Benue Northwest Senatorial District to the APC candidate, Titus Zam. Ugwuanyi lost his bid to represent Enugu North Senatorial District to the Labour Party candidate, Okechukwu Uzea. While similarly, Ikpeazu lost his bid to represent Abia South Senatorial District to Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) 

So in my opinion, the election was not manipulated by the commission for any particular candidate as being painted by some sections of the losers. As advised, they can seek legal redress if they so deem it fit.

•Elempe Dele,

Lagos. 

SIR: On March 8 every other year, the United Nations celebrates the International Day of Women.  It is a day set aside to celebrate women for the indispensable roles they play in today’s world and to reemphasize why the glass ceiling everywhere must continue to crack. It also offers a fortuitous and auspicious opportunity to laud women for the extraordinary work they do in providing care in a world that couldn’t care less about anything.

Women are natural caregivers. From conception to death, every child who grows up to become and adult and runs the full cycle of life knows that care giving is a woman’s forte. It simply comes with the territory. During the two main periods when a person is most vulnerable – being childhood and old age – women are always available.

It is as biological as it is psychological, neurological and even physiological. Women conceive and usually after nine months, they give birth and the process of care and nurturing which began from the womb simply continues. It usually continues through life.

At the twilight of one’s days, when the toll of age takes its trophies, women remain. Experience has also shown that many old people prefer their caregivers to be women. For example, an octogenarian who has five children of three males and two females would most likely prefer to move in with either of his female children than any of the males. The sure hand and natural compassion of women ensure that they retain their appeal as caregivers.

Experience has also shown that in old age, it is women more than men that provide care and support to their parents.

The critical roles women play as caregivers have become ever more necessary in a world where women, children and the aged are coming under increasing danger.

Death continues to hunt women and children. According to data from Federal Ministry of Health, 145 Nigerian women die every day from pregnancy-related causes; 2,300 children below age five suffer the same fatal fate daily. These are among the highest rates globally.

On this day when women are celebrated the world over, it is only just that they are lauded and supported for the critical life-saving care they provide those who are invaluable because they have defied long  odds to get to their ripe old age.

 In addressing this year theme DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality, an emerging epidemic of abuse of women/girl child has emerged: rape by men, regrettable/lamentable are cases/crises of father raping and sleeping with their daughters and much more including husband abandoning/abdicating their fatherhood leadership by reducing women to cooks, housemaids/maid-guard and economic providers up to physical abuse in spite of their huge sacrifice, commitment and support to advance the family and the society.  All this and much more help contribute in reducing the longevity in this age and in our ageing world.

•Ike Willie-Nwobu,

activeageing06@yahoo.com