The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Aregbesola, politics in Osun and beyond

    Aregbesola, politics in Osun and beyond

    Our progenitor, the great Oranmiyan who has become a phenomenon in Yorubaland traversing the old Oyo Empire was a Prince, a King, warrior and custodian of cultural authority during his heroic days. Many centuries after he left, another symbol of peace, progress and prosperity for the Yoruba race is Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, the Governor of Osun State.

    Ever since he assumed the position of the chief executive officer in Osun, he has come under tense and heavy criticism, largely orchestrated by the opposition. However, the radiating love between him and his people (citizens, residents and electorate) remain uncompromised.

    Fundamentally, Aregbesola is a mountainous movement, better described as an unstoppable revolution. It is a promulgation of enduring legacies for today and the coming generations: these and more he professed, he has demonstrated over the years in deeds, words and actions.

    Travelling down memory lane, just thirty two months ago, the most vindictive and politically intimidating election since the advent of the Fourth Republic was conducted on August 9, 2014 in what political scientists often refer to as an over-militarized supervised ballot of  a little above 700,000  electorate where well above 70,000 security operatives stretching from masked DSS to army officers, mobile and regular policemen and several other paramilitary agencies terrorized and intimidated innocent and law abiding electorate but the Osun people rose and stood against tiring oppression, frightening influence and terrific intimidation with the broom mentality of purposeful unity, Aregbesola won clearly.

    His dexterity and natural instinct of participatory governance is legendary. He posits with enormous humility that he remains the only governor who can confidently boast of two large territories in different domains of Osun East senatorial district and Lagos West senatorial district where he can make himself available for an election if he so desires.

    Putting the issues in clear perspectives, the success story of infrastructural development under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos State between 1999 – 2007 and beyond which epitomizes symbolic revolution in massive infrastructural development, cannot be waved away; it is documented with indelible ink in the annals of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure at the Centre of Excellence.

    Till date, his unflinching loyalty, strength and noticeable discipleship to the Tinubu political dynasty makes him the delight of the politician and a force to reckon with in the political landscape of Lagos and beyond.

    Is Aregbesola actually a large political heavyweight in Osun? How? When? Where? Well, his mode of governance is patently unusual, reversing the old trends and bringing government in its entirety and totality closer to the governed by expressly surprising the over four million teeming populace through the constitutional and conventional roles of entrenching the depth of democratic principles with legacy projects.

    The construction of new 70 state-of-the-art educational facilities for elementary, middle and high school pupils/students, with complementary renovation of additional 1,500 classrooms. The government alone has served 200,000,000 plates of nutritious meal as at December 31, 2016 with 250,000 dished out daily under the O-Meal scheme with O – REAP (Osun Rural Enterprise and agriculture programme) a platform for peasant and mechanized farmers to translate their farm produce into profits and prosperity as the bed rock.

    Undoubtedly, the chunk of the success stories have now metamorphosed into a national template for implementation of the blueprint of APC Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government.

    The Osun Special Ambulance scheme (O – Ambulance) don’t discriminate between Fulani, Ibibio, Efik, Igbira or Oyo when discharging effectively their statutory duties of saving accident victims and offering emergency services to the residents of Osun, records show that 12,000 lives have been saved from untimely death within four years of operation.

    We cannot exhaust all existing channels to salute the doggedness, patience and understanding of the rank and file of the workforce, the labour unions for standing unceremoniously with the government in solidarity.

    The succession conspiracy theory can’t distract our government, the model of finesse for emerging and performing successors under the Tinubu dynasty is not accidental, Babatunde Raji Fasola was thrown up less than three months to the defunct Action Congress (AC) 2007 Governorship primaries, same applied to Akinwumi Ambode whose entry into the race was less than a year. The baton will be passed to a worthy apostle of the six point integral action plan of Aregbesola in due course.

    Rauf does not give in to hypocrisy or pride as erroneously analyzed in some quarters, but a firm grip of the political firmament in Osun as this was again displayed at the just concluded seven-hour all night interactive session tagged Ogbeni till Daybreak where a random sampling showed residents glued to their television sets despite the leprous and epileptic power supply.

    Conscious efforts to resuscitate the Osun economy to boost the revenue generation through the agricultural and ICT revolution is commendable, the Cocoa processing industry in Ede is back on its feet after 15years of collapse, the chocolate liquor from the firm is touching grounds in China and  Europe.

    Aregbesola is reinventing the wheels of Awo legacies, approaching the mechanism of sustainable development through agriculture, infrastructure, social intervention and education for the benefit of mankind, he is purpose driven and remarkably focused on his set goals, he cannot be distracted by rabble rousers as every available parameter by both government and private establishment clearly reveal indices, statistical figures and empirical data of progress in human capital development, poverty reduction, infrastructural development, agricultural prosperity, etc. Saboteurs of development and political scavengers should halt all moves to replace Aregbesola with retrogressive element as they are whipping a dead horse; they have lost the battle al binitio.

    • Oluremi Omowaiye, an engineer writes from Osogbo
  • Road to sustainable Amnesty Programme in Niger Delta

    Road to sustainable Amnesty Programme in Niger Delta

    The recent motion by the Senate calling on the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemp Adeosun, to release the sum of N15 billion being the backlog of allowances and payments for the training and education of former Niger Delta militants under the Amnesty Programme, which was provided for in the 2016 budget, is a welcome development. The House of Representatives had, a day earlier, passed a similar motion.

    The timely release of the outstanding funds without further delay would save the country an international embarrassment that may arise from protests by beneficiaries of the programme, especially those receiving training in various institutions in different parts of the world.

    While presenting the motion on the floor of the House, Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, had drawn attention to plans by some of the beneficiaries in the United Kingdom to stage demonstrations at the Nigerian High Commission in that country to protest the delay in releasing the funds to enable them to meet their financial obligations to the institutions where they are undergoing training.

    Reports from South Africa, United States, Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries where former militants are also undergoing trainings indicate a similar level of restiveness, with some facing the threat of expulsion from their institutions. Certainly, the country can do without any untoward development that could have negative impact on its image.

    It is gratifying to note that the Senate does not only want the money released as soon as possible, it has also set in motion a machinery to unravel the cause of the delay, with a view to guarding against a reoccurrence in the future.

    Without prejudice to the findings of the Senate committee, the cause of the delay in meeting government’s obligations to the amnesty beneficiaries may not be located too far away from the government’s commitment to ensuring accountability and transparency in the disbursement of funds under the programme.

    A similar delay occurred in the first few months of the current administration, and only a timely intervention by the government averted an ugly situation.

    Without doubt, the return of permanent peace to the troubled Niger Delta hinges partly on solutions to the unemployment problem that has fuelled militancy in the region for more than a decade.

    That was what the Amnesty Programme of the late president, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, unarguably the most ambitious programme by any administration before it to address the problem of unemployment in the region, set out to achieve.

    Timi Alaibe, the then presidential adviser and chief executive officer of the programme, is said to have achieved the feat of not only disarming and rehabilitating the militants, about 26, 000 in number, but also succeeded in reintegrating them into the society through a hitch-free implementation of the programme. Reports claim that under Alaibe, there was a measure of transparency and accountability in execution of the programme.

    That’s why we did not hear stories of delay in paying the militants – those that are placed on monthly allowance of N65, 000 – and those in various institutions around the world for different trainings. And, by extension, no stories of demonstrations by militants over unpaid allowances.

    The reason for the relative ease with which Alaibe and his team executed the programme may not be unconnected with the fact that it was the responsibility of one agency, the one he headed. This promoted transparency, accountability and easy management in the manner funds were disbursed.

    It is therefore possible that problems set in when other non-concerned agencies began to dabble into execution of amnesty programmes for the militants. For instance, the mandate of the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Administration (NIMASA) does not include execution of amnesty programmes for militants.

    But we saw during the tenure of the immediate past administration of the agency how it reportedly got involved in sponsoring repentant militants on training programmes in different parts of the world, apart from other amnesty programmes.

    It may not be farfetched to suggest that during the immediate past dispensation, the two agencies – Amnesty Programme Office and NIMASA – may have been working at cross purposes.

    While it is necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff through painstaking investigation into the management of resources meant for sustenance of the amnesty programme during the previous dispensation, care must be taken to ensure it does not in itself constitute a clog in the wheel of progress in current efforts to find long and lasting solutions to the problem of unemployment in the Niger Delta region – an important component of the whole package.

    If need be, the federal government may find it necessary to look into the handling of the amnesty programme by Alaibe. It may be safe to assume that he did not execute the programme in abstract terms. He must have designed a template for its execution. This is more so because he authored the Niger Delta Development Master Plan, of which the amnesty programme is a part. There must be something on paper others can learn from.

    It must not be forgotten that the amnesty programme is just an aspect of what should be a holistic approach to resolving the issues of the Niger Delta. The highly commendable dialogue approach of the federal government in solving the problem of the region once and for all is evident in the relative peace that has reigned in the region in the past few months. This is just the first step. Subsequent steps should involve a more streamlined and sustainable approach to executing the amnesty programme to ensure it achieves the objectives for which it was designed, in a hitch-free manner.

    Tijani, a social commentator, wrote in from Kaduna

  • Transparency International: Nigeria Yesterday and Today

    Transparency International (TI) on Thursday released a report alleging that lack of transparency in defence spending is responsible for the continuous existence of Boko Haram and that some of the measures to be adopted are that no nation should sell arms to the country. The report, prepared in partnership with the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and ominously titled, “Weaponising Transparency: Defence Procurement Reform As a Counterterrorism Strategy in Nigeria,” warned that corruption in defence procurement is a threat to Nigeria’s stability.
    On the surface the report appears like genuine intention on the part of an international “do gooder” that is out to ensure that Nigerians are not short-changed of N380 billion annually by corrupt politicians and greedy military officers who take the money under the cover of military purchases that are either inflated, substandard or non-existent. The true objective of the report is however hidden in plain sight. The real intent was the demand that countries do not sell weapons to Nigeria, which is in itself a secondary or even tertiary agenda as the real reason for seeking to drive Nigeria into a strait is known to only those executing that project.
    To understand the duplicity in the intent of the Transparency International’s report is to recall that it is a rehash of the report of another project manager that appends “international” to its name.

    Amnesty International had in the past, during the US Presidency of Barack Obama, fabricated lies that were packaged as a report to block the sales of military gears to Nigeria. The consequences of that blockade in the Goodluck Jonathan era are well documented; it marked the period Boko Haram grew with lightening rapidity while there were no equipment to fight them.
    The coming of President Buhari’s administration and the appointment of the current military chiefs changed the permutation. Even without the benefit of procurement, they looked inward and rehabilitated existing hardware that were earlier mothballed and deployed same for degrading Boko Haram. Along the line, the tenure of the “moderate rebels” loving Obama ended and a more pragmatic, if overbearing, Donald Trump came and the US again became a willing partner in the quest to defeat terrorism with the approval to sell Super Tucanos aircraft to Nigeria among other approvals that will place weapons in the hands of troops.
    For project managers that have been contracted to ensure the growth of extremism and terrorism as destabilization tools in Nigeria, that development would negate contracts and bring catastrophic casualty to the fighting forces of contrived insurgency. There is no way that is going to be allowed to happen. The one tool that has been used to hound the military from performing, Amnesty International, has been overused to a point where some angry Nigerians wanted it booted out of the country. Hence the quest to hastily find a replacement with a global outlook and a level of acceptance that equals the level of Amnesty International before it became damaged good. Transparency International was the perfect choice and corruption is a good cover for it to continue running the brief without raising red flags.
    But the human factor gave this operation away. To be sure that it has a control of the spin, Transparency International ran the partnership with CISLAC, whose Executive Director, Auwal Rafsanjani conveniently happens to be the Chairman, Board of Amnesty International (Nigeria). So all the terrorist sympathizer did was to change vessels and continue plying his wares as fanatical Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) promoter, not necessarily as a sectarian adherent but as someone who will throw anything into the wheels of the military machinery for the purpose of wrecking it and deliver a sorely needed project to his sponsors.
    The exercise carried out by Transparency International in partnership with CISLAC is therefore a fiasco even before it was presented to resounding rejection by stakeholders. Its content is a reflection of the past as the people guilty of the malfeasance it supposedly documented have long left office with some standing trial. Yet it wants this to be used as a basis to stop Nigeria getting weapons to fight terrorists and the military institutions demonized. In the first place, researchers that arrived at those findings are the type that did not even bother to visit a beer parlour anywhere in Nigeria but chose to be misled by a Rafsanjani who has links to IMN and has been openly favoured any criminal group that has the undermining of Nigeria as its manifesto. He is committed to tarnishing the image of the current administration using fictitious reports and cares nothing how this affects the rest of us that are apolitical.
    Rafsanjani’s Transparency International was silent while the psychotic looting took place under the Jonathan government and only now woke up to Sambo Dasuki’s infractions because it needed an indictment to clock in a milestone. One then wonders why it has decided not to at this point acknowledge the contributions of folks like former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode. Perhaps, a time will come when naming Fani-Kayode’s role in looting Nigeria would come in handy for another project. For now, the focus is to deliberately frustrate and castigate the government’s anti-corruption crusade in recovering stolen funds.
    Choosing to release the report at about the same time the rendering of the midterm report of President Buhari’s administration is expected to be rolled solidifies the suspicion about its dubiousness. The President’s performance, even in the face of setbacks that are out of human control, remains remarkable considering where the country has been, where the country is and the improved potentials of where the country could be in the near term.
    There is therefore no doubt that the Transparency International-CISLAC-Amnesty International report was rolled out by elements that are out to tarnish the image of Nigeria with findings that did not take into cognizance the reforms and measures that have been put in place from May 2015 to date. For instance, there was no Department of Procurement in the Army, but now it must be acknowledged that Lt. Gen TY Buratai introduced the department and issues of procurement are now being prudently handled.
    Considering the sheer bad faith behind the report, the government should not take investigating the motives of those behind it off the table. We must question the motives behind the report and the call for security sector reform which is usually for failed states. Possibly, Boko Haram remains the leading agenda that the owners of the report do not want to end as can be garnered from the failure to acknowledge the tremendous progress recorded to the point that the US Secretary of State asked the world to learn from Nigeria. It could be jealousy over the accomplishments of Nigeria even under the harshest of conditions that were brought about by their failed prediction of destroying the country two years ago. They are now coming out with silly, inhuman and irresponsible recommendations like stoppage of arms sales, denial of visa and travel bans.
    One would only wish the incumbent government would go beyond the niceties of considering the people it is dealing with as deserving the usual courtesies even after they have repeatedly made mincemeat of the country. This band of thugs are determined to down the government and the country with it, which dictates that they should not get the nice treatment anymore.

    Agbese is a an international public affairs commentator and writes from the United Kingdom.‎

  • The Tinubu factor in Yoruba and Nigerian affairs

    An article like this necessarily must commence with a caveat. There is a usual angst when it comes to writing about public figures, and especially when these figures are politicians who are caught in the eye of the storm. If there is any political figure whose reputation has always hung in the balance, it is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. There is therefore the likely expectation that one would be expected to toe the line of the regular Tinubu-bashing that has become the pastime of political commentators in Nigeria. My commentary will be more reclamatory than condemnatory. The leadership problematic in Nigeria requires that we pay adequate attention to rescuing what is given to us in terms of leaders and those who can be forced to achieve what is needed for the task of nation building in Nigeria. And all this becomes imperative despite their human frailty.

    Asiwaju Tinubu’s significance straddles not only Yoruba affairs but also the postcolonial fate of Nigeria. He began as an activist-politician whose democratic audacity, together with the tenacious agitation of NADECO, caught the attention and hearts of Nigerians at the height of the aborted June 12 democratic saga in Nigeria. The significance of June 12, in my reckoning, goes beyond the truncation of the electoral victory of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola. On the contrary, and like almost every political issue in Nigeria, it goes to the very heart of Nigerian national integration which lies at the heart of the national project. It was a crisis that almost consumed the soul of Nigeria. Its reverberation is still at the heart of party politics in Nigeria and the diversity of the political anomalies that ails us. It stands to reason therefore that those who fought the war of liberation, as it were, deserves a trajectory analysis that attempts to cumulate their contribution to the larger issue of the salvaging of the Nigerian nation.

    Tinubu is no hero. On the contrary, he is a politician who cannot be understood within the regular understanding of politicking in Nigeria. I concede that he is a master of political gambit which is required if anyone ever hopes to survive the complex minefields of political intrigues that characterize Nigeria’s realpolitik. But it seems to me that calling Tinubu a political realist is the most consummate compliment one can ever hope to give him. And this is all the more so within the context of the complex relationship that links the governance of the Yoruba with the future of Nigeria. Whether we like it or not, the existence of the Yoruba nation, as well as any other nation within the Nigerian plural context of nationhood, is significant for the survival of Nigeria as we want it to be. If this is correct, then it stands to reason that we need a concept of leadership that has the capacity to hold Nigeria together in its plurality.

    Asiwaju Tinubu is one leader out of many who has been involved in the turbulence of making Nigeria work. He is unique not only because, like other politicians, he is concerned with the dynamics of power and power play. On the contrary, Tinubu’s political gambit is usually tied in with the political fate of the Southwest within the overall development of Nigeria. Let us begin with the successful governance story of Lagos State. I suspect that any attempt at narrating the turning point of the governance story that transformed Lagos would have to factor the Tinubu governorship years into the Lagos governance history. But that is not imaginative in the sense that the development dynamics of Nigeria in itself requires sustainability if any governance creativity of one governor is to have any positive and continuing effects on the lives of the citizens of any state. Thus, Tinubu did not just end his tenure as governor and then retired to savour his wealth and goodwill. His political gambit was to further that legacy of good governance through a calculated political engineering that brought in Babatunde Raji Fasola, and then recently Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. If godfathers exist to perpetuate good governance, then I am for Tinubu as a godfather. Lagos State therefore play host to a significant governance story which I have argued should be replicated throughout the Southwest as a critical response to the challenges of restructuring and anomalous fiscal federalism in Nigeria.

    However, the Tinubu factor in politics is not just a Southwest brand alone. It is to his credit that a credible opposition could be mustered to dislodge a sit-tight political party with a slogan of ruling Nigeria for many years rather than empowering millions of poverty-stricken Nigerians who voted the party into power. Does this political clout for ideological politics in the midst of a pandemic of insane self-aggrandizement count for anything when considering the future of Nigeria? I have always been a student of leadership dynamics not only within the organizational framework or as a managerial necessity. Chinua Achebe’s lamentation about the absence of leadership in Nigeria strikes a deep core in me. Leadership is the most cogent factor in any reform effort either at the organisational or national level. However, the search for this reform factor must be as realistic as the context within which the search is taking place. It will be an irresponsible expectation to think that Nigeria can ever throw up a saint or savior without sin who will take us to the Promise Land.

    The fundamental question for me is: What can be done with or gained from Tinubu’s political capital as a significant dynamics come 2019? The type of political capital Nigeria requires for a significant national reform is definitely not one that deploys charisma for the purpose of dumb electoral victory. On the contrary, there is the need for an ideological arrowhead that could serve as the rallying point for a progressive recalibration of politics around which we can redefine democratic governance in Nigeria. With his Lagos governance success, Asiwaju Tinubu displays many political virtues that (a) speaks to the fact that he is his own person; and (b) ideology matters in good governance. A leader that moves with the tides of political maneuvers is definitely one without a backbone required to move ideas to practice. I see this clearly in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s political character. Yet he became a toast of not only the Southwest but of the North. Tinubu himself is far from a politician that is subject to the self-interested will of others. And leadership, for me, is first and foremost, self-evident will power. More significantly, leadership requires an ideological fuel that ought to become the source of ideas and ideals that can motivate policy conceptions and implementations.

    Nigeria’s present season of anomie and the manifestation of obscene corruption reveal that ideology dies within the dense atmosphere of political greed. Is it possible to extricate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the rubric of corrupt politicking? That is a question we must wait for time and chance to reveal. But it seems to me that there is more to the Tinubu factor than achieving a grim certainty that he is a corrupt politician. Of more interest is the need to delimit a sphere of progressive politics in Nigeria—the kind of thinking that led to the evolution of Alliance for Democracy and later the APC—that will accommodate all democratic and patriotic minded politicians and patriots around the possibility of making Nigeria a democratically viable and developed country. Thus, can Nigerians see the forest for the trees? Is it not time for us to commence reclamation of those who possess the political wherewithal to lead a silent revolution of leadership in Nigeria? Can Tinubu’s ethnic commitment be excavated into a national development dynamic? In what sense can politicians and national figures like Tinubu and OBJ become the central discursive point in a leadership theory in Nigeria which speaks to a pragmatic understanding of politics as determined by flawed characters?

    With Tinubu, we have an opportunity to commence an articulation of a Nigerian leadership theory that commences from where Nigeria is at the moment and then moves on to what possible progress we can achieve with what we have in terms of people and capitals. “Leadership,” Robin Sharma tells us, “is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work…” If we can get beyond the present disillusionment we now have with the crop of politicians who raid our votes and destroy the commonwealth, we may actually begin to find a means of rethinking a framework of political leadership which, however flawed it may be, provides the most available juncture from which we can move forward as a nation. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I argue, provides a good starting point in that reflection.

  • Buhari: A President and His Covenant With God

    Destiny has a strong influence in the shape of the affairs of men and nations. Theologians believe only God Almighty determines and divinely controls any outing of destiny at any phase in time and history.

    And God works in mysterious ways. Even the great seer, Nostradamus cannot challenge the potency and efficacy of God on matters of fate and existence. God knows today, much as He knows tomorrow clearer than the commercial clairvoyants and soothsayers that dot the face of the earth. Great seers bow before His might.

    Nigeria, the most populous black nation, has a date with destiny, which from every indication is ordained by God Himself. Here is a country richly endowed in human and material resources. It would not be completely correct to assert that fate has been so cruel to God’s creation in Nigeria and the nation itself. But it is alright to contend that fate has treated this potentially great nation so badly.

    The world knows, Nigeria is a country crippled and crumbled by the foibles of its own people. It is yet a country, suffocated on all fronts by leaders and followers alike. It has been raped, pillaged, looted, pauperized and abandoned to lick its sores for nearly six decades since independence. After the imperialists stab, local leaders have pursued the destruction of Nigeria more aggressively.

    In 2013, the foreign Daily Mail published a detailed report on corruption in Nigeria and estimated that since independence in 1960, “… about $380 billion (£245 billion) of government money has been stolen — almost the total sum Nigeria has received in foreign aid,” for the same period, which stands at $400 billion, to the extent donor nations vowed they did prefer to burn aid money to Nigeria than release it to be looted again.

    When President Muhammedu Buhari came on board in May 2015 and started to canvass international support for the recovery of looted funds stashed in various foreign countries, he disclosed an amazing amount of Nigeria’s wealth stolen by Nigerians in a decade alone. While in America to meet former President Barack Obama in July 2015, President Buhari disclosed in an article published by Washington Post that, he was seeking ways to track $150 billion wealth looted from Nigeria in the last 10 years alone.

    That is the level of appreciation of the trend of looting and corruption in Nigeria. And today, Nigeria, with her oil wealth desperately scouts for a mere $29 billion foreign loan to fix basic infrastructure. But in all these, there is nothing that is truly happenstance, as God has permitted the country to pass through these nauseating experiences to garner enough wisdom to reshape the future.

    It is why the emergence of President Buhari as the civilian President of Nigeria at this point is not just an expression of the paradox of Nigeria’s unimpressive history; but something divinely ordained by God Himself. Buhari, an upright and incorruptible leader of integrity is on a special divine intervention mission and fortified to execute the covenant God signed with Nigerians to liberate them from the chains of servitude from the political oppressors.

    It may not occur to many why President Buhari contested Nigeria’s Presidency three times without success. From 2003, 2007, 2011; but eventually God anointed him the leader of Nigeria during the fourth attempt in 2015. Nigerians should ask themselves questions on why President Buhari, although had no penny to prosecute the extremely expensive electioneering campaigns in Nigeria, but trounced rivals and major political heavyweights in the country to emerge victorious at both the APC party primary elections and the general elections.

    Presidential candidate Buhari in 2014/15 told Nigerians he had no kobo to expend on his electoral quest, but Nigerian masses with a passion for political largesse ignored his “poverty” by choice status and rather donated funds to enable him prosecute his campaigns to lead them.

    There is still the puzzle why a “poor” Buhari outshined his main rival in the presidential contest, former President Goodluck Jonathan, of the then ruling party-PDP. Jonathan flaunted enormous wealth and expended these resources to nail his re-election bid, but it failed.

    It is yet another surprise why President Buhari triumphed against PDP, the then ruling party that had deeply entrenched itself in the politics and polity of Nigeria and threw up leaders of Nigeria at different times, for 16 years, whose negativities in governance was adored and cherished by Nigerians of their ilk, but the same Nigerians worked and indeed, upstaged their own beloved party at the polls for the sake of President Buhari. No one should make mistakes. It was God’s divine command and direction.

    So far, President Buhari has shown the strength of character and will-power to right the wrongs in Nigeria and return the nation to its destined glorious path. The last two years of his democratic leadership of Nigeria has exemplified the partly accomplishment of this divine mission and covenant God Almighty signed with him to liberate Nigeria.

    He met an economy neck-deep in recession; He met a country assailed on all four-corners by armed and violent criminal gangs. Buhari met a nation weakened to the bones by an explosive unemployment rate and months of unpaid salaries of public servants. The Masses President inherited a country whose image broad was a record worse in its history and Buhari met Nigeria, a land flowing in the abundance of milk and honey, but thoroughly sapped by the endemic corruption of leaders, which spirally permeated all facets of the Nigerian state.

    The problems were indeed multiple and confounding. He gave his word about ending these malaises with time and he picked on the most sensitive ones- insecurity, the economy and corruption. And the impact in these prioritized areas, like in other sectors have been immense. And except for the bourgeoisie and the political cabal, whose only specialty is looting Nigeria, the Nigerian masses are happy with their President. And God too is happy that peace is gradually coming back to His people.

    But the cabal, which has held Nigeria and Nigerians hostage for a dozen years are not happy with him. They prefer the old order and the statusquo to remain. They want him out of the way in order to continue with the pillaging and enslavement of the Nigerian masses. They are regretting and at the same time, challenging God Almighty on why He consented to the ascension of President Buhari to the throne. They have vowed to pull him down at all cost; whether legitimately or illegitimately. They have perfected all manner of intrigues and plots to throw him overboard.

    In their polluted minds, they think the “prolong” illness of President Buhari, is the end of the road. Some have even wished or pronounced him dead, a tacit revelation that they know why President Buhari is this sick and had to undergo blood transfusion the first time in his 74 years on earth. They know why they have conspiratorially denied him the bed rest he needed badly to fully regain his health. They understand perfectly why the co-ordinated pressures on President Buhari over allegations of incapacitation, weakness and “neglect” of official duties have continued to resonate and how it will compound his health recovery process.

    But are they God Almighty? No, they are certainly not Almighty God. So, President Buhari has a covenant with God and a date in destiny with Nigerians. With God on his side, Buhari will stop at nothing to redeem the pledges to his countrymen and women, which were divinely uttered. No amount of sad commentaries about his health, apparently orchestrated by some of those at the formative stage of his Presidential ambition in 2015 would frustrate this mission. This is the message of Nigerians to these power monks and vermins, as they pray for his recovery.

    As far as Nigerians are concerned, President Buhari has lived and complied fully with the Constitution of Nigeria and oath of office. Each time he has to travel abroad for medication, he transmits power to his Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, like he repeated days ago. That is the character and inherent integrity of the quintessential President Buhari, who believes in the laws of Nigeria and the application of the rule of law. It is his penchant for standing up on the side of truth, justice and fairness to all of humanity. He did not hide under any banner to remote-control the strings of governance while on his hospital bed in foreign lands.

    Therefore, those who have garbed themselves in awful masks to battle President Buhari should also resort to the law. But deploying brutal forces either using the media to push negative propaganda against his presidency or the outright recourse to political brigandage and hooliganism to upstage President Buhari is tantamount to tempting God Almighty and the Nigerian masses.

    They need to tread carefully, lest they hit their foot against a stone. But it should be clear to them that since they are not God Almighty, President Buhari will fully recover and come back to Nigeria to complete the covenant he signed with God on behalf of Nigerians.

    Abiodun, a public affairs commentator writes from Ibadan.

  • Oloyede: Bulldozer of a Different Kind

    Every man fights, at least, a battle once in his life time. He either wins or loses. But African allegories are replete with great warriors who are famed for conquering all forces anytime they step out on the battlefield. They are venerated each time the call of duty beckons. And those determined to render honest leadership in Nigeria face a battle-like situation against retrogressive forces.

    The current Registrar of Joint Matriculation and Admissions Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede strikes like one such Nigerian-African. He does not belong to the clan of the traditional sword brandishers, but to the ilk of academic and administrative warriors. His missile never misses a target; he is conqueror and a bulldozer of a rare and extraordinary breed. He is a man who sets his mind and eyes on success anywhere fate has ordained him to serve, and he delivers accordingly.

    His admirers recall his inherited animosity with ASUU when he became the Vice Chancellor (VC), University of Ilorin (Uni-lorin). ASUU fruitlessly tried to prematurely terminate his tenure as VC for hardening to their voice the sacked Uni-lorin ASUU members. Thereafter, they resorted to witch-hunting and glaring attempts to frustrate the exercise of his academic prowess on university campuses in Nigeria.

    In further pursuit of this agenda, ASUU mounted a baseless, but stiff opposition against his appointment as JAMB Registrar and backed it up with the near criminal blackmail of the federal government to reverse it or face industrial action. And now, there have been mounting antagonisms by some stakeholders in the education sector against his determination to sanitize JAMB of exam malpractices and other irregularities to bestow credibility on the exam body.

    In all instances and at every point, Professor Oloyede has proved his mettle as a true African hero, who cannot be obstructed by diversionary and unprogressive forces. He bestrode every area of national assignment confidently, deflating all missiles against him and depositing awful footprints. No place has the current JAMB boss ever worked that the walls are not etched with his positive shadows in reforms, innovations and accomplishments. He makes deafening conscious efforts to succeed anywhere he serves his fatherland.

    But the forces of darkness do not easily give up a fight. They do not surrender even when defeated, lest they be branded effeminate. So, they have continued to push forward plots to frustrate, obstruct and distort Oloyede’s graph to sanitize the exam body. But as usual, he is beating them in their tracks.

    Professor Oloyede’s latest battle is his insistence to entrench the Computer-Based Test (CBT) style of examinations for candidates sitting for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Antagonists’ cried foul and unreasonably described the online registration for the 2017 UTME as a failure, when fraudsters invaded some registration centers in some states. But the JAMB boss moved swiftly to solve the problem, as security agents apprehended the fraudsters’.

    One could not fathom why the detractors had to describe as a failure, an exercise, which had successfully registered over a million candidates for the 2017 UTME out of the anticipated 1,500 candidates in the first three weeks. This happened in a country, which has certified problems of logistics, such as lack of electricity, poor internet services and other inadequacies. But the JAMB boss and his team worked tirelessly, sometimes, spending the night in the office to ensure the online registration does not become a fiasco.

    Professor Oloyede’s innovations introduced trial or mock exams for the prospective candidates to test the workability of the CBT system and readiness of the examinees. The stakeholders in the education sector in Nigeria never gave him the benefit of doubt to do it. They only sighted failure; while Professor Oloyede sensed success and the benefits to candidates and the educational system in Nigeria.

    These are stakeholders who have vowed that nothing good would ever come out of Nigeria again and they vehemently kicked against it. But the JAMB boss insisted and the mock exams held successfully nation-wide, with a perfection that beats the imagination. And the candidates have been better armed for the actual examinations.

    That the JAMB boss dared the odds to hold the mock exams, with such resounding success is indication of the worth of Oloyede’s administrative acumen. It advertises him as a persona with a strong and unyielding character to be trusted with the most difficult of assignments, but he would not disappoint his superiors.

    This singular innovation, which is unique in the West African sub-region is celebrated around the world too, as the rating of Nigeria’s JAMB today has soared incredibly. With the CBT for the 2017 UTME successfully and conveniently conducted, Prof. Oloyede has etched a niche for the board as conducting one of the best examinations in the history of Nigeria. There are numerous such exam bodies in Nigeria still struggling to understand the basics of conducting a credible exam. Such bodies should emulate this exemplary, focused, innovative and result-oriented leadership.

    Quite unfortunately, when opponents failed to nail the JAMB boss over the mock exams, some of them prayed fervently it drooped. Hence the vile propaganda was practically dismantled by the board, opponents again embarked on another leg of campaigns’. Very disingenuously, thoughtlessly and laughably, they claimed candidates for 2017 UTME would not receive examination centers because of imagined “loopholes” or “shortcomings” the attackers of the reforms in JAMB eerily sighted in the online registration of candidates.

    Again, the JAMB headed by Oloyede disappointed them, as candidates confirmed receiving their examination centres as promised by the exams body, days before the date of exams through SMS, e-mails and other channels.

    And for each of the CBT centers approved by JAMB for the 2017 CBT-UTME, there were reserve computers to take care of unseen circumstances like system failure while exams were in progress.

    Adhering to his principle of success in all his endeavours, the JAMB Registrar succeeded in registering 1, 736, 571 candidates for the 2017 UTME for 624 centres nationwide, who would sit for the exams in batches. He exceeded the estimated number of candidates’ by nearly 250, 000 candidates, who all successfully wrote the examination last Saturday, May 13, 2017 hitch -free.

    An administrator who goes the extra mile to grab success deserves accolades, because in the bid of Nigeria to go digital in government or public business, there have been a lot of hiccups. The normal and peculiarly Nigerian situation would have seen poor electricity supply or outright power outage and faulty machines taking the shine off this maiden attempt by Professor Oloyede to adopt CBT for UTME as the new norm for JAMB candidates.

    Banks, INEC’s e-voting, GSM companies, internet service providers have suffered these setbacks at different times. But these repulsive threats could not hold back the JAMB boss and determined for success now as never before, he treaded where devils dreaded and came out triumphantly.

    So, Oloyede has proven that he is an academic and administrator who does not believe in living by chance or happenstance, but a man who consistently lives by choice; the conscious and deliberate choice of working to succeed and defining new limits of excellence for himself and institutions’ he has led in the educational sector.

    Thus far, the skeptics could go ahead with their doubts; the antagonists can continue with the blackmail; the black sheeps in the system can continue with their intrigues and plots to scuttle his reformations in JAMB and his target of purifying the entry exams into Nigerian higher institutions. But Professor Oloyede has never been defeated in such battles. Another opportunity has offered it and him to proven his critics dead wrong.

    With this maiden, but successful implementation of CBT for UTME, Nigerians genuinely concerned with the fallen standards of education are contemplating honouring him as Nigeria’s Ambassador of free and fair examinations, devoid of malpractices. So, the JAMB boss has already silenced critics and opponents alike to the salvation of the educational sector and the glory or prosperity of Nigeria.

    Odoma, is President, Africa Arise for Change Network and writes from Abuja.

  • Fayose, FFK And Other “Saints”: Please Return Nigeria’s Loot

    There is something strikingly amusing about some Nigerian leaders. They regale in oddities; celebrate the profane and seek to stamp the seal of illegalities all the times. Most recently, Nigerians have been forced to contend with too many of such characters; but two of them are really outstanding in Nigeria’s hall of perfidy.

    All dais point to the incumbent Ekiti state Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose and the former Aviation minister, Chief Femi-Fani Kayode (FFK). They are two of a kind and share too many things in common; notwithstanding some equally striking dissimilarities.

    Both are supposedly of Yoruba descent; except FFK whom the Yorubas are contesting his ancestry. They claim he is man whose parents aboard a slave sheep from Sierra Leone were freed somewhere in Lagos when it berthed to load more slaves in Badagry for Europe. His parents were feted with the traditional Yoruba hospitality, rehabilitated; refused to go back to their fatherland of torment and eventually settled in the Southwest and begot FFK.

    Fayose also differs from FFK. The Governor claims he is a Pastor and seer of the future. So, he knows exactly when Nigeria would kiss the doom finally or starve his Ekiti people to blame President of Nigeria. But FFK lacks such powers, at least, on this score, he does not pretend to possess it.

    The duo also have touty character. They have the same inclination of acting like rogues; they speak before thinking and keep currying public support for odious actions even when the public resist them. They are soulless and inhuman. They have lost the nerve and the touch of human kindness. What is fair to them, must be fair to all and conversely, what is unfair to them means Nigeria must be brought to its knees.

    They have a penchant for sycophancy and loquaciousness; but in their context, they don’t even recruit others to do it at their behest. They execute the job personally, through direct labour. So, Fayose praises himself as the best governor and “miracle” that would ever rule Ekiti state. FFK says, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration solved all the problems of Nigeria. He was Jonathan campaign spokesman in 2015 and still pained that his boss lost it all.

    When President Buhari secured the first release of 21 Chibok Schoolgirls Boko Haram insurgents abducted in 2014 during the reign of ex-President Jonathan, the Ekiti State’s Governor Fayose said it’s “a diversionary tactic orchestrated by President Muhammadu Buhari administration.” He repeated the same thing when another batch of 82 Chibok girls secured their freedom through negotiation last week. It is the most accurate example of a man who reasons with his fingers, instead of the brain.

    But the families of the release Chibok girls are happy and Nigerians are celebrating their release. A thoughtful man would have advised his alter ego, former President Jonathan to also employ this “diversionary tactic,” to pleasantly shock Nigerians by securing freedom for the Chibok girls. But then, he had not yet counted his fingers, up to the fifth one, so he advised nothing.

    And the biggest of their shared traits! They both have a competitive passion for sleaze money. Ekiti state workers are dying under the yoke of months of unpaid salaries. Fayose has allegedly embezzled billions of naira in bail-out funds sent to the state to offset outstanding salary bills of workers and pensioners. He does not give a damn, like his former boss Jonathan.

    And under FFK as Aviation minister, plane crashes in Nigeria, resulting in mass deaths were more rampant than road motor accidents. It was because he allegedly embezzled funds voted to improve facilities at the nation’s airports.

    While Boko Haram terrorists were daily killing and abducting Nigerians in the Northeast and the government of the day secured over $2.1 billion to procure arms to equip the Nigerian military to effectively battle insurgents, the duo allegedly embezzled a chunk of the money for electoral purposes. The action caused avoidable mass deaths and among the dead, were their kinsmen; it caused destructions and social dislocations of a terrifying magnitude.

    These are the actions of serving or former leaders of Nigeria amply typified by Fayose and FFK, who love Nigerian people so greatly and their country, Nigeria more than anyone else. Sadly, while FFK is facing trial in court for his alleged crimes against the masses and the Nigerian state; Fayose is hoed -up in the protective shield of Ekiti State Government House, with the garments of immunity, where he has reduced everybody in his state to the status of a dog.

    Unfortunately, the likes of Fayose and FFK are in thousands in Nigeria. They have occupied Nigeria like the commercial activists and NGOs all over the country. They manipulate themselves into positions of leadership and instead of repenting; they explore new frontiers on how to consolidate the dubious hold on the people and Nigeria. It is exactly what Fayose is doing to Ekiti people. He has frightened all institutions and muzzled every voice of dissention in his state. He attacks security agents proudly and prevents them from performing their lawful duties. He talks, acts and sleeps plotting anarchy on Nigeria.

    Yet, in all these oddities, which pass for the first identity of Fayose, when his friend and artificialized kinsman, FFK hosted him in Abuja early 2017, the former Aviation minister described Fayose as “… a man who has the heart of a warrior and a lion. It was an honor and a privilege to spend the afternoon with him in our home today. I love this man with all my heart and he is doing great things for both Ekiti state and Nigeria.”

    It is now easy to discern why the two of them are tied together like the proverbial birds of the same feathers, frolicking together in infamy.

    But Nigerians ask just one favour from these two gentlemen touts. Everyone knows corruption is not peculiar to Nigeria. It happens all over and in all nations of the world. But the entrenched, endemic and mindless looting of Nigeria has caused the multifaceted problems which have assailed Nigeria today. If truly they are patriotic as they preach, they should have pity on the masses like President Muhammadu Buhari.

    In other climes, patriotic citizens of any country, like the likes of Fayose and FFK are claiming belatedly, who are caught pilfering with national resources’, instantly return the loot quietly and seek for forgiveness from the country men and women they have wronged. They do not climb rooftops or shout halleluiah and overstretch the wheels of the judiciary in arguing about some insane innocence.

    This is more honourable and patriotic. Nigeria needs this money in the custody of these alleged looters to turn around the crippling poverty all over the nation and put smiles on the faces of families. Some Nigerians, who indulged in this odious act by induction, mistake, influence or whatever means and have been figured out, have returned this loot. And they were asked to “Go and sin no more.”

    Why is “patriotic” Fayose, FFK and the likes everywhere unwilling to abide by this simple creed, by doing the needful? Is this the love for one’s country they preach everywhere and see only the failures in others? This is a plea to them; “Please, return Nigeria’s looted money.” This country needs the money.

    It is immoral for anyone to steal from public pot and refuse to return the theft funds when caught, especially as the likes of Fayose and FFK are doing. It is not an issue of grandstanding. The case of Fayose is worse because as a Pastor, he should know God forbids stealing or conversion of another man’s property. He also knows and mounts the podium in worship centers, preaching to others the infinite mercies of God to forgive. So, why the phobia?

    Dear Fayose, FFK and others, you must know that in God’s eyes, no one is too dirty or sinful to repent. And penitence is not even tied to time. At any moment you decide to observe the rites of penitence, God forgives you. And atoning for your sins especially against God’s children endears you closer to Him.

    Please let Nigerians know how much you pilfered,( to use a mild word) in the Dasukigate arms procurement fund scandal or largess and what you are willing to refund and the negotiations’ would continue from there.

    It shall be to your eternal joy of reconciliation with Nigerian masses to make haste while the sun shines, as patriotic Nigerians by acting positively to this special plea. Other looters of Nigeria can also explore this option in order to free themselves and decongest the judicial system as well as other agencies consigned to fighting corruption. This is the plea and passionate cry of the Nigerian masses.
    Ola is a public affairs commentator and contributed this piece from Oshodi, Lagos.

  • Naija’s Sai Baba Reappears!

    Chikelu came up alive with his usual morning quarrels as animals foraged the bushy surroundings around his house. He girdled himself with a wrapper round his waist, the customary apron of his eastern kinsmen, signifying a man who has truly woken up from his house, the previous night.

    Chikelu, a middle aged man intermittently spat out large spittle, as he violently brushed his teeth with a chewing stick, humming his favourite war-like song.

    Chinedu! Chinedu!! Chikelu bellowed into the open air, as he inspected his home poultry barn. A cock was missing and he could not remember when he asked that it should be slaughtered for the family.

    Chineduuuu!!! he shouted again. Mama Chinedu, a bulky mother of five, appeared from his back and calmly said, Nnanyi, “I have sent him to the village stream.” Okay! Where is that red coloured cock, my good friend Nnaji gave me last year?, he asked.

    Mama Chinedu said, “It’s there, look at it,” as she pointed to a giant feathered cock, attempting to service a hen. On sighting it, Chikelu heaved a huge sigh of relief.

    “But let me ask,” Mama Chinedu uttered almost quietly. “You seem very angry this morning. Who has offended you?” she asked her husband.

    Chikelu pretended not to hear, counting his stock of chickens, as he sprayed seeds of grains at them. But determined to get an answer, she repeated the same question. Her husband turned grudgingly to his wife and beckoned her to a seat beside him.

    “My wife,” he began, “Do you know since after the civil war, none of our people has been able to rule Naija, our dear country?” “Yes,” the wife replied.

    Chikelu took time to explain to his wife the political history of Naija and how the Presidency of the country has always escaped them by the whiskers.

    “The last time a man from the North sat on the seat, after which it would have rotated to us, they never allowed it.” he said.

    “They claimed he died; so the zoning formula changed and the seat went to another region,” “And now, the North is holding the seat again. And after the region, it will come back to the South and to us; but they are again saying Sai Baba is sick and too weak to continue in office,” he said.

    “Amadioha, where are you,” he shouted with arms up in the air.

    He explained to his wife, how he thought over it all through the night and the pains penetrated his nerves particularly, as others wished Sai Baba dead to create the opportunity for his deputy from the West to take over to again, deny his people this second chance.

    The wife listened with rapt attention and when her husband finished what she scornfully considered a dull tale, she muttered, walking away; “Is that why we cannot have peace in this house?”

    Chikelu angrily raced after her, as she sped into the kitchen. “Don’t worry, next time, you’ll forget and say it again,” he said, retreating.

    Elsewhere in Naija, the mood was nothing near pleasantness. Gloomy faces and angry comments coloured countenances. The media buzzed with news of how Sai Baba could not attend and chair the national council meetings of Naija for three consecutive times. Some accounts said, he could no longer eat or even recognize the face of his wife, Sha, the first woman in Naija.

    Down West of Naija, the intrigues went high, complex and sublime to persuade the county’s national “assemblage” to declare the seat of the Presidency vacant and to ask his deputy to take over. All calculations had been finalized and one Alhaji from the Northeast accepted the position of deputy to the Yoro Vice President, who was to be elevated to take Sai Baba’s seat.

    The heat whirled for two weeks. And Naija masses never believed an inch of the negative tales about Sai Baba’s worsening health condition. Yet, it filled the ears inescapably. They started asking questions and beseeching God in prayers never to allow a bad thing happen to the sons and daughters of Naija again.

    Inside the Villa, Sai Baba sat in his spacious private room, playing with his little daughter, Ahra , after a cup of tea, with bread, spiced with honey. His attention suddenly turned to the TV as Naija people discussed his health on an early morning interactive programme.

    The TV robust debates on his health condition and presumed incapacitation amazed him infinitely. He almost resigned to fate and wrote Naija off, from any possibility of regaining itself. But on a second thought, he got energized as Naija people debated the comments of his wife, Sha, dismissing insinuations about his worsening health condition. He read the feelings and mood of analysts, commentators and Naija masses over the mandate they gave him. And the overwhelming verdict pointed to a solid and popular masses’ support for his administration. They eulogized his policies and projects and wished him quick recovery to resume normal duties.

    His Personal Assistant knocked on the door and came inside his private parlour.

    “Ina kwana, Baba?”

    “Lafiya,” Sai Baba answered in brightened mood.

    “Yaya aiki,” Baba asked his aide.

    “Na gode Allah,” the aide answered.

    The aide came to inform him of files referred to him last night, which are on his table in his private study. He left almost immediately to look at them.

    For three hours he perused the two files marked “urgent.” One of the files was about security and he remembered the meeting he held with Service Chiefs the preceding day and minuted accordingly, in approval of actions for the decisions they took.

    It was on a Thursday and the time ticked 1:30pm. Then, he remembered a meeting he scheduled with the MD of Naija’s National Oil Company and the Chief Law Officer. He rushed a bath and met them at the Presidential office. Cameras beamed at him, as he briskly walked into his office. Tongues suddenly ran mum and giggled. Others almost fainted as he waved to Villa staff chorusing “Good Afternoon, Sir,”

    He spent nearly two hours in the meeting. A case of indolence affecting one of the senior staff in Naija’s National Oil Company infuriated him and he directed a query be issued to him. “This nonsense must stop. I can’t tolerate this laxity,” he echoed.

    The brief appearance in his office soon went viral on social media. But many still doubted it, until the news began to make headlines in major traditional media. Some described Sai Baba a ghost, while the schemers kept saying to themselves that it was a comic show to douse tension. They insisted he has over strained himself to show his face in the office, in pains and would not come out again in the next two weeks. Then, Naija people would be told he has gone on medical tourism abroad, they insisted.

    Next day, Friday, Sai Baba was at the Ju’maat prayers at the Villa mosque, where he prayed and observed all the alternating postures in the near two hours prayers. A new wave of shock entered town again. “The President is a pretender,” Bajo said, biting his finger. “He is not even sick,” another said.

    At Mai Shanu Square in Gombi state, some elders relaxed under a tree after the day’s farm work. They freely discussed the issue in vogue. They dissected what Naija people said about the severity of Baba’s health condition; the calculations to unseat him; his sudden appearance in the office and the Friday Ju’maat prayers.

    “ Mallam, ‘ve you not heard?” “Heard what?”Another asked.

    “We heard, one of our brothers who accepted the negotiation to become deputy President fainted and collapsed, when Sai Baba appeared in the office yesterday,” he whispered.

    “Its true and we hear he has since ran to Equatorial Guinea on self-imposed exile,” another elder replied.

    “Please, let him come back, Baba has no problem with anybody, but how Nigeria can become better,” he added.

    “Let’s continue to pray for Baba, Almighty Allah will protect him from these wolves,” another pleaded.

    Aminnn!!!! they chorused.

    After his Ju’maat prayers, Sai Baba headed back to his private residence in the Villa after exchanging a few pleasantries with dignitaries. Back home, his wife; Sha had decorated the dining table with a sumptuous lunch. Baba devoured it with a few confidants, as they chat on various national issues.

    Okanga writes from Agila, Benue State.

  • Applying Alaibe’s recommendations for devt of Niger Delta

    Applying Alaibe’s recommendations for devt of Niger Delta

    The assurance, by the federal government, that all the oil bearing communities in the Niger Delta will enjoy equal treatment in the distribution of developmental projects is a soothing balm to the wounds of communities that have over the years suffered neglect by successive administrations in the various attempts at addressing the vexed issue of even development of the region.

    Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, reportedly gave the assurance not long ago when representatives of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Delta State paid him a courtesy visit.

    For far too long, communities in states that are derisively considered as ‘fringe members’ of the Niger Delta have suffered what can at best be described as official neglect in the distribution and siting of developmental projects, for the simple reason that they are not the ‘mainstream’ oil bearing states, and therefore do not suffer the same level of destruction of the environment and other negative consequences of oil exploration and production, like the latter.

    It is the reason Niger Delta has inadvertently come to be synonymous with states like Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Cross River and Edo. It is hardly remembered that Ondo, Imo and Abia states are also in the Niger Delta. In fact, reference is sometimes made to Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa as the so-called core Niger Delta. It doesn’t help matters, either, that people in these three states see themselves, rather arrogantly, as the ‘real Niger Delta’ people, through utterances and actions.

    But thank God for the Buhari administration. Recent actions of the government suggest that we are about to witness a significant departure from what has been the usual practice of concentrating developmental efforts on some selected sections of the Niger Delta, perhaps because all the noise, threats and actual destruction of oil installations and facilities by armed militants have been coming from those sections. The all-inclusive approach of the federal government to finding lasting solutions to the problems of the entire Niger Delta, not just a few states, is undoubtedly the panacea to the restiveness that has seen the country being held hostage, with the predictability of the rising of the sun.

    The government has started on a good note by engaging stakeholders in the Niger Delta in dialogues that are meant to chart the way forward for the region. One of such activities was the recent tour of the region by the vice president, during which he held town hall meetings with people from all segments of the society. Before then, President Muhammadu Buhari had held a meeting with representatives of the region in Abuja, at which the demands of the people of the region were presented in documentary form.

    If past experience is anything to go by, it will not be surprising to see the government follow up by setting up a committee to draw up a plan of action for implementing the demands of the region, both from the president’s meeting and the vice president’s various town hall meetings. There should be no need for this. The government has a working document to serve as guide for a systematic development of the region, one that would satisfy the yearnings, demands and aspirations of all the communities in the region.

    Timi Alaibe, a former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has been a one-man advocate for equitable distribution of resources and developmental projects in the region, irrespective of percentage of contribution to the national oil revenue, or degree of negative consequences suffered from oil exploration and production activities. For him, environmental degradation, like oil spill, does not recognize state or community boundaries. Nor is underdevelopment or unemployment concentrated in some sections of the region.

    The former presidential adviser on the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme does not lose any opportunity to speak on the issue of even development of the region wherever he finds it – at public lectures and media interviews.

    Alaibe’s ideas of what are required to ‘liberate’ the Niger Delta from the shackles of underdevelopment and poverty, quite lofty as they come, are encapsulated in the Niger Delta Development Master Plan that he personally authored. The document is a guide for the systematic and sustained development of the region, quite different from the periodic handouts that successive governments have been content to giving the people of the region.

    Though yet to be fully implemented, save for one of the pillars that deal with demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of former militants, the Master Plan has remained largely unused. Perhaps the document waited for the Buhari administration that is designing a new approach to solving the problems of the region, to be fully implemented.

    Is it a coincidence that the Senate has just exhumed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that had remained buried in its closets for nearly a decade, just when the federal government is trying to design new initiatives to tackle the Niger Delta problem? Perhaps it is not. The PIB and the Niger Delta Master Plan find common grounds in some areas, such as joint ownership of oil infrastructure by communities, which would make them assume full responsibility for its security. There is also the issue of involving oil bearing communities in profit sharing of oil proceeds. Both documents are on the same page on this.

    The federal government must walk its talk by ensuring even distribution of developmental projects in the entire Niger Delta region, which is in line with Alaibe’s recommendations in the Master Plan. This is what would give every community and hamlet in the region a sense of belonging. Some sections should no longer be made to feel that they are the special children that deserve to be pampered, while others pick the crumps that fall from the table.

    If the time has come for the people of the Niger Delta to feel differently (positively) about living in the area that serves as the goose that lays the golden egg, that feeling should spread everywhere.

     

    Ms Adeyeye, an environmental rights activist, lives in Akure

     

     

     

  • 2019: Why Buhari’s Second Term Must Stick!

    There is so much tension in Nigeria currently. Political jobbers have a meaningless job again, which is worsened by the tension amid the avoidable speculative hype about President Muhammedu Buhari’s present state of health. He fell ill and proceeded on medical treatment in London, where he stayed for nearly two months. The President is back, but needs more time to recover and only performs his official duties minimally.
     As idle and petty-minded as some Nigerians have chosen to become, the President’s illness and recuperation have become the favorite past time by professional politicians. In essence, there is entirely senseless and so much social media buzz about the President’s health condition. It is also subject for roadside gossips and excited power-seekers have perceived it as another opportunity to exercise their ego and freak for perpetual presidential contests.
    However, no matter how deeply concealed is the plot or campaign against President Buhari over his health condition, Nigerians know the permutations and calculations are geared towards who should lead Nigeria beyond 2019.
    Many questions are being asked: Why is the power cabal and bootlickers over interested in ousting President Buhari?  Why are they so concerned about his ailment or do they know the source of his sickness?  Nigerian masses are asking.
    If every reason or interpretation about President Buhari is all about how to scuttle his Presidency, the schemers may have embarked on a doomed mission.
    Nigerians are Africans and a people of the black heritage. They have a rich cultural wisdom embedded in very stupefying proverbs, which often steep in nuggets of worthy ideas.  One such African adage says, “When a mighty tree falls, the birds are scattered into the bush.”
    For the masses of Nigeria, President Buhari is more than just a President of Nigeria; but a leader of the Nigerian people at its most degenerative time in history. Those who falsely wish him death or too gravely incapacitated to continue in office are free to do so. But for the millions of Nigerians who President Buhari has positively touched their lives in the last two years are unprepared for the bad news the schemers are plotting and spreading.
    Nigerian masses are aware that  the misfortune of the  death or incapacitation  of Buhari  would signify the literal death of every ordinary Nigerian, who are in millions and with it, the hope of survival in a country so messed up to the point, it has lost the wings to fly at any height or altitude. Buhari is restoring the lost wings or the hope and the power mongers who are hurt so badly, want him out of the way at all cost.
    In figurative terms, President Buhari’s shadows alone have perished the evil thoughts most demonic Nigerians nursed against their own country for fear of the repercussions. His absence on the seat for whatever reason, would cause the immediate regrouping of these locusts to again pillage Nigeria. Nigerian masses are abreast with this reality and pray fervently that President Buhari takes a straight eight years as constitutionally stipulated to right the wrongs.
    A few days ago, former interim APC national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande observed something  very sensitive about President Buhari while commenting on the reaction of Nigerians and the need for caution over his health condition.
     An experienced elder statesman by every yardstick, he said when he met President Buhari in December last year, he complained about his stressful looks and  according to him, the President’s  reply denoted what is known to every Nigerian. Akande said; “His reply connoted some allusions to circumstances where an honest man fighting corruption is surrounded mostly by unpatriotic, greedy ruling class. He felt painfully frustrated…I then knew that corruption had effectively been fighting back. And I prayed for Nigeria.”
    No nation on earth can progress or prosper when corruption becomes endemic and widespread. When it is celebrated like it is done in Nigeria before the ascension of President Buhari who in spite of the frustrations has halted the trend and looted wealth is being recovered. There is psychological fear among Nigerians with the mindset to loot because they are fully aware they will certainly not go scot free with Buhari at the helm. There is an astonishing level of public sanity that is gradually returning to Nigeria. Nigerians know the era of impunity in public governance is eventually dissipating, courtesy of President Buhari.
    Nigeria’s image abroad has improved tremendously and dramatically. Yet, this was a country former British Prime Minister, David Cameron ridiculously referred to as “fantastically corrupt.” America’s President Donald Trump may not be justified on his attacks on Nigerians resident in the US and Mexican migrants. But he says the truth, when he drums about Nigeria stealing their country blind in corruption and running to take refuge in other countries which have fortified themselves about such debasing scourge of nation-hood.
    During reflections at a mass for the 200th anniversary of the Gendarmeria or the Vatican Police Force, His Holiness, Pope Frances said, “Corruption produces addiction, and it generates poverty, exploitation, suffering. And how many victims there are in the world today?”
    And painfully, those who exclusively pay for the corruption of the ruling class; the rich; the wealthy or the politician are the poor in every society. In Nigeria, media headlines have ceased celebrating other news items since Buhari came on board.  Every other day, the media is aghast with how a former public officer has embezzled or stolen billions of naira or millions of US Dollars.
    No nation can fulfill its aspirations of being a great nation if her citizens are allowed to freely steal, embezzle or loot the people’s commonwealth.  President Buhari has unleashed unprecedented venom against the scourge of corruption and the impact is too visible to ignore. Those affected are not only scared, but feel President Buhari must not continue. The looters have stashed their loot in secret places. They neither have the liberty or freeness to spend this loot. They are being fished out in piecemeal to face the lawful consequences of their actions. Some of them are the gangs in power at lower levels.
     Nigerian masses whom Buhari  is serving faithfully are aware of his extra efforts to regain the pride and dignity of Nigeria. And majority of the Nigerian people who control the votes know his eclipse from the theatre of leadership would automatically terminate the regeneration process of Nigeria. So, even on wheelchairs, President Buhari would get a second term in 2019. This is the verdict of Nigerian masses.
    Outside corruption, President Buhari has broken the seemingly unbreakable jinx on insecurity which suffocated Nigeria all round for years. Terrorism in Nigeria is now only a reference point; something that is confined to the past and the entire world has acknowledged this feat. Nigerians savour the peace prevalent in their country they dreaded six years back.
     Other insurrectional rebels, secessionists and violent criminals have taken leave under President Buhari because of his intolerance of such criminal acts and the actions that ended the criminal siege on the country. Nigerian masses have no second option to Buhari, but to stick with this popular leader who identifies with the masses until fate decides otherwise.
    Buhari has made so much impact in the polity and in several sectors.The economy was in recession when he assumed office. With consistently falling oil prices in the international market, Buhari has been able to prudently manage the little resources at his disposal to inject life into the economy. It is being diversified with federal government’s investment in agriculture, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, and the boost to the manufacturing industry via loans. The CBN, the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) have all been mandated to see to the accomplishment of the task.
    The construction sector has been enlivened as old contractors have been re-mobilized and new contracts have been awarded in both the transport and the power sectors among others. Jobs are being created in the private sector and the N-Power jobs have somewhat endeared Nigerians to him, hence it has no political party or godfather, religion or ethnicity beneficiaries. They are simply jobs for Nigerians. Anywhere, poor suffering masses are interested about their future like Nigerians now, they would not want to gamble away a President like Buhari. Its another stumbling block to conspiratorial architects of President Buhari’s exit from office. And God Almighty will side the masses.
    So, the economy is gradually freeing itself from recession. Foreign reserves which netted zero US Dollar has risen to about $40 billion and the business environment in Nigeria is becoming more friendlier. Besides, disrupting the unofficial zoning formula of political offices in Nigeria would delay an Igbo Presidency in 2015. The Southeasterners are no longer prepared for a replay of the Jonathan episode under former President Umaru Yar’Adua and all eyes/interests are wide awake.
    No gainsaying, much as the political cabal plots President Buhari’s ouster, the millions of Nigerian masses  want him to exhaust his Constitutional tenure. It is for the grandeur reasons of ending his reforms and completing the mission of repositioning Nigeria; which would ensure progress/development, political stability and harmony in the country that Buhari remains a choice for 2019, even on a wheelchair.
     It is principally why President Buhari’s choice for 2019 sticks. Around the world, including America, serving Presidents have been sick; but they were never compelled to vacate office on account of the illness. They were allowed to moderately work while they recuperated, as it is applicable to President Buhari at the moment. The hype, the intrigues and the plots as exemplified in the balloon over Buhari’s health condition is not the solution to any region which intends to stealthily ascend to power.
    Ibekwe, a public affairs commentator writes from Enugu, Enugu State.‎