The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

Do we have political parties in Nigeria? Any difference between APC and PDP?
“ … And none of our two parties (veiled reference to the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party), or any of the parties that we have; none of us is there yet. We are still platforms. “- Dr John Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State Governor.

By John Ekundayo

It is quite worrisome and saddening reflecting on the level of decay cum decadence bedeviling our polity and politicking in Nigeria of today. Our political gladiators are seemingly acting as if 2023 is the ultimate for Nigeria whereas there are begging issues direly demanding attention at the judiciary, legislative and executive organs of governance. It is equally unsettling and upsetting that after more than 20 years of uninterrupted democratic governance, Nigeria’s democracy is still at babyhood! Renowned and cerebral legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola, was so aghast with the system declaring that leadership recycling is the bane of Nigeria and has undermined the development of the country. In his own perspective, the 1999 constitution is at the root, which, in his own words, “allows Nigeria to be running the most expensive democracy in the world with government functionaries earning exorbitant salaries and allowances in a country riddled with unemployment, poverty, insurgencies, kidnapping, ferocious terrorist acts, killings, murder, robbery and widespread destruction of properties”.

Mere Political Platforms – Fayemi

The incumbent governor of Ekiti State who doubles as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) while being celebrated by some honourable members of the National Assembly this year in commemoration of his birthday did not mince words in saliently and succinctly stating that existing political formations that registered with the electoral umpire, INEC, were mere “political platforms” rather than political parties in colour and context. To the academic researcher turned politician, a real political party should consist of organic structure laced with ideals. It is a truism that many keen political pundits, analysts, observers and opinion molders do not see any variance in the make-up of the political parties in Nigeria. In the context of this article, focus will be on the two most popular parties – All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is unfortunate that with myriads of burning national issues confronting and contending with Nigeria and Nigerians, even as 2023 elections beckon, the most important thing to the ruling party is how to get more PDP governors to cross carpet, albeit dishonourably, to APC. The economy is presently wobbling, insecurity is nauseating, health facilities are derelict while our educational system is nose-diving with no political group (sorry, party) pinpointing or preparing to fix any of these. It is worrisome. This column is clamouring for politically agile men and women to courageously, conscientiously and collaboratively come together, as the third force, as being touted by the erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo. Initially, this type of people may not form a political party but constitute a political pressure group to checkmate and whip these two parties to line. In the case of these two parties not redressing or reviewing their stand and stake in the polity come 2023, I foresee implosion and/or loss of base as followers in the polity are getting wiser by the day.

Voice from the North – Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed

This column has been of the opinion that it is high time the President’s kinsmen spoke truth to power not acting parochial, pedestrian and puerile as they wont to. One notable voice from the north that could not be jettisoned, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) opined recently that there is no difference between the ruling APC and the opposition PDP. He did not spare words in chastising and criticizing the two political platforms. To the elder statesman, they are birds of the same feathers flocking together irrespective of incidence of cross carpeting from one party to the other. In his own perspective, the political life of Nigeria could be akin to a machine making motion without movement from 1999 till date and both major parties – PDP and APC are to be blamed! He made this clear in a Channels TV programme recently. A lone voice from the north speaking truth to power. In another vein, the notable and loquacious Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, pointedly told the man in the saddle in Aso Rock to resign if he has no answers to all the nauseating insecurity challenges confronting Nigeria. He defended himself by saying that he declared the same thing to the erstwhile President Jonathan Goodluck when he held sway. It is gladdening that the president’s kinsmen from the core north are speaking! This column aligns and demands for more voices from the north to save this country at this crucial moment. Moreover, it is good to add that doing so will protect the political heritage of the north. The truth, if the northerners will venture objectively to test the political waters of the south, seemingly, no northern candidate is desired for the No. 1 job come 2023 in the context of the spate of killings, kidnapping, insecurity, injustice, skewed political appointments coupled with the prices of items in the markets apparently skyrocketing on a weekly basis without any tangible effort to arrest the ugly trend. In essence, it is high time the President’s core men persuaded him to dialogue with elder statesmen, from all nooks and crannies of this country, on the way forward. Mr. President needs to behave more politically. In democratic era, the rule of law governs the conduct of affairs of the state unlike the conventional military turf that our President, erstwhile army general, was wont to. In essence, democratic governance is not through military fiat of control, command and compliance. Democracy is more of jaw-jaw in order to ward off war.

What differentiates a political party from a mere platform?

Is it just the gathering or assembly of men and women with the intention to grab and retain power that makes up a political party? In actual fact, in a developed clime, a political party is made up of members who consented to a body of policies, principles or creed for the society with a firm belief of enhancing the common good. Moreover, a party intends implementing her policies in order to win support through free and fair elections based on democratic ethos. In essence, the real political party will be a political group of ideas, ideology, identity and inclusivity. One thing universally that singles out a party is the ideology or philosophy or creed. Then, a body of ideas will inform the manifesto of the party. It is the manifesto that will appeal and influence the people to vouch and vote for the party in elections. The identity is like a brand that makes the party stand out at all times. This consists of the emblem, logo, uniform, flag, etc. of the political party. In addition, the party should practice inclusivity in content and context and not just make a cliché out of it, thus providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who would have been marginalized or excluded possibly because they belonged to a minority group or tribe. Any political grouping operating this way will eventually turn to a brand and gradually become an institution. Clearly, most of these are missing in both APC and PDP unlike in the heydays of the 2nd Republic of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Nigeria People’s Party (NPP), Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP). Followers knew what these parties stood for even though few among them were perceived as not inclusive enough to accommodate followers’ participation.

Conclusion

In the opening pages of the book: “The End of Poverty . . . How We Can Make It Happen In Our Lifetime”, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the author, opined: “the world is held together, however precariously, by the vision, leadership and struggle of its leaders who are committed to a world of justice, equality, and rule of law.” It is both imperative and instructive for top leaders of the ruling party, particularly the President, to exhibit and exemplify leadership traits tilting towards this line of thought so as to bequeath a worthy legacy to incoming generations of Nigerians. In addition, the leaders and spokesmen of these parties should stop deluding themselves that they are still relevant and recognized widely by followers. If the electoral system has been made rigging proof, some of the chieftains of the both APC and PDP will be shocked to see how they will perform in elections, peradventure, the raison d’etre for the angst against electronic transmission of results as exhibited by some of our lawmakers recently. The duo of APC and PDP need to put their houses in order, inculcating in practical ways: ideas, ideology, identity and inclusivity making the platforms to turn to real political parties. A stitch in time saves nine. Time is ticking!
- Dr. Ekundayo, J. M. O., can be reached via 08155262360 (SMS only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com
August 1, 2021
Between Self-determination and Restructuring: Which Way for Nigeria?
By Tunji Olaopa

It would now seem that the amalgamation project of 1914 has finally reached its apogee, 107 years after it was adopted and implemented as the best colonial policy for governing Nigeria as one colonial entity. No one needs a seer to know that the colonialists had no good intention for the newly created Nigerian state when the amalgamation happened. Nigeria came into existence out of a sheer colonial necessity, rather than as a prelude to a governance template that has at its heart the well-being and future development of Nigerians. And a century plus later, the consequence of not only the act of the colonialists but also the ideological complacence of the nationalists stare every one of us right in the face. Nigeria’s present circumstance does not need any enumeration—from banditry to insurgency to kidnapping, and the sum of all the self-determination agitation speak to the singular fact that the Nigeria state stands ominously at the edge of a precipice.

The clamor for self-determination has now displaced the agitation for restructuring in the cacophony of political reactions that mix with the loud cries of poverty and unemployment in Nigeria. the Nigerian Civil War was fought around the issue of self-determination championed by Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu on behalf of the agitation for a Biafran state. That agitation was grounded on the right to self-determination recognized in international law. Biafra failed to materialize, but the deep-seated resentment of the Nigerian state that fueled it has refused to abate. With Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB, we see a persistent questioning of the legitimacy of the Nigerian state. The Sunday Igboho saga and the increasing call for the emergence of an Oduduwa State further reinforce growing insecurity is fueling the urgency of rethinking Nigeria.

The agitation for the restructuring of the Nigerian state seems to have stalled on the unwillingness of the political class to genuinely engage with a lopsided Constitution that imposes a unitary logic on a diverse and federal realities. And quite contrary to the socioeconomic and sociopolitical advancements demonstrated by the regionalism experiment of the immediate post-independence era, the political leadership still finds it very hard to make the crucial constitutional moves that could move Nigeria away from impending dissolution. And in the fissure of this hesitation, the Nigerian state is throwing up accidental heroes and heroines as well as opportunistic criminal elements catching on the insecurity and the chaos it creates to perpetuate evils against ordinary citizens.

Between self-determination and restructuring, we stand face to face again with the ubiquitous problem of leadership in Nigeria. From the original prognostication of Chinua Achebe through the political poetry of Niyi Osundare, the political commentaries of several conscientious analysts to the vocal agitations and advocacy of Wole Soyinka and a class of other national figures, the leadership problem with Nigeria has been iterated into several issues in Nigeria’s national being. However, the brutal but incontrovertible fact of political leadership anywhere in the world is that it is the elite, through elite nationalism, that constitutes the fulcrum for transformational changes any state or nation needs to keep meeting the challenges of state- and nation-building. And Nigeria’s elite nationalism has its objectives and agenda already cut out for it. First, there is the necessity of coming to terms with the dynamics of Nigeria’s ethnic diversity and how to harness its cogent potentialities for national development. There is nothing more to this than the equally valid fact that human capital development is the intangible asset of a nation that unlocks the tangible infrastructural deliverances a nation requires to achieve legitimacy and well-being for its citizens. Second, the harnessing of Nigeria’s diverse human capital requires an ideological framework—like Awolowo’s democratic socialism or Azikiwe’s neo-welfarism—as the mold for transforming human capital into national asset for sustainable development.

It is the sincerity of purpose of the political class that makes the difference between Nigeria remaining a protracted national project that is always in the process of yielding something good or bad, and Nigeria as a transformed national entity, always in dialogue with its citizens over the conditions of their well-being. It is this sincerity of purpose that delay the self-gratification that seems to define the very essence of politics in Nigeria today at the expense of the commonwealth and its imperatives. If only we can learn the lessons of history, it will become clear that civilizations have risen and fallen based on the failed juxtaposition between self-fulfillment and national commitment. The Old Oyo and the ancient Roman empires provide very classic examples of how self-aggrandizement of the political class and inordinate ambition of a few who would rather look backwards to inherited glories of forebears than the permanency of change can torpedo any national aspiration.

The potential break-up of the Nigerian state is conditioned on what we all now know as the Nigerian condition—a litany of systemic dysfunctional dynamics that undermine every legitimate attempt at transforming the Nigerian state and achieving good governance for Nigerians. The Nigerian condition is further exacerbated by the insincerity of the political class and the logic of primitive accumulation. This raises the urgent question of how a new breed of leadership with transformational capacities can be generated. The weightiness of this question is moderated by the vicious cycle of self-recycling that has characterized Nigeria’s politics for many decades—the same names and same strategies have confounded the political direction Nigeria ought to take. And what is even worse is that those aspiring to replace the present leadership cadre do not seem to have a better vision of what Nigeria should be. The only way to break the vicious cycle of opportunistic politicking is to revise the vision around which Nigeria can make progress. The progress that used to be defined in terms of modernity is now increasingly getting redefined in planetary terms. The race for the planets has picked up significantly among the developed states of the world. And Nigeria stands the danger of being left behind, even on the continent where the economic performance of countries like Ghana and South Africa is already outstripping Nigeria’s. There is the ominous possibility that the emerging new world order will leave Nigeria and Nigerians behind.

It takes a transformational leadership with foresight and perspective to discern the times with regard to the dynamics of self-determination and restructuring. One could ask, for instance, whether self-determination and restructuring are mutually exclusive in ways that leave Nigeria with the need to choose one rather than the other. It should be accepted as a fact that no leader wants a state to be dissolved on his watch. The national question is one that all leaders want to resolve within the ambit of the existing Constitution. There is no side of the equation that is not faced with critical challenges or possibilities. The balkanization of the Nigerian state along ethnic fault lines is immediately confronted by the likely benchmark in the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia. The restructuring agitation is equally confronted by the unwillingness to implement a genuine constitutional amendment that will refocus the political strategy for managing plural Nigeria. On the other hand, while self-determination accords with the global convention that provides the right for any ethnonational entity to seek its own political path, restructuring also generates the strategy for realigning the constitutional direction of a state.

This dilemma therefore confronts a visionary leadership with the question of how to achieve a win-win balance between the two ends of the choices confronting Nigeria. In other words, the choice then comes down to how the two sides of the equation could be managed while not jeopardizing the well-being of the citizens. Can a genuinely federal constitution answer the agitation for self-determination? In other words, is self-determination, for instance, possible within a restructured political entity that gives its federal components the capacity to generate the legal framework for their own development? Does a self-determining nation obviate the constant need for restructuring its constitutional framework once it fails to answer to emerging realities? Answering these questions in the first place requires the sincere commitment of the political elite to the governance requirement of a state like Nigeria. It requires a commitment to institutionally building a country and making it work for the citizens. It requires a commitment to a type of politics that allows for the participation of the citizens in decision making. This is because it is such a politics that could backstop a democratic governance that makes development work. It seems that in the final analysis, good governance is the critical difference between the prosperous and poor nations. Acemoglu and Robinson already made this clear in Why Nations Fail (2012).

That we are today confronted with a choice between self-determination and restructuring speaks to the failure of Nigeria’s political elite and its aggrandizing proclivity. There is a need to constitutionally re-amalgamate Nigeria in ways that undermine the fissiparous tendencies that undermine unity. Elite nationalism is required for the emergence of a new breed of political elite willing to commit class suicide in their commitment to a new type of politics and institutionalism that rates the citizens higher than any personal selfish interests. This transition is possible because we have seen it work in some other climes. We have heard of politicians who stood firmly for the interest of the people. We have Nigerian leaders who can do the same.
- Olaopa is a retired Federal Permanent Secretary & Directing Staff, National Institute For Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos tolaopa2003@gmail.com
August 1, 2021
Remembering Aguiyi Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi

By Igboeli Arinze

A very writer naturally ought to be an ardent student of history. It’s knowledge not only helps the writer prepare his discourse, it also serves a basis to stimulate debate on past events, helping dissect such events as well as serving a verdict to the public by which it may be guided for future events.

For example, the history of the annulled June 12 , 1993 elections will forever reverberate in Nigeria’s market place of history and the verdict will always be that the election was largely free and fair but some persons, somewhere felt uneasy with the mandate that they simply annulled the election and set Nigeria back.

It is also necessary in order to stop certain persons from attempting any form of revisionism on the hoof.

It is therefore 55 years since the duo of General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi Ironsi ,soldier and Supreme Commander of and first Nigerian military head of state and Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi , Military Governor of the Western Region were kidnapped by renegade soldiers who appeared to have come from a particular section of Nigeria and were much driven by an inordinate rage to murder brother officers and civilians alike. Yes, no doubt the kidnapping of Ironsi and Fajuyi was allowed in a putsch, it was a coup for crying out loud and the scramble for power, aided by the audacity of the barrel of a gun, anything was bound to happen or was it?

Replaying events, the January 15th coup had seen five young majors attempt a seismic change in the sphere;they had gunned down the likes of Sardauna, Balewa and Samuel Akintola, who were the civilian leaders as well as a host of military officers Maimalari , Yakubu Pam, Ademulegun and Unegbe, the coup was much successful in the North, where Nzeogwu In dare devil manner had taken control over the Northern Region, however, the south saw the plotters been put on the run by the Ironsi who was the first indigenous General Officer Commanding which was to later metamorphose into the now known office of Chief of Army Staff. Ironsi, it is alleged was returning from a party where he got wind of the plot and immediately mobilized army units to his side, crushing the coup’s potency in the South particularly Lagos, which was then the capital of the nation. The country was set for a showdown, Nzeogwu talking tough in the North, Ironsi with immeasurable records in Katanga, Congo Kinshasa now the Democratic Republic of Congo refused to buy Nzeogwu’s bluster. Nzeogwu prepared to march south, the country it seemed was on the brink of a civil war, reason then prevailed, the military attempted what resembled a form of shuttle diplomacy flying Colonel Nwawo to negotiate with Nzeogwu, Nwawo we must know was Nzeogwu’s instructor in the Nigerian Military School Zaria, as well as a soldier’s soldier, Nzeogwu promptly backpedalled and agreed to meet with Ironsi where he was subsequently arrested and detained in Enugu.

I need inform our readers that contrary to the belief that Ironsi had bullied the rump of the cabinet to hand over to him, the facts available suggest otherwise. Let us assume that the civilian leaders were unwilling to hand over power to Ironsi, would the army which had at that point in time were reportedly tired of the civilian government and its shenanigans as exampled in a number of tragicomedies such as the massively rigged elections of 1964 and 1965, the Western Region riots, the Tiv massacres, the 1964 census and the cases of alleged corruption against officials of the government handed over to the same government? Likewise we must not forget that Nzeogwu was still in command of the North and all known battalions save for Kano which was under the command of Colonel Emeka Ojukwu and who in strict military tradition deferred Ironsi , would this then not have made the cabinet whether it was chaired by Inuwa Wada, who was then the Defence Minister or a Nwafor Orizu to be pretty sitting ducks for Nzeogwu, who by then had become a folk hero?

Ironsi understanding that tribalism and ethnic nationalism had been the bane of the Nigerian nation( It still is ) began efforts to ensure that every Nigerian irrespective of where he was from could work or live in any part of the country. That was the thrust of his Unitary system of government, as laid out in Decree 34 of 1966.

A lot is said about the Unitary Decree that buried Federalism. In the normal attempts to romanticize the July 29th 1966 coup, a lot of stories and canards have been spurn in order to accuse Ironsi of all sorts, including collusion with the January 15 coupists and the attempt to dominate Nigeria by the Igbo people.

July 31, 2021
As more women head banks, what hopes for politics?

By Nnedinso Ogaziechi

There is a paradox that seems to defy explanation in the Nigerian system. In fields that require cerebral capacity, competence, education and diligence and where there is a level playing field, women get to lead, proving their mettle and adding to development. One of such areas where more women are getting to the top is the financial sector where there are many women Chairpersons of banks, Executive Directors, Managing Directors and Managers.

Since the era of late Bola Kuforiji-Olubi as the first female Bank chairperson of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Nigerian women have risen and made so much impact at both domestic and global financial institutions. We had Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the World Bank for decades from where she returned to become the first female finance Minister of the country. Today we have about more Nigerian women at the World Bank including Arunma Oteh who was once the Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

At the home front, more women are taking the steering wheels at banks. Until recently, Ibukun Awosika was the Chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria, the oldest and biggest bank in Nigeria. Nkechi Onyeali-Ikpe is now the MD/CEO of Fidelity Bank, Halima Buba is at Suntrust, Tomi Somefun is the Managing Director of Unity Bank. More women are holding many leadership positions in other banks.

The financial sector is not an all-comers affair as it is a very fragile system. For these women to rise to those positions speaks to their competence, education and diligence. Ironically, if these same women are to move to the political space, their chances of getting elected might be very slim if at all they make it through the political party primaries given the intrigues of the Nigerian political space. Competence might not get them through and the economy suffers the effect..

Again it is ironic that the men in the politics have one advantage over the women in ways that see them being able to finance their political expenses The Nigerian political system does not have a very strict and closely monitored financial expenditure limits. On paper the laws seem to be there but implementation and the technology to assist in monitoring is often absent.

The RoundTable Conversation sat down with Dr. Rachel Bassey Akpabio, a former big player in the financial services industry, a teacher, cyber security expert and the South South Woman Leader or the All Progressive Congress (APC). To her, financial incapacity is a problem for women’s political participation because the economic capacity of women is too limited comparatively. The fact that for so long women has had to battle with all sorts of inequalities has also been a factor.

There seems to be a slower pace of mentorship of women by women because of financial problems unlike the men who due to their economic strength can play godfather to younger men. That cycle of grooming goes on from generation to generation. However, to Akpabio, women can come around this because they have identified the problems. Women must work at making the political parties work out a quota for women in ways that it could even be done in senatorial districts. Political parties can cede certain positions to women in ways that the competition would be amongst the women and in that way head or tail, a woman will emerge. That would help close the gap.

Asked how she feels about more women being more influential in most other sectors but politics, she said that the men in politics in Nigeria must realize the mystic that goes with womanhood. That spiritual gift is found in how productively multitasking women can be in any area especially if they are well-groomed at home and educated . Our politicians must try to be gender sensitive because other countries are getting ahead as they give more women chance to participate fully in politics without suffering the disadvantage of low economic power.

Nigeria is practicing the American model of democracy and must notice that the parties are the ones that control campaign finances in ways that individuals do not appropriate the process because they can afford it. Again in the current Biden presidency, most of the sensitive positions are being held by women not by design anyway but because they sought the most qualified for the jobs and they just happen to be women. The men know that women would always bring out their nurturing and diligent best to any assignment or leadership position.

As the APC South South Women leader, there is a concerted effort to get more women ready to bring their competences in any field to the political space. She wants a situation where competent women earn their spaces in competitive but fair contests. Majority of what we have at the moment is tokenism from the men because there is no level playing field but if we must develop as a nation, we must let women bring their expertize to the political space. When women earn their spaces on their merit, they are always more productive.

Read Also: Strong women build one another, says DJ Cuppy

Most competent women are always proud to compete with each other. Women should be able to have conversations about way forward. We must detect the character, the composure, knowledge and brilliance of each other and maximize those qualities. Mentorship of other women adds value too. Experienced women must realize that other woman can be helped to grow. Women must show courage and not be allow themselves to be bullied out of politics.

There must be better enlightenment processes for families and spouses to understand that a daughter, niece or wife can provide leadership and should not be seen as one to be corrupted by the political space. The attitude of the society too influences the participation of women. If women can hold forth in other sectors, politics is just like any other sector. As woman leaders, we are working hard to erase all the prejudices that prevent more women from active political participation because development is achieved through partnerships.

Barr. Blessing Onugha is the South East Women Leader of the APC. She believes that political parties must begin to integrate women into the main stream political party administrations at both National and state levels instead of their just being female figureheads. It would empower more women to mobilize for development because leadership should be complimentary.

My experience as a women leader has taught me that women are strong pillars in any democracy because as a huge voting demographic, they have great influence on other voting demographics like the youth, husbands and the elderly. So it is funny when some people assume wrongly that women leaders merely mobilize only women. However, women must begin to use their power productively too by galvanizing capable women to not only vote but to contest for elective positions and get women to support women.

Women must begin to demand for equal treatment from the political parties because they bring equal if not even more value to party administration. It is still a long walk to equal treatment for women with their male counterparts across the country. The party structure must begin to accord women leaders the same financial and logistic support that their male equals get . These women in the financial sector would not be up the ladder if there was no level playing field. That is all we as women leaders keep agitating for the good of the nation.

Women in all political parties must be equipped as well as their male counterpart who are treated as better elevated state party chairman. It is still a long journey for the women at the administrative level due to inequalities. Politics has to do with leadership and most times the leadership draw the roadmap on how things should be done but they must be prepared. The moment women come together to seriously fight for their rights as equal stake holders in party politics, things would begin to change.

For someone who joined politics in 2002, I have gone through the political crucible. I had contested for the House of Assembly and lost to political intrigues. However, experience has taught me that women must purge themselves of Stockholm syndrome. I experienced the conspiracies from fellow women and that affected my zeal but I am someone who refuses to be put down. For now, as a woman leader, I am trying to fight the biases I suffered so that other aspiring women would not suffer same so that the best women can access leadership.

For women to make progress in politics there has to be unity and we must start speaking as a team. We must have dialogue and love for each other. To get more women into politics, we must learn from the men, put our differences aside and form a formidable team. To work together with men, we must get our acts together and throw individual egos away. Women who have the passion for politics must come with the energy to go the whole hog and be ready to partner with the men but that comes with determination.

It is also important for the men in politics to take a cue from the corporate world where ability and performance are the benchmarks for positions. The country is in dire straits because the burden of leadership is too much for the men. It is obvious in global politics that cerebral and educated women are assets in nation building. It is surprising that the men can entrust their money to banks and other institutions run by women but surreptitiously exclude the same women in the political space. We at the RoundTable Conversation hope that a new vitsa must be opened in the country. When leadership becomes open to both genders based on competence, development will happen.

The dialogue continues…

July 31, 2021
Violence against Africa’s children is rising
By Graça Machel

Of all the unspeakable injustices suffered by Africa’s children – and I’ve witnessed many – violence is surely the worst because it is almost entirely preventable. Africa’s children suffer many hardships, including poverty, hunger and disease. Violence against children is avoidable, yet young people in Africa, especially girls, continue to live with sexual violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation, forced labour, corporal punishment and countless other forms of abuse.

After decades spent trying to improve young people’s life chances, I had hoped to see at the very least a significant reduction in violence that threatens children. It is now 31 years since the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and we have seen some governments putting into place laws and policies aimed at ending violence against children. There have also been efforts, though insufficient, towards eradicating female genital mutilation and child marriage, which cause untold lifelong suffering.

Progress is uneven, fragmented and slow. Violence against children is once more on the rise driven partly by online sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse tourism and recently by lockdowns and school closures. These have pushed violence behind closed doors where it goes unseen and unreported. Armed conflicts by groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabaab in Somalia and Amba separatists in Cameroon, frequently target children, making them the most common victims of abductions, rape, forced marriages and murder.

Regrettably, many African governments lack the political will to tackle these gross violations. This week, in an attempt to galvanise action, the African Partnership to End Violence against Children (Apevac) convened a high-level virtual conference to present its new research findings confirming worrying levels of violence and slow government responses. Thankfully, there are also some good, African solutions that can be successfully applied across the continent.

I have witnessed the worst, as well as the best, of humanity. Yet the brutality revealed in these findings plumb new depths. Children still face unacceptable levels and forms of physical, psychological and sexual violence. In some parts of Africa, four in 10 girls suffer sexual violence before the age of 15. Even worse is that children in most need – those in residential care or used as child labour, with disabilities, living on the streets, or in armed conflict and refugee situations – are not protected.

Violence against children is not a uniquely African phenomenon. The World Health Organization estimated last year that globally up to a billion children aged 2-17 had experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence or neglect. Many African children enjoy peaceful lives, but it is clear the continent faces an urgent problem, fuelled by complex social and economic drivers. Increasing urbanisation, armed conflict, forced displacement, humanitarian and climate-related disasters all play a part.

Evidence shows that in the long term violence against children leads to poor health, higher school dropout rates and worse job prospects, with consequences for the cost of health and social care, and economic productivity. In South Africa, for example, the economic losses resulting from violence against children in 2015 were estimated at $13.5bn (£9.8bn), or 4.3% of GDP. The reduced earnings attributable to physical and emotional violence in childhood were $2bn and $750m respectively. If these costs were replicated across sub-Saharan Africa, they would exceed the total official development assistance from the 38-member country Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

African governments are storing up problems for the future. By 2050, the continent will be home to about a billion young people. These children must be given the right life chances now. It is they who will drive Africa into the future and power a social and economic renaissance. The violence these children encounter today threatens to derail Africa’s ambitions.

Ending violence against children is one of the most important priorities of our time, and it will not happen without strong political leadership. I applaud Apevac and its call to the African Union to adopt a regional action plan and to political leaders to massively scale up investment in their countries. It is important that political and financial investment is given to Africa’s homegrown initiatives to end violence against children. Studies show such initiatives can be successful in addressing the interplay between schools and societies, law and culture, patriarchy and child rights.

Violence against children is preventable. We must redouble our efforts to stop it and remove the stain on our collective conscience. The United Nation’s sustainable development goal 16.2 aims to end all forms of violence against children by 2030. Achieving this will unlock multiple wins in gender equality, education, health and a more peaceful and inclusive Africa, where every child grows up safe and secure.
- This article was first published by www.theguardian.com with the headline ‘Violence against Africa’s children is rising. It stains our collective conscience’
July 25, 2021
On rising food prices in Nigeria

By Igboeli Arinze

Nigeria is presently facing its biggest rise in food prices as inflation continues to clamber up all over the world even as the global economy slowly recovers from the coronavirus pandemic with a number of consequences for the nation.

As we speak, the price of staples such as rice, beans and garri has moved up by a huge percentage against the real incomes of the average Nigerian which has continued to shrink by the day while the country continues to wriggle itself out of the twin problems of low oil prices and the pandemic. Such price rise of staples which are required by a majority of households in Nigeria for their daily nourishment not only takes such staples away from their reach, dealing a blow on their nutritional needs as well as pushing millions of Nigerians ( About 6 million Nigerians) below the poverty line.

Understanding the impact of such price rise is simple economics not requiring the ponderous personalities of doomsday economists to tell us in that Warri parlance “E don Red” ( Which means it is that bad) With food prices galloping to more than 23 percent since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, the challenges of feeding oneself and it becomes worse if one has a family is indeed a monumental one, it is thus important for us to sound the alarm and perhaps wake up those in charge of the numerous policies that may impact positively one way or the other and help arrest such hikes and perhaps bring down the prices.

Within the earlier mentioned challenges, we would have more children suffer from malnutrition as providing three square meals would be a daunting task and worse more such meals could lack the basic nutrients meant to stave off malnourishment among children. As it stands now, it is bad enough that over 17 million children in Nigeria are malnourished and suffer from a number of ailments that can be traced to such malnourishment, it is thus a given that with such a hike in prices of such staples and the absence of other alternatives many more children will join such numbers, sad indeed!

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The price of beans, a major staple which is the nation’s chief supplier of plant proteins has gone up for example by 62 percent forcing a number of families to reduce its consumption. For rice, the story has not much been different with the staple doing a 15 percent rise in price despite the fact that a majority of our rice consumed here is locally produced as whatever rice that is allowed to be imported must do so through the ports with a tariff rate of 70 percent slammed on such imports to discourage the business while a subsisting ban hovers over the importation of rice via our borders. One wonders why despite the long run as well as the increase in rice farming in states like Kebbi, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Ekiti and Kano the much needed push in the demand for the staple has not readily provided the much needed investment in the sector as well as allow for price stability since a majority of our consumed rice is no longer subject to our exchange rates.

Other staples such as yam, maize and plantains have also tanked north causing a majority of Nigerian households to increase their spending on food or at most reduce the quality of food consumed. What this means is that Nigerians will reduce the amount they spend on other aspects such as rent, education, healthcare and lastly leisure thus stifling these sectors from recording any meaningful growth.

What bothers me the most is that the reasons for such food price increases is not driven alone by global factors or the pandemic: Nigeria’s rise in food prices is largely caused by the fact that a number of policies meant to ensure that 40 percent of our food is not wasted owing to the lack of proper storage facilities, our transport system is still in dire straits and policies that are meant to improve the agricultural value chain in Nigeria are either lacking or are not fully implemented.

Worse still is the growing insecurity situation in Nigeria that has seen herdsmen clash repeatedly with farmers over access to land. In farming areas in a number of states, people are scared to go to the farms for the fear of been slaughtered in their own farms by suspected criminal herdsmen, this naturally has affected the level of production of these staples creating a form of supply induced scarcity which in turn has led to an increase in such prices of staples.

These have been worsened with the continuous war against terrorism, the rise in banditry, kidnapping as well as ethnic wars between communities in Nigeria.

The truth is that such food price increases makes a mess of the exploits in agriculture by this present administration. This should serve as a clarion call to the ministers of agriculture as well as other coordinating bodies to begin to do the needful as Nigerians have no business with been hungry otherwise soon, the chickens will begin to come home to roost!

Nigeria Must Succeed!

July 24, 2021
As Governor Akeredolu (Aketi) kisses 65
By Richard Olatunde

A research is said to have revealed that only a marginal eight percent of global population exceeds age 65 above. As scary as this statistics may read in Nigeria where index for long life shrinks by the day, our dear Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu seems to have just started his life all over again by his acts and deed and his general disposition to service to humanity.

This realization is more profound when he rose and became governor of our state after his first attempt in 2012 returned him to the drawing board where he restrategised and added more flesh to his body of political knowledge with a view to sustaining his position today. And we are all happy that from 2017 to 2020, the period he served his first term, he successfully weathered the storm, in spite of banana peel which the administration he inherited from his predecessor symbolized.

Governor Akeredolu, on February 24, 2017, was welcomed into the Government House, Alagbaka with an embarrassing backlog of seven months’ salary arrears, which almost killed the morale of the state workforce and nearly reduced Ondo State to subject of ridicule, despite its status as one of Oil-producing states in the country. Pronto, he settled six months and returned smile to gloomy faces of the state civil servants.

When he realised that dangerous escapades of criminal elements in seemingly irrepressible herdsmen and kidnappers would constitute a clog in the wheel of his administration, he joined forces with other South-west governor and birthed what is now known as the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Operation Amotekun, a security outfit currently complementing the police and other security agencies.

To him, the Amotekun Corps initiative is a baby of necessity and a home-grown approach to solving security challenges, which have become an albatross to a smooth running of government. In this regard, he declared recently that the corps has strengthened his long-held position on need for community policing since security matter is primarily local.

Governor Akeredolu has also assured the people of the state of his administration’s commitment to rid the state of army of criminal elements who are desperate to make peaceful living a luxury. However, he encountered some layers of opposition in giving the state a sustainable security outfit to return confidence and hope in the people.

Notwithstanding, his courage and positive mind have seen him through to the extent that over 2000 new recruits have been brought in to further fortify the Amotekun. That is a record!

It is also on record and, in fact, quite unprecedented that Governor Akeredolu broke the backward practice of a succeeding administration abandoning uncompleted projects of its predecessor at the expense of the people. This is a strongpoint credited to the name of Mr Governor as he warmed himself into the heart of the people of Ondo town with the active attention given to the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo and full accreditation of over 15 of its courses as well as a befitting Teaching Hospital in Ondo and Akure.

As Ondo people were relishing Governor Akeredolu redemption wand, people of Okitipupa, who had suffered government indifference to the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, are also excited and praying for Mr ‘Talk and Do’ today. In terms of physical infrastructural development, Governor Akeredolu has surprised and elevated the state despite its financial problem due to reduction in monthly allocation from the seat of power in Abuja.

The construction of a flyover in Ore, completed with an interchange, is still a cheery topic on lips of hundreds of travellers who daily pass through that axis. The step has not only reduced road accident in Ore but also reduced traffic gridlock, which easily burn productive work hours. The bridge known as the ‘The Redemption Bridge’ was commissioned by President Muhammudu Buhari on February 25th, 2020.

Essentially, Governor Akeredolu’s thirst for development in the state is both ambitious and courageous. Despite assuming office at a time when the country and the state are going through serious economy quagmire, he embarked on projects that only people with faiths of mustard seed would have boasted of their completion. His quest for development of the state was daring. His sincerity of purpose and tenacity, will be a reference point for politicians in the state and beyond, for a long time.

Similarly, when you drive through Akure, from “A” division down to NEPA -Olukayode-Rainbow roundabout going to Ijoka road in Akure, one would wonder the manner of audacious takeover and a complete departure from the past in the area of huge investment in infrastructure development in the state regarded as civil servant state.

When he promised to open an alternative road from Idanre to Akure, many thought it was a mere dream. Over 15km length of road, sitting on a virgin land, has been constructed now giving a new lease of life to the people of Idanre. More courageous is the Governor’s resolve to break through mountain to have a dual carriage Oke-Alabojuto road in Ikare Akoko. He is now the first Governor to give Akoko land a dual carriage road

He achieved this feat simply because of his radical approach to administration, ensuring he does not play politics with governance and welfare of his people. It was such a bold decision especially in the award of government contracts which see him going strict and award contracts not on party patronage but purely on capacity to deliver. This is integrity. This is sincerity, which has become an asset to the state and people.

Today, the infamous era of mobilization fees as seen in previous administrations where projects were indiscriminately abandoned and state resources squandered and lost for political interest, is gone, dead and interred. Contracts can only be awarded to firms which have required resources. Only certain percentage is paid when the contractors achieve impressive milestone. This has bred good governance and institutionalized quality work on our roads.

The last Governor that ever added any industry to the state was the late Pa. Adekunle Ajasin (1979-1983). After several years of branding Ondo a mere civil servant state, Governor Akeredolu recorded a major breakthrough in facilitating the Ondo-Linyi industrial hub. He has opened the tap of industrialization in Ondo State. It is now paying off with over eight industries in the state.

His courage in leading his brother governors in the Southwest and, recently the southern part of the country, has projected him as voice of the masses, one who cares less on whose ox is gored as long as the matter is about masses improved life.

His courage and pro-masses inclination represent the quality of an average Ondo State indigene in accordance with what the legendary late premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo says to the Western leaders of thought, in Ibadan, on May 1, 1967 before the Biafra war, that “the aim of a leader should be the welfare of the people whom he leads.

As Arakunrin climbs age 65 today, there is no doubt that he will live long to reap fruit of the seed he is currently sowing in the state. Traditionally, Ondo State people remain political conscious and a thorn in the flesh of an insensitive administration through different forms of reactions. But with Governor Akeredolu’s last four years and few months in the saddle, his future in history of the state is assured as a governor whose tenure witnessed a true transformation of the state. Happy birthday to you, Arakunrin wa. Thank you for inspiring us. You are indeed, a man of an uncommon Grace.
- Olatunde is Chief Press Secretary to Governor Akeredolu
July 22, 2021
Federal character in reform to re-professionalise Nigerian public service

By Tunji Olaopa

This piece speaks to two fundamental issues at the heart of Nigeria’s development drive-the imperative of managing its diverse constituents, and the urgency of how that diversity management will impact the optimal efficiency of the public service. There is no way we can gainsay the significance of the public service to Nigeria’s governance and development project. I have never had any doubt that leadership sophistication, sincerity of purpose and a machinery of state with a back-end of a re-preofessionalised public service manned by a new breed of public managers hold the key to the transformation of Nigeria into a capable developmental state, as well as the capacity of that state to institute good governance that will bring her diverse people together. The major challenge lies squarely within the conception and implementation of an institutional and governance reform mechanism that will deliver a firm diversity management model within which the public service can achieve a democratic service delivery to Nigerians. That achievement is still in the winds. I hope this piece will point in a right reform direction for that purpose.

By the time the Nigerian public service had become consolidated since its inauguration in 1954 till Nigeria got independence in 1960, it had become an instrumental tool by which the political elites intervene in the economy and the society. Its Weberian framework allowed it to become, within a postcolonial context like Nigeria, a significant political institution that could facilitate political intervention. That reality played out significantly though disappointingly with the military’s intention, from 1966, of occupying what was called the “commanding height” of the economy. This translates into a centralization of the Nigerian state that went contrary to the principles of federalism. But this is not the end of the story. Independence also brought to light the real fundamental nature of Nigeria’s diversity-one of the significant consequences of the 1914 amalgamation effort. For instance, with the coming into force of the Nigerianisation Policy, the political leadership had to face the import of the diversity of the Nigerian state, and the urgent need of managing it to keep the integrity of the country as a nation-state. The choice in filling the civil service positions left by the colonialists was between meritocracy or representativeness.

The idea of representativeness in a plural society like Nigeria seems unassailable enough. There must be a mechanism that will provide the institutional framework to give everyone a sense of belonging in their own country. No wonder then that in October 1975, the then head of state, Murtala Mohammed asked that the concept of the federal character be inserted into the Nigerian Constitution as the formal principle of the quota system determining who enters the civil service and other institutional allocations to the diverse entities with claims on the soul of Nigeria. And without any prejudice, we need to, in clear terms, acknowledge the ingenuity of the federal character principle as one of the significant means by which the Nigerian state could facilitate national integration of its ethnic diversity. And a lot has been achieved in this regard. There is now an ethnic mosaic that decorates beautifully Nigeria’s institutional landscape. In those institutional arrangements that show fidelity to this principle, you can see different ethnic presence. Diversity, in this sense, is suppose to be a gateway to creative managerial dynamics.

Unfortunately, and like many policy initiatives everywhere in the world, the federal character principle has become subjected to so many alterations and caricatures in practice. And this has degenerated to the point of the policy becoming an opportunity cost for meritocracy and efficiency. And the reason for this degeneration is not far-fetched: The federal character principle arrived in the constitutional framework of the Nigerian state as a political solution. As a political solution, however, it facilitated a terrible transposition that made politics its independent variable while the achievement of the efficiency in the delivery of public goods and services became a dependent variable. If this transposition had been otherwise (and this otherwise is the reason for the urgency of institutional reform Nigeria needs now), then the critical relationship between diversity management and a competency-based human resource management would have become immediately obvious.

No one can contest the fact that there is a causal relationship between professionalism, competent human resources, efficient managerial dynamics and service delivery success in any organization. It is this mix that the federal character principle was meant to interject to be able to factor the creativity of diversity management with the efficiency that such diverse human resources and their emotional, social and cultural capitals can bring to bear on the service delivery objective of the government. But then, and quite unfortunately, the politicization of the implementation of the federal character principle, a most beautiful and ingenious concept, has fundamentally circumscribed the principle as a solid basis for human resource management in the public service. And this is especially in terms of professionalism and meritocracy. Indeed, we can now theorize that there is direct but negative causal relationship between the federal character principle as a framework of diversity management, low productivity in the national economy and an inefficient service delivery that has not been able to backstop good governance in Nigeria. In very stark terms, the federal character principle has become so porous as to facilitate the distortion of the recruitment and selection processes in ways that allows for incompetent and inefficient workers to enter the service. This in turn impact negatively on confirmation, deployment, performance appraisal, promotion and reward management with strong implications for workers productivity and service delivery.

Let us break this down properly. Two crucial things are wrong with the implementation of the federal character principle. First, there is a level of significant arbitrariness that has kept into its operational dynamics. There is evident lack of a definite and adequate guideline that speaks to the necessity of a balance between equity and efficiency in the application of the principle. Second, there is also the absence of the requisite political will to compel the proper application of the principle. The implication of this, to quote Peter Ekeh’s words, is that the federal character policy “has invaded the integrity and standards of public bureaucracy as well as other governmental bodies that normally require some protection against the vagaries of politics.” It is within this loophole that it became possible that the recruitment exercise would be weighed down by subjective biases that make favoritism and nepotism possible, rather than the qualification of individuals based on objective job description and selection parameters.

Thus, once the principle opened up the crack that allowed institutions and establishments to be filled by the incompetent and the inefficient, all wallowing in ethno-religious prejudices, it takes little reflection to see why it becomes difficult (a) to recruit the best and the most qualified for any specific position, (b) with institutional capacity development and professionalism subordinated to the politics that the nation plays with her destiny, and (c) no public official sees herself, or is seen by others, as a Nigerian. The incapacity of the federal character principle to birth a Nigerian image, due to its multiple loopholes, creates, in addition, two debilitations for progress: one, the treatment of public officials as anything but Nigerians, as they are viewed from the lens of ethno-linguistic group rather than of the nation-state, thereby creating a multiple system of citizenship in the polity, and two, thus providing incentives for ethno-regional patrons and their clients to exploit and mismanage state resources without any concerns for return on investment of those public resources. In its function as a mere absorption framework into the public service, rather than as an avenue for human capital development within the ambit of diversity management, the federal character plays its own negative role in the bloatedness of the public service, and the consequent collapse of the internal control mechanisms like manpower forecasting and planning, treasury and manpower controls, organization and method (O&M), annual personnel audit, succession planning, etc. It is at this point that we see clearly how the theory of labor productivity plays a huge role in the determination of national development. With a bloated public service and a dysfunctional dynamic of operational inefficiency, there is no wonder why Nigeria’s productivity profile is so abysmally low.

Recuperating meritocracy, professionalism, and a competency-based HRM that instigate efficiency in the public service is difficult but not impossible. It requires a deep-seated structural, systemic and institutional reforms that are not just targeted at the establishment of performance management system. The proposed culture change will entail an administrative reengineering that alters current chronic bureau-pathology with a vision of the role of the public service in a knowledge age-a new public service that is entrepreneurial, technology-enabled, flexible, small and performance-based. Even the federal character principle must be brought in conversation with the fundamental idea of public-spiritedness that defines the essence of the public service. Not everyone can be a public servant, no matter the need for representativeness. With a functional gatekeeping frameworks like a reengineered and professionalized civil service commission and a revitalized professional association like the Nigerian Association of Public Administration and Management (NAPAM), we can then look forward to the emergence of a new generation of cosmopolitan, detribalized, knowledge-propelled and reform-minded professional and transformational public managers supported by a corps of professional HR managers, who will take on the challenge at both its conceptual and administrative levels. The gatekeeping dynamics and the professional organizations and bodies will not only provide the opportunity for building a community of service and of practice, but also facilitate the harnessing of ideas and insights that arm the public manager with the transformational powers of value orientations, philosophical foresight and intellectual capacity that transforms the public service into a self-motivated and depoliticized institution with a world class capacity-readiness to achieve democratic service delivery to Nigerians.

However, one factor remains critical: the political leadership must itself get to that defining moment when it will be able to see the futility of going on with a dysfunctional public service and governance failure. It must get to that point when it becomes crystal clear that when public administration fails, all else has fail. It is only at this crucial moment of realization that the political will to jumpstart the emergence of a new administrative paradigm can begin. It is only then that the federal character principle can be redirected to achieve its original objective of a wholesome diversity management that kickstart an efficient labor productivity.

Recuperating meritocracy, professionalism, and a competency-based HRM that instigate efficiency in the public service is difficult but not impossible. It requires a deep-seated structural, systemic and institutional reforms that are not just targeted at the establishment of performance management system. The proposed culture change will entail an administrative reengineering that alters current chronic bureau-pathology with a vision of the role of the public service in a knowledge age—a new public service that is entrepreneurial, technology-enabled, flexible, small and performance-based. Even the federal character principle must be brought in conversation with the fundamental idea of public-spiritedness that defines the essence of the public service. Not everyone can be a public servant, no matter the need for representativeness. With a functional gatekeeping frameworks like a reengineered and professionalized civil service commission and a revitalized professional association like the Nigerian Association of Public Administration and Management (NAPAM), we can then look forward to the emergence of a new generation of cosmopolitan, detribalized, knowledge-propelled and reform-minded professional and transformational public managers supported by a corps of professional HR managers, who will take on the challenge at both its conceptual and administrative levels. The gatekeeping dynamics and the professional organizations and bodies will not only provide the opportunity for building a community of service and of practice, but also facilitate the harnessing of ideas and insights that arm the public manager with the transformational powers of value orientations, philosophical foresight and intellectual capacity that transforms the public service into a self-motivated and depoliticized institution with a world class capacity-readiness to achieve democratic service delivery to Nigerians.
However, one factor remains critical: the political leadership must itself get to that defining moment when it will be able to see the futility of going on with a dysfunctional public service and governance failure. It must get to that point when it becomes crystal clear that when public administration fails, all else has fail. It is only at this crucial moment of realization that the political will to jumpstart the emergence of a new administrative paradigm can begin. It is only then that the federal character principle can be redirected to achieve its original objective of a wholesome diversity management that kickstart an efficient labor productivity.

• Olaopa is a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, Professor of Public Administration and Directing Staff, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos
tolaopa2003@gmail.com
(Being paper presented at the Roundtable Organized by the University of Benin, Nigeria on 23 June, 2021 to mark the African Public Service Day)

July 18, 2021
Open letter to Sunday Igboho
By Yahaya Balogun

I write this letter to you in good faith. By now, some of us who are lush and ceaseless writers can proudly claim to be one of the concerned stakeholders searching for workable and amicable solutions to Nigerian intractable, self-induced, and hydra-headed problems. I am proudly a Nigerian of the Yoruba tribe and Yorùbá po´nnbélé descent. I cherish everything about Nigerian richness but I am miffed with her unconcerned leadership to secure our people. In the last few weeks, some of us have keenly watched your controversial activities concerning the state of anomie (insecurity) in Yorùbáland, alas, Nigeria.

Your rise to Wikipedia’s page and the littering of Google algorithm is an excellent opportunity to be well sought after in a nation bedeviled with so much confusion and sad contradictions. Some of your brave contemporaries have been on what I call necessary trouble on our collective road to nowhere before! But there is a caveat to your activism methods of agitation. You talk too much! And most of your prattle is too illogical and disrespectful of the system you are “legitimately” fighting. We believe from your disquietness that you want to liberate Yoruba from the claws of the evil-Herdsmen. We are solidly behind everyone with moves to save innocent people from bloodshed.

Every victim of the evil Fulani herdsmen appreciates and commends your boldness and activism. Still, some of us who know your antecedents are cautiously optimistic that your agitation will not be another surrogate of politicians and business as usual. Please, do not fall expediently into the hands of unconscionable politicians. You can see them already carpeting and cross carpeting from one party to another maneuvering for 2023. At the end of the day, they’re all the same birds of a feather flocking together. You will be used and dumped like the other victims of the Nigerian polity. Be a good representation of the unique Yorùbá large kin. The good people of Yorùbá sincerely identified with your agitation to wake the sleeping giants up to secure our people. But you seem to have veered away from the main course by disrespecting Yorubaland’s revered and humbled Oba—the ??`ni of If?`, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ògúnwùsì.

Read Also; That raid on Sunday Igboho’s residence

It is pertinent to note that the humble and intelligent Oba Adéyeyè Enitan Ògúnwùsì knows his onions. He is a good representation of our cultural heritage anywhere in the world. His Royal Highness, Oòni of Ifè, was not obligated to tell you as an individual what he went to do at Aso Rock, Abuja. Ooni of Ife, the Ojija II, is a quintessential monarch with an exemplary king to all human races, including Obas, Sarkin Zazzaus, Emirs, Obis, etc., in Nigeria. The incorruptible Oba Ògúnwùsì was a wealthy businessman before he was enthroned to his progenitor’s majestic throne. It is sacrilegious and a misnomer to have allegedly accused the humbled man that he went to collect a brown envelope from Abuja. Brown envelop for what? And from who? It is even unfathomable to expect the ‘stingy and frugal’ man in Abuja to give out money like his predecessors used to do to every corrupt man of yesterday. This is not the time to fight the right people and ourselves in Yorubaland.

My brother, this brotherly advice is timely! Pelepele di owo yin. And softly, softly Yoruba people intelligently run the race against adversaries to win-remember the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Remember that you are a brave child of circumstances brought to the fore by the land’s insecurity. You mutated into the national spotlight by happenstance, and you should use the opportunity responsibly to prod the aged minds of our ineffectual leaders. I strongly admonish you to tread your self-venturesome with smartness and care. Yoruba people are brilliant and good at diplomatic ventures. Other resourceful and geopolitical tribes ruefully take Yoruba diplomacy for weakness, whereas Yoruba people know their strategies and onions. You know this; I know it-we all know it. As brilliantly distinct as the late Chief MKO Abiola, he was cajoled into standing in front of a moving train by the same people enabling you to fight a winnable fight with another innocent ethnic group. They all abandoned Abiola when he needed them the most!

At this juncture, you need strategy and advice from our experienced and responsible Yoruba elders to fight the herdsmen’s insurgency and other crimes. The Honorable Governor Ekiti of Ondo state’s approach is a workable strategy to dealing with the insurgency of the killer squad-herdsmen. The lives of our people are too sacrosanct to be wasted at the altar of political expediency. Let us follow the power of examples of our elders and their reasonable advice. This fight for life and death in our enclaves is the responsibility of everyone irrespective of our domiciliary. Let us not capitalize on the failures of this government on security to take laws into our hands. Unless the recalcitrant man in Abuja begins the inevitable process of truly restructuring Nigeria to go back to the regional government system, he is just postponing the evil days. It won’t be good for his legacy as well.

Mr. Sunday Igboho, the Diaspora Nigerians, and Yorubas share your onerous goals and objectives. Still, they do not share a “necessary lawlessness” to rid our enclaves of the killer herdsmen and evils. Henceforth, ensure to talk less and strategically liaise more with other stakeholders in Nigeria and the Nigerian diaspora. Let us find a way of addressing this national cancer that is metastasizing the troubled system’s fabric. Do not bring Yoruba down to the killer squad’s level by hurting all other law-abiding citizens in our territory. The consequences might be calamitous to no one’s favor.

Thanks in anticipation of this onerous gesture as we are all on the same venture and famished road to bringing peace and tranquility back to our homeland.
- Balogun wrote from Arizona, USA. balooy2k@gmail.com
July 10, 2021
Anambra 2021: Is Andy Uba APC’s game changer?

By Igboeli Arinze

If there is someone who has tirelessly sought to govern Anambra then the name Andy Uba will be featured within such a category. This is even when it seems that he has been unlucky starting right from the judgement of 2007 where the Supreme Court ruled that INEC should never have conducted elections in the state. Since then Uba has sought to be governor in 2010, 2013 and 2017.

Such determination may be mistaken as desperation for power by those who do not know Senator Uba well, these persons feed on the numerous sins of his younger brother, the perennial enfant terrible of Anambra in the person of Chris Uba, thus seeking to make Andy Uba the scapegoat, a sad occurrence, since a John F Kennedy was never judged by many for the sins of his father Joseph P Kennedy or a Robert Kennedy for the errors of John Fitztgerald and neither did Americans judge George Walker Bush for the sins of Bush senior.

This is not to say that Senator Uba is a saint, far from it as Saints have no business in politics, particularly one as murky as that of our nation. Uba is no saint and he knows it possessing the frailties of all humans as we do too but yet possessing a spirit that seeks the best for Anambra as records and events have shown.

As Senator representing Anambra South for eight years, no Senator in old or present day Anambra State has an antecedent of performing as a legislator the way he did in those two terms. As Governor for 17 days, Andy Uba was reported to have assembled a team of technocrats to help his administration assail the developmental challenges faced then in Anambra, one only needs to have given him a number of years to evaluate his performance as governor but then haven witnessed his performance in the Senate could we then argue otherwise?

Read Also; Anambra APC stakeholders advised to back Uba

Uba remains one of Anambra’s finest politicians and though he is not gifted with the garb or oratory as a politician, he makes up for such with a great ability to listen. Andy Uba again is one politician not given to ethnic or tribal proclivities, for many it is the,Agulu or Aguleri Cabal as witnessed in the administrations of Obi and Obiano presently, not with Uba, his Pan Anambra/ Pan Igbo/ Pan Nigerian outlook throws Uba out of that lot of our present modern day tribal warrant chiefs, Uba’s closest allies are not from his hometown of Uga but are scattered all over the state.

Uba possesses a formidable structure which he has maintained since 2007, he has a towering experience in electioneering and dots his I’s and T’s properly in any campaigns. In 2007, he recorded the singular feat of campaigning around the state twice, visiting every nook and cranny in the state, his senatorial campaigns were no different likewise his recent tour of wards and LGA’s in the just concluded primaries that saw him post a resounding victory.

For a party that has four times sought to govern Anambra ( Including the times it contested such elections as Action Congress) the APC is the only major party in Anambra not to have won the guber elections in the state. Its best opportunity came in 2017 when it fielded Tony Nwoye who managed to come second, this time around, with an Uba as the candidate, the party seems to be throwing everything it has against the game of dancing chairs candidatures of Chukwuma Soludo/ Umeoji/ Edozie Njoku from APGA and Val Ozigbo/ Ugochukwu Uba on the other hand in the PDP. The divisions in these major parties is a plus for the APC, the formidable stature of Uba’s candidature is another, a combination of both could see APC overcoming the odds to winning the election.

Even the recent attacks on his person by hired media goons and the staging of a shameful protest by bank workers is a pointer to the fact that certain persons are running scared of Uba’s candidature. I am in the knowledge that a sitting Senator in the state has bankrolled a number of media offensives set to commence anytime soon, likewise a number of powerful figures, including the outgoing governor are worried sick about an impending victory for Uba.

But Uba and the APC need not worry much, all that is needed is to campaign on the numerous issues bothering Ndi Anambra, all that is needed is to assemble a campaign team formidable enough to take the message of progress and development to the various towns and communities that make up the state for as I write this, Ndi Anambra are in dire need of change, they seem to be tired of APGA and the wastrel like administration of Willie Obiano did little or nothing to change such a mindset, thus, making this election APC’s to win with Andy Uba as the much needed game changer.

July 10, 2021