The problems of insecurity are not peculiar to Nigeria alone, as many nations of the world have at one point in their history dealt with the menace of insecurity. However, what has been most disturbing in the Nigerian situation is the alleged support and collusion by many folks in the host communities with bandits, kidnappers and terrorists, including the continued deterioration of the security situation over time.
While many factors are responsible for the nation’s current state of insecurity, most of the reasons have been well articulated. The Nigerian Army along with the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies have done a Herculean job in trying to combat the menace of insecurity, though frequent cases of large-scale kidnappings and violence still exist in sections of the country.
It is now a well-established position among experts that traditional military organizations are not equipped to fight insurgencies because of operational challenges, constitutional rights constraints, and the guerrilla tactics employed by insurgents a fact that was borne out by the American military experiences during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
However, to effectively combat and defeat the Boko Haram insurgency, end kidnappings, neutralize the bandits and restore peace to Nigeria, we must rethink our strategies and draw some lessons learned from the current efforts. In developing the new winning strategy, we must be cognizant of the fact that any efforts at defeating these enemies within must be a bottom-up approach, meaning that it must win the hearts and minds of people in the affected communities and enlist their help in intelligence gathering to enable security services liquidate them. Furthermore, given technological advancements in information technology and surveillance, we must deploy drones and unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAV) to the theatre of conflict to better aid in monitoring and deploying surgical strikes by our security forces against enemy combatants.
Some advocate for the creation of state police as the only vehicle to seriously fight these crimes and insecurity at the state level. I do not share this school of thought. I do endorse localizing crime fighting by recruiting locals into a civilian army of informants, a fighting force that can also aid in the collection of actionable intelligence, including reforming the Nigerian Police Force and implementing community policing which is distinct from state police and far more effective in addressing the security challenges.
Also embedding agents and informants in all communities and making sure police officers are from and or live in the communities they serve. We need reservoirs of informants and agents deployed especially to the troubled regions who will collect information and data for processing by the national counterterrorism centre in collaboration with other security agencies.
The trajectory of the war to restore peace and security in Nigeria will be on the upswing if we reorient and re-purpose the national counterterrorism centre to prioritize human intelligence and recruit one million agents across the country, while prioritizing zones of insurgency; deploy drones and Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAV) for surveillance and precision strikes against enemy targets.
We need to setup and deploy a readily accessible national Biometric Database for crime-fighting. Recruits should serve in their communities to help gather actionable intelligence which is key to effective targeting and response by the security services.
We must end, with immediate effect, the unconditional forgiveness of terrorists and bandits as it promotes more criminality. Also, guarantee amnesty from prosecution only for all insurgents, terrorists and bandits who lay down their arms and provide intelligence that leads to possible arrests of criminals after passage of the proposed terrorism and miscellaneous crimes reforms legislation.
Pass legislation to create special courts for terrorism, kidnappings and banditry or use military tribunals and exclude privileges of appeal to the Supreme Court. Launch a public awareness campaign through the National Orientation Agency (NOA) as part of crime-fighting efforts soliciting help from the public.
Finally, create a special council with autonomy to prosecute these crimes.
Nigerians must as a matter of necessity get rid of the begging culture that has come to define us and insist on accountability so that those who violate our laws are prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted by our laws and not cuddled or offered forgiveness without atonement.
I really do wonder whether those great patriots that fought a long and bloody war against British colonial rule and founded the United States of America in 1776 like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and so many others envisaged what has happened to their beloved country today?
I wonder whether the Pilgrim Fathers and great and wise men of old that, by faith in the Living God, left the Old World, crossed the Atlantic ocean in hazardous conditions and went to the New to establish a new beginning and build a new nation founded on freedom, equality, the fear of God and solid good old fashioned Christian virtues and values would believe what the beloved nation they toiled, prayed for, established and worked so hard to build has turned into today?
Would they not all be turning in their graves?
A nation that was once referred to by both friend and foe as the “land of the free and the home of the brave” is now neither free nor brave.
A mighty nation that delivered itself from its own internal prejudices, contradictions and demons by fighting a brutal civil war to free the slaves and that presented a great hope for those that dreamt of a world where all men and women could have equal opportunities regardless of class, history, color, race or creed has now lost its sense of decency, equity, honor and morality and turned into a corrupt, power drunk, morally bankrupt, blood-lusting, war-loving, terror-funding, egocentric and idiosyncratic collection of self-serving, self-seeking, cowardly and deluded individuals who serve the interests of not their own people but that of AIPAC, the Jewish lobby and the State of Israel.
A rich and powerful nation of over 300 million people that delivered the world from evil in both the First and Second World Wars, that defeated and dismantled the curse of Soviet Communism, that entrenched democracy throughout much of the world and that literally rules the waves today as the greatest super power in the history of humanity in a unipolar world is now nothing but the lap dog of little Israel?
It seems so hard to believe. Yet true it is!
Like Lucifer fell from heaven so you, O mighty America, has fallen from grace!
I weep for you.
Apart from your internal decay where the family system has been destroyed and traditional religious beliefs have been replaced by humanism and a godless philosophy in which the Lord is no longer reverred, where men marry men, where abortions are encouraged, where homosexuality is adored, where satanism is practised, where money is worshipped, where God has been banned from the schools and indeed every sphere of human endeavour and where the establishment of a New World Order is your ultimate objective you have also, with the help of your servile and fawning vassals like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland and others, debased and destroyed the fortunes and vision of many countries with your reckless and self-serving foreign policy and your insatiable thirst for power and world domination.
The number are legion but to mention a few, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, Palestine, Ukraine and a number of others stand out.
You have literally left each of them in rubles and turned them into a shell of their former selves simply because you insisted on misleading them, controlling them and imposing your values and will on them.
You are also attempting to undermine and destroy Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Turkey, Pakistan, India, South Africa, the Arab Gulf States, Brazil, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, Guinea, Egypt, Algeria and many others.
You wish to exploit them, enslave them, milk them, destroy them bend them to your will and turn them into your pliant little acolytes and colonies but thankfully so far you have failed.
Yet what exposes your monstrous, dark, evil and gluttonous degenration more than anything else is the way in which you nurture, protect, feed, arm and support your little baby Israel and how that baby has now become your slave master!
You quiver and bow at her every command and you seek to justify and rationalise her barbaric behaviour even when she operates what is undoubtedly a racist apartheid state and seeks to exterminate and occupy ALL the land of those she considers to be a lesser people with a lesser faith from a lesser nation like the Palestinians.
For the last seven months the entire world has witnessed with shock the way and manner in which you have not only allowed but openly encouraged her to commit mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza violating every rule and norm of international law and subjecting the Palestinian people to a modern day holocaust.
This is unacceptable and you have as much blood on your hands as a consequence of your shameless complicity as the Israelis themselves.
The truth is they could not and would not have dared to indulge in this monstrous and cruel display of depravity and in this bloodfest and killing spree without your tacit approval and support.
This is bad enough but the worst aspect of it all is that when the world boils in anger, weeps and wails and attempts to bring your baby to justice for her wanton and wilful display of utter madness whether at the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court, you bare your ugly fangs and growl like a wounded lion and you boldly tell us that we should know and MUST accept that your little Israel and the fascist right wing white and non-semitic European colonial settlers and Zionists that own and lead her are Gods chosen people, are above the law and are entitled to do ANYTHING they deem fit, including wiping out the Palestinians!
This disposition and open endorsement of pure and unadulterated evil is nauseating and sickening and it is a graphic reflection of the unconciable beast that you have now become.
You do not fear God, you do not fear world opinion, you do not fear even those from your own nation that are protesting your madness and you do not fear your conscience!
The only thing you fear is your Lord and master Israel!
I am.constrained to ask, who on earth has bewitched you and which invocations and spells of occult sorcery from the ancient Kabbala did the Jews invoke to capture and bind your spirit and soul and to make you behave in this slavish manner?
You are no longer the mighty giant that we once knew and reverred but rather you are now what the Nigerian people would decribe as a “woman wrappa” to your beloved Israel.
At the mention of her name your strength fails you, your knees bend, your heart beats faster, your soul melts, your emotions overwhelm you and you bow, genoflect, crawl and quiver before her like
a young man before his first love.
Truly this is satan’s work: you can no longer control your own will, you have been cursed, charmed and reduced to nothing and you are under a powerful spell.
I cry for you!
When the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague issues a warrant of arrest for other world leaders you rejoice but when they consider issuing the same for @netanyahu, the Israeli PM, you wet your pants, soil your diapers & threaten brimstone & fire!
Through one of your jittery officials at the State Department you went as far as to proclaim that
“the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israeli officials” and therefore has no right to even issue any arrest warrant on Netanyahu.
You forget that you were amongst those who clapped the loudest when a similar and active arrest warrant was issued on Russian President Vladimer Putin.
For that you believed that the ICC acted within its powers and in fact did a great job yet you believe it is “unacceptable” for them to issue such a warrant on Bibi Netanyahu.
Your hypocrisy and double standards beggars belief!
Again you have just passed a law which violates your own constitution, known as the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which outrightly bans free speech & which seeks to jail anyone that opposes, condemns or criticises the Jews, the Zionists or the State of Israel or that accuses them of being a racist, apartheid state or of committing genocide in Gaza or at any other place or time in their long 5000 year history including during the days of the Holy Bible!
Your Congress just voted to make it ILLEGAL to compare Israel’s genocidal actions to Nazi Germany
and they have effectively banned the Holy Bible in a supposedly “Christian” nation.
Is this not evidence of a diseased mind?
To be clear the new law makes it illegal to criticise, protest against or boycott Israel.
It also makes it ILLEGAL to preach or qoute the portions of the GOSPEL & the Holy Bible where the countless & horrendous atrocities that were committed by the Jews against other nations thousands of years ago were listed!
The House of Representatives just voted to make preaching the FULL GOSPEL of the Christian faith ILLEGAL in America!
Let that sink in!
Megatron_ron captured it well when he wrote the following on X.
“The US House has passed an act that totally bans speaking and protesting against Israel. Even if you preach parts of the bible that clearly state the days the Jews killed Christ you will be arrested. In response to campus anti-Israel protests, the House is rushing to to vote on a new bill, HR 6090. This new Bill would officially define “Antisemitism” so the federal government can sue, prosecute, or sanction more people, businesses, and universities for supposed violations of civil rights law. This Bill would make it illegal to compare Israeli policies to Nazi policies. It would make it illegal to describe Israel as racist. It would make it illegal to accuse an American citizen of being more loyal to Israel than to the United States”.
Is this not sad and amazing?
Is it not a tragedy of Shakesperean proportions?
Does it not make your blood boil and your skin crawl?
Are we not entering the Orwellian world that the British author George Orwell wrote about and predicted in his celebrated book many decades ago and that the writer and great visionary and intellectual @davidicke often refers to today?
Is America, a once great country that exalted justice, freedom and righteousness, not turned into a big fat turd that is now in the process of flushing herself down the Israeli toilet!
Surely she can no longer be referred to as the “United States of America” but rather the “United States of Zion!”
On his part @Jakeshieldsajj a highly respected American public affairs commentator and social media influencer, wrote the following on X:
“In the past two weeks, Congress has made anti-semitism illegal, demanded that anti-Israel protesters must be arrested, banned TikTok at Israel’s request, given $100 billion to Israel and Ukraine for war, approved warrantless spying on Americans, approved $3.5 billion aid for illegal immigrants and done nothing for the American people! It’s become clear they are not here to serve us.”
Jake has spoken the bitter truth.
Perhaps the most asinine and chilling contribution of all came from American Senator Ted Cruz, a one time presidential aspirant, a ranking Senator and a man who, up until recently, I had immense respect for.
He said, “I condemn NOTHING that the Israelis are doing!”
Is this not evidence of mental illness!
People are slaughtering thousands of children on a monthly basis with weapons that are being supplied by the American taxpayer which you as a Senator approved in your budget and you say you cannot condemn it?
Does that not make Cruz and those that think like him accomplices in the crime of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity?
People like him should tell me why I should condemn Hamas for what they did on October 7th if he refuses to condemn the Jews for the 1948 Nakba in which they murdered almost one million Palestinians!
They should tell me why I should condemn Hamas if they refuse to condemn the Israeli Army for the 2024 genocide in Gaza in which 40,000 civilians have been murdered in 7 seven months and still counting?
Again Senator Cruz and indeed the entire American Congress claim that the phrase which the pro-Palestinian protesters and forces have come to regard as their signature tune and battle cry which boldly proclaims that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” connotes the intention of the Palestinians to eliminate every single Jew in Israel yet they fail to apply the same standard, connotation and sinister intention when the Zionists themselves use the same slogan in respect of the same land and when they scream “from the river to the sea, Israel shall have sovereignty”.
Permit me to ask, why the double standard?
When the Palestinians say it you claim that they want to kill every Jew in the nation but when the Jews say it you claim that they have no evil intentions for the Palestinians!
Is this not another example of the self-serving, infantile and puerile reasoning that most Americans and Europeans suffer from and have been afflicted with when it comes to the Gaza issue and does it not prove the fact that as far as the majority of Americans are concerned the Palestinians do not have the right to exist or to be treated like human beings whilst the Jews are treated like gods?
Is this fair? Is it rational? Does it make sense?
The Jews constitute only 2% of the American population and yet they have been singled out for such preferential treatment and protection whilst the State of Israel, a distant nation of only 9 million people, has been accorded the special status of being “Gods chosen people” and well above the law and is entitled to commit the most grievous and heinous acts of genocide, ethnic and religious cleansing and mass murder without criticism or consequence.
All this you have done for a people and a nation which comprises of a deluded and sociopathic horde of genocidal psychopaths that not only murdered Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, that not only wiped out the Amalekites 5000 years ago, that not ethnically cleansed the Midianites 4000 years ago, that not only exterminated the Agagites 3000 years ago, that not only butchered 1 million Palestinians during the Nakba in 1948, that not only eliminated millions of Arabs all over the Middle East in the last 75 years but that has also killed 40,000 innocent and defenceless civilians, including 20,000 children, in the last 7 months in Gaza and are set to kill even more in Raffa!
Is this not madness? Pray tell us, I ask again, who has bewitched you?
I say woe unto you!
Your awesome power and mind-boggling wealth has driven you insane and far from God!
From being perceived as the leader of the free world you can now be best described as the fawning and pliant pit bull terrier of the Zionist state and the world’s leading genocide supporter and enabler!
The truth is that there can be no defence or justification for anyone or any nation, no matter how rich and powerful, that supports a country of genocidal maniacs and psychopathic child killers.
The Zionist state of Israel is the greatest evil that we have seen since Nazi Germany.
It is a vicious, savage, bloodthirsty, racist, apartheid entity that is led by a group of desperate and deluded European settlers and land grabbing colonialists and that has lost its right to exist.
The sooner it is wiped off the face of the earth the better!
Yet for America there is still hope and that hope lies in people like the Christian protesters who barricaded themselves at the cafeteria of the American Congress last week and who said that as long as the people of Gaza could not eat they would not allow the members of the House to enter the cafeteria to eat!
Again that hope lies in the courageous and gallant students, lecturers and academics who have demonstrated their commitment to justice, decency and humanity by vigorously protesting in Universtiy campuses all over the country.
As a former American presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, rightly said those young demonstrators are “out there for the right reasons! They are out there not because they are pro-Hamas. They are out there because they are outraged by what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza!”
Sanders is right and permit me to add that those protesting students are indeed the saving grace of America.
Despite the fact that they have been subjected to the most brutal repression by the security forces who have raided the campuses injuring many in an attempt to disperse them and in spite of the fact that as at the time of writing this piece over 2000 of them have been arrested and detained in various police stations across the nation, they continue to come out in their thousands and stand for the people of Gaza.
They represent America’s pride and joy and the brightest and best of American youth and they are now all fired up and are marching the streets and university campuses for the Palestinians!
This is a truly remarkable moment in world history and it represents a seismic and monumental shift in the perception, hearts and minds of the younger people in a nation that has been in the pocket and under the control of the Jews and the Zionists since the end of World War 11.
Permit me to end this contribution with the following.
Nothing symbolises the renewed hope that we are witnessing more than the beautiful and moving words of Professor Rashid Khalidi, who has been a Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at New York’s Columbia University for the last 22 years.
In an inspiring address to the students and in a speech that will reverberate throughout history he said, inter alia, the following.
“This is about a genocide being carried on with American money and with American weapons, against a people enduring generations of occupation. The students of Columbia fought against the Viet Nam war when I was a student here many years ago. We protested against that war then and today we honor the memories of those who took part in that great struggle by doing the same for the Palestinians and the people of Gaza!”
May God guide and protect them all and may He grant the people of Gaza and Palestine victory!
(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the Sadaukin Shinkafi and the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, is a lawyer, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism and a former Minister of Aviation)
Nigeria’s recent elections have been marred by various challenges, including logistical issues, concerns about transparency, and the ineffective use of technology. Addressing these challenges is crucial for strengthening the country’s democratic processes and enhancing public trust in the electoral system. This report explores how the integration of agile principles, and the effective implementation of technology can contribute to improving Nigeria’s elections.
The 2023 general elections in Nigeria saw the introduction and use of various technologies aimed at improving the electoral process. However, the implementation and effectiveness of these technologies were met with mixed reviews. Here’s a closer look at the role of technology in the recent Nigerian elections:
Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS): INEC introduced the BVAS, a device designed to accredit voters through fingerprint and facial recognition technology. The BVAS was also meant to upload polling unit results to INEC’s central server in real-time. However, there were widespread reports of BVAS malfunctions, with many devices failing to authenticate fingerprints or capture images, leading to delays and frustration for voters.
INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV): INEC developed the IReV portal to allow for the real-time uploading and viewing of polling unit results. This was intended to enhance transparency and reduce the risk of manipulation. However, the portal experienced significant delays, with many results not being uploaded in a timely manner, leading to concerns about the credibility of the process.
Electronic Transmission of Results: INEC had initially planned to transmit results electronically from polling units to the central server, but this was later abandoned due to concerns about the integrity of the process and legal challenges. As a result, results had to be manually collated and transmitted, which increased the potential for errors and manipulation.
While the use of technology in the 2023 Nigerian elections demonstrated a commitment to modernizing the electoral process, the implementation challenges and failure to fully leverage the potential of these technologies highlighted the need for further improvements. Stakeholders and experts have called for more robust testing, better training, and addressing infrastructural deficits to ensure the effective and reliable use of technology in future elections.
The Role of Technology
Technology has the potential to revolutionize Nigeria’s electoral process by enhancing efficiency, transparency, and credibility. However, the effective implementation of technological solutions has been a significant challenge. Some key areas where technology can play a pivotal role include:
1. Voter Registration and Verification: Biometric voter registration systems, coupled with robust voter databases, can ensure accurate and up-to-date voter rolls, minimizing the risk of fraud or duplicate entries.
2. Electronic Voting and Result Transmission: Secure electronic voting systems and real-time result transmission mechanisms can streamline the voting process, reduce human errors, and enhance transparency by providing timely access to election data.
3. Monitoring and Observation: Technology-enabled monitoring and observation tools, such as mobile applications and data analytics platforms, can empower domestic and international observers to effectively monitor the electoral process and report irregularities.
4. Voter Education and Outreach: Digital platforms, including websites, social media, and mobile applications, can be leveraged to disseminate voter education materials, polling information, and real-time updates, improving citizen engagement and participation.
How can we apply Agile to improve the existing system without reinventing the will.
Applying agile principles and practices could help improve the implementation and effectiveness of technologies like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in Nigeria’s electoral process. Here are some ways agile could be leveraged:
1. Iterative development and testing:
Instead of a monolithic deployment, agile methodologies would advocate for an iterative approach, where BVAS and IReV are developed and tested incrementally. This would involve releasing a minimum viable product (MVP) early on, gathering feedback from users (poll officials, voters, observers), and continuously improving the systems based on real-world experiences.
2. Cross-functional collaboration:
Agile emphasizes cross-functional teams, where experts from various disciplines (technology, logistics, security, voter education) collaborate closely throughout the development and deployment process. This could help identify and address potential issues early on, ensuring better integration and coordination.
3. Continuous integration and delivery:
Agile practices like continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) could be applied to ensure that updates and improvements to BVAS and IReV are regularly and seamlessly integrated, tested, and deployed, minimizing the risk of system failures or compatibility issues.
4. User-centred design:
Agile’s focus on user involvement and feedback could be leveraged to ensure that BVAS and IReV are designed with the needs and experiences of voters, poll officials, and other stakeholders in mind. This could involve conducting user testing, gathering feedback, and incorporating changes based on real-world usage scenarios.
5. Retrospectives and continuous improvement:
After each electoral cycle, agile retrospectives could be conducted to identify what worked well, what didn’t, and what could be improved. These learnings could then be incorporated into the next iteration of BVAS and IReV, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
6. Scalability and adaptability:
Agile practices emphasize building scalable and adaptable systems. This could be applied to ensure that BVAS and IReV can handle varying loads and complexities across different regions, while also being flexible enough to accommodate changing requirements or new technologies.
7. Training and knowledge sharing:
Agile promotes frequent knowledge sharing and training sessions. This could be applied to ensure that poll officials, technical staff, and other stakeholders are adequately trained on the use and maintenance of BVAS and IReV, minimizing the risk of errors or misuse.
However, adopting agile principles and practices would require a shift in mindset and culture within INEC and other relevant institutions. It would also necessitate investing in training, infrastructure, and resources to support these new ways of working. However, the benefits of agile could include more responsive and reliable electoral technologies, improved stakeholder collaboration, and a system that can adapt to changing needs and challenges.
Recommendations
To effectively leverage technology and agile principles in improving Nigeria’s electoral process, the following recommendations are proposed:
People n Process
1. Establish a dedicated task force to oversee the integration of technology and agile practices into the electoral process. This body should comprise representatives from relevant government agencies, technology experts, civil society organizations, and political parties.
2. Conduct a comprehensive assessment of existing technological infrastructure and identify areas for improvement or investment. This should include evaluating the scalability, security, and usability of existing systems.
3. Implement pilot projects to test and refine technological solutions and agile practices in selected regions or constituencies. These pilots should involve stakeholder participation, continuous monitoring, and iterative refinement based on feedback and lessons learned.
4. Foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing partnerships with international organizations, technology companies, and other countries that have successfully implemented agile and technology-driven electoral processes.
5. Prioritize transparency and public outreach efforts to build trust and awareness among citizens regarding the use of technology and agile methodologies in the electoral process.
Technology
1. Electronic Voting Systems (EVS). Use of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines or Optical Scan Voting Systems at polling stations
– Iterative development and user testing of EVS interfaces to ensure usability for voters and poll workers
– Secure transmission of voting data from machines to central tallying servers using encryption
– Agile development of tallying software with robust auditing and verification features
– Modular architecture allowing components like voter authentication to be improved iteratively
2. Biometric Voter Registration/Authentication
-Use of fingerprint, iris, facial recognition for voter registration and authentication at polling stations
– Agile prototyping of biometric registration apps for mobile devices for voter enrolment
– Integration with Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) / Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS)
– Continuous security testing of biometric data storage and matching systems
3. Results Transmission and Viewing
Distributed architecture for secure transmission of results from polling units to central database
Implementation of End-to-End (E2E) verifiable voting protocols like Randomly Permuted Decryption
– Automated auditing mechanisms to detect tampering or irregularities in results
4. Geospatial Data Integration
– Integration of GIS data for district boundaries, polling locations into electoral management systems
– Use of geofencing techniques to authenticate devices at legitimate polling locations
– Interactive maps for citizens to locate their polling stations and view results
5. Monitoring & Observation
– Apps for observers (domestic/international) to report issues, submit photos/videos as evidence
– Dashboards aggregating observer reports, incident mapping and analytics
– Use of technologies like computer vision for monitoring crowd levels at polls
6. Voter Education & Outreach
– Chatbots and voice assistants for answering common voter queries
– Online voter information portals with polling details per constituency
– Social media command centres for rumour monitoring and addressing misinformation
7. System Integration & DevOps
– Use of containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) for consistent deployment
– Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines for regular system updates
– Comprehensive monitoring, logging, and analytics infrastructure
– Cloud deployed for scalability and failover across multiple availability zones
8. Risk-Limiting Audits (RLAs):
– RLAs are a type of post-election audit that provides statistical evidence that the election outcome is correct, without requiring a full manual recount.
– RLAs can detect and correct outcome-altering mistakes in the initial tally.
– Examples: Several states in the USA, including Colorado, Georgia, and Rhode Island, have implemented RLAs. Denmark has used RLAs to verify parliamentary election results.
9. AI and Machine Learning:
– AI/ML techniques can be used for tasks like voter roll data cleansing, detecting fraud patterns, and automating aspects of election monitoring and auditing.
-Examples: Machine learning Nigeria’s election process has an excellent opportunity to strengthen the country’s democratic institutions and address long-standing difficulties by embracing technology and agile approaches. Nigeria may adopting iterative development, cross-functional cooperation, stakeholder involvement, and continuous improvement to boost election efficiency, legitimacy, and transparency. However, in order for implementation to be successful, financing for the necessary infrastructure, training, and resources must be committed to by government agencies, civil society organisations, and the general public working together.
Strong cybersecurity measures, including as penetration testing, secure coding techniques, and defence against fraud and DDoS attacks, are necessary for the solutions. Sovereignty and data privacy are important factors.
In the end, the technological plan ought to be in line with the concepts of auditability of the election process, software agility, stakeholder participation, and transparency.has been used to detect potential voter roll irregularities in several US states. AI-based systems have been proposed for automated ballot adjudication and auditing.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s election process has an excellent opportunity to strengthen the country’s democratic institutions and address long-standing difficulties by embracing technology and agile approaches. Nigeria may adopt iterative development, cross-functional cooperation, stakeholder involvement, and continuous improvement to boost election efficiency, legitimacy, and transparency. However, for implementation to be successful, financing for the necessary infrastructure, training, and resources must be committed to by government agencies, civil society organisations, and the general public working together.
Strong cybersecurity measures, including as penetration testing, secure coding techniques, and defence against fraud and DDoS attacks, are necessary for the solutions. Sovereignty and data privacy are important factors.
In the end, the technological plan ought to be in line with the concepts of auditability of the election process, software agility, stakeholder participation, and transparency.
In 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband and I engaged in a pet project that required us conducting candid interviews with people on the streets to gain insight into their perceptions of Nigeria, their expectations of government and their sense of ownership of a Nigerian dream. It was an interesting season of my life that afforded me the opportunity to just hear first-hand what everyday Lagosians were thinking. There was an encounter with a young lady, however, that left an indelible mark on my consciousness. She said to me, “TBOG, at the tender age of six, I was called ‘the leader of tomorrow’. I just turned forty, yet, the promise of tomorrow still eludes me. When will my tomorrow come?” Her words touched me deeply because it echoed a sentiment shared by many who have long been called, THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW. “When will our collective tomorrow materialize, and what form will it assume?” many youths ask.
For a long time, the youth have been told to wait for their turn to lead the nation. As the years have passed and the vista of tomorrow appears distant, one cannot help but question the accuracy of the ‘waiting period’. Will the youth ever have their turn at power, or will it have to be forcefully grabbed? Are youths even ready to handle the reins of power or are we just too inexperienced to know what to do with it? Would Nigeria progress as a nation if it had an infusion of youthful energy to invigorate governance structures or would our much-touted inexperience cause us to falter under pressure, make costly mistakes, or succumb to the allure of power without proper accountability? If they had the opportunity, would the current crop of youths be any different from the older generation of leaders they fiercely condemn or would they become the breath of fresh air Nigeria needs? While these are burning questions on the minds of many, I am compelled to take Lagos, once again, as my model.
Lagos State boasts of the most vibrant and dynamic population of young people in the country. Many of Nigeria’s young leaders and change-makers have their roots in Lagos, the likes of Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Olugbenga Agboola, Folarin Falana (Falz), Debo Adedayo (Mr. Macaroni), Tunde Onakoya, Hilda Baci, Debola William, Chude Jideonwo, Yemi Adamolekun among others who are all thriving in their various spheres of influence, from technology to arts and entertainment to media to civil society, placing Nigeria in global conversations. This suggests that the youth have the potential to make a difference if given the opportunity in the political arena. Thankfully, the current Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, is a young Nigerian whose inspiring story is traceable to the Centre of Excellence. Moreover, did you know that in Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s cabinet, there are young people in their thirties holding key positions? Some of his Senior Special Assistants were in their twenties when he took office and they have since grown to head agencies within the state, contributing their quota to the decision-making process. For these ones, their tomorrow has come; they have become the leaders of today.
Mr. Governor recognizes the untapped potential of youth and is committed to investing in this potential. No wonder the Lagos model is a departure from the longstanding tradition of political leadership dominated by the older generation. The Lagos model is a definite paradigm shift in governance dynamics. This should not be very surprising given that Lagos is a forward-thinking state driven by the THEMES+ agenda. Besides, Lagos has historically provided an enabling environment for young people to thrive across various sectors even as the political environment has been characterized by intergenerational integration and continuity of vision. This is a commendable model that other states must consider adopting. While there are indicators of increased youth participation in several states across the nation, to accurately measure inclusion, a Youth Participation Index that evaluates the gains of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Act and the involvement of youth in appointive positions would be a valuable additional contribution from civil society groups. While I believe that Lagos State would top such an index, I recognize that there is still much room for progress in the inclusion of young people in public leadership across the nation.
Among public officials, there are two schools of thought on youth involvement in public leadership. On the one hand, there is the belief that incorporating youth in politics and governance would trigger a positive disruption through the introduction of innovative ideas, digital savvy, and a deeper connection with contemporary issues facing the populace. This school of thought holds that the idealism of youth as well as our passion for change offers a promising antidote to stagnant bureaucracies and the entrenched systems that currently impede transformative outputs. This school of thought further holds the opinion that since many among the present-day older generation of leaders began their leadership journeys as youths, it would be only just for them to yield the floor to the present-day younger generation. On the other hand, there are those who hold sacred the age-old wisdom of experience. The holders of this opinion argue that governance is a complex matter requiring the nuanced understanding and institutional knowledge that can only be found among seasoned politicians and administrators. They believe that youthful idealism could become a pitfall without practical wisdom gained through years of service and leadership.
My thoughts regarding these two positions are very simple. Leadership is a skill that must be forged in the crucible. I do not think that the youths, in themselves, are the panacea to Nigeria’s problems. I do not think power should be given to anyone simply because they are of a particular age bracket. I think the making of the Nigeria of our dreams is the collective responsibility of the old and the young because we need the wisdom of the old and the energy of the youth to make this nation work. But this is also not an endorsement of the status quo. If we had to choose between the ebullience and innovation of the youth on the one hand and the conventionality and steadfastness of the old on the other, I would likely go for the former. But what Nigeria needs, beyond creativity and passion, is patriotism and people of character; people who love their nation and can defend her, come what may. These kinds of people are first forged in the home before they are released to the nation. If parents do not rise to take charge of the value and moral components of their children’s growth and development, a pipeline of value-driven youthful leaders would be a pipe dream.
As a youth, I may be castigated for even considering that the older generation should still have a say at the table, but life has shown me that there are unpatriotic and corrupt youths as much as there are nationalistic and reliable older leaders. As a Fellow of The Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy, I have seen and worked with political leaders and bureaucrats who possess professionalism and integrity – value systems that I hardly thought that I would encounter in the public sector and that I never believed even existed among politicians. Among the old as well as the young, I have seen the propensity for the good as well as the inclination to the not-so-desirable. This has compelled a rethink of the notion of age as the sole determinant of leadership emergence in our nation. While it is my utmost delight to see more young people emerge as leaders in Nigeria, I am concerned that if the production process is not thoroughly curated to produce a generation of leaders who are passionate and patriotic and possess the character and competence required for governance, we would replicate the corruption that currently eats at the soul of our nation, except that this time, it would be with an exuberance that could bring our nation to its knees.
This was why, when the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy (LJLA) convened its first-ever Lagos Leadership Summit (LLS) held on April 17, 2024, tagged, Leadership and Nigeria’s Future, expectation surged in my heart that the event would kickstart fresh conversations around the integration of a new generation of trained and tested leaders. I was not disappointed. As the Honorable Commissioner for Innovation, Science & Technology, Olatubosun Alake, pointed out at the event, there are older leaders devoid of patriotism, just as there are callous youths hungry for power. The goal, in my opinion, is an integrated approach where the wisdom of age converges with the dynamism of youth. Mentorship programs, intergenerational dialogues, knowledge exchange opportunities and leadership training initiatives, all of which the LJLA and LLS embody, can bridge this gap. By harnessing the complementary strengths of diverse generations, Lagos is already cultivating a leadership ecosystem that is resilient, adaptable, and responsive to the needs of its diverse populace. No wonder we boldly say: This is Lagos, the Centre of Excellence, the Nigerian model for city transformation and the reference point for all other states.
● Temitope tbog Omoakhalen – Fellow, Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy
On 17 April, 2024, an iconic image was splashed across television screens and newspaper pages. It was that of the Chief of Staff to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Right Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, wheeling the nonagenarian Leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group – Afenifere – Pa Reuben Fasoranti, on a mobility aid, in the inner recesses of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, with the kind of care with which eggs are carried. That picture is worth more than a thousand words. The picture is complemented by another one in which, in a crescent-shaped arrangement, a delegation of Yoruba elders led by Pa Fasoranti posed for a photograph with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, on a visit to him at the Aso Rock Villa. Those pictures are indices of changing times.
When Yoruba elders congregated at Premier Hotel in Ibadan on 7 February, 2013, for a meeting convened by the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), it was to lament and protest Yoruba marginalisation by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. At least one of the key personalities at that meeting, Chief Olu Falae, was also present at the 17 April, 2024 meeting with President Tinubu. The Vanguard of 14 February, 2013, in an article by Charles Kumolu entitled “Now we’re the marginalised – Yoruba elders”, reported Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and former Minister of Finance, to have remarked as follows: “the degree of marginalisation of the South West zone borders on attempts to excise the zone out of the federation”.
In the pattern of President Tinubu’s pre-election Emilokan speech, Chief Falae was reported to have recalled: “In the dying days of the Yar’Ádua administration, when there was a lot of reluctance to make Jonathan the acting President, it was predominantly Yoruba activists who led the march to the National Assembly to force our lawmakers to pronounce Jonathan acting President.” He was also reported to have said: “when the then-Acting-President Jonathan chose to run for president, he got the enthusiastic endorsement of many Yoruba progressives, especially the leadership of YUF, die-hard Awoists who pushed his acceptability to the Yorubas by portraying him as a fulfilment of an earlier Awolowo prophesy about the Ijaws and the presidency.”
In spite of the best efforts of Yoruba elders’ groups like YUF, Afenifere has remained the most enduring and most well-acknowledged Yoruba leadership group. In fact, at its beginning in the 1950s, Afenifere was an ideologically pristine Yoruba-interest-promoting group. Due to this perception, even Yoruba personalities who were not actively involved in its activities could at least identify with it spiritually. And members of other ethnic groups saw it as the quintessential Yoruba voice. However, with time, the group began to slide. It started treating those who were outside its fold as inconsequential and began to treat Governors of Yoruba states and other government functionaries with condescension.
It was at this stage in its development that Afenifere led most of the Governors of the Yoruba states into the infamous and treacherous agreement for the Southwest Governors, who belonged to the Alliance for Democracy (AD) at the time, to work for President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2003 presidential elections, while he would work for these Governors to ensure that they retained their seats on the platform of their party, AD. It was only one of the AD Governors, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos State, who saw through the game of the foxy old General. For their pains, the Governors lost their seats to the governorship candidates of Obasanjo’s PDP. Rather than acknowledge and appreciate his political perceptiveness and foresight, some sections of Afenifere subjected Tinubu to what may be called ‘generational opprobrium’ which had its greatest opportunity to be manifested when Tinubu went into an alliance with General Muhammadu Buhari to unseat President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
Self-acclaimed political ‘prophets’ predicted that Tinubu would regret his alliance with the Hausa-Fulani and that he would emerge battered and bruised and as an utterly damaged political product. So, when after the commencement of the Buhari administration, it appeared as if Tinubu was being deliberately shut out of the Presidential Villa by some aides of President Buhari, the political prophets were fast to claim the “we-said-so” credit. Then the preparations for the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries began, and with it came all of the shenanigans which appeared to be targeted at ensuring that Tinubu did not win.
But then, some Northern Governors of the APC came out in the nick of time to say that they supported that the presidential ticket of the party be given to a Southerner. Tinubu emerged the beneficiary of that historic consensus. All the same, the prophets of political doom still had high hopes when a series of measures were taken seemingly to ensure that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu lost the election. This was when the then-Governor Nasir-el Rufai of Kaduna State issued the patent declaration: “I want to say that those of us from Northern Nigeria honour agreements. We do not violate unwritten political agreements…” Meanwhile, an Acting Leader for Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, had been appointed in 2021, in the light of the quite advanced age of Pa Fasoranti, and the most combative elements in the group seemed to have gained ascendancy. Some key members of the group failed to live by the Yoruba proverbial principle that “Àgbàlagbà ma ñ yá’jú ni, àgbàlagbà ò kìí yá’nu” (‘Elders are swift to see, but slow to speak.’) They also seemed to discountenance the proverb, “ÌÌrÍÌ níí yÍ obì l’ápò, ÍÌrÍÌ níí yÍ Ífà nínú apó.” (‘Words draw kola nuts from the pocket, and words draw arrows from the quiver.’) In fact, some tendencies within Afenifere seemed to relish shooting verbal arrows, thereby alienating significant sections of the Yoruba elite and large swathes of some other ethnic groups.
The most self-deprecating act in this regard was the following widely-reported spiteful and undemocratic declaration by Pa Adebanjo, as Acting Leader: “I don’t have to consult him.” He said this in respect of his seemingly unilateral decision to declare that Afenifere’s choice for the 2023 presidential election was the Labour Party candidate Mr. Peter Obi, without consulting his principal Pa Fasoranti on behalf of whom Pa Adebanjo was acting.
As the mercurial part of Afenifere continued to predominate, many things were going amiss in Yorubaland. Even those things for which the Southwest was easily given credit started to elude the zone. One of such things is religious tolerance. Before now, it used to be axiomatic to say that “in Yoruba society, hardly can you find a family without Muslims and Christians living together in harmony.” Today, this claim has become more like a means of sedating and incapacitating Southwesterners who wish to protest religious injustice. And it is those who are guilty of the injustice or those who benefit from it who resort to the increasingly vacuous refrain. There are all sorts of tendencies now which belie the axiom.
One is the formation of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) which describes itself as follows: “The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is an Islamic human rights organization. … As a major mechanism in our operations, we open dialogue with institutions, employers and agencies in order to intervene on behalf of aggrieved Muslims. … Our adoption of dialogue has often doused tension in Nigeria and reduced the incidence of violence.” The organisation is headed by a now-retired Professor of Islamic Studies, Ishaq Akintola. The rather anti-intellectual, kneejerk reactions to the mention or positions of MURIC on religious issues are often amazing. It is also strange that some members of the non-Muslim elite propagate the stereotype that MURIC is a fringe, one-person outfit. It is not.
Another index of the widening religious gulf in Yorubaland is the formation of the “Association of Christian Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (AOCTRON)” to which the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse, emerged as Head in October 2020. One enquiry showed that the registered office of the group is in Ogun State, and a Yoruba traditional ruler is one of its key sponsors. Decreasing religious accommodation in Yorubaland is also shown in the public spat that occurred not long ago between a popular Lagos-based Yoruba Pentecostal Pastor and his family members over what was perceived as the mistreatment of a vulnerable Muslim member of the family, including the desecration of the corpse of that family member by the Pastor.
Currently, the most disturbing index of religious disharmony in Yorubaland is the open conflict between the Soun of Ogbomoso, His Royal Highness Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye (a Pentecostal Pastor) and the Chief Imam of Ogbomoso, Sheikh (Dr.) Talhat Yunus Ayilara. In those days in Youbaland, four personages, working together, superintended over the peace, harmony and well-being of the society. They were the traditional ruler, the Chief Imam, the Pastor and the Head Teacher. This makes the Ogbomoso feud unacceptable. Ironically, Afenifere which should have been in the best position to intervene has in the recent past portrayed itself as a pseudo-evangelical outfit, considering the utterances of its then-Acting-Leader, Pa Adebanjo, during the campaigns for the 2023 presidential elections.
For example, he was widely reported to have said: “Obi is leading the crusade to get us out of the bondage of serious oppression. … We will give it what it takes. It is either bend or break. If Obi does not win, forget a country called Nigeria. If we lose this election, there will be no opportunity for a non-Christian (sic), a non-northerner to be president again.” In a 3 February, 2023 report, by Samad Uthman, entitled “Ayo Adebanjo: If Obi loses, a Christian southerner may never be president again”, The Cable newspaper put in context the Afenifere Acting Leader’s misadvised statement.
Afenifere has splintered, resulting in the creation of the Afenifere Renewal Group in 2008. It has also understandably lost considerable public respect even within Yorubaland, and the erstwhile almost sacred group started to be the object of caustic puns. The most telling one was the reference to “Af¹ìnif¹ìre” (which may be translated as ‘well-wishers’) as “Af¹ìnif¹ìbi” (‘evil-wishers’). Respectable members of the Yoruba elite then started to publicly confront, criticise or simply stay clear of anything that had to do with the group.
If Afenifere must regain its mystique, its relevance and its prestige, especially now that the office of Acting Leader has been abrogated, it must recognise, respect and accommodate diversity within contemporary Yoruba society. The pictures of Afenifere that came out of the Presidential Villa show that the group has come full circle, and is setting out on a new beginning. The emerging new Afenifere must be introspective, align its actions with its declared objectives and must not depend on verbal darts to establish its authenticity.
I have been talking about the British class system because it is very old and well established. Its characteristics have become so familiar to the British and indeed to many people all over the world that no aspect of it is likely to be challenged in any serious fashion by any group of people for many years to come. All parts of it have been tried, tested and found to be acceptable to everyone save a few people on the fringes of society. Those dissenters are allowed to have their say and even rant and rave in public from time to time, whenever the fancy takes them to do so. They are able to do this because of the stability of the class system in Britain. It is easily recognisable that they do not pose any threat to the establishment and they help to show up the notion of tolerance to deviance by the authorities. The people in the upper crust, that is, the miniscule ruling elite have been in control and so completely in charge that they do not entertain any fear that their pre-eminence will be seriously challenged by any group of people. The stability of the structure they control is dependent on the universal acceptance of the status quo. It may not be satisfactory to some but as long as the upper crust maintains the cohesion which has served them well over a thousand years, there cannot be any possibility of any serious change to the system. This is not to say that the system has remained totally unchanged over the years. There have been a few changes here and there but these changes have only occurred in keeping with changing times. The very earth of their kingdom and the fullness thereof belong to them and that is the source of their enormous power. It is inconceivable now that a rampaging duke from anywhere, except perhaps from outer space will suddenly fetch up at Dover or anywhere else in Britain, for the sole purpose of taking over the land and sharing it among his followers as William the Conqueror did in 1066. The ruling class, at first glance look to be merely decorative, even effete but, it is on that rock that the kingdom has been built. The upper class is a fixture of massive proportions and no longer needs any form of coercion in order to maintain itself in power ad infinitum. Furthermore, it does not need any coalition partners who may have an agenda different from that which has worked over the last five hundred years or so. There has been no dilution of their resolve because nobody gets elected, absorbed or recruited by any means into the ruling class. You can only be born into it. In the old days, the confinement of any queen was minutely supervised by a retinue of courtiers swarming around the bed like spectators at a football match so that anyone thinking of switching the royal baby for another was wasting their time. The royal baby must not only have blue blood but must be seen to have it. Before consensus was reached in 1485, there were two competing ruling houses which fought over all manner of disagreements. In 1485 however, the House of Lancaster led by the Tudors defeated the Plantagenets of the House of York in the War of the Roses. The result was that the Tudors simply absorbed their recent opponents and since then their descendants have been in the driving seat. Like the stool of Ibadan, it became a case of turn by turn but unlike Ibadan, most of the kings and occasional queens have reached the throne with the flower of youth still blooming in their cheeks. The people of Ibadan may wish to find a way to follow this example and spare us the almost annual announcement of another octogenarian limping to the throne to replace another octogenarian who has been on the throne for no more than a couple of years but often less.
The British royals have, throughout the last six centuries managed to convince their subjects that there could be no alternative to their rule which is why British grown men and women, some of them with tears in their eyes beseech God to spare the lives of king or queen so that they may rule over them for a long time as they sing their national anthem lustily on every possible occasion. Their wish was granted in the case of Elizabeth II but she held on to the crown so long that her son and successor was always never going to be lucky in his turn to rule over his loyal subjects for a long time.
In return for their many privileges, the royal establishment gives out meaningless titles to some of their adoring subjects, notably those who have performed some service beyond the call of duty. Those titles are coveted by all and sundry even when they are being given the Order of the British Empire, a long expired empire. Rather like the long Balogun line in Ibadan where the last active Balogun sheathed his sword as long ago as 1886. Human nature is universal as shown by the desire of men from far flung reaches of the world to occupy all kinds of ceremonial posts and fight tooth and nail to be so recognised by their less privileged peers. Being a Manchester City supporter, I cannot resist a dig at David Beckham OBE who showed his allegiance to the British crown by dutifully and very publicly queuing for more than thirteen hours to pay his last respects to the queen before her state funeral. The man seems determined to bend his way into a knighthood. Knight of the British Empire. What empire?
At this point someone may point out and they have every right to point out that, we have royalty too; Obas, many of whom are still being minted, at least in Ibadan, Emirs, Obis, and sundry traditional rulers bedecked in recommended banks of coral beads. There is no dispute about their royalty but we have to ask, what is the power behind their throne? The simple answer is, tradition but is this enough to build that necessary aura of power around them? In the first place there are many of them, so many that in the context of Nigeria, their aura is constantly fading. Their area of influence is constantly shrinking but most importantly, they cannot call up the vast financial resources available to their British counterparts. Perhaps the greatest point of weakness however is that history tells us that there was a time, not long ago when our royal fathers were subject to the British crown. There is no coming back from that. Under no condition can our traditional rulers rule the roost in the same way as the British version of royalty can do.
The upshot of this is that in the real sense, we do not have a natural ruling class, fully equipped to formulate a growth agenda for the country. We lack a cohort of people who can take leadership positions because of birth induced confidence. That space has now been largely usurped by politicians who cannot boast of any ancestral confidence and who have no experience of wealth management. They are what the Yoruba describe as having risen from sterile rocks. They have nothing fertile to offer because of their own starkly barren background. They are in politics to make up for their deficiency in positive upbringing within a confident home background. This is why Nigerian politicians at every level of government have no ambition beyond stealing an awful lot of money to make up for their lack of genealogical history. Just ask the Nigerian politician who his father is or was. The answers will make sorrowful reading.
We have seen the effect of class formation on British society. Everyone in Britain knows his place in society and also knows what to do to enhance that place within that society. As a result of the clear divisions in their society people in the various classes do not eat the same food or speak the same language. They don’t even play the same games. The members of upper crust will be found playing with horses, those in the middle classes play cricket and rugby whilst football is attractive to those in the working class. In other words people in different classes are separated from each other by formidable barriers in what can be described as a soft apartheid system. It may be soft but those barriers are nevertheless irremovable.
In contrast to the clearly defined class system in Britain what you find in Nigeria is a bewildering mish mash of eclectic mixing. This is why Nigeria has been rightly described as a classless society, one in which the rulers do not show any distinctive differences to the people they are supposed to rule right down to those wallowing in the murkiness of their social basement. Nobody appears to take any responsibility for setting a tone for societal behaviour. The so called middle classes which are supposedly responsible for setting the standards in the strictly defined class relationships in Britain are in Nigeria just as crass as anyone else. They are corrupt, loud, pretentious and outside their area of professional competence, they are functionally illiterate as they do not have a tradition of reading books nor are they preoccupied with any form of serious intellectual engagement. Too many of them are taken over completely by their determination to not just making (stealing) money but flaunting it in the manner of some ignorant high street trader who has quite inexplicably run into a great deal of money. He cannot believe his luck and must fling money around like confetti to make sure that people are made visually aware of his new status. Such accidentally rich people are a source of serious danger to cattle which are slaughtered in large numbers to celebrate all kinds of unimportant events in their restricted lives. In other words, on the whole, our setup makes us behave like a rabble without any class distinctions. This is largely because we have no history of class formation that can run a modern society as is the case with British society. What we have here is an abysmal lack of purposeful and well brought up leadership. The bottom line is; we are still waiting for the arrival of our own version of William the Bastard.
Israeli writer and academic A.B. Yehoshua’s short story Facing the Forests is an allegory about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Controversial when published in 1963, Yehoshua exposed the reality that Israel was constructed on territory taken from others: the “forest” of the story represents the Israeli state and society, and the story’s unnamed Israeli protagonist is tasked with making sure that no fires emerge in the forest. The Palestinians in the story are referred to only as “Arabs,” and late in the story, the forest turns out to be constructed on the ruins of an Arab village.
After 75 years as one of the globe’s most contentious conflicts, we now seem to be witnessing the turning point for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Israeli state’s horrific and bloody destruction of Gaza, and the intransigence shown by both the Israeli and United States political leaderships, has sparked not just widespread protests on US campuses, but worldwide outrage and a formal case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
This reckoning has taken a long time to arrive. As I mentioned in a previous commentary, US President Harry Truman’s need for votes in 1948 motivated him to establish the US policy of supporting Israel. That support led to many subsequent compromises in US foreign policy towards the Eastern Mediterranean, to numerous wars and disasters, and ultimately, to the current crisis and protest movement.
Gaza and TikTok: The US and Israel lose control of the narrative
The protests now sweeping across the US campuses immediately brought to mind the turmoil on US campuses that erupted in the late 1960s. Notably, those protests were fueled by the new communication media of the era: television. The Vietnam War was the first war filmed on the battlefield and presented to citizens through television the same day; the result was that public perception of US policies in Vietnam turned negative and intensified opposition to the war.
The long-term consequence was that the US government, in later conflicts, gave intense attention to controlling the media narrative. That gave rise to the various techniques, such as the “embedding” of reporters with soldiers that featured so prominently in the 1st Gulf War in 1991, intended to ensure that the messages and images desired by the US government were those encountered and digested by media consumers. When the Internet was opened to public use in the early 1990s, new opportunities for information dissemination and control appeared, and the US remained at the forefront of what commonly became known as “information warfare.”
TikTok seems to have brought us back to the situation with television in the 1960s. TikTok is outside of the US government’s control, so it has long sparked calls to ban it. Israel’s actions in Gaza over the past 6 months have been broadcast to the world unfiltered over TikTok, which played a major factor in turning world opinion against Israel. Unsurprisingly, the US Congress’s efforts to ban TikTok sped up considerably amid claims that the Chinese state was using TikTok and Gaza to foment disorder in American society. Students are using a variety of social media apps to organize their protests, but TikTok remains the focus of attention from pro-Israeli groups.
South Africa and international protest movements
The international campaign against South Africa’s former apartheid regime is the other protest movement that comes to mind while observing the current worldwide protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Little nuance was displayed in the coverage of South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel, but the significance of South Africa’s intervention stems from the long fight to end the racist apartheid regime that dominated that society for decades. Many South Africans see a parallel between the Palestinians’ struggle for rights and self-determination and the extended struggle by Black South Africans for their rights and self-determination.
In fact, the figure associated with that long struggle, Nelson Mandela, and the party he was associated with, the African National Congress (ANC), were once armed militants. South Africa’s apartheid regime received support from the US during the Cold War because Mandela and the ANC received support from the communist bloc. Mandela and most of the ANC’s leadership were imprisoned from the 1960s until 1990. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, the surge in international activism against the apartheid regime made South Africa a pariah regime and Mandela an international hero. The same is now happening in regard to Gaza, and once again despite the efforts of the US government.
Truman’s ghost
Yehoshua’s story ends, after the unnamed Arab burns the forest, with the simple statement: “And so it will be all the days and nights after.” Maybe that’s how the situation looked to a conscientious Israeli intellectual in the early 1960s but, as Heraclitus stated 2500 years ago, nothing remains the same forever. Eventually, the Palestinians would develop the means to assert their rights and claims to self-determination; eventually, the fact that Israel was founded on land taken from other people would rise to prominence; eventually, the consequences of the choice that Truman made for votes in 1948 would materialize.
Now, with a national election only 6 months away, Truman’s Democratic Party is starkly split between an older generation that stubbornly maintains a willingness to tolerate the Israeli state’s flagrantly criminal behavior, and a younger generation appalled that anyone could have ever accepted such actions. And Donald Trump appears to be the main beneficiary.
The purported ranking of states by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), based on their performance in the 2023 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), is the focus of this piece.
In the said publication, ‘Lagos State, which hosts many private schools and home to virtually all Nigerians, is in the 6th position. The next Southwest state is Ekiti, in the 11th position. Others are Ondo: 13th; Ogun: 19th; Oyo: 26th; and Osun: 29th. Edo State came 3rd. Even Kwara State out-performed most of the Southwest states as it clinched the 18th position.’ WAEC has since denied “any association” with the publication. But then, do we need any rocket science to know that education in Southwest Nigeria has gone comatose and that the collapse is an indictment on its leadership over the past thirty years? Isn’t the leadership shameful that the region that started Free Education and levied taxation to fund education and health has now lost its pride of place? As for the followership, it’s already in a state of anomie, browbeaten into confusion. So, it can no longer ask questions!
The Southwest is no longer interested in education because the political economy of what we call the leadership in the zone, especially as pronounced in the past 30 or so years, has been based on sharing which translated into low wages. In this way, what has happened, unlike before, is that, by developing low-wages, the leadership has developed a clientele-patron relationship. All the flotsam and the jetsam of the society didn’t happen by accident. A political economy of the time we never had before was developed! After all, education means that one’s child would plan for, and pursue a high-wage economy.
In the 1950s, one of the ‘problems’ Western Region had was that it was difficult to get people in the region to fulfill its quota in the Federal Civil Service. While the East and the North were fulfilling their respective quotas, Western Region could not, simply because it was paying 18% more than the Federal Civil Service. Thus, for a man to leave Ibadan for Lagos to earn 18% less might attract eviction notice from his wife. To put it succinctly, the projection of the Southwest was a high-wage economy. The minimum wage in the Western Region was also higher than that of the East and the North; and it was deliberate! The late Obafemi Awolowo did it to steal a match on the other regions; and by the time they woke up from their slumber, Western Nigeria was miles ahead as multinational companies had already taken root in Awolowo’s West, simply because the purchasing power parity in the region was higher than the other regions.
Obviously, the multinational companies knew that that kind of economic world would invest in education which in turn would translate into higher skills. Higher skills would translate into higher wages! Higher wages would ultimately translate into higher purchasing power parity; and that attracts investments! But what the Southwest has witnessed over the years has only shown that its leaders have not been interested in education but the proliferation of apparatchiks, knuckleheads and imbeciles who’d help them rig elections and do voter suppression! Therefore, if the zone is behind in education, it didn’t happen by accident; it happened by choice!
All over the world, political economy serves as the determinant of education. For example, how come the Law Students who founded the West African Students Union (WASU) were predominantly from Western Nigeria? How come Christopher Sapara Williams, the first indigenous Nigerian lawyer was a Yoruba man? That was as far back as 1879! How come Adetokunbo Ademola, the first indigenous chief justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court, and Akintola Williams, Nigeria’s first indigenous chartered accountant, were also of Yoruba extraction? So, what has changed? If the Yorubas had produced about 43 lawyers before the East could produce one, where then did the rain start beating the Yoruba nation? That other zones have taken over has clearly shown that the Southwest no longer has a focus plan and that the political class in Yorubaland no longer has the central thrust of what politics was in the Western Region in the 1930s. The tragic truth is that the West practically lost what remained of its focus after the fall of the 2nd Republic and has not had any ideological base for politics ever since.
Awolowo borrowed from the 1945 Labour Party Election Manifesto, ‘Let us face the future’, which made Education and Health as the centerpiece of development. Unarguably, that’s what transformed the fortunes of the UK forever. The Action Group (AG) manifesto, which declared to make ‘life more abundant’ became the conventional wisdom in the Western Region and it produced decisive gains. Had the Southwest maintained its lead, shouldn’t it have been feeding itself and the rest of the country by now, more so as Agriculture is now based on technology? Had the zone applied science to Agriculture, which was what Akinola Deko and S. D. Onabamiro used in the 1950s, wouldn’t it have become the food basket of West Africa? Had it maintained education and had it developed research institutes and applied technology to upgrade agriculture, wouldn’t the zone have been feeding the rest of Africa? Unfortunately, Southwest, the beloved-but-now-troubled zone, now depends heavily on food items supplied by the North; and there is no end in sight!
In any case, there is nothing new under the sun! For the first time in two generations, the leadership in Yorubaland is not ideologically driven. All the more reason it has to go back to its roots. Yoruba leaders have done their best but they have to up the ante by going back to the knowledge base of the past and put education at the centre because, whether it is agriculture or industry, there is a new forte in industrial revolution and education is at the center space. The Southwest must reconstruct its economy and invest in education because it believes that education, just as it believed in it some 100 years or 150 years ago, is the way to a competitive economy and job creation. Not only that, it must determine to build a certain kind of internationally competitive skilled labour force that can transit into an export-oriented economy. Since a manifesto cannot be separated from the cultural base of its people, the Southwest should go back to the AG and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) manifestoes of 1952 and 1978 respectively if it’s to make any headway educationally, because they actually reflected the cultural base of Yorubaland.
The hood does not make a monk! Put differently, monstrous structures and grandiose aggrandizement without an accompaniment of teachers’ motivation will always end up as an illusion! A teacher who is thinking of how to sell bags of cement at Ijebu-Jesa Central Market after the school hours to augment his means cannot think of how to impact the students meaningfully. Since the zone is in dire need of teachers whose skills can be constantly upgraded, the southwest governments must think of how to build and equip the Teacher Training Colleges with a view to redeveloping the teaching cadre as a profession, not the last resort position which it presently occupies. They must also embark on curriculum revamp because the one currently in use is too lazy to prepare the pupils for a data-driven future that’s based on artificial intelligence, robotics and the like. Lastly, since education is a stand-out discipline and teaching is an art, it is actually something that must be learnt in a disciplined society. To be certified as a capable teacher who must stand before the students, methodology matters!
May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!
But you could almost picture Obaseki, a graduate of Classics before going into money and allied business, as an Edo 21st century equivalent of the Roman Cicero, playing to the gallery on the grandstand, expecting raucous and thunderous applause!
The applause he got all right, with many Edo workers exploding in fulsome praise of the outgoing Edo governor — a worker-friendly governor exiting with charm and grace!
Yet, these folks should beware of the Greek and his gifts! Otherwise, they might just be sapped with a Trojan horse that promised hope but delivered nothing but utter pain!
Again, Obaseki, as a Classics graduate, knows too well the war between the love-soured King Menelaus of Sparta and the love-struck Prince Paris of Troy, who stole away with the divinely beautiful Queen Helen of Sparta, and made her Helen of Troy!
But again, enter the Trojan War, with its fatal gift of a Trojan horse of hidden warriors, that stormed the walls of Troy, to retrieve Helen of Troy, to Sparta where she belonged!
This is no tutorial on classical history. But it shows that stratagem — strategic deceit, to put it bluntly — was pivotal to ancient warfare as it is crucial to cynical contemporary politics.
Obaseki’s latest election-eve foxtrot comes in two forms: the N70, 000 minimum pay is a fob for the masses, the Edo hoi polloi, whose low-hanging votes must be plucked.
But the fob for the Edo elite is Obaseki’s latter-day beatification of Oshiomhole — the same Adams Oshiomhole that Obaseki and his impeached deputy, Philip Shaibu, thoroughly humiliated, as the high-wire plots of their reggae morphed into happy blues (apologies to musician Ariyo/Harrysong), and both danced away in reckless bliss, to mark Oshiomhole’s political death!
Now, election is virtually “tomorrow” and Obaseki just jerked awake to name the new Edo Labour House after Oshiomhole! By the way, how does Shaibu, busy biting the dust, feel about this new gambit? It must be sweaty, prickly and lonely out there!
Let the long-suffering Edo workers take their cake. It’s their due. Let Oshio Baba too take his new trophy. It’s his life desert, given his Labour pedigree.
But let no one press both gestures beyond the cynical and desperate election-eve gimmick that it is. Besides, let whoever succeeds Obaseki beware of his Edo Trojan horse. They might yet find the funding a crushing bag of pains, when it’s time to pay.
By then, however, the election would have been lost and won! The end justifies the “mean-ness” — to echo the re-make of Nicolo Machiavelli, by our very own WS!
Preparatory to the July 2022 governorship election in Osun State, and since thereafter, until recently, the ex-governor and immediate-past Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, a top beneficiary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, as a two-term commissioner in Lagos, two-term governor in Osun, and minister consecutively, suddenly became an abettor and a conspiratorial ally to an opposition gubernatorial candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, against his party, APC, and his successor, Adegboyega Oyetola, who served as his Chief of Staff, succeeded him as governor, and was seeking reelection! The gubernatorial election was held, Adeleke won, Oyetola lost, but subsequently appointed as minister, while Aregbesola left the political stage as minister and got back home!
Oyetola’s open and obvious sin for which he must be crucified, and was actually dealt with, at least, in the myopic estimation of Aregbesola and his co-conspirators, was ‘reviewing and reversing his Schools Reclassification Policy’, by which Oyetola actually rekindled people’s hope, and what they perceived as a retrieval of their ‘lost glory and education origin’, with his return and reversal of the changed public schools’ founder-cum-original names and unique uniforms to the status quo. This happens when a government is consent of the governed.
His (Oyetola’s) hidden, how-do-we-say-it sin for which he must be punished was what Ogbeni would term ‘deployment of his magic wand’ with which he was able to pay full salaries of the state workers, which Aregbesola could not, or perhaps did not, given the inherited jugular-strangling and throat-squeezing debt into which he plunged the state. These were Oyetola’s obvious and hidden sins for which the ‘political structure and APC house’ built in Osun by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, through Aregbesola and others, must be demolished and totally rent asunder.
Since the creation of Osun State, ten people have served as governor, with four military governors and six civilian governors. While the first (military) governor, Leo Segun Ajiborisha, served the shortest term of four months, from 27 August 1991 to 3 January, 1992, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola so far, served the longest term of eight years as governor, from November 27, 2010 to November 27, 2018. However, within this period of eight years of the longest-serving governor, so many things had happened in and to the state. One of those things was the changing and renaming of the state from Osun State to “State of Osun”. The ex-governor must have seen an error which none of his seven predecessors who had ruled the state before him could see.
He also created and introduced a different state anthem, logo, crest and flag. Apart from the humongous loan repayment, Oyetola also inherited these “Aregbesola-personified legacies” about which he had to be silent, as it was a moral burden, and rather maintained and sustained the status quo throughout his administration, feigning pretense as if he didn’t see anything wrong just to avoid crisis or rift with Aregbe.
Alas, Governor Ademola Adeleke eventually betrayed his ‘mission-fellow’, an abettor and co-conspirator, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who maliciously joined forces with him against his own party and successor. He has obliterated all Ogbeni’s known legacies in the state. No sooner the governor took oath of office than he started repealing Aregbesola’s legacies right at the venue of his inauguration. While delivering his inaugural speech, governor Ademola Adeleke publicly said: “Consequently, I hereby issue the following directives which will be backed up with appropriate Executive Orders.
“. . . Three, and immediate reversal to the constitutionally recognized name of our state – Osun State. All government insignia, correspondences, and signage should henceforth, I repeat, should henceforth reflect ‘Osun State, rather than ‘State of Osun’, which is unknown to the Nigerian Constitution.”
Nigerian politics is a treacherous game. There’s no permanent friend or enemy in politics, as politicians deceitfully use and dump each other. Adeleke knew Aregbesola was smart; he consequently cynically stooped to outwit his smartness, and Ogbeni unwittingly misconstrued his betraying kindergarten dancing posture for stupidity.
Also, while Oyetola maintained and sustained the legacy, and retained the nomenclature “OYES” (Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme) as birthed and christened by Aregbesola, Governor Ademola Adeleke dissolved the OYES Corps to be renamed after his ‘Imole Youth’. The governor, through his spokesperson, condemned what he referred to as ‘content of the programme’ which, according to him, turned people to grass-cutters and market sweepers. Similarly, on many occasions, I have heard Adeleke-led PDP condemn Aregbesola’s government in the media, bemoaning that he failed to complete any road in eight years, and so on.
Eventually, the scenario turned out to be Adeleke paying Aregbe in his own coins! Based on malice and ill-will, and for his immediate ego satisfaction, Aregbesola sacrificed his party’s future gains, jeopardizing the fortune of many, thinking he was ‘dealing’ with, and whipping Oyetola with political lashes. Paradoxically, as Ogbeni whips, Oyetola laughs while many, including Ogbeni himself, weep as direct recipients of the whipping! As a Yoruba adage says “Papa npara e, o lo np’aja” meaning a tick, like a sheep-ked, is unwittingly ruining itself thinking is undoing its host-dog by sucking its blood.
In June 2023, Ogbeni Aregbesola while speaking at the palace of Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji Larooye II, after he had returned to Osun State consequent upon the expiration of his term as minister, said: “I was born in Ikare Akoko. It’s surprising that a boy born in Ikare Akoko became a commissioner in Lagos and governor in Osun. That’s the work of God. He used Asiwaju to lead me to the path of success. I thank God who brought me to Lagos through the assistance of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He is the architect of my success.” He added that Tinubu directed him to come and take over “my fatherland – Osun State, that it was my next place of assignment.” Can you imagine, Aregbesola saying this after the deed (a grave damage) had been done! This is exactly how traitors behave – joining forces with conspirators to betray their benefactors.
•Dr. Olorede, a strategic communication analyst, writes from Osun via oloredejimoh@gmail.com
