The Nation Newspaper

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  • Counter-terrorism: Nigeria needs strategy overhaul!

    Counter-terrorism: Nigeria needs strategy overhaul!

    As of today, the basic problem with Nigeria on the war against terrorism is that she is following a defective strategic front. This is what the situation is and it is very sad! All the empirical evidence in the last ten or so years have shown that Nigeria has been following a wrong policy in her counterterrorism warfare and all eyes can see it. The problem is that we are fighting unconventional warfare in which our security forces are not trained in terms of equipment, strategy and mindset. To get things right, the reboot must start from the military academy and the method of recruitment, for the people who are recruited to fight unconventional warfare might not be exactly the same as those who are recruited to fight conventional warfare. In other words, it is a multidimensional problem which must start from the military and its structure.

    For Nigeria, her problem with terrorism dates back to the Maitatsine Riots of the early 1980s, during the Shehu Shagari era. A Judicial Enquiry was set up and its Report was prophetic. For example, it saw the plans being developed and suggested ways of ameliorating the social crisis which was bound to get deeper. Had the Judicial Report on the Maitatsine Risings been taken seriously and implemented, starting from the time of Shagari, Nigeria would most certainly not have gotten to where she is at the moment, if not nipped in the bud. It’s not possible! But the political will, even the interest, was not showing. That’s why we are now spending about 20% of our national budget on something that was preventable. Regrettable, there is no end in sight! It is now inevitable for Nigeria to go back to the Maitatsine Report if she must find a solution. It is important dear fatherland learns from other places about how to prevent a never-ending war by engendering an effective Defence Budget.

    In 1959, General Dwight Eisenhower in his last major speech as President of the United States of America warned about the entrenchment of a military industrial complex. Of course, Eisenhower’s warnings foretold the future. Unfortunately, Nigeria is among the countries that are currently bearing the brunt of not taking his forebodings about the future seriously. The fact of the matter is that the military industrial complex, once entrenched, becomes self-perpetuating, leading to ever-increasing Defence Budgets and never-ending wars. President John. F. Kennedy, who succeeded Eisenhower, took the warning seriously by appointing Robert McNamara, the then Chief Executive Officer of one of the world’s largest corporations, Ford Motors, as his Defence Secretary. McNamara’s job was to devise and implement Planning, Programming, Budgeting Systems (PPBS) in order to streamline the Defence Budgeting System, eliminate waste and duplication and make it more effective.

    In 1983, President Shagari, in his 2nd Term, brought in the late Omowaye Kuye as Director of Budget to work out a PPBS across the board, not just for the military but also Housing, Health, Roads and other sectors. Sadly, that regime did not last 100 days! Basically, if Nigeria is to avoid the trap of a never-ending terror war, it’s time she devised her PPBS in order to have a more cost-effective Defence Budget which will at the same time robustly tackle terrorism. There is no alternative! The PPBS should also be applied to all the internal security mechanisms: Military, Police, Civil Defence, Intelligence Agency, even Customs Service.

    That 287 innocent schoolchildren could be kidnapped from a school and Nigerians are moving on as if nothing has happened is not only surprising but also infuriating. So, where are the Emirs and why are they keeping silent in the face of a deep cavity in their region’s future? For God’s sake, is there something the suffering masses need to know which successive governments have been keeping away from us? By the way, who says Kuriga cannot happen to the Southwest and who says Ekiti cannot resurrect, especially in the region’s low-hanging states? In rebooting therefore, it’s better for other regions to learn fast and get fully prepared. Since it may not be politically expedient to hire mercenaries, Nigeria must develop and equip Special Forces with the fierce urgency of now even as technology such as sensors, drones, aerial surveillance systems, magnetics and artificial intelligence must not only be incorporated but also be at the heart of the reevaluation of the Defence package. Data scientists and forensic experts such as industrial chemists, biochemists and others in that mould must also be incorporated into the heart of the new strategic framework.

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    Nigeria has to start anew as she has already fallen into a trap. Those in authority are well-advised to move into the realm of critical thinking and take more than a cursory look at the magnificent works of the past such as the former Commander of the British Land Forces, Lt. General Frank Edward Kitson’s path-breaking ‘low intensity operations’. Originally published in 1979, about 17 contemptuous chapters of Kitson’s work are still not published and that’s on the orders of successive British governments, for it gives a valuable insight into the nature and strategies of the anti-insurgency warfare.

    Throughout history, once policy is not separated from procurement, a never-ending war becomes an option because some people are bound to benefit from the spoils of a failed system. Tragically too, the more out-of-school children the country produces, the more it continues to feed the war machine because those untrained and uncatered-for children are ready recruits. Since counterinsurgency war in Nigeria has become as big a business as the Ministry of Works, the country must reevaluate its spending pattern if it must make headway. Feeding the procurement machine without working out the strategic imperative can only be likened to moving amiss. So, Nigeria must embrace a collective sense of responsibility and countermeasure devoid of ethnic and other primordial sentiments if she is to make any gains in the onslaught on the blood money merchants.

    One advantage that Nigeria has today is that she has as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces a man who came into office from the managerial background. So, President Bola Tinubu must see the current war against terrorism and banditry as a crisis of project management and strategy. Thus, Nigerians expect Tinubu as a proven manager of men and resources to deploy his proven managerial skills which he demonstrated as governor of Lagos State into the war against terrorism and let the madness come to an end now.

    Well, yours sincerely has never been an apostle of the declaration of a state of emergency because its usefulness has not been felt in Nigeria. The more reason the presidents has Tinubu also has to up his game for Nigerians will be disappointed if he goes the Muhammadu Buhari way. At a time like this, Nigerians need clarity on some burning issues and the national government needs to communicate to Nigerians but it seems as if the president’s men are not looking in that direction. The notorious truth is that we can’t keep talking about attacking insecurity in Nigeria without building trust and this is where sincerity of purpose on the part of the government is most useful. So, the president has to recalibrate his plans. He also needs to change his style, if need be. Tinubu will do well by suspending other not-so-important engagements for decisive decisions that will make his regime different from his predecessors. Nigeria is burning and the president needs to reassure Nigerians that he is up to the task. In sane climes, the police and army chiefs would have long relocated to the forests to rescue the victims.

    May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

  • Of fractured partnership between state and citizens

    Of fractured partnership between state and citizens

    • By Temitope Omoakhalen

    I recently boarded a mini-bus from Ogba to Alausa and was surprised to encounter unexpected traffic congestion on the lanes, even though it was not rush hour. The traffic was moving slowly, but the air in the mini-bus was thick with frustration as passengers, driven by impatience urged our driver to take the notorious “one-way”. They complained that other drivers were already driving against traffic. “So why not us?” They queried.

    In an economy grappling with soaring fuel prices, the passengers could not understand why our driver did not adopt a more ‘efficient approach’ like his peers. I was the lone voice asking the driver to stay on course and I was met with insults. Eventually, the collective dissatisfaction prevailed, and our driver succumbed to the pressure, deciding to drive against traffic. Unsurprisingly, we reached our destination faster than law-abiding drivers.

    I couldn’t, however, help but ponder the potential consequences of such lawlessness. What if our driver had caused an accident or harmed a pedestrian? The blame would likely fall on the seeming inadequacies of traffic regulators like LASTMA officials or the perceived incompetence of the traffic police. It would be a sorry case of “this government sha, they create laws but don’t implement them”. Yet, the real reason for that traffic jam was an alliance between not just danfo drivers but private vehicle owners pirouetting through the centre of the road, picking passengers as if the roads were their personal driveways.

    So, when I heard about the media chat coming up with Mr Governor, I was excited! I saw it as an opportunity to understand the roots of the fractured relationship between the state and its citizens.

     As a Fellow of the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy (LJLA), I had the privilege of attending the media chat with Mr. Governor, tagged, “Sanwo-Olu Speaks.” The presence of media personalities like Reuben Abati, Mrs Sola Kosoko and Babajide Otitoju, hinted at a session that would be real, straight to the point and people-centric. I was not wrong. In that room, as Mr Governor responded to burning questions, there was an air of sincerity that cut through our hearts because we saw a leader who could be touched by the pain of his people. It was a heart-to-heart conversation. His words were not empty promises on paper; they were tangible initiatives aimed at the greater good for the greater number of people.

    As Mr. Governor expressed his deepest empathy for the anguish and suffering experienced by his people, a profound emotion stirred within me. He commended our capacity as citizens to rise and demand accountability from the government, as we demonstrated during #EndSARS, even though the movement did not originate from Lagos. He celebrated our creative and innovative approach to soar above every limitation life throws at us. He saluted our resilience and acknowledged our tenacity because he understood that without a State-Citizen partnership, leadership becomes pointless.

     Indeed, we are powerful beyond words and we proved it when we came out en masse to protest against police brutality but we lost that power when we became the bullies ourselves, destroying public properties and reducing them to ashes. We are a formidable coalition when we remove the robes of religion and ethnicity to dialogue intellectually but we became exposed when we lost sight of our togetherness and instead opted for bigotry and selfishness. We burned down BRT buses, vandalised private and government buildings, and set ablaze symbols of our collective identity as Lagosians. As we blame the government for inefficiencies, we forget that we are enablers and I daresay catalysts. Otherwise, how do you explain blocking fire trucks that could have saved the spreading inferno in Old Mandilas Building on January 21, simply because some would not obey traffic rules and regulations? We obstruct traffic movements with our wares yet when the Ministry of Environment comes to clear roadside sellers to ensure that road space remains unobstructed, we throw tantrums. Or why do use the hashtag #JusticeForMohbad when the reason we cannot get DNA forensics done easily is because during #EndSARS we burned down the Lagos State DNA & Forensic Centre set up to use DNA analysis to improve the investigation of crime in the state, the first of its kind in West Africa?

    We prank call the emergency response systems till they get frustrated but when they snap, we are so quick to blame them. Yet, the same rapid response team we criticise for inefficiency recently helped a woman deliver a child on the streets. Both mother and child are alive and well. We are, in a sense, active contributors to whatever decadence we see whether we own up to it or not. But we can do better, we can be better. We are so much more than the pain, hurt and despondency we daily experience.

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    Blaming the government for every woe has become a cultural reflex. One could ask whether traffic would even be a concern if the government did what it was supposed to. Perhaps not! But I cannot help but question our own contributions to the daily melee. Why should the government be faulted for traffic if we clog the roads with reckless parking, transforming thoroughfares into impromptu bus stops? Would rain-induced traffic be mitigated if we ceased littering the roads from our vehicles, preventing drainage blockages and subsequent flooding?

    Perhaps, if we remember the words of Robert A. Heinlein that “citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live”, we will become more conscientious in our approach as citizens.

    It is easy to forget that elected officials are just one side of the governance coin and that we, the people, hold the other half. Do we understand that these elected officials are but custodians of our collective well-being? As citizens, we, the people, own the majority shares in this governance enterprise called Lagos. Citizenship is not just a label; it is an active participation in shaping the destiny of our dear state. Therefore, our attitude as residents of Lagos must be founded on responsibility and patriotism, because we all have our individual roles in shaping the city we call home.

     As the media chat came to a close, Mr Governor laid out his agenda, unveiling a comprehensive plan that includes flexible working hours, transport support for teachers, early pension payments, reduced transport fares, extensive food palliatives and the ambitious endeavour of building the biggest [agricultural] logistics hub in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is already 65% completed.

    Will we allow these policies to thrive for the greater number of people or will we circumvent them to latch on to loopholes to exploit? Will we step into our regalia as the custodian of a culture of brotherhood or will we descend into the abyss of narrow-mindedness? As Mr Governor aptly puts it, “In times like this, hope is the sure anchor for our souls, without it, our envisioned tomorrow vanishes”.

     As we repair the fractured roots of our collective responsibility, it is time to rethink our roles as citizens.  The quality of leaders we produce will always be dependent on the quality of citizens. After all, every leader must first be a citizen. Therefore, instead of only demanding change, let us actively embody that change. I do not turn a blind eye to the daily struggles, pains and hardships we experience. I am simply choosing to hope; to hope in the possibility of a state free from hunger, free from gridlocks, free from the triggers of stress and pain on its citizens.

    •Omoakhalen, Fellow, Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy is currently with the Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa Lagos.

  • The beautiful ones have been born

    The beautiful ones have been born

    • By Dennis Alemu

    Arguably, only few books have spawned more intellectual discourse on the subject of corruption in Africa than Kwei Ayi Armah’s popular 1968 novel, “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born” has done.

    Published over five decades ago, the thrust of this captivating and interesting novel has over time become a veritable site of intellectual dialectics among scholars of African descent, and easily falls into the rank of Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.”

    The prolific Harvard-groomed Ghanaian-born novelist, Kwei Ayi Armah, had in his classic novel cast in bold relief, the pervasive corruption that had eaten deep into the social fabric of immediate post-colonial Africa. Of course, with Ghana under her first indigenous national leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as its historical setting, the novel graphically pictured how the monster of corruption was capable of not only hobbling national development, but could seriously undermine the security of an entire nation with very dire and far-reaching consequences.

    Be that as it may, the argument has been that Africa’s true problem is not really that the beautiful ones had not yet been born; but on the contrary, it is a poignant case of the beautiful ones being too few in number to change the ugly development narrative of the continent. This school of thought has gained currency when it is carefully considered that despite the wind of Afro-pessimism that is blowing from the industrialized Western nations towards the continent, fuelled by localized corruption and bad governance, there have been flashes of promising leadership and good governance here and there.

    It is pertinent to note, however, that the political culture entrenched in Africa, right from the birth of political independence in majority of the countries, intrinsically promotes political impunity, corruption and governments which are not accountable to their peoples. Without an iota of doubt, this is the bane of transformative development needed with fervent urgency to change the development narrative of Africa, sub-Saharan Africa in particular, whose progress has been stunted and badly blighted by leaders who see the commonwealth of their nations as their personal estate.

    The foregoing notwithstanding, the beautiful ones – the good people with the fear of God and milk of human kindness flowing in their veins – needed to pioneer Africa’s development renaissance, have justifiably been born, judging from the great innovations in various spheres made by Africans at home and in the Diaspora. Of a truth, it is quite glaring that it is the political ecosystem prevalent in most parts Africa that is responsible for caging out the beautiful ones from the public office space. The beautiful ones are the expected servant leaders that could deploy public office to inspire a new paradigm shift in the governance architecture across all the nations in Africa and drive them through the fast lane of uncluttered progress and development.

    In the past, it was tenable to argue that it was Europe that ruthlessly underdeveloped Africa with the instrument of colonialism, but such development theory has simply evaporated and lost the grain of acceptability in contemporary times. Therefore, it stands to reason that Africans have governed themselves long enough to rewrite and correct the anomalies bequeathed on the continent by her erstwhile colonial masters.

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    In fact, the African political experience is replete with cases of leaders ruling their people to their own injury, giving credence to the adumbration that Africans have since taken over the inglorious task of under-developing Africa. Consequently, the rich intellectual capital at the disposal of the continent as a critical asset to liberate Africans from technological dependence on the West had been seriously undermined by policies that reinforce such dependence at a very prohibitive cost.

    Although it may seem an uphill task, when the beautiful ones actually assume the mantle of leadership at all levels in every African country, then Africa’s long-anticipated development revolution would come. But political pundits will be quick to aver that this postulation is nothing short of the adage that “if riches were horses, beggars might ride.”

    It was John F. Kennedy who said, “Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.” As the saying goes, you can’t make omelette without breaking eggs – so how can someone become president of a great nation without participating in the political process?

    Conclusively, therefore, if the beautiful ones whom Africa needs in the corridors of power only see politics as a contraption for only bad or evil people to practice, then they would have invariably opened the doors for the so-called bad people to govern them perpetually.

    As the Greek philosopher Plato put it, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” This is the crux of the complicated leadership puzzle to be resolved for Africa to realize her full potential as a continent with the beautiful ones already born in it.

    •Dennis, a media consultant, writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

  • Capitalism through the prism of political robbery

    Capitalism through the prism of political robbery

    • By Andrew A. Erakhrumen

    It is doubtless that the deep dungeon Nigeria has now been forced into is good for those profiting from the mess being experienced! Confronting and solving these challenges means that those people will lose the associated lucrativeness. It is so, also, in other climes sharing similar politico-economical characteristics with Nigeria. Well now, someone said that Nigeria is good as long as it favours him/her, his/her family, friends, cronies, acolytes, etc. It does not matter if others’ legitimate right(s) is/are trampled upon. It has to be self-first and self-alone! Simple!

    The foregoing is what this person described as capitalism, referring to those engaging in associated political rot as capitalists while others are tagged socialists or anything but capitalists. We are not here to generate debate – for or against. Humans have self-interest. Humans have to survive. Whatever political and economic direction a person decides to take is up to him/her. Nevertheless, describing an unrestrained completely predatory extractive politico-economic system that continually put a gun to the head of unprotected defenceless people as “capitalism” is not only wicked but also evil in the 21st century!

    Yes, many of the characteristics observed in today’s Nigeria’s politico-economics were there in core capitalist countries in the past. Enslavement is not new to the world but those countries (particularly their leadership cadres) have been able to work on their systems to make them less vulnerable to being taken hostage by few predators. The aim of capitalism is to amass capital by a few who have the knowledge and wherewithal to so do. This is supported in capitalist countries but not, any more, at the risk of a few persons holding the country to ransom perpetually. When capitalism is given a “human face” under strong institution, it satisfies capitalists’ and perhaps partly others’ interests, no matter how little! Do not get us wrong here; we are not speaking for capitalists! We are exposing a narrative that supports predatoriness.

     This narrative is increasingly being developed by political muggers in under-developing countries. Yes, capitalism was very much predatory in the past but for it to survive and be acceptable to more people – there and in other places – it had to take in elements of socialism. No capitalist economy has been able to survive without it taking in some concepts of socialism. That has been the reality in those places because humans are not man-made machines. Nonetheless, what some people (like the nameless person we quoted above) are saying is that the country should also go through the painful phases in order to reinvent the wheel. Cannot the country learn from other successful countries? Should Nigeria always repeat negative phases?

    Does the country really have any developmental plan? In other words, we have a problem with those who still define political wickedness, daylight robbery and state capture (sustained by retrogressive policies and deliberate impoverishment of the masses) as capitalism. This is not “capitalism” in the real “economic” sense but unproductive politico-economic extraction. To describe it rightly; this extraction is the stealing from Nigerian peoples’ common patrimony to the extent that the economy is worsened, daily.

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    Politicians (whose only business is politics) are far richer than productive investors and business entrepreneurs. The politicians without a bicycle before gaining political power are now stupendously rich even when many large companies and multinationals are either closing shops or relocating from Nigeria!

    It is marvelling that Nigerian economy has not totally collapsed with the rate at which its people are getting poorer every passing day! Unfortunately, some swindlers’ description of “capitalism” is the looting of funds meant for public good from public purse. Of course, we are not referring to legitimate privileges here! These loots are thereafter taken out of the country. This is no more news. Many are also struggling to be part of this inglorious jamboree! It is even said openly! Shamelessness is very much at its height! Any society where politics is more lucrative than clear legitimate businesses and investments is a place to be worried about! What kind of capitalist economy is without capital to make projections into the future?

    What kind of politico-economy and political “leadership cadre” deliberately fail in providing and supporting good ambience and infrastructure conducive to productivity by local/foreign investors and investments? Is there wisdom in flying across the Atlantic to “woo” investors that are already aware of the insecurity ravaging the country and inadequacy/unavailability of public infrastructures upon which their investments will rely to flourish in Nigeria? What about foreign investors that dared to try but were confronted with daredevil corrupt top civil servants in the bureaucracy that demanded huge amounts of foreign currencies as bribe to push their papers? Is this another type of capitalism? In fact, nothing is impossible in today’s Nigeria where different kinds of lunacy are increasingly raging and accommodated!

     Clearly, any kind of nonsense can be explained away even by those expecting to be respected! Is this the country Nigerians want to bequeath to the coming generation? Seriously? This is unfortunate! Please, get us right: we are not arguing which one is good or bad between capitalism and socialism. Not at all! The choice is that of a people concerning their economy. What is being said, here, is that if you are claiming to be a capitalist, you should develop verifiable intellectual properties, establish factories, set up businesses, “exploit” labour – and amass capital! At least there are monopolists doubling as capitalists in the business of powdered cement production/sale that take advantage of Nigeria’s current dodgy economic framework that “forbids” competition.

    How much is a 50kg bag of cement today? You may query the morality behind monopoly but it is a characteristic of capitalism in core capitalist countries; although, those countries have found ways to deliberately moderate monopolism. In our estimation, going into government to loot and/or collaborate with those doing the looting is not capitalism; it is pure political robbery not by men of the underworld but well-known people that refer to themselves as political leaders! These robbers ensured that more Nigerians are held captive, disenfranchised and killed! So, they are worse than kidnappers, Boko Haram and bandits that are being despised by sane people. If Nigeria was not captured by these plunderers, they should have long been brought to swift judgement.

    •Erakhrumen teaches at the University of Benin.

  • Sam’s prophetic muse – Tracking Jagaban’s rise to power

    Sam’s prophetic muse – Tracking Jagaban’s rise to power

    • By Louis Odion, FNGE

    Apart from being a strategy against defective memory, diary-keeping is an extraordinary tool in literary craftsmanship. One, it infuses writing with greater realism or a deeper breath of reality if you like. In English literature of the early twentieth century, the technique was popularised by writers like Bruce Cummings, who adopted the pen name, Nero Barbellion, and his major work is entitled, “The Journal of a Disappointed Man.”

    As the title suggests, “The Journal of a Disappointed Man” is a bitter-sweet account of a provincial young man who arrives London to start a career in science, then he becomes disillusioned, and begins to stumble from one unhappy love affair to another. His emotional misery is soon compounded by the onset of ill-health which searing pains he details meticulously until the approach of death.

     Sadly, Cummings died at the age of 30 in 1919.

     Back home, we see the technique of diary deployed by our own Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, in his prison memoirs entitled, “The Man Died”. To his jailers who sought to break his spirit by starving him of reading and writing materials for more than two years, “Eni-Ogun” overcame by scribbling his thoughts on toilet-sheets and other forms of improvisation while in prison.

     But unlike Soyinka’s case that dwells on the Nigerian civil war, the diary is, of course, implicated in a bitter love story many of us are familiar with, which is documented by one of the former spouses of a one-time Nigerian leader. In a language of spite, the grand old lady chronicles a riveting love story that initially sizzled on British soil, only to devolve into bouts of domestic fisticuff after the couple returned to Nigeria.

     Of course, someone took the position of First Lady when her former husband eventually became two-time Nigerian leader. But never mind. To those who might be gloating at hijacking the fruits of someone else’s labour, she reveals some dark secrets. In her tell-all, she details, in black and white, how the future commander-in-chief used to diligently launder, not with washing machine, but bare hands her dirty undergarments in the winter cold of London back in the day.

     As if to remind the new mistresses that what they now claim to possess is not exactly factory new, but a fairly-used vessel.

     However, Sam Omatseye’s own book is neither about estranged lovers nor forsaken love. “Beating All Odds: Diaries and Essays on How Bola Tinubu Became President” is a meticulous chronicle of events preceding and following arguably the most divisive election in Nigeria’s history. It gives context and content to a phrase recently enrolled in our political lexicon — “EMILOKAN”.

     Sam’s book is divided into two parts — the diary section and the other a potpourri of essays published as column in The Nation newspaper. The diary opens on the nineteenth of August, 2022 after the presidential flag-bearer of APC had emerged, and was now arrayed against the candidates of PDP, Labour and NNPP ahead of the 2023 general elections.

     The diary closes on the seventeenth of February, 2023, a week to the elections.

     In Part 1 of the book, Sam vividly captures the dramatic twists and turns, the high and low moments of the electioneering season. From the insurgency of pastors against APC’ Muslim/Muslim ticket, to the intifada of northern hegemons paranoid at the prospects of the north relinquishing power to the South after Buhari’s eight years at the Presidential Villa. From the feral rampage of Labour’s online trolls, to the unprecedented absurdity of a former Central Bank Governor practically draining the national economy of cash in a desperate maneuver to rig the electoral outcome against Bola Tinubu, the reader is confronted with the prospects of a macabre drama.

    Sam’s entries also do not exclude the comedies of Wike’s mocking dance-steps and the accompanying guttural lyrics of “As e dey pain dem, e go dey sweet us” and “Yemdeba… Yemdeba… Yemdeba… Yemdeba.” Nor the leak of the illicit invocation of “Yes Daddy” by one of the candidates in what was supposed to be a nocturnal chat with his spiritual godfather, in the pursuit of a sectarian agenda.

     In PDP, we are reminded of how the flag-bearer called the five insurgent Governors “traitors” who don’t respect elders and the accused in turn call Atiku a “prodigal father” blinded by inordinate ambition for 30 years.

    In the media, we see top journalists engaged in foul exchanges in the pursuit of conflicting interests until the media elders imposed a ceasefire.

     Of course, Sam’s radar also captures the audio apparition of a former leader — one of the so-called “Owners of Nigeria”, a great granddad for sure and prolific, all-knowing letter-writer camped close to Olumo Rock, inciting unsuspecting youths to march on the streets of Lagos and Abuja when early results indicated his anointed candidate was losing, not minding if they ended up as a sacrificial lamb in possible crossfire, all in a last-ditch attempt to truncate democracy and set Nigeria back on the road of June 12.

     In a way, this is also a book of vindication that is not just poetic in cadence, but also prophetic in prognosis. The great romantic poet, Percy Shelley, tells us that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”. With an uncommon prescience, most of what Sam said came to pass indeed. The man he pitched for won. How prophetic his essay entitled, “Again, a Lagos Original”, published on February 20, barely five days to the much-anticipated D-Day, turned out.

     Hear the author: “He (Tinubu) is rich. He is powerful. He has influence. He has changed lives. He transformed a city. Made men and women. Yet he attracts quite a few adversaries. The scriptures say when Isaac roared into success, the Philistines envied him.

     “They deny him the right to be human. When he is sick, some wish him dead or eternally crippled. When he is not seen, some conjure his ghost as a dead soul. When he reappears, they won’t even credit him as a revenant, a man who came back from the dead. Rather, they wait for another date with the grave – in their imagination. Through the primaries, he gulped up mileage against his opponents’ little acreage. In the elections season, he bounded from huge crowd to huge crowd with breathtaking regularity. His opponents, including the ‘youth’ among them, waited to take a breath and measure the breadth before the next flight.”

     As for those who pronounced a “fatwa” on the writer for exercising a poetic license in coining “Obi-tuarists” in August 2022, Sam could be said to have had the last laugh when the ballots were tallied in March 2023.

    For four months, we learnt that Sam was advised, as a precaution, to stay completely off the radar while Obi’s supporters preached hate in what evoked the dark memories of Salman Rushdie’s ordeal after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeni pronounced a fatwa on his “Satanic Verses”. But, alas, the bullies grew limp and desolate once their idol lost.

     But rather than gloat, in an essay entitled “I Pardon All” published on June 19, 2023, conciliatory Sam writes: “It was a pun but they did not see the fun. Yet, I am not writing in jest, but to follow the rhetorical footprints of President Bola Tinubu in his inaugural speech that echoed another great man, Abraham Lincoln. I write, as this essayist has always done, with ‘malice towards none.’

     “When I wrote the piece, Obi-tuary, there was a tempest in the land… It was a hectic time for me and my loved ones. I did not go to the office for four months. I was a hermit, except my trips for TVC Breakfast show, and I had got here in disguise. I attended no parties, no public events, and restaurants. I was as Americans say a home buddy. But I forgive all. I forgive them who did not understand English enough to know that I was using a figure of speech.”

     Again, the central banker Sam pooh-poohed yesterday is now today’s butt of national joke for presiding over a criminal enterprise. Long before Godwin Emefiele fell on his sword of fiscal perfidy, Sam had seen it coming in a satirical piece entitled “Mefy’s beauty”, published on November 7, 2022. Listen to him: “Godwin Emefiele must think himself a great economist and stylist. Or maybe he sees himself as a sort of reincarnation of Steve Jobs, the Apple avatar who brought design to the service of technology. Mefi, as his acolytes call him, must believe he wants to bring style to the service of the economy.

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     “So, to do this, he goes to the president, and tells him it is an elixir of good news. Mop up the naira and the politicians who stashed away money will groan. It will smoke out bandits from their barricades. The naira will neigh like robust horse. Inflation will bow. The common folk will renew ‘Sai baba’ chants. His unsung legacy on song.”

    As prophesied, Emefiele only ended wrecking a national economy he was hired to nurture. Of course, while the great magician performed all sort of abracadabra at the exchequer, he was egged on by a tribe of media contractors who often outdid themselves in declaring him either “Banker of the Year” or “Banker of the Decade” regularly. But following a raft of serious charges brought against Emefiele in court, the media praise-singers have since lost their voices.

    When Emefiele’s campaign posters first appeared on the streets, Sam was one of the few courageous columnists who bucked the conspiracy of silence in the media by voicing outrage against the sacrilege in a piece entitled “Here We Go”.

     Here him:

    “An abuse of office is going on with Godwin Emefiele. His so-called committee of friends failed to protect the CBN governor. Rallies are around town. Posters are everywhere. He is still mum. If he wants to run for president, he should resign his office. He should not hide under pieties about God or Muhammadu Buhari.

     “He wants to have his dollar and pounds in one transaction. He should either run and resign, or stop an amorphous group from trumpeting an ambition for a man whose only image outside of banking is a kneeling posture to some oligarchs.

     “It is an abuse of office to enable a shadowy crowd of friends fretting in public over questions of the CBN chief who is stumbling to segue from a technocrat to a democrat. The so-called committee of friends was a shadow show.

    “It was a limp exhibition, whose prose called for better editing. Emefiele has a spokesman officially. That is the only voice that counts, not a camaraderie of cowardice hiding under a coterie of friends.”

    Unperturbed and unashamed, Mefy’s hired flutists doubled down in a rejoinder splashed in a sponsored two-page advertorial in The Nation newspaper.

     Without a doubt, this book is significant because it is the first attempt at documenting a momentous period in our recent history. As many will now agree, never in living memory has the nation found herself dragged into an electoral contest where religion and region were brazenly weaponised.

     Nor has the nation ever witnessed an aberration where the sitting administration was viewed, rightly or wrongly, as working energetically and transparently against the victory of the candidate of its own party in a national election.

     One remarkable thing about the diary Sam kept for seven months is the sense of great suspense, dark foreboding expressed by the writer as the nation tottered dangerously near the precipice.

     For instance, hear Sam’s suspense-filled entry on the seventeenth of February, 2023:

    “The week before the election shaped out very tense, especially for the ruling party. It seems obvious that the worries that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu expressed about efforts to scuttle his path to victory have never been better revealed than when the president went on television and defied the Supreme Court ruling.

     “The president gave ammunition to the other contestants because his decision energised the rage against his government and the APC. He decided against the suggestions of the Council of State, against the ruling of the Supreme Court, against the judgment of the governors and many people in the political class and civil society. His decision was in lockstep with that of the CBN chief, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi and PDP counterpart Atiku Abubakar.”

    Overall, there is no disputing that Sam writes with the fragrance of a much-decorated poet and the gravitas of the nation’s most garlanded, most consistent columnist in the last two decades. As The Nation’s columnist in the last eighteen years, not once has Sam failed to deliver every Monday. His multidisciplinary depth surely shines through this chronicle. But even more evident is the authority Sam brings. As a senior editor with vast network of contacts in high places, he surely knows, smells and hears things not open to small players.

     However, it must be said that, here, Sam is not a neutral chronicler. Indeed, in Nigeria’s literary community, only a few can be said to be as invested as Sam in Nigeria’s democratic struggle when the cost was most prohibitive. To ignore the history of the popular struggle against military despotism of the 90s is to, therefore, completely miss the spirit that feeds Sam’s muscular metaphors.

     Not many will remember that, as Concord editor in 1997, the writer narrowly escaped being captured by then rampaging Abacha goons at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos. He and Tunji Bello, his inseparable ideological twin brother, had turned Sunday Concord newspaper into a thorn in Sani Abacha’s flesh. Of course, that close shave with the death squad of the military regime marked the beginning of Sam’s ten-year self-exile in the U.S.

     Well, Aristotle said we are all political animals. The difference with Sam is that he does not hide his bias in a sophistry. His partisanship is undoubtedly for Bola Tinubu, a key player in the pro-democracy struggle of the 90s. No wonder, in this book, Sam is unsparing of those he considers traitors to Asiwaju. And they are quite many. From those who climbed on Tinubu’s back to power in Abuja and later denied the help, to those who disowned him in his own hour of political need. They know themselves.

     Overall, contrarians are likely to find Sam’s language rather offensive or maybe exaggerated sometimes. But like Khalil Gibran tells us, exaggeration is only a truth that has lost its temper.

     However, as magnificent as it appears, Sam’s offering is not without its own production infelicities which border largely on the infiltration of non-English words or phrases. They permeate the entire work. But Sam must be reminded that not everyone speaks or understands Yoruba or his native Itshekiri. Conventionally, such words are italicized or put in inverted comas. These can corrected in the next issue of the book.

     All said, the book is, in my view, a razor-sharp snapshot of Nigeria at a critical moment. I strongly recommend you get a copy and read.

    Thanks for listening.

  • Afe Babalola: A man perpetually in a hurry

    Afe Babalola: A man perpetually in a hurry

    • By Tunde Olofintila

    When the Elder Statesman and Founder of the increasingly famous Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola, OFR, CON, SAN, came up with his dual dream of establishing a university that will teach Nigerians how a university, properly so-called, should be run and of institutionalizing quality and functional education, some skeptics would probably have looked at the now flourishing dream with some subdued optimism: some ‘let’s wait and see attitude’.

    But today, the 15-year-old university, “ranked by the highly respected UK-based Times Higher Education Impact Rankings Number 1 University in Nigeria for two consecutive years (2022 & 2023) and Number 221 in the world in 2023” has continued to blaze the trail in the provision of qualitative and functional education as demonstrated by its performance at the November 2023 Bar Examination.

    This became manifest again when the Law Graduates of the 15-years-old university recorded a 94% pass rate and carted home 21 First Class and 69 Second Class Upper Division in the said November 2023 Bar Examination, thereby giving vent and verve to NUC’s endorsement of the University’s College of Law as the “Best College of Law in West Africa.”

    This remarkable improvement over the 2018 performance of ABUAD Law Graduate when they recorded 12 First Class and 65 Second Class Upper Division is a testament to the quality of educational training the Law Graduates received during their undergraduate studies in ABUAD under the watchful eyes of the ever hardworking Vice Chancellor, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, the fatherly Provost College of Law, Prof. Tunde Yebisi, the ever-supportive Head of Department of Private and Business Law, Dr. Ife Bamidele and the highly cerebral Head of Department of Public and International Law, Dr. Nnamdi Ikpeze.

    The superlative performance by ABUAD Law graduates in an examination moderated by outsiders is a further confirmation of the recent ranking of the university by the highly respected UK-based Times Higher Education Impact Rankings and the earlier acknowledgments by national and international education stakeholders.

    The feat by the Law Graduates who were called to the Nigeria Bar last week came about a month after the same University recorded a 100% Pass Rate in the MBBS Examination where all the 161 Medical Students passed with 12 of the scoring Distinctions in various Medical Specialties.

    The Star of the 2023 set of Medical Students who were Inducted at an elaborate ceremony on February 9, 2024 was Dr, Ernest Chukwuma who apart from emerging the Overall Best Graduating Medical Student, Chukwuma recorded five distinctions in Medical specialties: Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Integrated Medical Courses and Pathology.

    ABUAD’s match to stardom started very early after its establishment when the NUC, acknowledged the university as a “model, a benchmark, and a reference point for other universities” as well as the “pride of university education in Nigeria”. This was followed by AVCNU, which dubbed the then bourgeoning university as “the most successful Private University in Nigeria”.  On its part, UNESCO which endorsed it as “a world class institution of Higher Education”.

    The ranking of ABUAD as the Best University in Nigeria for two consecutive years is neither a flash in the pan nor a fluke. Although the university is barely 15 years old, the huge steps it has already taken, the monumental achievements it has already recorded as well as the rich and luxuriant encomiums already showered on the university bear an eloquent testimony to the towering and intimidating profile of the 21st Century university situated in the heartland of Ado-Ekiti, South-West, Nigeria.

    The first private university in Nigeria to take off on its permanent site with all human and material resources on ground, ABUAD is not only applauded outside the shores of Nigeria, but it has also been celebrated by both national and international education stakeholders, including the National Universities Commission, NUC, the Regulatory Authority for University Education in Nigeria, the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, AVCNU, and UNESCO.

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    All these accolades have been further confirmed by the three partnerships the university consummated in 2023 with John Hopkins Hospital, USA, for Elective Clinical Training in the United States, the Memorandum of Understanding with King’s College, University of London, towards the establishment of the Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education for which Babalola donated the sum of £10million in 2023 and the Memorandum of Understanding between ABUAD and Trinity Western University, TWU, Canada.

    No wonder, Scott Royster, an American Admirer, who had visited many universities across 10 countries in Africa, said of ABUAD: “As I toured your university yesterday, I knew this time would be different. Every person I met, every building I saw, every hectare I covered, made me feel smaller and smaller. What you have built is that important, that big, that good. I commend you”.

    Indeed, the university has overshot its expectations in the first 15 years of its existence. And this is just the beginning. With the way things are going, particularly with the continuous injection of funds into the system by Babalola, the Founder & Chancellor, a man who is perpetually in a hurry, better days are ahead.

    • Olofintila is Director, Corporate Affairs, ABUAD.
  • Abiodun: A governor’s many awards

    Abiodun: A governor’s many awards

    • By Lekan Adeniran

    Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun was recently honoured with two prestigious awards by two media organisations, The Sun newspapers, which conferred on Prince Abiodun, the ‘Governor of the Year’ award, and Silverbird Television, which named the governor its ‘Man of the Year’. These accolades were bestowed on Abiodun in recognition of his stellar performance in the area of infrastructure, among other notable achievements.

    In their separate letters to announce the choice of Prince Abiodun, the two organisations said the award was bestowed on the governor for his sterling performance in the field of governance.

    The latest awards followed the earlier ones bestowed on the governor. Early in 2023, Prince Abiodun won the Forbes Best of Africa award in the industrial revolution in 2023. He won the Leadership Governor of the Year Award 2022 and the Vanguard’s Governor of the Year Award 2021. He has also won the Governor of the Year Award at the Nigerian Agricultural Awards 2020.

    It is heart-warming that the governor’s modest success has transcended the Gateway State and is being applauded across the length and breadth of the nation. His remarkable success in infrastructure development has significantly transformed Ogun State, reshaping its landscape, and improving the living standards of its residents. His visionary leadership and commitment to progress have set him apart as a dynamic and result-oriented governor.

    Under Abiodun’s tenure, various sectors of infrastructure have witnessed remarkable improvements. One of the most notable achievements is the extensive road construction and rehabilitation projects across the state. The administration has prioritized the repair of dilapidated roads, fostering connectivity, and improving transportation networks. Many previously inaccessible areas have now been opened up, providing opportunities for commerce, agriculture, and tourism.

    To date, more than 500km of roads have been reconstructed. Also in the pipeline is the reconstruction of the Abeokuta-Ota-Lagos Expressway, which is just awaiting the final nod from the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    By investing in infrastructure, Abiodun has also attracted private investments to the state, providing an enabling environment for businesses and industries to thrive. This has resulted in an increase in employment opportunities for the people of Ogun State, a boost to the economy, and an overall improvement in the standard of living.

    Indeed, Ogun State is now Nigeria’s industrial giant. Remarkable achievement has been recorded in the ease of doing business index. The state government, under Prince Abiodun, has liberalized land acquisition among other incentives to make the state attractive to investors and also to take massive advantage of its nearness to Lagos, the nation’s industrial capital.

    One major iconic project embarked upon by the Abiodun-led administration is the Gateway International Cargo Airport. The airport, which is almost completed, will further enhance the industrial base of the state, by further opening the frontiers of businesses and also opening the state to the rest of the world.

    Furthermore, the governor has demonstrated a keen interest in the education sector, recognizing its crucial role in shaping the future of the state. His administration has embarked on the construction and renovation of schools, ensuring that children have access to quality education in conducive learning environments. Additionally, Abiodun has implemented various initiatives to improve educational standards, provide scholarships, and promote vocational training, empowering the youth with skills for the future.

    Governor Abiodun’s commitment to healthcare has also been exceptional. His administration has prioritized the construction and upgrading of healthcare facilities, making quality healthcare accessible to all residents of Ogun State. By investing in modern medical equipment and adequately staffing healthcare centres, the governor has significantly improved the state’s healthcare system, reducing mortality rates and ensuring a healthier populace.

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    Aside from his commendable achievements in infrastructure development, Governor Abiodun has shown exemplary leadership skills, transparency, and accountability in governance. He has promoted a participatory approach to governance, engaging various stakeholders in decision-making processes and prioritizing the welfare of the people.

    Abiodun’s recognition by the two media establishments underscores his outstanding commitment to transforming Ogun State through infrastructural development. These awards serve as an encouragement for him to continue his excellent work and provide a blueprint for other governors to follow.

    The governor described the awards as a testimony to the efforts of his administration to reposition the State for more economic prosperity.

    “Our administration in the last four and a half years, has transformed our vision into making the state the investor’s destination of choice. We have also successfully implemented people’s oriented policies and carried out reforms to improve efficiency and service delivery, leading to the state being the most improved in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the country.

    “We have implemented a multi-modal transportation plan and other infrastructure across the state. We have constructed over 500 kilometres of road, built over 3,000 affordable houses, renovated over 1,000 schools, and constructed our Gateway International Airport,” Abiodun said.

    The governor was lauded by Air Peace CEO, Chief Allen Onyema for his impressive accomplishments and commitment to development. According to Onyema, through the “Building our Future Together” agenda, the governor has successfully boosted the state’s economy.

    Senator Afolabi Salisu, representing Ogun Central Senatorial District, hailed Prince Abiodun as a transformative leader, crediting his policies for reshaping the state’s economic landscape. Similarly, Gboyega Nasir Isiaka praised the governor’s inclusive leadership style, resulting in increased revenue and significant socio-economic progress.

    The state Head of Service, Kolawole Fagbohun, commended the governor for his worker-friendly approach and policies that have elevated professionalism within the civil service.

    There is no doubt that the ‘Building our Future Together’ agenda of the Dapo Abiodun administration has been a success story, ensuring the rapid development of the economy of the Gateway State and laying a solid foundation for future successes with more profound projects like the Olokola Deep Sea Port and the Kajola Dry Port knocking at the door.

    • Adeniran is Chief Press Secretary to Governor Abiodun.
  • State police: What is Nigeria solving for?

    State police: What is Nigeria solving for?

    • By Tosin Osasona

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s establishment of an exploratory committee of state governors and representatives of the federal government on the modalities for the establishment of state police marks the policy high point of the two-decade-plus agitation for the decentralization and constitutional amendment for the operationalization of state-owned police service in Nigeria. While the president is yet at his set task of police reform, 23 states across Nigeria currently operate different policing outfits, highlighting the economic, political, and social complexity around the theme of policing in Nigeria.

    Even at that, Nigerians must dispassionately answer the question: What specific policy problems is the country solving by constitutionally decentralizing the police? Is the problem one of efficiency? Or management and control? Is it resource optimization or concern over Nigeria’s layered and worsening security challenges? Or is it merely driven by political rhetoric?

    Ostensibly, the reform of the Nigeria Police Force has consistently been a linchpin of security strategy for successive Nigerian presidents since 1999. President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2002, established the Tekena Tamuno Presidential Panel on National Security. The same government, in 2006, set up the Muhammad Danmadami Presidential Committee on Police Reform. President Umaru Yar’Adua, in 2008, established the M.D Yusufu Presidential Committee on the Reform of the Nigeria Police Force. President Goodluck Jonathan, in 2012, set up the Parry Osayande Committee on police reform, and the government of President Buhari, in 2018, established the Presidential Panel on the Reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. All past administrations substantially failed to change the lot of the police in Nigeria, simply because of the complex interplay of politics and elite interest intertwined with Nigeria’s political economy of policing.

    In spite of its many documented failings, the Nigeria Police remains the singular most important security agency for internal security in Nigeria for two primary reasons. The force institutionally bears the most extensive mandate for internal security in Nigeria, and secondly, the force is the largest security outfit in the country in terms of numbers and spread, with around 370,000 officers and a wide national spread of 1,212 police stations, 2020 police posts, and 328 village posts; no other security agency comes close. Factually, the Nigerian state cannot survive 48 hours without its rickety police force and not have a near-total descent into anomie across all urban centres. The Nigeria Police Force has failed in many respects, but its officers and men are the nation’s last thin blue line against the forces of chaos.

    Now that the country is back at the perennial business of police reform, it is important to note that the most important starting point for reform should be the ideological and political foundations of policing Nigeria. The Nigeria Police Force was established and configured to serve colonial narrow extractive public order needs and has continued largely 44 years after independence in the same light, substituting colonial authority for the political elites. Naturally, therefore, the most apt starting point for police reform in this country is answering the question: what type of police and system of policing best serves the needs of the Nigerian people across our many culturally divergent communities?

    Empirically, can we argue that police decentralization and the creation of state police will exponentially improve police performance across multiple indexes? The honest answer is – it depends! It depends on the particular policy problem the president and governors intend to address. For the associated problems of extreme centralization of the command system and the unwieldy influence of the president on the operational and administrative control of the force, the creation of state police will address this problem. But looking at Nigeria’s political culture, are we not going to substitute centralization with politicization and, albeit chaotic politicization, of the management structure of the force across the 36 newly constituted units?

    Globally, policing is an expensive public good, and maintaining an effective and efficient police service requires a huge financial commitment. Will allowing states to operate their respective police services potentially help resolve the problem of under-resourcing of the police in Nigeria? The answer is obvious; more than a third of states in Nigeria are tagged unviable by viability reports in 2023, and 24 out of the 36 states of the federation cannot meet their respective fiscal obligations without federal allocations. These are states struggling to pay essential workers and maintain public services; burdening them with an additional layer of responsibilities will complicate an already bad situation. Perhaps the appropriate question is the issue of state viability as presently constituted and not the ability to fund police services.

    The unbundling of the current centralized police structure will potentially improve service delivery and reverse the colonial policing ethos of ‘using strangers to police strangers’ and resolve the current institutional rigidity that makes adaptation to the local context difficult. In fact, there would be improved coherence and timeliness to police response to local incidences of crime; however, it is ambitious to assume that this will translate to improved quality personnel, leadership, and service delivery across all of the policing service portals.

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    Nigeria’s current multiple security crises – banditry in the Northwest, fundamentalist Islamist insurgency in the Northeast, resource-driven conflict between farmers and pastoralists in the North-central, gangs and organized criminal groups in the Southwest and the Niger Delta, and secessionist agitation in the Southeast – are all crises preponderantly driven by socio-economic factors rather than security imperatives. Creating state police will not end overnight, conflicts driven by poverty, lack of economic opportunity, failure of justice institutions, climate change, drug abuse, urban sprawl, collapse of family units and weaponisation of ethnic differences among others. While there is a compelling urgency for the reform the policing system to save the Nigerian state from implosion, that alone will not solve Nigeria’s multiple security crises.

    The ball of police reform is once again in the court of a newly elected president, one with a reputation for courageous public sector reform initiatives. How well he will handle this one remains to be seen. But we should be clear about this: Reform of the Nigeria Police Force does not necessarily need to take the path of state police to be effective, and constitutional amendment to incorporate state police would not necessarily positively change Nigeria’s policing outcomes. To effectively reform the police is to reform the fundamentals of our political system, and as things stand, one of the greatest losers in a functional policing system is the political class and it is being called on to superintend over a process that may curtail its influence. Will it happen? Only time will tell.

    • Osasona is senior research associate at the Centre for Public Policy Alternatives, Lagos.
  • Of politics and Nigeria’s survival

    Of politics and Nigeria’s survival

    • By Oluwole Ogundele

    Politics and political philosophies are intricately intertwined global phenomena traceable to the latest phase of the stone age period. This period is characterised by the commencement of the culture of food production and elementary forms of urbanisation otherwise known as the origins of socio-spatial complexities. This phase of human history started about 12,000 years ago in parts of Nigeria. The above two exercises (politics and political philosophies) are anchored to the crafting and enforcement of rules and regulations needed to engender peace and progress among a heterogeneous population, living in a   geo-political space. During this period, the need for some division of labour arose. Indeed, the emergence of political class was traceable to this existential reality.

    Suffice it to say, that every urban or semi-urban community, has always been, a melting pot of several values and value systems that necessarily makes it (community) prone to conflicts and other challenges. Politics and political philosophies are broadly synonymous with wisdom and skills for managing human settlements/affairs.  Complex settlements were/are not the exclusive preserve of ancient Rome and Greece. In this connection, seeking for power in a given country or system is a noble engagement.  A political class must necessarily emerge to ensure human survival and progress. Political leaders are supposed to be men/women of proven integrity. They are eminent servants of the citizens of a country. This is the reason they enjoy certain privileges.  This has a cushioning effect. Therefore, politicians are duty-bound to work for justice, fairness, and equity.  The riffraff should be kept out. Politics should be for some of the finest minds in our society. It is too easily forgotten that ideas down the ages, rule the world. 

    However, politics, in terms of the morphology and content of its grammar, is not fixed once and for all. It is dynamic in nature. This is largely because the sensitivities, challenges, and aspirations of the citizens are always changing.

    But despite the fine underpinnings of the ontology of politics, corruption which is an integral component of man remains a devil to wrestle with. Leaders are more prone to corruption largely because they are in charge of the distribution of the wealth of a system or country. The scenario has been with us since October 1960, when Nigeria got its political independence from Britain. However, the ugly situation has been going from bad to worse, understandably because the looters of our commonwealth were/are hardly brought to justice. An average Nigerian leader, even in the academia, is too arrogant/self-conceited to learn from the led. This militates against good governance/administration and by extension, progress in all its ramifications.  

    Again, the citizens remain victims of hypocritical leaders who break the law with considerable, unimaginable impunity. Every former leader sees himself as a saint, as if Nigeria was messed up by some creatures from an unknown planet.  President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) must be ready to step on toes in order to take Nigeria to the promised land. Even an imbecile knows that democracy as if people matter, is still light years away in this country. In practical terms, the concept of separation of powers entailing the legislature (for making laws), executive for enforcing laws, and judiciary for interpreting these laws, is yet to be thoroughly respected. Ours is a caricatured democracy! 

    Unbridled pretence and complacency define our political leadership terrain. This has been the pattern since 1999. More and more Nigerians are being impoverished in a blatant manner by the political class. Members of the political class have unashamedly graduated from looting millions to billions of naira, due to their insane greed anchored to the evilly ideology called hedonism. 

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    We have a bloated/overlarge parliament (made up of 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives), which has failed to identify with the aspirations and problems of the masses. There are too many special assistants and advisers for each of these key political office holders. Honestly, they are a mere economic drainpipe. To an average Nigerian, democracy is tantamount to aggravated material poverty and hopelessness. A member of the National Assembly goes home every month, with millions of naira, as a salary laced with lousy allowances. Most of our roads have collapsed as if Nigeria is rudderless.  Food shortages are on the increase in the face of unfettered insecurity. More and more farmers are fleeing their villages as pampered bandits and kidnappers are having a field day. Even Ukraine that is at war with Russia donated grains to Nigeria last year. Nigeria has become a refugee country.  But despite this, our leaders across the board do not care a hoot.

    This is the reality of the Nigeria inherited by President Bola Tinubu. Thumbs up for Tinubu for his indefatigable and indomitable spirit, in the face destructive criticisms and provocative comments by his political rivals and their unthinking followers.   However, the president has to appreciate more than hitherto, the fact that the ordinary citizens must be allowed to breathe.  The political class members must be prudent. Looters have to return the monies, and these must not be re-stolen.  Any senior public officer who is too flamboyant and incorrigible to understand, appreciate, and appropriate this common sense theory, should resign immediately. The age-long trust deficit in the country can be corrected by PBAT. Nothing is wrong with our genes!

    The situation is complex, largely because some Nigerians are above the law.  The immediate past president of the US, Donald Trump is being prosecuted for some alleged criminal cases embedded in economic/financial improprieties. Such a practice has no place in the Nigerian leadership culture. Consequently, Nigeria is stuck in the mud of backwardness.  Crimes and criminality go on unabated. Most political leaders and kings have failed the country and by extension, the youth, largely because of their stone age religious/ethnic bigotry and monumental corruption as well as bribery. They must stop their frivolous complaints. The only honourable option for them is to join PBAT in re-engineering our socio-economically beleaguered geo-polity. What is their moral compass? Nigerians are not a bunch of imbeciles.

    It is time for Nigeria to say goodbye to unhealthy, competing legitimacies and/or hegemonies, which are an encumbrance to sustainable peace and progress. We cannot have our cake and eat it. Nigeria does not need ethnic politics! Cooperation and inclusiveness are critical. This method of approach has a constructive role to play in the reform agenda.

    Our attention should be on how to liberate the country from the shackles of internal and external machinations and/or manoeuvring.

    Nigerians have to appreciate the fact, that ethnic grouping is an unending exercise. It is evolutionary in nature. For instance, the Yoruba ethnicity with several sub-groups such as the Ekiti, Ijesa, Ijebu, Egba, and Ikale are already gradually separating to become distinct socio-cultural groups. The same thing applies to the Igbo among others. Therefore, why do we need to be making a fuss of leadership positions? Good leadership is not about ethnic origins. It is time to begin the transformation of our hearts and minds in order to draw nearer to national unity and sustainable progress.

    • Prof Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.
  • A brutal jab at a country

    A brutal jab at a country

    SIR: It isn’t just hearts that are broken in Kaduna State. It isn’t just the serenity of many families that has been shattered by uncertainty. The loss of face for a state that hosts Nigeria’s premier military institutions might be irreversible. But that is only one theme in a country of tear-streaked themes.

    On March 7, about 287 pupils and some staff members of LEA Primary School, Kuriga 1, Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna State were hustled into an unimaginable fate by armed criminals. The abductions, shocking in its number and audacity, has ferried an entire country into a hasty return to the past, prompting difficult questions about the direction of the country. What is especially disconcerting for many Nigerians is that they thought they had tucked away those questions somewhere in the past.

    When Boko Haram rejigged and expanded its operations in 2009, western education was a pronounced target. In more than a decade of murderous, traitorous and treacherous campaigns, many schools were torn down and the education of numberless children put into irreparable jeopardy. Even when Boko Haram’s audacious terrorism began to embolden and inspire others terrorist groups and new forms of terrorism, education remained a key target.

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    What is the attack on education in Nigeria about? What is the end-goal of the faceless criminals whom desperate Nigerians continue to fund by shelling out millions of Naira to facilitate the release of their abducted children?

    Even before Boko Haram turned its ire towards education in Nigeria in the last decade, education was already on a free-fall in the country. Years of underinvestment in education had led to poor funding, and crumbling educational infrastructure. This had in turn bred disillusionment, indifference, and disinterest in many school pupils and students, but especially in their parents who would rather their children did something else. Poverty has also made education a rather expendable luxury for many parents and their children.

    The effects of this recent school attack will be felt for years to come. Just when Nigerians were tempted to think that the country under a new administration was finally on its way away from the path of such attacks, this attack is a brutal jab at a country just when it was beginning to pick up its pieces. It indicts Nigeria’s security architecture that many schools sprawled across the country are vulnerable to attacks by non-state actors.

    Education is the great equalizer. It is why everything possible should be done to rein in the criminals who are bent on taking away this most vital of resources from the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerian children.

    • Ike Willie-Nwobu, Ikewilly9@gmail.com