The Nation Newspaper

Category: Dele Agekameh

  • The Biafran bogey

    The Biafran bogey

    In the last few weeks, the country has been under severe threat by those agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra. For years, the arrowhead of the agitation has been the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra otherwise known as MASSOB. This current struggle is, however, being amplified by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, led by one Nnamdi Kanu, the founder of the propaganda Radio Biafra. The group keyed into the various paraphernalia and insignia which MASSOB had already put in place for the Biafran course. These include, vehicle plate number bearing United States of Biafra, drivers and vehicle licenses, tax receipt, international passport and currency, which they claim, to have deposited at the World Bank. Obviously, as these items are things that make a people a nation, it shows the people’s desire to stay on their own.

    There is no doubt that MASSOB and IPOB form a secessionist movement with the aim of securing the resurgence of the defunct state of Biafra from Nigeria. This is underscored by the sight of thousands of able-bodied young men and women marching endlessly on the streets in Asaba, Delta State and other parts of the South-east geo-political region of the country in recent time. Their zealousness and display of enthusiasm under the scorching sun, is a signal that the MASSOB/IPOB message is fast gaining ground.

    Of course, the story of Biafra did not start today. It has a long history behind it. The entrance of the military into the nation’s political space through the instrumentality of the bloody coup d’etat of January 15, 1966, greatly distorted Nigeria’s political equilibrium. That coup, which was led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and his group of three or four other comrades-in-arms who were also Majors, overthrew the legitimate government of the late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the then Prime Minister of Nigeria. That episode also threw up the late General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi–Ironsi as Nigeria’s Head of State and Commander-in–Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation.  As soon as he assumed power, Ironsi sent all the politicians scampering for safety when he abolished the federal structure and regional governments through the promulgation of the Unification Decree 34 of May 1966.

    But the events of January 1966 did not go down well with another group of middle-level army officers who read meanings to the massacre that attended the coup. Their main grudge was that the coup appeared to be sectional in that it was mostly senior political figures from a section of the country that were victims.  So, like a movie scene, barely six months later, there was a counter–coup which was more or less, a reprisal for the earlier bloodbath witnessed in the country. That counter-coup ushered in Yakubu Gowon, then a young, good-looking army officer of the rank of a Lieutenant – Colonel.

    The emerging military regimes provoked agitations for a national dialogue. Prominent among the demands of the agitators were the creation of additional states borne out of perceived abnormal imbalance in the federal structure; the nature and form of association among the country’s diverse ethnic groups; the composition of the leadership at the centre as well as the issue of secession which was gaining currency at that time. There were also such issues as the need for an acceptable formula for equitable revenue allocation, resource control and many others.

    These problems, which still exist today, have been a serious threat to the continued existence of Nigeria. To douse the raging controversy then, the government of Gowon repealed Decree 34, reverted to the federal system of government and restored the regional governments. Furthermore, on September 12, 1966, an ad hoc conference aimed at arresting the agitations and preserving the sanctity of the country as a nation opened in Lagos. The conference revealed that the country had drifted apart and was on the brink of total disintegration. However, renewed killings in the northern part of the country as well as retaliatory actions in the southern part later threw a spanner in the works of finding amicable solution to the problems plaguing the nation. In other words, even though the four existing regions had made submissions to the conference, the escalation of the crisis prevented the leaders from arriving at an acceptable strategy to keep Nigeria together.

    By this time, the animosity between Gowon, the Head of State and Chukwuemeka Odumegu-Ojukwu, a Lieutenant-Colonel and governor of the Eastern Region, became more pronounced. This surely affected the relationship between the Federal Government and the government of the Eastern Region as the two leaders vehemently disagreed on the real issues that threw spanners in the outcome of the September 1966 Constitutional Conference. The simmering crisis led to the attempt of the late General Joe Ankrah, who was then Ghana’s Head of State, to reconcile the two leaders at a conference held at the Botanical Gardens’ town of Aburi, in the Eastern Region of south Ghana, between January 4 and 5, 1967. Even at that, the Aburi Accord reached by the two leaders was only observed in its breach. This eventually snowballed into the 30-month Civil War when the Eastern Regional Consultative Assembly mandated Ojukwu to declare the “Republic of Biafra”.

    It is true that when the war finally ended on January 12, 1970, the Gowon regime immediately declared that there was no victor, no vanquished. This was followed by a programme styled RRR – Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reconciliation – as a way of rebuilding the nation. But the problems have refused to go away. Today, protagonists of Biafra have traced the killings of Igbo people, whom they refer to as the indigenous people of Biafra in the northern part of the country to the lopsided development and federal superstructure that tended to reward mediocrity to the conspiracy against Igbo. They claim that, “injustice makes life unbearable to our people.” For instance, according to them, “49 years after the war, war veterans from the Biafran side had not been paid their allowances like their colleagues – the Yorubas and the Hausa/Fulani. It is an injustice that must be addressed and it is part of the reason why we are doing what we are doing because in the new Biafra, we would not have this level of injustice”.

    Far too many issues are involved in the perennial agitation for Biafra. The outcome of the last general election during which the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, garnered block votes from the South-east, was a definitive statement by that geo-political region. It is confounding that politicians from that part of the country may have employed the renewed agitation for Biafra as a façade to ventilate their displeasure over the outcome of the last election in which the All Progressives’ Congress, APC, gained the upper hand. Besides, quite a good number of people across the political spectrum in the country may equally not be at ease with the way the new government is running the affairs of the country with iron fist.

    Above all, central to the seemingly insurmountable problems confronting the country is the issue of endemic poverty now ravaging everywhere. Nigerians are suffering and dying of hunger and diseases. Yet, all the people have been treated to over the years are empty promises of a better tomorrow, the illusory and elusive tomorrow that has refused to come all these years. But secession is not the answer and cannot be the answer. Let us revisit the report of the 2014 National Conference and see how we can move forward. It will serve us no good if we continue to think that only Buhari and his government can proffer solutions to the weighty problems confronting this country. After all, we all have a stake in the Nigerian project.

  • The South-south conundrum (2)

    The South-south conundrum (2)

    As the elections tribunals round off their activities across the country, many election results from the March 28, and April 11, elections, have been thrown into the trash can. It is all over the country, but the unfolding scenario is more precarious in the South-south geo-political zone of the country, where, a fortnight ago, the tables turned against the governors of both Akwa Ibom and Rivers states.

    In Akwa Ibom, the state’s election petition tribunal invalidated the election results in 18 out of the 31 Local Government Areas in the state. Four days later, it was the turn of Rivers State where the election petition tribunal sacked Nyesom Wike as the governor and called for fresh election within 90 days. Few days later, the Supreme Court dismissed the case filed by Wike against the sitting of the tribunal that had, four days earlier, issued him a red card. As if this was not enough, the Rivers Election Petition Tribunal also sent 19 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, who are mainly PDP members, packing.

    In a month from now, precisely on December 5, election will take place in Bayelsa State where voters will elect a new governor. Seriake Dickson, the incumbent governor will slug it out with Timipre Sylva, a one-time governor of the state. While Dickson will be flying the PDP’s flag, Sylva will be flying the APC’s flag. It is not the first time both of them are going to the battlefield. Both are contesting for a second term as governor and they seem to have a balance of terror.

    In all these elections, perhaps, it is the election that may come up in Rivers State that is most disturbing. First, Wike has gone to the Appeal Court to test the validity of the tribunal’s judgment. Assuming the Appeal Court upholds the judgment of the tribunal, the responsibility to decide who becomes governor between Nyesom Wike and Dakuku Peterside, will fall on the voters in the state. It will be the greatest fight ever between the PDP and the APC, the two political parties that are fiercely engaged in a supremacy war in the country.

    For 16 good years, 1999 to 2015, the PDP dominated the political scene, while the other parties miserably trailed behind. It took the amalgamation of at least four other political parties to dislodge the PDP from its stranglehold on the nation. As it is well known, Rivers State is one of the economic arteries of the country and so, any party that controls the state automatically has access to its petro-dollars, notwithstanding the crumbling international oil prices.

    The PDP’s loss of the presidency to the APC in the recent presidential election is one mystery that the party has found difficult to believe. And having lost the centre to the APC, the PDP would do anything to stave off a defeat by the APC in the coming election in Rivers. As a matter of fact, it is clear that neither the PDP nor the APC will let go, without giving a good fight. Already, the political scene in the state is very militarised and tense. And if the saying that when the going gets tough, only the toughest gets going is true, then Wike may as well have an edge over his opponent. Reason? Given the current political scenario in the state, only a politician that is rugged could withstand the prevailing political climate in the state. This is because it seems elections in Nigeria, are only meant for those who can dare.

    At the moment, the killings and brigandage that attended the 2015 election in Rivers State is yet to abate. In most part of the state, people have been living in fear, the fear of the unknown. For instance, in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, ONELGA, of Rivers State, widespread killing and destruction have become the order of the day since the beginning of the 2015 electioneering campaign. It is believed that the killings are perpetrated by some misguided elements within the communities, but no one is bold enough to come up with any clue and the security agents in the state are carrying on as if nothing is happening at all. The same thing is happening in Ahoada East, Ahoada West and Abua/Odual Local Government Areas, the four Local Governments that made up the former Ahoada Local Government Area, ALGA.

    It is obvious that what is happening in these local governments is worse than the Boko Haram episode in some parts of north-eastern Nigeria. Just about a few weeks ago, the elders of Akabuka, one of the communities in Egi Clan of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, met and a suggestion was made that they should go and talk to their children to stop the incessant killings, kidnappings and looting. That night, the hoodlums broke into one of the old men’s house and killed him. They further demanded that the immediate younger brother of the deceased should pay them a ransom or face the same fate.  It is estimated that no fewer than 100 persons have been gruesomely dispatched to the great beyond in the area since the outbreak of the violence. The most astonishing thing is that the killers are faceless and nobody seems to care, not even the security agencies.

    Worst affected by the ongoing silent killings and destruction is Omoku, the headquarters of the local government where all the houses are almost empty as most of the residents have voted with their feet to avoid impending gruesome deaths in the hands of these roving merchants of death. In Omoku today, or in any other part of that local government, it has become almost a taboo for anybody to operate an electricity generator as the sound of any generator at all is an indirect invitation to death. In the past, Omoku was a bubbling commercial and industrial town, next only to Port Harcourt in terms of business opportunities. This was where most of the oil workers working with Total and Agip Oil companies operating in the area resided.

    As a result of the disturbances, all the workers have relocated to Port Harcourt, Owerri, Benin City and other places where their safety could be guaranteed. Even those who have no jobs have deserted the areas for fear of losing their lives. At a point, the authorities of the Federal College of Education, Omoku and the Community Secondary School, Erema, had to forcibly close down when some unknown people came to demand for some money for settlement with the threat that if their demand was not met, they would resort to kidnapping the students and teachers. Since there was no money to pay to the faceless people, the schools promptly closed down to avert any ugly developments.

    With a situation such as this, who can guarantee a free and fair election in Rivers State? From the prevailing scenario painted above, there is no doubt that people may have to vote with bullets rather than their thumbs if an election comes up in the state any time soon. That is the danger in having a rerun election in that state. I do not think the situation will be anything different in Bayelsa State in the election slated for December 5. The two states – Rivers and Bayelsa – have been known to be the hotbed of militancy and electoral violence for quite a long time. The same thing goes for Akwa Ibom State where the politicians may resort to violence to undo one another.

    From the look of things, there is trouble, great trouble, in the horizon in the South-south of the country and the government should rise up to nip in the bud, the impending catastrophe that now stares the country in the face.

     

    • Concluded.
  • The South-south conundrum (1)

    The South-south conundrum (1)

    The 2015 general election may have come and gone.  What remains now are the ripple effects of that election. The election was basically a two-horse thing: on the one hand was the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, the party that ruled the country like a behemoth for 16 years – 1999-2015; the other party is the All Progressives’ Congress, APC – an amalgamation of some political parties that came together in order to be able to uproot the dominant PDP at the 2015 elections

    Though the APC achieved its aim by uprooting the PDP at the centre in the election, nevertheless, the party’s outing in the South-south geo-political zone was nothing to write home about. In that zone, the APC did not win any gubernatorial contest. Besides, in the presidential election where the party fielded Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president as its presidential candidate, the party also performed woefully. In the presidential election results in the South-south, while Goodluck Jonathan, the then president and PDP presidential candidate scored a total of 4, 714, 725, Buhari and the APC scored a miserable 418, 590 representing less than 10% of the total votes cast at the election.

    The implication of this was that the South-south geo-political zone may have rejected the APC at the polls. But what Buhari lost in the South-south at that election was more than compensated for with the phenomenal votes he garnered in the North and South-west of the country. It was apparent that the 2015 election was characterized by all forms of electoral malpractices in all parts of the country. The only saving grace was that Nigerians were unanimously determined not to be driven to the precipice by the outcome of that election.

    Now, the cookie seems to be crumbling and crumbling fast. Last week alone, the table turned against the governors of both Akwa Ibom and Rivers states. First was Akwa Ibom where the state’s election tribunal invalidated the election results in 18 out of the 31 Local Government Areas in the state. Barely four days later, the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacked Nyesom Wike  as the Rivers State governor and called for fresh election within 90 days. In neighbouring Bayelsa State, in the next few weeks, precisely on December 5, voters will troop to the polls to elect a new governor. The contest is between Seriake Dickson, the incumbent governor who is contesting on the ticket of the PDP, and Timipre Sylva, a former governor of the state and candidate of the APC. Both of them are contesting for a second term as governor.

    Therefore, in the next few weeks and months, attention will be focused on the elections in the South-south geo-political zone of the country where the APC – the ruling party at the centre – will possibly put in everything to make in-road into the heart of South-south politics. The three afore-mentioned states – Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa – are major oil-producing states in the country with huge petro-dollars. Perhaps, many observers of the politics of the South-south saw the shockers in both Akwa Ibom and Rivers states coming. To many, the tribunals’ verdicts were merely a confirmation of widespread allegations that the April 2015 governorship elections in the two states were tainted by widespread discrepancies and electoral malpractices.

    From all indications, the battle ahead is Herculean as both the APC and PDP will be locked in a war of supremacy. In Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio, the former governor, now a senator of the Federal Republic, has recently become a regular guest of one of the country’s anti-graft agencies on allegations of monumental financial misappropriation. He was instrumental in installing Emmanuel Udom, the incumbent governor of the state, in what is generally regarded as a clandestine way to plant a surrogate that would keep watch over his back and cover his tracks. In that case, the coming election in the 18 local government areas of the state, as ordered by the election tribunal, will be a do or die affair for Akpabio, a man believed to have amassed more than enough ‘war chest’ while in office, to be able to prosecute a successful election in the state. He will surely give the APC a good run for their money in that election if only to save himself from the clutches of the anti-graft agency that is now all over him.

    Similarly, the result of the impending election in Rivers State may go either way. In the first instance, the two main gladiators in that state are Wike, the sitting governor and Rotimi Amaechi, the immediate past governor of the state. Amaechi is the backbone of Dakuku Peterside, the APC’s governorship candidate in Rivers. Both Amaechi and Wike were like five and six a few years ago, until politics tore them apart. In fact, those who are close to the duo, say, Wike was like Amaechi’s godfather, a Rock of Gibraltar of sort behind Amaechi’s exploits as a former governor of Rivers State. He was alleged to be Amaechi’s Man Friday until they fell out. Both men are said to be very conversant with the intrigues of power such that they know each others’ strength and weaknesses, a knowledge they will be ready to deploy to individual advantage. That is why the coming contest promises to be a battle royal.

    The preponderance of opinion is that if care is not taken, Wike may outsmart Amaechi once again in the next election. But it all depends on the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment in the case filed by Wike against the sitting of the electoral tribunal that has now given him the red card. Added to this is the fact that in the last five months that Wike has been in office as governor, he has tried to demonstrate some semblance of leadership through some populist actions. These actions include, paying the salaries of university and judicial workers who were being owed several months salaries before he came into office as well as embarking on massive filling of pot holes on major roads in Port Harcourt. And contrary to the initial fears that his regime would witness the escalation of the activities of touts on the streets of Port Harcourt, he actually removed the Transport Marines otherwise known as T-Marines and replaced them with regular police. This move brought sanity to the otherwise chaotic traffic administration in the state.

    As for Amaechi, his ‘opponent’, a good number of people believe he started well as governor and did well for the state particularly in his first term but inexplicably derailed during his second term. This was the time he acquired so many enemies and took several actions that did not go down well with people. Such actions include some of the properties he demolished like the Teaching Hospital that was demolished under the guise that a better monument would replace it but which has remained desolate till date.

    Mention is also made of the cultural centre housing several halls and other conveniences which was demolished and acquired by Silverbird Group. People say that the Silverbird Cinema built on that land is nothing near the edifice that was originally there. The mono-rail project which his government spent so much on but which has led to nowhere is another sore point for the former governor. Above all, a good number of people are of the opinion that Peterside, the candidate of the APC, who had earlier slugged it out with Wike and will still face him again in the coming election, is more or less an Amaechi stooge who will continue his (Amaechi’s) agenda in Rivers State. And they may not want a return to the past which should better be forgotten.

     

    • To be continued.

     

  • Lagos: The return of insecurity

    Lagos: The return of insecurity

    Lagos is easily the most important city in Nigeria. There is this continuous attraction and migration to the metropolis because the city is generally regarded as the ‘honey pot’ of the country. In recent times, the state has enjoyed considerably high compliments and accolades for good governance and service delivery. Side by side good governance, are a variety of innovations in the areas of transportation, healthcare delivery, security system, education, inter and intra-ethnic harmony, and many others.

    Amongst the states in Nigeria, Lagos has the heaviest investment on security. In fact, it is the first state to set up a security trust fund, a sort of government-public partnership on security which has become a model in the country. But recent happenings in the state are indications that the state may be fast becoming a dangerous place for people to live in. This is because hardly does any day pass without incidents of heinous crimes, including violent armed robbery attacks, gang wars, kidnappings and other forms of violence occurring in one part of the state or the other. Consequently, Lagosians no longer sleep with their two eyes closed as the state is gradually slipping into the old era of insecurity.

    Daily, Lagosians are bombarded with tales of numerous attacks on residential areas and commercial premises across the state. Two incidents that occurred last week in the state are worth mentioning. The first was the brutal and callous murder of Tajudeen Disu, the amiable Managing Director of the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Disu was killed on Monday, October 12, by heartless rioters at the Free Trade Zone. The following day, Tuesday, October 13, a large number of well-armed robbery gang took over FESTAC town, located along the Mile 2-Badagry Expressway, for about two hours. In the process, they robbed two banks and killed a middle-aged woman and her daughter.

    Last Saturday, hoodlums virtually took over the Ketu-Ikorodu Road axis of the state snatching handbags, money, trinkets and all that in broad daylight from motorists and commuters who were held in the heavy traffic snarl. This went on for a long time without any security agency, particularly the police, intervening. The case of these traffic robbers has become very worrisome because it has become a common feature in almost all parts of the commercial city in recent time.

    The case of a deadly gang that raided two banks in the Ogolonto area of Ikorodu last June is also still fresh in the memory. The Ogolonto operation lasted for a long time without the police lifting a finger. Before then, the same gang had earlier invaded and robbed the First Bank and Wema Bank branches in Ikorodu killing two people in the process. The list is lengthy. Unfortunately, while armed robbers are having a field day, cultists belonging to various cult groups are also daily on the prowl killing and maiming people at will.

    But what could be responsible for the resurgence of insecurity in Lagos in spite of the huge amount of money being spent on security in the state? From my findings, the problem lies mainly on the police. When Solomon Arase, the current Inspector General of Police, was appointed, he tinkered with the security architecture that had been in place in Lagos and other parts of the country prior to his appointment. Being a man who has spent at least 32 years in administration in the police, he removed almost all operations officers in Lagos State and replaced them with administration officers. These are people who have little or no idea about operations in the police. Even some of the Police Commissioners he posted to some states including Lagos, are non-operations officers. He also brought administration officers as Divisional Police Officers, DPOs and Area Commanders.

    Today, a good number of policemen attached to the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, LASTMA, as well as the ones attached to the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, in the state, have been withdrawn. About 80% of the DPOs and Area Commanders in Lagos are admin officers. For instance, Sabo Police Division in Yaba is now being handled by an old woman who had previously spent all her career in the admin department of the force. Yet, her division is in charge of such tough areas as Jibowu, Ojuelegba, Igbobi-Sabe and other such areas within the metropolis. Similarly, one of the robberies in Ikorodu took place right opposite a Divisional Police Office that was then manned by a woman as DPO. What this signifies is that what now obtains in the police, especially in Lagos, are square pegs in round holes. This has inevitably created a serious problem in securing the state. Part of the result is the ever-present traffic gridlock now rampant in the state as well as the growing insecurity of lives and property.

    Stakeholders easily recall the time one Abba Kyari was the officer-in-charge of the State Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja and the level of success and breakthrough the squad recorded during his tenure. He was the scourge of armed robbers and other hoodlums. Kyari had informants all over the place. Now, the situation is different. Recently, the wife of the Deputy Managing Director of a national tabloid was kidnapped. Findings revealed that the SARS in Ikeja got information and arrested the ring leader of the gang. He was thoroughly “massaged”, a euphemism for torture by the police and he confessed.

    By 2 a.m on that fateful day, at least 16 fully armed anti-robbery men were dispatched to the kidnapper’s hideout to get members of the gang and free the poor lady. The gang allegedly ambushed the SARS team that night, shot sporadically and rounded up all the armed men because they (the SARS men) had instruction not to shoot. The gang leader who was in handcuffs, was subsequently freed by his members that night.

    The next thing was that the kidnappers negotiated with the family and an agreement was reached before the lady was finally handed over to her family in the presence of a highly placed police officer who had personally coordinated the negotiation and release. That is one of the most shameful things that have ever happened to the Nigeria Police. It is a story the police would prefer to cover up.

    A lot of things are happening in the policing of Lagos. That is why the governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, should look deep into the operations of the police in the state. Already, LASTMA and RRS are technically grounded by the withdrawal of police personnel attached to these outfits. Even Operation Mesa, has become a shadow of its former self.

    There was an enduring security architecture put in place in Lagos by past Commissioners of Police including Mike Okiro, Sunday Aghedo and, later, Marvel Akpoyibo, which drastically reduced criminality in the state. Successive CPs in Lagos used this template that has now been destroyed. These people were able to achieve success because they were all operations men – they had become DPOs, Area Commanders, Deputy Commissioners in charge of Operations, DC OPS and so on, before they became Police Commissioners. Certainly, not the present appalling situation in which admin officers have now taken over.

    Right now, activities in the SCID popularly called Panti have almost grounded to a halt as heaps of petitions are said to be lying on the OC’s table without being attended to. Now that Christmas is fast approaching, it is obvious that the crime rate may likely soar. This is the more reason why Governor Ambode should move in quickly to rescue Lagosians from the present uninspiring police arrangement in the state. And things can only be redressed if there is a change in the present operational structure and leadership of the police in the state. This is not the time for “man-know-man” posting of policemen!

  • These ‘analogue’ ministers

    These ‘analogue’ ministers

    For four months, the anxiety was high. So also were expectations. And when the list of ministerial nominees was still not forthcoming, permutations took over. Even conmen were not left out in the emerging equation as they quickly moved in, telling desperate politicians that they have the necessary links to get their names on the final list of nominees. In the process, many unsuspecting Nigerians were fleeced of their hard-earned or fraudulently acquired money.

    The newspapers too and the social media were not left out as they scrambled to undo one another with different “scoops” and “exclusives” on who and who will make the list. In other words, the rumour mill came alive and spilled out different names at different times. But all these came to an end last Tuesday when Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, formally read out the names of President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees for ministerial positions. Since then, the debate has changed. Now that Nigerians have an idea of those who will form the new cabinet, the debate is now about whether the waiting game was worth it or whether those now penciled down are the best materials the country can produce at this time.

    It has not been easy though. The list has attracted divergent views. While some people believe that most of the names on the list are made up of ‘analogue’ people or spent forces who have little or nothing to contribute, others believe that there is nothing in the list to suggest that the much-vaunted change under the current dispensation is on course. The reason is simple. Many people believe that some people who might have been tainted by corruption or with corruptive tendencies actually made the list of ministers as against the promise of putting in place, a new Nigeria, where all Nigerians will be proud of their country. Besides, in many states, people seem unhappy about the names of some nominees due to one complaint or the other.

    The summary of the whole thing is that quite a good number of people are not happy with the final list for different reasons. A lot of people are in doubt if the list was the handiwork of just one man, the president himself, as being peddled around. They may be right. Looking at the list, it is obvious that the All Progressives’ Congress, APC, leadership had substantial influence on the list because majority of the nominees are APC members. This is a confirmation that the party machinery had inputs in the compilation of the list. In that case, the party leaders must have breath down the neck of the president to be able to get the names of the party members to be accommodated in the list as against what majority of Nigerians had expected.

    Majority of Nigerians had expected a list that will feature names of renowned technocrats, professionals and others who have distinguished themselves in their fields of endeavour. Quite a lot of them are scattered across the ivory towers, blue chip companies and elsewhere in the country. Others are making waves in the Diaspora by contributing actively and significantly to the economic development of foreign countries. They are doing this at a time their fatherland is wallowing pitifully in a slough of ignorance, poverty and bondage. And it is so, because those who have constituted themselves into local champions and tin-gods in Nigeria will never allow them the opportunity to contribute their own quota to the development of the nation.

    From what I was able to piece together, Buhari had wanted to go it all alone by picking his ministers himself. It later turned out that most of the people he had his eyes on, were people he knew when he was in power many years ago both as President and Petroleum Minister at different times. Some of the people are now in their late 70s or early 80s. In fact, some of them have suffered stroke or one form of infirmity or another, a situation that made the president to beat a retreat. It is believed that it was at this point that the party seized the initiative and started bringing all manner of people for consideration as ministers. Certainly, this cannot be Nigeria’s first eleven.

    As emphasized by Francis Alimikhena, the 8th National Assembly Senate Minority Leader and Senator representing Edo North in an interview he granted to a popular Television Station at the lobby of the National Assembly shortly after the list was made public last Tuesday, there is no doubt that the list contains the names of those who are well known in the country. Yes, the would-be ministers are people who are well known but how does that guarantee their competence to make things happen? Some of them have been in the corridors of power for so long that they may have become spent bullets. The law of diminishing returns may have also caught up with them.

    For instance, at the advent of the Second Republic in 1979, as the then Senate leader, the late Senator Olusola Saraki, the father of Bukola Saraki, the incumbent Senate President, played a significant role when Audu Ogbeh appeared on the floor of the Senate at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos as he was being considered for ministerial position. That was more than 35 years ago. Today, the same Audu Ogbeh, who has had the designation of being a federal minister several times as well as being a one-time chairman of a national political party to his credit, is yet again warming up to stand before the younger Saraki, as the Senate President, to be interviewed as a minster. It might interest readers to know that in 1979, Bukola Saraki was a little less than 18 years old.

    Today, people like Audu Ogbeh have become a symbol of the recycled leaders Nigerians are now contending with willy-nilly. Although, age is not on the president’s side too, but Nigerians don’t doubt his integrity, sincerity of purpose and passion to lead the country out of the present political and economic quagmire in which it is enmeshed. These are the qualities that can possibly turn things around in the country at the moment. But he needs to complement all these qualities with the energy and vibrancy of dedicated and tested young minds roaring to put their rich arsenal of experience into national service.

    Inasmuch as the president may have his reasons for fielding Audu Ogbeh and others of his ilk, I believe that what the president could have done is to inject some younger hands into the machinery of government to compliment the efforts of his old brigade. That would have been totally different from the situation we have now where the same people who have been involved in politics in Nigeria from the time corruption and fraudulent practices were sowed and then nurtured into the monster and cankerworm we now detest, are still being paraded in government under this change mantra.

    Look at a person like Ibe Kachukwu, who was brought from the private sector to come and reorganize the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Even though the real reorganization of the department has not actually started, his body language alone has had a tremendous impact on the operations of the corporation and the attitude of the workers to their jobs. The president should have taken a cue from this to bring more technocrats and professionals into his government. I mean professionals, with the right mindset and passion to make things work in the new Nigeria of our dreams.

    At any rate, let us wait and see the composition of the president’s economic team. It is only then we can conclude whether Nigeria is on the right track or we are doomed!

     

  • Screening Buhari’s Ministers

    Screening Buhari’s Ministers

    Waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers was like waiting forever. The waiting game lasted the whole of 16 good weeks. Quite a good number of people became either disenchanted or disillusioned. Not only this. The machinery of government was moving at snail-speed, while the economy was almost grinding to a halt. The President’s assurances at many fora that he needed to be meticulous and thorough in picking his cabinet because of the mess that he met on ground, offered little respite.

    However, the waiting game ended last week when the president transmitted the first list of his proposed ministers to the Senate. Since then, the newspapers and other medium of communication have been speculating about who and who, made the list of ministers. This has heightened anxiety as prospective ministers ran from pillar to post trying to authenticate their nomination. While this was going on, some of the senators upped the barometer of anxiety by spitting fire over the proposed screening of the would-be ministers. They said that unlike in the past when some of the nominees were merely asked to take a bow on the floor of the Senate chambers, this time around, they were going to properly scrutinize them and take them through the rigour of digging deep into their background, their moral and social antecedence and all that.

    In view of this, it is believed that some of the nominees have been mounting pressure on some of the senators to lend a voice in their support during the screening exercise that may commence in the Senate chambers this morning. I am sure the list of nominees might not totally tally with the names the media have been bandying about all these days. The choice of nominees in some states may not have been as smooth as that for the president who had insisted on doing it alone. The issue of picking the right candidate from various states may have been a tug of war. For instance, feelers from Niger State indicate that if it is true that Musa Ibeto, who until recently was the deputy governor of the State, had actually been penciled down to be made a minister, then a long-standing ethnic,  cum tribal arrangement which has subsisted for ages in that state is about to be broken. This is because Abubakar Sani-Bello, the incumbent governor of the state and Ibeto are from the same political zone of the state. His appointment will, therefore, tilt the balance of power in favour of one political zone in the state to the detriment of other zones. This will surely be a recipe for confusion and crisis in the state.

    If Rotimi Amaechi, Kayode Fayemi and Babatunde Fashola, former governors of Rivers, Ekiti and Lagos states respectively, make the final list, they might be doing so on merit. But this is not to say that they will have a walk-over at the screening exercise in the senate. In actual fact, the trio – Amaechi, Fayemi and Fashola- were believed to have been directly picked by Buhari, in recognition of their invaluable contribution and support for him which made it possible for him to emerge as the president. In spite of mounting opposition against them from their own people, Buhari had assured them a long time ago that they were going to work with him.

    There are speculations that Fayemi, who had been involved in drafting so many papers for the President, may be appointed Foreign Affairs Minister, while Fashola takes care of either the Federal Capital Territory or the Power Ministry. But with speculations that Bart Nnaji, the former Power Minister, may be on board, Nnaji might be asked to man the Power Ministry for the second time, a position he held before he was yanked off the seat in very controversial circumstances some few years ago by former president Goodluck Jonathan.

    No one is yet sure where Amaechi will be heading to. He is considered as having worked tirelessly for the emergence of Buhari as president in “cash and kind”. His problem with Nyesom Wike, the sitting governor of Rivers State notwithstanding, it is believed that Buhari is bent on compensating him for his steadfastness, loyalty and support during and after the election. There are expectations that since Buhari had satisfied himself by picking those to work with him, including Abba Kyari, his Chief of Staff and others, he would allow some of the people around him to nominate at least one or two people for ministerial posts.

    The Senate’s screening may be tough on the surface because of the senators’ recent utterances, but one thing is that those guys, I mean the senators, are survivalists. The recent travails of Bukola Saraki, the senate president, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, is still very fresh in memory. Many of the senators rallied round the Senate President simply to avoid a backlash of probe on members of the National Assembly, who may have equally lied in their assets declaration. A number of the senators are past office holders especially former governors who are believed to have corruption cases hanging on their necks. Majority of them ran down their states’ treasuries and would not want anything that will give them sleepless nights. They probably fought their ways into the senate, in the first instance, to seek sanctuary from harassment and so, they will do anything and everything to protect their interests.

    Besides, there is also the usual tango between the legislative arm of government and the executive, with each holding on tightly to its territory. In fact, they have always behaved as rivals, a situation that was very pronounced under both former president Olusegun Obasanjo and his successor, Goodluck Jonathan. Each time the National Assembly members felt the executive was encroaching on their affairs they usually resorted to subtle blackmail by dangling the impeachment axe against the executive. When this happened, a truce was always reached and the situation ended in a sort of “give-and-take”. Money became a determinant factor. It happened during the Ghali Umar Na’ Aba’s episode in the lower legislature under Obasanjo and Aminu Tambuwal as Speaker under Jonathan.

    At any rate, it is heartwarming that the president has removed the privilege of nominating ministers from the state governors because, in the past, most of the governors either succeeded in bringing their surrogates on board or they just brought in people who were incapable of making any significant contribution to governance. In the circumstance in which the nation has found itself, the president must take the right step to ensure accountability and good governance which is paramount to the progress of this country. This can only be guaranteed by putting the right people in the right positions.

    To achieve this, the senators should do their job properly with sincerity of purpose, so as not to create unnecessary bottlenecks for the nominees in the guise of being thorough. Let’s get down to business!

  • Falae: Matters Arising

    These past few weeks have been tension-soaked across the country. In Abuja, the drama of the absurd played out as Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, suddenly found himself in the duck after his spurious attempt to stall his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal fell flat. While some people are saying that the trial is nothing more than witch-hunting by Saraki’s political adversaries, others claimed that since nobody should be above the law, the Senate President must be brought to book, if, indeed, he committed an offence known to the law of the land.

    However, last week’s Muslim holiday, provided an interlude. But there are indications that the issue might assume a new dimension on the floor of the Senate as the National Assembly resumes this week. Different groups are reportedly girding their loins to do battle on the issue of whether it is proper or improper for the Senate President to continue to preside over the affairs of the Senate when, in actual fact, he is currently facing a criminal trial, as it were. Clandestine meetings were believed to have taken place among the various groups during the last holiday, to perfect strategies for the expected grand onslaught. Nigerians have no option than to wait patiently for the next episode in the unravelling scenario.

    Just as the Saraki drama played out, an unfortunate incident simultaneously unfolded in Akure, the capital of Ondo State. Here, the once peaceful state seems to have become a staging ground for all forms of criminalities including violent robberies and kidnappings, to name a few. As we speak, Owo, one of the major towns in the State, has almost been turned into a battleground by robbers and kidnappers, who now operate on that axis with impunity almost on daily basis. In the recent past, several highly placed people including a female Regent of the University town of Akungba, in Akoko area of the state, have fallen victims to the vicious gangs operating in the area.

    But by far, the greatest astonishing addition to the list of high profile kidnapping incidents the state has witnessed in recent times occurred when on Monday, September 14, Chief Olu Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, fell prey to a band of rampaging herdsmen. He was kidnapped while working on his farm located at Ilado Village, in Akure North Local Government Area of the State. Unfortunately, that incident happened on the day the revered old man who was also a former Minister of Finance turned 77.

    It was clear that being his birthday, Falae had no intention to venture to his farm on that fateful day. He had to proceed to the farm after receiving a phone call from one of the workers on his farm. The message relayed to him was that some herdsmen, who had been locked in a running battle with the old man for quite some time for grazing on his farm, had resurfaced again. Quite oblivious of their true intention, Falae was said to have hurriedly packed his breakfast in a flask and headed for the farm to see things himself. On his arrival at the farm, he was promptly kidnapped.

    The story is that few days before the incident, the herdsmen had been dragged to the police command headquarters in Akure for allowing their cattle to destroy some crops in the farm. At the police headquarters, the herdsmen were said to have been warned to avoid a re-occurrence. At that point, the leader of the herdsmen was said to have threatened to deal with the former SGF and warned him to erect a perimeter fence around the expansive farmland, the size notwithstanding.

    However, the news of the abduction elicited fear and trepidation among members of his family, his political associates, friends, governments and other interest groups. The Oodua Peoples’ Congress, OPC, also lent its voice by calling for the immediate release of Falae by his captors. At a stage, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, directed Solomon Arase, the Inspector General of Police, and other security agencies to ensure the safe release of the septuagenarian technocrat and politician, who was eventually set free by his abductors in the wee hours of last Thursday, September 24. That was after four agonizing days of suspense, physical and psychological torture.

    Thank God that Baba, as he is fondly called by his people, got home safely from the “valley of the shadow of death” as epitomised by the kidnappers’ den. It is a pity that the old man was subjected to such a harrowing experience by the lawless herdsmen who have constituted themselves to great nuisance all over the country. From the events preceding the abduction, it is quite obvious that the herdsmen had actually invaded the farm in order to extract a pound of flesh from Baba for having the effrontery and audacity to confront them even when they destroyed his crops. The incident fits perfectly into the same pattern of the usual banditry and mayhem frequently unleashed by these herdsmen on unsuspecting and defenceless members of the public in many states across the country. It is like no single state in the country is spared from this orgy of violence and destruction.

    From what some people had observed in the past and their latest exploit, it is very clear that the Fulani herdsmen may be working in tandem with the Boko Haram terrorists to wreak havoc in the country. This assertion is corroborated by the remarks allegedly made by the herdsmen when they were told that the family of Baba had put together two million naira, to appease them, as against their demand for a N100 million ransom, to enable Baba to regain his freedom. They were quoted as having said:”is it N2 million that you want to pay Boko Haram?”

    That statement can be interpreted in two ways. The first is that they could have invoked Boko Haram in order to drive fears into the hapless old man and his trembling family to part with a substantial sum of money as ransom. They could also have said that to actually drum it into their ears that though, he may have been hearing about Boko Haram and their heinous atrocities, now, he is face to face with the real Boko Haram and so he must quickly play ball or get wasted like many others in the past.

    Without mincing words, it has become a common feature for the Fulani herdsmen to carry about sophisticated weapons and other dangerous weapons concealed in their luggages while prowling all about the forests looking for grazing grounds for their cattles. And once they perceive that they have been wronged in anyway, anywhere, they easily resort to violence to settle scores. This way, many innocent lives have been lost, properties destroyed and houses or a whole community burnt down just to massage their egos.

    ‘Perhaps, the time has come to put an end to the nefarious perpetrations of these lawless Fulani herdsmen all over the place, at least, to make it clear to them that they should not constitute themselves into Lords of the Manor’

    In many instances, this wholesale brigandage is carried out without the police or any security agency for that matter, lifting a finger. That is one of the reasons why the herdsmen have found it easy, if not a pleasure ride, all the time they decide to vent their anger on anybody or any community that will not permit their excesses. And these people are not invisible. In that case, they should not be treated as untouchables. Perhaps, the time has come to put an end to the nefarious perpetrations of these lawless Fulani herdsmen all over the place, at least, to make it clear to them that they should not constitute themselves into Lords of the Manor. Nigerians cannot afford another band of heartless terrorists freely roaming about in their midst, causing deaths and destruction!

     

  • Needless tussle over new Ooni (1)

    On Thursday, October 2, 2014, I was in the ancient town of Ile-Ife to attend the wake keep of Olori Beatrice Omosigho Adedapo Aderemi, the wife of late Prince Adedapo Morounfolu Aderemi, the first son of the late Ooni of Ife, the revered Sir Adesoji Aderemi. Prince Adedapo died in October 1963 at the young age of 39.

    After the wake keep which held at the Aderemi’s family house,  popularly known as Glass House  in Ile-Ife, I drove to Oja Ife (Ife Market or Oba Market) located some walking distance from the palace of the Ooni of Ife. I went there just to fraternise with Bunmi Adegoke, my childhood friend and old school mate, who retired from Union Bank as a Manager some years back and now into a distribution business. Few years ago, he bagged the traditional title of Sooko, which literally stands for the head of a branch of a ruling house in Ife. Sooko Bunmi Adegoke is from the Lafogido Ruling House in Ife. Altogether, there are more than 40 Sookos in Ife.

    That evening, as if I had premonition of what could happen, I had casually asked Sooko Bunmi if at all there was anybody or prince known to the Ife people, who could immediately ascend the throne of the Ooni in case of the eventuality of the reigning Ooni at the time, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, suddenly joining his ancestors. Sooko Bunmi said there was no such person in sight at that time. And like a soothsayer, I jokingly told him that they had better started planning for that because Oba Sijuwade was getting older by the day and was also getting visibly weaker. His reply to this was that if the throne becomes vacant and the chances are good, he could as well go for it.

    About nine months and 26 days later, specifically in the evening of July 28, the unexpected happened. Oba Sijuwade suddenly joined his ancestors. While the remains of the late Ooni were yet to be interred, the jostling to succeed him started in earnest. Almost everybody who had the privilege of the prefix “Prince” attached to his name in the ancient town became interested in stepping unto the vacant stool. As more and more people – the good, the bad, the flotsam and jetsam – signified their intention to contest for the vacant stool as if it was one political office open to all manner of people, so also was tension rising in the town.

    ‘One thing to note is that the stool of the Ooni is a very important position. It is so great that it is not something that should be trivialised or ridiculed for any reason whatsoever’

    It was in an attempt to douse the rising tension that the state governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, reached out to the Ife Traditional Council members and invited them to a meeting at the governor’s office, Osogbo, on Friday, September 11. The meeting was held behind closed doors with the governor leading four other government officials. The Ife Traditional Council was represented by 13 chiefs out of the 16 that make up the council.

    At the meeting, the governor made it known to the kingmakers that he did not know the process of installing the Ooni and he had nobody as candidate to fill the vacant stool. He said that all he wanted was peace in the ancient town and that the kingmakers should map out strategies to reduce or stop the growing tension in the town. The governor emphasised that he does not want any problem in Ife as far as the installation process is concerned and appealed to the kingmakers to quickly announce the next ruling house so as to douse the tension which the various security reports from the ancient town had indicated.

    J.O. Ijaodola, the Lowa-Adimula of Ife, made it clear that Ife has a subsisting gazette to install the Ooni and that there are four ruling houses in Ife, namely: Osinkola, Ogboru, Giesi and Lafogido. Oba S.F. Omisakin, the Obalufe of Iremo Quarters and the traditional Prime Minister of Ife, took over from there. He said Ile-Ife has laid-down procedures for installing an Ooni and it is very straight forward. According to him, the installation process and selection for the stool of the Ooni is quite different from that of any of the other obas in Yorubaland and that the kingmakers would endeavour to choose or select the right candidate.

    The governor then asked the representative from the state judiciary to read the registered gazette relating to the filling of the Ooni’s stool.  From the official gazette, it was clear that there are four ruling houses in Ife as stated above. His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi was from Osinkola Ruling House, while His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, was from Ogboru Ruling House. In turn,  the next Ruling House to occupy the throne is Giesi Ruling House. The meeting was then brought to an end.

    As a follow-up, on Monday, September 14, the Ife Traditional Council, held a press conference in Ife and officially announced that it was the turn of the Giesi House to produce the  Ooni of Ife. But if the governor and the kingmakers thought that the announcement would douse the raging tension in the ancient town, they were mistaken. As soon as the announcement was made, the Lafogido Ruling House headed to court to challenge the pronouncement. They got an injunction restraining the kingmakers, the Giesi Ruling House and the governor from going ahead with the process of filling the vacant stool of the Ooni.

    That morning, I spoke with Sooko Bunmi on the need to respect the kingmakers’ judgment concerning the succession process but he was unperturbed. Little did I know that he was the number one name on the list of the plaintiffs that instituted the court action. Anyway, I believe Sooko Bunmi and his co-travelers are just exercising their fundamental rights to justice and fair play (if any).

    The real fireworks have since commenced but it may end up as an exercise in futility. This is because there is a principle of rotation in place in the succession process to the Ooni’s stool. This process has passed through series of litmus tests culminating in several commissions of enquiry in the past. From the look of things, there seems to be an undue desperation in the attempts by some of the Princes in the ancient town to become the next Ooni and they will stop at nothing, including tinkering with history, to achieve this.

    Even in the Giesi Ruling House that has been pronounced as the next in line for the Ooni’s stool, the crowd of aspirants to the throne is unnecessarily unwieldy and untidy. They include two brothers of the same father where the younger one who is expected to step down for the older one as tradition demands, is being goaded on by their father who should know better. Not only this. The younger one has so much commercialized the whole process by doling out money, transformers and tarring roads in the ancient town in order to gain undue attention and advantage. This nauseating attitude has become too irritating to many Ife indigenes who are now saying that the Ooni’s stool cannot be for sale to the highest bidder.

    One thing to note is that the stool of the Ooni is a very important position. It is so great that it is not something that should be trivialised or ridiculed for any reason whatsoever. It is a traditional stool that commands respect and has endured for centuries. We are not talking about the Ooni of Ife alone; we are talking about the Ooni of the Yoruba race. Therefore, what is required is an Ooni with undiluted passion, the right vision and mission to develop Ife and the entire Yoruba race. Certainly, not any form of abracadabra!

     

    • To be continued

     

  • My Fears for Buhari (2)

    Last week, this column dwelt on the president’s 100 days in office. It highlighted the initial hiccups, particularly the unending drama at the National Assembly which, by all account, is still simmering and could slow down the wheel of governance. It also touched on other problems and prospects of the Buhari administration.

    Quite refreshingly, Nigerians have embarked on a countdown to the formation of the much-awaited new cabinet which the president has promised to put together before the end of this month. Sure, the composition of the new cabinet will provide a binocular for people to view the direction of the new administration, most importantly, the road it will take to usher in its change agenda.

    Only last week, the president insisted that past officials of government, including elected governors, ministers and other appointees who still had in their possession, diplomatic passports, should hand them over immediately. That, in itself, is a departure from the rotten past where former government officials who had ended their services to the country or who were even disgraced out of office, still enjoy the perks of office, including waving their diplomatic passports at international airports.

    Anyway, like all new governments, the Buhari administration has launched itself into a flurry of action and activities to implement diverse novel policy and governance directions to stymie those put in place by the last Jonathan administration. Some of these novel ideas include, the observance of new rules of engagement in the Civil Service that has invariably made a cabinet minister a ceremonial head of a ministry, the running of a single treasury account for all manners of payment and expenditure by a Ministry, Department and Agency (MDA); the determination to arrest revenue leakages in both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and lately, the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, among others.

    There was also the reappointment of Alhaji Habibu Abdullahi, as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, in place of Alhaji Sanusi Ado Bayero, who was appointed to the position in the twilight of the Jonathan administration. All these graphically illustrate the race to erase all vestiges of the past government and replace it with a redemptive coloration.

    Now, the president is confronted with the albatross of fulfilling many of the campaign promises he made to Nigerians in the heat of the hustling that preceded the Presidential election. With the benefit of hindsight, many Nigerians are beginning to see that with the realities on ground, it will virtually be very Herculean, if not impossible, to fulfill the President’s “messianic” promises such as feeding school pupils and students; payment of a Welfare Allowance of N5,000 to all unemployed Nigerian youths; considerably bringing down the exchange rate of the naira to other currencies and all that.

    It is conventional wisdom that apart from Admiral Murtala Nyako, the immediate past elected governor of Adamawa State, no President’s party man or woman is currently being investigated or facing trial for corruption or corruptive practices. This has elicited some loud whispers in the polity. The fact of the Nyako case is that he was already being sought for trial before he escaped overseas and only came back to Nigeria to face his EFCC inquisitors after Buhari was sworn in as Nigeria’s President on May 29. Many Nigerians are aware of the apparent selective amnesia on the part of the government agencies responsible for the investigation and prosecution of alleged cases of corruption and corruptive practices. In their view, the exercise, which is Buhari’s main thrust of coming into office, may not be holistic and all-encompassing, if the opposition PDP alone is made to face the scrutiny of these federal anti-corruption agencies, while others are walking free.

    Concurrently, the impending probe of the sourcing, payments and delivery of military hardware and consumables, albeit, in the public domain, may unearth figures, in and out of the military establishment, who may have soiled their hands. The concern of this column is that this tribe of treasury looters, may, out of self-protection and interests, take or initiate proactive actions to protect those interests through unconstitutional means. This scenario is also indicative of the “powerful oil barons” and those “hidden” interests in the purchase and operations of the various unbundled units of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, who may baulk at moves to either expose them or truncate their avenues of milking our common patrimony.

    Surprisingly, rather than concentrate on providing good governance, a mantra that formed a major plank of the people’s acceptance of the APC/Buhari aggregation prior to the election, the party and, by extension, the President, has not dropped its toga of being in the opposition. The party’s predilection for joining issues on any topic and its predisposition to stirring the hornet’s nest of contentious issues, have tended to create a backlash of problems for the president. For example, sometime ago, a governor told everyone with authoritative glee that President Buhari was given a list of persons who stole and stashed away billions of Nigeria’s petro-dollars. He also said a former minister has been slated for trial and consequent jailing. Soon after, the American State Department came out, forcefully, to deny that anything of that sort ever happened during President Buhari’s recent visit to the United States of America.

    However, an area that most people are not paying any attention to is the subterranean moves and posturing for the presidential election of 2019, even when the newly-sworn-in federal government is still tottering and trying to consolidate. There is no gainsaying the fact that the virtual “war” for the soul of the National Assembly cadre of principal officers was one fought solely to position certain persons for the prime positions at the presidency, post-2019. Among the top echelon and rank and file of the APC, there are talks of the likelihood of President Buhari resorting to the “Mandela Option”, that is, doing one presidential term and leaving the terrain open to the likes of Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; Atiku Abubakar, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who is currently in the visible and powerful position of President of the Senate and others.

    It is for this reason that activities at the various power points in the APC are now geared towards having a foothold, no matter how tenuous, in the cabinet currently being put together by the President. In addition to labouring to be in the good books of Buhari, those with ambitions for 2019, are strengthening their stranglehold on the fiefdoms they presently control for a possible last-ditch bid for the formation of a new party, where their interests or objectives, will be best served. Many consider the current posturing as a dress rehearsal for 2019 as the fireworks will commence as soon as the President engages the home-bend at the dusk of his first term.

    There is a school of thought also, that conjectures a grand plan in which the President’s foot-soldiers will, either by self-help or prodding from the main man himself, plot a second term, which, in any case, he is constitutionally-entitled to, and in the process, rubbish the ambitions of those who are rearing to go after his job. What the above scenarios signpost is that whichever way it is viewed, the president’s path is laden with mines with the likelihood of, God forbid, some catastrophic consequences. This is the more reason the president should consistently be on the alert and continuously watch his back.

    As it is, President Muhammadu Buhari has a date with history, positively or negatively, depending on how he handles the myriad of problems and challenges that presently confront his administration and the nation. But he will be best remembered for either assuaging the dire conditions of the larger mass of the Nigerian people or for compounding them.                                                                  • Concluded.

     

  • My fears for Buhari (1)

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s 100 days in office is a paradox of mixed feelings. While many people believe his administration is on the right path towards moving the country to greatness, others believe the first 100 days of the president has not brought much hope for a greater future for the country. Whereas everybody is entitled to his or her opinion, we must be careful not to jump into any hasty conclusion on the president’s avowed determination to right the wrongs of the past and put the nation on a new political and economic pedestal that will enable it to compete favourably among the comity of nations.

    Nigeria has come a long way in terms of decadence and retrogression such that the nation has not only become a laughing stock all over the place, it is also a country that was almost being avoided globally when it comes to discussing serious political or economic matters. That was the dire straits the nation was until May 29, when Buhari stepped into the nation’s number one spot as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Since then, a ray of hope seems to have appeared on the horizon as the country is now being refocused by its new leader.

    But if anyone is projecting that President Muhammadu Buhari will encounter strident opposition from only the ousted Peoples Democratic Party, then such pundit is not taking into consideration the lurking baggage of intractable bumps and roadblocks that will either assail him or stunt or truncate some measures of successes he may reap from his present presidential engagement. The almagamation of the legacy parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the Congress for Political Change, CPC, the All Nigerian Peoples’ Party, ANPP and fragments of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, resulted into the new party now on the block, the All Progressive Congress, APC. Those who projected that, that political tsunami will be seamless may have been caught napping by the series of intra-party crises which had exposed the soft underbelly of the ruling party. The fact that this interplay of forces have come soon after accessing governance on May 29, signposts the parlous nature of the political contraption that was hurriedly assembled by a phalanx of politicians with disparate ideological bents.

    Once the main objective of snatching the presidential diadem and by extension, the reins of power was achieved, the sharing of other positions and booties of “war”, turned contentious when certain political camps went Oliver Twist in an arrangement that lacked a sharing formula in the first place. This was responsible for the power-play that dominated the affairs of the National Assembly right from the inception of the 8th Assembly in June and almost polarised it along primordial lines. The division set tongues wagging over whether the APC, the ruling political party, was actually ready for governance. Until concessions were made here and there, it took quite a long time of political blitzkrieg, before finally the current peace of the graveyard now prevailing in the two chambers of the National Assembly was achieved.

    Now, except for the resilience of Buhari, the nation’s number one man, in steering the affairs of the country through the assistance and cooperation of his able deputy, Akin Osinbajo, a professor of law, also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a former Attorney General of Lagos State, the story would have been different in the first 100 days of this administration. Unfortunately, it is not yet a smooth sail for the president. It is glaring that Buhari’s present travails are, invariably, caused by some elements in his own party, who have agenda that counter-balance that of the mother party, the APC. From the various insider crises that have ruled the activities of the APC since May 29, it appears that the party has not been able to manage its monumental and unexpected successes at the general elections where it uprooted the 16-year–old PDP octopus political machine.

    Many factors are combining to present a hazy picture of a political group that have been ripped apart by crass internal desperation for its control and usage for some selfish personal or group interests. For a president who has governed for more than three months without the constitutionally- required accompaniment of a cabinet of ministers as political heads of the various federal ministries, all cannot be said to be well. The fact is that there is an emerging and growing cadre of APC party men and women, high and low, who are neither happy nor comfortable with the reward system in the party. They might not be too relaxed with the formula being adopted by Buhari, which is solely-based on a person’s Corruption Index that is of prime importance to the President before any consideration is taken for any political appointment. No cognizance is taken of whether such a person or persons worked for the success of the party at the elections or not. It is believed, within the APC’s various strata, that this stringent “angelic” requirement has thrown spanners into the loyalty base of the ruling party.

    In actual fact, more than anything else, this singular factor of searching for “angels” to occupy government positions may have shaken the APC to its foundation as the foot-soldiers now believe that “The Baboon Worked and the Monkey is Now Eating”. There is no doubt that without the current holistic approach to wiping out the hydra-headed monster called corruption from all facets of our body politic, it is impossible for the country to achieve meaningful progress and development. And by extension, there is no way the change mantra of the APC can be realised without tackling the behemoth that corruption has become in our society. The only problem now is, considering the fact that the APC is a patchwork of very strange political bedfellows and groups with disparate Ideologies and socio-economic back drops, it is imperative that one will expect a cacophony of diverse and tightly-held opinions, actions and reactions, that have consistently exposed the Coat of Many Colours contrivance that the APC is, truly, is.

    That it has survived, till this moment, from blows to its solar plexus by external traducers and internal power and lucre seekers, is due to the avuncular nature of the President. The point is whether he will continue to do damage control and fire-fighting that has continued to distract him from his constitutionally-assigned schedule of duties. Rightly or wrongly, the generality of Nigerians are beginning to (mis)interpret the current blame game disposition of the new ruling party and its arrow-head, President Buhari, as possibly, an admission of APC’s inability to find urgent or long-term workable solutions to the problems and challenges inherited from the Jonathan administration and the PDP. Like I said earlier, without clearing the Augean-stable, it may be impossible to move the nation forward in a deserved direction where all citizens irrespective of tribe, race or class, will have a sense of belonging and equal opportunities to aspire to whatever level they may desire. That, I think, is the vision of the APC.

    ‘The emergence and the meteoric rise to power and reckoning of the APC, is, in the first place, necessitated by the people’s belief that the party’s mantra of “Change” will, like an “Open Sesame” change everything for the better’

    The emergence and the meteoric rise to power and reckoning of the APC, is, in the first place, necessitated by the people’s belief that the party’s mantra of “Change” will, like an “Open Sesame” change everything for the better. This was further reinforced by the general over-expectation and “reality” of Buhari’s “messianic” involvement. Nigerians are a people in a great hurry and because of this, the people may be tempted to see the current government as symptomatic of unpreparedness and lacking initiative with the constant staple of laying of all manners of blames on the past PDP administration.

     

    • To be continued