The Nation Newspaper

Category: Dele Agekameh

  • The EFCC we need

    Nigeria is presently passing through a critical stage in the history of its existence as a nation. It is a country that is besieged by all manner of vices and above all, rapacious and debilitating corruption in all facets of national life. Now, the country’s new President, Muhammadu Buhari, has made it unequivocally clear that his mandate will primarily be focused on ridding the country of this great monster that has undoubtedly eaten deep into its fabric.

    This has obviously rekindled hope and inspired great expectations in Nigerians that the war against corruption would now be waged with renewed ferocity. Indeed, dating back to the country’s independence in 1960,  corruption has remained a festering sore that has systematically developed into a gangrene. You can smell the rot. You can feel it. In fact, it walks on all fours all over the place so much so that whenever there is a discussion or commentary on Nigeria, the issue of corruption becomes a dominant topic in both local and foreign media. In short, at this crucial period of our socio-economic life, it is most appropriate to chart a way forward in order to save what is left of our misrably inglorious nation.

    Considering the fact that since its establishment in 2003, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has strived, against all odds, to distinguish itself among other law enforcement agencies in the history of fighting corruption in Nigeria, the organisation is key in the war against corruption. In 2014, the anti-graft agency secured 126 convictions, a remarkable leap from 117 which it secured in 2013. Between 2011 and 2014, it secured 397 convictions, witnessing a steady rise from 2011 when it recorded 67 convictions and the 87 secured in 2012.

    This notwithstanding, there are those who believe that only petty thieves and criminals have tasted the wrath of the anti-graft agency while the big criminals who are mostly top government officials and politicians are having a field day without the EFCC raising a finger against them. The reason for this is simple. Under succesive administrations in the country, there was this half-hearted approach to fighting corruption. While many of them actually paid mere lip-service to the war against corruption, serious attempts were also made to scuttle the operations of the commission. In many cases, the EFCC’s management had to correctly read the body language of those in authority before moving against any corrupt government official. In some other instances too, their stooges in private businesses who obviously act as fronts or launder money for these highly placed government officials, are often shielded from the long arms of the law. It is believed that with the coming of Buhari, things may take a new shape.

    What is pertinent to note is the role the administration of Buhari will play to make the EFCC’s bite more potent than it has so far been. Change has come, no doubt, and this must particularly reflect in the political will to ensure that the EFCC continues to play its primary and pivotal role in the war against corruption. One thing that must be noted, however, is that fighting corruption is not cheap. The corrupt individuals understandably have so much money to throw about, as they have been found to secure the services of notable lawyers and are adept at exploiting legal loopholes to their advantage and that of their counsels.

    I have read about cuts in the budgets of the anti-graft agency. To me, such acts only suggest a deliberate lack of political will and a calculated attempt to ensure that the anti-graft agency is not fully able to discharge its functions. Indeed, the need to amend the EFCC Act to put it on first-line charge funding is long overdue. That the EFCC needs financial independence is a fact that cannot be disputed. Financial independence is paramount for the EFCC that we need to effectively combat corruption without any hindrance to its financing.

    The last budget presentation to the 7th National Assembly by Ibrahim Lamorde, the anti-graft agency’s boss, turned out to be more of a revelation of the financial hiccups that have (and which, if unchecked) continued to hamper the war on corruption. The 2015 budget was a marked decline from N12, 245,369,169 which was appropriated in 2014. Again, change has come and there must be an urgent change in the financial running of the agency. Puting the agency on first-line charge funding, will unarguably be the best model to ensure an independent agency. Tragically, a number of corrupt individuals being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency are alleged to have stolen money in excess of the agency’s appropriated budget and they are willing to spend a huge part of it to draw legal rings around the commission. What a sorry case!

    Therefore, the EFCC we need in this change dispensation must be financially independent and, by extension, politically independent, if the war on corruption must be strengthened, fought with renewed vigour and won. It is heart-warming though, that there are strong indications that a legislation derived from the EFCC Establishment Act 2004, which makes it tacitly dependent on the orders of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, may soon be dropped. Indeed, Section 43 of the Act mandates that “The Attorney General of the Federation may make rules of regulations with respect to the exercise of any of the duties, functions or powers of the commission under this Act.”

    By implication, that section makes the AGF and Minister of Justice, the decider in cases the anti-graft agency prosecutes, equally mandating it to report the outcome of its investigations on “serious or complex” cases to the AGF, even before commencing prosecution. In simple terms, it cannot be overemphasised that if the new dispensation must give teeth to the war against corruption, it must ensure an independent anti-graft agency. More importantly, it is an undisputed fact that the EFCC the country needs at the moment is one that is financially and politically independent in the discharge of its duties. Buhari cannot afford to continue with the lethargic status quo. A situation where the EFCC, beholden to the executive and legislative demi-gods,  has to go yearly, cap in hand, to get approval to do anything or for funds to ensure the adequate running of its day-to-day activities, does not augur well for the war against graft.

    It is expected also, that President Buhari will equally look into the Nigerian Constitution itself with the aim of getting rid of various tactical obstacles that may impede the independence of the agency.  For instance, the constitution should be amended to outlaw dilatory tactics by defence counsels who deliberately stall prosecution of persons accused of grand corruption with all manners of frivolous interlocutory applications.  It should be such that once a case is brought by the EFCC to court, it must be heard and concluded within a defined period of time.

    Everyone is concerned about the damaging effects of corruption, which touch us all, not just collectively but individually.  We must all realise that neither the EFCC nor the ICPC or the Code of Conduct Bureau, or even the Nigeria Police, etc, can fight the rampaging corruption holding our nation by the jugular alone without the active support of the populace.  Therefore, we should take ownership of the war; we should be ready to volunteer information to EFCC or ICPC where and when necessary and be ready to constantly keep them on their toes with constructive (not destructive) criticism. The EFCC we need is one that has the total support of Nigerians.

    ‘We must all realise that neither EFCC nor ICPC or the Code of Conduct Bureau, or even the Nigeria Police, etc, can fight the rampaging corruption holding our nation by the jugular alone, without the active support of the populace’

     

     

     

  • APC, softly, softly

    The National Assembly is back to work after a two-week recess the members embarked upon shortly after the 8th Assembly was inaugurated on June 9. Immediately after the inauguration, the elections of the principal officers for both the Upper and Lower houses of the assembly took place amidst controversies. While the controversy surrounding the election of Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy seems to have abated, that of the Senate President and his deputy continued to generate acrimony in the polity. Not even the behind-the-scene moves to find a workable solution to the impasse have yielded any fruitful result.

    The process through which Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu emerged as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively, have been faulted by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC. However, what seems to have compounded the problem is the coming on board of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President. The bone of contention is that the ‘selection’ of Ekweremadu, as Deputy Senate President may have given the party to which he belongs, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, an undue and probably, undeserved advantage in the emerging politics of change which the APC, as the ruling party at the centre, is desirous to enthrone in the country.

    The PDP had monopolised power at the centre for 16 years, beginning from the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999. It held on to power until barely one month ago, specifically, on May 29, when it vacated the scene after it was ignominiously upstaged in the presidential election held on March 28. What the APC cannot understand is why Ekweremadu who had served for eight years in the same position was able to stage a comeback with ease under the new dispensation as Deputy Senate President. To many political observers, it means that nothing has really changed.

    All through the years the PDP was in control at the centre, the party never gave any chance to anybody outside its fold to taste power or even come near it at all. Also, they never pretended to run an inclusive or national government. It was a winner-takes-all type of arrangement throughout its period of power domination. This is probably why, to the APC and its teeming supporters, the present arrangement in the Senate appears not only to be absurd, but also quite unacceptable.

    The unfolding scenario has, so far, put the APC in a quandary. Though the party had had to grudgingly accept what it could not change after a lot of fuss in the wake of the happenings in the senate, now, the party’s anticipated panacea for achieving lasting peace has met a brick wall. In its attempt to resolve the logjam in the Senate, the APC had proposed that Ahmad Lawan, its anointed candidate for the post of Senate President and George Akume, his deputy, who had both lost out in the race, should become Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip respectively. But this has not gone down well with Saraki and his group who are sceptical that having the two rivals to the coveted Senate seat being so conspicuous in the Senate could pose a real danger of a deliberate ambush by those in the leadership of the party who are opposed to the present arrangement in the Upper House.

    With these developments, it is now very clear that all is not well with the APC, the rainbow coalition of political interest groups that succeeded in ousting the behemoth PDP at the centre in the last election. The coalition was spear-headed by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. Other parties in the coalition were the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, the All Nigerian Peoples’ Party, ANPP and part of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA. There was also a splinter group of the PDP known as the New PDP, nPDP, which was put together by some disgruntled but ambitious members of the then-ruling PDP. The entrance of the nPDP with five serving PDP governors at that time as arrowheads, as well as a large number of PDP senators in tow, somehow, energised the coalition and completely altered the political equilibrium of the country.

    It would be recalled that though the PDP had a sizeable number of heavyweights and moneybags including a good geographical spread, nevertheless, the party lost the last election because of the absence of internal democracy within its ranks. This was the biggest factor that instigated the large number of defections from the party before the elections. The major complaint was that the party had indulged in the imposition of candidates for elective offices nationwide. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after the new President, Muhammadu Buhari, came to the saddle, the APC itself is embroiled in its first major test case as the ruling party.

    Long before the National Assembly elections or selections took place, the APC had been engulfed in disagreements over who gets what. It is doubtful if any genuine move was, at any time, undertaken to harmonise all the contending interests in the party in order to forestall the ugly episode that later came to play in the affairs of the National Assembly. At any rate, the uproar that has greeted the elections at the National Assembly should not be allowed to destabilise the party.

    In politics, there must be compromise and everybody must be carried along. Perhaps, if this had been done and/or carried out with sincerity of purpose, the mock elections conducted by the APC for the leadership positions in the National Assembly, which some of the members either boycotted or walked out of would not have been necessary. And if it was done as a last resort, unfortunately, it did not produce any amicable end to the raging disagreement as probably envisaged by the proponents. As a matter of fact, the current sad episode could have been avoided altogether.

    Politics is a game of wits and opportunities. Saraki and his supporters mainly from the PDP and a sprinkle of other senators only outwitted his opponents when he saw the golden opportunity to actualise his long-standing dream. It is his emergence as the Senate President that had a collateral effect on the election that took place in the Lower House. And since the President in his wisdom has declared the election of Saraki as constitutional but that the party’s decision could have been followed, what it means is that Buhari has tacitly endorsed the election of Saraki as Senate President.

    Whichever way this development is viewed by the leadership of the APC, there is a lesson to be learnt. The current development should provide the necessary opportunity and ammunition for the leadership of the APC to review and appraise its strategies, more so, now that they have transformed from being in opposition to being the ruling party.

    It is certain that there are many contending groups and interests within the APC as a party. In the situation the party now finds itself, only wise counsel can help to douse the current tension that has the propensity to envelope the party and make nonsense of its hard-earned victory in the last election.  The onus, therefore, is on the leadership of the party to properly harmonise the interests of the different groups under an acceptable formula that will ensure cohesion and lasting peace.

    Above all, the principle of give-and-take should be allowed to prevail. The way and manner the APC navigates the current stormy waters, would possibly determine its survival as a ruling party.

    ‘The current development in the National Assembly should provide the necessary opportunity and ammunition for the leadership of the APC to review and appraise its strategies, more so now that they have transformed from being in opposition to being the ruling party’

  • General Abdulsalami Abubakar @ 73

    The approach of the 2015 elections in Nigeria brought with it, fear and trepidation. There was this fear that the country was likely to go up in flames as had been predicted by those who said Nigeria was capable of disintegrating in 2015.  So, the more the elections drew nearer, the more heightened was the fear that gripped the populace. But one man was quite optimistic that the country will remain intact after the elections.  That man is General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar, otherwise known as General AAA or Triple ‘A’ for short.

    I remember in one of my routine visits to him in his Minna, Niger State home some time last year. As had become customary with him, the issue of the state of the nation and the impending elections came under discussion. That day was a day after the leaders of the All Progressive Congress, APC, who were going round and holding consultations with notable senior citizens and political figures  across the country, visited him. They had visited the old but energetic former leader to put before him, their resolve to effect a change in the leadership of the country which, according to them, they believed deserved something better, a more purposeful leadership with vision and vigour.

    The APC entourage that visited him was so large that the General quickly looked for a way out by simply asking the delegation to nominate five people among them to deliberate with him in an inner room. There and then, General Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Aminu Masari and two others were unanimously chosen to meet with him. After the five-man team had briefed him about their mission and their concern for the progress of the nation, General AAA wished them the best of luck in their chosen endeavour and urged them to go about the whole thing in a peaceful manner.

    The above scenario emblemizes the quiet and unassuming nature of General AAA. On the day of my visit and as always, one thing that dominated our discussions was the state of the nation. Like I mentioned earlier, at a time in this country when numerous prophecies from several doomsday prophets predicted gloom and disintegration in the political horizon, General AAA buried himself in a rather quiet domestic diplomacy in the search for enduring peace. With unrelenting vigour, he made pragmatic efforts that helped to banish despair and replaced it with renewed hope in the citizenry.

    At many fora, he strongly expressed his conviction that despite the negative predictions that the country was capable of disintegrating by 2015, the prophets of doom would be disappointed, as the umbilical cord of the federating units cannot be separated.  He once said: “God has joined us together. Whether you break Nigeria into pieces, we will remain joined by our umbilical cord. No matter what happens, our umbilical cord is still there. We will live together either as neighbours or as communities.”

    What this signifies is the fact that the General is always concerned about the peace, progress and development of  Nigeria. Long before the 2015 elections, when many people were visibly worried about what becomes of the country before, during and after the elections, he was seriously involved in efforts to calm frayed nerves across the country. His passionate commitment towards ensuring peace helped the country to successfully navigate landmines that political interests had erected at various points. His headship of a national peace committee that brokered the non-violence agreement between then-President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, the main presidential challenger at the time, was not by accident. It wasthrough this agreement that the two most prominent gladiators in the 2015 presidential election, agreed to rein in their supporters in the event of anyone of them losing the election. That was just one aspect of General AAA that everybody got to witness.

    Ever since he handed over power to a democratically elected government in 1999, the General has been toiling to ensure peace in the country, peace in Africa and peace globally. His numerous travels, (I believe he spends more time inside the aircraft than he spends with his lovely family), are to enthrone peace wherever there is turmoil in the world particularly in the trouble-prone areas of Africa. He was in Zimbabwe several times as leader of the observer group in the country; he was involved in the negotiations in Liberia during the country’s decade-long fratricidal war and succeeded in getting former President Charles Taylor to agree to step aside. He was also involved in Sierra Leone and many other hot spots in Africa.

    In 2007, when we – myself, Prof. Steve Azaiki, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi and Alhaji Ibrahim Shehu Shagari – conceived the National Think-Tank, General AAA was unanimously selected as the most qualified Nigerian to be the chairman at the formal inauguration of the organisation at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on May 23, 2007. He gladly accepted the offer, came early for the function and waited till the end of the programme. By this, he demonstrated friendship and recognised labour  and patriotism. It was Ambrose Bierce, the American writer who once said: “While your friend holds you affectionately by both your hands, you are safe, for you can watch both his.” Those who truly know General AAA, will agree with me that he does not and cannot betray friendship.

    To paraphrase John F. Kennedy: “If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men working for our country than most of those sitting in Abuja dreaming about a time long gone and a future that reads failure”. Friendship, like a novel, to me and the much I know of General AAA, remains for me one of the few forms where I can express my innermost thoughts, express man’s complexity and the strength and decency of his longings; where I can describe, step by step, minute by minute, the unpleasant struggle to put ourselves into a viable and devout relationship to our beloved and mistaken world. In friendship, you can be yourself and not worry about mistakes and caution and language and compromise and pain and love; that is true friendship.

    Over the years, General AAA has distinguished himself as a detribalized, courageous, patriotic, trusted and committed Nigerian of unequal statesmanship. That is why he is readily at home wherever he finds himself around the globe, with  people welcoming him with open hands, open minds and open hearts. His noble deeds and friendly disposition to everyone clearly marks him out as one of the responsible and revered leaders and fathers of this great country. Like Martin Luther King, he believes that every man should be judged by the content of his character.

    I agree with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu when he wrote in The Nation newspaper many years ago, long before the 2015 elections, that: “When the history of this country is written, (Abdulsalami) Abubakar will be remembered as the one that saved our unifying institution, the Nigerian military, from itself and restored democracy in our country. For this singular act of courage, generations unborn would be grateful to him.” These living words are still valid, if not very relevant today, in view of the role being played by the General in the contemporary history of this great country.

    So, our dear beloved General, as you clock 73, we celebrate you and give you 73 ‘gbosas’. May we celebrate you for many more years to come and may our country, for which you toil day and night, rediscover itself and achieve the type of greatness we all envisage. Happy Birthday!

    ‘At a time in this country when numerous prophecies from several doomsday prophets predicted gloom and disintegration in the political horizon, General Abdulsalami Abubakar buried himself in a rather quiet, domestic diplomacy in the search for enduring peace’

  • Amnesty International’s gambit

    At a time attention seems to be focused on the new President, Muhammadu Buhari and what his tenure portends for the country, Amnesty International, AI, the global human rights watchdog, has raised a serious issue about the activities and conducts of the Nigerian military in the ongoing war against the Boko Haram terrorists in the North-east of the country.  And the damning report is already drawing the ire of the Nigerian public against the global body.

    Delivering its report titled: “Stars on their shoulders, Blood on their hands: War Crimes Committed by the Nigerian Military” at a press conference held in Abuja last Wednesday, AI said: “Since March 2011, more than 7,000 young men and boys died in military detention and more than 1,200 people were unlawfully killed since February 2012.” AI called for the investigation of certain senior officers and commanders in the Nigerian military, for allegedly participating in sanctioning or failing to prevent the deaths of more than 8,000 people in the course of the ongoing war in the North-east. The body then called on President Muhammadu Buhari to end the culture of impunity that has blighted Nigeria, and for the African Union, AU and the larger international community, to encourage and support efforts to “ensure the alleged perpetrators are brought to justice”.

    AI is not alone. The United Nations, UN, has also added its own voice. In a report issued at its headquarters in Geneva last Friday, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, the organisation’s top human rights official, asked the Nigerian president to investigate reports of horrifying crimes by Boko Haram terrorists and alleged abuses by the Nigerian military. He cited evidence gathered by his office on atrocities committed by Boko Haram and also said that the military too, had carried out a lot of human rights violations which need to be investigated. The only difference between the AI’s report and that of the UN is that rather than narrowing its own report to cover the military alone, the UN dwelt more on the heinous crimes committed by Boko Haram and probably did a balancing act by touching on the atrocities of the military as well.

    Since the AI report was made public, many prominent Nigerians and commentators on social media have taken the human rights body to the cleaners by accusing it of being one-sided and biased in its report. They have also demanded to know why, for instance, AI completely ignored the unspeakable bestiality, human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Boko Haram terror group itself. Based on past indictments by the global body which had become too frequent, the consensus of opinions is that AI has the habit of condemning the military, which has been trying to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria from the marauding antics of Boko Haram.

    The feelings of several Nigerians were reinforced by the military, which also dismissed the accusations by AI by calling them a witch-hunt and a deliberate attempt to tarnish the military’s image. In his reaction, Chris Olukolade, a Major General and the Director, Directorate of Information at the Defence Headquarters, condemned AI’s gruesome allegations against retired and serving senior Nigerian military personnel and the Armed Forces in general and described it as blackmail. According to him, “the action, no doubt, depicts more of a premeditated indictment aimed at discrediting the country for whatever purpose.” He stated that each of the allegations made in the past by the organization had been thoroughly responded to and cleared in the public domain and officially, adding that, the title of AI’s most recent report, down to the body of allegations, smacked of extreme bias, “which is disturbing, coming from an otherwise reputable organisation that is expected to be ‘just and fair’ to all.”

    This column cannot but agree with Olukolade that the AI report was one-sided. In a war, two parties are involved. In this case, you have the senseless, mindless and blood-thirsty Boko Haram terrorists, on the one hand and on the other hand, you have the Nigerian military fighting on behalf of Nigeria and Nigerians to return peace and normalcy to the affected areas. In actual fact, it is the Boko Haram leaders – Abubakar Shekau and his sponsors – who deserve to appear before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, to answer charges for human rights violation and other heinous crimes they have committed against humanity. These are people whose bestiality knows no bounds. They have slaughtered quite a number of innocent people, including pregnant women, old people, school children, infants and all that.

    For an upward of five gruesome years now, the country and particularly the military have been engaged in a fierce fight with these evil-minded terrorists. Operating under the guise of a pseudo-religious belief which has been variously described by adherents of Islam as purely heresy, the group has declared a total war in the North-east of the country. In the three most affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, both social and economic lives of the people have become comatose. Also, majority of the schools and other government establishments in these states have either been burnt down or have remained under lock and key as a result of the prevailing insecurity in the areas. Killing, maiming, arson and wanton destruction of lives and property have become the order of the day.  Many of the villages and cities in the affected states have been frequently invaded by the terrorists who randomly kidnapped young, innocent girls and taken to their stronghold known as Sambissa Forest, an expanse of land almost the size of Belgium. The unlucky ones were brutally killed with gunshots to the head or had their throats sliced like rams. Surprisingly, AI, now operating like the propaganda wing of Boko Haram, doesn’t seem to care a hoot about all these atrocities.

    From a rag-tag fighting force in 2009, the terrorists have since become more sophisticated and daring, deploying weapons of large scale violence including Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, and suicide bombers, among other lethal weapons. Till date, no one can rightly say anything about the fate that may have befallen the more than 230 Chibok school girls who were abducted from their school dormitories on the night of April 14, 2014.  Unfortunately, AI seems unperturbed about the plight of the Chibok girls. Instead, they have focused their binoculars on the military who are doing all they can to put these marauders in check.

    Mind you, this column is not trying to absolve the military of any wrongdoing or blame at all. We are all witnesses to the unnecessary and needless brutality usually meted out to innocent Nigerians by some overzealous elements in the nation’s military even at peace time. And it cuts across the entire gamut of the uniform services. It is obvious that Nigerians are incensed because with Buhari coming to power on the crest of a modest posture and popular support, expectations are high that the new President will enthrone good governance in the country and this will surely be the starting block for many good things to come. Therefore, they see the timing of AI’s allegations against the military, as an unnecessary distraction for the new president and the military establishment.

    At any rate, there is no smoke without fire. It is quite difficult to believe that Amnesty International just sat down and cooked up its report. In that case, we can only get to the root of this allegation by embarking on a painstaking investigation or public enquiry. Before then, the military should learn to adhere strictly to the rules of engagement so as to avoid this type of mess, now and in the nearest future.

    ‘In actual fact, it is the Boko Haram leaders – Abubakar Shekau and his sponsors – who deserve to appear before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, to answer charges for human rights violation and other heinous crimes they have committed against humanity’

  • As Buhari steps in – 2  

    Saving just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.” This quotation taken from President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration speech in Abuja last Friday clearly sets the tone for what Nigerians should expect from their new leader in the next four years. Also, the large presence of foreign leaders from across the globe and other dignitaries at the event, equally gave a huge endorsement to the new administration.

    The new president came into office on the back of the sort of overwhelming popular support he had never before enjoyed and which he probably never anticipated in the many years he had attempted to rule the country once more, as a civilian leader. The simple analogy here is that going by votes only, he won acceptance with the largest majority of people from four of the six geopolitical zones in the country. What is different between his performance in 2011 and now is that, not only did he predictably retain the support of people from the North-west and North-east; he also made far more inroads in the South-west and the North-central states this time around. The truth is that, no matter what the opposition may say, ordinary masses actually took ownership of the last electoral process, some engaging in door-to-door campaign at great personal expense and peril, with many shunning primordial sentiments like ethnicity and religion, to ensure Buhari’s emergence as president.

    In the run up to the election, a friend narrated to me an interesting encounter he had with a young man in his 20s. According to my friend, he was at a fast food outlet when one of the desperate anti-Buhari video documentaries by the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, was being aired. After the video had run for a while, the young man turned to my friend and said: “You know, I was not yet born when this man was president in 1984. But the fact that his opponents seem to always criticize how he tried to force people to do this and that, tells me that the man may have tried to sanitise things in his own way and people were not happy with him for that.”

    My friend said he went ahead to deliver an impromptu lecture to the young man about how Buhari, in his War Against Indiscipline, introduced public sanity measures and ethics like the end of the month environmental sanitation exercise, queuing to access public utilities and all that. According to my friend, the young man left that afternoon with a vow to cast his vote for Buhari and also pledged to convince his friends and neighbors to do same. This captures the level of expectation that came with Buhari’s candidacy and eventual victory at the polls.

    At the age of 73, Buhari is a man, who can be said to have seen it all. Therefore, in terms of the temptation to toy with the people’s goodwill, he must strive hard not to disappoint people like that young man, nay, Nigerians in general. If at all he had earlier been recorded on the bad page of history, this is a golden opportunity for the new president to rewrite history. Such opportunities are rare though, but, here he is, with another golden opportunity to right the wrongs of the past.

    Of course, let us not get ahead of ourselves and expect that everything will go plain sailing. That is, indeed, naivety of the highest order in the stern reality of the murky political waters and the peculiarly testy terrain that is Nigeria. Nigeria is a country where the resort to primordial factors can easily polarise even the most elevated socio-political issues and discourse. The truth is that, even if he does not know that already, Buhari may soon realize that even his ‘own’ people – both the northerners and the All Progressives Congress, APC – will begin to jostle to elevate their interests above the collective interests of Nigeria. This is why he should shine his eyes.

    From what I gathered from his close associates and as exemplified by the extract from his inauguration speech reproduced at the beginning of this column, the president is his own man. That is, once he is convinced about something, he cannot be easily swayed. I think the country needs that type of man with a strong character and strong will to be able to decipher between good and bad; between praise singing, sycophancy and objectivity. Even the most strident of leaders can be easily drowned in the sea of yes-men around him. Nigeria surely needs a man gifted with guts, gumption and iron in his back-bone to pilot the affairs of the country and extricate it from the cobweb of hopelessness into which it is currently enmeshed. Whether Buhari fits perfectly into that bill will be determined by the events of the next four years.

    And then, there will be the issue of those who financed the campaign and would be naturally eager to recoup their investments by angling for plum or juicy government contracts and appointments to this end. The administration will kick and cry in order to free itself from the fangs of these inevitable ‘hawks.’ In this case, Buhari will need to bear it in mind that he must succeed where others before him faltered and failed. The immediate past government is perceived to have failed miserably to live appreciably above the big hand of these ‘hawks.” The beauty of it all is that in the new president, there is a man with the necessary discipline to live above a lot of these temptations. This is because dealing with these sort of issues, can often require the type of single-mindedness that critics of Buhari, a former military ruler, have often  accused him of possessing.

    However, beyond his personal qualities and all that, the new president needs to surround himself with people of knowledge, technocrats and experts who will also demonstrate a good level of readiness to ride above pettiness and first and foremost, put their knowledge and expertise on the table for the common good. The new president, indeed, has one of such technocrats and practical men needed to help share virile ideas and steer the ship of the country well enough. He has that man in Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the vice-president, former attorney-general of Lagos State and a very practical academic.

    Furthermore, it is pertinent to note that there will be a lot of bumpy climbs and slippery slopes along the line for Buhari-Osinbajo and for Nigerians in the coming days, months and years, but let us hope that we can all be patient enough and cooperate with the genuine positive endeavours of the government. To achieve this, we should not be unduly apprehensive and acerbic especially in the first few months of the administration. Personally, I am not too sentimental about the so-called 100 days mantra, but all things being equal, I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. Nigeria has been lost in the wilderness of despair for too long. Now is the time to re-plot our national graph and seize the opportunity presented by the emergence of Buhari, with both hands. The country must move forward and that responsibility lies on the shoulders of our new leaders as well as the people of this country. Never again should we allow some group of bandits and plunderers to make away with our common patrimony and ride roughshod over the populace. The days of impunity and bare-face robbery of the treasury should be gone and gone for good!

    ‘Nigeria has been lost in the wilderness of despair for too long. Now is the time to re-plot our national graph and seize the opportunity presented by the emergence of Buhari, with both hands’

     

    • Concluded.

  • As Buhari steps in (Part 1)

    At last, in spite of predictions by doomsday prophets, the 2015 general elections in the country have come and gone. We are left with house-keeping until May 29, which is less than 48 hours from today, when Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect, will be sworn in as the fifth democratically elected president in post-independence Nigeria. As winner of the presidential election which held on March 28, after he is sworn in on Friday, Buhari will be the fourth president inaugurated into office since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999 following 19 unbroken years of military interregnum between 1983 and 1999.

    The 2015 presidential contest was rightly regarded as the most pivotal in the country’s 55 years history since independence in 1960. There was no denying the thickness of the tension in and around the country as the elections approached. Even Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, described the electioneering process as “vicious” on account of the fiercely competitive nature of the political campaigns that witnessed the most expensive elections ever organized in the land.

    Having emerged winner in a process that, although not without its own shortcomings, many, including international election observer groups, have hailed it as largely peaceful and credible, expectations are unsurprisingly high about what will come with  Buhari’s presidency. Indeed, many Nigerians believe, rightly or wrongly, that the myriad of problems confronting the country will automatically vanish the moment the new president mounts the saddle.

    Considering the socio-economic malaise the country has had to endure in recent years, Buhari, is at this time, seen as a messiah of sorts. In view of this, all structures – political and economic – are eagerly awaiting his much-vaunted ‘magic’ wand. In fact, it might be safe to say that Buhari is right now carrying more weight of expectation than Chief Olusegun Obasanjo bore when he was voted the country’s civilian leader in 1999. Before then, the military had dominated the political scene from December 31, 1983 till May 29, 1999.

    Like Obasanjo was, Buhari is equally not a neophyte. He is not coming into the saddle unprepared. Having led the country for 20 months – from December 31, 1983 to August 12, 1985 – following the military coup that toppled the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the dying minutes of December, 1983, he has been there before. In addition, he has a well-documented story of having previously lost elections in his bid to be Nigeria’s civilian president on three occasions – 2003, 2007 and 2011, before getting his Holy Grail at the fourth attempt this year.

    It is also safe to assume that through his years in the military and even after being ousted as head of state by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and his band of coupists in 1985, he has carefully cultivated a formidable enough circle of strategic friends at home and internationally. These can, indeed, come handy in his new position. The times may have changed, but having also previously served the nation in such capacities as Federal Commissioner of Petroleum Resources, military administrator in the old North East as well as chairman of the then Petroleum Trust Fund, he is a man who must be aware of the infrastructural and indeed, economic deficits facing the country. There is no mincing word that Buhari is a dogged fighter, an incurable optimist and a man imbued with Spartan determination to succeed in spite of both natural and man-made hurdles in his path.

    With these rare credentials possessed by one man, what the country needs now from him is a productive demonstration of his understanding of the avalanche of burning issues at stake through the application of practical solutions to dealing with them. For a man whose main selling card has always been his honesty, self-discipline, incorruptibility and steadfast belief in the need for government to operate efficiently by taking bold steps to eliminate wastages, the country has hardly ever been more in need of being administered by an individual that fits the profile of the incoming president. Already, the sound bites coming from the camp of the president-elect with regards to the need to reduce and commercialise the bulk of the aircrafts in the over-bloated presidential fleet, is very encouraging. Let’s hope that this will be just the beginning in his bid to bring some fiscal sanity to the overhead cost of governance in the country as he has always suggested by his body language.

    Another area of exceptional national interest is petroleum-related activities, which include revenue generated from crude oil, the management of the funds, as well as the facilities for the production of the product. For several weeks now,  Nigerians have been in the throes of excruciating  scarcity of petroleum products, the same problem that has rendered the nation’s economy perenially prostrate in the last few years. For a major oil producing country in the world, this is a scandal of monumental magnitude. It may not be much, but, perhaps, there may be some consolation in the person and persona of the president-elect.

    Each time Buhari speaks about the oil or petroleum resources sector, he seems to speak like someone who is familiar with issues around the industry, someone who appreciates the enormity of the issues well enough to be armed with very workable solutions to the industry’s seemingly intractable problems. I can’t help but notice the nostalgia with which he responds to issues about the industry. Although whether this fondness translates to concrete results in the interest of all in the next few months or years, is another matter altogether.

    The Nigerian oil industry is like a patient on a stretcher being wheeled to the theatre for urgent surgical operation to save his life. In other words, the Nigeria oil industry is currently gasping for breath as most of the country’s refineries have either broken down or they are merely engaged in epileptic production which is a far cry from the country’s energy needs. This unsavoury situation has created a lacuna for very dubious businessmen and their collaborators in the corridors of power, to bleed the country dry through the payment of duplicitous subsidy for the importation of petroleum products.

    For instance, some highly placed Nigerians are believed to be neck-deep in fraudulent importation of aviation fuel, only to turn round to pass on papers for payment of subsidy for kerosene. Another ploy is a situation where refined petroleum products are taken out of the country to neighbouring West-African countries and then brought back immediately as imported petroleum products in order to collect subsidy. These are some of the ingenious ways through which the country has been stolen blind. Now is the time to plug all these loopholes and save the country from thieves masquerading as businessmen.

    Recall that the last of the country’s long-since comatose refineries was built in 1984, at a time Buhari presided over the affairs of the country as a military ruler. While the age of the refineries is regularly cited as a reason the country needs new ones, it is instructive to know that even in a country like the United States of America with a history of healthy refineries and efficiency in the refining of petroleum products, the most recently-built refinery was constructed around 1988. What I am trying to say here is that, with a good maintenance culture, the age of a refinery does not necessarily prevent it from delivering. Sadly, our abysmal maintenance culture has created a lot of rot in our entire social and economic infrastructure as exemplified by the sorry state into which our refineries have been plunged for decades.

    • To be continued

     

  • Abba: Lest we forget

    As usual, on Tuesday, May 12, I was anxious to listen to Channels Television’s 10pm news broadcast. This segment of the day’s news bulletin has been my favourite since the debut of the TV station many years ago. But on this particular day, I was much more eager to listen to the news because of the council of state’s meeting, the last to be presided over by the outgoing president, Goodluck Jonathan, which took place at the presidential villa earlier in the day. I knew there may be one or two important news emanating from that meeting. Besides, the newspapers had insinuated that Solomon Arase, who until that day was in acting capacity as Inspector General of Police, could be made a substantive IG at that meeting.

    The news that night opened with some video footage from  the Council of State meeting. In the group photograph which was featured at the tail end of the report, nine surviving former Heads of State – Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babaginda, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Ernest Shonekan and Alhaji Shehu Shagari  – were featured. Of the lot, only three of them, including Dr. Goodluck Jonathan,  are civilians. The rest are military rulers. Some of them have come back as civilian presidents – Obasanjo and Buhari, who will be taking over the reins of government pretty soon.

    The highlight of the day’s news was the confirmation of the appointment of Solomon Arase as substantive IG after serving in acting capacity for less than one month. As the news scroll had it that day, it was “a record confirmation within one month”. It was in the process of confirming Arase that the president gave a little insight into the real reason why Suleiman Abba was summarily eased out of office last month after nine months in the saddle as IG. According to reports, Abba was eased out because of “noticeable indiscipline in the rank and file of the police under his command”. Though the report did not expatiate on what was termed indiscipline, the reason given by the government tallies with insinuations and speculations that greeted Abba’s sudden removal. The speculation then was that it might not be unconnected with the fall-out of the 2015 general elections particularly the presidential election in which the incumbent president was defeated. Since that defeat, many people in sensitive positions at the federal level have been sent packing. It is like a wounded tiger has come to town and has been baring its claws ever since.

    Like I pointed out in my column dated April 29, titled: “Abba: A Sacrificial Lamb”, the former IG had to be sacrificed for not superintending over a shambolic election which was what his paymasters had anticipated. We are all aware of the shenanigans that took place in Rivers State in the governorship election. That issue will soon become a subject of litigation. We are aware of the role played by some very important people in that election, from the INEC commissioner in the state to an empress who relocated to the state many weeks before the election. And of course, the issue of the deployment of senior police officers to monitor the state’s election and the counter-order or marching order issued to the officers. How the media blew the surreptitious moves open and the hullabaloo that followed in high quarters when all the secret manoeuvres leaked to the public.

    Then I remember that JamesF. Entwistle, the American Ambassador to Nigeria, visited the police headquarters in Abuja to give the “boys” a pat on the back for a job well done. The visit, which was aired on Channels TV’s 10p.m news on Monday, April 20, showed the footage of Abba, responding to all the good things the ambassador said on the police performance during the just concluded 2015 general elections. Abba said: “The elections were peaceful because my men went to the field and complied with instructions – be professional, don’t support any party and don’t be partisan in any way”.  According to him, “that was exactly what they did and this is responsible for the relative peace the country is now enjoying”. That sounds like a statement from a tough cop who knows his onions. As it is customary, Channels TV repeated the footage in subsequent news bulletins on that day, all through the night. Also, at 7:15 am the following day, shortly before the newspapers’ review, that is, during its News Track, the footage, once again, came on the TV station.

    Either by sheer telepathy or something else, when the footage came up again that morning, something in me told me that some people, somewhere, might interpret Abba’s innocent words to be an affront especially given the prevailing mood in high places after the ruling party was beaten silly in the elections. In any case, what Abba said on Channels TV was what really happened. It was a departure from previous elections when policemen will operate side-by-side or hand-in-hand with political thugs, taking directives from unscrupulous political godfathers, snatching ballot boxes, simulating arrests like was witnessed during the last governorship elections in Ekiti State and later, Osun State, including some other stupid things very unbecoming of law enforcement officers. In the last elections, nothing of such happened. If it happened at all, it was insignificant and too infinitesimal to raise eye-brows. That was why the Americans gave the police a pat on the back for a job well done as well as promising to assist the agency in strengthening their operational capabilities through training and all that.

    Unfortunately, back at home, what did Abba get? Less than 24 hours after the visit of the American Ambassador and his team, Abba got the boot. The whole nation was jolted. I am sure the Americans were, too. Of course, Nigerians are no fools. They can read between the lines. Talk of the African proverb: “The witches cried last night and today, a child in the neighbourhood drops dead….” Now, the removal of Abba is being couched in a deceitful garb. Speaking to newsmen last week on why Abba was removed, Mike Okiro, chairman, Police Service Commission, said; “Going by the explanation President Jonathan gave when one of the governors raised the question, the president took the action because of the gross indiscipline he noticed among the rank and file under his watch”. Hey, here we go again. Go tell that to the marines!

    It is on record that Abba presided over the most peaceful elections in Nigeria’s history. He probably read the mood of the nation correctly and knew that Nigerians will not take kindly to any attempt to rig the last elections. In fact, rigging an election such as the last one, could probably have thrown the country into a great conflagration the magnitude of which could lead to a major catastrophe. But thank God, the whole elections ended conclusively. Abba too, deserves praise. Not condemnation. Not blackmail. At any rate, whatever is said about Abba now does not matter. Nigeria has moved on.

    And talking about indiscipline in the police, it is an affliction of epidemic proportion. Over the years, the activities of the bad elements have continued to overshadow the good intentions of some of the finest officers in the system. Already, Arase said that he has let loose some units of mad dogs to go after the corrupt elements. Indeed, it looks like an impossible task. That department is damn rotten. Therefore, retrieving it from the abyss into which it has sunk requires a major surgical operation. Not grandstanding. Not any quick-fix approach. God help Nigeria, help Arase.

    ‘It is on record that Abba presided over the most peaceful elections in Nigeria’s history. He probably read the mood of the nation correctly and knew that Nigerians will not take kindly to any attempt to rig the last elections’

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  • PDP: Time to face reality

    In the last elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), the party that has ruled the country for 16 years since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, was disgraced at the polls by the rival opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. That scandalous defeat of a ruling party that had boasted to high heavens that it was capable of ruling the country for at least 60 unbroken years has now almost torn the party into shreds. The defeat, though much expected by political pundits, seems to have caught those at the helms of affairs in the party by surprise. Now, the party bigwigs are enthralled in a trajectory of sleepless nights.

    The party is currently embroiled in a crisis of confidence which has reached a boiling point. At the centre of the crisis is the national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu,  on the one hand, and other members of the National Working Committee, NWC, who have come under tremendous pressure to abdicate office on account of the poor showing of the party in the last elections. Many of the aggrieved party members including some state governors are united in the clamour for the party leaders to leave the scene. But the leaders have vowed not to cave in without a fight.

    As usual, the media is awash with accusations and counter-accusations. While the accusations are predicated on why the leaders should throw in the towel after leading the party to a disastrous defeat in the elections, the leaders themselves are holding on to the constitution of the party which empowers them to be in office until the next national convention of the party which comes up in a year or two from now. But the warring members think this is mere balderdash. The consequence of this is that both sides are, at the moment, holding on to their gunpowder.

    As the May 29 handover date approaches, senior members of the party comprising governors and associates of President Goodluck Jonathan have perfected a grand plan to ratchet up the pressure on Mu’azu. The governors and Jonathan’s closest aides have been in a long-drawn battle with the NWC with both sides trading blames over who was (more) responsible for the party’s poor outing at the just-concluded elections. Top on the list are allegations of betrayal and diversion of campaign funds which are being peddled by both sides. Not even the president’s directive that the warring members should stop trading words in the media because it could escalate the crisis the party is facing, has been able to douse the raging storm. The president’s charge has simply been largely ignored.

    The fact remains that the governors and Jonathan’s trusted aides who are up in arms, seem to have vowed that they would not stay in the same party with either Mu’azu or members of the NWC as presently constituted. The issue seems to have been aggravated by the outcome of the recent elections in Britain. In the aftermath of the elections, those rooting for the removal or resignation of the PDP leaders have been justifying their stance against the backdrop of the resignations of leaders of the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and others in the United Kingdom following the failings of the parties at the UK general election which was held towards the tail end of last week.

    In what looks like a confirmation of the high-level resolution and determination of some of the PDP governors and party leaders to see to Mu’azu’s exit, Babangida Aliyu, the loquacious governor of Niger State, has joined Ayodele Fayose, his Ekiti State counterpart, in urging the NWC to emulate the British political leaders who resigned after leading their parties to defeat in last Thursday’s election.  Aliyu said any leader that leads his political party to defeat as it was in the case of PDP, is supposed to resign. As he puts it: “It is unfortunate that people had to be called to resign. The leaders are supposed to voluntarily resign their positions for the loss at the just concluded general election. It is unfair that they are threatening to form a factional PDP because they were asked to resign”. The governor noted that morality and principle were key attributes the PDP must imbibe to succeed for future elections, adding that what happened in the United Kingdom election last Thursday was a reflection of morality and principle, which must be brought to the Nigerian polity.

    In the last eight years of Aliyu’s stewardship as the governor of Niger State, he has consistently portrayed himself as a man who fires from all cylinders. Sometimes, he gets himself entangled in unnecessary and avoidable controversies. In this recent outburst, what Governor Aliyu fails to understand is that morality and principle have never been found in the DNA of the average politician in Nigeria. In other words, it is alien in this clime. Aliyu himself alluded to this many months back at the heat of the electioneering campaigns when he openly declared that there are no saints in politics, although he was to recant this later in the face of a deluge of criticism that greeted that speech.

    With the accusation of the embezzlement of campaign funds and the ease with which Nigerian politicians jump from one party to another like a woman changing wrappers, it is clear that there is nothing like morality or principle among them. Even the current crisis in which the PDP leadership is enmeshed is due to the fact that the leaders involved are either shameless or they lack principles and morality. Mu’azu and the others at the hierarchy of the party may hold on to their offices by hook or crook for the time being, but it is certain that come what may, they would soon be flushed out from their present comfort zones because they have failed to provide the needed leadership when it matters most. And there are no two ways about that.

    However, one thing that is clear is that the APC, a rainbow coalition of opposition parties that had been on the sidelines of national politics for the past 16 years, has learnt a lot from its seemingly weak position of yester-years and therefore, converted these weaknesses to strength through well-thought out and good campaign. The party’s victory did not come overnight. It is the climax and reward for a painstaking campaign at a time the people were crying for a change in the leadership of the country.

    Winning elections is certainly one of the things any political party will always wish for. But sometimes, it is not as simple as that. In every election, for the winners, it is a beautiful thing to behold; as for the losers, it inflicts a permanent nightmare of sort. That is, perhaps, the situation in which the PDP as the losing party at the last election, has suddenly found itself. Surprisingly, as it is, there appear to be too many contending interests in the party, all jostling to take control of the moribund party machinery. With the current fratricidal war in the PDP, it is doubtful if any lesson has been learnt at all from the party’s unimpressive outing in the last elections. Already, the party is seriously polarized along primordial lines. The major challenge now facing the party is to prevent itself from imminent extinction. Therefore, my unsolicited advice is for the party to quickly close ranks and settle down to its new role as an opposition party rather than crying over spilled milk.

    For a party that has over the years been calling the shots and dictating the tune, playing opposition may be quite a difficult task. The truth is that the party leaders should realise that the merriment is simply over!

    ‘With the current fratricidal war in the PDP, it is doubtful if any lesson has been learnt at all from the party’s unimpressive outing in the last elections’

     

  • And Ubah wept!

    And Ubah wept!

    The 2015 general elections may have come and gone, but the ripple effect of the keenly contested elections is still smouldering and reverberating all over the place. Last Thursday, outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan met with members of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation at the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, ostensibly to receive the report of the 2015 elections campaign and also to thank the members of the committee. It is a different matter when it comes to why it was necessary to thank the members. Is it for an assignment properly executed or an assignment that was poorly executed, leading to the magnificent defeat and disgrace the party suffered at the polls? At any rate, I think it was all done out of courtesy and civility not that the members really deserved a pat on the back.

    At that ceremony, President Jonathan’s address drew a thunderous standing ovation from the audience. But one man refused to join his colleagues in the ecstasy, a development that aroused the curiosity of those present including the ubiquitous members of the Press. This occurred when Ifeanyi Ubah, a prominent member of the campaign team and the founder and chief executive officer of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, (TAN), the body that was at the vanguard of the president’s re-election campaign, caused a stir as he started weeping like a baby right in the full glare of all those present at the ceremony. Reports had it that Ubah, who was sweating profusely, wept uncontrollably to such an extent that at a point, he had to excuse himself from the hall. This was after some party chieftains had taken turns to console him to no avail.

    I think Ubah has every reason to weep. The only amusing and embarrassing aspect of it is his choice of venue and time to weep out his immoral idiosyncrasies. As leader of TAN, Ubah participated in the multidimensional campaign heist which saw his group staging fake rallies all over the country in the build-up to the 2015 elections in order to bamboozle President Jonathan into the presidential race when they knew in the innermost recesses of their hearts that it was going to be a difficult road for Jonathan to tread. It was a perfect, well co-ordinated ploy to make money off the president and the PDP by deceiving President Jonathan that the whole country was solidly behind him. In a country where cooking or falsifying figures has become a rampant political gimmick to lure politicians, Ubah and his clique claimed they had collected 12 million signatures of Nigerians who wanted Jonathan to continue in office, after travelling all over the 36 states of the federation.

    Judging from the final results of the presidential election held on March 28, well, Ubah and his organisation may have been right after all. At least in that election, President Jonathan scored 12,853,163 while his closest rival General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, scored 15,424,921 to emerge as winner of the election. With this result, it means that Jonathan surpassed the pre-election prediction of Ubah and Co. by about 853,163 votes though this was not enough to see him through to a second term in office as he trailed miserably behind Buhari, by 2,571,758. This woeful result could have been a source of irritation to Ubah, a situation he could no longer control and he eventually ended up crying like a toddler.

    Quite recently too, Ubah had contested election as governor of his home state, Anambra, and lost woefully after expending a deep war chest on the elections. As if money was everything in life, he actually started his campaign by going to the United States of America, USA, where he opened several campaign offices in many cities in God’s Own Country, perhaps, to intimidate his co-contestants and cow them to submission. Back home, it was a media fiesta as he bought overwhelming spaces on television stations and newspapers to campaign vigorously for his candidacy. At the end of the day, all these paled into insignificance as the electorate proved they were wiser by rejecting him totally at the polls. Ubah beat a hasty retreat, went underground and disappeared from public view for some time. Probably to lick his wounds and count the heavy losses he incurred in the ill-fated election.

    Recall that Ubah, who also doubles as the chief executive officer of Capital Oil, has been in the news for some time for the wrong reasons. A while ago, he and his firm, Capital Oil, were at the centre of a messy deal with a fellow townsman, Cosmas Maduka, the President of Coscharis Group, who accused him of playing a fast one on him over a N21bn facility granted him for an oil-lifting transaction by a bank in which Maduka stood surety. The whole deal was so messy that the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police on Milverton Road, Ikoyi, had to step in. That was during the tenure of a current Assistant Inspector-General of Police, who was then the Commissioner of Police in charge of the SFU.

    The story of the arrest of Ubah by the SFU in Ikoyi, was very interesting. On the day he was arrested, he had gone to the station casually to answer an invitation. It was at the tail-end of the week. One thing led to another, and Ubah was eventually detained. Few days after, he came face to face with the officer in charge, the CP. In his characteristic arrogance, as soon as he was ushered into the presence of the CP, he (Ubah) fired the first salvo: “Is the Villa aware that I am here?” Since the question was not directed to anybody in particular, he did not get any response. There he was standing confused and lonely. He was then asked to sit down. Apparently because he was hungry, he had opted to join the CP who was by then eating rice at midday in his office. I don’t believe that Ubah was genuinely hungry at that time but only wanted to have an in-road into the heart of the CP who had become a difficult nut to crack for him. All the same, the CP needed to be civil as he ordered his boys to get Ubah a plate and some cutleries to enable him partake in the meal.

    That done, Ubah confidently opened up discussions with the CP as a way of finding a soft landing  out of the legal cobweb  he had become entangled. He made some tempting monetary inducements, which he said his boys could package in hard currencies and bring to the CP immediately if he would agree to play ball. But the CP turned it down.  Ubah then increased the bait but the CP, sensing danger and the possibility of a clandestine set up avoided getting involved in such a mouth-watering offer that could spell doom for him. Thus, Ubah became more confused and desperate for freedom. Many times the CP slipped away from office leaving Ubah wondering whether the end had come.

    After staying in the gulag for an upward of about nine days, during which time he tried profusely, albeit unsuccessfully, to get across to the lioness of the villa,  who was at that time recuperating in a German Hospital  after a near fatal surgery, respite finally came for Ubah. In the morning of the ninth day, the CP got an international phone call. The caller on the other end was the lioness and the message was simple and direct: “Na me o. I learnt that my boy…. is with you there.  Please allow him to go. He no go do that again, you hear. Make you allow him go, I go talk to am.” Of course, that ended the whole detention saga and probably closed the case sine die. Now tell me, why will Ubah not weep blood in place of tears at a time like this!

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  • Abba as sacrificial lamb

    Last Tuesday’s sudden removal of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Suleiman Abba, came as a shock. It was like a thunderbolt from the blue. Perhaps, except for those who delivered the killer-punch, nobody expected it. All of a sudden, the journey ended for Abba via an announcement on the twitter handle of Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity. At the time the news broke at about 1:24p.m, Abba was busy working in his office.

    I was in my office on that day putting finishing touches to a crucial assignment when I got a call from Abuja. Sola, the person on the other end, brushed aside protocol or banters and simply said: “Egbon won ti yo Abba,” meaning, Sir, they have removed Abba.” I was momentarily startled, but I quickly put myself together and asked: What happened? Sola replied: “Well, the news is all over the place and Solomon Arase, the Deputy Inspector General in charge of Intelligence, has been named as acting IG with immediate effect.” At that point, I could not proceed any further. I just hung up. Time was 2:30pm.

    Barely an hour later, specifically at about 3:30pm, I put a call through to Abba. We exchanged greetings and I said: “What is this news that I have just heard?” Abba replied: “Well, I am in my office and nobody has told me anything.” What this means is that though he was the subject of the news or the man at the centre of the news or even the news itself, he had only heard the news of his removal, perhaps, through some whispers or gossips around him. That was probably why upon my inquiry, he did not ask me what I had heard and simply said he was still at his desk working.

    By the time I finished talking with Abba, I became more confused. It never crossed my mind that the news may not be true after all. Of course, I knew it could be true judging from the clout of the person who broke the news to me. But here was the man, the subject of the news, still in the dark over the whole episode. I remember the procedure that eventually culminated in his appointment as IG about nine months ago. Some two or three days to the expiration of the tenure of his predecessor, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, on July 31, 2014, he was invited to the Villa and briefed. From then on, things started happening until the announcement of his appointment was finally made public and the handing over and taking over was done on Friday, August 1, 2014. That appointment followed a normal pattern.

    Regrettably, the removal of Abba from the exalted office of the IG, just nine months after he assumed office, has been carried out in a manner reminiscent of the days of yore under the jackboots when good reason was jettisoned for kangaroo ways of life. Abba was removed via a message on twitter, followed by a terse statement while the victim was kept in the dark. He was neither queried, nor invited for debriefing or even given any letter to that effect. His masters or traducers, simply went on air and shuffled him into the ever-lengthening casualty list of discredited and disgraced government appointees.

    By 11:30pm on that Tuesday when I put another call to Abba, he was just having his dinner at home amidst several people who had thronged his residence to sympathise with him. When I asked him whether he had been served a letter at last, he told me that up till that time, there has been no official communication with him to the effect that he had been removed. To me, that looks like “man’s inhumanity to man.” It is tantamount to a sort of mental torture as his mind will be wandering all over the place trying to hazard a guess on what could have happened.

    The office of the IG is a very important and sensitive office that should be treated as such. At least, courtesy demands that the decision of the president, whether good or bad, should be communicated to the occupant of that office whether he has fallen out of favour or not. The IG’s office is not a motor park and the IG is not a motor tout who could be dumped and abandoned by the roadside at anytime. The right procedure and protocol should be applied. I mean you don’t treat people shabbily for whatever reason. It is high time this form of jackboot mentality in governance is consigned to the dustbin. Whatever must have happened, the way and manner we react to pressing issues go a long way to depict the type of persons we are.

    During the Aminu Tambuwal saga at the National Assembly, last year, I was blunt with Abba when I told him that he should always be guided by the law in whatever he does as IG. That he should not stick out his neck for anybody because when the chips are down, the same people he is trying to protect will not hesitate to sacrifice him. It was as if I had a premonition of what could happen much later. Now, the chips are down and Abba has been made a sacrificial lamb. Therefore, he may have to carry or bear the scar of that inglorious encounter with Tambuwal like an albatross, all alone. Such is life. Today, it is Abba’s turn, who knows the next victim?

    But why are our police officers always treated so shabbily? Unlike the army, over the years, the police have not been able to insulate themselves from politics or political interference. Many of the officers either get involved in politics because of greed or because they are constantly dragged into it by power-seeking politicians. Some police officers also believe that their survival in their chosen career is solely dependent on the amount of political influence they can wield or throw around. Some of them also join cult groups and all the rest of them to keep their jobs or attain rapid promotion. This is because many of their superiors, godfathers or those who determine their fate, are high-ranking, bonafide members of these secret cults. In that case, since the politicians now determine their fate, they have no option than to genuflect before them for personal aggrandizement. But trust politicians, they are masters in the act of using and dumping people.

    Right from Abba’s first day in office, his detractors had been going about peddling all sorts of falsehood at the Presidency, all designed to put spanners in the wheel of progress. I once asked him about this and he told me that it has assumed a permanent feature of life in the police for people to concoct stories and peddle them around. Even if you had to be picked among some potential IGs, those who are not so lucky instantly turn themselves into the opposition to your tenure. It must be pointed out that by doing this, it is the police force that is being systematically decimated and ridiculed, not the occupant of the office. There is no doubt that this trend will continue as the struggle for power in the police is something that is very intense and almost everybody is involved. Even in police stations, policemen struggle to be posted to ‘juicy’ beats. It is an overwhelming anomaly.

    Abba meant well for the police. He was interested in building a new image entirely for the organisation. His major focus was re-orientation through attitudinal change but all that has now become history. Soon, a whole generation of police officers may be wiped out again, the second within one year. This will surely impact negatively on the morale of the members and accentuate their desire for corrupt enrichment in order to secure their future.

    Now, an acting IGP has been appointed in the person of Solomon Ehigiator Arase. I have my reservations!

    ‘Regrettably, the removal of Abba from the exalted office of the IG, just nine months after he assumed office, has been carried out in a manner reminiscent of the days of yore under the jackboots when good reason was jettisoned for kangaroo ways of life’