Category: Editorial

•He was a towering figure in Nigeria journalism and letters with a mixed legacy

He is famously known as Peter Pan. Peter Enahoro, who passed on last week, was a rare figure in Nigerian journalism. That may itself be enough for any individual as an accolade. But Enahoro was more. He was a thorn in the rib of our military elite during the Nigerian crisis when the military elite was a thorn in the rib of the Nigerian people. As a journalist, he was a social critic and an activist of the word.

The best years of Enahoro, historians and biographers will agree, took place in the throes of Nigerian crisis. This happened when soldiers took over the reins of power and the nation was on the boil. His stance for democracy and against the yaws of sectional and martial high-handedness turned him into what playwright Henrik Ibsen ironically called the enemy of the people. He was a friend of the people.

His life was in danger. At one time, they came for him in his Anthony Village residence in Lagos and only his father was at home. It was clear his stay in the country was no longer tenable if he wanted to be alive. So, the man who was only 20 when he joined the flagship newspaper in the country, the Daily Times, and became editor of the Sunday paper in 1958 at 23 and became features editor that same year and at 27 was its youngest editor of the Daily Times, fled the country.

At one time, he wrote three columns a week under different names, but Peter Pan reigned over other identities and it has become what his friends and admirers called him. After graduating from Government College, Ughelli, he became a journalist almost by compulsion. He was serving as an information officer with the federal bureaucracy – Federal Ministry of Information – and his job was to beef up positions of government. But instinctively, he embarrassed the great Nnamdi Azikiwe by insisting he answer a thorny question. His job was over. He had swapped roles with journalists when he was supposed to be a public relations officer.

That was the beginning of his illustrious journey in the Daily Times and his turbulent relationship with the military elite. He was not quiet in exile. He morphed, though, from an obsession with the Nigerian problem to an African journalist. He did not do that directly but by working for European establishments. He showed that he was not only good at the written word, but also at the spoken. For 10 years, between 1966 and 1976, he was a contributing editor to Radio Deutsche Welle in Cologne, Germany. He later became the Africa editor of the National Zeitung at Basel, Switzerland, although he was based in London.

He served as editorial director of New Africa magazine before he became the publisher of Africa Now, a fiery magazine that took on African governments. But Enahoro was to return to Nigeria in a narrative that will taint his legacy. He became a military apologist and was on the side of the same elite he skewered in his younger years in the hot years of the June 12 struggle. Anthony Enahoro, his elder brother and family patriarch, was in the trenches with journalists, civil society activists and politicians. It was a time of many tragedies and suffering.

He was also rewarded with a position as managing director of the same Daily Times, although the newspaper had lost its magisterial aura in journalism and had become a fawning presence to the military.

Enahoro was also an author, and his best-known work is How to be a Nigerian, a satirical firecracker on the foibles of his fellow citizens.

His legacy is therefore, mixed, but no one can take away from his essential stature as a major figure in Nigerian media history and letters.

•Adamawa REC who introduced another definition for electoral heist should be brought to justice

Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) who superintended the last general election in Adamawa State is on the run. Having taken actions that could have set the state, and by extension the nation, on fire, he fled to escape the anger generated by his unprecedented action. 

By provisions of the constitution, the electoral act and guidelines issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC), the REC acted ultra vires and illegally by declaring Senator Aishatu Binani of the All Progressives Congress  (APC) winner of the governorship election in the state. It is obvious that the only person permitted by law to perform the function is the returning officer. He cannot claim ignorance of the law as he is a lawyer and even had the privilege of having conducted the presidential election in the state.

At the time he called the election, the returning officer had 10 local government elections pending and an hour to resume his work. This is brazen affront and impunity of the worst order. He disregarded the national commissioners who were deployed from the commission’s national headquarters, disregarded the process of calling the election that includes announcing results from the remaining local government areas, did not get the necessary forms filled, allowed no objections from the party agents in the hall and simply declared the APC candidate winner offhand.

It is inconceivable that weeks after the affront, Yunusa-Ari has remained in hiding. Nigerian citizens are asking, where is the REC who wrecked the Adamawa poll? His duty was to provide an enabling environment for the returning officer, and possibly guide him on the position of law if his counsel was sought. Everything about the electoral official’s action showed it was premeditated. He ensured that the police commissioner and other security chiefs in the state were on seat when making the declaration, to offer protection from angry politicians.

We agree with all who have said the man must be brought out of hiding to face the law. It is even more annoying that he has chosen to defend himself while a fugitive from law. His defence is hollow, but if he really believes he has a strong case, why fail to turn up in Abuja when summoned by the headquarters? If he gets away with the dizzying height to which he has taken impunity in the land, others will be encouraged to follow suit in the future.

It is surprising that beyond lamentation and open invitation the police force, it seems, has not taken any serious step to get the REC to explain his action. What could have motivated him – bribery or partisanship? How do we get to the root of the matter without getting Mr. Yunusa-Ari to explain his part? Did he have accomplices in the supposed electoral crime? Who were they? How far has the police force gone in its investigations?

It is not enough to replace the police chief who appeared to have provided cover during the alleged malfeasance. He should be thoroughly probed. Even when President Muhammadu Buhari has made a motion of ordering a probe, we are yet to be informed of any. And if any had been instituted, who are the members? Why not make the sitting open? Couldn’t members of the civil society have been incorporated?

President Buhari had promised many times to bequeath a credible poll to the nation as he is about to bow out, but the Adamawa State episode is certainly not the way to go. We expect him to immediately summon heads of all the security agencies on the table when Senator Binani was declared winner of that election and give them a marching order, in order to get to the root of the matter within two weeks. He cannot pass this buck. It’s his duty to ensure that the full details are unearthed and made public before he bows out on May 29.

The role played by the APC candidate who was swift in accepting the victory and, in fact, promptly appeared on television as governor-elect  should be investigated, too. No one should be protected, otherwise, rumours will continue to fill the air.

In all this, INEC should be commended for swinging into action promptly to arrest the situation before it degenerated further. Not only was a statement denouncing Yunusa-Ari’s action released the same day, he was ordered to report in Abuja. When he failed, he was suspended and reported to the appointing authority, the President who alone has the power to hire or fire a REC.

This must never happen again. But, if we are not to witness a more dastardly act, all those involved in the shameful act must be brought to book. And swiftly too.

Heavy toll of conflict shows how military rule gets out of hinge

If anyone needed to see an exemplar of the evils of military rule, just look at what is going on in Sudan. Fighting has raged in that Northeast Africa country for two weeks in a vicious power struggle between the two factions of its military regime represented by the armed forces, on one hand, and the paramilitary squad known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the other. Sudanese armed forces are loyal broadly to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler, while fighters of the RSF answer to warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. More than 400 persons have been killed in the fighting according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), with some 4,000 injured and many more thousands of civilians displaced.

The raging power struggle dates back in Sudan’s history before the 2019 uprising that ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir, who built up rival security forces that he set against one another as his survival strategy. In his efforts to crush a long-running rebellion in Darfur, the strongman established a squad of fighters known as the Janjaweed militia, which was notorious for widespread atrocities and human rights abuses. In 2013, he transformed the Janjaweed into a semi-organised paramilitary force whose leaders got military ranks before deploying them on extra-territorial missions like the war in Yemen and later Libya. It is on account of Janjaweed’s atrocities that Bashir is wanted for trial by the International Criminal Court. Following a civil uprising against the despot that erupted in late 2018, the RSF led by Dagalo teamed up with the regular military forces under Burhan to overthrow him in 2019. It was mainly the RSF that dispersed a peaceful sit-in by civilians at the military headquarters in Khartoum in which hundreds of people died.

On the heels of Bashir’s ouster, a joint military-civilian interim government was installed to lead the country back to civil rule. But that transition was upturned by another coup in October 2021 by which Burhan became the military ruler and Dagalo his deputy. The coup was met with weekly protests by pro-democracy agitators, renewed isolation of Sudan and a tailspin in the economy amidst which the rivalry between the two strongmen heightened. Burhan has been cold about plans for restoration of civil rule, whereas Dagalo ostensibly swung behind the clamour for a new transition. In statements amidst the latest fighting, Dagalo described Burhan’s government as comprising “radical Islamists” and said he and the RSF were “fighting for the people of Sudan to ensure democratic progress for which they have so long yearned.” But few people believe his self-professed inclination towards civil rule considering RSF’s brutal track record. Burhan, for his part, has said he is open to returning to civilian rule but would only hand over power to an elected government. Suspicion, though, is that both generals want to hang on to their positions of power and unwilling to lose the wealth and influence that come with it. Another sticking point has been the plan to integrate the 100,000-strong RSF into the army and who would then lead the new force.

Shooting began on April 15 and swiftly escalated in Khartoum and other parts of the country. Reports said though the conflict centred on  control of key installations, much of it was happening in urban areas where civilians became unwitting victims. The Sudanese air force mounted air strikes on the capital inhabited by more than six million people, leading to civilian casualties. Tens of thousands of people have fled into neighbouring countries. Ceasefires were called to allow people to escape the fighting, but none held until mid-last week when Nigeria began evacuation of her nationals – many of them students – trapped in the country. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it expected to evacuate about 5,000 Nigerians, but had immediate plans to move out some 2,650 to 2,800 within the space afforded by the fragile truce in a bourgeoning civil war.

The first lesson to learn from the Sudan crisis is that military rule is an unending journey in misery and is no alternative under any circumstance to civil rule. When bad losers in an election resort to campaigning for military intervention, they are milling a Frankenstein’s monster that could become everybody’s undoing, including themselves. And neither is interim government an option because such arrangement withers in the face of the slightest test of law or unruly sleight of hand by military usurpation. Nigeria had both experiences in her history and can relate with this point.

Another quick lesson is the insulatory nature of military rule against world opinion, even at the cost of self-destructing. Sudan’s strongmen have consistently spurned international sentiments in their hacking back to anachronism; and in the present circumstance, they were barely leashed to allow evacuations before they fight to finish, with hapless civilians caught as sitting ducks in the fray.

Still another lesson is the futility of separatist agitation. Sudan and South Sudan were once a country until they parted ways in 2011 after southern Sudan voted for independence following decades of armed struggle by the mainly Christian and Animist south against rule by the Arab Muslim north. Neither country has been at peace ever since, with both contending with further rebellions that have exerted a heavy toll on their respective population.

And we also must learn the lesson of proactive engagement to bail Nigerian nationals out of hotbeds abroad. Kudos to Air Peace Chairman and CEO, Allen Onyema, for offering to evacuate our citizens free-of-charge once they are moved from the war theatre to relatively safe zones. This is one Nigerian investor who is notable for sacrifice of his treasure and patriotic sense of duty, considering similar gestures in the past like the evacuation of endangered Nigerians from xenophobic South Africa in 2019. His task could have been made easier, though, if government moved to get Nigerians out of Sudan soon as shooting started – knowing the extreme unruliness of the combatants. Some crises call for preemptive evacuation rather than waiting to see how things pan out.  Sudan should be instructive in this regard.

•We welcome the writer, teacher and public intellectual to the octogenarian club

His faction, Just Before Dawn, caused a stir when it was released in 1988. In an article on his work, published in the UK-based magazine, Index on Censorship, Prof. Kole Omotoso said: “The argument of the book is that the problems Nigeria as a country has experienced since independence are contained in its experiences as a colonial nation put together for the convenience of the British. It follows that the solution of these problems depends on the extent to which Nigerians themselves are prepared to reverse or undo what the British imposed.”

In its description of the work, the magazine said: “The majority of the characters are the actual people, British and Nigerian, who participated in the drama or tragedy – which led straight to civil war and military rule within a few years of independence in 1960.”

It added: “Because of some of the book’s explosive revelations about the post-Independence era, and particularly about the role of senior army officers in the political life of the country, the publishers were obliged to excise large parts of the manuscript.”  

Omotoso said “just before the launch of the book itself, the most publicised censorship occurred.” According to him, “General Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Head of State, got worried about his own appearance in the book… I had described a meeting of senior military officers, both serving and retired, which took place against the background of the army games in Port Harcourt in late November 1983. It was at this meeting that the decision was taken that the army should intervene once more in Nigerian politics. General Obasanjo objected to his name being mentioned in my book as one of those who were present at that meeting. He said the statement was false.” Obasanjo threatened to seek an injunction against the launching of the book.

“Spectrum was anxious that the launch should go ahead as planned. I had to agree to the cuts after much agonising and soul searching,” Omotoso explained, stating that he had evidence to back up what he had written about Obasanjo.

Notably, the book was recognised as an important contribution to African writing, on account of its innovative style, and given Special Commendation at the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1989, for providing a more profound understanding than is available in conventional history books and novels.

This was a major event in Omotoso’s writing life, forcing him to leave Nigeria for safety reasons. His 80th birthday on April 21 highlighted his work as a writer, teacher and public intellectual. Born in Akure, in present-day Ondo State, he studied at Oyemekun Grammar School, Akure, King’s College, Lagos, the University of Ibadan (UI), Oyo State, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Interestingly, he graduated from UI with a degree in Arabic Studies, although he was born into a Christian family. 

After getting his doctorate, he lectured at UI (1972 -76); and the then University of Ife (1976- 88), where he taught drama. He was visiting professor at the University of Stirling, Scotland, and the National University of Lesotho; professor of English at the University of Western Cape in South Africa (1991 – 2000), and professor in the Drama Department at Stellenbosch University, South Africa (2001 – 2003). He also had a stint at the Talawa Theatre Company, London.

In the mid-1990s, he grabbed the headlines in South Africa as the “Yebo Gogo man” in adverts for the telecommunications company Vodacom, and was at some point considered a “national treasure” in that country. The adverts were also good for Nigeria’s image. 

President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in the 1980s, and patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature, from 2013 to 2016, Omotoso has contributed significantly to the promotion of literary arts. His social consciousness is noteworthy, and his works include prose fiction, drama and non-fiction. We wish him many happy returns as he enters his octogenarian years.

•The Benue villagers that buried people alive must face the full weight of the law

Joseph Conrad, the English-Polish writer, released his novella, Heart of Darkness, in April 1899.  It was a story set in Belgian Congo, showing how imperialism undid the colonisers as it destroyed the natives.  But its metaphor is abiding darkness in the heart of man, no matter the glitter of so-called “civilisation”.

That darkness just got re-lived with the dark news from Benue State, where some so-called “youths” were reported to have buried alive two elders — though the Benue State Police Command insisted only one person was buried alive — for allegedly causing a thunder strike that struck Henry Ihwakaa, his wife and a child.

The Punch of April 25 reported the tragedy.  It was at Ikyve, in the Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue State.

After the catastrophe, some “youths” went after Henry’s father, the senior Ihwakaa; and another unnamed elder and suspected collaborator, grabbed them both, dug a shallow grave and buried the captives alive!  Stranger than fiction?

The so-called “youths”, preening dispensers of jungle jungle, had found the duo responsible for the disaster — perhaps the old man had had a public spat with his son? — and decreed instant death by live burial!  

A community leader, named as Baba Agan, reportedly alerted the police on the outrage.  But before the police reached Ikyve, from its Tse Agbaragba council headquarters base, the two elders, buried alive, had died.  What avoidable tragedy!

This is gangling outlawry and savagery that any sane society must decry.  Which is why the police must go after everyone involved, dutifully probe the level of their involvement and swiftly charge them to court to answer for their alleged crimes.  

That the police already have two suspects in custody doesn’t cut it.  Two can’t account for a mob that violated the sacred space of two elders and brutally buried them alive.  Still, it’s a good start.  All the police need is coax out the other members of the mob.  That would be the true beginning of justice for the community.

Still, justice begins with calling a spade a spade, even from when reporting the outrage.  Nameless “youths” don’t commit crimes.  Specific individuals, young or old, do.  

Somehow, however, the indulgent use of “youths” almost always crops up in media reportage, which often boils down the gravity of the crime, as if crimes by rash youngsters were somewhat more tolerable.  Again, the police should go after anyone even remotely linked to that crime.  It’s high time we began to muster respect for the sanctity of human lives again, after the blight free-wheeling killings have stamped on the Nigerian contemporary psyche.

But even after crime and punishment, there is the imperative for mass enlightenment, to banish any illusion that wild customary beliefs or faith hallucinations could be protection against the rule of law.

Indeed: no faith, or rogue belief or hare-brained superstition can justify jungle justice.  Besides, what’s the nexus between thunder striking and the rash presumption of guilt on the two ill-fated elders?  

Even if the doomed duo were the magic conjurors of the tragedy as the murderers wrongly believed, a court of competent jurisdiction must prove it first.  That’s the path of law, which should rule every sane community of the 21st century.

Still, such illiterate linkages were rife, especially in the traditional society, that threw up this saying: “the witch cried yesterday; the child died today — who doesn’t know that witch killed the child!”

A blitz of public enlightenment, against such wild beliefs, can’t save the alleged Benue village murderers.  They should get their due in court.  But it can save millions of others, with similar delusional minds, from future havoc to society and themselves.

Then, the police travelling from quite a distance to Ikyve, the scene of the crime, must worry everyone.  True, the police can’t have stations everywhere, particularly in a country with far-flung rural spaces as Nigeria.  

Yet, there ought to have been some presence, no matter how nominal — a police post, for instance, serving a couple of communities?  Just imagine how a nearby police presence could have prevented the crime; or fast curtailed it before reaching the point of burying fellow humans alive?

Benue State (and other state governments), in concert with the federal authorities should piece together fresh security infrastructure to avert such crimes in future.  Here again, the urgent need for state police, to further extend citizen safety and security, rings clear.