Category: Editorial

As a traditional ruler, he inherited a powerful and influential office with a grand history. An international conference held in Nigeria, in 2018, focused on his office and highlighted its historical significance.  His domain, Oyo, the organisers said, was “the dominant political power in Yoruba land and beyond” in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In those days, they said, the Oyo monarch, known as Alaafin, was “the master of the realm spreading from the Savannah and as far afield as modern Benin and Togo Republics in the West African sub-region.”

They provided further contextual information, saying “Oyo also gave a major identity to Yoruba land. The name Yoruba was initially used for the Oyo speaking people, their empire and dialect until the 19th century when European explorers applied the name widely to other Yoruba sub-groups.”

By the time Alaafin of Oyo Lamidi  Olayiwola Adeyemi III, popularly known as Iku Baba Yeye,  ascended the throne in November 1970, at the age of 32, the old empire was no more. But he represented the continuity of a majestic narrative. He reigned for 51 years before his departure on April 22, at the age of 83. He was the longest reigning Alaafin of Oyo in history.

After his secondary education at St. Gregory’s College, Lagos, he worked for the Royal Exchange Assurance Limited, Lagos. Interestingly, as a prince he was also a boxer.   “I am also a good boxer,” he said in an interview. “I have had over 56 bouts and lost two. In my bouts, only 10 people who contested with me lasted the distance. I won the others by knockout but I have never been knocked out.”

He was among the most revered traditional rulers not only in his Southwest base but also in the country as a whole. He served as permanent chair of the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs.

Even in a democratic milieu, he attracted a lot of high-profile Nigerian politicians who sought his support and endorsement, particularly in election seasons.

His views on some of the country’s hot political issues reflected his candour and courage. For instance, on the restructuring debate, and the Nigerian presidency, he said:  ”If you want to have a country that is forward moving there must be a federal system of government…We have not been fortunate to have the kind of president that we deserve.”

Importantly, in his era, guided by knowledge and wisdom, and a sense of self and office, he preserved and promoted Yoruba culture and tradition in the face of modernising influences.

He received honorary doctorates, and was chancellor of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto State, and the University of Maiduguri, Borno State. He was also a recipient of the Nigerian national honour Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR).

Sensationally, sections of the media, especially social media, seemed to focus excessively on his marital life following his passing. He reportedly had 18 wives, which was culturally defensible for a Yoruba traditional ruler. In 2018, the year he turned 80, three of his wives gave birth to twins.

He explained in an interview: “I did not propose to any of my wives. They desired to be with me because I sent them to school. After their university education, I told them to leave but they refused and insisted on staying with me here in the palace as my wives.”

His burial rites generated some controversy following the involvement of Islamic clerics, which appeared to contradict his image as a symbol of Yoruba traditional religion. But he was ultimately a traditionalist, as his office demanded, despite his background as a Muslim and a student at a Catholic secondary school.  ”One must conform to the covenants one made before the shrines of one’s forefathers and defend and uphold and, if possible, die defending the heritage of one’s people,” he said.

He was a worthy occupant of the ancient traditional office of Alaafin who ensured that its majesty was undiminished.

It is baffling enough that the country has been thrown into the needless debate of whether public officials interested in contesting elections should tender their resignation letters before their party’s primaries; that the debate has now degenerated into buckpassing between the presidency and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) is even the more befuddling.

President Muhammadu Buhari would appear to have kickstarted the debate when he returned the amended Electoral Act to the National Assembly, requesting for the removal of Section 84(12) of it which makes it mandatory for all political appointees interested in elective office to resign ahead of any party primary they want to participate in. The president said the section runs counter to the provisions of the 1999 constitution. The National Assembly however saw otherwise and rejected the president’s request.

The matter has since remained a subject of litigation.

So far, at least two ministers —Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi as well as his Labour and Employment counterpart Chris Ngige —have shown interest in contesting the 2023 elections without resigning from their present offices. They are both members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and their party’s primary is holding next month.

It is in our kind of political clime that such a matter would linger. It is only fair for political office holders who want to contest elections to resign before the primaries so that they would not use their privileged positions to the disadvantage of their competitors. Secondly, resigning before the primaries would enable them concentrate fully on their political ambitions instead of staying in office and pretending to be working for the people.

It is sad that the matter has reportedly become a subject of buckpassing between the presidency and the OSGF as to who should kickstart the process of asking those in the government and are interested in elective positions to turn in their letters of resignation before their party’s primaries. According to a newspaper report, while a senior official in the seat of power said it was the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who should initiate the process by issuing a circular indicating the deadline on when such appointees should resign, an aide to the SGF reportedly said it was the president who should direct the SGF to issue such directive.

The presidency official reportedly cited the states where the respective secretaries to the governments have been issuing such directive to support his claim adding that “It is not our job in the Presidential Villa to ask anyone to resign. It is the job of the SGF to do so. So, you should direct your inquiries to the SGF. Please do not write my name inside your paper because I don’t want to be drawn into this controversial issue.”

The OSGF official however countered: “I’m sure you know the job of a secretary. A secretary cannot issue any directive without the express approval of the President. So, unless the President orders that we issue a circular asking appointees running for office to resign, we cannot unilaterally do so. This is standard practice. Please this is strictly off record.”

This is unbecoming, especially among officials in the same government. And characteristically, President Muhammadu Buhari has not uttered a word on the matter despite the controversy it has generated in the polity. In this situation, what stops the SGF from approaching the president for clarity on the matter? It would appear the president is silent because things have not gone the way he wanted on the issue. Apparently, the SGF too understands the president’s body language, hence the claim from his office that he could not act on the matter unless directed by his boss to do so.

This situation further signposts the loss of values in the country, especially among the political class. In our view, in the absence of a gazette on the matter, decency dictates that the position of Electoral Act mandating public officials who want to run for elections to resign before the primaries ought to be respected, at least pending the determination of the appeal in court.

Our politicians in government should know that this is the commonsensical thing to do. But they want to eat their cake and have it. Anyone who is sure of himself or herself should not be afraid to resign in the situation. There should be no big deal about this, after all, that is what is trending in many states where such public officials are already turning in their letters of resignation.

We can only appeal to the Court of Appeal to expedite action on the matter filed before it by the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) against the ruling of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, which asked the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to expunge the section of the Electoral Act asking such public officials to resign before their party primaries from the Electoral Act, so as to save the country from the antics of rapacious politicians who are only concerned about their personal interests.

It was like a horror film: gunmen in the Ihitte Uboma local government area of Imo State stormed a registration unit, where continuous voter registration was going on, shot sporadically and ordered everyone to lay face down.

When the smoke cleared, Anthony Nwokorie, a staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), lay dead.  One of the impassioned gun-wielding lunatics  was bawling and screaming: “no more election!”, “no more election anywhere!”, though his “election” sounded like “erection”.

First thing first: this lunacy must be arrested.  Security agencies must nab these murderers and make them pay for their crime.  No citizen, no matter how deluded, should disrupt a legitimate exercise and bump off helpless citizens.

Still, this Imo State case is umpteenth reminder of how Nigeria’s voting precincts and seasons are progressively becoming graveyards of election officials and voters, instead of glorious maternities to deepen Nigeria’s democracy.

The stats that INEC released are stark.  In three elections covering 12 years, 1, 149 were killed in election-season violence: 520 in 2011 (including nine National Youth Service Corps member hired by INEC as ad hoc election staff); 626, during the 2019 election period and three, during the 2015 exercise in Benue State.

The regional spread, of this orgy of killings, is no less shocking: 172 in the North West; 146 in the North East; 120 in the South-South and 111 in the North Central.  Deaths from the South East and South West were not represented in the stats, suggesting that these two geo-political zones might have had far less casualties.

But for the South East, the situation has dipped for the worse, given the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and sundry separatist violent campaigns which, as the Imo case clearly showed, has somewhat been mixed up with election matters.  At a time, such anomie targeted INEC facilities in that zone, for high propaganda value.

Indeed, since the 2019 election, attacks on INEC facilities and materiel have flared in the South East.  Of the 41 attacks nationwide, the South East accounted for 10 — almost a quarter.  The specific states involved were Enugu (three), Ebonyi (three), Imo (two), Anambra (one) and Abia (one).

But the South East holds no monopoly of these senseless attacks on INEC and its assets, human or material.

In Ondo State on September 10, 2020, before the off-season Ondo State gubernatorial election, some 5, 141 card readers were destroyed in a blaze at the INEC Akure state head office.  No less than N900 million in crucial election materials went up in smoke — and no one could say if it was an accident or plain sabotage.

Also in 2021, the INEC office in the Essien Udim local government area of Akwa Ibom State was razed.  Gone with the blaze were 345 ballot boxes, 135 voting cubicles, water tanks, office furniture and megaphones.

The long and short of all these stats is that INEC is fast becoming an endangered enclave; the elections it conducts, endangered exercises; and its personnel and assets, endangered species.  So, with this grim profile, how does INEC prepare to deliver a credible exercise in the 2023 general elections?

The dire prognosis: no easy task.  Yet, with meticulous planning and clinical analyses of nationwide troubled spots — a reality not alien to INEC even in the best of seasons — the task is not insurmountable.  But the keyword here is credible intelligence.

Working closely with the security agencies, INEC should have, at the ready, a nationwide map of troubled zones.  Collaborating with security agencies too, it should launch preemptive strikes on such areas to clear them of the marauding hoodlums.  But the plan should be dynamic.  The attention on those black spots should not be one-off but a continual exercise.

INEC should also obtain intel that lays bare the illicit support groups to these hoodlums: pimps, dealers and suppliers of hard drugs; and malevolent local politicians that often arm the hoodlums as brutal enforcers.  The more of people that are weeded out, the safer and more secure the elections are likely to be.

Threat to the 2023 elections should be treated as an emergency, to which INEC and indeed the Federal Government, collaborating with the states, must stoutly rise and promptly act.  Our preference is the total safety and security of every voter and all INEC election staff.  But should there be any incident, INEC should review its insurance policy to ensure the families of its endangered staff are fully compensated.

A few felons, no matter how rash or misguided, must not be allowed to torpedo Nigeria’s democracy and plunge the country into further instability.  Delivering a safe, fair and credible set of elections in 2023 is, therefore, a task that must be done.

Nonagenarian legal luminary and eminent educationist, Aare Afe Babalola, has just proposed that the 2023 general election be deferred for an interim government that will take office upon the expiration of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency. According to him, the interim government with six-month tenure will oversee the writing of a new federal constitution that will replace the existing one, which he considered terminally defective and incapable of salvaging Nigeria from her current nationhood problems.

Speaking at a press conference in Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital last week, the proprietor and Chancellor, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) said the interim government he proposed would chart a new course for Nigeria, while the 2023 polls should be put on hold to give the country opportunity to draft a people-oriented constitution that would address the challenges of insecurity, economic and political failings as well as other ills hobbling the nation. He argued that if the 2023 elections hold as scheduled, they would only recycle the same crop of leaders and further steep the country in her current challenges. “To save Nigeria from nose-diving into irretrievable bankruptcy and poverty, irreparable economic and political damage brought about by the 1999 constitution and its beneficiaries, a new constitution is imperative before any election,” he argued.

The broad features of the arrangement suggested by the frontline lawyer are as arbitrary as they are curious. He proposed that the interim government should comprise all living former presidents and vice-presidents, selected ministers and governors, as well as delegates of prominent professional associations such as the Nigerian Medical Association, Nigerian Bar Association, Nigeria Labour Congress, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Academic Staff Union of Universities and civil society organisations. Such delegates, by his projections, would be elected on zero party basis.

A major task of the interim arrangement, according to him, would be to oversee the writing of a new constitution providing for a unicameral legislature made up of part-time legislators, and a parliamentary system with non-executive presidency. Under that dispensation, there would be no salary, but only sitting allowances for lawmakers. He argued that the 1999 Constitution foisted on Nigerians by the military was no longer in tune with contemporary realities and has made politics not only very attractive but the only lucrative business in Nigeria today. “What this means is that any election that holds under the present scenario will end up producing transactional and recycled leaders, with no ability to turn things around,’’ Aare Babalola said. Among other things, the new constitution he envisaged would prescribe higher qualification criteria for contesting elections and peg the age for presidency at 60 years.

Coming from a legal icon of Aare Babalola’s preeminence, the propositions are as shocking as they are spurious. Every dispensation is typically anchored on a statutory framework, even crooked ones like military juntas always get premised on decrees issued by putschists to suspend pre-existing constitutions of affected societies. However, the statutory framework on which the interim arrangement suggested by the elder statesman would be based is entirely unclear, and he didn’t provide insight. Being a legalist of no mean standing, it is confounding that the Aare mouthpieced for arbitrariness. Besides, there is a contradiction in the entire concept. He suggested that the 2023 poll be put on hold, but in the same breath argued for zero party election of some members of the proposed interim government. And that is indeed the good part. Other members are to be arbitrarily chosen – by who and on whose mandate isn’t clear, And we mustn’t forget this country once journeyed the path of interim governance but made nothing of it.

With all that said, we must reckon with where the 92-year-old Aare was coming from. His radical propositions were motivated by the ill fortunes of this country regarding the economy, security and responsibility of government to the social contract, which he lamented. The Nigerian leadership class must awaken to the onus of good governance, or the anomie in every sphere would fuel such depth of disenchantment that even the strongest of optimists would lose heart.

What is motivating those killing people in the south-east of the country, and who are they, and what can be done to stop them? Who are their sponsors? These questions are pertinent because the uprising against the alleged marginalisation of the people of the region is now consuming the indigenes. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kalu, who is presently undergoing trial for alleged treason, rekindled the agitation for an independent Biafra. While IPOB claims that its struggle is peaceful, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) formed by IPOB allegedly uses force to enforce its programmes.

One of such programmes was the restriction of movement on Mondays by residents of the five Igbo-speaking states. While IPOB claims to have stopped the enforcement, there are armed men who wreak havoc across the states, to enforce the restriction. Many people in and out of the region have however pointed out that the restriction was inimical to the region’s economy. There are also those who kill military and para-military men at will in the region, and it is believed that such killings may be in furtherance of the separatist agenda championed by IPOB. Since IPOB denied any hand in the killings, the mayhem has been ascribed to an amorphous unknown gunmen.

In the run-up to the recent governorship election in Anambra State, there was palpable tension because of the killings. Amongst the notable persons killed was Dr Chike Akunyili, husband of the former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Dora Akunyili. Several army and police officers were also killed, perhaps in an attempt to force the government to call off the election. In Imo State, a Correctional Service facility was attacked, and prisoners set free. Several offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have also been targeted by arsonists.

With the security situation degenerating precipitously, we join those calling for a solution to end the crisis. In an interview with Vanguard Newspaper, former Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Senator Victor Umeh, attributed the killings to years of injustice meted against the people of the zone by the Federal Government. On his part, a security expert, Sam Otoboeze, proffered a multidimensional approach, which include employment for the youths, development of key infrastructure, and election of people with integrity, and quality political representation.

In his contribution, the traditional ruler of Ihim Autonomous Community in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State, Eze Oliver Ohanwe, enjoined governments at all tiers to engage the traditional rulers to resolve the debilitating security crisis in the region. He noted that the young boys committing these atrocities are unemployed and need to be engaged in meaningful ventures. On his part, the Anglican Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Most Rev. David Onuoha, condemned the Igbo violence on themselves, describing it as “intolerable, unjustifiable, inexcusable and most unacceptable.”

For the retired Archbishop of Owerri Catholic Archdiocese, and Most Rev. Anthony Obinna, all patriots in the zone should rise and work hard to ensure that the next President of Nigeria comes from the south-east, for the unity of the country. In the same interview, the Rector, Alive Theological Seminary of Nigeria, Bishop Uzoma Emmanuel, said it is only dialogue that can rescue the south-east from the raging killings. The Bishop argued that trying to suppress the ideology of those behind the violence would not achieve the desired peace.

We have listed the various suggestions made by the interviewees, because we believe that a combination of some of them could stem the insecurity and stop the killings. Hopefully, the peace and reconciliation committee, set up by the governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, under the leadership of Professor Chidi Odinkalu would distil out the solution to the crisis, devoid of political undertones. The earlier the killings are stopped, the better for the people of the region and the country.

The defining essence of his life is fierce commitment to truth and integrity and an unbending fidelity to values and principles he holds dear. When he lost his beloved wife, Dr Abiodun Osuntokun, in 2003 at the age of 53, Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, who turns 80 today, was devastated to the core of his being as he has reiterated often in several interviews and writings. In his words on that heart-rending experience, “There were attempts to persuade me to marry another woman, but it wouldn’t have been fair to the memory of my wife, nor would it have been fair to the person I would have married, because I would have been comparing the two of them. But I thank God it made me to bury myself in my writing, my commitment to whatever the activity I enjoyed, especially writing”. That is the essential Professor Osuntokun – a lifelong loyalty and faithfulness to a sacred marital bond that not even death could break.

One of the country’s most exemplary and productive academics, Professor Osuntokun obviously takes very seriously his responsibility to seek and speak the truth at all times irrespective of the consequences he may personally suffer. As the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Nigeria to a united Republic of Germany between 1991 and 1995, an appointee of the General Ibrahim Babangida military regime, Professor Osuntokun refused to compromise the truth to suit the fancies of the succeeding General Sani Abacha dictatorship. He did not identify with the regime’s campaign to gain international support for the incarceration of the winner of the annulled June  12, 1993, presidential election, Chief M.K.O Abiola, as well as secure global legitimacy for its self-perpetuation agenda, a stance that not only cost him his assignment but later earned him a six-month detention in the dictator’s gulag.

Many people in his position would have readily forsook principles to curry favour from the regime and remain in its good books. But not Professor Osuntokun. He valued his reputation, character and good conscience above the allurements of temporary public office. Speaking of his harrowing experience in detention at the military facilities in Apapa, he said, “That was the way I was released without any trial, without any accusation, without any interrogation. I was just treated like a common criminal. This was somebody who just finished representing our country as an ambassador”. But did this bitter experience dampen his faith in Nigeria and his commitment to public service in the interest of the common good? Certainly no. His newspaper columns, public lectures and books over the years testify to his patriotic love for Nigeria and his faith that her manifest destiny can still be realized despite current travails.

Professor Osuntokun’s belief in public service is perhaps not surprising as he comes from a family with a well known reputation for active pursuit of communal wellbeing. History records his grandfather, Dada, as a faithful Deputy of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ekitiparapo forces during the prolonged intra-Yoruba wars, which lasted for nearly 16 years from July 30, 1877, to March 14, 1893. His eldest brother, Oduola Akintola, was not only one of the earliest university graduates from Ekitiland, he was minister in the Western Region government of the First Republic for 10 years. Another of his siblings, the late Professor Kayode Osuntokun, was a world renowned neurologist whose service to humanity in his field remains a reference point years after his demise. Professor Akinjide’s life has also been one of selfless service to his country in the areas of academic research, teaching, university administration, and the deployment of his expertise in history, politics, diplomacy and international relations to enhance the public good.

A striking demonstration of Professor Osuntokun’s patriotic selflessness is his serving for eleven years with Chief Emeka Anyaoku and four others as honorary presidential adviser on international affairs from 1999 to 2015. This was an assignment for which he received no salary but in his words, “It was the closest one could get in helping the country to make its foreign policy, and I’m very proud of it”. He had also served at various times as Director, Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC), Washington DC, USA, from 1972 to 1982 and Director of the Commission’s office in Ottawa, Canada, from 1978 to 1979. Although no substantial benefits accrued to him for this assignment, he is acknowledged for helping to secure foreign scholarships which many Nigerian students benefitted from. He also served on the Governing Council of the Lagos State University ( LASU) from 1987 to 1989; the Board of the National Directorate of Employment between 1987 and 1988 as well as a member of the Presidential Commission on the National Question from 1986 to 1987 among others. He was a member of Nigeria’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 2005-2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Born on 26th April, 1942 in Okemesi, Ekiti State, Professor Osuntokun’s epochal journey to academic stardom and professional excellence began with his primary school education first at Holy Trinity School, Ilawe, and later Emmanuel Primary School in Ado-Ekiti. He attended Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, and Ibadan Grammar Grammar School for his secondary school education before gaining admission into the University of Ibadan from where he graduated with a B.A Hons. in History, Second Class Upper Division (Magna cum laude) in 1966. Other renowned institutions at which his academic skills were honed include School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Queen Mary’s College, University of London, 1964-1965; Institute of Commonwealth Studies and SOAS, University of London, April 1968-February 1969; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne University, Paris, France, February 1969 -April 1969 and the Historite Seminar, University of Hamburg, Germany, April 1969- October 1969. He obtained his PhD in history from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1970.

In a career spanning over five decades from 1972, he rose from the position of lecturer to full professorship of history teaching at various times at the Universities of Ibadan, Lagos, Maiduguri and now the Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, where he has been a professor of History since 2005. He has served in key positions in university administration in various institutions in the course of his career contributing invaluably to the evolution of higher education in Nigeria. Professor Osuntokun is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Lagos and Redeemer’s University, a Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters, Fellow, Historical Society of Nigeria, an awardee of the National Honors, Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), an awardee of the Faculty role of honours of the University of Ibadan, an awardee of the Irving and Bonar Graduate Prize as well as Presidential Honor of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

He is the author of several books on different aspects of Nigerian politics, history and foreign policy including Nigeria in the First World War; Chief S. Ladoke Akintola: His life and times; Power Broker:.A biography of Sir Kashim Ibrahim and Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh: In Time and Space to name a few. Given his stellar academic record and global peer recognition, Professor Osuntokun would have secured financially rewarding appointment in reputable institutions across the world but he has chosen over the years to remain in Nigeria, another example of his selfless commitment to the nation. We wish this humble and unassuming man of distinction and excellence a happy 80th birthday.

Last week, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) presented a telling summary of the impact of the on-going insurgency on the educational sector. In a statement signed by its communication specialist Samuel Kaalu to mark the 8th anniversary of the abduction of 276 students at Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, the UN children’s agency noted rather grimly: “In Nigeria, a total of 11, 536 schools were closed since December 2020 due to abductions and security issues. These school closures have impacted the education of approximately 1.3 million children in the 2020/21 academic year. This interruption of their learning contributes to gaps in children’s knowledge and skills and may lead to the loss of approximately US$3.4 billion in these children’s lifetime earnings…

“Since December 2020”, the body further noted, a total of “1,436 school children and 17 teachers have been abducted from schools, and 16 school children lost their lives”.

To describe the situation as alarming is to understate the tragedy forced upon the country by the band of terrorists. Yes, Nigerians would recall – with horror – the February 25, 2014, gruesome killing of 59 students of the Federal Government College of Buni Yadi in Yobe State and the torching of 24 buildings in the night-time attack on the school’s hostel facility. And then of course the April 2014 abduction of 280 Chibok girls in Borno State, which has remained not only unprecedented in scale and audacity but would reverberate across the entire world. Today, with the benefit of hindsight, these would turn to be mere dress rehearsals given the wave of serial abductions and destruction of school infrastructure by bandits and other terrorist gangs that would soon follow in the Northwest and North-central.

From Sokoto to Katsina; from Zamfara to Niger and Kaduna, nowhere is safe as school children are hunted and killed with hefty ransoms exacted from the relations of those lucky to be taken into captivity. That situation – sad as it is – has since become the new normal. And this is a region whose out-of-school population is already at its highest levels ever.

To us, the only inference that could be made is that the various strategies put in place to secure the learning environment under the Safe Schools Initiative have not worked. The initiative, were it to be properly implemented would have meant moving students in the highest risk areas to schools in safer parts of the country, provision and distribution of learning materials and rebuilding of schools with extra security measures. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, admitted that much last year when he noted in a foreword to a document published by the Federal Ministry of Education that funds and logistics have hampered its implementation. If the indices from the schools are anything to go by, one comes to the grim but inevitable conclusion that it cannot be treated in isolation from the general security situation. In other words, to keep the schools safe means guaranteeing the safety of the citizens in and out of the school environment.

This then takes us to the call by Minister of Defence, Maj-Gen Bashir Magashi (rtd), for God’s intervention in the fight against insurgents and other criminal elements in the country during the last Easter celebrations. He didn’t exactly spell out the nature of divine intervention expected. Is it to help the Generals draw up their battle plans or to provide the fighting men with the resources to execute their task? Or by some supernatural decrees, annihilate the enemy that the security forces have been rather shy to engage?  According to Magashi, the Easter prayer should focus on “remembering members of the armed forces presently engaged in various campaigns, for God to grant them total victory over all threats to national peace.” Magashi prayed that this year’s Easter, coinciding with the Ramadan fast, “will usher in the desired peace and prosperity as well as  a complete turnaround for the Nigerian Armed Forces to clear the doubts of cynics and return sanity to the dark spots in the country.”

Whereas Nigerians may be a prayerful lot, there is clearly much room left for hard work in the business of fighting the insurgency. Much as we may not have issues about divine intervention, we believe human beings must first do their own bit. We know the challenges being faced by our soldiers and other security agencies – failure of intelligence, lack of synergy, corruption, for which some top military officers have been jailed, among several other shortcomings. We must first address all of these and other human failings before resorting to divine intervention. The advice of the Minister of Defence that has shown neither the understanding of urgency nor the bold leadership required to turn the tide in the insurgency war, cannot be taken seriously. It is probably his own way of saying he has done his best. But that best is not good enough for the country.

When the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, announced that work at the two Port Harcourt refineries were proceeding satisfactorily, the Federal Government must have thought it was soothing news for a beleaguered nation. But, it was not so received by a people who have learnt to take government pronouncement with a pinch of salt.

Life has become so difficult for Nigerians under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, as the country slipped into recession soon after the government was inaugurated. Thereafter, the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and another recession that crawled out late last year have sought to cripple the economy, making the future to look somewhat bleak.

But, experts and a groaning people have attributed the hardship to government’s planlessness. All countries, including the G7 countries, were hit by the unexpected pandemic, but because their economies are on sound footing, they were able to cushion the effect on businesses and people. In Nigeria, life has become unbearable, especially following the Russia-Ukraine war that broke out this year. With an import-dependent economy, inflation has continued to soar, and prices of goods have hit the roof top.

One sector that has thrown all macro and micro economic projections off balance is the hike in the price of petroleum products. While the outcry in Nigeria is more in respect of the Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) used for most of private and public vehicles, as well as micro and small scale enterprises, the corporations and large scale businesses are groaning as the price of diesel has skyrocketed in the oil-producing country. The airlines are not spared the agony, courtesy of rising cost of aviation fuel.

President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a Bill to amend the 2022 Appropriation Act to the National Assembly. As all attempts to remove subsidy on petrol have been stoutly resisted by the general citizenry that refused to believe economic models and theories, explanations and promises, government sought an upward adjustment in the projected subsidy for PMS in the year. The Senate was swift in approving an additional N3.55 trillion. This has further pushed the budget outlay above N17 trillion, with the deficit now standing at N7 trillion.

In the last year of the Buhari administration, it is obvious that he would be bequeathing a broken nation to his successor. Had the Federal Government taken necessary steps to rehabilitate, privatise or commercialise the four refineries in his first term, the country might have been prepared for the economic challenges. Rather, for seven years, the government did nothing on the refineries.

If all the government can do is ensure that one of the refineries is propped to process  60,000 barrels of crude oil, it does not deserve applause. The other Port Harcourt refinery is only expected to resume partial production by the end of next year. It appears that the country can only hope to depend on the Dangote Refinery expected to come on stream in the last quarter of this year. This is dangerous, given the monopoly setting that would be so engendered. Alhaji Aliko Dangote is a businessman whose main objective is to make profit. There is no assurance that  the products would be sold to the public at affordable prices. Government has a duty to watch out for the people’s welfare that is not well catered for under this economic regime.

We hope the next government would work assiduously towards making Nigeria a productive country, freeing the people from misery and lifting them out of the present abject poverty.

There are times when public debate is not about the constitutionality or legality of an action, but its propriety and morality. One of such occasions is the raging debate about the President’s exercise of his power to set free former Governors Joshua Dariye who was the helmsman in Plateau State between 1999 and 2007, and his colleague, Jolly Nyame of Taraba State. Both had been jailed by the country’s apex court, for stealing public funds.

Both men had enough time to prove their innocence in court. They explored all opportunities available under the law to wriggle out of the bind. By the letters of the law, Section 175 of the Constitution provides for Prerogative of Mercy by which the President could, on behalf of the state, extend full pardon or clemency to those serving terms for infringing the law. Under the section, the President could set up a committee to review cases that may come before it to determine who may be deserving of mercy, since justice and mercy are inseparable.

However, it is not within the contemplation that, in doing so, objectives of state are to be so flagrantly violated.

One famous remark that would continue to haunt President Muhammadu Buhari is, “if we do not kill corruption (as a state and people), corruption will kill us”. The refrain was first thrown up as he campaigned and promised that a fierce war against corruption would be waged as soon as he assumed office. In line with that, he turned attention to the judiciary with a view to ostensibly ridding it of all forms of corruption. Even in doing that, he was faulted as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), an executive body used to raid the homes of some justices in the dead of the night, did not follow the due process of availing the National Judicial Commission (NJC) of the facts available to it, to establish that there was indeed a prima facie case against each of them. Therefore, in the process of trying to fight corruption, the presidency corrupted the procedure.

In granting Messrs Dariye and Nyame pardon on April 14, the President turned back the hands of the clock, doing what former President Goodluck Jonathan did in setting free his predecessor and former boss in Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. The former President hid behind the fact that Alamieyeseigha had become remorseful and thus deserved mercy from the state. Besides, it was argued that the former Bayelsa governor did not waste the time of the court during prosecution, thus saving the country millions of Naira that could have been spent during his tortuous trial. In the Dariye case, every legal trick available to his lawyers was adopted to ambush justice. It was not until October, 2021, that he was finally adjudged guilty by the apex court. For Nyame, the end did not come until last month. This is an errant behaviour that ought not to have been rewarded with state pardon.

This is a precedence that could have been avoided. As Mr. Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said after the Council of State had rubber-stamped the presidential procedure, if the former governors who were found guilty of embezzling billions of Naira could be set free, those in jail for petty theft and infractions ought not spend a day longer behind bars. The Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, could not hold his indignation as he wrote a blistering letter to the President and declared that, by the act, the Nigerian state is finished under him. These are voices of reason.

By the presidential fiat, the government seems to be saying public opinion does not matter. It is suggesting that the electorate could only play a part in governance by casting their ballots on Election Day. This is contrary to the tenets of democracy that popular participation is at the heart of governance. Government has a duty to monitor public opinion regularly in order not to stray far from people’s expectation.

When the history of this administration is written, this pardon will feature prominently. It is the point at which what had always been suspected was confirmed – that the administration of justice, with Mr. Abubakar Malami as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has been abysmal. President Buhari has fallen short of the expectation of millions of Nigerians who elected him in 2015 and rewarded him with a fresh term in 2019 thinking that the template of governance would change. If there has been any change, it’s been for the worse. Corruption has seized the heart of a collapsing country, and the Buhari administration has, by overturning the judicial verdict on Messrs Dariye and Nyame, indicated that the state is comfortable with the current spate of corrupt practices among public officers. Others may be welcome on board. What a shame.

As is the case with collation and use of statistics in Nigeria, no one really knows how many soldiers and civilians have lost their lives in the terrorism war in the country. In the North West, North East and North Central, the war against terrorism and banditry has been on for more than a decade, and things are seemingly not getting better. A lot has been said about government’s preparedness to combat the evil, as men and materials are inadequate.

One sector that has borne the brunt mostly is the Nigerian Armed Forces whose officers and men were engaged officially by the state for a time like this, especially in the case of external aggression. However, when it became apparent that the police could not contain the insurgency in the North East, soldiers were brought out of the barracks and there has been no let since then.

Some retired Generals have now called on the Federal Government to take decisive measures to end the war of attrition. In view of an unofficial figure of 714 soldiers killed on the battle field, or some in their bases, the retired Generals have pointed out that what is needed is getting advanced technology and weapons that would locate, smoke out and neutralise the enemies of state that have cost us so much in men and materials.

Coming from Generals who have fought in the war and saw their comrades and subordinates pay the ultimate price, their observations should be taken seriously. It calls to question the adequacy of the steps taken by the Federal Government so far despite the trillions of Naira already appropriated to combat insecurity. There should be an audit of what is available, what was purchased under this administration and how they have been deployed. There have been cases of Brigade Commanders and other senior military officers apprehended for diverting funds meant to prosecute the war to personal purpose. Are there others who engaged in similar nefarious activities? Military authorities should cast the net wide in identifying such criminal activities. As the Generals pointed out, an asymmetrical war like we are fighting in Nigeria can only be won on the intelligence plane. There are so many intelligence agencies and arms of the armed forces that ought to work together to guide the fighting forces. There are suggestions that the agencies are not working in harmony, otherwise, how could the fact that terrorists continue to abduct and keep victims for months be explained? So much is expected of the Department of State Services and the National Intelligence Agency, in particular, but so little seems to be coming from them.

Besides, every security outfit in the country has an intelligence arm – the Army, Navy, Air force, Police, Customs and Immigration, among others, have trained intelligence officers, the question is how well coordinated are they?

The Chief of Defence Staff, National Security Adviser to the Commander-in-Chief and the Minister of Defence who is also a retired General must sit up to rid the country of this menace. Many times, President Muhammadu Buhari, at whose desk the buck stops, has promised the war would end before he hands over to the next President, but very little progress has been made. It would appear the agents of terror operate at will, kill, raze down buildings and disappear into thin air. It is surprising that the locations of these terrorists are well known to the security forces, yet, little is being achieved. People like Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, and delegations of the Northern Elders Forum have met with the criminals many times. State governments have held meetings with some of their leaders and the Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai say the government has been able to monitor their movements over time. Yet, not much has been achieved by the Nigeria Air Force and the special forces of the Nigerian Army whose duty it is to conclude the task.

If more than 700 soldiers were killed within 18 months, we expect the government to take the matter more seriously. The message is to flush out the bandits and insurgents who are said to have linked up to wage war against Nigeria. Soldiers who signed up to defend our territorial integrity should not be surrendered willy-nilly to a band of terrorists. They too deserve to be protected by the state. If those at the apex of coordinating response by the military are found wanting, they should be relieved of their duties, but that might not be enough.

There must be a game changer in this war. It should not continue to serve as perennial threat to the peace, unity and health of Nigeria. For the umpteenth time we remind the government that its primary purpose is to guarantee the welfare and security of the citizenry. Where this is absent, patriotism and nationalism will naturally take flight at the expense of nationhood. It is time the government mobilised all human and material resources, including the support of retired service chiefs and Generals to complete this all-important project.