Category: Louis Odion

Wherever he is, Nicolo Machiavelli must be chuckling at the little drama unfolding today east of River Niger – Anambra specifically. Men, said the 15th century Italian philosopher, tend to forget the passing of a beloved more quickly than the loss of patrimony.

Machiavelli’s words are playing out in the aftermath of Dr. Alex Ekwueme’s death. What started as a gossip soon after the former Vice President was buried in his native Oko town in February finally blew into the open when Emmanuel Chukwuma, the Archibishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province and known counselor to the Ekwueme’s family, pointedly accused Federal Government officials of “playing smart” with the funds approved for the burial.

Of course, that put the Dr. Chris Ngige (who was the deputy chairman of the FG’s burial committee), on the spot.

Obviously intent on appropriating some political mileage, Ngige had reminded everyone that the government of which he is Labour minister had been gracious enough to relieve Ekwueme’s family of all the financial burden. But since the family had paid the same bill and collected receipt, it was only natural that those in the know quickly exchanged suspicious glances following Ngige’s claims.

Checks at the London hospital eventually brought some relief. Contrary to insinuations, it was confirmed that FG actually wired the said £200,000 directly to the hospital, but only after the bereaved had already paid in November. On receipt of the transfer, the hospital did the right thing by transferring the same amount back to Nigeria’s Central Bank.

What would now seem the new bone of contention, according to a Saturday Sun report, is that whereas the CBN is ready to pay in Naira, the Ekwueme family prefer Pound Sterling they disbursed to the London hospital. Small matter, you may say. But the devil is actually in the details. Of course, as a matter of sovereign pride, the government’s banker should not be seen engaged in any local transaction with forex. But the unspoken displeasure of the bereaved would likely be the fear of being short-changed when “official rate” is applied. Of course, CBN will calculate by official rate. By the time Ekwueme family approach the black market, the  naira cash received would certainly command far less than £200,000.

Hmmm.

Sani Abacha’s gun-toting goons came for TheNews lead writer Dapo Olorunyomi. But in an extraordinary show of leadership by responsibility, editor Kunle Ajibade volunteered himself to be taken away instead, following a scathing cover story the magazine published on what would become known as the phantom coup of 1995.

Of course, that self-sacrifice marked the beginning of Ajibade’s journey to Abacha’s gulag for three harrowing years in defence of truth and liberty. He chose not to keep cowardly silence in the face of tyranny.

Indeed, the chronicle of popular resistance of Nigeria’s military despotism of the 80s and 90s is incomplete without acknowledging the likes of Ajibade who showed courage under fire.

As he turns 60s, here is saying happy birthday to one of Nigeria’s journalism icons.

As is customary, today, we shall be making a detour from the usual to dissect just two of the slew of words that has lately crept treacherously into national conversation since our last enumeration. The mission is to provide context and content, so that the uninitiated may better understand. Transmission: Goodluck Jonathan gave us “transformation” even though it turned out the real agenda was to democratize the looting of the nation’s exchequer. Perhaps owing to his own ritual taciturnity, President Muhammadu Buhari has hardly made a pretense to any such fanciful sloganeering.

However, more by default, that vacuum would now appear filled. Many thanks to the recent spectacular outing of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who, until now, had endured with uncommon equanimity, the antics of traducers who would mischievously prefer to mispronounce his official title as “Inspector Genital” following reports that his harem had quietly admitted a serving female police officer and he, so super efficient, already had her inseminated.

Last week, an apparent slip of tongue at the inauguration of the Police Technical Intelligence Unit in Kano would literally trigger a manic frenzy across the nation’s media circuits – whether traditional or the social media. In the viral footage, Idris is heard mumbling: “I mean, transmission, I mean effort, that the transmission cooperation to transmission, I mean transmission to have effect, ehm, apprehend, I mean…”

While the orgy of lexical violence lasted amid the heavy wind that afternoon, an aide was seeing moving to his side to assist him on the lectern, to no avail.

Thus, the word “transmission” caught on like wild fire. Never since Buhari assumed office three years has one single word or phrase had the nation enraptured so intensely.

Trust the subversive ingenuity of the netizens in the social media. We saw a gallon of engine oil emblazoned with a rather cheeky sticker, “SuperTech – Automatic Transmission Fluid”, garnished with Idris’ chuckling face.

Countless short videos followed, mimicking Idris. In one, we heard an improvised melody synchronized to the dance-steps of some excited cops on duty.

With all manner of comic flicks flying around, you would think the IG is the CEO of a new comedy company.

Trust those easily given to superstition. They were quick to conclude that what IG had suffered while reading the prepared text that afternoon was a “spiritual attack”, hence the stunning incoherence.

Even more hilarious – if not disturbing – was the reaction of the police authorities to the embarrassing footage. Of course, there is no denying that the clip was doctored (a reminder of the increasing danger technology poses to even the spoken words) and that Idris’ “enemies” helped fuel it. But there can be no denying one truth also: there was a slip, which is only human. Not admitting that at all is what seems despicable. After all, exaggeration, as Khalib Gibran tells us, is only a truth that has lost its temper.

But, overall, it will not be difficult for those familiar with the workings of officialdom to, at least, locate the genesis. There is no doubt the speech at issue was drafted for the IG. Ideally, in such circumstance, he should have rehearsed before hand. That would have afforded him the opportunity to familiarize himself with the “jaw-twisting” words or detect any grammatical impurities ahead. It is most likely he was too preoccupied with other things to observe this basic etiquette of public-speaking.

So, after all mispronounced and done, the IG also partly has himself to blame. Well, maybe his consolation should be that, at least, there is now an epithet to define his reign as super cop.

Rescue: Those still unbelieving that a word could actually lose its etymological virginity  to the extent of beginning to connote or denote something entirely contrary would not have to look beyond Imo today. Some seven years ago, Rochas Okorocha made a fetish of the phrase “Rescue Mission” to describe his vision and mission in the state self-acclaimed as “the heartland” of the South-East.

But with the political carnage Okorocha has suddenly found himself, it would appear the zealous rescuer of yesterday has ironically morphed into the biggest casualty today. Now virtually defenestrated from the APC he thought he built in Imo, it is clear the hunter has become the hunted.

Alas, his dream of corralling APC structure to perpetuate his reign by installing his son-in-law as his successor appears to be going up in smoke as a coalition of opponents has wrested the control from him, if the outcome of the recent state congress is any guide.

Maybe, philistinistic Okorocha never read Chinua Achebe. Or, if he did, he least understood what he wrote. Otherwise, he would not have forgotten the popular parable of the the rich man who could afford to treat the entire community to a feast but who was faced with death arising from constipation when the entire town decided to feed him.

From the look of things presently, all the power and principalities within Imo APC and their allies in Abuja have decided to force-feed Okorocha. Now, what we hear is the gurgling sounds of someone in the throes of asphyxiation.

Pity, Okorocha is left to whine himself hoarse, in fact grumpy. When not blaming outgoing National Chairman, Chief Odigie Oyegun, for “vendetta against me for opposing tenure elongation”, he is sulking against Osita Izunaso and other kinsmen for seeking to “chop where they did not work”.

For so long, Okorocha tormented Imo with his uncommon megalomania. Even when he had not yet been sworn in May 2011, he fabricated the letterhead of “Office of Incoming Governor” with which he wrote banks warning them not to honour cheques issued by the then outgoing governor.

Thereafter, he proceeded to unleash perhaps the most audacious privatization of the institution of state in recent history with family members exclusively planted right from the gate to the throne in Government House.

Ah! The rescue worker himself is now in need of emergency evacuation.

Among Nigerians old enough today to understand things, few, if any, would claim not to have encountered the name Femi Falana (Obafemi Patrick Falana), either by reputation or being beneficiaries of the consequences of his career of tireless socio-political activism of almost four decades.

As he turns 60, there can be no better time to celebrate a man whose entire life has been devoted to the cause of the poor and the birth of a more equitable social order.  In that noble pursuit, he has been jailed by successive governments. Time and tide might have changed, FF has been consistent.

At the bar, he sees the law more as a veritable tool to weave a safety net for the comfort of the vulnerable against the treacherous machinations of the privileged. So, he takes briefs from rich clients in order to fund pro bono cases for the poor.

Those then seeking to pigeon-hole FF to political or economic interests will certainly toil in vain. This is because whereas you may find him effusive in the praise of government over one policy, in the next breath, he is belching smoke and fire against the same authority over another issue. With him, what only seems permanent is his value – a fierce commitment to the cause of egalitarianism, fair-play and good governance. Put simply, justice is his religion, consistency his insignia.

While assorted legends have since been created around FF’s anti-establishment struggle, there is a hilarious secret not many are yet aware of.  Whereas his entire working life could be said to have been devoted to battling secular authority, his career of rebellion was actually launched in the seminary school. At the exclusive Catholic institute, students were supposed to be guided by an unwritten and unspoken decree obliging them to exercise utmost inhibition when, for instance, called to dance in the open.

But not FF. Came the dancing time one day. Rather than comport himself like others, FF chose to dance freely, in fact, exhibiting deft footworks the disapproving presiding chaplains thought belonged only to “the carnal-minded” secular world. That very act of cold defiance by FF marked the turning-point in his running battle with the school authority, eventuating in his self-withdrawal from the institution.

By their fruit, you shall know them. FF’s spirit of defiance would also manifest in his now famous musician son, “Falz De Bad Guy”.  He was sent to Ivy League school in London to study law. Upon graduation, he only agreed to join his parents’ law chambers in Lagos briefly. One day, he told his parents he preferred to follow his passion – music. His mum was aghast, reportedly asking where the lad inherited the music gene from in the family. (FF and wife jointly run their chambers.)

But never losing his sense of humour even at the gravest of moments, FF reportedly turned on the wife and asked if they (the parents) could, in good conscience, be said to have inherited the “gene of law practice” from their own parents since they were non-lawyers.

Thus, the hitherto tense family meeting dissolved into raucous laughter. Of course, that signaled dad and mum’s blessings for “Falz De Bad Guy” to pursue his own dream – a career path he has since made a huge success of within a relatively short period.

While celebrating the people’s lawyer, we also must not forget another exemplar, engaging scholar and essayist of gravitas – Professor Ayo Olukotun (aka Possible Baiye) who just turned 65.

Through the ideas he has professed over the years, the professor of political science demonstrates that scholarship is meaningless without character and futile if it does not illuminate the path ahead for the society to navigate. Little wonder then he is today the esteemed occupant of the Oba Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair in Governance at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye.

Were Ehiogie West Idahosa not a familiar name, one would have been tempted to dismiss the graffiti credited to him recently in the media as composed by a stark illiterate at a pepper-soup joint at the popular Agbado market in Benin City. Aside the farrago of illogicalities, seeking to ethnicize the circumstances that forced Chief John Odigie-Oyegun’s fall as APC chair is, to put it mildly, descent to the sewer of crude revisionism.

Hardly concealing his incitement of clan hate in the article, the former Reps member accused Adams Oshiomhole of orchestrating Oyegun’s misfortune purely for his own self-aggrandizement in furtherance of what he termed gravely as emerging “Bini humiliation”.

Among other fallacies, West-Idahosa argued: “If Buhari is re-contesting for the post of President, what is the crime of Oyegun? Why should Oyegun not be allowed to do a second tenure?

“Many of us are left with no choice than to conclude that Oshiomhole does not want a Benin man to remain in a position of political influence which is more significant that his role in the political system at any given time.”

As a conscientious Bini man and one who as Information Commissioner had the privilege of a ringside view of events leading to Oyegun’s coronation as national chair in 2014, this writer does not only feel implicated but also slandered by such false conclusion.

As anyone might observe, one has not been shy to be counted among Oyegun’s critics as national chair at some point. One’s censure in previous outings is however based on an objective evaluation of his leadership style which tended to flaunt sterility as substance; the kind that saw a once promising party fossilizing into bitter camps today.

True, APC consisted of strange bed fellows at its founding. Oyegun’s own tragic flaw is the incapability to provide exemplary leadership that could, at least, have brought hope by genuinely seeking to weld these disparate forces together. If we must take a step further to briefly join West-Idahosa in his dark alley of ethnic baiting, by what stretch of imagination or stream of conscience could the weakness Oyegun has shown transparently then be cited as helping to validate the age-old characterization – if not romanticization – of the Edo man as always firm and courageous?

Contrary to West-Idahosa’s red herring, no one is trying to belittle Oyegun’s accomplishments as a career civil servant. But the man we saw on the APC chair was undoubtedly a weakling, more obsessed with securing the sitting order and preserving privileges while the great Titanic was sinking fast.

It will then seem a perfect finale to the stated abject dereliction that the only party congress eventually staged under Oyegun’s watch has largely been presenting the nation a theatre of the absurd in the past two weeks.

Against this sordid backcloth, I think the issue has been: who can deliver more? Given his indelible footprints at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and later the White House at Dennis Osadebey Avenue, there is a consensus that Oshiomhole would provide a strong leadership that inspires respect and therefore order. It is perhaps a mere accident of geography that he happens to hail from the same state as Oyegun.

If nothing at all, Oshiomhole’s proven talent at engagement would undoubtedly have helped minimize the climate of alienation that has now more or less occluded APC from its heart and soul. His muscular oratory will certainly come handy against the onslaught of a seemingly resurgent PDP.

So, for West-Idahosa to dodge the real issues and now seek to excuse Oyegun’s epic failing on the national stage as something conjured by “enemies at home” and then proceed to dress him in the counterfeit toga of Bini champion is very laughable indeed. It would have made more sense if the author had told us how his idol had used his high office to benefit Bini people all the while, other than a tiny cycle of bare-foot praise-singers around him.

Now, this fact is notorious: it is only in Edo that President Muhammadu Buhari recorded 45 percent vote in the South-South zone in 2015 – a feat undeniably pulled by Oshiomhole then as sitting Edo Governor even when the pervading sentiment in the province and indeed across the Niger Delta was sympathy for PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan as “son of the soil”. The question to ask the emergency champions of Bini/Edo interest like West-Idahosa is: to what extent was Oyegun able to parlay this electoral distinction to ensure commensurate patronage to Edo relative to other states in the zone where PMB got nearly zero vote?

Seeking to scape-goat Oshiomhole for Oyegun’s self-inflicted misfortune therefore reeks of intellectual fraud. For, only that could explain why West-Idahosa would accuse Oshiomhole of being anti-Bini but fail to acknowledge the decisive role the same “Oshio Baba” had played in tilting the scale in Oyegun’s favour in 2014 at the party level in Edo even after the state exco had openly endorsed a better-grounded Chief Tom Ikimi from Esanland as preferred candidate for APC national chair.

There is another point where the likes of West-Idahosa play the ostrich today. They hardly appear to see any contradiction in praise-singing Godwin Obaseki as “Wake-and-See Governor” on account of perceived remarkable showing and yet crucifying Oshiomhole on whose bare back the former had climbed to power in 2016 despite all the odds.

True, Oshiomhole, like all mortals, has his own weaknesses. But the worst lie anyone could tell against him is accusation of ever marginalizing Bini zone (Edo South) as governor or being sectional, clannish or hostage to parochial sentiments. Rather, by words and deeds, he has proved himself to be a man who believes only in results. I bear this testimony as one privileged to serve his government as Information Commissioner at some point. It is public knowledge that his Principal Private Secretary, Olaitan Oyerinde (who was assassinated in 2012), hailed from Osun State. He was replaced by Yakubu (from the north). Head of the influential Environmental Task Force later made Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment (Major Oloye), hails from Osun State too. His long-serving Police orderly (Obadiah) hails from Plateau State. His personal cook (Danladi) is also from the north. His Chief Security Office (Haruna) hails from Kogi. His Chief Detail (Obasi) comes from Ebonyi.

Interestingly, among those West-Idahosa described as Oshiomhole’s political “benefactors” from Bini kingdom was Chief Lucky Igbinedion. But he conveniently chose to be silent on who could be regarded as bequeathing more enduring social infrastructure in Bini kingdom between Igbinedion and Oshiomhole after their respective two terms of office. So much that the late Oba Of Benin, Erediuwa, once publicly declared Oshiomhole “my adopted son on account of his respect and love for the Bini royal family and the infrastructural transformation of Bini Kingdom.”

Hear what more credible Bini leader and the revered Esogban of Bini Kingdom said last week: “I’ve no doubt in my mind that Oshiomhole will make a success of the venture having regards to his pedigree and what he has done in Edo State. He did not only transform the political fortune of APC here, he transformed Benin from rural capital to a modern city that can cope with any one or any other city in Nigeria and elsewhere.”

By the way, before I resigned as Commissioner in 2015, I recall sighting West Idahosa at numerous APC rallies looking pathetic in over-sized Oshiomhole-style khaki attire also chorusing “Oshio Baba”. (This was after being short-changed out of PDP by the ruthless godfathers in 2011.) So, at what point did West-Idahosa encounter his own epiphany? While decamping to APC in 2014, he had pleaded to be given the senatorial ticket. Could the beef have started when Oshiomhole failed to impose him on Edo South in 2015?

Though he set out to tackle the allegation of complicity in reported underage voting in recent Kano polls, INEC boss, Mahmood Yakubu, has inadvertently reopened the extant debate on the forces undermining the integrity of the electoral process in Nigeria.

Back in February, tongues naturally began to wag across the land after the social media was awash with footages of kids purportedly voting in the council polls in which the ruling party recorded almost 100 percent victory. With the opposition Peoples Democratic Party at the receiving end, fingers were expectedly pointed at the electoral umpire as culpable by enabling such underage registrants to collude with the All Progressives Congress to steal victory.

The report presented by INEC last weekend however put a lie to that. If anything at all, argued Yakubu, the local electoral commission in Kano should be held responsible.

INEC’s defence could be winnowed to three broad conclusions: the same voters register being discredited was in use in 2011 and 2015; the copy availed KANSIEC was not widely deployed during the exercise under review and the images of underage voters on the social media were not only contrived but also recycled as they were not fresh.

Well, the case presented by Yakubu is water-tight enough. Only those unfamiliar with the workings and relations of both the national umpire and the coordinates in the 36 states would have been tempted to aim any arrow at the former in the first case on perceived irregularities in state elections.

At this writing, KANSIEC was yet to muster a counter to Yakubu’s weighty charges. I doubt if there is any solid grounds left for it to articulate a sensible response.

If the voters register was scarcely displayed that day, it was probably because the state authorities felt they needed to save cost since the results were already pre-determined.

Truth be told, KANSIEC, like others in the 35 states, is filled with cronies of the ruling party.

So, what would then appear perplexing is the expectation in any quarters that a different outcome could have resulted from the exercise held in Kano in February.

To illustrate further, let us recall the rather comical drama that had played out in Edo State at the inauguration of a new board for the state electoral umpire during the PDP administration of Lucky Igbinedion.

After the customary rite of subscribing to the oath of office before the governor that day, it was time for the elderly man to make an acceptance speech to a packed audience including media correspondents. Unable to conceal his excitement at the offer, what first came out of his lips with a clenched fist thrust skyward was: “Up P-D-P!!!”

Needless to add that the microphone was instantly wrestled from his hand to save further embarrassment.

In the circumstance, the only option before such a lackey is to help his employer work from the answer to the question.

It explains why the ruling party in any state across the country always wins 100 percent in local elections. Of course, the question then: how healthy is this situation? What’s to be done?

These are questions for another day.

Now, one feels the national apprehension ought to be centred more on 2019 and how INEC is bracing for the challenge ahead. Of course, what ails the nation’s electoral process has long been diagnosed; what has been lacking is the will to execute the recommended therapeutic surgery. The roadmap is clearly laid out in the Uwais Report.

With the executive and legislative arms of government presently caught in a cold war over partisan interests, it definitely would amount to carrying optimism too far to expect that any of the prayers in the Uwais Report can still be realized before the next polls.

Yet, these recommendations don’t appear too difficult or prohibitive if truly patriotism runs in the veins of present actors and if indeed our politicians were thinking of the future generations rather than the next elections. Otherwise, they would not need further prompting to accept Uwais’ counsel that the first step to making the electoral umpire truly independent requires that it be given financial autonomy.

The second prayer yet unanswered is the unbundling of INEC. For efficiency, three units are supposed to be carved out of the present behemoth. One should cater for registration and regulation of parties, another for electoral offences and the other for constituency delimitation commission.

The second one is, of course, intended to create incentives against electoral crimes.

Another key reform Uwais report canvasses is to ensure that disputes arising from elections are dispensed with before the inauguration of the new dispensation. This is to ensure litigations don’t last forever or give custodian of a disputed mandate the unfair advantage of using public funds to fight their legal battle.

However, it is pleasing to hear that Yakubu, in his own modest way, is pushing ahead with few innovations within reach with a view to deepening the electioneering process. For instance, insisting that presidential candidates submit themselves to a public debate ahead of the D-Day will not only help clarify the choices before the voters but also ultimately enrich the democratic culture.

Two, ushering in electronic collation and results transmission will rule out manual collation, thus helping to minimize the possibility of manipulation. Experience has shown that rigging of seismic scale often transpires between polling booth and the collation centre.

The actual theft is barely feasible at the former with the vigilance of glaze-eyed party agents and just anyone around participating in the process of counting ballot papers and recording of scores.

The innovation of electronic collation and transmission would appear the logical follow-up to the revolutionary card-reader technology deployed in the 2015 polls. The good news is that the senate has now furnished the card-reader a legal basis to become part of our electioneering process. This followed the lacuna laid bare by the Supreme Court rulings on Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom state governorship polls where it was pointed out that no section of the existing Electoral Law granted it legal status.

While these may sound reassuring, however, the real red flags are surely fluttering just ahead already. With barely nine months to the eagerly awaited next general elections, INEC is yet to be provided funds to work with, even though it submitted a budget of N300bn.

Without cashing the funds timely, the timelines set to achieve certain targets will definitely be affected.

Needless to add that situations like this are what ultimately predispose the electoral process to compromise. The testimony provided by Donald Duke, should suffice here. Speaking from experience, the one-time Cross Rivers State governor revealed that the capture of the resident electoral commissioner is usually enabled when they arrived their station of assignment empty-handed. With little or no provisions made by the employer for their operations, least of their personal welfare.

In the circumstance, such operatives resort to self-help. Once they start occupying swanky hotel suites and drinking wine supplied by the host governor, it is only naturally they would soon begin to pander to the benefactor’s machinations.

So far, nothing on the horizon suggests that the story is about to change.