The Nation Newspaper

Category: Mobolaji Sanusi

  • Kwankwaso’s pebbles against Supreme Court Justices

    Kwankwaso’s pebbles against Supreme Court Justices

    For a fortnight now, the raging question ruminating through my mind is why a former governor, ex-minister of defence and a reputable politician of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s stature will be caught on tape uttering words that impugn the character of justices of the country’s apex court. In a video posted on social media by one Saifullahi Hassan, designated as his media aide, Kwankwaso was seen making statement that diminishes the institution of the country’s Supreme Court.

    While bemoaning the defection of incumbent Kano State governor, Abba Yusuf, from New Nigeria Peoples Party(NNPP),  to the All Progressives Congress(APC), he spitefully projected Yusuf as an ingrate when he unconscionably declared; “he had forgotten that in 2019, I took him to the homes of all the supreme court judges in Nigeria to beg them. I and the governor met them in their villages and towns.”

    These words by Kwakwanso were uttered without deference to the cautionary admonition of Williams Shakespeare when he said: “Give thy thoughts no tongue.” The former Kano governor’s statement was laden with negative innuendos capable of projecting our apex court’s justices as easily amenable to the whims and caprices of powerful men of power, wealth and influence that are always found seeking undeserved judicial favours for themselves, allies or their political parties. Kwankwaso’s crassly denigrative revelation affirms him as one of the impudent leaders/national figures compromising and destroying institutions in the country.

    The general presumption is that not even the defence of an emotional turmoil of losing a political godson to his perceived political enemy, the ruling APC party is tenable a reason for Kwankwaso’s jettisoning of desired circumspection, being the irreducible minimum standard expected of a man of his political stature in both conduct and spoken words in the public space. His puerile squeal is no doubt capable of undermining the integrity of the nation’s apex court justices that are the repositories of judicial knowledge in our country.

    Kwankwaso’s gaffe and self touted intervention of visiting the “villages and towns of the justices,” was meant to ‘compromise’ the apex court. The world over, litigants with or without pending cases before the courts are not expected to pay discreet, nocturnal or daytime visits to respected judges on The Bench. Such a visit is considered an ethical taboo.

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    The world is changing with odious occurrences, particularly in this part of the world, while our leaders remain unflustered. Recently, an agitating scenery was openly exhibited by some of our Federal High Court judges that yours sincerely find really disgusting after watching it on television and on social media platforms. This relates to their so called patronising visit to Chief Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT). The judges delegation was led by their Chief Judge, Hon. Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, OFR.

    The chief judge, as leader of the team, was openly aired, soliciting in patronising manner, for Abuja land favours from the controversial minister. It is doubtful if the public would not doubt the outcome of any matter involving Wike that is brought before the judges now or in the near future. That visit, to say the least, was really repulsive as it has the potential of making the custodians of our Temple of Justice an object of avoidable scoffing in the public domain.

    While growing up as a kid in this country, judges are not only reclusive but are also largely venerated as a special human specie, carefully chosen, to discharge salient judicial assignments. Their roles are viewed by the populace as reserved only for men of truly unimpeachable character amongst us. But sadly so, whatever decadence is being witnessed in the judiciary today is only a reflection of our judges being a product of the rotten society where they emanated from.

    In contemporary times, things are changing as undue political and societal pressures are open-secretly being mounted on our judicial officers. We now live in a society that is experiencing abysmal moral decadence as mostly bad governance across levels of government is the order of the day. Rather than the promotion/pursuits of meaningful industrial and other productive ventures, we now have a system that gives impetus to the belief that the quickest and easiest way to acquire wealth or live a luxuriously good and easy life is either to be connected to government or to erroneously travel abroad which is now euphemistically branded as the JAPA syndrome.

    This condemnable mindset of getting rich without being productive and not taking a no for an answer have severe consequences on institutions of state -especially the judiciary. To cure this mischief, President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, recently increased significantly, the remuneration package of our judges to a truly living wage. Despite this, most of them still pander to negativities that project that important arm of government in bad light.

    The current Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, as head of the National Judicial Council, NJC, so far is trying her best to restore the soiled image of the judiciary. Not too long ago, thirty-four out of sixty-two lawyer-nominees for the Federal High Court were rejected because of integrity issues. This is just a tip of the iceberg as many believe in the incumbent CJN’s capacity and capability to recalibrate for the better, the judicial system in the country.

    Despite her ongoing commendable reform efforts, CJN Kekere-Ekun needs to contend with powerful politicians and other influence peddlers as she forges ahead. This is because the rat race to sustain or win power by these terrible breed of power-intoxicated people that challenges anything unfavourable to them even when fair, and the deluge of election petitions emanating therefrom, have put our judges on the spot, exposing them to unimaginable temptations in the process. One of the many unfortunate onslaughts on judges of our courts is the recent obloquy against judges of the apex court by Kwankwaso.

    So far, no single word has been spoken or written to debunk the grievously odious allegations against the sanctity of the nation’s judiciary by any of the serving justices of the apex court. But a retired justice of the court, Justice Musa Muhammad Dattijo, had audaciously pooh-poohed the incident by stating that he never met with Kwankwaso or Governor Yusuf anywhere or at anytime before and after retiring on October 27, 2023. “I speak for myself…My intervention is not intended to defend or indict anyone else….It is simply to clarify that I was not part of any such engagement,” the retired justice reportedly declared. Till now, Kwankwaso has remained on the mute mode rather than give further details for the observing public.

    In a country where the challenge of wrongdoings has become perilous and most times derided, Dattijo’s courage deserves commendation.

    The making of sweeping statements capable of denigrating the credibility of our apex court’s justices and by extension, the entire judicial system by anybody should be condemned. The nation’s grundnorm, explicitly guarantees freedom of speech and expression but with a proviso curtailing such right where uttered words risk harming the reputation of others or that of our public institutions.

    Kwankwaso’s oblique is therefore actionably careless and slanderous. Not even when his visits to the justices’ towns and villages yielded negative result since it was Mallam Abdullahi Ganduje that was eventually awarded the governorship judgment of Kano state in 2019 by the appellate court.

    Restating here that the judicial arm of government plays an important role in societal cohesion should be considered a litotes. This is because conflicts between individuals and institutions are inevitable and when they occur, parties involved need a neutral institution as a trusted arbiter to resolve such disputes. That is where the sacred duty of the judiciary and judicial officers come into play. Our politicians should leave the judiciary out of their condemnable shenanigans.

    The Kwankwaso oblique remarks through his self-centred visits to towns and villages of judges, is obviously antithetical to the legendary Lord Denning’s inimitable observation when he said: “Justice must be rooted in confidence, and confidence is destroyed when right-thinking people go away thinking that the judge is biased.” The flaunting of visitations to homes of judges by litigants with pending cases, like Kwankwaso did, merely diminishes the credibility of pronounced judgments which never happened in this case. In this particular instance, it is gratifying that the appellate court justices, notwithstanding Kwankwaso’s discreet visits, overlooked his visitation request by subsequently going ahead to award judgment against candidate Yusuf in 2019.

    The Kwankwaso-gate leaks should serve as a reminder to our judges to see especially our politicians as ‘caveat emptor’ that they must be kept at an arm’s length. Otherwise, the judiciary as an important institution for sustaining national cohesion and stability might become an object of mockery. Surely, incumbent CJN Kekere-Ekun will not allow this to happen.

    For other loquacious politicians in Kwankwaso’s shoes aspiring for statesmanship, that notable Latin writer, Publilius Syrus has words of advice for them where he said: “Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.”

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.(sms/whatsapp-07011117777).
  • Uganda’s democratic tyranny

    Uganda’s democratic tyranny

    Uganda is indeed on my mind this week simply because any empathy-filled Pan-African black man anywhere with a flair for liberty must show concern for the citizens of any country where democracy is being cannibalised. The repressive governance disguised as democracy in Uganda is regrettably of contagious effect on the African continent with curious immodel specimen from the world’s number one democratic country under President Donald Trump’s leadership in far away United States.

    ‘Competitive authoritarianism’ robed in democratic costume, particularly in Africa, rather than abate, is fast spreading like a virus. We need antidotal vaccine to stem this ugly tide.

    Instinctively, many might be wondering why Uganda, despite the myriads of issues demanding serious analytical commentary in Nigeria. My response is captured by the resonating words of that globally renowned irrepressible martyr of liberty and freedom, Martin Luther King Jr. where he said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

    Truly, democratic injustice, though has historical antecedents, is sadly becoming more ingrained in contemporary polity with no jurisdictional limitations.

    In the African continent, the latest mal-example of distorted values of representative democracy is Uganda under the repressive government of Yoweri Museveni. The democracy envisioned by Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg, United States, in November 19, 1863, has through the democratic shenanigan of leaders like Museveni and others, now given birth to a political coinage that is globally known as ‘competitive authoritarianism.’ This is a redefinition that is completely antithetical to everything that real democracy stands for.

    Currently in Africa, Museveni epitomizes the deplorable wind of competitive authoritarianism that is fast gaining momentum amongst leaders, especially in the developing world of which Africa is a prominent part.

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    Museveni gained power through a populist rebellion but regrettably now represents everything he condemned in the government he toppled. A brief historical excursion suffices: Museveni captured Kampala, his country’s capital after staging a five-year armed rebellion against the government of Tito Okello on January 26, 1986. He was sworn-in on January 29 of same year. Forty years after, at age 81, and currently serving a contentious seventh term as president of Uganda after his transmutation from military to civilian president in his pioneer ‘democratic’ election in 1996. So far, Museveni and his son have been projecting that country as truly one of the most repressed nations in Africa and the world

    Museveni started as a rebel with a cause but is now affirmatively a tyrant in democratic robes. He is indubitably not a shining model of democratic ideals. In his country today, hopelessly helpless Ugandans have taken his stay-put in office as more of a fait accompli. Added to their political grief is the murderous antics of his biological son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who for decades has been the Chief of Defence Forces in his father’s government.

    Kainerugaba has been the brutal force behind his father’s hold on power. His father is reputed to have relatively stablised his country’s $65 billion economy. Museveni’s noteworthy stance against homosexual activity is equally well known. But these two accomplishments have been dwarfed by Museveni and son’s political monstrosity of pocketing the media; scrapping of presidential term limits in 2005 and and also removal of age limits in 2017 through dubious constitutional amendments. These undemocratic changes were designed to perpetually keep him in power till death.

    The above have been confirmed by his recently held presidential election and the disputed results that proclaimed him as the odious winner. That election’s surrounding happenings also affirmed Museveni’s son as being above the law. His son routinely made fiery and insensitive late night social media posts. As the engine room of his father’s tenacious hold on power, he is reputed to routinely order crackdown on political opponents and even known to have masterminded the infamous four-day internet blackout meant to prevent the world from knowing the political atrocities of his father’s regime during the recently held elections.

    Museveni, despite having a Vice President has turned his son as his alternate-president. The son’s brutish approach is replete with, but not limited to, his reportedly boasting that 30 “terrorists” from the opposition Bob Wine’s National Unity Platform party had been killed while his self-branded two thousand “hooligans” from same Wine’s party had, on his instructions, been arrested and tortured. He routinely ordered the brutalization of opposition supporters and disrupted their political rallies.

    At a point, Museveni’s son’s uncurtailed monstrosity saw him threatened to behead Bobi Wine who is Uganda’s most potent opposition leader at the moment. This abysmal Ugandan situation of a president’s son holding the entire country captive is vividly depicted by Wine who is Museveni’s opposition nightmare to wit: “Nobody is safe again in Uganda where a military general will consume his whisky and wish somebody death.”

    Due to his tyrannical traits, Museveni’s ruling party has been cleansed of truth sayers. His son has destroyed military discipline and cohesion because he’s fond of summarily retiring rival military officers while he uses pecuniary incentive and undeserved promotions to secure soldiers’ loyalty. Museveni looks the other way while his son’s invidious act continues unabated.

    It would be apt to ask whether Kainerugaba actually passed through Britain’s prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy where values of military finesse and discipline are believed to be taught. He defied his global exposures to civilised Swedish conduct and the other countries he came across. This megalomaniac son of Museveni lived and grew up in Sweden and few other countries while his father was a guerrilla commander of the National Resistance Movement/Army against Milton Obote and his government after disputing the 1980 results of a general election in which his father contested to lead Uganda on the platform of Uganda Patriotic Movement. Museveni commenced the Ugandan Bush War in the aftermath of this electoral disputations in 1981.

    The rapaciousness of father and son keeps tormenting the spirits of Ugandans through the Special Forces Command, an elite unit often described as an within the army. Museveni’s son eagerly wants to succeed his father and was reportedly caught on tape in 2023 complaining about his being bored of waiting to achieve this goal. This is despite his knowing that even if Museveni dies in office, the Vice-President is constitutionally empowered to take over temporarily, pending when a fresh election takes place. With Museveni’s son’s leadership inordinate mindset, the ruling National Resistance Movement party of his father has an uphill battle ahead.

    Time is however tickling and Museveni should thoughtfully halt his, and son’s repressive governance model. If in the eighties, he launched a guerrilla warfare that removed a constitutional government in his country, let him be reminded that such is still possible today; if not against him but against his inordinately ambitious son. One of Museveni’s precursors in power and a globally renowned brutal tyrant for that matter, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda was disgraced out of power. If it happened then to Amin, why not Museveni and his son!

    Admonition: Any leader aspiring or currently ruminating over the possibility of emulating the Museveni model should jettison the idea and embrace leadership integrity that’ll engrave their names in the pantheon of democratic greatness.

    Ugandans living within and outside their country need not be told that Museveni and his son have become law unto themselves and when a situation like this arises, Thomas Jefferson once scribbled some words to guide victims’ remedial actions where he said: “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes a duty.”

    For leaders of countries that are discreetly plotting to inflict the Museveni Model of repressive governance on their hapless citizens, the Thomas Jefferson salvo should serve a reminder of the extent the people, as a matter of duty, can justifiably go when pushed to the edge by competitive authoritarian, anywhere in the world.

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS(SMS Only To: 07011117777).

  • 2027: If not Tinubu, who?

    2027: If not Tinubu, who?

    Periodic elections are essential components of any constitutional government. It gives room for change and multiplicity of choices. After all, it is trite that no one is good enough to perpetually rule others without their consent or renewed approval. That is why in about thirteen months’ time, Nigerians of voting age will troop out to vote in a new president or renew the tenure of the incumbent president.

    In view of this, a year’s interval is not too far a time for a columnist to hazard a guess on what the leadership circle of his country portends. By February 2027, it is either that the country has a reelected president in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or a mint president-elect would doubtfully emerge on the horizon.

    As of today, even though the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has yet to lift the lid on electioneering campaigns, what is indisputable is that presidential aspirants, including the incumbent president are already plotting various schemes/strategies on how to ensure victory at the polls, come 2027.

    The question to ask: Why is the polity of familiar faces of opposition so agitated about dethroning the current president? We have the roll of opposition presidential contestants: Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Ahmed Datti, Rotimi Amaechi amongst others are those pushing forward to slug it out against the president. Two or three of them are veteran presidential candidates, very few are contenders while others are mere loudmouths, out only to add the prefix of ‘ex-presidential aspirant’ to their political profiles. As these aspirants have the constitutional right to aspire to be president, it shouldn’t equally be lost that the incumbent president also has the legal/legitimate right, under the nation’s grundnorm to seek for a reelection.

    Ours being a politically plural society, such multiplicity of aspirants gives the people the latitude to make preferential decisions amongst the political parties’ teeming aspirants. The main issue that yours sincerely has with these hoards of familiar presidential aspirants is whether they have something different or better to offer from what we currently have in the country; or are they just seeking an opportunity to replace the incumbent for the sake of doing it or they are just embarking on a mere pursuit of longstanding personal ambition at the detriment of the general wellbeing of the country?

    To nurse an ambition is legal but such becomes a national burden when it gives little or no hope of changing the vilified existing status quo ante. Is there anything new on the horizon for Nigerians from these hordes of opposition presidential aspirants plotting day and night on how to wrest power from the current president?

    Of course, it is an integral part of democratic licence for anyone to state that President Tinubu is not the best leader to have been produced by this country. It is equally fair and just to point out as well that the president is just in the midterm of his first tenure thereby making it safe to infer that he is not the worst to have emerged as the leader of this country.

    From a dispassionate point of view, it could, when pushed further without disputations, be stated that amongst those serious contenders that are currently parading themselves in all the eighteen currently registered political parties in the country, he remains arguably above all, if not fairly better-with empirical proofs.

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    Atiku Abubakar is one of the leading contenders from the north trudging forward for the nation’s number one slot come 2027. He’s a perennial contestant for the position. Peter Obi who made an unexpected good showing in 2023 has also thrown his hat into the ring. Unlike what obtained in 2023 when the Labour Party platform was united behind him, the existing political equation looks cloudy for him in the worker’s party or in the party that he newly defected to.

    Rotimi Amaechi’s aspiration remains a boast with no realistic flesh to back it up. The trio are members of the opposition African Democratic Congress(ADC). Ahmed Datti has also chosen to labour for his presidential aspiration with the Labour Party. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party(NNPP), is too confused at the moment to effectively decide whether to contest for the coveted seat or deputise for a stronger candidate from another political party. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is so far bereft of any known serious presidential aspirant with the only known thing about it being that Nyesom Wike and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state  are fervently in self-destructive contention to procure an undertaker for the once national domineering party.

    What new policy ideas are these opposition presidential aspirants bringing before Nigerians? If given the chance by Nigerians, is there any likelihood of them making any significant changes from what currently obtains under the incumbent leadership of the country? Or will it be the usual excuses of successive administrations blaming their predecessors for their governance shortcomings? Isn’t it better to allow the incumbent government continue so as to perfect the problems of the country that has now taken it almost three years to understudy?

    One thing is very clear: During the campaigns leading to the 2023 presidential election, two of the aforementioned aspirants actually espoused their support for Tinubu’s two main policies of ‘brutish’ subsidy removal and the stoppage of rent-seeking dual forex trading rates with its concomitant devaluation effect. These two policies have earned more revenues for the country as much as stabilized the nation’s exchange rate system. Notwithstanding, the former comes with its harsh consequences on the economy and the latter’s devaluation effect has very crushing effect on the populace. Undeniably too, all the contenders in 2023 agreed and still agree that the two purportedly harsh policies are inevitable. If they agreed then and still believe in these two hard knocking policies, it is pertinent to ask what new things they plan to do if given an opportunity to be president of the country by Nigerians?

    Atiku, a formidable northerner, is the most potent of all the upcoming 2027 presidential contenders but can he be entrusted with power? Yours sincerely, like every other discerning Nigerians, can easily relate with how Atiku’s former boss, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo profiled his person in his (Obasanjo’s) book; My Watch, Volume 2, Page 31-32: “Obasanjo on Atiku: “What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts, his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest.”

    Again, same Atiku is in charge of Obasanjo’s privatization policy that he cleverly schewed to his advantage. Under Obasanjo/Atiku’s hypocritical leadership, Nigeria’s hard earned  $16billion was wasted on electricity production without a single result to show for such spending….and with no consequences on these two shameless leaders.

    Underscoring Nigeria’s significant loss from the Obasanjo/Atiku $16billion forex mismanagement is a 2023 World Bank Energy Progress Report berating Nigeria for having the largest electricity access deficit in the world in 2022. The report estimates that a staggering 86 million Nigerians were still living without a reliable power supply. Obasanjo/Atiku’s power money misappropriation is responsible for the inconsistent electricity supply that Nigerians and her productive sectors are facing today. How can such man(Obasanjo’s administration’s ally), expect our countrymen to take him serious in 2027?

    More importantly: Can such a man be trusted by Nigerians to lead them post 2027? Should Obasanjo, his boss, also be rated as a formidable political consultant to any sincere presidential aspirants/Tinubu traducers trooping to his Abeokuta Presidential Library residence for advice today? Your guess is as good as mine.

    Nigerians also need to be reminded that Atiku was an ungrateful temporary ally and beneficiary of Tinubu’s political large-heartedness  in this same country. As vice-president to former president Olusegun Obasanjo, Tinubu rescued him from the political decimation plan of his boss at a period he served as governor of Lagos state. Atiku was helpless and hopelessly standing at the mercy of Obasanjo at that point in history. Tinubu also gave Atiku the Action Congress Party platform to contest for the first time of his being a presidential candidate of any political party in the country.

    In the entire country at that time, it was only Tinubu that stood in opposition and survived Obasanjo’s undemocratic antics during that better forgotten democratic history of this country. When other governors including those of the then Alliance For Democracy fell for Obasanjo’s bait that later unexpectedly threw them out of power, it was only Tinubu that remained the last man standing, and still standing. It was also Tinubu that became the rallying point of not only the progressive governors that were thrown out of power but other political office holders in Obasanjo’s party who were one way or the other not treated fairly by the shenanigan democratic system thrown up at that period.

    Everything within and outside the book, including the deployment of unorthodox measures, were explored to get Tinubu out of power in 2003 and especially 2007 so that his preferred candidate will not succeed him as governor.

    In Lagos, the PDP candidate during Obasanjo’s presidency, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who spearheaded the dirtiest governorship contest against Tinubu’s hegemony in the centre of excellence is today rooting for the man. His son, Babajide Obanikoro hobnobs with the Tinubu political family and actually got elected to the House of Representatives even though he currently serves under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state. Oluseye Ogunlewe, then minister of works who deployed his position with the special backing of the Obasanjo presidency to turn Lagos into the political hotbed of the country is also now with Tinubu today. Equally, one of his sons is presently running his second term as chairman of a local government in Lagos State. In far away Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of that state and also a former ally of the incumbent is in a quandary because of the Tinubu political pull/attraction which precedes his becoming the president of this country. His Kano state governor,  assembly members, local government councils’ chairmen and House of Representatives’ members have all defected to the APC from NNPP as at Friday. The Tinubu-Pull is reverberating round the country as we  look forward to 2027.

    Laughably, an Obasanjo that empirical evidence has shown to be politically inferior to Tinubu in democratic tactics/strategy, is the person that adversarial politicians that are opposed to Tinubu becoming president/seeking for reelection, now run to for political refuge/ideas on how to remove the master strategist from power in 2027. Atiku that Obasanjo says is not fit to rule this country is, for conspiratorial reasons, now seeking the former president’s blessing.

    Peter Obi is also seeking Obasanjo’s support to become the president. Yet, an Obasanjo who in 1999, 2003, 2007 and possibly till date, could not win his polling unit and ward is now a political consultant to opposition presidential contestants. This is laughable, indeed.

    Hate or love Tinubu, the reality is that there’s hardly any notable political figures in the country today that has not directly or indirectly benefited from his fountain of political wisdom. Yet, most of those that are now in the opposition bloc are up in arms saying the man should not go for a second term-sadly without proffering any superior policy ideas to Nigerians. Some of them who served as governors of their respective states did not match Tinubu’s achievements as the directing mind of Lagos state.

    Whenever they are asked why Tinubu should not go for reelection and they are always quick to refer to insecurity and high poverty rate in the land; they enjoy saying that the hardship being witnessed in the country is a consequence of Tinubu’s audaciously harsh economic policies. Once again, let us ask: What is it that they plan to do differently? Judging from their antecedents, nothing but mere media enunciation…

    What Nigerians need is either fresh faces imbued with fresh air or a realistic continuation of current reforms by Tinubu who is expected with time to be able to correct his initiated harsh policies/initiatives and take blame or praises at the end of it all, God willing in 2031.

    Yours sincerely is not in any way or form contesting the fact that standard of living in the country is miserable or that there is no insecurity. The truth is however that there’re ongoing efforts to remedy this economic and insecurity maladies. And finally, the historical antecedents of opposition presidential aspirants on the political turfs at the moment have shown us that none, in good conscience, can be said to have the selflessness to salvage the situation. Nigerians should say no to blame-game and yes to continuation. My sincere and humble submission for this week.

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency is currently managing partner at AMS Reliable Solicitors.(07011117777 – Text messages Only).
  • Malami and a society waiting to be rescued

    Malami and a society waiting to be rescued

    “To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.” — G. Edward Griffin

    The media, since December of last year, has been in a reporting frenzy over a systemic monumental sleaze involving the federation’s immediate past number one legal officer. Abubakar Malami, SAN, while serving as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the federation, had no foreboding that an agency that is once under his control in the Justice Ministry, the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), will one day confidently invite, detain and arraign him, his wife and son, in a court of law over alleged corruption committed while in office.

    But today, it has happened to him, hitting him like a thunderbolt. Reflectively, such self-inflicting happenstance can never be ruled out in the lives of those currently serving in different positions across the country after leaving office. The remedy is for them to strive to overcome official financial misconduct.

    Through a court order, EFCC has secured a temporary forfeiture of 57 properties worth N212.8billion said to belong to Malami, his wife, and son. This is perhaps the biggest corruption case, so far from a single family of a former or serving public office holder under this democratic dispensation. And this leaves much to be desired about how fast the once cherished family values in our communal lives are fast eroding from our society. This singular incident of privileged human insatiable greed involving Malami and family, with other laughable unresolved corruption cases pointedly indicates why the country, in the midst of God-given resource-endowment, may forever be struggling for real greatness by remaining avoidably poor.

    From being an unknown/unrated corporate lawyer/attorney in 2015, Malami, by sheer providential luck of being appointed by demised President Mohammadu Buhari, had magically, in eight years of two terms of that epoch (November 2015-May 2023), reportedly amassed stupendously huge unexplained wealth to the admiration of a largely morally bankrupt society and to the chagrin of few right thinking Nigerians.

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    Malami now faces EFCC’s 16-count charge, including an infraction of Section 15(2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, as amended and punishable under Section 15(3). Alongside his wife, Bashir Asabe; son, Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami, allegedly used Rahamaniyya Properties and  Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited to launder about ₦9 billion with which they bought thirty choice houses littered across Abuja, Kebbi, Kano, and other states. The houses are believed to have a current street value of N212.8billion. All the houses were believed to have been clinically acquired during his eight years of serving in the government of the late President Buhari.

    Malami and family, after meeting bail conditions stipulated by the judge, returned to Kebbi, his home state, where a shameful spectacle occurred. They insensitively rode in a chartered private jet to a waiting crowd of jubilating relatives and supporters. This shameful display involving key suspects in a N212.8 billion money laundering case sadly underscores how low our contemporary but mostly depraved communities have sunk.

    This perhaps explains why the 2024 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index graciously ranked the country 140th out of 180 countries. In a total corruption rating score of 100, the country scored a paltry 26 marks, far below the global average pass score of 43. This result, reflects a dip from the position of 136th out of 174 captured most-corrupt-countries in 2014.

    What the Malami and family’s alleged corruption infamy tells us is that our society as a collective is fast becoming abysmally irredeemable from the firm grip of corruption. Illegal dipping of hands in public tills has sadly become a norm rather than an exception. Becoming the order of the day are: Inflated project costs by government officials in tandem with contractor allies, outrageous commissions on negotiations done on behalf of the government, setting aside of brilliant policy initiatives except such allow for personal aggrandizement, and a shoddy handling of anything government works to give room for pursuits of filthy lucre, amongst others.

    This is why at this point in the nation’s most recent history, the country’s immediate-past number one legal officer, wife, and son, without being known for having hitherto engaged in any identifiable industry or productive engagements/venture can  allegedly amass such stupendous wealth and properties. No wonder that the family system as a veritable foundation of societal values have overtime been destroyed by especially governmental kleptocrats.

    Malami at one time sadly sat over a ministry that wrote and approved legal opinions relied upon in the prosecutions of criminals when he himself is entrapped in questionable ‘mens rea.’ It won’t be hyperbolic to state that this probably symbolized amongst the privileged class in the country, a syndrome that has haughtily affirmed corruption as having assumed a toga of crime without conscience – with no serious consequential repercussions – once the right bargain is struck.

    Perturbingly, our society has been routinely celebrating unrestrained individualism over our communal good and well-being. Several looting of public treasury by individuals in government, running into trillions of Naira have continued unabated with several others waiting for their opportunity. The Emefiele Central Bank scandal is fast fizzling from public consciousness. Diezani Allison-Maduekwe is also fast becoming history. The case of the former Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris who was accused of stealing tens of billions of Naira may never be revisited again. The Abdul-Rasheed Maina pension fund stealing scandal has equally become history. The subsidy thieves are busy enjoying looted trillions of Naira in their various communities while other Nigerians are now paying the price of government’s ineptitude in handling its oil operations. Of major concerns here is how to resolve or tackle this moral question of celebrating intellectual corruption that gives the elites in government especially, the myth of unchallenged privilege.

    There is class culpability in what we have accused Malami of. This is because very few families of politically exposed persons can be exonerated from the Malami corruption malady because it is something that is routinely practiced while our poverty-stricken populace, as spectators, pitifully hail such disgusting acts of odious criminality. If truly the EFCC, Code of Conduct Bureau and the Independent Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offenses Commission, ICPC, are effectively watchful of elites in government, Malami could not have brazenly committed these alleged crimes, notwithstanding his being in power at the time.

    These three societal institutional watchdogs looking the other way, can only give a false sense of temporary invincibility to those currently serving in government and their families that they can do anything and go scot-free for as long as they remain in power. Someone needs to remind them that whatever protection they enjoy now by virtue of being in power is temporary. Recent history has shown that the long arm of justice, even though grinds slowly, will eventually catch-up with such people at the end of their tenure.

    Another peril against cleansing our societies of the filth of corruption is always the reappearance of publicly known looters of public tills in successive governments. Examples of powerful public till robbers that meandered their ways back to appointive/elective positions litter the entire political landscapes. Ayn Rand’s inimitable words gave an insight into the consequences of unrestrained looting in any country with his graphic description of a doomed society to be one in which “corruption is being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice.”

    Our society needs redemption from the pangs of avoidable official sleaze committed by mindlessly avaricious past and present government officials that have ascribed law to a cobweb that holds only the weak while the strong/mighty effortlessly passes through, unruffled. Most Nigerians believe that Malami, despite the alleged corruption charges hanging on his neck, might soon be forgiven and told to sin no more. They sarcastically say, this is Nigeria where anything goes, after all.

    Something urgent has to be done about official corruption because of its destructive influence on the country’s general wellbeing. Noam Chomsky succinctly captures the malady’s rapaciously debilitating effect when he declared: “Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.” Our societal foundations are being destroyed by the corruption cankerworms.

    To save our society from the hundreds of corrupt public officers and families lurking around the corridors of power and tormenting our forward-movement at the various levels in this federation, I beckon on all, including especially the traditional rulers as royal fathers to kindly act as patriots by rejecting public till robbers in our communities. Our royal fathers as traditional leaders of our communities must henceforth start denying such pen-rogues of prime chieftaincy title recognitions to restore community integrity and sanctity. We owe ourselves the task of ensuring that condemnable acts of stealing in government stands exposed, anytime and anywhere.

  • 2026: year of politicking or good governance?

    2026: year of politicking or good governance?

    The new Y2026 is just unfurling, and expectations of a better-managed country by Nigerians from their leadership are justifiably high. This is understandably in tandem with the perennial fresh calendar year projections by individuals, institutions, and governments.

    Therefore, my fellow countrymen crave a better-governed country this new year; and they truly deserve this attainable craving even though our system, as configured for decades, is replete with currently rare intentionally sincere planning and an attitude of selfless delivery. This fact was attested to by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s dissection of the country’s situation during a visit to India on September 7, 2023, to wit: “We are not poor in knowledge. We are not poor in human resources. We are only poor in management and leadership….”

    Why the nation continues to score low marks in management and leadership is an object of discourse for another day. Nonetheless, one thing my fellow countrymen need to realize is that good governance this year might be impeded by the rancorous politics of Y2027 when constitutionally guaranteed periodic general elections of four-year intervals will be held across the country. The conceived season of electioneering is about to be delivered later this year.

    Consequently, my fellow countrymen’s expectations of an undiluted governance, though not misplaced, but in realistic political terms, looks likely forlorn.

    Of course, the paraphernalia of administering government through age long bureaucracy will not stop running, but its doubtful efficacy in the ensuing months that make up the year is something that stands to be seen.

    Usually, budgets covering a whole gamut of public endeavours have certainly been made in federal, state, and local council levels across the country. But the real approving/oversight authorities of the budgets in both the executive and legislative branches of government respectively, will be busy striving to retain their positions or seek fresh terms elsewhere – first by being faced with the distractions of how to win their parties’ primaries and secondly, by the distractions of what strategies to deploy to retain their positions or seek new positional adventures in the next general election.

    Even sitting governors with extinguishing tenures and the ones with no hope of returning will be busy rooting for replacements that’ll cover their dirty/shady dealings after office. In all instances, very little consideration, if any, is accorded to the beneficial governance of the people and country. Rather, the pursuits of personal ambition and interests take precedent.

    For the appointees in states and at the federal levels, including ministers, commissioners, heads of ministries, agencies and parastatals, they will, rather than concentrate on actual governance, be largely distracted by seeking out what contributions they could make to earn political mileage in order to justify their appointments by doing everything, sometimes beyond their means, to show loyalty/support for their appointors. Such eye service is meant to guarantee their retention in positions in the next dispensation come Y2027. This is notwithstanding that most of them performed woefully or compromised their seats in their current positions.

    Read Also: Climate Change: Energy transition towards net zero emissions

    Until this new year 2026, our politicians politick with virtually everything for as long as their political interests are well protected. Within and outside the governmental system, they have been involved in campaigning for perceived party candidates or likely political benefactors against the clear provisions of the Electoral Act.

    This is notwithstanding the fact that section 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 prohibits the commencement of campaigns earlier than 150 days before the next polling circle. Our politicians will have nothing to do with this extant provision and sadly with no obvious consequences. The Act provides no sanction for the aforementioned but merely stipulates in section 94(2) a maximum penalty of N500,000, upon conviction of any political party or person acting on its behalf who engaged in campaigns 24 hours before the polling day. Our politicians exploit the fact that the Act was silent on consequences for campaign breaches that occurred earlier than 150 days before an election date.

    No wonder that in flagrant violations of this Act, the outgone Y2025 was replete with political campaign endorsements of personalities with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) helplessly looking the other way.

    The scramble for political parties’ slots including through defections and the likes by aspiring politicians especially this year when election timetable is yet to be released by the electoral body underscores politicians’ desperation to retain or get power at any cost.

    With all these going on this year, isn’t it pertinent to ask: Will the desired hope of a better governance this year by Nigerians yield the expected dividends in view of ongoing political distractions whereby everyone in government is concerned about securing their forte in the next general election that come up in precisely thirteen months’ time across the country?

    The answer: Your guess is as good as mine. This is because something tells me loud and clear that good governance this year is yielding ground to partisan politics with virtually everyone in government undeniably leading this ugly charge. What a dilemma it really is for Nigerians to contend with!!

    NB: To readers of this column from all over the world, my sincere new year prayers of a rewarding months ahead.

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently the managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (WhatsApp messages ONLY through 07011117777).
  • KWAM-1 and the limit of ambition

    KWAM-1 and the limit of ambition

    Wasiu Ayinde Adewale Omogbolahan Anifowose otherwise addressed by his musical name, KWAM-1, is again in the news-This time for his misplaced priority of aspiring to succeed the late highly revered Oba Sikiru Adekayode Adetona as the next Awujale of Ijebuland.

    His outright rejection by the royal family he’s claiming to have hailed from is causing social media buzz.

    Many right thinking people are now asking: What does KWAM-1 want, and why will he subject his self-touted royal ancestry to public ridicule with telling repercussions on himself and progeny? Could it be a case of pursuit of inordinate ambition or misplaced priority by KWAM-1 despite all his beyond-expectations musical success, amongst others?

    To put the records straight, KWAM-1, through his Fuji music genre, has become a legend in the musical turf of Nigeria, and in parts of the world where Nigerians, particularly his Yoruba tribe members inhabit. Apart from his musical talent that is obviously blessed by God, he also has the rare privilege of musical longevity at close to seventy years when ordinarily, his peers, by historical trajectory, are expected to have been overtaken by the younger folks. He luckily at his age still bestrides the musical turfs alongside highly talented and globally blessed younger Nigerian musical talents.

    KWAM-1 also has a rare privilege of playing music with political influence-thanks to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who seems to have adopted him as his party’s perpetual official musician despite the musical prowess/acceptability of other top Fuji musicians in the country’s public space.

    Even the founder of Fuji music genre, Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, MFR who is also fondly admired by incumbent President Tinubu and actually predicted Tinubu becoming president of the country almost twenty-five years ago in Chicago, United States, would by now be green with envy in his tomb, seeing the heights that Wasiu had taken Fuji music to. But he will be sad that Wasiu Ayinde is bereft of the spirits of gratitude and self satisfaction.

    During Barrister’s lifetime, KWAM-1 adopted his name and made recorded albums as musical alter ego to Barrister. In his benefactor’s lifetime, he even pronounced himself Fuji king: Heavens did not fall. Yet, no one that sings like Wasiu Ayinde or bears his name in contemporary times dared make a recorded album. Those singing like him or adopting his name must live in his shadow for as long as he lives. The same ‘Fuji King’ is now, albeit futilely, moving away from that uninspiring Fuji leadership personality to aspire for the Awujale of Ijebuland stool.

    To this aspiration, his claimed Fusengbuwa/Jadiara royal ruling house, whose turn it is to produce the next king has publicly rejected him; ostensibly with a telling effect on his future generations’ royal ancestral claims to the exalted title in Ijebuland. Consequently, he has become a man blessed with unimaginable success but devoid of self gratitude and contentment.

    Read Also: KWAM 1’s second chance

    KWAM 1’s journey to royal public opprobrium, despite his admirable music exploits, began with his letter of intent dated December 3, 2025, and reportedly accompanied by a lineage data form that saw him erroneously stating that he’s from the Jadiara royal family, a unit of the Fusengbuwa ruling house.

    The Jadiara royal family, against public expectations, openly disowned him by rejecting his purported connection to their royal ancestry. If the Fuji star was a reflective figure, no further signal is required of him to affirm his futilely unpopular decision. His inordinate stand has also been poured presidential cold water through the tweet of the Fusengbuwa rejection letter by Mr. Bayo Onanuga, a proud Ijebu man, renowned journalist of repute and President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, sometimes last week.

    Onanuga, in his significant tweet, wrote: “Fusengbuwa Ruling House in Ijebu Ode, my home town, rejects Wasiu Anifowose a.k.a KWAM 1’s claim to the Awujale throne.”

    The Fusengbuwa ruling house letter tweeted by Onanuga was dated December 11, 2025. It was signed by royal sons, including Otunba Abdulateef Owoyemi as chairman and Otunba Adedokun Ajidagba and Professor Fassy Yusuf as deputy and vice-chairman respectively. KWAM-1 was in unequivocal terms told that their findings rebutted the musician’s claim of belonging to the Jadiara royal house cum the umbrella Fusengbuwa lineage. Needless to state that the signature of authority on Wasiu Ayinde’s form by “a purported family unit head” called Adetayo Oduneye, who was also denied by the Jadiara royal house, is null and void for having no “locus standi” to certify any lineage documents.

    Otunba Akinola Odedina, chairman of Jadiara ruling house, nailed Wasiu Ayinde’s aspiration’s coffin when he reportedly said: “I can say categorically that Wasiu has no genealogical lineage to Jadiara Royal House…..” Another head of the Bubiade royal family, another unit under the Fusengbuwa ruling house, Alhaji O. B. Yusuf, also declared: “I want the general public to know that we don’t have any Anifowose from our family….”

    Yet, KWAM-1 is recalcitrantly insisting that his lineage to one Adeberu branch of the Funsengbuwa ruling house and the Anifowose family of the Fidipote ruling house are unassailable. But where’s this shameful insistence taking him to? Has Wasiu Ayinde considered the fact that the Olori-Omoba Akile Ijebu title he holds is even in jeopardy with the ruling houses he laid claim to publicly insisting in writing and utterances that he has no genealogical lineage in those houses?

    Through a July 5, 2023 letter signed by late Oba Sikiru Adetona, KWAM-1 was conferred with the Olori-Omoba Akile Ijebu title thereby making him head of all princes in Ijebuland. In the public domain, the popular insinuation in the public space is that but for Tinubu’s presidential influence, Wasiu Ayinde would not have clinched the coveted title. Not many have easily forgotten that he is an unbefitting Olori Omo Oba of Ijebuland title holder, who in an hooligan gesture attempted a public disgraceful conduct of stopping a moving aircraft that no one is proud of. Most Ijebus preferred their acclaimed sons with rigorous pedigree as Awujale and probably in retrospect, their revered head of princes’ title.

    Wasiu Ayinde should not push his luck too far. Otherwise, he might be ancestrally demystified to the detriment of his future generations. He conquered the Fuji music scene; conquered fame, been intimate with women of admirable pulchritude; by all standards, he’s also wealthy. Today, he is also the Maiyegun of Yorubaland. But despite being a celebrity musician with strong political voice and connections, he should not allow his inordinate pursuit of the Awujale title becloud his reasoning in an Ijebuland where moguls with intimidating credentials in different spheres of human endeavours hail from.

    Without education from an humble beginning; and relying on brutish struggles and raw music talent; and a family life devoid of emulation, Wasiu Ayinde succeeded the late Subomi Balogun, a prodigious banker and businessman in his lifetime as the prestigious Olori omo Oba Akile Ijebuland. As earlier stated, he also garnered unbelievable traditional titles from traditional rulers, amongst others.

    As Olori Omo Oba, he’s the head of all princes in Ijebuland, and here he is every day of the week, playing successful music before fans at occasions to eke a living. In Yorubaland, musicians, no matter how successful, are perceived as ‘alagbee’—Beggars. If, as Olori Omo Oba, Wasiu still sings at occasions which is ordinarily considered denigrating enough, could it be assumed that if by default he becomes the Awujale, he’ll still continue to sing at occasions for money? No Ijebu son/daughter or any Yoruba free born will be proud to have a musician as an Awujale. If they can’t surpass the standard of late Awujale Sikiru Adetona, nothing says they should go below it.

    • •Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.
    • NB: This column will be on Xmas and New Year break to return on January 10, 2026. To all my readers across the globe: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year 2026 in advance. Thanks.
  • Tinubu’s new Defence Minister: not yet Uhuru

    Tinubu’s new Defence Minister: not yet Uhuru

    The Y2025 is approaching its end. In precisely five months’ time, the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be clocking three years in the saddle. Today’s not a time for passing a verdict on the president’s administration. That’ll come later, but today’s a day to look at the president’s most recent appointment of a new minister of defence in view of the exacerbating insecurity in the land. Also, the need to look at how to forestall or deescalate foreign intrusion in the nation’s internal affairs.

    Tinubu, as governor of Lagos State, was known more by the catchphrase: ‘Talent Hunter.’ And as president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the federal republic of Nigeria with several federal appointments in his kitty, many believe the jury is still out on that catchphrase.

    So far, the president has made appointments that have elicited mixed reactions from the Nigerian public since August 2023, when the first set of ministerial appointments of his administration were announced. However, never in the almost three years of this administration’s existence has any of the president’s appointments been widely celebrated as the president’s recent appointment of General Christopher Musa (rtd), as the country’s new Minister of Defence. Why this is so may not be unconnected with the ineptitude with which Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, minister of defence until few weeks back and his currently serving junior minister, Bello Matawalle, mishandled the recent spate of insecurity in the country. Clearly, these two appointments put to task the catchphrase of the president as a talent hunter.

    No wonder that Nigerians, almost in unison, applauded the appointment of General Musa, whom the president, weeks ago sent on compulsory retirement from his erstwhile post of Chief of Defence Staff, alongside other Service Chiefs of his epoch.

    Musa truly possesses a salutary profile. But despite this, he has an Herculean task ahead of him as the country’s man-of-the-moment because Nigerians truly look up to him to rescue them from amongst others, the pangs of banditry, the criminality of kidnappers and also the barbarity of armed miscreants disturbing ceaselessly, the spirit of Nigerians.

    Questions: Can the retired but obviously not tired General Musa deliver Nigeria from the menace of insecurity that has become a routine recurrence in the country? Won’t the burden of expectations from Nigerians be too deafening for the new Defence Minister to bear? Being a significant part of our rotten system that created and nursed him to hierarchical recognition, will he be able to muster the requisite political will to quash our systemic monsters that might stand between him and his plans for ridding the country of insecurity? Can he stop the endemic corruption and systemic compromise that the unnamed architects of the ongoing insecurity have been inflicting on the country?

    How’s Musa going to deal with the unimpressive military hardware on ground and the debilitating welfare of our military personnel, especially those on the battlefields that did not positively speak to the billions of dollars officially claimed to have over several decades allegedly spent in tackling insecurity in the country?

    This military general, being a creation of this system, presumably knows what he wants to do and how. During his screening appearance before the National Assembly, he spoke smoothly and with confidence. But there is a clear distinction between talk, considered to be cheap, and implementation of the desired action necessary to bring about expected results to quell ongoing insecurity in the country.

    Now is the time for Musa to walk his talk. Franz Kafka once stated that a wise man “starts with what is right than what is acceptable.” This statement should be Musa’s watchword if he intends to achieve anything meaningful as the country’s Defence Minister. Those currently responsible for the rotten state of affairs in the country will surely want him to do what is acceptable to them but to achieve anything tangible for self and country, he needs to depart from acceptable norms and take a detour to the pathways of what is right.

    Yours sincerely can vividly recollect that while he was still in active military service, one or two of his video clips surfaced on the social media where he was seen lecturing his audience on what the country needs to do to win its current intractable insecurity conundrum. He should not detract from his position in those videos but stick to what he thinks should be done to effectively tackle insecurity in the country.

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    He was shown, in one of the videos, strongly advocating for the building of comprehensive border perimeter fences with neighbours like Niger Republic, Cameroon, Chad and Benin Republic so as to curb the infiltration and illegal crossings of insurgents into the country. He made comparative allusions to countries with similar issues that largely resolved their insecurity problems through perimeter fencing of their borders. He alluded to Pakistan that walled its borders with Afghanistan while Saudi Arabia equally walled its borders with Iraq. Musa wondered why the country was delaying in embracing this option months ago. But now that he’s now the country’s defence minister, he should make the achievement of this good idea one of his main critical priorities.

    General Musa also advocated for the deployment of drones, cameras, and transponders, which he considered necessary security tools for effective border surveillance and intelligence gathering. It is sad that our country is yet to fully key into daily deployments of modern technology in combating its insecurity despite the vast resources at its firm disposal. Yet, it is still not too late if, as our new defence minister, Musa can forthwith make this happen.

    The new defence minister should be focused and not be deterred by hypocritical commentators that see everything from the prisms of costs in a resource-endowed country like ours while downplaying such projects’ benefits to the security wellbeing of Nigerians. This geographical entity must be secure before there can be a government in place and even a country called Nigeria.

    Musa should always ask himself about the desirability or otherwise of any project that comes to his mind. Once he is convinced that such project is really necessary for national security, he should pursue them no matter the cost outlay because a country that was recently reported to have spent a huge amount of N17.5trillion on pipelines monitoring in twelve months should be willing and ready to construct perimeter fence to protect its territory from infiltration by rampaging, mostly, Fulani herdsmen aggressors and Boko Haram/ISWAP criminal elements.

    Another important battle General Musa must be prepared to wage and possibly win is that of the federal bureaucracy. Generally, bureaucracy creates a structure of rules/regulations deliberately designed to control governmental decisions. But these rules/regulations have grown to become avoidable bottlenecks of suffocating red tapism, loss of freedom to initiate, inefficiency, and sadly detachment from contemporary societal reality.

    For Musa to meet up with the expectations of Nigerians, he must immediately commence how he truly plans to waltz through this government contraption called bureaucracy that is renowned for its frustrating procedures that stifle individual action and prompt problem-solving techniques. This new defence minister, that is once used to a ‘command and obey’ structure as a military general, needs a survival technique to manoeuvre the country’s bureaucracy.

    More importantly, the president has removed Badaru from the defence ministry. Matawalle should also go for Musa to succeed? The allegations of insecurity misgivings heaped on Matawalle’s head by his successor as Zamfara state governor deserves the president’s revisit.

    Musa truly projects an image of a fine gentleman but whether he’s President Tinubu’s best ministerial appointment so far stands to be seen in view of his also being a creation of the rotten system that spends trillions of naira on insecurity without commensurate results to show for such budgetary spendings. Time shall tell if he possesses the political will to stop the ongoing bleeding insecurity by weeding out dead woods on his paths to restoring Nigeria’s lost peace. He no doubts will need an unimpeded presidential support to deal with the unnamed power-bloc behind the country’s insecurity quagmire.

    Again, time shall tell if Musa is indeed the president’s best ministerial appointee. He needs courage, confidence, undiluted determination, and presidential support to do and succeed in this insecurity extermination assignment of his.

    Musa’s greatest challenge lies more in the fact that our society, as it stands today, values its privileges more than its principles. And in Dwight D. Eisenhower’s observation, any society like ours that “values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” Yours sincerely pray for Musa to survive this rotten system within which most Nigerians expect him to perform wonders.

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently the managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.
  • Tanzania’s unfurling turmoil under Samia Hassan

    Tanzania’s unfurling turmoil under Samia Hassan

    What a man can do, a woman can do…. If not better, is a feminist mantra that has been accorded brutal credence in faraway Tanzania. This is thanks to no-less-a-person than Samia Suluhu Hassan, who, against all odds, emerged as Tanzania’s first female president. Her providential opportunity came in Y2021 when President John Magufuli died. She was Vice-President to Magufuli from 2015 till March 19, 2021 when she was sworn-in as president.

    But the modus of her reelection bid in October 2025 through an election that was mired in controversy, violent protests, and killings has put her and the country on the global spotlight for the wrong reasons.

    Early this week, the political beast in Samia Suluhu Hassan manifested when at an event in Dar-es-Salaam, she haughtily downplayed the killings of over a thousand defenceless protesters that expressed their disgust at her purportedly rigged October 29, 2025 reelections by describing such as ‘necessary to prevent the overthrow’ of her government.

    Again, what a man can do, a woman can indeed with ruthless candour do better, manifested in Samia Suluhu’s case when she heartlessly declared: “The force that was used corresponds to the situation at hand. When we are told that we used excessive force in that incident…..were we supposed to simply watch that mob of demonstrators who were prepared to overthrow the government until they succeeded?”

    Suluhu must indeed have mastered the art of rigging at any cost, more than the politically minded male gender when Jacob Mwambegele, the country’s electoral henchman conjured unbelievable figures that she curiously secured; “about 31.9million votes of the 32 million ballots cast, or 97.66% of the country’s 37.6 million registered voters…”.  While sensing that her magical victory might lead to mass protestations, she ordered that the internet of the country be shutdown, inflicted unbelievable brutality on defenceless protesters thereby making it difficult for the world to see his tyrannical rage on her fellow country men.

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    Her electoral victory’s masterful planning will make the male gender cringe with envy. She lied when she cunningly described her opponents as being subdued by a “defeatist mentality” by erroneously claiming that they “refused to enter themselves because they already knew they would not succeed.” 

    The reality is that she started her power-perpetuation ambition by persecuting and intimidating her two main opposition contenders: Tundu Lissu was held for treason which carries death penalty while Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo Party was excluded from the ballot on legal technicality. She then ensured that sixteen(16) other insignificantly fringe political parties with no known public appeal were allowed to partake in the elections with her.

    Unfortunately for Tanzanians, Samia’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party and its predecessor Tanu have been dominating Tanzania’s politics and have never lost any elections since independence. This fact helps in entrenching her repressive rule that is now clothed in democratic garb of deception.

    Amnesty International’s observation that a “wave of terror “ involving enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings of opposition figures reigned supreme under her leadership. United Nations Chief, Antonio Guterres, has also said that he is “deeply concerned” about the situation in Tanzania. But the African Union is looking the other way until the situation in that country gets worse and out of control.

    Now, an unrelentingly disenchanted voters of that country who felt shortchanged in the last October presidential election have slated fresh protests for December 9, 2025. And no one knows how many Tanzanians will be killed this time around, just to illegitimately sustain Suluhu in power.

    She seems determined to call the bluffs of anyone or country poke-nosing into the ‘internal affairs’ of her country as she has since rebuffed European Union parliamentarians’ votes suspending aid to Tanzania over the violence. She sounded so deceitfully Pan-African and nationalistic in her vain pursuit of power to wit: “They still think they are our masters, they are our colonisers.” What a realistically truthful statement deceitfully coined to justify democratic brutality on defenceless Tanzanians.

    Suluhu of Tanzania’s feminine tyrannical conduct is not new. The world’s history is replete with the misdeeds of women like her who deployed the power of their appointive/elective positions to inflict pain and anguish on their people.

    For example, Indira Gandhi of India was renowned for being an “Iron Lady” because of her controversially fistic rule. She imposed an emergency order on Indians, ruled by decree that denied them their civil liberties while her political opponents were indiscriminately jailed from 1975-1977. Jiang Qing of China is also another feminine tyrannical figure and the wife of Mao Zedong. She was during that epoch of cultural revolution acknowledged as a powerful and ruthless figure.

    Posterity has also documented the barbarity of Empress Wu Zetian of China who till date remains the only female emperor in Chinese history. She was reputed for being a ruthless and effective ruler. Also to be included in this category is Golda Meir of Israel. She remains the first and only female Prime Minister of Israel in history. She reigned from 1969 to 1974 and was known for her unyielding resolve. The list of other women in this category of feminist-brutes who misused power is inexhaustible.

    Nonetheless, Samia Suluhu Hassan is a testament of how power-ruthless, most women can be when put in positions of authority and influence. Suluhu’s tyranny is just unfurling but no one across Africa seems bothered about the antics of this budding dictator in faraway Tanzania, the land of the highly revered African statesman, Julius Mwalimu Nyerere.

    The world needs to pay attention to what’s going on in Tanzania for humanity’s sake. Samia Suluhu Hassan must not be allowed to decimate defenceless Tanzanians on December 9,2025. She should allow them to exercise their inalienable right to peacefully protest against democratic iniquities.

    •Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.

  • Of orchestrated insecurity and intentional governance

    Of orchestrated insecurity and intentional governance

    The eerie air of insecurity tormenting our national spirits in recent days has made the country an object of gibelike remarks in global politics.

    The unsavoury development seems to have enervated a corrosive knob in our country’s topmost security hierarchy that has hitherto been epileptic. Encouragingly, one can only assume that the recent reactionary echoes of inspiring security vibes emanating from the nation’s federal seat of power in Abuja will, inexorably be sustained.

    For everything good that is desired, whether as individuals or as a nation, its attainment must be accorded intentional primacy. This probably informs why Richie Norton, a global thinker, executive coach to several world renowned CEOs and an award-winning author and serial entrepreneur once admonished on the perils of jettisoning intentional living by individuals, leaders, and nations, when he declared: “Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us.” — I add; for good or for bad like the evil choice that organized terrorists are ravaging the country with.

    Recent insecurity challenges in the country are bringing out the truism in Norton’s statement and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s newly found approach of imbibing the hands-on/intentional technique is in this regard reassuring the public of presidential concerns and further helping in putting the rampaging terrorists on the run.

    Pointers to this fact are legion: First is the president’s responsive cancellation of his earlier planned trip to South Africa to attend the G-20 summit, opting instead to sit with his security and service chiefs to take charge, direct, and give ultimatum where necessary in his bid to achieve the goal of restoring security to the country. Secondly, the president declared a state of national security emergency as if hearkening to yours sincerely’s suggestion in last week’s piece. Thirdly, he ordered the withdrawal of policemen attached to supposed ‘VIPs’ in the country with immediate effect and for the first time transited his often touted state police idea from the realm of rhetoric to boldly calling on the National Assembly to immediately commence a constitutional review process in that regard. It is crassly indefensible that 11,566 newly withdrawn policemen, consequent on the presidential order, were hitherto wasting away in our system’s bid to satisfy the egocentric pride of supposed ‘VIPs’ when a large chunk of the country is inadequately policed: Fourthly, he ordered that the military and police should employ more hands: Fifthly, the president put the entire security architecture in the country on red alert, especially in troubled terrorists’ areas. Commendable deeds and actionable pronouncements which should have come earlier but the truism; better late than never applies.

    A glimpse of what the consequences of being a hands-on or better put, an intentional President, unfurled immediately. Last Sunday, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara state gleefully informed an elated Nigerian public that the thirty-eight persons recently abducted during an attack on Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Ekiti Local Government Area of his state had been released. He particularly applauded the hands-on/intentional efforts of Mr. President in making the mission a reality. The DSS, in particular, under Mr Tosin Ajayi, deserves commendation in this regard. Also, last weekend, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) announced that fifty-one students from those abducted from a Catholic school in Niger state had ‘escaped’ from their captors’ captivity.

    Despite the recurred kidnappings of some inhabitants of Isapa on Monday after the release on Sunday of the abducted 38 CAC church members in neighbouring Eruku, and another similar incident same Monday in Kano state, it is obviously clear to the leadership of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Intelligence Agency, the Nigeria Police and even the terrorists that it is not business as usual with the newly adopted intentional approach of the president.

    It is important for the president to take more than a special interest in how to whip the nation back to the peaceful line through his results yielding new approach. Doing this, in spite of the orchestrated machinations of his political traducers that are criminally fueling the insurgency gambit, will solidify his personal, political, and administration’s survival. This is because a president can only preside over a peacefully functioning country devoid of international interference.

    The purported ‘escape’ and ‘release’ of the Niger and Kwara states abductees merely hint at how far we would have gone if the new intentional approach had come earlier.

    The terrorists’ choices of kidnappings, killings, bombings, raping, and abductions that were being inflicted on us continue to reign undisturbed because we had no effective official choices thereby leading to our new moniker: “Country Of Particular Concern”—apologies to President Donald Trump of the United States of America.

    Suddenly, the president’s embrace of Norton’s prescription of intentionality is yielding hopes in hopeless Nigerians whose only avenue for escaping the inept approach to insecurity issues in the country over the years is to ‘JAPA.’

    However, there’s a need to acknowledge that terrorism did not start with the current administration. The ongoing banditry cum insurgency are destructive vices created in the north. Also, previous administrations did less than enough to nip this north’s originated criminality in the bud.

     Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2002, reportedly combated the Boko Haram sect when it first reared its ugly head in Yobe state. But the sect reemerged in Borno state where it assumed a violent dimension in 2009. Former President Goodluck Jonathan lacked the courage that the occasion required to quell the Boko Haram insurgents in their infancy. And the kidnapped Chibok girls incident that occurred during his time clearly put Nigeria in the world’s consciousness, for the wrong reasons.

    His successor, General Muhammadu Buhari, widely acknowledged to have been helped to power by the incumbent president, was a foremost activist of Fulani ethno-tribal and nepotistic sentiments. Some people, during his lifetime, actually described him as a Fulani irredentist. He never masked his odious backing for mostly armed herdsmen that were and are still largely perceived by Nigerians as bandits/terrorists with his disingenuous official policy of amnesty cum rehabilitation of purportedly ‘repentant terrorists.’

    Tinubu is at the moment having his share of unabatedly orchestrated insecurity and as the monster unleashed during Jonathan’s tenure, it is sad that till now backers of these criminals, out to disturb the peace of this government and Nigerians are yet to be apprehended. They demand, with temerity, ransom through traceable mobile telephone numbers and yet, the same technology cannot be deployed by our security agencies to trace, locate, apprehend, or decimate them. Even their collaborators in the system roam freely around since we could not even address the simple but important issue of unraveling the officer(s) that ordered soldiers guiding a Kebbi state school where intelligence showed was about to be attacked by bandits. Something is definitely wrong somewhere in the chain of leadership common sense in this country.

    During the tenures of past and present administrations, billions of dollars budgeted to combat this menace went down the drain with nothing to show for their disbursements as insecurity continues to thrive; and with no single sponsor or perpetrator of this evil held accountable in a way acceptable to Nigerians. Such looted and wasted public funds cannot be audited simply because they are designated as ‘security spending.’

    With the president’s change of tactics through the embrace of Norton’s intentionality approach, there should be no going back. And since terrorism has further assumed a more intense international dimension, there’s no way the country can easily win its negative global perception except this administration accords the issue of diplomacy the seriousness it deserves. In almost three years, it is unbecoming that in the most important capital countries of the world, the nation does not have ambassadorial presence. It is however good that the president this week belatedly sent three names of ambassadors-designate to the Senate for confirmation. The move would have been better wholesome to make up for the lost time but who knows what the president’s strategy will unveil.

    Notwithstanding, our diplomatic silence in important countries for nearly three years has aggravated Trump and other world leaders’ expressed hyperbolic opinions of our insecurity challenges that are now being believed globally to be a true reflection of the nation’s insecure situation, particularly on Christian genocide.

    For instance, our government, expectedly sees Trump and other leaders’ opinions on the nation’s insecurity as a distortion of reality but with no substantive ambassadors to speak and lobby for the country, it becomes vulnerable to these foreign leaders’ prejudices. We sheepishly abandon the global stage due to this avoidable diplomatic gaffe.

    Any serious country must be intentional about winning an internal war that threatens its corporate existence. The destruction of the peace of the entity called Nigeria is what Boko Haram, ISWAP, and other insurgent groups across the north are planning and our government should not allow this to happen.

    Political pussyfooting will not help any government at this point; except it is telling Nigerians that the country,  despite the trillions expended on security matters, does not have the military might to decimate the terrorists within a specified timeframe. Questions: Why is our military allowing to lie fallow, our reportedly acquired Wing Loong ll drones that is capable of KD missiles deemed to be an equivalent of America’s Hellfire? What about our military’s T-129 ATAK helicopters that could wipe out the terrorists from their hideouts in hours?

    As time tickles fast, Nigerians, within and outside the shores of this country are fast running out of patience with our government’s inability to effectively wipe out the terrorists’ threats. The perilous implications of negligent official planning that is giving this orchestrated insurgents an edge is traumatic on the wellbeing of our collective sovereignty.

    This is why yours sincerely thinks Mr.  President’s new found policy of intentionality in his handling of security matters should be extended to other state matters begging for effective supervision; the president should also be intentional in putting in place accountable measures to instill public trust in governance processes. His presidential order regarding the withdrawal of police officers guarding VIPs in the country should be carried out to the letter because it is something that ought to have been done but delayed due to lack of political will to subdue political pressures by successive inspectors general of police.

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    Also, the presidential directive for the recruitment of thousands of police and military personnel should be conclusively pursued. The new recruits when enlisted and those currently serving must be well equipped and remunerated for them to effectively do the job of policing and that of protecting the country’s territory. The recruitment process must embrace vigilance in order to ensure that it is not infiltrated by northern bred Boko Haram/ISWAP members or criminal elements from other parts of the country. The system must be intentional about this very important directive.

    To all Nigerians, let us be hopeful that our president will succeed in resolving the inherited insecurity challenges facing the country. The president, having achieved his professed life long ambition of becoming the leader of this country does not deserve our pity because he personally asked for the onerous job. But he deserves our prayers, understanding and cooperation as he trudges on in tackling the current challenges facing the nation.

    The president’s message to the nation early this week is very clear: He assured that he “will not relent…..” and also confidently stated that “Nigerians in every state has the right to safety…” He went further to state, more importantly that under his watch, he will “secure this nation and protect our people.” I verily believe him, and so do I want fellow Nigerians to allow him realise this lofty objective of ridding our dear country of this orchestrated insecurity through his newfound intentional approach to governance.

    •Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency is currently the managing partner of AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.

  • Northern elites, not Tinubu alone, hold key to resolving insecurity

    Northern elites, not Tinubu alone, hold key to resolving insecurity

    Incontrovertibly, the north has become the infamous terrorism epicentre of this country. Ascribing this sobriquet to that region is nothing hyperbolic when its state of turpitude for several consecutive years of malignant banditry is put into consideration.

    At its exasperating dimension, the execrable state of criminality in the north deserves an emergency declaration because there seems to be no hope in sight of an imminent end to the avoidable violence that is going on there, for now.

    This week alone, on Monday, to be specific, the nation was befuddled with attacks of monumental proportions in the north. The Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Kebbi state, was attacked by terrorists around 4am, leading to the unfortunate kidnap of over twenty-five girls. The school’s vice-principal, Mallam Yakubu Makuku, was killed, and a staff member was seriously injured. Also, on Tuesday evening in Eruku town in Ekiti Local Government area of Kwara state, a Christ Apostolic Church(CAC) was attacked, and three worshippers were killed while the pastor and thirty-eight church members were kidnapped.

    Equally on Friday, days after the Monday and Tuesday terrorists’ strikes in Kebbi and Kwara states respectively, these northern agents of doom stormed St. Mary’s Papiri Private Catholic Secondary School, Papiri, in Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State where they sadly abducted scores of students and teachers. Also, in far away Borno state, these curiously elusive insurgents wasted the lives of our gallant soldiers and a heroic officer, Brigadier-General Musa Uba, in the line of duty. The conspiratorial speculation surrounding the capturing of Uba by the terrorists is an issue of discourse for another day; if the country must get its security challenges right.

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    Questions must however be asked: What is it about the northern region’s proclivity for shedding innocent blood of inhabitants? In a region so developmentally retarded and educationally backward; with unfathomably high rate of almajiris, what could have been the motivation for the heinous targets of schools, especially girls’ schools when they ought to know that such criminal acts would further worsen the abject literacy rate and deprivations that are conspicuously bedeviling that region of our country. Could the violence going on in the north be consequences of unfurling solid minerals found in that region of our country which have been illegally explored, more for parochial benefits, than for collective national advantage?

    Yet, revenues from natural resources derived from the Niger-Delta and other parts including the southwest have, for several decades been deployed to benefit the north without any commensurate developmental initiatives to show for it by northern elites. Agitations in the Niger-Delta, even though of criminal dimensions, were targeted at foreign oil companies and their collaborators despoiling their land.Their condemnable act has drastically abated but the ongoing northern mayhem with religious cum resource endowed colouration is anti-humanity, having inflicted unimaginable destructions on innocent citizens, thereby projecting the country in bad light to the world.

    Between Y2014 till date, insurgents from the north have done more to destroy their human capital in the most egregious way possible. In that year’s April 14-15 midnight, the Islamist militant group called Boko Haram raided and callously carted away like goods, two hundred and seventy girls in their teens from their secondary school hostel in a Borno state northeastern town of Chibok. To date, more than half of these girls never found their way back to their parental homes. The criminals usually forced these innocent girls to satisfy their immoral sexual desires.

    Equally, on December 11, 2020, three hundred and forty-four school boys of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina state, were kidnapped from their hostel by a gang of gunmen on motorcycles. After several days of frantic search, luck smiled on them when they were rescued and handed over to their parents.

    Again, on February 26, 2021, over three hundred Jangebe Government Girls’ Secondary School students were abducted at midnight by reportedly ‘unknown gunmen’ that stormed their hostel. The then United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in the country, Mr Peter Hawkins, expressed global angst to what he described as “yet another brutal attack on school children in northern Nigeria.”

    It is sad that four years after Hawkins’ lamentation, the country routinely continues to witness such condemnable atrocities in the same northern part of the country.

    Whichever elites remain silent in the face of an undisguised wanton killing and dehumanizing their people are themselves inherently cruel elites. For the Fulanis, Hausas, and the Kanuris that mostly inhabit the vast northern lands, let it sink in to their heads that their cultural habits of wanton killings of innocently armless people has nothing to do with the Islamic religion.

    It is absurd as a rational being to concur with insinuations that some northern elites covertly endorsed the ongoing satanic killings in their midst.

    One bitter truth, however, is that northern educated elites can not extricate themselves from the ungodly misdeeds of the hordes of criminal elements inflicting anguish, pain and misery on their already impoverished communities.

    The exposed and educated elites from the north should endeavour to better educate their people on what Islam as a religion stands for. The northern elites owe other Nigerians, including the current federal government, a duty, except they know something about what is going on, of educating their people on the fact that Islam teaches peace and stands for peace, not senselessly mindless killings and inhuman indoctrination through bogus preachings to create destructive mindsets. If the northern elites achieved all they have achieved because of western education, why are they shamelessly silent and not constructively effective enough in the battle against those killing the educational acquisition dreams of their children, most especially the female children?

    As a Muslim, yours sincerely is not proud of the insurgency going on in the north; even as a citizen of this country, one is deeply saddened by the mischievous conspiracy of the northern political elites with some of them allegedly feeding fat on the anguish, despair and misery of their people.

    Acquiescence to this northern criminality easily shows the elites’ secret goal of perpetually keeping their people in inextricable bondage of underdevelopment, resource endowed theft, hiding under the Islamic religion, as basis of their affront on humanity.

    Why are the developmental exposures and global learnings of the northern leaders not rubbing off on the well-being and worldview of their people? It is clearly undeniable that they are routine pilgrimage to the land of Islamic culture, Saudi Arabia; and it’s pertinent to once again ask these northern elites whether the peace and development witnessed in Saudi Arabia do not have the same Islam practiced in the north as planks? The same begging inquisition applies to peaceful and infrastructural-inspiring Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the country’s northern elites routinely visit to enjoy their wealth and peace, far away from the ongoing horrific atrocities in their ancestral homelands. Is it not the same Islamic religion that obtains in these model countries? The northern elites must answer these questions.

    From the foregoing, the northern elites should note that Islam is not synonymous with mindless killings and inhuman battles against defenceless people. A barbaric person, whatever the colour of his/her skin, is not necessarily meant to be a Muslim. History has clearly affirmed that some of the deadliest global killings were not attributable to practitioners of Islam or any particular religion.

    For example, mass murderers in human history are not Muslims. Adolf Hitler, who reportedly killed seventeen million people, is not a Muslim. Same as Mao Zedong, who decimated over forty-five million people. Joseph Stalin reportedly had around twenty million people’s blood on his neck; Leopold II of Belgium equally killed around ten million in Congo: Emperor Hirohito of Japan killed millions across Asia while Pol Pot murdered not less than two million of his people. Yet, these leaders’ atrocious misdeeds against humanity have no Islamic imprimatur. Where then did the northern insurgents erroneously hiding under the peaceful religion of Islam get their inspiration from?

    The educated northerners had the best education money can buy; they were and till date still getting privileged employment placements, mostly at the expense of the Nigerian commonwealth. Yet, in empirical terms, facts have revealed that they are obviously contented with developmentally making their region the laughing stock of other Nigerians, and the world-at-large.

    Privileged individuals, including yours sincerely, who have travelled  to a few Western countries can attest to the fact that it is rare if not impossible to see a Nigerian of northern extraction, doing menial jobs abroad. Yet, the people from other zones of the country, while abroad, routinely do. Northerners abroad can be seen in choice institutions where, upon completion of their mostly government funded education, unlike other Nigerians, return home with choice employment/appointments already waiting for them.

    In spite of this rare privilege, notwithstanding the ongoing global meltdown, these northern people’s exposure never reflected in the lives and wellbeing of the region. This self inflicted deficit cannot be President Bola Tinubu’s fault but that of northern-born conspirators who feed fat on their region’s calamities.

    This is why in this contemporary age and time, we still witness the barbarity called resource endowed theft/violence and incessant kidnappings and killings for ransom in the north as a whole. Sadly, this culture of killings/wanton destruction is being exported to other parts of the country. The northern elites including their political leaders, traditional rulers, Ulamas, business leaders, retired senior military and security officers, academics, student union leaders, et cetera must speak out by publicly condemning the ongoing theft of resources and wanton killings.

    Now is the time for northern elites to call on the people of their region to rise against this evil of abductions and killings. The northern elites need to demonstrate sincere willingness to join Tinubu’s battle to end this bloodletting and destruction, once and for all.

    Yours sincerely beckons on the northern elites to shed the detrimental toga of bad politics and immediately join the president’s bid to return genuine peace to the entire north.

    Except the northern elites embrace this sensible option of teaming up with Tinubu, the northern elites/political leaders will be shamefully recorded by history as having looked the other way when mayhem is being inflicted on their school children, particularly, in broad daylight by known but powerful bandits.

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently the  managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.