The Nation Newspaper

Category: Mobolaji Sanusi

  • Minister Wike’s unending drama

    Minister Wike’s unending drama

    Whether in Rivers State where he hails from and served as two-term governor, or in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT ), where he currently holds sway as the political numero uno; and even in his ‘claimed’ political party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Barrister Nyesom Wike’s footprints are replete with conflicts, confrontations, and controversies.

    Truths be said: Rivers is yet to fully recover from his tempestuous politicking-it may never be for a long time to come: PDP is inexorably heading to the political graveyard at its ongoing high speed of self-immolation; the FCT, for good and for bad, will never forget Wike’s so far tumultuous reign as minister.

    Generally, this man with the sobriquet: “Mr.  Projects” is known more for needless political drama.  Early this week, he came up with another refreshingly needless drama. And the social media feasted intensely on this as it went agog with the viral video clips of Minister Wike’s indecorous dramatic encounter with Lieutenant A. M. Yerima, a brilliantly young military officer who led, on superior instruction, other naval men to guard Plot 1946 in the Gaduwa area of Abuja. The plot of land in contention is reportedly owned by retired Vice-Admiral Awwal Gambo, a former Chief of Naval Staff.

    Though yours sincerely is not really a social media person but was compelled to watch and rewatch, with dismay, Wike’s unnecessarily bullish disposition to the young naval officer. The boyish-looking officer exemplifies the quality that Wike lacked as a public officer as he remained calm in the face of the minister’s verbal assaults on his person and the institution he represents in his fitted and well-starched military uniform.

    In the heated brickbats, Wike, obviously thinking, even though erroneously, that the best way to do a job reserved for enforcement officers of the FCT was to unleash an uncouth and unsparing confrontation, labelled a uniformed military officer guarding his superior officer’s parcel of land, *“stupid”* *“foolish”* and yelling at him to *“shut up.”*

    Whoever advised Minister Wike to embark on this misadventurous voyage deserves official reprimand or does it mean that the man probably listens, only to his own riotous instincts and not any reasonable counsel-and not even from his office’s Permanent Secretary, believed to expectedly be the repository of service procedures and actions.

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    Rather than show executive maturity through exploration of laid down administrative channels of resolving issues, he resorted to an undignified approach of publicly querying a military officer to: *“Show me the documents. You have no documents…..”* He continued: *“…..You send soldiers to intimidate who?…..”* The officer courteously dispelled his superfluous assertion: *“On the contrary, sir, we’re not trying to intimidate anybody…”*

    While maintaining his admirable composure, demeanor and professionalism, Yerima respectfully tutored Minister Wike without allowing anyone to cow him when the FCT minister, out of ignorance, tried to talk down on his boss, the retired Vice-Admiral by referring to him in the past tense, to wit: *“Sir, let me enlighten you; there’s NO such thing as a FORMER Vice Admiral. A Vice Admiral is a Vice Admiral.”* The minister shamefully retorted: *“Okay, thank you very much”* but continued to make God knows what point.

    The hallmark of Wike’s verbal diarrhoea at his venue of shame was when he harassed Yerima by yelling *“Shut up! You are a very big fool. As of the time I graduated, you were still in primary school.”* But the gentleman officer, maintaining composure, repeatedly replied, *“I am not a fool, sir. I am acting on orders….. I will not shut up.”* This further infuriated Wike, the king Kong when he fired back: *“You’re a very big fool…..”* He continued, *“…..You must kill everybody here…”* with Yerima replying with admirable equanimity: *“I won’t kill anybody.”*

    This uncouth behaviour, undeniably quite belittling, from Minister Wike should be expected, being reflective of the irrational way and manner he has been treating his political subordinates including the current governor of Rivers State, Sim Fubara, and his ‘PDP’ members.

    Wike left the scene of his shame after reportedly calling the Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Naval Staff, both of whom he claimed had assured him the matter would be resolved. The question: Why did he not toe the path of administrative action of talking to these two highly-placed military leaders before choosing to embark on his needless display of vain power on this poor but unshakably young naval officer?

    The biggest disservice any public official can do to self and their family is to overestimate his/her importance because of currently held position. Regrettably, this is what Minister Wike has, over time, been doing to his person. The issue in contention is not whether he’s right or whether the naval officer is wrong: The point is that madness can not be deployed to cure madness. Just as impunity cannot cure another impunity. His, Wike’s executive impunity of going to the site where a naval officer is carrying out the orders of his superior, in line of duty, to create his routinely disgraceful scenes has overshadowed whatever mischief he is purportedly trying to cure. His conduct denigrates the office he occupies, and this happens because he’s fond of wallowing in inconsequential positional self-importance.

    Wike displays power and arrogance at will. The president needs to redeploy, remove or call him to order. Because Wike is in power, his power-induced courage shall be tested one day after leaving power. Otherwise, why will he say to the young officer: *“If not for the CDS who spoke to me now, you would have to kill everybody here. I’m not one of those that you can intimidate.”* Hmmmm!!

    Wike’s heated encounter with this refined officer reminds me of the routine admonition of Nigeria’s democratic martyr, Aare MKO Abiola, during his life time under the military rule that he lived to wit: “Only a fool argues with a man wielding the gun.”

    Wike might argue with a gun-wielding fine military officer on Tuesday, November 11 2025. His real courage would be duly appreciated if he attempts this after leaving office.

    More importantly, his last action, if not correctly addressed officially, might cause ill-feelings amongst the military against we bloody civilians. It might even lead to disaffection towards this administration. Wike by this act is obviously insensitive to happenings around him, in view of recent speculations. Wike has done enough damage to ongoing democratic dispensation and someone, somewhere has to curb his undemocratic excesses and impunity.

    Yours sincerely has an admonition for Wike: And this is for him to stop attracting negative energy to the administration of President Bola Tinubu, GCFR. He should stop generating undesirable and avoidable hullabaloos to this administration through his hypocritical eye service to the president. What he did in his puerile encounter with the young naval officer is antithetical to common sense. After all, a saying in my Yoruba ethnic group says that when one is sent the errand of a slave, he should endeavour to deliver the message of a freeborn. Wike has failed the test of this Yoruba proverb.

    History will forever be kind to fine officer Yerima for reminding Minister Wike on that Tuesday of the importance of integrity when he said: *“I am an officer, and l have integrity.”* Can Minister Wike boldly tell  Nigerians and the world today, in all conscience, that he’s a certified politician with integrity: If not, he should apologise to the military and more importantly Yerima; else, he resigns forthwith for embarrassing the government of our president that graciously gave him this high profile appointment. Enough of Wike’s uncommon garrulity…..

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently the managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.
  • Ogun’s messy infrastructure under Dapo Abiodun

    Ogun’s messy infrastructure under Dapo Abiodun

    With the decrepit state of infrastructure and accompanying poverty in most states across the country, one wonders what their governors are doing with the increasingly bogus monthly allocations they receive under the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.

    Equally disturbing is whether members of the executive councils of such states tell their governors the empirical truth at such once-a-week meetings the facts about the genuine well-being of their jurisdictions. This is without discounting the fact that most governors are despots in democratic garb, merely deploying their executive councils as mere rubber stamps to drive their selfish policies/projects.

    The legislatures of states where infrastructural neglect are rampant may have been decapitated by politics of compromise that is antithetical to the discharge of their oversight responsibilities. Yet, for the ongoing executive rascality and greed that is undeservingly giving the federal government a bad name, a legislature imbued with audacious instinct is very necessary to whip a derelict executive arm of government to order.

    All efforts must now be deployed to ensure that currently pocketed legislatures should be alive to their responsibilities. This is more important because executive councils’ members, largely appointed by governors, operate at such governors’ mercy. Herein lies the dilemma against real development at this President Bola Tinubu’s era of surplus allocations to states with no meaningful development to show for it in the lives of states’ inhabitants.

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    Now that President Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and the national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, have all recently enjoined Nigerians to demand transparency and accountability in the spendings of huge federal allocations from their governors and local councils’ chairmen, the need for this piece becomes necessary.

    And the klieg-light this week is being beamed on the poor condition of especially roads infrastructure in Ogun state. The condemnable state of roads in the ‘Gateway State’ to the nation is unexplainable in view of the nonchalant and epileptic approach of Governor Dapo Abiodun to the general infrastructural development of the state he was elected to govern.

    Governor Abiodun has unexpectedly been a big disappointment in governance issues.  He’s perhaps the first billionaire from the business world to govern Ogun State, but his governance reflexes are not something that the Dangotes and Otedolas of this world should be proud of. This is because the Ogun State governor belongs to their nouveau riche class. And when the names of purportedly wealthy Nigerians in business are to be compiled, Abiodun’s name will prominently feature. Thanks to his reported investments in the oil and gas and real estate sectors. The man has undeniably done well in life for himself but not for Ogun state.

    Having created a niche for himself in the business world, he, like many others like him, took a detour into politics, and this seems to have paid off for him. Even though he’s far from becoming a remarkable politician, he has deployed his wealth to corner a position for himself in the money-infested politics of this country where getting an elective office depends not on what you have upstairs but largely in how much war-chest you possess or you can, by proxy, put on the table.

    Today, Abiodun is not just the governor of Ogun State but also a second term helmsman that looks forward to completing his two terms of eight years in 2027 with discerning eyes on the senatorial seat of Ogun East as his post governorship retirement benefit.

    Abiodun served a first term with insignificant momentum and he’s now in his lackluster second term cum over six years in office. It won’t be unfair to ask governor Abiodun whether he has acquitted himself well in office. This is particularly so with the recurring social media complaints by Ogun State inhabitants regarding mostly road infrastructure neglect. There’s need to draw attention to his unpardonable dereliction of duty; and to let him know that he should pay less attention to politicking and provide good outliving legacy in his remaining less than two years in office.

    The people’s cries over the empirically debilitating state of infrastructural problems that the state has come to be notoriously known for in barely over six years of Abiodun’s docile misrule is palpable. It remains to be seen how the governor is going to convince his people, going forward, that he truly possesses the capacity and sincerity of purpose to take the state out of its official-inflicted infrastructural nightmare.

    In over six years of Abiodun’s governance of the rock-city state, nothing points in the direction of a man of visionary mission being on the saddle at Oke-Mosan. Yours sincerely, for instance, has witnessed the pathetic state of road infrastructure, especially in the state capital of Abeokuta. This clearly shows the governor as being only rich but devoid of requisite governance or public service skills. His supposed private sector success has not in any way positively impacted Ogun state.

    Many bystanders argue that a governor who knows his onions should have been strategic in sustaining infrastructural balancing in the state. Such a governor needs to prioritize projects sitting across the three senatorial districts of Ogun Central; Ogun East and Ogun West.

    A proviso here is that doing this should not be at the detriment of Ogun Central that doubles as the state capital and, as such, should benefit more from developmental initiatives of any governor in the state. Ogun Central serves as the melting point of people of diverse tribes, ethnicities, and even nationalities. For these reasons and more, the need for the governor’s attention for the area is, however, not a favour but a necessity.

    The decrepit state of roads in the state capital underscores the governor’s lack of understanding of the hardships daily encountered by investors, commuters, and vehicles’ owners in the state. This clearly amplifies his contempt for the feelings of inhabitants and investors in the state.

    Dapo Abiodun’s special consultant on Islamic affairs and Wakeel of Muslims in Ogun, Edo and Delta states, Alhaji Iskeel Lawal, who goes by the sobriquet ‘Sugar’ captures Abiodun’s misplacement of priority and shoddy approach to governance when at a recent social media-gone-viral public function where he beckoned on the governor he’s serving: “Mr Governor, please if people of Iperu-Remo fly in aero planes, kindly provide good roads in Abeokuta for our people to also drive their vehicles.”  No better satirical observation can better capture Abiodun’s ineptitude than this.

    The governor’s lame excuse that some of the roads are owned by the federal government is reactionary. Are the people plying the roads owned by the federal government? Again, what on earth is his excuse for abandoning other decrepit roads owned by the state government? Sango-Ota/Agbara is an industrial revenue generating area for the state; Abiodun should come to the public and tell us why he has completely left the roads in that axis in an unmotorable state. When his government failed, Covenant University owners are speculated to be constructing the road leading to the institution.

    From the border town of Lagos/Ogun in Ajegunle, to Sango-Ota area, to Itori, Ifo, Ijoko, Akute and Papalanto, the pathetically bad state of the roads could not have been that of a state governed by a visionary governor.

    Upon entering Abeokuta, the welcoming bad roads from Psychiatric hospital straight to Ita-Oshin, Olomore, Brewery, Lafenwa to Rounda, Enugada, Ago-Ika, Ajita’adun, Saje, Mokola to other areas daily inflict avoidable hardships on the inhabitants of the gateway state.

    All these vital roads were left undone, but the governor has the funds to build an airport in Iperu Remo that may soon be a wasteful, unprofitable project for lack of envisaged patronage. If he had obtained a loan to finance a cargo port abandoned by Otunba Gbenga Daniel and redesigned as a full-fledged airport, it is nothing but a misplaced priority. Such a loan should have been used to develop economically strategic roads begging for government’s attention in Abeokuta, Sango-Ota/Akute axis including Agbado side of Ogun, Ijoko, Itele areas of the state.

    Not even Governor Abiodun can deny that the main industrial hubs of the state are Sango-Ota, Abeokuta, and the Lagos/Ibadan express road axis bordering Lagos state. Rather than complete the Ijoko, Akute, Sango-Ota and other roads with industrial cum economic benefits to investors and commuters in the state, Abiodun is spending the state’s money on an elephant airport once abandoned project that the people will not use. Where’s the vision in the governor’s decision? Yet, Ogun workers are not being paid the minimum wage despite the huge allowance increase that the Tinubu government pays the state every month.

    Dapo Abiodun is so far obviously not a good ambassador of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). One  salient platform confirmed this fact. STATISENSE, a reputable policy pressure group, in its separately conducted two consecutive years’ reports for Y2024 and Y2025, affirmed Ogun State under Abiodun as toping the chart of states with the worst roads in the country.

    The reports are readily available on the internet for inquisitive minds, and this is a gory public relations for a governor who claimed to have purportedly run a successful business before seeking election and reelection. With governors like Abiodun, the ruling APC, in any clean election, faces a Herculean task in 2027, except a sensible intervention occurs.

    Yours sincerely asks: Where are the unbiased and uncompromised elders of the ‘Gateway State’ because their courageously unrelenting voices of wisdom and admonition for Abiodun are more important now to save Ogun state from avoidable infrastructural ruins? Let those who have ears and eyes and are perceptive quickly intervene to save Abiodun’s governed state from socio-political tsunami.

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

  • Akpabio/Yilwatda’s challenge to govs/council chairmen

    Akpabio/Yilwatda’s challenge to govs/council chairmen

    • “As long as greed is stronger than compassion, there will always be suffering.”—Rusty Eric

    Godswill Akpabio and Professor Nentawe Yilwatda recently stirred the hornets’ nest. The public was held in awe by the bluntness of their uttered words against the slow pace of effective governance at the subnational levels across the country.

    By virtue of their vantage positions, no one should doubt the veracity of their revelations. What makes their spills startling is that most of those that were affected and exposed at the subnational levels were elected governors cum councils’ chairmen from same political party with them—be they old, new or aspiring defectors.

    Akpabio and Yilwatda are not just ordinary Nigerians; one is the all powerful number three political figure anchoring the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly in the country; the other is the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC).

    Yilwatda’s party, in case of temporary amnesia by anyone, has become, for good or bad, the beautiful bride being courted by governors of states in Nigeria today as witnessed in the ongoing gale of defections. This development is reminiscent of the historical jostle for the partitioning of Africa by the European colonial powers. That is what APC has become in modern day politics of the country.

    Pardon my temporary digression. The missiles fired by these two men should bother the privileged people in power that they were directed at. This is so if only for exposing the governors/chairmen’s mostly shambolic performances at states and local levels; and more importantly for the inciting weight of such observations by these two political leaders.

    Yours sincerely is grappling with how best to fathom these two important men’s damning call-out of governors and councils’ chairmen largely believed to be members of their political party. They didn’t just say these but beckoned on their people to monitor and teach them consequential lessons where necessary.

    Obviously, the governed, especially across the states and local council areas are displeased with the lackadaisical approach of their governors and councils’ chairmen in handling their infrastructural, institutional, and general wellbeing. Therefore, the timely reminders by these two significant figures in the nation’s body politic can’t just be waived aside.

    The duo’s challenge that the state governors and local councils’ chairmen be held accountable for the rot in the states, despite increased revenue allocations under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration should not be taken with levity. Their words only bring to the fore, the silent truths that sub-national governments across the country are mostly known to have failed to translate recent higher statutory allocations into improved livelihoods, job creation and above all, tangible development.

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    Kindly permit a scrutiny of what the duo said. For instance, Professor Yilwatda at the public presentation of a book titled: “Vicious Red Circle” authored by Alex Oriaku, enjoins Nigerians to demand people-oriented projects from their governors and local councils’ chairmen in view of the huge fiscal inflows currently accruing to the states/councils.

    “No governor in Nigeria collects less than three times, up to four times what they used to collect before — none. Who knows that two years ago, there was a sharing of about N400bn per month—but today, the last sharing they did was N2.2tn…….I would say, talk to your governors. Talk to your local government chairmen. Let them do more.”

    Good talk from Yilwatda but the national APC chairman seems to have discounted the fact that most of these governors and chairmen are deaf to reason and good judgment. They’re only aggressively agile on how to steal public funds, conceive defective policies and implement sub-standard and inflated projects. Of course, the governors and councils’ chairmen, with the current allocation largesse, are not letting their constituents feel the realistic and positive impacts of good governance.

    To curb their excesses, Yilwatda as the national chairman of ruling APC has a critical role to play in ensuring that the right persons are allowed to emerge as candidates of his party in the upcoming general elections. This is the right template and the first step to take in ensuring transparency and accountability in governance of this era when the booming allocations do not positively reflect in the lives of ordinary citizens but more in the profligacy of public officers.

    Most governors and chairmen who are misleading their people today and giving the federal government of President Tinubu bad name are products of misplaced political priorities by political parties. They see governance as business endeavours and not any conscientiously selfless service to the people.

    Also, Yilwatda needs to drum into the ears of his party candidates at the subnational levels, the significance of having dedicated cardinal programmes from their party manifesto; and the need for uniform implementation across subnational levels. So far, virtually all the governors/chairmen don’t seem to know what the manifesto of their political party talks about. There’s no actual particular roadmaps in practice. They only do things that appear to them in their dreams while sleeping. This is responsible for the uncoordinated policies, planning and projects that reasonable Nigerians complain about in the life of this country.

    The foregoing is not applicable to APC alone but to other political parties. Most elected officials on the platforms of all these political parties in the country know nothing about the cardinal programmes of their parties but are only interested in sustaining power and making money through whatever means from government. I recommend for Yilwatda, the late Pa Obafemi Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) manifesto template to make his tenure more people-friendly and a politically correct system that his party can effectively monitor.

    Except this existing detrimental system is corrected by Yilwatda, it might be difficult to envision any meaningful use of public funds at the subnational levels, especially.

    Akpabio, on his part, also spoke candidly at the joint graduation ceremony of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and the University of Benin. In clear language, he called on State Houses of Assembly to hold governors accountable for how they deployed their increased allocations.

    Akpabio emphasises the need to “strengthen existing legal frameworks” necessary for the enhancement of “oversight responsibilities of public institutions to ensure that they deliver effective public service.”

    Akpabio did not forget to self-commend the 10th National Assembly that he’s leading for having “contributed tremendously to increasing the revenue that accrues to the Consolidated Revenue Fund” which in turn has led to “higher revenue allocation to states and the federal government.” His clincher saw him beckon on the “state legislatures to ensure that the increased revenue to their governors/states translates to improved livelihood and job creation for citizens.”

    Yilwatda, with his executive experience, calls for people’s vigilance over how governors spend their money while Akpabio, as a lawmaker and a former governor/minister, beckons on states’ legislatures to meticulously interrogate how the current increased allocations are being spent at the subnational levels.

    Let it be known to Akpabio that one major problem draining the country of desired revenues is budget padding and projects’ costs inflation. Through these avenues, the country may not be able to effectively stem the tide of official corruption. While demanding funds accountability from the governors and councils’ chairmen, Akpabio should also quickly address these conduit pipes in public tills. Most legislators, unfortunately, live large from illegal proceeds of budget padding, inflation of projects’ costs and compromise in the discharge of their oversight responsibilities with a telling effect on the nation’s socio-economic development. Akpabio as senate-president, needs to do something to curb this legislative criminality.

    In totality, the foregoing are largely responsible for the abysmal governance styles of governors/council chairmen in most states across the federation. And notwithstanding the excuses of Naira devaluation and accompanying inflation, governors’ preference for elephant projects which they financed with ill-advised foreign loans coupled with wanton corruption have denied the people the opportunity of having friendly, and beneficial policies/projects. These amongst others further throw the people into abject poverty and penury.

    The final message: Eternal vigilance and effectively uncompromising regulatory systems are necessary tools to whip to line errant governors and councils’ chairmen seeing increased monthly allocations as largesse to be wasted. No more, no less!

    • Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency is currently the managing partner of Ams Reliable Solicitors.
  • This democracy must not die

    This democracy must not die

    The government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth.” — Abraham Lincoln (16th US President in his globally acclaimed less than two minutes Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863).

    From the blues, media reports of a coup scare engulfed the social media space with no affirmative statement from the government, thereby creating a miniature of an otherwise significantly huge issue. Sahara Reporters and Premium Times, both online newspapers, and another conventional newspaper, The Daily Trust, have dug deeply into the issue with other news platforms merely parroting what emanated from official quarters.

    However, there are undeniable observations: The first being that Nigeria’s 65th Independence Day anniversary was cancelled at the dying minutes, for curious reasons; the second issue being that some top military brass were reportedly arrested. And despite the official reasons adduced for the anniversary cancellation and the tepid reasons for the arrests of the military officers, the real ‘why’ and for ‘what reasons’ surrounding the cancellation and arrests relating to the alleged coup conundrum has to be told, one day – and that may not be anytime soon.

    To discerning Nigerians and other stakeholders in the Nigeria Project, there is more than meets the eyes in the coup scare. Whatever this might be, let it be known and very clear to all that military rule, under whatever guise, is unacceptable in Nigeria, again. Those coup-minded Nigerians, whether in the military or outside the military, should forthwith banish such ideas from their thought process because the air of democratic freedom being enjoyed today, even though far from being perfect, was obtained with the toil, sweat, tears and lives of patriots, particularly that of Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola. He paid the supreme price for us to enjoy the freedom that we have today.

    Our President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, played a leading role in bringing forth this democratic rule, with others too numerous to mention for space constraints and for the fear of being accused of leaving out important names in a piece of this nature.

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    The beauty of the whole episode is the swift condemnation that trailed the reports of the alleged coup plot from Nigerians and the firm resolve that never again must we return to the dark days of military in governance.

    So, it won’t be right to say that Tinubu doesn’t understand or appreciate the expectations of teeming Nigerians from their constitutional governments; federal, states, and even the local councils, put together. Being a federation, whatever challenges are being encountered by the country cannot be entirely put at the doorstep of any single individual.

    Tinubu’s predecessors, including Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and especially Muhammad Buhari, contributed largely to the problems. Further from these personalities, current political actors at the federal, states and local councils have largely not helped in resolving the national problems because they have one thing in common which is self-centredness robed in the beautiful regalia of greed to amass everything for self at the expense of the greatest good.

    This can’t be Tinubu’s lone blame because he can only appoint and work with Nigerians, not aliens, believed by him, to have the capacity to deliver. So far, some of them have not acquitted themselves well; but despite this, coup as an option can’t be the alternative because any recourse to such unconstitutional initiative will only aggravate the problematic situations that the current government is gradually trying to address.

    Yours sincerely shares Thomas Acquinas’ thought when he declared: “No evil can be excused because it is done with a good intention.” Military rule, no matter the issues facing democratic governance, should not be condoned by all, and more importantly, military rule’s incursions into politics should not be allowed again in the nation’s rulership system.

    Great men of intellect in governance and history have kind words for democracy. Papa Obafemi Awolowo, the immortal sage of immense political significance, once said in defence of democratic rule: “Democracy is in my humble view the best form of government and the rule of law man’s triumph against arbitrary use of power.” This quote remains indelibly true nearly four decades after the demise of this foremost nationalist/political juggernaut that ever passed through the territorial jurisdiction called Nigeria.

    John Locke was unsparing in his defence of democratic rule. Being an evergreen philosopher of global renown, he enthused that nothing can justify the tyranny of the military’s gun-wielding khaki boys no matter what the imperfections of democracy might be. Locke’s expectations of democratic rule are for it to be “a neutral conduit for the existence of the power of the majority.”

    Locke went further that unlike military rule with its martial laws, a democratic system allows “a non-coercive means through which individuals can come to agreement on the laws that they are to impose on themselves.” Such laws in Nigeria of today cannot be military decrees that frown at being subjected to the compulsory burning crucible of legislative and judicial processes in any modern society that has the misfortune of having them in power.

    John Adam’s aversion for any other forms of government including military rule was well explained when comparatively, he said: “I cannot say that democracy has been more pernicious, on the whole, than any of the others. But, its atrocities have been more transient; those of the others have been more permanent.”

    From the foregoing, it is clear that democracy is inviolable and should be allowed to evolve over time, and the military should allow civilians to make mistakes and correct such mistakes without military’s outlawed interventions. All over Nigeria, the capricious stains of military rule that did more harm than good to the general wellbeing of the people of this country are apparent for all to see.

    Whatever yours sincerely has against military rule and some of the unscrupulous elements in its fold that allegedly contemplated to upstage a democratic government should be a reminder to our rulers at all levels not to create incentives for unpatriotic elements to instigate military incursion. Historically, military coupists exploit society’s vulnerable situation, in any country, as yardstick for their criminal endeavours.

    Our government needs to be discerning more than ever before because of the coup scare. Socrates, a Greek philosopher born 2,500 years ago, gives us reasons to embark on self-reevaluation at institutional and personal levels if we ever desire meaningfully critical developments and more importantly, if we truly want to forestall negative inclinations. Socrates is globally considered one of the wisest men that ever lived because of his precocious attitude of seeking questions to his own ignorance through relentless self-examination. This paid off for him, leading to his monumental contributions to mankind.

    Our rulers should, from time to time, make personal reflection a must in their governance style, to determine whether as leaders, they’re being fed by aides with realistic situations of things or just being deceived, with concocted statistics and paper achievements, in order to make them deludingly elated. The latter is a perilous situation that any good leader should consciously avoid.

    Further from the foregoing is a popular aphorism that goes thus: ”Fools have answers. The wise have questions.”  And in view of this, yours sincerely, like other thoughtful people consider it pertinent to ask: God forbid, if the alleged unlawful plot had materialized, will Nigerians on the streets jubilate or not? This is a billion-dollar question that every right thinking Nigerians, including those in government, should be asking.

    Let the government make amends where necessary. The president also needs to reform, urgently, its security architecture in view of the rumours of this coup scare. This is an urgent assignment in the overall interest of all right thinking Nigerians. Additionally, most governors across the federation should quickly reconsider their less than satisfactory approach to governance that has left a larger percentage of their constituents in abject penury. Their condemnable leadership oversight couldn’t have been a presidential responsibility. Every leader at all levels including the local councils should bear the consequences of his/her actions.

    This also can be ensured if the country truly makes elections to really count. Political parties’ internal democracy is also crucial in this regard. Virtually all of currently existing political parties lack internal democracy. Too bad! One of the startling virtues of democracy is periodic elections that give the people the licence to determine whether or not anyone in power should continue to govern them or be replaced peacefully at designated intervals. This assignment rests largely on the desk of the henchman of the nation’s electoral body that is expected to discharge his duty with honour and integrity. History is watching but one thing is absolutely clear: Democracy remains, like Awolowo rightly observed several decades ago, the best form of government and so shall it remain.

    Indeed and action forthwith, all arsenal should be deployed by especially privileged stakeholders in government to ensure that in Nigeria and the world generally, Abraham Lincoln’s prophecy that the “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth” does not end in vain. Nigeria’s democracy must endure and not die. Long live our democratic government.

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

  • Is Tinubu Nigeria’s opposition nemesis ?

    Is Tinubu Nigeria’s opposition nemesis ?

    By Mobolaji Sanusi

    “History has a Nemesis for every sin.” — Theodor Mommsen

    At a time when constructive interrogations of President Bola Tinubu’s administration should dominate national discourse, it’s unfortunate that the ongoing rancorous defections by politicians have taken over rational national engagements. The issue in contemporary Nigerian politics is distractingly about who’s for or against Tinubu. It’s so disgusting that what’s unfurling is now being disturbingly misinterpreted to mean that Nigeria is gradually becoming a one party state.

    The issue of defection, colloquially known as cross carpeting, is currently gaining momentum, and this is expectedly because the nation is approaching another general elections year. The next general elections, except an amendment to the Electoral Act occurs, will be coming up between February and March 2027.

    So, real politicking amongst politicians of the land is now ongoing. Politicians are weighing their options and doing their selfish permutations with no iota of consideration for values and principles.  And, since the party controlling the federal level of power is at any point in history perceived as the most potently viable, politicians see such party as the beautiful bride that they must marry or ingeniously court. That party as it stands today is the All Progressives Congress(APC), under the national headship of Tinubu.

    In this season of political defections, the general feelings that President Tinubu’s behind the democratically detrimental defections plot is debatable even though understandable. The truth of the matter that no one wants to acknowledge is that Tinubu, despite being the current landlord of the Presidential Villa, is shockingly the ‘authentic opposition’ in the country notwithstanding the purported oppositional shenanigans of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, GCON, Peter Obi and others.  Isn’t it shameful that Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi are still forum-shopping on which political platforms to pitch their tents in their bid to run for president in the upcoming presidential elections. It’s that bad for this indecisiveness reflects the lack of self values, principle or philosophy by leading politicians in the country. Obviously, this can’t be Tinubu’s fault.

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    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Atiku and Obi once held sway, at a point stayed too long in power, and thinking erroneously too, that that’ll take forever but the party cannot ever fathom that a day like this will come when they’ll be the political opposition.

    In facts and figures, when issues around contemporary politics are discussed, for good or bad, the general notion is that such must have Tinubu’s imprimatur. No wonder then that there’s palpable fears in the court of public opinion that the country might be etching gradually into a one-party state with the inexorable rise in defections of opposition politicians, especially governors and their lawmakers, to the All Progressives Party(APC), with the shrewd political strategist called Tinubu known to be calling the shots.

    Above fears have been further amplified by the excitedly insensitive comments by the immediate past national chairman of the APC and former governor of Kano state, Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.  It was he who at the twilight of his tenure as the APC national chairman that was reported to have declared: “We are not saying we are working for a one-party system, but if this is the wish of Nigerians, we cannot quarrel with that. You know, they say too many cooks spoil the broth; too many political parties spoil governance.”

    Ganduje’s undemocratic statement couldn’t have been the wish of Nigerians but at best be described as his own wishful thinking. In the same vein, it would be apriori reasoning to wantonly conclude that the statement from Ganduje be interpreted to be the opinion of Tinubu.

    At the risk of being accused of being an unofficial mouthpiece of the president, it is pertinent to remind ourselves that defection has always been a recurring theme in the nation’s ongoing democratic experiment. From past experiences, defections have been embarrassingly embarked upon by politicians in and out of power with shameful alacrity.

    The country’s partisan engagements, known to be bereft of political morality and any identifiable ideological considerations, might be responsible for this. When you have an ounce of morality and ideology missing in any so called democratic process like ours in Nigeria, it becomes difficult to clearly nail any politician on the cross for their mostly logic defying and unexplainable defections that pushes selfish pursuits to the fore. Governors, legislators, and politicians of influence have played the game of political harlotry, not for any developmental reasons other than avaricious personal pursuits. All the political parties that have existed and still exist under this democratic reality, and their members are guilty of this highly detrimental political game.

    The country becoming a one-party state is not something worthy of celebrating by stakeholders in the country’s current democratic experiment. Not even the president who has been a foremost figure in opposition politics while holding firmly his Lagos political forte can imagine the country becoming a one-party state under him. He never brooks such idea from other leaders before him. Yours sincerely can vouch for the president because the president knows that such an occurrence will only create a high wired public service hypocrisy with dire consequences on the political system. Sooner or later, those decampees from these currently less favoured political parties to APC will form the balk of political bastards that will balkanise the party later. That is the undiluted reality because they never shared its values or ideals but only seeking a platform to keep their jobs.

    Hence, it’ll be fair to state that what we’re witnessing today is the long term consequences of the political rascality of the previous and present leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo laid the foundation of the democratic rot called defection, and certainly, Tinubu won’t be proud to consolidate on the former leader’s partisan dictatorial inclinations. More troubling is that most of those robed in progressive garbs in APC today are staunch reactionaries from PDP and other lesser parties, hibernating in the ruling party simply because it’s in power.  It won’t be a proud record if the president allows these political prostitutes to engrave the condemnable phrase of sycophantic defection that crumbled the PDP on his solid political name.

    An excursion into Nigeria’s recent political history has become necessary if only to show that defection being currently witnessed is not an uncommon but certainly a windy ephemerality in our clime. For example, the PDP once haughtily prided itself as the “largest party in Africa” while its then national chairman, a retired Army General called Ahmadu Ali, vainly boasted that the party would rule the country for 60 years. Its fistic hold on the country’s political firmament lasted just sixteen years.

    At that time, it was as if their time in power would never come to an end.

    The indicators of delusional dominance were there because as at May 30, 2007, the PDP was controlling thirty-two states including Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Cross River and Zamfara.

    By then also, the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the defunct Action Congress (AC), and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were operating as merely fringe political parties.

    But ten kings, ten epochs so says a long-standing aphorism. Today, in Y2025, some people with no adequate sense of history are yelling Tinubu’s name simply because the ruling APC firmly controls more states including Akwa-Ibom, Ebonyi, Enugu, ‎Imo ,Lagos, Ondo , Sokoto, Ekiti, ‎Ogun , Edo , ‎Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa, Borno, ‎Yobe, Gombe, Kano, Benue, Kaduna, Cross River, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Jigawa, Delta, and Bayelsa amongst others.

    Quite curiously, the PDP as at today controls a paltry few states from thirty-two in 2007. It is doubtful if governors and the lawmakers from these few remaining states that PDP is controlling would not have decamped to APC by the time this piece is published or latest by December. Two political parties, APGA and the Labour party, are holding onto Abia and Anambra states, respectively. Who knows?

    Above depicts the seasonality of defections in Nigeria’s body polity.

    Even Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, while serving as vice-president of Nigeria under the Obasanjo presidency, with Tinubu’s mentorship, cross-carpeted to the current president’s then Action Congress (AC) party to run for the presidency of this country. His shamelessness for doing this at that time shows his lack of moral compass to condemn those decamping to Tinubu’s party at the moment. Atiku and company are only playing the hypocritical card against the current landlord of the Presidential Villa. The more selfish cries they make against Tinubu, the more certain it becomes that the current president will secure a reelection come the next general elections.

    Nothing happening now is new, but

    Tinubu must do things differently. I once told the current president in a private conversation sometimes ago, on the need for him to effect uniform manifesto for states controlled by his political party like the great political icon, late Pa Obafemi Awolowo, did for his Unity Party of Nigeria(UPN) controlled states during his lifetime. Tinubu’s opportunity to heed my suggestion is now to prevent governor decampees to his party from running haywire in different directions.

    The ongoing cross-carpeting is a confirmation of the fact that Tinubu is ahead of his political foes including Atiku by thousands of miles. We can not easily forget how he galvanized the opposition as a private citizen to uproot PDP’s stay in power for late Mohammadu Buhari to govern this country. Now, as a sitting president, his political-pull will be commonsensically higher and should not be denegrated by his traducers.

    My counsel: Tinubu should not take undue advantage of this divine political-pull gift for granted. Nigerians look forward to feeling and seeing the positive impact of his ideas. The current decamping process can only make sense once he realises that he’s at the apogee of his political relevance. Those decamping to APC today are doing so because he’s the president. If he stops being one tomorrow, they’ll jump into the ship of the next person. So, he has to be very careful and think of making a difference rather than leading an assemblage of strange bed follows to avoid the PDP blunders of the past.

    The president should positively strive to improve the lots of his people. This can be done if he comes up with constructive plan that aligns with what he espoused before he became the president.

    Winning reelection in 2027 or whenever should be the least of Tinubu’s worries for now. He will get it, but the verdict of history is more important to yours sincerely. Now that it is confirmed that he’s the nemesis of our hypocritical opposition, his worries should be how he’ll create a legacy of positive envy and not one that would be derided by historians. Indeed, Tinubu has overwhelmed Nigeria’s current opposition juggernauts. Nothing more!

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

  • Can we for once applaud the DSS?

    Can we for once applaud the DSS?

    “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”-  John Quincy Adams

    By Mobolaji Sanusi (PIX)

    Majority of us are fond of talking about negatives oozing out of the country. Daily, we are inundated with the hysterical cries of Nigerians about devaluation, inflation, high cost of food items/drugs, abductions, kidnappings, and killings by armed bandits as if nothing good can ever come out of Nigeria. The sad reality is that most of the challenges that the country is facing today are the consequences of failed institutions spanning over several decades.

    Not that the institutions don’t have good enabling laws but it’s just that those institutions are manned by agents of political patronage, sometimes well qualified on paper, and most times lacked and still lack the requisite political will cum right attitude to do the correct things for fear of being removed from their positions. That is the consequence of triumphs of timidity over personal principle, values, and the right attitude.

    Several holders of political office in Nigeria know the right things to do but do the wrong things to appease their political benefactors. They are not insane for having this survival mindset but are only adept at trying to avoid the detrimental fate of those that have lost their positions to the consequences of doing the right things, and worse still, heavens did not fall after their removal from such positions. Life goes on while society, devoid of the appropriate human capital and critical virtues, suffers.

    Majority of those in office are ready to do anything for the wrong reasons. Such is today the dilemma of the Nigerian state and a major reason some Nigerians believe we may never get it right, for a long while to come.

    But echoes from an unusual quarters are restoring hope and changing the narratives of negative vibes. The renewed hope agenda is truly and genuinely echoing in the Department of State Service (DSS) under the leadership of Mr. Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi, a first class degree holder from Brunel University who reportedly resumed office on August 28, 2024.

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    Quite unlike the arbitrariness of the past, when most Nigerians see the DSS as an institution for oppressing and suppressing opposing views/conducts perceived to be against any leader in power, things are now changing—for good. Under the dreaded past of successive leaders, we witnessed illegal arrests with newspapers being wantonly closed, people, especially journalists being clamped into illegal detention, and even judgments’ debts awarded by courts being ignored and not paid, with no consequences.

    It is heartening to know that we now have a Department of State Service (DSS) Director-General with humanity, like blood, flowing in his veins and making a difference with barely over one year in office. Young Nigerians with no knowledge of the nation’s history may not appreciate what Ajayi is doing in DSS today because history as a subject is just returning to our academic curriculum this Y2025 new school session. As also a journalist of several decades, l should know the history of DSS of yore.

    The man at its saddle now is leading the DSS, not only with words, but also with admirable actions. He’s a man of good example and not mere precepts. Despite not having met him, which is not necessary, reports about him, with empirical corroborations, is a big plus for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for getting this one important appointment right.

    Mr. Ajayi seems an exemplar of what security leadership should be. Through his published numerous good leadership interventions in newspapers, he’s giving the DSS a humane face. Quite commendably, individuals who were wrongly arrested by the service, unlike the gory history of the past, have reportedly been compensated with huge monetary sums. Mr. Ajayi’s approved benevolence is not for the ghosts but for real humans reportedly identified in Mrs. Chineze Ozoadibe and others, and running to several millions of naira. He looks untiring to do more to straighten this institution, if and when the need arises.

    Brutish disposition by the service to trampling on the inalienable rights of the people is fast eroding. Abridgement of especially freedom of expression is fast ebbing. This could be gleaned from the service’s handling of Professor Pat Utomi’s public declaration of toying with the idea of forming a shadow cabinet in a presidential, not parliamentary system of government, like ours in Nigeria. The service, under Ajayi did not, like it was known to do, persecute Utomi.

    Rather, he embraced civility in the discharge of his duty by approaching the court. The DSS won. He also filed a suit against Omoyele Sowore for making unverifiable ‘tarnishing’ statements against the president. Rather than threw him in illegal detention, he affirmed his unflinching resolve to entrench a regime of constitutional virtues in the country, unlike the service’ high handedness of the past.

    Also, days ago, Mr. Ajayi’s overzealous operatives wrongfully arrested Ms Ruth Marcus and Keshia Jang, both reporters of Jay 101.9 FM, Jos, Plateau State. This happened during President Bola Tinubu’s recent visit to Jos to condole Nentawe Yilwadta Goshwe, the All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman over his mother’s death. He immediately ordered their release once the news filtered into his ears. It didn’t end there, the Director-General, on behalf of the service, reportedly tendered unreserved apologies to the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) over the incident. The same hitherto uncommon security courtesies, he extended in recent past to the management of TVC over alleged harassment and intimidation of its reporter amongst others.

    No doubt that Ajayi is committed to breaking the decades of DSS’ recycled mistakes by ebbing the tide of trampling on inalienable rights of the people as enshrined in our constitution. Now, he’s ingraining a regime of a justice system that places high premium on decent treatment of citizens and in handling complaints, with the public now developing gradual trust in the DSS and the Tinubu administration. Ajayi’s precedent has become an admirable template for other security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force, to follow.

    To think, know, and see the DSS taking recourse to judicial interpretation in courts of law, in matters of ‘national security’ marks a refreshing departure from the long-standing culture of impunity the service was built on.

    This is understandable when the evolution of the service is traced to two evils: colonialism and military rule. Historically, the service evolved from the office of the pre-independence Inspector-General of Police as “E” Department (Special Branch) in 1948. It later metamorphosed into the dreaded Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO) in 1976 when General Olusegun Obasanjo succeeded the assassinated General Murtala Mohammed. Then, Obasanjo promulgated the NSO Decree No.16 of 1976 as his response to bridging the intelligence gap that brought about that year’s abortive coup. Its mandate: To gather promptly, relevant, and well distilled intelligence necessary for averting perils and for the promotion of national security.

    General Ibrahim Babangida, upon becoming a military ruler in 1985, changed its nomenclature through Decree No.19 of 1986 and renamed NSO as the National Security Agencies (NSA) Decree 1986. That Decree brought about the SSS (now DSS); the Defence Intelligence Service (DIS); and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

    The DSS has jurisdiction over the internal intelligence of the country and directly takes orders from the President and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

    Under Instrument SSS No.1 of 1999 pursuant to Section 6 of the National Security Agencies (NSA) Act 1986 Cap. 74 Law of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004, the agency sees to the prevention and detection of any crime against the internal security of Nigeria; protection and preservation of all non-military classified matters concerning the internal security of Nigeria; prevention, detection and investigation of threats of espionage, subversion, sabotage, terrorism, separatist agitations, inter-group conflicts, economic crimes of national security dimension and threats to law and order; provision of protective security for designated principal government functionaries, sensitive installations and visiting dignitaries; provision of timely advise to government on all matters of national security interest and; other functions as may, from time to time, be assigned to it.

    DSS’ renewed professionalism under Ajayi as typified by its recently reported courageous acknowledgment of errors and his timely offering of redress where necessary is a big plus to the president’s renewed hope agenda of running a government that allows the inalienable rights of the citizens to thrive. Certainly, operatives of the service will henceforth conduct due diligence before detaining anyone because embarking on such unjustly and wrongful acts will have dire consequences from their Director-General. This is good for their psyche and that of Nigerians.

    If the DSS under an ‘omoluabi’ Ajayi is getting it right by putting up actions which according to John Quincy Adams, allows subordinates to dream, do more and become more, there’s hope that before too long, the global rating of our country’s human rights record will steadfastly improve beyond expectations.

    The country definitely has so many Ajayis in our midst that needs presidential attention for assigned consideration if we’re serious about moving this country forward. The ball is in the president’s court as a ‘talent hunter’ to fish out more Ajayis to fill positions in critical agencies of state.

    As it stands, most of the appointees in these critical agencies, except for a few, are not the Ajayis needed to move the country forward. Anyways, despite the inevitable need to do more to address critical institutional deficiencies, kudos should be accorded the president for his unwavering efforts, so far.

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

  • Dangote refinery and trade union activism

    Dangote refinery and trade union activism

    • By Mobolaji Sanusi

    At this season of Nigeria’s 65th independence celebrations, yours sincerely considered it sad to note that the refining of the country’s most precious endowment is creating a recurring but disruptive albatross to the growth and general economic wellbeing of the nation.

    Days past, the purportedly resolved tango between Dangote Refinery and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers/ Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria – NUPENG/PENGASSAN by the federal government remains another sour spot in efforts to revive a corruption-induced near comatose petroleum industry.

    Before forging ahead, yours sincerely considers making a necessary confession as a prelude to today’s piece: And this has to do with my not particularly being a big fan of Aliko Dangote because of the business tradition that capitalists like Aliko are ruthless money men that are always ready to decimate any seen or unseen obstacles on the paths to achieving their profiteering goals. Unimaginable wealth creation antics of investors like Alikos of this world could sometimes be system compromising. They, in pursuit of wealth, usually don’t accept ‘NO’ for an answer.

    Notwithstanding, the foregoing would not detract from applauding the significance of investments of the Alikos of this country in creating gainful employment for millions of Nigerians – contributing to national development and growth in the process. Sadly, other immensely rich Nigerians keep their wealth in the banks, making fat interest earnings far from the prying eyes of the public.

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    Consequent upon this, there’s the need for a dispassionate scrutiny of the industrial tango between Aliko’s Dangote Refinery and NUPENG/PENGASSAN so that in a civil polity, a clear boundary, moving forward, can be set between a private growing concerns, labour union activism and national security cum interests.

    What’s at issue is NUPENG-PENGASSAN’s nosy intrusion, under the guise of protecting members’ interests, in the way Aliko chooses to manage his $20 billion refinery business. It is quite possible that the accusation of unfair treatment of Nigerian workers at the expense of expatriate employees, particularly Indians, who are reportedly being paid fat wages, might have added to the industrial animosity against the refinery. The overzealous reaction of the trade union stands condemned. Let it sink at the moment that, until when Rabiu’s BUA petroleum refinery is fully completed and functional,  and even after, every necessary governmental support must be accorded Aliko so as not to send a wrong signal to the world that this country can forsake her critical investors at their moments of needs.

    Kudos to the government’s team led by Mr. Wale Edun, the Honourable Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, for reaching a seeming denouement on the impasse before it spiralled out of control. It is good to know that the sacked 800 staff of the refinery will be reabsorbed and redeployed to other investment projects of the Dangote Group.

    But the key issue of what happens is that a trade union body tries to hold a huge investment such as the Dangote Refinery by the jugular while hiding under freedom of association guaranteed by the grundnorm and even the ILO Convention. It’s Aliko Dangote’s company today, but who knows whose company’s turn will be affected tomorrow.

    PENGASSAN leadership acted, while its encounter with the refinery lasted, as if another name for unionism is lawlessly putting a nation under siege. Its leadership acted as if they were motivated by other interests other than that of the affected workers of the refinery.

    It is evident that a clear line exists, and must continue to exist, between labour rights and national interests. However, going forward, the Federal Ministry of Labour must step up its advocacy efforts in this area. Such action is crucial not only to raise public awareness but also to prevent the kind of unnecessary panic caused by oil workers’ unions, who recently threatened a nationwide shutdown of petroleum and gas supply during their dispute with Dangote Refinery, despite lacking the authority to carry out such a threat.

    Undoubtedly, workers have the right to organize, protest and strike as stated in the combined reading of section 40 of the 1999 Constitution which guarantees the right to freedom of association, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98 of which Nigeria is a signatory, allowing voluntary workers will to join trade unions. But like every other inalienable rights, this right to associate with a trade union to protect employees’ rights and possibly embark on a strike action where necessary as a legitimate tool of collective bargaining, is not absolute.

    There are constitutional proviso, including restrictions to protect public safety, order, health, morality, and national security. It should also be noted that the Trade Disputes Act lays down strict condition precedent that must be met before a strike can be lawfully embarked upon by a labour union. These include conciliation, arbitration, and reference to the National Industrial Court. It is doubtful that NUPENG-PENGASSAN ever fully explored these areas before putting the refinery, albeit the nation on avoidable siege with their strike.

    The trade unions mischievously pretended to forget that petroleum and gas supply under the law are classified as essential services which they lacked the powers to disrupt because doing such is not only criminal but also inimical to national survival and an act of economic sabotage that can cripple the nation’s vital activities.

    Even the International Labour Organization, despite guaranteeing the right to strike, equally accepts restrictions where services are “essential to the life, personal safety, or health of the population.” This fully describes directly or incidentally what Dangote’s refinery does. The law governing essential services to protect national security is very handy for the government to deploy next time this happens.

    PENGASSAN should be schooled on the reality that the country is no longer under military rule when the unions were effectively deployed to combat military dictatorship.  At this point in time, the country is under a constitutional democracy premised on Professor A.V. Dicey’s well espoused doctrine of the rule of law. Thus, the rights and limitations of employers and employees exist and, in this particular instance, must be obeyed by the parties involved to halt any ugly tide of human and economic disruptions.

    Can anyone deny the staring fact that we’re in this mess because in sixty-five years of being an independent entity, we as a nation have four government-owned refineries. But as of today, none of the refineries is working at anything near satisfactory? Yet, every budgetary season, we set aside money for turnaround maintenance, usually in hard currency, but nothing positive ever comes out of this waste of public funds.

    Recently, the immediate past Managing Director/CEO of NNPCL, Mr. Mele  Kyari, and some of his top executives were reportedly invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over misappropriation of money allocated for the Port Harcourt refinery. Nothing has come out of that invitation. Another sad thing is that some Nigerians employed to work in these refineries who are members of these trade unions collect salaries and allowances and were sent on training programs abroad for doing nothing.

    Some of them have actually retired and paid gratuity and pensions for decades of unproductivity. This sorry state is being replicated in Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mills and others where trillions of the nation’s hard earned money are daily wasted by unionised staff idling away. The oil cabal and allies masquerading as trade unions holding our petroleum industry hostage should look elsewhere, forthwith.

    If a globally renowned capitalist, riding on our collective ineptitude and tomfoolery and having enjoyed scandalously discretionary forex rate approvals from the Federal Government, was able to successfully build one functional refinery with 650,000 bpd capacity, we should do everything to support him to make it work in our collective interests.

    Yours sincerely believe our trade unions should, as a matter of necessity, be encouraged to discharge their duty of protecting worker’s interests; but this should preferably be done with dignifying poise devoid of ulterior motives. This is what can make Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, the father of Trade Union Movement from Guyana, turn in his grave in admiration for what the movement is doing in this country.

    Nigerians will be better off to see this privately-owned Dangote refinery  succeed so as to insulate the nation from avoidable waste of scarce forex expended on sometimes phantom, but most times, avoidably needless fuel importation with catastrophic consequences on the wellbeing of the economy. My humble submission!

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

  • Remi Tinubu: Primus inter pares First Lady @ 65

    Remi Tinubu: Primus inter pares First Lady @ 65

    By Mobolaji Sanusi

    There are two great days in a person’s life—the day we are born, and the day we discover why.” — William Barclay

    The celebration of Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CFR’s 65th birthday today is uniquely an issue because of two things: The esteemed position she occupies and secondly because of her admirable assertive but simplistic humility despite her privileged thriving in money, power and influence.

    However, not many people know that she shares her assertive humility with the very first woman to carry the First Lady tag in recorded history. We all proclaim the First Lady title but a negligible number of us, especially in our African continent, bother to unravel how the title of First Lady came to being in the early days of an independent United States political history.

    The title was ab initio deployed to describe the spouse of America’s pioneer president. Martha Washington, wife of George Washington, United States first president, was the first spouse in global history to be referred to as “First Lady” in an 1838 article authored by one Mrs Sigourney in the St. Johnsbury Caledonian newspaper.

    Mrs. Sigourney in the article, highlighted how Martha Washington never got intoxicated by power, even after her husband, George became president. She wrote: “The First Lady of the nation still preserved the habits of early life. Indulging in no indolence, she left the pillow at dawn, and after breakfast, retired to her chamber for an hour for the study of the scriptures and devotion.”

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    Precisely how Mrs Sigourney described Martha Washington as a piously religious and humble woman of substance aptly captures the virtuous attributes of our current First Lady. However, Remi Tinubu, CFR, is much more to humanity than Martha was.

    We may unknowingly assume she’s just the usual First Lady. Expectedly so because hitherto, previous First Ladies that inhabited Nigeria’s Presidential Villa largely play the role of hostess to dignitaries who visited Nigeria’s seat of power. But our own Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CFR, wife of incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, plays more than that simplistic role euphemistically described as that of the “other room”—apologies to late former president, Mohammadu Buhari.

    With the glimmer so far displayed at the Aso-Rock Villa and how she served in Lagos House in the same role, it won’t be out of tune to describe her as being indeed, the primus inter pares amongst all the wives of presidents that have lived in the federal seat of power.

    And this is not hyperbolic. Our First Lady possesses an inspiring credentials quite uncommon within the club of wives of former presidents in this country. She has so many firsts attached by providence to her name. Not many people would easily realize that she’s the first Nigerian woman imbued with the privilege of serving as a senator before becoming First Lady to her president husband.

    She has also made history by not just being a senator but the first woman in the annal of the nation’s political history to have served an unbroken three-term tenure as a senator. She’s also the only First Lady, by virtue of her versatile legislative experience that’s nuanced in proper workings of government. Other Nigerian First Ladies in history merely played the idiosyncratic showmanship of the womenfolk.

    At 65, Remi Tinubu is providential armed for the role she had played and still currently playing in the nation’s public life. Having been properly schooled at Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Ijebu Ode, Ogun state where she sat for her West African School Certificate in 1979, her subsequent education at Adeyemi College of Education for her National Certificate in Education and later at the University of Ife where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Education prepared her for her current role as the mother of the nation.

    She combines this with very deep spiritual rigour that saw her becoming a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God after obtaining a postgraduate diploma in theology from the church’s Bible school in 2010. All these, coupled with a strong parental grounding led her to becoming a woman of indisputable sense of admirable ethos, spirituality and humility.

    Remi Tinubu’s husband’s incursion into politics threw her into public eye. Ever since, she has evolved into calving her own niche without breaching the space provided for her to operate within by her husband. Since founding the New Era Foundation in 2000 with several laudably impactful programmes to showcase decades after, Remi Tinubu has never looked back. As someone that never suffer fools gladly, she has proudly excelled as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and so far as the First Lady of the entire country.

    Her New Era Foundation was empathy-driven with special focus on the underprivileged demographics including children, women, and the youth.

    Her humility and grassroots orientation drew people’s exaltation. With her husband’s assumption of office as Nigeria’s 16th President, she also becomes the 16th First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, assuming a newly-elevated role from her Lagos position, within Nigeria’s national narrative.

    Her pet project as Nigeria’s First Lady is designated as Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI). With her selfless dedication to uplifting the hoi poloi in the country, RHI has continued to live in the consciousness of the people through benevolent initiatives, sponsored not from the government till, but through partnerships with successful private entities like the African Initiatives of the Abdul Samad Rabiu, the Tony Elumelu Foundation and other anonymous wealthy entities of this world.

    Very many Nigerians who have been privileged to encounter the First Lady, including yours sincerely, will stoutly vouch for her intolerance for inanities in all imaginable endeavours. This is why the many that had thought that her RHI initiative would become another showpiece project designed for photo opps have been greatly disappointed. RHI, through its anchored five thematic pillars of agriculture, education, health, economic empowerment and social investment have been widely recognized as a big success in alleviating and palliating the toil of our vulnerable class but with special but not limited attention to especially women, children, elderly and the youth.

    About two months ago, Remi Tinubu’s RHI empathetically donated one billion naira (N1billion) to helping victims of recent Plateau state violence. Till date, her several food outreaches, health interventions, monetary donations, most times amounting to half a million naira per person, doled out as grants to farmers, market women, widows, business owners, school children, physically challenged people and the elderly and the sick, have percoliated through the thirty-six states and Abuja with beneficiaries volunteering to publicly attest to having received the First Lady’s humanitarian largesse.

    Commendably so heartwarming to equally know that in just barely two years, Remi Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Initiative has reportedly benefited over 40 million Nigerians. She fed the hungry, clothed the needy, fortified the healthcare worker, equipped the farmer, provided grants for the traders, rescued the elderly from untimely deaths and restored hope of thousands of girls. What other things could be more rewarding than to use one’s position to benefit humanity.

    Even today at 65, she has come out to publicly tell her well-wishers not to embark on celebratory jamborees but rather deploy money kept for that to sponsor a laudable national library project initiative. True to her selflessly humanist nature, she called on admirers of hers to on this occasion of her 65th birthday contribute money to a designated account with the federal ministry of education to be used for the completion of the abandoned national library project. That is Remi Tinubu for you-always thinking of how to make an indelible imprints on the sand of time. Others in her shoes or even higher shoes could possibly have called for donations to build personalized presidential library known more for hospitality business than any meaningful intellectual pursuits.

    Our ravishing First Lady is imbued with the lovingly assertive character of a mother, the panoramic scrutiny of a genuinely focused legislator; a tenderly affectionate heart of a humanist and above all, she has been a sincerely obedient wife to, as your sincerely writes this, the patriarch of progressive politics in the country, Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our dear president.

    There’s a popular aphorism which goes thus: “Don’t just count your years, make your years count”.

    In all ramifications, Remi Tinubu, through her steadfast contributions to mankind, has in deeds, words and actions affirmed her not only counting her years but equally making those years count.

    At sixty-five, our darling Yeye-Asíwájú of the universe is obviously redefining and making productive, the covetous office of the First Lady — from its being hitherto a position of ceremonial glamour to making it become a throne of substantial impact with enduring substance.

    Happy 65th Birthday Yeye-Asíwájú’.

    Sanusi, former MD/CEO of LASAA is a managerial psychologist and current managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.

  • The Buhari-Tinubu Synergy

    ‘Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so’ — Charles de Gaulle

    The high-pitched political temperature in the country is subsiding. And its being feverish initially was a consequence of the avoidable quagmire in the National Assembly and the broad perception that President Mohammadu Buhari is politically apathetical; and added to this is the widely held notion that his government is quite slow in bringing about the desired change that Nigerians are yearning for. Many mischievous politicians also tried to create, in the public domain, a phantom frosty relationship between Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the President, using the wrangling that arose from the leadership elections in the National Assembly as plank.

    The public waited with baited breath to know the feelings of Asiwaju. To them, he needs to dispel or confirm the rumour making the round on the concocted cold relationship between him and the President. That opportunity, since the new Federal Government’s inauguration, presented itself when the two great men met at the Presidential Villa one evening during the month of Ramadan in company with some other invited party leaders. At the end of that day’s Ramadan break, Tinubu was the cynosure of all eyes and the pressmen feasted on him for news. He spoke eloquently; calling on Nigerians to be patient with the PMB government whilst also reiterating his confidence in the president’s style of governance. And just three days ago, the duo met again within the same Presidential Villa precinct and the smirking of Pull-Him-Down (PHD) politicians that saw him as the greatest threat to pursuit of their ambitions in the corridors of power ended in shame.

    Their pastime of PHD suddenly becomes a nightmare, especially coming at a time that PMB met warring Honourable members and subsequently held a meeting with Asiwaju, which culminated into seeming denouement on the House of Representatives crisis with the emergence of Hakeem Gbajabiamila as House Majority leader. Obviously, any continuing recalcitrance against party position, after the meeting with PMB by the Speaker Yakubu Dogara group, could end dismally. The public is watching how far Bukola Saraki could go with his Senate-Presidency that he got through subterfuge and his continuing subversion of party directives/position.

    The reading of this column is that the trust reposed in PMB needs the political sagacity of an Asiwaju and it is good that the public has seen through their last meeting that there is a solid synergy between the duo despite the treacherous antics of envious politicians.

    The meeting earlier in the week of these great Nigerians and the way it doused the political temperature in the land, without sounding immodest, confirms yours sincerely’s strongly held position that Tinubu remains the most-sought-after politician and perhaps, the most influential one of the progressive hue in contemporary Nigeria.

    There are two very recent examples to buttress this fact from notable personalities that should know. Prince Tony Momoh, accomplished journalist and former Minister of Information, in a recent interview titled: ‘How Tinubu lured five governors out of PDP’’ that was published in the Vanguard newspaper edition of July 27, 2015, underscores the political significance of Tinubu, unlike emptily lousy others, to the birth of this new dawn where he said: ‘…That is why we can never underrate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the success that we achieved in the 2015 election that produced this government.  Tinubu is an excellent crowd mobilizer, very highly proactive and exceptionally digital politician.  He was the one who knew how he wooed the five governors of the New PDP and brought them into the APC. You cannot underrate Tinubu’s contribution to the success of the emergence of this government. We should give kudos to Tinubu because of his role in the influence that brought the PDP governors into APC.  He wooed Saraki and Atiku and he knew how he went into the PDP and played all those games. I would tell you that two politicians that should be respected most in Nigeria today are Tinubu and Bisi Akande.’

    Another sampler: Colonel Sambo Dasuki, immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), in an interview titled: ‘Dasuki denies maltreating Buhari after 1985 coup,’’ that was equally published in the Vanguard newspaper of July 23, 2015 also disclosed the undeniable political importance of Tinubu where he said: ‘I pleaded in 2011 with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the presence of Bisi Akande to accept Muhammad Buhari as the joint presidential candidate for ACN and CPC.’ He further stated: “In the belief that Yoruba and south-westerners are never religious fanatics, especially regarding politics, me and my group suggested that Tinubu should be a running mate to Buhari. When other elements opposed that proposition, Tinubu team therefore recommended a Buhari-Osinbajo ticket. Unfortunately, the ticket failed to stick as Pastor Tunde Bakare was eventually pushed forward by other forces.” Four years after, these covetous ‘other elements’ surprisingly but expectedly embraced the Tinubu option and the rest is now history.

    It is understandable if some people are begrudging Tinubu but they need to acknowledge the fact that he towers above not only the politically resentful people but also his treacherous associates. The political ignoramuses might deride him; the grovellers of hitherto never-do-well centrist governments are used to impugning his character, but that is the man still standing like the rock of Gibraltar. Asiwaju has the power and tactics of political liberation; he is imbued with a rare economic skill, being a shrewd accountant with vast international experience. This man of unquantifiable goodwill has an uncanny nerve for discovering a talent, which was reflected in the membership of his mostly well-endowed cabinet team, which he assembled during his eight-year rein as governor of Lagos State.

    Indeed, Charles de Gaulle was right by saying: ‘Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men and men are great only if they are determined to be so.’ Tinubu is a successful determined political risk taker of our time. The difference between Tinubu and the rest in the political arena is that he sees possibility where others remain political jellies. His often-talked-about political superiority complex does not mean pride, although it might appear to be so in the eyes of the mischievous among politicians and the so-called pretentious technocrats turned overnight politicians that want to see it so. Tinubu feels a higher esteem over the obstacles he desires to surmount and he is blessed with the rare courage of overcoming them, with enough energy reserved for any eventuality. It is with this kind of uncommon valor and acuity that he deployed in handling the devilish rascality of politicians/friends/associates that strive futilely, on a daily basis, to bring him on his kneels. PMB should always read between the lines so that these envious political zealots will not keep Tinubu and others that are truly for him away from the seat of power.

    This column is particularly elated that notwithstanding the indignant blackmail of political buccaneers against Tinubu, he is still waxing stronger within the nation’s political firmament as a dependable torchbearer of the progressives across the federation: And more importantly, Asiwaju has proved to be a truly loyal ally of the PMB administration through his recent unflinching public assurance to Nigerians that with a bit of patience, this government at the end of its allowed ‘honeymoon’ will deliver on promised positive change.

  • Obasanjo: ‘Statesman’ or rabble-rouser?

    Obasanjo: ‘Statesman’ or rabble-rouser?

     ”He is not wise to me whoever is wise in words only, but he who is wise in deeds.”—— Aristotle

    The presidency of any nation is the apogee of political attainment that any citizen can desire in life. Thus, for anyone to have assumed the leadership position of a nation is no mean task. And to have done that thrice is even harder and more enviable. But the Eekerin of Egbaland and Balogun/Ebora of Owu land in Abeokuta, Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo, through divine grace, achieved those rare feats. He was military Head of State and twenty years after he relinquished power, he was elected civilian president in 1999 and re-elected in 2003 into the exalted position. He could have secured a fourth shot at the presidency through tenure elongation but for the alertness of the people and divine intervention. And just because of the grace he had to rule three times, the man erroneously believes that every other living creature must worship at his feat.

    He carried his hypocritical posturing to unacceptable level recently in Edo state while delivering a convocation lecture at Benson Idahosa University where he said that the perceived failure of Jonathan in office would haunt the people of South-South zone for a long time. Yet, despotic Obasanjo refused to state that the inept former President Goodluck Jonathan was a consequence of his deliberate political dictatorial plot as president when he unleashed such incompetent deputy on late President Umaru Yar’ Adua that he knew was suffering from a terminal ailment ahead of time. Why should Obasanjo now blame a whole region for his mischievous un-presidential lapses? Would the south-south people have chosen Jonathan were they to be given the option to so voluntarily pick amongst many of their better-qualified and intelligent indigenes by despotic Obasanjo? The answer is capital NO!

    Several months ago too, Obasanjo, at the 4th Annual Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), University of Ibadan (UI), held in collaboration with African Sustainable Development Network (ASUDNET), noted to the chagrin of most Nigerians, that the crop of younger generation of leaders in the country had failed the citizenry. The truth is that Obasanjo is not competent to give a talk on leadership and sustainable development because of his poor track record in that regard while he was in office. Hence, allocating such topic to him was a misnomer and an abuse of such an important platform.

    The ex-president seized the platform to unleash unstatesmanly bile on his erstwhile political allies and perceived opponents. He accused his former Vice, Atiku Abubakar, of betrayal, citing it as the major reason he did not hand over to him. Yes, Atiku’s presidential ambition might have actually turned him into a political harlot, but not many would easily forget how he betrayed the Action Congress (AC) that rescued him from Obasanjo’s tyranny as when the plot to impeach him was foiled through the political ingenuity of Asiwaju BolaTinubu, then governor of Lagos State. He returned to Lagos after his medical treatment abroad and was welcomed with fun-fare at a time that a presidential booby trap was already awaiting him in Abuja. But his political harlotry should not be justification for Obasanjo to label him a betrayer. Also, the fact that Atiku possibly alerted the world about his tenure elongation agenda should not be a good reason. Atiku was Obasanjo’s nemesis and both men are driven by nothing but their inordinate ambitions.

    Obasanjo also listed names of other leaders from his prejudiced failed younger generation. He mentioned Salisu Buhari, former House of Representatives Speaker; Deprieye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelsa State Governor; Lucky Igbinedion, former Edo State Governor; James Ibori, former Delta State Governor and Orji Uzor Kalu, the former governor of Abia State. What Obasanjo didn’t tell the gathering at the lecture and the entire world that read the reports was that it was during his tenure as leader and Board of Trustees chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that his self-appraised failed leaders emerged. For the avoidance of doubt, Obasanjo should avail Nigerians of the truth about who granted Salisu Buhari state pardon despite the fact that he confessed to have forged a university degree. Let him tell us who gave Salisu his first Federal Board appointment, worse still, in an educational and research institute, after this disgraceful act.

    The ex-president who wants people to believe that he is the only saint in Nigeria’s public life should elucidate more on how the money for his first election was raised in 1999. Yours sincerely and many other Nigerians will be interested in knowing the truth about the contributions, in cash and kind, of Orji Uzor Kalu; and at what point did Obasanjo realise Kalu to be a failed leader? On Alamieyeseigha, Obasanjo probably forgot to tell the distinguished gathering that the man during his tenure as governor stood up in Aso-Rock Presidential Villa to challenge him. Obasanjo summoned all the governors for a meeting and in his imperial display of impunity and contempt for others started talking down on the governors. But Alamieyeseigha stood up and bluntly told him that he was not his surrogate, but a governor of his state, who was duly elected by his people like Obasanjo.

    Obasanjo didn’t like Alamieyeseigha’s effrontery. He merely waited to pay him back by masterminding his money-laundering problem in the United Kingdom and eventual impeachment, arraignment in court and subsequent conviction. The rest is now history, but the truth remains that Obasanjo’s acts in all these were not borne out of true leadership fervour but vindictive proclivity. On James Onanafe Ibori that he mentioned in his list of failed leaders, let him tell us how the money for late President Umaru Yar’Adua election was raised. The public needs to know the highest donor among the governors of that era when circumstances forced him (Obasanjo) to organise the 2007 general elections after the truncation of his disgraceful Third Term plan.

    Obasanjo in his vindictive self seems not to have forgiven Asiwaju Tinubu for promoting ideal democratic tenets, constitutionalism and for his advancing the values of ideal federalism. More importantly, the man is not happy that Tinubu’s name has eclipsed his own in the political reckoning of the southwest. This is why Obasanjo could still not forgive Tinubu for not allowing him to capture Lagos State, like he did in other states in the west in 2003 and 2007. Obasanjo hates being floored but Asiwaju actually defeated him at the Apex Court when he won the matter over the with-held monthly allocations of Local Governments in the state over the creation of Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs). Also, Tinubu rescued, like he did to Atiku, Rashidi Ladoja, former governor of Oyo State, from Obasanjo’s tyranny.

    Tinubu gave Ladoja presidential treatments all through the period of his travails with Obasanjo and also got the best legal representation to challenge his impeachment. Unlike the vindictive Obasanjo, Tinubu is not begrudging Ladoja for pursuing his political aspiration in another party today.

    It is obvious from Obasanjo’s reference to Tinubu in his then lecture that he goaded the Code of Conduct Tribunal to come after the latter. And Obasanjo is shamefully sad that nothing incriminating was found against the former governor. Obasanjo is currently working with an ungrateful and inordinately ambitious southwest governor in his early second term days to discredit Asiwaju. Yet, Tinubu has led a pack of reputable progressive leaders to rescue the southwest and Edo State from the claws of the ruling PDP and Obasanjo seems distressed about this fact. He should look elsewhere if he needs to vent his spleen on someone. The blame game on Asiwaju and others is nothing but a manifestation of Obasanjo’s loss of touch with contemporary reality. The public sees him more as a rabble-rouser or at best, a political jester; one that still believes in his primacy long after his magical wand had been extinguished.

    Yours sincerely is using this column to let Obasanjo know that effective leadership is not about making fabulously blank vocalizations or finding ill-motivated faults. This ex-president should ask himself if his actions, within and outside power, inspire other Nigerians to dream more, learn more and do more positively. Obasanjo is a flopped leader because he could not mentor/produce effective younger leaders for the country. What he successfully did was to produce more deceitfully corrupt and incompetent followership. Most Nigerians, except the deceptive few, no longer believe him because his credibility and integrity have long taken flight.