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Category: Mobolaji Sanusi

When is Bode George leaving town?

‘When boasting ends, there dignity begins’ – Owen Young (1874-1962) (American Lawyer/Chairman of General Electric.)

Sincerely, Olabode Ibiyinka George to be addressed in this column as BG has done quite well in life for himself. Though a failed loquacious politician, he was a success in his military career. He was military governor of former Ondo State in the late eighties to early nineties. After a period of being in public lurch, he had a brief reappearance in the public domain as an aide to General Oladipo Diya, then Chief of Staff in the infamous late Sani Abacha-led despotic military regime. BG was subsequently inherited by the democratic but tyrannical administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2001, George was imposed as People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) national vice-chairman in the southwest zone. Later, he was elevated, through imposition as PDP Deputy National Chairman, South, and then the National Deputy Chairman of the PDP. Obasanjo also appointed him as Chairman of the lucrative Nigerian Ports Authority where he ran into troubled waters.

For doing filthy errands and creating so much un-impactful intrigue amongst the Yoruba, BG was ‘honoured’ as a member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP for life for as long as he remains in the party. He is also the only one representing the southwest in the national caucus of the party forever.

In an interview syndicated in the Punch edition of February 17, 2015 and Vanguard of February 20, 2015, BG vaingloriously declared: ‘If Bola Tinubu finds his way into national government, I will go on exile.’ After the election when a Vanguard reporter asked whether he would still go on exile or not, he retorted: “What will I be doing here? I can decide to go and live anywhere. Look at everyone surrounding him (Buhari). So, I am not joking about it, what will I be doing here? At 70, what will I be doing here?’’ Apart for his pathological envy and baseless spurn for Asiwaju Tinubu, he has also exposed his bigotry for Mohammadu Buhari, president-elect for deafeningly defeating his candidate and party in the last largely free and fair presidential election. The question to ask at this juncture is; when is Bode George going on exile?

Bode George’s brags reminds of the statement of Owen D. Young (1874-1962), the late American Lawyer and chairman of General Electric when he said: “When boasting ends, there dignity begins.” Permit this column to ask him; now that Tinubu has not just found his way into national government but has become an important part of that government and one of the greatest practical politicians ever produced by this country, where are the remains of the doubtful political and social integrity of BG?

While Tinubu was busy plotting on how to win more states for the progressives so that more Nigerians could benefit from the type of good governance going on in the centre of excellence, BG was always far from Lagosians taking refuge in the comfort zones of Aso-Rock and lying to the ruling henchmen that he was going to win Lagos for PDP. Shamefully though, he never did because a more popular, people-loving and large-hearted Tinubu always beat him to the game. Tinubu would for long continue to do that.

BG never won in his polling booth, which makes one to be wondering how a man that cannot win his area can ever think of producing a winning team in Lagos. In the last governorship election in Lagos, he lost his polling unit where APC defeated PDP by 139 votes to 87. He also fruitlessly played ethnic politics in Lagos with Jimi Agbaje in the last election.

The presidential election loss in the March 28 contest was a foregone conclusion.

He takes pride in describing himself as a true Lagosian despite his having not done anything concrete for the common man on the streets of the state, even at the apogee of his vastly waning influence with the government at the centre. He has been playing politics of the centre that has made little or no positive impact on the state. This may not be unconnected with why people of his areas have always punctured his over-inflated political relevance, during election periods.

When Tinubu was building state institutions and thinking of how to make Lagosians secure and happy, BG, in cohort with Seye Ogunlewe was inflicting torture on the people of the state through FERMA thugs between 2005 and 2007. They later transformed this group into SURE-P Task Force cadets in 2014 that they used to torment the people before the last elections in their pursuits of do-or-die politics. When Tinubu was creating jobs and thinking of how to make the youth of Lagos more purposeful in their vocation of choice, the best that BG had for them was to deploy them as thugs before and during elections when his own children and those of his cohorts were attending the best schools in the world and engaged in dream positions in best institutions across the globe. What iniquity!

The only thing BG knows how to do is to rig, which unfortunately he cannot do successfully because it can only be done where a politician is popular. A man that routinely loses his polling unit cannot be a popular politician in the true sense of the word. BG is also a master in the game of causing disaffections like he did during the last governorship primaries of his party in the state. Musiliu Obanikoro, also a political renegade threw a poser that George might forever be unable to answer in his description of the PDP primaries in the state to wit: “The entire primary was a sham. I still cannot comprehend how accredited delegates of 806 will turn out to be 868. To be honest with you, with the benefit of hindsight, you can tell that the outcome was predetermined.’’ As the failed godfather of PDP in the state, he still owes the public the duty to say something on this.

BG stands for everything antithetical to the progress of a true federal state in the 16 years of PDP rulership of the country. He stands as an anti-state police agent because he still wants a federal police that he can manipulate to subdue the populace in the state so that he can cover up his unpopularity in the public domain; he stands against true fiscal federalism so that he can continue to have enough to take care of his greed alongside other cohorts; he supports the tepid approach to handling of graft because he wants the current status quo to remain. BG stands for everything that would make Nigeria remain stagnant because such scenario benefits his style of politics that Nigerians in their wisdom voted against in the last general elections.

BG speaks with excessive vanity but when else the public sees him doing that, they could only reckon that pride comes before a fall; and the abysmal fall from political relevance of BG looks irredeemable. Only God can rescue this man. He repulses Asiwaju Tinubu simply because the political savvy emergent Yoruba navigator has proved to be a better Lagosian and an adept politician than him and his unscrupulous political friends. Again, when is BG going on exile now that the hope of ever defeating Tinubu in Lagos seems foregone? He must give an answer now. This is the only way he can complement his boast with integrity.

April 24, 2015
Is Femi Aribisala on sabbatical?

‘Deceit is the game of petty spirits.’———Pierre Corneille

Dr. Femi Aribisala was introduced in an April 11, 2015 Saturday Punch interview titled: ‘I’m eager to see how Buhari will end corruption in Nigeria – Femi Aribisala,’ as a controversial preacher and social critic. Surprisingly, this international affairs expert and scholar, upon further scrutiny, was discovered to be a pastor in a church situated somewhere. So, in speech and conduct, one expects sobriety in Aribisala’s worldview on issues – by virtue of his purportedly being a scholar and a supposed man of God.

But in recent times, this man, because of undisclosed interests in the failed Jonathan 2015 Presidential re-election agenda, went wild, writing articles that could best be the hallmark of a desperate scholar/pastor in need of urgent rehabilitation. The man, under the guise of analyses that are dubious, has made mockery of his educational attainment, and through deceptive predictions, has denigrated the esteemed position of a pastor.

To start with, Aribisala in the interview said that his interest in the election is basically the defence of rights of the minority in the south south and the southeast. As he put it: ‘My faith requires me to support the weak. Therefore, I will always support the minority against the tyranny of the majority. We cannot be reliant on South-South oil in Nigeria and then treat one of their sons as if he is an impostor for being president of the country. This presidential election was a vicious and malicious gang up of the majority ethnic groups against the minorities. I cannot be party to that.’’ By implication, he is baselessly querying the decision of majority of Nigerians that voted in the March 28 presidential election.

He further exposed his intellectual dubiosity when he laughably said: ‘As I said, I don’t believe the president lost the election and I don’t believe General Buhari won. What I know is that the General was declared the winner, and President Jonathan graciously agreed to accept the verdict in the interest of peace…I don’t have any personal stake in the president’s victory. I don’t work for him and he does not pay my salary. I copied down all the figures released and analysed them. So doing, I reached the conclusion that the result of the election was bogus. Buhari had won the election long before the election. He had been programmed by INEC to win it.’’

At this juncture, kindly permit this column to bring out the contradiction in the claim of this suspicious scholar and pastor of questionable prophesy; who on April 22, 2014 in a piece titled: ‘The 2015 presidential election will not be televised’ declared in his Vanguard newspaper column: ‘I am not a Goodluck Jonathan supporter and have never been…All I do is call it as I see it; and this is what I see quite clearly: the result of the 2015 presidential election will be declared the day Goodluck Jonathan finally declares his candidacy. That is the reality of Nigerian politics today. Once Jonathan declares his candidacy, all those currently seeing visions of an APC victory will quickly wake up from their slumber. Those currently sitting on the fence will be constrained to fall in line behind him. Many of those already signing marriage contracts with the APC will soon start filing for divorce. There will be a scramble to identify with Jonathan so as not to be without good luck come 2015, when it will be payback time. People like the Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, who has one foot in PDP and another in APC, will have hell to pay. One thing is for certain; Tambuwal will no longer be Speaker come 2015.’

The Tambuwal he described as traitor in the Punch interview is not only still retaining his seat as incumbent speaker of the House of Representatives but has also become the governor-elect of Sokoto state having won the governorship election of April 11 in the Seat of the Caliphate. Aribisala’s vision and tenuous intellectual analyses belong to the past where incumbent president of Nigeria would never be challenged but had to win election at all costs. Contrary to his induced phantom predictions, this absurd bugaboo had been broken and contrary to his other fallacious predictions, many eager suitors, especially from Aribisala’s covert preferred ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), are daily seeking the hand of APC in marriage. Aribisala’s vision of the stomach has been made nonsense of by votes of Nigerians that demonstrated the true reality of the Nigerian situation.

Aribisala can get help since it is obvious that he needs uplift, but not by his opportunistic abuse of newspaper platform through routine blackmail of notable progressive personalities and his hoodwink of people that are no longer electorally vulnerable-thanks to Permanent Voter Card (PVC). His hatred for politically dogged Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and steely General Mohammadu Buhari, the president-elect, for self-ingratiating reasons, is legendary. The trajectory of his writings sold him off as a groveler in search of lucre of power rather a genuine pastor or scholar. On July 1, 2014, he wrote a piece: ‘The beginning of the end of the Bola Tinubu dynasty.’ On November18, 2014, he wrote: ‘The impending betrayal of Mohammadu Buhari.’ On December 9,2014, he wrote: ‘Time to get rid of Tinubu’s cronies in Lagos.’ On January 20, 2015, he wrote: ‘Time to disgrace the self-appointed godfather of the south-west.’ On February 10,2015: ‘The end of Buhari’s presidential candidacy.’

On February 24, 2015, he wrote another: The end of APC’s fabricated momentum.On March 3, 2015 he wrote: ‘Why Nigerians must reject the second coming of Buhari’.On March 10, 2015, he wrote another piece titled: ‘Why Buhari will not agree to a debate with Jonathan.’

On March17, 2015, Aribisala wrote an article: ‘Buhari and the Lion of bourdillon’ where he exuded misplaced confidence about Jonathan’s deluded triumphalism when his paymasters succeeded in extending the date of election by six weeks to wit: ‘One month ago, the APC had whipped its supporters into frenzy in believing it is bound to win an election it really has no chance of winning.’’ The man on March 24, 2015 wrote a piece: ‘101 cogent reasons why Jonathan must be re-elected.’

At the end of the day, Jonathan lost the election while Buhari was declared the winner. His treatise that Tinubu’s dynasty would come to an end; that Tinubu’s cronies would be got rid off; that Buhari would be betrayed; that the southwest would disgrace Tinubu and that the APC momentum would come to an end with Jonathan’s declaration fell flat on the face of this shameless writer and purported pastor cum fallacious scholar.

Perhaps, he can be pardoned, though partially, for he confessed in a part of the interview where he gave an insight into his motivating drive to support Jonathan with ridiculous blindness. He asked a rhetorical question: ‘Is it ever possible in Nigeria to support a candidate on principle?’ It could be gleaned that since Aribisala’s support for Jonathan is allegedly ‘cemented,’ far from public glare, his illogical assertion on Jonathan’s scorecard that: ‘Obviously, I don’t agree that President Jonathan has not performed. I have stated in my write-ups that the president performed, and I gave my reasons,’’ makes nonsense of whatever standing he still has in the society. For instance, what reason would a reasonable and realistic Nigerian give to the obvious downturn in the economy, epileptic power reforms, avoidable devaluation of the naira, the inexorable scourge of Boko Haram, Kidnap of over 200 Chibok girls with no appreciable official response; skewed and unjust deduction of monthly allocations of opposition states, bad and largely un-motorable federal highway roads across the country amongst others, all under the inept Jonathan administration.

It is just a matter of time before hatchet writer like Aribisala runs out of steam when by then his human machine could no longer get ‘diesel’ to surge ahead in this wanton show of opprobrium. Already, his means of propaganda is being threatened as he personally confessed: ‘…since the election, I have written an analysis about how the 2015 presidential election was manipulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission. However, some newspapers have refused to publish my views.’’ But for Vanguard publisher’s tolerance, who else can endure the lies of this rabid Jonathan’s man disguising as someone to be taken seriously? Like his name, Aribisala in Yoruba Language, this man is ‘seeking for where to make fortune.’ This cannot be achieved with his spurious and untenably biased essays!

April 17, 2015
Ambode/Agbaje: The final word!

If there is no struggle, there is no progress – Frederick Douglass

Like the last presidential election that attracted so much attention, the Lagos governorship contest will be fought for tomorrow, Saturday, April 11. As widely known, the two major contestants are Akin Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Jimi Agbaje of the conservative Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Since the primaries of the two major parties last December from which the two contestants emerged as the candidates of their parties, all that needed to be known about the duo had been written and said for the sake of profile boosting and garnering of positive public perception.

But the day of decision is tomorrow and the deciders are Lagosians with Permanent Voter Card (PVC) who would be saddled with the simply onerous task of electing the next governor of Lagos State for another four-year term. At this juncture, that Ambode is a brilliant chartered accountant and an accomplished retired public servant that served without blemish at the pinnacle of his profession in the civil service of Lagos has become a cliché to people in the Centre of Excellence. Also, an attempt by this column to let Lagosians know that Agbaje is a businessman pharmacist that is known more because of his opportunistic proclivity of using ethnic platform, the Afenifere group, to gain undue political prominence among reactionary politicians might no longer be news to people living in and outside the state again. Agbaje is deceitfully hobnobbing with the Igbos in Lagos by trumping the same ethnic card when he promised to elevate their lgwe to the same status with that of the Oba of Lagos. What a laughable insolence to the Yoruba traditional institution on their land simply because of desperation of Agbaje to rule Lagos!

Tomorrow is D-Day and Lagosians must come out to vote for continuity of the steady progress so far laid through the foundation created by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and consolidated by incumbent governor Babatunde Fashola. The progressive landmarks are there for all to see. Whatever anybody might have against the progressives, what is undeniable is that the state and others governed by them have witnessed unprecedented development under their firm grip.

If this is so, must Lagosians be hoodwinked by deceits of electoral failures in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) masquerading as people’s champions? Any desperate politician for such exalted position that is ready to wine and dine with the devil in his bid to gain power is not worth relying upon. And that person is what Agbaje epitomizes today. What manner of man would commence his political career as a champion of Yoruba cause only to end up in desperation, as champion of another ethnic group’s cause, for mischievous political advantage? The political retrogression of Agbaje is enough pointer to the speck on his touted credibility. He moved from being a progressive to being a reactionary in the PDP.

Agbaje got to PDP and manifested traits that are worse than those he met there. For instance, he won the state governorship ticket of PDP in primaries where the number of votes cast is more than the accredited delegates. Till today, he still could not convince the public how he came about his fictitious extra ‘57 delegates’ in that phantom primaries. When a man’s newfound friends are Bode George, Adeseye Ogunlewe and Musiliu Obanikoro known for everything but honour, then, Lagosians must vote wisely for CHANGE tomorrow and also vigilantly stand by their votes.

Tomorrow’s election should not be based solely on educational status of the contestants but on their career progression and public service experience. After all, newly defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan who is the leader of Agbaje’s odious riddled political party purportedly had a doctorate degree that did not in any way rub off positively in the way he ruled this country in six wasteful years. When it comes to a truly tested and trustworthy candidate in public service, Ambode is the candidly qualified candidate, not Agbaje of conservative PDP whose touted success in business is heavily a consequence of political patronage over the years. Ambode is not just a theoretician given only to rhetorics like Agbaje.

Ambode was until retirement, an instrumental financial engineer behind the mammoth roads, bridges and drainages construction effected in the state. He designed financial strategies with which modern standard equipment were procured for security agencies; and with which roads were lit; traffic lamps provided and healthcare facilities of world class standards built across the state. At the most difficult period in Lagos State, Ambode took charge of the state’s finances and ensured that workers’ salaries were paid promptly to the chagrin of reactionary company that Agbaje keeps now.

Ambode is the man to beat tomorrow because of these lofty empirical credentials. When the nation’s soccer era was booming, the Green Eagles, the nation’s soccer team’s supporters club used to sing a particular song when the going gets tough or the Eagles needs more goals and it goes thus: ‘All we are saying, give us more goals.’ To all eligible voters in Lagos, permit this column to parody the supporters’ club song: ‘ All we are saying, give Ambode this day…all we are saying, give APC Saturday, April 11 and enjoy the best partnership in development of Lagos with the centre government. The south-south people, southeast Igbo and the Yoruba aborigines should all come out tomorrow to vote for the party and its candidate, Ambode, that has given governance in the state and region a truly positive projection.

The consolidation of the good work started sixteen years ago in Lagos by the resilient progressives must be consolidated upon tomorrow for the sake of continuity of progress. More importantly, if in sixteen years of PDP misgovernance at the federal level, Nigerians are worse off, the fate that will befall any state that still voted for the visionless PDP is better imagined. May such fate never befall Lagos, not even now that the centre government has gotten into the hands of the APC? A Lagos state government that will continue to exhibit high sense of responsibility in public affairs management can only be guaranteed by an APC government as represented by Ambode in tomorrow’s election. That is the final statement!

April 10, 2015
Will APC be PDP’s nemesis?

Not many Nigerians took me seriously when on August 2, 2013, I wrote the piece being reproduced here today. Precisely twenty months after the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in July of 2013, the party has made history as the first opposition party to deracinate a ruling party from power at the centre. The party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Mohammadu Buhari defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan fair and square in the March 28, 2015 Presidential election. He scored 15,424,921 votes; Jonathan scored 12,853,162 votes. The total number of votes-28,288,053. The election was a true reflection of the Latin phrase: ‘Vox populi, vox dei.’ Indeed, the voice of the people is the voice of God. The myth surrounding the once impenetrable central ruling party, for several decades, was shattered on that day. This victory is for God that made it possible; the victory is for the majority of Nigerians that trooped out on election days, who endured scorching sun and heavy downpour to cast their votes for the winner. And the man behind the most successful political merger in the country and, the most successful politician in the nation’s history is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He deserves special recognition in whatever we do under this outgoing administration and that of incoming dispensation. His story will be told soonest in this column. Not to forget Professor Attahiru Jega, chairman of INEC for his calm courage in the face of outright provocation by devilish agents of Jonathan and for his transparent approach throughout the entire process. Thank you Professor. And to other writers of truth like yours sincerely, we all deserve a pride of place at the appropriate time. Anyone that still doubts whether columnists are not prophet, should kindly savour this reproduced piece, first written less than five days, after APC’s formal registration. Enjoy yourself.

The late John F. Kennedy, 35th president of world’s most powerful country – the United States of America – in one of his widely reported statements, once said: ‘Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.’ This quote aptly captures the mood in the polity as more previously doubting Nigerians are now struggling to identify with the All Progressives Congress (APC), the newest political party in the nation’s political firmament. The party was formally registered two days ago by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The road leading to the eventual registration of the APC was littered with doubts arising from the ruthless antecedent of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to always circumvent seeming new viable democratic initiative. The path was strewn in prickles aimed at stagnating the progressives’ efforts of ensuring the birth of a formidable political party to wrest power from obviously bungling PDP.

Personally, l doff my hat for those progressive leaders of APC for their selfless pursuit of their party’s registration to a fruitful end: They sacrificed their self-interests and endured personal discomforts. When it looked as if the set goal of registration was impossible; when their political hecklers were already jubilating that they had reached a dead end, they remained unrelenting. They must have strategised day and night to lay the unassailable foundation, through APC, for the imminent dethronement of PDP’s impunity in the governance of this country. Now that the APC has been registered, it is pertinent to ask whether the new party is ready to restore confidence of the people in their government if it wins the presidency in 2015. Or will the APC be another rabble-rouser in power like the current ruling party?

From this moment, all eyes will be on APC. And what the new party’s detractors might be saying do not count; what really matters is what the party does rightly to rescue the nation from the siege of PDP before the next general elections. Mr. Kofi Annan, former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General once observed that “good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development.” What Nigeria lacks for several years of democratic rule is good governance. The PDP in barely over 14 years has shamefully succeeded in enthroning graft and visionless leadership on the nation. And Nigerians are waiting in the wings to see whether APC would deliver on this if given the opportunity to govern so that poverty and retarded development could be banished from the country.

The attainment of this lofty goal cannot be by mere rhetorics. The new party with its array of tested and accomplished political leaders must earnestly unveil its manifesto to the Nigerian public. Nigerians desire a manifesto with rigour/empiricism: A manifesto that has intrinsic and extrinsic correlations with people’s basic needs over time. Nigerians want good roads; they want affordable education; functional and effective healthcare system that is currently a charade under this PDP led administration. Nigerians want inexpensive and safe housing; they want gainful employment and a country that is safe for all to live in.

The people of this country want to see a well developed agricultural sector that could guarantee a situation where food items would be the cheapest things after inhaled air. With the deplorable state of federal roads across the country, it has become clear that the lives of Nigerians plying those roads mean very little to the government at the centre. For instance, the Lagos/Ibadan Express road remained a death trap for 14 wasteful years of PDP tyranny over the nation. The healthcare system, as typified by the debilitating state of most federal hospitals, is in shambles. A visit to the National Hospital, Abuja would give credence to this reality.

This PDP government seems confused over the state of insecurity in the nation. Also, the administration of the ruling party has embarked on more actions that would increase unemployment rate than those that could promote employment generation. The pursuits of selfish political ambitions by members of the ruling party have relegated general public interests to the background. The touted mileage in agriculture has remained a paper thing with no direct impact on the production and prices of agricultural produce.

The Nigerian public has increasingly become weary of sustained on-going trend of ineptitude in the running of the country’s affairs. They desire long over-due change of political baton from the on-going inglorious routine of misrule and systemic corruption. That is why yours sincerely thinks that with proper planning; a vision driven by a mission and resolve to think less of selves by the leadership of the APC, the days of PDP in power might just not exceed 2015.

What the country needs most at this crucial period is a party that could inspire the country to do what she is capable to be what she could be. A party that would throw up principled leaders of courage to occupy salient positions; let us have a party that is not only about techniques but also above average in traits of character and public spirited restraints. So far in the south-west, the laudable governance skills of Governor of example, Babatunde Raji Fashola, is a pointer of what to expect in APC. The other governors in the southwest including the focussed and principled Abiola Ajimobi in Oyo state; the astute precursor of renowned ‘Opon-Imo’ and high performer, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State among others, are not doing badly in their various jurisdictions. Their performances have set the template and teasers of what to expect from the newly registered APC.

Is APC the long awaited party that would checkmate the long, excruciating run of PDP in power? There is no doubt that public expectations are very high on APC and it is believed that the party will not disappoint Nigerians. The indefatigable strategist leader of the APC and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Tinubu, has assured that the formal registration of the party will usher in ‘an irreversible cause of positive change and people oriented development’ in the country. Indeed, the new dawn is perhaps around the corner.

April 3, 2015
Jonathan and tomorrow’s war against Nigerians

The thought of tomorrow is as sweet as it is dreadful. Sweet because of people’s determination for CHANGE; and dreadful because of status quo ante’s devilish plot to have its way-by whatever means. So, tomorrow is presidential and federal legislative elections day when Nigerians with Permanent Voter Card (PVC), are expected to troop out enmasse and vote for the candidate of their choice, principally between incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and General Mohammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

For the first time in memorable history of this country, majority of the people are fiercely focused on the presidential contest, particularly on a certain opposition candidate against an incumbent, without blinking an eye over the other elections coming up tomorrow. From all indications, ab initio, the apex contest looks like the incumbent is already out of office. The jitters in official circles has led to the question: Will the president and his hatchet men allow tomorrow to be truly for elections, or will it be a war of persecution and intimidation disguised as necessary security provisions for an election? This column has seen the signal of fruitless militarization of Lagos since last week.

The current Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sulaiman Abba, set the tone of intolerance, through his flippant statement on what to expect from the federal police when he publicly declared that Nigerians should not wait at polling centres after exercising their franchise. Meaning that the police is coercively planning to shield them from protecting their votes. What he forgot to realise is that an election, being a process, is not completed until the votes, under close surveillance by the people, are duly counted and properly recorded in the prescribed sheets by law through INEC personnel at polling centres. No wonder, Thomas Jefferson, the great apostle of human rights, once stated that ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’ And since liberty only makes true sense under democratic governance, it would not be totally out of place by the people to keep vigil over their ballot so as to ensure that the candidate that they truly voted for is declared as winner in polling centres across the country.

But the IGP is now threatening that the people should leave their votes to the protection of mostly compromised security personnel that the experience of last year August’s Gubernatorial election in Osun state taught us were acting the scripts of Jonathan and the ruling party. But for the eternal vigilance of Osun people and their endurance, there is no doubt that the winner of that election would have been shortchanged of his hard earned victory. Also, the revelations that came out of a video on how the state’s instrument of coercion in tandem with the ruling party’s top notch, plotted and actually intimidated and harassed indigenes of Ekiti state last years election is still roiling in the polity.

How can anybody in his right senses believe what the IGP had said? After all, Jefferson also said somewhere that “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” The statement of the IGP smells of odious injustice and the citizenry have the right to rebel against such ranting, in a lawful manner because, Jonathan, through the IGP wants to use raw police/military power on voting day to steal majority of votes for the benefit of himself and few opportunity seeking cronies. The duty of the police at election centres, on Election Day, is to maintain peace and be neutral and not to take side as experience has shown in past elections. How can this IGP that unilaterally and illegally withdrew the security details of Rt.Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, simply because he defected from the ruling party because of its in-house crisis, just to please Jonathan-his benefactor. Such IGP cannot be entrusted with the votes of Nigerians that are ready to endure any form of official frustration at polling centres, come rain or sun shine, tomorrow.

Again, the thought of tomorrow is as sweet as it is dreadful. Sweet because the people will have the opportunity of electing a more virile president to replace the inept Jonathan: And dreadful because of the barbarity that the Jonathan administration has put in place to circumvent and probably upturn the wishes of millions of Nigerians that would cast their votes against him tomorrow.

From all over the country, this column is enjoining all to say no to electoral tyranny. Nigerians from all spheres of human endeavours witnessed the bad and ineptly corrupt governance under Jonathan and the beauty of democracy is that it offers opportunity for periodic elections. That opportunity comes up tomorrow and all must struggle to say No to intimidation and continuation of naira devaluation, insecurity, crude oil theft, insecurity of all shades, illegal arming and empowerment of ruthless militias for selfish reasons, degeneration of values in churches through wanton bribing of pastors and also corruption of traditional institution through pecuniary inducement, persistent fuel scarcity and price increment, land grabbing, astronomical unemployment and commercialization of employment that have all become the hallmark of the Jonathan presidency. Nigerians must stand up and be decisive in voting against these societal vices that Jonathan stands for in six years of his rulership over this country.

After losing tomorrow, it is obvious that more devilish plots might still come from Jonathan/ruling PDP tables. Whatever post election evil plan might be in the offing, the reality is that the world is watching and despite the evil plots of reactionaries, Nigerians, who truly want this country to move forward, are working tirelessly to ensure that the decision of Nigerians at tomorrow’s poll prevails. Permit me to end this piece with the inimitable quote from Abraham Lincoln’s November 19, 1863 Gettysburg address to wit: “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” Whatever maneuverings Jonathan, his men and mostly compromised security leadership put up tomorrow, let them have it in their minds that, like the the prophetic Lincoln said, democracy will outlive their evil machinations in power. That in the end shows the vanity of the incumbent’s lust for power and lack of respect for democratic values. This Jonathan, like other power mongers before him has simply refused to learn from history. What a pity for a man that once had no shoes!

March 27, 2015
Gani Adams’ barbarity in Lagos

‘Fanatics are like debris following the course of the wind; they are swept around like sand, and convinced to believe in what they do not understand’—–Caleb Colton

What could be the mindset of Gani Adams, factional leader of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) when he chose to lead a violent protest, which according to him, was meant to call for the removal of Prof. Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) from his post on March 24? Besides, the disgruntled militia’s main grouse is how to guarantee the inept President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election into power.

Adams led the chaotic protest march from the old tollgate through Ikorodu road to the National Stadium in Surulere area venue of the pro-Jonathan rally. The Oodua protesters reportedly brandished weapons such as cutlasses, guns, knives and others while occupying one side of the highway, harassing road users, including motorists and pedestrians. These apparently sponsored fake democratic campaigners went about destroying campaign posters and billboards of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in their venal best. They, for effect, purportedly came from different zones in Lagos and neighbouring states including Ondo and Oyo. This column gleaned from reliable sources that they were also joined by some individuals in black vest, believed to be FERMA/SURE-P personnel that were, sometime ago, given military training at a yard located around the old toll gate area.

Adams’ protest is misguided because it is not the people of Nigeria that appointed Jega but President Jonathan with the approval of the Senate. And if he is not knowledgeable enough to know this, he ought to seek legal counsel of many brilliant Yoruba lawyers around him that would have advised him to take his gun, cutlasses and amulet-wielding protesters to Aso-Rock Villa, Abuja and the National Assembly to protest the removal of Jega. The major impediment here is that it is obvious that this faction of OPC could not establish any prima facie case against Jega, except that his appointor wants a desperate second term, and gave them billions of naira pipeline protection contract as Greek gift.

And again, the fact that Jega’s insistence on using the card reader for the election is unfavourable to the re-election ambition of their mutual benefactor – Jonathan. While it is good that the contract will avail jobs for ‘15,000 Yoruba youths,’ it is equally disgusting to note that Adams is equating this figure to millions of others who are well educated but could not get jobs because of the lack of innate capacity of and inept approach of Jonathan to governance in the country, thereby necessitating the clamour for CHANGE by most young and old Nigerians.

What is the goal of OPC’s terrorisation of Lagosians going about their daily activities in a lawful way through its members brandishing guns, cutlasses and amulets on major roads? Is the leadership of the organisation unaware of the fact that the only people who are validly allowed to use violence in our society are the police, the army, and, very occasionally, few licensed individuals, under provocation and in self-defence? During the last imprudent violent protest of OPC, the group stepped outside the legal charter and ought to have lost all protection for themselves from the compromised police that watched helplessly as they unleashed terror on inhabitants of the state.

Questions for Adams’ OPC: What unknown existing real problem is the group trying to divulge? If it is Professor Attahiru Jega’s removal, that is no problem for the man has not committed any crime or abused his position as at the last time this column checked. Even if the group does not like the INEC man, for induced partisan reasons, what alternative is being pushed forward other than creation of more problems that would ensure the elections did not hold, being the failed reference term promised Jonathan which dubiously facilitated the curious N6billion pipeline contract… and would that solve any problem or further throw the country into more avoidable constitutional problems? In Adams’ moment of personal reflection, does it not occur to him that the said contract is clear usurpation of police and other security agencies’ duties? Must the OPC be involved in intentional law-breaking antics by putting self in arrestable situations in order to make a political statement just because the presidency is behind their injurious procession?

But for the sake of working as a group to collectively fleece the state, it is settled that Adams and his ferocious men cannot in their individual capacity publicly commit such worst barbaric acts of persecuting and harassing fellow countrymen/women that ordinarily should have revolted against their whole being. Adams should realise that the waste bin of history in Yoruba land is replete with men that, at one time or the other, and for pecuniary reasons, jettisoned the larger interest of Yoruba. Their enjoyment later proved to be evanescent while the pains and anguish associated with such betrayals against the larger Yoruba interest is forever.

It is an irony that a Jonathan administration that postponed the February elections simply because of violence in some parts of the country is sponsoring violence through OPC and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in the west and eastern parts of the country, despite its still being unable to abate the earlier northeast insurgency against the state.

The most reasonable thing under the Nigerian situation is to assume that violent tactics, as being deployed by the PDP and the Jonathan presidency, through unthinking militias and other state’s instrument of coercion is wrong and unacceptable. The deployment of militias and the security agencies to fight sitting president’s electoral battle can only breed chaos in a polity where majority of the populace have already made up their minds not to vote in a particular way not favourable to the incumbent. The OPC protest that paralysed parts of Lagos that Monday sent wrong signals to the electorate on how far the OPC would go on the day of election to protect the electorally infamous interest of President Jonathan. The truth is that millions of Adams and his OPC and even MASSOB’s induced savagery, under the guise of expression of ‘constitutional rights,’ cannot stop the electorate of this country from expressing their free will through the ballot come March 28 and April 11. The induced minority, under the prevailing circumstances, would have their say; but the law-abiding rampaging majority that are tired of Jonathan’s ineptitude in the management of the affairs of this country would have their way. Let us all keep our fingers crossed till the election days – being the days of actual decision for CHANGE.

March 20, 2015
Tenants in power, time is running out

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” _¯ Mahatma Gandhi

The much-awaited year 2015 is just unfurling with the month of March, the third in the year, nearly getting to its middle. Among individuals, especially the occupants of exalted positions in the corridors of power, the way last year ends might vary but we can only hope and pray for the best in 2015. As private persons or as public personalities, how far have we gone in meeting set goals; for self and society? Those in power and who are about to contest the coming elections should not become victims of excuses, even though there is never enough time to do all we set out to achieve; we should strive to be nothing but conqueror of objectives: And by objectives, this column mean those deeds that could stand the test of time and benefit humanity.

Time is of essence in life. It is what keeps everything from happening at once. Every living being has own time or better put-magic moment. As the March/April elections are approaching, individuals in power have their time in their hands; how best have they deployed it. Is it used for egocentric purposes or for more enduring ventures? Whether you are president, governor, minister, commissioner, local government chairman or directing mind in an organisation among other powerful positions, by the turn of May, 2015, your days in office would come to an end, except for re-elected first term politicians in office. The crowd of people you see around you today would not be there forever. They throng around your position, not your person. When another person occupies the seat tomorrow, you automatically become history and what you live on subsequently is your good deeds-or better put legacy. Have you, despite your present position, ever given this inescapable looming reality any deep thought in the midst of privileged reverence that you are daily accorded by virtue of your position? Let us all remember in whatever grandeur it might currently please God to place us as another tenure beckons that there comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is our own hearts- the ultimate judge of human conducts. The earlier we learn the sound of our hearts, the better so that we can correctly decipher what it is saying and follow it. The problem with powerful men is that they have avoidably failed to be loyal to their conscience and have failed to discern inevitable change and challenge when about to occur. The saddest words that could ever come out of the mouths of once-upon-powerful-fellows are: ‘It might have been.’ As these elections get closer, you still have the power to shape you today and the future. Whatever part you deliberately chose, whether of self-perdition or sentence to irreverent oblivion should not be subsequently called mistakes?

Remember, as the elections are about to commence that there have been tyrants and slayers, and for some time, they can seem insuperable, but in the end, they always fall. Remember that it is your actions, not the fruits of your actions that would count against or for you on judgement day, which is why you must endeavour to always do what is importantly right. Let your action not be informed by personal gains or malice because that may not be in your power to decide. God in His infinite mercy might decide to let your actions or inactions benefit humanity and not even you can stop that? But you would be remembered, long after you have gone as the harbinger of that good action, and would be duly celebrated one day. But that doesn’t mean you should stop doing the right thing because there may not be immediate personal gains. You may never know what results come from your actions. But if you do nothing, there will be no result to celebrate in the world.

As elections are about to unravel, remember that yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream. What dreams do you have as a leader- for the country as her directing mind and the world at large so that there can be a peaceful global village for all to co-habit? Do not be deceived by the false friends or deterred by true enemies that success usually attract. Just make sure you put in your best in all you do in whatever position you might presently be privileged to occupy.

Having gone this far, it is pertinent to remind our privileged men of power on the need to engage in pertinent self re-examination. The president, governors and other political appointees by now would be buying time in power. The president and most of the governors would have become lame duck in their positions since fresh elections have been rescheduled for March/April, 2015 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Political parties have nominated candidates that would stand for elections into these exalted positions and the likely candidates that would take-over power would be seeking the hands of the people. That has been the tradition of CHANGE of baton in the political firmament. But those that did well by the end of March/April would be filled with certain sense of fulfilment.

How would our current crop of elected and appointed public officers want to be remembered? What future have they built for their families through their handiwork while in government? Is it one that will invite opprobrium or acclaim from members of the public? Is it not probably too late for them to remedy their avoidable pitfalls of the past now that the elections are just weeks away? And for Nigerians: Are they ready to tolerate the misfits in government that continue to rigmarole them with bad governance? Are Nigerians going to over look any failure whatsoever from the presidency, from governors and even INEC in the imminent 2015 general elections?

We should continue to fervently pray for God’s special grace in Nigeria so that the coming 2015 general elections would not be the last to be held under this dispensation because of insinuations of violence/rigging that rents the air. This column believes in such prayers and would continue to do everything to seek divine protection and blessings for the country. But above all, the ruling class must stop its destructive do-or-die politics with which our polity has been replete with in the about 16 years of democratic rule. In conclusion, this column is in prayerfully mood for a peaceful country post May, 2015. Let us all do things in this political season with moderation and more importantly, love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We must respect and allow the people’s votes to count in the coming general elections.

March 13, 2015
Fani-Kayode: Rottweiler and his promiscuous rage

‘Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple integrity in another, —— Charles Caleb Colton

The greatest threat to peace in this country today is the barrage of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conservative propagandists portraying falsehood as decent, noble, and patriotic. To these elements, the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public regarding the nation’s authentic debilitating state of affairs, but how best to use concocted ‘facts’ to coat their ineptitude and to deceive the public so as to sustain their hold on power which has so far lasted 16 wasteful years. The last six years under President Jonathan particularly, have so far been a colossal failure.

And barely a month to the rescheduled presidential election, Femi Fani-Kayode, Director-General (DG) of the Jonathan Campaign Organisation has come to epitomise the uncouth verbal assaults on the opposition and people of this country. What readily comes to mind when the name Femi Fani-Kayode comes up in public domain is what again this time. His non-biological names are falsehood, duplicity and contradiction. It is either he is arbitrarily supporting somebody or that he has chosen to come after another person, not necessarily for the sake of principles or national interest but for that of bread and butter. Surrounding him is a façade of lies about honour and integrity – which majority of discerning Nigerians know – have taken flight from him.

Though a superbrat lawyer with silver-spoon background, Fani-Kayode has not proved to be a worthy ambassador of his generation. He stands for nothing valuable – and sadly for egoistic reasons. Worse still, he defends such ills with rapacious tenacity. He talks without thinking, making negative impact on the polity in most cases. If truly, the only guide to a man’s character is his conscience, and the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his words and actions, according to Winston Churchill, then Fani-Kayode has lost all. He is a man of duplicity that relies more on own illusory personal ethics rather than inner chore character values.

In the days leading to the coming general elections, Fani-Kayode continues to justify his appellation of a Rottweiler with promiscuous rage against the interest of majority of Nigerians that are calling for CHANGE from the current regime that Fani-Kayode is currently supporting. But for the fact that he allows duplicitous personal ethics to overshadow his more inner character ethics, he would have known that the ‘Project Change’ is a compelling necessity that illicit propaganda accompanied by a bodyguard of lies can not halt.

Fani-Kayode, in trying to justify his pay and perhaps secure reprieve over past alleged misdeeds while in office, went berserk, attacking anything in sight perceived by him as impediment to his master’s re-election aspiration. Mohammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate was his first target. He accused him of not having school certificate result and of perjury. When all attempts failed in this regard, he called the military general a Boko Haram person; his bid in this regard failed. He sat over political hate campaign against Buhari; that move too boomeranged and when he discovered that the election initially slated for February14 would not favour them, they deployed the military to coerce INEC to shift the polls.

His campaign of “one week, several lies” is replete with libel and makes one wondering what has happened to his training as a lawyer. He confirms the fears of his paymasters about Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, national leader of the opposition party, when he came up recently with a phantom plot to make Professor Yemi Osibajo, vice-presidential candidate of APC to step down for Tinubu once he assumes power. Such thinking shows the fickleness of Fani-Kayode’s mindset in his bid to retain Jonathan in power through irascible lies.

This unstable character, until recently, would do anything to promote Tinubu. But to him, the game has changed for stomach’s sake.

When it comes to backstabbing for self-survival, Fani-Kayode’s insatiable urge craves no noble limit. Close friends and political associates that came across this element had tasted the devil in him at one time or the other. Perhaps, it would not be out of place to perhaps say that if his father were to be alive today, Femi would probably not blink an eye-lid before betraying that illustrious man-just for flitting tokenism.

What has Fani-Kayode said of the APC, Buhari, Osibajo, Tinubu that he has not said worse things against his known benefactors and close buddy in the past? His other name is betrayal.

Femi abused Obasanjo in the newspapers during the first term of the Owu man and once he was called upon to serve in that administration between 2003 and 2007, he changed the rhythm of his music, praising the man to high heavens and describing him as the best man to ever rule the country. He once abused Jonathan on all media platforms describing him as the most inept and the worst leadership to have ever ruled this country. He is back to eat his vomit as he now champions clamour for re-election of the president in a very disgusting manner. In the end and routine style, his target might be to seek reprieve regarding questions over the way he allegedly managed the affairs of the Aviation ministry as minister under Obasanjo by this administration.

The only thing that earned him the DG’s job was his known trademark of doing dirty jobs beyond the limit of decency. His weekly churning out of senseless rants might have left those who do not know him bewildered. Those who know him can merely hope to see more of his odious public antics at play. In the days ahead, Fani-Kayode and his paymasters will be dazed by landslide votes with which the PDP will lose the coming elections. Charles Caleb Colton once said: ‘Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.’ At the moment, the political integrity of Buhari, Osinbajo, Tinubu, the APC and others championing the cause for CHANGE is too overwhelming for a duplicitous character like Fani-Kayode and his ilk to fathom. No wonder, they would stop at anything to bring down the roof when they should be telling Nigerians how to take them out of this sorry state largely created by Jonathan’s ineptitude.

Nigerians would like to know from Fani-Kayode how the naira got so devalued that it now sells for over N220 to a dollar under Jonathan administration; why it is after the rescheduled polls that the military under his commander-in-chief paymaster got the boost to seriously combat the Boko Haram insurgents? They want to be educated on what informed the call against the use of card reader by the ruling party. Our people want Fani-Kayode to tell them if the acquisition of the Aviation Village over 90 hectares of land by the president through his company is not greed and corruption. Let him tell us if the moves by the president and FCT minister, Bala Mohammed, who also got 40 hectares in the acquisition saga were proper and in good conscience.

Fani-Kayode must the nation know why there is persistent fuel scarcity attributed by the PPPRA to this regime’s senseless baits devaluation among others. If he has no answers to these among others, he should just shut his mouth forever.

Fani-Kayode should stop chasing shadows and face the reality staring them in the face – that Jonathan will lose the coming election. After all, it is almost certain that he will gladly take a 360-degree U-turn back to the APC fold once Jonathan is defeated and turn against his current paymaster. That is the true character profile of this fake democratic crusader in chameleonic garbs!

March 6, 2015
Jonathan’s drumbeat of war

‘A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other, and we then know how to meet him’ – ——Aesop, in one of his Fables.

President Goodluck Jonathan cuts across as a taciturn man of meek disposition but beneath that facade is a creature of perilous acuity. Most men of power with such personality trait have always ended being deadlier than the lion. They talk more with body language than with their mouths. And whenever they speak out, the actions that follow are always in sharp contrast to what they say. Such men usually could not be taken for their words and are gently ruthless against their people who, in most instances, have scanty regard for them.

President Jonathan, as the election approaches, has further exposed his chameleonic disposition to the Nigerian state and the entire world. The United States of America, Britain, France and Germany among others are aware now that this president is everything but reliable in his assurances that a free and fair election would be conducted and that if he loses, he is ready to relinquish power to whoever wins. Ab initio, the idea of a postponement started as a rumour before Sambo Dasuki, the NSA to the president gave it semblance of presidential robe at the Chatham House, London recently.

The election shift has become history today. But at the moment, two satanic speculations are rife in public domain: That President Jonathan is not ready and willing to handover power to the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) presidential candidate, Mohammadu Buhari. The other is that there is a sinister plot by the president’s henchmen and party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to scuttle peaceful hand-over by using the military to force the election to go the president’s way or create a stalemate that would bolster the chances of having an interim government in place.

All these sounded like tales by moonlight but the president’s body language and the actions and inactions of his men in the deployment of state’s institutions show only one thing: That the President is aware that he will not win and is ready to do battle with Nigerians that from all indications are fed up with his inept and highly corrupt government.

However, the game of presidential deceit continues since it has moved from the polity’s courtyard to the vineyard of God. Recently at the opening mass for the plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral, Garki, Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, at the opening mass for the plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral, Garki, Abuja, called on Nigerians to ignore the heinous speculations by giving “Mr. President the benefit of the doubt and stop sowing doubts that only raise tensions and create avoidable anxieties.” Cardinal Onaiyekan cannot be blamed for this call because at the same venue and time, the president gave an homily on constitutional adherence that given its face-value interpretation would portray the man, albeit erroneously, as a responsible leader. His deceitful speech is capable of melting any heart that is made, even of stone.

Hear Mr. President at the conference on widespread doubts about his sincerity of purpose on the coming general elections and surreptitious plans to install an illegal government to take over from him: “There is no way Goodluck Jonathan, elected by people with clear mandate, will now go and head an Interim Government. The only interim government anybody can constitute is that of the military government which, of course, will not be accepted…ECOWAS, AU, UN won’t accept it. And Nigeria will not be a pariah state. Clearly, the insinuation of interim government to me is treasonable.”

What this means is that those aides of the president that are working underground to destabilise the coming polls should be arrested and tried for treason. The president’s assertion that he ‘ will not do anything because of personal interest that would jeopardise the interest of this nation,’ may be far from the truth because he is actually planning to illegally win the coming presidential poll at all cost. But Jonathan will fail woefully. Cardinal Onaiyekan is aware of the death wish adverts, the wild unguarded statements that the president’s party men, campaign council and aides have been making and the illegal deployment of the military, police, DSS and other state’s institutions of coercion to the presidency’s advantage when he admonished: “There should, therefore, not be room for negative campaigns. Personal insults and caricatures should give way to rational discussion of issues that concern us all. Truth must be sacrosanct even in politics. Lies, deceit, calumnies cannot move us forward…They are the hallmarks of the bad politics which have not allowed us achieve the high level that we deserve as a nation. These are what build tensions, heat up the polity, spreads dangerous rumours and cause deep distrust among rival political groups. All this is not in the interest of our people.” But unfortunately, the president and his men all revel in these detrimental pursuits.

This column wants Mr. President to learn from history by avoiding a repeat of the uncomplimentary verdict of history on self and family. Not searching too far, we, as students of history still remember what happened to Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. Both former heads of state of this country ran sneaky administrations, put up a charade called democratic transition programme, but they both ended up as discredited leaders/men in the nation’s history today.

As the clock tickles and the elections’ days reduce, let no one mistake the gentility of Nigerians for stupidity. The ruling PDP and President Jonathan should not push their intertwined luck to its elastic limit by attempting, again, something funny. He needs to prove whether he wants to be a statesman or a discredited leader and this coming election and the path he toes, will decide. For now, he remains a doubtful friend of his countrymen and women that is worse than an enemy.

This column is saying no to sit-tightism and other odious plans against democratic values and ethos. Except the elections hold next month and early April as rescheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the devious plans of Jonathan and his cronies are only tantamount to the beginning of a chain of events, the end of which no one can predict. Usually, the originators of such evil plots are not the beneficiaries even when they seem momentarily beclouded by ego, needless greed and deluding optimism, having been held captive by same corridors of power leveraging evil influential elements of yesteryears.

February 27, 2015
2015 elections: It’s time for vigilance

The worrisome political atmosphere in the country is getting cloudier by the day – and the reason is not far fetched: While Nigerians are still groaning over the booby trap called election postponement, Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), during his mid-week appearance before the Senate, threw another confounding bombshell over whether the rescheduled new dates of the elections are sacrosanct or not. Asked by Senator George Akume, Minority Leader, to re-affirm the sanctity of the new election dates, Jega replied: “I think it is a very difficult question to answer…I have said consistently that there are things under the control of electoral commission and there are things that are not under the control of electoral commission. For things that are under our control, I can give definite and categorical assurances. On what is not under our control, it is futile; it is fruitless and useless to give a definite guarantee on them. I think that question should be directed appropriately. The questions of security, I will leave it, I don’t think I am competent to answer it sufficiently.”

Jega cannot be entirely blamed for this ambivalent response because he professed to be convinced, when asked, that any request for another shift of dates would be illegal because that would run contrary to the constitutional provision that requires elections to be concluded at least 30 days before the date that a new government must be sworn which in this case is May 29. The political gerrymandering going on is not because of lack of interest or preparedness by INEC to conduct the elections but because of the desperation of President Goodluck Jonathan, his National Security Advisers, military service chiefs and other protégées’ determination to circumvent the polls simply because their projected outcomes would, under very high probability, not favour the incumbent president.

This column has heard several illogical, nonsensical and unconstitutional concoctions that were being peddled as sinister ideas of the Jonathan team and his PDP party to perpetuate him in power. Some of his men have come out to say General Mohammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) is not electable, whatever that means, forgetting that it is only the eligible voters of this country that can decide on that come March 28 when the presidential election, by the grace of God, holds.

Nigerians definitely must, until after the elections, henceforth, sleep with their two eyes widely opened so as to be able to quickly nip in the bud whatever baleful move that Jonathan and his now widely detested team might want to fling on their laps. Even on the day of elections, Nigerians must prepare for the worse from Jonathan’s outgoing presidency because if it dawns on him that the elections could not be further postponed, he would not hesitate to unleash soldiers on vulnerable voters despite judicial pronouncements to the contrary in previous and more recent Appeal Court orbiter in the Ekiti State governorship election case.

One obvious fact is that this jejune President Jonathan is desperate; the man is, like known power-drunk men of power in history, ready to go to any length to keep himself, albeit unconstitutionally beyond May 29 in power. But his infamous plot, just like that of some of his power drunk predecessors in power like Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and late Sani Abacha would fail beyond redemption. Like Jonathan, these men while in power, made a lot of promises to their people but they flagrantly failed to keep to the agreements. That is why it is often said that it is hard to trust the morality of inconsistent leaders.

This column, with the benefit of hindsight, calls on all Nigerians to rise up against the tyranny of President Jonathan by voting him out come March 28. This justifiable demand for eternal vigilance to sustain this democratic liberty is amply captured in the address of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the recent Joint Leadership Meeting of APC which held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja when he congratulated his audience and other party men ‘… for walking off the booby traps and for getting close to bringing down the Berlin Wall.’’ He however admonished: ‘We cannot celebrate yet but have to be stronger and vigilant so as to be effective vigilantes for freedom, liberty and democratic government.’

To the prospective voluntary “vigilantes” of this country including the leadership of the opposition APC, vigil must be kept not only on the bound-to-fail antics of Mr. President and his party but also on the suspicious outbursts of ex-President Obasanjo who recently tore publicly, his PDP membership card through his obtuse ward chairman, Alhaji Usman Oladunjoye, who led the executive and members of the PDP from Obasanjo’s Ward 11, Abeokuta North to his Hilltop residence in the rock-city capital of Ogun State. For political practicality, judging from the present mood of the nation against the ruling party/government which Obasanjo installed, his hypocritical outbursts against Jonathan and his government can be condoned but to a limited extent because the man Obasanjo is not only fickle but also of no meaningful electoral value? There should be a limit to the extent to which the opposition leaders and Nigerians should allow him to ride on the crest of ‘project progressivism’ sweeping across the land to settle scores with Jonathan, his errant disciple. Whatever Obasanjo sees as Jonathan’s shortcoming had been seen long ago before he foisted him on the nation and his input is not needed in the cyclonic wave across the country that is roaring to blow Jonathan and the PDP out of power. The Obasanjo’s case in his malicious battle with his inept acolyte, Jonathan, was well captured by William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice when he said: “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” Obasanjo’s morality cannot be trusted.

The genesis of Obasanjo’s animosity is not love for the cause of entrenching a progressive government but more by Jonathan’s refusal to listen to his more evil dictations that have taken the country to this unthinkable political abyss in 16 years. His and Babangida’s antecedents of duplicity should serve a note of warning to discerning progressive minded Nigerians that they should not be trusted. Let INEC do its best; let the opposition not be naïve about who their friends are and let the Nigerian people remain steadfast and vigilant in their resolve to throw out of power PDP government of stagnation come next month. Then the stroppy plots of those masquerading, as true friends of the people, will fall flat on their faces.

February 20, 2015