The Nation Newspaper

Category: Soji Omotunde

  • Tinubu: What a man, what a leader!

    IN these convoluted times, there have been challenges of leadership for good governance in Nigeria. For a while, it has been chaotic quantifying and articulating the real value of desirable and pleasing leadership. Many of the theoretical enlightened would hardly consider that being a leader is a choice – and that in a nation of democracy, it is the people that can decide how to make the preferred leadership manifest.

    Many believe since they are advanced in age, then they are the best to lead. It is only those in spiritual realms that could know that older age do not essentially make one superlative in leadership. The chosen of the Creator might be the last born of a family who would eventually emerge on top.

    Leading indeed is that enigmatic ability that enables one to turn a vision into a reality. It permeates values, approach and actions. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is by no means a saint. Yet, today, the nation’s transformation now being fashioned through electoral victory under his All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership is, without doubt, admirable. He might have been tagged despicable by his adversaries, but they must now in sensibility apprehend the reality that he is neither ridiculous nor dense.

    When you do well, it is then you will become acceptable. Tinubu, a former Senator, two-term governor of Lagos State and National Leader of APC has grandly manifested desired goodness on behalf of the Yorubas. Those who before now would not want to see him as the ‘Asiwaju’ should at this instant in humility appreciate he has become, not only an approved Yoruba Asiwaju, but a politically-assigned leader of the nation Nigeria.

    One main way to lead is by example. When you turn yourself into an example, then you’ll turn into a leader to be followed. A good leader must have strong convictions, not necessarily muscular charisma.

    Last week, the Southwest Chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Senate-elect in Ogun-East, Chief Buruji Kashamu, pronounced Tinubu as his role model. He paid a rare tribute to the same Asiwaju that his party had pointed the finger at severally, tagging him as a true hero that every Nigerian should emulate.

    For Kashamu, it has become important to honour those deserving of honour now that the elections were over. In the open letter addressed to Tinubu, he expressed him as the architect of modern Nigeria, who made history by leading an opposition party for 16 years and then taking hold of power at the centre. He surveyed that without Tinubu, the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, would not have won the March 28 election.

    “Truth be told, men like you are made up of sterner stuff and are rare to come by in every generation. Little wonder you are called the Asiwaju and Jagaban of Borgu. I doff my hat,” he declared, praying that they that are younger should truly be like him. “Although I now belong to the opposition, your achievements transcend political divides and I am not ashamed to publicly acknowledge them. There is no denying the fact that your place in the history of the Yoruba race in particular, and, in Nigeria in general, is well etched.”

    Kashamu’s further admiration of Tinubu: “By your sheer wit and unwavering commitment to democratic ethos, true federalism and economic prosperity, you led the Alliance for Democracy from a one-state party to a regional party and now a national party that is about to form the government at the centre.”

    It does not matter who Kashamu is thought to be, he said it all in the right spirit. True leadership is one value a price tag cannot be put on.He proved that only leaders with vision will inspire citizens and mobilize them for nation building.

    When people were taking the wrong step, they found it difficult for things to change for good. But now that the choice already made is expected to become decisive to life, majority of Nigeria voters have proved their desire for change in reality for a legacy.

    Also last week, United States Financial Times newspaper praised Asiwaju for being behind Buhari’s success. According to the paper on its front page, Tinubu is deeply a master strategist who has astutely put up empire among Yorubas in Lagos and the Southwest, and built a reputation for himself just like that of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    This is a conviction of the brouhaha generated by an article written by Sam Omatseye, our Editorial Board Chairman in his column of June 6, 2011. Entitled ‘Awo Family without Awo,’ he bewailed the absence of members of the Awolowo family at the inauguration ceremonies of the then newly-elected governors of Ogun and Oyo states.

    When the article was published, Tinubu’s opposition people, especially those in Awolowo’s clan fumed out condemning the writer, believing he was working on the agenda set by Tinubu to actualise his dream. The Awolowo family was made to consider that the article was prompted by Asiwaju who was then leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), in furtherance of his ambition to become the leader of the Yoruba, apparently vacant since the death of Chief Abraham Adesanya.

    Today, the same Afenifere group that endorsed outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan in mouthy essentially to tackle Tinubu and deprecate him as Asiwaju must have now realised the reality of the true leader of Yorubaland widely supported by their own people. The man who they deliberately failed to invite to the meeting of supposed Yoruba leaders organized to discuss the last National Conference has been established to be their leader in truth and in deed. Efforts to push aside the real leaders, particularly those in the APC by the elders have become meaningless. Any Southwest gathering without the Asiwaju and the APC governors with representatives from Ondo and Ekiti states will remain irrelevant to the people.

    Indeed, Tinubu did not start his life as an Asiwaju. He battled the challenges of his rather distressing and thorny youth with audacity only workable by the strong-hearted. He laboured courageously and also brilliantly. As sensible, liberal and a grassroots person, he grew up to live meaningfully. He never hesitated to serve with his best contributions and concepts. When he entered politics and was elected a Senator, he distinguished himself as the Chairman of the Senate foremost Committee on Banking, Finance, Appropriation and Currency. With the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and the consequent militarization of the nation’s politics, he became a founding member of the prominent pro-democracy National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which encountered the military for the very soul of Nigeria. With harassments and threats to his life, he moved abroad to continue agitation for restoration of democratic governance in the country.

    Asiwaju eventually emerged in good fundamental performance as the Lagos State Governor for two terms. As a smart political strategist, he survived the colossal storming of the ruling PDP to the Southwest states as the lone re-elected governor of the then Alliance for Democracy (AD). This led him on regular collision course with the PDP-controlled Federal Government, especially on his establishment of additional 37 Local Council Development Areas for Lagos States. A Supreme Court judgment in his favour later stated that the Federal administration should release the seized statutory allocation of the state’s Local Government funds.

    Tunubu was actively involved in the formation of the Action Congress (AC) political party as recourse to the devastated AD. In a while, he transformed the new party as the plausible opposition to PDP. His vast legacy today is built on by his successor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), who served as his Chief of Staff and was rightly chosen by his boss against contrary propositions.

    Continuation of Tinubu’s outstanding policies makes the outgoing administration of Lagos State an exceptional and prime government in Nigeria. His leadership efforts too are bringing in the competent Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. If not for what is seen as evident success, PDP’s Jimi Agbaje under its party’s desperation would have snatched Lagos State in the last election. Being a man with vision is making him to excel in politics.

    A leader with vision inspires people and mobilizes them for nation building. The one with sparkling motives employ wisdom, foresight, sense of purpose and commitment to stimulate a people towards self-actualisation and propel the national spirit in them. In history, there are few outstanding leaders, true heroes of their time, who set the moral and political tones for their societies. Such people as American George Washington, British Winston Churchill, Indian Mahatma Gandhi, Charles De Gaulle of France, Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore and Nelson Mandela of South Africa, are leaders of repute.

    This is the category Buhari whose victory was empowered by Asiwaju who believes another Nigeria is possible might get into if his promises are manifested.

  • Nigeria: Fresh hope for worthless challenges

    WHEN man begins to see himself in wisdom, there is need to watch the true spirit in him. Today, there are those in self-interest pains who could not see this year’s general elections as a most competitive race but ending peacefully in Nigeria.

    Dr. Femi Aribisala, a “controversial preacher and columnist” surely has his right to choose the politician he wants to support. But his personal will can never match the will of God. Who he has been defending was rejected by majority of Nigerian voters who see six years’ leadership in cluelessness that downgraded the glory of the country virtually in all spheres. It is appalling that some people could not recognize the worthless labours of government in their constituency.

    Anyone claiming to be a preacher must have the right spirit in him to manifest the good purpose of God. Reality goes beyond pronouncing self interests. Severally, Aribisala in his newspaper column, wrote condemning Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and abusing Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He would make judgment upon them as if he is a perfect judge rather than minister in the way God wants life to be. By the same strength, he will justify the one in power as if he is living in righteousness that can exalt this embattled nation. To him, the politics of stomach infrastructure and sharing public resources to woo voters is justifiable and not condemnable. It is as if he is not justly aware of the level Nigeria has been downgraded into.

    Sometimes, Aribisala writes as if his spirit is in line with that of Ekiti State aggressive Governor Ayo Fayose. He even predicted, as if he got the revelation from the Lord, that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will lose the general elections massively. But his prophesy failed as he could not convince rational people to align with him. Results of the elections came contrary to the plans and purpose of men living in self-interests.

    In an interview published in last Saturday Punch, he reminded us of how he analysed and blamed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for manipulating the 2015 presidential election. He was uncomfortable with the usage of PVC and voters cards which did not allow rigging. His claim that Igbo was deliberately disenfranchised is disgusting of a seeming caliber. He could not understand that the reduction of voters in the South East could be an indication of the true numbers of those who are available to vote.

    That he did not believe President Jonathan lost the election and that General Buhari won is not rational from a genuine man of God. That God once saved him from the hand of Buhari could not make him leave him as his enemy. Not forgiving the man who he claims has not repented is to say he too has not been appreciating the grace of God that made him remain alive till he eventually surrendered his life to Jesus.

    It does not matter what the enemy wants to attain wherever God is available and showing interest. God, the Creator is stronger than all and has the capacity to do all things the way He wants it. After all, Jesus did not pick those who are in perfection as His disciples. All He did was to teach those He chose the way to perfection. What man is today might not be who he will remain tomorrow. Peter as a failure eventually succeeded. Paul started ingloriously but ended in glory.

    If indeed Buhari who lived a life similar to that of American Abraham Lincoln in flowing failures eventually emerged victorious, we must know that there is still a good purpose of God upon such life. The late Nelson Mandela of South Africa was in prison for 27 years as if that would be the end of his story. He ultimately became the number one citizen of his nation and a legacy to the continent.

    What sincere nationalists ought to do is to pray for the one God might have chosen to move Nigeria forward so that the good intentions will be fulfilled and become triumphant leader where he might have failed in the past. If Buhari truly works to wipe off corruption and terrorism, his past unrighteousness too will be wiped away and the nation will become better that it is at the moment. The purpose of God need not be attained in so short a moment as challengers want contrary to the time divinely dedicated for true transformation.

    That Buhari was not disqualified because of availability of a certificate of the school he evidently attended is to show that what matters to God is not what the enemy is stealing out of life, but the value of abundant life he is offering. After all, he doesn’t need to obtain a Ph.D and then end up as failure like Jonathan.

    The Almighty God brought Jesus Christ into this world in a manger through a carpenter family. For the worldly spirit, God’s son should deserve a high-profile birth in the most elegant maternity. But God’s true Son made His appearance on earth in the lowliest of circumstances. The humble birth conveyed an amazing message to creation: the inspirational God stooped to come to us. Instead of coming as a pampered, privileged ruler, Jesus was born in humbleness, as one of us. The one who is the King of kings came lowly, and His first bed was a manager.

    What mattered most was the way the Son fulfilled the purpose of His Father in spite of challenges. Jesus was crucified; He died, rose up and was eventually glorified and given a name that is above every other name at the mention of which every other names still keep bowing.

    Contrary to Aribisala’s inspection, Buhari was not programmed by INEC to become the president of Nigeria at the age of 72. His choice of Yemi Osibajo, a law professor and pastor of Nigeria’s largest Pentecostal movement as a running mate might not have been an error. He picked a man who can back him up to do even what he is unable to do. This might have been in realization that Nigeria needs a president who can deliver good governance by ensuring order, enabling peace and providing pathway in prosperity for the people.

    If today’s emergence is believed as the will of God, then the chosen can end gloriously if the will is allowed to function in deed and in truth.

     

    Fayose: What a power drunk!

    “When trouble sleeps

    Yanga go wake am up

    Wetin you go get?

    Palaver you go get.”

    When I was about writing this piece, the above song by late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was coming forth suitably on a radio station. I found it quite fitting to what was in my heart.

    Since returning to power as governor in October 2014, Mr. Ayo Fayose and astute Ekiti State people with those legislatures in legitimacy have been locked in shackle.

    From onset, Fayose started running contrary to his pledge at election campaign that he has changed from the unruly he used to be known as. The moment he was sworn in, he didn’t allow courts in his state to function in tranquility. He sent his hooligans to disrupt court sittings and beat up judges on seat in a way beyond human susceptibility.

    To reign and rule without opponent, he declared the state Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Olajide Awe wanted over murder charge, and ensured that he fled out of the state. Even when the man obtained restriction against arrest from a Federal High Court in Jos, the governor dismissed the court’s declaration as a “black market injunction.”

    That the same man would now run to Abuja to get an injunction from similar Federal High Court to restrain the 19 lawmakers from impeaching him is inexplicable. Perhaps, this might be why the court in its wisdom turned his request down.

    The unchanged governor who permitted seven legislators to control the 19 others in unity to stage a purported impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dr. Wale Omirin is not ready to respond to the allegations constitutionally made against him by the majority.

    Should Fayose continue to bulldoze the integrity of Ekiti State? Time will tell.

  • Credible elections? Then, no wahala

    WHEN the President is defeated, he will declare himself winner, the same way it happened in the NGF (Nigeria Governors’ Forum). He will try to split the country the same he did to the NGF.”
    – Femi Fani-Kayode (before he diverted to PDP)

    The presidential election holding this weekend is about the future of Nigeria. Being the opportunity to choose who the people would want their leader in the next four years to be, it is either the nation will in veracity begin to be restructured for true transformation or be tied down to the ground that has been making nothing in the country be ever what it seems.

    In nations of democratic development, electoral processes offer political parties and civic factions’ option to mobilize and organize supporters and share alternative policies with the public. Hardly can any nation be justly democratic until its populace is permitted the chance to make choice through voting that is evidently free and fair. This is also to say that civil liberties with freedom to vote as convinced and in compliance with the will of the voters will not be manipulated through rigging or negotiable manipulation.

    Nigeria is hindering politically and administratively simply because local politicians are merely claiming to be politicians without impacting positively on the life of the citizenry often used as scapegoats. They operate in politics more for self, family members, friends and cronies. Whenever they emerge in office, they are seen in multiple convoys with overzealous security men who bulldoze their ways and kill anything on the road. It is only in Nigeria that elected officials see themselves as masters instead of servants. They feel like thin-gods and want to be hailed like emperors.

    Let the political parties manifest commitment to the integrity of the people they are requesting to vote them into their leadership. Let them show sincerity in the trueness that elections are for the living and not for the dead.

    Anyone who really loves his people will not sponsor or even pity thugs and gunners, who are used by the devilish spirit to steal the goodness of the people, kill joy in the heart, and also destroy life.

    Democracy is being hindered in this country mainly because politics is being run as a do or die matter. If only those seeking position of leadership can comprehend that elections are for the living and not for the dead, then no one will be plotting to win at all cost or manipulate crisis as the option.

    The Femi Fani-Kayode quote at the top of this piece was his view before he decamped back to Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). He was still chatting from sense as what he said then is now what cannot be ruled out in this week of peoples’ decision. Today, Fani-Kayode’s mouth just flows in abusive and offensive utterances that are worthless. It is atrocious that those he is supposed to be shielding are accepting what could not be of value to their being voted for.

    It would have been persuasive and sensible were he able to let people know what President Goodluck Jonathan actually wants to do better than his ability as president in six years and why he deserves to be re-elected. He would have been defending allegations of corruption against the ruling administration – for instance, convincing the nation on the actuality of the missing $20 billion, the yet-unresolved $9million arms deal embarrassment in South Africa, oil theft, depletion of external reserves, devaluation of more than N200 to a dollar etc. Or just revealing any truth to my Ekiti State election fraud and why Boko Haram that could not be confronted in the last five years are now being chased out within the six weeks of postponed election.

    Who indeed should be voted for to salvage this nation that is on the verge of collapsing? Should the focus be on the issue of regional candidacy or who can sincerely make Nigeria’s abundant lost glories to be restored? Will those pushing against INEC’s Attahiru Jega and voter card readers that will frustrate rigging allow the coming election to become the beauty of democracy? Will MASSOB that was formed against Nigeria and Oodua Peoples Congress that is ever dividing still be allowed to carry guns when peace needs to rule in this turbulent nation?

    Must a party that utterly failed and misled the populace for 16 years be sustained? What Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd) said last week is more inspiring than what the same South West Afenifere  wants to exploit to support Jonathan. He said: “We cannot afford a leadership that is absent of developmental foresight, that lacks innovative thinking and is not capable of producing the right responses and answers to the challenges of multi ethnic and multi-cultural politics in the country.”

    Let those who know the reality of their people see poverty as a infection instead of focusing on stomach infrastructures that only care for tentative survival but waste futures of values. Let voters be convinced of who can truly handle the nation’s security, revive the dead economy, grant real jobs to the jobless and unfasten corruption from governance. And it is only when there is no manipulation of the will of God as placed in the heart of true voters that peace will surely reign.

     

    FEEDBACK

    “Soji, the connivance of the military with President Jonathan to further ruin Nigeria is going to fail just the way it did in the Holy Bible. Jesus remains the Lord today despite a section of compromised military. God will surely fight for Nigeria against the ungodly and the cohorts – military or otherwise. Untimely exit of Fayose in Ekiti still remains one. Just note.

    – Pastor Joe Awelewa, FCT

    “They assure Nigerians that in six weeks insurgency and insecurity would be thing of the past. Let us keep our fingers crossed and watch how magic would happen.”

    – G.C. Nnorom

    “Sir, I adore the birth of a profound thinker like you and I promise to keep following your column. May it live long. For those vagrant former militants, Nigeria is bigger than any state or individual. Heaven did not fall when the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo list federal elections despite the fact that South West resources were used to service economy. So, vulnerable people like militant should stop beating the drum of war they cannot dance.”

    – Adesola Tunde.

    “Your piece is insightful and truthful to say the least. I dough my hat concerning your openness and forthrightness.”

    – Mark

    “Unless we end corruption, corruption will end Nigeria. We must vote for corruption free Nigeria.”

    – Anonymous

    “Thank you Soji. GEJ and his brothers are now Goliath; Nigerians are David. Let’s wait and see the living God in action.”

    – 2348076956254

    “Reason for the poll postponement is not to fight Boko Haram but to fight opposition. Or how would you explain military siege in opposition houses? It is a clear indication of the reason for the postponement. God, save Nigeria.”

    – Dada, Ibadan.

    Good one, most respected. I carefully read your write-up and is quite obvious Jonathan don’t deserve to be re-elected. Thank you.

    – Odili Monday.

    Life without battle is without victory; the margin is narrow but the responsibility is clear. May Heaven shine light on us to achieve victory this year.

    – Jasper

    “In line with your view, the President promised to create two million jobs annually. Please ask him what does he have to say about the NIS aptitude text that we wrote? Secondly, tell Okonjo-Iweala that former CBN boss Charles Soludo is waiting for her to fix the sate and time of the debate so she can defend herself for the mismanaged N30tr as Minister of Finance under President Jonathan. Thirdly, the President is using the NDDC to empower his militant brothers with the sum of N3m for each company in the name of clearing weeds and water hyacinth in our rivers.

    – Tamunosaki O, Port Harcourt.

    “It’s not illogical for a sound mind to say that Nigerian Chief of Army Staff and all the service chiefs does not deserve to be in office having agreed on the shift of the poll beastly a week to the exercise in plan for over three years. I’m afraid if and only if their competence can stand the test of time; per adventure they are placed on competence scale. The knowledge of a Primary 1 child can assuredly tell of their deficiency in skills, knowledge, experience, will and the sense of patriotism required to lead a micro-society, not to talk of a nation like Nigeria – not Cape Verde. Should they not knock their heads down in shame by putting self into extinct for no iota of commitment to serve our beloved nation, we should tell them to go for life, property and resources wastage.

    – Abiodun Erinfolami, Lokoja.

     

  • Time to say no political clowns

    The closer Nigeria is getting to the defiantly postponed general elections, the more desperado politicians are exposing in tomfoolery, naughtiness and waywardness. Today, many politicians who have ears are just not listening; those with eyes cannot see, while the few with brain are failing to think optimistically with confidence. Even the blinds are shutting their eyes pretending to be asleep when it is palpable they could see nothing.

    It is now as if this nation is sliding to a gutter where nothing shall profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own character. If only we can discern that the acceptance of earthly treasures by insincere tongue is a vanity flinging here and there of those in the hunt for unfulfilled life, it is then we move forward.

    Surely, whether man concedes or not, there are barbs and traps on the pathway of the crooked. It is only when a leader is primarily honest on little things that he can be trusted on bigger issues that will be able to touch the life of many.

    Flippant politics is on-going across the nation. Passing through the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, on getting to Alakuko Bus Stop, there is a big poster on a massive billboard written: “Facts don’t lie.” On it is the campaign photograph of President Goodluck Jonathan with his vice, Namadi Sambo. This is to assume that the president desiring re-election for the second term cannot lie as he is factual in all declarations.

    But last week, there was a diplomatic row between Nigeria and Morocco over whether or not our president recently engaged the monarch in a telephone conversation. While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement asserting that President Jonathan spoke with King Mohammed VI of Morocco, authorities of the Kingdom denied the claim and thereafter summoned up their ambassador to Nigeria.

    Opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) had earlier made a statement on the issue, giving the President benefit of doubt by requesting him to clarify what really the discussion was about. To the party, the Jonathan administration has little or no regard for the truth if indeed the President was not involved in any telephone conversation with the king. But rather than reply, APC was just vociferously abused by a presidential spokesman as if the party was ignorant of the reality.

    It was not until last Friday that President Jonathan was imposed to admit that he had not at any time engaged the Moroccan king in a telephone conversation as claimed by the Ministry. He said he had also not told anybody that he spoke with the monarch. Shortly after this admittance, the opposition party has asked him to apologise to Nigerians for their embarrassment as they had now been branded liars as a result of the alleged controversial phone discussion.

    More than ever before, rather than convince people of the reality in his capacity to turn his failed administration to success, President Jonathan has been exploiting the weeks of prolonged elections to visit and mobilize traditional rulers in the South West region and all manner of valueless groups and hollow elders as if they just exist. If only there is wisdom in the worthlessness of the frantic encounters. Good enough that the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona sensibly counseled him to push his agenda above his unworthy sharing formula.

    Only fools will not know that it is already too late for a failed government to convince the wise to vote faultily on the basis of following the Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose scheme of sharing irrational stomach infrastructures and public financial resources. Or what is the sense in President Jonathan’s claimed approval of contracts for securing the waterways and oil pipelines to the likes of ex-militant Tompolo and cantankerous Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) split leader Gani Adams?

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors’ meeting deliberately held in Lagos last week concluded that the party will not only snatch Lagos State from APC, but will capture the entire sates in the South. It is to say that the South West is already in their hands. Afterall, they tested such promise in Ekiti State and it worked. Even as it failed in Osun State, they might now want to repeat the same Ekiti rigging tactics at the federal level – not minding if that is what will make the peace of the nation to be disrupted and the dark days in the last 16 years under PDP mounted.

    If a political party is sure of winning an election, why should it then be intimidating personalities of the opposition? Sincere politicians who adore the citizens should in perseverance to the country allow election to hold free and fair. If any candidate is in sincerity of service to the people, he should not run in do or die desperation. The one once voted for but failed in performance can be voted out by voters in sensibility. But the ones failing to understand if they will win or lose are those now campaigning against Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its leadership so that Nigerians would be unable to take their decision the way they want it.

    With the Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) now reaching acceptable state of distribution, the attack is now on the card readers. Those who are not trusting being voted for are against the card reader that can guarantee that PVCs are not forged. Won’t it then become another fake election if PVCs are not allowed to be authenticated?

    Like APC’s Vice Presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s view, I believe it is irresponsible and impunity to the nation to oppose the use of the card readers for the election. It is surprising that the same government that once approved the card reader as an electronic device to give credibility to electoral process is now agitating for seeing something wrong with the device.

    For a party now wooing South West at all cost, the caliber of Yorubas being used is enough to reveal what Jonathan will do for the region if by any option he is back to office. Those who truly know who former Minister of State Musiliu Obanikoro is should be convinced that is a factual clueless leadership that can re-pick him as a Yoruba ministerial representative.

    This is a man who ought to adequately clear himself from the professed partnership rigging of the Ekiti State last June election or wait till the issue is resolved through proper forensic investigation and his blameworthiness in the position cleared. But the president who wants him by all means and considered the allegation as a frame-up, had to use his supporters at the Senate to enforce him with political reward that may, perhaps, enable him follow up his Ekiti rigging in Lagos State.

    Were this to be a society being truly reformed as a decent nation, an Obanikoro would never be considered to return as a misruling minister. But we are under an era where power is to be retained by any means – notwithstanding ridicule to the integrity of the candidate. No nation can move forward when the leader swarms his administration with those deficient in uprightness and morality.

    Today, many Nigerians know who they need as their next president. The abusive media adverts are hardly convincing. Those who believe in the need for transformation will not vote for liars with liabilities. All that is needed is to let the voting and the declaration of winners be free and fair in deed and in truth. It is then the accepted will of the voters can determine the fate of this nation.

  • Remember June 12

    June 12, 1993 remains a remarkable date in Nigeria. There is no way it can be forsaken by those who maneuvered the notable electoral event of the day. Whether it wanted to be ignored or not by manipulators of realities, what happened then cannot be deleted in history. It stays put as the day of the freest and fairest presidential election when the nation’s citizens pronounced their will which those in power then frustrated in self-interest.

    Election rigging is not strange in Nigerian politics. It has been at hand even before 1960 political independence. The only thing was the continuing increased electoral abuse overtime. Regrettably, Nigerians have recurrently been denied the opportunity to enjoy suitable democracy as supremely replicated through free and fair electoral process. It is not infrequent to hear forged election results been announced in many parts of the country. The thieving of ballot boxes and the manhandling of polling officers and representatives of the opposing political parties are well implanted in Nigeria. But on that June 12 election, beyond earlier postponements and nullifications of earlier candidates, people voted the way they wanted.

    Being truly the freest and fairest in the annals of election in the country, it was to be the beginning of the season for restoration of the nation’s lost political glories.  However, when the authentic results were coming out, the reality became contrary to the tyrannical minds of those who cared less for the political advancement of the nation. Chief MKO Abiola, candidate of the then Social Democratic Party was ahead in comprehensible and clear victory over Alhaji Ibrahim Tofa, candidate of National Republican Congress. On senseless excuse, the emerging result was annulled by former dictator military self-acclaimed President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

    There was crisis and calamities across the nation. Even when Bababngida was forced to step down, the follow-ups kept dumping the nation that was ordained to be great to the downgrading valley. Abiola’s insistence on his mandate eventually led to his confinement for several years under the late Gen. Sani Abacha, the nastiest leader Nigeria ever had. His wife, Kudirat fighting for the restoration of her husband’s mandate was gunned down around Lagos tollgate by Abacha military warriors. Many people were also killed while many of value flee out of the country. My humble self was imprisoned for six months just because, as an editor then, I published a story that justly revealed the wickedness and inhumanity of the Abacha regime.

    As things are today, it is as if that same season of Nigeria’s degradation is coming back again. With the postponed general elections drawing closer, politicians are in further desperation. There are lies upon lies by liars without love for the masses.

    The military that wrecked Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s 20-month tenure as military Head of State in 1985 largely because of his battle against corruption are now being mobilized to preserve corruption by working for the nation’s most corrupt government. A look back could also see the military that refused to permit Abiola becoming president despite his victory in the most credible election as the same used in Ekiti State last year to block the right people that were to enter the state and protect political and electoral defaulters desperate to enter and win the election at all costs.

    In reality, the Nigerian security services are now much weaker now than they used to be. Still, they are being used, and being planned to be used to retain more belligerent power than any other group in the nation.

    After five years of deterioration in curtailing the Boko Haram terrorists, it is thorny to envisage that the security situation in the North East will change conclusively in just six weeks. Even with the military working with some neighbouring countries recapturing villages from the insurgents, the large number of the abducted, internally displaced persons and refugees still might not be able to be free to join in voting. But is all the news from the military really true? Afterall, twice had it been proclaimed that terrorist leader Shekau had been killed, whereas the same authority is promising again that the same declared dead will soon be captured alive.

    In wisdom and understanding, we need not forget that privileges alone cannot save anyone. Any authority in political office seeing itself in unending empowerment is in foolhardiness. No matter the desperation, there is a limit to the time the Creator has made for all things to be operational. Nothing of this world can be everlastingly preserved. Indeed, any leader without positive legacy is bound to end in ordinariness.

    In the Scripture, Lot’s wife had many privileges; but she had no grace. She left Sodom with her husband on the day Sodom was destroyed. Against God’s articulated command, walking behind her husband, she looked back at the things of the world in the city. She was smacked dead at once, and turned into a pillar of salt. Her story was held up as a guiding light when Jesus Christ Himself counselled: “Remember Lot’s wife.”

    Today President’s wife is named Patience, but she is living contrary to that name. The way she speaks is not of a diligent First Lady that desiring legacy for her husband. In a recent campaign in Calabar, she asked PDP supporters to stone APC supporters chanting the “change” slogan of the party. In Kogi State, she portrayed Buhari as a man with dead brain, disregarding that an old man can be more experienced in intelligence than a younger naive person.

    In similar senseless mode, PDP presidential campaign media head, Femi Fani-Kayode only speaks Queen’s English without making his brain active when perverting combative allegations to demean the opposition. Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose too has been allowed to remain whom he is:  unruly hoodlum.

    Instead of promoting issues that will benefit the people, why must presidential campaigns be revolting the kind of crisis that razed the nation in the past? Or are we going back to June 12?

    Afenifere: Feedback

    “Soon or late, the day is coming, tyrant’s man shall be overthrown.” -George Orwell, Animal Farm.

    Soji, your treatise on the so-called Afenifere in Yorubaland was a piece of journalistic excellence. To several people in western region, Afenifere died with Pa Adesanya and Ajasin respectively. Those parading themselves as one today are victims of stomach infrastructure who are of no electoral value and who of course can never come out openly to vote on election day. These so-called, self-appointed leaders have lost their souls, credibility and values (if there is any remaining). I have a strong axiom for these rapacious, selfish leaders thus “one thing is certain about all mortals – the judgment of God and that of posterity.” Whether anybody likes it or not, change is looming and inevitable, come March 28.

    – Soji Oloketuyi, Igbemo-Ekiti.

     

    Your piece on Afenifere actually shares my bewilderment on what has become of the old men of Afenifere. They have become an embarrassment to the Yoruba race as they have sadly turned themselves into political Almanjiris just because of their hatred for one man, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. In 2003, due to their cluelessness, the PDP gave them a dazing knockout, snatching all Yoruba states, except Lagos from AD party. They have now started again with the bait of Constitutional Conference report implementation as if it is all about Yorubas. They don’t even consider that Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is their son. History will surely serve them a bitter menu.

    – Femi Abiwon.

     

    Dear Uncle Omotunde sir, they are the Afenifere arm of PDP who just shamelessly want their share of the bloody petro dollars endorsement contract. Asiwaju will expose their electoral worthlessness on 28 March and11 April, 2015! Thank God, we still have  more principled, credible, eminent, incorruptible elder statemen viz Justice Mustapha Akanbi, Pa Sen Ayo Fasanmi, Profs Wole Soyinka, Tam  David West, ABOO Oyediran, Gen Alani Akinrinade, etc. who can still be counted upon at a crucial time like this.

    – Engr Chief Adewumi Ogundare, Ilorin.

     

    Sir, it is now clear that Afenifere had generally spent their good will among the larger Yorubas and what they live on now is deceit and failed past glory. They are down, and rather for them to rise up, ego will not allow them to. Their inability to rise above their ego will make them to go down permanently into their graves in their dirty rag of ego.

    – Falaye Oreoluwa, Abuja

     

    Mr Omotunde, the so-called Afenifere elders are actually a sick and confused lot. They are a spent group who cannot dictate to us Yorubas whom we are to vote for. They are a shameless group of onijekujes.

    – +2348167830707

     

    Groups edorsement of candidates should base on performances not what stomach would eat because tomorrow minces will catch us for our wrong doing.

    -G.C.Nnorom

     

    The old Afeniferes are now known as Alapapin; they don’t represent Yoruba any more.

    – +2348029037867

  • Afenifere: Still consequential or now futile?

    In clarity, Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-political group is no longer what it used to be.  Once upon a time, it was a body respected and honoured by the people of the old Western Region. Its story has changed.

    Purposely in the early 1950s, the leadership of the Yoruba-based political party, the Action Group under the leadership of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo established the forum tagged ‘Egbe Afenifere’ to tackle predicaments of the people. It was with a mission to inform and propagate the principles and ethics of the party to their people who neither speak nor understand foreign language.

    This group that loves its people for good discovered the good things that would transform their lives. Specifically, it revealed agenda that would make all school age children in the region to be enrolled in primary school at government expenses. It also guaranteed free medical expenses in the hospitals for all children from birth to the age of eighteen.

    All the concepts were materialized in genuineness and authentic faithfulness. To exhibit fundamental and comprehensive transformative thrust of the political party, schools for adults, plainly meaning ‘Ile Eko Awon Agba’ were established in the region to teach farmers, artisans, market women, among others to read and write; the goal being to eradicate illiteracy in the region within two decades. This was also based on the leadership’s believe that it would be intricate misruling a literate people with capacity to preserve their rights.

    Notwithstanding the opposition to Awolowo who was the party’s leader and to the Afenifere group by some political men in the region who distrusted them, dedication in sincerity made the implemented purpose to become fulfilled.

    Till today, in Southwest of Nigeria, there are still feasible products of the Egbe Afenifere agenda through the long-defunct Action Group. The policy set the party apart from other parties, not only in the region, but in all parts of the country. The Egbe Afenifere was not an all-inclusive sunshade for all political propensities in Yorubaland, it was an umbrella for those who pledged to its ethics and principles.

    The story has changed to the other side of progress and benefit to the people even as some of the present elders were supposed to be conscious of the reality of the established Afenifere. Once Pa Abraham Adesanya who later headed the group died, Egbe Afenifere became irrelevant and has continued to decline. Pathetically, it has now relegated itself to licking its wounds in a hushed bend of the Southwest – without influence and without impact on the people and the region as it used to be.

    That Afenifere was recently mobilized by Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko to ally with President Goodluck Jonathan and endorse his ambition to remain in office is a clear indication of taking a wrong step at the right time. Definitely Afenifere’s  endorsement was not made on behalf of true Yoruba people that earnestly desire for change.

    Is it sensible to see an idle Afenifere justly speaking for a larger Yoruba populace? How many of those elders making pronouncements have ever been voted for in Yorubaland? What impact do they even have upon their local communities? Can they even win ward elections? Endorsement or no endorsement, nobody can enforce the neglected people on how to vote, who to vote for or not to vote for.

    Peoples Democratic Party has ruled for 16 years without moving Nigeria forward. It has proved itself a disgraceful party – of immense corruption and ineptitude. The leaders now move round to share public funds and resources just to inspire being voted for.  It is as if they are unaware that many Nigerians today remain unimpressed of the cluelessness and deceitfulness of the party and its leadership.

    Today’s Afenifere is surely out of value. Its claimed meaningless endorsement is claimed to enable him implement the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference. The conference that swallowed billions of national funds ended mid last year and nothing has been done of its report as if it has been a wasted effort. Will anybody still believe that President Jonathan will implement what he has been failing to do when he resumes office to cover the unrighteousness of his allies?

    What if he wants to implement as promised but again prove incompetent to do what Afenifere wants? Indeed, what has he really attained in Southwest region in the last 6 years that should make him reliable and dependable?

    Must it be because the Southwest woman he had wanted to install as Speaker of the House of Representatives failed is the reason why no other Yoruba people of value will be in position of power in the nation today? Or why should he be more loving to the Yorubas of non-integrity? Just imagine the likes of the Kashamus, Obanikoros, Omisores, Fayoses, Bode Georges who are his Yoruba allies. It is as if he is saying that those in criminalities and in self-interests are the best Yorubaland could offer.

    Many are still ready to vote for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) today not for any perfection in him, but simply because he is considered as a better alternative to the ruling president that is desperate to resume office and continue to disastrously waste the goodness of the nation for a total of 10 years .

    There is no prominent Nigerian Jonathan and his campaign organisation has not stolen ‘endorsement’ from. He has been visiting all manner of churches, traditional rulers and communities which he had abandoned in his last six years in office. He adopted Ekiti State burdensome and tyrannical Governor Ayodele Fayose’s stomach infrastructures mentality by sharing rice and dumping the money he ought to use to be of promotion to life of the masses that are now in joblessness, poverty and developmental depression. We all learnt last week that PDP had to share foreign currencies to the oppressed Nigerians in the United Kingdom so that they can protest against Buhari who they confessed they have nothing against.

    That the so-called Afenifere is not supporting Buhari is not because those elders hate him. The truth is that they are just working to oppose Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who is a National Leader of Buhari’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is why I comply with the view of an earnest Yoruba leader, General Alani Akinrinade (rtd) who condemned the endorsement. He said: “if this old men that are shouting marginalization a few months ago, can sit today to endorse the same man that is marginalizing them, then their brains need medical examination.”

    Akinrinade observed that Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s emergence as APC vice presidential candidate, an in-law to the Awolowo family, is enough to unite Yoruba to work for a common interest like Afenifere of old. He portrayed the endorsement of Jonathan, against the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket as a serious disservice to the Yoruba race. “How can these people be speaking for Yoruba, when they abandon their own son to celebrate a man that sees them as nothing for complete four years? He continues to deceive them with implementation of National Conference, as if that is where our future lies.”

    The retired General charged Yoruba youths to take their destiny in their hands, as the old men are not good role models. He depicted them as a group of sadist working unremittingly against Yoruba interest because of their hatred for a single man. He then counseled the scrapping Afenifere group to use their last days wisely since they will be answerable to God Almighty who created them one day.

    He is right in wisdom. Failing Afenifere leaders does not speak for the entire Yoruba race. They have become inconsequential set who cannot dictate for Yorubas who are still sensible.

  • Let peace be still in truth

    If anything, ongoing extraordinary military combat with Boko Haram is most pleasing. Raiding Sambisa forest and liberating some communities from the insurgents is a hope that peace can still reign in the long-beleaguered North East part of the country.

    This is being accomplished in a season many millions of Nigerians, with or without their INEC PVC are on the stand to be used to decide the fate of the two main candidates who had put themselves up for election as leader of the nation where politics, instead of being on the welfare of the under-privileged, has been more on triviality.

    Were the assured abolishment of terrorism from Nigeria eventually become wholly attained within the prolonged six weeks of polls, no genuine citizen who truly loves the country will not glorify the Almighty God for His grace of fighting against the adversaries. It shall then become illustrious that whenever and whatever those in leadership become serious and determined to perform, can be achieved. After all, what seemingly meant nothing to the nation’s leadership in the last six years is what is now being settled vastly in just six weeks by the same military forces.

    If electoral aspiration will ultimately make Nigeria to move forward, in deed and in truth, let it be so the way the people wants. But when frantic moves are in distraction and in criminality, whatever is claimed to be accomplished will become ineffectual and worthless. In other words, if truly Nigeria needs peace, it must be pursued in sincerity and openness.

    In refined countries, the likes of Fayose, Obanikoro, Omisore, Adesiyan and the army chieftain who merged as rigging team in Ekiti State last year’s governorship election would have resigned or even fled. But here in Nigeria, they are still walking tall and acting as if what is being revealed through factual audio recording is rational and tolerable. To show that we might not take delivery of freedom and peace from these manners of people who can turn their fellow countrymen to slaves, an Obanikoro who many know as a political ruffian is even being recommended for restoration as minister. Not to talk of Fayose who is an undoubted brazen liar and a messy electoral criminal whose stomach infrastructure sense is already being endorsed and followed by the Jonathan campaign organization now sharing rice to people, house-to-house, in Lagos and bribing people across the country with public funds.

    In mid-January, it was momentous in pretense when the presidential candidates and party leaders in a meeting spearheaded by former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and former United Nations’ boss, Kofi Annan, committed themselves in harmony to abide by the rule of secure, fair and non-violent election. With the presence of international personalities and diplomatic executives, the political actors openly agreed in inscription and tied themselves to act of valuable performance by signing pact for peaceful election as if that will encourage good people to vote for their fading party.

    Even last week, President Goodluck Jonathan who has been running helter-skelter to churches of all sorts, seized the opportunity of the beginning of Lent of non-Pentecostal churches to call on all political leaders in the country, Christians and non-Christians alike, to “rededicate themselves to the commitment they have made to peaceful, non-violent campaigns and elections, and do their utmost best to ensure that their supporters across the country uphold that commitment.” According to his statement through his media aide, he said that in the spirit of that commitment, all those seeking political office in the coming elections are urged to “eschew hate speech, incitement to violence, divisiveness and the malicious denigration of opponents.”

    What a fastidious expressions as if the presidency is ignorant of the reality in the land. Indeed, politics need not be of violence in a civilized society of sincere leadership. It should be to convince voters of viable agenda that will be fulfilled. PDP’s television adverts are hardly of policy but more of abuse and denouncement of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), not sensing that such cruelty and malice keep adding more support to him who they are supposed to be aligned with in peace.

    The same last week, at the governorship campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, there was violent disruption when several explosions rocked the Okrika National School Field venue of the event.  A policeman lost his life in the shooting while several attendants at the rally, including a television journalist sustained gunshot injuries. APC governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside escaped being hit by grace.

    It was as if Okrika, the home base of Dame (in)Patience Jonathan is a place where no other party than the Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP) must campaign. It was also as if thugs and hooligans are appointed by those desperate that Jonathan must remain president as long as ballot boxes are not allowed to decide the will of the people.

    Isn’t it disgusting that the President who is working against the terrorists killing innocent Nigerians in the North East will not see anything wrong while there is killing of Nigerians too in the South-South environ of his wife? What sense in not condemning a president wife’s people unleashing terror on her own people just because they belong to another party? Similar chaotic attacks have returned in Ekiti state under Fayose and the authority sees nothing wrong in him. The majority APC House of Assembly members are still being hunted so that the illegal assembly PDP scanty members can remain imposed on the people. This is also the same man who used the military and security forces to arrest and block those who are not on his side, just to win election – at all costs!

    Is Mr. President in actuality devoted to genuine peace for the nation? Is Boko Haram to be demolished in six weeks for the sake of peace? Or could it be that voters will now begin to see President Jonathan who cared less for the abducted Chibok girls in more than 10 months now as the leader fighting continuing good battles for them? Should those speaking peace be empowering the South-South ex-militants with the nation’s resources and ammunitions so that they can manifest their promised wars if Jonathan is not voted for? Is seeking peace sensible by using the military forces who should be in Sambisa forest as plots to work the same way it worked in Ekiti State election?

    Political violence has been knocking Nigeria and Nigerians down. When the undeniable freest and fairest June 12, 1993 election was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida regime, there was a consignment of violence in the South-West. After years of military administrative afflictions and melancholies, those who stole authority decided to shift power and they thought it should be in the hand of the politically defrauded Basorun MKO Abiola’s people; and this why they gave the presidency to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, chosen by themselves and not his people. Again, when militant violence escalated in the Niger Delta, the reigning political power tolerably chose to pacify them by eventually giving it to Goodluck Jonathan after the passage of his northern predecessor. It was not that a clueless Jonathan, even though with a Ph.D, is the best that must be used for the betterment of the nation when power was to move to South-South.

    Why must there be war if people decide to vote right for a change for better governance? Must the massive corruption demolishing the nation still be sustained so that those stealing the wealth of the people would not be probed?

    Are we really ready to build a nation where peace and justice will reign? Are Nigerians, including the military, primed to stand for free and fairplay in this year’s general elections? Must we allow political conflict to emerge out of intra and inter-party bad bloods?

    Nothing can be rewarded to the nation if there is a systemic breakdown with the collapse of righteous election through unworthy self-centered calamity.

  • Election: Human desperation or God’s will?

    At last, the hour for genuine Nigerians to vote the future they desire has started being truncated. This Saturday presidential election has been pushed out of the will of the people. The desperation of those seeking power at all costs and stressing by all means to frustrate the will of God is at work.

    Why are those trying to manipulate the choice of the people able to  push forward their purpose by shifting the elections from the ordained dates to contrary blind dates of their personal favour? Why not surrender to the right choice of the people in a nation where there has been apparent failure of leadership? Will people’s votes still be allowed to bring forth who indeed is meant to be voted for? Is the postponement coming to manifest rigging agenda?

    At the countdown to the general elections, the self-centred nature of our politicians and those in power is evident. It has become apparent that most Nigerian politicians are insincere liars. This is why many make open promises of what they have no mind to implement. All they want is just getting elected and then begin to steal in multiples from public resources to restore the what they spent on campaigns. What happens to the life of citizens would not matter to them until another election season comes.

    Today, Nigeria keeps declining in virtually all fronts – power, educational and healthcare standards, job and financial progression – just name it – in a nation tagged with grand economy. Contrary to INEC’s consistent position to keep it’s ordained day of love, the stressful leadership who could see the reality of the mind of the people, believes that with more days to handle stomach infrastructure, there might be a change of heart to receive unmerited votes.

    Isn’t it distressing that foreigners are those that know the reality in the land more than the owners of the land? The United Kingdom-based The Economist magazine last week revealed its mind in an editorial write-up. It endorsed the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari  (rtd) on its ground that a “former dictator is better choice than a failed president.” Of course, as expected, the presidency became shocked and in its bitterness knocked the endorsement out as “tongue-in-cheek.” Sincere Nigerians are only shocked at the insincerity of the leadership that keeps claiming achievements in the midst of apparent failures.

    Not that undeniable The Economist which is one of the most influential and reliable global publications spared Buhari or President Goodluck Jonathan. In veracity and “with a heavyq heart,” it only chose Buhari as better than Jonathan who it believes “risks presiding over Nigeria’s bloody fragmentation.”

    Why must Jonathan be ruled out if he is truly qualified to win? Who should replace him? Surely, The Economist did not perceive Buhari as a perfect choice. Many Nigerians too do not see him as an angel. But the magazine remarked in its understanding that the incumbent President has been a colossal failure and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) mismanaged Nigeria’s economy in its 16 years in power.

    President Jonathan who himself accepted his generation’s failure at the take – off of his political rally in Lagos was truly branded by the magazine as vastly incompetent, moreso with his failure to tackle the insecurity devastating the country. This must be why a better alternative is needed.

    Indeed, PDP that has been running the country since 1999 has hardly made any viable impact on the nation. The editorial insists Jonathan “has shown little willingness to tackle endemic corruption,” such that when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor “reported that $20b had been stolen, his reward was to be sacked.”

    Prof. Charles Soludo, also CBN’s former Governor has been consistent in hitting the Jonathan administration of economic gross mismanagement and resources diminishment. Last week, he who knows the nation’s economy lashed back at Finance Minister Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala under who the country cannot recount the loss of N30 trillion – either stolen or mismanaged. This is a hitherto-respected woman heading the nation’s economy, apparently functioning to please World Bank other than her fellow nationalists in joblessness, poverty, deficiency and dearth.

    No one can deny current dilapidating naira exchange rate which is going speedily to N250 to one dollar. The magazine declared that even the claim that Nigeria’s economy is fast growing, “the prosperity has not been broadly shared: under Mr. Jonathan, poverty has increased. Nigerians typically die eight years younger than their poor neighbours in nearby Ghana.”

    Insecurity is not being well handled for peace to reign across the nation and in the life of the people. The Economist reminds us that President Jonathan “has shown little enthusiasm for tackling insecurity, and even less competence. Quick to offer condolence to France after the attack on Charlie Hedbo, he waited almost two weeks before speaking up about a Boko Haram attack that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of his compatriots. What a leader without focus, sending sympathy to foreign country while ignoring his own millions that are affected by his poor security system?

    What else do we need to be reminded by outsiders who know the truth more than the citizenship under desperate office holders? We can see foreign media giving us more accurate information than our local media of brown envelopes seekers.

    Not that Buhari is considered faultless. The only thing is that he is the preferred between available two options. The opposition criticizes him for being anxious to rule this nation as he has been contesting since 2003. All the negative things being attached to him are making more people to symphatise with him and turning him to become the weapon of change of the flattened country.

    As The Economist recalled, Buhari was once guilty of human rights abuse while in power with “blood on his hands.” His military rule, according to the editorial, was “nasty, brutish and mercifully short.” Yet, he is seen as an incorruptible and honest leader, whose consistent participation in presidential election since 2003 was an indication that he had now hugged democracy.

    Let it be said that if the right candidate wins and he is not allowed to rule, unless there is divine intervention, the nation will be dumped into storm. If the defeated one manipulates and is enforced to rule, the lost glories of the nation in the last 16 years won’t be recovered as unrighteousness cannot exalt any nation.

    It is the restoration of the lost glories that will make Nigeria to move forward. The very few who are rich, notwithstanding the source of their wealth bother less about the pains and agony of the masses. It is a high level of unrighteousness to steal and partake in usurping the blessing of somebody and then see your own life as successful.

    Nigeria is not being lifted today due to massive corruption of those in power – stealing the good of the land. The most depressing reality is that most of the resources stolen are sown in foreign lands where such are not even needed. More and more of their own people are in poverty as there is no doable job to be done. The unrighteous continues proclaiming Nigeria’s economy as the biggest in Africa as if that is of benefits to the same country which has the same continent’s most massive paucity and infrastructural malfunctions. No matter what is received from the devil, the end will be valueless and inglorious. It is only the true gift of God that will not add sorrow to it.

    If there is going to be war at all, the ultimate winner can never be those who are falsehearted, or the enemies of peace and the deceitfuls whose focus is either on their self wills or the truncation of democracy. Let there be war against corruption, fraud, insurgency and treachery against humanity, then the nation will begin to move out of the valley to higher heights of real good economy in impactful benefits to the settlement of the depressed, disconsolate and miserable masses.

    The Economist rounded-up: Buhari would be able to revive the demoralised military and address insecurity. “If Mr. Buhari can save Nigeria, history might even be kind to him.”

    For militancy and insurgency to be settled, Buhari’s military experience cannot be ignored as it is needed to boost the morale of the military. It is a shame to Nigeria to depend on the Chadian and Camerounian military to resolve the issue which our men are failing to accomplish.

    Will political desperadoes reverse the story of February 14, the day of love to the sadness of June 12, the day of demolition of people’s will? Visiting churches from pillar to post for political campaigns cannot convince genuine children of God to vote wrongly. True Christians go beyond the name we bear. It is more of total dedication of life, full commitment and trust in God to do His will without human fear or nervousness.

    Let the unrighteous seek the mercy of God and be determined to live a new life in the Lord, then there won’t be need for desperation to succeed. Afterall, not all that are prayed for receive desired positive answers.

    We need the Most High to give us a better Nigeria than the one we currently have.

  • Why Jonathan should not return

    Today, Nigeria is a nation dragging in the valley the way it should not be. This season of politics has been that of unworthy sensationalism, desperation and agenda distraction. For a while, democracy has not benefitted the masses in reality. Indeed, light has not been shining upon the nation’s darkness.

    Yet, there are ongoing outlandish campaign promises of deceit and inanity, especially by the government that has been in control of power for almost six years – a full constitutional term and a half. As if all Nigerians are insensitive and irrational, they are being told what they need not hear, with plots against their will as if manipulation can resolve the nation’s predicaments.

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign started well ahead of the legal time through media fabrications by those who are around him in self-interest without being trustworthy to the settlement of the people’s dilemma. They tell cock-and-bull stories as if truth cannot become known. What they label as good works and transformation are vitally not what are in actuality. They want him to return to office for another four years to enable him reign in futility and vainness for a total 10 years. Yet, they know the reality that his comeback will make Nigeria hang about in dumped failures as he has proved his incapability to implement whatever he promises.

    Only last week, the Ohaneze Youth Wing, the youth arm of Ohaneze Ndigbo of the South-east that massively voted in Jonathan as president in 2011 declared that they are now no longer happy with him. According to newspaper report after the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential team had passed through the region on campaign rally, the youth organization declared that Jonathan has failed to fulfill numerous promises made to the Igbo people that gave him 98% of their votes. In its fuming communiqué after an emergency meeting in Enugu, it declared in contrary to the benefitting egotistical few that the President failed to keep his assurance of restoring the coal industry in Enugu and also futile building of the Second Niger Bridge through public/private partnership pact.

    Quoted: “Our genuine demands, including the revitalisation of Enugu Colliery/construction of a coal fired power plant, construction of the Azumini seaport, acceleration of the dredging/expansion of the Port Harcourt and Calabar seaports, the exploration of the oil deposits of the Orashi and Anambra River Basins, etc have been ignored.”

    If a leader failed to fulfill his promise to his own people who enthroned him, that means he was worse in performance to other sides of the country that didn’t vote much for him. Or what will the faded Afenifere accept as the benefit of Jonathan administration to the South-west in the last six years other than the confusing allocation of a federal university to Ekiti State, the derelict repairs of Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos and the dragging Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which links metropolitan Lagos to other parts of the country?

    In today’s political campaign, the President keeps promising to create not less than two million jobs annually when he has not created one million jobs in six years and remains unable to explain why his government cannot pay the salaries of his civil servants and the pension of retirees as at when due. His ministers will be pronouncing Nigeria the way they want divergent to the way it is. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s sweet mouth will pronounce Nigeria as the leading African nation in economy when poverty keeps flowing in the life of the masses like never before. Other evidently-corrupt associates of the President too would be assuring national development when all their stolen resources are being planted in already developed countries where the populace is in comfort.

    Considerable funds have been wasted in the power sector as they are sold to several bungling businessmen whose priorities are to make much money even when there darkness still remains all round. It is as if nobody is recollecting Jonathan’s earlier pledge to give Nigeria 10,000 megawatts by December last year but could not afford what was barely 4,000 megawatts – which has even now dropped below 3,000 megawatts to a nation of more than 160 million people. Who is not aware that South Africa with 54 million in population boasts of no less than 45,000 megawatts?

    Nigeria is being burnt today on the erroneous focus on politics which is ruling over the economy. More than N200 is now equivalent to one dollar in a nation where importation has become more principal than exportation of what is produced.  Yes, some rice might now be less imported, but we still do not have the veracity of the government making agriculture the source of development the same way as the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo made it excel in the Western Region of old.

    The crude oil that was bringing in much of the money being stolen by those in power is slumping by the day. Instead of having a leader who would have made refineries workable such that Nigeria could benefit from circulating produced oil across Africa, the lamentation today is because developed nations are no longer making our oil their priorities.

    Isn’t it amazing that the President is consenting to threats by militants who are making money from the oil of the nation which they see as their own? For God sake, who is Mujahid Asari-Dokubo living in silliness, threatening to declare war on Nigerians who will not re-elect a lacklustre President? Why must he and those working for the President as Special Adviser and consultants, Kingsley Kuku and Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) be with a state governor talking tough as if they are men of value? Is that how to encourage people with intelligence to vote for who they only see as their man? And the President in power too has not seen the criminality by responding to the call of esteemed Gen. T.Y. Danjuma (rtd) to get the inane and incongruous militants condemned and arrested?

    Please, who is of sincerity and devotion to the peace of Nigeria that will because of fear vote for a man who has proven his incompetency to handle insecurity? Boko Haram keeps wasting lives and threatening the entire country. This is a vandalistic group that has proven neither to be of religion nor of politics. I wonder, why can’t the same Nigeria that fought Biafra demolish the wicked terrorists destroying lives and properties of all manner of citizens?

    The day President Jonathan was defending his inability to empower the military was most excruciating. His excuse that he couldn’t get arms for them on time is a depressing justification of the millions of the nation’s dollars still being withheld by South Africa  over intended illegal arms importation (perhaps by militants?). Worse still was The Punch newspaper’s report of what opposition candidate Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) told United States Secretary of State John Kerry when he came to this country recently. “Buhari was said to have told Kerry that the Goodluck Jonathan administration had spent billions of dollars on defence and that a large portion of the money was diverted by those in power.”

    Can faithful nationalists find it meaningful to follow a leader not moving actively against insurgency but would only go and campaign where lives of innocent citizens are lost on daily basis? Will the family and relations of the long-abducted hundreds of Chibok girls now vote for Jonathan because of Tompolo and Asari-Dokubo’s continual sham intimidation that Nigeria will break if Jonathan loses the coming election?

    Won’t the nation decline further if people are enforced to continue to use a clueless leader under whom the nation has not enhanced in six years? Do militants want their man to remain in power so that they can continue to embezzle the nation’s resources?

    After all, even if the failing oil totally fails today, the abandoned enormous natural resources which the Almighty God created in the land, just as oil, can prop up the nation better if under the right and capable leadership that will not allow corruption to stampede development.

    What Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan says is not what he is capable and willing to do. He can promise, but he is not competent to transform Nigeria with his promise – in deed and in truth.

    So, let the enemies of Nigeria’s progress go to war and God will arise and fight for His people.

  • Osun election: Yoruba, ro’nu!

    The same way it was set up in Ekiti State ahead of June 21 governorship election, a dark cloud has again started looming over Yorubaland ahead of the gubernatorial election in Osun State this Saturday.

    With similar technique the political desperadoes used to truncate realities that tactically shoved Dr. Kayode Fayemi, a man of integrity out of governorship office by hook or by crook, efforts are on again to steal and kill the true will of the people of Osun as was done in Ekiti.

    This season, election rigging strategy in Nigeria is changing from the way it used to be. What the managerial manipulators are now doing is beyond taking good performers out of office, it is more about butchering democracy to revert the nation to a one-party territory as was under the excruciating military era. Where election is not being technically rigged via technology, resources meant for crucial needs of the masses are being shared to charade legislators for impeachment of governors in any of the states desperately hunted to sustain presidential position.

    Please, be reminded that whatever allegations were asserted to push Admiral Murtala Nyako (Rtd) out of Adamawa State governorship seat was an old tale of when he was on the side of the ruling political party. Shifting to the opposition party brought the challenge of his old “sins.” Currently going on is the desperate efforts to delete Nassarawa State from the opposition kingdom. Chitchats on desires to extract Edo, Oyo, Borno, Imo and Rivers states governors through legislative hara-kiri are no odd news.

    Nothing would be wrong for a governor or any elected officer to be voted out by the people or impeached for abusing his office. But everything becomes wrong when people are misleadingly lobbied with what is now called ‘stomach infrastructure’ or legislators get desperate to impeach because they were bribed with massive public fund to attain self-centered political aspiration by all means. Indeed, if democracy is to have impactful reward, such corrupt people are the ones eligible for elimination from their elected seats.

    Fact: Impeachment plots are being prompted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with the aim of crushing opposition parties ahead of 2015 general elections. Watch NTA and AIT, move around Abuja and see billboards, President Goodluck Jonathan is already rapidly campaigning for his re-election even as he is yet to publicly declare his intention or chosen democratically by his party.

    With the gubernatorial election in Osun State now at hand, one of the strategies used to pilfer Ekiti has commenced. As was the case in June, the massive militarisation of Osun ahead of Saturday had already started. Last week, Osun people were being intimidated to see their environment as war zone. More than 5,000 operatives of the Department of State Security Service (DSS) have been deployed, with abundant military and policemen, fallaciously showcasing an assignment to maintain law and order before and during the election. The pretension became reality when a group of the operatives that were masked, with others wearing black T-shirts stormed the streets of Osogbo, shooting sporadically into the air, causing panic in the state capital.

    Not that the authority in power that mandated the armed forces was unaware of the right step for the protection of people of the state. They know that under the Electoral Act, troops are not supposed to be deployed to polling stations, just as police personnel deployed to polling booths are not expected to carry arms. But since the illegal deployments for militarization and harassment made all manner of ignorant commentators to see the Ekiti election as “peaceful,” “free and fair,” why not capture Osun through such means to the hand of the clueless headship that wants to remain in power at all costs? Or isn’t it astonishing that Boko Haram is not being militarized with such massive forces as being done for elections in states that “must be won?” After all, Ondo and Anambra states were not as embattled with security forces as we are now seeing.

    It is only genuine leadership that can know that for a nation to move forward, stipulated procedure cannot be compromised. Let there be realization that whenever the contrary is done, the eventual consequence will be catastrophic. When law is set aside, illegality is perpetrated and grave injury is inflicted on the spirit of the nation. This is to say that jeopardy to democracy becomes potent when those who are supposed to stand by the dictates of the law are the very ones used to desecrate the same law.

    Without spinning politics to tribalism, the certainty is that South-west has been a target for political attack. Apart from the few egocentric individuals with self-interests, Yoruba masses have hardly benefitted federal dividends since 1999. In 2009, the new Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi lambasted the Yoruba nation as “the problem with Nigeria.” He wrote: “In sum, the Yoruba political leadership, as mentioned by Balarabe Musa, has shown itself over the years to be incapable of rising above narrow tribal interests and reciprocating goodwill from other sections of the country by treating other groups with respect. Practically every crisis in Nigeria since independence has its roots in this attitude.”

    Some of the Sanusi details might be factual, there are many minuses. He could not understand the way Yoruba people are being used as damaging tools against their land. He failed to recount the likes of S.L Akintola, Remi Fani-Kayode, Richard Akinjide’s stalling Pa Obafemi Awolowo’s sincere potentials to develop the nation as he did to his people. He also didn’t remember that when Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo was in power, none of his terms was ever assigned to benefit his own people. After all, it was under him that Senator Rashidi Ladoja was debased as Oyo State Governor because of personal variance with him. Sanusi couldn’t appreciate that there is no political gain for Obasanjo who is not even honoured in his ward today. A president who thought all was well because he was in power and did not work for legacy, must be realizing now that the power of man cannot last forever.

    Those who really know who Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is will appreciate his humility, creativity and commitment to establish a legacy of good efforts. This is a man who can work 24 hours a day to achieve a purpose beneficial to his people. His assigned grassroots politics is dissimilar to Ekiti’s Ayo Fayose and Osun’s Iyiola Omisore kangaroo tactics. He is a proven devoted politician with agenda which he works to fulfill – just as Fayemi in Ekiti, Adams Oshiomhole in Edo, Babatunde Fashola in Lagos and all his other South-west colleagues attain whatever they pledge to do.

    Today, many Yorubas are being used against the goodness of their own land. A generation desperate for money is unmindful of their future with alignment to political party that is not of viable interest to their people. If indeed there is love for the populace, why should PDP choose cantankerous stuffs like Fayose, and Omisore in a Yorubaland of numerous men of value? How much care about the real roles Musiliu Obanikoro and Jelili Adesiyan played in the Ekiti election – with recollection that they pierced into the state when some governors coming in to support Fayemi were barred by the military troops acting on nebulous “order from above.”

    Isn’t it time for Yoruba people to recollect their past and see where they are and where their adversary want to lead them to? Just as late Bob Marley sang in Exodus, “Look within; are you satisfied with the life you’re living?” Should the antagonists of Yoruba progress again be allowed to be raised from the land to frustrate the true will of Osun people?

    Will the good people of Osun by intimidation consent to the downgrading of their state which Ogbeni is restructuring credibly – in deed and in truth? Just like late maestro Hubert Ogunde demanded: Yoruba ro’nu, how I wish Osun electorates will think deep of their tomorrow and allow good works to continue by rising for the good performer to complete the remarkables he has started; let the untrustworthy politician who has nothing to offer be cast away. Nothing can stop dedicated people from defending their votes – not even being tricked to partake in voters’ falsification.