Category: Sunday magazine

DPO WHO REJECTED $200,000 BRIBE

 

IN a country afflicted by crooked cops, Daniel Amah dares to be upright. The former Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Bompai Division in Kano State, rejected a bribe of $200,000 (about N100 million) and thus asserted his repute as an honest man. Amah soared to national attention in April 2022, while handling a case involving a suspect identified as Ali Zaki, who reportedly arranged with armed robbers to trail and rob a Bureau De Change operator that he had met to change $750,000 dollars (about N325 million).

Amah was allegedly offered $200,000 – which he rejected – to suppress the case, through a bank staff, after investigations linked Zaki to the case.

For his sterling conduct, Amah attained national acclaim and became a folk hero among his peers. He was subsequently rewarded for his integrity by President Muhammadu Buhari and Inspector- General of Police (IGP) Usman Baba.

Amah was also promoted from Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) to Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP). He was also given a cash reward of N1 million by the Police Service Commission (PSC).

Speaking during a special plenary of the commission, its acting Chairman, Justice Clara Ogunbiyi (rtd) said, “Although he has been honoured by the President and the police, we decided to also do the same because we are so proud of what he has done. I believe the culprit would have been shocked because the generality of our people would find it hard to explain why such a young man would reject such a large sum of money in foreign currency”.

She said the desire of the commission was to have a free and corrupt police, warning that the PSC would not hesitate to wield the big stick on erring police officers.

The elated Amah said there was nothing that could be compared to a life of integrity.

There is no gainsaying that Amah cuts a different image from that portrayed by many  policemen who are crooked, perverted and ready to kill for filthy lucre.

Amah understands his calling; he knows that a career in policing requires him to keep a high standard.

As the DPO of  Bompai Police Station in Nasarawa, Kano, he distinguished himself by his sterling conduct, efficiency, professionalism and good human relations.

Six years ago, the police station, under Amah’s watch, was adjudged the best in the country. His reputation travelled fast, attracting the attention of the IGP then, Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, who visited the station on December 5, 2016, to see things for himself.

Idris commended Amah and all officers and men of the station and urged them to keep the flag flying.

The former IGP scored Amah and his team high for their diligence,  professionalism, timely response to complaints.

He said: “This is probably the neatest, most efficient and prompt-servicing police station we have in the police force at the moment. I am impressed with all I’m seeing here, it confirms what we’ve been hearing about the leadership abilities of Amah Daniel. I commend him hugely.

“He is a young and a very promising and professional police officer whose leadership qualities have clearly rubbed off on his officers”.

In furtherance of the government’s anti-corruption crusade, Amah launched the “Change begins with me” campaign at his station to drive his men to be good and upright in the discharge of their duties. He believes that policemen must conduct themselves well, be patriotic and professional.

Amah passed through the Police Academy without a blemish and through his personal life, he has demonstrated integrity, which is essential to law enforcement.

PUBLIC SERVANT WITH A DIFFERENCE

 

Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) might have served in several capacities before his appointment, in August 1996 as Military Administrator of Lagos State, he came into national consciousness in the latter capacity. He endeared himself to Lagosians and Nigerians generally as a result of the strategic achievements he recorded during his three-year stay in the office, without borrowing from any bank. He fixed bad roads through his “Operation 250 Roads”, revamped public health facilities, with free malaria treatment for all. His most profound achievement was the setting up of “Operation Sweep”, a joint police/military patrol aimed at ridding Lagos of undesirable elements.

Before his Lagos experience, he had been Military Administrator of Borno State (1990-1992), defence adviser to the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to one-time Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, academic registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and deputy defence adviser in the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, among others.

With these antecedents, it was not surprising that President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him as chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in January, last year. Before then, he had served as chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) where he and his team developed a blueprint on how to end drug abuse in Nigeria. Marwa’s superlative performance so far at the NDLEA is indication that President Buhari took his eyes to the market while shopping for a good head for the agency. The kind of advice that PACEDA gave the president must have convinced him that Marwa had what it takes to run such a strategic institution. Indeed, if the president had been this strategic in most of his other apointments, his government would have literally been swimming in achievements by now.

On assumption of office, the anti-narcotic czar began a reform process in the organisation to make it more effective. This has, largely, yielded fruits. Several drug cartels have been busted since Marwa came on board. In 2021 alone, the agency seized cash and illicit dugs worth about N130 billion. It also secured 1,400 convictions within the period, destroyed 406 hectares of cannabis as well as counselled, treated  and rehabilitated 7,761 drug users in the agency’s facilities nationwide.The figure had jumped to 12, 326 as at August, 2022.

This year, it has been bad business for drug traffickers and the barons in particular. In September, the agency made the biggest haul it ever recorded when it seized 1.8 tons (1,855 kilograms) of cocaine worth about $278, 250,000 (about N194billion). NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said the cocaine was warehoused at 6, Olukuola Crescent inside Solebo Estate in Ikorodu. The place was raided on September 18, 2022 while the kingpins  — Soji Jibril, 69, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State; Emmanuel Chukwu 65, from Ekwulobia, Anambra State; Wasiu Akinade, 53, from Ibadan; Sunday Oguntelure, 53, from Okitipupa, Ondo State and Kelvin Smith, 42, a native of Kingston, Jamaica — were picked up in different locations in Lagos between September 18 and 19. It is instructive that this was a feat, considering that no shot was fired in the process of arresting the suspects. Several other seizures had been made since then.

Marwa’s tenure at the NDLEA so far has proved that it is not a question of how long but how well. A public official who knows his onions does not need eternity to deliver. Expectedly, the agency has lost some of its officers and men in the line of duty. The drug business is big business and its barons who are being demystified would also want to fight back.

But Marwa is used to such threats, real or perceived. He had cause to cry out loud in 1998 as Military Administrator of Lagos, that assassins were after his life and that he and his entourage had been targets of several bomb attacks since 1996. It would not have been otherwise for a man who instituted an effective joint police and military venture in his bid to rid Lagos of criminals who had seized the city by the jugular. Indeed, Marwa became well respected in Lagos because of “Operation Sweep” which not only swept all manner of criminals out of Lagos but was also swift in its response to Lagosians’ distress calls.

It is heartwarming that Marwa realised the value of his officers and men and has prioritised their security and safety. They would soon pack away from among the people, which makes it easy for enemies to reach them, to their own barracks which would be better fortified.

The drug police boss underscored the importance of the barracks, when defending his 2022 budget performance and 2023 budget proposal on November 3, that “The barracks issue is very critical to us because as we all know, the NDLEA is very aggressive now against drug traffickers and the drug barons and when you arrest and prosecute them and send them to jail, they are not happy. So they come after our personnel and with our personnel living in the towns and cities and among them, we have been recording casualties and assassinations against them,” he said.

It is shocking that in its about 33 years of existence, the agency is just thinking of providing barracks for its officers and men, despite the risky nature of their jobs. But, as the saying goes, “it is better late than never” and one should commend Marwa for this other first that he has added to his record. The Federal Government should expedite action in this direction, especially as the drug police boss had discharged himself creditably in less than two years of his appointment.

Born on September 9, 1953, in Kaduna, Kaduna State, Marwa took after his father and grandfather who both served in the Nigerian Army. He had his primary education between 1960 and 1965 in Enugu, Zaria, Abeokuta and Lagos before proceeding to the Nigerian Military School (NMS), Zaria (1966-1970). He was commissioned into Nigeria Army Recce Corps in 1973, after completing his regular combatant course at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna.

Marwa, who had served in various capacities in the military and elsewhere has two Master’s degrees — Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh (1983-85) and Master of Public Administration from Harvard (1985-86).

He bagged two national honours: Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and Commander of the Order of Niger (CON) in 2003 and 2022, respectively. He also has several academic awards and is a Fellow of many prestigious institutes.

He is arguably one of the few poster kids of the Buhari administration. Little wonder this newspaper has found him worthy of the award of “Public Servant of the Year”. Not being a commercial venture, Marwa is indeed truly deserving, both in character and performance. He is a good manager of men and resources.

By Vincent Akanmode

One of the events that shaped the outgoing year was the unprecedented eight-month strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) between February and October. It was the proverbial clash between two elephants (ASUU and the Federal Government) which left the grass (university students and their parents) to suffer head and heart aches as well as endless despair. By the time the dust settled, all the parties were left to count their losses from the verbal and psychological warfare.

Yet not a few observers had waved it off as another case of momentary grandstanding when the leadership of the university teachers announced a warning strike on February 14. Many parents saw it as a storm in a tea cup that would blow over in no time while the less serious among the students even saw it as their lecturers’ subtle sympathy for this year’s St. Valentine’s Day. But as days turned into weeks and weeks into months with both the university teachers and the government remaining adamant, it dawned on everyone that the parties were in for a long-drawn battle.

At the centre of the confrontation were eight key demands made by ASUU including funding for the revitalisation of public universities; payment of earned academic allowances (EEA); reconstitution of the FGN/ASUU 2009 Renegotiation Committee; the adoption of the  University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for payment of lecturers’ salaries instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) introduced by government and the constitution of visitation panels so the government could visit its universities every five years as demanded by law.

Other demands made by ASUU include a review of the Nigeria Universities Commission (2004) Act aimed at checking the proliferation of universities; the release of withheld salaries and unremitted check-off dues as well as dedication of 26 per cent of the nation’s annual budget to the education sector.

The government had responded with the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, announcing 23.5 per cent salary increase for all categories of the workforce in federal universities except those in the professional cadre who would enjoy 35 per cent upward review. The government also promised to pay allowances pertaining to ad hoc duties of academic and non-academic staff as and when due. The government proposed the provision of N150 billion in the 2023 budget as funds for the revitalisation of universities, and another N50 billion for payment of arrears of EAA.

 

ASUU was, however, not impressed with the government’s proposals, saying that they were incapable of tackling the challenges confronting the university system. The union was of the opinion that the 23.5 per cent of the budget dedicated to the education sector fell short of the 26 per cent it had demanded even though only a paltry 5.4 per cent was allocated to the sector in the 2022 budget.

The union also believed that nothing had happened on government’s promise to stem the tide of the proliferation of universities. It noted that although the government had accepted UTAS as a means of paying salaries, it had not been adopted and deployed to replace IPPIS. Besides, the union noted that the government was yet to release the White Paper on the reports of the visitation panels to universities and had not delivered on the promise to release the outstanding two tranches of the EAA.

Alleging intransigence on the part of the govern ment after a series of meetings with ASUU, the union’s president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, announced that the warning strike embarked upon by the lecturers had metamorphosed into an indefinite one; a reaction that prompted the education minister to also declare that the government would not be bamboozled into signing any agreement it  cannot implement.

A stalemate thus ensued, on account of which the government approached the Industrial Court which ordered the striking lecturers to return to work. A bid made by ASUU to get the court’s decision reversed at the Court of Appeal was not successful. The appellate court ordered them to first obey the industrial court’s order that they should return to work.

As it stands, the matter remains far from over following the government’s decision to apply the no-work-no-pay rule in respect of the eight months that the teachers stayed away from work. Besides the October salaries paid the lecturers was based on how many days each of them worked within the month. The development has since opened another phase of the impasse with ASUU accusing the government of treating the teachers like casual workers.

Osodeke said in a statement that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of ASUU “noted with dismay that paying academics on a ‘pro-rata’ basis, like casual workers, is unprecedented in the history of university-oriented labour relations and therefore condemned this attempt to reduce Nigerian scholars to casual workers in its entirety.”

The Minister of Education, however, dismissed the allegation, saying: “How can anybody make a university lecturer a casual worker? Do you know the meaning of casual worker?

If you know the meaning of casual worker, it is impossible to make a university lecturer a casual worker. Adamu said the strike had been called off and the government had paid the lecturers what was due to them. He said the position of the government was quite clear, adding: “the government is not going to pay anyone for work not done.”

FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan was a sight to behold in the boat that took him to his flood-ravaged Otuoke countryhome in Bayelsa State. Clad in a three quarter shorts, t-shirt and a face cap, Jonathan, accompanied by some of his aides, waded through the floods to access his home. His is the most prominent face of victims of the floods that wreaked havoc across the country.

This disaster was no respecter of persons. It struck the lowly and the high. It spared no property whether owned by the rich or the poor in its trail. The floods swept through 31 of the 36 states, demolishing houses, farms, killing and maiming. The 2012 floods were a child’s play compared to this year’s. But it was a disaster foretold. In its yearly alert, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) warned that the floods would be devastating and called on the three tiers of government to take precautionary measures.

What did the government do? As usual, it advised those in flood-prone areas to relocate. The advice went largely unheeded, leaving many individuals and organisations to pay a huge price in their submerged houses and farms. Roads were also cut-off, resulting in a gridlock for days. Fuel tankers were held in the gridlock, leading to petrol scarcity. The scarcity is still biting hard. In Nasarawa State, the 4,500-hectare Olam Rice Farmland worth $15 million was destroyed. Its vice president, Anil Nair, described the loss as huge, pointing out that it could not be properly quantified until the water recedes.

Indeed, until the flood abates, it may be difficult to adequately estimate the damages, whether in human life or property. But the figures available now are scary. In a briefing in Abuja, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Mrs Sadiya Umar-Farouq said 603 persons were killed and 1.3 million displaced. She said no fewer than 2,504,095 persons were affected by the floods, with 82,053 houses and 332,327 hectares of farmland destroyed.

 

According to her, 2,407 persons were injured, 121,318 houses partially destroyed and 108,392 farms partially damaged. The minister expressed concerns over the floods, but allayed fears of any food insecurity. Her optimism was not shared by the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who said on October 13 that 19 million Nigerians were ‘food insecure’, while 14.7 million children were at the risk of malnutrition. He said another 400,000 children in the Northeast and 500,000 in Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina states were at the risk of ‘severe acute malnutrition’.

The floods were caused by heavy rainfall, climate change and the release of water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon. Nigeria is aware that water is released from the dam yearly, but it has continually failed to take steps to contain the overflow. Every year, the excess water has resulted in flooding in many parts of the country, especially Kogi, Benue and other states in the Northcentral and Northeast. The excess water flows down River Benue and its tributaries, flooding many communities on its path.

Lagdo Dam was built in 1982, with an understanding that Nigeria would build a second twin dam in Adamawa to contain the overflow. Forty years after, the dam has not been built, while excess water from Lagdo Dam continues to wreak havoc on Nigeria. The floods submerged cemeteries in Bayelsa and Niger states, washing away bodies. Of the 1,500 bodies washed away in Mariga, Niger State, 650 were found and reburied. Bodies were swept away from a cemetery in Azikoro community in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

Bemoaning his state’s fate, Governor Douye Diri, during an assessment tour, said: “You can see the degree of destruction here in Otuoke. The water current is as if there is a river here…Bayelsa is under attack of natural disaster. The whole premises of our former President Jonathan and the community are under attack…This situation makes the former president an internally displaced person (IDP). With over one million IDPs thrown up by the floods, the government’s major task is to give them immediate succour and find a lasting solution to this yearly problem.

Mrs Umar-Farouq, who blamed the communities, local government areas and states for not being proactive enough to avert the disaster, said Nigeria would hold bilateral talks with Cameroon on the periodic opening of the Lagdo Dam. She said flood had become an annual disaster with devastating consequences, explaining that the effect of climate change makes it difficult to prevent in Nigeria. She, however, noted that it could be mitigated and managed.

This has always been the  government’s position. Every year, it promises to address the problem, without doing anything, until another disaster strikes. Then, it starts running around for remedial measures. These measures last until everywhere dries up and the people return to their normal lives which are again disrupted in the next rainy season. When will the vicious cycle end?

Douye whose state was hard hit, said he was proactive by closing down schools early in October to mitigate the disaster. On the lasting solution to the problem, he passed the buck to the Federal Government. “The Federal Government says it sends warning and blames states for not taking steps. It forgot that some laws restrict states on water resources. They have the full powers from the law and the resources, yet did not make any provision. In Bayelsa, how can we relocate when our entire land is under water”, the governor said.

Many of the hapless victims remain in IDPs’ camps across the country. Jonathan described the situation as “depressing in many of the affected communities because of the magnitude of the flood and the disruption and destruction it has caused. This is a moment of crisis. We need to work in unity to achieve the goal of giving hope and providing succour to all victims”. And also work towards avoiding another disaster in future.

By Olakunle Abimbola

The Greeks call it peripeteia — an abject change (usually for the worse) in a person’s fortune.  It’s a structural backbone of the Greek tragic drama. In his Poetics, Aristotle defined peripeteia as “a change by which the action veers round to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity.”

There appears some logic to that. Indeed, peripeteia: changed circumstances, could be either way — for better or for worse, for life itself is full of ups and downs.

Yet pre-Greek philosophy and allied rational thinking, Greek native beliefs often fear Man is so cocky some malevolent gods that hate his guts hold the cudgel, at the ready, to conk and cut him to size, often at the apex of his fortune; at the summit of his vain glory.

So, which peripeteia strain has happened to the Ekweremadus — changed circumstances for the better, or for the worse?  Both.  But it’s clear which strain has squeezed the deepest pathos from their present travails.

In 2003, peripeteia kissed Ike Ekweremadu, local Enugu lawyer. Being a young lawyer married to an accounting-biased teacher with an MBA in Accountancy to boot, the Ekweremadus, as a professional couple, were probably “made”.  Besides, he already had a local government chairmanship, during military rule, tucked under his belt.

Yet, it was in 2003 that Ekweremadu won the first of his many senatorial triumphs, which would span 20 years when his present mandate runs out (2003-2023).  In 2007, he became deputy Senate president (DSP) — a position he legitimately retained in 2011, but not legitimately so, in 2015.

His role in the Bukola Saraki “coup”, that pawned APC’s DSP for PDP’s illicit backing, which parachuted minority caucus’s Ekweremadu as the ultimate beneficiary, showed the tincture of his opportunistic politics.

That in 2019 he made a dash for the same position (when there was no rebellion in APC and Ekweremadu’s PDP was still a pitiable minority) also showed his politics could plumb the opportunistic to the downright unconscionable.

So, between 2003 and 2022, Ekweremadu’s peripeteia brought nothing but good fortunes — until the other strain dawned, with shock, on June 23: Ekweremadu and wife, Beatrice, just got docked, at the United Kingdom, for alleged illicit organ harvesting!

 

The London Metropolitan Police posted, on its website, that it had arrested the Ekweremadus for alleged attempt to harvest the organ of a “child”, flown in from their native Nigeria, against UK anti-modern slavery laws.

“Ike Ekweremadu, 60, (12.05.62) of Nigeria is charged with conspiracy,” the London Met announced, “to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.”

To be sure, that explosive stuff rippled with bad faith.  The “child” later became David Nwamini Ukpo, 21.  Titillating news claimed he was 15 — blatant falsehood with which even the British media flew with gusto; until Isa Jere, director-general of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), squelched the rumour with documental proof.

At best, it must have been a mutually beneficial deal turned ash.  A 21-year-old can’t be “crated” to London if he wasn’t convinced there was something in there for him.

From the Ekweremadu end, the man, procured from Nigeria to “donate” a kidney for Sonia, the troubled Ekweremadu daughter, by her doting parents, must have been maltreated.  Otherwise, he wouldn’t have shown up at Staines Police Station, London, and blown the lid on the deal.  Daily Trust of July 26 reported that Ukpo alleged the Ekweremadus treated him “effectively as a slave.”

Well, that was the beginning of the Ekweremadus’ travails. Still, more trouble: the kidney, despite everything, wasn’t a medical fit.

As at the last count, all three: father, mother and daughter, plus the doctor that allegedly facilitated the deal, have been docked on organ harvesting charges, which under UK laws, could fetch, after conviction, 12 months, or even a life jail.

But that was only morning yet on the Ekweremadus’ long, long day of woe!

As their lawyers tried to make the best of the sorry situation, news came, on November 4, that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had secured a Federal High Court, Abuja, order to temporarily seize 40 properties traced to the former DSP: 15 in Abuja, 10 in Enugu (Ekweremadu’s home state), one in Lagos, two in the United Kingdom, three in the United States and nine in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Justice Inyang Ekwo granted the ex-parte order, after Ibrahim Baba, EFCC lawyer, had argued the case, alleging that the properties were acquired from proceeds of crime.

On November 7 — three days later — Sonia Ekweremadu, the lovely daughter around whom doting parents’ travails swirl — appeared in court in London, charged with conspiracy to “arrange the travel of another person with a view to harvest the person’s organ for her benefit”, to quote a report from The Cable, the online newspaper.

It was the making of treble trouble: dad, in London Police cell awaiting trial, denied bail; mum, docked too but given bail; and now, ailing daughter, joining the duo in the dock — a complete family sweep!

As this grim high drama goes on, Sonia still has her kidney challenge and no one seems to care about how the harsh psychology of trial would impact on her frail health.

And grim irony of ironies: Ike Ekweremadu, the man accused of illicitly acquiring 40 prime properties all over the world, can’t stay in any of these tony houses.  Rather, he is chained, by British law, to a police cell — even if temporarily — as his trial grinds on!

It’s the stuff of classical and Shakespearean tragedy, when a man of means hurls off his Olympian heights into his dale of doom!

Still, the troubling question: might Ekweremadu’s reverse peripeteia have resulted, from the man’s past deeds or misdeeds, “subject to … rule of probability or necessity”, as Aristotle suggested in Poetics?

Or could it be, par Greek tradition, some bilious Igbo gods are just furiously cutting him to size at the zenith of his bloom, with early warning signals coming from how some Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) fanatics mauled him, on 18 August 2019, in Nuremberg, Germany?

It’s this riveting tale of running tragedy that made the Ekweremadus’ The Nation Travail of the Year, 2022.

But before you start sneering and pointing fingers, just remember the Greeks again: only the dead are well and truly happy.  Even with your last breath, tragedy may be a hair’s breadth away!

WHO ‘PEPPERS’ WHO IN THE END REMAINS IN THE REALM OF CONJECTURE

 

Songs are an integral component of political campaigns in our clime. They add colour to the campaigns. And they come in various forms: sometimes amusing; sometimes derogatory, sometimes inciting. In a place like the Southwest, talking drums (Gangan) play prominent role at such occasions. As its name implies, the drum says it all, and those who can decode the message tag along, often dancing ecstatically to the rhythm. But, depending on where those listening to the song belong; it is either sweet or bitter music in their ears. It’s just like the proverbial case where people who are eating goats are smiling whereas the owner is sad and indeed frowning while the goat’s bones are being crushed. As in, ‘so it’s my money that they are demolishing like this’.

Although Gangan did not play any significant role in ‘Wike pepper them’, the message was clear: Wike should continue to make things difficult for his political enemies, to wit, Atiku and Co.

Indeed, if there is any pain in the neck of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that pain must be Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State governor. The man has been unrelenting in his opposition to Atiku’s ambition despite the fact that he is in the same political party with the Turakin Adamawa. What started as a child`s play that people thought would soon fizzle out has refused to vanish. As a matter of fact, Wike and his group of five governors (G5) have refused to shift ground, despite the interventions of different interest groups in the party who know the consequence of such intra-party crisis.

Several reasons have been adduced as the cause of the rift.  Wike and Atiku have been at loggerheads after the former lost to the latter at the party’s primary election in May. The Rivers governor had thought that Atiku would pick him as running mate. But Atiku didn’t. Rather, he picked Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. But some people, like Osita Okechukwu, director-general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), attribute the crisis to what they call Atiku’s violation of the concept of power rotation between the north and south. Their argument is that the situation is not in favour of where a northerner should succeed another northerner as president. They gave examples of party stalwarts who in the past sacrificed their personal ambitions on the altar of this concept. This, to them, does not portray Atiku as a unifier.

Whatever the cause, the rift has continued to deepen, with the governor using every available opportunity and every weapon, including musicians who sing for him at political and other functions. A popular album from the hype men is ‘Wike, pepper dem’.

 

The lyrics:

As e dey sweet you, e dey pain dem

Wike, with your designers, you go dey pepper dem

Nyesom Wike, pepper dem oo, pepper dem oo

Your designers dey pepper dem oo, pepper dem oo

Wike, you are better than the best oo, pepper dem oo…

to which the governor danced dexterously and excitedly, his swagger stick in his hands.

Well, while Wike dey pepper Atiku, there is no doubt his actions go dey totori the opposition parties, particularly the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party that would wish for more of such releases from Wike’s musical studio. Anyone who is in need of confirmation of this should try riding a horse in the stomachs of Atiku’s opponents; needless to say that the journey would be hitch-free. Perhaps nothing could be more entertaining as watching an opponent being mocked by his own, and one who should be one of the pillars of that opponent’s political campaign for that matter.

For now, however, Wike seems to be winning. At least he has all the machinery of government that can be corralled to do his bidding. But this would not be forever.

Again, while the effect of ‘Wike, pepper dem’ in next year’s presidential election on Atiku’s chances for now remains in the realm of conjecture, Wike should not pray for role reversal. Where is Dino Melaye and his ‘Ajekun Iya’ Orchestra?

Ha, this is a war in which Atiku must not laugh last. Seems the governor realised this, hence his decision not to be placated. People who dragged themselves to court can hardly remain the best of friends again. The Wike/Atiku war is worse than a court case scenario. It is a typical example of music as the food of hate.

 

Perhaps it was not intended to be a slogan. But it became a thunderous one. It can be called an accidental slogan. Once the political giant uttered the expression in a political setting, he gave it life. It travelled far and wide via multiple media. The expression became an identity, a signature.

It was not a new expression, and the speaker did not use it in a new way. The context of usage reinvented it. It was used promotionally to sell a grand political ambition.

The stage was Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State. It was June 3. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a phenomenal politician and formidable member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was in the city, seeking the support of party delegates ahead of its presidential primary election in the same month.

President Muhammadu Buhari of the same party was approaching the end of his second and final term in office, and the country would elect a new helmsman in 2023.  The party’s presidential candidate would emerge from the primary. It was a crucial ritual of succession.

It seemed everyone in the party wanted to be president. That may not be as hyperbolic as it sounds. The aspirants came in various complexions.

This was the context in which Tinubu uttered the expression, Emilokan, a Yoruba expression that means ‘It’s my turn.’  He spoke mainly in Yoruba at the event. “It’s the turn of the Yoruba,” he declared in the local language, adding, “And among the Yoruba it’s my turn…I also want to be president.”

Read Also: Emi ‘lokan: Beauty of understanding time and seasons

There was uncertainty within the party about whether its presidential candidate should come from the North or South of the country. Then the day after Tinubu’s public assertion that it was the turn of the Yoruba in the Southwest to produce the party’s presidential candidate, and his own turn to assume  the mantle of leadership, a momentous development favoured him.

Ten northern APC governors and some political leaders from the region met “to review the political situation”. On June 4, they issued a statement in which they argued that “after eight years in office of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections should be one of our teeming members from the southern states of Nigeria.”

They appealed “to all aspirants from the northern states to withdraw in the national interest and allow only the aspirants from the south to proceed to the primaries,” and stated that “upholding this principle is in the interest of building a stronger, more united and more progressive country.”

The party has 14 governors in the North and eight in the South. The northern governors’ voice in support of a southern presidential candidate was compelling, and vindicated Tinubu’s position that the candidate should come from the Southwest.

After he won the party’s presidential primary held on June 7 and 8, Tinubu gave an insight into how he had benefited from the game-changing northern intervention. He said: “Northern APC governors resolved that the Presidency must go to the South and especially South-West… The battle was tough and at a point I was in doubt. There were many rumours and I became confused about what to believe.”

His emergence as the APC presidential candidate was also another vindication of his position on where the candidate should come from. There were 23 presidential aspirants on the day of the primary but nine withdrew before voting started. Tinubu floored 13 other aspirants at the party’s Special National Convention in Abuja, including some former governors and ministers, the Senate President and the Vice President.

By this time, Emilokan had become a slogan, and it gained political mileage after his victory in the presidential primary. Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo acknowledged the significance of the expression, saying Tinubu had “introduced some vocabularies into the Yoruba political dictionary.”

Some critics argue that the slogan is a term of entitlement, and that it is politically negative. This may not necessarily be so. On the contrary, it can be described as an expression of self-belief and a political clarification. The electorate will ultimately determine the slogan’s veracity in the 2023 presidential election.

Iyorchia Ayu, former university teacher, Third Republic Senate President, one-time minister, and national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been in the eye of the storm since May when the main opposition party held its presidential primary in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The party leader made a promise; it was not made under duress. It was a voluntary decision. Ayu said he would resign, if another northerner was elected as the party’s standard-bearer. That statement has now transmogrified into a decoy, perhaps an albatross.

The genesis of the current crisis, which has been dragging for months, is Ayu’s failure to fulfil his promise. The PDP shadow poll threw up former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has equally been facing the heat because of the circumstances surrounding his victory at the primary.

Ahead of the primary, there was heated argument over rotation or zoning, a core provision in the PDP constitution. The Committee on Zoning, headed by Benue State Governor Sam Ortom, was polarised, following the glaring manipulation by a certain centre of influence in the party. While it was generally expected that the PDP presidential ticket should be zoned to the South, the committee threw it open, on the excuse that some northerners had obtained nomination forms. At that stage, the party crept into turmoil.

While zoning is supposed to be sacrosanct, it was also argued that all the party’s chieftains had inalienable rights to contest for president. The pro-zoning stalwarts reminded the party influencers of the danger inherent in throwing up a northerner as candidate when another northerner had been elected the party’s national chairman. They reasoned that the scenario would result in a lopsided distribution of top party and elective offices, with grave implications for equity, fairness and justice.

To douse tension, Ayu posed as a statesman and father figure. He volunteered to make a sacrifice required of an experienced leader and statesman. The national chairman promised to step down, if the pendulum of victory swung to the direction of another northerner winning the party’s presidential ticket at the primary. The competition then became stiff among contenders from the various zones.

Apart from Atiku, other prominent party chieftains, including Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, and his Sokoto, Bauchi, and Akwa Ibom counterparts – Aminu Tambuwal, Bala Mohammed and Udom Emmanuel – joined the fray.

Midway into the convention, Tambuwal surprisingly pulled out, urging his supporters to vote for Atiku. That move became the game changer. The North appeared united and the South seemed to be in disarray. Ultimately, Atiku won the ticket.

Barely hours after the primary, Ayu hailed Tambuwal as the “hero of the convention”. The import was not lost on the Southerners. It meant that a coup had taken place in the PDP, instigated by the North’s gerontocrats, including some Generals in blissful retirement. Then, all hell was let loose.

Although the Wike forces (now firing salvos at the party under the aegis of “G5” or The Integrity Group), being key participants at the primary, disowned its outcome.

However, a window of opportunity for truce was open. PDP had a big challenge on its hands. The lopsided distribution of prime offices could not be averted. Therefore, loyal party men beckoned on Ayu to fulfil his promise to resign. The national chairman demurred, truncating the path to meaningful reconciliation.

Atiku was not oblivious of Ayu’s promise to step down. However, he protested afterwards, saying the resignation should follow laid-down constitutional guidelines. The interpretation of the PDP constitution is that if the national chairman quits, the Deputy National Chairman (North) should step in, until an emergency convention is held. That is clearly impossible, in view of the preparations for the elections.

In the course of the row, Wike and his group told Ayu to fulfil his promise. Wike believes that Ayu is reluctant to resign because he is presiding over a party that commands a fat treasury.

Last week, Wike alleged that Ayu had deployed party resources in funding personal concerns. The allegation was not substantiated.

At the home front, the national chairman is packaging a resistance. Taking on Ortom, his kinsman and senatorial candidate, Ayu boasted that he could deny him victory at the poll. The Benue governor has said he was unperturbed by the threat and blackmail. He said the battle for equity and justice was more important to him than his senatorial ambition.

Turning the heat on his tormentors, Ayu berated Wike, Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), for a shortfall in historical perception. The national chairman reminded them that they were boys when he and other founding fathers laboured to form the PDP. A Lagos party elder, Chief Olabode George, who has thrown his weight behind the G5, cautioned Ayu. He reminded the national chairman of the saying: “The young shall grow.”

This may be the crux of the matter in PDP. There is a disconnect between older members and the younger generation of rich and influential governors who are challenging them to a duel. There is no evidence to show that Ayu and Atiku are deploying their experience, network and other arsenal to resolve the protracted crisis. The Integrity Group has refused to join Atiku’s campaigns, demanding, among others, the national chairman’s resignation and his replacement from the South.

If Ayu leaves, history merely repeats itself. He will go down in history as a privileged politician who is ill-fated to leave high positions without completing his tenure.

He was impeached as Senate President by his colleagues in 1993. When he was shoved aside, Ameh Ebute succeeded him. He was sacked as minister by former military Head of State Gen. Sani Abacha. Also, he was dropped as a minister by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Yet, Ayu’s resignation may not be the end of the current imbroglio in the PDP. It may as well create fresh hurdles for Atiku and the party.

The main opposition’s lingering crisis has shown that it does not see trust as a fundamental principle in human relations. There is mutual suspicion between the Wike group and the Atiku camp. If Ayu vacates the party’s chair and a new chairman from the South is installed, the likely beneficiary of the vacancy would be Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, Deputy National Chairman (South), a member of the Integrity Group, and a Makinde ally.

The lessons from the PDP brouhaha are instructive: acting before cogitation is perilous. Under no condition should a political leader make a promise he cannot keep.

Big political parties in contemporary Nigeria are complex organisations that require special skills, knowledge and experience to manage. In periodic elections, their chances are bright. But they can be weakened by crises of internal democracy.

In other words, when presidential primaries are chaotic, they can weaken the party structures ahead of polls. The corollary of this is that the mechanism for crisis resolution and reconciliation cannot withstand the rigours that would erupt afterwards.

Fundamentally, these non-ideological parties are mere vehicles for seeking power. They are not unifying factors as they mirror, in their composition, the struggles of the antagonistic ethnic groups in the highly heterogeneous society for relevance.

The competition for the presidential ticket is stiff because it is perceived as the continuation of the ethnic scramble for the much elusive national cake. Most parties have blocs representing the interests of various tribes threatened by real and imaginary fear of domination, marginalisation and exclusion. To weave the various tendencies together, the party leadership, which is a delicate status, should be above board. It should acquire and maintain a solid national outlook and exhibit openness and fairness to all segments of the larger party interests. The uninspiring behaviour of party leadership has always compounded the division instead of forging unity and cohesion. Their ethnic bias, sentiments and guilt of nepotism and preferential treatment cannot earn collective respect.

As aggrieved blocs vent their anger, they indulge in activities capable of undermining or subverting the parties. Party discipline is, in that atmosphere of chaos, more difficult to enforce, and party supremacy, now devoid of basis, is completely eroded.

Besides, the loss of legitimacy by the party leadership has implications. It means the party leadership will be handicapped and, hence, cannot exercise the power of discipline, including suspension and expulsion, over rebellious chieftains fighting for the redress of injustice.

This is the dilemma of the PDP, a party that is now distracted by a protracted crisis from properly pursuing its motive of hijacking power from a ruling party that is not sleeping on guard.

Burdened with a seemingly intractable internal crisis of confidence, the leadership of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is also struggling with corruption allegations. GBADE OGUNWALE examines the issues.

A media report alleging a depletion of N10 billion down to one billion, is the biggest financial scandal that rocked the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023. The money was said to be proceeds of sale of nomination forms to aspirants seeking the party’s tickets for all categories of elective positions in the 2023 general elections.

The report, as published in the September 26, 2022 edition of The Nation, stated that each member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) was paid N28 million from the remaining N1 billion for them to gloss over the alleged heist.

Barely three days after The Nation’s report, some NWC members refunded a total of N122 million that was paid into their individual bank accounts, to the PDP leadership.

In separate letters attached to cheques with which they returned the money, the NWC members queried the propriety of the payments, claiming that the PDP leadership did not indicate the purpose for which the money was paid.

The letters, all dated September 29, 2022, were addressed to the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. The four party officers were the Deputy National Chairman (South), Taofeek Arapaja; National Vice Chairman (South-South), Chief Dan Orbih; National Women Leader, Prof. Stella Affah-Attoe; and National Vice Chairman (Southwest), Olusoji Adagunodo. Arapaja returned N36 million, while Orbih, Effah-Attoe and Adagunodo refunded N28.8 million each.

The party leadership however, claimed the money was paid to all NWC members as their housing allowance and that the payments followed the party’s extant due process.  To douse tension, the PDP leadership set up an in-house panel to investigate the matter. And the matter died there.

As it were, all the 21 NWC members received the “housing allowance” but it was only the NWC members loyal to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, who were allegedly pressured to refund the money. Amid the ensuing public outcry, Ayu absolved himself of any wrong doing, declaring that he was not in office to steal. Wike, however, remained trenchant, increasing the amperage of his criticism of the party chair at every given opportunity. Wike has continued to insist that Ayu was corrupt. The governor accused the chairman of collecting and pocketing N1 billion from an aspirant shortly before the party’s presidential primaries.

Although Wike did not reveal the identity of the giver, many believed that he is someone close to Ayu. The governor also accused Ayu of collecting and pocketing N100 million from an unnamed PDP governor.

According to Wike, the money was a donation towards the acquisition and renovation of office accommodation for the Peoples Democratic Institute (PDI). Ayu, he alleged, collected another N100  million from another PDP governor for the same purpose. The PDI, which was established in 2000 is a policy development and resource centre of the PDP.

To be the best is often more fantasy than fact. Shakespeare’s phrase “to be or not to be,” tends not to be. Not for our own Tobi. Young, audacious, sprightly sprinter. To be the best. Tobi the best.

She hurdled, she hugged the finish line and hummed in our souls. She had been at it for years. When Tobi Amusan began, cheers came but did not erupt. It was the first time. It inspired a local accolade. A Nigerian medal. Could any good thing come out of her homeland? The prophetess was known save by her own people.

Not satisfied, she leapt onto the continental stage. She cut the tape of the 100 metres hurdle. Once was not enough so she snatched it again for double glory. The cheers may not have been mute but they were not loud enough. It was as though her feat was moot. But not so her mood. An upbeat Amusan looked ahead like Archimedes. Give her a track and a row of hurdles and she would conquer the world. A Commonwealth miracle lay ahead. The post-colonial stage that the British set up to expiate their sins of over a hundred years was a good place to show that she, a grandchild of a colonial subject, was going to master their stage. She clutched the gold medal to a big applause. An imperious black, African and Nigerian loomed over a shadow play of an empire in its rump.

Though the cheers were erupting, her greed had not attained its acme yet, and she was going to do more. Then the real test came, all countries of the world, all ideologies, tribes, races, colours, all continents, all geniuses, a kaleidoscope of greed, brawn, muscles, cunning and training. The athletes all converged for one prize. All of Amusan’s talent, will, gallantry, training, reflexes, ambition massed against the others. Amusan against the world. Amusan engaged the world. Amusan prevailed. Her heart raced as her feet, and she emerged the top athlete on God’s green earth.

Read Also: BREAKING: World Athletics ratifies Tobi Amusan’s hurdles record

So, in one body frame, in one flush, Amusan condensed the following: Nigerian Champion, African champion, Commonwealth champion, world champion, and world record. In spite of the technical absurdity that wind assisted a record of 12.06 seconds, she still beat the elements in her semi-final. She was queen, and the world genuflected.

Yet, she performed this act amidst our search for a collective hero. While she streaked like a human lightning, the nation was on track to pick a person who will breast an electoral tape. If it is about vision, there is no race without it. Amusan saw the hurdles. If it is about surmounting our obstacles, Amusan scaled them. It is about timing. We have 2023. Amusan knew that, in 2022, it was about time for her. Time squelches reflexes. She was in her prime. Nigeria cannot wait to move forward. Amusan’s story also foreshadows the electoral race that we anticipate in 2023: free, fair, shorn of the hobgoblins of race or faith, without violence, without rigging – forget the wind-assisted gibberish. Amusan is a dream on the track. We want same in a series of polls that will happen in a few weeks.

She ran the race not as a Yoruba or citizen of Ogun State. She flourished as a Nigerian spirit and Nigerians cheered her as one. In an election season, her world record buried our centrifugal impulses of tribe and faith and united us in one thunderous roar. For that, Tobi Amusan is The Nation’s Person of the Year. Her story inspires and chastens us, asking us to abandon what divides us and embrace what stitches us into a commonwealth.

The second runner-up goes to the All Progressives Alliance (APC) northern governors for setting aside regional hubris and the politics of entitlement for national harmony. Their competing rival, the People’s Democratic party (PDP), installed a headwind in our body politic by choosing a northern candidate to represent them against a consensus. They knew that a Fulani man had been president for two terms and should precede a person from the south. Yet, they bejewelled Atiku Abubakar, another Fulani man, as their point man. It has presented a problem in the party, with factions that hark back to the birth pangs of the APC. The northern governors of the APC had a choice of one among them. They could have rallied behind one of their own. Rather, they glided over the maelstrom of the primary campaigns and threw it open to the southern aspirants. They opted for the north to lose so that Nigeria could win. This was against the background of the meetings of southern governors in Asaba in which they issued a statement that all the southern governors wanted the presidency to go to the south. It ruffled northern governors before they reconciled to its nobility. They became courtiers in a vision of a cooperative politics. They bowed to the accord of one nation.

Another important category was the public servant of the year, and it goes to the man in charge of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA) Buba Marwa. This has been a year of the drug bust. Whether in the lowbrow interstices of Ikorodu or the highbrow precinct of Ikoyi, or the wayfarer who wanted to fair in life through the airport, Marwa’s agency worked the work. He shares this prize with police officer Daniel Itse Armah who turned down a fortune of filth. He rejected a bribe of $200,000. It is no mean feat in a nation of Ghana Must Go, snakes swallowing millions and politicians in cahoots with civil servants. Scandals did not encourage him. He wanted no such scent on his name.

Other categories cover the wide gamut of our society from business to culture and included as flimsy a gem as the emoji of the year, musician of the year. We also looked at scandal of the year, controversy of the year. It is a tableau vivant of a turbulent year.