The Nation Newspaper

Category: Waheed Odusile

Between now and March 28

So, the presidential election would no longer hold this Saturday. Hmmm, I hope we are not going back to the June 12 1993 election era?

When I raised the alarm in this column a couple of weeks ago that from what was happening on the political scene and which is still prevalent now, we might end up having another controversial election on our hands just as we had in 1993, I never thought it could come to pass so soon.

When some so called interest groups started canvassing for the postponement of the February 14, 2015 presidential election and nobody called them to order, it became clear, even to the blind that the Federal Government had a hand in it and this Saturday’s election would not hold. So it was no surprise when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the shift in dates by six weeks, with presidential and national assembly polls now slated for March 28, and governorship/houses of assembly elections coming up on April 11, 2015.

Well, six weeks is not eternity and before you know it, March 28 would be here and the decision whether to retain Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as president and commander in chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or not would have to be taken by Nigerians. There are very strong reasons for him not to come back and I align myself with those who are calling and clamouring for change.

I don’t want to bore you with some of those reasons, most, if not all of them you know already, but suffice to say that unless Jonathan can resolve them between now and election day, Nigerians should not give him the chance to run this country for another four years. Four more years of Jonathan, whether with this team or another team would bring Nigeria down to her knees. That’s assuming the country is not on her knees already.

I am tempted to mention some of those things in case he can correct them.

It is over 10 months now that the Chibok girls were kidnapped from their schools by insurgents from the Boko Haram terrorist group and taken to God knows where. We are not nearer rescuing them from the terrorists now than we were when the incident happened on April 15, 2014. Their parents have cried out begging the commander in chief to help bring their daughters home but Jonathan and his commanders appear helpless and as some are want to say, clueless.

When Jonathan assumed the presidency six years ago as acting president and up until his election as president in 2011, he inherited a whole country with our international borders intact. Today under his watch the bulk of the north eastern part of Nigeria is under the control of Boko Haram which has declared its own country on our territory.

When he took over, Jonathan promised to tackle corruption that has taken firm root in our society. And nowhere was this firmly entrenched than in the oil sector which is the main stay of our economy. And the poster child for corruption in that sector is Jonathan’s Minister of Petroleum Madam Diezani Alison-Madueke. You are aware of the billions of naira of public funds she spent to hire private jets to take her round the world. She has frustrated all efforts, by the House of Representatives in particular to probe her lavish life style, using our money. Even the courts are on her side. Of course Jonathan is protecting her. Under her watch, billions of dollars have disappeared from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the president thinks nothing of this.

Before he came to power electricity supply was in fits and starts. He promised not only improved power but stable supply as well. Today we are worse off than when he assumed office. He has not only failed to maintain the low capacity that he inherited, power supply has even gone down under his watch.

With graduate unemployment everywhere, a minister in his cabinet, Abba Moro organized a bogus job interview for the Immigration Service in which instead of jobs, death was harvested by some of those unfortunate to have applied and attended the interview held on open fields in different stadia across the country. Months after the death of these young Nigerians and in spite of the public outcry that accompanied the exercise, Moro is still holding court in Jonathan’s government as Minister of Interior.

These are a few of the things one could easily recollect. So can Jonathan fix them within the next six months?

First, to give teeth to the fight against corruption, Jonathan has to fire the main symbol of corruption in his cabinet –Diezani Alison-Madueke before Nigerians could take him serious again. Not only must he fire the Minister of Petroleum, she must account for all our money in her care since she became the minister. And now that the forensic audits of the NNPC which Jonathan reluctantly ordered after much pressure has confirmed that billions of dollars in public funds have not been properly accounted for, those responsible must be brought to book and our money recovered.

To take our confidence in him back to the pre-2011 presidential election, Jonathan must in the next six weeks recover our territories lost to Boko Haram and deliver the Chibok girls to their parents intact.

The security forces have shot themselves in the foot by forcing INEC to postpone the February 14 and 28 elections on the grounds that they would be seriously engaged in fighting Boko Haram in the next six weeks and wouldn’t want any distractions, hence their inability to guarantee adequate security if the election were to go ahead as scheduled. The implication of this is that they must overcome the insurgency in six weeks, recover the territories lost, restore normalcy to the northeast and other troubled spots, and free the girls from captivity. These they must accomplish in time for them to focus their energies and resources on providing security for the elections across the country on March 28 and April 11, 2015. Can these be achieved?

If in six years Jonathan could not deliver improved electricity supply to the nation as promised, can he do it in six weeks to convince Nigerians that the nation should be entrusted to him in the next four years? If he cannot defeat Boko Haram in six years can he do it in the next six weeks? The easier things he can do now is to fire Diezani, Moro and all the other corrupt elements in his government before the elections, but would that be enough to change the minds of Nigerians already made up to effect a change in leadership at all levels where the PDP has held sway?

I am of the opinion that postponing the February elections was just postponing the evil day for the president and his party, soon it would be March 28 and the verdict of the people that he is so afraid of will be delivered. CHANGE is what we want. We cannot continue like this for another four years.

February 10, 2015
As Tompolo, Dokubo, Boyloaf and Kuku prepare for war…

Eleven days from today, the destiny of Nigeria would be decided at the ballot box when approximately 69million Nigerians, registered to vote in the upcoming general elections, are expected to troop out to the 120,000 or so polling units scattered across the country to elect a new president and commander-in-chief for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The contest, apologies to the other contestants, is mainly between the incumbent and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan and the main opposition leader and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari. The outcome of the election would, to a large extent, determine which party controls the next National Assembly and most of the government houses and houses of assembly across the 36 states of the federation.

In the previous four general elections since the advent of this democracy in 1999, the political atmosphere was never this charged, as the PDP, having won handsomely in 1999 has found a way of crushing all the other political parties in the subsequent general elections by hook or by crook.

But the party in the last four years has squandered the goodwill extended to it by Nigerians and for the first time in 16 years it is facing real election, the outcome of which it is not in a position to influence. And for that the drum-beat of war is sounding loud especially from supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan who believe no other person except their man must win, or else…

Ex Niger Delta militants’ leaders, Asari Dokubo, Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and Victor Ebikabowei (Boyloaf), all Ijaw like Jonathan have threatened to unleash war on Nigeria if their kinsman was not re-elected on February 14. They have been joined by Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Niger Delta Amnesty, Kinsley Kuku in this war threat. Surprisingly, the man on whose behalf they are threatening no peace for Nigeria should he lose the election, Goodluck Jonathan has kept quiet in what could only be interpreted to mean a tacit support. No problem.

While prominent Nigerians have called for the arrest of the ex warlords for threatening the peace in Nigeria, I am of the opinion that they be left alone to carry out their threat since it is increasingly becoming clearer that Jonathan could indeed lose the presidential election. I am not speaking tongue in cheek. If they want to levy war on Nigeria, they should go ahead, but they should be prepared to face the consequences. My concern if they should go that far is the collective punishment that war inflicts on residents/indigenes of the theatre of war.

Nigeria is technically at war in the north east with terrorists who want to bring down the country and enthrone their warped ideology, but they do not have the capacity to do this and as such the war is being fought largely in their backyard with innocent people in that region suffering.

When the old southeast went to war with the rest of Nigeria in the late 60s, the region bore the brunt of the fighting and the scar is still there today for all to see; the much talked about reconciliation, rehabilitation and reintegration programme of the then federal government after the war for the region notwithstanding. I am not trying to ridicule anybody, especially our compatriots across the Niger; the point being made is that wherever war was fought, the people in that area would suffer more than the people in other areas indirectly affected by the fighting.

So if Tompolo, Dokubo, Boyloaf, Kuku and their likes plan to plunge Nigeria into war in the event of Jonathan losing the election, they should remember the Niger Delta people and what such a conflict could do to them. As stated earlier, nobody should beg them not to do it. They should only be reminded that such a course of action attracts severe consequences. But I am sure they don’t have the capacity to do it. They are just threatening war in order to appear to Jonathan that they are fighting his cause so that he can open the nation’s purse for them. I am sure they are not speaking for the entire Ijaw nation some of whom might not even vote for Jonathan on February 14.

They are just heating up the polity and the person I blame for it is Jonathan, who, as usual is not acting as president and commander-in-chief on whose shoulders rest the responsibility to ensure peace and secure the territorial integrity of the nation. One word from him and all this nonsense would stop. I guess he is enjoying it hoping that the swelling opposition to his misrule would be cowed in the face of threat of war by his kinsmen; but he is wrong.

The stage at which Nigerians are today, no threat, not even from militants, former or still could deter them from excising their right to vote for a president of their choice come February14. If that choice happened to be Jonathan, so be it, but if they chose somebody else, nobody should tamper with their choice. Jonathan owes it to us to ensure free and fair elections on February 14 and 28, 2015. Anything to the contrary is an invitation to chaos. If the elections were free, fair and credible, everybody including Tompolo et al would accept the result.

Buhari and Jonathan in Lagos

The two leading candidates in the February 14 presidential election have been moving round the country to convince the electorate why they deserve their votes. While I do not intend to rate the performance of each of them, one can safely say that if the turnout at the rallies was an indication of how the people intend to vote, then the result, barring any ‘mago-mago’ would be very clear on election day.

While so far their campaigns have been relatively devoid of violence, my worry is the deliberate attempt being made by some desperate politicians to introduce violence in the run up to the election. Shortly after the Buhari rally in Lagos, a chieftain of PDP in the state Musiliu Obanikoro, you know him, tweeted that the APC presidential candidate was stoned in Lagos, a claim immediately denied by the opposition party. But Koro, as he is better known, insisted that it happened. Except I missed anything, I neither heard nor read about this purported stoning of Buhari in Lagos, but if Koro is still insisting it took place, then he must have organized, funded and taken part in the stoning, and as such must be arrested by the police for sponsoring and introducing violence into the campaign and attempting to cause public disorder. The police need not look elsewhere as he has confessed freely. So AIG Zone 2, Mbu Joseph Mbu over to you. Welcome to Lagos or rather, this is Lagos.

February 3, 2015
June 12 on my mind

Nigeria on the march again;
On the march again;
Looking for Mr President o;
On the march again;
MKO is our man o 2ce

I am sure not a few Nigerians are familiar with the above political jingle by the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) as the left of centre political party sought to get Nigerians to vote for its candidate Chief MKO Abiola, (now late) in the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

As the nation begins another march towards electing a new president on February 14, 2015, recent events in the polity in the run up to the 2015 general elections remind one of similar events, 22 years ago, that led to the premature demise of the third republic.

You will recall that the 1993 presidential election was contested by the two officially recognized political parties; the SDP and the right of centre National Republican Convention (NRC). Though the present dispensation is a multi party set up, the election on February 14 will be a straight contest between the candidates of the two dominant political parties, Goodluck Jonathan (the incumbent) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Any other candidate in the race is just wasting his time.

Because of the caliber of the political heavyweights in the SDP, people thought it would be difficult for them to come out with a presidential candidate that would enjoy widespread support within the party. Just as the PDP people were saying in the run up to the formation of APC, the doomsday prophets were predicting crisis in the SDP post its presidential primary; but they were wrong. The primary produced billionaire businessman/politician, Chief MKO Abiola as SDP’s presidential candidate and both the party and its candidate grew from strength to strength across the federation, to the surprise and annoyance of the opposition, including the then ruling military junta.

The strength and appeal of Abiola across the country turned his ‘Hope 93’ campaign into a national movement for change that drew support from millions of Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora; the kind of movement that we are seeing today in the APC/Buhari campaign to rescue Nigeria from Jonathan and the PDP.

Those who later stopped Abiola from assuming the presidency in 1993 would have made it impossible for him get the SDP ticket if they knew or rather suspected that his candidacy was going to enjoy overwhelming support among Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic and religious differences. Abiola they thought was going to be a pushover and Tofa, the NRC flag bearer and their preferred choice for the presidency was going to brush him aside at the polls. Not even the smear campaigns and the enormous dirt thrown at Abiola were enough to diminish his standing before Nigerians. They voted for him en mass as their president, but the enemies of Nigeria did not allow them have their say. The June 12, 1993 election was annulled.

In the run up to that election, there were calls by some subversive elements, with covert support from the military rulers of the day, for the postponement of that election. You remember Abimbola Davies and Arthur Nzeribe and their Association for Better Nigeria (ABN)? Justice Ikpeme, I think, who granted their request for the election not to hold shortly before the D Day?

Listening to Jonathan’s National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki calling on INEC to postpone the February 2015 general elections reminds one of that era. Why on earth did he make that call? And why go to London to say it? When Nzeribe and Davies began their move to stop the 1993 presidential election we did not take them serious. We thought they were mere busy bodies. But to our tragic surprise they were dead serious.

Now that Dasuki is flying the same kite we would be foolish to ignore him or simply condemn him. Dasuki is not an ordinary person in Nigeria; he is a very high ranking member of the Jonathan administration. I do not think that he would open his mouth and say something without clearance from his boss. I believe the hand that we are seeing is that of Esau while the voice is distinctively Jacob’s.

As gladdening as the reassurances of INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega and President Jonathan on the February elections being sacrosanct, Nigerians should still be circumspect as we were offered similar assurances in the run up to the June 12, 1993 election. We all knew what happened. For even toying with or thinking of that idea, Dasuki ought to have been fired by now. But we all know this would never happen as our president is not the type that can call his men to order or punish/fire them when they act against the interest of the nation. Examples abound of such untouchables in his government; Deziani Madueke, Abba Moro et al.

Calling for the postponement of the general election on the flimsy excuse that the Permanent Voters Card had not been fully distributed to the electorate constitutes a threat to state security. Both Dasuki and his boss know this. Such calls could leads to a chain of events that could culminate into a crisis especially if it was heeded. We all knew what happened when the 1993 election was not allowed to run its course.

Instead of dabbling into issues that are outside his competence, Dasuki should devote his time and energy to making all parts of the country, including the northeast region safe for the conduct of general elections next month. He should leave INEC to worry about how to get the remaining PVCs to those Nigerians yet to collect theirs. I hope nobody is going to act on his call or listen to others like him equally clamouring for a postponement of the polls. Let the elections go ahead as scheduled.

On the current smear campaign by the PDP against General Buhari, I think it is just uncalled for as it will only make him more popular, just like what Chief Tom Ikimi and his NRC did their campaign against Chief Abiola in 1993. Like I said earlier; as it was with Abiola’ Hope ’93 in terms of wide appeal among Nigerians; so it is with Buhari’s Change campaign. This is a movement for change that cuts across all segments of the Nigerian society.

Nigerians want a change for the better and it seems Buhari represents our best hope for that change now. We should not be sentimental about the issue. Six years of Jonathan have not brought the desired change, and another four years for him could just be a waste of time which the country cannot afford. If he had done well, nobody would be talking about Buhari today. That is the truth.

NB: After a well deserved vacation, I am happy to be back on the beat.

January 27, 2015
Who will help us now?

Just as I was about putting pen to paper for this write up, news filtered in that Boko Haram insurgents have struck again, taking no fewer than 47 lives in an apparent suicide bomb attack on a group of students in Pokiskum, Yobe State. The suicide bomber dressed like a student and mixed freely with the unsuspecting genuine students before detonating his\her deadly arsenal.

In the run up to this devastating attack, Boko Haram had been having a field day conquering, annexing and renaming towns and cities across the north east, with our military seemingly helpless to push them back. All of a sudden Adamawa that had looked like relatively immune to the activities of the terrorists is now under threat of being annexed by Boko Haram.

Don’t forget this is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controlled state and the Governor Ngilari has cried out that his state might fall to Boko Haram any time from now unless the Nigerian armed forces move fast to rout the terrorists. The state used to be controlled by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) before the impeachment go Admiral Murtala Nyako as governor.

Nyako, you’ll recall had, while still in office, cried out about the imminence of Boko Haram’s attack on his state, but Abuja did not listen. Instead he was branded a saboteur, crying wolf, where there was none. Now that PDP’s Nigilari had spoken, may be Abuja will listen and do the needful.

I don’t want to talk much about the phantom ceasefire other than to say that whoever conceived or concocted it must be smiling to his\her bank now because I know the Goodluck Jonathan administration would have pumped money into it thinking it would bring the girls back home. Not necessarily because it genuinely wants the Chibok girls back home as soon as possible, but because bringing them back home now at whatever cost could enhance his falling electoral fortune.

But more importantly, whoever it was within the Nigerian government or the military that trusted the Chadians or any of our Francophone neighbors to help us get rid of the insurgency must have a poor sense of history in terms of our past relationship with these hateful neigbhours of ours.

During the struggle for power in Chad in the 70s and 80s, Nigeria and Moammer Ghadafi’s Libya were fighting a proxy war, so to speak, struggling to control the heart and mind of the government in N’Djamena. Both parties backed different guerrilla leaders as Goukkoni Weddaye and Hussein Habre battled it out for the control of Chad.

At a point during the second republic under President Shehu Shagari, Chadian forces backed by Libya invaded Nigeria’s north east, and it took a General Muhammadu Buhari’s led 3rd Division of the Nigerian Army to drive the Chadians out. Buhari was then the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 3rd Division based in Jos, Plateau State. The defence of that axis of Nigeria fell under his command. And he did well to defend Nigeria’s territorial integrity then. Please NOTE this.

Chad must have a reason for that invasion then and who says she still doesn’t harbour an interest in annexing north eastern Nigeria? Don’t forget that Camerooun similarly and frequently attacked parts of Nigeria around Bakassi under Shagari’s watch. Today Bakassi is part of Cameroun. Who says that Chad is not enjoying the Boko Haram insurgency and even probably secretly encouraging it with the hope of adding the territory to Chad once Boko Haram succeeded in carving the region out of Nigeria. If Cameroun could get Bakassi why not Chad getting north eastern Nigeria? Don’t forget Cameroun is not done with us yet regarding her territorial ambition as the north east around Adamawa is also being eyed by Yaounde.

My argument here is, since we are surrounded by enemies so to speak, why do we expect them to help us, genuinely and wholeheartedly fight the enemies within? I mean, why should Cameroun and Chad help us to defeat Boko Haram? Why should Chad be interested in that ‘ceasefire’ and ending the insurgency. Until now, Cameroun was enjoying the insurgency here, so to speak until the terrorists started striking in her territory.

Is it not about time that we put our destiny in our hands and enlist the help of genuine friends if we can’t defeat Boko Haram on our own?

When the ISIS started in Syria, the west (US and western Europe) were watching believing that helping Syria defeat the terrorists could on the long run result in helping despised President Assad stay in power. Now ISIS has expanded into Iraq and has carved out a territory of its own from parts of Syria and Iraq under its control. The Kurdist city of Kobani close to Turkey is under threat of falling to ISIS and Turkey, because of her hatred for the Kurds is folding her arms, burying her head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, believing ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Now the Kurds are calling on their friends around the world to help defeat ISiS, and America, belatedly is responding.

I do not know how worse the west want the situation in Nigeria to get before they would come to our aid in the fight against terror. It is very clear that President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian armed forces are incapable of winning this war against Boko Haram, especially as long as countries like France continue to pay ransom to the terrorists for every of her nationale they abduct; the terrorists would be emboldened to continue. As long as some of our war commanders and their men continue to abandon the front and run away at the slightest sight of Boko Haram, the war will continue and the terrorist would have their way.

After watching a documentary on the South African Defence Forces (SADF) my heart bled for Nigeria. Our military is nothing to write home about, and the blame should go largely to all the military governments of the past, particularly, General Ibrahim Babangida’s which systematically decimated the Nigerian Armed Forces for selfish reasons. This is not exonerating the civilian regimes as well, especially Goodluck Jonathan’s under whose watch Boko Haram has become so large and powerful that we now have to beg to graciously grant us peace. What a shame!

It is not too late though to rearm, adequately equip and retrain the officers and men of our armed forces to successfully fight this insurgency. You don’t need years to do this. And at the same time, the best way to do is not the Pastor Oritshejafor’s way. I mean not secretly channelling or funneling money into foreign hands under the guise of procuring arms and ammunitions for our soldiers.

Now that we seem to be in a helpless ( but not hopeless) situation, what do we do? It is not as if we can’t defeat the insurgency, but we need to be more focussed and serious and play less of politics in the whole of this unfortunate episode in the history of our country.

The Nigerian Armed Forces as presently constituted is polarized along ethnic and religious lines and something must be done quickly to arrest the situation lest this national institution and avenue for national unity go the way of similar organisations that are today in the hands of ethnic jingoists. We can consciously create an elite unit within our armed forces, like the US Navy SEAL, to deal with Boko Haram and similar problems. This doesn’t have to take years to accomplish if the political and military will is there on the part of our leaders.

I don’t think it has gone so terribly bad for Nigeria that she cannot get help in this and similar regards from genuine friends out there. But these ‘friends’ want to see genuineness of purpose from us and willingness to see it through. If we are ready to do this, I am sure we will get help. When I said we, I mean everybody; the government and the governed; PDP and the opposition. Let’s fight Boko Haram together. It is in our collective interest.

November 11, 2014
Ekiti has done it again

Governor Ayodele Fayose assumed office Thursday last week as the new chief executive of Ekiti state and the self acclaimed state of Fountain of Knowledge, Ile Uyi, Ile Eye has been buzzing ever since. His inaugural was true to type.

In his usual swashbuckling style, Fayose berated his predecessor, Dr Kayode Fayemi for plunging the state into a huge debt, an accusation quickly rejected by the immediate past governor as lacking in common sense since records handed over to him did show the true state of Ekiti finances as opposed to Fayose’s wild allegation.

Fayose did nothing to disappoint his thousands of admirers on the day as he descended to his ‘Paraga’ level assuring the large crowd that he remains one of them as they go to their joints to drink local herbs, Agbo Jedi and Opa Eyin. He promised to take care of their stomach, saying of what use are good roads, hospitals and other social infrastructure if the stomach infrastructure was neglected.

And to demonstrate his seriousness, the governor appointed a personal assistant on stomach infrastructure to take care of his people. And in the days that followed, he promised also to appoint Liaison Officers for stomach infrastructure in each of the state’s local government areas. What a peoples’ man.

In fairness to the man, he also promised to fund education, health and other social programmes for the benefit of the people of Ekiti state. And lest I forget, he also opened the doors of the newly commissioned government house, built by his predecessor to the people of Ekiti to have a feel of the residence of their governor. And the people had a field day.

But what Governor Fayose did or did not do on that day is not my concern here. Suffice to say that he didn’t do anything unexpected. He was true to type. He even rode to the venue; Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in a vintage old Mercedes Benz car which someone described on the social media as a sign that the new leadership in Ekiti now think in the past. What an ‘uncomplimentary’ remark. One even said his half Agbada attire looked like the one you’ll find on one of those Oshodi boys. I am only reporting please.

The surprise of the day was the defection of six members of the then ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State House of Assembly to Fayose’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The surprise was not their defection but the speed at which they accomplished it. I understand many more are planning to also defect from APC to PDP in the assembly just to be part of the new dispensation in the state. And that is exactly my worry. Just to be where the action is and not because it would enhance their ability to serve Ekiti people better.

I see this as part of the stomach infrastructure programme of the Fayose administration; and this is dangerous for our democracy. If I may ask; is there anything wrong in being in the opposition party? If one party controls the executive arm of government and another controls the legislature, wouldn’t that serve our democracy and the people better?

I understand the reason behind the defection was to get a sizeable number of PDP legislators in the assembly so as to topple the APC leadership to pave way for a PDP control legislature and give Fayose an easy reign. And I ask; can’t the opposition controlled legislature work with the executive controlled by another party and vice versa if both are sincere and genuinely interested in serving their people? Can’t Governor Fayose of PDP work with an APC controlled House of Assembly harmoniously in Ekiti for the benefit of Ekiti people without APC legislators cross carpeting or defecting to the ruling party? We make a mockery of our democracy if everybody keeps jumping to the ruling party at the slightest opportunity. What are those APC legislators looking for in PDP, money?

Fayose while in opposition had caucused with ACN/APC in the past, so if like Mimiko in Ondo he decides to return ‘home’ tomorrow, will those six lawmakers and others like them waiting to defect go back ‘home’ with him? These people are shameless. I am not saying politicians in elective office should not defect any time they want to but they should be made to immediately go back to their people to seek a fresh mandate under their new party.

I am not saying this because of what had just happened in Ekiti, but this issue of defection to seek greener pastures is becoming too rampant that if not checked, it could defeat the whole purpose of multi party democracy. If truly the people are the custodians of the mandate then they should be consulted by their representatives before transferring that mandate to another party.

I am sure with the current mood in Ekiti, the PDP are likely to win any election called in the state today, but I doubt whether those six lawmakers would get the PDP ticket for such election. So who is fooling who?

I think it is in the best interest of Ekiti for Governor Fayose to leave the House of Assembly and its leadership as presently constituted and forge ahead with his government’s programme. If at any time the opposition controlled legislature decides to constitute itself into a clog in the wheel of ‘progress’ of his administration the whole world would see and then Ekiti people can call them to order. He should just ignore those hungry six and others like them waiting to cross over, they are just looking for money. They are a shame to Ekiti.

Another word of advice for Fayose. He should lessen tension in the state and avoid picking unnecessary quarrel. The one he picked with the judiciary on his way to office is still there and nobody knows where and how that one would end. Engineering commotion in the Assembly would be too much even for his most loyal supporters to understand. He should not take the current ‘Hosanna’ that the people are singing today too serious, it could turn to ‘crucify him’ tomorrow at the slightest change of heart. Such is the treacherous and ephemeral nature of politics that I think Fayose, being one of the luckiest Ekiti man should understand and appreciate. But I doubt if he has learnt his lessons.

The place of Ekiti in the history of Nigerian politics especially this democracy/republic would be determined by events of the next four years and Governor Fayose should be mindful of what that history would say about him, not just in his own interest, but also that of his children. We’ve had some political juggernauts in Yoruba land in the past whose children and grandchildren today, cannot come out and be counted because of the ‘sins’ of their parents. Fayose should choose where he wants to belong.

October 21, 2014
To Dimgba and Auntie Remi

It is often said that when people are about departing this world, they do some things that were not normally associated with them. I don’t know if this was true of Mr Dimgba Igwe, the ‘twin’ brother of Mr Mike Awoyinfa, both of who can claim to be the ‘father’ of tabloid journalism in Nigeria.

As we gathered at the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja (MM2) that Wednesday afternoon late August on the way to Katsina for the 10th All Nigerian Editors Conference, I saw Dimgba Igwe seated as I entered the departure hall and I made my way to where he was to pay homage to a former boss and senior colleague. ‘Ah Waheed how are you’ he said and stretched his hands towards me as I bent down in greetings. ‘This man is unusually warm towards me’ I said to myself.

Later as I was discussing with NGE president and Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of Sun Newspapers Femi Adesina, Dimgba came over and started chatting with us. This looked strange to me as I was not really close to him to the point of sharing banters with him.

At the conference proper in Katsina, Dimgba was active throughout in a way I had never seen him before. ‘This is a new Dimgba’ I thought, different from the man I knew in our days at Concord Press and later The Sun Publishing. ‘Dimgba of the people’!

I had never seen that side to his person before or maybe I didn’t look closely. Dimgba to me was a man devoted to journalism and serious work and had no time for throwing of banters or even ‘unionism’ as to be associated with the NGE.

As we returned to Lagos, I still had that mental picture of him and I was beginning to look at myself and those stereotypes of me that some people have. Then the news came. Dimgba is no more. I couldn’t believe it. How? Where? When? I was asking nobody in particular. Then my mind went straight to my last encounters with him at the airport and in Katsina and I asked ‘was he saying goodbye in a way’? And what a way to say it!

Dimgba, whichever way you look at him, made his mark in journalism and together with his good friend Mike Awoyinfa will be remembered for making Saturday newspapers in Nigeria a delight they are today. Prior to the emergence of Weekend Concord from Concord Press stable, which both pioneered, Saturday papers were the weakest links in the chain of most newspaper organizations in Nigeria and the readership was expectedly poor. But Dimgba and Mike brought life and dynamism into Saturday journalism and the weekend papers have never remained the same ever since. They took journalism to the people and the people loved it. And if there was any doubt that this genre of journalism could succeed on a daily basis, they put that to rest with the phenomenal success story of the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s first daily tabloid. Everybody now seems to be on the bandwagon, thanks largely to the efforts of Dimgba and Mike.

They were like Siamese twins, seemingly inseparable. What Mike lacks you found it in abundance in Dimgba and vice versa. They were an example of what Nigerians could achieve if only they could put religion and ethnic differences aside. What a place Nigeria would be if we could have more Mikes and Dimgbas around.

In different ways, Mike and Dimgba were good examples to the younger breed of journalists then at Concord Press as we looked up to them and tried to be like them. While Mike could turn anything into a story or smell a story a thousand kilometers away, Dimgba was the painstaking one who would put your story together in a way that as a cub reporter, you’ll love, crossing the Ts and dotting the Is.

He was the listening type, thorough and no time for frivolities; the enforcer. I don’t know whether he had a social life, but what he probably ‘lost’ there he gained by devoting his other life outside journalism to his Christian faith. As he begins his final journey home this weekend, we wish him eternal rest in the bosom of The Lord. Goodnight Dimgba.

Just as we were trying to get over the loss of Dimgba, tragedy struck the journalism family in Nigeria again, last week when it was announced that Auntie Remi Oyo, one time President Nigerian Guild of Editor, Presidential Spokesman during the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and immediate past Managing Director News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had passed on. I don’t know whose death was more shocking to me, Dimgba’s or Auntie Remi’s.

Since the day I met this woman some time in 1990, she remained not just a big sister or senior colleague, but like a mother to me. I recall the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) holding its Information Ministers Conference in Abuja some time in 1990 and I was assigned to cover the event for Concord Press. Then Abuja was not what it is today. We were all holed up at the then NICON-NOGA Hilton Hotel, the only 5-Star facility in town, so everything had to be done there. In the course of the conference, I took ill and this woman I never knew from anywhere took care of me like her younger brother, took me to the clinic in the hotel, ensured that I got treated and insisted I used my drugs as prescribed. Auntie Remi made sure then Information Minister Prince Tony Momoh was aware of my situation and I was given a VIP’s treatment. She was God sent to me as I had nowhere or no one to turn to in Abuja. Auntie, I pray that God will also send a helper to your children wherever and whenever they need help. Though you are no longer with us, wherever you are I pray that God will grant your soul eternal rest and perfect peace. Amen. Goodnight Auntie.

As Fayose’s episode continues…

On this page last week I called for support for Ekiti State Governor-elect, Mr Ayodele Fayose as we move towards his swearing in on October 16. Some read that as an endorsement of the mayhem he visited on the state judiciary a couple of weeks ago; far from it. I strongly hold the opinion that he should be punished for whatever part he played in the reign of terror that he led his supporters/thugs to unleash on judges and others on that fateful day. I belief he is unworthy of the office of the governor of Ekiti State into which his people have ‘voted’ him. But what can I do? It is only the people of Ekiti State and their judiciary that can address the situation, but the constitution must be allowed to prevail. The judiciary must fight for itself while the people must also take their destiny in their hands. Fayose and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have set a dangerous precedent. It is left for Ekiti people and the judiciary to act. But the rest of Nigeria is watching.

October 7, 2014
Ekiti: Just before dawn

Conspiracy theorists are likely to be sharpening their knives now in readiness for a big pound of flesh on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the recently concluded gubernatorial election in the self acclaimed state of ‘fountain of knowledge’, Ekiti, Mr. Ayodele Fayose.

For the records, Fayose is the governor-elect of the state having won the election ‘convincingly’. The doubt over the scale and manner of his victory still lingers in the minds of those who hold the belief that the former of Ekiti state governor was ‘rigged’ into power. That is debatable.

The event of the past week in Ekiti State that culminated in the assault on a judge of the state High Court and disruption of the sitting of the state’s election petition tribunal by hoodlums suspected to be supporters of Mr. Fayose has raised a serious question on the ability of the governor-elect to administer Ekiti in the next four years beginning from next month. And this is music to the ears of those who believe that Ekiti deserve a better person as governor; and they are sharpening their knives now.

But before the taking of the pound of flesh, it might be necessary to look at the person, character and personality of the governor-elect to understand those calling for his punishment in the mayhem he led his supporters to unleash on the Ekiti State judiciary and indeed the Nigerian judiciary as a whole. And understanding of where they are coming from could help the reader to support or condemn their position. I must confess that I am not an admirer of Ayodele Fayose, but this does not count as long as he was the choice of his people to be their next governor.

Sometime in the course of his first tenure as governor of Ekiti State, elder statesman and a prominent indigene of the state Major General Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd) was having his birthday at his country home and in attendance were a host of opposition politicians, including a serving state governor. Adebayo’s son, Niyi, a member of the opposition was the immediate past governor of Ekiti state whom Fayose defeated in 2003. In a scene reminiscent of what took place last week at the premises of an Ado Ekiti High Court, supporters of Fayose, should I call them thugs (?) surrounded the venue of the party and made life unbearable for the birthday boy and his guests. As it is now, so it was then, as the ruling PDP both at the state and federal levels saw nothing wrong with the actions of Fayose and his thugs.

I recall this column in the Daily Sun then when I asked the question; ‘who is this boy (?) in reference to the childish conduct of then Governor Fayose against those eminent Nigerians gathered in his domain then. That question is still relevant today as it was then. Why did I call him a boy? It is only a boy intoxicated by power that would attack, maroon and molest people old enough to be his father just because he had the power. His fall from power then could be traced to these types of happenings that characterized his aborted first tenure. What Ekiti people have found well in Fayose again I don’t know.

If not a boy, why on earth would somebody on the verge of being sworn in as governor of his state lead thugs to invade the hallowed temple of justice called the judiciary just because he feared that the court’s decision could go against him. A matured man with his peoples’ ‘mandate’ behind him would have used the judicial process to fight his case; if he had any instead of fighting and desecrating the judiciary. I am sure some among his supporters are sorely annoyed with his conduct; his denial of any part in the mayhem notwithstanding.

But I am not surprised by Fayose and his conduct. Though trivial as this might seem to some people, my understanding of his character and resentment towards it were borne out of the palaver he was involved in during his first tenure, when his educational qualification was called into question. Fayose claimed to have attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan at a time yours truly also attended that great citadel of learning. As a prominent student on campus those days I could not recall any of the events Fayose claimed to have happened during his time to prove that he was a ‘Great Polyte’. I wasn’t the only one with this doubt as scores of my mates some of them later day friends of Fayose could not recall his days at The Polytechnic, Ibadan either.

If this was the case, in my own estimation, then the man has no foundation on which to build his character; and nothing, as they say in law can stand on nothing. That’s my position on Fayose, nothing personal. I cannot recall how the matter of his educational qualification was eventually resolved but you can be rest assured that a solution would have been found to it to make him eligible to contest the last election, in spite of the case against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).

Fayose case/conduct reminds me of Dr Omololu Olunloyo a former governor of old Oyo State in the second republic. After winning a controversial election against the incumbent governor then, late Chief Bola Ige, Olunloyo of the ruling (at the centre) National Party of Nigeria (NPN), before his swearing-in, went round Ibadan especially the strongholds of Ige and his Unity Party of Nigeria, (UPN) threatening the people, the Ijebu and Ijesha in particular of a turbulent experience when he gets to power. His short three months reign was anything but peaceful. Is this what Ekiti should expect from Fayose?

I wouldn’t have been this critical if Fayose was going in to a lesser public office. But the governor of a state! Haba, he needs to show good character and conduct to serve as an example of how to be a good public officer. Though he claimed in the run up to the election that had learnt his lessons, I doubt whether his leopard can ever change its spots. As Ekiti boils, Governor-elect Ayodele Fayose would have to exercise restraint in order not to escalate the crisis; out-going governor Kayode Fayemi, in these last few days of his tenure would have to rein in his own supporters and moderate his/their comments as well lest he goes down in history as Governor Samson of Ekiti State.

By the way, why is it difficult for the PDP and the NPN before it to attract good people and credible leaders in Yoruba land that the majority of the people in the region could warm up to? Are there no good people in PDP who could challenge the established order in the South west without resort to thuggery and use of federal might? Was Fayose the best the party could produce in Ekiti? Yes the governor-elect was a populist and in this era of stomach infrastructure he ‘could’ swing the vote for his party. Why not present a more credible person, well respected (they are in abundance in Ekiti) to the electorate and ask Fayose (as a good party man, if he is) to canvass support for that person using his ‘aura’. Look at the characters the party is parading for next year’s gubernatorial election in the other Yoruba states. What about the man they presented in Osun. As long as these people continue to be the face of PDP in the region, the party can forget popular support here.

We have a problem at hand in Ekiti even before the dawn of Fayose’s new era and all the good people of the state must come together to solve it. My reservation with Mr. Ayodele Fayose notwithstanding, he is the governor-elect and we (including out-going governor Fayemi) must all support him in the interest of Ekiti Kete and our democracy.

September 30, 2014
Death for mutinous soldiers?

The military, all over the world is not meant for the faint hearted. Male or female, one has to literally be made of steel to be able to serve in the armed forces. So tough are the requirements that women are exempted or prevented from being part of some aspects of military duties.

Though the restriction is gradually being relaxed, women soldiers are not allowed to take part in combat duties in the military in some countries for obvious reasons. But in spite of the restriction, the tough rules guiding the conducts of the men and women in uniform, particularly the officers and men of the armed forces have been largely maintained by all the armed forces of the world.

In every armed forces of the world, disobedience to constituted authority and/or not carrying out lawful orders which might be viewed lightly in any civilian setting is a grave offence in the military and most often than not attracts capital punishment.

So it was not a surprise when a couple of weeks ago a military court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital sentenced to death 12 of the 18 soldiers standing trial before it for criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny, attempted murder, disobedience to a particular order, insubordinate behavior to constituted authority and false accusation.

The soldiers who were serving at the newly created 7th Division of the Nigerian Army based in Maiduguri, Borno State were part of the troops deployed in the north east to combat the Boko Haram insurgency that has been ravaging that part of the country for some time now and has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians.

On May 14, 2014, at the Maimalari Cantonment, the divisional headquarters of the 7th Div, the soldiers reportedly shot at their General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Ahmed Mohammed with intention to kill him. They were reportedly protesting what they termed insensitiveness to their safety in the fight against Boko Haram by the GOC.

For their act of rebellion, the soldiers were charged under Section 52(1) of the Armed Forces Act, Cap A 20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and 12 of them found guilty and sentenced to death by virtue of section 37(1) (a-b), (2&3) of the Nigerian Army Act. These aspects of the military law aptly captured their offence and prescribed death as the penalty.

Considering the nature of their calling and the provision of the armed forces law, the soldiers have indeed committed a grave offence and the law has been judiciously applied on them according to military tradition. So they are to die by firing squad subject to the ratification of the Army Council.

While it is very difficult to plead for the soldiers because they knew the implication of what they were doing before they went into it; and while executing them is the right thing to do in accordance with the military law, to serve as a deterrent to others who might be so likely minded, it might be necessary for the Army Council to take a second look at the circumstances of the soldiers stupid action before ratifying the death sentence.

They were reportedly protesting the inferior arms given to them to fight the insurgents and the lack of adequate intelligence before they were deployed to the battle front, a situation which led to the death of many of their colleagues. Though they were foolish to have taken up arms against their boss, their complaint was at the heart of problem militating against the success of our armed forces in the fight against Boko Haram.

It is criminal on the part of military commanders to send their men to war without adequate weapons far superior to that of the enemy. If what these soldiers were saying was found to be true then they don’t deserve to die for bringing it out. One is not asking for the rules to be bent but if there was any truth in their allegation, then the Army Council should not punish them with death. Long terms of imprisonment would suffice if through their stupid action we are able to address a problem militating against victory in the battle front in the war against terror.

The kind of humiliating defeat suffered by our military in the hands of Boko Haram in recent times is enough to get anybody annoyed at the way the military high command has been conducting the war. If at all the civilian populace has any sympathy for these rebellious soldiers it is because we are not impressed with the way our top generals are conducting war against terror. But while not condoning any act of mutiny, the soldiers must be properly trained, kitted and armed to fight Boko Haram before we punish any of them that failed to deliver on expectation or took the law into his hand as the mutinous soldiers did while protesting alleged insensitivity on the part of their commanders.

The way the military look at justice is surely different from the way of ‘bloody’ civilians. General Mohammed has been reportedly retired for whatever was his offence as a result of the soldiers’ behavior. But if the boys must die for taking up arms against their commander, while not the ‘oga at the top’ who sent the boys to war without adequate and superior arms and ammunition. Mind you I am just thinking like a ‘bloody’ civilian, but something tells me that what is good for the goose…

But beyond the issue of justice in the case of these mutinous soldiers, it is about time that we take another look at the recruitment policy into our armed forces. It has been said several times that most of the boys enlisting into our armed forces now are just there for the salary and are not committed soldiers. More worrying is the insinuation that some of them are there based on the influence of their godfathers and not on merit. If this is truly the case then we are in trouble. The soldiers that fled into Cameroon at the slightest of heat from Boko Haram were probably from this stock.

Another worry in our armed forces today is the alleged ethnic and religious bias being introduced into this last bastion of Nigeria’s unity. The day our soldiers begin to see themselves as and owe allegiance to their religion or ethnic group would be the beginning of the end for our military. It is incumbent on the leadership of our armed forces today to guide against this ugly trend because it could spell the doom for country. Let’s have a military that we can all be proud of. This is not the time to play the ostrich. Something is wrong with our military if soldiers could take up arms against their commanders. The earlier we fix the problem, the better.

September 23, 2014
Shame of a president

It is over 150 days now that over 200 Nigerian secondary school girls were abducted at Chibok by the Boko Haram terrorist group and taken to Sambisa forest. As the battle to defeat the group by the Nigerian military hots up, the whereabouts of the girls remains unknown the reassurances from the military high command to the contrary notwithstanding.

Following the girls abduction, it took our president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan three weeks or thereabout to publicly acknowledge the dastardly act, and over five months after no serious rescue effort has been mounted to bring the girls home.

In the face of the seeming silence of the federal government on the plight of the girls at the outset of the abduction, it took the patriotic act of some Nigerians, particularly women through the #Bringbackourgirls campaign to draw global attention to the issue and wake up the president and his team from their seeming indifference.

And instead of proving to the rest of Nigerians and indeed the whole world that it was serious about bringing our girls back home, all what President Jonathan and his supporters could do was to add salt on the injuries being suffered by the parents of the girls following the abduction of their daughters by hijacking the #Bringbackourgirls slogan with their own #BringbackJonathanin2015 campaign slogan. What a bunch of callous and insensitive people.

That the #BringbackJonathanin2015 slogan ran for several weeks before it was ordered off by a presidency which wanted us to believe it knew nothing about it showed the seriousness or lack of it that Jonathan and his group attach to the plight of the Chibok girls. If any of the girls were to be the daughter of anyone in Jonathan’s inner circle would that person allow the trivialization of the suffering of the Chibok girls and their parents?

I can’t resist bringing our so called ‘mother of the nation’, the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan into this. How would she feel if her daughter is in the hands of terrorists somewhere she couldn’t reach and a group of people supporting a president second term ambition is busy using the only symbol that serves as a reminder of their plight, to promote selfish political agenda?

I know Madam might not understand this, but none of the parents of the Chibok girls will be happy with her and her husband. Whether solicited or not, the fact that the #BringbackJonathanin2015 slogan/campaign was allowed to go on until there was a public outcry against it showed that the first family actually supported the campaign and was enjoying the ‘fun’. No sane parent should support such campaign. This was no way to be one’s brother’s keeper.

And continuing the show of shame called the Jonathan 2015 campaign is another group by the name Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN). The group, like the Neighbour-To-Neighbour organization that spearheaded the Jonathan 2011 presidential campaign, has been going about drumming support for the second term ambition of the president. While I find nothing wrong with such an endeavour, coming out now months ahead of the lifting of the ban on political campaign by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a flagrant disregard for the law. And the fact that leading members of the Jonathan administration have been appearing at rallies called by TAN showed that the group enjoys the support, both moral and financial of the presidency. Where is the level playing ground that INEC and even President Jonathan is promising for all the political parties in the run up to the elections if the president and his TAN are allowed to go about campaigning when a ban is in place and other parties being prevented from doing so by security agents?

By the way, where is TAN getting its funding from and who are the people behind it? Definitely not one Mr. Udenta Udenta who calls himself its Director of Communications? Where on earth is TAN getting that stupendous money it has been expending on its rallies, TV commercials, radio jingles and newspaper/magazine advertisements coming from? Not from Udenta Udenta’s pocket I am sure?

And in line with the insensitiveness of the Jonathan administration to the plight of Nigerians, TAN even had the guts to organize its South/south rally in Port Harcourt Rivers State at the height of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in the Garden city. Who knows now whether by that action the disease has been spread to unsuspecting members of the public? Our politicians should learn not to play politics with the lives of Nigerians. Whoever advised TAN to take that campaign to Port Harcourt at the time it did surely does not love the people of Rivers State.

The dignitaries that attended the Port Harcourt rally of shame surely would be able to take care of themselves in the event of an Ebola infection; but definitely not the ordinary man out there who attended the rally probably because of the money given to him or promised him by the organizers. Most of the people out there on that day surely had no interest in the rally or share the belief of the organizers. They were just looking for what to eat and in the process TAN exposed them to avoidable danger.

If the president is serious about tackling the issues of state that are threatening the security and well being of Nigeria and Nigerians, he would do well by calling off all TAN rallies as he has done with the #BringbackJonathanin2915 sloganeering. It is a shame on Jonathan’s presidency that these rallies are being allowed to go on not just because it violates our electoral laws but it is against the mood of the nation. And even the gods are not happy as exemplified by the podium collapse at TAN’s Minna rally.

At a time when the federal government is seeking special funding for the military for the war against terror, all the money being wasted on TAN and its rallies could be deployed to adequately arming our military for the task at hand. If the money was coming from government it should stop. If the so called friends of Jonathan are behind it, they should show more patriotism by donating such money to the military to buy arms and ammunition to fight Boko Haram. Nigerians would appreciate that more and thank them.

Watching how Washington and the rest of the western world have been responding to the threat posed to global security by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS as it is called, it suddenly occurred to me that little or no mention was being given to the threat posed by Boko Haram. Could it be because BH is less dangerous to the world than ISIS? I think not. The west is responding vigorously to ISIS because they could find competent allies in the Iraqi government, its military and their Kurdish counterparts. Can we say the same about our own government and military in this war on Boko Haram? I leave the answer to you.

September 16, 2014
Why Boko Haram will fail

As one Nigerian town after another fell to Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast over the weekend, something continued to tell me that the days of the terrorists are numbered. You want to know why?

As my attention continued to be drawn to the activities/atrocities of the Sunni inspired insurgency in Iraq called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS, I began to see the correlation between ISIS and BH (that is Boko Haram) and became convinced that the insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast will eventually fail.

ISIS like BH is aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate in the territory under its control, but judging by the array of opposition to it, this will not be allowed to happen. Apart from the Iraqi government and its western allies, particularly the United States, the rest of the Arab countries are opposed to ISIS not just because of what it is, but also what its claims to be.

The group is positioning itself as a defender of Islam, fighting the Infidels, but the Islamic world as represented by the Arabs is not deceived by this and is bent of destroying the group and whatever it stands for.

That ISIS has not been able to make inroads into other Arab countries and the rest of the Islamic world shows that its cause is not Islamic but rather political. As a Sunni Muslim inspired insurgency, the group would probably have drawn immense support and sympathy from the rest of the Sunni Muslim world (the dominant group among Muslims worldwide) to its cause if that cause were to be in the interest of Islam. But it is not, hence the gang up so to speak to defeat ISIS by a coalition that is bringing Shia and Sunni Muslims together to fight terror. Ordinarily these two groups don’t see eye to eye, not to talk of standing shoulder to shoulder to fight terror.

This is the same way I am seeing Boko Haram. That the group has not been able to get widespread support among Nigerian Muslims was an indication that it is not Islamic and cannot be Islamic. It is just a murderous political organization camouflaging under Islam to get support among those left out of the mainstream political arrangement in the northeast. And the earlier the Nigerian government knows this the better in its fight against the group.

Looking at northern Nigeria, the most backward and least developed in that region is the northeast and the political elite, unlike in the northwest region have monopolized everything to the exclusion of the majority. And the lack of political plurality is not helping matters at all. The northeast traditionally had never given in to Hausa/Fulani domination and this was exemplified in the second republic when the people went against the mainstream Hausa/Fulani party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and voted for the party of one of their own, Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim’s Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP). With that party they were able to express themselves and hold themselves and their leaders accountable.

But the coming of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the present dispensation and its politics of total domination is stifling the opposition to such an extent that some would rather resort to anything or method to keep the PDP away. If truly a former governor of Borno state was behind Boko Haram at inception, it might just be a desperate attempt on his part to keep PDP away from his state. Even though this was no excuse for supporting terror, PDP’s policy of if you are not with us then you are against us and as such must be destroyed, is driving a lot of people into the hands of the devil in that region.

If you look at the Arab world, you ask why Al Qaeda, Al Shabab and even ISIS are thriving. It is simply because they are the only avenues through which the people could express their opposition to their governments which have refused to liberalise the political space. And because the Arab leaders cannot legislate against or ban religion, people with dissenting views gravitate towards Islam and inevitably fall into the hands of religious extremists. This is the same mistake Israel is making in Gaza. By making life unbearable for the Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has inadvertently driven them into the hands the extremist group Hamas.

In our fight against Boko Haram, the PDP as a political organization and the federal government that it controls must rethink their political strategy and allow the people the freedom to choose their leaders. This do or die politics will take us nowhere. It is a lot easier in the south, southwest in particular because there is a viable alternative to the PDP here if the party should force its way into power. But in the north where the only industry they have is government, if that government is imposed and not of the people, the reaction could be the Boko Haram that we are witnessing now.

What I am saying here is that the solution to BH lies in both military and political approach to the problem. Win the people over with policies and programmes that would isolate the extremists in their midst. Programmes that would make terrorism unattractive; programmes that would be backed by robust military engagement that would ensure security for the people such that when they back out or give out the insurgents in their midst nothing would happen to them.

It is no point blaming our military for the setbacks suffered in the hands of Boko Haram in recent times. These are expected of a military that has been rendered impotent for a long time by a political elite that was just interested in protecting its interest or promoting its interest above that of the state. How come that a military that was able to fight and defeat a Libyan backed rebel forces in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 90s is suddenly unable to confront a ragtag insurgency back home few years after?

Those who reduced our once fearsome armed forces into a mere bunch of Boys Scout over the years should share in the blame of the success of Boko Haram. But this does not excuse the mediocrity being displayed by the Commander-In-Chief and his troops in Bama, Gwoza and the rest of Nigerian territories being fiercely contested by BK forces. It is no excuse for our boys deserting to Cameroun under the guise of beating a retreat. This insurgency has been on for enough time for the government to have fashioned out and put together a robust military response to safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerians in that region. Like the Yoruba would say, if you take 20 years to prepare for madness, how many years are you going to use to exhibit the madness?

If President Goodluck Jonathan has still not fashioned out how to fight Boko Haram by now or his plans are still on the drawing board, when is he going to do it? Getting our neighbours to join the fight is a right step in the right direction, but most important, is getting our military to be on top of the situation or showing enough willingness to confront the insurgency. This is when we will be able to get the support of the international community to fight Boko Haram. Everything must be done to get our soldiers trained, equipped and ready to confront the insurgency. ISIS is being decimated in Iraq by America’s airpower because the Iraqis and the Kurds are taking the lead on ground. The Nigerian military must be at the forefront and the world will back us. Boko Haram ust be destroyed and as I said earlier, something tells me the days of the insurgency are numbered.

September 9, 2014