Category: Yomi Odunuga

Somehow, the disturbing video released by a faction of the Boko Haram insurgents showing remnants of the kidnapped schoolgirls from a secondary school in Chibok over two years back rekindles some hope, especially for their traumatised families. While acknowledging that it is a long way to any rescue or negotiation for their release, it is nonetheless intriguing that some of these girls are still alive and may one day tell the story of an abduction saga that has not only been politicised but has also polarised the country. On the other hand, it is heart wrenching that the insurgents also insinuated that while 40 of the girls had been married out, quite a number of them were felled by military mortars when Sambisa forest came under attack in the on-going war against terrorism in the North-East. In spite of denial by the military and the subsequent release of a video indicating a strategic bombardment of the insurgents’ hideout, it is not impossible that some of the girls could have ended up as collateral damage in a war in which the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari, has repeatedly claimed he lacked reliable intelligence. If we must face the crying truth, we must accept the fact that nothing is impossible in a war of this magnitude.

Having said that, I do not understand why the government is playing the ostrich and needlessly becoming edgy when Chibok is mentioned. The time for the blame game is far-gone. If we condemned former President Goodluck Jonathan for waiting too long before rallying round the parents of the kidnapped girls, there is no way President Buhari would escape the stick for his refusal to personally meet the Bring Back Our Girls protesters at the Pilot Gate of Aso Rock on Monday. To the best of my knowledge, the parents and their leaders did not come with dangerous cudgels to express their dissatisfaction with how the present government has been handling this rather delicate matter. They simply marched to the presidential Villa to tap on the President’s humanity considering that he had previously assured them of some form of respite during his campaigns. In case those in government have forgotten, the unfortunate incident in Chibok played a major role in Jonathan’s ouster. But for his shoddy handling of the abduction, the prolonged stay of action whilst living in denial until Madam Patience Jonathan’s melodrama that went viral, I doubt if Jonathan wouldn’t have pulled another electoral victory over Buhari.

The All Progressives Congress cannot deny that it feasted on the Chibok tragedy to redefine how shamelessly clueless the Jonathan Presidency had become. It also used it to fire its change mantra and millions of Nigerians bought into it. Each time the then President tried to pull his weight and intimidate the opposition party, he was reminded of the pitiable image of a leader that was dancing on the graves of the charred remains of victims of the Nyanya bombings on a day the abduction of over 276 senior students from Government Secondary School, Chibok took place. That day is still fresh in our memories—April 14, 2014. The President’s mystery was compounded by the fact that the security agencies recklessly misinformed the public on the true status of the abduction, as the initial information was that most of the girls were rescued and were safely with their parents. We were all witnesses to how this harvest of mistakes was exploited to nail Jonathan with his military chiefs huffing and puffing about a rescue operation that never took place.

More than two years after, no one is denying that the dynamics are no longer the same. In fact, the story of the Chibok 276 is gradually disappearing from the front pages. The countdown from the date of abduction that was permanently on the front pages of some national dailies has given way to something more commercially viable. Hope has actually fizzled out aside the commitment of the remnants of the Bring Back Our Girls protesters, who constantly remind us that the Buhari government appears to be going mute on the matter. However, with the recently released video, we are back to where we abandoned the discourse. Moreover, the question to ask is very simple: Will these girls ever return home?

I understand the President’s reported petulant irritation against the attitude of some of the parents and leaders of the Bring Back Girls group. I also know that this is one case that is bound to test anyone’s patience. But then, that is why he is the President. Being a leader in a country with varied interests is not a tea party and Buhari ought to know that. Was he expecting the psychologically and emotionally drained parents to be of good cheer while asking him to fulfill his promise to rescue the girls? Besides, it would cost the President nothing if he had taken the pains to personally listen to the “rants” of the parents and agitators no matter how discomfiting some of the cries may be to his ears. Doing this will not only reassure the aggrieved parents that they have the ears of the President, it will also serve as a public relations stunt for a President whose public acceptance rating slides daily. That was an opportunity missed.

If Chibok mattered in the 2015 elections, let no one make the mistake of thinking that it will not play a major role in the 2019 poll. Already, the parents and people of Chibok have expressed fears that they were used to achieve a political goal after which they have been left to chew their pain. They said the interview granted by one of the rescued girls, Amina Ali Nkeki, was a propagandist tool exploited by the government to score cheap emotional and political mileage. Amina had told a foreign media outfit that she missed her Boko Haram husband whom she had a child for. Now, that was a joke carried too far even if we understand what informed that position. Now, Amina’s parents see the release of the video as a deliberate attempt by the government to exploit the depressing video to its advantage. The allegation might not be true but it gives an inkling into the thinking of those who are suffering the pain and who desire an end to this long-running tragic impulses.

No one would be more relieved than the parents of the abducted children if this matter is eventually brought to an end.  Esther Yakubu, mother of Dorcas who called on the government to deliver them from the grip of the insurgents in the latest Boko Haram video, was right when she said the fight could not end without final words on the plight of the girls. At least, that was what the President promised them. So, how many were married off, dead or living? How many would be lucky to return home either through negotiations or rescue mission? I want to believe that the parents are not that irrationally optimistic not to know that there would be casualties of war from both sides of the divide. What angers them is the laud silence, the President’s shocking righteous rage and a seeming ebbing of the Chibok saga into oblivion. They were damn right in insisting that the logical thing to do was for the government to protect the privacy of the few rescued ones instead of allowing the slip that made Amina to sound like an ingrate. These are germane points that the President would have addressed if he had personally interacted with the protesters last Monday. It was an opportunity lost!

In plain language, what is missing is trust. Buhari wants to be trusted not only by the parents but by the generality of Nigerians. The only way that can happen is when he begins to walk his talk and desist from playing a ‘maradonic’ pranks on us like his predecessor did. As the parents said, the ‘proof of life’ video issued by the insurgents “should provoke the Federal Government and its security apparatus to action to rescue the remaining 218 girls”. If Amina Ali Nkeki was truly in the custody of the government since her rescue and she was yet to be handed over to her parents, how did the foreign media get access to her? These parents may be undergoing unimaginable anguish but they know they cannot trust a government whose security agencies came out with a report that Abubakar Shekau had been seriously injured in the battlefield. When they take a deep pulse, they would ask: Which Shekau? The one that was said to have been killed on three different occasions in the past with video evidence or his alter ego?

You see why Chibok matters beyond the present flip-flop and shocking revelations that merely compound an already sorry case? How much more would the parents of these girls wait before someone can look them in the face and tell them the blunt truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? How long?

SOMETIMES, you just cannot help that scary feeling that most of the names that made it into President Muhammadu Buhari’s list of ministers jumped on to the change train without any working knowledge or idea about what is required of them. Beyond the razzmatazz of the Senate’s lax screening and its anti-climax with the eventual clearance of all the nominees, I doubt if any of these characters really appreciate the enormity of the job before them.

All they have mastered is an annoying mimicry of the President’s anti-corruption fixation after which they sit on their hands, waiting for magic to happen. It is a compelling shame that, months after these ministers officially took over the running of all the key ministries, hardly can anyone pick one or exceptional probabilities that could reflate this sinking hope. In the local parlance, it is called ‘same of the same.”

The height of it is that most of them believe that lifting Buhari’s one-way battle against corruption is all that is needed to remain relevant on the national scene. Unfortunately, this matchless buffoonery in governance is not only chocking dreams, it is an anathema to development. This country is in a crisis and it will take more than a repetitive regurgitation of the President’s single-dose cure-all to get Nigeria breathing again. At once, several of them seem to be competing to lead in cluelessness.

However, personally, I am yet to come across any minister that is completely bereft of ideas like the one saddled with the responsibility of taking the Federal Capital Territory to the next level – Mallam Muhammed Bello. In the first place, it is not clear why Buhari picked this former head of the Muslim Pilgrims’ Board as the best man to run the FCT. Months into the job, Bello is yet to set foot on terra firma, not to talk of hitting the ground running.

He is effectively a sleeping sailor on the high seas. It is so bad that most Abuja residents can hardly recall his name! By the way, Bello started showing signs of a bumbling wannabe in office during his maiden world press conference which this writer was lucky to attend. Asked to highlight his plans, he kept rapping about his determination to ‘key into the President’s fight against corruption by directing all the workers to declare their assets!’ By November, it will be one year after swearing in and it will be a sad commentary if Bello remains ensnared in that reverie of delusion, even when sewage flows randomly on some streets and other obvious signs of decay continue to fester.

Abuja continues to sink in reverse gear and things have fallen apart. He is neither in charge nor has he picked capable hands to steer the ship. If things do not change soon, he may end up distinguishing himself as the worst FCT minister that ever passed through here. Do not get it wrong. No one is saying the government should not tackle corrupt elements in the system and force them to dance to the same dirge of pain they inflicted and continue to inflict on our psyche.

What is totally abominable is the palpable numbness that has gripped the entire system as if that is the singular remedy to cure all problems and satisfy citizens’ expectations. In a report last Saturday, the Vanguard newspaper published a damning story on the high rise of hunger-induced crimes in the country. I believe that any serious-minded minister needs to grab a copy of that publication and digest it. It paints a gory picture of how a combination of ineptitude, graft and policy somersaults has gorged this once rich nation of its blessings.

How much longer would the people chew raw hunger while Buhari and his men engage corruption in a shadowy fight? Now, life is suffocating under the intense grip of palpable poverty, no thanks to our perennial harvest of bad leadership. It should concern those in authority that ordinary law-abiding citizens now invade the neighbours’ kitchen to cart away foodstuffs and rob worshipers of their belongings in churches and mosques. Petty theft is now a commonplace in taxis, bus stops and on the roads with Abuja recording rising cases of ‘0ne chance’ robberies in the last few months.

All these societal dislocations are traceable to the parlous state of an economy that feeds the rich few at the damnation of the poor. It is a fact that citizens’ intense craving for a change in the system propelled the Buhari administration into power and those given the opportunity to occupy high offices are expected to kick-start that change. Right now, the verdict is that they have failed us. In dire situations as we have on our hands now, you assume that all the President’s men would have long rolled up their sleeves and get to work. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case.

You hardly know what is happening at the Ministry of Agriculture where the substantive minister, Audu Ogbeh is said to be at loggerheads with the Minister of State, Heineken Lokpobiri. They sit on their hands while hunger chafes at lives across the land. Then, there is the reported frosty relationship between the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah over some unilateral appointments made by the former. They bicker while the education system remains in tatters.

The health sector is in shambles as it has always been in our recent past – no change! Unemployment has risen in geometric proportions yet jobs are being given to only those who have the right connections while the number of unemployed youth jumps daily. Some even say the Finance Minister is only good at ‘blowing grammar’ while the financial system goes into technical recession.’ These notwithstanding, most ministers have switched into a mode of riotous silence. I admit that a few are making some noises here and there. Some are still grabbing the headlines for their action and inaction.

They pop up occasionally to remind us that they superintend over their ministries. One of such persons is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) who huffs and puffs occasionally. Fresh from his altercation with the Senate over the forgery case, Malami must have thought he would be doing Buhari a world of good by directing officials in his ministry to take over decades-long high profile cases from the relevant anti-graft agencies. Specially named the National Prosecution Coordination Committee, Malami said this could be the answer to the epileptic pace at which high profile criminal cases drag on at the various courts.

He sauced it up by saying that it would ensure “smooth and prompt” prosecution, noting that it was his prerogative to determine what case should pass as high profile as it must “must have overriding public interest elements,” and that “the quantum of value of a case and its sensitivity also influences whether a case is a high profile case or not.” To my mind, this is nothing short of a crafty way of legalising the jobfor- the-boys mentality. By the way, how many current high profile corruption cases has Malami’s office successfully prosecuted since he came on board as a minister? Here, I speak of cases in which the government claimed to have incontrovertible evidence including monies that were retrieved from suspects. If the ministry were that effective, many of those arrested would not be sipping tea in their plush homes while the legal gymnastics persist endlessly at the courts and the whole shenanigan casts a dark cloud on the Buhari anti-corruption campaign.

It beggars belief that Malami thinks a new, shadowy committee peopled by his close aides has the magic wand to resolve high profile criminal cases that date back to May 29, 1999. Moreover, what exactly does Malami mean when he said it was his prerogative to determine what constitutes high profile criminal cases? Does it mean, as it happened under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and others, he could file a nolle prosequi for cases these anti-graft agencies had initially labelled as high profile? Does it mean that he could, if he likes, exhume the carcasses of buried cases and reopen them for fresh trials especially if the President so desires? In fact, what significant change has occurred in our jurisprudence practice to warrant this additional burden on an under-performing ministry? If there was any need for such a institution called the NPCC, it should be, at best, an advisory body saddled with the responsibility of fasttracking the current graft cases before Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Department of State Services (DSS)), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices & other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Asking these legally constituted bodies to hand over files of these delicate cases to a committee established by a political appointee could lead to the suspicion that such files would be used to haunt the President’s political enemies aside the fact that it puts a big question mark on the perversion of justice. I assume that the need to guide against this tendency must have informed the prosecutorial powers given to these agencies. So, why is Malami keen on taking that privilege from these bodies in his new quest? On the other hand, are there particular cases that Malami would like to take over for some ‘special’ reasons that Nigerians understand with a wink of the eye? One wonders where Malami derives his confidence that he could follow up these old cases to logical conclusions when, in the last one year with living witnesses and presumed evidence, the government is yet to get a single conviction as regards the Dasukigate.

What is clear is that this is no time to play to the gallery. The anti-graft agencies should be left to discharge their responsibilities and seek advice from the Attorney General’s office if they so desire. The attempt to deny them of that responsibility through a so-called National Prosecution Coordination Committee signals ominous signs of arbitrary interference even if it is by the Minister of Justice. It is acts like this that pushes the argument for the separation of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation from that of the Justice Minister. And it is sad that the person currently occupying that office is seeing justice from the microscopic prism of chasing high profile criminal cases that often drag on till eternity while the poor—-the ones who get 30 years jail term for stealing the neighbours’ cup of garri—-get kicked in the groin by this cruel justice system! Pity.

The new Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, remarkably put the wrong foot forward in his first few weeks in office. He did what none of his predecessors had done in ways none ever contemplated since the creation of that office. By the way, it is not the shaky footsteps in a tempestuous period that rankles but the speed with which he struggles to rubbish the 35 years of unblemished, stellar career put into the Nigeria Police Force by his immediate boss, Mr. Solomon Arase. It is clear nothing is more important on Idris’s plate for now than the demystification of the man who handed over to him, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s endorsement. When Arase and Idris came out of the Presidential Villa on June 22, they wore the kind of infectious smiles that should melt stony hearts as they jointly addressed the press. An obviously excited Arase told journalists that Idris was the lucky pick of the President and he would soon be stepping into an office that he (Arase) would be vacating in a matter of hours. There was that spirit of seeming camaraderie and sense of accomplishment when the men posed for the cameras. The imagery was gripping—an Edo man with his Nupe counterpart in their moment of history under a united, stronger and focused Nigeria Police Force. That was the forceful message we got as President Buhari smiled in the background.

Well, that romance lasted for just 24 hours. The transformation of Idris was calculatingly swift. He could not wait to become his own man. It was not a time to smile or spare a thought for how providence has lifted a man far and above his peers. It was time to draw out the daggers and strike the enemy with precision. You never can tell what a man can do with power until he gets it. There are ominous signs that Idris is not only wielding power with utter recklessness, he is fast yielding to the corruptive nature of power. But for providence and a president’s discretionary powers to pick whosoever he likes to occupy that office, Idris would not have smelt that office in years. Ahead of him were 21 other senior officers who were retired so that he could have a firm grip of the Force. Add that to the fact that one of the officers was wrongfully retired and you would understand why Idris, celebrated as the first Nupe man to become IGP, ought to tread softly. Among those sacked were officers who were probably more qualified with the mental capacity to steer the ship of the police in this trying times. Well, all that is mere prognosis of what could have been as the President chose a man who was just promoted as an Assistant Inspector General of Police last September. In spite of reported opposition by members of the Police Service Commission, fortunes smiled on Idris.

Now that he is on that seat, he should be told in clear language that he owes the nation a responsibility to be professional, thorough and painstaking in the discharge of his duties. The security situation in the country has no room for a vindictive, petty and forever whinging alarmist at the head of the Nigeria Police. It may be too early to have an informed opinion on Idris; but the few steps he has taken inspire neither one’s trust nor engender any confidence. He comes across as a man that is out to avenge whatever he considered to be the misgivings he nursed against certain elements within the force. When the IGP speaks on any issue, the nation listens with rapt attention because it is assumed that he must be speaking from an informed position with all the intelligence available at his disposal. It is for that reason that those in that privileged position rarely make public statements unless it is absolutely necessary in certain situation. Actually, the Office of Force Public Relations is often tasked with the responsibility of a regular interaction with the media and the public. Interestingly, successive IGPs in the country have often picked their spokespersons and Idris did the same by appointing Deputy Commissioner of Police, Don Awunah. I had assumed the deft move was to stave off a situation where the police boss makes embarrassing statements that would bring the office into disrepute. But, with his harvest of dangerous unforced errors from Idris,   public trust in that office is gravely being damaged. Idris is the new poster boy for absolute power corrupting absolutely!

Sadly, Idris’ rashness and vindictive posturing add no value to the already battered image of the police. If anything, it accentuates the feeling out there that the entire force is in need of a redemption. While we may describe reports that Idris, in connivance with the President’s Chief of Staff, personally compiled the names of the 21 retired AIGs and DIGs as beer parlour gossip; it is difficult to ignore the fact that this police top shot took pettiness to a new low by labelling Arase a thief. In his maiden interview with some selected crime reporters in Abuja at the weekend, Idris practically accused his predecessor of stealing 24 exotic cars from the parking lot. To show that it was not a mere allegation, he said he had already set up a Special Investigation Team to unravel how the cars, including armoured vehicles specially purchased for the use of his office, were driven out of the Force Headquarters.

Please, grant me the indulgence of this copious quote by the new sheriff in town: “When I took over, there was no vehicle, even the vehicle I would use. I discovered the last IG went away with 24 vehicles; the DIGs, some of them eight, some of them seven. The IG’s vehicles included two BMW 7 series, one armoured; and he left me with an old car. The last time I followed the President with it, he was asking me, ‘what are you doing with this old car’ because if you see the headlight, the thing has changed colour, which means they parked it and rains and everything had fallen on it, but the new ones that were bought, he (Arase) went with all of them; they are part of the 24.”

You know what baffles? It is the fact that Idris could have explored different avenues to retrieve the ‘stolen’ cars if there was anything like that. However, in his haste to tar Arase with the greed brush, he just could not wait for his investigative panel to submit a report. He was sure that the vehicles had been colonised by the retired senior officers. His twisted logic was this: he could not understand why the cars he often sighted from the windows of his former office were no longer there on his resumption as acting IGP. For him, there was no point asking the Transport Department if any of the vehicles had gone for routine services or refurbishment. If, according to his statement, he had written Arase and the DIGs to return the extra vehicles they took beyond the approved limit, why was he in a haste to label these officers as common criminals who went away with cars that never belonged to them?

If this allegation had come from the normal junior police officers behind the counter, one would not have bothered wasting ink on this issue. There are countless stories of frame-ups and outright indictment of innocent victims by police officers for pecuniary reasons. It is scary when, despite the espirit-de-corps that exist within the force, officers resort to this kind of cheap blackmail. Idris, of all persons, knows that mere suspicion is not a strong to evidence to criminalise an act. For now, there is no evidence to show that the ‘missing’ vehicles were driven away by aides of Arase on his instruction. It is my belief that justice would be better served if Idris had allowed the investigative panel to do its job. Now, members of that panel would have to work from an answer to the question in line with the body language of their boss.

Even if, as rumoured, Idris is itching to have his pound of flesh back as Arase was said to have queried him as an AIG, is this the best way to hit back? Now that some of the alleged missing vehicles, including the armoured cars, had been traced to an auto repair outlet in Abuja with the Transport Department’s knowledge, is Idris still convinced that he had caught the thieves who stole the vehicles he regularly admired through the windows in his former office? How would he feel if it turns out that the senior officers he set up for media trial and public odium actually took only the vehicles that were officially approved for them as parting gifts?

Our concern is not with the backstabbing that goes on as the politics of policing. Sometimes, a damn good cop is ignored on the altar of political correctness to mount the IGP seat. Idris’ emergence is not an exception. It is not the first time that the powers-that-be would sacrifice experience, kill dreams and careers for personal preferences. Certainly, it will not be the last. No one should envy Idris for being the beneficiary of our warped system. However, as Arase pointed out in his response to the allegation, the task before the new IGP is so big that it would amount to double jeopardy for him to be vindictively petty in his ‘malicious propaganda.” By the way, shouldn’t the police have an internal mechanism of probing itself without this huffing and puffing over ‘smoking’ cars and luxurious rides? I’m sure the authority knows that Nigeria does not a police that jumps into conclusion on the basis of beer parlour rumours. Not now. Not even in the future. Is sulking Idris listening?

Peter Obi @55

When a man has fought and won many battles against forces that should ordinarily have no problems in crushing him to pieces, it is safe to conclude that such a person enjoys abundant grace that is beyond human comprehension. Perhaps, no one has more intriguing survival stories to tell than the two-time governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi who turned 55 last Tuesday. In those few years, Obi not only survived Nigeria’s murky political waters, the stories of his many battles and triumphs are properly documented.  But for his resilience and conviction to fight for what he believed in, Obi could have willed his mandate to those who, using federal might, robbed him of his electoral victory and handed it over to a stooge. It was that same conviction that saw him triumph over his impeachment and the subsequent judgment which ensured that he completed his four-year tenure in a state noted for a harvest of political rascality.

It was to Obi’s credit that he handed over to a successor who still holds aloft the flag of his former party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance. What stood him out as governor was his simplicity and focused leadership which won him admirers across the country and abroad. He not only domesticated power but he also insisted on accountability even as he abhorred the extravagant lifestyles of his colleagues who bleed the states’ treasuries. For him, service remains the primary duty of man’s engagement in public office. And so, as he turned 55, I wish Mr. Obi many happy returns and best of luck in his future engagements.

The new Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, remarkably put the wrong foot forward in his first few weeks in office. He did what none of his predecessors had done in ways none ever contemplated since the creation of that office. By the way, it is not the shaky footsteps in a tempestuous period that rankles but the speed with which he struggles to rubbish the 35 years of unblemished, stellar career put into the Nigeria Police Force by his immediate boss, Mr. Solomon Arase. It is clear nothing is more important on Idris’s plate for now than the demystification of the man who handed over to him, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s endorsement. When Arase and Idris came out of the Presidential Villa on June 22, they wore the kind of infectious smiles that should melt stony hearts as they jointly addressed the press. An obviously excited Arase told journalists that Idris was the lucky pick of the President and he would soon be stepping into an office that he (Arase) would be vacating in a matter of hours. There was that spirit of seeming camaraderie and sense of accomplishment when the men posed for the cameras. The imagery was gripping—an Edo man with his Nupe counterpart in their moment of history under a united, stronger and focused Nigeria Police Force. That was the forceful message we got as President Buhari smiled in the background.

Well, that romance lasted for just 24 hours. The transformation of Idris was calculatingly swift. He could not wait to become his own man. It was not a time to smile or spare a thought for how providence has lifted a man far and above his peers. It was time to draw out the daggers and strike the enemy with precision. You never can tell what a man can do with power until he gets it. There are ominous signs that Idris is not only wielding power with utter recklessness, he is fast yielding to the corruptive nature of power. But for providence and a president’s discretionary powers to pick whosoever he likes to occupy that office, Idris would not have smelt that office in years. Ahead of him were 21 other senior officers who were retired so that he could have a firm grip of the Force. Add that to the fact that one of the officers was wrongfully retired and you would understand why Idris, celebrated as the first Nupe man to become IGP, ought to tread softly. Among those sacked were officers who were probably more qualified with the mental capacity to steer the ship of the police in this trying times. Well, all that is mere prognosis of what could have been as the President chose a man who was just promoted as an Assistant Inspector General of Police last September. In spite of reported opposition by members of the Police Service Commission, fortunes smiled on Idris.

Now that he is on that seat, he should be told in clear language that he owes the nation a responsibility to be professional, thorough and painstaking in the discharge of his duties. The security situation in the country has no room for a vindictive, petty and forever whinging alarmist at the head of the Nigeria Police. It may be too early to have an informed opinion on Idris; but the few steps he has taken inspire neither one’s trust nor engender any confidence. He comes across as a man that is out to avenge whatever he considered to be the misgivings he nursed against certain elements within the force. When the IGP speaks on any issue, the nation listens with rapt attention because it is assumed that he must be speaking from an informed position with all the intelligence available at his disposal. It is for that reason that those in that privileged position rarely make public statements unless it is absolutely necessary in certain situation. Actually, the Office of Force Public Relations is often tasked with the responsibility of a regular interaction with the media and the public. Interestingly, successive IGPs in the country have often picked their spokespersons and Idris did the same by appointing Deputy Commissioner of Police, Don Awunah. I had assumed the deft move was to stave off a situation where the police boss makes embarrassing statements that would bring the office into disrepute. But, with his harvest of dangerous unforced errors from Idris,   public trust in that office is gravely being damaged. Idris is the new poster boy for absolute power corrupting absolutely!

Sadly, Idris’ rashness and vindictive posturing add no value to the already battered image of the police. If anything, it accentuates the feeling out there that the entire force is in need of a redemption. While we may describe reports that Idris, in connivance with the President’s Chief of Staff, personally compiled the names of the 21 retired AIGs and DIGs as beer parlour gossip; it is difficult to ignore the fact that this police top shot took pettiness to a new low by labelling Arase a thief. In his maiden interview with some selected crime reporters in Abuja at the weekend, Idris practically accused his predecessor of stealing 24 exotic cars from the parking lot. To show that it was not a mere allegation, he said he had already set up a Special Investigation Team to unravel how the cars, including armoured vehicles specially purchased for the use of his office, were driven out of the Force Headquarters.

Please, grant me the indulgence of this copious quote by the new sheriff in town: “When I took over, there was no vehicle, even the vehicle I would use. I discovered the last IG went away with 24 vehicles; the DIGs, some of them eight, some of them seven. The IG’s vehicles included two BMW 7 series, one armoured; and he left me with an old car. The last time I followed the President with it, he was asking me, ‘what are you doing with this old car’ because if you see the headlight, the thing has changed colour, which means they parked it and rains and everything had fallen on it, but the new ones that were bought, he (Arase) went with all of them; they are part of the 24.”

You know what baffles? It is the fact that Idris could have explored different avenues to retrieve the ‘stolen’ cars if there was anything like that. However, in his haste to tar Arase with the greed brush, he just could not wait for his investigative panel to submit a report. He was sure that the vehicles had been colonised by the retired senior officers. His twisted logic was this: he could not understand why the cars he often sighted from the windows of his former office were no longer there on his resumption as acting IGP. For him, there was no point asking the Transport Department if any of the vehicles had gone for routine services or refurbishment. If, according to his statement, he had written Arase and the DIGs to return the extra vehicles they took beyond the approved limit, why was he in a haste to label these officers as common criminals who went away with cars that never belonged to them?

If this allegation had come from the normal junior police officers behind the counter, one would not have bothered wasting ink on this issue. There are countless stories of frame-ups and outright indictment of innocent victims by police officers for pecuniary reasons. It is scary when, despite the espirit-de-corps that exist within the force, officers resort to this kind of cheap blackmail. Idris, of all persons, knows that mere suspicion is not a strong to evidence to criminalise an act. For now, there is no evidence to show that the ‘missing’ vehicles were driven away by aides of Arase on his instruction. It is my belief that justice would be better served if Idris had allowed the investigative panel to do its job. Now, members of that panel would have to work from an answer to the question in line with the body language of their boss.

Even if, as rumoured, Idris is itching to have his pound of flesh back as Arase was said to have queried him as an AIG, is this the best way to hit back? Now that some of the alleged missing vehicles, including the armoured cars, had been traced to an auto repair outlet in Abuja with the Transport Department’s knowledge, is Idris still convinced that he had caught the thieves who stole the vehicles he regularly admired through the windows in his former office? How would he feel if it turns out that the senior officers he set up for media trial and public odium actually took only the vehicles that were officially approved for them as parting gifts?

Our concern is not with the backstabbing that goes on as the politics of policing. Sometimes, a damn good cop is ignored on the altar of political correctness to mount the IGP seat. Idris’ emergence is not an exception. It is not the first time that the powers-that-be would sacrifice experience, kill dreams and careers for personal preferences. Certainly, it will not be the last. No one should envy Idris for being the beneficiary of our warped system. However, as Arase pointed out in his response to the allegation, the task before the new IGP is so big that it would amount to double jeopardy for him to be vindictively petty in his ‘malicious propaganda.” By the way, shouldn’t the police have an internal mechanism of probing itself without this huffing and puffing over ‘smoking’ cars and luxurious rides? I’m sure the authority knows that Nigeria does not a police that jumps into conclusion on the basis of beer parlour rumours. Not now. Not even in the future. Is sulking Idris listening?

Peter Obi @55

When a man has fought and won many battles against forces that should ordinarily have no problems in crushing him to pieces, it is safe to conclude that such a person enjoys abundant grace that is beyond human comprehension. Perhaps, no one has more intriguing survival stories to tell than the two-time governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi who turned 55 last Tuesday. In those few years, Obi not only survived Nigeria’s murky political waters, the stories of his many battles and triumphs are properly documented.  But for his resilience and conviction to fight for what he believed in, Obi could have willed his mandate to those who, using federal might, robbed him of his electoral victory and handed it over to a stooge. It was that same conviction that saw him triumph over his impeachment and the subsequent judgment which ensured that he completed his four-year tenure in a state noted for a harvest of political rascality.

It was to Obi’s credit that he handed over to a successor who still holds aloft the flag of his former party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance. What stood him out as governor was his simplicity and focused leadership which won him admirers across the country and abroad. He not only domesticated power but he also insisted on accountability even as he abhorred the extravagant lifestyles of his colleagues who bleed the states’ treasuries. For him, service remains the primary duty of man’s engagement in public office. And so, as he turned 55, I wish Mr. Obi many happy returns and best of luck in his future engagements.

Human lives being lost daily in road accidents, armed robbery, herdsmen invasion and other sundry threats accentuate the deep concern of many who feel continually baffled about how cheap human lives have become in this part of the globe. One thing is clear, until the Nigerian nation reclaims its lost humanity from the savagery it currently cuddles, our stories would continue to flow with endless dirges, written with pens soaked in blood. Hey, have you ever wondered why our tales of grief, sorrow and tears are styled in present continuous tenses in bloodied details? Have you pondered over the frequency with which death now ravages our land and our grim paintings collapse into a large canvas of doom? If you have, you would have seen how far removed we are from what should define us as humans. Unfortunately, we are no longer that cerebral specie different from animals. Some say we are even worse than animals, insisting that our inborn bestiality would awe even some of the most fiendish animals in the universe. We hate with passion and we kill with glee. After each death, we seem to expect news of another so soon. We are intolerantly hateful. In a world desperately in search of peace, we hold aloft the trophy of devilish chaos! Please, do not ask me how.

Do you know what? The Nigerian Constitution, flawed as it is presently, is an interesting document that spells out the rights and privileges of every citizen. Ordinarily, it should be some sort of written bond, which ought to bind us together as an indivisible unit. I honestly did not know how deep that huge document is until an encounter with the Director General of National Orientation Agency, Dr. Garba Abari, who spoke passionately about what ought to be. That document is a unifier if we can all live by its dictates in out interpersonal relationship. Our constitution, as it stands today, embodies the tested core values that have propelled other countries to greatness—Patriotism, love, honesty, integrity, hard work, selflessness and the imperative of doing what is right at all times. Our constitution proclaims those things. But, here we are, bent of destroying this beautiful Lugardian contraption!

However, and sadly so, they remain mere proclamation. We are far gone in our grip to ethno-religious cleavages to understand the almost incalculable damages we have wrought on this country. It is not a question of how we got here. It is more about how we have remained steeped in this gloom. In our little corner, we relish that culture of violence, hatred for one another, xenophobia and indifference. We are, in the main, racists even though we publicly reject that tag. We are not Nigerians but Yoruba, Ijaw, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Tiv, Idoma and all sorts. We are defined by our dialects and idiolects. Even when we occasionally break that barrier through what we call inter-tribal marriages, we still live by that consciousness of where we come from—our origins. Daily, we pay lip service to the strength in our diversity and shrug the cheap talk off in the corner of our hearts. What the leadership has done is to exploit these contradictions to hold us captive in a marriage of convenience that has refused to work. What works in other climes hardly works here because we are a band of ethnic jingoists and religious bigots pretending to be refined individuals. Pity.

In a press statement on the murder of Mrs. Eunice Olawale by yet-to-be-identified criminals in Kubwa, a suburb in the Federal Capital Territory, human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegoruwa, quoted copiously from relevant sections of the Nigerian Constitution that empowers citizens to freely practice their religions in a secular state. He writes:  “In section 14 of the 1999 Constitution, it is stated that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. All Citizens of Nigeria should therefore feel safe in any part of the country that they choose to reside in, irrespective of their faith. Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution states clearly that “the government of the federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State religion”, signifying clearly, that Nigeria, by law and by the choice of our people, is a secular state.  By section 38(1) of the same Constitution, “every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private), to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

If those extracts actually come from our constitution, then from which authority did these criminals derive the power to snuff life out of this woman? With several cases of religiously inspired killings unresolved, Mrs. Olawale’s slaughter was one death too many. By all standard, she was not a ram to be sacrificed to some blood-sucking gods. She was a human being with rights and privileges. Her murder was an affront on her rights to practice her religion. The gory details of her killing are as confounding as the argument in some quarters that she had to die for daring to win souls for Christ in a hostile environment. Even if she had constituted herself into a nuisance by her frequent early morning evangelical mission with her microphone, are we saying that the requisite punishment for that was the slitting of her throat and blood veins? Is her religion the only faith in Nigeria that propagates its beliefs, teachings and practices with the aim of converting others?

In moments like this, words often fail one. Religion, to the best of my knowledge, is not foisted on anyone. They say there is no compulsion in religion. We are yet to read a report that the 42-year-old mother of seven ever forced anyone to accept her faith. Yes, it was possible that some persons might not be comfortable with the disturbing noise coming from her tool of evangelism—the megaphone. It was possible that she had been cautioned by some nearby neighbours to take her evangelism elsewhere. We sometimes see flashes of that. Yet, the resort to criminality is banal and must be condemned by all those who truly mean well for this country. Adegoruwa has questioned the laud silence form The Presidency and the criminally cold silence in certain sections. Personally, I shudder at the madness. I really don’t know what to believe. Are we irredeemably polarised to the point that we now justify criminality on the nexus of our ethnic, religious or political leanings?

The painful reality is that while some are mourning the death of the preacher in the wicked hands of the demented souls that butchered her to death, some twisted minds are gloating, silently dancing on her grave. Pastor Elisha Olawale said his wife died a martyr and he seeks forgiveness for her murderers. Maybe that is what his faith commands. I do not begrudge him. However, would he not be shell-shocked if these criminals ask him to perish the thought because martyrdom propelled them to do what they did? It may sound queer. However, that is the fascinating actuality that the opium called religion has thrown all of us. Fate and faith have merged into a deadly game and the quest for justice becomes immaterial. This is how we unwittingly give criminality a lift. How long will we continue to forgive those who decimate us in thousands? Soon, some other fellows would be emboldened to kill yet another person in the name of religion knowing that it may yet be another case of unresolved murder with forgiveness to boot!

When people ask the President and those in positions of authority to speak up against the dangerous trend, it is not just because they assume that their laud silence or religious leaning could be interpreted to mean acquiescence. It is because the Constitution compels them to act instead of playing the ostrich. The laws of the land are the ground norms that dictate how citizens should comport themselves. There are institutions saddled with the responsibility to enforce these laws and ensure justice for those whose rights are violated like that of Mrs. Olawale. That’s why we question the stone dead silence in high places. There are stipulated punishments for the violations of the rights and privileges of the citizen as enshrined in the constitution. Without the political will to strictly implement the provisions of the constitution by enforcing the rules, we may as well say farewell to citizens’ fundamental rights to life and liberty as well as nationhood! Clearly, this is not the time to engage the mute button. This is the time to get our humanity back and it can only start when it is established that the Olawale family gets justice beyond the hollow echoes of strange martyrdom and puzzling religiosity. Our lives matter!

No doubt, the last Sallah break was interesting in many ways with a bonus holiday to boot. For the first time in many years, the Federal Government did the unimaginable by dashing a bloated, underworked and underutilized if not outright lazy national public ‘service’, an additional day of  holidaying. The addition to an initial two-day break was based on the shocking excuse that the moon, which normally heralds the end of the Ramadan fasting period, was not sighted as earlier projected. In accordance with their ways or convention, most of our public servants casually took yesterday (Friday) as a self-claimed additional bonus. That was a four-day of loafing around as the economy stutters.

In spite of the fact that there was the possibility of sighting the moon on the next day, which was also a public holiday, the government, in its warped wisdom, simply prolonged the holidays. It is not impossible that, in a country where less attention is paid to money and productivity being lost to needless holidays, most of these workers must have taken the week off only to resume on Monday to the usual uninspiring drudgery of civil service work.  For, if we must say the truth, there is an urgent need for the reorientation and redirection of the civil service to make it a key part of the change agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. To my mind, it does appear the present civil service sans the reduction of its free access to cheap funds that end up in private pockets, is as lost as the government that ought to inspire it. It is being encouraged to persist in its docility and cluelessness by a government that has failed to put it in check. However, this is a topic for another day.

With less government activities to focus on and more of sombre jollifications in the past week, it became apparent that Knucklehead would have to look elsewhere for the muse. In fact, it would have been another week of Afghanistanism if President Buhari had not come up with one of those speeches that are long on promises but painfully short on delivery. I am sorry if this sounds more like the tone of a wailer but that is what it is. I do not know how long the President would continue to sing like the bird with a broken beak before reality would dawn on him that the poverty in the land has not only impoverished the middle class but it has also deepened the palpable feeling of mass disenchantment thriving in the land. Each time he speaks, he exudes, in equal measure, a confidence that is at par with the overwhelming sense of grief that pervades the polity. Point is: the Buhari hoodoo no longer entraps and neither does it evoke that sense of blind allegiance that propelled him into office just last year. He needs to locate the missing link before the praise singers he surrounds himself with tilt him to the precipice of infamy.

Let us face it; hardly did anyone take Buhari seriously when, in his Eid-el-Fitr message, he rehashed an earlier sophistry of feeling our pains and the choking sacrifices that we continue to make with the belief that those sleeping on their hands in high places would soon change this heart wrenching narrative. Yes, the President did broke fast with the stupendously rich as well as the abjectly poor during the Ramadan. Unfortunately, that peripheral gesture pales into insignificance when compared to the damage the present economic downturn has wrought on the psyche of even his most loyal supporters. The sickening reality is that millions of people celebrated the prolonged holiday with grim frustrations etched on their faces and empty bellies. Millions others celebrated with empty pockets knowing that they have not received salaries in months and it would be suicidal to tune in to the celebratory mood. Therefore, they stayed at home, suffering but smiling on the sofa of want.

In that moment of economic-induced paralysis, you do not expect to hear the voice of a President spewing out words that deaden your hope. When a man says he understands what you feel with an assurance to lift you out of that quagmire, you do not expect endless whining but quick action. Anyway, how long was it that the President painted the picture of a better tomorrow after reiterating his desire to fight corruption to the end? If my memory is not fading, that was some months back and he even had to repeat it again on May 29, 2016 on the anniversary of his first year in office. So what has he said differently this time that should convince us that we are no longer living on a dud promissory note?

Listen to him: “I am not unaware of what Nigerians are going through and I want to use this medium to commend the amazing sacrifices of Nigerians in the face of the temporary economic and social challenges and also reassure Nigerians that my administration is working assiduously towards providing basic needs and other amenities. Let me also use this opportunity to reaffirm that we will not relent in the fight against corruption and we will ensure that all appropriate and legal measures are deployed to root out this malaise. I promise you all better days ahead even as we remain grateful for your unflinching support to our administration.”

Mr. President, if only you would take a peep out of that Aso Rock windows to see how fast that ‘unflinching support’ is waning. It is not just because Nigerians now struggle to buy a litre of Premium Motor Spirit for N145 or diesel for N205 or even a litre of Kerosene for N300 (Now, this is scandalous!) It is not even because the prices of foodstuffs have blown off the roof or because thousands lose jobs monthly. Others count themselves lucky if all they get was drastic salary slash. I doubt if it has anything to do with the fact that they now pay more for the megawatts of darkness that the Gencos and Discos offer them. It may be true that some parents have become daring in their attempt to feed their families. Pots of soup are stolen even right on the stoves. Portions of cooked and uncooked rice have grown wings without any trace. In a desperate craze to survive the hardship, people have resorted to the unimaginable to eke a living and the league of cheap criminals keeps growing by the day.  These, we believe, are the signs of the times that should have become out-dated with a genuine improvement in the economy. Instead, the sorry tales abound in leaps.

However, hope wanes because it seems nothing realistic or pragmatic is being done to mitigate the pain. What was thought to be temporary interjection in the change train is gradually festering into a permanent feature in our daily narrative. By the way, no one is saying the President should not fight corruption by whatever means possible. What they cannot fathom is a situation where this fight against these criminal elements in the system remains the only achievement the President points to each time the citizens ask him to do something about their parlous condition. If the government claims to be working assiduously to provide basic needs and amenities, the evidence of that exist in the realm of fantasy. Not with the long faces and blood shot eyes that confront one on the streets. It is difficult to understand why those basic needs that are taken as given in other climes have become a rarity here. Food, shelter and clothing are not that accessible again. Living and survival is painfully hellish and questions are being asked about the Buhari government and its promises. The joke these days, even among the throng of his enlightened supporters, is that the President’s All Progressives Congress has transformed, in less than two years, into All Promises Cancelled. Now, that is not a funny joke! I just giggle.

It is quite intriguing that the President has made public his convictions that Nigeria must remain an indivisible entity. That is in speech. His body language needs to tally with this declaration. Now, doing that requires a deep sense of commitment to justice, equity and fairness. Nigeria is on the brink of another civil strife today because ethnic and religious sentiments define governance. They are the hidden criteria in the sharing of key positions.

Therefore, when the President says one Nigeria is not negotiable, we can only hope he is also ready to walk his talk of giving each region what they rightfully deserve. To quote him, the President said: “In those days we never thought of oil, all we were concerned of is one Nigeria. So please pass this to the militants, that one Nigeria is not negotiable and they had better accept. Nigerian constitution is clear as to what they should get and I assure them there will be justice.” This is nothing short of striking the right chords as he has done in the past. However, it is not clear if the President is just trying to be politically correct or whether he is prepared to practice what he preaches. If the latter is the case, then we expect him to begin with a reassessment of his key appointments to date. Sloganeering about One Nigeria has never helped in the past and it is not going to help now as long as leaders take back with the left hand what they presumably gave with the right hand. I am sure the President understands the drift of this message. It is not too late to make amends if he truly desires a change in the narrative. Does he?

“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”. When Prometheus, Henry Longfellow’s character in the 1875 poem, “The Masque of Pandora”, uttered those timeless words, the author never anticipated a Mr. Fayose of Nigeria putting life into such immortal lines in 2016. However, driven by the imps of gross miscalculation and wanton lust for reckless ‘popularity’, Fayose has audaciously sallied forth from one needless controversy to another – criticizing, pontificating, puffing, huffing and making allegations that elicit the amazement of both contemplative citizens and featherbrained fans. Yes!

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose’s rascally impetuousness and sheepish political pranks have   become   parts   of   the   nation’s somewhat   sickening   democratic   trajectory.  His   self-professed   disdain   for   a   Muhammadu   Buhari   presidency explains   the   relentlessness with which he stalks every move made by the administration. At the silliest height of his rant, he invoked the spirit of death against the President. Fayose it was who told a stunned nation that octogenarian   Buhari   should   be   on   diapers   just   like   his (Fayose’s)   mother!   He   equally   has   ranted severally about a presumed life-threatening disease impeding the ability of Buhari to govern well. He has accused the President of leading a herd of corrupt people to ‘ruin’ Nigeria. As long as the topic is Buhari, Fayose has never failed to unleash bareknuckle punches. For him, Buhari is not just the gravest mistake in Aso Rock; he is a tragedy in governance.

As a prominent figure in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Fayose’s form of criticism is clinically deadly, hate-filled, infused with peppery bile and vitriol. As a serving governor conscious of the powers the immunity clause confers, Fayose takes advantage of that rare privilege to the fullest. Egged on by a coterie of praise singers and knowing that   the President is constitutionally demobilised even if he desires to move against him, the man they call ‘Spotless’ has become a thorn not only in the flesh of Buhari but his policies, associates and the All Progressives Congress. Therefore, while Fayose barks and bites, the Presidency merely   gawks   at   him   in   stupefaction.   Such   is   the   overriding   power   of   a   questionable immunity that our Constitution confers on the President, Vice President, state governors and their deputies. Fayose regaled in it. Hardly a week passes without Fayose treating the public to his rabid and ferocious attack against Buhari or his family. It was as if that was his primary duty as a state chief executive. And it is one call he relishes.

It was, therefore, not surprising that the natural victim of Fayose’s spirited defence against the restriction order placed  on his personal  accounts  by the Economic and  Financial Crimes Commission would be Buhari and, of course, his wife, Aisha. In fact, it would have been shocking if the governor had linked his latest woes to anyone else order than the man he loves to hate. By the way, this is not about the farcical drama scripted, directed and acted by Fayose when he invaded the premises of the bank in Ado-Ekiti earlier in the week to demand statements of his accounts. It is more about the lame excuses the governor gave to justify why an institution saddled with the arduous responsibility of checking graft should not be on his case. It is about the shamelessness of grappling with the last straws to wish away the mendaciousness with which otherwise responsible and trusted public officers continue to rape the national treasury.  It beggars belief that Fayose would expect the EFCC to steer off his financial dealings in the last two years until the end of his tenure on the laughable submission that immunity confers on him the powers to do and undo all that he wills. With his ‘spotless’ posturing as the untainted political gadfly in the PDP and  Buhari’s Achilles heel, wouldn’t it have been nice if Fayose had punctured EFCC’s claims of humongous and strange lodgements in his accounts in the run-up to his election instead of whining about a nebulous immunity clause that only legitimatises the larceny, lawlessness and crass abuse of power?

Given that Nigeria’s immunity clause effectively arms those that enjoy it against prosecution of any sort, should it also infer that such persons could not be investigated and then tried after they might have vacated the office? In this simple question lies Fayose’s dilemma and the source of an endless chronic idiocy. Listen to him: “I am a sitting governor and under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, I enjoy immunity. This government has no respect for constitutional provisions. They should not be in a hurry. In 2018, I will be done. I will come to them myself. I have become a figure in this country that I have nowhere to go. The rascality of EFCC must stop. Did they not contest election? Where did they get the funds from? Is it because they are the sitting government?”

How I wish Fayose could remove the log in his eyes before offering to blow out a speck lurking in a friend’s eye. No one, in the entire life of this democracy, has displayed specious rascality and prudish bellicosity than Fayose. To my understanding, the section in question did   not,   in   anyway,   forbears   the   relevant   agencies   from investigating the individuals covered by immunity clause.

Specifically, it states that: “(a) no civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against a person to whom this section applies during the period of office; (b) a person to whom this section applies shall not be arrested on imprisoned during that period either on pursuance of the process of any court or otherwise and (c) no process of any court requiring or compelling the appearance of a person to whom this section applies, shall be applied for or issued.” If I may ask, would Fayose had preferred a situation where the EFCC turned its sniffing noses   against   a   whistle-blower’s  report of premeditated  looting  in   the   run   off   to   the   Ekiti election? Is it true that, in the course of investigations, the EFCC discovered that about N4.7bn taken from the SAS Imprest Account in the Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA) was diverted to prosecute the Ekiti gubernatorial elections with the former Minister of State (Defence),  Musiliu Obanikoro and Fayose playing a major role in its disbursements? Did the governor’s associate, Abiodun Agbele(Alias Abbey); Mrs. Helen Olayemi Fayose; Obanikoro’s   sons   —   Gbolahan   and   Babajide   —   Ikenna   Ezekwe;   Sylvan   McNamara Limited (a company allegedly  run by the Obanikoros); Spotless Hotel, owned by Fayose and De Privateer Limited, which is owned by  Agbele have anything to do with the sharing of the funds? Did the former minister who is currently in exile in the United States of America use a chartered flight to ferry N1.218bn to Akure on June 12, 2014 for Fayose some few days before the election? And could the blocked account that made Fayose to erupt into riotous rage be the same account that the anti-graft agency said that various sums of money running into millions of naira were lodged? Is Fayose aware that these funds were taken from the Dasuki $2,1bn arms gate?  Is   it true   that   the   governor and   his   wife are the only directors and signatories to Spotless Hotel account and other accounts that the lodgements were made in tranches?

Aside the legalese which empowers the governor to hold on to straws, demanding that he should be spared the burden of investigations and prosecutions based on his present status, morality demands that this advocate of equity and hater of political rascality ought to come to equity with squeaky clean hands. It is, to say the least, rascally to hide under immunity clause and perpetuate such grave monstrosity. In any case, the EFCC has not flouted any rule by doing its job without disturbing the governor’s comfort. It only sought and got a court order to freeze His Excellency’s   accounts   temporarily   to   enable   it   put   its   case   together   for   a   post-tenure prosecution if the evidence can sustain such. So, why is Fayose angry and belching gibberish about the President and his wife as if he is eternally immune from answering questions on his misconduct if any? Why, for all the stolen money in private hands, should the EFCC wait until 2018 for him to report himself? Is it not puerile arrogance for Fayose to assume that because the other party got external funding from suspected looters, the glaring larceny uncovered by the EFCC on how he rode roughshod to the Ekiti State Government House should also be shrouded under the orbit of a questionable immunity clause?

Having said this, the onus lies strictly on the shoulders of the EFCC to prosecute all hi-wired cases of looting before it to a logical conclusion. Truth be told, Nigerians are tired of EFCC’s harvest of media trials that only turn influential politicians into demagogues while the would-be culprits merely thumb their noses at us, exploiting the gaping gaps in the prosecutor’s evidence! It for this reason, more than anything else, that Nigeria cannot boast of having successfully prosecuted any of the big thieves and shameless known looters in our midst since 1960. These persons are all over our national space, sniggering back and poking fun at our collective impotence. That is probably why Fayose and his ilk are angry about the seeming twist in out sorry tale. Question is: Will this EFCC be different from the ones that titillate us with overwhelming figures only to fade off at the courts with compromised evidence that allows these economic criminals to escape justice? The answer as well as the fate of privileged people like Fayose hangs precariously in the hands of time.

When we say there is no dull moment in Nigeria, some people think we needlessly exaggerate happenings here. When an international body rated us as a country with the happiest people on earth some few years ago, those who do not know about us think it was because we soak our sorrows in alcoholic beverages and chew our pain in a cacophony of laughter. However, that is not the full story. There are no dull moments because we have perfected the art of laughing at our folly no matter how bad things have become. Because we have such a high record of self-inflicted tragic moments, we have simply refused to be bogged down by the harvest of pain. Instead, we shrug them off until they become part of our national architecture that, with time, pale into insignificance. Nothing shocks us anymore. We always expect the unexpected to happen without any earth shaking consequences. We giggle at our failures and foibles while we snigger at our successes with minds filled with doubts. Together, we are our own natural disaster. There is always a bigger story behind every story.

In truth, ours is a never-ending story of benumbing possibilities. For example, one had thought the celebrated peace pact among the warring factions in the Peoples Democratic Party had placed the party in a good stead to unleash a sucker punch on the All Progressives Party with its bumbling adventure in governance. No one could have imagined that the Ali Modu Sheriff faction had one or two aces in its sleeve to upset the apple cart. Unfortunately, before the ink could dry on the documents of the peace pact, the PDP is yet again swimming in the pool of shame. At the Wadata House, the combatants are back to the days of the long knives with a potential deleterious effect on the fortunes of Africa’s erstwhile largest behemoth. How, by the way, did the PDP shoot itself in the foot? The stories are as varied as the hydra-headed crises that plague it. We had thought the stage-managed convention in Port Harcourt would inject some sanity and redirect its path. Well, we were wrong. This crowd of egotists just did not give a damn if the party eventually goes into extinction. That could be the only explanation for the ding-dong game playing out at the Wadata House Headquarters of the PDP.

Nonetheless, it is not surprising that this writer’s repeated warnings count for nothing. The oligarchs at the PDP just could not take a step away from self-destruct path. Now, it appears the APC has it exactly where it wanted it. With a centre shred down through the middle coupled with balance of force, money and grit, the PDP has itself to blame. It is intriguing that the Senator Ahmed Makarfi led caretaker committee had accused the APC of planting Sheriff to destroy it. You wonder if these folks are talking about the same Sheriff that was welcomed with pomp and panache when he defected to the PDP last year with a guaranteed huge war chest and popularity in Borno State. Could it be the same Sheriff that was, some few months back, heralded as the best candidate for the party’s chairperson’s seat? Did the APC also ignite that passion to foist Sheriff on the other protesting members who saw the danger very early and warned against it? Now that the PDP has found itself in this uncomfortable cul-de-sac, is it right to point one finger at the ruling party while the remaining four fingers point right back at its foolery?

In all honesty, the farcical drama playing out in the PDP could not have been the only exciting news in a country where mouth-gaping events unfold at the speed of light. There was no way one could have forgotten the tragic loss of two of Nigeria’s best indigenous coaches within a three-day interval. Painful and heart wrenching as the deaths of Stephen Okechukwu Keshi and  Shuaibu Amodu were, nothing could be more disturbing than the characters that gathered at their doorsteps to, as it were, dance on their graves. Yes, truckloads of ennobling and humbling things were written, and would be written, about the departed national coaches who excelled to some degrees during their terms on the job. Expectedly, the records of why and how they left the jobs were also in the national archives. However, it was a wicked twist of irony that Amodu died some hours after he signed Keshi’s condolence register in his apartment in Benin, emphasising the imperative of a befitting burial for a departed colleague. Little did he know that the Grim Reaper was waiting to consume his own life. The next day, Amodu was six-feet down under. His script was completed. He is gone like the wind.

Yet, there is this other part of the story that those who shed crocodile tears on the demise of these two great sports personalities would have loved to be buried with them. While government officials savour extravagant lifestyles in spite of scarce resources, it is a grave injustice that Keshi and Amodu, who toiled day and night with attendant risks to their health, were actually being owed millions of naira in salaries and emoluments by these same set of people. Speaking with reporters shortly after Amodu’s burial, Governor Adam Oshiomhole said issues of Amodu’s unpaid salaries were speculative and what matters was that he left a good legacy. Does this sound familiar in Nigeria’s dictionary of condolence?

While we can forgive the bellicose arrogance of others in their spirited efforts to downplay how these two coaches became depressed seeing that they were being frustrated from getting what rightfully belonged to them, we cannot but chide the governor for his condemnable statement on the matter. How could issues of unpaid salaries and allowances be dismissed as speculative when Amodu’s letter on the matter was lying in the Office of the Secretary to the Edo State Government since October last year? Was the Governor unaware that his office was attending to a N25m debt payment in a letter written by Amodu? Are the officials at the country’s football house feigning ignorance about the debts owed Keshi and Amodu now that they are no more? But then, what is so special about the two coaches’ unpaid dues in a country where influential government officials divert billions of naira in pension funds and get away with a slap on the wrist? I guess many have shrugged it off as one of those tragicomedies that keep us alive!

Did you also hear the news that some of our beggarly states would soon get fresh N90bn loan to help keep them afloat the tough economic climate? Now, do not ask me what they did with the multi-billion naira bailout that some states got earlier because that had gone with the winds. The laughable thing about this latest intervention was the ‘stringent conditions’ the Federal Government and the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, were said to have put in place before the states can access the loan. A quick rundown of these conditions shows that any state can meet them at the touch of a computer button. In a country where financial reports are expertly padded at the speed of light with bloated profitability prospects, it should not be rocket science for interested state chief executives to meet the FG’s request. In fact, all it takes is the hiring of trained hands who can, among other things, publish audited financial statements within nine months of financial year end; set realistic targets to improve independently generated revenue and ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure; implement a centralised Treasury Single Account and share the database of companies within the state with the Federal Inland Revenue Services with the objective of improving VAT and PAYE collection. Personally, I would not be shocked if some states are already putting finishing touches to the documents relating to these conditions. Oh, are we not in Nigeria again? Anyway, let us wait and see what happens to the ‘loan’ in the hands of the spendthrifts called governors in the next few months.

If I may ask, how far can a N90bn loan go in treating the malaise facing states in a country where one government official allegedly diverted N14bn pension funds through phoney names and contacts? If, with all the checks and balances, a whopping N1 trillion was unremitted to the Federation Account in 2013 according to a report by the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), it beggars belief that anyone is placing an implicit trust in the governors to bend over backwards just to account for their meagre share in a N90bn loan. When the chips are down, one can only hope that the government would have the political will to recoup the loan without any fear or favour. That is if, by then, another humongous scandal with an ineffectual consequence would not have diminished this latest intervention. I foresee a situation where the latest exercise would have joined the basket of loans which were neither repaid nor accounted for in this democratic journey of motion without movement.

Somehow, our unlimited stories of missed opportunities and bungled hope continue in this foggy climate where those who murdered sleep suddenly gathered again on June 12 to dance on the grave of the late M. K. O. Abiola, demanding for true federalism with their clenched fists of bigotry. How many times have we seen them jumping the ship as soon as they get an invitation to ‘come and chop?’ Nigeria weeps.