The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Aribisala

  • Aribisala endorses Moghalu for President

    Faith Columnist, Femi Aribisala has described former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor and presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu as Nigeria’s  very own Emmanuel Macron. He sees Moghalu as ‘a man destined to change the course of Nigeria’s political landscape’.

    In just a few months, Nigerians go once again to the polls to choose our next president.  This is the opportunity we have to determine our destiny.  It is a civic duty that comes only once every four years.  Therefore, it must be entered into like a marriage; soberly and with full presence of mind.

    Of those who have expressed interest in seeking our vote, one man stands head and shoulders above the rest.  That man is Professor Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu.

    Moghalu has what it takes to be Nigeria’s next president.  He is experienced, but not antediluvian.  He is young but not naïve.  He is not a lackey of the old guard but not abhorrent to them.  He has both a national and an international pedigree.  Moreover, he is a visionary, very intelligent and highly driven.  He is our very own Emmanuel Macron, a man destined to change the course of Nigeria’s political landscape.

    With Moghalu’s election as president, certain problems that have bedeviled us of recent will be things of the past.  With President Moghalu, there will be no more apologetics for the murderous onslaughts of Fulani herdsmen.  As a matter of fact, one of his cardinal policies is to increase the Nigeria Police from its measly 350,000 strength to 1.5 million.

    With President Moghalu, there will be no more agitation for the dismemberment of Nigeria.  Instead, his very election will heal our wounds and calm frayed nerves.  What he proposes is a return to “true federalism.”  Says Moghalu: “The political and constitutional structure of Nigeria affects its economic management, in our case in a very negative manner because the potential productivity of the country’s component regions and states is suppressed by the rent-seeking politics to control absolute power at the center and dispense patronage. This is part of why constitutional restructuring for a true federalism is essential.”

    With President Moghalu, politics will not overshadow policy.  Quoting John F. Kennedy, Moghalu insists: “Politics is too important to be left to the politicians.”  He says: “It is time to act on the reality that Nigeria will not achieve economic development and transformation on the current trajectory of its politics. The present political leadership class simply does not have the skills and the background that are fit for purpose. Technocratically competent and visionary political leaders are what it will take to reposition the Nigerian economy for sustainable growth and transformation.”

    Moghalu first came on my radar when Financial Nigeria flew him to London in 2012 to deliver the keynote address at the Nigeria Development and Finance Forum (NDFF).  Then, he presented a lucid paper entitled: “Prospects of Financial Stability in Nigeria and the Links to Economic Transformation.”  A year later, I had the distinct privilege of being asked to review his book: “Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s Last Frontier Can Prosper and Matter;” a book that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala describes as “a tour de force on Africa’s transformation.”

    As I observed at the time, Moghalu’s Africa is quintessentially African.  It is not borrowed.  It is not a copycat.  It is not stolen.  It is not reliant on European blueprints or leftovers.  It is endogenously African.

    His siren is an African version of Obama’s “yes we can.”  Yes, we can transform our economies within a generation.  Yes, we can do it without undue reliance on foreign aid.  Yes, we can create our own endogenous technology without relying on the pipe-dream of technology transfers.  Yes, we can renovate, innovate, and modernize by forming a nexus between politics and economics.

    But now, Moghalu’s focus is firmly trained on Nigeria.  In a new book, launched just this February 2018, entitled: “Build, Innovate and Grow (BIG): My Vision for Nigeria;” Moghalu presents a blueprint for his bid for the presidency.  This new book is quite simply a masterpiece of innovative ideas and policy prescriptions designed to renovate, re-build and grow our economy and polity.

    What you get from Moghalu is not politics but policy.  That is why he needs to stay well away from the PDP and the APC; odd-jobbers mired in politics without policy.  Listen very carefully to the cacophonies emerging from these two major national parties at this crunch moment in our history, and you will discover that there is no policy debate whatsoever; just a bitter and vicious struggle for power and patronage that, in the APC especially, even results in killings and assassinations.

    We have had enough of this.  The time is long overdue for the likes of Kingsley Moghalu to engineer a hostile takeover of Nigerian politics at the ballot box.  We need to forge a new departure.  What we need are men and women like Kingsley Mogahalu up and down the ballot in order to build a new Nigerian political class, a new Nigerian political culture and a new Nigerian political future.

    The Nigerian electorate must come of age.  We cannot continue in the failed tradition of electing leaders who don’t have a clue what government entails in 21st century Nigeria.  We need to admit that the failure of government in democratic Nigeria is a failure of the electorate.  We have failed to put the right people into power.  We have failed to apply wisdom in the voting booth.  Instead, we have opted for the stolen-monied, the charlatan, the snake-oil salesmen, the smooth-talking babalawos, and the wise-cracking ethnic jingoists.

    It is past time for something different; something avant-garde; something forward-looking; something innovative and imaginative.  We need something not mired in the age-old ethnic diatribes, something with a new vision and perspective, something that harnesses the latent potentials of Nigeria into our very own Unbound Prometheus.  Says Moghalu: “We must create a rising tide that lifts all boats, not just those of relatives and tribesmen and women.”

    Our motto today should be out with the old: in with the young.  Out with the politicians: in with the technocrats.  Out with the primordial: in with the cutting-edge.  Out with the ethnocentric and tribalistic: in with the inclusive and nationalistic.

    Look around the world we are in today, the old is making way for the new.  Look at the success-stories of the African continent and you will find men and women like Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and Ameena Gurib-Fakim of Mauritius.  These are the beautiful ones the likes of whom are not yet born on the Nigerian political landscape.  Look farther afield and you find dynamic men like Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Emmanuel Macron of France.  That is the way of the world today that still remains anathema in Nigeria to our detriment.

    Not anymore!  Says Moghalu: “An economy cannot be managed to progress that is beyond the vision, capacity and competence of the political leadership, regardless of how many brilliant technical economists abound in a country. If the political leadership lacks vision, is venal and focused on other priorities, sound technocrats can’t achieve very much. Their full potential contribution will be suppressed by political decisions above them, usually taken in caucuses at night in places that are not offices.”

    What this means is that Nigeria needs to leap-frog into the 21st century.  Our persistence in recycling old cargoes must come to an end.  We cannot afford to continue to elect abject failures in the hope that somehow, they will one day succeed.  We can no longer afford to elect as president politicians who are sick and ailing.  We don’t need famous men who specialize in doing nothing.  This is the jet age and Nigeria is lagging too far behind.  We must run much faster if we are ever to stand the chance of catching up.  We have no business with “go-slow.”

    Since our gerontocratic oligarchs have refused to go into voluntary retirement, let us throw them all a send-off party in the 2019 election.  Let us elect a completely new slate of leadership more in tune with the yearnings of our 200 million population.  With the Asian tigers already on the move, let us release the Nigerian cheetahs and the lions from the reservation.  It is time to renovate, innovate and be motivated.  This giant called Nigeria must be woken up from its 60-year slumber.

    With Moghalu, Nigeria will have a president bursting with ideas.  Hear him: “The fundamental solutions to our crisis of economic growth and development lie in leadership. Not the politics-as-usual of the past, but a new kind of politics of ideas. It will take this kind of politics to produce the vision and political will to undertake the necessary economic and institutional reforms.”

    “It will take this kind of politics to educate and mobilize ordinary Nigerians to new ways of economic transformation and their enlightened, collective self-interest in supporting the creation of a new economic paradigm that dramatically cuts down joblessness and poverty. It takes knowledge, which is the true wealth of nations, to even know where to begin, how to proceed, and the direction in which we should be headed.”

    When was the last time you heard a speech by a Nigerian leader that was inspirational?  My wife heard Moghalu speaking about his vision for Nigeria for the very first time and was mesmerized.  “The man is impressive,” she concluded.  This should come as no surprise.  Moghalu has the pedigree and experience to bring a new dynamism to Nigerian leadership.

    Over the years, he has been involved in academia, economic policy, banking and finance, entrepreneurship, and law and diplomacy.  Among other things, he was a Professor of International Business and Public Policy at the prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, USA.

    He was also Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009-2014, where he led in the execution of extensive reforms in the Nigerian banking system.  Before these, he worked at the United Nations for 17 years, rising to the position of Director.

    They thought George Weah could not win, but he is now the President of Liberia.  They thought Emmanuel Macron did not have a chance, but he wiped the slate clean and became president of France with a brand-new slate of legislators.

    If you are one of those doubting Thomases who thinks competent, honest and industrious men like Moghalu don’t stand a chance in Nigerian politics, just wait and see.  As he continues to crisscross the country, holding town hall meetings, engaging the man-in-the-street and laying the foundation for a veritable political revolution, don’t be surprised when in February 2019, after the first run-off election in Nigeria’s political history, Kingsley Moghalu emerges as the new president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Femi Aribisala: A disturbed mind?

    Femi Aribisala: A disturbed mind?

    Femi Aribisala, who writes for the Vanguard newspaper on Tuesdays, is one of the most interesting, entertaining and amusing columnists in Nigeria today. Aribisala is a most curious and intriguing persona. He is a professor, a supposed intellectual, whose primary vocation ought to be the pursuit and advocacy of truth.  Yet, he often employs hefty bodyguards of lies to protect the falsehoods he so regularly parades as sacred truths. He audaciously dispenses with logic and common sense in his peddling of prejudice, petty sentiment and malicious bias.

    Aribisala is also a pastor of sorts. He maintains a Christian religious column with The Vanguard. This strange pastor desecrates the Bible, for instance, by describing the account of the historic encounter between David and Goliath as a complete and untrue fabrication. The only person that Femi Aribisala hates, attacks and insults more than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State and a national leader of  the  All Progressives Congress (APC) is the legendary and incomparable Saint Paul, the lawyer, scholar,  evangelist and unrepentant apostle of Christ who wrote over half of the new testament.

    Pastor Aribisala has variously described Saint Paul as a liar, incorrigible sinner, demented mind, anti-Christ and much worse. Yet, here is a man who is an intellectual, spiritual and moral Lilliputian compared to Saint Paul. In any case, can a man who has scant respect either  for God or one of his most revered servants such as Saint Paul be expected to show any regard for an object  of his obsessive hatred such as Tiinubu? What is becoming alarming,, however, is that Aribisala’s  admittedly once brilliant mind is beginning  to roam beyond the safe boundaries of rationality all because of his morbid hatred for one man.

    When the APC demystified and disgraced the dubious concepts of stomach infrastructure and invincible federal might with Ogbeni Raufu Aregbesola decisively winning the last  Osun governorship election, Aribisala’s response was a column titled ‘ How APC lost Osun’.  Before the last APC governorship primaries in Lagos State, there had been fears that the party would not survive the predicted cataclysm arising from the exercise. Against all expectations, the party held the most transparent, credible and rancour free primaries in the history of the state. This newspaper’s ace columnist, Professor Tunji Dare, last week wrote with characteristic linguistic felicity and cerebral clarity of ‘ The implosion that never was’.  Aribisala’s commentary on the event was a scandalously scurrilous column  titled ‘ Time to get rid of  Tinubu’s cronies in Lagos’.

    Of course Aribisala’s offering was the same stale salad of verbiage against Tinubu that has become the standard poisonous fare of his column week after week.  I will only examine here a few of the mendacious claims about Lagos politics and the APC primaries as contained in Aribisala’s column. Firstly, Aribisala accuses Tinubu of “commandeering  of the political processes”  of  Lagos for too long. For a professor of the social sciences, this kind of imprecise use of language and conceptual ambiguity is embarrassing.  As far as I know, Tinubu has been involved, directly or indirectly, in keenly contested elections in Lagos in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011. All of these elections were conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a federal agency. Security for the electoral process was always provided by federal agencies – the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the military and security operatives. In what way then has Tinubu ‘commandeered the political process as alleged by our professor?

    During the Babangida regime’s aborted transition program of the Third Republic, Tinubu was elected Senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District with the highest number of votes in the country.  He played a critical role in the emergence of Chief MKO Abiola as presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) and his victory in the June 12, 1993 election that was later annulled. Tinubu’s political stature in the South West  grew tremendously because of the selfless and front-line role he played in the protracted struggle against the annulment and military rule that resulted in today’s democratic dispensation.

    As governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, Tinubu remained consistent and dogged in his defence of the rule of law, human rights, true federalism and the rights of states.  His government with the indefatigable Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice won at least 13 major court cases against Obasanjo’s imperious Federal government with significant implications for federalism in Nigeria. In 2003, when Obasaanjo launched his vicious electoral blitzkrieg against  the South West, it  was only Tinubu’s Lagos that remained an impregnable fortress for conservative ‘mainstreamers’. Even after leaving office in 2007, Tinubu has played a critical and incomparable role in the revitalization of progressive politics in the South West  and the emergence of a solid and viable national opposition to the PDP.  Of course, it is understandable that all these relevant factors cannot feature in an analysis ofTinubu’s politics by a mind as  jaundiced as Aribisala’s.

    Secondly, Aribisala asserts that Tinubu has ‘enslaved’ all politicians in Lagos and  that as a result of his “godfatherism candidates for public office of his political party are not elected by popular vote but selected  from Tinubu’s bedroom on Bourdillon Road and  then imposed on the party.”  There is first the conceptual problem of understanding what Aribisala means by Tinubu ‘enslaving’ politicians. Is this through hypnotism or juju? If so, why was Tinubu’s preference for Babatunde  RajiFashola as his successor fiercely opposed by some of his closest associates within the then ACN in 2007?

    Even as Aribisala himself states, a key party officer and close confidante of Tinubu like Muiz Banire was openly critical of his political mentor in the run up to the last APC governorship primaries. It was alleged before the primaries that Tinubu preferred a Christian candidate from the Lagos East Senatorial District to succeed Fashola. Yet, this purported preference was not imposed on the party. Rather, the primaries were contested by 12 Christian and Muslim aspirants from the three Senatorial Districts.  What then do we make of Aribisala’s professorial hogwash of Tinubu imposing candidates from his bedroom?

    Thirdly and most absurdly, Aribisala insinuates that the APC primaries were manipulated and lacking in transparency. He contends that the delegates should have been chosen on the basis of 20 and not 57 Local Government Councils. Yet, the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) have had elected Chairmen, councillors and party executives since they came into being!  In Aribisala’s view, the APC should have held direct primaries in the different local government areas and not indirect primaries where delegates were allegedly “given voting instructions’.  The delegates, he alleged, were not known to the aspirants before the primaries.

     In the first place, Aribisala is not a member of the APC and may thus be unaware of the party’s constitutional provisions. His failure to undertake the requisite research in this regard confirms his antecedents as a lazy and unresourceful academic. Otherwise he would have known that the APC constitution provides for  5391 delegates comprising 12 members of the ward executives, local government party executives and clearly stipulated statutory delegates. In any case, would the knowledgeable and illustrious APC aspirants, most of them more accomplished than Aribisala, agree to participate in the kind of patently unconstitutional exercise he falsely depicts? Would the APC aspirants have campaigned  as vigorously as they did without knowing those whose votes they would need? This is kind of reasoning smacks of professorial absurdity.

    Fourthly, Aribisala contends that the APC candidate, Mr AkinwunmiAmbode “ is not a politician, and he is an unknown political quantity in Lagos”.  Ambode is one of the most accomplished Nigerians of his generation. He holds B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Accounting from the University of Lagos. He is an alumnus of such illustrious world class institutions as CranfieldSchooll  of Management, Cranfield, England, the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland, the Harvard Kennedy School of Management and the Wharton Business School  Advance Management Programme. Apart from this, Ambode is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accounts  of Nigeria (ICAN) as well as a Hubert Humphrey in Accounting and Finance from Boston University, Massachusetts, United States.

    This solid academic and professional background served as the foundation for Ambode’s 27 year meritorious career in the Lagos State public service, which saw him rising from the local government cadre to becoming the state Auditor General for Local Government, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and ultimately Accountant General of the state. The truth is that in terms of his interaction with and adding value to the Lagos State public space over the last three decades, no candidate matches Ambode’s pedigree.

    In any case, I look forward to reading Aribisala’s view on the Lagos PDP’s  indirect primaries that saw an admittedly credible Jinmi Agbaje emerge from an intra-party  process totally lacking  in credibility and integrity and which  is being  vigorously challenged by his main opponent, Senator Musliu Obanikoro.  In the magical PDP primaries, there were 806 accredited voters but 863 cast votes. Is it any wonder that guns boomed and blood flowed at the Oregun venue of the exercise?

  • Aribisala: In the prison of a closed mind

    Locked in a mental prison Lately, when I read Femi Aribisala’s (FA) weekly intervention in the Vanguard every Tuesday, I cannot help but see the picture of a man behind bars noodling away in his quiet, lonely world. No, not quite like Kirikiri, Nigeria’s hell-hole misnamed maximum security prison, but a windowless semi-lit enclosure where a self-imprisoned, languid inmate finds peace and liberty. This is the inescapable image that forms in my mind when I read FA, especially his recent un-nuanced barrage against Bola Tinubu, leader of Nigeria’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Let me confess upfront that by my humble estimation, FA is among the best newspaper columnists today. He pens in the manner I would love to: unencumbered, simple and straight to the point. He calls a spade by its name and does not seem to enjoy the luxury of working up a sentence or stringing adjectives. He stands akimbo on the rock of his conviction; never to equivocate, but not keen to other premises.

    But the danger in this manner of writing, in resting inexorably on the strength of one’s strong convictions is that sometimes, unbeknown to us, we may just be sitting on the wrong rock; or worse, we may get locked up in our own maximum prison. Consider the mirthless incongruity of having to tear down a prison door to save a prisoner from himself.

    Reading FA’s installment last Tuesday, one could not help but make this rather demure intervention whatever it may be worth. The issue is the Between a phenomenon and a conundrum Tinubu phenomenon or conundrum if you wish, in the milieu of today’s Lagos/Southwest and Nigeria’s politics. FA’s titles his piece: “Time to get rid of Tinubu’s cronies in Lagos,” and let me quote the second paragraph of the article, which encapsulates FA’s viewpoint and mindset.

     “Enough is enough. The domination of Lagos politics by one man has gone on for too long. Lagos must be wrested from the control of Bola Tinubu who has enslaved the politicians in the state and privatised its resources in the last 16 years.”

    It is true that Tinubu has become the most influential politician to emerge from the Southwest, if not Nigeria, in this dispensation and I also agree with FA that he may have profited immensely from his political activities in the last 16 years. However, FA will be living in denial if not self-imprisonment not to acknowledge that Tinubu’s politics has imbued the Southwest and indeed Nigeria with rich positive influences that the entire national treasury cannot buy.

    If we must admit, he is probably the most pragmatic political thinker of this arid time. FA will agree that he is on the verge of winning his place in history as perhaps the most influential personage in Nigeria’s post-independent democratic evolution. By his solo effort and single-minded doggedness, he has reworked the politics of the Southwest of Nigeria and introduced a new equation in the unfolding national politics.

    He has given a fresh impetus, a new meaning and if you like it in the parlance of the day, a new swag to the Southwest; he has given them a peek to the wonderful opportunities and possibilities that are beyond the federal incubus. Though still at infancy, his effort has opened our eyes to the inherent richness of a truly plural political environment that imbues peer competition and quality benchmarking. Imagine Nigeria without APC Recall that the ruling PDP had become an ogre gobbling up every opposition before the coming of AC, ACN and currently APC. APP, ANPP, APGA and the like did not flounder and hit the rock by chance, they were worsted and decimated by the ruling party. There are so many erroneous summations to be highlighted in FA’s full page treatise but we will stick with the main issue.

     FA is particularly piqued by the recent Lagos State governorship primary in which Tinubu’s preferred candidate emerged. He said that “Tinubu’s “godfatherism” means candidates for public office of his political party are not elected by popular vote, but selected from Tinubu’s bedroom on Bourdillon Road and then imposed on the party. They are then held under his tight leash by the Jagaban and are required to do his bidding on pain of being summarily replaced or impeached.”

    Hmm, one feels FA’s deep pains but perhaps a bit of understanding will ameliorate his despair a little. First, solid democratic institutions far transcend transient political offices. Let’s not drown in the small matters of now; let us imagine what might be if we grew a robust APC over the next 50 years for instance, when it will be sturdy enough to throw up its candidates without a ‘visible’ godfather.

    Then again, imagine what would be if there was no Tinubu and ACN/APC? Does FA honestly think Lagos and Southwest would have fared better under the current PDP crowd? Talking about imposition, has anyone in PDP won any primary anywhere in Nigeria today without the nod of Papa and even Mama in Aso Rock?

     FA tells the story of how Tinubu recently rigged in John Odigie-Oyegun as chairman of APC, causing Tom Ikimi and Ali Modu Sheriff blow the whistle and to back-flip to PDP. Now this must be a laugh; in the first place, these fellows can now flagellate up and down like a stalwart phallus because someone took the pains to create an alternative. But really, would FA allow any of these men to be chairman of a party that he leads? Not likely.

    Anoint me or be damned Finally, he also cites a certain Muiz Banire spewing the banality that “APC people must shine their eyes this time around.” Great, what about ‘the last time around’ when he was favoured and anointed and he made good enormously? By the way, don’t we all know that party politics all over the world, without exception, suffers some form of imposition/anointing? No one walks off the street and becomes a candidate anywhere in the world, none.

     As we say in my place: ana enwe obodo enwe, obo anaghi atogbo ka ogbogoro; that is to say, every town has its principalities and over-lords, you don’t find any town lying around the bush path like a pumpkin. That is the wisdom of elders. Let’s nurture APC and not kill it.

    A love letter to Mrs. Juliana Godwin

    I love this woman. The more I look at her photograph, the more my admiration for her grows. There she is dressed in girlie, long skirt-and-blouse school uniform with sandals and a white pair of socks to match. You would never know she is a 42-year-old mother of four grown up children unless someone revealed that fact to you. Lean, almost wiry, an infinitesimal smile defines her lips, complemented by a bright glint in her eyes. Her mien, half defiant, half triumphant radiates her will to live.
    Sunday Vanguard, December 7, 2014, page 25 had the amazing story and picture of Mrs. Godwin from Ryom in Plateau State. Last year, she chose to return to school, 30 years after she left primary school in 1983. Now 42, she did not enrol for evening classes or part-time study; she started from junior secondary school class one. “I am the oldest person in the class of 80 students. I participate in every school activity and I am happy with that…, but I do behave myself as an adult,” she says.
    If you thought returning to school was an act of courage, how about the fact that she made four children, learned dress making and hair plating; she hawked ‘pure water’ in the market; sold tomatoes and pepper and roasted corn. She also trained in soap-making. At a juncture, she was the breadwinner and even today, she is paying her way through school.
    Most daunting, she is in a marriage. Hear her: “My husband was against my decision and quarrelled seriously with me. But I didn’t give up on my decision.” I send my love and goodwill to Mrs. Godwin and to millions of Nigerian women in her situation. Women whose lives have been quarantined in marriage; women ruinously condemned to family, husband, children and dusty existence; women who have ‘lost’ their lives for the sake of others. I recommend Mrs. Godwin to them and I say to them, it’s never late to reclaim your life.

  • Osun: Aribisala and the fear of APC

    Osun: Aribisala and the fear of APC

    What Nigeria’s brand of politics is a mixed bag of the good, the bad, and of course the ugly tactics of sheer blackmail, barefaced betrayals and subtle subterfuge is stating the obvious. This do-or-die battle field mentality is all because the winner takes it all. Critical observers of the polity should therefore, be driven by the tenets of objectivity and patriotism to say it as it is, and more importantly to make valuable suggestions to fashion the best way out of the political wood.

    It boggles any discerning mind when a citizen, a writer, an associate professor of international affairs and a pastor at that decides willy-nilly, to view a particular political party from the prism of outright hatred and frequent misguided mudslinging. The man in question is none other than Femi Aribisala. The political party that he has chosen, perhaps for pecuniary gains, to be the numero uno traducer is the All Progressives Congress (APC). While more informed minds have hailed its emergence on the nation’s political landscape as a much-needed and timely intervention, to provide a credible opposition and alternative to the behemoth that the PDP has become, Aribisala thinks otherwise.

    If he is not taking on the revered national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a no- holds -barred vitriolic attack asking what more does he really wants, Aribisala would be cooking another poisonous pot fuelled by the wrong reasons why APC is likely to lose Lagos governorship election come 2015. In other climes, his type may be tolerated for providing comic relief as an exception to the rule, but not so in Nigeria. As Vladimir Lenin rightly noted, ‘a lie told often enough becomes the truth’. Our cherished democratic culture cannot afford such political anomaly. Not now. And not ever!

    And that brings us to the recently held gubernatorial election, in the State of  Osun which  incidentally was won by the Independent Newspaper Limited Man-of-the Year and incumbent Governor, Rauf Aregbesola. While not a few political affairs analysts are of the candid opinion that the exemplary preparedness and high level of alertness to plug all loopholes on the part of APC added to the sterling performance of Aregbesola won it for the party, Aribisala has his own theory to it all.

    What he calls ‘crying wolf’ such as the condemnable arrest of the party’s chieftains, including Lai Mohammed, and commissioners on the eve of the election, the harassment of party agents during the exercise and the use of brute force by the security forces against unarmed voters were indeed, all predicted by the APC. It even went further to alert the public to the nefarious collaboration between INEC and the police bulldogs using both the print and electronic media.

    But Aribisala thinks differently. In his words: “Before every election, APC goes to town shouting itself hoarse that the election will be rigged. It brings out all sorts of fictitious documents showing “beyond reasonable doubt” that the PDP, in collusion with the INEC, has perfected outrageous plans to rig the election. Then when it loses, it says “We told you so” and decides to contest the results frivolously in court. Apparently, the only election that is not rigged in Nigeria today is the one that APC wins. At least, we are yet to hear APC say it is going to court to contest the Osun results.”

    How utterly ludicrous one could be! Unknown to him there were conflicting shadows over the purported plan by Iyiola Omisore of the PDP to head to court for redress. He found his defeat under the upper cut blow from the master of the game of politics, Aregbesola too bitter a pill to swallow. But for the prompt acceptance of defeat from the man at Aso Rock, who had a week before raised his hand to the paid crowd and declared him the ‘next governor of Osun’ Omisore would have done so.

    Yet, Aribisala calls it a ‘pyrrhic victory’! Can you beat that? Try to juxtapose this piece with the reality on ground. Said he : “Before the election in Osun, the APC went to town telling the whole world it would be rigged. Every so often, it came out with broadsides as to the discovery of fresh plans to rig the election which it discovered through its detective agency. Its Sherlock Holmes in this regard is Lai Mohammed, its Publicity Secretary. Lai Mohammed has the unique capacity to smell smoke where there is no fire whatsoever. These days, whenever he makes an announcement, it is to cry wolf yet again.”

    Unfortunately he has forgotten the wise counsel from Wendell Philips that: “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”. So good and timely that the APC knew this axiom and put it to full use. Let us consider the nitty-gritty of  Philpot Curran’s statement, “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he breaks, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”

    The APC learnt lasting lessons from this. No more would it want the good people of Osun, nay Nigeria to remain helpless and voiceless slaves to the overbearing PDP-controlled central government that has said more than it has done on the critical issue of transformative leadership. Little wonder its governors are up and doing when it comes to good governance.

    For instance, Governor Aregbesola has discharged his mandate to his people to the best of his government’s capacity and abilities, in spite of the lean purse. He exhibited the rare traits of a politician adequately prepared for the challenging tasks of governance. Also, he is one who thinks and acts outside the box, propelled by high dose of creativity.

    He frontally tackled the monster of youth unemployment with Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O,YES). That has actively engaged some 40,000 young citizens with 5,000 others trained in ICT. That is no mean feat. His government raised the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from a paltry N300 million to N1.5 billion, without increasing tax. That speaks volumes about a visionary leader. There is also the N4.2 billion fixed in state reserve and the establishment of a Debt Management Office (DMO). That is judicious use of public funds which the corruption-riddled PDP should learn from.

    In addition to the N1 billion support for the rural farmers, about 1,765 hectares of land have been cleared for profitable use. Even the PDP could not accuse him of neglecting ‘stomach infrastructure’, Aregbesola can proudly show them  the daily feeding of over 240,000 Osun Elementary  school children and the economic empowerment of 3,000 caterers.

    Similarly, the giant strides in infrastructural development with durable roads and the Ede Water Works capacity raised from 13 per cent to 30 per cent all stand him in good stead. Add these to the ground-breaking Opo Imo educative tablet for students applauded internationally.

    Osun people can recount similar achievements in the sectors of health care services, agriculture, tourism and transportation which was why they appreciated him through the resounding victory at the polls. With 394,684 representing 55.02 per cent out of 11 parties and beating his closest rival by 101,973 votes, there are lessons for the PDP to learn.

    One is that good and effective leadership is the sine qua non to re-election not propaganda. The second is the need for intra-party unity. While the PDP in Osun State has suffered internal crisis the same cannot be said of the APC. Also important is the need to effectively counter misinformation and all acts of deliberate mischief.

    The likes of Aribisala and his conscienceless sponsors should make out time for sober reflection. If the seed of democracy would flourish and flower to fruition the people’s interests must be uppermost in the minds of all the stakeholders, especially the political leaders. No matter how long it may take truth would always overtake falsehood. Well done, Aregbesola. Well done APC. The tasks ahead are enormous but Osun has set the template for more victories. PDP’s misadventure in the South-West and its desire to win by crook instead of hook would remain nothing but a pipe-dream.

  • SAN: Aribisala does not deserve injunction, says bank

    An Igbosere High Court, Lagos, has been urged to dismiss an application of mandatory interlocutory injunction filed by a suspended Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Ajibola Aribisala.

    The application was filed against Fidelity Bank Plc and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC).

    Counsel to Fidelity Bank, Seyi Sowemimo (SAN), yesterday addressed Justice O. A. Adefope-Okojie on the bank’s application challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain Aribisala’s suit as well as the claimant’s plea for interlocutory injunction.

    He told the court that the lawyer has bridged court processes by taking his case to the media.

    Sowemimo noted that the granting of a mandatory interlocutory injunction was discretionary, adding that Aribisala’s conduct showed he was undeserving of the plea.

    Adefope-Okojie, at the last adjournment date, fixed yesterday to hear the two contending applications filed by Aribisala as well as the bank (first defendant).

    The claimant, in an application of March 7, prayed for a mandatory injunction restraining the LPPC (second defendant) from stripping him of his ‘SANship’.

    Whereas the LPPC neither responded nor sent representatives on the suit, Fidelity Bank filed a counter-affidavit, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case.

    At the resumed hearing, Sowemimo contended that an application for an injunction has to be hinged on a legal right.

    He told the court that the conferment of SAN is a privilege and not a legal right.

     

     

     

     

    He argued that the claimant’s claim does not disclose a civil right from which an injunction can arise.

    He said: “An application for a mandatory injunction could have come at the end and the ground for a mandatory interlocutory injunction is discretionary.

    “But, the attitude of the claimant is not one to warrant such discretion. There have been various advertorials, the claimant has taken his case to public domainn as such, his conduct has disentitled him from seeking this leave.”

    Sowemimo further argued that the application for injunction lacked merit, just as he maintained that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the suit since LPPC is a federal government’s agency and should be sued before a Federal High Court.

    He insisted it is a matter of the Exclusive Legislative List, adding that there is a fundamental defect in the claimant’s application as nothing in his brief showed an infringement on his civil rights.

    While replying to an earlier allegation by the claimant’s lead counsel Tunji Ayanlaja, that the bank was a ‘busy body’ and did not point the jurisdictional issue in their statement of defence, Sowemimo said the issue of jurisdiction can be raised at any point in time, even on appeal.

    He said: “This case is an abuse of the process of court. It is not right for us to be termed ‘busy bodies’. Anybody concerned in a matter can raise the issue of jurisdiction and it is not just the second defendant, LPPC.

    “I insist that, the second defendant being a party in the case, is a federal government’s agency and as such, this matter should have been instituted at the Federal High Court.

    “This court is urged to dismiss the claimant’s application with substantial cost”

    Ayanjala in his argument noted that Fidelity Bank’s jurisdictional application, which was brought on behalf of LPPC, the second defendant, was not contained in the bank’s statement of defence, contrary to Order 22 of the High Court of Lagos, Civil Procedure Rules.

    He said: “The first respondent in this matter is a busy body because the jurisdictional objection raised by them was not raised in their statement of defence, which is against the provisions of Order 22 of the High Court of Lagos, Civil Procedure Rules in which demurrer has been abolished.

    “If you want to raise any point of law, you must raise it in your defence. I urge this court to refuse the preliminary objection brought by the first defendant on grounds that the issues of jurisdiction it is raising on behalf of the second defendant was not stated in their statement of defence.”

    On whether LPPC was a federal government’s agency, Aribisala’s lawyer cited a 2002 Supreme Court’s case of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria vs T.N. Onnoh, insisting that LPPC is not an agency of the federal government.

    While adopting the processes he filed on the mandatory injunction as well as his written address, Aribisala urged the court to grant his prayers, noting that the LPPC took the action to suspend his SAN rank after he had instituted a case against and served them.

    He accused the LPPC of taking the action despite a pending application dated October 19, 2012, which sought a restraining order of interlocutory injunction against the body to suspend his SAN rank, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

    “As to the right of the claimant, the issue has been acknowledged by them (respondent) because before the LPPC took action, the claimant had a right as an SAN.”

    Aribisala further urged the court to discountenance the bank’s written address filed on May 6, adding that leave of court was not sought before the action was taken.

    He said: “A written address was filed on May 6, at which time was not open to the first defendant; he did not seek leave of court to tender the said written address in respect of mandatory injunction,” adding that the said address be disregarded.

    Aribisala’s lawyer told the court his client has been out of job since the pronouncement of his suspension was made.

    Adefope-Okogie after listening to both parties, fixed June 26, for ruling at the instance of Aribisala’s lawyer.