The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Futility

  • ‘Fayose’s ten-year ban on Fayemi an effort in futility’

    ‘Fayose’s ten-year ban on Fayemi an effort in futility’

    AN interest group, the Just Keep Following Group (JKFG), has faulted the recent white paper released by Ekiti State government banning minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, from holding public office for ten years. The group condemned Governor Ayo Fayose for allegedly instigating the indictment of his predecessor by a judicial commission of inquiry and releasing the document to block Fayemi’s possible entry into the 2018 Ekiti governorship race.

    In a statement yesterday signed by its state coordinator, Bisi Dada, and director of legal matters, Adeoye Aribasoye, JKFG described the release of the white paper as “an effort in futility and crass display of ignorance by the Fayose-led administration.” It said the outcome of the panel’s report confirmed the earlier concerns expressed in some quarters that “it was compromised from the beginning and targeted against Fayemi.

    “It is worthy of note that nobody or authority in Nigeria by the provisions of our Constitution can bar any Nigerian from holding public office other than a court of competent jurisdiction. A law pupil knows that the white paper is as useless as the paper it was written on because it has long been settled in plethora of cases that it is only a court of competent jurisdiction that can bar anyone either from contesting or holding a public office.

    “It has been settled in the case of ACN v INEC & Ors, Sokefun V Akinyemi (1981) 1 NCLR 135 and Garba v University of Maiduguri (1986) 1 NWLR  pt 18 at 550. The predetermined panel’s report has one motive, which is to stop Dr. John Kayode Fayemi at all cost from contesting the 2018 gubernatorial election in the state. We want to urge the general public not to be taken aback on the outcome of the political panel’s report as it cannot hold water.

    “The best it can be is to be thrown out of the judicial window into the lagoon of irrelevance where it rightly belongs. No court under the extant law will ever have a second look into the worthless paper before throwing it out,” the group argued.

  • Futility of threats

    Just as well, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, showed leadership when it mattered most; telling the so-called “Northern youths” to shove it, in their audacious ultimatum to all the Igbo, living in the North, to vacate that region, sans their property.

    But give it to those “youths” —  their sense of symbolism is as devastating as their audacious demand!

    For starters, they picked Arewa House, Kaduna, for their controversial press conference, at which they belted out their riot act.  Arewa House symbolizes the panoply of the northern establishment, in its full glory.

    So, it is likely to lend itself to rich conspiracy theories, like mushroom on wet wood, in Nigeria’s every vibrant rumour mill.  Well, many would have been winking to themselves now: voice of Jacob, hand of Esau!

    Then, their ultimatum date of October 1!  On the Nigerian National Day, their very own North, hurt and injured, would have called everyone’s bluff, and walked out in full drama.  What bravura!

    But Governor El-Rufai’s timely warning turned that into some damp squib.  Some hours later, the 19 northern governors, speaking through their chair, Kashim Shettima, reinforced El-Rufai’s message: the so-called threat is a no-brainer, with no basis in law or common sense.

    The Kaduna governor had earlier asked the security agencies to arrest those behind the threat, while the Federal Government itself had told the Igbo in the North to ignore the ultimatum.   That is how it should be, for no government, founded on law, should aid or abet such brazen blackmail.

    But the flip side: why wasn’t there an El-Rufai equivalent in all of the South East, all this time Nnamdi Kanu has been unleashing his explosive message of hate, threat, abuse and curses, on other Nigerians, on his neo-Biafra cause?

    Perhaps if there had been one, there wouldn’t have been any “Arewa youths” reaction, thus pushing the polity close to the Araba violence of 1966?  Remember that Operation Araba, code-name for the 29 July 1966 counter-coup, was not only to avenge the death of northern leaders in the 15 January 1966 coup, but also to take the North from Nigeria?

    Just imagine: 50 years ago, Araba was a reaction to a so-called Igbo coup, and the threat, after so much shedding of blood, was Arewa secession.  The ultimate result was the Civil War  (1967-1970), in which no less than two million perished.

    Today, it is another Arewa threat, in reaction to Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB’s torrential hate messages.  Who knows where this would lead?

    In a season of unbridled youth rascality like this, it behoves the elders to take charge, and rein the dangerous emotions of these callow youths, whose no-brainers could unleash callous, self-imposed tragedy.

    El-Rufai and the northern governors have taken a good lead.  It is time South East elders too followed that path of sanity.

    Threats and counter-threats just measure futility of violence.  They solve nothing.  They skew and screw everything.

    Those who refuse to learn from history must brace up for its inevitable dire consequences.

  • The futility of zoning

    The futility of zoning

    Next month, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be holding its national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, despite rumours the interim chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, may be angling for either an extension of that date, and thus his mandate, or the position of national chairman. As part of the intense jostling ahead of the convention, there were indications not too long ago that the party had already zoned plum offices. Party leaders have denied any zoning took place anywhere. The rumour should be disregarded, they said.

    What is not in doubt is that a convention will be taking place either on the stated date, or any other date not too distant from the first date. What is also not in doubt is that the dynamics in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have compelled the PDP to announce, without giving the matter much thought, that the presidency had been zoned to the North. The APC’s Muhammadu Buhari is from the North, and given the irrepressible parochialism of Nigerian politics, the PDP believes it would be suicidal to swim against the tide. Should the APC present a northern candidate in the next presidential poll, the PDP would be sailing near the wind not to look north for its own candidate, party leaders concluded.

    Nigerian political parties loath taking risks. If they were minded to dare, they would discover that no candidate is unbeatable, for the dynamics that shape Nigerian presidential elections are not what the voters often think they have identified. Moshood Abiola did not win in 1993 simply because he was a Muslim, Yoruba or, as it seemed, a progressive. He won because, among other reasons, he had an extensive network of friends all around the country and had won the admiration and trust of Muslims and Christians alike for his warm, idiosyncratic politics. In addition, his opponent, Bashir Tofa, was staid, detached and unpopular even in his own state. What is more, Chief Abiola and his party outspent the opposition.

    It is doubtful whether ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo won in 1999 just because he came from the Yoruba stock, which the power brokers in the country were trying to mollify over the murder in detention of Chief Abiola. Among other things, he won because the power brokers distrusted Chief Obasanjo’s opponent, Olu Falae, whom they thought had not transcended his Yoruba worldview. Chief Obasanjo had deferred to the North considerably in his first tour in 1976-1979, and the brokers thought he would be amenable, indifferent to ethnicity , and remain predictable because of his military background and network. Above all he was not an insufferable purist or an ideologue like Chief Falae.

    Two main reasons accounted for President Buhari’s victory in 2015. He was able to strike an alliance with the Southwest; and ex-president Goodluck Jonathan bungled too many things, including the insurgency problem and the irresponsible manner he left the treasury door ajar. Had both these two conditions not been present in 2015, neither the former army general’s military antecedent nor his asceticism would have proved lethal enough. After all, both attributes were noticeable in him when he ran for the top office in 2003, 2007, and 2011. More importantly, as Dr Jonathan’s victory in 2011 showed, the highly intriguing geopolitical dynamics of Nigerian elections indicate that to win, a candidate must take at least three zones out of the six and handsomely share a fourth.

    Therefore, zoning the presidency to the North, as the PDP has desperately done, is a reflection of their superficial understanding of the emerging dynamics of Nigerian politics and a safe and easy resort to simplistic electoral permutations. It is safe because they imagine that if they can split the North with President Buhari in 2019 by at least taking a half of one of the three zones, take the very safe South-South and Southeast, and possibly take the Southwest which they seem to believe is disgruntled, they would win. That chance, as far as analysis goes, exists. But the devil is in the detail. Technically, contrary to its calculations, the PDP may in fact be undone by its insistence on picking a candidate from a particular region before the party and country can determine his popularity and national acceptance. In 2015, the APC knew it could not hope to win by picking anyone from the South to slug it out with Dr Jonathan despite his unpopularity. It had to pick someone from the North, not just because he was from the North, but because his appeal to that region as well as his charisma had sufficiently matured to deny the PDP candidate a share of the votes capable of producing a hung election.

    Mercifully for the APC, the PDP is engaged in lazy politics. As this column has maintained, the PDP must come to terms with why it lost the 2015 polls, and especially embark on a purge of its leadership in order to present a fresh face to the country. The party still pretends that the corruption it allowed to fester very badly under Dr Jonathan can be glossed over by rhetoric and grandstanding. It pretends that the corruption came about because of extenuating electoral spending, and that the APC is also guilty of that crime anyway. The party of course has its strengths; but it is its weaknesses that the public prefers to focus on, and it is those weaknesses that it must find absolution. It must show penitence for the great moral wrong it did to the country, and show proof that its new men, if it can find them, are so principled that they would forswear such unhealthy and destructive practices in the future. And they must show that contrition convincingly. Merely picking a northern candidate through zoning will not redress the wrong nor assuage the feelings of a country still hurting very badly.

    Contrary to what the APC thinks, it is still very vulnerable despite the PDP’s lack of sense and deftness. For a number of reasons, the ruling party can be beaten in the next polls, even if it makes the economy grow at a stupendous seven to 10 percent between now and 2019. Regardless of the fate of the economy, a number of factors are forcefully shaping national discourse and politics, chief among which are (a) the issues of devolution manifesting grimly, for example, in the Biafra polemics and Fulani herdsmen aggravations; (b) human rights problem manifesting in the increasing and untamed brutality of security agents such as was evident in the Army/Shiite clash last year in Zaria; and (c) bitterness over the skewness of national appointments. The party better able to seize upon these subjects and frame them in a manner that resonates with the electorate will likely have the upper hand. So far, the APC is dithering, unable to manage its victory with half as much daring and surefootedness as it summoned at the beginning of the 2015 electoral joust; and the PDP is pussyfooting, unable to come to terms with its 2015 defeat.

    Believing that it is wisely starting early in order to stand a chance of success in the 2019 polls, the PDP has zoned its key offices. The APC, also believing that it won office on a groundswell of electoral goodwill that cannot be gainsaid, assumes an enigmatic posture of false indomitability. Though 2019 appears far away, in fact so distant when compared with the over two-year plan that fetched the APC victory in 2015, neither of the two leading parties can be sure of victory or defeat. The country is a little exhausted with all the zonings and ethnic shenanigans of the past few decades, zonings that brought nothing but stagnation and engendered mediocre leadership. Given the grinding poverty and lack of national cohesion and ambition, it may be time for a really charismatic and brilliant nationalist of the first rank to aggregate the yearnings of the people and confidently take Nigeria from the depths of despair to the apex of glory. It is time for someone to break all ethnic, religious and social barriers. It is time to weld a national identity. It is time to rouse all Nigerians for greatness before the fissiparous tendency in the land takes over completely. Whoever can do these deserves all the support.

  • ‘Ladoja’s petition, an exercise in futility’

    ‘Ladoja’s petition, an exercise in futility’

    •Verdict expected next week

    A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Prof Joseph Olowofela, has described as “an exercise in futility” the petition filed by Accord governorship candidate Rashidi Ladoja against the victory of Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

    Olowofela, in an interview yesterday, said the party’s action was a legal exercise.

    He opined that Accord could have earned more honour and glory if it had accepted defeat and congratulated the winner.

    The professor of Physics explained that Ladoja was afraid of losing his followers.

    He said: “If what is going on in court is something to go by, then I will say that Accord is pursuing an exercise in futility.

    “If you accuse someone you have the moral burden to prove or establish your case.

    “So that means that the statement of your witnesses must be very solid. Ajimobi will come out victorious. APC won that election.”

    The APC chieftain said the two areas contested in the tribunal are Oke-Ogun and Ogbomoso.

    “In Ogbomoso, there was an election and it was free and fair.

    “Labour Party won in the area and yet the party was not joined in the petition.

    “When you consider Oke Ogun, the APC won.

    “It is general knowledge that the election in Oke Ogun was peaceful, free and fair.

    “Nobody has come forward to say there was no election, there was election, it was credible, free and fair.”

     

  • Futility of ‘big lie’ strategy by PDP against Tinubu

    Futility of ‘big lie’ strategy by PDP against Tinubu

    If you tell a lie that’s big enough, and you tell it often enough, people will believe you are telling the truth, even when what you are saying is total crap”, Richard Belzer wrote in his book UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don’t Have To Be Crazy to Believe.

    From time immemorial, dishonourable men have thrived in politics by peddling fabricated and concocted lies and half- truths. And while truth and sound principles will eventually outshine falsehood and opportunism, those who deal in such stock record some successes, albeit temporarily, at the expense of the people striving to bring some difference to politics.

    Sir Winston Churchill was therefore right when he observed that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on”.

    These charlatans and opportunists are champions of the ‘Big Lie’ theory endorsed and popularised by Adolf Hitler and his chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels and simplified in Richard Belzer’s book referenced above.

    This is the strategy now adopted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apparatchik in their futile attempt to politically lynch Tinubu, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Their grand plan which is not new is to discredit him and other honourable men in the progressive fold in the belief that if the same big lies are repeated over and over again, people will begin to believe them and their targets will become discredited thereby truncating efforts to wrest power from the clueless and inept PDP politicians.

    They adopted this strategy in Ekiti State.  They deployed it in Osun State and are now employing it fully as the national elections approach. A manifestation of their desperation is the recent churning out of unsubstantiated allegations both on television and in the social media against Tinubu, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and a host of APC leaders. Of note is that they seem to have gone into overdrive in their circulation of outlandish accusations of inordinate wealth and property acquisition by Bola Tinubu.

    These politicians turned blackmailers who are clearly of the

    PDP brand are identifiable. They must not be left to roam free and get away with libel and their criminal activities in character assassination. Tinubu and the APC must approach the courts of the land and, with the decorum and formalities afforded by the rules of courts, put them to the strictest proof of these allegations.  Because of their cowardice, they work as faceless persons. However, they have now been uncovered. The Fayoses, Fani-Kayodes,Mimikos and the Olisa Metus of this world. They have also recruited many into their ranks using slush monies.  They go by phony names and acronyms shielding their cowardly sponsors.

    In the past, these characters made allegations against Tinubu and went ahead to orchestrate his arraignment before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).  It is a matter of record that all the charges against Bola Tinubu were quashed by that tribunal.

    Several other allegations against him remain in the realm of speculative rumour, with no evidence to back them up.

    In the latest round of falsehood being circulated in some sections of the media, a list of “purported choice properties said to belong to a chieftain of the APC is being peddled.  Those behind this list do this without regard to whether the properties in the list in fact exist.

    Their story admittedly describes them as ‘purported choice properties’, and raise doubts of ownership by stating ‘said to belong’!!! How irresponsible and how manifestly mischievous!

    For the records and for the avoidance of doubt, it is clear that these allegations are totally false and baseless and this attempt to play on our people’s collective ignorance and emotion is sad.

    The ‘Big Lie’ strategy of the propagators of these lies is about to come to an end. Because he who alleges must proof, these attackers must face the law and provide incontrovertible proof.

    The Tinubu-inspired 25-year development plan of Lagos helped lay the foundation for the infrastructural renewal, revenue breakthrough and related reforms in Lagos. No elected governor, past or present today in Nigeria equals the vision, vigor and vitality Tinubu brought to governance. Today, Lagos is a national and global model of good governance thanks to Tinubu and his party.

    Indeed, the falsity of the accusations against Tinubu and Fashola by the faceless would be apparent to independent and fair minded citizens if, in the absence of the opportunity for formal proof and denial otherwise afforded in responding to identifiable accusers, and with the benefit of seeing through the ‘Big Lie Strategy’, they consider:

    ·Whether accusations of secrecy bordering on the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension) Law of 2007 are valid and reasonable when: (a) the law is available for public scrutiny in the Lagos State of Nigeria Official Gazette Extraordinary No. 37 Vol. 40 of May 18, 2007; (b)  the law, in fact, documents the benefits payable to retired public officers instead of arbitrary payouts; and (c) the approach agrees with internationally acceptable practices including the model in the United States (U.S.) under the Former Presidents Act, Presidential Transition Act and Former Presidents Protection Act.

    · Whether there is, in fact, a property on Oyinkan Abayomi that has served as Guest House to the Lagos State Government since 1979?

    · Whether the outlandish value of the properties listed in the publication is not arbitrary, unsubstantiated and indicative of the mischievous actions of desperate political operatives.

    · Whether reputable publicly traded organisations with internationally sanctioned codes of corporate governance such as Oando Plc and UACN Plc would engage, without obvious consequences, in such shady deals as described in the publication.

    · Whether the fact that I share a common surname with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Oando Plc is not being used as a fodder to feed damaging conspiracy theories and score cheap political points at the expense of the truth.

    · Whether the relocation of the Ikosi Road campus of the Lagos State Polytechnic to its permanent site at Ikorodu was not in fulfillment of the Master Plan for the institution.

    · Whether it is not lazy and outlandish to suggest that every major property developer in Lagos State is fronting for me.  Are most of these developments not funded by facilities from the banks?

    · Whether the matters relating to Federal Government properties in Lagos State are not presently before the Supreme Court of Nigeria and whether there is any shred of documented evidence substantiating the accusations concerning the old Federal Secretariat.

    · Whether sharing a surname with a doctor working at the Critical Care Unit (CCU) of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital is sufficient to reasonably conclude that I personally own the unit.  Is that not laughable in itself?

    The truth of the matter is that the detractors do not understand Tinubu and the progressives with their style and innovative approach to governance. Not because they are incapable of doing so, but because the years of waste and charlatanism presided over by these same detractors have become conditioned to their tired, regressive and destructive approach to governance, wealth management and infrastructure development.

    Tinubu is a trailblazer and represents that new progressive and aggressive generation of managers, who, having won the confidence of their people to occupy political offices, have embarked on new methods of financing projects. This group has fully tapped and developed the potentials of Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives.  By so doing, being able to complete and embark on projects that only decades of reliance on federal allocations would achieve.  Yes, private sector people benefitted but the benefits were legitimate and the people got value. And, what is more, it accords with international best practices.

    The APC approach to governance in Lagos has empowered the private sector players. It has led to the creation of jobs and opportunities for ordinary citizens. Citizens have gotten value and are positioned to continue to get long term value. This approach has in fact, reduced corruption and waste in governance.

    Do the PDP detractors know these? Yes, they do. Why, then, are they falsifying the records and creating and spreading malicious innuendos? Because they want to play on the people’s readiness and tendency (justifiable by years of disappointing governance) to believe that all politicians are corrupt and that any new agenda is an avenue to siphon funds. It is evil, devilish, criminal and morally reprehensible for our detractors to attempt to take advantage of our people in this way.

    I have no doubt whatsoever that the objectives of the publishers of these otherwise defamatory articles are to malign the person of Tinubu and attack the viability of the APC platform, to manipulate the people and impede the progress of the Progressives. It is an act of desperation and politically motivated character assassination carried to its highest and nauseating level against Tinubu.

    Like it failed in the past, this attempt again will kiss the dust.