It was a very emotional week for the nation, more especially for the House Number 1 and its current landlord. Nigerians woke up on Wednesday to the news of the demise of the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, who was said to have died Tuesday evening. Lagbaja, who had been out of circulation for some weeks due to an undisclosed illness, was appointed to the position by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in June of 2023, shortly after he was sworn in as President. Since Lagbaja was his appointee, who was considered to have held the position very well, President Tinubu took on the responsibility of informing the nation of the tragic development.
As it is standard with his weeks, a schedule had been out and had run its course for Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was meant to have the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. However, having announced the death of Lagbaja earlier that morning, it was no surprise when Vice President Kashim Shettima announced to a well attended Council that the President had decided to call off the meeting they were all there for. “Honourable ministers, this is a message from the President, he has suspended today’s Council meeting in honour of the Chief of Army Staff. May his soul rest in perfect peace. Let’s observe a minute silence in his honour”, the Vice President said.
Besides calling the meeting off, President Tinubu, in a statement issued almost about the same time the meeting was being called off, directed that all flags be flown half mast nationwide for a week, signifying the importance of the man Lagbaja and how much his death hurts the nation, if for no other reason, for the fact that most Nigerians will remember him as the CoAS who was already achieving significant success in the fight against the various murderous criminal groups terrorizing different parts of the country.
Ironically, earlier on Tuesday, the President decorated the acting Chief of Army Staff, Major General Olufemi Olatunbosun Oluyede, with the Lieutenant General rank at the Presidential Villa. Oluyede was on October 30 appointed to act in Lagbaja’s absence. The unfortunate situation, that’s the untimely death of Lagbaja, pretty much halted normal weekly activities for the President because right from the moment he called off the Council meeting on Wednesday he went low-key, doing whatever was left for the week away from the office.
However, before Wednesday other very important activities on his schedule had happened. For instance, on Monday, he swore in seven new ministers, those whom he had previously nominated in his cabinet reshuffling, which he did a few days back. You will recall that the President finally commenced the long anticipated changes to his cabinet; he dropped five persons, redeployed ten to new positions and nominated seven new persons, whose names he sent to the Senate for screening. All the seven nominees were screened and approved for the cabinet. He swore them in on Monday at a colourful ceremony at the Council Chambers of the State House.
Those sworn in were Idi Maiha as Minister of Livestock Development; Yusuf Ata as Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development; Dr Suwaiba Ahmad as Minister of State for Education; and Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Others were Dr Jumoke Oduwole as Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment (Trade Investment); Dr Nentawe Yilwatda as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction; and Muhammadu Dingyadi as Minister of Labour and Employment.
The swearing ceremony was the opportunity he needed to prepare the minds of those he was just recruiting. He would not allow then just come in to face shock. He told them that they will be criticized, insulted and some will even call for their heads over developments that have defied answers or solutions for ages.
However, even as curiously difficult as the assignment may seem, he reminded them this is an assignment that will be requiring them to sacrifice. The import here is that though you will be giving your time, freedom and cares, which ordinarily you will want to get appreciated and paid for, this one is not likely to come with the expected, as a matter of fact, the situation is so precarious you will have to see all you will give to the office as a sacrifice and when it is a sacrifice, you should know it will cost you and you will not get an immediate return.
He remembered to remind them that they are coming into public office at one of the most challenged times of Nigeria’s history, so their service is actually meant to be a sacrifice, working with all their strength, not expecting much in return, immediately. This is a time their best will be required, working at break-back speed and rate, without looking back or resting because much work is required. At the same time, he made them aware of the fact that it is not all for nothing because at the end of it all, by the time the stability and good country are achieved, there is going to be a reward; names written in gold, to be remembered as the builders of the new, prosperous Nigeria.
“You will… (face) criticism and abuse. Don’t worry, stay focused, stay resilient. Your thanks will come with the history of growth and prosperity for this country. It is my joy and honour to be part of you, to be responsible for over 200 million people in this country. I appreciate the fact that you have taken the Oath of Office and ready to serve your nation at the time we are facing the challenges of economic growth and others like security challenges. It is not easy to find just the unique people that will surrender their lives, freedoms and other responsibilities to serve their nation in this time of challenges. The moment is challenging, the present situation calls for a very serious commitment, yours is a duty to serve and that is what you’ve got to do.
“We have stopped the scavengers, we are going to stop completely the profiteers and smugglers of our resources across the country. We are not going to run away from our responsibility, we are going to face it as we have been facing it head long. With you as members of this team, I am proud and honoured that I am leading you and we will lead to success and prosperity. I am sincerely happy that you are here today to be part of this very committed team of Nigerians who have been working tirelessly since 17 months when we assumed the responsibility of governing this country. You are called upon to join the team to rescue this country. Service is the hallmark of this human endeavour, you are being called upon to serve”, he said.
Same Monday, the President stepped into a situation that was already escalating into a serious national crisis, which was already setting the stage for another north/south disagreement scenario.
You will remember the #EndBadGovernance protest and how it panned out. The protest wore some colours not really recognizing what we have always known with protest patterns in the country. In the past, protests were usually a southern thing, defined along the public/government disagreement line, basically local.
However, the August protest became more profound and rather violent in the north this time around. Then for the first time, protesters introduced a strangely foreign dimension to it; in Kano and Kaduna especially, protesters were seen wielding Russian flags, passing a subtle message. From hindsight, it was easy to decode where the Russian message was coming from; northerners have some affinity with our Sahelian neighbours; cultural, linguistic and religious affinities, factors that informed the sympathies found among northern Nigerians for Niger, Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso when the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided to isolate and sanction them when they fell under military rule.
These are countries colonized and still being largely run under strong French influence, a factor which informed the coups, coups believed to be clandestinely sponsored and aided by Russia, for whatever reason. So when during our August uprising we suddenly started sighting Russian flags in the hands of our compatriots close to the Nigerien borders and not too far from the other military junta-led neighbours in the Sahel, it was not difficult to decide what was happening and the response of security forces was swift, arresting both the flag-wielders and those sewing them.
That was how it started, all capture in pictures and videos, however, the story changed during the week when the media started depicting a new narrative; the Nigerian government arraigning minors as protesters. The CNN report was the most vivid of all, seeming like intended to achieve an agenda. A report by the American news channel, published on Sunday, November 3, had the headline “29 children may be sentenced to death for protesting against cost-of-living crisis in Nigeria”. The agenda seemed to work because on Monday the President directed the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to work for the release of the offenders.
“You saw what happened in the courtroom and as a result of that Mr. President, because of his very deep commitment to democracy and the rule of law, and without prejudice also to whatever legal processes there are and on the other hand, on the human part of it, he has directed that some
announcements be made. I recall that I had short briefing with Mr. President early this evening and he has directed the immediate release of all the minors that have been arrested by the Nigerian Police. Without prejudice to whatever legal processes there are, the President has directed that all of them be released immediately”, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, announced at a briefing on Monday in the State House.
That was followed up on Tuesday with a handing over ceremony of the discharged 119 accused persons, among whom only about four or five minors could be sighted, to Kaduna and Kano state governments. Later on we started seeing pictures from Kaduna, of state government officials handing off N100,000 cash and iPhone handsets to the discharged.
You can still search for videos and pictures of the carnage visited on Kano, Kaduna and some other northern states by some of these persons. But then, those in the vanguard of the narrative, aimed at inciting another crisis, whipping the regional/ethnic sentiments, got their prize because Tinubu saw through the agenda and would not allow it fester, thus his swift response.
There were visitors on Tuesday, like the Bayelsa State political and traditional leadership, led by Governor Douye Diri, who said they came to thank him for the appointments given to some of their sons and daughters, like that of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, now occupied by Mrs. Didi Esther Wason-Jack. There was also the visit of the Delta All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Chief Ayirimi Emami, who also came with a file of concerns for his Itsekiri people, also on Tuesday.
It is a new week and we need to wait to see what it will hold.
