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Tag: losers

  • Losers:

    Losers:

    Obi:

    The greatest loser in the exercise is Peter Obi, former governor and 2023 presidential aspirant of the Labour Party (LP). The visioner of the noisy, garulous and ‘structureless Obedient Movement’ lost his polling booth, underscoring his lack of popularity and loss of relevance at home.

    In the last general election, he proved his meetle, winning over 90 percent of the votes as presidential candidate in the state. However, after the poll, his party lost steam, no thanks to the protacted leadership crisis that hit the platform.

    Apart from being a former governor, Obi was also a vice presidential candidate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019. He was always fond of defecting from one party to the other. Although he made a feeble appearance during the campaigns, it never resonated with the people. Obi could not match the aura, intellect, pedigree, and charisma of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo on the podium. The campaign train of the governor was simply electrifying.

    What the outcome of the weekend election has shown is that Obi’s political structure has been rattled and dismantled, and this portends a danger to his future ambition to rule the country. He has been demystified at home.

    Moghalu:

    George Moghalu of the LP is a serial contestant and an impatient politician. He is never strategic. Nobody plans to fail, but many fail to plan adequately, thereby boxing themselves to failure. Despite being a brilliant person, that quality never showed in the result of the election.

    It may be that the LP candidate miscalculated. Moghalu had wanted to build on the Obi’s mysterious success in 2023, oblivious of the dynamics of contemporary politics. He crashed, losing his deposit despite the bravado. Even, voters at his polling booth turned their backs at him.

    Some people believe that Moghalu betrayed the All Progressives Congress (APC), which gave him an opportunity to serve the country as head of the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA). He left the APC for LP when the Abure and Usman factions were locked in a battle of supremacy.  He had hoped to ride to power on the wing of Obi, who could not settle the rift and unite the party.

    He missed being candidate, until reason prevailed. It is now evident that he does not carry any weight, his strategy of leaning on past glory of an inconsistent leader having crumbled.

    Read Also: APC’s Ukachukwu weeps over burning of APC supporter’s building

    The challenge is whether Moghalu would stay in the distressed Anambra LP chapter to rebuild it or defect to another party.

    LP:

    LP is always a party on the waiting list. It is perpectually a borrowed platform, always up for grab by aggrieved and bitter politicians from  other political parties. It is characterised by doubtful membership.

    Its founding authority, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), do not know what they can even use the party for. That gap is usually noticed. Therefore, LP is always a place of refuge for rejected aspirants from other parties who lost out in the intra-party selection process.

    The tragedy now is that the leadership is being disputed. Who is the authentic chairman of LP? Julius Abure or Esther Nenadi-Usman, who chairs the National Caretaker Committee? The caretaker committee won a case in court, but the umpire invited the leader of the other faction to crucial meetings.

    That logjam persisted up to the poll day. It nearly led to the forfeiture of the governorship ticket. The factions could not agree to campaign for the candidate, who warmed the ballot as a decorative figure. The outcome was predictable. Anambra LP failed.

    ADC:

    ADC was a joker, and its candidate, John Nwosu, was a comedian on poll day. In Anambra, the party is at half. It is the half of the PDP, which broke away during the crisis that led to the exit of the Abubakar Atiku camp. Up to now, the coalition pales into daydreaming. ADC is not moving forward. It is not moving backward too. It is at a standstill.

    Anambra poll was its first opportunity. It failed the popularity test woefully. Two reasons were responsible. First, the structure of ADC is weak. The name of the party is strange to the people. Second, it could not withstand the arsenal of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which has maintained dominance in the state since 2003.

    ADC is still in an embroyic state. It is yet to have a definite party register. Its identity is still being formed. The PDP defectors and old ADC members are yet to come to terms. The challenge of harmonisation has not been resolved.

    The result is a sign of what ADC should expect in future polls, except its proposed coalition is consummated.

    PDP:

    The PDP is at a low ebb in the Southeast state. In 1999, it was the ruling party, with Chinwoke Mbadinuju as governor. Four years later, APGA came with a bang. It was first resisted by the PDP, which falsely installed Dr. Chris Ngige as governor in 2003. In 2009, the interloper was kicked out by the court.

    Since then, APGA has maintained its hold. Not even the threat by another interloper, Andy Uba, could stop it. As APGA continued to wax stronger in the state, PDP continued to decline.

    Even, it PDP and ADC had combined strengths, there was no way they could have displaced APGA.

    Currently, PDP is in disarray. The crisis is affecting the state chapters. It took the strategic intervention of the former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, for the party to have a governorship candidate in Anambra. The two camps could not easily agree on who should run.

    The abysmal performance was predictable. Can the chapter ever bounce back?

    Other smaller parties:

    There are at least other 10 smaller parties warming the register of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). They are dormant parties. In the past, those  mushroom parties were deregistered for failing to live to expectation. But there was uproar because some activists felt that freedom of association, assembly and political participation was being tampered with.

    There is no reason to keep on the register parties that indulge in self-deception. Including them on the ballot is meaningless.

  • These irredeemable sore losers have lost it for all time

    These irredeemable sore losers have lost it for all time

    So, I am not Nostradamus, that French astrologer, physician, and reputed seer, “who is best known for his book ‘Les Prophéties’, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains predicting future events” many of which, the 9/11 catastrophe inclusive, have happened almost to the letter.

    I have literally laughed myself hoarse reading, or listening on television, to the post – PETC decision babble of  not just the  presidential wannabes themselves, but  their court jesters like Daniel Bwala, Sam Amadi and a host of others whose cheer leader, however, is none other than  Dele Momodu.

    How I once liked him?

    In ‘The Illogic of Dele Momodu …’, 30 October, ’22 I wrote concerning him:”For me, it is simply impossible not to like Dele Momodu – avuncular, sartorial and derring-do. Dele has carved a niche for himself, not only here in Nigeria but all over the West African sub region, if not all over the world. That he is an alumnus of the University of Ife, aka Great Ife, my Alma Mata, raises my admiration for him a notch higher”.

    That was the piece in which I shredded the puerile reasons on which he had erected his dream  of an Atiku victory in the then forthcoming  2023 Presidential election; a fairy tale I knew would never come true for a self – conceited politician like Atiku.

    Momodu, never known for moderation, took direct aim, and mercilessly pulverised the 5 Justices who found against Atiku at the PETC writing: “I watched in utter amazement and wonderment how our constitution was brazenly

    and deliberately turned upside down by those who lack a sense of history and care less about the verdict of history”. “What all men and women of good conscience should have for them is pity and not anger…”

    Just imagine a man who should be pitied, a man Nigerians know would have waxed lyrical in his praise of the same judges had they found in favour of his two pals even as their lawyers made a complete mess of their petitions.

    Fortunately, I need not break a single sweat in reacting to him this time around.

    I shall, instead, rely on His Lordship, Mr Justice Niki Tobi, JSC, of blessed memory who, as far back as 2008, had foreseen, and dealt severely for posterity, with the likes of Dele  Momodu, that is,  media blackmailers of the judiciary.

    To his Lordship’s immortal words in Buhari vs. INEC & Ors (2008), LPELR-814 SC), @  pages 175-178 on the subject of Media Blackmail and Intimidation of the Judiciary I shall, therefore, revert.

    “The Court of Appeal cannot collect evidence from the market overt; for example from Balogun market, Lagos; Dugbe market, Ibadan; main market, Jos; Central market, Kaduna; Central market (former Gwari market), Minna; Wuse market, Abuja. On the contrary, the Court of Appeal, has to wait for evidence, as the court did, in the court building duly constituted as a court qua adjudicatory body. Courts of law being legal and sacred institutions, do not go on a frolic or on a journey to collect inculpatory or exculpatory evidence. On the contrary, they deal only with evidence before them which is procedurally built on arid legalism.

    For the avoidance of doubt, I am not saying by this judgment that all was well with the conduct of the Presidential Election conducted in 2007. What I am saying is that there was no evidence before the Court of Appeal to dislodge section 146(1) of the Electoral Act.

    It is sad that so much has been said in the newspapers of this country on the case. The new technology of internet reporting (Social media venerated by Obidients and Atikulators – my words) has added to the comments, some of them doubting our integrity to do justice according to law. I regard them as blackmail and I will not succumb to blackmail,

    I swore on that eventful day as a High Court Judge to do justice to all manner of persons without fear or favour. I have never departed from that oath and I will not, God helping. It is too late in the day to do so. Nigeria is a country where suspicion of wrong doing is the past time of the citizens. Nigerians should realise that some public officers should be trusted to do the right thing. Why not the Judges!

    Nigeria is one vast and huge country made up of so many diversities in terms of tribes, cultures, sociology, anthropology and above all, quite a number of political parties (some large, some small). These diversities, coupled with the usual aggressiveness of Nigerians arising particularly from the do or die behaviour in politics; there must be irregularities. Courts of law must therefore take the irregularities for granted unless they are of such compelling proportion or magnitude as to “affect substantially the result of the election.” This may appear to the ordinary Nigerian mind as a stupid statement but that is the law as provided in section 146(1) of the Electoral Act and there is nothing anybody can do about it, as long as the Legislature keeps it in the Electoral Act. The subsection is like the rock of Gibraltar, solidly standing behind and for a respondent to an election petition. I am not saying that a Presidential Election can never succeed in the light of section 146(1). No. It can if the petitioner discharges the burden the subsection places on him.

    The way politics in this country is played frightens me every dawning day. It is a fight to finish affair.

    Nobody accepts defeat at the polls.

    The Judges must be the final bus stop. And when they come to the Judges and the Judges in their professional minds give judgment, they call them all sorts of names. To the party who wins the case, the Judiciary is the best place and real hope of the common man. To the party who loses, the Judiciary is bad. Even when a party loses a case because of serious blunder of Counsel, it is the Judge who is blamed. Why?

    While I know as a matter of fact that in every case, the Judge makes an additional enemy, if I use the word unguardedly, I must say that the Judge does not regard the person as his enemy. The Judge who has given judgment in the light of the law, should not be castigated in the way it is done in this country. That is a primitive conduct and I condemn it. It is a conduct that does not help the promotion of the administration of justice. It is rather a conduct that is likely to affect adversely the administration of justice in this country. I feel very strongly that Nigerian Judges should be allowed to perform their judicial functions to the best of their ability. I should also say that no amount of bad name-calling will deter Nigerian Judges from performing their constitutional functions of deciding cases between two or more competing parties. Somebody must be trusted in doing the correct thing. Why not the Nigerian Judge?”

    If these sore losers are still capable of any learning, they should see the pedagogical  position of the hugely respected Judge as a learning curve.

    They should correlate it to the wise words of Justice Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf who, in dismissing the petitions said, inter alia, as follows:

    “The petitioners did not understand the explanation of the first respondent or were just fixated on their belief that they won the election without any cogent and credible evidence as they did not  bother to place any credible evidence before this court.”

    “Were they expecting the court to go and gather evidence from the street, or the market? Or to be persuaded or intimidated by threats on social media? That is not the way of the court”.I hope Obidients and their cousins, the Atikulators, heard that clearly. Since they will not be pleading anything new at the apex court, they should know that   discretion, as the saying goes, is  the better part of valor.

    A word should be enough for the wise.

  • Winners and losers

    WINNERS:

    Buhari and Osinbajo

     

    President Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election despite the falsehood and campaign of calumny by his adversaries in the social and conventional media. They made several attempts to discredit him. They alleged him of infirmity, old age and poor health that cannot cope with the rigour of presidential office.

    Surprisingly, Buhari won with over 3.9 million votes. It was an improvement over the 2015 results when he defeated the sitting President, Goodluck Jonathan with 2.5 million votes. Buhari’s victory clearly shows that he’s popular among the generality of the Nigerian people. It was an indication of good performance and trust and confidence reposed in him by Nigerians to move the country to the next level. His re-election is an endorsement of the three cardinal programmes of his administration viz: fight against corruption, fight against terrorists and diversification of economy.

    The Buhari administration introduced N-Power programme through which over 500,000 youths have secured jobs; various empowerment programmes for the youth. It has offered non interest loan to farmers, market women and won. His government also introduced free meal in primary schools.

    His administration had achieved a lot through the completion of abandoned projects inherited from previous regimes. They include rail projects, construction and rehabilitation of several roads across the country and improvement on power supply, to mention a few. His victory will guarantee uninterrupted development of critical infrastructure in the country

    Buhari took his campaign train to all states of the Federation to explain what his government had done in the past four years and unveiled the programmes he would embark upon if re-elected for another term. It is hoped that his re –election would bolster and fast-track the socio-economic development of the country and put it on the path of recovery and prosperity.

     

    INEC

     

    It was a triumph over false accusation. for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The two dominant parties All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had lost confidence over INEC’s preparation for the general election. When it suit them, the two parties at different occasion accused the electoral umpire of conniving to rig the election in favour of  one them.

    Many observers were sceptical about the capability of INEC to conduct a free, fair and credible election against the backdrop that few weeks to the election, some INEC offices were set ablaze with vital documents and card readers. But INEC rose to the occasion and made replacement for the items burnt in the fire outbreak.

    The shift in election date announced by the INEC Chairman three hours to the commencement of voting eroded the people’s confidence in the ability of the commission to conduct a credible election, especially when all sensitive materials had been sent out. INEC was able to retrieve them intact.

    The election was conducted all over the country. Though, there were minor hitches like late arrival of voting materials and polling officers but overall, it was a smooth exercise. The simultaneous accreditation and voting introduced by INEC was a good innovation. It saved peoples time.  The retention of card reader too eliminated multiple voting. The problem of card reader malfunctioning was less during the presidential and National Assembly elections. All this made local and foreign observers to commend INEC for conducting a free fair and transparent election.

     

    Security agencies

     

    The security operatives deployed to maintain law and order on the day election did a very good job. The Army, the Police, National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were pro-active. In few places where there was threat to peace and orderliness, they responded and restored peace. There were few cases of ballot snatching and ballot stuffing. There was no incident of electoral malpractice in which the security operatives were implicated. A group of foreign observers wrote in their report: “From monitoring the elections, it was observed that the electoral process was able to maintain its credibility by  the combined efforts of the security agencies led by the Nigerian Army that ensured that incidences of ballot box snatching and other electoral vices were curtail. They deserved commendation for their professional conduct during the presidential and National Assembly elections.

     

    Nigeria

     

    Against the background of the tension that the 2019 general election generated, the way the contest ended is victory for the country as a whole. Another four years under President Muhammadu Buhari would help consolidate the gains already recorded under his watch in the last for years and complete ongoing projects in the power sector, the railway revolution and the infrastructure upgrade. Victory for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would have meant going back to the drawing board and some of the utterances of the former Vice President do not really suggest that he was a better alternative.

    Unlike four years ago, when he did secure appreciable votes in the Southeast and Southsouth geo-political zones of the country, his victory this time will unite the country, because he candidature was endorsed by the electorates not only in his strongholds in the North and the Southwest, but also by an appreciable percentage from the two zones where he performed woefully in the 2015 general elections. In the next four years, President Buhari should be able to improve on some of the areas that are regarded as his Achilles’ heels, such as his slow pace of work, his perceived laidback attitude and his lopsided appointments.

    The leader who will take over from him in 2023 will inherit a more balanced country, in terms resource generation and management. Thus, the new incoming leader should be able to build on the Buhari legacies and the country will be better for it.

     

    APC

     

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party is also a beneficiary, in the sense that after eight years of what is expected to be a scintillating performance from a leader that loves the country tremendously, a solid foundation would have been laid which the party can build on, by looking inwards to pick another leader that would take the country to heights that Buhari may not be able to attain within his tenure, given the limitations placed on him by the nature of what he inherited on assumption of office in 2915.

    In four years of implementing its ‘Next Level’ policy direction, the APC should be able to stabilize as a party and tweak some of its existing policies, against the background of its experience in governance and project where it wants the country to be in the nearest future.

    Thus, by the time President Buhari would be leaving office in 2023, the party would have attained an enviable height and this would make it almost impossible for the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to dream of returning to power.

    To rally citizens behind it during President Buhari’s second term, the party must come to terms with its promise to restructure the country.

     

    Tinubu

     

    Asiwaju Bola Tinubu served as a co-chair of the Buhari campaign think-tank, the APC Presidential Campaign Council. Tinubu was the rallying point for President Buhari’s campaign in 2014/2015; a time the President had little prospects of winning.

    Tinubu spent his personal money to spearhead the campaign in 2014/2015 and succeeded in turning public opinion in his favour. The former Lagos State governor would be happy with the turn of events, so, he is a winner.

    The APC National Leader has been credited with attributes like courage, visionary leadership and the kind of political sagacity that helped the APC to weather the storm in the heady days when it was trying to find its feet as a party that wants to present itself as a viable alternative to the former ruling PDP.

    Asiwaju’s selfless leadership and dedication to put the interest of the nation first has been the main staying power behind the formation and the grooming of the party to its current winning ways. No one gave the party much of a chance to survive and win election back to back.

    With the successful re-election of the President for a second term, Asiwaju would be fulfilled as a politician, because as “the last man standing” and the sole opposition figure after the 2003 election when the PDP took over five states in the Southwest, no one would have expected Tinubu to be where he is today: as one of those calling the shots at the federal level.

     

    The people

     

    Buhari’s victory is a victory for the Nigerian people who stood by him through thick and thin. Even against the virulent wind of bitter criticism and opposition to his policies, the Nigerian people stuck to the President, by defending him daily, when the need arose.

    In the face of intimidation and victimization in some parts of the country, the people trooped out in different parts of the country to support the President’s bid for a second term. Thus, the return of the President for a second term in office is a dream come true for the masses, who will be the ultimate beneficiary of the policies enunciated in the “Next Level” of the administration.

    Now, with Buhari’s re-election and by extension the consolidation of his good governance and stability, Nigerians will be better for it. With the full implementation of the APC’s “Next Level” policy direction, there would be a quantum leap in power supply, the economy will improve, jobs will be created and the country will enjoy prosperity.

     

    Oshiomhole

     

    The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole had predicted Buhari’s victory in the presidential election held last Saturday. He hinged his prediction on the rigorous campaign which President Buhari went through. He recalled that shortly before the election, there was a lot of scares as regards his health but he was able to go round the 36 states unlike his opponent Atiku Abubakar who ca,mpaigned in only 19 states.

    Oshiomhole said the ruling party was confident of winning the 2019 election because Nigerians are not ready to give the opposition PDP , a second time. He said the PDP boasted that they would be in power for 60 years and they were rejected by the people after 16 years; it is a sign that people  were fed up with them.

    He said: “Even though the APC is not perfect, nothing can make Nigerians get so confused  as to think that yesterday there was mismanagement and those who were at the heart of that mismanagement can be entrusted with providing leadership tomorrow. I don’t think that is the question at all PDP is out of this calculation as far as I am concerned. PDP is not just an option particularly when their candidate is not a new face”.

     

    APC leaders

    Tribute should be paid to credible APC leaders: George Akume, Rotimi Amaechi, Aliyu Wamakko, Godswill Akpabio, APC governors, Ajayi Boroffice, Ibrahim Shekarau, Habu Muazu, Kwara APC leaders, Chris Ngige, Olusola Oke, etc.

     

    Losers:

    Atiku:

     

    Nigerians have spoken. The verdict is instructive. If wishes were horses, beggars will ride. The Waziri Adamawa worked hard, but in vain. He was full of bravado, obviously due to his financial war chest, eternal belief and reliance on the prediction and assurance of some marabouts, and some mistakes and lapses of the ruling party and the Buhari administration, which he sought to capitalise upon. It was his best outing so far. His over 11 million votes is not a joke. But, fate decided otherwise.

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was a formidable candidate who lacked the backing of the majority. He has fans nationwide. In particular, his programmes appealed to the elite, especially his friends, who loathed the style of President Buhari and who were enthusiastic about the sale of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other public concerns. The elite, who have immensely contributed to the economic and political adversity of Nigeria, formed a natural alliance with the PDP. It was not without a motive. Many of them were not burning with patriotic anger. It has been alleged that they only wanted a regression to ‘business as usual.’ But, the strength of the elite votes in their highly secluded GRAs were neutralised by the weight of masses’ votes on the streets.

    Atiku campaigned on the borrowed platform of restructuring. His views on the contentious national question were not lucid. His explanations on how to foster true federalism were neither deep nor exciting. The language of restructuring was strange to his native North, although it is long overdue. Pro-democracy, civil society groups and other advocates of restructuring doubted his sincerity and could not see him as a rallying point.

    Also, Atiku could not penetrate the strongholds of President Buhari in the North. While he made an in-road into the Southwest states of Ondo and Oyo, he was resisted in the traditional strongholds in the North, especially in the tension-soaked Northeastern states of Yobe and Borno and Northwest states of Kano and Katsina.

    Since the Third Republic, the PDP candidate has been gazing at the presidency. He has the right as a Nigerian. He stepped down for the late Chief Moshood Abiola, presidential flag bearer of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), at the Jos Convention. But, in 1999, he became the vice president. In a bid to realise his ambition, he has traversed both ruling and opposition parties. Thus, his foes describe him as a desperate politician.

    In 2007, he contested on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He lost to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP. In 2011, he struggled for the PDP presidential ticket with former President Goodluck Jonathan. He lost. He left for the APC, contested at the shadow poll and was floored by Gen. Buhari in 2015.

    Atiku hurriedly travelled to the United States to demonstrate that he is preferred by world powers. The visit did not produced a profound effect.

    Yesterday, the Adamawa-born politician rejected the results. Unlike Jonathan, who congratulated President Buhari in 2015, Atiku fired salvos, saying that the poll was flawed. This means that the struggle will shift from the ballot box to the tribunal and court.

    In the future, Atiku can still contest, but from a comparatively weaker position. After eight years of President Buhari, can any Northerner succeed him on the platform of any party? Will the South not harbour a feeling of alienation? Will it augur well for national unity?

     

    PDP:

     

    The effect of the devastating defeat on the main opposition party is better imagined. The outcome has affirmed its further rejection by Nigerians, four years after it lost federal control. This implies that the past impunities have not been forgiven and forgotten. The party, according to analysts, may face a bleak future.

    For 16 years, the acclaimed largest party in Africa loomed large on the beleaguered country. The party has tentacles across the federation. To that extent, it is a formidable structure. But, PDP has not been able to produce good presidents for Nigeria. Although observers contend that the late Yar’Adua could have made a difference, he was assailed by an illness that eventually terminated his life. The late president even owned up that the party was sustained in power by rigging. He therefore, unfolded an agenda for the sanctity of the ballot box.

    The greatest mistake of the PDP, in retrospect, was the selection of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo as its flag bearer in 1999. When the General took over as the party leader, he failed to adjust to the lifestyle of a democrat. His performance as president for eight years was not impressive. The infrastructure battle was not fought with vigour. Election became a do-or-do affair. Stakeholders alleged that the PDP governments were corrupt. In 2015, its hold on power was terminated by the APC.

    Outside power, PDP chieftains were left in the cold. They could not cope with the limitations of an opposition party. Therefore, they started defecting to the ruling party. The defectors became appointees under the Buhari administration. The platform survived a rancorous national convention and unfolded an agenda to bounce back. The agenda was buoyed by Atiku, who returned to the fold after realising that President Buhari was preparing for a second term.

    Under the leadership of Chairman Uche Secondus, PDP mounted an aggressive and effective campaigns. The poll results were a tribute to its determination to stage a comeback. It was able to spring surprise in Oyo, Ondo and Edo. It may repeat the feat in the House of Assembly elections in many states.

    However, its defeat at the presidential election has implications. It may further demoralise its chieftains who had lost parliamentary elections since their hope of largesse at the federal level is also foreclosed. Party chieftains may indulge in a blame game that may divide the fold. Reminiscent of 2015, many chieftains will repudiate the PDP and defect to the APC.

     

    Obasanjo:

     

    Ebora Owu General Olusegun Obasanjo is facing the mirror of history. Discernable from the mirror is the profile of a third term curator, apostle of do-or-die election, subjective letter writer, and inconsistent and ‘double speak’ leader at the twilight of life. The former president may not be perceived as a moral compass, based on his egocentric view of governance and disposition to ‘pull him down syndrome.’

    In Obasanjo’s view, there is no good leader in Nigeria, except Obasanjo. Therefore, his word must continue to be the law; all politicians must defer to him and all presidents must succumb to his whims and caprices. President Buhari’s undoing may have been his resistance to his undue influence.

    In 2007, Obasanjo said Atiku was unfit for the job. He threw his weight behind Yar’Adua, who never aspired. He even set up an administrative panel that ‘indicted’ him. In 2011, he was President Goodluck Jonathan’s coach at the PDP primary. When reporters sought his view, he said: “I dey laugh o.” Later, he put it in black and white that Atiku is sorrupt, thereby convicting his former deputy, although he is not the court. Obasanjo said God will not forgive him, if he supported Atiku for president. Obasanjo asked somebody to tear his PDP card and announced his retirement from politics.

    In 2014, Obasanjo wrote a letter to Dr. Jonathan asking him to jettison his second term bid. He accused the administration of ineptitude and corruption. He said Jonathan associated with drug barons. Jonathan’s ambition started crumbling. Having turned his back against the former president, he embraced Gen. Buhari, since public opinion favoured power shift.

    Three years after, the gerontocratic monitor fired a letter to President Buhari, urging him to drop his second term agenda. He observed that although the president has tried to fulfil his promises in the areas of anti-corruption fight and security, he has failed in economic management and job creation. He was full of bile in his letter. President Buhari simply ignored his former boss.

    Obasanjo tried to raise a third force. The party could not fly. Then, he urged the youths to take their destiny in their hands. He said the youths should behave like their counterparts in other climes, organise and mobilise for power. Later, he retrace his steps and endorsed a 73 year old Atiku. He wiped up sentiments against the APC government, unmindful of his own fading influence.

    Having dented Atiku’s image in his book: ‘My Watch,’ he suddenly turned around to be his brand manager. Obasanjo, a doctor of Theology, said Atiku has repented and he has forgiven him, urging Nigerians to consider his ambition for president. It was a difficult assignment for the former boss, who could not adequately justify his action and correct the damage already done.

    Indeed, the Ekerin Egba’s last intervention was not in national interest. On poll day, it was evident that Obasanjo, who had over-rated himself, was not popular at home. In his polling booth, President Buhari had the highest number of votes. In his native Ogun State, despite the division in the ruling APC, the president won. For the first time, a president survived Obasanjo’s vituperation. What will be his reaction to the APC victory?

     

    Retired Generals:

     

    Many commentators have described them as political principals and principalities. They are richer than professors, civil servants and businessmen, having secured oil blocs and used their foray into governance to maximum advantage. When they were in power, they retarded the growth of democracy. Yet, when military rule was phased out, they regrouped as a formidable bloc in the PDP. Some of them carry the cross of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election won by the late Abiola. But, they may have been caged, as it were, in their shell, making them to endorse Atiku, who, they think, will create more economic opportunities for them, to the detriment of the larger population.

     

    Ohanaeze:

     

    The pan-Ndigbo socio-cultural group, endorsed Atiku in error. The result was the polarization of the organisation. The group, led by John Nwodo, breached its time-tested rule of being an apolitical regional mouthpiece, regardless of the diverse political leanings of its leading lights and vast members. There will be need for reconciliation in the fold.

     

    Afenifere faction:

     

    There was division in Afenifere over the presidential poll. A faction, led by Chief Rueben Fasoranti, had endorsed Atiku, ahead of the poll. The moving spirit behind the move was Chief Ayo Adebanjo. But, according to Southwest PDP sources, the success of the party in Oyo and Ondo states was not due to the support of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group. Another faction, led by Chief Ayo Fasanmi, also endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari.

     

    Obi:

     

    Atiku’s running mate Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State, is vocal. The PDP candidate had picked him as running mate, without adequate consultation with Southeast stakeholders, for ethnic and religious balancing. Since he defected from the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to the PDP, he has not looked back. During the debate, he was up and doing, although some of his claims were dosputd by experts. Obi added value to the ticket, judging by the bloc votes from his region. The calculation of Southeast PDP leaders was that, after four or eight years of Atiku in Aso Rock, power will shift to the zone. But, his dream of succeeding Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) as vice president hit the rock.

    In 2023, Southeast may be in a weak position to agitate for power shift to the region for two reasons; APC has no firm root in the zone and PDP may not zone its presidential slot to the Southeast.

     

    Galadima, Fani-Kayode, Chidoka:

     

    Since he defected from the APC to the PDP, Buba Galadima, former defunct Congress for Democratic Change (CPC), has been vociferous against President Buhari, who he accused of nepotism and ineptitude. As the spokesman of the PDP Campaign Organisation, he enjoyed media visibility. He predicted failure for the president at the poll, a prediction that turned the other way round.

    In his native Yobe State, the President and the APC had the highest vote. His party, the PDP, won no National Assembly seat. Galadima has ho base; he is inconsequential politically.

    The contribution of Femi Fani-Kayode, lawyer and former Aviation Minister, to Atiku’s bid was limited to words of mouth. He is an avid critic of the President and APC, which he left in 2014 for the job of spokesman in Jonathan Campaign Organisation. He has allegedly urged Atiku to reject the results.

    Osita Chidoka, who returned to the PDP after 2015 polls, opposed the announcement of the results by the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, based on cancellation of some units’ results.

     

    Saraki:

     

    Senate President Bukola Saraki has been hit by double tragedies. He is the PDP brain box, held in esteem by the PDP congregation. He lost his ambition to return to the Senate, where he has served for eight years. Also, the hope of emerging minister in the Atiku’s government is also shattered.

     

    Defectors from APC:

     

    These include Former Kano State Governor Musa Kwakwanso, Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Senator Sheu Sani, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Kawu Baraje, etc.

  • Winners, losers of a keenly-contested poll

    A clear winner emerged yesterday in the Osun State governorship election at the close of the second ballot which held in seven units across four local government areas of the State of the Living Spring.

    The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) garnered enough votes to knock off the 353 votes the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led with at the close of the first ballot early Sunday morning.

    After the collation of eligible ballot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC candidate Gboyega Isiaka, with 254,345 votes, was trailing PDP’s Isiaka Adeleke, who polled 254, 696.

    In line with constitutional provisions, the electoral umpire, declared the first ballot inconclusive and rescheduled a rerun in the seven polling centres where 3948 votes were outstanding.

    The hard-earned victory of the APC at the end of yesterday’s rerun triggered a celebration in its camp and, as expected, the opposition party, after giving a fight, but not good enough to unseat the ruling party, cried blue murder, tagging yesterday as “Black Day” for the country. Its members, taking the defeat as a sentence to a four-year “shutout”, were forced to lick their wounds. Below are some of the winners and the losers.

     

    Winners:

    Osun people

    The people of Osun spoke with their ballot for their preference as the next tenant at the Osun State Government House after the expiration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s tenure in November. They had a choice between Oyetola, a master’s degree holder in Insurance, who had understudied governance as Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor for more than seven years. The other option was Adeleke, a senator, whose educational qualification has been an issue of controversy in recent time.

     

    The elite

    The elite took advantage of the rerun window to save the state from, according to them, being derided in the public. If the election had been won and lost on the first ballot, Osun would have set a record of becoming the first state to be administered by a governor with the least educational qualification. Before it was carved out of the Old Oyo State, Osun Division used to be the educational backbone.

     

    INEC, Rule of law

    The electoral umpire has further demonstrated its readiness for uprightness in the conduct of elections by allowing the votes of the 3948 registered voters in seven polling units where the first ballot was cancelled due to disruptions (Orolu); malfunction of Electronic Card Readers (Ife South); over voting (Ife North) and no voting) Osogbo), to count through the supplementary election.

    Relying on the electoral guidelines to back the inconclusive declaration, the Returning Officer and Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) Vice Chancellor Prof Joseph Fuwape, said the margin between the two leading contestants must be in excess of the total registered voters where an election was cancelled.

    He said the outstanding votes could swing victory in favour of either of the two leading parties.

     

    Oyetola

    The APC candidate, now governor-elect, traversed every community to canvass for votes. With his programmes and party manifesto well-articulated, the Iragbiji-born technocrat-turned politician is expected to use the next three months in scouting for cerebral Osun indigenes who will join him in the implementation of his vision for the 27-year-old state. The task ahead for him is to bring all aggrieved party members, who left in the aftermath of his emergence as the APC standard bearer. He also has a task of playing the role of a father-to-all, irrespective of party affiliations, after his inauguration on November 27.

     

    APC leaders

    To the leadership of the APC, from President Muhammadu Buhari, party chair Adams Oshiomhole, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and governors under the auspices of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF), the victory of the APC and its candidate is a dream come true.

    The governors shuttled between Osogbo and their states to rally support for Aregbesola to consolidate the gains of July 14 in Ekiti State. Beside a desire to have all the six states in the zone in a single political basket, the governors’ plan was to use the isolated Ekiti and Osun elections in sending a strong message to the raging opposition on next year’s general elections.

    APC stalwart Asiwaju Tinubu was in-and-out of Osun State to mobilise support for the party. Ahead of the rereun, President Buhari dispatched Ekiti State governor-elect Dr. Kayode Fayemi from United Nations (UN) 73rd General Assembly to join other party leaders in negotiating the APC into victory. The leaders met with critical stakeholders including, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in the election, Senator Iyiola Omisore, African Democratic Party (ADP), standard bearer Moshood Adeoti and House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun, among others. Their support for the APC during the supplementary election ensured support for the ruling party.

     

    Losers

    Adeleke

    The plan of the senator was to “dance” to the Osun State Government House after winning the election. But, whatever plan the Ede-born politician had, would remain in the realm of a dream, at least for now. In the run-up to the election, the senator had a running battle with the police over alleged examination malpractices. The PDP chieftains were all over the state to rally support for him. The party believed that INEC erred by not declaring Adeleke winner at the close of the first ballot.

     

    PDP

    Desperate to return to power after a four-year break, the PDP leadership planned to send a signal to the ruling party with the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states. But with two defeats in a row, close to the general elections, the opposition party will have to return to the drawing board to draw up a new winning strategy. To it, the non-declaration of its candidate as winner, based on his showing at the first ballot, was robbery. The party described yesterday as a “Black Day” for the country because its candidate lost the election.

     

    Saraki, Atiku

    Immediately after INEC declared the first ballot inconclusive and rescheduled a rerun for Thursday, Senate President Bukola Saraki was the first to discuss with Senator Omisore. Saraki, who defected from the ruling APC to seek the presidential ticket of the PDP, has been made the “national leader” of the main opposition party. He had left Ile-Ife on Monday before another PDP presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, visited Ile-Ife to persuade Omisore to support PDP’s Adeleke. But the bargaining power of the APC team, including Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha upturned whatever assurance the duo of Saraki and Atiku got from the strongman of Ile-Ife politics.

     

    Defectors

    Some defectors, who formed “mushroom” parties to get their pound of flesh from the APC for alleged marginalisation, failed in their bid to dislodge the ruling party. Save for the APC and the PDP, the other 46 parties on the ballot had dismal showings. They may have to worm themselves back into the heart of the party that brought them to political limelight.

  • Winners, losers of Ekiti governorship election

    The battle for the soul of Ekiti State was won and lost on the slippery political field. It was a collective enterprise involving many patriotic stakeholders, both within and outside the state. Many of them will still have to contribute more ideas and efforts to the reconstruction of the Fountain of Knowledge. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU and Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI profile the winners and the losers.

    THE governorship election in Ekiti State has been won and lost. Those on either side of the political dived – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been reflecting on the outcome of the keenly contested poll. The winners bask in the euphoria of their victory. But, for members of the PDP, the outcome of Saturday’s poll has not only demystified the party, it left a sour taste in the mouth of its chieftains.

     

    Winners:

     

    Ekiti people

     

    The major winners and beneficiaries of the anticipated new lease of life are the people; the courageous ‘soldiers’ and unsung soldiers of democracy who supported Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s push for power shift in their own interest.

    Across the 16 local government areas, the turnout was impressive. Some skirmishes, including occasional ballot box snatching, gunshots and minor disruptions were recorded in some predictable troubled spots. But, they were not enough to scare away the electorate. Generally, there was no large-scale unruly behaviour.

    Really, the people of Ekiti were not in one accord. But, the majority swung the pendulum of victory towards the direction of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

     

    APC

     

    The ruling party has enlarged its coast. Its victory in Ekiti is motivating the Osun State chapter to put its house in order. When the political family went into the 2014 poll, the first election under the APC in Ekiti, it was an orphan.  APC became a subject of mockery as its leaders were being oppressed, intimidated and dispersed on the eve of the poll. The 2014 exercise was like a war. The dispirited chapter felt the absence of a governor and leader of its own. Even, during the last APC national convention, while other chapters appeared in colourful attires, the pavilion of Ekiti APC was devoid of funfair. The situation changed for better on Saturday. In October, it will become a ruling party with great hopes and promises for the people.

     

    Buhari

     

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s wish is that Ekiti should come under the progressive umbrella. As the party leader and keen followers of the perfidy in Ekiti in the last three and half years, he has been a pillar of support for the APC chapter’s desire to bounce back to power. During the botched primaries, he invited the aggrieved governorship contenders to Aso Villa, the seat of government to pacify them and advise them to reconcile. He was in Ekiti to personally campaign for the party and its flag bearer. There, he gave a moving speech, applauding Ekiti’s rich historical antecedents and urging the people to reclaim their manifest destiny. The President also directed Southwest leaders to continue where he stopped by organising peace meetings so that the antagonistic contenders can sheathe their swords. Although President Buhari has been attacked by the out-going governor on many occasions, he refrained from settling scores. The elder statesman bore the burden with philosophical calmness. He only advised the people to ponder on their fate. In his view, Ekiti deserved more than stomach infrastructure.

     

    Southwest APC leaders

     

    The status of Ekiti as the far-flung state ruled by an over-bearing warlord will change for better in October. The dream of Southwest leaders is coming into fulfilment. Esteemed leaders of the region, including Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande, swung into action when the house was on fire ahead of the exercise. They held a critical meeting with the aspirants in Lagos to explain to them the import of the election and the need for them to subject their personal interests to the superior collective interest of the state and the party. They also campaigned vigorously for the candidate. Indeed, some legitimate underground works, including consultations and mobilisation, were also done to pave the way for the victory of the flag bearer. It is noteworthy that leaders from other zones, particularly the new national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, ministers, Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and his colleagues from other states, actively supported Fayemi in his bid to return to the Oke Ayoba Government House, after a four-year vacation.

     

    Fayemi

     

    For Fayemi, the poll underscored the audacity of hope and courage. For his deputy, it was a reward for his character, integrity and political consistency. The ticket is a blend of age, experience and ‘youthful’ energy and ideological commitment. When Fayemi lost to Governor Ayodele Fayose four years ago in controversial circumstances, he hurriedly conceded defeat, to the consternation of his fanatical supporters. He moved on to play some critical roles in the APC as the party was warming up for the 2015 polls. His legacies were destroyed across the sectors by his successor. This constituted a pain of the heart. The rescue mission was stalled. In three months’ time, the second phase of the mission will begin. The reversal of the past gains is challenging. Now, Fayemi has to gird his loins again. He is inheriting some challenges – unpaid salaries, dearth of infrastructure and army of restless and unemployed youths and a people who now have a demeaning view of governance. The first challenge is clearing the mess of three years. Another is the re-orientation of the people to move from their wild applause of crumbs falling from the master’s table to an appreciation of good governance based on ‘Progress for All, Life More Abundant.’

     

    Ekiti APC chieftains

     

    Ekiti APC chieftains – Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Femi Bamisile, Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua, Opeyemi Bamidele and other compatriots – are in a happy mood. They were up and doing. There was unity of purpose on poll day. They were united against a common foe.  Ado-Ekiti and Ikere-Ekiti were battle grounds. APC leaders shunned intimidation and fear in the two cities. They demonstrated courage and resolve to draw the curtains on the PDP’s dominance. The leaders should now brace for two challenges in post-Fayose period. The first is the challenge of distribution of offices when it is time to set up another cabinet of talents. The second is the management of conflict and tension that may be unleashed by parliamentary nominations ahead of next year’s elections.

     

    INEC

     

    If the tempo of achievement is sustained by the umpire, the name of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the electoral commission will be written in gold. The preparation for the poll by the electoral agency was encouraging. INEC members of staff were prompt and regular; there was no lateness to duty. The exercise was transparent. Ad hoc staff shunned bribery and corruption. As the sensitive polling materials were being moved to different locations, INEC introduced a tracking devise which prevented diversion. Collation of results remained herculean, but devoid of fraud. According to domestic and foreign monitors, INEC did a good job.

     

    Security agencies

     

    Ahead of the exercise, there were concerns over what some observers described as over-deployment of policemen. It later became a blessing in disguise.  Security agents protected the votes and voters. Where ballot boxes were snatched, they were recovered by the police. Where thugs attempted to disrupt voting, they were promptly checkmated. Although PDP leaders raised the alarm that they would be picked up, reminiscent of 2014, it never happened. There was no display of partisanship. Security men acted on poll day in national interest.

     

    Losers

     

    PDP

     

    The calculation of the PDP was to use the Ekiti governorship election as a springboard to return to reckoning in the Southwest, where it has been dislodged from power by the ruling party.

    As one of the elections before next year’s general elections, the Ekiti election was widely expected to signpost the alleged growing dissatisfaction with the APC administration at the centre and the much-touted rejuvenated opposition party.

    Losing Ekiti to the APC would be painful to the PDP as a political party, because the Southwest geo-political zone was described as particularly strategic to the party’s victory at the 2019 general elections.

    National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who stated the party’s position recently, said: “The Southwest zone is a major support base of the PDP. It is very strategic to our party and we hold our leaders and members in the zone in very high esteem for their untiring efforts in ensuring that the PDP flag continues to fly high in spite of daunting challenges.

    With the loss of Ekiti, the battleground in the region would shift to Osun State, where a governorship election is scheduled for September 22.

     

    Fayose

     

    Governor Ayodele Fayose is perhaps the biggest loser in the election. Although his name was not on the ballot, he contested that election by proxy, because the PDP governorship candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, is a political neophyte who relied almost 100 per cent on his principal’s clout to win the contest.

    Fayose would have preferred to see his protégée in the Ekiti Government House when he vacates the seat on October 16. But, with Fayemi’s victory, the handling of the finances of the state under the Fayose-led government is likely to be probed.

    It was Fayemi that handed over to Fayose in 2014, after the latter’s controversial victory. After taking over power, the PDP administration put the state’s debt stock at N86 billion and went ahead to set up a panel that indicted the former governor of mismanaging and looting the state recklessly.

    So, Fayemi is at liberty to decide what to do with his predecessor.

     

    Olusola

     

    With the APC victory, the deputy governor and PDP standard bearer in the election has lost an opportunity of setting a record of being the first deputy to succeed his boss in Ekiti State.

    He is not a politician and is not likely to remain in the political arena beyond October 16, when the new administration would be sworn-in. He never lobbied for the job; he was a senior lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, and was enjoying his job when the lot fell on his father, who is a politician, as Fayose’s deputy. But Fayose learnt that the man has a son who is a lecturer he quickly changed his mind and elected to choose the young Olusola as his deputy.

    Perhaps, he would return to his academic constituency.

     

    Ogunsakin

     

    With the triumph of the APC in Saturday’s election, 39-year-old Kazeem Ogunsakin, has lost the opportunity of becoming the first youngest deputy governor in Ekiti State. The immediate past chairman of Ado Ekiti Local Government and the head of the Due Process Unit at the Governor’s Office was picked as the running mate to Prof. Olusola in May, after extensive consultations with various stakeholders.

    Ogunsakin, a graduate of Economics, holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration. He is a native of Ado Ekiti, the local government with the largest voting population in the state.

     

    Atiku

     

    One man that is likely to be disappointed with the turn of events in Ekiti State is former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is hoping to contest next year’s presidential election against President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, if he gets the PDP ticket to run in the election.

    Atiku’s calculation would have been for Olusola to win the Ekiti election, so that as governor, he (Olusola) can deliver the state for him, if he clinches the party’s presidential ticket.

    With the defeat of the party in Ekiti, the prospect of a stronghold in the Southwest for his presidential ambition is gone. All the other states in the region are controlled by the APC.

     

    Secondus

     

    The National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Uche Secondus, has also lost the only state under his party’s the control in the Southwest. The calculation of the PDP was to use Ekiti as a springboard to other states in region.

    But, the PDP, under Secondus’ watch as chairman, is beginning the contest to regain power in 2019 on a sad note. This is because the outcome of the election is believed to be a pointer to what would transpire in 2019, particularly in the Southwest region.

    Secondus had reaffirmed the party’s hegemony in Ekiti State and urged the electorate during the party’s recent mega rally in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, to defy intimidation and vote for the PDP candidate, adding that the ruling party at the centre was using its ‘federal might’ to kill and arrest leaders of the party, to intimidate their supporters.

    He added: “Whether they like it or not, PDP will win Ekiti come July 14, because we are on ground and have something to show. We will also go ahead to win Osun State in September and the general elections in February 2019.”

     

    Jonathan

     

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan would also be disappointed by the victory of the APC. Jonathan was one of the PDP chieftains that stormed Ekiti in the build-up to the election to campaign for the party. He was in Ado-Ekiti to inaugurate the flyover built by PDP the administration.

    Speaking at inauguration, Jonathan said there is no way the PDP will not win the July 14 elections in a free and fair contest. Describing Fayose as a man who has the courage to lead his people, the former president noted that the governor never compromised anything that had to do with the interest of the people of Ekiti.

    Jonathan commended Fayose as a defender of the interest of Ekiti people.

    The former president said: “He has done well and has defended and protected the interest of the people of Ekiti State. We are here for infrastructural development. While here, I have inspected the High Court complex that was commissioned yesterday. I have inspected the market being constructed. I was a part of commissioning of the new Governor’s Office and I have inspected the office.

    “This night, I am commissioning the flyover. Everybody is talking about this flyover which is not just the first in Ekiti State, but the first flyover of its kind in Nigeria. Ekit State has meagre resources, compared to many other states. It is a feat to have these kinds of projects done here. We have to thank the vision of such a dynamic man Ayodele Fayose who is the governor of the state.”

     

    Wike

     

    Another major loser in the Ekiti election is Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike. The governor is the power behind the throne within the PDP at the moment. This is because he was the one that sponsored the bid for Secondus’ chairmanship prior to the party’s recent National Convention.

    Since the emergence of Secondus as the PDP National Chairman, Rivers State has become a Mecca of sorts for aspirants for the party’s presidential ticket in 2019.

    In his reaction to his party’s loss, Wike declared yesterday that the election result was the worst political robbery in the nation’s democratic history.

    He said the APC-led Federal Government will not be able to replicate what happened in Ekiti in Rivers State next year, because Rivers people are fully prepared. The governor spoke at the Anglican Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, Port Harcourt, during the Thanksgiving Service to mark the end of Third Year Anniversary celebration of his administration.

    He said: “Don’t be worried about what happened in Ekiti State.  We are prepared. It will not happen here in Rivers State. I have never experienced that kind of robbery in politics.

    “I told my colleagues that we should not give them any chance. Most of them in the APC are happy that they will repeat the same thing in Rivers State; we are waiting, come and repeat. Let your spirit not be down, work hard and victory will be ours.”

     

    PDP governors

     

    All the governors elected on the platform of the PDP, mostly in the Southeast and the Southsouth, must be disappointed by the turn of events in Ekiti.

    Against the backdrop of the belief of PDP governors that the Southwest will ultimately determine who wins next year’s presidential election, they had left no stone unturned to ensure that the party retains Ekiti in its fold.

    Having already secured the Southsouth and the Southeast and having zoned the presidency to the North, the PDP needs the Southwest to beat the APC. But, unfortunately, Ekiti has gone the way of the other states went progressively since election tribunals in Ekiti and Osun reaffirmed the APC victories in those states in the 2011 general elections. Ogun was the last to return to the APC during the last general elections. The PDP had managed to reclaim Ekiti in 2014 under controversial circumstances.

    With Fayemi’s victory, PDP governors who are the most powerful stakeholders in the party at the moment must go back to the drawing board to restrategise on how to become more relevant in the Southwest next year.

  • Winners and losers of 2018 World Cup

    The “world’s greatest sports fiesta”, Federation of International Football Association (FIFA)- organised World Cup, will be rounded off this weekend with the finals slated for Sunday, July 15 in the Russian capital, Moscow. This writer had sometime last year when Nigeria’s Super Eagles qualified for this year’s finals, intimated that mothers were not at all amused by the frenzy and excitement with which generality of Nigerians were looking forward eagerly to the start of the quadrennial tournament. I had stated that mums on the contrary, were putting on their thinking caps and trying to conjure how they would cope with the distractions that the World Cup, not least Nigeria’s participation would cause for Junior as well as the attendant headaches she would suffer from shouts of ‘g o a l’ whenever a team scores, particularly favoured teams. Mothers’ lamentations stemmed from their experience of the last World Cup when matches were played into the wee hours of the morning (Nigerian time), thus greatly affecting Junior’s academic and domestic/ household works due to insufficient sleep.

    In that piece titled, ‘’Lamentation over World Cup frenzy”, I wrote, “Amidst the pervasive excitement and noise engendered by the quadrennial tournament, mothers stand aloof, unimpressed. Indeed left to them, they wish that international football is banished altogether. For, with the commencement of the World Cup comes another round of Junior’s hide and seek game that often wears her out. Junior and the other young boys are likely to have their attention directed wholly to happenings on the field of play in faraway Russia rather than to their academic, domestic and other household duties. This for Mama Junior and other mothers/guardians in her shoes is a burden.

    “What is more, the World Cup will be setting in just when mothers will be heaving a sign of relief that the European football season is ending. During the long European season which spans August to May, it was a tug of war sort of, between Junior and his mum. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Junior will sneak out of the house after lunch to go watch soccer matches at viewing centres. He and his friends would not return until late in the evenings. It is even worse for games that were played on weekdays, usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On such occasions, he comes home late at nights when other family members have gone to bed. Locking him out does not seem to deter him. Flogging and denial of food does little to change his ways either. At best when the punishment appears unbearable he would stay indoors on a match day. On such days he would wear a permanent frown on his face and grudgingly attend to errands and domestic chores allotted him.

    “By the next day, he is back to his old ways, off to viewing centres. It is as though he is addicted to football. It is a habit boys pick from their fathers who themselves are soccer fanatics. So you can well imagine Mama Junior and other mothers’ sadness at the forthcoming Russia 2018 World Cup. She and others in her shoes are scratching their heads, putting on their thinking caps on how they can wade through this 30 days of intensive football, especially against the background that the 2014  competition in Brazil though relayed by all local television stations, was played from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.”

    Well, there is some difference in this year’s World Cup.  In the first place the group games (three matches per day) were played at 2p.m; 5p.m and 7p.m., while the Round of 16 and quarter final matches were played at 3p.m and 7p.m; semi-final matches at 7p.m and the final at 4p.m.  This means that at the latest the last match was over by 9p.m or before 10p.m. where they stretched to extra time and penalties.  And due partly to the beatings they received for not waking up on time during the last World Cup and the fact that they are looking forward to the next day’s matches, Junior and his siblings go to bed soon after the last match of the day. They wake up at the appropriate time in the morning and attend to their domestic duties attentively in order to please their parents before jetting off to school.

    Another factor that played in favour of Mama Junior and all the other mothers this time around is that the competition started during the Sallah break, Friday June 15 and Monday June 18 having been declared public holidays in Nigeria. Also the World Cup fell at a period when the school calendar was being rounded off starting with revisions and then end of session exams. Indeed starting with this weekend, the schools will be having their end of session parties. So, there is no intensive academic work as such at this time while the World Cup timings provided them time to read their books after school in the afternoons before the matches begin.

    Overall, I can report that Russia 2018 World Cup is not as stressful for Mama Junior and others in her shoes as was Brazil 2014. For this they are winners of sorts. Again, the fact that the Eagles exited at the group stage, winning only one match and losing two meant that the noise was not as loud as in 2014 when they made it to the round of 16, notwithstanding that this time around we had all been primed into thinking that the Super Eagles would make it to the semi-finals.

    Another notable observation of this World Cup is that people could stream it live on their mobile phones and so watch the matches on the go rather than at a stationery place, thanks to our rising internet penetration. There was thus a rise in data purchase. You could even relive some high points and matches via YouTube and other sports apps. Telecommunications firms are a winner here.

    On a final note, unlike in 2014, there are now a multiplicity of online and physically visible betting organisations spread in virtually all nooks and crannies of southern and north central parts of Nigeria. However, those who were wooed/lured into staking a bet with borrowed cash or their own money to shore up their finances or hit a jackpot in these trying times are now wearing long frowns because they were way off the mark in their predictions. Those that the professional bookmakers termed as favourites to win this World Cup have all fallen by the wayside – defending champions Germany, Argentina, Spain, and Portugal, except France. Those they never gave a chance, England, Croatia and Belgium have propped up for the semi-finals. As a result, people are reluctant to bet on which team/ country will be crowned winners of Russia 2018 World Cup.

     

    • Ikeano writes from Lafia, Nasarawa State.

  • Losers in winners, winners in losers

    On September 1, Nigeria hit Cameroon for four.  The Eagles romped to a famous Sallah Day victory, clearly their most emphatic competitive scoreline against the Indomitable Lions, that proved very much domitable.  The once-untamable Lions were completely tamed!

    It was sheer ecstasy in the Nigerian camp, with even a devastating pun making the cut in cyberspace: “Lions so, so Indomie-table!” The Cameroon Lions were sweet Indomie Noodles —spicy, hot, fresh and smoking!

    Yet, another self-deprecating joke, from Nigeria’s virulent political plane, where nothing is settled; as contrasted to sheer bliss on the victory-suffused sports plain, where the country’s unity is well and truly settled.

    “Newsflash:”, goes the phoney news.  “FIFA has cancelled the Nigeria-Cameroon match, in which Nigeria scored four goals, following a Cameroon protest.  How can two countries, Nigeria and Biafra, play against Cameroon?”!

    Indeed, bragging rights, against an old nemesis, never came more crowing!

    Still Cameroon are reigning African champions.  Cameroon, old foe, beat Nigeria in three African Nations Cup finals (1984, 1988 and 2000, that home final loss in Lagos).  Cameroon, with a truly formidable African World Cup qualifying records, were the first African side to hit the quarter-finals at the Mundial, a record Nigeria is yet to equal.

    That same Cameroon was downed for four and heavens did not fall.  Hardball doesn’t know the depth of bitterness in the Cameroonian camp.  Still, their Uyo post-defeat body language proclaimed it was only a game of football.

    Moral: any team can beat any rival, any how, on a bad day.  So, it was with Cameroon on September 1.

    But contrast this toasting to the roasting, of the Eagles, the last time they lost 0-2 to South Africa, on the same Uyo, Akwa Ibom, pitch, in an African Cup of Nations qualifier.

    It was a painful loss at home, no doubt.  Indeed, a biting epochal loss: the first time ever South Africa would thrash Nigeria in a competitive match.  So, the Mandela boys were strutting the moon!

    In Nigeria?  It was sudden end-times, with the country trapped in the Christian hell, raging with whistling fire — such was the gnashing of teeth, the eternal moans and everlasting woes!  The Eagles were useless;  Gernot Rohr, their manager, was clueless; in fact, the whole Nigeria was headless!

    And all that for just losing a game of football, the very first loss by the manager! And more horror of horrors: not a few swore and grumbled: as long as the ungrammatical Solomon Dalung remained Sports minister, nothing good could come out of Nigeria’s house of sports!

    That was sore-losing at its most irrational worst, of course.  To be sure, under Dalung, Nigeria posted a miserable outing at the World Athletics Championship in London.

    But under him too, Nigeria beat Cameroon black-and-blue, en route to a Cinderella Africa World Cup qualifications series, wrapping up their first three matches (2-1, away against Zambia; 3-1 home against Algeria; and 4-0 home against Cameroon), in a very tough group.

    Should the Eagles prevail in Yaounde today, they would have qualified for Russia 2018 with two matches to spare.  Should they falter, they would still be on the driving seat, needing just three more points, in case of a loss, or just two, in case of a draw.

    O, under the same Dalung, Nigeria’s D-Tigress, the female national basketball squad, just in Mali defeated Senegal, the defending champions, to win their third Afro-Basketball title.  So, where is the sports Armageddon painted under Dalung, just because of a defeat?

    Nigerians must learn to be winners-in-losers.  That’s the sporting spirit.  You can’t win all of the time, even if that is desirable.  To be bad losers, is to be losers-in-winners.

  • Bad losers at work

    The long knives are out again at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Failed football administrators and those who lost their positions in previous restructuring of the Glasshouse are back at their old game. They want the house flattened because they are no longer there. It doesn’t matter if this distraction costs Nigeria the right for her flag to be hoisted at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.

    Sadly, even those who have been indicted by probe panels over their nefarious activities when they were at the NFA, as the body was then known, are now shouting at the roof top concerning the body’s maladministration. If those disturbing the media with their warped comments had set the right templates for growth during their time, we won’t be faced with the systemic problems inherent in the Glasshouse.

    Indeed, such unguarded utterances by failed NFF members and staff gave credence to the new accounting order by Muhammadu Buhari administration meant to seal some of the flaws in the system. Now that the administration has come to grasp with the uniqueness of funding sports which must compete with other nations with discerning templates for revenue generation, it should do everything possible to get the National Assembly to pass the NFF Act. That way NFF would be run by professionals, whose pedigree in business is profound, not this setting where jobbers, influence peddlers and lickspittles seize the unfriendly environment arising from a defeat to heat up the polity.

    This crossfire of tales not backed by facts put the NFF in bad light, making it extremely difficult to woo investors to do business with it. No credible firm will associate its goods and/or services with a product mired in controversies. These cynics must learn how to take defeats on the chin. There are three results in the game of soccer- wins, losses and defeats, which most times help such teams to know their strengths and weaknesses. The NFF has suffered yearly reorganisations which have done us no good in terms of results, largely because we are bad losers.

    Need I restate my previous argument that a body which bankrolls 11 national teams every year cannot be solvent, especially with its critics heating up the polity with frivolous claims and craving that these teams win all their matches?

    Unfortunately, policy summersaults, including frequent changes in the personnel at the Glasshouse, have made it difficult for anyone to do business with the body. One of such policy changes is the TSA, which accounted for the delays in paying Oliseh’s wages. And the coach wasn’t convinced by Sports Minister Solomon Dalung’s plea that he would be paid soonest. The minister met his promise but Oliseh’s mind was made up and he quit the job. Sports in Nigeria, especially football, need a four-year budget meant to ensure that cash is available over the period to adequately prepare the sportsmen and women like it is done in other climes.

    Perhaps, the government needs to adopt the community-based sports sponsorship programmes and see how it can constitute a sports lottery board to have enough cash to run the industry. It also could set up a probe panel to find out how money sourced under previous lottery schemes was spent. Of course, such funding will be adequately monitored and those given the money made to account for.

    Sunday Oliseh’s resignation has stoked the fire, with fifth columnists creating incredible scenarios as if the incumbent NFF board members weren’t the same people who piloted the country to a back-to-back FIFA U-17 World Cup wins by the Golden Eaglets and guided the U-23 Olympics Eagles squad to winning the African Championship, for the first time, in Senegal, among several laurels that we have recorded.

    Oliseh has the right to resign. He is free to spit venom at his employers, provided his facts are correct. But he must remember that Nigeria is bigger than he is. And having helped to raise the country’s profile in the game, it would be a travesty if he destroys such a legacy on the altar of getting back at a few people who he feels has hurt him.

    If Oliseh feels strongly that his contract was breached, he should seek redress at the appropriate quarters. I’m glad that NFF men have apologised for the error in recruiting Oliseh, if indeed it was. I’m excited too that the NFF didn’t flinch in naming Samson Siasia, Emmanuel Amuneke, Salisu Yusuf and goalkeeper Alloy Agu to lead the Eagles through their two-legged ties against Egypt in Kaduna on March 25 and Cairo on March 25.

    It is true that the first-place team in Nigeria’s group will immediately qualify for the 2017 AFCON. What is equally true is that Nigeria stands the best chance of being the best loser among the qualifiers, if the Eagles beat Egypt in Kaduna and win her remaining two games against Tanzania in Nigeria and against Niger. So what is the fuzz about Oliseh’s resignation that has brought out the beast in most interlopers in this issue?

    Is this the first time that Nigeria has changed coaches deep inside the qualifiers? So, what makes Oliseh’s case different? After all, Shuaibu Amodu has got us qualified several times from more difficult settings. So, why is Oliseh likened to Pep Guardiola by many fifth columnists who keep harping on the refusal of the NFF chiefs to consider the coach’s conduct before employing him, as if it is a criterion for picking coaches? If NFF ignored Oliseh for another person, these same people would have cried wolf, given the way they stampeded the Glasshouse chiefs to making Oliseh the only candidate for the job after Stephen Keshi was eased off.

    I hope that Oliseh can learn from Siasia’s return. I recall telling Siasia in one of my columns here to withdraw his law suit against the NFF when he was sacked because he could return to the job. I urged Siasia to learn from “sacked” Amodu and Adegboye Onigbinde had been brought back to the Eagles job anytime there was a crisis in the team? Siasia, are you not back to the Eagles job despite the harsh words you used against me at a press conference? Such is life Oliseh. It isn’t too late to put all that has happened behind you and focus on watching Nigeria at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations than being linked as one of the remote causes of Nigeria’s absence (God forbid) at the tournament in Gabon.

    If Oliseh sticks to his guns, then Siasia will write his name in gold if he pulls the Eagles through the games against the Pharaohs of Egypt in Kaduna and Alexandria. Siasia said he is used to this pressure cooker setting. All he needs is the support from everyone. And they can’t but back Siasia in this daunting task.

    The biggest fillip in his favour ahead of the two games is the assurance from the players that they would fight for the points in the two games as if their lives depend on them. Well said guys but please save the commentaries for the pitch. Anytime our players run their mouths before matches, I panic. I hope their battle against the Pharaohs will be different. The players should strive to scale the Egyptian hurdle to stabilise the workings at the Glasshouse.

    I’ve seen Siasia’s 42 men, comprising 20 stars from the foreign legion and 22 domestic league players. The interesting aspect of those selected is that they represent close to 80 per cent of the good players that we have. It won’t be difficult for Siasia to pick his best 23, having worked with many of them. He also has seen them play.

    Siasia’s three goalkeepers, Carl Ikeme, Daniel Akpeyi and Ikechukwu Ezenwa from outside Nigeria, can do the job in Kaduna and Alexandria. I admire his choice of defenders, except that I don’t see how he can play younger boys from the domestic league. Well, it is his job and he has it cut out for him. Good luck, Siasia.

    The defenders hold the key to our qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, especially in the second leg tie in Alexandria, where I expect the Egyptians to deploy all the tricks in the books to win. I expect the Egyptians to fall freely even from the sound of Nigerian defenders tracking them in any of their onslaughts. Defenders Abdullahi Shehu, Elderson Echiejile, Efe Ambrose, Godfrey Oboabona, Stanley Amuzie and Kenneth Omeruo are experienced to know how to keep the tricky Egyptians out of the vital areas. Mistakes shouldn’t be made.

    How many countries in Africa have the quality of midfielders that Siasia wants to use to inflict pains on the Egyptians over the two legs? Oguenyi Onazi, John Mikel Obi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Okechukwu Azubuike, Alex Iwobi, Aminu Umar and Aaron Samuel are some of the best that any team needs to rev its attacking onslaughts – only if they are focused. The strikers are Ahmed Musa, Victor Moses, Moses Simon, Odion Ighalo and Fernando Adi. These strikers have been scoring goals with aplomb in Europe.

    No expertise is needed to know that the home-based lads are training materials, who will hold fort until the arrival of the big boys. However, some of them such as Aggrey, Chikatara, Etebo and Mohammed could make the cut as reserves or possibly additions to the squad for them to watch the big boys pull the chestnuts out of the fire in Alexandria.

    For me, it doesn’t matter who plays. What is sacrosanct is the unity of purpose among the players before, during and after the two matches. Up Nigeria! Up Super Eagles!

     

  • War against traditional stoves, open fires: Many winners, few losers

    War against traditional stoves, open fires: Many winners, few losers

    If everything goes according to plan, the dangerous but popular practice of cooking through traditional stoves and open fires is about to become history in Nigeria. The beneficiaries of this laudable initiative are millions of Nigerians whose lives will be saved, while some who eke their living through sales of charcoal, fire-woods and other unclean fuels, may be sent of out of business, reports OLUKOREDE YISHAU.

    Thick smokes envelope the air. A woman with a child strapped to her back supplies air to the source of the fire – using her mouth. She coughs from time to time, apparently from the choking smokes. So does the child at her back. But she continues to fan the open fire to boil the water for the eba her family will eat.

    The scene is at a household in Isaga-Orile, an Egbado town near Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.  The woman identified simply as Mama Comfort is just one of the over 22 million households in Nigeria who still depend on solid or unclean fuel for cooking, which leads to 93,300 deaths annually, according to latest statistics. Of the staggering figure, a whopping 36,584 of the mortality are said to be children. No thanks to poverty and ignorance, it matters less to these households the dangers cooking with unclean fuel poses to their health and the environment. Many are not even aware of the dangers.

    In rural settings, such as Isaga-Orile, it is estimated that 91.60 per cent of the population cooks with unclean fuel. To feed their families, many simply go to the forest, pick dry trees and cook with them. Severe deforestation also sets in, posing its own danger of damaging the ozone layer.

    After malaria and HIV/AIDS, smoke from open fire and other unclean sources is the biggest killer of mostly women and children, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Facts from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, World Economic Forum (WEF), and WHO, show that the use of unclean fuel also contribute to disability in some 2.6 million people. As if this is not worrisome enough, 3.8 per cent of the national burden of disease is attributed to solid fuel use because of the fact that the bulk of the population still rely on wood, charcoal and dung to prepare their meals.

    Globally, health authorities, worried by the damaging effects of unclean fuels on households, have recommended the use of gas and other clean fuels for cooking, adding that diseases and deaths caused by the use of unclean fuels will be drastically reduced. Gas is one such clean fuel recommended by the WHO and others. In Nigeria, research has shown that only one per cent of the population cooks with gas; 0.3 per cent of the population uses electricity to cook because it is unreliable as a result of acute power shortage in the country; and 23 per cent use kerosene for cooking and when this becomes scarce as it is wont to, they resort to unclean fuels. The efforts of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited, which has increased domestic gas supply to 250,000 metric tonnes. It has also subsidised the product to the cost of about $50million since the intervention began. Still, unclean stoves still have the ace.

    But the good times may be here if the plans of the Federal Government, the United States and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves materialise. On Wednesday, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) announced the government’s plan to spend N9.2b to purchase clean stoves for rural dwellers.

    The  Global Alliance , led by the United Nations Foundation with over 1000 public, private, multilateral, and nonprofit partners, is also taking its war against unclean stoves to another level.

    The initiative is assuming a wider scope, with more money to achieve the needed impact. On November 21, the US Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy announced up to $200 million in expected renewed and enhanced support for the clean cooking sector. It is building on the US’ initial commitment from 2011 to 2015, but this next phase will bring the cumulative anticipated U.S. contribution commitment to this sector and the Alliance up to $325 million through 2020.

    Aside the U.S. support, the Global Alliance also announced in November that a global community of clean cooking advocates and supporters has collectively committed $413 million over three years to further mobilise the clean cooking sector and advance the widespread adoption of clean cooking solutions. The announcement was made on the second day of the Cookstoves Future Summit, where more than 70 representatives from government, the private sector, investors, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations made commitments during the Alliance’s inaugural pledging event.

    “Bilateral donor commitments, comprising both financial and policy commitments, totaled $286 million, including those made by Summit co-hosts Norway, the United Kingdom,  and the United States. The private sector committed to mobilise an additional $127 million, including a $100 million fund created through a partnership between the Alliance, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, other development finance institutions, and private investors, which will support the scale-up of social enterprises that advance and deploy clean cookstoves and fuels,” the Alliance said.

    More than $250 million in commitments were announced by implementing countries, including Nigeria and Ghana. Ordinarily, this should be good news given the fact that the assistance will help improve health, reduce environmental degradation, mitigate climate change, and generate economic empowerment and opportunity for women and girls. Another reason why it should be a thing of joy, according to a research done for the Global Alliance by Accenture, is that it has the potential to help address the average life expectancy, which is just 47.5 years, among the lowest in the world. Also, it will also reverse the WHO’s observation that “in addition to this health problem, traditional biomass stoves burn 90 per cent more wood than is necessary. This has cost poor families and institutions money that could be put to better use on education, health, and nutrition.”

    More so, clean Cookstoves can help prevent heart disease, lung disease and lung cancer, cervical cancer, and low birth weight. It will also reverse a situation where over 112 million Nigerians still cook with unwholesome cooking fuels and change the country’s status as the world’s worst in primary forest’s deforestation— between 2000 and 2005, the country lost 55.7 per cent of its primary forest.

    Also supporting the need for a change in the status quo is the conclusion of a research published last year in the Global Journal on Health Science on the relationship between unclean cooking and pulmonary dysfunction in rural women and children. It shows that there is no alternative to clean Cookstoves. It said: “Exposure to HAP from biomass fuel is associated with pulmonary dysfunction, reduced antioxidant defense and inflammation of the airways.” The research was done by Oluwafemi Oluwole, Ganiyu Olatunbosun Arinola, Godson Rowland Ana, Tess Wiskel, Dezheng Huo, Olufunmilayo Ibironke Olopade and Christopher Olusola Olopade— who is the Medicine Clinical Director at the Centre for Global Health, University of Chicago.

    Prof Sola Olopade, in an e-interview with this reporter, said: “We have an ongoing study that is comparing a stove that uses ethanol to kerosene and firewood on pregnancy outcome and the results should have significant policy implications when we complete the study.”

    In spite of the gains of the initiative, Nigeria’s army of operators in the logging industry, especially firewood and charcoal sellers, are bound to be affected. That the country parades a high number of this is easily appreciated with a tour of major streets in Lagos suburbs such as Agege, Akowonjo, Ayobo, Ipaja and Ogun State satellite towns such as Sango, Ijoko and Akute. They are also in other parts of the country. In Hadejia, Jigawa State, they are said to be recording huge sales due to scarcity and high cost of kerosene and other sources of energy. There is hardly any part of the country that they are not.

    To understand the matter better, the logging industry, despite its attendant evils, is entangled in money. Though there are no statistics on the worth of the industry, sources say many make millions selling firewood, charcoal and other unclean energy sources. For these people, Global Alliance’s renewed commitment to curb their activities is bad news. Experts say it is a choice between saving lives and losing jobs. They argue that lives cannot be replaced but jobs can.

     

    Saving lives have the votes

    The International Centre for Energy and Environmental Development (ICEED) believes there is no need debating which choice to make. Its Executive Director, Ewah Eleri, said the problem is not peculiar to Nigeria. He said:  “The UN estimates that if nothing is done by 2030, 900 million people would not have access to electricity, and three billion will still cook with traditional fuels.

    “Thirty million people would have died due to smoke-related diseases; just many hundreds of millions will be confined to poverty due to the lack of access to energy.

    “Countries like China have connected 500 million people to electricity in rural areas since 1990, while Vietnam has increased coverage from five per cent to 98 per cent in 35 years.”

    Eleri also observed that Cambodia, Mali and Madagascar had made significant progress by providing support to the private sector from their rural electrification funds. He said more Nigerians are, however, reverting to other unclean energy forms.

    “Contrary to the expectations of the National Energy Policy of 2003, deepening poverty has forced a reversal in the transition to modern and efficient energy forms.

    “Today, more Nigerians are climbing down the energy ladder, moving from electricity, gas and kerosene to fuel-wood and other traditional biomass energy forms.

    “Moreover, millions of open fires in Nigerian homes contribute to the build-up of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.” The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Bukola Saraki, said the Federal Government should provide an enabling environment for the widespread adoption of Clean Cook-Stove across Nigeria. On the sentiment that jollof rice made with firewood tastes better, Saraki said: “You say jollof rice tastes better when cooked in firewood. Is it worth the risk to your life? It’s a choice you have to make. Maybe it’s true; maybe it’s not—that’s besides the point. It’s just that their health is more important. I think we can find ways to ensure that flavor doesn’t get in the way.”

    Speaking to reporters after a monitoring and evaluation exercise to some of the beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s Clean Cook-Stoves programme in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Saraki, who is a member of the Leadership Council of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, said the Clean Cook-Stove initiative was a timely gesture that has ameliorated family cooking by reducing health dangers and economic downsides. A beneficiary identified as Miss Esther said the initiative has improved her family’s cooking processes by eliminating smoke and other unhygienic characters that accompany traditional cooking methods. The Senate appropriated N100 million in the 2014 appropriation Act to support the initiative.

     

    Challenges of adopting clean-stoves

    The national utilisation of LPG is put at 150,000 metric tons, representing less than 10 per cent of the households in the country where a potential of 1.5 million metric tons exists. Surprisingly, the country is the sixth largest producer of LPG in the world, yet it accounts for the lowest utilisation of the commodity in sub-Saharan Africa. It has been found that adopting clean-stoves requires changes to be made in the energy system in the country. A study done for the Alliance by the Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP), the not-for-profit arm of the global management consultancy, Accenture, paints a gory picture of things that must change.

    The study notes: “A quarter of the population relies on kerosene. Kerosene is currently subsidized in Nigeria, however frequent shortages, export smuggling, and black market pricing have increased costs and led to significant sourcing challenges for most consumers.

    “While a large portion of the population currently collects firewood at little to no cost, those who purchase wood or charcoal often find themselves paying more on an ongoing basis than they would for LPG, a market dislocation generally attributed to high upfront costs and perception issues around LPG economics and safety.

    “Current LPG solutions involve a high upfront cost which impedes adoption, especially by those in lower income segments. A LPG cookstove strategy should seek to minimise this cost by creating a Base of the Pyramid (BOP) LPG solution, which is smaller in size (and therefore cost), and integrating a burner and cylinder in one solution.

    “To spread out upfront expenses, a large barrier for many consumers, a microfinance option should be investigated to allow consumers to pay for the solution in installments

    “To further reduce upfront costs for clean cookstoves and fuels, carbon finance should be leveraged to achieve accreditation for solutions and put carbon revenue to work lowering costs for consumers structures currently in progress such as CDM PoA’s should be utilised for this purpose

    “The supply chain for LPG should be secured and streamlined to reduce unnecessary costs, ensure quality and safety, and guarantee a steady supply to Nigerian consumers. A LPG cookstove strategy should first aim to penetrate the urban areas before expanding nationwide. Branding, consumer education, and training on usage should be used to minimize both actual and perceived risks of LPG usage.”

    The Accenture findings are in consonance with the views of the Managing Director, Strategic Energy Limited, Dayo Adeshina. In a presentation at an LPG conference, he said “the present population could consume about 3.5 million metric tonnes if LPG was the major fuel for cooking in Nigeria. The reality today is that Nigerians consumed only about 150,000 metric tonnes in 2012. This is a huge gap from the expected consumption annually.”

    He blamed this on the fact that government policies has not changed over the years to promote wide usage of domestic LPG.

    Adeshina said distribution facilities, such as inland storage terminals and trucks, could help in the equalisation of LPG cost per kilogramme to end users.

    He said: “Fabrication of LPG equipment in Nigeria is very expensive due to the lack of stable power and high cost of raw materials, labour and generating power for production. On the other hand, the duties and tariffs on imported equipment are very high (20 per cent -35 per cent).

    “There is VAT on the domestic LPG supplied to the market while imported LPG enjoys zero VAT. This usually creates additional cost on the domestic LPG.

    “No preference is given to LPG equipment imported, for reduction in duties and tariff. Rather, duties were increased on LPG equipment thereby discouraging the provision of LPG facilities by willing organisations in the sector. This has created a situation whereby the LPG allocated (150,000MT/annum) by government through NLNG to the domestic market does not fit the quantity of LPG equipment that would facilitate the usage of the allocated LPG, hence the slow growth in the industry

    “The major product affecting LPG is kerosene which is subsidised by the Federal Government. Preference is given to kerosene at all levels of the value chain (at discharge points in the jetties, subsidised, well distributed to marketers e.t.c.), over LPG, which is cleaner, more efficient and also cheaper. Government should implement the Indonesian project on LPG.

    “There is no major policy that encourages widely promoted green projects (e.g. auto gas, power generation e.t.c.) using Nigeria’s abundant LPG at the Federal Government level would also help to stimulate the rapid growth of the industry. There are no clear cut regulations for segments in the LPG value chain. Funding provided by banks is usually short term fund for long term projects. No specific fund was set aside to encourage the growth of LPG similar to funds provided by government in various industries (e.g. the Nollywood, textile, agriculture e.t.c.).

    “Interest rate for available funds is very high such that it leads to organisations defaulting in re-payments of loans and thereby collapsing. There is no major commitment from the CBN to assist SMEs in growing the LPG market, which should be a strategic fuel in the Nigerian energy mix.”

    For the LPG market to grow, he said government and the Nigerian LPG Association must meet “to discuss the action plans on improving LPG usage in Nigeria based on various communiqués obtained from several conferences held on Building the Nigerian LPG sector”.

    This, he said, would really assist in coming up with a blue print document that should be used to create the action plans to grow the LPG sector.

    Adeshina added: “Government at all levels in Nigeria must be committed to the growth of LPG through various schemes (e.g. pioneered by the Lagos State government), to promote the well being of Nigerian (health-wise, employment- wise, environmentally-wise e.t.c) using LPG as a tool for the projects. Direct participation of government in conjunction with reputable organisations in the LPG sector for specific number of years should be encouraged

    “The Federal Government should divert a certain percentage of the subsidy funds spent on kerosene annually, on stimulating the LPG usage for a geometric growth rate in the sector, while fully diverting kerosene consumed by Nigerian citizens to the aviation sector. This would create double sources of income for government. The Federal Government should create policies that support green projects using LPG. A very strategic area would be auto-gas, if government is willing to reduce pollution from vehicles on Nigerian roads. Going forward, Federal Government’s fleet of vehicles should be converted to auto-gas powered in order to support the growth of LPG usage in Nigeria.”

    He said adopting the Indonesian model for the LPG sector would go a long way to help the country.

    The Indonesian government embarked on a scheme aimed at improving the lifestyle of the people through the promotion of LPG over kerosene. The project was started in May 2007. It included drastic reduction on subsidy of kerosene, allocation of kerosene to profitable use such as the aviation industry, gradual withdrawal of kerosene for domestic use, distribution of free package of LPG cylinders, stoves, hoses and regulators and the usage of massive communication medium to promote the project. The Indonesian government, he said, saved more than $6.9 billion between over 2007 and last year. This, he explained, is money that would have been spent as subsidy on kerosene.

    By August 2012, Adeshina said, 99.6 per cent of the targeted households had embraced LPG, representing 53.8 million of the 54 million households.

    Last week, NLNG Managing Director Babs Omotowa said only about 600,000 metric tonnes of cooking gas have been absorbed by the local market since NLNG’s intervention in September 2007 because of market inefficiencies across the LPG value chain. These, he added, include the absence of a functioning cylinder manufacturing plant, inadequate storage, poor transportation network and infrastructure, limited jetty availability and low-priority berthing given to LPG vessels, which have all conspired to thwart the market’s ability to absorb NLNG’s increased supply.

    Other critical areas of possible intervention as highlighted by the NLNG CEO include terminal operation and development, distribution and retail, promotion and awareness and government policy and incentives for full maturity of the domestic LPG market.

    There is also the campaign for subsidy to be introduced to encourage clean-stoves. This is being championed by the President-General, Abuja Market Women Association of Nigeria, Mrs Felicia Sanni. She told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that cooking with firewood had a negative effect on the health of women, particularly their sight. “What firewood does is better imagined than said. So, we are appealing to the Federal Government to make clean cooking stoves available and affordable; we are not saying they should dash us.

    “No market woman believes in dash; there is nowhere in the world that government provides such facilities free of charge. Even in the United States, they still buy; so government should provide it for us at a cheaper rate.’’

    She said the association had been partnering the Federal Ministry of Environment to sensitise market women on the need to embrace clean cooking energy.

    Mrs Sanni said she had observed that cooking with gas which people considered to be expensive was cheaper in the long run, because of the health advantage.

    “We want to carry the awareness to our rural women to tell them that the firewood that they think is cheaper is not cheaper at all because of the damaging effect.

    “If we see people smoking cigarette, we laugh at them but if you are using firewood, smoke is entering your eyes, lungs, heart and other parts of your body.

    “It is even better you smoke 280 packages of cigarette at a time than to cook with firewood because of the health implications,’’ she said. According to her, the association would campaign in the 36 states of the federation, to create awareness on the negative consequences of using firewood.

     

    Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

    The Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private partnership that seeks to introduce 10 million clean Cookstoves to Nigerian homes and institutions by 2020.  It supports the reform of clean cooking energy policies at federal and state levels, and promotes innovative financial solutions, quality assurance and access to clean cooking energy information in Nigeria.

    Nigerian Alliance partners include four Federal Government agencies, donors, financial institutions, the private sector and NGOs. Its members include Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Women Affairs, Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Shell, ICEED and Oando. Members of the alliance have individually and collectively taking steps towards ensuring the use of clean stoves.

    The Federal Ministry of Environment is partnering market women to step up the campaign in rural areas. The national campaign is tagged “Rural Women Energy Security (RUWES)’’ project.

    The lighting component of RUWES seeks to ensure affordable and sustainable clean energy access to the rural people and reducing black carbon emissions. The ministry is also behind the N16 billion Great Green Wall (GGW) programme aimed at checking desertification in the North, increase the nation’s forest cover and contribute to global action against climate change.

    Minister of Environment Mrs. Laurentia Mallam said the GGW programme is a three-year project which started in 2013, adding that President Goodluck Jonathan has provided funds for the programme up to 2015 frame-work to the tune of about N16 billion. Mrs Mallam said the programme would encourage the use of alternative sources of energy other than firewood, discouraging indiscriminate falling of trees and encouraging tree planting.

    Wednesday’s approval for the purchase of N9.2billion worth of clean cook stoves and wonder bags for rural women is a key component of  the National Clean Cooking Scheme. Wonder bag is a non-electric slow cooker invented by Sarah Collins, a South African eco-entreprenuer.

    750,000 units of clean cook stove and 18,000 wonder bags are to be purchased. The stoves are expected to be delivered by Messrs Integra Renewable Energy Services Limited within a period of 12 weeks.

    The scheme is expected to provide 20 million clean stoves over a five-year period at the rate of four million stoves yearly, which will be distributed without charge.

    On Oando’s part, it is helping low income households to switch to cooking gas. It introduced a 3kg cooking stove to promote clean cooking.

    The company plans to inject five million cooking stoves into homes in five years. CEO, Oando Marketing Mr. Abayomi Awobokun said: “This is another important step in our quest to provide innovative and affordable LPG cooking stoves to an estimated five million low income households over the next five years. We are strongly encouraged by the reception and feedback from consumers and other relevant stakeholders since we introduced the 3-in-1 gas cooking stove this year. This partnership with Lift Above Poverty Organisation Microfinance Bank (LAPO) is one of many to boost our effort to switch majority of Nigerians from the use of biomass fuel to deepen LPG utilisation”

    Oando also has a scheme through which entrepreneurs are empowered to be distributors of the cooking stove as secondary distribution point.

    “These entrepreneurs are closer to the low income households and are provided with three-wheeler vehicles to move the products even to the remotest locations whilst the households can refill their gas at the SDP site or any of Oando’s Pay-U-Gas facility, an LPG dispensing unit that allows consumers to buy gas that suits their pockets,” said the company.

     

     January 2015

    In January 2015, the Alliance will launch the Phase 2 of its ten-year Strategic Business Plan. It only made the announcement in November. The second phase, which promises to be more aggressive given the financial and other commitments already in place,  has the potential to take away thick smokes that envelope the country’s air. What this means is that the war against unclean fuels may never remain the same again. And Nigerians will be the healthier for it.

     

  • CBN: We are all losers

    Given that the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria has become a subject of litigation, this intervention is purely academic. With mixed reactions in torrent and scores of hate/love arguments for and against the sudden removal of the governor of the CBN, we are undoubtedly all losers as Nigerians. For an increasingly divisive nation, Sanusi’s removal has proved another polarising factor too frequent. Coming on the heel of partisan posturing for 2015, it is not surprising that the suspension has also become a handy partisan issue with objectivity in deficit and subjectivity in huge surplus. Predictably the ruling party (PDP)’s national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh backed the suspension, claiming  “the issues leading to the suspension bordered strictly on the management of the nation’s economy”. Expectedly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused the presidency of “seeking to use the suspension of ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Lamido Sanusi Lamido, to divert attention from the allegation of the missing 20 billion dollars oil funds”.  With these serial partisan diatribe, discussing Sanusi’s suspension tasks objectivity and even imagination. It is obviously academic and even a luxury at this interesting times to be concerned about the bigger picture of the far-reaching implications of the suspension for the banking industry in particular and the economy as a whole.  Historic facts might however prove useful in the search for objectivity.

    President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua nominated Sanusi as the Governor of the bank on June 1, 2009. His appointment was confirmed by the Senate on June 3, 2009 in  a record time. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on Thursday, February 20, suspended him from office few months to the end of an eventful, albeit controversial single five-year term he had preferred. Of course the point cannot be overstated that the first and notable loser is Sanusi himself. As a labour market student, it’s of profound academic interest of how a process driven easy entry (with appointment and senate confirmation) of a chief central banker was inversely related to his suspension/ exit without recourse to the same process that brought him to office. So much for the provision of the CBN Act! Sanusi’s ordeal brings to memory the predicament of Bernard Longe, former Managing Director of the First Bank of Nigeria Plc (FBN) who was summarily terminated by the board of directors  for allegedly negligently granting an unauthorized facility to Investors International (London) Limited for the acquisition of shares in NITEL, which resulted in losses for FBN in  April 22, 2002. In March 2010, the Supreme Court of Nigeria issued a landmark judgment in favour of Longe upturning his suspension. Is history repeating itself? Certainly Longe got a judgment but it is debatable that he got the justice since he did not return to his job. Will Sanusi get justice or judgment in the court of law is one question begging for an answer. One thing is however clear; we are in the final analysis workers who are deserving of decent work, well paid for, secured with easy entry and exit. International Labour Organization (ILO) has shown over the years that millions of workers worldwide live on precarious works that are poorly remunerated. They get fired and hired at the behest of employers. The recent casualization of the CBN’s governor has certainly made another case for decent protected work for the driver, a messenger no less for a CBN governor or even a President. An injury to one is an injury to all.

    President Goodluck Jonathan may very not be a visible loser in this avoidable labour market crisis, but certainly he is not a celebrated winner either. The President legitimately claimed absolute power to hire and fire. That in itself begs the question.  Absolutism needs no interrogation, no less an explanation. In a democracy, everything is relative, the President’s enormous powers inclusive. Watching the President almost agonizing on Sanusi during the sixth edition of the presidential media chat  shows the suspension was far from being an easy presidential option. Indeed it was refreshing that the President left a window of reconciliation when the he said Sanusi still remained governor pending investigation of the alleged abuse of office. If we must all be winners we must return to the big picture of institution building, the economy and nation building.

    Countries preoccupied with the issues in development use their central banks to keep the economy on course through activist macro economics with respect to pricing, (inflation), exchange rates, interest rates, capacity utilization, employment, debt management, development financing etc.

    Whatever the hidden issues against Sanusi are, his tenure witnessed open activist central banking. Indeed with respect to the core mandate of the CBN, both the suspended governor and President Jonathan are winners. CBN bailed out “ Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, Oceanic Bank and Finbank averting  their collapse.  Much credit obviously go to the Yar’Adua/ Jonathan presidency for maintaining institutional autonomy of the CBN which made Sanusi to deliver on his primary mandate as a central banker. Both President Jonathan and Sanusi must be credited with stable inflation and exchange rate figures in recent years. Of course double digit interest rate remains unacceptably high, (no value adding manufacturer can borrow at the scandalous interest rate of 23 per cent!).  The relative autonomy of the central bank has made the stability of the monetary policies possible. The major loss to Nigeria in this crisis is therefore institution building.

    The emerging picture is that of two strong men, namely President Jonathan and suspended Governor Sanusi. But what happens to institution and nation building?

    Central banking worldwide has been likened to a good (economic) driver, which must keep an eye on the road and maintain steady hands on the wheel for a good (economic) ride. Towards the end of his tenure, Sanusi was eager to read more balance sheets with all the controversies trailing the missing billions from NNPC’s unremitted sums. Devil is in the details. But it is instructive that, Sanusi has come to agree that the better is to read less of balance sheet. In a pre-suspension  interview with Metropole magazine, he accepts as much that; ‘…in a sense, in terms of managing communications that’s what our problem was and the way to have done that would have been maybe use channels other than public lectures, public statements, and public interviews to make some of the points that I have made.  If there is anything I think I could have done better, it is really in the area of communication.  Also, I think not being politically sensitive was a problem.  I am not saying the CBN governor should be a politician.  But just understanding the politics of communication in Abuja was something maybe I could have done better.”

     

    •Aremu mni is vice president, Nigeria Labour Congress