Telecoms operators said on Wednesday that they would resist the plan by the Senate to pass a bill raising tax in the sector by nine per cent.
The Red Chamber on Wednesday began the process with the first reading of “A Bill for an Act to provide for Communication Service Tax (CST) as a veritable tool for economic diversification and for related matters.”
The bill is sponsored by Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (Bornu South).
The Communication Service Tax (CST) rate chargeable will be nine per cent for the use of the communication services.
If passed, the proposed tax will replace the 2.2 per cent increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) being proposed by the Federal Government as announced by Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed.
There were signals yesterday that the new law may pit the government against some interests.
Reacting to the ongoing process in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, the telecommunication operators yesterday warned against pushing through the bill. They described it as a fresh attempt to add to the burden of ordinary citizens.
The Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, warned that the bill, if passed into law, would lead to an increase in end-user call tariff.
ALTON is the umbrella body of MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile and other GSM Service providers.
Adebayo said the value of N1000 recharge card would be less than the nine per cent of the tax, adding that the proposed tax will add no value to operators who will become collection agents for the Federal Government.
His counterpart in the ATCON, an umbrella for players in the sub-sector, said the tax would negate the government’s plan to diversify the economy.
ATCON Chairman Olusola Teniola claimed that it will be wrong for the government to tax the citizens out of existence.
He said the impact of the tax would be transferred to the final consumers when such tax was introduced in Ghana, it led to tariff increase, Teniola said.
He wondered if the new tax was directed at reducing the number of internet users in the country, adding that the move will certainly be counter-productive, he said: “We are a law-abiding corporate citizens; we will do everything within the law to resist the tax.”
But the Bill promoter spoke of its merits. Answering reporters’ questions yesterday, Ndume said the CST would encourage wealth distribution in ways that would not affect the ordinary citizens.
He said the proposed increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) by the government would have negative effect on the economy as it would not only affect the prices of goods and services but take them beyond the reach of the common man.
Section 1 of the Bill said: “There shall be imposed, charged, payable and collected a monthly Communication Service Tax to be levied on charges payable by a user of an Electronic Communication Service other than private Electronic Communication Services.
“The tax shall be levied on Electronic Communication Services supplied by service providers. For the purpose of this clause, the supply of any form of recharges shall be considered as a charge for usage of Electronic Communication Service.
“The tax shall be levied on the following Electronic Communication Services:(a)Voice Calls; (b) SMS; (c) MMS; (d) Data usage both from Telecommunication Services Providers and Internet Service Providers; (e) Pay per View TV stations, etc.”
On persons liable to pay the tax, Section 2 of the Bill said: “The tax shall be paid together with the Electronic Communication Service charge payable to the service provider by the consumer of the service.
“The tax is due and payable on any supply of Electronic Communication Service within the time period specified under sub-clause (5) of whether or not the person making the supply is permitted or authorised provide Electronic Communication Services.”
Section 3 added that the rate of the tax is nine per cent of the charge for the use of the communication service.
On the mode of collection and payment into the Federation Account, Section 4 of the Bill said: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) established under section 1 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2007, shall be responsible for collection and remittance of tax, any interest and penalty paid under this Bill.
“The FIRS shall pay the tax collected together with any interest and penalty into the Federation Account.”
On the submission of tax return and time for payment, Section 5 of the Bill said: “All service providers shall file a tax return to account for the tax.
“The tax return shall be in a form prescribed by the FIRS and shall state the amount of tax payable for the period and any related matters that may be required.
“The return and the tax due to the accounting period to which the tax return relates shall be submitted and paid to the FIRS not later than the last working day of the month immediately after the month to which the tax return and payment relates.
“The FIRS may extend the period within which the tax return may be submitted and payment made on application in writing by a service provider, where good cause is shown by the applicant.
“The extension shall be communicated to the applicant in writing and shall state the circumstances under which the tax return shall be submitted for the particular period.
“A service provider who without justification fails to submit to the FIRS the tax return by the date is liable to a pecuniary penalty of N50, 000.00 and a further penalty of Nl0,000.00 for each day the return is not submitted.”
The payment of interest and outstanding tax, according to Section 6 of the Bill, “a service provider who fails to pay the tax by the due date shall pay monthly interest on the tax due at a rate of One hundred and Fifty per cent of the average of the prevailing commercial Banks lending rate as published by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“For the purpose of sub-clause of this clause (1) any part of one month shall be deemed to be one month. Subject to clause 6 (6) where the interest payable under sub-clause (1) is not paid within one month after the due date, interest shall be paid on the unpaid interest at the same rate and in the same manner on the unpaid tax.”
On recovery of tax, interest or penalty due, Section 7 of the Bill said: “A tax or penalty of any interest due under this Bill which remain unpaid after the due date may be recovered by the FIRS as a debt.
“An amount shown as the tax on a bill or invoice for Electronic Communication Service usage is recoverable as tax from the person who issues the bill or invoice whether or not – (a) Tax is chargeable on the Electronic Communication Service Usage; or (b) The person who issues the bill or invoice is a person authorized to provide Electronic Communication Service under this Bill.
“Where a body either corporate or unincorporated which is liable for the payment of the tax, of any penalty on interest that arises under the Bill, defaults in payment, in whole or in part after written demand, the directors, partners and the person in control of the body are jointly and severally liable to pay the sum due.”
“Where tax penalty of interest is payable and due under this Bill the FIRS may apply to the Court for an order that compels an individual or business – (a) from whom money is due or is accruing to the person required to apply the, interest or penalty, or…
“(b) who holds money for or on account of the person required to pay the tax interest or penalty to pay to the FIRS that money or so much of it as sufficient to discharge the tax interest or penalty payable and due.”
Capitalism is neither wicked nor cruel when the commodity is the ‘whore’ – blue-collar or brothel ‘whore.’ Nigeria is neither ‘doomed’ nor ‘forsaken’ when the national cake is shared among the loudest activists, shady politicians and public officers.
Profit is neither vicious nor impure when victims of multinationals’ exploitation are voiceless, impoverished host communities, and the bleeding heart rights activist, ‘social influencer’ or crusader-journalist eventually earns courtship and seasonal inducements by the transnational culprits.
Government is neither tribal nor unjust when the Igbo, Hausa, Ibibio, Tiv, Jukun, Yoruba, Fulani groups, to mention a few, have their lands and treasures forcibly splayed for kindred “activists” and “saviours” to plunder.
Values are neither degenerate nor effete when its the ‘emancipated’ youth having sex in a public toilet or unisex hostel on Big Brother Naija (BBN); sexual slavery becomes hip when ‘future leaders’ are presented as meat and body parts on the ill-conceived reality show.
When reality is different, let’s cut to the chase and blame government for everything. While we do so, let us remember to blame Muhammadu Buhari and his “under-performing” cabinet and cliques for our elevation of fatuity as enchanted condition.
We should blame government for our fancy pornography, the drab one too, while we conveniently forget that our erotica of the left-wing is the graveyard where our “woke” clans slither to die in eternal wokeness.
Dworkin was wrong to imagine that the Left cannot have its politics and whores. We are Leftists, or progressives if you like, and in our clan, politics and whoredom are in perfect sync.
Nigeria’s whoredom proliferates by her youth. The latter, having learnt to manipulate protest into performance, emerge as a rising political bloc. Dirty artifice, hitherto an exclusive preserve of questionable politicians, becomes the tool by which they renegotiate their claims to social spoils.
Yea, Buhari, no matter the frequency of his bursts of political savvy and implied strength, will never curry the favour of his most virulent critics. This, unfortunately, shall be his lot until push gets to shove a la 2023 general elections.
Nonetheless, Nigeria has got you and I to save her from the ravage of familiar predators, plundering her treasure trove for sport. Who knew pillage could be so elevated as recreation, and that coffer rapists could attain the honour of national heroes?
The malady persists by our psychology of youth participation in politics, which highlights a lust for instant gratification and unearned greatness. This explains why some youths, goaded by sycophancy and a false sense of self-worth made frantic gestures to become Nigeria’s president at the last general elections.
Their ambition had little to do with being visionary and competent for the job. It was arrant narcissism.
A curious form of what clinical psychologists would call maladaptive self-love seem to have crept up on the Nigerian youth. Little wonder hordes of youths, unquestioningly, submit as tools and canon fodder for violence and destruction, for a fee, at election time.
It also explains, perhaps, why otherwise promising youth would scorn morals and intellect, and submit as lab rats in the ongoing Big Brother Naija (BBN) experimental porn.
There is no gainsaying youth participation in politics thrives on the pursuit of material gain and status by circumventing the cycle of honest endeavour. Most youths are wildly exploitative, they lack empathy, and possess unrealistic fantasies concerning political and socioeconomic success.
A recent study carried out to examine personality traits and narcissism as predictors of pathological selfie among undergraduates of a federal university establishes narcissism as a major driver of neurotic lust for selfies among the university students.
A similar lust sprouts by the notion that young presidential candidates at the 2019 elections were simply bidding for face-time. “They know they cannot win, they only wish to register their presence en route the 2023 elections,” argued their apologists.
The argument also persists that many contested in order to land plum compensations or jobs in the cabinet of the eventual winner from the big parties.
Several young candidates at the 2019 general elections, no doubt, emerged to take political selfies; and this portends the most dangerous case of self-love, given that thousands of voters hinged their destinies at the mercy of their aberrant lust.
Another study reveals narcissistic facets in narratives of Nigeria’s advance fee fraud letters. The paper analyses a sample of 100 advanced fee fraud letters or Nigerian scams by fraudsters otherwise known as Yahoo Boys. Analysis of the scams highlight a Machiavellian/narcissistic approach of human behaviour and morality.
It presents scams as narratives that give us various perceptions about the youth in the present era. It draws a set of moral principles and values that are explicitly declared by fraudsters similar to the young candidate’s platitudinous chant.
A similar approach is adopted by many a Nigerian revolutionary and woke youth. To them, political participation and protest are simply facets and scenes in their performance theatre. Their strategy involves starting a ruckus until government drags them by force or persuasion to the negotiation board.
As soon as favourable terms are reached, they withdraw to enjoy their loot and ‘elevated’ status in silence. When confronted on their sudden silence, they will brazenly say: “When you are eating, you don’t talk.” It’s called table manners.
Activism, to them, is hardly about ideals. It’s an artificial construction, a performance to seduce karma’s fearsome power. To withstand providence’s scourge, they reinvent themselves as rights activists, advocacy-journalists, ‘social influencers, sociopreneurs, mediapreneurs’ – apology to such ‘practitioners’ plying honest endeavour.
Eventually, the shady among them, would get storm-tossed and drown in nature’s barbarous deep.
The duplicity within is what we should fear. It is the root of our predicament. And it thrives on narcissism.
Vicelich writes, that, narcissists “behave like four-year-olds: it’s all about them.” They don’t recognise personal boundaries, they hog conversations, crave constant validation and take criticism extremely badly.
“They want your attention, they need things right now – it’s all about instant gratification – and they really have an undeveloped sense of self,” she says, thus diagnosing the tantrums of many 2019 Nigerian aspirants.
They can be charming, flirtatious company too, notes Hinsliff, but they see others largely as extensions of themselves and can be controlling, cruel or critical of anyone they feel reflects badly on them.
Honest criticism wounds their fragile egos and they may become violent, broken or commit to drugs. Some simply commit suicide. This is, however, not an attempt to make light of the disconcerting suicide culture or its triggers and dangerous manifestations.
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter supply them with oodles of their ‘fix’ as measurable likes and shares.
In his Metamorphosis, Ovid narrates the story of Narcissus making it clear that he will live a long life “if he does not discover himself.”
Narcissus, it’s worth remembering, eventually died of loneliness and sorrow sprung from his distorted perception of self. He got destroyed by extreme self-love and maladjusted behaviour.
It’s about time millions of Nigerian Narcissi understood that the most underrated act of patriotism, even if built on self-love, is the ability, just occasionally, to get over yourself.
A Developer and Managing Director, Eximia Realty Company Ltd, owners of Fiona Lawton Apartments Lekki, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran has canvassed the need to re-engineer home design and construction to achieve maximum efficiency. He said the general trend of urban dwelling in leading cities across the globe since 2011 is that ‘the era of mac-mansion’ (big structures is gone) as a result of limited land supply and the spiraling construction costs.
He spoke at the ground –breaking ceremony of Fiona Lawton Apartments an upscale estate in Lekki over the weekend. He said: “ The reality on ground has made it necessary to optimize living and maintenance costs and this is reflected in the significant reduction in the average sizes of dwelling apartments in such cities as New York (39 square meters) London(46 square meters) Paris (36 square meters) and Hong Kong (15square meters)in the last few years”.
The former Managing Director of UACN properties said his objective is to create a unique and innovative platform to deliver real estate solutions by addressing emerging living models tailored to contemporary urban lifestyles.
On what informed his market segmentation, Ogunniran said: “Our deduction from empirical analysis is that there is a reasonably significant market for micro apartments designed to suit the Nigerian lifestyle preferences in Lagos and a few other cities. We are set to tap into that opportunity through our ‘uniquely crafted living spaces’ based on the concepts of ‘Compact, Comfortable and Convenient Dwelling’’. The dwelling units speak to the needs of discerning investors including young, upwardly mobile professionals and families who loathe commuting but are willing to trade size for proximity. We are happy to announce that we are greatly encouraged by the market acceptance of Kyrious and Fiona Lawton apartments – our first foray into our defined market segment”.
On the house type he said the estate is a gated community of between 48-60 apartments comprising of studios, 1 and 2 bedroom apartments (and 3 bedrooms on special request). He revealed that they are set to launch similar developments in Surulere, Ilupeju, Yaba, Ikeja, Ogba and Ikoyi in the next few weeks and months.
Furthermore, he said the developments are fully complemented by his company’s creation of ‘Home Ownership Ecosystem’ to tackle both the supply and demand sides of housing delivery. He also said he is ready to collaborate with Lagos State Government on any of her Public Private Partnership (PPP) on housing.
On some of the features he said they have playground for children, Communal Lounge for adults, Biofiland Water treatment plant, Wifi, Laundromat, CCTV and Controlled access to the estate.
On payment options he revealed that his organisation recently launched Kyrious Real Estate Multipurpose Society to ease the burden of home acquisition and financing for potential home owners.
Earlier the Special Guest and Commissioner For Housing, Lagos State Moruf Akinderu Fatai , noted the challenges associated with home ownership in Lagos but maintained that they are poised towards solving it with strategic partnership with the private sector.
He said: “The challenge of housing deficit is real but the current administration in the state is determined to implement policies that will make decent housing available for all irrespective of religious and ethnic inclinations”.
The election petition tribunal sitting in Jos, the Plateau State capital, has upheld the electoral victory of Governor Simon Lalong.
It said the petitioners, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship standard-bearer, Senator Jeremiah Useni, failed to prove allegations of electoral fraud beyond reasonable doubt.
The runner up in the Plateau governorship election, Senator Useni and the PDP had petitioned the court, claiming to be the winner of the poll, having scored the majority of the votes cast.
Senator Useni also claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrong to have declared Governor Lalong of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election.
Reading the judgement, which lasted over four hours, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Halima Salami, said the petitions against Governor Lalong’s victory were not strong enough to convince the court to upturn the outcome of the March 2019 governorship election in Plateau State.
President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State and Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State on the affirmation of their victories in the March 2019 gubernatorial polls by the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunals.
Buhari, who is travelling with the two victorious All Progressives Congress (APC) governors to South Africa on a state visit, extended his goodwill to the duo on Wednesday shortly before departure from the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The President, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, described the verdict of the tribunals as a victory for democracy.
He praised the people of Kano and Plateau states for maintaining the peace, and allowing due process of law to prevail by respecting the role of the judiciary in a democracy.
There was pandemonium when students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (Futminna), in Niger State, tackled a tanker driver as a result of an accident that occurred around the school premises.
An eyewitness told CAMPUSLIFE that the accident occurred during the Students Union campaign in preparation for its election proposed to hold last weekend.
During the students campaigning to other campus at Bosso, the tanker driver was reported to have hit a student while trying to overtake another car. Trouble started when the tanker driver remained adamant despite that the victim sustained serious injury and was quickly rushed to a hospital.
“Instead of apologising to the entire students and settling the matter amicably, the driver fumed, saying’ ‘Is it not just one student out of many?’ The statement infuriated the already incensed campaigners who engaged the driver and the indigenes of the community,” the eyewitness said.
A student, who identified herself simply as Mariam, confirmed the recalcitrance of the driver.
She said: “When the incident happened, the driver did not feel sorry. This prompted the students to block the road, preventing other vehicular movement. Later on, other tanker drivers gathered and started all sorts of unfriendly acts.
“They (drivers) threatened to burn down the students’ houses around, that is where the indigenes intervened that they would not fold their arms while their fathers’ properties are being set ablaze, all because of the students.
“It was later on that they started fighting the students with knives, weapons and even entered the school to destroy properties and burned down two cars.”
Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE, another student Adetoro Opeyemi said: “A student was standing on one of the campaign cars, and a tanker was coming from behind the car. Upon seeing this, the student jumped down from the car and the tanker hit him, this later caused a leg injury.
“Students tried to stop the driver but he did not. After view minutes, he parked at a nearby filling station where the students rushed to him to explained what havoc he had caused. The driver’s reply got the students angry. Even though he escaped, all later turned to a fight between his fellow drivers, indigenes and students.”
“The crisis started around 1pm on (last) Thursday and was later resolved the following day,” he added.
Public relation office of FUTMinna Students’ Union Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, said it all happened when a driver hit one of the students campaigning around.
“But before we knew it later that day, the drivers and the villagers have already joined to fight the students and started destroying properties including cars,” Ibrahim told CAMPUSLIFE on phone.
He continued: “After the intervention of the government; the police came around and that worsened the whole thing. They were throwing teargas at the students which got many injured. Even the SU president and one of the vice presidential aspirants were wounded.
“As a result of this, all academic activities have been put on hold for now, and instructions have been given that the tankers parked around the school should be moved away. The school is supposed to commence the semester examination in two weeks time, and the managements does not want to alter academic calendar,” he concluded.
•A call for more vigilance to Standards Organisation of Nigeria
The danger of cooking gas cylinder explosion has increased in the country with the importation of substandard cylinders. In August, cooking gas cylinder explosion in Warri almost killed a couple, but for the quick intervention of the police and fire fighters, and proximity of the explosion to the police station. And in China, the country’s CCTV also reported gas cylinder explosions in March and April in Xianyang City and in Wuxi, Jiangsu.
We find the existence of substandard cooking gas cylinders very alarming. It is counterproductive that at a time that the population, especially in both urban and rural areas, is increasingly warming up to transition from cooking with wood to gas, the conditions for importing cooking gas cylinders seem to have become lax to the point that cylinders without brand name and batch number are now common in the country. The fear of cylinder explosion is capable of driving citizens back to the tradition of deforestation and its negative impact on the environment.
It is embarrassing that the in-flow of substandard cylinders has reached a level that compels staff of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to go to markets in search of substandard gas cylinders. The danger posed by defective cooking gas cylinders is serious enough for SON and the Customs to stop such products at the ports of entry. SON’s vigilance would be more effective if its mobile laboratory at the ports had tested every batch of imported cylinders into the country. This is an assignment that could have been carried out in collaboration with other safety and security units that are always present at the ports.
Further, marketers who are frustrating SON’s staff from looking for cylinders without batch numbers are not helping matters. Government at all times has the duty to ensure that substandard products do not thrive in the country, even if after such products had gotten through the ports without detection. Such belated checks are better than leaving citizens and their property at the mercy of imported or even domestic products that could be dangerous to life and property of citizens. Retailers of such products ought to be sensitive to the well-being of their customers.
Relatedly, government and other stakeholders should begin massive enlightenment on how to distinguish good from bad gas cylinders, and give retailers and users adequate information about the danger in holding on to products that are dangerous to individuals and the community. It is one thing for a country to find a dumping ground for substandard products from its factories, but it is expected that the citizens, especially those in the business of importing such defective products, will be mindful of quality and safety of such products, before marketing them to innocent buyers.
Indeed, it is high time the local manufacturing by Techno Oil Ltd of Nigeria’s TechnoGas LPG cylinders at the 31st World LPG Forum in Houston, Texas is developed to include production of cooking gas cylinders that citizens can buy without fear of causing fire to its users. The SON needs to give as much attention to certifying the Nigerian brand as it does to imported brands from China and elsewhere.
Nigeria, among other developing countries, cannot afford to lose the war on deforestation arising from reliance on wood and charcoal as fuel for cooking. The most effective way to win this war and protect citizens from avoidable harm is to ensure that cooking gas cylinders in the country meet global quality and safety standards.
The National Arts Theatre Iganmu Lagos used to be a site to behold. When it was constructed in 1976, it became a must-visit monument. It was the pride of Lagos when it served as the country’s capital city. With time, the magnificent edifice began to wear mournful looks due to politics of negligence which affected the entire creative industry. However, Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME reports that the once-neglected edifice would soon bounce back to relevance as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) injects N22 billion to revive the creative industry
THE abandoned place of arts has roared back to life. thanks to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
There is a new lease of life of the National Arts Theatre in Iganmu, Lagos and a massive opportunity for creative artistes to ply their trade.
The 43-year old edifice purpose built to host the second World Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) is to enjoy the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) injection of N22 billion seed capital.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at Creative Summit in Lagos on Monday, said the intervention is to galvanise music and movie industry and support young entrepreneurs in the development of digital art content.
Until now, the management of the 43-year-old edifice that hosted the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77), had been enmeshed in series of concession controversies following inability of government to sustain funding of the event venue, which was also allegedly earmarked for sale.
Emefiele revealed that the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos will serve as initial pilot for the Creative Industries Park that will also cover other major cities in the country.
“With the kind support of the Federal and Lagos governments, the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, is expected to serve as the initial pilot for the Creative Industries Park. Our plan is to develop a 40-acre Creative Industry Park around the National Theatre including giving the Theater itself tremendous face lift; thereby reopening the touring potential the National Theatre offered during the FESTAC 77 arts culture. Following the deployment of the pilot scheme in Lagos, we intend to set up similar parks in Kano, Port Harcourt or Enugu.”
Besides, Emefiele noted that the park would serve as a showcase through which individuals would display their talents and abilities, which will, in turn, expose them to domestic and external investors that can provide them with additional resources that will engender further production and expansion of their creative works.
He stated at the summit that a critical aspect of the park would be devoted to supporting the growth of Nigeria’s fashion industry.
“The textile, apparel and footwear sub-sectors remain the second largest contributors to Nigeria’s manufacturing (after food, beverage and tobacco) sector. Total output in fourth quarter of 2017 was estimated at $1.3 billion or 23.3 per cent of manufacturing GDP.
“Sadly, at present, Nigeria spends over $2 billion on imported textiles, including machine-made cloths imported from Asia which copy popular Nigerian designs. This action has taken place despite the abundant talents in the fashion industry in Nigeria, some of whom are gaining prominence locally and internationally,” he said.
He noted that the initiative will also help to support the growth of the cotton and textile industry by off-taking on the products being produced in textile mills in Kano, Kaduna and Lagos.
“Over the next five years, the park will help in supporting 10,000 young Nigerians with improved design skills, while creating over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) industry.
“The Shared Service Facility will also serve as a showroom to the world on quality fabrics being designed and produced in Nigeria,” he said.
Emefiele said over 50,000 Nigerians would benefit from this ICT centre, which will create over 25,000 software engineers and 150,000 skilled and unskilled jobs. He added that it could result in potential GDP gains of close to $2 billion while curbing importation of IT solutions that can be produced in Nigeria.
Reacting to CBN’s initiative, renowned playwright, director and former Deputy Editor The Guardian Newspaper Mr. Ben Tomoloju, described the move as a positive development, saying it was long overdue considering the critical role of arts and the theatre complex in the nation’s economy. He noted that the idea of establishing a creative industry park at the National Theatre was a most welcome development, adding that the theatre complex itself needs total renovation. He observed that the vast space around the theatre complex has been under-utilised over the years which have been a constant target of land speculators in high and low places.
“One has always spoken about the duty of government to create an enabling environment for the creative industry to grow. In fact, in an interview with a national daily published during the week, I suggested that the intervention fund-once approved for implementation-would go a long way in redressing untoward investment situation that the arts sub-sector is going through.
“This is a salutary initiative by the Federal Government which, at the long last, assuages my feeling of despair about Buhari and the cultural sector. In 2015, at the inception of this regime, I had projected in a newspaper comment that Buhari had an antecedent in the military era that was art and culture friendly.
“I recalled his Bayo Oduneye-headed Review Panel on Film and Theatre. I also recall his appointment of Col. Tunde Akogun as the Federal Sole Administrator for Culture which transformed the sector positively. These were the achievements that led one to the conclusion that his administration, this time around, would also make a significant impact on the fortunes of artists and the entire culture producers,” he said.
According to Tomoloju, the initiative is a good step in the right direction, even as he appealed to those who will be engaged in various stages of the implementation to be patriotic, honest and altruistic to allow the initiative add value as expected to the lives of artists and creative individuals and also in the best interest of the Nigerian tourism agenda.
Former Director-General Centre for Black African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) Prof. Tunde Babawale said any amount invested in the creative industry is a worthwhile venture.
“Any amount invested in the creative industry is a worthwhile venture. It will lead to employment creation and infrastructural development. The Nollywood industry is the biggest employer of labour outside the government. This would further enhance the sector’s capacity for empowerment. We must ensure that the various unions in the sector are involved in the management of disbursement,” he added.
At 41, he retired as Chief of Defence Staff after a brief stint as Chief of Army Staff. Later, Lt. Gen. Alani Ipoola Akinrinade served as Minister of Agriculture, and later, Industries and delegate to the 1989 Constituent Assembly under the Babangida administration. During the June 12 struggle, he was a key chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). The light-skinned General, who is celebrating his 80th birthday today at the Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, spoke with reporters on his military career, civil war exploits, his ordeals as a pro-democracy crusader, Afenifere crisis, the 2014 National Conference report and the battle for true federalism. Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.
Congratulations Gen. How do you feel celebrating 80?
If you go through some bumps in life and you survive and live up to 80, you feel great.
During the civil war, you escaped death. During the Abacha period, you also escaped death. During those times, did you entertain the fear that you will not clock 80?
Every soldier is really prepared to check out anytime. All is a blessing. There are so many bumps in life. There will be many more. I have spent nine months in the hospital before, which was different from the war front. I went through different operations. When I came out, it was as if I lost some forms of energy. It is a way of life. That was the life of a soldier. A soldier should know that there is the possibility of losing your life. I think what one should pray for is to finish a good course. Some die in some futile ways; get killed by armed robbers.
Why did you choose soldiering as a career?
How I became a soldier? If I say it was a deliberate thing, I will be economical with the truth. As a young person, I loved boys scouting, even from primary school. I used to see my uncle who went to Burma. Next door in the house. He was a hunter. When he came back; fairly elderly. When he went out hunting, he looked like a brave man to me. He told us stories. Usually, in the village, soldiers after the world war used to move about in the village when they were exercising. We used to see them. They came out of their vehicles in the village buying all sorts of things. Their looks had some impressions on young people. They were smarter people. I thought if these people could be like this, I could also be. I left boys scouting in the secondary school and went to interact with different people. I like to live a very outdoor life, very active, practical. So, when I left school and saw one day the UTC store at Ibadan some officers who were shopping and they were younger officers, lieutenants and captains, I didn’t get to know who they were. That was the way we say them as young people. I took the courage to talk to them. They were looking very smart in the old colonial dresses. I had something within me telling me that soldiers were not ruffians. I thought it was not a bad idea.
I was working in the Ministry of Agriculture as a Clerk. When the advertisement came in the Daily Times, I said why not try. That was the long and short of it. That was how it started. It was not a deliberate thing. In any case, the advertisement said you will train in Nigeria, you will train abroad. I thought that was something. It was going to be competitive. Then, you were to get a big salary that was enough. I thought that was okay. It was better than what you get when you leave the university and start working in the civil service. So, nothing to lose. If I didn’t make it, for instance, I will just go back to my original plan, do my A/Level and find my way to the university and start life. There was nothing really to lose. It was a gamble that was worth it.
In your days in the Army, and up to now, you were described as a master strategist, who advised Murtala against crossing River Niger by foot and against another operation around Owerri…
I think it is not because anyone is smarter or clever. I really don’t believe so. I think when matters come to a head, where we all differ is that some people are not able to stand their ground. It may not be because they didn’t know, but that there may be risks attached to it. Some can’t stand their ground. I think that’s the difference. It is not about being master strategist or not. I was a Major. I should be commanding a company, not a brigade. That was the situation we found ourselves. Experience is one thing. Knowledge is important. It is the best. Many of us had knowledge. Experience? No. but, some people were not quite strong enough to stand their ground. I think that is the only difference. I know some people, who would have done much better, who were my peers too. The problem then was that most of the people who would not stand up and speak were my seniors. They just sat down there. I always said that was lack of guts, because if you know what is to be done, then, stick to it. You suffer the consequence if that is the case. In my own case, all the people who could have done me in, I think I was too close to them for them to do anything untoward. I came back to Lagos to see the Commander-In-Chief, and I returned to the war front. They couldn’t say go and lock this idiot up. Many of those making the mistakes were not properly instructed. You have hierarchy. The Army Headquarters, even the Supreme Commander. The Supreme Commander was not tough on us. He couldn’t put his feet down, that you should not do this. People just did what they wanted to do. That was the atmosphere that pervaded at that time.
When you were entering the Army, did you ever envisage that soldiers will be in political control for a long time?
The Army and politics? We don’t even mix at all. There was no such time. There was a big wedge between the military and civilian administration. It was not our business at all.
Could the civil war have been averted by the military?
The military are the worst people to resolve a confused situation like the one we had. It was a political problem which could have been solved through political maneuvering, sitting down and talking. But, when you put the military in charge, they are only thinking at the hard power, that if I can really do him in, why should I talk to him. So, that was the difficulty we all had in Nigeria. Military were in charge when things went very very bad. And they made the wrong decisions. They made the war to go on and we lost so many people. Political problems should be solved by politicians. When I joined the Army, the closest I had ever come politician before 1964, for instance, was because I had a friend, who was a lieutenant like me. He has an uncle who was in politics. They were two. The junior one was a parliamentary secretary or so. He has a car, a Chevrolet car. And during weekends, we used to go and borrow it. We took it out Saturday night and that kind of thing. The third time, we got drunk and slept in the Bachelors’ Officers Quarters. And in the morning, they saw the car. The car had no registration in the barracks. Who brought it in? Two idiots. So, we were in for a high jump for that. It was illegal to do it. That was the closest. He was called Omokowajo. He was a parliamentary secretary in the Western Region at that time. But, to sit down with politicians and talk politics? No.
Would the country have been different, if there was no military rule?
I think so. I honestly think so. I think that was the undoing of the political system. When they started jostling for central power and got to the point of people biding together to do people in; like the treasonable felony and that kind of thing. Up to that time, until they started breaching law and order, the military never left their barracks. But, it was only when the police cannot stabilise the system, you call the Army to do it for a short time and go back. The Army is not to govern. You don’t go and sit down in State House and say you want to govern. That is not part of our business. We lost our way.
Why was your tenure as Chief of Army Staff so short?
Again, it is the carry over problem that started a long time ago. You begin to look for people you know, people you have worked it, people you trust. The argument was going on all the time. You couldn’t have a Yoruba an as Chief of Army Staff at the time. That was the situation.
Your friend, Brig-Gen. Alabi Isama, said we do not know the real account of how Biafra surrendered; that it was you and Major Tumoye that accepted the surrender before you invited Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo…
The account of Alabi is correct. Alabi was in the Third Division. But, when the push was really tough and both of us decided to leave the Third Division; we had had enough of Adekunle. We thought that leaving him there was unfair. Adekunle had fought so hard. Really, the law of diminishing return had been coming. He was beginning to get a little irrational. And when you are commanding human beings, each time you make mistake, it cost human lives. It was worse than political mistake. That was the reason that both of us said if the Commander-In-Chief would not remove him, we better leave. We left and we came back. We persuaded the Commander-In-Chief to change him and he put Gen. Obasanjo. Unknown to us, between Ibadan and the war front, after persuading him to come to the Third Division; and these are terrible stories. That if anyone else who is not Yoruba took over Third Division, he will not succeed. Unfortunately, that was the setting at the time. So, Gen. Obasanjo agreed. He came down. I think he was scared to have me and Isama there. He knew me a little better than Isama. He asked Isama to be posted out. That was how Isama left for the First Division. But, the tactics we finally used was a document that me and Isama had prepared. In our last time with Adekunle, he had started becoming distrustful of us. He was not happy with some of the things he thought we were doing. Also, he also believed that we were not believing in him as our commander. So, he posted us outside of his headquarters. So, Alabi was in Third Sector. I was in Two Sector. That was the mistake he made. The two sectors were adjacent to each other. I was in Aba side. Ayo Ariyo who was a bit senior, but our classmate, much older that we were, was in Calabar. We were saved for Imo River all the way to Calabar. He now put somebody else in the First Sector, who was also our senior, but we didn’t particularly get along with him. In the Second Division, when I quarrel with my own GOC, he was there. He said nothing. They were just sitting down there, allowing the GOC to do whatever he wanted. He now again ended in the Third Division. I didn’t want to have anything to do with him. They were having hell in that Owerri sector.
Adekunle was having a second thought about us. When he left and we came back, I don’t know who briefed him; he decided to send us away. so, it was that work that both of us had done when he was in the First Sector and I was in the Second Sector; because we said we wanted to finish this war, it was not that difficult. We then, presented it to Adekunle. Whether he read it, whether he studied it, we were not sure. But, all he wrote there was that ‘This is tactics lesson one. When am I expecting the next tuition?’ He closed it. We went back to our sector. It was that one that I brushed up and put it purview. I didn’t tell Obasanjo that we were going to execute that. I was fed up sitting in the war front; the war we should have finished in one year, we were there for 30 months. So, we decided to execute it. That was why Isama knew much about it, although he was no more there. Tumoye was there. Ariyo was there.
What are the lessons of the civil war?
It taught us a lot of lessons. What is the last thing that should be in anybody’s mind? Recently, somebody said they wanted a Yoruba nation. IPOB said they wanted Biafra. I asked them: can we sit and iron these things out? If you say no, then, I part company with you. If you can’t, you are telling me that you want to fight a civil war. I don’t know about a country that has survived two civil wars. Secondly, did you see the carnage that the last one caused? Are you telling me that things are not going to be even worse now, if we start one again tomorrow? No. so, war is the last thing on anybody’s mind.
You retired at the age of 41 in 1981. Part of your reason was that President Shehu Shagari was not able to foster better relations among the Army, Navy and Air Force, and that the Chief of Defence Staff should have moderated. Today, there is rivalry among them to the detriment of security of life and property. What do you have to say?
I think on their own, they do cooperate among themselves. I know they have outer forces where the Army, Navy and Air Force do operate. They are efficient to the extent of the equipment and training available to them. That is what really dictates what happens; the organisation you have and the equipment available to you. They are performing the task within that framework.
In our time, I thought it was because I was the first Chief of Defense Staff, that I said, laid out all these things; what the atmosphere should look like, what the organisation should look like. It was the advice that should be given to the Commander-In-Chief. The Commander-In-Chief has access to all his troop; the Chief of Army, Chief of Navy, Chief of Air Force.
In the case of President Shagari, he was not an ex-soldier. So, it was the duty of his Chief of Defense Staff to protect him, to know what was really going on in real times and take decisions everybody can live with. Once you neglect doing that, you start calling the troop yourself and start buying equipment for them, you invariably end up with an Armed Forces that is not balanced. You don’t have unlimited resources. You want to prepare. So, you really prepare for those challenges. And that is the work of the Chief of Defense Staff. But, if you say you have personal relationship with the Chief of Army Staff, what about the Chief of Naval Staff? You won’t have a force when you are called upon to do so. I don’t like to sit in a place and see things going in a wrong way. I won’t sit down there and say it is not my business. It is my business of all of us. That was why they felt that in those days the Chief of Army Staff was pompous. That feeling that it was about Awolowo was also there.
But, I had my chance to publicly tell all of them. I had the opportunity to tell the Commander-In-Chief my mind. When I went to him, that I wanted to leave, he asked people to talk to me that I should stay. I really don’t know why I would want to stay. He said he was not too happy that everybody he sent to me, Akinjide, Akinloye could not convince him. Nobody was there when I decided to join the Army. Why should you make it your business when I wanted to leave? That is my decision. When I now saw the big boss himself, he was not happy. Well, I also told him that I was not happy either. I said I saw them as a bunch of people who wanted to commit suicide and I said I was not in the business of committing suicide with anybody. I thought that will open the way for a big discussion between both of us. But, he didn’t ask the big question. I didn’t volunteer any further information.
But, on the day I was leaving, he graciously gave me a luncheon. His ministers were there. Party chieftains were there at the State House. I asked him whether he will give me permission to say anything. He said yes after his speech. I asked if I could be permitted to make a response. He said yes. So, I wrote a speech because I wanted a record for it. I made sure it was a three-minute speech. I thanked everybody and told him I had enjoyed my work and ensured that the commission they gave me was executed, that I have tried very hard to keep the soldiers in the barracks and that the only thing that will keep them in the barracks is good governance. Some of my people were not too happy with that.
You made a statement which really foiled Dimka’s coup in 1976 when you said what was happening in Lagos was not happening in other parts of the country. What really gave you the courage to do that?
People talk about courage. I have always thought that whatever conviction you have, you are ready to live by it. This is why I stand. I will tell you so. You may not like it. It was not anything extraordinary as far as I was concerned on the line of duty. There are lot about the story that people didn’t get absolutely right. I happened to be in Lagos for a conference and the conference was to start at 10 am on the day of the coup. I had an agreement with Alabi Isama to make a presentation at the conference. So, because he was the Principal Officer at the Army Headquarters, and I was only a GOC in Kaduna, he was to make the presentation. But, he wanted me to work on it. We agreed. I had seen the draft. We agreed that I will be in the office before 6.30am, meet with him so that we can conclude the presentation, get the slide. I was staying in Marina and one could walk across. There was a radio in his office. It was on. Radio Nigeria. We had the voice. By the time it stopped, he said that was my officer, Dimka. We all knew him very well. So, what do we do? We waited. People were coming to the office. So, the Chief of Staff arrived early. He was to be the chairman of the conference. He needed us to brief him on what we would present so that he could have an idea. He said there was a coup. He had a radio in his office. He put it on. He said oh my God, we needed to get out of here. There was a decision on what to do, whether to operate from the Headquarter here before the thing got too hot, and go and take over a unit, in Bonny Camp. We decided that everybody should get into his car and fly our flag. The worst thing was that they will shoot us. We decided to go to Bonny Camp. Unfortunately for us, the officer at Bonny Camp, Shagaya, was not there. He was already on his way to the airport to go and catch a flight to Jos. But, there was Yomi Williams and another officer. We got to the barracks. The barracks was not too awake to know what was really going on. That was around 8.15 am. The Chief of Staff, Danjuma, was there. I wished I were in Kaduna, but I was not there. I said let me write a brief speech for broadcast. If I wanted to do it in Lagos, the radio we knew had already been taken over. Before they take over Kaduna, let me find a telephone. My officers, HMO, Garrison Commander were there, Bako and so on. There was no phone working at the Headquarters. For whatever reason, the phones were not working. There was no phone inside that barracks going from office to office. Suddenly, I saw this group of officers. They all got up and saluted. I asked: does anybody has a phone there? They said no sir. They said I should go the next officer, which was Adefope’s office. He was our Chief of Medical Corps. We went in there and there was phone and it was working. I got my headquarter. I called Bako, my Garrison Commander. I asked him to listen carefully and get some things down. I asked him to read it back to me. I said: Take over the radio station, go and broadcast that. Take the officer to take a unit you can muster from the battalion there. Start going to the bridge in Lokoja and take over the bridge because the next thing they will do was to break the bridge and people will not be able to cross easily and we didn’t have the kind of big air force. Our best bet was to seize the bridge. Most people thought I was sitting in Kaduna. I was in Lagos, but I gave them the impression that I was the one speaking.
What was responsible for the tension between Murtala and Bissala?
I am not sure that I really know because both of them were classmates. They were my seniors in school, in Sandhurst. They had been there for one and half years before I got there. I spent my first two terms with them. So, I loved both of them as my seniors. I am not too sure. I heard later all sorts of things; about promotions, nomenclatures, who had a better appointment than the other and all sorts of things.
You were closed to Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, your junior. You were a minister. You were in the Constituent Assembly. Why did his transition programme fail?
I wouldn’t know. There was a Council of Ministers. There was the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). The Armed Forces Ruling Council was composed of soldiers, service officers. It was there the highest decisions were made. Ministers were charged with the day to day running of government. When the AFRC was making its own decision and pronouncement, contrary to that of the Council of Ministers, those who had respect for themselves decided to leave. That was when I left. I was too close to Ibrahim to be fighting with him. I saw him everyday. I was too close to the family, his wife. We have come a long way. I cannot be going to his house to go and quarrel with him. I decided to leave for my farm. That was why Kuti left. That was why Bola Ajibola left.
When you heard about the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by SDP candidate Chief Moshood Abiola, how did you feel?
My first principle you must have conviction about what you are fighting for. In the case of politics, I will not join a party. I have friends all over the parties. During elections, I will queue. I will not want anybody to treat me like a VIP. I will expect my vote to count. First, I wanted to know where that vote went. That is the principle. I will do it at any time, by anything necessary, to find out where my vote went. I didn’t say whoever I vote for must win. Fir me, that was the major driving force for fighting for Abiola. Second, I thought the military had haemeoraged enough. It was about time the military left the matters of governance for the people elected to do so and face the barracks. Barrack is a full time, dangerous job. When things go wrong there, it is always unpalatable. If I might digress, it was part of the reason against Gen. Gowon went so smoothly. The officers have been crying in the barrack that it was enough. There were too many civilians with ideas, why don’t you let them do it. Why not our senior officers return to the difficult jobs in the barracks. All those talks about corruption under Gowon were embellishment. Well, if people were doing some pilfering under him, he will not talk. That was his character. He was not giving to hammering people’s head. Never. I used to remind him that he is the son of a priest, but that God himself destroyed Sodom and Gomorra now. And you are a soldier. But, he is too nice for a soldier.
When you reflect on your NADECO days, would you say they were worth it?
Well, it is not every time you get exact answers or destinations you worked for. But, you get satisfaction in trying and convincing myself that I have put my best in something. NADECO was well worth it. The suffering was worth it. My only regret is that a lot of people lost their lives. Some people suffered too much and where we are today begins to question whether it was worth it. If it didn’t happen, what else could have happened? Let history keep evolving and let’s keep struggling. May be one day, we get to the light. The tunnel is a little dark all the time.
•Lt. Gen. Akinrinade
During the NADECO struggle, you were tried in absentia by the Abacha government…
I can’t remember how many of us were tried in absentia. I didn’t really pay attention to know the details of what he was charging me for. All I know was that his Foreign Minister had gone to Auckland and said myself, Wole Soyinka were responsible for planting bombs around Lagos. Tom Ikimi said I was an accomplished bob maker. The whole of Nigerian Army can testify that I never joined the engineers. Yes, to lay mines, they taught us how to do all that. To make it was not our business. The ones we used on the field were not made by soldiers. They were made somewhere else. We only learned how to put the things together and go and plant it. We could lay it. We have to find it again. I didn’t know the details of the trial. I got a letter through Chief Osoba. I didn’t know how it got it. But, it was a Part One Order, stripping me of my ranks. The first time I got it, it was through Chief Osoba, who smuggled it out of Nigeria to London. I laughed over it. The idea of stripping you of any rank, I don’t think will remove anything from your person. It was just ephemeral.
When Abiola died, how did you feel?
It got to a point. People were hoping that they would get some things. Our spirits were up. Our expectations were very high that he would now be released and we will all start all over again. So, when Abiola died, it was just heart rendering. It was worse for us. His daughter, Hafsat, was with us in Maryland then. Her little ones were with her. It was big blow. It was not whether he would be a good president or a bad one. The problem is that when people vote, you should let them see the result. The military did very poorly.
How do you assess the 20 years of stable civil rule?
We have not found exactly the formula. Twenty years is a long time, no doubt. It is a long time in the life of a person and a nation. My assessment is that we have done very poorly. We could do much more better. Nature has been kind to us. Instead of embracing it and using it, we became charlatans. So, something, someone has to wake us up. A Muslim has been there before, a Christian should be there now. It was somebody from Yakoyo, it should now be someone from Zamfara. What is all these? One hundred years the colonial masters, we are still there. We are still on the same spot arguing about tribe, religion and all sorts of things are inanities.
Sir, you, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi and Dr. Dapo Fafowora, are chieftains of Afenifere. You even approached Fernandez to assist them financially. What is the problem with Afenifere? How can the two sides come together?
Afenifere is still what it is; a whole collection of people of all ages and all walks of life, who want the good of everybody. It is Yoruba, but it is liaising with all other parts of Nigeria to see how it can be better. We are not removing the scale from our eyes.
I was in Kaduna in 1979 when Chief Awolowo came to campaign. I just left staff college and I was posted there as GOC. I was inter4ested in what he would say. He came to the television. They asked him: you are always talking about free education. Where are you going to get the resources? The old man said if you take the population of Nigeria, bundle us into a ship and take us to America, and those from America to Nigeria.
The Daily Times’ great satirist, Ndaeyo Uko, once told the story of two ‘mad’ men, one of whom found his moment of lucidity stalking what he believed was a ‘suicidal customer’ at a food vending shack around which the lunatic had hung daily for leftovers; and if memory serves right, the other lunatic found his lucid moment stalking Uko’s very own father who he perceived also as being on a trendy, ‘suicidal’ tie-wearing madness. But not remembering the details of Uko’s interesting stories, I have arrogated to myself the poetic license to serve you my embellished versions of that great writer’s originals. The mad one at the eatery, over time, must’ve taken a deranged notice of this particular customer who regularly came asking to be served a combination of ‘ogbono’, ‘egusi’ and ‘ewedu’ soups to go with his favourite swallow -should we say- ‘eba’? Except that on this particular day, the ‘mad man’, it appeared, must’ve had enough hearing this gastronomically ‘self-harming’ alimentary combination. He had resolved, this fateful day, to end this ‘madness’ once and for all! And so after this customer had been served, the ‘lunatic’ angrily walked to his table, snatched the bowl of ‘soup’, guzzled it in one mad gulp, took the malformed mound of ‘eba’, stashed it in his raggedy pocket, handed over the emptied plates to the dumbfounded customer, and now at the top of his voice warned: “Always eat one soup so that we know the one that kill you! I say eat one soup” he repeated as he walked away, “so that we know the one that kill you!!”
Uko’s other ‘lunatic’ was no less forceful in his demand, nor any less authoritative in the expression of his momentary lucidity. This one too must’ve -for some time- taken a deranged notice of Uko’s presumably civil-servant father, as the man would appear every morning to go to work wearing either a one-piece suit or a well-starched, short-sleeved shirt, but always on a perfectly knotted tie. And so, on this fateful day, the ‘mad man’, apparently having had enough watching what he must’ve thought was a daily, self-strangulating ‘madness’, had walked straight up to Uko’s father, grabbed him firmly by the tie, and at the top of his voice, was now questioning the victim of his stranglehold: “when will you allow this neck rest!? I say when will you free this neck!!?” And although it may have taken the intervention of neighbours to pull this ‘lunatic’ off the jugular of Uko’s gasping father, yet the moral of stories like these cannot be lost on the discerning; and which is that: there is just a thin line between sanity and insanity; and that often both those who lay claim to sanity and those who are truly insane may cross the threshold without knowing that they have. Ndaeyo Uko had used these stories as some kind of comic relief to caricature the weekly display of intemperance by an Admiral, Augustus Aighomu, IBB’s number two man who had a habit of turning his weekly press conference with State House correspondents into some kind of mad house for the vilest language to reply the regime’s many critics. But such malady becomes even one of a terribly infinite proportion if it has to take a tap by the existentially mad, on the shoulders of the presumably ‘clearheaded’, to warn them they are hovering right on the threshold.
And so I was wondering, what would a momentarily lucid ‘mad man’ with a keen mind on the ‘juridical’ –as against the culinary or the trendy- have said to a litigious Atiku Abubakar, especially given the Waziri’s cheaply opportunistic grounds of petition against Buhari’s victory? Because we have seen that each of the three grounds of Atiku’s petition was actually an obvious gamble reminiscent of the opportunistic casket-game in Shakespeare’s tragic-comic play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Permit me to digress a little. To fulfil her late father’s royal wish, wealthy heiress of Belmont, Princes Portia, dutifully consents to a game of caskets by which, in the wisdom of her father, she may escape ‘gold diggers’ and gain a suitable husband from among princely suitors who must choose the casket containing her picture by un-coding both the ornamental motifs of the ‘precious’ metals by which the three caskets are represented and the confusing inscriptions that they respectively bear, namely, the ‘gold’ casket: ‘Who chooseth me shall GAIN WHAT MANY MEN DESIRE’; the ‘silver’: ‘Who chooseth me shall GET AS MUCH AS HE DESERVES’ and the ‘lead’ ‘Who chooseth me must GIVE AND HAZARD ALL HE HATH’.
But like Ndaeyo Uko’s ‘souper’ who loved his ‘ogbono’, ‘egusi’ and ‘ewedu’ all in one bowl, Atiku had acted true to his covetous and gluttonous patrician character. He wanted all three precious metals: gold, silver and lead; and he wanted all three soups: ‘ogbono’, ‘egusi’ and ‘ewedu’. The claim that Atiku won the election was merely a ploy to shroud his opportunistic reliance on two seemingly low-hanging fruits: his contrived ‘server result sheet’ which –for its non-justiciability- was dead on arrival, and the non-issue of Buhari’s ‘qualification’ which –conscionably- was weak. Thus all that Atiku had succeeded in doing at the tribunal was to prove himself a jack of three dubious trades –‘cert’, ‘server’ and ‘substantial non-compliance’; and in the end he had turned out a grouchy ‘master of none’! Atiku had proved himself both of two proverbial opportunistic soldiers: a ‘soldier of fortune’ and a ‘sunshine soldier’. He had also proved himself both of two proverbial seekers of idle fortune: a ‘treasure hunter’ and a ‘gold digger’. He had hoped to reap where he did not sow. And without proving any of the three grounds, Atiku still believes that he has been denied justice. Meaning that either all five justices knew no law at all, or that they have elected –against the grain of law- to pervert justice. In truth, it is Atiku who had angled desperately to pervert and to benefit from the perversion of justice: his calumnious campaign for the removal of judges on the tribunal he did not trust, his desperate attempts to force judges to descend to the gallery, his frequent appeal to a partisan court of public opinion, his curious request to meet the tribunal judges in camera and his public denunciation of ‘law and fact’ in favour of what he termed ‘the pulse’ of the nation, all revealed a litigant who knew that he had no case. All of Atiku’s juristic ‘armour’, his ‘sword’ and his ‘shield’ rested on one ridiculously presumptive proof, that he won the election because it was ‘obvious’ that ‘Nigerians wanted Buhari to lose’.
And that is Atiku for you. He is Nigeria’s only politician you’ll know who seems always, to exude this preeminent entitlement to be paid back –economically and politically- for some great favour you’d think he must’ve done to Nigeria in time past; very rare favours such as should equate, metaphorically, say, to giving a dying person the ‘kiss of life’ or cardio-vascular pulmonary (mouth-to-mouth) resuscitation; or maybe some great deed of derring-do such as equates, say, with being Nigeria’s Dedan Kimathi who led the country’s version of Kenya’s Mau-Mau revolution to secure our independence. Atiku is about the only politician you’ll know who approaches the politics of ruling this country with this toga of subtle -even if haughty- claim to a ‘right of first refusal’. And it is probably the reason he always demands his political desert in a combination of three uncompromising soups. Its either an all ‘ogbono’, ‘egusi’ and ‘ewedu’ bowl, or a gruelling court fight to the last ounce of energy! It is either his ‘gold, silver and lead’ all at once or no ‘casket game’ at all! Because to Atiku alone belongs not only the right to the ‘gold casket’ wherein to ‘GAIN WHAT MANY MEN DESIRE’ and the right to the ‘silver casket’ wherein to ‘GET AS MUCH AS HE DESERVES’, to him also belongs the right to the basest of them all, the ‘lead casket’, because Atiku is the only Nigerian politician you’ll also know who is ready to ‘GIVE AND HAZARD ALL HE HATH’ in order that he ‘GAINs WHAT MANY MEN DESIRE’ and that of it, he ‘GETs AS MUCH AS HE DESERVES’.
