The Nation Newspaper

Tag: President Buhari

  • $9.6bn judgment: Newest elite honey pot?

    Sir: Even as President Buhari was at the United Nations General Assembly denouncing as a scam, the Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) contract with the government, which has resulted in the humongous award of $9.6 billion against Nigeria by a London commercial court, his ministers and other top government officials led by Attorney General, Abubakar Malami were in London, ostensibly in an effort to vacate the judgment. Even as the commercial court in London has granted a stay of execution of the earlier judgment, it also slapped a bill of $200 million (N72.2b) that Nigeria must deposit in the court within 60 days for the stay of execution to take effect.

    Malami who led the delegation enthused that “I am happy with today’s development in the court and see this as a positive resolution that constitutes an important step in the government effort to defend itself in a fair and just process.”

    Why would Malami be excited or “happy”, that a judgment entered in favour of a group that should have been on the run, cost of $200 million to vacate its execution?

    It appears, a section of Nigerian governing elite have discovered a honey pot for which they are desperate to scoop to its last residue. It is becoming very clear and apparent that P&ID may actually be working in cohort with those who claim to be sweating to overturn the judgment. In its latest outburst, the “international criminal group” as President Buhari called them, has found their voice. According to its statement recently, “the court has ruled that Nigeria government must put $200 million to maintain a stay of execution whilst it pursues an appeal against enforcement of the now 9.6 billion awards in favour of P&ID.”

    The phantom company with no known pedigree of project execution anywhere in the world and whose Irish founder was ensnared in many shadowy deals would also taunt that “Nigeria government will now have to put its money where its mouth is if it wants to avoid immediate seizure of assets,” adding with a good amount of scorn that, “ government’s recent media exercise to allege fraud against P&ID turned out to be red-herring.”

    The hunter has become the hunted. President Buhari’s constructive message to the world through the UN platform that Nigeria is under siege by a criminal gang was comprehensively flagged down by P&ID as “red-herring.”

    If it is not, why are the Buhari men roaming the U.K whose learned judges should have known that extra-territorial judgment infringing on other nations sovereign and territorial integrity has enormous diplomatic costs especially at a time of London political winter, when Brexit confusion is mauling its political establishment?

    If the P&ID is a scam and a London court sought to glamourize it by issuing a judgment in its favour, do we need to further deodorize the crime by appealing a judgment or, we muscularly invoke our sovereign prerogatives to denounce the judgment as blatant interference in our internal affairs especially when it has to do with a criminal group wanting to cheat Nigeria billions of dollars?

    Instead of the rigmaroles in the London court, why would not the government activate the diplomatic machinery to put the British government on notice, that a key institution of her domestic national process is putting bilateral cooperation between the two countries in jeopardy?

    Hiring legal teams both local and international, with over-bloated expense in travels and fees would be the lifeblood that would ensure that the P&ID affair will never go away, any time soon. At the end of these epic rigmaroles, negotiations with the P&ID, when all concerned would have agreed on cuts and percentages will be the ultimate deal maker and the final outcome. Our National Assembly, smelling the tantalizing honey pot are already asking to be brought on board.

    President Buhari, a staunch anti-corruption crusader with impeccable integrity will soon understand that corruption has many faces and some might actually look like those around him.

    • Charles Onunaiju, Utako Abuja.

  • Your security approach not working, Bugaje tells Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to review the country’s security architecture, if the war against terrorism, armed banditry and kidnapping must be won.

    The call came yesterday as a two-day Northern Nigeria Security Conference kicked off in Kaduna.

    Convener of Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP), the organisers of the conference, Dr. Usman Bugaje, said the Buhari administration’s approach to the security challenges has failed.

    Similarly, a member of National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu, said regardless of efforts of the security agencies, Nigeria would keep wallowing in crises, if the population growth rate continues to be higher than the country’s economic growth rate.

    Speaking at the opening of the conference, Bugaje said: “What is happening in Nigeria today in terms of security is known to everybody. A lot of killings and atrocities are under-reported. We have a situation where things were deteriorating and still deteriorating and every move by the security agency is not translating to positive results.

    “It becomes necessary, therefore, to re-examine the situation and explore the community approach. We want to see what community can do so that we can come together and salvage this country.

    “We have brought experts, even though many of them have retired from security forces, so they can bring their expertise and see how the communities can complement the efforts of the security agencies.

    “Now, we are not here to blame any particular person. And in this two-day security conference, we did underscore a few points of action. There is the need to take this issue of security very seriously with all responsibility. There should be no room for politics or joke here.

    “Secondly, I did say that a citizen will have a responsibility to participate and to show when the government is not delivering, even if it is under dictatorship or in the circumstance that we are.”

    Read Also: We’ve depleted bandits activities in Northwest, says GOC

    He added: “So, we want people who are holding government’s positions from the lowest up to the President to understand that what they have been doing on security is not working. This is because, it is the citizens who can tell you whether what you are doing is working or not.

    “The third point we are considering is the fact that citizens seem to have lost their courage to tell the truth. But this is important in our kind of setting because we are not sure if the President is getting the truth. We want to make sure those that are making policies and strategies are listening to the truth. It is important that whatever we see to be truth we say it.”

    Aremu, in his own view, said: “Regardless of the efforts of the security agencies, Nigeria will continue to have crises, if the country’s population growth rate continues to be higher than economic growth rate.

    “Regardless of whether we armed the security agencies to combat the security challenges, if the number of unemployed youths continues to increase more than that of the security operatives, there is bound to be problem.”

    One of the keynote speakers, Abubakar Sadiq Muhammed, said the present blanket approach employed by security forces to tackle insecurity cannot give the results the country needs.

    “If you go to Zamfara, economy is in serious crisis. People are no longer going to farm and towns have been abandoned. There is large movement of people from the area they were engaging in farming activities to area where they don’t do anything to become internally displaced persons.

    “Sometimes, we demonstrate our lack of capability to deal with the situation we found ourselves. If care is not taken, these criminals will overrun the security – God forbid, and that was why I said we have to look at our security architecture in this country seriously,” Muhammed stated.

  • Letter to President Buhari: May 29 and June 12, 2019

    Your Excellency. Your address to the nation on June 12, 2019 has to be a cracker. We are compelled to acknowledge that June 12, 1993 was a watershed in our nation’s history. We now have an opportunity to reconcile our past with the present and ignite hope for the future. In doing so, we are obliged to recognise the fault lines and fissures that threatened the corporate existence of our nation.

    We were on the brink of disaster and right on the edge of the precipice that threw up a cataclysmic chasm that would have buried the glorious event which against all odds was a peaceful and credible election and signalled to the rest of the world that as a nation, we could transcend ethnic loyalties, religious affinity and gender bias.

    Of course, June 12 1993 will remain evergreen in our nation’s psyche and memory on account of the outstanding doggedness of late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola who paid the supreme sacrifice. His patriotism was exceptional and his generosity knew no bounds. He was large-hearted and he touched so many lives. He was indeed a man of the people. From a humble background armed with education and determination to succeed, he climbed the ladder of success as a Chartered Accountant and very enterprising businessman.He had the audacity to abandon his comfort zone to venture into politics. It is not sufficient to declare that the rest is history.

    On the contrary, we must seize this opportunity to acknowledge that June 12 and the heroic sacrifices that followed were not entirely and exclusively about the late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola.

    Apart from the late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, the other chieftains of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), whether dead or alive, deserve our eternal gratitude for their principled defence of the will of the people and the sanctity of the ballot box.

    The best tribute we can pay to the memory of Bashorun M.K.O Abiola and the other fallen heroes is to commit our resources and energy to building a better Nigeria for all Nigerians regardless of their ethnicity, religion or gender.

    Over the next four years, we must pursue with uncompromising vigour and relentless dedicationthe demolition of all obstacles to our nation’s progress in terms of peace, prosperity and harmony.

    We are not in any way hostile to independent and credible measurement of our nation’s Human Development Index; Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality; Life Expectancy; Literacy; Gross Domestic Product (GDP); Rate of Inflation etc.

    In short order, we shall restore security in all the nooks and crannies of our nation. At the international level our voice will continue to reflect our deep concern for the legitimate aspirations of our brethren in the diaspora and beyond. However, a great deal of work requires our attention here and now. We are eager to attract foreign investment in addition to cultivating a conducive environment for local entrepreneurs.

    We intend to invest massively in Agriculture and Industry while recognising the provision of power and electricity as a critical factor. The provision of water is also a matter of priority.

    As we commence the journey of the next four years, we can only do justice to the memory of Bashorun M.K.O Abiola by institutionalising DEMOCRACY at every level – from Local Government to State Government and ultimately at the Federal level with our focus on leaving behind an enduring and robust legacy which would earn us the gratitude of future generations. We cannot afford to disappoint them or begrudge them the opportunity to not only excel but surpass our own achievements. However, we have a duty to remind them that prosperity is the reward for hard work and even more hard work.

    On their behalf and for their sake, we subscribe to the template that the sky cannot be the limit. We commend to them the vignette by William Faulkner:

    “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

    June 12 is our signpost for reconciliation and resolution of grievances anchored on justice and fairness. In our fifty-ninth year as an Independent nation, maturity demands that we resolve our differences while capitalising on our diversity. Diversity is our strength and we must catalyse it to diversify our economy beyond oil revenue which we know too well will not last forever. In the meantime, we must face the burden of the pollution and devastation of our environment. In addition, we now have to contend with issues about which we were only vaguely aware of on June 12 1993.

    They are now monsters which have manifested as kidnapping, cultism, ritual murders, armed robbery, drug trafficking, opioids, “419”/internet fraud; human trafficking.

    The last election and the campaigns that preceded them provided us with an opportunity to feel the pulse of the nation. We were left in no doubt about the palpable anger, hunger and frustration all over our beloved country.

    We now have a fresh mandate to draw strength from our resilience and face the fresh challenges on the horizon – ranging from climate change to plastic contamination/suffocation of our environment and soil erosion as well as desert encroachment.

    We have no option but to address objectively all those hyper-critical issues which the campaigns have thrown up – be they Restructuring or Fiscal Federalism or State police. We are not taking anybody or any section of our nation for granted. Indeed, we must ensure that it is not when people cause trouble or engage in acts of sabotage or treason that they get our attention.

    We cannot ignore the fact that Bashorun M.K.O Abiola was an outstanding Chartered Accountant and in his memory, we shall overhaul our entire financial system and instil discipline, transparency and accountability. Indeed, in consonance with what is being addressed in other parts of the world, the dominance of the accountancy profession by only four firms will be thoroughly investigated and redressed in the interest of our nation and capacity building.

    The task before us is truly monumental but our resolve to do our nation proud is an equal match. It has been an arduous journey with numerous twists and turns between June 12 1993 and June 12 2019.

    There were moments of despair and anguish for our nation and the family of BashorunAbiola but faith and steadfastness provided the armour as well as ladder which enabled us to climb the hill that brought us together as we celebrate a new dawn and fresh hopes.

    The late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola loved women and children who in turn adored him as a husband, father and grandfather. He was a legend in politics, business and philanthropy. In addition, he was the Pillar of Sports not only in Nigeria and Africa but also far beyond. The numerous trophies he donated attest to his phenomenal commitment to the development of sports. It is a profound legacy which must never be extinguished.

    Also, in the field of IT (Information Technology), as the Chairman of I.T.T Nigeria, the telecommunications giant, Bashorun Abiola was a pioneer in delivering the benefits of rapid and mass communications well ahead of what we now take for granted – thanks to the convenience and accessibility of nimble and versatile mobile telephone networks which avail us of both data and voice messages. In his memory, the government will provide free Wi-fi for selected schools all over the country.

    June 12 has provided us with fresh inspiration and energy to pursue the vision of Bashorun M.K.O Abiola for Nigeria where the different nationalities live in peace while reaping the bountiful harvest of the resources with which the Almighty has endowed our nation – fertile land; sunshine; oil and gas; gold; and a long list of mineral resources.

    In conclusion, it is with sublime sense of humility that we are obliged to admit that whatever we do or say cannot bring back the lives that were lost or the hopes that were ruined in the slipstream of June 12, 1993. Bashorun Abiola was a man of legendary generosity and we have every reason to believe that he would not mind sharing the glory and triumph of today with our prayerful thoughts for the missing Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu. Our work is not finished until we secure their release from captivity. We shall not relent.

    Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola deserves the honour we have accorded him. We have only given honour to whom it is due. May his soul rest in peace.

    Yours sincerely,

     

    • For: J.K. Randle Professional Services

    Bashorun J.K. Randle, FCA; OFR

    Chairman/Chief Executive

    C.C.         H.E. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN; GCON.

  • ‘President Buhari should reward loyal chieftains’

    In this piece, Gbenga Adedara urges President Muhammadu Buhari to reward loyal party chieftains who worked for the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State during the last elections.

    The 2019 Presidential election has come and gone, with the attendant results in our memories, archives, stores and libraries for different usages, either for immediate or future analysis. You may recall that before the elections, there were many projections, analysis, postulations and predictions both by known and unknown, believable and unbelievable analysts. Without any doubt, there is not much difference in the prediction and the final results we got from the North West and North East of Nigeria. North Central came with little surprise, especially from Kwara State, as many did not believe that the “Otogee” factor will be that effective due to various factors.  South East and South South came as largely predicted, except that the figures were not as bogus as it used to be.

    Southwest actually came with some surprises here and there. The results from Oyo State is fairly surprising, while that of Ondo State is graviously surprising as many believed that President Muhammadu Buhari would clearly win in the state due to many reasons, especially given that the incumbent Governor is a member of the ruling party.

    Unfortunately, the ruling party lost the presidential election woefully in the state. Though, some of the members of the APC in Ondo state actually expressed some fears before the elections due to the rumours of the Governor’s involvement in anti-party activities, and these rumours could not have been believed before the elections. Our fact findings show that the results from Ondo State would have been worse if not for the efforts of some very few individuals like Senator Borofice  who was the flag bearer of the party in Ondo North Senatorial district, and the only Senator elected in the state on the platform of APC. Also, Ambassador (Comrade) Sola Iji, the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Togo, also played a significant role.

    This man seems to have fore seen the looming danger when he took the bull by the horn by setting up an independent campaigns structure of the genuine progressives and party men and women across the nook and cranny of the State under the Buhari Osinbajo Re-election Group (BOREG). This group actually worked tirelessly and conspicuously for the re election of President Muhammadu Buhari in the State. Perhaps, the results would have been worse if not for their efforts. APC Stakeholders from Ondo State believe that Comrade Sola Iji and his likes should be rewarded with better appointment knowing well that he is a leader, a bridge builder and a  rallying point for a stronger, better and more united APC in Ondo State.

    A core Buharist, perhaps, these are the reasons many believe that Ambassador Sola Iji should be the Minister that would be appointed from Ondo State, especially, as many party stakeholders and faithfuls are favourably disposed to his nomination as the Minister from the State. Furthermore, he is from the southern part of the State, since the Governor is from Ondo North. Well, this may be another postulation that time will soon judge.

  • The dog, the dog-walker, and the waist-bead

    The freedom of the bead is oft impeded by the voluptuous hip. Thus is the paradox of the threaded bead, ageless bejeweller of the luscious waist.

    Beads on their own may seem attractive, astonishing perhaps, but when they are threaded together on a string, they lose the freedom to skitter around as they please.

    Think of the youth as the bead, the voluptuous hip as the government, a political party, big business or non-profit. The bead undoubtedly kowtows to the tyranny of luscious hips.

    A cursory look around will reveal the pervasive rot and shamelessness of Nigeria’s youth, save a few visionary cohort.

    When you see the feverish scramble by most youths and youth groups for patronage by political parties, local and international political interest groups, and non-profits to mention a few, the stench of fraudulence hits you; its rank smell, redolent of the stink faeces make in a clogged latrine.

    The youth should, ideally, evolve and grow into the much hackneyed but romanticised roles of the ‘leaders of tomorrow,’ but for inexcusable greed, that has turned too many questionable, self-acclaimed radicals into racketeers and seekers of unearned benefits.

    Like the crooked activist, who eventually ditches activism to display ‘table manners,’ they circumvent ethical boundaries and embrace the “Naija way” of “running things.”

    Money talks, corruption works; most youths frantically learn and intone the language of the game. They have learnt to agitate shrilly and in all ugliness, until they are courted, funded and co-opted by the predatory ruling class, whose stranglehold presumably incites their discontent, usually at 11th hour to the general elections.

    Then they emerge from the woodwork to support or contest ‘practical’ and ‘impractical’ causes.

    It is alright to support a cause or supposedly noble ideology but at what cost? Many youths, driven by funded activism, continually scorn ethics, societal mores to support or attack a policy, personality or cause.

    Like Arundhati Roy would say, “I’m not against people being funded—because we’re-running out of options, but we have to understand, ‘Are you walking the dog or is the dog walking you? Who’s the dog and who are you?”

    The Nigerian youth is unquestionably the dog, and he is definitely being walked.

    From Boko Haram’s bloody terrorism, seasonal electoral violence to persistent herdsmen attacks across the country, the youth, mostly underclass, perpetrate a cycle of violence, mugging and hacking each other to death, in a senseless carnage. And everything thing is paid for.

    The latter constitute the muscle and mob continually unleashed, as appendage to compromised law enforcers, by the country’s oligarchs, whose quest is to retain political power and privileges at all cost.

    The ruling class funds the repression, murder and incarceration of inflexible dissenters; even as they patronise and hurl money at those whose tenor of dissent is amenable to their wiles and leash of cash.

    Money shaves the edge off the most virulent activist till he ends up as what the Yoruba would call, ekun inu iwe (paper tiger) or that the Indians would call, paaltu sher, which means tamed tigers.

    Supposedly wiser youth coalesce into a pretend resistance, revolutionary impostors, like the electoral paper weight, Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT); ultimately, they ignite with sparks that sodden coal make amid a storm.

    There is no gainsaying Nigeria’s demographic bulge seems in favour of youths, the country is relatively young. Going by the estimates for both males and females, the median age of the country is estimated between 17.9 to 18.4 years of age, even as the vast majority of youths are unskilled, underemployed, and unemployed.

    A major implication of this situation, is that, the youth are unsuited to serve as the vanguard of truly progressive politics and practical governance that the country deserves.

    Where they are co-opted into mainstream politics, they are consigned to the fringes and enslaved to a leash of tokenism powered by the so-called “me-first politics” or “stomach infrastructure.”

    Kwame Nkrumah, Aminu Kano, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nelson Mandela, Ahmadu Bello, Mahatma Ghandi and Anthony Enahoro among others, emerged as leaders of their countries in their 20s and 30s, due to their immense sacrifices and unflinching devotion to the collective good.

    In sharp contrast, the modern Nigerian youth, or politically ‘woke’ youth, if you like, personifies a dud joke. At the last general elections, while millions of illiterate voters played pawn to the problematic oligarchs, supposedly ‘woke’ youths united on the PACT platform to produce a consensus presidential candidate.

    It was a given, however, that PACT would fall apart. Its initial language was untranslatable by realistic yardsticks; cohorts spoke the same gibberish as the oligarchs. Ultimately, they brought nothing new to the table, save a slew of platitudes and tiresome rhetoric, vigorously broadcast on social media.

    Still, the joke persists in contemporary circuits, that, the battle to free Nigeria from the vicious grip of the oligarchs, would be fought and won in social space, and by the cudgels and blades of ‘woke’ youth.

    This notion sprouts from ideological fields at home and abroad, where pasture, copse and tributary of thought, flourish from sickly seeds of violence and death.

    While Africa and Nigeria’s founding fathers, shed sweat, towering intellect and rigorous man hours to actualise their nationalistic dreams, the contemporary ‘woke’ youth experiments with brawn, rogue reverse intellectualism and lip service.

    Yet being ‘woke’ is next to being a deity in contemporary youth circuits. It confers on the ‘woke’ a colossal ego, an exaggerated sense of awareness and idolatry of fawning peer. Hence the revolutionary chants wielded to inflame the polity via Facebook, Twitter, and shades of mainstream and manipulable media, at election time.

    Beneath the radical chants, however, subsists an immoderate hankering for money, fast cars and other material things. This translates to a morbid race against time, to acquire wealth by ‘woke’ young assassins and political thugs, internet scammers (Yahoo Boys), and prostitutes, to mention a few.

    As you read, youths with key-pad confidence are pounding away on their mobile phones, iPads and computers; they are done mouthing off and tormenting virtual space with insolent gibberish, about not being too young too run.

    This minute, they are obsessing about the next ‘insane’ reality show, to borrow their lingo. The filthier the show, the merrier.

    The elections are over hence they are done standing on barrel-heads to spout and be seen. They are done crucifying Muhammadu Buhari. They will obsess about trendy filth in real time.

    Apparently, we suffer a throwback to the era that launched a trend in which Nigerians became preoccupied with themselves more than the survival of the nation.

    What Joshua Lubin identifies as the “Me” decade has indeed, recoiled inward rather than concern itself with crucial national issues, like national progress and ethical rebirth.

    The Nigerian youth betrays self. Poverty, selfish politicians and unemployment are cited as reasons for the betrayal. True, the society betrays the youth by the hour but it’s about time we stopped repaying perfidy with perfidy.

    It’s about time we evolved dependable and practicable means of creating and instituting a leadership and culture of citizenship that we could trust.

    Only then can we attain progressive rebirth. How?

     

  • President Buhari: There he goes, again

    President Muhammadu Buhari romped to victory at the February 23, presidential election, with over 15 million Nigerians giving him the ‘Carry Go’’ thumbs up. The president exhibited great energy on the campaign trail, confounding those who had hoped for fainting spells on the stump. He had faced a gang-up by his former comrades in arms – The Generals’ league – and neutralized them, or is it degraded them? The serial letter writer among them, who arrogates to himself the role of supervisory headmaster of successor presidents, suffers a knock-down, but the old warrior lumbered up to avoid a knock-out. On his 82nd birthday bash at his native rock house, the irrepressible one put up a comic relief performance by teasing his hometown traditional ruler on the hierarchy of bosses. If President Buhari is your boss, I am his boss, Chief, Dr. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo had remonstrated the Alake of Egbaland, another retired soldier. In his avuncular manner, he expansively reiterated his stance to unremittingly pillory President Buhari on the philosophy of good governance, as postulated by Olusegun Obasanjo, PhD!!

    Well, maybe the ‘Ebora’ of Egba has a point here on the need to relentlessly interrogate President Buhari on his attitude to governance and why he MUST leave a positive legacy. We need to constantly remind him, now that the elections are over, that taking Nigeria to the ‘Next Level’ should not be an empty electoral rhetoric. He should be on energized active duty for the public good, not in the other room!   President Buhari need not wait for his second inauguration on May 29, to signpost the expected vibrancy of his second tenure since, for him, his second term is a continuum of the first – no transition period.

    But worries remain whether the president has learnt needed lessons from some of the misspeaks and missteps of his first term which purportedly hamstrung the performance of his administration. A litmus test case is the putting in place the leadership of the new National Assembly to be inaugurated in June. In what is turning out a surreal repeat of the self-imposed impotence of power, which allowed Dr.BukolaSaraki to capture the senate presidency and get an opposition member as deputy senate president against the dictate of his party, the All Progressives Party (APC), we are being told that the president, in adherence to the so-called doctrine of separation of powers, will abstain from influencing those to emerge as leaders of the Ninth National Assembly – the senate and the House of Representatives, reminiscent of his I am for everybody and not for anybody, one liner at his 2015 inauguration. So, dear fellow citizens, there President Buhari goes, again (Apology to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan).  The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Affairs, Sen. ItaEnang, had at a media briefing on Friday, March 15, stated that the president will be neutral in the process of electing the leadership of the in-coming Ninth National Assembly. ‘’He (Buhari) will not go beyond what the constitution allows him and every arm of government should stick to its constitutional responsibilities”, he was quoted as saying.

    Separation of powers is a fraud, a democratic utopia that is at variance with democratic reality. Enang, however, had at the same media briefing, lamented the lethargy with which the National Assembly has been treating the 2019 Appropriation Bill, the New Minimum Wage Bill and the budgets of various government agencies, the non-passage of which he pointed out leads to lost employment opportunities and frustrated implementation of capital projects. So, pray, how can a president desirous of taking the country to the next level of development not be interested in those whose actions and inactions can frustrate his growth agenda for the nation?  This is naivety. A majority party in any legislative assembly normally produces the leaders of such assembly, often on the directive of the party or according to established hierarchy in the chamber. This is why there is ranking of members. In established democracies, there is usually a tripartite harmony when a party controls the presidency and the legislature, with the three on the same developmental page. Not here; rebellion is the order of the day and when a president projects as laid back as to who leads a strategic arm of government where his party is in the majority, it is invitation to discord that can degenerate to governance gridlock. A National Assembly leadership elected in a free-for-all parliamentary battle cannot be expected to enthusiastically support the president’s agenda or show respect to party position on issues. Such a scenario cannot optimally deliver the dividends of democracy to the people. For an APC that is a patchwork of diverse interests, now is the opportunity to forge a cohesive entity, with party leaders and the president as lead players, else the party risks disintegration, down the road. If President Buhari misses this second opportunity to foster rapport with the National Assembly by influencing a legislative leadership that will be supportive of his growth agenda, let him not lament later of being frustrated by the lawmakers.  With his lamentation about the judiciary frustrating his anti-corruption crusade, he cannot afford a situation of double jeopardy for another four years.

     

    • Dr.Olawunmi, a public affairs analyst, is former Washington correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria.

  • Amosun’s treasonable mischief and other stories

    Not until Muntader al-Zaidi’s act of suicidal daring was the world jolted to shoe-throwing as a form of Arab expression of deep social anger. Visiting President George Bush was only beginning to warm into a joint press conference with the Iraqi leader in Baghdad in the winter of 2008 when the shoe missile came rocketing from the Iraqi journalist in the gallery.

    Seeking to make light of the grave embarrassment after ducking, chuckling Bush was famously quoted as remarking that, “This was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want to know”, soon after the assailant had been wrestled down and bundled down the hallway by secret service agents.

    Culturally, hurling shoe at someone is Arab expression of grave insult. So, the nationalist in the journalist wanted to thumb down Bush for perceived emasculation of Iraq in that decade in pursuit of what turned out phantom Weapon of Mass Destruction. A ritual gesture that resonated well that winter across the entire Arab world increasingly made to feel humiliated under America’s vaunting supremacy.

    In Abeokuta last week, we saw a rehash of the Iraqi script for an entirely profane cause. Without fear, without respect, unruly party stalwarts threw missiles at President Buhari as he tried to stamp his patriarchal authority at APC campaign rally. So spontaneous was the assault, so intense was the heckling that a column of bodyguards with fierce look had to form a cordon, thus framing momentarily a portrait of presidential vulnerability.

    Nothing could be more defiant, more irreverent of Nigerian sovereignty as embodied by PMB.

    Cynically, host Governor Ibikunle Amosun would then urge the thugs in Yoruba to stop and “don’t disgrace me before our father… (T)his sort of negativity is what they always wanted to happen” in a tone that sounded more like jest than an appeal to reason.

    But it was too obvious their sole mission was to spoil what would have been the finest moment of Dapo Abiodun, the governorship candidate of APC.

    Many saw it coming, though. Long before Buhari’s helicoptered over from an earlier political engagement in Ilorin that day, the Ogun governor, who has not hidden his bitterness over his anointed’s loss of the party’s governorship ticket, was sighted fraternizing with the “rebels” at the campaign ground. To the perceptive, it was too obvious from that moment that Amosun had much more concealed in his sky-high, “shalake” (machete) cap than readily meet the eyes. You don’t bring the cat to the gathering of the pigeons and not expect disorder.

    If nothing at all, such patronizing statement to the rampaging thugs by Amosun surely confirmed his familiarity – if not complicity – with those who came to assault the president. By bringing battalions of the “rebel” Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to such assembly, it was clear Amosun sought to forcibly enlist his illegitimate children in APC family meeting. Even after the community had said they found their presence abhorrent, they still would not stop grating the public ears further with the proverbial unsolicited song.

    Not only Abiodun was targeted for embarrassment in the circumstance. The tumult and booing were also contemptuous of the usually self-effacing Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Ogun’s highest-ranking political figure presently.

    Nor could such low conduct be flattering of Aremo Segun Osoba, two-term governor of the state, who was also present and undeniably one of Ogun’s best in the last three decades on account of his tireless contributions.

    So, what else could have goaded the provincial to saunter into the metropole in loincloth other than contempt for others who are urbane.

    When Amosun whines, shouting himself hoarse today against “the Lagos godfather” like a schoolboy dispossessed of candy, people are left wondering whether it is not the same benefactor of yesterday, the one whose round specs exemplify embroidered broken shackle in the invocation of the motif of liberty, whose generosity had afforded him the incisors to dare and bite then rampaging OGD in 2011 and on whose back he rode comfortably to the Abeokuta Government House in 2011.

    Well, it is one of the supreme ironies of life that the tramp we offer shelter in the hour of need, the one we gave teeth would later use same weapon to attack us, even without offence.

    Taken together, the Abeokuta show of shame is undoubtedly another symptom of the deep fissures within APC, exacerbated by the mismanaged primaries. It is obvious that the ghost of the last primaries is still haunting the party, awaiting decent interment and proper repose.

    Even at that, truth be told, President Buhari partly shares in the blame for a number of monstrous abberations since. The seed of confusion was inadvertently sown when he hosted APC’s governorship candidate at Aso Rock and in another breath, was sighted smooching the main contender in the same contest. At best, a mixed message is thus sent.

    It is easy to situate Buhari’s psychology in the hour, though. He seems sold on the promise by his party’s enemy to work for him in the presidential election. Apparently, the trade-off is for him to enjoin voters at such rallies to “vote your conscience in the other election”. But such convenient deal only imperils the party’s candidates in other elections, undermining the party’s larger interests in the long run.

    To be fair, the spirit of justice surely obliges us not to feign incomprehension of the grave words Amosun has continued to expressed in parables. Of course, very familiar now is the salacious tale of how some little men in big offices had convulsed and constipated on a dollar binge over APC tickets during the party primaries on a scale that caught the likes of Amosun and their anointed completely unawares.

    But that will still not be a justification for the show of shame in Abeokuta penultimate Monday nor can it excuse the grievous public assault on the office of Mr. President. The popular reading is that the old fakir from Daura is well aware of the lurid details of the the murky buying and selling that transpired and, on account of his fabled near psychotic aversion to barter of this nature, is only showing native prudence by waiting for the elections to be over before acting.

    So, while it is quite legitimate for Amosun to seek a pound of flesh for his failed investment, he and his supporters should have exercised a little bit more patience for Buhari’s expected avenging scythe on the extant dollars debauchery and not carry their anger across the border of treason like they did recklessly last week.

    The same apparition of mixed message is also manifest in Imo. When his campaign train earlier stopped in Owerri on January 29, Buhari had similarly romanced the candidate of the “rebel” party there. While the party’s position would seem a fierce denunciation of Okorocha’s monarchical aspiration – a progressive stand worthy of commendation, Buhari would rather cut a deal insofar his presidential stool is secured.

    And those familiar with the semiotics of his much-touted “body language” would then argue that his open flirtation with the Imo Governor during the Owerri fiasco of January 29 was a coded quip that he was equally aware of the abominable story of dollars there and the trafficking of party tickets to the highest bidders.

    Meanwhile, in Rivers, the dagger that stabbed APC in the back in still dripping fresh blood. It is a catastrophe of epic proportions that a ruling party is completely defenestrated from the ballot in perhaps the most strategic state in the Niger Delta, both at the state and National Assembly levels. It is a first in Nigeria’s electoral history.

    All the facts considered, there is no doubt that if the spirit of compromise had been imbibed the crisis would have been averted. Egos were not well managed. And those who should tell the truth were either distracted by the aroma of dollars (or “Aroma-dollars”, as someone pithily put it) or busy negotiating venal trade-offs in self-interest.

    Surely, APC will have to exorcise these demons after the elections to ensure the return of harmony and balance.

     

     

    Before we crucify INEC boss

    It is doubtul if INEC boss, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, would have had a rest of mind since last weekend. What with the torrents of barbs that greeted the last-minute shifting of the February 16 presidential polls to February 23.

    Naturally, various conspiracy theories have since mushroomed with some either suggesting he is APC’s agent or PDP’s mole.

    True, keeping the nation in the dark over the much-awaited polls till the eleventh hour is condemnable. But beyond that, it would appear nation is only back to a familiar sport – shopping for scape-goat for a crisis long foretold.

    While it is now politically correct to abuse Yakubu, no one will addresss the odds INEC faced all along. Funds were released to the commission less than two months to the elections. Had the cash been received as and when due, perhaps the electoral umpire would have been able to mobilize printers and contractors on time and the materials delivered ahead of time.

    In fact, a reliable source told me a cargo plane bearing some of the vital documents from Belgium only landed Abuja in the early hours of February 16!

    Another issue is the necessity to unbundle INEC. Going forward, it surely will be helpful to set in motion the process to streamline its functions after this general election. Given the nation’s exponential growth, sticking to the old template of election administration will only result in the kind of embarrassment of last weekend. For more efficiency, INEC should be reconfigured in a way that enables it focus essentially on its core manadate: conduct of election.

    To this end, three successor agencies have been proposed. The first should cater for registration and regulation of parties, the second for electoral offences and the third for constituency delimitation commission.

    Proposal for this has long been prepared. What remains is the political will to execute. For instance, part of the reforms is the formulation of legal ceiling that ensures that disputes arising from elections are dispensed with before the inauguration of the new dispensation. This is to ensure litigations don’t last forever or give custodian of a disputed mandate the unfair advantage of using public funds to fight their legal battle.

  • Things that pertain to our peace

    I’d never had the head for figures. In fact, the enmity between me and mathematics was so bad that if you gave me a bottle, and you asked me to use the bottom to write the letter ‘o,’ it may likely come out as ‘p’ or ‘q,’ or even something more catastrophic.

    But what God seemed to have denied me in numeracy, He compensated in letters. I was just at home with literary subjects.

    In 1977, as a secondary class 2 student, I had one Sri Lankan, who taught us mathematics. His name was Mr Paranahewa. The subject was just like his mother tongue, from the way he taught it. For me, it was simply Greek.

    Mr Paranahewa could not understand why anybody would not have the foggiest idea about mathematics, which was the case with me and some other students in the same category. What to do? He created a special class for us, which he ran for about an hour or two after school hours, at no cost to our parents at all.

    Amazingly, as we progressed, I began to show flashes that inspired the tutor. He went to the very basics with us, and I began to pull my weight after a few weeks. Mr Paranahewa was happy, and we became friends (I never liked mathematics teachers, mind you).

    I don’t know what happened thereafter. I suddenly lost interest in figures again. There were surely easier ways to live one’s life than the mumbo jumbo of algebra or geometry, I must have told myself. So, I stopped cooperating with the teacher.

    One day, Mr Paranahewa came to my desk, and looked at me quizzically. He then said: “Victor (which was the name I was known by in schooldays), you were walking in the bush. Somebody then found you, took you onto the main road, and you were happy. You trod the main road for some time, and then, suddenly, you jumped back into the bush again. Why?”

    The answer was blowing in the wind.

    Myself and the teacher laughed till our ribs nearly cracked. And that was the end of the romance with mathematics. He eventually disbanded the special class; I jilted the subject for life, and ended scoring what I scored in the school certificate examination. What did I score? Don’t ask me. I have many compatriots in that area, including most likely you. Lol.

    Why have I told this story which dates back 42 years? Because I find a similitude between what happened to me, and what is happening to Nigeria. This country had wandered in the bush for too long. And then President Muhammadu Buhari came, and put us back on the main road, planted our feet on the road to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. Suddenly, we have now come to a crunch point in the journey. Shall we continue on the main road, leading to the Promised Land, or we shall jump back into the bush? Shall we jump from terra firma, back into the miry clay? God forbid!

    Shortly before He went to the cross, Jesus looked at Jerusalem, the Holy City, overtaken by sin and unbelief, and He lamented over it, saying, with weeping: “If thou had known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which pertain unto thy peace! But now, they are hid from thy eyes.” (Luke 19:42).

    As we hold elections this Saturday to elect our president for the next four years, may we know the things that pertain to our peace as a country. May we opt for the straight and narrow path we’ve been treading for about four years, because at the end of it is peace. May we resist the allure to jump into the wide road that seems quite easy to travel, for at the end of it is destruction and damnation. Not all that glitters is gold. A goodly apple might be rotten at the cheek.

    What are the things that pertain to our peace as a nation? Righteousness. Integrity. Accountability. Service. A heart for men, particularly the poor and downtrodden. Diversified economy.  Massive infrastructure. Making the money of Nigeria work for Nigerians. And all these Buhari gives, and more.

    What is the flip-side? A rent seeking, bubble economy, which collapses with a pin prick. An opaque government. A coalition of people with questionable reputation, who have entered into a confederacy, poised to again stick their snouts into the nectar of office, and perhaps suck out the very lifeblood of the country. In the past, while they held sway, they drew down the Federation Account. Plundered the foreign reserves.Looted the excess crude account into nothingness.Ran the country into a hole.Till they were given the left leg of fellowship by Nigerians in 2015. Now they have regrouped, poised to wreak havoc again? Not if Nigerians know the things that pertain to their peace.

    There is a farmer who ruled this country for about 12 years in all, if you decide to add his time as a military head of state and two terms as a civilian leader. He paid lip service to agriculture, following it with billions upon billions of naira. It all went down the drain. At the end of his tenure, in which he had to quit involuntarily, Nigeria was nowhere near food self-sufficiency. We still spent millions of dollars annually to import food. But within three years, President Buhari changed the picture. Rice importation reduced by about 90%, we can now feed ourselves, and also sell food to neighbouring countries. That same man claims he hasn’t seen what President Buhari has done. True. No man is as blind as the person who deliberately refuses to see.

    There was a time the sluice gate of corruption was open in this country. Public coffers were like gravy train, from which you took what you wanted at will. Till a new Sheriff came into town. President Buhari came this way, and stealing promptly became corruption. Would we then exchange transparency for fantastic and grand corruption? Not if we know what pertains to our peace.

    See infrastructural development round the country. Roads, bridges, rail, power, all showing a government at work for the people. The second Niger Bridge that they built with their mouths in 16 years is now making steady, sustainable progress. Every state in the country has at least a major federal road under construction. The whole country is now one huge construction site. And then, we forgo all these and give power to people who will play what Igbos call agbata eke (put on the table and share) politics? May God let us not afflict ourselves with blindness, after we had enjoyed the luxury of clear sight.

    There are people who have filled the land with hate messages. Pastors who don’t know their Master as the Prince of Peace. People who spread utter falsehood on the social media. They concoct and share evil from the pit of hell, just to turn the people against the government. “But He that sits in Heaven shall laugh…” That is what the Good Book says. The merchants of fake news and polluting messages simply don’t know what pertains to their peace.

    Ask the pensioners from Nigeria Airways. The defunct Nitel.The Biafra police.And many more. They will have good stories to tell. Ask millions who have benefitted from the several schemes under the Social Investment Programme. They’ll have happy stories to tell. How about farmers who now have access to fertilizers at half of what they used to pay? And how about people who lived under the throes of insurgency, who never could sleep with two eyes closed? Good days have come, and better days beckon. They sure know what pertains to their peace.

    I’ll rather have an accountable man rule me any day. That is what we have in President Buhari, the maigaskiya (honest man). And that is why I’ll follow him, till Africa and China join together, till fishes begin to dance in the streets, and remain alive. I know what pertains to my peace as a Nigerian. I know what pertains to the peace of my children, and to the peace of generations unborn.

    Having been brought from the bush to the main road, I am not ready to jump into the bush again. Onward to the Next Level. What about you?

     

    • Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity

  • Vote candidates of your choice, Buhari tells Ogun residents

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday charged Ogun State residents to vote for the candidates of their choice.

    He gave the advice during the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential campaign rally at the M.K.O Abiola Stadium in Ogun State.

    But proceedings at the rally were interrupted severally by the fans who were divided over who the next Ogun State Governor should be.

    While Ogun State Governor  Ibikunle Amosun is supporting the reelection of President Buhari and the Ogun State governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Adekunle Akinlade, the National APC and former Ogun State Governor, Olusegun Osoba are behind the APC Governorship candidate in the state, Dapo Abiodun.

    The atmosphere was tensed throughout the duration of the rally.

    The fans intermittently disrupted the speech of those opposed to their candidates by booing them and shouting ‘Olee’, ‘Olee’, ‘Olee’.

    They also threw empty water container and their placards at the pavilion, where the dignitaries were seated.

    The ugly treatment was meted out specifically to the former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aragbesola and the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole when they were called forward to make their remarks.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Amosun took time to appeal to the fans to let peace reign.

    The dignitaries at the pavilion gently filed to their buses and jeeps as the rally was coming to end with the President’s speech to avoid the missiles from the aggrieved fans.

    The President stressed that it is the right of the residents to vote for the candidates of their choice.

    He urged them to come out on Saturday in high number to exercise their civic right.

    “I appeal to you to vote whoever you like. It is your right,” he said

    Noting that Nigeria is now virtually self-sufficient in rice production, he said that Ogun State, Lagos State among other states have been doing well in rice production.

    According to him, his administration has done well in the three areas of security, economy and fighting corruption.

    He said that his administration is poised to take the nation to the next level in the next four years.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo promised that the government will specifically create more jobs, fix electricity and give more money to traders in the next four years.

    Read also: Our mission impartial, says Chair Commonwealth Observer Group

    He pointed out that nothing can be done to develop the nation except honest leaders are voted into power.

    According to him, President Buhari has an honest character and all those opposing him are well aware of the President’s unique qualities.

    “We have to vote for the President on Saturday,” he said

    Amosun urged the residents to vote for President Buhari on Saturday but that they know what to do concerning the governorship election and other elections in the state.

    Pleading with the angry fans to swallow their anger in the interest of APC, he said that the state is supporting President Buhari of his love for Ogun State people and because of his performance in governance.

    He said that those opposing him, are doing so because they want to loot the treasury.

    Amosun also noted that President Buhari is the only President that acknowledged and recognized the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, who was son of the soil.

    The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Oshiomhole urged the crowd to vote for APC from the top to the bottom.

    At the rally were the National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Osinbajo’s wife, Mrs. Dolapo, Ogun State APC Governorship candidate, Dapo Abiodun, former Ogun State Governor, Olusegun Osoba.

    Others include Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi.

  • Breaking: Supreme Court strikes out Senate’s suit over CJN’s suspension

    The Supreme Court has struck out the suit filed by the Senate, challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.

    Lawyer to the Senate, Paul Erokoro (SAN) told the court, when the case was called on Tuesday morning, that he filed a notice of discontinuance on Monday in the suit marked: SC76/2019.

    Erokoro was silent on why the plaintiff chose to discontinue the case.

    Lawyer to President Buhari, Mrs. Maimuna Lami Shiro, who led Tijani Gazali, did not object to the plaintiff’s decision to withdraw the case, following which the court struck out the suit.

    Details later…