Veteran journalist and Arise News TV anchor, Dr. Reuben Abati, has broken his silence following scathing remarks by Lere Olayinka, a media aide to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, during a controversial appearance on The Morning Show last Friday that included claims that he begged Wike for money.

Olayinka, speaking live on the Arise News flagship programme, had, besides claiming that Abati begged Wike for money, also accused the TV anchor of partisanship, claiming he had become the unofficial spokesperson of former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

He also questioned Abati’s absence from the studio that day, implying it was a calculated move to avoid accountability.

“I wasn’t expecting him to be here. He has taken the position of special assistant on media to Rotimi Amaechi.

The fiery exchange stems from a recent comment made by Amaechi during his 60th birthday celebration, where he declared himself “hungry” — a statement widely seen as a veiled criticism of the current administration. Wike, his political rival, dismissed the remarks and questioned the credibility of a man who had held multiple top political roles to claim hunger.

Abati, reacting on Arise News, criticized Wike’s response as “rude and disrespectful,” especially coming from someone whose political rise was closely tied to Amaechi. This opinion apparently struck a nerve with Olayinka, prompting his Friday outburst.

In a swift and pointed response issued over the weekend, Abati, according to GWG, Dr. Abati dismissed Olayinka’s claims as baseless and defamatory.

He categorically denied ever aligning with Amaechi or seeking favours from Minister Wike.

“I am not Rotimi Amaechi’s spokesperson, nor do I have his phone number. That’s a fabrication.”

He further explained that his absence from Friday’s show was due to a prior intellectual engagement — a book review for “Oprah Benson – Live and Legend,” authored by Dr. Udu Yakubu — and not an attempt to dodge any confrontation

Abati also clarified a claim Olayinka made regarding an alleged probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). According to the broadcaster, his interaction with the EFCC was a routine and procedural invitation — not a criminal investigation. He added that the agency under its former chairman, Ibrahim Magu, later issued a formal apology to him.

Taking a swipe at Olayinka’s use of the word “hubris” during the interview, Abati suggested the media aide had misused the term and lacked the intellectual depth to warrant further engagement.

Despite the attacks, Abati stood firmly by his earlier criticism of Minister Wike, arguing that public officials must always be subject to public scrutiny.

Abati besides dismissing Olayinka’s claims that he begged Wike for money also addressed the media aide’s attempt to resurrect old allegations against the late Senator Buruji Kashamu, insisting that no court ever convicted the deceased, either in Nigeria or abroad.

Closing his statement, Abati expressed deep gratitude to his co-hosts, especially Rufai Oseni and Vimbai, for their professionalism during the episode. He also thanked his wife, Kikelomo Atanda-Owo Abati, for her unwavering support.

“Your strength remains my anchor,” he wrote.

ON Thursday this week, it will be 32 years of that June 12 phenomenon. On July 9, 1998, the lifeless body of a young man adorned the front page of the Nigerian Tribune. The tear-jerking, bloodied body decorated the front pages of many other Nigerian newspapers like manacles in the hands of a convict. He had been shot dead by the police in Abeokuta, Ogun State. It was during a Southwest-wide protest against the perceived murder in detention of Chief MKO Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 election. The lifeless young man was one of the countless lives Nigeria propitiated at the grove of military despotism. It was the sacrifice to have the freedom of today.

According to Nigerian newspapers’ edition of that day, students, workers, apprentices, bystanders were felled by police bullets. It was like the June 1976 protest by black school children in Soweto, South Africa which led to minimum of 176 dead and estimated 700 felled, with over a thousand people injured. The report said, in Lagos, about 40 lives were lost. Fourteen in Idi-Araba, 4 at Oshodi, 3 at Oworonshoki, and 2 at Ojodu. Unconfirmed sources told reporters that ten lives were lost at Mushin and ten at multi-million Naira Lagos abattoir area at Oko-Oba. In Ibadan, police dispatched five persons to their untimely graves at the Bodija estate area and three at the Bodija market. Perceived military apologist, Arisekola Alao’s Bodija building was in turn damaged by the protesters, leading to the death of two of them. In Abeokuta, the palace of the Alake of Egbaland was looted and torched. The monarch’s staff of office, beaded crown and royal umbrella were looted as well. A tyre warehouse belonging to one Alhaji Fatai Gbemisola was set ablaze with vehicles vandalized in their hundreds.

The above should remind one that life usually comes in binaries – good/bad; poor/rich; live/die and so on. Orlando Owoh, Yoruba Kennery music singer, perhaps had this binary in mind when he sang that beneath the sweet apple of the pineapple lies its lacerating pine. “Opon oyinbo fi dundun se’wa, oro inu e t’o egbeje” he sang. Owoh could as well have been talking about Nigeria’s binary, of yesterday’s June 12 struggle and today’s civil rule.  

The repercussion of the election annulment by General Ibrahim Babangida was colossal. Hundreds of Nigerians were murdered while uncountable suffered collateral deaths. Many got imprisoned; livelihoods were lost, destinies got truncated and many never recovered their well-being, even till today. Many children and dependant of the dead had their destinies stymied by the crisis. On July 7, 1998, with General Sani Abacha obdurately soldiering on, in spite of widespread calls on him to release Abiola from prison and honour the people’s electoral wish, Abiola’s death was announced.

The casualties of June 12 were legion. Business colossus, Alfred Ogbeyiwa Rewane, was one of them. Nicknamed Osibakoro by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Rewane was a staunch member of the Action Group political party and chairman of the AG-controlled Western Region Development Company. In the 1990s, as the military bared their fangs, Rewane was the refuge and sponsor of politicians and activists who desired what we eventually have today. His Lagos home was NADECO’s meeting venue. At Rewane’s memorial in 2000, late Chief Bola Ige recalibrated an earlier funeral oration he delivered in Warri at Osibakoro’s burial when he said, “The freedom we actually enjoy in Nigeria today must be credited, in good measure, to the self sacrificing disposition that (Rewane) displayed consistently…Osibakoro provided the progressive Nigerian politics with the sinews to fight the good fight…he stood up as a comforter of the family of the detained, those under house arrest, those in jail or those forced into exile…he never missed a chance to support all who were on the barricades. He had unwritten pact for instance with the guerrilla press.” On October 6, 1995, shortly after celebrating his 79th birthday, Osibakoro was brutally assassinated by agents of General Abacha at his residence in Ikeja, Lagos. They were never found.

In 1994, armed gunmen stormed activist and human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi’s Lagos law chambers at Anthony Village. Two of his guards were defaced with bullets but unbeknown to the messengers of death, Fawehinmi was away. Beko Ransom-Kuti was also about this time programmed to be eliminated. His 8, Imaria Close home was torched when he could not be found. Same fate befell Ayo Opadokun. His Yaba home was raided and burnt. But for providence, NADECO chairman, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman would have been dead. His Chevrolet car was sprayed with a hail of bullets which shattered its windscreen but he miraculously escaped unhurt. In February 1996, affable publisher of The Guardian newspaper, Alex Ibru, was shot and lost an eye in the process. Earlier, his newspaper house had been burnt by yet unknown arsonists.

Either self-imposed or providence’s grim retribution, on January 17, 1996, a plane carrying Abacha’s son and 13 others developed engine fault and crashed in Dausayi village in Kano. Thereafter, bomb blasts began to boom in Nigeria like rockets. On January 29, 1996, NTA news alleged that Wole Soyinka was the mastermind of terror activities in Nigeria with Today, Kaduna-based newspaper, accusing NADECO activists of being behind the terror. Many got killed by the coldblooded military regime of Abacha. The list is exhaustive and includes Rear Admiral Babatunde Elegbede, Dr. Sola Omatsola, Toyin Onagoruwa, Alhaja Suliat Adedeji and Mrs. Bisoye Tejuosho. Chief Abraham Adesanya escaped death by the whiskers when his car was sprayed with bullets while the likes of Chiefs Olu Falae, Olabiyi Durojaiye were detained.

Earlier, on October 25, 1993, a Nigeria Airways Flight WT470 was hijacked by four Nigerian boys who were riled by the annulment of the June 12 election. They were Richard Ogunderu (19), Kabir Adenuga (22) Razaq Lawal (23) and Benneth Oluwadaisi (24). They called themselves members of the Movement for the Advancement of Democracy (MAD). Three members of Ernest Shonekan’s Interim National Government (ING) were on that flight. They were Brigadier-General Hafiz Momoh, Prof Jubril Aminu and Rong Yiren, the vice president of China. They initially planned to divert the plane to Frankfurt, Germany but shortage of fuel made them to detour to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger after the planned landing at N’Djamena, Chad and Gabon was disallowed. In Niamey, they made their demands: de-annulment of the June 12 election, re-investigation of the murder of Dele Giwa and the mysterious crash of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules that claimed 160 lives. It was believed to be a deliberate killing of the soldiers by the Babangida government.   

Nigerian journalism also suffered casualties of the June 12 war. Apart from millions lost to shutting down of newspaper houses’ operations for months, many journalists were detained and jailed by the Abacha regime. They fell victim of the Detention of Persons Decree No 2 which allowed for indefinite, incommunicado detention of citizens; the Offensive Publications Decree No 35 of 1993 which gave the military government latitude to seize any publication it deemed likely to “disturb the peace and public order of Nigeria” and the Treason and Treasonable Offenses Decree No 29 of 1993 which was later used in 1995 by a special military tribunal to convict Kunle Ajibade, Chris Anyanwu, George Mbah and Ben Charles Obi as “accessories after the fact of treason”. Their crime was reporting an alleged coup plot. Niran Malaolu, Deputy Editor of The Diet newspaper, was also imprisoned on December 28, 1997 after being convicted in July 1998 to 15 years in prison, alongside 95 others, for participating in a coup to topple the Abacha government.  

Chief Frank Kokori, former General Secretary of The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) was also a major force in the June 12 election struggle. But for him, Abacha would have possibly succeeded in his life presidency ambition. Kokori locked down Nigeria during the crisis by deploying his NUPENG in pursuit of democratic struggles. He was detained by Abacha and died miserably and dejected in Warri on December 7, 2023. There are a thousand and one other casualties of the June 12 crisis that this piece cannot possibly capture. I went into the above chronology to remind Nigerians, especially the youths of today, that the civilian government we have enjoyed in the last 26 years came with weeping, wailing, deaths and gnashing of the teeth.

The sacrifices of June 12 remind me of John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo’s The Casualties. It was a poem written about the Nigerian civil war that raged between 1967 and 1970. Record has it that an estimated 100,000 military casualties and between 500,000 and 2 million Biafran civilians died. It was a period of tragedy and atrocity. Clark began this famous poem with the lines, “The casualties are not only those who are dead./They are well out of  it;” nor are casualties “only those who lost/Persons or property, hard as it is.” Rather, he said, the casualties are the “emissaries of rift/So smug in smoke-rooms they haunt abroad/They do not see the funeral piles/At home eating up the forests/They are wandering minstrels who, beating on/The drums of the human heart, draw the world/Into a dance with rites it does not know.”

The casualties, as Clark lyricized in that poem, are not those who died in the June 12 war, either as ancillary or intended victims. They are the hidden and multifaceted victims of the war who extend beyond the frontiers of those directly affected. The casualties today are the Nigerian people. They include Nigerians who are unlucky (yes!) not to have died from the war but are today grappling with the castles they built in their minds about a democratic rule which, 26 years after, has turned into myths.

Fast-forward to 32 years after. Last week, Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, responded to sons, brothers, sisters, kinsmen and countrymen of those casualties of the June 12 war who voted him into office. They had asked for accountability on the trillions of Naira of their money being spent on construction of the Lagos-Calabar highway. In a tone similar to Babangida’s “we’re not only in office but in power,” at the heat of criticism of his inhuman rule, Tinubu also said last week: «Don›t listen to those critics. They don›t know what they›re talking about. If they don›t like the road or if it›s too expensive for tolling for them, they could go to Idumota.” While Abacha and Babangida scoffed at us, victims of June 12, with guns, Tinubu does with Nebuchadnezzar arrogance.

The question all of us, the casualties, should ask is, is what we have today all our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and contemporaries fought and died for? Did Rewane die to have a government that would spend N15.6 trillion “to tame the Atlantic” for a road project which did not go through any competitive bidding, and the contract awarded on a single-source basis, thus contravening the Public Procurement Act and Environmental Impact Assessment Act? Did he die to have a beneficiary of his death speak glowingly about Sani Abacha’s business partners, the Gilbert Chagourys and their Hitech Construction company, as a “symbol of courage and commitment” and openly acknowledge them as “my partner in daring”? Did those young boys risk their lives to hijack a plane for a democratic Nigeria, only to have Nigerians, 32 years after, have a government that carries on as if hunger, anger, starvation, hopelessness that rule the airwaves are not unusual?

More importantly, a very apposite question to ask is, 26 years after we got civil rule, is Nigeria a democracy? Leading scholar in democratic studies, Prof Larry Diamond, in a keynote at the conference “20 years of democracy in Nigeria: 1999-2019,” held at the St. Antony College, University of Oxford, on December 6, 2019, said Nigeria, as it is today, is a semi-democracy. Or anocracy. Prof Wale Adebanwi, in his Introduction to the book, Democracy and Nigeria’s Fourth Republic ( 2023) which he edited, described semi-democracy and anocracy as “a form of government that mixes democratic and autocratic attributes.” Robert Mattes has also described semi-democracy as a “hybrid regime” while some scholars call it “flawed democracy/regime”. The description of such government by the Economic Intelligence Unit is that, it is a “poorly functioning government, often with corrupt elected officials and officials otherwise unaccountable to the citizenry”.   

Following in the saying that the one on whose head a coconut pod is smashed to access its milky fruit often doesn’t partake of its eating, how many of the children of Rewane, Ige, Opadokun, Ransom-Kuti, Ndubuisi-Kanu, Elegbede, Omatsola, Onagoruwa, Suliat Adedeji, Tejuosho, Abraham Adesanya, Falae, Durojaiye and many more who gallantly fought the military to a standstill in the June 12 war, are beneficiaries of this government? Rather, the toads of the war fought by those Nigerians above 32 years ago are Nigerians’ tormentors of today in power. Are the lives of children of these June 12 warriors even better?  If the dead can see, will the casualties be happy with Nigeria where they are now? If there is another June 12 war to be fought today, will anyone stick their necks in a fight against establishment?

Anyway, happy June 12, Nigerians. Like the boring refrain of a dirge, government will again declare a public holiday on Thursday and we will be fooled with voodoo statistics showing us as a happy people. But, are we really happy?

WHAT kind of English Language is the “ignore” that I used here – Queen’s, King’s or Nigeria’s English? There is history behind it, which goes back many decades – to those periods when men of principles and ideology, who shunned money, position, and principles and dared the powers-that-be, were still plentiful in the Legal profession (both Bar and Bench). As the story goes, Kanmi Ishola-Osoba, who contested, as it were, the alias of “The people’s lawyer” with his more illustrious senior, Comrade Alao Aka-Bashorun, and the sobriquet of ”Fela’s lawyer” with debonair Tunji Braithwaite, got pissed off by the antics of a judge and, characteristically, minced no words in giving it back wholesale to “Me Lord”, as they are addressed, male or female. Wanting to make up on a later occasion, His Lordship’s warming up to Kanmi was rebuffed by the radical lawyer. Reporting the incident to other lawyers and friends, Kanmi reportedly said: “I gave him the ignore!”

Tinubu snubs Sanwo-Olu

Can that be the kind of “ignore” that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave the Lagos State governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, penultimate Saturday at the commissioning of the first phase of the Lagos-Calabar expressway in Lagos? Tinubu reportedly shook hands with other dignitaries but passed Sanwo-Olu over. To tell you that it was not an accident or mistake, Dr. Reuben Abati, in “Mid-term, coastal road and other stories”, described what happened as snobbery and open humiliation of Sanwo-Olu by Tinubu. I didn’t make much of that incident until later events made me dig deeper. Politicians are usually not your ordinary type of normal or okay people. They quarrel this moment and make up the next – except in rare cases like that of the erstwhile “Baba Kekere” to Tinubu who now appears, unfortunately, to have turned the corner in his estrangement with Tinubu. Just as the Second Republic Lagos state Gov. Lateef Jakande aka “Baba Kekere” was deemed the natural successor to the late sage and leader of the Yoruba, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, so also was Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola deemed the alter ego of Tinubu – the unannounced yet widely-known and respected Prime Minister of Tinubu’s political dynasty – until both men missed it! Isasi abi edi?

 After the (deliberate?) public ridicule in Lagos penultimate Saturday, godfather and godson might have made up. I understand many peace-makers immediately swung into action to mend fences. My sister, Funke Egbemode, must have been one of them! In her “Lagos: Mr. Governor, this sacrifice must get to Olodumare”, she counselled Sanwo-Olu to offer a sacrifice of atonement to Tinubu while at the same time she pleaded with the Jagaban to accept the sacrifice. Those who claim to know, however, say the open display of the parting of ways two Saturdays ago appears cast in iron, similar to Aregbesola’s, which, they say, is worse than that of the “Eleyi of Ogun State” in the rundown to the 2023 presidential primary of the APC, leading to the earthshaking “ayajo” (invocation) of “Emilokan” by an obviously desperate and go-for-broke Tinubu! “Eleyi”, however, was able to quickly make amends, fall in line and secure a second term in office. Incidentally, the same “Eleyi” was the one Tinubu commanded to step in and perform the assignment that, appropriately, was Sanwo-Olu’s as the host governor at the road commissioning.       

Controversy trails Lagos-Calabar expressway commissioning

 Before continuing with the “ignore” story, let us quickly return to the controversy generated by the commissioning of the first phase of the Lagos-Calabar expressway. Brickbats were traded on Kosofe Post, a platform to which I belong, over the appropriateness or otherwise of Tinubu’s action. Said one: How can he commission a 30km section of a 750km project? What’s the rush for? To celebrate two years in office? He should have waited for his third year in office. – Engr. Olusola Emmanuel Adedayo.

  “The People’s Democratic Party could not commission a 30km part of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in 16 years! Also, the second Niger Bridge was completed and commissioned on the page of newspapers (by them) before APC/President Muhammadu Buhari came to the rescue and practically completed (the) project.” – Oloye Salami Oluwaseun.

 “We should appreciate the fact that the President initiated this project for national growth and development. Meanwhile, a project can be commissioned at the beginning or a phased commissioning (can be done). The 30km (that was commissioned) is a phase of the project (and it is) to confirm the continuity of the project. Has the project stopped? No!” – Fatoki Ayobode Kehinde, Special Adviser on Environment, Ikosi Isheri LCDA.

 “If not for political optics, why would you even contemplate commissioning a project that is just at 4% completion stage?  The bane of our society over the years is that we reduce leadership to an act of noise-making, rather than actually fixing things and doing things right”. – Hon. Okufuwa Samad Oluwatoyin.

 “I see no issue with Tinubu’s action. Jonathan did the same thing when he flagged off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway…” – Francis Adebayo.

 “Should President Tinubu proceed by commissioning every 30km project as if there are no other important things to focus on in the nation? Nigerians love to celebrate mediocrity!” -Hon. Okufuwa Samad Oluwatoyin.

 “To commission means to put something/someone into active service. Thus, can the commissioned road be put to (active) use? Citing other irregularities or improper socio-political actions of past governments represents the level of negative values or misplaced priorities of Nigerians.” -Taiwo Lasisi, President, Ta’awun Political Forum, Lagos.

 A respected lawyer, an SAN to boot, also forwarded to me criticisms from Network for the Actualization of Social Growth and Viable Development, which reportedly described the commissioning as “premature and misleading”, following which it cautioned “against the politicization of infrastructure delivery”, adding that “project commissioning should reflect substantive completion and usability of the project in its entirety or at least a major functional section”. Another critic said, “The so-called commissioning… just cannot be right…”

Tinubu: Balancing act or what?

 My response: Was the 30km actually completed? And was it properly done? As the Chinese would say, the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step taken… Let’s encourage Tinubu and Umahi to forge ahead with the project. When we see the quantum of federal projects that were taken to the North during Buhari’s tenure – with funds sourced from the South or borrowed (which all of us will have to pay back), I want to support every meaningful project that the South can benefit from the Tinubu administration as compensation and balancing act.

 I wouldn’t have reasoned like this in the past, but time and experience reshape a man! Count the number of federal projects that Buhari attracted to his home state of Katsina alone, not to talk of the entire North! The North has more federal institutions than the South. It has virtually all the significant military institutions. It has more states, more local governments, and more (though questionable) allotted population figures. All these attract more federal resources to it. The North produced most of the country’s military leaders, and those ones leveraged the position to favour the North with all the above advantages. Northerners reportedly control more of the country’s oil wells, despite that not a drop of crude oil is mined in their region. They parade the country’s richest men. To crown it all, they hijacked the federal capital from Lagos and took it to the North! That people in the South cannot see all of these – or simply choose to ignore it, thinking it does not matter, baffles me.

 In Acts 26: 24 as the apostle Paul spoke in his own defence, mesmerising everyone with his much learning, Festus, one of the rulers who would determine his fate, exclaimed: “Paul, thou art beside thyself: much learning doth make thee mad!” Sometimes, much learning is a chain! Let the South take heed!

Sanwo-Olu: Guilty as charged?

I now return to Sanwo-Olu. Tinubu could have pretended that all was well. An enemy who pretends to be a friend is more deadly than one that shows his true colour. That way, you are better informed whether to mend fences – where possible – or keep a safe distance if making peace becomes impossible.

 Sanwo-Olu has pleaded his innocence against the many allegations levelled against him: That he was lukewarm to Tinubu’s plight during the #ENDSARSNOW protest. That he flirted with Atiku Abubakar in the run-down to the 2023 presidential election, thinking that Tinubu would not surmount all the obstacles hewn his way, first, to the APC flag, and then to the presidency itself. That he deliberately neglected to do the needful during the Lagos presidential election, which Tinubu embarrassingly lost to Peter Obi/Labour Party. To make matters worse, he allegedly thereafter swung into action and handsomely won his own second term election three weeks later.

 As if behaving like a man they wanted to roast for dinner who soaked himself in oil and stood by the fireplace, Sanwo-Olu was said to have been fingered in the Obasa impeachment saga that rocked Lagos politics to its very foundations. The embarrassment apart, note that Tinubu, the godfather of Lagos politics since 1999, reportedly described the event as a “coup”. And what is the penalty for coup plotters, especially failed coups?

 Sanwo-Olu, they alleged, wanted to snatch the Lagos political structure from Tinubu. What is the crux of the fight-to-finish between Nyesom Wike and suspended Gov. Siminilaye Fubara? Is it not about who controls the political structure in Rivers State? So, in the recently conducted Lagos local council polls, those familiar with the matter said not a single councillor position was conceded to the governor. 

Beware the ides of politicians!

As journalists, we say, from vantaged professional training and experience, that there is no smoke without a fire; which is why we pursue every lead. But in politics, there are smokes without a fire! Some kitchen cabinet members of a South-west governor conspired one day to arrest the rising profile of another politician who did not belong in their camp. What they did was to inform His Excellency that someone sighted the politician in question at Bourdillon. His Excellency screamed!

 In our political parlance, any reference to “Bourdillon” is Tinubu. The governor in question and Tinubu were light and darkness at the time. The accused was summoned! He swore with everything that he never went near Bourdillon, but the harm had been done. His accusers withstood him to his face – even though they knew they were telling lies! The man fell. Whether he recovered, I cannot tell.

 In Nigerian politics, it is not all smoke that fire ignites! 

FORMER Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has described the Civil War period as the most difficult period of his life.

Gowon made this known on Saturday in Abuja after being honoured with a LifeTime Integrity and Achievement Award at the 5th Convention of the Christian Men’s Fellowship, Abuja Anglican Diocese.

Gowon explained that his decisions during the Civil War were never driven by hatred, but by a difficult necessity to preserve national unity.

He urged people to always stand for the truth, and stressed the need for forgiveness, reconciliation, and unity across faiths and ethnicities.

“I always remember the Civil War. It was the most difficult period of my life. It was not my choice, but I had to be there, and had to do what I did in order to keep this country together.

“It was never a hatred against any people, I can assure you,” he stated.

Reflecting on life after that period, the former Head of State stressed that his decisions had often been guided by prayers and a desire to act with integrity and compassion.

“As far as this heart is concerned, everything that I do, it is through prayers. I ask God to help me to do the right thing the way He thinks it should be done, with love and respect for all the people.

“That is why, at the end, what do we have to say? As they say: no victor, no vanquished,” he added.

Gowon also lauded the progress Nigeria has made since the Civil War.

He called on all citizens to support the government’s efforts to uphold peace, love, and mutual respect.

Chairman of the occasion, former President Goodluck Jonathan, represented by John-Kennedy Opara, former Executive Secretary, Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, congratulated the honourees on their consistency in living with integrity.

[Nigerian Tribune]

He said, “These men have touched lives, and God has used them in different ways to touch the nation.

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.”

Quoting Psalm 25:14, he called on men to live right and stand for integrity, regardless of the situation.

The Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Henry Ndukuba, who presided over the convention, commended the honourees and urged Christians to uphold truth, integrity, and courage.

According to him, the theme for the programme is apt because there is a need to encourage Christians to stand for the Lord right from their homes.

He also encouraged Christians to stand strong in the society, in their workplaces and in their businesses.

If you thought nothing good could ever come out of the police barracks, you may just be wrong!

Nigeria’s police chief, Dr. Kayode Egbetokun, recently hugged media attention for the right reasons when he showcased the brightest and best of the organisation at the second edition of the Nigeria Police Awards and Commendations ceremony in Abuja.

For a change, the police had good stories – of valour, competence, dedication, integrity and much more – to tell, showing that in spite of the bad headlines, which the Force had attracted in the past, it still had many good eggs in its basket.

Police Awards

The event featured awards in various categories: Crime Buster of the Year; Community Policing Advocate of the Year; Detective of the Year; Police Sports Person of the Year; DPO of the Year; Area Commander of the Year; Patrol Team of the Year; and Traffic Officer of the Year. There were also awards for Gallantry and Integrity and Police Officer of the Year. The IGP Special Recognition Awards were also given to officers who distinguished themselves in professional fields such as Public Relations, Legal Practice, and Medical Services.

For once, the police smelt of roses. But beneath the glitz and the backslapping among ‘long-time-no-see’ old geezers, and the impeccable ceremonial dressing of the younger elements, there was the undercurrent of the theatricality of it all. Was the show just being put up to satisfy the public yearning for a police service with a human face rather than a police force that wasn’t sure whether it was an army of occupation or a bunch of strong-arm fixers?

IGP Egbetokun deserves his flowers for motivating his men with the award scheme. Perceptive analysts are, however, quick to warn the police not to be carried away by the sound of its own panegyrics. Critics and commentators recall one of the lowest points in the history of policing in Nigeria – the EndSARS protest, and warn that the types of complaints that culminated in that protest have been rearing their heads again.

Bad Eggs

The other day, when a policeman shot and killed a 14-year-old student at a checkpoint in Ibadan, Oyo State, allegedly because the boy’s father, who was driving refused to stop as ordered, the verdict of the motoring public was not focused on the driver who refused to stop. It was on whether the punishment for refusing to stop at a police checkpoint is death.

The trigger-happy policeman, confronted by an irate crowd, ran for cover at the nearby Ladoke Akintola Airport. A huge crowd of protesters carried the boy’s corpse and deposited it in the governor’s office at the Oyo State Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, demanding justice.

The authorities moved swiftly to douse the tension caused by that incident, which could easily have ballooned to a city-wide riot. But let nobody think that the people will take their eyes off the ball. They will wait to see how the whole issue will be handled before ‘incidenting’ it among their ‘actionable’ grievances.

Around the same time, one Inspector Obi Modestus was shown in a viral video assaulting an Uber driver in Lagos. The video, shared on social media platform X by user @dammiedammie35 (Oyindamola), drew widespread condemnation from the public. Despite passengers’ pleas for him to stop, the officer dragged the driver into a police vehicle and later returned to demand the deletion of the video.

The Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the Lagos State Police Command has reportedly summoned Inspector Modestus. The Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, warned that, “The Lagos State Police Command, under the leadership of the Commissioner of Police CP Olohundare Jimoh, will not condone any form of incivility to members of the public.” Nigerians are watching!

Generally, Nigerians hold senior police officers in high esteem because the higher echelon of the Force are more polished than the lower ranks. People often wonder if civility is not one of the subjects in the training modules of the police colleges that produce the rank and file who interact with the public daily.

In these days of banditry, kidnapping and sundry acts of terror, you would think that the police would realise that their best allies are the young people in the society. But it seems the reverse is the case as the police seem to think that young people have access to easy money, which they can be forced to share at gunpoint.

When I watched the video of some policemen of the Ogwashi-Uku Division assaulting the President of the Student Union Government (SUG) of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, I told myself that the matter ought to be escalated to the superior officers at the Police High Command in order to stem the madness.

In the video, the President of the Student Union alleged that the officers slapped him and threatened to shoot him unless he parted with a N500 bribe. They eventually shot at his vehicle. The SUG President shouted in rage: “You slapped me because I refused to settle you. You will see what you have never seen in your life before… Ogwashi-Uku divisional police slapped me, SUG president, because I refused to settle them N500!”

The officers didn’t bargain for a brazen fight back. They jumped into their operational vehicle. The student ran after them as they drove off. He screamed, “Look at you, criminals! The whole world is going to see you!” One policeman stepped out of the vehicle and fired a shot in the air.

The police made a quick getaway. The student leader and his colleagues licked their wounds. End of story for the day. But a psychological wound had been inflicted on the young people, which would make them so susceptible to anti-police protests in the future. And all because of some miserable N500!

Good Eggs

In the midst of all the stories of woe, there are accounts of policemen who have behaved like guardian angels to members of the public. I have personally been assisted by a police patrol team to change a flat tyre of my brand new VW Passat at night on the Shagamu-Benin Expressway in the dangerous 80s when armed robbery kingpins, Lawrence Anini and Monday Osunbor, reigned supreme. There are still many good policemen out there, but the bad eggs and empty barrels are naturally louder.

The Police High Command may wish to review a 2012 study done on the subject, “Do the Nigerian public trust their police?” by Etannibi Alemika, Nic Cheeseman and Adrienne LeBas.

The key findings of that study reveal that:

Nearly one-half (48.5%) of the respondents felt somewhat or very unsafe in meeting the police.

Only 6.3% of the respondents felt that the police were effective most of the time in preventing or containing violent conflicts.

Only 6.4% of those interviewed expressed a lot of trust in the police. An additional 16.7% said they somewhat trust the police.

IGP Egbetokun may wish to update that study. The commendable institution of an annual award scheme to reward outstanding policemen should go hand in hand with a deliberate, research-based study to help build more trust between the police and the public. Without trust, all police exertions will be in vain.

Former Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has dismissed claims by his political rival and successor, Nyesom Wike, that he made him governor, challenging journalists and the public to interrogate the origins of that assertion.

In a recent interview marking his 60th birthday, Amaechi said his emergence as governor in 2007 was the result of a judicial process and not political patronage. “Nobody made me governor but God, Dr. Peter Odili, and the Nigerian judiciary,” he declared. “Surprisingly, no journalist has ever asked that man that said he made me governor how he did it? Nobody has ever asked that question.”

Amaechi, who was elected governor after a landmark Supreme Court ruling reinstated his candidacy despite being substituted before the 2007 elections, emphasized that the judiciary played the decisive role in the outcome. “I went to court. Lateef Fagbemi was my lawyer. He’s now the Attorney General of the Federation. Maybe you should ask him.”

The former governor also pushed back against another widespread narrative – that he offered Wike the position of Commissioner for Finance in his administration. “It is not true that I offered him the position,” Amaechi said, adding that former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, had travelled to Port Harcourt to inform him of Wike’s interest in that portfolio. “And I said no, because he has to work under me. I wanted him as Chief of Staff so that I can supervise him,” Amaechi stated.

He dismissed suggestions that his decision was based on mistrust or rivalry. “It means the governor supervising his staff,” he said. “He made himself Chief of Staff, he made himself Governor, he made himself Minister, he made himself local government chairman. So end it there. Don’t go further.”

Amaechi, who was also a two-term Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly and Minister of Transportation under President Muhammadu Buhari, used the interview to reflect on his career, political developments in Nigeria, and the state of Rivers under his successors. He expressed disappointment that many of the projects he executed had been abandoned, including model secondary schools, health centres, and the Greater Port Harcourt City project.

On why he no longer visits the state, Amaechi offered a terse explanation: “That’s why I don’t go to Rivers State, because it gives you mental disorder.”

Amaechi’s comments come amid ongoing political tension in Rivers State and growing speculation about his political future ahead of the 2027 elections.

[Guardian]

A former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, has exposed large-scale fraud spearheaded by individuals, public officials, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as private enterprises, during the federal government’s infamous subsidy regime.

According to him, for 25 years the perpetrators capitalised on the system’s loopholes to defraud the country of billions of naira by forging documents, breaching payment procedures and looting the national treasury.

By the time incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, on May 29, 2023, Nigeria had spent N16.5 trillion on subsidy payments, the bulk of which had been stolen.

Tinubu had in his inaugural speech declared that “Fuel subsidy is gone”.

Bawa said the looting spree was carried out under four administrations between 1999 and 2023.

According to Bawa, the regimes under which the national treasury was plundered were those of former President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2006), the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (2007-2009), former President Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2014), and Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023).

These revelations are contained in the book, The Shadow Of Loot and Losses – Uncovering Nigeria’s Petrol Subsidy Fraud, which the former anti-graft czar authored.

According to the figures disclosed by Bawa, of the four administrations, Buhari’s topped the controversial subsidy payment with N11 trillion, followed by Jonathan’s, which doled out N3.9 trillion. The Obasanjo government came third with N812 billion while Yar’Adua occupied the rear with N794 billion.

Obasanjo and Buhari spent eight years in office while Jonathan ruled for six years, having initially completed the two years left by the Yar’Adua administration, as the deceased’s deputy, winning the presidential election in 2011.

In the 317-page book, Bawa said the subsidy payments, which were usually fraudulent, were oiled by inadequate regulatory frameworks, weak law enforcement mechanisms, and a lack of transparency in the whole process.

Bawa said these lapses encouraged the spike in subsidy payments from N123 billion in 2006 to N886 billion in 2014 and the outrageous figure of N11 trillion in 2023.

The former EFCC boss further said the Nigerian petroleum subsidy fraud can be explained using the fraud triangle of “Pressure (Needs), Opportunity and Rationalisation.”

He said, “Pressure is the motivation that pushes someone to commit fraud; opportunity is the circumstance that allows one to commit the fraud, while rationalisation is the process by which an individual justifies committing a fraud.”

How The Act Was Perpetrated

Bawa identified inflated import volumes, alteration of bill of lading dates, non-declaration of over-recovery, floating storage vessel, single importation, and double subsidy payments as among the mechanisms through which the petroleum subsidy scam was perpetrated.

According to him, oil marketing companies manipulated import quantities to increase subsidy payments extensively from the late 2010s.

He said an investigation of the practice led the EFCC to uncover illicit gains amounting to over N30 billion.

Bawa continued, “In many instances, government officials were found to have either knowingly or unknowingly participated in the fraud by stamping and signing the forged documents. Some officials reported that they had signed off documents while on duty, despite the fact that they were aware that the documents had been compromised. There were those who signed off on fraudulent documents, not knowing that the documents were fabricated.”

He cited a case where a company imported five million litres less of PMS than the 12 million litres it claimed. The firm was paid N700 million subsidy, which it was not entitled to.”

He said the development raised critical questions about the fraud mechanisms, the failure of regulatory agency oversight, and how the EFCC eventually uncovered these illicit activities.

Taming The Monster

On the efforts of the commission to check the menace, Bawa chronicled cases of investigations, arrests, prosecutions, convictions and recoveries made by the agency.

He said that although there were no cases of infraction in 2006 and 2007, the commission recovered N11.5 billion in 2008, N4.88 billion in 2009, and N10.3 billion in 2010.

The former chairman of the EFCC described 2011 as the peak of petrol subsidy fraud, “during which we identified activities amounting to N41.7 billion.

“In total, the fraudulent activities accounted for approximately N68 billion, of which around 80 per cent was recovered,” he said.

Bawa added that in the last 25 years of democratic governance, Nigeria has expended N16.5 trillion on subsidies, adding that what was disconcerting about the entire process is that a chunk of the money was spent on false claims and theft from the nation’s resources.

The Way Forward

Bawa argues that subsidy in itself is not evil; however, its fraudulent implementation led to the government being denied enormous resources meant for providing infrastructure, improving education and health services, which benefit vulnerable Nigerians.

He therefore called for a well-managed subsidy programme.

He said, “Retaining a well-managed subsidy programme could have provided the much-needed relief to vulnerable populations by ensuring that the cost of living remains stable and providing a buffer against economic shocks.

“This emphasises the critical importance of establishing robust mechanisms for monitoring and regulating the distribution of subsidies to prevent abuse and ensure that they fulfil their intended purpose.”

Bawa also called for a genuine fear of God and the existence of a competent and efficient justice system.

Bawa said, “A system that is not only equipped to prevent and deter crime but also possesses the capacity to investigate and effectively prosecute offences is crucial. Such a system fosters trust and confidence among the citizens, encouraging public cooperation and engagement in maintaining law and order.”

The former EFCC boss urged Nigerians and foreigners alike to change their attitude, adhere to ethical standards, and place the nation above themselves.

Furthermore, he called for adequate funding and deployment of technology in public institutions to curb corruption.

The former EFCC boss urged Nigerians and foreigners alike to change their attitude, adhere to ethical standards, and place the nation above themselves.

“Cultivating the culture of doing the right thing, regardless of the circumstances, can drive sustainable shifts in societal norms,” he said.

LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that several Nigerians have been convicted of oil subsidy fraud, the latest being Mamman Ali, the son of Ahmadu Ali, a former chairman of the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 [Leadership]

While calling on Almighty God to admit in his heavenly kingdom Nigeria’s legends - Chief Mike Ejeagha, Professor Jibril Aminu and Muhammad Uwais, JSC, who joined our ancestors last week, Mr Osita Okechukwu in agony singled out what he dubbed Uwais Electoral Reform and Nigerians Debt Burden. 

He lamented that 17 years down the line successive governments have failed to implement the vital sections of the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee recommendations, with attendant collateral damages, multidimensional poverty, gross unemployment, huge debt burden, crass inequality and general insecurity.

Okechukwu reminded us that the Uwais Report was meant to enhance higher percentage of voters participation, reduce electoral malpractices and engender free, fair, credible and transparent elections, and most importantly, the public nomination of chairmen and members of electoral commissions at the national and state level.

Okechukwu submitted that the best tribute to Justice Uwais is to posthumously adopt and implement the fine tenets of his report, as the only politically correct solution of restoration of democracy and global recognition.

He appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to as a matter of urgent national importance, muster the political will and clear the Uwais debt burden by amending the constitution, albeit to make public appointments of chairmen and members of both national and state electoral commissions mandatory.

Okechukwu opined that not only will the amendment consolidate local government financial autonomy, in addition Almighty God has graciously obliged Mr President all the necessary arsenal viz,

cordial relationship with the National Assembly and same synergy with about 30 State Governors, as well as the overwhelming endorsement of Nigerians in this regard.

After years upon years of legal back and forth, a special offences court in Lagos state recentlyjailed two subsidy fraudsters. Mamman, son of Ahmadu Ali — former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)who was once minister of education — was awarded 14 years imprisonment. Also to spend 14 years in prison is Mr Christian Taylor, his co-defendant. They were found guilty of collecting N2.2 billion in subsidy payments for “importing” 20 million litres of petrol when, in fact, they did not bring in even half a gallon. At the time of the offence, N2.2 billion translated to a cool $13 million. That was enough to buy a private jet —or address the little matter of buying drugs for our hospitals.

That was the story of petrol subsidy in Nigeria — when we went all out to “protect the poor” by burning scarce public resources on financing the ego and libido of the rich and the powerful. This is yet another conviction in the subsidy scam series since 2012, when President Goodluck Jonathan directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe allegations of fraud. He had suspended the deregulation of the downstream sector in response to public protests against the increase in petrol price from N67/litre to N140 on New Year’s Day.He also reduced the price to N97 after a turbulent week of opposition-inspired “aluta continua”, Lagos and Kano being the epicentres.

As a result of the probe by the EFCC, three individuals and one company have now been convicted. In addition to Ali and Taylor, Brila Energy Limited and its representative, Rowaye Jubril, were convicted in 2017. Jubril was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment while Brila was ordered to refund nearly N1 billion to the government. Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, managing director of Fargo Petroleum and Gas Ltd accused of forging documents to claim N3.7 billion subsidy payment, remains on the run.These are just a few of the court cases over the scam.In the end, the total amount that was stolen under the policy “to protect the poor” ran into probably trillions of naira during the lifetime of the subsidy.

Mr AbdulRasheed Bawa, a member of the EFCC special team that probed the scam, has justwritten a book, ‘The Shadow of Loot & Losses: Uncovering Nigeria’s Petroleum Subsidy Fraud’, on the scandal. Bawa, who later became chairman of the EFCC, tells in heartbreaking details the monumental scam. The book reveals the extent of the evil that was visited upon this country in the name of petrol subsidy. It is a damning story, a story of the atrocious collusion by politicians, business moguls and government officials to rape the national treasury to stupor — through ghost importing, over-invoicing, manipulation of bills of lading, round-tripping, double claims, diversion and smuggling.

For those who may not know, I used to be a petrol subsidy fanatic. I started turning my back on it only in January 2012 when Jonathan unsuccessfully tried to end it. I saw and heard things that were not lawful to utter. I used to support petrol subsidy principally because of the notion that Nigeria as an oil-producing country should not be selling petroleum products at the same prices as non-oil producing countries. I used to argue that nearness to raw material should make a product cheaper, often illustrating it with the fact that tomato is cheaper in Keffi than Ketu. I was never impressed with the argument that oil, as a globally traded commodity, commands different pricing economics.

I vehemently opposed the argument that selling petrol cheaper in Nigeria was making smuggling to neighbouring countries a profitable and pleasurable enterprise. My counter-argument was that government was punishing ordinary, law-abiding Nigerians for its own failure to police our borders. I just believed petrol was too critical to the cost of living to be left to market forces. In fact, I said the only thing Nigerians were enjoying was petrol subsidy and all attempts to remove it must be fiercely resisted. For every argument in favour removing subsidy, I had a ready counter— whether or not it was viable. I did not realise I was aiding and abetting an organised crime of gargantuan proportions.

Theoretically, I am still pro-subsidy — I believe that all fingers are not equal and the government must step in to help the poor  by “balancing the equation”. However, I now believe such funds should go into more impactful areas such as agriculture, health and education, not petrol. Bawa calculated, based on data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), that we spent about N17 trillion on petrol subsidy from 1999-2023, viz: N812 billion (1999-2006), N794 billion (2007-2009), N3.9 trillion (2010-2014) and N11 trillion (2015-2013). This is not how to spend N17 trillion.

When President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, his first policy pronouncement was “subsidy is gone”. His predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, had not made any provision for subsidy for the second half of 2023. Tinubu effectively brought it forward by one month. The truth, of course, was that Nigeria was heading for ground zero. The NNPC had been importing petrol at N600/litre and selling it at roughly N190. The worst part was that in the past, we used to pay for subsidy from our oil earnings. However, from around 2020, we were actually borrowing to import petrol and sell at a third of the cost. We even mortgaged our future oil earnings to import petrol!

Still, anytime I reflect on the jump in the pump price from less than N200 to over N800 (it crossed the N1,000 mark at some point) in the past two years, I ask myself whether this is really happening. The consequences have been grim: high transportation costs for motorists and low-income earners, as well as high energy costs for businesses. The fall in the value of the naira compounded a dire situation for a country that relies heavily on imports, including pharmaceuticals, clothing, education and medical treatments. It was as if the whole world was going to crash on us. Yet, it was not as if we were left with many options. The economy was running on empty. We were close to liquidation.

When Tinubu marked his second anniversary in office, I read comments and analyses, both local and foreign, on his stewardship. The contradictory views are quite fascinating. The polices which some commentators are commending are the same others are condemning. Take, for example, his two most far-reaching policies: removing petrol subsidy and liberalising the FX market. While these policies have shot the cost of living to the highest in a generation, they have also tackled a regime of corruption that had been damaging the economy for decades. And while many economists and investors are taking to the dancefloor in pleasure, the less privileged are reeling on the floor in pains.

Although I was critical of the way and manner Tinubu went about his twin policies (which I thought and still think were neither well planned nor properly executed), he took a decision that had been very difficult for past presidents. Some would take the decision and quickly backtrack after the public backlash and labour strikes. What I have found more intriguing today is that petrol can be N900/litre this week and N875 next week. When oil prices change, the prices of petroleum products react. The FX market is now following the same pattern — the naira is going up and down from time to time, just like major currencies. With no fixed rate, many speculators are now in the middle of nowhere.

Tinubu’s policy seems to be: “no subsidy, no subsidy scam”. You can’t claim payment for what doesn’t exist. Bawa’s revelations are, for me, a final nail in the coffin. Not even one kobo should ever go into petrol subsidy again. We have crossed the Red Sea and must never go back to Egypt. The next challenge is for Nigerians to start holding their leaders accountable and responsible for a judicious use of the “savings” since there are no more deductions for subsidy from the federally collected revenues. The NNPC can no longer withhold revenues from the federation account under the nebulous headline of “subsidy deductions” — although I know we are still paying some legacy bills.

Above all, it is now left for us, as active citizens, to make it a duty to put the president, governors and council bosses under the spotlight, to make sure these “saved” funds are targeted at providing amenities that will benefit most Nigerians, especially the poorest of the poor, amenities that we can feel and touch (not “audio”), amenities in healthcare, education, roads and other critical infrastructure that will be impactful and meaningful. I don’t think we need to be begged to be more active. Otherwise, of what benefit is abolishing subsidy only to spend the savings on waste and graft? That would mean we are suffering for nothing. Our latter days could end up worse than the former.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

MOKWA MAYHEM

A flood submerged Mokwa, Niger state, last week, killing more than 200 people, with over 1,000 still missing, according to media reports. As many as 2,000 homes were destroyed in the havoc. Pray, how do you console a man who watched his wife and newborn baby swept away by the flood? Devastating! However, before we start blaming the disaster on adultery and fornication, the truth is that climate crisis is real. Seasonal flooding will not end soon. Just as many countries are prone to hurricanes and typhoons, many Nigerian states are vulnerable to flooding. What we need now is proactive leadership — the type that plans ahead to save lives and property. Foretold. Forewarned.

WASTED GENERATIONS

In May 2016, eight secondary students from Kano state who came to Lagos for a quiz competition died in a road accident near Ibadan, Oyo state, on their way back home. Their bodies were then flown back to Kano for burial. They were not worthy of air travel while alive. In May 2025, 22 athletes who represented Kano at the national sports festival in Abeokuta died in a road accident while returning home. The state government awarded N1 million as compensation to each family — more than enough to have bought flight tickets in the first place. Of course, we are not in control of our lives and people die in air crashes, but this says a lot about the welfare of these athletes. Wasted.

HANDSHAKE HORROR

Since the impeachment of Rt Hon Mudashiru Obasa as the speaker of Lagos house of assembly, the relationship between President Bola Tinubu and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has gone terribly sour. Not even the reinstatement of Obasa after the botched “coup” has repaired the strains. The internet was initially buzzing with the rumour that Obasa was impeached at Tinubu’s instance. The rumour mongers said it was because Obasa was interested in running for governorship, a position they said was reserved for Seyi, Tinubu’s son. The turn of events terminated the rumour. But no matter Sanwo-Olu’s offence, Tinubu shouldn’t have snubbed shaking his hands in public. Humiliating.

NO COMMENT

Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi, former transportation minister, marked his 60th birthday with a claim that sent vibrations around the nation: “We are all hungry. If you are not hungry, I am.” It was obviously a political statement ahead of the 2027 elections. But Chief Nyesom Wike, his former ally turned foe, would allow that to pass. The FCT minister, who succeeded Amaechi as governor of Rivers in 2015, fired back: “He was speaker from 1999 to 2007, governor from 2007 to 2015, and minister from 2015 to 2023. He never spoke about hunger during those years. It is clear he cannot stay out of power.” Meanwhile, is it true the venue of the “hungry” birthday bash costs N30 million only? Hahahaha.

The defection of Gov. Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State from PDP to APC on Friday was not a surprise, after all. I first got wind wind of the plan since last year, and since then, I have written two articles on it. The last, entitled ‘’2027: Will Gov. Eno defect to APC?’’ was published in March. Gov. Eno has taken his time to consult, convince various interest groups and build a consensus among PDP members and political associates for many months before he finally took the decision to move. He wanted to ensure that he moved with as many PDP members as possible. The discussions and persuasions paid off as the governor went into the APC with critical stakeholders: the two PDP senators; all members of the House of Representatives and House of Assembly; all the 31 LGA chairpersons and all but one commissioner. Overall, hundreds of PDP stalwarts, some holding political positions and others who have held various senior political offices, also moved with the governor, creating an unparalleled political change whose impacts would be felt beyond the state.

But the Commissioner for Special Duties and Deep Sea Port, Ini Emeobong refused to defect with the governor and thus resigned from the cabinet, citing ‘’personal conviction’’. Ememobong has served the government right from the administration of Godswill Akpabio as Special Assistant. He was one of Akpabio’s beloved aides who was promoted Commissioner by Gov. Udom Emmanuel after he succeeded Akpabio in 2015. But when Akpabio defected from PDP to APC in 2018, Ememobong became very hostile to Akpabio. Gov. Emmanuel deployed him to Ministry of Information from which he launched series of verbal assaults and insults against Akpabio. During the 2019 elections, Ememobong took matters in a very personal manner, moving from one media house to another to attack Akpabio in the most visceral manner. His decision not to join the APC is therefore meant to save him from the possibility of having anything to do with AKpabio again. Lesson: political disagreement should not turn into personal enmity.

But there are more significant implications of the governor’s movement. In terms of 2027, both the Senate President and the governor would be returned unopposed for second term. The PDP, hitherto the strongest political platform in the state, is now too enfeebled to offer any formidable electoral challenge to them. By joining the APC, Umo Eno has also escaped the trap inherent in the intractable leadership crisis in his former party. The leadership tussle had the potential to cause legal problems for him in 2027. APC members are also excited at the change of their political fortunes and the expectations that Gov. Eno’s entry into the party would redress the deprivation they had suffered over the years. The party has been under the grip and control of Senator AKpabio since Bola Tinubu became President. He alone decided who got a political appointment from the federal government, and the beneficiaries were mostly his close acolytes from his senatorial district.

Persons like Obong Umana Umana (former minister of Niger Delta Affairs); Atuekong Don Etiebet (former Minister of Petroleum); Obong Nsima Ekere(former Managing Director of NDDC) who joined the party long before AKpabio were all sidelined within the party. Other members who had political appointments under President Buhari were even denied reappointment by Tinubu because the Senate President had come up with his preferred nominees. Eno is coming into a party that is made up of two camps: one being a small group of contented and favoured members led by Akpabio and the other, a larger segment, made up of discontented and dejected members, who felt sidelined by leadership style of the Senate President. The dejected ones are now excited that Gov. Eno would recognize and reward them for their sacrifice and contributions all these years.

‘’The coming of the governor into our party is good for the state and provides hope for a new beginning’’, said former minister Umana to me soon after the Eno’s defection. ‘’We as members will have to work with the governor and help him to bring reconciliation, harmony and cohesion to the party’’, he added. Umana himself had defected from PDP when he served as Secretary to the State Government under Gov. Akpabio to APC in November 2014 because he was denied the governorship nomination. His defection rally was a big event in Uyo attended by Bola Tinubu (then APC National Leader); Atiku Abubarkar (presidential aspirant); John Odigie-Oyegun (then APC National Chairman) and other top party henchmen. I joined the party that day too – my first, and so far, only membership of any political party. The core and bulk of members of APC in Akwa Ibom are those who joined with Umana in 2014, but they have been at the receiving end of Akpabio’s scorched earth policy. Their main concern now is whether Akpabio will give the governor a free hand to lead and manage the enlarged APC with fairness and equity; or whether the Senate President would want to turn the governor into a stooge and corner all opportunities for himself and allies. That was the cause of his fight with Gov. Udom Emmanuel which eventually led to his defection in 2018, and now people are wondering whether history will repeat itself.

I raised this point with Umana. His response: ‘’They (Akpabio and Eno) had managed their relationship fairly well in the last two years. The governor has his own style, so I do not foresee any problem’’. Other APC members are also hopeful that Eno and Akpabio will work together this time. Elder Aniefiok Isatt, businessman, says: ‘’I think Akpabio has matured politically and he has learned his lessons too. The fact that he has an important job as Senate President in Abuja should keep him away from meddling into party politics in the state’’. Atuekong Etiebet, a former minister who had also endured some indignities under Akpabio, notes that the governor’s defection ‘’is a completely new ball game’’, while Barr. Edet Eyo Bassey, a former State Publicity Secretary of the Party, believes that the entry of the governor has offered ‘’some psychological reliefs to some of us who have worked hard for the party, but had been abandoned as if we don’t matter’’. He noted that Umo Eno will bring all members under one canopy and treat them fairly. The governor himself has pledged to be fair to all, irrespective of party affiliation. He said at the Government House Banquet Hall while announcing his defection: ‘’Together with the old and new, we will build our dear state with unity; peace and inclusivity; love and kindred spirit’’ in accordance with the lyrics of the State’s Anthem.

Another talking point is how Akwa Ibom State would benefit from Eno’s entry into APC. In his speech, the governor explained that he was defecting because of ‘’enlightened State Interest predicated on the need to align our state with the Center to attract more federal presence’’. Top on the list of the expectations of the government and the people is that President Tinubu would support the state to build a deep sea port, an aspiration that is almost as old as the state. In April, many high ranking citizens wrote an open letter to the President, urging him to support the state to achieve this age old goal. Now that he’s joined the President’s party, Eno will campaign vigorously for the reelection of the President, hoping that the President would, in return, support the state to build the sea port – a point Dr. Ita Udosen, APC South-South Zonal Secretary, aligns with. He says that Akwa Ibom people are solidly behind their governor in the expectation that this dream would be realized under the Tinubu presidency.

Gov. Eno’s movement to APC is one the most eventful political developments this year and will undoubtedly influence the outcomes of the 2027 presidential election. But I am also aware that APC leaders have been piling pressure on the eight non-APC governors in the South to defect to counterbalance the President’s dwindling popularity in the North. So far, Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori has moved, while more pressures are being piled on Gov. Peter Mba of Enugu and Alex Otti of Abia. There are indications that Gov. Charles Soludo of Anambra may defect next year. It is just unbelievable that the PDP leadership has been watching helplessly as their party withers away.