“Anthems are ideological recitations that help the people to be more focused. It was an unfortunate development for the military to have changed the anthem.”

-Frank Tietie
(In an earlier interview)

Nigeria's new anthem, written by a Briton, sparks criticism after a contentious law is passed https://ca.news.yahoo.com/nigerias-anthem-written-briton-sparks-194844367.html

If the Star Spangled Banner and 'God Save the King' would remain for centuries in the USA and UK, respectively, on what basis did the military government have to change the National Anthem that was associated with Nigeria's independence?

The choice of the military government of General Olusegun Obasanjo to change the independence national anthem was an attempt to distort the history and emerging ethos of the new nation, Nigeria, in 1960. It didn't matter whether the original (now new) anthem was composed by a Briton. It is the same reason that laws that were in England as of 1st January 1900 are still applicable in Nigeria today. That's how you trace national foundations.

The original national anthem, which the regime of President Bola Tinubu has now restored, naturally speaks more to the foundational challenges of the true federation that Nigeria was at independence and the resolve of the Nigerian people to exalt the new state above the centrifugal forces of ethnicity and other primordial aspirations.

The Military replacement national anthem, on the contrary, was a bundle of contradictions and highly unrealistic recitations that remained unattainable.

An anthem that acknowledges the reality of the divisions among Nigerians is better than the one based on lies.

Such lies as follows :
Nigerians are compatriots who have a love for their country and do want to serve it with their strength as an expression of faith that it would be a great country which the labours of its past heroes (like our former leaders) shouldn't be in vain. And so serve the country with their heart and might to build a country whose unity and peace are defined by freedom.- What a lie!

The entire 1st stanza of the now discarded national anthem was a cluster of lies. The experience of the last 45 years of its adoption can attest that it was. Nigerians never believed in it because they unconsciously regarded it as a mockery of reality.

Therefore, it is little wonder why the 2nd stanza of the now scrapped anthem, though a prayer, has remained unanswered after nearly 50 years because the God of creation hates lies, especially foundational lies that people knowingly and collectively hold out. Such cannot engender answered prayer from the Almighty God of creation.

Frank Tietie
Lawyer and Public Affairs Analyst writes from Abuja.

For the deposed Kano Emir, Aminu Bayero, it was not a matter of if but when. The moment the Supreme Court upheld Governor Abba Yusuf’s election in January, Bayero knew the governor would need the throne to pay his debt. 

During the campaign, the governor promised that if he were elected, he would revoke the sharing of the Kano Municipal Emirate between two Bayeros among the four new emirs and restore the throne’s singular pre-eminence.

Of course, he won. But before the ruling of the Supreme Court in January affirming his election, two lower courts had ruled in favour of the APC candidate, increasing the probability that Yusuf might not get it.

But Yusuf defied the trend and got it. Since then, Aminu Ado Bayero has taken his case to virtually all notable traditional rulers in the country, begging them to beg President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to save him. His last visit was to the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikuru Adetona. Neither the Awujale, the Sultan, nor any other traditional rulers he had visited could help.

The throne would be used to pay a debt foretold.

Nearly there 

But the re-instated Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is not sitting pretty yet. Not even one side of his royal buttocks is hugging the throne in the main palace yet. He’s currently in a holding room, besieged by orders and counter-court orders about what should happen next.

A young man genuinely surprised by the drama in Kano asked what the fuss was about. Why should the country almost come to grief over who of two cousins – with ties and friendships that run deep – would become the emir? It’s a fair point. 

There was a time in this country when the business of chiefs, obas, emirs—or any traditional rulers, by whatever description or name—was the concern of local governments.

How they were appointed, kept or removed was local. Their relevance or longevity depended mainly on how their communities perceived their compliance with the customs and traditions. 

Burden of a legacy 

Colonial rule exploited and undermined the system. However, the more significant damage was inflicted by the long years of military rule, which emasculated the states and local governments through a centralised system of administration that left the units bereft. Successive politicians have only paid lip service to federalism.

After the civil war and the national trauma that followed it, the military recruited traditional rulers, amongst others, to help heal the country and deepen their own legitimacy. They courted the institutions, propped them up, and invested them with responsibilities that made them more prestigious, prominent, and powerful.

A number of soldiers, especially from the North, where the traditional institution had grown from colonial rule to become something of a vital centre of political and religious authority, soon took traditional titles to reinvent and perpetuate their control, complete with the feudal and anachronistic levers of power.

Game of Thrones pro-max

A young man born into a modern world of merit, innovation and competence is right to question the sense in a country that advertises itself as a republic but is still obsessing over a wayward, neo-medieval concept called monarchy. The only thing that imitates what is happening in Kano is the fantasy TV series, “Game of Thrones”, based on George R. R. Martin’s book, A Song of Ice and Fire.

But that’s precisely the point about the pathology of the monarchy. Throne rule may be extinct in France and parts of Europe where monarchs paid for feudalism with their heads hoisted on spikes by wild mobs or it may be seriously challenged in a few remaining bastions like Britain, but the drama, the complex themes of power, loyalty and betrayal, remains a reality of our daily existence. That’s why Kano obsesses.

Powers behind the throne 

Sanusi and Bayero fancy themselves as the centre of the drama. They’re not. Both men and their supporters are grist in a vast and complex power mill grinding through the heart of the politics of 2027 and beyond in the North. Whoever wins now will still yield the throne to pay a future debt.

It’s not Sanusi v Bayero. Or some karmic payback either way. It’s the leader of the NNPP Rabiu Kwankwaso v Abdullahi Ganduje and a few key members of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s cabinet who want to lead the North in 2027. 

One insider described what is happening as a “skirmish”, insisting that the battle, which obviously consumed former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, is only just beginning.

Coming war

After President Muhammdu Buhari’s catastrophic tenure and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s serial futile attempts at taking the presidency, the North has been asking itself if this is indeed the best it can offer. That soul-searching is at the heart of the jostling to produce credible leadership that can rally the region, if not for the next four years, then certainly for the next general election cycle.

In this coming battle, any potential contender who shows his hand early on may not be politically alive to tell the story. But that will not stop politicians from trying to succeed where El-Rufai was ambushed.

Kwankwaso is one such politician. With the victory at the governorship polls, he regained his political footing in Kano, the largest vote bank in the North-West, where his successor betrayed him. He has been trying, without much success, so far, to trash Ganduje, the chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). 

What Kwankwaso may need to reinforce his grip as the potential pre-eminent political leader in the North, is to secure control of the Kano emirate. Whether given Sanusi’s own volatile history Kwankwaso would find him serviceable in this task is another matter. What is clear is that of the two devils, one is preferred.

Once the emirate is settled, Kwankwaso will return to the immediate task of worming his way into the ruling party. Why would he prefer the ruling party to the prospects of a mega-merger of PDP, LP and others? Because it’s a joke that offers no serious pathway to power, and those mooting the idea know it. Kwankwaso, too, knows it.

Why this skirmish matters 

But he also knows that the only thing more combustible than having FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and Rivers State Governor Simi Fubara in one room is having Kwankwaso and Ganduje in one room. The combatants, with the referee and spectators, are guaranteed a bloody ending. That’s why, after lining his political and monarchical ducks in a row, Kwankwaso’s next stop is Abuja.

Ganduje knows that this is a fight for his political life. And even though forces around the president detest Ganduje, they are united on the matter of blocking any potential leader from the North who is currently outside Tinubu’s inner circle. There’s no guarantee they would succeed but they won’t fail for lack of effort.

As it was in the “Game of Thrones”, expect more surprises, more twists and turns, more convenient alliances, treachery and betrayals. The monarchy may be damaging itself either from within or from outside pressure, but the lessons it teaches about power, about its absolutism and ephemerality, remain for all who have eyes to see.

Ishiekwene, Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP, is the author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It.

One year after being in the saddle, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be the first person to admit that the ride has been bumpy. He is also the first to say he is unfazed by the turbulence as he remains focused on the marathon of the next three years. The past year has been months of baby steps, months of laying the foundations for the next three years of canter.

As Nigeria’s 16th President, Tinubu, during his campaign for the office, said he would make difficult decisions and that running the country would not be business as usual.

From day one, he sought to fulfill his promises, beginning from his earthshaking ‘subsidy is gone’ announcement at the  Eagle Square, on the day he was sworn in. The announcement reverberated around the country and beyond. He was not just actualising a promise he made. He was also affecting the consensus of all the major candidates in the 2023 election that the several decades old, wasteful subsidy must end.

His administration followed this up with the decision to harmonise the foreign exchange rates. The multiple exchange rates executed under his predecessor had given room to various abuses, among which was arbitrage, where people close to the power loop made humongous money, getting forex at the official rate and offloading it at the so-called parallel market for almost 100 percent profit. Both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank advised the Nigerian government to end the policy, to no avail, as forex obligations piled up, FDI’s dried up, and investors shunned Nigeria. Tinubu knew that to reset the economy and build renewed confidence locally and internationally, there must be a policy change. He took the measure, just as he promised during the campaign, with the government announcing that it wanted to harmonise the rates in ‘weeks’. The financial world took notice that Nigeria is at the cusp of great change.

Although it has taken months to achieve the harmony, with the Naira in the interregnum, taking a massive bashing from the dollar. The heavily hurt currency at a stage fell to about N1,900 to the dollar, with the naysayers and the opposition predicting a total destruction of the currency. Their wish did not come to pass, as the currency rebounded to earn global acclaim as the world’s best performing currency. After weeks of amassing muscle against the US dollar, the Nigerian currency weakened again. Now, the monetary authorities are working hard to ensure the currency did not fall into the abyss like it did in February, before the rebound.

Together with the  abrogation  of the subsidy regime, the forex harmonisation policy triggered an inflationary rage, with food inflation hitting unprecedented levels. Cost of living rose countrywide. Some analysts, however, blamed the inflation on other factors such as insecurity that prevented farmers from going to farm and the poor state of  roads, that escalated transportation costs, pushing up the costs of virtually everything.

The administration responded on many fronts with a raft of ameliorative policies. Last December, it offered subsidised bus transport and free train service to Nigerians going home for Christmas and New Year. The subsidy was also offered for the return journeys. Over 200,000 Nigerians benefited from the bus service. 

In agriculture, the government declared a food emergency, launched massive dry season farming in important crops such as wheat and maize, along with assisting farmers with N100 billion worth of fertilisers. The government released 43,000 metric tonnes of grains  in the reserves and bought another 60,000 metric tonnes of rice from local millers for distribution to the people. States, rich individuals, National Assembly members  joined in distributing food and cash to the vulnerable millions in the country. For months, food inflation resisted all the measures, hitting 33 percent in April. Government also rejected the panicky measure of importing food, reposing confidence in the Nigerian farmers,  that from their yields, Nigeria will overcome its food crisis. In recent weeks, the news from the markets has been that some food prices are going down.

As part of the ameliorative measures, the Tinubu administration  announced wage awards of N35,000 to Federal workers to enable them cope with food inflation and transport costs, as it works out a new national minimum wage. It  announced in July last year the Presidential CNG Initiative. Under the programme, that will herald a new industry and new jobs, hundreds of buses and tricycles, which will be powered by Compressed Natural Gas(CNG), will be locally assembled for countrywide rollout. Some of the vehicles will be electric for use in some Nigerian states, where CNG is not readily available. A panel to drive the vision was inaugurated in October 2023. However, bureaucratic delays slowed its procurement work.  A large number of the buses and tricycles will be available  as part of the ceremonies to mark the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration.

Businesses were not left out of the government’s mitigation measures. The Bank of Industry, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Industry,Trade and Investment, is implementing the Presidential Conditional Grant Programme for nano businesses. Disbursement of N50,000 each to the applicants that registered began in April. Beneficiaries included retail marketers, corner shop owners, petty traders, market men and women, food and vegetable vendors, vulcanisers and shoemakers. Over 1,000,000 nano businesses are targeted. To help big businesses, the Government announced an aid package of N1 billion each to 75 of them.

The Tinubu government also approved $617 million for up-skilling Nigerian youths, providing startup funding, catalytic infrastructure, and policy advocacy. Youths with digital skills are now registering to benefit from the fund, being administered by the Bank of Industry.

In a country with 200 million people and tax to GDP ratio less than 10 percent, President Tinubu knew from day one, that it will be difficult to make any great, historic impact, if he fails to tinker with the tax structure and bring more money into the national purse. He announced his plan by setting up the Oyedele Committee on Tax and Fiscal Policy Reform, which is winding up its work and has recommended far-reaching reforms in the tax regime. President Tinubu also changed the leadership of the Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS) to plug revenue holes and introduce creative ways to increase revenue without necessarily overburdening the people. The result has been astonishing.  Government now takes 50 percent of the revenue of the MDAs, with a record N840 billion recorded in the first quarter. The NNPC was ordered to remit its dollar earnings into CBN.  Revenue inflow generally  is increasing. FIRS is working towards increasing the percentage of tax to GDP to about 20 percent.

The inflow of money is making the Tinubu administration dream big and plan big. With the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund due for launch, the government is already embarking on legacy projects, such as the  700 kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Superhighway, which began in March. Government also plans to reactivate the Sokoto Illela-Badagry Superhighway, which was abandoned in 1976. Many roads and bridges in state of disrepair are to be refurbished. There are plans for rail. Funding for the Ibadan-Abuja-Kaduna rail is being arranged. Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail will be resuscitated while the Kano-Kastina-Maradi rail line, started by the Buhari administration will be completed with $2 billion dollar loan already secured.

Government has not been short about rolling out several policy initiatives, from the issuance of travelling passports, which has been made quicker,  to the planned implementation of some aspects of the Oronsaye report, to cut the costs of governance.

Notably, President Tinubu issued an executive order to enhance investment in the oil and gas sector. The quick fruits of the policy was the opening of three big gas plants in the Niger Delta by the President in recent weeks. Mega investments running into over $15 billion are expected in weeks.

The Tinubu administration has also fulfilled some of the campaign promises with the student loans and Credit Corp ready for take off. To President Tinubu, no Nigerian child should be denied education because the parents could not afford it. He also hopes that the Credit Corp will enhance the purchasing power of workers and boost national commerce.

President Tinubu at various occasions has acknowledged the pains that some of his reforms  are causing the generality of our people. But he  says they are pains we must bear to make progress as a nation.  An ever caring leader, he is always evolving measures to help reduce the pains. Best of all, he listens to the voice of the people and make necessary adjustments.

 In one of the most profound analysis of our situation and an endorsement of the reforms being executed by the Tinubu administration, Planning and Budget Minister, Atiku Bagudu said in a recent interview: “We want to be like Asian countries, we want to grow like Brazil but Brazil and those Asian countries that we want, (that) we are competing with, have taken measures that we needed to have taken decades ago.

“The president is even bold to acknowledge that. Let’s do it now. Some of these measures have consequences which we acknowledge. And that’s why again, a number of measures are introduced in order to ameliorate the situation.

“These measures are helpful to Nigeria, irrespective of North or South because they are to restore macroeconomic stability, to restore security in the country and make it better so that investors will feel confident”.

. Onanuga is Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Tinubu

Dear William Ruto,

The images of your recent State visit to the USA were very disturbing to me and to every patriotic Kenyan.

I saw you seated on a chair, grinning, while Biden stood behind you, his face beaming with satisfaction. Why not? He had just announced that you had signed off our beloved Kenya to make it a non-member ally of NATO. In other words you had agreed to become Nato’s errand boy in America’s struggle with Russia and China for access to resources of the continent.

Ruto, do you know that Nato, murdered Muammar Gaddafi, so that Libyan oil-fields which Kaddafi had nationalized, would revert to the West? Kaddafi was once the chairman of the African Union of which Kenya was a founding member.

But this other picture was no less disturbing. While you were inside the White House, Haitians were in the streets demonstrating, calling you a slave. Do you know the history of Haiti? Please read The Black Jacobins the book written by a once Jomo Kenyatta Pan African ally, C L R James.

Haiti, now a Black people’s State, used to be a slave colony of France. But led by Toussaint Louverture, Haiti, the richest colony of its time, fought French slavery and in 1804 it seized its independence. In USA slavery was then in full bloom. America did not want its African slaves to emulate Haiti, and it has never forgiven Haiti for that, and thus begun the story of America’s destabilization of Haiti.

Ruto do you see the irony of your actions? The USA, was originally a settler colony taking over the land that belonged to Native Americans. In 1776 The White settlers declared their independence from their English King. But the colonized Native Americans remained colonized. Kenya was equally a British settler colony. The white settlers wanted to have a similar kind of Independence. But the Mau Mau led by Dedan Kĩmathi stopped them. Years later, Algeria, Rhodesia and South Africa would follow the example of Kenya. Thus the country you now lead, was the first to stop the historical trend of white settlers claiming themselves independent as in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Ruto, you have chosen to betray that history of Pride.

Ruto, you have chosen to become an agent of the West?

Ruto, you have chosen to sell your country cheap.

Why, oh, Why?

Atlanta, Georgia

In my 1994 book, ‘Fortress on Quicksand’, which chronicled the presidential primaries of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) and profiled the contenders during the aborted Third Republic of General Ibrahim Babangida, I wrote that it was glaring to the discerning that the experiment would not last. I had the same premonition about the current democratic journey ushered in on 29 May 1999. Although I am now delighted to have been proved wrong, I had reasons to doubt that we would today be celebrating 25 years of unbroken democracy in Nigeria. But then, it is also glaring that civil rule does not necessarily approximate to democratic rule as we have seen in our country in the past 25 years. Neither does civil rule guarantee improvement in the welfare of the people as it is also evident.

Before I continue, let me state that there are three competing national issues today. Besides 25 years of unbroken democracy in Nigeria, yesterday also marked the first-year anniversary of the administration of President Bola Tinubu. And then, we have the ongoing political ‘game of thrones’ in Kano. While I have decided to allow that palace intrigues play out before expressing my opinion, the discerning can also see that on full display are all the elements that have conspired to hold back our democracy: a power struggle that has nothing to do with the welfare of the ordinary people, a thriving judicial black market where pay-per-order judges (and their collaborators in the bar) make a kill, the abuse of federal might by some Abuja powermongers etc. Whichever way it ends, the real losers are the people of Kano, the once-revered traditional institution and members of the same Fulani family who have now become pawns in the hands of desperate politicians.

For now, let me get back to the issue of our democracy and why I was skeptical that it would endure for this long. In February 1999, I covered the All Progressives Party (APP) national convention in Kaduna. The main contenders for the presidential ticket were the late Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, Dr Bode Olajumoke, the late Chief Arthur Nzeribe, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, the late Chief Harry Akande and Dr Ogbonaya Onu who also died recently. For three days in Kaduna, we were treated to a farcical drama by the party’s national chairman, the late Senator Mahmoud Waziri. The altercation between him and Saraki despite being long-term friends and associates added more to the entertainment. He said Saraki wanted to bribe him and provided the bromide of a N30 million cheque as ‘evidence’ to the media. At the end, no primaries were conducted only for us to hear the declaration of Onu’s name as the presidential candidate of the party. Less than 24 hours later in Abuja, under a curious merger arrangement between the APP and the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Onu was said to have ‘withdrawn’ for Chief Olu Falae—the presidential candidate of the smaller party who had been selected by a conclave of old men in Ibadan where an oath of secrecy was administered before ‘voting’!

Ordinarily, the AD should not have been registered because it did not meet the threshold prescribed in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines. To be registered, a party was required to secure more than 5 percent of the seats in at least 24 of the 36 states at the December 1988 local government elections.  While both the defunct APP and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured more than 5 percent of the seats in at least 30 states, the AD secured 5 percent in only 12 states. But the party was registered because the military, apparently to make up for the annulment of the June 12 presidential election won by Bashorun M.K.O Abiola, had decided the presidency would go to the Southwest. To do that successfully, they needed to get ‘Afenifere’ (whose members formed and had congregated in the AD) onboard. It didn’t take too long for Nigerians to realise that they were only working towards an already predetermined political end. That explains why, for the first (and to date, only) time in our history, we had a situation in which the presidential candidates on the ballot were of the same religious and ethnic affiliations.

A former military leader, General Olusegun Obasanjo, of course, won the presidential election but given what transpired at the time, not many Nigerians were optimistic that the experiment would last. The view from abroad was not different. A joint report by the American Carter Centre and National Democratic Institute (NDI) that monitored the election, for instance, stated: “Nigeria’s transition occurred without a constitutional framework or a genuine public debate on the nation’s constitutional future. Lacking a constitution, Nigerians cast their ballots without knowing what powers their elected representatives would have, how various levels or branches of government would interact, how the federal government and the states would share power, or even how long elected officials would serve in office.”

Given that unsure foundation, those of us who experienced military rule and its brutalities have much to celebrate about 25 years of unbroken democracy marked yesterday. Incidentally, today (May 30) is also very significant in our national calendar. On this day (May 30) in 1967, the late Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, then a Colonel in the Nigerian Army, declared secession of the then Southeastern region which he proclaimed the Republic of Biafra. That marked the beginning of a catastrophic civil war that claimed the lives of millions and set back the development of the nation. And the scars are yet to heal. More significantly, apart from the insanity of Boko Haram, every separatist movement in today’s Nigeria is fueled by real or perceived injustices created and sustained by the current structure. But while we must acknowledge our structural problem as a nation and deal with it, the major problem in the system today is the absence of good governance at all levels.

Nothing demonstrates that better than the haste in which the National Assembly initiated and passed a bill to replace the current national anthem with the old one that was jettisoned in 1978. At a period when the daily hikes of staple foods, transportation costs, school fees, house rent and other inescapable expenses have combined to further pauperise millions of Nigerians, changing the national anthem is the priority of our federal lawmakers. And they did not even bother to seek the views of Nigerians on the matter before rushing to pass the bill. That is also understandable. It is an open secret that our distinguished senators and honourable members acted the way they did just want to please President Bola Tinubu who is on record for saying the old anthem evokes “a strong spirit of patriotism” and that the current one is “far less inspirational”. It is therefore little wonder that the president would use the first-year anniversary of his administration to assent to the anthem-change bill!

Unfortunately, in that disgraceful haste to pass the bill that demonstrates how far removed our lawmakers are from the reality of daily living in Nigeria, there are certain considerations about the old anthem that they either did not know or simply glossed over. The “tribes” and “native land” in the lyrics arose from the prejudices of the British colonialists who gave us the anthem written by Ms Lillain Jean Williams. So, its retention betrays a shallowness of thinking and lack of awareness. Two, the line about standing in “brotherhood” is also contentious in today’s world. But perhaps the biggest issue is that when, during a conversation, any member of my generation (as well as those before us) says, ‘Nigeria we hail thee’, it is more a rebuke than a seal of approval—a reminder of our failings as a nation.

More egregious is that this cynical attempt to recreate a past that is not as glorious as being painted is simply because some people are too lazy to take responsibility for the future. It is not an anthem that will inspire leaders to be more accountable to the people. It is not an anthem that would put food on the table of hungry citizens. And neither the lyrics nor the melody of an anthem evokes a “spirit of patriotism.” Besides, there are far-reaching implications to bringing back an anthem that was last sung almost five decades ago in a nation in which more than 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30 and life expectancy is 55 years. So, I foresee a situation in which one day in the not-too-distant future, the National Assembly will pass another bill to revert to the current anthem!

The situation at hand in the country today is about digging ourselves out of the depth of adversity. That requires a different leadership template from what is currently on display. In a piece I wrote six months ago, I stated that most Nigerians are experiencing excoriating hardship before I posed the question: Do we blame Tinubu for the situation we have found ourselves? “Any objective analyst will concede that the president inherited a bad economy and the choices he has made regarding fuel subsidy removal and merging the exchange rates were designed to correct some of the distortions that brought us to where we are,” I wrote then and I still share that position. But I also added: “The problem with Tinubu is that he wants to lead not by example but rather by mouthing platitudes. While demanding sacrifices of Nigerians, he and other government officials want to continue to live ostentatiously.”

If Tinubu’s fixation is with the past, as suggested by the anthem gambit, he has not outlined either an economic or social development policy direction that suggests he even understands the realities of that past. Nor has he keyed into the ideas of the youth who, in yearning for a new world of opportunities like their counterparts elsewhere, have chosen ‘Japa’ with all the inherent risks. Unfortunately, while what we are seeing from the presidency is a preoccupation with personal ego, the current National Assembly has become notorious for unquestioning political sheepishness. As for the judiciary, we need not look further than what is happening in Kano where Judges are hawking conflicting orders almost the same way hungry lecturers sell their course ‘handouts’ to students in our universities.

Yet, what all the actors in the three arms (executive, legislature, and judiciary) fail to understand is that a democracy that is neither anchored on the rule of law nor tailored towards addressing the daily needs of the people is endangered. No matter how many times you change the national anthem! 

Congratulations to Gov. Umo Eno on the occasion of his first anniversary in office. I have just read the speech the governor gave this afternoon at the anniversary celebrations at Uyo township stadium. It contains a long list of things he has done and those he plans to do in the next one year. I commend him for being focused and clear-headed in articulating his future agenda. However, I wish to make a few comments:

1. Tropicana Hotel: I thank the governor for planning to sort out the knotty issues bedeviling the commencement of operations at the hotel located at the Tropicana Complex. That hotel was built, completed and furnished by the Akpabio administration over nine years ago. It has not been open for business for one day. The economic loss is colossal. Putting the hotel to use will create economic multipliers and save the state the loss. I commend the governor for this. I should note that I was equally vocal is urging the previous administration to open the Sheraton Hotel in Ikot Ekpene.

2. The Songhai Farm: On my way to Ibeno yesterday, I drove past the site for the Ibom Farm & Resort in Nsit Ubium, which is being built in partnership with the Songhai Farm of Benin Republic. It’s quite massive. I am equally pleased that the governor is planning to complete this in the next one year. But what of the other LGAs, or is the one in Nsit Ubium the only one the government is working on?

3. Arise Shopping City, Uyo: The government hopes to build ‘’an outlet mall where certified licensees of global brands will be attracted to operate’’. I guess the success of Ibom Tropicana Complex is the motivation for this. When Gov. Akpabio conceived the idea of the Tropicana, it met with trenchant criticisms from many, including former governor Attah. I supported it. Today, the Tropicana is a major tourist attraction and a remarkable shopping center in the city, thanks also to Gov. Udom Emmanuel’s value-added modifications and modernizations of the place. The Arise Shopping City should therefore be designed to be an improvement to the Tropicana.

4. Commercializing Akwa Ibom properties in Abuja and Lagos: The governor plans to convert ‘’our existing strategic facilities in those cities into commercial use for the benefit of our people’’. Our state has a lot of property in Abuja and Lagos, and most of them are either in disuse or redundant. They should be given out to reputable estate firms for rent. I ask the government to be open, transparent and honest in these transactions. To start with, we need a comprehensive list and descriptions of these assets for the purpose of accountability and openess. Early this year, I stayed in a hotel on Femi Okunnu Road, Ikoyi, Lagos (formerly Coopers Road), and down the road is the Akwa Ibom Governor’s Lodge. Udom Emmanuel built this lodge at a very exorbitant cost, but of what value is it to our people? The former governor told us that he needed it as a sanctuary to receive foreign dignitaries and ambassadors. That was as specious as claiming that the 21-storey building in Uyo was built for ExxonMobil as the sole off taker! For the two weeks I stayed in the hotel around the lodge, the lodge was under lock and key. It is a non-earning asset and should be commercialized immediately.

5. Security: The security situation in the state should be improved upon. High-profile kidnappings, especially in Oron axis, should be stopped completely. Whatever happened to the tracking devices the Akpabio administration acquired?

6. Urban Renewal: I was surprised that the governor did not include urban renewal in his to-do list. Obong Attah remodeled Uyo; Akpabio took it a notch higher and went on to remodel Ikot Ekpene. Udom Emmanuel did a marvelous job in Eket. I was in Eket yesterday for the first time since July 2017. The city is unrecognizably beautiful, thanks to Udom Emmanuel. Umo Eno should go to Oron and overhaul, remodel and modernize the place and turn it into a new city also. Just to be clear, I am not from Oron as many people think, perhaps because of my name. I am from Nung Udoe, the headquarters of Ibesikpo-Asutan LGA. But the whole of Akwa Ibom State is my constituency. I have friends from all over the state and I love to see the whole state evenly developed. This is the time for Pastor Umo Eno to remodel Oron town just like Eket, Ikot Ekpene and Uyo.  

Overall, I thank God for our former governors. They’ve done far better than what I see in other states. I congratulate Mr. Umo Eno and I wish him the very best in the next year.

At 49, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should be celebrating based on its past achievements as the foremost among Africa’s eight Regional Economic Community (RECs). 

However, the 15-nation regional economic bloc, once acclaimed as a trailblazer, is now fighting for survival and under serious threat of disintegration.

Since its establishment on 28 May 1975, through the Treaty of Lagos, only Mauritania has pulled out of ECOWAS (in 2000) but is now seeking re-admission, while other countries, even outside the region, are also applying to join.

However, rather than building on its solid foundation, things seem to be falling apart for ECOWAS. Four of its member States - Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, are under military rule, while the last three have served notice of their intention to withdraw from the regional organization, altogether.

Granted the times and circumstances are different between 1975 and the ecosystem/dynamics of the World today.

There have been life-changing geopolitical and strategic shifts, characterized by emerging threats such as terrorism, violent extremism, economic recession, global pandemics, flaws of experimentation of democracy, environmental changes, high rates of unemployment, youth bulge, and technological advancements, particularly the invasion of social media, dis/misinformation, and fake news.

But effective performance under challenging circumstances is what sets individuals and organisations apart. 

At a time when ECOWAS is expected to demonstrate visionary and dynamic leadership, it has been found wanting.

Ironically, the leadership deficit has been most pronounced in the peace and security, conflict prevention, management, and resolution domain, where ECOWAS had been most effective.

Whether by default or experimentation, ECOWAS leaders, mostly military officers at that time, could fashion effective tools such as the ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) created in 1990 that facilitated the end of the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The strict application of regional instruments, such as the Authority's Declaration on Political Principles in 1991, the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 1993, the 1999 Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security (or The Mechanism), and the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance adopted in 2001 as an integral part of The Mechanism, guided the construction of regional peace and security architecture. 

The 1999 instrument inspired the adoption of a similar Mechanism by the African Union several years later.

Also, apart from an Early Warning System, which facilitated collaboration with state and non-state actors and civil society to monitor and report threats to peace and security in the region, ECOWAS utilized its *Mediation and Security Council and the Council of the Elders/Wise as additional tools for conflict prevention, mediation, and resolution towards consolidating peace and security.

The Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance set minimum constitutional convergence criteria for ECOWAS membership based on shared values of democracy and free market, separation of powers, popular participation, the democratic control of the armed forces, guarantees of fundamental freedoms, and especially 'zero tolerance' for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means.

The ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF), adopted in 2008, and the Monrovia Declaration of 2010, are other instruments adopted to strengthen the ECOWAS peace and security architecture, with emphasis on preventive diplomacy and proactive mediation responses.

The organization has used a combination of the above-named instruments to resolve conflicts in member States including in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Guinea Bissau, and The Gambia.

The applied measures included suspension, imposition of sanctions on erring member States or the refusal to send observers to Gambia’s 2011 presidential election, for lack of transparency under the regime of then-President Yahya Jammeh’s regime, now exiled in Equatorial Guinea.

However, the political will and/or capacity to make tough decisions based on principles are now lacking at the national and regional levels of ECOWAS leadership.

Political leaders/heads of State have hijacked control of ECOWAS institutions, particularly the Commission, thereby rendering the overstretched and capacity-challenged technocrats ineffective.

Critics now see ECOWAS more as a “toothless organization,” where political leaders hold sway for their selfish interests, including by unilaterally changing their countries’ constitutions and electoral laws, rigging elections, suppressing opposition, and trampling on citizens’ human rights in clear violation of ECOWAS texts and instruments with impunity and without consequences.

Meanwhile, the same leaders only become powerful in the condemnation and imposition of sanctions whenever the military seizes power from civilians. 

The military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger cite this inconsistency by ECOWAS leaders as one of the reasons for their decision to pull out of the Organization. 

Even so, military rule is not the solution to the myriad problems facing ECOWAS member states. If anything, the disposition of the juntas, especially their political transition programmes, may have revealed their real intentions, as opportunistic power grabbers on tenure elongation adventure, the same allegations they levelled against the civilian leaders.

The global decline in multilateralism, compounded by the geopolitical games being played by the superpowers, reminiscent of the Cold War era, is also present in the ECOWAS and Sahel region.

Centuries of imperialism and exploitation of Africa, especially by France in its former colonies, have combined with corruption and mismanagement by post-independence leaders to unleash poverty, inhumane conditions, deprivation, and bad governance on the long-suffering citizens.

The anti-French sentiment expressed by the population in the Francophone countries is justified, but with the long periods of transition and a provision that junta leaders are eligible to participate in the post-transition elections in respective countries, the soldiers would appear to be riding on the wave of sentiment and a false sense of popularity to want to perpetuate themselves in power.

Similarly, while sovereign States reserve the right to choose their bilateral partners, the juntas in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger, are not helping their case by replacing one foreign power with another, and at the same time accusing ECOWAS of being tele-guided by external powers.

ECOWAS faces existential threats due to acts of omission/commission by its leaders. Even so, the community of an estimated 400 million people can only achieve more in unity.

Dr Omar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission, acknowledged this much in his message to mark ECOWAS' 49th Anniversary.

“As we celebrate our 49th anniversary, insecurity continues to threaten our region. Some of our member States are battling terrorist groups on a daily basis, and a large number of our population faces displacement and food insecurity,” he said. 

In the two-and-half-page message, where “unity” or “united” is mentioned seven times, Touray said: “It is clear that we must stay united if we want to be successful in the fight against insecurity. But it is our unity which now stands threatened.”

Quoting Nigeria’s former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, one of the founding fathers of ECOWAS, the Commission President said: “Neither the generation of our founding fathers, ‘nor the present or future generations can understand or will be forgiving for the breakup of our community.’”

In an interview that coincided with the ECOWAS anniversary, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, quoting data from a survey by a non-profit *Afrobarometer* group, noted that despite the military incursions, and the weaknesses in the democratic practices, ECOWAS Community citizens were still positively disposed toward democracy.

While Liberia and Senegal have shown some prospects following their recent transparent elections and successful transfer of power from sitting governments to the opposition, Togo has thrown up another challenge with its divisive and controversial legislative vote held under dubious constitutional changes in clear violation of the ECOWAS protocol.

Other potential crisis points could be Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone, with lingering post-election rumblings, and then the Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana with forthcoming elections.

ECOWAS can still redeem itself. But it is all down to the courage in upholding its standard, the sincerity of regional leaders to stop corruption, respect national constitutions and the rule of law, stop rigging elections and providing citizens with the benefits of good governance.

Ejime is a Global Affairs Analyst and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications

Kano’s Muhammad Sanusi II has been rethroned the exact way he was initially enthroned and dethroned: in the melting pot of the politics of vengeance and recrimination. 

And he just might be dethroned yet again by this, or another subsequent partisan government, given Sanusi’s infamous incapacity to rein in his tongue and to understand the wisdom in restraint and tact, which his position requires of him—and, of course, the juddering, hypocritical contradictions between what he says and what he does.

Recall that when he worked at the UBA, Sanusi had derided then Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as a scorn-worthy “rural aristocrat” who “surrounds himself with provincials and places key posts in the hands of rural elite.” He characterized the Kwankwaso administration as “the classic comedy of the Village Headmaster in a village council.”

Kwankwaso was so incensed by Sanusi’s boorishness and Kano urban condescension that he threatened to pull out the Kano State Government’s money in UBA if Sanusi wasn’t fired from his job. Yet it was the same Kwankwaso who, for partisan, anti-Goodluck Jonathan political considerations, enthroned Sanusi as the emir of Kano even when he wasn’t the choice of the kingmakers.

And let’s not forget that Sanusi is a vicious, unashamed enemy of common people. His entire economic philosophy revolves around sheepishly advancing the annihilating policies of the IMF/World Bank, such as removal of every kind of subsidy for the poor while leaving intact the subsidies that sustain the sybaritic extravagance of indolent but overprotected elites like him.

Well, after destroying properties worth billions of naira and restoring Sanusi as emir all in the bid to get even with Ganduje, I hope the government will now get down to actually governing and improving the lives of the people who elected it. 

The sense I get from people in Kano (many of whom are supporters of the government) is that governance has been on hold in Kano in the last one year in the service of retaliation. Not even the dirty water that Ganduje’s government caused to be distributed to homes is available now, Kano people tell me.

Anyway, when Abdullahi Ganduje dethroned Sanusi in March 2020, I wrote a column titled, “Ganduje is a Monster, But Sanusi Is Not a Victim.” On the occasion of his rethronement, I reproduce portions of it below:

Governor Abdullahi “Gandollar” Ganduje is no doubt a contemptibly philistine monster of avarice and debauchery who dethroned Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir of Kano because he couldn’t stomach the former emir’s disapproval of the electoral fraud that brought him to power.

There is also no doubt that Sanusi’s unrelenting public censures of the rotten, if time-honored, cultural quiddities of the Muslim North discomfited many people who are invested in the status quo, and this became one of the convenient bases for his ouster.

But Sanusi isn’t nearly the victim he has been cracked up to be by his admirers and defenders. First, he rode to the Kano emirship in 2014 on the crest of a wave of emotions stirred by partisan politics and came down from it the same way.

Even though he wasn’t initially on the shortlist of Kano’s kingmakers, APC's Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso (who is now in PDP) made Sanusi emir in 2014 to spite PDP’s President Goodluck Jonathan and shield Sanusi from the consequences of his [false] unmasking of multi-billion-dollar corruption at the NNPC. Apart from his unceremonious removal as CBN governor for his [false] whistle blowing, he was going to face other untoward retributions from the Jonathan administration, but his appointment as emir put paid to it.

Now, Sanusi lost his emirship to the same partisan politics that got it for him in the first place. In an ironic twist, he was made emir by an APC government for making privileged [if false] revelations that disadvantaged a PDP government and was removed as an emir by an APC government for his overt and covert acts that could have benefited the PDP in 2019.

In other words, Sanusi’s emirship was molded in the crucible of partisan politics and was dissolved in it.

Nonetheless, Sanusi, given his intellectual sophistication and pretenses to being an advocate of egalitarianism, had no business being an emir. Monarchy is way past its sell-by date not just in Nigeria but everywhere. It’s an anachronistic, vestigial remnant of a primitive past that invests authority on people by mere accident of heredity. Any authority that is inherited and not earned, in my opinion, is beneath contempt.

Emirship isn’t only a primeval anomaly in a modern world, it is, in fact, un-Islamic. In Islam, leadership is derived from knowledge and the consensus of consultative assemblies of communities called the Shura, not from heredity.

 Monarchies in the Muslim North, which have constituted themselves into parasitic, decadent drains on society, but which pretend to be Islamic, are grotesque perversions of the religion they purport to represent. Anyone, not least one who makes pious noises about equality, that is denied the unfair privileges of monarchy is no victim.

Most importantly, though, Sanusi embodies a jarring disconnect between high-minded ideals and lived reality. He rails against child marriage in public but married a teenager upon becoming an emir. When the late Pius Adesanmi called him out, he told him to “grow a brain.” He suddenly became the patron saint of conservative Muslim cultural values.

He expended considerable intellectual energies critiquing polygamy among poor Muslim men, but he is married to four wives. His defense, of course, would be that he can afford it, and poor Muslim men can’t. Fair enough. But transaction-oriented reformists lead by example.

Fidel Castro, for example, stopped smoking when he campaigned against it. It would be nice to say to poor, polygamous Muslim men, “Why are you, a poor man, married to four wives when Sanusi, a wealthy man and an emir, is married to just one wife?”

That would have had a much higher impact than his preachments. In spite of their moral failings, Buhari, Abba Kyari, and Mamman Daura would be much more effective campaigners against disabling polygamy by poor Muslim men than Sanusi can ever be because they are monogamists even when they can afford to marry four wives.

This is a legitimate critique since Sanusi has a choice to not call out poor Muslim men who marry more wives than they can afford since polygamy is animated by libidinal greed, which is insensitive to financial means.

Sanusi habitually fulminates against the enormous and inexorably escalating poverty in the north, but even though he is an immensely affluent person, he has not instituted any systematic mechanism to tackle the scourge of poverty in the region in his own little way.

Instead, he spends hundreds of billions of naira to decorate the emir’s palace, buy exotic horses, and luxuriate in opulent sartorial regality.

And, although, he exposed [what he thought was] humongous corruption during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and dollar racketeering during Buhari’s regime, he is himself an indefensibly corrupt and profligate person. In two well-researched investigative pieces in 2017, Daily Nigeria’s Jaafar Jaafar chronicled Sanusi’s mind-boggling corruption as emir of Kano, which apparently didn’t abate until he was dethroned.

Sanusi was ostensibly a Marxist when he studied economics at ABU, which explains why he exhibits flashes of radicalism in his public oratory, but he is, in reality, an out-of-touch, unfeeling, feudal, neoliberal elitist who is contemptuous, and insensitive to the suffering, of poor people.

He supported Jonathan’s petrol price hike in 2012 and even wondered why poor people were protesting since they had no cars, and generators, according to him, were powered by diesel, not petrol! 

When his attention was brought to the fact that only “subsidized” and privileged “big men” like him use diesel-powered generators, he backed down and apologized. But I found it remarkably telling that until 2012 Sanusi had no clue that the majority of Nigerians used petrol-powered generators to get electricity.

In a September 1, 2012, column titled, "Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s Unwanted 5000 Naira Notes," I noted that Sanusi was "one of the most insensitive, out-of-touch bureaucrats to ever walk Nigeria’s corridors of power."

Again, in my December 10, 2016, article titled, "Dangerous Fine Print in Emir Sanusi's Prescription for Buhari," I wrote: "If you are a poor or economically insecure middle-class person who is writhing in pain amid this economic downturn, don’t be deceived into thinking that Emir Sanusi is on your side. He is not. His disagreements with Buhari have nothing to do with you or your plight. If he has his way, you would be dead by now because the IMF/World Bank neoliberal theology he evangelizes has no care for poor, vulnerable people."

President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday in Abuja, inaugurated the National Assembly Library and Resource Centre, which is named in his honour.

Before the inauguration of the library, the President had briefly attended a commemorative sitting of the National Assembly, where he made extemporaneous remarks.

President Tinubu, who had signed the National Anthem Bill, 2024, into law at the Presidential Villa earlier on Wednesday, said he was at the National Assembly as a mark of respect, and to congratulate the legislators and Nigerians on the 25th anniversary of Nigeria's unbroken democracy.

He extended his gratitude to the lawmakers and acknowledged the efforts and sacrifices made to build and sustain the country's democratic institutions.

"Our friends, old and new, to every Nigerian I say congratulations on 25 years of unbroken democracy. Out of respect, I have come to say thank you very much for building up this institution to this level. You are the foremost leaders who speak for our people and have been at the forefront of this struggle," President Tinubu said.

Highlighting the significance of the National Assembly, President Tinubu referred to it as a "hallowed chamber" that embodies the nation's consciousness for freedom and solidarity.

"You sang out the latest national anthem, ‘Nigeria we hail thee’. This is our diversity, representing all people and how we pledge together to be brothers and sisters.

"Without this House, I probably would not have found a path to the presidency, I started it all from here. That is why I have given that respect to you this morning to continue to collaborate with you to build our country together. We have no other choice. No other institution or personality will help us, except we do it ourselves for ourselves.

"No amount of aid from foreign countries can help us. Let us work together to build our nation, charting a new path," the President stated.

President Tinubu also emphasized the need to preserve and strengthen democracy for future generations.

"We must nurture our democracy so that our children and great grandchildren will be assured of prosperity, progress, and development," the President concluded.

In his remarks, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the President's visit was out of respect for the National Assembly.

''Before you arrived, Mr. President, the Speaker and I had explained to the lawmakers that this visit is what is called 'waka pass' in Nollywood.

''You intend to celebrate Democracy Day on June 12, but out of honour and respect for the National Assembly you said you must pass through the National Assembly on your first anniversary," the Senate President said.

On Nigeria reverting to the old national anthem, Akpabio commended the President for taking the nation back to its roots stating: ‘‘Though we may belong to different tribes, though we have different tongues, in brotherhood we stand.’’

''There is no more fitting place to take us back to our genealogy other than the National Assembly, which is made up of patriotic and elected citizens of Nigeria. The voice of the National Assembly is the voice of Nigeria, so we welcome you,'' the Senate President added.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)