…seek Wike’s urgent intervention

Some residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have raised concerns over reported cases of noticeable cracks in walls, compromised foundations, and other structural damages that pose serious safety hazards to their homes.

Residents of Aso Garden Estate in Maitama (Nicon Junction) expressed fear since the commencement of construction works adjacent to their estate.

In a petition written by Dr. Nurain Abayomi Mumuni on behalf of the Chairman of the Estate, the residents highlighted significant and continuous heavy vibrations from the construction activities.

They stated that these vibrations have not only caused discomfort but have also raised serious concerns about the structural integrity of their properties.

The petition, addressed to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, laments that many residents have reported structural issues, including noticeable cracks in walls and compromised foundations, which could lead to severe safety risks.

In a statement made available to journalists on Sunday, Mumuni called on Wike to intervene urgently.

The letter, titled “Concern over ongoing construction works adjacent to Aso Garden Estate in Maitama (Nicon Junction) Abuja, FCT,” urged the minister to assess the construction’s impact on the estate and ensure that proper precautions and regulations are strictly adhered to.

“I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing on behalf of the residents of Aso Garden Estate to express our deep concern and anxiety regarding the ongoing construction activities taking place adjacent to our estate.

“Since the commencement of this construction works, we have observed significant and continuous heavy vibrations that have not only caused discomfort but have also raised serious concerns about the structural integrity of our properties. Many residents have reported noticeable cracks in walls, compromised foundations, and other structural damage that could lead to serious safety hazards.

“Unfortunately, this construction began without any prior notification or consultation with the residents of Aso Garden Estate. We believe that such important developments should involve the input and awareness of those who may be impacted directly. Our community has always valued cooperation and communication with authorities, and this lack of engagement is both concerning and disappointing.

“Given the gravity of the situation, we kindly request your immediate intervention to address our concerns. We urge you to assess the construction’s impact on our estate and to ensure that proper precautions and regulations are upheld to protect our homes and well-being. It would be greatly appreciated if a meeting could be arranged between the relevant authorities, the construction management, and the residents to discuss these issues in detail.

“Thank you for your attention to this pressing matter. We trust in your commitment to the well-being of all residents within the Federal Capital Territory and look forward to your prompt response”. 

[TheNation]

Legendary music icon Diana Ross has arrived in Nigeria ahead of the prestigious Thisday Awards, scheduled to take place on Monday.

The globally celebrated singer was seen at the VIP lounge of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, where she was warmly received by her entourage and fans eager to welcome her to the country.

The Thisday Awards celebrates resilience and excellence, honouring individuals and institutions dedicated to rebuilding Nigeria and strengthening its democracy.

Among the key categories are the ‘Titans of the Year’ award, which recognises visionary men and women whose courage and leadership have left a lasting impact on the nation.

President Bola Tinubu has been named ‘Man of the Year’ for his significant influence on major events that shaped 2024, while Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has clinched the ‘Woman of the Year’ award for her remarkable contributions in Nigeria and globally.

Diana Ross’s presence adds star power to an event already set to highlight some of Nigeria’s most pivotal achievements and outstanding individuals.

[Vanguard]

Nigerian comedian and skit maker Zicsaloma has taken to social media to announce undergoing a successful nose surgery in Istanbul.

The comic star expressed excitement and joy, sharing his journey with followers.

In a video posted on his page, Zicsaloma documented every step of the process, from the initial consultation to post-operative care.

He extended heartfelt gratitude to the medical team and gave special recognition to the surgeon who performed the procedure.

Sharing his thoughts on the outcome, the comedian remarked that his new nose had surpassed his expectations.

Zicsaloma’s decision to undergo surgery at the facility was influenced by his online research, where he discovered the hospital’s profile and was impressed by its expertise.

Upon arrival, the hospital staff provided a warm welcome, ensuring a smooth and stress-free experience.

Although he admitted to feeling nervous beforehand, Zicsaloma was relieved and delighted with the success of the operation.

The comedian also shared updates about his recovery process, posting photos and videos of his healing face.

He revealed that the plasters on his nose would be removed after six days, noting the temporary discomfort but emphasising his excitement about his new look.

Vanguard News

Barely one week into his refurbished presidential tenure, America’s Donald Trump seems poised to set new precedents in the model of the Presidency as the pinnacle of America’s democracy. An elected president of a republic is strutting and pronouncing like an emperor. Ordinarily, an American king would be a freak oddity. But here comes Donald Trump, an emperor in business suit.

From a bumbling and bigoted first term, the newly minted Donald Trump seems to be a refurbished version of his original version. A combination of sickening egotism and perennial television consciousness has now become an urgent desire to be historical. He has relentlessly branded his return to the White House as the ‘greatest political come back’ in modern history. He has spent the week touting his America as the dream nation, the “ golden age of America”, forgetting that the triumphs he is already claiming are indeed the achievements of his immediate past predecessor whose record he has been so viciously shredding.

Right from his inauguration, he has unleashed a slew of wild changes in both the presidency as an institution and indeed the place of the United States as a nation. Against the backdrop of his landslide electoral victory, he stepped onto the podium of presidential power with an air of absolutism which is unlikely to help the presidency as an institution governed by the constraints of constitutionalism. Trump has an addiction to saluting and dressing himself in superlatives. In his mind, he is the greatest thing that has ever happened to the American presidency.

Nonetheless, his predecessor’s lack luster style and business as usual Washington manners created a backdrop of anxious expectation and excitement about the return of the more dramatic Trump. Unlike his first inauguration which was greeted by a divided nation, this time around there was a veneer of unity of purpose and reconciliation in the Capitol Rotunda where the inauguration took place. A cross section of his predecessors and the Washington political elite conferred a certain air of unity on the event. Moreover, Trump was surrounded by some of the richest business elite especially the leaders of the tech industry.

Right from the inauguration ground, Mr. Trump launched what he himself called a sane revolution. His dream of the new America is one in which the nation reassumes a supremacist position among nations. It is a new America that looks out first for itself  and relates to the rest of the world from a nationalist almost isolationist perspective. It is: “America First” in real practical terms once again. In relation to the rest of the world, Trump’s America is a somewhat isolationist, ultra nationalistic nation.

Trump has boasted that he would slam all manner of prohibitive tariffs on nations as close and strategic as Canada, Mexico and China. Under his new hostile foreign policy posture, he has renamed the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America, He is looking to forcefully snatch Greenland from Denmark and to retake the Panama Canal from Panama. The king can literally see no obstacles to his absolutism. The king is the state and this one state is the king of all nations!

He has since magisterially pronounced to the World Economic Forum in Davos that nations and companies who want to do business with the US must be ready to move their manufacturing operations to the US or face the penalty of hostile imperial tariffs. He would increase the mandatory contribution of NATO nations for their joint defense fund from 2% to 5%. Europe has heard him but is keeping silent for now.

On his first day in office, Mr. Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization. He has also claimed credit for the tenuous ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas over Gaza. On his much-trumpeted bluster to end the Russia-Ukraine war in a day after assuming office, he has merely scorched the snake of Russia’s authoritarian and ambitious Putin. It seems that he has just reminded Messrs Xi Jiping and Vladimir Putin that they are both at the helm of an authoritarian counter weight to the West. He is likely to hit a brick wall of resistance to his absolutist posturing if he fails to embrace diplomacy and tact over the Ukraine war. Russia and China will be only too happy to puncture his balloon of bluster.

Taken together, the utterances and actions of the comeback Trump clearly indicate a clear imperial absolutist slant which will put democracy to test and also place the new global order under a severe stress test.

Inside America itself, his stiff position against illegal immigration has already kicked off with raids on illegal immigrants in major cities. Combat troops and immigration goons are scouring major cities in places like churches, hotels, hospitals and schools in search of undocumented immigrants.  His executive order banning automatic citizen rights for children born in the United States has already been blocked by a judge as a violation of the constitution. The possibility that more court actions will challenge a number of his imperial executive orders that infringe on citizens rights is clear and present. The judiciary is more likely to temper Trump’s bravado and absolutist pretensions in due course.

Either in terms of his domestic or foreign policy activism, everything about the new Donald Trump rings of power absolutism and even naked imperialism. He is proceeding as though the electoral mandate that returned him to the White House is a blank cheque to carry on in office as he alone deems fit. That would be putting his new mandate to too much test and pushing the chances of his elevated office to the limits.

American democracy is the result of an outright revolt and rejection of royalty and absolutism. Everything in the American constitution is a rejection of an imperial order. In real practical terms then, the powers which American democracy confer on a president are every inch subject to the limits placed by the US constitution and the institutional guardrails of American democracy: the judiciary, the media, the popular pressure of civil society etc.

Even when a president’s party has an overwhelming majority in Congress as Trump indeed now virtually does, the responsibility of Congress to curtail and limit the absolutism of the president often transcends partisan frontiers. That is what has prevented the United States from degenerating into an absolute monarchy in the last over 200 years.

The institutions of American democracy may sometimes be tortured and mangled by changing political exigencies but they remain in place as checks and balances against those who may be tempted to usurp the advantages of electoral political advantage to disfigure the liberal democratic essence of America’s ultimate republican order.

Even though it is still quite early in the day of his rowdy return, Trump seems poised to push the American presidency in illiberal directions. He may want to arm twist his partisan majority to derive advantages that may force those opposed to his imperial views and tendencies. Yet the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of Americans to freely disagree with their president and his party cannot be casually eroded. We cannot expect what obtains in illiberal states like Russia, Turkey, Rwanda or Hungary to happen in the United States.

Perhaps the strongest guardrail against the rise of presidential absolutism in today’s America is the sanctity of the constitution and the power of the Supreme Court to uphold the constitution against the absolutist ambitions of an individual president no matter how popular he may be. Mr. Trump’s personal idiosyncrasies may tempt him towards absolutist and authoritarian flirtations but the powers of the constitution, the Supreme Court and Congress remain as perennial barriers to extremes of power absolutism.

On the international plane, the global order in the post Second

World war era is a complex of interconnected international relations held together by a network of alliances, alignments and interests. No nation, no matter how strong its military and economic power, can pursue its interests in random violation of the interests of other nations. Therefore, when Mr. Trump adopts a rhetoric that appears to threaten other nations in the international community, he risks alienating America’s allies. Worse still, the powers of any one nation cannot block the ability of other nations to enter into and pursue fresh alliances in order to protect and advance their own national interests.

In the post Cold War era, the world has rapidly shifted from a unipolar world to one in which the polarity of international power is now scattered among centres of power both old and new. Broadly, we are now looking at a new world order in which the triumphant Western bloc is being actively counter balanced by a new authoritarian centre of power led by China and Russia with nations like North Korea, Iran, Hungary and Turkey in fellowship. In addition, other minor coalitions and blocs have risen as we see with the birth BRICS  nations. Therefore, the possibility of Individual national leaders emerging as absolutism leaders has been reduced to nearly nil. More impossible is the prospect of absolutist nations to lord it over other nations. Over time, Mr. Trump will come to a realization of the naked reality of the new world order and the limits it poses to absolute unilateral power.

Beyond the limitations of power and politics at the individual national level and even among nations, a new determinant of power has emerged. Technology has emerged in recent times as a major determinant of national power and precedence. Information technology was until very lately the major determinant of gradations of power among nations. Even that has now been superseded by the graduation into Artificial Intelligence –AI. The race among great nations is going to be a race to lead the AI race in the next few years. It is perhaps beneficial that Mr. Trump has gathered the world’s most powerful technology oligarchs into a future AI conglomerate. Whether his rowdy personal ego will allow him to maintain the harmony among the tech oligarchs to work harmoniously for America’s global superiority is going to be the determinant of the road ahead. It can only be hoped that Mr. Trump does not mistake his transient enabling political advantage for a blank cheque to absolutism.  He must not allow this political moment to blind him to the contradictory nature of power absolutism in a fast changing world. Economic reality and diplomatic compulsion are likely to work together to tame Trump’s present idealism and absolutism illusions.

The countries that are recognized today as developed in world affairs have all attributed their transformation to the role of advanced technology. On the other hand, 3rd world countries that have either remained stagnant or developing at minimal pace are those who are yet to take advantage of technology thus affirming that technology has become the redeeming feature of humanity.

Earlier, the popular agent of development was the teacher whose role has been to teach and train people, serving permanently as a veritable guide towards the assimilation of knowledge especially by the youth. Teachers have indeed remained the unique agents of societal development because they still have to teach people how to operate and manage new devices that technology continues to give birth to.

It is therefore obvious that no one can be more important than teachers. Yet, in developing societies such as Nigeria, the role of teachers is poorly appreciated. They are not only lowly placed among occupations; their remuneration has remained scandalously inadequate. In Nigeria, the appreciation of teachers is temperamental. On some occasions, which are few and far apart, we applaud and reward our teachers but more often than not, it is as if teachers do not exist in our scheme of governance. Last week, Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun suddenly celebrated a teacher, Kayode Adewale for his excellence. Abiodun announced a N5 million cash reward and a bungalow for Adewale, a mathematics teacher at Imagbon/Imaka Comprehensive High School, Imagbon, Ogun State.

We commend Governor Abiodun for the award not because the recognition is extraordinary. Instead, our praise is informed by the fact that other states do no such thing for any teacher. The few who do, like Lagos state, have only a-once-a-year Education Merit Award for some teachers. In addition, it is obvious that Ogun State was internationally pressured to honour Adewale because he was recently shortlisted among the 50 finalists for the prestigious $1 million Global Teacher Prize which Varkey Foundation presents annually in collaboration with UNESCO and GEMS Education. The prize recognizes educators who have made extraordinary contributions to transforming lives and communities through education. Indeed, Adewale’s feat is not a fluke as he had won the Best Teacher Award in Ogun State in 2020.

Truly, teacher Adewale’s humility and unwavering dedication to uplifting his community through education are commendable. This is more obvious when it is realized that if any outstanding teacher had decided to abandon teaching for politics, he would have since become a billionaire. All he would have needed to do was just to get a godfather to help him rig election into the federal legislature which automatically gives him N14million monthly salary and a foreign made SUV car valued at N160 million among other benefits. In all fairness, teacher Adewale and his contemporaries have no business teaching because across the board, our governments believe that the only Nigerians that matter are politicians.

The undue prioritization of politics is no doubt the single most irrational policy that has continued to adversely affect Nigeria’s growth and development. To be appointed into any other field of endeavour in Nigeria, an applicant must meet some high academic qualifications and rigorous standard recruitment process. After that, the new appointee is graded at the level of a pupil operative and required to serve for many years before consequential advancement to each new grade.  In politics on the other hand, all that is needed is to be able to read and write after which a lawmaker is elevated to inexplicable remuneration while political appointees such as Ministers etc are recruited through prescriptive criteria and cleared through a system of bow and go. The official scheme which approves such bogus pampering of politicians has remained unascertainable. 

What appears to legitimize the inequitable placement of Nigerians in different offices and posts that are serviced through tax payers’ money is simply because the Nigerian civic society has remained docile and dormant over the years. The same situation does not happen in virile societies where literacy is deliberately improved upon by relevant authorities. Some few years ago, it was argued that the reason senators are rated higher than Ministers is because it is they who clear nominees to become Ministers. By that reasoning, should anyone be placed higher that his teacher? If not, what suddenly changed the old order in which the teacher was seen as a role model in virtually every community?

Today’s role model in a typical Nigerian community is the politician who suddenly becomes wealthy within a few months of holding a public office. He is hardly as trained as a teacher. Sometimes, he becomes a state governor whose poor academic background is known to his old school mates. There was the interesting story of one governor who once organized a show your certificate policy for teachers. His old school mates told those who cared to hear that the particular governor himself had no certificate because he was a drop out from their school. The influence and wealth of the governor is however enough to discourage other citizens from serving as teachers or farmers. The impression that teaching cannot uplift anyone therefore sticks pushing many people to politics.

Unfortunately, it is not only that no one seems to remember teachers for what they used to be known for, the new stigma of the average teacher these days is the trend of negatives like exam malpractices sexual harassments and extortion of students through compulsory purchase of handouts. When shall the Nigerian society talk about diligent teachers who in spite of poor pay and inadequate materials, is never involved in the listed malpractices? Is it not unfair to allow only students to applaud their dedicated and committed teachers? Here, we commend some students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) projected in the media to have showered one of their lecturers, Dr. Olagunju, with gifts as a token of appreciation for his exceptional dedication.

The fact that the authorities of that University are yet to respond to the gesture of the joyous students as they would have done if only one of them had accused Olagunju of any malpractice is instructive. Could it be that University authorities in Nigeria have inadvertently contributed to the lowering image of the academic community? Of course, they have. Each time I take a look at today’s Nigerian university system; I am unable to imagine how anybody could have been able to convince Professor Adeoye Lambo my adorable Vice Chancellor of Nigeria’s Premier University of Ibadan to step out and announce a transparently flawed election result. It shows that the much talked about leadership decay has like cancer spread to even unimaginable parts of the body.

To what extent can teachers alone be held accountable for falling standards of education? Teachers are not spirits but human beings. Like other citizens, some teachers pay the fictitious band ‘A’ electricity bills and all other spurious charges by privileged private entrepreneurs that government indulges. It is almost impossible to dissuade teachers from certain sharp practices in their schools or from engaging in other businesses at the expense of teaching to make ends meet. Without good welfare packages it is a waste of time to mouth patriotism and expect it to successfully spur teachers to high performances in the discharge of their duties.

On its part, the government at both federal and state levels has greatly supported the undermining of the university system by refusing to properly fund our tertiary institutions. They have also over the years consistently refused to honour agreements which they voluntarily signed with academic and professional unions. Besides, they have also deliberately polluted the sanity of the ivory towers by flooding governing councils with politicians whose only interest in meetings is the award of contracts. The unending controversies which the appointment of Vice Chancellors generate in recent times portrays the divisive trait of politicians who always abort standard rules and processes to arrive at a predetermined end.

Interestingly, it is still the duty of teachers to begin to design strategies for restoring the values of their profession. One way of doing so is to strengthen work ethics as well as to become more politically conscious without being partisan. There is no better time than now for more emphasis on educating students to recognize the futility of voting for popular politicians who are neither well educated nor have a track record. University leaders should themselves become less materialistic and sycophantic while playing down the award of honorary degrees to political leaders that neither prioritize education nor are teacher friendly.

“Choose the best; shun mediocrity. Mediocrity has a way of shriveling enthusiasm. But commitment to excellence taps an incredible source of energy” – Robert Schuller, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 52.

Your Excellency, I had the honour and privilege to deliver the Keynote Address at the 80th anniversary of Government College, Ughelli, GCU, on Friday, January 17, 2025. I was particularly happy when the programme announced that you were coming to grace the august occasion. It would have provided me the opportunity to tell you personally that you are one of two current Governors who has not disappointed me by the way you have managed the affairs of Delta State.

Nobody is perfect; and you can’t please everybody – especially in a multi-ethnic state like Delta. You have done exceedingly well. Those familiar with this page for over 30 years would confirm that praise-singing is not the style here. Only one Governor, since 1999, has met the gold standard of governance; and that is Obong Victor Attah. You are well on your way to becoming the second. I wish you well. That said; I was disappointed when the Master of Ceremony, MC, first announced that the Deputy Governor would, well, deputise for you.

That was quickly followed by another announcement that the Dep. Governor would be represented by the Honourable Commissioner for Basic Education. The Professor read the prepared speech; received the applause and sat down as events unfolded. As far as I was concerned, there were two major events requiring your personal attention; and which could not be delegated to anybody else. My address was not one of them. And you missed nothing by not hearing it delivered. By virtue of the Nigerian Constitution, the state Governor is the alpha and omega in his state. Nobody else has the prerogative to attend to those two issues. That was why your absence left a gaping hole in the proceedings.

RUNNING A SELF-IMPOSED ERRAND

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” – Reverend (Dr) Martin Luther King, Jr, 1929-1968.

Before going into the substance of this article, permit me, as usual, to declare that the Government College Old Boys Association, GCUOBA, did not send me on this errand. I was not paid to promote the idea. It was a great honour for me to have been invited to deliver the address; and a privilege to sit among some of the most eminent Nigerians the college has produced. I was not paid for the opportunity to do so. So, on no account should anybody opposed to what follows assume that this is a paid advertorial. I firmly believe in it. At any rate, I have undertaken such efforts before on important matters.

In 2010, I was the arrowhead of the struggle to get a Christian Governor elected in Lagos State when most people regarded it as a pipe dream. By the time Sanwo-Olu finishes his second term, it would have been twelve years of Christian Governor in Lagos State. Henceforth, religion will no longer matter. Long before that, I was also among the members of Igbobi College Old Boys Association, ICOBA, who got Governor Bola Tinubu to return our school to ICOBA. By then, Igbobi College, which had been forcefully acquired by the military government, had descended from excellence to mediocrity. We were successful; and I will forever be grateful to Tinubu for his gesture. Personally, I regard those two matters among the most remarkable achievements in my life made possible by having this forum to try and bring changes into our nation.

WHY GCUOBA’S APPEAL MAKES MORE SENSE NOW

“Only believers can build a Cathedral “- Albert Camus

Your Excellency, two requests were made by the President International of GCOBA in your absence. The first naturally requested for donation from the State Government towards the construction of a N3 billion Secretariat – including an auditorium seating 1, 000 people. That needs no explanation. The second is, to me, more important. GCUOBA is requesting the State Government to hand over the school to them as a step towards restoring it back to the centre of educational excellence it once was. That is the reason for this intervention. The good Professor promised to deliver the two messages; and there is no reason to doubt him.

However, he (Governor) might not be aware of the history of GCU to explain the proposal and its benefits to Delta State in particular and Nigeria, and even the world, in general. The truth is; a great deal of the knowledge which propel the world come from a few citadels of learning; which in turn are merit-based. Government College Ughelli was among the handful of excellent secondary schools established by the British for which admission was based strictly on merit. The contributions of its old boys to Nigeria and humanity provide all the evidence needed to support the argument that every country needs some centres of educational excellence in order to be globally competitive. Two indisputable facts are available.

All the top 25 economies in the world have at least eight to ten universities among the top 1, 000 universities ranked in the world. Africa and Nigeria have the fewest. No African country is now in top 25. We attend the G-20 annual meeting simply because the world cannot leave us out and not on merit. Meanwhile, GCU has demonstrated what merit-based schools can produce in terms of human capital development if allowed. We have at our disposal the list of people admitted to GCU from its inception in 1945 to 2005; and it is remarkable how its old boys have dominated various fields of endeavour in Nigeria. Although, the task is not finished, we hope to be able to publish the first list of twenty great achievers from GCU in this year of its 80th anniversary. I apologise to those who might have read some of these names before; the repetition has become necessary because of the special appeal to the Governor of Delta State. Among GCU’s old boys, we have been able to identify the following:

Major-General David Ejoor, 1932-2019, Mr S.B Agodo, the longest serving Permanent Secretary in FG; Chief Grey Longe, Secretary to the FG; Professor Itse Sagay, SAN; Architect Charles Majoroh; Olorogun Albert Akpomudje, SAN; John Momoh, Channels TV; Great Ogboru; Olorogun Taiga, CON; Prince Nduka Obiagbena, THISDAY, ARISE TV; and the legendary Sam Amuka aka Uncle Sam – co-founder PUNCH, Publisher VANGUARD MEDIA; and Mudi of Africa – leading fashion designer who dressed three African Presidents and was visited in his workshop at Anthony Village, Lagos by the King of Morocco demonstrating the Monarch’s regard for excellence.

The list is not exhaustive of contributors which this great institution has nurtured to serve mankind well. In education as in all aspects of life, the Pareto Principle operates. People in every sphere of life are divided into two groups: the vital few and the trivial many. Education is no exception. Restoring GCU to its former glory is certainly a step in the right direction. Furthermore, Your Excellency, this is a win-win arrangement as our experience at Igbobi College had demonstrated since Governor Tinubu returned it to us. Lagos State allocates whatever it wants annually, the Old Boys are responsible for providing the funds necessary to maintain the quality of education they want for their school.

Fortunately, every generation produces its own crop of millionaires, and even billionaires; the classes take turns to provide whatever is needed to upgrade infrastructure; and the effort now benefits immensely from contributions from the Diaspora. I rest my case for now Your Excellency; but, there is little doubt in my mind that, years from now, when you might have finished your second term, that you will look back and be pleased that you took this decision. If you don’t believe me Sir, ask President Tinubu about Igbobi College next time you meet with him.

ALL GCU OLD BOYS: TIME TO START CONTINOUOS FUND RAISING.

“We make a living by what we get; but, we make a life by what we give.”

On Friday January 17, 2025, on the campus of Government College Ughelli, the President General Worldwide of the GCUOBA, Olorogun Akpomudje, SAN, announced the launching of a N3 BILLION DEVELOPMENT FUND. About N500 million was raised by the fund raiser – the inimitable Olorogun Dr M. O Taiga. There was a commendable effort led by the “Peoples General” Great Ogboru who led the parade of donors. As an economist, I can, with little fear of contradiction, declare the result, about 16 per cent, good, but not nearly enough.

There is still 84 per cent or more to go because by the time the N3 billion is gathered, inflation might drive the figure to N4 billion or more. I have the list of all old boys from 1945 to 2005 with me. I am appealing to everyone – including the families of those who had passed on – for donations. The children of the late Gamaliel Onosode, 1933-2015, incomparable boardroom guru, had already set the example in this regard. They paid, what I assume, a handsome first installment. Given 84 per cent, or more, left to go, there is no doubt in my mind they will do what late Papa knew best to do and help bridge the gap. As far as I am concerned, that an Old Boy is with the saints triumphant in heaven is no excuse for his name not to appear in the roll of honour at Ughelli.

“Little drops of water, little grains of sand make a mighty ocean.”

 Low income is also not a reason not to send money. N1, 000 will buy nails or some cement blocks. Irrespective of your financial position, just commit yourself to going to a P.O.S and send at least N1, 000 a month. In one year, you would have donated N12, 000; in five years N60, 000.  Send all donations to:

GCUOBA 80TH Anniversary Account

UBA:  102-767-8072.

Almighty God will replenish your purse as you donate.

Depending on what view one takes of the matter, 10 February 2025 promises to be Proxy Wars Day at the Supreme Court of Nigeria in Abuja.

On that day, a panel of five Justices of the Supreme Court will take arguments on seven appeals connected with the synthetic political crisis in Rivers State.

The issues that the court will be asked to decide include the validity of last October’s local government elections in the state; the fate of the faction in the Rivers State House of Assembly who claim to have switched their affiliation from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP, on whose platform they were elected) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC); the legality of the state’s 2025 budget passed by the rump of the state House of Assembly; and the effort to importune judges into denying Rivers State access to its share of the Federation Account.

The effort to frame these as legal issues is transparently valiant. Despite the shameful conversion of judges into politicians in the Rivers State crisis – or indeed because of precisely that fact – the imminence of Rivers State Proxy Wars Day at the Supreme Court is evidence of what has gone wrong with Nigeria’s judicial system and why fixing it is essential for the health of Nigeria’s attempt at government with electoral legitimacy.

This is not the first time that legal disputes about power and how to share the spoils from it have ended up at the highest court in the land. That tendency in Nigeria is over a century old and arguably goes back to the 1921 judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of Amodu Tijani, over the effort by the colonial authorities to split Herbert Heelas Macaulay from his support for Eshugbayi Eleko, the Oba of Lagos.

For the hearing of that cases before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1920, Herbert Macaulay travelled to London with the Oba’s Staff of Office in support of Amodu Tijani and the Idejo Chiefs of Lagos. From London, he issued a statement claiming that the Eleko was the King of over 17 million Nigerians and in possession of a territory more than three times that of Great Britain. Despite a healthy revenue of over £4 million, he claimed, the British had reneged on a treaty commitment to compensate the Eleko.

Embarrassed at being publicly called duplicitous in this way, the British required the Eleko to disown Herbert Macaulay. He issued a public statement clarifying his position on Herbert Macaulay’s statement but declined to disown him through the Oba’s Bell Ringers, as the Brits required.

Unable to secure the support of the popular Eleko, the colonists chose to head off rising tension by deposing him. On 6 August 1925, they issued an ordinance de-stooling him and, two days later, on 8 August, they arrested and removed the Eleko into internal banishment in Oyo. In his place, they installed Oba Ibikunle Akitoye.

Oba Akitoye’s rule lasted an uncomfortably brief three years, largely because he lacked the support of the people of Lagos. Indeed, in 1926, he suffered physical assault by his people. Supported by the elite and people of Lagos, the deposed Eleko took his case to the courts, fighting all the way once more to the Privy Council, which decided on 19 June 1928 in favour of his claim for leave for a writ of habeas corpus. This all but sealed the fate of Oba Akitoye, who is suspected to have facilitated his own earthly demise shortly thereafter.

The crisis in Rivers State shares some unsettling similarities with the events in Lagos nearly one century ago. In Rivers today, as in Lagos then, a powerful man – in this case the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike – seeks to banish the current governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, from office using surrogates beholden to him in the state House of Assembly.

There is one important difference, though: the issues in Rivers State today hardly involve principle or the public interest. Framed though they are in legalese, these cases from Rivers State are about power and money grab. This is not a first. It appears to be the standard procedure of the current FCT Minister to seek to inveigle judges into acting as his political surrogates under ruse of law.

In instigating this crisis, Mr. Wike suffered a characteristic failure of his frontal lobe and forgot his public vow to “give himself that respect” and not interfere in the affairs of the state after his exit from the office in May 2023. Rather, since leaving office as the state governor, Mr. Wike has sought to install himself as both the Minister in Abuja and Sole Administrator in Port Harcourt. He makes no effort to conceal the fact that much of what passes as his political dare-devilry appears to be accomplished under the influence of sufficiently gluttonous amounts of dangerous beverage as to entitle him to access to a defence of automatism in criminal law.

In October 2024, he told Seun Okinbaloye with undisguised hubris on Channels Television that the only solution to the crisis in Rivers State was for the incumbent governor to “obey court judgment.” This was no advocate for the rule of law, however. Instead, Mr. Wike projected an air of political impregnability purchased with a currency bearing a distinct whiff of procured judicial crookery.

To be fair, this is not something entirely unexpected of an ambitious Nigerian politician without an alternative address (apologies to Deji Adeyanju). What is more difficult to overlook is the high judicial tolerance for undisguised political importuning of judges.

Nigeria’s judicial system has been overtaken by a category known as “political cases.” In November 2023, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, reported that his Supreme Court registered 1,271 motions and appeals from 12 September 2022 to 11 July, 2023, out Of this, the court “heard 388 political appeals, 215 criminal appeals and 464 civil appeals.” Two years earlier, in 2021, Ariwoola’s predecessor, Tanko Muhammad, reported that the court’s portfolio of 269 appeals disposed of included 139 civil appeals, 102 criminal appeals, and 28 “political cases”.

According to CJN Ariwoola’s report, the court “delivered a total number of 251 judgments, of which 125 were political appeals, 81 were civil appeals, and 45 were criminal appeals.” In just two years, the output of the court fell by 6.69% but “political cases” rose from 10.67% to 49.8%. Even allowing for the fact that 2023 was an election year, this is system collapse.

Nigeria’s judges appear to have decided that the only people entitled to exit from the courts are politicians. In turn, the politicians are happy to enjoy this exclusivity and to overwhelm the courts to the point that even judges now complain. They hire the priciest lawyers to frame undisguised power and money grabs as questions of law.

The Supreme Court can end this but feigns reluctance to. Rather, the court affords powerful politicians the kind of tolerance that they are unwilling to extend to lesser mortals, preferring instead to enable this joint enterprise of senior lawyers and politicians while fettering its own capacity to determine for itself what should be a question of law deserving of its rarefied attention.

This sucks for many reasons. It prostitutes the bench; casualizes the constitutional guarantee of fair trial “within a reasonable time”; and portrays the judiciary as captured.

To describe this as Supreme pusillanimity is to be generous. It is a form of judicial lasciviousness syndrome, promenading judicial wares before political gawkers in a peonage system in which the only effective currency is high political patronage. In these Rivers State cases, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to make a bold statement. If it doesn’t, then it should be ready for many more proxy war days yet.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mr ‘Folabi Lawal, of blessed memory, told me this fascinating story sometime in 1998. He was the THISDAY bureau chief in Abuja, officially designated as deputy editor, nation’s capital. Mr Nduka Obaigbena, the chairman and editor-in-chief, had asked Lawal to send a document to him in Lagos “by the next available flight”. But when Lawal got to the airport, the last flight had left. Unlike now, flights were few and none operated beyond 5pm or so because of a lack of capacity to manage late flights at the local airports. Distraught because he knew how important it was to get the parcel across, Lawal returned to the office and gave the chairman a call to deliver the not-so-pleasant news.

‘Chairman, I tried my best but there was no flight,’ he said, subdued.

‘You mean there was no flight at all?’ Obaigbena asked him, clearly disappointed.

‘None, chairman,’ Lawal replied.

‘Not even a presidential jet?’ Obaigbena replied, apparently without batting an eyelid.

Lawal laughed. Presidential jet was not an option anybody who loved himself would consider. Nigeria was under the iron grip of Gen Sani Abacha, as citizens — including journalists — were being arrested, detained, disappeared, or simply assassinated over mere suspicion of being sympathetic to the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which was at the forefront of the opposition to his military regime. Bombs were going off and NADECO was being held responsible. How would some journalist approach the pilot of the presidential jet and hand over a parcel to him to deliver to Lagos at the height (and in the heat) of the Abacha dictatorship? It was unthinkable. It was impossible.

But that is how to get the best out of Obaigbena. Tell him something is impossible and you are challenging him to prove that impossible is nothing. Otherwise, he would not have started THISDAY in 1995. It was unprecedented that anyone would start a newspaper in Nigeria without first investing in a mammoth printing press. That was the first law. And that was the most expensive capex item which discouraged many would-be publishers from pursuing their passion. You needed a sugar daddy to start a newspaper. THISDAY successfully entered the newspaper industry without owning a printing press and soon enough, many daily publications started coming on stream. It was possible.

When THISDAY was about to roll out in 1995, I was working with the TEMPO/TheNews group. Mr Eniola Bello was the deputy editor of PM News, an evening newspaper published by the group. He reported for work one day and told us that Obaigbena — reputed for publishing the defunct THISWEEK, Nigeria’s first all-colour, all-gloss weekly newsmagazine — was about to start a newspaper and that he had decided to join the pioneer team. It was greeted with scepticism: some of his colleagues doubted it would be a success. Bello, who would become THISDAY MD in 2005, never looked back. And when THISDAY started coming out, initially at weekend, it was an instant hit.

Abacha, in one of his moments, had shut down The Guardian, Concord and Punch in 1994. In those days, journalists didn’t need to commit any serious offence to be hammered by the military junta. The military guys were so, so power drunk. They were walking on our heads as they liked. Not only was The Guardian shut down but its head office was also bombed. And as if that was not awful enough, the late Mr Alex Ibru, its publisher, was shot in broad daylight at Falomo, Lagos, by Abacha’s killer squad in 1996. He narrowly escaped death but lost an eye. Abacha had dropped Ibru from his cabinet in 1995, apparently because he failed to turn his newspaper into a mouthpiece for the junta.

When the major newspapers were shut down, THISDAY and a couple of others came in to fill the gap but were not expected to survive the re-opening of the established newspapers. That is not the kind of thing you tell Obaigbena. You are only challenging him. In fact, you are provoking him. By the time the newspapers were re-opened, THISDAY had carved its own share of the market in such a manner that if it was not your first choice, then it would be your second. It did not set out to be the newspaper to be read by every Danladi, Emeka and Babatunde. It set out to be the unputdownable newspaper among the rich and the powerful in business, politics and the diplomatic community.

Whereas you might not see THISDAY in Kabba or Kaura Namoda, you would see it in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt — the power houses of Nigeria. You might not see THISDAY in Kainji, you would see it in Kakawa, Lagos, which serviced the biggest corporate offices in Nigeria. The strategy was very clear. It became the newspaper that leaders in business and politics wanted to clutch, the newspaper that befitted their status. It was the newspaper every office worth its salt wanted to buy for its executives, the newspaper they desired to advertise in, the newspaper in which they wanted their stories and photos featured. Those who said THISDAY would soon die ate their words. Impossible is nothing.

How did THISDAY do it? I did not join the newspaper until August 1997. But from the outside, there were many things I liked about it. One, it served readers the best stories in business and politics. The stories were well-sourced and authentic. I would never forget how it broke the news of the death of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, foremost nationalist, at a time nobody was ready to touch it. He had been falsely reported dead in 1989 in one horrible moment that left the Nigerian media with egg on the face. Although THISDAY did its home work before reporting the Great Zik’s death in 1996, it was not an easy decision. But that authenticity perhaps finally accentuated THISDAY’s authoritativeness.

Two, THISDAY treated breaking news stories with such flair and speed like no other newspaper did. It usually devoted the first two pages to what it called “Behind the News”, exploring various details and angles in bits and pieces. Moreso, the weekend editions of THISDAY were so well packaged that the weekly newsmagazines coming out on Mondays were left with mostly crumbs. There are those who believe that THISDAY did things so well that it effectively killed the weekly newsmagazines which specialised in in-depth treatment of news. I have to say here that no study established a causal link between THISDAY’s robustness and the demise of newsmagazines. It is just an educated assumption.

Three, Nigerian newspapers used to dedicate their back pages to sports, general news and cartoons. THISDAY broke the tradition by doing daily analysis, with business taking the space on Mondays and politics dominating the other days. The analyses were accompanied by Business Notes and Political Notes, which gave short and sharp takes on developments in those sectors. Over time, the back page transformed to a space for regular columnists. THISDAY back page became the page of choice for many readers and it started churching out a new class of columnists. The variety across political, ethnic and ideological lines was something that marked THISDAY out and so it has remained till now.

Four, THISDAY reported business like no other newspaper did, and this uniqueness might have raised the bar too high for business-only publications. The newspaper had a partnership with the Financial Times of London and ran the Management Series, which was as good as attending a business school. This was a must-not-miss for many in the business community. The newspaper also pioneered reporting the daily transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (now the Nigerian Exchange Group, NGX) with the table of the share prices of all quoted companies, not just the top gainers and losers as was the easy thing to do then. It was a logistical nightmare but, remember, impossible is nothing.

Five, THISDAY established its foothold on the media landscape by going colour. Let me clarify here that it did not pioneer colour newspapering in Nigeria — that distinction goes to Sunray of Port Harcourt. However, THISDAY was the first to publish colour on a daily basis. Newspaper managers who sniggered at it and said THISDAY would soon die later jumped on the bandwagon. The first colour pull-out, I think, was a THISDAYStyle publication on Princess Diana’s funeral in August 1997, edited by Jamin Ohwovoriole. That was also the month Mr Eziuche Ubani recruited me for THISDAY and, along with my late pal Emeka Enechi, we started the all-colour pull-out, SportsXtra, on Sundays.

There are several things that have marked THISDAY out in the last three decades which I cannot write within this space. For instance, Nigerians used to read different versions of a Lagos/Ibadan-based newspaper same day. The first edition with stale news was for far-flung places. The second edition with fresh news was for the south-west and Abuja. THISDAY broke the jinx in 2000 with simultaneous printing in Lagos and Abuja. There was a price to pay, though: THISDAY often arrived late on the newsstands, so much so that frustrated vendors branded it as an evening newspaper. Nevertheless, every newspaper worth its salt started producing a single edition nationwide with fresh stories.

Sure, not everybody has the same feelings about THISDAY. That is the way life goes. For me, I have only fond memories. I left the newspaper in 2012 after two spells, during which I was appointed features editor at the age of 25, Saturday editor at 29 and editor of the daily newspaper at 34. Credit to Obaigbena for birthing his vision and sustaining it with constant innovation. Credit to all the members of staff — past and present, dead and alive — who tilled the land and toiled day and night to help build the THISDAY brand. Credit to those who have supported the business over the years. At 30, THISDAY deserves its flowers for revolutionising newspapering in Nigeria. Impossible is nothing.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

DAWN OF A NEW ERROR

President Donald Trump is back! Not one to do anything without drama, he started season two of his tragicomedy right at his inauguration on Monday, hitting out at his predecessors (who were in attendance) and promising that America was going to be great again with his return. To keep touch with his base, he signed bundles of executive orders (EOs) that created the impression that the so-called Free World is now being led by a medieval emperor. Trust the American system to keep him in check, though. A court has already suspended the EO that abolished birthright citizenship. My sense is that most of those EOs are useless, but at least they will keep his gullible fanbase happy. Cruise.

DUMBER PLATE

Justice Akintayo Aluko of the federal high court sitting in Lagos has restrained the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) from impounding vehicles with faded number plates. Mr Chinwike Ezebube, a legal practitioner, filed the suit against the FRSC in February 2024. Ordinarily, this judgment should have been made summarily — in 10 minutes if possible. FRSC is the sole designer and producer of the number plates. If the ink fades, how can it be the fault of the vehicle owner? Please help me understand. Yet, motorists have been fined for the defective number plates. That is the sort of oppression the Nigerian state subjects us to. It is hard to understand. It beats logic. Absurd.

IT IS POSSIBLE

My friends always ask me why I still believe Nigeria can be great despite all the glaring defects and decay. Here is another answer. Barely a week after the wife of Mr Hakeem Odumosu was kidnapped, police rescued her, killed two suspects and arrested two others. You know why? Odumosu is a retired assistant inspector-general of police (AIG). That is why. If it was Citizen Tamedun Lakasegbe that went to report to the police that his wife had been kidnapped, it would be a different matter altogether. What this tells me is that the capacity is there but it is only used for the rich and the powerful. When ordinary Nigerians begin to matter in our system, our greatness will begin to explode. Unstoppable.

NO COMMENT

On Friday, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, chairman of the senate committee on interior, made a startling statement: that retired military generals are behind illegal mining activities in the country. “The ongoing illegal mining across the country is being carried out by retired generals, and we know them. They use helicopters to cart away gold, making billions of dollars, while the country suffers,” he said. He said he even wrote to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari over the issue years ago. I find this very exciting. I believe the security agencies should engage with Oshiomhole so that he can help them with investigation. He seems to have the master list of the illegal miners. Wonderful.