Ahead of the 2025 governorship election in Anambra State, the All Progressives Congress, APC, walks a tightrope.

Anambra has an unwritten zoning arrangement for the governorship position, which rotates between the three senatorial zones in the state.

The arrangement became more pronounced in 2012 during the twilight of the administration of then governor, Mr Peter Obi.

Obi had insisted on the then ruling party, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) producing a candidate from Anambra North as a way to make for balance, after Mbadinuju from the South had finished a four-year-term, and himself from the central senatorial zone finished eight years term.

Before then, Ngige who held sway for three years was also from central.

This prompted Obi to insist on the North, which is perceived as a minority zone in the state, to produce the next governor on the basis of equity, as it was believed that if the contest was declared open to all zones, they may never be able to have a shot at the position.

Obiano’s emergence from the North then sealed the zoning agreement and left it standing.

As Prof Chukwuma Soludo rounds off his first tenure, the clamour for governorship has heightened.

But contrary to claims of zoning, the APC seems to want to scuttle the arrangement, by insisting on throwing open the contest to all interested.

In June, a group of elders from the party under the aegis of All Progressives Congress (APC) Elders Forum, led by Chief Innocent Obi, met and reinforced the Anambra zoning formula.

The group said that if the APC would upstage the ruling party in the 2025 governorship election, it must field a southern candidate in line with the zoning agreement.

Obi said: “For me, an agreement is an agreement whether written or not. There’s a system already at work in Anambra State. Anybody who denies that is not saying the truth. As elders, we should say it the way it is.

“An arrangement is on the ground. During the 2022 election, the party that pretended that zoning is nonsense suffered for it. They suffered because someone who contested under their platform did not come from where that post should go.

“Whatever decision our party comes up with, the elders must go with them because we’re under them.

“The elders will be pleased if the candidate comes from the South. If you ask me, the South has done four years and the South has four extra years.”

There have been various positions on the matter too.

A chieftain of the party, Mr Pope Amaefuna in a recent opinion piece insisted that any attempt by the party not to field a candidate from the South, and a popular one at that, would cost the party victory.

He said: “The politics of Anambra State has enjoyed relative stability, equity and fairness, thanks to the adoption of the zoning principle.

“Major political parties acknowledged the power rotation formula as reflected by the choice of candidates paraded in Anambra elections in the past decade.

“In reality, APC can no longer afford to continue playing opposition politics in Anambra State and all hands must be on deck to ensure a power shift in the 2025 governorship election.

“Considering the disposition of the Anambra electorate, if the APC makes the mistake of failing to field a strong and popular candidate from Anambra South in favour of parading a candidate from any other zone, then it is safe to kiss the governorship aspirations of the party goodbye as the move would truncate the remaining four years tenure of Anambra South.

“The implication is that a new candidate from any other zone might tentatively lay claims to an eight year tenure instead of four and that is the last thing any right thinking Anambra wants at this epoch.

“Very importantly, the proponents and advocates of no zoning should be wary of what they preach as they risk swallowing their own vomit.”

“Considering the political culture of Anambra State today, any party that does not abide by the zoning formula adopted by stakeholders in rotation of the governorship seat of the state stands no chance of winning the forthcoming guber poll and historical indices support this position.

“Any APC member who is currently crusading for no zoning has been compromised and commissioned to work against the party and such a character should be considered an enemy of the party who are actively working against the party interests,” Amaefuna stated.

Meanwhile, another group within the party, under the aegis of APC Progressives Media in a press release argued that the zoning arguments were aimed at misleading the Anambra APC into falling into a political trap designed to annihilate the party’s gubernatorial chances in 2025.

The group said: “After careful examination, we have confirmed that the authors of these articles are unknown to the Anambra APC and are neither card-carrying members of the party nor affiliated with it in any way. Therefore, we can understand their ignorance about the traditions of the APC in Anambra State.

“The APC in Anambra State has no history of zoning the gubernatorial election.

“Instead, every candidate who has contested under the umbrella of the APC since its formation has done so on the strength of their popularity and acceptance within the party fold and that of the voting public.

“For instance, in 2013, when the APGA zoned its candidate to Anambra North, the APC chose its candidate from Anambra Central, with aspirants from all zones contesting in the primaries.

“Similarly, in 2017, the APC candidate won based on his popularity within the party and not due to zoning. Aspirants from all political zones contested in that primary, just like in 2013 and 2021.”

In what looked like support for the Progressives Media, the APC, Anambra State Chapter, says the party is not in for any zoning arrangement.

In a release signed by the party’s State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Valentine Iyke-Oliobi, the party dismissed those clamouring for zoning.

It brushed aside both the elders forum and Amaefuna who had previously spoken in favour of zoning, describing them as unknown to the party.

It said: “The Anambra State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) wants to categorically state that our party has no zoning arrangements whatsoever.

“Also, APC as a party was not involved in any agreement with any political party or parties as regards to zoning as being falsely peddled by the group in their publications.

“The APC has always provided a level playing field for all governorship aspirants under the platform of the party to participate irrespective of their Senatorial zones.

“This practice has not changed. We, therefore, call on well meaning members of our party to disregard the said publication insinuating any existing zoning arrangement by the APC.”

As the back and forth on zoning continues, political analysts have predicted that the party may shoot itself in the leg by attempting to scuttle the existing zoning arrangement that has run smoothly.

Mr Chijioke Eze, a political Analyst said: “I have read the press release by both the party and the Progressives Media, and I feel compelled to say that APC in Anambra cannot be doing the same thing all over again, and expect a different result.

“They keep saying the contest has always been free to all, and each time they run, they always lose, and every four years they come back again with the same formula.

“I think it is either the party with the change mantra is not ready to change, or they are not desirous of producing a governor here.”

Also, another respondent, Dr Justin Ogoo Nwankwo said Anambra South is the beautiful bride in the 2025 governorship election in the state, and that APC must shun rhetorics and keep their eyes on equity and capacity.

Nwankwo argued that if APC must perform creditably in the election, it must field a candidate from the southern zone who can battle Soludo, and also ensure to pick a popular candidate who has the capacity to upstage the current governor.

“The fact is that the APC as a party has not won the governorship election in the state before, but evidence and data available suggest that with the right choice and strategy, the party can win Anambra State Governorship election.

“It is therefore very urgent to remind Ndi Anambra from this point of departure and especially members of our great party, APC that as a party, the APC is not rejected in Anambra State.

“This is a party that with the right motivation and balance, has always done well in gubernatorial elections.

“It is rather, the lack of circumspect by some party leaders or of the basic principles of power sharing by the stakeholders that continually places the fate of the party in oblivion.

“We therefore call for APC Anambra to project two key indicators heading into the most important election in the life of the party, which are Equity and Capacity,” he added.

So far, two members of the party have indicated their interests in vying for the ticket.

They include Senator Andy Ubah, a serving senator of the party who hails from Anambra South, and Mr Paul Chukwuma, a former National Auditor of the party from Anambra North zone.

[DailyPost]

 During Nigeria’s First and Second Republics, not many people had faith in the country ’s judiciary. To start with, court cases dragged on for too long; making it practically impossible for litigants to enjoy the fruits of judicial victories. In other cases, many criminals were set free on account of some technicalities couched in Latin that ordinary people never understood. Part of the assignments of some transition bodies set up during military rule was to educate Nigerians on the dangers of extra- judicial activities. But if the truth must be told, it has been quite difficult to persuade politicians to follow the ser- mons on the rule of law which seem to provide inconsequential efficacy.

Years ago, there were Nigerian politicians who had no patience for a long wait to take a seat in parliament when they could have been returned unopposed even before voting by merely organising thugs to kill their opponents. However, political assassinations have reduced considerably since 1999 but they have been replaced by a new design by which the judiciary is used to win cases, especially election petitions. The danger is that those who are unable to command what it takes to manipulate the judiciary may, as time goes on, be forced to return to such evils as assassinations while proclaiming that their ambition is not worth the blood of fellow citizens. If this must be prevented from recurring, there is no better time than now to stop our judges who speak in tongues while on duty.

In Nigeria today, every court judgment or judicial pronouncement is often subjected to multiple interpretations by the different parties in a case. This usually happens when two or more courts with coordinate jurisdiction give contradicting rulings on the same case. Another aspect is when some courts grant daily ex parte orders despite the repeated caution of the Chief Justice of the Federation against such behaviour. At the same time, there is the issue of jurisdiction which should ordinarily not be difficult to ascertain; yet, many courts hear and determine several cases where the law states clearly that they have no jurisdiction. When that happens, all we hear is that those adversely affected should go on appeal. But can the judiciary not stop it from happening at all?

If a layman does not know the court which has jurisdiction to hear his case, are his lawyers and the judge to whose court the case was assigned also ignorant of the law? This question and some others that many of my readers have asked me in the last one month and which I obviously have no answers for are raised in this piece in the hope that someone can help me out. The first set of questions I received had to do with the reinstatement of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II of Kano. Whereas the federal court presided over by Justice Abdullahi Liman nullified the reinstatement of the Emir, a state high court, presided over by Justice Aminu Adamu Aliyu, issued a restraining order preventing the police, the DSS and the military from forcibly re- moving Sanusi 11.

What explains why both a state and a federal high court located in the same city were both hearing the same case is the issue of jurisdiction which is essentially one of the mysteries of our legal system. It is only a court that can de- termine whether it has juris- diction over a case or not de- spite what the law says. Those who believe that Justice Liman had no jurisdiction argued that the case of Emirship being a chieftaincy mat- ter ought to be a state affair. But then, Jurisdiction in Nigeria is more than mathematics hence the pro-federal judge claimed that those dis- placed by the new Kano chieftaincy law were bothered about their fundamen- tal human rights which they think explains the interest of the federal judge.

The only other persons who understand the issue of jurisdiction between the state and federal courts are our lawmakers who in their own self- interest ensured that the federal high courts were so empowered especially in political matters. While the rest of us are bothered that there is some confusion in the system, our legislators are comfortable. This is because once a federal legislator sees the need to institute a case, it is the federal high court that first occurs to him because it can be difficult getting justice from a state high court which a state governor has control over. In other words, confusion in our courts was deliberately planted by politicians hence judgments in those courts are always communicated in such a way that they can be interpreted to suit any party’s position.

If applied to the lingering case between the executive and the legislature in Rivers State, it is easy to see every party interpreting last week’s judgment of the Court of Ap- peal on the fate of majority of the lawmakers as it suits them. The decision of the court which was in favour of the Amaewhule-led legislators said nothing about the real subject in contention. Instead, it nullified the previous contrary order on the grounds that the state high court which earlier determined the case had no jurisdiction. But the real issue of whether or not speaker Amaewhule and his colleagues had lost their seats for decamping to another party is yet to be resolved.

Also last week, an Abuja federal high court presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwogave a judgment concerning the Edo PDP governorship primaries that everyone is still busy debating. The real order made by the court was that certain lawfully elected delegates must not be excluded from the party’s primaries scheduled for February 22, 2024. How does anyone understand such an order to be carried out concerning an election that had already been conducted some 5 months ago? What would the court have lost if it had declined to make such an academic order which had been overtaken by events? While some people would have appreciated the need to penalise a careless political party, there is doubt if such an intention would have made sense considering the position of the law on internal matters of a political party

If it is true as some critics have argued that the litigants being delegates and not aspirants ought not to have been allowed to bring up such a case, what public good was served in dealing with the case at all? Talking about the public good what exactly are our courts enjoying in the unending litigations that distract governance? The judiciary as an arm of government cannot be exculpated from blame if it does not work together with other arms of government to assist Nigeria to attain good governance that can improve the living standards of the people. For example, it is clear that asking parties to maintain status quo is severally interpreted to suit each person’s wish. If so, of what use is a jargon if all those to whom it is addressed, do not have same meaning for it?

Considering the level of confusion that the term status quo has been causing in society by those who are exploiting it, is it not time for judges to clearly spell out the true position they want par- ties to maintain? No one needs to be a professional communicator to recognise the defect in using a term that is subject to more than one meaning. In other words, engaging in effective communication can easily enhance the prospects of relevant actors in the justice delivery system attaining greater professional competence. As it is today in Nigeria, it is difficult to make the average citizen to comprehend the rationale for certain judgments even if translated into local dialects of the people. The real problem is that there is too much of working to the answer especially when compared with other cases with similar facts.

The trend whereby Nigerian court judgments are never self-explicit is worrisome as the trend continues to adversely affect the image of our judiciary that was in times past internationally respected. Painfully, majority of our judges who have continued to perform well are watching helplessly as a few of their colleagues are holding high an inglorious emblem on behalf of all. If per chance any law enforcement agency invades judges’ home again in search of different currencies, no one should be surprised if it elicits public applause across the nation.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked INTERPOL in three North African countries of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria to watch-list former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, it was learnt at the weekend

It was further learnt that the decision by the EFCC was based on credible intelligence.

Other countries where the ex-governor is put on the watch-list are Egypt, Libya and Sudan. 

Sources in the anti-graft agency said many option are on the table in dealing with the Bello situation, which include but not limited to storming the Kogi State Government House in Lokoja, where the ex-governor is believed to be hiding.

The watch-list was activated ahead of the July 17th expected appearance of the former governor before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Bello is facing a 19-count charge for alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of public funds  of about N80.2billion.

Although the ex-governor has denied the allegation, he has consistently failed to appear before the trial Judge, Justice Emeka Nwite on June 13th and June 27th.

At the last hearing, he filed an application for the transfer of his trial to the Federal High Court, Lokoja.

Speaking in the situation, the EFCC source said: “Ahead of the next hearing of the case, EFCC has activated many options, including taking a concrete action to watch-list Bello in North Africa.

“We are aware of a botched  exit to Morocco via Cameroon. We are determined to stop him from going on exile.

“From Singapore, the EFCC Executive Chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede was in Tunisia where he delivered a paper at a session on illicit financial flows. Thereafter, he had a meeting with all the Heads of INTERPOL in North Africa on the intelligence on the ex-governor.

“He formally asked INTERPOL to place  Bello on Red Alert in all North African countries and it was accepted.

“The watch-list has taken immediate effect. He will be arrested in any part of North Africa.

“We took this step because we are suspecting that he had been bidding time not to be available for arraignment.

“We expect Bello to be in court to prove his innocence. EFCC has to do its work to avoid bad precedent.”

At the last hearing, Bello’s lawyer, Adeola Adedipe (SAN), applied to withdraw his appearance for his client.

But Adedipe drew the court’s attention to an application before the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for the transfer of charge no: FHC/ABJ/CR/98/2024 to the Federal High Court, Lokoja.

He said the application was pursuant to Section 45 of the Federal High Court Establishment Act.

[TheNation]

JUNE 2024. Festivity was in the air. Professors and students, staff and high class visitors were in attendance. The highlight was a first class dinner. Africa’s book factory, Professor Toyin Falola, flew into the country to deliver the farewell lecture. It was all in honour of Professor Abd-Rasheed Na’Allah, out-going Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, UNIABUJA. But, trust spoilers.

They are never far away from festivities. As the wining and dining went on with fine speeches seeing off the VC at month end, students of the university were lamenting the N500 daily they pay to charge their cell phones. It was the second week the university had been plunged into darkness. It was not that the university is new to power outages, but this particular one had lengthened to pay farewell to Professor Na’Allah.

 UNIABUJA claims it is “the model University in Nigeria (and) a pride of Nigerians and in the provision of higher education”. I am amazed it achieved these and attained such lofty heights while enveloped in darkness.

UNIABUJA students are quite measured: they can live under any condition. But not so the students of the University of Benin, UNIBEN. Confronted with the same circumstances, they took to the streets, blocking the busy Benin-Ore Highway to protest weeks of electricity cut. The students were two weeks away from their examinations, yet had no electricity to study after lectures. They demanded a 24-hour electricity supply. The authorities could not meet the demand, so they shut down the university.

While professors in other countries are professing and advancing the frontiers of knowledge, their counterparts in the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, are lamenting the lack of electricity to do basic work. So, 40 of them signed a petition last week asking the Visitor, President Bola Tinubu, to intervene given the centrality of electricity supply to the operations of the university. They stated what appears to be the obvious. That a university with an average total annual budgetary overhead grant of N150 million, cannot pay an electricity bill of N3.6 billion. The egg heads calculated that if the bill were to be transferred to the 50,000 students of the institution, charges would need to be hiked by over 500 per cent.

The professors suggested alternatives. Government could pay for the cost of electricity as part of its overhead grant or, use its 49 per cent shareholding in the electricity companies to direct them to supply universities uninterrupted power supply in exchange for tax credits. A third suggestion is to mandate the electricity companies to introduce a dedicated social tariff band with rates the universities can afford.

The government’s response is uncertain, but I assume that the university still has many moons to go: producing first class materials without the benefit of electricity supply. Is it for nothing our national anthem proclaims ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’?

The University College Hospital, Ibadan, founded in 1952, is the pioneer teaching hospital in the country. Its 1,000 beds makes it one of the biggest hospitals in the country.

The legendary UCH proclaims, like Ozymandias: “We are the flagship tertiary healthcare institution in Nigeria, offering world-class Training, Research and Services.” It even has a Department of Nuclear Medicine, that branch involved in the use of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, including nuclear imaging. Short of witchcraft, how can the UCH perform all these, including blood storage and endless operations, with power outages and even conscious power disconnections? The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company had for several days, disconnected UCH from the electricity system for owing N400 million.

Six years ago, the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Idi-Araba decided to check power cuts by imposing an N11,000 electricity levy on each student. When the students refused to pay, the tertiary health institution reduced power supply to four hours daily. But mass protests led the authorities to seek other ways of reducing the power outages.

The first generation University of Nigeria, UNN, was by 2018 producing about 10,000 first degree graduates and 3,000 higher degrees. But its power outages were between 48 and 120 hours weekly. Sometimes, power cuts lasted a whole week. So, small or micro generators began to pollute the campus.

The Federal University Kashere, FUK, Gombe State is in an area with sweltering temperatures. So, the authorities supply the hostels two hours of electricity daily. The students in most cases pay commercial centres to charge their phones and laptops.

But these power cuts to universities, lasting weeks at a stretch, is like child’s play when compared to the case of the Kaduna State University, KASU. The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, branch Chairperson, Peter Adamu, who made a diagnostic analysis, said the situation, like advancing cancer, had gone from intermittent and epileptic to a total blackout. It became so bad that the Kafanchan campus had no electricity supply for over seven months! Adamu described the atmosphere in the university: “There is a feeling of pessimism, hopelessness, despair, despondency and dissent premonition that if the management of the university did not redouble their efforts, the end to this ugly situation might not be palatable.”

The miracle is that KASU, which is like a patient on life support, is still breathing and giving birth to new graduates and post- graduates!

Power failures, I must say, is not just a disease of public universities, the private ones also suffer it. For instance, the students of the American University of Nigeria, AUN, on April 24, 2024 staged peaceful demonstrations against persistent power cuts. To assuage the students anger, school authorities gave an assurance of a minimum five-hour power supply daily until public power supply is restored. They also shifted the commencement of examinations and, agreed to halt regular teaching to give the students more time to study.

Anybody who does not believe academics, staff and students can perform miracles, should visit Nigerian universities.

Electricity is central to the operation of universities, polytechnics and technical institutions. It is necessary for the running or functioning of equipment. It is fundamental to learning, industrialisation and development. So, running tertiary institutions with little, epileptic or no electricity, is nothing short of the miraculous . But it is not a lesson other institutions outside Nigeria want to learn from or experiment.

Do our universities deserve what they are getting having failed to find solutions to the country’s problems, including electricity generation and distribution? Or, does the country deserve the universities it has for not providing even the most basic needs like electricity? On the other hand, do they deserve themselves? But this is no time to trade blames. Rather, it is the time to put our hands on the plough and let there be light.

A former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has accused the ruling party of failing to deliver its campaign promises to Nigerians.

According to Lukman, the failure of the APC has surpassed that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was ousted in 2015.

Recall that former President, Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP lost the 2015 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari and has continued to govern the country.

However, amid the numerous challenges facing the country at the moment, Lukman, in a press release handed to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, expressed concern over the current state of affairs in the country.

The former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) criticized the APC for failing to fulfil its promise of leading the fight against corruption, instead allowing corruption to thrive and endorsing the concept of ‘state capture’ across various levels.

“What were the failings of the PDP? The failings of the PDP are reflected in the same way today’s challenges are manifesting. If the truth is to be told, whatever the failings of the PDP in 2015, it was less grievous than what it has become under APC in 2024,” Lukman noted in the press release.

He said: “What is the future of democracy in Nigeria? Is there any prospect that it can produce leaders who are responsive to national challenges? Being responsive is basically about ensuring that public expenditures are oriented to tackle challenges facing citizens. What are the challenges facing Nigerians today? Poverty, unemployment, insecurity, drugs and substance abuse, millions of out-of-school children in the North, etc. Not to mention the additional problems of inflation and the crash of the value of incomes, especially in the last year under the leadership of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Although some officials of the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu have attempted to explain the current hardship Nigerians are facing with reference to the bad economy inherited from the previous administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the reality is that both are APC Governments. If anything, APC became very popular in Nigeria on account of the failings of the PDP. What were the failings of the PDP? The failings of the PDP are reflected in the same way today’s challenges are manifesting. If the truth is to be told, whatever the failings of the PDP in 2015, it was less grievous than what it has become under APC in 2024.

“No doubt, former President Buhari had his problems as a leader. However, whatever was estimated to be his failure should be the shared responsibility of APC leaders in varying degrees, including President Asiwaju Tinubu. No leader of APC should attempt to distance himself/herself from the failure of the Buhari era, certainly, not President Asiwaju Tinubu. In one way or the other, APC leaders, without exception, are ‘beneficiaries’ of the Buhari era, just as some of them could claim to be victims. On balance however, APC leaders benefited more from the Buhari era than being victims. At least electorally, former President Buhari made it possible for APC to defeat the PDP. Without former President Buhari, the defeat of the PDP in 2015 would have been almost impossible, and by extension, arguably, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for President Asiwaju Tinubu to become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Unfortunately, having defeated the PDP in 2015, the APC failed to produce the needed collective leadership required to manage the machinery of governments produced by the party at all levels. Gradually, APC succeeded in turning democracy on its head. Instead of producing democratic leaders, elected leaders increasingly became emperors and overlords. State machinery became captured and privatised to almost exclusively only serve the interests of elected representatives.”

[NaijaNews]

Chelsea, on Sunday, announced that academy graduate, Michael Golding, has completed a permanent transfer to Premier League club Leicester City.

The Blues disclosed this in a statement on their website.

“We wish Michael the best of luck in the next chapter of his career and thank him for all his efforts during his time as Blue,” Chelsea’s statement partly read.

Golding joined Chelsea as an Under-12 and represented the youth teams.

His performances for Chelsea also earned him international recognition between the Under-15 and Under-18 age groups.

He captained the England side that competed in the Under-17 European Championship in the summer of 2023 and later that year played three times at the Under-17 World Cup.

Golding recently featured for England Under-18s.

[DailyPost]

WHAT you are about to read was written by me and was published in The PUNCH edition of Monday, July 7, 1998; which is 26 years ago, the very day the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Basorun MKO Abiola, died in incarceration in Abuja. I must have scribbled the piece a day or two before Abiola’s death; it is titled “Abiola: Coming home empty-handed?” Enjoy it:

Once again, we are living in interesting times! Events are happening in rapid successions. Last week as Nigerians feverishly debated the way forward, all manner of rumour was agog. Kites of various colours, sizes and shapes were flown. When former President Ibrahim Babangida, the greatest disaster to have befallen this country, visited General Olusegun Obasanjo, recently released from jail on trumped-up charges, tongues were set wagging. A few days later when Obasanjo told journalists he was not available for anything except where he was (Ota farm), not a few people tried to add up the equation. Did IBB go to Ota with any proposal for Obasanjo’s consideration? Softly, softly, Aremu! Once bitten, twice shy!

If this suggestion by the New Millennium is silly, its reasons for tipping Obasanjo shows a willingness to distort contemporary history. According to the group, Obasanjo is acceptable “to both the June 12 protagonists and antagonists alike…” Lies! Obasanjo was not acceptable to June 12 protagonists in 1993; he will be more stridently opposed by them today if he falls for this New Millennium deceit. Space constraints will not allow me to take up the group item by item, but let’s take a look at one of its suggestions for the way forward. We are to “groom credible persons to take over the politics of the Fourth Republic, preferably those with military background, so as to achieve stability in the praxis of politics and democratization” What a gratuitous insult!

So there are no credible persons in civil society to be groomed for the democratization project? Only in the armed forces will you find them, serving or retired? Pray, which armed forces are they talking about? The one rubbished by IBB and laid waste by Abacha? The Millennium people wouldn’t end their treatise until they had taught the press its job: “Very important, journalists should be responsible and re-orientate themselves towards the truth. It has been said that journalism is the first rough draft of history. This duty is onerous” That is right, but if I may ask, what is the truth of our situation? Isn’t it that a man won an election but has been prevented from assuming his mandate? Isn’t it the cause of all the subterfuge, rigmarole, somersault, beating about the bush, speaking from both sides of the mouth, inconsistencies, confusion, the way forward, the way backward, stepping aside, illegal ING, brutal dictatorship, Viagra and the ‘last supper’, Abdulsalami Abubakar, etc. Yet, this group of Nigerians gleefully announced that they are ‘committed to a new Nigeria’! I am not surprised, though! Two organizations that I know which mouth the same ‘New Nigeria’ slogan – one, a bank; the other, a newspaper, are both not doing well at all!

If one can excuse a faceless group (like the New Millennium Collective), what does one make of Tony Lloyd, deputy foreign affairs minister of Britain, and Koffi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General? The two, together with Nigeria’s Emeka Anyaoku, the Commonwealth’s Secretary-General, were in the country last week to help us seek ‘the way forward’. Of the three, only Anyaoku proved his calling. For Lloyd, some are suggesting that his comments on June 12 are a confirmation of the rumoured ‘agreement’ between the British Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate that only Northerners would forever rule over Nigeria. Says (one-time Senegalese president) Leopold Sedar Senghor in his poem titled ‘Pain’: Lord, God, forgive white Europe! But there is a recent precedent that should have guided the international community on Abiola’s case.

In April 1985, Nelson Mandela, the world’s then most famous prisoner (of conscience), found himself in the same position that Chief MKO Abiola (at the moment one of the world’s most famous prisoners of conscience), finds himself today. The racist regime of PW Botha had offered to release Mandela from Pollsmoor prison on stringent conditions. Mandela demanded to consult with his comrades in the ANC and with the people of South Africa. The racist regime refused.  Unfolding events in this country (Nigeria) today bear striking resemblance to those in racist South Africa in 1985, except in one very significant sense. Mandela, incarcerated under white minority rulers, enjoyed more freedom than Abiola, who was detained under black majority rule. Mandela was met in prison by his lawyer and wife, Winnie, and was able to send out messages from prison, later read to the people by his daughter, Zindzi, stating why he was refusing conditional release. In 1998, Abiola, held by his own (Black) people, was not allowed visits by his wives. He is not allowed to consult with his comrades; neither has he a statement to be read to the people by his daughter. In short, Abiola is treated worse in a free, independent Black-ruled Nigeria than Mandela was treated under the racist, white minority apartheid regime of Botha. And to think that the UN Secretary-General could be a party to this charade!

When I compare the two situations – a free Nigeria under self-rule and a racist South Africa under white minority rule, I feel like crying! I reproduce here, today, in an abridged form, the statement by Mandela as read to the people of South Africa by his daughter, Zindzi. It goes thus: ‘On Friday, my mother and our attorney saw my father at Pollsmoor prison to obtain his answer to Botha’s offer of conditional release. The prison authorities attempted to stop this statement from being made but he (Mandela) would have none of this and made it clear that he would make the statement to you, the people. Strangers like Bethell from England and Professor Dash from the United States have in recent weeks been authorised to see my father without restriction; yet, Pretoria cannot allow you, the people, to hear what he has to say directly. He should be here himself to tell you what he thinks of this statement by Botha.  He is not allowed to do so. My father and his comrades wish to make this statement to you, the people, first. They are clear that they are accountable to you and to you alone. And that you should hear their views directly and not through others. My father says: I am surprised at the conditions that the government wants to impose on me. I am not a violent man. I cherish my own freedom dearly but I care even more for your own freedom. Too many have died since I went to prison. Too many have suffered for the love of freedom. I owe it to their widows, to their orphans, to their mothers and to their fathers who have grieved and wept for them. Not only have I suffered during these long, lonely, wasted years, I am not less life-loving than you are. But I cannot sell my birthright nor am I prepared to sell the birthright of the people to be free. I am in prison as the representative of the people…Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. My father says: I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you are not free. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. I will return!”

If Nigeria were as liberal as racist South Africa where political prisoners like Mandela, Walter Sisulu and others could spend nearly three decades in prison and still come out of it sane and sound, I would have encouraged Abiola to persevere and reject out of hand any offer of conditional release; but from what I have seen of recently-released detainees like Chief Frank Kokori, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, General Olusegun Obasanjo and the recent photographs of (a thoroughly emaciated) Abiola himself as released by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Chief Abiola should say whatever they want him to say, sign whatever they want him to sign, even allow himself to be videotaped by Aso Villa video experts – just anything – to regain his freedom. Concerning his mandate, leave that for God and the people to determine! Leave all those who seek to bury the truth to contend with God. Let those who want to build the ‘new Nigeria’ of their dream contend with Thomas Hobbes when he said, ‘When men build on false grounds, the more they build, the greater is the ruin’…

The most reasonable and enduring way forward for Nigeria is not to impose an unjust peace, a diktat, on Abiola and the army of June 12 loyalists. But if the powers-that-be insist that they must have a diktat, I will advise Abiola to take it and go home. The ultimate loser will be Nigeria”

When The PUNCH chairman, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, read the piece in the early parts of the day, he wrote this comment on top of the page and sent it to the MD/Editor-in-Chief, Ademola Osinubi: “MD, the weight of his argument is totally contrary to his conclusion. It is curious. Please bring these my remarks to Bola’s attention. 7/7/97” I was the Deputy Editor-in-Chief at the time. For those in the know, the chairman’s language was coded. Bolawole must have compromised on June 12! But before the end of the day, when news of Abiola’s death broke, Chief Ogunshola rushed down from his  Lagos Island office to the PUNCH office at Kudeti to ask me questions. But it’s too late! I was a Foreign Affairs correspondent for many years and kept my sources, usually impeccable, even after I became editor. So much more to say about those years of the jackals!

On this day, the 26th anniversary of Abiola’s death, may his blood and the sacrifice of other martyrs continue to water Nigeria’s tree of liberty!

One phenomenon that cannot be denied in Nigeria today is hunger. Nigerian people are hungry. Very unusually, no one – politicians, elected government functionaries or their appendages – has been able to allege that this general cry of hunger is politically motivated. So many occurrences have been painted with the camwood of that word, “politically motivated”. It is worse for some of us who write. We must have taken overnight instructions from political baron opponents to paint the government black. Or, our views are hangovers from ancient hatred and bile. But, hunger seems to be in a class of its own. It is borderless.

Hunger is like death. Permit me to cite a line of a song I have cited severally which relates to one of death’s innumerable cognomens. It is the line in a song of Ibadan master singer, Awurebe lord, Alhaji Dauda Adeeyo, a.k.a. Epo Akara. In an elegy to General Murtala Muhammed on his assassination by Colonel Bukar Suka Dimka, Epo made an evergreen quip. He sang, “Ikú tí ó p’eni à ńpè, á p’eni tí ńpe ni” – death the leveller is the one that will kill the chanter and the enchanter.

Hunger is such a monstrous and awesome phenomenon, so much so that Yoruba promoted it from its inanimate to an animate being status. In doing this, they conferred on death the cognomen, “ebi òp’àgbà f’owó m’éké”. I have struggled to defrost this deep Yoruba saying of its inscrutable meaning. The farthest I have gone was to explain it. In ancient society, when people were hungry at home, all they did was look heavenwards at the ceiling rafter, as if looking unto Eledumare – God – for redemption. It was almost as if Hunger had turned into a huge snake which crawled up the eké wood, up to the rafter. All that the hungry did was look towards the ceiling, the àjà.

In this piece, I want to take the liberty to talk about hunger, poverty and connect them with Chief Joseph Folahan Odunjo. Odunjo was known simply as J. F. Odunjo. His highly celebrated poem, Isé l’òògùn ìsé – Work is an antidote to poverty – is my referent. I chose Odunjo so as to analyze his poem which can be found in the famous Alawiye series. That poem was used in syllabi of primary schools in the 1970s and 1980s. By the way, who is Odunjo? Literary colossus, educator and politician who was best known for his works in Yoruba children’s literature, Odunjo, in 1951, won a seat in the Western House of Assembly and was later appointed Western Region’s first minister of lands and labour by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. In his immense literary prowess, Odunjo communicated Yoruba values through folklore and myths.

Africans used folklore as a strong imprint from the past. Odunjo then deployed those folklores to relate to our present social and sociological conditions. Like D.O. Fagunwa, Odunjo was greatly respected for having shaped the minds of generations of Yoruba of western Nigeria, especially through his highly famous Alawiye series. The series transformed into a book from the oral folklore and stories of traditional society told at moonlight after dinner. With this, he was able to communicate the values, beliefs and literary skills of the people. Using fictive characters (human or non-human) like Trickster Tortoise (Ijapa, his wife, Yannibo and their son, Irere), ghomids, (ebora) streams, animal kingdom, human kingdom, etc., Odunjo intermixed ìtàn (traditional mythology, history and philosophy.) and ààló (beliefs, customs and stories of a community passed through generations through words of mouth). Ìtàn was more believable because they are factual, dependable and historical than myths, in conveying the reality of the time.

Like all other ethnic groups, Yoruba have very many epistemological stands on hunger. In their paper entitled Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria: Lessons from Socioeconomic Thoughts of the Yoruba, four scholars, Joel Babalola, Adesoji Oni, Ademola Atanda and Benedicta Oyejola-Oshodi did this.  They examined how Yoruba distinguish between three seemingly similar concepts of “òsì”, “ìsé” and “ìyà.” While Òsì is unending chronic poverty, ìsé is acute, transitory poverty and ìyà is suffering, hunger, psychological torture and shame. The three are borne out of denial of essential needs necessary for the sustenance of life.

In Igbo philosophy, poverty is ụ̀bị̀àm̀. Igbo believe that hunger is the complete erosion of human dignity. A man who is unable to feed himself and his family is éfűléfụ (a worthless person) and Igbo see hunger and poverty as a disease, expressed in Ụbịam bụ ajọ ọrịa or ágūū bụ ọnyà – hunger is a sickness of its own. To them, evil or human suffering comes from the interplay of man and their god, the Chi or the machinations of some known or unknown mischievous spirits. Igbo cosmological study seems to agree that human suffering cannot be fully explained and as such, human suffering is a mystery.

Aminu, M. L., in a then-unpublished doctoral thesis, entitled The Hausa Metaphysical World View: A Paremeological Exposition, submitted to the Department of Nigerian and African Language, A.B.U. Zaria, after scrutinizing 230 proverbs, came to the conclusion that the Hausa identify the chief goal of human life as peaceful living, what is called Zaman lafiya. He also found out that there are fourteen attributes of world life. Poverty, called talauci, is a variety of pain, expressed as drinking, like in sunàa shân wàhalàa, literally meaning, drinking trouble.

Yoruba believe that human personal intervention is key to arresting poverty and hunger. This is why they express it in “bí ebi bá kùrò nínú ìsé, ìsé bùse” (by removing hunger from poverty, you have defeated it). To curtail poverty, individual effort is necessary. The people however also believe that, no matter how harrowing and persistent the pangs of poverty may be, whether for 20 years or 30 months, once poverty does not lead to death, it has an expiry. So, they say, “Ìsé tó sé omo l’ógún odún, ìyà tó je omo l’ógbòn osù, tí kò bá pa omo, á dèhìn léhìn omo.” No matter how difficult poverty may be to man, the people still believe that you can wrestle it and conquer it. This speaks to the capacity of human intervention in existential travails.

From whatever human prism you may want to look at it, food security is sine non qua non to human existence. Yoruba even made the stomach, a deity. They did in such statements as “no god demands propitiations as the god of the throat – òrìsà tìí gb’ebo bí òfun s’òwón”. This is why the sky-high cost of living that has made food scarce on Nigerians’ tables, as well as unprecedented inflation, are causing untold hardships in the country today. However, the above dips into traditional epistemology of hunger have shown that, while governments of all cadres are complicit in the mass hunger across Nigeria, as individuals, we seem to have abandoned what used to be done. This has resulted in the unusual happening.

Our situation today was painted by William Butler Yeats’ 1919 poem, The Second Coming. In it, he said, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” I am sure we all have recollections of our personal gardening in the 1970s and 80s. This was at a time when, comparatively, Nigerians were not hungry. This has almost totally dried off now.

Odunjo’s evergreen poem teaches that work is the only antidote to poverty (Isé l’òògùn ìsé) and hunger. It tells us that hard work and self-reliance have pleasant endings. He also counselled that hard work is the only pedestal to the top (Isé la fií d’eni gíga). Today, this virtue has gone to the dogs. Indolent but street-smart Nigerians are the ones at the top, exploring tact and terse energy to sustain their leeching leverage. In those days, resolute persons, who though were bereft of helpers, were recorded to have made it in life, as the poem says (Bí a kò bá r’éni f’èyìn tì, bí òle làá rí, bí a kò bá r’éni gbékèlé) in which case, we needed to work harder (A te’ra mósé eni). Odunjo frowned at reliance on parental wealth (Ìya re leè l’ówó l’’ówó/ Bàbá re leè l’ésin l’éèkàn/Bí o bá gbó’jú lé won/O té tán ni mo so fún o). Today, people don’t suffer for the attainments they get. You only need to be a politician or Yahoo Boy. But, Odunjo has a word for them: Whatever accomplishment that is not complemented with sweats has a twinkle-of-an-eye endurance (Ohun tí a kò bá jì’yà fún/Sé kìí leè t’ójó). It is only what is laboured for, the – Ohun tí a bá f’ara sisé fún/Níí pé l’ówó eni – that endures, he says.

Odunjo also counsels on total reliance on our strength (Apá l’ará/Ìgúnpá n’ìyekan). The world only loves you on account of your material accomplishment (B’áyé bá ńfé o lónìí/Bí o bá l’ówó l’ówó/Ayé á má fé o l’óla). They can also love you if you occupy a prestigious position (Tàbí tí o bá wà n’ípò àtàtà/ Ayé á máa yé o sí t’èrín t’èrín). However, the day you become poor or lose that position, (Jé k’óo de’ni tí ń’rágó/Ayé a máa yínmú sí o) you will be a recipient of their grimaces. Odunjo then ends the poem by canvassing the eternal essence of education (Èkó sì’ńso ni d’ògá/Múra kí o kó dára dára) and the need to flee the midst of those who mock education (Bí o sì rí òpò ènìyàn/Tì wón ńf’èkó s’èrín rín/ Dákun má f’ara wé won). The consequences of abandoning education, he says, are dire (Ìyà ń’bò f’ómo tí kò gbón/Ekún ń’be f’ómo tí ńsá kiri).

Finally, Odunjo pleaded with those who turn their youths into casinos to get off the waste of their youth because time waits for no man (Má f’òwúrò se’ré, òré mi/Múra sísé, ojó ńlo). An Apala musician, Ayinla Omowura, in his elegy to Murtala, later adapted this poem to say that when a man (I add, a woman, as well) wakes up early in the morning and he is not being pursued by anything, he must pursue something because of the finality that dusk poses for hard work. Whoever works conquers poverty – eni bá s’isé jàre òsì, he says.

I gave the above as a keynote address yesterday at a Rotary International, Ibadan, Oyo State (Ring Road) Investiture of Rotn. Bolade Ipadeola. The government cannot claim not to know that hunger is killing Nigerians. I completely share the Igbo philosophical understanding of hunger as a complete erosion of human dignity.

Most Nigerian men have become éfűléfụ, de-masculinised by the Bola Tinubu government. There is a strong link between hunger and the deconstruction of hard work today. Families must rise in defence of hard work. This deconstruction has made the Isé l’òògùn ìsé which Odunjo canvassed in his poem to be a mere rhetoric. Work is no longer an antidote to poverty. Yahoo-Yahoo is. Political positions are. Hard work must return to its pride of place in Nigeria. Let us teach our children that hard work is king.

In the last week of April 2024, pastor and chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, swore that he would “resign as EFCC chairman if embattled former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, is not prosecuted.” Unaccompanied as it was by any calendar or deadline, this undertaking cannot be regarded as having been made with any intention that it should be taken seriously.

Bello lost his constitutional immunity from the legal process when his tenure as governor of Kogi state ended three months earlier on January 27. In the third week of April, Yahaya Bello’s successor as governor of Kogi state, Usman Adodo, accompanied by a retinue of state-sponsored security assets, swooped on Abuja from neighbouring Lokoja, capital of Kogi state to spirit him into fugitive dom under the hapless gaze of EFCC personnel deployed to arrest him.

Since then, the Inspector-General of Police has reportedly ordered the withdrawal of security details previously protecting Bello; the EFCC has declared him wanted; and the Nigerian Immigration Service has placed him on a watchlist, directing that “if seen at any entry or exit point, he should be arrested and referred to the Director of Investigation….” Despite this synchronised hyperventilation by the combined leadership of Nigeria’s leading security agencies, Bello appears to have vanished into thin air. The completeness of his erasure from the combined radars of Nigeria’s security capabilities beggars belief.

Back in Abuja, repeated efforts by the EFCC to arraign Bello in court on multiple counts of plunder of public assets valued at over N80 billion have met with his absence. On the most recent court date at the end of last month, Bello’s counsel taunted the commission with an application seeking to relocate the venue for his trial from Abuja to Lokoja in Kogi state, where, according to Bello, the alleged crimes occurred. One notable columnist laments with a touch of acid that “to the chagrin of many, a fugitive like Mr Bello, transmitting from under the rock where he is hiding, is the one attempting to dictate the terms of how the case against him should be prosecuted.”

Yahaya Bello’s request for his case to be transferred to Lokoja would presumably give him a home-court advantage against the EFCC. In his estimation, the people of Kogi state whose patrimony he is accused of having plundered, would nevertheless embrace him as their home-grown bandit and avatar in the contest for their share of the national loot. The lawyers who make this application on his behalf appear to have secured the complicity of the court in playing along with a script in which they represent a ghost client who transmits instructions to them through a spirit medium.

If all of this makes the EFCC under its current leadership sound like a cruel joke on the consciousness of Nigerians, it is because that is exactly what the commission has chosen to become. The week before it embarked on its vain pursuit of Yahaya Bello, the EFCC recorded what in the public imagination has been its most notable success under its current leadership when it got the Federal High Court in Lagos to convict professional transvestite, Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye –better known as Bobrisky– for the rather ostentatious crime of “Naira abuse”.

The money that Bobrisky supposedly abused was his own. Unlike Yahaya Bello, the commission did not accuse Bobrisky of having stolen from anyone or institution. Yet, despite pleading guilty, the court sentenced Bobrisky, a first offender, to six months in prison without an option of a fine. Upon securing this conviction, the leadership of the EFCC celebrated what was a deployment of the commission in pursuit of bigoted persecution.

While throwing the kitchen sink at Bobrisky, the EFCC chairman was busy offering private assurances to Yahaya Bello to accord him the status of an upmarket outlaw. Under severe public criticism for its unconcealed weaponisation and duplicities, the EFCC got hot under the proverbial collar and embarked on what looked like high-profile feints. In addition to the case of Yahaya Bello, it also went after former minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika, and increased motion on its part in the case concerning former governor of Anambra state, Willie Obiano. These cases have, however, become performative distractions from the institutional accident that this EFCC has turned into.

Forty-eight hours before it confronted Yahaya Bello’s application to afford him a home-court advantage in the trial over multiple counts of rapine he committed as governor, the Federal High Court in Lagos entered a rather curious verdict in another case of “Naira abuse” instituted by the EFCC with the design to show that its pursuit of Bobrisky was Kosher. The accused this time was celebrity bartender and impresario, Pascal Okechukwu, better known as Cubana Chief Priest. Arraigned in the immediate aftermath of the conviction of Bobrisky on April 17, Okechukwu –unlike Bobrisky– was able to afford the services of a highly-priced Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

In this case, Okechukwu and the EFCC reached a deal under which he agreed to pay N10 million to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation; undertake “intensive and rigorous sensitisation” against Naira abuse, and “bi-monthly post on his various social media handles a minimum of two video clips of his sensitisation/campaign against abuse of naira and sundry offences.”

After taking cognizance of this deal, the trial court reportedly cautioned Okechukwu and thereafter “struck out” [the] charge against the celebrity bartender. How a court can have jurisdiction to caution a suspect in a case that it has struck out, only the judge and the EFCC can divine. The design, it seems clear, is to ensure that Okechukwu, a well-connected Nigerian unlike the much-maligned Bobrisky, doesn’t end up with a criminal record. There is only one word to describe the kind of settlement that the EFCC engineered in this case; it was egregiously corrupt and the commission knows it.

The fact that a commission created to fight network corruption and racketeering has now degenerated into dealing in the currency it was supposed to liquidate is something Nigerians had suspected, but most people did not expect such brazenness about it. As if to gloat about its evolution into an institutionalisation of misadventure, personnel of the EFCC have recently been caught in different states around Nigeria rampantly assaulting poor citizens who were going about their lawful work and lives.

In response to these, some citizens thought about mobilising to protest against the commitment of the EFCC to the abuse of public trust. Rather than welcome this as an act of concerned solidarity, the commission defaulted characteristically to bluster and intimidation and went public to proudly advertise its credentials as a threat to the constitutionally entrenched rights of Nigerians. In a release during the past week, it bloviated that it “will not tolerate any breakdown of law and order anywhere in the country, especially around its office locations across Nigeria.” Not done, the EFCC also warned that  it was “in concert with sister security agencies,…. taking necessary measures to deal with possible threats to the peace and security of Nigeria.”

The EFCC under its current leadership has made a mission of fiddling while the country careens. The tragedy of their latest statement was lost on the leadership of an institution that seems incapable of looking at itself in the mirror. If they were able to do so, they would have seen quite easily that the self-imposed incapacities of the commission have now become one of the biggest threats to Nigeria’s peace and security. It’s time to remind Pastor Olukoyede of his promise to resign.

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.

This intervention is inspired by a piece titled “The Menace of the Internet Mob”, authored by Simon Kolawole.

Among other things, he lamented that “social media has become the death of many people, metaphorically and literally. Many have been tried, condemned and executed on social media based on misinformation and disinformation. Conversely, many have also become brain-dead, willingly and wilfully spreading misinformation and disinformation for the sake of clout-chasing”. Drawing a distinction, he emphasised that “misinformation is mostly a mistake — usually borne out of ignorance, poor intellect or laziness to fact-check. Disinformation is deliberate, borne out of pure mischief or vendetta, and often useful for propaganda. The mobsters (I fondly call them “internet thugs”) are not governed by any rules. It is the survival of the loudest, the rudest and the vilest. Unless you are a victim of mob malignment, you would never understand. It is always sweet when you are dishing out the dirt, making unfounded allegations, demonising people, distributing insults or rupturing reputations with vicious rumours. It is exciting to be the enabler and amplifier. But when the boot is on the other foot, reality dawns on you”.

He did not stop there. On why people engage in “standing truth on its head, propagating falsehood and ignoring obvious facts and sound logic” Kolawole provided multiple answers. However, he noted that “the list is by no means exhaustive”.

He acknowledged that “the craving for social media validation, relevance and popularity is a major motive and motivation” and also that “there is a motley crowd of wannabe influencers or activists who seek to be noticed by the loudness of their voices and the vileness of their posts”; thus implying that “it is a race to the bottom: who can post the basest of things”.

Continuing, he added that “monetisation of contents is a perverse incentive to gain engagement through likes and shares” and lastly, that “social media is home to recklessness without commensurate consequences”.

The forgoing underscores the bane of Nigeria’s socio-political development. It shows how the elites, in an attempt to achieve self-preservation, wilfully manipulate the vulnerable and serially commit “murder”.

Because misinformation is synonymous with ignorance, due to limited knowledge, while disinformation represents outright mischief, Simon Kolawole’s homily is a warning that until the elites rightly deploy their senses of exposure and opportunity, Nigeria will continue to experience a motion without movement.

Knowing the truth but deliberately championing the opposite, they stand under the banner of the freedom of expression to promote largely divisive and self-seeking tendencies. They find fulfilment in “dishing out the dirt, making unfounded allegations, demonising people, distributing insults or rupturing reputations” and also derailing governance.

Granted, criticism is essential for good governance. But when it is deployed for mischief, particularly when personalities are given undue prominence rather than issues, then national development is not the ultimate goal.

For example, the elites know more than every one of us that the 1999 constitution (even as amended) makes the legislature utterly powerless concerning its supervisory roles over the executive. The president, in this case, enjoys the latitude to appoint as many aides and spend as much public money as they desire because the much-touted approval of the legislature is merely ceremonial. Authoritatively, there are no clear-cut constitutional consequences for bypassing the legislature in appointing, spending and even borrowing. Yes, this is incontrovertible!

So it amounts to living in denial to contemplate ideal democratic practices without dynamic laws that support a viable and strong legislature.

Hence, how can we justifiably blame the legislature when we fail to first champion a balance of powers among the arms of government or advocate for strong institutions as against strong individuals?

Another example.

Because public office comes with misconceptions, Godswill Akpabio, as the President of the 10th Senate, has suddenly become one of the most debatable Nigerian politicians.

By the orchestrations of the elites, there is no longer a demarcation between his person and the office he occupies. Also, he has since lost his right to hold and express opinions, even as a senator representing a constituency.

Again by those propagated narratives, Akpabio, as a presiding officer, unilaterally passes resolutions and bills or makes decisions without the input of the other 108 senators and also, his personal views represent the corporate position of the Senate. In short, the national assembly under him is just a willing tool in the hands of the presidency of which the only path to redemption is a hostile relationship with the executive, even when the constitution has already undermined the legislature. What a contradiction and validation that hypocrisy is simply knowing the truth but upholding the opposite!

However, and solely to inform the ignorant, a leader and their followers are on the same page only when the former inspires the latter into alignment or when both divides are bound by shared perspectives. Particularly in the parliament, every decision is a product of debates and collaboration.

Furthermore, Bola Tinubu was elected as the president, based on what he promised to deliver in the same manner that Akpabio was elected to preside over the Senate on the strength of what he represented. Though the choices of their party, they were not returned unchallenged. Their elections were keenly contested.

Not just that! Akpabio, right from the onset, has been vocal about pursuing a leadership that is defined by legislature-executive collaboration, which understandably, is the only option for good governance, given Nigeria’s peculiarities. He has never made pretences about it. This is a mark of courage.

Therefore, his favourable disposition to the procurement of a presidential jet is not a surprise. Though still an opinion, the Senate, nay the national assembly takes the responsibility for the eventual outcome, especially as the proposal originated from the House of Representatives. Certainly, there will be debates and votes.

However, beyond the series of parochial narratives, there are genuine concerns. The economy is very bad and people are suffering.

As such, the government should, first of all, renew the hope of the citizenry with the pragmatic assurances that their well-being is a priority. Let the investments begin to flow. Let the refineries commence operations. Let the farmers return to the farmlands without fear. Let the food inflation be addressed. Let the minimum wage debacle be resolved. Let the power sector work optimally.

Unarguably, all these are possible and the aircraft purchase does not in any way foreclose them if there is a will.

The elites only take advantage of the people’s despair to advance their disservice.

But even at that, once again, there is nothing anybody can do should the aircraft be purchased without the approval of the legislature because the Constitution has since settled the matter. History is replete with similar cases. Only recently, the Senate twice opposed the electricity tariff increase, but the executive had its way.

Meanwhile, according to a report, “the nation’s presidential jet is a brand from Nigeria to the world and it can boost a robust foreign policy and global engagements. The jet is not personal to Tinubu, it is for Nigeria”.

Quite instructively, “there are many ways it can be done cost-effectively. It could be done by having a long-term lease, which will involve periodic payments, and by having engine programmes and insurance, which will ensure that parts of the aircraft are duly insured and paid by insurers. So, there are many means of doing it. Sometimes, it is cost-effective. And we have enough central bankers and corporate finance gurus to support it, such that it’s not a whopping amount. So, besides the current economic challenges, we should not lose sight of a jet for Nigeria. It is not for President Tinubu, personally. It is for Nigeria. The last one, currently in use, was bought by former president Obasanjo. We need another one at this time”.

Interpretatively, a strategic government can replace an old jet without further impoverishing the people.

Who says that the elites are not aware of all these?

Equally, they are informed about the limitations of the legislature in developing democracies. They know that whereas one is entitled to their opinion, truth and objectivity are not to be sacrificed on the altar of activism and also that in every criticism, national interest should be the ultimate goal.

Even in their passion for an ‘unblemished’ senate president, our revered elites know, in their subconscious minds, that it is ideal to attack issues rather than personalities, and similarly, that advocacy for a strengthened legislature is superior to subjective criticisms.

Yet, they choose the demeaning path of ridiculing the legislature and manipulating the vulnerable through disinformation. Knowing the truth but upholding the opposite!

Whatever they set out to achieve is left to conjecture, if not outright mischief.

But may they be reminded that though “it is always sweet when you are the one dishing out the dirt, making unfounded allegations, demonising people, distributing insults or rupturing reputations”, posterity never forgets. Yes, as they say, the internet does not forget! At the fullness of time, especially “when the boot is on the other foot, reality dawns on” them.

And again, until the constitution is repackaged to guarantee a truly independent legislature and until Godswill Akpabio is found wanting by his colleagues, he deserves the support and respect of all. Morality demands that national unity and development should guide every criticism. Like all mortals, Akpabio is not perfect but a fair assessment of the 10th Senate so far reinforces this patriotic appeal.

Egbo is a parliamentary affairs analyst.