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![[OPINION] Three Years on: Remembering the Late Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, CFR - Akin Olukiran](/media/k2/items/cache/4f675b298286762b121cb308f7d6985f_L.jpg)
21st May 2021 is one of those days that you remember exactly where you were when the news broke about a Nigerian Airforce plane crash in Kaduna. For me, it is exactly three years ago today in London that I was just preparing to return to Abuja when I nonchalantly turned on the television to BBC News to see what was going on around the world. I thought I caught the breaking news strip on Nigeria with the corner of my eye. I waited a few seconds again for the news flash to reappear and thought I wasn’t seeing right when I read that the plane carrying the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, CFR, together with ten other officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces had crashed and that all on board the ill-fated plane were presumed dead.
I grabbed my phone to make calls and to my consternation, there were already several missed calls and WhatsApp messages on my phone from concerned citizens who knew of my friendship with the Attahirus. I frantically put a call through and was fortunate to get through to one of Mrs Attahiru’s brothers who was with her in their house at the time. I wept, first for the Attahirus for having lost a dear and caring husband and father, but more, for Nigeria, for having lost a refreshingly fine leader who was fearlessly committed to decisively ending the menace of the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East.
General Attahiru cannot, and must not, be forgotten! He was a Nigerian patriot who came from a very humble background, overcoming all adversities to get to the apex of his military career. A good role model to millions of young Nigerians from disadvantaged backgrounds who have to fight harder to have the bright futures they deserve. To the Late General, as we all know, potential is everywhere, but opportunity is not. With a strong sense of duty and inclusiveness, it was no wonder he made Readiness, Duty to the country, Dependability and Continuous leadership development (RDDC) the main pillars of his command. In his contemplation, Readiness would entail mission-oriented, functional training, the welfare of officers and men, as well as adequate equipment. His concept of Dependability would be about building the capacity of the Nigerian Army to accomplish any mission in line with the norms of humanity as enshrined in its core values and ethics. The Continuous leadership development philosophy would ensure that the Army starts to build commanders who understand the dynamics of 21st century soldiering.
His emblematic rallying cry to his men on the war front in Maiduguri in February 2021 still evokes intense patriotic valour amongst the men and officers of the Nigerian military and has been likened in its enduring effects, to one of the speeches by Sir Winston Churchill during WWII. He told the troops at Dikwa, among other things:
“I bring you very special greetings from the President, Commander-in-Chief of the
Armed Forces. I present myself as your Chief of Army Staff to get to meet you and for
you to get to know me as well.
The essence of this visit is operational. The idea is to motivate you.
In the last few days, we have had attacks in your area of responsibility.
It is high time we got back and fight through and support our forces ahead of you.
Areas around Marte, Chikingudo, Kirenowa, up to Kira, Wulgo must be cleared
in the next 48 hours., Rest assured of all the support required in this onerous task”.
Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru promised to do as he directed. And they delivered! The troops advanced immediately and recaptured Marte within 24 hours. This speech trended for several weeks and acted as a motivating factor for the other forces across the Operation Theatre.
It was therefore no surprise that, shortly after his passing, his widow, Mrs Fati Attahiru announced the founding of the General Ibrahim Attahiru Foundation (GIAF) as an independent and non-partisan Foundation in memory of the late Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of Nigeria. The Foundation was set up to perpetuate the leadership ideals and qualities he embodied as a military service leader, and as expressed in his personal life as a man of infectious generosity. The priority focus of GIAF is Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), to the military, paramilitary, veterans, their dependents and the provision of scholarships to disadvantaged young people. When he was alive, he had great concern for the mental well-being of his men and with the knowledge that our brave men and officers of the Nigerian Military and paramilitary, in the line of their duties, inevitably witness the carnage and horrors of war and are exposed to traumatic experiences. Because of the stigma associated with mental health conditions, many of our veterans and serving officers suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other psycho-trauma experiences in silence.
In the words of Minot J Savage, “The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men”. General Attahiru continues to do good and impact lives even from his grave. Since 2022, the Foundation has been running weekly radio programmes on CASIS (Campaign Against Suffering In Silence) on the Armed Forces Radio, Abuja and Liberty Radio, Kaduna, in both English and Hausa versions and broadcast in 19 Northern States. This is followed by weekly counselling support and referrals by professional psychologists and therapists. In the cause of the weekly radio programmes, both in English and Hausa, it has been discovered that a lot of people are suffering in silence, ranging from rape cases, kidnap victims, people suffering from depression, panic attacks and anxiety amongst other forms of mental health challenges as well as different forms of psychosis who call in. In the programme’s first year, it has reached over 80,000 people, with hundreds accessing the service through calls/online support and over a hundred people receiving further psychiatric/ therapeutic support.
As we mark the 3rd anniversary of the passing of Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru to the great beyond, it is my fervent wish that we become intentional in remembering our heroes past, whose sacrifices and service to our dear country ensure the democracy and relative peace we enjoy today. May his example – and those who have gone before him – guide us all and I hope you will join me in remembering his legacy and his lasting impact on our military and country. I want to end this by quoting the author of Proverbs 10:7 who says “the memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot”. May the soul of General Ibrahim Attahiru continue to rest in perfect peace and may Almighty God continue to guide, protect and bless the beautiful family he left behind.
Akin Olukiran is a family friend and he writes from London. He can be reached on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
![[OPINION] Illusive Politics: What is to be Done - Salihu Moh. Lukman](/media/k2/items/cache/410b6ee47d2d37868374b52824cd11b1_L.jpg)
In the next few days, the Fourth Republic will be 25 years. In the same vein, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be one year in office and APC will mark its nine years as a ruling party in Nigeria. The indisputable reality is that it is difficult for any rational thinking Nigerian to celebrate where we are today as a nation. If anything, our experience in the last 25 years reechoed Amartya Sen’s warning in the book Development as Freedom when he cautioned that ‘Democracy does not serve as an automatic remedy of ailment as quinine works to remedy malaria. The opportunity it opens up has to be positively grabbed in order to achieve the desired effect. This is, of course, a basic feature of freedoms in general – much depends on how freedoms are actually exercised.’
Interestingly, Amartya Sen’s book was first published in 1999, the very year Nigeria’s Fourth Republic was inaugurated. Although many Nigerian’s read the book and admired his deep intellectual insight, and foresight, but the cautionary note about the prospect or potentials of democracy to cure societal ailments was simply overlooked. Perhaps, in 1999, when Nigerians welcome democracy with very high expectations, most citizens, across the nation were more absorbed by the relief of having to bid goodbye to military rule. Having spent close to fifteen years uninterrupted and more than thirty years of our life as an independent nation at the receiving end of successive military governments, with the attendant consequences of loss of freedoms, helplessly reduced to being distant observers of poor management of Nigeria’s resources, the expectation was that democratic dispensation will change all that.
Unfortunately, here we are, twenty-five years after, welfare condition of Nigerians is unarguably worse. Unemployment and poverty incidences have increased. Poor management of national resources has continued so much so that crisis of insecurity and threat to human lives is the new normal. Worse part of it is that we have elected governments, virtually at all levels performing worse than military rulers. Although theories of democracy and politics have unquestionably proven that elected leaders will be more accountable, twenty-five years of democratic rule in Nigeria is yet to produce leaders that are predisposed to accommodating the interests of citizens. Instead, we keep moving almost in opposite direction to whatever could be estimated as the interest of Nigerians, no matter how narrowly defined. Is it that Nigeria’s democracy is yet to open the expected opportunity? Or is it that majority of Nigerians are unable to ‘positively grab’ the opportunity, which democracy presents? What is the opportunity, which democracy presents?
These are fundamental questions, which we must interrogate to be able to come to terms with our Nigerian reality and perhaps develop creative initiatives on how to exercise the freedoms that comes with democracy based on which the opportunities it presents can be ‘positively grabbed in order to achieve the desired effect’ of resolving our national challenges. First, while interrogating this issue, I want to affirm my membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and recognise that the last nine years disappointingly dashed the expectations of Nigerians. I make this admission as someone who is committed to progressive politics based on the conviction that the first thing that qualifies anyone to be a progressive is the capacity to recognise challenges based on correct assessment of realities. Correct assessment of reality is about honest criticism and taking responsibility. It is not about rationalising choices or denial of challenges and realities.
When leaders of opposition parties in the country successfully merged in July 2013, the expectations of Nigerians were that APC will produce more responsive leaders both in terms of ability to undertake honest criticisms as well as take responsibility in a direction that pulls the nation out of its development challenges. Without going into details, these are unanswerable expectations, which are today sources of frustrations for Nigerians with both the APC, as a party, the leaders it has produced, and democracy as a political system. The heartbreaking reality is that anytime some glimmer of political hope presents itself, even when supported by popular votes, it turns out to be moonlighting, basically a case of being stuck with illusive politics. APC is one glimmer of political hope, which emerged in 2013, elected as the ruling party since 2015, but emerging, so far, as another moonlighting phenomenon.
Being a party founded with the vision of becoming a progressive party, it has crashed below whatever a political party represents, not to talk of being progressive. As it is today, its leadership doesn’t obey its own constitution, it doesn’t hold meetings and it is accountable to no one. Since 2015, when the party was elected as a ruling party, with former President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated as President of the Federal Republic, the manifesto of the party has been virtually abandon and leaders of the party have little or no say in the management of governments it produced at all levels. Processes of appointments into government and policy decisions have been made prerogative of the President at national level and Governors at state levels. Like under military rule when citizens were reduced to distant observers, under the APC, party leaders and members have also become distant observers.
Because leaders of the APC are not obeying the rules of the party, we have produced several electoral disasters whereby the courts have to intervene to nullify electoral victories of the party. These are issues bordering on culture of impunity in the process of candidates selection. A situation, which invariably forsaken the commitment of the party to change Nigerian politics, instead further entrenched politics of godfatherism with the attendant consequences of widespread rigging of elections. So far, culture of impunity is pervasive in APC. A glimmer of hope that the party may overcome the culture of impunity emerged when ahead of the 2023 elections, President Asiwaju Tinubu led the struggle against imposition of a so-called consensus Presidential candidate.
The emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 election rekindled the hope of many party leaders and members about the possibility of returning the APC to its founding vision and engendering progressive governance in the country. After one year in office, the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu has turned out to be another experience replicating reality of illusive politics, which has reduced citizens, party leaders and members to being distant observers. Painfully, against every expectation that President Asiwaju Tinubu will reignite the Lagos success story at national level, his government is more and more creating doubts in the minds of Nigerians about the prospect of resolving the country’s challenges with incidences of policy missteps and reversals.
As a result, crisis of insecurity has remained. Problems of inflation, unemployment and poverty are on the increase. Politically, the APC has continued to follow the track of being disrespectful to its own rules so much so that we have shamelessly produced a serving Governor who is using his immunity to block law enforcement officials from undertaking their responsibility to investigate corruption allegations against his predecessor. The bigger disappointment is the troubling reality whereby political mercenaries who fought against President Asiwaju Tinubu’s election during the 2023 elections are now his strongest allies with free access and party loyalists who campaigned and stood by him have been denied access and are being held in contempt.
To make matters worse, illusive politics would appear to have been adopted with the emergence of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the National Chairman of the APC. So far, since his emergence, he basically confirmed all the fears against him. He has managed or mismanaged affairs of the APC blindly without respect to the provisions of the party’s constitution. Almost ten months since his emergence, with the possible exemption of the National Working Committee (NWC), no meeting of any organ of the party at national level has taken place. With elections in Edo and Ondo States coming up, the risk of reproducing another electoral disasters are high if the party fail to convene appropriate meetings of organs such as the National Executive Committee (NEC) to ratify some of the decisions taken by NWC, which were outside its mandate.
The other reality is whether the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu will continue moving in the path of illusive politics based on which Nigerians, inclusive of APC leaders and members, will remain distant observers, unable to influence decisions and directions of the President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government. As things are, the body language of President Asiwaju Tinubu is disrespectful and contemptuous to many party leaders and members, especially those that are outspoken and critical of his decisions. So long as this remain the case, the prospect of returning APC to its founding vision and engendering progressive governance will be weak. Inability to return APC to its founding vision and failure to engender progressive governance could mean inability to positively grabbed the opportunity, which democracy presents. This could also mean that the crisis of insecurity, unemployment, poverty, etc. could remain with us and become worse.
Given all these danger signals, it is important that APC leaders and members who are truly committed to developing Nigerian democracy based on progressive principles take up the challenge of organising themselves to reverse the current decline towards illusive politics in the country. Achieving that will require APC leaders and members who are truly committed to progressive politics to demand immediate reform of both the party and all governments at all levels controlled by the APC. To mainstream the reform so that it conforms with the statutory requirement of reviving the structures of the party and enabling them to affirm the supremacy of the party, processes of consultations to re-organise the leadership of the party so that respected party leaders with unblemished records of integrity emerge.
Certainly, with persons like Dr. Ganduje with all the many controversies around him vested with the responsibility of leading the party makes nonsense of all the sacrifices made by party leaders to ensure successful merger and the defeat of PDP in 2015. A clear message therefore must be sent to President Asiwaju Tinubu that as much as, being party leaders and members, we are committed to supporting his leadership and just like we have worked hard to produce the victory of 2023, which crowned him the victory of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, under no circumstances must he take for granted our support and the support of Nigerians. We must, in strong terms, remind President Asiwaju Tinubu about the power of possibility, which in fact was the main propelling factor that made the merger negotiation that produced the APC in 2013 successful. It was also the propelling factor that made the electoral victory of 2015 possible.
In fact, more than anything, it was the same factors that made the defeat of so-called consensus Presidential candidate possible. The point must be made that on no account must any leader of APC, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, be allowed to live with the illusive reasoning that Nigerians will continue to tolerate a situation whereby their hopes and aspirations are constantly being dashed by political leaders. If the hallmark of the tenure of former President Buhari is the trauma of dashed hopes for citizens, we must, as Nigerian citizens and as committed progressive politicians wake up and remedy the ugly and despicable experience of illusive politics. After one year in office, the unmistaken message must be conveyed to President Asiwaju Tinubu and by extension all APC leaders that the democratic future of Nigeria is not negotiable.
Just like Nigerians were able confront military rulers and PDP leaders when they trampled on the rights and freedoms of citizens, if APC leaders tow the same path, it is incumbent on all true progressives and patriots to organise themselves and arrest any further drift towards illusive politics. However, first thing first, the message must be communicated in unmistaken terms that President Asiwaju Tinubu should come clean and truly demonstrate that he is indeed both a democrat and a progressive politician by initiating deeper political reforms of both the APC and all governments controlled by the APC at all levels. If truly President Asiwaju Tinubu is a democrat and a progressive politician, the current lawless disposition of APC leaders must be ended. Also, inattentive conduct of President Asiwaju Tinubu, which hold APC leaders and members in contempt must change.
Failure of APC and its leadership since the time of former President Buhari to meet the expectations of Nigerians by delivering on our campaign promises has debase our democracy and made a mockery of all the gains we have made as a nation. It is not enough to change leaders. Once change of leaders doesn’t come with increased capacity to respond to national challenges, the value of democracy will be questionable. As patriots who fought for democracy, we have the responsibility to continue to engage our leaders to ensure that our democracy opens the ‘opportunity’ which should ‘be positively grabbed in order to achieve the desired effect’ of improving the lives of citizens. Anything short of that is unacceptable and is not the democracy Nigerians want. Our democracy must serve as remedy for all our societal ailments!
![[OPINION] The Scourge of Rising Inflation - Dakuku Peterside](/media/k2/items/cache/f4dc3f51650aa631090b40dff7e0b4ce_M.jpg)
An increasing number of Nigerians are being driven into poverty, not by choice, but by the current political and economic climate, shaped by stringent macroeconomic policies. These policies, such as subsidy removal, devaluation of Naira, and increase in electricity tariff, have had unintended consequences. For instance, removing subsidies has led to a significant increase in the cost of living, while the devaluation of Naira has made imported goods more expensive. These factors, combined with the high level of insecurity, have affected food security in Nigeria, and created a perfect storm of economic hardship. The signs of this unavoidable reality are readily apparent. The interventions to prevent this descent into poverty are either ineffectual or remedy the condition too slowly.
An unprecedented rise in inflation has destroyed households’ disposable incomes and pushed many families into poverty. Spiralling inflation is having a devastating impact on all, but especially on households in the lower rungs of the working class, who in their millions are joining the already over 133 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians struggling to earn a living because high inflation has eroded the value of their income. As shown by the NBS Consumer Price Index of April 2024, published in May 2024, the headline inflation rate rose to 33.69% in April 2024 compared to March. The headline inflation rate was 11.47% higher in April 2024 compared to the previous year. During the same period, inflation in urban areas was higher than in rural areas. Even worse, the food inflation rate in April 2024 was 40.53%, increasing by 15.92% compared to April 2023. What does this mean for the ordinary citizen? More money can purchase fewer goods and services.
We cannot dismiss the direct correlation between rising inflation and rising poverty in Nigeria. A household with a monthly income of N300,000 in April 2023 would have lost 33.69% of its real purchasing power if it earned the same amount in April 2024. This means that the same amount of money can now buy significantly fewer goods and services, putting a strain on the household’s budget. Imagine this household struggled in 2023 to make ends meet; how will it cope with less than 33% of its value in goods and services this year? It is little wonder many Nigerians are in despair and are calling on the government to tweak its policies and salvage the situation before it is too late. Families in the earning bracket mentioned above are even better than many whose total income is less than N100,000 if both parents in the household earn minimum wages per month.
The government intervention so far, with the best of intentions, has yielded little result as inflation continues unabated. The monetary policies of increasing base interest rates to above 22%, improving the cash reserve ratio by banks to above 40%, and constantly engaging in the money market to mop up excess liquidity have yielded less than the expected result in curbing inflation. More is needed, and my little knowledge of street economics shows me that the Nigerian economy often defies some fundamental economic concepts that work in developed countries because of our economy’s informal and unregulated nature. The Nigerian government must creatively use other bespoke and practical fiscal and monetary measures to tame our raging inflation.
Paradoxically, there is compelling evidence that inflation continues to rise because of critical government policies. Instead of providing more concerted anti-inflationary measures, the government has added more inflationary steps to the economy. The government cannot confront inflation while imposing limitless taxes, tariffs, and charges on the things that people spend money on daily. The impact of excess tax is on everybody, but the burden is more on people experiencing poverty whose purchasing power has been eroded by inflation. The government cannot tax itself out of our economic predicament. Increasing personal income tax is one way government reduces disposable income to curb demand pull inflation, but the inflation in Nigeria is not because of increase in household income, but caused by cost induced factors. So tax on people whose income have not increased in the past year is a recipe for hardship.
Other factors also imperil government efforts to curb inflation. Imported inflation has been the bane of Nigeria, given the number of raw materials and goods imported into Nigeria from countries with high inflation rates. This is not helped by the new exchange rate regime that has seen the Naira fall to its lowest value in a generation. The government has been trying to control the erosion of the value of Naira to no avail. Increasing cost of energy has pushed some businesses to pack up. These factors have exacerbated the rise of inflation, and unless the government starts tackling them, it cannot effectively win its fight against runaway inflation.
The consequences of inaction are severe and far-reaching. The system requires a set of anti-inflationary measures to relieve the people and companies so that livelihoods can improve, and real incomes recover from shock to encourage people to live and save. Savings and prosperity will fire up investment, production, supply, and consequent demand. If inflation worsens, the economy will, at best, go into stasis, further regression, and possibly a depression. More manufacturers will quit, and unemployment will worsen with even more crime and insecurity. The picture I painted above is not far from us.
Recent statistics about the hunger level in Nigeria occasioned by food inflation are alarming. There is a deteriorating food security and nutrition crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) states this lean season between May and September 2024. According to the Government-led Cadre Harmonise analysis released in March this year, in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states, some 4.8 million people are estimated to be facing severe food insecurity, the highest levels in seven years. Children, pregnant and lactating women, older persons, and people living with disabilities are among those who are most vulnerable. About 2.8 million of these people need urgent interventions.
The prices of staple foods like beans and maize have increased by 300 to 400 percent over the past year because of a cocktail of reasons. Inflation is outpacing the ability of families to cope, making essential food items unaffordable. Furthermore, the report stated that “malnutrition rates are of great concern. Approximately 700,000 children under five are projected to be acutely malnourished over the next six months, including 230,000 who are expected to be severely acutely malnourished and at risk of death if they do not receive timely treatment and nutrition support.” The Acting Representative of UNICEF Nigeria argues that “this year alone, we have seen around 120,000 admissions for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition with complications, far exceeding our estimated target of 90,000”. This statistics are for only 3 states in the Northeast Nigeria. Imagine what it will be for the whole 36 States in Nigeria. There is real fire on the mountain!
This rising hunger is not peculiar to the Northeast. From my knowledge of street economics, hunger and poverty is pervasive across all six geopolitics zones. Increasing poverty is directly linked with more severe economic outcomes. Increasing poverty can result in a more divided society, Issues with housing, homelessness, limited access to healthcare, nutrition poverty and poor living conditions that have a detrimental effect on one’s health. Children living in poverty have less access to education, which will reduce their chances in the future. More families facing poverty will experience conflicts, stress, and domestic violence. Poverty can set off a vicious cycle in which the effects of it act as catalysts for additional episodes of poverty. Increasing inflation and poverty are bad omens that blow us no good. They are bad for our economy. They are bad for our people. The government must pay attention to these factors and be more sensitive in our economic policy choices.
Only some anti-inflationary measures that comprehensively capture the macroeconomic dimensions and provide solutions may work. Poverty alleviation measures are barely temporary and, at best, work in the short run to cushion the effect of heightened inflation and food insecurity. The government should provide solid medium- to long-term solutions to tackle these problems. They should re-evaluate some of their policies to see whether they are inflationary and jettison them to allow good policies to thrive. We can only imagine the unintended consequences of allowing poverty and inflation to fester. The increasing inflation and poverty are creating desperation among a portion of society, which is increasingly becoming despondent and seeing itself at the fringes of society. The implications of this are plausible. Many ordinary citizens are burdened by poverty, hunger, and severe inflation, which have made their lives miserable. The government must take action to alleviate this scourge and help Nigerians lead meaningful lives.
![[OPINION] Gov. Oyebanji: Wooing investors to Ekiti - Bola Bolawole](/media/k2/items/cache/c075d3d200f5d6e002018f7c30c4649f_M.jpg)
Gov. Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State is, without doubt, one of the country’s best performing governors. He works hard, talks less, evades the limelight but his Ekiti people describe him as an achiever. He was in Dallas, United States of America recently to urge foreign investors to take advantage of the current economic reforms in Nigeria to invest in the country.
“This is the right time for any investor to invest in Nigeria”, Oyebanji declared at a panel session, one of the major events at the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit organized by the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), citing the current reforms of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration and the synergy between the Federal Government and the country’s 36 state governments, which includes his own Ekiti.
In attendance at the session were heads of national and sub-national governments; investors; policy-makers and development agencies drawn from different parts of the world, including the Chairman of the Board of Corporate Council on Africa, Mr. John Olajide.
To buttress his assertion, Oyebanji cited a few successful collaborations between Ekiti and some international investors, including Cavista Holdings and Promasidor, to make a case for more direct investment in the state, stressing that the right time to invest in the state is now.
“Now, we have a reform-minded government that is visionary and we have 36 state governors that have keyed into the vision of the President Tinubu administration. The economy of sub-nationals are critical to the Nigerian economy itself. So, for any investor that wants good returns on their investment, this is the time to invest in Nigeria because the market is readily available, the people are ready, we have a government that is reform-minded and all the governors have keyed into the vision as well. So, the time to invest in Nigeria is now”.
Wooing investors to Ekiti in particular, Oyebanji said the State Government is strong on regulatory frameworks designed to protect investors and their investments. His exact words: “What we are doing is to ensure that we have a stable and predictable regulatory framework and there must be trust because I believe that for any business to thrive, trust is key. You must have a leader that is visionary, trust-worthy, and transparent. All these we have in Ekiti State”.
Ekiti’s vast mineral resources as well as its agricultural and tourism potentials beg to be tapped. Fresh from the launching of a book on creating values by Ademola Akinbola (more on this later), it must be stated that tapping into Nigeria’s vast human and material resources is the antidote to the country’s crippling economic crisis seemingly defying solution. What with the Naira rising today and falling tomorrow!
Each time I travel in Ekiti – as in other parts of the country – and see vast agricultural and tourism potentials waiting to be tapped, it saddens me. I refrain from using the expression “wasting or rotting away”! It gladdens the heart, then, to see that there is a governor in Ekiti working silently to change the narrative. The two years that I spent in Ekiti towards the tail end of the Ayo Fayose administration and the unique opportunity I had traversing the whole state on campaign hustings with Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka opened my eyes to the immense agricultural resources of the state.
The tourism potentials of Ekiti, if tapped, is a gold mine that can sustain the State and wean it from over-dependence on Abuja for bailouts and doleouts. Last Easter witnessed a giant step taken by the state governor, with the concurrence of the Minister of Tourism, to begin to tap into this money spinner. Having enjoyed Ekiti’s tourism potentials in the past, Arinta waterfalls and Ikogosi warm springs to be specific, I intend to make a return visit to those spots and other Ekiti tourism potentials to highlight them for potential investors and tourism enthusiasts alike. We need to know that what we travel abroad to enjoy at prohibitive costs abound right at our backyard at affordable costs.
This is also the right time for Ekiti to tap into its mineral resources. The state is fortunate to have the hard-working Minister in charge of mineral resources development, Dele Alake; let Dele’s charity begin from home! After Ekiti, Dele should please come to my home state of Ondo to help us, before making the rounds all over the country. Lest you forget, Ondo and Ekiti used to be one state! As they say, every politics is local! Synergy is required between Minister and governor to deliver the goods to Ekiti. The human resources abound in Ekiti, which is touted as the state with the highest concentration of professors and academics in Nigeria.
If Ekiti must move from being a sleepy civil service state to a business destination of choice, the time is now! It is do-able. Otunba Gbenga Daniel started a similar revolution in Ogun state and, today, that state is no longer the sleepy civil service state that it used to be but has one of the highest IGR in the country. Ekiti can follow suit.
If Oyebanji and Alake achieve that for Ekiti, their names with be etched in gold, just as we mention Gbenga Daniel’s today.
![[OPINION] Kneeling for Imams of northern Nigeria - Lasisi Olagunju](/media/k2/items/cache/06212067d5f0eb013af5db4c02353a75_M.jpg)
“Nigeria is a composite of contradictions; what is poison in the south is sweet sauce in the north. The Ovimbundu (Bantu) people of Southern Africa say that the mist of the coast is the rain of the desert. In the place where I come from, mass children is interpreted as mass misery (omo beere, òsì beere). We also warn that marriage is easy to contract, what about soup money? Mass weddings were conducted yesterday, last year and in the last decade in the North. What happened to them? Where are the benefits beyond their adding to the hardship of the destitute? Where I come from, we say a mother does not feel the weight of her baby (omo kìí wúwo l’éhìn ìyá è). But the trunk of the North’s elephant is, by choice, made a burden for it to carry. The North’s way of life hurts where I come from – Western Nigeria. I am not the only one who has this thought. While the southern bird avoids waters that degrade the girl-child, the duck of the North preens and bathes in them. Embarrassing stories such as of this mass wedding stuff are so common with northern political and religious leaders. A hail of threats against counter views comes common too. And when they happen, questions are asked down south about the sense in sharing this Nigerian complex.”
A minister suffered severe abuse and reprimand from the elites of the North last week because she asked the North to choose mass education first before mass marriage. Sixty-four years after independence, we are still struggling to understand Nigeria’s Muslim North and its ways. A 1950 letter to the editor of Gaskiya, northern Nigeria’s preeminent Hausa newspaper, should tell us something about the mystery of the region.
The letter appeared in the newspaper’s number 391 of 8 March, 1950 on page 2.
It reads:
“To the Editor – I beg to lay this complaint before you, so that you may approach the Sultan in order that I may achieve my desire. I am of slave descent, belonging to one of the families of court slaves. Both my father and mother were slaves of a certain emir. My mother’s name is Munayabo, and my father’s Ci-wake. A well-to-do man has fallen in love with me, and I love him too, but he has got four wives already. For this reason, we find it difficult to make arrangements for living together. I asked a learned mallam, who told me to ask my father’s consent first, according to Islamic law, and also that of the authorities. If they agree to the proposal, I can become his concubine, Islamic law allows it. This is what the mallam told me. Well, Mr. Editor, my father, Islamic law, I myself and the rich man have agreed, only the authorities remain. May they agree to make proper arrangements for me so that I may be allowed into the harem of the man. My father’s and my mother’s names show that I really belong to a family of former slaves.
“I believe there are quite a number of girls such as me in the North. We have found that if girls in our position were allowed by the authorities, as is permitted by the law, to live as concubines in the harems of princes and well-to-do and important officials, the number of prostitutes who walk the streets would be reduced considerably. In this way, it may be possible for some of us to give birth to children who will one day be useful to the country. In this way, I may give birth to a son who may even one day become an emir. This will be better than our walking about in the towns and giving birth to children without proper fathers. Our religion permits it, but it is the authorities that are closing the door against us. I am sure that if the authorities allowed it, certain great houses in the North would accommodate thousands of us.
“Mr. Editor, I have given you a full explanation. We have come to an agreement with the said rich man, and are only waiting for the consent of the authorities on behalf of the Sultan. I wish you would lay my statement, as set out here, before the authorities and not allow room for destructive criticism. I should like the critics to understand that it is not my father who is trying to sell me into slavery. It is at my own free will that I desire to live in a big harem with a man who has already got four wives. I adjure you by Allah, Mr. Editor, to publish this letter so that I may get a reply and permission from the authorities.
(Signature)”.
I got the above letter from Joseph Schacht’s ‘Islam in Northern Nigeria’, published in Studia Islamica, 1957, No. 8. The author said the signatory of the letter was “a well-educated young girl who had passed with distinction through the modern Government College for Girls.” Note that the letter was not written in the 19th century. It was written a few years before independence.
For better or for worse, a lot has shifted since that letter was composed. I do not think girls are still born over there into ‘slavery’ and thus have to beg to be allowed to marry. What I know (and everybody knows) is that the North routinely stages mass weddings for hordes of nameless girls and ladies. Are they children of slaves?
I am a Muslim from southern Nigeria and each time strange things happen in the North in the name of Islam, I exchange glances of surprise with my brothers here. Schacht (1902-1969), the author of ‘Islam in Northern Nigeria’, was a British-German professor of Arabic and Islam at Columbia University in New York. He was the leading western scholar on Islamic law. In that article, he said the Muslims of our North whom he saw in 1957 “form a very isolated community.” He wrote that “most of their isolation is voluntary and intentional” and that “they are generally afraid of being contaminated by modern ideas, and particularly by the non-Islamic South.” I strongly believe they still prefer their isolation from “modern ideas” and from the South. And we are still in the same country. Shouldn’t we just restructure and redefine boundaries and contacts?
I am being very careful choosing my words as I write this. I have written some paragraphs and cancelled them because I am, like the girls of Niger State, an orphan with no capacity for self-defence. But, it would appear that northern Nigeria’s biggest business today is mass wedding and mass production of children. After child-making, it has religion, very economically lucrative political religion. With this combo, it wrecks itself and stunts the country, and sows contagious poverty across the land. I hope no one is going to contest these.
I will be shocked if you did not follow last week’s big fight between the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, and the northern elite led by imams from Niger State. The woman offended the North because she said no to a plan to shell out 100 orphaned girls to some randy men in a mass wedding. And because of that, press conferences and acid rains of sermons poured across the swarthy region on Friday. They said the ‘condescending’ female minister from the South overstepped her bounds. They said it was their religious culture to assist female orphans to solve their problems by marrying them off en masse, so that they can multiply and fill the earth with children. They did not tell us if their culture has plans only for the girls while male orphans are left to roam the street as Almajirai.
The image a mass-wedding evokes in me is that of tethered rams at sallah markets. Or, more appropriately, a mass of what slave merchants called dabukia (female with plump breasts) and farkhah (female with small breasts) in mid-19th century Sokoto, Kano and Katsina slave markets. I have read some defences for the botched mass wedding of Niger State. Some said the girls and their families begged for it and the speaker paid as a man of God. Let us assume the girls truly begged for the weddings, couldn’t their helper just give the ‘help’ without the humiliation of a mass sale?
Yet, it is said that the loud mass weddings we see in the North are followed almost immediately by quiet mass divorces. Yusuf M. Adamu and Rabi Abdulsalam Ibrahim, both of Bayero University, Kano, did a seminal work on what they call “the rashness of divorce in Hausa society.” In their ‘Spheres, Spaces and Divorcees in Zawarawa: A Hausa movie (2018)’, quoting Solivetti (1994:252), they say Hausa Muslim society has “one of the highest rates of divorce and remarriage in the world.” It is also in that piece that I see a raw passage on commodification of marriage in Hausa land. A character in the movie exclaims: “The prices of things in Nigeria are rising, especially crude oil, gold and diamond. The prices are rising. But why has the value of women fallen so low? (Tattalin arziki ya na ta tashi a Nijeriya, musamman ma na man fetur da gwalagwalai da lu’ulu’u. kullum dada hauhawa su ke. Amma farashin mata, ya a ke ya fadi wanwar?).” Read the various defences in support of the controversial mass wedding in Niger State. Do a character assessment of the suitors, especially the two said to have assisted their in-laws to pay ransom but now want “marriage without delay or their money back.” Have the angry Imams and mallams asked what kind of husbands those ones will be?
Nigeria is a composite of contradictions; what is poison in the south is sweet sauce in the north. The Ovimbundu (Bantu) people of Southern Africa say that the mist of the coast is the rain of the desert. In the place where I come from, mass children is interpreted as mass misery (omo beere, òsì beere). We also warn that marriage is easy to contract, what about soup money? Mass weddings were conducted yesterday, last year and in the last decade in the North. What happened to them? Where are the benefits beyond their adding to the hardship of the destitute? Where I come from, we say a mother does not feel the weight of her baby (omo kìí wúwo l’éhìn ìyá è). But the trunk of the North’s elephant is, by choice, made a burden for it to carry. The North’s way of life hurts where I come from – Western Nigeria. I am not the only one who has this thought. While the southern bird avoids waters that degrade the girl-child, the duck of the North preens and bathes in them. Embarrassing stories such as of this mass wedding stuff are so common with northern political and religious leaders. A hail of threats against counter views comes common too. And when they happen, questions are asked down south about the sense in sharing this Nigerian complex.
‘Season of Migration to the North’, described by a reviewer as a “sensual work of deep honesty and incandescent lyricism”, is a 1966 novel by Sudanese novelist, Tayeb Salih. Its setting should have been northern Nigeria. Forced marriage is part of that story. And, in that story, we hear the voice of Hosna bint Mahmoud promising “like the blade of a knife” that “if they force me to marry, I’ll kill him and kill myself.” And, she does just that. Such involuntary, fatal nuptials are routinely tied in our North. They always do it. We will always beg them to stop because their way hurts us.
The people I am begging here are the real kabiyesis of the North – the Imams and the mallams. They make the rules and reign as the lords of the north-west, the north-east and parts of the north-central. But, will they listen and stop? They will not. They are what the Yoruba call kò níí gbà, omo elétíkunkun. And we won’t keep quiet.
Nigeria is an unending struggle against conscientious ignorance. The fundamentalism that rules Afghanistan has its professors in northern Nigeria. It is not edifying to faith. Read again the letter I started this article with. Pre-independence northern Nigeria had what was called ‘Fight Against Ignorance Committee’. There is no need to ask what the result of that initiative was. If the committee succeeded, the North would not have the world’s largest number of out-of-school-children; it would not attack a minister for asking it to choose education over marriage; banditry and terrorism and mass poverty would not be the region’s stable staple.
So, when we ask the elite of the North to drop their bad ways, it is not because we hate them and their North. No. It is because we benefit from the Hausa wisdom that emphasises peace over pie: “it is easy enough to find food but hard to get away to a place where you can eat it in peace (Ba samu’n abinchi ke da wuya, wurinda zaka chishi ke da wuya)”. We live in the same house with the North, and while doing so, we strongly believe that we deserve our peace. That was why that woman minister from the south, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, tore the North’s mass-wedding scroll and insisted on Nigeria adding real value to the lives of those 100 hapless girls. It is the reason I wrote this.
![[OPINION] God will rescue you - Gabriel Agbo](/media/k2/items/cache/0be241b40573feb35095ade742e0579c_M.jpg)
So many people are today going through horrible things and difficult times. They seem to have come to the end of their life journey, end of their career or their vision. It is like man and God have since abandoned them. Some have been dealt terribly by Satan, enemies, friends, relations and life misfortunes. Even those that they trusted, loved and helped have betrayed, injured and abandoned them. Some are struggling to bounce back while many others have completely given up, resigned to fate – waiting to be ‘deleted’ and forgotten. In fact they have been left to rot away – with no hope and no future – licking their wounds and tears in secret. Where are you now? Yes, I am asking you. What is your current situation? Were you betrayed? Were you attacked, fatally bruised and wounded? Were you robbed? Or maybe you are presently abandoned to die? Tell me. Listen now, your story is not worse than the man Jesus described here “…A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ Luke 10:30-35
My God! Listen, your help is coming! He is sending somebody to lift you out of that situation. And surprisingly it will come from where you least expected. I just prayed for a man who thinks everything had come to an end. No money, no peace in the home, no favour, no love and no trust from relations and no hope. And the worst is that he was totally betrayal by those he trusted physically and spiritually. You know it is easier to endure when you lose physical things. But when those that should help you emotionally and spiritual also disappoint, it makes the matter worse and will take God’s grace for you to survive and still move on. This is why the punishment, the curses for betrayers, spiritual, priestly fraudsters and fakes will always be greatly multiplied. Don’t defraud the innocent, the gullible and the wounded who are seeking for healing in the name of God or religion. Don’t manipulate people to extort and steal from them in the name of God and spiritual help. If you do, your end and reward will sure be painful and disastrous. But that is not what we are talking about today. Our friend, the Jewish man was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The men of the underworld, the robbers, and the bandits attacked him, beat him up, stole all his money and goods and left him there on the highway to die. Yes, people can be that wicked. Very wicked! But they were simply imitating their father the Devil whom the bible said that he goes about killing, stealing and destroying. That has been his ministry everywhere, throughout ages.
A priest that should have compassion and offer help came, saw this man, crossed over to the other lane and walked away. And a Levite came around and did the same. Those that are supposed to help him ran away. But help still came from an unexpected quarters – a despised Samaritan, one that should not have anything or much to do with a Jew! Those that you expected and waited to help you have disappeared and others are presently watching how you are going to come out of this mess. But I have good news for you today. God is sending a help to rescue you out of that situation! You will not die in it. You will not be consumed by it! They conspired to betray you. They ganged up to attack and steal from you for no just cause. They conspired and took your position. They dealt treacherously with you and stepped aside to watch you weep and lick your wounds. They thought nobody saw them, but God did. He has come to heal you and also punish the wicked. He has come to heal you emotionally, spiritually, physically and financially. Yes, you were wounded, abused and abandoned but you are healing now! It will be a total package. The Good Samaritan, stopped, knelt near the wounded man, cleaned and treated his wounds and bandaged them. He lifted him onto his own donkey. He also took him to a place of safety and total care and paid the cost. My God! This is exactly what God is coming to do for you now. It is going to be a total healing package. Get up and wipe off those tears because something glorious is about to happen to you! We will continue. God bless! Please, share this message.
![[OPINION] Ogun Resolving Housing Deficit With Trending Affordable Units - Oshileye Mistura](/media/k2/items/cache/633b72d379d8a2ee241e215965b88626_S.jpg)
It is a common believe that availability of affordable housing in any society, plays an important role in improving the living standard of the people, having multiplying effects on the socio-economic development of the nation.
However, Nigeria is one of the African nations that have challenges tackling its growing housing deficit resulting from increasing population and other socio-economic issue. Effective provision of affordable housing for the people has remained on the inadequate list, an issue that continues to generate discussions among relevant stakeholders not only in Nigeria, but also Africa sub-region.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria housing deficit was 7 million, rising as high as 12 million in 2007, 14 million in 2010 and 20 million in 2018. By 2023, Nigeria had recorded an estimated 30 million in housing deficit with high cost of construction materials, high property cost, lack of access to credit for potential homeowners, slow cost of land registration and land titles, poor housing policies, among others, affecting the adequate supply of housing units.
Some experts, in the wake of tackling the growing housing deficit, opined that the best way to address the challenge is through a multifaceted channel that will include government and other key stakeholders at all levels, be it private organisations, real estate developers, cooperative societies and many more, to deploy innovative solutions which will require a symbiotic collaboration to meet the diverse housing needs of every stratum in the country.
In bridging the widening housing gap affecting all interest, particularly the middle and lower class citizens in Ogun state, the present administration led by Prince Dapo Abiodun embarked on affordable housing initiative that would address the challenges. An initiative which has become a model for other states to emulate. Governor Abiodun, through the Ogun State Housing Corporation (OGSHC), reaffirmed its commitment to assiduously pursue provision and delivery of decent, safe housing accommodation at affordable cost with secured land tenure.
Aside from these, the Corporation has not relented in its responsibility of increasing the availability of residential homes, commercial, as well as industrial buildings for more people to acquire, thereby providing and maintaining roads, footways, bridges, street lights, ensuring functional drainages,sewers and potable water for the overall convenience of subscribers.
Interestingly the foremost housing estates which were located at Ibara, Abeokuta and Igbeba in Ijebu-Ode, were taken over and developed into vibrant, elegant and enlarged housing units by the Corporation, with lots of other well-built ones in Ilaro, Idiroko, Ayetoro, Ota and Oke-Ata, to mention a few.
Going by the robust policy framework under the social housing scheme of Governor Dapo Abiodun led-administration, the methodical approach and financing mechanism adopted for the provision of decent accommodation, in a serene environment has really showed value for what allottes subscribed to. No wonder the Federal Government showed interest in partnering with the State towards meeting its target of delivering 10,000 housing units in the three Senatorial Districts of the State; Ogun Central, Ogun West and Ogun East.
To the credit of OGSHC, the 'Yellow roof' innovative logo of the state government's housing estates were successfully completed and delivered with essential facilities at Kemta Idi-Aba, tagged, Prince Court Housing Estate, phase 1.
The Prince Court Housing Estate consists of 120 units of 2-bedroom semi-detached bungalows and 10 units of 3 bedroom detached bungalow, totaling 130 units, while the 2nd phase of the estate also has 150 units. Similarly, the construction of the first phase of Prince Court Housing Estate in Itanrin, Ijebu- Ode, was done with 100 units of 2 and 3 semi-detached bungalow.
To improve upon the existing laudable, affordable and quality housing delivery to the people of Ogun State therefore, more creative strides are being worked out. This vision includes, but not limited to the construction of 5 bedroom detached duplexes in Ota, Boft Gardens along Lagos road, Abeokuta, which will consist of 150 units of expandable 2 bedroom semi- detached bungalows, and Prince Court 3 , which will consist of 250 units expandable 2 bedroom units.
The General Manager, Ogun State Housing Corporation, ESV. Wale Ojo, who emphasised that the new projects would be accompanied with world class infrastructure capable of attracting many subscribers, noted that the present administration was keen at providing quality, affordable and decent housing for the people, rather than mere shelter.
The new trend in housing delivery no doubt calls for fresh skills on best practices, training on technological advancements and relevant regulations to ensure efficient and sustainable development. In this regard, the pro-activeness of the Corporation has manifested through a high-level capacity building programmes for professionals in different cadres, to enhance their skills, knowledge, and capabilities in planning, designing and managing projects.
With the two-day training on Strategic Leadership Development for the management cadre, organised by the Corporation, towards boosting individual and organisational performance in effective delivery for better turnover, was held, followed by training on Work Ethics and Professionalism'' for the Secretaries.
According to the General Manager, ''these workshop and training will help to sharpen the management skills and broaden their knowledge, regarding their responsibilities in the organization. Meeting up with the housing needs of the people require Government sustainable policy, undertaken by well-trained government workers who will sustain the policy and ensure its actualisation for the socio-economic development of the state.
Consequently, Ogun State Housing Corporation has set machinery in motion to achieve its set objectives of bridging the gap of housing deficit not only by mere building of more affordable housing units but also in training and empowering the workforce that will sustain such a laudable vision in the State.
Mistura, Press Officer, Ogun State Housing Corporation, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
![[OPINION] A standing Ovation to Aare Dele Momodu @64 - Kunle Oshobi](/media/k2/items/cache/96b4b9d6e2d6d5302e3189b37b9a290a_S.jpg)
Two weeks ago, I woke up to receive an invitation from Aare Dele Momodu via WhatsApp, requesting my presence at his inaugural leadership lecture in celebration of his sixty-fourth birthday. I was really excited about the initiative because such forums tend to serve as incubation rooms where wealth of ideas that can be used to propel the country forward are consummated.
I was even more excited about the topic “The politics of energy and the way forward” but what really thrilled me was the choice of Prof Bartholomew Nnaji as the guest speaker given his phenomenal exploits in the Nigerian power sector which is already transforming the economy of Abia state and promises to serve as a template that can be used to resolve the power sector challenges in Nigeria.
I waited with abated breath till the sixteenth of May when the event was scheduled to take place at the prestigious Nigerian Institute for International Affairs (NIIA) in Victoria Island, Lagos. The day couldn’t come early enough, it actually felt as if I was the one going to be the celebrant given how excited I was about it. The day eventually came and there was a heavy downpour that morning which resulted in a bit of traffic congestion but it wasn’t enough to deter me as I looked forward with excitement to the event of the day.
On getting to the premises of the NIIA, the ambiance of the venue was augmented by a beautiful collage of photographs of the celebrant with leading past and present, national and global leaders which showcased him as a man with vast networks and influence even though he has always downplayed this with his exceptional humility.
As expected the ambiance of the auditorium was congenial as it had been well decorated to suit the occasion and the Master of Ceremony was no less than Dr Reuben Abati who is one of the top and most respected journalist in the country. The occasion was graced by three former governors who have also been leading presidential candidates in previous elections namely Peter Obi, Donald Duke, and Rabiu Kwankwaso while the Chief Host of the occasion was the governor of Osun state, His Excellency Governor Ademola Adeleke.
The royal father of the day was no less a personality than the Oonirisa, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi who brought pomp and pageantry to the occasion. The chairman of the occasion was Dr John Dramani Mahama the former president of Ghana who did a lot to transform the power sector in Ghana, while as mentioned earlier the guest speaker was Professor Bartholomew Nnaji who is probably the most qualified Nigerian alive to give a lecture on the subject matter.
The event started with a brief welcome from the MC, Dr Reuben Abati who added a lot of flavour to the occasion with his wit and charm as he dexterously handled the affairs of the day. Next was the celebrant, Aare Dele Momodu who told us about his dream for a better Nigeria and wanting to leave a legacy of contributing to the country’s development being the inspiration behind opting for leadership lectures to celebrate his birthday going forward, to the applause of the audience.
The chairman of the occasion Dr John Dramani Mahama was the first to speak and he shared with us his experience in solving the power problems in Ghana during his administration while he advocated for greater cooperation between Nigeria and Ghana in resolving our economic challenges in the ECOWAS sub-region. He also emphasized that Nigeria being the big brother has a bigger role to play in developing the sub-region.
Next was Prof Bartholomew Nnaji giving us his keynote address in which he first spoke about the politics of energy at the international level, the issues regarding the quest for renewable energy to protect the planet while he pointed out the hypocrisy and double standards of Western powers when their interests conflict with the ideals that they have set for the rest of the world. He then delved into the power sector challenges in the country and what can be done to assuage them.
He was particular about the availability and the cost of gas which the government and the oil companies prefer to export rather than making it abundantly available for local use. However, he didn’t delve into the specific challenges he had in setting up Geometric Power Limited in Abia state and how he was eventually able to overcome these challenges which was what I really looked forward to hearing about from the horse’s mouth. I guess that he didn’t want to shake the table so he avoided a topic that could end up being controversial.
A few eminent personalities were then called upon to respond to the keynote speaker’s address starting with Mr Peter Obi who emphasized the critical role the power sector will play if we were to move our country from a consuming one to a producing one. Next was His Imperial Majesty Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi who dazzled us with his charm and eloquence as he emphasized the importance of the power sector while he advocated that we unite as a people to solve the country’s problems.
On his part, Donald Duke told us of how Nigeria lost a major investment opportunity from America in the mid-eighties when they proposed to build a gas pipeline from Nigeria to Europe due to the arrogance of our leaders at the time while inferring that the problem persists today. The pipeline was meant to evacuate over 25 billion cubic feet of gas that was being flared away at the time which was equivalent to about 25 million litres of diesel being frittered away daily, instead of harnessing it to add value to the country’s economy.
Contributing further, Kola Karim the chairman of Shoreline Group a major player in the Nigerian energy sector emphasized the need to develop infrastructure so that we can fully harness our resources to produce an efficient and stable power supply in the country.
It was indeed a very elucidating event but like all good things, it had to come to an end and our ever-so-professional MC was determined not to keep us waiting beyond the timeline planned for the occasion even though most of us wouldn’t have minded spending more time learning from the brilliant minds that spoke at the event.
At this juncture, I would like you to use this opportunity to once again congratulate my boss and egbon, Aare Dele Momodu on the auspicious occasion marking sixty-four years of his sojourn on this planet and celebrate him for the giant strides that he has made within the period. More commendable is the passion he has for our beloved country Nigeria and the desire he has to contribute to the development of the country which he has continuously demonstrated over the years and has now decided to institutionalize it by making the leadership lecture an annual event on the occasion of his birthday.
I pray that the almighty will continue to prosper him and reward his labor of love for the country even as we pray for good leaders that would turn the country to the path of progress and prosperity.
This is also a call out to other influential Nigerians to endeavor to use their means to contribute to the development of the Nigerian society. With what Aare has done with this leadership lecture, he has demonstrated that you don’t need political power to contribute effectively towards the development of the country. Where there is a will, there will surely be a way.
Oshobi writes from Lagos.
![[OPINION] Our employers are comedians, their wages are a joke - Owei Lakemfa](/media/k2/items/cache/ce99ced57d77a74719f05c11341b9e5b_S.jpg)
GOVERNMENT felt so sorry for the Nigerian worker that it decided to lighten his burden. After all, the welfare of the citizenry is a major reason why we have government. Even the heart of former President Muhammad Buhari – said to be stone-hearted – melted on seeing the pitiful condition of the worker. So much that he made an award of N12,000 for federal public workers.
But the living conditions of the worker simply worsened. The N30,000 National Minimum Wage which under the Jonathan administration was in value terms $186, has shrunk to a paltry $20. The conversion of wages into dollar is logical because Nigeria is an import-dependent country.
In the Jonathan administration, the Minimum Wage of N30,000 could buy three bags of rice, now it can’t buy half a bag.
Compared to most countries, Nigeria’s $20 Minimum Wage, is abysmally low. War-torn Afghanistan pays $67, Kenya $52 and fellow African country, Morocco $349! Our neigbours also pay far higher: Niger, $60; Cameroun, $62; Benin, $70; and Chad, between $250 and $330.
The Tinubu administration which came into office on May 29, 2023, was so concerned about the beggarly state of the Nigerian worker, that it made a new N35,000 award for public sector workers pending the signing of a new National Minimum Wage. Arithmetically, given the existing N30,000 Minimum Wage and the awards by Presidents Buhari and Tinubu, the minimum take home of a public servant should be N77,000. The hope of the worker was that the new wage would not be lower than his current income. Government also gave that impression.
However, when government unfolded its new minimum wage proposal, it was N48,000! In other words, government is proposing a salary cut! Also, the Organised Private Sector which claims to pay a minimum N78,000 in its zone, proposed a new wage of N54,000! This also amounted to a salary cut.
Thus, the Tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee was transformed into a comedy show with plenty of clowns exhibiting their talents.
The joint labour team of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, which could not stomach the joke, walked out. They complained that there is “apparent un-seriousness of the government to engage in reasonable negotiation with Nigerian workers.”
The actions of the government and the employers was a written script acted to the letter. In my experience in negotiations, when employers do not want negotiations or solutions because they fear the outcome would be unfavourable, they stall it. In such a scenario, the employers are led by seemingly friendly persons who attend with officials whose brief is to provoke the workers. The employer’s agent provocateur would intentionally insult the workers or claim that the workers are rude. In the resulting uproar, the negotiations are truncated.
In this particular case, where the workers are expecting high wages corresponding with an inflation running at 30 per cent, the government and employers provoked the labour leaders by proposing what are essentially wage cuts. They succeeded in stalling the negotiations.
Labour lamented that: “Despite earnest efforts to reach an equitable agreement, the less than reasonable action of government and the Organised Private Sector, OPS, has led to a breakdown in negotiations.” This precisely is the intention; a breakdown in the negotiations!
To get the derailed negotiations back on track and stop the comedy, labour would need to embark on massive mobilization of not just workers, but also the mass of the people and shutdown the country.
Talking about comedy, I have not stopped laughing since Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, told Nigerians either to accept steep increases in electricity tariff or “the entire country will be in darkness”. How do you threaten to dis-virgin a grandmother?
Another hilarious comedy was enacted, this time on international television, by the Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume. He argued that stealing by politicians should not be classified as theft. To him, politicians who do not steal more than N1 billion should have immunity from prosecution.
Senator Ndume, a father of 10, with two wives, including Justice Aisha Ndume, while justifying theft of public funds by politicians, told the world: “If you compare us, politicians, to all the corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven. If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years.”
Ndume, an Old Boy of Comprehensive Secondary School, Mubi, Adamawa State; Kaduna Polytechnic; and the University of Toledo, Ohio, United States and who has been a member of the National Assembly, NASS, since 2003, said:
“I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now and not tell the truth. If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed.”
The Distinguished Senator did not explain the period allowable for a politician to steal N1 billion from the national purse. Assuming it is a monthly theft-limit, the 469 members in the National Assembly will be eligible to steal N469 billion from the national coffers monthly or N5,628,000,000,000 annually. If this is added to the annual budget padding by the NASS, perks from over sight functions and the unscrutinised Constituency Projects, the latitude of a NASS member with the Ndume-mind set to privately appropriate national resources, is quite wide.
But this will be understandable given Ndume’s explanation that politicians constitute a wealth-distribution-system through which the funds of the country trickle down to the electorate. It is akin to the poor masses drinking Champaign through the throats of their leaders.
Ndume, from Gwoza, Borno State, is a political survivalist who has moved round the major political parties since 1998: the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Given the open confessions of Distinguished Senator Ndume, will the Senate suspend and investigate its Chief Whip for theft and corruption? Will the ruling progressives’ party identify with its eminent member or distance itself from him? Will the Old Boys of his school hail him as a good ambassador, or distance themselves from him for not reflecting the ethics of their school?
As for his Borno South constituency, I am not sure a process for his recall will be initiated. Rather, I see him being returned to the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly.
May I humbly move a motion that we add to our national honours, the Grand Corrupter of the Federal Republic, GCFR? I so move!
![[OPINION] Fubara’s Matured Jungle And Edan That Cannot Die - Festus Adedayo](/media/k2/items/cache/f616db6d2b14dec9262abf6714209f8d_S.jpg)
Have you noticed that in the last two weeks, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State seems to have acquired an inexplicably large dose of boldness and courage? Conversely, you must have equally observed that, in the last couple of days, FCT Minister, the very loquacious Nyesom Wike, has taken an uncharacteristically large overdose of meekness and humility. The thawing of the ice of Wike’s flippancy baffles watchers of the combustive politics of the oil-rich state. To many students of the semiotics of Nigerian power struggle, Fubara’s sudden temerity can be found in a robust wise-saying of the Yoruba. They say, the moment a child is decorated with the costume (agò) of a masquerade, he becomes the Old One (Tí wón bá gbé agò wo omodé, ó ti di baba àgbà). Fubara seems to have suddenly worn the “agò” of a masquerade. He now talks with the boldness of an Old One. What is responsible for this transition? What could have made the coy Fubara of few months ago transit into King Cobra? Known as the most aggressive snake in the world, king cobra is Janus. In one breath, he is shy. In another, his aggression against the enemy is unrivalled as he furiously spits his lethal venom.
Apart from a recently acquired boldness, Fubara’s lingo has transmuted, too. It is either “the jungle has matured” or there is an invasion of rats. Fubara said he had found the rat troubling Rivers State’s sack of gari and promised to kill it with Otapiapia, the local rat poison. While receiving the Ijaw Youth Council, (IYC) which paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Port-Harcourt, last Thursday, Fubara proclaimed that he had already defeated ‘them’. “I am happy that you’ve told me this morning that when I call on you, you will respond. But there is nothing to call on you for because we have already defeated them,” he said. Defeat “them” with a seemingly bad case in the courts?
Fubara has also started speaking in the language of the forest. Anyone who wanders into the jungle is bound to see spirits. Only those who just returned from the ancestral grove, the “Igbó Ìgbàlè” speak with such Fubara boldness. Igbó Ìgbàlè is where the uninitiated are taken to be sacralized. When a sacral is put on a child, he is sanctified as having acquired the power of the spirit.
It may be worth one’s while to find out the invisible and invincible drummer beating the drum to which the Fubara water bug is dancing on the river. Convinced there is an invisible underwater genie, Yoruba translate this to say, “Ìròmi t’ó ńjó l’ójú omi, onílù rẹ̀ wà nì’sàlẹ̀ odò.” Before now, the meek Fubara apparently didn’t want to see spirits that reside in the ancestral grove. His case was analogous to that of the proverbial man who wanted the head of a tortoise, its legs and arms but didn’t want its full body. The elders counsel that Fubara must purchase the whole tortoise in its entirety. So, if he seeks to find spirits in Rivers, Fubara must go the whole hog. Recently, the governor is beginning to show that he does not desire the half measure of the tortoise. If they are seized by the awesome behemoth powers of the African ruler and want to find spirits, the Fubaras must be prepared to encounter demons.
It was same way Ògbólú, sixteenth century Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́, was seized by the awesome powers of his throne and became a ghost-catcher. Toying with the possibility of relocating the capital of Oyo Empire from Ìgbòho back to its initial site of Katunga, the Aláàfin’s proposal met stiff resistance from even his council and palace courtiers. This bred a gang-up by the dissenters who got paid agents to go into Katunga masked as ghosts. So, when Aláàfin Ògbólú sent emissaries to Katunga, they reported back to him that the land was infested with venial ghosts. D. O. Fagunwa called any hunter brave enough to confront such demons Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole. Hunters are regarded in traditional Africa as the third eye that could penetrate opaque scenes to reveal otherwise mysterious beings. The troubled Ògbólú then assembled six of the hunters to reconnoitred this ‘ghost-laden’ Katunga. The hunters unmasked the troublous ‘ghosts’ who were then dragged down to Ìgbòho in chains.
African governments are powerful ghost-catchers. They are Duppy – ghost or spirit – conquerors. ‘Duppy’ is a word with African origin, used commonly in the Caribbean Island among Bahamans, Barbadians and Jamaicans. So, when the trio reggae music singers of Bob Marley, Neville O’Riley Livingston and Winston Hubert McIntosh of the Wailers fame majestically proclaimed themselves ‘Duppy Conqueror’ in their April, 1973 album, they meant that they were ghost-catchers. A huge percentage of Caribbean folklore is built around Duppies. Last week, Fubara, like one who was looking for Duppies, publicly proclaimed that his administration would probe the Nyesom Wike immediate past government as the jungle has matured. But, Ex-Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, in the early days of the Fubara government, warned him against wandering into the Igbó Ìgbàlè because, in that forest of a thousand demons, he would find ghosts. Fayose must have known that governors leave Duppies behind while exiting Government House. At a public forum, Fayose warned Fubara not to attempt to “see more than what you are supposed to see” because the moment he does this, he “will begin to see spirits.”
If you see the recent boldness of Fubara, you will conclude that his hands have firmly gripped the sword (Èèkù Idà). Yoruba say that until the son’s hands have firmly gripped the sword, he must never ask who killed his father. “Any man who cocks a gun, shoots it,” Fubara said last week. If, for one reason or the other, the gun refuses to shoot, the man should know that he is a dead man. “So, if we have a way to bury that person, we will bury them!” he proclaimed with maniacal emphasis.
In an earlier piece I did on this crisis (As Fubara presses the nuclear button, December 17, 2023) I cited Dr Percy Amoury Talbot, an early 20th century British historian and colonial administrator’s unflattering description of Fubara’s stock, the Ijaw. In that highly authoritative 1926 book, Peoples of Southern Nigeria: A Sketch of their History, Ethnology, and Languages, with an Abstract of the 1921 Census, Talbot described the no-nonsense Ijaw race on page 333, as “Up the various creeks and branches, the waters are infested by a wild piratical set who live almost entirely in their canoes, and who subsist by plundering traders while on their way to the markets, often adding murder to their other crimes.” Did Wike not investigate the roots of his erstwhile Accountant General before making him governor? You can connect Talbot’s thesis with the maniacal semiotics of killing and burying in Fubara’s words last week.
Wole Soyinka, in his A dance of the forests, gave an inkling into the composition of spirits who live in Igbó Ìgbàlè. According to the Crier in the play, living in the forest are: “Rock devils, Earth imps, Tree demons, ghomids, dewilds, genie Incubi, succubi, windhorls, bits and halves and such Sons and subjects of Forest Father, and all That dwell in his domain.”
What is however not in doubt in Rivers is that war has begun. What you hear from both sides of wardom is akin to the shrill cry of the pied crow, a bird the Yoruba call Kannakánná. Though it feeds mostly on ants, the Kannakánná’s most cherished meal is the hatchling of a sparrow (eye ègà). The sparrow itself is a social, homely, very small, seed-eating bird with conical bills. It will fight its assailant to a standstill if provoked. That is why when a spat is in the offing between two giants, the Yoruba say that they smell a fight in the proportion of what happens when the crow attempts to beat the hatchling of a sparrow – “Kannakánná na omo ègà…” When you look carefully at the anger on both sides of the Rivers state conflict, you will conclude that the Kannakánná has indeed beaten the sparrow’s hatchling.
In the jungle, the language is deconstruction. Recently, on my favourite Animal Channel, I saw a lion devouring its dead child. That is the nature of the jungle. Not only does a cackle of hyenas eat the zebra’s flesh and bone, big snakes swallow one another and fishes swallow fishes. One artist famously known for using his pen to deconstruct is South African influential political cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro, who goes by the pen name, Zapiro. Then leader of the African National Congress, (ANC) who was to later become South African president, Jacob Zuma, got deconstructed by Zapiro serially through series of cartoons. With his strokes, Zapiro depicted, humourized and escalated the implications of Zuma’s trials and tribulations. Two of such stood out. The first was a cartoon in the Mail & Guardian edition of June 28, 2012. Employing the satire form, Zapiro drew a Zuma who was presenting a speech, naked. Such leadership nakedness is a taboo in African tradition and also in contemporary ethics. Even in Zuma’s nakedness, he was oblivious. Zapiro says with his strokes that the naked Zuma was presenting untruth to the people. On the head of the Zuma figure drawn by Zapiro, was a shower tap.
To explain the shower tap on Zuma’s head, in my piece (Buhari’s serial abuse of Nigeria’s Lady Justice, March 6, 2022), I made elaborate use of the second of Zapiro’s cartoons where I tried an explanation. Recall that Zuma was, in late 2005, accused of raping an HIV-positive family friend. Swiveling from denial to qualified acceptance when arrested, Zuma later admitted that though he had consensual sex with the lady, he took his bath immediately. In South Africa, it is widely believed that taking bath immediately after a sexual encounter reduces the probability of infection with the virus. So in his Sunday Times cartoon of September 8, 2008, apparently taking his cue from the rape trial, Zapiro triggered a huge ball of fire with his cartoon named “Rape of Lady Justice”. He had Jacob Zuma, loosening his trousers’ zipper for a sexual romp. He had a shower tap placed on his head. An impish but salacious smile lit his face. Before him, flung on the bare floor, was a blindfolded lady and a lapel hung on her chest on which was inscribed, “Justice System”. The scale of justice had fallen down beside the Lady Justice.
Four hefty and menacing-looking men knelt by the Lady Justice’s side, holding down the “wench” whose skirt was half peeled. They were political surrogates of Zuma in the ANC which included Julius Malema, Gwede Mantashe, Blade Nzimande and Zwelinzima Vavi. Mantashe smilingly beckoned on Zuma to rape Justice by saying, “Go for it, boss!” That cartoon shot Zuma into a fit. He immediately sued Zapiro for the sum of £700,000.
Last Tuesday, Governor Fubara, like Zapiro, drew a naked portrait of Wike. Like Zapiro’s second cartoon, too, Wike ran a dictatorial government as Rivers governor that you can compare to the Zuma binge. There, the Lady Justice lay prostrate on the floor, with the Rivers Leviathan attempting to play Zuma. Wike was egged on in the binge by his own Malema, Mantashe, Nzimande and Vavi. He was the biblical Leviathan whose strut and gruff loomed large as the frightening image of the rule of might. In a revelation that amounted to a deconstruction of the image Wike built for himself in eight years, Fubara revealed that his administration inherited a huge debt burden on projects handled by the Wike government. So much for “Mr. Projects”!
To the Wike group, however, Fubara’s dog has eaten the entrails of the Pouch rat – Òkété. The Yoruba believe that the day the hunter’s dog eats the entrails of the Òkété, it will run mad. Many people believe that Wike may have been stung by the deadly venom of Lagos power vipers. Lagos politicians play deadly politics that is blind to kindred, friendship, blood or pleasant past affinity. From 1999, whoever was the Rivers state governor has always been a Big Masquerade in Nigerian political calculus. Even though the Lagos politico tries to dud memories of hurt, as Nawal El Saadawi wrote in her Children of Isis, to the politico, memory, like wine, grows mellow with time. Wike is a rebellious and petulant character who, in the long run, may be unreliable, a trait the Lagos people in the Villa must have factored into their analysis. He is at war with every Rivers leader since 1999. From his abandonment and betrayal of Peter Odili and wife; Rotimi Amaechi; Iyorchia Ayu and Uche Secondus, it should be obvious to any calculating person that Wike will ditch anybody once he has a full dosage of his favourite lovely drink. You don’t use such ants-infested faggot to cook a broth as huge as the 2027 presidential election. Yes, Wike was instrumental to the coming into office of the Lagos Boys but it may be time to begin to build a power base outside of him. The moment the bellicose character no longer has access to the Rivers till, he is like a castrated dog.
Now, in his speeches, Fubara has begun to interweave his government with the Tinubu self-acclaimed Renewed Hope. He refers to Tinubu as “our father” and Rivers’ recent developmental strides similar to Tinubu’s. He has acquired balls of one who has been to the Igbó Ìgbàlè. He is giving ultimatum to local government chairmen and the 27 lost cats of the Rivers parliament. In talking to IYC, Fubara urged the Ijaw to key into the ongoing liberation. “By the special grace of God, what they thought that they would have done to us while we were celebrating our one year in office, they are the ones sleeping with their two eyes open. It shows that we have the Ijaw blood,” he said.
Fubara critics who said he didn’t know how to use power must have found out otherwise. His dog is not alone and the Yoruba say that when a dog has backers, it can kill a troop of monkeys. The Lagos Boys seem to have worn on Fubara, that erstwhile child, the costume of a masquerade. He has become the Old One. It appears as though whoever beats Fubara now will pay with a heavy propitiation of a fat cat to the Olú Igbó, the king of the forest. What Wike does not know is that, even the person who costumed the Egúngún is subject to the masquerade’s whiplashes once the masquerade returns from the grove.
Wike’s silence may also be that he has understood that ancient counsel of my musical idol, Ayinla Omowura. Omowura counseled that it is not every forest that the herbalist forages for herbs, nor is every palm tree a resort for every palmwine tapper. Some forests are reptiles-laden while some palm trees have hung around them poisonous mambas. The Fubara forest and palm tree may, for now, be beyond the Wike herbalist and tapper’s ken. Could it be as a result of Fubara’s quest to seek the spirits inside Wike’s eight-year government or the Lagos Boys’ resolve do “business” with Fubara in the quest for 2027? When asked for comment on Rivers about two days ago, the Wike who, only a few days earlier, vowed to redress his mistakes apparently by sacking Fubara, told the press that he was too busy in Abuja to bother about Rivers politics. A wise elder runs away from the monstrous cow by stealth!
As it is now, Fubara could be the proverbial child of the Gaboon viper (Omo inú oká) whose birth is said to ultimately lead to the death of its mother. For Wike, an Edan may be on its way to dying. The Edan, a ritual tool, signifies deep cultural significance for the Ogboni fraternity. In this Yoruba fraternity, the Edan is a two-metal staff crafted from copper, brass, or bronze. It is believed that whoever sights the Edan will be mesmerized. To reinforce this myth, the Ogboni made the Edan immortal. So, they say that the Edan never dies (a kìí gbó ikú edan). If the suspected furtive romance between Fubara and the Lagos Landlord does not flounder, then it means that the spinal cord of Wike’s Edan may have been broken. But, can the Edan die?
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![[OPINION] Two topical decisions by Tinubu and Uju Kennedy - Tonnie Iredia](/media/k2/items/cache/d13e64e6cecd120ed2abbcff57e5e44d_XS.jpg)
In the midst ofgeneral anguish over tough economic policies by the Tinubu-led administration, certain other decisions which have enormous impact on social interactions in Nigeria were made in the last one week. Two of such memorable decisions stand out. The first concerns President Bola Tinubu’s decision to make all Nigerians equal before the law with respect to the payment of fees at tollgates in ourairports. The second is the decision of Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the Minister of Women Affairs to intervene in a case of proposed mass marriage in Niger State. Both are remarkable decisions for which the President can claim double credit first for his personal disposition and second for creating an enabling environment for Kennedy-Ohanenye and other top office-holders to be proactive.
Mutual distrust and suspicion between the privileged group and ordinary Nigerians have subsisted over the years because no effort has been made to interrogate the main causes. Last week, President Tinubu arrested one of them – the inclination to ask the poor to pay for certain things which the powerful and wealthy either evade or are exempted from. When Festus Keyamo, our aviation ministerrequested the federal executive council’s authorisation for more people to pay the prescribed fees for using our airport gates, his prime motivation was economic. The minister’s research team had found that the airports were losing over 82 percent of their revenues through tollgate leakages especially the exclusion of some segments of the society from payment of toll.
Keyamo had suggested the exemption of only the President and his Vicewhich Tinubu rejected. Everyone should pay, the President directed- a directive that would greatly boost the aviation sector and more importantly redirect Nigeria’s convoluted approach to the rule of law. If everyone is equal before the law as one of the legs of the rule of law states, should some tollgate users especially those who have the ability to pay be exempted from paying the fees prescribed by law? If this question is answered in the negative as Tinubu has just done, then Nigeria can move a step forward not only in putting an end to the exploitation of the down-trodden but also in ensuring the attainment of democracy which presupposes the rule of law. It is for this reason that this writer fully supports the stand of the President.
A second reason for my support is based on my personal experience many years ago when I served as Chief Executive of the Nigerian Television Authority NTA. Within a few months of my assumption of office, I found that NTA’s internally generated revenue was automatically consumed by internet fees paid for the LIVE coverage of government activities. I sought audience on the subject with President Olusegun Obasanjo who ordered that all Government Ministries, Parastatals and Agencies should pay NTA charges just as he directed that N36million already spent on the coverage of presidential activities be refunded to my organization. It is important to state that the charges did not include the coverage of news events which is professionally free. Obasanjo’s posture of leadership by example is worthy of emulation; and it is commendable that President Tinubu has espoused same stance with the tollgate issue.
The decision of the Minister of Women Affairs Barrister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye to call for more interrogation of a proposed mass marriage in Niger State which is our second topical issue is also commendable. The week before, the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly Abdul Malik Sarkindaji announced plans to marry off 100 female orphans who lost their parents to banditry attacks in Mariga Local Government Area of the State. Speaker Sarkindaji said he decided to sponsor the weddings of the 100 girls, because they were either orphans or their parents were too poor to fund their weddings. Expectedly, there were mixed reactions to the announcement; one of which was that of Minister Ohanenye who took steps to stop the weddings for a number of reasons which she clearly enumeratedat a press conference.
The Minister began with a petition to Kayode Egbetokun our Inspector General of Police IGP followed by filing a court injunction to put the proposed marriages on hold until further investigation is carried out with a view to ensuring that the welfare of the orphans was prioritized. As is usual in Nigeria, there were counter reactions by different groups to the Minister’s standpoint. On its part, the Niger State Council of Imams gave Ohanenye a one-week ultimatum to withdraw her comments condemning the Speaker’s plan to sponsor the mass weddings because she supposedly dabbled‘into an issue, she had no understanding of.’ Jonathan Vatsa, a chieftain of the All-Progressives Congress APC and former Commissioner for Information and Tourism in Niger State was even convinced that the Minister ‘was fighting a lost battle.’
Apart from the Muslim Rights Concern MURIC which asked the Minister to steer clear of the matter, another group, the Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria MULANfaulted Ohanenye’s position on the proposed mass weddings. According to Saeed Muhammad Tudun-Wada, the Presidentof the Association, 5 Senior Advocates and 27 other lawyers were set to meet the Minister in any court of competent jurisdiction because she had allegedly overstretched her limit by her delving into issues of private and personal interest of the girls in Niger State. Interestingly, Minister Ohanenye insists that her impetus was the importance of ensuring the well-being of the girls beyond arranging marriages.
Luckily, there are already signs of those likely to emerge as winners in the contest. The first are the girls that may, at last, get some attention from our government whose main duty is the welfare and security of citizens – a duty that has for long remained a slogan. The reason the girls are orphans is that they lost their parents to banditry which the state failed to protect them from. Having lost their parents, the compensation they appear to be getting is forced marriage as illiterates. The decision of the Women affairs minister to make arrangements for their skill acquisition and empowerment which substantially ameliorates their double jeopardy makes them winners along with the forward-looking Minister who for once goes on record as an office-holder determined to run women affairs with a human face.
We also have a third set of winners. Among them is Speaker Abdul Malik Sarkindaji who is now poised to ensure that the real interest of the girls is achieved thereby showing that his initialmove was to help the needy. Other winners include some eminent traditional rulers, especially the Etsu Nupe and the Emir of Kontagora respectively who have reached out to the Minister to work for peace. All others who have since become part of the battle and are eager to go to court on behalf of whatever party would do well to pulse for a while. Those of them who are public spirited enough can donate funds to facilitate the empowerment of the girls. Once the girls are properly trained enough to have the capacity for rational decision making, all those who want to attend marriages or who want the weddings in a particular format can do so.
While commending the President and his Minister for the two topical issues of the moment, it is important to make the point that the decision for everyone including the number one citizen to pay tollgate fees will greatly enhance the acceptance of the tolling policy. More money will be generated which would hopefully be used to provide service at the airports and which would in turn improve the welfare of air passengers. It is also hoped that basic items like Public Address Systems which do not currently function properly will be redressed. In addition, our dynamic aviation minister should instal a platform which renders nugatory any sharp practice at the tollgates of all federal airports in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians who are thrilled by the handling of the two topics in this piece would no doubt look forward to many presidential interventionsin several areas where the poor are not allowed to breathe in Nigeria. In the area of security for instance, no Nigeria should be allowed to use his official vehicle and police to push others away from our current Animal Farm type of roads in which some animals are more equal than others.
![[OPINION] What the people are saying… - Bolanle Bolawole](/media/k2/items/cache/b25bfedeef70cf6cb6f2af1fb69d9cdb_XS.jpg)
ONCE in a while I visit the newsstand to feel the pulse of the people. The People’s Parliament is what some call it. When I got there last Thursday, I met them discussing the Ebora Owu.
“Don’t mind Baba. Age is telling on him. We tried the parliamentary system; we tried the military; we tried dictatorship, and we have now tried the presidential system – which was better?”
Another man cut in: “That is why the Baba is saying we should try our own African system”
“Which African system? The type where the king can commandeer your wife and you must not talk or where he can ask them to cut off your head just for the fun of it?”
“Of course, not! The world is more civilized than that now!”
“It is not enough to simply condemn a system that is working elsewhere. The question the Baba must ask is why is it working elsewhere but is not working here”
“He has answered the question! He said it is not working here because we are black. Black man, black ideas, black brains, black stomach, black everything; black behaviour!”
“It means Baba himself is part of the problem. He was a military dictator and he was also civilian president. What were his achievements?”
“We should ask him to tell us somewhere in Africa where the system he is advocating is in operation”
“He is advocating a brand new system; we have to invent it ourselves!”
“You see! Baba does not mean well. We should begin to waste time inventing a new system which no one is sure will work”
“I don’t understand why you people are wasting your time on Baba. Is the same Western model of democracy not working in Rwanda? Since the military coup in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, is military rule not also working in those places better than the previous governments?”
“So, what you are saying is that the problem is not the system but in the operators of the system?”
“Exactly!”
And I remembered Cassius telling Brutus in William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings” With Nigeria’s foundations already destroyed, no antediluvian African system of government will perform any magic. Work on the foundations, if they are still repairable.
Keeping abreast of all the arguments from different angles was impossible; so, I let some pass, but not those on Premier League and other foreign leagues. It amuses me that, abandoning their own home leagues and rooting for foreign leagues, they did not understand that they are part of the problem of capital flight and brain drain. I said so but to no one in particular and someone responded:
“I used to support Rangers International but that was when Rangers was Rangers”
Another said “ Up Bendel!”
“Bendel don die!” jeered one.
Then I remembered that I used to be a lover of ICCC Shooting Stars of Ibadan. UP SOOTIN! But that was then. SOOTIN, too, is now a shadow of its former self. I cannot remember the last time I watched a local league match. I have also stopped being a supporter of any of Nigeria’s football teams, be they male or female and whether at international or continental level, but I broke with tradition and watched the last Cup of Nations. Was I disappointed!
My reason for being aloof was echoed by one of the men when he said, “Sir, if you don’t want to develop high blood pressure and die suddenly, stop following the national team or local league”
”It is true ooo!”concurred another.
“Have you forgotten how many people died when the Super Eagles failed some months ago in Cote D”Ivoire?”
Yes, I knew people died, but so also do people die when the foreign clubs they support fail. The incontestable fact is that our people enjoy foreign leagues better than home leagues.
“If you want to enjoy good football, watch Man. C .”, chanted one as he began to gyrate all over the place with shouts of “Man. C., Mam. C”. Not to be outdone, chants of Arsenal, Man.U., Barca for life were raised by those clubs own ardent devotees. Why are our own clubs and local leagues not popular with our own people? The quality is poor! And little or no effort is being made to improve things. Then, of course, our people lack a sense of “our own”. Patriotism is alien here! A people who do not see what they enjoy or benefit from the country, and who have no hope the country is ever going to move in the right direction, will look elsewhere for succour.
Suddenly, someone shouted: “Make dem die finish!”
“Who dem be/”, another inquired. “
Wu-ko and Fine bara!”
Wike is the one the man called Wu-ko! Wike’s gutterish voice imitates that of someone about to cough, hence “wu-ko” which means “cough” while Fubara is “Fine bara”!
“If I find somebody who puts me in a position to make me dey chop, I won’t struggle with am ooo! Ten percent don do me; make imdey take the remaining 90 percent”
“Na im be say you be mumu. How you go dey a position and another man go dey control you so tay you no go fit breathe again”?
“Na greediness dey worry Fine bara. Him fit get there without Wu-ko?”
“Too much of everything is bad! How can the governor take 10 percent and the former governor go take 90 percent?”
”God that created us, what percentage does he take from us? Is it not 10 percent? Oju-kokoro, greedy eyes, no good!”
So, these people also know the scriptures! Tithe, truly, is 10 percent. But should public funds be sequestered for personal use by political office holders in the brazen manner we have witnessed all over the country, I asked and one of them volunteered: “Oga, it is like that everywhere. Tell me one place where it is not like that?”. I scratched my head as I pondered the question. I called it a day after two hours at the newsstand.
I returned again the next day and met them discussing the Labour-FG tango over a new minimum wage. “How does that concern me? I am not a salary earner. How do I benefit from any minimum wage nonsense, except that it will fuel inflation again and I will be the worst for it?”
”Don’t be selfish! There must be someone in your family who will benefit”
“Will that person share his or her salary with me?”
“Are you, therefore, saying that there should be no salary increase?”
“I am saying that Labour should also consider those of us who are not salary earners and pursue policies that will benefit everyone, not their members alone”
“Labour is fighting for everyone. Salary increment will have multiplier effects on everyone, including even the market men and women”
“Exactly, the multiplier effect of inflation on house rents, school fees, transportation costs, foodstuffs…”
One man, who had maintained stoic silence since, now interjected: “Please tell us what you think Labour should be doing – fold their arms and pretend there is no suffering in the land?”
“Rara o! Who is talking of folding of arms? I am saying they should fight for benefits that will reach everyone”
”Like what and what?”
“If we go back to agriculture and begin to grow both cash and food crops, food prices will drop and everyone will benefit. If they pump money into the health and education sectors, everyone will benefit”
You would think he was not interested in the discussion but the vendor himself now interjected: “What of public transportation because that is what concerns me most? ”
“Do you know how many millions of vehicles are on Lagos roads alone? How many vehicles can the government provide on Lagos roads alone? Transportation is best left to private initiatives, with the government only providing the enabling environment”.
Until she spoke, I did not notice there was a woman there among what is called the “Free Readers’ Association. It used to be free but not any longer! To be allowed to read any newspaper, a fee is charged, which varies from place to place.
“When will the government stop spending money on power supply?”
Everyone’s looks expressed surprise at the question. Shouldn’t the government be expected to spend more on power supply so we can have electricity?
“Because”, she continued, “the more money they spend, the more darkness we have”.
The front page news of many of the newspapers was another N3.3 trillion that the Federal Government was spending again on power supply. Casting my mind back, I began to recall the billions of dollars that this same power sector has consumed, from the presidency of Obasanjo to the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The more you look, the more peculiar the mess! But are you surprised! The power minister is said to be the scion of First Republic Ibadan politician, Adelabu Adegoke aka Penkelemesi( Peculiar Mess). Truly, it is a peculiar mess of the highest order when the minister was reported as saying why we are in darkness is because Nigerians waste power by putting on their fridges and freezers days on-end! What a Peculiar Mess!
I got jolted from my thoughts by one one fellow: “For as long as our leaders have access to generators and do not feel what we feel, don’t ever expect a solution from them” Sounds plausible! Rita Marley, Bob Marley’s widow, says it is he who feels it that knows it.
The vendor again turned to me and said: “E gbo, when will the price of fuel come down? Or has Dangote refinery not started operations?” I cleared my throat, like Wu-ko, as I pondered what to say. I said: “There is scanty information out there on this very sensitive matter. Some say the refinery has started full production while some say it has not. Some also say Nigeria is not producing enough crude oil; that we are not meeting our production capacity by more than one million barrels per day. Therefore, our contractual obligations to other customers may have constrained our meeting the refinery’s crude oil needs and it has to resort to importing crude to feed itself…” I hadn’t landed when one of them interjected, “So there is no hope that the price of petrol will come down any time soon?”
I said goodbye to the vendor, meandered my way out of the crowd and headed home – filled with floods of thoughts. Even if we meet Dangote’s crude oil needs, will the price of petrol reasonably come down here? With the IMF insisting that subsidies on fuel and electricity be removed, shouldn’t they tell us what the government should subsidize for Nigerians since their own governments subsidize one thing or the other for their own people?
![[OPINION] Day The Heavens Fell At OAU - Wole Olaoye](/media/k2/items/cache/c92a2cae10ff57c4cfd875a72e0f1286_XS.jpg)
They say if the heavens fall, everything on the surface of the earth will bear the brunt. In a comparatively minuscule scale, that is what happened to the 100-level students of Obafemi Awolowo University caught under the falling roof of their university’s amphitheatre last week. They were in the midst of a lecture when a rainstorm brought down the roofing of the building on their heads. Scores of students were injured in the ensuing scramble while two of their colleagues who were critically injured were hospitalised.
Anyone not familiar with how far things have degenerated in Nigerian universities and the many ‘creative’ ways in which university administrators have been trying to cope will naturally ask what business students had in the amphitheatre at that time of the morning, and where the falling roofing flew in from. Under normal circumstances, an amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek, ‘amphitheatron’, meaning ‘viewing from both sides’.
Amphitheatre
Isidore of Seville— the Hispano-Roman scholar and theologian who wrote numerous books, including a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a history of Goths, and a history of the world— in his work, Etymologies, elucidates: “The amphitheater is so called because it is composed of two theatres, for an amphitheater is round, whereas a theatre, having a semicircular shape, is half an amphitheatre.”
Ancient Roman amphitheatres were oval or circular in plan, with seating tiers that surrounded the central performance area, like a modern open-air stadium. In contrast, both ancient Greek and ancient Roman theatres were built in a semicircle, with tiered seating rising on one side of the performance area.
Typically, therefore, an amphitheatre is an open circular or oval building with a central space surrounded by tiers of seats for spectators. Whereas a theatre is designed with a semicircular seating gallery, an amphitheatre provides double the space because the sitting area virtually embraces or attempts to hug the stage.
That was the original concept of the world class Israeli architect who designed Africa’s most beautiful campus, Obafemi Awolowo University. His name was Arieh Sharon. He had trained at the Bauhaus in Germany in the 1920s before moving to Tel Aviv where he created numerous government buildings and landmark structures. He brought experience in designing for hot climates as well as intimate familiarity with Modernism to Nigeria as the emerging gale of independence on the continent gave the promise of Africa as a forward-moving entity.
Sharon designed the university in 1961. His OAU buildings varied in their dates of construction, but are made mainly from concrete, designed to accommodate the tropical climate and sun exposure, with ventilation provided through open hallways and stairways. The alluring visual twists and turns of his designs are even, till now, simply breath-taking.
The amphitheatre is the open air ‘twin’ of Oduduwa Hall, the university’s flamboyant ceremonials building. Constructed from 1972 to 1976, Oduduwa hall has a dramatic shallow-steps approach from the plaza and has a sitting capacity of 1400 which is often stretched to 2000, while the amphitheatre can house a larger audience of 3500 routinely extended to 5000.
No Need For Roofing
It would be difficult, if not impossible, for any Great Ife student of the 70s or early 80s to conceive of the amphitheatre with a roof! There are certain things that simply do not fit, like a leash around the head of a hen! An amphitheatre by definition is an open air affair. If it required a roof, that would have been conceived with the design and construction — and then, its name wouldn’t be ‘amphitheatre’. Everything about the facility had been well calculated at inception. For instance, its design allows the voice of anyone on stage to ‘carry’ across the womb of the space. Specific acoustic calculations must have been factored in.
But as the years rolled by and the then military government progressively reduced investment in education, university administrators, caught between a burgeoning population of students and inadequacy of facilities, chose the easiest way out — conversion of existing facilities to new uses. That accounted for why the venue for the General Studies (compulsory) course was moved from the existing auditoria to the Sports Centre because only that complex could hold the teeming population of students. A visiting foreigner would wonder what a stadium had to do with classroom activities!
That was the kind of milieu in which the amphitheatre was ‘desecrated’ with a roof! I still remember the Fela gigs we had at that venue in the 70s. The originator of Afrobeat, the great Abami Eda himself known for originality, confessed that the Great Ife amphitheatre was one of the most purpose-built venues he had ever performed in. For a man who had seen it all as far as theatres and such venues went, that assessment can’t be waived aside.
As far as I know, this is the second scary incident that has happened in the Oduduwa Amphitheatre in just over two decades. In 2021, three students were rushed to the University Health Centre following a stampede that occurred at the amphitheatre as a result of the large number of students taking the SER 001 (Use of English) mid-semester test. SER 001 was a compulsory course for all freshers.
Due to the large population and restiveness of the students, the time schedule stated for different batches of students was not adhered to. There was a massing up of batches and the situation resulted in a scramble as those entering the venue pressed against those attempting to leave, resulting in a stampede in which many students sustained injury.
The recent incident was more serious both in the number of casualties and extent of injury. The students were having an early morning lecture when the storm that tore the roof came calling. The Vice-Chancellor physically led rescue efforts and accompanied the victims to the hospital. He thereafter ordered that the amphitheatre be sealed off while an investigation was underway.
Restoration
The consensus among the university’s alumni on social media is that the amphitheatre be restored to its original state, sans the alien roof. The university ought to think of other ways of coping with its burgeoning student population than roofing an ideally roofless building.
The installation of the fallen roof was an original sin against aesthetics and civil engineering. It was also an insult to unprofaned amphitheatres all over the world. My humble demand: Tear down whatever is left of that offending roofing and let good old Oduduwa Amphitheatre be!
Christopher Who?
Nigerians took to the microblogging platform X.com to demand that British journalist Christopher Wilson apologise for his Nazi insult directed at Nigerians in the wake of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s visit to Nigeria.
Wilson had, last week, compared Nigerians to Nazis in a now-deleted post which reeked of hate for the Prince of Sussex and racism towards his wife, Megan. Comparing Nigeria to Nazi Germany for the love and hospitality shown to the couple also showed that Wilson is probably also mentally unstable. His drivel: “Desperate to show his wife they were still ‘royal’ in the eyes of the world, the Duke of Windsor took Wallis on a tour of Germany in 1937. Nigeria’s human rights record is not far short of Nazi Germany’s”.
The coward crawled back into his mother’s womb when Nigerians descended on him on the X platform. Check his photograph again. A cursory analysis of his face with its unmistakable scowl shows undiluted hate, the type common among the wannabe children of fellow commoners who, detesting the base steps from which they climbed the ladder of life, imagine that by inventing royal enemies, their own ‘aristocracy’ is assured. Imagine the temerity of this nameless plebeian!
![[OPINION] An Emperor and His Nemesis - Chidi Amuta](/media/k2/items/cache/d3e3bab1518ec8577135eebade2513ec_XS.jpg)
The drama of political bad manners in Rivers State is about to enter the ‘last corner’. Incumbent governor Mr. Siminalayi Fubara has dealt a survival kick after being pushed to the wall for most of his one year tenure. In quick succession, he has turned the table on his chief adversary, FCT minister, Nyesom Wike. Mob support for the embattled governor has invaded the streets of Port Harcourt. The governor has won a decisive and most significant court fight to invalidate the legitimacy of the pro-Wike legislators. The 25 former legislators are now illegal occupants of their very quarters. A better funded appeal may yet problematize the subsisting court outcome. For now, Mr. Wike is yet to find an appropriate political vocabulary to describe his fading political glory.
In the interim, all the political outcomes seem to favour the governor. Similarly, most of the significant political voices in the state have come out openly to challenge Mr. Wike’s long standing domination of the Rivers political turf. From most indications, Mr. Wike’s imperial reign seems to be entering its last days.
Unfortunately, as the unfolding drama goes on, there is very little real governance going on. If this turf war goes on and worsens, Rivers state may be another case of a state with immense resources but an arrested development. The ordinary people of the state may end up as the ultimate losers in this drama of an emperor with his ultimate nemesis.
The unwritten handbook of godfatherism in Nigerian politics is about to be shredded. Mr. Wike had done an untidy job of handing the baton of state governorship to his former state Accountant General. The illicit logic was perhaps that the critical challenge of all former governors in Nigeria is the extent to which they control the bag of tricks played while they were in office. Who better to guard your money secrets when you leave office than the chief book keeper of the state? That thinking seems to be up in smoke now that governor Fubara, the ex- Account General turned governor has rediscovered that he is first and foremost a state governor and not an errand boy of a departing emperor. His recognition seems to be that he needs to be in both office and in power in order to command credibility no matter how they got to office.
The trouble is perhaps that Mr. Wike schemed to put Fubara in office and not in power from the beginning. The governor seems to have realized that the opposite is what he needs. He needs to be in both power and in politics. The key hubris committed by Mr. Wike is that he did not allow Fubara to be minimally in office. He therefore reportedly surrounded the new governor with commissioners whom he himself chose. He reportedly dictated the portfolios, reporting line and created a separate line of reporting which ultimately ended with him in far away Abuja. Most importantly, all the state legislators were sponsored and loyal to Mr. Wike. As it were, Wike was to run Rivers State from his duty post in Abuja. He also put in place a coterie of local government chairpersons in all 23 local governments. Effectively, the entire political structure of Rivers state was in Mr. Wike’s back pocket. He himself openly boasted that he had paid the nomination fees of all political office holders in the state.
In order to keep his home base in tact politically, Wike maintained an eagle eyed watch over the state as an extension of his political manor. He had while in office either alienated or marginalized all major political voices in the state. An army of political jobbers and handpicked war lords maintained surveillance for Mr. Wike from inside the governor’s office, the state assembly and the local governments. An imperial rule was put in place over an entire state and has lasted for nearly 9 years.
But in pursuit of his imperial oversight over the state, Mr. Wike forgot a few rules of power incumbency. A man in a powerful political office such as that of a state governorship would want to be seen to wield the power of his office. Secondly, there can be only one captain on board a ship of state. The commissioners were either serving Wike or Fubara. Similarly, the state legislators could not afford to be at variance with the governor who pays their salaries, allowances and sundry costs. Most importantly, the rule that governs the relationship of a political god father and his surrogate is ruled by distance. The political god father must keep his distance . A god father who insists on having overriding influence over his surrogate and also sharing political visibility and the limelight with the surrogate is preparing for suicide. Wike wanted both control, influence and visibility. At the slightes opportunity, he was present in Rivers state, attending church events and converting them into political sermons, visiting key constituencies and holding sundry political meeting. Confronted with such a god father, the incumbent who wants to survive in office has only one choice: commit political regicide in order to regain his freedom.
The initial role of President Tinubu in the crisis was a bit more problematic. He had a primary responsibility to ensure peace and security in Rivers state failing which he would be confronted with an impossible national security challenge. He needed to protect Wike who had become his political axe man in Rivers in order to use him to guarantee APC support in the strategic state. Ostensibly , Wike had risked his political neck in order to guarantee both electoral victory and political support for Tinubu and the APC in Rivers. The President needed to play multiple impossible roles: impartial political arbiter as head of state, interested political leader of an embattled APC in Rivers, the protector of the political interest of his minister of the strategic FCT. That was the source of the early agreement that restored minimal co-operation between Wike and Fubara. But that respite evaporated soon enough because it was untenable and not founded in any sensible appreciation of the realities of Rivers politics.
But the grounds of that agreement were precarious and tenuous. It did not have understanding or control of the crucial factors that determine what happens in Rivers politics. The flow of money to oil the machinery of support could not be controlled from Abuja. There is no open campaign and so ‘political money’ cannot be used to buy support in the state. There is a limit to Wike’s war chest. He is not contesting an election in the state and cannot run riot with FCT resources as he probably could as Rivers state governor. Only Mr. Fubara has control over the money and power required to keep political support in Rivers State.
Most importantly, the abiding polarity in Rivers politics is the divide and balance of power between the demographics of the upland areas counter balanced by the resource base of the riverine areas. It is a balancing act between the Ijaw of the ancient oil river areas and the rest of the state. In recent times, Ijaw nationalism has acquired an unmistakable militancy which it has weaponized in pursuit of resource control at national and international levels. Niger Delta nationalism in pursuit of resource equity in Nigeria has become part of the international vocabulary about minority rights in the world.
The ability of the Ijaw to make life impossible for the rest of Nigeria is no longer in doubt. That capacity is even more enlarged in the context of states like Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta especially.
Therefore, Mr. Wike’s open threats to Fubara’s governorship reminded the governor that he is primarily an Ijaw son. He has now weaponized that latent political asset to arrive at the present pass. This obviously creates serious problems with President Tinubu’s initial apparent support for Wike. As the table seems to have turned in favour of Fubara, Tinubu has retreated under the fire of the changed canvas of the confrontation. He cannot afford to endanger the national golden goose of the Niger Delta. He cannot also afford to back a minister who seems to be losing his support base very feast. It is safer to play and sound neutral and statesmanlike. That is the safe harbor where Tinubu is right now.
In line with the logic of the twist of power towards more of governor Fubara, the political pendulum in the state is fast shifting towards support for the previously embattled governor. Key political figures like Odili, Secondus, Opara, Omehia and others have swung towards the governor. There is no end to the number of political enemies that Wike made during his imperial rulership of the state as governor. These have now become natural allies of the governor. Inside his own party, the PDP, Mr. Wike may not find the support to fight a local battle in the state. A state that had previously been celebrated as a PDP state is now so badly shaken that it is neither a PDP state nor an APC state. Wike has himself become something of a political bat, neither a bird nor a mammal. He is neither APC nor PDP.
At the national level, he is tolerated by the APC hierarchy as the president’s hatchet man and ‘friend’ but a risky political capital. If Tinubu admits him into APC, it will be a risk he took alone and may have to pay for later. The PDP at the national level cannot re-embrace Wike because he is a divisive figure who has grossly damaged the party and literally neutralized its national and state chances.
The real nightmare for emperor Wike is the impending probe of his governorship by his successor. Mr. Fubara has uncovered his trump card. He believes that Wike wanted him politically dead. He is likely to fight like a mortally wounded lion. He has all the paperwork on Wike’s glorious days as emperor of Rivers state. It may in fact be the first time in Nigerian history where a chief accountant of a state becomes the chief advocate of a probe of the tenure of his imperial predecessor. Nigerians cannot wait for the probe to begin. Even the sheer entertainment value of the proceedings, preferably on live television, may uplift our collective subdued mood in these troubled times. It promises to be a curious combination of comedy and tragedy, scenes and slides difficult to forget.
So we have an increasingly isolated figure who may not have much political use in the near future. Yet he does have a residual nuisance value. He can cause Fubara a few sleepless nights through purchased mobs and miscreants inside Rivers. He could try to recover political relevance at home using the blackmail of money and intimidation but to little avail. He could just serve out his tenure with Tinubu depending on his nuisance and embarrassment value. If he is indicted by a fair probe, he is likely to leave the stage a badly bruised and miserable lonely man. If he survives the probe, he will be more of a political pariah, an embarrassment to all who embrace him.
Incidentally, there would be no tragedy either a s an art form of a fact of real life if emperors do not rise and then fall resoundingly.