Three years ago, Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, laid a visionary foundation, one shaped by discipline, service, and strategic investment. He promised a homeland that would evolve into the African Dubai-Taiwan-Silicon Valley. 

Today, that promise has transformed into palpable progress. But the Soludo story is not stopping or resting on its oars. It is shifting from gear to gear, powering transformational development and growth 

As the first lap concludes, a new phase begins, a phase of bold acceleration, deeper transformation, and the crystallisation of Anambra’s destiny.

Governor Soludo’s next chapter is built around scale and sustainability. Three new smart cities, namely Awka 2.0, Next Onitsha, and the Anambra Mixed-Use Industrial City (AMIC), are poised to redefine urban living in Nigeria.

Awka 2.0 is envisioned as Africa’s first truly smart and green city, where AI, renewable energy, and clean mobility meet seamless governance.  

Next Onitsha will emerge as a commercial, logistics, and retail powerhouse, complete with Africa’s largest shopping mall, revitalising the region’s historical trade legacy.  

AMIC, already underway, will fast-track the state’s journey into an export-oriented, manufacturing-led economy.

This urban trilogy is the architectural signature of a state in turbo-mode, expanding beyond today’s limits into tomorrow’s potential.

Governor Soludo’s next phase includes a comprehensive Oncology Centre, Anambra’s answer to Nigeria’s growing cancer burden. This will complement the telemedicine backbone already in place, ensuring that quality healthcare reaches not just cities but the most remote wards.

Every resident, no matter where they live, will have real-time digital access to medical consultations. Health emergencies will meet smart responses. Rural births will receive world-class care. Governor Soludo’s health vision is radical in its simplicity: every life must count.

The Solution Innovation District (SID) will scale its operations with the One Million Digital Tribe Initiative, a plan to equip one million Ndi Anambra, especially youth, with the tools, training, and opportunities to thrive in a global tech economy. 

The state is deploying over 2,000 km of fiber-optic cable, opening up high-speed internet access to every LGA. Startups will flourish, creators will innovate, and jobs will be created not by government handouts but by tech-enabled ingenuity.

Add to this is the coming Anambra Smart Education Ecosystem, including a new University of Education, a Smart College of Nursing, and leadership finishing schools, and you begin to see the complete human capital pipeline Governor Soludo is engineering, from classroom to a productive career, from village to virtual. No one is left behind 

The next frontier is connected, mobile, and efficient. The Anambra Transport Masterplan will deliver a state rail network, linking major commercial centres, dualisation of more Trunk A highways across the state, a modern mass transit system, combining BRTs, water transport, and digital ticketing. This is all about productivity, ease, and environmental responsibility.

Also, Governor Soludo is set to unlock Anambra’s untapped tourism goldmines, projects that will merge heritage with hospitality. This means that Ogbunike Caves, Owerre-Ezukala Waterfalls, and Agulu Lake will be developed into world-class eco-tourism destinations with supporting infrastructure, security, and luxury accommodations. 

The Marriott Hotel in Awka, with the groundwork on-going, will anchor a new era of business and leisure tourism in the state. Culture, once an afterthought, will become commerce. The way of life of the people will be projected respectfully and sustainably.

Governor Soludo’s next chapter further focuses on food security and climate-smart agriculture. The vision includes Smart farms across zones, using tech to monitor yield, irrigation, and soil health; A central Agro-Processing and Export Hub, linked to the AMIC; Scaling of the coconut and oil palm revolution, targeting economic self-reliance at the household level; and A reactivated Ifite-Ogwari irrigation infrastructure enabling 2-3 rice cycles annually, potentially turning Anambra into a regional rice powerhouse.

To ensure that no student is left behind, a comprehensive Anambra Students’ Bursary Scheme will be launched. Targeted at indigent but brilliant students, this programme will remove financial barriers to higher education, complementing the ongoing free basic and secondary education policy of the government. This is Governor Soludo’s philosophy in action: equal opportunity, not equal outcome, empowering merit and enabling dreams.

So far, Governor Soludo’s three-year track record has silenced doubters and inspired believers. But what is coming next is even more compelling. It is a future where digital connectivity meets social equity, where health is accessible, roads are navigable, cities are livable, and the environment is breathable. It is a future where transformation is not measured by applause, but by impact; and where Anambra, once a departure lounge, becomes the dream destination. Acceleration mode is now activated.

Aides to President Bola Tinubu have attributed the recent influx of political figures into the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the President’s effective leadership.

Naija News reports that the presidential aides claimed that Tinubu’s leadership has stabilised the party and positioned it as the safest political shelter ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Speaking on the development, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, in an interview with Punch on Saturday, said, “He is not masterminding anybody to leave their party. He has made the party attractive to others who are willing to join. What he has done is to make the right decisions, even though tough, some of them painfully initially.

“A beautiful woman will always attract suitors. So, if you have made your house good, people whose houses are tattered and whose houses have no roof will naturally come to you, where they can get shelter.

“If people say they want to come and take shelter, we won’t chase them away, and that is politics. In politics, you add to your number. You don’t remove your number. Politics is about getting more people on your side, not sending people away from your side.”

A second presidency source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, blamed the defections on the collapse of PDP cohesion, arguing there were no inducements from the Aso Rock Villa.

“The opposition is in tatters. They have no semblance of organisation, and for any politician, what he cares about is how to win his election, how to remain relevant, how to be in the scheme of things. I don’t think the President has met with any of them privately,” the aide said.

A third source recalled Tinubu’s 16 years leading the opposition, urging the opposition to fix their parties to forestall further defections.

“People should not forget that the President himself was the leader of the opposition for 16 years. He remained the only surviving governor of his party, Alliance for Democracy.

“He stayed there, strengthening the party, and he galvanised the opposition to form what is today the APC and made it so strong that they could unseat a ruling party. They defeated the sitting president, which was unprecedented in Nigerian history.

“So, if those who say they want to take power from him cannot organise themselves, do you blame him for that?” the source said.

[NaijaNews]

I have taken liberties to somewhat adapt the title of the prophetic poem, Come Thunder, written by Christopher Okigbo, one of Nigeria’s most talented first generation poets, as title of this piece. Okigbo, a contemporary of the Chinua Achebes, Wole Soyinkas, John Pepper Bekederemo-Clarks, wrote the highly prophetic poem at the time, which was concretely validated by latter day developments. Okigbo’s piece of art, undertook a dispassionate view of Nigeria’s sociopolitical turmoil at the time and predicted a rancourous denouement. Lightning and thunder, two fearsome, natural phenomena famous for leaving trails of blood, death and destruction, Okigbo predicted, would characterise the coming Tsunami. Okigbo had barely dropped his pen after writing Come Thunder, than Nigeria degenerated into fractious civil war. This was triggered by the resolve of the country’s contemporary South East and adjoining territories, to secede from the country. The larger Nigeria would also not subscribe to such a move. The secessionists had indeed christened the territory they desired to appropriate, as the Republic of Biafra. That strife validated Okigbo’s clairvoyance to the very letter. A zealous Okigbo enlisted to fight on the side of Biafra wherein lay his birthplace and homeland. Sadly, he died in battle in the same 1967 when he wrote Come Thunder.

No election, since I became a politically conscious Nigerian adult, has been as frenzied and talked about as the forthcoming 2027 presidential election. Yes it is almost two years away but the “flag-off,” that is bringing it to the front burner of fervid public conversation, was instantiated just months into the life of the Bola Tinubu presidency. A thanksgiving service held in honour of Barry Mpigi, Senator representing Rivers South East in February 2024, nine months into the administration of President Bola Tinubu, was the forum where the subject was first broached. Armed with a job and an address as reward for undermining his bona-fide political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), in the 2023 presidential election, Nyesom Wike the truculent overseer of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA), blew the bugle at the event. Those who know Wike very well, know that he suffers the “microphone disease.” It is an affliction manifested in the inability of microphone-wielders to simply be pointed and laconic. They over-reach themselves and veer off the course of the subject of immediate concern.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio who was also at the thanksgiving used the opportunity to canvas for the election of an Ogoni governor in the 2027 polls. This, he observed, is necessary to acknowledge the place of the Ogoni nationality in the nation’s socioeconomic life. Once he got a grip of the microphone, however, Wike alluded to his privileged position as a member of the PDP serving in a government led by the All Progressives Congress, (APC), as availing him the opportunity to get both sides to return Tinubu in 2027. “See as we are today,” Wike blurted. “If we all come together, who can defeat us in 2027? Nobody,” he answered himself. A video clip which trended on the social media last year, showed Wike singing and marching to the now famous Tinubu anthem, “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand,” in the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila. Ever since, the talk of Tinubu’s reelection in 2027, has dominated national discourse.

Major APC bigwigs notably the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), George Akume, have intoned at various fora, that “there’s no vacancy in Aso Villa, come 2027.” Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, declared at the flag-off of the segment of the Lagos- Calabar super highway, that he and his constituents would support “Baba,” in reference to Tinubu, for a second term. Days after, Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, and the entire PDP pyramid in the state, defected to the APC, all in a calculated move to back Tinubu’s second term. Such is the fever-pitch craze to determine the 2027 presidential election, two clear years before the expiration of his subsisting tenancy in the State House.

Nigeria, meanwhile, has transmogrified into a sprawling landmass of ungoverned spaces, a testament to the near absence of conscientious administration. Whereas the Boko Haram scourge which has festered in the nation’s North East was the deadliest security scourge, new terrorist groups have taken position in other parts of the country. The Lakurawa, an armed group reportedly affiliated with extremist organisations operating in the Sahel region, especially in Mali and Niger, have made incursions into the North West, notably in Sokoto and Kebbi states. A previously little-known Mahmuda group is digging in in Nigeria’s North Central, notably in Niger and Kwara states. Borgu local government area in Niger, and Kaiama and Baruten local government areas in Kwara, have been the worst afflicted in recent weeks. About two dozen people were recently killed by members of the sect, around the Kainji Lake National Park area in Kwara State.

Plateau and Benue states, also in Nigeria’s North Central, have lost no less than 350 people in recent attacks by marauding herdsmen and cold-blooded criminals. Benue alone is estimated to have lost at least 250 people. The calibre of weapons and ammunitions deployed in these attacks transcend familiar armaments as deciphered from the profiles of expended shells found at various theatres of ruination. Whole communities have been sacked in instances by these terrorists, their lives and affairs disrupted. The populations seeking refuge in inconvenient camps for internally displaced persons, (IDPs), in Benue for instance, continue to swell. The hitherto recessed and serene Bunu district in Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu federal constituency has been at the receiving end of the antics of criminal voyeurs who abduct, attack and maim innocent rural folk. Pressures by well-meaning constituents of the area has gingered the Nigerian Army’s recent approval of a Forward Operating Base, (FOB), to be stationed in the area to secure lives and property.

A far-sighted Sunday Karimi, the Senator representing Kogi West zone had last October, delivered a fully built and kitted FOB in Egbe, Yagba West local government area, to the military to help deploy in the containment of insecurity in that part of the state. A recent report by The Sun newspapers suggests that almost 600 people have been massacred by herdsmen, bandits and free-style killers within the last six months. The report indeed captures figures of casualties in Nasarawa, which is put at over 100, and Kogi states, where about 60 lives have been wasted. Both states complete the six in the the North Central which effectively surmises that the whole of the zone is at the mercy of criminal bloodhounds.

Sadly, in several instances, the nation’s military, intelligence and security forces have been blamed for their laissez-faire attitude in nipping internal security threats in the bud. The military high command has indeed been fingered in instances, for the unnecessary politicisation of personnel deployment at the various theatres of operation. One often cited example is the recall, years ago, of Anthony Mayowa Atolagbe, a highly professional Major General who was erstwhile Field Commander of the Joint Task Force, (CJTF), overseeing the Operation Safe Haven. Atolagbe, a veteran of international military operations, very ably led an uncanny amalgam of land, maritime and air forces, as well as police, civil defence and prison personnel on the frontlines of Plateau, Kaduna and Niger states. Atolagbe’s ruthless efficiency was said to have angered certain interests who subtly canvassed his recall and redeployment. This was at a time he was on the verge of total clearance of troubled territories under his command.

Notable figures in Nigeria’s military and intelligence ecosystem have repeatedly admonished Nigerians to rise up to defend themselves. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, a former Chief of Army Staff, (COAS) and Defence Minister respectively, speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Taraba State University in Jalingo in 2018, advised his kinsmen to rise up in self defence. The Nigerian state, he warned, is incapable of guaranteeing the security of its citizens. Days ago at an event in Takum his hometown also in Taraba State, Danjuma re-echoed his advisory of seven years ago. Nigeria’s longest-serving President of the Senate thus far who is also a retired Army General, David Alechenu Mark, recently challenged Nigerians to rise up to be counted in the fight against banditry, kidnapping and killings. He was reacting to recent incidents of unprovoked attacks of his constituents by faceless gunmen. Mark, by the way was a military governor and minister respectively, under Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, an Army General, during Nigeria’s years of military rulership.

Minority Leader of the Senate and successor to Mark, Patrick Abba Moro equally opined recently, that locals in places may be compelled to recourse to self-help in the face of government’s powerlessness in protecting lives and property. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi, Director-General of the Department of State Services, (DSS), said as much at a recent lecture hosted by the Institute for Security Studies, (ISS), Abuja. He alluded to his entreaties to his kinsmen back home in Ogun State, to do their bit in self-protection and not to be wholly dependent on government. Such is the despairing reality of the security situation across the country. All of these are happening when Nigeria’s leaders at various levels of the governance pyramid, have appropriated sizeable proportions of security personnel to themselves for their personal protection, the mass of the people abandoned to their whims.

One cannot but feel nostalgic about those years when governance was serious business, even in a multiparty democracy. President Olusegun Obasanjo never discussed his desire to run for a second term until three years into his first term. Indeed, as many political appointees as desired to vie for elective office, Obasanjo approved of their prompt disengagement from their briefs. He forbade the impairment of governance by the political distractions among his aides. That prototype of administrative discipline has since been lost to the overarching selfishness, vandalistic consumptiveness, voluptuous avarice and competitive nepotism of the contemporary political class. Politics has effectively been professionalised in Nigeria. Nyesom Wike, would in 2027, for instance, have grossed 28 years of active “political service” at the expense of taxpayer’s monies, starting from his days as chairman of Obio-Akpor local government area in Rivers State at the onset of the Fourth Republic in 1999.

Left to a Wike, the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), should by now have written, signed and presented the Certificate of Return, (C-of-R) for the 2027 presidential election to his Principal. He is that obsessed, restless and impatient, bothering on delirium, about this subject. Let’s hope 2027 doesn’t come with cataclysmic accompaniments like Okigbo’s Come Thunder, with the way that all-important year is being courted and beckoned upon by preemptive agents of state. They seem totally oblivious of the fact that they are unwittingly stoking the flames and fires of future mammoth conflagration, courtesy of their actions and inactions today. They play God by their boastful arrogance and haughty utterances. Please come quick, 2027.

Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

Jules Kounde scored the winner deep in the second half of extra time as Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 3-2 to win the Spanish Super Cup title at the Olympic Stadium in Sevilla on Saturday night.

The highly entertaining and incident-filled encounter lived up to its El Clásico billing, with goals, a mini turnaround, VAR drama, and Kounde’s winner all served in the feisty match.

In the 37th meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey, Pedri, Ferran Torres and Kounde were all on the scoresheet for Barcelona, with Kylian Mbappe and Aurelien Tchouameni briefly threatening to win the trophy for Real Madrid in normal time.

Victory is Barcelona’s 32nd Copa Del Rey title, extending their record as the most successful club side in the competition.

Barcelona dominated the early exchanges, hugging possession and creating the better chances before taking the lead with a sublime finish from Pedri.

The midfield controller took a Lamine Yammal pass before curling into the top corner for 1-0 on 28 minutes. The Blaugrana had more opportunities to increase their lead but could not breach Thibaut Courtois further as Barcelona went into the break with their one-goal advantage.

Real Madrid shook things up early in the second period with Mbappe replacing Rodrygo at the restart, while Luka Modric and Arda Guler were also introduced.

The changes made Los Blancos more competitive in attack. Mbappe won a foul on the edge of the box and scored the free-kick, finding the bottom corner with his low shot to equalise 1-1 in the 70th minute.

Seven minutes later, Tchouameni put Real Madrid ahead with a powerful header from Guler’s corner kick delivery.

Barcelona recovered from the daze to equalise five minutes from time through Ferran Torres, who was able to evade both Anthony Rudiger and Courtois before finishing into an empty net from Yamal’s pass.

There was to be one more drama in the added time of 90 minutes, with Raul Asencio adjudged to have brought down Raphinha in the penalty area for a penalty.

The Real Madrid player and bench fiercely contested this initial ruling, and the decision was overturned after several minutes of VAR and pitch-side monitor review. Raphinha brandished a yellow card for simulation, and the match went into 30 minutes of extra time to find the winner.

Both sides had chances to claim the win, but it was Barcelona who struck the fatal blow through Kounde in the 117th minute. The French defender stopped a Real Madrid counterattack before belting a low shot from distance that found the bottom corner, sending the team into wild celebrations.

Victory is Barcelona’s third consecutive over Real Madrid this season, with Hansi Flick claiming his second domestic trophy, both over Real Madrid, since taking over in the summer.

The German coach can still lead the team to a treble in his first season in charge, with the Spanish La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles still up for grabs for Barcelona.

Two events in the past two weeks refreshed Nigeria’s national question and the extent of it’s geo – political implications. These occurrences relate to the selective character of past and current system engagement. By assuming the weight of trends rather than mere incidents, the developments signpost the deep contradictions of our federation project.

With specific reference to the southeast, the gaps between the present federal government’s rhetoric and action reveal an unwillingness to pursue an inclusive framework.

Nigerians recently woke to the alarm that youths from the five southeast states were abandoning the opportunity to enlist into the army. The widely publicised concern was raised by authorities of the Nigerian army in the course of the 2025 recruitment exercise. The disinterest is said to have assumed a worsening trend in recent years. According to Daily Trust’s report (April 14, 2025), leader of the 2025 Army Recruitment Enlightenment Team, Chima Ekeator, a brigadier-general, observed that in the last few years, youths from the zone have kept shunning their slots.

“Kaduna State recorded over 3,000 applications in the ongoing 2025 recruitment exercise while Enugu State was still struggling to get 100 applicants. Enugu State was given about 200 slots, but the people who made it were never up to 100 due to poor application. This has also become a recurring decimal in other states in the South East.” Lending credence to the observation, Enugu State Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, Barr. Lloyd Ekweremadu, “regretted that the problem had persisted despite the collective efforts to reverse the trend and called for a review of modes of advertising the opportunities and the need to provide more details about the benefits of serving in the army.”

Nigerian Tribune of April 10, 2025 reported that while in Abia State, the enlistment team spokesman lamented that ‘the region is losing out during recruitment exercises, citing an example from last year when Abia State was allocated nearly 200 slots, but only 53 were taken up. He added that similar situations were observed in other Southeastern states.’

The unfolding scenario is definitely worrisome. Alienation of any part in an organisation inevitably leads to dysfunction. It’s effect on a State’s security architecture, as the saying goes, should be better imagined than experienced. We commend the army for being sensitive to the situation. It’s to the credit of Nigerian army leadership that it is according this potential flashpoint serious attention. Assurances of complementing ongoing sensitisation with other remedial measures are welcome. Since the situation appears to be peculiar to the southeast, the army will do well to feel the pulse in the region as it seeks solutions. The enquiry should go beyond the stereotype that disinterest in military service is as a result of IPOB’s counter campaign. There are other ideas associated with the growing boycott which either predate the IPOB or have been shaped by specific experiences.

A southeast affirmation policy was naturally expected in the aftermath of the civil war. The depletion of Igbo ranks in the military rather than spur an adjustment plan, propelled a dismissive approach to the zone. In this put – down strategy, the southeast was almost totally ignored in the siting of military – industrial complexes. Officers from the region bore the brunt of erosion of professionalism and military discipline. Whereas a Shehu Musa Yardua could receive double promotion from lieutenant colonel to brigadier to fit in as chief of general staff, supreme headquarters, an Ebitu Ukiwe, did not deserve a slight push from naval commodore to rear admiral, to shut off those breathing down his neck as chief of general staff. I know three retired military officers from the southeast who were of NDA,1983, 35th regular course. One was retired as army captain; another as lieutenant colonel and the third as navy captain. Their premature disengagement was attributed to their not having godfathers. Then, relate the treatment to the feeling that a greater disproportion of soldiers of southeast origin are tasked with anti terrorism operations in the north. But the big morale killer is the perception that before long, captured insurgents are declared repentant and set free.

Yet, the army’s initiative to regain acceptance in this part of the country is laudable. But to bear fruit, the initiative must look at the broad picture. Preliminary findings point to systemic, rather than compartmentalized problem. As an institution, the army cannot be the only agency of government grappling with social alienation. The difference seems to be that while the army admits of it’s challenges, other spheres tend to ignore the system defect.
And this leads us to the second contrary event mentioned in the opening paragraph. The media reported the shocking story of inauguration of presidential committee on census and housing on April 17, 2025, without representation from the southeast and southsouth zones. Of the seven man committee, five members are from the southwest and one each from the northwest and north central. The outrage following this divisive step is suitably captured in the statement by Otu Oka – Iwu, the apex body of Igbo lawyers. From The Punch edition, (April 22, 2025) the lawyers declared: “This is not just an omission. This is a clear and calculated act of marginalisation, one that reinforces the entrenched and widening pattern of exclusion and systemic discrimination against the Igbo people and our neighbours in the south south region.” For the avoidance of doubt, the release tackles the diversionary defence of technocracy. “A national census is not a technical exercise, it is political, economic, social and cultural. It determines representation in government, allocation of resources…It defines who counts and who is counted.” And beyond a few murmurs about the composition’s link to portfolios held, the federal government has maintained embarrassing silence on the subject. In any case, the plea of office – determined selection is not exonerating. The concentration of sectoral offices in one or two zones is deplorable.

Denial of due measures to the Igbo constituency had been on the ascent since 1970. But while the injustices of the past cannot be shifted to the present government, she is to be held to account for the inequitable treatment of groups since it’s assumption of power. On at least two occasions now, functionaries of the government have come forth with what was certified as distribution of appointments by the administration. The purpose behind the authentication was to disprove the impression that the southwest was dominating positions in government. First of the records, released in November 2024 was restricted to military/ paramilitary appointments while the schedule unveiled March 2025 extended to other political appointments. The revelation from the fact – checks was indicting nevertheless. While the lists did not catapult the southwest to overall first position, they showed brazen favouritism by the lopsided allocations to the region. What stopped the southwest from dethroning the northwest were the inherited fixtures from Buhari’s provincialism. But even as this provided a cover for current self indulgence, it did not hide the demotion of the southeast and southsouth. Out of 20 security positions, the northwest had 8; southwest took 5 and the two inconsequential zones of the south got 1 each. In the expanded list of appointments, the southwest had 29 slots; northwest 36; southsouth 22; and southeast 16! The ferocity and consistency of the discrimination against the southeast is such that will affect the psyche of the people in the region. This is the reality the army must contend with as it tries to engage the population on military service. It will be rewarding if the army and indeed other agencies of government will reorientate towards inclusivity and fairness. That will be a win – win for Nigeria and the zone. To fail in this task will translate to public relations for enemies of a united Nigeria.

It is no more news that in a scathing revelation that raises serious concerns about the future of Nigeria’s democracy that former presidential adviser and ex-lawmaker Dr. Usman Bugaje has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of using financial inducements to lure key figures from the PDP. Speaking on Arise TV, Bugaje warned that the blatant monetization of politics poses a grave threat to democratic values in the country. If his claims are true, Nigeria’s democracy may be on a dangerous path.

Without a doubt, if Dr. Usman Bugaje’s allegation is anything to go by, and there is every reason not to dismiss it as a mere political rant, then what the APC is doing is no less than striking at the very heart of Nigeria’s democracy. The former House of Representatives member and ex-presidential adviser did not mince words when he said that the APC is buying off members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with money. If this is the truth, then democracy as we know it in Nigeria is fast becoming an expensive joke, a dark comedy directed by the highest bidder.

Let us start by acknowledging that Dr. Bugaje is not a political lightweight. His decades of experience and closeness to the corridors of power lend his statements significant credibility. So when he claims that defectors from PDP to APC are being enticed not by ideology, policy alignment, or a sudden epiphany about APC’s competence, but simply by raw cash and threats of prosecution, Nigerians must sit up and ask themselves: What exactly are we operating, democracy or dollar-cracy?

The latest defection from PDP to APC, this time involving Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, along with an entire army of political appointees, has left many Nigerians wondering if our democracy is now nothing more than a bazaar. One by one, opposition members are crossing over to the ruling party like traders switching shops for better sales, and the reason, according to Bugaje, is simple: money.

In any true democracy, party affiliation is ideally based on shared ideology and vision for the country. But in Nigeria, we have thrown ideology to the wind. What we are seeing is a dangerous culture where political loyalty is dictated by who can dangle the fattest envelope. This is no longer politics; it is political merchandising, and APC seems to be perfecting it.

Bugaje hints at a disturbing possibility that deserves deeper scrutiny: that some defections might be coerced through the threat of EFCC prosecution. If this is true, then the ruling party is not only weaponizing state institutions to suppress dissent, but also undermining the fight against corruption by turning it into a tool for political gain.

It would mean that instead of prosecuting offenders regardless of party affiliation, the EFCC is being selectively deployed to haunt opposition members, until they “see the light” and defect. Once they do, their sins are forgiven, and they suddenly become “born again” politicians in the APC fold. This political baptism by defection is a disgrace to the fight against corruption, and a betrayal of the very Nigerians whose votes are being manipulated by this unholy alliance of power and impunity.

Bugaje also touched on another bitter truth, there is effectively no opposition in Nigeria today. The PDP has lost its voice, its spine, and its soul. From the moment it allowed Minister Nyesom Wike to play the party like a chessboard and eventually align with the APC while still claiming PDP membership, the writing was on the wall.

The absence of a strong, vibrant, and courageous opposition is a grave threat to democracy. In democratic systems across the world, opposition parties are not just a formality; they are the lifeblood of accountability. They scrutinize policies, challenge excesses, and keep the government on its toes. In Nigeria, the opposition seems to have been pocketed, and the pockets are lined with currency notes.

What is most shocking is the silence of institutions and civil society in the face of these allegations. If indeed money is being used to buy political loyalty and EFCC is being weaponized, where are the voices of reason? Where are the legal luminaries, the electoral watchdogs, the international observers, and most importantly, the Nigerian people?

We cannot afford to normalize the abnormal. The dangerous precedent being set here is that elections and mandates mean nothing. What matters is who can spend more and threaten harder. That is not democracy, it is tyranny in the guise of electoral legitimacy.

For the APC, the short-term gains of swelling its ranks through defections may seem like a smart political strategy. But it is a ticking time bomb. A party built on political scavenging rather than ideological unity will eventually implode. The very people being bought today will jump ship tomorrow when a higher bidder comes knocking. It is a political Ponzi scheme.

Moreover, the consequences for national cohesion and trust in democratic processes are devastating. Voters will eventually realize that their votes mean nothing. That elections are a mere ritual, a show to keep up appearances while real power is negotiated in backrooms with cash and blackmail.

Usman Bugaje is right to raise the alarm. We should not wait until democracy collapses entirely before we start holding those in power accountable. Nigerians must demand transparency in political funding. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be empowered and required to monitor party financing and political transactions beyond elections. EFCC must be audited independently to ensure it is not a puppet of the executive.

More importantly, Nigerians must stop being complacent. The price of democracy is eternal vigilance, and right now, we are all sleeping on duty.

If money continues to be the currency of political loyalty and if parties like APC continue this brazen attempt to cannibalize the opposition through bribery and blackmail, then the country is on a dangerous path. A nation where no ideology is sacred and no vote is safe is a nation courting disaster.

To quote Bugaje, “for as long as money is going to be the determining factor, then that is the end of democracy.” And make no mistake about it, he is not crying wolf. He is ringing the alarm.

APC may think it is building an empire. What it is actually doing is hammering the final nails into the coffin of Nigeria’s already fragile democracy. The question now is: will Nigerians rise to resuscitate it, or will we watch it rot beyond repair?

It was almost impossible not to be infected by the joy writ large on the face of the One-party state Villa-fawning group this past week. It was akin to winning a tombola. The Mauritanian-Nigerian ex-spokesperson for the Arewa Elders Forum and until of recent, Special Adviser on Political Matters to the President, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, would not allow these elated countrymen the benefit of a hard-earned Saturnalia. Momentarily, he made sitting comfy on a stool a punishing exercise for the group. As he tendered his letter of resignation from government, fire billowed from Baba-Ahmed’s mouth like Sango, the Yoruba god of fire. In a  viral video interview, the Mauritanian – beg your pardon – the Nigerian, reached for his ancient Arewa pouch and brought out an insinuation of the North’s oft-mesmerizing demographic talisman.

If the North’s foe in Aso Rock Villa was gloating about a power of incumbency, he should remember that the North is a behemoth that anyone could ignore only at their peril, he reminded the president, until of recent his boss. “No politician can become president without northern support, making the region’s stance crucial to any aspirant’s success,” he warned, garnishing it with the usual obstinate northern threat, “If they plan to rig the election, they should be careful. It won’t be good for Nigeria.” As if the north had always been a saint when it comes to rigging. How come this same north closed its eyes when the ruinous Muhammadu Buhari almost ran Nigeria aground in eight years?

In a recent piece I did, I warned that, in the headship of today’s Nigeria, Nigerians had never met the kind of political wiles and deadly political machinations that are in the hands of the current occupiers of Aso Rock. Citing evergreen Yoruba Juju music superstar, King Sunny Ade’s imperishable line, “We m’ẹni o kò, Paddy…” I told the Nigerian world that by the time the current Taskmaster is done with us, we would be worn thin. So, last week, an ignited political bomb exploded. Governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori and his EFCC-harangued predecessor, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Ifeanyi Okowa, shamelessly decamped from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC). An equally shameless Akwa-Ibom State governor gave indication that he would stay within the PDP and rock its boat. Both moves were replicas of same act some 2000 years ago by that notorious man who asked for 30 pieces of silver to betray our Lord Jesus Christ. Political watchers say this political Iscariotism is a tip of the iceberg. More opposition party governors, they said, many of whom are first-termers, are having their buttocks placed on scalding-hot pressure cooker in the bid to make them leave their parties for the president’s. Chief among these, they say, are governors of Kano, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, Akwa Ibom and Zamfara states.

The gleeful repertoire of conquest narratives from the presidency and the Villa fawning group fill the stratosphere.The glee was so thick you could cut a handful and swallow it. The defection fever threw National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, into a spasm. Reminiscent of Vincent Ogbulafor’s punctilious proclamation some years ago who, in his moment of uncontrollable drunkenness with the intoxicating wine of power, said the PDP would rule Nigeria for 50 years, Ganduje, last Thursday, traveled same inglorious route. He surveyed the political horizon and was so titillated by what he saw that he announced that APC’s 2027 project was a done deal. Thumping his chest like one who had just won a jackpot, the party chair, who is still embroiled in allegation of fraud while governor of Kano State, assured that more defections of governors from the opposition parties were afoot. His infelicitous boast came while he formally received defectors from the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Kano state chapter.

In Nigeria today, the man whose wily stratagem is known to have incubated these defections is being garlanded with epithets. Like maggots brimming round decaying meat, the salutes to his wiles are so aeonic that they qualify to rival the biblical “This is the voice of a god, not of a man!” Students of the bible will remember that  the crowd at Judea made that remark in response to Herod Agrippa 1’s considered superlatives. The epithets showered on the man who is considered to have broken the spinal cord of Nigeria’s opposition in such magisterial manner range from, “the enigmatic Master Strategist has struck again!”, to “The man who pocketed Lagos State in the last 25 years has added Nigeria to his state-pocketing craft.”

For the Yoruba, their naughty son with amoeba-shaped buttocks, who deserves their waist-beads and not an outsider – an “at’ohunrinwa” – the celebration is even more infectious. From their proverbs pouch, the Yoruba pulled out an ancient saying to justify and enable the perceived routing political craftiness of their son. To them, the rout is a perfect reply to the Mauritanian boaster. So, they say, “as it is on the day set for cultivation of a large farmland that the urgency to own a sharp cutlass becomes imperative, so is it gladsome to have a belligerent child when there is a declaration of war” (Ọjọ́ a ba pa’juba l’aa níran àdá, ọjọ ogun bá lè làá níran ọmọ líle). Only the man who is ensuring that opposition governors decamp to the APC can vanquish their centuries-old northern political foes who, at every drop of a hat, flaunt nebulous demographics as political weapon in electoral contest. The North’s snake has met its waterloo in its bid to swallow the Yoruba shrew.

For me, however, an eerie feeling of foreboding has since last week enveloped my reading of the projected epidemic of decamping opposition politicians.  My mind immediately dashed down to eponymous Yoruba thespian, Alagba Adebayo Faleti and his sagely takes on Pyrrhic celebrations, the type that Aso Rock and its fawners are currently taking to the bank. With songs, sang in the cadences of an elderly’s, Faleti drilled down the surface of today’s clanking of champagne glass and saw a melancholic tomorrow. His cameo role in Saworoide, a satiric brainchild film of unarguably one of Nigeria’s most talented cinematographers, Tunde Kelani, provided Faleti an opportunity to penetrate this dense outer surface. Acting the role of Baba  Opalaba, (a piercing broken bottle) an elderly palace staff, Faleti deployed music as tool to foretell, reprimand and correct. While the chiefs became a combine of evil, fascinated about immediate riches in a new king, and plotting against the tomorrow of the people, Baba Opalaba warned, singing, “Yes, they are unaware of their action’s repercussion/Tomorrow, they will” (Kò í ye wón, yíò yé wọn l’ọla ).

In another of his warnings, Faleti deployed a proverb to foretell doom: “The wretched wearing torn clothes dances like a king at nocturne, as if unaware that daybreak is nigh (Alakisa n jo l’oru/Bo pe, ile a mo l’ola). If only the Aso Rock/APC celebratory crew was aware of the wiles of their Mephistopheles, they would see what happened last week and what is projected to happen, as moments to, like biblical Israelites did when there was doom, decorate themselves in ashes and soberly mourn what lies ahead. The doom is also popularized by the song of Yoruba Sakara music great, Yusuff Olatunji. He sang of a hawk playing with the pigeon and the pigeon is filled with excitement, unbeknown to it that death lurks in the horizon (Asa nb’ẹyẹlé ṣeré, ẹyẹlé nyọ, ẹyẹlé nfi’ ikú ṣeré ). Is this celebratory gang aware that it is cultivating a fertile ground for Mephistopheles to reign in Nigeria, for the nourishment of a one-party state, with all its attendant evils? One feels like telling this lot celebrating inanity what Hamlet told Ophelia: “Get thee to a nunnery and stop breeding fools into the world.”

Naomi Mitchinson’s “One Party Rule In Africa” The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs  (2008) gives an intellectual foretaste of this hawk/pigeon mutual excitement. So also did Peter Anyang Nyong’o, in his “Africa: The failure of one-party rule,” Journal of Democracy, Volume 3, Number 1, January 1992. Nyong’o particularly saw doom ahead for the people in what is being cobbled together by the APC. According to him, while it was good news that the peoples of Africa are awakening from years of slumber under authoritarian rule and taking their future in their own hands. The bad news, he said, is that, regimes which enjoy absolute power over “terrorized natives” are sprouting in Africa. These are regimes which, in reluctance to allow themselves to be liquidated out of office and let go of power, “are doing all they can to hold back the rising democratic tide.”

One-party state regimes emerged in Africa during the decolonization period. They thereafter began to spread, with many of them adopting it as a means of consolidating power and, in their claim, promoting national unity.

In its manifestations, one-party state is indeed the holding back of Africa’s democratic tide. Margaret Monyani of the University of Witwaterstrand once defined it as a political framework “where a one/single political party forms and runs the government.” This can happen in two ways: “the activities of the opposition may be completely outlawed such that even the opposition leaders are not allowed to participate in elections” or “the chances of the opposition to clinch power are thwarted by the unfavourable legal framework that is in place… in some cases, a dominant political party that is in power only allows other less dominant parties who are allied to it to exist, while completely outlawing the opposition parties.”

While the establishment of a one-party state in Tanzania and Kenya was done through the parliament, making the formation of another party illegal, in some other countries where the one-party state structure was adopted, it is the voluntary dissolution of the political parties that makes it a one-party state. In this, the leaders and supporters of the parties are absorbed into the one-party state structure. In the words of Peter Wanyande, writing with the title, “Democracy and the One-party state: The African experience” (1987), published in the book, Democratic Theory and Practice in Africa (Y. O. Oyugi and A. Gitonga eds.), this structure of one party-rule makes such countries de jure one-party state, rather than de-facto.

Our African nationalist forefathers sold this system of governance to Africa as holding hope. Kenya, Ghana, Zamabia, Mali, Senegal, Burkina-Fasso and Tanzania were some of the countries that first adopted the one-party system. Among others, the nationalists’ justification for a one-party state was that it is the only form of governance native to Africa while multi-partyism was an alien construct. According to them, a one-party state promotes national unity and in it, national efforts would be solely directed toward nation building, rather than on fruitless politicking. Similarly, they reasoned, in the words of Nyong’o, whatever differences that might emerge among the people of a single political party “could be freely settled… for democracy would be practiced and human rights respected.” Tanzania’s former president, the Walimu, Julius Nyerere, was one of the early proponents of one-party regime. While foisting one-party rule on Tanzania in 1965, Nyerere lauded it thus: “where there is one-party state and that party is identified with the nation as a whole, the foundations of democracy are firmer than they can ever be (in a situation where) you have two or more parties each representing only a section of the community.”

Kenya under successive one-party governments, not long after, degenerated into authoritarianism. The economic development which the likes of Jomo Kenyatta and Arap Moi envisaged became a mirage. Kenyatta’s Kenya African National Union (KANU) fused with the main opposition party and became one single party. In 1964, Kenyatta then led the legislature to write into the constitution the office of the president with him as the leader.  Not long after, this one-party state morphed into a bud of corruption, disregard for merit and a system where loyalty to the Fuhrer was rewarded. Those who did not pledge full loyalty to the party and the president were hounded.

Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, which began the one-party system in 1964, became a dictatorial and authoritarian government. It repressed voices of dissent under the facade of maintaining unity. Nkrumah fatally wounded multi-party system of government by labeling it as divisive and thus not fit for the newly independent African states. What was needed, he said, was a unified energy and enthusiasm to move Africa forward. These African countries practicing one-party state system then ended up choosing socialism as a system of governance. In Tanzania, its own one-party state was the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), a political party which was in power from the inception of the country’s independence in 1961. This same fusing happened in Burkina-Faso following the election of President Yaméogo in 1959. Opposition leaders fused together shortly after the 1959 election with Yaméogo proclaiming a ban on any other political parties, thus making his Union of Voltaic Democrats (UDV- RDA) to become the country’s one-party state.

One unique feature of the one-party states in all the above-named countries is that, as butterflies are attracted to nectar, those states always attracted military putsches. One by one, all the one-party system countries were dismantled by violent military takeovers. This is due to resistance and rebellion against their authoritarian rules.

So, for the celebrating  Villa-fawning group that is shuffling its feet in acrobatic dance to the Bata drum as the group careens Nigeria towards a one-party state, the above examples are my own re-calibration of another of Baba Opalanba’s song. The sage sang: “The bird doesn’t just perch on the patio, it has ears and hears.” He rendered this thus, “Ọrọ l’ẹyẹ gbọ, ẹyẹ o dédé bà l’òrùlé o, ọrọ l’ẹyẹ ngbọ o”.

For us as a collective, this gale of defection is more than a political chess-game. It is ominous. For those who know, it has high flavour of despotism, which is a by-word for the Fuhrer’s brand of politicking. Many one-party states’ helmsmen eventually morph into life presidents of the Gnasingbe Eyadema hue. While many see a mild, Cockney English accent-flavoured-speaking Villa boss, beyond this veneer is a totalitarian for whom “No” can never be an answer. Many of the first-term governors are currently being held on tenterhooks, their second term used as bait by Aso Rock. A case is a governor whose godfather was manifesting traits of dissent. Suspecting that the governor might go the way of his godfather, Aso Rock immediately began to sponsor a SWAGA Lord as countervailing force to run against him in the soon-to-be-held gubernatorial election. A few days ago, both the governor and his godfather addressed a press conference announcing their support for Aso Rock 2027!

There is the tendency for anyone to see an impending one-party state in Nigeria as too remote. There is also the tendency to say, all that is foul is fair in politics. Or that, others before the current occupiers of the Villa did worse. In the allegory of the hawk and the pigeon, it was only when the pigeon landed inside the hawk’s abdomen, with its entrails as gourmet meal, that the warning made sense.

Dr Mike Adenuga Jnr. is like the proverbial elephant whose revelation to different persons is according to their perception of him. To thousands of people who feed off his ingenuity as a business magnate, he is their life-saving force. To the philanthropic world for which he is a phenomenon, he is their sustaining breath. Ad nauseam, Nigerians have spoken about him as a manifestation of the beauty of a national as a business anchor who would have empathy of his people. To the rest of Nigerians whose knowledge of him is the Globacom communication empire, his entrepreneurial wizardry is a stuff for legends.

But, who exactly is Mike Adenuga? Yes, I am aware that, to the business world, he is the octopus magnate whose boardroom acumen is a tale that is told across continents. Having never met him, what arrests me most are stories of his humility in the midst of his humongous wealth. More exciting to hear are the lessons of his humble beginnings.

As the story is told of how he rose by dint of hard work, a can-do spirit of the Barack Obama kind, I am still pursuit of understanding who he is. Yes, though aware that he is unique, I have heard his riches pursuit from the beginning, especially his persuasion, from the very beginning, that his place was not that of a small-timer but as one of the foremost men to impact his world. I am also aware that Adenuga’s unexampled life evokes lessons of the limitless border of the human spirit.

But, who is Mike Adenuga? I read a recent testimonial to his philanthropy where he rebuked a benefactor of his for showing gratitude. He struck me as an enigma whose life is an unusual curve from the maddening crowd of benefactors. During his 70th birthday, I also read a gale of shows of gratitude from across the world to a man whose life was wrapped around giving. I am knowledgeable enough to know that such characters are far between in a world of survival of the fittest. The glean of the Adenugas of this world I have is that, if you want to asphyxiate them, stop their earthly assignment of philanthropy. On the reverse, a crop of other humans exists whose earthly brief is to do evil. If there is indeed rewards for the two earthly assignments, it would be glad to see them both take the fruits of their calls.

As he turns 72 on Tuesday, I continue to marvel at the sort of man who does good unseen and loathes being thanked by the benefactor. The Holy Writ talks about a cheerful giver who is God’s friend. The totality of what the world says about Adenuga is that he is an embodiment of that scripture. He is God’s friend.

This page was somewhat prophetic last week when we discussed the topic, ‘Nigeria’s opposition, letting democracy down’. With the benefit of hindsight and in view of the massive blows that landed on the cheeks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the middle of last week, I am pressed to take a fresh position. Rather than heap all the blames of poor democratic culture on the opposition figures, I can now see that the political party system that we operate should take the lion share.

As you are aware, the PDP experienced one of its heaviest hemorrhages of the Fourth Republic last Wednesday, when the entire structure of the party in Delta State called it quits with the party, as they defected to the ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC).  A sixth-term member of the House of Representatives, from Osun State, Hon. Wole Oke also announced his resignation from the PDP. Feelers from his camp indicate that he is on his way to the APC, while days before the Delta and Osun drama, the governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Pastor Ume Eno had openly announced his decision to back President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the 2027 election, same way the embattled Rivers State Governor, Sim Fubara, had in a statement to the people of the state asked them to continue to support the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

As the week ended, the PDP was practically left with empty shells as it was certainly returning to the its state in 2014, when seven of its governors took up arms against their own government, formed what they called the new PDP, with four of them eventually teaming up with the legacy parties that formed the APC. Losing the long standing South-South stronghold is a big blow to the PDP.  But the cloud gathering around the PDP this time appears thicker and probably more ominous than the 2014 situation.  That is despite the assurances from the Acting National Chairman, Iliya Damagum and the President of the 8th Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki. When we heard Dr. Saraki declare that there was cause for alarm and that the leaders would rebuild the PDP, I got some mixed feelings because I know that it is beyond the optimism of the former Senate President. How many of his compatriots in the party are ready to build a formidable structure that can withstand the test of time?

The danger for the PDP this time seems to be looming large. In 2014, the party was in Aso Rock, with President Goodluck Jonathan as the Commander-in-Chief. This time, the party has the APC to contend with. The new ruling party is unlike Jonathan, who would say that the enormity of presidential power was too much to be deployed on either the citizens, or the opposition.

Several reasons have been adduced to the fall of the PDP from power in Delta State, 26 years after and its imminent fall from some other South-South states. Some PDP leaders want to blame alleged coercion from the APC at the centre, while others have claimed that PDP’s structures were being “harassed”, others have alluded to the push by President Tinubu to solidify his hold on Southern Nigeria ahead of the 2027 battle against a perceived resolute North. Whichever side of the argument you want to belong, it is better to avoid the simplistic conclusion. If anyone would complain about harassment, you may wish to ask whether Tinubu himself did not face serious harassments from former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 2002 and 2007. How did he survive and why did he not buckle under the presidential jackboot?  Why was his experience not turned into a case study by the current opposition? If Tinubu had thrown in the towel under the excuse of being “harassed”, will he become the leader of the APC and eventually the President of Nigeria in 2023? But the excuse of Southern solidarity looks plausible.

While the fullness of the reasons that informed the defection of Hon. Wole Oke and the Delta PDP caucus are yet to come into the open, what one can see in the whole scenario is a failure of party leadership.  Former ranking Senator James Manager alluded to that when he spoke on the defection. According to Manager: “I have been with the PDP from the very beginning, so this is a very emotional moment for me. But when a ship is sinking, you don’t stay onboard out of sentiment. We had extensive consultations and today marks the climax of those discussions. What we have now is a collective and unanimous decision to chart a new course.”

He added: “You have just been told about some of the things that have been happening in the PDP Delta State. Some consultations have been going on and the climax of these consultations is what you are seeing today. We have discussed and have disagreed to agree, and it is a unanimous agreement. I am the pioneer state chairman of the PDP. But you cannot be in a boat that is already capsising because I am a riverine man.

“Looking at issues the way they are, we have come to the inevitable conclusion to do something else. It is a collective decision for so many reasons. Few days ago, there was a resolution taken by the PDP Governors Forum at Ibadan. Almost all the governors were there, and they resolved that they are not going into a coalition with any other party.

“But as disadvantaged as the PDP is now with 11 governors, how do you go into a contest with an incumbent president? You think you can win? That resolution killed the spirit of so many PDP members. We lost election in 2015 because of 0a merger which even included splinter groups from the PDP. There are also other reasons. “Today Senator Anyanwu is the National Secretary of the party; tomorrow it is another person. The party must be positioned to go into an election to win. So, it is becoming very funny. The PDP is truly in trouble.”  Without even going into the excuse of the change in taste of the PDP palm wine provided by Charles Aniagwu, Commissioner for Works in Delta State, what Senator Manager said is enough to know that the PDP is indeed in trouble. Whoever wants to blame Tinubu for the development in Delta needs only to read the lines by Manager. Lawyers would describe this PDP scenario as a prima facie case.

From inception, the PDP looked like an overfed spoiled brat, who got into position of authority with little or no effort. What usually evolves in such a situation is unmitigated misconduct and gross incapacity to hold the fringes together. Maybe President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to pull it in one direction and made it a behemoth between 1999 and 2007 when it controlled 27 state governors and a clear two-thirds majority in the Senate, especially between 2003 and 2007.  After Obasanjo, the party continued to self-destruct, with internal squabbles, rather than opposition’s machinations its undoing. Between 2010 and 2011, some chieftains of the party were spewing fire over the perceived shortchanging of the North by the decision of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2011 elections. To them, Jonathan should have only completed the remainder of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s tenure such that he would allow the North to do eight years in power in line with PDP’s zoning pattern which recognised a North/South arrangement. That agitation laid the foundation for the party’s disintegration, eventually leading to the 2014 defections and Jonathan’s ouster in 2015. Prior to that time, no opposition was strong enough to confront the PDP.

Apart from internal squabbles, the party also started planting the fruits it is harvesting right now since 2003, when it allowed incumbent governors enormous powers to control party structures and determine candidates for Senate and House of Representatives seats as well as members of the state Houses of Assembly and then their successors. With badly conducted elections across most of the states, the governors were able to retire themselves into the Senate and plant their lackeys in the Government Houses in the states. Most of the time, they supplanted party structures and sentiments to impose successors, thus weakening the party and rubbishing party supremacy. Within a short time, real time politicians or let me say politicians of the old school were replaced with businessmen in politics and then vote buying became the order of elections. Even in the South-West, where the people rejected PDP’s moneybags in the 1999 elections, to vote for Alliance for Democracy (AD) leaders as a sign of reverence to politicians who stood by the late MKO Abiola in the June 12 struggle, the tide has since changed with dibo k’o se obe (vote and get a pot of soup) becoming the new singsong on election days.

When a political followership is based on nothing other than power grab and that situation is further worsened by a complete absence of structured funding patterns, the party is doomed.  The NPN, UPN and other parties of the Second Republic had funding patterns that aided the preservation of party structures. Senator Femi Okurounmu once told me he served as UPN’s administrative secretary in Gongola axis. He was a paid staff of the party.  Where a party is at the mercy of governors or the president, its future can only remain at the mercy of the wind. Since 1999, the PDP has failed to find a sustainable funding system.  The same for all the registered parties of this era. Where a state has no governor, the responsibility for picking the bills is rested on a magnanimous governor nearby. Party dues are hardly collected and where members pay, that confers no advantage on them. I once saw the example of a hardworking former commissioner who had spent all his time in office attracting dividends to his community and was asked to contest the House of Representatives seat of the constituency. Though everyone recognised he worked hard for the community, that, however, did not stop the people from collecting d’ibo k’o se obe money from a man they later dubbed Yahoo, Yahoo on election day. The sad aspect is that the so-called ‘Yahoo man’ completely abandoned the constituency after he was sworn in.

So, it is easy for those who are desperate for power to conveniently hang in there or pump in money at the last minute, grab power and run with it. Rather than blame Tinubu’s politics for the myriads of defections, we may have to look at the severity of other issues. If nobody would stick out his neck to build political parties the way our Second Republic leaders did, we can as well conclude that this Republic has not seen the last of jeun soke politics.

Waiting for an African Pope” by my brother, Azu Ishiekwene, made an interesting reading. Azu’s immense fecundity, as usual, his flawless prose, and free-flowing minting and weaving of words will always be a delight any day. “Waiting for an African Pope” ended while I was still enjoying it! Did Azu argue or canvass for an African pope at this point in time? Not really, in my own opinion, although he gave reasons that can support or justify the choice of one. Since the late Pope Francis was the first Jesuit and cardinal from the Americas (born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to be specific) “to rise to the top of the papacy”, this, posits Azu, “raises hopes that the next one may come from Africa or Asia”. Another cogent reason given by Azu is that Africa “is the largest growing region for the Catholic Church, with about 20 percent of the church’s 1.4 billion population”, thus giving hope that we may not be far away from seeing “the first Black pope in modern history”. What that means is that there had been Black popes in the past, but that was a long, long time ago, in the 5th century or the Roman-era Africa. The office of the Pope had since been dominated by three European countries – Italy, Germany, and France – giving the impression (my own interpretation, please!) that this may be another form of (religion) colonialism or imperialism! According to Google, “there have been 266 popes throughout history, of whom 4 in 5 were from Italy.”

In this Digital Age and Free World, an office as important as that of the Catholic pope should also be democratised. God, being no respecter of persons and the Holy Spirit also not discriminating among tribes and tongues, what is good for the Caucausians should also be good for the Asians and Africans. Azu also argues that since the deceased pope pitched his tent with the poor, championing a lot of reforms that deliberately made advocacy for the poor a legacy, there is no better way to protect, preserve, advance, and concretise that legacy than to choose the next pope from among the poorest of the poor. This is debatable, though, because a man’s ideology, more than his place of origin or the colour of his skin, is likely to determine where he pitches his tent between the haves and have-nots. Azu, however, highlights a drawback of the African Catholic church – it is a poor church. Says Azu: “The African church may have the fastest-growing flock, but it is also the begging bowl. In a world where money is the bicycle of the gospel, the African church is the largest recipient of many forms of financial aid.” These days, though, the gospel no longer thrives on bicycles but on custom-built supersonic jets, especially where Nigeria’s Pentecostals are concerned!

 Other obstacles listed by Azu include that African cardinals have faced less scrutiny compared with their other colleagues; and then there is the politics of the conclave (where popes are chosen). Since man is intrinsically a political animal, there is politics everywhere you find human beings. And where there is politics, a lot of factors – subjective and objective – come into play. The colour of one’s skin, the region where a candidate comes from, and his ideology will certainly come into play. How many of the cardinals who fought the deceased pope tooth and nail over his reforms, especially his fight against corruption, incompetence and conservatism, will want to see a continuation of the same policies?

 In the end, will a Black pope emerge after the white-coloured smoke funnels from the top of Sistine Chapel, signalling that a choice has been made? Again, why is it a white-coloured smoke that signals success while a black-coloured smoke signals that no decision has been arrived at? Azu does not think a Black pope will emerge because, according to him, the road to change is usually long! And he is right! Jamaican reggae artiste Jimmy Cliff says the road is not only long but also hard. But isn’t 16 centuries a long and hard enough wait for Africa – except, here again, it is a wait for Godot? “The odds, this time, favour yet another Italian pope”, concludes Azu. Each time prophets, pastors, and preachers take such a risk as Azu’s or soccer buffs predict who wins in a football match and fail, I shudder at the perils of making predictions!

 As if Catholic Rev. Father Oluoma Chinenye John had also read Azu, he was quoted as saying that getting an African pope was not something Catholics in Africa were clamouring for. Did he say it was not desirable? No! He only wanted whoever emerges to have been so chosen by God, arguing that getting an African (simply because he is an African – my own addition, please!) to succeed the deceased pope will make no difference.

His exact words: “We are not praying for an African pope. We are praying for a good and holy pope who will shepherd the people. He can be an African, American, European or Asian… Una don hear, ba? All those agitating and clamouring for an African to be the next pope, you miss the point completely. Popes are not chosen on racial sentiments. Even if an African becomes the next pope, it will not give Africans any advantage over others and vice-versa”. Poking fun at Nigeria, he noted that there is nothing like “emilokan” or “it is my turn” in the selection of a pope! Father Oluoma is a person I respect so much for his candour. I always love to listen to him as he makes very serious statements in a light-hearted manner. Another such fellow is Professor PLO Lumumba.

 But this time around, I want to disagree with Father Oluoma while agreeing with Azu. Whatever criteria are applied to choose the next pope – by God or human beings – nothing should stop an African from making the mark. Why should Blacks always fall behind Whites in the pecking order in all things and at all times, even in things that pertain unto religion, which is touted as our forte in Africa? When will Africa “come of age”, to quote the assassinated Nigerian Head of State, Gen. Murtala Muhammed?  

 That said, the life of Pope Francis should be a challenge to church leaders worldwide. Can the following report about the pope be true? He should have been buried yesterday (Saturday). It goes thus: “Some reports indicate that Pope Francis died leaving only 100 dollars. Yes, a hundred dollars. Less than 90 euros. No house. No bank account. No investment in his name. And yet, he was the head of the Catholic Church. A post that could have earned him about €340,000 a year. But he refused that money. Every year. Since 2013. Why? Because he was a Jesuit, and the Jesuits take a vow of poverty.

 “Rather than living in the luxurious Vatican apartments like his predecessors, he chose to move into the Casa Santa Marta, a simple, modest residence. No gilding. No personal servants. Just a bed, a desk, and his faith. He wore his old worn-out black shoes, refusing traditional red moccasins. He moved in a small Ford Focus while other religious leaders were driving in limousines. He ate with the Vatican employees, not in a private dining room. He simply dressed, without special adornment, just his white outfit and an iron cross. An invisible wealth…

“While some cling to their property… Pope Francis has chosen to own nothing to offer everything. No millions. No complex wills. Just 100 dollars… and a powerful message: ‘It’s not what you own that matters. That’s what you are. What you do for others.’ The world is shocked… but inspired. At a time when wealth often becomes an ultimate goal, Pope Francis leaves an eternal trace without ever having sought to enrich himself. He did not bequeath any material fortune. He left a moral fortune. A lesson in humility. A vision of service.

“He wasn’t a luxury Pope! He was a Pope of The Heart. A man who has proved that to live simply is to reign differently. What about you? What will you leave behind? Money? Things? Or a real inspiration?”

 It is difficult not to notice the difference between the religion-preneurs here and the true followers of Jesus Christ as depicted by Pope Francis. Yet, the Bible says in St. Luke 12: 15:  “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Matthew 6: 19 -21 says: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

 For a moment, please pause and Google “The 10 top richest pastors in Nigeria” and marvel! Tell me, where are folks taking all the riches? Heaven or hell? What with so much poverty – grinding poverty, multi-dimensional poverty – in the midst of their congregation? Why can’t they divest themselves of their stinking riches and give to the poor, like Jesus Christ admonished the rich, young man in Matthew 19: 21-24? Building state-of-the-art cathedrals is not a substitute for taking care of the poor.                        

 Pope Francis is dead – by the time you are reading this (on Sunday), he would have been buried the day before (on Saturday). He would have taken nothing with him – only his soul went with him. I counsel our church-preneurs to listen to Tracy Chapman’s “All that you have is your soul.” Permit me to take just a few lines from it: “Oh my mama told me/Because she say she learned the hard way/Say she want to spare the children/She say don’t give or sell your soul away/Because all that you have is your soul/Don’t be tempted by the shiny apple/Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit/Hunger only for a taste of justice/Hunger only for a word of truth/Because all that you have is your soul/ Why was I such a young fool/Thought I’d made history/…Thought I’d made something that could be mine forever/Found out the hard way one can’t possess another/And all that you have is your soul…”

Can anyone, from his or her grave, beat God’s words in Psalm 39:6? Or nullify Mark 8: 34 -38?

 Fare thee well, Pope Francis! The thoughts of your patron saint, the Italian Saint Francis of Assisi (Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone: 1181 – 3 October, 1226), have also had a profound influence on my worldview.