The immediate past President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has rated the performance of his successor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, barely a year in office.

According to Buhari, the former Governor of Lagos State, has done wonderfully well since the assumption of office nine months ago.

Naija News reports that the former president made this remark when he received the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and members of the management team of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Daura, Katsina state, at the weekend.

It is no longer news that President Tinubu has faced wide criticism over some of his economic policies, including the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the exchange rate windows.

These policies, among others, have brought about untold hardship on Nigerians following the economic hardship, and the naira’s depreciation, which in recent times have led to protests.

Buhari, however, said Tinubu has performed well given the prevailing circumstances, but affirmed that Nigeria is a complex country to govern.

According to him, there is not much anybody can do about Nigeria. Buhari addressed Adeniyi and his team, emphasizing that Nigeria poses significant challenges, urging citizens to persevere through economic difficulties and back the initiatives of the present government.

“I thank you very much for coming. I very much appreciate it. I thought Tinubu has done very well.

“Nigeria is so complex. Really, there isn’t much anybody can do,” Daily Trust quoted the former president saying.

Adeniyi expressed his gratitude towards the ex-president for his exceptional support of the NCS Act 2023.

The CGC also visited the Emir of Daura, His Royal Highness, Dr Farouk Umar Farouk.

“This legislative milestone grants the NCS expanded authority to implement policies aimed at bolstering revenue generation and facilitating trade, thus contributing significantly to Nigeria’s economic growth trajectory,” Adeniyi said.

He also spoke about trucks carrying food items seized at the border, saying, “I will also use this occasion to brief you on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directives that all trucks of food carrying exports across the border that were seized by Customs be returned to the traders with the hope that they would plough them back into the Nigerian markets.”

It should be noted that this was not the first time Buhari had remarked that governing Nigeria was a tough job for leaders.

In November 2023, during an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Buhari said the country was difficult to rule.

“Nigerians are extremely difficult. People know their rights. They think they should be there, not you. So, they monitor virtually your every step. And you have to struggle day and night to ensure you are competent enough,” he had said.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have declared a 7-day warning strike.

Naija News understands that the strike was declared to demand the payment of four months of withheld salaries of their members, after the 2022 nationwide strike.

The decision was reached by the joint action committee of the two unions, after a meeting which held in Akure at the weekend.

This comes a week after the unions warned of potential disruptions to industrial peace in Nigerian universities.

The unions emphasized the unfair treatment and questioned the government’s rationale behind this selective payment.

According to the SSANU president, Mohammed Ibrahim, who read the communiqué of the meeting to journalists in Abuja on Monday, the decision to embark on the warning strike was taken as a last resort since several protest letters and other communications with the Federal Government did not result in the payment of the withheld salaries.

The statement added: “If nothing is done by the Federal Government to positively address this situation and respond to our previous letters to them, the members of the two unions may be forced to meet soon to take all lawful and stringent decisions on the matter”.

The fate of the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, remains uncertain two months following her suspension amid allegations necessitating an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) probe.

Despite the EFCC concluding its investigation and submitting an interim report to the Presidency, Nigerians are yet to learn of any decisive action regarding Edu’s case.

Reports from Daily Trust indicate that the EFCC’s investigation, initiated after Edu’s suspension on January 8, has culminated in a recommendation to prosecute the suspended minister.

The submission of the interim report has sparked speculation on the next steps, particularly with some high-profile individuals and political figures rallying for leniency towards Edu.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio, among other influential personalities, is allegedly exerting pressure on President Bola Tinubu, advocating for a “soft landing” for Edu.

In contrast to Edu’s contentious situation, Halima Shehu, the suspended coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), appears to have been absolved of wrongdoing by the EFCC’s interim findings.

The source said, “The leaked documents about releases by NSIPA under Halima have been scrutinised by the EFCC. Those expenses are found to have followed standard procedures because all relevant parties endorsed their signatures.

“The monies were discovered to have been released for the purposes they were earmarked. Besides, Halima only continued the disbursements from where her predecessor stopped. And this was to avoid litigations, because the contractors had presented certificates of no objection.”

Another source said, “But a strong personality in the Villa was not happy with the report from the EFCC and therefore told those who brought it to take it back and review the report further.”

The EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, spoke with the platform about the claim that an interim report had been submitted to President Tinubu and said an investigation into the matter is still ongoing.

Asked when the investigation would be concluded, considering that credible sources had confirmed the submission of an interim report, Oyewale declined further comments.

The spokesman of the Senate President, Eseme Eyiboh, when reached out to on the allegation that Akpabio was working hard to secure “a soft landing” for the suspended humanitarian minister, said, “Betta Edu is never in the legislature and she is not a minister appointed by the president of the senate.

“I recall that she was suspended by her appointer and not the president of the Senate. This was intended to pave way for an official public service procedure. There is no way the president of the Senate could have or can influence the determination of the fate of any minister and particularly Dr Betta Edu.”

As the bank relationship manager of two leading agro-based companies in Nigeria, namely: Presco Plc and The Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc, I made several visits to the companies' plantations in Benin, Edo State between 2000 and 2003.

The sight of several thousands of hectares of oil palm plantation was always a beauty to behold. I particularly found the fully automated oil refineries of the two companies awe inspiring. At the end of each visit I came to appreciate the immense potential of the country as an agricultural powerhouse.

During one of my visits, I made an observation that the heartbeat of the companies' huge operations is the nursery. At the nursery, thousands of oil palm seeds are planted and nurtured into quality seedlings for about a year. The nursery serves to protect the seedlings until they can withstand harsh weather conditions. From time to time, oil palm seedlings from the nursery are transplanted to virgin or old plantations that have been cleared of bushes or old oil palm trees. The nursery guarantees the continuity of the business. To this end, the companies make an enormous investment in the maintenance of the nursery.

With the benefit of my plantation visit experience, I always wondered why we pander to the dictates of Bretton Woods Institutions along the line to offer no protection by way of subsidies to our fledging industries and vulnerable citizens but to open our economy to the vagaries of global economic conditions. Bretton Woods Institutions' economic pills fly in the face of the law of nature - the inherent attribute of all classes of animals to nurture and protect their young ones until such a time that they can stand and fend for themselves.

Also, the second-best theory of welfare economics states that if all distortions in the economy cannot be eliminated, you cannot tell whether eliminating or reducing a particular distortion will lead toward or away from equilibrium. Of all the distortionary factors there are, the most pernicious for our economy is corruption. Even in our administration of subsidies - introduction or removal - corruption is embedded. We carry on as if there is a corruption-embodied economic growth model to bequeath to the field of economics. Given our peculiar situation, what we need is help with taming the hydra-headed demon of corruption not the disproportionate preoccupation with subsidies.

The conclusion of the matter is that subsidy is an integral part of life, nobody pays the full cost of living!

Whatever happened to catchy governance phrases, of which this country had a surfeit in the last 50 years? Why are governments at all levels today regurgitating dry phrases such as “palliatives”, “reforms,” “it’s the fault of my predecessor” and “we see light at the end of the tunnel,” which could be an oncoming goods train? Maybe that is just as well because if one quarter of the catchy governance phrases spewed in the past had delivered on their lofty promises, Nigeria would have been an Eldorado by now.

Today, Nigerians are complaining about food. Governments at all levels are talking about palliatives. Some people are even looting warehouses and waylaying food trucks on the highways. Whatever happened to Operation Feed the Nation [OFN] that military Head of State General Olusegun Obasanjo launched in 1977? Nearly 50 years before a Farmer Governor surfaced in Niger, Obasanjo enjoined everybody to cultivate every little space around his house. The Head of State himself was seen on NTA slugging a hoe, cultivating a maize farm right inside Dodan Barracks. Three years later President Shehu Shagari launched the Green Revolution. How come, after 50 years, we cannot feed the nation and many of our farms are parched, not green?

Whatever happened to the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure [DFRRI] of the IBB era, headed by Air Commodore Larry Koinyan? In the wake of his unpopular Structural Adjustment Program [SAP], IBB rolled out a palliative, not of free rice, but of rural infrastructure that will assist farmers to move their produce to urban markets. It was a classic case of teaching people how to fish rather than giving them fish.

Probably no peacetime program in Nigeria ever received quite as much trumpeting by government officials as Health For All by the Year 2000. Billboards, flyers, radio and TV jingles, endless interviews by government officials all trumpeted it throughout the 1970s and 1980s. How come that millions of Nigerians are still sick today, cost of many drugs has tripled in recent months alone and our health workers find a reason to go on strike every now and then? Not to be left behind, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, prodded by UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, promised us Food for all by the Year 2000. Federal Ministry of Housing followed suit with a promise of Shelter for all by the Year 2000. Twenty-four years after the deadline, millions of Nigerians are still looking for health, food and shelter.

In the 1980s, Federal Ministry of Health led by Prof Olikoye Ransome-Kuti promised to combat the “Six Childhood Killer Diseases” through the Expanded Program on Immunisation, EPI. Every mother in Nigeria was taught how to mix sugar and salt in the Oral Rehydration Therapy, ORT. Those two extremely important programs saved millions of children’s lives. Why are they not being trumpeted anymore? Where is the Rural Water and Sanitation [RUWATSAN] program that we heard so much about in the 1980s? It promised to deliver boreholes and running water to all towns and communities, a very good idea because water-borne diseases account for a large chunk of our health care budgets. Forty years since Ruwatsan, why are we still talking about open defecation in Nigeria?

One of the catchiest phrases in Nigerian history, which also fell very short after nearly 50 years, was Universal, Free, Compulsory Primary Education, UPE. In  the early 1970s, endless radio jingles and billboards trumpeted it. Although it was General Gowon who conceived it, General Obasanjo launched it with great fanfare in 1976. Twenty-four years later when he returned as civilian president, he expanded and relaunched it as Universal Basic Education, UBE. It turned out not to be universal because we have a guesstimated 15 million out of school children today. It was not free because millions of kids today are in high-paying private schools while public schools too found various ways to fleece parents. It was never compulsory because many parents do not send their kids to school. It is even doubtful if it is education, since many of its products today cannot read a book.

Where are the Gifted Children’s Schools that Education Minister Professor Jibril Aminu created in the 1980s? His idea was to pluck especially gifted kids out of the normal school system and concentrate them in special schools that could breed Nobel Prize winners. Pray, where is the Nomadic Education program that Aminu also created? All the pastoral kids that we see today rearing cattle, were they not supposed to have been injected into that program? By now the cattle must be in ranches for lack of herders.

Innumerable times, successive Federal Governments set target dates to end gas flaring from the oil fields, complete with threats of hefty fines and license revocations. One newspaper reported at one time that the oil giants found that it was cheaper to pay the fine than to invest in the technology to end gas flaring. What about the environmental cost of flaring and the health of people in the surrounding communities? These days, government’s economic team speak so much about “reforms”. Some people see these reforms as reincarnations of Babangida’s Structural Adjustment Program, SAP, only that it was not preceded by a Babangida-style “national debate on IMF loan.” CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso’s “merger of exchange rates” phrase is not as catchy as IBB’s “Second-tier Foreign Exchange Market, SFEM”.

Whatever happened to the 1980s phrase “local sourcing of raw materials”? In that era when foreign exchange was very scarce and you could get jailed for hawking dollars around, government officials spoke everyday about the need for industries to locally source their raw materials. Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman said in 1982 that the dollars and pounds spent by Nigerian industries to import raw materials exceeded the value of their produce, meaning they were simply siphoning funds abroad. In the 1980s government also propounded the phrase “export-led recovery.” Import-led collapse is more like it, with everything from toothpicks to razor blades competing for scarce forex.

Central Bank, where is your early 1990s program of “respect the naira”? CBN-sponsored radio and TV jingles admonished market women, butchers, taxi drivers and gamblers to stop mutilating the naira. A cartoon in The Triumph newspaper depicted a fat CBN official telling a crowd to respect the naira. One famished Nigerian in the crowd said, “Respect? Oya, release that one for your hand and see. We love the naira!”

Since the 1980s, successive governments have been promising us 10,000 megawatts of electricity. Some of them, such as Obasanjo II’s, Jonathan’s and Buhari II’s even fixed deadlines, only to breach all of them. Obasanjo’s first Power Minister, Chief Bola Ige, promised stable power within six months. President Umaru Yar’adua promised to declare a State of Emergency on Electricity, which he never did, instead he said his predecessor spent $16 billion on power “without commensurate results.” Poor me, I even offered Malam Umaru a [naïve] advice at the time, that why don’t you go to Ukraine, hire a 4,000 KVA floating power station, sail it to Lagos, of the kind they use off the coast of Arctic coast, connect it to the national grid, then you get a respite while you tackle the power problem?

Why is Nigerian society bedeviled today by kidnapping, banditry, child trafficking and baby factories? Wasn’t General Obasanjo’s 1977 Jaji Declaration supposed to have taken care of all these? When ace broadcaster Adamu Augie interviewed him on NTA, he said the goal was to make Nigerian society “fair, just, humane and African.” Unfair, unjust, inhumane and un-African is more like it these days. Shagari continue from where Obasanjo stopped by launching the “Ethical Revolution” in 1982, I think. He even created a Ministry of National Guidance in 1983, a concept borrowed from Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser. Buhari/Idiagbon regime capped it all with the War Against Indiscipline [WAI] in 1984.

Are we no longer doing “new breed politics” that Babangida promised in the early 1990s when he banned “old breed politicians” from participating in his transition program? Everyone who held a governorship, ministerial or other high political office was banned and only the young were allowed in. only that, new breed politicians ran behind the scenes to the old breed and sought for “endorsement,” very much like school and job applicants ask older folks to be their referees because neither school principals nor employers trust a new breed without a record of his own!

In 1991 when going to Hajj was cheap, the late Hajiya Bilkisu wrote a column titled “Hajj For All By the Year 2000. This year when a hajj seat costs nearly six million, Hajj For Few By the Year 2024 is more like it.

I said something earlier about the catchiest peacetime phrase. On the other hand, there was no catchier war-time phrase in Nigeria than the one propounded by General Yakubu Gowon in the late 1960s, “To keep Nigeria One Is A Task That Must Be Done.” Everywhere you turned, there was a large billboard with a picture of the youthful Commander-in-Chief Major General Yakubu Gowon, clean shaven except for his dark mustache, looking intently ahead at God-knows-what. Why don’t we have a catchy phrase to address Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, bandits, communal warriors, IPOB, Yoruba Nation agitators and secession advocates masquerading as “restructuring”?

Since 1975 when General Gowon and other West African leaders created ECOWAS in the mold of European Economic Community [EEC], one of the catchiest phrases in Nigeria has been “free movement of goods and persons.” After 49 years, what we had in recent years was free movement of coups instead, with constitutional rule overthrown in four ECOWAS member states. A fifth one narrowly escaped by postponing presidential elections at the last minute.

Our foreign policy too is now lacking in catchy phrases. Where is “Africa is the centerpiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy,” written into the 1999 Constitution? Look, where is “Concentric Circles foreign policy” launched by Foreign Minister Prof Ibrahim Gambari in 1984, or the “Concert of Medium Powers” launched by his successor, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi in 1985? Can’t we find another catchy foreign policy today, such as, “Knock the Sahelian bums” or “Throw out the Yanks, Limmies, Gauls, Russians, Nippon and Chinks”?

Moses

   When the children of Israel rebelled against God and the leadership of Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, God was angry and decided to destroy them.  But Moses ‘wrestled’ with God to change that decision.  He went as far as rejecting an offer to make out of him a great nation instead of Israel. Yes, an intercessor must always be selfless, unselfish. Moses argued and showed God the reasons why he should not destroy Israel at that point in time.  At last, he succeeded in convincing him.  Let us read it:    “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people reject me?  Will they ever believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?  I will disown them and destroy them with a plague.  Then I will make you into a nation far greater and mightier than they are!  ‘But what will the Egyptians think when they hear about it?  Moses pleaded with the Lord.  They know very well the power you displayed in rescuing these people from Egypt.  They will tell this to the inhabitants of this land, who are well aware that you are with this people.  They know, Lord that you have appeared in full view of your people in the pillar of cloud that hovers over them.  They know that you go before them in the pillar of cloud by the day and the pillar of fire by night.  Now if you slaughter all these people, the nations that have heard of your fame will say, ‘The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he swore to give them, so he killed them in the wilderness.’

   “Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed it to be.  For you said, ‘The LORD is slow to anger and rich in unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. Even so he does not leave sin unpunished, but he punishes the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations. Please pardon the sins of this people because of your magnificent, unfailing love, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.’   “Then the Lord said, ‘I will pardon them as you have requested.”  Numbers 14:11-20

  My God! Excellent and successful intercession! Great Moses! Look at the sweet result. This is a typical ‘wrestling with God’.  Some men are indeed great. Read the above passage over again. Moses did a wonderful job here.  He went on, putting forward every reason under the sun why God should change his mind on destroying the people of Israel through a plague for their faithlessness, disobedience and foolishness. He practically threw God’s words back to him. He achieved his aim by making God to rescind that judgement. Great success! Great Moses!  Listen,    God said, “Come now, let us argue this out.”  Isaiah 1:18.  Yes, he is looking for men and women that will hold him with reasons why he should do what we want him to do.  And this is what wrestling with him means. How many of us are ready for this? Can you stand between him and the people??

Jacob

   Another man that taught us that we can actually hold on to God and struggle with him in prayer until we receive what we want from him is Jacob.  Jacob is a perfect example of a man wrestling with God. They had the match at midnight prayer.  There is no situation that wrestling with God in the midnight cannot change. True!     I have repeatedly said this in my book / audiobook Power of Midnight Prayer that any man or woman that masters this act of midnight prayer will remain unconquerable throughout their life.  This does not in any way mean that challenges of life will not come, sure they will, but you will always be on top of the situation. I say this by personal experiences and also testimonies from others.  When Jacob was coming back from exile and was to meet an angry and well armed brother – Esau, he was afraid, confused and was trying every trick to escape the rage of a brother who was coming to pay him back for his (Jacob’s) treachery.  In that precarious situation, Jacob wrestled with God and changed the entire situation to his favour.  Praise God!  Please let’s go through this very interesting account of Jacob’s wrestling with God:

   “But during the night Jacob got up and sent his two wives, two concubines, and eleven sons across the Jabbok River.  After they were on the other side, he sent over all his possessions.  This left Jacob all alone in the camp and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn.  When the man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.  Then the man said, ‘let me go, for it is dawn.’ But Jacob panted, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ ‘What is your name?’  The man asked, he replied, ‘Jacob.’ ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob,’ the man told him.  ‘It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and man and have won.’ ‘What is your name? Jacob asked him.  ‘Why do you ask?’ the man replied, then he blessed Jacob there.’ Jacob named the place Peniel – ‘Face of God’ for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.’  The sun rose as he left Peniel. ‘Then, in the distance, Jacob saw Esau coming with his four hundred men.  Jacob now arranged his family into a column with his two concubines and their children at the front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.  Then Jacob went on ahead as he approached his brother, he bowed low seven times before him.  Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him affectionately and kissed him.  Both of them were in tears.” 

   What a reversal of fate! There are things I would like us to note about Jacob’s attitude towards this particular encounter with God.  Jacob was persistent; he made sure that the man (God) did not win the match and he also refused to let him go without blessing him.  And he got his blessings at last.   The sun rose upon Jacob and his fears were immediately tuned into favour. When we follow this same principle, we are sure to receive the same result.  This is exactly what wrestling with God is all about - persisting until you receive your blessing from him.   Find the above story in Genesis 32:22-31, 33:1-4.   Now also look at the way Hosea puts it, “Before Jacob was born, he struggled with his brother; when he became a man, he even fought with God.  Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.  He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him.  There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him – the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name!”   Hosea 12:3-4.   That is Jacob for you!  He started wrestling right from the womb. He wrestled with his brother, he fought with God and he also wrestled with the angel and won. And I want to add that he also wrestled with his father-in-law to get his wealth and wife of choice. He understood the game perfectly well. It is called wrestling Match! Yes, that guy was determined right from the womb to make the most of his opportunities. He was determined to see all the promises of God come to pass in his life. So, he wrestled! Fight for your destiny. Fight for your vision. Fight for the promises of God for your life. Don’t give up! We will continue. Share this message with others.

Yet, we remain here. To whom or to where shall we turn? “We must make Nigeria a viable place for people to stay, and not a place to run away from.” I heard that counsel from African Development Bank Group’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, last week Wednesday in his lecture after receiving the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership in Lagos. I heard him and asked myself who would make Nigeria “a viable place for people to stay.” Those who print money and steal what they print? Those who serenade banditry with negotiation? Where are the leaders? Adesina in that same lecture looked deep into the past and declared that “Nigeria missed its best opportunity to be great under a ‘President’ Awolowo.” I heard that truth and whispered to myself that Nigeria is an expert at missing ways. Yoruba musician, Ayinla Omowura, sings about the one destined to eat hideous vulture, forbidden bird of carrion. Omowura sings that “the head that will eat vulture will not listen. If we give him chicken to eat, he will reject it. 

“What is the State?” Louis Blanc, politician and historian in 19th century France, asks himself.

He answers:

“The State, under democratic rule, is the power of all the people, served by their elect; it is the reign of liberty.

“The State, under monarchical rule, is the power of one man, the tyranny of a single individual.

“The State, under oligarchical rule, is the power of a small number of men, the tyranny of a few.

“The State, under aristocratic rule, is the power of a class, the tyranny of many.

“The State, under anarchical rule, is the power of the first comer who happens to be the most intelligent and the strongest; it is the tyranny of chaos.”

 The lines above I took from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s ‘The State: Its Nature, Object, and Destiny’ (1849). Nigeria is a fine combination of four of the five Louis Blanc’s definitions of the state. In case you pretend not knowing what the four are, this should be a guide: Last week, Finance Minister, Olawale Edun, frontally accused the defunct Muhammadu Buhari regime of criminal printing of about N23 trillion naira. Northern senators on Saturday alleged a criminal infusion of N3 trillion into the 2024 budget of Nigeria by powerful ghosts in Abuja. On Friday, in one northern state, a judge sentenced two kidnappers to death by hanging but quickly undermined himself with an advice to the felons to seek pardon from the executive “since no life was lost in the process of kidnapping.” On Thursday, bandits abducted 287 students in Kaduna. On Saturday, bandits invaded a Zamfara school and stole 15 students. Before the school abductions, senior brothers of the bandits, Boko Haram, had kidnapped over 400 displaced persons in Borno. In Benue and Plateau, a murderous campaign against helpless people is on without ceasing. From the desert to the coast, agonizing cries of existential woes rend the land. What we have is chaos pro-max.

Yet, we remain here. To whom or to where shall we turn? “We must make Nigeria a viable place for people to stay, and not a place to run away from.” I heard that counsel from African Development Bank Group’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, last week Wednesday in his lecture after receiving the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership in Lagos. I heard him and asked myself who would make Nigeria “a viable place for people to stay.” Those who print money and steal what they print? Those who serenade banditry with negotiation? Where are the leaders? Adesina in that same lecture looked deep into the past and declared that “Nigeria missed its best opportunity to be great under a ‘President’ Awolowo.” I heard that truth and whispered to myself that Nigeria is an expert at missing ways. Yoruba musician, Ayinla Omowura, sings about the one destined to eat hideous vulture, forbidden bird of carrion. Omowura sings that “the head that will eat vulture will not listen. If we give him chicken to eat, he will reject it.”

That is the nature of destiny – determinist philosophers say it is inevitable; people of religion agree but add that it is also inscrutable. Should it be Nigeria’s destiny to be a jungle forever? It looks like there is nothing we can do about it. Arab folklore character, Nasrudin, walks with utmost innocence along an alleyway. He is deep in thought and careful about not putting his feet where he may have them injured. But a man falls from a nearby roof and lands on Nasrudin’s neck. The fallen man is unhurt; innocent Nasrudin has a broken neck. He is asked what lessons he learnt from that experience. Nasrudin tells his disciples to note the place of fate in his fate. He asks them to note that the other man “fell — but my neck is broken!” At independence, Nigeria had all the chances to be great, but it soon had the ill-luck of falling into the mouths of big cats of the jungle. They’ve finished with the flesh, they are cracking the bones.

Adesina’s lecture focused on what he called five critical areas that would save Nigeria and transform the people’s lives. He said the government should make rural economy work and provide food security. He said our rural areas “have become zones of economic misery.” He is right and correct. He said the city falters today because the village has been abandoned to faltering. The result is “the spread of anarchy, banditry, and terrorism” – what he called the “troika of social disruption” entrenching themselves to our collective sorrow. Adesina said our leaders should give health security for all, provide education for all, give affordable housing for all. He told us quoting data by UN-Habitat, that “in Nigeria, 49 percent of the population live in slums …That is a staggering 102 million people!” He exclaimed and told our leaders that what Nigerians needed “is decent housing and not upgrading of slums…There is nothing like a 5-star slum. A slum is a slum… ”

Then, Adesina reached the fifth of his points: Our leaders should be accountable: “If people pay taxes, governments must deliver services,” he said and quickly added that “taxation in the absence of a social contract between governments and citizens is simply fiscal extortion.” He stressed that Nigeria must enthrone fiscal decentralisation for a true federalism.: “To get out of the economic quagmire, there is a compelling need for the restructuring of Nigeria…Instead of a Federal Government of Nigeria, we could think of the United States of Nigeria.”

Those are great ideas. But in this country, the bush is the way – because the blind is the guide. Leadership will always make a difference. In a 2002 academic piece, psychologists Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzio and Annie Mckee speak on the imperative of societies enthroning leaders with positive emotions. They say the society achieves equilibrium when it is governed by leaders with a sense of accountability; leaders who know how to transform “the art of leadership to the science of results.” One writer said “the executive mind is impotent without power, power is dangerous without vision, and neither is lasting or significant in any human broad sense without the force of integrity.”

No enduring structure can stand on a faulty foundation. American singer and songwriter, David Allan Coe, asked us not to look at the beauty of a building. He said “it is the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.” British architect, Stephen Gardiner, was more philosophical about the place of foundation in people’s affairs. He wrote that “good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design.” We cannot solve Nigeria’s problem by ignoring the fissures in its foundation.

We tell the knock-kneed that what he carries on his head threatens a fall, he asks us to stop looking at the top. “Look at the base!” He points at his impairment, the awkward gait of his lower limbs. Think about how every road taken has led to nowhere. Think about our propensity to leave the vaults of our destiny open and complain about theft later. The Monday, October 10, 1960 edition of TIME magazine contained a report with the title: ‘Nigeria: The Free Giant.’ It was supposed to be a celebration of Nigeria’s independence which happened ten days earlier. But the author of the piece nursed a fear about the future of the brand new country. He wrote that “backward African nations inevitably must suffer the chaos of a Congo when the blacks take over.” Congo got its independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. It fell apart on July 5, 1960 – less than a week after independence. The TIME magazine described that Congo as “a panorama of disaster.” How do we describe our Nigeria since independence?

A dark prophecy of inevitable chaos was published for Nigeria ten days after independence. To “inevitably suffer the chaos of the Congo” was a strong statement. The dictionary meaning of ‘chaos’ is “complete disorder”. If you like you can replace the word with “mayhem” or “bedlam” or “a mess.” There are a million other words that share meanings of madness with the chaotic. ‘Inevitable’ means “certain to happen.” Its other synonyms are ‘unavoidable’; ‘inescapable’; ‘fated’. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet we hear the protagonist, Hamlet, King of Denmark, seeing “providence in the fall of a sparrow.” In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare says the love birds are “star-cross’d” – stuck with their tragic end, their fate. It was the destiny of the Congo to explode within a week of its freedom from foreign rule. It has been Nigeria’s destiny to hop from disaster to catastrophe. But why?

If destiny will manifest itself in a disaster, it presages itself. It is not rain that falls without warning the blind and tapping the deaf. Thirty-eight years ago, Chief Awolowo himself spoke on the evils which dominated the hearts of Nigerians “at all levels and in all sectors of our political, business and governmental activities.” In his famous letter to the political bureau set up by the military in 1986, Chief Awolowo spoke about “the abominable filth that abounds in our society.” He said as long as Nigerians remained “what they are, nothing clean, principled, ethical, and idealistic can work with them.” He warned that unless we allowed our hearts to be impelled “to make drastic changes for the better,” Nigeria stood the chance of succumbing to what he described as “permanent social instability and chaos.”

The chaos is here. We feel it in the price of food and drugs and in the cost of life itself. It is overwhelming. Today’s government reacts by grumbling about the malfeasance of its predecessor. Yet, the past was a disaster that came dancing without a mask. After Muhammadu Buhari was declared reelected in 2019, the late Dr. Obadiah Mailafia said in his March 4, 2019 Nigerian Tribune column titled ‘A guide for the Perplexed’ that Nigeria faced “what amounts to a peace of the graveyard.” He said he saw “fear and alarm in the eyes of certified patriots.” He noted that “only Almajirai in tattered rags from the president’s home region are celebrating with daggers and bayonets spoiling for a fight that nobody is really interested in.” He called on “genuine statesmen to (come and) salvage our democracy from the jaws of catastrophe.” History should have guided the public intellectual. Mailafia should have read Chief Awolowo. Nigeria is not structured to have “genuine statesmen” as its managers. Vulture does not eat clean meat; its meal is carrion.

Adesina declared that “Chief Awolowo was bigger than Nigeria. He said Awo “was the pacesetter and forerunner for development in Africa.” He spoke about Awolowo’s “intellectual capacity, vision, pragmatic social welfarism (which) helped him accomplish what was seemingly unimaginable at the time.” Adesina listed Awolowo’s firsts: “He built the first skyscraper in Africa — the Cocoa House. He built the first television station in Africa, WNTV. He built the Liberty Stadium, the first of its kind in Africa. He implemented a blueprint for development that focused on building human capacity through massive programs to educate the people, develop skills, lift people out of poverty, provide massive rural infrastructure, and develop institutions that turned farmers into wealthy entrepreneurs…Chief Awolowo implemented the sustainable development goals decades before the phrase was coined. He was an inspiration for Africa, far beyond the shores of Nigeria. His philosophy…helped shape programs and policies in other countries.”

Where I sat was some seats away from where Adesina stood and spoke from. Where he stood was a few seats away from where the government of Nigeria sat, expressionless. I heard Adesina; I turned and asked a colleague who sat beside me if he thought Nigeria could benefit from the wisdom of the bow-tied. I told my friend that Adesina’s first four points rested on the fifth. Nothing positive will happen unless Nigeria’s crooked structure is worked on by surgeons. But, where are the physicians? Even if the surgeon is found and present, Nigeria is as difficult and dangerous as danger could be. The country is that mental patient who hates his doctor because he hates being cured of his ailment. Nigeria kills its prophets.

Adesina’s five pills are capable of healing Nigeria. But Nigeria won’t listen to him. It did not listen to Awolowo. It doesn’t listen to the wise. It is a conundrum – an abductee of its crooked structure. In the 1999 Yoruba political film, Saworoide, we hear the old man Adebayo Faleti (Bàbá Òpálábá) chanting the praise name of his Jogbo Kingdom: “Jogbo bí orógbó, Jogbo bí orò (Jogbo, bitter as bitter kola; dangerous as oro cult). With two eyes, you can cope at the riverside; with two eyes, you will survive Kaduna; but you need twelve eyes to survive in Jogbo. With two mouths, you get by in Ibadan; with two mouths you get by in Lagos; but you need 18 mouths to survive in Jogbo…” Nigeria is that Jogbo – a sick, deformed, bitter country in need of a surgeon.

Heirs Holdings, a leading African investment company dedicated to improving lives and transforming Africa through strategic long-term investments, announced the launch of its new subsidiary, Heirs Technologies Limited, with an ambition to empower Africa's digital transformation through innovative and locally tailored solutions.

Heirs Technologies endeavours to provide value added services that capitalise on top-tier expertise while guaranteeing accessibility locally. The company's range of offerings include IT consulting, which encompasses advisory services, business transformation, system integration, licencing, and partnerships. Additionally, Heirs Technologies will offer various managed services covering IT operations and business process outsourcing.

To achieve its vision of propelling Africa to the forefront of the global technology landscape, Heirs Technologies will strategically invest in cutting edge technological solutions and develop platforms that foster collaboration among diverse stakeholders. Central to the company’s plans is to develop local capacity through meticulously tailored skills development programmes.

Heirs Holdings’ Group Chief Executive Officer, Emmanuel Nnorom, expressed his excitement about the launch while reiterating the company’s mission, "We are embarking on a journey fueled by innovation and driven by purpose. Our mission isn't solely about creating products; it's about shaping the future of technology, one groundbreaking solution at a time."

The launch of Heirs Technologies reaffirms Heirs Holdings' steadfast commitment to invest in sectors that provide long-term returns and have the ability to transform Africa’s economy. Heirs Holdings has been a pivotal player in various sectors critical for Africa’s development including financial services, energy, power, healthcare, real estate, and hospitality.

"The introduction of Heirs Technologies marks a significant milestone in our journey towards accelerating progress for future generations across Africa," said Tony O. Elumelu, CFR, Founder & Group Chairman, Heirs Holdings. "Technology has the power to catalyse development, and we are committed to harnessing this potential to unlock new innovations that will improve lives and transform our continent.”

For more information about Heirs Technologies, please visit www.heirstechnologies.com

Heirs Holdings is a leading African investment company committed to improving lives and transforming Africa through strategic investments and sustainable development initiatives. With a diverse portfolio spanning multiple sectors, including financial services, energy, power, healthcare, real estate, hospitality and technology, Heirs Holdings is dedicated to driving inclusive growth and building a prosperous future for Africa.

Following the adoption of red berets as an insignia by the supporters of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, some residents of the state have been raising eyebrows.

Supporters of the governor, under the umbrella of Lucky Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation Foot Soldiers (LACO-FS), have been wearing red berets as their symbol.

While inaugurating the group, Aiyedatiwa was seen putting on the beret, which has been described as a symbol of cultism.

With the development causing uproar within the social media space of the state, some people stated that such a move will further embolden cultists in their activities across the state.

They also stated that cultists can use the avenue to perpetrate crime by disguising themselves as supporters of the governor.

Speaking on the issue, a public affairs analyst, Oluwagbega Ajongbolo, said, “What exactly are Lucky Aiyedatiwa and his supporters bringing into Ondo State with their berets? What’s the idea and ideology behind donning red berets on the streets of Akure and Akoko? What’s the socioeconomic belief of a typical Aiyedatiwa supporter? What does Aiyedatiwa stand for?

“If this is not about their economic and political beliefs, should we be scared that a set of people, led by Mr Governor, have now adopted a style of clothing that has significant meaning and messages it is passing across? Are we safe in Ondo State?”

On his part, Sunday Terebo said, “Ondo State, which way, when I saw this in Ondo town yesterday, I thought Vikings were having converged in Ondo state. Make una fear God ooo, but no withstanding fight, no dey always guiding yellow still remains the victory colour.”

For Niyi Arogbo, “Now that Aiyedatiwa has adopted a red beret, let Chief Olusola Oke use a yellow beret, while Senator Jimoh Ibrahim uses a blue beret, and Wale Akinterinwa chooses black. Make sure we systematize everything. Make sure we start the battle from there. Ondo 2024 will be so interesting.”

Omoduni Olamide: “Red Beret is known for cultism and violence. Now that the state governor has aligned with the brand. Are we safe in Ondo State?”

Reacting, the State Director of Information of LACO-FS, Kayode Fasua, distanced the group from cultism-related activities.

“It is benumbing to come across grave expressions on social media, especially through some Twitter handles (now rebranded as X), that our group is bringing cultism to Ondo State for the simple reason that we don red berets to our campaign rallies.

“While those bandying the insinuations of thuggery or cultism have bombarded the net with their tar brushes, they fail woefully to prove any instance of violence in our activities and find it hard to produce any pictorial or camera evidence of where Aiyedatiwa supporters under the aegis of LACO-FS are armed with any weapon at all, much less a dangerous one.”

[DailyPost]