Chaos engulfed the Garki area of the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday following a violent clash between two factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers on Sapele Crescent, off Ladoke Akintola Boulevard, Garki II, Abuja.

The conflict underlines an ongoing dispute within the NURTW, a development which observers say requires urgent intervention by the federal government, to prevent further breakdown of law and order, especially in the nation’s capital city.

It was reported that a clash broke out when supporters of the NURTW President, Tajudeen Baruwa, marched towards the union’s national headquarters, which is currently occupied by the Lagos Park Management Committee led by Tajudeen Agbede.

The PUNCH reports that Baruwa had earlier revealed that he sought the intervention of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Labour Congress to resolve the situation, without success.

“We shall henceforth not hesitate to defend our mandate with the last drop of our blood,” Baruwa had earlier vowed while accusing former NURTW leaders of illegally occupying the National Secretariat of the union.

He stressed that only a court of competent jurisdiction can invalidate his mandate, and encouraged aggrieved members to follow due process and seek legal redress, warning that anything short of this could lead to anarchy.

He further accused the former president of the union, Najeem Yasin, and Agbede, the former National Vice President, of holding illegal meetings with selected past leaders of the union.

While calling on the Inspector-General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, and Director General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, to intervene in the matter, he alleged that the police seem to be working in favour of the Lagos Park Management Committee.

Though our correspondent could not ascertain the exact number of casualties, if any, as of the time of filing this report, however, eyewitnesses revealed that the transport union members fired several gunshots in the air during the conflict, which caused heightened tension in the area.

When contacted over the development, the spokesperson for the FCT Police Command, SP Josephine Adeh referred our correspondent to the Force Headquarters.

However, the Force PRO, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi did not respond to enquiries by our correspondent.

[Newspot]

Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun, says he is not being “vindictive” regarding the partial demolition of Datkem Plaza.

Abiodun spoke on Monday during the inspection of the reconstruction of Mowe-Ofada road in the Obafemi-Owode LGA of the state.

Datkem Plaza is a building owned by Olufunke, wife of Gbenga Daniel, former governor of Ogun state.

Daniel governed Ogun from 2003 to 2011.

Last Sunday, Datkem Plaza, a building situated in the Ijebu Ode area of Ogun, was demolished by officials of the state urban development ministry.

In a statement issued through Adeyinka Kotoye, her counsel, Olufunke accused the Ogun governor of “illegality”, adding that despite suffering unimaginable and huge losses, she will continue to seek redress in court.

Speaking during the inspection, Abiodun said the demolition exercise was not to “witch-hunt” anyone in the state.

The Ogun governor said building codes must be respected, adding that the state would be “chaotic” if building laws are disregarded.

“We are a responsible government. We are responsible to our citizens. We are a law-abiding administration,” he said.

“I’m sure that everyone will testify to the fact that since I assumed office in 2019, I have ensured equity, fairness, and upheld the rule of law.

“I have not in any way, form or manner attempted to be vindictive or appear like someone who is trying to witch-hunt anybody.

“These are some of the insinuations I have read on the social media and nothing could be further from the truth.”

Abiodun asked residents to always abide by building codes of the state.

[TheCable]

The member representing Oluyole Federal Constituency of Oyo State in the House of Representatives, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, has denied reports that she inflated the contract sum of a road rehabilitation project in her constituency.

The lawmaker was reacting to reports in the media that she connived with officials of the Federal Ministry of Works to inflate a 45 kilometre road project from N9 billion to N54 billion.

The contractor handling the project, DC Engineering Limited, was quoted to have made the allegation at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives in Abuja.

Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, Akande-Sadipe explained that the Olojuoro, Ijebu-Igbo, Ita Egba, Owonomwen road project in her constituency in Oyo State was awarded in 2018 with a two-year completion period, but after five years, one kilometer of the road has not been completed despite the contractor being mobilized substantially.

According to her, several petitions have been written by her constituents, prompting her to sponsor a motion calling for investigation as the road got deplorable with serious human casualties on daily basis due to accidents.

Her intervention, she said, was within the mandate of her office as a lawmaker in protecting the interest of her constituents, hence, she raised a motion expressing concerns over the deplorable state of the road and calling on the lower legislative chamber to investigate with documentary evidence of payments made to the contractor.

Her motion urged “the House to establish an Ad-Hoc Committee to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the consistent failure of the contractors to fulfill their contractual obligations”.

“The investigation should specifically focus on the construction and rehabilitation of the Olomi Olojuoro road, referred to as the Ijebu-Igbo Ita Egba-Owonowen Ibadan road, with the following contracts and budget allocations,” the motion added.

The lawmaker expressed disappointment that she was being blackmailed by the company, which she said failed to meet up with the terms of the contractual agreement to the benefit of the people of the Oluyole area.

A paper she presented at the public hearing on the road project partly read, “My attention has been drawn to a letter dated 29th August, 2023 written by the solicitors to DC Engineering Limited Co and Oba (King) Adesegun Alowonle, the Emure of Ijebu, the person believed to be the owner of the company.

“This letter accused me of total falsehood in an attempt to steer this hallowed committee away from, the true situation on ground with regards to Olojuoro, Ijebu-Igbo, Ita Egba, Owonowen road in Oluyole Federal Constituency.

“The letter did not address the substance of the several petitions and motions in anyway, including the most recent of 13th July, 2023, rather what they went into was to disparage my person and smear my name and engage in scandalous defamation of my character by alleging that my objective in intervening on behalf of Oluyole is to promote a particular contractor – Aereatech Nigeria Limited, to the Federal Ministry of Works.”

The lawmaker denied having any “direct or indirect relationship with the said contractor, and I am not in any way related to the said contractor. I have never introduced any such contractor and have never inflated any contract”.

She alleged that the competence of DC Engineering calls for investigation given that some parts of the road project were sub-let to other minor construction firms in contravention of the contractual terms.

Akande-Sadipe further recalled how she initiated an inspection visit to the site in 2021 with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Works, the Commissioner of Public Complaints Commission and representatives of DC Engineering Limited, only to discover that the company was accused of collecting money from communities to fix feeder road culverts which were removed in the course of the rehabilitation work.

[DailyPost]

I have been laughing in VERNACULAR since this evening when my attention was first drawn to a banal trending story on the social media, titled, "OUTRAGE AS ENTRANCE TO MIKE OZEKHOME'S HOUSE IN IKOTUN-IGANDONIS LITTERED WITH CALABASHES OF SACRIFICE" ( news.phxfeeds.com ). I would have completely ignored the story, but for the fact that numerous calls have since kept pouring in, all callers worried about my safety. Keep your peace, my loving fellow compatriots, for I am hale, hearty and covered with the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who fights my battles for me ( Exodus 14:14 ). The said alarmist story is largely baseless, funny and phony. That is why I have never stopped laughing. I am now used to such jejune and insipid stories which I am told is part of the fate of a "celebrity lawyer", as  many are want to regard and call me. I thank God Almighty for making me whom it pleased Him to make me of-a resonating story of "grass-to-grace". What has the write-up got to do with me, even when the entire contents are laid out bare, completely stripped of the screaming headline? NOTHING!!! It was just tied to my name to make it hot and trend. And in this, it has succeeded, for it has been trending.

The story alleged, amongst others, that "reactions have trailed video of near hundred of clay pots of sacrifices scattered a few meters away from the house of human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria ( SAN), Mike Ozekhome". Many lies!

THE FACTS:

1.The Church Bus Stop mentioned in the story is situate on Ikotun-Igando road, Igando, well over a quarter of a kilometer far removed from my former residence situate at No 1,Mike Ozekhome Lane, Igando, Alimosho LGA, Lagos.

2. I no longer live in the said premises, having relocated from Igando, Lagos, to Abuja, many years ago. I had subsequently partitioned the huge property into many residential apartments which are on rental to tenants whose identities I do not even know. Nor do I have any personal relationship with the sitting tenants who presently reside in the premises, since the property is being managed by the famous Odudu & Co-Real Estate Agents. God has since enabled me to acquire a personal residence in Ikoyi, Lagos. I am forever grateful to God. How wonderful is thy Holy Name.

3.The dump location of the calabashes of  alleged sacrifice is thus not even near my former residence at all by any stretch of  the imagination, let alone being "a few  metres away from the house of human  rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria ( SAN),Mike Ozekhome", as falsely alleged. But, as rightly noted by the writer, the dump spot is also called " T-junction and notorious for ever-presence of dumps of offerings in clay pots and calabashes to spirit beings".

4. As a Christian of the Catholic faith ( a proud 4th Degree Knight in St Mulumba-KSM- ),I had seen and passed by this fetish dump for the well over two decades that I lived in that beautiful and peaceful community called Igando; a community that accorded and afforded me accommodation, peace and opportunity to grow during my marriage, children upbringing and the first decade of my legal practice. All I have for and owe the largely Aworis Igando community and its first class monarch, Oba Lasisi Gbadamosi, Orootan 111, the Onigando of Igando, is nothing but love, respect, affection and eternal debt of gratitude for taking me in as their own, at a time I was forced to flee there from my 17 Ajao Road, Surulere residence, to escape from the daily torment and threats to my life by successive military juntas in the days of our struggle in the trenches. The Onigando had even honoured me with the prestigious traditional title of BA'LORO OF IGANDO in September, 1994.Some day, by the grace of God, I will tell my full story in my own biography. But, even with the presence of these fetish objects, I was never affected, afraid of, or terrified by such luciferous and satanic agents of darkness. When you are with and in God (as I am),such impotent lower classes of ethereal "beings" can not faze you ( Rom 8:31).
5. The story also claims that "behind the ( St John's) Catholic Church is the Mike Ozekhome Street named after popular lawyer and human rights activist whose house is one of the first buildings in that area". The story is only true to the extent that my house is one of the very first houses in that area of the then sleepy little village, Igando, now a sprawling residential, commercial and government hub. But, it is not correct that my former residence is behind the St John's Catholic Church. There are many houses behind the church ever before getting to my former residence. Indeed, a long stretch of a street called Osunba Street completely separates the church far away from my said former residence.
6. It is also false that the Oba's palace is "less than 200 metres" from my then residence. Nothing could be further from the truth. The palace which is situate between two major roads, the Igando-Ikotun Expressway and the Isheri-Lasu Expressway, is nearly one kilometer from my then residence.

So, we are not even near each other at all as falsely alleged. What did the writer of this story hope to achieve at the end of the day? I would not ascribe his intentions to mischief or an attempt to run me down or unduly disparage me. I think it was simply a sensational, transactional and merchantilistic write-up meant to enable the blogger make huge sums of money by linking my God-given name to the story. It could have been published and still retained its message and essence without mentioning me. And in this, I think, using Machiavelli's well known philosophy ( I do not agree with him ) of "the end justifies the means", the blogger roundly succeeded. Otherwise, why would such a simple and innocuous story be linked to me and start trending? I have now changed my laughter to a guffaw. By God's grace, I am covered with the blood of Jesus. My portion is Psalm 105:15. And to some known and unknown enemies of progress, let them read what the good Lord says of me: " Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 231-6 ).AMEN, AMEN AND AMEN

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, says the government is determined to initiate a new creative means of funding tertiary education by granting universities the autonomy to explore new sources of financing their activities.

He said this in Abuja yesterday at the Nigeria’s Annual Education Conference (NAEC) with the theme, ‘Implementation of Education 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Nigeria’.

He said the conference would discuss emerging trends, including university autonomy and the Students Loans Fund as well as education financing which, according to him, align perfectly with President Bola Tinubu’s vision for the sector.

He said the theme of the conference would always remain relevant until the country achieves 100 percent of the targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and beyond to education-related indicators and targets of Agenda 2060 of the African Union.

“As a signatory to the SDG 2030 and AU Agenda 2060, Nigeria must continue to demonstrate its commitment to achieving these goals through leadership and ownership of the implementation process. The education sector is one of the line sectors that ensure that planning and budgeting in the country are within the framework of the SDGS,” he said.

The minister said, “In proposing and developing implementation strategies, also provide for mechanisms for constant monitoring and evaluation, to ensure goals are achieved.”

[DailyTrust]

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes provided three assists and scored once to inspire Portugal to victory against Luxembourg in a 9-0 thriller and maintained their perfect start to their Euro 2024 Group J qualifying campaign.

Despite missing Cristiano Ronaldo through suspension, Portugal produced a dominant display at Estadio Algarve with Fernandes producing a hat-trick of assists before scoring a late goal himself in the nation’s biggest international victory to date.

Goncalo Inacio opened the scoring after 12 minutes and a brace from Paris St-Germain forward Goncalo Ramos soon had the home side in complete control.

Inacio headed in a fourth in first-half stoppage time from another pin-point delivery by Fernandes.

Skysports.com reports that Roberto Martinez’s side did not let up and, just before the hour, Fernandes found Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, who raced clear to fire home a fifth.

Ricardo Horta added a sixth with 20 minutes left before Jota slotted in again. Fernandes then capped his fine individual display with a well-taken goal late on and Joao Felix completed the rout to make it six wins from six.

Slovakia remain five points behind Portugal after they made a fast start to beat Liechtenstein 3-0 in Bratislava with goals from David Hancko, Ondrej Duda and Robert Mak inside the first six minutes.

Alfred Finnbogason scored in stoppage-time to give Iceland a 1-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in Reykjavik.

Croatia moved top of Group D on goal difference after a 1-0 win in Armenia, where an early strike from Andrej Kramaric proved enough for all three points.

[Leadership]

Real Madrid are ready to commit £200million to sign Kylian Mbappe without negotiating with Paris Saint-Germain, according to SPORT.

Both clubs did not hold talks this summer despite Mbappe being frozen out by the Ligue 1 champions.

The 24-year-old has since returned to the first team and has scored five goals in his first three matches of the season.

Although there are speculations Mbappe could agree a new contract with PSG, it is believed Real Madrid intend to reach a pre-contract agreement with the player in January.

This will mean the France captain joins them for nothing when his PSG deal expires on June 30.

Real didn’t like PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi rejecting their approaches out of hand, even offers approaching £172m.

Instead, Real have decided to set aside around £200m for Mbappe in the form of wages and a signing-on fee.

[DailyPost]

I, like many of our compatriots, often ask the question as to how best we should approach the challenge of nation-building that ails Nigeria. There are those of us who think the problem with Nigeria is her size, some others think it is the many ethnic interests conflating one another for domination. Others think it is all about bad leadership, while others believe it is the Constitution.

There are those who blame poverty as the issue, while some Pan-Africanists believe colonialism, foreign religions and intellectual imperialism are the reasons we are still lagging behind. The thirst for excuses and culprits to blame for our obvious challenges is insatiable. In the midst of this epistemological melee, there have even been more disillusioned solutions as to how to end the problem – the loudest of these today are the clamours for secession and unending complaints about marginalisation, which is mutual anyway!

Therefore, I tend to assume that the idea of “Making Nigeria Work” stems from the mindset that sees the country as a collapsing edifice rather than a country still in the hands of architects and builders. For me, the idea of making Nigeria work should not suggest a strategic demolition for us to erect a totally new structure.

For me, whatever defects currently ail our country can be corrected without having to collapse the whole structure. This is very logical if we understand that nation-building is an endless endeavour and that no generation is ever satisfied with the work it has done. It is the generation that comes after that can truly appreciate the progress that has been made when they begin to take for granted what was scarcely available for the generation before them. Nation-building is an unfinished business.

Renowned Nigerian author, Ben Okri in his award-winning book, The Famished Road, tells of a people who, for several generations have been trying to build a road. But no matter how hard they work, they never go far in their endeavour. Even then, whatever little progress they make, is always destroyed by disasters beyond their comprehension and they would have to start all over; much like the curse of Sisyphus. Yet, every generation understands that it is their destiny to try and complete this road. History has taught them that the road will never be completed, but they never give up because each generation hopes that it will be the generation that gets the job done. Several commentators have noted that Okri’s unfinishable road is in fact, a grand metaphor for nation-building.

Indeed, nation-building is a continuous work in progress. Sixty years may be a long time in the life of an individual. But a sixty-year-old nation is a nation yet in its infancy. Therefore, rather than despair over the failures of the past, it would be more productive that we look ahead with great hopes at the infinite future that lies ahead of us, armed with that immortal admonition from the French West Indian psychiatrist and political philosopher, Frantz Fanon that “every generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, betray it or fulfil it.”

Over the years, Nigerians have agonized over the lamentably slow pace of our development. Successive governments and policymakers have responded with various approaches and strategies for achieving the much-desired national development. Yet, even the most charitable analyst of our political economy would agree that we have not performed to our optimum capabilities. So many experts have made great efforts to explain our under-development, with some, like the late Professor Claude Ake even arguing that development was never part of the post-colonial African political agenda. It appears to me however that the fundamental challenge is that all along, we have been placing the cart before the proverbial horse. Before we can think of development, we must first solve the problems of nation-building, because you cannot develop what you do not have.

When the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka asked “When is a Nation,” he was attempting to draw our attention to those urgent questions of nation-building that have remained largely unanswered to this day. The development of every nation necessarily derives from “elite consensus”. However, this consensus can only be forged after some fundamental questions, what we call the national questions, have been settled. Where the very existence of the nation itself is easily brought to question at the slightest provocation such as we have seen with our recent elections, it should be clear that we have to ask and settle certain questions first, and it is the settlement that would then provide the foundation for our vision of society and the structure and direction of our national development. In short, the very notion of national greatness is directly consequential to nation-building.

Over the years, I have heard even presumably informed analysts refer to our country as the mistake of 1914. But was the amalgamation really a mistake? The American social philosopher, Eric Hoffer argued that divide-and-rule is most effective when it “fosters a multiplicity of compact bodies – racial, religious or economic – vying with and suspicious of each other.” Therefore, it is possible to argue that the toxic legacy of the colonialists’ ‘divide and rule’ strategy may be the reason that we have remained divided even six decades after their rule ended. However, to describe this amalgamation itself as a mistake would be wrong, both historically and conceptually. The hands that drew the map may not have been ours, but the map was possible only because we were here in the first place.

Every student of history will agree that as a people, if not as a country, Lord Lugard did not introduce us to ourselves. Long before the white man set foot on our land, our people had developed an intricate network of relationships. Even though they lived in their various enclaves as independent people, they traded together, they married one another, they fought together as allies in battles and against one another as adversaries. Our cultures inter-mingled freely and produced a rich synthesis of cultures, in such a way that no single culture was left pure and unaffected by this intercourse, as evidenced in new vocabularies, diets and even dress.

It is also important to note that many of our empires and kingdoms were territorial rather than tribal. They luxuriated and thrived on their diversity and formed unions and alliances based on shared understanding and mutual respect. A cursory analysis of our languages and belief systems will reveal that we actually have more in common than some of our differences would suggest.

Therefore, while the colonialists may have been “culpable” for creating the country that we call Nigeria without consulting us; the task of forging a nation out of this colonial invention, rests squarely in our hands. And this task must progress from a deliberate effort to remobilize and re-interpret our history, especially our pre-colonial history. If we take a sociological look, we will see clearly that we did not arrive here by chance or as mere products of colonial misadventure.

The 6 September 2023 judgement by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) was honestly not unexpected. While the judgment did not come to me as a surprise, what rather jolted me was the manner in which it was framed: it was almost as if the judges were the attorneys for the defendants and were therefore visibly angry with the petitioners and their lawyers for daring to bring such petitions before them. The judgments, whatever their merits on points of law, were delivered in very pedantic, if not condescending manner to the petitioners.

Let me mention that I am not a lawyer (though, in addition to my academic qualifications in Political Science and Development Studies, I also have an LLM degree in Media Law from a respected London University). But I am a student of Nigerian election history and have also read some remarkable judgments by famous jurists. Additionally, as a publisher of twenty years standing, with an indexed, peer-reviewed academic law journal (African Journal of Law and Justice System) in its portfolio of 21 journals, it can be argued that while not an expert in Law, I have been sufficiently exposed to judicial decisions and their interactions with politics. I also followed closely the conduct of the 25 February 2023 presidential elections, including field reports by several media houses and credible election monitors. I was in fact one of the analysts on the February and March 2023 elections for a respected television house in the country. Based on these, I believe I have what can be called an informed layman’s opinion on this matter.

I believed (and still hold to that belief) that the conduct of the Presidential election was neither free nor fair and that INEC so seriously underperformed that Professor Mahmood Yakubu remaining on as the Chairman of INEC rubs the electoral body of both integrity and legitimacy. What I was not sure of, (and still not sure of), was whether the observed irregularities in the conduct of the presidential election were enough to alter its outcome as declared by INEC.

Before the judgment I had wagered on a split decision in favour of Bola Tinubu. That was not necessarily because I felt that Tinubu won but because I know it is extremely difficult to unseat a sitting African President, especially one who is generally believed would not be averse to maximally deploying the power of incumbency to achieve a given objective.

Largely because of the closeness of the elections as declared by INEC and the irregularities observed by several election monitors and media houses, I thought there would be a deliberate effort to mollify the petitioners by making the judgment seem close. In taking this position I borrowed from one of the mythical manoeuvres of the tortoise in Igbo fables. In one of such stories, some people came to abduct Mr Tortoise in the middle of the night from the enclosure which served as his home. Seeing that he stood no chance of effective resistance against them, he requested that they should allow him some minutes to pray before being taken away – a request they obliged him. As the Tortoise walked around the enclosure in supposed prayers, he made sure he left deep foot and finger prints everywhere, after which he told his would be captors that he was ready for them to take him away.

As Mr Tortoise was being taken away by his captors, he felt silently satisfied that he was allowed to leave a piece of history for posterity. His belief was if his children and friends came the following morning and found he had been abducted, they would believe he had put up a hell of a fight before he was overpowered.

In essence, the decision by both Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar to head to the Supreme Court may go beyond the quest to restore what they see as their ‘stolen mandate’ but more for the purposes of history. It is also their constitutional right to exhaust all legitimate options for seeking redress. Some have called on them to ‘do a Jonathan’ and congratulate Tinubu in the “interest of the nation’ so that the rancour between their supporters and those of Tinubu (which is believed to be heating up the polity) will presumably be attenuated. I am not sure if this is a good enough reason to dissuade them from their decision to take their case to the Supreme Court because despite Jonathan conceding defeat, Bihari spent most of his eight years in power demonizing and de-marketing his government as well as polarizing the country between those they labelled ‘Wailing Wailers’ and those who are supposedly ‘patriotic’ because they unabashedly supported his government. In fact some even claimed that Jonathan conceded defeat out of fear or cowardice and caricatured him for that.

Obi and Atiku have also been advised that going to the Supreme Court would be a waste of their money because the outcome might not be different, not just because the decision was unanimous but also because if power of incumbency accounted for the manner in which the judgment was delivered by the PEPT as some argued, the same power of incumbency would likely also be in play at the Supreme Court. A counterpoise to this however is that the petitioners can comfortably afford the cost and in any case you never know because no venture, no success. What is also often overlooked is that their decision to go to Supreme Court will not only help to enrich our jurisprudence but might have helped to stave off violence by those who felt dissatisfied by the decision.

Why was the judgment of the PEPT greeted mostly by silence? While an over-hyped Asari Dokubo and his Wagner-wannabe boys (who celebrate their macho by swaggering around town with palm fronds in their mouths when their age-mates elsewhere are distinguishing themselves in critical professions and emerging technologies) would like to claim credit for this, I doubt if the macho display of his boys was responsible for the quiescence. The way I see it is that a self-reproducing constituency in the South-West, (in particular Lagos), which has been the hub of Nigeria’s protest movement and political activism (from as early as 1908 when the Peoples Union was formed), and has been the inspiration or funders of many popular protests in the country, went quiet since 2015 when the zone aligned itself with the ruling APC. This meant that unpopular policies that would have elicited wide national protests such as the fuel price hikes under both Buhari lacked the support of those with the skills and resources to activate such protests. It was not Asari Dokubo that prevented popular protests against Buhari’s unpopular policies so Asari so Dokubo cannot claim credit for suppressing any protest
There are several important lessons from the judgement by the PEPT:

One, it will be important for all election petitions to be concluded before the inauguration of the President – and in fact all elected officials. This is because allowing the President to be inaugurated while the election that brought him to power is still being contested in the courts (in our type of democracy) means that such a President can maximally deploy the power of incumbency to consolidate his rule and make it more difficult for him to be unseated by the courts.

Two, we need to revisit our democracy with a view to domesticating it to our unique environment. I do not think the current liberal democracy is working for the country. Not only is it prohibitively expensive, elections, as currently conducted, deepen our fault lines and consequently complicate the nation-building process.

Three, I will recommend proportional representation – as against the current first –past- the -post or winner- takes- all. This means that seats in the legislature will be allotted based on the votes secured by new forms of political parties that will be created.

Four, we should have a collegial Presidency, with five Vice Presidents and a Rotational presidency of two years each in which the six geopolitical zones will be represented, It should be a single tenure of twelve years for the Presidency. I feel that presidential election every four years is not spaced out enough for the wounds from one election to properly heal before another set of election is embarked upon. I feel that party politics as currently practised alienates many citizens, which explains both low citizen participation in the process and why many citizens unwisely troop out to welcome a military coups in some countries.

Essentially we need a Committee to recommend new democratic models of governance for the country, which will then be debated in a new Constituent Assembly.

For more than a week, President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s chief foreign policy officer has been on a diplomatic offensive to New Delhi, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit hosted by India, and from Bharat, as that country is otherwise known, he has had a quick diplomatic stop-over in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Next week, he goes off to New York, United States for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). When Tinubu returns to Nigeria, before he goes off to New York, his handlers would have more than enough to crow about and a lot of chest-beating to do. I imagine that following the ruling in his favour by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, on Wednesday, September 6, we can legitimately expect a loud and heavy display of triumphalism, sycophancy, self-congratulation and advertisements by Tinubu/APC supporters for whom modesty is a strange word, but the more sober ones among them would probably point to how Tinubu seems to be succeeding on the foreign policy front.

In less than 100 days in office, he was elected Chairman of ECOWAS, and has had to lead the charge in managing the Niger coup crisis, even if roughly, in June, he also attended a France-Africa summit in Paris, an African Union summit in Nairobi in July, and now he has gone to India, and the United Arab Emirates. Beyond the assertion of political, and diplomatic influence, and a claw at legitimacy in a local “emilokan” style, whether you like it or not, big photo ops on the world stage, big opportunity to showcase Nigeria and the new administration, the main narrative has been that President Tinubu has been attracting investment to the country. In India, the total pledge by Indian investors was put at $14 billion. It is this drive for investment that connects President Tinubu’s foreign excursions as covert text, and it was the same also in the UAE. But I keep adding the caveat that pledges would not translate into anything, beyond the ink on the Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) that Nigeria signs here and there, if these pledges do not yield concrete outcomes. Nigeria is very good at signing documents and taking photos. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials are very good at organizing ceremonies for any President who likes to stage shows; in any case, the current “City Boy, Eko For Show” President would jump at any opportunity to hug the limelight. But ceremonies and photo-ops would take Nigeria nowhere. Nigerians need follow-ups. We need a Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (MITI) that can turn pledges into opportunities.

We need to be reminded that domestic policy drives foreign policy. Investors are not in the business of charity. The gulf between them and the Red Cross is the widest in the world. They are interested in profit and opportunities. For the pledges that have been made to be redeemable, President Tinubu must meet the existing and prospective investors half-way, by keeping his part of the bargain to wit: his promise that Nigeria would provide very good returns on investments, that is ROI, the bottom line in the age of capitalism. Investors want to minimize risk. Nigeria is a risk-laden investment destination. Investors cannot repatriate their funds. The country’s foreign exchange regime is unpredictable. The country’s CBN Governor has been suspended. He is in detention. The interim CBN Governor is exactly not in a position to make far-reaching decisions, so the CBN is busy experimenting with monetary policies. Professor Pat Utomi once wrote a successful book titled “Managing Uncertainty: Competition and Strategy in Emerging Economies”, (Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 1998, 465 pp). If Nigeria’s economy was walking with the aid of walking sticks at the time Utomi wrote that book, its fortunes are now so uncertain, the economy having suffered multiple strokes, it is now in a wheel-chair. This is what Tinubu has inherited, and what he must do something about beyond all these high-profile photo opportunities around the globe.

His recent diplomatic shuttle has however provided one bright indicator that should not be ignored, and that is the outcome of his trip to the United Arab Emirates. It is one achievement that we can touch and perhaps feel. It will be recalled that the Presidency informed us that the purpose of the Abu Dhabi stop-over was to get the United Arab Emirates to lift the visa ban on Nigerians and to ensure that Emirates Airlines, the kingdom’s airliner lifts its suspension of flights to Nigeria. The third shopping item in the basket was to hunt for investments in agriculture, defence and other areas. By yesterday evening, we had been told that after meetings with Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and the Emir of Abu Dhabi, President Tinubu was able to secure the lifting of visa ban on Nigerians, and the immediate restoration of flight activity to Nigeria by Emirates Airlines without “any immediate payment by the Nigerian government.” Kudos. Kudos. Kudos. This achievement is all the more remarkable because Tinubu has just scored victory where his predecessor in office failed. What has happened is a teachable moment in leadership and diplomacy.

A bit of the background is necessary. In 2021, the Emirates airlines and the UAE had insisted on administering rapid antigen tests on Nigerians visiting the UAE which resulted in a diplomatic row. Subsequently, Emirates Airlines also raised questions about its inability to repatriate funds from Nigeria. Further, on October 18, 2022, the UAE banned nationals from about 20 African countries from entering its major city, Dubai, Nigeria inclusive alongside other countries like Benin Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Uganda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Burkina Faso. As the drama unfolded, in February 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu’s predecessor placed a phone call to Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE to condole with him on the death of his mother -in-law and he used the opportunity to bring up the matter of the blanket visa ban on Nigerians intending to travel to the UAE. The major revelation of that bilateral move was that many Nigerians go to the UAE illegally and in flagrant violation of the laws of the Kingdom. Buhari at the time, also asked for a resumption of the suspended operations of the Emirates Airlines. This is where Tinubu has now gained victory. Etihad and Emirates Airlines can now resume flight schedules in and out of Nigeria. Many Nigerians for whom Dubai is a favourite trade, tourism and medical destination are now jubilant. Dubai is an attractive destination because of leadership and vision. Nigerians are rushing to Dubai and hustling for visas to the UAE because their own country has not met their expectations. For the benefit of those who would start touting Tinubu’ s UAE mission as a big deal, they need to be cautioned that there are other sides to the story especially with regard to the aviation sector.

Where is Nigeria’s strategic interest in the aviation sector in this matter under review? Has the interest of Nigeria’s aviation sector been served? When Tinubu assumed office, there have, indeed, been some activities in the aviation sector. One, he changed the nomenclature of the Ministry from Ministry of Aviation to Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development. Two, he appointed Festus Keyamo as Minister. Three, Keyamo visited the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos and on the spur of the moment, he shut down the old international terminal at the airport and ordered a move to the new terminal to allow for renovations. Many stakeholders in the aviation sector have complained that they were not consulted. In fact, they were ignored after a fashion. The effect of that is the on-going nightmare at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. Travellers arriving at the airport have to be bus-driven from the old terminal to the new terminal. It is the same bus that is used to ferry people, that is also used to move luggage. Immigration processes are slow. It could take up to four hours before persons can go through immigration to the luggage point to the exit. This is a clear case of acting before thinking! Similarly, it is doubtful if anyone made the effort to consult with industry stakeholders before reaching agreements with the UAE.

In 2022, airline operators of Nigeria, the AON, objected strongly to protests by foreign airlines, including Emirates, that they had not been able to repatriate $464 million of their revenue out of Nigeria in line with the Bilateral Service Agreement (BASA). The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the time announced the release of $265 million to foreign airlines through special FX intervention. Nigerian airline operators protested. They objected to foreign airlines being given preferential treatment when local airlines were suffering. Till date, Nigerian local airline operators are still protesting. Nigeria has an obligation to look out for their interest. Foreign airlines enjoy flight frequencies that are not available to Nigerian airlines under BASA. Nigeria is a big market. Even with the economic hardship today, flights in and out of Nigeria are still fully booked, and yet Nigerian airlines are short-changed. No serious-minded country does that. Every day, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways make humongous amounts of money on the Nigerian route. No Nigerian airline is on the London route. No Nigerian airline is allowed to enjoy full BASA rights in the UAE. The Central Bank of Nigeria was talking about special FX intervention for foreign airlines, but the same CBN is sitting on about $14 billion belonging to Air Peace. At the 2023 NBA Conference in Abuja, the Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema brought up the matter.

What has been done to other local airlines is worse, indeed a criminal act of economic sabotage. Take what the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has done to Arik Air. Established in October 2006, by Sir Arumemi Ikhide-Johnson, formerly of GT, Arik soon became the dominant airline within the Nigerian aerospace creating jobs and building opportunities for Nigerians. At the height of its glory, Arik Air had flights to London, Madrid, Atlanta, Miami, Birmingham, Johannesburg, Dubai, and the Caribbeans. By 2012, it had transported over 10 million passengers. In February 2017, the airline was taken over by AMCON and handed over to receiver-managers on grounds that have become subjects of contention in courts of law. AMCON and the receiver-managers claimed that there were debts running into about N24 billion to be recovered, but six years later under their watch, they have turned Arik Air into a shadow of its former self, killing the dream that created it. What really happened was that in 2010, the CBN announced a sudden change of policy whereby foreign loans with local guarantees hitherto treated as off balance sheet were arbitrarily converted to on balance sheet local loans. This was done without negotiation or consultation with Arik Air. All efforts to secure an amicable settlement between the shareholders and AMCON have so far failed. The story of Arik Air is similar to that of Aero Contractors, also under the grips of AMCON.

It is worth stressing that AMCON was established in July 2010 to help Nigerian banks address the challenge of non-performing loans and thereby ensure stability within the financial system, and hence prevent a descent into crisis. It was given a lifespan of 10 years. The Act was further amended in 2015, 2019 and 2021. More than 10 years after its creation, AMCON has proven to be worse than the problem it was meant to correct. It has accumulated more debt than the same companies it was meant to rejuvenate. Its receiver-managers have not made any significance difference as seen in the gross mismanagement of the two examples already cited. What has been writ large is the resort to name-calling, ethnic politics, and persecution by an agency of government established with more ennobling expectations. AMCON was meant to revive and re-engineer businesses. Rather it kills them. Its disposal of assets has been more controversial than transparent. The agency may well claim achievements in other aspects of its operations: oil and gas, finance, general commerce, capital market and manufacturing, our argument is that at first blush, its intervention in the aviation sector has been catastrophic.

It is for this reason that we urge President Tinubu focusing on the aviation sector and aerospace development to take a closer and critical look at AMCON and the interest of stakeholders in that industry - from the plight of domestic airlines under receivership and allegations of prejudice and mistreatment, to the structure of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), security matters, and the state of Nigeria’s airports. Besides, AMCON has lived far beyond its sunset clause, and yet it has not truly served its purpose. It is tied down by litigation. The various amendments to the Enabling Act have not made any difference. One of the more pressing matters for the Tinubu administration is to investigate AMCON and its relevance and impact or non-impact so far, and seek to ensure that those who have been wounded by the politicization of the special purpose vehicle get justice.

This would mean taking the aviation sector beyond the routine measure of airport renovation, and vacuous rhetoric, something which every new Aviation Minister embarks upon under the guise of bringing our international airports up to an international standard. Contracts would be awarded. Equipment would be procured. Tapes would be cut. Six months down the line, the newly refurbished toilets would be shut down due to lack of proper maintenance. The luggage carousel will stop working, along with the air conditioning and other facilities. The roof of the newly touched up building could even start leaking. Enough of the window-dressing. There are more fundamental issues to be addressed, the full extent could only emerge in national interest through due consultation with industry stakeholders, at the heart of which is the security of investments and the certainty of policy.