The reported death of the leader of the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash yesterday has raised tension and speculations around the world especially concerning the alleged plot by the militant group to back the military junta in Niger Republic.

The Niger junta led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani which toppled President Mohamed Bazoum in July was alleged to be in serious talks with Wagner for military assistance to contain a possible attack by the ECOWAS standby force after the regional bloc threatened to restore Bazoum to power through military intervention.

Unconfirmed reports said that Prigozhin was seen in Niger trying to negotiate with the junta towards counter the threat issued by the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to use force to restore Bazoum to power if diplomacy fails.

The death of Prigozhin may have changed the equation in the country, further deepening the crisis in Niger, but experts are looking at the issue with a deep sense of caution due to Russia’s alleged deft moves in complicating issues of this nature.

Prigozhin was reported to be on the list of passengers on the aircraft that crashed in the Tver Region, Russian authorities said.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry has said that private aircraft “came down” near the village of Kuzhenkino – and all in it were killed.

The ministry said the jet was flying from Moscow to St Petersburg, and that 10 people, including three crew members, were on board. Eight bodies have been found at the crash site, according to Russian news agency. It’s not been confirmed if Prigozhin was amongst those.

Prigozhin has been keeping a low public profile since heading his short-lived mutiny in June, which lasted only 24 hours.

He last appeared in a video earlier this week which was said to have been filmed in an unspecified location in Africa.

The Wagner mercenary group was founded in 2014 and was highly active in the Ukraine war until the June mutiny.

Speaking to our correspondent yesterday on this development, Professor Femi Badejo of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Chrisland University Abeokuta , said the reported death of Prigozhin will not alter the situation if indeed the mercenary group had an interest to protect the regime in Niger.

He said, “Wagner is a structured group; it is not a one-man show. If he is dead a new leader will arise. So, let us not personalise the group.”

The academic also castigated the idea of the threat of the use of force by ECOWAS to restore democratic order in the beleaguered West African country, stressing that there is nothing like a standby force within the context of the regional bloc.

He added that the initial threat of the use of force was just a bluff as the ECOWAS will find it very difficult to mobilise troops of such magnitude to intervene militarily in Niger if diplomacy fails. Also speaking to our correspondent on the matter, an international affairs expert, Charles Onunaiju concurred that Prigozhin’s death will not affect the situation in Niger as Wagner, he said, “is not playing any role. Even Tchiani admitted that Prigozhin is not playing any role in Niger, therefore his death will not be the end of Wagner.”

Onunaiju, who is also the director of the Centre for China Studies, an Abuja-based intellectual think tank, added that Russia’s strategic interest in Africa and especially in Niger will remain the same as Russia has found new grounds to express more antagonism towards other Western powers, especially seeing an opportunity to thwart the ambitions of NATO members in the region.

Also speaking to our correspondent, international affairs expert, Majeed Dahiru said, “I don’t think his death will change anything especially Russia ‘s interest. If Wagner is useful to Russia’s strategic interest, then Prigozhin’s death will not dissuade Russia from its territorial ambitions in Africa, which is to counter the moves of the Western powers. ”

UK Defence Minister Backs ECOWAS

The United Kingdom Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey MP, has given his country’s full support to the Economic Community West African States (ECOWAS) efforts to restore democratic order in Niger Republic following the July 26 military coup that toppled the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

Heappey arrived in Nigeria this week to meet top Nigerian defence leaders and military chiefs, to deepen defence cooperation between both countries and discuss the situation in Niger, a statement issued on Wednesday by the UK mission in Nigeria said.

During his visit, Minister Heappey met senior leaders on Wednesday within the Nigerian Ministry of Defence, as well as the Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff.

He also met with the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, where he reiterated the UK’s support for ECOWAS’ ongoing diplomatic efforts to ensure a peaceful return to democracy in Niger.

Heappey said: “I’m delighted to return to Nigeria for the third time in three years. “The UK and Nigerian armed forces have a longstanding partnership through which we continue to tackle violent extremism and other security threats in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.

“The UK supports ECOWAS in calling for the peaceful restoration of constitutional order and democracy in Niger and we’ll work with both ECOWAS and our partners across West Africa to support them in that aim.”

He added that the UK and Nigeria enjoy a deep and long-standing security and defence relationship, underpinned by a shared desire to support regional and international peace and security.

He noted that the UK’s support to the Nigerian Armed Forces is a focus of the relationship, helping to build Nigerian capabilities to tackle security threats and instability.

“Nigeria is a key partner in promoting regional security and countering violent extremism in West Africa, including the Lake Chad Basin.

“The Nigerian Armed Forces are a leading contributor to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), showing the resolve of its constituent nations to deliver security in the region.

“The UK recognises Nigeria’s diplomatic mediation efforts to peacefully restore democracy in Niger, through its membership of ECOWAS, and condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing coup against Niger’s elected-leadership.

“We stand with ECOWAS in condemnation of the illegal detention of President Mohamed Bazoum, his family, and members of the government, as well as the unacceptable conditions under which they are being held, and call for their immediate release,” he said.

Fagge Suggests Diplomatic Solutions

A don, Prof. Kamilu Fagge has urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to prioritise diplomatic solutions to resolve current political impasse in Niger Republic.

It would be recalled that Niger, one of the 15 member states of the ECOWAS had been enmeshed in political imbroglio sequel to Coup d’eta.

In a swift reaction, the ECOWAS imposed series of sanctions against the junta and threatened military action if the coup leaders failed to restore the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Fagge, a lecturer with the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), yesterday in Kano.

He stressed the need for the Commission to embrace dialogue and diplomatic response to the situation.

“The best way is for the leaders to sit down to negotiate through diplomatic response to achieve an amicable political solution.

“In some cases you buttress your diplomacy with a show of force but the most stable way of resolving the crisis is through dialogue.

“This is not the first time we are having similar things, there are a lot of instances when either ECOWAS, African Union (AU) or United Nations promote dialogue and negotiations between the coup leaders and the third force want to negotiate.

“And when you reach that conclusion sometimes it is so stable.

“The irony of it is that, in this case, many of the people who are now calling for war or intervention in Niger, actually if you look at them, they too staged coups in their countries. Some were military leaders who have now ‘civilianise’, some are civilians but they staged civilian coup by distorting the constitution, and by getting themselves into office for so many years.

“We have not exhausted all those options yet, we have to exhaust those options first before opting for war.

“And in any case, war should not be an option,” he said.

According to Fagge, people welcome democratic government because it allows for freedom of expression and it comes about as a result of the concept of the people and also it is the people that decide who would rule them.

“Democracy is important in the eyes of the people. It is a government that engenders development. This is because it is accountable to the people, it promotes development and peace.

“Once you have people there are bound to be differences,” he said.

Fagge warned that the conflict portends serious economic implications for both the country and the region at large, adding the closure of Nigeria’s borders with Niger Republic compounded the problem of hunger and poverty among its citizens.

“Nigeriens get most of their things here and Nigeria is also bearing the brunt of this decision.

“It has been estimated that Nigeria loses not less than N13 billion every week by stopping trade with Niger.

“And there are speculations that Nigeria and Niger trade is a formal trade that accounts for over N170 billion annually.

“While the informal trade between the two countries accounts for over N580 billion annually.

“So, when you put these things together, it range from N900 billion to about N1 trillion that we are going to lose in terms of trade.

“Most of the people to be affected are Nigeriens who are business people transacting all sorts of businesses with Nigeriens.

“This has serious economic implications for both countries and for the region as a whole,” he said.

A local security outfit in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Port Harcourt Local Government Authority (PLGA) Security Watch, has explained how it unravelled the burial of a newborn child by suspected cyber crime fraudsters.

The Security Watch said the infant was buried alive at Andoni waterfront in Eagle Island, Rivers State capital on Wednesday.

The outfit had identified the spot following credible information from residents that sighted a group of boys allegedly conducting incantation and digging the ground by the waterfront.

The Security outfit stormed the scene where they observed an abnormality around the waterfront. They subsequently dug the spot where the infant was suspected to have been buried.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, the Chairman of PLGA Security Watch, Victor Ohaji said, “When we dug the place, we saw a newborn baby, a bouncing baby boy. Very fine boy that they buried.

“Immediately I called the Situation Officer of Eagle Island and informed him of our discovery so that he can relate to the Divisional Police Officer he is working with.

“The police and neighbourhood watchmen joined us. So we started going around Eagle Island to see if we could find the suspects.

“We even moved from one hotel to another in the area, and lo and behold, we saw them coming out from a hotel. And as soon as we alighted from the car, they (suspects) started running.

“So, we chased after them and apprehended them. There were twelve of them. So we took them to the police station and the baby.”

“While we were there, the leader of the yahoo boys was shouting, ranting that his father is a Major General and that nothing will happen.

“He said even if they bury full human being, nothing will happen. The boy went on ranting that his father was coming. So we handed them to the police.”

On their part, the State’s Police Command said the matter has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for proper investigation.

The Osun State Government on Wednesday disclosed that it is still expecting the N5bn federal government pledged to make available to the state to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.

This is as the committee set up for the distribution of the rice components of the palliative disclosed that it has decided to wait for the second batch before distributing the rice to the vulnerable members of the society.

The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi while addressing newsmen on Wednesday at the Governor’s office in Osogbo, disclosed that the state government has received the 3,000 bags of 50kg rice for the first batch but is yet to receive N5bn promised by the federal government.

“Yes, we have received all the 3,000 bags of 50kg rice from the federal government, but we have not received any amount from the N5bn it pledged to the state. I am not speaking for any state, but here in Osun, we are still expecting it and when we get it the whole world will know.

“We are still waiting for another consignment of 14,000 bags as well as 3,200MT of maize. Governor Ademola Adeleke is running an open administration, when we get it, we will definitely make public”, he said.

Also, a member of the committee on distribution, Sheikh Mustapha Olawuyi said it has decided to wait for the second batch of 14,000 bags of rice before it will distribute it to the populace.

“The State Governor, Ademola Adeleke handed over the delivered goods to us. We have drawn a template for the distribution but decided that the second batch arrived before we embark on its distribution”, he said.

One of the first things that jump at you in the charge sheet issued against Ilorin activist, Adegbola Abdulazeez (popularly called Tani Olohun), and published on SaharaReporters was the erroneous description of his religion as “idol worshipping.” It is a mischaracterisation borne out of socially transmitted ignorance. Public officers in other cultures are made to undertake diversity training for reasons like this. The officers who booked Tani Olohun need a crash course in Yoruba culture because those armed with outdated knowledge reify abuse.

Just so they know, Yoruba indigenous religions are not “idol worshipping.” Describing them that way is pejorative, an unmistakable echo of colonial-era misattribution. Till date, some of our people have not expanded their vocabulary and still make the fundamental error of referring to indigenous religious practices as “fetish,” “pagan,” or that their worship is “rituals,” and their religions are a “cult” etc. A police system that uses such derogatory language in an official document not only reveals itself as prejudiced but also demonstrates its lack of competence—cultural and ideological—to adjudicate in the ongoing confrontation between Ilorin Muslims and the ìsèse practitioners. The best course of action—if the police have any institutional integrity left anyway—is to promptly discontinue the case and seek an education on religious diversity in the country.

In a case that reprises that of Kano atheist, Mubarak Bala, who is presently serving an extended prison term, Tani Olohun too was arrested and charged to court after some Muslims petitioned the police to complain about his provocations. In one of such petitions, the complainants resorted to what has now become a standard ploy: invoke the spectre of numbing religious violence that has happened in northern Nigeria to threaten public peace. It is a bait the police are guaranteed to swallow. Joorojáàrájooro, they will make an arrest and prosecute their victim with a degree of zeal they will not deploy to other extant serious issues. Meanwhile, according to Saharareporters (and undisputed by the police), the warrant used to arrest Tani Olohun was even a fake. If his arrest was unwarranted, is his prosecution about “justice”?

The antagonism and the high-handedness being deployed against ìsèse practitioners like Tani Olohun have everything to do with the political vulnerability of religious minorities. Yes, I know about Tani Olohun’s provocations (I have seen his videos). While I am also aware the police added defamation to his supposed crimes, I still see no reason for their involvement. Defamation can be pursued as a civil case by those supposedly impacted. Much of Tani Olohun’s contents that his accusers find provocative retaliate the attacks on his religious beliefs. His comments are pretty routine in Nigerian churches and mosques where religious leaders who run out of things to say put down other people’s beliefs. Anyone who finds what he has to say in bad taste can block him off. There is a reason that the Oyinbos that invented social media added that feature.

For as long as one can remember, practitioners of indigenous religions have always been cheap targets of those who need to assert their political and spiritual power. Yet, they cannot take half the provocations they haul at others. During my National Youth Service Corps year at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Abia State, I witnessed when some practitioners of indigenous religions came to submit a petition that some evangelical Christians were destroying their places of worship. To my consternation, the people I worked with thought those Christians were doing the work of God! It was frustrating arguing with them—bureaucrats in the ministry of “culture”—that trampling on people’s private spaces to assert your beliefs is unjustifiable. Unfortunately, they were so steeped in their evangelical ways that they could not accept that other people have religious rights too. You do not need to believe in what they do; you do not even need to respect their beliefs; you only need to respect yourself and mind your own religious business. It cannot be that hard.

A similar lack of awareness that reprises in other parts of Nigeria is worsened by the ignorance (or cowardliness) of formal institutions that should mediate the democratic rights of the parties. Going by how the Nigerian police serially make itself a willing tool in the retrogressive hands of the fanatics always seeking to abridge other people’s freedoms, practitioners of indigenous religious faiths like ìsèse need to be formally classified as a protected class.

People toy with the practitioners of indigenous religions (and yet surreptitiously patronise them) because they are politically invisible (although socially hypervisible). The social tensions these minorities experience swing on the spectrum between an extractive relationship (that wants to appropriate their order of knowledge) and an unwarranted agenda of obliteration. Without a formal structure that acknowledges their existence and allows specification that they must not be discriminated against on account of their faith, they will continue to suffer gratuitous violence in the hands of those who see what they believe as an aspect of African “culture” that can be sacrificed on the altar of supposed modern progress.

Designating them as a definitive religious category will be fraught with all kinds of problems because what we typically call “African indigenous religions” are an amalgam of dynamic beliefs, practices, and communities that are not necessarily coherent. Numerically they might even outnumber some of the so-called majority religions, but like all things Nigeria, that is statistically impossible to determine. Categorising them as religious minorities will also (potentially) ameliorate the unwieldiness of bringing disparate beliefs under one umbrella. No, it will not be a decisive solution to the bigotry that wants to run them out of town, but it is a start.

One significant—and heartening—development that has emerged from all the small-mindedness that has been ensuing from Ilorin recently is how southwestern states like Lagos, Ogun, Osun, and Oyo now formally recognise August 20 as the annual Ìsèse Day. Formal recognition will go a long way in fending off the excesses of those who see religious minorities as a testing ground of spiritual and political might. Huge kudos to the governors who took that important step.

One of Tani Olohun’s supposed sins was burning the Quran in a video. Now, if the police ever need an example of what constitutes idolatry, I hereby offer them the tantrum over that video as an example. Anyone who is willing to do (or justify) violence over a mere religious symbol should watch it. They are close to falling—if not already fallen—into the sin of substituting the symbol for the substance. Tani Olohun could not have burned the Quran. The Quran is supposed to be an eternal word of God, and no single individual can burn it.

The police officers who made themselves available to be used to abuse a man for expressing his freedom are collaborators with those who use institutional might to settle private scores.

What is called “blasphemy” is a mere human invention. An infinite God cannot be diminished by the opinions of a finite human. God is too mighty to be petty. Those pursuing Tani Olohun are self-important idolaters who have substituted perishable things for the eternal Truth of God. They are taking advantage of the lack of protection for religious minorities like him to make him suffer.

The Nigeria Air Force (NAF) will soon receive 18 attack helicopters, according to the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar.

Abubakar made the remarks during a one-day tour of NAF 115 Special Operations Group (SOG) formations and units in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

He stated that the US would provide 12 attack helicopters, while the Turkish government would provide another six helicopters in September.

We are not deterred by recent developments as the Federal Government has approved the acquisition of 12 AH1 Zulu Cobra and six T129 Helicopters from the United States and Turkey respectively.

The first two T129 helicopters are scheduled to come into operation by September, to enhance our operational capabilities.

So, yes, we are saddened by the recent loss of our airplane (MI 171 helicopter) but then, we have a lot more (aircraft) coming in and our capabilities are increasing, he said.

Abubakar said he visited the state to commiserate with families of the NAF pilots and crew that died in the ill-fated helicopter crash in Niger on Aug. 14.

So, we came here to express our deepest condolences to the immediate family members of the crew that we lost.

The 115 special operations group is the home base for the airplane and all the crew that were onboard the unfortunate crash of our MI-171 helicopter.

Aside from this, we are also here to interact with the officers and men of the unit to encourage and assure them of our support in Operation Delta Safe, he added.

The deceased crew onboard the crashed aircraft included the pilot, co-pilot, and two airmen who oversaw the cabin, according to the Air Force chief.

He stated that the Air Force was currently putting measures in place to end military aircraft crashes in the country.

According to him, one of the measures was the formation of an air crash investigation board to determine the probable causes of the crash and to prevent future occurrences.

Abubakar stated that the air force would continue to increase the number of attack helicopters deployed to combat illegal refineries in the Niger Delta.

He claimed that joint operations with sister security agencies had resulted in the destruction of several illegal refining sites as well as the seizure of vessels used to steal crude oil from the region.

Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate in the February 25 election, has explained why he did not hold local government elections while governor of Anambra State.

Obi claimed he was prevented from holding local government elections due to court action.

The former governor announced the party’s mega rally in Benin to rally support for LP candidates ahead of the Edo State local government elections on September 2.

Obi said;

"As Anambra governor, I was prevented by arms of legal and litigation from conducting local government elections for over six years in the state."

The Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, will launch the party’s campaigns for the November 11 governorship election in Imo state today.

The event will take place at Owerri’s Kanu Nwankwo Stadium.

The governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, and other national officers and chieftains would join Obi to launch the campaigns in the state officially.

Athan Achonu, the LP’s governorship candidate in the state, told journalists in Owerri that everything was in place to welcome Obi and his entourage.

He stated that the party’s goal was to run an issue-based campaign in the hope of unseating the state’s All Progressives Congress government.

Achonu stated that the LP members and all supporters were looking forward to Obi’s arrival in Owerri on Tuesday.

Achonu, who was in the Senate in 2015, described Obi as a transformational leader and said the former Anambra governor inspired him to join the LP.

He claimed that his candidacy and the LP’s unwavering support in the state had already positioned the party as a lovely bride.

He stated that his campaign slogan, “Bring Investment Home,” would significantly address insecurity and food insecurity issues while promoting agriculture, education, investments, health, tourism, human capacity development, infrastructure development, and housing projects.

For the past eight years, the joke among Abuja residents was, “When will President Buhari appoint a Minister for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)?”. The once pristine city has gradually been reduced to a vast slum as mountains of garbage dot many areas. Even maintaining streetlights, including on the airport expressroad, has proved difficult for Abuja authorities. Beggars are everywhere, compounding the security challenge. And with touts waylaying motorists on street corners to enforce dubious revenue generation laws, land speculators have also been allowed free rein. So right from the moment the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike was sworn in as FCT Minister three days ago, Abuja residents knew that, for good or ill, they now have a Minister!     

On Monday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated his Federal Executive Council (FEC) with the swearing-in of 45 ministers, the highest number of federal cabinet members under any administration (whether military or civilian) in the country. He has also appointed 20 Special Advisers, which is equally unprecedented. At a time when the singsong is about reducing the cost of governance, this bad example is being replicated in states across the country where ‘job creation’ has been given a whole new meaning. While we will come back to this issue another day, Tinubu has urged his ministers to discharge their responsibilities in a manner that would “meet the expectations of all Nigerians.”   

The issue here is about what those expectations are. On the day the president sent the list of the first batch of his nominees to the Senate last month, I wrote, ‘Ministerial List: To Serve or To Eat?’. In that column, I cited the ‘come-and-eat’ altercation between Chief Bola Ige and Chief Sunday Afolabi (both deceased) during the Obasanjo administration and other examples to illustrate my point on how public office in Nigeria has been reduced to ‘looking for something to eat.’ I was shocked by the responses I received, most of which dwelt on the headline. And there were many. I got lectures, including from some prominent Nigerians, on why the headline should have been, ‘To Serve and to Eat’.

The notion that public officials should help themselves from a public till is alien to the concept of accountability. But apparently not in a society where it is now practically legitimate that people can live above their means without questions being asked. When I engaged a respected lawyer who also argued that it is quite okay to ‘serve and eat’ in the public arena, this was his response: “(Name of the former Nigerian leader he mentioned withheld) ate very well in his time and still eating. If public service as the name implies is all about public service without opportunity for self advancement, then the reality is that all over the world, there will be little interest. See the religious leaders who are supposed to be examples of selfless public service, many of them are eating very well! In Britain, Tony Blair and his wife ate very well. I don’t even want to talk of the Americans because they’re the worst. See the mess with President Joe Biden and his son!”  

I have heard the argument that the Yoruba adage of ‘Eni toba se ni idi pepe lo n je ni idi pepe’ is the same message embedded in the Biblical 1 Corinthians 9, verse 13: “Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?” Beyond the issue of context, I believe that nobody should justify or rationalize abuse of public trust. But I also understand the nature of government jobs and the reward system in our country. The major concern here, as we see with the excitement that comes with such an appointment and the congratulatory messages that usually follow, is that of public expectation.  

Some 15 years ago, precisely on Sunday, 19^th October 2008, I dealt with this same issue. I was in government at the time as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. I recall that I had just finished reading Reuben Abati’s weekly column in the Guardian where he used lessons in Leo Tolstoy’s ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’ to drive home a point about the Nigerian condition and the place of greed in our public arena. He was then the Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian newspapers. In a moment of indulgence, I called Reuben to say that I had a different way of looking at the issue. He asked whether I would like to share my view with readers and I agreed. My piece, ‘Shooting an Elephant: Public Service in Nigeria’ was published in The Guardian a week later, on 26^th October 2008. I want to recall excerpts from it before I draw my conclusion.  

=======================================================  

…I am not surprised that Tolstoy’s thesis fascinates Reuben because as a practicing journalist, I had also interrogated the place of greed in our national life, using the same thesis. But now, from the vantage position of someone who can see both sides of the divide, I think there are some lessons being ignored. For those who did not read Reuben last week on the “primitive acquisitiveness of the Nigerian Leadership elite” and may not be familiar with Tolstoy’s writing which informed the essay, ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’ is the story of a poor but seemingly contented farmer who eavesdropped on a conversation between his wife and her sister married to a city merchant. From here, let’s take a little bit from the book:  

Pakhom, the master of the house, was lying on the top of his stove and he listened to the women’s chatter. “It is perfectly true,” thought he. “Busy as we are from childhood, tilling mother earth, we peasants have no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads. Our only trouble is that we haven’t land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” The women finished their tea, chatted a while about dress, and then cleared away the tea-things and lay down to sleep. But the Devil had been sitting behind the stove and had heard all that was said. He was pleased that the peasant’s wife had led her husband into boasting, and that he had said that if he had plenty of land, he would not fear the Devil himself. “All right,” thought the Devil. “We will have a tussle. I’ll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power.”  

The Devil granted Pakhom’s wish. He got a chance to acquire as much land as he wanted by marking out its perimeters on foot, but the catch was that he had to be back to where he started before sunset. But Pakhom got greedy such that by the time he felt he had acquired enough land, a better one beckoned. At the end, there was no time for him to return to where he started, and he was already exhausted. He eventually slumped and died and was buried like any other mortal on a piece of land not exceeding six feet!  

What Reuben sought to illustrate with Pakhom’s story is the greed in public office and the evident rot in our society which he ties to that greed. While I agree with Reuben to the extent that we can see a direct correlation between the opulence of a few elites and the poverty of our people, I fail to agree with his summation that many of the otherwise good people who join government only to come out with serious moral deficit do so on account of personal greed.

Incidentally, there are two literary works, also very popular with the Aspen Leadership series, which I consider important to interrogate this issue. The first is ‘No Longer at Ease’ by Chinua Achebe which tells the story of a brilliant young Nigerian who was given a scholarship by his community to study Law in the United Kingdom during the colonial days. He went, bagged his degree in English rather than in Law and came back home to secure a top job in the civil service. He, however met a decadent society in which corruption was seen as a way of life and decided he was not going to be part of the rot.  

For a while, Obi Okonkwo resisted the pressure, but a combination of unpleasant circumstances forced his hands. First, he had problems paying back the loans he took from his community and there were implacable foes. Then he had problems with a woman he wanted to marry who happened to carry a societal stigma. To compound the situation, his mother was dying, and he needed money for her medicals. On the weight of all these personal conflicts, Obi Okonkwo succumbed by subverting the lofty ideals he had espoused. The issue here is the kind of pressure public office holders are subjected to because it is almost as if society expects them to go and steal given the kinds of demands that are made of them.   

Before I share my own experience, I will use another literature which is also a compelling reading at the Aspen Institute Leadership series. It is George Orwell’s classic, ‘Shooting an Elephant’, generally regarded as reflections on his time while serving his country in Burma. In the tale, Orwell (real name, Eric Arthur Blair) recounted an incident where a young colonial police officer was summoned to a provincial village to kill a ‘rogue elephant’ which had injured one of the local people. Upon his arrival, the elephant, far from being wild and on a rampage, was now calm. But the British officer had a gun and a huge crowd had gathered expecting him to shoot the elephant:  

I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd –seemingly the lead actor of the piece; but I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by those yellow faces behind. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the “natives,” so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him. I had got to shoot the elephant.

From the narrative, the officer had a moral dilemma in that he did not want to kill the elephant. But because the mob expected him to, he eventually shot the elephant. The point of the story is that we are all sometimes forced into actions which we know to be wrong, to meet the expectations of our friends, our family members, our community, political peers and several other ‘crowds’ in our lives. I have been in government for about 17 months now and I cannot recall a day when I have not received about five text messages from persons seeking financial help. The messages are often similar and usually end with details of the bank account I am expected to pay certain sums of money into. I have since discovered it is the same with virtually every public official. These solicitations come from family members, long-term school mates whose names and faces you may not even remember; distant relations and some no relations at all; church members; people from the village, neighbours, and casual acquaintances of the spouse. All they request is that you do ‘something’ to help them.

The stories are usually the same: they need money to pay the school fees of their children; to settle hospital bills for dying relations, to feed after days of hunger. They paint pathetic pictures of themselves and their circumstances that one would seem wicked not to want to help. They would remind you of tales from the past and may even refer you to Biblical passages that it could even be because of them that you were placed in the position of trust. They don’t ask you to steal but then you ask, where is the money with which you are expected to ‘help’ supposed to come from? Unfortunately, this is the kind of pressure public officials are exposed to in our society.  

Here, I must make a clarification because there are many politicians who seek public office as a form of investment on which they expect to receive a bountiful return. I am not talking about such characters who loot public treasury without any pang of conscience. My disquisition is on those who go into public office with the intent of making positive contributions yet come out with their integrity battered. I believe that in some such cases, society must share part of the blame. What Orwell’s elephant story teaches is that there is a form of complicity from society in some of the primitive accumulative tendencies we have seen over the years. That explains why some of our big-time crooks still draw huge crowds from their people comprising mostly those who benefited from their perfidy.  

The lesson from the foregoing is that the ultimate responsibility for one’s actions and integrity rests with the individual. In Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant’, while the young British officer may have found himself in a difficult situation, he clearly had a choice between following his own inclinations or that of the crowd of natives. My view is that if we all remember, like Tolstoy tells us, that “whichever way a man goes, he is destined for no more than six feet of land or worse, the crematorium”, we will think twice next time we have that elephant within our shooting range. That is the message for everyone.

ENDNOTE:  

As the renowned Professor, Peter Ekeh (formerly of the University of Ibadan but currently at the State University of New York, Buffalo) reminded us in his seminal work, Nigerian officials are caught between two contrasting publics and their expectations. And for that reason, a public officer must choose which expectation to meet. The challenge lies in deciding how to navigate the pressures that follow.   

In President Jonathan’s book, ‘My Transition Hours’, there is a profound statement I once referenced. “I have learnt from political ascendancy in the sixteen years that I served from Deputy Governor to President that power is a shield, for those who wields it and for the people it serves,” Jonathan wrote. “I understand that power will protect you and enable you protect your charges. It will provide shade from the blistering heat of the sun. When it is raining you can use it as an umbrella to protect yourself and the people you are meant to serve. And when you come to a river, you can convert it to a vessel that will help you and those who you lead to cross.”  

Since Jonathan is talking about the power that comes with holding public office, I cannot fault the argument about “opportunities for self-advancement” made by my lawyer friend, including even in the Western world. It must be said though that in those societies, such ‘opportunities’ come by way of consultancy, book writing, speaking engagements, appointment into corporate boards etc., but only after office. These are legitimate earnings. In the peculiar nature of the Nigerian environment, the real challenge is the disposition by public officials to use their positions to provide ‘shades’ only for themselves and their cycle of friends and families.

Last Sunday, Daily Trust newspaper published an extensive story of how children of prominent politicians are now getting appointed and elected to public offices in the states and Abuja through the influence of their parents, with politics being turned into a family business. Many of these young people have no visible means of livelihood beyond parental ‘legacy’. One of the Ministers appointed by Tinubu from the Senate is a former Governor who got one of his children elected to the State House of Assembly with another holding a powerful position in the same state. For the Senate seat now vacant by virtue of his ministerial appointment, he can only think of his brother as replacement!  

In a society with limited opportunities for honest livelihood, public office has become a gate pass to the things that many wish for or dream about. Those who come by this gate pass are naturally expected to enter ‘paradise’. If they fail, it will be because they are either foolish or mentally unhinged. If they ‘make it’ alone, they are selfish and wicked. If they help their community, they get a hero’s welcome. If the public officer serves the wider nation meritoriously, he may be publicly acclaimed. But if he fails to enrich himself in the process, his wide acclaim will come to nothing. There lies the moral burden. 

As I said, we will come back to interrogate some of these issues another day. The charge today is for the new ministers. To build a society that works for the greater majority, they must understand that the ‘shade’ they need to provide should be able to shield not only their family and friends but also many of the ordinary people. I wish them success in their assignments.   

The Lagos State House of Assembly, on Wednesday, confirmed 22 out of the 39 cabinet nominees sent recently by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for screening.

The Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, who presided over the day’s plenary, said the confirmation followed a rigorous and detailed screening of the nominees by an ad hoc committee led by the Chief Whip of the House, Fatai Mojeed.

Obasa commended the committee for its effectiveness and urged the confirmed nominees to always remember that they are in office to serve the people of the state and not individuals.

He also promised that the House would continue to do its best in the interest of the state.

Seventeen nominees were, however, rejected during the confirmation which was done through a voice vote as Obasa mentioned the name of each of the nominees.

The lawmaker representing the Ikorodu Constituency II in the House, Aro Abiodun, when contacted by our correspondent on why the 17 nominees were rejected, said he could not speak for the House but only for his constituency.

Also, when contacted by The PUNCH, the chairman of the screening committee and Chief Whip of the House, Mojeed, simply said in a text message, “It was a decision of (all) 40 members (of the House).”

However, a former member of the House who pleaded anonymity said such rejection could be for several reasons.

“A nominee may be rejected for several reasons. It may be for not having the (APC) party membership card or for presenting a controversial qualification. Other reasons could be security-related or criminal records, unexplained dismissal from office, among others.”

Asked if there would still be an opportunity for the rejected nominees to be cleared later, the ex-lawmaker said, “No. They won’t be cleared. The governor will have to send other names.”

Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Sanwo-Olu, Gboyega Akosile, in a telephone chat with The PUNCH late Wednesday said the outcome of the screening and confirmation had yet to be transmitted to the governor, hence the governor had yet to know the reason for the reported rejection of some nominees.

“Mr Governor has not received it officially, but we are just hearing from the media. So, we will wait for when the Speaker transmits it to the governor, then we will know the appropriate reaction from the governor,” Akosile said.

The rejected nominees are: Folashade Adefisayo, Akin Abayomi, Yomi Oluyomi, Folashade Ambrose, Barakat Bakare, Gbenga Omotosho, Olalere Odusote, Rotimi Fashola, Bolaji Dada, Sam Egube, Olalekan Fatodu, Solape Hammond, Mosopefolu George, Aramide Adeyoye, Seun Osiyemi, Rotimi Ogunwuyi, and Olumide Oluyinka.

World champion, Tobi Amusan, qualified for the final of the 100-meter Hurdle at the ongoing World Athletics Championship in Budapest on Wednesday.

The Nigerian athlete won the second semifinal with a time of 12.56 seconds to qualify for the final billed for Thursday evening.

Despite a slow start, the world hurdles record holder recovered in time, clocking 12.56s to finish ahead of Jamaican Achkara Nungent’s 12.60 seconds and Dutch Nadine Visser’s 12.62 seconds.

In the most cited line from his 1983 book, The Trouble With Nigeria, Chinua Achebe, raconteur, novelist, and thinker, declared that Nigeria’s problem is the leadership which, unable to rise to the true challenges of national development, cannot provide inspiring examples to followers. Achebe’s assertion was in line with the thinking of most researchers of that era. In the last few years, however, some scholars have come to think that Africa’s problem is actually societal rather than just leadership. In a scintillating 2008 academic article, Larry Diamond of Stanford University, one of the leading lights on democracy research, argued that followers of African leaders do not disapprove of the sacrilege committed by their leaders but rather support it out of primordial solidarity; some benefit directly from the system.

Still, the primacy of leadership anywhere in inspiring the confidence of the people, in setting a development agenda, and in defining a moral climate for the larger society based on a regime of sanctions and rewards cannot be overlooked. Africans generally, however, have a fundamentally flawed view of leadership, whether in the private or the public sector. They see leadership from the royalty prism, equating with it bigmanism and all manner of ostentation. Our leaders are expected by society to wear fancy, flowing clothes with big caps and expensive bangles and trinkets, and move in long and expensive motorcades, with large contingents of praise singers, as well as security and protocol officers—all at public expense!

That’s why we are delighted to see something different coming from Akwa Ibom State. The new governor, Umo Eno, flies Ibom Air, rather than use the existing state government-owned private jet. This is in contrast to the practice of most of his contemporaries who consider it infra dig to travel by commercial planes, even when the Singaporean prime minister travels always by commercial flights, to say nothing about Scandinavian leaders who frequently fly budget airlines or use the economy class in overseas trips.

In his famous memoir, From the Third World to First: The Story of Singapore Since 1965, Lee Kuan Yew, arguably the most important transformative leader since the Second World War, expresses shock that African rulers attended the 1980 Commonwealth Summit in Ottawa, Canada, with their presidential jets. To exacerbate matters, they were asking for aid for their countries from such foreign leaders as the United Kingdom prime minister who arrived by commercial airlines. African rulers appropriate more and more for themselves even when the resources of their countries are depleting fast.

Leaders who are so callously selfish are referred to in modern social science theory as operating the self-protective leadership style, a term coined in 2004 when 97 social scientists from 62 cultures led by (the late) Robert House of Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania produced a path-breaking book on the effects of cultural values on leadership styles across the world. In his excellent book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap, and Some Don’t, Jim Collins, formerly a Standford Business School professor, shows that American organisations which indulged in this practice in the 1980s performed suboptimally—some actually crumbled. Any wonder why Nigeria and the rest of Africa are in a development morass?

I was pleasantly surprised to watch on television Governor Umo hold the umbrella while speaking to people when it was drizzling. The umbrella could have been handed over to his aide de camp (ADC), orderly, or any of the numerous security and protocol officers which every Nigerian governor has. But he was making a point: leadership is about service, and not lording it over your people. The leader has to serve, and not to be served (Matthew 20: 28). Servant leadership is now a buzzword, but in Africa, it is observed more in the breach. Servant leadership is about humility; it is taken straight from the New Testament where Jesus Christ chose to wash the feet of his apostles instead of the other way (See John 3: 1-5).

If only Africans knew that the most successful leaders are frequently the simplest and the humblest, former Delta State governor James Ibori would not have chosen the jawbreaking but meaningless sobriquet of Odidigborigbo of Africa. Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo would not have elected to be known as the Redeemer of his people. Nor would Idi Amin of Uganda, a barely literate person, have announced himself the head of the political science department at Makerere University, in addition to making himself a field marshall. Bola Tinubu would not have allowed about 100 blackened SUVs to accompany him from Lagos Aiport to his residence in Ikoyi, a distance of only 28 kilometres, at a time of extreme economic difficulties. Nigerians will always miss Donald Duke, Lateef Jakande, and Babatunde Fashola in public office.

He may not have coined the term, but Steve Jobs, co-founder and chairman of Apple Incorporated, one of the most admired and storied firms in recent decades, popularised the idea that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. In his absorbing book entitled The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation, Jay Elliot, the human resource and operations team lead at Apple, reveals how Jobs wanted an atmosphere at Apple where any of the 100,000 staff members worldwide could approach him in the office without going through the secretary!

Jobs was so obsessed with simplicity that iPad, which he invented, could be operated within minutes by an illiterate Colombian teenager who had never touched a computer, as reported in Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Jobs’ critical biographer who is a history professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, after working as editor in chief of Time magazine and serving as president of the Aspen Institute, a think tank in Washington, DC. The simplicity of Apple products is a chief reason why Apple has hypnotised the world. Simplicity (and humility) is not just personal virtue but also critical management and leadership requirement.

Governor Eno says he is on a mission to demystify leadership. It is a noble enterprise. But he doesn’t need uniformed security around him. He needs to learn from Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo. There are no security officers in uniform around foreign leaders who are, of course, far better protected than African rulers. All the same, signals from Akwa Ibom State so far are encouraging.

At the recent development conference in Uyo, Eno chose the best from different parts of Nigeria, regardless of their political, sectional, or religious affiliations, to participate in it. Bart Nnaji from Enugu State, a globally renowned engineering professor and chairman of the Geometric Power group whose only one-year tenure as the Minister of Power remains Nigeria’s gold standard, chaired the breakout session on power and is now assisting the state with an electricity development roadmap.

There is still hope for Nigeria.

Adinuba, the immediate past Commissioner for Information & Public Enlightenment in Anambra State, is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting, Lagos.