Nigerien soldiers have announced taking over power from President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been in detention since the early hours of Wednesday.

The soldiers announced the coup in televised broadcast in the early hours of Thursday.

In the broadcast, 10 senior officers said the National Council of the State Guard of the Nation had decided to “put an end to the regime you are familiar with”.

They claimed to have seized power because of deteriorating security situation as well as bad social and economic management.

“We reaffirm our support to all commitment undertaken by Niger,” the soldiers said.

They had earlier cordoned off office and residence of Bazoum with military vehicles.

Crowds had taken to the streets of the capital city, Niamey, in support of the president, but soldiers fired shots to disperse them.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had intervened by sending the President of Benin, Patrice Talon, to the country.

Talon proceeded after meeting with President Bola Tinubu, ECOWAS Chairman, in Abuja.

Tinubu had earlier condemned the development, warning that the regional body, as well as the global community, would not condone disruption of constitutional order within the sub-region.

• Senate split over plan to suspend annual recess for ministerial nominees’ screening
• Akpabio makes last minute move to postpone recess
• Recall option for senators, another drain on treasury

After a blistering start to the Bola Tinubu presidency, marked by some boldfaced policy drive and reordering of the economy, the President may have driven himself into a false start, requiring a serious rebooting as he clocks 60 days in office today.

Indications emerged, yesterday, that President Tinubu might be without a constituted Federal Executive Council (FEC) till September, if the Senate embarks on its 2023 end of session recess today as scheduled, leaving a nearly four-month hiatus in the new administration.

Arising from this, President Tinubu may not only be escaping the constitutional liability of presenting his ministerial list to the Senate for screening and confirmation on deadline day, but by leaving this critical decision-making to the last day and thereby stalling governance, he is against, all expectations, infamously toeing the path of his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari, who didn’t constitute his cabinet during his first term until after six months.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan sent the list of ministerial nominees to the Senate on June 28, 2011, a month after being sworn in, while Muhammadu Buhari submitted his list on September 30, 2015 for his first term and July 23, 2019 for the second term in office.

However, unlike Buhari, President Tinubu has appointed some Special Advisers (SAs) to man strategic areas of governance.

But should President Tinubu fail to submit his ministerial list today, he could face impeachment by the 10th National Assembly as the Constitution will have been breached.

Buhari had on March 17, 2023, assented to the bill mandating the incoming President and governors to submit their nominees within 60 days of taking oath of office in a bill sponsored by Ben Rollands Igbakpa, who represented Ethiope Federal Constituency in the Ninth House of Representatives.

The lawmakers had on Tuesday, stepped down important items on the Order Paper and adjourned plenary as senators, including the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, left the National Assembly to attend the 60th birthday anniversary lecture and book presentation in honour of Bamidele.

On Wednesday, with 24 hours to the constitutional deadline, the Senate adjourned without the list. The lawmakers, who resumed for plenary a little late, took on a couple of motions and other legislative businesses as listed in the Order Paper without any mention of communication with respect to the list. All eyes will therefore be on the Senate chamber today for the unveiling of the much-guarded cabinet nominees.

Yesterday, some Senators were said to be considering the options of suspending their yearly recess to screen and confirm ministerial nominees should President Tinubu transmit the list to the chamber today. Tinubu is faced with the constitutional deadline of July 27, to transmit the list of ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and confirmation.

Section 42 of the Constitution as amended, states that “(a) the nomination of any person to the office of a Minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office; (b) not less than ten per cent of persons appointed as Ministers shall be women: Provided that the President may appoint a Minister at any other time during his tenure and such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.”

As at yesterday, some states including Lagos, Enugu, and Cross River have also not constituted their cabinets.

But following his delay in sending the list, Senators have begun consultations on how to assist the administration in early formation of the cabinet to facilitate good governance.

However, sources at the Senate hinted that opinions are divided on whether or not the Senate should proceed on the recess even if the list of ministerial nominees is read out today (Thursday).

This category of senators, it was learnt, preferred that a formal request for re-convening the Senate for the purpose of screening of the nominees should be sent to individual senators, which will be at an extra cost to the treasury if senators are recalled from recess.

The other category, which is getting the support of the leadership of the Senate, wants the recess to be suspended so that the screening can begin immediately after tomorrow.

Expectations are high in the National Assembly that the list will be sent to the Senate before sitting today. The expectation arose from public disclosure by the Senate Majority Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, on Tuesday that Tinubu would submit the list today.

By Senate’s procedure and tradition, screening of nominees for ministerial appointments is done in the Committee of the Whole. This means that the screening cannot be referred to any of its standing committees, a development that is compelling the Senate to ask all its members to be present at the screening.

Bamidele, had at a book launch, in Abuja, disclosed that Tinubu will make available the much-expected list of ministerial nominees within the next 48 hours, adding that the President had gone into seclusion to avoid undue influence.

Meanwhile, a Professor of Public Administration and World Bank consultant, Oladipo Adamolekun, has advised President Tinubu to attach a portfolio to the ministerial list to be sent to the Senate for proper screening.

He also urged him to consider reducing the cost of governance by reducing the number of political appointees to reflect the hardship Nigerians are going through in the country. The university don said it is important for the Senate to screen the ministerial nominees based on the proposed ministry to ascertain their competence.

Tinubu assumed office amid high expectations from Nigerians and the international community that governance would no longer be as usual.

Sixty days into the administration, there have been mixed reactions with many observers — not all — submitting their assessment that the ruling APC government has, so far, failed to live up to expectations and other attendant hype.

Many Nigerians also, are inclined to conclude that it is this development that may have conspired to put a clog in Tinubu’s drive even as he strives to keep pace with the rigours and the attendant challenges of governance.

Having spent 60 days in office, some Nigerians have juxtaposed the difference between Tinubu and former President Buhari’s styles of leadership in their first 60 days in office.

Paradoxically, others seem to agree that the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari and the incumbent share similarities in many ways especially in the first few months of their assumption of office.

Buhari took over six months before he constituted his cabinet-level appointments and almost seven years of his eight years to set up an economic advisory team and he got lots of criticisms.

While Tinubu may have learnt a lesson from the criticisms regarding the economic team’s formation, which took the former President many years to constitute, he may not have learnt the lesson from the general displeasure of millions of Nigerians over the lethargic approach to solving basic and fundamental economic problems that may have conspired to afflict the nation.

For example, President Tinubu is said to have started by making what many described as staccato appointments of a few of his friends and associates into what he calls Presidential committee on taxation.

Just like his predecessor, Tinubu is taking longer to select those that will form his cabinet even when there is a constitutional prescription of 60 days. So, the striking similarity between the two is that they find it a bit difficult to take decisions on very key items such as the formation of a cabinet to help pilot the affairs of state.

Weighing in on the matter in a no-holds-barred opinion, Emmanuel Onwubiko, head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, last week, said President Tinubu has so far made over five foreign trips in less than two months of coming into power.

“This frightening record of foreign trips within such a short time is already causing discomfort to millions of Nigerians who are asking whether this current President wouldn’t replicate the tendencies of his predecessor in the area of globetrotting.

According to Onwubiko, President Tinubu has also created what he described as “massive economic dislocation by removing subsidy on petrol without thinking through what remedial measures he ought to have implemented before effecting whatever subsidy withdrawal he intends to do and he is groping in the dark literally searching frantically for what palliative measures to implement. Already more Nigerians are becoming poorer in the 60 days of his administration.

“But in the case of Buhari, in less than two years he made Nigeria the poverty capital of the World in 2018 and overtook India which has over two billion population and just before he left in 2023 May, about 130 million Nigerians became multidimensionally poor.”

Shortly after President Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy on the day of his inauguration, the prices of essential commodity skyrocketed with the speed of light, compelling urgent measures to alleviate the sufferings of the masses, majority of whom were reportedly basking in the euphoria of the dawn of a new era.

Despite the hardship Nigerians are passing through since he took over the reins of administration, occasioned by his removal of petrol subsidy, President Tinubu’s loyalists are optimistic that he has come to salvage the battered economy and restore hope to the beleaguered citizens.

Whether there will be light at the end of the tunnel is left to the president and his lieutenants to decide. But for now, it is not yet uhuru as things have already begun to fall apart for the poor masses in the country.

[Guardian]

There was a tense atmosphere at the National Assembly (NASS) yesterday, 24 hours to the unveiling of the lists of the leadership of the standing committees of the two chambers of the legislature.

The Presidency, which had hijacked the statutory functions of the presiding officers of the Senate and House of Representatives in selecting the leadership and membership of the various committees of the two chambers of NASS, had forwarded the lists to Senate President Godswill Akpabio  and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.

Reliable sources at NASS confided in LEADERSHIP that Akpabio and Abbas received correspondence containing the names of the chairmen and deputy chairmen of the standing committees from a senior aide in the Presidency yesterday evening. The presiding officers are expected to just read out the names during plenary on today.

LEADERSHIP learnt that uncertainty over the fate of the lawmakers in the allotment of the chairmen and deputy chairmen of the various standing committees of the two chambers had ignited anger and resentment among the lawmakers ahead of the official presentation of the controversial lists today.

LEADERSHIP gathered that most lawmakers are fuming that they were unfairly treated in the allocation of the leadership of the committees. The panic-stricken lawmakers clustered in groups at NASS yesterday to review their fate.

Abbas was absent at the plenary yesterday apparently to avoid pressure from his colleagues.

Also, members of the ‘Lagos cabal’ and their cronies in the House were also absent, similarly to ward off pressure from their embittered colleagues.

Reports available to LEADERSHIP yesterday revealed that some aggrieved lawmakers, who felt slighted by the outcome of the exercise, have formed a dissident group named “Reformation Group.”

A lawmaker from the North East was fingered as the founder and financier of the group.

It was learnt that the group is planning to hire a space at an elitist hotel in Abuja to serve as its secretariat.

Already, the dissenting group is rallying opposition against the leadership of the two chambers.

A majority of the members are drawn from the South-West and North-Central geopolitical zones. The lawmakers from the North-Central, according to one of our sources, are still nursing the wounds of the exclusion of the zone from allocation of the six main offices in the Presidency and NASS.

Findings also revealed that some contenders for the office of the Speaker of the House, who stepped down for Abbas ahead of the June 13th election in NASS, have given tacit approval and support to the group.

They were said to be livid that the Presidency reneged on the promises made to them to entice them to backpedal on their aspirations.

According to one of its promoters, the group has been embraced by a large number of lawmakers from the South West, the geopolitical zone, where President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, hails from.

The source said lawmakers from the South-West were also disenchanted by the dominant roles Lagos State was playing at the detriment of other states in the zone in the scheme of things at the national level.

Investigation by this newspaper further showed that lawmakers from South-West states of Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo and Osun were unhappy that Lagos State was being treated as synonymous with the zone in power sharing arrangement at the federal level.

According to him, the South West lawmakers easily pointed at the report that four of the seven juicy committees allocated to the zone were unilaterally allotted to lawmakers from Lagos State, leaving the remaining three slots to their colleagues, from other five states in the belt, considered loyal to the “Lagos cabal.”

It was gathered that the mission of the group would be unveiled during the six-week recess commencing on Friday.

Consequently, LEADERSHIP learnt that the selection committee raised by the House to pick the leadership and membership of the various committees had become redundant following the hijacking of their functions by the Presidency.

The activities of the committee were aborted after two futile sessions.

Fears of possible backlash of the announcement of the composition of the committees were palpable yesterday.  This informed counsel by some members of the inner circles of the House Speaker to tinker with the idea of deferring the announcement of the committees’ leadership.

But it was gathered that Abbas was compelled by forces from the Presidency, which insisted that the exercise be concluded and made public today.

Meanwhile, there are reports of protests by the South-East caucus of the House over the composition of the committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The caucus insisted that the South-South could not pick the leadership of the NDDC committees in both chambers. The group asked that either of the committees in the Senate or the House be ceded to the members from the oil producing states of Abia and Imo states.

One of the sources said, “The presiding officers of the Senate and House of Representatives have received the lists of the committee leadership and membership from a top presidential aide. In fact they got the list on Wednesday evening. So, all is now set for the announcement of the chairmen and deputy chairmen of the committees tomorrow (today).

“There are rumblings and grumbling in the NASS but I think all this will be laid to rest by tomorrow (Thursday) when the lists are officially unveiled. There is no doubt that senators and House members are unhappy because many of them didn’t get what they bargained for. Many promises made before the June election were reneged. There is likely to be a backlash after the announcement but the exercise has to be completed and we move forward.

“There was a suggestion that the announcement be suspended due to the envisaged backlash but the presidential aide and members of his Lagos cabal and their collaborators outside Lagos State dismissed the advice that whatever protest that come up would be crushed and that whatever has been done are iron cast and no Jupiter can halt the process, and that it has to run through and be completed on Thursday. You can see that these Lagos guys are unrepentantly arrogant. That’s the style of the latest cabal in the Villa.”

Another of our sources added, “There are so many issues. Even the South-East caucus is also asking for the leadership of the NDDC committee in either the Senate or House of Representatives. They are saying that the South-South cannot continue to monopolise the two committees in both chambers. The lawmakers from the zone, mainly the aggrieved members elected on the platform of Labour Party (LP) are demanding that one of them be ceded to either Abia state or Imo state.”

“Even some lawmakers in the two chambers are already ganging up. They have formed a group they named Reformation Group, ostensibly to confront the leadership of NASS after the recess. This is to show the depth of the resentment in NASS. Majority of the lawmakers are not happy and many members are signing for the group.

“The response from the South-West and North-Central is unimaginable. The cabal is collecting money and the committees are for sale. The selection committee became moribund as its roles were hijacked by forces who helped our presiding officers to secure their jobs. The presiding officers are frustrated and dejected.

“You can see that Mr. Speaker didn’t come for plenary today (Wednesday) despite that he’s in Abuja. He is obviously avoiding members of the House because he didn’t know what to tell members, who are going to pose some questions to him over the turn of events,” added a House member, who requested anonymity.

As usual, neither Akpabio nor Abbas responded to enquiries by our correspondent.

Similarly, the chairman, House Ad-hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Khadija Bukar Abba, did not respond to calls and messages sent to her to get her reaction to the report.

 On Deadline, Tinubu Sends Ministerial List To Senate 

To beat the constitutional deadline, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sent the ministerial list of his cabinet to the Senate for screening and confirmation. 

A principal officer of the Senate told LEADERSHIP yesterday that the list had arrived at the Senate adding that the Senate President Godswill Akpabio will make the formal announcement at plenary. 

It was gathered that the list is coming on the last day the Senate sits in a week and only hours before the expiration of the 60 days provided by law for the president to send the list of his ministers to the National Assembly for screening and confirmation. 

Despite speculations, the Senate leader, Bamidele Okpeyemi, on Tuesday, said the long awaited ministerial list of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was ready and that it will be presented to the Senate in 48 hours, a timeline that expires today. 

Bamidele, a lawyer who served as a legislative aide to Tinubu when he served as senator, said he spoke with the President who said he needs to be alone because of the crucial decision he has taken concerning the ministerial list. 

Nigeria’s Constitution gives the president 60 days to submit a list of his ministers and Tinubu, who was sworn in on May 29, 2023, still has a window until tomorrow for the submission of the list of his ministers. 

Section 42 of the 1999 constitution, as amended, states that “(a) the nomination of any person to the office of a Minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office;

(b) Not less than ten percent of persons appointed as Ministers shall be women: Provided that the President may appoint a minister at any other time during his tenure and such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.”

The constitution also adds that the president shall appoint at least a minister from each of the 36 states of the federation, and the federal capital territory.

But speaking to LEADERSHIP, a principal officer said: “that the list of the ministers is now at the Senate. The president of the Senate will now be the one to announce the official communication between the presidency and the National Assembly. So, the list of the ministers is at the National Assembly and will soon be announced.”

Super Eagles winger, Samuel Chukwueze will wear number 21 at his new club, AC Milan, DAILY POST reports.

The Nigeria international arrived Milan on Wednesday and underwent his medicals with the seven-time European champions at the La Madonnina Clinic.

The electric winger revealed his squad number for next season by writing the number 21 on a shoe he was handed for his signature by a Milan fan.

The shirt was last worn by former AC Milan and Italy midfielder, Andrea Pirlo.

Chukwueze is expected to be unveiled on Thursday (today) by the Rooseneri.

The 24-year-old arrived at AC Milan from LaLiga side Villarreal.

Chukwueze will sign a five-year contract, while Villarreal will receive €28m, including add-ons for the player.

[DailyPost]

The federal government has reacted to the seven-day ultimatum issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to embark on a nationwide strike over the hike in the price of petrol and the high cost of living in the country.

On Wednesday, NLC issued a seven-day ultimatum to the federal government to reverse all “anti-poor” and “insensitive” policies.

The policies, the union said, include the recent hike in the price of petrol, and the sudden increase in public school fees, among others.

In the communique signed by Joe Ajaero, NLC president, and Emmanuel Ugboaja, the union’s general secretary, the union accused the federal government of showing enormous disdain and contempt for the Nigerian people and declared a war of attrition on citizens.

However, in a statement, B.E Jedy-Agba, the permanent secretary at the ministry of justice, said the union is restrained by the order of the national industrial court from embarking on any strike regarding the removal of petrol subsidy.

She said the court had on June 5 granted an injunctive order restraining the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) “from embarking on the planned industrial action/or strike of any nature, pending the hearing and determination of the pending motion on notice”.

Jedy-Agba advised the union to explore other means of negotiations with the federal government rather than “resorting to self-help and undermining the orders of the court”.

“It is noted that the issues (removal of fuel subsidy, hike in prices of petrol and consequential increase in the cost of living, etc) which precipitated the above court action are the very same issues over which NLC has now issued another strike notice,” the statement reads.

“The NLC has submitted to the jurisdiction of the court and is being represented by the reputable law firm of Femi Falana, SAN. It is therefore our minimum expectation that the NLC will allow the courts to perform their constitutional roles rather than resorting to self-help and undermining the orders of the court.

“We note with dismay that this latest strike notice is consistent with the inexplicable disdain which the NLC leadership has visited on the authority of the court in recent times following earlier inciting and derogatory remarks made by the NLC president against the court.

“Aside from the above legal inhibition against any strike action of any nature, we also note that both the federal and state governments are engaging with stakeholders to cushion the collateral effect of the removal of fuel subsidy and increment in fuel price.

“It would be a great act of service to Nigerian workers and the nation’s economy for NLC to explore negotiations rather than embark on any strike action.”

[TheCable]

Since the ill-fated night of October 20, 2020, the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration has heavily invested in propagating its version of what went down. One press release issued by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye, to deflate the outrage following the leaked memo revealing that the Lagos State Government planned a mass burial for the 103 victims of the 2020 #EndSARS violence punched a hole in one of their strongest arguments. From the Dis-Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, to state officials who traversed the news media circuits over the Lekki toll gate incident, one of their most vehement defences was that many deaths could not have occurred as claimed without families coming forward to claim their losses. It took only three years for the government to inadvertently confirm that some of us are actually officially faceless, nameless, disconnected from kith and kin, and can be disposed of like nothing.

As one has come to expect of Nigerian bureaucratic riposte to public disquiet, the Lagos press release on the mass burial Ogboye followed the standard format of prefacing the point with feigned anger at a misinformed public, pejoratively schooling people for what they got wrong, finally making the expected point, and rounding off with a scold. Apart from not departing from this pattern, they were also more concerned with responding to those they consider mischief-makers than reflecting on the moral import of 103 people (and likely more) dying in a single day in a single city. The way the government glibly stated that they picked up their bodies in several neighbourhoods around the city, one would be forgiven for thinking these people were merely a herd of cows struck by thunder while grazing.

If the feverish explanations of Lagos State officials fail to convince anyone of their sincerity, it is because we are reeling at the horror of the city as a sprawling necropolis. So many lives can be lost, and the government cannot stretch itself to dignify them by at least finding out their identity and killers? It must be far much easier to stick people in the ground and forget them than to take the trouble to come to terms with the cheapness of life and death under your administrative watch.

Ogboye’s write-up concludes interestingly: The government, therefore, appeals to social media rumour mongers to please allow the hapless families of the unclaimed loved ones a deserved closure. Such self-contradiction! If the whole point of mass burying 103 people is because nobody came forward to claim them, then who are these “hapless families” getting “deserved closure” on whose behalf you are appealing for sensitivity? What kind of emotional closure is possible for the families who are still out there unknowing of the fate of their deceased, and will probably never know now that those people will be undistinguishably buried in an unmarked grave with many others? If the state had truly believed some families out there deserved closure, it would have tried harder.

Tomorrow, 28^th July, will mark exactly five months since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected. Yet he still does not have his cabinet in place. This says a great deal about his preparedness for office as well as the nature of ministerial appointments in our country. If the basis for appointment was about service to the people and delivering the public good, the issue of ‘pressure’ to which we hear the president is being subjected (an excuse for the delay) should not arise. But perhaps we should cut the president some slack. The Constitution which makes it mandatory that a minister must come from every state already presupposes that such appointment is little more than a distribution of spoils.  

Going by Section 42 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) “the nomination of any person to the office of a minister for confirmation by the senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the president has taken the oath of office”. With that provision, the president has only until tomorrow to submit his ministerial list to the Senate. Since the Senate ordinarily does not sit on Friday, it then goes without saying that the list must be released today. But the entire process has become ridiculous. Aside the blatant lobbying by individuals and groups in the media, there are also reports that religious clerics and marabouts are making a killing to ensure that certain names emerge on this list that can catapult someone from penury to prosperity. After all, we know those who used to travel by Night Bus and now travel by Private Jet, simply because they were once on ‘The List’!  

On Monday, I was the reviewer at the public presentation of a book, ‘Reclaiming the Jewel of Africa’ by former Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga. The keynote speech was delivered by President Olusegun Obasanjo. He spoke about so many things but of particular interest is this line: “If you ask most of our leaders why they want to be in the position they are craving for, you will weep for your nation over their level of emptiness as far as development issues are concerned.” While that may be true, there are those who would also argue that the tone was set by President Obasanjo’s government. 

When in 1999, he chose Second Republic Governor of the old Oyo State (now Oyo and Osun), the late Chief Bola Ige, among his ministers, not a few people were surprised. Even though Ige was played out of the presidential ticket of the opposition Alliance for Democracy (the dominant party in the Southwest) which he formed along with others, it was clear that working in a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government was bound to be problematic for the famed ‘Cicero of Esa Oke’. When he started to attack the then ruling party, it did not sit well with some, including his former deputy, Chief Sunday Afolabi (now deceased), who was also a minister. It was Afolabi who made the Freudian Slip about public service in Nigeria while attacking Ige. He said: “The PDP wanted Bola Ige to come and eat. I don’t believe we have done something wrong to warrant such insults from him. Although President Obasanjo is not bothered, we have to tell him (Ige) to stop insulting us.” Ige of course shot back that he was invited to government to serve, wondering what Afolabi was ‘eating’ in his own ministry.  

Meanwhile, as it is with the federal government, so it is in the states. In Osun State for instance, Governor Ademola Adeleke is currently being accused of appointing into his cabinet a nephew who graduated from the family’s (Adeleke) University just two years ago—“a boy who has never worked before who goes about in dreadlock to direct the affairs of our Osun State local government service commission.” I don’t know what crime the governor has committed by offering a big job (and plenty of ‘food’) for his young and inexperienced nephew. 

Of course, what concerns the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is that the list of commissioners contains seven Muslims and 17 Christians. “We condemn this wanton blockage of privileges that should go to Muslims and their diversion to over-pampered and over-fed Christians in Osun State,” an angry MURIC Executive Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, wrote in his statement. “By deceiving Muslims in the state and engaging in spiritual hide and seek, Governor Adeleke has exhibited qualities odoriferously short in honour and dignity but egregiously long in infamy and bohemianism.” 

Stripped of all the ‘odoriferously bohemianism’, what Akintola is telling us is that you cannot allow some to be ‘over-fed’ from public treasuries while encouraging ‘blockage of privileges’ for others. Unfortunately, it is this misunderstanding of public service that accounts for the state of our nation today. The challenge of leadership in Nigeria is also based on this warped notion that being elected or appointed to public office is simply to find ‘something to eat’. The misallocation of scarce resources that follows most of these appointments can then be easily explained by the same logic. When in April 2020 former Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State approved the appointment of 427 additional aides to join more than a thousand special assistants already working for him, this was the explanation from his spokesman, Christian Ita: “The governor has said repeatedly that he only needs about five per cent of his appointees. So, he deliberately creates these jobs to put food on the table so as to reduce social tension.” 

But we should not blame Ayade for using public offices to ‘put food on the table’ for cronies. That is the philosophical underpinning for government in Nigeria.  Which is why it is always about ‘sharing the national cake’, and not baking it. Leo Tolstoy’s ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’, Chinua Achebe’s‘No Longer at Ease’ and George Orwell’s classic, ‘Shooting an Elephant’, are popular literature in Aspen Institute Leadership classes. They are also standard readings in the seminar series of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) founded in 2006 by Aganga. While the first is used to interrogate the place of greed in the public arena, the other two speak to public expectation and the kind of pressure elected and appointed officials face, especially in an environment like ours. I have interrogated this issue before and will come back to it in future. But for now, all eyes are on the Villa and the Senate. 

After weeks and months of waiting, ‘The List’ will finally be out today. And we are going to witness congratulatory messages for these eminent Nigerians. Yet, it is trite to say that our country is today going through one of the most difficult periods in our history. And if only for that reason, I hope the men and women who make ‘The List’ for the next federal executive council will be those who will contribute ideas to improve the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people and influence social change. God save us from the perpetually ‘hungry’ characters who are always looking for what to ‘eat’! 

The Emefiele Lesson 

There is a scene in ‘The Queen’, a multiple award winning 2006 British film starring Helen Mirren, that I love so much. The fictional account of the drama at Buckingham palace, following the death of Princess Diana, is a lesson for all power handlers. While Queen Elizabeth II (now of blessed memory) saw Diana’s death as a private family affair, then newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair exploited the situation by reflecting the public’s wish for an official expression of grief. This instantly earned Blair public acclamation while the Queen became so unpopular that many were even calling for the abrogation of the monarchy.  

In the instructive dialogue from the encounter (as depicted in the film), the Queen had asked Blair, “You don’t think that the affection people once had for me, for this institution, has been diminished?” The PM replied, “No, not at all. You are more respected now than ever.” Apparently fishing for information, the Queen then said, “I gather some of your closest advisers were less fulsome in their support.” To this, Blair replied, “One or two but as a leader, I could never have added my voice to that chorus.” The Queen was unrelenting: “Because you saw all those headlines and you thought: ‘One day this might happen to me’…” Before the PM could respond, the Queen added, “…and it will, Mr. Blair; quite suddenly and without warning.” 

The message speaks to the transient nature of power and how fortunes can change. But that is a lesson those who hold the levers of power in Nigeria never seem to learn. They believe they are invincible until they lose out in the power game. In an untidy bid to rearrest the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, after he had been granted bail by the Federal High Court on Tuesday, hooded operatives of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) engaged officials of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) in a physical scuffle. They pushed and dragged the NCoS squadron commander out of the courtroom, molesting him in the process. In the sordid drama that played out in an open court, it was almost as if Emefiele was a merchandise. This clear abuse of power is being orchestrated by some who believe they are now above the law. And that what they are doing to Emefiele can never happen to them. They must be poor students of history.

Just about six months ago, Emefiele himself defied the Supreme Court ruling that the deadline for exchanging old banknotes for the so-called redesigned notes be extended. Emefiele considered himself to be above the law at a time many Nigerians were suffering from his Naira confiscation policy. Today, the emperor is naked. But as I wrote in my column last week, we must see beyond the person of Emefiele on this matter if we are to build a society governed by law and order. What is happening to the suspended CBN Governor is neither right nor defensible, whatever may be our feelings about him. 

Under democracy and the rule of law, as I pointed out last week, accused persons are presumed innocent until evidence is adduced in a court of law to secure conviction. Revenge, as I also stated, is not the same thing as justice and state institutions should not be used for such perversion. The lesson is simple, when the most fundamental element and requirement of a civilized society, the rule of law, is trampled upon, we all have no defence against tyranny.  

Since democracy is built on the principle of rule of law, no agency of government (or their heads) should be allowed to take the law into their hands on any issue. Besides, when those who ordinarily should enforce the law begin to treat court orders with impunity, anarchy is not too far away. I hope President Tinubu and his handlers can see beyond the person of Emefiele to the danger posed to the larger society by their contempt for a court order. 

The Enugu State Government has reacted to Wednesday’s protest by traders of the popular Ogbete Main Market, saying they “defied the instruction on how the shops should be re-opened and resorted to self-help by removing the seals”.

The state government’s reaction to the protest which halted commercial activities in the capital city was contained in a statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Chidiebere Onyia.

Channels Television reported that at least two were reportedly killed as traders protested the sealing off of their shops by the state government for observing the illegal Monday sit-at-home order by a faction of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

According to the government, the ensuing confrontation resulted in a protest, which they said was infiltrated and hijacked by “dangerously armed hoodlums and miscreants, who broke shops and looted traders’ wares.”

It added that attempts by security operatives to restore order and prevent further looting were violently resisted by “the imported and armed hoodlums.”A video grab showing an officer of the Enugu State Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) sealing a shop on Monday, July 24, 2023 in line with the government’s clampdown on the IPOB sit-at-home order in Enugu State.

The state government also said that it is receiving further briefings on the development, adding that investigation to unravel the circumstance surrounding the incident, including the reports of casualty, is already ongoing.

It called on the people and residents of Enugu to remain calm and go about their lawful businesses, as adequate security measures were in place to secure lives and property in the state.

The state government had earlier warned that it would seal off shops of those who refuse to open business on Monday in the name of sit-at-home.

In protest, traders whose business premises were sealed trooped out on Wednesday to express their displeasure over the development.

It resulted in a clash with the police who came out to disperse them from the streets.

[Channels TV]