The politics of democratic transition is hardly ever a beauty pageant. Oftentimes, the dazzling brilliance of campaign media displays conceal an underlying ugliness in the substance of what is on offer. It is all an ancient marketing gimmick in which the public is sold the new messiah as the product of an immaculate conception. The woman or woman to save society is packaged as a new brand of detergent, toot paste or antacid to ease our current discomfort.

Ultimately, when the campaign is over and the frenzy of marketing ends, the elegant Photo Shopped images of the contestants on campaign billboards  and Instagram posts end up in the trash. The ‘’fine boys” and “sharp girls” that street people would have liked to see as winners end up being scrubbed off the walls of public places. More often than not, the most morally attractive and physically appealing people hardly win democratic elections. Morally ugly and physically unkempt people emerge from behind the screen of marketing and campaign make-up.

In parts of the Third World especially Africa, elections into high political office are mostly a contest among the rough hewn and  jagged operators of the power system. It is often the jugglers of multi- dimensional crookedness or at best the princes of the hegemonic deep state that get rewarded with the prime seat at the high table of power. Other power aspirants merely crawl around the high table in concentric circles of relative power access dictated by proximity to the master. African democracy is mostly a referendum to choose the most decorated fox.

So, as tribunals and sundry courts deliberate on an avalanche of petitions arising from Nigeria’s last general elections, public response to the outcome of the elections has shifted to matters of the morality of those who won. Some people are lamenting the emergence of persons of doubtful integrity as the imminent leaders. Others are regretting the emergence of persons of less than papal  purity as leaders of the next government. That is not totally true. After all, in Benue, the long suffering citizens have elected a serving Reverend gentleman as the next governor. Nonetheless, there is now a residual excessive moral emphasis on  the imminent leadership of our republic.

The social media is perhaps the prime purveyor of the emergent moral crusade. All available platforms are awash with moral valuations of the major figures that the elections have produced especially at the presidential level. I personally do not like the unprintable things that people have been posting in the social media about the major figures of the incoming administration.

Mr. Dino Melaye as spokesperson of the campaign organization of Mr. Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) literally set the tone in the immediate aftermath of the elections. He was bitter, sounding more like a nattering co-wife. He called the President-elect all manner of uncomplimentary names that have to do with the assumed murky origins of the man’s humongous wealth and fortune. Similarly, he characterized the Vice President- elect, Mr Kassim Shettima, in unedifying epithets that make him look like a world famous Al Queda villain. In fairness to his myriad critics, Mr. Shettima did not quite help himself when he went to represent Mr. Tinubu wearing that over-sized musty grey suit complete with a knee length tie and a bad pair of workout shoes! The comic essence of his outfit on that occasion was probably lost on his bespoke audience!

In more recent times, the power game has shifted to the leadership of the incoming National Assembly. There again, the front runners Mr. Akpabio and Orji Kalu, both senators,  have been cast in not very attractive moral portraits. Some social media cranks have argued that when coupled with the incoming first two citizens, the three foremost citizens would look like a triumvirate assembled from Columbia, Afghanistan and clans of old Sicily.

The social media and widespread Pentecostalism are largely to blame for the confusion of values. Judgments and value assessments about people thrust onto high places are being made by both street urchins on social media and all manner of religious zealots. The other powerful set of moral arbiters of the new power people are the new crop of religious fanatics being spewed by the thriving national industry of Pentecostal pastors and congregants of sundry churches. Along with them are sundry free lance moral crusaders in mosques whose targets are everything secular. Consequently, conversations about the appropriateness of our democratic choices of personnel  are failing to address the pragmatic political and governance challenges that now face us. I would contend that the excessive emphasis on the moral credentials of our new leaders is fatally misplaced and wrong headed. People are mixing up things that do not work together or necessarily add up.

Politics and ethics do not work well together. It is often said that politics is an amoral undertaking. No one knows whether it is a profession, an occupation, a hobby, a game or a business. But one thing is clear: the normal parameters of any known professional ethics and moral code have no place in the political enterprise. The story is often told and re-told of the old Ibadan dark political genius who used to insist on a screening interview for apprentice politicians who sought his assistance or want to sign on to him for tutelage. The first entry qualification interview used to consist of a set of related questions: “ Can you tell lies without batting an eye lid?” “Can you see what everybody says is white and swear an oath before the most powerful gods that it is actually black?”  “Can you kill your opponent to clear your way to power?” “Can you betray your mother if it becomes necessary?” “Can you swear and stand by a lie on oath with any of the Holy books?” Applicants who score the highest affirmative marks at this screening interview sessions end up as the next set of successful politicians!

Secondly, power and morality are strange bedfellows. The old Machiavellian dictum is a classic of this school of power politics: the end justifies the meanness. On your way to power, it does not matter whose ox is butchered and converted into ‘suya’ to energize the race. The key objective is to get there. Power has its own driving morality. What is right is what takes the power seeker to the place of power. All else is a distraction. The preachments of a thousand pastors and bishops amount to nothing. Power defines and decorates its own saints. It does not matter what you call a man of power on his way to the summit. When he gets there, he will re-christen himself in the most glowing and saintly epithets. He will pile up all the accolades that the best of men desire and dream about and heap them on himself.

More importantly, the criteria for the selection of those who must contest elections to our highest  political offices are guided by existing legislation and procedures. The current Electoral Law in its most current version reserves the screening of party candidates for elections for the political parties. Each candidate is deemed an ambassador of his/her party. Only the party can decide who to present to INEC as the candidate for an election. Once that decision is made, no other body can contest or invalidate the choice. Not the police even if the person has been arrested a thousand times for sundry crimes. Not the security services even if the candidate has endangered the state in words or deeds in the past without being convicted by a court of appropriate jurisdiction. Even the law courts have their hands tied because the Electoral Law happens to be the law that guides and guards all election matters. Therefore social morality as protected by law enforcement, the judiciary or state security have no meaning in matters of determining who seeks or ascends to power in our polity.

 There is therefore a conspiracy of factors that insulate  those who contest for and emerge from our elections from the normal run of moral and ethical scrutiny that would ordinarily bar common criminals and other miscreants from aspiring to high public office in other climes. In other places, even ordinary traffic infractions, drunk driving, an unwarranted wink at a damsel or falsification of a birth certificate can deny you clearance to run for a county election let alone a presidential contest.

Even in situations  where clearance for electoral contest follow reasonable scrutiny, democracies have a way of returning outcomes that may not showcase the best that a society has to offer. The offspring of even the best democracies can be decidedly ugly and unattractive. American democracy in the 20th and 21st centuries was believed to have graduated to an exceptional  meritocracy in which only the best candidates in each party can hope to be cleared to contest for the presidency. Additional merits are accorded to moral credentials, quality of knowledge of national and world affairs as demonstrated in open media debates and speaking engagements. Yet in the 2016 presidential contest, a nasty Donald defeated a relatively decent and brilliant Hillary Clinton to become president. Trump merely honed his ability to mouth gutter clichés, to abuse and mock opponents and to trivialize serious national and global issues. He abused and cursed his way into the White House and used the same antics to hang in there for four years.

This anomaly in democratic outcomes is worse in illiberal democracies. Check Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Syria and the Philippines under Duterte. The reality of the illogic of democracy is that the electoral outcome is the product of a popular mandate delivered at the ballot by an irrational mob. On election day, I step out to go and cast my vote just as my security guard, steward or janitor is on their way there as well. The egalitarian end of democracy overwhelms enlightened votes with irrational inputs.

More often than not, the outcomes that make the elite unhappy  are the result of so many non -rational variables that may not have anything to do with common sense or enlightened  moral considerations. It is very often  dominated by simple bread and butter or pocket book issues. But at least a credible democratic system ought to emplace sufficient guardrails on the way to critical power contests to protect the society against the emergence of proven criminals.

But the bottom line remains that cannot limit individual access to power with rules outside what our enabling laws allow. To that extent, all those who have emerged as a result of the February and March presidential and governorship elections are qualified by law to wear their new toga. Roadside reservations about their moral credentials are neither here nor there. The challenge of ensuring an appropriate moral context for public office is to change the enabling law that determines who qualifies to run for crucial public office. Such a revised electoral law should have roles for the police and the national security apparatus.

In the aftermath of the 2023 elections therefore and as we await the swearing in of the new governments, what becomes of utmost importance is the performance of those elected to the various offices. Equally important is the moral conduct of those newly elected after being sworn in. Technical qualification to contest these elections does not however confer immunity from moral censure on the office holders once they are sworn in. Their present and past actions remain subject to scrutiny and investigation throughout their tenure in office and perhaps afterwards. It is only in their incumbent positions that they can be held accountable as moral examples for the society.

However, the imperative of maintaining the moral leadership is not diminished by the laxity in the electoral selection process. Big camels may slip through the needle’s eye of party qualification to contest. But once elected and sworn in, rulers are held morally accountable by the strength of the institutions of state. The police, the anti corruption agencies, national security agencies ,the judiciary and the mechanism of public book keeping must remain the gaurrails of accountability of the political leadership.

When democracy births illegitimate offspring, the same electorate that enthroned the ugliness waits to judge the moral compass and competence of the new power wielders. If the electorate fails to bring its will to bear on those who rule, the only recourse for society is the strength of the institutions of state. There lies the beauty and contradiction of the democratic state.   

Tunde Obadina (where is he?) was one of the columnists of yore that I relished reading, both for his flair and bluntness. I think he was of the National Concord stable. Others were the likes of Lewis Obi and Sina Adedipe (both also of the Concord); Sonala Olumhense of The Guardian, Muyiwa Adetiba of The PUNCH (published here last week)and, of course, Kayode Samuel of the Vanguard. I have not stopped wondering why Kay stopped maintaining a column – and I have told him so. The riposte he fires regularly on Facebook does not, in my view, compensate for the great loss his absence from serious opinion writing has meant to many. Today, I bring readers one of Obadina’s writings that I ferreted out of my library last week. Titled “Reaping what you sow”, it speaks to our situation today as it did decades ago when it was first written. Enjoy it:

“No wonder the Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, burst into a dance at the NPN rally in Mapo Hall, Ibadan, Oyo State last week. This uncharacteristic public display by the nation’s number two was brought on by the declaration of Chief Sunday Afolabi and Alhaji (Busari) Adelakun for the NPN. The party’s National Chairman, Chief Adisa Akinloye, whom Chief Obafemi Awolowo two years ago had dared to show his face in Mapo Hall, was also there dancing in jubilation. “Let Akinloye go to Ibadan”, said Awo in November 1980, “convene a meeting at Mapo and tell everybody to come and hear him talk of rig the election; he wouldn’t be able to speak at the meeting”.

Akinloye, Akinjide and a host of top NPN members were in Mapo Hall not to accuse the UPN of election rigging but to lay claim to Oyo State for this year’s election. When the UPN leader mocked Akinloye and Akinjide for losing their deposits in the 1979 elections in Ibadan, he was not to know that a couple of years later that these men and the NPN would be embracing two of his top party stalwarts in front of a sea of supporters in Mapo Hall. At least one member of the NPN has been so affected by the success of his party in poaching within the UPN top hierarchy that he suggested that even Chief Awolowo should think seriously and join the NPN. “The NPN”, said Chief Lekan Salami, a NPN leader in Oyo State, “is the only party where Awolowo could achieve his life-long ambition of being president of Nigeria”

Salami is confident that given the NPN’s structure, a Yoruba candidate will be president in 1987. “All we need to do at our end is to announce an ideal candidate and I personally would support Chief Awolowo as the person but for his political approach… if Awo joined hands with his fellow Yoruba in the NPN and signifies his intention to run the race, there is just nobody among all the Yoruba politicians who could challenge him; all of us would be naturally bound to rally around his success and leadership” said Chief Salami.

With the apparent failure of the PPA (Progressive Parties Alliance) to shape a common front, it is not impossible that Awolowo might consider the option offered by Salami! The idea seems absurd but the wonders of Nigerian politics cease to amaze me. Chief Akin Omoboriowo, the former Deputy Governor of Ondo State who recently joined the NPN, predicted nine months ago that if the 1983 elections were free and fair and the Progressives won, Nigeria would experience rapid social and economic development. “If Nigerians voted in favour of the Progressives, Nigeria would have crossed the watershed from decadence and stagnation to progress and virility”, said the erstwhile UPN leading member. Are we now reading NPN for progressives? What has happened within the space of the past eight months to warrant a redefinition of “progressive”, that is, apart from Omoboriowo’s failure to get the UPN gubernatorial nomination for Ondo State? Chief Ornoboriowo said in Bendel in March, 1981 “while the UPN is working hard to improve the lots of the common man, other political parties are busy playing the politics of money” The question is; has the former deputy governor lately realised that the Unity Party had stopped elevating the common man or has he by his decision to embrace the NPN joined “the politics of money”?

Chief Sunday Afolabi’s explanation for his disaffection with the UPN probably holds true for his fellow decampees:”What happened can be likened to the story of a group of farmers who cultivated a vegetable farm”, Afolabi told supporters in Mapo Hall. “They laboured and invested their resources individually and severally to ensure that the farm flourished and excelled (over and above) other competing farms. Some of the farmers put all the manure they had, diverted all the water they had to the farm to provide food for the vegetables with little bother about the fate of the fruits of the farm. The vegetables grew, blossomed and brought forth an abundance of harvest. A disagreement arose when the harvest was ripe but those men who had been put incharge of the farm, wanting to exclude other farmers from the harvest, used all their weapons to ensure a monopoly of the harvests to the utter amazement of onlookers”.

This is Afolabi’s story of the Oyo State branch of the UPN and the primary elections in which he and Adelakun failed to clinch their party’s gubernatorial nomination. Afolabi’s parable raises a fundamental question. Were the vegetables for the consumption of the farmers who had invested their resources towards the harvest; or were they for the hungry masses whom the farmers had promised to provide food? One should be forgiven for thinking that it is the former. This conforms with the general trend of Nigeria politics. People enter politics and make contributions to the development of the party as a private investment, the yields of which are for private consumption. The lofty aim of improving the lot of the common man is merely cosmetic, beneath which is a cynical ugly face of self-aggrandisement.

Politics, ill understood, has been defined, wrote Isaac D’lsraeli, as “the art of governing mankind by deceiving them” How else should politics be understood? Certainly in Nigeria, since political independence, politics has not so much been the art – since art presupposes a measure of imagination and finesse – rather, politics has been the crude practice of governing the people by deceiving them. Is it not, for instance, within the context of the privatization of politics that the recent statement by the Chief Whip in the Kaduna State House (of Assembly) that people who did not contribute anything to the NPN during the 1979 elections are those now enjoying the fruits of the party should be understood?

The concern seems to be that if a man contributes to the electoral fortunes of his party, almost always by giving money, he should automatically be entitled to some of the fruits of victory, which means government posts and inflated contracts. Like a businessman whose rationale for investing money in a particular economic activity is the monetary profits accruing from his initial input, the politician invests time and money into gaining constitutional power for the supreme purpose of the material or and social psychological benefits which come with power. In other words, politics is viewed as a vehicle to either multiply your wealth or to be uplifted one step nearer God as the all powerful!

It is this conception of politics that makes our political system ineffectual in dealing with the economic and social problems confronting society. Issues and programmes are in reality irrelevancies, part of the facade that politicians must indulge in to portray a semblance of democracy in action. It is this individualization of power that has contributed to putting the PPA in coma, perhaps, to be revived after the elections. What primarily binds its component parts is the imperative to defeat the NPN but the individual quest for power presents an insurmountable obstacle to unity. If there was a strong commitment to social change, the issues of who will be presidential candidate or trust within the alliance would not pose such a problem.

It is equally this individual conception of power that makes the NPN potentially a formidable party. Power breeds power, not only because the incumbent party has control of the machinery of elections but also because they have -power in hand, they exist as a magnet drawing in politicians whose prime concern is to back a winner. Perhaps, President (Shehu) Shagari understood the dynamics of the sinews of the NPN when he told opponents, “if you can’t beat us, join us”! It should not surprise us that if the NPN wins the elections this year, subsequent years will witness a flood of decampees to the party.

Perhaps, here lies the real basis for the fear that we are heading for a constitutional form of dictatorship”

Tell me, has anything changed in the politics of Nigeria or in the comportment and understanding of our politicians? Obadina’s piece must have been written before the election of 1983, during the Second Republic and here we are in the Fourth Republic 40 years after! What has changed? What have we learnt? Absolutely nothing! Where, then, do we go from here?

When leaders disrespect the people…

We have been told, with glee, that our outgoing President, retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, will be spending an extra week in London to see his dentists. I am sure they expect us to clap for them or praise them for that! Be sure they will list that disclosure as one of Buhari’s achievements in office! Thank God for His mercies! I am sure you still remember there was a time they never told us anything about the president’s medical tourism, which the presidential spin doctors kept as State secret! It was treason and felony rolled into one for anyone to demand to know what aileth the president, how much of State money he has gulped treating himself at our expense abroad and why he has failed to provide quality hospitals here at home. Buhari is junketing everywhere in his last few days remaining, mopping up this and lapping up that. No problems! Everything that has a beginning surely must have an end. And an end is surely coming for Buhari’s clueless and incompetent administration. Can you imagine that he is still borrowing money right, left and centre? It is like he is intentionally trying to provoke us, shoving it down our throat and throwing it right in our face! Is it that there are no dentists in Nigeria or that there are no dental clinics? They ruin medicare here, fly abroad to enjoy the best of medical facilities and then flaunt it for us to see! Such insensitivity and callousness! I feel ashamed of our leaders!

Is Nigerian politics getting better? Are Nigerian politicians getting more mature and politically savvy as we move from one phase to the other in democratisation and nation-building? From my balcony, I have been observing quietly the mini-crisis that has broken out in the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the sharing of positions in the 10th National Assembly. With the offices of president and vice-president already settled via the ballot in the general election, we are left with the parliamentary leadership positions which are not usually as simple as the presidency because of the complicated factors that are always at play. Still, I am left to wonder how tone-deaf many of our politicians can be.

I agreed that Nigeria, being multi-religious and multi-ethnic, will often be caught in a web of intrigues on how to share political offices in such a way that will accommodate as many interests as possible, particularly the major ones. There will always be multiple and conflicting interests at play and we cannot avoid the fierce contestation for now. There is the regional interest: northern and southern. There is the religious one: Muslim and Christian. There is the ethnic: the Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba being the ones on which the “tripod” of Nigeria was founded. Then, there are the ethnic and religious minorities across regions and geo-political zones, some of which are fluid or subsumed.

But as atomisation goes, the more you divide, the more you magnify the latent differences. If you divide the north, you will see the Muslim majority and the Christian minorities. If you divide further, you will see north-west, north-east and north-central. Because religion is the biggest identifier in the north, it really does not matter if you are a Muslim Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, or of any other ethnic group when it comes to sharing national positions. It begins to matter only if the competition for the national position is internal. You will then start hearing about what northern geo-political zone should get it.  The northern Christian minorities are, understandably, a distinct group as well.

In the south, ethnicity — and not religion — is the major marker. The tussle is traditionally between the Igbo and the Yoruba, the two biggest ethnic groups. When Yorubas get something at the national level, it is most likely at the expense of Igbos, except it is shared on the basis of geo-political zones. It also means when Igbos get it, Yoruba will be left out. But over the years, the southern minorities have also asserted themselves on the account of the oil wealth which is produced in their land. If you divide the south-west, where the Yoruba are in the majority, you will find religious interests somewhere, notably in the last few decades. It never used to be so but things have changed.

By and large, it is practically impossible to please every interest at the same time. Some will have to settle for the short end of the stick per time. If you achieve religious balancing, you may upset regional setup. If you please regional interests, you may be unable to sort out zonal complications. All these are political interests — and as political beings, we will always discover that something has to give at every point. Meanwhile, we are not even discussing gender interests or social inclusion in a society where you are automatically disadvantaged because you are a woman or because you are living with one disability or the other. It takes a conscious effort to build an all-inclusive society.

At the dawn of this democracy in 1999, we achieved political balancing almost flawlessly. President Olusegun Obasanjo was a Christian and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar a Muslim. That is religious balancing. Obasanjo was a southerner and Atiku a northerner. That was regional balancing. The No 1 position went to a Yoruba, No 2 to a Fulani and No 3 to an Igbo. That was the tripodal interest well satisfied. The No 4 position went to the north-west, meaning the biggest zone got a fair deal. The No 6 position — the deputy senate presidency — went to the north-central, but not to a Christian, as would be expected, since the senate president was a Christian too. Southern minorities got No 7.

This arrangement, which now looks like the golden era for political accommodation in Nigeria, lasted for eight years. Although it didn’t solve all our political problems, or end agitations, or turn Nigeria into a developed country, there was some emotional satisfaction that came with balancing the national power metrics. When you compare 1999-2007 with what we have today and what we are likely to have with the imminent inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it would appear we are now living in a different country entirely. Some of our political leaders have been carrying on as if the aspirations and expectations of some parts of the country should be brazenly discarded and ignored.

I admit that some of the developments that have upset the political arrangement were not pre-planned. It was inadvertent in 2007, for instance. Naturally, presidency would go to the north and vice-presidency to the south, which was what happened. However, a leg of the tripod was replaced with another, as the Igbo gave way to the south-south in the choice of vice-presidential candidate. The south-south had become a political force with the campaign for resource control by the Niger Delta militants. While one problem was solved, another was created. The Igbo lost their place in the top three — relegated, as it were, to No 6 for eight years before falling out completely since 2019.

From 2007 to 2010, under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the Christian north — a major bloc since Independence — claimed No 3. Yorubas settled for No 4, having been No 1 for eight years. South-east got No 6 (deputy senate president) while the north-east got No 7 (deputy speaker). Although Igbos would have preferred a higher position since Yorubas, their fierce rivals, had held the No 1 spot too, No 6 was still better than nothing. Yar’Adua’s death in 2010 disrupted the system and we are yet to recover from that. Dr Goodluck Jonathan, his deputy from the south-south, took over and sent the entire metrics into a spin. What appeared to be an emerging power arrangement was torpedoed.

But some of the disruptions were engineered as well. When Jonathan was elected in 2011, the zoning arrangement was recalibrated. The north, specifically the north-west, got the No 2 and the north-central retained No 3. Though an Ogbia minority from Bayelsa, Jonathan had played up his “Azikiwe” name and appointed an Igbo general as chief of army staff — the first since before the Civil War — as soon as he got power in 2010. The south-east embraced him. The core north rejected him because of the short span of Yar’Adua’s tenure. Jonathan had been asked to not run so that the north could finish its eight years, although that was complicated because of a lack of legal guarantees.

The Jonathan era witnessed a bastardisation of the power arrangement. The speakership that was zoned to the south-west was usurped by Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal who plotted a coup with PDP renegades and Tinubu’s Action Congress (now part of APC). Hon Emeka Ihedioha, from the south-east, became his deputy. The vice-president and the speaker, No 2 and No 4 respectively, were now both from the north-west. Effectively, the Yoruba were completely out of the topmost national power arrangement for four years. Jonathan and the PDP were accused of having marginalised the Yoruba even though it was clear to all that it was Tambuwal that was pursuing a selfish agenda.

The disruption continued under President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. The senate president came from the north-central and the speaker from north-east, meaning the No 1, No 3 and No 4 positions were all in the north. Ironically, this settled some questions. One, the senate president was a Muslim from the north-central. Even though he has Fulani roots, he was socialised as a Yoruba. The speaker was a Christian from the north-east. This went against the norm of picking Christians from the north-central and Muslims from the north-east for legislative positions. It gave the northern minorities a sense of belonging again as it was under Sir Ahmadu Bello, the former premier of the north.

Buhari’s second term witnessed another upset of the system. The senate president and speaker in his first term were not his choices in any case, and they were adequately curtailed and not allowed to retain their positions. We now had the No 1 and No 3 from the north and No 2 and No 4 from the south-west. There was no room at the Inn for the south-east. Muslims headed both chambers of the National Assembly. In fact, the speaker and his deputy were both Muslims. This was in absolute contrast to where we started from in 1999. The APC under Buhari did not make any conscious effort to balance the power metrics in a way to assuage feelings of marginalisation and exclusion.

But if we think the Buhari era was a departure from the norm, it appears things may even go farther under Tinubu. With No 1 and No 2 Muslims, I would expect No 3 and No 4 to be Christians as we seek to heal national wounds so that we can focus on the serious tasks of national development ahead. But I was naïve. Senator Barau Jibrin, from the north-west, soon declared his intention to be senate president (he was later persuaded to settle for deputy). Hon Idris Wase (north-central) and Hon Ahmed Betera (north-east) also declared for speakership. That would have meant Muslims holding No 1, No 2, No 3 and No 4. And the No 5, the Chief of Justice of Nigeria, is also a Muslim.

While I agree that we have to outgrow regional and religious balancing at some point, I don’t think we have reached that stage yet — after 24 years of democracy. More importantly, though, inclusion must not be limited to region and religion alone. We need to accommodate gender, age and disability considerations. Women are about half of the population but they occupy less than 5 percent of elected positions. Nigerians below 35 years constitute about 75 percent of the population. How much space do we give them in political offices? There are 30 million Nigerians living with disabilities. Do they matter in our political calculations? We have a very long way to go in diversity management.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

ABN REINCARNATED

When the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) went to court in 1993 to stop the June 12 presidential election, we laughed it off. It was an inconsequential association, we said, especially as the law under which the election was conducted ousted the jurisdiction of courts. We all know what happened next. Well, five people calling themselves “FCT residents” have gone to court to stop the inauguration of a new president. They are also asking for President Buhari’s tenure to be extended. The “25%” case is already before the election tribunal at a higher court and, ordinarily, no judge should entertain it. I smell a rat but I believe the process will ultimately take care of itself. Mischief.

GOING WELL

Ahead of the inauguration of a new administration, President Buhari and his wife have moved into the Glass House, a transitional home at the presidential villa for outgoing presidents and their spouses. I think we need to be thankful that democratic rule has endured in Nigeria despite all the challenges. At least, we are assured that presidents will come and go at predictable intervals after President Obasanjo failed to sneak third term into the constitution in 2007. In many African countries, they are stuck with one president for decades, mostly after the laws have been amended midway for selfish reasons. It took us long to get here but we are not doing badly. Progress.

FINE LINE

On Wednesday, Justice James Omotosho of a federal high court sitting in Abuja restrained the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from imposing fines on broadcast organisations. He also set aside the previous fines imposed on 45 stations by the NBC. The judge said the commission does not have “judicial powers” to impose fines, ruling that its action was “against the doctrine of separation of powers”. In its response, NBC hinted it would file an appeal after studying the judgment. If NBC appeals and the judgment is upheld, it would have far-reaching implications for other regulators and the power to impose fines. It would also be a major deviation from global practices. Remarkable.

NYSC AT 50

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was set up in 1973 as part of post-civil war efforts to foster national integration. Corps members are usually posted to parts of the country other than where they are come from. Many have questioned if the scheme has not outlived its usefulness. I would not say it has. But the time has come to take a comprehensive look at its enabling law so that we can finetune it in line with contemporary realities. There is a para military training whose value I honestly don’t know. I also don’t know if it must be headed by a military officer. For national service to be more productive and attractive, we need to make far-reaching modifications to the NYSC. Change.

The transparency and speed with which the United Kingdom court tried and convicted the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, alongside his wife, Beatrice, and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, is a lesson for the Nigerian judiciary, which operates an administration of criminal justice system skewed towards protecting the high and mighty, and punishing the poor.

The swift conviction of the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; his wife, Beatrice and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, by a United Kingdom court, less than one year after they were arrested in London for attempting to harvest a human organ has exposed the mischief of the Nigerian judiciary in the administration of criminal justice system.

On June 2022 Ekweremadu and his wife, alongside the doctor were arrested by the UK Metropolitan Police for attempting to convince doctors at the Royal Free Hospital to perform an £80,000 transplant on a 21-year-old street trader, David Nwamini, who was presented as the cousin of Ekweremadu’s daughter, Sonia. Despite their social status, Ekweremadu and his wife were promptly remanded in custody after they were arraigned and denied bail by Uxbridge Magistrate Court, which adjourned the matter till July 7, 2022, for hearing.

Barely eleven months later, the court sentenced the former Deputy Senate President to a total of nine years and eight months imprisonment, while his wife, Beatrice, was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment. The third accomplice, a medical doctor, Obeta, was jailed for 10 years.

Their earlier conviction in March 2023 was the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act in the UK.

The court heard that the young man was said to have been offered an illegal reward of £7,000 to become a donor for Sonia after a kidney disease forced her to drop out of a Master’s degree in Film at Newcastle University.

Ekweremadu had denied offering money to the prospective kidney donor to save his sick daughter. His wife also denied involvement in the search for an organ donor for their ailing daughter.

The sentencing came after pleas from multiple prominent personalities and institutions, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The transparency, smoothness and speed with which the UK authorities conducted the trial showed the effectiveness of their administration of the criminal justice system. In convicting Ekweremadu, Justice Johnson did not consider how high his status was in Nigeria.

Not even the intervention of eminent persons and groups could save him.

To many Nigerians, there are a lot of lessons to be learnt in the conviction of the embattled deputy senate president, his wife and Obeta. In their views, the same offence for which they were convicted in the UK is a regular occurrence in Nigeria.

They said that if the same offence was committed in Nigeria, not only would the trial drag at snail speed for 10 years or more until Nigerians forget about it, there is a possibility that nothing would have happened to them.

In Nigeria, when suspects, especially the rich and mighty are arrested and arraigned, not only will the case drag on for years until it is forgotten in courts, but it would be struck out for lack of diligent prosecution which is deliberately caused by compromised prosecutors.

What it takes for the rich and powerful to evade justice in Nigeria is to hire good senior lawyers who know how to use ‘smart’ arguments and objections to deliberately waste the time of the courts and frustrate the judges.

Some of these senior lawyers are also notorious for bribing corrupt judges to circumvent justice.

Though there is no dearth of laws in the country, what many believe are also lacking are diligent prosecution and the political will to move against the powerful and influential people who contravene the law.

While in most developed countries, the high and mighty are prosecuted and appropriately convicted and sentenced to prison, the same cannot be said of Nigeria where the rich and famous frequently compromise the law enforcement officers and the judiciary to evade arrest, prosecution and conviction.

Though Ekweremadu and his wife were denied bail in the UK, influential people like them who commit more heinous crimes in Nigeria, including murder, manslaughter and those who stole public funds, or commit other financial crimes are granted bail and allowed to walk the streets freely when they are supposed to be behind bars.

Many Nigerians are aware that it was in order to enhance the justice sector delivery system to impact the quality of justice and avoid delays in the adjudicatory process in the country that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act was signed into law in 2015.

But eight years after, there has not been any improvement in the country’s criminal justice system, especially when the rich is involved.

While the poor languish in prison without trial for minor offences, the rich who commit grievous crimes were either given a slap on the wrist or granted bail to enjoy their freedom.

It is only Nigeria that the court will put the rich behind bars, and a superior court will grant him bail or acquit him totally.

This is why many feel that if Ekweremadu’s case had taken place in the country, the case would have remained in court indefinitely, without any conviction of the accused persons.

This calls to question the faulty administration of criminal justice system in Nigeria by dubious law enforcement officers, corrupt senior lawyers and compromised judges.

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana had since identified this flaw, when he raised the alarm that Nigeria operates a double criminal justice system – one for the rich and one for the poor.

In a paper titled: ‘The Danger of Unequal Criminal Justice System in Nigeria,’ which he presented recently at the Law Week of the Epe Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos, Falana argued that apart from two former governors namely, Messrs Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and Jolly Nyame of Taraba State, the list of persons convicted for corruption was made of lowly placed individuals in the society, adding that owing to abuse of court process, rich defendants have continued to frustrate their prosecution with the connivance of some senior lawyers.

According to Falana, “By virtue of section 17 (2) (a) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law.

“But in practice, the rich and poor defendants are not treated equally by Nigerian courts. Apart from the fact that rich litigants have the means to hire the services of the best lawyers in any area of the law, the courts are manned by judges who are not neutral in the class struggle being waged daily by the Nigerian people.”

The world will continue to mock the Nigerian judiciary and their compromised judgments until judges start delivering, fair, just and transparent judgments speedily and treat all Nigerians equally, irrespective of class.

When Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 29^th of May 2023 he will have his work cut out for him: not only will he be inheriting a morally and financially bankrupt nation questions will, continually, be asked about his checkered past and his ability to run the country.

How old is he really? What are his true educational qualifications? Does he really have dual-nationality? What’s the true source of his mega-wealth? Also, questions will be asked about whether he’s medically-fit to run the country and the continual questions about his alleged drug smuggling/peddling convictions in the United States about three decades ago.

He may not have been everybody’s best choice for the job but he allegedly won the election fair and square, something that has already been confirmed by INEC and congratulatory messages have been pouring in from World Leaders across the globe. If you elect even a goat to be your President the intentional community will respect that as your choice as being the best you have to offer.

Nigeria is in shambles and despite the efforts of his predecessor, and fellow APC compatriot, Mohammadu Buhari, who was in power from 2015, things are still going downhill with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel. Are we going to see the emergence of a ‘Super-Hero’ Tinubu who’s going to come in guns blazing tackling corruption, cronyism, insecurity and consigning all the nations woes to the dustbin or is he just going to engage himself with doing ‘Naija-politics’ – turning a blind eye to all that’s going on, pardon all his corrupt mates while he sits out his term – like his predecessor.

The nation is fed up of leaders giving excuses for their incompetence. Recently Femi Adeshina, defending his boss, claimed Buhari was “..not aware of promises made to Nigerians by support groups in 2015..”. A good excuse to cover up incompetence but when you send out your supporters to canvas for votes don’t they read and have a copy of the [agreed] party manifesto? They could have easily have sent out Basketmouth or Mr Macaroni to tell a few jokes if they couldn’t tell the truth!

President Tinubu is in whether anybody likes it or not and everybody will be watching what he gets up to. I don’t want to sound like a Prophet of Doom here but APC winning a third consecutive Presidential term is pushing the country in the direction of being a one-party state: PDP is in trouble leadership-wise and unless they can bring in a suitable candidate to rival Atiku Abubakar they are dead in the water. Peter Obi’s Labour Party movement still has a long way to go to break the APC/PDP domination. And this is not good for development since the same party manifesto will just be re-cycled over and over again. To dispel the notion of the country turning into a one-party state is he (Tinubu) going to sack all current Buhari-appointed ministers and political appointees and appoint fresh new ones or is he just going to re-cycle the old and re-appoint them?

Then there is the question of his health. Being the leader of a nation, anywhere in the world, is a 24/7/365 job and it can take its toll even on the fittest of men (- and women). Tinubu’s true state of health has always been a subject of debate and he hasn’t come clean about it. During his tenure as President, Buhari was notoriously famous for going AWOL, on numerous occasions, on medical-check-up trips to the UK that King Charles, jokingly, once asked him if he had a house in London. Will incoming President Tinubu, a known perennial health-check-up tourist in the London medical circles, also be running the country from the UK? And will he be flying to the UK frequently in his own private jet or the Presidential jet?

The there is the question of him ‘going-youth’. The Youths of Nigeria, predominantly the under-35s, have always been excluded from the affairs of state almost as if they don’t exist. How is he going to connect with them in an effort to make his tenure more ‘youth-friendly’? At the end of the day its their future nation he will be managing. All these old Babas seem to forget that one day they’ll pass and the young people [ they are ignoring today] will inherit the mess they have left behind.

And about his checkered past? Well, we all tell the odd fib or white-lie or two (-or few!) from time to time, so now he’s going to be President perhaps he’ll tell us all as it is before we read about it in his unauthorized biography!

Follow me on Twitter: @Archangel641 or visit http://www.archangel641.blogspot.co.uk

Last Saturday, I attended the Ph.D. graduation of a treasured mentee of mine by the name of Abdulbasit Kassim at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His graduation ceremony would have been another mundane academic ritual to celebrate the crowning accomplishment of a doctoral study, except that Dr. Kassim’s life story and his PhD journey are anything but mundane.

As a third-year doctoral student, for example, he published a well-received book on Boko Haram with Oxford University Press, which was a finalist for the African Studies Association’s Paul Hair Prize. That’s not a usual academic feat for a doctoral student anywhere in the world. It was a testament to his contagious passion for and commitment to intellectual discovery. 

Dr. Kassim’s Ph.D. journey isn’t remarkable just because he wrote a book and won prestigious awards, grants, and predoctoral fellowships in the course of his study but also because he survived life-threatening health scares and mishaps with grace and equanimity. 

In the course of his study, he was burdened with unanticipated threats to his life that saw him constantly in the hospital and caused him to suspend his study for a year. I had paralyzing anxieties about him. But he survived and then thrived both because of his own overpowering will to live and the support of multiple people at Rice University and the Nigerian community he cultivated in Houston.

Again, during his fieldwork in Nigeria, his laptop and prized scans of rare ancient manuscripts were stolen, which set him back by another year. He sounded transparently broken and defeated when he called me after his return from Nigeria. But he soldiered on and conquered. His formidable emotional stamina in the face of immobilizing strokes of ill fortune has to count among his most prized personal traits.

It’s impossible to know Dr. Kassim and not take a liking to him—unless, of course, you’re a psychopath or a sociopath. He is an expansive social magnet who radiates irresistible warmth, amiability, good cheer, and civility wherever he is. He is compulsively polite and unfailingly respectful to everyone he meets, and this is reflected in the wide and diverse network of friends and acquaintances he has. 

Several of the people who rallied support for him in his moment of distress showed up at his graduation. I was particularly pleased to meet a gracious and complaisant Nigerian family in Houston that adopted him as their son and who organized a post-graduation get-together in his honor in their home to which I was invited.

Dr. Kassim was born in 1989 to a Hausa father from Kumbotso, Kano State, and a Yoruba mother from Lagos. He embodies a fascinating ethnic and cultural duality that is nonetheless sutured by the common Islamic faith of his parents.

But, as you would expect, Nigeria’s identity politics sometimes puts him in the uncomfortable position of navigating and negotiating identitarian landmines.  In Lagos, his maternal relatives describe him and his siblings as “omo Gambari” or “omo aboki” [Hausa children], and he has recollections of his paternal relatives in Kano referring to him and his siblings as “'ya'yan Bayarbiya” [children of the Yoruba woman] each time they visited their hometown. He speaks both Hausa and Yoruba with native proficiency, but his Hausa has recognizable Yoruba inflections because his inchoate years were spent in Lagos.

He attended secondary school in Minna and university at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria where he earned a degree in International Studies at the top of his class and connected more deeply with the culture of his paternal ancestry. 

But the route to his immersion in northern Nigerian culture wasn’t without a few little prickly thorns. For example, after his secondary education at the Federal Government College, Minna, he purchased the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) form to take the university entrance exam to ABU. The form has a provision for a middle name, which he never had. But because he thought the middle name was a requirement, he put Oluwatobi (which translates as “God is great”), the name his mother gave him, but which hasn’t appeared in any of his credentials.

He applied to study law at ABU and, although he had one of the highest UTME scores in the applicant pool, his middle name raised red flags about his identity among admission officers. They wondered what Kano indigene would have a Yoruba middle name, and suspected that he was claiming to be from Kano to game the system, which frankly isn’t unusual. 

Unfortunately, his father died when he was only 12. The responsibility to defend him and vouch for his paternal Kano ancestral bona fides rested with his father’s younger brother who came from Kano to Zaria to meet with ABU’s law lecturers. His uncle’s intervention helped authenticate his identity, but it was too late to salvage his admission. He was traumatized by the experience, but his spirit wasn’t broken. 

His uncle enrolled him for a diploma in library science the year he lost his chance to study law. The following year, he retook the university entrance exam, earned high scores, and got accepted into ABU’s International Studies program from where he graduated as the best student in 2011. His stellar performance became the basis for him to win the competitive Commonwealth Scholarship Award to study for an MA in Politics and International Studies at Keele University in England in 2012.

Dr. Kassim’s experiences navigating the contours of his dual identity recall W.E.B. Dubois’ notion of “double consciousness.” In The Souls of Black Folk, Dubois describes “double consciousness” as the “sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others.” Although Dubois deployed the term to encapsulate “the strange meaning of being black” in the United States at the turn of the century, it’s a useful concept to help unpack the strange sensation of embodying often conflictual northern and southern identities in today’s Nigeria. 

But it also has its good sides. For people like Dr. Kassim, being pan-Nigerian isn’t an option; it’s the only option.

I first got acquainted with him in 2015 when he sent me a cold email introducing himself and requesting that I read and give him feedback on a peer-reviewed journal article he had published in Politics, Religion and Ideology titled "Defining and Understanding the Religious Philosophy of Jihadi-Salafism and the Ideology of Boko Haram."

It was a thoughtful, insightful, and well-researched article that emerged from the work he did as a master’s student in England, which got published in his first year of doctoral studies. It signaled to me that this would be a successful graduate student and scholar. I was right.

Email communications soon graduated to phone calls and then to physical visits. He felt comfortable enough with me that when he came to Atlanta to renew his Nigerian passport he stayed in my home. Now he is like a member of my family.  He introduced me to his affable and deeply religious mother whom I look forward to meeting someday when I travel to Nigeria. My children fondly call him Uncle Abdulbasit, and my wife is so fond of him that since 2019 she kept telling me that I must attend his graduation come rain or shine. 

I told him that even if he didn’t invite me for his graduation, I would have attended it because there was a standing uxorial command that I dare not disobey. 

We have transcended mentor-mentee relationship and now have what feels like a familial relationship. As much as I am a mentor, confidant, and a sounding board for him, he also nudges me to complete tasks I’m dragging my feet on. I pointed this out in the acknowledgements of my 2020 book. I wrote: “I would also like to thank Abdulbasit Kassim, doctoral candidate at Rice University and a valued mentee of mine, whose persistent but gentle nudges pushed me to complete this book. Each time he called me, he never failed to ask about the progress I made in writing the manuscript of this book. His unceasing inquiries about my progress became one of the biggest prods for the completion of this book.”

Dr. Kassim is one young man who shows tremendous promise to extend the boundaries of knowledge and further greater understanding between Nigeria’s North and South. Join me to congratulate him.

Last week we officially entered into the new Carolean era, yes that is what the reign of King Charles III will be called, the past Carolean eras were those of King Charles I and King Charles II. The first King Charles (like his father, James I) thought, as King, he was above law and parliament but parliament and law thought otherwise and the King was tried for treason and executed in 1649.

The second King Charles III fared a lot better that first one and I am more than very hopeful, I am even confident the new King of our own Carolean age will not only respect parliament and law, he will also be a very modern King albeit with a root firmly planted in best of his and Britain’s past. Yes, your guess is right, I am not a full-blown republican, no need to hide it, I am a royalist, even a monarchist.

The coronation of the new king was certainly the most important show in town last week, by town I mean the world. Media analysts have observed that all the countries of the world, including Russia, Iran and Syria whose leaders were not invited, except for North Korea covered or at least mentioned the event. The Russian media focused more on the protests and views of the republicans who are against the coronation.

The first lessons to learn from the Carolean age is how to put on a state event and through it, send a message to the world. King Charles III’s coronation was a deliberate pompous display of poetry of colours, garment and hymns and speeches delivered with class, grace and depth. None of the activities were improvised or amended during the ceremony. It was designed to show the essence and best of the British monarchy.

Let us remind ourselves that the British Monarchy is an important symbol of Britain’s greatness and splendour. With the throne, Britain is able to claim its role as the oldest living and most relevant kingdom.

With so much social revolution going in the world and drama affecting individual members of the royal family, the monarchy has been shaken and tested many times.

Those who manage the crown have however been able to keep its magic and practical use. The throne of England continues to be the repository of what is best in the land.

It not only helps to conserve culture; it also serves as symbol of unity and measure of standard. The monarchy is also an important tool of diplomacy and economics. Palaces and souvenirs still bring in millions of dollars into the coffers of Britain.

Aviation and tourism analysts are predicting a surge in travel to and interest in the UK thanks to the coronation.

The event was also an open classroom as it gave many another opportunity to rediscover the history, geography and culture of Britain.

The coronation has been carefully planned to reiterate and showcase the magic and usefulness of the monarchy. Though the main events were in London, each part of the country from every village to town and county had something they are doing for the coronation.

From the choir events in churches and town halls, to the special meals in pubs and market display, everyone was involved one way or the other. A king was been coronated in London but it was England that was celebrating and affirming its centrality, greatness and relevance.

Those managing monarchies and other state affairs from across the world can certainly learn more than a few lessons.

Outside the coronation, but still in London, another event took place last week from which we can learn a thing or two.

It was in the court of law where the case of the Nigerian Senator Ike Ekeweremadu, his wife Beatrice and doctor were tried. The proceedings and judgement of that case have valuable lessons for all from those in the bar to those on the bench to teachers of law to those covering legal and stories as well as we the people. On a personal note, when I heard about the Ekeweremadu case, my first reaction was to pray that “may our resolve and joy not be tested through the pain and need of our children”. I am sure that even the most reckless or principled parent will be able to relate with such prayer.

In his conduct of the case and delivery of judgement, Justice Jeremy Johnson, the judge that presided at the old bailey, did more than deliver a sentence, he gave the world some very useful and missed lessons on law and justice. He logically and in very clear, simple and convincing terms established the principles and purpose of the laws at stake, he demonstrated the laws that were violated and how they were violated. He showed that he fully understood the mitigating and aggravating factors in the conduct of the defendants and the many interventions on their behalf, he demonstrated with proof that he carefully considered the positions of the defence counsel and those of the of prosecutors. Weighing thesis and antithesis, he showed for all to see that he was not outrightly against the defence counsel by explaining and justifying where he disagreed with their positions, he also demonstrated his independence of the crown counsel by explaining and justifying where he disagreed with their positions.

In his conclusions and judgement, Justice Jeremy Johnson was very deliberate in showing the whole world that he was applying the law to serve justice.

The judge at the old bailey was very careful not to let law and justice be hindered or corrupted by technicalities or peculiarities, he made sure that there was no delay or postponement that could be avoided.

It is worth noting here that Justice Jeremy Johnson did all these and more in the full glare of the camera whilst maintaining and even enhancing his own dignity, that of the court and of the law.

Some are arguing that televising some court cases might hinder the course of justice and law but in the new Carolean age, Justice Jeremy Johnson has shown us that transparency serves law and legitimises justice.

Join me if you can @anthonykila to continue these conversations.

*Prof Anthony Kila is Institute Director at CIAPS. www.ciaps.org. and a regular contributor to The Frontier.

I got word that my elderly friend, His Excellency Mohammed Ould Salek, the Minister-Adviser on Diplomatic Affairs to President Brahim Ghali of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, better known as Western Sahara, was in Nigeria. He was the Special Envoy sent by the Saharawi President on April 28, 2023 to bid farewell to President Muhamadu Buhari as he ends his tenure on May 29, 2023.

This gesture is quite understandable because when SADR was struggling against re-colonisation by the Moroccan monarchy, Nigeria, led by then General Buhari, gave it recognition in 1984. Nigeria was satisfied that Western Sahara under the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 of December 14, 1960 on Decolonisation, had a right to statehood. Again, Nigeria backed the decision of the Organisation of African Unity (Now the African Union) to admit Western Sahara as a member.

The bold diplomatic and conscientious stand by that regime, which had Professor Ibrahim Gambari as Foreign Minister, has since then informed Nigeria’s unambiguous position on the independence of Western Sahara.

Indeed the situation of the Saharawi is one of the most terrible cases of crimes against humanity, and perhaps, the worst refugee crises in history. After the 1975 Moroccan military attacks on the civilian populace, many Saharawi took refuge in the Tindouf Province of Algeria. They and their offspring have been forced to remain in those five Algerian refugee camps for the past 48 years while Morocco occupies their ancestral homes!

The United Nations-backed referendum which was to allow the Saharawi determine whether to be an autonomous state or part of Morocco, has been stalled for decades by the latter.

Also, Morocco has over the last few years sought to maintain its illegal occupation of parts of Western Sahara by offering grants to susceptible African countries, and using the natural resources of Western Sahara, such as fisheries and phosphate, as bait.

For instance, it is giving stolen phosphate and fertilizer from Western Sahara to a top industralist in Nigeria and allowing the European Union to illegally feast on Saharawi fisheries.

I first met Minister Salek in June 2019 when he accompanied President Ghali to a reception held by the Dipo Fashina-led Nigerian Movement for the Liberation of Western Sahara. We knocked it off as if we had been old friends. We met again in 2021 when he updated me on the situation in his country.

This morning of Sunday, April 30, 2023, our meeting was as usual cordial. But this time, he had gotten a goat slain for me and the sight of the table he had gotten prepared, was intimidating. I told him I was intimidated and, more so, I should actually be his host. He laughed heartily and said: “We herders, when we have a very important visitor, we kill a goat, ram or camel.” I told him that a decade and half ago, when I visited Western Sahara, I ate camel meat for two weeks. He laughed and said, we had not met then, but that I must return, and this time, stay in his house. I told him if he could intimidate me with so much food right here in Abuja, then I was afraid what would happen if I visited Western Sahara.

Our conversations on the state of the Moroccan occupation of his country began with his showing a photograph of himself and Syrian President Bashir Assad being circulating on internet allegedly by Morocco. He said the photograph was taken before the Syrian War, but was being circulated as a recent one. The Saharawi envoy said the intention was part of Morocco’s campaign to stop the re-admission of Syria into the Arab League and Gulf States.

I asked him about the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline which passes through Western Sahara. He said his country has asked that the project be stopped to allow the consent and involvement of his country.

Minister Salek said despite Morocco looting the resources of Western Sahara and creating the illusion of a buoyant economy, the country is actually sinking. In his analysis, Morocco’s primary problem is that its wealth is in the hands of 10 families who are mismanaging and looting it. He informed that in order to keep afloat, Morocco on April 3, 2023, took a $5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, IMF; the fifth such loan in ten tears. He said the state of the ordinary Moroccan is so bad that many are taking to the sea in a desperate bid to get to Europe leading to many of them drowning.

The Saharawi Minister said the Moroccan economy would face more shocks as the free money from EU countries carrying out illegal fishing in Western Sahara waters, will stop from July 17. He said the EU Court had in September 2021, nullified the EU-Morocco Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement, SFPA, on the grounds that fishing cannot be carried out in Western Sahara waters without the consent of its people. He said that at a March 20, 2023 meeting of the 27 EU Member States’ Ministers for Fisheries, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland had pleaded for an extension of the agreement in violation of the EU Court decision, but that most members refused.

Minister Salek assured me that the renewed military conflict against Moroccan occupation which began in 2020 is going well: “The war is causing a lot of casualties for Morocco, but Morocco has introduced new weapons, drones and we need to find a solution to these drones as soon as possible. If after the first 16 years war they could not conquer us, they will not now.”

He said the issue is not Morocco or any power it has, but like were the cases of the Apartheid regimes in Namibia and South Africa: “It is the backing it is getting from Europe and America. They are saying Russia cannot change its borders with Ukraine; how can they then claim Morocco can change its borders with Western Sahara?”

The Minister said the issue of Western Sahara is one of decolonisation adding: “You cannot occupy Nigeria or Benin and say, I grant you autonomy. Western Sahara was never part of Morocco; we were always sovereign. That was also the ruling of the International Court of Justice, IJC, in October 1975.”

He said the monarchy is deliberately keeping the Moroccan military which had two attempted coups against his father, busy, by throwing it against Western Sahara: “Morocco that has no funds to buy food to feed its hungry populace, but is buying arms.”

Minister Salek informed that the BRICS meeting in Cape Town said the issue of Western Sahara must be resolved: “There is a new reality in the international field; that is why we need Nigeria to play its role.”