Summarizing my expectation from President Tinubu’s administration simply implies me adopting the quote of Dwight D. Elsenhower which states “We believe that our truly urgent need is to make our nation secure, our economy strong and our dollar sound (In this case our Naira).” He further placed emphasis on the fact that “For every American, this matter of the sound dollar is crucial. Without a sound dollar, every American family would face a renewal of inflation, an ever-increasing cost of living, the withering away of savings and life insurance policies.”

It is therefore in the light of the above that my scope of primary expectations hinges around the followings:
i. Tackling Insecurity
ii. Economic Development
iii. Fostering and upholding of the promised Unity in the Country.

E.R. Stettinius, Jr. said “Happiness has many roots, but none more important than security”. Every rich man with a treasure in his house builds high fences and barricades to guard his treasures, so does every poor man have a door in front of his house in a bid to guard the little he can afford, all these are testaments to how important issues of Security is to everyone both rich and poor.

Hence, a vital reason why Insecurity has to be curbed by President Tinubu with utmost priority.
Kudus on the foremost to the President for the meeting held with all Service Chiefs and Heads of security agencies led by Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor on 1st June, 2023 concerning measures to strengthen the Nation’s Security. However, Nigerians are anxious and awaiting the positive effect of same as writings on the walls without implementations amounts to nullity. In effect, alongside the promises of the President of a topnotch secured Nigeria in his manifesto, officials involved right from the Commander-In- Chief of the Federation till the least security personnel are to safeguard the provisions of Chapter II and particularly Section 33 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

All regions of the State should receive adequate security attentions and lives of each and every citizen should matter and count in this present administration as against the former.

In a nutshell, the meeting held and administrations achievement should not only produce a Nigeria secured from oil theft but rather a Nigeria with zero Kidnappings, bombings, terrorism attacks, killings and on the whole, an unsafe Nigeria as the latter should be prioritized than the former in considering equity, good conscience and morality.

In view of the above it is also expected that the President review the nation security architecture and relieve the Service Chiefs of their commission to pave way for new ones, the choice of the National Security Adviser should be a season, intelligence and diplomatic Chief with the ability to coordinate the Nation security teams as well as to liaise with diplomatic community effectively.

David Cameron said “The economy is the start and end of everything. Nigeria can’t have successful education reform or any other reform if we don’t have a strong economy.” At this point in the country, a wholistic economic policy is to be adopted by the President combing through all sectors and running safe of the lane of myopic stream of profit orientation or revenue generation for the country.

It should principally be noted that a single sector at this point cannot for instance employ the millions of populations existing in the country.

In essence, beyond oil production and availability, what next? A million and one promises have been made in several interviews, manifesto and even during the speech of the President on how a better economy would be enhanced during his administration some of which includes the removal of subsidy on oil, adoption of a unified exchange rate, premium investments in the agricultural sector amidst several other outlooks and scopes.

I would however on the whole admonish the President to include in his spectrum measures of Improving Productivity in the country. i.e., graduating Nigeria from a consumption Nation to a Producing Nation. In doing this, several other measures are necessary beginning from improved legislations and establishment of several other statues, acts and laws that would enhance infrastructural developments with which ease in productions would thereupon exist. Note that with the oil sector, our nation already has a huge foreign inflow and in this transition to a producing nation, where standard products are made (proponent to laws existing and bodies created to supervise their quality), existing markets are not just at hand but several further others in flows would as well be enhanced and the economy through purchase of our productions in large numbers grow uncurbed.

I would as well use this medium to commend the President on the bold move of subsidy removal to curb further exploitations by suppliers of petroleum who in their wisdom created pseudo scarcity, hoarding the fuel on the President’s announcement of his intent to remove the subsidy on PMS at his inauguration speech.

However, the approach had its faults as the President ought to have done due diligence by creating several Palliatives that should have alleviated the resultant hardship of same on the citizens.

For instance, His Excellency before this move should have made available alternative transportation systems with lesser cost for ease of movement of people as well as agricultural produce from one state to another (the railway option or waterway options could have been put in place), in-depth checks and balances could have been done to allegations raised of several individuals benefiting from the subsidy and depriving the nation of the benefits of removal of same as this checks would curb embezzlement of the proceeds of this act and would allow the focus of the administration in boosting the growth of the economy actualized and finally, issues of restructuring our Local Refineries either by the government or privatizing same to private individuals to restructure them and create a competitive market when it comes to the refining of our oil within the Nation.

Moreover it expected that paying direct subsidy to some citizen should commenced in earnest in form of PMS Allowances for workers and PMS Benefits to others, after all some leaders received as much as Newspapers, Furniture, Wardrobe, Vehicle, Hazard etc allowances.

Finally, and Conclusively, Yoshihide Suga said “A strong economy is the source of National strength”. In Essence, once we have our economy thriving, it rubs off on our National Strength. I therefore admonish His Excellency to not forget and implement the fostering, upholding and fortification of the Unity of our country as a whole. This cannot be downplayed by the present administration as it is sacrosanct to the development of the Nation as a whole and futuristically.

I on this note commend His Excellency on his current appointment of Chief Femi Gbajabiamila, a season lawyer and the highest ranking parliamentarian as Chief of Staff, George Akume as Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Senator Ibrahim Hadejia as his deputy as this is a clear testament of not just zoning of offices to foster the country’s unity and involvement of all regions but also possess at the backend choice with topnotch competence and selection of able and capable hands from various regions who are geniuses in the offices they are appointed to manage.

The act of the President upholding the Country’s unity and getting it to a better state preserves the labours of our heroes past, curbs it from being in vain and on the whole helps the Nation to attain great lofty heights as stated in the second stanza of the Country’s anthem and with a resultant effect to build a nation where peace and justice prevails.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has walked into a minefield with which he is very familiar. He had his own mines in the field, of course. They had been well laid out for over two decades, and with verifiable results. Many of his former opponents are either flat on their backs, are nursing injuries, or are queued up behind him in diligent subservience. Some of his co-contestants who are in court have the right to the line of action they have chosen. They must, however, abide by whatever decision the courts come up with. But the forgoing is not really our concern here today at all. 

The issues facing the federal republic of Nigeria today go far beyond some of the questionable expectations of many of the critics, observers and admirers of Bola Tinubu, Atiku Atiku and Peter Obi. A nation with a fundamentally disoriented political, economic, political and traditional leadership elite cannot become Eldorado in a hurry. The decades-long convoluted conspiracies within, and around, this confederacy is responsible for the Nigeria we have today. So, let’s get real. The dominant interests are not about to turn in their retirement papers. The renewed struggle for the soul of Nigeria will either lead to a rebirth, or a strangulation.

The point made on this page some seven years ago, under the title “Nigeria: Beyond Buhari and Jonathan”, still stands today, namely: “It is not right that a nation should be undergirded by untruth. It is also not right that a nation should be under a political economy of decay and corruption, warehoused and propagated by a business and political elite that lives in denial. When old lies are told afresh by those who know they are lying, a time comes when even the liars themselves won’t be sure whether they are lying anymore. Reason? Others would be repeating the same lies with great aplomb everywhere”.

None of the actors in our crisis-ridden political environment is solely responsible for our present national problems. The PDP, the APC, and several other combinations of political and economic forces put together, bear responsibility for everything that is wrong with Nigeria today. We are seeing the products of generations of leaders and followers who were nurtured on a diet of impunity, inattention to service delivery, consumption and arbitrary use of state power.

Tinubu, like all previous leaders before him, belongs to that tradition; but in a way that must be properly understood in order to avoid confusion. He is an inheritor as well as a patient and calculating investor in the Nigeria of today. He has demonstrated a great capacity for outwitting, outmaneuvering and outsmarting most of his adversaries in the power game. He is good at paying for political services and his peculiar approach to managing the political environment, shorn of strong concerns about morality, has been one of his strengths. And that is part of the problem at the moment. 

Asiwaju Tinubu is now managing a nation that has moved from the lofty concept of “citizenship” in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s to the less inclusive notion of “indigeneship”. As observed in the aforementioned article: “We have been building a mansion on quicksand and with pillars of straw. The soil, quicksand as it is, is further infested with two species of ants, called presumption and nepotism. These ants, which feed exclusively on straw, have been nibbling away for decades. They have left us with a hollow and painted frame that conceals a lie. This lie has been on parade for decades. It is described as an architectural masterpiece by casual observers. An architectural masterpiece that is not designed to withstand the wind”?

The article continued: “Now that we have brought up children who have seen shielded criminality as leadership, we have a nation wherein hiding under the instruments of state to violate natural justice, equity and good conscience makes you not guilty of any crime. Look at Nigeria today, … The dominant motifs are (1) skewed values, (2) a flawed national psyche and (3) an aberrant leadership recruitment process. These motifs have given us several national ‘leadership pseudopodia’, or “false feet”.

Just as happens with Amoeba, the jelly-like microorganism that pops out part of its shapeless body in any direction it wants to move, Nigeria’s leadership pseudopodia (or new regimes with insular notions about nation building) usually spring new agenda, new national ideals and new aspirations on everyone without warning and without consultation. They have since replaced National Development Plans with limited regime goals, and often without plans or strategy. And it all vanishes without trace with the demise of each regime”.

The Kaduna Nzeogwu coup détat of January 15, 1966, for instance, was a very important step in the misdirection of the Nigerian state. That coup saw a junior officer issuing instructions to his superiors from a radio station. “It saw an officer peremptorily informing the nation (by mere announcement about ‘Extraordinary Orders’) that all local administration in the country was now under the ‘local military commander’, who would mete out any punishment he ‘deemed appropriate’ to anyone who disobeyed him”. How? Where on earth, and why?

That unfortunate incident put the concepts of right and wrong in the hands of individuals of, sometimes questionable antecedents, for the first time in Nigeria. It violated Service Discipline, and set new paradigms for the collapse of esprit de corps in the armed forces. It also created a dilemma in diplomatic circles, for which even Ambassador Jolaosho’s experience as a diplomat did not prepare him when the Germans asked: “Why did your people kill your prime Minister, instead of voting him out of office”?

But the damage was far more more fundamental, because it “…side-tracked the existing crop of leaders and their ‘replacement generation’. A generation groomed along ideological lines in leadership recruitment stagnated for 12 years, until 1979. The trio of Zik, Awo and Aminu Kano, who would since given way to the likes of Tafawa Balewa, Michael Okpara, Bola Ige and others before 1979, turned up as presidential candidates, because of the 1966 coup. This created the backlog of two generations of leaders that we are still unable to deal with today. The average age of party youth leaders, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) says it all”.

Did that first murder of 1966 not lay the foundation for subsequent murders and abominations? Did it not set the tone for the eventual replacement of professional military service and responsible national leadership with personal and ethnocentric desires, misuse of office, political illiteracy and petulant idealism and exuberance? Has this murk not produced many “Excellencies” and filled our post-1966 nationhood with sporadic and spasmodic declarations of new national goals, new federating units and much more? Have we not been “moving forward” in the wrong direction as a nation; sometimes at the whims of persons without deep personal maturity, a grand vision, real wisdom or even enlightened patriotism?

Does the Armed Forces Remembrance Day we celebrate every 15th January not affronts us all? It bears repetition to say here gain, as said seven years ago, that: “That date bespeaks impropriety and is inappropriate for accolades”. We need not have the date of the cheerful murder of some of our fellow countrymen as a day of celebration. Nigeria has a catalogue of prematurely retired military officers and a long list of frustrated and unfulfilled professionals because of the events of 1966. Many who joined the armed forces as military professionals have since been replaced others who joined in the years of military regimes – as a short cut to wealth.

Should we be celebrating Armed Forces Remembrance Day on the day families of some of Nigeria’s greatest leaders are in mourning? Tinubu should ask, as I asked seven years ago, whether “…we do not have several military exploits, including the final triumph of ECOMOG, or the day Buhari rallied the Nigerian military to route Chadian incursion during the Shagari Presidency, to make our Armed Forces Remembrance Day. That will save us from holding up a day that blights our collective dignity as decent people to salute the gallantry of our armed forces”.

A day that reminds us that a civil war ended in Nigeria with the complete economic disenfranchisement of a section of the country need not be so cheerfully projected. The South East was arguably not really rehabilitated, reconstructed and reconciled to the rest of the country after the civil war. It is open to question whether, even now, it has been reintegrated. As a Lagos lawmaker called, last week, for land revocations, to ensure land allocation to only indigenes, we should ask ourselves why a place where the late Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya and others protected properties of Igbos in Lagos while the civil war lasted and returned same to the owners after the war should be so poised today.

Is Nigeria really going anywhere if, after 52 years, the same Igbos who lost their belongings in another part of the country as “abandoned property” to their fellow countrymen, are to face the same fate once again? To whom were they they allegedly reconciled after the war, and even now? 

Tinubu, Atiku and Obi should look around them and ask the following questions: (1) It it true that our 23 years old democracy has produced leaders with sudden stupendous wealth, amidst grinding mass poverty? (2) Is it true that their wealth has impacted less than 15 persons? (3) Is it true that their local communities, members of their religious congregations, most of their friends, some members of their extended families who knew how poor they were a few years earlier only chuckle and regard them as lucky thieves? (4) Is it true that many priests, traditional rulers and other supposed custodians of public conscience who should ask questions are on their payroll?

Truth is: the nation is reeling piteously. A criticism of Tinubu does not automatically translate into an endorsement of Obi or Atiku; and vice versa. Hunger, banditry, skyrocketing prices and much more are here. We need the following to move forward: Truth, competent leaders, the right sense of responsibility, propriety in public office, service delivery and inclusivity in policy making and resource allocation. Yes, beyond Tinubu, Atiku and Peter Obi.

• Obi, LP play footage of INEC’s Yakubu, Okoye speaking on election results’ transmission
• We complied with all guidelines, regulations, Atiku’s witnesses tell court

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), yesterday rejected two applications by Mr. Peter Obi and his party, the Labour Party (LP) to issue and deliver interrogatories to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The court said the applications lacked merit.

Obi and the LP had filed the applications to obtain more information from INEC and to have the first application heard outside the pre-hearing session.

Ruling on the applications yesterday, the court’s five-member panel was unanimous that the two applications were filed outside the time allowed by law.

The Presiding Justice (PJ), Justice Haruna Tsammani said the petitioners did not establish any circumstance of extreme urgency that would have made the court exercise discretion in their favour.

He said the situation the petitioners found themselves in was self-induced and could not pass as special circumstances on which the court could act in their favour.

Paragraph 17(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022, according to him, requires the petitioners to file all applications within 10 days of filing their reply to the defendants’ responses to their petition.

The judge observed that while the petitioners filed their last reply on April 21, they filed the application, in which they sought to serve INEC interrogatories on May 22, the day the court ended the pre-hearing session.

He added that even though the application was actually filed on May 22, the petitioners’ lawyer failed to draw the court’s attention to it, as was required of him.

“I do not believe that the application was filed before the proceedings of that day. Even if it was filed before the proceedings of that day, the lawyer did not bring that fact to the attention of the court,” the judge said.

He held that it was wrong for the petitioners’ lawyer to attempt to avoid taking the blame for failing to act within the time allowed by the law.

“The application is incompetent having not been filed within the time allowed by law and the court has no jurisdiction to hear it. This application is hereby struck out,” Justice Tsammani said.

Shortly after the ruling, another lawyer to the petitioners, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) applied to play two videos which they tendered on Friday.

The first, which was footage of a press briefing by INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, showed him talking about plans for the election and pledging that BVAS would be used for voter accreditation, while results would be transmitted from polling units in real-time.

The second one showed INEC’s National Commissioner, Festus Okoye explaining the efforts made to address the glitches experienced during the presidential and National Assembly elections.

Part of the second video also showed President Bola Tinubu announcing his selection of Kashim Shettma as his running mate for the election, which Okutepa claimed supported their case of double nomination.

After the videos were played, the petitioners proceeded to tender some Certified True Copies (CTCs) of INEC materials, including Forms EC40G (PU), EC40G and EC40G1 from Benue State.

Further hearing in the petition has been adjourned till 9 am on Tuesday.

Earlier yesterday, two former members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), who worked as INEC ad-hoc staff during the last elections, said they complied with all rules and regulations in carrying out their assignment.

Alheri Ayuba and Sadiya Mohammed Haruna who were subpoenaed witnesses of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, spoke while testifying as the petitioners’ 17th and 18th witnesses before the PEPC.

Ayuba and Haruna said the whole process went well except for the hitch they experienced while trying to upload the images of the result sheets immediately at their polling units, using the BVAS machine.

They, however, said they failed to include, in the written statements, their inability to upload the results.

Led in evidence by the petitioners’ lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN), Ayuba and Haruna said they served as polling unit Presiding Officers in Abuja.

The witnesses adopted their written statements after lawyers to the respondents – Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) for INEC, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) for President Bola Tinubu and Solomon Umoh (SAN) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) – raised objections to the admission of their testimonies.

Under cross-examination by Pinheiro, Ayuba said: “I performed my duties diligently on the day of the election. I confirm that the election went smoothly besides the issue of the BVAS that failed to upload results.

“BVAS was used to accredit all the voters. After sorting the results, I announced it to everybody’s hearing. I entered the results diligently in the presence of everybody at the polling unit,” she said.

The witness added that all the agents of the political parties present got copies of the result sheet (Form EC8A), the original copy of which she personally submitted at the Ward Collation Centre.

“It was the image of the Form EC8A that I captured with the BVAS that I tried to upload, but I could not,” Ayuba said.

Under cross-examination by Ukala, Ayuba said she conducted herself strictly in compliance with INEC Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of elections.

The witness said she was neither induced nor influenced by anybody to manipulate the process.

“The results that I entered in Form EC8A were the correct results in the polling unit. I took the results by myself to the Ward Collation Centre l. I am aware that the results were fully collated at the Ward Collation Centre,” she said.

Ayuba said she did not include, in her statement, that she encountered challenges while trying to upload the results.

While being cross-examined by another lawyer to INEC, Steve Adehi (SAN), Haruna said: “On the day of the election, I carried out my duty as we were taught.

“Apart from the BVAS problem, which was about transmission, every other thing went well. At the end of the election, I sorted out the votes and entered them in Form EC8A manually. I gave copies to party agents.

“It was when I tried to transmit the image of the results sheet that the BVAS failed. The party agents followed me up to the Ward Collation Centre.

“They refused to go and insisted on following me to the Ward Collation Centre where I submitted the results in Form EC8A,” she said.

Under cross-examination by Ukala, the witness also said she complied with all the rules and was not induced by anyone in the course of the election.

Haruna said after Form EC8A was duly signed by party agents and herself, she took a photograph of the form with the BVAS device and posted a copy of the result in a conspicuous place for people to see.

At the conclusion of Haruna’s testimony, the court adjourned further hearing in the petition till next Tuesday at 2 pm.

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again. – Stephen Grellet

Some days ago when I watched, on social media, a post of the immediate past vice-president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and his wife alighting from an aircraft with just two or three persons around them, and the caption said that was the VP returning home after eight years as the country’s Number Two citizen, I was aghast; in fact, gutted! Not that I was a fan of the ex-VP anyway and for no personal reason. My mind quickly raced to the tumultuous welcome that was accorded Osinbajo’s boss, the immediate past president, retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, on his own return to his own people in Daura, Katsina State.

But then, and thank goodness, it turned out, according to another social media report, that the embarrassing report of Osinbajo’s lonely home-coming, like a chicken beaten silly by the rain, was not just a hoax but also the handiwork of some “bad belle” people intent on casting the ex-VP in very bad light. Osinbajo, like Buhari, we were told, was also very warmly received by his own people on his own home-coming. For both Buhari and Osinbajo, that is how it should be. No leader is through and through good and none is through and true bad or evil. The saying of the elders is that no matter how bad a person might be – let the whole, wide world forsake him – there will still be someone who will stick with him through thick and thin. Who that person will be is what no one can tell.

Everyone in positions of authority makes some smile even as they cause many to weep and gnash their teeth; they make some rich even as they cause many to sink deeper into the miry clay of poverty. There is no denying the fact that the administration of Buhari and Osinbajo sowed tears and sorrow everywhere but they must also have put smiles on the face of a few. Under them, Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world but the other side of the coin is that many became stinking rich under them without as much as lifting a finger. The humongous corruption enterprise supervised and condoned by their government mortally wounded the country but made some emergency billionaires and trillionaires. That is why it is called different strokes for different folks. I am certain you know too well that crowds are rented here. So, the crowds welcoming anybody home could have been rented. I am sure you know the same Buhari has been booed and stoned in many parts of the North during his presidency and, after it, Miyetti Allah, whose Grand Patron he is said to be and whose excesses he condoned, has denounced him as the worst thing to have ever happen to them!  So much about home-coming!

And it reminds me of Lenrie Peters’ poem, Homecoming: “…Too strange the sudden change/Oft the times we buried when we left/The times before we had properly arranged/The memories that we kept…” After having “paced the world”, Lenrie Peters longed to return to his old home and was nostalgic when he eventually did but I am not sure Osinbajo longed to return to his after an eight-year sojourn in the inner sanctuary of power and privileges at the Presidential villa in Abuja; otherwise, he would not have wanted to stay on and become president! Well, it can be argued that no rational human being gets so close to the seat of power like Osinbajo did who would not be tempted to want the seat for himself. It is human. It is legitimate. It is a reasonable expectation, especially if we think it achievable. The urge to go for it, as they say, is most likely to be fired the more if we believe we have something to offer and if we see lack of capacity in our principal. If we try to fill in the gap but are rudely put in check, we may be convinced to make an effort to step into his shoes and make a difference. This played out in the case of Osinbajo and his principal, Buhari. The VP’s talents and capacity were left to rot. He was humiliated. His advice, offered behind closed doors, I suppose, might have been ignored. He might have been a mere traveller in the corridors of power while all that the outside world saw was the razzmatazz of power around him. Like the proverbial chicken which labours and sweats but its feathers would not let anyone notice, Osinbajo might have laboured silently without anyone seeing his efforts. Yet, he might have meant well. We saw flickers of that on the few occasions he was allowed to step in as acting president before the door was slammed in his face for no reason other than that he showed promise. He thereafter accepted his lot with equanimity and philosophical calmness, as they say. But looking back now, does he rue dragging the APC presidential ticket with his erstwhile boss and benefactor (?), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

In all of these, was Osinbajo bold, timid, treacherous or diplomatic? Was he compromised and shackled by one thing or the other? Is he satisfied with his contributions as VP and convinced of the decisions he took? We waited and longed for him to stir. We sighed and moaned when he did not. We cried and yelled. We berated and lambasted him but he remained unmoved, even stoic; he ignored us like he himself was ignored. It was as if he, too, was disdainful of us. There must be things Osinbajo knew that we did not. I only hope that it was not the demons of the Presidential villa that one-time presidential spokesperson, Dr. Reuben Abati, has spoken ceaselessly about that stole Osinbajo’s mojo. Thank God now that he is out of the villa, Osinbajo can recover. His memoirs will surely make an interesting read. I am sure you know they get wiser once they get out of that villa. They enter it sane; lose their senses, sensibilities and sensitivities while there. They regain it and become normal human beings and begin to see things and talk like reasonable human beings, like you and me, once they step out of the place. This happens not only to presidents and vice presidents; it happens also to presidential spin doctors. It happened to Reuben Abati himself! Our brother, Femi Adesina, just got released from the same stranglehold!

Now is the time for Osinbajo and others like him to take a good rest, which they deserve, having exited the lion’s den in one piece, and take time to rue missed opportunities. What will they do differently given the same opportunity again? They may not have another opportunity but it is important for others, especially those coming behind, to learn from their experience. That is one way society is nurtured. If you find anyone who says he will do the same thing all over again if given another opportunity, know that you have just found a fool! Nothing is so perfect that it cannot be improved upon if one is given the opportunity. Make your best better. No one knows this better than a writer. If you read a piece you wrote a million times over, you will always have an improvement to make on it.

My checklist for Osinbajo includes the following: As a professor of Law, he is a member of the academia; so, when the Academic Staff Union of Universities was on strike for eight months, what role did Osinbajo play? What advice did he give the government in which he was the Number Two, for whatever it is worth, and what support did he give to his colleagues in academia? How did he feel about the turn of events? Did he feel let down by the government of which he was a part or did he feel disappointment in his colleagues? Now with the benefit of hindsight, how does Osinbajo feel about that unfortunate ASUU/FG saga? Will anyone say that Osinbajo abandoned that constituency of his? As a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Osinbajo’s ought to be a strong voice on legal matters in the Muhammadu Buhari administration but Abubakar Malami, Buhari’s Federal Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, appeared as the man that held sway. The Buhari administration picked cherries when it came to court judgments to obey and which to spurn. That government violated the fundamental human rights of Nigerians at will. Did Osinbajo’s stomach turn at each turn? As a senior pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Osinbajo was deemed to have represented Christians in the Buhari administration but at no time in the history of this country were Christians so victimised, murdered, butchered, driven out of their homes, churches torched, pastors kidnapped and slaughtered, etc than under the Buhari administration. To make matters worse, Boko Haram, the bandits, and Miyetti Allah unleashed mayhem and top government officials defended and backed them! Who heard a whimper from Osinbajo? Did he speak out but we did not hear it? What were Osinbajo’s feelings for his fellow Christians? Looking back now at those sordid events, does he think he could have acted differently? Osinbajo and Buhari left Leah Sharibu with Boko Haram; they also left office without bringing the killers of Deborah Samuel to book: When Osinbajo looks back now, how does he feel about these events? Could he have acted differently or did he put in his level best?

I can go on and on! Osinbajo is Yoruba but what did his vice-presidency attract to Yoruba land? We saw the avalanche of projects that Buhari – or Buhari’s body language – attracted to his home state of Katsina; even the East had the second Niger Bridge completed under Buhari. The Lagos/Ibadan expressway is still ongoing since 1999 or whatever; the Sagamu/Ikorodu road along the Lafarge Cement axis is a death trap; the Lagos/Abeokuta road is hell on earth. Can anyone point at one project that the South-west benefitted from Osinbajo’s tenure as VP? Yet, it is to the same South-west that Osinbajo returned after his time out as VP! True, then, is the saying “Ile l’abo simi oko”! Home is home, sweet home! The late Cote d’Ivoire president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, said “home is where, when you go there; they take you in” So the Southwest has no choice but to take in Osinbajo, just like it took in former President Olusegiun Obasanjo, both of whom – ironically from the same section of the South-west – gave their people the short end of the stick. Maybe we need to ask Dr. Reuben Abati whether some demons were also at work here!

Nigerian chef, Damilola Adeparusi, has set out to beat Hilda Baci’s unofficial record, who is awaiting the confirmation of her 100hrs record-breaking cook-a-thon from Guinness World Records.

Recall that Hilda made headlines in May after beating Indian chef Lata Tondon’s 87 hours and 45 minutes record achieved in September 2019.

Here are the things you should know about the young chef Chef Damilola Adeparusi.

Damilola, who is attempting to break Hilda’s record, began her journey on June 9, 2023, and as of today, she has been cooking for over 30 hours.

Born Damilola Adeparusi, the young chef now fondly addressed as Chef Dammy is an Ekiti indigene and is attempting to break the record in Ilupeju, Ekiti.

Besides being a chef, Damilola is also a poet, songwriter, and editor. Her official social media pages carry these titles as well.

Damilola is a vivaciously curious person, noting via her official pages her love for researching and learning about new things.

She is representing a church, Spirit Word Global Mission, in the cook-a-thon currently in Ekiti State and is attempting to break Hilda’s 100hrs record with her 120 hours goal.

Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, on Saturday appealed to the emotions of the senators-elect by urging them to vote for the stability of the country and not their individual pockets.

Shettima made the appeal during Saturday’s valedictory session which brought the 9th assembly (Senate) to a close as the presiding officer, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, adjourned sitting sine die.

This would pave the way for the new assembly to be convened on Tuesday 13 June with a letter to the Clerk of the National Assembly from the president.

The All Progressives Congress, with a slim majority (59) in the Senate, is racing against time to produce the president it has anointed.

The National Working Committee of the party had announced former Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio, as its preferred choice.

This has not gone down well with other aspirants like Orji Uzor Kalu, Abdul-Azeez Yari, and Osita Osinazu who have maintained that they would not bow to any external interference and manipulation of the second organ of l government.

Although there has been a lukewarm approach to cement the preferred candidates from the leadership of the APC, Shettima maintained a middle ground on Saturday when he urged the senators-elect to look hard and make a choice for the survival of the country.

“To my incoming colleagues, I will leave you with a parable, ‘the stability of this nation is superior to the stability of our pockets’. On Tuesday, let us vote wisely, let us vote for the Nigerian nation,” he said.

Describing them as “friends who have become an integral part of my history,” he added that, “We have served shoulder to shoulder in the face of adversity and worked relentlessly for the betterment of our Nation.”a

It was a moment of absolute silence and emotion as the Senate Whip and former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, APC, Abia North delivered his 9th Senate valedictory speech at the floor of the red chamber, stating that he is not a thief.

Sen. Kalu at the start of his speech said that his speech would be a little bit emotional, and other members of the Senate were close to tears as he narrated how has been treated politically, especially by those he helped build and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that he spent his money to nurture.

Kalu who went through psychological torture a few months ago following the death of his beloved wife, Ifeoma extended his gratitude to members of the Senate who were there for him even at the time he was dragged before the court.

Kalu said, “I believe we are dispersing, not separating from ourselves.

“I went through one of my best times in life in this senate and also went through one of the difficult periods also in this Senate.

“Before I came to the Senate before I came into politics, I can buy anything anybody can buy. I am not a thief.

“I am not a thief. Those that put me in prison know the reason why they put me in prison.

“They took over all my businesses and wanted to kill me. But I survived it. And today, I am in the senate with you people.

“It is not the end to what we have done; it is not the end to united Nigeria; it is not the end to being one’s brother’s keeper, but the senators I mentioned (earlier) were with me. I never lacked.

“When the PDP that I was their governor for two terms was being formed, I brought every money they used in forming that party.

“Every penny in 1997 and 1998 and I later became a thief and people I gave transport money from my house in VI (Victoria Island, Lagos) became agents. This is what Nigeria represents.

“I want to thank my colleagues for giving me these four years of uninterrupted support. This is because this country is not fair to so many of us.

“I helped build this country. I employed more than 13, 800 workers. Other people employed nobody and nobody asked them about the source of their wealth.

“I have three factories in Lagos Nigeria, I have two factories in Otta manufacturing, I have three factories in Aba manufacturing and I am a thief and people that cannot explain where their source of wealth came from, are not thieves. I leave everything in the hands of God”.

Sen. Kalu, who is the 10th Senate President hopeful has the support of majority of Nigerians, the Senate and the House of Representatives, past federal lawmakers and non-lawmakers.

The Police have dared ex-Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State to prove that his cars were stolen.

After the raid on his residences in Gusau and Maradun, Matawalle had claimed he was robbed.

In an interview with BBC Hausa, the former governor had said, “I have never seen this kind of stupidity where someone’s house will just be entered without any permission as if we are in a lawless country.

“I am in Abuja and nobody told me that any court gave that order or invite me and I refused to answer. The saddest thing is that, in my Gusau house, all my wives’ rooms were broken, even hijabs have been taken away. Stoves were all put in a car and taken away.

“In my Maradun house, they took away all campaign cars that people gave us as contributions, including those I bought in United States even before becoming governor, you know I was a car seller. I will not ask them to bring the cars back, everybody knows that I have cars. This is robbery, they entered everywhere in my houses, even my daughter’s wedding clothing materials (Kayan Lefe) were not spared.”

But in a statement on Saturday evening, ASP Yazid Abubakar, Police Public Relations Officer in Zamfara, challenged anyone who felt his items were stolen to come forward with evidence.

“The Command is currently investigating a Complaint of missing Zamfara State Government vehicles. Members of the public who have useful information about these missing vehicles are humbly requested to come forward with such information to assist the Investigation.”

“Persons who feel their vehicles were wrongfully attached while executing search warrants during the course of this investigation are advised to produce proof of ownership to claim such vehicles.

“Members of the public will be duly informed of the outcome of this Investigation and are further advised to desist from spreading false information to mislead the public which is capable of inciting disturbance that can attract arrest and prosecution.”

The fate of Nigeria's decaying democracy is staring at us. 

Nobody can escape the numerous holes disfiguring it while all kind of anxious questions it is throwing also to our feet. Because history is back with a vengeance. Asking: what have you done so far since the Nigerian nation teetered on the brink of its demise when it fell flat on her face thirty-years ago.

On this day, on a fateful June 12, in 1993, while all Nigerians, across all geographies and her Diaspora, were bracing for the advent of a great, sunny day, on our long-battered land, heralding the maturing of a new, strong, democratic culture, a brutal curtain, an iron curtain, fell on us with the annulment of the very transparent presidential election held that year.

We had thought, naively, that "militics", the military version of civilian rule that long was in charge of the destiny of the leading African country would deliver on its promise -a peaceful transition to power from them to a new, civilian, leadership brought about by what was one of the most competitive polls in recent history!

Observers from around the world, voters, the media, academics and the ordinary citizenry had come to the conclusion that Moshood Abiola, the media and industrial magnate turned politician, had roundly defeated his rival, Bashir Tofa, in a two men's race hailed throughout the nation as fair and just.

When the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamassi Babangida declared null and void the election, the whole country was literally in turmoil. Its image dented. The world looking down at Nigeria as the sick nation of an Africa that was already going South. And no wonder that Babangida was welcomed to the Economic community of West African States (Ecowas) Summit, held a few days later, in Cotonou, Benin Republic, was humiliating for the most populous and wealthy of all member States making-up the 15 nations community...I witnessed it all in my then capacity as Ecowas's communication Director.

The blow was terrible. Since then, Nigeria has been fighting to restore its lost democratic credentials. To be true, progresses have been recorded, as testified by the end of formal Khaki, military, rule even though, dressed in Agbadas, two of its leading representatives, namely Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, occupied the highest seat of the land, as Presidents, during the past thirty-years along other civilian rulers.

The road has been rocked with all sorts of hurdles but being the ever-resilient nation, one must observe that Nigeria has come a long way from the brink. And despite its still lingering democratic shortcomings, it is justified to salute Nigeria's recovery -at least in words and papers- in its embrace of democracy, rule of law, freedom of expression and opinion, media pluralism and trade unions voices...

That more and more citizens are feeling the need to get involved and speak-up provide further comfort, regardless of the many travails it is still facing, including with the lack of acknowledgement thus far that nothing can be achieved to entrench democracy therein as long as the citizen is not a the center of its deployment, the fact is that we no longer live in a time of vertical, authoritarian, leadership.

Let us be blunt: Nigeria could, and must, have fared better, especially on the economic and social fronts in light of the fact that democracy without justice and shared-prosperity is an empty shell. 

What missed further, and has been strikingly highlighted, is the failure of its institutions to meet their promise to roll-out a credible supervision of the democratic proposition for such a great country. 

Witness only the utter treason by the Independent Electoral National Commission (Inec), including the various blunders it covered, considering that the elections it organized in March, this year, were, to cast them mildly, catastrophic, without electronic transmission of the results nor an uncontested overall outcome, the courts being up till now reviewing the complaints of key political, aggrieved, figures of the process..

June 12 being celebrated as democracy day reminds us that much is yet to be done to take us to the holy grail. One of the key deliverables that must be met, as soon as possible, is the emergence of a powerful, ethical, with character, competence and capacity, credibility, class of new leaders poised to transforming politics as we know it until now as a dirty and fraudulent, corrupt, project to the great loss of Nigeria and other African nations.

In the midst of this darkness still clogging its societal prospects, let us not be pessimistic. Lighting up a candle is the urgent action to maintain hope in the spirit of what mobilized the Nigerian people following the June 12 disaster when all Nigerians coalesced with a motto: Never again...

Out of that chaos started off the current, soul-searching and pragmatic, evidence-based, attempts at democracy consolidation. We got a long way to go but, like a Chinese proverb posits, the "the longest journey begins with a first step". That is where one should heed the calls following an in-depth academic and empirical research by Doctor Obiageli Ezekwesili, the former Nigerian Minister of Education and World Bank Africa Vice-President, the new FixPolitics Movement, started off in Nigeria, now reaching my own Senegal, before being deployed on a Panafrican level, comes in not just as a response to Nigeria's democratic deficits but to the whole of Africa's...

The future is not of doom and gloom despite the hard times we are in. It is bright. For, in democracy, we trust, and yes, while the whole continent of Africa is watching, Nigeria has no other option but to put on track its democratic ambitions. We can do that...

Adama Gaye, a Senegalese Author and media practitioner, former Director of Communication of Ecowas, coined the concept Nigeria, Democracy Day, in many international newspapers, on May 29, 1999, as he acted as the media Adviser for the Transition to civilian rule in Nigeria. Gaye is the Convener of FixPolitics Senegal.

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has called two additional witnesses to further prove his allegation of malpractice at the Feb. 25 election.

The two make a total of 18 witnesses he has so far called out of 100 witnesses planned for the exercise.

Abubakar and his party filed their petitions against the election of President Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC at the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja.

They are challenging the outcome of the election on the ground that INEC, the electoral umpire, did not conduct the election in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

At the resumed hearing on Saturday, one of Abubakar’s new witnesses, Ms Alheri Ayuba, said she was unhappy at her inability to upload results from her polling unit unto INEC’s Result Viewing Portal.

“There was a form that I filled at the ward centre where I stated that I was not happy at my inability to transmit the result.

“I could not log into the INEC portal. If I had logged into the system and posted the result perhaps it could have “pending’’ status and when network is restored, it would upload,’’ she said.

The witness also told the court that she was not induced or influenced by any politician before or during the election.

The second witness, Ms Sadiya Haruna, told the court that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine she used malfunctioned.

Haruna told the court that the result she entered manually at her polling unit was what she took to the ward collation officer and that party agents assigned to the unit monitored the entire process.

She said she took a photo shot of the result as collated manually on the result sheet with the BVAS machine, but that she couldn’t ascertain whether it was retained in the machine or not.

Earlier, INEC’s counsel, Mr Kemi Pinhero (SAN) and Mr Akin Olujimi (SAN) counsel for President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima, objected to the admission of the witnesses’ statements in evidence.

Mr Abiodun Fashanu (SAN), counsel for APC aligned with their objection.

The counsel submitted that their reason for objecting to the admission of the witnesses’ statements on oath would be advanced at the stage of final addresses.

They, however, did not oppose the invitation of the witnesses to testify before the court as well as the presentation of their letters of employment as Presiding Officers for the election by INEC.

Abubakar’s counsel, Mr Chris Uche (SAN) who led both witnesses in evidence prayed the court to discountenance objections by the respondents and admit the witnesses’ testimonies.

Presiding Justice Haruna Tsammani reserved ruling on the objections until the final judgment.

Justice Tsammani also adjourned further hearing in the petition till June 13.