I got a call about a week ago informing me that it was the birthday of Herbert Wigwe, the CEO of Access Bank and it would be nice to drink up on his behalf, thank the Almighty and shame the Devil as it were. Since the easing of the lockdown, boys have been looking for every opportunity to return to the old normal. I declined. I resist temptations to defy COVID-19; for, even more careful persons have fallen victim. 

In normal times, I would have jumped at an opportunity to celebrate Herbert Wigwe who is certainly one of the biggest revelations in Nigeria’s banking industry in this century. When he took over the leadership of Access Bank, the Bank was no. 5. Today, that bank is No. 1 in terms of share capital, loans, deposits, reach and customer satisfaction. In April 2019, under Wigwe’s watch, Access Bank merged with Diamond Bank and became the largest bank in Africa. Wigwe has shown a capacity to control and transform every storm that comes the way of the bank. There is no doubt that he is leading Access bank in the right direction. He and his brother, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, both co-founders of Access Bank, remind me of Fola Adeola and Tayo Aderinokun who both built GT Bank into a global brand. 

At a time when Nigeria’s reputation is being rubbished by the likes of Hushpuppy and Woodberry and the 419 gang, Herbert Wigwe and his team give Nigeria great hopes. He is a role model for the younger generation. Today, Access Bank is not just a Tier-I Bank, it has branches across Africa which provide jobs for millions across the continent. And yet Wigwe is just 54. He is in addition, Chairman of Nigeria’s Bankers’ Committee. A high-achieving brother like him truly deserves a drink and a salute. The organisers should please invite me next year when, hopefully, our lives would have become normal again. In the meantime, many happy returns Herbert. May your days be long.   

“Sorry about your man”

“Thank you”

“You know I used to think that this COVID-19 thing is a kind of scientific joke, but now I am beginning to take it seriously.” 

“How can you say that? It is people like you who mislead the public. I hope you have not been listening to those Pastors who tell people that COVID-19 is not real. I urge you not to commit suicide by exposing yourself unnecessarily. Are you aware that as at this moment the death toll worldwide is close to one million? And that over 21 million persons have been infected? You call that a joke?”

“But I hear it affects only some kind of people, the rich in particular. Big men.” 

“No. You only get to hear about the death of big men. You know that Shakespearean quote: “When beggars die there are no comets seen;/The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes” . Thousands of poor people are probably dying every week in Nigeria as a result of COVID 19. But nobody knows. Nobody will report their death in the news because nobody knows them. In any case, the poor have their own explanation. They don’t quite believe that there is anything called COVID-19. Just like you. They often attribute every death to witches and wizards.”  

“Are you saying witches and wizards cannot use COVID-19 as a weapon of destruction?”

“In your mind. I’d rather stay with science. Superstition and ignorance are the twin threats to the war against COVID-19 in Africa. While the rest of the world is mobilizing scientists, laboratories and resources to find a cure to the disease, Africans are talking about prayers and witchcraft.”

“But I hear that even scientists are saying that the virus doesn’t quite affect some people, due to previous exposure to a virus within the COVID family, or even common cold. Such persons develop natural antibodies in their T-Cells which protect them against the disease. I am actually quoting a report recently published in the Science Journal by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top expert on infectious diseases.”

“The truth about this disease is that nothing is certain yet. What I have heard is that the virus is constantly mutating and that a new strain has now been discovered in Asia which is likely to be more lethal than the current one. It is called G614.”  

 “I forbid that in Jesus name.” 

“What are you forbidding? Just be careful.” 

“By the way, what do you think of the latest development in Bayelsa State? The Governor’s election has been nullified by the Election Petition Tribunal. What do you think will happen?”

“Governor Douye Diri himself has indicated what will happen. He says his lawyers have been briefed to go to the Court of Appeal and that he is determined to go all the way to the Supreme Court. That is the best option available to him.  A man who became Governor through the instrumentality of the law cannot be seen embracing any option other than the rule of law.”

“Poor fellow. It is as if some people just don’t want him in that position.  Four different petitions were filed against him at the Tribunal by four political parties: the Alliance for Democracy (AD) the United People’s Congress (UPC), the Liberation Movement (LM) and the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP). The petitions by the AD, UPC and LM were dismissed for lack of merit last weekend. But now a few days later, the ANDP petition has been upheld by the Tribunal.  But should Douye Diri lose his seat because of a mistake that was committed by INEC?  Diri was not the person who omitted the name and logo of the ANDP from the ballot box. INEC did that. Is it then right to cancel the election and order a re-run within 90 days on account of that?” 

“Yes. Absolutely. The Tribunal is correct. The ruling draws attention to a fundamental point about the validity of the Gubernatorial election conducted in Bayelsa state on November 16, 2019. The exclusion of the ANDP raises issues of validity.”

“But do you think Diri will win at the Court of Appeal?”

“I don’t know. We should just wait and see.”

“So, if there is a re-run of the Gubernatorial election, will the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, David Lyon now be on the ballot too. After all, he won the election originally until his Deputy brought bad luck to the ticket and the Court nullified David Lyon’s victory.” 

“No. The APC cannot participate in the re-run election. The Lyon-Degi-Eremienyo ticket was declared invalid by the court. It remains so. But I foresee a lot of re-alignments. Even without a candidate in the election, the APC is not likely to fold its hands. The party can align with one of the other political parties, put up a proxy candidate on that other platform and give the PDP a serious fight. The APC will certainly see this as an opportunity to take Bayelsa back. Once their proxy candidate wins, the deed is done. One or two months later, the new Governor will simply jump ship and join the APC. Simple.” 

“It is that simple? I don’t think so” 

“Not quite simple but it is all a matter of political strategy. Strategy matters.”

“Douye Diri will be foolish to allow the APC dislodge him with that kind of strategy. In fact, he should never have allowed the matter to get to this stage. He should have negotiated with the ANDP. Pay them off. In some states in the last election, there were some other political parties who were wrongfully excluded from the ballot sheet. The party that won at the end of the day negotiated with them and nobody went to court to challenge anything.”

“Where did that happen?” 

“Ask me again. Is it me you want to put into trouble? Are you not aware that if you say anything these days, you could be invited for a chat with the Department of State Services (DSS)?”

“You just like to talk. You lack courage.”

“Thank you”

“Okay, just whisper it to me. I won’t tell anybody.”  

“Do I look like a child to you? I am just giving you an idea of how politicians behave. But one thing is certain, in Bayelsa, there will be re-alignments. We saw it happen in Imo State in 2007. That was how Chief Ikedi Ohakim of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) emerged victorious in that election. Chief Ohakim subsequently switched to the PDP, which decided to abandon its own candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume and chose to campaign for Ohakim based on agreements. Ararume had taken the PDP to court. He was expelled by the party and taught a lesson.”  

“Politicians. But it doesn’t look like we will witness the kind of tension we are now seeing in Edo State in Bayelsa state, whatever happens.”

“Let’s wait and see. You can never predict politicians, although I must say that what is going on in Edo State is something else. I am just worried about the people of Edo State. The politicians are not talking about what the people want. They are more interested in their own squabbles and ambition.” 

“I will be surprised if there is no outbreak of violence in Edo State on election Day, September 19 and after, followed by post-election conflict.” 

“The security agencies have their job cut out for them. If there is any breakdown of law and order in Edo State, we must hold the Nigeria police responsible, because the situation is foreseeable. Even the electoral commission INEC, has warned about the threat of violence in Edo State.”  

“INEC should play its own part too. Otherwise, the next thing we will hear is that due to so, so and so, the Gubernatorial election in Edo State has been declared inconclusive!”

“INEC has got to do what it has to do. If the politicians in Edo State do not want that to happen, then they should conduct themselves in a peaceful manner.” 

“You know an idea just occurred to me.  You know the Oba of Benin in Council can actually help ensure electoral peace in Edo State.”

“The Oba already met with leaders of the political parties. He has appealed to them to give peace a chance. But you know the Oba of Benin cannot openly take sides. He is the father of all.” 

“I know. I know. But you think these politicians will listen?”

“So what should the Oba of Benin do then?”

“Simple. You will recall a time when there was a sharp rise in human trafficking and crime in Benin City. The Oba directed the palace priests to bring out all the traditional missiles of Benin City, some of which had not been brought out in the sun for about 800 years. Clad in flaming red, the priests, native doctors and metaphysicians gathered at the palace, with the Oba in attendance and placed a curse on anyone committing crime, promoting human trafficking and disturbing the Edo Kingdom. The strategy worked. Crime rate went down immediately. Human traffickers went on holiday.  Every body just hailed the King: “Oba gha to kpe e” and behaved themselves. I understand the people of Edo believe in the efficacy of curses. So, what the palace needs to do this time is to adopt the same strategy. Place a curse on anybody that tries to sabotage the Gubernatorial election in that state on September 19. You’d be surprised these politicians will not risk the outcome of ancestral curses. And nobody will allow his or her child to act as an agent of violence.” 

“You and your primitive ideas. Where have you ever heard of any such thing? Such an idea is unknown to the democratic process.” 

“It is not everything that you can subject to textbook ideas, my friend. What I am suggesting is a kind of home-grown democracy. Democracy in Africa does not have to be an exact replica of how democracy works in America. My suggestion will work if taken. I probably won’t recommend the same approach in another state, but in Edo State, it is the best way to ensure peace and protect the people.” 

“I see you have not been going to church for a while. But now that the churches have re-opened, you need to seek salvation and confess your sins.” 

“I am not going to church for now. I want to wait till we actually know where we are going with COVID-19”

“I thought you were once a Trustee of your church.”

“Oh, no. Not any more. And in any case, Church Trustees are now in trouble. In the new Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, it is expressly stated that the Supervising Minister and Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) will regulate religious bodies and charity organizations. In addition, they can suspend the Trustees of an association or a religious body.” 

“Government is looking for trouble. The churches will protest.”

“One of the General Overseers, Daddy Oyedepo, has in fact started the protest. He says no government can regulate his Church or appoint trustees for him. One of these days, I won’t be surprised if churches are asked to start paying tax, or that a General Overseer cannot also serve as Lead Pastor in the church. In other words, you can’t be Chairman of the Church and also be the CEO, while your wife is the Treasurer.”

“That provision applies only to public companies, not non-profit organizations like churches.”

“Who told you a church is not-for-profit? Some churches in this country are richer than many banks!”

“Just be careful. You are toying with blasphemy.”  

“I know what I am talking about. Some church leaders even have private jets.”

“Well, now that international flights will be allowed, the Pastors can now start enjoying their private jets again.” 

“International flights have resumed? When?”

Not yet. On August 29, according to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika”

“Do you think we are ready? International flights to where and from where? Definitely not to or from the United States, China, France, India, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina or any country that is a high-risk COVID-19 hotspot.”

“The Minister certainly needs to give more information. As for me and my humble household, no international travel till 2022.”  

Then let them laugh and rejoice in our man’s ill-luck.

Alive perhaps they felt no need of him, but now that he

Is dead, they will grieve their lack in the demands of war.

For foolish men do not appreciate the noble prize

they have, until it is discarded from their hands.

His death pains me and falsely pleasures them, 

for him it is a pure delight. For he has gained all that 

he wanted for himself and that was simply death.

Why then should they exult in overbearing mockery? 

He died at the hands of god. They had no part in it. 

And let Odysseus gloat at this along with them. 

For Ajax is no more for them- for me his loss

Bequeaths a legacy of pain and lament. 

-               Teucer in Ajax by Sophocles (442 BC)

Buruji Kashamu, Nigerian politician, entrepreneur, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and a controversial public figure, has gone the way of all mortals- one of the high-profile victims of the global scourge called COVID-19 -  which has effectively turned the year 2020 into “annus horribilis”. No man is completely good, nor is any man completely bad, all mortals are archetypes of the very incompleteness of Creation itself.  But if anything must be said of Buruji Kashamu whose last remains were buried in his home town of Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, on Sunday, August 9, it is that he was deeply loved by the common people whose aspirations he championed and who benefited greatly from his benevolence. It was not for nothing that Kashamu was known as “Alanu Mekunnu”. He was more comfortable identifying with the poor, despite his stupendous wealth. He was in his lifetime one of the most prominent Ijebus of the first quarter of the 21^st Century. 

I recall that each time he entered Ijebu Ode from Lagos, motorcyclists (that is Okada riders) would form a convoy – that convoy could be as long as a durbar/calvacade of 100 motorcycles, hailing him, and they would lead him all the way from Ijebu Ode to his home town, Ijebu Igbo, about 20 minutes away. The first time I witnessed that spontaneous reaction to his presence by ordinary people trying to earn their own living, I was shocked. In the course of his public career, Kashamu had gained a reputation as a friend of the ordinary people, not just in Ijebuland, but across Yorubaland and by extension, other parts of Nigeria. He had established a group known as the Omo Ilu Foundation through which he provided support for the poor. These include(d) indigent students whose school fees he paid, the sick whose hospital bills he picked up, struggling petty traders for whom he rented shops and paid house rent. He donated vehicles to many and provided shelter. He sponsored community development projects. With the Omo Ilu Foundation, he also managed to build a vast, grassroots political network, across the South West. 

The headquarters of the Foundation in Ijebu Igbo sits on acres of land, and if Buruji called a meeting of members of his grassroots network, every local government in the South West sent delegates. I saw the power of such a political network on display when in 2019, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held its South West flag off campaign at Mapo Hall in Ibadan, Oyo state. There was and there is still conflict in the Ogun State branch of the People’s Democratic Party, with Buruji Kashamu at the centre of it all. In 2019, the party at the national level had refused to work with him and chose instead to collaborate with other forces within the state. The plan was to hand over the party flag to the Ladi Adebutu group whereas the Kashamu-led Engr. Bayo Dayo faction of the party was legally recognized by the Courts and was effectively in charge of the party secretariat. If the party was not so divided at the time, the PDP would perhaps have won the Gubernatorial election of 2019 in Ogun State. But Ogun PDP remains divided. On election day, fifth columnists further worked against the party.  

I was talking about the Mapo Hall flag-off. Senator Kashamu ensured that his grassroots network in the entire South West was fully mobilized. By 2 am on the day of the event, his political machinery was already effectively on the ground at the venue. We left Lagos at night. When we arrived at Mapo Hall around 3 am, the only people who had secured all the strategic positions were Kashamu’s supporters.  They were fully dressed in party garments, ready to receive the Abuja crowd. He had ensured that his own supporters outnumbered every other group. When the programme began, nobody was unruly. Everything went smoothly. But nobody gave out any flag. That particular item on the programme was conveniently omitted. I saw an aspect of Nigerian politics at work that day. The loyalty of Kashamu’s supporters was obvious for the discerning to see.

I saw that loyalty on display again, last Sunday. The masses trooped out en masse to honour their hero; members of the Kashamu grassroots network defied COVID-19 and ignored the circumstances of his death to pay their last respects. Earlier in the day, access to his residence was controlled. Barrel-chested security men stood at the gates to enforce guidelines. But the people soon found a way around that. They wanted to catch a glimpse of their hero. They climbed the walls of adjoining buildings and occupied every possible rooftop. Others jumped the fence into the compound. Outside, on the streets of Ijebu Igbo, the people mourned. If the people had been allowed, they would have taken charge of the very burial itself. The Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun was there to commiserate with the widow, the children and other members of the family. Islamic clerics recited Quranic verses.  It was as if those verses, oozing out of the loudspeakers in the compound touched a vein in the people’s hearts. People wailed and wept. I was later told one of our female foot-soldiers became hysterical with grief and kept saying “Kashamu was killed. Wicked people have done their worst. What is Corona? Corona cannot kill Baba. Is it money? Baba can buy Corona many times over.” 

Buruji Kashamu was many things to many people: Baba, Chairman, Senator, Olori, Leader, Esho Jinadu, Ibu Owo Baba Sherifatu, Ekun Oko Susan… He loved the people’s adoration, and he captured their imagination for sundry reasons. He had the common touch. He had no airs. He could stop by the roadside, go into the bush and urinate and then come out. He could enter a store on the highway to buy snacks and drinks for his entourage.  He once told me that he started from a humble background. He said he once worked as a ticketing officer at a motor park in Makoko, Lagos, and later at a Local Government Council. He spoke the language of the streets even better than the boys. During the campaigns, he held meetings with all manners of people. One day, a group of street boys stormed the Omo Ilu Foundation. They said they wanted to see him. The security people told him to ignore them. He disagreed. He went immediately downstairs and asked that the gates should be thrown open for them. He was a courageous man who loved challenges. He told the boys to calm down and without any introductions, he personally called out their leaders.  He then proceeded to speak about his own life. He said he would like them to be like him and make something out of their lives.  He gave them a lecture on drug abuse and warned them never to take drugs or they would end up badly. That encounter ended with the boys prostrating and lifting their hands in the air (Tuale Baba, Buruji,  Buruii, Kashamu Kashamu, ori e wa n be!.)He gave them money and gifts and told them he was ready to support any one of them who was ready to change and be a responsible member of society. 

I am not sure Senator Kashamu had exactly that same kind of connection with the Nigerian elite. He had friends who loved him passionately, but there were also many who had reservations about him. When I accepted to be his running mate, there were many members of the public and the PDP who used to call me aside to say: “You have to be careful. That man may be your friend today, but there is nobody he cannot quarrel with, and if he disagrees with you, he will fight you to finish. He doesn’t have permanent friends.”  Kashamu’s public persona and politics were constructed around this and other narratives. But beneath that, you could sense that he was feared. His combination of financial power, street wisdom and his growing influence as a political force was a bit rather intimidating for his rivals. He probably didn’t help matters with the manner in which he pursued every matter as if a war was afoot. He was a tall, well-built man, robust and inescapable with his physical presence. He devoted both his physical weight and mental energy to every task. He was also brutally blunt. He didn’t know how to pull his punches. On many occasions he showed me vitriolic text messages he sent to those who offended him. If they replied, he would fire back. He feared no one. He once explained to me that he was driven by a commitment to justice. “Too many people are treacherous”, he said. “they would use you and dump you and then work against you.”  He told me he would always stand for the truth. “I hate hypocrisy”, he would add. 

This brought a wedge between him and many people, particularly within the political sphere. But while he would mend fences with others, there were persons he took on with all the weight at his disposal. This probably explains why he loved litigation. I was with him once and someone brought a woman to him whose son had been detained by the police and was charged to court for what looked like a minor misdemeanor. He didn’t allow the woman to finish before he called one of his lawyers, and told the woman, a complete stranger, that he would take up the matter. A lawyer was dispatched. Some assistants were told to go to the police station. Any matter related to police station or the courts brought out a special side of him. If he had not been an entrepreneur and politician, he probably would have been a lawyer or a policeman. I saw him in action explaining legal concepts and quoting precedents. No lawyer could hoodwink him. He would probably be the first to figure out the technicalities of the case. He once asked me and someone to go to a police station to report a matter. He gave a summary of the statement that should be written and I simply marveled. He had a retinue of lawyers and he knew just who to consult on a variety of matters from real property to fundamental human rights. One PDP leader once told me: “That your man. He doesn’t ever get tired of going to court. That is our real problem with him. Court. Court, every time. If you greet him and he takes offence, he will go to court.”     

I found all that intriguing considering the fact that after the 2019 Gubernatorial elections, he and I had a meeting and he told me his plans for the future. He would not run for elective office again, he said.  He would rather concentrate on his businesses which were beginning to suffer at home and across the West African region. He wanted to do three things: (a) build his Lottery business into a more profitable venture across West Africa, (2) re-organize and strengthen the Omo Ilu Foundation to support the grassroots, and (3) stockpile resources for the 2023 election, not for himself but to provide support for his political associates. On the third point though, he added a caveat. He said he would not support me to challenge Governor Abiodun because he cannot sponsor someone from Central to challenge an Ijebu man. “But don’t worry, all of that depends on if Dapo Abiodun does well or not, and then we can sit down and re-strategize. In politics, everything is about strategy.” I told him my plan was to keep doing journalism, see if I can publish one or two books, and that before 2023, I intend to go back to school and get one more degree. He pretended as if he didn’t hear what I said. He sent for drinks and asked if I wanted food. Then he started laughing: “Abati, you mean with all that you have read, you still want to go to school? What for? What do you want to prove? You don’t want to set up business! You want to read more books?” 

He then told me the story of how a former wife of his once pushed him to do an Executive Programme at the University of Lagos. He said it was a harrowing experience. Every day in class was like a punishment. Every examination was like a death sentence! He said he used to sweat in class but he kept at it because that his wife would not allow him to drop out. He said he was relieved when the ordeal was over. “But do you know, my enemies even tried to use that against me, politically?” He was above all, a family man to the core. His young children who are below ten, will one day read about him. May Almighty Allah grant him Aljannah Firdaus. For him, the journey is ended. Let the living worry about their future...        

I am completely heartbroken. Senator Buruji Kashamu was my political mentor. Now he is dead at the relatively young age of 62. I feel like an orphan all over again. I may have worked with the PDP government at the Federal level, but he was the man who brought me into direct, partisan politics. He was one of the most generous men that I have ever known. He was determined to groom me and he did.  He taught me the ropes. He linked me with the grassroots. I learnt a lot from him. Senator Kashamu mentored me and others without any strings attached.  He was a very simple man who was grossly misunderstood by his political opponents. His persona, his politics was indeed grossly misunderstood but those who knew him personally met a man who loved Nigeria dearly and was unapologetically public-spirited.  

He enjoyed giving other people opportunities. He was humorous, kind-hearted, large-hearted and genial. With his death, Nigeria, Ogun state, Ijebuland and the people of Ijebu-Igbo have lost an illustrious son, who demonstrated courage, talent and creativity in everything to which he applied his energy. His death is yet another confirmation that COVID-19 is real, capricious and wicked. It is also a sober reaffirmation of the maxim that “man proposes, but God disposes.” 

 He no longer wanted to run for office in 2023, but he made it clear he would support others to achieve their dreams of getting an opportunity to make contributions on the Nigerian stage. And now, he is gone. Death is a cruel fact of human reality. It puts an end to life and many things.  But Senator Kashamu will never be forgotten by those who loved him and who were privileged to relate with him. My heartfelt condolences to Sherifat and her siblings and all members of the Kashamu family, the people of Ijebu Igbo and Ogun State.     

Reuben Abati, Ph.D 

Senator Kashamu’s running mate, 2019 Gubernatorial election in Ogun State (PDP) 

The relationship between Nigeria and China with regard to loans obtained from the latter to fund Nigeria’s infrastructural projects suddenly became a matter of legislative intervention and public scrutiny last week when the House of Representatives summoned the Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to appear before it on August 17. The Ministers are expected to explain certain clauses in the Agreement signed between Nigeria and the Export-Import Bank of China with regard to a loan of $400 million for the country’s National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure Backbone Phase II Project. The agreement was signed in September 2018 by the Federal Ministry of Finance on behalf of Nigeria (the borrower).  Nigeria’s lawmakers have raised eyebrows about a clause therein which waives Nigeria’s sovereign immunity if it defaults in its repayment plan. 

The contentious clause is Article 8(1) which provides inter alia that “the borrower hereby irrevocably waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereign or otherwise for itself or its property in connection with any arbitration proceedings pursuant to Article 8(5) thereof with the enforcement of any arbitral award pursuant thereto, except for the military assets and diplomatic assets.” This has been interpreted to mean that Nigeria is in danger of losing its sovereignty to China. The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has seized upon it to proclaim that it has been vindicated because it has always argued that the mission of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has always been to mortgage the future of Nigeria. PDP Presidential candidate in the 2019 General elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, quickly added that Nigeria faces the risk of embracing the fate of Zambia with regard to Chinese loans. Groups and stakeholders in civil society, including lawyers and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Group (SERAP) have asked that all agreements ever signed between Nigeria and China should be brought forward and subjected to close scrutiny, just in case any government official either out of ignorance or incompetence has committed Nigeria to a debt-trap, to the disadvantage of future generations. 

From the government’s side, the only man who has spoken up is Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation, but his explanations do not seem to address the issue. He says for example, that the waiver of immunity in the agreement is merely “a contract term”, a sovereign guarantee. Nobody is convinced. Amaechi and his colleagues who have been summoned by the House of Representatives would have to do much better than that. Nigerians no longer trust their government when it comes to international agreements. The quoted Article 5(1) in the said agreement with the Export and Import Bank of China rings too familiar and too topical in the light of recent revelations about the handling of Nigeria’s agreement with a certain Process & Industrial Development (P&ID). In that case, still on-going, a sum of $9.6 billion is still pending against Nigeria, just because some Nigerian officials signed an agreement that put the country into trouble. 

Now, again, in the case of China, the aforementioned Article 8(1) refers to such words as “arbitration”, “property”, “enforcement of arbitral award”. These are the same key words in the P&ID case. Hence, additional questions need to be raised about the Chinese agreement: who signed the agreement? Was due diligence carried out? Was Nigeria thrown under the bus by the negotiators as has been alleged in the P&ID case?  Ordinarily, a waiver of sovereign immunity does not mean that China will take over the running of Nigeria. Sovereign immunity is a principle in customary international law which simply means that a state cannot be pushed around by another state without its own consent to be so treated, in a foreign court. Hence, in every agreement that may go to arbitration, there is usually an agreement as to the place of arbitration and other details. What exactly did Nigeria sign up to on September 5, 2018 with the China EXIM bank? To the extent that the Nigerian people have a right to know, I am convinced that the House of Representatives is in order to raise the questions before us.     

To go further, the various stakeholders who have asked for a proper audit of all agreements with China are definitely aware of how the $6.6 Billion judgment against Nigeria which became $9.6 billion (because of accrued interest) in the P&ID case poses a serious risk to the country’s economic survival. They are also probably aware that there are similar cases relating to lack of due diligence in the signing of agreements that Nigeria is also grappling with. This includes the international arbitration in Paris with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company over the Mambilla Hydro Power Plant. Sunrise went to arbitration accusing the Nigerian government of breaching a 2003 agreement when it granted a separate contract to Chinese companies. The same Export-Import Bank of China was on the sidelines of that agreement. I understand the matter has been resolved but 17 years after the initial agreement, the country is yet to make any significant progress with the Mambilla Hydro which if things had progressed as scheduled would have emerged as the second largest hydro power plant in the whole of Africa. In this case, as in others, Nigeria remains behind because some characters failed to do the right thing. Similarly, the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited which was meant to be a game-changer for Nigeria’s industrial growth process, was also held down for years by disagreements over agreements and a prolonged legal tussle between the Federal Government and a company called Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (GINL). Ajaokuta Steel is a living archetype of how all good intentions in Nigeria fail. In one word, legal tussles and arbitral disputes over contracts, obligations and commercial agreements have over the years, exposed the failure of public policy and the incompetence of state officials in Nigeria. Minister Amaechi is concerned that if the same controversy is brought to the door-step of the Chinese, they may simply refuse to provide necessary loans for the Ibadan-Kano rail line. Amaechi appeals to the patriotic instincts of Nigerian lawmakers: he wants them to suspend all further enquiries until Nigeria gets an additional $5.3 billion from the Chinese. He means well no doubt, he wants Nigeria to get that Chinese money that Nigeria needs, but in his appeal lies the bigger question about Sino-Africa relations, and the place and conduct of African leaders within that matrix. 

Amaechi is certainly an admirer of China’s romance with Africa. He begs his own country’s parliament to “mechionu” as Igbos would say, so Nigeria can get more Chinese money and sign more agreements. Someone needs to tell Rotimi Amaechi that Nigeria’s engagement with China cannot and should not be reduced to an Abiriba, Aba, or Alaba market transaction business model: “my brother, bring money make we do business, chop together.” But he is not alone. Many African leaders are like that and as they engage China, they fail to look at the sub-text.

 In the 70s, China was far behind many African countries. I grew up in a country where any product that was made in China or Taiwan was derisively dismissed. China and Taiwan were the standard euphemisms for fakery, inferiority and cheapness. In those days, Nigerians talked about the British Standard (BS). Nigeria’s economy was doing well. The Naira was at par with the pounds sterling.  Nigerians travelling to London on Fridays aboard Nigeria Airways, stopped by at Liverpool market and the Main street and spent money as if it was going out of business as a legal tender. This was the age of the oil boom. No Nigerian would touch anything Chinese. I grew up being told that anything Chinese or Taiwan does not last. Even when this COVID-19 break-out began, I heard some older Nigerians insisting that if indeed the virus originated from China, it would not last, because nothing that comes from China can be relied upon. Unfortunately, China pulled itself up by the boot-straps. China re-invented itself while other countries either went to sleep or became complacent. It is ironic that today, Nigeria adores China. In our class at the University of Maryland, College Park, 1996 -97, in an American Foreign Policy Process class taught by Hodding Carter III, in the Department of Government and Politics, we read a book titled “The Coming Conflict with China”. That conflict then was at best hypothetical. Today, it is a reality. China is one country that has leap-frogged into the future in an unimaginable manner. The emergent conflict between China and the Western world will be the most definitive factor of this century and the next to come. Africa and the developing world are both at the centre of that conflict. 

With China thus on the ascendancy, its leaders defined for that country, broad geo-political ambitions. With the West in retreat and increasingly navel-gazing, protectionist and isolationist, China launched a muscular approach to foreign policy with its Belt and Road Way Initiative through which it sought to engage developing economies by way of financial support through loans and grants. The focus has been so far, infrastructural development but there is a lot more in there. Strategically, therefore, long before COVID-19, China tried to fill a vacuum that Western nations created. As Western creditors prescribed more and more stringent conditions for bilateral and multilateral loans, China offered cheap, easy and accessible alternative financing arrangements: interest-free government to government credits, and preferential loans from China EXIM and the China Development Bank. The latter, that is preferential loans, represents the bulk of China’s overseas lending. Developing countries were over-excited. They swooped on China’s offers like bees after nectar. Today, China is the world’s largest creditor to the developing world. Since 2008, China has been Africa’s main trading partner. There is even now in place, a Forum on China-Africa Co-operation. 

Nobody saw the catch, and countries were caught flat-footed. China has been accused of debt-trap diplomacy. Many countries embraced that diplomacy with their hands tied behind their backs and today, their countries are in the throes of debt servitude. China gives but it takes! China helped Sri Lanka to build the port of Hambantota. Both countries signed an agreement, similar to the one Nigeria signed with the Export-Import Bank of China. Today, China runs that port with Chinese personnel. In Djibouti, the Chinese are in charge of the ports too, just because Djibouti borrowed money it could not pay back. In Zambia, for similar reasons, China is now controlling the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (in other words, China is in charge of mind control in Zambia). China is also planning to take over the Zambia National Electricity Company. Djibouti took loans from China to build a new port and two new airports, Unable to repay its loans, China has also taken over a part of Djibouti’s sovereign rights and possession of its new port, and has since set up in that country, its first military overseas base. There have been issues as well, with China’s relations with Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries.  

But should we blame China? Whatever travails developing countries may have gone through in the hands of China, in the form of damages to their sovereignty, we must all agree on certain basic points. One, “there is no free lunch”. China is not offering anyone a free lunch. Its cheap loans are tied to its own strategic interests in the world.  African nations are the ones submitting themselves as pawns to China’s global strategic agenda. African leaders are most certainly complicit.  Two, “when you borrow, you pay”.  Chinese negotiators are often focused. If you don’t pay in cash, you will pay in kind. The Chinese only give out their loans even under the Belt and Road Initiative to countries that have something to offer in return. Many developing countries are so economically narrow and badly managed, they end up giving up national resources for borrowed funds that translate into debt servitude. Three, and this is the worst part, is that Chinese loans are often opaque. This is one of the reasons China is not a member of the Paris Club. It may have committed to the G-20 process on the moratorium for debt service re-payments for example, but China has stubbornly refused to participate in data calls. It is the biggest player in Africa’s infrastructure boom but it may never disclose the full details. China’s influence in Africa even runs far deeper. In Nigeria, that influence has gone beyond loan agreements that touch on sovereign rights to an increasing ubiquity of Chinese presence in Nigerian lives. It is so real that the Chinese have now taken over a rather complicated business chain in the country from manufacturing to retail, including internet services, hospitality, car sales and ride hailing services. One of these days, we may wake up to see a Chinese roasting corn by the road-side in Nigeria, properly licensed to do so!

Nigerian lawmakers have a responsibility to shout out about Nigeria’s sovereignty, and the integrity of agreements with China or others.  We certainly don’t want to hear that a certain Amaechi has signed off Nigeria’s Presidential Villa to the Chinese to get cheap loans to build a rail line to Port Harcourt!. If that were to be the case, the Chinese will take over that Villa and like P&ID, look at us all in the face, talk about the sanctity of agreements, and dare Nigeria to go to the court of international arbitration. The onus is on Amaechi and co to tell us what we need to know. The Chinese knee is on our necks today, simply because our leaders have failed to lead us aright.  

Prince Julius Adewale Adelusi-Adeluyi who turns 80 this week, on Sunday August 2^nd, was our guest on Arise TV flagship programme - The Morning Show - yesterday, and although I had made some comments about this national icon in the course of that engagement, the format of a television interview does not really provide me enough scope for an extended appreciation of a man who is one of the most impressive, kind-hearted and inspiring persons that I know. I met Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi in the early 90s. The university where I taught Sociology of Literature, General Studies, Shakespeare and His Contemporaries and Modern African Drama had been shut down for about a year. This forced me to pay more attention to journalism, which I had been doing part-time since 1985 writing for romance magazines (I was Contributing Editor with Hints and Channelle magazines, and later Hearts magazine). I also wrote copiously for the mainstream media. Bored with sitting on campus which had become ghost town, I relocated to Lagos while waiting for the seemingly endless strike to end. I got trapped. 

From being Editorial Page Editor at The Hammer newspaper, I ended up on the Editorial Board of The Guardian. Life assumed a meaning of its own from that point. I would soon become a popular book reviewer, my very first being one of General Olusegun Obasanjo’s books, and that opened up so many opportunities. It was in the course of all that talk here, talk there that I met Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi. He gave me his card and asked me to come and see him. “I think we have got something special here. I can see your potential. I read your writings and I see you going up and down giving a lecture here, a talk there, you review books and you seem to do everything so well. But you know, in this country, you can burn yourself out, just running up and down and it may never amount to anything. You have to be focused, disciplined, organized. You need to brush things up. Come and see me, we will talk a lot more.” 

I went to see him. His office then was at Oregun. A three-storey imposing building in a modest street. The ground floor was a warehouse. The staff occupied the first floor. If I recall correctly, the second floor was divided into conference halls and meeting rooms. Prince’s office was on the top floor. As I went up to his office, my attention was caught by one particular item, a small board on the wall which contained stick-on notes of quotations about life, success and leadership, all notes written in his handwriting and with proper acknowledgement of the original source.  I found that quite impressive and his secretary then was definitely ultra-efficient. When I was ushered into his office, a very big office, stretching from one end of the building to the last wall, I thought I was back at a University Library. From top-down and all around, there were books on virtually every subject in the world, all neatly arranged. 

 I have met quite a number of persons who are literally obsessed with books and documentation -  General Aliyu Gusau, Odia Ofeimun, Kunle Ajibade, late Professor Dapo Adelugba, Professor Pat Utomi… but when I saw Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi’s library at that time, I was shocked. I came to Lagos with the impression that most people in Lagos were just after money, and that the serious-minded persons could only be found at the schools of higher education and media houses. My impression changed after that initial encounter with Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi. The man knew something about everything. As we chatted, he would stand up, go to an exact spot in his library and produce a book to back up his point. I discovered that apart from the stick-on quotes on the board that I saw, he kept a special diary of quotes on virtually every subject. I asked him why? He said as someone who got invited to speak on various subjects regularly, he needed to read and do research on a permanent basis and if he read anything he loved or found useful, he would immediately keep a record of it. 

It was dazzling. I was excited making his acquaintance. But as I got up to go, I was shocked when he commented on my dressing. “I see you like this your adire, revolutionary attires a lot.” As a graduate student/assistant and later university teacher, I acquired quite a handful of adire (batik) materials which were sewn in different designs. It was popular material on campus. Our own teachers wore the same material or opted for the popular Ankara.  These materials were affordable, and the designs looked good. We were trained to promote African culture and scholarship, certainly not to become coxcombs. I didn’t in any way feel inferior to anyone dressed up like a mannequin on the pages of GQ. In fact, my friends and I used to laugh at such persons. When I left the campus (my salary then was N900) and I got my first salary of N3,000 at The Guardian, I went to Oshodi market and bought more materials and sewed a wardrobe-full of caftans. Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi didn’t think that was good enough. 

“Look”, he said. “People are beginning to notice you. You appear on television. You write newspaper articles. You get invited as MC at big events. Everybody can see that you are smart. But you must be professional. Lagos is not about revolution. You are not here for a revolution. You are here to succeed, to make a mark. You must dress the part. You won’t get anywhere, I am sorry, in these revolutionary attires. If you are going to the village for a meeting, yes, or you are meeting with your scholarly friends, oh, very good, but if you are going to show up at the NIIA to review a book or give a lecture, then you must look professional. You can’t show up as if you are going for a cultural dance.”

We ended up sitting down again for a conversation. He told me about how as far back as 1967, he was Secretary General of the International Students Association. He was also Vice President (International Affairs) of the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS). He studied Pharmacy at the then University of Ife and after graduation, he worked at Pfizer where by the age of 30, he was already a Director. But he gave all that up and decided to set up his own practice, Juli Pharmacy, which in 1986 became the first indigenously promoted Nigerian company to be quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. “So you see”, he told me, “I know all these things about aluta continua, changing the world and all that but if you want to be a professional, then be professional, don’t be part of the crowd.  Stand out. Nobody will trust you if they think all you have is just raw intelligence, and no focus.” These days when Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi calls, he is likely to end our conversation with a joke; “By the way Reuben, I see the ties are looking sharper everyday and we now wear suits. If I may ask, what happened to those our famous the-struggle-continues-attires?” And we would have a hearty, prolonged father-and-son laughter. Of course, anyone who knows Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi knows that he is a man of style, always well turned out in his impeccably neat white attires. In his younger days, as an executive,  he matched the style always to the occasion. He is the best life coach that I know.  

He has had such a rich life experience, he offers advice not just on style and appearance but also diction and life issues. Every year he would invite me to his office in January: “Okay, what are your goals for this year? What do you intend to achieve?” I used to be a bit confused about that but I soon got used to it. “You have to set targets. Every year, you must set goals. Life is too short. No matter how brilliant you are, you can’t just drift through life. You must be purposeful” he would say. Before the end of every year, I will again be invited for a review: “What have you achieved this year? What value have you added?” These days, he is likely to ask more questions about the children: “How are my grandchildren? “I hear James is…and Elizabeth… you see you think that you are brilliant, but my grand-children are showing you that they are smarter. Iyawo has done a great job… e ba mi ki awon omo mi o ati iyawo pe o ku ise, o se mo dupe o.” And I am not alone. Over the decades, Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi has been a mentor to the younger generation in every community with which he is associated: students unionism, Pharmacy, law, Rotary International, the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) community, the Catholic Church (especially St Leo’s Cathedral, Toyin Street, Ikeja), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), the National  Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), his native Ado Ekiti community, and Nigeria. He served as a leader of the global students’ union. He has also been President and Life Patron of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN). He is President still, of the Pharmacy Academy of Nigeria. Pharmacy remains his first love. He went to read law and graduated from the Nigerian Law School as the best overall student in his set with First Class Honours.

He is also the doyen of the Rotary Club of Lagos. I got to know a lot about Rotary through him and Mr. Yemi Akeju who once nominated me for a Rotary Scholarship.  Mr. Akeju later offered me a job at Ideas Communications. I remain closely associated with the club. I don’t turn down Rotary invitations except I cannot help it, because of the examples of Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi and Mr. Akeju. The Rotary ideal is Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi’s guiding philosophy.  He enjoys giving. He likes to serve. I visited him earlier this year, before the COVID-19 challenge. The first thing I noticed as I stepped into his office, now in Ikeja, was the absence of the bookshelves. “Where are the books?”, I asked him. He told me to remove my jacket and drink tea or coffee. I couldn’t wait. “The books, where are they?” I asked because I know the old man loves his books so much, he doesn’t lend them out. He would tell me: “You are welcome to read any of these books you are interested in, but you can’t take them away. When you have the time, come here, take over the space, do your research and read as much as you want.”  It turned out as I discovered that the man finally gave all his books and documents away. He donated all to his alma mater, Obafemi Awolowo University, where there is now a Juli Library, for the benefit of a larger community of knowledge-seekers. 

He also introduced me to the world of the NGO. Long before environmental and population issues became the buzz words of a new century, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi founded the National Council for Population and Environmental Agency (NCPEA). I was one of his resource persons and looking back now, we did great work promoting the issues and collaborating with local and international stakeholders. When The Guardian and other newspapers were shut down maliciously by the Abacha Government in 1994, Prince came to my rescue. I ended up working as a Consultant at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for one year. I worked in about four Departments. I cannot disclose any further. When The Guardian was re-opened, I returned to the office even if the Consultancy brought in more money. Prince did not complain. He was okay with my choice. He never emphasizes money. It doesn’t mean much to him.     

He was Secretary for Health during the 83-day interregnum in Nigerian history that was led by Chief Ernest Shonekan. It was quite a turning point in his career. Medical doctors did not want a Pharmacist or any medical worker as Minister of Health. They saw the position as their special preserve. The conflict and the controversy that this generated was perhaps the biggest moment in the rivalry of the experts in the history of the medical profession in Nigeria. It was Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi’s appointment that broke the jinx. A few years later, President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed a sociologist, Professor Lambo Eyitayo as Minister of Health. 

Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi looks good at 80. If you were to ask him, what his most prized asset is, he will tell you: his wife. He is Julius. His wife is Julia, the woman of all seasons who has given us a great father and achiever. I enjoin us all to charge our glasses and hail 80 happy cheers to this in-coming octogenarian at the turn of the clock on August 2^nd:  “This world is so hard and so stony/That if a man is to get through/ He’d need have the courage of Nelson/And plenty of Job’s patience too/But a man who is kind to another and cheerfully helps him along/God help such a man and brother/And here’s to his health in a song/And here’s to his health, and here’s to his health/And here’s to his health in a song…!“  Live long sir.   

It is a show of shame isn’t it, what is going on at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)? Established in the year 2000 to assuage the fears of the people of the Niger Delta and address their concerns about the lack of infrastructural development in the region, despite the region’s contributions to the sustenance of Nigeria, it is sad to see how like all good initiatives gone bad in Nigeria, this interventionist agency has become, or has been exposed as a festering sore upon the wound of the Niger Delta. From personality clashes to sordid tales of mismanagement of funds, contractors that collect mobilization fees and simply take a walk, politicians in the National Assembly feeding fat on Niger Delta resources, and reports of terrifying wasteful expenditure and the conversion of every event or situation: graduation ceremonies and even COVID-19 into an opportunity to empty the people’s till, the stench from the NDDC stinks to the heavens. In the past week, we have been treated to the kind of melodrama an artist may never have imagined, complete with the stuff of a fainting fit, a failed romantic attempt, a woman scorned, and hell breaking loose and a once self-styled uncommon Governor as the deutragonist.

It is this latter part of the plot that has excited, amused and fascinated Nigerians. The protagonist is Joi Nunieh, the former Acting Managing Director of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC (October. 2019- February 2020) who left the commission rather abruptly due to a yet unproven allegation around and about her NYSC certificate and so-called “insubordination”.  In the course of a forensic audit of the agency ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, it is noteworthy that all the hidden corpses in the NDDC especially within the last one year began to show up, and some of those ghosts emerged in the form of financial sleaze and broken alliances and failed relationships. The supervising Minister of the Commission, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, a once powerful PDP chieftain, turned an APC floor member, went on television to offer his perspective on what transpired at the NDDC (he must be regretting doing so); rather than address the issues, he launched an attack on Joi Nunieh, who worked briefly as Acting Chairman of the NDDC. 

He complained about how the lady had married four husbands and called on those four men, who, if they exist at all, have lent themselves common sense and stayed off the radar. The Minister also made an allusion to Joi Nunieh’s state of health. Of course, she didn’t take it lying low. She seized the occasion with every ounce of oxygen in her body and smashed the table on which Akpabio leaned his bulky frame in the studio. In the course of her now famous interview on Arise TV, we were treated to the sub-plot of how Akpabio failing to dictate to her or control her actions adopted a “Plan B,” which is basically a plan to “entangle” her in “the other room.”  She disclosed that what the “uncommon former Governor” from Akwa Ibom State got in response was an “uncommon slap in the face”.  It must have been one of those hot, dirty, blinding slaps that result in a momentary loss of vision and a loud scream of Ye!. Akpabio as Governor used to refer to Akwa Ibom as “Gilgal.” His current travail is like a journey from Gilgal to Golgotha. He insists that Joi Nunieh is lying. He says he has asked his lawyers to go to court. 

You probably know the rest of the story: how things went downhill afterwards: the attempt to arrest Joi Nunieh at her Port Harcourt residence, a detachment of about 50 policemen knocking on the gates, smashing doors as if they were after a Colombian drug lord, Governor Nyesom Wike’s ironic, swashbuckling gallantry (can you imagine a PDP Governor protecting an APC member from members of her own party?), the sordid spectacle of the current Acting Chairman of the NDDC, Professor Keme Pondei walking out on the House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC, after practically accusing the Chair of the Committee of being an interested party in the matter, and the same Committee issuing a warrant of arrest to call Pondei to order. Earlier, the same Professor Keme Pondei allegedly disclosed how members of the IMC which he leads spent N1.8 billion on themselves alone as COVID palliative within three months! When he eventually showed up at the House of Representatives yesterday, and he was reminded that he and his colleagues had helped themselves to funds that were not covered in the approved NDDC Budget, he started fanning himself in an air-conditioned room and before anyone knew it, he slumped atop his table! His detractors argue that he was merely playing his role: an Acting MD, acting out a scene in the NDDC drama.      

Stakeholders within the NGO community who claim that they have been monitoring the NDDC for years, in fact, suggest that we haven’t seen anything yet and that if a thorough forensic audit is conducted, Nigerians will be shocked beyond their marrows. But can anything be worse than what we have seen and heard so far? These stakeholders also argue that all the drama that our eyes have seen so far is at best a distraction and an orchestrated cover up attempt. The only problem is that the Niger Delta NGO community has also been fingered in some of the stories for having received patronage from the NDDC for work not done. If indeed things get more curious, a list of beneficiary-NGOs may surface, and we may all get busy struggling to lift the veil. We should be watchful. A Professor slumped yesterday. Someone else could have a heart attack tomorrow! 

But where are the people of the Niger Delta in all of this? What are their views on the on-going controversy? They are the ones who have been short-changed the most. The NDDC, originally OMPADEC, was part of a series of policy measures including derivation, ecological fund, and infrastructure development plans to address the marginalization of the Niger Delta people, check youth restiveness in the region and promote peace and stability. Since inception, the NDDC has been managed by persons from the Niger Delta. A Ministry of the Niger Delta was also created, and to date, only persons from the Niger Delta have headed that Ministry. And yet all of these issues! The usual tendency is to say that the NDDC was designed to fail, but that is certainly not true. The goal was principled – to bring development to the Niger Delta. It will also be incorrect to say that the people have not seen any development at all.  In 1999, parts of the Niger Delta were in a complete mess. I recall visiting Yenagoa in 2000. The Governor then was the late Governor-General of the Niger Delta, the famous Diepreye Alamiyesiegha. Yenagoa, the state capital had only one visible road, which looked like something constructed in the 1960s. I saw one bank: the defunct All States Trust, I believe. And one fuel station with a broken, solitary, pump. And there was a higher education college whose female students were friendly and hospitable beyond comparison! Today, Yenagoa looks different, and the same may be said of other areas of the Niger Delta. The improvement does not go far enough, however, because the major threats to the people’s lives: critical infrastructure like the East-West Highway, environmental crisis, and unemployment remain visible. 

Governors of the Niger Delta since 1999 may claim credit for this improvement that we have seen but the perception in Nigeria is that the OMPADEC/NDDC intervention has helped to some degree resulting in the request by other regions for a similar intervention agency. Nonetheless, recent revelations that contractors and officials of the NDDC have been busy pilfering the funds of the Commission is at best stupefying, the sheer scale of it is benumbing. The N81.5 billion that was allegedly diverted within two months sounds like enough money to transform the health sector in parts of the Niger Delta in a season of COVID-19. So, this is not the time for the people of the Niger Delta to make the usual defensive point that anybody from the Niger Delta is entitled to take Niger Delta money.  The view that “it is our money taken by our children” is unacceptable. The Niger Delta struggle was based on the ideals of justice, equity, development and progress, no latter-day revisionist should impose on the people of the Niger Delta, a Barkin Zuwo philosophy. I bring this up because I have read some comments by some members of the Niger Delta elite insisting that the big issue is that the NDDC has not been properly funded and that the thing to do is to release all outstanding funds to the Commission. Is that why the trillions in contention had to be mismanaged? Is that the issue on the table? There should be a more robust conversation about the development process in the Niger Delta beyond the confusing argument that this is a conflict between “a political Niger Delta” and “a geographical Niger Delta” or that the only way forward is to throw in more money. 

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered two major audits in recent times: the audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission and that of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Both should be taken as a personal reaffirmation of his commitment to one of the major planks of his proposed legacy at the inception of his administration in 2015: that is the fight against corruption.  But beyond the anti-corruption battle, there is an emerging downside to the Buhari administration: the constant bickering, the cult of personality and the externalization of battles over territory within the government. In a Presidential democracy, a President appoints persons to assist him, he delegates authority to them and they are required to help him achieve the objectives of his administration. Under President Buhari, the in-fighting among his team conveys the impression that many of his appointees are either not interested in his own objectives or they are on a frolic of their own. We have had the Director General of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission at logger heads with the Minister of Communications over office space; Minister of Information vs. DG National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Minister of Labour and Employment vs. MD NSITF, Joy Nunieh vs Godswill Akpabio; Minister of Health vs. Executive Secretary, NHIS, AGF Malami vs EFCC Chair Magu, DSS vs. EFCC, First Lady vs. Presidential aides…all fighting-to-finish as if “Oga is not around”. They have done so much damage. Five years ago, the fear of Buhari’s war against corruption was the beginning of wisdom Today, his own appointees and political associates have messed up the message and strategy. The economy is in bad shape. The war against terror is not working… 

Whatever is happening is a wake up call and an opportunity for Mr. President to steady the ship. He needs to rescue his government from ambitious and disloyal individuals and strengthen the institutions of state. He should disband the present Interim Management Committee of the NDDC and sack the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs. The Board of the NDDC as provided for in the Enabling Act should be immediately constituted. The audit of the Commission must be totally independent without any interference. The major challenge at the NDDC is that politics has been placed above development objectives. That must change with appropriate mechanisms put in place. On the war against corruption, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) should also be audited. Thereafter, it should be merged with the EFCC. The new EFCC should then be unbundled. It should have autonomous departments: an investigation department, a prosecution department and an enforcement department, all headed separately by professionals who will not be required to report to one individual. The EFCC must also be disengaged from the Nigerian Police. Since inception, only policemen have led the EFCC. How about neutral persons or graduates of the EFCC Academy that has produced many officers who have enjoyed international training and who joined the EFCC with the hope that they were looking forward to a career? The President must restore dignity and respect to the governance process.

Who is afraid of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s nominee for the soon-to-be-vacant post of Director General of the World Trade Organization? I ask this question because over the weekend, her media adviser, my long-time colleague, Paul Nwabuikwu issued a statement in which he alleged that some “powerful and well-connected forces” in Nigeria were working hard, manufacturing controversies, and “peddling outright lies” to sabotage Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s chances for the WTO top job. Paul Nwabuikwu could not have issued that statement without Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s approval. 

Well, I am not shocked that some people would take as their own personal priority and task, sabotaging a compatriot whose elevation and success would rub off positively on Nigeria and the continent. We complain about many issues in our country, but we often overlook the fact that there are many sado-masochists in this country, complete sadists who are perpetually seeking the downfall of others. Such persons do so for a variety of reasons: their own Luciferian complex, mischief, ethnic, or religious reasons or plain wickedness to the other. Mental health preservation should become a national priority to mitigate the damage that these victims of the Lucifer Effect do to our national psyche. The sabotage that Nwabuikwu referred to has to do with an attempt to link Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala with the Indigenous Peoples Organization of Biafra (IPOB). 

The claim is that she and IPOB share the same PR Consultants, Mercury LLC in the United States. Mercury LLC is a high-profile public affairs firm in Washington DC.  I recall an encounter with some of its officials in the course of official work around 2014. I have no doubt that it is an agency that has some link with Nigeria and Nigerian interests. At that time, there was even a Nigerian who was a prominent member of the agency. It is not impossible that the agency may have done some work for IPOB, but to take a leap from that and use it to blackmail Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala does not make sense to me. Certain persons may disagree with the methods of IPOB and the style of its leadership, but self-determination is certainly not a crime. 

I have argued elsewhere on this subject that even if the matter of Biafra were to be subjected to a referendum tomorrow or any time in the future, I do not see IPOB getting enough votes to pull the South East out of Nigeria. Igbos and the rest of Nigeria are so enmeshed, so intertwined, so umbilically linked that a separation 1967-style as proposed may be more difficult today. In the same manner, I do not imagine that those who are calling for an Oduduwa Republic also assume that it would be an easy task.  Where the challenge lies is: how do we finally turn Nigeria into a nation where all groups and stakeholders can share a sense of belonging, informed by the principles of equity, justice and fairness? Nigeria as it is, is an unbalanced nation, and a theatre of injustice and inequities. These are the fault lines that promote and fuel the opportunistic resort to primordial sentiments and tactics.  Okonjo-Iweala is not a member of IPOB. Mercury LLC has said they are not involved in her WTO campaign. She has also publicly declared that she cannot even afford a PR agency. To project Nigeria’s local politics unto the canvas of her bid for the WTO top job is yet another ugly manifestation of the Nigerian factor. Who the hell is behind this? Her media adviser did not tell us. There may be need in the future to name and shame those persons who stand in the way of Nigeria’s interest on the global stage. 

This is my second newspaper commentary on the WTO and the search for a fit replacement for the Brazilian incumbent DG, Roberto Azevedo, who has chosen to leave a year earlier than scheduled. In my earlier commentary, I argued that I consider Okonjo-Iweala the best person for the job. I stand by that comment. I argued that Europe which has more or less dominated the position should not be allowed to take it again. I condemned Egypt’s opposition to Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy and called for African solidarity. I made a case for a reform of the WTO. I advised further that the Nigerian Government should deploy diplomacy at the highest levels to support Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s aspiration, having chosen to nominate her – a good move, coming also at a time when the President openly supported Akinwunmi Adesina, the Nigerian President of the African Development Bank who is seeking a second term in office. Many Nigerians accuse President Muhammadu Buhari of sectionalism, nepotism and specifically, of Northern-mindedness but the support that he has shown for both Okonjo-Iweala and Adesina is perhaps indicative of a change of style.  

But where are we at the moment? When I wrote the piece earlier referred to (see “Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO and Africa’s Chances”, THISDAY, back-page, Tuesday, June 16, 2020), there were just three candidates, but the list has since expanded. We now have a total of eight candidates vying for the position of the WTO Director-General, namely Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Nigeria), Ms Yoo Myung-Hee (South Korea), Tudor Ulianovschi (Moldova), Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh (Egypt), Jesus Seade Kuri (Mexico), Ms. Amina C. Mohammed (Kenya), Dr. Liam Fox (United Kingdom), and Mohammad Mazia al-Tualjri (Saudi Arabia).  Just take a look at that list. I don’t know what Liam Fox is doing there. But check again. Only Africa has three candidates! Many African leaders, and particularly the ECOWAS, have expressed support for Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, but only Africa has three candidates in the contest! Nigeria’s foreign affairs is guided by the principle that Africa is the centre-piece of the country’s foreign policy process. Accordingly, Nigeria has done so much for Africa, but whenever Nigeria’s interest is involved, other African countries are ever so eager to sabotage Nigeria and the interest of its citizens be it at multilateral, bilateral or citizen-to-citizen levels. Perhaps the time has come for the Father Christmas character of Nigeria’s foreign policy process to be reviewed.  Of what use is the country’s benevolence to other African nations if we can not pull our weight and exert influence in return for the enormous goodwill we invest? 

It is safe, however, to assume that the treatment we receive outside is a measure of how we treat ourselves shabbily within. Of all the eight candidates vying for the position of WTO Director-General, only Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has had cause to protest that she is being sabotaged by some of her “powerful and well-connected” compatriots.  When I called on the Nigerian Government to mobilise resources to support her nomination, I had hoped that by now, there will be an Inter-Ministerial Committee in place that will be all over the WTO space to solicit support for Nigeria. I also expected that despite COVID-19, President Buhari would have sent envoys to ask for the support of other countries. What I have seen and I stand to be corrected, is Dr. Okonjo-Iweala doing all the campaigns by herself, up to the point that she has had to cry out. Some people in government just don’t draw the line between personal issues and the national interest. The other day, one character in government disclosed that Mustapha Chike-Obi had been asked to talk to the Americans to lobby them to support AFDB Akin Adesina’s re-election. Who is the nitwit who thought that was something to disclose publicly? What was that in aid of? Even if Nigeria wants to lobby the United States and ask for fairness, must that be in the public domain? 

We need to get our acts together. To go back to the WTO matter, the selection process has become far more competitive than it was in June. This week, I understand the WTO General Council will begin to interview the eight candidates. Nigeria still has a chance to stand up for its candidate. I remain convinced that Nigeria deserves the position and that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is an excellent choice.       

Last week in this column, I wrote a tail-piece titled “Nimi Akinkugbe and the Indigeneship Question” (July 7). The substance of it was the nomination of Mrs Nimi Akinkugbe, a Rivers State indigene, who has been nominated by President Muhammdau Buhari as a non-career ambassador, to represent her husband’s state, Ondo. A group of Ondo youths kicked against her nomination claiming that she has no right to represent Ondo State.  Can a married woman represent her husband’s state in a public position? What should be the proper definition of indigeneship in Nigeria?  Should any Nigerian be classified as an “alien” in any part of the country? I got some reactions in my mailbox. I will like to share just three of those reactions. The authors raise salient questions that may provide an opportunity for a further interrogation of the subject:  

Good afternoon, Dr. Abati,  

I trust you are good. As the subject of this email suggests I am responding to the short piece in yesterday’s This Day (July 7).  I believe the subject is big and there is need to further interrogate the issues for a more robust position.  That piece as short as it is amplified some of the contradictions inherent and indeed the complexities of the subject matter. A few examples: 

The proposed amendment that would grant a married woman the right to the indigeneship of her husband which was referenced in the piece in my view reinforces the reality of indigeneship as a starting point!  A married woman would by virtue of being married acquire dual indigeneship and then get an advantage over unmarried women? Would that not be discrimination based on marital status? What would that do to the prospect of men if population numbers swell by marriage?

Also if the essence of Federal Character is to ensure an even spread of opportunities across the Federation then the Ondo State Youths may be justified in kicking against the nomination of an' Ondo wife' as the only candidate from Ondo State. Some States got 2 or 3 nominees. Rivers State already got a 'daughter of the soil or should that be daughter of the oil/waters' nominee, Mrs Akinkugbe by extension is a second nomination for Rivers especially as the law remains what it is concerning married women. A few other questions that should concern us regarding this matter; If the reason of nominating the woman is for gender balance is it that there is no woman of Ondo State origin that qualifies?  Is it not giving Rivers State 2 positions and Ondo none? Would the nominee’s 'Ondo children ' be entitled to and be afforded such opportunities in their mother’s River State? Knowing how things usually play out in Nigeria would a woman upon completing a term as a 'wife indigene' be able to seek opportunities for the same thing or something else in her State of Origin? Should the extent of a woman's socialisation in her husband's place of origin count? For example, if  a Yoruba woman married to an Ibibio man speaks fluent Efik would that help or perhaps if the couple live in the locality and the wife is more active, productive to the community than the husband? Would men also be able to acquire the indigeneship of their wife (ves)?

Let me say here that I am a Lagos indigene (from Idumota and my mum from Brazilian quarters/Epetedo).  I am married to an Ikorodu indigene whose both parents hail from Ikorodu. However, I know for certain that if an opportunity within the State is allocated to Ikorodu. I would be unable to take up such a slot even if I qualify many times over. My Lagos Island origin would preclude me. To be fair, should I really be able to take up that slot on account of being married? and my sister or brother would take up the other slot for Idumota? What would be the fate of my children who do not have the benefit of alternative state? The merit question is not in contention in this reaction. I ask that brilliant minds should do more work on this subject as it is a minefield.

F. K. Dawodu (Mrs)

Nigerian Mother  

Citizen Advocate

Re: Indigeneship Question 

I hope you are aware that when President Goodluck Jonathan nominated Mrs. Mobola Johnson as Minister, Ondo people protested that she could not take the slot for Ondo State because she was married to a Lagosian, the son of Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson. This was regardless of the fact that her father, Chief Bayo Akinola was the Lisa of Ondo!! Both Nimi and Yinka are my friends. But the issue is beyond that. Why not Yinka? Why not Nimi for Rivers State? In this particular case not only is Mrs Nimi Akinkugbe the daughter of late Mr. Ajumogobia who was Vice- Principal of King's College, Lagos. Her husband, Yinka is also an Old Boy of King's College!!  The matter is settled in her favour.

Bashorun J. K. Randle

Chairman, International Chartered Accountants

It is indeed illegal and unconstitutional to turn any Nigerian into a "foreigner" in any part of the country......."  But it has happened before, most recently when authorities in both the South-East and the South-West laid siege at their respective borders to prevent what were clearly migrant seasonal workers from entering those states. Calling them criminals and an advance force for Boko Haram, etc. Even now, a similar injustice has taken place in Cross River State where governor and State House of Assembly refused to appoint the proper person to the office of Chief Judge because she was from neighbouring Akwa Ibom though married to a Cross Riverian. With children.

If former Zamfara State governor Ahmed Sani Yerima did any good it was when he refused advice not to appoint a non-indigene woman Justice to the office of Chief Judge. If only the campaign against these egregious actions can be sustained across the board, irrespective of religion or ethnicity.

Muhammed Tukur Usman

A year ago, Mele Kolo Kyari was named as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He succeeded Maikanti Baru, now of blessed memory. On July 8, 2019, the then incoming GMD made the following promises: (i) There will be no corruption without discretion. We will work with all shareholders within the NNPC group to ensure there is no discretion in the system; (ii) We will build this company to enable it to compete with its global peers. We are not saying we will not make mistakes along the way, but we will not make deliberate mistakes. (iii) We will deliver all our four refineries within the life of President Buhari’s administration. We shall seek strategic partnerships to ensure Nigeria becomes a net exporter of petroleum products.” Within two months of settling down in office, Mele Kyari further reiterated the goals of his tenure. One year later, how has he fared? Is the NNPC better today than it was at the point he took over the helms of authority? Has he been faithful to his promises? This is the focus of this brief, preliminary interrogation of his first year in office. I intend to be fair but I will also raise questions.   

Mele Kyari’s main achievement in the last year should be the efforts that he has made to create a peaceful environment for team work, efficient communication and collaboration within and outside the NNPC system. His tenure so far has been without rancor, dispute or the kind of unnecessary drama that characterized his predecessor’s time in office. There was no love lost at any time between Dr. Ibe Kachikwu as Minister of State for Petroleum and Maikanti Baru as GMD of the NNPC. I stand to be corrected. Baru succeeded Dr. Kachikwu as GMD and when Kachikwu became Minister of State, both worked largely at cross purposes. Baru reportedly had the support of the Villa and the late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari. Mele Kyari assumed office in July. In August 2019, President Buhari named Timipre Sylva as Minister of State for Petroleum. Kyari and Minister Sylva seem to have a much better working relationship. Kyari seems to be doing a better job of managing internal politics. He also seems to be doing a good job of managing relationships with stakeholder communities. Within a few weeks of assuming office, for example, he was able to broker peace between Shell/Belema Oil, operators of OML 25 and the oil well’s host community in Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. Crude oil production activities in the community have since resumed. Brokering peace with oil bearing communities however is a task that the NNPC should remain focused upon. In the absence of a mutually acceptable framework to address the interest of host communities, and the failure of the National Assembly to enact the Petroleum Industry Bill, the people of the Niger Delta will remain aggrieved, and they are not keeping quiet at all. Kyari and the NNPC need to do more in this regard.  

Kyari promised transparency and accountability. One year later, he can claim to have scored big in this regard with the release in June 2020, of the 2018 Audited Financial Statement of the NNPC. The statement covered all the 20 plus subsidiaries in the NNPC group. It was the first time in 43 years NNPC accounts would be audited and published for scrutiny. Before then unaudited monthly financial and operational reports were published but Kyari is the first Group Managing Director to subject the accounts to an independent audit. The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency International (NEITI) and other industry watchers who had consistently insisted that NNPC’s opaqueness and inefficiency was unacceptable were understandably pleased that for the first time in four decades, the NNPC is willing to render audited accounts. But, ironically, the published audited accounts exposed the very reason why previous GMDs failed to toe the same line. The revelations are damning, if not surprising. It was disclosed for example that the country’s four refineries have all been running at a loss. The Kaduna Refinery in particular did not earn any income during the period of the audit. In 2018 alone, the Kaduna Refinery recorded zero revenue. Zero! And yet it reported an operating cost of N65 billion. What! In other words, Nigeria spent that amount on that refinery and got nothing in return. How about that as a business model? 

This question is important. When he assumed office, Kyari promised to fix the refineries before 2023. In 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party, promised to fix one refinery per year. Five years later, where are we? The children of the workers in those refineries today, can their own children work there in the future given the present state of the assets? The truth is that government has no capacity anymore to manage those refineries. The thing to do is to release them to the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) for privatization. The point has been well made over the years that if the refineries work and there is efficient local refining of crude, Nigeria would save cost and Nigerians won’t have to pay N143 per litre for petrol!. In a recent report by Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), we are told that Nigeria wastes valuable funds importing “low quality” and “dirty” petrol from European refineries whereas it can do much better locally. The report reveals that the bush, illegal, artisanal refineries in the Niger Delta produce even much better fuel. Does this make sense? There is no reason why Nigerians should be placed at the mercy of so-called market realities and made to pay through their nose for a natural resource that is in their own backyard. I have said my bit. But going forward, what is Mele Kyari’s strategy? What does he intend to do? 

Mele Kyari promised to increase crude oil production. He has been able to do so. Under his watch as NNPC GMD, in the last year, crude oil production reached about 2.3 million barrels per day at a point.  The fortunes of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Corporation (NPDC), the corporation’s flagship upstream company also improved. NNPC also executed the NPDC OML 65 project which should generate more revenue and create jobs in the areas of operation. This however has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the shut-down of the global supply chain and various industries, oil producers were faced with demand and supply disruptions. In April 2020, OPEC+ agreed to cut global output by a record amount of about 10% of global supply. COVID-19 reduced demand for oil, and drove down oil prices.  Storage tanks were full; there were no off-takers. The impact on oil-dependent economies like Nigeria was devastating. Nigeria’s 2020 budget which was benchmarked at $57 per barrel had to be revised more than thrice. Low oil prices meant lower revenue for Nigeria. COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability and fragility of Nigeria’s mono-cultural economy. It is interesting, however, to see the NNPC actively involved in the on-going conversations about how Nigeria now more than ever, needs to address this challenge. 

Further, Mele Kyari as part of his one-year score card can include the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Train 7 of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) which was taken in November 2019. The project has been on the table for years. Kyari led the negotiations to a decision stage. The NLNG is one of the most successful business models in Africa. It is expected to generate over $20 billion revenue and over 50,000 direct and indirect jobs. Nigeria may need to consider the same model for moving the NNPC to a higher level. It is also under Kyari’s watch that the AKK gas pipeline project which had been in the pipeline since the 80s was finally commissioned!  Kyari also promised in 2019, to leverage on technology and innovation. Our investigation reveals that the downstream arm of NNPC operations – the buying and selling of petroleum products - is heavily digitized under Kyari, resulting in a significant reduction of human interface and bureaucratic red tape. Marketers can now see inventories across 22 depots and make appropriate decisions based on real-time data. NNPC Retail is also digitized to enhance service delivery. While this is another case of promise made and kept, it is worth noting that many stakeholders and observers are uncomfortable with the NNPC’s seeming “monopoly” of the downstream sector, and rightly so. They insist that the NNPC should operate upstream and leave the downstream sector for private investors. 

Between 2002 and now, private investors have invested so much in the importation of finished products and the building of tank farms and fuel stations. Their expectation was that government was serious about its decision to deregulate the downstream sector. But today, deregulation is essentially a myth. Shortly after the deregulation plan, the NNPC took over the downstream sector. It began to build petrol stations, and established a retail company. Private sector investors in the downstream sector have since learnt that they cannot compete with the NNPC. They borrow money at high interest rates to do business. NNPC uses government money. To worsen matters, another government agency, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) fixes the price at which marketers can sell. Both the NNPC and the PPPRA exercise a monopoly of discretionary power to the disadvantage of other players in the market.  This is probably the reason why other stakeholders, notably Total and Exxon Mobil are cautious.  Is this conflict between NNPC mega stations and private fuel stations something Mele Kyari would like to address?  

Under him, NNPC has also shown a great level of corporate responsibility. NNPC operations may have been affected by the Corona virus pandemic, nonetheless the corporation has contributed to the efforts to mitigate the impact on the people. This includes the launch of a Petroleum Industry Intervention Fund, which attracted a pledge of N21 billion, and is being used to fund medical interventions across the country’s six geo-political zones:  notably the on-going construction of an Infectious Diseases Hospital in Maiduguri, Borno State, and partnership with ThisDay Media Group, Sahara Energy, the CBN and others to build the 230-bed ThisDay COVID-19 isolation, recovery and treatment centre in Abuja. 

I rate Kyari highly but on the whole, the big elephant in the room at the NNPC is the urgent need for wholesale reform. The institution itself is in need of a shake up and a shake down. A much leaner and efficient NNPC focusing on the upstream sector may be of more strategic value than a corporation that is over-stretched across the oil and gas value chain.