Once again, the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission imposed a heavy-handed fine on Channels TV, following a petition by an aide of Bola Tinubu. Ironically, the petition was based on some comment by the Labour Party vice presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed who, during a live interview, said something to the effect that swearing Tinubu into office in May would “end” democracy in Nigeria. This not-so-subtle manipulation of a state agency by the aides of an incoming president signals a pattern of power abuse that will only worsen.

Baba-Ahmed was wrong to the extent he assumed that swearing in the beneficiary of a flawed election would be the death of Nigeria’s democracy. No, that is not how the end will come. Democracy will be squelched to death in the hands of executioners claiming statesmanship; its end will be from the chokehold of maniac politicians whose bid to make the polity conducive for their characteristic lawlessness will drive them to use the instruments of democracy to undermine democracy.

If their obsessive focus with the Labour Party presidential candidate and his followers in the aftermath of the election process proves anything, it is that these declared winners are bothered. The resolute existence of the Obi-dients delays—and therefore denies—the legitimacy of the APC. That is why, though they won an election, they can hardly settle to enjoy their victory. They remain stuck on their opponent’s popularity. So acutely are these supposed winners unsettled by the Obi-dients, an army of self-motivated political contenders with a narrative capacity that substantially upends the Tinubu propaganda machine, that they are not even discussing the future under their government. Their mad preoccupation with making the Obi-dients go away will drive them to break many things, chief of which will be democracy itself.

Unfortunately, they will be indulged by agencies like the NBC who, like most Nigerian public institutions, lack autonomy. The NBC’s media arbitrating activities tend towards a studious calculation of partisanship politics that favour them personally rather than any well-considered principles of how media houses in a democratic society should run. Previously, I have pointed out the anachronism of agencies like the NBC in the age of liberalised media and global media technology. Their duties were meaningful in bygone eras when the government controlled the media and when the military ran the country.

The NBC code made sense at the time because you could rightly claim that since most people were exposed to a narrow range of media options, it was possible to manipulate society.

Now we live in an era where people’s media options are not only endless, but audience-ship itself has become quite fragmented. Hardly any media can claim primary influence over public opinion. The agenda-setting feature of the media is easily contested now, and the traditional ways we imagine media influence have changed forever. Communication is no longer between the media houses and the people sitting inside their homes watching TV or listening to the radio. The world we live in now is overrun with infinite sources of information, a chaotic field of endless chatter where people are more energised to talk than even listen.

Despite all these massive shifts happening in the media, the NBC insists on micromanaging media content (and even for private enterprises). To an extent, the high-handed manner they hand out fines to media houses based on some nebulous idea of what threatens the polity suggests they struggle with re-imagining their relevance in the 21st century. When you hear some NBC officials speak on their expectations of media “objectivity,” you know these guys are still stuck on old ideas. They are still regurgitating textbooks written by dead white guys (whose scions have long revisited those old ideas in the light of new realities!).

They seem incapable of rethinking and revising their roles to make themselves more relevant in the contemporary era, and that is why a serial petitioner like Bayo Onanuga could use them to run partisan errands. He knows he can send an agency like the NBC the message of a slave, and they will not summon enough wit to deliver it with the nobility of a freeborn. Their frigidity and the abject lack of moral reflexivity will end democracy faster than any comment by a single politician on a live television show.

Let nobody be fooled, our modern world is complex; it will take much more than Datti-Ahmed’s comments about ending democracy in Nigeria to incite people to the insurrection that will truly end democracy. Nigerian politicians base their media regulation antics on the conviction that the impulses of the people they insistently impoverish can only be stimulated into violent action by the media. They insist media regulation is equal to social tranquillity. Nothing can be more delusional.

Does the media tell the people what and how to think, or it is those who already harbour certain thoughts and grievances who are drawn to specific media channels to affirm their ideas? If the media exercises so much power over people’s will, how come the NTA that dedicates its contents to pacifying impulses has not succeeded in whipping us in line? Hardly anybody—not even the most virulent APC supporter—watches NTA. The version of Nigeria the NTA sells resonates with almost no one, not even government officials. The fact that those who complain loudest about a broadcast station like Arise TV and its unruly anchor are still stuck on the channel is more telling about the nature of news viewership.

As for the media houses who will be the target of these power drunks in the coming months, I hope they know better than grovel. Despite all the claims the media makes about informing and enlightening the populace, they are still—at the end of the day—a business. They ought to be free to exercise initiatives that help their enterprise without worrying that clueless civil servants will frustrate them with stupid fines. So, next time, before interviewing a guest likely to say controversial things, they should first write the NBC a cheque equivalent to the annual salary of their DG and send it ahead. Then go ahead and interview the person. If the NBC’s nostrum is issuing an invoice each time your initiatives run counter to their small-minded partisanship, then meet them halfway by buying off their nuisance.

Another option is to go to court and challenge the NBC code altogether. The open-ended nature of the code makes the media vulnerable to bad-faith actors who will continue to (mis)interpret its recommendations either to shrink public discourse or to deflect from their incapabilities. Any attempt to pacify vandalisers of civic freedoms will only make the media culpable in their own abuse. Do not let them diminish you; do not yield your freedom to these myrmidons of darkness whose actions do far more to infuse darkness into Nigeria’s democracy. Evil is implacable. You can only triumph when you beam the light.

Finally, is it not interesting that Onanuga, who earned his professional credibility for standing up to the military government’s clampdown on press freedom, is manifesting the same tendency under a democratic government? He could have asked Channels TV for an opportunity to refute Datti-Ahmed’s arguments, but no, he had to play the tyrant. It makes you wonder, did those activists of yesteryear stand up to those abusers of humanity because they once believed in human freedom or simply because they wanted to usurp their power? Did the military government pursue these one-time activists because they saw them as a threat to their dictatorial rule or because they saw through their pretences? On days like this, I imagine that from the interior of a hilltop mansion somewhere in Minna an old dictator watches these democratic tyrants adorn their little feet with his old jackboots. Observing them traipse the creaky floorboards of history, he roars with laughter at the uncanniness of a history repeating itself as tragedy and farce simultaneously.

The dust is yet to settle on Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu’s “political rascal” statement. Today, we present, with slight editing, the views of respected Professor Olabode Lucas on the burning issue; titled “The verbal sparks from Awka”; enjoy it:

“Penultimate Saturday, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the brilliant economist turned politician, rolled out the drums to celebrate his one year in office as the governor of Anambra State and, in doing so, tried to showcase the achievements of his administration during the one year. The occasion was attended by eminent personalities in and outside the state and they included Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president who Governor Soludo affectionately referred to as ‘my Baba.’ There was no doubt that Soludo wanted as much publicity as he could get for the event. Yes, eventually the event got more publicity than what the governor had bargained for because the speech by the chairman of the occasion, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, generated a lot of controversy. In his speech, Iwuanyanwu referred to the Yoruba people, who are in conflict with his Igbo people in Lagos, as ‘political rascals.’ This speech has caused a lot of political sparks and deepened the current seemingly unbridgeable animosity and suspicion between the Igbo and the Yoruba people which, unfortunately, has been festering since the colonial era.

“Chief Iwuanyanwu, who is the chairman, Council of Elders Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, used these derogatory words against the Yoruba people in front of a mainly Igbo audience who cheered him enthusiastically. Obasanjo was in this audience and many people expected him to berate Iwuanyanwu for his undiplomatic language but, instead, he praised the chief for his role in helping him to form his first cabinet in 1999. In addition, in his speech Obasanjo threw his own verbal salvo when he alluded that the Igbo people were being subjected to Igbophobia.

"Chief Iwuanyanwu’s effusion at Awka was a continuation of unending suspicion that has characterized the relationship between the Igbo and the Yoruba ever since the British brought the two ethnic groups together in a country. Although the two ethnic groups were in the forefront of the struggle for the independence of the country, this was not sufficient to prevent them from being at each other’s throat on some contentious issues. All efforts to bring the two groups together politically as we saw in the recent move to initiate a ‘handshake across the Niger’ have always ended in failure because of the deep-seated suspicion between the two ethnic groups.

“During the colonial era, the theatre for the antagonism between the two groups was in Lagos, the then capital of the country where most of the political activities in the country took place. The Igbo people met the Yoruba people in Lagos as a highly sophisticated, enlightened group who were well educated. The Yoruba people were dominant in virtually all the sectors such as education, commerce and the civil service. This, no doubt, bred resentment and the Igbo with determination decided to catch up. The late Chinua Achebe, the literary guru of Igbo descent, in his book ‘There Was a Country’ had this to say on how the Igbo bridged the gap between them and the Yoruba: ‘The Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head-start; but the Igbo wiped their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950’. This touted achievement of the Igbo people by Achebe made the then Ibo State Union in one of its conferences to refer to the Yoruba ‘as a decadent race’

“Where did the rain start to beat the two ethnic groups? Contentious issues that divided the two groups during the colonial era probably had their beginning with the inability of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo man, to become in 1952 the Leader of Government Business/Premier of Western Nigeria, which was a region populated mainly by the Yoruba people. The Igbo people felt that Azikiwe, who was their idol, and his party, the NCNC, were deprived of victory by the Yoruba-dominated Action Group party. Since that time, an average Igbo person had not forgiven what they erroneously termed ‘the betrayal of 1952’. Many independent commentators had faulted the assertion that Azikiwe won the election of 1952 and even Azikiwe himself in his book titled ‘My Odyssey’ did not claim to have won the election. However, the defunct West African Pilot continued to propagate this falsehood for many years.

“The status of Lagos was another issue that also divided the Igbo and the Yoruba during the colonial era. At the 1953 constitutional conference, delegates from the then Eastern Region who were mainly Igbo made it clear at the conference that they regarded Lagos, the country’s capital, as ‘no man’s land’ despite the fact that a prominent Igbo political scientist, Kalu Ezera, had, in his book, previously referred to Lagos as a ‘Yoruba town’. The Igbo people and the NCNC, which they supported massively, succeeded at that conference to get Lagos, a Yoruba town, as the Federal Capital Territory. This arrangement, which continued until 1967 when Lagos State was created by Gowon’s administration, was resented by the majority of Yoruba people with their slogan ‘Lagos belongs to the West’.

“The antagonism between the Igbo and the Yoruba during the colonial era was fuelled by the newspapers owned by the two groups. The West African Pilot owned and edited by Nnamdi Azikiwe defended the Igbo cause and aspirations while the Daily Service edited by H.O Davies and later by S. L. Akintola was the Yoruba’s mouth-piece. The West African Pilot at every opportunity denigrated Yoruba leaders like Kofo Abayomi, Adeyemo Alakija, Akinola Maja, H.O. Davies, Akintola, and F. R. A. Williams. The West African Pilot through its editorials and news items built up the Igbo as a master race and projected Nnamdi Azikiwe as the only leader worthy of emulation in the nationalistic struggle. The Daily Service, while projecting the Yoruba cause, was less vitriolic.

"The suspicion and antagonism between the two groups was probably responsible for the refusal of Nnamdi Azikiwe to form a pre-Independence coalition government with Chief Obafemi Awolowo that could have ushered in independence for the country despite the intervention of President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. The arrangement could have made Azikiwe the first prime minister of independent Nigeria; instead, he opted to be a ceremonial president in an NPC/NCNC coalition government.

“The political antagonism between the Igbo and the Yoruba continued after independence. The main political tendency in Yoruba land was kept out of government for a considerable length of time from 1954 to 1964 at the time when the NCNC formed the coalition government with the NPC at the federal level. During this period, the Igbo dominated the federal government and cornered juicy contracts, appointments and scholarships to themselves. The same scenario was enacted in 1979 when the NPP, a party dominated by the Igbo people, had a working arrangement with the NPN.

"The Igbo came back from the civil war with a lot of resentment and bitterness for the Yoruba people because of the role they perceived was played by the Yoruba and their leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The Igbo people believed that the policies initiated by Chief Awolowo as Commissioner of Finance during the war brought about the collapse of Biafra. Many Igbo also felt that the Yoruba should have joined them in bringing an end to Nigeria. The Igbo showed their resentment to Awolowo by giving him less than one percent of the votes cast in their region during the 1979 presidential election. All in all, for most of the political events since independence, the Igbo and the Yoruba have always been at opposite sides to each other.

“In all these disputations between the Igbo and the Yoruba, the Igbo have always presented themselves as victims and that is why some of their leaders throw occasional verbal salvos like the one thrown by Chief Iwuanyanwu at Awka to denigrate the Yoruba people and their leaders. That is why Nnamdi Kanu could call on EndSARS protesters from his cell to destroy properties of Yoruba people in Lagos. The Yoruba, though not perfect and have faults of their own, have been very accommodating to the Igbo people with the opportunity given to them to prosper immensely in Yoruba land. The Yoruba people claim with justification that there is no reciprocity for their good gestures from the Igbo people.

“Whatever is the situation between the two groups, they have to accommodate each other as long as they belong to this geographical entity called Nigeria, which is yet to become a nation in the true sense of the word. For now, I cannot see an end to these disputes as more destructive verbal salvos like the recent one from Chief Iwuanyanwu would still come from the leaders of the two ethnic groups to denigrate one another”.

The above is from Professor Lucas, who writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan. Other views on this contentious issue are welcome!

What I have read – at least, thus far – this morning, extracted from a one-and-a-half long interview, conducted  a week ago with Channels Television, brings once more to the fore, the critical responsibility of the media in transmitting the spoken, even recorded – word to the public. This is especially crucial in a time of civic uncertainty. When remarks are taken out of context, spliced into a new one, provided a sensational headline, distortions become stamped on public receptivity, and the central intent of one’s remarks becomes completely unrecognisable.

I denounced the menacing utterances of a vice-presidential aspirant as unbecoming. It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity. But what on earth has happened to my even more urgent condemnation of the physical violence inflicted on those designated “strangers” in Lagos in the lead up to, and during governorship elections? This prejudicial selectivity is a betrayal of trust, and I find it contemptuous of public deserving. My critique of incipient fascism in the movement remains grounded in indisputable evidence. Throughout the interview, I continued to stress that the final word had yet to be pronounced on the elections – that omission renders the full message tendentious!

My rejection of fascism is nothing new. On three occasions, I was able to send a message to Peter Obi that if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him. It was depressing to watch his lieutenant, a crucially positioned voice of a movement that has “broken the mould”, threaten the totality of social existence. Whatever our ideological leaning, is Donald Trump the ideal template for a burgeoning democracy in the nation?

On a minor note, I remain concerned by the alleged complaint by me of people not following “instructions”. If words are garbled in recording, the speaker can be reached for clarification – else, simply leave out the unclear section completely to avoid misrepresentation. After all, piecemeal transmission is legitimate proceeding, as long as a part is not presented as the whole. I am not a member of the Labour Party, so how can giving ‘instructions’ become my role? Like a number of others, I have admittedly contributed to the making of this moment – going back several years – and it is painful to have the followers of such a movement, send it slithering backwards and down the fascistic slope. 

I hope Channels plans to provide the entire interview.  After months of having to endure total fabrications of partisan utterances that are strange to me, even in their very choice of words, it is most aggravating to have this, the first I have conceded in my authenticated person, casually subjected to selective editing and dissemination.

Let us play by the rules of mutual obligation, or else abandon public discourse altogether.

‘Wole SOYINKA is the first Black Nobel Laureate in Literature.a

Real losers of 2023 Nigerian general elections are not the electorate who were deprived of their rights to freely choose candidates of their choice nor the first-timer youth who were disappointed by the Nigerian state nor the candidates who lost or won as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The biggest losers are President Muhammadu Buhari, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigeria as a political entity.  Except for Bola Tinubu who carries the burden of legitimacy arising from flawed process and total miniature votes garnered, the others will live with scar and collective guilt slammed on the country by ethical deficit in delivery process of the elections.

With general disenchantment over the conduct of the 2023 Nigerian general elections by over 145,000 national and foreign observers deployed across the country, INEC failed to leave a split opinion on its capacity to conduct a free, fair and credible elections, a development that will hunt Mahood Yakubu, Mohammed Buhari and Nigeria for a long time to come.  The exercise was not only a horrendous phenomenon on the psyche of Nigerians but a fleeting nightmare.  

A consensus negative opinion on the flawed elections by European Union, African Union, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Commonwealth, The International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), Joint Election Observation Mission (IEOM), four former African presidents, and Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), is an affirmation of global skepticism about Nigeria’s reputation.  They all concluded that the electoral process lacked transparency, which encouraged manipulations and undermined voters’ confidence.

This trust deficit was also highlighted by Chatham House when it declared that INEC had learnt nothing from its past failures.  Specifically, it said, “The INEC’s performance and controversies over these results mean that the electoral reforms and lessons declared to have been learned were not fully applied and, as an electoral body, it was significantly less prepared than it claimed.”

As a consequence of these opinions, President Buhari might have missed the opportunity to etch his name in gold over his failure to provide a secured and enabling environment for free, fair and credible elections.  As Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he failed to optimally use his offices, including effective deployment of the police, army, DSS, and other security agencies to protect voters during the elections.

Nigerians were mortified by horrendous images of election violations, and no rationalization could justify such criminal acts.  An election where about 27 persons were killed nationwide over violence, ballot snatching, thuggery, voters’ suppression, ethnic bigotry, use of tribal gods and deities, even in the presence of security operatives in some instances, can only be a national shame.   

Besides, whatever is left of Buhari’s legacy might have been further weakened by the naira redesign and currency swap policy which brought untold hardship to citizens during period of the elections.  Perhaps, the intention of the policy was to eliminate monetary inducement and vote buying, unfortunately, Buhari and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, were outwitted by politicians through use of extra-constitutional and procedural means to contrive and achieve sinister objectives.

For the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, there might be no second opportunity to redeem his character.  With a budget of over N305 billion and other sundry support, he had no reasons to have failed.  Yakubu gave assurances in both local and international events, including Chatham House, of his Commission’s preparedness, pledging that with use of technology, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), results would be transmitted in real-time to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

These assertions receded into irrelevance when INEC failed to comply with the Electoral Act and its own guidelines.  The Electoral Act, 2022, requires INEC to upload the elections of polling units in its portal as stipulated in Section 60 (5) and Clause 38 of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines.

Specifically, Clause 38 of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022 states: “Upon completion of all the Polling Unit voting and results, procedures, the Presiding Officer shall:-(i) Electronically transmit or transfer the result of the Polling Unit direct to the collation system as prescribed by the commission. (ii) Use BVAS to upload a scan of ES8A to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), as prescribed by the commission. (iii) Take the BVAS and the original copy of each of the forms in tamper-evident envelope to the Registration Area/Ward Collation Officer, in the company of security agents. The polling agents may accompany the Presiding Officer to the RA/Ward Collation Centre.”

With non-compliance and deviation from these regulatory provisions, INEC opened the electoral process to manipulations, resulting in lack of justice and fulfilment for voters.  

These violations have exposed existential gaps in the capacity of Mahmood Yakubu to deliver on a significant national assignment.  This might cast aspersion on his reputation and capabilities.  Indeed, this election is a minus for his profile, as no government or any serious organisation may want to bequeath him with such responsibilities in future.  

Unfortunately, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, is a product of INEC’s flawed process, and this has triggered legitimacy challenge that is further fueled by lean number of votes secured at the election relative to total votes cast.  Tinubu polled 8.87 million (the least by any presidential candidate since 1999), representing 36.61 per cent of total votes, and 10.08 per cent of all eligible voters.  Out of approximately 93 million registered voters, only about 25 million, representing 28.63 percent, actually turned out to vote.

Implicitly, Bola Tinubu was not only elected by minority voters when viewed against 25 million persons that voted, and in a country of over 200 million people, skepticism resulting from INEC’s multiple irregularities are unhelpful to his presidency.  Perhaps, this accounts for the absence of national pomp and celebration that would have heralded his victory.   

Without prejudice to outcome of current litigation, going forward, Bola Tinubu should activate his social capital to open up channels across to influential groups and personalities in the country, including his political rivals aimed at legitimizing his presidency, and achieving unity through formation of all-inclusive government.

INEC’s performance has also rubbed off on Nigeria’s image as a corrupt country.  Through the foreign observers, perception of the international community about Nigeria as a corrupt country might have worsen on account of their opinions over lack of transparency and operational failures that characterized INEC’s performance.  

In the 2022 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Nigeria was ranked 150 out of 180 countries, and also placed as second most corrupt country in West Africa.  By INEC’s standard and performance, it has unwittingly further confirmed Nigeria as a corrupt country, and deepened global negative impressions.

Nigeria lost the opportunity to demonstrate before the world of its preparedness to be a leading light in Africa and world affairs, using the elections as spring board to exhibit its leadership potentials and capacity.  Hopes for these attainments have, however, been frustrated and shattered by INEC.

Besides, with world’s attention on Nigeria as connoted by presence of foreign observers, Nigeria should have used the elections as public relations tool to strengthen the country’s image through conduct of free, fair and credible election under a transparent atmosphere. This would have left foreign observers rattled as to Nigeria’s new values and ethical orientation.

It was an event Nigeria should have used to shore-up its dwindling reputation.  It is more effective than image-laundering programme where huge amount of money in foreign currencies is budgeted for public relations and reputation management.  With good image, Nigerians’ dignity and respect would be restored, and largely put an end to discrimination at border posts in foreign countries.   

This experience should serve as a lesson on the need to be transparent in conduct of future elections.  Former American President, Jimmy Carter, who was in Nigeria in the past to observe elections vowed never to observe elections in Nigeria again after his ugly experience of brazen violation of electoral process. He was upset with the impunity with which politicians used thuggery to deprive electorate from freely voting for candidates of their choice.  

It is hoped that Nigeria will not allow a repeat of this ugly experience.  It is time to make political offices unattractive to discourage desperation which is the underpinning motive for all these electoral atrocities.    The electoral body should be reformed and repositioned with people of integrity as drivers aimed at restoring electoral integrity.

Dr. Mike Owhoko, Lagos-based journalist and author

One basic identifier of a society desirable of advancement is how it treats its most vulnerable, the very old and the very young. Over the years, Nigeria has proved beyond any form of doubt, that it is not ready for such responsibility. That is why as a people, we have learnt nothing from some of the unavoidable tragedies we have experienced in recent times. And there is no evidence that things are likely to change, at least from the way we have handled the most recent tragic events.

Throughout history, most of the cutting edge safety measures were developed as responses to fatal accidents, that is how societies have been forced to learn as it becomes hard to predict with certainty where the next accident is going to happen. That is why in more organized societies, leaders have open minds with accidents and other related mishaps so they can learn how to prevent such in future.

The recent death of 12 year old Whitney Adeniran in circumstances that can be described as both unfortunate and regrettable has added yet another blot on how careless we are in managing emergencies. While we were still analyzing that of Whitney, another incident which led to the death of a 16 year old student in another school has been trending. What all these points to is our chronic incapacitation in managing health emergencies, or emergencies of any type, made worse by our lack of basic access to healthcare, and a culture of  “it is not my portion”.

However, many are of the persuasion that after a series of incidents involving either its teachers or students, Chrisland School, should as a matter of urgency take a second look at its processes and systems. There is a need to reevaluate its internal mechanism vis-à-vis its responses to incidents and reputational management. In the minds of the public, it is becoming one incident too many, and if the name of the school keep popping up from time to time, it will get to a situation, like it is presently, where incidents involving the school would be decided on the altar of public opinion by people whose take on serious issues are dented by sentiments.

The management of Chrisland Group of Schools seems oblivious of the fact that the organization has grown beyond the small establishment set up by the founder over 45 years ago. It has grown into an educational behemoth thus the need for a total and drastic change of management strategy and processes in line with the principles enunciated by Marshall Goldsmith in his classic book titled “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.” Chrisland needs a kaizen approach in engaging with stakeholders, Public, Media, Parents, students and the communities of her locations.

But in all of these, there is need for the Lagos State government to take a second look at the ways and manners its officials react and handle issues of this magnitude.  Going for the usual people pleasing knee-jerk shutting down of the school leaves far more than desired. Shutting down the Chrisland School at Opebi when the incident did not happen at the school premises shows an appeal to populism instead of handling the issues professionally.

It is interesting to note that the said accident happened at a Lagos state owned facility; shouldn’t the management of the stadium be held responsible for the absence of a mini clinic at the facility? How come the Lagos State Sports Commission or whatever agency in charge of sporting facilities in the State does not have an ambulance point at all its facilities across the State? Moreso, if the government agency that manages the mini stadium had safety officers that were up to their game, the outcome might be different. It is my hope that as we await the full autopsy report, that it won’t be a case of electrocution because that would be quite unfortunate that the life of the young lady was cut short in that manner.

Sometime last year, a viral video of an event centre where children were having a picnic went viral showing uncovered live electric wires carelessly zigzagging across the place with children running around oblivious of the dangers lurking around such facilities. Such may have been the case with the unfortunate incident that led to the death of Whitney Adeniran. In a more organized society, the Lagos State government should be held responsible for failing to ensure safety measures were put in place before an event takes place there. Also, they ought to have properly ensured that vendors at the facility maintained relative safety standards. But they failed.

That is why many are at a loss with the way and manner the Lagos State Attorney General and his office has been going about this case as if they have a bone to grind with Chrisland School that has nothing to do with the incident.  What justification does the State government have for shutting down the school while leaving the facility where the incident took place open till date, without as much as carrying out an assessment of the facility to ascertain the real and remote causes of the accident? It shows that the government and its agencies are at a loss on issues of safety management.

The Lagos State Attorney General ordered a coroner inquest into the incident but went ahead to hurl the school before the courts for criminal charges while in-depth investigations are yet to commence. From where then did the charges of manslaughter come from because investigators claim they are still working on compiling their reports? It is in the interest of Lagos State government to carry out the process in ways that won’t give the impression that it had a predetermined position on the case before embarking on the legal process.

Equally shocking is the brazenness with which the Attorney General has been conducting himself over this unfortunate incident as if it is a booster for his popularity in the State. Many professional colleagues within the legal profession were at a loss that he even attended the court proceeding, he did not stop there; he went further to grant an interview on live television, an act that could be prejudicial to the case.

If the Attorney General is sincere that his suit is aimed at ensuring that organizations put safety in place when they’re hosting events, then his first port of call should have been the Lagos State Sports Commission and the managers of such facilities across the State. Is such action by the AG not likely to lead to a bias as it could shape the tone of the litigation? How many safety safeguards have Lagos State put into her public schools?

How many have they put into their various stadia, how many safeguards on our roads with beleaguered people in traffic every day? I do not want to agree that the actions of the Attorney General are politically motivated as some are suggesting in some quarters but it has become imperative for the State Government to call its officers to order so as not to drag the name of the State governor in their personal issues. Coming to that Court on the day that school was arraigned was suspicious of self-seeking showmanship which puts a question mark on the Attorney General’s claims to partiality in the case.

It is disturbing the way the Attorney General is strutting all over the place, granting interviews and pushing his face into public consciousness all of a sudden, a development some have expressed discomfort with as it smells of a personal campaign to give impression of hard work and commitment as lobbying for the next state government’s cabinet is now on top gear. I have no dog in this fight and Let’s be clear, I am not a fan of Chrisland School’s sloppiness; I am a South west Nigerian by identity, completely non-partisan but an unrepentant advocate for forthrightness. I came home to Nigeria to vote during the elections. My premise is therefore based on nudging the Governor, His Excellency, Babajide Sanwoolu is not to taint his administration by appearing to have condemned Chrisland before ensuring fair assessment of all sides to this very delicate issue. A just cause should not ride on the back of injustice. But from what I saw on Channels’ TV YouTube, your AG is inserting himself too much into this matter and the optics are tacky on your administration.

Finally, and once again, Chrisland School, if children are in your care, you have a duty of care to ensure they return home safe. Chrisland also ought to have a waiting emergency vehicle in place with paramedics to take that child to the hospital as soon as they found out that the State Government has nothing of such. The story from the girl’s mother that none of this was done is unfortunate. You owe that woman an explanation. 

Arobieke, a Legal Practitioner and an International Development Expert wrote from Washington.

Politicians – particularly most of the current Nigerian variant(s) – are almost permanently incurably unreasonable by deliberately refusing to learn from history. Of course, we do not expect them to learn from it since this will be ‘abnormal’ if they do! It is astonishing that this group of people simply referred to, collectively, as political elite (including their fellow shallow-thinking followers) always squeeze out ways by which they return the country’s politics to the ignominious past when/where many of the challenges Nigeria is now battling with got rooted! That epoch is what clear-headed progressive citizens are working in ways that will make it remain where it ought to be – the past. Unfortunately, it appears that the country is not yet out of the woods concerning the foregoing. In fact, the realities concerning the 2023 elections, in places known to many, appear to be comparable to the build-up of negativities for the political turbulence that occurred shortly before the January, 1966 military intrusion into Nigerian politics. We will be needlessly opening old wounds if events accompanying this and other such intrusions (that were more like brigandage) are relayed. This is why it is saddening that Nigeria is being prepared for more ugly paths, considering the actions/inactions of today’s similar dramatis personae earlier alluded to.

We are referring to unpatriotic elements that have been exploiting Nigeria’s fault lines for decades and relentlessly guiding the available unashamed gullible citizens to scorn Nigeria’s best for these politicians’ political gains. The mania for self-centredness by this group (with the wherewithal to ‘take off’ from this country, if there is crisis) is what led Nigeria to, subsequently, get a military head-of-state that was so anti-intellectual that he sadistically opined that university students were, then, always engaging in “Aluta”  for rights because they were overfed from subsidised food; thus, his government withdrew subsidy for this purpose. This is someone who eventually set up a private university and ‘obtained’ a doctorate from a public university! As we were saying, this and more damages were eventually done to these tertiary academic institutions. What was/is expected by these mediocrities? Simply, pauperisation of intellectuals and collapse of intellectualism! These institutions have not been able to recover from these continuous attacks on intellectualism; or how do we explain the government’s order that all the tertiary academic institutions should be closed down because of 2023 elections? Was Nigeria at war? To those mediocrities, elections are more important than public education! How do we know a government of anti-intellectuals?

We know that there are some internal problems within these institutions but there has never been the magnitude of attacks on them by anti-intellectual-powered forces like the ones from the ‘outgoing’ group of people in the central government! It is like they planned to come into power to crush scholarship in Nigeria! They have really ‘tried’ in this regard and will be remembered for it! We hope other subsequent governments will not come into power to intensify these attacks and fulfil their purpose(s)! The unfolding reality before our eyes – if nothing positive is done now – is that the future is really bleak for these public higher educational institutions; most especially the universities among them. It is increasingly clear that Nigerian politicians (either in government or not) place more value on street urchins and political thugs than good education for the populace. After all, ignorance and poverty resulting from lack of education and skills aid in spawning most of the societal miscreants that are desired by these depraved politicians. The preceding scenario fit in with others in the narrative of political class’ conspiracy against the masses.

The elections of the 25th February and 18th March, 2023 showed that the country still have a long way to go even with the Electoral Act 2022 that earlier gave some of us reason to hope for sanity in Nigeria’s elections. Unfortunately, the Act was brazenly violated, in broad daylight, by politicians and their cohort. In a grim determination to do or die, they shamelessly engaged in electoral offences with well-stated punishments perhaps in connivance with security personnel! This is not our opinion; these allegations have been well-reported in many local and foreign news outlets. If truly the Nigerian security personnel got compromised and were involved in those violations, then the mess we are currently in will definitely continue beyond now, for a long time, as there is yet no answer, in Nigeria, to the question “quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” Some of the politicians may have ‘succeeded’ in their dubious actions, today, but the accompanying stench will remain for a long period. We know that they do not care about this fact. For instance, after elections, who will take care of the thugs they armed for that purpose? Are they not part of those causing menace in the society? How many of these thugs’ children are being trained by politicians in any educational facility anywhere? Do thugs even bother to ask about where politicians’ children are?

Only ‘stupidity’ will make one knowingly make himself/herself available to be part of politicians’ cannon fodder! The last statement may contain strong words but is it untrue? Note that politicians will never think about the wounded, maimed and dead among these ‘stupid’ thugs. They (politicians) will simply move on! Politicians will not willingly add value to thugs! The reason is that thugs must remain so to be useful for thuggery during future elections! Although, some thugs are mutating/‘upgrading’ to educated illiterates migrating to traditional/social media platforms and cyberspace to spew filth! It must be said that only covetous and thieving hands will like to reap where they did not sow! The country cannot continue on this current political path and expect good leaders. Flawed electoral processes are not likely to produce the desired good leaders because something cannot be placed on nothing. This idea of people committing verifiable electoral offences and getting off scot-free must be curtailed in order to stop impunity in our electoral process. A consequence of unenforced laws is the emboldening of law-breakers to fearlessly engage in more criminalities to the detriment of law-abiding citizens. It is so pathetic that those being referred to as ‘leaders’ (misleaders) are among these law-breakers! Democracy should not be equated to lawlessness! Nigeria has good laws that must be obeyed/enforced – collectively; this is a tidier way to go!

*Andrew A. Erakhrumen currently teaches at the Department of Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.

Hello Mr Eno

With only a few weeks to May 29, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, your inauguration as the next governor of Akwa Ibom state is certain. I am therefore pleased to send you this note to guide you as you prepare to take office. For me, setting an agenda for a new administration has become a tradition. In 2000, I wrote a letter to Obong Attah, urging him to remodel Uyo into a modern capital city. I followed it up with an interview with him in his office. I was then a journalist with The Guardian newspaper.

It was at the interview that Attah explained to me the benefits of planting trees in the middle of a town, which is what he did to the area of Uyo we now refer to as the plaza. In 2008, I wrote an article in The Guardian, urging Governor Godswill Akpabio to continue with the airport project which Obong Attah had started. There were rumours that Akpabio was going to truncate the development of the airport based on some advice that ‘’the airport is Attah’s project’’. Thank God, Akpabio knew better and we now have an airport. Given the circumstance of his emergence, I was too sad to send Udom Emmanuel a letter. He emerged through the most violent and bloodiest election in the history of our state.

For you, instead of recommending specific projects to pursue, I will rather give you a set of dos and don’ts that should guide your steps. First, it is advisable that you choose your own style and avoid the temptation to mimic your predecessor. Stay humble, dress modestly and do away with billboards showing your face everywhere in Uyo. Akpabio introduced the practice of self-advertisements on billboards and Udom Emmanuel copied him and took it to a ridiculous level. I hope you’ll end it because it is indecent, self-serving and smacks of arrogance.

Your achievements will speak for you. You don’t need to erect billboards to announce the roads you have constructed. We shall see and use them. Eschew lies, boastfulness and embellishment of your claims. Strike out in your own unique ways and build your brand, but make honesty, humility and prudence your best policy.

Second, and this is very important, you must cancel all the deals and illegal understandings, considerations or agreements you might have entered into with the people who put you in office. I do not know why the governor chose you as his preferred candidate, but I’m old enough to know that such supports and preferences come with political and financial IOUs that you must pay.

Since the governor worked hard to put you in office, he must have some expectations from you; and perhaps, you had made some pledges to him. But make no mistake, Mr Eno, if you facilitate any fraudulent, illegal or immoral deals to anybody in return for the favours you received, you will come to your comeuppance at the right time. As a pastor, I am sure that you must be familiar with the law of nature which states that whatsoever a man sows, he shall reap. Your loyalty is now to Akwa Ibom people; not to your godfathers or fathers of faith or any individual or group.

Three, focus on the core problems afflicting our people and leave vanities out of governance. Akwa Ibom people are desperately poor and most of our young people are jobless. Public schools are in very bad shape and health facilities are inadequate. Do away with fancy and white elephant projects that have no relevance to the lives of our people. Uyo, brimming with over three million people, deserves two well-equipped general hospitals. The University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) is the only affordable medical centre for the people. But it is always overcrowded, overworked and congested.

In an interview with Channels TV, you said something about building new hotels to promote tourism. You had also talked about declaring ‘’Happy Hour’’ to promote drinking. You must stop thinking and talking like a hotelier, which you have been all of your adult life. You will soon be the governor and chief executive of the state, and your focus should be solving the problems of the majority of the people, which are poverty; unemployment; out-of-school children, etc. There are more tricycles (keke) on Uyo roads than private cars. I don’t see this in any of the state capitals in the other Niger Delta states. Does that tell you something?

Four, be frugal with the people’s resources. Remember that the treasury is not an extension of your personal bank account. Stop impulsive donations and do not act to impress anybody. Remember our poor widows, orphans and the millions of unemployed youths who go to bed hungry. Do away with sycophancy, bogus titles and appurtenances that set you aside as a man of vainglory. Do not carry any cane or walking stick, and as I said earlier, dress decently, but moderately. Avoid those prophets that would ‘’bless’’ and hand over a walking stick to you. They will lead you astray. It is okay for your wife to pursue an agenda that promotes a social cause. But be advised that the wife of the governor is not an official of the government. I have already written on your use of the state-owned private jet. I hope the message got to you.

Finally, beware of some persons that will visit you and claim to be investors, foreign or domestic. Some may claim to have Akwa Ibom persons as partners. More often than not, they are fraudsters. They duped the Attah administration of millions in a bogus hospital investment and duped the incumbent administration of millions in toothpick factory and Mexican cow investments.

I wish you well, Mr Eno, but it is now up to you to write your name in gold. As a citizen, I will be watching and commenting.

It’s clear that the 2023 general elections were conducted under the popularly accepted and new electoral framework, the Electoral Act 2022; a law that provides a more robust legal framework for the conduct of the polls. The law was expected to give legislative backing for more transparent voting, collation and announcement of results.

Prior to the elections, for the old voters, there were concerns for massive logistics and technical issues, and for the new voters, they were obviously excited with fresh optimism that the election would usher in hope for new democracy in Nigeria. Hence, the anticipated elections happened and the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, “refused” to provide the enabling environment, essential infrastructure and logistical support, adequate technology among others to enable a free and fair poll.

These situations have called into question INEC’s impartiality, credibility and raised concerns over the commitment of the electoral body to credible and transparent elections in Nigeria.

Now, looking into some of the major issues that marred the 2023 elections, the first on the list will be the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. The electronic device is designed to read Permanent Voter Cards and authenticate voters, using their fingerprints to prove that they are eligible to vote at a particular polling unit. Recall that when it was first deployed in Delta State around September 2021, some presiding officers fussed about how the machine had difficulties capturing the thumbs and faces of some of the voters, especially old people. Same incidents also occurred during the Osun State governorship elections as there were some technical issues raised.

Recall also that INEC dismissed their fears, saying the machine had been test-run and proved by its IT experts to have the capacity to perform optimally during the governorship polls. Despite the assurance, it was a repetition of past stories as there were cases of BVAS failure to accredit voters due mainly to technical issues relating to login details, configuration or internet connectivity.

This was not the case during the just-concluded presidential and National Assembly elections, where many INEC officials failed to upload results at polling units. In many instances, voters waited for hours, in futility, for officials to upload the results of their polling units.

Now, Nigerians want to know how INEC spent the N305bn it got from the Federal Government and how the budgeted N114.26bn for ICT-related expenses was spent. They want to know why BVAS failed and if the number of polling units doesn’t indicate the number of BVAS. There is no way they shouldn’t have budgeted for at least one-tenth of those BVAS connecting to the server at the same time. INEC knows how much can be captured; they should have known the bandwidth needed. Isn’t it that the INEC system was not primed for the kind of data coming through it?

Time and logistics challenges? We saw cases of postponements of elections in some polling units in Lagos, Imo, Bayelsa, Rivers and Edo states. True, most of the reasons were due to logistics challenges, the unavailability of sufficient electoral materials in many polling stations across the country. INEC itself admitted that some of the reasons why it could not open some of the polling units on time were due to problems of logistics in spite of its “best efforts.’’

We saw different cases of the late start of voting beyond the 08:30am opening time due to the late arrival of polling officials and voting materials and, in some cases, the delivery of wrong materials, at polling stations across the country. According to Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development-post election incident report on March 2023, a little above 18 per cent of the polling units observed, started election process before 8:30 while about 45 per cent of the polling units commenced the exercise between 8:30 and 9:59am and about 36 per cent of the polling units started around 10am. Fair enough, INEC did better in terms of logistics compared to past elections, but the question remains if INEC can fix time and logistics issues.

It is equally provoking to watch how thugs were observed interrupting polls and intimidating voters in different parts of the country. Many local and international observers equally condemned the violence that accompanied the February 25 and the March 18 governorship elections. In fact, some described it as the worst in the history of the electoral process in Nigeria.

Media reports state that in Cross River State, an Adhoc INEC worker was hit by a stray bullet after some gunmen opened fire while she was in a boat heading to Bakassi for election duty. Still in the same state, more than 50 political thugs at about 2.15 am on Sunday March 19 invaded INEC collation centre at the Ogoja State constituency disrupting collation of results, vandalised the place, carted away election materials, phones and inflicted injuries on many ward collation officers. Similar incidents were also recorded in Adamawa, Lagos and other states across the federation. According to CJID, polling unit disruptions and harassment during voting combined made up 19.6 of incidents recorded by observers.

Now, Nigerians are worried if the country can get violence out of her elections or maybe it does not have enough security apparatus to curb the consistent crises in our elections?

Again, we have always fussed about vote buying, as this system of inducement refuses to divorce from the country’s democracy. According to Civil Society Organisations Connected Development, it recorded 50 cases of vote buying during the elections, which also shows an increase across different polling units in the country. Yiaga Africa, a pro-democracy and development organisation, also stated that it recorded and confirmed 15 cases of vote buying and bribery across eight states during the governorship elections. It added that political party agents were observed sharing food, cash and alcoholic drinks to some voters in different states.

Let’s examine the issue of voter apathy.  According to Datapyte, out of the total 93.47 million registered voters, only 24.9 million persons voted during the presidential and National Assembly elections. This represents a meagre 26.72 per cent voter turnout, the lowest since the return to democracy in 1999. Compared to the voter turnout of 34.74 per cent in the 2019 general elections, the turnout in the just concluded election declined by 8.03 per cent. Also, low voter turnout was witnessed across Nigeria when 28 states conducted their 2023 governorship and state house of assembly elections.

Following the postponement of the state level elections from March 11 to 18 by INEC, the numbers of voters were not as high as that of February 25, according to reports from Dataphyte observers across the country. Meanwhile, several reasons have been cited for the poor voter turnout being experienced. A policy analyst, Ayantola Alayande, highlighted a number of reasons for the low voter turnout in the election. He pointed out that the postponement of the election by a week dampened the spirits of the electorate. Cases of violence, ballot snatching and other issues might have also been a factor to be considered for the low turnout.

In conclusion, it is underwhelming to accept that this is what we can get out of INEC’s four-year Strategic Plan and Strategic Programme of Action. The agency still struggles with logistics and technical issues, insecurity, vote buying and other issues that can bring the best out of the body.  Can Nigerians ever trust INEC? Can INEC ever produce what will be free and fair for Nigerians? Time will tell?

• Ogungbile sent this piece via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.