Numerous are the streams that lead to social prosperity; but all of them spring from the same source and that is public education.  Gaspar Jovellanos, 1744-1811.  

The British established five Government Colleges – Kings College, KC, Lagos, Government College, Ibadan, GCI, Government College, Umuahia, GCU, and  Government College, Ughelli, GCU — to complement the efforts of faith-based secondary schools. This narrative is about Government College, Ughelli, GCU; founded in 1945; and, which will be 80 years old in 2025.. Christian Churches, Anglicans, Catholics, Baptist and Methodists – had established primary and secondary schools primarily to train people who would serve the churches in propagating the tenets of their faith; secondarily to provide low level public servants and lastly to provide low and middle level manpower for private firms like the Royal Niger Company, now UAC of Nigeria, John Holt etc. 

 The first set of African rulers were drawn from among the best educated at the time; educated by the colonialists in the best tradition of institutions of learning globally. Thus, a successful graduate from any secondary school in Africa could go to the United Kingdom and get enrolled in a university without missing a step. We can blame the colonialists for anything else; we must, if truth be told, exonerate them from blame for the deterioration of educational standards in Africa generally and Nigeria in particular. One of Nigeria’s greatest colleges the British founded, GCU, will serve to illustrate how we derailed with regard to excellence in secondary school education; but also how we can retrace our steps.

 For the record, I did not attend GCU; Igbobi College, Yaba, trained me. But, I grew up around KC and was at GCI several times when at Ibadan. I visited GCU twice in 1959 and 1961, when one of my Uncles, a food contractor to GCU took me during the holidays to Sapele; and from there to GCU to deliver foodstuff. To be  candid, there were times when I felt like joining the Mariners in order to KEEP ON SAILING. It was the most pleasant campus I ever saw. 

I have stopped by on at least 24 occasions between 1974 and 2020, while on official duty; and I was once a Guest Lecturer on the invitation of the GCUOBA – Warri Branch — during the hot debate about the VISION 2020. I was the only economist to announce that what charlatans called vision was a mere dream. Nigeria was not ready to become a top 20 economy. Events have proved me right.

It will be 40 years in 2025 when my uncle died and 80 years of GCU. What has become of the legacy left for us?

GCU IS RISING AGAIN

“Give an African a good thing; and he will spoil it.” Anonymous

 The legacy issue reminded me of a private experience in 1960. A literature book recommended for us in Form Three was about an English adventurer in South Africa. The statement quoted above was in the book. In the year of Nigeria’s independence, that was abominable to me. I tore out the entire page; which was a cardinal breach of school rules if discovered. My mother would definitely not have condoned it. But, I was being patriotic in my own view. Instead, unsolicited, I wrote an essay, gave to one of our Senior Tutors, Mr John Sagay, to mark. I projected how, with leaders like Ahmadu Bello, Azikiwe and Awolowo, Nigeria would soon overtake Britain as an economic power. With our endowments in natural resources and manpower, greatness could never elude us. I was totally wrong on every count. The nation bequeathed to us in 1960 was far better than what we have now. If truth must be told, the British left us “a good thing” and Nigerians have spoilt it. It started with education. GCU illustrates it.

GCU’s excellence was based strictly on meritocracy. Admission was based on merit not connections. We have the list of ALL the Old Boys from 1945 to 2005; which is being carefully studied. What was most remarkable about the years before 1960 was the number of national and international life achievers the school produced. Soon, we will isolate a dozen. Their contributions to Nigeria and humanity are simply enormous. The question is how was GCU able to achieve so much?

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

“An [organisation] is the lengthened shadow of one man”. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882.

Below is the Organisation Structure of the leadership of the GCU. In the beginning, it was not just a series of boxes with titles written in; it represented people with shared vision of excellence and who embarked on the mission annually, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly and every minute. As will be shown presently, once launched in 1945, GCU was an organisation which never slept. Its responsibilities to its students were discharged round the clock. 

Retiring Spanish football legend Andres Iniesta bid farewell to his playing career Sunday in an exhibition match between Barcelona and Real Madrid greats in Tokyo and will now look to go into coaching.

The 40-year-old announced in October that he was hanging up his boots after a career that saw him win two European Championships and the 2010 World Cup.

He gave a crowd of more than 45,000 fans in Tokyo one last glimpse of the skills that also saw him win nine La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues during his 16 years with Barcelona.

“I think it was a great game for the Japanese fans,” said Iniesta, who played in Japan for five years after leaving Barcelona in 2018.

“If they went home satisfied then I’m very happy.”

Iniesta lined up alongside former midfield partner Xavi Hernandez, with Rivaldo, Rafael Marquez and Javier Saviola also in the Barcelona line-up.

Roberto Carlos, Fabio Cannavaro and Iker Casillas were among the players in the Real team.

Iniesta said he had “a lot of fun” playing with Xavi, with whom he helped take Barcelona and Spain to new heights.

“Of course neither of us is at the same level that we were before but a lot about the way we used to link up came back to me during today’s game,” said Iniesta.

Iniesta came up through Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy and made his first-team debut aged 18.

He made 674 appearances and won a total of 32 trophies during his time at the Camp Nou.

He moved to Japan’s Vissel Kobe before playing one final season in the United Arab Emirates.

Iniesta said he wanted to stay involved in football.

“I’m thinking about getting my coaching licence and I want to see where my career takes me,” he said.

Vanguard News

This past Monday, Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, held the fèèrè (flute) and blew it admirably. However, bystanders listening to the rhythm of his flute didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. Moyo Okediji, Assistant Professor of Art at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, in his “Art of the Yoruba” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, (Vol. 23, No. 2) described the flute held by Shettima as a symbol of the trickster god Esu, also known as the divinity of the crossroads. According to Okediji, Esu was so powerful that he could help or hinder the craft and life of man. The fere was so influential in traditional Africa that it was equally a symbol of royal might.

If you went to the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo during the reign of late Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, as you approached the palace court, traditional flutists demonstrated their craft in magnificent candour. As they blew the flute, their eyes popped out like an ostrich’s, cheeks inflated like the rotund belly of a toad.

It is the same with drums. Apart from the rhythm they provide, drums are communicative instruments. So, while blowing the flute and beating drums, the crafters are engaged in the powerful medium of communication. Oba Adeyemi once told me that, shortly after the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, was enthroned, he, Alaafin was with the Ooni at an event in Ile-Ife. Palace drummers, continuing the decades-long tiff between Oba Adeyemi and Ogunwusi’s predecessor, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, suddenly changed the tone of their drumming.

They then began to drum out abusive messages to Alaafin with each descent of their sticks on the drum. Being ardent in the mastery of language of drums, Alaafin told me he immediately called the attention of Oba Ogunwusi to it. Ooni was apparently unschooled in drum language, and couldn’t penetrate the rain of expletives. “Kìlò fún awon onílù re” – warn your drummers – he told me he said to the Ooni to cease the tirades or he would storm out of the occasion.

The art and craft of flutists however arrest the attention of the audience who marvel at the beauty oozing out of their mouth. So, if a flutist is unfortunate to suffer from goiter, what the Yoruba call gègè, at the time he is blowing it, it will be double jeopardy for him. Goiter is an irregular growth at the thyroid gland which, as a result of its enlargement, makes its sufferer present with a big swelling on the neck. So, Yoruba say, the King who employed Onígègé– goiter patient – as a flutist will have a large audience of scorners watching his craft. In which case, the object to watch by the audience will be two – the flutist’s enlarged neck and the rhythm that comes out of the flute.

British-born Nigerian UK Conservative Party Leader, Kemi Adegoke, otherwise known as Kemi Badenoch, has been in the eye of the storm for her unflattering comments about Nigeria. Kemi became British as a result of her birth in 1980 at St. Teresa’s Private Hospital in London. Her professor of physiology mother, who taught at the University of Lagos and in America, had brought her pregnancy for birth in the UK on January 2 of that year before the British Nationality Act 1981 abolished the automatic birthright citizenship in England. She got married to Hamish, British banker. Since her climb up the ladder of British politics, Kemi has regaled Britons with the “very tough upbringing” she had in Nigeria, especially how it was enveloped by fear and insecurity.

She had said, “This is my country. I don’t want it to become like the place I ran away from. I grew up in Nigeria, and I saw firsthand what happens when politicians are in it for themselves, when they use public money as their private piggy banks, when they pollute the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others… I saw poverty and broken dreams. I came to Britain to make my way in a country where hard work and honest endeavour can take you anywhere. I grew up in a place where fear was everywhere.  You cannot understand it unless you’ve lived it. Triple-checking that all the doors and windows are locked, waking up in the night at every sound, listening as you hear your neighbours scream as they are being burgled and beaten, wondering if your home would be the next.”

Apart from insecurity, Badenoch has consistently described Nigeria as a country plagued by corruption. Her family was said to have resided in the harsh middle-class neighbourhood of Surulere in Lagos, while she schooled at the Lagos International School.

But, like an obstinate or deaf King’s flutist afflicted with onígègé, Shettima didn’t care about the embarrassing swelling on his neck. In the process, both his message and the affliction on his neck became a laughing stock for the global audience. During a speech on migration in Abuja last week, Shettima was quoted to have said that the Bola Tinubu government was “proud” of Badenoch, “in spite of her efforts at denigrating her nation of origin.” However, Shettima said, “She is entitled to her own opinions; she has even every right to remove the ‘Kemi’ from her name but that does not underscore the fact that the greatest black nation on earth is the nation called Nigeria.” Continuing, the VP compared Badenoch’s unpatriotic treatment of her country of birth to that of Rishi Sunak, her predecessor, who became UK’s first Prime Minister of Indian heritage and noted that, Sunak was that “brilliant young man” who “never denigrated his nation of ancestry”.

Badenoch’s office did not allow the melody from the “Onígègé onifere” – the flutist with goiter – to subside. It responded accordingly.” She (Badenoch) is the leader of the opposition and she is very proud of her leadership of the opposition in this country,” her spokesman told reporters. “She tells the truth. She tells it like it is. She is not going to couch her words.”

What we should ask Shettima and people of his persuasion is, was Badenoch wrong because she is Nigerian-born or she was wrong by the certitude or otherwise of her claim? We must get his beef right. In other words, is Badenoch’s reminiscing a painful recount and frustration with the stagnation of her country of birth, or a mere demonization? Why didn’t she say this about Ghana? It is simply because she has no affinity with the Kwame Nkrumah country. Why would Badenoch take pleasure in the destruction of her fatherland? Let us even agree that those snide comments were meant to demonize; are the comments true about Nigeria? If they are true, should they be glossed over or spoken of, peradventure, the runners of Nigeria, who can be typecast as in the same trove with the Ifeoma Okoye novel’s title, Men Without Ears, (1984) can turn a new leaf?

The only issue I have with Kemi is her excessive patronizing of the British. While she may be British, she is not English. People have cited John Fashanu, the British footballer’s travails in the hands of the British press when he landed in trouble. It reminds me of Ilorin Dadakuada music exponent, Odolaye Aremu, who sang about the “Adìye òpìpí”, a rare species of featherless hen which looks like the hawk. It came into the world with scant feathers. In a moment when the Opipi hen forgot herself and identity, she thought herself to be hawk, until she was torn into pieces by this carnivorous bird.

Today, there are two schools of thought on the travails Nigeria is grappling with. None of them can be considered less patriotic than the other. While one believes in the methodology of alarm for redemption and shaming the devil, the other subscribes to the tactic of domesticating the rot (k’á se egbò l’égbò ilé). In other words, whilst both agree that there is a cancerous sore on the leg of Nigeria, one believes finding remedy should be domesticated, while the other says remedy should be escalated to the whole world. At the intersection where they both meet, however, there is an agreement that their country is the proverbial sickly child. Should its condition be broadcast so that intervention could come, perhaps off-coast or, the condition be lidded, in which case, it could worsen and the child dies?

Whether you are a Nigerian living in Nigeria, outside its shores, a friend of Nigeria or observant of Nigeria from afar, the truth is that Nigeria isn’t really a good story. Tomes of publications have been reeled out about our country’s journey into its present stasis. Political scientists, historians and anthropologists have struggled to locate the gene of destruction inside the pod of Nigeria that is responsible for its poor harvest. One of the most apt capturing of the Nigerian situation was given by foremost political scientist, Eghosa Osaghae who, as title of his book, called it a Crippled Giant. Whenever I remember Professor Osaghae’s descriptive book title, I remember a line in the song of Ayinla Omowura, Yoruba Apala music songster. He sang, “ijó ńbe nínú aro, esè ni ò jé,” meaning that dance is innate within the bones of the crippled but they are disenabled by wobbly feet. Very many attempts to explain Nigeria have failed. Nigeria takes one step forward, ten steps backwards.

Let us even confine ourselves to the period between 1999 and now. For decades before military handover of power, Nigerians wasted blood, flesh, resources and hope believing that once the “enemy” – the military – retired into the barracks, an end had come to the underdevelopment of their country. However, 25 years down the ladder, we have lived ruinous years. The period is comparable to an attack by termites. Their comparison with termites here is instructive. Termites, over the centuries, are one of the greatest enemies of man. Wherever they strike, their presence is concealed and undetected, until they have visited the most rapacious and severest damage on timbers and woods necessary for man’s use. As the devastation goes on, while man sees a normal thin exterior layer of wood, at discovery, it is almost always too late to reverse the colossal ruins.

So, let us do a breakdown of Badenoch’s allegations. Is Nigeria broken? I recently saw a book entitled Leaders Eat Last written by Simon Sinek. It contains nuggets on how leaders, who are the highest ranking officers, should “be the last to fix their plate at mealtime in order to ensure the people in their command were fed and catered for.”  Is that what Nigerian leaders/politicians do as compared to other saner climes? Do our presidents, ministers, governors, legislators and their allies, since 1999, as alleged by Kemi, turn public money into private piggy bank? Is an Accountant General of the Federation on trial for stealing N109 billion? Did a public servant build 753 duplexes in Abuja? Do we know what job Bola Tinubu has done between 1999 and now that makes him one of the richest Nigerians alive? Is our judiciary corrupt, fantastically corrupt, a la David Cameron? Have Nigerian leaders failed in the last 25 years? Is our country plagued by corruption? Isn’t the Nigerian school so badly run that students carry chairs to school? Should Britain be a dormitory for residue of the failure of Nigerian leaders? Is everything broken in Nigeria?

It will be difficult not to answer the above posers made by Kemi in the affirmative. Only recently, David Adeleke, a.k.a. Davido, the singing sensation, courted the ire of those who are too blind to see the Nigerian situation. He, too, had thrown mud (ògúlùtu) at runners of Nigeria from far away in the United States. The Tinubu government is all movement and no motion, what in street parlance is called “efisi”. While Sinek tells us that leaders eat last, Tinubu and his minions are growing rotund cheeks while this Christmas, Nigerians face the most barren festivity ever. The ruining gang has almost finished the food on the dining table while even crumbs are not left for the ordinary people.

Whilst this column was going to bed, Badenoch’s reply to Shettima’s tirade and her late father, Femi Adegoke’s interview with the BBC Yoruba, surfaced on social media. Kemi had been quoted to have said, “I am Yoruba: I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where Islamism is.” If you listened to the elderly Adegoke’s interview, you will understand why Kemi’s bluntness and boldness are an inherited gene. In the interview, apparently conducted before 2022, the year of Adegoke’s passage, he said anyone who saw Tinubu becoming Nigeria’s president with the hope that he would right wrongs against the Yoruba, needed their head examined. In very sharp, deep Yoruba, Adegoke said the idea behind Tinubu’s “Yoruba” presidency was “òrò òpònú gbáà, tí kò m’ógbón wá” – it is a brainless argument. He based this on Tinubu’s silence as his kin were kidnapped and murdered by Fulani herdsmen whilst he mouthed the shibboleth of “gedegbe l’Èkó wà” – Lagos is non-aligned – all because of Lagos’ wealth. Adegoke believed that the 1999 constitution must be abolished if Nigeria wants to make any progress.

Again, Kemi, Adegoke’s daughter, has come under visceral attacks for her latest remarks. As usual, that comment is perceived on social media from an ethnic filter. Igbo compare her with the novelist, Chimamanda Adichie and Hausa/Fulani see her comment as the usual superiority complex of the Yoruba. An examination of it will show that every word Kemi uttered was in line with her avant-garde opposition role in the British parliament and reflects her usual down-to-earthness. Is Kemi Yoruba as she claimed? Very correct! Does she have anything in common with any other part of Nigeria? Certainly, not! Should she have? Yes. Today, many Yoruba, rightly or wrongly, believe that “the Gambari” is the axis of evil in Nigeria.

Kemi belongs to that persuasion. Is the north the epicentre of many of Nigeria’s current challenges, including Boko Haram and out-of-school children, the latter which gave birth to the former and the former which manifested from the Vice President’s home state, Borno State in 1999, especially under Shettima’s leader, Ali Modu Sheriff? Yes. Nigeria spends a considerable part of her budget fighting insecurity, almost 80 per cent of which is located in the north. So, should Kemi have couched her words so as to patronize the rulers of Nigeria? Certainly, not! If she did, she would not be an Adegoke’s daughter, the man whose friends nicknamed “Fariga” – disputation.

It is obvious that Shettima is the orange which attracted bystanders to pummel its mother, the orange tree, with stones and woods (omo osàn tíí kó póńpó bá ìyá è). He is also the King who employed the services of a flutist afflicted with goitre to sing his praise. The lesson therein is that challenged flutists should not blow the flute. Shettima’s Nigeria is the flutist’s goitre that attracts mockery of the world. Let Shettima and his boss remove the goitre from Nigeria’s neck by doing right with the power given them.

To Kemi and her deification of the British system: Since she affirmed she is Yoruba, I enjoin her to listen to the counsel of her people to the “Adìye òpìpí”. Because she has no feathers which help hens to fertilize their eggs, keeping such eggs warm and thereby producing offspring, Yoruba warn the Adìye òpìpí to lay controllable eggs which her scant feathers can fertilize. This is to enable her be a mother like other hens. I hope Kemi understands this wisdom of her forefathers.

A mere four years after emerging from a civil war, in 1974, Nigeria was at the beginning of an oil boom. Then, as today, the country was in the middle of a debate about fiscal federalism and revenue allocation. Unlike today, however, there were significant differences: the country was under military rule and the men leading the debate were all soldiers. In the fifty years since then, the structure of this debate and the geo-political symmetries that define it have evolved only a little.

The immediate spark for the debate fifty years ago was the publication of the statutory allocations to the twelve states of the federation then for the fiscal year 1974-75. With a population of 2.5 million, Mid-West State received 139.9 million Naira or 23.7% of the allocation. Rivers State, whose population was 1.5 million, received 101.1 million Naira. 

Isawa Elaigwu, semi-official biographer of Yakubu Gowon, the army general who was Nigeria’s military head of state at the time observed about this that “while both Rivers and Midwestern States, comprising 7.3% (4 million) of the country’s total population, shared between themselves 40.83% (N241.00 million) of the total allocation to the states, the ten other states which accounted for 92.7% (51.6 million) of the country’s population, shared among themselves 59.17% (349.2m) of the statutory allocation.”

Usman Faruk, the Commissioner of Police who governed the North-Western State was unhappy with the dissension over the sharing of the allocation because, he said, all of them in the Supreme Military Council then agreed it. Joseph Gomwalk, another Commissioner of Police and then military governor of Gowon’s own Benue-Plateau State; and Jacob Esuene, who governed the South-Eastern State called for a more objective system of revenue allocation. If they knew what such a system looked like, they didn’t say. Kwara’s military governor, David Bamigboye as well as General Abba Kyari of the North-East went on record to call for a review of the allocation formula. For their part, Oluwole Rotimi and Mobolaji Johnson, military governors respectively of the Western and Lagos States advocated for “a revenue allocation formula that would guarantee responsible and stable government for Nigeria.”

Nigeria’s search for a workable federalism in many ways can be reduced to the search for precisely such a formula. It has proved elusive. If anything, it may have got even more so. In the 36 years between 1946 and 1980, spanning the colonial and post-colonial periods and including  military as well as elected civilian regimes, the country burnt through the reports of at least eight blue ribbon panels on the question of fiscal federalism. 

On the eve of independence in 1958, the report of Raisman Commission recommended the creation of a Distributable Pool Account (DPA) into which was to be paid 30% of revenue from mineral rents and royalties and from import duties. The regions retained 50% of the revenue from mineral rents and royalties from their region while the central government took 20%. 70% of the revenue from import duties went to the central government. 

Six years later and four years after independence, the Binns Fiscal Commission increased the DPA share of the income from import duties from 30 to 35% at the expense of the share of the central government. Importantly, the report set its face against the principle of derivation, replacing it with that it called the principle of “financial comparability.” On this basis, it recommended the sharing of the DPA receipts as follows: Northern Region 42%; Eastern Region 30%; Western Region 20%; and Mid-Western Region 8%. Lagos was then the federal capital. Up to this point, the fiscal balance largely favoured the regions who contributed resources to the central government. 

In 1968, Nigeria’s post-colonial crisis of state legitimacy had already exploded into a year-old civil war. Under pressure from both the economic costs of the war as well as its structural antecedents, Yakubu Gowon, the war-time Supreme Commander (as he was then known), called upon Chief I.O Dina, a former history lecturer at the University College Ibadan, to lead what the regime called an Interim Revenue Allocation Review Committee. 

The legacy of the Dina Committee recommendations was very far reaching and suited the regimental mood of the military. The Committee addressed frontally the issue of taxation and public goods. It recommended a centralization of taxation as well as the harmonization of the produce marketing boards which were until then mostly regional. The Dina Committee also recommended a centralization of the funding of higher education and the replacement of the DPA with what it called a State Joint Account. Additionally, the committee recommended that states should retain 100% of rent from onshore extractive operations on the basis of derivation and also receive another 10% of royalties revenue as derivation. 

Even in the midst of an existential conflict at the time, the fuss that followed in the wake of the Dina Committee report was deafening. Officially, the Federal Military Government rejected the Dina Committee Report. In reality, Isawa Elaigwu recalls that “….Gowon did not raise dust over the issue but quietly implemented most aspect of this report through the back door at the appropriate time.” The result is that the Dina Committee Report has been quite influential in shaping Nigeria’s version of federalism. 

Gowon enjoyed three advantages at the time in his handling of the unitarising tendencies that underpinned the recommendations of the Dina Committee. First, the civil war was an extenuating circumstance. Second, the regimental traditions of military government limited the degree of elite dissension. Third, as a military ruler, he ultimately did not have to suffer any institutional constraints similar to those imposed by a parliament or its equivalent under elected civil rule. 

For the current incumbent fifty years later, a civilian seeking to accomplish what would be the most far-reaching restructuring of Nigeria’s fiscal fundamentals in 110 years, none of these advantages exists and he suffers many more debilitations besides. 

By some coincidence, in the year that Gowon constituted the Dina Committee, the celebrated Kenya political scientist, Ali Mazrui, explained the challenges of structural stability in post-colonial African states in terms of two underlying crises of state legitimacy and of regime legitimacy. 

Fiscal reform on the ambition evinced by the proposals now under consideration in Nigeria assumes the existence of a capable state which enjoys affinity among citizens, an overwhelming percentage of whom should be documented. None of these can be taken for granted in Nigeria. The evidence from across the fields of financial inclusion, electoral participation, and taxation suggests that the proportion of documented Nigerians does not exceed 40%. It will take more than a few convenient ebullitions to address this. 

Any government will be challenged in addressing it. An administration that suffers from manifest issues of legitimacy lacks the currency to trade with in this situation. The crisis that afflicts the current proposals is that of a government unwilling to put in the work required to redress deficits of state and governmental legitimacy around the country. To address what is evidently a political problem, the government has chosen instead to escape into self-inflicted technocratic gobbledygook. 

Fiscal governance and reform is not as complex as the administration and its mouthpieces would like to suggest. Taxation is more than mechanical computation. It is the centrepiece of the social compact between a state and its citizens. With considered inadvertence, the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done itself a world of good by inspiring these increasingly raucous debates about the state of that compact in Nigeria or the lack of it. It will be best served by listening to the debate in humility while it learns.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, says the 10th house passed 89 bills across priority areas in one year.

Speaking during a workshop organised for the house of representatives press corps in Kaduna on Saturday, Abbas highlighted the performance of the lawmakers in the past 17 months.

“I am pleased to highlight our significant strides in the past seventeen months. Our One-Year performance assessment scorecard reveals remarkable achievements, including passing 89 bills across our priority areas,” he said.

“These include the Electric Power Sector Reform (Amendment) Bill, 2023; the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2023; the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons Bill, 2023; the Armed Forces Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023; the National Assembly Library Trust Fund Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024; the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the National Anthem Bill, 2024; and the Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicine Council of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2023.

“These laws address critical aspects of governance, security, and economic reform.”

The speaker said besides lawmaking, the house of representatives undertook various initiatives to deepen public engagement and enhance the legislative process.

He said the house organised the national dialogue on state policing, a national discourse on Nigeria’s security challenges and a retreat on the effective implementation of the petroleum industry act (PIA), tax reform modernisation dialogues and the citizens’ town hall on the 2024 appropriation bill, among others.

“Beyond legislation, the House has undertaken various initiatives to deepen public engagement and enhance the legislative process,” he added.

“These include the National Dialogue on State Policing, the National Discourse on Nigerian Security Challenges, a retreat on the effective implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, tax reform modernisation dialogues, the Citizens’ Town Hall on the 2024 Appropriation Bill, and the pre-legislative presentation of tax reform bills.

“These engagements underscore our commitment to ensuring that governance is inclusive, participatory, and responsive to the needs of all Nigerians.”

Abbas urged journalists to be cautious in their reportage of the activities of lawmakers to avoid misinformation.

At a separate event, the speaker announced the establishment of four new tertiary institutions in Zaria.

The institutions include a federal college of education, college of health sciences, a National Open University campus, and a college of legal studies.

He said the institutions will enhance Zaria’s educational infrastructure and provide critical resources for the region.

[TheCable]

Did you know that Nigeria and Ghana were once one country?Maybe I didn’t put that properly, but in the late 1800s, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and The Gambia made up the British West African Territories, later renamed British West African Settlements, and had the same military, customs and police underone colonial administration. In fact, between 1907 and 1962, they spent the same currency — the British West African pound. You will find so many similarities between Nigeria and Ghana (need Imention the jollof rice?) but, ironically, our political cultures differ.I found their December 7 general election so fascinating that I cannot escape penning my thoughts on it.

No, I was not fascinated because Mr Mahamudu Bawumia, the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), conceded the presidential election to Mr John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) before the final result was announced. This, to be sure, is not that strange in Ghana. Several times in the past, losing candidates gracefully accepted defeat. Bawumia, who is the outgoing vice-president, has boosted his credentials ahead of the 2028 general election by not being a bitter loser. The NPP lost by the highest margin of any party since 1996. The vote difference ofnearly 1.7 million is huge. The NDC now has double the seats of the NPP in parliament — another record from 1996.

Conceding the presidential election is a rare commodity in Nigeria. It has happened only once in our history — in 2015 when President Goodluck Jonathan called and congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari. Some said it was no big deal, but we have been holding presidential elections since 1979 and no other losing candidate has accepted defeat till date. Let me modify that. In 1993, Alhaji Bashir Tofa “congratulated” Bashorun MKO Abiola before the announcement of the final result. It turned out both candidates hadagreed to prepare congratulatory statements but Tofa’s message was mischievously leaked in the heat of the annulment politics. Heswiftly denied the statement.

I somehow find it fascinating that since 1996, Ghanaians hold their general election on December 7 every four years — and it doesn’t matter what day of the week it falls. It could be a Friday or a Sunday. In Nigeria, our elections must hold on Saturdays, otherwise there will be war. An attempt by the electoral commission to fix the 2003 elections during the Easter weekend was met with staunch opposition, and there is enough caution to not let the voting day “clash” with Ramadan. By the way, there is no movement restriction on election days in Ghana. The economy is not locked down. But we don’t believe an election can hold in Nigeria without a curfew. We are a special breed, aren’t we?

The most fascinating thing about Ghanaian elections for me is the tradition of ruling parties losing the general election. It is almost like it is programmed. It is becoming like the US where the Democrats and Republicans frequently alternate power. A part of me sees this as evidence of political maturity. Another part sayssomething else and I will discuss that shortly. But, by and large, Ghanaians have devised their own “power rotation” (as a senior friend puts it) between the two biggest parties — the NDC and NPP. In Nigeria, it took the opposition 16 years to unseat the ruling party. Many fans and enthusiasts of democracy would prefer this tohappen more frequently.

This tradition, or culture, took off on a rough note in 1992. Flight Lt JJ Rawlings had overthrown a military government in June 1979, installed a democratically elected administration in September of the same year, and overthrown the civilian government in 1981. He went on to rule Ghana as a military dictator for 11 years before finally bowing to the campaign for democracy in 1992. He founded the NDC, transmuted to a civilian president and ruled for two terms of four years each — the constitutional term-limit. Credit to him for putting a limit: most African military dictators simply transmute to “democratically elected” leaders and immediately begin a journey into life presidency.

The 1992 elections did not really go down well with the opposition. Rawlings was the candidate of the Progressive Alliance, which was made up of his NDC, National Convention Party (NCP) and the hilariously named Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE). Rawlings formed the alliance to be able to withstand the NPP at the ballot and he won 58 percent of votes, leaving NPP’s Prof AlbertAdu Boahen trailing with 30 percent. Opposition candidates cried foul, accused Rawlings of electoral fraud, and boycotted the parliamentary elections in protest. But allegations of electoral fraud aside, the opposition parties were too fragmented and weak to make a dent on the Rawlings-led coalition. 

In 1996, Rawlings easily retained power: as the incumbent and Ghanaian leader for 15 years non-stop, that was not something to be unexpected. Even though his coalition — the Progressive Alliance— was re-elected with almost the same margin in the 1992 election, the opposition parties were collaborating better. Mr John Kufuor’s Great Alliance, made up of his NPP, and ironically, the same NCPthat aligned with the NDC in 1992, put up a brave fight but lost. Mr Kow Nkensen Arkaah, the vice-president, was the leader of the NCP but having fallen out with Rawlings, he decided to run with Kufuor. The opposition parties complained less this time: theyadmitted they had more work to do.

The 2000 election was a different ball game. The opposition parties were better organised, better resourced and better prepared this time. Kufuor ran again, this time against NDC’s Prof John Atta Mills, Rawlings’ VP who replaced Arkaah. Contrary to fears of violence, the election went peacefully and NPP defeated the ruling party and a sitting vice-president after two rounds of voting. Rawlings lost power, in a sense, after having ruled Ghana for 19 years on the trot. The NDC was displaced from power after just two terms by the man who had lost to Rawlings four years earlier. This was considered the ultimate model of civilian-to-civilian transitionin developing democracies.

Kufuor got his second term in 2004 by defeating Mills again, this time without a run-off. But Kufuor’s NPP lost power in 2008 as Ghanaians decided to show the ruling party the red card — the second time in 16 years. And it was third time lucky for Mills, who defeated NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo, the former attorney-general and minister of justice. Mills needed a run-off to win the closest election in Ghanaian history. Akufo-Addo led the first round with 49.13percent while Mills had 47.92 per cent. But having not scored the required half of the total votes, Akufo-Addo faced a tension-soaked run-off that ended with less than one percent margin in favour of Mills, the law professor-turned-politician.

The next three elections were something you could never make up: Akufo-Addo vs Mahama all the way. Mahama was vice-president to Mills, who died a few months to the 2012 elections. Mahama was sworn in to replace Mills as required by the constitution. He then had a go at presidency. He defeated Akufo-Addo, who was now losing for the second time in a row. But both of them squared off again in 2016 and Akufo-Addo finally won — at third try. That was the third time a ruling party would be sent packing. Akufo-Addo defeated Mahama again in 2020. Now, Mahama has defeated Akufo-Addo’s vice-president to return to power. And this is the fourth time a ruling party would lose.

Meanwhile, why is another part of me feeling uneasy with thisGhana “power rotation”? I would say that sometimes voters judge wrongly by blaming all the economic misery on the ruling party. The fundamentals of many African economies are not right and changing governments hardly solves the major problems. If the structure of the economy is warped, implementing major changes can hurt the citizens who will now take it out on the ruling party and vote them out. But years down the line, they will look back and say “even the previous government was not this bad”. They choose another party again but the problems remain. This is good for democracy but it can equally be very tricky.

Let me illustrate. When Ghanaians voted out Mahama in 2016, the national currency had fallen to an average of GH¢4 to the dollar. Voters were angry because it was GH¢1.95/$ when Mahama became caretaker president in 2012. They voted him out in favour of Akufo-Addo but things only got worse (it is now GH¢16/$ with the attendant impact on the cost of living). Voters were angry againand began to yearn for a return to the “good old days” when NDC was in power. Well, NDC is back but if the economic fundamentalsdo not change (and reform can come with more pains), it could be GH¢30/$ by 2028 when another election is due. And voters would again long for the “good old days” of NPP.

For me, though, the major positive in the unofficial “power rotation” is that people own the democracy. It belongs to all. It is in the interest of everyone that the democratic order is maintained. The opposition parties have a stake. The voters have a stake. Part of the frustration with our democracy in Nigeria is the notion that you have to be in the ruling party to win. This has led to a culture of defections to the ruling party and the weakening of opposition and competition. It is almost like you are wasting your time being in the opposition. Some PDP members have not forgiven Jonathan for conceding to Buhari in 2015 and failing to use state machinery to hold tight to power.

Democracy is sweeter when the field is level and participants are given a fair crack of the whip. When people go into elections already feeling defeated, the competitive feature of democracy is in ruins. A level-playing field allows for promotion of alternative ideas. The possibility that a ruling party can lose an election should also, ordinarily, propel incumbents to deliver the goods. It should serve as an incentive for performance in order to retain power. It has the potential to curtail complacency. At a time in Nigeria, to get the PDP ticket was the most critical thing. Winning the actual election was a mere formality. The APC has now fully replaced the PDP in this aspect of the game. It is what it is.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

RIVERS DISORDER

The court of appeal on Friday set aside a federal high court orderrestraining the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from disbursing financial allocations to the Rivers state government. The federal high court did not have any constitutional power on the finances of states, the appellate court ruled. Even those of us who did not study law knew that the federal high court ruling was completely out of order, but we could only shake our heads in disbelief and despair. The conduct of some judges in matters relating to Rivers state will have to come under the intense scrutiny of the National Judicial Council (NJC) because some of these pronouncements do not make any sense at all. Troubling.

TJ’S TRAUMA

Tijjani Babangida, former Super Eagles’ player, has spoken out about one of the most traumatic experiences a human being can ever have. In an accident on Kaduna-Zaria road early 2024, he lost his younger brother, Ibrahim, who also played for Nigeria at cadet level. His one-year-old son, Fadil, died from his injuries. The nanny had a fracture. The wife lost an eye and had to undergo facial reconstruction. “After three months in the Netherlands, I was finally able to tell her that our child was in the car when the accident took place. She [asked] about his name. She can’t remember anything about him,” Babangida said in a documentary by his former club, Ajax. Heartbreaking.

SOCIAL MALAISE

An affliction that the social media has brought upon the human race is the ease with which people fabricate malicious and defamatory tales. Someone recently forwarded a post to me and asked if it was true. It was something about Hon Bello el-Rufai, federal lawmaker and son of the former governor of Kaduna. I did not think twice before replying that it was fake. The figures quoted in naira and dollars in the post were insane. I was shocked that some people believed it and even shared it on social media. A lawyer has apologised for sharing without verifying. The character assassination on social media cannot go on like this, otherwise we should just kiss civilisation goodbye. Disgusting.

NO COMMENT

Are you following events in Syria? They have a new saviour named Abu Muhammad al-Golani. He led the rebel groups to overthrow the government of President Bashar Al-Assad, the dictator who came to power in 2000 to replace his dictator father who had died after almost thirty years in power. Father and son took turns to terrorise Syrians before a group of terrorists decided to put an end to the reign of terror. Al-Golani, the rebel leader, was a member of Al-Qaeda at some point and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He was once jailed for terrorism. Syrians are happy that the Devil has overthrown Satan. Al-Golani is even enjoying good coverage in the Western media. Wonderful.

Unlike in the last 24 years of his power and crushing majesty, Bashar al-Assad had a decision quickly made for him. The choice between flying out of  Hmeimim air base  in his super luxury presidential jet and a rugged military version of the Russian SU 35 duty jet was quickly made for him in the thick of darkness. The special squad of military intelligence officers detailed by Vladimir Putin and the elite squad of his own intelligence service to ferret  him out of Damascus had no time for protocol niceties. Their task was simple: fly Assad and his family safely out of Syria and into Moscow where the grounds had been prepared for his life in exile. Roughly three hours of flight into uncertainty.

With his evacuation from the Presidential fortress in Damascus, Assad’s two and half decades of tyranny over Syria was over, thus ending over fifty years draconian dominion of the Assad dynasty over Syria.  This was an exile long and well prepared for. In spite of the elaborate arrangements laid out by Putin  for his unexpected guests, the Assad family had made serious arrangements for this eventuality.

With an estimated loot of over $2 billion tucked away in Russian and other banks, the Assad family owns a series of super luxury apartments worth over $40 million located in Moscow’s eight tallest apartment block. It is of course unlikely that the Assad clan would quarter in these luxury abodes in the immediate. For security and diplomatic reasons, they are more likely  to be housed in specially provided dachas made available by their ubiquitous host with all VIP security protection arrangements.

Russia’s pretension as an honest broke had collapsed. It has sustained its patronage of Assad under the guise that it could get Assad to give up its chemical weapons arsenal and neutralize elements of ISIS in Syria. All that did not happen. In the wake of the Assad overthrow, Russia has played up a narrative that it encouraged Assad to surrender to a peaceful transfer of power. That, too, is a bogus lie concocted in case Syria becomes ungovernable, necessitating an Assad return.

Back in Damascus, a virtual street carnival  and mob sight-seeing has gone on for over a week and half. The mob is out on a tour of the places that up until last week were hallowed ground of a despicable   and dreaded tyrant. Fear is gone with the tyrant and left in  its place the dread of uncertain freedom. Common folk have gone sight-seeing and treasure- hunting in Assad’s palace. Common people are looting treasured art pieces, venturing into presidential bedrooms, savoring the remnant aroma from what used to be the presidential cuisine with alluring menus on wall display. On the streets, irate mobs have torn down huge posters and billboards of the fallen dictator.  Poor people and plain street urchins are trampling on Assad posters and even urinating on them!

More tellingly, the Assad prison cells have been thrown open. People who have been in detention for decades are being released for the first time. Some can hardly remember their own names or their precise identity. Even their relations can hardly recognize them. Taken together, the Damascus postcards are quite familiar in all places where history overturns the bastions of autocracy and power absolutism.

The images and footages are familiar. Images of tumbling statues and opened up palaces: The Caecescus in Romania. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcus in the Philippines,  Haille Mengistu Mariam in Ethiopia, Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The postcards from the palaces of fleeing tyrants and triumphant street mobs carry a uniform imprint.

With the coordinated and mass supported rebel overrun of Damascus and the sacking of the Assad regime, the long drawn  Syrian revolutionary flourish that gathered momentum following the Arab Spring of 2011 has made land fall. The Arab Spring was a spontaneous street based revolt against authoritarian rulers in most of the Arab world. The revolt brought about varying degrees of political change and even regime changes in countries as diverse as Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain. In Syria, the revolt was beaten down with maximum ferocity by Bashar al-Assad following in the footsteps of his late father. Multiple faction rebellion followed and a bloody civil war ensued.

Dissidents and rebels were hunted down, rounded up and killed, jailed, tortured or chased into exile. Those who survived organized into factional rebel groups parading diverse ideologies and waging mostly religious fundamentalist crusades.  But they all had one enemy- Assad and his autocratic regime.  He in turn dug in  and entrenched his dictatorship.  He reinforced his military strength,  tightened the levers of repression, and reduced the democratic freedoms of Syrians.

He reached out to Iran, Russia and Turkey as well as extremist terrorist groups in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories  adjoining Israel. Assad alienated moderate Arab countries like Jordan which was presided over by his childhood palace friend, now King Abdallah, son of the late King Hussein.

Of course, Syria was a fertile ground for all manner of fringe religious  fundamentalist terrorists. All manner of international interests were aligned with the various rebel factions. ISIS found a safe haven in parts of Syria. The over 13 rebel groups opposed to Assad were supported by powerful local and international  power interests: The US was poised against ISIS remnants. Turkey was pitched to the north in support of separatist Kurds seeking  autonomy to the north of Syria. Iran, Saudi Arabia were digging for support and foothold in a regional power bazaar.  Israel has remained fixated on the Golasn Heights. A multi pronged civil war erupted and  raged since the Arab Spring.

Syria’s economy which had before  the revolt boasted one of the highest GDP per capita in the region was plunger into chaos and crisis. Poverty and mismanagement followed. The only feature of the Syrian  state alive was the Assad presidency and its supporting military infrastructure.

What has united the rebel groups that have finally toppled and sacked the Assad regime is a simplistic hunger for a civil, inclusive, sovereign and peaceful Syria. From their pronouncements so far, this hunger is above their sectarian differences. They have to fight to restore Syria, to ensure the return of normal social services and to mend the broken heart of a nation that was once a promising destination in the Middle East.

Of all the rebel groups, HTS is easily the most prominent from the perspective of political influence. Led by Sharaa (Al-Jolani), a known terrorist on whose head the US has placed a bounty of $10 million. In the civil war years, HTS, supported by Turkey,  was in power in the Idlib province where the imprints of his more liberal governance was in evidence.

There is evidence that he ran a more liberal version of Islamic fundamentalism. Some women were allowed not to wear hijab. Men did not have to wear overgrown beards while professional women ran social services in health and education. Leading Western powers like the US and the UK who maintained a hard posture towards HTS and its leader now have to watch and see to what extent the moderation of factional leaders like Jolani can pervade the future government of Syria.

The defeat of the Assad regime has literally reduced Syria into a carcass for the hounds of international power. In a purported chase after remnants of ISIS and other trouble makers,  the United States has not let off in its serial bombardment and strikes targeted at ISIS related rebel forces still operating in Syria. 

Israel is feverishly pursuing its own national security interests by exploiting the period of statelessness in Syria to weaken a resurgent Syria as a staging post for hostile activity against the state of Israel.  It  is targeting chemical and biological weapons sites as well as military hardware locations. Israel is exploiting this period of vacuum to destroy whatever is left of the military capability of the Syrian state. It is carrying out multiple strikes per day. The strategic objective of these strikes is to weaken Syria and make it an unattractive destination for hostile actions against Israel. These actions are also aimed at whittling down the influence of Iran in the neighborhood.

The neutralization of  a humbled Syria can only add to Israel’s depletion of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the virtual devastation of Hamas in Gaza to create a more quiet neighbourhood for Israel. Unfortunately, these developments can hardly advance the cause of Palestinian statehood. Whatever negotiations take place  now on the matter will only have the Arabs and Palestinians  negotiating from a position of  demonstrable weakness.

As a strategic influence in the region, Russia has paid a price for its war against Ukraine. Clearly, the sacking of Assad is an indirect defeat of Russian influence in the region. Russia had lost the capacity to protect Assad regime in Syria given  its exhaustion in Ukraine. With a casualty of over 350,000 dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine and the raging costs of the war on its economy with crippling sanctions, Putin had no difficulty reaching the inevitable conclusion that Syria was no longer worth the trouble. Continued Russian involvement in Syria would impress no one in particular and be of no immediate strategic or economic interest. It is better off negotiating with whoever comes to rule Syria to protect whatever is left of Russian military hardware in Syria.

In every place where power places itself above responsible governance and the pursuit of the common good, the collapse of the Assad dynasty holds lessons. It is at once the lesson of absolutism as a temptation of power. It is also the lesson of the narrow pursuit of self -interest over and above the common interest and the collective good.

The transience of power is the most obvious lesson that has since been learnt by even the most pedestrian Banana Republic autocrat. They know power is transient  hence they spend their days in office preparing for the decades they will spend after office. They know the things they  are likely to miss out of office hence they spirit those things away to their retirement hideouts. 

Above everything and relevant to every clime, the destruction of Syria and the eventual collapse of the Assad dynasty shows how the prospects and promise of a nation can be destroyed by the limitless power appetite of one family and one man.

For the Nigerian state in its present state of creaking disrepair, the fall of Assad’s tenuous autocracy demonstrates how easily a state besieged by multiple threats can eventually fall apart. For those in doubt, the threats that confront and could fell the Nigerian state are not far too different from the ones that afflicted Syria and led to the recent collapse.

These include: spiraling insecurity,  random and casual violations of human and citizen rights, unchecked sectarian divisions, unbridled corruption among political leaders and increasing regionalism of political discourse and contest.

The Syrian postcard is specific. But its images are universal and apply in every  nation where power gravitates towards absolutism.

*Focus on something useful, not Badenoch, Atiku’s aide tells Shettima

The leader of the United Kingdom Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has again taken a dig at Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, in her recent interview, saying she is a Yoruba and has nothing in common with the northern part of the country. 

This is as the spokesman for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu, asked those criticising Badenoch, to embark on a moment of introspection.

Vice President Shettima, recently, slammed her for denigrating Nigeria in her recent interviews with British media, especially her views on immigration and corruption by the Nigerian public officials, and urged her to drop her Nigerian name. 

While her spokesperson has responded to the criticism from Shettima, Badenoch sparked fresh identity controversy while speaking with British media, The Spectator, recently. 

According to her, Northern Nigeria is a haven for Islamism and Boko Haram. She expressed dismay at how she’s being identified as Nigerian, noting that she identifies less with the country. 
She said, “I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity (Yoruba).”

“I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where Islamism is.
“Being Yoruba is my true identity, and I refuse to be lumped with northern people of Nigeria, who ‘were our ethnic enemies,’ all in the name of being called a Nigerian.”

Continuing, Badenoch recalled how her surname was linked to a warrior and protector of the crown, adding that she was ready to die protecting the country (United Kingdom).
“Somebody once told me when I was very young that my surname was a name for people who were warriors. They protected the crown, and that’s what I see myself as doing.

“I am here to protect, and I will die protecting this country because I know what’s out there,” she added.

Meanwhile, Shaibu, the spokesman for the presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 election, Atiku, asked those criticising Badenoch, to embark on a moment of introspection.
Specifically, Shaibu urged Vice President Shettima to find something useful to do rather than concentrating on Badenoch.

In a post on his X page yesterday, Shaibu asked the vice president to find something useful to do with his time instead of berating Badenoch.

He wrote: “Those criticising @KemiBadenoch should pause for a moment of introspection. The mere fact that her name is Kemi or that she has Yoruba roots does not automatically render her Nigerian.
“After all, Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus @gabrieljesus9 is not the son of God. @officialSKSM should find something useful to do with his time.”

[Thisday]

The Epe Local Government Council Chairman, Princess Surah Animashaun, has said the Grand Chief Commander Award conferred on a member of Lagos State Governor's Advisory Council (GAC), Alhaji Shakiru Akanni Seriki-Bamu by the Prestigious Epe club, is an award well deserved.

A statement by the LG Chairperson, Princess Animashaun, said, “Akanni Seriki-Bamu has successfully made a masterpiece out of Epe division and Lagos State at large. The award is a confirmation of the Seriki-Bamu’s popularity and credence as a progressive leader who has continued to use his resources for the common good of all.

“His exemplary leadership, selfless service, and invaluable contributions to the growth and development of our beloved community is a testament to the prestigious award and recognition.

“Akanni Seriki-Bamu has so far shown a firm resolve to creating a better reality for everyone in Epe division, your tireless efforts to promote unity, progress, and social welfare in Epe division have not gone unnoticed.

"Indeed, you are a shining example of dedication, integrity, compassion, selflessness and community spirit that is worth emulating, we are proud to associate with you and celebrate your exceptional leadership, achievements as personality of inestimable value."

"Your immense contributions has made Epe, a model Council of good governance, and we are quite delighted that he is being recognised with the Grand Commander of the Prestigious Epe Club.

"May this recognition inspire you to continue serving our community with the same passion, relentlessness, vision, energy, wisdom, and generosity that have made you a highly revered figure in Epe division and nationally."

"I find it interesting that everyone defines me as a Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with my specific ethnic group. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram, where Islamism is. Being Yoruba is my true identity and I refuse to be lumped with the northern people of Nigeria who were our ethnic enemies, all in the name of being called a Nigerian"- @KemiBadenoch. 

Kemi Badenoch MP, the leader of the British Conservative Party and Opposition in the @UKParliament, has refused to stop at just denigrating our country but has gone a step further by seeking to divide us on ethnic lines.

She claims that she never regarded herself as being a Nigerian but rather a Yoruba and that she never identified with the people from the Northern part of our country who she collectively describes as being "Boko Haram Islamists" and "terrorists". 

This is dangerous rhetoric coming from an impudent and ignorant foreign leader who knows nothing about our country, who does not know her place and who insists on stirring up a storm that she cannot contain and that may eventually consume her. 

It is rather like saying that she identifies more with the English than she does with the Scots and the Welsh whom she regards as nothing more than homicidal and murderous barbarians that once waged war against her ethnic English compatriots! 

All this coming from a young lady of colour that is a political leader in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country that lays claim to being the epitome of decency and civilisation! What a strange and inexplicable contradiction this is.

Her intentions are malevolent and insidious and her objective, outside of ridiculing and mocking us, is to divide us and bring us to our knees.

I am constrained to ask, what on earth happened to this creature in her youth and why does she hate Nigeria with such passion?

Did something happen to her when she lived here which she has kept secret?

Was she the victim of some form of deviant behaviour, abuse or perversion that has resulted in trauma, long term psychological damage & mental health issues?

Is this why she sees red and gets her pretty knickers in a twist whenever she hears "Nigeria"? 

Why does the mention of the name of our country trigger such compulsive, violent and aggressive emotions and impulses in her? 

Given her pathological hatred for Nigerians these are legitimate questions that need to be answered. 

She hates us with what the Bible describes as "a perfect hatred" yet in a much publicised and widely read open letter written in 2010 during her first bid to be elected into the UK Parliament she begged the Nigerian community in her constituency to support her.

At that time, when she still needed us, she identified with Nigerians but everything changed after she was  elected.

At that point, in her conflicted and confused mind, all Nigerians became demons, all Englanders became angels and her disdain and contempt for us was unmasked!

She hates us with a perfect hatred yet she still has the effontry and nerve to haul her rotund posterior back to our country with one Hamish, who I am told is her English husband, to watch polo at the Lagos Polo Club.

This is the same country that she has described as being a lawless jungle and corrupt stinking edifice from which no good can come and that is filled with nothing but apes, monsters and the criminally insane.

The truth is that the creature called Kemi Badenoch is nothing but a b*tch on heat. She needs to be tamed and caged.

She is Aunty Jemima on steroids and the President of the International House Ni*gers Association. 

Her Nigerian passport (if she still has one) ought to be revoked and she should never be allowed to set her leperous foot in our country again.

She should take Vice President Kashim Shettima's @KashimSM counsel seriously and drop Kemi as her name.

She should formally wipe her maiden name of Adegoke off the record as well and publicly renounce  and disavow her father, mother, siblings and Nigerian lineage and heritage. 

She does not want to identify with us and we do not want to identify with her. 

She sees us as being corrupt and evil and we see her as being the devil incarnate and the spawn of satan. There can be no fellowship between us. 

The truth is that she is no longer a mere irritant or the inconsequential object of our contempt and ridicule but she can now be comfortably and legitimately described as 'public enemy number one' of our beloved nation.

She should stick to the affairs of her  UK, face it's ruling Labour Party and it's Prime Minister Keir Starmer @Keir_Starmer and LEAVE NIGERIA ALONE! 

On a lighter note it is a pity that I stopped playing polo many years ago because if it had been in my days that she attempted to visit the Lagos Polo Club she would not have got past the gate and if she managed to do so our grooms and horseboys would have pasted her self-hating, unpatriotic, ungrateful, treacherous and ever so plain face with Argentinian pony dung before tarring and feathering her. 

How times have changed!

(FFK)