…Organized Labour’s N497,000 demand unrealistic — Presidency
…Adds affordability key to arriving at any figure

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Joe Ajaero, and Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, at this year’s annual Vanguard Economic Discourse, traded words over Organised Labour’s N615,000 minimum wage demand which has been reduced to N497,000.

While Mr Rewane contended that the minimum wage being demanded by Labour was not feasible, Ajaero insisted that the demand is in line with the socio-economic realities of Nigeria at the moment.

This came as the Presidency yesterday said the N497,000 demand by Labour as the new minimum wage was unrealistic and advised labour to be serious in its demand.

Speaking in his opening remarks at the summit, Ajaero, who was a panelist at the discourse, posited that the prices of most essential items and other services from transportation, and electricity to food had skyrocketed.

He said: “From all that we have been discussing here, there is a benchmark which is the dollar; a common factor we use. The cost of living index determines the wages, I want you to benchmark it with probably a bag of rice, which is about N84,000 today.

“I will equally want you to ask people that refill their gas cylinders how much it costs them, maybe N16,000 or N17,000, and it is once or twice in a month which is about N30,000 plus. I would equally want you to benchmark it to a plate of ‘Mama-put’ (Roadside food vendor) at N500 without meat.

“When you do that, with a family of six, you are going to get N270,000 in a month. We can go on and on. I want you to equally look at the United Nations, UN, provision that no human being should live on less than $2 per day.

“For a family of six, that will amount to $12. Multiply it and it gives you $360, then convert it with the current exchange rate.

“Ordinarily, I would have asked you to convert this money to dollars and you will see that it translates to about $20 and that is the least all over the world.

“Do you want labour to suggest that people should live on less than $1, not even $2 per day?

‘Living wage different from minimum wage’

If you match that with Mr President’s position that he is going to give Nigerians a living wage, and a living wage, in actual fact is different from a minimum wage.

“A living wage is that which will keep you and your family, at least, for you to eat till the end of the month. The fact that you have so much devalued your naira to the point that it doesn’t have weight gain should not make us not feed or go to work and not come back.

“No worker, including those in this hall today, goes to work and back without spending at least N2,000 a day. In a month, it is N60,000. Now check all these things and see whether a worker earning N615,000 in a month will have one naira in savings.

“We deliberately did not put communication. We deliberately did not put tithe, we assume that a worker does not have parents in our calculation. That is what brought us where we are today on the issue and on the premise that it creates inflation, I disagree with you because inflation is already here with us.

“It is a real wage that grows the economy because when workers earn, they purchase. When you increase the purchasing power of workers, the economy will grow and you have proper productivity.

“In Ghana, they review wages annually. If inflation is maybe three per cent, it is factored into it. Even in the United Kingdom, it is based on the level of inflation that they adjust wages. Yes, it is an index. If we have three per cent, it will be self-adjusted for that year.

“Even if you give us N615,000 for the next five years, it will be meaningless because if you are one of the people who prescribed this, it is weighing heavily on us.”

During the panel discussion, the NLC President said: “We are talking about reserves. You cannot continue to talk about reserves when people are dying of poverty. What are you going to do with reserves? The purpose of any government is for the good of the people.

“Whether workers or ordinary citizens, if you are talking of reserves, saving money and economic policies that are forcing people into poverty, how do you reconcile it because one of the eight-point agenda of the President is to eradicate poverty?

‘’Again, by the time we came up with the issue of wage award for which they gave N35,000, an amount which is neither here nor there, we came up with some measures before the negotiation of minimum wage.
“We said can you adopt the Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, policy? The CNG issue came from us and we explained to them that the CNG option will help Nigeria and is eco-friendly.

In this option, if you are supposed to fill your car tank with N50,000 petrol, with N15,000, you will fill your tank if we apply CNG.

‘’If you do this, even with the cost of PMS then, the cost of transportation will go down and prices of other things will stop moving. However, the government preferred to have abortions before pregnancy.
“However, they said we prefer to deregulate and they removed the subsidy before looking at how to cushion the effect. One year later, that cushion has not come.

“We decided to adopt a palliative policy, that is what the government is in today. A government of palliatives, tell me of any other reform that is working. Even the palliatives they promised, they said it should be cash transfers to the most vulnerable. As of today, there has never been any cash transfer to anybody.

“You were talking of reserves; it looks like you are having a kind of situation where people are dying and you are keeping reserves. You did not mention the corruption figures in Nigeria in building reserves.

“Some of the reserves built in the past were looted. If you identify that point of having billions and billions being looted by people, you can’t build reserves in the face of corruption. It is not possible. That is one vital point. Now that oil prices are going up, you cannot continue to refine abroad. “The period you are supposed to make money for your growth from oil, you are just importing refined products because no refinery is working in Nigeria, nothing is functioning.

“It is like a theory of producing cassava in your farm and you sell cassava to buy an illegal product.
‘’Now, between the time this last subsidy was removed and now, is Nigeria not paying more money in subsidy? Now we have to face reality. For sloganeering, we have removed the subsidy, while we are paying more subsidy.

“We should tell ourselves the truth. You know, there is no need to talk about reserves when they are going to completely loot the reserves.

‘’We cannot quickly forget the Justice Okigbo commission report on $12.4 billion missing oil windfall and whatnot. In this country, even when they take a loan, the loan disappears. Why can’t we come out openly and discuss our problem? And look at the hitches which corruption is causing to proffer solutions.”

Rewane contends

On his part, Mr Rewane, also a panellist at the event, said: “In 2019, the original proposal we met when former President Mohammad Buhari called us, I could recall, was N18,000, and the discussion was around N24,000. I think we moved it to N30,000 after all negotiations.

“When we came up, he said, I don’t want any layoffs, I don’t want any inflation, I don’t want this, I don’t want that. But what do you want? That was not there.

‘’In any case, we were able to resolve the issue. The data is very clear. What we did, N30,000 was the minimum wage, which covers 10 per cent more than N30,000 that the civil servants got.

“The equivalent at that time was about $75. So, for any other person, if you are on N18,000, you get N30,000. If you are a permanent secretary, whatever it is, you get N10,000 more.

And the data is here, inflation in 2019 was 11.4 per cent. Inflation in 2020, the year after, came down to six per cent.

‘’So, you can see that even though there was a wage review, which went from N18,000 to N30,000, inflation actually declined to six per cent. So, it was well managed, anticipated, and the discussion was very thorough and it happened in the month of the election. The president signed on April 18th.

“If you now dollarise the minimum wage, because the inflation has already been factored in the exchange rate, you dollarise the income. If you use the dollar value, you must also then use U.S. inflation. You cannot use the dollar value and then use the Nigeria inflation because that means that I am paying you in dollars.

“You now use US inflation, which is at 3.4 per cent now, and you take all the weight out of it. Let us say the US inflation from 2019 to now went up to about 9 per cent. So let us say everything put together was 15 per cent. If you take the dollar value add 15 per cent to that, and then bring it back, you will find that there is enough room for you to come up with a midpoint.

“Speaking about minimum wage, productivity in the US and our productivity in Nigeria are two different things. That is one.

“Two, the national minimum wage is a law that affects both the private sector and the public sector. It is a policy; it is not the economic plan, not the public plan. Government’s contribution to the GDP is about 10 per cent.

“The private sector, the employers, also have to pay the minimum wage. They can only pay the minimum wage from the revenue they generate and you know the situation in this country. They do not want a situation which would lead to a recession.

“What I’m saying is that you negotiate the minimum wage, bearing in mind that it is not government and government workers. The private sector is also in.

“Look at the losses they have been declaring and these companies that are going to borrow money at higher interest rates are still going to pay higher minimum wage. We are very concerned about the growth of our investment.”

Labour’s N497,000 demand unrealistic — Presidency

Meanwhile, the Presidency has said the N497,000 demand by organized labour as the new minimum wage is unrealistic and advised labour to be serious in its demand.

It also said what should be paramount in arriving at a new minimum wage by the tripartite committee on the new minimum wage should be the availability of resources to pay whatever was agreed upon.

Speaking exclusively to Vanguard in an interview in Abuja yesterday, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, said governments at the federal and state levels, have a bloated workforce.

Fielding questions on whether the recent N497,000 wage demand by organized labour was outrageous, Onanuga said: “Well, it’s very simple. I think the demand is outrageous. If you ask Mr. Ajaero or our brother who is the President of the TUC, Osifo, how much they pay their drivers or their lowest-paid workers, how much do they pay their cleaners, can they pay them N500,000? Can they pay them N615,000? It’s unrealistic.

“We have a bloated civil service at all levels. The government is keeping them as a social service because it doesn’t have other jobs for them.

“The last time someone gave the census of federal civil servants, they are said to be about 50,000. I am not talking about the police, army or those employed by some agencies. I am talking about the hardcore civil servants.

“If you visit the federal secretariat, you will see them milling around. You do not expect much productivity from them. Yet these are people Ajaero wants the Federal Government to pay N615,000.

“At the moment, what government is spending on recurrent expenditure, is too high. I don’t foresee any government, federal, state or local government council, spending all its money just to pay workers.

“There are still self-employed people, people who are doing their businesses to whom the government has responsibility to do roads, provide healthcare, provide education and others. So, labour should be realistic.

“From what I have seen so far, they are unserious, and unrealistic with their outlandish demand. I know that what the President has been promising is not just a minimum wage but a living wage.

“It’s too early now to say this is what the government will agree to. They are still negotiating. In the coming weeks, they will agree on a figure and then announce it to the Nigerian people.

“Then we have to be worried whether the states have the earning power to pay whatever the minimum wage agreed on because some states found it difficult to pay the old minimum wage of N30,000.

“I read a few days ago that the Zamfara State government, which failed to pay the N30,000 current minimum wage, announced that they will pay. If some states have not paid the minimum wage announced by President Muhammadu Buhari five years ago, it is an indication that the states will also fail to pay the new minimum wage. So labour needs to be realistic.

“In my view, I think what labour should be talking about is how to make affordable housing available, how to reduce transport costs, how to make food cheap and affordable to our people because by the time you spend less money on food, less money on transport, education and other things, the earning power will improve.

“I don’t believe in the quantum of money, it will not solve the problem. We have seen all the wage Aincreases in the past. They ended up creating more frustration for the workers.”

Rejiging cabinet not on the table

Asked if President Bola Tinubu would rejig his cabinet as the government marks one year in office on May 29, he said such was not on the card currently.

He said: “I don’t have any information about that. The President, instead of approving a lavish anniversary, asked the ministers to go out and give their scorecards.

“Some of them have done so. We started on Thursday and Friday and we are taking more ministers on Monday. It will run until we exhaust all the major ministers who have stories to tell, who have scorecards to present.

“I am not aware whether the President is entertaining removing some ministers. Don’t forget, those ministers are not one year old, they came in I think late August and they have barely spent nine months or so in government. “The President would want to give them some time to show whether they are performing or not.”

Further asked about his assessment and whether the ministers had lived up to their responsibilities, Onanuga said a good number of the cabinet members had so far discharged their responsibilities creditably.

“Many of them have done wonderfully well. All of them cannot be on the same level. It depends on what you are doing in your ministry, the kind of subjects you are superintending and so on. But I can say many of them have done well, many of them have been eager to implement the President’s 8-Point Agenda as it relates to the work they are doing in their ministries. I can say many of them have done well,’’ he added.

Asked how much he would suggest as a fair minimum wage to workers, he insisted that should be based on the available resources to the government.

[Vanguard]

In 1984, Okunade Sijuwade, then the ooni of Ife, and Ado Bayero, the 13th emir of Kano, were reported to have travelled to Israel on what was supposed to be a fulfilling friends’ trip. Upon return, both kings were slammed with a travel ban and a suspension by the military government led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari. Other accounts say they were sentenced to a house arrest of six months by the military leadership.

Nigeria had severed diplomatic relationships with Israel, as many African countries did at the time. The travel ban on both monarchs was considered disrespecting the traditional stools of the Ife Kingdom and the Kano Emirate. When the late ooni was relating this story about two decades later, he said he and Ado Bayero were suspended because someone “sold a dummy” to the military that he went to Germany to recruit killers, and took them to Israel to be trained by MOSSAD to wrestle power away from Buhari for Obafemi Awolowo.

The military government took the ooni’s passports and found no German visa. This situation led to lifelong friction between Muhammadu Buhari and Oba Okunade Sijuwade. The ooni said he had forgiven Buhari, and even received him at his palace when he was campaigning in the 2000s. At this time, the ooni was politically a heavyweight. Ibrahim Babangida, who ousted Buhari, supported Sijuwade’s call for the creation of Osun State in 1991. He also favoured Olusegun Obasanjo for president, so he had influence at the highest levels.

About 30 years later, when Buhari and his co-travellers in the APC were going from palace to palace seeking political endorsements for a Buhari presidency, they conspicuously avoided the ooni, who was publicly supporting former president Goodluck Jonathan.

Fortunately for Buhari, he won the election with the help of the powers of that particular stool. In this chapter of history, Buhari seemed to have won the last round. But it was a worthy battle of heavyweights — 1984 to 2014.

WELCOME TO SANUSI’S 2014

In June 2014, Ado Bayero left ooni Sijuwade on this terrestrial plain to join his ancestors. This meant his emirship in Kano was vacant and had to be filled as soon as possible. There were a few contenders, but two stood out — Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was recently suspended as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, the crown prince and eldest son of the late Ado Bayero.

On the sidelines, heavy politics was in play. Before his death, the late Ado Bayero had a rift with Rabiu Kwankwaso, the governor of Kano state, over the king’s decision to appoint Mohammad Nasir Mohammad as the new Wazirin Kano. Kwankwaso was also running for president against Goodluck Jonathan, who had just suspended Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. So Kwankwaso was seemingly against the Bayeros and Jonathan.

While Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was easily the most accomplished of all the contenders for the Kano throne, the politics at play was also heavily in his favour. He beat his nephew to become the emir of Kano in 2014. Kwankwaso lost the APC ticket to Buhari, and supported Buhari against Jonathan. Jonathan lost the presidential election in 2015, and Abdullahi Ganduje, Kwankwaso’s deputy, beat Salihu Takai, the PDP candidate, to become the state governor. All wins, no loss for the SLS camp — until Ganduje turned.

MUHAMMAD SANUSI II VERSUS ABDULLAHI GANDUJE

In 2017, I was covering the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend, which was held in Morocco. Sanusi had been invited as a panellist to speak on behalf of traditional leaders and institutions in Africa. While speaking, the governor, threw salvos at some northern governors, including Ganduje.

“Traditional rulers like me find themselves in a very difficult position: on one hand, politicians are very happy for you to go and fight fires, tell people to keep the peace, preach to people to condemn violence,” the emir said.

“On the other, you are not allowed to criticise root causes that may come from the failure of politicians. So it is fine to say to a rural villager, you should send your daughter to school. But it is not fine to say to the governor ‘why haven’t you built a school’.

“You have state governors in the north, who have three million, five million children on the street, without school, they go to China and they are looking for money — not to build schools — but to build a light rail. You spend $2 billion on a light rail, you know how many children that can educate?” Sanusi said at a time Ganduje had just signed a $1.85 billion deal with a Chinese firm to build the Kano light rail. After these statements, the open battle began.

Ganduje had also fallen out with Kwankwaso, who was now pitching Abba Yusuf, his son-in-law, to become the next governor of Kano. Sanusi was said to have supported Yusuf, who would later lose the 2019 elections. With vengeance, Ganduje decimated the Kano emirate into five to shrink Sanusi’s powers as emir of the centuries-old kingdom.

To seal his comeback, Ganduje appointed Aminu Ado Bayero, the second son of the late Ado Bayero as the new emir.

MUHAMMAD SANUSI II IS BACK?

Four years ago, when Muhammad Sanusi II (MSII) was exiled from Kano to Awe, I travelled to Awe to report his stay in the small town. I was there for a week and I always wondered how that story would end.  But now we know — or not.

The new leadership of the state has repealed legislation and unified the emirate once again, reinstating MSII as the emir of the united Kano Emirate. But unlike 2014 when Sanusi Ado Bayero lost the emirship and left Kano for MSII, Aminu Ado Bayero has insisted that he is the substantial emir of Kano.

As a student of history, I am clear that this saga has not come to an end, and there are only temporary winners, who will continue to fight to make their victory permanent. Make no mistake, for as long as there is power, there will be politics. The ultimate question remains: is this politicisation of traditional stools for the good of the people or the gain of the few?

The Nigerian Army says it has agreed on the “immediate reopening” of the popular Banex Plaza in Wuse 2, Abuja.

The agreement to reopen the plaza comes about a week after it was shut down over a clash between some traders and two soldiers of the Nigerian Army at the complex.

On May 18, there was pandemonium at the plaza when some traders engaged two soldiers in a fight.

Witnesses said the soldiers visited the plaza to complain about a phone, which led to an argument with the traders, and a fight ensued.

After the incident, many shop owners and traders quickly closed for the day to avoid being caught up in a reprisal attack.

On May 20, some military personnel arrived in about five Hilux vehicles and reportedly shut down the plaza.

However, the army headquarters said the plaza was temporarily shut down to enable the arrest of the hoodlums who attacked two soldiers at the complex.

In a statement on Monday, Oyema Nwachukwu, director of army public relations, said an agreement was reached after a meeting with the management of the plaza and other stakeholders.

“In response to this incident, a high-level meeting was convened in the Office of the National Security Adviser, including the Principal General Staff Officer to the NSA, the Commissioner of Police FCT, the FCT Director of the Department of State Services, the Leadership and Management of Banex Plaza, a Representative from the Directorate of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, and the National Chairman of the Mobile Phone Traders Association,” the statement reads.

Nwachukwu said the meeting aimed to “identify and apprehend the perpetrators of the attack on the soldiers and ensure the continued security of the nation’s capital.

He added that the meeting agreed that shop C93, where the incident happened, should be locked up immediately.

The army spokesperson said it was also agreed that the owners of the shop who orchestrated the mob attack on the soldiers should be arrested.

“Market leaders are to remain vigilant and report any remaining perpetrators to the authorities,” Nwachukwu said.

“Furthermore, the two individuals already arrested have been handed over to the headquarters of the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Police for further action.”

He also said the army would “thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding the presence of its personnel at the plaza and the subsequent attack”.

“It must be reiterated that acts of violence against military personnel are not only condemnable but also pose a significant threat to national security and public order,” he added.

“We therefore urge members of the public to exercise caution and restraint when interacting with military personnel and other security operatives, especially when they are in uniform.”

He further said there are established channels for reporting grievances or misconduct by personnel to the appropriate authorities.

 [TheCable]

We’re privileged to partner with FG - Dangote

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi, among others hailed President of the Dangote Industries Limited, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and HiTech Construction for their roles in the completion of the Oworonshoki-Apapa Expreswway.

President Tinubu, represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, enthused that the 37 kilometres road, which commenced in 2018 by the former administration and completed in 2024, is a win for all Nigerians.

He explained that the importance of Lagos State to Nigeria makes it very vital and as such must work for the benefit of all.

“Lagos is home to all, I thank Mr Dangote for coming up with this initiative and in partnership with HiTech have delivered the Tenth Wonder of The World…Lagos is not the only state experiencing growth and development under the renewed hope agenda. I also congratulate the Minister of Works David Umahi for his passionate commitment to structural development across Nigeria,” he said.

Speaking on the “extremely poor” condition of the road before December 2018, Mr Dangote stressed that the road “severely hampered the evacuation of goods and restricted access to the markets, paralyzing the shipping and manufacturing industries and disrupting supply chains across the entire economic landscape.

“Before the completion of this road, it used to take two weeks before we get to the port and in about 18 months, we lost over N60bn in demurrage.

“The successful completion of this project is an example of the positive impact that can be achieved when the public sector collaborate with private sector.

“Utilising the visionary framework of Executive Order 007 in Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme, the Dangote Group has been able to mobilise capital for complete refurbishment of the entire 37 kilometres length of Apapa-Isolo-Oworonshoki road and its expansion to 10 lanes.”

Dangote added that the Group was privileged to partner with the Federal Government in the transformative efforts, reaffirming its commitment to national development and prosperity.

He also stated that it is imperative that the scheme should be revisited to make it more viable for the private sector participants.

“In this case, we have so far recovered only 40 per cent of our investments and the balance is not due until 2027, we consider this project merely as Corporate Social Responsibility.

“We believe that a more commercial interest rate recovery should be allowed in view of the high cost of capital in the Nigerian fiscal environment,” he said.

In his remarks, Engr Umahi also commended the Dangote Group for delivering a well-executed project, adding that the quality of the Dangote Cement is a testament to the value seen on the road.

“I was once trapped for 8 hours on my way to the airport and so, I understand how terrible the road was. We are celebrating this project today because it was well done and a display of new technology. It is fully completed with solar-powered streetlights.

“In the same vein, the Third Mainland Bridge wasn’t just another rehabilitation work, a road that has been standing for about 40 years… in an effort to ensure that our bridges last longer, I’m happy to announce that Mr President has approved the ban on excavation of sands 10 kilometres from bridges across Nigeria.”

The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat revealed that about 20 companies had relocated from the Apapa axis of the state owing to the condition of the road, “the state of the road is unimaginable. We are grateful to Aliko Dangote, HiTech for the excellent job they did. It used to take over seven hours to drive from one end of the road to the other, it now takes around an hour,” he said.

 L--R, President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie, Senate president sen.

GodsWill Akpabio, Represent  the President, Minister of Works Sen. David Nweze Umahi, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr.  Obafemi Hamzat, Represented the State Governor, at the Official Commissioning of Dangote Industries Ltd, Reconstructed Apapa -OWoronshoki - Ojota Expressway Lagos on Sunday 26th May, 2024. 

 L--R, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq,Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie, Minister of Works Sen. David Nweze Umahi, Senate President Sen. GodsWill Akpabio, Represent the President, President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, Imo State Governor, Hope Odidika Uzodinma,at the Official Commissioning of Dangote Industries Ltd, Reconstructed Apapa -OWoronshoki - Ojota Expressway Lagos on Sunday 26th May, 2024

L--R, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie, Minister of Works Sen. David Nweze Umahi,Senate president sen. GodsWill Akpabio, Represent the President, President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, Imo State Governor, Hope Odidika Uzodinma,at the Official Commissioning of Dangote Industries Ltd, Reconstructed Apapa -OWoronshoki - Ojota Expressway Lagos on Sunday 26th May, 2024

L--R,Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie, Minister of Works Sen. David Nweze Umahi,Senate president sen.GodsWill Akpabio, Represent the President, President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, Imo State Governor, Hope Odidika Uzodinma,at the Official Commissioning of Dangote Industries Ltd, Reconstructed Apapa -OWoronshoki - Ojota Expressway Lagos on Sunday 26th May, 2024

 L--R,  Ogun state Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie, Minister of Works Sen. David Nweze Umahi,Senate president sen. GodsWill Akpabio, Represent the President, President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, Imo State Governor, Hope Adidaka Uzodinma, National Chairman of APC, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, At the Official Commissioning of Dangote Industries Ltd, Reconstructed Apapa -OWoronshoki - Ojota Expressway Lagos on Sunday 26th May, 2024

L--R, Ogun state Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie, Minister of Works Sen. David Nweze Umahi,Senate president sen. GodsWill Akpabio, Represent the President, President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, Imo State Governor, Hope Adidaka Uzodinma,, At the Official Commissioning of Dangote Industries Ltd, Reconstructed Apapa -OWoronshoki - Ojota Expressway Lagos on Sunday 26th May, 2024

“Perhaps, more importantly, the Kano case has just confirmed to us that the country now has judges without borders; they sit anywhere -in the air and at sea, in their wives’ beds and on their concubines’ laps. They work 24 hours; they operate with the speed of light such that cases can be filed at 11pm and judgment delivered at 12 midnight while the other party is sleeping. Whatever they do is valid. It stands. There is no control again; the steering wheel is rusted and stiff. The state backs its carefully selected judges with everything it has –guns, threats, excuses, lightning and thunder.”

Today, those whose ancestors snatched Kano are fighting each other over the city and their spoils. The Yoruba would look at their drama and sing for them the song of Ambrose Campbell/ Ebenezer Obey: Eni rí nkan he tó fé kú torí è/ Owó eni tó ti so nù nko? I won’t translate this!

Their victims are taking sides. I shake my head for them. May I never be found on either side of siblings feuding over whose turn it is to loot me.

“Emir Sanusi II should be referred to as the 59th Emir of Kano (and) not the 16th – unless the history of Kano started after Dan Fodio’s Jihad and imposition of Emir Sulaimanu in 1807.” With these words, Journalist Jafaar Jafaar on Friday started an online war which is still raging as I write this. So, two wars are being fought simultaneously on and over Kano. The first is the game of thrones between brother and brother over the city’s kingship and its pricey palace. The second war is on social media being fiercely fought between a conquered people and their conquerors over when the history of the city started.

Kano’s monarchy has a very well documented history. The best known by historians is ‘The Kano Chronicle’ – a list of rulers of Kano since the establishment of the Bagauda Dynasty in 998 AD. Long before Bagauda and his tribe of adventurers entered Kano, history says the founding ‘chief’ was a man called Barbushe. He was credited with enormous strength and spirituality – a man who could look very far and see tomorrow. The Kano Chronicle describes this strange man’s own ancestor, Dalla, as “a black man of great stature and might; a hunter who slew elephants with his stick and carried them on his head about nine miles…”

One day, spirit-possessed Barbushe told his people that in the coming years they would lose everything they had to a stranger.

“A man shall come to this land with an army and will gain mastery over us,” he told the people of Kano.

If it was today, those people would snap their fingers over their heads and reject the prophecy. Barbushe’s people did not snap any finger, but they voiced their rejection in their own way. They told him: “Why do you say this? It is an evil saying.”

The seer kept his peace; he ignored them. Then continued. He told the people that if their conqueror “comes not in your time, assuredly, he will come in the time of your children, and will conquer all in this country, and forget you and yours and exalt himself and his people for years to come.”

The Kano Chronicle said the people were exceedingly downcast because they knew their leader told the truth of a future of slavery awaiting them. They believed him and asked: “What can we do to avert this great calamity?”

He replied them: “There is no cure but resignation.” Then “they resigned themselves” and have remained in that state of resignation till today.

It is a long story. My source is H.R. Palmer’s ‘The Kano Chronicle’ published in 1908. The prophecy is on page 64. You may read that portion and others and match that history with whatever is happening to these people today.

I remembered Barbushe’s prophecy when I saw the Hausa journalist and his online army asking questions and referring to their own ancestors as the ‘Habe’ rulers of Kano. The 19th century Fulani (and their successors) called any people they conquered ‘Habe’.

The Hausa think the altered, contemporary king list of Kano city is rigged against their ancestors. They think it robs them of their royal and cultural essence. The people who enslaved them reset the calendar and the clock of their history. Their existence started with their defeat. Their fate is classic in how not to surrender to fate. Could the 1804 Jihad of Dan Fodio and its spread to Kano be the fulfillment of that promise of eternal subjugation; a rulership which history predicted would misgovern them “till they become of no account”? The prediction, and everything around it, even its myth and legend, appear to have come with a fatal ring of prescient finality wound around these people. Their resignation is proof that there is no medicine against destiny and no armour against fate.

Students of Kano history would have no problem identifying successive emirs of the city as snacks of power. In some cases, governors munch, chew, and swallow them. Some other times, they try and fail. On January 1, 1954, Premier Ahmadu Bello installed his “close personal friend”, Muhammad Sanusi, as emir of Kano. The man succeeded his father, Abdullahi Bayero. But in August 1963, the friendship was over. Sanusi was dethroned even despite opposition from the federal. On June 8, 2014, Sanusi’s grandson, Lamido, became emir despite opposition from Abuja and its forces. He was there for six years and was dethroned by a governor who was deputy governor when he was enthroned. Last week, Lamido’s destiny brought him back to the throne even in the face of a blitzkrieg from federal forces.

Emirs are riverside reeds, precarious at all times. In 1982, Governor Abubakar Rimi had a big issue with the Emir of Kano and, in an interview, he described the emir as “nothing, nothing, nothing but a public person.” He said the emir was “holding a public office” and was “being paid from public funds” and his “appointment is at the pleasure of the governor of the state.” He said the emir “can be dismissed, removed, interdicted, suspended if he commits an offence.” Rimi said there was “nothing unique about Ado Bayero, the Emir of Kano… believe me, if he commits any offence which will make it necessary for us to remove him, we will remove him and we will sleep soundly.” His listeners shivered. The PRP governor proceeded from there to plot the sack of the emir “for failing to fulfill government orders or to show due respect to the State Governor.” There was opposition from the streets with thousands shouting: “we don’t want the governor; we want the emir.” Ado Bayero survived that coup and soon ate the exit cake of Governor Rimi. The opposite appears to be the case now with Bayero’s son, Aminu.

Perhaps, more importantly, the Kano case has just confirmed to us that the country now has judges without borders; they sit anywhere -in the air and at sea, in their wives’ beds and on their concubines’ laps. They work 24 hours; they operate with the speed of light such that cases can be filed at 11pm and judgment delivered at 12 midnight while the other party is sleeping. Whatever they do is valid. It stands. There is no control again; the steering wheel is rusted and stiff. The state backs its carefully selected judges with everything it has –guns, threats, excuses, lightning and thunder.

The case should strengthen us to double down on our insistence that Nigeria is a federation and must be so governed. A Nigerian Federal High Court sat in the United States of America and plunged a knife into the tendons of Kano chieftaincy. And we are excusing the perfidy with lexis and structure of e-judiciary. You would think under our laws, chieftaincy matters are state and local government matters. That is what our law says but the offshore judge did not think it was necessary to respect that law. Popular comedian, Mr Macaroni, would ask: “Are you normal?” We are not.

Section 251 of our constitution clearly states what areas the Federal High Court has jurisdiction over. The section has three subsections. Subsection 1 gives that court jurisdiction on matters relating to the revenue of the government of the federation and allied matters. It lists those matters. Subsection 2 gives it “jurisdiction and powers in respect of treason, treasonable felony and allied offences.” Subsection 3 gives the court powers to hear cases “in respect of criminal causes and matters in respect of which jurisdiction is conferred by subsection (1) of this section.” Nowhere in that section or anywhere in the constitution is the Federal High Court empowered to sit over chieftaincy matters. Yet, a judge who was not even in the country, assumed jurisdiction under the cover of midnight darkness in the Kano emirship tussle and, aided by candies of impunity, signed an injunction. That judge is, very soon, going to the Court of Appeal on promotion. One day, he will become the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

Power and its allure rob society of order. In William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’, we see how man with power enjoys the anonymity conferred on him by darkness. We see how control is lost and he strays calmly from goodness to savagery. America’s second president, John Adams, in March 1801, stayed up till midnight of the eve of his last night in office creating courts and signing appointment memos of his friends and supporters as judges to fill his freshly minted courts. US history remembers those judges harshly as “midnight judges.” The court ruling at the centre of Kano’s emirship logjam walked in from the United States at midnight on Thursday. The reinstated emir, Muhammadu Sanusi II, jogged into the palace midnight on Friday. The deposed emir, Aminu Ado Bayero, sneaked into the city under the canopy of darkness before dawn on Saturday. The security forces of the federal government soon filed out and took embarrassing positions. The hinge of their involvement was the tokunbo court order from a midnight judge who sat across the seas. Our courts no longer dread darkness and its forbidden fruits; they have become like hired killers, their fingers stained with the blood of justice.

Yet, the judiciary had seen better days – even in the so-called dark days before the white man came with his civilisation. There was a time in Kano when what distinguished judges were learning and piety. Sulyman, emir of Kano from 1807 to 1819, had a very tough mother and an upright alkali (judge). The emir’s mother was found on a particular day ill-treating a private citizen. She was charged for it at the court of Alkali Yusuf al-Hausi. The court found the queen mother guilty and pronounced corporal punishment. Emir Sulyman could neither shield nor save his mother – she served her sentence. Thirty-six years later, Emir ‘Abd Allah Maje Karofi took over the throne of Kano and was there till 1882. At a point during his reign, the emir bought a horse from a Tuareg and refused to pay despite repeated demands. The Tuareg took his case to court and Alkali Ahmad Rufa’i found the king guilty. The king’s punishment was an order that the emir’s confidant named Kasheka, who represented him in court, be seized and sold into slavery to settle the debt. A shaken Emir Karofi quickly arranged for the money and paid his creditor, the Tuareg. My source for these stories is Professor Tijjani Naniya’s ‘The Dilemma of the Ulama in a Colonial Society’ published in the Journal of Islamic Studies in 1993.

The period of those judgments was a time when kings feared and respected the law. It was an era when judges knew the law and applied it as they should, entertaining neither fear nor favour. Today’s judge would jail the creditor and shout rankadede to the debtor-king. The jungle of our judiciary has matured and the beasts grown in all departments.

In my moments of devotion and meditation, I watch wild animals on TV channels. Right before me is a vulture, hyena and lion sizing one another up over a banquet of skunked meat. What we witnessed between Thursday and Saturday night in Kano was exactly that. Beastly fights over meals are a natural feature of life in the jungle. Bayero was dethroned and Sanusi enthroned. Enthronement and dethronement are not strange with monarchies. It didn’t start today in Kano and elsewhere; it won’t end with this Kano matter. How did Sanusi become emir in June 2014? Was he the favourite of the kingmakers? Aminu Ado Bayero, the dethroned emir, how did he get the throne four years ago? General Ibrahim Babangida once said that the moment you get into power through a coup, you should expect that a coup would be staged against you one day. It is delusional not to accept this. It is like Napoleon thinking his revolution would be the last. Russian writer, Yevgeny Zamyatin, says exactly this in his novel ‘We’ – described by a reviewer as “a prediction of the natural conclusions of totalitarianism.” It was from ‘We’ that George Orwell pinched the whole idea of his monumental ‘1984’. In “We” is the warning to all who stand but who think their stability is forever: “How can there be a final revolution? There is no final one. The number of revolutions is infinite.” One era will be succeeded by another era just as one preceded it. There is no goodnight in power politics. Sanusi is back; Bayero is out, but may yet come back. There is no end to snatching and running away with power.

IN two days, May 29, it would be a quarter of a century since we began our third journey on the democratic path. Some insist, this is not democracy, but civil rule. It was a bloody process getting back on this path, past three military regimes that brooked no opposition. We lost hundreds of fellow Nigerians whose lives were cut short in our determined fight to kick the military out of power. Today, even the most optimistic of Nigerians would admit, this has been, at best, a bumpy ride.

As I stood this Saturday, May 25, 2024, on the podium of the Thirtieth Annual Convention of the Wakirike (Okrika) USA, in Newark, New Jersey, these were my reflections. My mind raced back to the bloody street battles for democracy and the “renewed hope” for democracy under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The USA Chapter of Wakirike, a sub nationality of the Ijaw Nation, had invited me to give the Keynote Address on “Educating The Wakirike Child”. But my mind was racing through the unforced errors of the Tinubu administration in its first year in office and the future of the country.

In his very first hour as the country’s President, Tinubu had announced an end to fuel subsidies. This worsened the living conditions of the people and pushed millions more below the poverty line. If I were the President, I will keep pride aside and revisit the subsidy issue. I will also stop the waterboarding of the Naira that has also greatly devalued life in our import-dependent country.

Also, there was no need to have dissolved the governing boards of federal universities and polytechnics when there were no ready replacements.

I had wondered what was the hurry in Tinubu signing the ill-advised Student Loans Scheme just 12 days into office only to withdraw it and sign a reviewed one which still did not address the fundamental issue: that government should fund education not pilgrimages.

The same hurry in dissolving the school councils, was again, evident in his September 2023 recall of our ambassadors with immediate effect. There were also embarrassing gaffes such as announcing that the United Arab Emirates had lifted a year-long visa ban on Nigerians. Another presidential story refuted was that Maersk, the Danish shipping company, had agreed to invest $600 million in the Nigeria port sector.

There are the somersaults on the estimated N15 trillion the Calabar-Lagos coastal highway, including a change of route twice within months.

Tinubu was a beneficiary of a fearless press. He was also a supporter of the media. Therefore, the spate of journalist abductions by soldiers and other security men under his administration is an assault on his past.

But the basic issues we face are beyond the Tinubu administration. Our country has become a collection of ironical stories by an otherwise progressive people. The reason for government is the welfare and security of the people. On both scores, our governments have scored pathetically low marks. There is general hunger in the land. As for security, the control of the Nigerian state over the means of violence is now hotly disputed by bandits, terrorists and ‘Unknown gunmen’.

Our politics has been reduced to a criminal enterprise. On July 10, 2003, a sitting governor, Dr Chris Ngige of Anambra State, was abducted in Government House and detained by his godfathers. They accused him of not following their dictates contrary to an oath of allegiance he reportedly swore to at the Okija shrine. His well-known abductors, were never prosecuted because, according to the then Obasanjo administration, Ngige never won the elections. Rather, his abductors ‘stole’ the votes. Despite this truth, Ngige was not removed. In a beatification of electoral fraud, a dozen years later, he was appointed Minister of Labour. A second story. President Muhammadu Buhari was the military dictator from 1984 to August, 1985. During his dictatorship, he made laws like Decree 4 of 1984 which criminalised both false and true reports in the media, backed-dated laws that led to the execution of young men, brutalised the populace, imprisoned people like former Governor Adekunle Ajasin who were found innocent by the courts and, generally ruled in an abnormal way. Thirty years later, he was allegedly elected President and continued his unique rule. Perhaps the most kleptocratic ruler in our history is General Sani Abacha. Under the Buhari administration, various countries were returning huge sums looted by Abacha, yet Buhari swore Abacha never stole!

The legislature can be viewed from the lens of the Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume. On May 15, 2024, he argued on Channels Television that stealing by politicians should not be classified as theft. To him, politicians who do not steal more than N1 billion ($800,000) should have immunity from prosecution!

With the electoral system subverted, the executive and legislative arms compromised, the military and security arms sometimes behaving like rogue institutions, the country is in need of a rebirth.

To make matters worse, the Constitution tells a grievous lie against itself by claiming to be a federal document when in truth, it is a unitary constitution.

As things stand, it is almost impossible for the Nigerian people to remove the government and elect another; it is in fact easier for the government to remove the people, and elect another people.

Yet, Nigeria’s problems are not insurmountable. The basic solution includes the mobilisation, unification and determination of the people to change their circumstances as happened on April 2,2024 in Senegal. We can bring about the needed change, as Malcolm X would say, by any means necessary.

A primary problem in Nigeria is impunity and the basic step necessary, is to ensure and insist that for every crime, there must be punishment. In China, stealing from the state can earn as high a punishment as execution; I do not advocate capital punishment, but long prison terms, including life imprisonment for thieving elites will be appropriate.

We also need constitutional amendments to reflect our pre-independence desire for a federal system. In this wise, the three items that should be on the Exclusive List are currency, foreign policy and defence. All other matters, including the creation and maintenance of local governments, should be on the Concurrent List.

Emphasis must be on the welfare and security of the people, including enabling them to be engaged in self-defence, rather than criminals, in the absence of security forces, having a monopoly of violence.

States must be encouraged to be financially self-reliant. In this wise, food self-sufficiency and agricultural development, should be encouraged, derivation returned to 50 per-cent and, unviable states should be encouraged to merge.

Were you dispossessed of anything? Are you wounded? Betrayed? Are you now abandoned? Are you desperate? Have you given up or about to?  Healing is coming your way today! The poor and desperate widow at the gate of Zarephath and her only son were robbed, wounded and also abandoned to die until God sent his servant to rescue them. As he is also sending help to you! The story of this hopeless woman and his son is one of the most interesting in the whole bible. She has been sorrowing for the irreparable loss of her husband and the bread winner of the family. She has been struggling to take care of herself and their only child. And now, there is food crisis, hunger caused by the total drought in the land that has left them with just a last meal before starving to death. My God! I mean, a poor, hungry, desperate, hopeless and depressed widow with a kid waiting to die. Jesus Christ! What situation can be worse than this? Tell me. You already know that widowhood is one of the most difficult trials in life. You suddenly lose your partner, your best friend, your helper, companion, your glory, your encourager, your protector, your pride, confidant and your adviser and you suddenly become lonely, depressed, disrobed and single again. I think that is why we are seriously admonished to always take good care of the widows in our midst. This must be on our first line of charge as a church and as individuals. That is what I do. I just got an incredible testimony from a lady who lost her husband, her only child, her business and has an implant in her heart. Her condition made me cry and I prayed for her daily. She just sent me a huge donation and an encouraging message that God used me mighty in her life. Imagine that. My God! Sure, this was one of my best times in the ministry. Her case looked hopeless and irreparable as at January this year before she picked my book Power of Midnight Prayer by Gabriel Agbo. Truly, with God all things are Possible!

    Elijah himself was not better off. Like the rest of the Israelites, he was not happy with the godlessness, paganism and demonism in the nation. Imagine the level of backsliding when the King of Israel went off his senses to marry Jezebel; the daughter of a heathen king and also joined his in-laws in the Satanic Baal worship. It did not end there. Ahab also built temples, shrines and towers for this detestable, demonic and blood-thirsty heathen god. Jezebel brought demonism, witchcraft, lust, greed, prostitution, sorcery and the down fall of the king and people of Israel. Please, be careful of whom you marry or associate with. God warned us seriously not to be yoked with the ungodly because they will surely lure you away from righteousness into godlessness and destruction. You already know the unenviable story and the end of the wicked Ahab and Jezebel and the pain they brought on Israel. God used Prophet Elijah to intervene. He locked the heaven and went away. No rains, no dews in the land. Yes, ungodliness, disobedience, idolatry, occultism, spilling of blood can bring drought, curses, punishment, confusion, untimely deaths, and lack of progress to people, families and individuals. The man of God was directed to a brook, where he drank from and was miraculous fed by the ravens. But soon the brook dried up and he was again told to go to the city of Zarephath to meet a widow that will sustain him until the drought was over. A desperate Elijah was directed to meet a distressed widow who was waiting to die. Wow! I really can’t understand this God. He did not send him to the palace. He did not send him to the rich or at least to people who still had supplies to last for some days, but to a poor widow that has a last meal to eat and die. Your miracle, your deliverance, your answer is coming from where you did not expect. It will beat all human imaginations and calculations!

President Bola Tinubu extends his condolences to the family of the late Emeritus Professor Ayodeji Banjo, who passed away at the age of 90.

Professor Banjo was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan from 1984 to 1991, and also former Chairman of the Board of the National Universities Commission and former Pro-Chancellor of the Universities of Port Harcourt, Ilorin, and Ajayi Crowther.

President Tinubu mourns the academic par excellence, who only recently turned 90, describing him as a stout beacon of professional and moral excellence.

The President celebrates the life and legacies of the late Emeritus Professor of English, renowned for his immense contributions to the development of education in Nigeria.

The President commiserates with the family of Professor Banjo and the academic community while praying to God Almighty to grant the departed eternal rest.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

President Bola Tinubu condoles with the family of Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, who has passed away at the age of 61.

The retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police was the pioneer Director of Operations and third substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from 2012 to 2015.

The President also commiserates with the associates of the former anti-graft czar, the EFCC, the Nigeria Police Force, as well as the government and people of Adamawa State.

President Tinubu prays to God Almighty to grant repose to the soul of the deceased and comfort for his family.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

Unfolding events in Kano following the reinstatement of His Royal Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the 16th Emir of Kano on Thursday, May 23, 2024 by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf is, to say the least, very alarming. The way and manner politics is being played, is not only recklessly insensitive to the dangers being posed to human lives in Kano, but frighteningly disgraceful and inconsiderate to whatever could be the choices of people of Kano State. If anything, it is the kind of abrasive politics that can only be associated with military governments or leaders who come from military background. That it is being championed by an APC-led Federal Government is very shocking.

Given that APC is a party envisioned to be progressive, what could have been the objective of such a reckless show of power? To protect the traditional institution and returned the dethroned Alh. Aminu Ado Bayero back as Emir of Kano? How is that a progressive or even democratic mission worthy of risking the lives of thousands of citizens? That the Federal Government is using its might because of the control it exercises over security agencies in a partisan manner to trample on the constitutional authority of Kano State Government over traditional institutions highlight the crisis of impunity in the country. Why President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will approve such reckless mission, which is incompatible with both the founding vision of the APC and every principle of democracy is worrisome. If this had come from former President Olusegun Obasanjo or former President Muhammadu Buhari, given their military background, it will be understandable.

As a member of APC from the North-West, I am scandalised that my party has degenerated to a level below any democratic standard. The only rationale so far is to restore the old abrasive politics of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in Kano State by undermining the Kano State Government led by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf. We must remind leaders, President Asiwaju Tinubu in particular, that the fundamental reason why APC lost Kano State to NNPP was the reckless way Dr. Ganduje managed politics in Kano State. The dethronement of Emir Sanusi in 2020 on account of the disagreement between Dr. Ganduje and the Emir was very unnecessary and unfortunate. For Dr. Ganduje to have descended on the Kano Emirate the way he did in 2020, only created the basis for politicising the Kano Emirate, which is now reducing the tenure of Emirs to correspond with the tenure of Governors.

Could the objective of the Federal Government’s intervention be to restore the revered status of Emirs? How is that possible given the reality that, however considered, the Kano State Government has the legitimate constitutional authority to manage affairs of traditional institutions? If as is being claimed that the directive of the Federal Government to security agencies is to enforce the court order stopping the reinstatement of Emir Sanusi, how is that going to be possible? Except if the mission is to create lawlessness based on which we return to the old garrison politics of former President Obasanjo era when cheap political excuses are used to impose state of emergencies and remove sitting Governors, it is very difficult to understand the possible mission of the Federal Government in Kano State with respect to the unfolding politics around the reinstatement of Emir Sanusi.

As things are, the action of the Federal Government in Kano State can only lead to further destruction of the APC in the State and by extension in the whole North. Let no one be deceived, already the APC has been weakened both in Kano and the whole North by several factors, the most important of them is the fact that we have not lived up to our campaign promises to Nigerians since 2015. Unfortunately, given the way we have rolled out policies that crashed standard of living of citizens under the current administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the support base of the APC in the North has further shrank. Perhaps, President Asiwaju Tinubu and all those behind the reckless attempt to trample on the constitutional authority of Kano State Government should be reminded about the fact of our poor electoral performance in Kano State and the North-West during the 2023 Presidential elections.

In 2015, APC won 89% of the votes in Kano State with 1,903,999 as compared with PDP’s 10% or 215,779 votes. In 2019, APC votes in Kano State reduced to 77.5% or 1,464,768, but PDP’s votes increased to 20.7% or 391,593. In 2023, APC’s votes in Kano State for the Presidential election reduced to 517,341, PDP got 131,716, while NNPP got 997,279 votes. For the seven states in the North-West, although President Asiwaju Tinubu won majority votes in the region with 2,652,235 across the seven states as compared to PDP’s vote of 2,329,540, this sharply contrasted with the votes the APC got in 2015 and 2019 of 7,115,199 and 5,995,651 respectively as compared with PDP’s votes of 1,339,709 and 2,280,465.

This means APC got less than 30% of the votes it had in 2015 and less than 50% of the votes it got in 2019 during the 2023 Presidential elections. With such reality, our leaders should be more interested in making amends by reorganising the party in the region and make it more attractive to citizens, if we want to return to the old electoral glory of enjoying the mass support of citizens from the North-West. From all indications, given the response of the Federal Government to the politics being played out in Kano State around the reinstatement of Emir Sanusi, the question of reorganising the APC to make it popular in the North-West is not being considered.

In fact, the mere fact that we are retaining Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman of the APC with all his baggage and poor record of performance since his assumption of office suggest that, as a party, we are in denial of all the challenges facing us. With such denial, President Asiwaju Tinubu risked being considered as a leader who may have already conceded his election for second term within one year of his first term tenure. Why should this be so? Many of us in APC who fought for the emergence and victory of President Asiwaju Tinubu with the firm belief that being a dedicated democrat and progressive politician who has demonstrated unwavering commitment to the growth and development of democracy in Nigeria, he will make a fundamental difference in terms of providing what could be estimated to be a more responsive and representative leadership, the last one year since his emergence as President of the Federal Republic is like a nightmare.

To be candid, it is depressing that both the APC as a political party and its governments, especially at Federal level, but also in many states controlled by the party have not lived up to the expectation of being responsive and representative governments. With party organs not meeting as provided by the APC constitution, capacity of leaders and members of the party to intervene and influence changes in the direction of returning the party to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party has been weakened if not eroded. Given such circumstance, party leaders and members are reduced to being distant observers.

It is quite troubling that an elected government under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu will be deaf and dumb and insulate itself from all the appeals of party members and leaders regarding the situation facing the party. This was exactly the kind of situation, which confronted late Chief M. K. O. Abiola after the annulment of June 12, 1993 election, that made him to lament about how his efforts to engage military leaders in dialogue to reclaim his mandate were ignored by the military regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha as the military leaders ‘remained like stones, neither stirred to show loyalty to the collective decision of the people of their own country, nor to observe Allah’s injunction that they should exhibit justice and fair play in all their dealings with their fellowmen.’

It is heartbreaking to admit that since the inauguration of President Asiwaju Tinubu, he ‘‘remained like stone, neither stirred to show loyalty to … the people …nor to observe Allah’s injunction …(to) exhibit justice and fair play.’ Some of us in APC who made our modest contributions towards the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, both as the candidate of the party and as the President of the Federal Republic are being treated almost as offenders. The only justification for that could be our outspokenness. Is President Asiwaju Tinubu such a gullible leader to the extent that he only wants praise singers around him? Is that the way he wants to reproduce the Lagos success story? Did he surrounded himself with praise singers when he was Governor of Lagos State? The evidence suggests to the contrary. Why then is he handling the responsibility of serving as the President of the Federal Republic in ways that compromised his democratic and progressive credentials?

Is this not the same Asiwaju Tinubu who was in the frontline of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria in the 1990s on account of which his life was threatened and he had to go on exile? Was this not the same Asiwaju Tinubu who as Governor of Lagos State had to stand up to the Federal Government of former President Obasanjo when they attempted to trample on the constitutional right of the Lagos State Government? The inspiringly successful legal battles of the Lagos State government against the Federal Government between 2003 and 2007 are still very fresh in the memory of Nigerians. Why is President Asiwaju Tinubu undoing all his achievement as a committed democrat?

If allowed to continue, Nigeria is gradually moving back to the dark ages of garrison politics under an APC-led government, which is envisioned to be progressive with Asiwaju Tinubu as President who was undisputedly a fighter for democracy. With APC almost disbanded given that its organs are no longer functional and handed over to Dr. Ganduje who is everything but a progressive and acting more like someone with a mission to destroy the party, the prospect of reforming the APC and return it to its founding vision is more and more becoming unreal. All these combined, winning elections in Kano State, the North-West and by extension, the whole country for APC will almost be impossible. If care is not taken, very soon, we will start having incidences of elected APC leaders moving to other parties in preparations for 2027 elections.

In the specific case of Kano State, the damage is already done. Give or take, whatever is the outcome of the current power struggle around the Kano Emirate has the potential of negatively affecting the electoral fortune of the APC. Does all these then suggest that APC is lost? Even before the Kano State debacle, the APC is lost to the extent of its derailment from its founding vision of being a progressive party. The emerging scenario whereby APC-led Federal Government of President Asiwaju Tinubu is using garrison politics to trample on the constitutional powers of Kano State Government would have damaged the democratic credentials of both President Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC beyond repairs, not to talk of returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. The truth must be told that once the APC-led government of President Asiwaju Tinubu find garrison politics attractive as a means of resolving political disputes, its commitment to rule of law and respect for principles of federalism will prioritise the use of force. Democratic rudiments promoting negotiations and consultations aimed at contracting agreements around interests would be sacrificed and undermined.

What then should we do given such an ugly reality? There must be creative way to return to the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. Beyond elections, patriotic Nigerians must organise themselves and begin a new political initiative to build a strong political party, which must be functional with competent and credible leadership that should enjoy the confidence of Nigerians. Such leadership should have the skills to manage and reconcile internal disputes and regulate the conduct of elected representatives such that they are able to meet the expectations of Nigerians in lines with campaign promises as provided in the party’s manifesto.

As a member of APC, I must admit, I have lost hope about the prospect of reforming the APC to return it to its founding vision given the way President Asiwaju Tinubu and many APC leaders are conducting themselves. Unfortunately, given that all other political parties in the country are also not functional and only serve as special purpose vehicles for elections, the challenge of developing Nigerian democracy is beyond just changing political parties. To build Nigerian democracy, we need at least a political party, which will respect its own rules, guarantee that its organs as are meeting as enshrined in the party’s constitution, it has credible leadership that will be accountable to party members, and above all have the tolerance to accommodate divergent opinions and interests of party members.

Nigerian democracy must grow beyond just elections. Democracy is as good or bad as any dictatorship when it is incapable of regulating the conduct of elected representatives. The legal framework for the operations of political parties in Nigeria must be strengthened to compel strong compliance to internal rules of political parties. A situation whereby in the name of democracy we end up producing emperors who operate more as garrison commanders is unacceptable and all patriots and genuine democrats should be called upon to join the crusade to change it and build a truly strong democracy in Nigeria. The reality whereby democracy is reduced to a comedy of electoral circus must give way to one which promotes veritable consultations and negotiations driven by functional structures of political parties. And agreements or decisions of parties should be binding and enforceable based on compliance to internal rules of parties. That is the democracy Nigerians wanted and is the democracy we struggled and campaigned for, which we must return to!