Organised labour, made up of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), has begun mobilising its affiliates and state councils ahead of the total shutdown of the nation on Wednesday.

Naija News reports that the NLC and TUC had on Friday resolved to embark on a nationwide strike to protest the brutal attack on the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero.

Recall that operatives of the Nigerian Police arrested Ajaero during a protest march organised by labour unions in Owerri, Imo State, in response to claims that the state government was abusing and violating the rights of its workers.

NLC alleged that Ajaero was brutalised by security agents attached to Governor Hope Uzodimma. However, the Imo Police command has refuted the allegations, saying he was not arrested but taken into protective custody.

Following the alleged assault, the organised labour demanded investigation and redeployment of the Commissioner of Police in Imo, sack of the Area Commander of the Police and all other officers and men in Owerri through whom the Police Commissioner supervised the attack as well as the arrest and immediate prosecution of Nwaneri Chinasa, an aide to the governor.

It was gathered that the National Executives Council (NEC) of the organised labour organs would meet in Abuja tomorrow to ratify the proposed nationwide strike.

Speaking to Daily Sun, one of the leaders of the NLC said that the strike would go on as scheduled, but the NEC of the two bodies had to give the directive.

The source said only the implementation of its demands can stop it from grounding the country. “We are all going to Abuja on Tuesday for the meeting. All the affiliates have fully mobilized for the action. We are all just waiting for the directives from the centre.”

According to the union official, the NLC and TUC were united in the struggle, and the TUC has equally scheduled its NEC meeting for tomorrow.

He said some events in recent times have further accentuated the fact for the nationwide shutdown.

“What has happened since that day, some information we are hearing have further made it worst, and we are prepared for the NEC’s directive,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the NLC has alleged an invasion and attack on Ajaero’s hometown of Azalla Owalla in Emekuku, Owerri, in Imo State.

The NLC, in a statement by the Head of Media and Information, Benson Upah, alleged that the latest attack on Ajaero’s community on Saturday could be a plot to assassinate the Congress boss.

“It is evident that the Governor’s sinister objective is the assassination of the President of the Congress, a motive laid bare by this latest act of aggression on the community,’ the statement read.

The statement said, “In a shocking turn of events, on the morning of November 4, 2023, Governor Hope Uzodimma once again demonstrated his utter disregard for human rights and democratic principles by invading and attacking the community.”

Upah said the invasion was carried out under the misguided belief that Ajaero was still present, recovering from injuries inflicted by the police and hired thugs.

He opined that the use of excessive force against citizens who hold differing opinions or dare to question the Governor’s governance style, particularly in relation to the inhumane treatment of workers in Imo State, is an affront to democracy.

He stated the current situation in Imo State is nothing short of a descent into fascism, where terror takes precedence over reason, and dialogue is pushed to the sidelines.

“It is imperative that the governor be held accountable. We believe that the President holds the means to rein in the excesses of the Governor, and these measures must be swiftly employed to safeguard lives and properties in the state.

“The people of Azalla Owalla are entitled to their peace, and the continued occupation of their community by the Police and Uzodimma’s thugs, in the wake of the assault on their fellow citizen, constitutes an ongoing insult.

“The occupying forces must immediately vacate the territory, granting the people the freedom to engage in their socioeconomic activities without the looming specter of terror,” the statement read further.

[NaijaNews]

THE President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC,  Joe Ajaero, was on Wednesday, November 1, battered  in Owerri, Imo State  by armed hoodlums, some in security uniform. He was about addressing a rally of unarmed workers when the group was set upon by the assailants who came in several vehicles.

Some of the labour leaders and workers sustained various degrees of injuries and the attackers also disposed their victims of various sums of money, phones and other personal belongings.

Apart from Ajaero being the NLC President, the largest labour organisation on the continent, as a human being, the severity of the attack on him deserves empathy; no human ought to be subjected to such an attack in which he could easily have lost his life.

While there are disputes about the identity of the attackers which the state government claimed are aggrieved workers but the NLC says are thugs of the government aided by the police, the above facts on the actual attack, are indisputable.

What any human being ought to feel or express, is empathy with the victims of the attack. Tragically, what came from the Imo State Government under whose jurisdiction the crime was committed, was a display of glee.

Hope Uzodimma, the State Governor who should be concerned that such daylight savagery took place in a state he claims to be the chief security officer, showed neither sympathy nor concern. Rather, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa where he had gone to receive a flag from President Bola Tinubu as the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, he sought to rationalise, if not justify, the attack.   

He said: “What has happened in this ugly coincidence is that the National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress is from Imo State and has not been able to demarcate the difference between being a national leader of an organisation and an interested party in local politics.” Assuming, without conceding that Uzodimma’s claim is correct, what is criminal in the national leader of an organisation being interested in local politics, especially when he is an indigene of the state? If truly Ajaero is interested in the local politics of the state, is the penalty death sentence by jungle justice as the attackers tried to do?

Uzodimma went on: “I understand the sensitivity of this event (strike). But I want you people to be careful because there is an attempt to mix up partisan politics or an attempt to blackmail my government.”  If indeed, there is “an attempt to mix up partisan politics” with the denial of  workers rights in the state, what is the crime in it? Who says at the approach of elections, workers rights must be buried and resuscitated only after elections?

If the claims of the governor is that he is not owing salaries and had surpassed workers expectations, why is he jittery that workers issues are being amplified? If he were telling the truth, he should be happy as this should fetch him more votes. If, as he claims, there is an attempt to blackmail what he calls “my government”, what he needed to do was not to take the law into his hands or justify lawlessness, but to report this to the appropriate security agency for investigation.

Uzodimma then proceeded to make a most ridiculous assertion: that the NLC State Council disagreed with the national body and: “In the process, they decided to dissolve them to put in a caretaker. Of course, I’m the Chief Security Officer and I have a responsibility to intervene. I encourage the national leadership not to dissolve a management team that their tenure has not expired, and that was what they did.”

Wow! Uzodimma is not a member of a trade union, but as the Chief Security Officer of the state he decided to intervene in the internal affairs of an independent labour centre whose legitimacy and independence derives from Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution which he swore as governor to uphold! What law or constitutional provision gives the governor of a state powers to intervene in the internal governance of a trade union or labour centre?

If you carefully reflect on Uzodimma’s claim of an alleged split in the labour leadership, you will realise that it is an unimaginative and poorly scripted attempt to claim that the vicious attack was an internal one by local Imo State workers against their national leaders.

It is tragic that Uzodimma was allowed to use hallowed halls of the country’s Presidential Villa to spew such nonsense. His clear acts in Imo State endangers democracy in the country. If he were to belong to the opposition, he might have been accused of attempting to bring down the Federal Government.  But since he belongs to the ruling APC, his principals must have an agenda to deny the country democracy. So, who exactly is Uzodimma; what is his agenda and who is he working for? Certainly not the Nigerian people.

Elections in the state are due for this weekend, November 11. Ordinarily, Uzodimma would have been punished at the polls, but unfortunately, the votes may not count. They did not count four years ago, when Uzodimma came fourth. I am certain they will not count now. Tragically, while our entire democratic structure is endangered by people like Uzodimma, the rest of us seem to be mere onlookers.

A main part of the unfolding tragedy is the misuse of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF. It is a major instrument in the hands of anti-democratic elements like Uzodimma.

 In the savagery we witnessed against the labour leaders, the NLC accused the police of being the instrument of perpetration.

The police however claimed it intervened just “to ensure the protection of his (Ajaero’s) life that he was not lynched in the scuffle that followed”. Is it not interesting that the labour leaders could not distinguish between their attackers and the police and would accuse the latter of the unlawful arrest of their leader?

The Imo State Police Command under Commissioner Mohammed Ahmed Barde also claimed that the attack was a result of “scuffles and heated arguments” during the strike planning meeting. This of course is false; there could have been no disagreements at a meeting that had not commenced.

The police also said there is a court order barring the proposed NLC strike. This to me is trying to justify the attack. It is not in the place of thugs or the police to physically attack persons suspected of an intention to disobey a court order.

If we were to continue in the path of executive lawlessness as displayed in Imo State, there will be no hope for democracy in Nigeria.

IN July 2013, Akunnia Obiefuna Benjamin Nwabueze, the extraordinary scholar, teacher, lawyer, winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit, NNOM, and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, who has died at the age of 94, applied to the Almighty for another five years on earth. In keeping with the record of a man in whose life Providence appears to have been both present and generous, he received double the time he asked for, living another ten years. 

At the time of his passing at the end of October 2023, Nwabueze was the most senior lawyer in Nigeria. With a scholarly output that included over 30 books, 100 conference keynotes, and over 200 peer-reviewed and scientific articles, he was probably also the most prolific and influential legal scholar out of Africa. Published between 1973 and 1977, his trilogy on Constitutionalism in Emergent States, Presidentialism in Commonwealth Africa, and Judicialism in Commonwealth Africa reshaped the study and understanding of public law after colonialism. 

  In 2013, Nwabueze published Ben Nwabueze: His Life, Works and Times – An Autobiography in two volumes and 719 pages to tell his own story by himself. What follows is sourced to this autobiography. The book, he explains, is “more than a story of events that have occurred in my life; it is also a commentary on people, institutions, such as the marriage and family institutions, and ideas that have played a significant part in my life….”

  The story begins sometime in 1931 in Atani, a community on the banks of the River Niger, currently in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra (north), South-Eastern Nigeria. It proceeds through his pre-analogue education in primary and secondary schools capturing the age before the introduction of the transistor radio and basic public utilities such as pipe-borne water and electricity in Nigeria.

  It tells the story of life “as a clerk in a commercial firm, a civil servant/telegraphist in a federal department, a teacher in a secondary school, a law professor, an executive director/legal adviser in a commercial bank, a minister in the Federal Government, member of the ILO Committee of Experts, deputy chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council, and a private legal practitioner”. It is the story of a war survivor, constitution maker in Nigeria and beyond, and an active participant and broker in Nigeria’s internecine inter-ethnic battles.

  Nwabueze’s Autobiography is told in two volumes. Volume 1, comprising 15 chapters and an epilogue in 322 pages, is an intimate self portrait of the man; his life and loves; his family and his community; his beliefs and the closest people to him. The 15 chapters and 397 pages of Volume 2 are devoted mainly to the ideas and pursuits in his life. Volume 1 is a story of life and love; Volume 2 is mostly a story of adventures. 

  The story that emerges is defined by its clarity, candour and contradiction. Nwabueze narrates an almost charmed progress through challenging personal and professional difficulties and various character-shaping scraps with injustice. His was a pioneer in communications technology. He was a town-crier, a telegraphist, and an expert in the Morse Code – all forebears of the digital age in which he lived out his advanced years. He was also a son, a life-saving swimmer (entirely predictable for a boy born on the banks of the River Niger), lover, husband, community leader, citizen, father of ten, grand-father to at least 23 children and grand-children respectively and a cancer survivor.

  For a man widely associated with the supposedly abstemious study of law, Nwabueze was also an avid theorist on and occasional practitioner of love. Far from deriding the sentiment he admits that he “appreciate(s) it and, sometimes get(s) passionately involved in it.” But even his telling of his loves is done with a clinical candour that is both disarming in its naivete and somewhat brutal in its narrative. The story of his introduction to teenage sex is touching in its innocence: 

  I led Comfort into my mother’s bedroom. She removed her dresses. We laid on my mother’s bed. I did not know what to do with her. I was scared. I had never had sex before. (I did not have it until 1951 when I was in Enugu as a civil servant). I was then nineteen, going on twenty. After waiting for me to do something, she got visibly angry, jumped out of the bed and, putting back her dresses, said she was going. I tried to hold her back, but to no avail. She was gone. After years of passionate but platonic love, she had wanted us to consummate our love as a farewell, but I had messed it up by my sexual immaturity and shyness with women.

  With time, it appears, the professor may have made up for lost opportunities in this department, evolving into a believer in free love, “subject to people willingly imposing moral restraints or moral chains on their sexual appetite”. Unsurprisingly, he takes a rather post-modern view of marriage, believing that “the ritual of the marriage vow whereby parties are made to swear to remain together for good or ill, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health till death do them part is meaningless nonsense, and an exercise in futility since, in reality, it carries little or no obligation after the ritual for the parties concerned”.

 Besides the narrative of life and loves, Nwabueze’s life is a compelling story of the pursuit of diverse forms of public service in which he demonstrates the stubborn power of ideas. To him goes the credit for the Chapter in Nigeria’s Constitution on Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. He also takes the blame for making them non-justiceable. Beyond Nigeria, he also played influential roles in constitution making in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia.

  Professor Nwabueze embodied a life of contradiction: a Christian who does not go to church nor believe in life after death; a rationalist who is nevertheless very passionate and can be impulsive; a Nigerian nationalist who found himself on the side of Biafra during the war; an Anglophile with deep commitment to African traditions and culture; a thinker who morphed into an activist; constitutionalist who served as Minister under military rule (under General Ibrahim Babangida), which – in his own words – is “an obnoxious system of rule”. On this last point, Nwabueze admits to some nagging doubts, perhaps even some regrets as to whether he “did the right thing in accepting the appointment”. 

  In 1961, Nwabueze enrolled for Ph.D research as a Commonwealth Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE, with the thesis topic: “The Position of Chiefs under the laws of Eastern Nigeria.” He was to abandon the Ph.D programme in favour of the patriotic adventure of establishing the Law Faculty of the University of Lagos with his former Professor and mentor, LCB Gower, subsequently also teaching at the University of Nigeria and the University of Zambia, among others.

  We will never know what his thesis would have turned into. On the evidence of what transpired thereafter, we have a lot to be grateful for and little to mourn but we may never stop wondering what would have become of the institution of chieftaincy in Eastern Nigeria if Obiefuna Benjamin Nwabueze had been permitted to give it the fullest attentions of his extraordinary intellect.

Real Madrid have released an official statement on claims of negotiations with PSG star Kylian Mbappe.

Off contract in June, Mbappe has been linked with a Bosman move to Real.

But amid reports of talks being well underway, Real have launched an official denial today.

The full release read:

“In view of the information recently issued and published by various media outlets, which speculate on alleged negotiations between the player Kylian Mbappé and our club, Real Madrid CF wishes to declare that this information is categorically false and that no negotiations of this type took place with a player belonging to PSG.”

[Newsguru]

Pope Francis on Sunday renewed his call for an end to the Hamas-Israel conflict, urging the release of hostages and humanitarian aid for Gaza, describing the situation as “very serious”.

“I continue to think about the serious situation in Palestine and in Israel where many people have lost their lives,” he said after the traditional Angelus prayer at Saint Peter’s Square in Rome.

“I beg you in the name of God to stop, cease fire,” he said.

“I hope all the possibilities are being explored so that a widening of the conflict is absolutely avoided, that the wounded can be helped, and that aid can reach Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious, and that the hostages be immediately released.”

[Naijatimes]

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested three blind men operating an illicit drug ring between Lagos and Kano.

NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, who said another blind member of the syndicate is still at large, also noted that the lid was blown off the group following the arrest of a blind suspect, 40-year-old Adamu Hassan, along Gwagwalada expressway Abuja with 12kgs of skunk on his way from Lagos to Kano on Saturday on 28th October.

He said, “Investigations however established that he was totally oblivious of the content of the bag handed to him to deliver in Kano. Follow-up operations then led to the arrest of the arrowhead of the syndicate, Bello Abubakar, 45, who is also blind.

“In his statement, Bello who is married with five children said he has been living in Lagos for 30 years but started the illicit drug business five years ago.”

Another suspect, Muktar Abubakar, 59, who is equally blind has been living in Lagos for 40 years and married to three wives with 14 children.

The NDLEA said both Muktar Abubakar and Bello Abubakar were joint owners of the business, while the third suspect, Akilu Amadu, 25, also blind equally contributes money to the criminal trade and was indeed the one who delivered the consignment to Adamu at the motor park in Lagos to deliver in Kano.

“Another blind suspect who is the expected receiver of the consignment in Kano, Mallam Aminu is currently at large,” the NDLEA stated.

Meanwhile, no less than 14,481,519 pills of Tramadol and bottles of codeine syrup worth over N13bn in street value have been recovered by operatives of the NDLEA in three major busts of drug cartels operating in Amuwo Odofin, Idumota and the SAHCO shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos.

The NDLEA said the three intelligence-led operations began with the raid of House 8/10 Hon. Wahuha Avenue, Divine Estate, Ago Palace area of Amuwo Odofin on Sunday 29th October, where 490,000 pills of tramadol and 81,519 bottles of codeine syrup measuring 4,510,000mls were recovered.

In a similar operation on Tuesday 31st October, NDLEA operatives swooped on a secret warehouse operated by a billionaire Idumota trader, Nwaoha Anayo located at Onitire, Aguda area of Surulere where 12,700,000 pills of tramadol were recovered.

[Leadership]

Apologia: Though the most trending issue at present is the yacht yaks, my offering today will not dwell on it. Nor will I want to talk about the army of deliberately befuddling narratives on the yacht from the Nigerian authority. Today’s is also not about the familial invasion of the hallowed chambers of state last week, nor the previous presidential speech from Iya L’oja, the First Daughter, with the Nigerian flag flying, warts and all. Nor is it even about the automobile palliatives for the First Family. 

Like the Georg Wilhelm Hegel dialectics, I believe all these are theses and antitheses which will soon form a synthesis. 

By the time this opening glee, the theatrical entrance song preceding the play, finally unfolds, I pray we find the encore that we have lost.

Sorry, I digressed. Today is about the duel between Nyesom Wike, the Fuhrer of Rivers State and lately, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and his godson, Fubara Siminalayi, current governor of the State. It is instructive that Wike the godfather in Rivers is, on its flipside, a godson in the FCT where he superintends as the 37th Nigerian State governor, a la the recent Nigerian Supreme Court judgement. Only recently, the FCT got approval for its pulling out from the Treasury Single Account (TSA). No Minister of this humongous State economy had ever got such unexampled but suspicious exemption ever since the creation of the TSA. What is the dominant psychology that has kept the Wikes on the top burner of Nigerian politics? Why is godfatherism a disease that will live with us for a very long time to come? Is Wike a protege of a cancerous blight that has the dual tendencies of being evil and good in equal proportion? 

In 1934, German Chancellor and Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, paid a highly publicised visit to the Friedrich Nietzsche archives at Weimar, a city in the State of Thuringia, Central Germany. Weimar was a focal point of the German Enlightenment. It was also home to leading figures of the literary genre like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. To the world, that visit by Hitler was weird and awkward.

So the Fuhrer came to the Nietzsche archives on the invitation of Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche, younger sister of Friedrich, who became the curator and editor of the late German scholar’s manuscripts. Forster-Nietzsche was to be later accused of mal-editing Friedrich’s unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, as against Nietzsche’s anti-Semitism and nationalism. Hitler was accompanied on that visit by his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. At the reception room, Hitler held and contemplatively admired the bust of Nietzsche. No doubt calculatedly programmed, the photo that emerged therefrom was to paint the bones of Friedrich bad, even in his graveyard. He was held by some people as the godfather of Hitler’s massacre. A Hitler photograph having an incestuous conversation with Nietzsche specifically drew in the minds of those who saw it a diabolical connection between the two Germans. The photograph eventually found its way into the German press, captioned, “The Fuhrer before the bust of the German philosopher whose ideas have fertilised two great popular movements: the National Socialism of Germany and the Fascist Movement of Italy.”

As told by the duo of Jacob Golomb and Robert Wisrich in their introduction to the book, Nietzsche, godfather or fascism?, apart from Germany, the country of their birth that was the common denominator, Adolf seemed to have nothing in common with Friedrich. While Adolf was an Austrian-born German politician, dictator from 1933 to the day of his suicide in 1945, and one who initiated the World War II by his invasion of Poland in 1939, apart from Mercedez Benz, Nietzsche was one of Germany’s most enduring exports to the rest of the world. Adolf was not only central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocidal rout of about 6 million Jews and millions of other victims of his brutality, he is the world’s most notorious demon ever. On his flipside was Friedrich. Globally acclaimed German philosopher, the young Friedrich, in 1869, at the age of 24, became the youngest human being to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel. His work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism and fiction. He was known for his love for aphorism and irony and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy, science, religion, among others 

Last week, like the Hitler of Nigerian politics that he has become, Wike would seem to be standing by the reception of the den of Ibadan political warlord, Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu. Adedibu, in the life of the current republic, had engaged the ex-governor of Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja, in a godfather-godson tiff that nearly crashed the State. He was the indisputable and unforgettable godfather of the politics of Western Nigeria.  Literally, Wike was simultaneously admiring the busts of Adolf Hitler and Adedibu. He didn’t seem to mind the din of noise that is the paterfamilias of the Ibadan, Molete den of Adedibu.

That same week, in his familiar gutturals, Wike’s coarse voice sounded round the length and breadth of Nigeria, grating through hearts like a load of laterites being offloaded from the quarry. It was akin to a violent downpour without any forewarning. Rivers State suddenly convulsed in the manner of a sick child. It sent Nigeria scampering for remedy for this dying-and-coming Abiku godfather-godson child birthed by Wole Soyinka. The city of Port-Harcourt literally quaked. Wike’s godson and governor of the state, Siminalayi and his loyalists, against the Wike group, got enveloped in a drama that lasted for close to 48 hours. Port-Harcourt, the capital of the State, witnessed such a seismic shake with Fubara said to have been shot at by a police team allegedly obeying the orders of ex-Governor Wike. An impeachment process was then begun against Fubara. The House of Assembly which witnessed the bulk of the drama suddenly exploded in an explosion which greatly damaged the complex. Not long after, President Bola Tinubu waded into the crisis and peace, of the graveyard ostensibly, returned to Rivers State.

The issue of godfather and godson and its effect on Nigerian politics have however remained unresolved. Though in a paper he entitled Explaining ‘godfatherism’ in Nigerian politics, Prof Isaac Albert had provided the foundation of the concept of godfatherism in cultural and historical contexts in Nigeria, predecessor-successor godfatherism in Nigerian governmental politics actually began in Nigeria in 2007. In the process leading to the 2007 elections, exiting governors of the time, armed with stupendous wealth from administering their states from 1999 to 2007, assumed the role of godfathers, sponsoring anointed successors to take over batons of power from them. They were apparently taking their cues from Abuja where Olusegun Obasanjo had done the same with Umaru Yar’Adua. From tinkering with the political process, to bankrolling elections and selections with billions of State funds, virtually all of the governors eventually succeeded in extending their stay in power through protégés.

However, no sooner had they emerged governors than these anointed godsons began to burst the bubble. And the cookies began to crumble. Some of the cookies were immediate while many took longer time to shatter into smithereens. In Lagos, the Tinubu-Raji Fashola experiment, what many saw for almost four years as matrimony worthy of example, exploded towards the end of the first term. James Ibori too succeeded in making his first cousin his successor in Delta. The godfather continued to reap dividends of his ‘investments’ in the godson. The godfather was the de facto governor, determining the political barometer of politics, its finance and what prebends to be given to political hirelings in the distribution of the largesse of power. Not until the re-election campaign of Fashola in 2011 did the cracks begin to be noticeable, revealing the godfather/godson as proverbial seeds in a walnut pod. You remember the cryptic phrase, “may your loyalty never be tested…”? The godson was between the devil and the deep blue sea.

In many other states at this time, the matrimonies suffered ruptures almost immediately. In Enugu, for instance, Sullivan Iheanacho Chime was still governor-elect when he started to undo all that his mentor and godfather had put in place. He spent eight years trying to pull down the Ebeano political structure that midwifed him. Orji Kalu suffered the same fate in Abia, where his erstwhile chief of staff, T. A. Orji, who was in the EFCC custody while his election was taking place, eventually emerged governor. Orji spent his years in government firing ballistic missiles at Kalu who spent billions of state funds to skew the process in his favour. This was replicated in virtually all the states, even in the 2015 elections where anointed godsons, having mutated to become godfathers themselves, attempted to foist their own godsons too as successors. For example, Chime’s godson, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, eventually became his political pallbearer. In Anambra, Peter Obi, while shopping for a godson, sidestepped the generally accepted skewer-minded political class, and walked into the supposedly sane banking hall in search of an urbane, corporate world executive. He got Willie Obiano. Less than a year after, the strange, somber-looking Obiano had transmuted from the gentleman who couldn’t hurt a fly into a stone-hearted political principality who strenuously presided over Obi’s political funeral and nunc dimitis. Same is replicated in Kano where Umar Ganduje, erstwhile Rabiu Kwankwaso’s lickspittle, became a hydra-headed monster who eventually swallowed his ex-boss. I am told that Emmanuel Uduaghan surreptitiously did in his cousin, James Ibori, even while serving his term in the UK slammer. The story of political betrayal, otherwise known as attempts by political godsons to be men of their own, has mutated dangerously ever since.

But, who actually is the betrayer, or when is a betrayal? Is it when the godson, who feels that millions of people in the State would be in at least four-year servitude if he continues with the sworn agreement to funnel State funds into the godfather’s bottomless esophagus, and thus repudiates all his commitments to the godfather? Or the godfather, whose mindless savagery and greed was behind the concept of godfatherism ab-initio?

The truth is that godfatherism has become a major feature of Nigerian politics. It is a political process which features a deliberate corruption of the electoral process and power structure by a dominant political mentor, otherwise known as the godfather. The godfather skews the political process in favour of an anointed candidate, with the aim of securing returns in form of bribes, offices or prestige. How this is done is that the godfather deploys wealth, power and position, mostly ill-gotten, to secure party nomination for the godson, sponsors their candidacy and manipulates the electoral process to their advantage. It can be likened to a political slave trade where the godfather, after succeeding in foisting the candidature of his godson on society, sits quietly thereafter to reap dividends of his evil machination. The repercussion on society is that merit is sacrificed and state funds are funnelled into repaying the “good” of the godfather.

In every election cycle since 2007, the same political malady of godfatherism has replayed itself. I forgot to state that, at the core of this scramble by governors to clone godsons to replace them is a frenetic desire to keep the skeletons in their cupboards safe from the world’s prying eyes. Many of the governors, after pillaging their states blind, so much that if the world gets to know details, they ordinarily should be tied to the stakes and shot, embark on a process of putting veils on these maggots-dripping cupboards. They would be done for if “an alien” succeeds them! So they look for the most pliable of their coterie of hangers-on and fawners to succeed them. In many cases, they choose protégés implicated in state looting, who would not play the Judas on them without also going down the drain. This is why commissioners of finance or protégés with whom governors have transacted illicit businesses during their tenures are most times the surest picks. You can thus understand a threatening statement attributed to Siminalayi against Wike during the pendency of the crisis last week. He had allegedly claimed that Wike should not forget that he was his Accountant General. Whatever that meant.

Against the run of play, Wike had chosen Siminalayi, presumably due to an EFCC manhunt for him. At a point, the commission declared the man who is now governor, Harrisonba Betty Princewill, Lekia Bukpor and Dagogo Roderick Abere wanted in connection with what the EFCC called a case of “criminal conspiracy, money laundering, misappropriation of public funds and abuse of office” that totaled the sum of N117 billion. So those who queue behind Siminalayi today who think the issue is about Wike and Fubara and the progress or lack thereof of Rivers State are mistaken. It is about the esophagus of the godfather and his godson.

Expatiating on the hub of devilry that godfatherism is, Chimaroke Nnamani, in a paper delivered on June 2, 2003 with the title, The godfather phenomenon in democratic Nigeria: Silicon or real?, had said, “Take it or leave it, the archetypal godfather in Nigeria is more than the ruthless Mario Puzo’s kingpins in the Italian Mafia setting. While the fictional godfather is characterised as ‘a shadowy, dare-devil recluse, who combines immense underworld financial muscle with near mythical powers of enormous proportions’, which is to attain a further greasing of the ever-increasing vast financial empire, the Nigerian type has the added characterization of conceit, ego, loquacity, pettiness, envy, strife, crudity, and confusion.” With this, you can understand Wike roaring about how he created a political structure in Rivers and how no one can be permitted to destroy what he erected. In Nigerian politics, inside that conundrum of “political structure” is buried maggots, blood and destinies of people.

To be sure, there are godfathers in every clime. According to Prof Albert, godfatherism conjures different meanings to different people. In many parts of Europe and America, the godfather is simply a cuddly uncle and in the Catholic Church, “a young man trying to become baptised or married… is expected to have a godfather. The Catholic Church’s godfather is simply chosen from among the larger congregation and need not be a relative to the godson.” He counsels the young godson on how to live a responsible life. Godfatherism also exists in France and can be found in the term ‘godfather of industry’ for a depiction of corporate titans. American University professor, Richard Joseph had sliced the issue with his spatula in his famous theory of prebendal politics when he said that the relationship between the godfather and godson is instrumental and extra-legal. The main goal of the transaction is for the godfather to use the client to attain selfish goals while the latter aims at the same. The godfather manifests in the politics of developed countries and Latin American countries, something in the mould of criminal underworld groups who sponsor politicians at election times, in exchange for protection and contracts.

Prof. Albert also admitted that the kind of patron/client relationships between Wike and Fubara have cultural roots among many Nigerian peoples. It began in Hausa with the maigida who received kolanuts for help he rendered; manifest in Igbo as Nnam-Ukwu (my master) and Odibo (the servant) and in Yoruba as baba kekere (the small father), baba isale (the father of the underground world), or baba nigbejo (a great help in times of trouble). These were developed to foster the patron-client relationship inherited by the present day political class. 

In many states where it is practised, godfatherism is sustained by black magic, occult practices and blood. Initiate godson and godfather enter into the sacristy of black practices, most times reified by human blood. It is not a turf for the faint-hearted.  

Those who think Wike’s loquacious revelation of all that transpired in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the last elections was a mere spill will soon know that this is an understatement. Very soon, a clone of the Wike-Fubara grisly drama will come to play in Abuja. Only that this time, I pray there won’t be weeping, wailing and mourning and gnashing of the teeth, apologies to the reggae music group, The Mighty Diamonds.

By the way, why did Fubara fail to pull the trigger last week? It was a tragic mistake that he may live to regret. He had the roaring lion by its ball and a squeeze would have sequestered the king of the jungle. He could have retired the godfather and allowed Karma to pounce on Wike this soon after leaving office!

A staff of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) Atayi Anthony Temitope (Area Golf Command Zone 7 Ejigbo) has been honoured with an award of ‘Exceptional Service’.

LASTMA Director, Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department, Adebayo Taofiq announced this in a press release.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Chapter of the Radio Television Theater and Arts Workers Union in Lagos gave the Award.

Taofiq on Sunday disclosed that Traffic Officer Atayi was honoured with the award during the celebration of  ‘RATTAWU WEEK’ held at the Media Centre of NAN, National Arts Theartre, Iganmu, Lagos.

Chairman of RATTAWU, NAN Chapter, Comrade Ayodeji Fadipe stated that the awardee was honoured due to his dedication and commitment in ensuring unimpeded free flow of traffic around Jakande Estate down to Oke-Alfa area of the State.

According to Comrade Fadipe “Traffic Officer Atayi Anthony Temitope was appreciated by the public after he was noticed under heavy rain using broken blocks and other materials in filling every potholes between Jakande Estate down to Oke-Alfa Bridge”

He confirmed that among other uniformed personnel picked for public award consideration, Lastma Temitope emerged winner with his extra selfless services to the community he is serving. 

While presenting the award, Managing Director of NAN Ali Mohammad Ali, disclosed that despite the risk associated with controlling/managing traffic, Lastma Temitope was recognised, appreciated for being dedicated to work.

While acknowledging the award as a well-deserved one, the General Manager of LASTMA Bolaji Oreagba said it would encourage other uniformed personnel to do more in serving the public.

In his remarks, Lastma Atayi Anthony Temitope thanked the members of NAN for the award in recognition of his service to the public.

He also expressed his appreciation to the management of Lastma for creating a conducive environment for its officers. 

Lastma Temitope however promised to be more dedicated to duties.

[EagleOnline]

How can any sane person enjoy or derive satisfaction from the slaughter that is now taking place in Gaza? 

It is indefensible. It is unacceptable. It is nothing but state-sponsored terror in its most savage and primitive form.

It is ethnic cleansing. It is genocide. It is mass murder. It is wickedness. It is barbaric. It is evil. It is the most notorious and graphic example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is unconscionable and it is unjustifiable.

All my life, I have loved the State of Israel and defended her right to exist. This is especially so given the fact that I am a Pentecostal Christian who wholeheartedly believes the biblical scripture that says: “He who blesses Israel is blessed and he who curses Israel is cursed.”

I acknowledge the fact that the Jews have suffered and been persecuted more than any other race in the history of the world and I was one of the first in my country Nigeria to wholeheartedly condemn the frightful massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Despite that I cannot possibly rationalise what is going on in Gaza in the name of retaliation or the desire to destroy and wipe out Hamas. When you kill innocent and defenceless Palestinian women and children, you are not wiping out Hamas but strengthening their cause and giving millions of people all over the world a reason to support their cause and join their ranks.

Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is an irrational, unreasonable, emotional and disproportionate response to what was undoubtedly a terrible and unconscionable wrong, which may win the battle for the Jewish state, but will also inevitably cost them support in much of the civilised world.

There is no doubt that Israel has the right to defend herself, especially from those who claim she does not have the right to exist, but no sane person can applaud the butchering of women and children, the targetting and bombing of hospitals, churches, schools, mosques, universities, homes and ambulances and the wholesale slaughter of 10,000 civilians (and still counting) all in the space of three weeks. Israel is being guided and led by rage and the spirit of vengeance. She has lost all reason and those with a level head are nowhere near the levers of power. She is now like a wild, wounded lion devouring everything and everyone in its path. 

What was once a reasonable, rational, equitable, just, fair-minded, strong, confident and flourishing nation, which was the shining light of the Middle East and our collective pride and joy as Christians, has now become a rogue killer state that is as bloodthirsty and blood lusting as the Nazis of Hitler’s Germany, ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, Daesh and Al Qaeda all rolled into one.

We must have the decency and presence of mind to condemn the slaughter of ALL human beings whether they be Christians, Muslims, Jews or anything else. Israel has a right to defend herself, but not the right to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity or to wipe out an entire race and displace and relocate an entire people.

Any Christian that believes otherwise in the name of “blessing or loving Israel” is not a real Christian and is not a true friend of the Jewish state. Why? Because real friends tell one another the bitter truth and real Christians do not support injustice and the massacre of defenceless women and children. Only demons do that!

If you really want to bless and love Israel, then tell Israeli leaders the bitter truth and pray that the Lord will deliver them from the madness and unrestrained rage that has seized their minds. Blessing and loving Israel does not involve encouraging them to wipe out a whole race.

Blessing and loving Israel does not involve supporting them to kill every Palestinian in the Gaza strip in the name of eliminating Hamas. Blessing and loving Israel does not mean we should support them to target and kill every Muslim and Christian man, woman and child in Gaza. 

Blessing and loving Israel does not mean we should sit by silently and watch them turn into worse monsters than the German Nazis that murdered six million of their people in gas chambers during World War II. Blessing and loving Israel does not mean supporting their every action even when it is wrong.

Blessing and loving Israel does not mean saying no to a humanitarian pause in the ground offensive and bombing or a ceasefire in order to get the wounded out and send in much needed food and medical supplies. Blessing and loving Israel does not mean that we should lose our humanity, our compassion, our decency and our sense of reasoning.

Blessing and loving Israel does not mean supporting those in the Israeli Knesset that have said the the 2.5 million Palestinians that live in Gaza should be either killed or relocated to 100 different countries at the rate of 25,000 Palestinians per country. Blessing and loving Israel does not mean that we should espouse the hateful philosophy and satanic spirit of apartheid, which we as Africans spent so many decades opposing and resisting in South Africa.

Blessing and loving Israel means admonishing them to be accommodating, flexible, kind, calm, compassionate, restrained, rational, reasonable, level-headed and loving even where and when they have been badly hurt and gravely wounded as they were on October 7. Blessing and loving Israel means encouraging them to fight their enemies and defend themselves in a dignified and civilised way by abiding by the laws of war and armed conflict, by honouring the rules of engagement and by working within the strictures and framework of international law whilst in the field of battle.

Blessing and loving Israel means encouraging the Jews and giving them hope and support in their time of need, reminding them to have faith in God and admonishing them to be righteous in all their ways. That is what we are expected to do as believers and not to celebrate and rejoice when they slaughter innocent women and children and when they indulge in what can best be described as the second holocaust.