I had expected the Obidient movement to abandon its punitive expedition after the elections and evolve into an ideological pressure group – a worthy opposition. But the movement is still anything but ideological and civil. It has become more brutish, more desperate, nastier, and feral. The Obidient movement is shaping up to be a gaggle of insurrectionists.

For all intents and purposes, the movement seems to be gearing up to make the country ungovernable.

Diligent and disciplined opposition is essential for democracy. In fact, there is no democracy, if there is no educated opposition. No government is short of opposition. In a democracy, the residence of an animated opposition signals the buoyancy of the system. Where there is democracy, there is opposition. Opposition is the mitochondrion of a republican system – it keeps the government on the mill working according to purpose.

But one thing that drives genuine oppositions and that should be the nucleus of every group is national interest. National interest and security should dictate the terms of engagement of any movement.

Any movement not guided by the national interest is a threat to the security of all Nigerians. The Obidient movement appears unconcerned about the deleterious effects of its methods on national security and the national psyche. I fear that some members of the proscribed group, IPOB, may be within the commanding heights of the movement.

The resort to malicious falsehood, threats of violence and violence on those who differ betokens a grimier trajectory. The Obidient movement may just be the political platform for those waging a war against Nigeria by other means.

The movement’s methods are worsening the already deteriorating relationship among Nigerians of different ethnic backgrounds. This is how inter-ethnic dissension is born. There is the assumption that it is the Igbo against the Yoruba or the Yoruba against the Igbo, but this is not true. It is ‘’Obidients’’ against the rest of Nigeria.

The Obidient movement does not represent the Igbo. Let me make that very clear. It is peopled by a melange of persons who pursue the illusory ambition of one man. They are powered by the ambition of one man, and not the interest of any ethnic group. It is important Nigerians situate the present confusion within this context. The Obidient movement does not represent any ethnic group.

Political actors and lovers of Nigeria must wade in with their voices and actions to tame this babel. Nigeria is on a slippery slope. This is not a time for politics, but a time for statesmen and stateswomen to rise and defend the country against internecine strife. National interest and security should govern public comments at this time.

We must put the peace and security of this nation first.

I have no doubt that we will come out stronger as a nation. From chaos comes change. Nigeria will always triumph – over the pestilence of the night; the darkness of Edom, principalities, and powers; snakes and scorpions. Nigeria has survived pestilence, riots and unimaginable chaos that split countries. It is still going.

But why does Nigeria always win – in the end? It is because you, me, they, them, we, us. It is because of all of us who despite our dissatisfaction with the system, come together to steady the ship and steer it aright against the blizzards and tempests.

It is because of you who despite your financial challenges refuse to compromise the public purse; refuse to steal public funds or cut corners; it is because of you who decline to take bribes to get jobs done; it is because of you who against personal trials and tribulations refuse to join the choir of the scoffers who do not see anything good in the country and who will neither make an effort nor contribute a mite to its progress. It is because of all of you who do not give up but stand to fight for the country.

When I say ‘One Nigeria’ I do not deny the very obvious threats to our unity. I do not live in denial of the chasm keeping us apart, but I believe in that uncommon facility of Nigerians to close this gap and work together for the common good. When it comes down to it, Nigerians are their brother’s keeper. We have seen this rare quality in display all the time.

One Nigeria’ is not a political placebo; it does not mean the absence of conflict or a denial of the present realities; it is a term that should evoke hope and promise for us all.

To me, Nigeria means hope and promise of a greater now and future; it means resilience and courage to rise from dust and nothing; it means purpose in disarray, unity in diversity, brotherhood in divergence and love even in dangerous times.

Adamu: A man who rigs his way to power carries a moral burden!

Orezime: A moral what?

Adamu: You heard me, didn’t you?

Orezime: I’m not sure I heard you right. Moral what you said?

Adamu: A moral burden, I said!

Orezime: Hahahahahahaha! You make me laugh! Are you from the moon?

Gani: Or Mars?

Emeka: In which country? In Nigeria? That principle does not apply in Nigeria! There is no moral burden on anybody in this country! The election which produced Bubu in 2015 was rigged. Where are the two million voters from Kano State who voted in 2015? Was an INEC official not burnt alive after that election? The one which brought Obj to power was also rigged by the forces which wanted him to ease the tension of the Abiola tragedy on the Yoruba people. Yet those men had the temerity to preach against corruption!

Orezime: The international community winked at the whole exercise.

Gani: Yes! That’s why those two could only preach; they couldn’t really act decisively. A moral burden? Thye spoke from both sides of their mouths on the issue of corruption. Late President Yar Adua confessed that the election which produced him was compromised. An honest man, he didn’t live long enough to right the wrong of the period!

Orezime: That’s why I laughed when Adamu talked about a moral burden arising from rigged elections.

Bankole: In the ideal world, any power that is stolen and acquired through a dubious means imposes a moral burden on the power holder. No matter what the person does, that power remains stained.

Orezime: What does that amount to in our country? Even the brigands who shot their way to power in the notorious days of military misadventure in Nigeria soon became legitimate.

Emeka: You are going too far in our history. See what happened in Lagos State in the governorship elections of March 18. Ethnic jingoists went about preaching hatred against Igbo people and warned them against coming out to exercise their constitutional rights. Security officials looked the other way when ballot boxes were snatched in broad daylight in places where the opposition was leading.

Gani: A serving state governor personally went about snatching ballot boxes and threatened to shoot whoever got in his way. The same governor declared somebody wanted without recourse to the Inspector General of Police! He worked against the party on which platform he won the seat to spite the party hierarchy!

Adamu: And to think that this is the President-elect’s state. He kept mute through the horrendous attacks on Igbo people in Lagos State just the way the incumbent president has looked the other way when herdsmen went on the loose!

Bankole: Rigged elections are so familiar yet notorious in our land. It was the main trigger to the crisis in the Western Region in the First Republic because the people reacted when they saw a rape of their rights and wishes! It soon snowballed into a conflagration that consumed the nation in the late 1960s. Already, the youths are talking about a protest in the ENDSARSNOW# manner. I hope it doesn’t result in disaster. We have lost too many lives already!

Orezime: What I fear is the rise of ethnic profiling in a supposedly democratic society. To be sure, Governor Sanwo-Olu and the party hierarchy did not single out any ethnic group for verbal attacks. They even courted them. Yet they didn’t caution their followers to stop the degeneration into ethnic hatred. It is a dangerous curve what is happening in Lagos. I don’t subscribe to the Lagos is no man’s land nonsense which some misguided fellows are spewing, but threatening anybody not to vote their candidate is a new low! Can a Sanwo-Olu victory be said to be legitimate if a significant percentage of the electorate is disenfranchised?

Emeka: Good question. They did not stop there. They rolled out the culturally dreaded Oro rituals on election night. Come on! Who is fooling who? The Oro festival was designed to drive fear into non-Yoruba in Lagos. In the 21st Century?

Gani: I am sure the reports from election observers will be damning.

Bankole: I don’t care about those biased observers.

Adamu: Where are we headed in this country?

Orezime: We are on the road to Kigali!

Bankole: May we not travel that route!

Orezime: It’s a good prayer. But what are we doing to avoid the descent into anarchy? Nothing. Those monkeys are simply interested in acquiring power.

Gani: The Obedient Movement seems to have lost steam once it was misbranded as an ethnic agenda to grab power at the national level. Peter Obi needs to tread carefully so he doesn’t become another June 12! Some people are egging him on to challenge INEC through protests.

Orezime: If he decides to lead a protest, it would be within his constitutional right to do so, especially as INEC is stalling on the issue of inspecting elections materials despite an order from the courts. Peaceful protests are guaranteed by the Constitution.

Adamu: No one can be sure whether a peaceful protest will remain peaceful after it starts. That’s the experience the ENDSARS people had.

Gani: It’s not enough to stop people from taking to the streets. Protests are fundamental to democracy.

Adamu: We do not want dead heroes! Mark my words.

Bankole: That’s ominous!

Emeka: It means nothing. Nigeria must change. We cannot go on like this forever! Things are just going down. No cash. No fuel. No power supply. No security. No nothing.  Peter Obi gave a glimmer of hope. Now that has been dashed to the ground.

Adamu: Rigging will remain a moral burden each time our President-elect travels outside the country, each time he meets foreign observers, especially those ones who have a dossier on him. History will also judge him and assess how he came to power. This applies to all the states as well where some politicians have turned themselves into demigods and have compromised poor INEC officials with mouthwatering sums. This is not how to build a democracy. The votes must be counted and must count. Seventeen people have their lives during the governorship and House of Assembly elections. We are supposed to count ballot papers, not bodies. Sad!

Bankole: The moral burden of rigged elections is on all of us. Without our connivance there would be no rigging. We can only hope that this will end some day!

Emeka: Tough luck!

THE International Criminal Court, ICC, on March 17, 2023 added a comic dimension to the tragic war in Ukraine by issuing warrants of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. The ICC, a body notorious for the persecution of people in the bad books of the European Union, EU, and its allies, is accusing Putin of “unlawful deportation of population…from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.

It claims that: “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission…”. The ‘court’ is also accusing 39-year-old Ms Lvova-Belova of the same alleged crimes. The ICC also said “there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population…from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children”. 

The ICC warrants do not disclose what it means by deportation of population. Does it refer to the Prisoners of War or the hordes of mercenaries Russia captured and moved to its territories? Or is it populations of Russian-speaking Ukrainians who were evacuated from war zones just like those moved or evacuated from Ukraine to neigbouring countries like Poland? Can Ukrainian President  Zelensky be accused of deportation of populations to other European countries? 

These are in the realms of speculation, but what is not speculative is that asking countries around the world to arrest the Russian President is a sick joke. Any country that tries it can be annihilated; it would be the same as arresting a sitting United States President. These countries are not superpowers for nothing. So, the ICC’s quixotic moves can only be in the service of its EU owners.

I must, however, say that this is a new low for the ICC whose speciality is the arrest and persecution of African leaders who refuse to toe the path set for them by the West. The war in Ukraine is one that pitches Russia against the EU and the latter owns the ICC. Since its 2002 establishment, the EU has been responsible for 63 per cent of all ICC funds. In 2009, for instance, just five members of the EU: Spain, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, UK, paid 44 per cent of the ICC budget. In 2020, the main funders of the ICC were Germany, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

So the ICC jumps when the EU asks it to do so; the only question it would ask is: ‘How high boss?’ Therefore, the ICC has neither independence nor self-esteem, and certainly does not command the respect even of its owners. Let me give an example. When the ICC in 2021 strayed into investigating Israel for its on-going genocide against the Palestinian people, its sustained murder of civilians, including children, and the continuous theft of Palestinian land, then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson firmly told the ICC to back off as it was exceeding its bounds. Although the ICC probe also covered rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups into Israel,  the British Prime Minister in a letter declared that: “This investigation gives the impression of being a partial and prejudicial attack on a friend and ally of the UK.” 

Apart from the EU and some of its allies like Japan, plus the horde of African countries pressured by the EU to join the ICC, no self-respecting country has joined;  not China, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Russia, Sudan, Syria; not even the US  whose allies built the contraption. In fact, the US which has gone to war almost non-stop for two centuries and has most military bases in the world, would not allow even murderous  American mercenaries like those of Blackwater, to be tried outside its own courts.  

The same 2002 the ICC was born, the US Congress in warning it against investigating its war crimes across the globe, including places like Afghanistan and Iraq, passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act. The Act banned financial assistance to any member country of the ICC which may want to hand over US personnel.  The law also authorised the US to use force to free any American that may be held by the ICC. The Americans went on to force dozens of countries to sign bilateral agreements not to handover over any American to the ICC. To counter the ICC’s joke, the Russia Investigative Committee countered with its own symbolic investigation of the ICC prosecutor and judges who issued the warrants of arrest. It said neither Putin nor Lova-Belova were criminally liable and that Heads of State in the world enjoy absolute immunity under a 1973 UN Convention. 

Almost all cases brought to the ICC concern Africans and their then-sitting Presidents like Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and his then Vice President (now President) William Ruto, and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’ Ivoire. President Gbagbo’s case is illustrative of the way the ICC functions. There was an electoral dispute between Gbagbo and opposition leader Alhassan Quatara with each claiming to have won the elections. The latter’s rebel army with the backing of French and United Nations troops, marched on the Presidential Palace on April 11, 2011 and captured Gbagbo who became a Prisoner of War. But he was not treated as such neither was he accorded his right to be tried in his country. Rather, the foreign troops contrary to UN protocols on a President’s diplomatic immunity, bundled Gbagbo out of his country and deposited him in an ICC  jail for five years without trial while his rival was installed as the country’s President. He was subsequently subjected to a charade in the guise of judicial trial and after another three years, declared innocent. 

The ICC was simply used by the EU to remove an uncooperative African president, and after incarcerating him for eight years, set him free while his rival was in power in Cote d’ Ivoire doing the wishes of the Europeans, including subverting Africa’s move for a common West Africa currency. Even after he was declared innocent, the Europeans still prevented Gbagbo from returning home until their stooge was ready to cage him. The African Union, AU, realising that the ICC is primarily an instrument of neo-colonialism, on January 31, 2017 asked the 34 African countries who signed up to the ICC to make a collective withdrawal. Lives are being needlessly lost in Ukraine, what the world needs is a negotiated peace settlement not a clownish performance by an howling lapdog.

Nigeria is a frail, imperfect patchwork of disparate nations that is perpetually on the brink of implosion on account of political and identitarian stressors. The past presidential election dramatizes the abiding fragility of Nigeria and the imperative to tweak our democratic practices in response to this fact.

When most people vote, they don’t vote as individuals. They don’t even vote as people. They often vote as members of a collective identity. I am not saying that this is the case for every voter. There are certainly exceptions. But it is the case that voting behaviors are often patterned along notions of the interests of collective identities.

This isn’t, by any means, unique to Nigeria. It’s a feature of all modern representative democracies, including in the United States, which sees itself, and is seen by others, as the patron saint of democracy. 

Here in the United States, political parties have devolved into more or less inflexible tribal groupings where merit is the last thing people consider when voting for political candidates. Identity is the most salient consideration in voting decisions.

 In states where Republicans dominate, as I pointed out last week, literal dogs that run as Republicans have 100 percent higher chances of being elected to political positions than the smartest Democratic candidates. The reverse is also true of states dominated by Democrats. Exceptions can be found in so-called battle-ground states where Democratic and Republican candidates have equal chances of winning statewide electoral contests. Such states are just a handful of America’s 50 states, typically no more than 10 in a generation.

In Nigeria, the embeddedness of identity in electoral politics is complicated by the fact that our political divisions are formed around invariable attributes such as ethnicity and near invariable categories such as religion. A Democrat can change to a Republican, but an Ijaw man, for example, can’t change to a Berom man. Even if he does culturally, linguistically, and by reason of geographic presence, he will always be reminded of his “outsider” ancestral origins by people who consider themselves “indigenes.” We have seen examples of that this year even in ethnically homogenous states, particularly in the South where ethnic identity tends to be stronger than religious identity.

This fixity of our identity categories makes political rivalries built around them intensely emotional and prone to rhetorical and physical violence. In democracy, sadly, the end justifies the means. The end is to win elections and the means is often to mobilize the sentiments of collective identities in a certain direction.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu chose a northern Muslim running mate even though he is also a Muslim not because he hates Christians (his wife is a pastor, and all his children are Christians) but because it was the surest means to actualize his end. He had a choice between doing the “right” thing and “losing” and doing the “wrong” thing and “winning.” Like all politicians, he chose the option that came with “winning.”

 In the Southwest, moreover, he galvanized the support of people, irrespective of religious affiliation, by appealing to the common ethnic origins he shares with the people there. Meanwhile, among northern Muslims, he played up his Muslim identity to achieve identification with that voting bloc.

Atiku Abubakar tried to blunt Tinubu’s northern Muslim appeal by calling attention to the common ethnic and regional identity he shares with northern voters. His electoral battle cry in the North was “naka sai naka,” which translates as “yours is yours.” That’s a direct challenge to Tinubu who, although a Muslim, isn’t a northerner. This is in spite of Atiku’s reputation as a tolerant, broadminded, cosmopolitan politician who isn’t beholden to narrow ethnic, regional, and religious loyalties.  

In the South, meanwhile, Atiku sought to appeal to the emotions of the people of the Southeast by saying he has always been an unwavering friend of theirs and that he is the surest and shortest path to an Igbo presidency. Every single running mate he has had since he started running for president, he pointed out, has been an Igbo man, even if his latest running mate, Ifeanyichukwu Okowa, is a Midwestern Igbo whose people have historically disavowed affiliation with Southeastern Igbos.

 Peter Obi, for his part, cashed in on the Muslim identities of Tinubu and Atiku to rally Nigerian Christians to vote for him. In perceptual terms, he started off as an Igbo candidate who took advantage of the justified sentiment that an Igbo person has never been elected president. He later expanded his electoral base to become the southern Christian candidate. He ultimately emerged and campaigned as the all-Nigerian Christian candidate and abandoned attempts to transcend this confine because he knew he didn’t stand a chance against Tinubu and Atiku outside this.

Right from the demographic profiles of the people who constituted his presidential campaign council to his hopping from church to church in search of votes (even going so far as to say to Taraba Christian leaders, “Please church, wake up, take back your country”), to isolating Christian communities in predominantly Muslim Northern states for targeted campaigns and even making his post-election legal team an all-Christian and mostly Igbo affair, he has left no one in doubt that he is riding on the crest of the wave of Christian resentment against the two major political parties, on one of whose platforms he was a running mate in 2019 and a short-lived presidential contender in 2022, for fielding Muslims as their candidates.  

Yet, Obi may well be a secular person who isn’t wedded to religion, but he needed to mobilize the Christian vote because it was his only way to have a fighting chance.

This sort of divisiveness isn’t healthy or sustainable for a fractious, fissiparous country like Nigeria. That is why we need to constitutionalize power rotation between regions. We need to avoid a repeat of what happened this year where collective identities squared off against each other and raised the national emotional temperature to fever pitch. Its cost to national cohesion isn’t worth the trouble.

Given our peculiarities, systematizing power rotation between the regions at national, state, and local levels is the way to go. I know this will be resisted by politicians who will see this suggestion as the indefinite deferment of their political aspirations, but it’s the best way to ensure tranquil co-existence.

The constitution should draw up a schedule of power rotation so that every region and subregion of the country will have a chance to be president, vice president, governor, deputy governor, member of the House of Representatives, senator, house of assembly member, and local government chairman. All registered political parties should be required to nominate their candidates (and running mates in the case of presidential and governorship elections) from one region for eight years after which another region will have a shot.

This will eliminate ethnoreligious tension and promote merit in leadership selection. If all the presidential contenders in 2023 were, by law, from the Southeast and their running mates were from the Northeast, for instance, appeals to religious and ethnic solidarity would be pointless. Voters would focus on the pedigree and programs of candidates, and only the best from the regions that are scheduled to produce candidates would emerge since no one can mobilize the emotions of collective identities to win elections.

Abia State is one of the few in Nigeria whose contradictions are quite self-evident. It is an oil producing State. Aba, its big city is not only the commercial nerve centre of the east but a potentially huge money spinner in revenue terms. Mineral resources like gas, kaolin lead, limestone etc.  abound in commercial quantities in different parts of the state.  It also has huge fertile land resources. Above all, it has a high concentration of entrepreneurs, skilled and semi-skilled human resources.

Abia State has all the potentials to be a developed and model state in the country, yet the reverse is rather the case. Aba its commercial city is rated as the least developed city in Nigeria. Umuahia the state capital is often referred to as a glorified village on account of absence of basic infrastructure in the place. Most of its rural areas are characterised by dilapidated infrastructure.

The state ranks least in several development indices. The reason for such an ugly state of affairs is because Abia State government policy formulation and implementation have most often been characterised by a great deal of arbitrariness, inefficiency, lack of transparency, accountability and outright failure.  

Abians themselves are quite aware of their peculiar predicament and the most conscientious of their political elite has always struggled against it.

Abians often make a joke of the negative forces that have held their state down including the electoral malpractices that have always militated against their democratic choices by derisively referring to them as “Abia Demons”

The quest to defeat the ‘Abia demons’ have a long history. Some trace the origin to the quest by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe’s “Otu Onu Movement” that sprouted during the 2003 gubernatorial elections while some others refer the origin of a change movement to the quest by Chief Onyema Ugochukwu during the governorship election of 2007.

However, there is a near consensus amongst the intellectual class, that the quest to defeat the Abia demons got a real boost when in 2014, one of its brilliant minds, Dr. Alex Otti, a first-class economist resigned his very lucrative job as the managing Director of Diamond Bank to lead the charge.

He had then reorganised the moribund state chapter of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) into a real fighting force. Otti, parading incredible academic and public sector credentials plus very high level of personal integrity did not have much difficulty convincing most Abians about his messianic message of liberating them from the iron grip of the ‘Abia demons’ that had over the years held them hostage.

Even though Abians voted massively for Otti’s APGA in the governorship election that held on Saturday 11th April 2015, some magic humongous figures suddenly sprouted up in three local government of Obingwa, Isiala Ngwa North and Isiala Ngwa South which were areas that both international and local observers held in their reports that elections did not hold.

On the basis of such reports, the returning officer for the election cancelled the magic results and was about declaring Otti as the winner when he was ordered to return the magic figures thereby enabling a PDP Win.

The matter became a subject of intense litigation and dragged up to Supreme Court where the learned Justices held that the card reader, which was the basis of the election was not backed by law.  Otti ever so determined tried his luck again in 2019 and the magic figures from the same local governments were yet his undoing in that 2019 gubernatorial election.

The ‘Abia Demons’ were still not done yet. Meanwhile as the demonic forces of electoral malpractices were on full ascent in the elections, which prevented the democratic choices from accessing political power, Abians watched helplessly as their state regressed in all indices of development.

They watched in consternation as their state became the object of rudicle amongst south easterners. They became bemused as the state debt profile, which ballooned in 2015 and kept piling up to the extent that it is estimated to be in the region of N150 billion as at date.

They watched helplessly at the mismanagement of the N27 billion world bank loan, secured to take care of the road and flood problems around Uratta road, Obohia road Porth Harcourt road, Ngwa road etc. Abians watched helplessly as the public sector workers went months after months without any prospect of having their emolument paid to them. The same was also the situation with the pensioners.

The situation was compounded with the first rains that came which saw the major cities of Aba and Umuahia being submerged by floods. These were the factors that induced a more determined quest by Abians led by Otti and his Labour Party to decisively defeat the “Abia Demons” this time around.

The situation was helped by the emergence of Peter Obi as the leader of the change agents in Nigeria

It also has to be noted that Otti with his Labour Party Partisans campaigned very hard in all the nooks and crannies of Abia State to the extent that his acceptability and prospect of winning the election was not in doubt

However, the “Abia Demons” as it relates to electoral malpractices were not yet done and were rather prepared for an overkill just like it happened in 2015 and 2019. The magic figures from Obingwa local Government again surfaced on Saturday march 18th gubernatorial elections, which was intended to cancel majority of the votes cast by Abians. As has been proven now, a figure of 9962 was fraudulently changed to 108,000 and with the help of thugs and other armed groups, the figure was successful uploaded into the INEC IREV Server. This must be the most scandalous malpractices ever recorded in the 2023 gubernatorial election. The ‘Abia Demons’ clearly wanted an overkill.

The orgy of wild celebrations witnessed in all the nook and crannies of Abia following the declaration of Otti as the winner of the Saturday 18th march 2023 governorship election goes to demonstrate the relief which the citizens felt over the defeat of the ‘Abia Demons’ as it relates to electoral malpractices.

It has to be noted though that only one part of the “Abia Demons”, the part dealing with electoral malpractices has been defeated. The other part which might even prove more resilient, which has to do with the maladministration and under development of the state, is still waiting and rearing for a fight.

Abians has over the years queued behind Otti’s Messianic message of liberation from the iron grip of the “Abia Demons” because of their conviction that he has the strength of character, brilliance and exposure to liberate them. So much has been given to him in his quest, so much will be expected of him. He cannot afford to fail. In this quest for good governance, he should be aware of the major albatross of his predecessors and that he is the company of all manner of scoundrels, sycophants and jobbers, the yes men.

The bad governance structure in the state has over the years produced large numbers of such people as an industry.

It is also good to note the congratulatory messages and pledges of not challenging the electoral outcome in court. It is a good omen for the state. Otti clearly needs all the good will he could garner in other to enable his government to take off well. Otti is clearly deserving of all the congratulatory messages he is receiving.

Nnanna, former Chairman,Arochukwu LGA is a Member of Otti Campaign Council

I shall reproduce in good measure something that was said here two years ago under the above title. The same thing was reemphasized in different words on the 5th day of March, 2019, thus: “A time comes in the life of a people when a conspiracy of circumstances heralds a new era. This usually happens when no one is expecting it; and also, when all principal actors are occupied with their private schemes. So did it happen in Obodo Mmehie, after decades of suffering and failed promises by various factions of the confiscators of the commonwealth. The suffering of the people and the total disregard for the principles of natural justice, equity and good conscience led to the coming of Ejindu, the Young Man of Valour.

Until Ejindu’s emergence, the people looked up to the self-recycling leadership elite for a radical transformation of their lives. They did not know that conflicts between the various factions of the consumption-driven leaders were always about power and privileges, rather than service. Watch them fight over portfolio allocation after electoral victories and you will be reminded of vampires scrambling over which of them would get the juicier bodies to suck blood from.”

The article in question continued thus: “The deafness of our leaders may yet cost them everything. Yes, everything! Ejindu will come upon any land where genuine morality has left and where the supposed custodians of the law are making cheerful displays of unlawful plunder. It is natural that an Ejindu visitation should dawn on any land that routinely condoned aggravated misconduct and undermined the people’s sense of the sacred. It is natural that there should be a comprehensive redemptive intervention when the high priests, leaders and titled men who are supposed to be the guardians of all sublime values of the community put their imprimatur on profanity everywhere – and with impunity.

The dawn of the new era in Obodo Mmehie began one day with an innocuous incident in the Village Square during a New Yam Festival. A gangling old man who had witnessed the decay in the land muttered to himself in disgust: “Should decent people always step back just because the depraved are without compunction? Apparently there is no young man in this village who can say ‘Eji ndu eme gini’ and put an end to this nonsense.

Beside him was a tall young man, named Eji Ndu Eme Gini, who turned to stare at the old man in surprise. But the latter took no notice of him at all, as he got up and found his way out of the Village Square. Perplexed, the young man later narrated his strange encounter in the Village Square to his grandfather and asked the old man the meaning and implication of his name.

His grandfather replied: “The words in your name cannot be easily explained, translated or interpreted, my son. Your name actually asks the question: ‘Of what value is one’s life if it is not spent in the service of what is good? This name is for people who easily act out of conviction and concern for truth and justice, because they want what is right. Such people will always find it difficult to live for nothing, or keep quiet while the land rots.

“How could things be made right again in this village?” was the only thought in Ejindu’s head afterwards.He recalled how the elders used to be the living symbols of the tradition, law, values and pristine wisdom of the land. But he could now see that these Standard Bearers of right and wrong for the community had embraced the profane. The women and the maidens who once embodied flawless grace and womanly dignity had become something for which he could not yet find a name. The young men and the children who were once very diligent and industrious had become the victims of an older generation that glorified distribution and consumption. Neighbouring villages no longer admired and respected their village. The fertile lands and lush vegetation were still there, but the human beings in Obodo Mmehie had made the community bad.

But no one seemed to know, or was willing to admit, the source of the problem plaguing the now-sick land. The young ones blamed the elders, while the elders blamed the titled men. The titled men, in turn, said it was the fault of the kingmakers who made a wrong choice. Not to be outdone, the kingmakers declared that it was the fault of the King, who would not listen to anyone. So misery, despondency and weariness of the spirit soaked the land through and through. It was horrible, because people who could not lead, advise, nor admonish, anyone were in charge everywhere.

Desire for cheap and immediate material rewards was the focus. The few good ones among them lost their voice after repeated unsuccessful attempts to show the way. Others had their voices strangulated by the favours they had received, and continued to receive, from various quarters. Thus did the leaders cease to be the Standard Bearers for right and wrong for the people in Obodo Nmehie.

Ejindu was angry at first. Then his anger changed into the desire to eliminate everything that stood in the way to a better society. That led him to develop a plan by means of which he would disrupt the alliance of a questionable elite that was the root of all the problems. So, he sought out other like-minded people. Behold the Handmade of Providence had come!

Ejindu planned, held meetings, consulted and created a small team with a strong moral backbone. All the while he was also sharpening his Obejili, with calm dignity. Finally, he decided that it was time to strike. The precipitating circumstance was the selection of new members for the Council of Elders, shortly before a New Yam Festival. Ejindu came to the Village Square with his Obejili and struck one telling blow.

And what a blow it was! There was a mythical story in the village about Ejindu’s Obejili: that if he struck the air with his machete, the air on both sides of the dreaded Obejili would stand still for minutes before coming together again! What a machete! What a swordsman!

Many false priests, servants of fake oracles, elders without pedigree, reprobate leaders and their collaborators were sort out wherever they were and struck. Obodo Mmehie witnessed a great cleansing, after which Ejindu summoned the people. 

As he stood before them, he remembered a story his father once told him about a great seer who once warned a new king of their village thus: “Your new position was given to you so that you would grow into it with the help of many gifted people in this village. You are not to be guided by only your own ideas, because the people are to learn and grow with you to a new form of responsible leadership that uses diversity to strengthen itself. That is why you are their King today.” The same seer also said to the people: “The gods have given all heads of households the duty to protect legacies and guide the unwary. Responsible farmers and householders do not eat, or ruin, the seed yams meant for the next planting season. Elders and leaders who mislead the people are like householders who are eating the seed yams of the next planting season. They are like springs bringing out dirty water and progressively poisoning the entire community. The gods would want such leaders to change – or be visited with their wrath.”

With this at the back of his mind, Ejindu began to address every segment of the community. First, he spoke to the women and pointed out how they could have been more effective as custodians of value. He asked them whether any man would continuously bring home stolen goods, if his wife constantly raised the necessary queries. He even blamed them for allowing their husbands to travel so far on the wrong road that turning back became difficult, and even impossible, for many of them. He then turned to the men and showed them how most of them had become incapable of clear thinking, because they only kept bad company; and had become too stiff-necked to take the genuine concerns of some of the women seriously.

He did not spare the elders, leaders and priest of various shrines and proprietors of oracular pronouncements who survived the cleansing. To them he said: “Most of you now look cheap and ridiculous because your kind betrayed the people entrusted to them and wrongly humoured evil. You failed to stand up for truth, natural justice, equity and good conscience. Look at you today. Would anyone in your position have died of hunger or thirst if you did not get any of the gifts and favours that cheapened and scandalized you before the people? The misfortunes of many of you are only just beginning, because you are primarily responsible for the evil in the land today.

Not quite done with them, Ejindu thundered further: “Have you asked yourselves why many people can now look the elders, leaders, priests and titled men in the face and say: “Do not push us around, after all several of you were drunk yesterday and the day before.” Can you still guide, control, frighten or rebuke anyone by asking, ‘Do you want the custodians of value to hear about your behaviour?’

Then Ejindu paused. Looking into the far distance, but at nothing in particular, he continued: “Should I be the one to tell you that it takes maturity, a broad and free spirit to lead others? Should a sensible cassava farmer not know that a cassava tuber that was harvested prematurely and left in the village stream to ferment would lose its sap in the water and become a tasteless pulp, after losing its essence? Chaff would be left of the cassava and those waiting to eat from it would go hungry; making the cassava and the people joint losers. Do we not all know that the Ijele, that great embodiment of the highest of all that is noble and royal, doe not dance for money; or lend itself to cheap approbation in narrow and recondite neighbourhoods? Should leadership be defined by reprobate self-presentation? Should ignorance be granted a faculty building and declared a School of Thought in a citadel of learning? Mbanu! No!

Coming back to the present, after the last elections and before the one taking place today, we must realise that there’s an ongoing national political education and maturation process. An awakening about informed decision-making is afoot. The owners of Nigeria, the people, will matter henceforth. The unmitigated myopia and selfishness of a misguided elite will be its may soon stand forth as the undoing. The wrongs to be righted by the religious, traditional and political leaders are still being papered over. Ejindu will be a symbol. A symbol of the new, the vaues of rebirth, the values of sustainable nationhood and of humanity. The Ejindu principle will find anchorage individuals – but most especially in an increasing number of people who opt for new values. 

Last week, it was widely reported that the President Muhammadu Buhari assented to 16 new bills sent to him by the National Assembly, most of which relate to the amendment of the Constitution. This has been in the pipeline for a long time, being a ritual with every legislative regime in Nigeria. It is taken as job for the boys, to enable certain privileged legislators go around the country in the name of gathering the views of the people for constitutional amendment, at the end of which we were usually fed with stories of lack of cooperation by the State Houses of Assembly and then it will end up as another case of money down the drain. So much money was spent on this project, so much time went into it and sufficient resources was amassed such that it would have been a great disservice to our dear country should these efforts be rendered futile.

For this and other reasons, the National Assembly deserves commendation and the President himself has earned his place in history for making these tireless efforts to have achieved some form of federalism, no matter the manner it was done. However, it would seem that the ruling party was very frugal in the consideration of the real issues that require amendment in the Constitution, given the time and resources that went into this exercise. No other body could have achieved constitutional amendment apart from the National Assembly.

Deliberately and without mincing words, the framers of the Constitution in section 4 thereof established the legislature as the first arm of government, because law is needed to define all other aspects of human existence. It is thus expected that through its additional powers of approval and oversight functions, the legislature will work to curb the excesses of the executive arm of government, especially in situations where retired military men have hijacked the democratic process, having in their prime usurped power through the ignoble strategy of coup d’etat, only to turn around in retirement to transform themselves into democratic dictators. Let us now consider the tokens delivered so far, at least from the news reports, by way of constitutional amendment.

The President was said to have signed into law 16 bills seeking to amend various portions of the 1999 Constitution. According to the information from the Office of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase, who is the co-chairman of the Committee, the bills assented to by the President included those devolving powers from the Federal Government to the States as some items were moved from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List in the Constitution.

The power devolution bills that passed legislative requirements include those on power, railway, airports and prisons as well as biometric and criminal records. While the President signed the Bills seeking to grant state legislature and judiciary autonomy, the majority of the state Houses of Assembly opposed independence for local governments. The National Assembly in January transmitted 35 Constitution Alteration Bills passed by the state Houses of Assembly, out of the 44 bills sent to the states. To amend a clause in the Constitution (two-thirds or four-fifths) majority of each of the Senate and the House need to approve the amendment after which it will be transmitted to the state Houses of Assembly, where two-thirds or 24 out of the 36 of them have to concur. Out of the 36 states, 27 Houses of Assembly – Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun Rivers and Yobe – forwarded their resolutions on the bills. Let us look at the Bills assented to by the President, in detail.

Independence for the State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary

This is christened as the bill to provide for the financial independence of state Houses of Assembly and state Judiciary; and for related matters. This has been a major project for the present administration, spearheaded by the President himself. To the credit of the federal government, most legal practitioners prefer the federal bench largely because of the seeming independence and the welfare packages. A good example is the case of a highly-respected couple who both retired from the bench. The husband was immediately paid his pension and gratuity by the federal government whilst the wife was subjected to harrowing lamentations by a State that could afford to pay the salary of all judges in Nigeria put together. It is the same story for the legislature as the National Assembly enjoys greater independence in its operations and even in its funding, than the State Assemblies, which are run more as appendages of the executives.

Power Generation/Electricity

This is titled as the bill to allow States generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid; and for related matters. I was virtually jumping up in my spirit, to read of this final liberation from the powers of darkness and backwardness. By all means, not only States but also local governments, property developers, institutions and corporate entities that have the capacity to do so should be able to generate and distribute power for themselves and also for the use of those in their various localities. That is the only way to galvanize the industrial revolution that our nation needs desperately. Going round my neighbourhood recently, I discovered that almost every home has a generator and this will be the same for companies, schools, religious centres, institutions and all places of human existence. The amount of money spent on the procurement of generators, on petrol and diesel to power them and then on maintenance of generators are enough to bail us out of our economic quagmire. The task before the States is to urgently take steps through detailed legislation to in turn devolve power on electricity generation to the local governments and the corporate entities in order to achieve mass involvement. The economy of Nigeria is just waiting for the full implementation of this law to kick start our growth and development. Businesses have collapsed due to the rising cost of production, the most basic of which is power supply.

The Cabinet

 This is titled as the Bill to require the President and Governors to submit the names of persons nominated as ministers or commissioners within 60 days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or state House of Assembly; and for related matters. I have been at the forefront of this struggle to get the executive moving. This was necessitated by the delay by the President to constitute his cabinet well over six months after he took the oath of office in 2015. A suit was filed in Court in which locus standi became the focal point of judicial intervention. It is indeed gratifying that the legislators have risen to the occasion.

The Missing Links

The centralization of education by the Constitution has no place in a federation, whereby the federal government will determine the mode of admission of students into a university established and funded by a State. There can be no basis under our present circumstance, for sustaining the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, which destroys merit as the basis of seeking and acquiring knowledge, by cooking up figures for admission into tertiary institutions in the name of cut off marks. This is one of the frustrating factors for our youths, who are daily exiting Nigeria to other climes for greener pastures. Then of course is the issue of resource control. The ninth Assembly should not have missed the opportunity to make a statement for the existence of true federalism, unity and equity. People should be allowed to take their destiny into their hands and to determine what to do with the resources that God has endowed them with.

 It is difficult to imagine that governors of the states still oppose autonomy for the local governments, which are the agents of development closest to the people. Money cannot be the root of this retrogression, given the monumental losses that our people have been subjected to over the years. Yes, it has been touted in the past that the issue of joint account between the states and local governments has been the bane of development and autonomy for the latter. Presently, the local governments only exist on paper, as no activity of any meaningful description is going on in those locations.

The duties assigned to the local governments under the Constitution, such as the control of markets, cemeteries, billboards, radio and television licences, environmental sanitation, waste disposal, road construction, etc have all been taken over by the states. This has in turn crippled the local governments such that most of them cannot pay the salaries of their workers. I appeal to the governments to please review their position on the issue of local government autonomy in order to place this third tier of government in the best position to discharge their responsibilities under the Constitution. In all, what we have in the name of constitutional amendment falls short of our expectations and indeed the promises made by the ruling party in its own manifesto. There is still time to do the needful, before handing over.

Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), writes from Lagos