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![[OPINION] The Second Coming Of Donald Trump - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/e0b50b219590b369fb715ce040483314_L.jpg?t=20250121_070549)
The most important global event yesterday, January 20, 2025, was the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, now as the 47th President of the United States in what has been correctly described as his second coming. Trump’s second coming should be taken in this literal sense, the United States allowing for a possible two terms in office as the limit for any President, in line with the 22nd Amendment (1951) in the United States Constitution. With his landslide victory in the Nov. 5, 2024 election, in which he defeated Democratic late-comer to the race, Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump was assuredly on his way to serving his second and final term as President and that process reached its climax yesterday. The only President that served more than two terms was Franklin D. Roosevelt who ran for the Presidency and won four times (1933-1945), before Americans embraced the wisdom of George Washington (US founding father and first President) that any President serving more than two terms was likely to become a king or an emperor. Trump’s return to the White House is reminiscent of the example of Grover Cleveland who served a term like Trump (1885 -1889) as 22nd President, lost re-election like Trump and then won re-election four years later: (1893 – 1897) to become 24th President.
History turned full circle and repeated itself yesterday more than a century later with Trump being the second President in American history to be elected for two non-consecutive terms. History was also made with Trump at 78 years, 220 days becoming the oldest President ever inaugurated, over 100 days older than President Joe Biden was when he became President in January 2021. By the time he completes his term four years from now, Trump will be 82. He is also the first convicted felon to occupy the White House having been found guilty of 34 counts of felony in the Stormy Daniel, hush money, record-falsification case. Curiously, Grover Cleveland, the first democrat elected after the civil war, was also embroiled in allegations of sexual assault and violence from a woman named Maria Halpin. It would be quite a long shot to assume that Trump is a reincarnate of Grover Cleveland, in the same manner as students of soul evolution have tried to establish similarities and connections between Abraham Lincoln and J.F. Kennedy. Nor can the phrase “the second coming of Trump” be interpreted in a Christian eschatological sense.
With all his right-wing, hardline conservative rhetoric, however, Trump is not the messianic figure who will bring about a new heaven, a new earth and a new Jerusalem that his supporters and fans envision him to be. “Donald Trump’s Disruption is Back…He’s Back” says the Time Magazine, with an illustration showing President Biden’s aviator sunglasses being swiped off the Resolute Desk. Nothing could be more apt, again very much like the official portrait of the 47th President, unsmiling – the smile in the 2016 official portrait has been wiped off and replaced with a gangster-style, fiendish look, with a scowl. The portrait looks like a mug shot and one body language expert has observed that the simple language of the Picture is that Trump is on a revenge mission. He is back to take a pound of flesh. Trump is not the messiah; he is Nietzsche’s change agent: the Super Man who revels in his own sense of importance. Trump has promised that he will “make heads spin on his first day back in office”, and really heads started spinning long before he made his improbable comeback now a reality. Last Sunday, he posted memes on Truth Social including one that says: “Not elected to be nice. Elected to get results.”
This process of getting results began over the weekend with President Trump relocating to Washington DC, in preparation for his inauguration on Monday, January 20. On Saturday, he held a party at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator and fireworks display. Saturday night, he slept at the Blair House, the President’s official guest residence on Pennsylvania Avenue, across the street from the White House. On Sunday, he held a rally ahead of the inauguration to remind everyone obviously that he was back in town and he was going to plant the Republican and the Trumpian flag in Washington DC, again. Trump was not new to the symbolism nor the imagism but he needed to drive home the point. The glorious moment eventually came yesterday and it was quite an impressive ceremony. The inauguration of the 47th President was held indoors due to freezing temperatures outdoors. The weather yesterday was – 5 Celsius in the same city, on the same grounds. In 1961, President John Kennedy was inaugurated amid -22 Celsius, but the weather can be cruel, and climate change has been the cruellest of all things over the years, after all the poets, not one, not two but about four are of the view that “winter is the cruellest month”. I have no objections to the Trump inauguration being held indoors, with about 750 persons in attendance. It was however most ironic that the ceremony was held in the same high sandstone hall at the Capitol’s Centre where Trump’s supporters broke in and rioted on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to overturn America’s democracy. In 2021, the same Trump supporters held America hostage. Their man, who threatened to hold America by the jugular, returned yesterday. “Oh! America.”
This was much clear when Senator Amy Klobucher (D-Minnesota), chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural ceremonies, in declaring the ceremonies open and welcoming everyone, talked again and again about “peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democracy”, our enduring democracy, and how the “Capitol is the people’s home”, and the responsibility of citizenship not to seek malice. Yesterday. Americans celebrated 250 years of democracy and the 60th Presidential inauguration ceremony but I could not miss the additional point made by Senator Deb Fisher (R- Nebraska) about “the prominence of a people through change”. Again, it was all about the American people, putting back to power, a man whose supporters in the same space desecrated the people’s yearning for change. Senators Klobuchar and Fisher may have been passing a message or a set of subliminal messages across, but the point is that democracy is what it is: it provides the people an opportunity to make a choice and even if they make a wrong choice, it is up to the people to either defend or reject their own choice, not for anyone to dictate to them. President Trump was applauded again and again after being sworn in as President, and there was a crowd of enthusiastic cheer leaders at the Capitol Arena hailing the new Chief.
It was a symbolic, impressive moment but it was also a prayerful moment as well from the invocations by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York to Rev. Franklin Graham, President and CEO, Samaritan’s Place who delivered the opening prayers. And the Benedictions by Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman of the Yeshiva University, Rev. Lorenzo Sevell, Senior Pastor of 180 Church, West Detroit, and Rev. Frank Mann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York. Rev. Sevell from West Detroit made quite an impression. Trump’s inauguration coincided with Martin Luther King’s week. King was a champion of freedom, justice and equality. Brother Sevell understood the assignment. He spoke about freedom and equality and evoked memories of Black America’s struggle for freedom. This was clearly in line with the tone that was further echoed in Donald J. Trump’s second inaugural speech, and perhaps the bigger poignant moment at the main event for me was the rendition of “America, the beautiful”, by Carrie Underwood, after what looked like a brief impasse of awkwardness in an otherwise beautifully organized, well-choreographed event. But of course, the main moment anyway was President Donald Trump’s speech. Well crafted. Well delivered. Good nuance. A fiery speech. It was a combination of sharp, cruel jabs at the outgoing administration and a promise that America will do better under Trump.
He accused the democrats of a horrible betrayal of our people. “All of this will change starting today.”, he bellowed. He threatened to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and take back the Panama Canal which he called “a foolish gift” to Panama. He declared that he would be “a peacemaker and a unifier”, and that under his watch, America will be the most respected nation in the world. He wants to build a society that is colour-blind and merit-based. “There are only two genders – male and female, and that will be US state policy, and those who rejected COVID mandate will be reinstated with full back pay.” He wants to overhaul America’s trade system and impose tariffs and taxes to “enrich our country” by setting up an External Tariff Service. His words as I heard them: Confidence. Effectiveness. Exceptionalism. He wants America to be a manufacturing country again, the largest oil and gas nation, that will build automobiles. He will announce a national emergency to drill. Drug Cartels will be classified as terrorist organizations. All illegal entries will be halted. “And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” Those coming from Mexico must remain in Mexico, as all foreign gangs will immediately be eliminated. On inflation, President Trump said he will “direct all members of my cabinet… to defeat what was record inflation”. He lied in that regard though. US inflation was not record-inflation under President Biden. I watched President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’s body language as the delivery progressed. The only time I saw them standing up and applauding was when Trump touched on the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East. In any case, Trump promised what he called “the revolution of common sense”.
In terms of optics, the ceremony did not disappoint. Trump, a friend of rich America did not disappoint in particular as some of the world’s richest persons got the best sitting positions: Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk, with the room reeking of capital, wealth, power, and influence. The CEOs of the tech giants had reportedly donated as much as a minimum of a million dollar each to support the inauguration. Musk, the world’s richest man was so excited he told the audience at the Capital One Arena, where there was a more elaborate parade, that Trump’s win is “no ordinary win, this was a fork in the road of human civilization” and that “the future of civilization is assured”. He echoed Trump’s sentiment that now is the time “to plant the Stripes and Stars on the planet Mars.”
Trump’s tone was in turns dark, staid, and aggressive. He insisted in a second speech that he won the election in 2020. As he spoke, members of his far-right Proud Boys group, the J6 gang, paraded around the streets of Washington. They expect him to pardon their members who have been convicted for the January assault on the Capitol. And he has promised he will. He was confident that he would save America. “From this moment on, the decline of America is over… I return to the Presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world. And America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before”. WE should ask: is sunlight pouring all over the world with Trump 2.0? While American exceptionalism may sound like good music to the ears of most Americans, particularly fans of Trump’s agenda, it sounds ominous to the rest of the world, as Trump’s speech was underscored by threats of possible and likely American expansionism, casting America’s superior power as a threat to the global order. For Nigerians who think that a public profession of faith means something, President Trump for their information refused to place his hands on any Bible: his mother’s Bible and the 1861 Lincoln Bible, held by his wife, Melania, while he took his oath of office. President Jose Raul Mulino of Panama says he must “comprehensively reject the words of President Donald Trump “because “the canal is and will remain Panama’s.” Beyond Panama, it is the entire world that is panicking, from Greenland to Russia, to Ukraine, to Canada which Trump has boasted will be turned into the 51st state of the United States, to Africa, the European Union and Asia. Trump may be determined to make America great again, but it would be a sad development if the world were to become a smaller place under his influence. America gets a new President; the world is quaking. It is a poor foreboding.
No one is even sure of what the future holds for America within its own borders. In the last moments of his Presidency, Joe Biden had to grant unprecedented, preemptive, pardons to persons that he thinks may be targeted by the second coming of a man on a revenge mission. Those pardoned are essentially prominent critics of Donald Trump including Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for more than a decade who defended COVID protections, former Representative Liz Cheney who condemned Trump, members of Congress who served on the committee that investigated the Jan 6, 2021 insurrection, as well as close members of the Biden family and their spouses that could be targeted by Trump. The mere fact that a group of persons needed to be shielded, even when they have not been held liable for any specific crime, ahead of the inauguration of a new administration in the United States is a loud, sub-textual comment on the status of American democracy and its immediate future.
![[OPINION] Of Wildfires, Los Angeles, Obasa And Other Human Stories - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/419b0256c841d7d9b34a61d986a2e894_L.jpg?t=20250114_062551)
“I hope your daughter is safe”
“We thank God. We are all fine. But which of my daughters do you have in mind?”
“The one in California. When I read about the wildfires that destroyed over six areas in Southern California, it was you and your daughter that came to my mind. I called you but in your usual fashion, you don’t pick your calls and you are very bad at returning calls.”
“Don’t mind me. Sometimes, I just get too busy for myself. But to God be the glory. The fires didn’t reach her own side of California. But you are right. It has been a traumatic week for me. I was permanently on the phone to her, and even when she told me she was in a safe area each time I read that the wildfires were spreading, I died a little. The commentators online didn’t help matters. They would say Apocalyptic. Surreal. Chaotic. Devastating. Uncontrollable. I became a geography expert monitoring the fires in California from Nigeria.”
“I cannot blame you”.
“That girl is my only daughter. She means everything to me. I have told these children, live in Nigeria, but once you send them to school abroad, they don’t want to come home again. You won’t see their tail lights again. She is in California. Her elder brother is in Canada. The other boy is in the UK. I should have married a second wife long ago, to create a second generation of children instead of sitting all alone in this big house. They don’t even call. They are too busy with their own lives. But what can I do? I commiserate with the people of Los Angeles, the government of California, and the United States.”
“Lost Angeles. A lost city”
“Terrible. Entire neighbourhoods were wiped out by fire. Pacific Palisades. Hollywood Hills. Eaton. Hurst. Lidia. Kenneth. Sunset. Woodley. Olivas. Celebrities lost their homes. Paris Hilton. Adam Brody. Leighton Master. Losses running into over $8 billion worth of insurance. Ordinary people running away from their homes had to abandon their vehicles as they were chased by fire and the intense winds. Total incineration. There is certainly something in this world that we do not understand.”
“The fires have been traced to global warming. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU Copernicus Climate Change Services Centre (3SC) have both reported that the year 2024 has been the hottest year for a decade, with an average of 1.6C on a daily basis.”
“I thought the Paris Agreement of 2015 puts the recommended limit at 1.5C. And since then we have been having the Conference of Parties (COP) on global climate issues. COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021, COP 27 in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt in 2022, COP 28 in Dubai in 2023, COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2024. I remember those ones very well. World leaders meet and they make commitments, to reduce carbon emissions to zero, finance climate adaptation, and create a better world.”
“Hypocrites! Holding Talks. Leaders of the Global North are quick to talk about climate finance and climate adaptation, but they are not committed to it. We suffer in the Global South far more, even when we contribute less to the crisis. And yet we see the world warming up. Ice glaciers are melting. Sea levels are rising. Earthquakes are more frequent. Floods everywhere. If world temperatures were to rise to 2C, we would all be dead.”
“There are other theories though, especially in the lawless Lost Angeles fires.”
“Tell me”
“Some people are saying that it has to do with the power supply system in the County. Electricity poles collapsing and igniting fires.”
“What I know is the fire chief saying this is about climate change, low humidity and rampaging winds fuelling the fires and that nobody knows when this rage of nature would end or how far the wildfires will travel.”
“Hmm So, what is on your mind? You will ask your daughter to come back home? Return to Nigeria. We don’t have wildfires here.”
“We are part of humanity. We are all in this together. Do you know how many Nigerians live in California? Whatever happens in any part of the world affects others. It is when it touches you that you know. I don’t think my daughter will even agree to come home. She has a good job. She is doing well. I just want her to get married and settle down and run her own life.”
“How is that your business? Let her get a husband and inform you.”
“No. It is my business. I want her to settle down. If she was in her husband’s house, I would not need to worry about wildfires in California. I will know she is not alone. The two of them can look after each other and their own family, and I can sleep better here in Nigeria”
“You are getting old”.
“My daughter should not marry?”
“Leave young people to do their thing. They know how to survive. Stop sounding like a father in-law who wants to do Omugwo. I know your type.”
“What is wrong with Omugwo? I can do it. What is wrong in helping to bring up my own grandchildren.”
“My friend, go and sit down. It is women who do post-partum care not men. Don’t go and disgrace yourself in your daughter’s house. Two of my daughters are married. You know that. Have you ever seen me going to their houses to help baby sit? It is their mother that does that. Don’t let your enthusiasm and lack of experience get the better of you. Getting a husband for your daughter, yes, but don’t go to the ridiculous extent of helping your in-law to change nappies for his own children?”
“You don’t ever get it.”
“Yes. I don’t ever get anything. But I am more experienced than you. Listen to words of wisdom.”
“Obasanjo did well sha”
“What did he do?”
“Last Sunday, he organized a special memorial service in Abeokuta for President Jimmy Carter of the United States who died at 100”
“Oh. That’s a good one. Nice one. President Carter was a good man. He was a global citizen. He made more impact even after his Presidency as a global statesman. This is what we tell our leaders in Africa. Do good. Govern well. Be useful to humanity in and out of office. Stop stealing. Look at the bigger picture ahead. I am sure most Americans don’t even know where Abeokuta is on the map, and yet they have their late President being celebrated, about 5, 000 miles away. These our African leaders, their own people will spit on their graves. It is good to be nice, to leave a legacy of honour and character. This is the message of Jimmy Carter’s legacy.”
“This is also about friendship and loyalty. President Obasanjo found in President Carter a good friend. He has chosen to honour him.”
“A friend must be a friend. I know some people. If their friend dies, their way of showing loyalty would be to take over his wife.”
“Are you alright? I am making an important point, you are talking about wives. Seriously, are you drunk? You must just find a way of turning everything into a joke.”
“Ok. Ok. Sorry. My mind just strayed. You know how it is. You are discussing something and then your mind will just go in another direction, even to a subject that is totally unrelated. These days, my mind just goes this way and that way.”
“Go and see a doctor immediately. Lunacy. Schizophrenia. Hallucination. Seek help.”
“You are the one that is mad. I know what crossed my mind. I am very lucid.”
“Hmm.”
“It is about this woman”
“Which woman? Look, I am not in the mood for gossip today. I have things to attend to.”
“I am talking about this woman who, on January 8, held up a flight from Uyo to Abuja, Ibom Air because according to her she would not leave except her luggage was loaded onto the aircraft and nobody else will travel also. She made sure 89 passengers aboard the aircraft were left stranded. The flight had to be cancelled. And that is supposed to be somebody’s wife oh and the mother of some children. I pity her husband.”
“What I hear is that the same airline had failed to carry her luggage before, citing luggage restrictions. Happening a second time, she could not take it again. I think I know where she is coming from. These Nigerian airlines have very rude staff. They are so discourteous. Someone has to get really angry and teach them a lesson. You will buy expensive tickets and then one airline staff will start treating you as if he or she is doing you a favour. I support the woman. What nonsense! In fact, she should have deflated the tyres of the plane.”
“No. I don’t think you have the right information. What she did was an act of terrorism. No matter the provocation, no air traveller has the right to sabotage the flight. There were other persons on that flight who had things to do in Abuja. They suffered losses, physical and emotional.”
“Somebody has to stand up to these Nigerian airlines. They misbehave a lot. There is no consumer protection. The last time I wanted to go to Abuja, they kept me waiting for hours upon hours. Nobody gave any explanation. The staff were rude and stupid. A flight that was scheduled for 2 pm, I did not get to Abuja until 1 am. One of these days, I will deflate their tyres and damn the consequences.”
“Other lives are involved. You will not do that. Which is precisely the issue in the Ibom Air case. The airline said the woman was carrying excess luggage, and that the aircraft had baggage restrictions. They offered to get the luggage to her on arrival. She insisted on carrying her luggage as hand luggage. Wahala oh. Nigerians are notorious for carrying Town Council luggage. They know us even in Heathrow London, they had to create a special terminal for Nigerians. I don’t think anybody should endanger another person’s life by disregarding safety regulations.”
“Which safety regulations? If the woman had agreed to give the persons at the counter small bribe, they would immediately play ball. This is Nigeria. She just happened to be one of the difficult ones.”
“I will rather just insist that safety is important and those who travel by air must realize that they do not have the right to inconvenience other people. Things got so bad in that January 8 incident other passengers wanted to lynch the woman. But now, I hear the Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA has decided to sue the woman.”
“I think the NCAA, Ibom Air, air travellers and other stakeholders must see this as a wake-up call to do a lot more to defend consumers’ interest. I get your point about safety: baggage restrictions, not holding up other passengers and the fact that the Uyo airport is a sunset airport, but let’s tell ourselves the truth, airlines in Nigeria have a way of bringing out the worst in everybody.”
“We all know that. We should all just try to be civilized about how we manage our frustrations”
“I hear that the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly has been impeached. He was accused of fraud and abuse of office. Serious drama in Lagos, yesterday. Even his supporters who came from Agege to protect and defend him were whisked away by security agents.”
“And they were singing on your mandate we shall stand…on your mandate!”
“We all know who is standing on what mandate.”
“It can only be the Jagaban himself. The Jagaban of Borgu. The Asiwaju of everywhere. The President-General of Nigeria. Whoever does not know will know. If you have ears that still hear, you will hear: Obleee”
“Whatever. Obasa served for three terms as Speaker. Now his detractors in the House say they want to try another person. A woman has emerged. Mojisola Meranda from Apapa 1 Constituency. First female Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. Congratulations to her.”
“Does that mean the end of Hon. Mudashiru Obasa’s political career?”
“No. No. No. I won’t say that. His tenure as Speaker yes. Immediately he was impeached, his enemies started removing his pictures from the walls. That is life. Today, people praise you. If you slip a little, they will turn their back on you. But Obasa remains a member of the House. He also remains a political leader in his Agege Constituency. I smell 2027 politics. The moment I heard that he was interested in becoming Governor of Lagos State in 2027, I knew something was going to happen to him.”
“I hear it is the matter between him and Governor Babajide Sanwoolu. The Speaker was becoming too proud for the Governor. When the President came home, he tried to sort things out between them. This is the long hand of the Godfather of Lagos politics. Obasa is a victim of power play.”
“Let us hope he gets some clarity. But no man should be sacrificed for having an ambition. It is a legitimate aspiration to want to be Governor. The Speaker of the House cannot be an errand boy of the Governor. The part of the story that needs to be clarified is this talk about fraud and abuse of office. I want to hear more about that. What did he abuse? Tell us. But it is good news that Lagos now has a Female Speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly. I think I like that”.
“Me too. Congratulations to her.”
“By the way, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has introduced resit exams for students who cannot get five credits at the first sitting. Between January and March, they can resit the exam or some papers to enable them make the next round of college admissions, instead of having to wait and lose a whole year.”
“What is in a WAEC exam that a pupil cannot pass at one sitting? Parents should encourage their children to get more serious and stop getting distracted by social media and music. Sit down, read, pass. Which resit? This is how we encourage indolence among secondary school students.”
“Everyone deserves to be given a second chance in life. I support the idea of the early WAEC resit.”
“You will support anything. I am sure you didn’t pass your own school cert at the first attempt. So what do I expect? Olodo people. Anyway, looks like the Super Eagles now have a new head coach.
“Yes. His name is Eric Sekou Chelle. Malian. We will wait and see.”
![[OPINION] A New Beginning in Ghana - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/ca313688e972c37b9a0d072cf93b87de_M.jpg?t=20250107_032703)
It is a new day and a new beginning in Ghana today, January 7, as the country today celebrates the inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama on his second return to the country’s helm of affairs. Mahama was President of Ghana, 2012-2016. He lost the 2016 election to President Nana Addo Akuffo Addo. He lost again in 2020 by a narrow margin of 4.23%. Undeterred he ran again in 2024, which turned out to be his year of luck. In the December 7 Presidential elections, President John Mahama, in the fashion of an impressive comeback kid, led his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to victory with the biggest margin of victory ever in Ghana’s electoral process in 24 years. His victory was so impressive this time around that by nightfall, his main opponent, then incumbent Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) conceded defeat and congratulated the NDC and President Mahama. Mahama got 6, 328, 397 million of the total votes cast (56.55%), against Bawumia’s 4, 657, 304 million votes (41.61%), clearly one of the best results in Ghana’s Presidential history since the return to multi-party democracy in 1992. History will be made today in Accra, Ghana as President Mahama takes the mantle of office for the second time in his storied political and Presidential career. He will be the first elected Ghanaian President in the Fourth Republic to lose re-election while in office and again after another attempt, only to return at the third attempt to complete the constitutional right to two terms in office. His Vice President, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman will also be the very first female in Ghana’s history to be Vice President. She is a Professor of Literature, a former Minister of Education (2013-2016) and Chancellor of the Women’s University in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe. Mahama and Agyeman have already made a mark with their unprecedented victory. This is true despite the fact that no party in Ghana has ever stayed in power for more than two consecutive terms since 1992.
In this particular election, the people of Ghana wanted change. They voted for it, in what was clearly a referendum on President Akuffo-Addo’s eight years in office. When President Mahama left office at the end of his first term in 2016, he left behind an ailing economy, frequent power cuts and corruption scandals. Akuffo Addo’s emergence as winner of the election at the time was touted as a new beginning for Ghana, just as we are doing now, but between 2016 and 2024, in the two terms of the NPP Presidency, the euphoria with which Akuffo-Addo assumed office had turned gradually to dust and despair. In his last State of the Nation address last week, President Addo talked about the achievements of his administration in the mining, forestry and land sectors and how he positioned Ghana on the path of sustainable economic growth, even surpassing South Africa as Africa’s leading gold producer. He was quick to remind everyone that he developed new gold mines in Ahafo and the Upper West Region, and a structured Green Ghana Project. On his watch, Ghana was saddled with an unsustainable debt burden but he managed to restructure over 13 billion dollars in debt in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and other creditors. President Akuffo-Addo was also the exponent of a famous policy phrased as “Ghana Beyond Aid.” One other highlight of his stewardship was the clean-up of the banking sector in Ghana through which he hoped to stabilize the financial sector.
The reality however is that President Akufo-Ado is leaving behind a country that is facing its worst economic crisis in a generation – with inflation at a record 50.3% at a time, the cost of living became so high and unbearable that the average Ghanaian took to the streets. As recently as October 2024, hundreds of people protested on the streets of Accra against illegal gold mining, known as “galamsey”. Unemployment became a source of frustration, and the COVID pandemic merely added to the people’s agony. In 2019, Ghana discovered two more oil fields, but the expected boost in government revenue was shortchanged by the mismanagement of government expenditures and huge budget deficits. Ghana’s debt burden kept rising as the government kept borrowing – it had to take an extended credit facility of $3 billion from the IMF in 2023. The economy kept floundering. Ghana was soon downgraded to junk status by credit rating firms such as Moody’s. President Akuffo-Addo would seem to have presided over the worst economy in Ghana’s Fourth Republic.
It therefore makes sense that the people of Ghana in the December Presidential and parliamentary elections gave a landslide victory to another party, the NDC, which over the decades has switched the baton of power at the centre with the NPP. Akuffo-Addo in the course of his Presidency had eliminated what his team called “nuisance taxes” and also made senior secondary education free for all, but this was not enough. The people of Ghana want their country to work for the benefit of all. In some of the elections in Africa in 2024, we saw a similar pattern of the people voting out the ruling, incumbent party in the expectation that another party would learn the right lessons and serve the people better. We saw this in Botswana, Mauritius, Senegal, Somaliland and also in Ghana. In his acceptance speech. President Mahama promised the people “a new beginning”. His return to the Presidency however is a mix of the old and the new: new wine in an old bottle, and the major challenges that he faces is in meeting the people’s rising expectations. It will take more than flowery rhetoric or triumphalism to fix Ghana’s many problems. More so, President Mahama does not have the luxury of time: he has just four years to make the best use of the opportunity that fortune has brought to him.
Mahama’s story is in many ways inspirational – his single-minded volition especially. This is already giving ideas to some members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria by the way, who now believe that if the NDC in Ghana can lose election in 2016, and again in 2020, only to win at the third attempt, then it should be possible for the PDP to do so also in Nigeria. The logic behind this comparison is so weak, it is laughable, simply that events tend to follow the same pattern in both countries and the confidence with which proponents of this assumption push the view is to say the least shocking. There is no standard formula for the political process anywhere in the world. One, the NDC in Ghana is a far more cohesive and coherent party, making it easier for President John Mahama to remain the rallying point from one election to the other. In Nigeria, the PDP has been unable to stand up as a strong opposition party since 2015. The party is yet to put its house in order. It is divided. It has internal democracy issues. Many of its members no longer trust the leadership of the party, at either the national or grassroots level. No one is sure of the future direction of the party: will the PDP form a coalition with other political parties? If so, who will lead that process? The PDP has not recovered from the trauma of its loss in the 2015, 2019 and 2023 elections. Who will now renew the party?
A quiet undertone to this conversation is that perhaps the PDP can take power back from the APC in 2027 if it agrees unanimously to field President Goodluck Jonathan as Presidential candidate. At least one Governor: Senator Bala Muhammad of Bauchi State has openly made the suggestion that the return of President Jonathan could be a game changer, an alternative to President Tinubu and the APC in 2027. President Jonathan and President Mahama have a lot in common. They both lost elections and gracefully stepped aside. They have both had brilliant post-Presidency careers both locally and internationally. And so the reasoning is that if President Mahama can return for another term of four years, President Jonathan can do so too. They make it sound so simple and logical but no one has bothered to ask two questions: One, is President Jonathan himself interested in the vicious struggle for power in Nigeria? In the leadership matrix, perhaps it is the people that matter most, not the politician. It should be noted that President Jonathan is the main reference for many Nigerians looking for prosperity. Nigeria was a much better country during his Presidency. He made Nigeria the leading economy in Africa. The Naira was stable. People could afford to eat garri and buy rice and other staple food items. Are people regretting voting him out? The answer is yes. President Buhari that came after him failed to impress the people. Even now President Tinubu’s reforms are biting so hard and the people have become so nervous it is common to find nostalgic longings for the good old days of President Jonathan in office. However, Ghana is considered a stable democracy, and the last electoral process was largely peaceful. Nigeria’s democracy is a different kind of game. Two, why is anyone so sure that the APC and President Tinubu would simply watch and allow anyone else take power away from them? Of course, they will fight to hold on to the reins of power. Mega opposition parties may emerge in Nigeria ahead of the 2027 elections, but Nigerian politicians can compromise their own ambitions even if the deal is right. Nothing is straightforward in the jungle of Nigerian politics.
Meanwhile, the global community is celebrating with Ghana today, which along with Senegal, presents a good story about democracy in West Africa in 2024, unlike the democratic reversal that was seen in Guinea, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The programme of activities for President Mahama’s inauguration began on January 4, 2025 including victory celebration in all constituencies, a victory walk in Accra, a victory concert at the forecourt of the University of Ghana Sports Stadium, National Muslim prayers at the National Mosque, Kanda and all mosques across the country, and a National Thanksgiving Service to be held at the Independence Square on Sunday, January 12. Today, President John Mahama and Vice-President elect Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman will take the oath of office as President and Vice President of Ghana respectively for the next four years, and receive the insignia of office in the presence of members of Parliament, citizens of Ghana and the local and global community. Since their election, both winners have been inundated with messages of congratulations from countries across the world. For the inauguration today, the European Union is sending a five-man delegation led by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Belgium, Bernard Quintin, the US delegation is led by Ms. Shalanda D. Young, the Director of the US Office of Management and Budget, and there will be Presidents and diplomats from across the African continent. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is already in Ghana to attend the inauguration in his capacity as Nigeria’s President, and Chairman of ECOWAS. This is a special occasion for the people of Ghana, a victory as well. Ghana is draped in the colours of the NDC of red, white and black, from the party’s headquarters in Adabraka to the streets of Accra.
When the ceremony is done and over, President Mahama must settle down to work in earnest. It is clear enough that there is a lot to be done. Already ahead of the inauguration, he has nominated Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as Speaker of the 9th Parliament after due consultations with NDC party executives and parliamentary leaders. Bagbin, MP Nadowli, was Speaker of the 8th Parliament. He is an experienced lawmaker. President Mahama has also announced a six-member Interim National Security Coordinating team, led by former Minister for the Interior, Mr. Prosper Douglas Bani. Mahama is in familiar territory. He should act just as swiftly in announcing his cabinet. He must resist the temptation to fall into the same pitfalls as other African leaders: he needs not look backwards, he should look to the future and provide better pathways for the people of Ghana. He has his plate full: a sovereign debt burden, crisis in the energy sector, and an army of disillusioned youths. He needs to rebuild trust.
What next for President Nana Akuffo-Ado? No matter how mixed and controversial President Akuffo-Ado’s legacy may be, there is no doubt that he will continue to remain a major force in his own party, the NPP, and in Ghana’s political process. He has been in politics since his days as a university student, and he ran for the Presidency on two different occasions, 2008, 2012, losing to the NDC, until he won in 2016. He has now completed his constitutional two terms in office today. He would be remembered for his dignified presentations on the international scene and the fact that he was generally a well-meaning, urbane leader. His credentials as a statesman should stand him in good stead, both in Ghana and in international diplomacy. His era as President is over. He should be able to find meaning out of Presidential office.
![[OPINION] Winners And Losers Of 2024 - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/7cd48fe8cf34f09d835f7efb50b0180a_M.jpg?t=20241231_070054)
The year is almost over. The year 2024 is ending. In different parts of the world the countdown has begun, with elaborate fireworks heralding the beginning of a New Year 2025. The year 2024 was eventful. And we could all mostly look back and wonder how it passed so quickly. It was a year of winners and losers, as is the case with every year and as it would be with the years to come, reminding us all of the inexorable march of fate and time. We live. We die. We grow. We wither. We fall ill. We heal. Man is at the mercy of nature and the environment, his own exertions and his imagination. But whatever is anyone’s individual fortune, life goes on all the same, hanging on to the thread of optimism. Humanity is sustained by the resolve that man, having positioned himself as the master of the universe, can always learn, do better and surpass his own expectations.
2024 was the year of elections - held at national, general and local levels in more than 100 countries of the world with far-reaching implications for politics and cultural relations at various levels. Elections were held in some of the most populous countries including India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Bangladesh and the United States, with a total of about four billion eligible voters, about half of the world’s population, and up to 1.7 billion actually turning out to cast their ballots in all the continents. This clearly confirms the continuing strength of the democratic ideal, or the popularity of democracy, but observed patterns differed from one part of the world to the other. For example, most incumbent parties lost their popular standing even if they retained power as in France, South Korea, India, or to start close to home, South Africa, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost the majority status it had maintained since the end of apartheid rule in 1994 due in part to growing disenchantment with the ANC and deep-seated divisions within the party which saw former President Jacob Zuma being a decisive factor, with his breakaway MK party.
Other notable elections in Africa included that of Tunisia in October which brought President Kais Saied back to power with a low voter turn-out of 29%, the lowest since the Revolution. In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame won a fourth term in office in a curious reminder of how African leaders try to sit tight in office beyond constitutional term limits. He manipulated the Rwandan Constitution to remain in power. In Algeria, in September, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was re-elected with 94.7 percent of the vote. Earlier in April, Togo held its parliamentary elections. The ruling Union for the Republic, won 108 of the 113 seats to tighten President Faure Gnassingbe’s hold on power. The situation was the same in Chad in May with President Mahamat Idriss Deby as winner. In Mozambique, in October, the FRELIMO party which had ruled the country since 1975, also held on to power declaring 47-year-old Daniel Chapo as President. The country subsequently degenerated into chaos and protests. The main opposition leader, Eduardo Mondlane fled into exile and has sworn to get himself into power on inauguration day on January 15, although it remains unclear how he intends to achieve that. The elections in Mozambique were believed to have been rigged and manipulated. There was more positive news, however, from Senegal, Botswana, Namibia, and Ghana. In Senegal in March, Bassirou Diomaye Faye won 54% of the Presidential votes just 10 days after he was released from prison. Senegal’s story was a demonstration of the power of the people.
In Namibia’s general election, Dec 3, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, incumbent Vice President, and member of the ruling SWAPO party, was declared winner, making her Namibia’s first female President, thus adding to the number of women in Africa who have served as President: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia), Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Joyce Hilda Banda (Malawi) and Sahle-Woek Zewde (Ethiopia). In Ghana, President John Dramani Mahama defeated the ruling party’s candidate, incumbent Vice President Mahamud Bawumia, who in a manner reminiscent of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s gesture in 2015, conceded defeat even before the results were announced by the country’s electoral commission. Senegal and Ghana are arguably two of the most stable democracies in Africa. But whatever successes may have been recorded with democracy in Africa in the year 2024 was sadly abbreviated by the spectre of democratic retreat and the return of military rule in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Guinea. This has disrupted the political order in West Africa. ECOWAS, the regional economic bloc has also been diminished with the declared exit of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, now forming an Alliance of Sahel States (AES). In July 2024, the military junta in Burkina Faso further extended their stay in power by another five years. As ECOWAS prepares for its 50thanniversary in 2025, it remains a divided body, and the region, an emerging landscape for proxy conflicts between major powers: Russia, France, China and the United States.
In other parts of the world, from India to France, India, Japan and Britain, voters voted for change with concerns about leadership and the economy as major issues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, the BJP, may have survived in India, but not with a majority. Modi’s party had to form a coalition government. Elections led to riots in Georgia. In South Korea, former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s frustration with the domineering presence of an opposition coalition in parliament led him to impose a martial law. The people rebelled. In Japan, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party also lost its majority status in parliament. In Britain in July, the British voted out the Conservatives, and gave the centre-left Labour Party a landslide victory. In France, Austria, Romania, the European Parliament and elsewhere we also saw the rise of either far-right or far-left tendencies lending the politics of 2024 a toga of anti-immigration sentiments and nationalism if not isolationism. In France, the government collapsed at a point. In Germany, the Chancellor, Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote. But perhaps the most impactful election in the world in 2024, was that of the United States which brought President Donald Trump back to power. Trump survived two assassination attempts, and went on to win a landslide victory. He and the Republicans regained power. President Joe Biden had to step down for Vice President Kamala Harris who put up a valiant and courageous fight, but not enough to dislodge Trump’s nationalistic, America First rhetoric. Given America’s status as a superior power in the world, Trump’s Presidency would be a major determinant of global politics in 2025. Trump has promised to impose trade tariffs and sanctions on not just China, Mexico and Canada, but literally the whole world. He wants to take back the Panama Canal. He wants to buy Greenland. Democracy survived and thrived in 2024, but the global outlook was bumpy.
Nigeria marked the 25th anniversary of its return to democratic rule. The people’s reflection was one of mixed blessings. There may have been gains in terms of the democratic process, but Nigeria’s democracy has also produced sharp divisions within the polity, and the old fault lines of nepotism, religion and ethnicity are far from disappearing. In the Gubernatorial elections held in Edo State and Ondo state, the country’s challenges with its leadership recruitment process were writ large. In Edo state, the incumbent ruling party in the state, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost despite having a more accomplished candidate in the person of Asue Ighodalo. Analysts of the Edo state election alleged that the PDP lost to the all-conquering Federal Might of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) in power at the centre. In Ondo State, by the same token, it could not have been imagined that the APC would lose power to the PDP. Notably, incumbent political parties won overwhelmingly in all the states where local government elections were conducted in 2024. Twenty-five years after the return to democratic rule, Nigerian politicians remain set in their ways, with little evidence that anyone has learnt any lessons. This has prompted demands from civil society groups that indeed ahead of the 2027 elections, Nigeria’s electoral framework, a permanent work in progress, would have to be further amended. For a long time to come, the character of Nigerian politics would remain umbilically linked to the character of the people themselves. Not even the traditional institutions are spared, as seen in the interplay of law, community and politics in the city of Kano with the reinstatement of Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Sarkin Kano. The city became divided, with two brothers laying claim to the same throne.
But beyond power play, perhaps the major concern in Nigeria in 2024 was the general insecurity in the country: physical, economic, and geographical. The government was wont to claim that the spate of kidnappings, banditry and random violence had reduced under its watch, but 2024 was perhaps the year that the pangs of hunger hit the average Nigerian most. The dynamic in the Nigerian economy resulted in high interest rates, unemployment, no money in the banks and the people’s pockets, with more people sliding into poverty. More than 31 million people, by official estimates, suffered from acute food insecurity. The figure was probably much higher as the Nigerian economy, inflation at over 34% by November, became a palliatives-economy. Many died while struggling for free food, with the year ending with the death of about 115 persons who lost their lives in Ibadan, Okija and Abuja in food stampedes. The gap between the poor and the rich couldn’t have been wider. Nonetheless, one major winning story of 2024 was the coming on stream of the much-anticipated Dangote Refinery. The Refinery is billed to produce 650, 000 barrels of fuel per day helping to address the problem of energy security, and foreign exchange savings in the country. But the Nigerian middle class had shrunk so much further, that the pump price of fuel, at over N1,000 per litre, was one of the sources of agony for Nigerians in 2024.
It may be said all things considered, whatever agony or deprivation Nigerians may have gone through in 2024, this was nothing compared to the threat to global peace on the international scene. With the October 7, 2023 escalation of hostilities between Israel and the Hamas in Gaza, that part of the world has known no peace. Its people are victims of one of the worst humanitarian crises in the last decade. Over 40, 000 persons have lost their lives. Throughout 2024, the world watched as Israel continued with its campaign of total annihilation, and by the end of the year, the conflict had engulfed the entire region. Israel has had to fight on many fronts: the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and even Iran, raising fears of the possibility of World War III. The much-anticipated world war did not happen, but the Middle East remains a zone of horror. The fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on December 8, merely added fuel to the crisis. Israel has been on the offensive as it seeks to take advantage of the uncertainty in Syria to establish itself as the dominant power in the region. Israel has reduced Hezbollah, more or less eliminated Hamas and virtually taken control of parts of Syria. Thus, effectively in 2024, Israel managed to shut down Iran’s Axis of Resistance. The Russian-Ukraine war continues, and in all the theatres of war, the victims are the people. Global peace is disrupted, the impact of the disruptions is felt thousands of miles away. Global peace hangs on a balance; the world tetters on the brink. It was also the year that the economic cooperation group -BRICS admitted four new members including Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, as part of the move by the group to create an alternative global payment system, and to change the existing global order. NATO admitted a new member, Sweden in March 2024, bringing its membership number to 32.
For happier stories in 2024, we probably should look in other directions, sports for example. France hosted the Paris Olympics, and delivered to global delight one of the most memorable Olympics in modern times. The Nigerian contingent did not win medals at the main Olympics, due to the usual stories of mismanagement and sloppiness, forgetting to register Favour Ofili for the 100 metres race and one of our athletes – cyclist Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye- having to borrow a bicycle from the German team, but the D’Tigress, Nigeria’s women’s basketball team reached the quarter finals, the first African basketball team to do so at the Olympics. The team’s coach Rena Wakama was named the best female basketball coach at the games. Nigeria’s main moments at the Olympics were later recorded in the Paralympics with the stunning performance of the Nigerian contingent winning a total of seven medals. Folashade Oluwafemiayo won gold medals in para-power lifting, while Eniola Bolaji, 18 years old, became the first African to win a medal in para-badminton. It was also the year of Elizabeth Osoba, Nigeria;’s first female boxing world champion. Nor would anyone forget in a hurry the heroism of Ademola Lookman and his phenomenal achievements. He was crowned the 2024 CAF African Footballer of the Year. In May, he scored a hat trick to win the UEFA Europa League for Atalanta beating Bayer Leverkusen. He was shortlisted for the Ballon d’Or, finishing 14th on the final list. Internationally, it was also the year of Max Verstappen who secured his fourth consecutive title in Formula One Grand Prix. It was also the year of Rafael Nadal, winner of 22 Grand Slam titles. He retired in November, one of the greats who played tennis in the modern era. Other standout sporting champions of 2024 include Rodri (Ballon d’Or), Aitana Bonmati, (Ballon d’Or), Lamine Yamal, Vinicius Junior (FIFA Men’s Player of the Year), Keely Hodgkinson, Barbra Banda, and Carlo Ancelotti.
For many Nigerians, it was by all means an exciting year in entertainment. Nigerian artistes: Davido, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Asake, Ayra Starr, Tems, Rema and others at every turn placed Nigeria’s name on the global map. In filmmaking, Femi Adebayo, with two movies, Jagun Jagun and Seven Doors stretched the scope of possibilities and creativity in Nollywood. David Oriakhi was brilliant with the film, The Weekend. Funke Akindele ended the year on a good note with her exciting film, Everybody Loves Jenifa, a strong reminder of the enormous value and potential of Nigeria’s creative sector. In Lagos, Bolanle Austen-Peters Terra Kulture, remained the go-to venue for cultural revival. All said, people may have experienced vastly different fortunes in the year 2024, but for surviving the year, we are all winners. What a year! What a relief! Here is to a new year of hope and better promise…
![[OPINION] Tinubu And The Future Of ECOWAS - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/e6c7683572ee0959eedbe4454d879fe2_M.jpg?t=20241217_105801)
Two major meetings were held over the weekend that just passed that have implications for the future of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the possible resolution or otherwise of political developments among member-states in the last two to three years, with implications for the future of the sub-regional organization. ECOWAS was established in May 1975, when 15 West African states signed the Treaty of Lagos to establish a platform for the promotion of economic integration. This particular treaty was revised on July 24 1993, but the essential purpose of ECOWAS has remained consistent: trade facilitation, free movement of persons and goods, solidarity, promotion of human rights and peace. The sixteenth member joined in 1977, making the membership 16. In addition to its many guidelines and principles, ECOWAS has a general framework which also guides protocols and relations among members. In July 1991, it adopted the Declaration of Political Principles as a cardinal rule, and in 2001, the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. One of those protocols is the underlying trigger for this commentary, to wit: the principle of customary international law enshrined in Article 2 (4) of the 1945 UN Charter which binds member-states against the use of force as a means of changing governments, in the absence of armed attack or self-defence. In 1978, ECOWAS signed a protocol on non-aggression against member states and in 1981, members agreed that in the event of any act of aggression against a member, they would come together in mutual self-defence and protect the victim-state to ensure peace, security and stability, by military means if possible and if inevitable, as seen in the interventions of ECOMOG in Liberia (1990) and Sierra Leone (1998). Even the African Union (AU) enabled by its Article 4(h) can be called upon to intervene when the basic protocols have been breached. This however is a slightly complicated area of the subject which we need not bring into this commentary.
What we know is that ECOWAS specifically sees pro-democratic intervention as its bounden duty, but the effectuation of this has been a problem in the sub-region over the years and to cite a recent example, in 2016, when ECOWAS threatened to deploy a standby ECOWAS force in The Gambia to restore the people’s wish if Yahya Jammeh refused to leave office. Jammeh was eased out and a standby force did not have to intervene. But a turning point came for ECOWAS when the military seized power in Mali in 2020 and 2021, Guinea in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in July 2023. ECOWAS, with Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu as Chair, thought it needed to intervene to return these countries to democracy, the rise of military juntas in the sub-region being a threat to democratic consolidation. ECOWAS suspended the states in line with its protocols and proceeded to impose political and economic sanctions. It threatened to deploy troops if it became necessary. This was an act of political miscalculation.
In the four countries, there were civilian protests against ECOWAS, particularly in former French colonies of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. The more interesting part of it is that the ECOWAS was accused of being too pro-French. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the people publicly denounced continued association with France and specifically in Niger, the people openly waved Russian flags and pulled down French flags. From Senegal to Niger, a wave of rebellion erupted in the former colonies, in what signalled a creeping failure of French relations with its former colonies in Africa. Senegal has had to shut down French military bases to assert its sovereignty, in Burkina Faso the military junta revoked gold permits that had been awarded to French companies, in Niger, the government similarly cancelled the mining permit of Orano, the French nuclear producer that runs the uranium mines in that country. In addition, Niger revoked its tax co-operation treaties with France as also did Mali, which broke off from its defence accord with France, and its 11 colonial agreements with the former overlord. In the vacuum created by these new realities, Russia and its Wagner group became the favourite partner of former French colonies in West Africa. The Sahel region has been a hotbed of violence and terrorism and naturally, there were concerns about the implications of the presence of Russia and Wagner in the sub-region and the festering anti-West sentiments in the backyard of ECOWAS members. ECOWAS eventually had to review its threat of sanctions, and military action and adopted the options of diplomacy and dialogue. This achieved little or nothing. In January 2024, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announced their decision to quit ECOWAS. They formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) as their own confederation as an alternative to ECOWAS. Their departure under Article 91 of the Revised ECOWAS Treaty would become effective on January 29, 2025. The resort to diplomacy, an afterthought by ECOWAS also yielded no results. In July, ECOWAS appointed President Bassirou Faye of Senegal as the mediator with the aggrieved countries. President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo was also sent on diplomatic shuttles to Niger. President Tinubu as ECOWAS Chairman, also sent other envoys to the Sahel.
Barely a month to the January deadline, there was a meeting of Ministers of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali in Niamey last Saturday, December 14, where they reiterated that the departure of the three countries from ECOWAS, effective January 29, 2025 is “irreversible.” They however also resolved that the three countries would remain visa-free for all ECOWAS countries after the exit. While the latter resolution may alleviate fears about the free movement of goods and services, there is still the residual challenge of insecurity in the Sahel, and the threat of a further tumultuous season in that part of West Africa with wider implications for regional peace. It is perhaps out of this realization that the Authority of Heads of State and Governments at its 66th Ordinary Summit last weekend, Sunday, December 15 at the State House in Abuja, decided to vary Article 91 of the Revised Treaty and granted the departing trio an extension of six months from January 29 to July 29. This is basically to create room for further diplomatic negotiations in the hope that the three countries can be brought back into the fold. In Niamey, on Saturday, the AES Ministers still made it clear that ECOWAS leaders are too subservient to France. Without being specific, they may well have been referring to President Tinubu who recently returned from France where he was treated to a lavish and grand reception by President Emmanuel Macron. It remains to be seen whether the AES would reverse itself. It is a long wait but as certain as daylight, July 29, 2025 would soon be upon us. In the meantime, the ECOWAS Commission has been directed to begin work on the necessary withdrawal formalities, while the mediator continues with last-ditch efforts to keep the dream of the founding fathers of ECOWAS alive, giving the AES an opportunity to have a re-think.
It is further instructive that at the ECOWAS meeting of Heads of States and Governments, President Tinubu, Chairman, took time out to praise the just concluded general elections in Ghana and parliamentary elections in Senegal. He even praised Ghana’s Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) who conceded defeat to the candidate of the opposition, President John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He praised the government and people of Ghana for their maturity. This was a subtle dig at the leaders of the West African countries where the military chose to resort to force and aggression. Without a doubt, the rise of military juntas poses a threat to democracy in West Africa and peace in the region. The romance of the juntas with Russia and China dangerously positions the region as a territory for proxy conflicts among major Western powers. It is an ill-wind. ECOWAS needs to do more to persuade the errant countries to restore constitutional order. The leaders also need to reinvent and retool the organization.
By next July, it will be 50 years since ECOWAS was established. It would be pertinent to ask: how has the body fared? Has it so far fulfilled the ambitions of its founding fathers? Today, only one of those leaders who established ECOWAS in 1975 is still alive. Would General Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria be proud of what ECOWAS has become? What are the challenges facing the body? How can it be reformed? Mutual suspicion among the various blocs: Anglophone, Francophone and the Lusophone has been a major issue for ECOWAS: how can the goal of integration be better realized? In 50 years, whatever the challenges may have been, it can be said that ECOWAS has been pivotal in forging cooperation, integration and trade within the region. ECOWAS in 2010 adopted Vision 2020, and also later a Vision 2050 roadmap to deepen the original objectives of the association. There may have been challenges: insecurity in the Sahel, Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin, Ebola, COVID-19 and the emergent threat of military juntas, but on the whole, the main achievements of the body deserve to be celebrated. ECOWAS fought to restore peace in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and has been vocal in insisting on good governance. There are hitches in person-to-person relations within the body, over trade, commerce and space, but the free movement of goods and services has been largely beneficial. ECOWAS ranks probably as the most successful regional economic bloc in the continent, in terms of conflict management.
But ECOWAS has lost steam. It needs re-organization. It is unfortunate that the same ECOWAS that acted decisively in Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia is now the same body that is now being treated scornfully by a group of military adventurists who have reversed democratic progress in the Sahel. Their effrontery is fuelled by the descent into poverty and anomie in their countries. The clamour for change that compelled the people of Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Niger to embrace the military is simply their frustration with the leaders in those countries. The people seek change and they embrace it in whatever shape it presents itself, with high expectations too, because they no longer trust their leaders who have alienated them and placed a greater accent on their own elite well-being rather than the common good for the people’s benefit. The people are led by persons who promote injustice, inequality, nepotism. They rig elections and do not allow the people’s vote to count. When the military intervenes, the people see the intervention as a form of liberation from the shackles of oppression. In Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, they trooped to the streets in jubilation, almost like the situation today in Syria with the fall of Bashar Assad and the Assad dynasty, one of the most murderous ruling houses in the Middle East which clung to power for 54 years. In Mali in August 2020, when Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was removed in a military coup over allegations of corruption, fraud and electoral violence, the people were joyous. They carried placards saying “This isn’t a coup. It is a Revolution”. There was yet another coup in May 2021. Similarly in Niger in 2023, thousands of people gathered to hail the generals who led the coup in that country. The urgent matter that West Africa needs to resolve is the challenge of good leadership and governance.
There is a need at the organizational level for a re-dedication to the ideals of ECOWAS, and to develop a higher sense of belonging among the member-states and the over 420 million people that make up the region. As ECOWAS steps into its 50thyear, it is in urgent need of reform and we need to see the members being faithful. At the last meeting of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of States and Governments, Omar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission, commended Nigeria for having paid up its community levies for 2023, with the 2024 levy paid up to July this year. He advised other member states to emulate Nigeria’s example. I guess it has become a habit among ECOWAS members to allow Nigeria to do the heavy lifting in terms of funding while others tag along and yet enjoy the benefits of membership. It is important that all parties pay their levies as and when due. The various structures of the body must be overhauled to ensure equity and deepen trade facilitation. The ideals of free movement of persons across the region should be enhanced. It must be possible for any national of an ECOWAS state to live and work in any of the member states without being subjected to undue discrimination or harassment. The celebration of ECOWAS at 50 must be an occasion for sober reflection and renewal. President Bola Tinubu was elected for a second term as Chairman of ECOWAS in July 2024. He would preside over the 50th anniversary celebrations before handing over the seat in July 2025. He may have listed some of his achievements as ECOWAS Chairman at the 66th Ordinary session in Abuja; he would be required to give a fuller account of his tenure and the status of ECOWAS as part of the 50th anniversary. There is a lot more that can be done.
![[OPINION] Ghana: John Mahama’s Return - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/0252d7aca126638a039af1afda4d52e5_M.jpg?t=20241210_083459)
There seems to be an emerging pattern in some of the major elections conducted in Africa so far, hinting at an emergent character of democracy in the continent, and this would seem to be the people’s seeming determination to change incumbent ruling parties or whittle down their influence or remove them altogether, and at the base of this is a certain streak of nostalgia for the past. In May, South Africa held its general elections and for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost its parliamentary majority, receiving less than 50% of the votes. It therefore found itself in the uncomfortable situation of having to negotiate with the centrist Democratic Alliance, the Jacob Zuma-led uMkhonto Sizwe (MK), the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) to be able to form a national unity government. Former President Jacob Zuma said he and the MK would not be part of any alliance. Zuma was indeed the nemesis of the ANC.
He is the overlord of politics in KwaZulu Natal, having left the ANC in December 2023. Ramaphosa survived the anti-ANC onslaught but it remains to be seen for how long the government of national unity would last, a similar arrangement having failed in the past. There was yet another upheaval in Botswana in October 2024 when the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) which had ruled the country since independence in 1966, lost woefully to the Umbrella for Democratic Change Coalition, producing Duma Boko (54) as President, with a majority 36 seats in the 61-seat parliament. The BDP was reduced to four seats! Former President Ian Khama (2008 – 2018) was, as in South Africa with Zuma, a major factor in the Botswana election. He had appointed Mokgweetsi Masisi as Vice President in 2014, and when his tenure expired in 2018, Khama supported Matsisi to succeed him. When Matsisi assumed office, however, he simply went after Ian Khama, and ended up reversing his policies, and drove him into exile in 2021. In October 2024, Khama returned with a determination to unseat Matsisi. It was not his candidate that won in the end, but he achieved his aim all the same and the Umbrella for Democratic Change was not unknown to him, having worked with that same party in 2019 to secure victory for Matsisi. And now in Ghana, over the weekend, former President John Dramani Mahama has been overwhelmingly re-elected as President for another term of four years. The people of Ghana looked back and looked into the future and concluded that Mahama is best suited to take them into the future.
Beyond the conflict of political interest and power blocs in the three countries isolated for illustration is the resolve of the people to defend their votes and make a choice, by trying possible alternatives. In Botswana, the economy was in the doldrums, the government’s treasury was almost empty. Government hospitals had run out of funds and facilities. Corruption was on stilts, institutions were prostrate. In other words, the state of the economy was a major issue in Botswana as it was also in South Africa. Over 80% of the registered voters in Botswana turned up on polling day. In June, in South Africa, voter’s behaviour was dictated not strictly by the in-fighting within the original ANC but by a number of complex and related factors, top of which is the fact that the people’s expectations had not really been met by the ruling ANC. The people wanted jobs and a better life. The ANC had offered them a high unemployment rate with many of the youths jobless. Trust in the ruling party is also important to the electorate, and the people were no longer as trustful of Ramaphosa and the ANC to create jobs, get them the social grants that they need and address corruption in official corridors. On election day, voter turnout was 58.6%, the lowest ever in 30 years, a reflection of the people’s discontent. The ANC got 40.18% of the votes, and Ramaphosa returned but the people had made a statement about their discontent. Last Saturday in Ghana, voter turn-out was estimated at 61%, and that is considered the lowest in that country in the last three elections. Outgoing President Nana Akuffo-Addo presided over such a bad economy in a generation with high inflation, unemployment and huge, almost unpayable debts that the people angrily voted out his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The only exceptions to the pattern described so far would seem to be the general elections in Mozambique on October 9, 2024, and in Namibia, 27 – 30 November 2024. Turn out in Mozambique was put at 43%, with many outrightly boycotting the election in the North and in Namibia, turnout was 76.48%. In Mozambique, FRELIMO retained its 58 years of authoritarian hold on the country, and in Namibia, SWAPO remained immovable even if it produced its first female President, incumbent Vice President, SWAPO veteran, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Analysts have noted that the elections in both countries cannot be considered free and fair, but where the voters were allowed to choose and defend their votes, the people spoke loudly through the ballot to the key point that the people are the mainstay of the democratic process. The challenge for African leaders is to provide an enabling environment for democracy to thrive, for good governance, and for building trust with the people. And when it is election time, to allow the people to make their choice.
There have been many comments on the just concluded elections in neighbouring Ghana, focusing on the lessons that Nigerians can possibly learn from Ghana. I think there are lessons both ways, starting with the Nigerian example. It is refreshing to see that even long before the Electoral Commission of Ghana announced the final results and declared the winner, the candidate of the ruling party, NPP, and incumbent Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia conceded defeat and congratulated President John Mahama, his main opponent of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). “The people have voted for change”, Bawumia said. This display of sportsmanship reminds us of the example of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. President Jonathan not only congratulated General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he also said famously that his political ambition was not worth the shedding of anyone’s blood. In 2016, a year later, when President John Mahama lost Ghana’s Presidential election of that year, he also quietly relinquished power and handed over to President Nana Akufo-Addo. Between the two countries, there seems to be an emerging realization that the people’s will, whatever may be the circumstances, must be respected. President Jonathan has since gone ahead to build a stronger reputation as a democrat and elder statesman in the West African sub-region and beyond. In an election cycle when we have seen a former President, Donald Trump returning to power in the United States, and President Mahama in Ghana, it is not impossible that there would be some Nigerians out there saying that President Jonathan is entitled to an out-standing possible second term and should also make a bid to return to office as Nigeria’s President. This would however depend on an interplay of factors. The onus is on President Tinubu and the APC not to unwittingly invoke a nostalgia for either President Jonathan and/or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) among Nigerians.
The second lesson that Ghana had supposedly learnt from Nigeria was pointed out by the Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu who was in Ghana as a guest and observer. In a widely circulated video, he said Ghana has learnt from Nigeria how to manage constituency election results. Results are announced in the constituencies. Only Presidential election results are sent to Accra for announcement. This comment has drawn a backlash, with many of Professor Yakubu’s critics telling him that on the contrary he is the one who needs to learn lessons from Ghana’s management of the electoral process. For example, voting materials arrived early and the voting process was smooth. In Nigeria, voting is always a tug of war. In Ghana, even if there were scuffles in some constituencies, this was nothing compared to the Nigerian situation where persons resort to raw violence. Election in Nigeria is often a security operation, heavily militarized. In Ghana, the people drove soldiers away from polling stations. They insisted that an election should be a civilian operation. In places where the soldiers were confronted and scuffles ensued, we saw the Ghanaian soldiers not shooting anyone, even when they carried weapons. If any Nigerian voter displayed such boldness to challenge Nigerian soldiers at a polling unit, there would have been bloodshed! The Electoral Commission of Ghana also deployed technology, but this did not become an excuse for abuse as has been the case repeatedly in Nigeria. Those voters whose names were missing in the register on polling day, were still accredited through a back-end database, and allowed to vote. In Nigeria, it is either the notorious BVAS would fail or the INEC server would malfunction due to “technical glitches”. There have been no deafening reports of vote buying indicating that the Ghanaian voter is far more sophisticated, and that democracy in Ghana is more stable. A total of 18. 6 million registered voters, 13 candidates representing nine political parties, 4 independent candidates, with the NPP and NDC emerging as the. dominant two parties – the option of independent candidacy is an area in which Nigeria can learn from Ghana to make our political process more inclusive.
Despite the push-back that Professor Mahmood Yakubu may have received, he identified a lesson for Nigeria that seems noteworthy: which is his comment that politicians in Ghana are faithful to their political parties. They do not move from one political party to the other every election season. The reverse is the case in Nigeria because here, our political parties are Special Purpose Vehicles, organized to win by any means. Nigerian politics is not ideology-based. Politicians would rather use any political platform that would get them into power. Nigeria’s political parties are united by this singular aim, and that is why after every general election, it doesn’t take long before our politicians migrate into the ruling party. In Ghana there is a more enduring tradition of political identity. Prof. Yakubu obviously knows what he is talking about in this regard: names are constantly moving around on the INEC register. President John Mahama lost election in 2016 on the platform of the NDC, he lost again in 2020 on the platform of the same party, and now in 2024, at third attempt, he has emerged victorious. If he were a Nigerian politician, he would have been all over the political space, gambling for opportunity. But he stayed within the NDC, and helped to build it into a winning machinery.
We join others in congratulating him. His victory has resulted in much singing and dancing across Ghana. There are no politicians threatening to contest the outcome in the courts. The people of Ghana, however, should be cautiously optimistic. When President Mahama lost his bid for a second term in the 2016 general election, the key reason was the poor state of the Ghanaian economy, high unemployment rate and the failure of the country’s electricity system. Those problems have not disappeared, they only became worse under President Nana Akuffo-Addo who got so distracted he even commissioned a statue in his own honour in Sekondi in the Western Region. That statue must fall. It must be pulled down, to purge Akuffo-Addo of his own delusions. President Mahama also has to manage the people’s expectations. Ghanaians are looking for a miracle-working President who will offer them a better life. But there are no miracles anywhere. It is a good thing that Mahama has significant experience on the job having been President (2012 -2017), Vice President (2009 – 2012), Minister for Communications (1998 -2001), Deputy Minister for Communications (1997 – 1998), and Member of Parliament for Bole (1997 -2009). He knows the system. He knows Ghana. He has proven ability. Still, he must act carefully. He must resist the temptation to over-promise and seek to over-impress. He must take his time to study the same system that he is familiar with all over again. He knows Nigeria, being a High Chief of Offa Kingdom in Kwara state -Aare Atolase of Offa - and given his close relationships with the country, for a start, he should reflect on the experience so far of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Tinubu was in so much of a hurry, he started introducing reforms from his very first day in office, reforms which have now thrown the people into the deep end. The best reform that a leader can embark upon is in the minds of the people: to build trust and deliver the fruits of good governance. President Mahama should run an inclusive government, and accommodate the finest shades of opinions.
Students of Ghana’s politics and history would be better placed to give a more definitive history of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s legacy, a verdict which should be kinder in good time - his commitment to democracy, his Pan-Africanism, his Ghana beyond aid rhetoric, his management of the COVID-19 challenge, his establishment of six additional regions and his robust presence in international affairs. With Mahama, as President, Nigerians can have their own expectations too: better relations with a country with which we share so much in common. Our brother from Offa, has won 6.3 million polls, a historic 56.55% of the votes, an emphatic victory. President Mahama has been given an opportunity to rewrite his own legacy: at home and abroad. He should not squander it.
![[OPINION] Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills And Other Stories - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/9ab555418e449069611fad7e56af2531_S.jpg?t=20241203_062211)
“Bros, I dey hail oh”
“I dey greet. What’s up?”
“We couldn’t finish our gist last week. But since then, so much has happened. That is why I am calling. Just to pick your brains, bro.”
“You will have to let me finish this bowl of hot piping amala and orisirisi before it gets cold, and then we can talk.”
“You and food. Apparently, there is no food inflation on your side. With the serious food inflation in the country and the cancer of hunger messing up many families under Tinubu, you still get a chance to swallow dollops and draw soup.”
“It is God. Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death…Psalm 23 is sufficient for every child of God. In the midst of darkness, and enemies, the good Lord provides for His own. Let me enjoy my amala and ewedu soup. When I worship my stomach, I am also invariably worshipping God and preparing for heaven. Not to deceive you, this amala is going to the very right parts of my stomach”
“Glutton. Wackie and quench”
“Hmm. Ha..Uh. Hu. Ech hen. Hen Hen. Who did you say killed the mother of Jesus Christ? Ha. Ha aaa”
“Food will not kill you one day. You better drink some water.”
“Hen. Hen Jesus is Lord”
“I am actually trying to tell you that the Lord has done it. Port Harcourt Refinery is now working at 70 to 90 percent. The Old refinery is back on stream. The new refinery will join shortly and Warri refinery too. We should be joyous.The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has been put to shame. And it is a bigger shame that they have not deemed it necessary to congratulate President Tinubu and NNPC Limited who have both fulfilled an important pledge.”
“The Labour Congress is not a chorus group. Not an alleluia group like the National Assembly. They are a pressure group, an advocacy movement. You are asking for too much”
“When government does something that is good, we should be able to say so. It is not every time that we condemn and dismiss. We should be fair.”
“There is nothing to be fair about. There are questions that have not been answered. What exactly have they completed? The old refinery or the new. A refinery or a blending plant, relying on Crack 5 from Eleme Petrochemicals now known as Indorama? Who has lifted what? I hear marketers are not yet loading trucks”
“I hear trucks are being loaded”
“Has anybody talked to the elders and youths for whom petrol production is the mainstay of their community?”
“Which community? This is not about community youths and elders looking for hand-outs or royalties or whatever they call it. Oil refining is a sophisticated business. It has no room for street urchins, claiming Nigeria’s oil belongs to their forefathers. This is technical business, not a project for village thugs”
“Be careful. In everything you must carry the people along.”
“Look. Look, the people are oftentimes the problem. Everything that government tries to do for the common good, some people just think it is their lifetime ambition to sabotage everything.”
“More like some people in government suffering from executive arrogance, and we see it all the time. If the people ask questions, you explain to them. Is the refinery already loading products or not? Simple answer.”
“We live in a country where some people don’t want to see anything good in government. Negative people. I listened to one Mr. Tony Ogbuigwe on Arise News discussing this same subject. He is President, Society of Chemical Engineers. He explained everything. He was formerly in charge of the Port Harcourt Refinery. He spoke like an expert, but Nigerians refused to listen. Some people still came on the same TV station the following day to just talk.”
“Mr. Engr. Ogbuigwe spoke for himself. I am not duty-bound to accept his thoughts.”
“You are an Obidient, what else do I expect from you? Is that not the same attitude you people have brought to the issue of tax reform? Four brilliant bills sent to the National Assembly by the Federal Government to reform the tax regime in the country, look at all the confusion you naysayers have generated. Senators from the North are kicking. Northern Governors Forum and the National Governors Forum think the bills are against them. Even Northern Youths are fighting any Northern Leader like the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin who asks for tax reform.”
“Are the Northern youths also Obidients?”
“They are behaving like that. People are all speaking out of mischief and ignorance. I suspect foul play over a subject that should not generate any problem. Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, Chair of the Presidential Committee on Tax and Fiscal Policy and FIRS Chairman, Dr. Zacch Adedeji and others went to the National Assembly to make a presentation on the four bills, Senator Ali Ndume, Senator Abdul Ningi and others staged a walk-out claiming that the presentation was not on the Order Paper for the day.”
“Yes. They were right. Government must learn to do things the proper way.”
“So why did they come back?”
“Because they are more interested in the common good.”
“Leave that matter. Ningi and Ndume have an axe to grind. Ningi was suspended from the Senate for a while. Ndume was removed as Chief Whip. You think they will be happy? The one that surprised me is Professor Baba Gana Zulum going on television to protest. A Professor. Somebody that we all like.”
“Because you all like him, he should not have an opinion?”
“I expected that someone like him would have read the Bills. How would he say openly that if the bills are passed, there would be consequences for the people? Oyedele and Adedeji in their presentations have made it clear that the four tax bills will promote inclusion, equity, fairness and justice. It will defend the interest of the poor. It will task the rich to pay more. It will promote Small and Medium Scale Enterprises. It will change the formula for tax administration. Every state will get 50%, the Federal Government 10%, local councils 35%. Distribution to the states and local governments will be on the basis of derivation. And every state will collect what its people consume through sales tax. No state will collect taxes on imports and exports and international services. Fair enough. I believe the tax reform will encourage competition. Why should Sokoto state or Zamfara collect VAT on beer that is consumed in Lagos, when people in Sokoto and Zamfara are not allowed to drink beer?”
“Very good. Executive arrogance minus political intelligence. This is what we are dealing with here. Not so?”
“There will be public hearings. The Bills have not been passed into law yet. Did you see Oyedele on TV yesterday? He gave brilliant explanations.”
“We have seen kangaroo public hearings in this country. The Federal Government should have carried stakeholders along. Organize a robust debate. The Oyedele committee should also have spoken to the public.”
“It did”
“To APC members?”
“There was consultation with Governors”
“We know about such consultations. But the Governors are saying not all of them were consulted and they needed more time to understand the bills. Professor Zulum asked the right question: why the rush? Let nobody give the impression that once Tinubu decides, then it is done. This is a democracy. We, the people, have the right to ask questions. Nobody should blackmail us into anything.”
“Nobody is blackmailing anybody. Lazy Nigerian Governors must learn to be productive. President Tinubu wants to teach them to compete and be productive in their states.”
“Okay. The headmaster knows it all. He should just be careful, especially now that members of his own party are beginning to criticize him openly. He has not spent two years in office, his party members are questioning his judgement.”
“Who are those ones?”
“Jesutega Onokpasa for example”
“Who is he to criticize Tinubu?”
“He is Chairman of the Tinubu Media Support Group”
“Who knows him? Let him go and sit down”
“This is the arrogance that I am talking about. By the way, is the President back from France? They told us he would be away for three days on a state visit. I hope he has not gone missing again for a few more days after a fashion?”
“Are you alright? Show some respect please.”
“I asked a simple question. If he is back, yes. If he is not back, No.”
“Google it”
“You are an APC man. you should be able to tell me. We have the right to know. Two days. One. Two. Friday. Saturday. We have the right to know where our President goes. He is Chief Foreign Policy Officer. But he cannot travel every market day looking for investors. He must stay at the market and man the stall too. Over 30 trips in less than two years. Haba.”
“Investments and diplomacy are critical parts of his assignment.”
“Accountability is also part of his responsibility. And how would the four tax bills help to attract foreign investments too?”
“Stop beating yourself over nothing. Presidential powers can make anything happen. Look at President Joe Biden of the United States. He has just pardoned his son, Hunter Biden and he hopes all Americans will understand where he is coming from. The fellow was convicted in two cases of federal felony: a gun charge in Delaware and tax convictions in California. His sentencing was scheduled for December 12 and 16. Ahead of that, his father has granted him full and unconditional pardon, not just for the two criminal offences, but also for any offence that he may have committed, or may be suspected to have committed between January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
“The man simply transferred his immunity to his own son, and saved him from going to jail. This is the same man who in June categorically ruled out a pardon or a commutation for his son. He said he would abide by the jury’s decision”
“That is what it means to be a President. And Biden is not the first American President to use presidential powers to protect a relative. In 2001, President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton who was in jail for a cocaine-related offence.”
“I stand with Donald Trump in this matter. It is an abuse of Presidential powers. It is a miscarriage of justice.”
“Which Donald Trump? Kettle calling pot black. In 2020, Trump as President pardoned Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of his daughter Ivanka. He has just named the same Charles Kushner as his Ambassador-designate to France. If you were President Joe Biden, you will open your eyes and allow a judge to send your son to jail because you want to be seen to be upright? If you were in his shoes, you will leave office and allow your son to be in jail under a President Trump? He was very clear. He said his son was singled out and that there had been a miscarriage of justice”
“Pardoning his son casts a pall over his legacy.”
“So be it. When you become President, don’t use the powers God has given you. Allow your opponents to ride roughshod over you. The problem with governance is actually the people, particularly journalists who will not mind their business.”
“Journalists are not supposed to mind their business. Any journalist that minds his or her business is not a journalist.”
“And that is why journalists get knocked on the head. I am a journalist. I am a journalist. That was how Fisayo Soyombo found himself in army detention in Port Harcourt. He was lucky the social media cried out. He could have disappeared for a whole year before anybody will trace his whereabouts.”
“Soyombo, founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) is not just a journalist. He is one of the finest in the trade. He is a courageous investigative journalist who exposes the underbelly of corruption in our society. A man of courage who has exposed the criminal practices in prisons, the mistreatment of soldiers at the warfront, vehicle smuggling across the border and the inefficiency of the police. He was on duty in Port Harcourt to investigate the menace of illegal oil bunkering and crude oil theft. Rather than arrest the oil bunkerers, Nigerian soldiers arrested him and allowed the oil thieves to go scot-free. Is that what you recommend?”
“If you make yourself a suspect, you can be arrested and interrogated. What is wrong in that?”
“What is wrong is that in this country the good guys get punished, the bad guys get a pat on the back. The army interrogated Soyombo and before they released him, they had reported everything he said to the oil thieves, thus placing him in harm’s way.”
“You have no proof. There is always another side to any story.”
“He was very specific. He mentioned names.”
“Who?”
“You should know. I think you always hear and see things.”
“I hear President Biden is visiting Angola, keeping his promise to visit sub-Saharan Africa before he leaves office. I am surprised he is not visiting Nigeria on his first visit to Africa.”
“What does it matter? He is leaving anyway. He has less than two months in office before he leaves the White House. And you can be sure when that visit is over, he will go straight back home… Maybe Trump will visit Nigeria.”
“He will come and visit you at home”
“Yes. Why not? He is after all, our in-law”
“I also hear the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has directed the money deposit banks and the Fintech firms to start charging Electronic Money Transfer Levy of N50 on any electronic inflow of N10, 000 and above.”
“For what? Why?”
“To generate revenue for government distribution”
“No. To further tax the people and punish them and to create another avenue for corruption. Distribute our money to which government? What do they ever do with all the taxes? I am willing to pay tax but I want to be sure that what is taken from me is used to build roads, fund education and healthcare and promote the common good, not the greed of government officials.”
“Nobody has ever liked the tax man. This is the real issue.”
“The real issue is President Tinubu saying Nigerians lived a fake life before he became President. He has forgotten he was part of that fake world too.”
![[OPINION] More Loans, More Pains and The Season of Discontent - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/03767c9896b3eda8fb97d0541fceeeb1_S.jpg?t=20241126_072644)
“I hear that the National Assembly has approved the external borrowing of a $2.2 billion for the Tinubu administration to address the fiscal deficit in the 2024 Budget”
“Bros, I tire. I just tire. What on earth do they do with all these borrowings?”
“There is actually a deficit of $9.17 billion deficit in the 2024 budget, when you add Eurobonds, interest on Ways and Means, foreign debt and domestic debt, and I hear that Nigeria can borrow more in line with Section 21(1) and Section 27(1) of the Debt Management Office (DMO) Establishment Act of 2003.”
“The DMO will quote anything to please any government in power. Is that woman still there? My concern is what they do with all the money”
“They want to service debts and finance capital projects”
“In November? I would have thought that by now, we should have been talking about Budget 2025. This is November. We are rushing to borrow more money as the year ends. Don’t they want to maintain the budget cycle again? I am confused. And which capital projects is anyone talking about? SUVs, for the lawmakers? Presidential jets? Foreign trips? I am sorry I can’t see any capital projects. They just want to borrow more money for consumption, not productivity. The roads are bad. Nobody talks about the railway system in the country anymore. Air travel is a nightmare. The refineries are still not working. The cost of living is high. The average man cannot breathe, cannot eat, cannot live. Yet, the Federal Executive Council approved more external borrowing and it took the National Assembly 48 hours to rubber-stamp the loan.”
“Did you expect anything different? The National Assembly is an extension of the Executive arm of government. It will rubber stamp anything that comes from the Executive and that is the case with the VAT Bill too.”
“But if it is a bill on things that would pave the way for good governance, the same National Assembly could spend years huffing and puffing, but anything that would benefit the elite and make it easier to have access to more of the state’s resources, the APC-dominated National Assembly would act quickly. The real wonderful in wonderland.”.
“Have you heard?”
“You and your rumours.”
“This one is hot oh”
“The problem with you people in this country is rumour-mongering. Una too dey carry gist. Una carry gist so tey, you even carry phone spread rumour that Otunba Mike Adenuga had died. This is a man who gave many of you the opportunity to use mobile phones in your life. The Spirit of Africa. A Patriot. I am sure it must have been one yeye man, using a useless, miserable phone. Nigerians are something else.”
“In Yoruba culture, when your death is prematurely and wrongly announced, it means the person will live long. We pray for long life for Otunba Mike Adenuga, in very good health, upstairs and downstairs and in all ways, with more grace and prosperity. Do you remember the story of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, nationalist, founding father of the nation, pan-Africanist. On November 8, 1989, his death was announced meanwhile the man was hale and hearty and working on a book in his library when he read his own obituary? NTA had rushed to do a documentary on the life and times of the inimitable Zik. Newspapers showed up the following morning with editorials. Columnists wanted to be the first to announce Zik’s death. Such was the force of his impact in politics, business and newspapering. Except that Zik was alive and he lived for another seven years. A burial committee was even announced. Bros, some of the members of that burial committee died before Zik. In Yoruba culture, when people wish you dead, they are actually praying inadvertently for your longevity. May Otunba Mike Adenuga live longer than those who want him buried before his time. So shall it be. Amen.”
“Is it not journalists? When journalists are not killing people, they are sending them to jail, without conviction. Who is a journalist these days?”
“I don’t know. I guess things are so bad now that anybody with access to the internet can put any information out there on social media. It is the price that the world is paying for the democratization of the information process, the Indomie-nisation of news, the collapse of traditional media systems and the emergence of charlatans in what was once a sacred profession. But let me give you my gist now?”
“Okay. Fire! Just make sure it is not a fabrication by some ignoramus”.
“Hen. Hen. I hear that”
“You heard. Hen Hen.”
“I heard that principal officers of the National Assembly, in fact two of them from the South, locked horns, with one holding the other’s agbada around the neck, both trying to suffocate each other. A blow. A jab. I don’t want to mention names. One Northern Senator had to wade in to prevent bloodshed.”
“The story sounds fabulous. Mention names”
“I hear they are trying very hard to cover it up and to prevent pictures of the ugly tiff getting to the media. My source is impeccable.”
“Oh. Oh. Oh. Story. Story. But what has this got to do with the external borrowing approval. What we hear is that the lawmakers all agreed on that. So, what could be the problem after they passed one of the fastest pieces of legislation in Nigeria. No public hearing. Nothing.”
“It was a fight over who could show that he was more loyal to the Presidential Villa.”
“Must be a fight over who gets what for his own stomach or for his own people. Afterall, you said a Northern Senator waded in. He shouldn’t have, if that is true. What is wrong with that Senator? Who asked him to stop whatever could have been like a Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight or a Joshua/Dubois fight, He should have allowed the two gladiators to beat each other up, and by now, we would have known more. I like it when politicians fight. We get to know more, because it is we, the people who suffer in the long run.”
“Just as the people of Rivers state are the ones going to suffer if the Court of Appeal declares when it delivers its reserved judgement in the FAAC Allocation matter, that the Rivers State Government led by Governor Sim Fubara cannot receive any further Federal Allocations if it does not have a properly presented, passed and legally valid Budget. Who suffers?”
“The people suffer, and that is because we are running a bowl-in-hand Federation. The states are so dependent on the Federal Government for manna. But nobody should blame the judiciary. The source of the problem is the political gladiators of Rivers State and the elders in that state who talk from both sides of the mouth and serve both Wike and Fubara. One state. Two masters. They have all managed to turn Rivers State into an atomistic society perpetually at war against itself.”
“I know that phrase. It sounds familiar. That must be Professor Emmanuel Ayandele, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar describing the old Cross Rivers state of the 80s, in the days of late Professor Okon Edet Uya who used to talk about Oron-phobia But those ones were even intellectualizing the politics of Cross Rivers State. What you have in Rivers State is sheer elite thuggery, politics without conscience, agbero politics and the dictatorship of one man who thinks he is the lord and master of Rivers politics.”
“So, I insist that whatever the judiciary decides is not the problem. The problem in Rivers state will not go away whatever the Court of Appeal decides except President Tinubu intervenes and cuts off the oxygen that is fuelling the chaos in that state.”
“No. President Tinubu is not the headmaster of any state of Nigeria. It is the people of Rivers State that should resolve their own problems. Let the critical actors solve their own problems. For all I care at this stage, they should lock themselves up in a room and have a slugfest. Whoever comes out alive is the winner.”
“What kind of talk is that? You are recommending jungle justice. Do you want to kill someone? Just look at it. If you lock up Sim Fubara and Nyesom Wike, who says nobody can take Rivers away from him in a room, what will be the likely outcome?”
“I don’t know. This is no longer a matter for the courts. Let them fight, and let us know who is the man”
“This is a democracy. Only Barbarians resort to fist-fight.”
“Then let President Tinubu wade into the matter. This is the point I am making. Wike is his Minister. He is so powerful in Rivers State because he is a big chief in the Federal Capital Territory. The President should remove the rug from his feet. Take the oxygen that makes it possible for him to Buga oh, from him and you will see there will be peace in Rivers State.”
“Now, I am convinced that you do not understand politics. That is not how politics works. President Tinubu needs Wike as much as Wike needs him. It is not about Tinubu sacking Wike. Who told you that will guarantee peace in Rivers? Why should Rivers be important to Tinubu? Is it possible that a strong, properly empowered Wike is politically more relevant to Tinubu than the whole of Rivers state put together?”
“How can one man be so important?”
“In politics, what you don’t know, you don’t know. Politics is the ultimate magic, the topmost art of illusion, known to man. Why do you think President Donald Trump is on his way back as the President of the largest economy in the world, despite his many shortcomings including being a convicted felon?”
“Politics does not always throw up the best people in the society. I know. I guess we must know that. And the people who vote have their own ideas. We just need to let the people know that whatever you decide, you must be ready to live with it. In four years, you can change your mind.”
“Yeah. Yeah. I hope the people of Rivers State are learning and learning good. And we will see how the Americans would learn their own lessons under Trump 2.0 too.”
“Trump has just named his full complement of Ministerial nominees, 15 in total.”
“I saw that, but I won’t say I am impressed with the list. Just a collection of MAGA loyalists, yes men and women and a few old rivals, completely eclectic. What is Robert Kennedy Jr. doing as nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services for example? Another nominee is a wrestling CEO, named as Linda McMahon to take charge of the Education Department, a more or less inexperienced choice. Pete Hegseth has sexual abuse issues, like Matt Gaetz, hanging around his neck. At least Gaetz stepped down before he could be openly disgraced by the Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives. And then this Scott Bessent – an openly gay man appointed by Trump who touts Christian evangelism and far-right ideology even when he may not be able to quote the Bible. Politicians are the same everywhere. They just look out for themselves first. America first in my view means Donald Trump first. But let the Americans live with it. They have made their choice.”
“All said and done, America has nominated just 15 people, not a nominee per state or per ethnicity. I have not seen anybody saying their own ethnic group has not been represented. No Black. No Latino. No Arab-American and yet no issue.”
“It is their Constitution, and their culture. We are talking about America not your “whatever” countries in the Third World, please. This is the richest country. The budget that Brooke Rollins as Agriculture Secretary will control is more than the annual budget of some three African countries! In any case, what matters is what a Trump Presidency means for the world, climate change, global peace, the competition with China. But I don’t even want to beat myself over other people’s problems. In two days, America will celebrate Thanksgiving. I have been seeing some pictures of very regal, fleshy Turkeys. Chop time! Fun time.”
“You like food too much. You are reading about American Thanksgiving and you are already doing long throat. I don’t have Thanksgiving on my mind. I am thinking of Christmas. Will there be money for Christmas? School fees? Money for gifts. I hope you know that today, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria is going to announce their usual benchmark rate, CRR, MPR, asymmetric corridor which will tell us how hard life is, how harder it may become and whether or not we can breathe a little. With inflation rate close to 40%, may the Lord help us.”
“You may be surprised. Benchmark rate may actually come down”
“I want to be surprised. But I actually also know this country so well that when things go up, they don’t come down.”
“Not quite my friend. The ex-depot price of fuel has just come down from N990 per litre to N970 per litre. And that is a fact. Christmas gift from Dangote Refinery through the now peaceful oil marketers to us”
“What a wonderful fact!”
“Our God has answered our prayers, He has sent to us, early ahead of Christmas, a Father who cares.”
“You are right. You are absolutely right.”
“Hear! Hear!”
![[OPINION] The Lucky Man Of Ondo State - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/312e8343c7b3fe58bd59d863f0006fa4_S.jpg?t=20241119_070604)
The battle of the Ondo state Gubernatorial election 2024 has been won and lost, with Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa emerging as the new Governor-elect: 1. 757 million eligible voters, 85.6% PVC collection, 22, 239 security officers deployed to enforce security, low voter turn-out, 17 candidates, slugging it out in 18 Local Government areas, 3, 933 polling units, with over 1, 000 election monitors and observers on active duty in all the LGAs. In the end it was actually a two-horse race between two former Deputy Governors: Agboola Ajayi of the Peoples Democratic Party who had previously served as Deputy to the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN (Aketi) – 2017– 2020 before the trailer went between them and Lucky Aiyedatiwa who replaced Ajayi in 2021, and remained Deputy Governor till Aketi’s death in 2023. Aiyedatiwa is now serving out the remainder of Aketi’s term till February 2025 as the Constitution clearly states. When the votes were tallied and announced on Sunday, November 17, 2024, Aiyedatiwa secured an emphatic victory, indeed a landslide victory, beating his rivals 18 – 0, securing 366, 781 votes to beat Agboola Ajayi of the PDP who got 117, 845 votes. Nejo Adeyemi, the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) won 4, 138 votes. Dr. Abbas Mimiko of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) got a total of 2, 692 votes, and the Labour Party (LP) - 1, 162 votes. The margin of victory for Aiyedatiwa was so wide and comfortable that the complaint by the state Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr. Gbenga Akinbuli who described the election as “a show of shame” sounds like a mere garage whistle.
Names are very important to Africans and as such local naming systems are supposed to serve as referents for the circumstances of birth and the parents’ wish for the child’s future. In the South South of Nigeria, a child born when an election was held in the community could go through life named Election, or FEDECO, or Constitution. There are such names as Guinness, Heineken, Annulment, Government, Senate, Professor, Chairman, Census, Praise, Alleluia, Promise: names which may seem strange at first but hold significant meanings for the bearer. Some other names in other parts of the country are literally prayers in motion: Beauty, Gloria, Endurance and so it is with the newly-elected Governor of Ondo State. Lucky: he is indeed lucky. It is not easy to win an election in any part of Africa- whatever all the key factors in any election may be, the eventual winner needs a strong element of luck. Orimisan – My head has favoured me. Truly, the man’s head has brought him favour and grace. When his former principal, Akeredolu was ill, and was in and out of hospital, he was accused of plotting to take over, even when the 1999 Constitution is very clear about what happens when a Governor or President is permanently incapacitated or dies. No man should rejoice over the death of another, for death is the debt that all men would pay. The concept of “Ori” or “chi” as the Igbos refer to it is a major teleological category in African knowledge. It is indeed apt to say that “Ori” has brought the Governor of Ondo state to a place of grace and honour. Aiyedatiwa: “The world is now ours.” How prophetic: the world is now Aiyedatiwa’s in Ondo State. He has now won the Gubernatorial election on his own steam. The nomination battle, the road to this moment was tough and fiercely contested, but the election last Saturday appeared to be much easier.
The point must be made that names do not on their own bring automatic success. Glory is something that must be actively worked for, happiness must be pursued with single-minded devotion, nothing in life comes on a platter of gold. I recall the case of one man who was once Governor in one of our states. He also bears the name Lucky. By the time he completed his first term in office, his performance was so poor, the opposition argued that the state did not deserve any further affliction. Many would recall that this particular Governor’s wealthy and influential father was said to have waded in, and this may be apocryphal, but word soon went round that his father pointed out to the electorate that when a child fails, the simple thing is to allow him or her to repeat the class, so that he/she can pass the examination at second try. Wily, foxy, old man’s wisdom. This may not have influenced the votes one way or the other, but the son was allowed to repeat the class. He actually got a second term in office! I leave the rest of the story to the people of the affected state who are old enough to remember.
Luck and other factors may have brought Aiyedatiwa this far, but he would not be remembered for being merely lucky. He was bound to win the election anyway, having cleared the hurdle of winning the APC nomination ticket. His closest rival, Agboola Ajayi of the PDP could not have defeated him at the polls. Both of them are from Ondo South Senatorial district. It makes simple sense to vote massively for their son who is already an Acting Governor than to vote for an Ajayi who is still aspiring to get closer to the seat. Besides, the PDP is failing as an opposition party not just in Ondo State but also at the federal level. Before 2027, the PDP would have been so weakened by “enemies within” and the mischief of the ruling party. Aiyedatiwa also had the factor of incumbency in his favour. He also had federal might on his side. Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the APC was so elated, he openly boasted in Akure on Sunday that his party’s next target is to take over the South-West geo-political zone politically, meaning the APC is determined to win the next gubernatorial elections in Osun and Oyo in 2026, having consolidated its hold on Edo and Ondo states in 2024. Without a strong, resilient and strategic opposition, the APC may well be on its way to turning Nigeria into a one-party state or something close to it. This is one obvious reason the opposition parties must wake up to their responsibilities.
Aiyedatiwa has an obligation to justify the mandate that the people of Ondo state have given him and the trust that they have reposed in him. He must be the Governor of everybody, and eschew the spirit of bitterness and vindictiveness. By virtue of Section 182 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), he is entitled to serve for only one term, which means that he has just four years. He can either use the four years to write his name in bold letters in the history of governance in Ondo state, or he could choose to fritter away the opportunity. He has a duty also not to disappoint the people of Ondo South who chose to support him. Dr. Olusegun Agagu from Okitipupa, Governor, 2003 – 2009 was the last person from that Senatorial district to serve as Ondo State Governor. It is only natural that the people of the area, incidentally the oil-bearing section of the state, will have high expectations that their son from Obe-Nla, Ilaje LGA would also serve them diligently as Agagu did. While managing such expectations, Aiyedatiwa must also be fair to other parts of the state, and must not for any reason think that the mandate means he must deal with the LGAs of his political opponents. Having served as Deputy Governor (2021 -2023), and as Acting Governor (2023 -2024), he knows enough about the state to understand precisely what needs to be done. He may consider returning to the N19.2 billion Araromi-Akodo/Ibeju-Lekki road which connects Ondo and Lagos States. This 50km road was flagged off in 2018 by the Ondo State Government and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Six years later, that road which has the potential to promote agriculture, tourism and industrialization, and create economic opportunities, is yet to be completed. It is one legacy project that Aiyedatiwa, in partnership with the NDDC, should prioritize.
Meanwhile, the question is to be asked: how did the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) perform in Ondo State? Ahead of the Ondo State election, questions had been raised about the integrity of INEC processes especially during off-cycle elections against the background of previous elections in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Imo, Osun States. INEC’s performance became a bigger issue of interest when the Ondo elections coincided with the report of a lecture delivered at Yale University in which the former Head of State/President Olusegun Obasanjo speaking at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum submitted that Nigeria’s state failure is now more glaring under President Tinubu’s “Baba-go-slow and Emi lo kan” administration wherein the state has been “captured.” Obasanjo didn’t spare INEC and the electoral process either. He expressed concerns about the integrity of INEC officials. He called for the institutional reform of INEC. He added: “As a matter of urgency, the chairperson and his or her staff” should be “thoroughly vetted.” Tinubu’s spokesperson, Mr. Bayo Onanuga has already written a scathing rebuttal to President Obasanjo questioning his moral right to sermonize about good governance, corruption and leadership. The fight between Obasanjo and the Tinubu administration is just gathering pace. Soon, the former may decide to settle the argument in a series of letters as he is wont to do. With his coterie of 13 spokespersons, Tinubu may have set up an “Iron Dome” media and public communication machinery but it is not necessary to respond to every major comment about the performance of the administration. The Obasanjo-Tinubu tango would be interesting to watch nonetheless.
To be fair to INEC, the conduct of the Ondo State Gubernatorial election was very much an improvement on recent outings by the electoral body. Electoral materials were said to have been distributed as early as 6 am on election day. By 9.30 am voting was underway across the 18 LGAs. Turn- out was low, but voting went on smoothly. There were no major reports of failing machines, missing registers or technical glitches, even if the candidates of the PDP and the SDP have had cause to complain about irregularities. Agboola Ajayi of the PDP has even called on INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu to resign. By 6.22 pm on Saturday, however, more than 90% of the results from polling stations had been uploaded on the IReV online portal. By 2.30 pm, Sunday afternoon, the election had been won and lost. It was far from being a perfect exercise, and there are strong arguments to be made for institutional reform and further amendments to the electoral framework. It was rather untidy for example that up till the last moments before the election there was confusion over the identity of the legitimate candidate of the Labour Party. INEC, quoting a Court of Appeal ruling, had to wait till the last minute before substituting the name of the LP candidate. This may have contributed to the poor performance of the party in that election. Persons with disability are often treated shabbily in elections. There was no improvement in the recently concluded Ondo state election.
But by far the most notable indication was the failure of the political parties and politicians to turn a new leaf. In Ondo state, there were reports of vote buying. Vote trading is a major form of corruption which undermines the integrity of the electoral process. The politicians were willing to buy votes, the voters were ready to sell, in the basest reflection of the transactional nature of Nigerian politics. The spokesperson of the Police Service Commission (PSC) which reportedly deployed officers to monitor police performance has said that the PSC was able to enforce discipline and civility but this is the same old story. The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Abiodun Alabi who led the police team praised the security agencies “for their highest level of integrity and professionalism”. Votes are sold and bought but the perpetrators even when arrested, for the most part walk free. Security agencies must be firmer in arresting and prosecuting those undermining the electoral process. President Tinubu in his message of congratulations to Governor Aiyedatiwa praised the people of Ondo state for their maturity and civility. With over 22, 000 security agents overseeing that particular election, the least that can be said is that Nigerian elections can be more civil.
![[OPINION] The Storming, Stunning, Thumping Return Of Trump - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/e96d04ea28e0d2545e2fa72f0d2f1295_S.jpg?t=20241112_083322)
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain follies of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron” – H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920.
I was an editorial writer intern on the Editorial Board of The Baltimore Sun and later the Los Angeles Times sometimes between 1996 and 1997 but I do not think that this gives me the right or the entitlement in reflecting on the recent US Presidential elections, November 5, that the legendary H.L. Mencken, master of the English language, master columnist has been proven right on the count of every claim above. Is Donald Trump who has now stormed back as America’s 47thPresident awaiting inauguration on January 20, 2025, a fool and a moron? He was 45th President and he has now thumped his way back in a decisive manner- the greatest comeback in American history much better than the feat recorded in 1893 by Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. In the lead up to the elections, the polls from CNN to New York/Siena predicted that the race was too close to call. There were talks about the seven swing states that would determine the election. Donald Trump has now made history by winning in all the seven battleground states: Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania – a landmark victory that gives him a resounding mandate to reshape America. Yet, this was/is a man who four years ago faced two impeachment trials. He was also accused of inciting an attack on the US Capitol in January 2021. He faced four criminal charges. In the course of the campaigns, two assassination attempts were made on his life. He was even branded a fascist. But he has now ended up as the people’s choice, winning both the popular vote and the electoral college vote, performing significantly better than he did in 2020.
The magnitude of his return speaks to “the inner soul of the people” to use H.L Mencken’s words, that is the American people who have now re-hired him. At 78, he will be the oldest leader to be sworn into office in the United States. He left office in 2021. He was accused of making the Republicans perform badly in the 2022 mid-term elections. But he is back – the first convicted felon to be elected as US President. He has not just won victory for himself. He has re-invented the Republican party. The ideology of liberalism, touted much since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, America’s longest serving President and a Democrat, suddenly became a byword for intolerance and rigidity as the Republican elite rose and Trump seized advantage of the confusion. The pollsters were wrong, dead wrong. This outcome in the United States puts a mark on the value of opinion polls in the United States and the place of public opinion in democracies. Even those members of the Republican Party who lined up behind Kamala Harris, the Democratic Presidential candidate have now been shown that it is precisely the man that they called “fascist”, vengeful and divisive that the average American has now voted for. This is about the American mind. There are perhaps more people in America like Trump than there are of the likes of Kamala Harris.
The questions have been asked: What does Trump 2.0 as the victory is otherwise called mean for America, the world and specifically Africa? Americans have embraced their choice boldly and confidently. The National Coast Guard was called out in the event that there would be a repeat of the violence seen in 2021. The election was described as a possible repeat of the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, but nothing of sort happened. It wasn’t close to call and there was no violence. Trump had threatened to challenge the results if the election was adjudged unfair by him. He didn’t have to. Even President Biden says that the thing to do is to respect the wishes of the American people because it is what they want. Most Americans, who turned out en masse – the highest turn-out figure in 50 years, voted Trump because they believed the American economy would do better with him. Despite the achievements of the Biden administration in creating jobs and bringing down inflation, the average American still thought Trump is a better economic manager. Americans held a largely negative view about their country’s economy, and they were suspicious of the incumbents. Trump has promised to place “America First”. He is first and foremost American, so he would Make America Great Again (MAGA). In this regard, he is determined to impose his right-wing views about biology and medicare. He will drive away undocumented immigrants and make America safe for the citizens – those people from Haiti whom he says eat cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio and those from “a shithole country.” He will reduce dependency on America by the rest of the world by taking a second look at Nato, climate change and carbon emissions, the oil and gas industry and America’s relationship with the world. He will take aim at the Paris climate accord. He will ease restrictions on the oil industry’s emissions of methane. His win is not surprisingly a major win for the big money elite. All the three major US indexes have been doing well since it became clear that Trump and the Republicans were poised to win. Cryptocurrency has hit $80, 000. Billionaire Elon Musk who supported Trump has been jubilating since. Trump promoted crypto during his campaign, backing a venture that had his sons involved. In his earlier Presidency, he dismissed crypto currency as a scam. He is forever changing his mind. And yet the people voted for him.
His provincialism, some say nativism or isolationist approach to global politics has brought upon the world a season of great uncertainty and this has generated conversations and measures around the world about how countries and regions can best protect themselves. Less than a month ago, Russia hosted a meeting of the BRICS economic partners and invited new partners. America is the largest economy in the world and a superior power. With a man who prefers insularity to open engagements with the world, others are obliged to create a multi-polar world whereby America’s superiority can be diluted by the emergence of an alternative axis of power. Over the weekend, the same Russia in Sochi hosted Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Africa where President Vladimir Putin pledged “total support” for African countries. Yesterday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the UK and President Emmanuel Macron met after Armistice Day ceremonies to discuss free trade and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump has threatened to impose a blanket tariff of 20% on imports as part of his America First agenda. This could see the UK economy losing as much as 215 billion pounds next year and affect inflation and interest rates. For about a year, China has been fighting a corrosive deflationary trend with a combination of fiscal and economic stimulus. Trump’s emergence makes China’s situation even more serious. Russia and Ukraine, North Korea, South Korea, Iran, Taiwan are also at the epicentre of the emerging geo-politics. Trump has promised that he would solve the problem between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours. Does that mean he would force Ukraine to negotiate and cede territory? Trump’s politics has driven up the self-interest quotient in international politics. In Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim, countries are preparing for the return of Trump. America being the most powerful country in the world explains the fascination with the American election.
Where does that leave African countries? I doubt if Africa is likely to be such a huge priority on Trump’s agenda. Immigration is likely to affect Africans, especially Nigerians very badly. In 2025, Trump has promised to end the African and Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) which was introduced by the US in 2000 to assist African countries and promote economic relations between the US and the continent. American aid and security partnerships with African countries may also be reduced. Nigerians like to think that they are such an important part of geo-politics. In the lead up to the American election many of our compatriots back home here were very emotional about the US elections as the country was divided into two camps: Trump vs. Harris. Most of the people involved in this campaign had no right to vote in the American election. There was even no way their choices would affect America’s electoral process. In Northern Nigeria, the video was shown of persons waving the American flag and declaring support for Trump. Kamala Harris supporters were all over the local media pushing the narrative that a Trump Presidency would be bad for the world and that Trump is this or that. It appeared as if Trump’s supporters were more of the right-wing evangelical extraction, with the firm opinion that anybody who mentions the name of God was bound to win. Those who opposed Harris felt a woman no matter how gifted should not be allowed to lead men. With the possible exception of those Nigerians who have American citizenship and who chose to vote from overseas, most people simply talked. And Nigerians like to talk. And they have not stopped talking since the election was won and lost. No one should be surprised if before Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, some of his fans in Nigeria begin to organize owambe parties and buy aso ebi.
Whatever anyone says, Kamala Harris lost the election not because she was not good enough for the job, but because she joined the race rather late, only after President Biden, her boss, was pressured to step down in July. She deserves commendation for her determination, verve, and the energy with which she sold her narrative which re-energized the Democratic Party. Age, mental acuity and physical health are big issues in American elections. Biden, 81, looked frail and more fragile than Trump, 78. By the time Democrats brought a much younger Harris into the mix, she had a shorter time of preparation. She galvanized tremendous financial support, but she could have done better if she had been in the race much earlier. Biden has been blamed by the Democrats for being the main cause of her failure. Perhaps, he should have withdrawn from the race earlier. With all the support she had, Trump had a bigger war chest over time. American-style Presidential politics is an expensive deal, requiring a lot of money. Trump had his own resources. He got remarkable support from the likes of Elon Musk.
Be it in the US or Nigeria, money is the engine oil of politics. Those who are hoping that they could beat President Tinubu and the APC at the polls in 2027 had better begun now to stock-pile the funds, otherwise they might as well struggle in vain. There are other ways in which the American election reminds us of Nigeria. As soon as Trump was declared winner, his supporters, friends and party members trooped to his golf resort in Mar- a -Lago hanging around, trying to get Trump to notice them. He has made it clear that he would reward those who stood by him in the last three years and the few appointments that he has made so far clearly reflect that. Rogue and desperate guests have taken up hotel rooms and apartments in Palm Beach for the next three months, struggling to get themselves invited to the Golf Club.
Trump’s family members are also likely to feature prominently in the new administration as they did in his first term: his children and in-laws and of course his wife. I am thoroughly amused that some Nigerians are pushing the narrative that Trump has family connections with Nigeria. One of his daughters is said to be married to a Lebanese-Nigerian, from a prominent family and that Nigeria needs not worry about all those things Trump says. He has to be nice to his in-laws. It is only for President Tinubu to explore that advantage. How naïve! As in Nigeria all the pending court cases that Trump has in court are likely to disappear. And by the way, Trump is not complaining because he won. He has been congratulated by President Biden, and he has been invited to the White House on Thursday, this week, for lunch. When he lost in 2020, he did not congratulate Biden. He did not attend the inauguration. This is the man who is now back in the saddle as America’s President.
A Trump Presidency should be seen in the light of risks, opportunities and lessons. One stand-out lesson is how Trump is first and foremost an American. He wants to Make America Great Again. Similarly, those who want to lead Nigeria should seek to Make Nigeria Great Again. (MANGA). Let our leaders begin to talk about MANGA!
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![[OPINION] Aunty Mo: Her Story - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/6178819b9269ded06bff2c0d38596c40_XS.jpg)
Mosun Belo-Olusoga. I am Tamramat: The Fruit of God’s Mercy, 2024, 247 pp.
“EVERYTHING HAPPENS IN accordance with God’s plan and just as ordained by Him. Our course in life is charted and guided by His plans. While things may not always go as we initially intended, with benefit of hindsight, we see the wisdom of it. Maybe if everything had happened the way I wanted; married early, had children early, I probably wouldn’t be as appreciative or as devout as I am today.
Being human, we can easily forget the role God plays when everything happens according to our expectations and plans. I’m not perfect, but I have a close relationship with God and I have a lot to be grateful to Him for.” (p. 235)
The foregoing excerpt from Mrs Mosun Belo-Olusoga’s autobiography, I am Tamramat:The Fruit of God’s Mercy, more or less summarizes the thematic focus of her reflections on her life and times, even if at 67, she is still young enough to have opportunities for further reflections in her journey of life, but within the space of 67 years so far, she offers in this book a very rich account of where she has been, how she has lived her life, the pains and the joys, the trauma and the thrill of that intensely personal, and unique journey. My immediate take is that she tells a good story, that is at once relatable, delivered in an unpretentious, convivial tone, that draws you into the narrative and compels the reader, willy-nilly to reflect on his or her own individual journey. Life after all is a journey, the only destination is death, but in-between that polarity is the stuff that defines our destiny, experience and impact. Mrs. Olusoga falls into the ranks of women in Nigeria and Africa today who literally and practically broke the limits and chains of gender, and displaced the glass ceiling to record a number of remarkable firsts that should be a source of inspiration to womankind. She has a story to tell, and it is brilliantly told.
Mrs Olusoga, or Aunty Mo as she is more popularly known to many, is the first female Executive Director of Guaranty Trust Bank (now GT Bank); first female Director and Chairman, Board of Access Bank, first female Director, Premium Pension, first African Director, Global Banking Alliance for Women in Banking (now Financial Alliance for Women); President, Equipment Leasing Association of Nigeria (ELAN); first female Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Olabisi Onabanjo University, and first co-chair, Women Corporate Directors, Nigerian Chapter. She is also a proud recipient of two Honorary Doctorate Degrees - in Finance from Crescent University and in Accounting from Al Hikman University. With this brief profile alone, she is without question in the same class as the Amazons of Africa who have proven the strength and value of the girl-child in a continent where patriarchy predominates and the girl-child was traditionally seen in many traditional communities as a material best fit for matrimony under a man’s control. Exposure to Western education had helped to knock the stands off the stools of patriarchy especially among the Yoruba of the South West of Nigeria where the author hails from, and parents learnt early to treat every child as equal and the girl-child as an individual with inalienable rights. Aunty Mo is not alone in this category. Nigeria is a country of remarkable Amazons whose footprints have endured over the years and the times: Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Mrs Margaret Ekpo, Hajia Gawaba Sambo and in more recent seasons, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr. Ibukun Awosika, Mrs Osaretin Demuren, Dr. Dere Awosika, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, and many who through their careers in the public space project a stronger narrative about the place of women in society.
This is why I consider Aunty Mo’s book, a motivational and inspirational book which must be read by all the young women out there who think that their main purpose in life is to “slay”, expose as much flesh as possible to attract rich men and live a life of comfort as “a kept woman”. The likes of Aunty Mo provide better case studies for the centering of womanhood in gender studies. It is possible to be a “Disco Baby” as she once was as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan where she got her first degree in Economics, Second Class Upper Category, and yet she went on to work at Coopers and Lybrand as an articled Accountant. There, she later qualified as a Chartered Accountant. She was winner of the first-place award for ICAN (Institute of Chartered Accountants) in the May 1983 set, and was also the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria (SWAN) Merit Award winner for the best graduating female student in that year. Her father, who was himself a Chartered Accountant, founder of Akanji Belo and Co, a firm of Chartered Accountants, was of course proud of his daughter! Her SWAN award was handed over to her by yet another distinguished woman of history, Mrs. Toyin Olakunrin, the first female Chartered Accountant in sub-Saharan Africa and the second female President of ICAN.
Aunty Mo sprinted forwards and faster, steadily and confidently. She would soon leave Coopers and Lybrand where she had worked since graduation as an auditor to go into banking. Her first stop was at Continental Merchant Bank -and here she quickly learned the ropes as a banker- Budget and Finance Department, Loans Syndication, Credit and Marketing. In 1990, she joined GT bank as a pioneer staff. The book assumes a different tone at this point where Aunty Mo talks about her experience at Continental Merchant Bank (CMB) and the “University of Guaranty Trust” as she refers to GT bank in the early days. This section of the book should be of interest to both males and females in any career whatsoever. Basically, in Chapters Three and Four, and in sequences, Aunty Mo narrates the story of her banking career before the rewards that came together in Chapter Eight which is instructively titled “Arriving At the Summit”. Between Chapters Three and Eight, the author shares the story of how she got to that summit. In this regard, one of my favourite quotes in this book is when she writes at page 138 that “In life you get what you put in”. And we see a clear demonstration of this in terms of what she put into her career as a banker. This book is not just about her as a person but the story of her career.
It is about GT bank majorly and also about Access Bank, and about all the persons who worked with her in all the departments either in Credit or Transaction Services, or on the boards where she ended up as Director or Chairman. It is a book about the building of institutions, even beyond banking. But banking is the core focus. GT Bank once decided: We must beat Citibank. “That year, we beat Citibank. We were the first bank to make one billion Naira profit in Nigeria.” (p. 85). Mrs Olusoga provides a Master Class on how to build institutions and sustain excellence. There are ample lessons here again for young persons seeking to build and excel in any career of their choice.
As Aunty Mo advised, at page 138 indeed, “in life you get what you put in”. This is an eternal law of nature. What a man sows he reaps. It is the same as well for businesses and careers. The author was so immersed in work and career, she almost forgot to marry. She had to be reminded again and again that she had been left behind on the shelf. Her youngest sister even got married 10 years before her. At one point she lived in Iyana Ipaja, and had to get to work by 6 am in Ikoyi. She would later move to Ilupeju, and go through the early commute from the Mainland to the Island. Even when she was given an official residence on the island, she had to stay behind in Ilupeju because her husband, by the way she finally left the shelf at the age of 36, did not like the idea of an official accommodation. She stood by her husband! She was right at the centre of the renaissance in the banking industry in Nigeria in the 1980s and yet privately, in her personal life, she had to play the balancing act between career and private life. There is yet another lesson here for younger women in her position who are enormously conflicted about how to strike that balance and juggle the balls, most of them curved balls, that life throws at the career-oriented woman. I would like to stress this personal tale.
Most women are under pressure to get married but Aunty Mo is clear-minded about this and it is better to quote her directly: “The pressure to get married became even more intense,” she writes. “People said all sorts of things…One of my uncles suggested I park my car for a while and commute by bus. “Maybe you will see somebody who will give you a lift”, he told me. It was absurd. If someone was intimidated by my car, would I forever play a role that wasn’t mine? I tell young people today not to shrink themselves to boost someone’s fragile ego. A lot of ladies say they don’t want to appear smart, intelligent, or beautiful, in order not to intimidate men. In choosing a life partner, one has to be careful and strategic. That’s the truth. A spouse has to be somebody who would support you and not feel insecure, even if you are earning more. I used to earn more than Ope. He was working with the Government and I was working with a bank…” Ope was her husband. He was a staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, Lagos State and a farmer. She was then an Assistant Manager at Continental Merchant Bank. They got married in July 1993. He died before their daughter, Nadirah was born, after a long, moving struggle with IVF.
This is also a book about family. Aunty Mo is a family person in both the nuclear and the extended sense. If you ever worked with her or grew up with her or crossed her path, and you didn’t get mentioned by her in this book, it simply means in the view of this reviewer that you did not make enough impression on her to be remembered. I should put that in context though. I mean within the time frame covered by the book, after all, hers is a living and continuing story. This review, in other words, is titled “Aunty Mo: Her Story” but this is also the story of other people, their connections with her and their humanity. Her siblings, cousins and nephews are all over the pages: her parents, uncles, family friends that became family, cousins as well as all the characters at every place where she worked, especially the ones that became family: Herbert Wigwe, Aig-Imokhuede and his wife, Ofovwe, Fola Adeola, Tayo Aderinokun. Chapter Five: “The Threads that Bind Me”, Chapter Six: “The Journeys That Ended”, and Chapter Nine: “The Fruit of God’s Mercy” are about the value of family. In Chapter Nine, the author narrates the story of how suddenly, shortly after the celebration of her 60th birthday, she came down with a condition known as TOXIC EPIDERMAL NECROLYSIS (TEN). She was in induced coma for four months and bedridden for close to a year and she received treatment for about two years. Her family stood up for her. The characters come alive: from LB to Funlade and his wife Chris, Aunty Oyinade, Sola, Mama J, Dr. K., Toki, Queen, Herbert and Aig. The sombre moments in the book are tear-inducing because of the sheer honesty and empathy of the experience. Aunty Mo’s life is a story of trials and triumphs.
And yet in this book, there are hearty moments for humour, wit, laughter and nostalgia that the reader can easily connect with. For example, at page 16, there is the Indian neighbour with the waggling head and spicy curry aroma, and at page 125, the author narrates the story of how a woman who had come to commiserate with the family at her mother’s funeral in Ijebu Ode consumed a three-course meal of eba, rice and ikokore. So she writes “…this was a woman who said my mother’s death was too bitter a pill for her to swallow. Had it not been that bitter, she probably would have swallowed more food. When we buried my father, it shocked me to realise that people could eat on such a sad occasion. When we were cooking and making provision for over a thousand guests, I believed nobody would eat. But the food was exhausted!” People ate despite being sad!” The author’s parents died decades ago. These days, families have to engage security agents to secure food items at funerals out of fear that hoodlums could storm the venue and make way with food meant for guests. Nigeria has now changed so much that at funeral parties, guests could be seen with take away packs, struggling to steal extra food. It is indeed not difficult to see how much society has changed. As a young woman, Aunty Mo grew up in a society where a woman could drive safely around the city, or trek from one village to another without fear of being molested. There was no kidnapping. In those days also, families sent their children to live with other families. Today, Nigerians have lost that sense of community. In those days, it was not a big deal to go and study abroad because Nigerian schools and universities were as good as any other in the world. When she graduated from University in those days, employers of labour were waiting to recruit fresh graduates. Most Nigerian university graduates are on the roads today in search of jobs that do not exist.
Aunty Mo writes about projects that are dear to her heart, her life joys: she is the founder of a training consultancy - the Knowledge and Resource Centre Limited (KRC) and the secondary school she has established along the Benin-Ijebu Ode Expressway, the City of Knowledge Academy (CKA) which is building a young generation of future achievers with the ethical pillars of Culture, Character and Confidence. She also writes about her daughter, Nadirah but she is clearly maternalistic and preachy, the conservative, old-school mummy that she is, trying to cope with inter-generational differences. A good book overall, eminently readable and instructive, even though there are loud moments of silence that the author covers up. There are also a number of editorial errors as the book progresses. The publisher also forgot to insert an identity imprint nor an ISBN number. These are oversights that should be corrected in a future reprint. Nonetheless, a brilliantly written memoir, recommended enthusiastically for general reading.
![[OPINION] Tinubu’s Cabinet Reshuffle And Other Stories - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/1c295e320c7f3143c4a29eafc442d784_XS.jpg?t=20241029_152336)
“Bros how you dey oh”
“Omo, body still dey inside cloth. We dey push am.”
How for do? Man no die, man no leave one place, all of us just dey.”
“God works in mysterious ways.”
“But how you come take this their cabinet reshuffle?”
“Underwhelming. An anti-climax. What is all the noise about? I can’t see it.”
“Which noise?”
“The President had announced the cabinet reshuffle a month ago. Then he travelled abroad and we were told he didn’t want to be put under pressure by anybody. Then he returns from England and France and he says, he is announcing eight key actions to boost efficiency. I don’t see what he has done that will increase any efficiency.”
“The Ministry of the Niger Delta is now a Ministry of Regional Development. That is something in case you are looking for something.”
“Just a bloated bureaucracy. The Ministry of Niger Delta caters to the interest of the oil producing states which stretch beyond the South South. It includes states like Imo, Abia and Ondo. How about the people of the North Central. They have HYPADEC but that is a development Commission focusing on hydro power. The North East Development Commission is targeted at banditry. I don’t see a convergence. What I see is confusion. I can’t see light or sense in the decision.”
“Maybe you will see sense then in the merger of the Ministry of Tourism with the Ministry of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.”
“No. I do not either. The Ministry of Tourism is so important. It should stand on its own. We may have had a Minister who could not rise to the occasion, but what is the point, subordinating the Ministry to another Ministry that already has its hands full.”
“Come off it. Tourism is not that strategic.”
“You say? Oh my. Oh my. Can you just listen to yourself? Are you aware that some countries depend on tourism for revenue? People visit countries like France, Spain, United States, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, the UK, Greece, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Japan, China, Maldives, United Arab Emirates because those countries have something to offer. The number of people who visit your country is a measure of how welcoming, attractive, risk-averse your country is. In Spain, tourism is such a major part of the local economy that the locals in cities like San Sebastian are even protesting that tourists should stay away from their city. They are complaining about over-tourism. The people of Canary Islands are also protesting. They say tourists are pushing up rentals, pricing out locals. Residents in Italy and Greece have also taken to the streets. In a year, about 90 million people visit Spain. Over a 100 million visit France. The potential in that industry is so huge, there was no point merging the Ministry with another one. The President doesn’t get it. I wonder who advised him on that course of action.”
“The statement that they issued was signed by the Presidency. No name. No date. Who is the Presidency? Too many flip flops.”
“Imagine that.”
“They have also gone back to the old days of the National Sports Commission by scrapping the Ministry of Sports.”
Now, I don’t get it. I don’t get it because I thought John Enoh was doing a good job as Minister of Sports. He came across as a very enthusiastic man. Now they have demoted him, making him the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment.”
“He would be working with someone that I think knows her subject though. Dr Jumoke Oduwole has a significant and relevant experience having served previously as a Special Adviser to the President on PEBEC, ease of doing business and Investment Law. Her experience and expertise combined with Enoh’s energy and enthusiasm, if they can forge a good working relationship, may help.”
“But as for the man in the Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, he is basically a football person. We need to grow the sports sector beyond football, and develop other sports. Does he have a broad view of the assignment? Already his colleagues in Football House are already saying the appointment is for them, not just one man. My view is that there is so much potential in sports that Nigeria can develop, beyond the obsession with football.”
“By the way, your friend Sunday Dare is back. He is now Special Adviser to the President on Public Communication and Orientation.”
“Meaning what? They say he is going to be in the Ministry of Information, not the Presidency. To do what exactly in the Ministry? The Ministry already has a Director-General of the National Orientation Agency. There is a Minister. It would have been best to name Dare Minister of State, to give him a leverage instead of hanging him afloat between the Ministry and the Presidency”.
“I want to think the President knows what he is doing. It is his prerogative to hire and fire. The discretion is his. He can delegate as he wishes.”
“Is that why he has Yorubas all over the place in all the important positions? It is his right to run a government as he deems fit. But it is also our right to talk. Nobody can stop us from talking.”
“Yes. You have been talking and talking. What difference has your talk, talk ever made? Talk. Keep talking. Are you aware that this cabinet reshuffle was based on a review of performance of the Ministers by the Central Delivery Co-ordination Unit led by Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman? The reshuffle is based on empirical facts and findings”
“That is a lie. Have you seen the report by Hadiza Bala-Usman?”
“No.”
“So, why would you or anyone jump to the conclusion that the President followed her recommendations? I don’t think so. The President sacks five Ministers, appoints seven new ones, and redeploys 10 Ministers. He used to have 45 Ministers, now he has ended up with 48, with four from Ogun State alone!”
“His prerogative sir!”
“Stop saying it is his prerogative. Is that a new word you just learnt? We are all in this together. This is a democracy, and the last time I checked we have the right to talk. The President removed the Minister of Women Affairs. Okay, I agree, the woman was very controversial, but very loyal. She must be grateful she was made a Minister in the first place. Lola Ade-John, Jamila Bio Ibrahim, and Abdullahi Gwarzo – those ones left the same way they came quietly. But why would the President remove a man like Tahir Mamman, former Vice Chancellor, former DG of the Nigerian Law School and replace him with a medical doctor from Lagos State. I know they say Dr. Alausa is also a university person, but what is Professor Tahir Mamman’s offence”
“I can only think of two things. He was Vice Chancellor of a university belonging to the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections. He has also been very controversial with all this talk about age eligibility for university admissions. That is one policy that will be scrapped, you will see, because it only hurts people from the South.”
“There are many other Ministers that Nigerians would have preferred to be turned adrift from the cabinet. The Ministers in critical positions should have been sent away. You are talking about controversy. Wike is the most controversial person in that cabinet. The President could have scored a goal by going for the big ones to signal a change of direction. He sacks the easy ones, and tells us about “eight key actions”. I beg.”
“Mr. Bayo Onanuga has said in one television interview that the cabinet reshuffle reflects the feelings and opinions of Nigerians.”
“That is, again, a lie. I don’t know anybody who thinks this goes far enough or that it is any important message. No. I insist. No”
“I think the President is going somewhere. For all you know, he may be testing waters. If he wakes up two months down the line and he says he wants to change the cabinet again, can anyone query him? The answer is No.”
“The Senate can reject his nominees”
“Which Senate? This 10th National Assembly will rubber stamp anything President Bola Tinubu brings to them. I can bet on that.”
“There you are!”
“But I am still convinced that this President is going somewhere that we may not know yet. He has just for example said no Minister should go about with more than three official vehicles and five security details.”
“That is like saying nothing. In 2003, the Obasanjo administration introduced a monetization policy to cover vehicle loans, domestic staff, accommodation – the whole range. I am not aware that the policy has been abrogated. Under President Jonathan, no Minister used more than three cars by the way. How? Why? But today, Ministers use sirens and fly flags in what is clearly a break-down of law and order.”
“One by one, President Tinubu will get there”
“Oh yes, by the time we have all lost flesh. The government keeps getting fatter, we are asked to make sacrifices and be patient. What stops the President from reducing his cabinet to a team of just 16 persons? I don’t even know the names of most of the Ministers because they have done nothing, said nothing, and yet they enjoy privileges. I even hear that some people are saying a new aircraft should be bought for the Vice President.”
“Poor fellow. I heard he could not go to the Commonwealth Summit because his aircraft had an incident in JFK Airport in New York. The President has bought an aircraft for himself. The Navy has bought a yacht. They should buy something for the VP too.”
“Now you are talking from both sides of the mouth. And you know I do not like hypocrisy.”
“So, what do you want me to say? The Speaker of the Borno House of Assembly says the life of the VP is at risk, because his aircraft is bad. Why should the VP travel about in a faulty aircraft?”
“He can travel commercial”
“Hen hen. Just don’t play Ngbati politics with me. Your Yoruba brother can enjoy luxury, but the Borrno man should manage. This is the problem with us in this country.””
“The problem with all Nigerians is that we tend to see everything form an ethnic or personal angle. This is why an Asari Dokubo would have the guts to say that President Tinubu has disappointed him. What does he want? Him too wan be Minister?”
“I am sorry, you are losing me. I don’t want to talk about Asari Dokubo, Bobrisky, Very Dark Man or this musician, what do they call him? Portable.”
“It pains me though that Nigeria was not at the Commonwealth Summit in Samoa. I know we sent the Minister of Environment but the VP would have been a better fit to speak on the key issues of climate change and reparations.”
“Your Minister of Environment is one of those persons that I think are sleep-walking through this administration. I have seen the Vice President in action before. He is smarter, far more intelligent than most of the Ministers. Well read. Suave. Good choice. But as for the Ministers, I beg”
“What a world we live in? Who would have thought the subject of reparation would come back on the table? I recall that this was Chief MKO Abiola’s project, he wanted the injustice of the British Empire to be addressed. Now the Caribbean countries are saying yes, this is the way to go.”
“Don’t mind the British. They have forgotten that in 1833, the same Britain paid reparations for the slave trade between the 15thand 19th Centuries, but now in 2024, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer and King Charles III are now saying we should talk about the past, but we should focus on the future. No reparations. No apologies. And Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, says there is no money to give anybody but Britain can offer reparatory justice. Justice as they would define it.”
“Can you blame them? The Labour Party in Britain is at this moment trying to prevent austerity, by seeking ways to plug a black hole of about 22 billion pounds, cut public sector spending, raise taxes including National Insurance, and reform the NHS. Not the right time to pay reparations and they won’t. Tomorrow, Rachel Reeves will unveil the Starmer administration’s budget. I miss MKO”
“MKO is our man oh. He fought for reparation. It is good to see that his idea lives. All the former British colonies in the South Pacific, Australia and CARICOM are calling for reparations. Last week in Canberra, Australia, the King was booed at the House of Parliament by Senator Linda Thorpe, an indigenous, First Nation lawmaker who screamed - You are Not my King!”
“I am sure we will hear more, particularly now that an African is the new Secretary General of the Commonwealth. Shirley Botchwey, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration. She follows in the footsteps of Nigeria’s Chief Emeka Anyaoku.”
“Great man. Great. Unfortunately, the Tinubu administration is not grooming or appointing new diplomats. It has been more than a year since Nigeria recalled its ambassadors from all over the world. They are yet to be replaced. Why? A government that says it is interested in global investments should have ambassadors all over the world. Why not? The world is changing, re-aligning, look at BRICS. India, Russia, China. Where is Nigeria?”
“I think our President will get round to things.”
“Let him buckle up. Your man should wake up.”
“You know I am more optimistic than you. What if the President wakes up tomorrow and he decides to shake up the Departments and Agencies. These are the real drivers of government. He can shake things up, so radically you would almost apologize for all your critical words.”
“Forget apology. We are just saying the President should learn to do what is right at the right time, the right way and manner.That is the way forward.”
“I see. I see. I get it. But we will see”.
![[OPINION] Between The States And EFCC & Ors. - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/bbeb5bf478448190c3b86a73d723fcc4_XS.jpg?t=20241022_043431)
Today, October 22, is the day that has been set aside by the Supreme Court of Nigeria for the hearing and the consolidation of the suit brought before the Court in the matter between 16 states of the Federation and the Attorney General of the Federation to determine the legality or otherwise, to wit the constitutionality or otherwise also, of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Proceeds of Crimes Act. The suit originally filed by the AG Kogi State- SC/CV/178/2023 - has now been joined by 15 other states. Out of these, 13 are expressly questioning the legality of the EFCC and similar anti-graft agencies, and they are asking the Supreme Court to nullify all such commissions created outside the province of Constitutional provisions. Two states – Ogun and Cross River States are challenging the assumed powers of the NFIU to dictate how much states can withdraw or control with regard to funds appropriated by the House of Assembly. The co-plaintiffs and those who seek consolidation will appear today before a seven-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji. This is an interesting development, with regard to the public interest law dimension of the case, and the response from the public and stakeholders have been robust, plus the fact that the enabling framework for public institutions and the Constitution itself end up being strengthened when they are tested and interpreted in the courts.
The issues in this case can be easily summarized as follows. One, the plaintiffs argue that the EFCC Act is unconstitutional. It is a product of a United Nations Convention against corruption, and was not ratified in accordance with Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Section 12 of the Constitution says no treaty can have the force of law in Nigeria until it is ratified by a majority of all the Houses of Assembly in the Federation. The states argue that the EFCC Act cannot be applied to them because they were not party to it. They argue that the agencies lack the powers and the authority to investigate and prosecute matters related to the misappropriation of public funds. They cite Joseph Nwobike vs FRN as the authority to back up their claim. The Defendant, the Attorney General of the Federation argues that the concurrence of the states as stakeholders was not necessary to make the EFCC Act valid. Two, at least three states argue that the NFIU cannot investigate, requisition documents, arrest, or invite anyone with regard to how the states manage funds. Three, the states insist that they have the right to establish their own anti-graft agencies and not be answerable to any federal agency since this is a Federation.
The case has generated considerable interest from both lawyers and non-lawyers alike with everyone trying not to pre-empt the Supreme Court. But the point has been well made that this is not the first time that the legality of the EFCC, and the NFIU et al. has been raised and that there are precedents. Analysts have cited the cases of Olafisoye v. FRN (2004) where the court upheld the powers of the anti-corruption agencies to do their work, and AG Ondo State v. AG Federation (2002) where the court ruled that the National Assembly has the powers to legislate on corruption related matters with regard to Section 15(5) of the 1999 Constitution, and Section 4(2). In Olafisoye’s case, the Supreme Court ruled that the National Assembly has the exclusive powers to legislate over corruption matters which would seem to nullify the claim by the states that they would rather establish their own anti-graft agencies. The objection to the NFIU is rooted in the desperate attempts by the states to control local government funds and defeat the goals of financial autonomy for local councils. In 2019, the state governments had a running battle with the NFIU which had given a directive that no state government must touch funds meant for the local councils. The NFIU gave specific guidelines that the states should transfer funds meant for the councils accordingly and that withdrawal from the same account by the local councils must not exceed N500, 000 per day. Withdrawals must also be duly reported to the NFIU. The Governors insisted that the states-local councils joint account is a creation of the constitution and it was wrong to describe the local government system as a third tier of government. The Nigerian Governors Forum sued the FG and NFIU. In 2022, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja ruled in favour of the defendants. Again in 2024, the Supreme Court further affirmed the financial autonomy of the country’s 774 local governments. It is therefore not surprising that the states and the Governors who have turned the local councils into mere appendages are now also approaching the Supreme Court. In both major issues, the plaintiffs seem to have found a loophole in the enabling acts of the anti-graft agencies which they hope to put through the furnace of judicial test.
Two legal luminaries, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria – Dr. Olisa Agbakoba and Mr. Femi Falana have offered their perspectives on the subject. Agbakoba, in separate letters titled “Re: Urgent Legislative Attention on Constitutional Reforms Relating to Law Enforcement Agencies and Anti-Corruption Efforts” written to the Senate and the House of Representatives, without holding brief for the state governments, submitted that the EFCC was “unconstitutionally established” and hence, “an unlawful organization”. He said the National Assembly acted ultra vires, simply exceeded its authority under Section 4 of the Constitution, and that is why the states are challenging the validity of the EFCC. Agbakoba SAN made specific demands: (a) that the enabling framework setting up the EFCC has to be reviewed because the EFCC appears to be working at cross-purposes with the Nigeria Police Force; (b) that the National Assembly should organize a public hearing to consider constitutional issues to discuss needed reforms in line with section 13 of the Constitution; (c) that the National Assembly should reform the EFCC by clearly defining its mandate to prevent future abuses. When he appeared on Arise News flagship programme, The Morning Show, Agbakoba went a step further, by reminding everyone that the EFCC legislation was passed in two days in 2003- the fastest legislation ever passed in Nigeria (!), and many mistakes were made. He wants the mistakes in the EFCC Act reviewed. But the high point of the interview was when Dr. Agbakoba, saying the EFCC has not been effective, railed: “These guys are terrorists; in my view they terrorize us; they use their might in their red coats to terrorize us. Once you say EFCC, you are scared. That is not what a law enforcement agency should be. They ought to be better.”
Femi Falana SAN, disagrees with some of the points raised by his brother Silk. He has also written his own separate letters to the Senate and the House of Representatives to counter Agbakoba’s submissions. He said that contrary to Agbakoba’s claim, the Supreme Court has consistently supported the ICPC and the EFCC (Nyame vs. FRN; AG Ondo vs. AG Federation); and that no illegality can be established with regard to claims about violations of the principles of federalism (Olafisoye vs FRN). Falana further contends that it is the duty of the state to “abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power” and that the EFCC is a common agency with constitutional authority. He deplores the attempt by the state governments to frustrate the prosecution of public officers. Falana’s main conclusion is that the National Assembly should entrench the legality of the EFCC and ICPC in the Constitution as part of the ongoing Constitution amendment process – a point to which Agbakoba says he concurs.
Having thus raised the facts of the case, the issues involved, rules as established in precedents, and expert opinions of senior counsel, it remains for us to await the ruling of the Supreme Court exercising its original and inherent jurisdictions in what is clearly a matter of public policy. Despite the precedents that have been quoted, it is up to the Justices of the apex court to either affirm or reverse themselves. Nonetheless, certain conclusions can be reached.
It must be remembered that in 2003, Nigeria was heavily in debt to the tune of about US$35. 9 billion. The Obasanjo administration embarked on the historic and important mission of getting debt relief for the country. The country was spending more on interest payments for its debt, with debt to GDP ratio at about 58%. Nigeria needed help and President Obasanjo was committed to getting help to rescue the country. In October 2000, the Obasanjo administration established the Debt Management Office (DMO). The country’s efforts to secure debt relief soon met a brickwall, when the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey-listed Nigeria along with 22 other countries, that is countries that could not combat financial crimes like corruption and money laundering as well as terrorism financing. To make progress the Nigerian government had to set up anti-corruption agencies - the EFCC and the ICPC. Both bodies were products of expediency, but the outcomes were pleasant. In October 2005, Nigeria and the Paris Club reached a final agreement of $18 billon debt relief and reduction of Nigeria’s debt stock by $30 billion. About 18 years later, it is most unfortunate that Nigeria’s external debt has since crossed the $41 billion mark! The country is back in the debt trap. In the intervening years, the EFCC traced about N776 billion fraud cases, stolen only by public officials. In 2024 alone, this year, the EFCC has secured 3, 175 convictions and recovered N156 billion.
So, is this a case of corruption fighting back? Dele Oyewale, EFCC spokesperson claims that there is a push-back against the EFCC because it has been so effective. We must note the concern that has been expressed however that the EFCC has been too histrionic in its efforts and selective in its operations creating the impression that it can be used as a tool of political witch-hunt by whoever is in power at the centre. Some past Governors are shielded from prosecution while some others are specially targeted. What the EFCC requires is to be seen to be fair to all parties concerned and be above board. Fairness is at the heart of any justice administration process. This is what Agbakoba SAN alludes to when he dismisses the EFCC as a terror organization. The National Assembly has been accused of not following due process in establishing the EFCC, but even if that were established, would that render all acts by the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies a nullity? Under the doctrine of covering the field, the validity of the exercise of the National Assembly’s powers under Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution can be upheld. The state has a responsibility to check corruption, and over the years, we have seen the ingenuity of Nigerians in both public and private places to take what is not theirs. The closer many Nigerians get to the proverbial national cake, the more covetous they become. Agbakoba says “once you say EFCC, you are scared”. Well, the situation is so bad, somebody needs to scare Nigerians. Even with the best efforts of the various anti-graft agencies, Nigeria has consistently ranked poorly on the Global Transparency Index. The country grapples with a worsening reputational damage.
We should therefore not throw the baby away with the bath water. Nigeria needs the anti-graft agencies now more than the country did in 2003. Indeed, in February 2023, the FATF added Nigeria again to the list of countries that have been grey-listed. The country is required to implement an action plan comprising 19 items before May 2025 to avoid the certain prospect of moving from “the Grey List” to the “Black List.” This certainly is not the best of times for Nigeria to start talking about nullifying its anti-graft agencies. Perhaps, the better option lies in the middle ground between Agbakoba and Falana.
Agbakoba is right when he says the EFCC is in urgent need of reform. The agency must be seen to be acting always within the ambits of the law. In recent times, EFCC officials showed too much overzealousness, exposing the institution to public ridicule and the derision of the persons they had declared wanted. For example, the former Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello who had been declared wanted by the EFCC showed up at the EFCC headquarters only to be told by the people who had declared him wanted locally and internationally to go back home. Then, in the evening of the same day, they went hunting for him, shooting in the air, and terrorizing the public. Just in case there are too many people in the EFCC who are addicts of Hollywood and Nollywood films, they should be re-directed to where they can make the best use of their talents. Such persons tend to turn EFCC operations into movie-like engagements. Nollywood is a fast-growing industry that can accommodate more talents. The EFCC should stay firmly on the path of professionalism.
Both Falana and Agbakoba agree that there is a need to “constitutionalize” the EFCC. This is important. Whatever grey areas may exist in the enabling acts of the anti-graft agencies can be corrected through amendments to constitutional provisions and the acts. The EFCC, ICPC, NFIU should see the latest development not as evidence that they are working so that is why they are being resisted. This should be an opportunity for soul-searching and reflection, and a re-dedication to core organizational goals and objectives. Nigerians are calling for the abolition of the agencies because of shortcomings that they have observed. EFCC officials are known, for example, for engaging in all kinds of tactics. At a point, the EFCC Chairman himself had to complain that there are corrupt elements in the EFCC. Going forward, EFCC officials must be made to declare their assets. People fighting corruption must not be seen to be living above their means. Many Nigerians wonder why anti-corruption agents become so rich. This was how the police lost the trust of the public. EFCC officials must focus on their core task of fighting financial and economic crimes. They should not allow themselves to be used as debt recovery agents looking for commissions. They must stop media trial. They must stop supporting politicians as they were accused of doing in the last general elections. There is a Manual on operational guidelines for the EFCC prepared by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. They must abide by those guidelines, and resist the temptation to become an organization where anything goes. The EFCC needs its own ombudsman to make it more professional, ethical and law-abiding.
![[OPINION] Tinubu, Paul Biya And Birthday Tributes - Reuben Abati](/media/k2/items/cache/38ad1940cea313778830d7e30d456bdf_XS.jpg?t=20241015_133620)
“Bros, na wah for you oh. How person go dey call you, you no go pick call?”
“A beg. My head no straight these days.”
“Are you okay? You sick?”
“I sick. I sick well, well, well.”
What is the matter? And your wife could not call family? These women! What is going on?”
“I sick oh. Because my salary can no longer take me home. Nobody is increasing salaries. They don’t even pay as at when due anymore. When I buy fuel, the thing evaporates in 24 hours. My heart is perpetually pumping up and down. My body aches. And Madam is putting me under pressure that we have not yet paid the children’s school fees. I am sick. I can feel it in my bones. Have you not noticed that the fuel we buy these days simply evaporates?
“My brother. Bros. Na wah.”
“Tell me where are we going in this country?”
“President Tinubu and his wife are certain that we are going somewhere that is good. Mrs. Tinubu made the point the other day that we, Nigerians are not seeing what the Lord is doing and that in two years, we will all see the truth.”
“Like Saul who became Paul on the road to Damascus. I beg. Let nobody deceive me. Na hungry I hungry, I am not blind oh. I can see what is going on in Nigeria. What is the Lord doing in Nigeria that Mrs. Tinubu is talking about? She goes to Ife, visits her alma mater, Obafemi Awolowo University and donates one billion Naira. What does she do for a living? Where did she get the money from? And then she says we, Nigerians must learn to work hard. Oh. Oh. These people. So, I don’t have one billion Naira because I am lazy? And then on top of it all, the Ooni of Ife erects a fake gold statue in her honour. Rochas Okorocha Iberiberism in Ife! And I am here, looking for quality fuel. This country is not okay, I swear.”
“E lo fokan bale. I believe that everything will be okay. President Tinubu is working on it. He is on a working vacation. From England to France. As a Christian, I believe that you will soon see what the Lord is doing.”
“I can see what is going on. We must stop blackmailing God in this matter. I can see that the leaders of Nigeria do not care enough about us. They are going about in luxury jets, SUVs, yachts, and Nigerians are told to work harder and be patient. It is the slave master’s logic. And the President says he is on a working vacation. Okay, what working vacation? It is either you are on vacation which is legitimate, perfectly legitimate. But you are working and you are on vacation? What an oxymoron! And Mrs. Tinubu gets a statue in Ile Ife? As what?” Tell me.”
“As our wife. First Lady. Mother of the Nation. Yoruba wife.”
“I have told you. We are not okay in this country.”
“But I disagree with you that the President cannot go on a working vacation? Mr. Bayo Onanuga has made it clear that the President can run this country from anywhere on the planet. If he so wishes he can leave France and go to Australia and stay there till the end of the year.”
“No. No. No. I disagree. Number One. Why must he always go to Britain and France? Number Two. It is not true that he can stay away from Nigeria for as long as he likes. Sections 145 and 146 of the 1999 Constitution are very clear. If he is going to be away due to vacation or incapacitation, he is required by the Constitution to hand over to his Deputy. Did he hand over to the Vice President? Did he inform the National Assembly? He just carried his bags and said he was going on a working vacation? President Tinubu is undermining the Nigerian Constitution.”
“It is his prerogative. He is President. He can delegate as he wishes. The Nigerian President is a monarch. That is the truth.”
“They say he is on a working vacation. I want to know what work he has done. He had to leave Britain just when that country was hosting business leaders from every part of the world to discuss the future of investment and Britain’s economic growth. It would have been a great networking opportunity for Nigeria. But our President left.”
“Again. You miss the point. The International Investment Summit in Central London was strictly by invitation. Elon Musk who wanted to be at the Summit, so desperately, was not invited. Other leaders in the world were not invited. The Summit is not a gathering of the tribes and former colonies.”
“Okay I get the point. Nigeria was not considered important enough. So what work did President Tinubu do or that you know that he did during this working vacation? Nigerians have the right to know”
“No. You cannot order the President around. He is not your prisoner. He is a monarch. Get that straight. Why do Nigerians think that because this is a democracy, they can order the President and his wife around anyhow? What is wrong with us? In fact, we should count ourselves lucky. The people of Cameroon have just been told that it is a breach of national security to talk about the whereabouts of President Paul Biya. Biya was last seen in September when he appeared on television at a function in Beijing. He is 91 years old. He has been ruling Cameroon for more than 41 years, the second longest ruling monarch after Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. Tinubu is just two years on the throne, you are looking for him. Come on man, he is still better than Paul Biya. I dare say he is even better than President Buhari who spent a total of more than a year outside the country.”
“And is that good for Nigeria? I ask. Answer. Is that how anybody should run a serious country?”
“Don’t worry yourself, Nigeria will survive. We will always survive. President Tinubu told us, have you forgotten? E lo fokan bale.”
“I have my doubts. I am anxious. Which fokan bale is that? Very soon men will lose their wives because they will no longer be men at home. Wives will give up their husbands and homes will be ruined.”
“Be patient bro. Two years.”
“Two years, with this hardship?”
“Something will come up. Naija no dey carry last. Our God will never forsake us.”
“Will you stop that crap? Let the Pastors say that on Sunday to their congregations. All these Pastors who ride limousines and private jets and they preach hope to their poorly-fed church members.”
“Touch not my anointed. Thou shall not speak ill of the people of God.”.
“Very soon, I will stop going to Church. No more paying of tithes. I will use the money to buy fuel and food. The Pastors are still telling people Nigeria go better because people still go to their churches. When people stop showing up, then they will know that something has gone wrong with Nigeria.”
“People will always go to church. The Pastors preach hope. Hope keeps us alive.”
“Go and mark my words. Nigeria is heading to a crossroads where hope will no longer show the way, hope without purpose and direction means nothing. The road called hope must be paved with clear targets. Please where are we?”
“As we speak, I am on my lunch break at work, munching on something, thinking aloud with you”
“I am angry”
“I believe. I hope that tomorrow is another day. Nigeria always survives. We can’t go on like this, yes. Something may change the course of our history. Look at Guyana, a country of 800, 000 people. As of 2009, that country was famous for eco-tourism and its rain forests. In 2015, Exxon Mobil found oil in large quantities in its coastal waters. Today, Guyana, a former British colony way back in 1796, is now an oil rich country, so rich the Prime Minister is promising people free money and free opportunities, the country’s colonial architecture is giving way to glass sealed buildings. It is a new day in Guyana. The Lord that did it for them in that country can do it also for us in Nigeria”
“Bad example. Bad comparison. Nigeria already travelled through that road before. We found oil and the country scattered. What has oil brought us? It has brought to a point where we cannot even refine our fuel. Something that flows in some people’s father’s backyards. It has brought us to a point where a man from a state where there is no crude oil is now the one refining fuel for Nigeria making all the people who boast about our oil, na my papa get am, look truly stupid.”
“That is life. You can have something, talk about it and not know what to do with it. God has a hand in it. He will then bring somebody who can do it.”
“You always talk back and forth, here and there. I do not know what your people are doing.”
“Which my people? I don’t know them oh. I am just trying to be a good person?”
“You are a PDP man then?”
“Which PDP? Those ones that will fight from now till 2028. They will wake up after the 2027 elections have been won and lost”
“Are you cursing the PDP? The main opposition party in the country?”
“Let me quote Daniel Bwala jare. Kokoro ti n je efo, inu efo lo wa? The maggot that is spoiling the vegetable is inside the vegetable. Do you get it?”
“I get it. No hope for the APC either. Things are so bad even Libya is now insulting Nigeria, in football.”