The National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday dismissed three petitions filed by aggrieved candidates to challenge the outcome of the National Assembly elections held on February 25,2023.

The tribunal in a judgement dismissed the petition filed by Senator Biodun Olujimi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the election of Senator Yemi Adaramodu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti South senatorial district.

It also dismissed the petitions filed against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by Engr Dare Bankole, a candidate of PDP in Ekiti/Oke-Ero/Irepodun/Isin Federal Constituency of the House of Representatives in the election as well as another petition filed by the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) on election into Ifelodun/Offa/Oyun Federal Constituency of Kwara state.

Delivering judgment on the petition filed by Senator Olujimi, Justice J.O. Abdulmalik ruled that there was no malpractice and over voting in the election as alleged in Olujimi’s petition.

“The petitioner failed to prove his case that there was corruption and over voting in the Ekiti douth senatorial district election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission on February 25,2023,” the tribunal held.

It awarded a cost of N300,000 against the petitioner which Justice AbdulMalik said should be paid to the three respondents who included INEC, Adaramodu and APC.

On the petition filed by Dare Bankole against INEC on the election into Ekiti/Oke-Ero/Irepodun/Isin Federal Constituency of Kwara state, Justice Abdulmalik dismissed the petition and awarded cost of N600,000 against the petitioner which she said should be paid to the respondents who included INEC, Hon Raheem Ajuloopin and the APC.

Bankole had challenged the results of the election conducted in the Constituency on February 25,2023 alleging non compliance with the 2022 Electoral Act and malpractices during the conduct of the election.

The tribunal held that the petitioner failed to prove his case before it.

Reading another judgment delivered by the tribunal, Chief Magistrate Izabi Bashir also dismissed a petition filed by the NNPP on the election conducted into Ifelodun/Offa/Oyun Federal Constituency on February 25,2023.

The Petitioner had alleged non compliance with the Electoral Act and corrupt practices in the election by the APC and it candidate, Hon Tijani Bashir.

The tribunal ordered the petitioner to pay a fine of N200,000 to each of the three respondents.

Dangote Cement has clarified the allegation that it is selling a bag of 50kg cement to Nigerians at an exploitative rate of N5,200 while it sells the same quantity of cement at N1,500 in the Republic of Benin was not true.

Investigation in Cotonou at the weekend revealed that Dangote Cement was not on sale in Cotonou or anywhere in the Republic of Benin. While Dangote does not officially export cement to Benin Republic, it only uses the country as its transit route to export cement to Togo.

It was discovered that the average price of 50kg (32.5r) bag of cement in the Benin Republic was N6,216, which was about 4,200 Cefa).

The two strongest determinants of the price of cement in the Republic of Benin, according to THISDAY’s findings, were the fixing of cement’s price by the country’s government to ensure stability and the imposition of about 51 per cent duty and other taxes on imported cement to discourage importation of the commodity and encourage local production of cement.

An online publication had published a story on August 27, 2023, in which it had stated that, “Nigerians have taken to social media to call out billionaire Aliko Dangote for selling his bag of cement for N5,200 in his own country but selling at N1,500 in Benin Republic.”

However, a Cotonou-based chief executive officer of Marketing Challenge Agency (MCA), Mr. Dia Ibrahim Kola said that the government of the Republic of Benin was striving to maintain a stable price of cement in the country through a price regulation regime instead of subsidising its supply.

He said the country’s policy was to discourage importation of cement and encourage its local production with high import duty and taxes for cements that do not qualify under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS).

“We have about four cement manufacturers, including Lafarge and others. The government has a fixed price and often sends a taskforce to monitor compliance, especially in Cotonou.

“But it is important to emphasise that the government does not subsidise the price of cement in Benin.

There was a period of high scarcity that the price went up to CFA 100,000 per tonne, which forced the government to intervene to stabilise the market,” he said.

However, the management of Dangote Cement clarified that the price of a bag of cement from its factories across Nigeria as at August 28, 2023, was N4,010 (about 2,730 Cefa) in Okpella and N4,640 (about 3,135 Cefa) in Ibese, Objana, and Gboko. It added that transportation costs and the location of delivery, might cause the prices to hover between N5,000 and N5,300 per bag 50kg.

Group managing director of Dangote Cement, Mr. Arvind Pathak, advised that, it was important to distinguish Dangote Cement’s ex-factory prices from prices at which retailers sell cement in the market.

Pathak said Dangote Cement was focused on delivering quality cement at the best price possible, despite the current inflationary environment.

“We continue to innovate new ways to deliver quality products to millions of our customers across Africa, while providing top-notch customer services. At Dangote Cement, we are committed to building an inclusive and sustainable business for all stakeholders across the value chain,” he said.

IGP Olukayode Egbetokun, the interim Inspector-General of Police (IGP), has ordered the transfer of seven Deputy Inspectors General of Police (DIGs) to other departments.

The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said this in a statement.

To lead the Department of Finance and Administration, DIG Frank Emeka Mba, DIG Habu A. Sani, and the Force Intelligence Bureau, respectively, DIG Bala Ciroma, DIG Frank Emeka Mba, and DIG Habu A. Sani have all been redeployed.

The police stated that the development came about as a result of the Police Service Commission (PSC) elevating worthy individuals to the level of Deputy Inspectors-General of Police.

Others are DIG Usman D. Nagogo to Department of Logistics and Supply, DIG Daniel Sokari-Pedro, to Department of Information and Communication Technology, DIG Ibrahim Sani Ka’oje, to Department of Research and Planning, and DIG Ede Ayuba Ekpeji to head the Department of Operations.

Egbetokun also approved the posting of the following Assistant Inspectors-General of Police to the following Commands and Formations as indicated against their names: “AIG Oladimeji Yomi Olanrewaju has been posted as the Force Secretary, AIG Yekini Adio Ayoku, mni to head the Police Mobile Force, AIG Idris Dabban Dauda, fdc, to Zone 16 Yenagoa, AIG Oyediran Adesoye Oyeyemi, fsi, to head the Police Cooperative, and AIG Benjamin Okolo Nebeolisa, fdc, to AIG Department of ICT.

“Furthermore, the IGP charges the newly posted and redeployed senior officers to entrench professionalism in their respective Departments, Commands, and Formations while prioritizing human security and people-centric policing services.”

Nigerians are a troublesome lot. They harass the government for biting inflation, complain about Nyesom Wike for daring to clean up Abuja and now they want all our eyes to be on the judiciary. With the cost-of-living crisis getting harder and harder, just about anything rankles us. Take the case a retired army general who passed away recently, leaving behind a large swath of assets and a family fighting over them. Some persons want to know how he acquired so much wealth. It’s as if they want him to declare his assets in his grave. General Abdullahi Muraina, who retired from the army in 2014, passed away in Dubai recently. He was chief of accounts and budget before he voluntarily retired. He left behind many houses and housing estates in Abuja and Ibadan; petrol stations; plazas; event centers and acres of land in different parts of the country. There are also bulletproof vehicles and many other luxury cars. It is quite a hefty collection of high-value real estates in some of the highly prized locations in the country. His family of two wives and nine children are now locked in a legal battle on how to share these assets. An advertisement appeared in Thisday newspaper last week, warning the public not to deal in any of the 19 listed property and six vehicles as they are all subjects of law suits. ‘’The upper area court acquires jurisdiction, power and control over the above-enumerated properties, pending the final determination and the outcome of the suit’’, the lawyers stated in the advert.

But questions surrounding the sources of these stupendous wealth, given that the man was in charge of military finances and budgets, have once again brought the issue of corruption to focus. But I think that the people asking these questions do not seem to understand the basic DNA of the Nigerian public official. It is an unwritten code in this country that any person who is in charge of a big organization with a sizeable yearly budget, be it a state government, an MDA, National Assembly or even the military, is in the race to enter his name into Forbes 100. The listing of the world’s top wealthy people is an honour that no Nigerian has ever earned, but one to which our public officials are constantly in the race for. People like Abdulraheed Maina; Ahmed Idris; Diezani Alison-Madueke; Tafa Balogun and many others have competed for this honour in the past; and as I write, the race is on.

In the case of Gen. Muraina, his tenure as director of budget and finance coincided with the period the military was spending so much to acquire weapons and ammunitions to fight Boko Haram in the North East. It was a big moment for him and the institution he loved and served so well. Boko Haram and other criminals nearly took over the country, with their headquarters in the North East. The then president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, even confessed publicly that some persons who were loyal to the terrorist groups were serving in his government. There were bombs in Abuja and many parts of the country almost every day. Worship places were routinely attacked. Undaunted, our military fought fiercely. But for the gallantry of the armed forces, the country would have been overrun. Why then are Nigerians worried that a general who was in the thick of it all, gave so much to the country, had retired with ‘small something’ that he would live on? Did they expect him to live in penury after risking his life in service of the nation? It is matter of regret that Gen. Muraina could not go to the great beyond with his houses and cars. The fight within his family would have been avoided. And this is why death is such a dreadful part of living. We work so hard and acquire so much; some steal as much as they can from their country, taking away the resources that would have provided schools, hospitals, roads, electricity and other benefits. And when death comes, we leave everything behind; and in some cases, fights erupt in the family.

These quarrels leave in their wake lasting enmity that extend to generations unborn. Some could be quite bloody and expose underlying, deep-rooted distrusts among families once held together by the departed papa. Even in instances where the man had a Will, disagreements are not totally avoided. The fight within the family of the late wealthy Lagos lawyer, Chief FRA Williams, over his multibillion Naira estate, is a case study. It has now extended well to his grandchildren. I hope they will find peace someday. But then, lawyers and fiduciary experts recommend leaving a Will and updating it regularly is the best safeguard against war in the family after we had gone. ‘’With a decent Will, written with understanding of what is important to each heir, you can protect the emotional bonds of your family’’, writes Gina Creedon, an expert in the field.

This piece is a satirical commentary on how some folks turn government’s resources in their care into personal estates, and leave them behind for feuding families. I should, however, acknowledge that most other wealthy people got their riches in an honest way. Not all Nigerians are thieves. I therefore pay respect to the hardworking men and women of this country who created their wealth in the time-honoured old fashion of hard work and honesty. I salute their industry, creativity and grit. May their children never fight over their inheritance. I salute also the honest workers, professionals, famers, artisans and labourers who toil day and night to provide for their families. May their labour not be in vain.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has made some clarifications over the controversy that trailed his selection of former president, Umar Yar’dua, as his successor.

Obasanjo was Nigeria’s first executive president upon the return to democratic rule in 1999. He left office in 2007 after the end of his second term.

He was succeeded by Yar’dua, who was the former governor of kastina state. Yar’adua, however, died in office in 2010 after a protracted illness plunging the country into a constitutional crisis at the time.

Obasanjo has been blamed in some quarters for the fate that befell Yar’adua and the crisis engendered by the leadership lacuna in the aftermath of his death.

Many opined that Obasanjo knew about Yar’adua’s health challenges but still picked him to occupy the highest office in the land.

However, in a recent interview with TheCable, Obasanjo said Yar’adua was certified medically fit to become the president and he didn’t appoint him because he knew he would eventually die in office.

Despite not being an insider in his government, Obasanjo said he supported Yar’adua to become his successor because of his enviable character and integrity.

Obasanjo said “See, I set up a committee headed by Dr Olusegun Agagu, of blessed memory, to search for a successor. They considered many names and did an extensive assessment on all of them. They made their recommendation. Umaru was top on the list.

“Their biggest argument in his favour was that he had integrity and would not steal. The issues concerning his health were raised and I gave his medical reports to an expert for an opinion. Umaru’s name was redacted so that the expert would not know who it was and why I was seeking his opinion.

“After assessing the reports, he said the patient appeared to have done a kidney transplant and if that was the case, there was nothing to worry about and he would be as healthy as any other person. That was it. All insinuations that I knew he was going to die and that was why I supported him to be president were false. This is the true story I have told you”

Rabiu Kwankwaso has been expelled from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) by its National Executive Committee (NEC) due to his alleged failure to attend hearings before the party’s disciplinary committee.

Earlier, Mr. Kwankwaso had faced suspension by the party’s leadership during the national convention held on August 29 in Lagos.

Following this, the NEC established a disciplinary committee and instructed them to extend an invitation to Mr. Kwankwaso to address allegations of serious anti-party activities and mishandling of party and campaign finances within a five-day window.

The NEC had cautioned that if Mr. Kwankwaso failed to appear before the disciplinary committee, he would be expelled from the party, as per the provisions outlined in the party’s 2022 constitution (as amended).

Consequently, NNPP’s acting spokesperson, Abdulsalam Abdulrasaq, issued a statement on Tuesday in Lagos, confirming Mr. Kwankwaso’s immediate expulsion from the party due to his refusal to respond to the committee’s invitations.

Mr Abdulrasaq said, “The NEC met in an emergency session on Friday, September 1 and resolved as follows: Following the refusal of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to appear before the disciplinary committee, which sat on Thursday, August 31 after being duly invited in writing, he is hereby expelled from NNPP with immediate effect.”

He added, “That the erstwhile presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, will be reported to appropriate quarters to answer questions on financial impropriety relating to mismanagement of public funds.”

The crisis within the NNPP started when the NWC of the party loyal to Kwankwaso announced the suspension of the NNPP founder, Dr Boniface Aniebonam and the National Publicity Secretary, Dr Agbo Major, on August 24.

The service of DAAR Communications PLC Management, the owners of AIT and Raypower, which was disrupted at the request of the Rivers State government, will be restored soon.

They stated that the ongoing dispute between DAAR Communications PLC and the Rivers State Government is currently being heard in court and that further comments on the matter will be withheld in order to avoid jeopardizing the legal process.

In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, the management said that on September 4th, 2023, at approximately 10 a.m., a joint operation involving the Rivers State Government and federal security agencies resulted in the collapse of the Transmission Mast for AIT and Raypower in Port-Harcourt.

According to management, the unfortunate incident damaged the transmitter building and antennas, making AIT and Raypower terrestrial transmission temporarily unavailable.

DAAR Communications PLC’s management assured its valued audience that alternative means of accessing AIT and Raypower content remain available, including DStv, Gotv, StarTimes, the FreeTV platform, and the AIT and Raypower Apps available online.

Furthermore, the company stated that it is actively working to expedite the restoration of terrestrial broadcasting services.

It stated that the public will be kept up to date on any developments.

It was stated that DAAR Communications PLC is grateful to well-meaning Nigerians, media organizations, corporate interests, and political stakeholders who have expressed sympathy and support during this difficult time.

Despite these setbacks, the company stated that it remains committed to providing high-quality media services. Raypower FM and AIT are expected to emerge stronger and more resilient from adversity.

The Minister of Works, David Umahi on Monday claimed that the National Assembly withheld N650 million met for road projects in the country.

According to Umahi, the projects were almost completed but the lack of funds is keeping the contractors on site.

The former governor of Ebonyi State during a press conference called on the lawmakers to release funds.

He further stated that the way Nigeria’s budgetary allocation was designed is not encouraging for contractors to complete road projects.

The minister noted that the release of funds to contractors on an annual basis made road projects linger as in most cases.

He said, “When you give a contractor N150m a year for N600m road project, he’ll pocket it while mobilising to the site without doing anything on the ground. When confronted, he’ll say he’s yet to get the material he requested for outside the country as the money was not enough.”

He encouraged Nigerians to plant cash crops across road corridors to prevent kidnappings.

Umahi said, “Nigerians must get value for their taxes, the road is everything, where we are having kidnapping is on the spot where roads are bad, we should remove the bushes and plant cash crop, it is ideal and acceptable and we should replicate it in all parts of the country. It’ll remove the kidnappings.”

Umahi said the construction of concrete roads would not be enforced on projects awarded already.

He, however, said contractors would need to give assurance that roads built with asphalt would last up to 30 years even though the concrete roads would last longer.

The Minister added, “We are not stopping asphalt works but it is not possible to be paying the job that we know will not stand for five years. Contractors hide under the funny excuse of overloading for the road not standing long.”

He said the operations of the Federal Road Management Agency would be reviewed to “ensure that any intervention in states would be done with the input of the state government to know the roads with top priority.”

The Labour Party (LP) has said it is ready for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) to deliver its final ruling in its petition challenging President Bola Tinubu’s victory.

Naija News reported that the Presidential tribunal, on Monday, confirmed that September 6 had been chosen as the date to deliver the ruling on the petitions challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu at the 2023 presidential election.

In a statement on Monday, the Court of Appeal Registrar, Umar Bangari, confirmed the date for the much-anticipated verdict, adding that the court proceedings will be open to live broadcast by interested television stations.

Bangari stated that everything has been put in place to ensure a hitch-free delivery of the judgment in the three petitions.

He added that adequate security had been put in place and that only the invited members of political parties and the general public would be allowed into the courtroom to avoid congestion and security breaches.

Reacting to the development in a chat with Daily Trust, the LP National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, expressed optimism that the judgement would be in its favour tomorrow.

Ifoh stated that the wish of Nigerians would prevail and all the party’s prayers to the tribunal would be answered.

He said: “We are optimistic that the judgement would be in our favour and that all our prayers to the tribunal would be positive.”

Recall that the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), as well as their presidential candidates, had petitioned the tribunal seeking to nullify the election of President Tinubu the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the 2023 presidential election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It would be recalled that after adopting the final written addresses of the parties involved in the suit, the five-man tribunal headed by Justice Haruna Simon Tsamani reserved judgment and said a date to deliver the verdict would be communicated to concerned parties and their lawyers.

Mohammed Bello Adoke, who turned 60 on September 1, 2023 served Nigeria as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, April 6, 2010- May 29, 2015. He holds the esteemed, silky rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). He is one of the finest gentlemen that I know, a sound professional, brutally honest, intellectually gifted, a man whose first code of relationship is loyalty. I admire him for his intellect and forthrightness, but even more so for his stubborn loyalty to persons and causes.

There are persons that I have had cause to criticize in the recent past, in the line of work basically, but Adoke would insist he would never condemn any man in public who has ever been nice to him whatever the situation may be. And yet he has the most caustic tongue that anyone can ever think of. I have always warned him never to think of a career in journalism, lest someone breaks his bones literally, because when he takes on a subject that he is passionate about, he does not know how to measure his words. He is one of such persons who believe that their syntax must match the exact timbre of their feelings. When he is opposed to a subject, he wields an axe, when he is in support of a particular matter, he waxes lyrical.

Legal practice suits his temperament perfectly. Lawyers are basically technicians, wielding facts and evidence and relying on precedents and the law to build a case in favour of their clients, and lawyers are fine in that regard as long as they do not behave like characters in Charles Dickens’s The Great Expectations or The Bleak House where Dickens, 19th Century English satirist offers a most unflattering view of the law. The key thing about our common law jurisprudence is that the court-room restrains lawyers from speaking as it comes to them outside the rules of professional conduct. Adoke’s professionalism is not in doubt. Called to the Bar in 1986, after obtaining a degree in law from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria (1985), he holds a Postgraduate Diploma in International Tax Law from Robert Kennedy University, Zurich, Switzerland, a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration from Keble College, Oxford and an Advanced LLM in Public International Law (specializing in international criminal law) from the University of Leiden, Netherlands. He has practised law in diverse areas such as civil litigation, commercial disputes, arbitration, election petitions and oil and gas culminating in his attainment of the rank of an SAN, membership of the International Law Commission in Geneva and his appointment as Chief Law Officer of the Federation: a position that places him in a special class in the legal profession.

The other day, ahead of the celebration of his 60th birthday, he granted an interview which has now become very controversial, to a lady, Ms Adesua Giwa-Osagie, on a platform called “Untold Stories”. In the interview, one thing led to another and Adoke, reacting to allegations that he was charged for corruption by the Buhari administration told his interviewer that no he was not corrupt, but that Buhari ran “the most incompetent government we’ve ever seen in this country, ran by the most incompetent President that this country has ever had and will never have again…by a set of political morons.” This was that side of Adoke’s persona that I talked about in action. In a few words, he delivered the most devastating assessment of the Buhari administration so far since Buhari’s departure from office on May 29. To accuse a man of incompetence at his work is to declare that he is not worth it at all. To dismiss a whole Government as a government of morons is brutal. It was therefore not surprising that by Monday morning, quite a number of news platforms reported a sharp rebuttal to Adoke’s statement by Mallam Garba Shehu, former senior assistant spokesperson to President Buhari. One example would suffice.

This newspaper yesterday in its lead front page story quoted Garba Shehu as having claimed that President Buhari’s fight against corruption is unprecedented. He was said to have cited the Process and Industrial Developments (PID) matter, Paris Club, and the Ajaokuta Steel Company as cases that Buhari had to take on which were inherited from the Jonathan administration under which Adoke served. He reportedly said that Buhari was on “a rescue mission”. Adoke’s interview, ahead of his 60th birthday, was on a relatively modest platform. I have always warned that volubility is not an asset in the business of spokesmanship. He who speaks for another must know what to ignore, what to respond to, and what to manage. By responding to Adoke, Garba Shehu has taken what could have been overlooked as a side comment to the front pages, and drawn more attention to President Buhari’s legacy. He should have kept quiet. But he didn’t. And now he has ignited a conversation around the question: what exactly did President Buhari rescue?

It is true that in 2015, President Buhari had promised Nigerians that he would address the issues of insecurity, the economy and corruption. By the time he left office in May 2023, he had left the country in a far more insecure state than he met it. The economy was in the doldrums. Nigeria was in so much debt, even Buhari’s economists advised against the perils of further borrowings. Inflation had become unmanageable. The country’s unemployment rate was so high, the succeeding Tinubu administration has had to engage in the voodoo manipulation of statistics to reassure Nigerians that the unemployment index had dropped using a different methodology. But the same Tinubu, APC to APC government has not hidden the fact that the new managers inherited a badly managed economy.

Wale Edun, the current Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy has said publicly that the last time the Nigerian economy was stable was about a decade ago, in other words before Buhari/APC assumed office at the centre. He added, to drive the matter home, that “we inherited a bad economy.” So, what happened to Buhari’s rescue mission. The standard excuse that has been given in his defence is that he was “not aware” of most of the things that happened under his watch. Tinubu, his successor, from the same party has been carrying on as if he is aware, and that is why he has been prying into some of the transactions under Buhari: the CBN, the foreign exchange, import waivers, management of palliatives, the anchor borrowers’ programme. His only saving grace would be that if Tinubu with his “over-sabi” fails to deliver on his reforms, then people could become kinder to him, but if Tinubu is able to make a difference, then Buhari’s legacy would be in tatters. The jury is still out. Buhari’s spin doctors are no longer in a position to dictate how he should be remembered. The old line about Buhari fighting corruption that was hatched under Jonathan is a worn, over-flogged tale that no longer sells in the light of present realizations.

As a person. Muhammed Bello Adoke has used the occasion of his 60th birthday to defend himself in the public domain. Before his recent interview, he had written a book titled “Burden of Service: Reminiscences of Nigeria’s former Attorney General” (London/New York: Clink Street, 2019, 270 pp.) in which he provides a detailed reflection on his trials and triumphs as Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice: the mischief of those who witch-hunted him, specifically the OPL 245 Controversy and the Ajaokuta Steel Settlement. Adoke’s main argument is that he acted in the utmost best interest of Nigeria in all that he did and strictly within the purview of the rule of law. The frustration that he expresses in the book about the intrigues in the corridors of power is enough to discourage anyone from agreeing to serve the Nigerian government. Depending on the circumstances, you could go in as an innocent person interested in service, only to come out with a heavy Sisyphean burden on your shoulders. In 2016, the Buahri administration charged Adoke to court along with others over OPL 245. He was hounded from pillar to post, even as far as the Netherlands. He was eventually arrested in Dubai after spending about six years in exile. Adoke is in the best position to tell his own story, and he probably would do so in another book. What is certain is that a court in Milan, Italy discharged and acquitted him of any wrong-doing in the OPL 245 debacle. The Commercial Court in the UK ruled that he had nothing to do with the P&ID debacle which seems to have gone cold most conveniently. The former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN advised the government in a written opinion that the Federal Government had no case against. Adoke. Mr Ibrahim Magu, former EFCC Chairman, by Adoke’s own account, also found cause to apologise to him. This is probably the root of his deployment of strong adjectives to dismiss a leader that was once a “constituted authority” in this country as the most incompetent in Nigerian history. Politics is a function of time and chance, hall of mirrors, a revolving door.

Adoke was not originally my friend. We quarrelled before we became friends. When I assumed duties at the Presidential Villa in 2011, one of the first pieces of advice I got was from Akachikwu Nwankpo, then Special Adviser on Technical Matters to the President and later Gubernatorial candidate in the 2022 Anambra elections. Nwankwo had drawn my attention very early to what he called the existence of a “A Gap Theory” in the Villa, in the sense that the place was a jungle and the only way to survive was to defend your territory with every ounce of energy within you. I thought he was joking. But he was dead serious. “You see this place my brother, you have to watch your territory, even when you are doing your best people are perpetually looking for how they can do your job for you.” I felt that was odd. People had specific titles and job descriptions.

But as it turned out, I discovered on my own that my assignment as Presidential Spokesperson was something everyone had their eyes on. I usually briefed the President every morning at the breakfast table. In a short while some people started dragging it with me. They would plant themselves at the table and before I started the briefing, one of them would have launched an unsolicited media commentary: “Daddy, on AIT yesterday…” Oga, I heard that so, so and so editor.” Ha. Would these people allow me to do this job? Many of the interlopers used to go directly to the President to introduce editors and other media players, claiming to know the media better than everyone else. Some had the effrontery of directing me to issue press statements. I was caught in the web once or twice, but when I saw the President didn’t like me producing press statements that he did not personally authorize, I became fiercely territorial. Only the President could tell me what to do.

I had a different kind of baptism in January 2012. That was during the “Occupy Nigeria” protests following the Jonathan administration’s decision to deregulate the downstream sector, which resulted in the pump price of petrol going up from N65 per litre to N141 per litre. Mayhem descended on Nigeria. There were riots in Ojota, Abuja and other parts of the country. For more than a week, organised labour and civil society fought the Nigerian government. They wanted the removal of subsidy reversed and they were determined, not the kind of “testing, testing” protest that Labour leaders of today are organizing on the same issue. There was unease in the Villa as there was in the country. There were casualties. It was felt that the President needed to address the nation. I wrote a draft in which I tried to appeal to the people and calm the nerves. Then came along Adoke with a militant draft speech in which the President was meant to sound stern and warn the dissidents and their sponsors who were disturbing the peace of the nation. The version that Adoke brought was pugilistic and fierce. The President told me to go and look at it and get back to him. I came back with a modified draft, only for the President to opt for the militant piece. It was his statement, not mine. But I was bitter. I complained to Dr. Fortune Fiberesima, the President’s physician who said he too was facing the same challenge – all kinds of people trying to do his work, even when they had no knowledge of medicine. One Minister, who always boasted that his wife was a medical doctor, in fact relished offering the President medical advice. Fiberesima used to fume.

I decided to talk to Mohammed Adoke. I told him he should not do my job. He should focus on his AGF work. He was nice. He said he was interested in the purity of the law, not other people’s assignments and indeed, with the law, he is one of the finest that Nigeria has had as AGF and Minister of Justice. The story of our friendship since then till date is another story to be told some other day. For now, please join me to wish him a happy 60th birthday. Congratulations, AGF Emeritus.