“The 2023 elections may not be over in Abuja and in other states but the governorship election is over in Oyo State and that is where I hang my consolation and escape from Nigeria’s current madness. There was an election to elect the governor of Oyo State on Saturday, March 18. INEC announced a winner and everyone who fought the victor immediately dropped the sword and embraced the victorious. I found that to be very strange in rancorous Nigeria. If you know any other state in Nigeria where that has happened, please tell me. There is even no imitator. But why?”

“The ides of March are come,” Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar says in utter derision and dismissal of a life-and-death warning. And the soothsayer replies “Ay, Caesar; but not gone.” And truly, they were not gone. The 2023 elections should be over by now but they are not. There are people everywhere mocking poets and prophets. Clouds of uncertainty are hanging. Even our president has had to issue a statement denying saying in secret that he won’t hand over to his victorious Khalifa. There are threats of protests and counter-threats of arrest over the process and the outcome of the presidential election held over a month ago. Labour Party’s vice presidential candidate vowed on national TV that the president-elect won’t be sworn in; the election winner replied with a vow to arrest and lock up Labour and its symbols even before he is sworn in. There was a dream: What does it mean to have flood in dry land? You sleep and see two hundred elephants clinking tusks; you also see two hundred buffalos pooling together four hundred horns. If the inner eye is still seeing, you will know that the world is shifting and drifting – or about to. Confusion and chaos are ingredients of war and they appear afoot. Since that is the case, what I look for now are streaks of hope, to keep my sanity.

My ancestors in Old Oyo said with pride – and even arrogance – that they were different from other species in the specificity of their character and characteristics. “You can only hear of Oyo imitators; Oyo does not imitate anybody.” Their neighbours never liked hearing that from them but they never stopped acting it and shouting it from their rooftops. The 2023 elections may not be over in Abuja and in other states but the governorship election is over in Oyo State and that is where I hang my consolation and escape from Nigeria’s current madness. There was an election to elect the governor of Oyo State on Saturday, March 18. INEC announced a winner and everyone who fought the victor immediately dropped the sword and embraced the victorious. I found that to be very strange in rancorous Nigeria. If you know any other state in Nigeria where that has happened, please tell me. There is even no imitator. But why?

I read a cartoon in a national newspaper when I was in secondary school. The newspaper I cannot remember, but the cartoon and its caption I cannot ever forget: A former president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, is shown counseling a victorious young politician on power and its ephemerality. “My son,” the ex-leader says with sadness, “I have been to the mountaintop; it is quite slippery there.” What makes the mountaintop that slippery? Because I work and live in Ibadan, three days to the March 18 governorship election in Oyo State, a senior newspaper editor in Lagos sent me a text: “What are the chances of the incumbent?” I replied that “the man respects the people and has done well all round, so, he will win with more than 60 percent of the votes.” He kept quiet and left me with my “unrealistic projection.” After the results were announced on Sunday 19th, that editor sent me another text: “You said so. He won. Great. I was scared for him.” I replied with the smile emoji and added that the winner “did not leave the street for a day”; he knew the terrain and served it and so could not have slipped on Election Day.

Eleven incumbent governors contested elections to retain their seats for four more years; one of them lost and has been very quiet; another is still fighting to breathe; eight won with a lot of panting and limping back home from the battlefield; the man in Oyo has been congratulated by all his opponents. So, what made the re-election way smooth for one and bumpy for others? There was a 14th century Islamic scholar called Ibn Khaldun, author of the Muqaddimah. Some scholars say he was the greatest social scientist of the Middle Ages; others say he was “the father of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography studies.” Ibn Khaldun propounded a theory of leadership which states how leaders emerge through blood ties and group feelings. He calls that process Asabiyyah. But it is not enough for a leader to emerge; how about sustenance of that leadership? It is that sustenance that presidents and governors seek in the name of second term ambitions. But not all who seek to stand stand. Why is the mountaintop slippery? Ibn Khaldun had an answer. He came up with a list of what he called the personal qualities of a leader – the “perfecting details” that sustain leadership. What are those details? He said they include “generosity, forgiveness of error, patience and perseverance, hospitality towards guests, maintenance of the indigent, patience in unpleasant situations, execution of commitments, respect for the religious law, reverence for old men and teachers, fairness, meekness, consideration to the needs of followers, adherence to the obligations of religious laws, and avoidance of deception and fraud.” (See Ibn Khaldun of North Africa: An AD 1377 Theory of Leadership (2008) by Yusuf Sidani).

AT the weekend, after my ear drums had been continuously assaulted for few weeks about how well the government has done, especially on security, my mind went back to one of its ‘success’ stories.

The Tanko Salihu Islamic School is in Tegina, a densely populated town in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State. It runs a nursery, primary and junior secondary school. It also has Islamiyya and Hadda “The testimony” classes in the evenings and at weekends.

On Sunday, May 30, 2021, bandits entered Tegina. In a guerrilla-style operation, they attacked the police station and went round the town shooting into the air. In the ensuring pandemonium, they headed for what apparently was their target, the Islamic school where pupils, as young as three, were learning.

They rounded up 148 of the pupils and about 50 others, including the teachers, and marched them away from the Zungeru Junction school premises into the forest. The children who were taken through paths, bushes and forests must have walked for hundreds of kilometers before they were located in Kebbi State.

One of the older boys, Musa, gave an idea of the torturous journey: “We trekked for days without food and water. We only rested a little when the bandits noticed that we were tired and afterward continued. And it was so difficult since we had to carry the little ones on the back as they could no longer walk because they were weak and tired before we finally got to the hideouts of the bandits in the forest.”

The school and parents organised themselves to seek the release of their children from the bandits who initially demanded a ransom of N300 million which they scaled down to N100 million. They were frustrated for they were mainly peasant farmers who could not on their own raise 10 per cent of the ransom.

Their frustration was further heightened when after one week of their wards abduction, and, despite the wide publicity the case attracted, neither the state government nor the Federal Government visited the school or the town to even make an assessment or liaise with them. Only the Local Government Chairman showed visible concern. The people were abandoned to their own devices, including negotiating ransom and raising funds.

The Headmaster of the school, Abubakar Garba Alhassan, who had evolved into the coordinator of the school and parents platform, cried to the press: “None of the state government officials either came to us or contacted us, apart from the Rafi Local Government Chairman who is always here to sympathise with us.”

When confronted with these claims, the state government, through the Deputy Governor, Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, responded thus: “It is strategic for us not to have visited the families and people of Tegina, but we are making frantic efforts.”

Incredible! What strategy was it abandoning a populous town at a period the residents were most traumatised?

The Presidency also responded with a bland statement that: “President Muhammadu Buhari has charged the nation’s security and intelligence agencies to expedite efforts towards the recovery of the 200 children kidnapped from an Islamic school in Niger State.”

The parents and school sourced for funds from various sources, including selling their valubles to pay the ransom.

Meanwhile, the pupils were going through a nightmare. One of the bigger boys, Musa said: “We went through hell. We were beaten and they even threatened to kill us if our parents did not pay the ransom they demanded…We told them we were poor and that our parents were mere farmers. But they neither listened nor cared about us, even though we were speaking the same language.”

One of the abducted pupils, Furera Isah, recalled: “They would call us out in the night and beat us. We were never comfortable…They called us to beat us every day, but they allowed us to say our prayers. Sleeping was also another problem. We slept in a shabby place under the rain and the sun. Since we got kidnapped, we never took our bath. We were fed with small amount of noodles or beans on our hands. Some days, we stayed hungry as there was nothing to eat. We were kept together in one small room in the forest. Sometimes, we were beaten if we try to complain of hunger or ask questions.”

Finally, after 88 days in captivity, the children were released. But not all returned. On the pupils release, Alhasan, the co-ordinator of the negotiations, told the media: “I am feeling comfortable now that they are back. Only one died but we thank God that we got them (others) back alive. The child who died is my child. We are not closing down the school, we will continue with it. If we do close the school, the generation that we are protecting will feel bad. I believe it is my child’s destiny to die that day because if he was at home with me, he could have died that same day as well. So I thank God for everything.”

There had been mass kidnap of students before the Tegina one. In February 2018, a total of 107 students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, were kidnapped. After ransom payment, they were released, except Leah Sharibu, a girl who refused to renounce her faith. She has now spent five years, one month and three days in captivity.

On Friday, December 11, 2020, over 300 students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State were abducted. On February 17, 2021, bandits attacked the Government Science School, Kagara, Niger State abducting 27 students, three staff and 12 of their relatives.

Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State was attacked on February 26, 2021 and 279 female students aged between 10 and 17 were abducted. The Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State was attacked in March 2021 and about 30 students abducted. They spent over 50 days in captivity.

After the Islamiya School incident, more schools were attacked and students abducted. These include the July 5, 2021 kidnap of over 120 students of the Bethel Baptist High School, Damishi, Kaduna State. At least one of the abducted students remain with the bandits; the 20th month in captivity.

In June 2021, bandits invaded the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, kidnapping over 90 students and teachers. Twenty nine of those students are still held by the bandits having spent one year, nine months in captivity.

All these occurred and are happening in a country with a Commander-in-Chief who says he has done marvellously well on security and deserves medals. I do not doubt that the C-in-C reports for duty which may be why the budgetary provision is being expended, but why does he seem to be perpetually absent from duty? 

Of the many political salvoes fired on the Nigerian political scene last week, one that most heralded the shape of things to come was fired by the freshly minted Governor-elect of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti. Three days after he won the Abia governorship on Labour Party’s [LP] platform, he said in a television interview that he did not win because of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi. In his long acceptance speech, which was aired live on television, Otti did not mention Peter Obi’s name even once. It was puzzling because many analysts thought that Obi, who swept all five South Eastern states in the presidential election three weeks earlier, created a bandwagon effect on which Otti rose to power, but the former banker denied it.

Otti said, “In 2015 when I ran [for Abia governorship] under APGA, there was no Peter Obi. And we have it on our record that I won that election. At the time we were joining Labour Party, Peter Obi had not joined. It took a week before he called me and said that he purchased the presidential nomination form and he was coming to Labour Party… Peter Obi is a great addition to our campaign, but I can tell you that we won an election before in Abia without him.”

Several important political messages in there. Otti said according to his records, he won the Abia governorship election in 2015 even though it is outgoing governor Ikpeazu who was officially declared as winner. Either we accept official results or we do not. One cannot insist that he won the last election, when he was not returned, but gladly accept that he won this one, because he was officially returned. What if other losing candidates in the 2023 election continue to insist for the next four years that they actually won this election in Abia but Otti was wrongly returned?

All over the country, we saw this dissonance in the past month in the attitude of the major opposition parties. A party that rejected the results of the presidential election as rigged, nevertheless turned around and celebrated the victory of its Senate and House of Representatives candidates in the same election. Presidential candidates who were busy assailing the February 25 election as flawed were seen warmly receiving their party men and women who were victorious in the National Assembly elections that held the same day and time, by the same INEC, using the same BVAS, the same personnel, the same Electoral Act and the same election guidelines. I thought the two elections should morally swim or sink together. Either they were all rigged, or they all reflected the wishes of voters.

Probably the most telling observation in the governorship and state assembly elections of March 18 was the steep decline of LP. Its presidential candidate won 11 states and Abuja on February 25 but three weeks later, the party won only one governorship election. If Dr. Otti’s claim is true that Obi’s stature had nothing to do with his victory, then LP fell from 12 states to zero in just three weeks. Of the four major parties in the presidential election, LP suffered the steepest decline. I saw figures calculated by one analyst, that its votes fell from over six million in the presidential election to 600,000 in the governorship polls, whereas the total votes of APC, PDP and NNPP only slightly dropped. This was understandable because eight states and FCT did not vote for governors on March 18.

It was noticeable that Obidients did not question their party’s dismal performance in the governorship election nearly as vociferously as they protested the presidential election results. Why? Is presidency the only impactful public office in Nigeria? One can deduce that most Obidients were only concerned about winning the presidency. This is a very faulty premise in Nigerian politics, but not without precedent. In 2003 when INEC registered UNPP and NDP as new political parties, they did the same thing, raised a lot of dust about their presidential candidates Jim Nwobodo and General Ike Nwachukwu respectively, but had no governorship or senatorial candidates in many states. No wonder those two parties soon fizzled out. Elu Pi should learn a lesson from that history, that winning governorship and legislative seats is an important part of preparations for the future, including the all-important issue of “structure.” Although LP propagandists tried to ridicule all talk about structure, anyone could see that lack of structure crippled the party in many regions in 2023 and, despite many odds, it was nationwide structure that saved APC.

If it is any comfort for LP, there was another precedent in recent times. Almost exactly the same thing happened to the defunct Congress for Progressive Change [CPC] in 2011. Its presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari won twelve states outright in the presidential election, only for Sifisi to win only one state governorship two weeks later. Umaru Tanko al-Makura, who won the Nasarawa State governorship on CPC’s platform in 2011, could have more justifiably said what Otti said last week, that he did not win because of Buhari. It would have sounded more true because Nasarawa was not one of the 12 states that Buhari won, whereas Obi did win Abia in 2023. Loyal partyman Al-Makura however never said so. Like Obi, Buhari also believes to this day that the 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections were rigged and that the first credible election was the one he won in 2015. He said as much on the day he collected his Certificate of Return.

Another aspect of Otti’s remarks also reminds me. In Nigerian politics, there is a certain element of danger for a party’s national leaders when the party has only one or even a few state governors. The party easily falls prey to an upside-down leadership arrangement where the governor becomes its effective leader. He tends to overshadow its national executive officers and its former presidential candidate. Mr. Peter Obi is very familiar with this because that was what happened in APGA. With only the governorship of Anambra for most of its existence, first Obi, then Willie Obiano and now Prof Charles Soludo became its effective national leader. There was this recent interview by former APGA national chairman Chief Victor Umeh, where he said that for years, he pleaded with Obi to hold local government elections in Anambra so that the party will have some more elected public officials, but he refused. In APGA, no one towers above its lone governor [at one time it had two, plus Rochas Okorocha of Imo].

Actually, LP had a state governor in 2008-16, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo. He became synonymous with the party and completely overshadowed its national leaders, until he later returned whence he came from, to PDP. In the 2007 election, Orji Uzor Kalu’s PPA party won the governorships of Imo and Abia, but both governors soon defected back to PDP. It was alleged at the time that it was Kalu’s overbearing nature that drove the men, Ikedi Ohakim and Theodore Orji, out of the party. At least, unlike Otti, Orji could not say that Kalu’s stature had nothing to do with his victory in Abia because he was in fact cooling his heels in prison on the day he was elected governor. There was even much discussion on TV at the time as to what would happen on Inauguration Day. I remember one lawyer saying on NTA that the Chief Judge of Abia State would have to enter the prison and swear in Orji, after which he will gain immunity from arrest and walk out of the cell!

There are lessons here for NNPP, the other party that, like LP, grabbed only one state governorship in the 2023 election. In 2015, departing Kano State governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso played the political gentleman and anointed his two-time deputy governor Abdullahi Ganduje to succeed him. They had a nasty quarrel soon afterwards, so this time around, Kwankwaso plotted the succession more carefully. He anointed his son-in-law and former commissioner, Abba Kabir Yusuf, popularly known as Gida Gida, who won the election on March 18. Again unlike Otti, Gida Gida never said Kwankwaso was not a factor in his victory. Gida Gida got only slightly more votes on March 18 than Kwankwaso got on February 25.

Now, if Kalu was said to be so overbearing that he pushed two governors out of his party, Kwankwaso, from the look of things, is several times more forceful, much more combative and a much more hands-on party leader than Kalu ever was. Nor is he very magnanimous in victory. I saw a video last week where he was saying he could have ordered NNPP thugs to storm the Kano Government House, bring out Ganduje and “eat him like carrot.” Storming the Government House could have meant a lot of dead Kwankwasiyya men. It was true to type because in 2011 when he was re-elected to his second term as governor, Kwankwaso said in an interview that his main regret was that “I defeated [Malam Ibrahim] Shekarau’s boy [Sagir Takai]. I wanted to beat him himself.”

Kwankwaso should tread carefully because Kano has a history of nasty clashes between party leaders and anointed governors. The fall out in the Second Republic between PRP national leader Malam Aminu Kano and Governor Mohammed Abubakar Rimi left a permanent imprint in Kano politics between the so-called Tabo and Santsi factions. A godfather is not safe even with his own son as governor, as the political fallout in Ilorin in 2011 between Oloye Olusola Saraki and his son, Governor Bukola Saraki showed.

These are my personal views and I am constrained to express them given the fact that one Ben Llewellyn-Jones, a misguided, mischievous and clearly unlettered Englander who does not know his place, threw away all caution and mentioned my name in his inglorious commentary.

I would advise this Ben, who I am told is the Deputy High Commissioner of the UK to Nigeria, to keep his dirty nose out of our internal affairs.

Nigeria stopped being a British colony 63 years ago and we need no lessons from him on how to run our affairs or conduct our politics.

I know that his preferred candidate did not win the presidential election but that does not mean he should cross the line and take liberties with us here. I wonder who the hell he thinks he is?

I am not one of those Nigerians that bows, shakes, shivers and trembles before the British or indeed any other foreigner.

And unlike most I do not need any validation or endorsement from him or his ilk and neither can I be intimidated by his veiled threat of a visa ban.

Frankly I could not care less.

I would however take this opportunity to assure him that regardless of his views and desire to compel us to accept their godless so-called "humanist" and "libertarian" values and introduce evil practices and policies such as same-sex marriage in our country this will never be the case.

My aversion for sod*mites remains as constant as the northern star and whether he likes it or not we will never allow a sod*mite to be our President.

Neither will we accept lessons in decency, etiquette, what to say or how to speak from a fading British civil servant and a man that represents a nation that has committed more atrocities than perhaps any other in the history of humanity.

I advise this little Englander to respect himself and remain a silent observer when it comes to the politics of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As a nation we are not a poodle of the British and we came of age 63 years ago.

He should be more concerned about the shrinking fortunes of a once "Great Britain" and the systemic racism, inherent injustice and insufferable arrogance that is entrenched in the British establishment and society than in the intra party politics of Nigeria.

He should also be more concerned with the efforts of his nation to bring us one step closer to WW3 given the unfolding events in Ukraine.

(FFK)

“We have become a community with different codes, values, and facts. We have mastered the art of destroying others to outshine and ascend the ladder of success.”

Dear Governor-elect, Fr. Hyacinth Alia,

It is a great pleasure and honor to write this open letter to you. Let me take this opportunity to formally congratulate you on your success in the March 18 poll. I have never met you in person. However, I have heard some good stories about you. Even after I joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), I continued to hear about your ministry in Benue. A few years ago, I was surprised to learn that you announced your intention to become governor of our State. Ahead of the election, you demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to the people of Benue through a strong campaign. Now is the time for all constituents to unite and support your shared vision of a strong and healthy nation. I may not be the only one among the Benue diasporans writing about the difficulties facing Benue State. However, I speak from experience and understanding of the conflict in Benue State. Indeed, the Benue people had high hopes that they had elected a government that would serve them, judging from the campaign promises and the failure of the previous government to meet the yearnings of the Benue masses. It is light at the end of the tunnel.

You did a commendable job engaging the Benue people in your acceptance speech. You spoke to us about where we are and took the time to explain our predicaments, contributions to your campaign, and challenges we face as a State– all of which have significantly impacted every facet of the State. You made a promise that inspired hope. Hope is a virtue we hold profoundly in our hearts because it has been and will always be the strength and success of the Benue people. I am writing you this open letter hoping you will take the time to read it and understand the importance of this message and why I decided to write you personally. To address the deep-rooted issues of Benue, which you mentioned in your acceptance speech, it will take more than one man or one administration to conquer. But with the support of the entire State, I know we can work together to bring to life the changes you promised.

In a few months, you will officially transition from a governor-elect to the serving governor of Benue State. I must extend my congratulations once again to you for the uncommon feat of defeating the opposition candidates, even as your emergence epitomizes a victory for democracy and a reflection of the preferred choice of the good people of Benue State. This victory is a testimony to your tenacity, resilience, determination, courageous planning, and clinical execution over the uninspiring leadership of the outgoing governor. The people of Benue State spoke in one resounding voice and rewarded your resilience with the highest stewardship in the land. It is now your turn to reciprocate the support of the people by justifying their choice at the poll through people-driven governance, accountability, and accessibility by those who have invested their trust and confidence in you.

Your excellency, as you rightly stated in your acceptance speech, the task ahead of you is daunting but not impossible with the right team and political will. The backlog of arrears of salaries, pensions, gratuities, the IDPs, and the persistent insecurity challenges had sparked an enormous challenge for a prosperous Benue. But it is, however, my belief, one shared by a great deal of the people of Benue State who gave their votes to you, that you are a man of focus who will not betray the aggregate hopes of those who have put their confidence in you and that you will not renege on your campaign promises nor stray from the noble path.

Your excellency, you should be proud to have earned the privilege to become the governor of our State. The youth (young men and women) of Benue State were at the forefront of your campaign, helping you to overcome the financial temptations of money politics to hand you a resounding victory. The measure of any successful government is how it carries its young populace along, not just in stomach infrastructure but in entrusting positions of authority to them as parts and parcel of the government. I sincerely beg you to make young people the cornerstone of your administration. To build a transcendent legacy, you need the trust of the young demographic who are now driving political portends and conversations more than at any other time in our political history. You may need the support of these young leaders of tomorrow to deliver on your many promises with humility and grace. Indeed, the government that deprives the quality of its youth representation can never be taken seriously in these times. I can confidently say that Benue State University has trained several youths of uncommon competence who have proven themselves in public or private service. It is your job to discover them and give them roles to rebuild the State. The choice of bringing youth to work in your administration must not happen in a rush. Hence, your administration should consider qualities such as ideology, personal competence, general acceptability, capacity, and integrity. It is to these that a great many young men and women of Benue State will look up to in a measure of how they relate to you and your government. I do not doubt that you will act rightly toward them as this fact is at the heart of the support you will enjoy amongst many of us in the civil society scope. To betray the youth population of Benue State would be to betray the trust of people who have used their platforms to canvass popular support for your candidacy and eventual emergence, and one that will regrettably catalyze a reversal of that broad trust and support. We, however, stay affirmed to your government as we share the conviction that you are a man in touch with the realities of the time and committed to working for the people and the State.

Your excellency, as the governor-elect waiting to take over the mantle of leadership, you have a challenging task ahead of you. I am sure you also recognize the difficult task ahead of you. You might be aware that the State is grappling with various issues, such as ethnic and religious divisions, rampant corruption, poor economic growth, a high unemployment rate, security challenges, and inadequate healthcare and educational systems. To address these problems, you must set a clear agenda that will prioritize the interests of all Benue people, regardless of their background or religious status. Your excellency, always remember that while you might claim that the Benue people elected you, they were the majority of others who never liked you to win. You were mocked and accused of ceding the State of Benue to Tinubu. Others wrote articles to question your antecedents as a priest and challenged you to prove that you healed people during your healing ministry. There was even the establishment in the Church hierarchy that fought you hard.

This attitude of looking down on a brother or sister is not new to Benue people. Benue people (especially the Tivs) are all too familiar with the entire episode. It has become a recurring decimal in our existence as a people. J. S. Tarka, in all his popularity and fame, was brought down by his people. Aper Aku, widely credited with laying the foundation for modern Benue, suffered the same fate at the hands of his people. Yet, today there is no single past leader of the State to equal Aku’s legacies. Rev Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu suffered the same indignities from his people before his death. Yet, he was a man whose service to the State was so selfless that he died without building a house for himself throughout the one year and ten months of his tenure as governor. He constructed the modest house he lived in and died while serving as a priest long before he became governor. Sometimes, I intend to attribute the Benue man’s penchant for destroying their best to the witchcraft tradition. According to witchcraft tradition, only the very best is sacrificed or wasted. The worthless ones, the thugs, the hoodlums, gangsters, criminals, drug addicts, and the hemp smokers are immune. In the retrogressive witchcraft ideology, people expect young people to hide in the background to avoid being noticed by the elders or those in authority, no matter how brilliant their ideas are. Benue, therefore, today boasts only of dead heroes. Be aware that you will go through the same criticisms. But the right way to respond to such critics is to remember the encounter between Jesus and the adulterous woman in John 7:53-8:11. He or she who has no sin should be the first to cast the stone. Many of us have quickly forgotten the story of an adulterous woman, which provides an excellent example for us to follow when we find ourselves reacting judgmentally or with attitudes of self-righteousness toward someone else’s sin.

Today, Benue State is at a disadvantage, as it has been since Nigeria’s inception. Still, ironically, we have dealt the deadliest blows from within, creating the most significant obstacles for ourselves. We cannot spare anybody from the destructive drive. As a Benue public policy student, the Benue Cement Company is a painful source of concern. No sensible Benue indigene passes by that company and sees a swath of the landscape destroyed without moaning. The billions of Naira quarterly declared as profit by the Dangote Group does not have any corresponding thing to show. However, the condition of those of us who work there as casual laborers is pathetic. Most are now contract workers who will never receive a pension at their retirement. For some time, a few Benue sons and daughters have taken it upon themselves to bring the plight of the Benue people to the fore through publications and in the national dailies to no avail.

In recent years, an investor said his peers had injected money into the Taraku Mills Company to revive it. This ailing industry aimed to produce the finest grade of all edible oil and different kinds of flour, including all forms of animal feed. In its heyday, Taraku Mills supplied vegetable oil to all parts of northern Nigeria. But corrupt managers and sheer government neglect have not only killed the company but have also killed the efforts to restore it. The pertinent question is, why would the state government allow corrupt persons to supervise the revival of this industry that holds enormous prospects for the people? This company is the legacy of the first civilian governor of the State, the late Aper Aku, and should be protectively guarded, but sadly, our government treated it with negligence. Beyond doubt, Aku’s regime initiated the idea to set up other similar industries such as Otukpo Burnt Bricks, Benue Fruit Juice Factory in Makurdi, Benue Packaging Company, Gboko, and Benue Education Supply Company to develop the State’s agricultural and natural resources. Ostensibly, the Aper Aku administration had envisioned that these companies would gainfully employ the youths, the farmers who formed the majority of the rural population would have ready markets for their produce, and the government would also generate enough revenue to boost the socio-economic sector of the rural and civil service state. Confidently, not a few persons during the glorious birth of the dilapidated company had believed that the good intention of the governor, who in only four years of his tenure left footprints on Benue soil, could be easily muzzled and die quickly for lack of proper management.

Taraku Mill started full-scale production in 1989 after installing the necessary equipment. The government installed all the machines between 1986 and 1987. The government centrally located this company at Taraku, a four-kilometer distance from Otukpo, to serve the three dominant groups of Tiv, Idoma, and Igala that form present-day Kogi State. The prediction was that the site’s proximity to a nearby railway station, with the large expanse of land at its disposal, would encourage farmers to grow soya beans and benni seed to feed the factory’s needs. Moreso, the availability of raw materials would create an enabling environment for job seekers and an avenue for people to market their farm produce to the company. The intention was to add value to agricultural production for a rural state so that other economic activities related to farming and agriculture could gradually pick up to enable the population to survive in an agro-allied economy. But as it is, tales of disappointments, agonies, and disillusionment replaced the noble dreams of the founding father, especially for the fact that in the last decade of their epileptic operations, the ailing mills were reputed to be the largest of their kind in West Africa had undergone pathetic stages of abject neglect in the hands of successive administrations.

Today, the Benue State government has shut down Taraku Oil Mills and laid off its staff. The laying off of staff and the delay in paying them has caused severe hardship to the affected workers. Sixty persons died while waiting for their benefits. Some of whom are my family members. I cannot forget how excited and happy some people were when they realized you won the election and became the governor-elect. I will not forget how gloomy and unhappy some Benue people were when they realized you won the election. Many such people will be hostile and aggressive to your administration, looking forward to your failure, so they can proclaim themselves prophets that saw the future in your collapse. A successful option is that you can become the governor of Benue and all Benue natives, addressing the divisive challenges and issues plaguing Benue. But that is if you care for the State. As a Benue indigene, my concern has always been to see a prosperous and healthier Benue. Hence, I sincerely pray for your success in realizing these dreams for a greater Benue.

As a concerned Benue indigene, let me highlight the areas that I think you must prioritize in your administration as you prepare to assume the office of the executive governor. As a matter of urgency, you must prioritize restoring the unity of the Benue people. The unity of Benue has never been this fragile and polarized since the creation of Benue State. Today, you have emerged as the governor-elect in the most polarized State. In the last few years, it has become clear to anyone living in Benue that we are facing an issue of polarization. And the force that empowers this polarization is tribalism, ethnicity, and religion. Deep antagonism stirred by political leaders against each other has hindered parliamentary and government cooperation and triggered a cascade effect of divisions among the Benue people. Political parties and indigenes who have become followers of party leaders have replicated these conflicts. But what do these events tell us about the State of polarization in Benue? In recent years, polarization has increased between the people and the party elites. Confidential debate, confined to the fringes of older circles, has made its way to the Facebook pages of the Benue people. We have become a community with different codes, values, and facts. We have mastered the art of destroying others to outshine and ascend the ladder of success. In our public debates, it seems that we no longer disagree. We reject each other premises and doubt each other motives. We question each other’s characters and close our ears to different points of view. At home, polarization has destroyed personal relationships, ruined companionship, and torn families apart. We are experiencing these divisions in our workplaces, neighborhood meetings, and even our places of worship. At media interviews, analysts attack and mock opponents and talk over each other. On the internet, social media has become a hotbed of outrage, takedowns, and cruelty—often targeting our brothers and sisters. But this notion can change. Most of the Sons and Daughters of Benue, what I would call an exhausted majority, have had enough of our polarization. They know we have more in common than what divides us: our belief in sovereignty, uniformity, and common dream. They share a deep sense of gratitude that they are indigenes of Benue. They want to move past our differences. It is possible to abolish the disunity between us – but it will not be easy for you. As much as we have differences and disagreements, you should be able to listen to us to understand those differences and find common ground. That should be one of the goals of your administration. To understand better what is pulling us apart and what can bring us back together.

Polarization today reflects a perfect storm: unsettling changes in our community and society have left many Benue sons and daughters feeling like strangers in their land. Old certainties are gone. The concept of eating and giving to a brother or sister, the notion of I am because we are, and the safety of neighborhood life where everyone knew each other all feel like relics of a bygone era. It feels as though hard work is no longer accepted, yet the gap between those who have and those who do not have widens yearly. Many sons and daughters of Benue wonder who else they can trust. The institutions that once bound us are disappearing, and we no longer seem to have each other’s backs. Everyone appears to have a varying version of world events. Hence, it becomes more challenging than ever to sort fact from fiction. Our news feeds seem to echo our views, and when people post alternative opinions, they often get attacked by angry mobs. We do not disagree without perceiving another person’s views as stupid, wrong, or evil. We are being played off each other and told to see each other as threats and enemies. The loudest and most extreme voices get heard, while others feel they are outsiders. Nobody wants to turn the clocks back because several things are not right about the world of the Benue people. Today, we seem more fractured and fragmented than anyone can remember. Instead of helping us find solutions to move us all forward, politics is driving us apart. When people fail to understand each other, they cannot converse or find common ground. Yet somehow, if you could only press a reset button, things could be different, and we could move forward together as one community. The time to reset that button is right here and now.

Your excellency, the people of Benue will appreciate more if you list unity as part of what your administration will focus on in addition to your seven-point agenda and promote policies that will foster greater understanding and cooperation among the Benue people. This suggestion is necessary because we have too much unpleasantness, animosities, resentment, hostility, and bitterness in our land. People are hurt, impoverished, and have become beggars in their land. You will be the governor of such people, whether we like it or not or whether we voted for you or not. Hence, you could rise above sectionalism, regionalism, and indigenous sentiments to become the governor for all. My opinion is that you should create time to help us live peacefully and participate in the socio-political activities of the State. It is ridiculous that the people of Benue should suffer in a State that belongs to all of us. The Benue indigenous people living in the State should not be considered strangers.

Finally, your excellency, you will receive congratulatory messages from people of all worth of life, social media advisers, and content creators congratulating you on your victory at the polls. These people were often harshly critical of the priesthood and your choice to become the governor. Some took their anger out on you to divide our church deeply. I would, therefore, remind you to be wary of sycophants in the corridors of power whose interest is to engage in bootlicking and hypocrisy. These people will do everything now to praise you but they will also be the first elements to criticize you when you fail to deliver on your mandate. I urge you to be wary of these people, steadfast, focused, and dedicated as you steer the affairs of the State. The Nigerian expression goes: Shine your eyes and do not fall our hands! If you fail, it will be devastating and heartbreaking. As a Jesuit Catholic priest, I would be ashamed. But if you succeed, you will put the Catholic Church in the position of having authentic and transformative leaders who play a fundamental role in inducing a positive change. People will believe in our church as the only institution with genuine leaders to serve others. When it was clear you were the winner of the just concluded election, someone wrote on Facebook that if you let down the Benue people, the last hope would be to try the traditional herbalist or witch doctor. We do not wish to go to that level where people will make a caricature of the Catholic priesthood and the church.

Your election is a battle we desperately need to win in Benue. Right now, we are facing an economic crisis that has exacerbated job mobility for the people of our State. Our standing as the “food basket of the nation” with a conducive environment for business has also fallen. I pray that our legislatures will work with you to stem this decline by promoting policies that help create and retain the “food basket of the nation.” In doing this, you will ensure Benue’s continued success as a desirable place to be and raise a family. The people of Benue have provided an opportunity for you to set a new tone and direction for this powerful place we call home. As a brother priest, I am confident that you understand the Benue issues and that your experience can help move the State forward. Once again, I congratulate you on your election as governor and wish you a smooth transition. I envisage a powerful collaboration between your administration and legislative session to ensure that Benue, once again, becomes an attractive place to work and live.

Rev. Ma, S.J, is a Jesuit Catholic priest and PhD candidate in public and social policy at St. Louis University in the state of Missouri, USA.

The theme for World Autism Week 2023 is colour: the powers that be want to promote autism awareness with a splash of colours. As usual, the autism activists will be out there in force on sponsored walks, raising money, and doing talks trying to educate the general public on autism.

I believe those on the autistic spectrum really don’t care about an awareness week devoted to trying to understand what they are: most would prefer to be given a fair chance to live in a world that rejects them and treats them like circus freaks. Perhaps more time should be spent on educating the ordinary man on the street about what autism really is like and how those affected by it try to live their lives.

Autistic people are no different to anybody else except their brains are wired differently: the same human being but a different way of thinking and living. The common belief that all autistic people are non-verbal retards is not exactly true, some will be but not all, and in the same way not all ‘normal’ people are clever and can boast of high IQs. The mere fact you’ve met one autistic person doesn’t mean you’ve met them all. Don’t stereotype! People like Elon Musk, bullied as a kid in South Africa because he was autistic and weird (- he still is weird!) is on-and-off the Worlds Richest Man following in the footsteps of people like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg, all rumoured to be on the spectrum, who are using their unique talents and abilities to re-shape the world we live in. Recently Jason Arday an autistic 37-year-old Black Briton became the youngest Black professor at Cambridge University: he didn’t utter a word until he was 11 and didn’t learn to read or write until he was 18. A few years down the road and he worked hard and quickly got a first degree, 2 Master’s degrees and finally his PhD in Educational Studies. Not bad for an autistic ‘retard’!

The mere fact somebody is slightly different to everybody else, perhaps a bit antisocial and weird is not an excuse to discriminate against or ostracise a person.

Discrimination is a big crime in the world today: we prosecute people for discriminating against others because of their race, sexual and religious orientation and cultural differences. But sadly, people who have autism and other mental health conditions seem to be exempt from this rule. For some strange reason its ‘OK’ to bully, harass, ridicule, alienate and ostracise people who have mental health conditions.

Nobody has any control over what they are born as, it’s a Lottery of Life: if you were born ‘O.K’ you’re lucky, if not you’re stuck with whatever you are born as for the rest of your natural life. Think about that next time when you’re ridiculing somebody who’s on the autistic spectrum or who has mental health issues.

So Autistic Awareness week, in my opinion, should be dedicated to not just learning more about the condition – or making a song and dance about it – but to showing how people live with a condition that imposes certain limitations on how they live their lives: limitations the average person would find impossible to live with. Simple things like going to a shopping mall, or attending social functions can cause a sensory overload or even going outside of their own front doors can be difficult for most people on the spectrum and that’s not to talk of being hyper-sensitive to common things such as noise, bright lights, smells or even certain foods and at the same time being prone to meltdowns, struggling with depression, loneliness (-often leading to suicidal intentions), while at the same time being de-humanised by everybody around them.

Tribalism is to Africa what racism is to the West. It is the African version of black-on-black violence, except that ours is unmatched in the crudity of the implements of violence and the tenacity with which we insist on handing over the chalice of hate to the coming generation. Some people are not content with fouling the waters of human coexistence; they want to ensure that their children inherit their ‘enemies’ so that a fractious future is thus assured.

Six years ago, in my column of February 20, 2017, I pondered over how politicians and some of their collaborators within the larger society weaponise ethnicity to drive a wedge between the people and advance the politicians’ game of mass deception. With the shameful developments in the run-up to the recent elections, it is clear to me that some people know of no other way to seek a democratic mandate except through transmogrifying polling booths into gory crime scenes.

And don’t let anyone fool you, it’s all about self and never about the people. Politicians play on the vulnerabilities of the mob. It is the same trick used by the racist American who has convinced half-literate white layabouts down the social ladder that the reason for their poverty is that black doctors and engineers from Nigeria are taking their jobs. 

That is the same trick used by our politicians who tell their impoverished followers — people they, the politicians, had kept in penury through treasury looting and lack of vision for the betterment of society — that non-indigenes are the cause of their poverty. The last set of elections witnessed a resurgence of tribalism, making me realise that my campaign against the scourge six years ago needs to be re-echoed.

Part of my “Memo to the Tribalist” ran thus:

Mr and Mrs Tribalist, your tribe is well represented in the list of armed robbers, treasury looters, kidnappers, ritual killers, internet fraudsters and drug peddlers, just as the other tribes you deride. There is no tribe that is all good just as there is none that is irredeemably bad. Every mother does have them! 

The most worrying aspect of your myopia is that you are handing over the baton of hate to your children. But you forget that they are in a globalised world in which those children you have ‘villagised’ will have no place. Has it ever occurred to you that the more you ‘villagise’ your children the narrower their catchment scope in terms of spread and reach?

Naturally, you can dislike what some people are doing. That is your entitlement. But, as Pope Francis has repeatedly said, we have no right to hate anyone because hate begets terrible consequences…

Check out the innocuous rumblings and hate peddling that preceded the Rwanda genocide. Having sufficiently stripped rival tribes of their humanity through stereotypes, rumours and hate vending, the next step naturally was to lash out at the source of their anger. In their minds they were not killing fellow human beings, they were doing humanity a favour by ridding the world of vermin.

Perhaps hate pedlars are scared that they will peter into irrelevance once their wares become unfashionable. So they hawk hate on street corners, in beer parlours, at the hilltop, in seedy tribal conclaves, anywhere and everywhere they pollute with their hate-filled presence. If only they realise that there are many good things to celebrate about other people too! 

…Have these haters in Nigeria not heard of one gentleman called Booker T. Washington who said, “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him”?

The only good takeaway of the season of madness is that it helped unmask closet tribalists. Society cannot forget that although no man or woman chose where he was born, some people turned that into the main issue in their quest to preside over our collective patrimony. And they are recruiting younger elements to take over from them in future. 

When I think of the ideals we propagated as university students in the 70s and the fact that it was the relationship of ideas that established kinship, I am alarmed at the tribal mantle some in my generation are handing over to their children. There can’t ever be a frictionless interaction between various cultures. In our university days, we taunted each other to the moon and back. But hate? No!

Anything that demonises people for their tribe or race is evil. If we don’t stamp it out, it festers. As Fr. Dwight Longenecker brilliantly notes: “First we overlook evil. Then we permit evil. Then we legalise evil. Then we promote evil. Then we celebrate evil. Then we persecute those who still call it evil.”

It is understandable then, that this poisoned atmosphere we are currently experiencing is bound to take its toll on the media whose duty is to inform, educate, entertain and monitor the society. Politicians think that because they routinely get away with their crimes, they also ought to determine how their shenanigans should be reported by the media.

There is a pattern of media harassment developing in the past few years. Some politicians are so vacuous that they deploy braggadocio as a substitute for their brain. When asked questions that require introspection or simple honest-to-God truth, they resort to throwing tantrums.

One of the more famous cases in the last 24 months was a press conference at which Femi Fani-Kayode rained insults on a journalist who dared to ask him if his “consultative meetings” with the ruling APC was sponsored. He could simply have answered, “No”. But that wouldn’t be dramatic enough. He gave a thorough tongue flagellation to the journalist and ordered him out of the press conference. Amazingly, other journalists at the conference witnessing the humiliation of their colleague for doing his job simply kept mum!

In another instance which was rebroadcast recently, Festus Keyamo, speaking in defence of his principal, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over the plea bargain episode in the US, told his interviewer to get a biro and paper so that he could lecture him on the intricacies of the law. What a cheek! The accomplished attorneys of the great countries of the world would never talk down on a reporter no matter how lowly (and, unlike the legal profession which places a premium on rank, every journalist is, first and foremost, a reporter). 

The arrogance of politicians seems to come with the territory. Once they occupy some public office, they think they are above censure and that journalists should orally lie prostrate before asking them questions. They are able to carry on this primitive attitude because journalists themselves seem to have accepted that the idiocies of politicians are to be tolerated no matter how ridiculous.

I think journalists have to stand up for themselves and for each other. Nobody, no matter the degree of his delusion of grandeur, should be allowed to get away with talking down on a journalist whether in the print or electronic media. In those days, the threat of the self-acclaimed big men used to be, “I’ll report you to your editor”. These days, they simply resort to ‘area boy gra-gra’. Instead of answering your tough question, they rain insults and refuse to allow you to put in a word. Politicians think we all have amnesia. Thank goodness that journalists are always there to drag the intrepid men back to reality.

And only the other day, former Governor Ayo Fayose, refused to answer an uncomfortable question put to him by Arise TV’s Rufai Oseni. The question had to do with the ‘small’ matter of the alleged billions of Naira transported to Ekiti for the purpose of election rigging when Fayose was running for governor. Instead of answering the question, Fayose literally descended into the gutter. He questioned the moral right of his interviewer and revealed that he had expressed reservations about Oseni being among his interviewers. Apparently, his sense of entitlement made him feel that a TV station should rejig its team to please him.

The matter riled many journalists. One of the more educated responses was provided by Nkanu Egbe, publisher of Lagos Metropolitan:

Nkanu wrote: “All these pseudo-journalists pontificating on Oseni Rufai ‘s presentation style, have you ever heard of outrage journalism? It’s journalism that provokes! The interviewer asks the most daring questions in the most provocative way. For a democracy and society as ours which is fraught with wanton lawlessness and impunity, you need someone who would dare to push out the questions. Label him, get upset with him, at the end of the day, he’s calling out the issues. Perhaps, he’s too idealistic in his approach, but at the end of the day, you will thank him.”

A recent cash shortage in Nigeria has led to a spike in the usage of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eNaira.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) embarked on a note replacement program, replacing the 200-, 500- and 1,000-naira notes. Conducted inefficiently, the program led to an acute shortage of cash that saw protests erupt across the West African nation. A petition by some governors saw the Supreme Court push the deadline for replacing the old notes to December, up from the February 10 deadline.

This cash shortage was a boon for the eNaira. Speaking to the media, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele revealed eNaira transactions have surged by 63% to NGN22 billion ($47.7 million). The digital currency also boasts 13 million wallets now, a 12-fold increase from October 2022.

Emefiele further revealed that of the NGN10 billion minted by the central bank, NGN3.4 billion is already in circulation.

The governor said one of the key factors for the uptick in adoption, aside from the cash shortage, is the government’s decision to distribute aid to needy Nigerians under the welfare program through the digital currency. Nigerians created four million new wallets under this welfare program.

“The eNaira has emerged as the electronic payment channel of choice for financial inclusion and executing social interventions,” the governor said.

Despite the spike in transactions and value processed, the eNaira’s usage in the country is still low. Data shows that over $14 billion was transacted last year via digital payments in the country, miles higher than eNaira’s $48 million. In 2021, Nigerians conducted 3.7 billion real-time digital payment transactions, dwarfing the CBDC’s usage.

One of Nigeria’s biggest pitfalls has been the CBN’s omission of commercial banks and payment processors in the eNaira distribution process. In Europe, for instance, the European Central Bank (ECB) is working to integrate the banks to avoid disintermediation and to tap into their networks and customer base. The Bank of England, on its part, has revealed it would leave digital wallet development for the digital pound to the banks.

Nigeria’s CBN has gone at it alone, and with the central bank not well-versed in catering to a retail base, the digital currency is still struggling to attract users.

Nigeria is still largely dependent on cash payments, with 90% of transactions in the informal economy conducted through cash: this has presented yet another hurdle to the CBN’s digital naira push.

To learn more about central bank digital currencies and some of the design decisions that need to be considered when creating and launching it, read nChain’s CBDC playbook.

Watch: Blockchain in Africa

[coingeek]